Good Times in Middle Earth and Hammertime in the Valley

First off let me say I think I finally found a theme I like for the blog, I shouldn’t be changing it again for a while now..

Well, let me see where to start, oh yes, picture this…fornost, Friday night, I get invited to by a kinmate for a fornost run, which I have attempted twice before but never finished due to the time needed to finish the place and also because it was too difficult for the fellowships I was with to complete.  But, here is where it gets a little shady…the leader of the fellowship is a level 32 captain, which myself playing a level 44 captain could appreciate, but then we also had a level 50 guardian, who by the will of all that is the best guardian I have ever seen play the game.  Not only did he hold the aggro, he knew the instance like he owned the damn place.  So, the rest of our fellowship was comprised of a Burglar, Champion and Hunter, not a bad combination, but where is the Minstrel?  I was leery of that from the beginning of the run, but after tackling 2 of the 4 bosses with only one death I knew we had a chance to finish the place.  The only hiccup we had was once when we were standing on the ledge over looking the mobs below I accidentally autotargeted and ran toward a mob, falling of the edge and dying…but our guardian kept it together and made his way down to escort me back to safety…since that time I have disabled auto move toward next target…not sure why I ever used it to begin with…

That was Friday night, killing the final boss in Fornost, finally, after months of trying, well not really, but it was nice to complete those quests I have never done before.  Saturday came and I found myself wanting some Enemy Territory: Quake Wars action, so I fired up the demo and decided to try out the Strogg once again, it is fun playing defense for a change, seems like the GDF are always outnumbered, at least on the servers I play on…I like the differences in the races and the game overall is very entertaining, especially when you play against worthy opponents.  I figured out how the destroy the sewer gate, and basically how to win the game on the GDF side, I like to switch classes throughout the battle to help out our team.  I guess my only complaint is how the rank you achieve only stays with you for the duration of the 3 rounds…I think the highest I reached was rank 13 playing the strogg, it was a long fight, I managed to call in a defense turret right at the exit of the tunnel and then I got the jet pack and stood on the top of the tunnel exit throwing down bombs…eventually someone on the GDF called in a hammer bomb, which obliterated myself and the turret…I love the sheer size of the explosions and the sound is speaker rattling as well.

Sunday some of my kinmates and myself decided to team up and grind our reputation in Evendim by gathering the sashes off of the tomb robbers, it will take a while to get your reputation up to get anything worthwhile…and I don’t even know for certain what the rewards are for having a high reputation with any of the factions…I’m sure there are resources out there to find that information, but I am feeling lazy today.

Someone asked me yesterday how I like Lord of the Rings Online compared to World of Warcraft and I said it isn’t fair to compare the two games really in my opinion because both are great games and each of them gives me different levels of happiness from an entertaining perspective.  I can’t say I will never play WoW again, but as for now I am happy waging my war against Saron in the vastness of Middle Earth.

AnnualCreditReport.com The Real Free Credit Report Website

I was lucky enough to not fall for the trap laid out so smoothly by the website, freecreditreport.com and I happen to read an article in Consumer Reports (while at my mothers house) telling me to go to annualcreditreport.com to get a free copy of my credit report off of all three agencies, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax.

I read an article on the web which I will share with you here:

There’s nothing free about FreeCreditReport.com. Like so many other come-ons you hear on late-night TV, you just can’t trust that word “free.”

I’ll explain the Web site’s misleading advertisements in a moment, but first, here’s what you really need to know: When you want to see your credit report, you want to use AnnualCreditReport.com. There, you can actually get your credit report for free. Congress gave you the right to see your report every year for free, so there’s no reason to visit any pay sites – like FreeCreditReport.com – to plunk down money for it.

In fact, this month marks the one-year anniversary of the liberation of your credit report by Congress. In September 2005, every consumer in America was granted the right to obtain a free copy of his or her credit report every year.

If you obtained your free credit report at this time last year, here’s a reminder that you can get a fresh version now at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Also one year ago, credit bureau Experian was also slapped on the wrist by the Federal Trade Commission for misleading consumers at its FreeCreditReport.com Web site. The FTC said Experian didn’t make clear to consumers that they would be charged $79 for an annual subscription after they signed up at FreeCreditReport.com.

What the FTC didn’t say (but was abundantly clear to anyone with a brain) was that FreeCreditReport.com and Experian were benefiting from confusion over news stories telling consumers were entitled to a free copy of their credit report every year. And the site was designed to add to the confusion.

