Neato!

So I decided to start blogging again because I missed it, and then I couldn’t think of anything good to write. Typical, yeah? Navi stepped in and offered a hand this week when she tagged me in her post for the Real Neat Blog Award.

The rules are pretty familiar: there’s some tags and some questions and some more tags. Oh, and I couldn’t get comments to work but I wanted to say that Navi’s idea to go 500 years into the future and see what’s up is awesome and I never would have thought of it but now I have to steal it.

Here’s Navi’s questions for me:

1. What would constitute a perfect day to you?

I like tranquility. The older I get, the more I just want peace most of the time. A perfect day would start with a really good cup of coffee and a little bit of chill in the air and a porch or a balcony where I can sit quietly and think. Then some quiet time with my family (which is itself a miracle). Definitely a restaurant in there somewhere because I admittedly love going out to eat. I’ve had a lot of perfect little moments lately–if I could string them together into one whole day, that would be it.

Honestly just a peaceful day with my family and some good food thrown in. It really doesn’t take much to make me happy.

2. Which super villian (if any) do you secretly admire or feel sorry for?

Mmmm, Magneto maybe. Not admire so much as feel sorry for. You can look back at his history and see why  he’s become what he’s become, and that’s kind of heartbreaking.

There’s a whole ‘nother thing about villians I think are amazing villians. I hate them, and I am allowed to hate them because of how evil they are–I guess that’s kind of a backwards admiration? Agent Smith from The Matrix, Voldemort from Harry Potter, and Negan from The Walking Dead. The thing these three have in common is that they aren’t redeemable characters. They are unquestionably, undeniably bad, which makes them incredible villians.

3. If you had to recommend one book to read, what would it be?

Ugh, that’s really hard, limiting it to just one. There are 2 books I read early in my childhood that had a lasting impact (as in, I still read them today), so I’m going to have to mention both. First, A Wrinkle in Time, and second, The Giver. These are books I am encouraging my daughter to read because they’ve stuck with me for so long. If I were a middle school English teacher and was allowed the choice, these books would be in my curriculum.

4. What is something you wish you could do but you can’t (eg draw, sing)?

Draw for sure. I love art, I have all these images in my head that are amazing in my head but they live there because I’m not an artist. To try to reproduce what I picture would be to do a disservice to anyone who saw it.

5. If you could play with someone in World of Warcraft, who would you play with and what would you do with them?

With anyone or with someone that already plays? That’s difficult. For as social as the game is, I tend to spend a lot of my time alone (and I’m perfectly content with that). If I’m choosing anyone, probably my little brother, just because I rarely get the chance to spend time with him (he’s not a gamer and he’s a very busy band nerd!).

If I’m choosing someone famous, I think it’d be fun to play any video game with Chris Hardwick. He’s all Nerdist and The Talking Dead now but I remember when he was on G4 and I think that’d be a blast.

6. What was the kindest thing anyone has done for you in a computer game?

Ahhhh there are so many things, honestly. I’ve said it so many times, but the WoW/Blizzard Twitter community of players has been an amazing network of people for me. There are many of you guys who have supported me in everything from game-related stuff to things with my kids to my husband’s heart attack…the list is long and full and I’m very blessed by you guys.

The most demonstrative thing any one person/group of people has done for me was when my previous guild, Syzygy-Sargeras, sent me and my husband a gift basket following his heart attack full of healthy foods he could eat and thoughtful notes of encouragement. I literally cried; it was pretty amazing.

Also, the little leadership team of that guild when we first started surprised me with my good friend Pepe because they knew I wanted him, and it still makes me smile every time I see him.

7. If you could choose your spirit animal, what would it be?

I like to think more of a Patronus (a la Harry Potter) than a spirit animal, and I think that would be an owl for me.

Yeah, like that! Googled and found Owl Patronus by Tribalchick101 on deviantArt. Pretty cool.

