With my interests shifting steadily away from World of Warcraft lately, I have let my subscription run out. It was a lot of fun, but lately it has become progressively less fun. My time with the game seems to be coming to an end.

I’ve been writing more about non-WoW-related topics recently. However, the ones that I’ve published continue to be overshadowed by my WoW posts, and I have more posts that I’ve been holding back. As I stated before, about nine in ten visitors are here because of my WoW posts, according to my statistics.

New blog: Dischordant Forms

I’ve decided to create a new blog, which I’ve named Dischordant Forms, and put this one out to pasture. It’s something like a clean slate for me, although not entirely – I’ve moved 53 of my posts from Sunmurma over to the new blog, so there is some familiar content for those who have visited this one on a regular basis.

My hope with Dischordant Forms is that I can bring the original vision that I had for this blog to reality over there: writing quality posts on a variety of topics that interest me. I don’t view what I accomplished here as a failure, but I made decisions with my choice of topics that served to define Sunmurma in a way that I feel limits me. In that sense, it will feel good to lose the “WoW blogger” tag, even if that identity is something that only I perceive.

* * * * *

I’m extremely excited about the new blog. I’m using the zBench theme, which gives a nice clean look with some great customizable options. In putting the blog together, I’ve gotten to know more about the options available in WordPress, and I think that the blog looks pretty sharp.

I will continue to write about things that I find interesting, topics that I care about, etc. Music, video games, baseball, photography, writing, books, and so on. This is no different from Sunmurma; however, the blog will generally be free from WoW-related posts, and the variety of the posts will hopefully be greater.

* * * * *

Please feel free to check out my new blog, leave comments, etc. Here are my contact links:

• New blog: Dischordant Forms
• Follow me on Twitter: @Sunmurma
• Send me an email here
• Dischordant Forms RSS feed

If you aren’t interested in Dischordant Forms, I want to thank you for having visited Sunmurma – I truly appreciate all of the visitors and comments. The blog grew more than I ever thought it could, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

**Comments are now closed on this blog: since I won’t be checking up on it anymore, I won’t be weeding out spam or approving comments held for moderation anymore. Thanks!

I recently changed the subheading of Sunmurma to read “striving for variety and falling flat on my face.” It used to say “formless, random, casual posting.”

As my blogging about WoW has ebbed, so have my readership numbers. When it has stayed on course with current events in-game, the numbers have historically been higher.

While it’s difficult to be 100% specific (due to the vagueness of interpreting “home page” views), a cursory look at my blog stats shows that somewhere between 85-95% of my 29k total views over the life of this blog are of WoW-related articles. I’ve written 203 posts to date, and 101 of them are about WoW, so it looks like half of my posts are generating nine-tenths of the traffic.

By extension, it’s safe to say that as my latest, most popular WoW-related posts become obsolete, and I continue to write about different topics, my average number of page views will continue to fall, and eventually approach a limit of, say, 40-to-50-ish views per day. This takes into account that people may find this blog for those WoW articles forever, and adds those views to the 10-15 non-WoW-related views that I seem to get each day.

Oh no!! *scrambles to renew WoW subscription…..

Just kidding.

* * * * *

I’m struggling a little with the idea of what this blog is. While it’s intended to be a diverse blog, it really has been WoW-heavy. Writing WoW posts brings in WoW-playing readers, which in turn leads to a percentage of those readers adding the blog to their readers, blogrolls, and bookmarks. Articles move up to the front page of certain search term results. Posts get linked on other blog posts. Etc. And with the popularity of the game, it feeds on itself. Thus, Sunmurma is basically a WoW blog.

I’m not putting down the work that I put into those posts; they have played a part in my enjoyment of my hobby, as well as in my development as a writer. However, they overshadow everything else that I write. Other than my recent Baseball Hall of Fame post, which happened to be timely (a quality rarely found in my non-WoW posts), I have written nothing that has garnered more than 300 views. In comparison, I have a couple of dozen WoW articles that have gotten more than 300 hits, including one that has over 7,000.

So, it’s a WoW blog. Unfortunately.

The question is, will it always be?

Assuming that I do quit the game, which looks likely, I will continue to blog about other topics. I enjoy blogging – and what I’ve accomplished with this blog, from a writing standpoint, has far exceeded my original expectations.

However, I have several options for doing so, and that is what I’m struggling with. Here are a couple of them:

1. Keep writing Sunmurma, here at WordPress.

One option is to keep going here at Sunmurma. I set this up originally to be a topically open-ended blog. It became more of a WoW-related one as a result of me following my whims. I can grit my teeth and keep going, powering through and attempting to change the overall picture or definition of what this blog is… but that seems like a tough task – it may be a safe choice, but I fear that I may also lose my identity as a “guy who blogs about WoW” in exchange for “some guy who blogs, that people don’t care about.”

I feel that there is some material here that is as good as, or better than, my best WoW posts. It’s enough to build upon. However, I fear that Sunmurma will always be an enigmatic, WoW-related blog if I do this.

2. Create a new blog, here at WordPress or somewhere else.

Another option is to abandon this blog, partially or totally. It could be done in a few different ways. I could create a different blog, make it topic-specific, and keep this one as a personal, casual blog (kind of the reverse of what Big Red Kitty did with his blog, Brain Needed Space). I could just create a new blog and set up shop there, retiring this one. I could take the name Sunmurma somewhere else, away from WordPress, and start Sunmurma over. I could follow in the footsteps of Andrew (who retired Of Teeth And Claws last year to set up the excellent Systemic Babble): create a new, more diverse blog, transfer over select posts from Sunmurma, and retire this one.

