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Tonight President Obama came out to deliver what many in the media were calling a “do or die” speech to a joint session of congress.   He was either going to make health care reform in this country a possibility, or he was going to crash his presidency early in the first term – so much so that he would likely not be able to recover.  At least according to the media he wouldn’t have been able to recover.  Because they know what’s going to happen three years down the road.  /sarcasm

There were several aspects of his speech that I found compelling.  First and foremost he gave a very clear rebuttal to many of the persistent and nagging myths floating around out there about health care reform.  He attacked head on Sara Palin’s “Death Panels,” although he didn’t use those exact words (which was probably a smart move, eliminates a Fox News sound byte).  He clearly said there’d be no public care for illegal aliens, and once again stressed that care for seniors would not shrink.  While the President spoke of using part of Senator McCain’s health care plan in his own plan, he took a lot more from McCain than just that.  His whole myth debunking segment was pulled right out of the old John McCain Straight Talk Express.  You know – the McCain everyone liked, not the one that was on display during the 2008 elections.

The President’s evocation of the late Senator Kennedy and his philosophical defense of liberal health care reforms will strike a chord with the Democratic party for years to come – assuming they are able to pass whatever bill ends up being voted on.  Senator Kennedy’s letter to the President has the possibility to exist as a turning point in this whole ordeal; it can become the Democratic answer to the 1990’s Contract With America.  Let the masses of liberals and free thinkers flock to the Kennedy’s and the President’s ideologies and restore the “fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country” to what it should have always been – one that guarantees health care to the masses.

Give us your sick, your weak, your poor.

And while all of the good things that the President did tonight will help cement the passage of health care reform legislation in our country, there was one thing that sealed the deal.  A certain representative from South Carolina named Joe Wilson.  His outburst “You lie!” to the President, interrupting his speech and drawing the attention of the world will backfire in the worst possible way for the Republicans.

While it is typical for the opposition party not to stand as much as the majority party, not to clap as much, not to smile as much, and not to like the speech as much, it is not typical for them to misbehave in the way Representative Wilson did.  His behavior now reflects on the entire Republican Party, it reflects onto them the message that they have been trying to get rid of – that of the obstructionist and “the party of no.”

Representative Wilson did something that President Obama never could do, he made it clear that there is only one mature and stately group in the hallowed halls of Congress to help the American people.  He made it clear that there is only one voice which speaks with reason and compassion.  He made it clear that the Republicans are there to do nothing more than yell at those working towards health care reform, that they are not interested in having a real discussion or real debate.

Representative Wilson brought the shameful behavior at town halls to our nation’s capitol; and in doing so has delivered unto Democrats the ultimate gift – that of a single voice speaking above the yelling and screaming – President Obama’s.

Health care reform now has a clear message, and a clear speaker.  Thanks Joe, we all owe you one.

There have been two stories that WoW.com has broke under my name in the past week:

• Patch 3.2 Going Live
• Cataclysm races leaked

Each story relied on anonymous sources (well, anonymous to you) that had information pertaining to the facts which were being reported on.  Each story was cited as such, with the words crafted in a way to express the source’s validity.

But yet here we are, the evening of the big Cataclysm leak, and the crying over WoW.com not revealing its sources has reached the worst levels I’ve ever seen.  People seem to think they’re entitled to the same trust that individuals place in myself and fellow editors at our site, and feel that without their personal seal of approval we have nothing more than unsubstantiated rumors.

Well, okay then.  I’m fine with people questioning or holding up a skeptical eye to our news, especially with something like this.  But when people shut their brains off and just start yelling, it tends to get to me. (Same with the “town halls” going on right now).  And while most of those people who are yelling are getting banned from our site over the next few hours (there’s so many of them), there are some facts I think are appropriate to put out there:

First, we would never stake our reputation on posting news like this if we were not supremely confident in our sources.

Second, the sources are not just one person saying something.  There’s a lot of stuff we’ve got with only one person saying it.  We have no idea if it’s true. It could be false.  But like a good journalist, when more than one person says the exact same thing, and are in a position where they’d know the facts at hand, it becomes valid enough to write about and bring to the public.

Third, no one will reveal their sources.  This is a founding principal of modern journalism.  Anonymous sources stay anonymous.

If I were to reveal the sources, I would likely be fired from my job at WoW.com.  I would be untrustworthy and show a clear lack of decision making capability.  I would be a person who cannot handle confidential information, and thus would be someone who could jeopardizes the welfare of the site on a daily basis.

If I were to reveal the sources I would likely not be able to get another job with responsibilities and tasks which I enjoy spending my life doing, and would be forced to be a burger expert at McDonalds.  And I’d be lucky to even be able to land that job in this economy.

I’m not going to reveal the sources under any circumstance.  If I did, I would be ruining the lives of people who put their trust in me.  That is something I will not, cannot do.  It goes against every ethical fiber of my being.

I know I have a flare for the literary.  I was a big reader as a kid, my nose always buried in some book.  As an adult I’ve carried this tradition on, spending too much money at Barnes & Nobel every month.  I figured that someday I’d write an article for a magazine or SciFi novel, but it was never at the top of my list.  I thought that I’d end up working in computers somehow, probably with stuff on the internet.

I never thought I’d be editing other peoples work.

