Of course, a little competition always helps to motivate me... so now it's now a RACE to 70!  Boostah's druid, Tupelo, has gone from 48-58 in 2 days, and if he gets to 70 before I do... I will never hear the end of it!

So here I go.

So much for my plans of cleaning the apartment and going shopping this weekend... I'm not leaving my desk except for the occassional trip to the fridge!

Do I think I can get to 70 by the end of the weekend?  YES!

I'm already 67 and three-quarters!  Only 2 and one-quarter levels to go!!

TUPELO, you are going DOWN!

Heck, I shouldn't even be typing this... I gotta get back to my Mastery quests!

/charge!

On an unrelated note, during one of my Shadowfang Keep runs, I had a party member telling me to stop wasting mana on CC-ing the undead mobs. My opinion is if you have a CC, and enough mana to spare, CC the extra mob. Any thoughts on this? Should healers purely save mana for heals? My CC probably saves the tank and/or dps from some damage, until they can FF on it. Granted, for a drood healer, throwing roots to CC a target which could be sapped or sheeped is a different issue.

Back to my topic. I have now completed my second gnomer run, and have yet to receive any drops I can use. I've seen 4 rare cloth armors, 1 uncommon wand, and 2 uncommon cloth armors drop over these runs. Any of those 7 items would be an improvement, but I couldn't seem to win a loot roll to save my life. Whenever it was an uncommon battle axe or mail leggings, I rolled 85+. The other clothy in my party last night received the Spidertank Oilrag , the Acidic Walkers, the uncommon wand, and an uncommon cloth bracer. Amazing how he/she was that lucky, to steal all my loot. It must have been because he was a shadow priest... So I understand it takes time to get the drops I want (I ran SFK probably 8 times to get the Feline Mantle and when I get into the raiding scene, it will be even worse, but I think it's ironic how some people get very lucky with their item rolls. Don't get me wrong, when I finally got that mantle, the previous runs were totally worth it. I just need some sort of mantra to say when that rogue needs my cloth leg armor, and says oops wrong button. I'd like to hear about some item you spent a significant amount of time running instances to get, and whether or not it was worth it in the end to you.

Lauren & James are fab to work with.. I highly recommend them.

Enjoy the teaser. New ep is out next week.

Lesser Heal 3:

Avg. Total Possible Healing: 3819HP

HP Healed/Point of Mana : 2.214HP/MP

It takes around 57.5 seconds to cast 23 Lesser Heals, so approximately 66.4 HP/Sec healed.

Heal 1:

Avg. Total Possible Healing: 3883HP

HP Healed/Point of Mana : 2.277HP/MP

It takes around 27.5 seconds to cast 11 Heal 1s, so approximately 141.2 HP/Sec healed.

Heal 2:

Avg. Total Possible Healing: 4058HP

HP Healed/Point of Mana : 2.474HP/MP

It takes around 20 seconds to cast 8 Heal 2s, so approximately 202.9 HP/Sec healed.

So basically Heal 2 is my most efficient, but rarely do I like to wait to cast the heals, but this calc might have swayed me into using Heal 1 as my main heal now. Well that's all for tonight!

-Bremere

Hello readers. I know it’s been quite a long time, and I have no excuse for it, but I feel as though I actually have something to “write about.”

So I have a friend, let’s call him “V,” and he’s one of my close gamer friends. Of course, I know him in real life; he’s not one of those online buddies. We’ve been friends for a while now. But until recently, I have found out this little “thing” he suffers from, I believe a lot of people suffer from it, too. In real life, he would act like the quiet, shy nerd that he is, but on the internet, he would try to act like some hard-ass.

It’s funny, really. He would go off on his friends about the stupidest shit. I sit there, watching him do that, and I’m like, “Wow, you’re an ass.” This doesn’t faze me a bit other than the fact that he is a coward. But, you know, he is still a friend, and you can’t have enough of them.

So V and I have been playing a private server of World of Warcraft for a while now. Eventually, another friend of mine tells me to switch to the real servers. Convinced, I told V, and he agrees to switch to retail with me.

Everything was going fine for these first few days; we pirated some gold and leveling guides, and decided that the both of us would meet up in Ogrimmar at level 13. So lo and behold, I’m sitting in Ogrimmar, a level 13 warlock, waiting for a level 11 priest to level twice, so then we could level together. It’s already nice enough that I’m waiting for him, right? Considering how most players would just go on and level without you, this is something very friendly.