These options are attractive to me, although I feel that it’s inevitable that I will detach my writing from a significant portion of those who read my blog on anything resembling a regular basis if I do this. Perhaps it’s a silly fear… and by the way, let me be clear: I don’t care about gross numbers – if I did, I would stay with this blog and cling to those who will find my outdated WoW articles, relishing the inflated stat totals that will linger for a long time (based on what I’ve observed). What I do care about is the wonderful group of people, including fellow bloggers, with whom I’ve had the privilege of interacting over the past year. I don’t necessarily think that I would move back into a complete vacuum if I created a new blog… but that doesn’t mean that this wouldn’t be something of a significant change for me, with respect to readership and my blogging experiences in general.

* * * * *

I’ll be up front here: I’m seriously considering abandoning this blog, in favor of a new one. It’s a possibility that has been slowly gaining strength in my mind. I’m not sure where I will go if I do – I generally like WordPress, and haven’t tried anything else, but I would probably be fine sticking with it.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions, I would love to know your opinions – feel free to leave a comment below or contact me via email. And thanks in advance… and thanks, in general, for reading this little blog!

* * * * *

If I do make a new blog, I will of course provide a link to it here.

Last weekend, I unwrapped MLB 09: The Show and started a new “Road To The Show” (RTTS) player – an lefty-hitting, right-handed outfielder named Mike Mills. He’s named after Mike Mills of R.E.M., although he looks nothing like Mills in reality: the game doesn’t allow for medium-long, curly blonde hair and dorky-cool glasses, so he’s just a white guy with short hair and a mustache – he actually looks kind of like Wally Backman, which I’m fine with.

This game is just under two years old; however, I’m not spending any more money on baseball games for a long time. I bought the game the day it came out, and I’d like to get some value out of it since I’ve been remiss in not playing it until now. Fortunately, I’m enjoying it, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

* * * * *

I like RTTS mode because it allows you to create a player and level him like you would in an RPG. You start off as a rookie in Class AA-ball after your first spring training, and work your way up through the system, training and honing your skills as you go.

Anyway, I’m trying to create a player who can hit for average, has some power, can play adequate defense, and can steal bases like a madman. I love the stolen base; I was never a fast sprinter, and was never really that good at baseball, so I rarely had the chance to steal bases when I played – but, to me, it is one of the more exciting plays in baseball. In The Show, I like reading the pitcher, timing his delivery, playing around with different approaches to taking leads off the base, and so on.

There’s a weird problem that RTTS has in this regard: when you start off, you basically have to level everything, including your raw speed. This is not true to real life at all – usually, a player working through the minor leagues has the raw speed already, and works on refining his base-stealing skills and other fundamentals. Power may be a raw “stat” that can be increased over time in real life, but speed is either there or it isn’t at that point. This is not the case in the video game, so right now I run painfully slowly on the bases as well as in the field.

I’ve done my best to remedy this, ensuring that I put points into my speed-related skills at a slightly higher rate than other skills. However, at this point I’m almost a month into my first season at Class AA, and I’m still pretty slow.

I did steal my first base last night. I got on base against a right-handed pitcher who had a knuckleball as one of the five pitches in his repertoire, but in my at-bat against him he seemed to lean pretty heavily on it. I singled, and then watched as his first pitch to the next batter took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get to the plate. I also noted that his delivery was painfully deliberate. So… I decided that I was going on the next pitch, whether it was a knuckleball or not, because of that slow delivery.

Just before the next pitch, one of the announcers said something like, “The guy at first is no threat to run, so he can really concentrate on getting the batter out.”

“Uh, yeah, right” was my thought, and as the pitcher committed to home plate, I took off. I easily beat the throw from the catcher, and stood proudly on second with my super-slow player’s first SB of 09: The Show. It was a fun game – for some reason, the knuckleballer was on the mound for six innings, and I had three hits, two RBIs and a stolen base against him.

As I play more games, do more training, “get faster,” and get on base more, I’ll start to develop a reputation for being dangerous on the base paths. That’s where the real fun begins – I’ll start stretching my leads, drawing more throws, attempting to steal third, and so on. Right now, I’m basically stuck on my base unless the pitcher has a slow delivery and a nothing harder than a weak fastball.

* * * * *

A funny thing happened last night.

In my first three weeks, I was a backup outfielder. This meant that I was starting every other game, and coming off the bench to pinch hit on the off days. As in the real game, this can be a tough assignment. It’s tough to get on base very often when you’re coming off the bench cold, even in a video game.

In spite of the erratic schedule, after three weeks I was hitting .375, so the manager was basically forced to play me every day. However, on the day before I was made a permanent starter, I was brought in off the bench… as a pitcher.

Yeah, I know, bizarre. But it gets better.

I haven’t played a baseball video game in a couple of years, and when I started this one, I went straight to RTTS, so I didn’t play any full-team games – this means that I didn’t get any experience with the pitching mechanics.

Oh well, I figured. We’ll see what happens.

It was the bottom of the fifth inning, and the leadoff batter, a righty, stepped into the box. The catcher called for a fastball, which I was grateful for. I reached back and whipped a fastball in there, hitting the low outside corner for a strike. Then…

I was pulled. Immediately.

The game was over, since in RTTS you only play the plays that involve you. I didn’t get to see how fast my pitch was, and I didn’t get credit for the batter, or for pitching part of an inning, or anything. However, amazingly, I got credit for the victory!

Yes… totally bizarre. So here is my career line as a pitcher: 1-0, 0.00 ERA (which is actually mathematically undefined), 0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 K, 0 BB, 0 Batters Faced.

