Tell Me of your Troubles …

Really? That’s so nice of you. I mean people say things like that all the time but they don’t REALLY mean it, that’s so kind of you to say Sharinga, well what happened was … WHAT … oh … TRAVELS! Oh, you want to know about my travels … oh … sorry. My mistake.

Well you know really, they’re the same thing. On my TRAVELS I encountered TROUBLES. Hellfire is part of my pet leveling circuit so I’m using the Dark Portal a lot lately and I’ve run into a problem I can’t remember having before. I fly through the portal and then instead of magically appearing in Hellfire, I smack into the mountain BEHIND the portal. Yeah, what’s that about? Is it the fault of the goaty little mount I’m riding or is something more sinister afoot here.

Possibly a Pandaren plot to have their way, oh I know they’re all fuzzy and cute but come on, they must have a dark side. I didn’t smack into the side of the mountain before they appeared, just saying. I’m just wondering if they are trying to enforce that “Slow down” they’re always saying in a sneaky, subtle, way … like making you run into a mountain if you don’t slow down. I am not paranoid! Seems mighty suspicious to me.

I got an urgent message from my bank alt. Cat was out of control at the AH. She was about to buy a Son of Animus for 16,000 gold. I had to go talk her down. Let’s wait a little while, see if they come down a bit. I KNOW you want one but patience. So I managed to convince her a Sen’jin Fetish and a Hyacinth Macaw for half the price was a wise decision.

Yeah … sorry, this is a reminder for me. I’m sticking this here to remind me that as soon as I login I need to go to the Darkmoon Faire and buy a Carousel Murloc. Really, no one should be without one of those. First stop I’ll go see Gelvas Grimegate about buying a supply. I don’t think being repeatedly smacked into that mountain addled my brain. I’m pretty sure I’d want some of these anyway.

Here. Just to keep things in perspective. Yes, I had my Dark Portal troubles but really, this screen shot illustrates what we all know. Things can get MUCH, MUCH, WORSE. It’s like a law. I guess they got stuck in a storm up there on that mountain in Kun-Lai Summit. Either that or some Pandaren made them smack into it.

Communique from the Front Lines

What? I meant MY front line of faffage, not the … you know … FRONT front lines, geez. I did however converse with one of Wrathion’s lackeys who was wandering around surveying. He was extremely interested in my furbolg disguise, he thought it might have military possibilities. I told him it could be his. Simply get to exalted with the Timbermaw Hold faction in Felwood and Meilosh would be happy to sell the Stave of Fur and Claw to him. See, I am helping the Black Prince.

So Cat heads over to Angler’s Wharf to turn in another book to Nat and then this. She kept trying to tame it. She thought it would make a great battle pet, really throw off the opponent … play head games with them … but no. Oh well, at least now she knows they’re out there, sneaky little Shore Crabs.

So Cat’s been trying to fish up more Tiny Carp. She only has the green one so far. She was moaning and groaning about how she’d been fishing for hours and hours and nothing. I called her attention to the time on the fishing lure. Oh. Fifteen minutes. Oh. Well it felt like hours and hours.

So anyway, while she was spending those hours and hours fishing she had a lot of time to think. She came up with an achievement for the guild. She thought getting Critter Kill Squad using ONLY the Hozen Idol would be fun. What is wrong with that Druid. Since this guild consists of me, me and me that’s so not happening. Forget it Cat.

Yeah … I’ve been stalling. I’ve needed to go to Tol Barad and do dailies to get another Fox Kit. And I don’t know why I’ve been putting it off because it’s not that hard. I have the magical tabard that sends me right where I need to be. And there’s no competition, no one’s there. The mobs are easy now, whole thing only takes a few minutes. Best of all though is now I can BUY that Fox Kit instead of the whole killing fox thing … ugh … I’ve had enough of that.

Oh … yeah … about the killing thing. Sorry my Tauren friends, really truly. But I need those fish. Only 129 commendations to go!

PSA: Where Can you Buy Disguise for Island of Giants

I frequently check to see what search terms bring visitors here. This morning I felt kind of guilty. I usually prattle on about stuff, yada, yada, yada, and rarely give any true facts. Yeah, no true facts here, just me going on and on about really, squat all.

where can you buy disguise for island of giants

Twice already this morning some poor person was deposited here, on my doorstep. Did they find the information they were seeking? NO. So Cat set out on a dangerous … yeah, okay a kite flight … mission to acquire the knowledge they desired at great personal risk … OKAY! ALMOST NO RISK AT ALL … there, you happy?

After mapping the Isle of Giants and knocking off a bunch of Dinomancers to try to get the last pet they drop, Cat returned from her mission. Success!

Agrant Sharpshot is The Alliance representative of the Jurasssic Expedition and will be happy to sell you your disguise, Arnold Raygun is the Horde vendor for disguises.

If you’re interesting in finding out what rewards Ku’ma the Bone Collector offers to those brave adventurers who have piles of dinosaur bones to trade, visit Ku’ma in his cozy cave.

Om Nom Nom Nom! Be sure to bring your Picnic Basket along and make a day of it! Yum, grilled dino!

There, I feel better now. Some ACTUAL information. I hope they come back. Hey! Hey! Come back, I made you a map and all!

Awww … So Cute … WTF!

First, I’m not comparing WoW and SWTOR. They are apples to oranges to me. This is not that. Games I play are all special snowflakes that I enjoy, not critique. I’ll leave that to others but this … just …

Okay I really like companion pets a lot. Look at that cute little Cinder Kitten. Is that not the cutest thing ever? Squeeeee! And it was kinda hard picking the absolute cutest pet … cause there are lots and lots.

Which brings me to SWTOR. Oh wait, here’s just one small complaint. I’d play SWTOR more often but I have an authenticator and some days I’m just not up to the task. My WoW authenticator displays six digits, I can handle that. Six digits are few enough that I can keep from being distracted half way through typing them in. SWTOR has eight, they defeat me almost half the time. The SWTOR authenticator boss and I are about 60/40.

Anyway, so I login and I have these tokens they keep giving me to buy stuff, I think I get more each month and they burn a hole in my pocket. I have to spend them, just have to. So I think, oh yay! They have companion pets! I’ll buy a bundle with a chance at a pet! Exciting!

Oh wow! I won! I won! I got a companion pet, yippee ki-yay! A Golden Lizardbat, sounds fun, maybe it’s like …

WTF! FESS! FESS! What’s wrong with you, take out that freaking thing before it attacks! Crap! Help! Kill it! Kill it!

But Herald, it is your new companion pet is it not?

WHAT? That’s my … no seriously, it can’t be. Fess, is this a joke? You didn’t seem the jokey kind to me but seriously, really?

Okay, I’ll just take another look. I’m sure on closer inspection it will turn out to …

OMG! JUST OMG! This is so wrong! FESS! SHOOT TO KILL! Something’s gone horribly wrong here, RUN!

Okay, I shouldn’t get all worked up. Maybe I just got the one butt-ugly pet in the whole game. I’m just unlucky, but still I don’t think I’m going to chance it again. Perhaps I’ll find something else to collect. But the thought of being locked up on my ship with that thing … shudder.

Yeah, here’s my rl companion pet taking a break on our walk. Isn’t he cute? Just like my Cinder Kitten. I guess two out of three’s not bad.

Free Association Blogging

free association
n.
1. A spontaneous, logically unconstrained and undirected association of ideas, emotions, and feelings.

When I get up in the morning, check for new posts, I never know where it will lead. Matty’s a great one for sending me off on a journey that will end who knows where. It might be WoW related, it might not.

Yesterday Redbeard sent me on a audio journey of the 80′s. He and Navi were talking about Star Wars and Back to the Future and in the comments he said “brat pack flicks.” OMG!

This set off bells! The Breakfast Club! Why The Breakfast Club? My daughter is in London on business and was excited about seeing OMD perform. So after listening to that I noticed the suggestions. OMG … again. Taylor Dayne!

I’ll Be Your Shelter by Taylor Dayne I listened to I don’t know how many times. If I could sing, which I can’t, I would want to have that voice. Damn, that’s a voice. I’m listening again right now. Shoot. I wish I could sing.

This made me think of Khizz at Blog of the Treant who CAN sing, so jealous. I’ll see if she’s saying something. Nope, still cute little kittens.

Well seeing them I just had to go check Emergency Cute Stuff on Twitter. This made me think about pets I want.

Which probably caused this. Cat! Sasche was saving all those dinosaur bones for a mount! That’s mean! You made her spend 999 of her 9999 bones on a pet. You owe her big time Cat, really.

So yeah. Blogging, every day is a battle. I battle envy of blogger blogs with their updating blogroll. In fact there are a few blogs out there that I use to travel the WoW internet, hope they don’t mind. My biggest battle though is finding my way back to where I started. I had wanted to comment. Who sent me on this trip? Today I remembered, other days not so much.

This whole thing has been further complicated by my husband being on vacation this week. He doesn’t read fiction, he reads history almost exclusively. I am trying to find my way back to where I want to comment and he throws out an interesting fact.

“Did you know that in 1900 Minnesota’s grain production was larger than that of Great Britain and Ireland combined?”

Um … no … no I did not. Thanks.

Well, now I have to stop myself from going off on a google journey of the US in the 1900s. Wasn’t too hard but still.

WoW blogging … not for the faint of heart.

Lard’s Picnic Basket and Cheating

Over the weekend Liwu was enduring CRZ hell leveling in The Hinderlands. Jintha’Alor was crawling with characters and the respawn rate on the quest mobs could not keep up with the crowd. After getting frustrated, Liwu headed to the coast to look for ore which would at least salvage something from this mess. Off the coast was a little island, so she set off to investigate and found Lards’ Picnic Basket.

She looted it and was jumped by some ambushers, it’s apparently an item left over from an obsolete Horde quest. How had I never come across this before? Some Loremaster I am, sheesh. Liwu was pretty excited at being the first to discover the basket. I was excited to find that if you look, there are still mysteries in Azeroth to discover, I love that.

WoW Insider had a post on cheating on WoW. Yeah, looks like I’m not alone but I prefer to think of it as vacationing in a foreign land. Then I don’t have to be furtive about it, it’s all aboveboard and adult.

Um … yeah, I don’t know. It seems every time I visit my SWTOR characters they’re in some sort of sleazy dive. Here is my Jedi Counselor conversing with … ah … an interpretive dance troupe? Maybe? I’m in both WoW and SWTOR because my son-in-law is a committed Jedi Knight. He said he’s in a really great guild with nice people and I should join, so who would pass that up. I had been gone so long I just started over as I hadn’t a clue how to play my existing characters anymore.

I picked the Jedi Consular because it looked like I could spec her to come close to the play style of my Warlock. I could try to match up their keybindings and hopefully avoid the problems I have with playing multiple games at the same time. You know, the repeatedly hitting the wrong key and then the dying.

So here’s the thing. I’m playing along having a fine time when I get this feeling of deja vu. I don’t know, it seems like this Consular is familiar to me, like I’ve met her before. What’s that about? I just made her, don’t be ridiculous. I kept having this eerie feeling, so on logging off I took a look at the old characters still scattered around on different servers.

Hey there Cyborg Bounty Hunter! Wave! Wait … what? On close inspection she seems to be the clone of my Jedi Consular except for the hair and mechanical parts. Further research showed that I apparently, without knowing, had made almost the exact same character at least three times. What am I doing? Who is she? I mean the customization of characters is pretty broad in SWTOR, how did I manage that.

Thought that was pretty weird and I’m still suspicious of her and her motivation, how did she insinuate herself into my head and what does she want. I got spooked and headed back to WoW. I checked everyone out. Whew, she’s not here. I haven’t been followed. If I had found a Dwarf with her face I was going to swear off games. Honest … but no worries. The coast is clear.

Ironsally Takes a Dirt Nap

Yep. Ride, Sally ride. Way, way, back in the olden days of 2011 two wizards plotted a fiendish task. I now think of it as the Psyn-Vry Ironman to differentiate it from the later WoW Ironman which was more well known and included one thing the earlier WoW Ironman didn’t. A no-death requirement. Ironsally leveled to 85 dressed more or less in her undies and no talents … and gets to die as much as she so desires.

After completing her challenge she bummed around, had no direction. It was a bad time for her and she ended up in a back alley on a PvP server with little to do. But now the time has come. It’s time to push forward to 90. Yes, her idiot handler has made things more challenging by leaving her here, but no one is up for a challenge like Ironsally, Warlock extraordinaire! (Her words not mine, but I thought I’d humor her after the whole PvP server thingy.)

After a little research it became apparent those Pandaren don’t go in much for selling useless common weapons and gear. For heaven’s sake they sell legitimate gear. How unfortunate. It seems her next gear upgrade would have to come from the scruffy line of poor gear which is unattainable. That was one good thing about being on Zangarmarsh, people actually listed poor and common gear on the AH. Oh well, she’ll have to tough it out.

OMG! Sally, you did not just do that! You poser! You know you can’t help Nozdormu, why did you take that quest … ah … okay, I see. So she’s stuck here because her hearth’s on cooldown. Oh, wait. I’ll just enter The Caverns of Time, there’s a portal right here. Then I’ll check in on Uldum.

OMG, it was so good to finally get that over with. Sally takes a dirt nap at the hands of the Horde. I’ve got to wonder what he thought. There he is already for a big fight and bam. He one-shot her. Kind of wonder what was going through their mind. Damn, I am good, or what the hell is the matter with that Warlock. I’ll never know. I was afraid they might camp her poor little body but apparently they were looking for more of a challenge and soon departed so she moved on to Uldum.

Crumbling Defenses had somewhat soured her on Deepholm. Completing this quest spanned hours. She had to wait for the cooldown to Summon Doomguard to have any hope at all of killing these things.

Time to revisit Kavem the Callous. At 84 she couldn’t down him, let’s see if she can prevail and open up Uldum as an 85. Yay! Down he went. She’s very happy, now she’s free to spend some time in Uldum, a nice change from dreary, rocky Deepholm.

Don’t know if she’ll make it to 90 but we’ll have fun trying. I do think 85 to 90 might take as long as 1 to 85 did. Sally, you should never have left Outland incomplete. It’s going to come back and bite you. Just saying. Sigh … that girl just does not listen.