Change Has Come... and It Hurts

So.

Patch 4.0.1 destroyed my WoW. I was very excited (like the rest of the world) and was prepared to begin the patching process on Tuesday (like the rest of the world) and started up my launcher and watched the downloader check my patch part 1-3 and download the last bit, and the updater launched and all was good and right with the world... of warcraft.

Well, only 16% was good and right with the world. At 16% of the update for the patch, the updater stopped and asked me for the Cataclysm disc. As much as I wish I have the disc to give you, Mr. Updater, sir, we're SOL on that. So, Cancel that order, please. That conversation ended with Mr. Updater crashing and telling me that it couldn't read some Northrend something-or-other.

Long story short, after trial and error, and redownloading the patch (yes, all 5 GB of it), and still no luck, I gave up, deleted WoW and started fresh. Yes. As I'm writing this, Mr. Updater is going happy at 84%, and I imagine I'll finally get to log in to WoW in another half-hour or so.

That said, I have heard many rumors on the Mac Technical Help forums that the new version of the game does not play nice in terms of graphics, and I may have to turn a whole bunch of settings low in order to play, as well as turning the new water and sunlight graphics off. That's a bit of a shame, but at this point, I'll be glad to just have a working WoW client again.

So, with fingers crossed, I will hope and pray that the Updater continues as normal and finally gives me the deliciousness that is World of Warcraft 4.0.

See you in the World... of Warcraft.

Maybe.

Long Time, No See 2

The new year has started fairly well, as I'm finally re-employed and enjoying my new job. Unfortunately, I have far less time to play WoW (not that less time stops me from playing anyway, I just get a bit less accomplished...). As it is, my alt-oholism is still going strong, and I've even created new characters that I actually play on a regular basis.

Kiaandra is a female, Draenei mage on my main server, Emerald Dream. I decided to level as a fire mage, and it's been a blast (LOL Seewhatididthere?). Unfortunately, she's had trouble in the guild she initially joined/bad RP experience and I lost a bit of interest in her. The cloth heirloom shoulders I bought for her, got sent to a Horde character I made on the server instead, and she's officially gone on hold, for now.

Eivor is a female, Orc shaman on my main server, and is the second recipient of the leveling shoulders, once I realized Blizz had finally fixed one mistake to their heirloom gear and allowed you to at least mail them to opposite faction characters on the same server. Unfortunately, I'm quickly discovering that the Shaman class just isn't really for me, I think. I've tried before with shamans and never stick to them much past level 20 or so... I might try again after Cataclysm, when other races can become shaman. Luckily those shoulders won't go to waste, as any character can use them (In fact, they've been handed off again, though I'll say to whom later...).

Bracc is a male, Blood Elf rogue on a normal RP server (wanted to get away from PvP for awhile, though it's weird to not have to worry about being ganked all the time), as I wanted to experience Horde-side roleplay. He's in a guild there which seems to be pretty decent (though no in-guild RP to speak of, yet), and I'm still feeling out whether or not he'll ever be successful in RP, although I should think events happen on the server all the time... I just have to find them. He's nearly level 30, and I'm loving him, as I went Subtlety, rather than Combat as I've done with every other rogue I've made. Honestly, I think that is the main reason I lost interest with other rogues... I followed the cookie-cutter spec and leveling guide rather than just doing what I wanted.

My RL friend and I have continued leveling characters together, and I think she's even figuring out just what character she wants to have as her main to somewhat focus on (she's as bad of an alt-oholic as I am), though it seems to currently be a toss up between her priest and her warrior. I'm leaning towards my hunter (Auryonn) and my death knight (Saronite) on our server, but that can always change. Her favorite part of the game is leveling her professions, and she's a bit frustrated that Blizzard has put in level restrictions on learning the higher ranks.

Her Nelf priest is a Tailor/Enchanter and her Human warrior is a Miner/Blacksmith. She loves tailoring (and the fact that she can make bags is a huge plus) but she has to be level 50 to continue her professions and she's currently only at level 43. Those seven levels are going to come far too slow for her taste, I think. I'll use my DK to run her through some dungeons, like Maraudon, maybe, to speed up the process. Bet she's wishing we had focused more on these characters back when we still had the 3x XP buff from Recruit-a-Friend...