Not only that, but I have been waiting for him since we played on the private server. He would tell me to get on, and then just leave me waiting for him for half the damn day. He would be sitting there, configuring his damn addons, and making some cookies for himself, while I’m getting my ass ganked in Honor Hold. I don’t know what friends would do this deed, but someone willing to do so must be rare, right? Once we finally get to questing, it’s already late at night, and he decides to play something else. Doesn’t this piss you off?

And guess what? I didn’t do anything about it; I just let it go.

So let’s fast-forward back to the present now, with the poor warlock sitting in Ogrimmar. And guess what the priest decides to do while leveling? He decides to bitch about how hard it is to solo, and that he’s some victim, and the world owes him a great big apology. Honestly, it can’t be that hard to solo as a damn priest. They have a bubble, they can heal, and they have spirit tap. And whilst bitching to me, he tries to convince me that this is my fault. MY fault? Are you fucking serious? After carrying him to level 60 on a private server, and generously, patiently wasting my time waiting for him, he tells me that it is MY fault he sucks at retail?

Boy oh boy, he just crossed the line right there.

So he got an earful of me. He heard everything from my point of view, and guess what he does? He tells me, “You’re on your own,” then storms off into a little hissy fit. But, that’s what people always do. Once they lose, and they can’t take it, they leave!

If you ask people this question directly, they will usually answer that they dress for themselves - after all, that is the only self-respecting, dignified answer to give right?

I don't buy it, I don't. There are only a few people I can think of that this would truly apply to.

I think we all dress for others. Otherwise, why would you change into trackpants and a comfortable hoodie the moment you get home from a day out or from the office? If you truly dressed for yourself, you would wear in public what you wear on the weekend when you know you're not going to be seen in public for the day. Now this logic may seem harsh and uncompromising, however I am using it to illustrate that we take into account many factors in how we dress.

If we dressed for ourselves, then why do labels matter? Sure, you pay a price for quality. But quality can only take you so far, and then the $500 price tag starts to look a bit ridiculous. I often wonder at those fashion houses (think Gucci or Versace) - do they sit around a table and say 'ok, this dress cost $100 in total to make, including materials and labour. Since we are a high-end fashion label, we will need to charge $2100 for it, so it keeps with the rest of the price range.' - Ok I'm sure they don't exactly spell it out like that each time. But you get the point.

Something I have been seeing a lot of lately as I drive to work through the city, is women wearing running shoes, such as Nike and Adidas sneakers to work with their suits and panty hose, with their 3-inch heels being carried in one of those enviro shopping bags.
At first I thought, 1. It just looks ugly. 2. It's admitting self defeat - that the shoes are too difficult for you to wear, even to work. So it makes you look like you shouldn't be wearing them at all.

However, upon thinking about it a bit more. I started to give these women a bit more credit. They are walking to work, looking a bit silly - but they don't care. They would rather be more comfortable getting there than putting up with unnecessary pain.
Perhaps they are not wearing the sneakers to work purely for comfort, but perhaps their high heels cost a lot more than some Uni student's cars are worth, and they don't see the financial sense in wearing their aesthetic investment out on the pavements, or through rain, snow etc.
Although having said that, I would take a punt that at least 80% wear them for comfort. Fair enough. I don't think I could do it, but I guess I must be vain enough to care what people think. I can admit that.

So back to others - does that mean these women are dressing for their work colleagues, or clients? That is fair enough, as the professional world, particularly when dealing with clients, demands competitiveness. Who after all would feel comfortable handing over a $4000 cheque for two days work to some legal firm with a lawyer who barely cares to dress themselves appropriately? The dollars are paying for the image as well. The image is that of quality, assuredness, confidence. No Danny Danuto grey suits swimming about.

My friend who works for an accounting firm told me that their boss told them that they have to wear their suit jacket on while they travel to work. Just in case a client sees them step out of their car at the petrol station or walk to the front door. Even in summer. Once they are in their offices and are not seeing clients, this rule no longer applies.

