Weekend Musings

My weekend was full of real life commitments and my husband trying to cook me.

Saturday, we drove to my mother's and helped her move into her new house.  Well, I didn't.  I spent my day taking care of my adorable 9 month old nephew.  I haven't spent any time with a child like that, on my own, since my sisters (24 and 22) were that age.  So it was really exhausting for me.  I got home at like 10pm and was asleep by 11, where I slept in until 10:30am.

Sunday, I got up, checked to see if Mog Madness results were up, ate breakfast and went into the backyard to start helping build a fence.  I was outside until 4:30pm.  And dear lord, I look like a lobster.  (I live in Oregon, I'm not used to sunshine!)

We logged on for raid but didn't have the people, so we ran dungeons to get our weekly 7 and then people split up.  Husband went to play tennis (at 7pm, because he's insane) and I stayed home, watched Scrubs and leveled my hunter to level 60!  Goal 1 complete!

The results for Mog Madness popped up around raid time, and that was exciting to see.  I got 5th place, but 5th out of 26(?) is pretty awesome!  So yay me!

I then went to bed.  Where my sunburned brain caused me to have dreams that my husband had impregnated his ex-girlfriend and didn't tell me.  I may have yelled at him when I woke up this morning.  I'm still a little mad.  And I don't understand why!!  I should be mad at me!  Stupid brain.

So, to work.  Away ..... !

Mog Madnes - The Final Round

As I said before, I made it to round 5.  Yay!  Our assignment this time was to make an 'anti-paladin'.  Honestly, I'm not sure what that means.  Is it a death knight?  That's about as anti-paladin as I can think.  Anyway.  we were supposed to come up with an anti-paladin for one of the Old Gods, either C'thun or Yogg-Saron.  This is what I came up with.

This is Ezili.  She's my brand new death knight that I made just for this round.  However, she's a troll like my other death knight.  I guess I don't like trolls.  I don't know why actually.  I love having them around, I just don't want to be one!  

Anyway. She hears voices.  At first, it was the Lich Kings voice and now, she is drawn to Silithus, where deep in Ahn'Qiraj, C'thun awaits her.

She attends her new lord and master in the finest she has:

On her head she wears the Crown of Anasterian, which drops off Kil'jaeden in Sunwell Plataeu.

On her shoulders, she sports Brackenshell Shoulderplates, which drop off Morchok in the Dragon Soul.

Her back is the Cape of the Brotherhood, which she reclaimed from "Captain" Cookie in the low level Deadmines.

Her chestpiece is the Gendarme's Cuirass that Lord Marrowgar drops in Icecrown Citadel 25 Heroic.

Her gloves are the Gauntlets of the Wretched from General Vezax in Ulduar 10 man.

Her belt is the Runescriven Demon Collar from Hagara the Stormbinder in Dragon Soul Heroic.

Her pants are the Mightstone Legplates which is from a quest in Borean Tundra.

Her boots are the Veteran's Plate Greaves, which you can buy from a vendor on Isle of Quel'Danas.

And lastly, her weapon is Kalimdor's Revenge, which was bestowed upon her by Emperor Vek'nilash in Ahn'Qiraj.

Her weapon sports the eye of her God, showing him everything she fights.  

"Your heart will explode."  ~ C'thun

Holy Crap! Yay and What if ....

So, somehow I have made it into the last round of Mog Madness.  This has been so much fun, I'm very sad that it's almost over.  I'm working on something but I can't talk about it, of course.  So you'll see when I do!

In other news, I managed to gain quite a few levels this past week.  I got my blood elf warrior to 65 via a combo of leveling and having my husband take me through instances.  I'm too shy to do things on my own and my guildies with toons my level have been on vacation for the past week.  I also managed to get my undead hunter to level 53 and a half (as of this writing).  And lastly, I got my goblin warlock to level 13 so she can get matched up with the husband's new undead priest.

That puts my total levels up to 1955, so I'm almost there!  Only 57 more to go!

And that brings me to what I wanted to write about today.  I'm sure some of you have seen that Amateur Azerothian is quitting the game.  And I want to point out that I truly, truly am 100% behind his reason(s).  Now, before I say anything further, I want to say a couple of things.  What follows is MY story.  It's MY plan for MY life.  This is not me saying ANYTHING about what you should or should not do.

I am the granddaughter of alcoholics.  (Stay with me here, it goes somewhere.)  My mother and father, seeing in themselves the potential to become alcoholics themselves, did not drink AT ALL while I was a young child.  It was only until I was 13 that I ever saw a glass of wine in my father's hand.  It was only after I moved out, that I ever saw my mother with a glass of wine in HER hand.  They had decided, before they had children, that in order to raise my siblings and I the best way they knew how, no alcohol would be allowed in the house and they would only drink a little on their date nights.

