About 3 minutes ago, I was reading Darren Rowse’s latest update at ProBlogger. While my blogging empire isn’t as expansive as Darren’s doesn’t exist, I dimly recalled stating this was going to be a more personal blog. Maybe, just maybe, I should start writing some of those more personal posts. So on a lazy Labor Day (happy holiday to my American and Canadian readers!), I think I’ll do just that.

The Blog

A few weeks ago, I undertook a significant redesign, and, in the process, I learned quite a bit more about the Thesis theme I use. I’m quite satisfied with the look of the site now, but of course, I’m an inveterate tweaker. Sometimes, the tiniest changes give me the greatest pleasure. For example, I’m very happy with how the subscription area looks now.

Speaking of subscriptions, I should note the Aerie turned two a few weeks ago (August 17, to be precise).  So for you numbers oriented people, here’s what two years (and a few weeks) of blogging have generated:

• 366 posts (not counting this one)
• 13 categories (down from a LOT more, when I was blogging exclusively about World of Warcraft)
• 284 tags (up a LOT, since I converted a lot of WoW categories to tags; I may further refine those soon)
• 2,063 comments (thank you!)
• 9,292 spam comments caught by Akismet
• Roughly 100 spam attempts per day blocked by Bad Behavior ¹
• ~800 RSS subscribers ²
• ~360 Twitter followers ³

The spam got so bad a couple weeks ago, I finally started blocking IP addresses via my .htaccess file; since then, I think the Bad Behavior numbers have jumped up a lot, but the number of comments I’ve actually had to delete via Akismet has dropped by a roughly corresponding number.

World of Warcraft

Yep, still playing, as evidenced by the WoW page here. (The link is in the top level menu.) Quite a few new achievements being reported, including finally getting Osprey credit for Stratholme! (I was there again to finish up my Argent Dawn rep, for the Argent Crusader title.)

In July, we were running 25-mans regularly, but some drama caused by one jerk (yeah, I said it) caused most of the Oroborus members to leave our merger with Closed. My friends and I stayed in Closed, and at least we’re getting some 10-man stuff done (which, sadly, is more than The Oroborus is doing at the moment), but we’re really disappointed not to be running 25-man Ulduar and ToC.

Right now, we’re stuck on Mimiron in Ulduar, and the Faction Champions in 10-man ToC. (I don’t think we’ve downed Freya yet, either.) The Faction Champions fight sucks. In fact, I could probably devote an entire rant to how much I hate that fight and the concepts behind it. Suffice to say, there a LOT of reasons I don’t like PvP, and almost every single one of them is embodied in that fight.

So that’s where Osprey is. Oh…I also bought another 24 mounts, so he could get his Albino Drake. Why? Because I could! 

Kestrel has run some Naxx-25 and gotten a few pieces of gear, so he’s doing okay. Falken, my level 80 rogue, got into Heroic Gundrak twice this weekend, as well as Drak’Tharon Keep once, and got some nice legs out of the former on Sunday. He’s my jewelcrafter, and has started to get back in the money making business. I’m holding steady at 10K gold, down from around 14K, but much of that loss is due to buy materials for crafting and selling.

I’ve also been playing my Druid, Owlhawk, and have him up to level 36. More recently, my second rogue, Talons, has been getting some playing time. Since he’s my enchanter, I thought it might be good to get him to 80 before the expansion.

Almost forgot: Yesterday, I finally respecced Osprey’s off-spec from Discipline, which I used once about a week after dual-specs came out, to Shadow. I then did the Tournament dailies, in his Holy gear. In fact, I haven’t even re-glyphed him for Shadow yet. (By the way, thanks to the bubblicious one for her Shadow spec, which I shamelessly copied. (She was the only person I could recall, at the moment, who has a SPriest.)

So, let me just say: Playing Shadow is so damned easy, it should be considered an exploit. I mean, SERIOUSLY! As Holy, I can kill anything; I have no problem soloing any Northrend content. It just takes a while to kill stuff. As Shadow, undergeared, unenchanted, unglyphed (Prayer of Healing?) and ungemmed (okay, I do have some Int & SP ‘chants and gems, but my +Hit is 86, alright?), my DoTs were killing stuff before I could initiate a second Mind Sear. Redonkulous!

