We did a special edition of BlogTV for Tokyo Metropolitan TV (MXTV) last week. Last time I uploaded the video myself, but this time the MXTV agreed to do the upload and did a press conference. The key was that the video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license. The content of the show is talking about the Sharing Economy and features footage and interviews from the iCommons Summit in Rio.
The videos were uploaded to You Tube a few days after they aired.
This Thursday night (US Central) we downed Onyxia. When Onyxia dies, you get to loot the head of Onyxia. When you bring the head to the gates of Stormwind, the main human city, it triggers an event that gives everyone in the city a buff (good magic) that will make you stronger for awhile. On Sunday, our second Molten Core day (we clear all but the two last bosses in Molten Core on Saturdays), we gathered at the gates of Stormwind and celebrated our victory against Onyxia while Persimmon, our raid leader, turned in the head of Onyxia. (I guess it was in her bag for two days... ewww...) All buffed up and ready to go, we headed over to Molten Core to see Ragnaros.
The guild was able to kill Ragnaros for the first time last week, but I missed that run. This week, after a week of discussion on the forums about strategy and preparation of potions and flasks, we were able to take down Ragnaros with 60 seconds to spare. This was quite a victory for us. However, we were all doped up on potions and flasks and that probably contributed significantly to our success. There were a few things we could have done better. (Like I could have not died in phase 2.)
However, taking down Ragnaros (the last and hardest boss in Molten Core) is a great feeling after training for, gearing up for and working on completing Molten Core since January. (Flickr picture of our first MC pull)
In the woods behind our house we have a Castanopsis cuspidata, or 椎 (Shii) tree. It is one of the largest and most elder trees in our village. It overlooks our house and is on a ridge. Over the years, it has grown more on the side facing the sun and is beginning to stress the tree and is at risk of falling onto our house. The next door neighbor who helps us with our gardening told us that we needed to prune the tree, but that we needed to pay proper respects to the spirit of the tree.
We prepared the proper offerings and asked a Shinto Priest to come to perform the ritual. The ritual involved putting a rope with Shinto folded paper around the tree. Then a temporary shrine was set up with the offerings. The priest first called the spirits with a chant and opened the sake and other offerings. We then did a ritual where we were blessed, the tree was blessed and we paid our respects to the spirits. Then there was a closing ritual which ended in drinking sake to toast the home and the tree. I took the salt and rice from the offerings table and sprinkled it around the tree.
Immersed in an orchestra of various insects, I stared at our Shii tree for half an hour or so and felt really good. There is something about Shinto ritual that stirs something deep inside.
We have killed Onyxia a few times in the past with the help of lots of pick-up members, but this was our first successful guild DKP Onyxia run. We are getting pretty good now and took her down in about 15 min with less than a full 40 man raid.
By far my favorite movie. It represents all that was beautiful of my angsty teenage years - also the best sound track.
What do you usually do on Sunday?
It depends on the Sunday. If it's Sunday in Japan, that means that it is Saturday evening in the US. Every Saturday night at 5 PM Central Time - US, we raid Molten Core and own the bosses there. Usually that what I do Sunday morning. Frostbolt, Frostbolt, Frostbolt.
Just listening to Michael Molitor from Carbon Wedge talk about carbon credits and the voluntary carbon credit market. Very interesting and much more complicated than I realized. The good news is that there are a lot of practical stuff to do. More later on this I think.
What's one thing that you'd like to get done this weekend? Is there anything holding you back?
I would like to meet all of the people that I promised I would meet this weekend, but it appears to be physically impossible. :-(
After my Nano got nuked, I started messing around with last.fm and discovered Ladytron through my recommendations radio station. I went to the artist site, found a fan of Ladytron, visited her site and played her personal radio for awhile. Then I saw she visited my profile, probably because I showed up in "recent visitors" list. Funny how you can interact with people by listening to music like this. Also, amazing how "interesting" people are when they have similar taste in music.
What's your cell phone's ringtone? What made you pick it?
I'm using the default Nokia ring tone. I remember being in an elevator with a guy from Nokia. A phone went off with the Nokia ring tone and everyone reached for their phones. The Nokia guy said, "ahh, the sound of marketshare." ;-P
