My eye balls, they bleed, but it’s for Glory!

As you’ll notice the site has had a make-over! I actually drew the image you see above you, but I couldn’t use all of it to my dismay. Here’s the original drawing:

I was taking pictures of this with my laptop light shining on it (Yes, my scanner isn’t hooked up, I am a failure artist!) so that’s where the funky blue light comes from. As you can see I’m wearing my beloved T10 helm, and either I’m on fire or I’m healing, I haven’t decided yet. The quill was a last-minute addition, and I’m sad I couldn’t fit it in the final version. Maybe I’ll find something to use it for later!

I’ve been having a lovely argument with my eyeballs for the last few hours while I changed exposure and contrast on this little web program that is not photoshop. Not that it would matter, because I don’t technically know how to use photoshop, but the options would have been nice. Well, it’s not like I could have actually seen the options, because my eyes were, and continue to rebel. I look like a mentally challenged fish as I’m closing one eye at a time and rubbing it while I use the other one to see what I’m typing.

Actually, I just discovered I can type with my eyes closed, so I only look like a dying fish. At least I can still wirte lebbiled snetnances, adn no spllchek neeedd!1!

I’m going to type with my eyes open for this part, because I feel I owe a bit of an apology to anyone who has been holding their breath waiting for my next post (Which, if you’re doing, you may want to seek medical attention because not only have you been refraining from breathing for a while, you’re also doing it on my account, which is unhealthy on so many levels.) I’d like to be able to say I’ve been marooned on a desert island without Wi-Fi, or that I was recently transformed into a rabbit during a Magic show accident, but sadly I’ve just been neglecting my blogging duty. However, mayhem has run amuck in my WoW life, and I’ve made a change that will be effecting what I’ll be blogging about.

 I moved off Trollbane and onto Stormrage with my guild The Forgotten, now known as Prototype. I won’t go into the myriad of details why I left TB, but the general reasons were that A) All of the “top” 25 man guilds had server transferred and if I didn’t go to Stormrage or somewhere else I’d have to end my progression raiding career then and there, B) The friends I had previously decided to stay on TB and raid with have gradually stopped playing, or at least raiding, to my eternal sadness, and C) I needed to, as one lovely commenter put it, get my “raiding mojo” back, and a new setting has already started helping me to do that

 For now I’d like to move away from talking about guild stuff and get back to discussing things that are more interesting than guild drama!

Boyfriend is out-of-town until Wednesday, I’m done with my freshman year of college, and I have spent all the money I’m allowed to without feeling completely guilty on M:TG cards, so I’ll have nothing to do but draw and write for the next few days!

…holy crap, I’m done with my first year of college.

What?!

But…that means…I’m actually an adult? I’ve lived away from my family for an entire school year, and I’ve managed not to explode, or end up in a mental hospital?

Where I yell a lot about Finals and serve you Pie

Ah, finals week! My favorite time of the semester. Where I get to feel guilty about not blogging, guilty about only logging on for raid, yell at the boyfriend for silly things, and not clean the house.

Oh, and stay up until ungodly hours of the night glueing paper to paper. Thats right, I said it. GLUEING PAPER TO FUCKING PAPER. Poster board projects are not my favorite, especially when my printer breaks and all my pretty fossil pictures have to get printed in the library in black and white, which clashes horribly with the colorful paper I glued to other pieces of paper until 3 am!

>:O

Well, now that I’m done yelling about that…Anyways. There is so much I have floating around in my brain for ideas for posts, and until I have time to write them all down and make them presentable, I will give you the quick and dirty of things to come.

Haste, and why I love it.

Kingslayer 25 man, complete!

Site design changes, or how WordPress is infinitely more infuriating than glueing paper to paper.

Not talking about Cataclysm raid changes*

Not talking about Cataclysm class changes*

What I want from Cataclysm.

Healer weapon options from ICC.

Of course, knowing  how I do things, I’m sure I’ll never actually get around to making those posts and be a lazy cow as soon as finals are over. Well, it’s the thought that counts, right? However, I want to give you my reasons for not blogging about the cataclysm changes, and I shall do so in Pie chart form! Enjoy until after finals when I get down to some real blogging again, heh.

