S

Set your Standards

What’s your bottom line?  The line below which you just won’t go?  Do you know what it is?  Do you have one for different parts of your life?  I have!  For work my bottom line is cleaning and prostitution, they are the two professions I point-blank refuse to even

A job as a cleaner is not for me

consider doing.  They are my bottom line.  In fact it normally gets a laugh when I say it, an awkward laugh, but a laugh none-the-less.  But I am deadly serious about my bottom line.  I can’t abide cleaning, absolutely hate it with a passion, so the very idea of it being a profession of mine just doesn’t exist, it is most definitely below the standard for me.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with cleaning – if you like it and I have many friends who enjoy it, they find it therapeutic, even relaxing, so to them it is way above their bottom line standard.

So do you know what your standards are?  Do you stick to them or do you allow others to cross them constantly or even now and again and dismiss it, just like they dismissed you?  Confrontational, I know, but if you don’t set and stick to your standards no one else will.  The standards you set for you, are for you, not your family, not your work colleagues and not your friends.  It is up to you to let them know what they are and to enforce them.  I used to swear a lot, but there was one word I

some swear words are banned

never used, because I didn’t like it.  I remember a linguist explaining that particular word and all the meanings behind it and from then on I decided I didn’t even want to hear it repeated in my company.  I’ll quite readily call anyone who uses it and tell them that I don’t like that word being used in my company and most of the time they stop.  If they don’t, I leave!  If they are in my home they are asked to leave!  That is a small standard but it is an important to me and it is very much up to me to uphold it.

A cousin of mine has set a standard of being a little bit early for everything she has to attend.  She has had this standard for years and when we’d agree to meet up and I’d turn up late she would be quite annoyed at me.  To her it was plain rude to agree a time, go out of her way to meet up and then for them to turn up late, with no notice.    Again, a standard she enforced and upheld.  She even gets a bit frazzled if she ends up being late, even if it is out of her control.  For someone else it could be doing a job to the very best of their ability and not stopping a day’s work until they have achieved that standard for themself.  That could mean having to find out further information to be able to do that job, but that is part of the steps to maintaining that standard.  Others might decide that not having the information to hand is enough of a reason to not do their job to the best standard that they can.  And that is how we start to let our standards slip and fall away.

For some they don’t see that letting a standard slip is that big a deal.  Then at some point they realise that nearly all of their standards and boundaries are being ignored and crossed and wonder how they got to that stage.   And at that point when they attempt to reinforce them, because they have ignored them for so long the people who have over-stepped their standards continue to do so.  And that is when conflict arises.  We are teaching others how to treat us all the time, so by letting our standards slip we are teaching them to treat us with a little less respect.  When we then attempt to re-introduce our standards we can often find that we are ignored or worse contradicted with scorn.  While it may seem like nit-picking to maintain a certain standard it is the foundation that you base your life on, to strengthen it from the start makes for a better quality later on, just like building a house.  You wouldn’t build a house on rickety foundations, so why do it to your life?.  Set your standards, stick to them, adjust them when necessary and let others know that these are the standards you live your life by and ask them to respect them and enforce them yourself.

It's old-fashioned, but it still works wonders.

I have received more emails, newsletters and blog postings from all whom I have encountered during this very tough year of 2009.  That’s ok, but doesn’t float my enthusiasm boat. I think in tough times, personal touch means everything! So ’tis the season to GET PERSONAL!

Clients love to hear from their vendors, vendors love to hear from their clients.  Your personal touch means you care, you are ready to listen to them about what is going on in their lives and you both will walk away with a feeling of mutual gratitude.

