Showing posts with label brian speaks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brian speaks. Show all posts

## Tuesday, April 12, 2011

### New blog

Hi everybody!
This is Brian Buckley, the creator of Coffee With Sargeras. Just wanted to give you all a quick heads-up that I've started a new blog. It's not about WoW, or video games, and it's not primarily a humor blog. It's about writing - both my own writing (primarily the novel I'm working on) and my thoughts on writing in general. So it's a very different kind of thing, but also more personal. If you've ever wondered about the person behind the Sargeras blog, here's your chance to learn more.
http://BrianDBuckley.com/
Thanks so much. For reading. For everything.

## Monday, August 24, 2009

### Sargeras says sayonara

Hi, it's Brian speaking. This is the end of the blog.
It was a very difficult decision for me, and I didn't make it lightly. For those who care, read on and I'll explain my reasons. Warning: I will be rambling on at some length.
This all started back in March, with the original Scourge Chat Log. I wrote it on a whim for a Blizzard contest that a co-worker told me about, and it sort of went viral in a small way - about a hundred thousand people read it, and the feedback was very positive. And I figured, while I had everyone's attention, I should take advantage of the opportunity and get a little blog going, to see where it went.
I'd had a blog once before, also humor, but it had very few readers so I finally gave it up. (It was a fake political campaign for one of my friends - the link is Burns For America if anyone's curious.) Having tried blogging once before already, I was wary, knowing the demands it makes on one's time - and I always tend to take on more projects than I can handle.
But this time, I decided to go for it again. I knew it would be different, having hundreds of readers rather than a few dozen, having a fun character to write. It would also give me a chance to practice writing, which I always welcome.
And it was fun. A lot of fun. Sargeras is just a blast to write, because you can say all these ridiculous things and it's just part of the character. I loved the e-mails and the comments - in other words, I loved interacting with you guys. I loved that I could write anything I wanted and know it was being read, and enjoyed. And all the other cool things - the Sargeras banner graphic, the theme song, the radio adaptation, the sonnet contest, the Facebook page - it was all awesome. I loved it. I really did.
To be honest, that's the hardest thing about quitting: looking at the huge amount of work that's gone into this, both from myself and from others, and deciding to leave it all behind. It was a unique opportunity, one that will never come back again.
So what's made me quit?
The answer is simple: I just don't enjoy it anymore.
It's no secret that I neither play, nor have much interest in, World of Warcraft. That's nothing against those who do - it's just a personal preference. But the posts reflect that lack of interest; few of them had much to do with WoW. Now, you don't have to talk about WoW to write in character as Sargeras; you can just ramble on about destruction and planets and peeps, and write sonnets, and so on. And I did.
But even within that relatively broad framework, I found more and more that I was having to shoehorn the topics that actually interested me into something that was nominally related to the Sargeras character. I wasn't having all that much fun anymore; it was just something I was doing because I had committed to doing it. I was doing it because I was "supposed" to, not because I really wanted to.
That isn't great for me, and it's not all that great for you guys, either. Lack of passion is reflected in the quality of writing; if the writer doesn't care about his subject, well, it shows. And at that point - if I'm not having fun and you're not getting great writing - well, what's the point?
If I had an infinite amount of time to do everything I wanted to do, I might keep with it, for a while at least. But as I've mentioned before, that's not the case. There are so many things I want to do with my life, all competing for my time, that I have to be very selective - just as all of you do, too. And ultimately, this blog just couldn't make the cut anymore.
Well, I've talked long enough, I suppose. You get the idea. I hope no one's too terribly disappointed. There are lots of entertaining things to read on the Internet.
Thanks so much, all of you, for sticking with me through this little experiment. I won't forget it. It's been a lot of fun.
Carpe fucking diem.

## Monday, June 29, 2009

### And, we're back!

Brian the web dude speaking. Those of you just visiting this site for the first time may be wondering if it is supposed to look like a scoop of vanilla ice cream whenever I get a traffic spike, or whether the color scheme changing on an hourly basis is some sort of obscure feature.
The answer is no, in fact, no, it is not! What it is, rather, is a side effect of using Image Shack for my image hosting. Now I'm going to try tinypic instead, as it's rumored to have unlimited bandwidth. Well, we shall see. But for now, at least, we're back!

### Experiencing technical difficulties...

Experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by.

## Wednesday, June 17, 2009

### The seeds of revolution

Completely unrelated to WoW, but too important not to mention: if you're not paying attention to what's happening in Iran right now, you should be.
Up-to-the-minute coverage can be found here.

## Tuesday, May 5, 2009

### RE: my sanity

Hey everyone. Brian here. I have an announcement.
Up till now I've been keeping to a strict posting schedule of one post every weekday, plus some sort of shorter content on Saturdays. Between writing posts, keeping up with e-mail, and various other activities, I've been spending in the neighborhood of 12-15 hours per week on the blog. If that doesn't sound like a lot, consider that I also have a full-time job, karate classes, a novel I'm trying to write, a family and friends who would like to see me on occasion, and delusions of a thing called "free time."
Bottom line, it's just too much.
At the same time, I'm not about to give up on this blog anytime soon, and I would like to give y'all some reason (however small) to keep coming back here every weekday.
With that in mind, here's the new posting schedule:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Normal post (or as normal as they ever are around here)
Tuesday, Thursday: Haiku (or something else very short)
Saturday, Sunday: Nothing
That's not to say I won't ever post more often than the schedule above, I'm just saying don't expect it.
Will this lose me some readers? Maybe. Hopefully not. But I'm not going to obsess over it - life's too short.
And on the plus side, uh, haiku fans rejoice!

