The Amateur Crafter

A Man Without a Cause, a Shop Without a Worker, or Maybe a Worker Without a Shop

I am a machinist, a (former) vehicle mechanic, and a shop teacher. I’ve practically lived nearly my entire adult life in a shop of some sort. Academically, I’ve been attending school for some degree or certificate nearly every year either full-time or part-time since I left the U.S. Air Force in 1998. I’ve sacrificed several of the earliest adult years of my life to serving my country in parts of the world that I grew to hate (not anymore but I would be dishonest if I said that I never hated my time in Saudi Arabia – topic for another blog article I suppose). I’ve studied very hard going to school full-time while working full-time, at the risk of my own health, trying to complete a degree in order to hopefully have a better chance at success. And I’ve dutifully assisted people as students that I still feel to this day aren't worth the time and effort to work up a good spit on much less try to teach a set of trade skills to. It seems as if I’ve constantly been fulfilling my responsibilities to some unit, institution, or organization for a higher cause that I’ve always felt duty-bound to support.

Am I being a bit pissy? Yep. And I’m tired of doing so much for others and not enough for myself. Yeah, this is going to be about me. I’ll admit that this probably paints a very bad picture of me as being selfish. I’m not going to lie. I’m might be getting that way. Mama’s little boy right here is getting tired of the boiled squash and he’s ready for some pie. Don’t get me wrong. I like squash, when it’s properly battered and deep fat fried. Fuck boiled squash. I want something more. Something selfish. Something that screams, “This is entirely for me here. I fully intend to enjoy it!” And I gotta say, it’s about damn time.

Over the past several months I’ve been getting extremely restless. Hurried. Irritable. Kind of like dealing with a spell of diarrhea. Maybe it was my ongoing and seemingly never-ending studies in grad school. On that note, it could very well have been having to write yet another paper on yet another article, lecture, research topic or whatever, for yet another professor what’s-his-name and report yet again on how much I learned from doctor dood-da-ma-phloj-gee and his/her ongoing and vitally important research. Maybe it was some of the people where I teach that just don’t seem to get it. You know, those types that constantly whine about how bad they’ve got it and he/she doesn’t work half as much as some of the laziest students in class? Maybe it’s because I’m approaching that “middle age” bit in life where we’re all supposedly going to have some sort of mid-life crisis and I’ll want to overcompensate by purchasing a hot new really expensive sports car (That won’t happen). Or it could be a combination of several factors that just seemed to keep dragging me down physically and emotionally. Whatever the reasons, I came to a realization a few months back, that I’m just not being selfish enough! Hopefully I’m not sounding real bitter. But it’s high time I went well out of my way to do something just for me.

I suppose that nearly everyone has something that he/she wants to do before “it’s too late” or before “I pass away.” I’ve heard people talk about wanting to travel and see famous places. Yeah. Been there, done that, still doing it but it’s really starting to piss me off. Well, technically the airlines, TSA, and bad travelers are the ones pissing me off but still the whole traveling experience is getting on my nerves. I’ve heard people say that they wanted to learn a foreign language just to learn it. Or maybe some people just want to try out that one crazy thing that they would never do such as bungee cord jumping or skydiving. Well, for me, I just want to get back to my shop and craft something. One problem though, I don’t technically have a shop. And while I do have access to the shop at school where I teach, I’m usually too busy doing administration to go out and work in it. Let me just take this opportunity to restate what I’m usually doing – administration. Oh! What glorious fun that can be right? I miss being able to just make something in the shop, just because I wanted to. Just for the challenge of making it. I didn’t care if the project didn’t work as intended. It didn’t even matter if the project was completed or not. Just go out, tinker around, make a mistake or two (hopefully not at the cost of a digit) and learn something.

So, why don’t I just go back into the shop and have fun? Oh right, that whole don’t-really-have-a-shop thing. At some point I realized that I had the space for a small (very small) shop in the basement. I don’t know when I had this eureka moment but it was a revelation. There’s my shop! That’s where I can go and tinker around. It’s a bit small (12’ x 16’ – not excluding the space lost from the furnace and some of the plumbing) but I could make it work! But I had to be careful. I only have so much space to work with. I could only stock a certain amount of equipment in the shop. How can I equip it and be successful? Certainly, professional grade equipment was out of the question. I just don’t have the space for a decent metal turning lathe. And, anyone that’s purchased or been involved with the purchase of a professional machine knows that what you purchase is a machine. No tools. No tool holders. No fixtures. You get A MACHINE and that’s it. So whatever you spend on it, expect to spend a lot more for the extras. Initially, when I started to think about shop design and layout, I was unsure about the purpose of the shop. At first, when I began to research equipment for footprint, cost, and upkeep, I tried to think about its worth. I started to think about going cheap for machines and hopefully they’ll pay for themselves if I could make money off of them. But how could I make money that way if I’m just going to be a hobbyist? This was the wrong approach. I decided to rethink the purpose of the shop and its worth. How do I define its worth? Would worth be defined as the ability to make money from it as if it were a production shop? Would it be more of a service and repair type of shop where I would service some group of clients in perhaps an industrial environment? Would it be more in terms of assets that I could evaluate for the purposes of reselling? Ultimately, what did I want to get out of this shop?

That particular question right there, “What do I want to get out of this shop?” really stumped me. I was genuinely dumbfounded. What the hell do I want to get out of this shop? It had been so long since I invested myself into a project just for me that I had forgotten what it was like to think about what I wanted to get out of it. I actually had to stop and mull this over for a while before I decided (tentatively) on a purpose for the shop. And even though I had some ideas, I realized that eventually just like my blog, its purpose could change. And it did. I thought at first that I would make a shop with maybe small cabinet making, turning, or perhaps fretwork in mind and also a few metal working machines such as a milling machine and a lathe. Eventually though, I had to accept the fact that I didn’t have the space for all of that equipment. However, I did have enough space for pursuing one of my passions, knife making. I’m not a knife maker or even a serious knife collector. I don’t have a massive collection of unusual or highly sought after knives. I may know a bit more about knives than the average consumer. But I still wouldn’t call myself an amateur knife maker. I’ve always enjoyed learning about that process and I’ve always loved seeing the work of various professional custom knife makers. But I’ve never had the opportunity to pursue that as a hobby before. Usually, I never had enough space, or enough money to start a shop of my own. Even approaching it as a frugal hobbyist, one can spend a well over a few thousand dollars in tooling and equipment depending on how much one wants to accomplish within the shop. And to pursue it with greater productivity and easier construction in mind, the price tag for a well-equipped shop can be in the tens of thousands of dollars assuming of course that a facility already exists and is awaiting installation of equipment. If a building must be made, then the price goes up even higher.

