Tag Archives: blogging

Shared Items & Feedback

Today I’d like to talk about link love. Well, less ‘talk about it’, because I don’t need to tell you why it’s nice, but just to let you guys know that incase you weren’t aware – I am giving it out a lot even when I don’t post.

See, a few months back I was having trouble with my reader. Certain blogs literally wouldn’t update and that was driving me insane, so, I asked in Single Abstract Noun which readers people were using and Erc ordered me to try out Feedly, which I believe is a Google Chrome extension. It’s supposed to be the magazine style feed reader, though I like the lists. I have it set up to show blog names and article titles, if an article says in the title, for example, ‘Cataclysm’, then I can quite easily skip past it and read something without Cataclysm spoilers and I love it for that.

Anyway, being part of Google, it’s connected to Google Reader, so I was able to import my blog list from Bloglines (my old reader) and it seems to synchronise. Another feature it shares is ‘shared items’, which I started using to just bookmark posts I enjoyed to come back to for either the link love posts I used to do, or to add to my resources page later on. After a while, I realised I could link to this as a feed in my sidebar and I have done ever since.

Below my Twitter box, you should be able to see ‘Interesting Blog Posts’, which I have renamed, it used to be ‘Interesting Stuff’. and the feed link in the little orange icon should work, if not try clicking here. I share posts that I find interesting, useful, and funny, so take a look, they’re worth reading. You might find something new.

I’d also like to ask you while I’m doing a more generic blogging post what you guys think of the theme changes? Apart from, “Dear God, woman, stop changing your damn theme every 10 minutes!” Because trust me, I know, but I’ve gone back to the old theme that I quite liked, couldn’t find anything else I was 100% happy with. I like the header and the sidebar, I’m just not sure about the background. Anything you might change perhaps? Feedback/constructive criticism is appreciated.

Lazy Sniper’s Blogaversary!

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My blogaversary was yesterday! I actually completely forgot, posted yesterday’s post, and then checked the date and remembered. It’s been one year since I made my first post and to be very honest, looking back at the first few months of my blog, I really cringe. I wanted to delete a lot of it but NDMiko and Cynwise told me I wasn’t allowed so it’s all there, in it’s cringeworthy form. I think around November/December I started to improve a little, but it was a very gradual improvement, which I’m not totally convinced is much better but apparently you guys like it so no worries!

My first post was about my Hunter soloing the raptor boss in Zul’gurub, which can be found here. Hey, we’ve all got to start somewhere. I originally wrote this on my free WordPress blog, which was ‘hunterstuff’, but fairly quickly moved to a hosted option. I’m glad I did in hindsight, I’ve really made some good use out of my hosting and had some fun playing with themes and plugins. I’ve always been very bad at keeping on top of these kinds of projects too, so I am incredibly surprised I’ve stuck with it for a whole year now without any real gaps in posting due to being bored of blogging.

If I’m honest, I doubt I’d have kept with it if it wasn’t for the amazing community WoW blogging has, through Blog Azeroth, Single Abstract Noun, Twitter, and of course just generally joining in with discussions on blogs themselves. There are some absolutely brilliant bloggers who I have followed almost religiously and hopefully learnt a lot about blogging from, and they’ve also kept me entertained when I needed it. The Twitter community is absolutely great, and I love you all to bits. I’m not going to mention names because I will forget people and there are way too many to list, so use your imaginations! You’re probably on the list.

I know Windsoar did a hire a muse theme for her 6 month blogaversary, and around Christmas both Tam and Syrana did a ‘share the blogging syphilis’. All of them were offering to give bloggers individual blog topics based on the blogger’s personality, likes, dislikes, and every time it was really fun! I’m pretty terrible of thinking of topics myself, however, if you’d like a topic, feel free to ask and I’ll flail at your blogs for a bit until I come up with something! Just leave a comment or contact me.

On a slightly less related note, I helped Vidyala by helping to judge her Paladin fashion contest. There were some excellent entries, and a couple that really made me laugh, so it was very difficult to judge, but it was worth it, I enjoyed it. As a thank you, she has drawn my Priest! I entirely did not expect this and it is stunning, I’ve always loved her artwork, so a huge thank you to Vidyala, I love it! We may see a new header here at some point in the future.

