So what's the plan? Well, I haven't got it all figured out yet but here's some ideas to make that gold grind go faster. And no, I don't intend to play the auction house game by buying low and selling high. I'll gamble when I have money to gamble with, and no sooner.

• Of course I'll do my dailies each day, its an easy 200g a day
• Up in Blade's Edge Mountains there are some serpents flying around. They drop the meat used for the spell damage food. They also skin for knothide leather and have a chance to drop windscales which sell on my server for about 12g each. Seems like a good grinding spot. Only thing to watch out for is one of the Sons of Gruul that roams around
• Hitting Elemental Plateau in Nagrand. While usually over farmed, during the late night hours that I play I can usually get a good thing going with the water elementals. I clear one side and then the other, fish up the pure water spots and then go around again. Its a constant system and the motes drop at a 62% rate. Primal water sells for 25g each.
• Cobra scales in ShadowMoon Valley. While not much else around then the Naga the scales sell for around 40g each one. It took me an hour to get the four I needed to have my leg enchant made.
• Air Elementals in Shadowmoon Valley. Either the ones by the drakes or the ones behind the aldor city. These have a lower drop rate then the waters do, but sell for more at 30g a piece on our server.
• Aldor Rep Items at Legion Hold. Everyone is Aldor it seems. At the top of Legion Hold are some warlocks, four to spire, three spires across. They drop gold, netherweave cloth, greens, and of course, Marks of Sargaras and Fel Armenants. These don't sell for a lot per say, but the warlocks instantly respawn and make them extremely easy to farm.
• The Dead Mire in the Zangermarsh. Ideally this is best for an herblist but a non herblist can do it too. You start at one side and work your way around. The bog lords have a chance of dropping motes of life which sell for about 20g each on our server. But oddly enough its all the grey crap you get that makes it a great farm spot.

So what do I do once I've filled up my bags with goodies to sell? Well....

• All grey items get vendored off immediately. If I've got full bags this can net me about 12g a go. I don't ever throw anything away, its worth the gold to run back and clean out the bags.
• While I'm farming I send everything to a bank alt. She holds stuff for me until I'm ready to sell it, including my gold. I never have more then 50g on any of my active alts, or I might feel inclined to spend it.
• Once on my bank alt I post everything that is of white quality or better on the AH. Even if you think it doesn't have a value you'd be surprised what sells. When I have large amounts of something unless I know its in high demand (ie Stat Food or Primals) I section it off into smaller more usable stacks and post no more then 10 stacks of an item. Otherwise I may flood the market and sabotage my own efforts.
• When I have something really rare, I check the current going prices for that item. If they are lower then I'd like it to be I wait. Eventually those ones will sell and the way will be clear for me to name my price. If you don't wish to wait you'll need to undercut your competition by at least 10 percent if you really want it to sell. Remember you want your buyer to think they are robbing you.
• When it comes to rep items I try to get the stacks up to max. I always found it a pain to have to buy 10 marks of sagaras here and 2 more there. Stack em up before you post 'em.
• I don't post green items. I have them DE'd by my husband's priest. I hang on to the mats until I hear people complain about how stupid expensive they've gotten, then I post them. Enchanting mats are not something most people can or will farm, so they ALWAYS sell.

That's pretty much it. Andrea's how to farm gold and sell it properly plan. Now that you're all enlisted go have a go. Good luck with it.

“When Bobby died suddenly in 2002 it was completely devastating to the entire family and all of the people who worked for him at his company, Patriot.Net,” explains Cynthia today. “Bobby was one of those people who lit up a room the second he walked into it—who changed people just because he knew them. This foundation is our way of honoring his life and bringing joy to the people who never got to meet him.”

The mission of the Bobby de Lorenzi Foundation is to provide a grant to an adult who has had to stop their studies or career so they can continue on their path with renewed confidence and support.

“Our goal is to provide $1000 or more to a needy woman or man to help them go back to school, manage their lives after leaving a relationship, or buy the wardrobe they need to land a great job,” Cynthia explains.

That mission also dovetails with the goals of her organization, Success in the City, a support network for women entrepreneurs.

“We know that with a little humor and love from your sister-friends, anything is possible,” Cynthia shares. “The grants given by the Bobby de Lorenzi Foundation will provide some money to make transitions into the workforce easier, as well."

