New Name, New Domain, Same Blogger

Good morning!

I have made a change.  I am dropping the Reluctant off myself and being reborn (in flames?) as Ysera's Daughter.  (So maybe the opposite of Alysrazor.)  You can now find me and all my randomness over at yserasdaughter.com.  Thank you so much!

Karegina

Also, I've turned off all comments since you should now be commenting at my new blog!

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.