Oh, and, now that I'm employed again and getting paid money on a regular basis (or will be, once I get my first paycheck), I decided to celebrate by paying for a character transfer. My very first main, my beloved hunter, who has gone through so much, has been moved over to my main server. Polomah, as she's now known (formerly Baress, then Poloma) is making her permanent home on Emerald Dream. My plans with her are fairly simple: get her to 80 and figure out some kind of professions for her, as right now she only has skinning.

She's currently hanging out in the Outlands, in Hellfire Peninsula, at level 60. Her gear is more or less fixed, thanks to all the quest drops there, and her pets are being leveled up as she goes about her business (she has a bear, a raptor, and a wolf). I really need to get her into some dungeons, but not until I get used to being a hunter again... man, Blizzard, please condense hunter abilities! This is overwhelming, seriously! The biggest problem I have with her is the fact that she has practically NO gold to speak of. I think she has around 35 gold total, which just isn't enough to get anything done. I think I'll go on a skinning spree one day and just farm like crazy, but now you can see why she needs the professions.

Skinning is great, but there is really only one profession it is paired with, and that's leatherworking. I don't want her to be a leatherworker. My eventual worgen rogue, Loem, is going skinning/LW, so I don't want a second (Oh, yeah, did I mention that I'd love to change Polomah's faction when Cataclysm hits? I'd really like her to go human, I think. If I don't faction change her, then it's a different story...). I could just do some gathering professions for quick gold. Tauren have an herbalism racial and those 10 points at least get her to earthroot almost immediately. If Seona weren't an engineer, I'd do that, but I'm not power-leveling that again.

Regardless, I've been busy, even if I haven't posted here. Hopefully I'll find more time to do this more often. :)

One To Go and Plus One

Seona is at level 79. I'm actually really excited because this will be my second toon to level cap, and this time I know for a fact I won't get burned out. Seona's guild is big enough to keep me busy regardless of what I'm doing. On top of that, the roleplay opportunities abound, always, so each time I log in it's something fresh and new.

For example, a member of the guild did a very moving and interesting "sermon" for the guild on Sunday, followed by a pilgrimage to Uther's Tomb. I was actually touched, emotionally, by the words, especially since other members of the guild also got up and spoke (from their character's point of view, of course) which gave the whole thing a very "kumbaya" feeling. Seona listened intently, and so did I, as the whole thing gave me just one more way to understand the other characters in the group, along with the people behind the characters.

Real life has been interesting as well, with a new addition to my little family: Conner. He's a border collie mix I adopted today from a city pound. He had been running around my neighborhood for a couple days and was crashing for the night on front doorsteps; he's a real vagabond. When he crashed on my doorstep, though, we brought him inside, but ended up taking him to the city shelter in the hopes that any worried family that might be looking for him would finally be able to get him back.

Unfortunately, his family didn't come looking for him, or, if they did, they weren't really trying that hard, because he stayed in the pound for a week. I had checked in on him occasionally, as I didn't want him put to sleep, and decided that I'd adopt him. Yesterday was the initial visit, and the time when I told them I was interested in adopting. They got him ready for me by getting him to a vet for vaccinations, altering, and a heartworm test, and I was able to pick him up today.

He'll still need to go see my veterinarian, especially since my other dog is up for a vet visit as well, for a checkup, but all-in-all he's a sweet dog. I'm glad I got him out of the shelter before they euthanized him.

Remember to spay and neuter your pets to help keep pet population down so fewer animals have to be put to sleep in your city shelters and Adopt, Don't Shop! Buying puppies from pet stores only keeps puppy mills in business!

Dalaran

Seona, finally level 74, has made it to Dalaran. On Yrovi, it was this amazing, beautiful city that was entirely new and shiny and convenient. On Seona, however, it's laggy, crowded, and slow, though still pretty convenient, thanks to all those portals. The reason? I don't play on my parent's iMac anymore, just my 3-year-old MacBook Pro. On top of that, I recently upgraded to Mac OS 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, and I'm now getting some nasty graphics issues.

At first I thought my graphics problems were due to the upgrade, of course, since before installing Snow Leopard I was fine. Did a search on the official forums, in the Mac Troubleshooting area and found out that my problem was probably heat/hardware related. Totally true story, since my MacBook Pro runs crazy hot, always has. The small strip of metal right above the keyboard on my laptop gets hot enough to burn my fingers sometimes. So, after reading a few blue replies I downloaded some free software to control the fans inside my machine. It made an immediate difference of about 20 degrees and I can literally feel the difference. If my graphics issues were truly due only to heat, then this may have fixed it.