And since singing at the top of his lungs was something Bobby prided himself on, the Thursday, Aug. 21 fundraiser is entitled: Chari-oke (Karaoke for charity). We invite you to support this good cause. (Details follow.)

Fundraiser to benefit the Bobby de Lorenzi Foundation
DATE: Thurs., Aug. 21, 2008
TIME: 6:30 p.m. - 10:30 pm

LOCATION: Velocity Five Sports Bar & Restaurant, located at the corner of Lee Highway and Gallows Road in the Merrifield section of Falls Church, Virginia

DETAILS:"Chari-oke" will feature food, fun, special entertainers as well as folks like you. It's an opportunity to show your musical or comic talent at the open mic or karaoke machine. Enjoy whoops and hollers and maybe even a valuable door prize, like concert tickets!

SIGN UP:Fees are $45 for Success In The City members; $55 for non-members. This is a co-ed event. Find information and registration link on the Events page at www.SuccessInTheCity.org or call Sheri Fulton at 703-309-5502. charioke - Karaoke for Charity

Labels: Cynthia de Lorenzi honors brother by creating a charitable foundation

Read about our guest blogger - Hope Katz Gibbs
Truly Amazing Women Blog

Those are really self-forming questions.  They're the sort of thing that, if you care at all about honor, you can't make it too far without.  Where do you stand?  Do you support friend before family?  Stranger before husband or wife?

I know where I stand.  I owe my allegiance first to my gods.  If something is asked of me that is contrary to my fundamental religious beliefs and convictions, I will adhere to what I know.

I owe my allegiance second to my family, and my like-family.  That category includes close friends, my pets and charges, my family, my boyfriend/husband, etc.  In all things before I get married, it is blood(mom, dad, uncle, aunt) and charges(pets) first, like-family and boyfriend(s) second.  And when I get married, it will be husband, then family.

But Gods, first.

So that all seems pretty standard.  But what about say, if you joined a fraternity? A sorority?  The masons?  Some other organization?  Even work and hobbies can create moral dilemmas in prioritizing and making decisions.

I know, for example, that my first year of college, I was planning on joining a sorority.  Well, maybe.  But I went to the rushes, and I received a phone call, and I picked it up and spoke for a minute.  When I hung up, one of the sisters snapped, "No cell phones during our sister-time!"  Or something along those lines.

I calmly explained to her that the pecking order in my life was gods and family[like-family counts there, too] come before everything, and that may have been an emergency more pressing than eating ice cream with a group of college students more concerned about power play than making a difference in the world.  (Okay, I added that last bit...but still.)

She didn't like that, much.  And I have a feeling that when you join that sisterhood, you take an oath that will attempt to force you to compromise where you stand.  Is it sisters before family, then?  Sisters before God(s)?  With your previous oaths, are you allowed to join that sisterhood without compromising your honor?

Anyone of religious convictions can and will face this problem.  Does what your church believes become more important than what you, as a (insert religious follower name here) believe to be true?  Is orthodoxy(beliefs) more important than orthopraxy(actions)?

There's a "rule" of sorts that comes to mind, from the Witches' Rede of Chivalry.  I believe the document itself I received from my high priest, although the introduction does make mention of it coming from Gardner's Book of Shadows:

A witch's word must have the validity of a signed and witnessed oath. Thus, give thy word sparingly, but adhere to it like iron.

Maybe I'll post the Rede of Chivalry as a page now.  It could prove interesting.

Have a great day!  I'm sorry I rambled so much!

So if you want some more details on my story...go check it out.

SMS...Thank you for letting me share.

This has made a big impact on me - not that I'm perfect and always honor my parents and others in authority - but the goal of being a man of honor is engrained in me, I pray, forever.

In addition to this, I have been inspired by another worthy endeavor, this one being "ruthless compassion". I'm checking at this time to find out where this quote is from - but in the meantime, I would like to define the term.  What I do not mean by this term is the equivalent of "tough love" - not at all.  What I'm trying to convey in mentioning this quote is the principle of being ruthless to myself by always being compassionate, whether or not doing so goes along with my feelings at the the time.

More coming soon... Persevero!

Is it just me, or do those two hands that meet Michael's right hand look like they're holding a white mouse (or two)?

I got this in my email this morning. It's a true story. And I cannot BELIEVE this woman lost the Nobel Peace Prize to stupid Al Gore and his loony movie!!!!

