Today’s post is a shoutout to Lanjelin’s Signature Generator. Now, through the years, there have been a lot of WoW signature generators out there. Many of these promised all sorts of shiny things like huge amounts of customization and automatic updating and then failed to deliver. Heck, I have some of these “automatic updating” banners bookmarked that still say I’m level 70 and spec’d 41/20/0.

So I gave up on signatures for a while, figuring they weren’t really worth the trouble of upkeep, but then I stumbled across Lanjelin’s Signature Generator, which is perfect for alt-o-holics or people who just want something simple. Check it out:

Isn’t that cool? It gets right down to business and tells you the race/class/level of my active characters that I want it to display.

The best part is that Lanjelin is active with it; I submitted a bug recently and it was fixed within a couple of hours. In addition, we had a very nice e-mail exchange.

So if you have billions of characters and want a nice compact way to display them, go check it out :3

Edit:

I got some feedback from Lanjelin on Monday, December 6:

“Thanks for the positive feedback, glad you like my signature generator.

Got some bad news about it though, Blizzard have decided to release a new version of Armory, on a new server/address with everything completely rewritten.

As for now, they haven’t released a way for 3rd-party sites to fetch data from Armory, so my signature generator is currently not able to update/add any characters.

I even made it ready for Cataclysm races, when I get this thrown in my face.

Hope to get it back up & running as soon as possible.”

In celebration of the new Moonkin Hatchling pet I have created these two avatars, free for all to use!

It is surprisingly difficult to take something that is already insanely cute and make it even cuter, but these will have to do!

You are free to use these on Twitter, Gravatar, forums, LiveJournal or wherever else. I would appreciate a comment linking to me if you LJ these, but otherwise just credit me if you are asked and it will all be good!

You can also modify these in any way you wish, so feel free to personalize.

Happy Tuesday/Merry (Early) Christmas! <3

I have been slowly (slowly) meandering my way across Azeroth inbetweeen work and NaNoWriMo and other things, and yesterday I wound up in Darkshore, specifically, the ruins of Auberdine.

The whole town is recognizable, but completely wrecked. Familiar NPCs lie dead on the ground, the flight master and her hippogryphs among them. Bridges and buildings are smashed and this super depressing music plays and among the wreckage are these level 15-ish elementals drifting around, and my first thought upon seeing this scene was “REVENGE” and I had this sudden urge to go around and kill. all. the. elementals. for doing this to this town that was so much a part of my WoW past.

But I restrained the urge, because then I thought… that’s silly, right? It’s just a game… right?

So I sort of paused there in the middle of the destroyed town while I went AFK for a moment, and when I came back I wasn’t alone. There was another level 80 Night Elf Hunter there staring at me. She /greeted me, so I /saluted.

Then she turned around, and promptly began destroying every single blasted elemental in the town.

So I joined her.

It felt good.

As usual I have the best readers. I mention offhandedly in a post that I can’t afford Cataclysm and the next thing I know I have enough money to cover it a few times over. So at this point, not only can I snag Cata and some WoW cards, but I can buy WoW time for my younger siblings, too, as their Christmas present. Awesome! <3

So the world went kablooey the other day, as I'm sure we're all aware. I haven't had much of a chance to survey all the damage yet but I did run around and snag a bunch of new pets in an effort to stave off my gnawing desire to roll and level a gnome priest as my way to see the world (I want to give it a few days until the starting areas are a little less congested).

But hey, Fox Mulder is already level 80!

Now taking suggestions on what I should tame for a Scully.

I want to thank the huge response my art commissions announcement got. It was so huge, in fact, that it warrants this second announcement, which is basically to say that if you are still waiting on your art, don’t worry, you’re in a queue.

You guys are lifesavers though, really.

In further good news I have secured myself a job… it’s part time, and seasonal, and a long drive away, but it’s something and I’m desperately hoping that it will turn into something more stable.

For being my faithful readers who have been here through thick and thin, you deserve nothing less than the truth, and the truth is as such: my personal life has been in pretty dire straights for about a year now. I won’t go into excruciating detail but suffice to say that anytime things start to pick up, they immediately take a nosedive again. Over the course of the last year, I’ve lost my apartment, lost my job, had to move to a remote corner of the world far from all my friends, watched my family fall apart, and been slammed with medical bills that I cannot pay. Really the only stability I’ve had, aside from the glorious escapism of writing, has been my online friends, including World of Warcraft and the various social networks I’ve made there, the blogging and Twitter community in particular.

