Con il deck dell’Unholy Death Knight abbiamo completato la prima serie di 10 deck in base a tutte le classi per ora esistenti in WoW TCG ed adesso riprendiamo a descrivere le stesse classi in base ad una diversa configurazione prendendon come elemento diversificativo il talento di ogni eroe per quella specifica classe.

Il deck di oggi è l’Enhancement Shaman basato sull’eroe Moala Stonebinder. Si tratta di un deck molto veloce, di tipo rush deck e che, rispetto alllo Shaman Traitor Kil’zin of the Bloodscalp, usa le abilità per aumentare i poteri delle proprie armi a discapito del numero degli alleati in esso innclusi, fatto questo che qualifica tale mazzo come un “solo deck”.

Eroe
Moala Stonebinder

Il flip di Moala Stonebinder consente, al costo di 2 risorse, che una propria arma non venga distrutta, cosa questa molto importante soprattuto se su di essa sono presenti potenziamenti di vara natura.

Alleati 3
3x Great Elekk

Unico alleato presente è il Great Elekk, la nuova cavalcatura dei draenei con cui, oltre che a velocizzare il completamento delle missioni facendo pagare una risorsa in meno il loro costo di attivazione, nel turno in cui si gioca una risorsa a faccia in su, ossia una missione o location, l’eroe infligge +2 danni aggiuntivi ogni volta in cui esso deve infliggere del danno. Un altro alleato che potrebbe trovare posto in questo tipo di deck è Galway Steamwhistle, per aumentare gli attacchi con un arma, o First Responder Avaressa, per sfruttare il suo potere curativo.

Abilità 27
4x Storm Shock
3x Lightning Arc
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Earth Shock
3x Fork Lightning
3x Storm Strike
3x Maelstroam Wheapon
3x Shamanistic Dual Wield
3x Grounding Totem

Per quanto riguarda le abilità, Storm Shock, Lightning Arc, Lightning Bolt, Earth Shock e Fork Lightning sono tutte abilità offensive capaci di infliggere danni di tipo natura al singolo eroe o agli alleati avversari; in particolare Fork Lightning è un ottima risposta contro Weldon Barow. per quanto riguarda le abilità che hanno effetto sulle proprie armi, Storm Strike è un abilità istant che fa tornare ready il proprio eroe ed una sua arma, anche dopo che essi hanno attaccato consentendo così un secondo attacco, e che aggiunge +2 danni ai prossimi danni di tipo natura inflitti; Maelstroam Wheapon è in parte un’abilità istant che infligge 2 danni di tipo natura ad un eroe o alleato bersaglio ed in parte un’abiltià ongoing su una propria arma e che per ogni danno da combattimento inflitto dal proprio eroe con l’arma infligge 1 danno di tipo natura aggiuntivo; e Shamanistic Dual Wield che, oltre a concedere all’eroe il potere dual wiled, consente di far pagare 1 risorsa in meno il costo per colpire di ogni arma posseduta. Grounding Totem infine è un efficente “parafulmini” che fa perdere tempo prezioso all’avevrsario convogliando su se stesso gli attacchi degli alleati e le abilità offensive avversarie.

Equipaggiamento 15
4x Whispering Blade of Slaying
4x Retainer’s Blade
4x Black Amnesty
3x Quickstrider Moccasins

L’equipaggiamento di questo deck ricalca molto da vicino quello dello Shaman Traitor Kil’zin of the Bloodscalp: Whispering Blade of Slaying oltre a conferire dual wield aggiunge +1 atk agli altri pugnali; Retainer Blade è un ottimo pugnale ally remove; e Black Amnesty è un pugnale che, oltre a conferire dual wield, è un ottimo espediente per difendersi sottraendosi dal combattimento. Quickstrider Moccasins avendo il potere di far tornare pronta una carta offre molte possibilità di utilizzo come far tornare pronto l’eroe e mettere in gioco una nuova arma con cui attaccare o far tornare pronto un pugnale, come ad esempio Black Amnesty, per difendersi.

Location e Missioni 15
3x Eye of the Storm
3x Forces of Jaedenar
3x A Warm Welcome
2x Corki’s Ransom
4x Orders from Lady Vashj

Per quanto riguarda le risorse, la location Eye of the Storm consente di spossare fino a 4 bersagli tra eroe e alleati avversari, utile nel caso di protettori in gioco, mentre le altre missioni, vale a dire Forces of Jaedenar, A Warm Welcome, Orders from Lady Vashj e sopratutto Corki’s Ransom, assicurano un buon draw aggiuntivo di carte.

Side Deck
1x Earth Shock
3x Crackling Purge
3x Wind Shear
3x Scraper Ironbane

Come Side deck oltre ad una copia aggiuntiva di Earth Shock sono state incluse tre copie di Crackling Purge  e tre copie di Scraper Ironbane che distruggono le abilità ongoing e gli equipaggiamenti, e tre copie di Wind Shear abilità istantanea che interrompe un’abilità bersaglio e spossa un eroe o una alleato bersaglio.

In definitiva, come nel caso dello Shaman Traitor Kil’zin of the Bloodscalp Deck, siamo in presenza di un ottimo mazzo rush che al posto degli alleati ha il suo punto di forza solo nelle abilità offensive e nelle armi. Tuttavia tale deck, vista l’assenza di un’altra minaccia effettiva data dagli alleati, può avere poche possibilità di vittoria contro deck  di prevenzione del danno, come il Protection Paladin, o contro deck che fanno dell’hand control e dell’ability control il proprio punto di forza.

Here are Ways #s 4 and 5 from the last post which promised you 5 Ways to Be More Great-full (Boost Your Gratitude Attitude)…

#4: FAMILY (or couple’s) GRATITUDE BOOK
We just spent a very pleasant hour doing this great art & writing interactive project. So simple and yet so meaningful and fun! Quality family time!

We do not watch television, nor do our children. We are dedicated to parenting consciously and strive to support a vibration of love in our household. Yet, given that my husband and I are both entrepreneurs, with seven businesses between the two of us, and given that our children are still quite young, we know how important and sometimes challenging it can be to come up ideas (not to mention time, energy and materials) for positive family experiences.

I myself am about the least craftsy person you will ever meet and can draw a stick figure on a good day! So believe me when I tell you: Yes, you CAN do this project, and probably with what’s already available in your home. It really ranks high on simple, high on fun, high on memorable, and low on expense. (I can NEVER do those Origami things, puuleeeeeazzze, can we talk?)

Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect time to do this Family Gratitude Book…but of course so is any day that ends in “y.” Monday, Tuesday…. Enjoy!

Materials:

All you need is:

Some blank paper (we used printer or copy paper, white)

Construction paper

Ribbon or brass brads to secure the book

Markers, pencils, hole punch and/or scissors

Optional: Stickers, stamps, other art supplies, scrapbook, photos

Definitely: A little bit of time and lots of love!

We started by making a brainstormed list of everything we are grateful for. You can do this any way you like; follow your own creative impulses & inspiration. We have four family members, so I decided to color code what we wrote on this collective page or you could just all write and draw without attributing who said/drew what, or make a chart, have sections of the page, etc. The things my 6-year-old called out first were written in yellow, my 10-year-old chose blue, I picked purple and my husband green. We made a color key on the page and wrote and drew various things we are thankful for: Our dog came first, followed by a lovely torrent such as family and friends, food, a good home, music, the Earth, music, health, God, life and so on.

Then I gave each family member a separate page on which to do whatever they like, the only requirement being that whatever is on the page relates to or represents what they are thankful for. We stuck in some more blank pages, so we can add more later as we are inspired.

The kids each got to pick a color for the front and back covers. The older did the words, the younger did the drawings. We punched holes, added brads, all signed the masterpiece and voila! A Family Gratitude Book.

Not only a wonderful way to spend part of our Thanksgiving Day, but a precious keepsake, and, I trust, a new family tradition as well. We will be sharing this book with family all weekend long and inviting them to add to it as well. And of course, it can be done any day! Every day bears its own gifts if we just open the package.

Today we focused mainly on what we are thankful for in our current lives (now), but we could also include wonderful memories (past) and gratitude for all the blessings on the way! (future)

Alternative for Couples: You can also do this as a Couple’s Gratitude Book or Journal, a beautiful way to show appreciation and deepen connection. So few marriages last or are happy, as we all know, and I am blessed to have a deliriously, deLIGHTfully ecstatic marriage, 12 years strong and better every day. One of the reasons is of course, the selection of the right mate; but in order to do so, we had to do the necessary self-healing and inner preparation to bring whole, healthy individuals to the relationship. Much of this work is presented in my book: The Radical Self-Love Workbook. But it is also essential to nurture even the best of relationships, and my husband and I do so daily in many creative ways such as this.

More tips on love and relationships are at

www.LoveandSpirit.org

and at my love blog: loveandspiritblog.wordpress.com.

Whether you do the Gratitude Book as a homemade book like we did today, like a scrapbook or journal, and whether you do it as a family activity or a couple’s relationship-enhancer, it will help you see your life through the eyes of love and gratitude, and bring you even closer with those you love. Enjoy! And I welcome you to send me a comment or email to share your experience.

#5: Honor the 4 Directions and 4 Sacred Elements:

Earth, Air, Fire, Water

You do not have to be Native American to appreciate one of their traditions, which is to honor the Medicine Wheel, facing each of the four directions, thanking each one for their gifts. This is also a tradition in all indigenous cultures including pre-Christian Europe (a.k.a. Wicca, Druidry, paganism, et al.), Africa, Australia, Hawaii and South America.

