Um...is anyone on this channel?

*sounds of a squeeky door opening & echoing footsteps*

...Hello?

Anyone still there?

The place still looks nice, it just needs a little dusting off don't you think?

I'm still here, its been a bit of a WoW Hiatus for me, but I am still standing with one paw in the game....

More later, I gots to get the cobwebs taken care of first.

Aids LifeCycle is on!

Or: Defeating the Lich King's Plague IRL

Hey Everyone!

Summer is upon us again and my good friend Kelly and her wife Midori are out on the road helping with Aids LifeCycle.

What it is
Aids LifeCycle is a 7 day, 545 mile bicycle ride from San Francisco to Las Angeles geared toward making a direct difference in the lives of people living with HIV and Aids. It is an annual event that takes place in late May or Early June.

Midori and Kelly do their part by riding in one of the vans that finds and helps riders that have gotten lost, are too tired to continue, or broken down. In short they are doing what they always do: lending a hand to someone in need.

Each year when the ride starts I ask my friends, regardless of where I met them or if they even know who Midori is, to donate the cost of a cup of coffee to Midori's Account on LifeCycle.

Are you a Midori fan and would like to buy her a cup of coffee?

Have you been with me to Northrend to fight Arthas and his minions, and want to spend a moment raising a pint in the Lion's Pride Inn?

Or are you one of my recently found IRL friends on facebook and want to catch up over a Mocha Grande?

How about donating that $5.00 towards supporting Midori and Kelly in their fight to end Aids?
Midori set a goal of raising $6,000 for Aids LifeCycle and I would like to help blow the lid off that goal.


Donating
You can donate by visiting Midori's LifeCycle page here

If you know Midori be sure to say hello, and if you don't just tell her Mateo sent you and she will know you are an anonymous friend that cares.

If you would like to know more about where your donation goes click on the LifeCycle banner and you will be taken to the LifeCycle main page.

Supporting Them This Week
If you are interested in following Midori throughout the week she actually posts a report each evening on her LiveJournal page.

This is not for the feint of heart as you will hear her go from happy and energetic to torn, ragged, and absolutely floored by the bravery and grit that the riders show throughout this weeks ride.

Seriously, you will be crying with her as you listen to these voice posts.

Another thing that you can do is send Kelly and Midori real life messages of encouragement. There is a bulletin board at each stop of the ride where messages from loved ones and friends are posted each night. To quote Midori:

I can't do this without your moral and financial help. Each day I'm on the ride I go and look for the messages you guys send me. It keeps my energy up. Every bit of donation to this delights me. All the help you guys give, in stepping up to help with and attend our fundraising parties make me tear up and then grin like an idiot.

You can leave messages for Kelly and Midori through Midori's personal page on Aids LifeCycle. They are a team so please mention them both in your posts. :)

Thank you gang; I know I can count on your help.
Peace

Star Trek Tonight!

Tonight, after work I will be heading out to see Star Trek and I am super excited.

Naturally I am a little apprehensive, but being a huge fan of pretty much all things Trek I am sure I will love the flick.

In preparation for the movie I have been checking out the website for the upcoming Star Trek MMO. For you non gaming types an MMORPG is short for a Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game.

Remember all of those Dungeons and Dragon Geeks back in the 7th grade? Well, we are all online now and not everyone lives in Mom's basement.

Anyhoo, I have been tootling around checking things out and I think it has potential. Especially given the fan base that already exists. In all reality if Cryptic puts the effort into this game that Blizz and Eve Online has it would be hard to miss.

Why am I interested? Dude, a world without Star Trek is just unnatural!
Will it kill WoW? I tend to doubt it.
Will it take me out of World of Warcraft? It is entirely possible....

What Happened @ My Place Last Night

Watch more SPIKE videos on AOL VideoThe cats were tearing up the house last night around 4 a.m.

My cats were tearing up the house last night around 4 a.m.

Then this happened....poor Egypt.

WoW on the iPhone

iPhone users rejoice!

A hellofathing

Holy Catz! I was screaming at my screen when I saw the high speed footage.

Patch 3.1 is here....

Or: My world comes crashing down every Tuesday, but its usually back up by 11.

Yup its patch day.
While waiting I have been reading patch notes, blogs, WoW Insider reports on the Argent Tournament, and watching the new Cinimatic Trailer for Ulduar.

The trailer is pretty cool. You can see it here.