I’m telling you all of this partly so you know what’s going on, and partly to explain the constant yo-yo “I’m hiatusing! I’m back for good! I’m not back for good!” etc. that has been happening here over the last several months.

And I’ll come right out and say it: I probably can’t afford Cataclysm. That’s fine; World of Warcraft is the first thing to get dropped in the priority queue any time crap hits the fan (which has been happening a lot lately) which is why I’ve been a dedicated “weekend casual” for a while now. I can scrape up enough for month-long subscriptions every now and again and I look forward to leveling a gnome priest and probably a tauren… paladin, I’m thinking. And so long as I am doing that, I will continue to blog as I can. I can’t guarantee a set schedule or theme, but I’ll still be posting. Not just for you guys, but for me. Because I love doing this.

Welp, that’s that. Much love for all, and see you when the world explodes <3

Three years ago I tamed the Teal Kitty. I wanted the teal kitty ever since I set eyes on it, since teal is and always has been my favorite color. There were two, Shy’Rotam, summonable via a quest (back then, only available for Horde only)… and Rak’Shiri.

I tamed Rak’Shiri in a leper gnome costume at 4:30am. I wasn’t even level 60 yet. Immediately I loved him to pieces. I named him Locke, a bit of an in-joke since, like Hobbes, Locke was originally a 17th century philosopher. And so Locke was my fangirly tribute to BRK.

Locke and I did everything together. We learned how to do instances. (Pretty sure he wiped Dire Maul once when I forgot to dismiss him and jumped down a ledge.) We learned how to do heroics. He was my Karazhan pet. He became very well-known (and well-liked) in my guild. We had dozens of in-jokes with him. Doing one Heroic Mech run we joked that he didn’t like me anymore and was running off to replace Pathaleon the Calculator and become the new final boss. We joked about him being the Sacrifice Bot on those land mines in Heroic Blood Furnace. Guildies drew pictures of him with a top hat and monocle. Blog readers have sent me fan-art of him.

Once Wrath of the Lich King hit, Locke accompanied me to level 80 and came with me to early heroics and Naxx runs. It was about this time that I decided to re-tame Wash, a pet I’d loved and lost from early on (pre-Locke), and Wash became my new full-time companion. But I never forgot Locke. How could I? He’s just as much a part of Tawyn as Wash is. He still sits faithfully in my stable and I take him out to romp around sometimes.

He likes to dance.

Well, you see, today I found out that everything is changing in Cataclsym, and Rak’Shiri is turning into a white tiger. The change is retro-active, so all tamed Rak’Shiris will be turning into the white tiger. (The other teal tiger, Shy’Rotam, is safe.)

I… guys…

I know this is silly and weepy and utterly irrational of me, since really it’s a big block of pixels. But I like my Locke the way he is. And I don’t want him to change.

To those who say “Just go tame Shy’Rotam”: It won’t be the same kitty. Not the “new last boss of Heroic Mech”. Not the kitty that went with me to Karazhan week after week.

To those who say “The white kitty is still a pretty cool skin because they’re getting a sabre’toothed model now”: Yes, but it’s not my favorite color. It’s not the reason why I wanted Rak’Shiri.

My Teal Kitty and I have been through thick and thin for three years. Will I still love him when he changes color? Yeah. I’m sure I can wrangle up some sort of weird RP reason for it. Maybe.

But I’m still sad. =(

So I was feeling pretty happy about hitting 20k words (exactly!) in my NaNoWriMo today so I decided to dink around in WoW for an hour or two.

The first cool thing that happened was getting WSG for my random battleground, seeing that our ragtag group of team members was up against a pre-made, deciding to stick around anyway… aaaand then notching up a win. Against the pre-made. I giggled.

The second cool thing that happened was that I decided to clear out my quest log before Cataclysm so I was doing this random quest down in Howling Fjord and I happened to stumble upon this huge gigantic elite polar bear as part of the quest. So obviously I tamed him.

