I have refrained from posting my critique and complaint about the upcoming patch as I’m sure no one wants to hear me say “zomg, lazy devs, regurgitating old content and calling it new” and boy am I glad I did!

I’d look like a total jackass if I had aired those complaints and then had to come back here and give you this latest announcement:

It’s barely been a measly 4 years, 2 months and 5 days since the release of The Burning Crusade expansion and ALREADY Blizzard is on the verge of releasing in-game maps to our favorite BC places such as Karazhan.

Do these devs even sleep? How do they find the time to give us these timely and useful updates? Finally, proof that the billions of dollars pooring into the BlizzActivision pockets are going towards innovative improvements and timely feature requests!

The Story of Stuff recently released their video “Citizens United v. FEC” and it was watching this video that things really just CLICKED. I won’t say that this movement is going to fix all of the things that are wrong with America but I WILL say that of all of the issues that have me staying up at night, almost all of them lead me back to this issue in one form or another. So to say this is important to me is an understatement and whether you agree with me on the various issues or not, I think we can all agree that Democracy is for People – and corporations have their hands and their interests in too much of our government. If you’re still with me, that’s awesome and I want to say THANK YOU! If not, I appreciate whatever of this post you managed to keep reading.

I’m going to share with you a video that is 8 min and 51 sec. All I ask is that you watch the video. If, after that, you’re still with me, I’ll post some important Q&A after the MORE as well as links that will give you more information and ways you can help.

Q: Why should I care about the Citizens United v. FEC ruling?

A: In this landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that it is unconstitutional to limit how much money corporations can spend to influence elections. Why? The court said limits would violate the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. Since the 2010 ruling, corporations have spent $300 million to influence election results. This money has been used to run ads and engage in other activities to sway us – the voters– to support candidates who serve the interests of those corporations.

Since the interests of corporations rarely match up with the interests of individuals like you and me, that’s a real concern!

Q: What was the Citizens United v. FEC case about?

A: Citizens United is an organization that accepted corporate funding to produce a 90-minute movie attacking Hillary Clinton called “Hillary: The Movie.” Shortly before the 2008 presidential elections, Citizens United wanted to air the movie as a video-on-demand, but was afraid the FEC would forbid them from doing so, because campaign finance rules prohibited TV attack ads funded by outside groups. Citizens United challenged the ban in court. Originally, the Citizens United v. FEC case involved a narrow, technical question about campaign finance law: Was a video-on demand program enough like a TV ad that it should be prohibited from airing shortly before an election? However, the Supreme Court expanded the case to consider a much broader question:  Did decades of campaign finance rules violate the First Amendment?

Q: Wait, so Citizens United is the bad guy, with a name like Citizens United?

A: That’s right! Citizens United is actually a conservative group that advocates pulling the United States out of the United Nations, cutting Social Security, stripping funding from public broadcasting, among other extremist positions. The group’s name makes it sounds like it’s about democracy when actually it’s about corporatocracy!

Q: What did the Supreme Court decide in Citizens United v. FEC?

A: In a 5-4 ruling, the court overturned previous campaign finance rules and cases. It held that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose candidates for elected office.

Q: So, what does that mean?

A: The ruling means that corporations can and are spending a ton of money to support or defeat particular candidates – at least $300 million during the 2010 midterm elections, and probably a LOT more in 2012. It means that things people like you and me want – jobs, health care, and a clean environment – will take a backseat to what corporations want.

What kinds of things do corporations want? They want to do away with laws that restrict their activities– laws that protect public health and safety, workers’ rights, and clean air and water. For example, oil companies want to block laws that protect our climate; manufacturers want trade agreements that undermine product safety rules and enable corporations to ship jobs overseas. And big multinational corporations often seek subsidies and bailouts.

Q: What are the implications beyond how much corporations spend to influence elections?

A: In November 2010, unprecedented spending by corporations and deep-pocketed individuals significantly influenced the makeup of the Congress. Going forward, elected officials will think twice about challenging the business agenda. Those who stand up against corporations will face the prospect of huge funding against them in the next election. In other words, if Stella the City Council member doesn’t vote in favor of the developer who wants a building permit, she has to worry that developer will go all out to defeat her.