Obviously I won't know until later today, as it's Tuesday, and we all know that Tuesday means maintenance day. I'm glad for the break, actually, as I feel like I need to resort out my priorities and get some stuff done in RL, like updating my resume, doing some laundry, etc. On top of that, a couple of days ago, while visiting my parents, we were sort of "chosen" by a stray dog in the neighborhood. My mom is a total animal lover, so she brought him in the house and let him hang out with our dogs. We couldn't keep him at the time, plus his owners might be looking for him, so I took him to the shelter down the street. I checked their website and today is the day he becomes "available", I'm assuming for adoption, so I need to find out how long the city keeps a dog up for adoption before euthanizing. He was too sweet to allow something like that to happen, and I have plenty of room here, though my dog may get a bit jealous.

If nothing else, I'll get him into a non-kill shelter. Hooray for my good deed of the day, right?

My Lucky Day

Have you ever had one of those days where things just worked out? And it doesn't have to be some big thing, it can just be over a little thing, like finding that perfect book or a great pair of jeans when you weren't really looking... or a tv show you like on sale. :)

So, yesterday evening, I was catching up on my recorded TV shows, specifically Inuyasha (yes, I know, I know... not the best anime ever, but I'm a fangirl, what can I say?). I was sad, because Adult Swim only shows two episodes a week now, as opposed to every night, like they used to a couple years ago. I wanted to own the series, of course, but it's so expensive!

I mean, I had seen the box sets at Best Buy, but each season - there are 7, I think - ranges in price from something like $45 to over 100! Each! I can't afford that! So, last night, on a whim, I searched on Amazon. I don't mind buying them used, as long as they play. Unfortunately, most of the seasons are still quite expensive, even used. So, I was all crestfallen and sad, when I remembered that Half Price Books, a discount bookseller chain here in Texas, usually has a bunch of used Anime on their DVD shelves.

Of course, it was Sunday, and I figured they'd be closed by the time I thought of it (7:30 PM). I was surprised, though, to see that they were open till 8! I jumped in my car and drove over, thinking that if they have any of the sets, I'd buy them... provided they were reasonably priced. I figured I'd pay no more that $25... at least, that's what I figured I could afford.

I especially wanted the first season, as I'd like to watch them all in order. Imagine my surprise when I got there, ran over to the Anime section... and there it was. Plain as day and just sitting there. On top of everything else, it was only $10!!! I couldn't believe it! The discs are in perfect condition, too. I was grinning like an idiot, let me tell you. :D

As a bonus, they had the first movie, too. There was an "As Is" sticker on it, but I checked the disc and it looks fine. I haven't tried to play it, though, so there may be something wrong with it that I just can't see. I'm super happy, though, because I got exactly what I wanted, for an amazing deal, and now I can have fun "treasure hunting" for the other seasons at other stores.

So, basically, this was like getting that rare drop, epic lewtz, uber-purples kind of thing. And the best part? It happened IRL. :D

EDIT: I just realized that seasons 1, 2, and 3 are on Hulu!!! Holy crap, that's amazing. ^_^ Now I don't have to buy 2 and 3 right away, I can get my fix for free... at least until I can dig up those seasons on sale or at Half Price. EditEdit: Turns out on Hulu they're subtitled... that's a minor inconvenience. Still, better than nothing, right?

And We're Back, Baby!

Internet? Check.

Updated WoW client on my Laptop? Check.

Authenticator? Check.

Looks like we're back in business. I miss the far better graphics and computing power of the iMac, but I'm not going to take it from my parents, since they bought it for themselves. We thought about working out a deal where I bought them a new computer and took the iMac instead (think inexpensive mac mini in exchange for the year old iMac), but when I checked prices I realized it would just be better to buy myself a new iMac and let them keep theirs.

I did a mass AddOn download (damn if Minion from MMOUI still isn't working for Macs...), and did my best to set up a decent-looking UI in the game using an alt. I'm honestly not overly happy with what I came up with but I won't complain too much. It works for now. Ideally, I'd love an all-in-one UI, like Spartan, but it usually ends up being too restrictive. I'm especially missing the giant 24 in. screen from the iMac as my much smaller MacBook Pro is lacking in screen real estate.

I'm surprised at how many AddOns I use. Even with my long list, though, I don't have a decent unit frame AddOn. I've always simply used the Blizzard ones. Something tells me that's something I'll have to deal with later. I've heard good things about Pitbull, Grid, and X-Perl. They all do the job, they're just all a bit different. I've also heard that you can make Pitbull look like Grid. It takes time to set them all up, though. :/ I don't know anything about this stuff.

