7
Aug

1

The End of Men

By Dana Linnell | Filed in Articles

A friend of mine, ShariVegas, showed me an article today in The Atlantic: The End of Men. “Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. History. Most managers are now women, too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women? A report on the unprecedented role reversal now under way – and its vast cultural consequences.”


On side note, someone should get me this book “Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership” by Lin Coughlin.

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31
Jul

0

Tender Pan-Fried Chicken Breasts

By Dana Linnell | Filed in Cooking

So, I’m home for the weekend and wanted to one-up my brother, who cooked for my parents last weekend. I decided I’d cook for them, too, and so I found out basically what I’d be cooking: chicken and roasted vegetables. It is nothing new from what I’ve been doing previously (which is basically Albertson’s pre-seasoned chicken or pork with some sort of vegetable side).


I go searching on AllRecipes for a pan-fried chicken recipe. I’ve fallen in love with pan fried chicken because it’s so moist and tender compared to chicken I’m used to from the grill. I found this recipe which pan fries then bakes the chicken, which was new, and also has a flour coating, which was also new.


I do the coating, which calls for literally three coats of the flour+seasoning, with an egg+milk coat to keep the second coat on. I put the butter on the pan, rather than oil, and put the chicken on. It’s smelling delicious in minutes. The vegetables are put in a bag with olive oil, shaken, then arranged on a pan, with salt and paper sprinkled all over. I flip the chicken, and when I’m ready to put the chicken in the oven, I notice that the second side burnt rather than browned… probably because the butter got all used up on the first side. Soon, both the vegetables and chicken are in the oven, and with a flip of the vegetables halfway through, dinner is done 20 minutes later.

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1
Jul

10

Xtreme Professional League is Officially Dead

By Dana Linnell | Filed in Gaming

So staff have finally caught wind of the lies that Bill Huber (former HTGN owner) has been spreading. Here is his conversation with me. I apologize in advance for some random things in here. I did not censor anything out, much as XPL is known to doing with their staff. I also apologize for the length of this.


Recap: I was fired for “immaturity, unprofessionalism, and harassment of staff” about a month ago. They have been threatening to sue me. I have just been waiting for the day that XPL died. I am glad I was able to witness it.

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11
May

7

Counter-Strike: Source Beta has arrived!

By Dana Linnell | Filed in Gaming

If you didn’t opt into the beta of Counter-Strike: Source, then here’s your chance to see what you’re missing out on! Not only has CS:S beta gone to Orange Box but they’ve essentially “TF2-ized” the game, adding in the achievements, death cam, player stats, MVP, and scoreboard as seen in TF2. During my short stint as Operations Director of Valve Series at Xtreme Professional League, I bought TF2 and absolutely fell in love with the game, so I personally like the changes I’m seeing in the beta. Despite my positive outlook, many people are arguing that this is going to ruin CS:S and make it a pub game and take out the competitive drive behind it.

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3
May

6

Feminism in the Gaming Community

By Dana Linnell | Filed in Gaming

A few days ago, I was browsing through articles on examiner.com and stumbled across this article about the top networking sites for women. While WomenGamers.com and G.I.R.L was definitely interesting, it was Frag Dolls that caught my attention. After looking all over their website at the girl’s blogs, the things they had done, and their very active forums, I gave in: I created an account and posted my introduction on the forums. In that introduction, I included an article I wrote in January about the differences between all-female teams and co-ed teams from my perspective, as well as the perspective of other females I knew from playing CounterStrike. It was an article that I pumped out in one night, but something I was proud of and felt strongly about.


Well, things were going good, I was really starting to feel at home with these people. They were bringing up things in my article and while I disagreed with some of what was said, I still maintained a level of respect. And then I made a silly joke about possibly joining the Frag Dolls (which wouldn’t happen since I don’t do console games) and all hell broke loose. I was told that everything that had been stated was sarcasm towards my post. Everything I had written was being ridiculed by women and men alike who had been on these forums for a long time. What really got to me, though, was the fact that I was being called sexist.


Me? Sexist? I couldn’t believe it. I had created many all-female teams, played on many others, and yet here I was being called sexist! Enraged, I went to my own community of friends on IRC and ranted to them. What started off with me complaining ended up to be an enlightening and very intelligent conversation between myself and ShariVegas (real name: Bonn Ortloff). We literally spoke for an hour and a half about my article, feminism, and the dynamics between men and women (physical, social, and psychological).


This article is both a recap of what ShariVegas and I talked about and the research I did to better validate my points. I urge you to read the entire article and take it as a whole, rather than picking out key sentences and making rash decisions as to my position on females in the gaming community.

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18
Jan

0

All-Female Teams vs Co-Ed Teams

By Dana Linnell | Filed in Gaming

What is it that attracts female gamers to all-female teams? What turns them away from all-female teams? I have been on a number of teams in my short gaming career, some of which have been all-female and the rest all-male teams, with me as the exception. Taking both my experiences, and the experiences of other females, we’ll take a look at both options for competitive female gamers.


Before I launch into my discussion, I want to briefly share with you my background as a Counter-Strike 1.6 player. I started gaming in June, 2006 and joined a pub clan and focused on that. A year later, I decided to start my own all-female team and play competitively. I had no experience playing competitively but I did it anyways. We played in Cal Open and died a few months later. After that, I went around a few different all female teams, including Chaotic angels and Ladies Online (which at the time played under the name of many organizations, including Xtreme3, iDemise, and DTP). The spring of 2008 I ended up quitting CS while I went to my first year of college, but as soon as I came home for the summer I started playing again. I joined Ladies Online for a little bit, but left after a few months, vowing never to play for a female team again. I then joined Decimate, my first co-ed team, but left them after a few months as well. I then joined the recently brought back Team Simply Sexy, failing in my promise to myself never to join a female team again. This team was perhaps the only female team that I truly felt at home with. I left, though, after realizing I wanted a team that could take me to higher places, which I felt TeamS2 could not do. I then joined Faced Gaming, a co-ed team, which I am a part of still.

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