Simply by threatening to spend an enormous amount of money, corporate lobbyists will have unprecedented leverage over elected officials. As a result, it is going to be much harder to advance a public interest agenda on any issue affecting corporations – whether the issue is healthcare, climate change, reining in Wall Street, protecting workers’ rights, stopping consumer rip-offs, promoting a just trade policy, and much more.

Q: Can’t Congress overturn or fix the decision?

A: Congress cannot overturn the decision, because the decision is based on the constitutional protections of the First Amendment.

A key option to help address the Citizens United v. FEC mess is public financing of federal elections– which would at least give candidates a base of decent funding to offset whatever corporations choose to spend. Public Citizen is working, with many others, to promote a fair election system that would provide public financing of candidates. Other legislative approaches also could minimize the damage, like requiring disclosure of the sources of political spending, and requiring that a majority of shareholders must approve any corporate electoral-related expenditure.

But there’s no way to fully escape the damage from this decision unless it is reversed. Hence the need for a constitutional amendment.

Q: What would a constitutional amendment do?

A: It would overturn the decision in Citizens United v. FEC by establishing that corporations do not have the same First Amendment rights as individuals. The First Amendment was intended to protect the rights of real, live humans like you and me, not to extend those same protections to corporations. Public Citizen and allies are leading the campaign to re- establish this obvious and important principle.

Q: Is amending the Constitution politically possible?

A: Yes. Amending the Constitution is supposed to be hard, and no one should be under any illusions about its difficulty. But it’s an achievable goal, as the history of the Constitution makes clear. The 23rd and 26th Amendments (establishing voting rights for District of Columbia residents and setting the minimum voting age at 18 years old) were passed by Congress and ratified in under a year.

Right now, there is enormous anger and anti-corporate sentiment in this country. Eighty-five percent of Americans feel that corporations have too much power in our democracy and people have too little. This issue even unites folks across party lines!

The key to success will be a strong foundation of popular support for the amendment. It’s time to get organized and take our democracy back from corporations. This is the first and most important step in making real progress on all the issues that living breathing people care most about.

Recommended Activities

There are lots of ways you can get involved in reclaiming our democracy and stopping a corporatocracy!

The very first thing you can do is share this information with your family, friends and colleagues:

Send them a link to The Story of Citizens United v. FEC video along with a personal note about why you think it’s important to watch at www.storyofcitizensunited.org

Give them a copy of this toolkit.

If you’re on a social network like Facebook, Twitter, etc. or if you have your own blog, post a link to the film.

Websites

Public Citizen’s “Democracy is for People” Campaign:  www.democracyisforpeople.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/democracyisforpeople

Pledge for Democracy: www.pledgefordemocracy.org

Free Speech for People: www.FreeSpeechForPeople.org

My WOW playtime has been little to zilch lately due to a lot of real life “stuff”. So finding time to play in some of the Rift Beta events has been like attempting to wrangle cats, blindfolded. I managed a solid 10 hours in one beta, 45 minutes in another, I *almost* logged in once in the last beta but just as my mouse hovered over the “Play” button, the kids aggro’d me and the beta client was left to sit alone in the corner. Then, why, you ask, did I “encourage” my husband to buy the digital collector’s edition for me for my birthday? KISS: This game fracking ROCKS!

I’ve been playing WOW for almost five years. That’s a really long time to dedicate to a virtual activity and one that, even on the best of days, is difficult to explain to my non-gamer friends and family. Those five years have been full of ups and downs and everything in between. I’ve played a few other games such as Aion, Runes of Magic, etc but mostly for that feeling of “ooh, something new” and never for a significant amount of time. I have friends and family in my WOW guild and it feels like “home” to me. But really, I’m so fracking tired of WOW that I can’t even put it into words. The first three years of wow were a whirlind of fanboy (uh, fangirl) extremism and cult like obsession with the franchise and the WOW community. The last two years have been a slowly dwindling activity that is done simply out of the sake of loyalty, to the franchise a little but mostly to my guild.

