I thought the movement of light and shadow across the ceiling this afternoon looked somewhat reminiscent of the Northern Lights. I captured the movement with my iPhone and then used Garageband for iPad to compose a simple soundtrack.

Podcasting licenses! We got ‘em? Our new Facebook page is here! You best be liking it. (Also, Jen is not pregnant.) Tho, you may want to get on that before Anonymous shuts Facebook down. We talked about this Paula Dean news you’ve all heard about and we don’t need to link to (especially since Jen decided to play Diablo 3 instead of sending me the link for the show notes). Some dudes in Texas made their own AT&T truck so they could use it to deliver pot. Then it was time for some pokey-pokey talk. That’s pretty much it. Except for our Facebook page. Don’t forget about that.

In episode ten of Skolnick’s Warcraft Less Traveled, he talked in great detail about The Dragons of Nightmare. To get the full story, I highly recommend you listen to that episode.

I did manage to travel to some of the locations mentioned in this episode before Cataclysm. Unfortunately, I was never lucky enough to see a dragon spawn from any of the portals, no matter how often I visited. My best guess is that my timing was never quite right.

Hansbrix and I decided to find out if any of the portals still existed after Cataclysm. Would we be fortunate enough to see a dragon this time?

There are four different locations that one must visit when trying to track down the Dragons of Nightmare. Our first stop was BowShadow. The archway at the start of the path was still here, which we took as a good sign.

Once inside, we could see the portal that the dragon was supposed to spawn from.

Unfortunately, there were absolutely no dragons here.

The lack of dragons made it easy for us to explore the area. There was a brightly lit “shrine”.

We also found a moonwell.

What we couldn’t find, though, were the dragons that we hoped to run into. We made a second trip to BowShadow, at a completely different time, just on the off chance that we would accidentally find the dragons when we arrived. No such luck! Our next stop would be at Twilight Grove.

In episode nine of Warcraft Less Traveled, Skolnick explained how to get to the Arathi Dwarven Farm. This was a location that I did manage to get to before Cataclysm, but, I seem to have lost my screenshots from my original trip. You will just have to take my word for it.

At the time that episode nine of WLT was recorded, there was a quest chain that started with a letter. The letter was held in the hand of an unfortunate Dwarf whose body could be found underwater, trapped beneath some of the rubble from the bridge.

Hansbrix and I managed to find Sully Ballo. Unfortunately, he no longer holds the letter that starts you on a series of quests.

The Arathi Dwarven Farm survived the Cataclysm. Hansbrix and I found it by flying along the coastline. This was much easier than having to swim there!

Murcablo is considering engaging in arson.

A Dwarven Farmer walks around his farm.

The Farmer’s house is still here.

Here is a view of the inside of the house. I think I remember there being a sleeping Dwarf on this bed before Cataclysm. Maybe I’m wrong about that. In any case, there is no one sleeping here now.

Hansbrix and I sat down at the table for some refreshment. We keep telling Fridge that he is too big to be a “lap bear”, but he doesn’t agree.

The “slightly risqué” painting is still here. It looks to me like a barely dressed human female, not unlike the ones you may find dancing on a mailbox in Goldshire.

It seems that the Farmer’s house lacks indoor plumbing.

Not far from the house, there is a stable.

Inside are a couple of rams, and a large rodent.

There is a dock here, but there aren’t any boats.

It seemed to me that there were a lot of cats here the last time I visited. This time, we only found one cat, sitting on the dock.

The only other critter here was a Hare, bouncing through one of the Farmer’s fields.

Not much else to see. Oh, except the ever present Dwarven still.

Blizzard decided to keep the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the game after the Cataclysm expansion. This is as it should be, since the shrine is in memory of a real person.

Here is how the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior looks after Cataclysm.

To get to the shrine this time, Hansbrix and I got on our flying mounts, flew over the mountain that the shrine sits on, and came in from above it. This is much less dramatic than if we would have walked up the mountainside, and therefore, somewhat anti-climactic. But, it is still an effective method of getting there.

The fallen Orc is still here, protected by the Spirit Healer.

This Spirit Healer has been given a very significant name.

In episode eight of Warcraft Less Traveled, Skolnick described how to find the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior. This was a destination that I made sure to go visit before Cataclysm.

Here is the Spirit Healer that is guarding the shrine:

Here is the Fallen Warrior she is watching over:

To hear more details about the real person who is represented by the fallen warrior in this shrine, I would recommend listening to the episode of Warcraft Less Traveled. Skolnick explains it better than I can.

And here is a screenshot to show you how big this is:

Before Cataclysm, the only way to get to the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior was to walk up the path on the edge of the mountain that it sits on.

I remember that you couldn’t actually see the shrine until you finally crossed over the last hilly part of the path. Suddenly, you would see the large, glowing, Spirit Healer in front of you. It was really impressive!

The first time I ever heard of this book was when it appeared in my mailbox. Sometime last year, I got involved with an online book club through The Nervous Breakdown. The Nervous Breakdown is a fascinating website that a whole bunch of different authors contribute to. You are bound to find something though-provoking, (in more ways than one), at TNB.

I finished Pictures of You within the month that I received it, but somehow, never quite got around to writing a book review of it. Shortly before writing this review, I checked the TNB website to find out when their book club talked about this book. I was certain I’d missed it, but, oddly enough, it turns out they are going to discuss this book on January 30, 2012. I never would have known it if I hadn’t gone searching for that information tonight. How lucky!

