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 ..... !

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.

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!!

Many things, left side, handle it!

I have so many things that I've been doing these last few weeks.  My last post was 2 Mondays ago and life has been rather hectic since then.  The only reason I have time at the moment is that I broke the copy machine at the office and can't do my projects without it!

I am still working on my 2012 in 2012.  I feel a little bit screwed out of time by my husband however.  He keeps sending me stacks and stacks of ore to 1. prospect and 2. use the green quality gems to make jewelry to then disenchant.  (This morning, I had a whole page of mails to do this with.)

However, over the last few nights I've been able to get my baby undead hunter to level 35 and my blood elf warrior to 48.  I also started a new blood elf rogue who is currently level 8 and I had to delete my level 6 orc mage on Blade's Edge because I transferred my 85 to the server.  So what that means is that I'm currently at 1907 levels of my 2012.  I'm 94.78% done.  But I had a huge head start.  Sorry guys!  I think I might be playing the longest of all of you so it's probably only fair that I have that many more levels!!

On my other leveling goal, I have 4 more alts to get to 85.  And I really don't want to reroll a DK on my new server since I'm 1 level away on my old one.  But I'm not sure how I'm gonna get that last level.  It's rather frustrating.  I suppose one night I should just man up, grab the husband and go level.  And then DING and then done.

In other news, in Deathwing's Jaw last week, we found a baby drake.  The Reins of the Blazing Drake dropped and everyone went OMGWTFBBQ.  (Also a Maw dropped!! YAY!  Towa, the other healing druid got it!)  Anyway, our little goblin rogue won the drake and then I took some screenshots of him in Org later.  I'll post them when I have a chance.  Maybe tonight.

And in Heroics, we are down two 3 heroics in Firelands, Baleroc, Alysrazor and of course, Rags.  And for our achievement drakes, we're down to 3 achievements, the Alysrazor one, the Shannox one and the one for kneeling.  (I don't even try for that one. I just stand back.)  So yeah.  I leave tomorrow morning for the weekend and I won't be back until Sunday just before raid so I won't get any of the fun of those this week!

So, yay. Thursday updates!  Woo!

On fuzzy animals or alts.

I have been dreadfully neglecting my 2012 in 2012 progression.  I have this thought in my head that 'I'm really far along, I can pick it up whenever'.  Which is the first failure.  Then, when I start working on an alt, I end up getting distracted by something and end up logging back onto either my druid or my mage to make a new transmog outfit.  (Which, btw, I got my fire crown for my mage last night!)  That is the second failure.  And finally, I will set myself a 'goal' that I don't need to really meet and then bust my ass for 3 days to do it.  This is the third failure.

However, I do have some questions for readers.  Since bringing my mage over to Blade's Edge, I have had the opportunity to run her through heroics and pick up gear.  I'm apparently 1 point away from running LFR (which is something people keep pointing out) but 3 of my pieces are spirit pieces (I've reforged them to hit and I had 318 greens in those spots before) and 2 are blues.  I want to improve my mage-ry but I'm pretty mage stupid these days (despite playing a mage as my main for most of 2 expansions).  Anna is a fire mage now (she's always been frost before) and I need to L2FireMage.

So, if someone could give me some good mage resources (that aren't elitist jerks) that would be great.

I'm working on getting exalted with Therazane on her currently.  I hadn't even finished the zone before I moved her over here.  And I haven't done her dailies this week because I've been so busy farming herbs.  (3 days of herb farming!  Woot!)  I'll get them done tonight and see if I can get a dungeon run on her too.

I also need to update my blog.  And separate things into old server and new server.  Maybe I'll do that today.  (Work is practically dead today so I'm taking it easy.)  I also have a transmog set to post for my mage.  But I need to get more of the items before I feel I can post it.  So I'll work on that this weekend!!

Yay! Friday!  Freaking finally!  It's weeks like this that I wish I could drink.

The First Raid (tm)

Last night was husband's and my first raid with our new guild.  It went really well.  However, I kept asking husband if he wanted me to battle ress someone and he kept telling that he's not raid leader.  Took me a couple of those before I stopped asking.  Old habits and all.  We got a couple achievements on the first two bosses.  (Don't Stand So Close to Me and Taste the Rainbow).  3 of us got Taste the Rainbow since we already had the 'hard' one (IE Yellow/Purple).  It was awesome.