In fact, if you scratch the surface beneath contemporary religions on any part of the Earth, you will find an ancient shamanic tradition that honors all the directions and all of nature as sacred.

All things follow this cycle of birth, growth, fruition and quietude, whether we are looking at seasons, a lifespan, a day, or a garden. The beauty of Medicine Wheel ceremony and the paradigm itself is that it can be applied to our lives in so many ways.

So how do you honor the directions and elements, to give thanks for what they give to us so generously? Here are a few ideas:

* Altar: Create an altar to each direction or a Medicine Wheel altar encompassing all the directions/elements. This can be in your home or outside. My husband specializes in creating Medicine Wheels as a sacred practice on the land, and has helped others to do this as well.

* Cherokee Dance of Life – You would need to learn this in person from someone who has learned it, oral tradition. This is an incredible moving meditation to all 4 directions, peoples, and elements which also honors Mother Earth and Father Sky, balances their energies as sacred partners in our hearts, and helps us give away the gifts of Spirit that are our special medicine to share with the world through our right work and service. Occasionally my husband and I share this Dance with our community. If you live near Sacramento, and would like to experience this dance, let us know so we can invite you. Or perhaps Spirit will guide you to another teacher of this beautiful tradition.

* Drum, chant, play flute to each direction

* Give offerings such as cornmeal, tobacco or sage smoke to each direction

* Speak aloud from your heart to each direction and give thanks

* Sweat lodge

* Vision quest

If you do either sweat lodge or vision quest, please do so with the guidance of a Native elder to be sure you do it properly and safely.

* Journal or journey (shamanic meditation) to discover what power animals comprise your personal Medicine Wheel of your own energy field. I love to lead these meditations when I am called to do so. Honoring your own inner Medicine Wheel supports a strong aura and keeps you connected to your spirit guides, if this resonates for you.

Associations with Each Direction

Depending on which culture or even which tribe you consult, there are somewhat different associations with the directions, colors, elements and meanings, the medicine or power that direction helps us receive and embody. The one I am most familiar with follows but this is not dogma, merely a summary of what I have found to be the more universal associations. Follow your own heart and work with any spiritual practice in the way that resonates for your own heart and inner truth.

While I have a small amount of native blood, I was adopted and was not raised in that tradition. I discovered shamanism after my initiation and spiritual awakening 15 years ago. I do not claim to be a tribal elder or teacher of any one tradition. I am an interfaith minister, meditation teacher, hypnotherapist, energy healer and intuitive life coach. I have been on the path of Spirit, studying, practicing and sharing healing and wisdom teachings from many cultures for several decades, so I offer here a simplified summary as a starting point for your discovery journey. You would do well to study more in depth with a local teacher steeped in the particular tradition that calls to your spirit, and of course feel free to research further on the Web, in books, classes, and listen to your own inner guidance. I always say the best way to pray, do ceremony or ritual is the way that feels best to you, with harm to none, of course. But we do need to honor the specific traditions so they are not all diluted through multiculturalism.

From the East we have the yellow people (Asia) and the gift of Air, Brother Wind, clarity of vision, inspiration, the new day, new beginnings, establishment of purpose and intention, and springtime.

From South, we receive the wisdom of the black people (Africa), Fire. The tools, strength, perseverance and energy to follow through and manifest, midday/ noon, summer, also humor and passion, innocence and trust.

The West gives us the culture of the Red people (such as Native Americans), the setting sun, Water, emotions, the fall season, self-evaluation toward completion, looks-within time, peace, rest and healing.

And the North represents the White (European) people and all their cultural gift. The sacred mountain, winter, midnight, time to slow down, go within and be still to receive guidance for what comes next. Completion, what you keep from the past cycle and all that you have accomplished and learned. It is also associated with the Spirit and wisdom.

Note: You can also honor the other 3 directions: Earth (below), Sky (above) and Center (within).

I hope you enjoyed these five creative ways to give thanks and I wish you abundant blessings on your journey!

Finally, in the spirit of Sufi mystic poet Rumi, I invite you to kiss the ground. Blow kisses to the sky. Bow to everything. Everything is sacred.

With Love,

Sage

More resources for your path, including free special reports on abundance, love, transformational classes, soul and energy healing sessions, intuitive readings, matchmaking and more are at:

www.LoveandSpirit.org

Taylor@LoveandSpirit.org

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

- Rumi

With the Pilgrim event, the best thing to come out of that isn’t the title or the pet you get for finishing the meta achievement. If you’ve been slacking off your cooking skill, this is a great time to get your cooking up on the cheap, the recipes you can buy from the NPC will get your cooking to lvl 355 in no time at all with little cost too. But if you already have your cooking up, there’s another piece of good news for you from this event.

The reputation boost buff for eating all the food on the feast table. The 10% boost to your reputation gain is a godsent if you’re trying to get your exalted rep with a faction, not only will you gain the boost from killing mobs, but also from the item turn ins if that particular faction have them. I been trying to farm the timbermaw rep and with only 2 hours of grinding in Felwood, I got over 10k. With the real Thanksgiving in America and not raids scheduled for a few days, this is the perfect time to get your rep up. DO IT!!!!

There isn’t a lot of difference between the 10 and 25 man ToC except the Bosses have a lot more health, so here’s a run down of all the bosses in ToC in the point of view of an Elemental Shaman. This is how my guild do this and may vary from guild to guild, but it’s a basic guideline as what you should be doing on each boss.

The Northern Beasts:

Totems used: Totem of Wrath, Strength of Earth, Wrath of Air and Healing Stream Totem.

Since you’re a ranged dps, you should try to position yourself near the middle of the Gormak so you’ll have easy access to all the players around you should they get a Snobold on them, it’s normally a ranged dps’ job to take down the Snobolds. You should pay extra attention to the healers when they get a snobold on them as their heals will be interrupted by the snobolds. Dps on Gormak until the Snobolds are out then switch to them while avoiding the fire on the ground.

Once Gormak goes down, the twin Jormungar will appear. Acidmaw on the left if you’re facing the gate where  the Bosses enters, and Dreadmaw will be on the right and will be stationary. Now position yourself so you’re just in range of Acidmaw and drop your Totems and this is when you should Bloodlust/Heroism. If you keep to your max distance from Acidmaw, you should avoid it’s acid spew, but if you do get the the Paralytic Toxic on you, you should immediately run towards the person who has the Burning Bile and burn off the Toxic then run back into position. If your raid have enough dps, Acidmaw should go down before they burrow themselves underground. Now move onto Dreadmaw and if it’s too far from your totems, drop them near it again and continue dpsing. When Dreadmaw submerge into the ground, make sure you run to the side of the room and pay attention to where it pops up, hold off dps until the Tank re-establish threat before you cast again.

Icehowl will follow after the fall of the Jormungars. Drop your totems near him and try to stay at max dps range. Once in a while, Icehowl will cast Massive Crash, this will knock everyone in the raid back against the wall then he will aim at one person then proceeds to charge at that person. Unlike in hardmode, you will get a speed boost before he actually charges at you, make sure you run to your side and avoid his big hit box, if he’s not running your way, hang back a bit and don’t run into his charge path by mistake. If he misses with the charge, he’ll be stunned for a few seconds, and this is when you should unleash all you have as you’ll be dealing 100% more damage to him while he’s stunned. Just remember not to get too close to his Whirl. If your raid have a solid tank and heals, this is quite an easy fight even if your dps isn’t as high as it should be. The Icehowl Bindings is a good belt to have if your other Clothies Dps don’t need them. Since you’re a mail wearer, you should always give up Cloth and Leather gear for others first before you loot on them.

Lord Jaraxxus:

Totems used: Same as The Northern Beasts.

Drop your Totems in the middle of the room just before your raid call on Jaraxxus. Position yourself to the outter circle and preferably not too close to other players. The main debuff you have to look out for in this fight is called Legion Flame. When Jaraxxus cast this spell on you, you should start to back off and continue to move back towards the back of the room while you drop a trail of flame, don’t run across other players and leave the flame in their path. If you’re too far from a healer, you should throw yourself a heal once Legion Flame wears off and you’re not standing in the fire. After a while, a nether portal will appear and spawn a Mistress of Pain, Change your target and dps down the Mistress, when she’s down to about 20% health, pop your Bloodlust/Heroism then get back on Jaraxxus. Your Bloodlust should last you through till the volcanos appear and spawn 3 Fel Flame Infernals. They’ll sometimes turn into a ball and land randomly across the room, if they’re close to you, run away from them as their AoE hellfire will do a lot of damage to you. Dps them all down then back to Jaraxxus, rinse and repeat.

Faction Champions:

Totems used: Tremor Totem, Totem of Wrath, Cleansing Totem, Wrath of Air. Also have your Earthbind totem ready!

This fight’s success is mostly down to who you get. But you can be sure there’ll be a couple of healers in there. Your job in this fight will be mainly purging the target your group is trying to zerg down first. Usually, a Resto Druid will be your first target as their HoTs are a pain if it’s allowed to land on other targets. Purge your target constantly, and Windshear when the Tree is trying to cast Nourish. The trick to survival in this fight is to know when to drop your Earthbind totem and when to use your Thunderstorm. If you see your healers are getting whacked by a bunch of champions, run towards the healer and pop your Thunderstorm to get rid of the bosses that’s on your healer. When you’re being chased by a boss, drop your Earthbind Totem and run away. You should treat this fight as if you’re playing in an Arena match and be on your toes constantly. You will not be doing a lot of dps at the beginning of the fight while the Champions still have healers standing because of your Purge and Windshear duty. Also remember not to use your Chain Lightning if your raid decides to employ CC into the strategy, you don’t want to break CC on what’s already a short CC duration.