Many people I game with are feeling the same way as I am about WOW. They’re loyal to our gaming group and honestly, nothing has really come along that’s been worth the move so we just keep playing it. Then again, many simply said “sorry, I’d rather eat rat poop than keep playing this game.” A few of us play other games together occasionally, mostly FPS games, but in the end, our priority is always “the game” which is universally considered WOW. So, over time, I’ve begun to try to take our community that is “officially” WOW-centric and convert it to a multi-game community. It sounds great until you realize there’s just no other competition in the game market that has had as much of an impact on any of us as WOW has. Until now.

Rift Headstart started last week. I honestly only get an hour or two if I’m lucky in a given day to devote any time to it (more on some days, like my birthday, zomg 12 hours of nearly non-stop gaming, so fun) but every minute is spent in pure, unadulterated bliss. Does the game have flaws? Sure it has a few – but the game is so much fun that even when I sit down and try to think of the flaws, I barely have anything negative worth saying. When your BIGGEST complaint about a game is that you wish it had shared character banks or a guild bank (guild bank functions already slotted for inclusion in the next big update) than you really have to step back and wonder at what’s going on here.

When I try to explain Rift, it’s hard to do so without sounding like a total fangirl. Some may call it a copy of every other MMO out there but I like to think of it as a game that has included everything great you ever loved about any MMO and left out all the crap you hated — at game release! Polished, beautiful, and just fracking fun! You know that when you log on “for a few minutes to just do this one thing” and then a Rift invasion happens and suddenly you’ve lost two hours of your life without even realizing it, that either [1] you have a problem or [2] you just had a really kick ass two hours! I’ve had nothing but kick ass fun in the game so far.

Sadly, only myself and one of my other guildies so far have taken the bait and joined in the Rift action. If I were a millionaire I’d buy a copy for every one of my guildies (after solving that pesky world hunger problem of course) and we’d all be rifting it up by the weekend. So, until I can encourage more to join me, I’m stuck in that place where I’m playing one game to make other’s happy and another to make myself happy.

If you’re one of my “Keepers” we’re playing Defiant faction over on the Tearfall (pvp) shard. Come join us!

See more after the break.

You know you’re old when… you wake up and think “Dang, I’m too old for this s#!t!” Yes, that’s about as whitty as I could come up with this morning. The last few months in particular I’ve been feeling very old. Not just because I’m about to add another candle to my cake, but emotionally and physically, just freaking OLD man! I won’t go into my long list of medical problems but the gist of it is that when you live with chronic back pain, it just wears you down slowly, little by little, every day. Physically, I’m 30 going on 51.

I’m starting to wonder if I haven’t gone through some sort of Pre-Mid-Life Crisis of sorts this past year. In particular, I find that I just don’t enjoy the same things that I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I have always, continue to, and believe I always will love video games. I just find that I don’t wake up in the morning and log on as my coffee is finishing brewing. I also don’t enjoy staying up late and dealing with the exhaustion the next day just to get a few more quests done or finish one more heroic for the night. This past year I’ve stumbled quite unexpectedly into a personal growth experiment of sorts. I have this intense desire to learn knew (and sometimes useless) things. But now I’m finding that my hard-core gaming habits are interfering with this process and part of me is like “eh, whatever, the game will wait” which is clashing intensely with my long-ingrained habit of making gaming a top priority in my life.

I also find that despite having an intense desire to form human connections and a feeling of missing an overall sense of community in my life, I simply find people much more annoying than I ever used to. I’ve always prided myself on being able to interact with and mediate between many different types of people as well as having abundant stockpile of patience. If there’s ever a problem, I end up finding myself in the middle of it, mediating between the two parties. Not because I want to, people just come to me for help. But lately, man, lately I just want to push people out of windows sometimes at the slightest hint of annoyance. I just don’t have the urge to try to make everyone happy anymore.

