Sideshow & Syrana

Here’s a random collection of some posts I starred in my reader over the past month or so.  Ya know, in case you hadn’t seen ‘em.

Ravious of Kill Ten Rats poses the question of what makes one unsubscribe from a blog.  Even I tossed up an answer in the comments.

Tobold reminds new and veteran bloggers alike that reader quality is more important than quantity.

Klepsacovic of Troll Racials are Overpowered shares why blogging needs to be more accessible to casuals in his usual, brilliant, tongue-in-cheek way.

If you haven’t seen these sketches by Tami, you have to… and all the other sketches she posts up.  They are adorable and she has incredible talent.

Gnomer of Armaggedon’s Coming is running a contest for saving souls… either by polymorphing a warlock or creating a rehab program.  Although I don’t quite understand why Illidan is the poster boy for soul rehab, it’s Gnomer’s show and his rules.  I will definitely be submitting a rehab program.  I only have a few more days to finish it up!

Fulguralis of Killing ‘em Slowly shares his displeasure over Illidan being the warlock rehab poster boy.  Oh, and the reasons he’ll never enter treatment for his soul addiction.

Saresa of Destructive Reach shares reasons why it’s for the best that our toons cannot reproduce.

Player Vs. Developer takes a look at privacy implications of using RealID.

Samodean!  He worked diligently using “creative googling,” as he put it, to submit his blog scavenger hunt entry within 24 hours after it went live.

He did quite well too! Only 2.5 close-but-not-quite-on-the-money answers.  I’m almost glad he didn’t have a perfect score or y’all might think it was suspicious.  Or I’d have to question Sideshow to see if he sold Samo the answers or something.

He did answer the bonus questions right though! Woo!

Granted, he had the only entry… all I can say is lesson learned, I guess? Saved me some money at least…

I know a few people responded on Twitter suggesting I extend the deadline by a week when I tweeted this afternoon about only receiving one entry.  I had considered that over the weekend as the deadline drew near… but I decided not to do so.  I’m not sure if that would have actually resulted in more entries (especially if I hadn’t revealed the fact there had only been one).

And I woulda felt silly extending it if after an additional week there was still only one.

Also, I kept the promotion of the contest to the blog and Twitter because, well, I wanted it to be for our readers/followers.

Hey, at least this time there was an entry.  The last contest I attempted resulted in zero entries.

Baby steps, right Bob?

Well, if you still want to tackle the scavenger hunt for the helluvit, you may not want to look at the answers after the cut.  Otherwise, enjoy going through ‘em. (continue reading…)

Only about 24 hours left to submit your answers for the blog scavenger hunt.  I will accept submissions through midnight on 1/4/10.  Don’t worry if you didn’t find all the answers, submit what you have!  After all, there are 4 prizes up for grabs!

… 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…)

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…)

So the Hearts, Hands, and Voices Child’s Play charity drive is going quite well! We’re having a blast on Twitter with all the blame tweets.  Some are downright hilarious, others make me go “awww, sowwey!”

But here’s a little story about how I fail…

(continue reading…)

It appears that people need more time to submit entries for the contest, so I’m extending it by a week!  Here’s a recap of the contest details:

Win an Authenticator!

These babies are currently out of stock still.  I have one, and think it’s a great way to protect your account.  As careful as we may be, there are still some nasty tricks out there that could lead to someone snaggin’ your account name and password.

So, I want to give one away!

Rules and Other Technical Mumbo-Jumbo:

1.  Have fun with your submissions, but please, no obscene or inappropriate materials.  Those will be subject to disqualification.  I want to be able to share the winning submission!

2.  Valid email is required. You technically need an email address to leave a comment, but the submissions will be sent via email.  Plus, I’ll need to be able to contact you if you won.  No worries, your information will not be shared or sold.  But I will need to know where to send the authenticator!

3.  At this time, I am not limiting entrants based on region.  Far as I can tell, the only reason there are separate listings in the Blizzard store is regarding the shipping, not a difference in the actual product itself.  (And my instructions were printed in several different languages.)  If I should need to change this for any reason, I will make sure to update this post and announce it in a new post as well.

How to Submit:

1.  Show me how you show the world that you are a proud WoW player.

Yes, it’s really that simple!  The photos don’t necessarily need to include your face, so please don’t worry about that.  But I want to see those shirts, figurines, posters, books (out on the coffee table people!), etc. that identify you out “in the real world” as a bona fide Azerothian. 

