I'm an MMO junkie as well as a veteran MMO gamer. It's all my husband's fault and I remind him of this on a regular basis. He in turn pats himself on the back for marrying a gamer. In his mind there's no other way.

Asheron's Call, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars, Lineage II, World of Warcraft... the list is pretty impressive or it's a concrete sign of our addiction. We like to think of it as both. In all honesty the only MMO in that list that had "addiction" status for us was WoW at one time. We were running a PvP guild and doing the "Honor Grind" back before the joke of a pvp system they have now was introduced.

We played WoW for 4 years if you count Beta but the last year we were on auto pilot. Burning Crusade did a great job of destroying the game for us and we cast our gaze to the horizon to await another MMO that we'd really like. Enter Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning!!

Hallalujah and pass the pixelation because hands down this is by far THE best MMO we've had the privilege of playing. The RvR (Realm vs Realm) is stellar and get this... There is NO GRIND!! That's right... no level grinding. Oh yes, you have to level but with all the stuff they've got going on in that game for players you don't even feel as if you're leveling. Everything you do gains experience.

Like to mix it up on the battlefield?
You can level just by doing that.
Like to wander around and do quests?
Oh yes my friends, they have an abundance of quests including the ever popular PUBLIC quest. PQs are all the rage. You enter an area that progresses the storyline and you engage in battle with your realmates in a quest that has several stages AND rewards you with nice loot (if you contribute enough to the fight)AND experience.

We got into the final stages of Closed Beta for WAR, ran through Open Beta like kids in a candy shop and with our pre-order bonus got a 2 day (CE holders got a 4 day jump. I love you babe! Hope you enjoy the CE I got you) head start! We're out of the starter areas before they release the game to the world.

Yes Mythic... you rock.
Love the game. Love it! Love it! Love it!
No more bullshit WoW where you have to be worry about DKP/raiding times/and guild bullshit to get gear. In this game even the casual gamer contributes to the guild with their presence AND they can earn great gear without giving up their lives to raid and listen to morons on Vent/Teamspeak.

Don't get me wrong.. Blizz has a rockin' game with WoW. Like I said we played it for 4 years. That's a record for us.. but Blizz made a bunch of mistakes and when they destroyed PvP we washed our hands of the whole thing.

WAR is here.... and ZOMG IT'S MMO L337NESS W/AWESOME SAUCE

Odd thing you have here. When I started this thing my rank in the photo community was 169. A few days later I hit 17 and now suddenly my ranking is steadily going down.

As with most sites that have ranks/ratings I'm going to toss Cre8buzz into the category of "means ansolutely nothing" because ranks are based purely on friends voting photos up/down to keep friends in the top ranks... ie.. the cliques.

Feh. I have no time for cliques and biased critiques. A photo community is supposed to help like minded individuals get better. Giving high ranks to crap photography doesn't help anyone. Now, I'm not saying that I think my rank should be higher... so don't misread the content here. I'm just stating that it's quite apparent what the rankings are all about. If that's what makes everyone's boat float and it keeps them happy then hey, that's great but it's not for me. I learned long ago in my first college photography class... critiques are part of life to give a false critique is not aiding anyone.

This space will most likely collect dust but I'll mill around a bit and see if it warrants the stay based on the blogging aspect. From the photography point of view it's just like the others.

In the past year I've relocated my blog several times, I've also relocated my main website a few times and I wonder if I'll ever find the perfect place for both. Currently my business is not in need of fancy flash sites that stream music while photos float by endlessly for onlookers. I've always thought that keeping things simple was the best solution. At least that's what I expect when I visit sites.

The ability to easily locate the information I need is crucial to whether or not I'll revisit any site. I've tried combos of solutions and now a year later I find that what will work best is SmugMug. I made the mistake of signing up for a demo of Pictage and it took me 3 months to get those people to stop calling me and bombarding me with aggressive emails. It annoyed me to no end... there's no way I'm going to put my customers through that.

I had SmugMug for a year and let the subscription expire because I wasn't sure that the cost was justified. Now after trying other sites I know that it is. It's an initial outlay of $150 vs paying a monthly fee elsewhere but you get a lot for your money. The downside is that unless I take a course and become a coding genius it will always have that "SmugMug"feel to it. But I figure people are coming to view my work not analyze the design of my website.

SquareSpace is an awesome site but I decided to leave that as well because I want and need print service. Again, in an attempt to keep things simple for both me and my customer I let the account go and will focus primarily on the Smuggy.

On the homefront, my 18 year old is still being stubborn and not speaking to me. He's yet to return any emails, has removed his brothers, his step-dad, me and his cousins from his MySpace. After he left I was a weeping mess but it was his choice. Eighteen or not there are rules in this household that need to be respected and he felt he was above that. I knew I'd have to deal with each of my sons leaving at some point but I never thought it would be in a negative way.