I said at the start of the new year that 2011 was the Year of Jamie. I was going to focus on myself and do things that I want to do this year. The more I try to stick to that plan though, the more I realize that I actually kind of like being selfish, not a traight I’m really that familiar with. I can’t deny that it’s making a positive impact on my life though. I’m seeing new doctors for my medical junk. They haven’t fixed anything yet but just knowing they’re working on it has increased my happiness level ten-fold. I’m working out again. Not like I was when I was in the military but at least I’m getting my fat a$$ out of this chair and that’s a big improvement from last year so I’m feeling happy about that.

I also have found that 99% of the people I associate with on a daily basis couldn’t care less what I write about, what’s going on in my day, or how I’m really feeling. As long as I click “LIKE” on their facebook status updates we’re “friends”. I’m not one to ask for help and I never try to “test” friendships as I find it very immature but I actually needed help twice already this year (nothing super serious, but needed help nonetheless). It was very difficult for me to ask but I sucked it up and did so. Surprisingly, I got about 10 “likes” on facebook and a few text messages with the usual “sorry I’m not closer or I’d totally be there for you”, but not a single person raised their hand and said “I got this.” It made me really stop and think about these “friends” and whether having them in my life in any way is a positive thing. Isn’t technology wonderful!?!

So, yeah, I’m starting to get that “GET OFF MY LAWN” feeling settling over me. I love technology and I love the improvements that it brings to our lives but I can’t help but feel a little old when I think that technology has really changed the way we view friendships and it makes me a little sad. I got into social networking in a fierce way a few years ago. I applauded the wonderful new ways in which friends and family could connect and I urged everyone I knew to join me. It seems to me though, that the more connected I become, the less connected I really am. I can log into my instant messengers and social media sites in the morning and go a whole day without any meaningful interaction. If I pick up the phone, 80% of the time I get voicemail, the other 20% of the time I’m calling my mother and she almost always picks up. XD

Hmm, I started this ramble hoping it would make me feel better but I think I just added another five years to my emotional age. I’m aware that my mom will be the only one who reads it (thanks mom!) and I’m okay with that today. Just another sign of how old I am!

Every good Zombie Hunter or Zombie Hunter In-Training needs a plan in place before the Zombiepacolypse begins. I like to call this Stage 1 of my Zombie Invasion Plan (ZIP). Stage 1 consists of preparing for the first 72 hours of a Zombie Invasion. For those who prefer to use this as a guide for more *cough*realistic*cough* events, feel free to insert words such as “Basic Disaster Preparedness”, “Unexpected Utility Outages”, “Earthquake”, “Blizzardageddon”, etc where you see the words “Zombie Invasion”. Since most disasters such as Zombie Invasions are unexpected events and could change on a whim based on the events, and we can never prepare for every possible scenario, I focus on two basic survival plans. I call them the “GTFO Plan” and the “Bunker Down Plan”. For both plans I will detail sensible plans of action that should be enacted now, before zombies strike. You should not wait until you see postings on Twitter such as “my neighbor is acting strange, dude totally just bit me! Feeling weird….. BRAIIIIIIIIIINS!”

NOTES FOR BOTH PLANS: I have some special notes regardless of which plan you go with. You may agree or disagree with these notes based on your personal preference but they bare listing.

[1] The First Rule of ZIP… there is no ZIP – I’m breaking my cardinal rule because I love you. But you should know that in the future, this discussion never took place. During Stage 1 of the ZIP, you keep your mouth shut. You are preparing yourself and/or your family for survival. Every person you let into that circle of survival is someone who’s survival you will be responsible for. People generally don’t prepare for disasters. If you tell Tom you are prepared for a disaster but Tom has not prepared, guess where Tom is going when disaster strikes. If you’re prepared to take in additional survivors, GREAT. I’m not one of those “it’s all about me” people but be aware that when the Zombies attack, it’s eat or be eaten. Choose carefully who you let into your circle of survival.

