Tauren Daydreams

Waiting....

2007-05-09T13:04:00.001-07:00

Slowly making his way up the hill he dredged on. Brought to a increasingly slower speed by rainfall and the slip of mud beneath his boots he continued as a yearn thumped deep within his soul to be back at her side. Thunder explodes above him as if to warn him of a journey wasted and lightning forking above to threaten the end of his dreams. No animals or insects can be heard in the hypnotic ricochets of raindrops among the trees and earth. The water has drenched him inside and out as his soppy hair pendulates before his eyes. He has no concern to move it or wipe his face or brow. Determined he continues on. The hells below could not keep him from this reunion to be. They tried. Long fought battles with the Fels of Hell and demons at gates could not stop him. The storm rages on as if Illidan himself conjured it strictly to slow or stop him.

Wind... The wind.... As his cloak and robes flutter behind him on his thin frame he continues.... determined to undermine hell itself to see what has been years in waiting. To see what he left a decade before when the battles called him from this land and into their own. His fleecing white hair knotting in the wind and rain catching on itself to give you the first real view of his face... Yellow. Yellow eyes that could light a fire or freeze you in a glance. Eyes that seem to have seen the furthest ends of the earth and know of it's mysteries. A dark brooding and somber expression that almost begs for pity is found below the messes of locking hair.

Ahead a large building comes into view. The windows offer a warm glow behind a mask of drenched glass and panels. He is close. As he approaches the gate of the yard hosting the building he notices the rains quieting. Patiently he opens the gate and steps through. Thoroughly scanning his environment he notices a candle burning on a covered sconce. "This must be it, no other candle could have endured the weather... for so...." He kneels beside the stone supporting the flame and reads its inscription. "Waiting.... until the end..." A sigh of pain escapes him... He cannot cry.

Patiently he remains crouched. "I am here my love... I have returned to you..." Panning the area reveals he is crouched in a deserted cemetery. A cemetery only miles from the homestead they shared. Four days she has been here. For 10 years she eagerly awaited his return only for her death came to her side before he could. Placing his hand upon the earth you notice for the first time that this is no hand of a mortal, this is the hand of something that once was but is no longer. Skeletal outlines leave you second guessing his appearance from the beginning.

Undead... He was killed in war and reborn for war...

[tbc]

I would like to personally thank Sara Forlenza of www.saraforlenza.com for allowing me to use her work (the picture above) . I found it on Blizzard's site and within seconds it unraveled a story within me. Please visit her site, it is full of incredible art.

Finally Acquired

2007-05-07T08:36:00.001-07:00

Finally I've acquired the grandness of being a level 70. It only took me what...?... 3 months or so. I know, I goofed off a lot, wasted time, waited for the wife and leveled my Warlock to 47 but either way, it is all done now. There is one thing I would like to mention that I've recently noticed.

During your journey from 1-60 pre-BC you trained your class skills on every 2nd level or even number. (2,4,6,8....48,50,52...60) Now apparently somewhere between 60-70 that changes to every level. My roommate told me about this when I dinged 69 and sure enough I could train a few skills. Go figure. What did I miss out on while leveling?

I do not condone anyone using farming companies for gold or levels however if you do, please DO NOT enable the ones that spam people. Notably peons4hire (peonsforhire) is the worst of the worst. They will NOT go away and I wish all kinds of awful things to happen to it's originators/owner/operators. Dying in a fire is one that comes to mind. These guys (not just them) are getting outrageously annoying. I mean is it really working? apparently. Boycott spammers, use Ebay or something like that for crying out loud. Do not give money to spammers because you know what? They will still spam and annoy you after you do it.... because I'm sure they won't filter out your name in their explosions of spam.

On that note, the latest addon of the week will be.... none other than: SpamSentry. SpamSentry works by filtering your messages and blocking them as well as formulating an email text that you merely have to click and a ticket is instantly created. No effort catching the name/s or websites just click and forget about it. I recommend it to everyone to help Blizzard catch these guys. As far as I've found Blizzard recommends this addon.

- That is all for now.

Children of the Alliance

2007-05-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

After spending time grinding out all of my Mageweave necessities for tailoring I finally made enough room in my bags for a quill and some rolls of paper to begin re-journaling all of my experiences here in this great lands of Azeroth.