Pitbull just looks sexy. It has 3D unit pictures, nice-looking bars and looks like it can be set up in a really clean way. It uses icons and such for a more visual way of communicating. The only thing I'm worried about is that for my laptop, it may be too sexy-looking. The poor thing is about ttwo years old now, maybe a little older, and I doubt it can handle all the processing that Pitbull appears to need. Also, it may have so many options that just setting it up would take me hours.

Grid is clean. It's small, light-weight (it appears that way, at any rate), and efficient. There aren't many bells and whistles, though (at least not at first glance). I also would have to figure out how to read it in a raid setting. I like pictures, icons, things that let me know exactly what the hell is going on without having to think too much. I mean, it's a game, not a chore. The little indicators may not be enough for me. Interpreting it in the middle of a fight may not be easy.

X-Perl looks a great deal like Pitbull, but easier to configure. That probably also means that it is a little less versatile. It has an option panel that appears easy to read and work with, so I can probably set it up in a half hour. I'm not sure, though, if my computer can handle it. It's sexy, but, like Pitbull, I'm worried that there is too much going on.

You know, I shouldn't discount an all-in-one UI just yet. Spartan is still one of the absolute best-looking UI's out there. With a few extra items, I bet I could make it work just fine. Or I could get a few extra things, like CBH Viewport, and set something up that will give me some other spaces to work with. If I ever get this all figured out, I'll post a picture. :D

Interwebz Tomorrow!

I'm so freaking excited. AT&T is installing my U-Verse package tomorrow which means I'll have Internet again. :D Good grief, I'm like a crack addict needing my fix... Anyway, I'm ready for it. Going this long without Internet (except for my iPhone, which is no doubt what kept me sane) has been difficult. I'm getting quite a nice package, I think.

For my viewing pleasure, I've chosen U-200. That's 200 channels of cable goodness all for me. Some channels I'm looking forward to include Animal Planet, Cartoon Network (hooray, Adult Swim!!), CNN (hoping it's better than local news...), Comedy Central, Food Network, G4, Spike, and Syfy (why did they change their name? Good grief, it looks dumb now...). I also get some really cool music channels with that, though I doubt it would sound good coming from my crappy TV.

My Internet will be what AT&T calls "Elite," which allows downstream speeds of up to 6 Mbps. Basically they recommend this speed as the minimum for Internet gaming, i.e. WoW, thus I bought this instead of something less expensive. I also get access to all of AT&T's hot spots with this Internet, so I'm excited about that (including Starbucks, not that I go there that often anymore). That's pretty cool, too.

I rounded out my package deal with a home phone, too. I got their "unlimited" minutes plan, which only made sense. What's super cool about the home phone, though, is the Home Manager. This thing is just a really cool gadget. :D I mostly love the fact that it doubles as a digital photo frame. Now, naturally, I had to buy this separately. Thanks to my package deal, though, I got $200 off the price, making this a $100 phone. Reasonable, considering all it does. And yes, I did look at Best Buy and such for a normal land line phone and decided they were all really expensive and totally not worth it for what they did. The Home Manager is pretty sweet, though, so I'm excited to see how it looks when all's said and done.

All in all, tomorrow can't come fast enough. I really hope the AT&T technician arrives relatively early in the day so I can make the most of my new Interwebz.

Interwebz?

So I don't get Internet at my house until the 25th (that would be next Saturday, I guess). This makes me a sad panda, mostly because this means I have to play something like Sims 3, as that doesn't require Internet. I've come to the conclusion that all games are better with the Internet, though, so I'm still sad. If I could just log on for an hour it would make me happier, but I'm not sure when I'll get the chance.

On top of that, my Wii is still busted because I'm lazy as all hell and still haven't sent it in for repairs. I'll probably do that this weekend, or maybe this afternoon, but I've got to find a small box for the console. In the meantime, I've got an old PlayStation 2 around here somewhere, so maybe I'll finally finish that Final Fantasy game or Kingdom Hearts or maybe Sly 2.

Or maybe I'll do a Harry Potter marathon and watch all 5 of the movies so that this weekend I can go see the new film and be all caught up. That should take up quite a bit of time in between housework. I've still got boxes all over the place, while I try, little by little, to move into my house.

