Through Your Interface - Day 9, Your Character's Hometown

I've been slacking, so have a Through Your Interface post.

We all have the same starting zones where we begin our various quests, but where does your character actually hail from?

I haven't been able to figure out a good hometown for all of my draenei folk, been too lazy to stalk out a home front for my humans (though you all may see something whenever I finally release the story about my warlock and rogue), my druid's hometown is still a mystery at large that I really don't want to spoil quite yet, and while I could in theory post a picture of Ironforge for my gnome mage, who a) cares about my gnome and 2) wants to see another pretty picture of Ironforge? So since I don't have anything at this moment that I can rightly explain to you all, I'm just going to post the following images and leave you all wondering wtf I'm going on about.

Through Your Interface - Day 8, Vacation Spot

I'm still not finished with this Through Your Interface challenge? Ah well, have another!

If Azeroth was the real world, where would you vacation to?

This one is pretty easy: Gallywix's Pleasure Palace

It's a little oasis in Azshara. Hot, humid, and just the perfect little get-a-way for you hardcore industrialists out there. The compound contains a golf course, swimming pool, waitresses running about with booze...what else could one ask for?

The main building on the site has some pretty fancy lighting, which is right up my alley. The downstairs parlor has enough room and seating for you and several of your best homies.

The bedroom is littered with amazingly fluffy and wonderfully patterned pillows, comes with fancy lighting, the walls are covered in crazy wall paper that will drive you bananas (in a good way of course!), gold is strewn across the floor, and the bed is befitting for the pimp that you really are. Sleeping quarters for a king or queen indeed.

Did I mention that there's a pool? There's a pool. I could use one of those right about now. It even comes with inflatable horses! Yeehaw!

Seriously, my kind of place.

Through Your Interface - Day 7, Screen Shot of the Year

I'm buckling down and attempting to get another day of this Through Your Interface challenge done. Here goes nothing!

Show us the best screen shot you believe that you have ever taken and why you think it is the best (content, meaning, how you framed it, etc).

Alright, confession time. The image above certainly isn't the best image of the year for me. Heck, it's probably not even my all time favorite, but ladies and gents, I am stumped. I managed to draw a blank on a topic I myself came up with. This may be in part because I'm actually playing the game at this moment instead of obsessing over my overly huge pile of screen shots, or maybe it's partially because my currently file system is an absolute mess, or maybe I simply have to many favorites to be able to chose just one. Any way you look at it though, I fell short on this entry. I caved and went the easy route; I just chose something that was pretty and on hand. Will you ever forgive me?

Through Your Interface: The Official List

About a month and a half ago I threw out this one little challenge called Through Your Interface. TYI requires the participants to find 15 separate screen shots (or more, if they so choose) that match the topic given. General standards for such a challenge usually call for the participant to only do one topic a day, not necessarily consistently, but the Through Your Interface challenge's parameters are a bit loose. Do what you like but stay in the neighborhood of the structure. Can't be staving creativity, but absolute chaos wouldn't help create a theme at all! Or really be a challenge for that matter.

The participation in this project has turned out has been better than I could have possibly anticipated. Some folks are already finished with this challenge, some have yet to begin, and many (like myself) are still in the midst of working on finishing up with posting. The following is a list of blogs who have, are currently, or will be participating in this fun little project.


Finished
Postcards From Azeroth
The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition

In Progress
Dragonsworn
Revive & Rejuvenate
Jaded Alt
Dwarven Battle Medic 
Kamalia et alia
Moonkin Journeys
Isadora
Tome of the Ancient
Amerence Love WoW
Jaedia's Menagerie
Amateur Azerothian
The Grizzlemaw Gazette
The Ready Check
Altoholic
Red Cow Rise

Poky Joes *Pokes*
Spellbound
Unleashed Rage
Syrco Owl


If you happen to be working on the Through Your Interface challenge and do not see your name on this list, please feel free to drop a comment anywhere! Well, just about anywhere. If you put it in your sock drawer I may never find it after all.

Many thanks to those of you who have participated or at least have shown interest in this project. It has been an absolute pleasure to see the game through eyes that are not my own and it has definitely brought some very amazing blogs to my attention. Whether or not you choose to take on this challenge personally, I highly recommend checking out the blogs listed above. You never know when you'll find a new blog that you just fall in love with!

Stay creative, my friends.