He's a great kid but he's in that "I'm 18 and know everything" stage. The only upside to this and it's not really an upside believe me, is that he's with his Dad right now. He oculd have left and taken off to parts unknown so I at least have some peace of mind. I'm giving him time and space even though it's the hardest thing I've had to do. Of my three, he's always been the most stubborn and the wildest of them all.

He's just like his father. :(

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I've been avidly involved in my photography for nearly 3 years now. By avid I mean that I've sought every opportunity to learn new things, have studied the work of photographer's I admire and taken photo after photo in an attempt to get better at what I do. Friends and family have been after me for 18 months to pursue photography as a career and my general response has been "Just because I have a camera... a professional I am not."

Pros take money for the work they do. Now I've seen lots of work out there by so-called pros who charge for their work and I've been apalled at what they've produced. Most of the work that makes me cringe falls into what has been tagged as photojournalistic. It seems that with this candid style everyone who can twist their camera left and right to take photos that are blurry tags themselves as "A photojournalist" and it sickens me.

There are true professionals out there who take total pride in their work. They work extremely hard to present a style that tells a story of the days events. Some of my favorite local photographers are:

Rob-Humbled Eyes Photography: www.humbledeyes.com
Vlad - Something Blue Photography: www.something-blue-photo.com

Vlad is a gaming pal from way back and recently took his photography hobby over the threshold and has been shooting weddings. Though I have a wedding on the books I'm more of the candid portraits/family lifestyles kinda photographer. I work better with infants, toddlers and kids then I do with bridezillas. To each their own right?

This past weekend my nephew and his wife celebrated the arrival of their 3rd child and I was there to photograph her birth. The photos that I gave them were such a hit I got a booking for another infant shoot involving my neice-in-law's sister-in-law who ALSO gave birth to a daughter 2 days after our Devon Kylie was born. The request came from the Grandmother who complitemented my style and said she wanted photos of all the grandkids.

I'm thrilled that they love the work I do. I'm thrilled that I get to work with little ones AND get paid. I actually said I'd do the photos for free in return for allowing me to use their photos in my portfolio but the Grandmother insists on paying me for me time. Cool, works for me.

I think I'll be returning to SmugMug as a source for print sales and viewing galleries for customers. I haven't found another site that offers as much as SmugMug does. I'm hoping that one day they'll incorporate albums as well but for now I think the $149 investment is worth it. I'll keep my main site with SquareSpace and just link over to the SmugMug site for my gallery & client galleries.

I've got a busy week ahead of me. Thursday is Devon's first photo session and on Saturday I have a session with a 6month old. In between I'll be putting the finishing touches on a maternity shoot that I did.

Somewhere in between all of that I want to go to the Pumpkin Festival at Longwood Gardens and schedule a reshoot of an engagement session since we got rained out in August. Hopefully the couple and I will have a mutual day that works for us.

Now I think I'll take some time to enjoy Warhammer Online. I'm so glad I left World of Warcraft. We've all been involved in Beta for WAR (closed Beta, Free Preview Weekend and now Open Beta) and we're thrilled with the game. It goes live on September 18th and we're all counting the days.

Now normally I'd laugh at that and add a good old fashioned eye roll for drama but this week it rang true.

After our usual Labor Day festivities which always include the burning of some sort of meat by my nephew on the grill and at least 10 lbs of my famouse (at least in this family) pasta salad the week slipped into a black hole.

Don't really want to get into but the highlights would be: butting heads, butt heads, 17 yr old "I'm turning 18 in 2 months" type attitude, empty nest syndrome. Le sigh. The house is quiet and it's annoying all of us. By Friday my husband was at a loss and couldn't think of anything that would bring a smile.

Fortunately my nephew called at 6pm on Friday from work to tell me that his wife was having contractions. I was in my car and at their home in record speed... gear bag and cell phone in tow. With the first two children she gave birth so fast we worried that with this 3rd child she'd give birth at home or worse on Interstate 95.

Luckily for us she decided to head to the hospital before her water broke but the baby had other plans. Not wanting to be like her siblings, Miss D took her sweet time making her entrance but when she finally appeared she did it in memorable fashion. The story is a long one so I'll condense it like a Reader's Digest Story Collection volume...

Baby was being stubborn.
Mom was stuck at 8 cm.
Mom decided she wanted the epi
Epi went wrong.
Dad hit floor.
Mom said "She's coming!"
Nurse said "Doctor isn't here!"
Baby said "HELLOOO"

Before my nephew's wife could get herself repositioned in the bed after having to sit on the edge for the failed epidural.. she was pushing and little Miss D came out onto the bed with two nurses and one freaked out Great Aunt prepared to catch.

We don't need no stinkin' doctors!!

7lbs 2ozs. & 20.5 inches of beautiful baby girl!
It was a fabulous ending to rough week.