So there I was, doing pretty good for a random WoW break, so I hopped onto my Netherdrake and sort of aimlessly started to fly around in a general Northerly direction. I had the music on (which is rare) and it was nice and calm and atmospheric and I was kind of thinking about the good times I’d enjoyed with this expansion and how it was almost over.

And this is when the third cool thing happened. See, I somehow wound up in Zul’drak during this little jaunt, and a little voice popped into my brain. The little voice said, “Hey, isn’t there a spirit beast around here or something?”

And I said, “Hey, I think there is! Let’s turn on Track Beasts for the heck of it.”

So I turned on Track Beasts.

And the second I did, this little yellow dot appeared on my minimap.

I moused over it and it said “Gondria”.

>.>

…

This is, believe it or not, my very first Spirit Beast. I know Gondria is sort of seen as the Poor Man’s Loque, but I’m already in love with my Shiny Ghost Kitty who, because of his heal, has already proven himself to live through things that would have killed any of my other pets. (Read: the last boss in Gundrak who does that thing, I’m not sure what it is, that KILLS PETS DEAD.)

I had to release my newly-tamed polar bear to get Gondria. But don’t worry. I went back and got the same bear again afterwards. :3

Over the last three and a half years I have sent three hunters and two druids through this portal but this is my first warlock.

Obviously the ceremonial screenshot had to happen.

I love how Tawbree is as big as Lil’ XT.

Now my favorite part about going through the Dark Portal is the hugely scary Pit Commander on the other side, because it makes me stop and go “whoa” every time. So I charged in, eager to be reunited with my big scary friend again, aaaaand he was dead. Guess that says something about the state of the Outlands these days. Good times…

As we are all aware, the best part of the new patch for hunters is being able to tame about a million more pets. Hunters have collectively been dreaming of this day since the stable could only hold three pets, and now it is finally ours.

…granted, even though I have multiple hunters, two of which are at max level and one of which is relatively close to it, I’ve only tamed three new pets so far. Hey, you’ve gotta spread out the goodness.

Tawyn went out and tamed the devilsaur in Netherstorm and named him Roxton (Cookie Points– much better than Brownie Points– for anyone who gets the name before seeing this link.)

Meanwhile, Lunapike went and got herself a corehound. Specifically, the one from the draenei starting area. I heard some rumor somewhere that Horde wouldn’t be able to tame it anymore once the world changes due to the boat being replaced with an Alliance-only flight point or something, and while I don’t know if the rumor is true (you’d think that would throw a wrench in the Explorer achievement, afterall), I wanted to cover all my bases just in case.

So this is Tock. He is a Watch Dog. (Raise your hand if you read The Phantom Tollbooth when you were a kid.)

Finally, Lunapike’s also tamed a raptor. For starters, raptors are basically my favorite pet family EVAR. Secondly, it had to be done in response to Krizzly’s Mudkip:

u mad?

Interested in having your very own customized World of WarCute avatar? (aka, a cute-ification of your character? Or pretty much anything else, for that matter?)

You know, somethin’ like this:

Well, here’s the deal. For those not in the know, I recently moved out of state due to a long and convoluted series of events that was mostly out of my hands. I had to (reluctantly) give up my job, and I have had no luck finding a new one thus far.

Aaaaand I’m super broke.

SO!

I am now offering World of WarCute avatars for $6 USD a piece, which is cheaper than their previous price of $10. You may ask why I’m lowering the price– well, I’m hoping that potentially being able to lure in more customers this way (or get orders for multiple avatars) will ultimately be more profitable. Who knows though, I’m not a finance major. (Actually I majored in filmmaking. Hence why I’m broke. Woo!)

If (and notice the italics) you are feeling kind then you are welcome to toss in a tip with your $6 order. But I’m not gonna be like those Trade Chat people who say “tips optional” and then demand a tip. I promise.

HOW TO ORDER!:

Short answer: you’ll e-mail PikestaffArt [at] gmail with screenshots and instructions on how your want your character to appear, background, any pets you want included, etc. Then when I finish your avatar, I inform you, you toss me the money via PayPal, and the avatar is yours!

Long answer: Detailed instructions are located on this page– definitely worth a read through!

To All: Thank you as always for being readers here. It never ceases to amaze me that for some reason people like to listen to me ramble about crap. It further amazes me that I still had readers after hiatus’ing rather abruptly a while back. Thank you all for your continued support! <3