This one is a tough one for me. I’ve already written a post about my favorite weapons for BAST, so that’s out of the picture.

My absolute favorite items, the letters I get from the Elephant attached to everyday items are hard to link to on Wowhead.

My next favorite would have to be the letters from various NPCs that came with various achievements and rewards.

Those are also somewhat hard to link to, but after looking at the letters I’d saved, I picked out my favorite letter (even if the mount that came with it can’t be defined as my “overall favorite”).

After obtaining the achievement What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been, you are rewarded with a Violet Proto-Drake.

Art by breakbot at deviantART

Now, the Drake itself is pretty badass, but my favorite part about it is the letter that comes attached from my favorite Dragon Aspect…

With the drums of war pounding in the distance, it is easy for the denizens of Azeroth to forget all that life has to offer.

You, on the other hand, have maintained the dignity of the good races of Azeroth with your ability to remember what we fight for. To not celebrate our victories is another form of defeat. Remember that well, reveler.

May others be inspired by your good cheer.

Alexstrasza the Life-Binder

What about you guys?

Throughout my time in WoW, there have been a lot of memorable moments, from downing bosses with my guildies to spending time with the Elephant, to earning achievements with my friends and more. However, there’s a few in particular that still strike me as moments where I go, “Wow! That was great! I’ll always remember that!”

And, since a picture is worth a thousand words, I have a few.

Shade of the Elm’s first ever Yogg-Saron kill. Something we’ll always remember. And extra special because…

…we got our 10 man drakes! The RP at the end of the quest when downing Algalon is amazing.

And speaking of Drakes… who can’t remember the effort and tears that go into getting your Frostbrood  Vanquishers?! No matter what expac you got them in, a lot of hours and effort go into getting them.

And, last, but certainly not least, when Shade of the Elm celebrated their First Birthday, we ended the celebration with a streak through Stormwind!!

As much as anyone hates to admit it, we were all complete n00bs when we started out in MMOs, whether it be EQ, Rift, or WoW.

I was definitely a nub when it came to WoW. I’d watched some friends at college play, and had been interested in playing for a while, but resisted. Obviously, resisting failed. I still remember what I was doing the first time I played WoW.

Morgayn and Calin

A friend gave me a Free Trial card, and while cleaning my room one day while getting ready to pack for college, I downloaded the game and started it up. I sat on my bed and spent hours on the official WoW site looking at classes, races, and more. I wanted to make the most amazing character I could in my head. I had her story all planned out. I decided to roll a Tauren Hunter named Morgayn (and named her pet cougar Calin) over on Detheroc.

I caught on to the class, the spells and the questing mechanics fairly quickly. What I remember eluding me the most was the concept of gear. Whites, greens, blues, purples, oranges… I didn’t get it. So, I ended up buying a complete set of white leather gear from a vendor in Ratchet while questing, even though I vaguely recall picking up a green here or there.

I’ve since become so interested in the game and its lore that my friends will call me “The Oracle” and ask me questions about the game and quests before others. While I’m definitely not as knowledgeable as others, or as knowledgeable on the new content since the Cataclysm, I still love the game.

I started blogged way back in 2001 with DeadJournal with my best friend, and then migrated soon after over to LiveJournal as soon as a friend from school got me a code to join. I was always on there–lurking in the communities, joining a few here and there, and updating like mad, thinking that people cared all about my life. It was sort of the precurser to MySpace, come to think of it. Though, it was a great outlet for a difficult time in my life, and a very good way to keep in contact with some of my closest friends (before Facebook ever existed).

But, eventually, I tired of the community, and stopped writing in my journal. I kept a few paper journals here and there for various reasons–usually just to keep my creativity fresh, sometimes to organize my thoughts.

And then I got into the Google Feedreader to keep track of some blogs I was reading, such as B3, R4L and Ramble Rori, among others. Nowadays, my feedreader is so full that I check it every day just in case. Following B3 and R4L inspired me to start my own blog… eventually.

The end of 2009 inspired me to start my cooking/weight loss blog. I’d been having a lot of trouble with medications and health complications on my former 40 pound weight loss, and gained it all back. I thought that keeping myself accountable via the internet was a good idea. I don’t update my cooking/weight loss blog as often as I would like to, and have really been trying to get on top of that.

Since I enjoyed blogging so much about the recipes I was cooking, I decided to try joining the WoW blogging community, since they seemed so robust and pretty cool, based on what I’d seen on B3 and more. And the community IS as awesome as I thought! I love getting comments from others in the community, and being able to share my thoughts that coincide with their own–much like this.

So, the long-and-short? I love blogging, and I like the community, and I’m glad I started way back when with DJ and LJ.

So, without further ado, here’s Day 1!

Day 1 entails an Introduction of myself. Now, I could direct you to my first post, where I give a brief introduction of myself, or I could direct you to my Autoblogography from a previous BA:ST, or even direct you to my various pages about me.

But, to be fair, I guess I’ll give a little out-of-game description of me, despite how much I hate giving a description of myself!

I’m a graduate student in corporate educational design. TL;DR?It’s the process of analyzing a group’s (business, or school, or even government) needs, and then designing and developing new (or improving upon old) instructional materials, usually with technology, and then putting these into practice and evaluating how they hold up. I graduate this summer, and have been working my butt off on some pretty heavy-duty work this semester along with developing my portfolio for graduation.

It’s something I’ve been interested in since I was an undergrad. I love it, I really do. And I’m blessed with a job where I do just that. It’s also really cool that my co-workers also fall into the plethora of geek and nerd interests.

I have quite a few health problems, and I am trying to lose weight thanks to some of said health problems. I won’t get into details, but normal days can be very trying thanks to them. I keep another blog based upon my weight loss, and the recipes I create to help facilitate said weight loss.

I have a neurotic dog that is slowly adapting to a normal life (poor thing was abused and a stray), a demon cat with a loving side (also adopted), and then there’s the Elephant’s tarantula, Esme. I have a huge fear of spiders and scorpions, but I’m slowly getting used to Meeda. (Emphasis on the slowly.)

Speaking of the Elephant… He’s the most amazing thing in my life. I am lucky to have found him. We met just before I was thinking of leaving Graduate school and moving back in with my parents (a few states away), and we hit it off instantly. We rolled our Druids together, and, well, the rest is history. Every day with him is an adventure, and I couldn’t ask for a more supportive and loving man. We know we’re soul mates, regardless of what others think of the concept. We do pretty much everything together, both in-game and out, and I love it.

And that, in a nutshell, is me outside of game and my crafts. Bare bones, as it were. Stay tuned for the second part, “Why You Decided to Start a Blog”.