10 Tidbits (Day 8)

So it’s been awhile… again. My on again, off again love affair with blogging and WoW has come back. I took a three month break from playing WoW and now that I’m back again, I’m really excited for Mists of Pandaria to come out. So to ease my way back into my blog, I find myself on day 8 of the blogging challenge I started back in April. Was the 20 day blogging challenge supposed to be consecutive, cause I’ve definitely not kept it up that way. But yeah, it’s still a fun way to add to my blog when I’m low on ideas. 

Anyways, Day 8 is ten things people don’t know about you. I’m going to conveniently change this to 10 things that people MAY not know about me. That way it’s a LOT easier to think of things, and I don’t have to expose myself in the process. It’s my blog, I’ll do what I want cause the rules don’t apply to me. 

Here we go: 

1. I was in the United States Navy from 2006-2012. I was a Sonar Technician and reached the rank of Second Class Petty Officer (E5). I lived in San Diego, California for six years and it was wonderful. The weather there is so nice compared to where I now live, which brings me to…
2. I live in Gilbert, Arizona. I just moved back here from San Diego after I separated from the Navy. It is over 100 degrees here every day and it sucks since San Diego is about 70 year round. But luckily I grew up here, so I’m semi-used to it. Plus, my family and friends live here, so it’s nice to be back where they all are.
3. I have a kick-ass job now that I am out of the Navy. I work for Intel as a Manufacture Technician. I basically work in a group in the factory that makes sure the microprocessors are being made to the highest quality attainable. So far it’s a dream job, only one thing that makes it weird…
4. I work night shift. I work 3 12 hour shifts (6PM-6AM) one week and 4 the next. It’s been odd trying to get used to. I work Sun/M/T every other Sat. So it’s kind of weird sleeping during the day for the first half of the week, then always transitioning back to nights on my weekends. Good news is, with this schedule I always get a 3 or 4 day weekend. Yeyeah! It is kind of weird though having 3 days off a week that no one else has off. It makes planning get-togethers very hard. But I can’t complain, it’s a lot of fun and a lot of good family time.
5. I own and participate in an internet wrestling league. I am not too ashamed to say it here, cause come on now, we all have our odd hobbies that we love so much. But yeah, it’s an online fantasy wrestling promotion that you roleplay wrestlers in for weekly shows. Matches are done pitting one person’s wrestler against another and the winner is decided by who out wrote the other. It’s a lot of fun to me because I’ve always been a wrestling fan and I enjoy being able to create a wrestler and watch him as he progresses through my writing and the shows of the federation. Anyways, if you are interested more in what I am talking about, tweet me or leave a comment. I’d love to tell you more about it. We are always looking for new talent, and I know a lot of you write very well. Oh by the way, did I mention that about 50% of the people in it don’t even watch actual pro wrestling. It’s all about the writing and competition.
6. I’ve not main tanked a raid before. I talk a mean bear tank game, but I’ve only done off-tanking with my boomkin set usually being the better gear than my OT set. I can attribute this to the fact that I never really was able to get attached full time to a raid team til Cataclysm, so I never really had the chance. The good news is I am forming a raid team in my guild (Alea Iacta Est) that I plan on main tanking and leading. So that will be fun. It’s a Thursday morning team that will raid from 9-12 PST if anyone from AIE is reading and decides they like the idea.
7.  This may come as a shock to some of my AIE brethren but I don’t only stick to Horde side characters. I started off playing Horde, then switched over during Wrath to Alliance, then back to Horde when Cataclysm came out. So I have equal love for both sides. And this has bothered some people when they find out (Not really, but they do give me gaffe). But yeah, I have 85s on both sides of the war and am not sure which one I would pick if I really had to. But I guess I am going to have to with my first Panda when he hits level 10.
8. I’m an altoholic. It’s getting pretty bad. I think I switch toon focuses about three times a week. Sure I always play Nashamire (my druid main) every week for hours and hours. But then I will decide I really want to level my rogue… but then there’s my warlock… oh wait, my priest is almost level capped. I just can’t seem to pick one. I think this goes for A LOT of people out there, but I just needed to admit it out loud. Thanks for letting me share with the group.
9. I’m horrible at gold making. No addon, no dailies, no undermine journal, and no gold making blogs have seemed to help me. I have made a considerable amount of gold on Nashamire using his Transmute Alchemy and Jewelcrafting. But that’s the best that I do. This is also a recent development. I didn’t make all I could doing the shuffle at the beginning of the expansion. I think the highest total I’ve ever had gold wise on one toon is 20,000. If you can help me, I would welcome it. There are a lot of mounts and things I would love to buy, but can’t afford… ever.
10. The twitter community for WoW is amazing. I can’t believe that so many people follow me and read my ramblings as much as I read everyone else’s. It’s really cool to be able to communicate and connect with so many other people from the wow community and blogging community the way I can with twitter. I’ve definitely met some really awesome people on it, and it’s made even better when Battle.net ID’s came out and more so now with the implementation of Battletags. I’ve even gone on some of the raids with twitterland raiding which are awesome. I highly recommend it because the guys and gals doing it are very fun to play with. Anyways, I’m rambling. Twitter is awesome, and you should use it.

So yeah, that’s ten things about me. They probably aren’t any big revelations about me. But they are all true, so that’s a plus. I didn’t have to make up any to come up with ten. Anyways, until next time, stay thirsty my friends.

