Saga's 20 Questions - Day 2 Why I Started a Blog

The topic for day 2 of Saga's 20 Questions is "why you decided to start a blog". Now it may surprise you to know that actually this is only my latest in a long line of blogs & I explained the start of this one in my very first post here.

My first blog was back in 2005/2006 and I was really heavily into my photography. I'd only just got my first semi-decent digital camera but the photos I was producing were getting a lot of favorable comments from friends & family. I started looking around for a way to make my hobby pay for itself & I found a whole bunch of microstock sites (like Shutterstock, Dreamstime etc) & I found Etsy & Zazzle.

I loved Etsy but standing out from the crowd there was really tough - I got totally hooked on the super busy forums which is where I learned about Twitter, Stumbleupon & blogging. My first blog was a mish-mash of my photos, friends stuff on Etsy & any 'news' about hitting the front page there or whatever I could come up with. It wasn't very focused to say the least but I did get quite a good readership going, even without knowing any SEO type stuff!

My next blog was an offshoot of the first one - I started a photo-a-day project on Flickr & decided to put them all in one place. I think I got to about 3 months in before life overtook me a bit & I also found World of Warcraft at this point so that didn't help me focus on my photography!

I've since amalgamated both these old blogs into one as the basis for restarting my photography blog - 2013 is an onwards & upwards year & I intend to play my WoW AND get my photography going again. If you want to have a peek at the old me or if you just want to have a look at some pretty photographs, you can find my alter ego at Helen Shorey Photography - my! doesn't that sound all growed up! lol

After about a year of playing WoW almost full time (I was off work due to illness), I found myself alone in game & started gold-making. Around the time that Cataclysm arrived, I was getting itchy fingers again & AH Addict was born. & has just celebrated its 2nd blogging birthday! I have thoroughly enjoyed writing there about my gold-making adventures but I do sometimes find it a little restrictive subject-wise so here we are - my 'anything vaguely WoW' blog was born.

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This Week's To Do List (27th Jan 2013)

Well, I'm back home after my trip, almost over the jet lag & slowly getting back into the swing of things but today sees the start of the Lunar Festival in WoW & as it's the second to last one I need for my Long Strange Trip achievement, I'm going to be pretty busy! It's also been shortened to just 2 weeks (to avoid overlapping with Love is in the Air I guess) so if you haven't done all your Elder visiting, don't hang around too long!

I finally made it to Revered with the Klaxxi on my main so she's started the Shieldwall Offensive quests now whilst I've gone back to leveling my DK. I hit 89 late last night so just the Dread Wastes to go, with 2x Klaxxi rep, & hopefully I'll hit 90 with her very soon. I was hoping I might manage it today but it's mid afternoon already & my real life to-do list is still pretty long!

I've been a little bit braver this week too - I actually took my Paladin into a scenario or two. I was so close to an achievement I've been aiming for, it seemed like the easiest option at the time. It wasn't! Her DPS is still pretty bad & the random scenario system dropped me into Crypt of the Forgotten Kings - one I've not done before - so not only was I trying to not get lost, I was trying to keep up with the other two players too!

But I did it & I finally got my achievement too - yay! The strangest thing is though, my Achievement screen shows that I have only 8990 points so I'm not quite sure what happened there.

 So this weeks to-do list is pretty short

• Complete the Lunar Festival achievement (almost all the Elders required)
• Get DK to level 90
• Tank a dungeon with my DK
• More scenarios/dungeons on Paladin (she needs the VP's)
• Start the Cloud Serpent reputation dailies on DK as she is my Jewelcrafter
• Keep doing the Shieldwall Offensive dailies on Paladin
• Get Warrior moving again, currently at 87, she's still sitting on the farm

I may be a bit hopeful putting dungeons & scenarios in that list though - I'm having problems with my internet connection dropping intermittently which is extremely frustrating as you can probably imagine! It's probably a good thing that I spend hours flying around for the Elders achieves - at least if I disconnect on a flight path, I won't die before I can reconnect!

Okay, enough waffling from me - back to those damned Elders I go :)

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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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20 Questions & More! Memes Galore

Being away from home & not having access to my main account has made me realise just how much I rely on having lots of alts for variety in my playtime. Having just one level 90 on my US account is ok but I do miss being able to hop around to do different things as I feel like. It's also made me realise how much time I spend doing achievement based stuff & that has been the main content on this blog so far too!

I saw Soco was doing a 20 days of WoW meme a while back & thought I'd do it too - but I never got started. Now it has come up again on my Twitter feed (thank you SoCalWowGal) & that's helped me find 2 other memes so now I have plenty of ideas for posts here when I'm not feeling the vibe to find my own idea!