It all sounds pretty cool, and pretty exciting. However, the real question is more about just how many add ons are going to break this time and will it take over a week to get things back in shape.

Last time the patch caused me to change from my old favorite UI Macaroon to Bartender4.
Macaroon had some issues that caused d/c problems with my set up.

This time I also have the Logitech G13 to think about. While I normally don't sweat my perifrials too much with the last update WoW stopped recognizing the pad's preset for the game and I have had to play in default mode... evil portents....

Ahhhh we shall see, we shall see....

Edit: Just a thought after watching the trailer: What the h@ll is it with the Dwarves anyhow? Anyone else notice that they keep digging up nasties?
Sheesh!

Thunder Down Under

Or: Home is where you hang your Stalker's Helmet of Second Sight

I do believe I have found a new home for Viktel, my Nelf Hunter.

Two summers ago I started up some horde characters, and my friends convinced me that rather than totally disband our old Alliance guild Firefly we should just swap factions and become a casual adult guild.

This has been great, and Firefly continues to dodge alliance patrols to this day, and grows at a nice relaxing pace of one or two recruits a month. Most of us are busy IRL and looking for a stable adult oriented guild that will still be there if we have to spend a little time away from the game.

The conundrum became that I had too many characters on one server. As we approached the release of Wrath I had 3 favorite Alliance characters, 3 Hordes, one banker for each faction, and dreams of playing a Death Knight on each faction.

It was too much for one start-up screen.... really.

Toss into the mix the fact that I have a very odd work schedule which prevents me from playing during Echo Isles' prime time, and even though E.I. is listed as a Pacific Time Zone server the majority of players are actually Mid West to East Coast.

Since I play at night or in the mornings Echo Isles just doesn't really seem to be a good fit for me, however I do lead a guild of local friends there and we seem to be pretty content with things as they are.

What to do, what to do....

While at work one evening a co-worker mentioned that when he first started playing MMOs he ended up playing with a lot of folks from Australia, just because they happened to be the people on when he got home from work.

That got me to thinking. Why not try out a Oceanic server?
So I transferred Vik over to Cealestrasz and began to tootle around there.

Later, just after Wrath Launched, Saurfang opened and was accepting free transfers for a limited time. It turned out that all my Alliance characters were eligible to move for free and I took the opportunity to get all my Alliance toons on one server, and all my Horde characters stayed on Echo Isles.

My OCD was now satisfied and my characters all lined up nice and tidy.

Just recently I have really picked back up on my Hunter, and I have to say I have had a blast for the past couple of weeks playing on Saurfang.

My playtime lines up nicely with the other people on this server. When I get home from work in the evening dinner has ended for them and things are just picking up, and finding a group to play with has never been easier.

If I choose to play in the morning I can still hook up with the late night crowd, or if I want to grind out leather or quest there is little to no competition for materials.

I am also happy to report that so far the cool people out number the @sshats, and prices on the AH aren't too inflated yet.

...and check this out. People actually say things like good-day, no worries, and call me "mate".
/big grin

Suffice it to say after quite some time, playing Vik is starting to feel at home again.

Ohhh...and he met a young Druid named Realia in Teldrassil. She spends her days tending to the great tree itself, but likes to spend her spare time helping Vik with his banking needs.

There might be a little romance in the air....

Erin Go Braggh!!

May I make a toast!

"May you be in Heaven a half hour before the devil knows you are dead!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day to both the Orange & the Green.

:)

Edit: I found this widget for the Tim Malloys over on Big Bear Butt's Blog.
It rocks, so I put it here.

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Holiday Questing...wha? Again?

I recently read this post by Pike, the author of Aspect of the Hare, where she talks about her feelings about being a veteran WoW player faced with repeating the holiday quests for the sake of an achievement.

Like Pike I have been playing WoW for a while. I actually got hooked by the Make Love Not Warcraft episode of South Park that aired in Oct '06. I had actually been avoiding WoW after it launched just because of how deeply I had immersed myself in Blizzard's other games.

A Small Digression
At least those games came to an end. Yeah there is BattleNet, but initially you beat the game and waited for the next hot RTS (real time strategy) to hit the market. I started my Blizz career with Starcraft, moved to Diablo II, and then lost several weekends to Warcraft III.