## Tuesday, April 28, 2009

### New site design!

As you can see, things look a little different around here now. This is actually something I've been working on for some time - hunting for the right template, figuring out how to set it up, playing around with layouts on my test site, and of course, obtaining all the necessary ingredients for the new logo.
So. Credit where credit is due:
The new template is called Keeshep. I've modified it a bit to suit my needs.
The logo font is called Anke Calligraphic FG, and it was created by Anke Arnold.
The logo graphic was created by the incredibly talented Richard Svensson especially for this website. It is ink and watercolor. You can see more of Richard's artwork at his gallery. He is accepting commissions!
So. What do y'all think? Like it? Hate it? Notice any glitches?
UPDATE: It looks like the banner at the top does not display correctly in Internet Explorer 6; it is supposed to be transparent on a red background, and instead it shows up as a white rectangle. Of course, if you're still using IE6 you should probably think about upgrading anyway.

### Don't be alarmed...

I'm going to fiddle with the template a bit. Not sure how long it will take. If the website looks a little funny over the next few hours, don't be alarmed, I'm just attempting some computer magic behind the scenes.

### Meet the Sargeras Team

So I've been doing this blogging thing for about a month now, and it occurred to me that y'all might not actually know who's behind all this madness. With that in mind, I suppose a pair of introductions are in order...

First up: I'm Sargeras, of course. I think most of you know me already. I started out as a Friendly Beige Titan, but then I got evil as a plot device and now I'm a Mean Dark Titan of Burning Metal. I command armies of demons, I ravage planets, I write poetry. It's a living. I'm also apparently the main antagonist of this game called World of Warcraft. Not really sure how that one happened.
Anyway you can learn more about me by reading this blog, by visiting my pages on Facebook and WoWWiki, or by sending me an e-mail.
The other member of my little team informed me on his first day of employment that his job title is "webmaster." Ha! He is my webservant, and his "compensation" is that I don't eat him. But I suppose I'll let him introduce himself, shall I?

Thank you, Mr. Sargeras, sir! And hello everyone. My name is Brian Buckley, and that's my charming face you see above you. I live in the great state of Ohio, USA, and as of this writing I am 23 years old. I took this job because I didn't want my face melted off, I mean, because me and Sargeras are such great buddies!
Basically I run the Dark Titan's blog for him, manage his online presence, screen his e-mails, and (lowers voice) sometimes help write the posts. Only a little, of course!
What can I tell you about myself? Well, I graduated from the Ohio State University two years ago with a degree in computer science, and I'm now happily employed as a computer programmer by day. By night I'm a (mostly) unpublished aspiring author, working on a science fiction novel in my spare time. If you want to see a little sample of my non-Sargerial writing, you can check out my DeviantArt page, though I haven't updated it in ages and much of the stuff I have posted there is ancient.
I juggle, I play Go, and I am learning karate. I am also learning Dvorak so this is taking an awfully long time to type. I love Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and dill pickles; I hate Twitter, The Name of the Wind, and sweet pickles. In real life I am ridiculously tall.
And for the record, no, I do not actually play World of Warcraft. It looks like a sweet game but I don't have the time. I did start a character once, in college, and played for about two hours.
I was a dwarf hunter.

So now you know. Any questions for me, I mean, us?

## Saturday, April 11, 2009

### Website geekery

Hey everyone, it's Brian. Two little technical items we needn't trouble Sargeras with...
1. I've registered the domain coffeewithsargeras.com and redirected it here. Should make it easier for people to find the site.
2. I started using FeedBurner for my RSS feed. Hopefully y'all won't see any difference, but it'll make things easier on my end.
Can I get any of my helpful readers to verify that both my new domain and my new RSS feed are working correctly?
UPDATE: Looks like everything's working. Thanks everyone for testing it out for me!

## Wednesday, April 8, 2009

### Beware of Phishers

This is a quick note from me, Brian Buckley, the humble webmaster - er, webservant - who helps Lord Sargeras manage his blog.
Today I got the following e-mail:

SUBJECT: Blizzard Account Administration - Account Notification
FROM: noreply@blizzard.com
Greetings,
An investigation of your World of Warcraft account has found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded. As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with Blizzard's EULA under section 4 Paragraph B which can be found here:
WoW -> Legal -> End User License Agreement
and Section 8 of the Terms of Use found here:
WoW -> Legal -> Terms of Use
The investigation will be continued by Blizzard administration to determine the action to be taken against your account. If your account is found violating the EULA and Terms of Use, your account can, and will be suspended/closed/or terminated.
In order to keep this from occurring, you should immediately verify that you are the original owner of the account.
To verify your identity please visit the following webpage:
[URL removed]
Only Account Administration will be able to assist with account retrieval issues.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.
Sincerely,
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment

I'm sure most of you are well aware of the tactic of phishing, but this is just a reminder to be vigilant. This e-mail looks fairly official, appears to have a blizzard.com e-mail address, and links to actual pages on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com.
There are at least two big tipoffs that it's fake. First (and most obviously) they are asking you to verify your account. Why would Blizzard need to verify your account? Didn't they send you the e-mail in the first place?
The second tipoff was that when I followed the verification link, although the page looked very official, I could see from the URL that it was hosted by Freehostia, a free web hosting service (something Blizzard would obviously never do). I've already contacted Freehostia and hopefully they'll have it shut down in a few hours.
Of course, for me, there was a third and even bigger tipoff. I don't actually have a World of Warcraft account. :-P
Anyway, I'm sure most of you are too savvy to fall for a trick like this, but I just thought I'd post this reminder to everyone. Keep your eyes open!
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