Today, the husband of Nas of Alts Ahoy, Squirrelz, joined Sidhe Devils.

And every time I see the name Squirrelz, it torments me.

It drives me crazy.

I hear voices.

High pitched little voices.

And if I have to hear the voices in my head, singing that damn song, then I’m going to spread the crazy.

Only in Dr Demento do you get to hear classics like that.

In other news, Cassie and I spent some time last night visiting friends that live up north, and chatting. They have kids too, some of them in the 12-14 year old giggly girl range, and the laptop was brought out while the kids browsed Youtube for stuff that is apparently ‘famous’ among the school crowd.

One of the Youtube videos sparked massive giggles, and repeated playing, and I thought I would share it with you. Because just listening to it cracked the rest of us up too. I present “The Mysterious Ticking Noise”

Stress over the pressures from guildies to raid lots is nothing new. I have been in this situation once before, when BC originally came out, and I quit that guild because of the pressures I was feeling to always raid. I’m not planning on doing that now, for one thing the people in this guild are a lot like a second family to me, and there are better ways to handle things than quitting, taking my ball and going home.

But the fact remains, this is a game, and stress from a game is stupid.

In this case, the main reason I feel obligated is because I accepted the responsibility of being an officer in the guild.

It’s absolutely right for anyone in a guild that has real life commitments to not sign up for, or go to, last minute raids or even every single raid.

But, and there has to be a butt, I have that feeling that I should be there, every time, because I am not just another member, I am one of the officers, and I feel that if I do not show strong support for our attempts to progress, then I’m letting the guild down.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t one of the best geared tanks in the guild right now. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this stressed, either, since our healers and other tanks are in the same boat. The very best geared and best players, people like Whirlish, Gerolan, Kellas, Shadewynn, and Rynadur… these are people that, if there is a raid scheduled, are counted on to be available for us to have a strong chance.

How many times am I on, and it’s 7 PM for a scheduled raid, and we’re short one or two people, and we have 4 or 5 guildies that are moderately to maybe acceptibly geared available, and the following is heard on Teamspeak; “Well, Kellas isn’t on yet, but we really need her there. We’ll give her another 15 minutes, and if she can’t make it, we’ll pick someone else.” “Did Kellas sign up?” “No, but she’s usually on by now.”

The things I’ve personally been trying to do so far, are to take responsibility for putting up regularly recurring guild raids on the website calender, and then use a macro to advertise them constanatly whenever I am on, to make sure people are aware of them, are encouraged to sign up in advance, and get the word out that we are doing progression events. I do this in the hopes that the big raids will be scheduled and well attended, and leave the rest of the time for people to schedule Karazhan runs or do 5 mans or have fun.

It just hasn’t been working well so far because we have folks not show up for a run.

I don’t know what I am going to do, so far. I know that if I am online, and the guild is piecing together a 25 man run, that if they are short or need a tank, it’s highly unlikely I am going to get all pissy and say “Well if it’s not on the calender, I’m not going, nyah nyah.” These people aren’t the manager from Office Space, no matter how much it feels that way sometimes. They probably just figure if I am tired I won’t go.

I guess the first thing I am going to have to do, is be more assertive when it comes to saying “I’m sorry guys, but I am too damn tired for an all night run tonight. I want to do dailies, sit back and chill with my shadow priest while shooting the shit and listening to Irish music. I’ll see ya on Saturday though.”

 But please, by all means, keep the advice coming, every one of you helps me to get my head straight about it.

As an aside… if anyone reading this has a software program that lets them take an mp3 and strip the vocals off to make a backing track, please let me know ASAP. I might have a… new song in the works, but I can’t find a backing track anywhere. kthxbye!

While I’m looking at all this stuff, I was wondering.

How many of you, whether a druid or otherwise, are really looking forward to the new 5 man and 25 man instance/raids on the Magisters’ Terrace for new gear, and how many of you are looking solely at new Badge of Justice rewards?

I know that I had blown off really looking at the new Badge rewards too closely, simply because the cheapest thing I thought I saw that was a big upgrade was a minimum of 100 Badges.

But really, after looking at the great roundup that Allison did last week covering every new Badge reward that druids of all specs can look forward to, it made me wonder.

I have assumed the big news was (at my level) we had a new 5 man instance to delve into, and that raiders got a new 25 to tear up.

Are you most excited by the instances? The new content? Or are you most excited to have new purchaseable gear upgrades to save up for?

Me, I’ve been looking forward to having some new daily quests, a new reputation grind for what sound like sweet rewards, and a new 5 man instance to tackle.

The Badge rewards, frankly, are expensive enough that I can’t find myself getting too worked up over them.

