Images of Azeroth: 50,000 Words (Introduction)

November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo); a month where the English language (among others) is tortured, abused, slapped, tickled and polished by thousands of prospective novelists in mostly abortive attempts to write the Next Great Novel. The goal is ambitious: Write 50,000 words within the month of November.

I admire anyone who has the stones to attempt such a herculean task and am in bewildered awe of anyone who actually finishes it. Personally, I would love to attempt it; as with most anyone else on the Internet, I have an idea for a novel that has never seen the light of day. But if I am to be honest with myself, I don't think I would ever be able to properly dedicate myself to it and so it would end up being yet another project that I've taken on which never sees completion. I have enough of those already; anyone remember the Through Your Interface challenge?

However, Angelya over at Revive and Rejuvenate has come up with another Challenge that I, as a Photographer and self-styled Visual Artist, am very excited about. It's IntPiPoMo, or International Picture Posting Month. As a picture is worth 1,000 words, the goal for this challenge is to post 50 pictures during the month of November.

This is right up my alley.

So here we go. It's the 5th today, so I'll be posting 2 images per day for the remainder of November. But of course, it wouldn't be a true Battle Medic challenge if I didn't have some kind of unique spin on it. So rather than simply posting 50 different screenshots of our favourite virtual world, I will be posting 25 Images of Azeroth and 25 photographs or art projects that I have been working on personally (and no baby photos, sorry ladies). As well, I will be posting commentary and context with each image.

Look for the first post a little later today.

As well, on a personal note, I hope to get back to posting more regularly than I have been lately. Two posts a month on Battle Medic is unacceptable to me. I really appreciate those of you who have stuck around and kept checking the blog during this little unannounced and unexpected hiatus. Look for a lot of action here at Battle Medic over the next little while!

Images 1 and 2: Darkshore and Sturgeon Fog
Images 3 and 4: Grim Batol and Sunset in Copper
Images 5 and 6: Scoured Reaches and Pines #3
Images 7 and 8: Halls of Reflection and Sunset in Motion
Images 9 and 10: Stormwind After Deathwing and Of Light and Darkness
Images 11 and 12: Badlands Tree and Untitled Abstract
Images 13 and 14: The Greymane Wall and Grain
Images 15 and 16: Ahn'Qiraj and The Dock
Images 17 and 18: Atramedes and a Family Portrait
Images 19, 20 and 21: Dalaran, Pines #4 and Bonus Dwarfling Pic
Images 22 and 23: Ironforge Airfield and Pines #4 Source
Images 24 and 25: Gnomus Dramaticus and Tanya

Now Appearing on The Double O Podcast...

Last Sunday afternoon I had the pleasure to appear on The Double O Podcast. The lovely and talented hosts, Ophelie and Oestrus interviewed me, along with Ceraphus, Hydrawr and StineErino on the subject of balancing the two highly incompatible roles of being a Parent and a Gamer.

I gotta admit, I was really nervous before we started recording. Having never done a Podcast, or been interviewed for anything other than a job before, I wasn't sure how I was going to respond. I was really worried that I would stammer and ramble and not make a whole lot of sense. But the two gorgeous Ladies of the Spherical Letter made me feel right at home as soon as we started and the recording went very smoothly. I had a lot of fun doing it.

Oestrus asked me a very interesting and thought provoking question during our chat, and even though I was expecting the question I don't think the answer that I gave was as deep or as thorough as I would have liked. She asked me how my identity as a blogger changed as I became known as the Dwarfling's father rather than as a player. Listen to the podcast for the answer I gave, but I think that is a topic that I want to explore in a little more depth with a proper Battle Medic post at some point.

As well, in the Podcast I mention a post that I wrote just before the Dwarfling was born, Coping with Limited Play Time and Lofty Goals that you can read here.

Check out the latest episode at The Double O Podcast website, or download it on iTunes like I did. I'll be listening to it on my drive home tonight. I've got my fingers crossed that I don't sound like a dork.

Daddy, you aren't seriously killing Internet Dragons instead of
playing with me, are you?

Did you at least get some loot that I can chew on?
 
  

A Little Quiet Around Here

"I think writer's block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out." - Roy Blount, Jr.

I have not abandoned my blog, but it's beginning to feel a little neglected these days. In the past couple of weeks I have been having a very hard time getting quality writing done. I have been struggling mightily with every post that I try to write, and so my blog has been very quiet as of late. The noise of the crickets around here is deafening.

With precious little time at home that isn't filled with satisfying the demands of either the Dwarfling or my Wife and free time at work diminishing as we enter our busy season, I am finding it increasingly hard to find the time or inspiration to sit down and write blog posts. And when I do try to bang out some words, I find myself harshly critiquing things before even getting anything written and so never manage to get very far. I'm probably over-thinking things and making it harder than it needs to be, but words just aren't coming to me easily right now.

It really bugs me that this Blog is as quiet as it is right now. I take a lot of pride in Battle Medic, and to see it wither - even temporarily - is painful to me. I think about it all the time. Not posting feels like a failure, which makes actually sitting down and working on new posts even harder because of the pressure that I'm putting on myself to get new and excellent content up. Filler posts like these are okay, I suppose, but I can't imagine listening to me whine about not posting is terribly compelling to anyone.


WHAT'S COMING

The worst part is that I have a lot of great posts that I want to get posted. Each one has a start, or a concept in my Drafts folder, but I am finding finishing them very difficult. As a result I have slipped quite dreadfully from my goal of three posts per week, and am barely managing one a week at the moment. I thought that in lieu of actually giving all you Battle Medic fans actual content, I would fill you folks in on what I'm currently working on.

• A Dungeoneering Shaman's Journey to 60
• The Druid Dilemma talking about why I don't have a druid even though I've always wanted one
• An article on my Power Auras for Holy Paladins & Resto Shamans
• Holy Paladin Basics guides
• an update on Raiding
• an article on the Recycling of content (ie, the Troll Dungeons)
• an article on the current state of WoW
• Serenity Saz's 15 Days of Screenshots Challenge with a unique Battle Medic flair. I'm actually quite excited about this and looking forward to doing it.

BATTLE MEDIC'S GREATEST HITS

I picked up lot of new readers and new subscribers in April while I was doing the 20 Days of WoW Challenge. With that in mind and seeing as how this is a filler post anyway, I thought that I would share with everyone a list of the posts from the earlier months of the blog that I am most proud of. This feels quite self-indulgent, but I hope that someone who hasn't gone through and read Battle Medic from the beginning finds something interesting.

The First Annual Peevie Awards

What Makes a Main?

Blogservations: Random Thoughts on Writing and Warcraft

On Archaeology and the Trials of Surveying

On Heroics: When is the Nerf Bat Necessary?

Pushing a Boulder Uphill

Favourite Weapon

Professing on Professions

REAL CONTENT COMING SOON

I promise.

  

  

Dear Dwarfling...

I promised myself that Battle Medic would not turn into a 'Baby Blog' when the Dwarfling arrived.  Of course, as a new parent, a great deal of my waking (and sleeping, honestly) thoughts are devoted to this puffy, red screaming poop machine that is in my house now, so I think it's only natural for me to want to write about her.

On the other hand, this is a World of Warcraft blog, and I'm quite certain that most people don't come here for diaper talk.

So with that in mind, I've created a new blog: Dear Dwarfling... 

The concept for this blog is going to be a series of letters written to my newborn baby, describing her life and my reactions and observations of her.  I have no idea how interesting it's going to be, but if you're curious about Dwarfling news and photos, check it out.