Tag: Social

The Time We Almost won A PlayStation 4: The PS4 Hunt!

Hello again my sweet island guests! It’s catch up week!  So today I am posting something I wrote earlier! But I wasn’t fully satisfied with it! That way I can work ahead and can play around it. In this post I bring you back with me to revisit one of my geeky memories. A memory that takes me back six years. December 20th to be exact. It was the time I took part in a Playstation hunt.

What was the PlayStation Hunt

Let’s begin by explaining to you what the contest exactly was. This content was held in celebration of PlayStation’s 20the anniversary.  To win a PlayStation 4 anniversary edition you’d have to travel to one of ten cities across the Netherlands in a cosplay or at least outfit based on some PlayStation games. You could download an app that would send you to a location. With it you’d get a quiz question that you’d have to answer. If you find the guy or gal working for Playstation at that location and gave them the answer for the questions and you were indeed dressed in Sony PlayStation themed outfits.. you’d be the happy owner of a brand new silver anniversary Playstation 4! While me and my friends already had a Playstation two participating.. a guy and a girl did not! So for their sake, or maybe to gather some event money for the group! We took on this challenge.

What we did not know however was this contest wasn’t really done with approval of the city! Maybe some higher ups knew but the people on the streets did not know.. and it would be that fact as well as one of my friends making a very silly mistake that would cost us that PlayStation 4. We would have won .. in fact we would have won the very first one. Instead we nearly ended up cancelling the entire competition. My amazing friend Fatima Minusima of whom I talked before invited me to join with about one week to spare. Which was amazing. I wasn’t a strong runner but I loved doing geeky things with them! Back then I was just starting to know them and I did not live in the same town as them yet.  (Though 4 months later I would)  There was only one problem… We had to cosplay!  Outdoors…in December! Now this basically meant that any female character was out by default…unless I played that Anna woman from Tekken I guess.. but I did not have money for a fur coat! Nor could I make that outfit not look like I am .. something that is not a cosplayer. So to solve this.. I was going to have to get creative!

The Hunt for Cosplay

Luckily I do live in the best province in the Netherlands when it comes to getting cosplays.  Limburg and Noord Brabant are the two provinces that celebrate “Carneval” which is a variant of Mardi Gras but mixed with american halloween.. but a wider variety of costumes. Think actual Mardi Gras outfits mixed with te Village people and you got a good idea what wanders through our streets. In Limburg (not sure about Noord Brabant)  the season however already starts at the Eleventh of November, so costumes are fairly widely available for us. Even in my little home town. Of course I would not want to spend too much money on something like this because I already had a PlayStation! So I had a budget of .. what then was about 30 euro. Not an easy task. Yet our carneval store was also an army dump! In which you could get old military supplies for almost no money at all! What gave me my final idea was a big empty cardboard box sitting there next to army suits that has just been stocked.



I got myself a camo outfit I could wear a coat under or could at least wear normal clothes under,  so I would be nice and toasty even if it was cold during winter. I got myself a pirates eyepatch for two euros and a jar or brown face paint for about the same amount including an application sponge!  I found some gloves that looked just like the Big Boss outfit from Metal Gear Solid 3 and made a deal to get it all for 30 bucks. Those gloves weren’t priced yet and later they found out they cost so much more.. but well the owner of the store was a former classmate of mine so she did me a solid! I also could take the big cardboard box! I would be going there as Big Boss. I think that’s the character from Metal Gear Solid 3.. or was it actually Solid Snake.. I am never sure! I can’t tell them apart.  Regardless! Playstation enough!  So I was on my way. Fatima dressed up as Nathan Drake as well as her good friend Cherry. Fatima’s then boyfriend Joe came dressed as young Heihachi and the guy who did not have a playstation Ron came in a fox hound sweatshirt. Cherry had her boyfriend with her as well Dave. Dave wasn’t dressed up at all.. he was slightly Arab in look so I think he said he’d just say “I’m the Prince of Persia but it’s too cold here”  if he was asked. It wasn’t that cold that day though! The young Heihachi Joe wasn’t naked underneath his vest he wore a old Heihachi Tekken shirt.. but I am pretty sure it was just a shirt.. maybe he had a jacket he could throw off! Not sure,

The Hunt Begins!

