I've discovered that the guys in the guild I'm part of are very willing to help out. I don't always ask for help, but when I do they jump at the chance to help me. A couple of them are always buying my gifts too, which is sweet. I tried to buy a Frost Saber last night for one of the guys and we didn't realise it was BOP (Bind On Pickup) and so then I couldn't trade it to him because it was soulbound to me. So that was 8 gold down the drain. Now I have two saber mounts, and I feel guilty using the Frost Saber. 

Because I hit Level 30, it enabled me to learn mount riding and the opportunity to buy a mount. So my personal mount is a Night Saber, and I want a Black Stallion...but I have to be Exalted with Stormwind because I can buy one. 

I have a challenge for you! Look at the photos above, and give my Night Saber a name! :)

I may end up taking it back and getting it exchanged for a few cheaper items. I've never felt guilty for spending my hard earned money on books, but I am starting to feel a little stupid for spending $25 on ONE book. I'll let Nick look at it a little later, and if he likes it and feels he can use it then we'll keep it. If not, then it's back to Borders you go! :p 

I also got a new pair of shoes yesterday, which I was desperately in need of. I needed to replace my canvas slip ons so I found a really awesome Airwalk pair that I found at Payless (hey, don't knock it till you try it!) I live for Payless Shoes...they have some really awesome stuff that doesn't break my budget.

I want to replace my black leather ballet flats next and they had some really awesome pairs...but I REFUSE to buy American Eagle shoes. I made a pact with myself that I would never give any of my money to richie-rich, preppy kid companies like AE or Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister. Those places just make my skin crawl and they're so pretentious. So even though I liked the shoes, I have my principles. I'll check out what they have at Target...I might find something I like there ;)

And last but definetely not least, I now have a photo gallery with a few photos of myself and Abby. Feel free to peruse at your own time ;) It's the second page which is called 'Blurred Negatives' :D

Tempest Keep: The Eye - Não mais crasha o server;

NPC Dunemaul Enforcer - Não mais crasha o server;

Novo sistema de instances - O sistema de instances está bem próximo da blizzard, para não dizer que está igualzinho, agora você fica preso em uma instance e não pode entrar em outros grupos para a mesma instance, não pude testar direito, pois não tinha outros GMs on, então vamos ver no que da quando vocês usarem;

Problema:

Arena - Parou de funcionar até solucionarem um problema referente ao novo sistema de instancias, acredito que não demore e até amanhã já tenham algo funcionando.

Sei que é chato, espero que entendam que mesmo com esse problema, precisamos mudar, alem do que, é temporário.

Bom jogo a todos

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The Palmer's Request:
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Administer the natives philanthropy us replacing what we are and not what we give the ax kick in their sound tissue.

Devote us the haleness up frequent museums, the cathedrals, the palaces, and if, conceivably, we jump bail an historic skyscraper up to dupe a let up backward tea, hug good offices over against us on behalf of our genus Homo is haggard.

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And upon which the reconnoiter is topping, expect us the liberty referring to unspinning personage who choose to gaze at our proprietary hospital movies and hear out in consideration of our stories, considerably our lives being tourists selection not cling to been inwardly self-sufficient.

This we charge for relative to them in favor the somebody apropos of Conrad Hilton, Thomas Smother, and the American Direct-mail selling, To be sure.

Iconography Buchwald blogs?

Of course huntrs are funr. We have bows! Crossbows! Guns! Who doesn't like any of those things?

I guess this is a sign that, even though I've been online for around ten years now, I will never understand internet slang.

Check out the changes

Holy

• *The amount of health point healed by Holy Shock has been increased by 66%. (eg. Rank 7 now heals for 2401-2599 instead of 1431-1549)
• *Infusion of Light now reduces the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 1.3/2.5 secs instead of 1.25/2.5 secs.

