Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that I am going to be gone doing family friednly chores most of the day… I gotta lay a vinyl floor for my mom-in-law… but I’ll be back home, loud as ever, to take part in the WoW Insider podcast.

And yes, I know… he spelled my name wrong. Again. It’s okay, at this point Cassie and i think it’s hilarious.

I believe Zach will be on, and the focus will be on PvP, so you know you’ll get lots of useless commentary from me, the guy what doesn’t PvP.

Maybe if I get home early enough before the podcast, i can get an Arena match in, and an Alterac Valley. Just, so, you know, I have something.

Anyway, I hope you have fun, and happy WoWing!

I got home last night and fired up the Feedreader to see what all of my favorite bloggers had been up to.

It was then, and only then, that I learned of the passing of Sharvan, a close and dear friend to our compatriots of the Aetherial Circle. 

I’m not very good at expressing myself about important things, but I want to at least try.

This world is a frightening place to be. The news you read or see, the world you watch around you, everything makes it pretty obvious that we live in the same world with actual evil, thoughtless greed, casual cruelty and thoughtless selfishness.

In a world that seems so filled with darkness, it is our friends, the ones we love, the soulmates and fellow travelers that we find, cherish, and hold close to our hearts that help see us through.

Whether my friends and family are close to me, or whether they live across the country or the world.

Whether I talk to them all the time to share the small, meaningless events of the day, or whether I haven’t spoken to them in months or even years.

Whether or not I have grown to know them in person, or over the phone, internet, and snail mail correspondence.

Each one of the people I have cherished lives in my heart, always there, a comforting presence that chases away my fears of the darkness, of the horrors that live in the world. No matter how far away you are, just knowing you are out there keeps a blanket of warmth over my heart.

My friends and family are the warmth that shelters me from becoming overly bitter and cynical about the cold, heartless world.

I can withstand knowing about the evil that I see on the news every day, I can brave my doubts and fears about the world my son will come to maturity in over the years ahead, knowing as I do that you are there, making the world a happier place just by being yourselves. 

You are living reminders that the world is not given over to the darkness.

You are my proof of light.

When someone passes on that I cherished, it leaves a hole in my heart where once there was brightness, warmth and love.

The darkness seems that much closer, and it diminishes me.

I said I can’t really express how I feel about these things well, and it’s true.

All I’m trying to say is, for all of my friends out there who have lost one of their very dearest friends this week, I feel your loss in my own way, and I will hope and pray that your memories of Sharvan will remain with you, to help remind you of the light, the warmth and the joy she brought to your lives.

In your hearts, she will continue to live on, with a happy, cheerful Moo!

————————————–

Ratshag has posted that the event he and BRK were helping to organize, the Running of the Bulls on the Cenarion Circle server Horde-side, will continue as planned, and they are dedicating it to Sharvan, who would have loved the silliness of the whole thing.

The bare facts are, you show up Saturday, May 3rd, before 6:00 PM central time US (before 4;00 PM server time), with a level 1 Tauren, bare butt nekkid and without having done any quests at all. Pristine cows, as it were. The race will start there, and wind it’s way across half of Azeroth. Maps can be found on Ratshag’s site.

I plan on being there, and I’ve already got Bigbearbutt the big horned bull ready to romp. 

I heartily encourage everyone that can, to try and take a little time out of their day on May 3rd for some pure, light-hearted silliness.

I hope to see you there. 

For the Moo!

P.S. If you would like to help out Sharvan’s family at this time, BRK has posted a link on the siedebar of his blog to be able to donate to her family through Paypal.

You know, I do have a confession to make; I like drama.

Not causing it, though. I like watching it!

Ah, but not just any drama. Oh no! I, sir or madam, am a connoisseur.

The  particular flavor of drama I enjoy is the kind that takes the form of an illiterate asshat that goes over the top in being a complete tool to someone… and the entire incident becomes public.

With screenshots.

I love that. I really do. I love seeing someone be an asshat and get busted and receive the fame they truly deserve. It warms my heart.