I new that it given my addictive nature towards RTS games that an MMO which routinely added content was just bad news for me, and I was probably correct. WoW is now so much a part of my day that performing the minor chores in game, like gathering herbs or mining, is how I wind down after work in the evening. It is also how I like to enjoy my first cup of coffee in the morning.

My morning kind of looks like this:
I usually wake up when my cat Hamlet drops whatever toy has his fancy today next to my head and starts to play. Next I blearily rise and start the coffee, feed the cats, then grab my coffee and begin my day at the WoW Auction House.

Then if I am playing that day I will decide which character I feel like working on. Lately that has been my DK Bert.

And the Point Is?
Well to make a short story long, the point is that over time I have done the holiday quests enough to really not even notice them happening anymore. This morning I realized that I have heard fireworks and rockets being set off now for over a month, and was wondering when I would be able to do my AH work in peace...(yup this gamer is just about to ding 40...get off my lawn!)

So this year we have a new twist to the holidays in the form of Achievements. It is a simple idea, do the quests and get a few achievements done and maybe earn a new title or tabard or something like that.

Now the question is do I really want to go back and do them all again?

Achievements are fun. Its kind of like leveling without leveling:
Eat a billion gumballs and Whoosh/Ding! A little tag appears, an announcement goes over the airwaves and all your guildies respond by saying "Grats".

I like that, its a fun way to affirm that there are other folks playing the game with you. Its why we all say "Ding!" in guild chat, right? Even on that new rogue alt that levels every ten minutes?

The downside is that some of the holiday content, while it was quite fun the first time around now kind of makes me want to jab a pencil into my eye. Headless horseman is a great example. When it first came out I was right there in line with everyone to do my 5 runs each day to get the new epic rings and hope for the squashling to drop.

This year...meh.
I did it to help some guildies and that was fun. Otherwise I was all about getting to level 80.

This Lunar Festival I decided to go for the elders title and you know what, I ran right into the fact that I am burned out on PUGs. I ended the festival three coins short of the title. Each coin inside a dungeon in Northrend where the way is blocked unless you down a boss.

A guild run was out of the picture given that I am part of a very casual guild of busy adult types, and thus we have two level 80 characters, myself and a friend in the Midwest that has had his hands full with his child.

So over all I really enjoy the wacky achievements like killing 15 turkeys in under 30 secs or whatever, but I just can't easily get motivated to redo the holiday quests.

And that seems rather odd to me given the number of times I have leveled through the Barrens....

Sometimes Enough is Enough

or: Bert gets a piece

Over the past few days I have been questing in Nagrand, working on getting Bert up to level 70. This zone is the most fun for me and normally playing there is a pleasure.

However in the past few days I have seen a record number of ninjas and quest jumpers, and frankly just rude Alliance players all over the place.

So to make a short story long, I headed over to Wazat to complete his quest: Bring me the Egg.

This involves using the Jump-o-tron 4000 to jump into a nest high up into a tree, followed by looting an egg which will in turn summon the Windroc Matriarch, a level 67 elite bird for you to kill.

An Ally Warrior arrived at Wazat at the same time I did and we both made the jump. I missed, he made it and over the chat channel came the emote:

"**** laughs at you."

It was late, I was tired, and fed up with general rudeness and I guess I just snapped

After popping a quick bandage I Death Gripped the damn bird down to me and beat it to a pulp. I looted its claw and then sent a /moon right back at the guy.

Now I am not condoning ninja looting, griefing, or stealing another players summoned mob; but sometimes enough is enough!

The emote text read:

"Berthold dropps his pants and moons ****".

...and durnit if it if I didn't get a little satisfaction from it.

Where the h@ll is Matt?

This is just too much fun to watch.

Yes We Can

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.

Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov. Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.

Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

To my chief strategist David Axelrod who's been a partner with me every step of the way.

To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.

But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America."

A Hero Arrives

Its Here!!

It finally arrived!

My Figure Print statue of Viktel was sitting on my front doorstep.

I received notification that I had won the lottery for a Figure Print of my favorite character on August 15th, and the statue actually arrived on my doorstep on October 1st.

I pulled out the camera so y'all can see it coming out of its box as I unpack it.

What is a Figure Print?
The folks at Figure Prints are creating fully detailed 3D replicas of your favorite World of Warcraft character. Here is a quote from their website:

Using 3D modeling techniques pioneered by special effects houses and manufacturing technology that allows even the most complicated of these models to be created, FigurePrints can bring your fully outfitted, one-of-a-kind World of Warcraft® character to your doorstep.

