ZG Raid Information

Folks, thanks for coming here.

I was drafting a mass email in game, but I found I had more information to share than the mail system allowed.

Basically spoke with sillia in game this morning about raiding this weekend. Turns out they don't have many people on their end who are going to make it, but they were looking (specifically) for 1-2 druids and 1-2 mages. Others are welcome, but those are their specific class needs.

She also wanted to share some of the things they request we "bring to the table" as it goes. Their guild has spent a lot of time farming for potions/items/equipment that will help them defeat the later bosses (tiger/panther/spider bosses). While some of the stuff is easy to obtain, some can be rather tedious. Below please find an initial list of either mats, or finished items they have had a focus on:

Green whelp armor: this is required for all classes that can wear leather. I believe we have a few leatherworkers who can make this, however as long as we farm the required mats, they're more than willing to make the stuff for us. Mats can be found here:
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=12103

Blue pearls: These are used in some bomb that fears beats for 10 sec. These can be found in giant clams off the coast of STV.
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=10065
These are best to farm w/ a druid and/or warlock for either aquatic form, or unending breath.

Mana pots: These will be useful for longer fights in the zone, hakkar specifically. Sillia mentioned they expect to be killing hakkar rather soon, so if we don't have someone with this recipie, we should 5 man scholo till they can get it. Mats are here:
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=3394

Dreamfoil: This stuff is used in all sorts of recipies that we'll need. This will be a bitch to farm, but with a few people doing it, we should be fine. Drop locs here:
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5192

Shadow pots: I think this is used for the jindo fight, which is a "phat caster lewt" boss. Mats here:
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=17163

Elixer of poison resistance: An item used in the snake boss encounter, we should all be able to farm this as you get the venom sac's from the stupid spiders in Western Duskwood. And it's only a lvl14 item or something. Mats here:
http://www.thottbot.com/?i=13343

So, again, thanks for coming, and let's see if we can try to contribute something to this venture besides bodies.

See y'all in game.

CNN.com - Red storm ahead - Jul 15, 2005

China wants to buy some of our strategic assets... and our govt will let them.

CNN.com - Red storm ahead - Jul 15, 2005

"You have to hand it to the Chinese government, though. China has the audacity to demand that the United States' Congress allow this deal to proceed, despite the utter absurdity and contradictory position it holds, denying foreign ownership of companies in its country, including its energy assets. The Chinese also must have absentmindedly forgotten it owns nearly all of CNOOC and carries an unadulterated record of currency manipulation and unfair industry subsidization."

"..China has an astounding $700 billion in U.S. currency in reserve. Here's an idea of what China could do with that money if this administration and Congress decide to allow it to buy the U.S. strategic assets: $700 billion, for example, could buy all of this nation's top oil companies, worth an estimated $615 billion. It would still have enough money to buy two of our top defense contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, worth a combined $81 billion."

Holy crap.

"The object of China's strategy is inexorably to supplant the United States as the world's premier economic power," says Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, "and if necessary, to defeat us militarily."

"Laissez-faire economics can no longer disguise the potentially ruinous C'est la vie politics that define our relationship with China."

Support for England today

Found via: Are You Conservative

Where would the blogosphere be without 9/11?

As I'm sitting here drinking my morning coffee and having a donut that thought popped into my head. An odd thought, yes, but an interesting one (I think). As I can only speak from my personal experience, that's what I'll be relating here. I don't intend for this to be anything other than a stream of thought piece, so forgive me if it goes astray.

9/11 happened at a rather pivotal point in my life. I'd just graduated college in 2000, had a decent job that payed the bills, but I wasn't very happy with where I was. It was just one of those times where you're getting by. I was still getting used to work, I wasn't laying out any five or ten year game plans… I was happy living –in- the moment.

As I was on the east coast at the time, I was at work when the first plane hit. As I'm also a huge internet news dork (didn't read blogs yet though) I knew almost right away, and word started spreading around the office. Within a couple minutes we're all in the conference room watching TV. We all know what happened next. Within an hour management gave the go-ahead to leave and go home if we wanted. At the time we had no idea what was going on, and our offices were located right next to the states Congressional offices/Capitol building. I was gone.

Next thing you know I was making a whole bunch of choices to get my act together and become more independent and self-sufficient. The major items to come out of that push were a move to CA and my first gun purchase. Another was an interest in politics. I didn't feel like I could any longer ignore the assholes who were supposed to have tried to prevent something like 9/11 from happening. Yeah, yeah, I now know there really isn't much you can do to prevent something like that if the perps are crazy enough, but that sort of leads me to the next change. I stopped watching the news on TV. I stopped reading CNN.com religiously. I started reading blogs. I don't know that there was any specific reason or conscious decision, but one day I realized that I no longer was relying on the MSM for my news, and I also ended up being better informed than 95% of my friends (If I may be so bold).