Clothes need to be washed, boxes recycled, old things from my childhood dealt with (ever heard of Playmobil? I used to collect the stuff, so I have bags/boxes of that and I need to figure out what to do with it all...), exercise equipment cleaned off and brought in from the garage, a sleeper-sofa to overhaul... the list goes on and on and on. And that's just inside. Don't get me started on my garden out back. After the scorching TX summer, most of the plants are dead.

Why does owning and maintaining your own place take up so much damn time?

Countdown to Outland

Seona is rolling right along, achieving level 52 plus a little extra over the weekend. The only real drawback is that a great deal of that experience came from killing mobs, so her rested experience was depleted. Hopefully with some rest in Ironforge, she'll get that back this week in between me working and dealing with the house.

Getting to 52 just means that I only have seven levels to go until Outlands, which is exciting. All my gear consists of quest rewards, meaning I'm mostly in lower-level greens. I mean, I bought some new shoulders because she was still wearing chainmail ones that a very kind warrior had made for her in Lakeshire. Since level 25 or so! Way too long. Thankfully I got them for a really good deal, only a few gold. I hate to get any really good gear, simply because I know I'll replace it within a few hours of hitting Outlands.

She also finally replaced Verigan's Fist with the Ice Barbed Spear. It was way past time. The best part? I only had to do the battleground one time, and the whole time I was in the harpy cave, attempting the opening quest for the trinket. The rest of the raid sitting at level 59-60 did most of the work for me. Thanks, you guys, for my new polearm!

Otherwise not much to report. I'm a little sad that Seona hasn't stepped foot in an instance since the Deadmines. She got a random whisper yesterday asking to heal something or other, but dinner was on its way, and I wasn't going to start an instance right before dinner. Plus, Sunday nights are Merlin nights, so she politely declined. She did wish them luck, though.

Oh! Speaking of the house and new loot, I got a Roomba as a housewarming gift! I named it Dirti. Yes, named after that Dirti. I think I'll find a picture of the little guy, print it out, and tape it to my vaccum robot. I think it would be cute. And adorably annoying because no one else I know would get the reference.

Midsummer: Flying Around Outlands

I decided to log onto Yrovi for a few quick minutes this morning before work. Turns out she has a great deal less accomplished for Midsummer than I thought. The only achievement she's completed from last year was Honoring the Flames of the Eastern Kingdoms. Frankly, that sucks. I have less than a week to complete the meta or I'll have to wait till this time next year to get the purple proto-drake. That's just unfortunate, to be honest.

She was hanging out with the fel-orcs in Shadowmoon Valley, still in the process of getting that Netherdrake, so I decided to take a quick spin around Outland to take care of that part of the achievement right away. Turns out it's not so bad on an epic flyer. I was able to get Shadowmoon, Terrokar, Nagrand, and Zangarmarsh in about 20 minutes, both honoring and the extinguishing the flames in those zones. I had to stop on my way to blade's edge, but I'll get there again after I do some packing tonight.

That's right, I'm moving into my house this weekend, more specifically Friday. I feel stressed, though, because I haven't packed nearly enough. Well, at least the furniture will be there and the empty house will start feeling like a real home again. 'Till then, though, I'll have to squeeze playtime in when I can. Thankfully Yrovi has plenty of fast mounts to get her where she's going.

Kalimdor and Northrend are still on the list, as well as taking out Ahune and buying all the clothes... which actually means I'll have to do all the flames to have enough blossoms... Plus she needs to steal the fires of the Alliance cities... Oh, man, I thought I had more done than this. I'll really have to hurry up if I want to take care of this meta this year. D:

That's just all kinds of unfortunate.

Treasures Untold

So in preperation for my move into my new house, I've obviously been packing up all my stuff. I had no idea I owned all this junk, but I do and I've got to pack it all up. While packing, though, I discovered a box in my garage with lots of old software and manuals, including Heroes of Might and Magic I, II, and III along with some of their paperwork, like the quick-guides and such. Heroes of Might and Magic was the first series that I became truly obsessed with, starting with Heroes I and every installment since then (that was Mac compatible, of course). These turn-based strategy games were my first serious foray into computer gaming and I'd stay up for hours late at night playing, trying to beat the computer.