Once you are on their website you can select your character name and realm and they look you up on the Warcraft Armory. They then take a snapshot of your character which includes all your equipped weapons and armor.

Click Here to view their FAQ page.

Getting a FigurePrint credit.
This is where the catch is. Because it takes two to three months to create these statues, and given the high demand for them the company can only take in as many orders each month as they feel they can produce.

So to get the opportunity to purchase a Print, you enter your account number into a random drawing that happens once a month. If your number is picked you get a credit for one statue If your account dosen't get selected then you will automatically get entered into next month's drawing.



Creating your Statue
The coolest part of this whole process is knowing that you are taking an active part in the creation of your statue. This isn't a generic statue of any ole' WoW character. This is YOUR character being recreated as a scale model. You get to pick and choose from the armor and weapons that you have earned in your adventures in Azeroth.

To do this you log into WoW, equip your character with the weapons and armor that is your favorite, log off and then refresh the image on the Figure Prints account page. On your account page you will then get to select which weapons to have equiped, and which you would like sheathed.

My Figure Print
For Vik I selected the following armor: Ebon Netherscale Breastplate, Scaled Grieves of Patience, Boots of the Crimson Hawk, Handguards of the Steady, Veteran's Chain Girdle, and my old Vetran's Chain Bracers.


I topped it off with my Cloak of the Craft, a sharp looking black cloak with gold trim, and my Tabard of the Shattered Sun. Simply the most kick @ss looking tabard in the game.

I selected these items mainly because the graphics are a nice matched set, one that should make the jump from the screen to the 3D image well.


My Weapon
I selected my Hellforged Halberd as my melee weapon because it looks pretty elegant and simple, and goes well on the Night Elf Model. Not being a heavy raider I never had much of a shot at the epics that dropped in Kharazan or the higher dungeons..

The Bow
For my ranged weapon I had to go with my all time favorite bow, Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart. I got this bow when I returned Vik to Echo Isles from the Aerie Peak realm. It is the reward from the long quest chain The Cipher of Damnation, which is also the old attunement quest chain for Tempest Keep.

The skin for the bow is a great graphic, and the colors are wonderful. The neat thing is that while the graphic skin for the bow is common now that we are coming to the end of the Burning Crusade, this particular version is rarely seen anymore now that there is no attunement neccecary to enter Tempest Keep: The Eye.

That makes the graphic fairly unique in the game, and I get lots of compliments on it given the that and the stat bonuses.

It also has some strong sentimental value since a good buddy and former guildie helped me in the final steps of the quest. It was the last time we have played together to date and that was several months ago.


The Pose
Once you have selected your armor and weapons the next and final step is to select the pose your character will be in.

I took a look at the poses created for Hunters and their weapons, but I really didn't care for them. In pretty much all of them you couldn't see the character's face because it was blocked by the shoulder armor.

I setteled on a stealth walk on a marbled floor with my bow equipped, and the melee weapon on Vik's back. This put the bow out front as the focus of the statue and with Viktel striding forward like he is moving through a forest stalking an enemy.

I think it gave a dynamic touch to the statue.

Once Your Order is Placed.
Right!!! So you have chosen your character, equipped him in your fav gear and weapons, and clicked on the "Make me one" button. Now what?

Well, you get these updates in your email that just tease the bejeesus out you thats what.

They look like this:

Aug 15, 2008

Your order has been placed and your hero is now beginning his/her journey to reality!

Sep 19, 2008

FigurePrints' next-gen reality-creation technology is forging your hero and all his/her epic gear at this moment!

Sep 29, 2008

Reality is at hand! Your hero is on his/her way to your side! Track his/her journey across the country to your side online at FedEx.

The Final Verdict
When I first tossed my name into the hat the cost of a statue was $100.00. The price has since gone up and all told I paid $150.00 including tax and shipping.

At the time I saw the increase in price I kind of blanched a little, but now that I see what a wonderful job these guys do I think it is totally worth the price.

I now have a physical rendition of my Hero wearing the gear he had at the height of The Burning Crusade expansion.

To put it simply....

It Rocks!!! I have entered back into the drawings, and honestly I hope I can get a statue of my druid Finegas as well.

Holy Crap! What do we do now!!??!!

or Life in World of Warcraft 3.02

Alas poor Ilidian I knew him well....