Back to my original question, "Where would the blogosphere be without 9/11?". Based solely on my gut, I think it would be stillborn. I have to assume that my situation isn't unique. Oddly enough (or not) one of the first blogs I started reading was Cold Fury, who's tagline is "Harshing your mellow since 9/01". I wonder how many of todays bloggers were somewhat influenced, either overtly or subconsciously, by a desire to be heard, or at least to have their voice out there with all the others. The catharsis doesn’t have to be so much about making a difference so much as it is in being part of the discussion. That desire to simply verbalize is a nice snug fit with my goal of taking control of my life. Funny how that works out.

With that in mind I guess it only stands to reason that I frown upon people who's sole purpose in life is to make money from their blog. Because that was never the intention of my blog, I guess I looked down on people who had that sole aim. However, without a recepticle for those advertising dollars who knows how many less bloggers/voices we’d have and who knows how much cheaper our discourse would be. Compromises never were my strong suit. Heh.

In any case, I've started rambling. What I'm getting at is I think I've outgrown this thing. I made it for a purpose, whether I knew it or not, and I think it's been served. I've grown up, I've met some fantastic people, I’ve vented, and in the process I’ve learned a lot more about myself. That’s a lot to have asked of a stupid little moron-blog like mine. Plus, I think George Gaskell said it best in his recent site-down notice:

We're living in the midst of a cultural revolution. Right now, the Internets are like television circa 1945 -- a medium that has the power to change the world, but is still in its infancy. People are still figuring out what role it will play in their lives. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that a video of a kid in his dorm room lip-synching a Romanian pop song landed him on national TV. Before long, that sort of thing won't make national news.

But even though we are still at the beginning of the Internet age, there are people out there who are setting the standards for news, analysis, commentary and humor. The world does not need me to offer a pale imitation of sites that already provide such content.

I guess I’ll leave you guys on that note. I’ll leave the site up for the guest-bloggers in case they ever feel like ranting away. For me, this thing will probably just be relegated to hosting pics. Thanks all for stopping by and paying attenion while you did. Onto the next adventure...

Vicente Fox - You rat bastard. [Dave]

Vicente Fox makes an obvious racial slur and then tries to back down.

Fox made the comment Friday during a public appearance in Puerto Vallarta, saying: "There's no doubt that Mexican men and women full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States."

Did he just say....oh my he did.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Mexican and foreign news media have misinterpreted the remark as a racial slur. He said the president was speaking in defense of Mexican migrants as they come under attack by the new U.S. immigration measures that include a wall along the U.S.-California border.

Misinterpreted? As in lost in translation? 'Cause it seems pretty cut and dry to me...

"The president was just telling the truth," said Celedonio Gonzalez, a 35-year-old carpenter who worked illegally in Dallas for six months in 2001. "Mexicans go to the United States because they have to. Blacks want to earn better wages, and the Mexican because he is illegal takes what they pay him."

The difference is the "blacks" are here legally, and you Paco, are not. They should get the better wages because that's what living in such a great country affords. It's a competative market, and if it weren't for the illegal hiring practices, then competition would win out for the best labor, not the cheapest.

BREAKING: [Dave]

NEWSWEEK RETRACT STORY!

I'm sure this will be met with the usual "The evil Americans still did it, now they cover it up" from the hardline / islamofacists.

Ok Mullah, go kill some more people, whatever gets your rocks off, but looks out for the ones in Humvee's they're some bad mother F'rs...

I'm seriously perplexed, the DU crowd thinks Bush is a moron, the elite think Rove is a genius, and everyone on the outside thinks the US government is a conspiracy monster keeping them down. What the hell is that all about?

Sissy.

I think you are running away. From what? I don't know. I haven't talked to you in many months. I have been busy training to kill the same assholes who attacked us on 9/11.

"I frown upon people who's sole purpose in life is to make money from their blog."

Don't let other people ruin the things you enjoy doing. Money is THE driving force in our known universe. It comes before sex, and alcohol. I hate money. Unfortunately I need it to accomplish some essential tasks such as eating.

Well, my point is that if you enjoy blogging, then keep doing it. You wouldn't stop riding, shooting, snowboarding, or bangin' hot chicks just because other people get paid to do it, would you?

over and out.

What the fuck? [Dave]

Mike is what I'd consider a good friend, even though we live about 1000 miles away we chat online almost everyday. Now, he pulls this shit. What the fuck? You could have at least given me a heads up so I could send you off in gay porn fashion like you're used to. Now, all I've got is guest blogger access to a site you've abandoned. Even Amish is pissed, he writes:

Dave,
In between cursing the "English" and throwing bleech filled water bombs at their kids, I noticed that Mike was leaving. This crushes me, because even though it's a sin, he's the only man I've ever truly loved. (Besides Jeff Gannon) I'll say a prayer for his heathen soul, and then go snort some crank.

--Amish

See that Mike? The man who created the "Insta-Malkin--lanche" is pissed, and for good reason. Granted, we only wrote at a fourth grade level, but man that was my senior year. There's only one thing that can describe the heartache and misery of this moment, and that would be the lyrical stylings of one Motley Crue.

I could face a mountain
But I could never climb alone
I could start another day
But how many, just don't know
You're the reason the sun shines down
And the nights, they don't grow cold
Only you that I'll hold when I'm young
Only you...as we grow old