I
recently received a Beautiful Blogger
Award!
I was so surprised when Ravanel (http://ravalation.blogspot.com), a
fellow blogger who I admire, gave it to me and mentioned danania.net on her
site.
She
is very talented both as a writer and as a gamer, so I was honored to have her view
me like that.
I met
Ravanel when we and many other bloggers signed up on the NBI in May-2012
(Newbie Blogger Initiative @ http://nbihq.freeforums.org/). Ravanel was one of the other finalist bloggers
in the Best Newish Blogger category. (Best-Newish-Blogger) I
voted two different days; once for her and once for myself. As is obvious by
her blog, she has great computer savvy and is a fun story teller.
This
post will be the longest I have written, but I am going to write my history about
how danania.net came to be. If it is interesting for you, this post will say
more about me than any other post. So, on to the questions… J
Why did I put a picture of the council
of elves? … because it was a really neat picture. Lol! Left to Right = Aranelleth,
Glorfindel, Danania, Elrond, Gandalf, Ereston, Laegbrannon. “Chillin out,
maxin, Relaxin all cool…”
Why did you start a blog and why do you
continue it?
Danahistory: An elf’s tale.
~In the beginning. In
the beginning there was Pong, and it was good. I did enjoy my Atari games! I
recall some games next along the way, such as Oregon Trail (actually I played it
with a book and maps in school before it became a computer game), Civilization,
and Warlords 2 (one of my all time favorites). Then, I enjoyed Warcraft and
Warcraft 2, but had not played them online. My first online game was Diablo 2.
I remember the frustration of a slow dial up modem, watching the lights blink as
it tried to connect. No good, but I did like playing the Diablo 2 barbarians. J I enjoyed Nintendo a bit
more… Donkey Kong 64. I had never seen anything so amazing. I could move my monkeys 3
dimensionally, similar but different than Diablo 2.
~Then came lotro.
Fast forward a couple of years. My friends talked me into trying lotro. I had
never actually played a MMO but I was hooked immediately. I wanted to know more.
I didn’t want to miss a thing. Not one quest or deed. I figured that someone
had gone through the effort of designing this entire world, *just for me*, how could I do less than
see every corner of what had been built for me?
I
was a Runekeeper, and an Explorer/Tailor. But, I did not know much. Danafact:
the first time I met defeat I think I was level 7. I had not even left the
Intro. Being completely unfamiliar and a noob gamer, I had not gotten the hang
of don't-cast-induction-skills-over-and-over-while-monsters-are-killing-you.
But, I was learning.
~Exploring the internetz.
Where to learn? I frequented excellent sites such as Lotro-Wiki, Darzil’s
guide, and CasualStrolltoMordor. That was about it. With his blessing, my given
name is Danania Darzil. From lotro-wiki, I still have my printouts explaining
what the basic RK skills were. The pages are tattered and have notes and marks
all over them. At the time, I did not even know people blogged about lotro.
Heck, I didn’t even know what a blog was and am not entirely sure I had ever
seen one. (Yeah, I should get out more.)
~Szarwyn. I read about Szarwyn, a player from Arkenstone who had become the first
“Featured player of the month”.
Seeing
the date now makes me smile. I had literally been playing one month when she
became the featured player. She was in Arkenstone, so I congratulated her. She
replied and was very nice! So, I now had a friend, who introduced me to her
kinship, the Riders of Rohan. It turned out that she was webmaster of a truly
amazing site and forum which was all about lotro!
After reading everything in
the Riders forum, thousands of posts, I asked if I could join the forum without
joining the kinship, because I couldn’t leave my friends and family kin. No one
had ever joined their forum without joining the kin, but she and the officers
made an exception for me, a little, unknown but excited elf.
~The forum and Creative writing. I
enjoyed the Riders of Rohan site. It was really well laid out for guides and
forums and events. I learned from those around me and discussed what was
happening with me in-game. Most of the kin was at end-game (65), and here I was
just now 30 something. I would take pictures, write stories, design contests…
people seemed to have a good time with what I was doing.
It
was a new experience for me. “Creative” writing might be one of my weakest
areas. When I wrote in school, it was always technical. Even when I branched
out, I was technical. I recall in my Senior English class, while others were writing about sports or social commentary, one of my term
papers was on applications of Newton’s Law of Cooling, in which I explained how
to “Determine the Time of Death” using thermodynamics. It was complete with
explaining differential equations and theorems until the professor had me take
out many of the Greek symbols and simplify. Unique? Perhaps. “Traditionally
creative”? I dunno.
Ok,
that last paragraph went off on a tangent. The point was that while I was
writing stories on the forum, people were recommending that I start a blog… but
I had no idea what that meant. The reply was… “you are doing it now, except you
are scattering the stories across various posts”. It did in fact look like a
scavenger hunt.
~The transition. Szarwyn
built a section on the site just for me. It was my very own blog! From the time
I joined the site until then, I had written 1000 posts (or replies, etc), many
with pictures. That was my “warm-up” into the world of blogging. I still had
not seen another writer-Blog (unless CSTM qualifies as a blog, though I think "mecca" is probably a better term for CSTM).
I
just did what I enjoyed …until ~gloss over
this next part ~ the kinship moved to
a “low-function-low-maintenance” guild site, the webmaster went a different direction, and
the site imploded and everything was gone. With my friend’s advice, I
picked up my very new blog and moved it to Blogger. Danania.net had been born. You can see that the first 10 posts on danania.net
were written before the move.
