A decade of shenanigans

*taps mic*

Hello...is this thing still on? Crap it is! Uhmm...hi everyone. I bet you're all wondering where in the hell I have been this whole time! I mean my last post was back in January and since then this place has been deader than a bbq at the Firelands. Well I HAD planned to blog about stuff since than and honestly I did have things I wanted to write about but I didn't because something came up. What came up that could have kept me away from my loving and adoring audience? Well if you've been following me on Twitter, and let's face it most of you have not, you know that in February my wife and I adopted a beautiful baby girl. If you aren't on Twitter and didn't know what was going on, well now you do! I'm not gonna post pictures here because they are all over twitter and you can go there and look at them if you so desire.

Random Musings

Sometimes I think I should post more but I can't figure out what I want to write about and then when I think about a topic I can't find the words to convey what I want to say. This is why my blog posts have been...lets just say few and far between. It sounds nicer than non existent. I am sadly having this problem with a lot of projects I have going on. I just can't find the words I want to use. It makes me the sads.

In an effort to force myself to write something I have decided to just post whatever random thoughts I have floating around in my head and see if I can make a blog post out of them. Bear with me, it may not be the most cohesive blog post I've ever written but hey no one reads my blog for a well written post anyway. So...uhm buyer beware or something.

The new year

It's been a bit since my last blog post and a lot has happened since that time, both in and out of game. The last time I blogged I talked about how Blizzcon was awesome and how I had a great time and met all sorts of cool people. Wow, I really am a slacker when it comes to writing blog posts. =(

But we all knew that well before now so too late to pretend otherwise. So whats been going on ingame for your dear old Jed? Well I've been flexing like crazy in Siege of Orgrimmar! I've met a bunch of new and cool people and wiped repeatedly with them on bosses/trash/random falling deaths. Some of the people are from twitter and some are from friends of friends who are from twitter. Hell some of my raid team, I can't even remember who is friends with who and how they got into the raid. I just know that they are now people on MY friends list that I send invites to.

Honestly Flex raiding is one of my favorite things to come out of the entire expansion. We always have room for a few more people as long as they are either a healer or a dps, our tanks are pretty set and we have back ups in place already. So if you're alliance and you'd like to flex it up with Jed, we flex Wednesdays 5-8 PST and Sundays 3-6 PST. Hit me up on twitter or leave a comment and we'll get it all worked out.

In other ingame news, Ursin was FINALLY CONNECTED! While this is not a server merge, its the next best thing! We were connected with Andorhal and Scilla and since the connection we've been listed as a medium population server the majority of time! So if you've ever wanted to alt it up with Jed and the whole low pop server situation scared you away, that's no longer an issue! I've been slowly working on getting my flex team to roll an alt on Ursin or to transfer an existing alt over. So far it's been working and we've gained a few new members. Always cool to see people online and doing stuff in guild. =D

Out of game theres been a lot going on. The biggest thing is that I am currently living in Zurich, Switzerland. Yes, you read that right. Switzerland, the land of chocolate, hidden bank accounts, and beautiful locations! I've been blogging about it over on a different blog so feel free to head on over and check it out. I've posted a few posts already with some very nice pictures so hopefully you'll all enjoy them.

Next up, I am now selling that cool light up jacket that I wore to Blizzcon over on Etsy. For the moment there is only a black color jacket available but it's available in several different sizes. If these manage to sell I'll possibly add different color options. But clearly you folks need to buy all the jackets that I have available now. The jackets are pretty neat and the light from them is pretty bright without being annoyingly bright. The light wire also does not generate any heat so you won't have to worry about overheating while wearing it. It's what all the cool kids are wearing.

I've also started a Tumblr page where I've posted pictures of my car, Switzerland, and other miscellaneous things. So if you are on Tumblr feel free to follow me.

So that's what has been keeping me from writing blog posts. It was a busy end of year and so far this year is looking to be just as busy but I'll do my best to post more often here. So keep on keeping on people!