I decided that the ultimate purpose of this shop was to allow me a chance at pursuing hobbies for life enrichment. I probably wouldn’t be able to pursue all of the hobbies that I wanted to, but I had enough space where I could pursue several. The reason I want this shop is so that I can learn to: make a knife, or turn a wooden bowl, or build a small wooden cabinet, just because I want to learn how to do these things. It doesn’t matter if I become hugely successful at whatever projects I take on. What matters is that I have the space and hopefully most of the equipment needed to make those projects. There’s no reason that the shop has to “pay for itself” as if this were going to become a business. It simply needs to be properly stocked and maintained. When I figured this out, I understood that I didn’t have to look for the cheapest machine/tools/etc. possible, I just had to find the best materials that will give me the best “bang for my buck.” This could be a low to mid-range consumer grade machine to a very high-end professional grade tool. Whatever the shop needed to fulfill its purpose, that’s what I should invest in. Understanding this opens up the possibilities for stocking good equipment for the shop, albeit at a slower, less financially stinging pace. I finally decided on keeping the purpose of the shop to just those things: knife making, woodturning, and small (very small) cabinetwork. It’s quite likely that I may not have enough space to do all of those but I am going to try and design the shop just for those three purposes. And it doesn’t have to be written in stone. I could very well change one of the purposes of the shop later down the road. So, as of this writing, another purpose behind this blog is to list my ongoing shop adventures. Also, I’ll most likely post some of this on my simple YouTube channel, probably in a lame Windows Movie Maker format. But I’d like to document where I’m starting out with this shop and where I’m going with my projects. I realize that this means I will probably come into conflict with some of the “purists” out there that see what I’m doing and exclaim, “You noob! You shouldn't (insert some description of what I’m doing on a project here) that way! You’re doing it wrong!” Well I’ve actually already encountered some of that on a couple of machine shop forums (despite the fact that I teach this) and just a bit of that on one knife making forum (despite the fact that I want to learn it). I’m sure most of us know someone like that. Everyone probably knows some uber snob with such huge amounts of experience in a particular field that he/she can’t be bothered to properly give constructive (a.k.a. helpful) feedback. But that’s okay. I’ll just write about what I learned from a particular project and move on to another. I’ll just keep writing about particular projects that I’m involved in and whether or not those projects were successful. And by successful, I mean, completed. Done and done. No time constraints. No client. Just a completed project that I wanted to do.

Why exactly are you here?

As an instructor, and I'm sure some can relate to this, I will often join in with my colleagues whenever there is a discussion going on about students, teachers, policies, etc. which will then usually become a long-winded event. Whether it's the quality of the incoming students or lack thereof, or perhaps the questionable competence of a particular instructor, I can cluck with the best of hens in the coop. But sometimes, my fellow colleagues just piss me off.

Once in awhile, I'll use something to remind myself of why I love this profession and/or why there's always opportunities to improve it. Well, sometimes I find that my colleagues need a prodding reminder like this as well. I'm not sure if I do this consciously, but every now and then I'll turn a discussion around in a direction opposite from where it was heading particularly if I begin to see a bit of hypocrisy seeping into the discussion. This is not in an attempt at attacking a personal position of a colleague, rather at an attempt to remind them why they chose the field of education for a career. For example, last summer a student, nearing the end of his last semester in our program, was scraping up spare change for gas money, asking friends and classmates, so he could still come to school. This eventually made its way to me, his instructor and academic adviser. So, I decided to pull a little weight (and with my girth I've got quite a lot of that) and I sought out a position at a local manufacturing company that I thought he would be good at. I referred him to the HR director there and a week later, we was learning how to setup and operate machines and earning a good wage - complete with very nice benefits (especially for private sector employment.) This was a story I had used to derail a conversation about how so many of today's youths are privileged and that they're "living off of the government tit." He reckoned, none of them knew the meaning of hard work. My colleague began to talk like a sound bite from a television add for the GOP. I wasn't trying to disprove what that person was saying. To be fair, the student I'm referring to was a combat veteran (Army) with one term of enlistment completed. But the individual who started this discussion was known for making broad generalizations of large swaths of people; something I try hard to avoid, and sometimes still manage to fail at.

Now, I'm not trying to "toot my own horn" about this, far from it. In fact, this is where I throw a bit of self-doubt into this story, because recently, in a similar discussion as before, I used a similar story to reverse the direction of a conversation with a colleague. But then I started to think deeper on this issue and I realized just how often I see someone struggling in life. Not necessarily just in terms of finances, but a variety of aspects of just life in general. Actually "doubt" isn't the proper word here, anger may be more appropriate. I don't doubt that I try my best and that I'm good at what I do. I don't doubt myself so much to the point that I become indecisive. But whenever I'm alone and in a quiet place, I'll go deep into my thoughts and think back about decisions that I've made where I may have done better, not as a form of self-torture but rather as a mental note for the constantly updating self-guide to my life and profession in case I ever come across a similar situation like that one decision again.

Take, for example, the student with a traumatic brain injury that applied several semesters ago to our program - a machine shop program. By law, no one can deny that individual a chance at an education in the machine shop if he is able to meet the physical demands of the trade. But regardless of the law, I strongly believe that everyone should have a chance at improving their education. It's actually part of my educational philosophy. I saw no reason to make an exception with this person. Who cares that he has an educable disability? I welcomed this person into the program with open arms and fellow colleague's snickers behind my back, something I've not forgotten. I welcomed the challenge that this student will give us and looked forward to the experience. One semester later, he was almost in tears after we met with him and the special needs coordinator for the last time to tell him that he's out of the program. I was nearly too heartbroken to inform him that he is just too dangerous in this trade for his own good. Note: his injuries affected his retention and recall abilities and information he learned the day before simply would not stick in his mind, at least not with the limited amount of repetition he could get from our courses. He needed much more than our courses could provide. One thing this student had that I'll always admire him for, determination. If I could have given him an "A" just for his effort, I would have. If there was a grade higher than an "A" in a class based on effort, he would be at the top of his class. He just had it in his mind that he was going to earn a certificate as a regular student and not seek vocational rehabilitation. The same semester, the following year, that student was graduating a with a certificate in an automotive customer service program. He now works for a local dealership in their customer service department.