~The NBI. I continued
writing but now I was on my very own site! I enjoy it, and I learned basics about how to
work with Blogger. I still read CSTM as my main news source. One day, CSTM
carried a post about the NBI, aka Newbie Blogger Initiative (http://nbihq.freeforums.org/). I
followed the link and to my astonishment, there *are* other bloggers out there, a *lot* of other bloggers, many who write about lotro!
Syp,
the NBI leader nominated me into the category of "Best Newish Blogger" …and you dear
Readers showed up by the truckload to vote.
Wow!
Now that was a humbling experience, knowing that you actually cared.
Talk about motivation!
~Why I continue to blog. I
bring my passion for my hobby to danania.net. …and you show up. I see it in the
Blogger visitor stats. You sign up in the “Followers” list. You comment. You tell me
about it in game and send mail. You enjoy the stories and get value out of the
guidance I try to provide. I love and thrive on the feedback. And, I want to do
better. If I build it, you will come, and that makes me happy.
Danania versus Ergoth: “I’m your
huckleberry…”
What does your average day look like?
Dana’s Day: I
am married with young children and am an engineering manager for a large
company.
Engineer?
Shocker, right? Lol. Yeah… my main degree is in chemical engineering, and I
specialized or got minors in biochemical engineering, environmental
engineering, quantum physics, and psychology. Moving along…nothing to see here…
J
My
day starts around 5:45am. We are up and kids are out the door and off to school
by the time the sun has risen and I am off to work. I do engineering stuff for
the bulk of my day.
The day
is a normal workday, and I come home. If no lilhobbit organized activities
(baseball) are occurring, there is dinner, homework/playtime/bath-time with
hobbits, house chores and such, “married” stuff, and hobbits are off to bed by
8:00pm. Then, some quality married time, and at 9-10pm it is time to…
To
what? It is roughly 8ish hours until I wake up and do it again. How bad does
the fire burn within me to enjoy my hobby, to save Middle Earth, and be the
Supergirl of Lorien? This is my main playtime, when everyone else goes to
sleep.
My friend Bilbo described the situation quite well, “I know I
don't look it, but I'm beginning to feel it in my heart. I feel... thin. Sort
of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”
Mebbe
one day, my Fortitude to burn the candle at both ends will run out, but that
day is not today, the fight has not yet left me, there are quests to do and Steeds
to acquire!
After
2+ hours as I pass the midnight threshhold, I start to wind down and prepare to
do it again tomorrow. Of course, even I cannot run on 5ish hours sleep *every*
night and I take days off. J
Besides, I have the DVR running to watch “Once Upon a Time” on ABC, “Switched at Birth” on ABC
Family, and catch the reruns of "Sliders" on the Hub network. (I am hoping that
Sliders is better than the reviews say as I have never finished the series.) My
all time favorite series were Quantum Leap and Chuck. My favorite
cartoons were/are “Kim Possible” and “Phineas and Ferb”, and my favorite “shows-that-only-I-seemed-to-like-because-they-were-canceled-early” include “Flash Forward” and “Journeyman”.
What is your best and your worst
collaboration with other bloggers?
Collaboration:
Another interesting question. I did mention that part about barely even
realizing that other bloggers were out there when I started not that long ago.
Since then, I have been so excited to read other blogs! The NBI had an amazing
number of gamer writers, and Blogger has features to search for other bloggers.
I
put some of my favorite links on my page, (Danania's Links)
and am still finding new blogs I like to read each month. I try to share them
as I write new articles.
What does this blog mean to you?
When
I game, I often think about how what I am doing might bring joy to my blog. I
mentally prepare posts well ahead of time and often have at least one post
written in advance, and stick to the Tuesday (and sometimes Friday) schedule.
When
thinking about this question, I wondered “do I game just so that I can have
entertaining things about which to write?” Which is greater for me, danania.net
or actually gaming? The answer would still be gaming. I love playing with my
friends and meeting people. However, writing about what I do and what I have
learned (or am trying to learn) brings such joy to me now that I have trouble
imagining one without the other.
As
long as you show up, I will continue to rolls the drums.
Thank you so much for
making danania.net full of life!
The Nomination
When
I received this award, it was with the responsibility to nominate someone else.
I am really starting to get into reading other blogs and enjoy so many of them, but there is another that
has really sparked my interest that I have read regularly.
My
nomination for the next Beautiful Blogger Award winner is
http://wanderingthroughdigitalworlds.wordpress.com/
Lothirieth
has such a quick wit about her. She has the cunning ability to read between the
lines and understand the way things work. I have learned much from reading the
way she sees the world.
I believe that she is the type of person that could
change the world (or go Incredible Hulk on it and Smash!, hehe, tune in to her
site to find out). Also, she has an artistic side and has a flair for taking
interesting pictures! Lothirieth is a deserving Beautiful Blogger. Thanks for
being you. Enjoy.
The six bullet points of this blog award: 1. Who gave you the award? 2. Why did you start a blog and why do you continue it? 3. What does your average day look like? 4. What is your best and your worst collaboration with other bloggers? 5. What does this blog mean to you? 6. Who would you like to nominate yourself?