Blizzcon Plans

With Blizzcon rapidly approaching I figured it would probably be a good idea to write down what my plans are going to. I decided to make it a blog post because I figured maybe someone out there would want to hang out or meet up or just walk by and awkwardly wave at me. With so many people from twitter going to Blizzcon, I'm sure I'll meet at least one person. I honestly debated blogging about this because I thought to myself "What if no one wants to meet up? What if someone is going to stalk me while I'm there?! What if no one cares?!" I ultimately decided to say screw it, I'm going to post this because I'm not going to let my scumbag brain win! So here are my plans for Blizzcon and with any luck I can meet at least a handful of you fine folks!

Thursday:
I fly into sunny California Thursday afternoon and plan on picking up my badge from the convention center After that I'll probably grab a bite to eat nearby and then I'll be heading to the Wow Insider Party and hanging out there for a while. If you'd like to hang out I will probably be live tweeting the event as soon as I arrive so people can definitely tweet me to see where I'm currently at. The party is open to everyone so everyone can attend!  I'll probably hang out there for a while until I either 1) get bored or 2) find somewhere else to go hang out and drink. I'm sure there will be plenty of people hanging out at the lobby of most nearby hotels so that is always an option.

Friday
Friday morning I'll obviously be in line to get into convention center along with everyone else but if you are further ahead of me in line and wouldn't be opposed to letting me cut in front of you, I suppose I could be nice and hang out with you a bit. ;-P
The convention panel plan is currently to hit up all the WoW related panels first and see all the things! I probably won't decide what I'm going to do until I'm waiting in line to get into the convention center because that's just the kind of slacker that I am. Now Blizzcon itself will take most of the day but afterwards I plan on heading over to the Twisted Nether Blogcast party and hanging out/drinking with all the cool attendees. This party is also open to everyone whether you blog, read blogs, or are illiterate! I expect to see all of you lovely readers there!

Saturday
Obviously more Blizzcon WoW panels during the day but at night, well at night it's going to get awesome. Since they have not announced who the closing musical act will be and chances are I won't be interested anyway,  I'll be at Medieval Times Saturday night for their 8:15 show so that will definitely be awesome. Blizzcon attendees get a discount for Medieval Times so it's cheaper to go see a show now than any other time! They have dinner and a show for a cheap price, can you do any better? I didn't think so! After the show, I'll have to figure out what I'll be doing but chances are I'll be hanging out in the lobby of the Anaheim Hilton hanging out for a bit.

Sunday
Sunday is normally a day of rest but this time...it's time for BLIZZNEYCON! I'll be hitting up the Disneyland theme park for most of the day. I'll be getting the two park ticket thing so I'll be at one of the parks most of the day. Lots of walking, lots of park rides, and lots of silliness. Afterwards, depending on how tired I am, I could be talked into hanging out with people. I'll also be live tweeting so if you're wandering around the park and want to hang out you can probably tweet me and see where I'm at.

We fly home monday morning so I dont plan on hanging out unless you're at the airport or on my flight.

That's pretty much my Blizzcon plans and most of it will be affected by how tired I am feeling, how much I've had to drink, and how little I've had to drink. If you see me walking around and want to say hi, please feel free to! I only ask that you introduce yourself first so I'm not left playing the "Who the hell is this" game. If you want to buy me drinks at any of the parties, I will definitely NOT turn you down but I may walk with you to the drink vendor and get a fresh drink. Not that I don't trust you folks but I don't trust you folks. I'll tweet out what cool geek shirt I'll be wearing each day so you can identify me in a crowd.

ALSO IF YOU HAVE NOT SHOWERED RECENTLY OR ARE NOT WEARING DEODORANT AND SMELL A TAD RIPE I WILL NOT SHAKE YOUR HAND OR GIVE YOU A HUG!* Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Now if I smell a tad bit ripe, you will have to put up with it as I am an internet celebrity!(in my own head)

It's going to be a fun time and I m definitely looking forward to it. Hope to see some of you there!

*Tongue in cheek btw, while I would prefer nothing but nice smelling people around me, it's a con and things like that are out of my hands.*

What's in a name?

I was reading something in the WoW subreddit(as I often do) and I ran across an interesting question: How do you come up with a name for your characters? This is such an interesting question because everyone has different reasons for why they use a certain name. Some choose names from other games, some just use the in game random name generator until they find a name they like, and some don't care about their character names and pick random things. Each person is different and while some names are completely unoriginal, they probably mean something to the person who rolled that character. As for me, I have a long and weird process I go through when I pick a name for characters.

