Foton over at AFK Gamer pointed the way to a nifty new online toy: the World of Warcraft item and spell creator, on which you can create nifty-looking items and spells and let folks rate them. There are a ton of options–it’s really quite well done–and it’s a lot of fun to play with:
Technorati Tags: Warcraft, World of Warcraft
I’ve noted many articles and rants about how helpless the current crop of youngsters seems to be. I’ve read about “helicopter parents” who flutter around their kids well past when they’ve left home, constantly rushing to their defense, aid or rescue. I’ve read about parents pestering companies who rejected their children’s applications, and even in one case going to an interview in place of an actual applicant(!)–needless to say the kid didn’t get the job. While it may seem a small example, the best example I’ve seen of this with my own eyes is when questing in Outland, the World of Warcraft expansion.
Technorati Tags: Burning Crusade, Outland, common sense, Warcraft, World of Warcraft
Sorry for the lack of output this week. I’ve been off-and-on feeling cruddy, which makes it all too easy to let myself get sucked into falling asleep or playing with the Warcraft expansion. I’m reading my next review book (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published), and next week hopefully I’ll put together a handful of new shirt designs–certainly we have plenty lined up!
I’ve spent more time in Outland now, so it’s time for some additional thoughts. I have to admit, it’s one heck of an expansion!
Technorati Tags: Burning Crusade, Warcraft, World of Warcraft
I’ve posted a new review, of The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book, 30th Anniversary Edition, edited by Jane Friedman. If you’re new to the world of professional writing and want to tackle it as a career or serious hobby, this is a very useful book to have.
I like to pick up several of the shirts or other items we’ve put up at cafepress now and then, just to make sure they’ve come out well and I don’t need to change anything like font size or color to make sure they look right. I ordered one of the Certifiably Bonzo dark shirts because I wanted to make sure the red writing showed up well enough on it, and well, because I like the shirt! I’m really pleased with how it came out. I’m also very pleased with I’d love to help you, but I’m dead, which is just plain fun.
Technorati Tags: write, Writer’s Digest, writers, writing
I stand corrected (actually, I sit corrected, but why quibble?). The launch has had its inevitable problems, but it went far more smoothly than I anticipated. Sure, Outlands was lagged all to hell on the first day, and Honor Hold is still pretty laggy, but that’s inevitable with so many players all trying to occupy the same space at the same time. The Draenei area has had only slight problems with mob shortage on my server, and that got under control pretty quickly. So, here are a few preliminary post-launch thoughts on the expansion:
Technorati Tags: Burning Crusade, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft
Just a fun little “which tarot card are you” quiz for today. I don’t think I was expecting this result, but I like it:
Hope, expectation, Bright promises.
The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised
The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.
What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.
Technorati Tags: tarot
We found a wonderful butcher’s shop this weekend, so the one good meal we planned to cook is turning into three or four.
I think I can whole-heartedly recommend the “King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking” cookbook at this point, although I’ll wait to officially review it until we make a few more recipes out of it. The whole-wheat tortillas and pitas from it were amazing and surprisingly easy, and the berry pie is to-die-for. And no, I’m not normally that fond of whole-wheat items; KAF is great about trying to find delicious ways to cook with whole grains.
We had to make the tortillas because we made fajitas (including homemade guacamole). The pita were for an eggplant salad recipe from a review cookbook (which I expect to review later this week)–that recipe turned out surprisingly amazing! We got some frozen venison while we were at the butcher’s, but we’re saving that for next weekend. We’re turning some ground beef into a filling for a filo wrap, but the filling’s an impromptu inspiration on my husband’s part (nuts, dried fruit, vegetables, seasonings… wow). We had steak, and a couscous and vegetable recipe that was also from that review cookbook. Mmmmm.
I just had a fajita for lunch made with leftover ingredients. *happy sigh*
Love Hurts Women’s Dark T-Shirt
Technorati Tags: cooking
As everyone already knows, the release date is the 16th, this Tuesday. In theory my copy will arrive from Amazon on the 17th. I figure the whole game will be unstable Tuesday anyway, so why go crazy trying to get in on the first day?
Originally I was thinking that while everyone was busy making their Draenei Shamen and heading to Outland that first day, I’d head out and mine ore for jewelcrafting while waiting for my expansion to arrive. However, I have a new theory: I think that on the 16th, no one at all will be able to play. In fact, I’m starting to wonder if we’ll really be able to play much at all this whole week.
I tend to cut Blizzard a lot of slack. I mean, come on–who could have predicted WoW would end up with 8 MILLION players in this short a time?! There’s no way they could have been prepared, and that means a ton of growing pains. I shrug and work around them. This game costs me less than the price of two movie tickets per month and I get a lot more entertainment out of it than that, so I figure I can take a few hiccups in stride. I have to admit, though, even though they’ve repeatedly pushed back this release date, they don’t seem at all ready. The pre-release patch has caused so many stability problems it’s amazing. I’ve been knocked offline or unable to log on for most of today due to various problems. I know at this late date they can’t realistically push back the release date again, but I can’t imagine they expect to pull this off without some major downtime.
Technorati Tags: Burning Crusade, Warcraft, World of Warcraft
Our entries for the CafePress Anti-Valentine’s Day contest can be found in the Caffeinated Chicanery holiday section. All items in the two AVD design sections are marked down through 2/14/07 (Valentine’s Day). Here are the basic designs on a couple of representative items:
Technorati Tags: cafe press, cafepress.com, holidays, humor, t-shirts, Valentine’s Day