The other weekend I went nice and early, 8am to be exact, to the Farmers Market, which is hosted at the exhibition grounds. I was driving through the fog and being guided by a security team (which isn't usual at the farmers market).. and I saw herds of families dressed as if they were going to church. In what appeared to be their best gear.. at 8am in the morning at what was essentially the show grounds. They were all heading to one building. The women had that religious sect type hair that is long, un-coloured and either braided or in a high pony tail with an old fashion scrunchie. They were wearing either long dresses or skirts that were to the ground. The men wearing suits.
I thought perhaps I stumbled across some mass-baptism ceremony or a cheaply located wedding.. bit at 8am?..

As I drove away from the farmers market (which I eventually found). I noticed at the corner near the intersection a massive electronic bill board. It read: "GIVING GODS WORD TO THE WORD: Jehovah Witness Convention Sat & Sun".. It shouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Which brings me back to the original question - do these women really want to dress like this? Who is telling them to do so? God? Their sisterhood? Their husband, pastor or priest? They seem to happily walk around in public dressed slightly old-fashioned.. so perhaps they are dressing for themselves? Is it what they feel comfortable with?

This is nothing new, nothing earth shattering. Just some simple truths.. If we are truly honest with ourselves - who is it we are dressing for? Our husband or wife? That cute guy who works down the hall from you? Your boss so you can get promoted?

For your friends, your colleagues? Or are there a few people out there who honestly dress for themselves and proudly wear the curious looks passers by will give you as you strut around in your 1990s doc martins that are still perfectly good?
Bless them. If nothing else, they make the rest of us look better. There I said it!

Basically, as you can see from the title, it involves spamming lesser heals whenever necessary. I generally through my highest rank of renew on the tank, and the next two highest ranks for everyone else. While it is challenging to not have to revive anyone in a standard PUG, I managed to pull this feat off a few times. The deaths which occurred were almost entirely due to me being OOM. Either a patrol came by, the pull was done before I had full mana, and there was one or two resulting from me becoming overzealous with my renew's on non-tanks. I consider myself an above average healer, but obviously we all make mistakes. My largest one to date was due to my reluctance to use flash heal.

For whatever reason, I hate flash heal. End of story. I know I will eventually have to learn to use it, but it bothers me so much to use an inefficient heal. Sometime during levels 20-25, I began to throw in an occasional Heal, it was now a much more viable option, a) my group members had more health, and b) i was beginning to invest in Divine Fury . I'm not sure how effective my technique actually was, I'm going to experiment tonight with max rank lesser heal and rank 1 heal, to see how much I heal for on average, and then take into account the mana regen I would get from the pausing between rank 1 heals. So, either later tonight or tomorrow I will update you on how poor of a tactic the lesser heal spam is, so until then...happy healing!

If anyone has any good stories about low level healing, please comment them, or email them to me and I'll post them later. I'm always curious to read about unbelievable healing events, or even healing gone wrong, whatever it may be.

-Bremere

My name's Brian, I'm currently in college, and began playing wow this summer. I have a variety of characters because I alt-oholic, not sure if that's defined or not, but basically I constantly create new characters. My highest is a 41 warrior, but my favorite is my draenei priest, which I plan on sticking with, I play on the Dark Iron PvP server. While I'm relatively new to WoW, I have been playing, and mostly healing, in MMORPG's for the past 4 years. I started with FFXI, getting to 57 on my white mage before quitting, a brief stint of WoW ensued, followed by Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars, and Eve Online (no healing in this one haha). So I do have a lot of healing experience which I can bring to the table, just not much from WoW. Anyway, that's enough about me, hopefully I haven't bored you away.

I have a few thoughts about what to do with this blog, mainly it is to discuss healing tactics at the different stages of the game. I want to comment on the differences between healing in Warcraft and other MMO's, but that won't be a common subject. I plan to gather information about different efficiencies at the different levels, as well as some of my own tactics (which maybe not be unique) for the different instances. While I will be focusing on healing as a priest, I have leveled druid to 33, and eventually plan on leveling a shaman too. Hopefully in a few months, I can give my own opinions between the healing classes. I'm aware others have already done this, but I rarely share opinions with the main websites I visit. I'm open to suggestions if people want me to talk about a specific topic as well, however, my knowledge is not as broad as I might like, while I do spend a lot of time researching WoW, I have other interests too, which brings me to my next point. I'm fairly obsessed with WoW currently, so there should be a plentiful amount of posts.