Breaking the Silence (Day 1)

Well it’s about time I get back into the game. My last post was put up in September, and that just won’t do. I go and read great blogs like The Big Bear Butt, Caer Morrighan, and Blackbear’s Cave and always can’t help but be a little jealous. Despite the hectic schedule that I’m sure they endure, just as I do, they are able to put up blog posts that are both entertaining and informative. While I, in my own head, work a tough schedule also, but can never find the time to do something that I find so enjoyable.

So Here I am, rebooting. I’ve hit the power button on my blog for a third time and hopefully I can get the fan on my brain running again so I don’t overheat and shutdown permanently. While perusing Sizzle’s Legs, I saw that they had completed a 20 day blogging challenge and thought to myself, that would be a great way for me to get out of this permanent writer’s funk. So I’ve decided to try my hand at it and see where it takes me.

Day 1 – Tell us about yourself (which I will tactfully add “and your blog” to)

My name is Dan Potter and I’m a recovering US Navy Sailor. I say that in jest because I’m only a few short weeks away from separating from the service and venturing back out into the civilian world. I’m 29 years old and also only a few short weeks away from the big 3-0. I don’t feel old, in fact I feel like I just graduated high school still. But I have subtle reminders everyday that bring me back to reality much more than the frequent back pain I endure. That would be my wife of 4 years and my 2 year old daughter. My daughter’s crazy antics are enough for me to realize that I AM getting older as I tend to talk to her the same way I remember my parents talking to me when I was younger. Believe me, when you find yourself doing that, you definitely feel old.

I live in one of the greatest cities in the world, San Diego. It’s great weather, sunny beaches, and constant activity make it one of the best places to live around. I always figured I would live here when I was a kid after all the trips I made out here from Phoenix. But alas, as a youngster you don’t think about the things that you have to when you grow up. Housing costs, moving violation prices, and overcrowding make San Diego, and California in general, one of the worst places to live. And I guess that’s why I’m moving back to Phoenix when I become a civilian again. Yeah it may be HOT all the time, but I love it.

On to what I’m sure you’re more interested in, World of Warcraft. Sure knowing the man behind the curtain is great, but would the Wizard of Oz been as great if you knew who he was all along? There has to be some intrigue right? Well I guess I ruined all that with paragraph one, I’m already out from behind the curtain without anyone’s prompting. But that’s ok, I’m much better looking than my toons. I hope.

I started playing towards the end of the Burning Crusade. I remember vividly when I downloaded the trial version of wow and created my first toon “Argamatese”, a play on the phrase “Arggggg maties”. I’m not sure what the fascination with pirates was at that moment, but I guess I really didn’t think I would be playing the game much since I was just playing it on the recommendation of a friend. When I found out I couldn’t join my friend’s guild, send any mail, or even private message him, I went out and bought the battle chest. From there things spiraled out of control.

I installed the “real” game and rerolled a druid and started leveling. Got him to 70 and was convinced PVP was what you did when you level capped. I was new, and didn’t even know that raiding was a thing. So premade Alterac Valleys were about all I did when I wasn’t leveling my paladin alt. Wrath of the Lich King came and I moved to another server (Azuremyst) and came across a wily bunch of people called “Band of Misfits“. I spent all of Wrath of the Lich King hanging out with them and making some great friends (Shoutouts to Matheo, Blackbear, Hedwig, Rainblossom, Zanduran, Wistoria, and Thereddeath) I actually learned what raiding was and found out that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was never asked to be a part of the full time raiding teams so I went along on alt runs weekly and enjoyed every minute of it.

Then Cataclysm hit and it was the same story, only the alt raids weren’t there anymore. So I spend my time leveling my level 80 toons up to 85 and waiting for an opportunity. That’s when I was asked by my good friend Zanduran to come heal for his ten man team on the Earthen Ring server. So I moved my Holy Paladin over there and became part of the Alea Iacta Est community and a permanent part of my first ever raid team. I’ve been there ever since raiding on my Holy Paladin, spot healing raids on my Shaman, and Bear Tanking anything I get the opportunity for. And every once in awhile I visit my friends in Band of Misfits and PVP.

Another big part of my story that sprung up during the Cataclysm era was my twitter handle. I started off as a lowly “blogger” since I created this blog and my twitter account at the same time. I got a few follows here and there, but I just figure they were people being nice with follow backs. Well over time I’ve met some really cool bloggers and WoW players on twitter and with the induction of Twitterland Raiding, I’ve been meeting even more like minded players and enjoying some old raid content with them whenever I’m able to. It’s amazing to me to see how diverse, interesting and friendly the WoW community can be when you really branch out of the confines of your own guild. I’ve met some really cool people from “Eff the Ineffable” and “Firestorm” on the Azuremyst server whose guilds I never even knew existed but had been on my server just as long as I had been.

So that’s basically me in a condensed version. I know what you’re thinking. “That’s the condensed version… thank god he didn’t go into the balls to the wall version”. But I just wanted to paint a muddy picture for you. I may not be as hardcore as some of my blogging counterparts, but that’s fine. I may not have the time or the skill required to be as good as they are, but I still have fun and love to learn as much as I can about the game and the people that play it. I’m currently 7/8 in normal 10m DS, but hopefully we’ll be getting Deathwing beaten into the ground very soon. It will be the first time I’ve beaten the endgame boss of a expansion when it was relevant so I’m really looking forward to it. But I’m rambling again. I’m gonna go ahead and leave the blog description part of this day for another post. Now you know me so say hello on twitter (@beartankit) if you have it or whisper me in game. I love a good conversation!