What a day.

I woke up this morning thinking it was just going to be another Monday. I was going to go to school and while I generally dislike Mondays, I was ambivalent about this one since it didn’t seem as bad as others (especially since I woke up to news that I had won some tea!). I could not have been more wrong.

I drove to my weight loss place as usual and while I was waiting there to be weighed, I decided to check out  Twitter. What I saw changed the mood of my day.

If you aren’t aware, about 2:50pm Eastern Time, there were a few explosions at the Boston Marathon’s finish line as well as other places around Boston. I’ve read some news but  I don’t want to say anything for sure since there’s still investigations going on. I am not sure if we will know for sure what happened today. All I know is there were explosions, people were hurt and 2 or 3 people were killed.

This rocked me to my core today. The biggest reason was that I have many friends there and I was there about 3 weeks ago for PAX. However, once my friends assured me that they and their friends were safe, I still couldn’t relax. I was (and still am) really upset about this. It took me a little while to put my finger on but I finally figured out why. It wasn’t just that I had an emotional attachment to the place (I had an awesome time, but I’ll blog about that later), it was the fact that if this had happened 3 weeks earlier, I would have been there. My friends would have been there. Many others from the geek/gaming/etc community would have been there. I was not the only one who thought this way, either. A couple of my friends expressed this as well..

The point is, this could have happened at any time. It could have happened anywhere. I don’t mean to trivialize the bombing today. Absolutely not. I also felt a bit guilty for thinking along these lines and felt like I was turning this into something about me and my friends. I feel like it’s so much bigger than that, though.

I won’t go into it too much (although I imagined writing a lot about my feelings on it). Maybe I’ll save that for another time.

Two other things that weren’t as bad as Boston getting bombed, but still were not good things, happened today. I found out my counselor at the weight loss place is leaving (she’s the one I bought Wonder Woman socks for when in Boston) and one of my friend’s dad’s died suddenly today (not in Boston, in CA). My heart goes out to my friend because while I never met her dad, I had interacted with him on Facebook and I had hoped to meet him one day.  He was a really wonderful individual and the world is a darker place without him. Such an inspiring man.

The counselor thing I will get over but I’m still bummed since I get along with her so well. I gave her my email and cell number so she can keep in touch and maybe now we can actually  hang out together since she isn’t working for that place.

So yeah, today was pretty awful but tomorrow should be better, right? Right. I’m going to make the most of my life and not let this get me down too much. It’s just hard when it all compounds on you a t once.

Hopefully, I will have another blog post soon. I’m sorry they are so few and far between. I have been  rather busy as of late with school and other things (some of which some know about but I want to make an announcement about something else as well). Hopefully this will pick up a bit more in the summer when I’m a little less busy.

Until then, hug someone and tell them you love them, even if it’s a random person. I think today we could all  use a little random act of kindness like that.

 

PAX East!

Yes, I will be at PAX East this March. Not sure what I’ll be wearing yet so you can’t stalk me. I’m probably going to be hanging out with people from the Twitter guild mostly. It’s not all set in stone, though.

I’m really looking forward to this since I’ve never been to any kind of convention before (unless you count Stitches West haha). I can’t wait to be with my people I don’t get to hang out with a lot of truly geeky people very often so this is going to be quite an awesome experience for me.

Also, cosplay. Holy crap, the cosplay. I will have to remember to empty the pics on my phone because I’m going to get A LOT of pictures of  the cosplay. It’s such an(a) obsession addiction love of mine. I can’t wait to see some in person and get to talk to cosplayers. I’ve always wanted to do my own cosplay, but I have no money to do it or to go to the conventions usually.

Anyway, that’s where I’ll be for a weekend in March. I’m super excited about getting to meet some of my internet buddies! It’s going to be a blast! Hope to see some of you other guys there too!

 

It’s ALIIIIIVEEEE!

I’m still here. I’ve just been busy…playing. Heh. 

I had to planned to write a ton but school tends to suck the life out of me (and all my writing motivation). 

Also, I’m completely addicted to Guild Wars 2. The game is phenomenal. It does have bugs and there are things I don’t agree with or things that could be improved, but overall, I feel like this game is absolutely fantastic. Bugs and all. It’s the best MMO I have ever played. 