That's enough of a rant for now, if you have a WoW related blog, post a link for me, I'm using interested on people's opinions of various topics, so any additional reading for me is a plus!

- Bremere

If any of you happen to be an Alliance member on Dark Iron, feel free to shoot me a message, group invite, anything

Learning From Laundry

By Amy Strecker

(I thought it was only fair to write one of my own too!)

My grandmother, Mama Kay, was an incredibly generous woman. She had a gift for helping people with grace and humility, and she was never ashamed to take on a dirty, menial task if it meant reaching someone in need. The priest at our small church had fallen on really hard times, culminating with the burning down of his house. As a part of the tremendous group effort to help him get back on his feet, Mama Kay offered to do his laundry. For months, every Wednesday she would pick his laundry up at the church and have it waiting for him on her back porch on his way home. He was extremely grateful for her help and she took on the task with pride and dedication. (Image found here)

One Tuesday afternoon as she picked me up from school she said we needed to go by the department store. "I need to buy some underwear and make sure they're the exact same kind as the information I have here." I read the notes Mama Kay had made in her little spiral notepad and noticed they called for men's underwear. Since Mama Kay had been a widow for 20+ years and had only daughters, I was a bit perplexed about the purchase. She explained, "You know I do Father Pete's laundry each week, and I've noticed that his underwear are in need of replacing. He doesn't have anyone looking out for him at home these days and he has too much on his mind, so I decided to discretely help him out."

(Image found here)

Mama Kay and I found two packs of just the brand and size she needed. She would never have embarrassed Father Pete so overtly as to present him with the new drawers or suggest replacing the old ones, so over the next three months, every other week, she would slip out a pair of Father Pete's worn undergarments and put a new, clean pair in his laundry basket for pick up. I was the only person she told about her plan, and in doing so she taught me two important lessons: the value of service to other, no matter how unglamorous; and the importance of maintaining the dignity of those you serve. Mama Kay was a role model of dedication and humility -- examples I hope to pass on to my own grandchildren one day.

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Why do you think they have an armed policeman behind a desk there? It's definitely related to the concept of "going postal," a phenomenon that arises when there is one line too many, one officious employee too many (oops, it's break time; I mean one too few), and one piece of identification that you are lacking to transact your business (but that the website didn't really mention very clearly).

If you truly mean it that you want to become a patient person, just say a little prayer as you head out to the MVA and step into the patience-production-lab. There is no way to survive without the Holy Spirit's guidance. It's just not possible.

While you wait in line you will acquire the gift of patience -- or be handcuffed by the policeman just waiting for the chance to throw you in the pile of people who have threatened violence in the last four minutes.

And when I go there I am struck by the fact that I speak English and have a flexible schedule. What must this be like for the people for whom English (and triplicate forms) are a second language and who actually get their pay docked (or lose their jobs) if they are not at work on time?

The only consolation for a trip to the MVA is the fact that the truck dispensing tacos and pupusas produces what is arguably the best meal in town (and it's under $5).

See article from The Guardian

This mass has been seen by some as a reinforcement of the Catholic Church’s fervent commitment to dealing with the issue of child sex abuse. However, other groups and individuals have denounced its private and exclusive nature, suggesting that by the church simply selecting the four individuals invited, there was no opportunity for open debate and reconciliation.

The group known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests held the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, a Protestant Church in Boston.

According to the group's website, their mission is:

"to spiritually prepare, ordain, and support women and men from all states of life, who are theologically qualified, who are committed to an inclusive model of Church, and who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to minister within the Roman Catholic Church."

The Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement decrying the ceremony.

Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, has rebuffed calls to change traditional church teachings on the requirement that priests be male.

Read the entire article here

He asks a priest for his opinion on this question. The priest says after consulting the Bible, "My son, after an exhaustive search I am positive sex is work and is not permitted on Sundays."

The man thinks: "What does a priest know of sex?"

He goes to a minister... a married man, experienced... for the answer. He queries the minister and receives the same reply..Sex is work and not for the Sabbath!

Not pleased with the reply, he seeks out the ultimate authority: a man of thousands of years tradition and knowledge... A Rabbi.

The Rabbi ponders the question and states," My son, sex is definitely play."