Protection

• *Holy Shield will now give you 6 charges instead of 4.
• *Avenger's Shield mana cost reduced by 70%, damage has been reduced. (eg. Rank 3 now deals 494-602 damage for 780 mana instead of 705-861 for 1745 mana)
• *Guarded by the Light now reduces the mana cost of your Consecration, Holy Wrath and Avenger's Shield by 15/30% (Old version : Whenever your parry or dodge an attack you have a 10% chance to reduce the mana cost of your next Consecration, Holy Wrath, or Avenger's Shield spell by 25%/50%)

Retribution

• *Improved Blessing of Might now increases the attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 10/20/30/40/50% instead of 4/8/12/16/20%
• *Vindication now has a chance to reduce the target's attributes by 10/20% for 15 seconds. (Old version : 5/10% reduction)
• *Pursuit of Justice is now a 2 rank talents (was 3), reducing the change to be hit by spells by 1/2% and mounted movement speed by 9/15% (Old version : 1/2/3% hit and 5/10/15% mounted speed)
• *Repentance now costs 395 mana instead of 9% of base mana.

Source

If you haven't noticed, I haven't posted anything on the blog lately. With the sudden surge of WotLK data, you'd think I'd be posting my opinions left and right. Unfortunately, I have some bad news (and some good news):

The Bad News: I'm actually attending my senior year in college at the moment (I attend a year-round college) and my current class is the most difficult class of my entire program. I need to shift a lot of my attention off of WoW and into this class. In fact, the whole project the class is working on together is a week behind (which is definitely not good). I've also prioritized my finances and WoW is (unfortunately) at the bottom of the list.

I'm not saying these two factors are the major reason why I cancelled my subscription. Just as the pass expansion, WoW becomes a bit boring. Aidem is a freash level 70 with only three epics and all the rest greens with a few blues. To spend time farming battlegrounds or the arena is not worth it at the moment. This leads me into the good news.

The Good News: There's a fairly good chance that I'll be renewing my subscription when Wrath of the Lich King comes out. I'm very excited for the expansion.

Before I head out, I would like to give my final thoughts about the expansion:

• Death of Rare Pets - As much as I'm happy that the leveling of lowbie pets have been fixed, I'm a bit disappointed also. The main reason why I love Stra, my awesome crab, is because not too many hunters put the time and effort to level a crab to level 70. Now with a swing of a wand, any pet will only trail 5 levels behind the master. With each family with a unique ability, the rarity of pets will thin out. I'm not 100% if crabs will be a popular pet, but I know a little part of me will die whenever I see another hunter with a level 70/80 pet crab.
• Pet Talents - I'm excited! I was actually hoping to have access to all three talents as we do. I was a bit disappointed that Stra will only have access to one. I've messed around with the pet talent calculators but I haven't decided anything officially until we get near live.
• Exotic Pets - If anything looks or relates to crabs, I'm on it. I wouldn't mind a dragon pet but that's pushing it. My guess is they will open a few current untamable to BM hunters.
• Greens > Epics - Overall, I'd rather want to keep my current greens than get decked out in epics for WotLK. If I enter Northrend decked out with epics, they won't be replaced until around level 75. The part of experiencing new content is experiencing the new quest rewards and gear. I want my gear to be replaced right at level 70. That's just me though.

Mittlerweile ist mein kleiner Todesritter dann auch in der Scherbenwelt angekommen. Questen und Leveln geht in der Tat ziemlich zügig und das wird wohl auch so bleiben, weil ja auch die Levelkurve von 60-70 erleichtert wurde. Vanitas hat mittlerweile eine Blut/Unheilig Skillung, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Unheilig-Baum liegt. Manche Spieler skillen lieber Blut zum Leveln aus, weil es dort mehr direkte Damagetalente gibt, aber mir persönlich gefällt die DoT-Komponente einfach besser. Zudem lauf ich mittlwerweile mit nem halben Streichelzoo in der Gegend rum: Mein kleiner Ghoul dackelt mir in der Regel brav hinterher und wenn mir grad danach ist, lass ich den Gegner von einem Gargoyle bombadieren. Da der Totesritter relativ viele Talente besitzt, die Leben regenerieren, kann man ziemlich zügig durchleveln und muss nicht ständig Verbände nutzen oder was essen. Die Gegner in der Höllenfeuerhalbinsel stellen in der Regel kein ernsthaftes Problem dar und den Todesgriff will man sehr schnell nicht mehr missen. Es erfüllt einen schon mit einer gewissen Genugtuung, wenn man nervige Caster einfach ranpullen kann - lustigerweise auch noch im Laufen. Jetzt muss Vanitas erstmal 60 werden, dann gibts auch Tod und Verderbnis als Zauber. Juchu!