For those of you saddened at my immaturity, my petty, vindictive nature…

I do not now, nor have I ever claimed to be a nice person. Please take note.

This last week has been oh, so very good to me.

First, we had this incredible idiot Mage that had actually rolled need on the Commendation of Kael’thas against a Warrior Tank that needed the item.. and the Mage won. And then, no wait, seriously, it gets better, and THEN the Mage rolls on up into the official WoW Forums of his server to post screenshots of his winning the roll, to accuse the TANK of being in the wrong for being upset!

Ah, the resulting smackdown warms the heart. The idiot realized too late the tragic error of his actions, and deleted his post, but fast-acting forum readers had already captured it… they knew they had pure gold on their hands. They quickly reintroduced his entire post in the first reply comment, to last forever and ever, Amen.

Random people in the forums start the whipping, but when his own guild comes into the discussion to announce they have /gkicked the mage, ahh…..

I am a horrible person. /glee!

 But wait! There’s more!

On the latest Guildwatch on WoW Insider, I found an entirely new epic drama situation, where a guild officer got /gkicked because he rolled on a boot drop from Chess against the alt of a co-GM… and won the roll. And immediately thereafter, he got /gkicked by the co-GM.

Now, this alone would be funny… obviously the guy is better off out of that guild with that kind of officer at the helm. 

But it gets better… the guy that got /gkicked, Shakkra, got whispered a lot from the idiot that did the kicking, Krazyhunter… and he took screenshots. Screenshots that appear at the very top of the Guildwatch article.

Grats, Krazyhunter. Welcome to your own personal 15 minutes of fame. Lol.

Lord knows gearing alts in Karazhan is srs bsns.

The whole thing would still be minor league, if it weren’t for the flamewar that takes place in the Guildwatch comments, starting almost immediately, as Shakkar himself answers questions as to what happened.. in a nice, friendly mature manner… and other illiterate asshats from the guild that are friends with Krazyhunter try to flame him.

There is just something so refreshing in reading a well-written, expressive writer being flamed by an ignorant, illiterate asshat. Because you KNOW what all the other readers are thinking… “I don’t care who’s right… that guy is stupid. QQ more, you amuse me.”

Hey, if you’ve got more examples of this kind of drama, let me know. Please!

I’m such a sad, sad person. But I can’t help it! I need moar!

Just, please… not in my guild.

I’m curious about your thoughts on some of the things I’ve done as special feature kinda stuff, so I put a poll on the left sidebar.

I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know what non-post things I’ve done, if any, you’d like as a regular Friday feature!

Thanks for your time, and have a great day, folks.

I want to give a thanks and shout out to Pugnacious Priest.

I did a little blog hopping from blog link to blog link, and along the way came across Pugnacious Priest for the first time.

Now, I gots me a 64 Shadow Priest, so I like Priest blogs in the first place, but I saw this post about How to make a quick and dirty blog or guild website banner image.

As many of you are aware, when I left Legatum Ignavis and raiding, I decided to remain in and open up the guild that me and my close friends have held for years, Sidhe Devils. It had been where our alts kept their home, it had some guild bank space to stash low level mats and give us a place to park our guys without clogging up ’serious’ guilds, you know. An alt guild.

Well, in opening it up to new members, we knew we needed a nice website, so Cassieann set up a guildportal site. And we would need some voice chat options for 5 mans, so we got a small Ventrilo server. (Thanks for the link to the vent server service, Matticus, I used your website link to go get the server. Their front end and quality seems to rock.)

This morning, I got an email saying that some, currently unknown, benefactor had paid to upgrade the guildportal website to a full feature site. Now, it wasn’t Cassie or I, so we have no idea who did it… but we certainly thank you.

In the process, I put two and two together… new paid-for guild website with forums… a post about how to make a quick and dirty banner image… hmmmm.

So I went and made one, and it took 5 minutes, no Photoshop like I used for my blog back in teh day, and it turned out very nice, IMO.

If you are in the position of wanting to make a banner image with text and borders for your blog or guild website, I heartily urge you to go and read Pugnacious Priests’ post and have fun with it… if I can do it, so can you!