Just a quick update as it’s late. I spent some more time out in Nagrand tonight and was able to finish off raising my Kurenai reputation to Exalted. After killing thousands of Ogres and then spending 90 Gold I was able to get my Cobalt Blue War Talbuk:
This is no faster then my other land mount but the fact that every other human on the server isn’t riding it is pretty sweet. Yes, it’s a little vain but let’s fact it. It’s only a video game. If I was really vain I’d get one of each color.
I’ve made another recent change on WOW with Trillion, my L70 mage. Since I began player her almost two years ago I’ve been an Herbalist and an Alchemist as my main professions. It served me well for the first 60 levels and I made some good money. After the WOW expansion came out I noticed that the herbs I collected there were worth a ton of money. I could get 20 – 25 gold for a stack of Felweed which is just about everywhere in Outlands. It seemed the money I would get from Alchemy was many times less then the cost of the herbs.
After leveling my Herbalism and Alchemy to the top skill level of 375 I noticed I was frequently selling my herbs and not using my Alchemy much. I figured why waste my second skill slot if I wasn’t going to use it. I decided that I would give up Alchemy for a more profitable skill.
I had always enjoyed skinning, it was great not having to leave all those skinable animals for someone else or to just fade away. In my lower levels it proved to be a great way to make money. After dropping Alchemy I got skinning and headed out to the “old world” to level up. I was able to get to Outlands to train past level 300 in about 2 long days of skinning. In another 1.5 days or so I finally got up to L375. That’s when I noticed that most of what you get are Knothide Leather Scraps. Not very profitable and since I was already L70 I found I wasn’t farming many mobs now so I didn’t skin that much.
I broke down about a week ago and dropped skinning and picked up mining. Some people say this is crazy since both Mining and Herbalism use a special mini-map to let you find the items around you easily but you can only have one on at a time. Thankfully I’ve been using the WOW add-on called Gatherer which shows me the locations where I had previously picked herbs or mined so even if I have the mining option selected I can see where I had previously found herbs and then just keep my eye open for them.
The great news is that mining is so very profitable. After getting my Elite Flying Mount recently I was broke, having just under 20 gold on me. I took up mining shortly after that and have just been selling all herbs and ore that I get and now have just about 1,700 gold on me.
The best part is that the most common ore is Fel Iron Ore:
So far at the lowest price I’ve sold a stack of 20 ore on the Auction House is just over 10 gold. It’s not uncommon after flying around looking for mines for an hour or two that I have 3 or 4 stacks of this ore alone.
I’ve also found that I’m starting to work on my faction reputation now, something I never did much of after I hit level 60 before the expansion came out. I decided to start working on my Kurenai reputation first so I can buy a new land mount, the Cobalt Blue War Talbuk:
This mount is really only a cosmetic change as it’s no faster then my current land mount but I just love how it looks. The only problem I can see is keeping yet another mount I don’t need any more in my bank just taking up space. I know I should just get rid of them but I guess I’m just sentimental.
Finally, I’ve been making some armor adjustments to Trillion trying to balance my Intellect (mana quantity) and my Spell Damage. I was running with two sets of armor, one to give me high Intellect and another for high Spell Damage but it’s taking up an entire 16 slot bag in my inventory. Now with two collecting skills I need that bag space.
I’ve recently been moving more to a higher damage set as I’m finding I’m having to use one or two less spells per kill which is helping me not use as many spells. I still have about 8 – 9,000 mana so I’m not in too bad shape. Since I don’t really do any instances now I’m not getting any really good loot and have to settle for quest or Auction House items. This means I’m not look that great but I do like me new cloak:
I’m not sure why her new pants only seem to cover from her thighs down? Good thing she is wearing that black tabard that helps cover her where she needs it. LOL
If you see a cute looking cat, called “neko” in Japanese, you can say: “Neko no kawaii desu” which means “The cat is cute”. So why am I making a blog entry about this word?
In Japan the concept of cute has a much larger social meaning then it does in America. We may say “That cat is cute” or “Look at the cute baby” but it doesn’t go much further then this. The idea of dwelling on the cuteness of something brings up images of being childish.
In Japan there is a more accepting view of cute and many people desire for cute things in all areas such as clothes, cars, electronics, and even food. Yes, it’s not uncommon to have food prepared in a cute way:
Little bunnies and pigs in your bento? Why not?
Here are some examples showing ‘kawaii’ in action as only the Japanese can do it:
The specific area I’m going to be showing examples from is how kawaii is used in pop music, something you don’t see much of in America. This also gives me the ability to add some more videos to my site. Fun to look at and I don’t have to upload and host the files.