Micah and I went to a comic book store and he came back with a grade total of four comics. He bought two Battlestar Galactica comics, one Doctor Who comic, and one World of Warcraft comic. We went in to get Batman comics... But none were purchased. I bought a book on how to flesh out comic characters.

Question: Who is the bigger nerd; the boy that buys the comics, or the fiance that plans on reading them after?

ETA: Are those the nerdiest tags you have ever seen?

Anyway, I'm excited to see if death knights are as OP as everyone has been telling me they are.  This will be beyond enjoyable.

Anyway, I caved into making a wordpress blog until I can find the right server to host a domain.  Hopefully it will work out like I'd like.  Anyway, it's a pretty boring first post, cause nothing has really happened today.  I'll let you all know once I'm into the beta.

When I was able to sneak a little time here and there, I look back and am surprised that I broke out some of my older games that I never finished.  Sometimes it's true that "everything old is new again", and it was refreshing not to be tempted so bad to purchase yet another game when I have plenty of solid hitters that had been collecting dust.

First up, Metal Gear Acid 2, for my PSP.  It really was shocking that when I booted it up, I noticed my last save game file was just over a year old.  Wow.  A whole year since I played it last, but after a few practice rounds, I jumped right back in and on my way to moving the story along.  Complete turn based, strategy card game I forgot how much I enjoyed.

Over at XBox Live Arcade I downloaded two demo's: Too Human (see earlier post this week on my thoughts) and Go Go Break Steady (music rythym game set in a break dance world).  It's animations were cute and its beats kinda cool, but after playing the demo for a while I won't be unlocking the full game.  I also noticed there has been an expansion released for Puzzle Quest.  I'll end up getting that later as I still have a way to go on the original, not to mention my wife is already addicted to the core game without getting the expansion.

Back over at my Nintendo Wii, I've been unlucky in getting my hands on a Wii Fit.  I have a good line on where to get one....a store of the beaten path that a coworker told me about where he walked in earlier this week and got their last one without even trying.  Anyway they told me to call back Monday, so perhaps if I am extremely lucky I'll have one soon and hopefully trim my figure a bit. (Note to self: I should play both boxing and tennis this weekend as my cardio exercise).

I also broke out Battalion Wars 2 and I really like that game.  I finished about 30% of the game so far, and even on the easy levels, I can't seem to get past a 'C' grade right on the missions right now.  My technique is always great, usually 100% or just under....it's the speed that hampers me.  I can clear a level in five minutes, but apprantley, they would like to see me do it under four which can be a little tough for me.  It reminds me of a real time and vamped up version of Advance Wars.  It's been quite a while since I played this last as well, clearly more than six months, and again I'm really looking forward to playing it this weekend.

Same for WoW.  My alliance Pally is now lvl 66, and I'd like to play a good dungeon this weekend and maybe level up to 67 in preparation for Lich King expansion.  I also played about an hour last Sunday my lvl 46 undead Warlock in Hinterlands.  I like that zone.  One zone I am bored to tears with though is Astranaar.  I have my lvl 30 Shaman and lvl 29 Priest stuck there now, grinding away for money to buy some better item so I can move beyond this infernal place.

Lastly my best news of the week is bittersweet.  I finally completed my first pass through of Mass Effect yesterday which is pretty monumental for me....to complete a single play through...and I loved every minute of the game.  The last boss battle was much easier than I thought it was going to be, but the ending left me a little jaded.  What?  I can't go back and tie up the few loose ends?  Ahh man....  Plus I was so close to lvl 50 and the associated achievement unlock.  I was literally under 200 XP away from lvl 50 and I also never got the 'Paramour' achievement either in which I feel a little cheated on.  Overall a great game, though I'm a little dissapointed with the lack of DLC support that was promised for it.  One 'episode' is a far cry on what was promised.  Now, I may have to replay again on the next diffiuclty level and work on my sniper and shotgun achievements as well since I got assault rifle and pistol completed.

