I came out here and realized that I have severely neglected this poor blog. Sometimes I think I should just keep these posts short and spare my friends the horrendous walls of text. Which I may do in the future, but I can't today. So let's begin.
First, on the Real Life side of the computer I have taken a new job. I am now working with an old friend of mine at a company that sales/refurbs point of sale devices. I have been at the job for 3 weeks and I am completely ingrained into the web development of the company. I like the smaller team size and I see this as an opportunity to be more of an "impact player" in my area of expertise. Unfortunately, my timing of starting landed me right in the midst of releasing an ordering system that required me to work extra hours outside the normal business hours. So this last weekend I spent 20+ hours at the office testing and putting the finishing touches on the "MYPOS" system (where POS does not stand for what I would like to call "Piece of SH#$"). Haha, I laugh every time I see that.
Unfortunately, all that extra time had cut into my latest endeavor of gearing my warlock. Warlock? You're probably asking what is all this talk about a warlock? Well, I have taken a turn in the game. I have shelved the druid and decided that I would work on making my warlock my main. Though I am behind the gear curve with the guild on this guy, I have made some serious gains over the past 2 weeks. My lock is now at a hit rating of 16.73% (I still need another stinking .27% for that cap of 17%). I can hit it by swapping out a gem for the +hit gem or crafting the cloth belt. However, getting hit capped is just once step towards raiding with the guys. I don't want to step right in and start raiding at my hit capped carrying an item level of 339 when everyone else is 350+. So that begs me to wonder, what is a good item level to start raiding with? I have no idea, so I have thrown that question out to my friends and guild. If you have any suggestions, check out my toon Uthben on Kel'Thuzad and let me know.
I'll probably go back and play around with the druid and run some heroics on her, but as for raiding, I am sticking with my lock.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Superbowl Glories and Then Not Some so Super moments
Short update on WoW, because I was too busy with other things to play the game. I'm tired of logging in and finding my options of running an instance are delegated to using the LFD tool. I'm starting to think this is short for "Looking for Dummies". It's really tiring to zone in with a PUG instance group only to have them blame one wipe on the "OMG noobz tank!!!" or the other "WTH are you going back there healer?" I don't want to give up playing my druid and opt out for the lock, but on the other hand, I don't come home to unwind to this shit. Needless to say, my gear is still lacking and the guild posted on the forums today that they want to start raiding in 2 weeks. Damn, I better buckle down and bite my tongue on the PUGs.
In case you don't care about the NFL or live where it doesn't matter, then you can ignore the rest of this post. Go away and find another blog to read for the rest of the day.
Now for those of you who are interested, then Sunday night my beloved Green Bay Packers won their 4th Superbowl and 13th NFL Championship. Yes, those of us who are loyal fans still count what happened before the induction of the Superbowl 45 years ago. The game was great and both teams played like they wanted to win. I can't blame them because both had to overcome some rough spots throughout the season. The Steelers had to start the first 4 games without their franchise QB and the Packers had 17 players on the Injured Reserve (not to mention losing Woodson - broken collar bone, Driver - Hamstring, and Shields - not sure during the Superbowl itself). In the end it came down to the 3 turnovers by the Steelers being too much to come back from.
I had big plans for the weekend. Big Superbowl party at a friend's house with my famous homemade teriyaki wings, spinach/artichoke mini bread bowls, and a cheese/sausage platter. But when my 7 year old started throwing up his breakfast on Saturday morning, I had a feeling I would be watching the game from home. Sure enough, the next day my wife fell ill with it leaving me to eat the wings all by myself. I know I was crazy to eat all that food by myself knowing full well that I had the stomach bug heading my way. But the hell, the PACKER ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL!!! And if I die from this bug, then at least I will have had a proper send off.
Anway, my body managed to hold off till mid Monday. Though, that's was not how I wanted to spend my day off.
So as I sit here during lunch at work typing this up, I'm hoping I got enough resolve to make it through the last half of the day.
In case you don't care about the NFL or live where it doesn't matter, then you can ignore the rest of this post. Go away and find another blog to read for the rest of the day.
Now for those of you who are interested, then Sunday night my beloved Green Bay Packers won their 4th Superbowl and 13th NFL Championship. Yes, those of us who are loyal fans still count what happened before the induction of the Superbowl 45 years ago. The game was great and both teams played like they wanted to win. I can't blame them because both had to overcome some rough spots throughout the season. The Steelers had to start the first 4 games without their franchise QB and the Packers had 17 players on the Injured Reserve (not to mention losing Woodson - broken collar bone, Driver - Hamstring, and Shields - not sure during the Superbowl itself). In the end it came down to the 3 turnovers by the Steelers being too much to come back from.
I had big plans for the weekend. Big Superbowl party at a friend's house with my famous homemade teriyaki wings, spinach/artichoke mini bread bowls, and a cheese/sausage platter. But when my 7 year old started throwing up his breakfast on Saturday morning, I had a feeling I would be watching the game from home. Sure enough, the next day my wife fell ill with it leaving me to eat the wings all by myself. I know I was crazy to eat all that food by myself knowing full well that I had the stomach bug heading my way. But the hell, the PACKER ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL!!! And if I die from this bug, then at least I will have had a proper send off.
Anway, my body managed to hold off till mid Monday. Though, that's was not how I wanted to spend my day off.
So as I sit here during lunch at work typing this up, I'm hoping I got enough resolve to make it through the last half of the day.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Still Behind the Curve
Man, I thought I would really have some more posts this week, but there's been some crazy stuff going on in real life. So let's start there.
First, we had a really big snow storm here last Thursday and that stranded me at the house with our 7 year old. We got 9 1/2 inches of snow in 12 hours and the small town of St.Peters outside St. Louis wasn't (and still isn't) prepared to remove that much snow that fast. And to add to the complexities of commuting, I had an interview scheduled for that afternoon closer to downtown St. Louis. I got an email that morning asking if I was still available for the interview. Geesh... what to do? Do I show some determination and go? What do I do with the boy? I mean the interview is with 4 people and is scheduled to from 2 - 5? Anyway, long story short, I went to the interview and called the highschool girl across the street to watch the boy. Hell, her school was cancelled and she could use the extra coin. The interview went well and didn't end till after 5:30pm. I was wiped decided to have 2 fingers of Dewars when I got home, thus limiting my PVE abilities for the evening. So I farmed some leather and called it a night.
The next day my brother called and wanted to stay with us over the weekend before heading back home to OKC. That killed the whole weekend for playing WOW, but watching the Packers win their way into the Superbowl with him was worth the tradeoff.
Come Monday, the kid's school was cancelled again due to icey roads. Crap, these kids are going to be making up snow days during their Spring Break. Poor kids. Halfway through that day, my wife called me at work and needed me to come home to relieve her from the stress of watching our son. Actually I think it had more to do with her going over to her friend's house to color her hair (god, I'm glad I don't have to help her do that anymore) and drink some carbonated depressant. I didn't mind that it screwed up my game time because I was still tired from the excessive celebration of the Packers win.
Tuesday started a whole new challenge in that we (my wife and I) had talked in the past about a service dog for our son. See our son is Autistic and he has some challenges like behavorial problems and running from us. Anyway, for some reason she decided she would start this process on this day. Ugh... I wasn't ready. This is a very long process and a HUGE undertaking. The application takes 6 weeks and on top of that, you need to raise $13K. Yeah I didn't mistyped that (I wish I had). But we know 2 other families who have benefitted from their kids having a service dog and I think it may help.
On Wednesday I got a call from another recruiter and we talked about another position for which I would be a good fit. At this point in my career I'm being real selective where and who I work for. I didn't get a Masters just to continue to write code so I'm making a judged attempt at improving my career on a long term basis. Unfortunately, Wednesday nights are tied up with my bowling league and the game is going to have to wait another day. Which brings us fast forward to ...
Thursday! On this day, a friend of mine called me and said he had passed my resume onto his employer and sure enough, I had a phone call that afternoon for an interview. WOW! This week has been packed with alot of stuff. I took the evening away from the game to get a 4 mile run in and to relax.
Hopefully, tonight I'll be able to logon to the game and just mess around. I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with PuG headaches after all that's happened this week, but if I do, I'll make sure to blog about it.
So there you have it. A week of WOW and gearing delayed by real life. And guess what... it's suppose to snow again next Monday. :)
First, we had a really big snow storm here last Thursday and that stranded me at the house with our 7 year old. We got 9 1/2 inches of snow in 12 hours and the small town of St.Peters outside St. Louis wasn't (and still isn't) prepared to remove that much snow that fast. And to add to the complexities of commuting, I had an interview scheduled for that afternoon closer to downtown St. Louis. I got an email that morning asking if I was still available for the interview. Geesh... what to do? Do I show some determination and go? What do I do with the boy? I mean the interview is with 4 people and is scheduled to from 2 - 5? Anyway, long story short, I went to the interview and called the highschool girl across the street to watch the boy. Hell, her school was cancelled and she could use the extra coin. The interview went well and didn't end till after 5:30pm. I was wiped decided to have 2 fingers of Dewars when I got home, thus limiting my PVE abilities for the evening. So I farmed some leather and called it a night.
The next day my brother called and wanted to stay with us over the weekend before heading back home to OKC. That killed the whole weekend for playing WOW, but watching the Packers win their way into the Superbowl with him was worth the tradeoff.
Come Monday, the kid's school was cancelled again due to icey roads. Crap, these kids are going to be making up snow days during their Spring Break. Poor kids. Halfway through that day, my wife called me at work and needed me to come home to relieve her from the stress of watching our son. Actually I think it had more to do with her going over to her friend's house to color her hair (god, I'm glad I don't have to help her do that anymore) and drink some carbonated depressant. I didn't mind that it screwed up my game time because I was still tired from the excessive celebration of the Packers win.