We traveled to Maastricht together! For us to do that I have to travel about 20 minutes in the train by myself and also 20 minutes by bus. Then we still need 15 more minutes of joined travel. I expected lots of people to be dressed up and going to this hunt so I would expect the train ride not to be that awkward. I was wrong. Apparently most people came by car. We had one person too  many to drive so we opted out of that. Had we come by car.. we would have won that PlayStation. Or at least one of them. I was asked a few weird questions but luckily it was the weekend and it was carneval season. So it wasn’t all that bad. People did not dare to sit next to me though… which was nice because I saved spots for all my friends! Thank you people for not wanting to sit next to the weirdo with a huge box and a beard painted on her face really badly!

This but less male and on a budget!

I met up with my friends and luckily I could geek out now.. at their train station a few other geeks boarded the train as well and we hung out for a bit.  I at least got recognised as Snake/Boss so I was content. Coming off the train I came up with a plan de campagne.  We would split up in three teams of two to maximize our chance of winning. Each group would start on one of the three major squares in Maastricht and  would only run to an area that they can feasibly reach within 10 to 15 minutes. (Otherwise there would be bound to be a group there faster than you because people came with bikes and scooters and such). It would be best if we divided ourselves based on our speed. Instead the idea was opted for a girls and guys team. so we already were one chance down..but then Dave wanted to go with Cherry instead as he made their team faster. He was saying they could just abandon the slow person for a bit to win a PS4.. Since Cherry and Dave did not have a PS4 and Ron did not have on either.. the winning group would get first dibs. This resulted in the fact that  I ended up being the one that would constantly be abandoned by my group because I do not run that fast, due to my issues with my motor skills. I was a bit saddened by that  but we would make it work. I knew my way across town so I would be the map person, then Ron would use his internet to google the answer to questions and Joe would be the one to sprint to the goal and abandon us. So that way I would not be alone as much! It worked..except for the fact that Joe is REALLY bad with directions and never reads any signs! That last fact contributed to us losing the PS. 

The Hunt goes South

My hunch that the three squares would be involved in the hunt was on the nose, the square we were headed to, became an active search zone so immediately we knew we had a shot at this.  I don’t remember the question but I knew the password of the thing was Uncharted. It wasn’t a super easy question so it was not like .. “what game is lead by Nathan Drake”  kind of things.  When we arrived on the square the scooter squad was there already.. so I got in my box and snuck up to them.. I was slow so I just did a distraction! Which worked! I got compliments for the awesome idea of bringing my own sneaky box and they took some pictures.. literally of a cardboard box standing on the floor with a few feet sticking out…!
Sure go ahead! As my friends searched on we could not find the guy! Eventually my box disguise failed and the scooter squad  went to search as well! They had a Dante with them!  So while his friends weren’t a threat (as they had no PS gear on at all) Dante was still a risk! We had to find the Playstation guy first!



I realised that the guy did not seem to be on the pinged location when I suddenly realised that there is an underground parking space below this square. The entrance is just a bit further away.  So we ran into the parking garage to go down below.. I was so sure we would find the guy there. I told Joe who outran me that at the end of the   garage there was a stairs leading down to lower levels. If he could run there and search from the bottom up, me and Ron could cover the search from top to bottom. A solid plan! Yet Joe doesn’t listen to  listen to instructions very well and he does not read signs. So when he found a door downstairs at the MIDDLE of the hallway he was thinking! Oh man! I am so slick! Despite me knowing this garage. His judgment lapsed and he missed a major sign.

Unfortunately the emergency exit  sign!. Emergency exits are often foreseen of an alarm so people know there is an emergency causing people to use that door. It helps great against thieves as well. Some guards showed up and we told them what was going on. They told us if we could not present them to show our car or we would be kicked out. . We did not even have car keys to show . We got booted out and all cosplayers were banned from entering the garage. .. Well if a PlayStation representative was in that garage clearly they would not do that right?! Well after I tried to sneak in via the elevator and got a very rude security guy telling me I could not enter because dumb people like me would only get ourselves killed for something stupid as a video game. He also took a jab at my costume! So I puffed up my cheeks and stomped the floor and told him he stole 400 bucks from me! He told me to go find a real hobby! So I puffed my cheeks again! I asked him what sucked all the joy and fun out of him and left without finding out the answer.



A few minutes later the zone got cancelled no PlayStation was given away from it..as no one managed to reach the guy..and he himself got trapped in the parking garage and actually failed to get a signal out.. so  his zone was just invalidated….even if I was smart enough to wait by the exit for him so I could see him pop up! Alas! Joe, now driven by frustration, was desperate to win the next one. We almost got this one after all.  Zone 2 was all the way across town.  About an half hour walk away. I told him we would never reach that in time because there are people on scooters and with cars as well. He ignored my advice and began running in the opposite direction. Fifteen minutes later we ended up  getting a message the new guy was found.