My parents (being my parents) seemed to me to be normal.  I know now that what I experienced in my early years was not normal.  My grandparents, well, I thought that everyone had grandparents who started drinking at 8am and passed out after dinner.  As I grew, I found myself having issues similar to my grandparents, except not with alcohol, with other things.

When I met my husband, he ran a BBS.  He taught me to type on the computer, he taught me to 'surf' the BBS's, he gave me my own forum (called the Peanut Gallery since he had nicknamed me Peanut).  I was hooked.  When we moved out, we got DSL.  Which back in the late 1990's was impressive.  A 'fat pipe to the net' is what I believe he called it once.

I met this guy through work (I worked a computer repair shop) who got me and my husband into a MUD called Xyllomer.  (This guy became, and is still, one of my best friends.)  I got into IRC and ICQ.  I would wake up first thing in the morning to see who was online in the MUD/IRC/ICQ.  I was constantly chatting with people.  There are pictures of me at family gatherings scowling because OMG THIS IS MY COMPUTER TIME JUST LET ME LEAVE!!

Then WoW came out.  I started to play and it was very apparent to me that this game is my alcohol.  I can not put it down.  I think about it all the time, I talk about it all the time EVEN TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T PLAY!!!!  I didn't realize how bad it got until my husband started to play.  I realized then that if he and I ever were to have children, WoW would have to go away.  Note, I did not say video gaming, I said WoW.  And honestly probably any other MMO.

I am happy here and at the moment, I am not hurting anyone (other then myself), neglecting anyone (other then my husband), or whatnot.  However, I know myself and I know how people with this disease (for I believe just like alcoholism, gambling addiction, drug addiction and eating disorders, this is a disease) lie to themselves that you can do it just a little.  No one will notice.  (To have full disclaimer, I am in a 12 step program myself.  However, I won't tell you which one.  But it is helping me.)

However, as I said in a comment to Mr. Amateur, the husband and I have always agreed that if I got pregnant, we would stop playing.  All for the above reasons I've mentioned.  I remember being snapped at by my drunken Grandmother, I don't want to be the mother that snaps at you while she's raiding/leveling/farming or the mother whose face you only see when she turns around to scowl at you because ZOMG you are disturbing her raiding.

Now, this being said, I have played in the past and currently play with parents whose first duties have always been to their children.  I know that I have never, in the past 7 years ever thought to myself "Geez, where are those kids and who is taking care of them?"  This is not about that.  We've all seen the bloggers retiring from WoW because they are having children or their children are growing up.  That is not about that either.

At this point in my life, I am looking at a life of no children (seriously, who would want to pass on my genetic code?).  So this is a moot point.  But, I love children (not for lunch/dinner) and I like to day dream sometimes.  "What if ...."  I don't play it alot anymore since the outlook is pretty bleak for that.

Now, if you are a parent who plays WoW or any other MMO, I am NOT calling you neglectful or lazy or stupid or whatever you think I'm saying.  I honestly don't even have an opinion on what the average parent does with their spare time.  I know that being a parent is a really hard job and I want to thank you for taking it on.  Earthmother knows I can't do it right now!  This is just what I would do, as I know myself.

So, thank you for reading.  And have a good night.

Round 4 - The Trophy Tabard of the Illidari

The judges threw us all for a loop this time, requiring that we transmog was is probably the ugliest thing in the game.  (This is not to say I don't have one, I do, on my main.)  However, I wanted to do a transmog for my warrior, so here is what I came up with!

As this is a tabard from the Illidari, I thought it would be fitting if I made this a more 'demon' transmog.  Hence the glowing green and demon helm.  What I used was:

Helm - Warhelm of the Champion - This is a drop from Thorim in Ulduar 25.
Shoulders - Brutal Gladiator's Plate Shoulders (Warrior) from level 70 PVP.  (My blood elf is a warrior.)
Cloak - Shroud of the Highborne from Illidan in Black Temple.
Chest - Doomplate Chestguard from Harbringer Skyriss in The Arcatraz either normal or heroic.
Gloves - Refitted Bruiser Gauntlets which from a quest in Dustwallow Marsh.
Belt - Joseph's Spare Belt which is from a quest in the Eastern Plaguelands.
Legs - Augustus' Legguards which is also from a quest in Eastern Plaguelands.
Boots - Vicious Gladiator's Warboots of Cruelty which are level 85 PVP boots for plate classes.
Weapon - Torn-Heart Axe of Battle which is a quest reward from a quest in Shadowmoon Valley.

Update on 2012 in 2012 and 10 to 85

I've actually had a chance to play my alts a bit this week as I'm not spending massive amounts of time farming for mogging gear.  (My warrior isn't 85 yet to get the gear I want for her.)  So, I have a few updates for you guys.