It must have been a glitch.

The next day I was promoted, and I’ve been starting every day in my proper lineup position, roaming left field and batting third.

* * * * *

I read recently that the upcoming version, MLB 11, will feature a completely revamped RTTS experience that is more natural and realistic, which sounds awesome. It would be nice to be able to make a player that had good speed and fielding skills, and decent contact skills, to start with, so that I could have some tools to work with instead of starting out sucking at everything. Perhaps at some point down the road I will get a chance to try it out… but for now, I’m busy playing a game that most other baseball gamers were playing two springs ago.

2010 was largely a dead year for me and my guitar playing. I played in spurts, which is par for the course, but the big difference this year was the staggering* amount of time that I didn’t play.

*I can’t actually show you how staggering it was, because I didn’t keep a log. Trust me, though: it was probably my least-disciplined year in a long, long time.

Why didn’t I play very much? Well, I won’t get into too many specifics, but there are several factors that go into disciplining one’s self to engage in a hobby on a regular basis, and thus, several bad habits that can be inhibitors to that. The biggest contributor was a lack of inspiration or interest. It’s something that’s difficult to explain… but it generally stems from my ever-present lack of confidence in my abilities to improve and create, my internal self-censoring mechanism, and, well, just being stuck in a rut.

My view of myself as a player goes something like this: “Unpracticed, slow, undisciplined. Unfocused. Unoriginal. One-dimensional. Over-uses open/droning strings, sliding chord shapes, chord bends. Strums weird (at the wrist) – open strings/chords sound muddy as a result. Can’t bend single notes to proper pitch. Often misses notes, particularly when trying to ‘solo.’ Poor finger-style player.” Etc. There’s more, but those are the most pertinent points for me.

(Yes, I also suck at learning and playing the works of others. I’m extremely poor at learning different styles: jazz, classical and blues guitar feel inauthentic to me – that is, me as a guitarist. I love jazz, classical, blues, and many other styles of guitar playing, but I feel like a total imposter when I try to play them, so instead I try to incorporate elements of those styles into my playing when I can.)

Anyway… now that I’ve typed all of that out, if I step back and look at that list I can see some constructive points there. Making a list of areas of weakness doesn’t mean that I have to wallow in it (I’m telling myself this, mind you…).

1. For one thing, open strings, drones and pedals, sliding chords, chord bends and vibrato, etc. are all things that I’m interested in. I enjoy them, and I like using them – they help to define my playing style. That’s a positive thing, and so using them is ok.
2. My strumming style (and, to a lesser extent, my picking style) is evolving. To be more descriptive about it, I tend to strum at a slight angle to the strings – that is, my pick doesn’t hit the strings straight on. I hold my guitar so that the neck is a bit higher than the body, but I strum relatively perpendicular to the floor. I’ve tried different things – the most radical two options being a) eliminating “strumming” from my style entirely and b) holding my guitar like the Beatles did (neither was remotely satisfying) – and I’ve shortened my guitar strap a bit to give it better balance. As a result of some experimentation, this issue is actually improving.
3. Several of the other areas are chronic issues for me, and are technical issues that I have to dedicate myself to overcoming. So, that’s on me – I can’t let my confidence be completely trampled by issues that I’ve not taken the time to practice through and/or fix.

* * * * *

While I certainly have issues as a musician, one thing that I don’t have is very many issues with my instrument setup.

Currently, the guitar that I play the most is my Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster. It has noiseless pickups, which is great for playing in an apartment. It also has a switch that, when engaged, allows for double the amount of pickup combinations of a normal Strat. I don’t mess with those configurations, though – the sounds are funky, I guess, but I’m not a funky guitar player. I just leave the switch disengaged and the pickups at the neck (mainly) or middle positions, and go from there.

I don’t use any effects right now. As far as amps go, I was using a Peavy Basic 60 bass amp, which, when adjusted quite a bit, produced a nice, warm, bass-y sound. However, while I like the sound to some extent, it’s a little too bottom-heavy for an apartment, so recently I have been using my Crate Palomino V8, which is a little tube amp that I picked up on eBay a few years ago. It’s a simple little amp, and it isn’t perfect… but right now it’s music to my ears.

With the Strat at the neck position, and the Crate at low volume with moderate gain, I can get some warm tones and nice, subtle dynamics. More than ever, I feel like I can control the amount of distortion that I get by playing more/less intensely or by rolling back slightly on the guitar’s volume knob.

In the liner notes for his CD Perfect Night: Live in London, Lou Reed wrote about his experience with a new pickup that had been developed – it enabled him to plug his acoustic guitar into an electric guitar amp and play it loud without it sounding like crap and/or distorting. He said that it “sounded like diamonds.” That’s how I feel about this simple setup. Of course, it sounds very different from Lou’s version of diamonds, but… my point is this: to me, it sounds great. It’s inspiring and satisfying to pick up the guitar, play one note, and smile a big smile inside. It’s about as close as I’ll ever get to some of Sonic Youth’s various guitar sounds, so I’m grateful for that.

* * * * *

The guitar sound moves me right now. I find that, more than I have in a long time, I am drawn to the guitar as a source of diversion. This gives me hope, because, amazingly, over the past year I’ve often thought to myself that perhaps my days of even playing sporadically were drawing to a close. As it stands right now, that already seems like a thought from the distant past – I feel good about where I am: even though my playing has many faults, it’s enjoyable, and that allows some contentment to balance out my awareness of the steep road to betterment that lies before me .

I completed a different post earlier today, but just before I finished it I became aware of the shooting tragedy in Tucson. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8th district) was shot in the head and is fighting for her life; Federal Judge John Roll and five others, including a nine-year-old girl, were shot and killed, and 13 others were critically wounded in the senseless shooting spree this morning.