Now, the old disks obviously don't play on any new Mac, ever since they switched over to OS X. But, because I'm a crazy Mac lover, along with my parents, I still have my ancient iMac. You remember those? The ones that were all bubble-shaped and colorful? Well, mine wasn't exactly colorful since it's "graphite" or grey, but, hey, it's old and it still works. I dusted it off and plugged it in and heard that glorious startup sound. Ah, memories. :D

I'm pretty sure the internal battery is shot, though, because it thought it was December 30, 1969 and the hard drive was named some strange string of numbers and symbols or something, but I fixed it all up, popped in the disk and fired up the game. Ah, to hear the midi music and see the crappy animations and sprites gave me a little bubble of joy! For a game from 1995 (I can't believe it's over 10 years old now!), it's addicting. I decided to run the campaign and started as the Knight, since they have the cheapest units. "Lord Ironfist" built up his castle and took the central town on the map, earning victory! /cheer

I started the second map of the campaign, but since it was getting late, I saved and shut down. While it's certainly no WoW, it is tons of fun. I have Heroes II and Heroes III as well, and I think I still have Heroes IV on my shelf in my room. Freeverse semi-recently released Heroes V for Mac, but it's plagued a bit by bugs in the software, which is a real shame. I bought it anyway, of course, as a download on my laptop. :D

I think as a side thing, especially until I get internet installed in my place, I'll be running through the campaigns of the games, especially Heroes III. I personally think that III was the absolute best of the entire series, the most polished. Pity I don't have the expansions for it (and checking amazon.com, the mac version of Heroes III complete is about $150!!! Geeze!!). Well, probably a good thing, otherwise I'd probably hardly ever play WoW again. lol

Good Thoughts for a Fellow Blogger, and More Druid

First, because this is far more important than any WoW stuff, I want to extend good thoughts to Daniel, aka BRK, the greatest Hunter blogger ever to grace the WoW blogging scene. He retired from WoW some time ago to focus on family, but unfortunately is getting a divorce. Daniel, my thoughts are with you and your son. I read your blog, though I never posted (being a dedicated lurker), and I wish you all the best in the upcoming months. I am so sorry that things didn't work out, but I hope that, in time, you'll find your footing again. You'll love Star Trek, by the way.

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/WoW speak

Okay, so since I didn't really love Xyno when I logged on her, I was a touch worried that Opal would be in similar shape. She's actually much better, thank goodness. She was sitting at just into level 29, in Astraanar, not Lakeshire, with everything trained up, and had an empty talent tree. I actually considered going Balance instead of Feral, but her gear was actually decent and it was fully Feral gear (nearly all Agi and Stam) so I went with the Feral after all. While she takes a good amount of damage in cat form, she's no tissue paper kitty. She can easily tear through 3-4 mobs before needing to pop Lifebloom or bandage (or any other heal she can do), so it's not nearly so bad. She was fully rested, of course, so getting her to level 30 only took about 1.5 hours or so, and then she was able to get the travel form and riding training plus mount and such. Having the gold she had was nice, didn't even know she was that well off. :)

She's got gathering professions, so she's nicely set up. I might end up transferring her over to ED afterall, if for no other reason than her skinning is pretty high up, and she has herbalism fairly highly trained. Or, at least, she's where she needs to be to pick/skin anything she kills in the area she's questing in. I'm not sure how to RP a Nelf Druid, but I'll come up with a backstory for her if she moves to ED. I might keep her on Gilneas till she's at least ready for outland or northrend, though, simply because it's a PvE server, which is nice and "carebear" for her. Gilneas if pretty low-pop, I think, since I haven't run into any horde at all, and I've forgotten what it's like not to have to worry about getting ganked from behind when in a contested zone. While its nice at at times, it's almost too quiet. ;p

You notice I said that it took me about 1.5 hours to level her. I think I only played for about 2 hours last night total. Much less than I used to. My time seems taken up by other things lately, and that's probably a very good thing. The fact that I don't come home from work, deal with the dogs right away, then plop down in front of the computer till 10 or 11 pm is a nice change. Alts are nice that way.

/WoW speak

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Oh, and one last little IRL thing: my Wii just crapped out last night. It absolutely refuses to read disks, so it's going to need repairs. That means I'll have to ship it to Nintendo, pay $75.00 for them to figure out what's wrong, and have them send it back to me. I'm sad. :( I'm not going to do it right away. The downloaded games I just bought, literally two days ago, still work fine, and I need me some Ocarina of Time, a game I've never played before (I know, blasphemy!!). The very first Zelda game I completely finished was Twilight Princess, and now I know what I've missed all my gaming years. I decided to download the other two in the Twilight Princess timeline, which is Ocarina and Majora's Mask, and play through them as well. Hopefully all goes well.