The man asks, "Rabbi, how can you be so sure when so many others tell me sex is work?!"

The Rabbi softly speaks, "If sex were work... my wife would have the maid do it."

Found on the Humor Archives

Dungeon party
A dungeon party is a group of players who are together in a party to accomplish a goal in a dungeon.
There are different reasons to party
- similar level characters party to gain experience, items, etc.

- high levels party with lower levels to help with quests, usually boss quests

Primal DarkstarsBR party from Yeti Server video above.

- fun - sometimes you party in dungeons for fun and do crazy stuff

The Dungeon Party
Parties can consist of any player classes of any levels of any number but usually standards exist for xp/jp/leveling type parties. I will ignore high level pets because they are NOT standard.
the usual 8 player party
- 8 is max, max damage, max killing speed if all players are decent
the quad
- 4 players together as a quad to get good xp at decent spots that spawn a limited number of mobz but fast (3 mob areas in pp etc)
- 3 players as a trio - see above
- 2 players as a duo - see above - usually involve good pets

Party abbreviations
see the abreviation post for more
dp = dungeon party
lf = look for
dplf = dungeon party look for
lfdp = looking for dungeon party
mobz = your enemies, monsters, mobs
dd = damage dealer
tank = someone with high health who can take most of the brunt of the mobz anger
puller = someone who brings mobz to the party to be killed
ss = stamina saver (double xp/jp)

Party class roles
1. the healers
- cleric type character as primary healer - note that 2 healers is not always needed...
- kahuna types as a secondary healer for the most part
- the breeder types - heal pets
2. the buffers
- the kahuna type - buffs are great for parties and used to be standard but now that the rebirths have plagued the servers kahuna types are not always available
- the cleric type - well since clerics are standard for parties in my mind, so are their buffs. (wisdom and intelligence are not useless)
- the dark magician type - buffs are great but not essential
- the battle summoner - at high levels the auras make pets stronger - not essential but helpful at high levels
- soul breeder - buffs for pets are nice but not essential
3. the tank
- at lower levels I still think a good holy warrior is the true tank but at higher levels usually these can tank
- holy warrior / knight / soldier - the true tanks - essential at low levels
- the evoker - high damade + hp = decent tank
- the assasin - can tank at higher levels
- the champion - can tank at higher levels
4. the damage dealer - dd
- i think any class can be a dd but if i want a true dd I look for warrior class
- warriors are not essential so any class can be put here
5. the puller
- any class can pull
- be nice and if you are not healing or dual summoning or tanking, pull
- any class can cast cancel to pull, use low level chips, or use an r1 bow
- a puller class type (bow class) is not essential because any one should pull

The Must Have members:
1. cleric type as primary healer
2. someone to tank, preferably a holy warrior/knight/soldier unless r4+
3. someone to pull - does not matter who - just not a healer or dual summoner
4. everything else can be filled as per your desires

My ideal party at r2/r3
1. cleric type
2. kahuna type
3. holy warrior type
4. whomever
5. whomever
6. whomever
7. whomever
8. whomever

My ideal party at r4/r5
1. cleric type
2. kahuna type
3. holy warrior type tank
4. dark magician type
5. battle summoner
6. soul breeder
7. evoker/champ/assassin/holy warrior type #2/bs #2/bow type
8. any other except healer #2 or kahuna #2
- more pet classes if they use their level or higher pets are good

Party basics
- be patient, parties fill
- be nice and if you cannot stay an hour and people are likely to use SS say so before the party gets going
- if you are in a party and find you have to go before SS is up and you have a little bit of time, shout for a replacement and tell your party
- if you will need to go away from the PC a lot during the party, tell them or DON'T PARTY that time
- if you have to go afk for a short time tell the party and if they ask you to log, be nice and do it
- bring your own supplies - pots, scrolls, ss, wind pots
- wait for all party members to be present to run into dungeon together unless someone says do not wait - dungeons are dangerous without buffs
- pay attention in the party - if you would rather watch a movie then farm and watch, do not party
- bring chips - everyone gets lak - bring the chips people agree on. if you normally use soul, bring force or luna anyway - everyone should donate ~ 100 chips per hour
- ANYONE can pull - even a cleric type can pull if you have more than one. even a tank type can pull if u have more than one. pet classes who are dual summoning should not be made to pull. the lowest lvl dd could pull if he does the least damage
- Do not use Fear or Head Breaker unless absolutely essential. i.e. save the healer.
- Do not use pet skills on a boss, this often has the effect of taking agro from the tank and creating chaos.
- Use luna chips on boss mobs, this gives everyone the chance to do maximum damage.
- Before using/leveling a low level pet in a dp, ask if other members of the party are ok with it.
- If you die in a dp, don't abuse the healer, they are usually doing the best they can. Remember, if they don't heal and other members of the party die, they will usually die too.
- Watch the healers mana, scroll when needed, don't wait to be asked.
- Assassins generally make the better boss pullers, the hide skill allows them to lose the adds easily while the tank takes the boss. It is quicker to hide rather than log.
- Sometimes chippers need help, if you're attacking a mob and it's not chipped, chip it if you have the chips.