The events in Arizona affected me profoundly, and I’ve decided to share a thought or two that I’m having about the situation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Late this afternoon, I learned of the shootings that took place today in Tucson, Arizona. Everything else immediately seemed to stop for me – other sounds and words were tuned out as I followed the developments on the internet.

In the evening, I caught most of a special edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. I don’t usually watch Olbermann (although his views align more closely with mine than those of the talking heads at Fox News do), because I tend to shy away from overtly partisan news, and both Olbermann and the pundits at Fox News can be sensational to varying degrees. This was an extraordinary occasion, though, and as such, there was a special edition of Countdown.

On the handful of occasions that I’ve watched Olbermann’s show, I’ve had to bring some grains of salt with me. This is not because there is no truth in what he says, but an astute mind will challenge what he hears or reads by looking for facts and sorting through BS.

With that said, I’m glad that I tuned in.

Olbermann’s voice faltered occasionally, belying an internal struggle with emotions at times. His sadness and passion for the subjects discussed on the program were clearly evident to me, and I was grateful for that.

He spent a significant portion of his time talking about the subject of violent rhetoric and its place in politics; or rather, the idea that it should have no place in politics. And in his closing “Special Comment,” he declared that the time for violent speech is over, and called for an immediate end to all use of violent metaphors and rhetoric from politicians, activists, and people of influence on radio, television, and other media (I’m paraphrasing).

He also apologized multiple times for making violent remarks on one occasion in particular, made clear that he did not condone them, and further apologized for any other time that he might have made remarks that inadvertently were violent or caused someone to think that he wished for something terrible to happen to another person.

To watch his Special Comment, click here. Other portions of the program can be found on the Countdown site at MSNBC as well.

But this post is not about Keith Olbermann. His show was merely a part of my Saturday night experience this weekend.

* * * * *

Two months ago, I wrote a couple of posts about the deteriorating quality of public discourse. In my post from November 9th, I touched on the idea that people often don’t seem to be aware of the consequences of their words and actions, particularly in this age where it is possible to make and publish statements publicly (and, in some cases, anonymously). From some of our country’s most prominent political figures and personalities down a certain subset of people who litter chat channels in video games and other social outlets, it seems that modesty, politeness, and respect have been been widely eschewed in favor of disrespect, taunting, name-calling, hate-spew, and violent speech of one kind or another.

As I was reading about what happened in Tucson, I began to think about Sarah Palin’s political hit list, the controversial “crosshairs map,” which she posted on her website last year (and removed shortly after the shooting occurred). I then thought about Bill O’Reilly, who referred to abortion doctor George Tiller (murdered during a service at his church on May 31, 2009), as “Tiller the baby killer” two dozen times on his show, according to Politifact. I thought of others who have recently shown a disquieting comfort or familiarity with violent or war-related speech, as used for political (or other) gain.

Keith Olbermann’s commentary closely matches my own feelings on the subject.

We don’t know, and perhaps we will never know, exactly why the shooter committed such a heinous set of crimes in Tucson. Perhaps he was encouraged in part by violent political rhetoric, perhaps not.

However…

In today’s world, we have access to astounding amounts of information – it’s at our fingertips and on our televisions. The majority of households in the U.S. have internet access, and nine in ten children are online in some fashion.

Keith Olbermann has called for an end to all use of violent rhetoric, metaphors, and speech, in our nation’s public political discourse, regardless of party, political position, or any other divisive associations. In the coming weeks, I know for a fact that we will see an as-yet-unknown number of public figures, as well as hordes of commenters on blogs and other social media, reject part or all of that idea because it came from a person who differs from them ideologically.

And while we may never know if any of the recent violent speech (etc.) had an impact on the killer’s motivations, it’s almost impossible to know for sure that those words weren’t taken the wrong way by someone.

Think about it. If a public figure makes a violent statement against someone, it could be read, heard or viewed by thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions, of people, including children and those who are mentally unstable.

Politics is a lot of marketing, and, despite all of the demographic studies that are done for both fields, at the end of the day, the message goes out to the general public, hitting its target audiences as well as others. If the wrong person gets a flippant or ill-considered message, the consequences could be tragic.

Again, we don’t know that anything negative will come of it. However, we also can’t be certain that the opposite will be true.

* * * * *

It starts with our leaders, parents, public figures, and mentors, .

In order to maintain a de facto civilized society, our leaders and public figures must set an example by dealing with one another respectfully and courteously. Political differences are a way of life, but we are all human beings – and not just “at the end of the day,” “when the dust settles,” etc.

Whether we believe it or not, our words make an impression on others. By speaking cautiously and treating others with respect, wherever we are in life (and on whatever platform or through whichever social media outlet), we lay the groundwork for positivity, well-being, growth…

And as citizens, we can’t stand silent and consider violence and violent speech acceptable. It can be eliminated, at least on a political level, if sensible people will collectively reject it.

Violence is simply awful. “Violent” is even a harsh-sounding word, appropriately describing its manifestation. The idea of a gunshot wound is absolutely horrifying in and of itself – it’s sudden, instant, irrevocable, and violent – and countless parents, widows, and friends of victims of violence have had their hearts broken when their loved ones have been taken away.

With that said: don’t become numb to violence and violent speech/rhetoric. It is not trivial. All of the “desensitization” that we hear about nowadays is something of a fallacy, because death is just as real as it was, and hits just as hard as it did, before violent video games, movies and lyrics became widely accepted. It certainly changed countless lives this weekend.