LOL. At the same time, I’m sitting on a little over 80 Badges, Badges I was planning on using to buy a Waistguard of the Great Beast, the last tanking upgrade from the old rewards I was saving for, because I haven’t done the Rawr analysis to see if the belt is a better upgrade for me over the new chest or leggings… but I don’t want to use those Badges just yet until I know for sure.

So, instead of getting all worked up about something that’ll take a long time to get enough Badges for… I’m all stoked about getting out there and hitting the dailies, and doing the new instance for the first time.

How about you? Would you rather that Blizzard continue the path of Badge rewards, or would you rather have more instances to run in the hopes of getting that one to three drops that you can use, whether from regular or heroic modes? And once you do get your drops… do you go back to those isntances for any reason other than to farm Badges?

Cassie and I ran Karazhan together last night with an awesome set of guildies…. but because the guild had a Karazhan group the night before, and put together a ZA group the same night as our run, we took people that were eager to go, rather than try and pick and choose for a mix of classes.

Our only real swap out, was a friend of one guildie, a Fury warrior not in our guild, was going to go along, but we asked her to step out so we could have one of our guildies bring her priest on the run rather than her mage.

Our breakdown for the run was:

• One feral druid
• Three mages
• Two paladins
• One priest
• One hunter
• One rogue
• One healing shaman

Now, heres the fun part… both paladins were specced healing, along with the shaman. However, we got Gerolan the paladin and Teysa the shaman to bring their tanking and enhancement sets with them.

Why, B^3, where’s your off tank? Well, we didn’t really use a dedicated tank. instead, Gerolan stayed healing specced and threw on his tanking set when we need an off tank for Moroes.

We cleared through and downed Curator last night, and it was much more fun than normal because we had to change things up so much.

On Attumen, I handled tank and off tank while everyone else did healing, and we used the priest shackle and the hunter ice trap for crowd control. At one point, early on against the trash, a two horsie and 1 stable hand pull, I looked up and did a quick horsie count… 1… 2… 3… 4… wtf?

Someone got feared into the 4 pull. So we had 7 on us, and I started tab targeting ansd swiping and jinking around, Shadewynn kept one shackled and was overhealing, DPS went nuts in a free for all, and Gandoulf kept his kited cause it broke trap early.

No one died. It was rather exhilirating. It’s one thing to say you lived… it’s another to say, “We pulled an extra 4 on that fight, and no one died.”

That’s the kind of thing that brings home how much fun it is to play with friends that are on top of their game.

Anyway, on Attumen, I simply tanked both Midnight and Attumen. I used my two trinkets in order, kept them ocpied, and we got the job done. First time I ever took on both, and in my opinion, it went faster than we’re used to.

On heading to Moroes, obviously we had some worries. Gerolan was going to have to be an off tank, and he got his tanking gear, but he didn’t respec. We figured we’d give it a try.

We wiped twice trying to figure out how to take the adds down in the right sequence, but what we ended up with, was I pulled the enemy, and when Shadewynn shackled one I pulled the rest further away so consecrate wouldn’t break it. I don’t know what I just said, it’s just what Gerolan told me. I don’t understand pally tanking, so please don’t flame me, I got enough to do trying to master hunting, druids and now priests, ok?

Anyway, we had an X target and Moroes. I kept the X and Moroes, while there was a shackle and a kite/ice trap, and everyone burned down the loose one first.

After the loose one was down, they killed the ice trap, and then my X. Then it was all out on Moroes, and he went down smooth and easy. Finish up on shackle, and we looked around and went “Whee”.

Moving on, we were running late if we wanted to down Curator on a work night, so we skipped Maiden to go straight to Opera.

We weren’t sure what event we might get, and if it was Romulus and Juliet we would need two real tanks. So gerolan hearthed and respecced full prot.

After he got back, the whole nature of the game changed. His threat generation so outstripped mine in an AOE, that I started spending more and more time as a Cat. By the time we actually got to Opera, and got the Big Bad Wolf, I was running cat in kitty gear full time. Gerolan full prot is just that badass.

I’d run down the Opera fight, but I don’t have to. I recorded it in movie form, and if I can find a damn song that is two minutes long, I’ll post it up today or tomorrow. It was fast and fun.

After that, Gerolan just tanked as I did kitty DPS, and we cleared up to Curator. one of the mages had to leave (bye bye, Unprodigy!), but that let us bring another of my favorite players in, Kellas, the priest class lead for Legatum.

I did the tanking on the Syphoners, of course, since apparently mana drain and pally tanks don’t mix well. But on Curator, again I was mostly Kitty and made sure I stayed #2 on threat (to take the hurtful bolts or hateful bolts, or whatever it’s called), while Gerolan spanked Curator.