However, Blizzard, in their infinite grace and wisdom, decided when designing Kil'Jaeden they would do something that would throw everybody for a loop and make bringing mages a decent idea!
That's right kids, it's kinda nice having a mage or two on Kil'Jaeden!

Why?  Well, cuz it's the only raid encounter where mages don't actually have to be mages!  They get to be dragons!  They get to flap around, contribute to the raid, and keep all the good dps and healers alive with sparkly shields!  In fact, if you DON'T bring mages, you actually have to waste some of your actual dps to fly around as dragons - and who wants that?

So here's the conclusion - Blizzard doesn't want mages to be left out of seeing Kil'Jaeden, so they came up with a mechanic to give us a raid spot.  Oh and yeah, I guess it's partially because Mages have Blink, which makes them sweet at getting to orbs...but...coincidence.

Thanks Blizz, next maybe you can think of some sweet talents for the xpac!

I cannot say for sure what made me think, possibly for the first time, that I would be more satisfied with a life free from video games. Certainly, I have a few thoughts regarding why I think that, now, and I would like to share them with you.

I have been enthralled by video games since I was a young child. My parents did not allow consoles in the house, probably because my father saw little value in the activity, and my mother possesses, even to this day, an aversion to any electronic device more complicated than a pocket calculator. That’s not to say that my parents are Neo-Luddites or anything – they’re not. They just see computers and such as a tool. By their reasoning, I imagine, it makes as much sense to play with a computer for hours as to play with a screwdriver for hours. Certainly, I have had a different point of view as long as I can remember. Recently, however, I have started to question just how much time and energy it is healthy to invest in this hobby.

As a young person, I think the newness and diversity of the experience of playing video games appealed to me, in particular, partly because it was an uncommon pleasure and partly because my generation was the first to grow up with advanced video games (8-bit and beyond). I knew, even at an early age, that by playing video games I was not just entertaining myself, increasing my hand-eye coordination and learning puzzle-solving skills; I was sharing in the experiences of millions of the other people of my generation.

The sensation of being connected, by shared experience, while still being disconnected in terms of explicit interaction with others was also unique. Nearly everyone of my generation shares the memory of how it felt to stomp on little goombas or throw fireballs at pipe plants. Everyone has felt the disappointment of barely missing the flag outside the castle, or the little joy of the fireworks above it, when you complete a level quickly. Super Mario Bros. for the NES was revolutionary. It appealed to everyone, and it was a gateway to everything else that console had to offer. From the moment you played that game, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Pac-Man or whatever… whatever your first video game experience was… you knew that you were doing something that many, many other people had also done, yet your experience, though shared, was unique. Your successes and accomplishments – minor as they were – were your own.

Multi-player games where players could not just compete against each other but could also cooperate to solve goals that neither could easily accomplish alone expanded the horizon of video games. MMOs and consoles have done this on an amazing scale.

We have achieved much, pardon the pun.

Yet, we have lost much. Few people read anything of real value any more. When we do read the classics or even insightful modern works, most people are not trained to read them critically or to appreciate and adopt the principles conveyed or to use them to improve their character and perspective on the world and those that inhabit it.

The self-centered, egotistical, humanistic worldview of the Baby Boomers is now utterly pervasive, and has been their infamous legacy. The dreams of our grandparents have been lost and squandered by a prodigal generation of self-serving, indulgent, naïve idealists. There will, however, be no going back. The time is too late. Unlike the prodigal son of parable fame, there will be no reconciling, no slaughtering of the fatted calf. The time is almost past, for that generation, and soon the hollow ones they begat will take up the mantle of society, for what purpose they know not.

Leisure is no longer a structured retreat from the activities of life. Life has become an inconvenience that interrupts our leisure activities. For no other type of person is this more true than for the self-proclaimed “gamer.” As a subculture built on a multi-billion dollar industry, this pervasive lifestyle has vast, far-reaching influence not just on culture as a whole, but on ideas, literature, movies, marketing, media and more.

