So, I had the thought, while playing the game and chatting with a guild full of cool people and bloggers, to do a quick straw poll.

The question?

“Name an action or adventure movie that you really loved, that you think most folks never heard of”.

So, I got some great responses.

Dammerung said Ong Bak, the Thai Warrior.

Beowulfa said Man from Snowy River.

Nasirah said Last Action Hero.

Squirrelz (Nas’s husband) said Crank.

Skiffens said The Professional.

Linnaea said Hudson Hawk (bless you Linn, I love that movie too).

Waldorph (Linn’s husband) said Big Trouble in Little China.

Doodle called out La Femme Nikita.

We had some honorable mentions in the discussion that followed, including The Long Kiss Goodnight (one of my personal faves, Geena Davis and Samuel Jackson), and Lucky Number Slevin.

For myself, this is my blog, so I get mroe than one vote.

I’d add;

• The Yakuza with Robert Mitchum.
• Blood of Heroes with Rutger Hauer.
• Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis.

But what was best, was the conversation I had with Cassie shortly thereafter.

B^3 - “Dear, what movie would you pick?”

Cassie - “I don’t know.”

B^3 - “There’s got to be one you liked.”

Cassie - “Well, there was one I really liked in High School.”

B^3 - “Really? What was it?”

Cassie - “Oh, I don’t know the name of it.. it had Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell.”

B^3 - (instant reply) “Tequila Sunrise? Great movie, but surprising you’d love it in High School.”

Cassie - “No, maybe it wasn’t Mel Gibson…”

B^3 - (roots around in memory for movie with Kurt Russell and someone that might be like Mel Gibson, and I know it ain’t Soldier, another great movie)…

B^3 - “What about Sylvester Stallone?”

Cassie - “That’s it!”

B^3 - “So you loved Tango and Cash in High School? I agree, I loved that movie too… “

Cassie - “My biology class named our pig after that movie.”

B^3 - “You named your pig, wait, what? … O.o …  after which one, Tango or Cash?”

Cassie - “We named it Fubar.”

B^3 - “….. you’ve gotta be shitting me.”

Cassie - “And after 6 days of the parts being in a ziplock baggie without refridgeration, it really was unrecognisable…”

B^3 - laughs uncontrollably for 5 minutes.

The music SUCKS!

Seriously.

Bear with me a minute, this is a no shitter.

Look, when I was in High School, we had records and tapes. There wasn’t even such a thing as freaking Compact Discs. Okay? So cut me some slack here.

I had no idea what music WAS back then, damnit.

And then MTV came along.

And I learned that music could be good… but it was still… off.

But there were other sources of music. (thank god)

My friends’ older brother was in college, and a massive deadhead. He had a closet full of bootleg tapes of Grateful Dead concerts going back years and years. From the music he listened to, I got a wide open introduction to 70s hippie music.

Then there were the other kids, whose older brothers were into ‘classic rock’, and so they all thought, if the older kids liked it, it must be cool. So I got introduced hardcore into Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc.

I will forever hold Pink Floyd close to my heart. Greatest. Band. Evah! Set the controls for the heart of the sun, mo&*^&*^fu(67!

Anyway, the point is, in high school, all my musical knowledge came from my friends, and what they had learned to like from the example set by their older brothers, sisters, and parents. MTV. Current radio hits. I got into a jazz subculture for a while, rode off to see concerts by Yellowjackets, tons of wierd stuff, hunting for something that would click.

Music was always all around me, no matter where I went or who I met, someone had a new musical interest for me to discover. I took it for granted, because music was everywhere.

In the Marines, it just got… more intense. Thrown together with people from all over the the country, forced to room together, bunk together, party together, you just… you get exposed to every kind of music. Obscure, new, indie, backroom cuts, you name it and you can hear it if music is your thing.

One of my best friends was from Brooklyn, and he introduced me to what at the time was some hot stuff, rap coming from New York, and I got to admit, I enjoyed the vibrancy, the harsh alive take-no-crap anger of some of it… but I passed on getting a rottweiller and wearing wife-beater shirts.

And of course, that’s where I got into my love of obscure stuff from Wierd Al, Dr Demento, Da Yoopers, you know. Even, god help me, filk music.

But I eventually left the Marines. I’m went on the outside.

Now I have a family. I have responsibilities. I have limited funds to go farting around buying CDs.

And I don’t have local friends that shoot me a song to listen to ‘just cause it’s cool’.

The last time someone shot me a song ‘just cause it’s cool’ was Manny, when he emailed me some kickass bagpipe music, some Cthulhu music I’ve shared on the blog, and a CD mix of Mediaeval Babes, which rocked.

But he lives in frakkin Virginia, damnit.

I don’t have friends nearby that pop some fresh stuff into the stereo. I don’t have the money OR the time to browse iTunes for endless hours looking for new music.

What I got, is what I stumble upon on the internet from player-made videos, I got what I find people mention on blogs or personal webspaces (like John Ringos’ website), and I have the CRAP that they pre-package and shove down my throat on the radio when I’m driving to and from work.

It sucks.