I once made the joke that you can tell when in my life people met me by what they call me. If you call me by my real name we probably met in high school. If you know me as Jedi Optimus, we most likely met when I was in college and very active on several online message boards and I also played many online FPS games where that was the handle I used. Many a noob cursed that name in anger as I shot them ingame. If you know me as Jedem, we most likely met in 2005 when I first started playing WoW and I used that name for my very first character, a warrior. I eventually changed servers and classes but the first character I rolled on Ursin was a mage named Jedem. If you refer to me as Izak, you probably raided with me in BC when my pally sadly became my raiding main. Now Jed, well if that's what you know me as and you have never been in my guild, you probably met me in Wrath when I first started blogging. Of course if you have ever been in my guild regardless of when, you eventually know me as Jed.

Blizzcon Feels

Blizzard has announced the dates for this year’s Blizzcon: November 8-9. What does this mean? It means that this year there will be a Blizzcon in Anaheim where hopefully we will get all sorts of new info about the next expansion for WoW/Starcraft/Diablo/Lost Vikings. I have always wanted to go to Blizzcon and see all the cool stuff in person but logistics have made it extremely difficult. However this year is different. I turn 30 this year(I know I’m a baby to some and old to others) and my lady love asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate and I told her I wanted to go to Blizzcon. She has agreed to make it happen for us so if we can get tickets we will be at Blizzcon in November!! We booked a room and once the tickets go on sale we will be camping out in the online queue to get tickets.

Of course immediately after reserving the hotel room I looked at twitter to see who was planning on going to Blizzcon. There were several people made the decision to go and there were some on the fence about whether they could go or not. Sadly there were a few people who either couldn’t make it or were choosing to not attempt to go. I was excited about the prospect of meeting some of the people who were going to try and go to Blizzcon when suddenly my brain decided to be a scumbag.

For those of you who are new around these parts, I have made mention before that I am an introvert (shocking I know) and while I tend to have a few extrovert tendencies I tend to have social anxiety hit me often. It’s why I have been on twitter for 2 years now and I barely have 5000 tweets compared to people who have been on for a quarter of that time and have triple the amount of tweets. I tend to spend most of my time watching the conversations going on between people and often I don’t see any place where I can join the conversation. Most times I see an opening I the conversation where I can join in, I stop and think about what I’m about to say and over think it. What if what I say isn’t relevant? What if they hate what I said? What if they just keep on talking and ignore what I said?

Well I started thinking about Blizzcon and possibly meeting some of the people I interact with on twitter and the social anxiety started kicking in.

It honestly reminded me of a scene from the movie “How the Grinch stole Christmas” when the Grinch is debating showing up to the Whoville Whobilation:

Grinch: (after standing grumpily with his arms crossed) All right. I'll swing by for a minute, allow them to envy me, grab a handful of popcorn shrimp and blow outta there. (heads for the door, then stops abruptly and returns nervously) But what if it's a cruel prank? What if it's a cash bar?! How dare they! (scowls, then calms down) All right, I'll go. But I shall be fashionably late. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes! (groans in frustration) Definitely not. (firmly, heading for the door with his hand behind his back) All right! I've made my decision. I'm going, And that's that! (shows his hand) Ah! Had my fingers crossed.

My brain started asking me similar questions. What if people don’t want to meet up? What if I meet them and they hate me? What if I make an ass of myself? What if I do or say something that causes a large number of people to unfollow me on twitter or stop reading my blog or listening to my podcast? Damn it brain why can’t you just let me be happy????? My brain had me thinking that maybe I might have made a huge mistake in wanting to go to Blizzcon.

Thankfully the awesomeness of actually being at Blizzcon outweighed all the things my brain thought up. I will be at Blizzcon and I will see all the cool panels in person and just maybe I might even participate in a lore question thing or a contest or something. I will be at Blizzcon! If any of my readers are going to be going as well and want to meet up and hang out at the bar, let me know! I plan on having a great time and if I can meet people that’ll be awesome but if I don’t, I’ll still have a great time.