* * * * *

In closing, I realize that some of what I hope for is idealistic. It’s unrealistic to think that there will be a widespread elimination of the vitriol that we encounter way too often in our lives. However, maybe the events in Tucson will serve as a wake-up call to both politicians/public figures and citizens in general. Perhaps enough people will consider how they interact with one another that civility will gain market share, and public figures and officers will be held accountable for the quality of their discourse.

In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. I sincerely hope that Rep. Giffords will pull through, and will be able to have some quality of life again.

By “wrote a letter,” I mean that I sat down with a notebook and a pen, and hand-wrote a letter. It’s been a long time since I’ve handwritten a letter, other than short notes for work or in greeting cards… things like that. But today, I decided that I wanted to reach out and make a physical, tangible connection with one of my oldest and closest friends.

I’ve never had the best penmanship, but I think that it has to have regressed. I think that my friend will be able to decipher it well enough, but I am not proud about the quality of my handwriting at the moment.

This is the first real letter that I will have hand-written and posted in years (I plan on buying a stamp and dropping it off at the post office tomorrow morning, since it’s already a bit too late to make the last pickup). As the many forms of social media have taken over our communications, “writing a letter” has almost universally been replaced by “sending a message electronically.” Email, Facebook’s different messaging options, tweets, text messages, and smart phones have soundly relegated physical notes and letters to the bargain bins. Letters are the quiet minority, an old-fashioned medium from days of yore. People like my parents still write letters occasionally (although I’m pretty sure that most of their correspondence is electronic at this point), and official letters are still sometimes created and mailed in physical form, but it seems that the vast majority of interpersonal communication is done via satellite and the internet.

Using the post office for communication certainly has its disadvantages. I’m not sure how it works in other countries, but in the U.S. there is almost always an overnight waiting period, minimum, between the time that the mail was posted and received – even within the same city – while electronic messaging is relatively instant. Mail also uses paper, a resource that costs money, and letters require the effort of forming the letters of the alphabet, by hand, into legible words and sentences that can be read and understood by the receiving party. Admittedly, this is no small effort for people like me, for whom penmanship was never a strength. Additionally, a letter currently costs $0.44 to mail in the U.S., and while that’s a paltry sum compared with the costs of most other products and services that we purchase, it has become a largely unnecessary expense, given the advantages and availability of “free” electronic communication.

However, letter-writing has its advantages as well – or, if nothing else, it has its unique features. For one thing, hand-writing is generally a different process than, for example, composing with a word processor. When I write blog posts or compose emails*, I tend to write, read my work, edit, cut and/or expand, reread, rework, etc. until I am satisfied that I’ve said what I want to say. With hand-written letters, editing is tougher, and, unless I commit to writing, editing, and then rewriting a letter, I have to be somewhat more focused as I compose the actual text. This forces me to concentrate on how my sentences and paragraphs flow, look up words that I am unsure of (with regard to spelling or meaning), and think about how the letter will be read by the person to whom it’s addressed, as I write.

*Yes, I do all of this even when I send emails. To me, it feels disrespectful to send someone an email with a lot of mistakes in it. Just as important, though, is ensuring that something isn’t left out (or in), like a negative, which could convey a completely different meaning than that which you had intended. I don’t claim to be perfect, but I shudder to think about how embarrassed I would have been if I hadn’t proofread and edited countless emails and blog posts.

In addition to the distinct compositional experience, handwritten letters have both a sense of permanence and personality that electronic communication struggles to approach. Someone reading a letter can get of a sense of the writer’s personality and emotional state from a letter. Furthermore, letters have their own versatility: paper is also a medium for art, and I have received letters with drawings, diagrams, tables, and notes scribbled along the sides of the text. Letters are also real, physical things, and are able to be kept, filed, stored, and reread without the burden of another device. Like vinyl records, a letter can be something that is neat to have: it’s something that someone took the time to create, to express any number of ideas, or to entertain you.

Now, I’m not bashing electronic communication – I use it every day, and appreciate its conveniences and advantages – but I had a good time writing this letter today. It was an old, familiar process, but also one at which I am definitely rusty. I am determined to write more letters this year, both to my friend and to others. Perhaps he will write me back, and we can correspond with some regularity – that would be fun, as well as good exercise for the brain. It may also become something of a luxury sooner or later – with the way that things are going with the USPS and its heavy financial burdens, our concept of snail-mail (a term that I detest, by the way), which we take for granted now, could change drastically over the next several years. I’m going to write some letters this year, and send them through the post office while I still have the chance.

Overall impressions?

I liked it. I spent several hours more in the game than was actually necessary to beat it, and had fun for the most part. It’s a beautiful game graphically, with great music that expands upon themes from the original game, and it’s fun to get caught up in the cute British-based fantasy world.

It’s generally an easy game to play. That has its positive points; the main one being that the gameplay doesn’t get in the way of the story. However, for those looking for a challenge, this is probably not the game for you.

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, I’m pretty clumsy when it comes to playing certain types of games on a console controller. For a game like this, I found myself limited by the controller. Players have the opportunity to learn several different Will (magic) spells, and can map them to their B button. Using the right trigger (or the menu), players can choose different spells for different occasions during combat. Honestly, I found this to be a clumsy interface, and, with the game being fairly easy, I stuck to using only Time Control and Blades, depending on my needs. I found myself missing the click/key-mapping options that many PC games offer, but, as the game is playable without using cool spells like Force Push, Chaos, Inferno and Shock, I ignored them almost entirely in favor of a less cumbersome playing experience. For what is very much an action game, I wish that there were a variety of spells at my disposal that could have been accessed via the D-pad and/or buttons by using a function button, like RT, to activate “Will mode” for more intuitive real-time spell casting and variety.