[2] Don’t be a Dick – Rule 2 does not counteract Rule 1. Yes, we want to keep our secrets to ourselves before a distaster but when disaster does strike do you want to be remembered as the dude who flipped everyone else off to save himself or are you going to be HUMAN and take care of your fellow survivors? You might not want to tell everyone that you’re prepared at first. However, don’t be the guy that people write about in Apacolypse books that has hordes of flour in your closet but is letting little kids starve. If you do, you’re a DICK and I hope the Zombies eat you first.

[3] Make it personal – Do you live in the desert? a snowy mountanous region? a flood region? prone to earthquakes? Do you have children? pets? special medical circumstances? Every plan is different but YOUR plan should involve your personal needs. For the purposes of this guide, I will be using my personal plan as an example. I have a husband, 3 kids and a dog and we currently live in a SW desert location that is prone to drought. It’s important that for any plan you choose to go with, you make it personal. Hopefully this guide will get you thinking about the common tips and turn them into personal choices.

GTFO Plan – This plan assumes that disaster is imminent or in progress and you are not safe in your current location. You are a girl on the go and you need to go NOW. You’ve seen it before… hurricanes, earthquakes, etc… people standing in line for food and water trying to find their loved ones in the chaos of a disaster. These people were not prepared. Hopefully, you will be!

Step 1 – SURVIVAL BAGS – Everyone gets one. This bag is your lifeline to survival. Every family member should have their own bag. If you have small children, these bags need to be easily carried by them or else you should ration their items into older children’s bags or adult’s bags. You may choose backpacks, rolling luggage, duffel bags, whatever kind you’re more comfortable with. Here are my basic tips for the survival bags:

[a] Small as possible – These should be as small as possible. You are on the go here. Weigh the value of items against their weight. Can you afford to leave something behind if the weight will slow you down? Rolling luggage is great but it should have alternate means of being carried. If there is rubbel on the ground, will you still be able to carry it?

[b] Clearly Marked – Every bag should be clearly marked with the name of the person it belongs to. In a rush, an adult can carry multiple bags but when you get somewhere safe you want to make sure you have the right bag for the right person.

[c] Clearly Non-descript – While you want to label your bags for convenience, you do not want bags that are labeled in big neon signs with “SURVIVAL KIT” or something similar. People suck, and more importantly, people suck even more if you have something they want/need during a time of disaster. If they see a bag marked as clearly being survival gear, you won’t own it very long.

Step 2 – WHAT GOES IN THE BAG?

[a] Water – Desert or not, you can’t live without water. We’re talking about 72 hours here so the amount of water needed is minimal compared to a long-term survival plan. But it’s still #1 on the list because water is the most important part of the plan. At a minimum, you need 1 gallon of water per person per 72 hours. Here’s your first major decision in your ZIP. Water is heavy. Your options are bottled water, bagged water from survival stores, or water purification techniques if you can be sure you will have a water source but might need to purify the water. The last option allows you to carry more of other items in your survival bag but assumes you have a water source. Make your decision based on possible scenarios but do so wisely.

[b] Food – You need to have a full 72 hours (3 days) worth of food supplies per person. If there’s an interest, I’ll expand on this topic in more detail but for now think about each person in your family and think about foods that are [1] light to carry [2] nutritional and [3] won’t go bad. Some suggestions are: granola bars, protein bars, dehydrated fruit snacks. You’re not worried about a balanced diet. You’re main concern is meeting minimum daily caloric and vitamin intake. If you have infants, pets, or members with medical conditions, remember to tailor their food storage based on their special dietary needs.

[c] Bedding/Clothing – Each bag should include 1-2 changes of clothes. If you have children, it’s especially important to update their bags every 6 months or so to account for growth. You will want to use clothes based on the time of year but also include extras “just in case” such as long sleeve vs short sleeve shirts, pants/shorts, don’t forget socks and underwear. It would be nice if your children could have a special pillow or blanket that they like but right now you’re just focusing on survival. Some great bedding options are inflatable pillows. They are lightweight and there are many options to choose from. Remember to bring along options for changing weather: poncho or raincoat for temperate climates, emergency heating blankets for colder climates, etc.