Remember these are more generalizations about what usually is the case. i know cms can tank, it just doesnt usually happen.

Visit the metaforum here

The first one is here.

The second one is here.

The third one is here.

As I woke this morning I thought back to a situation where I could have potentially dedicated myself to a deity. I'm glad I didn't, because the truth is I'd make a horrible dedicant to a deity. I'm very casual about my relationships with any deity. I put the occasional offering out, but when it comes down to it, for me any relationship I have with a deity is ultimately not about service to the deity or its various fellow worshippers or the tasks it wants me to do. For me it's about the bargain. It's what can I do for you that will get you to do something for me. Or it's about forging a relationship of mutual benefit and friendship.

The role of priest or priestess isn't a role that fits me. While I can respect that people are called to that role, I couldn't ever see myself serving a deity in that way. Likewise I find the concept of being a god-slave unworkable for myself. I recognize that it might fulfill the needs someone else has to be in that role, but for me, it could never work and there's a fairly simple reason for that.

I'm blasphemous. I'd always question and challenge the god. When I was a Christian, long ago, I was always dissatisfied with the idea that I had to submit to some nebulous force that had all the answers and was willing to let people suffer in order to prove themselves to it. The comic Preacher, to me, represents the most accurate depiction of the Christian god, a cruel tyrant who seeks to force others to love him because he is fundamentally unable to deal with his own sense of fear and loneliness...so he creates a permanent co-dependent relationship with humanity, in order to get them to love him, while also tormenting them. I could never understand why a god would want unquestioning obedience and so if I couldn't give that to the Christian god, why would I give it to another god?

The posts I wrote above reflect that as well as my own beliefs about the gods. I agree with the Buddhist conception of deities, which is that they are ultimately enslaved and attached to their own power and consequently can't operate outside of what they represent. They becomes filters and doorways to access deep concepts, but in doing that they are also can't evolve or become anything else...unless of course they have interaction with human beings. By being served by humans they get access to experiences they might not otherwise have. For example, Invoke a god and what you do is provide a gatway to yourself, access to your energy and experiences. Of course you get access to that deity's energy as well and that can be useful for some people, but there's always a price. I've seen that price paid and the effect it's had on the people paying it, and I'm not sure the price is worth any power received.

I prefer bargaining to service, because service is ultimately submission. There is no guarantee you will get anything for your service, but with a bargain there are set conditions. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm a friend to a deity or demon...some people have argued that they prefer to create relationships with such beings that are friendly, but there's a question they don't ask, which is whether or not the deity/demon even comprehends the concept of friendship, or if it does, have they considered that the deity/demon might have an entirely different concept of friendship than what you have? They might think of you as a cat or a dog for instance.

So I go with bargaining. If I want something and I find I can't accomplish it through my own resources I find a being who can accomplish it, and we talk. What does it want in return for accomplishing something specific for me? In Purson's case, he wants a dedication to him in my next book on space/tiem magic and his sigil on the cover of my solo occult books. Fair enough, I can do that. I'm happy to give him credit where credit is due.

