K's pretentious blogging meme

I was inspired a bit by the year in review meme that went around and Tam's project where he provided bloggers with post topics. Thus, I have some questions around blogging that I would selfishly love for other bloggers to answer. I call it the pretentious blogging meme, because its about blogging. Seriously, what could be more pretentious than blogging about blogging?

So I am particularly curious about how other bloggers blog. Ya, call me a total dork. Thus, here are the questions that I want to know about and to get this started, my corresponding answers.

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?
2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?
3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?
4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?
5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?
6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?
7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?
8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?
9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?
10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?

I've been blogging for over two years now (*boggle*), having started in September 2007. I started because I wanted to chronicle my adventures in game. This blog really started as a diary of sorts, hugely inspired by Phaelia of course.

2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?

I would say about 3-5 hours a week.

3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing? Do you write in your day to day job?

Well, I always did well in my english classes in school and always had an easy time writing papers, but beyond that I don't have any formal or professional writing experience. I did keep a personal journal for about 10 years though. Does that count? Writing in my RL job is minimal.

4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?

Like most bloggers I guess I look for inspiration for posts while I am playing the game. But I also do a lot of random brainstorming and daydreaming while I am driving to and from the current client I am working for. I am in the car from 2-2.5 hours per day and when I am not busy calling other drivers f'in idiots (which happens often), I find myself brainstorming possible blog topics. I also read a ton of random non-WOW blogs and find a lot of inspiration on topics or random stupid funny stuff on those blogs as well.

5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?

Um, no rules here. I like to think that this blog is about everything and nothing at the same time (deep, I know). Because I blog about everything from our guild's raiding updates, random funnies, pvp/arenas, blogging, asshats, professions, gaming, and finally the occasional post about actual druid stuffs or healing (shock!).

6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?

For a while now I've been on the schedule of posting 3 times a week. In general I do try to diversify those 3 posts so that they aren't all about the same topic. So I'll try to do a random funny post, the second from something within the game, and the third about gaming or blogging. Though this varies week to week. Im terms of writing, I do a lot of my actual writing at work (shhhhh).

7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

I currently have 8 potential blog posts drafted in various stages, whether its a simple idea or written out a bit more. I actually draft a lot of my posts within gmail as draft emails. I will also draft posts sometimes within a word processing platform whether that is Word (work computer) or Pages (personal computer). I find this easier than within the blogspot platform itself. Of the 8 drafts I have right now, I am guessing that 3 will never get written or published. Sometimes an idea just never really develops, or I wait too long on actually writing the post that it either gets outdated or written elsewhere.

8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?

Hmmm, well Jess would have to continue the Left Claw stuffs, Tamarind would continue the random humor/ranting bit, and Beruthiel would continue the druidy/healy stuffs... though seriously she is a much more serius bzness tree than I am or ever could be.

9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?

Well, I'm surprised first of all that I'm still blogging, even though my blog has changed a whole lot from when I first started. I'm surprised that I've been mentioned or linked from wow.com three times over the life of this blog. Little old me! Finally, while I'm not very active in a lot of the blogging forums, I have been surprised by the sense of community within the WOW blogging world. As I commented on Beru's blog last week, I think of a lot of you fellow bloggers and frequent comments on my blog as my WOW friends... even though I've never played with you in game or anything.

10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

No real goals beyond perhaps trying to do some actually serious posts a bit more often. Other than that, just keep on keeping on!

Any fellow bloggers who would like to indulge me in answering any or all of the questions, please think of it as a late Christmas gift for me. If you do blog about this, please leave a comment on this post so that I can make sure that I see everyone's answers.

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Jumping on the bandwagon

As most bloggers have blogged about the new LFG system, I figure its my turn to jump on this bandwagon. The first night that this system went live, Jess and I went in as a tank and healer, taking one millisecond to find us a group. As we were running through it, Jess noted that this whole system felt like a one night stand, since blogging:

"You zone-in with four strangers. Sometimes there is a brief exchange of greetings but often nothing is said and you just go at it. You storm through the instance and before you know it you’ve downed the final boss. People stand around during an awkward moment, not quite knowing what to say except trivial things like “nice run” and “ty for group” before leaving as quickly as they joined. And then afterward just a few minutes later, with your head still spinning, you can hardly remember who you grouped with unless there was something memorable like the healer who never ran out of mana and seemed like she could go all night, or the hunter who always shot too early but was annoying smug about his performance. But you’ll forget them too as soon as you start yet another PUG.

Is this what casual sex is like?"

Hahaha. Now while bloggers have talked about coming across asshats and idiots in these pugs, it seems that it has become almost expected. What I mean is that folks seem to be more surprised when you end up in a good group, with no attitudes or ninjas.