Here is a reach and touch a customer tips for the season:

1. Make a list with phone numbers of all clients, however brief, that you did business with this year.
2. Make a list of all the vendors, with phone numbers, however brief, that you did business with this year.
3. Prepare a thank you statement that has at least three versions.  Ex: Hi I am calling to thank you for your business this year.  Hi, I am calling to thank you for being such a great vendor.  I so appreciated bringing the (insert product/service name) to (XYZ company).  Have a happy new year and a prosperous 2010!
4. Take one hour each morning until December 31st and CALL EVERY CLIENT and VENDOR. Use the prepared statement as a springboard for what you really say.
5. Don’t ask for anything – no referrals, no more business, no reminders.  Just a THANK YOU to them for having chosen your product or service.  Just a THANK YOU to those vendors that did a great job servicing your account.

You will be amazed at the reaction you will get and you will automatically rise to the top of visibility list.
Happy Holidays to all of you!

Chefs appear to have more unhealthy habits than any other profession while those in advertising are near paradigms of virtue, a survey suggests…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: farm. The blog is also related to: farm.

Tokyo, in the eyes of many people, are not quite noisy enough. For a city this size they have done a good job combating air pollution, but noise pollution? We don’t really mind. To let people know that Tokyo is indeed an Asian city of 12.5 million people some merchants have employed a form of town crier, young people standing on narrow ladders in the middle of a veritable river of people crying out today’s special offers. How is this for an unstable profession? Sure he can hold on to a thin metal pole (that is anchored to the ground with pieces of string), but if anyone brushes up against him he’s a goner. I have seen these people for years and years but never once have I seen a fall. Even Japanese crowds have fearsome precision. Got this guy (doesn’t he look a bit like a a Japanese Harry Potter?) on a busy street in Ikebukuro, mid winter.

I just received in the mail my October 19th copy of Newsweek – two months late. It got me wondering where it’s been the past two months. I’m speculating on a major postal conspiracy that involves the systematic borrowing of customer’s magazines for the leisure reading of the workers in the break room. I envision stacks of the latest issues lying next to the coffee machine and on end tables next to bowls of M&Ms. I imagine piles of magazines spanning the gamut from Playboy to 4 Wheeler to Soap Opera Digest tucked into nooks and crannies. I’m thinking it is less likely that workers are snagging copies of The Economist, Dance Teacher, or The Journal of Christian Nursing. Once the magazines have been sufficiently perused, or at the very least the pictures have been ogled, they are then delivered to their rightful owners.

It is probably a good thing that other professions and businesses don’t follow the post office model of delivery. If the pizza guy showed up on my doorstep eight weeks after I ordered my pizza, chances are I’m not going to be salivating over my first bite, and the tip is going to be at least half of what I normally give. And how many women would want their obstetrician delivering the little bambino a couple of months after the due date? It’s just not good practice.

I’m anticipating that my Christmas cards won’t reach friends and family until sometime around Valentine’s Day. I just hope the postal workers in the break room enjoy my holiday letter.

Alright, since I’ve started a few toons over the past couple weeks, and I’ve tooled around getting them all to roughly the same level (Well, except the DK since he gets to start out pretty high), I figured it was time to go ahead and throw out some thoughts that would make the leveling process easier.

1. Put a class trainer in every town, village, and hamlet.  Seriously, the travel time that’s supposed to serve as an artificial break from the grind/leveling?  It gets in the way.  I don’t want to have to travel all the way back to my home city to learn skills and then travel back to get out into the field.  With the increased speed from heirloom items, it really does get obnoxious to take the 10-15 minutes that you could spend getting another level started and spend it traveling.
2. Make more factions like Tranquillien.  I know that they were designed to give a pseudo-heirloom set of gear for toons that were trying to catch up with their pre-bc counterparts, but the idea is solid.  Make upgrades available that far exceed the random drops available via the Auction House.  It introduces a couple of concepts early (faction grinding for one), and provides decent enough rewards.
3. Find a way to make leveling professions a little easier on low level toons.  Give some quests that are repeatable/daily at lower level, and let them be for the factions that would be created.  Nothing to the extent of the cooking extravaganza that we had a few weeks ago, but something to kind of show what the deal is with them.  Oh, and make the stuff you make actually good for lower level toons.  Right now, the effort/reward ratio is jacked up.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more, but I’m hoping that cataclysm addresses some of these issues.  I don’t know how much leveling I’ll do, but it does serve as a nice break from end game.