I’m warning you, old people don’t lose their love of music, we just don’t get to LIVE in the middle of it like you do in High School, College or the military.

So here’s the deal.

I cut over to Baron Soosdon, check out what he’s got on there, and see his video for I’m So Sick.

This is RIGHT up my alley. That is absolutely what I am into. Guess what? I never heard the name Flyleaf before.

Thanks to iTunes, I have now. hah.

Look guys, I like Flyleaf. I like Evanescense. I like Cruxshadows. I especially love the harder version of I’m so Sick that Flyleaf did with Legion of Doom, that Baron Soosdon did the video of.

Assume I’m ignorant of all the music you take for granted. If you know about this stuff, that NOT ONE SINGLE RADIO STATION IN THE TWIN CITIES WOULD EVER DREAM OF PLAYING, can you please point me to the names of some bands/songs like that, that I can hunt for on iTunes?

Please?

Much obliged.

The Family and Friends Alpha for Wrath of the Lich King is going on as we speak.

I’m not in it.

In fact, if I got all whiny, I could make a case that someone at Blizz doesn’t like me very much, if you go by the dozen-plus emails I got from them when my account was hacked Christmas a year and a half ago and my main had all of her end-game 40 man resto raiding gear wiped out, emails that strung me along for over a month before I got a final form email basically saying “We don’t believe you had any gear, so have some random greens, buy Burning Crusade, and STFU.”

And I do still have all those emails, not because I’m all bitter, but because I don’t use that email much, so it’s never had the archives purged. i fuond them when digging through my ancient email looking for my CuteFTP software activation key to install it on Cassie’s new computer.

It’s been a long time since those days. Do I feel angry towards Blizzard for this? Do I love the game any less? Well, all I can say is, read my blog and you be the judge. I think I am mature enough to differentiate between the way some folks in one small department of a company deal with customers, and the way others go about creating the game I love. I can love the game and the designers and programmers, the art folks and creative people and be a big fanboy, without having any sympathy whatsoever to their customer service department.

Now, while I won’t do anything to hurt the game, I know I for one love seeing glimpses of what’s in store, so long as there are no blatant spoilers about the lore or storyline. We all do, right?

I’m not in the Alpha. I ain’t in any way involved with them in any capacity, official or unofficial. And guess what? That means I didn’t sign or agree to an NDA.

So I have no problems with seeing the information that is being leaked from the Alpha by others, and sharing what I think is neat information that would be of great interest to you guys.

I wrote an article this morning for WoW Insider where I discuss in general terms the new Talents in the Feral Tree in the Alpha, and speculate on what this means for the future of bear tanking.

BUT, depending on if the War Tools site is active or accessible, you may or may not be able to see the tool tips for the abilities I talk about there.

So this post is going to be me linking to the pictures of the new Talents, so you can see exactly what they look like at this point in time. 

I hope you feel the same excitement when you see these Talents and speculate on the fun of using them in battle that I did. I’m sure things will change, maybe stuff will be removed or added before it goes live. It’s the Alpha, stuff will ALWAYS change somewhere.

But ain’t it cool to see it and know we get to keep tanking on?

And hey… while I would love to be contacted by Blizzard and offered the chance to interview someone about the future of Druids in WoW, or get access to a Beta, or any of a host of other things that would let me see something I could share with you in the future, let’s be realistic. I write a blog about Druids, and my audience ain’t Blizzard. It’s other Druids. And you don’t really come to me for inside scoop, you come here, if it’s about Druids, to see my cranky opinions on existing Druid stuff.

Or for drama. Or wierd stories. Sometimes, I get confused as to what the heck I’m doing here, myself.

Anyway, on to the links! (And just for Valthan, I added the text descriptions.)

• Berserk - (1/1) Removes all Stun, Fear, Snare and Movement Impairing Effects and increases your energy regeneration rate by 100% while in Cat form, and increases your total health by 20% while in Bear form. After the effect ends, the health is lost. Effect lasts 20 seconds.
• Improved Mangle - (3/3) Reduces the cooldown of your Mangle (Bear) ability by -20%, and reduces the energy cost of your Mangle (Cat) ability by -6.
• Infected Wounds - (5/5) Your Shred, Maul and Mangle attacks have a 100% chance to cause an Infected Wound in the target. The Infected Wound reduces the movement speed and casting speed of the target by 10%. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts 12 seconds.
• Primal Aggression - (3/3) Increases the critical strike chance of your Maul and Shred abilities by 5%.
• Primal Precision - (2/2) Increases your expertise by 10, and you are refunded -60% of the energy cost of a finishing move if it fails to land.
• Reinforced Hide - (3/3) Reduces all spell damage taken by 10%, and increases your Armor contribution from items by an additional 10%.
• Resto - Master Shapeshifter - (2/2) Grants an effect which lasts while the Druid is within the respected shapeshifted form. Bear form - increases physical damage by 4%. Cat form - increases critical strike chance by 4%. Moonkin form - increases spell damage by 4%. Tree form - increases healing by 4%. 

Seriously… enjoy!