*Please note, the images must be yours.  Sending images of shirts from the J!nx catalog, for example, will not qualify.  Pictures of you wearing (or displaying in some form) a shirt from J!nx, on the other hand, would qualify.

2.  One submission per entrant, please.

3.  Please send submissions to Syrana [at] SideshowandSyrana [dot] com; Subject – WoW Pride

4.  Cut off date/time will be Saturday, July 18th at 11:59pm CST.

5.  The winner will be selected by Sideshow and myself and contacted via email. This will allow us to make sure the entrant has a valid email address before announcing them on the blog.  In the event the selected winner cannot be reached (i.e. does not reply back) within a reasonable 72 hour period, a new winner will be selected.

If there are any questions or concerns regarding the rules and submissions, please leave a comment below or send me an email!  Now, go out and show the world that you play!

I’ve been trying to come up with a fun and different contest idea for a couple weeks.  After my Say it Loud, Say it Proud: I Love WoW post, the comments on it, and other posts and comments around the blogosphere… it got me thinking… a lot of people hide the fact that they play.  And others show the world subtle (and not so subtle) clues.  So…

I have (unofficially) declared the week of July 5th through the 11th to be WoW Coming Out Week. Celebrate it anyway you want.  There are no achievements or titles to be gained, only the satisfaction of not hiding your hobby!  Feel free to leave comments here or post on your own blog about how you’ve chosen to celebrate this week.

“Hey, Syrana… someone said there was a contest or something?”

Oh right!

Win an Authenticator!

These babies are currently out of stock still.  I have one, and think it’s a great way to protect your account.  As careful as we may be, there are still some nasty tricks out there that could lead to someone snaggin’ your account name and password.

So, I want to give one away!

(continue reading…)

…not Syrana.

AYUMi @ flickr

Over a month has gone by since I entered the Global Creative Writing Contest.  Some of you may remember me posting about it.  I was brainstorming and not feeling satisfied with what was developing in my brain in relation to the amount of time I had to crank it out.  So, I had decided to submit a selection from Aerissa’s on-going story.  Parts 6 through 10, I felt, could stand on their own as a short story.

I know there had to have been hundreds, if not thousands, of entries.  I also know they couldn’t possibly send out feedback to everyone.  But, how awesome would it be to know that Chris Metzen held my story within his hands… well, then it would mean he had cast it aside.  So I suppose that isn’t so awesome anymore! Heh.

Anyway, since submitting my entry in early April, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the announcement of winners.  To be honest, from the begining I felt my entry was not high enough quality to be in contention for the grand prize.  But, I thought I might have a shot at an honorable mention.

I mean, I have been out of the writing game for quite some time and only recently have gotten back into it (with regularity too!) when this blog started up.  I know there’s room for improvement and the only way to improve is to keep writing.

Oh right, back to the announcement.

So, just as I see Greyseer’s tweet about the winners being posted (finally, since we’d been waiting all day!), Sideshow asked if I wanted to go out for ice cream.

I say, “Let me see the winners first.”

I figure, if my name is on there = celebration ice cream.  If my name is not on there = consolation ice cream.  (Either way, ice cream is win.  Well, actually, frozen custard.)

So I look through this list.  My name isn’t anywhere.  I’m not even sure if the people listed are people I know of or not.  (What are real names?!)  I start to have some pangs of writer insecurity.  I share these feelings to get them out of my system quickly.

Will I stop writing? Hell naw.

At the end of the day, I still won because I followed through on entering a submission.  I still love to write.  And, I still know there are people that enjoy my writing.

I do wish a hearty congratulations to all of those whom were selected and I look forward to reading your submissions…. to enjoy as well as learn from.

The Link Connection has some fun and exciting things for you today!  Contests, trivia, writing, confessions, dreams… We’re talking awesomingly random today!  (Yes, I made that word up.  Yes, there is a random theme.)

I admit it, I am random.  I’m a warlock, I’m allowed to be.  (Yes, that’s my excuse and I’m stickin’ to it!)  True story, I will…in conversation… like In. Real. Life. say “Random” then proceed to say whatever popped into my head.

Contests! (continue reading…)