I Lost My Guest Poster

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To some of you, I’m sure the fact that Dan won’t be posting here any more is great news, and to the rest of you, it isn’t. For those of you who don’t like this news so much – don’t worry, he’s just decided to start his own blog. So now I can flail about while he goes completely uncensored, with nobody to tell him that hey, that 4 lettered c word is great, but think of the children! I’m sure it will be fine. *bites nails*

He’s only planning to post sporadically, whenever he feels like it, so if you want to follow him, I recommend you add ‘I Gem Crit‘ to your readers. Go say hi!

A New Look

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With my recent server transfer and faction change, I needed a new look around here. I tried to change the previous theme, Mystique, so that it was just less Blood Elfy and a little more fitting to my Draenei, but I just grew frustrated and I couldn’t get it to look the way I wanted. So, I went shopping, I scanned through various free WordPress template websites, downloaded a few, previewed them all, and eventually settled on this one. It’s so simple that it works. There’s plenty of space for posts and images, the sidebars are big enough to fit everything on, I can add a custom header, it’s pretty much perfect. I love the simplistic look and how much space there is!

There is a post drafted that I was meaning to get up today but I was a little distracted by the theme change, so I may get that up tomorrow instead. Oh, after waiting 4 or 5 days for a response from IntenseDebate I’ve uninstalled it. The code was bugged or something and comments were being posted on 3 month old posts, so I’ve lost a few newly made comments in the past few days and I don’t want to lose any more so back to the basic commenting format

Link Love: The Drama Week

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This week has been pretty drama filled, and there are a fair few response posts I could link to, but I don’t want to link to anything related to the posts and blogs that have caused the huge discussion that has taken place this week, that needs to be left alone now. Rather, I would like to link to a couple of blog posts discussing the topic, not the bloggers, in a mature and adult way. First of all, Byaghro of Diabolical Minds wrote a post on Social Responsibility and Blogging, I respect how objective he remained whilst raising some excellent points. Windsoar equally wrote an awesome objective post, or in her own words a Rambling Commentary on Recent Events. Both posts give you something to think about, whether you agree with them or not.

Not everything has been about the drama this week, thank God, in fact, there has been a string of blogging related topics. One which actually originated from a Blog Azeroth discussion: Why do you blog? Both Gypsy and Dristanel decided to respond in post form and I loved reading both responses, and I can honestly say that there is a little of my own reasons in both posts. Saresa has written a wonderful guide for people who are thinking about starting their own blog but may perhaps need a few tips, So, You Want To Blog?

I know I don’t blog too much about hunters these days, but I still read the hunter blogs and I find this guide on using FemaleDwarf.com from Rilgon absolutely awesome. I wasn’t aware that it is basically the same as the Excel Spreadsheet, so now I don’t feel quite as bad for using it myself!

Daily Quests is a web comic which I find to be quite unique with its blog sections, and I’m particularly fond of Vas’ lore section. I’ve learnt quite a lot about lore from reading his column and this week has been no different in his discussion of The Half Breed and the Human, Med’an, the son of Medivh.

There have been many levelling guides around this week and here’s just a handful of the few I found particularly informative. Windsoar posted her guide on Druiding it Up: 1-10. Okay, so, Tarinae’s guide to levelling a healadin may have technically been last week, but I felt I should include it as I read it this week *stomps* my blog, my rules! Also, I particularly enjoy levelling Death Knights. I’m not entirely sure why, I already have one at 80 and I don’t really intend to level more, but I find them pretty damn fun and Skeleton Jack’s introduction guide to levelling a DK is a very good starting point. All in all, whatever you level, try to have some fun, go against what everybody else tells you is best if that’s what you want to do, but tips and guides are always nice to get you started, especially if you want to level efficiently.

Last but not least, what is a week’s round up without a few fun posts? The wonderful Zalduun has informed us of a few things that we may not know about Dalaran. I didn’t know there was a shoe shiner, and I haven’t been able to find the lighting up Dalaran guy since the very beginning of Wrath! I love little tidbits like this. Something quite interesting from Arioch, clearly she has a WoW Model Viewer addiction at the moment (prove me wrong), but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Take a look at the different models, do you sleep the same way your character does? Looking at it, I do sleep like the female Blood Elf. How did you sleep last night? Have you checked your horoscope this week? What’s your sign? I think I have a little of the Overachiever in me, but I’m mostly an Altoholic.