Being broke is a bummer, even if it is on a game. Are you finding yourself broke and don’t even have the gold it takes to repair your armor? If so, then  I am going to tell you about some of those gathering professions that will make you money on World of Warcraft.

Also, on a side note, if you’re one of those people who buy gold from gold sellers online, ARG… it’s time to stop. You’ll save tons of your real life money if you just invest in a good warcaft gold guide. I’ve learned so many easy and profitable techniques and strategies from Hayden Hawkes Gold guide I’m happy to say I don’t need no greedy gold seller – and well, I admit I have been tempted many times to dive into this black hole.

A wise friend once told me that I should start out with a gathering profession as I will be able to switch my profession later on when I want to do something different. I followed his advice and found that it was the best advice anyone could ever use. The first gathering profession I used was herbalism.

For those of you that do not know, herbalism allows you to pick up flowers. When you pick up those flowers and weeds, you can group them and sell them on the auction house. Believe it or not, they sell for a pretty penny and some of them are actually rare.

Make sure you build up your herbalism as you are building up  your level in order for it to keep up. Mining is the other gathering profession that I chose and it is just like herbalism, except you will have the power to mine and sell the stuff on the auction house.

I was interviewing someone earlier this week. He said he loved being a firefighter. Now he wasn’t referring to a job involving real fires and fire poles and getting to ride on a fire truck. And I don’t think he was referring to sitting around for very long periods of time with nothing much to do but wash the truck, read porn, and pet the dalmatian. He was referring to being in a high stress, time critical, problem solving situation. So I asked the candidate, “If you enjoy firefighting, are you also a bit of an arsonist?”

I asked this because I had read the book “Fire lover: a true story” by Joseph Wambaugh. Wambaugh tells the extraordinary true story of John Orr, a firefighter who may have been, according to U.S. government profilers, “the most prolific American arsonist of the twentieth century.”

And while he may be the most prolific, he’s certainly not the only one.

Firefighter Arson – An NVFC Special Report

Interestingly, the three motives found were excitement (including recognition), profit (overtime), and revenge.

So how does this relate to software development?

1) What other occupations is software developer frequently compared to? Cowboy? Rock Star? Engineer? Artist? Author? Spelunker? Plumber? Architect?

2) What key traits does software developer share with these other professions?

3) What key traits are rewarded and recognized by your organization? Is putting out fires one of them?

4) Are there unintended consequences of that reward and recognition? Do you create arsonists?

Thirsty?

There is a lot of inertia involved in starting a priest from scratch.  You have this thimble-sized pool of mana and a tiny little fly swatter of holy damage with which to flail your enemies into oblivion (feel my holy wrath, insect!  only twenty more swats and you’ll be dead!).

I exaggerate only a little.  You actually have at least three fly swatters, only one of which is holy, but it’s the only one that won’t make the fly roll on the floor laughing at you.  I refer, of course, to Smite .  But Smite carries a relatively large mana cost at this level, so you need to smite judiciously.  As the Templars of old once said, smite often, but smite wisely.  Part of this can be mitigated with the aforementioned wand, but what else can you do to minimize the time that you stare at your motionless toon, sitting cross-legged on the gound, drinking water?  (i.e. times when even they look bored)

You either use less mana to slay each beast or you stretch that thimble until you have a full tablespoon.  Of course, you can also  sacrifice your body and take a few whacks while you’re wanding them down (you’re a healer, suck it up).  Fortunately, thimble-stretching and improved body-whacking are within your grasp.  You can actually improve your stats relatively cheaply at this level by becoming a tailor!  Running around Tirisfal Glades and Silverpine Forest, you’re going to hit a lot of things that drop linen.  Use it.  You can be decked out in greens before you hit level 13!

My warriors and paladins were always blacksmiths for similar reasons, and while it’s hard to visualize my unholy Forsaken priest cackling with diabolical laughter while executing a Herringbone Stitch, it’s hard to argue with the results.