Being so eager to welcome that student in the program may or may not have been a bit of naivety on my part. But it's decisions/situations like those that I'll reflect back on - again, not as a form of self-torture, but to think to myself, did I do the right thing? What could have I done different? I have a habit of zeroing in on the bottom line, which can sometimes lead to difficult but necessary decisions that have to be made. Was that student truly dangerous to himself in the machine shop? Yes, he was. At some point, did it become obvious that were he allowed to continue that there is high risk of injury? Absolutely. Was the decision and act to inform him just a gut-retching experience that I never want to do again? Of course. Was it still the right thing to do to welcome that student into the program? You'd better believe it. I would be such a hypocrite and so dishonorable if I were to make a decision against my educational philosophy. I don't think I could live with any other decision. That very same colleague and I were in a discussion about the quality of the students currently entering our programs and how our school should take a hard line against this kind of "government legislative interfering" with our business; and that student's story was an example I used to demonstrate why I think that a position like that is wrong. I don't doubt that the public school system has a lot of room for improvement. But that doesn't mean that I get to tell graduating high school seniors, "Sorry, you're just too stupid to come into this program. Good luck elsewhere." That colleague, and note that I stated "colleague" and not friend, is quite brilliant and holds a PhD in an engineering degree, yet the only knowledge and skill I've seen him demonstrate as if it were a natural aptitude is his ability to whine constantly. Sometimes I just want to grab him by his shoulders and yell into his face, "Why exactly are you here?"

I'll admit, I complain about students too. Have you ever heard of a high school graduate that couldn't do fractions? We used to have one like that. Has anyone ever met a person so creative and so brilliant yet so astronomically lazy that they refused to put forth any effort beyond a grade of "D"? I've had a student like that as well. And I know that practically every instructor out there has had those students, year after year, semester after semester, with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and/or other obscure yet truly loved distant relatives that has just died and he/she (the student) will need (insert special consideration, extra time, "give me a break", and/or some other lenient accommodation here). I've had more than my fair share of slackers, simpletons, scoundrels and shams, but they're certainly not the majority. The point to my rant is that it's all of the other students that I remind myself why I chose education as a profession. It's that Hispanic student with a severe accent that has never attended any post-secondary school (post high school) for an opportunity at higher education - and ultimately became a star for the machine shop program. It's that displaced worker just trying to find another trade to go into with the hope that he/she can find employment after graduating - and winds up getting a job better than the one he/she had before. It's that young lady that never really had a lot of self-confidence and never pushed herself harder to try and go further than she thought possible of herself - and now works as the team leader over a team of production machine operators. That's the reason why I keep teaching. Those are the reasons I use to remind myself why I love what I do. And those are the reasons why I take every semester and every new group of students in with open arms, and not grudging suspicion.

I'll stop ranting here and leave you with a short story (in the next post) that I wrote, didn't finish, wrote again, didn't finish, lost then found it, then forgot about it, and finally decided to complete it. I had originally intended to enter this story into the student/faculty/staff writing contest our school has every year. It's about a dream I had right around the time the student with the traumatic brain injury was applying for the machine shop program. Incidentally, this was also around the time the symptoms of my sleep apnea became noticeable, although I had not yet realized how the symptoms were becoming progressively more severe.

A Flash of Just a Bit of Creativity - and Inspiration?

How Far Will I Go?

How far will I go? Will I eventually lose the ability to keep myself fed and clothed during these tough times? If so, will I have the mental capacity to adapt, change, and overcome the challenges? Will I ever get too skilled or too knowledgeable that I out-qualify any hiring requirements? Will my mind become so inflexible that I become obsolete? If so, will I know when that day comes?

How far will I go? Will I overcome the challenges in the future to educate myself, to keep myself marketable? Can I continue an education and work full-time professionally? Will I be able to handle those stresses in life? Am I able to continue to learn new things, fantastic things, things undreamt of no more than twenty years ago? I’m not so young that I’m inexperienced, nor am I so old that I can no longer learn. But will I ever be so old that I become inexperienced and not young enough to learn?

How far will I go? Will my health gradually deteriorate to the point where I need someone to take care of me? When will this happen? And when will it affect my work? Will my work that I dearly love, and sometimes, love to hate, no longer have any meaning? I consider myself a hard worker, but I’m tired. I feel just a bit more tired every day…every year. My hands, worn with a bit of age, a shop career, and a mechanical background, ache just a bit more every day…every year. Does this mean I’m simply working too hard, or simply getting old?

How far will I go?

How far will I go?

I will always go as far as I can, just to see how far I can go. I will always be mindful of the future, but live for the day. There’s no need to worry over things that have not yet happened, or may never happen. I will always try to remind myself that I am human, I make mistakes, and I forget things. I will always try the best that I can at whatever I’m doing. That’s my nature. I don’t know how to do anything else. I don’t know how to get up in the morning and say, “Today, I’m going to do whatever I can to not learn anything at all.” Trying my best means I will always remain fascinated at the latest and greatest in knowledge, skill, and technology. Because I know, not more than twenty years ago, the world, my world, didn’t quite have the same level of skill, knowledge, and technology that it has today. And twenty years from now, who knows what the latest and greatest will bring? Who can possibly predict what marvels we'll see? Exciting times! Being the best that I can means adapting when I need, learning as I go, and knowing when to slow down, take a breather, and maybe have a good laugh every now and then. Doing the best that I can means taking care of myself, mentally as well as physically. Sure, I may not be as successful as others. I may not be as successful in one area or more successful in other areas. But I’ll always be as successful as I can be, just to see how far I can go.

I R teh Healz!

Well how about that? A post! Kind reader…this is going to be a somewhat harsh rant on a variety of things in Wow. Please understand that I am venting and that, in no way, I am offering any sort of advice, ideas, solutions, etc. to the issues I will be addressing. There’s nothing important to see/read here, move along please.

This is a rant…

This is a rant of the emergency blogging rant system. This is only a rant. Had this been an actual, intelligent post it would have been awesome and would’ve most likely contained information relevant to the reader, as well as possible instructions on how to find sturdy desk, table, wall, etc. and to constantly slam one’s forehead into it for various reasons. This is only a rant.

Of Biscuits and noobsauce…

I think some people (students) must believe that I’m a psychic with an amazing ability to read minds. This is because of the fact that despite attempts to illicit questions from students that do not fully understand a lesson, and not receive any questions, I’m still surprised by the fact that a student will still fail a test.

Ok, first a bit of background. Yes, I’m an instructor. I teach machining technology or “machine shop” at a community college. Due to the technical nature of this trade and its impact in the classroom, the safety concerns of operating machinery, and a bit of mathematical skill needed in this field, I can honestly say that students are the reason why I’ve lost more hair on my head than from male-pattern baldness.

