We're Moving on Up

That is right, Ladies and Gents. GLDC is moving on up and out of Blogger and has relocated to her cushy new home at:


http://www.gunlovingdwarfchick.com


This move has been made possible by all of you by supporting and encouraging this little site to grow beyond my imagination. I can't not thank you all enough.
/wiping real tears.

=) (next time I type a smiley, you will actually be able to see it!)

So on to the next level! May you enjoy the elevator ride!

Go and buy this

Now.

I love November.

Oh god. I want it all!

5 Lessons

Forgive if not all of these lessons are original, after all many of us have similar experiences, thus making it that much more universal.

Lesson one: You are never too old to become a “gamer”.

I was almost thirty when I started to play WoW.

Lesson two: You can choose your friends, but not family (Guild).

All of us have groups of friends we enjoy questing with, joking with and running instances with. These people may or may not be in your guild.
Now, your Guild.
Yes, you may have researched them, you may have thought they would fit you perfectly, you may even have very good friends there, welcoming you with chocolates and fluffy pillows, but you are not going to get along with everyone. There are people who will make your inner-screech cat come up, just by saying “hello”. You can’t get rid of them, and your can’t negate their existence. Do the same thing you do when your sleazy Cousin Herb, the one that always tries to hug you longer than necessary, come towards you, smile, wave, and disappear into the kitchen.

Lesson three: Find like-minded people.
An extension of lesson 2:

I know a number of people in game.
Do I hang with most of them when I am on?
No.
Some of my pals are in large raiding guilds and often will chat with me during raids and send me tells of the latest loot they got. Another will write and tell me about the new ganking spot he just found and how many horde he forced to spirit rez. Both of these guys are great people and I often have a good time talking to them. I talk to both off –line and both are radically different.

But even though we are pals, I rarely group or quest with them.

Why?

Because we see the game differently. The raider has no time for bathroom breaks or wipes, he wants to get in and out, no talking, joking or playing around. The ganker will spend a good half-an-hour outside of the instance killing players trying to get in.

Neither style fits me.

Instead, I call up my cohorts and we do what the majority wants to do. It makes my wow time as enjoyable and stress-free as possible.

Lesson four: The best epic is a Fleshy Epic.

I have talked about this in other posts, so I won't rehash, just will give a interesting eposide.

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I actually meet several of my guidlies at a guild-meet at Miami Beach.

People I had been playing with for months, even years, came to the gathering. It was, amazing, and surreal at the same time. On-line and off-line worlds all merged and melted.

While sitting around, we started to talk to a friend of ours who had an uber horde shammy (the boy has seen Illidan) and he talked about how raiding and trying to keep up his 2150 arena rating forced him to quit the game. It had become too much of a time commitment. So there sitting around the counter, you had the hardcore ex-raider, talking about how he loved the challange of the end-game content, how much fun he had with that, and on the other side you had my guildies and me. We talked about about how our responsibilities prevented us from making that a priority. We played for the people. We play for the fun. Some want the gear and want the end-game content.There is nothing wrong with that. I understand the desire to see it and I admire the drive needed to get there. Kudos to you if you can do it.

Except, I don’t want that.

What I want out of the game was sitting around Dreadprior’s kitchen last night, ganking each other while fireworks exploded outside of his balcony.

Lesson Five: Expect to put on at least 10 pounds.

Snacks, sodas, munches, meals at the computer because you are at a boss, late night ( oh damn, I forgot dinner) binges, chocolate (Fem), all of these will find themselves in your life. Learn to embrace the carrot.

Edit:
Those are it for now, some others, such as playing with your spouse, paying it forward, have been done by those better than I, so I will not bring those up. But they are very important lessons...

I was going to tag, but almost everyone that I though of has been tapped already >_>

Hook Me Up!

Okay THAT is it. This is the SECOND time in less than two weeks that something has happened and I haven’t even known about it. I am sure all of you know about the “5 lessons learned” challenge started by Jon over at the Bronze Kettle. I read his. Read a couple of others and then promptly returned to my hole, because work is a dominatrix in wool, using a ruler.

After writing my post tonight, I decided to read what everyone had been up to the last few weeks. When I got to Priestly Endeavors, guess what I found. Kirk, decided to pay me and GLDC a lovely comment. Then he ruined it by tagging me for the “5 lessons learned."

Okay, I think, I can do this. I started looking around to see what everyone else has written; I don’t want to repeat points and when I land on GMW, I saw she had tagged me on the 29th!

Both of them had tagged me and I didn’t even know. The guilt, the horror of it, is akin to walking into a presentation with your pants open and not realizing until after the meeting.

