We've been Liebstered - The Liebster Award

Ancient from Tome of the Ancient liebstered us!

I've linked to Tome of the Ancient before.  I liked her Death Scenes page, [keep forgetting to do the same!] and I like her attitude towards the game, however, she and her pals are far more proficient than I am.

I didn't discover the liebster event from her comment on our blog, as is the intended scenario.  Rather, I was reading up on dual spec which led me to another blog, which led me to Tome again.  I took a brain break from doing research and was enjoying reading her post when I discovered, much to my shock, our blog listed in her liebster post!

Convoluted and confused?  Welcome to the club!

First the Liebster Award and the rules:

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
By the way, if anyone is wondering, I don't have the power to initiate a blog roll on this blog.  That's not my department!  I don't think it was ever intended that I even make posts on this blog, but we're way beyond that now!

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!) [Nor's note: some of the rules displayed on other blogs say less than 200 followers - perhaps a minor flaw in the process because someone who owns such a new blog may not have the requisite computing skills or technological knowledge to complete the required steps.]

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Ancient for nominating us.  Here again is a link to Tome of the Ancient.  You really should check out her blog, she's hilarious!

I have uploaded the award to this blog and will now answer the 11 Questions Ancient posed to me:

1. How long had you been playing WoW when you realized it was not a passing fancy but true love?
Just this past month.  As I said in my last blog post, I always thought I could walk away from WoW until this past little while when I was physically restrained from doing so.  I honestly missed playing and realized that I am officially hooked.  Thus, we ordered a new gaming computer today!

2. Are you a screen shot taker and if so guesstimate how many you still have.
Yes, yes I am.  I have hundreds and hundreds.  Including the character shots I've been taking of Nor almost every log-in so I can keep track of her while she grows.  Sort of the electronic equivalent to marking the side of the bathroom door with a pencil as a growth chart!

3. What is your favorite zone and why?
Azuremyst Isle.  It will always feel like home and except for the Christmas Eve massacre, I've never seen a non-Draenei player there.  It is safe [most of the time] and quiet.

4. What are you most looking forward to or dreading about Warlords?
I am dreading it being a dark and depressing place but am very excited to learn more about my, ok, Nor',s racial ancestry.

5. Who is your favorite non-essential character in-game? A favorite repair guy or an auctioneer that you always must deal with.
Olivia Jayne and the Stormwind Fisherman that hangs out at Olivia's pond.  Olivia's pond was the second place I felt comfortable and safe visiting in the game and I love to go there to fish.  I've often sat beside that fisherman while Olivia swims in her pond and have always wanted to elbow him and say "pretty cute eh?" and then we could have a discussion about "kids these days" and what a good little swimmer Olivia is.  When I've had to do the fishing daily where you steal fish from the Stormwind fishermen, I'd never steal any of his!

6. When I started my blog I was too scared to comment on others. Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event 2011 changed that for me. Is there an event or blogger that made you feel comfortable commenting on blogs?
The very first WoW blog I ever commented on was Ancient's.  She seemed to have such an open attitude that I figured even my know-nothing nonsense wouldn't bring down a rain of abuse upon my head.  She actually commented back and I've been emboldened to comment on other WoW blogs since!

7. Do you have any strange WoW quirks? For example I seem to think the harder I hit the keys the more forceful my attacks are. I know … but it can’t hurt.
I don't really know, I think Vier should answer this question!

8. Do you have WoW themed things in real life? Example.
No.  Except for the first time in almost thirty years of marriage, Himself is left out of the conversation when Kidlet and I talk about WoW.  

Which is even funnier when you know that it was him playing the original Warcraft that brought WoW into our lives.  I hated the original game and decreed that "I don't ever want to see you playing that violent game in front of the baby again".  In the world of a double shift-worker family, and our tag-team parenting, the critical phrase "I don't want to see" was upheld to the letter.  I never saw him playing the game in front of the baby.  

What I also didn't see was Kidlet reading the manual to Warcraft II for her father and helping him set it up and then play.  What I also didn't see was her having the game memorized by the time she was about nine.  OH.  It just dawned on me that yes, yes we do have WoW themed things in real life, If you count Warcraft I and Warcraft II!

9. Are you lucky enough to have real life friends or a spouse who plays WoW too or are you bravely going it alone?
Kidlet has been asking me to play for quite a few years.  After I finally relented, she felt the amusement of me learning not only WoW, but computer gaming in general, was too rich to keep to herself, and thus, this blog was born.