[d] Personal Supplies – Don’t skip on the personal items. The trauma of being caught in a Zombie Invasion can somewhat be averted by the comforts of home. In addition, you’ll be wishing you’d listened that first time you have to whipe your booty with a pine cone. The main thing here is to think about those every day things you use but take for granted. Some examples: toilet paper, feminine products, travel size toothbrush and toothpaste for each member, travel size hygene products (hand sanitizer, lotion, shampoo/conditioner), special medications, diapers/wipes for infants, small travel sized bag dispensor for pet refuse.

[e] First Aid Supplies – Whether you go with  a pre-packaged kit or you create one on your own, always think about your family and tweak that kit based on your personal needs. For example: diaper rash cream for infants, children’s tylenol, etc. The kit should be small and be placed in the survival bag of an adult. You may wish to equip each bag with a very basic kit in the event that members are split up.

[f] Miscellaneous Equipment – This is our “GTFO Plan” so your equipment options will vary depending on where you think you may end up after you get out. Are you absolutely sure you’re going to a safe location? Do you have a secret hideout available? Does it have electricity or whater? What items will you have when you get there? What items will you need during your travels? Some commonly recommended items include: can openers, dishes/utensils, shovel, radio, pen and paper, small axe, pocket knife, rope, duct tape, etc. These are your miscellaneous items that would be good to have around but I don’t really recommend you waste the space unless you believe you will need them. What I DO recommend is: small personal flashlights for each person (the wind up kind are best so you’re not reliant on batteries), a few candles, water proof matches, a lighter or two and, if you have the room, some of those small emergency flares.

[g] The Why-Didn’t-I-Think-of-That List – There are some items that people just don’t think about when their house is on fire and the zombies are crashing through the windows. Here are some special items that should be tucked away and some last tips while you prepare your ZIP:

[1] Personal Documents – Passports, legal documents such as Birth/Marriage certificates, vaccination records, insurance policies, etc. In the event that after your 72 hours goes by and you find you don’t have a home to go back to, you might really wish you had those important documents.

[2] Digital Records – dude, it’s 2011, the cost of portable, lightweight hard drives is insanely low right now. Everyone should own at least one and everyone should be backing up their digital files, family pictures, etc on one. Even if the zombies never come, one day you will thank me. That is all.

[3] Money money money – Are your credit cards readily available when you need to GTFO? Every bag should contain (in a well hidden location) a stash of cold hard cash. Not a lot, just enough to get you through an emergency. Twenty dollars, broken up in small bills and coins (not too many coins, those things are heavy) could mean the difference between getting on the subway or getting eaten by a zombie. You never know.

[4] Juice – make sure you have an extra cell phone charger for any cell phones you might bring as well as a few extra batteries for your flashlights if you opted out of the hand-cranked variety. It’s an investment but I highly suggest you buy manual crank devices versus the cheaper on-the-go variety. When your batteries die and you remember you didn’t pack extras because they were so heavy, you’ll be thankful for the investment.  I didn’t mention cell phones in the list because, well, who would leave the house without their cellphone? That’s just crazy talk.

[5] If Lost, call XXX – Every survival bag should have a zip-lock bag that contains instructions for dummies (i.e. kids and family members). Important phone numbers, google maps of safe places with directions, emergency response contacts, and most importantly, detailed plans for what actions to take if your are separated. Do you have a backup location if your initial survival destination turns out to be less than desireable? Include special medical information that pertains to the owner of the bag in case of accidents. If your child is on medication and is lost and subsequently hurt, the person who finds your child will know immediately how to take care of him/her.

[6] Location, location, location – You don’t want to be digging through the old Christmas decorations in the attic to find your survival bags while the zombies are downstairs eating your dog. Your bags should be located in a temperature controlled environment. You don’t have to have a special room, but you also don’t want them out in the garage if your garage reachs 100+ degree temps in the summer. A closet near the front or back door or a garage that maintains a stable temperature thoughout the year are good locations. You want to be able to get to them quickly as well as be able to inventory them every 6 months or so to ensure the items are still fresh and appropriate for your needs.