The first guy got reactivated and had a checkpoint very close to where he was first I knew exactly where he was! But we now were well over 15 minutes out after all we just ran until I was fully out of stamina.  Had we followed my advice and waited there..or even followed the ps guy I am sure we would have won still! But Joe’s Alpha moment made him command us to follow him. Now I was fatigued, Ron was a bit vexed with him and Joe was just frustrated. I was still having fun.. as I had no PS4 to lose. I do not care about winning. The other two seemed to be more driven than me though. Joe dashed off to reach the old location while we stayed behind. Ron knew nothing of directions in town so he stayed with the one person who did! Me!

The Hunt for Drinks

Joe  doesn’t know the way in town though so he needed me, but he was a bit fed up with my poor condition, even though it’s medical not by pure choice. Bless him for trying so hard though. I know the shortcuts around town though. So when the fourth checkpoint came up we actually managed to make it to the location  right before   we got the signal the guy had been found we even saw him.. Just missed it again.. this time he was found by guys on bikes. When I say we, I meant Ron and me , Joe went the long way around arriving there very out of breath a bit later.  When the next  and second to last checkpoint spawned 30 minutes away we decided with a bunch of other cosplayers to go share a drink. We wouldn’t make that and even if we did we did not know the answer to the question. We could not even find it on google. Well the answer was on the internet but it was hidden in a 15 minute video or so.. not really practical. So we had some geeky fun with some other guys. Telling our story about how we blocked the other guys in the garage!. Apparently they were there as well and got chased out by guards as well they wondered who did that. We all realised that I should have just hidden in my box and then snuck past the guy!  It was a nice drink and fun moment. Joe could let his frustration go.



The final checkpoint spawned way uphill and we  and the other group started to travel together for a bit and honour would go to the fastest runner. So I was out!  However I was needed for my familiarity with the land so I had to sprint in the second wave . However the weather was turning around. It started to storm a bit making sprinting even harder.  That big cardboard box on my back was a big wind catcher so I  fell on the streets as I got hit by a good gust.  We all had a good laugh at how silly it looked to see Big Boss get done in by a gust of wind. As I lay down the new  people helped me up . .but not before yelling SNAKE?!  SNAKE?!!!! SNAAAAAKKKKKE!  Halfway to our destiny we got passed by the scooter squad. I told the group that at that spawn point the guy most likely was in this garden/ small park like thing. There was nowhere he could hide and there was no way we could outrun the scooter squad! We felt more like drinking and geeking out with our new friends. Doris the Cardboard box got dumped in an alleyway and at the Mcdonalds Restroom  I cleaned off my fake beard and took off my eyepatch! My eye hurt sooo much! Also running through a crowd without depth perception?!.. Not a great idea. I had several accidents. I wonder how Snake does it.  While I was cleaning up my friends called the girls and Dave. They had gotten lost all the time so never got close. Together with our new friends we went to a little Irish pub.

We had a good laugh and the story of Solid Snake being blown over by a gust of wind got spread along the table.. as well the girls and Dave running into a hoard of other Nathan Drakes. When Ron began describing all the times I got hurt during this trip, I shifted the story to the parking Garage to tell Fatima Minusima about her boyfriend’s failure, in a playful way.  We all agreed Joe had ruined the PS4 for Ron so we made him buy a round of drinks..for our traveled  group.. not the ones who joined.. we are still Dutch after all. He offered but they refused. Instead their leader guy named Gary  treated them to a round of drinks.  We shared a few PlayStation stories and joked  Ron would not get it..and just had some fun. Their team all had a PS4 but they really wanted the collectors edition.  After three drinks we parted ways from Gary and his gang and went home..I bought a nice coat so I could carry my cosplay with me (since it came with a nice big bag to carry it in and I switched stuff over)  and we went for Sushi afterwards… all in all, later I realised that with my new coat , which I still have as a warm rain coat,  and the sushi I spent 80 euro’s that day hunting for something I already had and wasn’t going to get anyway!  But I had a lot of fun!  Even if I felt slow and could not keep up, which can be painful to be confronted with,  there is something special about running around as a geek, meeting fellow geeks  and just having some fun! It was worth it because I could be me!  With people like me.. with friends! That in the end was what the hunt was really about…but Joe never gave Ron his PlayStation!

