Wow just became fun again and less of a chore.  Ed (AKA Theshat) and I have discovered battlegrounds.  Until Monday night, I had never stepped foot into a battleground.  As it turns out, we needed to get some PvP honor kills for an achievement for Hallow’s End, so we decided the fastest way to rack it up is to go into a BG.  Testing the waters, we went into Warsong Gulch, a simple Capture The Flag type.  Well we lost that first battle, but we decided to go in a second time, and that time we won.  We started getting hooked.  I needed to go into some BG’s for my final cooking achievement, so we went into several more, and won all of those.

Tonight, we went in again, and didn’t do so well.  We lost all of the battles, but we still got a lot of honor kills, and honor points.  I went back in tonight for a while.  I never got much into PvP before until now, but now I’m hooked on BG.    Granted, you win some, you lose some, but it’s still fun to pwn someone’s face.

FOR THE HORDE!

Well, the doctor at the hospital decided to send her home instead of keeping her longer.  We’ll see how things go here.  She’s not in any immediate danger, but her mental state is pretty well agitated.

I don’t often talk about my personal life, but tonight a lot happened.

My wife Kathy has dementia.  She has it really bad.  Tonight, she had a major seizure and wound up in the hospital.  At the hospital she had another seizure.  At the moment, she’s unable to talk or respond to anyone.  She had to be restrained to the bed because she would try to pull at her EKG wires and also might try to get up and walk away.  Not a good idea right now.

Tonight a difficult decision had to be made.  It came to the point that I realized my grandfather and I can no longer give her the care she needs.  The nurse and doctor at the ER also agreed with this assesment.  For the last couple of months, I have been unable to get her to take a bath or shower.  Believe me, I’ve tried, but trying to get her to take a shower lately has been an exercise in futility.  She is extremely underweight, even though she does eat.  I don’t know why she can’t seem to put on weight.  Because of these factors, the hospital admitted her under “failure to thrive”.  She most likely will never come home again.  She will be in the hospital’s care until we can get her into a nursing home.  She needs 24 hour care at this point, and we just can’t do it any longer ourselves.

The main problem is, the only income we have is her social security and grandpa’s social security.  I haven’t worked because I’ve been having to be home with her most of the time.  We’re hoping social services can do something to help.

I don’t know what else to say really, so I’ll end this post here.

I’ve got a challenge for any professional musician who wants to take it.  No, there’s no monetary incentive by me for this challenge, or it wouldn’t be a fair challenge.  Before I get to the challenge though, I want to talk for a moment about the use of autotune and editing.

I’m not going to dispute that autotune is a great invention.  Yes it can help people who can’t carry a tune record something that can be almost considered music.  Yes it can be used very well for splicing together pieces of tracks to correct slight pitch problems.  It can even be used for some interesting effects.  HOWEVER, these days, it’s used way too much.  All these pop singers nowadays assume you’re going to run them through the box and fix their voices.  The end result, is a lot of these “divas” now sound alike.  Also, it’s masking the real voices of some of these singers, so there’s no soul to their sound.   Even country singers are using these boxes.  There are a handful that still refuse to use it, which I’m glad of.

I remember a time when musicians sat in a booth and recorded everything in a few takes, with no editing, no voice or sound corrections, just pure real music.

So, here is my challenge.  I dare….no, I TRIPLE DOG DARE, any musician who thinks they’re so good, to cut a new album, following some criteria:

1. Everything must be done in one take.  No do-overs, no mulligans.  What is recorded the first time is what goes into the album. If someone messes up, it goes into the album.
2. Everyone does their parts on their microphones together in one room, all at the same time.
3. No editing.  No splicing together of parts, samples, etc.
4. IN FACT, NO SAMPLING!  Everything must be recorded live.  Nothing can be pre-recorded, period.  ALL music must be done with live instruments.  And I mean, REAL instruments.  Guitars, strings, woodwinds, brass, drums, pianos.  No drumkits, no synthesizers, nothing electronic.  Electric guitars are ok, as long as they’re plugged into straight amps, nothing that synthesizes.
5. No special effects, no voice changers, no autotune.  Nothing is to be corrected.
6. The album must be recorded from start to finish in one hour.  12 songs at 4 – 5 minutes per equals 48 – 60 minutes.  you can do it.  one hour.  Cut the recording up for the individual songs after everything’s finished.
7. EDIT:  you can cut any song you want, even if it’s a cover of your favorite song that you already did, or someone else’s even.  I dont’ care. as long as it’s music

So, is anyone up to the challenge?

I will make you this promise too.  If you cut such an album, I will BUY a copy and listen to it.  I will put it in my ipod permanently.  Even if I don’t like your style of music, I will listen to it.

I hadn’t realized I haven’t posted since I got home from Blizzcon.  I’ll try to keep up with it more again.

For now though, bed.

G”night

Well, It’s day 1 of Blizzcon.  Yesterday I arrived at my hotel, got settled in and went down to the convention center to get my goodie bag and my badge.  There are some really cool items in the goodie bag.  I’ll post pics of it all later.  I’m staying at the Anabella Hotel, which is about a 5 – 10 minute walk to the convention center.   The working out I’ve been doing has been paying off, as the walk got me less winded like it usually would.

Right now I’m just waiting for my breakfast order (coffee, oj, and oatmeal), before I go down to the convention itself.  The opening ceremonies are at 11:30, so I have time to get in line right away for the store and then buy some loot.   There’s also a quest that was in the goodie bag.

“Catch Me If You Can”

Any Northrend angler worth their salt knows about lures, bait, and bobbers.  I bet you didn’t know that a set of lures exist that can help you catch treasure.  It’s true.

Go to Brady Mercantile located in the Merchant’s Quarter.  Marcia Chase has left instructions with some of the workers there:  they will give you a bag and a map.  Follow the instructions carefully; find and bring together the complete set of mysterious lures – but be warned, the only appear at defined times in specific locations.

If you are able to gather them all, return in the evening, when Marcia visits the shop…perhaps she will have a reward for your due diligence.

DESCRIPTION
Marcia Chase seeks your help.  She has left instructions with a local merchant – Brady Mercantile.  She needs heroes to collect a set of 5 mysterious treasure-fishing lures.  Brady Mercantile can be found in the Merchant’s Quarter.

REWARDS
Lure bag
Map

I’ll attempt it today.  Who knows?  It could be something interesting.

I also realized this morning after looking at the goodie bag, I’m going to have to do some creative repacking to get everything into my suitcase and laptop bag to take things home.  Oiy.

Well, gonna sign out for now.  I’ll take lots of pictures.

And I’m off to the airport to blizzcon!  See y’all in a few hours.

Heading out to Anaheim later today to go to blizzcon.  I’ll make one more post before I go.

Ok, I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated, so I’ll fill some things in.

It’s now one week until Blizzcon.  I’ll be in Anahiem, CA for four days, and I can’t wait.  It’s been confirmed that Ozzy Osbourne will be playing the final concert at Blizzcon, so this makes it even more special.

What else?   I’ve joined a gym again, working out to try to tone up, lose weight, and get rid of the flab.   I’ve joined with my best friend, and we’ll be working out together, so hopefully this time I’ll stick to it.  I really need to lose the weight and get into better health, considering I have diabetes now.

Can’t think of a lot else to talk about right now, it’s late and I should be getting to bed.  I promise to update again soon.