Honor's Code

We've started the process of formally merging the two guilds together into one guild and Wednesday the combined guild took its first steps in Heroics. We had previously killed Beast Lord, Hanz and Franz and Gruul on Heroic and we managed to get them down again with some effort. It is so funny how our comp swings from one night to the next. One night we will have healers (and shamans) coming out of our ears to the extent that some people switch to an alt, but the next night, we'll be looking for healers to log on and have one shaman. Such is life on the Casual Deck of the good ship Raiding. While we were raiding Wednesday, a coward committed an act of evil less than 10 miles from where I sat in my desk chair. #PrayersForCharleston, #PrayForCharleston, and #CharlestonShooting filled my social media. I was numb. This sort of stuff doesn't happen here, and certainly not this close to home. I went and kissed each of my sleeping children on the forehead and hugged my wife. Slee...

Today I'm handing over the blog to one of my guildmates, Savvy Mark. I'll be back posting Soon(TM). Without further ado, here's Savvy! Real life effects us all.       Everyone's reasons for playing MMO's is different.  What isn't always obvious when you start is the amount of time that you invest into it.  Not sure how long you've been playing? Type /played on your "main" and you will find some disturbing information.      Now do that with all your toons on all your accounts.  The total can be huge.  But is this a waste of time?  Unfortunately (or fortunately) we have no means of tracking time spent with our televisions in the "on" position.  If you are like me, you turn the TV on when you are in the house (and some sleep with their TV's on).      A little about me, I am an avid gamer going back to the days of the Atari 2600 (1979).  Adventure was my first foray into fantasy game...

I apologize for the lack of updates. Real life has intruded in a big way but last night we had one of those raid nights that you are telling stories about 2 expansions later. Real Life Stuff I was late getting online as we were negotiating to buy a house. Part of the real life stuff that is going on is that we decided to sell our house. It sold really fast. I mean sign in the yard on Wednesday, signed contract to buy the house on Friday. We couldn't really start looking until our place sold. The real estate market in my home town is extremely hot right now and if you put in an offer on a house contingent on selling yours, it will only be accepted if you already have a signed contract on yours. We've been looking for the past month, but with the market so hot, there aren't nearly as many houses on the market as usual. We faced the basic problem of what we could afford near town was either small or in a not so great area. The stuff that was big enough and in decent are...

Be Advised: this post is not releated to World of Warcraft in any way. We interrupt this Paladin blog to bring you a message from the man behind the keyboard. Hi. I'm the guy you know online as Honorshammer, and I'm asking for your help. The company that I work for just found out that we lost our biggest contract. This is generally considered a Bad Thing. We need to find new customers before the end of the year, or more Bad Things will start happening like layoffs or possibly even worse. This sort of has me bummed out. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of anything I can do. I like my job, and I like the people I work for. I really don't want to be looking for a new job anytime soon. I'm not a Sales or Marketing guy. That's not my gig. I write code, I dissect processes, I think in object models. These are desperate times, they call for desperate measures. What follows here is a basic idea of what my company does. What I'm hoping is that ...

http://www.townhallforhope.com/ This is a nationwide town hall meeting. Discover what’s happening with the economy, how we got here, where we’re going. Tonight at 8pm!

With the Holiday weekend, I missed the news of the passing of Dave Arneson . My condolences to the Arneson family on their loss. Mr. Arneson was the co-creator of the table top Role Playing Game, Dungeons and Dragons. D&D was a big part of my early life and it's really how I got into gaming. Today, I don't play D&D anymore. WoW is about the closest thing. Thank you for your creation, Mr. Arneson.

Matticus had a post about this interesting survey he found on Psyblog . I decided to take a few moments and see how I measured up. So what did the twisted bits say about Honorshammer? Your Top Character Strength : Fairness, equity, and justice Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance. Your Second Character Strength : Capacity to love and be loved You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you. Your Third Character Strength : Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith You have strong and coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe. You know where you fit in the larger scheme. Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you. Your Fourth Character Strength :...

I encourage you to go out today and vote. Vote your conscience. Besides the Presidency, there are many races for Senate, House of Representitives, and right on down to your City Council. It may even be the case that these local elections will have a greater impact on your life than the national ones. So get out there and vote! (If you need a little help with who to vote for, Honors recommends: http://www.focusvoter.com/ , but whomever you support, get out there and cast your ballot)

Allow me for a moment to take off the mask. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In the Cancer world, I'm what's called a Co-Survivor. That is the family, friends, health care providers or colleagues of those who have survived Breast Cancer. In my case it was my Aunt who survived Breast Cancer. I would encourage you to participate in the many fund raising efforts going on this month to help find a cure for Breast Cancer and to fund Mammograms for those who can not afford it. You can donate money to the Susan G Koman For the Cure, a grassroots organization of survivors working towards a world without Breast Cancer. You can find their site here: http://cms.komen.org/komen/Donations/index.htm Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Tankadin programming.

We will always remember those who lost their lives in the Terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.

From a WoW perspective, there isn't a ton for me to report since my last post. Working The Hunter Wednesday was my usual night off. We went to a party at a friend's house Thursday night, so I knew I would be getting on late. When I did log in, I found Dominion was in Mount Hyjal. Our Raid Leader was having some internet issues, so Thunderbolt (Warlock) and Fares (Hunter) were leading the run. Cfchief (Paladin) had taken my spot as the Tankadin. He was doing a great job. Previously, he had told me he had been watching my play to pick up some pointers on playing a Protection Paladin. It was really good to know I had helped him. Hyjal is a blast, but sometimes its nice to have a break. I worked on my Hunter a little bit. He's so close to 70 that I wanted to go ahead and get him over the hump. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm really close. He exists mainly to be a farmer for my Paladin. Once I hit 70 with him and get his flying mount, The plan is to fly him ...

You ever heard a story from your friends from a party or event you should have been at, but for whatever reason you weren't. This is one of those stories. Back before I got involved in battling the Burning Legion and becoming a Hero of Azeroth, I played table top Role Playing Games. I had missed the previous nights session, so my gaming buddies relayed the events of the night. It started out pretty normal. Our party was in Waterdeep. My character, a Bard named Pter was off playing at a local Inn. The others were investigating some mysterious happenings near the mansion of a prominent Noble. They were noticed by the guards the Noble has employed to keep his property safe. A fight ensued and the guards will killed. At this point, 3 young ladies entered the room where my friends were playing. They were friends of my GM's roommate. Small talk ensued, and the girls asked the GM, named Bob, what he did for a living. He replied that he worked for the VA. Bob then asked Larry, w...

I apologize for my lack of posting. Old Man Winter has done a number on me and I've been laid up with a bad cold for a couple of days. I'm feeling somewhat better now. Then last night, as I'm trying to tank a Kara Badge Farming run, my heating unit dies. We have a guy come out, and he determines we need to replace a very expensive part. Of course, he doesn't have said expensive part on him, and he's not even sure they have it at the shop. It looks like it could be Thursday before we get the heater fixed. It was already after 10pm when he left, so we decided just to stick it out with some extra blankets since my daughter was already in bed. I'm not sure if we will go to a hotel tonight.