Twin Val’Kyrs:

Totems used: Totem of Wrath, Strength of Earth, Wrath of Air and Healing Stream Totem.

This is a really fun fight once you are familiar with your strategy. Before your group engage the Bosses, you will be assigned either the Light or Dark Aura to click on. If you have the Dark Aura, you shold be dpsing on Fjola Lightbane, if you’re assigned with the Light Aura, you should dps on Edyis Darkbane. After your tanks run in to engage the boss, go up to the middle between the 2 Bosses and drop your totems there so both Bosses will be in range from your Totem of Wrath. Dps your boss and wait till they do their special abilities. Each boss have 4 special abilities they can use. 2 main ones you have to look out for are Vortex and Twin’s Pact. Whenever Vortex is being cast, you will need to have the same colour aura as the boss that’s casting it, so if Fjola Lightbane is casting Vortex, you’ll have to quickly run to a Light portal and click on it so you have the Light Aura to mitigate the Light damage from Vortex being cast by Fjola, and you need to click on the Dark portal is Edyis is casting. When they’re casting Twin’s Pact, one of the boss will have a shield around them, the trick is to get the opposite aura first and start dps down the shield before they can complete the cast. During all that chaos, there will be these orbs flying around the room, if you have the Dark Aura on you, you want to let as many dark orbs to land on you as possible to boost your dps while trying to avoid letting the Light Orbs as they’ll do damage to you. It’s not uncommon to get your dps to over 10k in this fight if you are lucky with the Orbs dropping on you. 50k + Lava Burst tastes so sweet. You should use your Bloodlust/Heroism after the first Special ability.

Anub’arak:

Totems used: Totem of Wrath, Strength of Earth, Wrath of Air and Healing Stream Totem.

If you’ve not been assigned to shoot down the ice orbs, then your job is to just dps Anub’arak. If you are assigned to shoot down the ice orbs, make sure you shoot plenty of them down right after your raid engage the boss before going off to dps. Drop your totems near Anub’arak, dps him until the adds spawns. take down the first add and go back to Anub while leaving the second add up. After about 90 seconds, Anub will burrow himself underground, once he’s submerged, quickly change target on the second add and dps it down quickly then take down all the scarabs while keeping your distance, each hit you receive from the scarab will stack a debuff on you and will have a DoT on you, if you have too many stacks, your healers won’t be able to keep you up, so don’t stand toe to toe with them, kite them over the ice to slow them down to give you time to get away. While Anub’arak is submerged, he’ll chase after a random player with it’s spikes sticking out above ground, you need to pay attention to the spikes even if it’s not targetting you. Someone else that’s being targetted might run across your path and bring the spikes along with them and kill you. if you’re the one being chased by the spikes, kite it towards the ice patch on the ground and it’ll blow itself up and start a fresh target. Anub will surface again after about 60 seconds, kill off any scarabs still alive then go back to Anub, repeat until he’s down to 30% health then he won’t submerge again. This is the time to pop your Bloodlust/Heroism. If your healers knows how to heal this fight, (that’s keeping everyone just above 50% health except the tank) Anub is one of the easiest boss in ToC.

Good Luck in ToC, I’ll talk about the hardmode ToC next time.

I’ve never been a great Salvador Dali fan, although I do appreciate his value as an artist. However, I saw something very compelling today that – while not altering my impression of his paintings – has changed my mind as to his work. I was privileged to attend a presentation by Roy Disney, introducing a short animated feature film, begun in 1946 as a collaboration between Messrs. Dali and Walt Disney. The collaboration never bore fruit until a few months ago, when the completed piece, 57 years in the making, was presented at select Film Festivals (just recently winning best animated Short at the Melbourne International Film Festival). It was shown tonight to members of the Producers Guild, who had been invited to attend a screening of Disney’s new Feature, Brother Bear (but more on that later).

The Dali/Disney Short was presented twice, with some comments in between by Mr. Disney. I’m glad for the second viewing, as I was able to really explore some of the more obscure “morphing” sections of the piece.

Fragments of the original unfinished film “Destino” along with story boards, sketches and an original score were painstakingly put together by a team assembled by Disney’s nephew Roy Disney after they were discovered in the studio’s vaults. The result was beautiful.

For more info, click on any of the following links:

This one…

…and this one even has video clips!

As to the “Main Event”, namely “Brother Bear”, it was another Disney home run. A beautifully told story, with lovingly textured traditional animation, and content that will be sure to make a parent proud to take their kid to the movies. It’s a story filled with ancient lore, Spirits, Shamans, Totem, animals that talk, and even a healthy tribute to Strange Brew, that cult fave Canadian export. I wonder if all that non-Christian content will get as roundly criticized as the Harry Potter books…

[update 11/26/2009: The final version of Destino can be found on YouTube, by entering the word "Destino" (strangely enough!) in the search box. I cannot embed the video here, however, as I believe it is an unauthorized posting]

My armoury

If you’ve been in a raid with an Elemental Shaman, you’ll know your dps isn’t going to be as great as the pure dps spell class such as Mages and Warlocks. This is the norm for hybrid class because they bring so much more then just their own dps. You’ll be loved by other spell casters in the raid because your Totem of Wrath is the best thing since sliced bread, if you can persuade a mage to cast Focus Magic on you, not only will you up your own dps but you can swap out your Flametongue glyph if you don’t have enough crit to begin with.

I’m not going to bore you with all the theory crafting stuff here, basically because I’m not a theory crafter myself and I’d hate to plagiarize what you can find on sites such as ElitistJerks. Instead, from now on, I’m going to post my own experiences through encounters I’ve done myself. I welcome any inputs from other Elemental shamans out there and we can discuss in more details about the intricacies on the mechanics.

Second day in a row my battle group, Whirlwind, along with Emberstone server were down. Not just for an hour or so, but the whole night! On Monday night, we were trying to do the 10man ToC hardmode, got to Icehowl with everyone still up and kicking his ass, then bam, server went down and we lost our week’s attempt on some free loots. then again on tuesday, sever went down, but luckily we were done with our 25man ToC and had a few attempts on 25man ToGC in before it went down.

Is it just me being paranoid or whichever server I’m on, they always seems to go down while all the other servers were working fine? With thanksgiving, we already cut our raiding times for this week short without the servers going down to cut it even shorter! On the brighter side, at least it gave me more chance to play with Assasin’s Creed II. what a beautiful game, even better then the first one and supposedly, the game play is a lot better too.

Click to see this full size. Gorgeous

First off, the print version I found in Post magazine is far more beautiful than any of the net version pics. The colors are more vibrant and it’s brighter, showing the beautiful markings of the pythons (anacondas?) in greater detail.

Let’s talk about this photo. Dang, this might not be a short post. The snake/staff thing is called a CADUCEUS. It represents Thoth (Egyptian-Tehuti), who like ISIS (a divine feminine figure) was a master of magic. Now, I also remember a time of magic from a past life. That is for another blog, however. Most of us recognize the Caduceus as a medical symbol or representative of the healer or healing arts.

Let’s back up to late October/early November. I’m chatting with AA (that’s short for Aaron) online. After we decided to send each other some healing/distant reiki he said he saw/felt something like a double helix coming from me….I never told him this, but that was exactly how I was projecting a yin/yang balanced type of energy of my own design & thought. I had never put it together what a double helix was but had been actively using one in visualizations. I had to look up the double helix  online.. then found it is mostly seen in relation to the structuring of DNA.

DNA - Double Helix

There’s alotta new age discussion on the evolution of DNA repair and healing. And then, read up on how your own INTENTION is extremely important in your own healing and that of others….

In the shaman tradition of Munay-ki, the serpents are representative of the South direction on the medicine wheel. You have to look at it metaphorically. A snake or serpent will spend its life on the ground having a VERY LIMITED view of the world. Imagine what life would be like seeing it at a few inches high and never more than maybe a foot off the ground? Never seeing danger, food, shelter or what lies ahead until you truly come UPON it. It speaks of foundation and beginnings. It’s the starting point of the medicine wheel.. we are down low, it’s all about us, our problems and we have a truly limited perspective of issues when we are in the SOUTH…the direction of the serpent.

In the Caduceus, the serpent is NOT close to the ground. He, with help from another, has entwined themselves up a central support in a DOUBLE HELIX. In order to physically achieve this, it seems they’d have to make use of  their constriction abilities. Constriction could be seen as SUPPORT, and this direction is seen as upward movement in the symbol. Now that they are so high, they are seen as having wings….interesting eh?

It seems symbolic of many things: new life, taking flight,inner power, new energy, taking the darker side of life’s experiences and making them work FOR you..If you are a snake that can fly, surely you have done something magical to make it happen, or used your abilities successfully to achieve the impossible.

THEN throw in my recent angel reading in which I have been seen with great big wings now, and at the moment consider myself a “healer in training”.

Healing, symbolism, wings, serpents, DNA, yin-yang, energy, magic, and a whole lotta WOW when you think about it.

