Of dragons

By now you all know that I play World of Warcraft on a regular basis. There are many creatures in that game that are too scary for minors to see, so I do my best to avoid showing those to my daughter. On the other hand, I think kids are way smarter than the average grown up gives them credit for, so I do let her see some parts of the game. The healthy part with green grass and trees and wolves for monsters. Not the Plaguelands with gigantic worms and rotting carcasses and attacking undead creatures.
I did, however, let her play some of the more innocent features of the game, like flying around on one of my drake mounts or fishing. Yes, you can fish in WoW. Or just let her watch the game, it is almost like a cartoon anyway. That was before November, 2008, when the game expansion Wrath Of The Lich King was released. From that point forward, the loading screen of a slightly ominous but still definitely peaceful stone gate was changed to the icy landscape above, with a huge undead skeletal dragon occasionally flying in and releasing a chilling roar before departing again. I was first worried that might scare my baby and tried to hide from her, but one time she woke up earlier than expected and saw the loading screen. "Oh, cool, an ice dragon" she exclaimed and seemed to completely ignore the fact that there is neither flesh or skin on its bones. I quickly affirmed that it is indeed an ice dragon, not unlike the one she is playing with in the game Fairies and Dragons, installed from a CD we got for free in a McDonald's Happy Meal.
So all was well until last December. That is when the latest expansion, Cataclysm was released. The powerful black dragon, Deathwing, has finally found it's way from its prison and scorched the lands of Azeroth in the event that is referred to as The Shattering. As a meta-gaming consequence, the loading screen had changed too. It is Deathwing in person, during his attack on the city of Stormwind.

I totally forgot about it as to me it made no difference what is on the loading screen, but my girl got all excited. "Look mommy, it's a new dragon" she shouted when she first saw it. "Yes, honey" I answered, "this time it's an evil fire dragon". She froze on the spot. Her eyes got big. I obviously said something shocking. I asked her "what is wrong, honey?" With her eyes still fixed on the loading screen she asked in the voice of disbelief "dragons CAN be evil?"

Mommy is so proud.

Alice

I mentioned fairy tales in my post yesterday. I love them. I love them all. I have some favourites, but I love fantasy stories in general, and tales are just fantasy for kids. One of my favourite authors is Lewis Carroll, I truly admire his imagination and literary skills. Did you know I used to know the Jabberwockey poem by heart when I was little? I learned it in Hungarian because I didn't speak English yet. I can still recite the first two verses!

I am also a big fan of Tim Burton. I always loved this unique style and vision. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear of his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. I counted the days until the premiere and it is the only movie to date that I have watched in 3D.
No wonder the story and the visuals have inspired Susan in Maryland to create a truly fantastic piece of fabric art to honour the complexity, creativity and depth of the story. I have been following her progress for quite some time, and meant to blog about it, as she is truly gifted and creates magic with her needle. Please follow this link to see how this amazing masterpiece was born! I wish I could do something like that!

Also, following the link here you can find some truly breathtaking photos by my favourite photographer, Annie Leibovitz. She sent her Alice through a wild ride in the crazy world of fashion and the result is funny, breathtaking and inspiring at the same time. As it should be.