May 12, 2008, marked the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena Sendlerowa. She was born in Germany in 1910. During WWII, Irena, a German, received permission from the Nazis to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive…

Irena knew the Nazis' plans for the Jews and smuggled infants out in the bottom of the large tool box she carried. Larger children were placed in a burlap sack in the back of her truck. Also in the back was a dog that she had trained to bark each time the Nazi guards allowed her out of the ghetto and back in.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and its barking covered any noise made by the infants and small children. Irena managed to smuggle out approximately 2,500 children before she was finally caught.

When she was captured, the Nazis beat her severely, breaking both her arms and her legs.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents who may have survived so she might reunite the child with its family. Most, of course, did not survive the Holocaust, and the vast majority of the surviving children were placed in foster homes or adopted.

Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but she lost to Al Gore, who won the award for presenting a slide show on the philosophy behind global warming.

Read more at a website dedicated to Irena.

A Question of Honour

By Farah El Alfy
First Published: August 14, 2008

What would you do if you found out the girl you love is not a virgin?” scriptwriter Amal Fawzy asks a university student in Cairo.

“I would leave her,” the student answers.

“And what if it was you she lost her virginity to, in a moment of weakness?” continues Fawzy.

“I would never marry her,” the young man replied confidently.

The eternal question of honor (‘ird or sharaf in Arabic) was lingering in the air at the screening of director Saad Hindawy’s new documentary “Malaf Khas” (A Special Report) which premiered last Sunday at the Cairo Opera House’s Artistic Creativity center.

Hindawy approached Fawzy with the idea of the project in 2001. Since then, the pair has been working on the documentary, interviewing random people in Cairo, Alexandria and Minya, as well as experts and professionals in order to understand how Egyptians perceive the concept of honor.

Most of the answers Hindawy and Fawzy received highlighted the narrow perspective which ties a woman’s honor to her virginity — a rule that accepts no exceptions.

This opinion was evident in both men’s and women’s answers.

Mothers go to extreme lengths to protect their daughters’ virginity. They act as chaperons, accompanying their daughters on dates with their fiancés, if they agree to let them out in the first place. One mother from rural Egypt says her presence is required to “keep the devil away.”

Even if it wasn’t the woman’s fault — if she was a rape victim, for instance — the social stigma persists.

Middle-class men said that they would break up with a girl if they found out she is not a virgin, even if they are in love. Why? “She lost her honor,” one correspondent said.

Fathers from rural areas, interviewed for the documentary, said a girl who has been raped deserves to die. They do not regard her as a victim, but as an embarrassment and a shame in their closed, unforgiving communities.

Really, what can I say that hasn’t been said countless times before? In my opinion, however, there is more to this than plain, simple traditionalism.

The recent “renaissance” of adhering to the most orthodox strains of Islam amongst the Muslim population, often emulating trends and traditions of the Gulf region may also be adding fuel to this fire. After all, many other rural traditions are dying out, yet not this.

As increasing numbers of young Egyptian men leave Egypt to work on the construction sites of the Arabian peninsula, I expect this trend, along with other cultural and social imports shall continue, just as the hijab, which once seemed on the way out, has made a return.

In the film, sexologist Dr Heba Kotb recalls the story of a girl who was born with a defective hymen, too thick that it constricts menstrual blood in her body.

The girl’s stomach was continually growing, so her father took her to the doctor assuming she was pregnant. The doctor reassured him that she is a virgin, and that her bloated stomach was the result of accumulated menstrual blood.

A simple medical procedure would have solved the problem. This, however, required puncturing her hymen to allow the natural flow of menstrual blood.

“So on her wedding night will she bleed?” asked the father. The answer was no, yet as Kotb explained, if the operation is not performed the girl will lose her life. “Let her die with her honor,” replied the father.

The girl died shortly afterwards.

I would be interested to know what Sheikh Abdelfattah Allam would have to say to this “pious” father. I expect such a situation would reduce even the most mild man of religion to using four letter words.

One day Egypt shall heal the deep wounds inflicted upon it by cultural stagnation, and the imported religious fervour that these acts sometimes hide behind. I yearn for this in my heart. But, deep down, I know it will not come within my years. The ideal lifetime is 110 years, so the texts say. But a lifetime for a person, even one of 110 years, is often little more than a single line in the history books of Egypt. I just hope that Hindawy's noble effort is a drop in the river that may yet restore life to the land.

For now, however, the Fourth Intermediate Period continues.