When I found this picture, all these coincidences came to mind and just summed it all up…fitting for a blog. I’m just not a big fan of House. Maybe I should photoshop my face into the picture. LOL

At last I watched this documentary.  Last night I sat tranfixed as I watched this small boy riding across the Mongolian Step with his father.  What an amazing story.  The power of shamanism is such a powerful force, this is living testimony.    the following is just a short clip

Last month, I linked to one of the more attractive-looking (stat-wise) craftable mail items that will appear in the game with the release of Patch 3.3 and Icecrown Citadel. The item, Draconic Bonesplinter Leggings, was notable as one of the few early pieces that didn’t have Armor Penetration. The post was under the headline:

A Patch 3.3 mail (physical DPS) item that doesn’t have Armor Penetration

Ah, but now it does. Hunters rejoice!

This will be the third tier of raiding gear in which mail gear is primarily itemized with Hunters in mind. Not only do almost all the raid drops — whether normal or heroic — feature Armor Penetration, but in this patch, every physical DPS mail item available from badges, and one out of two craftable physical DPS mail items, has Armor Penetration on it.

That means we can’t even save our badges to buy alternatives, other than set gear.

So what’s the deal? We know Enhancement Shamans have been raising this issue for a while. Have those complaints gone unheard by the development team? Nope. From the Shaman Class Q&A from early June of this year:

One recurring concern among all shamans, whether they are Elemental, Enhancement, or Restoration, is in regard to itemization… An example brought up regularly is concerning Armor Penetration being prevalent in Ulduar despite it not being the most desirable stat for shamans who choose to play as Enhancement. In addition, many shamans express concerns that the options for upgrades are more limited for them than other classes.

If that’s the case, and they really are receptive to itemization concerns, then why do we see an endless parade of gear itemized with Hunters in mind, without stats like Haste that benefit Enhancement Shamans? Supposing most of the raid drops in the upcoming Icecrown Citadel raid do feature Armor Penetration (and it certainly looks that way), wouldn’t it be a smart move to provide some Emblem-purchasable alternatives that have different stats?

It’s just not normal for raiders to pass on upgrades because the gear is so poorly itemized that lower iLevel pieces, with stats like Haste and Crit instead of ArP, provide a better benefit than the shiny new drops.

Armor Penetration provides a nice benefit to PHYSICAL DPS when it's stacked, but often comes at the expense of stats like Crit and Haste. (Image courtesy Parry! Dodge! Spin!)

It’s been a couple of months since Blizzard announced they’d be simplifying stats for Cataclysm, the upcoming expansion, and Armor Penetration will be among those “odd” stats that will be removed from the game with those changes. So why, if it’s a stat the dev team admits is confusing and will eventually be tossed, is it emphasized so heavily through three consecutive tiers of raid and Emblem gear?

This kind of thing leaves me scratching my head.

Startin’ to blog about WoW now…
I’ll be doin’ an extra Page for the 2 Main Chars, I’ll be postin’ about, so you’ll know ;D

Yesterday/Today I mainly leveled my Shaman.
I did that questline in Dragonblight etc. where at the end you get to see that AWESOME Video and fight with Varian Wrynn in Undercity…
So today he is 74 and I’ll continue leveling in Zul’Drak.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?

If I told you the name of my Tauren Shaman, I’d have to kill you. Also, he’s Enhancement.

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

Mostly raids, with occasional PvP.

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?

All of them. I think Blizzard did a brilliant thing by merging key spell and melee DPS stats, which allowed Enhancement Shamans to make the transformation to the first true melee-caster hybrid in the game. Enhancement players with long memories will remember the days when we didn’t even have the intellect or mana regeneration to work Shocks into our regular rotation during raids. Now we’re these axe-swinging, lightning-ripping powerhouses with a nice range of abilities and a priority rotation that makes things more interesting than the Enhancement of old.

But if I was going to pick just one ability, it’d have to be Stormstrike — seeing a massive double-crit, followed by a thundering Windfury proc, and the booming sound of Shock and Awe signalling a Maelstrom five-stack…yeah, that’s satisfying.

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?

Sentry Totem. Do we still have that? It’s similar to special in-game items like the disco ball and Simian Sphere — good for bringing out once in a while for a laugh, but absolutely useless in every other respect. And Water Shield, because it used to be a staple of raiding until Blizzard gave us so much incentive to use Lightning Shield.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?

We can put some serious single-target hurt on bosses. Now that Death Knights and Hunters have all our buffs, we’re not exactly the ultimate physical damage amplifier anymore, and we have the weakest form of AoE out of any DPS spec. (If you can even consider our totems as AoE.) But we contribute where it counts, and we’ve still got Bloodlust!

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?

We still suffer from what I believe is developer neglect. By this, I mean the fact that our gear is still optimized with Hunters in mind, we are underpowered until we reach certain gear plateaus, and while Blizzard is quick to hot-fix problems with Paladins and Death Knights, we’re used to waiting through entire patches (or expansions) for Blizzard’s development staff to finally admit the community is right, and changes have to be made.

We saw that pattern with weapon itemization, gear itemization, our prior lack of talent-provided Expertise, our prior lack of real mana-regenerating abilities, and our historical problems in PvP with mobility and survivability. The modus operandi is for Enhancement Shamans to politely raise an issue with Blizzard’s developers, then become annoyed and increasingly indignant when no one from the development team responds, or they’re just told flat-out they’re wrong. Thus, Koraa’s infamous explanation that Spectral Transformation (the most glorious ability we’ve never had) was too similar to “an iconic Druid ability” to be implemented in the live game.

Maybe that wouldn’t sting too much if it didn’t come in the wake of buff homogenization, but we’re way past the days when totems were something special, and nowadays there’s even blasphemous talk of giving Bloodlust to another class! I’d gladly go back to the days of Totem Twisting if it meant we got to keep our unique buffs.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?

Enhancement Shamans excel at pouring on the boss damage, interrupting casts and dispelling. We’re not going to equal the power of a priest spamming mass dispel, but on fights like Lord Jaraxxus and the Faction Champions, we can clamp down on harmful casts with our interrupts and provide targeted dispells with Purge. The nice thing is, our DPS doesn’t suffer because of it. And like all Shaman specs, we’re indispensable in our ability to make life easier for the raid with spells like Tremor Totem and Cleansing Totem.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?

Nowadays, Rogues, and I never thought I’d say that in TBC. While two of our regular raiders have Rogue alts, we don’t have a dedicated Rogue to bring to raids on progression nights. There are so many ways a good Rogue can make life easier for the raid, and you really start to appreciate that when you don’t have one. Ditto for Warlocks — so many of them seem to have re-rolled in WotLK, and on my server we have a serious shortage of good ones.

Buff-wise, my dream raid would be: Retribution Paladin for Improved Blessing of Might and an additional 3% crit. Feral Druid for another 5% melee crit. Boomkin or Elemental Shaman for an extra 5% spell crit. A Rogue and/or a Warrior for their armor-reducing debuffs. Plus all the other usual stuff — Blessing of Kings, Mark of the Wild, etc. And Focus Magic! I’ve convinced a few Mages I run with to give me the buff, and the uptime on the return buff from my frequent spell crits have made them believers. One friend now insists on giving me her Focus Magic when she plays her Mage: “No other specs give me more FM procs than Holy Paladins and Enhancement Shamans.”

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?

Anyone who faps to the damage meters, regardless of class or spec. (Although many of them happen to be Hunters, Mages and Rogues. Go figure.)

Few things are more ridiculous than that guy who’s always spamming the damage meters in raid chat whenever he happens to be in the top spot. Damage meters are tools best used by raid officers to determine who might need help with their gear or rotations, and the best officers provide that help quietly and discreetly. Egos are fragile things, sure. But it doesn’t help guild morale when fellow raid members are engaged in an e-peen measuring war, and ultimately it hurts the raid when players put their own DPS numbers ahead of the needs of the raid.

That Mage who does 7k DPS might be great for the first 15 seconds of Sarth 3D, but he’s useless if he dies to a Shadow Fissure because he thinks finishing his cast is more important than surviving. Likewise, what good is a Rogue who refuses to help shut down a Faction Champions healer because it’ll have an adverse effect on her personal DPS?

In a recent ToC 25 pug, a few players were fapping furiously to their damage meter numbers, and while others were explaining that they *were* on top of the damage charts, until they died.

A Tauren Warrior in the raid put it in perfect laconic terms: “Fellas, DPS is the amount of damage you do while you’re alive.”

What is your worst habit as a dps?

Getting complacent. On progression fights, when I know we have to do everything right to succeed, I’m focused and alert. But on farm content, I have a bad habit of dying to stupid shit sometimes because I start to go on mental autopilot.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?

We’ve already talked about the players who fap furiously to the damage meters. That’s number one right there. Aside from that, I really don’t have much tolerance for nerd ragers and others who take the game too seriously. In my mind, the best raid leaders are the ones who take everything in stride and exert calm, and that’s the way I try to be when I find myself leading raids. But when people blow up on strangers on Ventrilo, or throw fits over minor setbacks, it ruins the fun. We play this game to relax and have fun, right? Right?

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?

We’re more dependent on gear than some of our counterparts, we don’t have any real AoE, and we’re limited by the artificial hybrid DPS cap. Oddly enough, in The Burning Crusade (and early WotLK) I found it much easier to consistently top damage meters despite our poor itemization.

In this patch, it’s a struggle to stay at or near the top, even with all our shiny new toys. While a big part of that is the nature of the fights in Trial of the Crusader, we’re also victims of our own versatility — Blizzard is well aware that we alone benefit so massively from melee AND spell buffs, and it seems they’ve intentionally designed our DPS potential to be reached only with the full diversity of raid buffs. Thus, there’s a drastic difference between the potential an Enhancement Shaman has in a 10-man raid vs a 25-man raid with a full compliment of buffs.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps’er?