Hodgepodge Post

Well, my healing team is slowly coming back to life. We’ve had the addition of a resto shaman who is hard working, dedicated, and asks me the questions I wish every healer would ask me! Asking questions is always better than not knowing : ]

And my Priest friend has greatly stepped up to the plate to help me get my footing as a Healing lead. Which is much, much harder than I thought it would be. It’s amusing to get whispers from her like:

Gwena: Wait, what did you just say, don’t we usually [insert how we usually do it]?

Me: Omg, you’re right, I totally read that wrong. Dammit!

The fact that I know nothing (well, next to nothing) about Priests makes her help invaluable. Being a new healing lead has pushed me to learn to accept that I am often times wrong, and to learn to correct myself quickly. Hopefully my healers don’t mind.

We’ve made a lot of changes in how things are done since I took over, like actually doing healing assignments. Without them we couldn’t identify who was messing up when tanks were dying, or how to improve ourselves. Now, I can say “X more healing on Y target, because their HP dropping is making me nervous” and if it doesn’t happen I know that the healing assignments need to change-up.

I’m having a blast healing BQL and giving out assignments for that. It’s a very difficult fight for the DPS (especially when the get mindcontrolled…three times *happythoughtshappythoughtshappythoughts*) but with a short-staffed healing team we’re all having to put in extra oomph to keep everyone alive. I took Matt Low’s suggestion from WoW.com and had Gwena as disc healing the people affected by pack of the darkfallen, and the bite targets.  We’ve still got some work filling out our team, and getting people to step up to the plate healing wise. If not, well, I’ve got to make some tough decisions : /

Currently I’m heavily recruiting…well every thing except Rogues. So HA!

No, just kidding. The stresses of raiding become all that more stressful when you only have 23 people for a progression night. But, we’re working through it, like everything else. Although, I’d do a great deal for a happy officer chat and for people to show up on time for raids.

Now, back to recruitment, and to ignore my homework somemore.

Oh, but I do have an excuse for why I haven’t been posting! I worked on this last week:

That’s right, it’s a pufferfish. /Win

Secrets, secrets are no fun, unless you share with everyone…

I’m posing a question to my fellow bloggers: Is your blog a secret?

Whether it’s in your day-to-day life outside WoW, or in your guild, do your friends and family know you keep a small corner of the internet for your ideas and thoughts about a video game we play?

My parents found out about my blog.

 Well, at least not voluntarily from me. Let me tell you, I have the most persuasive (and often scary) step-dad in the entire world. I inherited my video game dork-ness from him, and my book nerd-ness from my dad. I was destined to be nerdy. Anyway, a few days after I started writing this blog I accidentally mentioned something about  a piece I’d written about WoW. Now, why I would do that I’m not sure. I think it’s because I can’t keep my mouth shut, but that’s another story. Well, after coercing me for several hours I gave in and told him my website name. Lo-and-behold the subsequent conversation my Mother and (actual) Father had about me over dinner with my boyfriend, sister, and two half-brother:

Addiction mix, what’s your fix?

Addiction

1. Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance.

2. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

 

There’s a fair bit of addictive things in this world. Food, sex, drugs, alcohol, and video games. Each of these things is a way to escape reality, something that makes the person feel better about themself. I’ve met plenty of people who I can say “If they started doing X they wouldn’t be able to stop.” So, now I’m going to get onto my blogosphere soap box to talk about this, because the thought of addiction has been weighing on my mind lately.

It all comes down to being able to make the right choices. I grew up with my step-dad (who I admire very much, even if he does incessantly make fun of me for playing WoW) who until I was about thirteen played Ever Quest twelve hours a day. Now for all the people who say WoW is difficult I dare you to go hardcore play EQ. Those are some SERIOUS raiders. One story my step dad told me was about this boss (for the life of me I can’t remember his name…some dragon or something) who they tried to kill for eight hours of CONTINOUS raiding. They used several different teams and switched them about throughout the course of the fight. The hitch was that this particular boss was never supposed to be killed, so when they finally succeed he didn’t drop any loot, just disappeared, and a minute later the whole server crashed. After the crash the boss didn’t respawn and to this day each sever is only allowed one kill of this boss, which will still DC the entire server.

My step-dad was able to pull himself away from his hardcore playing when he realized it was effecting his health, his family, and his relationship with my mom. He also, a few years later, cold turkey quit smoking after 30 years of sucking on those cancer sticks. I’m endlessly awed by the amount of perseverance (and sunflower seeds) he used to chance his life and move away from two very addicting things.