[photo: Getty Images via nymag.com]

Writing a book used to mean something. "I AM GOING TO WRITE A BOOK!!" used to be met with gasps and applause, and the endeavor itself used to command respect. But now, all you have to do is live long enough to have at least 10 wAcKy AnEcDoTeS to tell and be able to get to a Borders to read that dumb NaNoWriMo guy's book.

In one short month, you will have your very own book of essays that other people can buy and chuckle at and be like

"OMG that is SO something that happens to people!" or

"NUH UH I had a problem relating to my parents/boss/French people one time too! LOL!"

Has anyone else read Sarah Vowell's book "Take the Cannoli?" Did anyone else notice that it was just a bunch of stories about different stuff that ANYBODY could have written? She didn't escape from a war, she didn't discover any scientific discoveries, and she definitely didn't figure out that having bangs and wearing makeup helps you be pretty. But she did grow up, go to high school, and have some friction with her dad and some trouble learning to drive! Sound familiar? WHATEVER. Also, yeah RIGHT you have a lisp and are allergic to gluten, and played the recorder. TOO ADORABLE, I AM NOT BUYING IT.

Then there's David Sedaris, who unlike Sarah Vowell is actually really funny and a good writer and related to someone else funny and famous. However, he's also just an OCD dude from the middle of nowhere in North Carolina of all places who did a lot of drugs, worked as a furniture mover, dropped out of art school, and sort of walked around for a while. JOIN THE CLUB, GUY.

So...why are these two living the good life and not having to wake up early to go to a job? Telling stories that anyone could tell and getting to be on national radio like every day? What is the secret to their relatively random success? I need to know, because getting famous enough to be able to live in like, Flatiron and not have to get up at 8 am is basically the most pressing goal on my plate right now.

Well, friends it's pretty simple. Do you want not to be REALLY famous but at least get to be read by snobby kids on the F train and able to get published in NY Mag or whatever if you need vacay money? Then like Vowell and Sedaris, you need the magic ingredient. The magic ingredient is what qualifies you for publication other than being a hipster who loves to speak in public (HELLO, OVER HERE!).

DUH it's Ira Glass.

[photo: commons.wikimedia.org]

Ira Glass, listen, I'm pretty sure that listening to/inserting poignant music into anecdotes from across the country and having a professorial speaking voice is not the same as being smart. So why don't you just take off those sexy foxy salt and peppery used to have a ponytail infectious chuckle having smart guy Elvis Costello looking fake glasses and stop haunting my dreams with your unwelcome but undeniable sex appeal, k?

David Sedaris on Ira Glass:"I owe everything to Ira....My life just changed completely, like someone waved a magic wand. (wikipedia.org)"

Um yeah, no shit it did. I wish Ira Glass would wave his magical wand all over me too (yeah that's right). One minute you're reading your diary at an open mic night and like, working odd jobs, and then two seconds later you're all over the mags and radio and getting artsy smoking pics taken of you! Pretty sweet if you ask me, and just the excuse I'll need to take up smoking again in another 25 years...

[photo: bloggingbunny.blogspot.com]

What if you don't think you can meet Ira Glass? What then?

DO NOT PANIC. You just have to revert back to the time-tested approach of just being really pretty. Being pretty will still get you everything you want, including popularity and a book deal even if you grew up in the suburbs and your book revolves around a story about a boss who was pretty mean to you. It also doesn't hurt to happen to work in book publishing while you are being so pretty.

[photo: mediabistro.com]

Oh um hey Sloane Crosley....sorry...I didn't see you there, how awkward.... umm, you ARE really pretty though...

]]> http://giftsofspirituality.wordpress.com/?p=83 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:30:08 +0000 motherleigh http://giftsofspirituality.wordpress.com/?p=83 Although God speaketh through them all,
yet they lose not their individuality or originality of character.
The breath which causes the music is the same,
but no two of the instruments give forth precisely the same sound.

It is true they all utter the words of God;
but each voice has its own special cry,
so that though God is pre-eminently seen,
yet the man is not lost.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

The first group of people are the Schals who take their name from their Mother Land of Schalin. A proud, warrior people who hold honor and prowess in battle above anything else. The Schals are of average height and build usually, but they have their tall and burley warriors as well. Their eyes are usually either green or light brown and thier hair is always a shade of red. Though those Schals that live in the areas closer to the other lands dress in the "modern" manner, there are some that stick to the traditional style of Schal clothing(but very few stick to this style due to outside influences). The males wear an animal hide wrapped around thier waist that falls down to either just below the loins(for those who haven't reached manhood) or down to the knees and no other clothes to speak of. Except for when the cold season starts, they then wear a cloak of animal fur. The females wear the same as the males, with the same legnth standards, and a shirt of fairly simple design that also conform to the legnth stadards of the wrap(just below the chest for the young and down to the waist for those who've reached womanhood).