A small recap of what I’ve accomplished in the past 6 months:

• Three level 80 characters: Ranger, Warrior, Necromancer
• One level 47 elementalist (SO much fun!!!)
• 6/8 crafting professions maxed (working on a 7th, I’m at 300 something, need more mithril ore!)
• 99% world completion (I just need a little more in Eternal Battlegrounds)

 

Yeah…I have no life. Also, totally addicted. I’m having a blast! 

I’m going to rethink what I’m going to do with this blog. I was planning on doing some guides but I’ve actually found better guides out there that I could ever write, especially for crafting. 

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do yet, but I’ll figure it out eventually. I’ll try to keep up on this blog a little more, but I can’t make any promises. I’ve actually started another blog since I am trying to lose weight. I’m starting to think I’m slightly insane hahaha. 

So that’s an update with me. I hope you all are fine and enjoying the game. I do have a couple of exciting announcements so stay tuned for those when they come up. 

 

And the world keeps turning…

Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve gone on hiatus unexpectedly. School started, GW2 launched, and I got lost in both! Plus, I had something rather unexpected happen to me.

It’s going to be a little bit serious, so if you’re not into the seriousness and want to preserve the fun, enthusiastic image you have of me, feel free to skip this post.

So I’ve recently had a bout of depression that lasted a little longer than I wanted it to and went a little darker than it has in the past. A lot of times we don’t think that there are real people behind the avatars so it’s odd for us to talk so freely about stuff like this. I understand this subject can be a little touchy, but I’m going to tackle it head on, like I always do.

My depression went to some pretty dark places, darker than I’m really used to and I’m rather surprised it went there. The only thing that really kept me from going completely under was Guild Wars 2. All I have been doing for the past week or so is playing GW2 and going to school (when I’m not sick enough where I can’t drive). I’ve done some stuff like watch TV and go online, but I haven’t felt the motivation to do much more than that. Blogging, moderating, etc. has all been out of the question.

Until Tuesday. What changed? I went to my intercultural class with my blue haired, gay instructor. At first, I wasn’t going to go. Then, I wasn’t going to participate. By the end of the class, it felt like a huge fog had lifted from me and I felt a lot better. I already sent him an email about it.

Anyway, I feel 100% better! I feel like my old self again and I went to class with no problems today. I’ve been more active on Twitter, and I think I’m ready to jump right back into moderating as well as writing.

I’d like to take the time, though, to encourage anyone who is dealing with depression to reach out to someone. Me, someone in Guild Wars, anyone. You don’t have to do this alone. I know it’s hard. I was just about to reach out to someone yesterday (tues) when I went to class and that did the trick. If that hadn’t, one of my friends on Twitter would have gotten a DM from me.

Please, please, please don’t fight alone. You don’t have to. Sometimes it feels like you are all alone and no one could possibly care about you or love you. There is at least one person that cares and will listen to you and that’s me. Heck, I’d even give you a hug if I could. Just don’t go it alone. As one of my favorite bloggers, The Bloggess says, “Depression is a lying bastard”. I know it’s hard to believe this when you are going through it, but it will get better. If you need someone to talk to, I’m definitely here for you.

All that being said, I am much better now. I will get back to my regularly scheduled posts. Hopefully I will have one this weekend. I have kind of a lot to cover since the launch. Forgive me for not being on top of all of it, but I don’t ever intend this to be a news site. I figure there are enough of those out there. This is strictly my experiences. I also have a ton of screenshots to go through.

I’m not even joking about that. I’ve filled up my screenshot folder 3 times now. I’m about 700 screenshots into 4 times. If you know how many screenshots you can hold in one folder, it’s 999. Yup. I have around 3700 screenshots. Granted, the first folder is all from the beta weekends and stress tests (for the most part). It’s a tad bit overwhelming. I’ll slog through them, though, because I love you that much. Expect a post this weekend!

 

We have winners!

So I’ve gone through and I have chosen my winners.

For the Charr plushie’s name, I really liked Blaze von Blunderbuss of the Iron Legion. So congratz Pitrelli!