Workshop Renovation

We’ve lived in our house for 21 years. In that time, I’ve always had some kind of work bench in the garage, but over the years, accumulated junk has rendered access to that corner pretty much impossible. In mid-August, my son Bryan and I built a garden shed for Mrs. Kestrel, and she was able to move some of said junk (okay, maybe that stuff wasn’t junk) from the garage. We had an understanding that once her shed was up, I would be able to clean out the garage and reestablish my workshop.

I intend to do a more in-depth post in a week or so (with before and after pics!), but suffice to say, except for one storage unit on order from Sears, the project is about 95 percent done. I still need to complete some organization of tools, but we moved a few large trash bins of stuff out of the garage and reorganized much of the rest. Huge props to Mrs. K for her help in going through all the cra…stuff in the garage, and helping with moving larger pieces of gear. We can still park both cars in there (something we never sacrifice is the ability to keep the vehicles out of the elements!), and I can actually get to all of my tools without fear of having a ton of junk burying me alive.

Sports

The baseball pennant races are in full swing, and my beloved Dodgers are clinging to what once seemed an insurmountable lead in the NL West. As the LA Times noted today, the team really needs an identity. While Manny Ramirez is seen by many as the face of the franchise, I see him more as a hired gun. I appreciate his contributions (not including his 50-game suspension earlier in the season), but it seems he did a lot more at the end of last season than he’s done this year.

The Dodgers really need a clubhouse leader to emerge, to energize the team and point them to the postseason. Joe Torre’s done a fantastic job as manager since arriving in Los Angeles, and I hope he stays several more years. But the real work gets done on the field, and it seems to me it’s been a long time since the Dodgers have had a galvanizing force on the field. I thought catcher Russell Martin might be that force, but apparently that isn’t the case. Except for Manny, the Dodgers are generally a faceless team, and faceless teams don’t win World Series.

College football kicked off this weekend, and I spent all of Saturday with the television on one game or another. Kudos to BYU for knocking off Oklahoma; I thought they could do it and it was nice to see my hunch proved right. I also caught the last quarter of UCLA’s season opener against San Diego State. The Bruins looked pretty good, considering how they imploded after their season-opening upset of Tennessee last year. We play Tennessee again next Saturday, and while I expect we’ll get beat, the Vols better not be complacent.⁴

I’m hopeful UCLA will improve on last year’s 4-8 debacle, and end up in a bowl game at season’s end. Doubt they’ll play in January, but on or after Christmas Day would be nice. I look forward to watching the game from Kauai!

Next weekend (well, Thursday), the NFL season starts. I don’t have much hope that the Kansas City Chiefs will be significantly better than last year: Their offensive line is pretty, well, offensive. However, I think there’s a chance the St. Louis Rams could shake things up a bit in the NFC West. That said, I’m picking them to lose to Seattle on Sunday, but I expect the game to be close.

I’m not a fan of either of the more popular teams here in South Dakota: the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings. The Broncos don’t have much hope of surpassing the San Diego Chargers (my choice for the Super Bowl), and I don’t think they’ll even be in contention for a wildcard spot. The Vikes, on the other hand, have Super Bowl aspirations with Bret Favre at quarterback. However, both Green Bay and Chicago will have a lot to say about who wins the NFC Central. If nothing else, that race should be an exciting one, which is good, since those are the games I’m most likely to see on Sundays.

Finally, our minor league hockey team here in Rapid City is about to start its second season. Bryan and I went to a game in December when he was here for Christmas, and I think I’ll try to get to a couple games this season. Might even get Mrs. K to come along! 

Personal

Mrs K is leaving at oh-dark-thirty Wednesday to visit her best friend in San Jose; she’ll be gone for 10 or 12 days. When she gets back, we’ll be going to see "Mamma Mia!" in a touring production here in town. Mrs K saw the London production several years ago, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the movie version last summer. Yes, we’re ABBA fans, but then, we’re old enough to be!

I’m continuing to work on lowering my weight, but the traveling and then all the company we’ve had this summer has compromised that a bit. However, I’m down 11 pounds from when I consciously started working on it in April. With daily weighing, as well as knowing when I abuse my diet, I’m confident I won’t gain that back. At some point, I want to devote a more in-depth post to this; right now, I just want to acknowledge there are several blogging friends out there who have inspired me, and I will definitely recognize them in that upcoming article.