There are always people who won’t be able to pull themself away from those things, however. It feels to good to be good at something than realizing you’ve let your life slide into the gutter because of this addiction. With over 11 million people online there are going to be a fair few of us gamers who don’t know when to stop. The stories of people who have done crazy things because they don’t want to stop playing are often broadcasted over the internet, and gamers whose family or friends see these reports will often get the “intervention talk” because it is assumed that if anyone plays WoW they’ll eventually become addicted and ruin their lives. I don’t believe in this “inevitable philosophy” (as i’m going to call it) simply for the fact that I play with a majority of people who have their lives together. They go to work, or school (or both as in the case of many of us college students), spend time with their families, and have stable relationships. It is not impossible to have a hobby like WoW and live a life outside of game. Just like it’s possible to go out and party four times a week and have a job and relationships.

However, there are certain addictive personalities who can’t stop themselves from falling into an addiction no matter what they do. I’m not writing this for any particular reason, as a warning or anything. I just happen to of had a first hand experience last night about how extreme theses things can get.

 No, no, it wasn’t me! If I was to get addicted to anything it would most likely be expensive fruits and vegetables. Now where are my pomegranate…(just kidding, they’re not in season :[ )

My new best WoW buddy has a fiance we both play with. Last night she asked him to limit his playing time, and to say the least he “flipped” and several very bad things resulted. I’m not going to go in excruciating detail to respect her privacy, but the Cops were almost called and if she hadn’t gotten her car back when she did I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t end up in jail for grand theft auto. When you set yourself up for this kind of addiction by not having anything else in your life that you feel is worth working for then when your game is being threatened you react in extreme ways. I’m glad she’s alright, because if she wasn’t hell hath no fury like a woman defending her scorned friend.

People who lose their mind when asked to limit their playing time give WoW players a bad name. I personally don’t like getting the “oh my god, you must be like those weirdos” every time I mention that I raid or play WoW. So if you ever feel the urge to steal a car, blow up a building, or hurt yourself because your life is nothing without your WoW account, I suggest you put your head back on straight and realize that this game will end one day. Now I can’t guarantee that your life will be so much better if you stop playing video games 12 hours a day, because most likely your life has crumbled while you were glued to your computer.  But you’ll have a lot better time with the family and friends who missed you than alone when the WoW gods decide that it’s not worth running the game anymore, or you lose interest in it.

*Steps off Soapbox*

Razzlefrazzlefrickenfrack

Well many things have happened since I last posted. Most relevant to this site is the fact that my former guild has disbanded. When I say “disbanded” our GM (and that term is used very loosely, our Officers ran the guild due to her lack of availability) freaked out and kicked a bunch of us, and then everybody else left.

To my guildies who read this post, I wish you the best of luck with your new guilds. I know we had our problems and our difficulties but I genuinely enjoyed raiding with you folks! If you need a buddy for a ten man, shoot me a whisper, and rest assured that you will all be on my friends lists. I will always consider you my guildies, wherever we end up in Azeroth.

For myself and my druid boyfriend we found a new home in the guild <Surge>, a twenty-five man guild who is one of the top progression guilds on our server. Lucky, huh? We had our trial run last night (well the first of many, I’m assuming) and Punch smashed faces in with his fantastic feral deeps. Me? Well let me just say that the healers in this guild are amazing. Now I know where all the Priests on Trollbane are, hanging out in Surge, being awesome. I haven’t felt so undergeared in a long time, me and my little ten-man outfit. It’s nice that they have two other Holy Paladins so I know what my healing range should be, but…they have two other Holy Paladins, my least favorite class to heal with.

So, the Run Back series will be taking a break for a moment while I figure out if its going to go into a new direction, or whether it’s going to continue at all.

As for me, we have another raid tonight, and I’ll be attempting to figure out whether I can cut it in such a badass guild.

Well, start Running Back.

Tossing a Rifle

There comes a point in ever persons life where the thing you love (your hobby/sport/significant other) becomes a stressfest, and you begin to wonder why you still take part in said activity. This is a little rambling, so I apologize, but it’s things I need to say. 