Worst attempt at hacking ever!

The Week #7

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My original plan to leave you with a couple of queued posts while I was away isn’t looking likely now on account of my being way too tired to think. Need to pack, might take something other than a few Warcraft books incase I change my mind when I sit down to read, pick a few CDs, DVDs, Dragon Age is going. Make sure random important things liiike phone ch- yeah anyway you guys don’t care, sleepy Jae gets a bit more rambly than usual. My point is I might spend the day on Loremaster rather than a post which will come out as a rambly mess. Might queue up something small for Christmas day, though, don’t expect too much. A quick bit of link love!

Now, one blogger who has had an impact on me this week is Tam. This is because whenever I try to access Righteous Orbs, I’m redirected to the Apache Test Center or something! I’m very technologically illiterate (although I couldn’t survive without my sat nav) and didn’t and still don’t have a clue what that means. Thankfully, I can still read Righteous Orbs in my reader, and for those of you who can access it, go Looking for Goats.

A few hunter strats for ICC wich I’ve found to be pretty useful. First of all, OutDPS has the brief overview of all 4 bosses. Frostheim has put more detail into Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, and Gunship Battle strats. By the way, couldn’t help but mention: OMGBEARROCKETBUTT!

In the week I’ve been working on my 3.3 gear list, I’ll admit I need to have another look over it and I will be updating it again when we have a full loot table for Icecrown BUT let’s just say Rilgon is much better at these things than me.

For those of you who haven’t yet finished the Merrymaker achievement, /hug and Mend Pet have reposted their guides from last year which are both equally as awesome as each other.

The lovely Elsen has written a post about guilds. Her advice about being happy in your guild echoes my own opinions and I urge you to read it, especially if you’re unsure about your guild at the moment.

Ophelie went looking for fail, and found nothing but friendliness and easy PUGs, the opposite of ‘when it rains’ eh?

As I’ve been saying, I might have internet access in Wales, but I’m not counting on it and stashing up on books, DVDs and games, because Christmas is oh so fun! I probably won’t be blogging while I’m out there, but I am bouncing up and down for this Secret Santa exchange, and we’re planning to leave on the 27th I think Dan said, so will be home by the Sunday evening *touch wood* (and Steel: I’m going to be WAY too tired to raid that night, driving makes me cranky).

Merry Christmas!

The Week #6

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noseyturkey I took a few days off checking my reader because of a measly little birthday and patch happens, and it (my reader) becomes inundated with “omg how awesome!” Which given, you’re right, 3.3 was really fun and still is, the random dungeon feature has made pugging so much easier and I love it, did a couple of instance runs on my 73 warlock last night and they were fun. I fear soon people will get bored of it and the queues will become larger, but hey, it’s still much much better than the old LFG system. Anyway, some Sunday link love, which I know is getting longer but it’s getting harder to say to myself “no, don’t link that one, it’s not as good as the others” because that simply isn’t true.

Link Love for Angry Alt may be a little delayed, but once I found this post I had to share it because oh my God yes, I completely agree with you. Random invites and general rudeness does my head in. “Want to join for [instance]?” “Yeah sure” “Would you mind healing please?” Will get a much better response than spamming the invite button or even “HEAL PLX?!”

Vas’s post over at Daily Quests about Tirion Fordring, really got me thinking. This whole.. Lich King / Champion of the Light thing is pretty deep, the idea brought forth in Halls of Reflection did make me think, Azeroth needs a Lich King, so who will take over once Arthas is defeated? The idea that there also needs to be a Champion of the Light as well… Don’t think TL;DR, go read it.

I have found a few great warlock posts this week, the first of which is how to not suck at destruction. Okay, so, Saresa came up with a better sounding name but this spells out exactly what the post is about. I respecced my warlock to destruction last night and this guide is going to be awesome when I finally get around to finishing those last 6 levels.

The other being a post over at Fel Fire, how to gear your lock in 3.3. Going through each of the new items, and comparing them to see which is the best to aim for. Not only are these posts useful for my alting, but also a friend who has come back to the game after a long break, I’ve been looking out for useful posts for him and these two are perfect.

In fact, another friend has decided to come back to the game after a very long break, you may know him as the one who fixes my technical problems and hosts my blog. While browsing for decent disc priest blogs, I found an awesome one: Penance Priest.