[7] Lastly, and I think very important for those with children, are special items. Games, favorite stuffed animal, any item that will keep your child busy or be a special comfort for them during a time of very high stress. When disaster strikes, you want your children to be comforted and as calm as possible. Pre-pack as much as you can, if you have the room for it. If you have some time, perhaps while you’re busy gathering up the survival bags to throw in the back of your hummer or whatever, let your kids grab a few special items. It will keep them out of your way while making them feel like they are helping.

Bunker Down Plan – I bet you thought I’d write another 55,000 words on the Bunker Down Plan. I’m not, and you’re welcome. The Bunker Down Plan consists of everything that the “GTFO Plan” contains with a few minor additions. A Bunker Down Plan assumes that a disaster has occurred but you will be forced to remain in your current location (presumably your home) for at least 72 hours.

Comfort > Weight – With the Bunker Down Plan, you have a lot more room to splurge. You want your basics from the GTFO Plan in the event that your bunkering fails and you have to GTFO but this is where your crazy tendancies get to flourish. More water, more food, more comfort items, more more more! Better to have an abundance than to go without.

When planning your Bunker Down Plan, think of situations that may occur (i.e. water/electricity outages, airborne pathogens, zombies that don’t know how to turn door-knobs) and how you can prepare yourself and your family for those situations. What will you need to survive those first 72 hours? (cough*see the GTFO Plan*cough) What will you do for those 72 hours to keep busy (i.e. sane)? What happens if those 72 hours turn into a week? a month? If I get any positive response from this post, I may write up my Zombie Invasion Plan Stage 2, The Long Haul, which revolves around extended bunkering in the event those pesky zombies don’t die of starvation as soon as we expect them to.

What started with a little homeschooling experiment has turned into a ridiculous obsession of mine. I want to learn how to homestead. I use that term in the most broad sense possible. I want to learn how to garden, cook, craft, prepare for emergencies, budget, go green, etc etc. These are not things that are part of my normal skill sets. I am a gamer and a tech-junkie. I am *not* a Suzy Homemaker. So to say that I’m out of my comfort zone is an understatement to the extreme, but I find that I’m utterly fascinated with all of it.

As a gamer, the first thing I did was enter the “research zone” – pick a topic (Vegetable Gardening, for example), search for “How To” sites, find related blogs, gobble up the info as fast as I could process it. This is how I’ve conditioned myself to learn more about games or to work through tough choices in a gaming environment. I’ve been on this quest for over 6 months and let me just say, I’m still a total noob! As a tech-junkie, I started scouring the web for software and apps that would give me a little “+1 to Gardening”. I have to say, totally disappointed!

This is where my rant starts to take shape. Listen up hippies: If you want people to be greener and go organic, realize that it’s 2010 (almost 2011) and (sadly) the majority of Americans aren’t out there growing their own hemp and looking for ways to turn it into curtains. The majority of us are addicted to our Facebook and our smart phones and we don’t know jack crap about what you guys are talking about. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to learn. We’re just completely overwhelmed by how much information is out there and how utterly disorganized it is!

When doing my “research” I had to try to learn which plants are related and will play nice with each other, which plants attract or deter bugs and animals, their growth cycles, their harvest cycles, blah blah blah. Why can’t they take the 800 million websites out there and create something smarter? There are two great sites I’ve found that provide tools for gardeners, PlanGarden and GrowVeg. They will let you “plan” your garden and send you basic reminders like “hey silly, did you remember to harvest your tomatoes?” but you have to know what you’re doing in the first place for them to be useful. That’s great and all but come on! I have a phone that can order pizza for me! I’m not afraid of the work, getting down in there and cleaning up goat poop or whatever, but I’m never going to get to that point if I have to get a degree in Agriculture first.