The first one I found via Soco at Vault of Light was Spellbound Saga's - most questions are WoW related but with some more personal ones thrown in too.

Next up was  Amaranth's list at Specced for Drama - it's a November 2010 post but the questions are all very WoW based & should make me get my thinking cap on!

Lastly, Saga mentioned another meme by Serenity Saz over at World of Saz - this one is screenshot based & as I am terrible at grabbing screenshots, should be a nice challenge for me.

I've always been bad at keeping up with things so this is going to be a challenge for me - I'd quite like to answer all of the questions on all three memes over the next few months. All three are from older posts so I'm way behind the times but I think all are still relevant to WoW today & should be fun as well as challenging!

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Just A Quick Update

So I'm away from home at the moment without access to my EU account which is ok but I do miss my girls! I only have one level 90 on my US account and although the friend I'm staying with plays WoW too, they have multiple level 90's, all doing their dailies so it's been kind of tough to do stuff together.

I have started a DK though - blood spec again, with the intention of tanking most of the way to 90 so that I can learn DK tanking from the start. I got to level 61 fairly quickly but haven't braved a dungeon yet. I keep getting sidetracked by Squidoo which is nothing to do with WoW but does have the possibility of making me some much needed cash! I did a couple of World of Warcraft Gift Guides this week if you want to have a peek - Horde or Alliance stuff that would make great presents for a gamer in your life!

I've also been keeping my EU auctions going by using the remote auction house on my friends iPad - so much easier than on my phone. I've made a few nice sales but without access to my crafters, I'm only really selling stuff I pre-crafted before I left for my vacation.

So things might be quiet around here for a little while longer unless I can find some gametime mojo! I think I keep putting off playing 'cos I'm on my Horde characters on my US account & I'll be honest, I just feel so lost! Every time I try to go somewhere or find a trainer or a vendor, I have to look it up - I've got lazy over the last few years of playing only Alliance I guess - I know without having to think, where everything is.

I'm also missing quite a few of my favorite add-ons - I'm using my friends old PC & it's on its last legs to be honest - I'm doubtful whether it can take any more addons! But don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the time I am playing, it's just not such a high priority right now - I am supposed to be here visiting after all, not just to play WoW!

Hope everyone out there has got off to a good start in 2013 - I have a lot of hopes, wishes & plans for this year, just got to work out how to make them happen now.

Merry Xmas! Oh What A Busy Week!

Christmas Dragon Baby

I hope everyone had a lovely Xmas & I hope you have lots of parties arranged for New Years Eve too. I had a very quiet Xmas so I've had a lot more playtime than usual and how did I do with my To Do list from last week? Not so good actually but only because I got sidetracked into stuff I wanted to do but hadn't put on the list! I didn't move the DK along at all & only did a few pet battles although I did manage to get the Big City Brawlin' achievement once I noticed that I was only missing Ironforge & Father Winter was there anyway!

The Winter Veil achieves for my Paladin still elude me. I was kissing revellers to get a Handful of Snowflakes but the RNG was against me. I have holly & mistletoe in abundance but no snowflakes for her until I read somewhere that I could trade them. Luckily my banker had been kissing revellers too so I roped in my ever patient & helpful guildie Setesh to hold my snowflakes whilst I logged my Paladin. It still took me until late last night to get the last class/race combo I needed though.

So off I went to my void storage, convinced I already had the winter hat & clothes but no - so today's task is to get those sorted out  for the eating achieve & hit up the battlegrounds dressed as a helper to get the last 2 parts I need for the Winter Veil achievement.

Two great achievements did come my way this week though - I finally hit Exalted with the Golden Lotus & that gave me my 40 Exalted Reputations achieve & I did manage to finish off the Dread Wastes quests which gave me my Pandaren Loremaster achieve! Yay, go me :P

So did I get my Paladin into a Heroic dungeon? Nope! I chickened out again this week but I did take her into some scenarios & wasn't too disappointed with her progress. I picked up a couple of Epic gear items this week - there's an Epic necklace for finishing the final Golden Lotus quests & all those dailies gave me enough Valor Points to finally get the Dawnblade's Chestguard from the Golden Lotus Quartermaster. With a couple of Rare quality items from the scenarios my ilevel is upto 453 now so that has helped her DPS a great deal. I still need to gem & enchant her though but that can wait a while.

Now my Hunter has been going great and this week she has just continued being lucky with gear drops! Two Blues & a Purple piece of gear from running scenarios on Saturday as well a whole bunch of achieves but not the Scenaturday one unfortunately. I've been doing dailies for Golden Lotus, Klaxxi & Tillers on her as well as a few heroics here & there.

