He has written some great posts, including a very interesting one about the possible culture cuisines that the races of Azeroth could have. For those of you interested in lore or roleplay, I highly recommend that you take a look at it.

If you have any interest in playing a shaman, he also wrote two very well summarized articles about enhancement and restoration gameplay. He is very skilled at playing both of those specs (even though he doesn’t like to admit it ) so he knows what he’s talking about.

Please give him a visit and let him know what you think of his posts and shiny new theme!

“You really need to clean this %*@# up.”

As I was purging old blogs, some of which had not been updated since last summer, I recalled that my blogroll here also needed a similar culling. I’m a lazy person, I’ll admit it. But lazy also means that you get inventive!

Thanks to Mania’s post that I somehow managed to remember, I was able to tie my blogroll to my Reader so I would only have to do one update. Again…lazy, but brilliant IMHO.

After that and the purging had been completed, my Reader looked woefully small and I came to the realization that I have not added a new blog in a while. I scoured some other blogs’ links and added a few here and there. However, I still want more.

So here’s your opportunity for shameless self-promotion (or selflessly promoting your favorite blog, I don’t care). In the comments, I want to see some cool blogs for me to read and link to. My favorite kind of blogs have at least a little bit of a personal touch, not just spewing out fact and theory-crafting. Heck, they don’t even have to be hunter blogs! I’d totally broaden my horizons. So link away, my fine petoholic friends!

No, I’m not being lazy and making everyone else search for me. I swear it’s because I value my reader’s opinions.

/shifty eyes

Random thought: I’ve been toying with the idea of having another person start posting here as well. Yes, a guest poster or a co-author, something like that. Would that sort of thing be of interest to anyone? What would you post about?

Jokes aside, Kazi has several wonderfully written posts about his shaman’s early life, so for those of you who appreciates WoW roleplaying (including myself) or just a good story, you will find them very entertaining and a great read.

I think he deserves some more readership love so drop by his blog and give him a warm welcome to the blogosphere!

Now I feel inspired to write some more character history myself.

This is an ongoing roleplay between Ticalos and my warlock bank alt, Valraen. The posts have been posted from emails between Tic and me. The post with (T) beside them are written by Tic, the ones with (V) beside them have been written by myself. All credit goes to Tic for coming up with the amusing titles.

To keep track of new posts, watch Ticalos’s blog or follow me on Twitter and watch for the #Ticalos tweets.

1. A Night at the Auction House (T)
2. The North (T)
3. Valraen’s Plight (V)
4. Message Delivered (T)
5. Ticalos the Protector? (V)
6. A gift for Valraen (T)
7. A gift unwelcomed (V)
8. Alms for the…poor? (T)
9. How dare he! (V)
10. Deliberate Hostilities (T)
11. The Fiend (V)
12. Doing things her own way (V)
13. The Hunter becomes the Hunted (T)
14. Shacking Up? (T)
15. Soap Opera or How did I manage to be in the bath with a Death Knight in the room? (V)
16. Hand me a towel (T)
17. A Fireside Chat (V)
18. Fight or Flight or…A Rose by any other name is still a Feather (T)
19. Lullaby and Goodnight…. (V)
20. Promises in the Dark (T)
21. To Sleep Per Chance to… (V)
22. Ride out…or..I’ll be really surprised if you wear this (T)
23. Dressing for the Part… or…..Wow, she actually wore it!!! (V)

First of all, a quick linkback to Zhire at The Spiked Collar who despite being a fairly new blogger has posted some nice hunter tips.