Thunderous Fury

This is a post that I have wanted to write for two years; in fact it’s something that I’ve been working on for over 5 years. What the hell am I rambling about you may be asking yourselves. Well I’m talking about [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]. The very same item that is often linked by trade chat trolls. Now I am not just linking it because I want to troll you all. I am talking about it because a week and a half ago this happened:

Guild Mentoring

It was announced recently which guilds were selected to participate in the WoW guild mentoring program. For those of you who have no clue what the guild mentoring program is, it’s a program that has guilds on select servers open their doors to whoever wants to join so that they can be shown how to play the game by people in the guilds.  Each guild will welcome new and old players(under 85) alike and I assume that blizzard is hoping that by doing this the number of people who stop playing the game because they have no clue what they are doing, will decrease. When I first heard about the program I thought it was a cool idea but after some thought I had mixed feelings about it.

On one hand it can be a great experience for people who are starting the game and don’t know anyone who is playing the game that can help them. We assume that with WoW’s subscription numbers being in the millions, everyone who wants to play the game is already playing it but of the 9 million subscribers only a quarter or so of that is from North American players. That means that there are plenty of people who are not playing WoW but see the commercials/game box and decide to give it a spin. These new people start out with nothing and have no clue what they are doing. Remember back to when you first started, how many of you had no friends/family that played the game? How many of you ran around exploring the world alone? How many of you resorted to asking in trade/general chat for answers to questions you had about the game?

Ursin Adventures

I had asked Exlucis to write a guest post for me and he did an awesome job at it. I meant to post this over the weekend when I originally got it but since I was at a Comic Convention, I didn't get the chance. So you get it today! I'll try to get out the next part of the story later this week.

When Jed asked me to do a guest post on his blog, I was honored.  Then I was hungry, so I made a sandwich.  After the sandwich I felt nervous; not because of the mayo or anything like that.  I wasn’t sure what I would write about.

It’s easy to write about myself and stuff about me, because I am familiar with myself and what I’m dealing with, and how all of that coincides with gaming.  What could I use from my knowledge that I could apply to Jed’s blog?  I considered spinning a yarn of my own, about Jedem and Oslis, adding to the tale.  I considered writing about the effect an enthralling story has in our interactions in Azeroth, both with the game and each other.  I considered writing a biopic about Jed himself.  I decided to write about the gnomish death race instead.  Or rather, where the race itself took place.

Pandas and you

So with Mists of Pandaria having a release date of 9/25/12 we are now faced with the fun task of preparing for the expansion that will be here before we know it. What does this mean for you? Well now is a great time for someone to decide to switch who their main raiding character is going to be. This character wont be the character you'll be forced to play for the rest of the expansion, it'll just be the character that you are focused on leveling to 90 first. If you mainly played a healer this expansion and want to raid tank or just focus on dps, this expansion is the perfect excuse to make that switch.

For me I know that I'll be leveling my mage AND my pally at the same time but focusing on the mage since he is always my first max level capped alt. The pally will be my raid main so he will be who I raid progression stuff with, as usual. I know that I'll be make a panda monk on my main account and that I'll be race changing my mini-mage to a panda because panda mages, like fezzes and bow ties, are cool.

I also plan on running around pet battling the hell out of everyone on my main mage because he is my pet/mount collector and I wants me some more achievement points! I suppose I should make a bucket list now that I know I have a deadline for it so expect to see that post somewhere down the line.

What about the rest of you? Who will you all be leveling to 90 first? Is anyone going to be rolling a panda monk and power leveling that to 90?

Choose My Adventure!

Ok so I have some free time (read: I am bored as hell at work and want to procrastinate) and I figured that I might as well do something creative since I haven’t done anything truly creative in years. I’ve decided to write a story based in Azeroth and starring the best mage out there: MY mage Jedem. The twist here is that I am going to try out a choose my adventure style for this story. I’ll write something out and at the end of each part, there will be 2-3 options. People can tweet or comment me what they think the choice should be and that’ll be what I write next. I figure this way I’ll get to flex my creative muscles and work with whatever is picked to make an interesting story.

Our story begins as most do: in the midst of a rain storm.