A few short boss explanations for the Frozen Halls at Almost Evil, useful for those of you who may not have run the new 5 mans yet, or may still be unsure on the tactics for each one.

I absolutely loved the lore for dummies post at Crooks and Nannies. It is pretty thorough and covers a few things I was actually curious about, glad to finally know the answers. This is also a new blog to the scene and in my opinion looks to be promising, I’m looking forward to more posts!

flying kodo of doom

I’ve found in the past that my UIs have been cluttered, awkward, full of pointless mods while raiding and so on. I’ve finally tidied up my UI and installed Addon Control Panel to easily switch off pointless mods like NPCScan for raids without having to relog. Eidotrope of OutDPS has written an awesomely detailed post to help you design your UI to be effective for endgame DPS.

A very important post for hunters this week at Stabilized Effort Scope, and no, it’s not the whine about the specifications for getting the new ammo (which by the way: grr), it’s detailing the procs of Deathbringer’s Will for each class, and a few thoughts on why this is better for hunters than other classes. By no means saying that it should go to the hunters before anybody else, it’s just interesting to know.

Finally, this list of pop cultures references in WoW over at WoWWiki is not a blog but interesting nonetheless. For example, Professor Finklestein in Zul’drak, a part of the Pa’troll daily, it never dawned on me that he was designed after the doctor in Nightmare Before Christmas who made Sally!

PS. I don’t know how that druid bugged that, but o.m.g that flying kodo looks insanely awesome and I couldn’t resist adding the screenshot here!

Pre-Raid Hunter Gear List

The Week #5

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Fishing in the Snow

With it being my birthday tomorrow, also I’ve promised to make a couple of friends some signatures for the guild forum, the posts here will probably be a bit slack for a few days. However, I have a few ideas saved in my drafts ready to go back to when I get the chance. For now, it’s Sunday, and a few observations to be made. In fact, just one and a few of the usual linkages.

Mortigan the Lock has disappeared. I went to check why his feed wasn’t working yesterday, and Blogger told me his blog didn’t exist. I mentioned this on Twitter, to which Syrana replied. If anybody does happen to know the reasons why his blog and twitter account have been deactivated please get in touch.

I’ll be honest, I’ve fallen behind on my reader a little again, though a few posts I really enjoyed reading and would like to share. Syrana’s interview with her parents interested me particularly because I couldn’t imagine either of my parents even considering playing World of Warcraft. My dad’s height of gaming is the Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old online quiz, and my mum, well, I remember her being addicted to lemmings but nothing more than that. So, to read Syrana’s parents talk about WoW was quite nice actually.

Windsoar has been doing a series of posts about raiding in a guild, the 2 which particularly grabbed my attention were those on Lack of Progression and Attracting Bees: Keeping Your Raid Team. Basically, how to deal with your raids as an officer when people just won’t pay attention and do what everybody else is doing.

Ophelie at Bossy Pally has also had several interesting posts the past week. I loved Sorry Guys, I Gotta Go, Have a Raid in 30 Minutes because it reminded me of my own embarrassment towards my WoW playing when it comes to the general public. If I meet somebody new, or an old friend, I won’t say “I’m a WoW player,” I say that I enjoy playing games like Guitar Hero and some online games. Also, go set up your combat logs to the illiterate arrogant bastard setting.

Lodur, one of the few writers at World of Matticus, comments on the Return of the Truly Legendary Items. Though it is more featured on how unlegendary TBC legendaries felt, and how in Wrath, legendaries feels as much so as they did in vanilla, it still features the lore behind each legendary available ingame, and ties in quite nicely with my lore behind the legendary posts, which I will still be continuing with. It is a very interesting read.

Lassirra at The Hunter’s Mark gives us 20 Signs You Might Be a Huntard. Not only was it amusing, but it has some truth behind it too.

Last but not least, I don’t usually link to web comics in this post because they’re all awesome and it’d take too much space, but, how many times have you tried to do your dailies and not realised that you’re still in a raid? Take a look at the latest Daily Quests.

I’d also like to add that the moment it hit midnight last night, my hunter became a blood elf again. I much prefer it this way, though that’s a thought for another post, another day. I feel massively guilty for wasting so much money, especially this time of year, though I felt much worse not wanting to log into my character. So, feeling much more comfortable with my character, time to continue with Loremaster.