Through Your Interface - Day 6, Favorite Line of Poetry/Lyric

You know the drill by now. It's time for another Through Your Interface entry!

Most of us have a favorite poet or song. Give us an image that you think represents your favorite line, or what line inspires you most. You should probably include said line and *maybe* give some explanation/reasoning behind it, unless you're feeling overly ambiguous.

"Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love? She'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home." ~ Malcolm Reynolds

Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

Through Your Interface - Day 5, Title of Choice

Once upon a time a title was a sort of great feat. It was a rare beast that only the most accomplished of raiders and the most dedicated of PvPers managed to earn. If you saw someone with a title, you knew that they were a hardcore WoW player. In this day and age titles are everywhere. You still get titles for PvPing and accomplishing certain things in the PvE environment, but you can also get some fairly nifty ones through simple grinding. There are also a few titles that are really neat and easy to get, but unfortunately no one uses those since they are a dime a dozen ('the Patient' how I wish you weren't so easy to obtain!). Everyone likes a bit of individuality after all. So that's what today's Through Your Interface post is all about.

Show us an image of you pimping your favorite title and give us a reason why you dig it so much.

I gushed a bit about this title in the last TYI post since it is indeed a hell of an achievement to get. While it may not quite have the reputation grind that say, the Insane has, but there's so much luck involved and you're battling against so many folk to win a fishing derby that trying to get the 'Salty' title is well, boarder line insane in itself. I love it because I worked my little Draenei tail off to get it, it's still fairly rare, and well, Salty Saz just has a sexy ring to it.

Through Your Interface - Day 4, Greatest Accomplishment

Today's Through Your Interface. Enter witty intro here!

Proud of a boss kill? Excited about taming that rare? Over the moon about getting a title? Show us your greatest in game accomplishment!

Why did I get the fishing pole instead of the trinket? QQ...

Once upon a time I may have considered my guild, Battle of Serenity, to be one of my greatest accomplishments (the fact that she lasted a little over a year with me at the helm baffles me to this day). I could choose a multitude of different raid focused achievements, various long awaited hunter pet tames, or I could highlight one of my various grinds. While there are many, many events and evenings that stick out on my mind when I reminisce over my many years in Azeroth, none are quite as potent as the day I managed to win that fishing derby down in Booty Bay.

Aggramar is a very old server; she is not only cranky, but she is highly populated. For several weeks I was tearing myself from sleep (for my sleeping schedule is odd) in order to catch both the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza and the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby only to be disappointed by the good luck and quick win of someone else. I'd steal the at the time boyfriend's computer, log on to Saz with all addons off (who had been positioned prior to falling asleep, just in case I was a touch late), and wait for the stress to begin. The day I snagged the achievement above was no different. The last 10 fish or so I had the shake syndrome thanks to our good ol' pal adrenaline something fierce. When I got my fish and hearthed back to the bay of the booty, I was surprised to see no one at the robot yet. Hastily I chose an item (whyyyy didn't I choose Hook of the Master Angler, whyyy?!) and the achievement popped. I don't think I've quite ever been excited as I was that Easter morning. Thank goodness for real world holidays bringing the server's population down a touch for a few hours.

The next day I managed to fish up a Dark Herring for the One That Didn't Get Away achievement I had the title that I had lusted over for a good year or two.

So there you have it, the hidden tales of Salty Saz. What a sea dog.

Through Your Interface - Day 3, Representing You

I felt ambitious enough to go screen shot digging this morning, so have part three of my Through Your Interface challenge.

Show us an image that represents who you are, either in Azeroth/Outland or in real life.

Who I was: the performer.

Who I am: a dreamer.

Who I long to be: unknown.

So I hurd you like links...

...so I gave you a link to a blog post full of links, so you can link while you browse links.

Before I get into this update post, for this is what this is even if it is now Saturday morning and not Friday evening, I must state that you should not expect any amazing writing in here. I'm having a sleepless Saz night. Sadly it's not one of those "OMG let's be productive!" nights. No, it's just a regular ol' "Hmmm, lets see how many times I can roll around until I become one with my blankets and turn into a permanent burrito." lack of sleep sort of night. I don't even have brain soup this morning, I just have chunks of brain mold...or something. I hope it's not really mold, I'm allergic to that stuff. *Insert look of "where the hell was I going with this" confusion here.* Right, updates.