You guys well know that I have never been shy about posting asshats I have come across in game, going so far as to publishing screenshots with toon names and guilds clearly called out. And yes, I have come across all sorts of players in this new LFG system. Now I'm not talking about folks pulling 700 dps in full purples, because they bother me a whole lot less than totally rude, jackass, asshats.

But you know what? It's weird because I have no inclination to SS these idiots and post about it here. It doesn't really upset me as much in this new system. Is it because its become so common or expected? Given the temporary nature of these groups, with generally no lasting consequences (since with the cross server feature its very unlikely you will run across these folks again), does this system just excuse asshattery? If someone has a bit of asshat in them, does this system just make it more likely that they will exhibit said asshattery?

On another note, I was in one pug where one person mentioned that their level 80 shammy was their first and only toon. I also noticed that this person was unguilded. I honestly felt kind of bad for them. Why?

Well, I think back to how Jess, Wut, Atania, and I met many of our guildies and our close non-guildie friends. Many of these relationships were built back in Burning Crusade when I was the only healer in our then tiny tiny guild. Because I wasn't able to run as many 5 mans as Jess, Wut, and Atania were, they were forced to pug a healer. This was how we ended up meeting folks like Rapunzel and Heidilux, through which we then met a ton of other folks.

Yes, the old school way of pugging was more painful. But it also meant a lot more, you know? Of course there were still asshats and idiots you ran across in the old system. But people actually conversed throughout the run. Adding folks to your friends list was common. These runs were a platform on which a friendship could be built.

I'm not saying that I don't like this new system, because it certainly is very easy and convenient. I just feel like brand new players are missing out on an outlet to make new friends. This is why I felt bad for this shammy, a person brand new to this game with their first 80. Once I learned this, I tried to converse in party chat a bit more with this person, to try to make this experience somewhat less cold than these runs usually are these days.

Anyways, those are just some jumbled thoughts I had around this LFG system. Hope everyone has a great holiday. As for me, please keep your fingers crossed that I can fly out of O'Hare tomorrow morning. I am hoping weather will not delay my trip back to Chapel Hill. If so, I will be in the American Airlines Admiral's Club tomorrow, sitting around herbing all day. :)

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Random funnies

Three random funnies to share today:

1. From Apokalips:

Haha. Our old friend Adamas used to emote carving "Adamas was here" into my trunk. What would your tree tattoo say?

2. I mentioned once before that prior to playing WOW, the last real game I played was Nintendo. Yes, friends Nintendo. I am pretty much brand new to this gaming and MMO thing. Anyways, so this drawing called "Mario's Closet" from GameOvr really really amused me:

Mario! So cute! And look at all his outfits!

3. Finally, this last pic has nothing to do with WOW, but it cracked me up.

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Icecrown update

I'm not exactly sure how many of y'all even care to hear about our adventures in Icecrown, but to satisfy Simplymod and my guildies, here is my latest Icecrown update.

The guild has been pwned lately by a very big and bad and scary boss, the dreaded holiday boss. Its been very difficult to put together full raids. But we were able to finally get some decent time this past raid week and put in a solid effort in Icecrown. There was a number of people switching in alts to fill needed roles, and we had to bring in some friends outside the guild. Some thoughts and pics.

Lord Marrowgar:

I didn't get a pic on Lady Deathwhisper. The one thing I remember thinking during Jess' raid lecture for this fight was: 'Geez, that is a serius bzness lecture. I'm glad I'm not dps'. A lot of times I'm glad all I have to do is heal and not have to worry about switching targets and blah blah blah. This would require *actually* listening and pay attention to Jess' raid lectures. The horror!

Actually in all seriousness, Jess will tell you that I probably speak up too much or give too much input on how things should be done, considering the healer's perspective. I'm always telling tanks where I would like bosses tanked... where dps should stand... or generally just how I think strats should be tweaked. Bossy tree is bossy. I think this might have been Qyburn's first experience with the dreaded K whispers where I requested some boss positioning. I told Qyburn that I only do this to tanks I like. :)

For the Gunship Battle, obligatory rocket bear pic:

On the gunship battle I was nervous about screwing up when I had to jump over to the other ship. I always failed at jumping off the platform on Thaddius. So um, the first time we did this, I flew over before we were supposed to... and before anyone else did. Oops. /sigh

Now on the second attempt, just before we got it down, Jess jumped over to the other ship. So when we got the credit for the win, Jess and Nkm were on the enemy ship. Haha oops. They had to jump overboard and sacrifice themselves to come back to loot. And oh yeah, loot. This was definitely a tanky weekend. Pretty much every single drop was not only plate, but a tanky drop. Damn Blizz! Ur doing it wrong! Healy drops first! :p

Finally, our Saurfang pic:

We took 6 dps and 2 heals for this fight and I stood near the middle where I had a great view of both sides of dps as they dealt with the beast adds. I loved seeing the dps trade aggro with each other, taunting and ccing the adds before getting them down. We had one unfortunate attempt where two of the three dps on the right side died. Poor Shat, an elemental shammy, was the only one left. I had to bite my lip so that I wouldn't crack up over vent, as the sight of a shammy running around all crazy like his ass was on fire was just hilarious to me. Run, shammy, run!