While not admitting wrongdoing, Experian agreed last August to give consumers refunds and make the terms of its product clearer. One year later, how is the company doing? The television ads are as misleading as ever. On the other hand, the Web site itself is improved, with a disclaimer featured fairly prominently. But it would be a stretch to say the terms are clear, the price is clear and consumers are being treated fairly.

Source:MSNBC.com

Also, being a listener to Dave Ramsey he suggested since you can choose which of the three credit report bureaus you want to use it would be good to split it up every 4 months, that way you can track your report on a more regular basis and not worry about identity theft or fraud being done to your name.

Also, lifelock is a service that provides protection against identity theft, but in reality, all they do is put fraud alerts through the credit bureaus which basically means you will get a phone call if someone tries get credit approved in your name (what they don’t tell you is this service is actually free) but I guess what you are actually paying for is the renewal of the fraud alert.  Another thing they do for you is request you be removed from any future junk mail lists, which is also free if you go to annualcreditreport.com.

To me, these are just another example of someone finding an opportunity to make some money of the ignorance of the masses.  Who if not informed, would not think twice about paying someone to do what is actually free if you know the right place to go…

Buy Gold Lord of the Rings Online

No, I do not advocate the purchasing of digital money for real money nor do I condone what the gold farmers do, but there is more to the subject than just the annoying spam tells and mail, this is a multi-million dollar operation with many of the companies employing people from China…I have read quite a bit about this and here are my thoughts…

First off, I did a search in google and here are a few links talking about the subject of gold farmers…

Results 1 – 10 of about 2,050,000 for buy gold lord of the rings online.

That is insane by itself…but if you think about it this is just a snapshot of a major operation.  My first thought is well these companies wouldn’t be in business if gamers stopped buying the gold.  But we all know that will never happen because there are thousands of people with money to waste on making their character(s) richer and better equipped…to me it is a form of cheating…but of course that brings up the ethical debate which I will leave you to decide over for yourself.

Me personally, have I ever bought gold?  I regretfully have to be honest and say yes, I did back in the early days of playing World of Warcraft.  I guess it was at around level 40 with my first toon and I was nowhere near having enough gold for my mount…so the temptation took over and got out the old credit card and compared a few sites for prices and bought 100 gold…can’t remember what I paid, but I know now it was a waste…  So before I get flamed for bashing something I have done myself, let me say I am trying to view this in an objective point of view and presenting some facts here for you to see the bigger picture.

Here are some links on the subject:

Gold Farmers on the Web - Article in the New York Times

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001493.php - The Daedalus Project: ongoing study of the psychology of MMORPG’s

http://playnoevil.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1616-Proxy-Products-for-Gold-Farmers-and-RMT-in-Blizzards-World-of-Warcraft.html - Play No Evil article about gold farming and WoW

After reading each through a lot of information it is like as if you have to verify the transfer of gold between characters is legitimate…which would be near impossible with the amount of transactions in any given day or hour for that matter…

What are some of your thoughts, ideas, solutions to this quandary?

World Alzheimer’s Day Friday September 21

I normally wouldn’t post this here, but this is very important to me with my Grandmother passing this year, she had this terrible disease and lived the last 12 years not knowing who she was or anyone else around her.  I appreciate you taking the time to read this. You can find my donation site here–

 

Sept. 21 is World Alzheimer’s Day, when Alzheimer’s Association advocates around the globe concentrate their efforts on raising Alzheimer awareness.

The Harrah’s Foundation is recognizing the historic importance of World Alzheimer’s Day by giving the Alzheimer’s Association a generous $1,000,000 challenge grant. Your gift of $35 to the Alzheimer’s Association during this Matching Gift Challenge will double in value and become $70… $50 will become $100! In fact…

 Any amount you send by Sept. 21 will be worth twice as much to advance Alzheimer research and provide enhanced care and support for the more than 5 million Americans and their families affected by this disease!

Memory Walk 2007 Sean Risner

THANK YOU!!

International Talk like a Pirate Day September 19

It’s that time once again friends…avast me mateys, it is upon us…shiver me timbers and ARRRR!!!!!

A few of my favorite lines…Pardon me, but would ya mind if fired me cannon through your porthole?

How’d you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?

Ya know, darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free.

Well blow me down?

Prepare to be boarded.

Surely you too would love to talk like a pirate…check out the official site–

Talk Like A Pirate Day