The other two disciplines, Skill (ranged weapons) and Strength (power, toughness and melee flourishes), are fairly intuitive and work well enough.

I didn’t get very involved in the social scene, and I didn’t try to get any of the more off-beat achievements. I got married, and then I went off and spent ten years of non-negotiable time in a quest chain. When I finally escaped, I cleared up a few things and then went back home to find that my wife had divorced me. So I married again, etc. To me, that social aspect is interesting, but it wasn’t fleshed out very well. Once I had gotten a modicum of renown, almost everyone wanted to marry me, and I was badgered with requests for autographs and wedding rings for the remainder of my time spent in towns throughout the game.

In spite of all of that, I didn’t commit my first murders until I was about 90% of the way through the game. Someone caught me stealing, and I decided to kill the five guards that attacked me rather than pay the fine. I hadn’t given much thought to being totally good or evil, and ended up being very loved, moderately feared, and fairly pure. There are choices that you can make in-game that will change the way that people feel about you, but ultimately I didn’t feel that I had to pay too much for my actions, one way or another.

I had heard that this game would be more difficult to exploit financially than its predecessor, and for a while I found that to be correct. However, this week I discovered that there is an exploit, and a cursory internet search shows that it became known fairly quickly by people who played the game when it came out. It works like this, in a nutshell:

When you own property, and that property is a business, you get a Shop Owner’s Discount. I figured that this would also mean that you could sell goods to that vendor with a nicer markup, but that’s not the case – you actually get a better price when selling if you don’t own the business. Since businesses can generally be bought and sold whenever, with a few exceptions, I was able to go to the Blacksmith and the Stonecutter in Bowerstone, buy up all of their wares (once I had the capital), sell the businesses, and then sell all of their wares back to them at higher prices. Buy the business, buy all of their goods. Rinse, repeat. It made money a non-issue, as I eventually bought most of the properties in the game. I wasn’t happy that the money challenge was completely decimated, but on the other hand it meant that I didn’t have to waste time doing jobs as the game wore on and I concentrated on questing.

Overall, Fable 2 was a fun game for me. Once I got accustomed to using a controller again, I found it to be an enjoyable experience. I left the game unfinished, as far as non-essential quests go, and I would probably continue to play it if I didn’t have Fable 3 sitting on top of my pile of un-played games. Now that I’ve finished with the main story, I’m interested in seeing where it goes in the third installment, so I will likely be tackling that one soon.

I got an achievement for returning five flags in a single match, and earlier in the day I also became exalted with Baradin’s Wardens. The first (flag) achievement was the more gratifying of the two. The second (reputation) was about as anticlimactic as just about any achievement that I’ve ever gotten.

It happened at the wrong time. I was in the middle of doing my Tol Barad dailies, which is generally a horrible, teeth-grinding experience fraught with deadly respawns and accidentally killing stuff that someone else tagged, or being beaten by another player who is collecting the same item as you. So, there was a sense of relief, but it was muted, because I am so frustrated with my playing experience that I’m just about completely numb to the game at this point.

Here are some of my issues:

Easy leveling (early levels)

See my post from last Saturday for my feelings on this subject.

Easy leveling (80-85)

It took me 3.5 days to move my main toon from the old level cap to 85. It was a fun experience – probably the most fun that I’ve had in the game so far, other than different moments in PvP and the general camaraderie that we have in the guild. But it was too short. I did not rush – I just played and enjoyed it, and it still only took me half of a week.

Yes I’m more experienced and had nicer gear this time… but, to compare, it took me almost three months to get Anacrusa from level 70 to level 80. At this point, a month into the expansion, I have one toon (druid) that has been 85 for almost four weeks, one (paladin) that has very casually been 83 for almost two weeks, and a third (hunter) that is, almost as casually, one bar away from the cap.

It feels that, with the revamping of old zones, the “leveling through the expansion” part of the game got the short end of the stick this time. Perhaps that’s what most people wanted… but, in retrospect, it’s not what I wanted.

PvP

Tol Barad is a mess. It has been a mess since before launch, with a massive lack of competitive balance (it heavily favors the defending team, for those who don’t know). Blizzard introduced a hotfix last week that made it ten times more lucrative to win by attacking in order to try to balance this, which resulted in game-wide win-swapping between factions. Tol Barad became an absolute joke at this point. Blizzard “fixed” that this week by reducing the attack-win honor bonus by 80%, but by that time it was all over. The zone has all of the same problems that it has always had, and we’re a month into the game.

Otherwise, while my PvP experience has varied, I’m tired of battlegrounds. I was interested in arenas for a short while, but at this point I’m not all that interested in even playing the game, so I may never try them.

Dungeons

And raids, I guess. I don’t know – I haven’t raided yet, and I’ve only managed to complete three heroics out of the seven or eight that I’ve attempted.

After we killed the Lich King in my old guild, I was burned out on raiding, and I guess that I’ve never gotten my mojo back, so to speak. Currently, my guild has one full-time tank, but he has a life to live, so he’s not always available. The experience can vary widely when pugging tanks… and I don’t like committing hours of time to frustration.

On Friday, I ditched my unused resto spec and picked up a tanking one, reforged and re-gemmed all of my gear, and swapped around my glyphs with the idea that maybe I could relearn to tank. But… I don’t want to tank. I don’t particularly like tanking, and it’s also been a while for me since I last tanked anything of consequence. And with my current attitude, I feel uninspired to actually carry out the task of learning to tank in Cataclysm.