PUG Etiquette

As a smallish 10 man casual raiding guild, my guild tends to find itself having to pug a person or two for our raids when we don't have enough people sign up/show up for our raids. Now this doesn't mean that we are a horribad guild that couldn't down hogger or anything. It just means that recruitment has not brought in enough people who can show up to a raid. A normal raid night this expansion will often see us with eight or nine guildees online and ready to raid.

This situation leads us to pug a spot or two so that we can raid on raid nights. Sometimes I have a friend on my friends list that I can ask to come to the raid and when this happens, it's not really pugging as you are pulling in someone you know and not a complete stranger. But sadly there are times when our friends list fails us and we are stuck having to resort to asking for people in trade chat. This is not something that we enjoy doing but sometimes it's either pug or not raid.

Projects and testing

Normally I try to push out at least two blog posts a month but this month has been a busy month for me. I've got a few projects that I've been working on and on Friday one of them together at last. What is this project you may be wondering to yourself. Well wonder no more for the curtain has been pulled away to reveal a brand new podcast! Aero, Orvillius, Nymphy, and I have decided to team up and do a podcast titled "Follow the Leader," which is focused on Guild Leadership, Raid leading, and other management issues in WoW and other games.

Our first episode went live on Friday and so far most people seem to like it. At least no one seems to hate it enough to tell us so, which I will gladly take as a sign that we are doing a decent job. Self delusion is a wonderful thing after all.

Another project that I am working on is the Mists of Pandaria Beta! I've copied my Mage over to the beta server and have been slowly working my way through the questing areas. So far Frost Mages seem more awesome than they are now. My only gripe so far is that Deep Freeze no longer does damage to mobs that are immune to it, which means its no longer a big damage dealer on bosses like it is now. =( I'll probably make a post with a ton of cool screenshots of the Panda Island because it is really pretty looking.

I've also been running Dragon Soul with the Guild and I am proud to say that we not only clear it in one night, we can clear it in an hour and a half! At least last week we did. I know we can def keep that up but I think we might be dipping our toe into a heroic mode or two this week. Hopefully it'll go just as well and if it does, I'll be sure to let you all know because I know you are all super interested.

Finally I've been helping many new guildees level up by running them through instances,  giving them crafting mats, and generally being a nice GM to them. We've had a nice influx of cool people join the guild from the twitterverse. If you are 18 years of age or older and are suffering from burnout due to end of expansion blues, are looking for a nice place to hang out, or are looking for a permanent home for the upcoming expansion, you should definitely check out my guild the Avengers of Azeroth. We're a nice group of adults who enjoy playing the game together and are always looking for more cool people to join us.

So that's what's been keeping me from posting more stuff...this time. I know I know, I'm full of excuses and Redbull. Clearly you nice readers will forgive me since you've stuck with me so far. <3 to you all.

To the winners

When I saw that my blog was going to hit the 2 year mark I thought that I should do something for my readers who have stuck around through so much of my random rambling and ranting. I figured that since you readers have stuck around with me this far I should do a giveaway as a way to show that I appreciate each and every one of you. I decided that instead of just giving one thing away I would do three so that more than one person could win. I enlisted the services of the amazing and awesome Liala to create a reward for whoever won the giveaway. I figured that her custom icons were so cool that they would be the perfect reward for whoever won.

When the contest closed I had 17 comment entries and of those 17, three were chosen to receive their very own icon. The winners were: Windsoar, Angelya, and Selly. I wish I could have given an icon to each person who entered the giveaway but sadly I could not. Also I think Liala would have killed me if I had tried commission her to create 17 icons. She does have a temper after all! (Please don't beat me anymore Liala, I'll be good I swear!)

You can keep your Flowers

In 2011 Blizzard auctioned off several old server blades on ebay for charity and in November the Ursin server blades were posted. Now being a day one Ursinite, I knew that I had to have one. Well I got lucky and was able to win one and when it arrived, it was glorious. Well my lovely lady was very happy with the purchase and she even offered to write something for me about the whole event and I took her up on the offer. She emailed me the following and now submitted for the approval of the midnight society I now present you, my lovely readers with this:

KEEP YOUR STUPID FLOWERS!!!

 

*Ring

Me: “Hello?”

Jed: “Hunny the Ursin server blades are for sale!”