For where you want to live in Tyria, I really loved Spiroac’s idea of the Maguuma Jungle.

So there you go! Another contest done! You can reply here if you want, but I will be contacting the winners by email to arrange a time and place to pick up their goodies.

Thank you all so much for participating. I had a great time getting to know where you would live in Tyria. I look forward to seeing some of you there in game!

 

Blaze von Blunderbuss on his pillow of doom.

 

The future of Centaur’s Satchel

So some might be curious where I am planning to take this blog after launch. It started as a Guild Wars 1 blog and back when it started, it was mostly guides and events.

So what I am going to do with this blog in Guild Wars 2, you ask?

Well probably similar things. I’ll cover events that the GWEN (Gaming World Entertainment Network) crew put out. I might do guides, but there are so many out there, that it’s probably not worth it. I’ll see what happens. If people would be interested in reading them from me, then sure, I’ll do some. They take a long time to put together (especially the way I do them w/ lots of screenshots) and it might be more worthwhile to do something else with my time.

Another idea I had was to do kind of an adventuring thing. I will take screenshots and write about my travels through Tyria..kind of like a journal type thing. It won’t really be roleplaying, but maybe a little bit of that type of element to it. I’m not 100% sure on this concept yet, but it seems like fun. One of my favorite things to do in the game is explore and the game is absolutely GORGEOUS. I already have a whole entire folder of screenshots (and then some) and the game hasn’t even launched yet haha. I’m a little screenshot crazy

I will also definitely be doing more contests for in game stuff. It will just be GW2 from now on. I’ll have to wait til I build up a good surplus of goodies, though so this might take a while to get rolling.

So there it is. Those are my plans for the future of this blog. We’ll see where it goes I hope you all will stick around for it, it should be an exciting ride!

 

Odds and Ends

Hey all!

Sorry the posts are few and far between. I hope to pick up on that soon but we’ll see. I’ve been busy because school is starting soon and I just haven’t had a whole lot of motivation lately to do anything. Plus, I don’t really have much to write about since Guild Wars 2 isn’t out yet and I don’t really plan on making this a news site. I figure if you want news, you’ll find it. Not really any sense in repeating it over and over again.

Anyway, I’ve been up to some fun things this weekend. I was on a podcast on Sunday (yesterday) and to find more information you can go here: http://ascendantsofascalon.wordpress.com/ That is their blog. To find the actual podcast which I was on, you will have to find it on iTunes or Stitcher. It’s called Ascendants Of Ascalon and from what I can see, it’s not quite up yet. It should be up shortly, though. A word of warning, however, there is some swearing. They are not afraid to let an F Bomb drop. I don’t actually swear but I do compare WoW fans to the Nightmare Court (in jest, I don’t think they’re evil). Plus I needed a good analogy for what they were talking about and that just popped into my head at the moment.

It was my first podcast and it was a lot of fun. I was definitely invited back and I might take them up on that invitation. For the record, though, they said anyone who is interested can join. All you have to have is mic, a sense of humor, and a skype account. Oh and something interesting to say never hurts either.

Also, and this is not really new, I have a Facebook page. I know some people are iffy about Facebook, but if you want updates there instead of Twitter or the reader, then there you go. I also post links from GW2 there as well. I haven’t been very active because I don’t have a lot of followers but if I get more *hint* *hint* I will be more inclined to blabber all over the place. Actually I do most blabbering on Twitter. My 26,000 tweets can attest to that. You can find that here: https://www.facebook.com/CentaursSatchel

There is also a stress test tomorrow. I will be on there since it’s my last day of freedom before school starts (I start Wednesday). You can find me on Jade Quarry if you’re interested. I’ll be playing my Charr Elementalist Firerrar (I think that’s how it’s spelled). I will also be on Jade Quarry at launch with my Twitter guild.

That about wraps it up. I just wanted to let you all know that I’m still around. Just kind of busy getting ready for school and the launch of Guild Wars 2. I’ll write a blog about my plans for that later. I don’t want to spam people too much.

Oh also, the contest is still going on. It will be going on til Sunday so if you haven’t entered or know someone who could use a little help in GW1, feel free to share that around.