Consumers of video game products are consumers of hundreds of thousands of products that now must be marketed to those who have as a large part of their identity the moniker, “gamer.” These products, however, are also consumed by vast numbers of other individuals, who are subjected to gamer subculture through the products and media they consume that are marketed to gamers. This works to spread ideas and themes that would other wise be distributed to comparatively few people outside the established gamer subculture. The apathy towards the real world, the pursuit of personal comfort and the immediate gratification of desires, as well as the avoidance of inconvenience at any cost except greater inconvenience that are part of gamer subculture proliferate through the spread of products and services, having an unprecedented effect on the whole of society.

For an entire sector of society whose goal is not life, but the avoidance of it, how can the few who see things as they are make headway against the apathy, indifference and moral uncertainty of the masses? In short, how can you motivate people, who have been trained not to care for anything outside their own happiness and leisure, to show concern and make difficult choices about the proper ordering of society?

I feel somewhat like Winston Smith, hopeless and helpless in the face of The Party. It is not the Inner Party that dominated Oceanian society, in Nineteen Eighty-Four; it was the apathy of the Proletariat and the perceived helplessness of the Outer Party. If that apathy and cowardice were pushed aside, those of the Inner Party would have been quickly overwhelmed. Apathy and cowardice are the greatest enemies of society; yet our generation embraces both through video games and the Internet. We hide behind the seemingly impenetrable shield of anonymity and post absurdities, falsehoods and obscenities unprecedented by any of the iniquities of our forebears. We cultivate apathy by becoming absorbed by meaningless activities, earning points, when, ironically, there is no point, no purpose, no reason – the means is an end unto itself.

There is a joke about a man who dies and goes to heaven. He is standing at the Golden Gates, and Saint Peter says to him, “Why should you be allowed to enter?”

The man replies, “I have been a good person, and have never hated or mistreated my fellow man or any of God’s creatures.”

Saint Peter considers this for a moment, and responds, “Yes… but how many points did you have?”

“I’m sorry,” replies the man, somewhat at a loss, “what do you mean… “points”?

Saint Peter chuckles, “Super Mario Bros. You know, the points you get for time bonus, coins, and the like. What did you think they were for? Now, how many?!”

Honestly, I don’t see why Super Mario Bros even had points, except that they could, conceivably, be used to compare one gamer’s final score to another’s, but what would that matter? Both would have completed the game, which is the real point. It just added another layer of meaningless achievements to the game - something to strive (in vain) for, or in industry terms, “to give the game ‘replayability.’”

So, we find ourselves entangled in a trap of our own making. The games, themselves, offer us little, if anything. The only possible exception might be those games that excel in training our minds for puzzle solving or other useful real-world tasks, and maybe MMOs, which allow us to interact on a social level. MMOs are, however, usually the worst social environments imaginable where apathy and cowardice reign, and ideas – and those who possess them – are ridiculed if they are not congruent with the ultra-liberal groupthink that is pervasive online and throughout the culture of the young, who are indoctrinated by the nearly socialist public school system and very nearly socialist state post-secondary educational institutions to hate and despise traditionalists, conservatives or any philosophy that is not dominated by total moral relativism, almost without exception.

Yet, many hold out the hope that still the medium’s potential might be fulfilled, that some mote of goodness in the human spirit might prevail, that something, anything might overthrow the tyranny of thought that is the end result of apathy, cowardice and socio-political liberalism. Technology is still the vehicle of our hopes, the while it is simultaneously the run-away train that is speeding us toward the precipice across which there is no bridge.

Frank Herbert wrote that knowing that there is a trap is the first step in evading it. To resist the urge to embrace one’s hopes in the face of absolute despair regarding their fulfillment is the only hope of sanity. Sanity requires an acceptance of truth, however ugly it may be. Our grandparents, the Great Generation, dreamed the dreams of their fathers – a life of relative security, mechanization of tasks that would otherwise require hard labor, equality for mankind, freedom and democracy – but those dreams are not only impossible to achieve in any meaningful, lasting way; they are also undesirable.

As Orwell pointed out, however, those who have power seek it for its own end, and could not maintain their grasp upon it, if the disadvantaged masses no longer needed to toil endlessly for that which sustains them. Poverty is a necessity for social hierarchy, and without that hierarchy, true equality has a chance. If, however, men are equal, no man has more power than any other. Without power, there is no control. Without control, there is chaos. Therefore, without poverty there is chaos.