A final note on dungeons: Being melee in these new dungeons is rough. As a cat druid, I have to balance the following: staying out of bad while being close enough to interrupt (and it’s sometimes impossible to do both), doing competitive damage, and watching people’s health (yes, I have thrown many, many heals in dungeons). Bringing in a pug tank means that, in spite of communication beforehand, the boss often doesn’t get kited, or nobody else interrupts, or whatever.

I’m fine with “staying out of fire,” concentrating on having enough energy available to interrupt each time, or throwing heals, all at the expense of topping the meters. I actually like that. However, when staying out of bad = not interrupting = Non-Kited-Boss one-shots Non-Kiting-Tank (and so on) as often as it does right now, I begin to lose what little desire that I had to be there in the first place.

Admittedly, my tolerance is low…

Going back to my points above about easy leveling through the five new zones, I have to say that being “not-capped” for less than a week also doesn’t feel good. Woot! – a few days of leveling, and then back to the old… yes… dungeon grind.

Reputation grinds

I worked hard to open up all of my dailies. I am exalted with three of the factions now. However, I have to say that I hate them. Between all of the people who are leveling and doing the quests, and all of the people grinding rep, the dailies range from pain-in-the-ass to nightmarish.

The nearly instant respawns in some zones, as noted above, are punishing. When I’m not fighting for my life, I’m competing with others for those mobs or quest items that, oddly enough, have poor respawn rates. As Darkbrew noted recently, if you need to kill ten things in Tol Barad, you’ll kill 20 by the time you’re through. It’s generally not a fun experience.

Closing

I’m in a holding pattern, for the moment. I haven’t quit the game, but I don’t know if I will be playing much at any time soon. This is a long break for me, even if it has only been four days. My heart hasn’t been in it for a week or longer. I’m saddened by the way that I feel about it. I love the potential for good times and interesting lore, and I like that the game seems more challenging at this level. It seems like I should be happy with WoW, but I have a lot of problems with it right now.

Perhaps I’m changing, or perhaps it’s just dawning on me that the game doesn’t offer what I’m interested in anymore. I’m not sure. At any rate, we’ll see what happens. I’m spending more time playing guitar, blogging a bit about sports, and I’ve picked up Fable 2 and Half-Life 2 again after months of not playing them. I’m enjoying Fable 2 – Half-Life is a game that I can only concentrate on once in a while, but Fable 2 has a fun story and an interesting NPC community that I’m enjoying right now. I’m hoping to finish it this week, and begin playing Fable 3 shortly thereafter.

As far as WoW goes… well, I’ll let you know.

Alomar, who fell eight votes short in 2010, received an overwhelmingly definitive 90.0% of the vote in this, his second year on the ballot. Blyleven, who was merely five votes short last year, needed 436 votes this year, but received 463 for 79.7%. This was Blyleven’s 14th year on the ballot.

Here’s how other players of note fared (note: all statistics taken from Baseball-Reference.com).

• Barry Larkin: 62.1% this year (his 2nd), up from 51.6% last year
• Jack Morris: 53.5% this year (his 12th), up from 52.3%
• Lee Smith: 45.3% this year (his 9th), down from 47.3%
• Jeff Bagwell: 41.7% this year (his first)
• Tim Raines: 37.5% this year (his 2nd), up from 30.4%
• Edgar Martinez: 32.9% this year (his 2nd), down from 36.2%
• Alan Trammell: 24.3% this year (his 10th), up from 22.4%
• Larry Walker: 20.3% this year (his first)
• Mark McGwire: 19.8% this year (his 5th), down from 23.7%
• Fred McGriff: 17.9% this year (his 2nd), down from 21.5%
• Dave Parker: 15.3% in this, his final year
• Don Mattingly: 13.6% this year (his 11th), down from 16.1%
• Dale Murphy: 12.6% this year (his 13th), up from 11.7%
• Rafael Palmiero: 11.0% this year (his first)
• Juan Gonzalez: 5.2% this year (his first)

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Barry Larkin looks to be in a good position to be elected at some point in the next few years, as he received a strong increase in voting percentage this year. Additionally, Jeff Bagwell made a strong initial showing, although it will be interesting to see how his future ballots play out, given media and fan suspicion about steroid use. And Tim Raines had a solid showing, although it’s too early to tell whether he will continue to trend upward.

Jack Morris (who has received some of the most attention over the years as a borderline case), Lee Smith, Edgar Martinez, and Alan Trammell all seem to be stagnating, while Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy will likely be following Dave Parker off the ballot as their candidacies come to a close over the next few years.

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Mark McGwire actually received less total votes this year (115 to last year’s 128), even though there were 42 more voters this year (581 to last year’s 539). This indicates that his candidacy is not only stagnating, but is suffering as a result of his steroid confession and apology. This was potentially a pivotal year for McGwire, but it looks like his prospects for election are weaker than they have ever been. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s the way that the vote seems to be leaning.

In related news, Rafael Palmiero, whose good name and excellent statistical career was destroyed when he tested positive for steroids in the summer of 2005, did finish with 11% of the votes, so he survives until at least next year.

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Next year’s class of newcomers does not include very many high-profile players. Of the new names, only Bernie Williams strikes me as a lock to receive enough votes to remain on the ballot in 2012. This could bode well for Larkin, who could be elected in a weak year, as well as others looking to increase their vote totals. However, for those who do not get elected in 2012, the following years bring the potential for a lot of competition:

• In 2013, we will see Mike Piazza, Curt Shilling, and Craig Biggio, as well as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Sammy Sosa.
• 2014 is looking even stronger, with Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Tom Glavine, Jeff Kent, and Mike Mussina, along with Luis Gonzalez and Moises Alou, slated to be eligible.
• Finally, 2015 brings Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and John Smoltz, along with Gary Sheffield and Nomar Garciaparra, to the ballot.