I think the Saurfang fight was my favorite of the Lower Spire. While it required some stressful healing at times, given we went with two healers, it was just a fun fight to see. I thought the part at the end where his dad comes to pick up his body was quite touching and a bit sad. I honestly felt kind of bad for him. Finally, I'm sure our hunter Kalthan never thought this would happen, but I have to publicly give our deeps props for dealing with the adds so beautifully.

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Where K sets things straight again

Today I'd like to clear up some guild confusion that I think has been floating around. Let me do this via an illustration:

I would like to further point out that the arrows are uni-directional arrows, not bi-directional arrows. The sarcasm, the ridicule, the mockery is to flow only one way out from the tree. Got it?

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Wayward tanks

I mentioned on my post on Monday how the hilarious Tamarind at Righteous Orbs has given me a blog topic. He said:

"So Keredria, you know you have a certain ‘reputation’ as a healer, right? In a good way, I mean, for not taking any shit. "Heal like a tank", is something I carry with me into every PUG I attempt. So what I would like from you are your top tips for controlling a wayward tank, and reminding them who *really* wears the platemail in the relationship – as frivolous or as serious as you like".

Hmmm, so I have this reputation eh? Haha. I think I shall mix frivolous AND serious in the same post and you guys can guess which is which. Ok, ok I'll admit that there is probably much more frivolous than serious, but there is some serious here if you pull out your magnifying glass and look really really hard.

Now lets first look at why you may have a wayward tank, and where a tank might get the crazy idea that they are running the show and consider themselves the head or leader of the group. Well yeah, its true that the tank is the first person running into a boss or group of mobs. But does that really mean the tank is leading the group? Or could it be a bit like the miners sending canaries into a cave to test whether there was enough oxygen? Perhaps the true leader is the miner at the back of the pack who was smart enough to send the canary in?!?! :) Let's also look at another example:

Hahaha. (Actually in all seriousness I know I'm not some kid expert, having none myself, but people who actually put their kids on leashes like this... WTF?!?!) Anyways, I digress.

Now I do have to be honest in that I haven't had to heal a pugged random tank for something challenging in a long long time. Dealing with a wayward tank is definitely harder when its a stranger that you're running with. But whether you're dealing with a tank you've never run with, or a tank that you've run a million times with, at the end of the day, speak up. Let's look at a *hypothetical* example:

Let's say, por ejemplo (ooh Spanish!), that you just happen to be a kick ass resto druid who is running heroic Pit of Saron for the very very first time with oh, let's just say as a *hypothetical* example, a protection warrior tank, who just happens to *hypothetically* have a white ponytail. Now in this *hypothetical* story, let's say its been a long long time since this tank and healer had run a challenging 5 man instance. So if this tank were to *hypothetically* pull the next group of mobs when the healer is at about one third mana, how should the healer react?

a. Stay quiet and try to keep up with heals as best you can
b. Scream "WTF, you pull when I'm good and ready, got it?!?! Got it?!?!"
c. Let it be clearly known that you are perturbed with a sarcastic comment to the effect of "Ums hello... can I mana up between pulls?" And if it happens again, let the group wipe.

Well maybe different healers have different answers... and maybe the right answer depends on the situation or even the tank. But in general, I think the answer should be c. Speak up for what you need. Tell them you need to mana back up, or mention that you have adds on you (though I usually try to just run to the tank in these situations). And if after expressing what you need, the tank is still "wayward"? Well then you know what? You've done the best you can, you've told them what you need. If its still not working, cut your losses and move on. Its not any slight on your healing badge of honor.

Now if you have been running a long long time with a specific tank, I would venture that most tanks themselves recognize that it is the healer who is wearing the platemail in the relationship, as Tam puts it. The tank-healer relationship has often been compared to a marriage, because there are so many similarities. So in a similar vein, even if you know and the tank knows that the platemail actually hangs in your closet, you don't always have to verbalize it or shout it from the rooftops. Sometimes, be quite generous and make the tank think that they wear the platemail. Let them enjoy it... let them savor it. But you and I know the truth.

I've previously mentioned on this blog the idea that if a tank is thought of as the head of a raid or instance or group or whatever, then the healer is the neck. The neck can make the head turn any which way it wants.

Rock on healers, rock on.

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Apparently I'm shedding

Random funnies:

I think I need to keep my tree self better moisturized. Apparently I am shedding or something.

