My Alternate Reality

Confessions of a WoWNerd

Lets be honest here. I'm a WoWNerd. I mean, c'mon, I build computers, think that spending hours buried in physics equations constitute FUN and I enjoy reading tons of books on the likes of Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan while playing old episodes of Star Trek. Yea, I think that qualifies me as a nerd.

On the World of Warcraft side of the house, I can literally spend hours in the land of Azeroth. I don't even have to be raiding or doing anything constructive. Chillaxin' in Stormwind with friends and a flask of Dwarven Stout will do me just fine!

Put the two together? Yep, that spells WoWNerd. Sometimes I curse the day I ever installed that damn free trial. That 10 day free trial is the equivalent of a crack dealer handing out free "hits". He knows that just one try, and he's got ya! The same holds true for Blizzard. They know very well that once you spend but a single hour ingame, they've practically got you wrapped around their little finger. Get a few level 80's under your belt and you're a lifer.

So much hard work, blood sweat and tears went into molding your character into who they are that throwing them away is unconscionable! For me, real life and Azeroth life will be tied together for a very, very long time. The very idea of not having access to that wonderful "nether-world" is something now that I just cannot comprehend. Now granted, there have been times when I've wanted to shelve the game and never again stroll it's cities or fly it's skies but I always come back for more. The World of Warcraft is like any other hobby. It tends to be a sine wave in structure. You have peaks and valleys. Highs and lows. The art is staying somewhere in the middle is where you want to be. I've lost count on how many times I've been burned out. It's an art in and of itself.

I find it odd that sometimes, real life and my Azeroth life sometimes merge. Take for example, driving into work. Every morning on my commute, I pass this intersection. Off to the side in a grassy area is this nicely shaped sage brush. When it blooms, it is adorned with these beautiful tiny purple flowers. Immediately I think to myself "Silverleaf Bush". I know it's stupid but I swear, I do it EVERY SINGLE MORNING! It looks exactly like a Silverleaf bush!

So the next time you hear me QQ'ing about quitting this &#%$@! game, don't fret. I'm just venting. Nothing could ever tear me away from The World of Warcraft!

nuff' said,
SjN

Ice, Ice BABY!

G'morning! Razor here!
Thought I'd chime in as I've had a pretty adventuresome day so far! It started last night really. I finally scrounged up enough coin to go ahead and purchase the dual spec ability for Razorwyn. After fumbling around with that for around an hour, I was off and running. My secondary spec is now Beast Mastery. This spec, while not optimal for raiding any longer (CRY) will always be my favorite spec. Yea, yea... call me a nubcake, whatever. It is by far the most enjoyable spec for me to play. I'm so happy I did it!

But that isn't the half of it! Since I specced BM (with the Beast Mastery talent point to allow exotics) I decided to just snoop around Sholazar Basin to see if I could corral Loque'Nahak the Spirit Beast. Prior to respeccing to Survival waaay back in the day, I must have hunted this beast for WEEKS with no luck.

Well- After flying around her usual haunts. I decided to head for Icecrown. While making my way through Sholazar to the mountain ranges, BAM!! I got a hit on my target macro! THERE SHE WAS!!!

Landing in front of her, I dropped a freezing trap at my feet and started the tame. She bolted directly for me and began her attack. **POOF** my freezing trap encased her in a nice handy block of ice while I finished off the tame. A quick feeding, a scratch on the neck and she was purring at my feet like a kitten.

SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!

Now comes the arduous task of leveling her to 80. Yea, I know Blizz made pet leveling easier but that doesn't change the fact that leveling pets is major suckage. I suppose I'll hang out in Icecrown and grind on 80 undeads until I get her leveled.

Naming a pet is one of those tasks that really drives me crazy. It reminds me of my old DnD days where I would literally spend DAYS trying to think up a really cool 'medieval' sounding name like Audrik or Lothar. After flying around and pondering, I got to looking at that really cool blue glow coming from her eyes, nose and mouth. She also breathes frosted breath so I decided to name her ICE! I must say, it really fits and she just looks COLD all the time!

Damn now I've got that stupid song in my head. "All right stop collaborate and listen, Ice is back with my brand new invention Something grabs a hold of me tightly Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly..."

Well, that is gonna drive me bonkers for the rest of the day! Anyway, think I'll get back to grinding. Want to get her in a dungeon or two to see how she fairs! Oh, did I mention she also has this really awesome arcane ability called Spirit Strike? It looks really bitchin' when it procs albeit not very effective.

See ya 'round the Meeting Stone!
~SjN
(a.k.a Aurendar & Razor)

Just Doodlin' Around

You've seen it. I know you've seen it. That really cool painting hanging on the walls of Dalaran shops. Well, I decided to recreate it.

This first rough draft is just a line drawing using Photoshop to fill in some colors. What I ultimately want to do is actually do this in oils to recreate this amazing painting in real life.

Yea, it's what I do when I get bored. It'll be really cool though hanging in my office! It's definitely quite the conversation piece!

I think I have the colors pretty close, now it's just a matter of transferring it to canvas and lay down some oils!

Shouldn't be too hard. The lines are pretty clean and there isn't much to the technique. All in all a good time! Nothing like paying homage to one of my favorite past times!

Hmmmm, wonder if I could get paid for this? Nah, Blizzard might take exception to that.

Just a short post tonight!
Laters!

No Gnews is Bad Gnews!

Greets all of you WoW-o-Philes!

Today I thought I'd throw a post down about Razor over on Moon Guard. Last night I was relaxing in Stormwind and like clockwork, a very well known guild on the realm, The Underfoot Express gathered at 9:00pm server to deliver the Gnightly Gnews to the masses!

If you like the RP side of the World of Warcraft, you just can't do better than Moon Guard. Everynight when The Underfoot Express assembles, everyone in Stormwind gathers around, pulls out a pet, munches on some snacks and sits down to enjoy the Gnews. It really is RP at it's finest! I find myself looking forward to it! As a matter of fact, thirty minutes prior to the Gnews, I started setting my Brazier of the Dancing Flames out. To see 20 to 30 people all doing the Draenai dance while on fire is quite the sight! It also is sure to gather an even larger crowd to the Gnews. Moon Guard is definitely good times.

Speaking of Razor, she's been going through some changes as of late. She's currently unguilded and has been wandering around Azeroth doing her own thing. One day while doing some shopping in Ironforge, I came across Truitt Haefyn. The Exchequer of The Order of Sterling. A fabulous RP guild on Moon Guard. Had a nice conversation with him and that soon set me on the path to possibly rejoining the guild.

Razor was a member of Sterling for a long long time until I started to get bored with the game. I thought If I changed things up a bit, I would reignite that interest. It worked for a while but I soon began to miss my friends and the wonderful RP that we used to have.

Well, I have been in contact with Sterling's Guild Master - Bjorke and I soon hope to don the Sterling Tabard once again.

I am thinking about posting a thread on RP-101 as I get asked about RP'ing quite a bit while I am online. I get the distinct feeling that people join RP servers in hopes of picking up on the fine art of "living the game". I really like getting asked the questions and do what I can to help. But I think an official "do's & don'ts" of RP might be beneficial to anyone that would like to get more deeply involved into it. As a matter of fact, Bjorke has a podcast that she puts on (albeit she's been sluffing as of late) called Mischief & Mayhem. She does a WONDERFUL job on laying out RP and how to become an expert at it! If you have some time, go check out some episodes!

Well, gotta run. I've got some dailies to get done!

~From the journals of Razorwyn Moonstrider