I went from level 55 to level 60 on my warrior last night.  She's now in Outlands and ready to rock the clown outfits for the next 8 levels.  Woot woot.  I also managed to get my hunter from level 35 to level 37.  I'm gonna convince the husband to pick up a new toon to level with my warlock, as she's only level 6 right now.

This got my level number to 1921, so only 91 levels left!!  WOO!

On my 10 to 85 goal, I have the following left to do:

60 Warrior, want to get to 70 by end of the month.
37 Hunter, want to get to 60 by the end of the month.
6 Warlock, need to convince husband to play with and then to 20 by end of the month.
84 Death Knight, will get her last level over my vacation in May.

If I make those goals, I'll be almost halfway to my last 91 levels.  I'm thinking I'd like to add another goal, at least 1 Alliance 85 (highest toon is 75 or 76).  However, being realistic, I will then have 10 toons to get to level 90 as well as monk to level.

I wish that Blizzard would put out the launch date for Pandas so I can request time off.  ARGH!!

Onto Round 4 and another heroic kill ...

The results for Mog Madness round 3 went up late on Saturday night and JD let me know before he went to bed that the post should be up within an hour.  (Helps to have one of the organizers in your guild!!)  So I opened up his blog and kept F5-ing it until the desired post popped up.  (His son is adorable and I stared at him for like an hour that night.)

There was some fierce competition and I am honored to say I got 2nd place in this round!  Yay!  For this next round we have to use the Tabard of the Illidari (either green or purple) to put something together.  (Ugliest tabard EVER!)  I have a outfit mostly put together for the purple one.  I'm gonna see if I can put together one for the green one and see how it looks and then decide between those two.

During all this planning and thinking, we downed some bosses in Dragon Soul on Saturday evening.  We did our usual heroic Morchok, then moved onto regular Warlord (since heroic makes me want to weep) and THEN did heroic Yor'sahj.  It was one of those times that we were like "Hey, let's make a few shots at this and then we can just move on and head to Firelands."  I think we did 3 or 4 attempts before it just jelled and bam, first kill.  So now we're 3/8 in Heroic DS!

We did the first 4 bosses in DS on Saturday and then moved to Firelands.  We were helping our resto shaman to get the first part of the staff done, the part where you drop all those things under the bosses feet or whatnot.  So we did that and then helped him get the first part of the staff.  After we did that, we cleared a ton of trash and did Shannox's achievement, Bucket List.  This leaves us with 3 achievements to go for our pretty birdy from Firelands, 2 heroic kills that I know we'll get and Alysrazor's stupid achievement.

Other then that, I didn't log into the beta all weekend, though my husband did.  I worked on my blood elf warrior for a bit, did some actual real life house things (like helped put up a fence in the back yard) and made a ton of food for Easter/my mother in law's birthday lunch.  And while this isn't WoW related, I love to cook so here are the recipes I used for the things I made:

Gluten Free Angel Food Cake (was amazing and everyone loved it and what it was made into)
Strawberry Lemon Trifle (took angel food cake and I can't have gluten so I had to make it myself)
Avocado Deviled Eggs (everyone loved these but I hate hard boiled eggs and I'm never making these again!)
Baked Spasanga (this was AMAZING and everyone ate mostly this instead of the 'normal' food.  I made it with corn noodles so it would be gluten free.  In a HUGE dish, I only had 3 servings left over.  Every single person had some.  So 7 adults and 2 small children (2 and 4).)

So yeah.  I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I know I did.  I also got to play my warrior for a bit and she did her 1st dungeon with guildies and also got to level 55!!  Woo!!!

Shared Topic April 2nd-7th: Who are you?

Whilst watching lord of the rings...again... I got to wondering who I was most like/would be like and who my friends would be.
I decided my hubby would someone like Aragon or faramir - honorable, sincere and all round nice guy. This of course always leads me to think about wow and who would be if I could be and I wondered what everyone thought?
Are you more like Thrall or Jaina? Would you wish to be like Lady Vash'j?

Okay.  This is going to be a little exposing for me.  Because I'm going to write about my truest deepest desires for this Shared Topic and this is not something I believe I broadcast out to people.  I'm sure that most people who have spent any time reading this blog or knowing me for a long time in game might have figured this out,  but I'm not 100% sure.

If I could choose to be anyone, I would choose to be two people.  One would be a nurturing, loving, caring motherly person.  What I would imagine Tiffin Wrynn to be actually.  A sweet, caring, loving person who ultimately dies a tragic, completely avoidable death.  The second would be someone unhinged, insane, basically a sociopath.  So, Sylvanas Windrunner.  This is because I've always felt myself to have two sides.  Even before my bipolar was diagnosed.  I was very interested in Kwan Yin (Buddhist goddess of compassion) and Kali Ma from Hinduism in her Destroyer aspect.  I actually have statues of both of them all over my home.  I have the loving, caring, wants everyone to be okay and healthy side, then I have the nuke them all from orbit and let the Universe sort them out side.