I'm All Growed Up

I closed on my first ever home yesterday. I'm crazy excited about it.

I plan on doing a lot of painting, and eventually want to redo the bathrooms (there are 3) and maybe part of the kitchen... so many possibilites. :D

It has a great backyard, and a garden. I'm going to grow vegetables! (Yay for free food!!!)

Of course, I also now have a mortgage, water and electricity bills to pay, plus I'll need to get internet access, and figure out if I want a package deal with cable tv and home phone...

Damn.

The Noble, Children's Week, and Arthas

Last night, Yrovi officially became "Yrovi the Noble" when she managed to find a lovely female dwarf sitting outside Dalaran. Naturally, she had been waiting ever so patiently outside the Alliance area for quite some time (dressed up all pretty, with a cozy fire, and egg basket, and flowers) before giving up and running to Ironforge to attempt to find one in it's natural habitat. The guards were rather upset with this idea, naturally, and alerted several other Alliance members. She did meet a rather cute gnome outside, though. I warned her not to play with her food, but she was in a good mood, and still sated from eating all those chocolates from the day before, so he survived the encounter, even when flagged for combat. She gave up when even the great home of the dwarven race had no females and hearthed back to Dalaran after exploring the area. Right outside the bank, pretty as you please, calmly sitting on her ram, was a lady dwarf. I laughed heartily, for at least a few minutes. So, that took care of Shake Your Bunny-Maker.

A short trip to Brill and a flurry of egg finding produced the 100 chocolates needed to purchase a bunny from the nice belf there, which then resulted in Yrovi taking the quick trips needed to the various starting areas. They all had plenty of others with bunnies, waiting patiently, and within no time Spring Fling was taken care of as well, which was the last thing needed. Thus, Yrovi became Noble, and is one step closer to a lovely purple drake, something she desperately wants as she'll be unable to get such a magnificent, speedy, flying beast any other way (yeah, never going to do arena).

Of course, "finishing" Noblegarden only draws attention to next week's event: Children's Week. Children's Week happens to be one of my favorite world events, as the little kids are so very adorable. Last year at this time, I wasn't a high enough level to go to Outland (I think I was around level 40, only just on a mount), so I was only able to participate in the original version, with a little orc child. I'm not complaining, though, as I loved every minute of it. Of course, it means I'm 3x more excited this year as I can do the original, the one in Outland, and the new one for Northrend. :D I'll be getting the little pig, and the baby hawkstrider, and whatever pet that ends up being the reward for the Northrend orphans.

Of course, I'll need to prepare for it as best I can. Bad Example requires several sweets for the achievement. I've managed to purchase several already, specifically the ones you can get in Dalaran. I need to still find the ice cream (I think it's sold on the zepplins, so that's nice), the chocolate cake (although our resident paladin has one already, so maybe they'll share? *puppydog eyes*) and a tasty cupcake. I have two of the emotion food recipies, but not this one, naturally.

Hail to the King can most probably be completed on regular, so that won't be an issue for me. I'll try to do it at least once before the event, though, so I'm not going in blind. The last one that isn't "easy" is School of Hard Knocks... and it will be very "not easy." I enjoy some PvP, but I'm not a guru or anything. Two of the requirements seem relatively straight forward: Assaulting a flag in Arathi Basin, and Assaulting a Tower in Alterac Valley. It's possible that, like the quest you get around level 35 or so for Arathi Basin, you just have to be in the area when someone assaults the flag to get credit. The other two, though... oh, man. Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm: at least I'm a tank, so I could theoretically be a good candidate for this, though it means I'll need to be much more pushy and aggressive than normal. I have no experience running flags. Finally, return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch: this is going to be the hardest part of the entire thing, in my mind. I can only imagine the sheer number of people attempting to do this at the same time in a normal WG match, and compound it with the need for doing this achievement. It's not going to be pretty, that's for certain.