That was the beginning.  Here we were just over a month into marriage and he wasn’t calling to hear my voice, he wasn’t calling because he missed me or because he thought he would check on my day.  He was calling to tell me a piece of hardware was on EBay.

Walking on the Dark Side

November is upon us and with it comes the endless torture that is Christmas music. /shudder. Also with November comes the realization that Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out in next month, seven weeks from now to be more precise and slightly less time before the deluxe pre-order people get their early access. Now what does this mean for you? Well nothing if you have no plans for playing SWTOR, now if you are planning on playing it...you should be super excited as it is almost here.

Why am I mentioning a competing MMO when I play WoW? Well because...I'm a Star Wars nerd. I can hide it from you all no longer. As such I will be playing TOR when it comes out. Will I be leaving WoW for TOR? NO I will in fact not stop playing WoW. I plan on playing both games until one or the other stops being fun or I run out of money to pay for both. Or I die from Nerdgasm overload.

Now I know to some people out there, it's blasphemy to play anything other than WoW and to said people, I am betraying everything I claim to love because of my plan. Honestly those people are crazy.  I love WoW and have been a fan of the Warcraft Universe since Warcraft 1 was released. Warcaft 1 was actually the first game that I had ever downloaded off the interwebs (that's what we called the internet back in the day) and I loved it so much I went out and bought the legal version. I still have the game and its instruction manuals somewhere in a box in the garage, that's how much I loved reading through the manuals to learn the story of the game. If Blizzard released Warcraft 1/2 for the iPhone/iPad/iWhatever I'd buy them in a heart beat. I remember playing through the Warcraft 3 campaign and geeking out at how awesome a storyline Blizzard had crafted. WC3 was yet again another game that I pirated and went out and bought a full copy after playing it a little.

Now that I have established what a Warcraft fanboy I am, let me tell you about my Star Wars fanboy cred. I grew up watching the movies, riding the Star Tours ride at the Disney MGM theme park, wishing that I could get a lightsaber for Christmas(still wish for this one), reading the expanded universe books, dressing up as Darth Vader for Halloween, and playing many of the Star Wars games that were produced. For the longest time I equated Christmas with Star Wars because certain channels would show all three movies on Christmas day and I of course would sit and watch as much as I could before I was dragged away from the tv to do other stuff. Even though I was vehemently against the idea of having to pay monthly for an MMO, I popped my MMO cherry with Star Wars Galaxies. I couldn't resist the idea of being able to play a character in the Star Wars universe. So many good memories there. /reminisce

Anyway back on topic, WoW holds a spot in my heart but my heart is big enough for some TOR loving. When the game comes out 10 of my guildees and I are planning on playing it and we've already created a Sith guild through the pre-launch guild system that BioWare has created which I find pretty cool. Not having to start on new server on launch day and hoping that your can get all your guildees online to sign a guild charter is definitely a bonus in my book. As I said we are going Sith so if any of you readers have an interest in playing with a super awesome guild when TOR launches, feel free to app at the link above.We could always use a few more fun loving peoples in our war against the forces of dumb lightsider(run by Stop and Asros) nublets.(run by Fimlys)

Will I be tuning this blog towards both WoW and TOR? Now that one I am not sure what the answer is yet. I am still undecided if I want to talk about TOR here or at all. As the launch date gets closer I will make a decision. Maybe if I see that my readers want to hear about TOR I would do it. I still have plenty to talk about in WoW, I just sadly haven't had the time to write quality posts due to work, saddening I know.

So to recap: I will be playing both WoW AND SWTOR, I may blog about TOR, I will definitely continue trying to blog about WoW, and most important Tacos are the most versatile fruit. =D

When I was young

I came up with this post idea and decided on a title and since then I have not been able to stop thinking of this clip from The Lion King. You've watch it, you can't unwatch it! Anyway...moving on. Since summer started I have been working long hours, dealing with the frustration from recruitment, threatening guildees to get them to log on for raids, putting the finishing touches on my wedding plans to my Lady Love, and sacrificing gnomes to the Bioware Gods to let me into the Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta. After a while, all of these things tend to leave me drained and feeling a little burned out.