If I had to be 1 entity, it would be the Reliquary of Souls.  This creature has 3 faces, one for suffering, one for pain and one for desire.  Most days, it seems those are the only pieces of me I have.  I desire time with friends and family, touch, kind words and looks.  I have mental suffering that I can't put aside, and as I go through more real life things, the suffering gets worse.  And there is the pain of the past and again, more real life.  And like the Reliquary of Souls, when you kill me, I drop no good loot.  (The good loot doesn't exist!!)  (Also, life is pain Highness, anyone who tells you differently is selling something.)

So there we go.  I like to pretend that I have a good outlook on life.  I don't.  All I see are shades of suffering, pain and desire.  I'm fascinated with death, have been since I was a teenager.  In college, I took death and dying classes so I could learn to understand the grieving process.  This has colored my outlook in ways I can't explain.

So, come to Black Temple.  Bring some buddies.  I'm waiting.

Picture from WoWWiki.

Mog Madness - Mail - Round 3

Yay, it's Round 3!  The goal was to use the Wavemender's Mantle.  Which according to my best friend, who has longed for those shoulders since BC, they don't exist.  But still, I made a valiant effort to get it to drop off my least favorite boss in Black Temple.  (AKA, I ran it on Monday night and I ran it tonight.)  It never dropped, so you get a screenshot series from MogIt.

My story for this transmog is that my shaman heard that Hagara went from being a shaman to being a mage.  So, she found her best lightening colored outfit, threw some water accents on and went in for training.  She couldn't pass the initial tests, as she's not a mindless Twilight Cultist.

So, here we have Kaiakalama, formerly Rokaria.

For her head - I used Techie's Hard Hat which I'm actually using right now as a head piece since I haven't played her since she dinged 85.  This is a quest reward from Twilight Highlands.
For her shoulders - We have the required the Wavemender's Mantle.  This in Black Temple of the Reliquary of Souls.
Her back is the Cloak of Malice, which is a drop off Grand Warlock Nethekurse in Shattered Halls, normal.
Her chest piece is the Sundown Vest, which is a BOE green that drops off low level 80's mobs.
Hands are the Gutrip Gauntlets, these are a quest reward from Mount Hyjal.
The leggings are the Electrified Leggings which is a quest reward from a quest in Zul'Farrak.
Her boots are the Sabatons of the Graceful Spirit, which are the BOE epic, Dragon Soul, quality boots.
I used the Vicious Charscale Belt, which is a BOE that you can get made by a leatherworker.  It's a Cata recipe.
Her weapon is the Vicious Gladiator's Gavel, which is the PVP season 9 mace.
And finally, her shield is Tharon'ja's Aegis, which drops off the Prophet Tharon'ja in Drak'Tharon Keep.

I do want this transmog for my shaman now.  Must be all awesome!! :D

Passed on to Round 3, New Heroic Boss and a Shaman

I found out Sunday morning that I've been passed onto round 3 in Mog Madness.  Woo!  This time it was Towa, my fellow resto druid healer in my guild that told me.  Except I'd already looked at the webpage before I logged on!  HAHA!  I remembered this week!!

So, since there wasn't anything up for the round 3 transmog requirements, I did a few HoT runs on my mage and bitched to my husband that I can't downgrade valor points to justice points.  (This has been an ongoing thorn in my side for about a week now.)  Then the round 3 requirements came out and ugh, they required a shaman.  Towa offered her shaman for me to transmog but that would be hard since she's about 3 hours before me so we can't really do anything together.  I have my 85 shaman back on my old server and a new baby shaman here, so I was torn.

I love actually gathering the gear so I can pose and have companion pets and all that.  Plus put myself in a location that fits the outfit.  So I was talking to the husband about this, as well as my guild, and husband says "Why don't you just transfer her over?"  I blinked a couple of times because this didn't even occur to me.  I was thinking that I'd have to go back to my old server where I don't have any monetary resources and would have to beg, borrow or steal to get what I need.  And while I know my best friends would assist, I don't want to impose on them.

So, Rokaria on Madoran is now Kaiakalama on Blade's Edge.  A very poorly geared elemental shaman.  However, I did use up those extra valor points on bracers and boots for her!  Woo!

And, I'll have you know that I already have all but 2 pieces for my transmog.  I hope I'm unique!!  Those shoulders are going to be the death of me!

In raiding news, Myth downed Heroic Ultraxion last night on our 'last attempt'.  Woo!  Yay us!  I was so proud of us.  It felt so good.  And then, when Madness of Deathwing died, a Maw dropped and BAM!  Karegina is now the proud owner of a Maw!  That made me really happy as well.

I've had this post sitting in my edit pile since the 2nd, so I suppose I should just publish it before it's out of date.  My paying job is insane and I'm finishing this up on my 30 minute lunch break.  Man.  I need a vacation!!