Okay, so I hate tagging people cause I never like to feel like I’m putting someone on the spot OR leaving someone out, so as usual with things like this, I will leave it open-ended. If you feel froggy, I’d love to read your answers to my questions! Here, your own blog, Tumblr, Twitter…skywriting? Maybe not skywriting. 😉

My questions…sort of questions? Prompts?

1. Pick one of your favorite characters (from anything–movies, games, books, TV) and tell me why you like them.
2. Write a Tweet to your future self.
3. Are you more of a social player or a lone wolf?
4. What new game are you most looking forward to playing?
5. What movie are you most looking forward to seeing?
6. Share one of your favorite quotes.
7. You are given the power to change one thing about yourself–what would it be?

And thank you again, Navi. ❤ Thank you for always making me feel like part of the community. You’re a star at what you do, and we’re all better off for it.

 

About this Whole Blog Thing…and everything else

Where to begin.

Legit the first pic I ever posted. Hai Pengu.

Tastes Like Battle Chicken has existed for almost 8 years. That’s a really long time when you think about it. Lots of things kept me writing: the community (especially Twitter! <3) the Newbie Blogger Initiative (remember that?!), my friends at the time.

And lots of things kept me from not posting, but let’s not dwell on that.

I’ve missed this. So here I am.

Where is Here?

So I’ve been on kind of a WoW journey in the past few years. Left my guild of 6 years to join a new one, raided with that guild–dysfunctional family that it was–for 2 years, left that guild and transferred servers for the first time to raid with a new guild on Sargeras only to leave and join yet another guild.

Yeah okay. The point is, now I’m a shaman and I play in <Crisp> on Baelgun. And for the first time in a while, I’m pretty happy with where I am and what I’m doing.

Probably should’ve stuck with balance druid, though.

What Now?

Now we play and we raid and we chat on Twitter and we run Mythic+ and do world quests and complain about the legendary system and then complain about the legendary nerfs and post screenshots and get frustrated and get excited and all the things we’ve always done.

Cause that’s how we do, and it’s all right that way.

 

August Challenge: I’m a Collector

July Recap: Something About You

WOW. I can’t even begin to express how blown away I was with everyone’s responses to the July Challenge. Ranging from photos to stories, lighthearted to serious, the blogosphere impressed me so much with this challenge and inspired me to open up, too. Hold onto your helms and cloaks, guys; this is a long recap!

Warcraft Street told us about a personal gaming history that has touched several games–and platforms–resulting in a love for Simulation games and MMOs!

The Harpy’s Nest presented 4 personal facts including a love for hats and a super interesting story about her grandma you should definitely read.

Azerothian Life broached a serious–and very personal–topic discussing rape culture in World of Warcraft, specifically the unfortunate ease with which we (the community in general) throw around the word “rape.”

Tome of the Ancient takes us to “Long Ago,” when bloggers rode horses…no, really, the picture is great, and here’s to passions, new and old.

Sugar & Blood discusses names, what’s in a name, what’s not in a name, and everything in between!

Image Heavy combined two of my favorite things: pictures and lists. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this particular blogger likes photography!

Shards of Imagination covers a lot of things, including honing English through gaming (imagine, you can learn while doing something you like!) and where the name “Rakuno” originates.

Arsenic and Old Mooncloth dives into a very personal look at why she plays video games and the bullying, fear, and self-esteem issues she’s overcoming.

Anka Huntress tells the story fairy-tale style of how she met and fell in love with her warrior, Aiden.

Kamalia Et Alia shows off MAD GENIUS CRAFTING SKILLS. Seriously. Science and afghans meet in an unprecedented display of coolness.

The Frugal Gamer shows us life in pictures–not surprising, since he’s a photographer! Actually, a photographer and music lover, which for reasons I won’t list here, is exceptionally neat in my book.

The Dancing Tree offers a really cool photoblog of sorts–an interesting glimpse into the blogger through a bunch of great pictures!

The Butterfly Gamer tells us a bit about being Australian, parenting teenagers (egads), and, of course, gaming!

StarShadow is a gamer, a trained textile conservator, and a stay-at-home mom–now that’s a nifty combination!

