Okay, so friends trim is done. One important note: I removed everybody that didn't have me friended back, unless it was somebody like a rather famous published author whose stuff I just want to read. But for most people, my basic rule is that if I get removed from your friendlist (or never added) then I don't keep you on mine. It's just the way I work.

I also removed anybody whose last update was before August of 2008. If anybody suddenly comes back and wonders what happened, then just comment on this post and I'll probably add you back. Some of these were also old journals for people who have moved to new usernames. Also, a few Hollins people were on this list, and I hated to see them go but I think they're never coming back.

Like I said, any art, photography, writing, or crafting journals will be friended by midnightmusings so that I can keep track over there (but I'll warn you, that journal is generally private story ramblings so I only use it for reading and commenting). Please friend back if that's your style.

Thanks for understanding, now back to business as usual!

Recent events in other places have meant that I feel it's time for a friendslist cut.

I'll point out that this is the first time since I opened this journal eight years ago that I've done this. That's how ridiculous things have gotten. Hell, I didn't even go friends only until last fall. Things explode quickly I guess.

I'm making this post and waiting at least 24 hours so that people have a chance to ask to stay if they don't comment often but read the journal and enjoy it.

This is not going to be a "I'm going from 200 down to 20" kind of cut. This is a trim, a few inches off the top. But sadly, things have just gotten out of hand for too many people lately, so I feel like I need to do this. Especially since I'm about to actually have my name out in the wide world in a professional context, and the last thing I need or want is internet drama.

People who don't need to worry about being cut, and thus can move along if they like:
-Blood related family (this includes Cyn)
-Hollins friends.
-VTSFFCers and people that I met through that crowd.

People that I will be looking at and considering
-Anyone that I haven't met physically in real life.
-Anyone that I have known online for less than two years.
-Anyone who posts so infrequently that I almost always miss it.
-Anyone that I never comment on their posts nor do they comment on mine.
-Anyone who hasn't posted in six months or more.

Those of you that fit that group, you won't automatically be gone, just considered. So if I haven't actually talked to you in a long time, and we don't ever comment on each other's posts, then please feel free to comment and ask to stay.

Journals that are automatically being moved over to be friended by my "creative" journal, that I never post in but use to read other people's stuff:
-Any extra creative journals. This includes photography, writing, crafting, RPing, etc. This doesn't mean I don't want to read your stuff or that I'm unfriending you. It just means I'm making things easier for me to sort out and figure out. IF you use your primary journal for discussion of writing then that will stay here.

I do not mean anything personal by this. I understand entirely that it's not like you can completely remove the personal aspect of the situation, that you might feel hurt or upset about this (though I think that's egotistical of me to think you care that much about my random rantings) but it just boils down to the fact that my LJ has gotten a little out of control and I've stopped being able to keep up. I was trying to make an attempt to do it, but in the end, other things have convinced me that it's time.

This is not a cry for people to say "OMG, I love your posts, please don't get rid of me!" and don't feel you need to say "You can delete me if you want..." I'm just writing this up in the interest of clarity and transparency, since I've been ranting about that a lot lately.

An open letter.

Dear Blizzard,

I think that somewhere along the line you're not understanding two fundamental problems with your holiday achievements system.

#1: Your drop rate was too low or too screwed up on the bags of candy. No amount of time or dedication on the part of the player could have fixed this. I'm sorry, but it's just incorrect to punish players who literally tried for the candy every hour for DAYS (including not sleeping) and were unable to get enough bags to complete the achievement. A large number of the best players in my guild were in the same boat I was: spending the entire weekend trying for that one candy they didn't have. You want to say the holiday achievements are about dedication, but I promise you that these players are all dedicated and they all made commitments and they were NOT rewarded. Meanwhile, one guy in my guild got about ten bags of candy and couldn't get any silver shafted arrows. That's messed up, plain and simple.

#2: You keep saying that you're fine with the Brew of the Month requirement because basically, you don't actually care that Death Knights can't get a proto-drake. You know what? That's not the problem. That's not even remotely the problem. I don't care one bit about that.

The problem, the fundamental WRONGNESS of the situation is that Brewfest happened very near to when all the achievements came out. Nobody knew that the Brew of the Month requirement would be there. Nobody knew that they'd need to get it, nobody knew that this one thing would stand in their way. And it's not like Brewfest is a couple months into the "year" of the holiday achievements. It is the VERY LAST ONE.