Why am I so upset? Not because of the mentions, even though they are awesome, but because they expect me to respond, and there has been nothing on my site for days. I hate letting people down. /crossed arms.

So that is it! I need a damn alarm that will vibrate on my person when something happens in the blogosphere I need to know about. This would have never happened if, in an IT raid, I hadn’t uninstalled Feedreader.

I need suggestions. What do you guys use to keep up with all the blogs you read? I tried Google Reader, but I didn’t like it. Feedreader was okay, but I wonder if there another desktop application that is better. I can not allow this to happen again. I am falling severely behind in my reading, and feel completely out of touch.

Help.

Now, I leave you to continue working on my "5 Lessons"

A Conversation with Fem

December brings many things: trees, holidays, candles, presents, food, drinks, food, handovers, food, money, food, bills, food, snow, food and stomach aches.

But it also brings great ways to spread your holiday cheer with those you love. Case in point, call your pal stuck in the great frozen wildness called Ottawa, Canada and give her a warm hello!

“Hey there Fem.”

I could hear a gaggle of children screaming in the background, “How are you, Bre!”

Muffled commands, then silence, “Sorry about that Bre, the kids are getting ready for their quite time.”

“Ah okay. So Fem how’s the weather, your husband sent me email complaining about having to shovel snow?”

She thought about it and then she said, “Oh it is actually pretty good right now. It is only about -4 C (24 F)”

“Damn, that cold!”

I looked out my window and watched the palms sway in the balmy Florida breeze.

Fem laughed and said, “Gets close to -30 C (-22 F) and -40 C (-40 F) near the end of winter. So this isn’t too bad.”

“Really? I have absolutely no point of reference, coldest I have ever experienced was about 35 F.” I noticed a couple walking down the sidewalk. Both of them were wearing shorts, tank tops and sandals.

“I wonder why guys feel the need to walk around with flip-flops, it is just so emasculating”

“What?” she said.

I blinked. Did I just say that aloud?

“Um, you know, guys who feel the need to wear flip-flops in public. I mean it completely acceptable at the beach or at home, but leaving the house with them…it is just-“

“There are people walking around in sandals? What is the temperature in Miami?” I continued to watch the guy. It was really a shame; he had a good pair of legs, if just the whole image hadn’t been ruined.

“Oh, about 85 F.”

Click

“Fem?”

edit note: sorry for the errors in tense. I was on a sugar rush and didn't properly proofread. It is all better now.../blush

Picture Time!

Krys' well-trained eye captured the following pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Who says elephants can't fly?
or "Operation Dumbo"



The Combover's New Ride
Edit note: When I saw this sucker in action it almost made me wish I hadn't given up Engi...almost!



The Wing Beneath my Wings
Cue Bette Midler

Waht, WHat, WHAT!

Just like death, the net continues without you even if you don't get on! My forced disappearance is coming to an end and when I when inspected my site meter today, I found myself staring at a staggering number...10,000 hits!

How has this been possible?

/Academy Awards mode on

Cue crying
I would like to thank all my readers, my husband, Krys, Fem, everyone from AUO, the lovely people who leave comments, that guy at the corner of my block...I don't know you, but you look like good people...

Cue commercial
/Academy Award mode off

However, this major jump in hits is not only attributed to our regular readers but to another ittzy, bitsy, little fact, which has also caused the recent layout changes.

Krys' article on farming, you know the one that is further down this page...haven't read it? K, go and I will wait.

/Tapping foot
/Looking at watch
/Shuffling noise

Okay? Back? Good. Well that post got linked in a recent article on WoW Insider and in the course of one day, we got over 1000+ hits.
Before I continue, I would like to say two simple words:

CONGRATUATIONS KRYS!

Ummmmkkk...k, back to the post

Really, someone or something should alerted you when your little site has a monumental moment. I found out five days after the fact.

/Palm to forehead
Fail.

Anyho, this is why the link killed my layout. Krys' server is much like the little engine that could, he is a plucky fellow, but even a landside can take him out. And that single link did just that. The bandwidth ballooned and then popped.

No more pretty layout, only a dark green blob and dark text. Back to square one.

I sat, amazed GLDC had been written about, and pondered my messed up site. Then I decided a quick fix to the problem.

I am using a standard Blogger template for now. No fancy pictures to link to, no major cosmetic surgery involved to make it look "just right" and most importantly...no blowing up friends’ servers. That is just inconsiderate.

Let me know what you guys think. I may keep it this way or even do something more radical and move it to Wordpress.

They really have some pretty themes over there...