You see I have two faults as a writer.  The first my grammar – it isn’t really up to my standards.  I have a good persuasive and conversational tone, and can meld the two together with ease.  But my skills in technical and “100% proper” grammar have never been my strong point.  Not the basic stuff like you’re and your, or their, there, and they’re.  More “advanced” stuff like use of – or; or my, penchant, for, comma, usage.

If the above paragraph doesn’t get me fired I don’t know what will.

The second fault I have is my spelling.

I had a teacher in the fourth and fifth grade named Mrs. Davidson, at Otter Lake Elementary School in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.  I stayed in touch with her throughout the rest of my public education, and did some work with her classes for a college course later on.  She was a great teacher to both my brothers and me, and she always gave me shit about one thing: I couldn’t spell to save my life.

I was in an English class of hers in 2003 helping out and observing for a large college honors report I was doing on power structures in the classroom.  She chuckled and motioned for me to come over to her desk, giving me the dreaded two fingered summons.

You know.  The kind every teacher can do.  Raise their hand above their head, look right at you over their bifocals, put their pointer and middle fingers together and give you the “Come over and receive punishment” motion.

I pop up from my seat at the back of the classroom and walk over between the rows of students, reminiscing that I once led such a simple life of worksheets and crossword puzzles.  I take a seat on the chair next to her, smiling.  She hands me a spelling test and says softly, “Make sure you know how to spell the words before you tell the class.”

A grin and a chuckle later, she reminded me after first teaching me over 10 years ago that I still didn’t know how to spell worth a damn.

And she was right.  One of the words was italicize.  Z and not S?  News to me.

So this brings me to today, a full 16 years after I first had spelling lessons given to me by Mrs. Davidson.  I’m now working as a full time editor for WoW.com (formerly WoW Insider) and amongst other things, every day I correct people on spelling, grammar, and other subtle nuisances of the English language.

It’s absolutely the last job I ever thought I’d have.

Really.  Look at this.  A blog update!

I have a good reason for not updating since the flood: I’ve been super busy with work.  WoW Insider has morphed into WoW.com.  WoW.com combines both social networking tools and the great World of Warcraft information site everyone has come to know and love.  The transition took a solid month of internal testing before it went live, and even now, it’s officially in beta.
I’m very impressed with the work that the entire team has put into it.  The social networking side of things really got tested thoroughly by the writing staff.  We were well prepared for whatever problems would creep up on launch day.  The other thing that happened was the new site redesign went live.  This was, in my opinion, even a larger deal; if only because the width of the columns increased from 425px to 580px.  That makes a big big difference in the content that we’re able to produce.  Expect to see lots more tables, graphs, and complicated graphics in the future.

I’ve been doing a lot more behind the scenes with WoW.com/WoW Insider now as well.  I just finished a big project that should help things out significantly.  Lots of research but a good results will come of it.  Completed projects make me happy.  +20 mood for the rest of the week.

BlizzCon is coming up in August and I’m looking forward to traveling out to LA again to enjoy the event.  Perhaps more than the actual event is getting to meetup with the WoW.com folks face to face again.  Last time was a blast, and I’m sure this time will be great fun as well.

Facebook has been discovered, forgotten about, and then rediscovered by me recently.  I’m not really sold on it personally, however.  There is too much personal information in there.  Not that there’s not already a shitton out there on the net about me already, but I’m not too keen on letting eFriends know my phone number and address.  So I think I’m going to limit it to people I know (or remember), and gently let everyone else down.  As if they’d care.  /ego.

I’ve become and am becoming more addicted to twitter.  I hate myself for that.  Oh wait, someone tweeted about their bowl movement.  I wonder how that’ll go.

/facepalm!

I really am amazed at people.

On March 17th, 2007 it was revealed that Kara Thrace somehow survived the destruction of her viper.  Speculation on the internet began that she was a Cylon.  That speculation has never stopped.

On March 12th, 2009 I made a reference on WoW Insider that she might be the 7th and final Cylon.  People are yelling at me that I’ve spoiled the show, and that I’m somehow responsible for ruining it for them.

Newflash: TWO FUCKING YEARS HAS GONE BY SINCE SHE CAME BACK TO LIFE.  What the fuck did you think she was?

And people honestly think I’m going to get fired over a BSG reference?  What a joke.  Thanks for visiting, and thanks for the pageviews.  Remind me to think of you all when I deposit my check next week…

I’m trying my hand at level design.

Before World of Warcraft came along I was a huge Baldur’s Gate fan.  I played BGI and BGII all the way through several times.  Neverwinter Nights was also on the top of my list, although I never felt it got to the story telling level that the Baldur’s Gate series did.  I currently am playing through Neverwinter Nights 2, and while I’m enjoying myself, I’m longing for my BGII Mage to come out and start kicking the living crap out of everything, all the while getting an amazing story told me to.

So I’ll be using the NWN2 framework for my level design.  The DND ruleset isn’t too hard to understand, and I think that overall NWN2 should provide me with a good creative outlet.

The backend story for the campaign will focus on a Human from a tribe of bandits.  He’s going to go through the typical Drizzt  transformation and emerge at the end of the story a complicated character that, while partially dedicated to the ways of good, cannot completely get rid of his seedy past.  I’ve decided on this overall story arc since while the Drizzt series is up there with the Lord of the Ring series in my all time favorites list, my one major complaint is that he seems to shake off his upbringing a little too easily.  So, I say, why not change it!

I’ll use this blog, in part, to chronicle my own adventure while making this campaign.

Oh, and I want to reprise Boo, the hamster.  That’s the real reason I’m doing this.