… Rants about bad drivers, gleeful gushing about movie trailers, asking for input on your favorite music when I get bored of my playlist, all that stuff is equally valid here. The story stuff I write, in particular, is near in dear to my heart…

Speaking of movie trailers… have you seen the one for the new Tron movie? Due out end of the year.

1. Bracelets at the Citadel

I didn’t know about the Citadel thing. When I needed to farm stuff, I did it for a days worth (ie. 4 bracelets), and because just farming seemed boring I choose accordingly. I would go to Icecrown, grab various kill dailies like “Blood of the Chosen” along with all the Tournament dailies, and do them. Then I’d kill a few extra. Then I’d go north of the Citadel and kill some of the mobs there, because they cluster nicely for AoE’ing, and finish off. It occurred to me to do Citadel while there, but I figured what was the point? I mean, they _probably_ don’t you charms, and if they do I’m killing a handful of things. Little did I realize. Now reading all this I realize how exactly there could be _so_ many Bracelets on the AH the very same day the holiday started.

I do think “pity I never tried that, it would have gone faster”, but I’m not unhappy at all. I initially thought it unlikely that doing stuff on a vehicle horsey would yield the things, and I made sure to farm in such a way as to not get burnt out.

2. Bracelet and Charm hot fixes

They hot fixed far more than just Citadel. Heck, I didn’t notice the Citadel fix. I did notice that they smoothed out who gets charms, though. No longer is just the person who gets the kill shot. Now it’s everyone in the combat. I know this because after the fix, I started getting Charms in instances. _Any_ amount of Charms. Since I healed, I had gotten the impression that they simply did not drop in instances for some reason. The my friend who farmed them _entirely_ in instances told me what’s going on.

I’m happy with the hot fix. Very happy. Less meaningless farming for me, and I don’t feel like as a healer I’m getting gipped, and as an occasional DPS’r that I’d have to fight for the kill shot. (I do feel a tad sorry for my friend now who only gets 1/3rd of what he was getting before for them… but only a tad.)

3. BBB Posting Bear Tanking information

My main is a druid who was Feral until 70, eventually switched to Resto, and after the +damage/+healing => Spell Power change went Balance/Resto. I’m have a handful of useful Feral gear, a lot of Emblems of Triumph, and a guild that is short on tanks, and I have some questions. Reading your blogs — bear tank focused or not — has always been wonderful. I was wondering, would you mind a few questions I have I’ve found ambivalent answers to?

How important is it to be hit/expertise capped as a bear tank? Mainly I mean in 10- or 25-man content, but I’d love your opinion on instances as well.

What do you gem for? If I’m putting gear together and trying be be good enough to be a tank in a 10-man ICC raid… well… am I “wasting” potential in trying to make a socket bonus if it’s a yellow socket? Should I gem for hit and expertise if I’m under the caps? Or should I only be going for AGL, AGL+STA and STA gems? How do you decide what gems you use in your gear?

Wow. Freaking wow.

@losingInterest
I don’t have a bear tank, so I’m enjoying the general WoW posts and reading the comments. I can understand wanting more of BBB’s obvious expertise, but I don’t think this is a “Bear Tank Information Website” only. It’s John’s personal blog and he happens to be a bear tank. Just sit back and enjoy. I’m assuming you read regularly, so should be aware of his recent guild drama and personal frustration with the game almost turning into another job. Be patient and let the guy be a guy for a while. No one can or should post about one thing and one thing only all the time for years on end unless they are being well paid for it. As John is getting nothing whatsoever out of this other than personal satisfaction and fun – that screams at me “Hey, let the guy post about whatever the hell suits him at that moment!”

If he gets pressured into writing what he is not wanting to wrote about – the blog becomes a job. I for one don’t want it to become a job. I want him to post about sandwiches, ring around the collar, and ingrown butthairs for as long as possible. I think he writes very well and I enjoy reading the posts. I’ll read anything he writes about because I find humor in it and I think he gets enjoyment out of it. I like having my co-workers look at me oddly as I laugh out loud in this quiet room after reading something he put together. I save the BBB Blog for last as I’m catching up on the morning RSS feeds because I want time to savor it and laugh.

I only rant because I want everyone, and especially John, to know that some of us just enjoy your writing and hope you keep it up. We agree that you’re a good player and know the game well, but it seems to me that you are also a cool guy and would be a blast to hang around with. Thanks for making my day better and sharing your life with us.

Note the ‘everything’ part.

I write about what I want to write about. You don’t like what I’m writing about, then don’t read it, and don’t come back. Buh bye. If I offend a nice person, then I really care. But if someone gets pissy because I’m not writing what you WANT me to write… well then.

Your comment, while seeming to be politely phrased, is passive-aggressive in the sense that it is meant to show me that you have been putting up with this other stuff I’m doing, but you are patiently waiting for me to return to writing what YOU want, and you are losing patience fast. The implied threat is, if I don’t get off the stick and resume posting bear tanking material, you will leave.

Door is ===> thataway. Don’t let it hit you in the ass on the way out.

The mistake here is, first, that approach may work on people that are desperate for attention, but I’m not. I’m writing for fun, not pagehits. I would far prefer having a small audience of really nice people, even if it’s only my wife that visits the blog, than to have a huge audience that has a large component of demanding asshats that think I’m your personal puppet. I have proven this position time and again, first by quitting writing for WoW Insider/WoW.com, and then again when I stopped writing Bear posts for several months just to shed some of the more pissy asshats. I do not seek an ever increasing audience. I am not under the impression I’m some awesome writer. I’m having fun, in my own way, and enjoying chatting with friends here in the community that for some reason enjoy the whole package and stick around with me to read the occasional post. I love the readers that choose to visit, and comment… but most of you are mature enough to know you don’t own me.

The second mistake is your implied belief that, by writing these other posts, I’ve gotten away from what I’m supposed to be doing.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

This blog truly is a place for me to write exactly what I like, and what I feel like writing about, at any given time.

Rants about bad drivers, gleeful gushing about movie trailers, asking for input on your favorite music when I get bored of my playlist, all that stuff is equally valid here. The story stuff I write, in particular, is near in dear to my heart.

This is not a dedicated Bear tanking blog, with all other discussion verboten. I’ve had many people ask to post Bear tanking posts here as guest posters, thinking this is a World of Matticus type thing, a burgeoning business empire discussing all things Bear and working at nailing down the “Bear tanking” niche.

This blog is not all things Bear tanking and only Bear tanking, it’s all things Big Bear Butt and family. It’s me and Cassie’s place to write and express ourselves. That’s why you won’t find guest posters here… it’s not everything and anything Bear tanking, it’s our place to be ourselves.

Is that clear enough? You have obviously fallen into the trap of thinking that, like so many other pseudo celebrities, I’m someone that is ravenous for attention, desperately needs your approval, and will fetch and carry to keep you happy.

Wrong answer, turkey breath.

i FELL off my couch reading this!
thx a lot BBB