I know people don’t want to seem “dumb” or “slow” to their peers. But it just amazes me that students will hold back questions about material that they don’t understand, particularly with a post-secondary education, just because they might be too embarrassed to ask. Literally, I am dumbfounded when I realize a student has been doing this. It always shows through when an assessment comes and he/she not simply fails it but completely bombs it. This is always frustrating to me because, up until that point, I’ve usually not heard any questions about the material being taught. My job as an instructor is to provide training in a field, assess how well the student is progressing, and provide appropriate advisement if a student is not performing to a standard. To students, this might seem as if I’m saying “My job is to fail students who can’t make the cut.” But, that isn’t how I approach my job. I look at it as an opportunity to work closer with students that aren’t performing well, give them additional help or projects, and spend additional time with those students doing more projects in the shop, which, means more experience for the student, and therefore, more time to learn this trade. I don’t “fail students who can’t cut it” in the program. In reality, students fail themselves in my classes. It truly takes about as much work to fail my classes versus the amount of work it takes to pass them. I’ve set up the expectations, grading policy, and attendance policy in such a way, that, students who are failing do so because of no effort, or worse, try to bullshit their way through the semester by exerting as much effort as possible towards excuses, or by working diligently at not working. And despite repeating warnings to those students who do this, most are genuinely surprised to learn that they will fail!

I leveled my main character (warrior) as dps fury spec, back in the end days of BC content. At the time, the cap was 70. But doing this didn’t simply magically happen by itself. I learned by doing and sometimes I learned by failing. But, I also learned from others. I asked questions. I did the research, read the “qq-ing” on the forums, watched the tutorial videos on YouTube from folks like the Yogscast, TotalBiscuit, Tankspot (now ZAMOfficial), gamers like Swifty and of course, TheGreatMe (yes there is a warrior formally known by that name.) And, I learned. This is where I see people struggle the most, such as everyday, average “Joe Schmo” players like myself. I am sincerely trying my best not to seem elitist here. But I can’t understand why some players would rather not ask any questions concerning a boss fight, or, not ask any questions about how to progress through a particular instance.

When Cataclysm was announced, and the major changes to game play, end game content, class changes, etc., it was very clear that this expansion was going to alter fundamental attributes to the game. For example, instances where tanks were no longer the armored threat magnets that they use to be (with exception of course) that could simply stand in front of a boss or mob and spam an aoe ability to keep ahead on threat for the dps. Healers, no longer have infinite mana pools to draw from and must manage what type of healing spells are needed to keep a fight alive – often at the health expense of many dps. A healer couldn’t simply spam a particular spell and expect to keep everyone in a group at topped health. And of course, dps can no longer simply spam a couple of buttons and grind a foe down, even if he/she picked up aggro and the target began to attack the dps instead of the tank. Threat HAD to be managed and everyone HAD to be situationally aware. Any type of void zone, aoe spell effect, etc. HAD to be avoided if any group member wanted to survive the new instances. And then, of course, there were new fight mechanics players had to learn if they wanted to survive. Some fight mechanics can easily one-shot tanks despite the best healers available. But the bottom line is that it should be very obvious to all players, new and experienced, that Wow is no longer WotLK. It is now Cataclysm. Yet, for some reason, this revelation has not hit many players and continues to elude other, more experienced players despite their time in game. And in spite of the massive changes to Wow, and the increased time needed to complete the more challenging instances, people still want to try to burn through an instance (Halls of Origination for example) as if it were a quick, 20-minute-max, Violet Hold from WotLK.

So, how does psychic reading come into play here? Simple, so many pug runs I’ve been in seem to be populated by folks that just assume you know what they’re thinking. So many pug dps just assume that the tank will automatically hold threat and that they (dps) can remain blissfully unaware of their threat levels or where they’re standing (say for example, FIRE) and spam one or two buttons to their heart’s content. Never mind that the tank may very well be a newly leveled 85 fresh from completing the Twilight Highlands quests. So many pug tanks just assume that despite the massive changes in Wow, a party need not worry about CC (crowd control) and that the healer/casters should easily out heal/dps any benefit CC would bring. Never mind the fact that some mobs can silence, stun, hex, banish, etc. any group member (including the tank and healer) and completely throw off the group’s abilities to survive the fight. And so many pug healers…

Well now there’s a problem, isn’t there? Up until fairly recently, I didn’t come across too many of those. Unless you were a healer or tank, the time waiting in queue could easily get as high as 45 minutes.

I’m reminded of the new level 85 pally tank that kept running through recent heroic halls of origination run so fast that our healer literally oom’ed midway in the first boss fight, not because of high tank damage but because we didn’t stop to allow mana regeneration. Afterwards, the healer asked, “Why didn’t you wait for mana?” Response, “I just assumed that you knew what you were doing.” There is it folks, that “ass-you-me” thing. The irony here is that the tank obviously didn’t completely know what he was doing because if he did then he would’ve known that his healer needed to mana up before the boss fight. This is a healer/caster mechanic that I have a habit of paying close attention to whenever I tank. Of course, we wiped on a boss, the blame game started and the insults came, and the group fell apart. If you’re a healer and you’ve hit regulars and heroics in cata, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The first time I healed a cata regular instance, one of the melee dps died at the first pull. Now, I’ll admit, that was probably my fault as I was still learning the changes to healing since the expansion hit. Well, that player decided that one death (keep in mind we didn’t wipe) was one too many and quit the party and the instance. I remember the player typing in party chat, “grate noob heals” before he left. And yes, that is the exact spelling he used. I would love to see how much drama a person like that creates in real life on the job. I imagine a scenario, “Smith, we’ll need you to stay about an extra 30 minutes today. The second shift fella’ called and he’s going to be late.” Smith, “Gah! L-2-manage this shit better nub! This is too much! I just can’t take this anymore!” /Storms-off. On the other hand, I suppose it’s a good thing that I don’t see that kind of drama in real life. I would probably have spent time in jail for smacking an individual that acts that way. To quote a dear relative, “I’d a reached all da way back last Wednesday and slapped da taste out yo mouth!” As a Wow player, I understand that we all have to start somewhere – including healers. But we improve, we learn, and we grow as a player (and hopefully as a person) as we continue to play the game. I just so wish that other players would realize this as well.

In my opinion, I think healers have the hardest time in new instances, because most healers can level as a dps first, and then switch to a heal spec after reaching the level cap or after dual spec comes available. This means that there is a tougher learning curve for a healer who’s just reached the cap and item level requirements for regular instances. Hitting an instance as a healer pug can quickly earn you friends or enemies. This is because as a new capped healer, you’ve got to learn your “rotation” very quickly, especially if you’ve leveled as dps. You need to have a very good understanding about talents, mana efficiency, and boss abilities. If you’re unclear about any of these, you could very well have some player deaths during instances. You could easily wipe the party on challenging trash pulls even in regular instances.

