Why was the bear on the bike?

Okay, I read the Odd News through Yahoo every day between blog posts and playing WoW. There have been times when a headline will grab my attention... and then there are times when I almost want to write to the editor and ask if s/he fell asleep at the desk, just due to basic errors with subject verb agreement, tense shifts, and then there are sentences that are just worded wrong (which is how it ends up on Headlines on Monday Nights).

Anyways, I ran into an article this morning titled, Teacher OK After Crashing into Bear on a Bicycle. When I first saw it, I thought, car crash + biking bear statue... this did come out of Montana after all! But, no. Its the fact that a teacher, riding a bike, crashed into a black bear at about 25 miles an hour. Now, that in itself is a news piece. Its just the title is worded badly.

My HS journalism teacher would have asked me, with one eyebrow raised, "Why is the bear on the bike? Was it driving?!" if I'd turned in such an article headline. In fact, he'd have grinned over the idea, then gone scary serious and tossed the entire thing back at me, pages ruffling, and reach for the next article of the person that was standing in line.

I'd have scurried back to my little thirty year old wooden desk (I swear my Dad had it when it was new), feeling like an idiot, and frantically tried to find a new title, because if the title sucked? There was no way Cecil was even going to LOOK at the rest of the article. That English Teacher -who taught Comp 3, Comp 4, Journalism, Poetry, and Greek and Roman Myth- did more to teach me the basics of journalism and creative writing than any course I've taken in college to date.

I try and keep such things in mind when writing- even here, because it makes my writing better. And you'll never catch me writing about a bear on a bike, or even implying it. He taught me a lot... that gruff, barking bear of a teacher.

So, next time you are writing up a blog entry, take careful stock of your title, is it implying what you wish for it to, or is it saying something completely different from the body of the article? And if its different, which is easier to re-write, the title, or the entire article?

Kovani of Deathwing

[Note to Self: Get screen shot of Kovani and her hyena, Varuna]

As those that frequently read know, I have a bit of a hunter obsession. At last count there are nine different hunters, on five different servers. Not all hunters are listed in the Too Many Hunters panel to the right. Some are alts that I haven't picked back up in a while, others are just gathering dust, or were part of a BRK event. I will do a posting on each of my hunters that are on the Too Many Hunters list, eventually getting through everyone, and writing Tzia of Quel'dorei last.

My Deathwing Hunter, Kovani is doing something a bit different from all the others... she's going to have a Hyena as her perma-pet. Now, if she gets into raiding, I might consider picking up a DPS pet (like a raptor), but no kitties, or piggies for this little BM Orc.

I've already gotten a few strange looks at having a hyena, and had advice discounted - just because I have an odd pet at my side. Then there was the hunter that tried to tell me to go get a cat. He was kindly thanked, but told no. I want something odd. I hate flapping stuff, so a carrion bird or bat was out of the question. Ditto for a flying snake (aka wind serpent).

The Guy has a wolf on his hunter, we were originally going to pair two hunters and see how well we could destroy Azeroth... instead he's going with his 'lock and Blueberry, Kal'thyk; or his Loud Mouth, Lazrot.

Chaos is the rule of the day right now with these two. His lock has just hit 18, Kovani is a little behind at 17 and needs about 2k more xp to get to 18 and new abilities. As I said earlier, BM Orc Hunter. This is going to be a departure from my usual MM leveling spec, and The Guy and I are going to be perma-grouped. This is Deathwing after all (Deathwing is a PvP server)!

So far, we've cleared camps with a mix of DoT, DoT, FEAR, wand, concussive Shot, Arcane Shot, Hyena-Rip-Mob-to-Shreds-As-Everything-Else-Runs-Away. And then we loot everything, which is spread over half the available area, some up trees, others burried in hills, and somebody -somehow- is floating in mid air... was there a mine there earlier??

We did Guns of Northwatch tonight, and picked up the Escort. I wanted to shoot the friggen escortee by the time we were half way done. I'd forgotten how SLOW the guy is! Though with PetEmote triggering very close to the end of the quest, I laughed.

Kovani's Hyena Varuna yips happily.

We were literally less than a foot from the turn in point. I guess she wanted to be done with the quest too!

PetEmote... oooh!

I finally downloaded that mod. So far I love it! Now all I need to figure out is what to name my wolf. I've got grouped friends saying they are seeing Tzia's Wolf Wolf yips happily. Or something vey similar. But I'm loving this, its making my pet even more personal. I tested this with Misha and it seems pet family specific.

I've always had a major affinity to my pets. I can name almost every pet any of my hunters have ever had (the only one that I can't remember for the life of me is Yazmin's Rake). Over nine hunters I've had a total of twenty five pets. I can't wait to see what Pet Emote does when paired to my baby girl, Ruka. It almost makes me want to put (MG)Tzia on the back-burner for a lil bit and go run a Heroic with a PuG on Quel'dorei... almost. (MG)Tzia hit 46 last night. I should really try and get her to 50 with her as yet un-named wolf... gah. Naming always has to be difficult. Guess its time to pop over to Petoholics and see what our lovely hunter has for suggestions... and to see if she's finished typing out all the ones I gave her at one point - and perhaps suggest more!

I think she needed silly names for Tallstriders, or something like that... I've got a few in mind. If you haven't checked out her Pet-o-licious Namerator yet? Do so! I know I'm going to! I'm stumped for names right now!

A Thank You

This post is a thank you to those that post every day, and actually give me a reason to crawl out of bed five minutes early, brew a pot of coffee in the morning and read my Frequent Reads.

Thank you Pike, for my daily dose of humor. Thank you BRK for keeping me grounded in hunters and up to date on major hunter in sights as well as the occasional daniel mode out-take. Thanks to Hunter's Mark for even more hunter info and beta info! Thanks to Mania and Petoholics for keeping me in the fuzzy lil critters that are our greatest friends in game. And last, but by no mean least, thank you One Among Many, for reminding me how kick-ass Boom Chickens are, and how cute!

And those are just some of the reasons why these guys are my favorite reads.

Quote of the Day

A danger foreseen is half-avoided. - Cheyenne Proverb


And this is why I want into the PTR... I want to see how badly they goofed up my Ruka. We'll see I guess.