Another thing that prompted me to decide to write this book review tonight has to do with the Halfway Around the World podcast. It is a music (and more) type of podcast, that is on the Dawnforge network.

I host the show with Nathan Lott, who has written many excellent book reviews for Book Sandwich. He and I are intending to mention this book in the next episode that we record together, around ten hours from now. I find that I work better when I have a deadline to hit, and so, I made that my deadline for writing this review.

But, enough about why I read the book, and why I’m writing the review.

Pictures of You is a book about two women who are trying to escape their marriages, (for entirely different reasons). At the start of the book, readers are inside the head of Isabelle, who has just left her husband.

Isabelle is a photographer, who had been working at one of those studios where parents bring their babies to have a professional portrait taken. This, by itself, is somewhat heartbreaking, because Isabelle cannot have children, (but desperately wants one). Part of the reason why she has left her husband has something to do with this issue.

She is driving down a foggy road, very upset, and thinking about when she and her husband first got to know each other. Visibility is almost zero. She doesn’t see the car that is parked lengthwise across the road ahead of her until she crashes into it.

Later, as she is going through the healing process, she learns more about the car accident she was involved in. A woman and her son were in the car. The woman, named April, had taken her son, Sam, out of school that fateful day, and was driving to a location that only she was aware of. April died when the crash happened, but Sam survived, unharmed.

Readers later discover where April was going. She was leaving her husband, but her reasons for doing so were completely different from the reasons why Isabelle was leaving hers. Those reasons were something that April had been keeping a secret before she died.

This is one of those stories that indirectly asks readers some uncomfortable questions. How well do you really know the person that you love? Would you be able to forgive the person that you love after that person has done something absolutely unforgivable? Should you?

There are several chapters in this book that take place from the viewpoint of April’s husband Charlie, who is grieving the loss of his wife, while still trying to be a good parent to his son, (who has asthma). Leavitt really captured the way the world becomes so draining, and bewildering, for many people after a loved one has passed away. You can almost physically feel what Charlie is going through.

Isabelle becomes almost obsessed with trying to find out more about the family of the woman she unintentionally killed. It feels like she wants to make sure that they are “okay”, perhaps to reduce her intense feelings of guilt over what she has done. Eventually, she starts stalking them.

As you may have guessed these three characters, Isabelle, Charlie, and Sam, do wind up meeting each other. Their lives came together the instant the car crash happened, so perhaps it was only a matter of time before they ended up connecting with each other.

Isabelle begins bonding with Sam over photography, which she is trying to teach him about. Isabelle and Charlie both have a vast emptiness inside themselves that aches to be filled, and whole, once again. Of course, they meet. Of course, they find a strong connection with each other. All three are in a great deal of pain that was caused by the exact same incident. It is a strange thing to have in common.

I won’t say how the book ends, except to say that the ending isn’t what you might assume it would be. This isn’t the type of story that includes a simple “happily ever after” ending, painted in bright, shiny colors. That is not to say that the ending was entirely sad, only that it was complex, just like life can often be.

I found this book, and the characters in it, to be completely compelling. I wish I wasn’t so busy right now, so I could read this book a second time before the book club meets.

Of all the locations that were mentioned on Warcraft Less Traveled, the Elwynn Forest Waterfall was one that I was dead certain still existed after Cataclysm. It is located along a griffon flight path, and I know I’ve seen it many times, from the air, since Cataclysm hit.

This time, instead of making the tedious trek through the Burning Steppes, Hanxbrix and I simply got on our flying mounts, and flew out there.

The house near the house of the waterfall is still there. More on that in a later blog!

Here is a much prettier shot of the waterfall during the day.

The campsite is still here. Hansbrix and his trained bear managed to balance on top of the tent. Ta-da!

The boat is also still there. However, the “magic circle” in the water that allowed you to fish out as much peacebloom as your heart desired seems to be missing.

Slightly farther away from the waterfall, (and much closer to where the forest is on fire), sits this second campsite.

Before Cataclysm, you had to get to the Elwynn Forest Waterfall via the Burning Steppes. I don’t seem to have any screenshots from that part of the trip before Cataclysm, (because it was so incredibly frustrating, and I didn’t want to remember that part of the experience). In the past, there was a group of Dwarves who were getting ready to slay a dragon.

After Cataclysm, there is still a group of Dwarves out there. Most of them are Expeditionary Mountaineers.

They are accompanied by one Expeditionary Priest, (who seems to be very unsure about what to make of Murcablo).

This time, Hansbrix, the mighty Hunter, slayed the dragon!

We’re back! With our first podcast in Phantom Power Media studio 5.0. I’m mad at software nerds (amongst others, including Twitter!). We drove this SOPA thing into the ground. Then, we talked about the ferocious new dragon stamp that’s (apparently) too scary for Chinese New Year.

In episode seven of Skolnick’s Warcraft Less Traveled podcast, he talks about the Elwynn Forest Waterfall.

The Elwynn Forest Waterfall is something that you have probably flown over many times, probably while riding on a griffon. It used to take quite a bit of effort to actually get there and explore it, before Cataclysm.

I did manage to explore this destination before Cataclysm.

Here is a view of the waterfall itself:

There was a campground here:

This was a good place to stand if you want to go fishing for peacebloom. You had to aim for the circle of water that was not a school of fish.

If you hit the right spot, you would end up with as much peacebloom as you care to take the time to fish for. As a Shaman, I had no idea what I was going to do with all of that peacebloom!