Finally, my fellow true believers, you should look into maximizing your bang for your buck.  What are the three most important secrets to maximizing your damage per mana point?  As my realtor would say: rotation, rotation, rotation.  …or do they say something else?  Anyway, when you are fresh out of Sunday school you pretty much have only Smite to work with and your non-effective fumbling with a melee weapon.  But now that you’re, say, at mighty 13^th level, you have a few options.

Here’s what I’m using now (half-way through 13^th level): Power word: shield, Shadow word: pain, Mind Blast, Smite, Smite, and wand, baby, wand.

I find I can get through at least 3-4 mobs this way without drinking.  You’re mileage may vary.

Professions

• Enchanting
  • Enchant Weapon – Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster’s target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell.
  • Enchant Weapon – Unholy: This enchantment now inflicts Shadow damage in addition to its original effect.

From all the numbers I’ve seen, you won’t be suddenly dropping Spellpower for Black Magic if you’re a Moonkin.

• First Aid
  • The training costs for most bandages have been reduced.



• Fishing
  • The all-new Kalu’ak Fishing Derby, a test of fishing skill with a healthy dash of luck, has come to Northrend! Every Wednesday beginning at 8 PM players can try to catch the elusive Blacktip Shark. Elder Clearwater sits in Dalaran for one hour awaiting the return of the quickest, most experienced fisher to bring him this shark. This champion fisher will be rewarded in-kind for returning with the first catch. Those who aren’t able to return with the first catch will still receive just reward for getting the Blacktip Shark to Elder Clearwater before he takes his leave. It is said that these sharks’ favorite meal are the bite-sized Pygmy Suckerfish. Perhaps a hook in their waters will do the trick.

I absolutely love that there is a new fishing contest.  I absolutely hate that it starts at raid time.

• Mining
  • Enchanted Thorium: This ability now uses the Mining skill and is learned from trainers at a skill level of 250.

Quests

• Weekly raid quests are now available from Archmage Lan’dalock in Dalaran. Every Tuesday at 3 AM the Council of Six will choose a different strategic target that must die from either: The Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, or Icecrown Citadel.

Doing the daily raid rewards Emblems of Frost.  In theory, you can get a full T10 set this way, but it would take months and months and months and months and…you get the idea.  For raiders going for their T10 set in Icecrown, though; this is a nice boost.

Druid T10

• For the various Icecrown Bomber quests at Aldur’thar: The Desolation Gate, players can now choose to eject from their bomber seats mid-run. If you do so, a rescue vehicle will transport your character back to the safety of your infra-green platform.
• Azure Drakes and Dragons will now attack back when attacked by characters not riding Wyrmrest Defenders.
• Brittle Revenants, quest creatures fought for the Sons of Hodir daily quest “Hot and Cold,” no longer cast Shield Slam.

Achievements

• The Achievements to get exalted with the Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley factions have been removed from their respective “Master of” Meta-Achievements. Special titles will be offered to those who reach exalted with these factions.
• “The Party’s Over” has been removed from Achievements and is no longer a part of the “Glory of the Hero” Meta-Achievement.
• “Master Angler of Stranglethorn” has been changed to “Master Angler of Azeroth” and can be achieved by winning either the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.

Yay!  I never did manage to win the Stranglethorn fishing tournament.  Mostly because once my husband won his interest in helping me declined leaps and bounds.

Reputation

• Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Each badge costs 1 Emblem of Triumph.

Wow.  I hadn’t caught wind of this yet.  This is going to seriously decrease the amount of time you spend grinding rep.  If you run ToC 10 once a week, you’ll be able to buy 15 commendation badges.  My guess is that, like the ones that used to be rewarded from the regular daily, they’ll be worth 250 rep each (or 500 for Hodir).  That would be 3750 rep a week in addition to wearing your tabard (or a whopping 7500 a week for Hodir in addition to the dailies).