I gauge success by whether we get a boss down, and whether or not I’m still standing at the end of the fight. One of my favorite moments in WoW was getting Sartharion +3 down, in patch three point oh-something, before Ulduar dropped and we were all rocking Naxx gear. We couldn’t power through it with gear, we had to do it the hard way, and most importantly, my toon was among those still standing when Sartharion keeled over and the achievement flashed on our screens. I hate, hate, hate being dead and unable to help my guildies finish a kill, and my most important evaluation tool is my health bar!

I also use Recount to cycle through the information on my individual spells, so I can track the effectiveness of small tweaks like re-gemming or a new piece of gear.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?

That we’re all chronically underpowered and/or incompetent. I’ve seen more than my fair share of Enhancement Shamans who went the cheap route and enchanted their weapons with 50 AP instead of Berserking, or decided to dual-wield daggers instead of slow weapons. Enhacement players have the benefit of arguably the best, most thoroughly-researched and authoritative spec guide in the game, thanks to the guys at Elitist Jerks and the mathematically gifted Shamans who helped compile the Enhancement Theorycraft wiki. All Enhancement players should make it a priority to read Elitist Jerks.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?

Although our rotation is now more complex and based on a priority system, I still think most of the “skill” involved in playing well revolves around gear and stat choices. In that sense, a lot is determined before you even step into a raid. Newer players should realize some of our gear and stat choices may seem counterintuitive based on what they know of other melee specs, and it isn’t always easy to determine when something is an upgrade. On a related note, players who’ve rolled Shamans as alts might find the totem system — as vastly improved as it now is — still takes some getting used to.

What dps class do you feel you understand least?

I don’t know much about Shadow Priests, and the specifics of Druid and Paladin tanking remain mostly a mystery to me.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?

Shock and Awe to give me audio cues for things like Maelstrom five-stacks, Dominos to arrange my UI in a way I’m comfortable with, and DBM to help me stay alive. My favorite macro is tied to Ancestral Spirit: Upon casting it, my Shaman says, “Rezzing ____, every time I use my mana for something other than DPS, kittens cry.”

What stat to stack, and why?

I’m hit capped, expertise capped, and I have more than enough crit, so I’m at the point right now where Attack Power is my first priority, and extra Haste has now become the stat to look for in addition to AP on all potential upgrades. Now if I could just find some Hunter mail that has Haste instead of Armor Penetration, I’d be set…

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I just looked up what that meant in Debbie Shapiro’s book, The Body Mind Workbook, and I’m not sure I really wanted know all of that information, but it is apropos.  The neck indicates a limited perspective, or narrow mindedness, perhaps, and the shoulder represents a lot of heart energy, as in, if you’re not doing what you should be doing according to your heart, then it can manifest as pain in your shoulder.  Didn’t I just say something about fighting what I know I “should be” doing?

Ken did his routine magic with regards to the re-alignment of my body. I was lying down on my back, and Ken was working on my neck.

I work in a restaurant, and we have two fish on the menu at night, so there is no end to the supply of fish that I see being prepped on a regular basis.  The chef is very thorough.  He feels the fish, carefully sliding a surgical gloved hand back and forth against the flesh, examining every inch of it.  Back and forth, back and forth, he always seems to be looking for something, reading, absorbing the messages the spiritless body reveals to him.  The flesh always acquiesces to the gently prodding of the chef’s hand.  Then, quickly, deftly, he slices.  One fillet.  Then, the process resumes from the top.  Feeling, looking, reading the body that remains.

It’s a strange thing to see, really, but one that has helped me in my work with Ken, oddly enough.  It’s difficult to let go when Ken works the neck.  So to help myself, I imagine my neck as the flesh of the dead sea dweller.  I allow Ken to work the flesh like the chef prepping the evening’s meal.  Information which I decide to share today with Ken.

I should have known as much.  He always gets me when least I suspect it.

“What’s that about?”

Control, I think.

“And what’s the worst thing that happens if you lose control?  First thing that pops in.”

I’m not doing what I want.

My answer was filled with apprehension.

“And what’s the worst thing that happens if you’re not doing what you want?”

And on and on we went, until somehow we ended up on a ride that took us to love from the beginning of the end of a dead fish.  Let the Theta-Healing begin.

And so we did.  Ken began the process.  Asking me questions about love.  Did I deserve it?  Was I allowing myself to be open?  Was I afraid of being hurt?  Was love suffering?  Was love pain?

Hurt.  I was afraid of opening up and finding myself hurt.  I didn’t know that.  I also didn’t know that love was suffering and pain according to my body’s wisdom.  Not consciously, anyway.  But here we were, and I have seen and felt enough through this journey to believe in this process.  Ken would ask me if I wanted to change this pattern and that pattern, to which I always replied, “yes”.

Ken did something today that he had never before done.  While he was asking me questions about control and taking us down that rabbit hole, he gently grabbed my face and said, “look at me”.   I was ready to bawl.  I didn’t.  I held it all in for some reason, but it was there.  I had always closed my eyes through this part.  This time I decided to watch.

Ken’s head bobbed lightly back and forth every time he asked me if I wanted change a pattern and I answered yes.  My yes was his permission, the button that made the ride begin.  His eyes closed, he just kept nodding, the silence broken only by his first yip of the day.  We laughed as he described his optimistic hope of getting through the session without a single yip.  With his eyes closed in a trance-like state, he was performing some of his wizardry of ridding me of old patterns and giving me new, more constructive and productive ones.  It’s part of the stuff I don’t fully understand intellectually, but I “feel” intuitively.  He finished by asking me if I believed the new patterns we had just established.  I said yes.  My body said yes.  Maybe things really are looking up.

In this week’s FUNday, we put down our already dog-eared copies of Sarah Palin’s memoir for a few moments to return to an old favorite, the zany gag magazine, What The-?!, in which two Alphans appear in cameo.

What The-?! #2
Sep 1988

The Marvel Mag of Mirth and Mayhem! That’s the tag line and the best way to describe this irresistibly silly humor book that lacked all boundaries. Filled with short parody pieces, fake ads, fake letter pages and fake bullpen bulletins, this series relentlessly tore apart anything that wasn’t nailed down while at the same time showcasing the best and most popular creators of the time.

In this issue, Puck appears tiny in the first story in one panel. Also, Shaman (as Talisman) appears in another panel in the fourth story.

The first of four 8-page parody pieces, “Superbman vs. The Fantastical Four” is written and drawn by John Byrne, the most suitable artist for such a piece.  In a back alley near the headquarters building of the Fantastical Four, Doctor Bloom’s elaborate twenty-nine phase plan unravels as Rex Ruthless out-elaborates his logic and precision with an incomprensible, rambling explanation.

As Doctor Bloom gives up, a tiny Puck can be seen holding an “Alan Thicke Fan Club” sign, a shout-out from Byrne to fellow Canadian Alan Thicke, a TV actor who was widely popular as Dr. Jason Seaver on Growing Pains, an ABC sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1991, and was at the height of its popularity in its third season, airing right around the time this issue was published.  Note Puck’s red costume, which may be a miscoloring, as Byrne never had him in red. Puck wouldn’t put on a red costume until Alpha Flight #104 and this issue was concurrent with Alpha Flight #62.

In the fourth story, “Doctor Deranged”, written by Peter Gillis and illustrated by Phil Foglio, Shaman appears in one panel chanting, “Hail to the Sorcerer Supreme!” as he and various other mystics surround [and thoroughly irritate] Doctor Deranged in his Sanctum Sancyouverymuch.  At the time, Shaman was going by Talisman, and can be seen wearing his black and white fur costume.

In the fake Checklist, Alpha Flight is listed as “Alfalfa Flight”, a recycled joke from the previous issue.

Well, that’s all for this week’s FUNday and don’t forget to include this issue as a John Byrne Alpha Flight issue the next time it comes up in an Alpha Flight trivia game!

I’ll admit it here and now for the first time in the history of my many years on the planet. I am fallible. I know…it was a shock to my wife too (although she took it stoically).

I have never before leveled and played end game with the same class so close together. My first priest hit 60 in pre-bc and it was 2+ years before I played another to 80. I still have much left to do with my Deathknight and much more to share with you all, but for the moment my attentions have been distracted by the beefy little blue man that can summon the power of the elements to do his bidding. I mean seriously… all a deathknight can do is slap things with his sword, shamans get totems…TOTEMS!

As you may have guessed by now I have delved into the land of the ‘pure ones’. I created a little Draenai shaman named Gahmble. He’s a cute little bugger with just the most adorable little….um…jowels. He stands about 6 foot 14 inches and towers over all but the mightiest Tauren. Being on a roleplay server its only fitting to inform you all that his favorite food is also lasagna, and he likes long walks on the beach crushing crabs betwixt his toes.

I took a bunch of recommendations from Windsoar on the types of addons to use and what might get me the furthest the fastest. I am the worlds laziest leveler, I’ll admit. I’ve done it too many times to be caught up in the thrill of a new quest. Now, I just see another exclamation point pop up after I’ve just worked SO HARD to get rid of that question mark, that all I can say is…”another one?…sigh…” and trudge off to complete another ‘get my kitty out of a tree’ quest…or whatever the local people cant manage to do for themselves today. I swear Azeroth is peopled with the laziest vermin I’ve ever seen.