The raid leader/guild leader kept swapping people and out for each fight depending on who needed what of that boss.  I think the only people who didn't get sat was myself and husband.  It was alot of fun.  We tried for a couple more achievements but if we didn't get them within 2-4 shots, we moved on.  We made it through Spine and it was fun.  Spine was stressful for me since I had only seen it once but not downed it (no, not even on LFR).  But we one shot it and moved onto Madness.  Which is a messed up fight so far.  I'll get more exposure to it and figure it out though!!

I went in there with 4 piece tier 12, and was given my tier gloves and tier leggings.  So now I'm 2 piece tier 13 and 2 piece tier 12.  Woot!  After raid, the guild leader had his officers make husband and I the crafted bracers (which are pretty much BIS for both of us I think).  So yay!

Honestly, I love my purples and I love upgrades but it was so nice to see new fights.  Everyone was nice and  business-like but also silly too.  But not to the distraction of the raid.  It was interesting to me.  I haven't raided as 'just a healer' or 'just a tank' since Kara days.  Rather refreshing.

I also found an Alliance lantern (the Lunar Lantern) on the neutral AH for 4000 gold bid, 5500 buyout.  I threw a bid on there and 2 days later it arrived in my mail box.  Yay!  Pretty happy about that!  I do miss my horde of miners, herbalists, skinners and all the crafters I had painstakenly leveled up.  (My warrior is a miner/skinner but I'm probably going to drop the skinning for something else. Maybe inscription!!)

For my 2012 in 2012, since I moved to a new server, I have the following things that I'm doing.

I have a new undead hunter (level 11), a new blood elf warrior (level 24), and a orc mage (level 8).  I actually have a ton of level 1's around too but I'm not going to count them.  My Alliance shaman got to level 63 recently. So, that puts my total up to 1861 levels.  And since I'm 'rerolling' on a new server, I've remade a hunter and warrior.  I also have a goblin warlock but I've not started leveling her yet.  This will get me 3 of the my last classes for my 10 to 85.  (My death knight is 1 level away, I'm going to go back to my old server and get her that last level.)

And lastly, @SerenitySaz has put together a Twitter based RealId using old raid running forum for people.  And @vitaemachina has put up a public Mumble server for people to use while running things.  I haven't signed up yet myself (because I'm amazingly shy about things like this) but it's an interesting concept!  Do it!!

Oh. Damnit, I just remembered.  I am working on a rogue transmog set for my old rogue guildie that I have mentioned before.  She's undead and I've got the basics together.  I just need to crank it out!!!

Elders and Leveling

Today, the husband and I are working on getting our Elders on two of our other characters.  While I'm not 100% sure of his motivation, my motivation is the lantern pet for my main.  We just finished up Kalimdor and the related Cata/dungeon elders, so we started working on Eastern Kingdom.  We started in Booty Bay and headed north.

Now, despite my 'Xtreme Leveling', I don't do a lot of leveling via RDF.  However, I did a lot of dungeon running back in the day when you had to find a group on your server and walk there.  (Because no one had mounts!)  So, when I got to the Sunken Temple elder, boy was I surprised!!  The instance portal is like RIGHT THERE!  And there is no 'Which way do we go first'!!  It's just there!  I was very surprised with those changes.

In other news, I still have some sort of plague.  It hasn't spread to the husband (yet) but it totally snuck up on me!  One of the things it's done is turned my sense of direction off.  I'm totally running into walls, mountains and shit.  More then usual!

Also, in guild searching news, it appears that the husband and I have found a new home.  We've been speaking to a specific guild since Friday and I'm very excited about it.  He seems to be excited too, but you never can tell with husband.  We're making plans to take our heirlooms when we transfer so we can level up new characters.  We don't have the money to transfer all our toons.  (That's $250 just for my 85s/almost 85s!)  I'll probably transfer my priest in a few months.  She has some things on her that I don't want to give up!

Seeing people leaving and going about their business else where is hard.  Even knowing that I'm doing the same is hard.  I'm not good at saying good bye to things.  However, I am not completely leaving.  Madoran has been my home for over 5 years now.  However, there is always RealId.  So at least I can keep in touch with my friends that way!  Of course, those people who don't use it, well that will be sad.  I'll miss my little rogue friend.  She is amazing and I love her.  Been playing with her for years now!

While I was writing this post, my shaman got her Elders title.  Only 6 more world events to go until she gets her drake.  Hehehe!  (This will never happen, I hate Children's Week too much!!)

I've been trying to find an ending for this post for two days.  So I'll just leave it with this: tomorrow I'll have an update on my 2012 in 2012.  With one thing and another, I haven't been able to go look at all my characters, nor add my new characters to my list.  (This is because of our server search, we have a couple different toons on a few other servers now.)  So look for that!