For Ron

Am I a Bad Person?

I have been making this post and deleting this post for a few times now. Recently I had a bit of a nasty experience in my beloved Pokémon Fandom. I dared to defend the new Mewtwo Remake, saying that if it’s not for those who do not like the artstyle that doesn’t mean it’s bad persé. I saw it as a new way to watch a classic. I am not a big fan of the style myself but at times the battles remind me of the games, especially back in the Pokémon Stadium days. For Nostalgia sake I would watch the new version. I have seen Mewtwo Strikes Back like seven times by now.. so I welcomed the chance to rewatch it in a different way. I will love Pokémon regardless … but does that make me a bad person?! Apparently to some it does.

Pinkie is a Fake Fan

I got accused of being a fake fan, who is destroying the franchise by simply going to see whatever is on offer. Yet this isn’t exactly true. I don’t buy everything from Pokémon. I will most likely not buy the Mystery Dungeon game, because I played it so much already it will not offer me enough new things. This movie however does! It’s a whole new look on an old movie. New effects, new animations,  maybe not for the better but at least it breaks a monotony for me. Why is Nintendo greedy for doing this after 25 years? No one ever called George Lucas greedy when he released enhanced editions. When Lord of the Rings Extended cut came out.. no one said it was greedy to release an additional version. So why in this age do we have to keep nagging and demonising people for an updated version. It’s fine to not need them, for example , I do not like the Disney live action remakes , yet I do not think doing them taints the orginal classics in any way.

I dn not mind other people do not mind these movies! As long as it gives Disney Budget to make more Baby Yoda stuff let others go see these!

 Is Disney greedy? In my opinion.. no…. and yes.. but it depends on what we count as Disney. We live in the age of shareholders, silent partners and major investors.  It’s not like there is a single guy at the top rubbing his hands like Mister Burns saying… excellent the sheeple will buy everything. It’s a bunch of people in the shadow that do not care what Disney does that want numbers only. So sure at times companies will have to release stuff to up their numbers to keep everyone investing happy. We as fans might be at the heart of the company but the shareholders, money providers are the blood. The bigger the heart, the more blood it will pump, the healthier the company. However that blood doesn’t really care about the company it just wants to get that sweet sweet oxygen for those red blood cells.
The fandom can act like white blood cells to  make some stands here and there to keep our company from getting sick sure.. but if we boycott and hate.. those red blood cell investor bastards just see less and less oxygen coming.. and eventually will just see that thing we love and try to block of from commercialism as dead. For any franchise we love we have to allow it to make as much money as possible. 

How people see companies they once loved for modernising their sales methods.

So why would you hate on me for keeping the body alive? Why am I a fake fan for liking something and supporting it?  My admission ticket for a movie, that game I buy that you think might not be worth it .. will help keep the franchise alive.. because it keeps  the shareholders happy. If shareholders tell Nintendo that Pokémon doesn’t make money anymore.. because part 8 got boycotted.. they will tell Nintendo to pull the plug on it.. they will NOT tell them to make a better one. I will not buy everything myself, but I am grateful to the persons who do.  I am happy people will buy the new/old mystery dungeon game, I am happy people still go to the pokémon movies. Because at times we do get some seriously awesome stuff. So are you a bad guy for giving critique to the company you love? No! You are the white blood cell. Am I a bad person for supporting the content I actually like, even if I might not LOVE it.  No.. I am the heart that keeps the body alive.. and allows the white cells to fight for what they want. So can we all just realise this that there is no right opinion and we need both for progress?

Shareholders. Creators and critical fans working together! Kept alive by the fan that keeps pumping money into the franchise.

Pinkie is a horrible person

So defending something a majority dislikes now is a crime.. something that really stings. Another thing I recently got flack for is following certain youtubers. Because “They are assholes in real life”  or “they have said mean things to fans”. Well , I am not friends with them or anything. I just enjoy their content. Their content does not equal them. Who they are in real life or how they act to fans is oftenly not in my field of interest.  Sure if someone is victimised by a person we should offer them a platform of support do not get me wrong, but I do not want to be a judge on how someone should live their private life. If I have to stop watching a youtuber because he was mean to his girlfriend, or refused to sign an autograph , I feel like I would have to  stop going to a store if my question got ignored as well, or if the store manager slapped his sister once. I should stop ordering online from site X because one of the order pickers has most likely cheated. It just feels hypocritical to judge some harder than others.. just because we have a dislike and unsubscribe button.