Yesterday, Cold persuaded me to join a Sha of Anger group & talked me through the basic strategy. Unfortunately neither of us had taken into account how rubbish my PC is when it comes to a 40-man raid! I think I died within 30 seconds as I couldn't see the black stuff until I was already dead! damned lag! After a few more deaths, mainly from lag, it has to be said, they finally got the Sha down (without much help from me at all!) & I got my Epic boots from the quest item he drops. I used one of my Elder Charms for a bonus roll & guess what? Yup, my first attempt at any sort of 'raid' & I got lucky again - the Yaungol Slayer's Legguards dropped for me - ilevel 496 no less!

So all in all, I think this has been a great week for me in game. I'm definitely gaining some of my confidence back, getting used to using keyboard for spells rather than mouseclicking them & trying stuff I never would have just 3 months ago. I'm off on my travels again in a couple of days so my Paladin & DK will have to wait for my return but my Hunter will get a lot of playtime over the next few weeks. I may even resurrect my level 40 priest project I started earlier this year too.

This Week's To Do List - Pre Xmas Panic!

Last week's To Do List was a bit of a hit here at Casa Nev so I'm going to make another for this week. I do spend a lot of time in game just mooching around from one alt to another, doing stuff as it strikes me. This means that things do get done - eventually but by making a list last week, I found that I really focused on those things more than all the other stuff I usually do.

I think that having written it down in a public place made me want to get that stuff done & not let my readers think badly of me. I know no-one really cares if I get it done or not, it just feels more important in my head so I knuckled down & did it - well most of it anyway.

The only thing that didn't get done was leveling my DK a bit more. I did get my warrior to 87 & with a big Thank You to Soco for giving me a lift to the Shrine of Seven Stars to get my Blacksmith recipe, I managed to max my Blacksmithing too.

I was pretty good at getting my Golden Lotus dailies done & finally hit Revered with them on Sunday evening. I bought the Grand Commendation straight away and last night I got to around 6k/21k so just another 3 or 4 days to get to Exalted I reckon.

My biggest time sink this week has been pet collecting though - not only did I get to the 200 unique pets target I set myself, I actually made it to 206. I think I have most of the wild pets below level 12 now so I need to level up my team a bit more before I tackle the next zones & the next Pet Trainer Battle. I'm going to add that to this week's list I think!

One thing I did do this week that wasn't on my list was to take my US Hunter into a Heroic dungeon - we actually did a couple although that last boss in Shado-Pan Monastery kicked my butt at 2am! Cold popped his Blingtron 4000 to cheer me up - I didn't know I could party with it & I didn't know it would transform me into a human either. I did a couple of screenshots just for fun & managed to catch Cold in his John Travolta impersonation! He's gonna kill me for this one I think!

Cold Goes Disco!

The one thing I didn't put on the list was Winter Veil - I'd forgotten that it was starting so I added that in to my list. I only needed 5 of the smaller achievements to get the title, Merrymaker & so far I think I've managed to get 2 of them. I'm still kissing Revellers to get a Handful of Snowflakes, I need to make the Winter Clothes for myself (or find them in my alts banks of course!) & the dreaded PvP one - 50 honorable kills doesn't sound too bad but I have no PvP gear & I don't want to spend out on a set. I can see a frustrating evening in my near future!

So the list for this week isn't that long, just a few bits left over from last week & a couple of new bits.

• Level the DK to 89 (I will get this one done this week, I am determined!)
• Raise Unique Pet count to 225 or more
• Get Exalted with Golden Lotus on Paladin (will give me 40 Exalted reps & a title too!)
• Finish the Winter Veil achievements on Paladin
• Finish the Dread Wastes quests - not only reputation points but I want to get my Pandarian Loremaster finished too. That will be my 1 year anniversary since I completed the old Loremaster title.
• Take Paladin into a Heroic dungeon - I must do this one - It's bugging me now.

Can I do all this by Xmas Eve? Maybe! I hope so anyway because I'm off on my travels again just after Xmas & I possibly won't have access to my EU account although I'm working on that. I miss my girls and all my professions, gold & heirlooms when I'm on my US account but my Hunter there is coming along nicely so that will keep me busy if I can't access my EU account.

My other big thing this week is my 2nd birthday on my goldmaking blog. If you haven't popped over, I'm running a little giveaway to celebrate & it's really easy to enter. All the details are in my Happy Birthday AH Addict post over there so if you'd like a Blizzard Store pet, go have a look & leave a comment to enter. I look forward to seeing you there.