 In my freshman year I was on my high schools winterguard team, and  in tenth  and eleventh grade I was also on our marching band’s Color guard. A group of between ten and twenty girls(depending on what season it was) would get together after school everyday and practice, in very cramped quarters, our flag tosses (Which later caused the cafeteria ceiling to be littered with holes and pockmarks), rifle spins, and dance routines.

 I loved it to death. Every day was like a party my freshman year. We got to jam out to the awesome music to our routine, laugh when we dropped the flag, or someone smacked the ceiling again, and we made progress with our routine. We may not have been the best guard, or the most experienced, but we always went into our saturday competitions with hope that we would win. Sometimes we got that first place trophy and knew we deserved it. 

njmonthly.com

 

Casually Hardcore?

 I seem to keep running into an issue with one of our raiders. He’s a real life friend of mine, who I also happen to work with, who has played WoW since Vinilla, and is a good player. He server transferred over and reactivated his account to join our raid team. Lately however, we’ve had some issues with him wanting to leave in the middle of raids, or calling me up to tell the guild that he can’t come tonight because “Something bad happened, and I don’t want to talk about it. Just tell them I’m sorry and won’t be there.” Nevermind that we held the raid for half an hour waiting for him to come back from this party he had been at.

It’s not suprising then, that last night as we’re trying to down Saurfang (which is the most pain in the ass fight ever) when he says ”Guys, how pissed would you be if I left right now? Because I’ve got some friends I want to hang out with and they’re coming over…” I got a little lot miffed. I introduced this guy to our guild, and ensured him that he would have a spot on our raid team if he could come when he said he would, and not play like a doofus. For the first few months everything was peaches and cream. We kicked butt in ToC, got him gear, made a reliable raid team out of our ten people. Now however, it’s been three weeks since he’s stayed for a full raid, or even bothered to show up. So at about twelve o’clock last night, he leaves, and we have to bring in our shaman whose account was hacked that morning, and who had declined the raid invite because she couldn’t come online until midnight. We got a few good attempts in, but ultimately had to call it because we didn’t have enough DPS to beat his enrage timer.

Shared Topic– 2009 WoW in Review

I was pretty determined not to read (or write) anything of this nature. However,  I know it’s been a while since I posted anything due to the holidays and travel, so I thought I would jump on the blogwagon (haha, see its a pun! Okay, no? Nevermind then.) and give you all an idea of how my first full year of playing WoW went.  This meme comes curtsy of Blog Azeroth’s shared topic forums, which always has interesting ideas for us bloggers.

“In the spirit of the annual RL year in review meme I have completed for the better part of this decade, I created one for Warcraft that I thought would be a good potential shared topic. Please tag 5 other folks to complete the meme and copy these instructions and the questions into your blog with your answers. Thanks all for your consideration!

My Warcraft Year in Review Meme

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
What was your biggest failure?
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
What do you wish you’d done less of?
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

cheers!”

I thought you’d be taller.

I did something exciting today– I met a member of my raiding team at the mall. I found out he lives in my home town and we met up at the lamest mall ever. Most of the stores were going out of business and it was permeated with a hill-billy feel. But, my cousin was having his eighth birthday party there so, I figured we could meet while they jumped around in “Tumble Town,” an indoor play place kind of like those McDonald’s playgrounds.

It was a bit weird. I didn’t know what he looked like and all he knew about me was that I was a red head with a Raven’s jersey (We lost the game D:). Giving random people the once over out of the corner of your eye is always awkward when you don’t know what you’re looking for. Finally this guy with black hair sort of met my eyes as I was cautiously looking at him. Turns out it was Lou, we hugged, and walked around the dying mall for a while. We saw the best (and by best I mean we laughed hysterically) tatoo ever. It was on the lower back of the girl who made my Chia tea. In bright pink script it said, when she bent over, “Crack Kills.” Classy.

This brings me to the really point of this article. Have any of you ever met someone you play with outside of WoW? Putting a face to a voice wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and it was only slightly awkward. I’m a pretty shy person so talking to someone I had never seen before, but had played with nearly every other night for the last year, was an odd paradox. We’re meeting up again next weekend for a movie and some poker with our respective others (Punchileno, my druid boyfriend, was sick and couldn’t come home with me this weekend), which should be fun!

I’m sure there are plenty of awkward stories out there that you guys have about meeting WoW friends in real life. If I get enough of them it might be a fun idea for a weekly column!