In this “Orville” Episode people who get to many dislikes get “reprogrammed” in reality we are kinda already doing this!

It feels a bit as if we live in some kind of Orson Welles like dystopia. People have to present themselves online to make money.. but the “people” decide how these people should behave. If you eat unhealthy, if you make ONE bad joke or if people find something in your tweet history of 10 years ago, your show could be cancelled and you lose your entire life. I do not want to get dragged into the whole social circus. This idea honestly scares so much. We are strangling individuality. We are forcing people to act like what we think is decent. Yet where is the limit? Soon we will dictate what a person eats, judge their spouses behaviour as well and so on. I do not want to be like that. I want people to be themselves. Flaws are included into this. A world where we force everyone to be flawless or flat out cancel their lives is something I will actively rebel against. It’s not up to us to judge a person for how they live their lives, as long as it’s not a crime. I’d rather watch an honest reaction of a guy who cheated on his wife about my favorite anime then a reaction of a person who is to afraid to do anything wrong and keeps their opinion as harmless as possible, who lives not his own life but that of his viewers choosing.

I want to eat Kebabs tonight..but it is served in a platic tub.. am I allowed to get it my sweet fans?

Nowaday on  Twitter I see a lot of comments like “If you are friends with someone who watches Loli’s you are a pedophile yourself’ .. Friendships have to be broken to keep your own social status. Sure they are only online “mutuals” but is that really the world you want to live in? For me it’s certainly not!  Yes I have a friend who cheated on another and I am still friends with them. Why? Because it does not expunge the good stuff that the friend in question did for me. They supported me in harsh times so I will do the same for them. Friendship is meant to be in good times and in bad. They did not cheat on me and me banning that person from my life would not benefit either. Sure the victim might feel a bit happier but in the end what good would it be to them either. So am I really a bad person for sticking with people who have vices. For appreciating what they have done for me.. over what they did to others?  I do not think so, a cheater might be very very unhappy.. we can not look into their brain.. so are we right to judge them? I am not sure. Again.. the law is the law and we should offer a platform to support those hurt but we do not have to demonise everyone. I stick by my friends and those who did something important to me. If that makes me a horrible person.. that might just be a badge of honour I’d proudly take.

Me celebrating my badge of honour!

Pinkie is a crybaby

The fact that I liked Pokémon and that I defended the new Pokémon movie got negated by a guy who commented. Those who defend this movie all have pronouns in their twitter bio! Most of them use she/her so their opinion doesn’t count. This post made me cry. Do we have to alienate people to get our factualise our opinion?  Why does the Pokémon movie have to suck? Why can’t people just feel it’s sucky.  Our opinions aren’t facts. Why do you have to devalue my opinion for disagreeing with you. I am not asking to you to agree with my opinion, I just ask people to accept people might think in otherways and just burning something down is not always in the interest of others.  Why do I have to be a bad person simply for disagreeing. Why do I need to be demonised and my opinion invalidated. Most of the time this polarised view comes from the negative camp, though not always as fanpeople can also be somewhat toxic to criticism. Yet I simply can’t see why it has to be this way. No one is factually right. An Opinion never EVER is.  So no one deserves to be a bad person for having one that is unpopular.

Kids do you prefer Ketchup or Lemon Meyonaise!?

I cry a lot when I read forum when someone is called stupid for saying a perfectly viable argument.  It worries me how people have become. It’s great that you fight for the environment that makes you GOOD. That doesn’t make people who aren’t as active BAD. The world is not that black and white. Dumping toxic waste, actively choosing toxic materials as packaging because it is cheaper is BAD.  I do not separate all my waste because I do not have the room in my super small apartment. I do it as much as I can but I can’t have three trash bags in my house because I do not have room for three. I do not think that makes me a bad person. With my monetary means, with my living space, I will not always have room to do what is best. Should I give up that little bit of luxury or those games , or cute thing I buy each month to give me some semblance of happiness in order to be a good person? I do not think I need to do that. 

Super Saintly Pinkie is certainly something people should not ask for!

