So, for those of you that don't know--I've been playing WoW for, well, maybe a year at this point. I've excelled moderately at what I do--druid bear tanking.

I've read articles on Tank Spot, Elitest Jerks, and have regularly asked members of the top guild on my server to give me what advice they could. Ever since I finally got over my fear of failing at tanking, I've continued to do it, and wouldn't change give up bear tanking for any other class or job.

Now, for those of you not familiar--bear tanks are often scrutinized for not being good tanks because of recent "nerfs" (downrades in your spec) or the lack of talents associated with other tanks. It's not often you see a bear tank in any of the top guilds, at least from what I've seen on the Darkspear server. I've had to get used to this just like every other bear tank, and it's a difficult task to over-come.

However; trolling trade chat tonight, I ran into something that I hadn't been exposed to before. It wasn't singular to bear tanks--but instead a general insight to all tanking classes. So, what was stated: women can't tank.

It's not often I get defensive, and I do always try my best to keep conversations civil and mature. This conversation; however, was especially difficult.

As I whispered the man, his statement was this: women are too busy apologizing when they screw up, to focus on the task at hand. And, what was more enraging, was that he stated they also lacked the same intelligence to pull off this class and job like a man does.

Long story short--after a 30 minute, defensive but civil conversation, I got this tank to take me along in a 10 man raid with him in the future. My job: to prove him wrong.

So, when I manage this, I'll demand to tag along on a 25, and will again achieve to prove his theory wrong, once more.

Why? Because I've spent too much time--to much energy. and too much dedication for someone--of any gender--to state that I can't do it as well as them.

You think your art is good? Have you ever calibrated your monitor's color?

I was never a fan of this--I didn't think the changes were too sever enough to notice. But, staring at your monitor for long amounts of time, you don't notice that it's tinted just a bit green, or the contrast isn't what it should be.

Just a few minutes ago I took the time to calibrate my monitor, and there are tremendous changes! All of my art looks different--much, much better, even!

I suggest this to every artist that isn't already doing this! It's a huge selling point for your work, too. People may not know what "color calibration" is, but if you're promising you have that and others don't mention it... It makes you look better!

Color calibration.

Do it.

I will be making Furcadia Website Templates available!

Having quite the sum of whispers on Furcadia about website commissions and also in response to my polls and templates, I will be producing free templates in the future.

I Need Your Input

Please take the time to answer any of these questions:

• Do you already have a website? (PLEASE post a link to it)
• What don't you like about your current website? What would you keep about your current website?
• What types of templates would you be looking for? (Character, dream, portfolio)
• What types of colors do you like / find attractive?
• Is your character (or dream) "gothic" / elegant / [steam]-punk / medieval?
• Is your character / dream "slave" / "pet" oriented?
• What pages on your website are most important? (Info, Picture Gallery, Guestbook, etc. Please list)
• What do you look for in a website?

Thanks ahead of time everyone!

The more feed-back I get, the better these templates will be.

So PLEASE:

• Send this questionnaire to everyone
• Post links to your current Furcadia websites--for any character.

I'm still alive, by-the-way.

I no longer need to sell lifers--I have a job. I'm the Marketing Director at Webfoot.Net. I'm still doing design work, both there and just for a bit of fun on the side. I have a few projects up my sleeve that I want to get done. If I start them, I'll post a bit of teaser info later. They will be Furcadia related, so. Keep checkin'.

Now, to move on:

Furcadians, what do you think?!

If there was a website that allowed you to pick a template (or download a template) to use for your Furcadia character, then customize it, would you do it?

Would you want it to be uploadable to that site, or would you put it on your freewebs site?

For those of you that own Dreams

a website is probably one of the last things on your mind that you want to worry about. What if you could place an application into this website, upload a template to your own spot on this website, and then upload your dream's / staff's / other misc info to this website with just a simple form? No more difficult to use than the way you place a comment on a journal entry!

Speaking of comments, We--myself and all other Furcadians that care about this subject--think you should voice your opinion on this journal, and then check out the poll so we can keep count!