It looks like we’ll be heading down to the St. Louis area in late October (Halloween is the target date, right now). And last night I was informed our route will take us through Des Moines this time, so Mrs K can visit a large quilting festival there. I’ve no idea what I’ll do that morning. Any Iowans want to meet up in Des Moines for a couple hours around the 28th?

Finally, as I hinted above, we’re going to celebrate Christmas in Kauai this year with the family. We’ve already paid a deposit on a large house to rent for 10 days, and our tentative plans are to leave here on the 21st, then fly back on New Year’s Eve, getting home about midday on January 1. Mrs K’s brother and his wife will also join us after Christmas for a few days. Alie is already pretty excited about that (I think because she gets to see both of her uncles again; Uncle Bryan is almost as silly as Grandpa!).

So…for not having much to say, I’m glad I was able to squeeze it into such a small article! *snicker*  As always, I’m interested in your thoughts: Feel free to share in the Comments!

The State of the Kestrel and of the Aerie is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 So for Lauren, here’s the shot. Note OneBag3 on the right. (hope the picture comes through GReader!)

Edit: A full-size version of the shot above can be found at http://bit.ly/13z4Ev

My WoW UI, a quick peek is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Shadow in the breeze
Stealthily stabs, disappears
Was he even here?

Silent arrow flies
Like love to a waiting heart
Piercing with anguish.

Healing falls like rain
Cleansing bodies and spirits,
Battle is rejoined.

Mana surges in
A river of death flows out
Fire and ice combine.

Shadows mask the threat,
Owl, bear and cat defend us,
Healing branches soothe.

Tag! You’re IT

I used a unique method to choose my victims. Actually, they self-identified after I invited WoW bloggers to reply to me via Twitter to be tagged. Special mention goes to @FeistTheRogue, who responded thusly:

With impunity
I can reply anyway
Not a WoW blogger.

So without further ado:

@ladygypsywho blogs at World of Warcraft Wanderings

@Wynthea- part of the team at World of Matticus

@holydiscipline, Anea at Holy Discipline

@ILikeBubbles- Ambrosyne at For the Bubbles

Gettin’ My Ku On is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Faradhim, I’m sad to report I have no screenshots from WoW. I think, in the four years I’ve been playing, I have taken maybe a half-dozen screenshots. However, when I reinstalled WoW with the release of WotLK, I deleted the screenshot folder. I’m just not a screen-shooter. Boring, I know. (You were warned!)

I can do slightly better when it comes to explaining my character names.

“Kestrel” came from Mercedes Lackey’s “Bardic Voices” series; specifically, from the second novel in that too-short series, The Robin and the Kestrel. I started using that character name in Asheron’s Call, for an alt. When Asheron’s Call II came out, I abandoned my long-time nom de jeu of “Eärendil” (from Tolkien) in favor of Kestrel; I’ve been using it ever since.

Being a bird of little imagination (“birdbrain”—there, I said it first!), I tried to maintain the bird of prey theme when I created my alts:

• Falken is a Rogue
• Talons is also a Rogue
• Kestrel’s cat is named Talon; so was his bear (when he had a bear)
• Sparverius (another Hunter) is Latin for “falcon”
• Osprey, of course, is the Priest
• Raptor is a warrior
• Peregrine is yet another hunter (originally, I was going to have one of each spec; all three, however, are Beast Masters)
• Falconer is a warlock
• Owlhawk is a druid
• Earendil maintains my old Tolkien roots, but as a Death Knight.

Originally, Kestrel was my Hunter on Icecrown. When I transferred him to Kul Tiras, he became Talonis; Kestrel was a Rogue. A few months ago, as Osprey became my main and my rogue-crush had long since passed in favor of my first love, hunter, I paid to rename Talonis to Kestrel. Kestrel the Rogue was deleted, but a cooperative GM restored him, and thereby Talons was born.

Eventually, if I actually do level up a DK (although I can’t really imagine doing so), he’ll become Raptor (more fitting than the noble Eärendil!). Not exactly sure how I’ll do that, but the Warrior would probably be deleted. 

I would have loved to use the names Falcon and Talon, but they were taken. Of course, in over three years on Kul Tiras, I’ve yet to see either character.

Rather than tag others, I’d like to encourage all my readers to respond with how they named their main character and one or two alts. If you’re a blogger, blog about it (but please link back here!). I think it would be very cool to get 20 or 30 comments to this post. (I have over 500 regular readers; maybe we could shoot for 100??)

Wherein Kestrel Proves How Boring He Really Is is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie