Crab Cakes, Sand Scarabs and I Don’t Love you That Much

On Tuesday JD of Amateur Azerothian sent me a thank you present. The servers were down for maintenance which seems kind of funny. It’s not like anything new is happening. Dust bunny removal? So I anxiously count down the minutes … almost there … 3 … 2 … 1 … maintenance has been extended. WHAT? For the dust bunnies? I think they’re trolling Cat.

Cat FINALLY gets in and visits Landro Longshot to redeem her code. Thank you JD! I named him JD! But it wouldn’t let me name him JD, it was Jd. Can’t have that so he’s J D, like you’re saying it really slow. J … wait for it … wait for it … D! I think it gives him presence which will come in handy in battles.

On the way there she saw a nice beach front restaurant and thought she’d stop in for a crab cake sandwich. What is wrong with those people! Having your waitstaff attack customers as soon as they sit down is a horrible way to do business.

Cat feels really bad that they need to replace four waiters but what choice did she have. I need to have the faction chat with her again, she just doesn’t “get” it. She had to settle for take out from Booty Bay.

I read things discussing the terrible outcomes possible concerning boosted characters. This is my first character, born in November 2006. She’s not boosted. She has been getting the crap knocked out of her by crane chicks on the Isle … and little tiny baby buffalo thingies. She aggroed everything, not her pet, but her. What the hell is going on here! She’s not doing any AOE, what … oh. I see … damaging and snaring targets again as they return. Oh.

Be afraid, be very afraid. You are in danger from more than just boosted characters.

Okay, this last one … I thought I was committed to my characters. I KNOW my husband thinks so since he repeatedly feels the need to say, you know they’re not REAL don’t you? And he’s staring deep into my eyes when he says it as though trying to locate a shred of sanity. Geez, what’s that about.

Anyway, someone followed me on Twitter and I went to look into them and saw they had a website. Oh! I’ll take a look.

I’ve heard of people paying a service to level their character but this was a service that took your character and did the Warlock green fire quest for you, or got you Endless in Proving Grounds or beat down Garrosh with your character and so on. And you could watch the live stream of your character doing whatever you’d paid great sums of money to do. Now THAT is commitment.

The reviews were what I found interesting.  I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember the name of the service. They all sorta went something like this:

It was wonderful to be able to watch Gertrude (fictitious name) take down (insert relevant bad guy or quest here). I was SO proud of them! It’s what I always knew they were capable of! Worth every penny!

Well damn … I thought I was really connected to my characters and it turns out I’m just a poser. I’m sorry Cat … Sasche … it seems I just don’t love you THAT much. How about I’ll treat you all to a crab cake sandwich at the Hardwrench Hideaway. We’ll send Sasche in to pick them up. They must have hired new waiters by now.

 

Not a WoW Liebster!

Jack at WorldofHarley was kind enough to Liebster me. I know, I know. Sit down Ms. Tome, you’ve already had your turn. I’m putting the link so I won’t get in trouble with the Liebster Board of Officials. I really did it the correct way … that time. But now I’m going to be a cheaty little cheater. Non-WoW questions? Could I do it? Dare I? I wanted to try.

WorldofHarley is full of scary pictures and OMG! poetry so I thought I’d make my own scary Liebster Award graphic in keeping with Jack’s asylum and that instead of coming up with eleven questions, I’d ask any reader who would like to to answer your own eleven question that you think should be asked of you. I know I have mine. Like why the hell don’t you get a hair cut woman … stuff like that. Just if you do, be sure to let me know because I’d like to read them. Consider yourself liebstered. The rules are all here.

Fantasy or Science Fiction?

Oh, that’s a tough one. They’re pretty close to 50/50 but I’d say Science Fiction might just squeak by as the winner. When I was around eleven I lived in a country where kids books weren’t that easy to come by. I would read my Dad’s Azimov, Herbert and Heinlein books. I was hooked.

Have you ever been disturbed by something you’ve written?

Yes, I can’t sing and I can’t write poetry so I tried to write a Haiku about my dog and the damn thing makes me cry every time I read it. So it sits there on my desktop. I can’t delete it because it’s the only poetry I’ve ever written but I’m scared to read it again. Here, you read it. I’m not going to look.

In his sleep he runs
through fields redolent of youth.
Here … I keep his watch.

What keeps you writing?

Um … a secret … I don’t think I write. If I thought I was WRITING on the internet I’d get scared and clam up. In fact it happens once in a while. I’ll realize what I’m doing and then go silent for days. I think of what I’m doing as talking to friends. WRITING requires the use of stuff like grammar and punctuation. That would take all the fun out of it.

What do you want to write about, but haven’t yet?

I’d love to be able to write fiction but I don’t seem to have it in me. Maybe it’s like poetry. I did write stories as a kid and would love to read them now but they are just one of many things that got lost in all the moving about.

What is your favorite type of fashion?

Oh man … jeans and T shirts. Does that even count? Clothes are like grammar and punctuation to me, something you’re supposed to do to spare others pain. I’ll put on clothes but that’s as far as I’m going.

Describe your personality in 3 words.

Introverted. Contrary. Stubborn. Yeah, a real winner.

Who was Jack the Ripper?

A serial murderer in London in the 1880′s. I’ll have to Google him because I’m not sure, but I don’t believe he was ever caught. He seemed to have a preference for prostitutes as victims.

Going to dress up for Halloween? What as?

No, I can’t. I once put on a mask as I was going to hand out candy with it on but our dogs went to Defcon eleventy billion and seemed to really get mad at my husband for allowing such a horrendous security breach to occur.

Do you enjoy video games?

Very much.

If yes, which games? If no, why not?

I’ve played Eve, Aion, Rift, GW2, Neverwinter, SWTOR, LOTRO and more I can’t remember but my longest relationship with a game has been World of Warcraft which continues.

What is your quote of the day?

I can never remember quotes, I mean I want to but for some reason the only ones I can remember are those of Mark Twain. Not sure what that says about me.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Mark Twain

Thank you Jack, it was fun to answer non-wow questions!

Mysteries of the Isle and His Hair was Perfect or When Alts go Astray

Yeah the Timeless Isle is a mysterious place for sure. The biggest unsolved mystery to Rose is why do turtles need pocket change. What’s that about? It’s one of those mysteries of life, like where does my dog keep his little doggie wristwatch. I know he has one.

Everyday, 4:30am is wake up call. 9:00am walk, noon lunch, 4:00pm his dinner. He gives us the rest of the evening off. Daylight saving time changes do not affect this, so where’s he hiding the watch is what I want to know … mysteries … I know.

And I’m having an alt problem. The plan was for Kealth to start Paladining as soon as we got him some nice heirlooms and there he sits … level six. Doing nothing but looking pretty.

Come on man! You’ve got the chest, shoulders, weapon, the ring and two trinkets. Let’s get moving okay? Oh for heavens sake, your hair is PERFECT! Let’s do this thing, alright? Geezzzz …

Yes Janinna … I’m sorry you don’t like the posting you got but somebody has to do those dailies to get those mounts. I promise, if you do those dailies and get the mounts you’ll get to go somewhere tropical next. No kidding, I know an Isle where even the turtles carry money. So see? Please do the dailies so that some day we can have 200 mounts, okay?

Yeah … yeah … you got  me. It’s all true but also a thinly veiled excuse to put music I wanted to listen to here. I know … I know … but cut me a break, I’ve just spent an hour on the phone trying to get the bank to change my last name back to the correct one. They made a typo and left out a space. So now it’s like I’m:

Catwynn Nightriverjtten instead of Catwynn Nightriver.

I know. And everyone at the bank I’ve talked to over the course of months says, we’ll that’s stupid. YES! YES IT IS! So can you fix it?

Apparently not. I know! I’ll threaten to take our vast sums of money out of their bank! That should scare the living crap out of them!

!!!!!!LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!

 

On the Job for Kerri Hicks

I was talking to Matty this morning bemoaning the fact that I have nothing worthwhile to say. I still don’t but they took my server down so I’ll just pretend. The Darkmoon Faire’s in town and I always like to do the quest from Kerri Hicks because it rewards you with 10 Darkmoon Prize Tickets. I’m working on putting together an heirloom outfit that will make my Paladin, Kaelth, want to GO ALL THE WAY.

Because no Paladin before him ever has. Nope, I think level 45 was it. This new attempt at paladining will be as Protection. Maybe Ret was the problem.

Anyway, I need lots of tickets to properly attire him. Cim has agreed to share her favorite “quick 250 Grisly Trophy spot.” Around the Silken Fields there are numerous groups of Tiny Mutated Silkmoth. They respawn really fast so you can do a few circuits and be done with your 250 quickly. Unless of course some idiot like me tells everyone. So let’s keep it between you and me. Okay?

There’s only one real problem with the location. Yeah … dodging balls of fire from that joker Galleon back there. INCOMING! Really, can you blame him for acting out for some attention. Poor guy.

Yeah so there’s my no-fail, quick, quick 250 Grisly Trophy spot. Maybe my server’s up. YES! Okay, bye!

LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!

Cat! It’s really not considered polite over here in real life to yell like that on the internet. What is it?

I’m a cool cat!

Okay, she’s too excited to make much sense right now. This morning when I checked my email for new blog posts I saw that Coolidge of Pali Doodles had a new post up. About faffing? That’s for me! I go there and find this incredible picture of Cat! It’s a Cool Cat!

I love it and was so excited but didn’t even realize at first how REALLY special it is.  Yes, it appears to be the ONLY evidence in existence that Druid kitties lick their paws or for that matter even have a tongue.

Cymre of Bubbles of Mischief and I were trying to figure out what color Druid cat’s tongues were because WE KNEW we had seen them grooming their paws. Knew it. So we tried emotes, yawning, sitting and staring at our Druid kitties for a sign of a tongue. Nothing.

I logged out and went through every animation I could think of in WoW Model Viewer and still nothing.

This picture appears to be the only one in existence of a WoW Druid cat licking her paw. Which I know she does but she’s apparently very secretive about it. I could not catch her doing it in-game so it’s especially cool … pun intended.

Thank you so much Coolidge! I really, really love it and needless to say Cat is in heaven!

A Cat’s in Depth Analysis of the Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch Notes

Facing Requirements

Strict facing requirements can be frustrating to deal with, especially in hectic Raid combat or PvP environments. In order to ease this frustration, we decided to remove or significantly loosen the facing requirements of all attacks that required the player to be behind their target.

Druid: Shred no longer requires the Druid to be behind the target.
Rogue: Ambush no longer requires the Rogue to be behind the target.
Rogue (Subtlety): Backstab can now be used on either side of the target, in addition to behind the target.

Life is good!

What? There was more stuff? Wait a minute.

Cat? Cat? They say there was more stuff in the patch notes.

Apparently to a Cat this IS an in depth analysis I guess. Cat? ANYTHING else?

No more Mangle for kitties.

Sorry, I thought she had more. She says this is it.

I guess this is: A Lazy Cat’s Glance at the Warlords of Draenor Alpha Patch Notes

Anything else to add Cat?

YAY YAY YAY!

Yeah, again I’m sorry. I thought she really … you know … read them all. I jumped the gun I guess. I apologize.

Here. How about I add a bonus scary picture. I KNOW! How scary is that! For today? The rest of my life? I guess we’ll find out.

A Tale of Two Druids

I don’t really have much to say, I’m stalling. I hate grocery shopping, I think I would love it if I could buy what I want … but NO. I have to buy twigs and berries and stay away from the ice cream section so … not fun.

I did notice that Cat and Rose are decidedly different. Cat is kinda pouting right now. She’s holed up in Halfhill not even planting or anything. Mostly laying there next to Jogu the Drunk taking in the sun. She’s mad because I made her let the others borrow her pets and battle them. They need valor, she doesn’t.

When Cat was on the Timeless Isle I think she went up to the top once to get the chests and once to get the Censer of Eternal Agony, that’s it. She wasn’t going to waste time killing anything that didn’t drop leather. And she couldn’t be bothered getting exalted with Emperor Shaohao for the Cloud Serpent either, she let Cim do that.

Now poor Rose is embarrassed that she still has a boost trinket, I don’t think there are any she can buy as she does nothing to earn JP. That leaves the Time-Lost Artifact as the only fairly accessible trinket but I forgot how long getting to honored can take. So she’s now spending her time beating up Burning Beserkers. I don’t think Cat would ever have done that. Between you and me she’s a little lazy … but of course I love her.

And oh … Rose had an idea! She thinks your different battle pets should give you a buff. Cinder Kitten could maybe give you the fire cat form while it’s out, it would beat having to beat up Majordomo Staghelm for the staff.

She likes Cinder Kitten to accompany her while killing the Beserkers cause she thinks it embarrasses them to be bested by little kitties. She’s so funny. Rose is working on ideas for the other pets and … oh okay.

I better quit stalling. Time to acquire food. No Burning Beserkers for Rose right now, I’ll try to think of it as a quest … maybe that will help. If I complete it my reward will one of those teeny, tiny, itsy-bitsy, teensy-weensy, little cups of gelato. There, that should work.

 

 

 

The New Draenei Female Models

For those who haven’t seen them yet I thought I’d post the “new” Draenei Female model. Yeah it’s April 1st but you know, think of the millions they could make from race changes if they actually did it. Scary. Hope they don’t think of it. Shhhh … we’ll keep that under our hats. Don’t want to give them any ideas.

Leibster Awards and You

Navi of The Daily Frostwolf liebstered me. I’m probably going to screw it up but as far as I can tell there’s no penalty for that so we’re cool. Below are the official rules that I will endeavor to adhere to:

The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

Okay, let’s get right on this, here are the questions Navi asked me and my answers:

1. If you worked for Blizzard in the WoW department, what job would you like to do?
I’d like to work in the art department specifically in the department of the guy who revealed that “Over 1,000,000,000 Kobolds have been killed,” at Blizzcon 2013. I’d love to make all the little chotskies you see around towns that make them feel Tauren or Draenei. I can’t remember his name only that he was hilarious.

2. If any of these races became playable, which would you choose and why – Murloc, Naga, Ogre?
Ogre, their dance moves of course. I need something to counteract the shame of my left-footed Female Humans and who doesn’t FINALLY want to see what an Ogre woman looks like.

3. What has been your greatest frustration in WoW?
RNG. I hate it … mostly … except when it’s good to me … then … yeah, I like it.

4. If you could design a Children’s week orphan – what places would you take he/she to visit?
We’d go to Thousand Needles and we’d scuba down and I’d show them the old race track. Then we’d have to go to Storm Peaks mostly so they could listen to the beautiful music and look for the Time-Lost Drake. Probably have to stop by Tirisfal Glades and check out the Faerie ring too.

5. Name an item of clothing/weapon that you wish there was an in game equivalent of for transmog (eg Tinkerbell’s dress).
I’m with Cym on this one, we really need an Indiana Jones style bullwhip.

6. Do you prefer donuts, bagels or muffins? And any particular flavour?
Jelly donuts, I vaguely remember what they taste like it been so long since I’ve had one.

7. If you could have any car in the world – what car would you drive?
I’ve always loved Corvettes, I’d probably pick one of those.

8. What item do you want in game the most?
More dogs, we don’t have enough.

9. Tell me WHY you like your favourite three blogs! Ok that’s not a question …
The reason I like any blog is I feel a connection to the writer. I feel like I would like them if we met in real life. Blogs I go to for information aren’t the same as blogs where I just really like the writer and their thoughts.

10. What is the BEST thing Blingtron has given you?
That little shit never gives me anything good. I’ve even had my engineer call him, log out and let a different character try just in case there’s some personal issue between them affecting the quality of the package. Nope, didn’t work. I don’t know who that little stupidhead is giving the good stuff to but it isn’t me. He gives me G91 Landsharks and Super-Heated Oil.

11. Tell me about your most cringeworthy moment (doesn’t have to be WoW).
A million years ago a friend and I stopped at an arcade as they wanted to play horse racing game. I was so proud of how well I was doing. I am so PRO! I am a horse racing god! Yes, I AM THE GOD OF HORSE RACING.

And then it was over and I lost cause the horse I thought was mine was the machine’s. The cringeworthy moment came when I laughed so hard I split the seam in my pants and had to try to get out of there without being … without showing my … you know.

Okay now I’m going to cheat a little. I know who Navi and Cymre nominated but I’m not going to go check and make sure my picks haven’t been nominated other than those so forgive me if you’re already been nominated, it just means we like you especially much.

WoW Misadventures

wowstorylines

Plenty of Paladins

My Mom Plays WoW

Diary of a Gnome Spy

My questions:

1. How long had you been playing WoW when you realized it was not a passing fancy but true love?

2. Are you a screen shot taker and if so guesstimate how many you still have.

3. What is your favorite zone and why?

4. What are you most looking forward to or dreading about Warlords?

5. Who is your favorite non-essential character in-game? A favorite repair guy or an auctioneer that you always must deal with.

6. When I started my blog I was too scared to comment on others. Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event 2011 changed that for me. Is there an event or blogger that made you feel comfortable commenting on blogs?

7. Do you have any strange WoW quirks? For example I seem to think the harder I hit the keys the more forceful my attacks are. I know … but it can’t hurt.

8. Do you have WoW themed things in real life? Example.

9. Are you lucky enough to have real life friends or a spouse who plays WoW too or are you bravely going it alone?

10. Do you still find surprises in-game that you didn’t know were there? I recently saw someone selling a Wine Glass. How did I miss that! My bank alt needs one!

11. Finally, do you think you’ll still be here when they pull the power and turn off the lights? I know I will.

OMG! OH NO!

I just reread the rules, look at number four. Crap. Provide 11 random facts about yourself. Crap, crap, crap. I don’t want to be a scofflaw but I’m about done in here.

Let’s see.

1. Pizza is my favorite food.

2. My best friend’s name is Mike and he’s a dog.

3. I used to think my ears were pointy like an elf but they really aren’t, I don’t know why I thought that.

4. When I was young I am SURE my eyes were blue but now they’re green. What’s that about anyway?

5. I try to eat healthy, that’s why I don’t remember what jelly donuts taste like … although I remember liking them.

6. I start conversations in the middle because for some reason I think you know what I was thinking. Yes, apparently I think everyone is psychic.

7. When I was young I was convinced I could fly if only I would overcome the doubt, that was the only thing stopping me from flying. The doubt. I was sure.

8. I wish I still thought I could fly.

9. I hang around out of the way places in WoW being real quite and unobtrusive because I’m sure … SURE … that one day one of the NPCs will go off-script and talk to me.

10. My hair is now about down to my waist. It’s ridiculous. I don’t WANT long hair I just hate getting my hair done.

11. Um … wait … um … geez. I know! I like apples with peanut butter on them! How’s that!

Whew, I made it! Your turn.

 

They’re Out of Control

Well, out of MY control anyway. Logically I should be in control but it never seems to work out that way. The deal with booster Rose was she’d gain revered with the Shado-Pan and The August Celestials for the enchanting recipes and then do low level mining to help out the young jeweler. I THOUGHT this was understood.

Yes Rose, it’s wonderful that you got the recipes, well done … um … what are you doing there? Cloud Serpent Riding? You don’t need … okay … alright, but then it’s back to the old world and mining. Are we clear?

Geez … she kinda guilt tripped me there. She said since she has to do the grunt work at the very LEAST she should be able to have a fancy ride. I guess that’s fair. It won’t take that long, the jeweler can wait a bit. No harm done.

She’ll be done in no time and then … ROSE! What are you doing on the Timeless Isle! You don’t need top of the line Timeless Superstore clothes to mine copper! iLevel 490ish is more than adequate … damn, she stealthed on me. This type of behavior reminds me an awful lot of someone else. Kind of cheerful passive aggression or something. Is this a Druid thing?

I’ll ask Cat. What are you smirking about? I wanted to ask about Rose … what about the Celestial Tournament? What do you mean, how’d that go? Well we won. It doesn’t matter how many tries … we won.

I can’t believe this. Cat’s giving me a lot of grief over the fact that I scoffed about thinking she was the best pet battler. This week I let Lokkan the Shaman do the tournament as she could use the valor. She hit a few bumps. Cat always leaves Yu’la last as she’s the easiest, so did Lokkan. And she failed miserably. Luckily she had enough pets to make another team and squeaked by.

Alright, I’ll admit it! You’re the best pet battler … there … you happy Cat?

I don’t think I need to ask Cat about Rose, I think she just proved my point. Smarty pants, cheeky behavior? Definitely a kitty Druid thing.

This is demoralizing. I don’t seem to have any control over my characters. It’s almost like real life. I’m going to go hang with the dogs for a while, at least THEY do what I want … mostly … nearly always … ALRIGHT … sometimes.