I had done Brewfest before. I had my pet, I had my tankard, I had my dress. I was happy with my participation in Brewfest and I'll be honest, I had class. I work 40 hours a week, I take two GRADUATE classes, and one of those was heavy on film production which means a lot of out of class work. I chose, thinking that I had done the holiday before, to concentrate on my real life.

If I had known, if I had been informed at all, that this Brew of the Month thing would be the only problem standing in my way of a proto-drake at the end of a year, I would have done it. I would have happily carved out that little bit of time. But I didn't think it was new content, I didn't think it was something that was necessary. And you claiming that I wasn't "dedicated" to the holiday achievements and don't deserve a drake because of that is...well, it's ridiculous. It's rude. It's bad customer service.

I won't have a problem with Children's Week because I have done it two years before, and have four of the pets already. I would have five of the six if I hadn't been six during the first Children's Week, but that's another story for another time that involves you saying a holiday lasts until a certain date when in fact it ends at 6 a.m. that morning and not at the END of that day. Trust me, I'm still grumpy about that.

Since you started doing Holiday events in the game, that has been my favorite time to log in and play. I have celebrated nearly every holiday with World of Warcraft because it is my favorite part. When I was bogged down in guild drama and level 40 blues, and I nearly quit playing for six months, I still logged in to do holiday events. This is all before their were achievements or real rewards (aside from pets). I did it because I loved it, because I enjoyed it, and because it showed me clearly why WoW was my type of game.

When you put in the achievements system and I saw that I could get fun title rewards just for doing the things I already love to do, the things I would be doing anyway, I was so happy. Here was a set of achievements that seemed tailor made for me, something that was designed for just the type of player that I was. I didn't care about the rewards, I just wanted to get the achievement showing that I, a player who has been insulted for being too casual, who had a guild abandon me because I wasn't hardcore enough for them, I could actually get something impressive.

I didn't even know there was a proto-drake reward until midway through Halloween. I hadn't paid attention. I wanted the titles as a visible sign that I had DONE something. So that I for once would have a few bragging rights, since my work and class schedule keeps me from raiding. It was something I could do even if I wasn't decked out in raid gear.

I got from level 74 to 80 in around a week just to finish Lunar Festival. That was my sole reason, I had no other motivation. I was so horribly undergeared for Heroic Gundrak that I was convinced I'd get booted from any PUG I joined and I begged a guild tank to come with me so that he would be impressive enough to make up for my failings, and I knew he'd be nice enough to me if I made a mistake and help me correct it. For the record, we wiped a lot on the first snake boss, but we killed everything and he told me I did pretty good. Plus, I got two upgraded items. I enjoyed the experience so much I've been doing more Heroic Dungeons and helping out my guildmates a lot more.

These holiday achievements have also helped me bond with my guild. We've been helping each other, and my former misgivings about guilds has been all but wiped out by how this new group of people has treated each other.

But no matter what I do, no matter what I try, no matter how much effort I give, I won't get that title at the end of the year. I'll spend a year absolutely dedicated, doing everything you've asked of me. I'll log in and do my best during every holiday. I'll do all of it.

And at the end, you'll tell me "Sorry." I won't get the one thing I want (the achievement, NOT the drake, the drake is the bonus) because you feel that I'm not a dedicated enough player because I didn't do something I DIDN'T KNOW I SHOULD DO. I didn't know you wanted it of me. I had no idea.

That is insulting, Blizzard. It bothers me. That's like you telling me that even though I bought WoW on the day it came out, even though I've never let my subscription lapse for four years, even though I bought Collector's Editions of both expansions on the day they came out (pre-ordered even), even though I've done all of the holidays at least once before in those four years, that I'm not good enough for you. I'm not special enough. I'm not what you want in a player.

This isn't about a drake for me, Blizzard. This is about the message that you're sending with the requirement, and in your official forum responses when people question those requirements.

I don't care that achievements are voluntary. I don't care that it's not keeping me from some particular piece of content.

I care that it's something I want, something I would do anything you ask to achieve, and you're telling me all I have to do is bend the laws of space-time and do something you never told me I needed to do until it was too late to do it.

---

Sorry to any non-wow players that had to read that. I'm actually posting this public because I feel strongly enough about it so I don't want to cut it.

Okay, so we've figured it out.