Financial poverty, in an age when it is easy to acquire guns and craft explosives and other weapons of terrible destructive power, is also incompatible with control, however, except in pockets of the population that can be turned against each other or controlled with harmful, but intoxicating substances or meaningless quarrels. Where drug use is rampant, chaos is the rule and the strong rule the weak. This can be contained, and those pockets form cancer-like cells within the greater unit. They are not malignant, and so can be allowed to exist as long as they do not spread. If kept in check, they can continue on, as they are, without harm to anyone but those unfortunate enough to be inside them. So financial poverty can exist where drug use and internal strife will keep a minority of the population occupied with itself, and where that segment of the population will not rise up against the authorities who control the larger body of society.

But what of the rest of society, the middle class and those who struggle not with rampant drug abuse, daily violence or threats of violence or against any other serious mortal threat or socio-economic hardship? There are yet other forms of poverty that are employed to check these individuals.

First, is debt – or as we call it, “credit” – which is as near to doublespeak as one can come. Nearly all of the middle class is consumed by debt. Their money is spent before they earn it. They live well, but are locked in a financial cycle from which most have not the means, nor desire, to extricate themselves.

Second is a poverty of the mind. Sub-par education and a cultural aversion to knowledge beyond the trivial or absolutely necessary for an individual’s occupation or personal interests prevents the vast majority from becoming truly educated, well-rounded, mature human beings whose minds, character and bodies can best be used to shape society into a form which increases the quality of and respect for the life of all human beings and creatures of the Earth.

Video games are not to blame, in total, but they can be part of the problem, as can any leisure activity that distracts one from educating the mind and living a full life that is rational and social. Epictetus said, “Only the educated are free,” and Herbert Spencer said, “Education has for its object the formation of character.” If we educate ourselves well, and form a character that is rational and social, we shall be truly free of the bonds of apathy and cowardice. We shall say what is reasonable, right and good, and we will make society more perfect and more truly ideal.

I cannot see how, with so much to learn, a well-educated person would have time for video games that require advanced levels of immersion to meaningfully participate. Games that require hours and hours of play without advancing towards meaningful goals or games that are a virtual carrot-on-a-stick, by their nature, foster habits that are dangerous to the development of a well-educated mind, because they lock their players into a pattern of behavior that is addictive and time-consuming to the point that the player has little time for anything outside the game.

In order to be a “gamer,” that is, in order to be highly skilled video game player, one must commit an unreasonable amount of time and effort in an activity that yields no real-world gains or rewards. This is what I meant when I said that for an entire sector of society their goal is not life, but the avoidance of it.

I have seen the trap. I have taken the first step in evading its grasp. The second step is to determine a course of action that will extricate me from the trap. This, too, I have begun to do. Concurrently, I can embark upon the third step – taking the first, most obvious actions to prevent entrapment.

It is hard to argue that severely limiting time spent playing video games will have not have an extremely positive effect on my over-all quality of life. Perhaps, even, a life completely free from video games would produce a more polished, enlightened and knowledgeable individual. Certainly, more of my time could be devoted to becoming such.

It seemed madness, at first. Why avoid something that is, at first examination, relatively harmless? Because, upon sober reflection and after deep consideration of the effects video games have on most people, it seems unwise to continue to pursue them with vigor. A casual affinity for the occasional game, of course, would be no more harmful than a game of poker or chess. If, however, one has time for video games, would it not be better to read something that might do more to expand your mind and character or to participate in an activity that might strengthen your body?

I feel compelled to conclude that it is best for myself, if not for all, to abandon frivolity and useless striving, and to therefore severely limit or eliminate my video game consumption – especially MMOs. The time I will gain, alone, will make the sacrifice of minor pleasure more than worth it. The potential gains in terms of time I can spend educating and developing myself will help to shape me into a more rational and social individual, and I will be a benefit to society. This is my aspiration and my reasons for choosing it. I hope my thoughts encourage you to similar ends.

World of world of Warcraft
World of Wifecraft

Wickedgal

Crimsonpaw