• Gaining reputation with the Ashen Verdict in Icecrown Citadel will grant players access to upgradeable rings from Ormus the Penitent. Players can switch between the type of ring (melee/caster/tank/healer) at any point in the upgrade path for 200g.

Ah, yay!  I always loved the rings I got from raids like Kara and Hyjal.  Glad to see this make a comeback.

• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
  • Argent Crusade
  • Alliance Vanguard
  • Horde Expedition
  • Kirin Tor
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Sons of Hodir
  • Wyrmrest Accord
• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.

While I think the grind is certainly worthwhile, as heavily as we have to rely on these factions for raiding, I can see why they’ve done this, especially on the last tier of content.

• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

I have mixed feelings about this.  It will certainly make getting my alts their enchants easier, but also less rewarding.  I’m surprised that they decided to implement this even after making the rep gains so much easier to obtain.  But, I guess for most, if you’ve done the rep grind once you’ve done it enough.  (I’ve done it two and a half times, I should get an achievement!  Lol)

Items

• Haris Pilton now sells a new 24-slot bag! She has stubbornly decided to remain in Shattrath City, so those interested should seek her out there.
• Hatchlings: Leaping, Darting, Razormaw, and Ravasaur Hatchlings no longer drop from their associated rare creatures. Instead, there are now rare nests that spawn which contain these hatchlings. For example, the Leaping Hatchling can now be found in Takk’s Nest rather than as a drop from Takk the Leaper.
• Sceptor of Celebras: Since this item is no longer needed as a key, Celebras will no longer give one out to a player who loses it. The item can now be sold or disenchanted as normal.

Hey folks
I’m a stoopid little priest… I had some minor email-account problems and your sweet comments have not been referred via email and I thought nobody would read my boring stuff anymore and thought about quitting my blog… gnah. But I recently discovered your kind comments and want to say sorry for my little delay of posting You are wonderful! And I wish you a great patch-day! As I live in Europe I have to wait until tomorrow Can’t wait to see the new lfg tool and the icecrown citadelle in live!

Well I’ve done some profession-stuff lately.
Like a lot of cooking

(This was like HELL! Without special seasonal reciepes I had to go to
Dire Maul and other weird old instances and some days ago I FINALLY
got 160 reciepes! Sadly my bf told me AFTER I did that achievement that
I don’t need it to become a “chef” … u_u’ Now only ONE shattrath cooking
quest is missing! And only a few awards to obtain the chef hat )

Confused Nanuki running through Dire Maul, hunting the annoying imp who
has her last cooking reciepe! STOP RUNNING, LITTLE GUY D: !

I also did some fishing action
After I also recieved the special coin on my old priest main I also want it for my
new one! I enjoyed fishing in the night when it’s finally pretty empty around the
area.

Fishing the lurker with my bf was soooo funny
He (rogue): “I’ll try it first so you don’t have to die!” (wants to be my hero)
Me: “Eh… but I can… levitate… and… teh little fishes…-”
He: “AAACK, the fishes killed meeeh!”
u_u’

But after buffing levitate him and myself we walked over to him and fished him
out of his watery prison This was kind of funney too! He spawned, I was running
away in fear but my bf just kept staying in front of his face.
Me: “Eh… don’t you wish to… vanish or something?”
He: “But the lurker isn’t in aggro-mode, you see? “
And he was instantly killed, ahahaha ^^

Booty Bay fishing contest was… well… let’s say I wasn’t
the best participant ^^’
But an evil <s>and ugly</s> male draenei KEPT putting
his lure into my schools D:
Can’t wait to participate the Kaluak derby!

I love the Zangarmarsh area! Sooo pretty!

Oh and do you remember my post ranting about faction changing my nightelf
with her pretty birdy-set into a cow? Well, as you can see, I did it ^^
I am super-unhappy with her new set now but whatever. I love cow ladies and
sets will change soon, right?

Oh and… THIS

…is… just wrong D:
PLEASE STOP, people
You bringin’ me nightmares!