Sideshow & Syrana

I’m sure you’ve seen this baby making it’s way across the blogosphere.  It’s sort of memeish but also a Blog Azeroth shared topic, which was proposed by Bible of Dreams.  I decided it would be appropriate to take a look at my answers on the very last day of 2009.

No, I wasn’t procrastinating.  Why do you ask?

Also, before we get into my answers here… I’m going to incorporate bloggish related things along with in game things.  Since, well, for the past year, blogging about WoW and gaming is another aspect of playing the game to me. (continue reading…)

… yeah, I failed at a catchy title there.  Actually, what you see above is better than what I originally wrote which was “Announcements and Reminders.”  *snore*

You could say my brain is a little frazzled.  Truthfully, this year’s holiday season has not been too bad.  I’m trying to pick out silver linings and such.  For example, work is a bit slow because I have fewer clients than normal due to dreaded funding issues.  BUT that means less people in crisis, which means I’m not pulling my hair out.

See how that works?

Anyway, I wanted to post up a bit of a rambly update and direct your attention to a few things.  As I said before, posting will be a bit sketchy until after the new year.  It’s part of my reward for the blogiversary and, well, it’s the holidays.  You know how it is!

Plus, you all have more fun things to do than read my craziness right now.  I know you’ll appreciate fewer unread posts in the feedreader right about now.  Heck, I know I’m behind on reading mine again.  (Big surprise, I know.)

Oh, guess what Sideshow got me for Christmas? My very own Amberlash! <3  Now I’m wrestling with the dreaded “to open or not to open” decision.

Alright on with the point(s)! (continue reading…)

This weekend, I was an achievement bull dozer. I plowed through a bunch of somewhat rare and hard-to-get achievements through mostly luck. Sideshow beat out the whole server to get one and closer to a title and my Mid-40s Priest got a few that I’ve never thought I’d get on any character.

Sunday also seemed to be the day that the Alliance took off in our battlegroup. I rode a wave of about 10 wins in a row in a mix of Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin for a few hours. A bunch of them were either 3-0 WSG wins or 1600-0 AB wins. We barely ever win, let alone shut the Alliance out. We also took Wintergrasp in record time on Saturday night, which also usually never happens since we are so outnumbered. I was in the group of about 4-5 siege engines that just tore through the east walls and then into the fortress door.

On Saturday, Sideshow also tripped and fell his way to a cool achievement. (continue reading…)

On the 12th day of Christmas World of Warcraft gave to me…
Twelve daily quests
Eleven new blogs to read
Ten soul shards
Nine flying mounts
Eight achievements
Seven battlegrounds
Six epic gems….

Breakout! (rap)
It’s Capwn.  Hijackin’ this jingle.
Although I ain’t jolly like Kris Kringle.
I’m here to bring a message to allll y’all
It’s Winter Veil season!
And I’m here for a reason!
Besides pwning ‘n owning with. my. skill.
I need to spread cheer… and goodwill.
Cause there’s a reason.
Yeah, it’s Winter Veil season.
You, me – we all wanta be geeeared out.
But that’s not what it’s all about.
The new LFG ain’t all about a larger pool a suckas, ya see.
Need roll, greed roll, there’s even a DE roll!
When I win the roll and woot
I don’t want no ninja stealin’ my loot.
My message, it’s got a reason.
Don’t be ninja’ing Winter Veil season.
Let me pass it back to Syrana ana right about now, right now.
Cuz you know she’s got a satchel full-uh soulshards and the gnomeboys do too…

Fiiiive dun~geon runs
Four random puggers
Three mini-pets
Two frost emblems
and a really nasty repair bill!

(Psst, if anyone wants to, uh, perform this and send me an audio clip… you’ll get… something.  I don’t know what yet, but if you are willing to bring this alive, you’ve got to be rewarded in some fashion!)

Much like in the real world (work, family, home, etc.) and in game, you have to define success for yourself.  And this goes for blogging as well.  We can look at everyone around us and try to live up to someone else’s measurements, but it really comes down to how you’ve defined success for yourself.

A lot of bloggers use some form of site statistics to gather information about hits, pageviews, referring links, keywords, etc.  But much like Recount, that information is useful when analyzed and applied properly.

We use Google Analytics here.  I like to look and compare month to month and also seeing a whole year’s worth of data.  What I won’t do though, is hold up those numbers against every other blog’s stats.