So for an update of what’s going on:

• The guild leader of Bloodriver and his wife (Mysthowl and Linserai) are taking a hiatus for some personal reasons and he has named Niqora as his temporary replacement. Sure, I joked about it while chatting with guildies and some of our allies (there was much evil laughter and phrases like “Bow down before me, peons!”). But honestly, I can’t wait until they get back. Mostly because me and the other members will miss them terribly but also because I’m not certain that I fit the leadership role. If Ticalos and Tzia weren’t going to be around, I think I would freak out. Really the three of us are going to share the role but Myst could only name one as chieftain and since RPwise, Niqora is Myst’s wife…even in character Niqo would not be suited to be a leader. She has the patience of a goddess but she’s also shy to a fault and avoids conflict whenever she can. Unless someone is going to get hurt, as Tic has found out in a RP session. So, this will be an interesting (and sad) time coming up very soon.
• Anuniaq is level 40! However my goal is 65 so I can train up her inscription…I have a ways to go yet.
• Niqora tamed Loque! And she got the albino drake! Pictures to come in a later post.
• My little shammy Zulrea is level 25, which is the highest I’ve ever gotten a non-hunter. I really enjoy healing. So once she reaches 40, I’m going to buy dual-spec for her and spec both resto and enhancement.

For some quick RL news, I got a job back at the beginning of February as a junior web designer. It was only suppose to be a 3 month term but I just found out that it’s being extended another 3 months at least. After those 3 months, they might hire me on as a regular employee. Which is wonderful! Also, I was chatting with my brother and once I have the money (because he’s a starving student), I’m going to get him his own WoW account so he can play with me. Finally! I will have someone I know IRL who actually plays the game.

Now I will leave you all with the song that inspired this post’s title. Try singing that on Rockband, my friends.

We joked once that we should change the guild name to “Blogriver”.

I’ve been passing around a couple memes lately but it looks like Tic is so cool that he’s started his own. And I shall rise to the challenge.

That’s right, I AM Gandalf. As it says in the quiz results:

A wandering spirit caring for a multitude of just concerns, you are an instrumental power in many of the causes around you.

And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.

You don’t want to mess with me.

I did notice as I was looking through the results that it doesn’t include characters from one of the greatest sci-fi shows. So Tic, I call your quiz and raise you one more:

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

Don’t know what Serenity is? Watch this, then this.

Seriously, right now. Or Pike and I will find you, tape your eyes open, and make you watch all of them in a row.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Kaylee, what in the sphincter of hell are you playing at? We got the primary buffer panel coming right…
Kaylee Frye: Everything’s shiny, Cap’n. Not to fret.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You told me those entry couplings would hold for another week!
Kaylee Frye: That was six months ago, Cap’n.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: My ship don’t crash. If she crashes, you crashed her.

Story of my life. *grins*

I figured it would be best to not only include the Patch 3.0 pets but also the Wrath of the Lich King pets. After all, it’s less than a month away now. I’ve already added those families to the suggestion form on the Namerator’s page. This is where you come in, my fellow Petoholics. I need your name ideas for all these new and wonderful pets that Blizzard has given us. I need at least 10 for each family before I can add them to the Namerator. So please do flood my inbox with your suggestions!

While I’m at it, I want to link you to Big Red Rhino, a hunters blog that specifically covers tenacity pets both on the live realms and in the WotLK beta. Personally I love Grakoth, Niqora’s warp stalker, and I used Ihlos’s review of the tenacity talent tree to help decide where I should put his talent points.

And here’s a quick callout to Snake in the Grass, who listed me in her blogroll as a Pet Master, right under Mania. I don’t know if I’m so much a pet master as a pet fanatic. But I can quit whenever I want…really. >.>

*goes back to staring at the progress bar*

More to the point, I somehow ended up looking over my blogroll and changing things around a bit. Adding blogs, moving blogs, removing blogs…etcetera etcetera. Does anyone else ever wonder what happens to these bloggers that just stop posting suddenly? Some of them I dearly miss because they had such informative and/or entertaining posts…but ah well, what can we really do but miss them?

One of the changes I made was to move Less QQ, More PewPew up to Resources on the right sidebar, next to Mania and BRK. Drotara is a complete genius as far as I’m concerned. He crunches numbers like they’re part of his daily breakfast (all those numbers do is make my head spin), he is always kind and funny, and his blog theme is an absolute work of art. When I think of well-designed blogs (being the web designer that I am), Less QQ is the first to come to mind.