Pinkie is Selfish

Everyone deserves some happiness and not always will that happiness be good for everyone. Not because I do not wish my happiness to be in the way of others but because inevitably it will anyway. If I fall in love with a girl.. some other girl might  lose a chance to be with her ex, or maybe I deny some friends that one night with her because I took her out for dinner on a night they would want to party with her. Sometimes we will hurt each others feelings, it’s sad but it is a fact. If I let them go because it’s a bigger group.. maybe another group asking her out for drinks the next day gets hurt because “she already went out that week and would rather watch netflix” Than I hurt the other friends. Somewhere somehow people will be disappointed in my call. Somewhere down the line I will disappoint anyway.  So here is my view. If I am gonna do it wrong to some people anyway.. might as well do it right for me. I am the only person who can look in my brain so I can without fail say if my actions will make me happy. I can only guess that for other people. So why not live life the way I know I get at least some customer satisfaction?

I try to make a person smile every day… that pink lady in the mirror!

We are always thought to think of others , but oftenly we defend people who aren’t even hurt. We call out western people in kimonos because it’s deemed stealing culture. Meanwhile japanese people are happy people are willing to try it.. as long as they respect the customs. Little girl tries to bring awareness to save the planet.. meanwhile we calculate how polluting her campaign is. Why can’t we look at the good side? Why do we demonise everything. I do not want to hear why I should not like an anime or a game, I prefer to hear reasons why I should.  Isn’t that how love is supposed to work? You can have a thousand reasons not to love something but all you really need is one reason why you should? When did this change? I love Projared’s videos because he really loves the games and lets them shine as much as his personality. That’s what I want in a youtuber. I enjoy the new Pokémon game and the new pokémon movie because they allow me to experience something classic in a new coat of paint making it a fresher revisit. I love my friends despite their flaws because of what did for me! I do not judge them on what they did to others. The only way I can make sense of this world is by putting me in the center of it. At least that way I got some answers I can rely on.

I am the center of MY uniiverse.. does that make me so fat that I have gravity?

Pinkie is Pinkie: Deal with It

So am I a bad person? I help my friends, I fight for them but also can be stern to them..without abandoning them. I do think about myself and my own enjoyment but I also actively seek ways to include as many people in that as I possibly can. I think that is the reason why I can not see myself as a bad person. I try to include people.  I might not operate on the global macro scale in terms of good, I try to be there on the micro scale. Help those who help me and those I can really get to know. It does mean forgiving some sins that in the eyes of the common folk might be unforgivable .. but everyone deserves a chance of happinesses. I think we need good guys on all levels. Yet not being good doesn’t always equal bad. 

Welcome to my World it’s not just blacks and whites! Mostly Pinks!

Good and Bad usually are still only opinions though so I guess neither is either completely right as well. So am I a bad person? Probably in the eyes of a lot of people I am. But it is okay.. because I am kinda happy with the way I live. At least I try to be! And my sweet little readers, I think you should do that to. If you are going to be a bad person.. make sure at least it still makes someone happy! That way.. being bad isnt so bad after all.

When Pink Geeks Try Social

The difference I keep between a geek and a nerd to me is that a nerd tries to avoid social situations. Geeks go to cons, nerds watch blizzcon at home. Geeks play exploding kittens with friends, nerds play it trough tabletop simulator online. I count myself as a geek, but just because I get involved into social situations that doesn’t mean I am very capable in them. My inner geek completely overtakes my social self at times.. and this can be quite awkward. So how do I geek in social situations and how do I try to salvage it? In this post I will highlight how my mind can work different from those I call Normies. The muggles of geekism.  The fortnite players under the real gamers and the people who think the best game franchise is FIFA. There are even people out there who do not game at all, they like prefer to play actual soccer, or go dancing in discotheques. Strange creatures those normies.. Here is how to handle..or not handle them. 

Social Situation 1: Your Normie friends invite you to something you are NOT interested in.

“Hey Pinkie do you want to go to Amsterdam to visit the sex museum and then we go to the  zoo and visit the Heineken store. Do you want to come?” Sociable as I am I say yes of course, but in actuality I think, what the heck is sex, the zoo is very stinky and I do not like Heineken beer, I prefer Belgian Abbey Ales which I can drink a lot in my local pub. Okay I do not actually think “what is sex’ but it just doesn’t do anything for me, so  a museum about sex seems duller to me than staring at Kristen Stewart’s face for 24 hours. There is just nothing to see. In these situations I pretend to be normal and fake interest to entertain my friends. I giggle looking at ancient sex toys, I pretend to be impressed by a lion and when someone when an Amsterdam waiter asks me what I want to drink I say “I don’t care what it is.. just as long as it is much’ During our drinks we talk about the weather and tv shows I do not watch and I pretend that I might go watch them. My normie friends are into those reality type shows where someone has their own hair salon or where they like act like neanderthals on an island where you can only talk about sex and booze. My normie friends are sweet but sometimes I can feel like a real alien amongst them. I do not agree well with the casual television, everywhere there seems to be an obsession with sex in there. Like I get why sex is nice and all.. but what is the point in seeing others have sex.. what is funny about seeing the first dildo?  I mean I hope it helped the lady .. or guy who invented it I guess but I do not really find it more lewd than a back scratcher same need.. different spot. I am aware I think oif these subjects differently than the general populous so during events like these I am swimming in my head a lot  

