Category Archives: World of Warcraft

Food For Thought, Games, Minutia of My Fascinating Life, Spring Forward, Travel, World of Warcraft
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New York
April 5, 2011

The Bank of Ray

I’ve been interested in microloans for some time.  Are you familiar with the concept?  You make loans in tiny amounts to people across the globe that you’ve never met.

I finally decided to take the plunge.  I joined Kiva, an organization I highly recommend (www.kiva.org). The site is well-organized, which makes it easy to zero in on what kind of loan you’d like to make.

My client Sugar in his grocery store in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He is bringing computer gaming to his community.
My client Sugar in his grocery store in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He is bringing computer gaming to his community.

I skipped over the boring stuff like farming and manufacturing and went straight to Entertainment.  Hey, just because I’m being altruistic doesn’t mean I have to stop being shallow.

After only a couple of minutes of searching I found my guy:  Sugar Ayush, a married father of one, wants to raise money to expand one room of his small grocery store to make a PC gaming center.  Well, that’s an idea I can get behind!  Just because a kid lives in Mongolia shouldn’t mean he can’t get his Gears of War on, right?

At first I was worried, because I was the very first person to loan Sugar a chunk of the amount he was trying to raise.  But in just a week, other wise lenders had followed my lead and I was delighted to see that his loan amount had been met!  I’m actually quite proud that my name is listed as the first lender right on his page.  The smug feeling of righteousness I feel when I think about Sugar’s PC game room is well worth the $25 I lent him to expand his business.

So.  The next time you’re in Ulan Bator and you have a hankerin’ for some Halo, go see my client Sugar and tell him Ray sent you.

Other Microloans I Should Make

  • Help open a bodybuilding gym
  • Help pay for World of Warcraft subscriptions in a developing country
  • No Child Left Behind (Without Her Own GameBoy)
  • Open a Mrs. Fields in a developing country

///

 

Here are some more photos I’ve taken while in New York. 

I lived in this building for the summer of 1983. While living there, my sister and I were at The Witte Museum in San Antonio and we came across a painting that included this building. It made me feel even more important than I normally do.
I lived in this building for the summer of 1983. While living there, my sister and I were at The Witte Museum in San Antonio and we came across a painting that included this building. It made me feel even more important than I normally do.

 

You'd have to agree that, when it came time to name this church, they pretty much hit the nail on the head.
You'd have to agree that, when it came time to name this church, they pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I’m still learning both my Nikon D90 and Lightroom 3.

blue building

Pretty good band in the Times Square subway station.
Pretty good band in the Times Square subway station.

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 293 user reviews.

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Spring Forward, Travel, World of Warcraft
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On the porch of their gorgeous 100 year old home in Toledo.
On the porch of their gorgeous 100 year old home in Toledo.

Toledo
March 26

Distance traveled today:  240

Total distance traveled:  2755

Today I drove west to Toledo to see my old World of Warcraft buddy Eric, better known as Kirian/Kirinas.  He and I go all the way back the days of The Older Gamers / Thorns of Gold days in late 2004.  After we were thrown out of T.O.G. (long story) we formed a guild called More Explosions that turned into sort of our WoW alma mater.  Eric and I haven’t been in the same guild for a while now, but we’ve remained friends. 

He and his wife and 20 month old daughter live in a beautiful 100 year old house in a lovely part of Toledo.  We had a lovely visit which included Mexican food – always a plus!

eric and meIn the 6.5 years I’ve been playing World of Warcraft, I have always jumped at the chance to meet up with friends I’ve made in the game.  I don’t know anyone who’s met “IRL” more WoW friends than I have.  Highlights:

Memorable Meetups with World of Warcraft Friends

Tantred, Neverwind and Lavalia – From the Bay Area, met in Hollywood

Drajh, Gaspard — Houston

Cclaudius – From Australia, met in Los Angeles

Nerual and his family – from Pacific NW, met in Los Angeles

Cloudblueyes – From LA, met in LA

Sacred – From Long Beach, met in LA

Aetropos and Thal – from Connecticut and Northern Cal, met in New York

Ardwen and Kulgarr – in Scottsdale

Iconia, Adam, others – Orange County

Jone, Newt, Natalyst, others – BlizzCon Anaheim

Kirinas – Toledo

Elithamaeter – from Seattle, met in Los Angeles

//

After tonight’s screening at the Cleveland International Film Festival, I have to pack, blech.  I have to go stay in another hotel for two stupid days before coming back here to finish the week.  What a bore.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 209 user reviews.

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Blizzard has a cool new World of Warcraft Magazine  that I’d really like to order.

However, THEY don’t seem very interested in me ordering it.

The order page doesn’t work.

So I tried contacting Future, the publishing company.  No one at home (middle of a business day in my time zone).  No way to leave a message.

I tried contacting Future’s subscription service folks in Des Moines, Iowa.  They had no idea how to contact a human at Future either.

So, Blizzard . . . I hope your magazine can somehow be a success . . . without paying subscribers.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 192 user reviews.

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Yay!  Tonight I head down to Anaheim Convention Center for Blizzcon!

For the uninitiated, Blizzcon is an annual convention put on by Blizzard Entertainment, the company that makes World of Warcraft, as well as the Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo game franchises.

Ten million people play World of Warcraft, but only about 12, 000 of us lucky freaks get to go to the convention.  Getting tickets online for this quickly-sold-out event took steely determination and a bit of luck.

At the convention I will get to meet lots of people I play the game with, see many scary people in home-made costumes, and attend panel discussions about the games.

As an attendee I’ll also get the coveted Swag Bag, which will contain, among other things, an unbelievably brag-worthy polar bear mount that I can ride in the game.

I’ll try to get some pictures and report back to you, Dear Readers, on this deeply important event.

Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 265 user reviews.

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I was nervous, but not as nervous as usual when I arrived for my appointment with my GP on Thursday.  My eagerness to work on “the project” were still overriding my usually-pathological levels of White Coat Hypertension.

When Weiner came in and sat down, he let me get through my spiel, which I appreciated.  Sometimes he makes me feel rushed, but not today.

He paused after I had finished and said, “Well, I’m really glad you had this epiphany, and I’m happy to make all the referrals you need, but what you also need is, uh, a doctor.

I couldn’t have agreed more.  His point was that I had not seen him in a year and a half and had spent entirely too much time not feeling good before calling him.

“We’ll get you started with the podiatrist and the sleep study and we’ll take a bunch of blood from you today.”

“All you want, ” I said.

Insurance Drama:  None!

Next:  Meet your Podiatrist . . .

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 175 user reviews.

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