Hahaha. Fonzy/Chachi/Brboo/Poo tends to get a lot of crap from us in the guild, and I am no exception. He's a good sport about it though but I remember one raid where he stopped me in raid and opened trade to exchange Black Vitriol. Hmmm, maybe I was being extra vitriolic.

Now I know some people get crazed by the insanity that is trade chat and I know a number of guildies who keep it turned off. But every now and then I find a morsel of amusement:

People amuse me.

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K's 2009 Year in Review

I was tagged by River to do this meme on reviewing this past year. I've also asked Tam to infect me with a syphilis like blogging topic (long story, go read his post). He has asked me to blog about "top tips for controlling a wayward tank, and reminding them who *really* wears the platemail in the relationship". Ah a juicy, juicy topic my friend. Hopefully I'll get this posted later this week.

But for now, here's my year in review:

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I've become quite involved in arenas, on 2s, 3s, and 5s. It's been quite a learning experience. Our team makeups have fluctuated a bit, which is always takes a learning curve. I think we are definitely improving and I am getting pretty darned good I think at timing my cyclones. Yay cyclones.

But I think I have to accept the fact that a lot of these arena folks have been playing for numerous seasons... and that I have to level my expectations. I definitely swear a lot though during arenas, and our losses are usually closed out with me saying "F*********k" in a long, drawn out, sad, pathetic way. Who knew the F word has so many u's?

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

My favorite place bar none that I saw this past year is the area leading up to and the room inside with General Vezax. The stained glass, the streaming light... beautiful. Ulduar in general is very beautiful and artistically well done.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Two words. Gold cap. That is all. If things go as planned, I'm looking at Feburary/March-ish.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Hmmm, I guess I could say tanking, if you call that an achievement? Heh. No, but seriously, I have always been incredibly intimidated by tanking. I forced myself this past year to give it a go and have been pleasantly surprised. Sometimes I'll start to feel my face itch, and I know that its time to tank and give my face a bit of a workout. I then go through the following steps:

1. Wash face
2. Place face on middle of keyboard
3. Roll face to the right, then left
4. Rinse and repeat

Yay, tanking faceroll! I would like to say that tanking requires some skill but I know a number of tanks who read this blog, so the tanking faceroll is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may actually be needing to update my tanking gear and skills more often now, as our guild seems to have found itself with the strange, never before seen phenomenon of having enough healers and not enough tanks. I actually even tanked Onyxia 10 recently, which was definitely a learning experience.

What was your biggest failure?

I would agree with Megs on this one that I never fail, and if I do, it was a tank's fault anyways. And if I'm tanking, uh, I blame... dps? Circle of blame is... circuitous? Though if I had to pick one, I would choose the fact that we never went back to Ulduar to finish off Yogg. I still hold out hope that we can go back, but I don't know if it'll happen.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Dual specs. I really love that I can either play around with two healy specs or pick up a tanking spec. But I'm going to be selfish here and say that I would really, really, really, really be excited if we got triple specs. As a druid who is raiding resto, doing arenas, and now tanking, I would love it. Please Blizz? Can I be selfish and ask for triple specs? Please? I'll pay for it!

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Hmmm, I don't know if I would say that I necessarily regret it, but I've sometimes thought that I should farm less (herbing, fishing) and run instances more for the badges that now drop like candy. (Seriously, how crazy is it that in a span of a week, Badges of Triumph are dropping from instance bosses?) But then again, I get tired of running 5 mans over and over... plus I like mindlessly farming while my focus is occupied elsewhere.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Mmmm, I don't listen to podcasts, but I do have a ton of blogs in my reader. A favorite blog? Um, maybe I'll just take the easy route and go with Jess' blog for brownie points? However, when does a healer ever need brownie points from their tank? I mean seriously, come on! It's always the other way around, no?

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009?

The lesson that was just reinforced for me this year? There are real people behind those toons you see in game. This question and my answer reminds me of a topic that I had wanted to blog about in a separate post. Perhaps I'll flesh it out more, but will start it here. There's been a lot of posts within the blogosphere lately around guild drama. Here's my take on this.

Guild drama does not call into question your ability or authority or credibility or any thing ending with "-ity" of your capabilities as a guild leader or officer. Think about anything involving a group of people... be it your family, work, spouses/significant others, friends/social circle. Have you ever been involved in a group of people where some amount of drama has never surfaced?

So why would our guilds be any different? Guild drama for me just reinforces the fact that there are real people playing these pixelated toons, people with different personalities, backgrounds, mindsets, and points of view. Sure you want to limit the drama, but I think its normal and natural for guild drama to rear its ugly head from time to time. What distinguishes your ability as a guild leader or officer is not whether guild drama arises, its how you deal with it.

This was actually kinda neat to think through these questions about this past year. I won't tag anyone, but would invite any bloggers to do their own year in review.

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