So the same thing happened this time that happens most times I choose a character name. I have an absolutely fantastic name in mind when I start out and quickly find out its already taken. Not only is it taken but every possible spelling or recreation of the name is taken. Even spelling it phonetically is already taken. I start putting in a few lesser names that would be ok. And……taken, all of them. I start putting in hilarious names that catch my mind — taken. In rage I grab the first name in my brain and type it in, just to prove a point. “Every name in the world is taken!” ….accepted.

Of course, lovely, thank you wow gods. Now I have to deal with this name for 80 levels and beyond.  Oh well.

Starting off in the land of the squid was actually a lot easier than last time. First I had been there before and second I had Windsoars nifty neat-o “Tourguide” recommendation. It has been a lifesaver for a slacker-leveler like myself. My only gripe is it doesn’t constantly communicate map points to my tom-tom addon, so I cant just follow the arrow everywhere. But it in tandem with my questhelper addon has answered just about any question I could have had about ‘where do I go now?’

After a few times going my own way — against the recommendations of the tourguide — taking extra time going to the same place a few times wasting valuable killing time walking, I realized just to listen to the guide and go with the flow. It really does know what its talking about for the most part. I’m fairly impressed.

Back to Gahmble — I don’t know if anybody has ever told you about this, but….shamans only get to wear leather before level 40. I mean that’s hardly any step at all up from being a glass cannon, and I don’t even get to hit as hard as a mage. Maximum range for my lightning bolt is turning into my best friend. If I can get a few choice shots in before the combat really starts, I’m golden.

So to make a long arduous session of leveling into a much shorter story. I’ve followed my tourguide meticulously for the last number of levels and made some serious progress. Within just a few evenings of playing after my wife goes to sleep for the night I’ve managed to make it to the mighty level 30. I hear things get pretty interesting from this point on.

Few key things I’ve come to love and realize. First, Gift of the Naaru (that twinky little self heal that drenai get) is a fantastic spell up until about level 25, after that all its really doing is help keep my resting/down time to a minimum. I guess I can be thankful, but…isn’t that really what first aid is for?

Second, enhancement shamans don’t really get anything to back up that swagger before level 30. I think I might have been better off having leveled this far as elemental. I guess I’ll never know.

Third, nobody is awake at 4 in the morning on my server that plays an engineer. It shouldn’t be that hard to find a bronze tube.

I think I see more leveling and enjoying of my little shaman in the near future. They say write what you love, so I think ill stick with this for a while. Maybe my deathknight will have become just another jaded alt…

…Maybe not…

The second movie installment of Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally successful Twilight series reveals the supernatural secret of the Quileute tribe: some of their clan have the ability to turn into extremely large wolves.  Pictured here is the character Jacob Black (played by actor Taylor Lautner) who discovers he has this special power.  This element of the book and movie are actually based in Quileute legend that the tribe is descended from wolves who were changed into men.  Even the tribal name “Quileute” comes from their word for wolf, Kwoli.

The Quileute tribe is actually a group of Native American Indians who now reside in La Push, Washington.  They are a small group of around 700 people, but they still continue the legacy of their great ancestors from the past, the original Quileute tribe.  Quileute folklore tells that those who have the ability to turn into animals are called skin-walkers. They also have been told to have the ability to read people’s thoughts.  Unlike the classic werewolf transformation described in classic literature that occurs with the rising of the full moon, the change depicted in Twilight is more consistent with a type of shapeshifting.

John Perkins, author of Shapeshifting: Shamanic Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation, talks about shapeshifting being a much broader concept than supernatural.  He often talks about shapeshifting as possible on three levels.  The first is cellular, and that is when a person of an indigenous culture shapeshifts into a plant or animal, or in our culture when a cancer grows in someone and then miraculously disappears.

The second level is personal Shapeshifting. That is when we decide to transform our personality — and usually that means becoming more of what we most expect in ourselves. It might mean when a person honors themselves as a good writer or a better dancer or politician. It could also mean transforming an addiction.

The third form of Shapeshifting is about transforming the society that we live in, whether its at the town or city level, or the corporate level — the place where we work — or the institutions that help shape our lives.

In his book, John makes this important point about the reality of shapeshifting: “From a shamanic perspective, shapeshifting begins with intent. You then give it power if you want it to occur in this world as opposed to the other worlds of non-ordinary reality. Action follows.  Intent, energy, and action: Only when these three human forces are in place can you have true shapeshifting.”

Perhaps the images portrayed in The Twilight Saga: New Moon will frighten and titillate, but perhaps for a few it will open their minds to imagine that we all have the capacity to shapeshift at some level…that each of us can shift into being more of the self we most respect and want to emphasize, bringing about fundamental changes in our attitudes, perceptions, prosperity, health, appearance, and personal relationships.  What do you think?

“Where there is money, you have cheats. The two go together.” Eric Cantona

“Send lawyers, guns and money – the shit has hit the fan.“ Warren Zevon

Previously on Guttershaman…

I was looking at how modern Western ‘Shamanism’ is a mix of ideas borrowed from various native traditions (often without either respect or understanding). I also noted that sometimes the matter of ‘authenticity’ to an existing tradition was not the most significant point – that there are people who seem to have a genuine call to serve their tribe/culture/whatever and attempt to honour this vocation as best they can with the tools and ideas they have at hand. Authenticity to this impulse, if done sincerely and thoughtfully, can matter more than devotion to tradition. The question of how all this becomes even more complex when adding commerce to the mix, I left to examine at a later date.

In between then and now we have had a tragic example of how badly that mix can go wrong.

The story of how three people died and dozens were hospitalised as a result of taking part in a ’spiritual warrior’ sweat lodge held by James Arthur Ray has been heavily discussed, both within the occult community and outside. (A good primer on this can be found at the Wild Hunt blog and the Wikipedia biography of Ray is also of use.) There’s been an awful lot said about Ray’s particular variation on the New Age Guru – much of it perhaps better left for the legal apparatus.

What is extremely clear, both from reports of those who were involved in the fateful sweat lodge itself and Ray’s own words (on his website – to which I will not directly link – and in his many media appearances) is that his primary focus is money. What’s also clear to me is that his ‘theology’ emphasises something I consider to be one of the nastier habits of many mystical systems – that the soul is far more important than the body.

I think those two points are deeply related.

The idea that spiritual purity and earthly success reflect each other – whether one calls it the Law of Attraction, Prosperity Theology or what have you – may seem to contradict the idea that the soul is more important than the material world. I think that it’s an inevitable result of how soul/body dualism is usually expressed in the West.

The idea goes:

“Money is power. If I have money, I am powerful. If there is a God or spiritual force, then surely my power and position show that God favours my endeavours? If not, surely I would be poor and powerless?”

Add to this the concept that the soul is immortal and thus above/better than the body… and you get the justification for an awful lot of cruelty and privileged behaviour.

“You’re poor? That means your soul is weak, that God does not love you.”

Then, up steps the Guru.

“I can make your soul better. I can bring you wealth in this world and the next. But in order to show you are ready, that your are committed enough to begin this process, you have to make an offering. A sacrifice to the coming purity of your soul and the inevitable favour of God.”

“That’ll be ten thousand dollars, please. Here’s your receipt.”

If you’re the Guru and your prime interest is making money, it’s quite an effective sales technique – and provides a lovely example of just how powerful the Guru’s mojo is. After all, look how much money he has! He must be good at this!

…and if you should fail at the various little tests at the weekend spirit warrior workshop…

…if you can’t break a board with your hand after an hour of preaching (rather than ten years of martial arts training and physical conditioning)…

…if you can’t stay conscious in a sweltering hut covered in plastic tarps with no water or ventilation…

…if you die while under the Guru’s tender care…

..well, that’s a shame. At least your soul learned something. Better luck next incarnation.

This is not to say that it isn’t possible for mystical pursuits to have an effect on the material world – I wouldn’t be much of a magician if I believed that. I also know that spiritual development can demand a heavy toll on the body of the practitioner, that the shamanic path often relies on stress, shock and fear as methods of altering consciousness. But it infuriates me when Gurus and teachers blithely assume that a purified soul is worth any cost to the body.

(It’s exactly the same attitude which leads to exorcisms resulting in the injuring or death of the subject – as long as the ‘demon’ is driven out and the immortal soul saved, it’s considered a price worth paying. As someone who strove to protect in every way those under his care as a professional exorcist and curse-breaker, it disgusts me when the supposed pursuit of spiritual purity is used as an excuse to torture, maim and kill.)

Ray is an especially clear example of how modern conceptions of the shaman are far too often expressed. His publicity makes a great deal about his experiences with several ‘authentic’ native traditions, but also borrows heavily from the layman’s version of quantum theory… while showing a painfully superficial understanding of both. There’s a lot of lip service to concepts such as (one of my all-time favourites) becoming a ’spiritual warrior’ without actually having any martial training or combat experience whatsoever. There’s also the classic come-along of his Deep Inner Knowledge of Mighty Secrets of Power which he will share with you… for a hefty fee.

And what he’s selling is such a superficial version of wisdom, a weak dilution of knowledge. Shamanism For Dummies.

He, like so many New Age gurus, sells the illusion that someone can become a powerful magician/shaman without actually putting in the work – the months and years of practice, study and trial it takes to develop yourself. This isn’t just cheating his clients, it’s insulting to those who actually have done the work. It also gives a dangerous impression that Ray and his ilk are far more competent in these matters than they actually are. Ray claimed he was an expert, an authority in this field and as a result people trusted him with their lives and souls – and he wasn’t even able to work out that people in hot rooms need to breathe.

