More on the Coloring Books

How-To
For those interested in making your own coloring pages you can boil the technique down to these two steps (using Photoshop Elements):

• Under the menu Filter -> Stylize -> Find Edges


• Under the menu Enhance -> Adjust Color -> Remove Color

There are some other things you can do to try to remove some of the extra lines but essentially, that'll get you the picture. The tricky part to making them printable is to crop them to an appropriate size.

More Pics:
Here are some more pics I didn't bother to crop to fit exactly on an 8.5 x 11 paper (typical in North America):

WoW Coloring Book

I'm surprised that Blizzard hasn't put more staff on the whole WoW Merchandising thing. Sure there's the clever hat with the exclamation point but is that really how they're going after our discretionary spending? Where's the lunch boxes? the Halloween costumes with the picture of a night elf on the chest? ok maybe I'm dating myself here, but how about a coloring book? Kids still color, right?

Unfortunately, I can't draw for crap, but I can do a few things with Photoshop. I took a few screen prints to see if I could turn them into coloring-book pages and here's how they came out:

I guess it would be a bit of a change to have kids coloring in their honorable kills. But hey, there's still WoW-ios the delicious part of an otherwise complete breakfast and WoW-Legos still to be negotiated and wrung for all they're worth.

Giant Clams and Treasure

I'm swimming from point A to point B. I'm doing a mission in water. I'm picking up some Stranglekelp (actually most of the time it's that one). For whatever purpose I'm in the water, I love finding the undersea version of a treasure chest.... the Giant Clam:



It's not exactly treasure inside, just some clam meat, although there is the occasional pearl. This WoWWiki Link shows in an easy format which areas drop which kinds of pearls.

You may know about the Dwarf racial talent to find treasure. Well, it identifies not only treasure chests, but also clams.

Here's a photo montage of my adventure trying to establish that my dwarf's treasure finding skill will indeed find the clams:



Oh yeah, don't forget about the reef sharks. The picture above is from Westfall. An elite level 22 (very high end for Westfall) patrols the edge of the reef. How's that for a deadly surprise? And here I thought doing my duty in Westfall was killing those roaming elementals.

I'm Expecting! (So are you)

I know that once the Burning Crusade comes out, I'll be playing it. Chances are that you will too.

What preparations are you making in anticipation of your new baby Draenei or Blood Elf?

Individual play styles will change how we all prepare for new character(s), of course. But I thought I'd offer some suggestions based on my style and readings:

Character Slot

Make room on your preferred server by deleting unused alts

Select name(s)

If desired reserve a preferred name for your future character by creating a placeholder Alt with that name (which you will have to delete later of course)

Tools & Equipment

Buy Bags (preferrably Traveler's Backpack, Mooncloth Bags and/or Profession Bags)

Save Money for training, bank slots, flying, mounts, flying mounts, ...

Save up materials & recipes for Profession Leveling; perhaps ore or gems for your budding Draenei Jewelcrafter (+15 to Jewelcrafting) to raise his or her level in mining and jewelcrafting? or enchanting materials (or disenchanting fodder) for your new Blood Elf (+15 to Enchanting)

Buy your preferred Armor or Weaponry (for me... I bought some blue wands of course).

Save up those transferable Quest or Faction items like Blue Pearls or Un'Goro Soil. (Focusing on quests for levels 20+ after you leave the new Burning Crusade areas.)

Other

Decide on your Burning Crusade Spells & Talents

Look over the mods that might be appropriate for your first Shaman or Paladin

Check out your World of Warcraft Account to make sure you're in the subscription plan that makes sense for you.