Tom Lehrer fans will forgive me for using that line as the post title after you’ve seen the full post, I think.

So! Hiya folks, end of a big week, at least around the B^3 house.

We have had quite a few exeptionally nice folks join over the week, and I have to say that, as nervous as I was about the whole thing, so far it’s been great.

As I’ve never been a Guild Leader before, and Cassie has never had an active role as an Officer in a guild, the single biggest worry we faced was; what do you do when someone you know and like from other activities asks to join the guild, and then turns out to not fit in? How do you possibly ever tell someone that is a friend, or at least a friendly acquiantance before gaming with them, that you’d really prefer it if they weren’t in your guild anymore, please?

Thankfully, that hasn’t happened. Several people who do write blogs have come over to make alts, just to spend a little bit of time with us and chat and play around, and everyone is actually as great to chat with as you could hope. It’s quite refreshing.

When we do get an asshat, and the law of averages makes it certain that sooner or later we will, I have absolutely no idea what the hell we’ll do. But as the guy said after jumping off the roof of the Empire State Building, as he passed the hundredth floor on his way down; “So far, so good.”

We do have a few more people than the level 10~ alts of bloggers, though. We’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to have a few people join with their mains, either from our server or as actual server transfers, and again, awesome folks, every one.

As time goes on, I continue to hope we won’t have anyone disappointed they came over. But it’s something I have little power over. All I can do is hope everything turns out well for everyone and be myself.

I will say that we now have enough folks to stealth instances and be able to tank, DPS and heal when we hit the boss. It’s something I’ve never had the right mix of classes amongst my freinds to do before, so I’m interested in seeing how it turns out. Okay, more than interested, I’m pretty excited.

I am at heart not a social butterfly of a player. In game, I get focused on completing a set of objectives, of arranging priorities, setting tasks, visualizing the objectives and then getting it done. As such, I flip back and forth between characters fast to mail stuff around to the crafters who need it, I hit flights and tab out to read up on the next objective, I focus-in on killing the series of mobs I’m farming for quest items or rep or whatever, etc etc etc. I just go silent sometimes because I’m not reading or typing in guild chat, I’m getting things done.

This crew has brought me more into interacting with the actual guild chat, because they are such a fun and lively bunch. Distracting is also a good word. But in a nice way. 

I could link to all the people that have joined that have blogs, and give them shout outs, but I’m not too sure yet how that would work out. Some folks might not want to live in a goldfish bowl during their actual game time. I don’t want this to be “the guild that all those bloggers hang out in”, that fans want to join with thier alts to be near their favorite writers, because then the folks already here might get nervous.

TJ has said in the past (and no TJ isn’t in the guild, so all her amours, don’t bother coming over) that she wishes BRK would stop inviting all the fans that whisper wanting to be in their guild full of famous bloggers, because she feels that they are all just sitting around waiting for the bloggers to do neat tricks.

Now, I don’t know what tricks they turn over in TJ and BRK and Doomilias and Squekie Priesties’ guild. I think it’s best I don’t ask.

But if she feels strongly enough about it to wish BRK would stop, then it becomes something for me to worry about too.

I’m good at the pre-emptive worrying. I just want everyone to have fun and feel comfortable and at home in the guild, damn it! Now have fun! That’s an order!

I do get amused by how frequently I see the phrase “I am specced such and such, but I’ll go heals if the guild needs it”.

Umm… I won’t, why the heck should you? When I read that kind of thing, maybe I’m wrong, but what I’m hearing is, “I really like playing my character the way I already am, that’s why I’m specced this way. But I know most guilds force their players into cookie cutter raid specs because they don’t care how the players feel, they just want to raid. And I want to fit in and show I’m a team player and willing to help, so I’ll offer to go haelz.”

No. No, you will play your character how you want to play your character. If we need a healer or another class to do a run, either we don’t do the run or I will specifically look for someone that enjoys playing that kind of character, not expect other people to lessen their own fun.

In other news this week, I had an awesome offer from one of the Officers of the Kael’thas guild Redrum, saying that if Cassie or I ever wanted to go with them on the occasional Karazhan run, we would be welcome to come along. As long as we pulled our own weight, of course.

I think I can guarantee that Cassie and I will be talking with Popess a lot more, because we do talk about how we miss doing SOMEthing during the week. I do think Deadmines and Shadowfang keep runs for low level alt guildies will be fun, but come on… you know we love a challenge.

So if you’re in Kael’thas and you see a Redrum player go by, give them a /wave. That’s some damn nice folks over there to offer to let us go with.

And now, I will finish this post by doing my part to intriduce you to a genius taht may be so far before your time you have never had the fortune to ever hear of him before. A great man, a brilliant mind, a social and political satirist in song and verse, a soul of real fun.

Tom Lehrer is, in my opinion, one of the greatest minds of all time. Not the smartest, no, the greatest. Sadly, he had already retired from performing in, I believe, 1967, although I swear I saw an interview in print from 1972. I know that he had continued teaching past retiring from live performances.

But his music lives on, as CDs of his perfomrances can still be found. Dr. Demento, a radio show that I used to listen to in the service and have been unable to find ever since leaving, used to showcase his music frequently.

Tom Lehrer had done a song, called “Send the Marines!”, that I really wanted to expose you all to. He is most famous for doing “The Elements”, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”, and “The Masochism Tango”, but I really wanted you to listen to “Send the Marines!”, and to see what a beautiful thing history can be. To see, clearly, that what people mocked 50 years ago is still being done today with all due seriousness like we’ve never done it before, is a priceless lesson on politics that I think everyone can learn from.

I went looking for the song on MP3 to share with you…

Imagine my surprised delight, when instead I found an actual, high quality, live performance by Tom Lehrer on Youtube, along with lots and lots of his other performances, from a show I thought lost to history forever.

God bless technology. I really hope you enjoy this, and his other music, as much as I do.