WoW 3.02 is currently being added to the servers, and soon we will emerge into realms that appear the same, yet all will have changed.

These are exciting days ahead. The next month will be spent learning how the new game mechanics function, and planning out how we want to approach the expansion. Some will want to charge ahead to level 80 and the new endgame content, others will go hit up the new Death Knight class, still others will be sleeping in Inns and building up a bit of XP to stay just ahead of questing level requirements.

If you were around for the 2.0 update you are probably patiently keeping an eye on the Realm Status web page while doing other things, dishes, work, laundry...you know.

This is old hat for us, for we remember the old days when our worlds would fall apart once a week, but would usually be back up by 11:00am.

Sometimes not.

OK, most of the time not.

And usually we would spend the next two or three days getting our add-ons straightened back out.

For those that are Burning Crusade babies who came to the game in the times of rolling restarts and short scheduled game maintenance... DON'T PANIC!

I repeat DON'T PANIC!

We will get through this.
What we are going to do is get back to our roots and once again start paying attention to all the other research sites, QQ'ers, and hunter how-to bloggers that got us from huntard to hunter the first time around.

We are also going to try things on our own FEARLESSLY. These changes bring exciting new things to WoW that will enhance the game and hopefully make things more fun.

Sure things will be off balance and wacky for a bit, but that is to be expected. Adequately testing a game for 10 million people to play is one heck of a task for our developers, so to this end we will also be Patient. Let the huntards and @ss hats piss and moan and complain, while the rest of us take things in stride and enjoy all the new adventures ahead of us.

The advantage is we are heading into the expansion informed and experienced. We can do this gang, we have been here before, and don't forget that there are new people out there that will need our help on the way.

One of the great things about the Hunter community is our willingness to stop what we are doing and show someone else the tricks of the trade.

*sings* Its a whooooole new wooooooooorrrrld, a fantastic point of view!

Here is my list of Hunter Research sites.
Some old and some new, all of them friendly and all are passionate about our fav class.
Keep these handy for when you are stuck and want a little help, or maybe a good laugh on a realm maintenance Tuesday.
Edit: This is looking like my new side bar....

Hunter Blogs
Big Red Kitty
Aspect of the Hare
The Hunter's Mark
Gun Loving Dwarf Chick
ReNoobed
Twisted Nether Wiki - Blogs of all classes listed here.

Hunter Forums
BigRedKitty Forums
Elitist Jerks
WoW Hunter Forums-Official

Research Sites
Petopia
WoWHead
WoWWiki
WotLK Wiki
Kaliban's Loot Lists

Podcasts
The Instance
Twisted Nether
World of Warcast
Big Red Kitty

Just Classic!

The Coolest Batman Trailer Mashup Ever

The New Header

I finally had the time, and a working computer with Photoshop installed.

Let me know what you think.

Peace

Hero of the Realm

The Back Story
For the past year I have been living by myself in the house I have owned since the year 2000.

I had a few pets in that time, but after the Great Escape of my two conures I just hadn't gotten around to getting any new pets.

Two days prior to my arm surgery I received a phone call from my friend T. G. She had found out about four abandoned Siamese cats.

T.G. knows that I grew up with Siamese and have been halfway thinking about finding one or two rescue cats to bring into my home.

The story she told me was that some unknown person had lost his mortgage, and just before vacating the house the bozo booted these four cats out to fend for themselves.

The kittens then lived under a car for about three weeks with no food or water source and finally the man's friendly neighbor found them, brought them home and began caring for them.

They called the shelter where T.G. volunteers, and that is how I got the word.

Meeting the Kids
So I headed across town to meet the family knowing full well that I would probably be bringing home two of them.

Sure enough there were two boy kittens, both absolutely beautiful Siamese Seal Points, and two Himalayans, one short haired one long. All of them with bright and healthy blue eyes, very talkative, friendly, and looking pretty good given their ordeal.

The Seal Points are both young enough to have recovered fairly quickly, but the ladies are a little older and they were still showing not much more than skin and bones.

After meeting them, and hearing about their story I picked out two. The short haired Himalayan was very sweet, and came right too me. She actually could be the twin of my very first cat Boswell from when I was in the 6th grade.

The sweet lady that had taken them in was calling her Egypt 'cause she has that distinct Siamese shape to her head and has HUGE blue eyes and looks like the cats you see in the ancient history books.

