Blaugust – Page 22

Plate Dress

July 6, 2018 by Belghast

You would think a work week with only two days in it would be a breeze to get through. You would be wrong, or at least I am struggling with it. There is something about being off work for five days in a row that really resets your mental clock. While I had not deviated terribly in my sleep patterns… I did deviate massively in my pants wearing patterns. What is making this experience weirder is the fact that I represent the only management team member for my side of the office, and as a result I have people I don’t normally manage coming up to me and asking advice on issues. However we push on because it is in fact Friday… the harbinger of another respite from work. That said I know that come Monday morning everyone will be expecting the entire office to be firing on all cylinders so I am trying to take advantage of this lull in people actually being around the office to catch up on things.

On the blog front… I am working on some details for Monday where I talk about the return of Blaugust. Yes that is right I am doing it again this year because I feel like the community needs something to rally around. I do intend to shift things up a bit however and make it less about posting every single day and more an amalgam of the various events that we used to do as a community but have let slip by the wayside. Expect a few elements of the Newbie Blogger Initiative to be thrown into the mix as well to broaden the sort of folks involved. I will have charts and graphs and all measure of adult looking representations of my thoughts for Monday morning (I am only slightly kidding) but it isn’t quite ready for primetime yet.

On the gaming front I am still very much engaged with Elder Scrolls Online and looking forward to Update 19 that comes with the Wolfhunter DLC. If I had to guess this will probably land sometime around Quake Con that is coming up August 9th through the 12th. The main reason why I am super interested in this update is that apparently we are finally getting single line respecs… only five years after asking for these in alpha. I’ve always been way more into being a Hunter than a Werewolf or Vampire… so the whole Van Helsing style outfit they are showing off is definitely in my wheelhouse. Speaking of outfits however… I keep playing with the wardrobe system and creating my very own “plate dress” ensemble. You can absolutely blame World of Warcraft and the Judgement set for hooking me on this appearance, but unfortunately at this moment the only skirt option I have available to me is one that is Daedric themed, so I am just sorta rolling with that appearance as a whole.

I’ve been playing with some different combinations of pieces for the Arms and Shoulders… the first image in this series is what I am currently wearing but I am thinking seriously of going back to this combination shown in the above image. I think it blended better together and I dig the uncovered hands better than the various gloved options. I also seem to have settled on running around with the adorable wolf cub as my companion as opposed to the wide variety of violent critters I also have access to. At this point I am a few quest chains deep into The Rift and still loving the whole encountering people I interacted with in the past. This time it was someone who dates back all the way to Bleakrock… which makes me wonder if I had chosen differently in Bal Foyen if I would have had a different interaction. I am guessing that would be the case, but I absolutely think I chose correctly this time around.

Anyways… time to get to work. Have a wonderful weekend and tune in Monday as I begin unrolling the nonsense that is to be this years Blaugust.

Daily Creative Thing

July 24, 2017 by Grace

As usual I had a silly idea one day and decided to put it into action and see what happened. I wanted to do something in the spirit of Blaugust this year, but without the stress of having to come up with a complete, coherent post every day. I also wanted to get back into some of my creative hobbies that I’ve dabbled in over the years. Thus Daily Creative Thing was born.

The idea is very simple. Do something creative every day, and stay positive. The part that makes it work is that the bar for “do something creative” is set intentionally low. Did you doodle something cute on a post-it at work today? That counts. Did you sing in the shower for 15 minutes straight and annoy your roommate? That counts. Did you add a row or two of stitches to a bigger project? That counts. This endeavor is about recognizing all the little creative things we do, in addition to encouraging spending a bit more dedicated time on whole projects. The creative thing doesn’t have to be completed, finishing a whole project every day would be exhausting, and wouldn’t leave room for things like writing a story or knitting a blanket. It also doesn’t matter what kind of creative thing you do, as long as you consider it creative. Drawing some fan art, writing a blog post, baking a cake… you get the idea. It all counts!

The other key here is the “and stay positive” bit. It’s okay to be critical of your own work sometimes. That’s how we improve. But when sharing things for this project, I’m taking the stance of “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. Especially when posting half-finished things, the temptation is to apologize for it. Instead I want to celebrate that I made an effort and made something new in the world, and look for the things I like about it so I can keep doing those next time around. The internet is full of places where people tear themselves and each other down. I want this project to be focused on building things up. Stay positive.

That’s all there is to it. Keeping it simple means there’s at least a chance that I’ll follow through on it but making it daily means it is still a challenge and a change for the better in my habits.

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll join me on this journey. I would love to have a network of people sharing their progress and cheering each other on. I also selfishly just want to see all the amazing things that you all will create when you get in the habit. Try it for the month of Blaugust and see if it sticks. Let’s create some things!

Farewell Blaugust, Again

September 1, 2016 by Grace

Blaugust is finally over. That means I don’t even need to be posting today. Why am I here? Partially due to habit. I managed to post almost every day, only missing a few due to health issues. The relaxed version of Blaugust this year meant I didn’t have to stress out about skipping a few mornings, and that weirdly made it less of a chore for me to post every day. Without that pressure hanging over me I was happier to keep writing!

In Legion news, my play time has also remained pretty chill. I think the same principle applies. I don’t have any pressure to keep up or race to be raid ready, and it is making me much happier to log in every day and keep playing. Last night I ran a dungeon with my friends, unlocked the other 2 artifact weapons for my class, and even unlocked my monk’s healer weapon. It turns out that running a dungeon as a fire mage made me miss healing intensely, even though I’m sure my friends’ bad behavior in dungeons would have me pulling my hair out in no time. Anyway at least now the option is available if we need a healer.

The mistweaver weapon quest drove home just how much of a healer I really am at heart. At the last part of the quest you get to choose how the NPC allies in your group behave. You can ask them to be mindful and watch themselves, or you can ask them to go all out on damage with the understanding that they will totally stand in all the fire to do this. Given this choice I told each and every one of them to stand in the fire and laughed about it in voice chat with my friends. It turns out I would rather heal idiot DPS and complain about it than have a slow steady fight and have to help DPS as a healer. This worked out spectacularly, the boss died quickly and the game taught me something about myself. Bravo Blizzard.

Complicated Past

August 26, 2016 by Grace

On the Aggrochat podcast this week we all talked a bit about our various histories with World of Warcraft and why it sometimes sounds like it physically pains us to speak about that game today. One of the things I didn’t go into on the show was a huge part of my relationship with WoW. Not too long after I started playing I was struggling with medical issues and in particular chronic pain. WoW was a source of comfort and companionship no matter what weird hour of the night I found myself needing it. I even found folks who were going through the same thing as me, and had a bit of a support group of blood elves with medical problems. When I was stuck home on medical leave and recovering from surgery, WoW helped me feel like I was still connected with the outside world. To this day it is still a comfortable refuge when life is crappy, even though the game itself has changed dramatically, and even though I lost touch with most of the people I was friends with in that painful past. It also means I can’t think or talk critically about WoW and its history without remembering what I was going through back then, and all the friends I gained and lost.