What’s your next move?

We stayed up late last night to watch Conan O’brien‘s last show.  I can’t help but to feel bad for the guy. You can tell that he really wanted to host the Tonight Show for a long, long time.  He deserved it, too.  He’s funny, talented, and does a good interview.  NBC really didn’t do him or Leno any favors having them both host shows around the same time.  And sure, he got a nice (REALLY nice) severance package of $37million, but, then again, if you already had a LOT of money (I believe Conan was making $10million per year, how much more money would it take for you to walk away from your dream?  Here’s the video of his farewell speech, very touching:

The last part is especially true.  If you’re kind, and work hard, amazing things will happen.  I feel very blessed in my life, and God has been very good to me. I have a wonderful wife, an amazing daughter, and a son on the way, not to mention a wonderful family and great friends.  I work at a job I really enjoy, which pays our bills and puts food on the table.  There’s not much more I could ask for.

But, what if the rug were pulled out from under me? What would my next move be?  I’ve always been the kind of person who looks ahead, which is probably why I enjoy strategy games.  Nothing better than planning out your moves, adapting your plan to the situation, and triumphing in the end.

So, what’s the next move?  I’ve got some ideas…

What’s your next move?

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Actors Who Actually Act: Ed Norton

Dear Ed Norton,

You’re awesome. Out of all the actors in Hollywood, you’re either 1a or 1b on my list.  Let’s just say you’re 1a (1b is another post).  Every movie you’ve been in is about 1000 times better than what it should have been.  I can honestly say I’ve never seen a bad movie in which you appear. I was a little weary of Keeping the Faith, but after 5-10 minutes I was hooked. Here’s how I imagine the conversation went between two producers pitching Incredible Hulk:

“Remake Incredible Hulk? I don’t know.  It was already done like a year ago…”

“We have Ed Norton.”

“Done Deal.”

But, I believe I have found your secret: you can actually act. I know this seems redundant, but that’s actually hard to come by these days.  For instance, Nic Cage, Vince Vaughn, and Jennifer Aniston don’t actually act.  They just show up for a movie, say some lines, and are generally just themselves. In every movie.  Over. And. Over. For some reason people consider them actors/actresses.  The reason baffles me.  But I digress. You actually act.  You take a character, and actually change yourself into that character. And you’re awesome at it.  How you’re not the most wanted actor in Hollywood is a travesty. Or, maybe you are, but you reject all the horrible movies people throw at you.  That seems more likely. I bet you passed on The Tooth Fairy.  Yeah, you passed.  Nice job by you. Probably weren’t interested in Couples’ Retreat. Well done.  And you probably lit the script of Old Dogs on fire.

In short, keep being awesome.

Truthfully yours,

Ben

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Correction

Yeah… maybe… not sure I want to…

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’  The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35

OK, good point… not sure I’m there yet…

“Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?”

Matthew 9:5

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Mark 11:25

Forgot about that one…

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Colossians 3:12-14

Hard to argue that when I’ve been forgiven so much. OK then…

(deep breath)

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Reflections, Regrets, Rhymes and Reasons

This song really got to me today:

It’s an old John Denver song. I must have heard it at least 1,000,000 times over the course of my life, as my dad is a huge John Denver fan, and I’ve enjoyed his music immensely as well.  I’m not sure of the exact circumstances of his writing it (he said that he wrote it in the shower), but I like to imagine that it’s his imagined (or maybe inspired, who knows) response from God after praying about some bad things that had been going on in his life,  his struggles with his faith, and questioning God’s plan for his life. Here’s the lyrics to the first half of the song:

So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
Fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that you’ve forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend

And you wonder where were going
Where’s the rhyme and where’s the reason
And its you who cannot accept
It is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind

For the children and the flowers
Are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness
Could clear a cloudy day

Like the music of the mountains
And the colours of the rainbow
Theyre a promise of the future
And a blessing for today

About a year ago, I had some really bad things happen to me and my family.  Not all job-loss-related, looking back that was a blessing, though at the time it was difficult.  There were other, bigger, things that happened.  The details of which aren’t that important.  The real tragedy of the situation was my response to all of it happening.  All of the things happening at once left me feeling betrayed, bitter, angry, and other negative emotions. And, up until recently, I wasn’t dealing with the problem.  Instead, I reveled in my bitterness, and let the wounds fester. I struggled with my faith when I should have let God in. I withdrew myself from those who cared about me.  So, when I was listening to this song this afternoon, I really felt like it was speaking to me.  I felt as though I had prayed a lot of prayers questioning God’s plan for my life and why certain things worked out the way they did.

Recently though, I’ve been taking steps to reduce and eliminate my bitterness, and be more open about things. In retrospect, this should have come sooner. Much sooner.  The bitterness and anger I felt only hurt myself and my relationships with others.

So, hopefully this can be a cautionary tale for someone. Don’t let your wounds infect the rest of your body. Seek healing. Don’t be bitter. Seek wisdom.

The last part of the song really helped lead me in the right direction:

And its you who cannot accept (it’s always me that changes, never God)
It is here we must begin (like, right now!)
To seek the wisdom of the children
(what’s great about my daughter is that she trusts her father. How much more we can and should trust our Heavenly Father!)
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind (God takes care of the flowers, He’ll take care of you)

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World of Warcraft Gold-Making Tips: Inscription

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This is by no means an exhaustive post on Inscription and the Auction House, just a run-down of some of my tricks of the trade that I use to make money.  Use at your own discretion/risk :)

I’ve noticed more than a few blog posts and guildies in game asking how to make gold in World of Warcraft.  Since I have a little experience in this, I thought I’d share some of my insight.  I’m sure there’s better ways of doing what I’m doing, but here’s what I do regardless :)

First of all, it all begins and ends in Inscription.  Glyphs will be your bread and butter, and some of the higher level epic Tomes sell nicely as well.  I’m going to base this on having 450 skill in Inscription.  If you don’t just grind it out.  You’ll probably need some cash to get started.  Don’t bother farming the herbs, just buy them on the AH and level up that skill.  Once you get to the Northrend herbs, you’ll probably find that the prices of them go down (at least they did for me with Tiger Lily stacks.  Your experience may vary).  You might even make a small profit while leveling up, provided you make the right glyphs.  More on that later.