Seriously. It was a lot of fun. At the end, someone noticed that Teysa was way high up on damage charts. Turns out the little bastard was doing DPS in enhancement gear most of the time because our healers were so incredible.

Just kidding Teysa. You know we love you.

Anyway, thats my breakdown of last night.

Anyone got any “We did Karazhan with a wierd mix of peeps” story they’d like to share, or one on their blog they’d like to link to? I always find them great fun to read.

Have a great weekend!

Consider it mentioned lately.

Yeah, I loved her PVP guide, it made me laugh long time, honey.

But I started my morning reading, business as usual, only to find that the weasel has returned! And is tackling a guide to selecting a guild!

On the very first page, one word made me spew my coffee… because I see it all the time, and I form an entire encyclopedia of assumptions the second I see it…

“Wut”.

Omigod, yes. Lolwut, or wut, the defining mating calls of the utter moron when faced with questions too complex to process… questions like “Are you keyed for Karazhan”, “Can you chain trap?”, and my all time favorite, “Why do you want to raid with us?”

I prefer seeing them use lolwut, personally, since it is their way of trying to imply that not only are you asking a stupid question, but omigod what a noob you are for asking them the question.

Anyway, go read her latest funny. Will you learn anything? Maybe not… but this is what I want in my morning reading… to be entertained. Highly entertained.

Damn, I hope that she keeps the series alive.

 I really shouldn’t do it.

First and foremost, I shouldn’t do it because I can’t sing. At all. I am horrible, and even my 5 year old son has been quoted, I swear to God, saying “Daddy, please don’t sing.”

So I know, I KNOW, that anyone who listens to this is going to laugh AT me long and hard. The mystique of the Big Bear Butt will take a massive fall. Tomorrow, instead of visitors, I’ll be greeted with the sound of crickets.

But of the many things I am, one of them is a damn geek, with a love of technology and of practical jokes.

So screw it.

Jon, I worked long and hard to make this song, and I did it just for you. I hope you like it.

And no, Shelby didn’t put me up to it. :)

Lyrics;

Wreath of Fire, by Big Bear Butt (with my deepest apologies to one of my heroes, Johnny Cash)

Raids are important things
Our Guild runs night and day
Fighting inside of Kara
We blew up in a wreath Of Fire

CHORUS:
We blew up in A burning wreath Of Fire
I moved, moved, moved,
And The Flames burnt higher

And we wiped, wiped, wiped
on the wreath of fire
The wreath Of Fire

We blew up in A burning wreath Of Fire
I moved, moved, moved,
And The Flames burnt higher

And we wiped, wiped, wiped
on the wreath of fire
The wreath Of Fire

The Taste Of loot Is Sweet
When shade pops like a peach
shade cast Flame Wreath, everybody cried;
“Don’t move now or the raid will wipe”.

CHORUS
We blew up in A Burning wreath Of Fire
I moved, moved, moved,
And The Flames burnt higher

And we wiped, wiped, wiped
on the wreath of fire
The wreath Of Fire

We blew up in A burning wreath Of Fire
I moved, moved, moved,
And The Flames burnt higher

And we wiped, wiped, wiped
on the wreath of fire
The wreath Of Fire

And we wiped, wiped, wiped

The wreath Of Fire

The wreath Of Fire

In this case, I would like to direct you to check out Spinnerdisc…

It’s got nothing to do with WoW… but.

Ninjas!

Watch all three Tiny Plaid Ninja short films. I order you. Well, suggest strongly, anyway.

His other stuff is awesome too… but I have a Tiny Plaid Ninja shirt. I give crazy people love, too. And I love this guy.

I loved it so much, I put it over on my ‘about you’ section! Check it! Neat!

Why did I get a new image? Well, there has been some buzz about this Entrecard thing for bloggers. And since TJ and Resto4Life and ParryDodgeSpin and Matticus and Siha were all getting in on it, and talking about it on AOL Buddy Chat, I kinda got caught up in the enthusiasm.

And the whole thing revolves around having a 125 x 125 pixel image of you, that you use to advertise your site on other peoples’ blogs.

Check after the break for more on this whole whatsis.

Now, I ain’t gonna talk about how to, or any of that stuff. TJ already did a great job of that, at least it was good enough that I was able to stumble my way around.

What I want to tell you is why I’m having fun with it. And the pain of getting started.

See, there are a whole crap load of blogs out there. I honestly had no idea how many. And I ain’t just talking WoW blogs, either. I mean that it seems like every single person on the planet has started a blog, and I had no idea.