It’s possible that some of those in the middle, such as Smith, Raines, Martinez, Trammell, and Walker, could be lost in the shuffle in those years.

Based on what these future ballots look like, I’m going to go out on a limb* and predict that, unless he sees a surprisingly strong showing next year, Jack Morris will never be elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA.

*I usually hate predicting things.

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In closing, I’d like to express my congratulations to Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven. One thing to remember is that everyone who plays baseball at a big league level is a great player – even those who received zero votes on this year’s ballots were among the top percentage of players in the world. To be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame is never anything less than an extraordinary accomplishment, and these two players are definitely deserving of the honor.

I’ve gotten the majority of my sports news from the Sports Illustrated website for several years. However, I’ve been dissatisfied with several of their writers for a while now, and I’m thinking of changing my go-to source.

Sports Illustrated does have a couple of my favorite writers, Joe Posnanski (multiple sports) and Peter King (football), and I will of course continue to follow them. And there are some that I don’t mind, like Tim Marchman, Joe Lemire, Don Banks, etc. But there are others that get on my nerves, and among them, Paul Heyman is really getting on my nerves.

The article that is pushing me over the top (mind you, this is not the first one that has irked me) is from Monday, January 3. Entitled New Year’s Resolutions for 50 of the biggest names in baseball, it’s an article that lists some mundane wishes for 2011. Some examples from Heyman’s list (and I paraphrase):

“Albert Pujols, please take less money to re-sign with the Cardinals…”

“Bill Dewitt, please spend more money to re-sign Albert Pujols…”

“Miguel Cabrera/Josh Hamilton, please don’t get drunk/use drugs anymore, so you can continue to have great seasons…”

And so on. I know, good stuff, right? Just about Facebook quality.

Anyway, I was browsing this list, and I came across these gems (quoted directly from the article):

12. Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. We will continue to understand that money isn’t everything, and frankly, enough is enough.

17. Bert Blyleven. I will consider myself fortunate when I am voted into the Hall of Fame, and understand that while I had a great career, I am not Tom Seaver or Steve Carlton but rather Don Sutton and Phil Niekro, near-great pitchers who were borderline candidates who gained enshrinement. I will also thank the small coterie of Internet zealots who kept calling attention to the value of strikeouts, shutouts, complete games, longevity and durability and helped me rise from 14 percent of the votes in my second year of eligibility to more than 75 percent and act gracefully upon hearing the expected good news.

The reason that these two, in particular, grate on me is that Heyman seems to assume that these are resolutions that need to be made; that the players mentioned are probably in danger of not acceding to his wishes; and that, if they already have been made, they need to be reinforced.

I actually wonder if Heyman has some sort of troll complex, where he’s baiting people like me to be upset by his tone… but I don’t think that’s the case. I think that he’s just one of those sportswriters that totally rub me the wrong way – the ones that give you their opinions as if they themselves are without fault, and have no tolerance for anything less than what fits their holier-than-thou viewpoints.

Here’s my take on these three players:

• In the case of Cliff Lee, he took plenty of money to come to the Phillies, did what was best for himself and his family, and came to what he felt was the most comfortable situation, in taking a five-year, $120 million contract instead of accepting something like $28 million more to jump to the Yankees. I think that he’s happy with his decision.
• In the Roy Halladay’s case, he accepted a trade to Philadelphia before last season, and signed a three-year, $60 million contract extension as part of the deal. In everything that I have seen of him thus far as a Phillie, I’ve gotten only two indicators of his feelings about the situation: he’s truly thrilled to be playing for a competitive club, and he’s always working his tail off in order to keep his edge and give his best possible effort every fifth day.
• As for Bert Blyleven, it’s well-known that Heyman does not feel that he is Hall of Fame material, and did not vote for him again this year. However, I don’t really think that Blyleven needs to be prompted to be thankful: upon learning the results of last year’s election (he missed being inducted by five votes), he admitted that he was “a little disappointed,” but also added that he was “very, very happy for Andre Dawson,” and expressed surprise that Roberto Alomar had fallen just short as well. He was gracious, and has waited a long time – I’m sure that, if he’s elected, he will experience a multitude of feelings, including relief and overwhelming thankfulness. Heyman’s “resolution” rings of sarcasm, as well as acute bitterness about what he seems to view as the inevitable lost cause that his anti-campaign will become if Blyleven actually does receive enough votes this year or next.

In all three of these cases, as well as for several of the others listed, his suggestions make assumptions that seem to indicate that the worst may happen if he doesn’t make them. It’s kind of ridiculous, in my view, to publish a tidbit telling Bert Blyleven to consider himself lucky to be elected, and to act gracefully about it! Baseball players and other athletes, while acknowledging their hard work, are often thankful to have been given the talents and opportunities that they’ve gotten, and Blyleven, while having personal pride, is certainly not the type of person who carries himself like a prima donna. He worked hard during his career, and has been patient through the long, stressful trial that has been his Hall of Fame election journey.

No, I don’t think that Blyleven, Halladay, or Lee are the issues. I think that the issue is that, however connected Paul Heyman is with MLB people, he is disconnected from people. I also think that he has an inherently negative view of people, and there are times when  he expresses that worldview to the detriment of his quality of work.

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If anyone has suggestions for a good, thorough, online source for sports news, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments. I have yet to find one that I enjoy as much as I used to like MLB.com before they made their news page virtually un-browse-able.