The first few are from Ai Otsuka who I have about three albums from. She has some of my favorite songs that I would call kawaii. Very light-hearted happy songs that make you feel good.
Ai Otsuka -- Chu-Lip
Ai Otsuka -- Frienger
Next is Aya Matsuura. This video is the first I heard of here when I found it on YouTube. The song is called Momoiro Kataomoi, “momo” is the Japanese word for peach so that’s why she is working in a peach canning factory. This is another one of those songs that’s hard to get out of your head after hearing it.
Aya Matsuura -- Momoiro Kataomoi
For pure sugar overload of something being almost sickly sweet and cute I don’t think you can find something more then Kawaii then Sakuranbo Kiss by Kotoko. It’s so over the top I can’t say I really like it but wanted to include it in the list.
KOTOKO -- Sakuranbo Kiss
As you may have noticed, so far all of the artists I’m posting are female. It’s not that this idea of kawaii does not appeal to males but they usually are only on the consuming side and usually don’t try to act cute.One of the most famous all-girl groups in Japan was ZONE which was together from 1999 -- 2005 and which put out about 6 albums, 5 DVD’s, and a large number of very popular singles. They also were more of a rock-pop group and played their own instruments. They were also one of the first Jpop groups I heard of about three or four years ago and I was an instant fan of theirs. This is one of my favorite songs of theirs:
ZONE -- Good Days
I really like ZONE as you just can’t get their songs out of your head, they are so catchy. I also believe that their bassist (Sakae Maiko) is easily one of the CUTEST women I’ve ever seen. (cute > beauty)
ZONE -- Sotsugyou
One of the most famous Jpop groups in America is Puffy AmiYumi, I like their music but I can’t say it’s a favorite of mine. I do have a few albums of theirs but aside from the title song to the Teen Titans this next clip is the only one I wanted to share:
Puffy AmiYumi-Nice Buddy!
The last clip I had isn’t a music video, it’s a scene from a very funny anime called Ichigo Mashimaro which basically in English means Strawberry Marshmellow. It’s about a group of 4 young girls and one of the girls older sisters.
In this scene one of the young girls called Matsuri-chan has made plans to get together to study with one of the other girls. The other girl is embarrassed about it and doesn’t want all of them to know about it so she asked Matsuri-chan to come over without letting the others find out. She is trying to leave without letting them know why but as Matsuri-chan is a very timid and honest girl she’s very bad about lying.
The older girl, Nobue-chan, is an example of the Japanese love of cute things. Nobue-chan also shows that she has “moe” for cat girls and tricks Matsuri-chan into putting on a cat eared hat, a tail, and little bells. Moe, pronounced “mo-eh” is Japanese slang for a certain type of fetish or desire. Someone can be a moe for girls in maid uniforms or one in glasses. Nobue-chan likes kawaii cat girls. Not in a perverted sexual way but as in:
“Are wa neko no kanojo wa totemo kawaii desu.”
(That cat-girl is very cute.)
Ok, I don’t want this blog to be all World Of Warcraft information but as this was a big goal for me I wanted to post it. I finally got my Epic Flying Mount:
As this is not my first flying mount I wasn’t expecting to be as thrilled with dropping a ton of cash but all I have to say is I’m floored how nice this is compared to the first flying mount. The first was a 60% increase over the speed of walking but this one is a 280% increase.
The big problem was the amount of gold I saw leave my character. Almost enough to make you cry!!! Here is a before and after comparison of my gold:
Woot – 5K!
Ugh, I’m poor.
Good thing this new mount will help me get around faster to collect more herbs as I have a lot work to do to get my gold back up to a respectable amount.
Not long ago I loaded an addon to World of Warcraft that totaled the amount of time I’ve spent logged into the game for each of my characters I have created (on any server) and then also gave you the total number.
I’ve know I have spent way too much time online, there were days I would be logged in for 10 – 12 hours during the weekend. As soon as I got home from work I would have to get online to check my in-game mail and see how well my Auction House sales went. Needless to say I knew I spent a lot of time in this game.
It’s been close to two years since I’ve started playing and I was a little shocked at how much it turned out to be. I took a screen capture just a few moments ago of the total. (as of August 9, 2007)
I had to shrink the image a little to get it to fit in the blog but I think you can see that number. Over 79 days spent online!!!! Remember this is not 79 days that my account has been active. If I log on for only one hour this only records one hour. It’s 79 days of being logged in.
Needless to say I do have a ton of characters, most of which I never play now. Much of that time has been spent doing things like fishing, picking flowers, making potions, or talking to other guild members in chat. Wow, think of all the things I could have done with that time if I never bought this game.
Traditional Vampire from 
Hazuki from 
Gaara from 
Cute dancing 
