A is for Alphabet Challenge!

You may have noticed a new badge in the sidebar a few days ago - I decided I need a topic push so when I stumbled into the A to Z Challenge, I thought I'd give it a go. Now there are a whole bunch of other blogs over there already signed up as the site has been open for this year's challenge for a while now. If you're looking for a wider variety of blogs to peruse, check out the participants list - there's almost 2000 to choose from!

The idea of the challenge is to produce blog posts based on the letter for the day through the alphabet through the month of April, excluding Sundays. This is going to be a tough challenge for me - I've never been one to post every day but I've built a list of words/topics over the weekend & now I just have to sit down & write!

I'm already well into this post & I haven't even started my planned topic but I just noticed that A-Z Challenge itself counts for A - should I talk about this more or get on with it? Hmmm! One of the guidelines and/or suggestions is to keep the posts fairly short so I guess I'll cheat a little on the first day.

Strangely enough, I have a draft in my Auction House Addict (my other blog for any new readers who may stumble in here) post folder which is alphabet related - I was jotting down ideas whilst I was Stateside. I don't think I'll be doing the challenge on both blogs though - that would be too stressful & I'm sure my writing would suffer.

Up until now, this blog has been mainly gaming related with a little bit of real life stuff creeping in - this challenge is going to help me widen my topics but I still plan on being mainly gaming focused, especially as there are so many new games entering the market right now. I'm still playing World of Warcraft, albeit very intermittantly and I've just purchased the pre-order for Wildstar. In between waiting for Warlords of Draenor and the weekend beta events in Wildstar, I've also been dabbling with League of Legends so I should have plenty to write about - I just have to find the time!

Oh and just in case you were wondering - my planned topic was Addiction! yeah, I think playing 3 time consuming games and doing the free iPad game review segment counts as addiction and pretty much speaks for itself!

I have managed to give up smoking though so that's one less addiction on my list!

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Saga's 20 Days of Blogging - Day 1

Saga's list of 20 questions starts with "Day 1 - Introduce Yourself" & that's a bit like the dreaded question at a job interview - 'tell us a little about yourself' where you have no idea just what they want to hear or how much detail to go into! But I figured it's my blog, I can waffle for hours or give you bullet points, it doesn't really matter now, does it?

So really, where to start - well I'm Welsh born but have lived in England for 3/4 of my life - I joke about being in exile but actually, it's not that bad. I'm pretty social & I like talking to people about all sorts of stuff - I have a brain full of tidbits of information on all sorts of subjects & little stories to tell about loads of things too so sometimes it's hard to shut me up! You will notice over time, that I find it really hard to do 'short answers' - Twitter is really really hard for me :)

I've been playing World of Warcraft for just over 3 years now with a Retribution/tank paladin as my main but I have 5 other alts at level 85 or above. I used to off-tank ICC but my guild imploded & I haven't raided in any way since - not even LFR. I like questing & just can't be bothered with dungeons very often - my aim is to change that in 2013 though. I've got some lovely peeps on my RealID now who have offered to dungeon with me so I must get off my metaphorical butt & join them sometimes!

I collect mounts & pets as well as achievements - I'm almost up to 9000 points now but there are still a lot of fairly easy ones still for me to chase - Cataclysm dungeons & raid ones for starters as well as vanilla & TBC raids.

I have all professions maxed except Engineering - that's on my Warlock who is over 2 years old & still only level 53. I don't know why I don't play her - I think I don't like how she looks but even with a nice new transmog, I still avoid her most of the time. Maybe I should just start a new one with a different look - but after I have my others leveled to 90 & all reputation grinds done of course.

What else to tell you? Hmmm, I like to read, I love food & cooking & photography is a big thing with me. When I'm not in game, I read a lot of blogs, keep up with Twitter & Facebook, write for my 3 blogs (I have a 3rd one for my photography) and I Squidoo as well. I also spend hours on Skype with my buddies - luckily they can talk for hours too :P

If I have one dream, it's to become a travel photographer - combining my passion for travel with photography but also adding in food photography whilst I travel. Unfortunately, it is really a pipedream - logistics, age, health & finances all play against me on this one but when I do get a vacation, I make the most of it.

Going forward? Who knows! Last year was a huge year for me, selling house, divorce, breast cancer, fighting depression, losing old friends, making new ones. I'm still standing though & I'm feeling quite positive about this fresh new year ahead. Only time will tell so for now it's 'just keep swimming, just keep swimming' & see what life brings & where I end up.

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses! Gift Guide - Horde Edition | Gift Guide - Alliance Edition

Hello There!

As if one blog isn't enough, I've decided to start another! When I started Auction House Addict, I only intended to write about goldmaking but over the last  two years, there have been times when I wanted to write about all the other stuff in World of Warcraft but I didn't because AH Addict is a gold blog after all. I felt (rightly or wrongly) that my readers probably weren't that interested in my other misadventures in game or just how much time I spend faffing around & not achieving much at all.

Why Another Blog?
But recently the writing bug has taken a better hold on me & I find the self imposed limits frustrating sometimes. Like many folks, I have multiple personalities across the internet and until this summer, I kept them all apart - thinking my arty friends wouldn't be interested in WoW & vice versa. I don't know if I thought wrong but what the heck, I want to write about more than just gold making so this blog will be my space for that - my own little corner of random rambling, general waffling & faffing in Azeroth.


What's With The Name?
I love dragons, always have & being a fairly keen mount collector in game, I have quite a few of them. It also speaks to me of freedom & fantasy - freedom from one genre of writing, freedom of speaking out if needs be & enjoying the fantasy world that is World of Warcraft.

There's also the female element - we are a minority in game after all & as an older female, I do notice things that perhaps others think nothing of. I'm no outspoken feminist so don't expect any rants or anything but perhaps my view will be different enough to spark an intelligent discussion here & there.

Starting Point
Currently I have only 1 level 90 with 2 alts leveling from 85. I also have 3 other alts at 85 & several lowbies who have stalled in various places around Eastern Kingdoms. My first love is my Paladin but I've been struggling to play her effectively since the beginning of Cataclysm. She's been my achievement queen for so long, it's hard to break the habit of struggling through to get the achieves on her but now that achievements are account wide, my DK is rapidly gaining more of my attention. I re-specced her to Blood spec just last week & have fallen in love with my new found power & general ability to stay alive in situations where my Paladin died multiple times just 2 weeks earlier!

The Plan
So this time around, I actually have a vague plan of action for this expansion - I AM going to do dungeons & maybe even be brave enough to try some raiding too. There's achievements to obtain, mounts galore & oh, did I mention that I'm loving the new Pet Battle stuff? Yup - I have to get them all - just like Blizzard knew we would. I hate being predictable though so I'm determined to just enjoy this expac - no pressuring myself to obtain certain specific goals or beating myself up because I'm a rubbish Paladin.

I'm not even sure where this blog will go - I'm just going to go with the flow & hope you'll join me on my wanderings.