With queue times for instances now finally starting to come down to a reasonable length, I decided to address this issue as best as I could. Now, I realize that this will reach very few people, but it is my hope that it will reach at least a few people that really need the help. So, let me write down some things I’ve learned as a dps and sometimes tank, by playing a healer. I’ve decided to put it into a letter format. I hope it helps:

To the newly leveled 85 player,

Congratulations on your completion of the first assessment of your abilities to follow basic instructions. It is our (your fellow players) hope that you continue your journey into higher aspects of this great game we play. To start with, let me be among the first of your fellow players that you probably don’t know to welcome you to this “next level” of game play. It is an exciting time and can often be quite challenging. Well, in case you already didn’t know, there are three basic roles your character may be able to fulfill, tank, dps, and healer. Now, clearly not all classes can be one of each, but a lot do have the ability to choose more than one role. For example, warriors can be melee dps or tank. I would highly recommend viewing the options for the specs for your class or any other class on such fine websites such as Wowhead, World of Warcraft, Elitist Jerks, TankSpot or even simply viewing other classes to see their choices in specs. This “research” is vital to give yourself a better understanding of what your role could be. But I’ll do my best to give you a short break down.

If you’re a dps, then please understand – everyone that’s not a dps hates you. There. It had to be said. Now, your healer and tank don’t hate you because you might accidentally pull threat. That happens to all of us. Even experienced players sometimes let their guard down and pull aggro from the tank. No big deal. The reason why your healer and tank will hate you is because you seem to do this on a regular basis. And, with the Cataclysm changes in place, once you pull aggro your tank, your healer will not be able to keep you alive for very long, if at all. And that’s assuming if your healer wants keep you alive in the first place. Some of your future healers will reminisce about the “good ol’days” when it didn’t matter that the inexperienced dps could pull aggro and still survive a fight. The healer could just keep spamming that one good heal/shield/etc. button and that errant dps should be ok. But those days are long gone. You must learn very quickly that, if you wish to survive, don’t hit anything that the tank isn’t hitting. You will pull aggro, and you will get killed for it. So please, try to watch what you hit, how hard you’re hitting it, and if anything (including spells) is hitting you. While you’re at it, you may want to take some time and research your class. Many classes now have a very handy CC ability. Learn how it works and your healer and tank will appreciate you for it. And for fuck’s sake, please be aware of where you’re standing.

If you’re a tank, then please understand – everyone that’s not a tank hates you. There. It had to be said. Now, understand that everyone knows it’s your job to absorb the damage and keep threat up off of everyone in the party. But that doesn't mean that you are the epic and mighty so-and-so and that everyone should scrape and bow to your perceived greatness. The rest of your party got there the same way you did, through leveling up. Also, please realize particularly if you’re a tank without mana that all magic users, not just healers, but any caster, needs to regenerate mana between pulls. Yes, some casters have very mana efficient spells and some can even sacrifice health for mana. However, your healer, unless he/she is well-geared, needs that time to drink/eat mana regenerating items, not only to regenerate mana, but to keep his/her sanity. Just because you have to absorb damage doesn’t meant that you don’t have to be aware of your group members. And thanks to the changes in Wow with Cataclysm, so many classes have CC now. There’s no reason not to use it. By CC’ing a mob with a silence, stun, hex, banish, etc. you can ensure that your healer won’t have difficulty getting those heals out to you. You can ensure that dps can focus fire down a particularly challenging mob. It simply helps the party’s survivability. And for fuck’s sake, please be aware of where you’re standing.

And finally, if you’re a healer, then please understand, everyone that’s not a healer – hates you. There. It had to be said. Mainly because you’ve leveled all this way to the cap as a dps and now you're having to learn an entirely different rotation. You’ll have to spend some time and effort learning what works and what doesn’t work. And unfortunately, the learning curve for this is quite steep. You’ve got very little time in an instance to figure out which spells are more efficient and which spells are instant cast. Guess what will happen in group instances during this time? Players will die. Tanks will die. Groups will wipe. And, it’s going to suck. It wouldn’t hurt to develop a thick skin before starting your role as a healer in LFG. Do yourself a big favor, research your class, learn what the different spells do and which spells are best used in certain situations, learn tips and tricks to managing your mana. And for fuck’s sake, please be aware of where you’re standing.

Well I hope that this letter will be beneficial. If you happen to wipe (and I'm guessing you will), try to think what the other people in the party must be feeling. Just think of those poor dps’ers that have put so much effort into their “deeps” and not much else. How about that tank/healer that just can’t be bothered to run through an instance at a slow, steady pace because he/she has other things to do besides Wow? Just think of how insensitive you must look to those players.

So, if you are a newly capped player, please “L2(insert skill here)” or “L2notsuckpl0xkthnxbai” and pretty soon you’ll get along just fine.

Another attempt at some creative writing there. I'd like to add that, if you’re a healer, don’t give up. It got really tough for me. I’ll admit that I’m not the best healer. Sure I was able to make it through regulars for the most part without too much trouble, maybe just a bit at the beginning. But the heroics are challenging. I tried four attempts at a pug heroic stonecore and all were unsuccessful. The fifth attempt was a guild run with guildies willing to put up with my failness and swearing (and I’m good at that.) Understand that, the previous attempts were not attempts to complete stonecore specifically. Those attempts were just LFG queues and I had the bad luck of getting heroic stonecore every single time. The reason I stuck with it was because my healer has no current tier level equipment save for a profession crafted item. If he’s to advance at all, he has to complete LFGs for the valor points. Fortunately, we managed to kill the last boss without much trouble and my healer picked up a couple of heroic level blues. Of those previous attempts, I nearly swore off healing altogether. I’ve come close to doing that before due to puggery and asshattery. This time it seemed that I might actually do it. But I’m glad that I didn’t. I got to heal that same heroic (and complete it!) with some guildies on their alts and overall, I’d say that I had a pretty good time doing it. Kudos to my friends and fellow guild mates for that.

Just hang in there!

All Work and No Play...