Now, everyone can understand the point of advertising. You give someone something, and they put up a link to you to try and get their visitors to come visit YOU.

That’s great, so long as you get what you want advertised on your site.

Well, honestly, I’ve covered the whole ‘I ain’t in this to make money’ crap before. I am not about to spend good money advertising somewhere else.

I figure, if someone is reading a nice blog, and that blogger likes me enough to put my link on their site, then maybe they’re readers will come check me out too.

And that is who I want visiting. People looking to read about WoW.

Now, the draw to Entrecard is supposed to be, that instead of a static presence on a blogroll, you can make a pretty little picture, 125×125, highlighting your blog. And you can ask someone else in the Entrecard system, “Hey, will you put this picture/link up on your site? Please?”

And the other person can, at their leisure, check it out, check you out, and decide if they feel like it. Do they like your site? Do you fit with the kind of stuff they want on their blog? If so, they can say yes. If not, they can tell you to piss off.

If they accept your little ad, then it gets stuck in a queue and when it goes up, it is up for 24 hours, then gone. So fresh stuff can always be going up, and new folks get a nice visible presence.

And other people of course can do the same to you. You get a nice java widget to stick on your sidebar that the pics go in automatically. It’s all simple and easy to use.

I think it sounds great… as long as there are other bloggers, WOW bloggers, that are using it.

Because the first hurdle to the whole thing is, the only people that can advertise on your site are people in the system. And right now, as I write this, I can only find 7 WoW bloggers in the system.

Now, that’s only 7 folks… that ain’t much.

But when I wandered into Entrecard, I didn’t know how to find WoW bloggers… I only saw the general population… and my initial reaction was, “wtf?!?”

Because if you check it out, well… remember those 5 billion freaks I mentioned, each of whom have blogs? yeah, they are all on there, advertising.

And I damn near freaked at the thought of having my tender little blog gang-raped by those… brrrr. Just scary.

But again, the key thing I had to reassure myself with was, “I have the power to allow, or deny. I am the Keymaster! Zuul!!!!”

Oh, sorry. Low on caffeine. Brb.

Okay, back. So, I created my account with a crappy little pic I threw together, and stumbled thorugh figuring out that if I go to the ‘campaign -> Gamer’ section, I can see all the (few, very few) gaming related blogs… 7 of whom are… well, I think you get the point.

And I looked at those other blogs pictures, and realized that, as far as pictures went, mine SUCKED.

Siha took one look at my pic and said, “Oh, heck no, I can do better than that!” And then she spent 15 mnutes and came up with that awesome little work of art. :)

Now, I am all signed up with Entrecard. I deny any blog that asks to advertise, unless they are a WoW blog. And every request to advertise, if I don’t know who it is, I go check out their website to make sure it’s a WoW blog.

Nice and simple, keeps it all in the community. And no freaks. Well,except our own kind of freak, anyway. And they’re good eating! I mean people. They’re good people!

So, if you look to the right, you’ll see a little box with a picture in it that says “Featured Blog” on top. Clickie the link, and it takes you to said neato blog. And if you are a blogger, and you want your neat little picture there, go make an Entrecard account for free, and I’ll be glad to have you here.

How much does it cost you? Nuttin.

How much do I make? Nuttin.

It’s not about money… it’s about having fun… and thinking that my neat little picture could be on some other misfortunate soul’s blog… flashing the butt at some poor, unsuspecting reader that maybe only wanted a quick read during lunch about Paladins. Next thing he knows… bear butt in da face! w00t!

Seriously… more of the community that is on it, more neat pictures I can see on here. And I’d like that.

I said go to MMO Champion and check out their Patch 2.4 coverage as info gets released by Blizard! Go!

The Feral bears will be seeing an improvement with Lacerate dealing additional damage based on your attack power.

Damn nice. Damn nice.

Blizzard Blue posters have been releasing tidbits of news about Patch 2.4 from everywhere on the forums, starting about 45 minutes ago. But instead of one consolidated list, it’s all dribs and drabs like this.

Expect MMO-Champion to gather them all together, or WoW Insider, at some point.

Oh, spell casters? You want some lovin’ too?

According to Drysc in this post, Spell Haste will reduce the casting GCD. Check it;

Although not terribly relevant to your discussion I thought I’d jump in and let you know about some Spell Haste changes in the upcoming patch.

In 2.4, Spell Haste will reduce the global cool down on spells, down to a minimum of 1 second. It won’t apply to melee and ranged abilities though however.

Lots and LOTS of new shit.

Thank you to James/Melpo for pointing this out to me on Yahoo Messenger… now get back to work!