Tuesday started a whole new challenge in that we (my wife and I) had talked in the past about a service dog for our son. See our son is Autistic and he has some challenges like behavorial problems and running from us. Anyway, for some reason she decided she would start this process on this day. Ugh... I wasn't ready. This is a very long process and a HUGE undertaking. The application takes 6 weeks and on top of that, you need to raise $13K. Yeah I didn't mistyped that (I wish I had). But we know 2 other families who have benefitted from their kids having a service dog and I think it may help.
On Wednesday I got a call from another recruiter and we talked about another position for which I would be a good fit. At this point in my career I'm being real selective where and who I work for. I didn't get a Masters just to continue to write code so I'm making a judged attempt at improving my career on a long term basis. Unfortunately, Wednesday nights are tied up with my bowling league and the game is going to have to wait another day. Which brings us fast forward to ...
Thursday! On this day, a friend of mine called me and said he had passed my resume onto his employer and sure enough, I had a phone call that afternoon for an interview. WOW! This week has been packed with alot of stuff. I took the evening away from the game to get a 4 mile run in and to relax.
Hopefully, tonight I'll be able to logon to the game and just mess around. I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with PuG headaches after all that's happened this week, but if I do, I'll make sure to blog about it.
So there you have it. A week of WOW and gearing delayed by real life. And guess what... it's suppose to snow again next Monday. :)
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Crippled, But not for long
I haven't posted in awhile as I have been super busy at work and at the house. However, as you can see that I have submitted a post, all things have calmed down around the house. As for work, well work is never going to change. Things like that happen when you have a development group with no leadership or involved management.
But I have made good progress in terms of the game once I got all this other real life stuff behind me.
First, I finished out almost the quest lines in the Twilight Highlands. I though it was an interesting zone and quite diverse in the storylines. You enable the Alliance a chance to establish a foothold on the area, work with the Wildhammer Clan wedding, help the Earthen Ring shamans purge the area of some Sarlack type creature (which was cool), assist the Lifebender in fighting DeathWing, and finally help SI:7 in preventing the Twilight guys from attaining some weapon (I haven't finished this one yet, but I intend to). Overall, I did enough quests to finish the requirement for the achievement. The bonuses in doing all these quests was that I was able to upgrade some gear. I picked up the healing mace from the Crucible series, and some healing items from quest rewards. I also went past honored with the Wildhammer Clan which allowed me to upgrade my tanking pants and healing shoulders.
After all that, I went and respecced to resto. The one thing I hated about that was I had to buy 'Dust of Disappearance' in order to redo my glyphs. This is something I am quite nervous about because I pride myself on doing a good job and I would hate to screw things up for anyone (especially my guildmates). One of the things that doesn't help in all this is that I have been reading resto/healing blogs and all the horrors that the game's best are getting from PuGs and an unforgiving player base. Is that something I want to deal with after dealing with people like that at work all day? It really makes me scratch my head. I'm sure of my abilities to heal and tank, but I would prefer to do that with my guildmates.
Which brings me to point of my title, Crippled. Currently our band of Heroes Inc is stuck in a hiatus. We had some people not make the move over to the new server with us and now the expansion has eliminated some others. Currently we lack the bodies to man but 6 people for a raid and none of them are geared healers. I guess you could say Cataclysm has crippled us to point. But we're resilient and I think once we get myself and another healer up to speed on gear, we can pug the rest of the slots. And that's how I think we'll fill the rest of our guild.
But I have made good progress in terms of the game once I got all this other real life stuff behind me.
First, I finished out almost the quest lines in the Twilight Highlands. I though it was an interesting zone and quite diverse in the storylines. You enable the Alliance a chance to establish a foothold on the area, work with the Wildhammer Clan wedding, help the Earthen Ring shamans purge the area of some Sarlack type creature (which was cool), assist the Lifebender in fighting DeathWing, and finally help SI:7 in preventing the Twilight guys from attaining some weapon (I haven't finished this one yet, but I intend to). Overall, I did enough quests to finish the requirement for the achievement. The bonuses in doing all these quests was that I was able to upgrade some gear. I picked up the healing mace from the Crucible series, and some healing items from quest rewards. I also went past honored with the Wildhammer Clan which allowed me to upgrade my tanking pants and healing shoulders.
After all that, I went and respecced to resto. The one thing I hated about that was I had to buy 'Dust of Disappearance' in order to redo my glyphs. This is something I am quite nervous about because I pride myself on doing a good job and I would hate to screw things up for anyone (especially my guildmates). One of the things that doesn't help in all this is that I have been reading resto/healing blogs and all the horrors that the game's best are getting from PuGs and an unforgiving player base. Is that something I want to deal with after dealing with people like that at work all day? It really makes me scratch my head. I'm sure of my abilities to heal and tank, but I would prefer to do that with my guildmates.
Which brings me to point of my title, Crippled. Currently our band of Heroes Inc is stuck in a hiatus. We had some people not make the move over to the new server with us and now the expansion has eliminated some others. Currently we lack the bodies to man but 6 people for a raid and none of them are geared healers. I guess you could say Cataclysm has crippled us to point. But we're resilient and I think once we get myself and another healer up to speed on gear, we can pug the rest of the slots. And that's how I think we'll fill the rest of our guild.
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