Update:

I apologize for taking so long to write anything at all. I’ve been dealing with a heavy course load at work as well as personal health issues. It seems that I am suffering from sleep apnea. This would explain a lot of symptoms I’ve been dealing with lately. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s when the body stops breathing for several seconds while sleeping. At least, that’s one of the types of sleep apnea one can suffer from. Typically it lasts for about 10 seconds but it can last as long as a minute. I’ve recently visited a sleep study clinic so that my sleep could be monitored and analyzed. It turns out that I’ve been averaging just over one instance of sleep apnea per minute of my sleep time. I’ve been fitted with a breathing machine called a CPAP (technically a BiPAP) and I’m adjusting nicely to it. It’s taken awhile to get some of my energy back, and I’m still not 100%, but hopefully, I’ll get back to my old self again. Anyways, I haven’t forgotten about the articles I want to write about. But, just to make sure folks don’t forget about the epic Blackbear, I decided to post a short article along with some epic screen shots. However, I will warn you, gracious reader; it does turn into a bit of a rant towards the end.

Wait, how come everybody's so much taller than me all of a sudden?

Oh crap! I forgot the keys! Someone's going to have to go all the way back out the front door and pick up the keys!

BB literally flying off into the sunset. Or, sunrise, I can't remember which.

Epic "high noon" shot. Kind of makes me think of a good Clint Eastwood western.

So, here it is...

4.0 is finally here. I’ve taken my main character, the one I enjoy playing nearly every aspect of the game with, and I’ve made it nearly to the literal end of the road. My main character, for those that didn’t know, Blackbear, is a warrior – currently, fury main spec and pve tank off spec. While it could be argued that I still have some gear from 25 man ICC or even 25 man ICC hard modes that could improve my character, I honestly think that it won’t make that much of a difference, certainly not much towards my dps. Ideally, I think it would be best to focus on pve tank gear, but the gear I have now is “leet” enough that I shouldn’t really need it. I’ve gemmed and chanted my fury gear to the point where there isn’t anything I can do, except get better gear, to improve my dps. And the only “better” gear I can really get that would be an improvement would be 25 man ICC hard modes. Indeed, there have been drops in the regular 25 man ICC that I’ve passed on. Not because I may or may not already have it, but because I already have level 264 gear with the epic Heroic description attached to the tooltip (/ego-flex.) I know and understand my character’s rotation, best application in various situations, and weaknesses. No amount of practice with my rotation will improve my game, at least not for dps. I’ll admit I could probably practice a bit with my pve tanking rotation which is definitely different than the pvp prot rotation. But, no new gaming gear (i.e. Razer Naga gaming mouse) will improve my dps and, by the way, I have the Razer Naga and it is awesome! And, I plan to show that in a future article. No new special instance/gear drop/gems/chants/etc. will make much of a real difference in my character or in how I play the game, although I really wouldn’t mind at all winning the ICC achievements for a really cool mount. In fact, there’s not much of anything I can do with Blackbear that would improve my game on that character.

So, where to now? Where do I go from here?

Well, some have already figured this out and are doing great with the solution. I’ll explain. For me, I first started playing Wow somewhere in the middle of the Burning Crusade expansion (I think.) And when I made my first character, which just happens to be Blackbear, I also made additional classes because I had no idea what those classes were like. I practically had one of every single class except for death knights, which didn’t exist yet. I have my hunter, originally a dwarf, appropriately named: Rugernine. I made a human priest and named him after a colleague at work. I made a mage, rogue, warlock, and a druid and later a shaman (I think at the time shaman weren’t available to alliance, but I may be wrong about that.) I’ve tried all classes at some point and learned whether or not I had any desire to continue playing. In fact, I learned from my druid that I’m really not at all interested in the “night elf” side of Wow.

Now before a particular friend of mine starts calling me a night elf/druid hater let me explain. At the time, leveling was so much more tedious and boring than it is now (oh yeah, that’s definitely possible.) So much has changed since then. For example, leveling at one point, didn’t involve a super-duper-uber-handy function called LFG (looking for group.) Leveling meant grinding away hours of one’s time to reach a particular goal before setting a new goal (either the next level or piece of gear, amount of gold needed, etc.) Now, once your character reaches a certain level, he/she can join others that aren’t even on the same server to hit an instance. Now you can go anywhere in Azeroth, Outlands, etc. yet instantly join in on a BG/instance to pwn or get pwned at your heart’s content. Most players in Wow are now more than familiar with these options and the advantages and disadvantages with this. But I’m getting off track. The point I was making was simply that I needed to remind myself why I rolled practically every class as soon as I created my main, which is, to enjoy as many aspects of the game that I can.

Turns out, I really am interested in playing a druid now and leveling that class. Mainly thanks to the many changes Blizzard implemented to help new players. Now, a lot of classes get helpful abilities at an earlier time than before. Warriors now get the ability Victory Rush at level 6; much, much sooner than previously available at level 62. Rage power leveling! Druids can now learn travel form at level 16. In fact, apprentice riding is available to everyone at level 20 with just a bit of gold. Thank goodness Blizzard did that. No more endless walking/running to the next zone/quest hub/town etc. Now, I’ve got so much that I want to do in Wow and not nearly enough time to accomplish a fraction of it. Because I no longer have to deal with such long, boring leveling grinds, I really do want to roll a druid and experience that class. I want a gnome mage with engineering and possibly jewel crafting so that I can be “leet” in raids as well as BGs (can’t give up one of my biggest laughs in game.) I want to level an undead warlock with tailoring and enchanting – if only to see the opposing faction content. I want to take an orc death knight and level/gear him for ICC content. And I can’t wait until Cataclysm comes out so that I can follow along with everyone else and make a worgen rogue or druid. I was thinking about maybe a troll shaman (available in Cata) to see the new troll starting area. And who isn’t curious about the new goblin race? And with the new rated battlegrounds soon to be implemented, I’m really interested in a possible “BG team” to learn that experience.

Speaking of opposing factions, I’ve noticed something lately in Wow (at least on my server) that I have to say I really dislike. Yes, here comes the obligatory rant. It concerns people and their attitudes and I’m not just talking about those annoying pug runs or the elitist jerk trade chat trolls, although I’ll admit, trade chat has provided me with some of the greatest guffaws within the game thus far. I’m talking about the dogma that exists within or between some people in the game towards opposing factions. I’ve noticed the occasional player say things like, “I hate all horde (or alliance)” and “If you play both factions then you’re a traitor.” While I freely admit, when I first started playing Wow, I was not immune to experiencing similar hostile feelings; but I quickly identified those feelings as irrational. And I’m not afraid to point out to people how unreasonable those same feelings are. I’ve had a few people I play Wow with try to convince me that their opinions towards an opposing faction are justified. And a few of these individuals are not the stereotypical “teen” player, these are adults. I try to explain to them that it’s just a game and that’s the current game mechanic – two opposing factions.