Why can’t they make an app that lets me say [1] I have this much land. [2] I want to grow XX type of food for XX amount of poeple? Let the program figure out all the other details like the proper placing of specific plants, companion crops, cover crops, and the tools required. Send a message to my phone when it’s time to buy seeds, fertilize, prune, harvest, etc. It’s hard enough for me just to keep the stupid plants alive! Stop drowning me in details!

I’m a big fan of learning things outside my skill-set but from a noob’s eyes, the ideal of homesteading is one thing, the actual implimentation is something totally else. I want to be healthier and live a greener lifestyle but I don’t live in a world where that’s common practice. I live in the world of disposable plastics and smart phones. If we are going to change our habits, we have to start small. A website with the latin names and descriptions of 8,000 plants isn’t starting small. Millions of poeple play Farmville every day, why isn’t there something like that but for real people? Are you really telling me that in 2010 we can’t load up our smart phones with some details and start making the planet a better place to live?

I realize my rant turned into a ramble somewhere in the second paragraph (ok, probably the first) but the more I learn about these topics, the more I’m dumbfounded that so many people are crusading for urban homesteads and greener technology but we haven’t even figured out how to use the tools we have available in our day and age. I want to teach my children how to be better stewards of the earth but I also want them to embrace technology as a positive tool in human development. The way things are, we feel like we have to choose between being techies or being greenies and it just seems like somewhere along the way someone should have figured out how to combine the two for Average Jane.

La la la la! La la la la! Droid X test!

I’m stuck in the middle but leaning heavily to the “oh em gee, spoilers, gimme gimme” side. I want to respect the wishes of the anti-spoiler crowd but at the same time I want to be prepared for the expansion in every way. This isn’t some new game that you’re enjoying for the first time. It’s the 3rd major expansion to a game that many of us have been playing for years. Most everyone I know wants as much information as possible and a good handful probably would have stopped playing the game by now if it hadn’t been for the information being leaked in the past few weeks. Not to mention the ones who I know have already stopped playing because they just couldn’t handle playing the same old content, no matter how many patches have been released since the original release of Wrath.

As a guild leader, my first priority is to keep players playing. In second place is the desire to prepare my guild, as a whole as well as each member individually, to be as successful coming into the expansion as we can help them to be. As a player, I want to know that when I finish that installation, I won’t be running around grabbing or farming things that I didn’t realize I needed instead of out there with the rest of the population leveling my characters and getting into the new content.

I’m torn. I’m desperately glued to my screen with every leak that gets posted while consciously trying not to re-post every little thing I see. For my guild, I created a separate space on our forums for Cataclysm information and asked that people be careful of their post titles. If people see the Cataclysm tag and are anti-spoiler they hopefully won’t be offended by the post titles and can simply choose not to read those posts. There’s going to come a time when information is made so readily available and widespread that I will start to wonder if it’s time to let it go and get the information out there no matter what, anti-spoilers be damned! It happened in Burning Crusade when the release of Wrath was imminent, so I know it will happen again this time.

Spoilers aside, my greatest concern is the pre-expansion dead zone. That time when it doesn’t matter what awesome little trick Blizz pulls out of their hats, everyone knows and is anticipating the new expansion and couldn’t care less about the stuff between now and then. Every single expansion so far has been rough on our guild and with Wrath having been out for almost 2 years by the time Cataclysm is expected to release, I expect this one will be just as rough. We have our guild 4 year anniversary in September (seriously, where did the year go, seems like we *just* had an anniversary) so I expect (hope) that will help keep people interested enough to keep playing. We’re working really hard to come up with events outside of raiding that will keep interest in the game, everything from drinking games to gathering competitions.

So, a few questions off the top of my head:

Are you spoiler-free or in the gimme-gimme crowd? Has your guild posted any special info or rules on how to handle info on Cataclysm? Is your guild preparing for the expansion, and if so, how? What’s the atmosphere like in your guild; are people taking breaks, is raiding slowing down, or is there excitement all around in anticipation for Cataclysm? Lastly, any tips or ideas to keep members interested in the game and not “taking a break” before the expansion comes out?