Now, whenever I’ve added blogs to my blogroll in the past, I’ve mentioned them in a post because hey, I think they’re worth it.

Awlbiste’s Thicket -Awlbiste has been commenting on Petoholics for a good while now and only now have I realized that somehow, her blog never got added to the blogroll. She’s on a bit of a hiatus at the moment but I hope she comes back soon so I can enjoy more of her druid-awesomeness. (Although I see she’s still hanging around and commenting here. Yay!)

The Kitty Collector -Because you can never have too many cats. Anyone who has a passion for pets, in this case of the feline persuasion, is good in my books. And holy crap, did I see her mention 4-H? Hooray for us country bumpkins and our activities like 4-H! As far as I can tell, we’re the only sort of people who know what a “beer garden” is.

Vlcan’s Weblog – How Vlcan came across my blog out of the hundreds of WoW blogs out there, I will never know. He’s a man of many MMOs, which makes for an interesting view on a bunch of different games. I know myself that WoW is certainly more than enough for me.

Note to self: I’ve seen so many druids come here that there must be a connection between hunters and them. One day I’ll have to try out the druid class again, at least for curiousity sake.

First up, some long overdue linkbacks to:

Laser Chicken – This poor guy has has Petoholics on his blogroll forever but I only found it out after he left the game. But now he’s back and it’s about time I pay him his dues!

Warcraft and Other Hooha – I’m not exactly sure what “Hooha” is but it seems to have lots of pretty screenshots and interesting topics so I like it

The Troll Hunter – Again, I’m not listed as a “Great Hunter Site”. What does a girl have to do to get recognition around here? On second thought, don’t answer that. I kid of course. Friendly /wave over to Wolfrider!

Next, Patch 2.4.2. It’s live now (or so I’ve been told; I’m at work right now) and the issue that’s been up on my mind is the Growl changes. Blizzard said “Growl now scales with Hunter RAP, not pet RAP” but Mania, Znodis, and others have responded with “Umm, nothing’s changed. Here’s the data from all the tests we’ve performed.” Blizzard then stares blankly at them for a moment then says loudly to no one in particular “Growl now scales with Hunter RAP, not pet RAP.” Hilarity ensues, or at least it would if this wasn’t just plain irritating. My Mr. Paladin has a saying: “If you say something loud enough and long enough, people begin to believe it.” Okay, maybe that works with some people but reality can’t be convinced no matter how loud you yell. I don’t know where things are going awry but something’s not right and I hope Blizzard can at least straighten things out.

Frustrations over that aside, I’m sure everyone has heard of all the new info released about Wrath of the Lich King. If you haven’t…man, I thought I lived under a rock. I don’t know anything going on in local news (because I don’t watch the news on TV or read the newspaper) but even I have heard about all of the new WotLK stuff!

Ahem…I didn’t go in depth into all of it, just read the summaries that have been plastered on every other blog. I did watch all the videos on GameSpy and I really recommend everyone else does as well. It gives you a very good look at how beautiful Northrend will be. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most…aside from taming one of those new wolf models! And mounts that can carry passengers! If they ever give us player housing, I’ll be in Nerdvana

My personal to-do list before WotLK comes out is to: get Niqora her PvP mount (working hard on that one) and also get her to level 70. That’s what absolutely has to be done. I’d really like her to get her flying mounts, both normal and epic, but that might be wishful thinking. Luckily, they haven’t announced the release date yet so I’m not in panic mode. I’m pretty sure that I have plenty of time to get those done

I just fixed a coding error in PANDA that wasn’t including the last name in the list of each of the species-genders. It’s amazing how something as small as a minus sign and the number “1″ can affect some code >.>

I also changed the “Suggest a Name or Two” form associated with PANDA so that you can now send your submissions anonymously. Also it confused some people as I received a submission where someone placed the suggested name in the “Your Name” field.

And last but not least, I’d like to thank Melinda for being the first to send in a name suggestion. As a reward, you get 5 barbecued buzzard wings cooked from Zaricotl. Blacky was kind enough to leave those for you so you can thank her