Sad I know. *Cue Sad Keanu picture*

Now normally this would be the part where I go on and on about how the game has changed and no longer fun for me and I am debating quitting for TOR. BUT thankfully for you faithful readers, that is not what is going to happen!

There have been a couple of things that have happened to me that have helped me cope with all of the above reasons to quit and I got to tell you, I actually am feeling recharged and ready for more WoW.

First off I decided that I would level a horde alt to see how different their horde quest lines were while leveling up. Since I'm sadly maxed out on character slots on my main account I decided to level on a different server (with no heirlooms/guild perks) and I looked around for a good place to call home. I ended up on Drenden, which is the home of Rades, Miri, Liala, and Narci, all of whom I enjoy talking to on twitter. After a little while I decided to transfer an 80 horde DK over to this server since he had been sitting around collecting dust for years. I'm not joking when I saw that his gear was appalling. He was leveled around the time when TOC was released and he had a lot of 5 man heroic/non-heroic gear from there. Looking at his gear was kind of like opening a time capsule and looking through it to see all the stuff that was cool at the time.

I server transferred him over and set about leveling him. Even with horrid gear, he was able to kill stuff rather quickly and I only had to spend a few gold on the AH to get him upgrades. While questing and running instances I was able to enjoy being in a guild without having to be the leader. I was just a regular member and it was a welcome change of pace. After 6 years of being the guy everyone in guild looks to for answers, comments, or anything and everything they need help with, it was nice to log in and not have to deal with that stress/pressure. Not that leading my guild is a huge source of stress, I just stress myself out and over think things. I am my own worst enemy. : /

Just wanted to make a note, I love my guild and wouldn't trade it for anything but like in real life sometimes you have to take a vacation to get away from things so you can appreciate them more when you return.

Well back to the story. It has definitely been a nice change of pace to just be one of the crowd and that has helped me relax a little. Mind you I don't just log on and head to that server right away, I play my mains first and if we aren't doing anything too exciting I switch to the horde server. It is a nice way to unwind.

Another thing that has helped rejuvenate me is all this talk of transmogrification. I know for some people out there, the game has taken a turn towards World of Dresscraft and honestly, I couldn't care what other people say. I've been playing for 6+ years now and some of the gear that I had previously worked so hard for can now be shown again without suffering dps loss. My mage will be proudly sporting his old MC raiding gear because that set was in my mind so awesome. My first raid experience was in MC and like they say: You never forget your first. I will be sporting the ever so sexy 6/8 Arcanist set, 1/8 Netherwind set (Helm), and 1/6 Field Marshal Regalia(gloves). For his weapons, I haven't quite decided what I will be wearing but since 4.3 isn't going live any time soon I have some time to figure it out.

Some of the chatter about the whole mogging experience is about how instead of giving us new content we are getting something so silly and useless. I for one welcome our new Mogging overlords. Why? Because this has been something that many vanilla veterans have been asking for since forever. We worked hard for our gear and to replace it with greens and have it sit around collecting dust or being vendored just seems wrong. I really wish I had raided Naxx because they had some of the coolest gear around and the level 80 Naxx just doesn't compare. I know some people will say that it is just a reason to show off E-peen or to brag about how great you are at the game but that isn't why I am looking forward to it. I will be the first person to say that I am not the greatest WoW player out there. But as I mentioned, I have been around for a long time and have had many memorable moments that I treasure and look back on fondly. Being the DPS who got the killing blow the first time we downed Ragnaros, being the person who could kite General Drakkisath to the Beasts room because we didn't have a hunter who could do it (and living through it), these are just two of those memories. If I can wear a mogged set that looks like the gear I wore then, it will remind me of why I play the game: to have fun and do crazy stupid stuff to enjoy the game.

Thats all Mogging is: a different way to have fun. The people shouting out against mogging seem to have forgotten that they play a game with millions of other people and not everyone has the same idea of what fun is. I can't wait.

It seems that talking about the olden days always make me ramble on a little too much and I think I strayed from my original topic. Well than, back to making me enjoy the game again!

The biggest reason why I am really enjoying myself again is a person. No it isn't my fiancee, my Lady Love who is awesome and all, but it is actually a new member of the guild. This person is a cousin of a guildee and this is his first MMO. Having him in vent and listening to him talk about the game, you can hear the enthusiasm and pleasure he gets from the game. This enthusiasm for the game is really contagious and after listening to him, you can't help but feel happy with the game. It reminds me of when I first started playing the game and how I felt like the world was so amazing and new and I could do whatever I wanted. An example of him being giddy and happy with something so simple: My Lady Love was running him through a lowbie instance on her mage and at the end she made a portal to Stormwind for him. He was in vent with us and he had no clue what the portal was and when he took it, he literally was speechless for a few seconds. He was awed by a portal. This was something so routine to most players that we don't even give it a second look. My fiancee and I laughed for a few minutes about that and we both felt a little special that we were able to make his day with something as simple as a run through of an instance and a portal afterward.

My Lady Love and I grouped with him several times along the way on our level appropriate characters and we ran instances together. Every time he ran an instance he was in vent with us and he could not believe the game was as cool as it was. We giggled and talked about when we felt the same way and for both of us, it had been a while.

When the world of Azeroth was new, everything was awe inspiring. From the sheer size of Ironforge to the fun escort quests where we felt like we saved an NPC's life and made a difference. Somewhere along the way we lose that sense of awe and we start becoming jaded about the game. We no longer look at the game as a game but as a job. Sometimes it takes a change of faction to appreciate the game, sometimes it requires playing dress up, and sometimes it requires a new person to remind you that the game we choose to play is pretty damn awesome. I have always liked WoW but there were times when I felt drained and just didn't want to deal with the trolls both in instances and in trade. But after all this, I feel like I am ready for more and I can handle anything thrown my way. It is a game after all, a truly awesome, fun, and magical game and I'm glad I was reminded of this.

I chose wisely

Stupid work has kept me so busy that I haven't been able to post anything lately and I am sorry for that. I have several drafts that I have started but I just haven't been able to find the time to finish and post them. I know apologies mean nothing and people want posts!

So for everyone who wants a post...here is a picture. It isn't just any plain old picture mind you. It is proof that I chose wisely when I proposed to my lady love. Here is the cake topper for my grooms cake:

That's right, she is that awesome. =D

I'll try to get a post up soon so that you my lovely readers will find another reason to ask yourselves why you continue to put up with my crap writing. If you are an aspiring blogger and feel that you want to take pity on me and toss me a guest post, please feel free to contact me. I'd love to get a guest post.

Gnomeapalooza

On Sunday July 24, my awesomest, coolest, and sexiest guild will turn 6. Now I know that in some circles 6 years isn't that big of a deal but when it comes to the World of Warcraft, 6 months together is a big deal and going a year is great, 6 years is a lifetime. 6 years of raiding together, of joking together, of getting achievements together, and of rocking out like the superstars that we are. So to celebrate we will be having a race of death!

Who: You, me, my guild. Gnomes.

What: A race of death! Gnomish death race Outlands style which is even better then our normal race. You roll a level 1 gnome, take the friendly portal we create to Shattrath, and race to Honor Hold!

When/Where: Sunday July 24, at 2pm Pacific Standard Time on the Ursin-PVP server, Alliance side.

Why: Its fun, its a celebration, AND the winner gets a free vanity pet of their choice from the Blizzard Store!

Wait...what? Thats right! A free vanity pet from the Blizzard Store for the winner! The race Winner chooses which ever pet they want to have and I give it to them!

Now with the introduction of the limited trial account, everyone can make a level 1 gnome...for FREE! Regardless of whether you normally play on a US server, a EU server, or even if you aren't  playing but want to participate, you now can! If you would like to participate or know more info, please leave a comment, send an email, or DM me on twitter and I'll be more then glad to talk about the event. =D

One Twisted Guy

This Satuday June 25th I will be a guest on the super awesome podcast, The Twisted Nether Blogcast. Clearly they are desperate for guests otherwise they wouldn't be having me on. Since they record live, all of my faithful readers should come to their site and join the chat room and heckle me or ask questions or just listen to me ramble on about how alcohol and no pants leads to successful raiding.

Recording starts at 8 PST! So plan to be there to listen to me bore the hosts Hydra and Fim with my long and boring stories about raiding in the 80s, 90s, and today. Or something along those lines. See everyone there on Saturday!