For example, if I’m in a BG and I’m guarding a particular capture point, I fully expect opposing players to attack me in an attempt to capture that point, even if I happen to know those players. Why not? I’ve done the exact same thing. I didn’t deliberately seek out that player and continually harass them (although some have done that to me) just because I could. But what do some players honestly think will happen if they come across someone that they know in a pvp situation from an opposing faction? It’s silly to think that I would expect that individual to treat me any different than any other player in my faction. I saw a recent YouTube video of a channel owner I subscribe to where he had attended the latest BlizzCon 2010. In the video, he was asking random people what their main character was. Some would reply their main such as warrior, paladin, mage, etc. Then others would specify which faction they play on first, then their main, as if the faction alone somehow made their character that much more "elite." Now I’ve no problem with some friendly ribbing between players, particularly those that know each other. And I have no problem with people that may identify with one faction more over the other. And most players I know aren’t dogmatic about playing an opposing faction. But there are some players that really just go too far with this mindset and have tried to convince me that playing both factions is somehow "selfish" or "mean-spirited." Which is ironic considering it's selfish that a person could think that others should play the way he/she wants them to rather than how they want to and mean-spirited to carry some useless dogma in game.

Everyone has their own playing style. In many ways, each player’s gaming style is similar to other player’s style. But due to experience, latency, computer performance, add-ons, etc. everyone has an adjusted playing style that can be called their own – and that’s the whole point. What one individual player has experienced in the game can be considered in some ways unique to them and no one else. So, what one player chooses to enjoy in game is that individual’s decision to make. I want to enjoy as many aspects of this game as I can. This is partially because, like all things, eventually, world of warcraft will come to an end, but mainly because, the game that I play is my game. I pay my subscription fee and I play my game as I want; not the way someone else wants. This means that if I choose to play a different character in an opposing faction, just to see the content, then so be it. If I decide to faction change that character because of “grind-y” leveling experiences, or perhaps because I want the character to benefit from a particular racial bonus, then I will do so. If I have been harassed by experienced players in pvp, I could choose to remember those experiences with bitterness and ignore that particular aspect of the game, or I could laugh my ass off at how petty some folks are and marvel at the lengths some individuals go in order to feel better about themselves. Personally, I think I’ll choose the latter and not the former. My experiences in game are my own and I’ll make them out (remember them) to be whatever I want them to be. As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to put forth my best effort to make those experiences as enjoyable as possible. I guess that this is just something that some players will find impossible to understand.

So, to all of the elitist snobs out there that can’t seem to understand why I want to play both horde and alliance, in both pve and pvp, in either full raids or 5-man heroics, and spend so much time and effort trying to convince me why I shouldn’t, I’ve really only got one thing I can think of to say…

Cool story bro.

The Echo Rate

Nearly every trade I’m familiar with has some sort of “initiation” rites or procedures or activities associated with it. For example, an inexperienced carpenter may be asked by his lead technician to go fetch a nonexistent tool such as a 3 ft. meter stick, a board stretcher, or even a glass mallet. The two trades I’ve been involved in for most of my life: vehicle mechanic and machinist are no different. Well, to lighten the mood of my blog I decided to walk a reader through just a small handful of such activities as if he/she were just beginning their career in that trade. These activities I have participated in either as willing co-conspirator or as an unknowing victim.

So, as a new mechanic/machinist/technician/etc. you may be asked to start your day with a search for a can of P.E. psi fluid. This is highly valuable stuff and is normally refrigerated to keep its shelf life extended as much as possible (spell out P.E. psi with no periods and no capital letters). After you’ve been redirected from several shops and finally picked up the ice-cold fluid, it’s very important to return it immediately to your lead tech, who will then promptly open up the can and drink it.

Your next task will be to prepare the stall or work area for equipment, proper tools, or materials needed to complete the work. So, be sure to go to the supply section and order up several yards of flight line. This will allow you a solid working surface area to work on. Can’t have our creepers roll around underneath vehicles in mud now can we? It’s also crucial to make sure any fluids, materials, etc. are the proper weight for the current season. You’ll need to ensure that the air within a tire is proper winter-weight or summer-weight air depending on the season. Headlight fluid is also helpful to have handy should you need to make any adjustments to the lights; along with the more costly blinker fluid. Additionally, you may have to modify the job you are working on. Along with the normal tools expected to do a job, bring with you a standard bolt-stretcher because sometimes, you just may need a longer bolt when you don’t have one. Metric bolt-stretchers can be very hard to come by so you may have to sign a contract on penalty of death agreeing to return it to the tool room if you need it.

Now, let’s move onto “the meat” of the work. Being unfamiliar with the job may require flexibility. This can be helped with flexible tooling such as the ever-helpful metric adjustable wrench. Being able to work in both “standard” and “metric” can greatly increase one’s skill level. For the lefties out there, a little bit of searching will help you find the left-handed version of the metric adjustable wrench. Most shops do carry a line of left-handed hammers for the lefties in these trades. But do not expect to find a left-handed version of the any-sixteenths adjustable wrench. This is the U.S. we’re talking about and damn it we have standards that we adhere to.

For those really “tricky” jobs, specialized tooling is often necessary due to the complexity of the work. Having a sky hook can help with those really heavy duty jobs and can greatly lessen the stress on the back from heavy lifting. It can be so frustrating to drop a part or tool while focused on a particularly challenging operation of a job. Therefore, having a brass magnet will help the “clumsy” technician when he/she needs it. And for the highly intelligent beginner technicians, make sure you bring with you a cup of radon. To help ease on preventive maintenance, installing a tachometer filter will reduce the number of times you need to replace the RPMs, not to mention reducing the number of times the RPM oil will need servicing.

Replacing a component or reworking a component of a job can be tedious. Take the armored vehicle the M113; a principle armored troop carrier for the U.S. military. Replacing the armored valve stem for the wheels of this tracked vehicle can be extremely time-consuming. For this type of difficult job, it’s always beneficial to bring with you a box of pre-drilled holes for the valve stems.

A highly technical skill you may develop is the ability to check the echo rate. This is very complex and involves a great deal of coordination. First, remove the valve cover from the engine and crank it manually until the number 1 piston intake valve(s) is open. Next, lean in close to the engine head. Finally, yell your name into the open intake valve and very quickly run to the end of the vehicle and place your ear up to the tailpipe. If you can hear your name yelled back, then the echo rate is good. For vehicles with two tailpipes, you may need to perform this twice, once on each tailpipe, to determine the echo rate.