The Sisterhood of Kia gets real, discussing experiences and awesome opportunities that have given her an interesting perspective on how her personality influences how she plays.

Getsu’s Sanctuary offers nothing short of a coming-of-age story and how a year can change a life!

The Daily Frostwolf brings a moving account of how facing deaths of patients has reminded her to take nothing for granted. Three tissue warning, guys.

Flask Half-Empty is excited about launching a new career and life as an educator and the things she’s already learned. Heck, I think some of the excitement rubbed off!

Bubbles of Mischief posted pictures of some of the various adventures she’s experienced, from skydiving to Pisa!

Update to add! The MMO Melting Pot joined in! Meet Hugh, Becca, and Johnnie in the 2-year Melting Pot celebration post!

I told you it was a lot! Some incredibly interesting, moving, and funny stuff in there, I highly encourage to check them out!

August Challenge: I’m a Collector

I think everyone knows that I frequent Twitter. As I said the other night, Twitter knows everything. Yesterday, when I was looking through my bags realizing that I needed to fix my space situation very, very soon, I posted a picture of my inventory on Twitter. As it turns out, a lot of people have opinions and systems and ideas about how and why they keep things.

Do you cling to materials in the hopes of always having what you need, or do you store things for the sake of nostalgia? Is your inventory or storage neatly organized or do you rely heavily on search tools to find what you need? Do you collect pets? Mounts? Gear? Memories?

So this is your challenge: I want to know what you collect in the game or games you play. However and why-ever you loot, keep, store, organize, whatever you hold onto, or even if you refuse to hold onto anything–tell me about it! Remember to link to me or link your blog in the comments.

World of Warcraft Isn’t Real, And My Name Isn’t Ambermist

Heads up, this one’s long, personal, and maybe sort of pointless, but it’s been swimming around in my head for a long time, and since I did just ask everyone to tell me about themselves, it seems relevant.

This post has been in my head for months–as a matter of fact, I started writing it there the day I came back to this blog, but I kept coming up with reasons not to flesh it out and post it.  When I came up with the July Challenge, it was on my mind, and then I read this post at Tree Heals Go Woosh (which is, by the way, the best blog name ever). It got me thinking about all of that stuff again since the end of Wrath/beginning of Cataclysm brought a lot of this to the forefront for me.

Over the course of Wrath, I learned so much about WoW. I’d been playing half-blind for a couple of years, I realized, and with the leap into blogging, I suddenly had a world of information and experiences at my fingertips. As an expansion, Wrath encouraged that exploration, and I honed a lot of my skills there.

See, I knew my stuff. >.>

I had a lot going on in my life during that expansion, too; a lot of change: my father-in-law passed away from cancer, my brother-in-law had a heart attack and a stroke, my daughter started kindergarten, and my son was diagnosed with autism. I was stressed out, at my highest weight ever, dealing with my own issues on top of everything else, and profoundly insecure.

I started using WoW and its many, many things to do as an escape, but more than that, I started to find my identity there.

July Challenge: There’s Something About You

Last month, I challenged you guys to tell me a story about something that has happened to you in game. We all have those stories that we like telling, and here are a few. Pull up your story rug…

Ivy4Life told us about a D&D experience that started with “a large and….. naked troll is following us with a bag over its shoulder with two large balls inside” and left us hanging on “our wizard being stuffed into a bag, in the hands of the troll.” I have a feeling there are a lot more stories lurking here.

Suzita shared an epic EQ2 moment when a group of friends found themselves stuck–stuck at a door. There was nothing to do but laugh–and kick some butt. Thankfully, they got to do both!

Ninevi related an experience that hits a little close to home! I have a habit of getting stuck in terrain, and Ninevi tells the story of her and her gnome rogue buddy (gnome rogues ftw, I might add) and their precarious–and hilarious–experience of being stuck on a boat near a group of Horde in Tanaris.

Thank you for telling us your stories!

Ambermist & hubby Ultraking IRL

Now, for the July challenge: