Meanie Stupid Heads

Yes, I’m sorry. Generic Uldum screen shot there. I forgot to take the screen shot I wanted to use for this post last night.  Servers are down for maintenance and I can’t wait till later as I have work. And I CAN’T have a post with no pictures … ick … just wrong. I’ll try to find another for later in the post.

Meanies

So anyway, I seem to have these “all over the place” posts after a weekend. Probably because on the weekend I have some interaction with actual people rather than just NPCs like week days. My interaction this weekend was not the good kind. It left me feeling ashamed of the Alliance.

My main, the character that I identify most with is Alliance. My alt crafters are all Alliance. LONG LIVE THE ALLIANCE!  Having gotten that out of the way, you’re all meanies! At least on Fenris.

Since 2006 I’ve been killed countless times by the Horde but they seem to go about it in a workmanlike fashion.  They kill me and then proceed about their business for the most part. Over the weekend my Forsaken Warlock was trying to collect 50 coins for a pet.  We were sitting at the Flight Master in Everlook; I was on Wowhead trying to decide where to fly next. When I came back I wasn’t AFK yet but close.

Two Alliance were in the process of killing my Flight Master. I just went back to Wowhead to look up other Elders. I came back to find them still standing there emoting … stuff. Went back to Wowhead listened to music, etc. After what seems like an inordinate amount of time they left. Okay, whatever floats your boat but you do know the person probably doesn’t even see you. They’re looking at Wowhead or something. You’re wasting all that spit. I did get a giggle out of their guild name though. The Benevolent. I guess that only applies to the Alliance.

Next stop Wintergrasp. I know I was asking for it but still. It’s not the killing it’s all the bizarre dancing around and emoting that gets me. I am not familiar with the mechanics of Wintergrasp. Horde had Wintergrasp so I couldn’t figure out why the doors weren’t open. Suspended mid-air I once again headed to Wowhead. On returning I found my Warlock falling to earth. Splat. A Death Knight had death grasped me down I guess, and then finished the job. Fine. But what’s with all the meanie emoting? I was spat on, I was farted on, I was tea bagged, I was danced on … the list is endless. What is up with that? Going for total immersion or something? And he was ten levels above me, so it wasn’t like he was overcome with joy by besting me. Well you Alliance are big meanies and I’m telling Mommy.

This caused me to have the urge to make the biggest Horde character I could think of. I made a Tauren Paladin who plans to grow up and beat up the Alliance. His picture was supposed to be up there. I don’t like his odds though as I have a bad track record playing as a male. But anyway, he’s coming for you!

What! I’m sorry; it’s the best I can do on short notice. I had to repurpose an image fast. Just like some bloggers have half finished posts I have a folder with just started or half finished images and I don’t usually need scary pictures around here as most people, with the exception of one troll, are nice here. Well, who else would I use but Captain Placeholder while I look for an appropriate body. Sorry, sheesh.

WoW Ironman Challenge Overtakes SWTOR

Search Terms. Over the weekend the Ironman Challenge beat out swtor speeder. It caused some problems here as Ironsally wanted me to change the header to something like “tomeoftheancient, HOME OF IRONSALLY THE IRONMAN CHALLENGER.” She’s sulking cause I wouldn’t do it.

OH! OH! This just in! I was visiting Psynister’s Notebook and found this post! It leads to Ironman Mode: The Blog. Now how about that for re-purposing! I’ve got to go, Ironsally is asking for my PayPal login.

Hawt Plate

Over at MMO Melting Pot there’s an interesting post about terms used to describe transmog gear. I have never heard anyone call it Slut Plate myself but I did think of an alternative, Hawt Plate. I think it’s catchy and it works for both male and female characters, even though I’ve yet to see any Hawt Plate for males. Shame really. As usual I’m not posting my idea because I’m too frightened. Hugh is really nice and I’m not scared of him, I’m scared of the commenters. Maybe his might be meaner than mine and I’m just not ready for more meanies right now. Until I level up my Tauren Paladin, yeah, then look out!

Sympathy for the Devil

I’ve been playing my Forsaken Warlock lately and having recently reread Cynwise’s On The Forsaken I started to wonder more about her background, her story. I don’t RP, I am fascinated by it but always felt my lore knowledge wasn’t strong enough to come up with believable stories for my characters. The Forsaken has always been the race that I’m most sympathetic with of the playable races.

I don’t ask her about what happened, but I can’t help but wonder. Sometimes I think there are hints of a possible past. Anytime we’re around books she seems to linger. Perhaps she loved books as a child, or perhaps they remind her of a loved one now gone. I don’t know, she doesn’t say.

I do know she’s never at peace. Even in Undercity she’s always on constant watch for some perceived threat. At other times it’s a different watchfulness. You can catch her starring off into the distance as though she’s waiting or hoping for something or someone. But we never speak of it.

I don’t know what she did before Arthas and the Scourge happened to her. I don’t know what she went through to break free. I assume her allegiance to Sylvanas Windrunner must be strong but she never mentions it. She does her bidding, but I don’t know if she stands behind all of the actions of her leader.

I can’t fault her for her silence. We are both quiet people. We don’t speak much unless it’s related to the task at hand. I hope one day she’ll come to trust me enough to talk about her past, or for that matter her present feelings, but that day’s yet to come.

I guess the most important question has to be, is she evil? Did the killing and suffering endured by her and those she loved break her? Is she insane, evil, driven mad by what was done to her? Is she beyond redemption? I don’t know. Traveling through Hillsbrad Foothills I got the feeling that she isn’t, she may even have a sense of humor, but the flicker of humor was gone as quickly as it came. Now I’m not sure if I just imagined it.

We’ve traveled a long way together and she’s always had my back. We ride in silence. I still hope for just one sign of who she really is. Maybe one day I’ll have one. Until that day she has my sympathy. I will give her the benefit of the doubt. We’ll continue down the road until her story ends, one way or the other. Perhaps then she will share it with me.

Note: Yeah. You’re thinking, Ancient, what was that all about? My only explanation is the entire time I play her I’m hearing a steady diet of music like Within Temptation’s Faster, The Howling and of course my all time favorite Warlock music, Sarah Brightman’s – Fleurs Du Mal. Oddly, she is the only character that has this effect on me. The only character whose backstory I wish I knew. I don’t know, maybe I will someday.

Stormwind News Team 9 Meets SWTOR

Ironsally has been insufferable lately. If she isn’t pestering me to check the leaderboard at the new Ironman Challenge, she’s driving me nuts about interviewing my SWTOR characters. I told her I didn’t really think she’d like it in SWTOR.

Finally, I lost my patience and said, fine, I’ll see what I can do about arranging passage for the News Team. I feel sort of guilty because I just knew she’d get frazzled by the whole SWTOR thing but she wouldn’t leave it alone. Kind of mean of me.

Anyway, here’s Ironsally’s take on SWTOR … she didn’t stay long, didn’t even hang around long enough to meet my crew. I don’t think she’ll be begging to go back anytime soon.

Ancient the Insane Elder Turns to the Dark Side

I got nothing. No important information like carrot cake to impart. Yet I still feel the need to communicate so I will, but I promise I’ll try to come up with something of value, be it WoW or SWTOR related over the weekend.

While I’m mentioning SWTOR, I have something of a problem. I had thought the timing of SWTOR was perfect, I could have a vacation while waiting for Mists of Panderia like I’ve done in the past with other games, but what I didn’t count on was that I’m having trouble finding time to vacation there. I’m really behind. I haven’t hit the “I have nothing to do in WoW wall” yet so my poor Bounty Hunter is tapping her foot at me, looking at her watch. She doesn’t even have a last name yet. The other problem is I really like SWTOR, so how do I decide who to piss off. I decided my new friends will just have to be patient.

I finally finished off the Elders of the Dungeons which was the last thing I needed to get my Elder title. Now I’m ready if Blizzard decides to let us do title mashups. Yay! The last dungeon was Utgarde Pinnacle where Ceremonial Pyre Mantle dropped. There they are, up there. I can’t let them go, I really like them. I don’t think they go with that outfit but I’m saving them along with all my cool staves and the Cowl of Defiance which I would wear if I decided to show helm. But it’s hard to find a hat that works with those ears.

So now, I promised my Forsaken Warlock she was next on the priority list. The problem is I have to get my Warlock back on. Right before Cata I was at the peak of my warlockery knowledge and I’ve pretty much forgotten most of it and it’s probably changed since then anyway.

I have to go do some studying and then I’ll listen repeatedly to this, which for whatever reason really helps me connect with my inner warlock. So that’s it, just wanted to chat a bit before lunch … I’m having carrot cake with the sautéed souls of my enemies.

The Cake is NOT a Lie or Nom, Nom, Nom

Norwegian Carrot Cake spammer man was not kidding! This cake would improve anyone’s posts. Thanks are due to quick thinking Erinys of The Harpy’s Nest for the translation. I never think of Google translator. I will give the recipe, but first I had a few problems with Google’s take on Norwegian. I really think they might have been wrong on the title. I’m pretty sure this must be a Norwegian Army Platoon Carrot Cake.

Let me be clear, I’m not much of a cook. Left to myself I’d probably live on frozen pizzas with an occasional banana or something thrown in for good health. So I really wasn’t paying much attention. Had I been a REAL cook, the 7 cups of grated carrots, 6 eggs, etc. would have alerted me to the fact that this was going to be one freaking big cake. Unfortunately I was taken by surprise and had to try to mix it in three different bowls cause I don’t have anything large enough to hold all that stuff … because you know, I’m not a cook.

Another reason I’m not a cook is all the stupid pots and pans you’ve got to use. I hate that. I hate making a big mess and having to clean it up. My husband refers to me as the “One Pot Cook,” and it’s true. I try to only make things that can be made with the use of one pot.

So anyway, just warning you. This is a big mess-making cake to make. I was getting really worried that it wouldn’t come out good enough to justify all the mess I made. Experienced cooks probably don’t make this much mess, but just so you know … kitchen … big mess. But I have dogs so I didn’t have to worry about the floor.

Also, another problem arose when I went to the store and forgot to take the recipe with me. I thought np, I’ll shop from memory. ROTFLMAO! I can’t even begin to believe I really thought that would work out.

So I was ready. I wanted to make it even though I’d screwed up the whole ingredients thing. I forged ahead nonetheless.

I used the recipe below with these changes.

I didn’t remember the ground almonds. I hold a grudge against almonds as one broke a tooth of mine so that’s probably why. So, no almonds.

Whoops! Forgot the Canola Oil. So I substituted with Olive Oil which is the only oil I did have on hand.

Substituted sugar for Sukrin.

I think I have Cardamom way in the back in the cupboard where I keep the spices but I was too lazy to look, so no Cardamom.

2 cups spelled or rye flour

Just used regular flour, if I wanted to drive to an upscale grocery store I maybe could find rye flour but I’d have to drive to another county as there’s no upscale anything in my county.

Not sure what Eventuellt raisins are or what I was supposed to do with them so I just threw a whole bunch of raisins in the batter.

Note: Duh, I just thought to translate Eventuellt. Apparently it means possibly so I accidentally did the right thing throwing them in there.

I was completely flummoxed by the whole glaze direction thing. It’s kinda like I am when I’m in an instance and get nervous, I get stupid and stand in bad stuff. So I decided to just make regular old cream cheese frosting to avoid a problem.

The cake is really delicious, my husband doesn’t like carrot cake and even he likes it. And look at the ingredients; it’s health food really. You can eat without guilt, all those carrots and apples and oatmeal!

There are so many fine benefits to be had by blogging about WoW, but this! Unbelievable! Who knew! Beneficial spam!

Oh all right, I’ll come clean. There is one more ingredient in there. I don’t really know the amount but I’m pretty sure there are probably some black dog hairs in it. There are black dog hairs everywhere in this house but if you don’t have any I’m sure it’ll still be okay or if applicable substitute cat hair. Bon Appétit!

WoW Bloggers Norwegian Army Platoon Carrot Cake

For those times when you feel your posts aren’t up to snuff remember what spammer man says:

“Hrm, Not the best post unfortunately. Sorry to be so blunt! You should try some Norwegian carrot cake ( ) to cheer you up instead.” — Norwegian Carrot Cake Spammer Man

Heat the oven to about 200 degrees Celsius = 392°F.

Mix the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and spices in a measuring jug or bowl. Grate the carrots and apples, chopped walnuts and apricots roughly, mash the banana.

Beat eggs and Sukrin fluffy. There will be an eggnog with Sukrin, but it will taste good anyway.

Add the oil in the egg mixture and add the flour mixture little by little so that no lumps.

Then put in the remaining ingredients and fill the mixture into a small roasting pan or a large round shape.

Cooking time will vary from stove to stove, but expect that it takes about 1 hour. You may want to check for respectively 15 and 30 minutes that no heat is too strong.

When it is cooked, take it out of the oven and loosen it from the mold. Let it cool on a wire rack. Let cake cool completely, about 30 minutes before you start with a glass texture.

Eventuellt raisins

Sukrin is brand name sugar substitute.

6 eggs

1 cup Sukrin

2 cups canola oil

2 cups spelled or rye flour

1 cup oatmeal

100 g ground almonds

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon ginger, or allspice, or both

2 teaspoons baking powder

7 cups grated carrots

1 can (100 grams) walnuts

½ bag of apricots

2 mashed ripe bananas

1 grated apple

Eventuellt raisins

My WoW Wishlist — Mix and Match Titles

First, I don’t know what my Druid is doing, always hanging around in that dive. The Slaughtered Lamb is a Warlock hangout. I guess my Warlock told all the others about Jarel Moor. I don’t know why they all fall for the biker types. It will lead to nothing but heartbreak, mark my words, but I can’t always be around to watch out for them.

I was GOING to say I can’t talk long as I’m on a mission, but I see there is ANOTHER scheduled maintenance today, after the scheduled maintenance yesterday so I guess I have plenty of time to talk.

I’m in a hurry to complete the Elders of the Dungeons achievement because then I’ll have the Elder title and I’m making a request to Blizzard which I’m sure they’ll be eager to implement for me, I mean how hard could it be. I jest Blizzard, “how hard could it be” has been used so many times on me in my working career that I just wanted to see how it felt to say it. But it would be a nice gesture and would help keep our morale high while we wait for Pandaria. And this is like my fifth request, they haven’t fulfilled any of my other desires so I’m pretty sure this time they will … oh, and I have another. So at least one of them they might do for me.

I got the one I was dreading out of the way yesterday.  Maraudon, yeah, no need to say more, just Mara. Some kind person had very good directions posted on Wowhead so it turned out to be relatively painless and I made sure I could hearth out before I did it. Last time I found that elder I was in there lost for about 3 hours.

Off topic here for a second, my computer just locked up and I tried to Alt F4 out of it. Does that mean I play WoW too much? I have a lovely new computer with a GeForce GTX 560 Ti that frequently locks up. Not in game, but almost exclusively while writing posts … in WordPress. I don’t know if it hates WordPress or Firefox. Very inconvenient but I give up. Searching for fixes has only resulted in the knowledge that a great many other people are also in the same pickle. But enough of that.

So anyway, all I want from Blizzard is to kind of mix and match my titles. I know the Elder title is supposed to be “Elder Whoever” but I think we should be able to combine our titles and move them around so that I could truly represent the real me. Ancient the Insane Elder would be just perfect. I’m sure now that they’ve been alerted they’ll get right on that. So that’s why I’m in a hurry to complete the Elders of the Dungeons, so I’ll be ready.

My other request came to me after Ironyca found out that there is a new Ironman Challenge going over on the EU servers. Of course Ironsally was all ears, any chance to gain the spotlight and she’s right there. I think she wants to interview the participants. She even joined their forum to make sure she could follow everything. But here’s the thing. These people aren’t just Ironmen, they are CRAZY IRONMEN, which is even better as they’ve included a no-death clause, YIKE!!

Ironyca, Vrykerion and I twittered … tweeted … whatever about it and Vrykerion, one of the founders along with Pysnister of The WoW Ironman Challenge, said they had considered having a no-death requirement but had tabled that one. Sheesh, I’m glad they did. I could never have done that one.

So, if anyone completes this new Ironman I wanted to be able to send them something. Blizzard, you already have the faction balloons how hard could it be to add balloons to the store. You know, you could pick, Happy Birthday!, Get Well Soon!, Go Go Ironman!, yeah, that kind of thing. I know I would buy them, so just think about it will you.

Oh and I see someone else has requests for Blizzard! Hmmm, these are somewhat more sensible than mine so maybe these might get done. Professions could certainly use an overhaul. Blizzard, take a look at what The Godmother has to say, she’s done all the hard thinking part already, make it so!

Lastly, Akabeko of Red Cow Rise came up with a really fun shared topic on Blog Azeroth.

How do you express your geekery? Do you own obvious paraphernalia like a Horde-symbol bumper sticker, in-joke tshirts like the dps/ups pun, or less obviously related items like a gift from a guildie? Rather than physical indicators, do you mix nerd lingo into your everyday speech or talk/post about geekdom in non-nerd spaces? How do you advertise your nerd tendencies? Does it help you to attract new nerd friends?

I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m a geek, never really have. But recently, I’ve noticed that I don’t really seem to care anymore what anyone thinks of anything about me. It’s like my last birthday was some kind of tipping point. I used to answer my business phone with a tone that implied that I was dressed in a suit. Yesterday I talked to a potential client for the FIRST TIME and I told her that I would email the information to her “before nightfall, muhahaha.” I KNOW! Have I completely lost it. Anyway, we’ll see how that goes, haven’t heard back from her yet. It’s a law firm. I’m sure lawyers are jokey people, aren’t they?

As always I’m disorganized and unprepared and only have this one thing but I wanted to secure my nerd cred so here’s a photo of my note holder, I checked the important note and it’s reminding me to watch The Misfits on Hulu. I don’t know, does that enhance or detract from my nerdiness?

P.S. I didn’t post this as a shared topic cause the only thing I had was Darth Noteholder. Whole wrong galaxy thing and all. But you should go check them out!

Blogs and Dogs, or the detritus of an unfocused mind

Dogs

Yes, another rambling WoW related brain dump, mostly about blogging. I’ll put in titles to make it easier to skip stuff. First, it’s cold and rainy and icy so I thought a festive dog photo would be cheery. This was taken on holiday; we were at the beach so he’s wearing his beach hat. I felt bad that our little girl dog never gets to be a web star. Both our dogs have issues. My boy suffers from separation anxiety and will chew off his foot if left without a human for long. That’s why we all vacation together.

Our little girl does not take a good photo. She looks terrified in most, like the photographer is standing there with a polearm, ready to beat her. She’s a rescue and we thought we’d be able to help her but the consensus of the experts is her fearfulness is genetic, probably why she ended up in a rescue. She’s the sweetest girl ever but her heart really belongs to my husband.

Her favorite thing of all is to ride in the car. I just don’t get this because she squeals in terror the whole time. She doesn’t want to get out anywhere, just ride around. I wonder if a car ride is the canine equivalent of a roller-coaster to her. She’s not telling. So there she is looking only semi-scaredy.

What? Yes, I frequently wear a bag over my head at home. You know, bad hair day … too lazy to put on makeup. In this case I wasn’t though … that’s not even really MY HEAD.

My Servers

Morning Fenris! I just wanted to give a shout to Fenris. I can always tell what server I logged into and what faction by glancing at the chat. Yes, Alliance side, Fenris. No doubt there, and a bonus this morning. I don’t even have to black out any language. Horde side is usually nicer. Zangarmarsh is much nicer. Kind of freaked me out. People throwing out buffs, being helpful. It took some getting used to. I have a bunch of other servers but these are the two that I’ve spent the most time on so, Hi!

Norwegian Carrot Cake

I was so happy that Norwegian Carrot Cake man came back. They told me, “Hrm, Not the best post unfortunately. Sorry to be so blunt! You should try some Norwegian carrot cake ( ) to cheer you up instead.” Cyrme at Bubbles of Mischief said he visited her too. Yes, yes, I know I’m playing right into his hands but really, I want to make it. Here’s the recipe but I can’t read it. The only part I think I’ve got down, is to preheat the oven to 200° Celsius, then I’m stumped. If anyone can translate it, let me know I’d like to make it. I can’t stop thinking about Carrot Cake now, and I guess the Norwegian’s make the best ones.

Fashionista, So NOT

This one made me laugh so hard. The comment was, I love your fashion sense. My idea of dressing up is putting on a clean pair of jeans. Maybe she was talking about my Druid but that still doesn’t make sense. Below is the transmog outfit she put together. It’s what she wanted, a working girl look. I don’t know about you but to me her outfit kind of reminds me of those movies where there are the “townies” and the rich, smart, pulled together looking kids. Some of the people on my blog roll are the pulled together looking kids. It’s not my Druid, she’s kind of fashion challenged if you ask me.

My Druid kind of cracks me up. She’s so cute with that whole mean scowl she’s got there. Ooooo … such a scary Druid. Works much better in cat or bear form, human form just isn’t cutting it.

Search Terms

“ancient nude sexy” not once but TWICE! Aw, thank you but you shouldn’t have. I’m not sure where you actually saw nude pictures of the ancient, but I’m going to take your word for it. Chickens coming home to roost from my flagrant misuse of the word nude.

“pissing sopa” I KNOW! Me too! I feel exactly the same about it! That pissing SOPA! It’s nice to know we’re all on the same page here.

OH NO! This post is becoming ridiculously long, straining the  patience of kind readers to the breaking point and I haven’t even gotten to over half of what I wanted to say, geez. Okay the rest will have to wait, but just one more thing. I promise. Just one thing about three things but it’s really only one thing.

Links to Good Stuff

I saw that Niki of Gamer’s Fridge has a new SWTOR related blog up, Moz’s Cantina Crawl. I know, how cool is that. Although I have a Bounty Hunter too, her’s seems to be doing useful stuff like healing and all. Mine just runs around screaming, “Die, you #%@?##$@#er’s” and using Death from Above.

And Saz of World of Saz has a FaceBook page where she has tips and advice about all things enhancement shaman. This brings me to the place where I was going to talk about getting an Ancient FaceBook page and my inability to multitask well but I’ll but I’ll save that for another post cause this one’s just too long.

Oh, and here’s my rhyme, I’m so proud of it, it’s the only one I’ve ever done.

Navimie the Rhyming Machine and Healer Supreme oh wait … or, or,

Navimie the Rhyming Queen and Healer Supreme

OMG! I thought of another!! I’m getting good at this!

Wolfie McLonewolf’s Adventure Runs Amiss

I’m going to try to stay on topic here. I’ve started on my bucket list; I’m doing Wrath era dungeons that I’ve never seen before. It’s a great way to see dungeons really, as it’s pretty stress free. I can take my time to admire the content without the worry of being beaten to death.

I’m going to tell you about what happened when Jaina and I were trying to escape Arthas in the Halls of Reflection but first, I’ve got to ask. Is it just me or do you let your real life weather affect your virtual life? This morning I barely made it back from a dog walk. It snowed overnight and since then, has been sleeting. It’s freezing cold and the snow is covered with a sheet of ice. I logged in planning to continue my dungeon tour but instead ended up with my friend Winkey in Tanaris. I know it makes no sense but after lying in that hammock I really do feel warmer now.

Anyway, I went to Dalaran to do the Violet Hold. I’d never done it because it sounded a lot like The Black Morass which I don’t really like. Yep, it was. Probably just do it one more time on heroic.

Oh and if you’re a Wolfie McLonewolf by circumstance or choice and you’re wondering, I’m dual specced, kitty/bear, just wearing mediocre kitty gear of ilevel 360. I could probably do some of these as kitty, but in bear I can answer the phone or do something distracting without worrying about dying.

So after Violet Hold I see Apprentice Nelphi wandering around, and I did really have a vague memory that she started a quest chain to become attuned with the Pit of Saron, Forge of Souls and the Halls of Reflection but wasn’t really paying attention.

So Pit of Saron, Forge of Souls, lots of fun, didn’t get lost too much. Finally managed to figure out I had to take down Krick to get to Scourgelord Tyrannus. All good.

So on to the Halls of Reflection. That stupid Arthas is there. Wow, what a jerk. Couldn’t we just kill him here Jaina? What? Oh, Wrath of the Lich King, sure, no problem, I can do that.

Finally we’re at the part where I remembered WHY I do all this stuff alone. I found Jaina, there with stupidhead Arthas. I was auto running at the time I entered. The phone rang, I was waiting for a call from a client so minimized WoW so I could see their website on the screen. About half an hour later I came back to find that somehow I had managed to auto run off the side of the cliff by the ship and was dead. Yeah, welcome to my world.

It took forever to find my corpse BECAUSE I WAS LOOKING FOR IT OUTSIDE THE INSTANCE. Yeah, how stupid is that. Well it looked the same! Finally figured out why I couldn’t find it and resumed.

While my BFF Jaina and I were running from Arthas (this part is pretty scary) I kept thinking (to myself, I would never actually say this to Jaina) come on Jaina, hurry up and break through that thing, he’s getting closer and closer.

This happened a few times before I realized it was all up to me. Jaina somehow managed to break through just as I finished off the last bad guy before Arthas. OMG! We’re depending on me? Next barrier I pulled out Berserk and went to town on the bad guys with A LOT more alacrity and whew, we made it.

And I even got a new bag out of it, James Brown would be proud of me.

It was really a lot of fun, even alone. Is there a moral to the story? It’s more of a cautionary tale directed at me. If it’s going to take longer than a holiday boss, just say no. You don’t want the blood of innocent WoW players on your hands. You know you don’t deal well with guilt.

What do you do IRL Gamer?

Okay, just humor me. I’ve wanted to do a poll since the first day I had this blog. Just couldn’t think of anything. Navimie of The Daily Frostwolf told me a post of mine gave her an idea for a post. I read it and finally got an idea for a poll. Thanks Navi!

I’ve always been interested in animal minds, human minds, and how they work. I’m fascinated by Ironyca’s posts on gaming. She does all the hard work and research and I get to enjoy the results.

So in a totally unscientific fashion, I’m going to try to determine if there is a correlation between what people do in real life that might make them gamers. Or not.

I am so excited about having an idea for a poll that I’m going to just plop this thing right here without trying to make it pretty.

The groups are really broad, so just pick one that’s closest. I’m in the Creative/Arts one. So, come on. I showed you mine … you show me yours.

Back when I worked for other people, I used to get a lot of eyeball rolling from the codey IT types. You want it to do what? Because it’ll look pretty? Are you nuts?

And farther back when I was a print designer I got the eyeball rolling from printers. It can’t be done. Why do you people come up with this stuff, it can’t be printed. Why do you want to do this? What! Because it’ll look cool! Are you nuts!

So I guess on reflection, my profession has always been being nuts, but I’m not including that one … just check “Creative” instead. If anyone responds, we can see if a pattern emerges. Does your profession predict the odds that you’ll be a gamer? Come on … it’ll be fun … and um … pretty and cool!

SWTOR: Space Combat or how do I fly this thing?

Yup, Mako and I are doing a pre-flight check before trying to complete a space mission again. I need all the help I can get so I want to make sure the ship is in tip-top condition.

I’m going to try to post this under the radar. Maybe I won’t tweet about it. I read a post by Gladly at The Ready Check about how SWTOR has affected her WoW raiding. I felt really bad about it. She’s not the only one feeling the effects of SWTOR, it seems many guilds have been touched by the SWTOR flu.

Someone was recruiting in Tatooine the other day and they gave me the address of their guild’s application form. I was thinking about it, but when I read the apps of people applying it put me off. Almost everyone seemed to think saying something negative about WoW was required. What’s up with that? I’m a WoW player too; I don’t want to be in a guild of WoW haters.

In my case absolutely no WoW raids have been affected by my vacation in SWTOR. No raiders died in the making of this post. I’m not even really gone from WoW, never happen unless Blizzard locks me out. I am not a butterfly who flaps her wings and causes a butterfly effect across the face of Azeroth. So if you are causing a WoW butterfly effect, shoo … go on … get back to your raid.

I really just wanted to let you know I put up a link on the SWTOR resources page about space combat. I was having a lot of trouble with space missions and this helped a lot. First, I thought I was in control of the ship. I kept trying to wrestle control of my path from the ship. You have no control, stop trying to turn around. You can’t. And thank you so much Star Wars: The Old Republic, all that time I thought I was firing my missiles I was really just shooting measly bullets at them.

Just one more thing, how do you say SWTOR when speaking? Someone pointed out that if you sound it out you get sweator, yeah, I’m not sure whether I like that. Maybe I’ll just drop the SW and refer to it in conversation as TOR. I’ll have to alert my son-in-law as he’s the only one I’d be likely to be conversating with about TOR.

Anyway, if you have something better than TOR, let me know. We need to all vote on this or something.