Looking at the Seal Points I saw that the younger of the two was a little more laid back, and had everyone convinced that he was the shy one of the bunch....(phhht!! you can't kid a kidder. I know that act by heart, I gave him big points for it thouh.). He has the prettiest ice blue eyes and absolutely gorgeous coloring.

I named him Hamlet right off the bat, and both cats acted like they understood what might be happening.

I explained that I couldn't pick them up until Saturday (it was Tuesday) after I got my arm fixed, and the lady was ok with holding them for me until then.

Bringing them Home
Wednesday came and went, and the surgery went so well that Willow, my ride too and from, took me out Kittie shopping. On the way I called T.G. to let her know I would be able to get the kids home on the following day, Thursday.

W. and I had a blast getting toys, a scratching post, collars, tags, litter box, food and other cat essentials. I set everything up in the master bath room of the house figuring that they could call that home base for a week, or until they were comfy with bioooooooooooooooooooo (<----- Hamlet says hello btw).

So Thursday evening we loaded up my one animal carrier and a large cardboard box to transport them home.

After a long and tearful good-bye from their rescuers, we loaded them up and made the long journey home. I am here to tell you keeping a kitten in a cardboard box with one arm is a sling ain't no easy task!

After the trek we attempted to move the cats into the bathroom, but they decided under my bed was a much safer place to hang. So once they settled down in relative safety, I shooed T.G. (a classic mother hen) out so they could be alone for a little while to get over their latest trauma of being separated from their other two family members.

Checking in every ten minutes or so to give comforting words, and check breathing and heart rates I let them have the room for the evening. They responded immediately to food, water, and the cat box.

The Past Few Days.
Since arriving, I have watched them explore the bedroom and master bath, try out the toys and furniture, and they are coming to accept me as their third family member.

I knew we would be OK when the flying tackles started in my bathroom Friday night around 4 a.m. :)

They have been making small reconnaissance missions into the living room and kitchen for the past two days.

Last night they had a grand adventure when I left the bedroom door open, and a kitchen light on for them to explore the house with.

It was flying tackles all night in the living room.

And Today....
They have been exploring the house with no reservations this morning. As I have been writing this Hamlet has been saving me from the attacking small-mouse-like-toy-things. Thus earning the esteemed title of Hero Of The Realm.

Later today we head into the vet for full check ups, shots, and whatever else we need. First I need to go get a second pet carrier, and (crossing fingers) hopefully my iMac will be ready for pick up so I can get back online and earn my flying mount before Wrath releases.


And that folks has been my weekend.

If you live in Las Vegas and are wanting a cat or two, I know of two wonderful, friendly, and beautiful Simese kittens that are in need of a home. Feel free to email me here viktelmd@gmail.com & I will get you in touch with the right people.

Peace.

Back at Home

I made it through the arm surgery with flying colors!

There is little to no pain, so my focus is now all about bringing down any swelling.

A little difficult with my arm in a sling and locked out at 90 degrees, fortunately my prior experience recovering from a skydiving accident left me with a trick up my sleeve.

Here is the plan. I have a large cooler that I will fill with ice water. Next I will triple bag my arm with garbage bags, and then keep the elbow on the rocks for 20 minutes or so.

Basically I'll keep it in there through two commercial breaks while watching Deep Space Nine. Mom gifted me the series for my birthday and I am now in season 5. The war with the Dominion is just starting.

Afterwards a quick towel off, remove the bags an Viola, one dry cold arm.

I want to go after the swelling as much as I can. Once it comes down the body can get started with the healing process.

For that I can rely on 12 years of healing breaks, bruises, and the bumps that came with my Martial Art training. I am armed with a plethora of both homemade and commercial herbal medicines that should help reduce the recovery time.

And adjusting my training will give me an awesome PT program. One that got me back to full use of my ankle (the result of my skydiving bounce), and two other broken feets.

Weirdly enough I really get a kick out of this kind of thing.

Later this morning I will be checking on my iMac. The new logic card I had installed went bad so Zaphod (I named my iMac Zaphod 'cause he runs two screen. ...two screens = two heads...get it?) went in for his own surgery.

Thank goodness for insurance and extended warranties!

And even more exciting, I will be bringing home my two rescued Siamese kittens this evening. With a liitle help from Naioka, a local guildie, I got to the pet store and picked up most of what I need for my new roomies: Egypt and Hamlet.

I'm way excited!!!