Since I'm still fiddling with the idea of using firearms, the types of weapons mostly used by the Schals is still up in the air as of yet.

The main character I've been throwing around in my head in Aubares is a Schal by the name of Orrin the Red. So called at first because of his red hair, and later because of the deep red cloak he always wears. Orrin didn't grow up in Schalin, but in another land called Oreknor(I'll talk about this place later). I don't want to get to into his background because that's where his story begins. Anyways, he's a young man with a great deal of fire in his belly and a will stronger than a titan. He's not much of a talker, but when he does it will usually be something that will get him into some sort of trouble, wether intentionally or unintentionally.

I'm sure that you'll enjoy his story, it's something that just won't disappear from my wonderings so expect it to be one of my firsts.

"He was my steady from the very beginning, which my mother was against because she thought I should be meeting other men,” Patricia said in an interview. “But I said, 'No, Mother, this is the young man I want to date.'"

Chuck and Patricia were married two years later, in 1954; he was 21 and she was 19.

"He was a sweetheart," she said, "handsome, loving, caring, just perfect."

Chuck and Patricia Scharf, the early '60s

Fast forward to 1965. Chuck was an Air Force fighter pilot about to take off for Vietnam. Patricia was there to see him off, the pregnant wife of another pilot alongside her.

"He looked over at me, and I'm waving my scarf, and he salutes me," Patricia said. "And Donna Jewel turned and said, 'We're never going to see them again,' and I said, 'Yes, we are.' Well, guess what?"

Chuck's F4C Phantom II jet fighter was shot down over North Vietnam on Oct. 1, 1965, two weeks before he was due home.

"The doorbell rings, and I open the door, and there's the base commander," Patricia remembers. "I said, 'Chuck got shot down?' And he said, 'Yes.' And I said, 'Is he dead?' And he said, 'He's missing in action.'"

Missing in action, for the next 41 years.

"I prayed very hard," Patricia said. "I had hopes that somewhere they'd find him, but they didn't, and then they found the remains."

Human remains were excavated from Chuck's crash site, but DNA tests proved inconclusive. Stymied, the Air Force turned to Patricia, and that's when she remembered Chuck's love letters, about a hundred old love letters squirreled away in a trunk in her closet.

"And they said, real quietly, they paused for a few moments, and they said, 'Could we have about 12 of the envelopes, Mrs. Scharf? We'll return them to you.' And I said, 'Sure,' and that's how it happened."

DNA from Chuck's saliva on the stamps and seals of the envelopes matched bone fragments recovered from the crash site. Chuck's love letters from 1965 helped identify his remains in 2006.

"I finally had closure," Patricia said. "It was a great relief."

Patricia flew out to Hawaii and brought Chuck's remains home for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

"As we were landing, the flight attendant said to the passengers, 'Ladies and gentlemen, last night we picked up a very special passenger from Hawaii. His name was Colonel Charles J. Scharf. He was shot down October 1st of 1965, and he was missing in action for 41 years. We are honored to bring him back home to his native America. God bless him and God bless his family.'"

The passengers broke into applause - and some tears - and Patricia stood up to thank them.

"I said to them, 'I want to thank you for your wonderful love at this moment for my husband and me. Thank you all ever so much.' I was getting very emotional. I still do when I say that."

Patricia never remarried, never even considered it. Chuck and Patricia's only child, a daughter, had been stillborn, so Patricia has no family. Now 74 and retired, she visits Chuck every week at Arlington, where he's buried along with some of those old love letters.

"I can go anytime I want to talk to him, and I love sitting out there, and I know where he's at," she said. "He's not in the mud, not lost forever in the jungle."

~ From NBC Field Notes - By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer

A side note on the Perseid meteor showers: Its Peak is Tuesday am EST around seven ! Get away from all the light pollution if you can, find a dark sky. put out a lawn chair or blanket. allow fifteen minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. Look up in awe and wonder at the show!  Be sure to make a wish on one of those falling stars!