In the last nine months I've been working with Babalon. In fact, the situation I was reflecting on today was a possible dedication to her. Working with her has been challenging. She definitely demands a lot when you work with her. Last October when she made it very apparent that I would be working with her for a year in my element of love balancing work, she told me it would get harder before it got easier and it did get harder before it got easier. Even now as this working is descending into the final three months there are definite challenges she has for me. I wouldn't have it any other way. She told me she'd be my guide for the year long love working, that she'd help me get balanced about love. And she is. At one point I did dedicate myself to her, but in a moment of clarity I realized I hadn't dedicated myself to her, for her sake or my own, but someone else's, and she agreed that such a dedication wasn't something that she wanted. She is still with me for the next three months, perhaps even beyond, guiding me in my journey about love...and her price for it is not service to her or tasks to be done, but rather simply to know that I will continue doing the work for the course of this year and beyond to keep myself balanced in love and to really understand how to manifest love for myself and to others. I can live with that...and it occurs to me that a deity with that understanding of me is a deity I can respect because that deity isn't necessarily out to have my service, but does want some kind of understanding to exist.

In fact, my experience with babalon shows me that experiences with deities are subjective and end up occurring at exactly the level that is needed for a person. While one person may very well need to be a god-slave to a god, another person may just need a guide for a year. And yes it does boil down to need. I think a very important question any person needs to ask about serving a deity is: What need within myself does this service fulfill? There is always a need being fulfilled. Certainly working with babalon is fulfilling some deep needs within myself...needs that are becoming balanced. Could I have fulfilled those needs without working with her? Perhaps, but I believe it would've taken a very long time, whereas working with Babalon brought the situation into detailed focus. And so perhaps those people that seem to pay a price in my eyes, aren't really paying that price. They serve the deity in the way they do, and yet they get a need fulfilled, a need which they may or may not be conscious of, but yet if that need went unfulfilled...I think it comes down to an essential issue of identity, which is how much a person's needs define the interactions and experiences a person has, and who/what those experiences occur with.

I watch Lupa and her growing relationship with the spirits. We are definitely going on some different spiritual paths. Yet I also see that her spirit work is definitely fulfilling needs within her. It's helping her refine her path, serve other people, etc., but it's also meeting some needs within her. She seems more balanced to me as a result of doing the spirit work she's doing.

As for service...I think my own service is not to a particular deity or whatever concept it represents. My service ultimately goes to the communities I am part of, the people I interact with, the choice to help someone find his/her potential and realize it. That is my service...not to any one being or belief, but rather to the realization that we are all connected and so if we can help each other grow and realize the effect we have on this planet, on the other life forms on this planet, and on each other, we can choose to make that effect be beneficial instead of detrimental.

Yesterday when I heard that the beta came out I seemed to develop a very strange speech impediment, no matter what I said everything came out as “Beta.” It was frustrating for the people around me but I wasn't really fazed by it. If this has been happening to you, you should to go to your local World of Warcraft website and read the beta patch notes while taking deep breaths. This approach was right for me but may not be for everyone, some side effects may include: headache, nausea, upset stomach, loss of voice, and in rare cases becoming giddy as a schoolgirl.

And then it was time... time to see if healing really was for me.  As I played my Hunter, I'd BEEN healed plenty of times, which was always a pleasant experience.  I'd even cast some renews on myself occassionally, but I'd never had to watch a tank, know whether to use Greater Heal or Flash Heal... all those sparkly yellowish ability icons all looked the same to me!

And I made a mistake... I jumped right in, thinking "I can level as a Disc/Holy priest, right?  They have Holy Fire and Smite!"  This is not true, at least not for me.  I couldn't kill ANYTHING.  Either Outlands was way harder than I remembered it being, or holy/disc is not the way to quest.  So I figure, I'm left with a choice:  Go shadow and don't try being a healer til I hit 70, or be holy and ONLY do instances.  Hrm.  Neither of those sounded much fun... so I compromised.

I went Shadow/Holy!  I was, and still am, a noob priest.  But this seems to be working for me.  I went as deep into Shadow as I had to so I could get Shadowform... and then everything else gets poured into Holy and Discipline.  This is about what it's looking like I'll end up with by 70 (although I won't keep it at 70 for long): 12/18/31

So far, it's been going well.  I am not having a problem with my healing numbers, and I am also not having any problems finishing my quests.  I have luckily learned that I do, in fact, love healing... and seem to be doing it pretty well in my instance runs, even though I'm still learning lots and lots every time.  Although it does feel a bit like "Whack-a-mole" sometimes, it is fun!

I look forward to hitting 70 and going full out Holy and see what it's like to be a REAL healer!