WoS
- New poll up on the side. Click buttons and if you feel the need to discuss the content, go nuts in the comments in this post. I'll be writing on that topic soonish though, so feel free to hold your comments until then as well.
- The Photo Gallery has been updated with some Cataclysm screen shots. Alright, a small handful may also be a bit pre-Cataclysm (there are some shots from the events prior to the release), but the majority are from this expansion.
- Very minor information tweaks have taken place in the About Me section. I'm sure not many of you care about that, but it now sports a poorly lit image of me being ridiculous with a dinosaur (his name is DinoRAWR, btw)...you know, sans dreadlocks since I brushed those things out months ago now. I also felt the need to prove that I didn't look like a living comic book for some reason.
- Hoarders: Azeroth Edition will be back soon. I'm not sure where to pick up with it right this minute, seeing as though WoWInsider is currently covering mounts in I believe the Over Achiever column and I feel as if though I continue on with my Mounts Month theme that I would just be creating something that was a bit redundant. So, to push on with the theme I unexpectedly abandoned because I got flustered over coding and noticed that someone else was currently covering, or to hold off and just do up a list of another topic for now? Tough call, Batman.

New project: Through Your Interface - Well, the post can speak for itself. Here's the list of folks that I know of so far that have participated in the challenge and of the folks who say they plan to participate in the near future. Check 'em out and give 'em some love, eh?

Dragonsworn
Revive & Rejuvenate
Jaded Alt
Dwarven Battle Medic
Spellbound
Kamalia et alia
Moonkin Journeys
Red Cow Rise
Isadora
Tome of the Ancient
Amerence Love WoW

Edit to add:
Postcards From Azeroth
Jaedia's Menagerie
Amateur Azerothian
The Daily Frostwolf - Druid Edition
Unleashed Rage
The Grizzlemaw Gazette
The Ready Check
Bubbles of Mischief

If I miss anyone in this list, please poke me with a big stick. I'll be making a better stand alone post sometime in the next week or two featuring all the folks to let us look at WoW through their eyes.


Saz in Game
Well, after two rather blissful (albeit on occasion, stressful) months in Azeroth I am once again out of the game for a bit. In my short time back I managed to get three of my 80s up to 85, both my shaman and druid could probably be considered almost raid worthy, and I've bumped up a few of the alts up a couple of levels. All in all not too bad on the personal progress scale. Unfortunately there currently isn't a whole lot in the game for me seeing as though raids are not really PuG friendly, my shaman is residing in a dead guild and I have no will to move her, my druid is in a very active guild that I'm really not up to standards to raid with (yet), and over all I'm just having a hard to engaging myself in the "end game content" that is currently offered. I know quite a few of my crew members are also feeling the summer doldrums a bit, so a few weeks time away from our beloved pixelated selves is probably a good thing in the long run. At least I think and hope so.


Saz IRL
Things aren't too bad all in all. Health is improving, summer is more or less here, and there very well may be some pretty fun events going down in the fall. I really don't have any complaints other than I wish I was still in the habit of writing a bit more. That one complaint is a work in progress though. I can and WILL start writing again, one way or another.


I think that's enough useless babble for now. I hope you all have an excellent rest of the weekend!

Through Your Interface - Day 1, Favorite Hangout

Once again I've been slacking! I'll blame it on preoccupation with fun life things, actually playing WoW, and odd technical errors on my computer's side of things. Regardless, day one of my Through Your Interface screen shot thingy!


Find yourself perching in a particular tree as a druid? Have a certain hovel you like to hang out in on your undead rogue? Show us where it is, and why your character hangs out there.

Saz's Hangout

If you ever happen to catch me loitering in Stormwind on Saz these days (this is becoming rare, unfortunately) chances are you'll find me in this general area /dancing with my crew. Not quite sure how we ended up in this area, but much like the sewers of Dalaran of the last expansion, we all gravitate to this one spot to emote spam each other. I'm sure the other residents of the Dwarven District love us.

Kelebek's Perch

I don't know why, but I tend to like to perch here on my druid. I guess it makes me feel like I'm lording over the Trade District or some such. Really, I just like to people watch.

Home Tweet Home

I have laid claim to a certain house in Stormwind. Often I will be somewhere in this house late at night on any one of my many characters, and am generally found with someone in my bed. So very scandalous, I know. My Stormwind home is semi hidden, so kudos to those of you who can recognize this place at a glance.


Well, I guess you all know where to find me now. Please don't stalk me too hard!