10. Do you still find surprises in-game that you didn’t know were there? I recently saw someone selling a Wine Glass. How did I miss that! My bank alt needs one!
Everything in the game is new to me!  There have been a few things that Vier has said "I've never done this before".  Mostly when she had Molim out and we were leveling together while the RAF XP bonus was in effect.

11. Finally, do you think you’ll still be here when they pull the power and turn off the lights? I know I will.
I honestly don't know.  Up to now, I've thought that if Vier gets too sick to play, I wouldn't be able to go in-game.  The memory of her would be too painful, but .... .... we'll see.  I hope I never have to find out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Provide eleven random facts about yourself:
1. I have two different coloured eyes.  It's really noticeable in photographs because one is dark brown and the other is light green.

2. My hair is down to my waist.  Mostly because MCB [My Craft Buddy aka Red Bear] moved half the country away and no one else is comfortable cutting it.  Fortunately I learned how to put it up with a stick and now don't get headaches from scraping it into a ponytail.  

3. I really do hate shopping.  Even though it seems the only time I get off the farm is for medical appointments or shopping trips.

4. I am an avid paper crafter.

5. I am a cat person.  We're down to a reasonable two cats now, from an all-time high of twelve, when we had nine outside cats [farm cats] and three inside cats.  Even though Himself made a rule when we were first married that we could only have two.

6. Himself and I spent a lot of time up north.  Fourteen years in the sub-Arctic, including two years in the High Arctic. Which is why I like ravens.

7. Vier was born up north.

8.  We live on a farm, growing wheat.

9. We have two fruit orchards, Saskatoon Berries and Evans Cherries.  5,500 trees Himself and I planted by hand.

10.  I had a 22-year non-traditional career in aviation.

11. I've been on disability retirement since I was 40.  Now that I'm over 50 all of my friends are finally catching up to me and starting to retire themselves.  A few of them are finding the transition a bit difficult.  I think they should all play WoW!

Now I am supposed to nominate 5 – 11 blogs that I feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers.  I don't think this blog deserves the award and I am certainly not qualified to nominate one blog over the other! I am going to cheat [because it would take me two to five calendar days to find that many blogs that meet the requirements and figure out how to do all the cross-posting etc.]  

Instead, I am going to list some WoW blogs that are a fun read for me.  That is, not overly technical with a down-to-earth readable style.

Tome of the Ancient: Red Bear and Lurky Aunt, I think you'd enjoy her blog.  She belongs to the Old Ladies Raid Guild and is WoW irreverent!

The Daily Frostwolf: I long for the day I get "Navi Spammed" in game.  Though, I don't know how it could happen as she's Horde and I am Alliance, and I'm sure it would take me so long to figure out what's happening, that she'd leave in disgust before I could get my pic taken with her!

WoW Rare Spawns: The name says it all!  I particularly like her sub-title "... some of my own experience looking for them. I have screen shots, maps with locations and fraps videos of each rare"  If only I knew what a frap video was!

Plenty of Paladins: This blog is on my "to read" list.  From her description "...  this isn't a how-to blog, this is a place for a fairly casual player to post random adventures, ridiculous happiness, random rants and general thoughts."

Syrco Owl:  I found this blog when I was trying to figure out how some players got to look like the Owlkins that scared the crap outta me in Ammen Vale, but who I now think are super cool. Specially her post about The Whispering Forest, which I haven't been able to find yet! Maybe Ancient and Navi and I can meet there!

Alt:ernative:  is the other blog on my "To Read" list.  I found it while looking up how other players deal with their alts.  Although, most of what's written goes right over my head.  I'm not there yet, I still have a lot to learn!  Like what "faffing" means and why a lot of the blogs I've been to lately have the green "The year of FAFF 2014" badge on them. 

iRez: A Tourist Guide to Wow 

Bubbles of Mischief:   OMG - WoW and Game of Thrones!  WoW outfits replicating Khaleesi costumes!  swoon!

Done!  Both arms extended above my head and a little "w00t!" startled the cats.  I feel a small amount of guilt for breaking the chain [gawd how I hated chain mail, if I didn't perpetuate the chain, the guilt would get me, so I almost always participated], but, meh, with my memory I'll have forgotten about it soon enough, so the guilt won't keep me up at nights!

That's two posts in one day and the craft room calls.  

Later 'gators,

Nor