Why? (continue reading…)

I’ve hinted for awhile now at a contest being revealed today as part of the celebration of us being around for a year.  I wanted to put something together that not only celebrated us, but also love to the blogosphere.  For, without you, we wouldn’t have made it this far.

Many of the bloggers that are listed on our blogroll are not only readers of Sideshow and Syrana, but have helped spread the word about us.  We truly appreciate that!

We also appreciate each and every reader we have, and wanted to have some sort of giveaway as a “thank you” for reading.

Combining all those things in a cauldron led to the creation of the blog scavenger hunt!

All the answers can be found either within our blog or somewhere on a blog that is listed in our current blogroll.  (Hmm, descriptions might come in handy for this…)

Some will be easy peasy, some damn near impossible, and a whole slew of moderate difficulty.  I want this to be fun, with the right dose of challenge…

Prizes

This is going to take some work.  But let these shiny prizes motivate you!

First Place: 60 day gamecard for World of Warcraft
Second Place: $25 gift certificate for J!nx
Third Place: Your choice of a mini-pet from the Blizzard Store*
Fourth Place: Blizzard Authenticator (Remember, you get a core hound pup if you have one of these babies to secure your account now!)

How to Enter – You Must Play to Win!

The contest will run from 12/21/09 until 1/4/10.
We’re letting it run for 2 weeks since it’s holiday time and this will require some time to poke around a few blogs.

Winners will be determined by the most correct answers, regardless of when they were submitted.
Can’t find all the answers? No worries! Submit what you can answer.  There are 4 prizes up for grabs.

In the event there is a tie for any of the prizes, the winner will be randomly selected.
Either by pulling names out of a hat or /rolls or something random.

Submit your answer via email, subject: Blog Scavenger Hunt.
Sideshow even put together a handydandy contest form you can use!  Or, you may fill in the contact form for moi, Syrana, but his form is supa sweet.

Please do not answer in the comments… others will see your answers! Do post up any questions, comments, or concerns though.

After the cut will be the list o’ questions, sending you out to find an array of answers.  Get those fingers ready!

(continue reading…)

We interrupt normally scheduled posting…

*confetti*

Can’t help it, I’m excited to have reached this milestone.  I have some posts lined up that pertain to a year of existence (hilarious search terms, favorite posts, love to the readers and referrers, etc.) and I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane with us – whether or not you’ve been reading since we started up there’s sure to be something that you’ll enjoy!

Later today will be a post with contest information, so be sure to check that out!

All my other “normal” weekly posting may or may not occur over the next two weeks, with the holidays and all… just a heads up….

Happy 1st Blogiversary!

That’s right! Today marks exactly 1 year since I posted my first post here. Can you believe it?

I can hardly believe it, to be honest.

When we started this blog, I mostly wanted a place to share my fan fiction… fan fiction that I had started writing over a year ago.  I thought if I got in the habit of posting it, it’d help “force” me to continue working on it.  Seriously, it’s been difficult to have my head so filled with all of Aerissa’s adventures and not let them out.

I’d be lying if I said I posted them purely for myself. In part that is true, but I thought someone else might enjoy reading it too.  Since it’s not a story I can ever go and get published (yes, Blizz, I know very well it is your copyright) there really isn’t much for options if I want to share what I’ve created within Blizz’s world.

So to blogging I would go.

Sideshow and I discussed it and decided from the get-go to have the blog be open for various games, music, etc. even if we probably would focus more heavily on World of Warcraft.

Of course, I pitched myself as a warlock (which I am), but as much as I dreamed of providing useful information… the inevitable occurred.

We focused on entertainment.  Fun.  Humor.

The occasional controversial commentary would leave my brain through my fingers and get published.

But we were us.  We’re a bit quirky and joke around a lot in real life, so why be all serious in text?

The best part? We’ve met and gotten to know some AWESOME people. (continue reading…)

*hums*

If you are just joining us or looking for a refresher the entire series can be found here.

Generation 2: Aerissa and Caleb

Life moved on for the rest of the family after Brenden finally moved off the compound and in with Joanna.

Caleb’s training and manager finally paid off.  He was one of the most sought after athletes in town and one of the best paid at that.  He particularly enjoyed the income from product endorsements.  For a man in love with the outdoors, it was getting difficult for the rest of Caleb’s family to be fond of his new self.

Chrissy, however, paid no attention to his self-centered attitude.  If there was one person that could bring Caleb to his knees, it was his wife.  And, now his daughter.  The pregnancy caught the whole family by surprise. (continue reading…)