I think the thing about Ray that stood out for me most is how utterly plastic and shallow, how inauthentic in every sense, he seems. He comes across as nothing so much as Tom Cruise in Magnolia… I can picture Ray running around a stage, his little wire microphone stuck to his head, declaiming “Respect the cock! And tame the cunt!”. No master of the occult arts – just a salesman.

(An effective salesman, though. Bear in mind he’s still open for business and people are still going on his retreats.)

It’s not that I don’t think there’s a place for teachers of mystical knowledge – or that they shouldn’t be compensated for their time and services. As I said about the appropriation of native techniques, it’s about not taking the piss – not getting greedy, not assuming that everyone has the same strengths and abilities, not caring how hard you push the bodies of those under your tutelage as long as your idea of the soul is satisfied. When you think like that, it’s easy to forget that a person is mind and body and soul together – and that their existence does not come with a price tag.

———————————

Further reading:

Although their focus is mostly on the mysticism of the Indian subcontinent, the Guruphiliac blog has an excellent perspective on the money-grabbing (and ass-grabbing) side of so many alleged spiritual masters.

I also strongly recommend the two-part post at “Thoughts from a Threshold” which gives excellent advice on safety in ritual spaces, which is one of the few positive benefits to come out of the Ray affair.

Pt 1

Pt 2

——————————–

Next time on Guttershaman – more on money and Newage, tricksters and con-men. Possibly even Rainbow Unicorns.

Did you know that there are no elemental belts in three tiers of 10-man raids?  No elemental bracers or boots?  Did you know that apart from tier pieces and the obligatory relic, there are absolutely no elemental items available for emblems?

Dramatic pause.

(this isn’t actually going to be a whine post, bear with me for a bit)

Admittedly I have no idea if other classes/specs are in similar situations, though I suspect they are.  It’s easy to understand why people can get angry with the developers when they eagerly examine the loot tables of the cool new raid and find… nothing… for them..?  Were we just forgotten or are we not important enough?, goes the line of thought.  The more canny may instead think, well, maybe we’re balanced around the lack of itemisation, so it’s OK that there’s no “perfect” gear for us!  But then we look at the loot tables for 25-mans and we see all the things that are missing from 10-mans provided in their 25-man counterparts and realise that it’s around those items that we’re probably being tuned.  Oh dear oh dear.

Boots and belts and bracers oh my!

Even if you expand the search to include leather and cloth, there aren’t any decent elemental options for bracers in tiers 7 or 8.  Everything has crit and spirit, or crit and MP5 – the best we can hope for is haste or hit and spirit.  Tier 9 has haste/hit/SP cloth bracers which is nice, but most casters are utterly sick of hit rating by tier 9 because we find too much of it on our gear anyway.

Belts are exactly the same – there’s a cloth hit/haste/SP option in tier 9 and nothing before that except a – for 10-man raiders at the time – horrifically expensive crafted cloth version that can only be obtained from repeated hard mode kills.

There’s a really nice set of leather boots from Malygos, but … that’s it.  The closest we come to decent elemental boots are the Hit/Crit/SP boots from tier 9.  Again, despite the fact that hit can be our most valuable stat, it can also be utterly worthless if we’re capped – so much so that the sandals are only better than Footsteps of Malygos by virtue of raw ilevel.  What that means is that because the stat budget on the item is so much higher, we get enough of a stat we don’t really want (crit) to offset the loss of a stat we do want (haste).

STOP.  Collaborate & Listen.

Let’s back up a bit for a moment.  What do I even mean by stats we want and don’t want?  What makes an “elemental” item anyway?

Item level and item budget

Every item has an item level, and the level of the item determines its item budget.  The item budget is how many points of stats and bonuses the item can have.  Most stats are assumed to be worth 1 “item budget point”, but players have determined that stamina seems to be worth 2/3rds of an IBP and spellpower worth 6/7ths.  Sockets are a little fuzzier, but we do know that socket bonuses are extra “free” stats not included in IBPs.

Item level determines the total IBP allowance for an item, but for each additional stat/bonus an item has, the total IBP allowance increases slightly.  That is, an item with only four stats will add up to less total stat points than an item with 5 stats, even though the 4 stat item may well have higher stat values.

Itemising what could have been

Because of the way item budget works, we know that if we see an item with 50 crit rating, we know that it could have had 50 haste rating or 50 hit rating instead.  Or we might see an item with 80 intellect when most items of that level have only 60 intellect, and realise that 20 IBPs have been spent in intellect that could’ve been spent on crit.

Stamina and intellect are always going to be on caster items.  They’re not great DPS stats but we do need them and don’t begrudge them (unless they have ridiculously high values which eat into the rest of the itembudget), so we’ll ignore them for now.

So let’s say we see an item with Spirit, Critical Strike Rating and Spellpower.  One stat is totally useless to us – Spirit.  The other two are very useful.  But, because of the way item budget works, we know that the Critical Strike Rating could be Haste Rating.  Haste rating is, point for point, worth more DPS than crit rating, so we know that the item would be better for us if it had haste instead of crit.  And what if the Spirit was Haste instead?  That’d be even better because now we’d have three stats that we can use on the item.

Because we know all this, often when we see “bad” items we torture ourselves thinking about how good they could have been, “if only…”.

Imperfection and choice

A perfect elemental item would have a roughly even balance of haste and crit, plus a lot of spellpower, because those are our three best stats assuming we’re hitcapped. We know, however, that Blizzard does not want to give everyone perfectly designed items in every raid, but rather wants to enforce “tough choices”.

Hit is one way of providing a tough choice.  If you’re not hitcapped, hit is the most valuable stat.  What if you had to choose between an item with Hit and Crit and an item with Haste and Crit?  That’s an interesting and difficult choice.  The same goes for a choice between Hit or Crit.  So we’d consider an item with Haste and Hit a really good elemental item if it meant we could take an item in another slot that didn’t have hit.  Even an item with Hit and Crit (and no haste) would be OK if it allowed us to take a really juicy option elsewhere in our gear.

But for the hit item to be a useful choice, there has to be another option without hit at least somewhere in the item tables – because if everything has hit, then you end up so far over the hit cap that hit becomes utterly useless, a stat you never want and keep finding and begin to loathe.  It becomes just as bad as Spirit or MP5.

Useless stats

Even useless stats force us to make choices, though – do we take a high ilevel item that has a useless stat – or maybe even two useless stats – because it has sufficient useful stats to be an upgrade over an old, lower item level piece?  Most players, as they gear up, will happily take items with useless stats just because the stuff they were using previously was even worse.  But useless stats take such a big chunk out of the item budget that an item with a useless (or even suboptimal) stat has to have really high amounts of useful (or optimal) stats to be worth considering.

The expectation is that once you start hitting raids, you’ll get rid of the useless stats and find items which are more optimal. For 10-man elemental raiders, that expectation is not met.

The sky has fallen but it’s not so bad

The problem for elemental shamans in 10-man raids is that we don’t have those choices we were just talking about.  There’s always one item which is clearly superior to the others, and in many cases that item is better for a player of another class or spec: mail belts with haste and MP5 (resto shamans), leather bracers with crit and spirit (moonkins and trees), and so on and so forth.  Yet we end up coveting these items because they’re all there is.  For example, the best-in-slot boots for a 10-man elemental shaman who is already hitcapped are cloth with (useless) hit and crit.  In three tiers of normal and hardmode raiding, there’s only one other option, thirty-two ilevels (two and a half “tiers”) lower.  They are, in fact, only superior by sheer brute force of item level.  Similarly, the best-in-slot offhand for a hitcapped 10-man elemental is a hit/haste offhand (not a shield), because it’s so much higher ilevel than the beautiful shield from the previous tier and the only shield in tier 9 has crit and mp5.

For other slots, there are well-itemised items but no choice – such as for cloaks (do you want haste, crit and spellpower or more haste, crit and spellpower from the next tier?).  Some slots have great choice in one tier then no choice in the next (like necklaces and trinkets – two in tier 8 and none in tier 9, what?).

(Oh, and that reminds me.  10-man tier 9 trinkets.  What on Azeroth?  25-man has Reign of the Unliving, an incredible 650-DEP monster which every caster and his or her dog dreams of one day owning for themselves.  10-man has Talisman of Volatile Power, which is even worse than a Mercurial Alchemist Stone and that anyone who rolls on gets ruthlessly mocked.  What in Kil’jaeden’s left armpit were the item team thinking?  But I digress.)

Then there’s the really unfortunate examples of the tier 9 helm from Anub’arak and shoulderpads from Northrend Beasts:

1. They are perfectly itemised for elemental!
2. They fill slots which tier also fills, so choice, right?
3. …they have exactly the same stats as elemental tier with a slightly different distribution.

OK well at least we can choose which one we use to break the tier 9 four-piece with, right?  Wrong   By far the best item to break the tier 9 four-piece bonus at the 10-man level with is Merlin’s Robe, an incredibly expensive crafted cloth item only available from repeated hard mode kills.  So those perfectly beautiful elemental helm and shoulders go to waste when if they were boots or belts or necklaces we’d be dancing happy little jigs of joy.

So we’re forced to go for items that are obviously not very good for us and are often better for other classes just because that’s all we can do.  This puts us in the unfortunate situation of effectively competing with other classes/specs for items that should, by rights, be theirs.  The more gentlemanly among us will wait our turns, but this delays the rate at which we gear up and harms our personal raid performance.

