So I ended up being able to go to Blizzcon after all. Thanks to a wonderful inside connection, I got to enjoy all the awesome geekness that is Blizzcon.

Went to a number of panels, hung out with my raid group, had a good time.

Highlights of WoW related things:
- The new battlegrounds with siege engines look really freakin' awesome (Strand of the Ancients and the Wintergrasp zone)
- The Wintergrasp zone is using new technology that doesn't allow you to play/gain honor/ability to control siege if you afk or tag along.
- There's a special instance just for the faction that has control of the zone.
- The new arenas actually make me want to try
- The new 5 mans are beautiful, expansive and intimidating. New boss class "Titans" with players only as tall as their toes. New boss models.
- They did revisions on loot tables and not just more loot will drop, but better and fitting to a wider variety of classes.
- Heroic 5-mans will drop better loot than their regular versions (instead of the same as they are now).
- New raids look awesome (5 rooms of aspect dragons, at least one of which drops a mount at the most difficult setting - chosen by the raid group). We're already talking about them.
- Switchable specs! (Probably in the first patch after the x-pac) Allows you to switch between two specs without going to the trainer (so PVE/PVP or Heal/Tank, etc).

Non WoW related Blizzcon things:
- The contests Friday night were silly and Jay Mohr was (apparently) a lot funnier than last year (he didn't get booed of the stage this year).
- The girl who won the costume contest made an animatronic turtle mount that she rode in on!
- L80ETC rocked! Loudly! They debuted a new song about Death Knights.
- "Only at Blizzcon can a metal band be the opening act for a symphony orchestra."
- Video Games Live! performed, wow, they're awesome.
- Nobody remembers who won the /silly contest, but everyone remembers who should have ("What's a woman's favorite class for a man to play? Male Enhancement Shaman!").
- Our groups Dranei looked better than most of the other Dranei in the costume contest, but she refused to enter.
- Two of our people ended up on G4 online on the gyroscope thing. Internet Superstardom.
- We've figured out our dance contest entries for next year. No, not telling. You'll have to be there to find out. But they'll rock. Two group entries from CR Silver Hand-US-A!

The best part of everything:
Raid group at Friday night dinner


Raid group at closing ceremony/concert (we filled 2.75 rows and were missing some!)

Going to the JoCo concert on May 18th at HoB?

Want to carpool?

Want to get dinner reservations and beat the crowd in the door?

Leave your comments here and let's go soft rock it like that half pony-half monkey monster was made for you!

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer,.Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail.

--John Muir, Our National Parks, 1901.

Check out the new coins soon going into circulation in the UK!

http://www.royalmint.com/newdesigns/theBaseMetalCollection.aspx

I saw the following article on Gadling, a travel blog I subscribe to.  I thought it was especially interesting considering I went to the same place this weekend!  My experience was slightly different though.

http://www.nettleleaf.net/2008/ArtArch

Here's pictures from the event. I'll actually write about it later. It was fun, lots happened, it rained, but that didn't stop us.

http://www.nettleleaf.net/2008/SpFotR

I think I got pictures of most of the performers. dieppe had my camera during opening court.

There's a video...it's hi-larious. It's Ban-dal's complete performance (both songs).

If you happen to get the magazine Tournaments Illuminated, look at page 12 of the new issue (with knit stuff on the cover). Look whose name is misspelled in the picture captions (but it's spelled correctly on the front cover with the bio!).

Sweet. Published. Awesome.

Merry Christmas to everyone that celebrates...happy holidays, a bit late for solstice and Hanukkah.

Hope all are having a good time with their loved ones and nobody is stuck in miserable weather conditions.

Gakked from...oh like, lots of people.

1. Go to the Wikipedia main page and click 'random article'. This will be your band's name.
2. Click 'random article' again. This will be your album name.
3. Click 'random article' ten to fifteen more times, for the tracks on the album.


My Band: Lexicalisation
My Album: Yellow Thornbill

Tracks:
1. John Proby
2. Cathedral Range State Park
3. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus internal ribosome entry site (IRES)
4. San Diego Sunwaves
5. James Bell Pettigrew
6. Ramkumar Ganesan
7. Dukhtaran-e-Millat
8. Reciprocity Treaty
9. Harlow Council election, 2007
10. York, New York
11. Oliver Wolcott
12. Balanitis xerotica obliterans
13. Manassas
14. 14th High School in Wrocław
15. Perth Airport

Band name...okay...Album...okay...Songs? Wow...