Okay, I'll level with you -- this is not an Around Azeroth. This is a picture I made for someone special.

You see, today's my dad's sixtieth birthday. He didn't want us to get him anything. But I wanted to do something for him, even though he's a thousand miles away. So I made him into a tauren. He's all dressed up to defend a client in court, but is also ready to go fishing afterwards. The club with a nail in it represents the fact that you can't get a fishing pole until level 5, so I figured he could use a more primitive form of fly-fishing until then.

My dad was born in a small town in eastern Wisconsin, and was the first person in his family to go to college. He served in the military before going to law school. He's spent most of his life defending people, rich, poor, guilty or innocent. Even if they were guilty, he would say, his job was important, because even guilty people need a good lawyer to keep the system fair and honest. He's been married for over thirty years, raised two daughters, and has traveled everywhere from Argentina to Italy. He also owns a bottle opener with the pope's head on top, which he refers to as the Popener and never fails to bring out at family gatherings.

But what does this have to do with WoW? Well, my dad is the whole reason I'm writing here today. When I was seven, he bought an original Nintendo, ostensibly for the kids but really for him. We used to play Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy together, with him doing the controller and me "advising" him on where to go next. We even played that horrible game Shadowgate that always ended with a description of your gory death. My dad got me into gaming, and thus is responsible for every article I've written here for the past year and a half. Considering that, one paragraph of reading about his life isn't too much to ask.

Happy birthday, Dad.

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