Well, by now your day will probably draw to a close. Keeping your work area clean will help you to do a good job tomorrow so go out behind your facility and gather up a full bucket of prop wash. But be sure to fill a bucket of dehydrated water to go with your prop wash. Never mix chemicals you’re not familiar with! You may also need to pick up some camouflage paint, just in case you needed to do any body work that you’ll have to touch up. Note: make certain the vehicle doesn’t require infra-red, camouflage paint. That would be disastrous! Also, this would be a good time to swing by the supply section and order the parts, materials, etc. needed to complete the unfinished jobs tomorrow. Things like muffler bearings, alternator hoses, and glove box filters should be ordered today so that they’ll be ready to install the next work day.

Usually about this time is when the customer comes around asking questions regarding the completion of the work. Now is the best time for you to brush up on your people skills. Be sure to let them know how difficult it was replacing the radiator filters. For the left-handed customer with a straight drive, let them know that you’ve placed an order through supply for a left-handed shifter handle and it won’t arrive until tomorrow. For customers wanting exhaust work, let them know that they could’ve sped up the time needed for service if only they had first collected an exhaust sample. This can be done by having the customer stand at the tailpipe with a trash bag and “gather” exhaust as the vehicle is running. Make sure the customer ties off the bag quickly. Don’t want to give the EPA or OSHA reason to perform a surprise inspection on the facility. If the customer simply wanted preventive maintenance, inform them that the windshield wiper lube hasn’t arrived yet and that you should be receiving it the next day. Never let a vehicle leave your care without all of its fluids topped off and ready to go! Make the customer feel like you’re working extra hard just for them by performing the 60,000 mile service to the cigarette lighter unit. Or that you’ve just replaced the snipe sensor for free and it needs to sit overnight in order for it to be properly calibrated. And if that doesn’t convince them, just tell them that you can’t complete the work because there is too much gas in the fuel lines.

Happy mechanic-ing!

BB

A Random Post - OR IS IT???

Wow. Has it really been that long since my last post? Hard to believe. But, the fact is, I've been working hard and playing hard. As an instructor, my work often keeps me late at school, although I try hard not to bring too much work home with me. And, as the dept. head and the only full-time faculty in my department, I often stay late just trying to catch up on paperwork. My time at school is thinned even more so as I am on our graduation committee. The great part about the graduation committee is that nearly all of the work we do is at the end of the school year. The bad part about the graduation committee is that nearly all of the work we do is at the end of the school year. And graduation is coming up in about another 5 weeks. And since we just happen to have started early registration for the upcoming fall semester, my time is stretched even further. This, naturally, has very strong effects on one's stress levels and in order to prevent myself from taking out that stress on student via hammer or some other blunt object, I direct it towards other things. As I said, I've been playing hard too, meaning our guild has completed 10-man ICC and we're starting heroic 10-man. Yay for hard modes! This means more wipes. This means more practice. And basically, more time needed to stay with the progression. But, I haven't forgotten about the great Blackbear's Cave. In fact, I intend to provide a (hopefully) decent article about warriors in the game. Am I an expert? Nope. Not by a long shot. But I can provide some ideas towards spec, gear, and professions for the leveling warrior. Also, I will either add or create another article about arms pvp spec. That article I simply intend to document my experiences with the spec and pvp. I don't intend for that particular article to be used as a guide for arms pvp as I will most likely include a number of expletives. I'll probably include the reasons why I decided to put tanking on hold for awhile. This means, be ready for more ranting. So, just bear with me (pun intended) and hopefully I'll get that underway soon. The end of the summer semester is approaching and I could really use some free time.

Now, onto the other reason I decided to post. A project I've really been wanting to complete for a long time. A simple video with a slide show of a set of photos I took while on my vacation last year in Alaska. Yes. It's finally time to post that up. I'll actually post it on 3 (hopefully) websites.

It's Been A Long Time Coming

It’s been a long time coming. Yes. It’s taken me a long time to finally complete this project. Some of my online friends will understand what that means. But, I simply could not post this video without the “perfect” accompaniment. While the music in this video is not technically Native Alaskan, primarily Native Americans perform it. I felt that this was important not only in principle, but also for aesthetic reasons. The music I was going to use with this video had to reflect the silent awe and the oddly, calming effect I felt seeing and photographing this great landscape for the first time.

Finding any music indigenous to Native Alaska is challenging enough. While I did manage to find some Alaskan singers/groups that were capable of performing very contemporary style of music, it did not carry the reverence I wanted to accompany this photo gallery. Sadly, a great deal of traditional Native Alaskan music has been lost to history via “modernization” of the Alaskan peoples. Some traditional music still exists. But, the meaning of some of that music is no longer understood. While this was a bit disappointing, I continued looking elsewhere for music I felt was appropriate. I also felt that, if contemporary music would better reflect the mood I wanted for the video, then so be it. The music I’ve chosen to accompany the photos seems to “fit” the mood I was trying to create. And, as I stated before, if I couldn’t find just the “right” music, then I wasn’t going to complete this project.

I’ve heard of the performers Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike. I’ve also heard of Robbie Roberston. However, my search for the best music to my video didn’t initially lead me to these performers. But I remembered hearing awhile back a song that I would later learn was called Peyote Healing and tried to track down its authors/performers. It wasn’t easy, as I had no idea, at the time, what the name of the song was or even the artists’ names. Finally, after a bit of online searching, and listening to A LOT of samples, I managed to come across the album: Contact from the Underworld of Red Boy by Robbie Roberston. The other album I drew from was: Dancing Into Silence. The first song in the video is: The Way Home from Dancing Into Silence by R. Carlos Nakai, the second song is Amazing Grace in Sioux from Walk in Beauty by Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike. Finally, the last song is: Peyote Healing from Robbie Robertson’s Contact from the Underworld of Redboy feat. Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike.

This small video only represents a small section of the best photos I took while in Alaska during my vacation in 2009. The few photos I’ve placed in this video are the ones that made the final cut so-to-speak. Some of the photos include: a small plane trip to the Chickamin Glacier, a Misty Fjords National Monument boat trip, as well as hiking photos around Revillagigedo Island, Ward Creek Trail and Lake Harriet Hunt. Overall, I took nearly 750 total photos. I had to trim a lot of photos out. This trip cost me a bit financially. But, the experience was well worth every penny. The trip has had such a profound impact on me that, I decided almost immediately upon returning home, I should go back again the following year. And, I am! Hopefully, by the time I return from that trip, I’ll be a little better at Windows Movie Maker. Yes, I am a WMM newb! Enjoy the pictures.

Blackbear (Bear5177)

Aka BB

I sure hope this works.