Through Your Interface - 15 Days of Screen Shots

As of late I've been back into one of my anti-productive, nothing gets written funks. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that Azeroth has once again provided me with one excellent distraction, if my creative juices have been over tapped, or if I've simply become a bit lazy. It may very well be a combination of all of the above. However, I am posting right now to help combat some of this lack of blogging ambition for both me personally and perhaps even you.

I am posing a challenge to you all. This is a creative challenge that may not necessarily be writing heavy (though it can be if you so choose!), but it will require you to have some visual flare. I am offering you all a screen shot challenge. Fifteen days of screen shots that is; yes this was inspired a bit by Saga's 20 days of... challenge, but I wanted to do something with a bit of a visual twist.

Now, there are a few points that go along with taking on this challenge, so let me lay them out for you. I promise I'll try to make this process as painless as possible!

- All screen shots posted should be taken by you. If they are taken by a good friend of yours, permission to use the image and credit must be given.
- Get as creative as you like. *Most* shots should be of the sort that doesn't include the UI, but there are naturally a few exceptions, such as you wanting to show off an achievement pop or something of the sort.
- Edits and effects are fine, so long as they're not completely photoshopped and you can still very much tell that it's from World of Warcraft.
- Have fun with this challenge. You may participate in this as little or as often as you please. You don't have to post 15 consecutive days or anything of that sort.
- Link it up. If you participate in this challenge, please leave a link to your blog in the comments of this post so I can track who is all in on this. I'd like to make up a master list of those of you who partake in this little project and it would be a tad bit difficult if I can't find you all!
- Explain as little or as much as you want. While the meat and potatoes of this challenge lies within the screen shot you post, you may explain the hows and whys for your reasoning of choosing such an image or event. The screen shot should be able to stand on its own, but words are more than allowed to enhance the experience.
- You may, if you so choose, to do the topic suggestions out of order. Just be sure to keep track of the ones you have already completed!
- Lastly and once again, have fun with this challenge! This is meant to help alleviate writer's block and to give us something slightly different to work on. Be visually creative along with being word creative. Tinker with something you may not have explored before. Exercise a different portion of your brain for once! Just have yourself some good ol' fashioned fun, and be sure to hit that screen capture button while you're at it.

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1. Favorite hangout
Find yourself perching in a particular tree as a druid? Have a certain hovel you like to hang out in on your undead rogue? Show us where it is, and why your character hangs out there.

2. Player Housing
If you were to claim a place to call your own, where would it be and why?

3. Representing You
Show us an image that represents who you are, either in Azeroth/Outland or in real life.

4. Greatest Accomplishment
Proud of a boss kill? Excited about taming that rare? Over the moon about getting a title? Show us your greatest in game accomplishment!

5. Title of Choice
Show us an image of you pimping your favorite title and give us a reason why you dig it so much.

6. Favorite Line of Poetry/Lyric
Most of us have a favorite poet or song. Give us an image that you think represents your favorite line, or what line inspires you most. You should probably include said line and *maybe* give some explanation/reasoning behind it, unless you're feeling overly ambiguous.

7. Best Screen Shot of the Year
Show us the best screen shot you believe that you have ever taken and why you think it is the best (content, meaning, how you framed it, etc).

8. Vacation Spot
If Azeroth was the real world, where would you vacation to?

9. Your Character's Hometown
We all have the same starting zones where we begin our various quests, but where does your character actually hail from?

10. Your WoW Crew
Who are the people you hang out with day in and day out? Do you only hang out with your raid mates? Do you have a small, tight knit group of friends that you hang out with? Or are you a strange longer who just hangs out with your pets?

11. Profession of Choice
Show us an image of you doing what you like to do best.

12. Inspiring Imagery
Show us something that inspires you within World of Warcraft. This can be a character, a person, scenery that leaves you in aw, or whatever it is that strikes a cord in you. The inspiration it creates can be anything as well: Has this character inspired you to roll a certain class? Does a certain zone make you long to write a story about your character adventuring through that particular area?

13. A Fond Memory
Shed a little tear, grin a little grin, and show us an image that invokes a fond memory for you.

14. Place Swap
If you could be any of your characters, who would you be and why?

15. A Fairy Tale Image
World of Warcraft is often described as cartoony and looking a bit, well, fairy tale-ish. Take a screen shot that makes you think of a fairy tale - use Disney inspiration if you must! Feel free to edit this screen shot a bit to enhance the fairy tale feel, or just get super creative with that in game camera!