The original Stargate movie was like TOS Star Trek, really good, had it's flaws, a little cheesy, and there's not as much there as people remember. But a great universe that is great to play in.

Then came SG-1, which was Next Generation. Younger actors, a little more hip, a lot more allegory, and really made the franchise the beloved juggernaut that it is. It has the most seasons, and the bulk of the best remembered moments. People argue if Kurt Russell or RDA is the best O'Neill, and nobody will believe that they're just different.

Then there was Atlantis, which is DS9. A specific off-world base as the home area, a galactic civil war that threatens our race, and while there's diplomacy it's a bit more hard edged. While it has a lot of great moments, and some really fabulous characters, it never quite catches on and there's some weird missteps along the way (this comparison is harder for me because I never watched DS9, but I can see the similarities). A couple characters cross over from SG-1 to Atlantis (Instead of Worf and O'Brian we have McKay and Carter).

We also have Ark of Truth, Continuum, and other planned movie projects to compare to the films.

Now they've announced Stargate Universe and it's Voyager. They're stuck on a ship and they don't think they're ever going to get home, and since it's "exploring the origins of the gates" it's definitely going to take the given mythos and continuity and just chuck it right out the window and muddle it all up and make it confusing. Plus, they're going to make it more aimed at a younger generation, so a watered down version of what came before.

So! Right now I predict that when Universe gets canceled about 4 years into it's run, they'll announce a new show that's set in the 1930's or the 1950's about the origins of the Stargate program. It'll really throw everything on it's head because nobody will really understand how it could fit in with what was revealed on SG-1 or how any of it actually works out, but the show will slowly get better until in it's third season it'll really be fantastic and start building a strong fanbase like the show hasn't seen since Richard Dean Anderson left, at which point it will be abrubtly canceled, making everyone mourn that it's the first time in decades that there hasn't been some form of Stargate on the air.

Then they'll announce that a hot new director-producer is going back to the beginning and redoing the origin story of the first movie with all new actors, most of which people will bitch are nothing like Kurt Russell and James Spader, and make the whole universe a little darker and grittier while revisiting where it came from originally. The first teaser trailer will just be a close up of a chevron. ; )

Okay, so we've figured it out.

The original Stargate movie was like TOS Star Trek, really good, had it's flaws, a little cheesy, and there's not as much there as people remember. But a great universe that is great to play in.

Then came SG-1, which was Next Generation. Younger actors, a little more hip, a lot more allegory, and really made the franchise the beloved juggernaut that it is. It has the most seasons, and the bulk of the best remembered moments. People argue if Kurt Russell or RDA is the best O'Neill, and nobody will believe that they're just different.

Then there was Atlantis, which is DS9. A specific off-world base as the home area, a galactic civil war that threatens our race, and while there's diplomacy it's a bit more hard edged. While it has a lot of great moments, and some really fabulous characters, it never quite catches on and there's some weird missteps along the way (this comparison is harder for me because I never watched DS9, but I can see the similarities). A couple characters cross over from SG-1 to Atlantis (Instead of Worf and O'Brian we have McKay and Carter).

We also have Ark of Truth, Continuum, and other planned movie projects to compare to the films.

Now they've announced Stargate Universe and it's Voyager. They're stuck on a ship and they don't think they're ever going to get home, and since it's "exploring the origins of the gates" it's definitely going to take the given mythos and continuity and just chuck it right out the window and muddle it all up and make it confusing. Plus, they're going to make it more aimed at a younger generation, so a watered down version of what came before.

So! Right now I predict that when Universe gets canceled about 4 years into it's run, they'll announce a new show that's set in the 1930's or the 1950's about the origins of the Stargate program. It'll really throw everything on it's head because nobody will really understand how it could fit in with what was revealed on SG-1 or how any of it actually works out, but the show will slowly get better until in it's third season it'll really be fantastic and start building a strong fanbase like the show hasn't seen since Richard Dean Anderson left, at which point it will be abrubtly canceled, making everyone mourn that it's the first time in decades that there hasn't been some form of Stargate on the air.

Then they'll announce that a hot new director-producer is going back to the beginning and redoing the origin story of the first movie with all new actors, most of which people will bitch are nothing like Kurt Russell and James Spader, and make the whole universe a little darker and grittier while revisiting where it came from originally. The first teaser trailer will just be a close up of a chevron. ; )