One of the normie friends is someone I really care for, she is like a duckling I feel a need to protect. Yet she also is very close minded, I need to act normal and do the mundane with her, or she will feel sad and misunderstood. So I do my utmost and swim away. When swimming in my head I feel lost. She for example tells me that she hopes that Farmer Bob should really choose Hilda as his girl instead of Laura in the tv show.. Farmer looking for a Wife (Yes that’s an actually massively popular tv show here) . She then proceeds to gossip about women she hasn’t even met yet and tells something about how Hilda and Bob bonded over picking green beans, she knows I do not watch the show so she talks about all the emotions. When she asks me if she if I would pick that true green bean love Hilda.. or stupid good looking Laura… I know which I have to say.. but I have no idea why. I can not see why other people care about some farmer and some girl. I mean.. I hope farmer bob finds someone but I don’t know the bloke.. nor would I from watching tv.. so let him pick who he wants.  Small talk during these events can be a hassle. So what I do to solve this is one of either two things. Option 1 I keep engaged with other things… that’s a nice purse is it new.. shal lI get us another drink.. should we get a snack as well? Something to keep me busy.. oftenly resulting in me getting drunk or overeating. The other thing I do which seems to work is make things personal. Instead of farmer Bob’s romantic endeavours I bend the subject to not be smalltalk anymore. “What do YOU think over bonding at green beans, what would you like to see in your romantic partner’ I can talk about that kind of stuff as it concerns my friends. I like finding out what makes them tick.. but as a result of our differences I can’t really talk about “that new commercial or the new flavor of M&M’s .. let alone the sex/romance talk of people I never even heard and thus can not care for. Sometimes I feel like I am Frasier Crane…but poor.

Social Situation 2: Your Normie friends invite you to something you are VERY MUCH interested in. 

“Pinkie do you want to go eat Sushi and then visit a Karaoke Café?” Oh my Arceus.. YES! YES! Sushi has become mundane enough for everyone to enjoy but I am the kind of girl who orders Saké with it, yells Kampai and Itadakimasu! Regardless who I bring. I know about Saké flavors based on how they are numbered, I want to eat Fugu one day and know a fair bit more japanese words than my Normie friends. Sometimes that excitement can’t help but spill out. “Pinkie , you are doing it again’.. when I ramble on about my favorite words I know in Japanese. In once like rambled for like 15 minutes on end when a friend of mine asked why some Saké was cold and some was hot. If someone mentions the weird vending machines in Japan .. I ramble on night… yes this gets my passion flowing! Lemme talk! I love everything geeky and during food it can get a bit akward, I am a low key foodie, who knows my flavors so when we eat sushi I talk about the importance of Umami and stuff. Awkward and I bet to the disinterest of my Normie friends but this I think is fairly common. 

(How people react when I talk about Sake or Sushi)
(And just because I found this and thought it was to cute not to share)

If we take it one step further and move on to the Karaoke things get very weird. You see , my karaoke is VERY different from their karaoke. I am used to Karaoke at conventions and that is my jam, but the theming is very different. To me Karaoke is sing the pokémon theme song with everyone together, or Let it Go. Well kids, that’s not the Karaoke you really get when out with normies, to a normie karaoke place. They expect Paradise by the Dashboard Light or No Woman No Cry. This happened once to me during a weekend in Antwerp we found a Karaoke bar and had to go in. Remember what I told earlier about abbey ales? Well there is a lot to try in this Belgian city so I was nice and loose and decided to go with the classic musings of Jason Paige. They DID have it for me to sing.. but I did not really check the audience in the bar very well. As I sang my heart out I was met with utter silence and confused stares why this followed Meatloaf. Even my friends did not sing along at least not the second verse. Even in my inherbiated state I kept watching to the stage left  to see if a guy with that weird hook staff thing would not come up to yank me by the neck off stage. While that did not happen I really wanted to leave the bar quite soon after I was done.
While I had fun while singing afterwards I felt so alien and unwelcome in the bar, watched as well. I felt like that pug dog from men in black. So then we went to a monastery café to drink some more abbey ales.  Yet I rather make a fool out of myself than not have a story at all. Just be aware that not everyone will like your thing and do not let it discourage you to be you. Just have your fun……… and then bail.

Social Situation 3: Clubbing

‘Hey Pinkie let’s go to the club’ the dreaded question. I do not like going to the club.. but to spend some time with my friends sometimes it is the only option available to me. I put on some make up, dress up my hair , play the little who is driving game (I can’t drive so  I just play judge) and travel to that big club, to let myself be deafened by the same tunes I can hear in my local bar (which I llove to go too with my geeky friends by the way) I overpay for my drinks and for even being there and wait till the rest gets tired of it and goes home. While I can’t say I have a bad time at the club each time it is a very neutral experience to me. I like talking to my friends, but in a club that isn’t very easy.  To me clubbing is the biggest mass dillusion the common folk does together. Why do we go to the clubs? Honest answer , I think people go to clubs to find a mate. And while you could go and argue “me and my friends just want to dance on some sweet sweet music’ let me add that if you go out just to dance, there is no need to wear a fancy dress all that jewelry and more make up than a harley quinn cosplayer. To some level you want attention from those  who do not know you. Clubbing isnt about spending time with your friends, it’s either about making new friends , showing oif your moves or finding someone to help you ruin your sheets with you. Now all that I am saying is assuming random clubbing.. say your David Guetta is playing in a club , I can see it maybe being different but I am talking about your standard saturday evening clubbing. That is all about peacocking to what you hope to achieve. For some reason we delude ourselves into it being a fun group activity.. but clubbing really is about yourself. I mean sure as a girl you can flirt with a guy .. by dancing with a friend and wingmanning is a thing for guys.. but clubbing is about you. It’s about you getting what you want from that place… and there isnt really anything I want from there.

I am not a huge music fan , I like listening to it fine, but it doesnt have that magic appeal that it seems to have for everything else. Music for me is not something I enjoy as a stand alone thing. It’s the seasoning that can make my blogging more pleasant or my roleplays more epic. I have fond memories of the ducktales moon theme because it came with an experience not because it is just composed well. I like video game concerts because it reminds me of video games. Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Kanye West all those icons mean nothing to me nor their music.  I do not care about their world or that lover that got away , the new love and eventually another heartbreak. I don’t know them so I don’t really care about those songs about matters of the heart. I am not that into it. My favorite normal songs, if I even have any they are about random stuff. So I do not go to a club for courting , nor for the music and there usually are better way to talk to my friend so in a club I tend to feel lost. To entertain myself I study people. What do “normal” people do to pick someone else in the club. What are actual opening lines that work. Why do they work. Being and Identifying as a female .. (marginally) interested in other females in a less than average sexual way isn’t really people pick up upon. Girls flirting with me .. and sometimes even boys is mostly completely lost on me.I’ll socialise with them like any other person I meet and attempt small talk but I all seem them as just being nice. Like they see me standing there being awkward and want to help me like I am a deer staring into the headlights. Sometimes this is true .. but other times they actually take romantic interest in me. I can pick up on any social cue just fine, In fact I can usually read people very well to a point where I can tell really small social cues, like friends not feeling well, or keeping a secret from me. Yet flirting is the one thing I do not get.  I can determine it well enough to see that I might be flirted with and I can ask myself.. Are they flirting with me, but I never seem to be fully able to grasp it. Which makes clubbing a very odd experience. 

Over time I have given up on being normal. I now mostly act like myself. I still sing Disney songs on Karaoke nights, I still geek out during Sushi and when Farmer looking for a Wife is on tv I make sure people know I am steering clear of it. Even that normie friend who is so frail , as well as myself is going to accept I am who I am. I can still socialise I just can’t do it when I am pretending to be the person you want me to be. I might look like an alien at the social venues I visit, but at least I now visit them as me. Despite looking awkward , I have my own fun at these kind of social things and while it might not be reaction your average person react. Why everyone has to have the same feelings about these tv shows, about sexuality, music and how to act around friends is beyond me.. Man being normal sure is weird!