Lo all ^^

Figured I should update a bit to show y'all that I am still around... Sadly these "I'm still alive!" journals are becomming more and more frequent

First up, I FINALLY HAVE A JOB!!!!!!! It's been almost 2 years coming and it's finally here <33 I cannot thank my family enough for all the support they've given me during the last years, they've had their own dramas to worry about and the family as a whole has really gone through it, but this - plus Mum's own job (first time she's worked since having me!) have been incredibly positive steps forwards in our new lives ^^ We're all buzzing with pride for each other and the house is finally a wonderful and warm place to live again <33
The job I have is as an Administrative Assistant - which is just a posh way of saying office dogsbody hehe, but the people are lovely and the Office itself has an amazing position - helping looked after children in Oxfordshire (and outside of the county too) seek out and get all they possibly can from the education system. I guess you could say that we're guardian angels for children who've had a tough time It's a wonderful feeling to know what you're helping to achieve but massively frustrating when barriers are put up and children who deserve a fair deal are being ignored
Not only that, yesterday I got a call from the lady who's been invaluable in helping me get a job, asking if she could write a piece on my story to be submitted to the 'in house' magazine! ! Totally unexpected and amazing! I really hope it gives other people the incentive to ask for help - it was the best move I made <3

Secondly, aye the recent deviation I submitted ([link]) is pretty much the truth of where I've been xD I'm still playing WoW (once you're bitten, you can't escape ) I was enjoying it up until about 2 months (maybe a bit more) ago when our current guild started doing some strange things in regards to recruitment... People who had seemingly ditched the guild in favour of other persuits return and expect their placements back... With not so much as a new application or mention of where they'd been... The worst part was, their gear being at least 1 tier out of date they were getting raid spots over people who had the best gear available and we'd still be asked to spend 4 hours a night attempting a hard mode It fast sucked the fun out of raiding and both myself and Nichal decided it was high-time to put ourselves first and play the game as, when and how we jolly well wanted to... Turns out it was one of the best moves we've made. We took a week off of raiding (and WoW in all serious aspects) didn't log onto our mains at all, played on alts and best of all, on the opposite faction (Alliance) and found we absolutely loved it One of us then had the thought of creating our own guild - what we enjoy the most is 10 man raiding - a more intimate group of people where each person is expected to do their job and not be carried - We'd both toyed with the idea of our own guild when we read about the first snippets of Cataclysm... As about 5 million other players will probably do, we want to have Worgen mains ^^ Thankfully both Druids and Warriors can be Worgen, so we decided there and then that come Cataclysm we'd be making our own guild... Just seems that the guild creation/start is coming faster than we'd thought but we want this - we want to finally have somewhere that's more stable than the last few guilds we've been in. Granted the one we moved to Nord for was an excellent guild with some phenominally good players (not to mention they were nice, good, honest people to boot) and at the time was the oldest surviving guild on the server. When they started having problems (with members showing up) and the Guild Leader himself started to have doubts about the game, a merge was suggested with another mature guild - some liked the idea, some really REALLY didn't and the guild we merged with was as far as I see it, a cancer that ate away at the good people of our guild. Possibly the fact that so many people had been in their respective guild for years they could never become the new guild, they were always their old guild members at heart - a "them" and "us" seemed to develop - inevitably the new merger guild fell apart and from what I last /who'd of them, majority of the members were of the other guild

The original guilds still have members and therefore exist on the armory but as I remember it, they are the alts of the people who stopped playing seriously and every so often, one or two of the old crew will log on, do a bg and log again. Sad really, I know it's just a game but when you spend so long playing it with other people - just like on here, we become friends and you care for the "screen names" <3 in a lot of ways you miss the banter and the team spirit, joining a new guild puts you out of that feeling, but we've been with this guild for a good 3-4 months now and still feel like outsiders

So anywyas the last time we had so much fun in a raid and properly felt as though we had accomplished something was when we achieved "the Undying" in Naxxramas (with our original Nord guild) with a 2 Healer (Nich and I) 2 tanks (the OT was a dps DK iirc) and 6 DPS, considering we did this when Naxx was the "current content" it felt pretty damned good So on Sunday evening I got into that "I want to do something crazy" mood that creeps over me on occassion... Last time I had it I begged Nich to help me get a snow leopard for my Blood Elf Hunter... The model I wanted can be picked up at level 10... Outside of Ironforge -_-' or I'd have to wait until 76+ to get the ones from Zul'Drak... So off we went to Ironforge lol ^^ Took forever to get there and the elite mobs that we aggro'd kicked my ass good and proper haha but it was a laugh A Blood Elf Hunter (level 10 at the time) with her surrogate big sister Troll Mage (level 80 ofc) missioning it across the Eastern Kingdoms xD
We also (nearly) every week go and give Thekal and his Zealots a kicking, then mosey on over to Modokir and Ohgan to have a picnic We're yet to see the mounts drop ofc but we'll keep trying We also went into the Edge of Madness to get the 3rd part of the quest for Nich - he's after the trinket ([link]) ^^ Hopefully we'll be able to summon Wushoolay today to get the 4th piece for him - ANYWAYS Sunday's utter madness suggested by me was to 2 man Flame Leviathan 10 man, we'd joked that Nich needed new tanking bracers and FL drops them, so why not try and get them? xD Here's the Youtube Vid ([link]), recorded from Nich's PoV - you can see me getting flung onto FL occassionally xD The pair of us edited it together and chose the music... Man oh man it's really hard to choose music that fits (Woot a semi-artistic project complete! lol) It was loads of fun and only took 9 tries, we are planning to do 1-2 towers possibly 3 depending on the additional mechanics that puts into the fight but 2manning the 25man version is on the list too xD

I have also been working on Ryvarda :S I have planned an enormous redux of the 2 main species and I have 4 other confirmed species (now known as races) that I intend to add. The 4 others will probably not be available for RP'ing (I may change my mind on this) - the main purpose of the redux is to establish a story and give me basis for the comic. Yush there will be a comic - I'm in the process of storyboarding now, once the bones are established I will be putting it up on a website (any suggestions?) I don't really want to create a new Deviant ART account for the comic but I can see how it would be easier to manage if I did >.< So I'm a bit stumped as to where the Ryvarda Comic will live - but trust me, it's being done All the new information will be added to this account and don't worry all the existing characters are still valid - all will be explained

I still have at least 1 trade to finish, I lost the save file for it and so I've had to try and redo it from the screenshots/printscreens I had to show previously It's fast turning into one of those drawings that plague you from the very first line I may scrap it and redo it entirely to be honest. Lame as that sounds :/

So - wow - wall of text xD I'll leave you with that lot for now hehe, hope you are all well and enjoying your various projects and life is being kind to you <3

Be safe