The bigger picture

The reason I say it’s not so bad is because, at the end of the day, we can still be useful and perhaps even competitive in this “suboptimal” gear environment.  And if we’re “forced” to take high ilevel items that are poorly itemised for us, then at least that makes it more likely that even slightly better-itemised pieces in the next tier will be upgrades – and upgrading gear is part of the fun of the game.

Also, I have no idea how Blizzard’s item and balance team works the difference between 10-mans and 25-mans.  Maybe elemental is tuned down to the 10-man environment (where a multi-buffing class like us is very strong) by the suboptimal itemisation, and then tuned up to the buff-rich 25-man enviroment by its better options and the potential use of fire DPS totems.  Maybe the need for items to be useful to several classes/specs means that our lack of proper itemisation works for the good of 10-man raiders as a whole (but then what’s with all that spellpower plate?).

Closing thoughts

My abiding memory of beginning Lich King raiding as an elemental is the unhappy realisation that my level 70 blue Totem of the Void was the best available to me as a 10-man raider.  This issue has since been somewhat rectified by putting relics on the emblem vendors.  But still it’s hard to accept the paucity of 10-man elemental itemisation, especially when your guild is banging against hard modes trying to eak out that last bit of DPS and you’re 3% over the hit cap with a big slab of delicious MP5, a modicum of spirit and more crit than haste.

But there’s a lot more to be said on the topic of 10-man raiding, and admittedly most of it positive.  But the better the developers manage to get things, the more pressure they are under to bring them even closer to perfection; I feel this is one area in which there’s still a lot of ground to make up.  Precisely because gear is part of the game’s appeal and fun, when we don’t feel there’s any gear “for us”, that diminishes the fun even if Blizzard has a grand plan behind it.

This poem I wrote over a year ago during a time when my ex-partner of seven years and I were in the process of separating. It was a dark time for the both of us as the separation took us by surprise. The universe shook us up and we no longer felt we were right for each other. This was a difficult time for myself as many fears surfaced. I realized a part of me had to die in order to continue on to the path I was choosing. I had to create my own foundation again and the universe new best that this relationship was no longer serving the both of us. Though we loved each other very much it became apparent that this was the best choice.

Thank you and enjoy……..

Chords Unravel and Wheels Die

It has been a strange day and an unsetteling night.
I cannot sleep, as I lay here alone and cold.
These past days have been so dark and the cold in me has begun to grow.
There as been feelings of unease steering in me, as well as the air around me.
Darkness lurks in the pockets of stillness and the air is thick as smoke.
As I lay here I toss and turn.
I cannot sleep as the unease in me fills my skin and inner being.

Finally I do sleep but not a deep sleep.
The horror is coming, as nightmares fill my dreams.
Oh the horror of these unsettling emotions filling my inner space.
As dark thick shadows lurk within my psyche.
I sense them hidden within the dark spaces.
I sense the horror but I don’t sense what is to come.
This is unfamiliar territory.

I wake up with fright and unease.
The cold creeps into my vain, capillaries and arteries.
It is filling my internal space.
The thickness of this horror, darkness, cold chills, and lurking shadows fill my space, as I lay here unsettled in my sleeping wake.

After a while I fall deeper into sleep and as I sleep the nightmares come again.
The presence of these unknown shadows, are felt, behind the dark spaces.
They fill every corner of my psyche and the corners of my room.
Oh the horror, the horror as I receive glimpses of my once love, my beloved.

I’ve been waiting for him and waiting for us.
I receive fragments of images.
They come in as glimpses of his pleasure.
The licking of a thigh and gasping for air in sexual wonder.
I get glimpses of him being held by another.
My every being is filled with pain, confusion and horror.

I awake again not knowing what is going on.
The room is freezing and my internal space is cold.
There is no way for me to be warm.
It’s so cold in me and I cannot find any warmth.
There is no warmth in me and no warmth of us, my beloved and I.
It’s such a strange night as the thickness of darkness slowly rolls in.
I fall asleep again but unsettled and unrested.

Oh the horror, as I awake again but in my sleep a different dream.
My beloved comes to me with a smile.

As I see his face, he is happy.
The sadness in his eyes is different.
As this is happening, the darkness rips me into billion pieces.
Daggers are piercing through me with anguishing pain.
One by one I feel the wheels.
The wheels that breathe me life from my forehead, throat, heart, chest, naval and sacral base centers are dieing.
These wheels of life turned black as death as the daggers pierce them with darkness.
These wheels that once spun of joy and had a vibrancy of life began to blacken, die and decayed.

This happens rapidly within seconds.
Death fills my cells and molecules.
I have died and the darkness has taken me.
It has filled my every space.

Now I am here, in this empty room.
The cold roles in and continues to get colder.
I cannot get warm.
There is no warmth to be found.

I lay here alone on my bed.
I cannot sleep.
It is over.
My once beloved has left me.

The horror has come and I no longer feel those chords that bind us.
Before, as we were drifting apart, I felt these chords unraveling but tonight it is different.
This is the night of death.

Death has come to me and I have no say.
What has happened, happened and I find myself here again in this dark and empty room. Alone……….

Shaman - Immortal

Band: Shaman
Album: Immortal
Power Metal
Year: 2007
Country: Brasil
Size: 44.24 Mb

Download Album

Uploader: Humberto E. Sayes

I haven’t mentioned it, but in the past few months I’ve broken my long-standing phobia of taking a more responsible role in grouping.  I’ve been healing, and not just on my 80 Shaman, but on my level 40 Priest, as well.

Actually, before I ever healed a Heroic on my Shaman, I was already healing on my Priest.  I decked him out in heirlooms a few months ago, and I’ve been leveling him primarily in BG’s as a Discipline healer.  Leveling a Priest through questing is not my idea of fun; it’s slow and boring.  But battlegrounds supply an infinite amount of opportunities for excitement.

It was actually healing the BGs that first tipped me off to the fun of keeping others alive while they do all the work of killing things.  So this weekend, for the first time, I took my Priest into an old world instance and healed Scarlet Monastery, Library and Armory.

Scarlet monastery viewed from below

I was probably lucky to even get in on a true at-level run of the Monastery.  Even though it’s one instance everyone seems to enjoy and want to run, actually finding a PuG for it is difficult.  I’ve gone into LFG the past three weekends and never seen anyone else waiting to run it.

It turned out to be a partially successful run.  The people I ran with were all much lower than me, ranging from level 32 to 35.  I was at level for Cathedral, but after clearing the Armory we decided we couldn’t do the Cathedral wing.

This decision was mainly due to the fact that our Druid tank, specced Balance, left after clearing the Library.  He hadn’t got the drop he wanted from Doan, so with a “sorry guys gotta go,” he went.

We couldn’t find anyone to replace him, but having a Paladin in the group, we decided to four-man Armory with him tanking–in Ret spec with a two-hander.

Looking back, it’s a wonder we cleared it.  The Paladin died twice, but we never wiped.  I was basically using a rotation I use in BG’s–Shield, plus Renew, followed by a Flash Heal as needed–which worked well up to a point.  My goal was not to waste mana throwing out large heals unnecessarily.  Mana was a huge issue for me.  The two times we lost the Paladin, it was because I was running on empty.  Basically at these points, my improved shield, which heals for a percentage of damage absorbed, was the only heal on the tank and it just wasn’t enough.

Still, we made it through Armory like this, with a hunter who didn’t wait for anyone else before pulling, and a tank with next to no mitigation, and a healer whose only healing experience on a Priest was in Battlegrounds.

I felt pretty good about it afterward.  I didn’t get a single drop, but I got something better: a good memory, and good experience.

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By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try
The world is beyond the winning.

– Lao Tzu

So I am on day 3.  I am “supposed to be” on day 6 by now.  My walls were built in a day.  Check that.  In an instant.  California’s freeway contractors would do well to know how I can accomplish so much construction so quickly.

I am fighting the process and work Ken has laid out for me.  I know it’s just a part of my own personal process.  I will find myself on the other side soon, with no walls being necessary as I will protect myself in a more appropriate manner.  This is simply the old trying to hang onto what it is used to.  Change ain’t always so easy.

My neck hurts.  It is causing my head to hurt.  This week, I have been sleeping so heavily and waking up as if someone (aliens?) came into my room and gave me a blanket party (that’s a process whereby they beat me with bars of soap in tube socks).  What the hell is happening at night?  Processing and assimilation.  Yes.  I get that that is part of what happens at night in our dreams.  This is physically taxing though.  I established at the beginning of this ride that the physical informs the spiritual, and vice versa.  So, with that in mind, I get that what I’m experiencing in one realm will have consequences in the other.

Through Ken’s “Re-writing Your Life” program, I have become acutely aware that I second guess myself on a regular basis.  My self-doubt is at times paralyzing to my spirit.  As I said in an earlier post, I have all these amazing people around me lovingly wondering when I’m finally going to get it and be more fully the man that they all see.  I had an ex-girlfriend’s words go straight to my heart the other day.  I thought she might be the one.  Then she wasn’t.  Then there was the next “one”, with whom I really, really thought I was done.  Then she was gone.  I tell you this because I was chatting with the first “one” earlier this week, and she said that she never knew a connection like the one she had with me, and that she thought it was just us.  But after hearing about the connection I had with her successor, she realized, she said, that it was just me.  I was the reason.  She said that I had been chosen for this a long time ago, and that it was good that I’m finally figuring that all out, as long as I allow myself to figure that all out.  And still I build my army of resistance.

]]> http://blueberrytotem.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/blueberry-raiding-rahanas-interface/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:09:10 +0000 Rahana http://blueberrytotem.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/blueberry-raiding-rahanas-interface/