Noblegarden may have been easily completed in a couple of days, but Children's Week will be a beast. A beast that cannot be fed or sated. I suppose I should look into getting some PvP gear, like the Savage Saronite set. I'm still going to run as Prot, I think... maybe. I'll lose a lot of defense with that set, although the resiliance will help make up for it, and maybe the extra stamina and increased crit will help. I've also been an avid Wintergrasp participant, so maybe I have some marks of honor that are gathering dust. If so, I can purchase a nice epic PvP piece, one that will have a socket, even. Maybe I'll start doing what I can to run it when it's up to get a few more marks before next week. The best part about all that is that I can use the gear from then on, making PvP even more fun. :D

As a footnote: I bought Arthas, Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden this weekend. I haven't finished it, yet, but I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be a little over-the-top, maybe even cheesy, but it's really pretty good. It helps that I actually really like Arthas as a character and that I have played Warcraft III and thus know what's going on. Still, I'm finding it a good read and would recommend it to any WoW players out there looking for something to read. It gives an insight into the guy we all love to hate, and who wouldn't enjoy that? I won't give anything away here, of course, but if you've even slightly considered getting it, go do so. Or, if you're still not sure, borrow it from a friend. I have to admit that the $25 price tag is a little hefty, though, so maybe you'll wait for it to come out in paperback. Regardless, read it. :)

IRL: Boston

This weekend, I'm traveling to a place I've never been to before. And no, it's not Silithus or Naxxramas. In fact, it's not in Azeroth at all. /gasp

A friend of mine is running the Boston Marathon, so I'm heading to Boston to cheer her on. That means, of course, that I'll be dealing with WoW withdrawl, seeing as I doubt I'll have access to Warcraft in Boston. I suppose it's possible, and I am planning on taking my laptop along, but I'll probably be too interesting in the city to actually want to play.

Also, I haven't patched up WoW on my laptop, yet.

I still have to pack and do some housecleaning before I head off for the north. Hopefully they'll be nice to this little Texan.

Poor Yrovi will just have to wait on getting further along in the tourney. Or maybe not, who knows? Could be that I'll be able to play for an hour or so at night in the hotel room. I guess it depends on whether or not they have internet access.

Anyway, wish my friend luck and good weather for her run, and hopefully I'll survive 4 days without WoW, if it comes to that. ;-)

Good Gravy...

Gah. I would have logged on last night, but I burned my pinky finger while cooking! D: Boiling gravy sloshed on to my hand, and that made for a very painful evening. My left hand was forced to spend several hours in cold water. Thank you WebMD for telling me what to do/not to do (I would have made it worse with the lotion I had, but was spot on with the water).

I'm just grateful that it wasn't too bad and more or less healed overnight. I'll just make a simple sandwich tonight, and stay away from the kitchen as much as possible. ;)

Maintenance Tuesday today is supposed to bring patch 3.0.9, or as BigRedKitty calls it: "The Patch to Patch the Patch" Patch. Various fan sites have the patch notes listed, although they don't seem to directly affect any of my characters that I'm playing currently. They aren't on WoW's site, though, so I'm taking them with a grain of salt anyway. To see them courtesy of WoWhead, click here. Remember, they aren't on the official site, so they may not be true, but I think it's possible. I guess we'll find out today. :)

IRL: X-Men and PvPOnline, plus Database

Yeah, so, I haven't actually played WoW for the past two days. I came home on Wednesday after listening to the newest Instance podcast with the PvPOnline creator and decided to read the comic. Like, all of it. The whole thing. I didn't stop till bedtime, and I still hadn't completely finished. Regardless, it took up all my WoW time. Last night I came home, helped with dinner, and then watched X-Men and X2 one after the other. Wasn't really in the mood for WoW after that, either.

So. I guess I'll get on tonight and this weekend. I really should get to level 80. I'm so freaking close at this point that it's stupid that I've taken this long (50% through 79). And I know that the guild wants to start raiding and I want to raid with them. And 80 is mandatory for that business. So. I guess I'll get on tonight. And this weekend.

On a side note, I'm going to take at least part of this weekend to fix my media storage situation. I have well over 200 DVDs in my collection, maybe closer to 250, and it is sadly unorganized. I have no idea where some of my movies are. And when I get in the mood for a film, but then can't find it, I go nuts. For example, I know for a fact that I own the Bourne Ultimatum. But I can't find it ANYWHERE. I've looked. So I broke down and just rented it from Blockbuster. By the way, Blockbuster used to be cool. Really cool. 99 cents for an old film for 5 days and no late fees. Yeah, they don't do that anymore. They're back to their old, craptacular ways. Damn that they are the only rental place near my house. One more reason to reorganize my DVD collection. I'm going to use my database software, Delicious Library, to get it all settled and happy. Plus, I just bought something like 5 dvds recently that I need to put in there...

TL;DR: Haven't played; will play tonight and weekend in between organizing my DVD collection. Yeah.