Next, the addons.  You’ll need “Auctioneer” and “Lil’ Sparky‘s Workshop.”  The first one is for scanning the AH for glyph prices, material prices, etc.  The second is for displaying those prices in the Inscription skill window.  This will allow you to determine the material cost of making a glyph, and the AH price that the glyph sells at.  I typically will only make glyphs that sell for over 10g each, since the price of making Northrend glyphs is about 5g each.

You will have to spend money to make money.  There’s no way around it unless you want to spend hours and hours grinding herbs.  For me, it’s not worth it.  I spend maybe 30min every two days making and reposting glyphs.  You could maybe do better if you spent more time, but I don’t have it, nor do I want to spend that much time doing so.  So, I buy the herbs.  Here’s the trick tho: 1 stack of Tiger Lily sells for 10g (at least that’s what I’m buying it at).  That stack will product 8-12 pigments, which translates into 4-6 inks, which then turn into 4-6 glyphs. Since we’re only making glyphs that sell for more than 10g, that’s 40-60g produced from each stack of herbs, thus 30-50g profit. And that’s ONLY if the glyphs sell for 10g each!  There’s some that sell for 15, 20, even 30g or more depending on your server.  So, it’s worth it to buy the herbs :)

So, a few more tips. Use the “Post” Screen in Auctioneer.  It’s located in the AH screen after you install Auctioneer.  Make sure to scan the AH every time you go to post glyphs.  I won’t do it for you, and you want to make sure to undercut your competitors.  Don’t worry to much about the undercutting you, just repost your glyphs if/when they expire.  THEY WILL SELL, just be patient. :)  Don’t bother posting your glyphs if they’re selling for less than material cost, just hold on to them and wait for the prices to go up.  In my experience, they always will. (You can force them to buy buying some of the lower priced glyphs.  Not all of them, just enough for you to make a profit on the ones you buy).

As stated before, I’m sure there’s better ways to do this.  This is just my experience, but doing this has allowed me to buy all my flying skills, deck my hunter out all in all the epic gear i have now (click here to see), paid for leveling up my enchanting and tailoring past 400 (buying the mats), as well as all my raid costs (flasks, feasts, repairs, etc).  Plus, as of now, I have about 12k in the bank, of which I’m going to buy the Darkmoon Card: Greatness when the price goes down, probably will cost around 5k.

You can do this, just use your head and be patient.  You’re not going to get rich over night.  It will take time.  I’m making anywhere between 400-1500g a day, but it’s taken me awhile to get all the glyph recipes. But you can do it!

Hope that helps someone, enjoy :)

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Another Sad Day

Just heard that TV pitchman Billy Mays has died.  I had the privledge of meeting him about a year ago when I was working at Livemercial.  We did a short video shoot there, and he was a lot of fun to work with, and could not have been nicer to be around and interact with.  My condolences to his family and friends.

Me, My Daughter, and Billy Mays

Me, My Daughter, and Billy Mays

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WoW Bible Study Night

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I’m big into WoW at the moment, really enjoying raiding and such.  Really enjoy my guild mates.  I’m in a Christian guild called “Narrow Path” (based on Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter though it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it.”), which raids, helps other guildies, and has generally good conversation in game.

However, last night was the first night I spent on a program called “Ventrilo” (“vent” for short).  What it is is a program for voice chatting over the internet. WoW players typically use the for coordinating raids and other events where typing instructions would be too much of a hassle, or just want to chat with their friends while raiding.  Our guild also uses it to hold a Bible study on Monday nights.  That was what got me hooked.  I hadn’t used it before simply b/c I wasn’t that into raiding, plus I didn’t really know anyone that well yet.  But my desire to have some Bible study time after my daughter went to bed sealed the deal for me.  Downloaded the program, and after a few minutes of playing with the settings, I was on listening to one of my guildmates talk about God‘s provision for us, how Satan attacks us, etc.  And I’ve gotta say, I really got a lot out of it.  Not just from listening to the lesson, but from hearing others share about things going on in their lives and the struggles that they have.  I didn’t have my microphone connected, but I wish I had. Next time I probably will.  But I’m really intrigued over this method of holding a Bible study.  I would have never thought something like this would do so well, but it did, and I’m glad.  More on this later :)

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Made Level 80!

Redbeered made Level 80!

Redbeered made Level 80!

Not sure what this doe to my “Nerd Ranking”, but I think I move up at least 2-3 spots. :)  It was a fun run to level 80, and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to do it again.  I have a level 65 mage, but the grind from 65-70 isn’t too appealling, at least right now.  I think doing dailies and 10-man raids will be fun, so that’s what I’m going to do, as well as some serious PvP :)

Took out Sarth 0D last night, as well as the Stone Watcher guy.  The 25 man raid isn’t for me, at least not on this Laptop.  I DC’ed at least 4 times during the fight.  Yuck!  Everything else went fine, only died once due to the flame waves on Sarth, and came in 4th in DPS.  So that was fun :)

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