Now on to what I know will turn out to be a 'flamefest' of a subject...

Recently I had my Warlock (46) out at Lost Rigger Cove, for those of you not familiar with it by name it is the 'piraty' area on the horn of Tanaris. I was completing a few quests solo which is "fun" to do there since the mobs repopulate so fast, making it a challenge. And to what do my wondering eyes should appear.... but two alliance flagged for PVP and running around the cove. No worries, I'm not in the mood and want to get through with this annoying quest so I continue to pull, kill, pull, kill. As I sit down to drink/eat I see swirls of dust and hear thundering sounds of feet churning in my direction. It appears our pesky 'friends' have decided to round up about 20 mobs and bring them in my direction. Ah well, not a likely chance for aggro, I should be safe. Then I notice they aren't running to save themselves as they begin to circle me attempting to get the mobs to aggro me. "Ah crap!" I need this like I need another ring in my big green nose. I stand up ready to fight or flee then for safer precaution decide to move a slight bit out of range. Aggro breaks from them and the angry bunch of pirates return to their normal patrols and routines. I head back in only to see it coming my way again. Rinse and repeat. I laugh at them and decide to step back and let the kids play. They run away and as I go back to re-kill all of the dockworkers to begin to make my way back to where I was before... here they come again.

Side note... Normally I do not create tickets for people annoying me, usually /ignore is about as far as I go, other than gold sales spam but this time following the advise of my guild members on at the time, I decide to create a ticket.

I wasn't flagged for PVP and they weren't challenging me for PVP. They were flat out falling into the category of harassment. Thats where I draw the line. I don't have time for children with nothing better to do. However, if I were to be playing on a PVP server... I'd have to say that most of anything like this would be fair game. I can handle my own. I happen to love PVP however, what if I was a new person out and about somewhere and these people did it to me then? This is a normal server and people need to abide by those standards. Don't be too cowardly for a PVP server then expect to 'pwn' some unsuspecting players that have chosen a more controlled path. I happen to have a toon on a PVP server, and there, I would expect nothing less than the opposing faction to make my life hell. Grow up children.

What do you think?

Death and Taxes II

2007-04-11T10:14:00.001-07:00

So previously in 'Death and Taxes' I mentioned how a virtual economy can and will present itself forcefully into our tangible economy whether we want it to or not and how the U.S. government will probably help escort it in since it will be generating extra income for them. This particular article will veer a little outside of World of Warcraft and for that I apologize but this is one of the strongest examples of what I think government agencies will be foreseeing when my theories become reality.

Welcome to Second Life. For those of you like me that missed out on this revolution of the last couple years, Second life is bigger than I could have ever imagined. (I repeat this is not an advert. It is in no way shape or form as cool as WoW) It has a total residency of 5,422,772 with 1,648,386 having been active in the last 60 days. But here’s the relevance. You can have a free account or multiple levels of a paid accounts depending on which suits your needs. You can buy Lindons which are the exchanged monetary item there and there is a reciprocity rate for exchanging back. Why exchange back you ask? Well let me tell you.... You can create and sell items on Second Life. Why don't the person create it themselves you ask? Because it is a pain in the butt.

I created my first items with careful help of a friend that was on there and it only took me 3 hours. What was so awesome that took me 3 hours? (Ok, I'll try to stop with the self questioning.) Sunglasses. That’s it. Create lens one, replicate it, create nose bridge piece, create arm, replicate it and combine the prims. It’s worth 5 Lindons, hell even 10 to not have to do that if you aren't even remotely tech savvy. I AM tech savvy and work with servers and code all day and it was still a pain. Now that I've explained that.. I'll get into the real meat and potatoes. In an environment where 90% of everything is user created it becomes just like real life. There is really any 1 thing I can think of that is not represented by object or action in this 'MMO' so with that said, people need clothes, hair styles, everyday fun items (i.e. sunglasses martini's, beach balls.) houses, porches for those houses, furniture... etc. Well just like IRL, someone makes it and puts it on the market to save people time and effort and Voila! No 3 A.M. infomercial needed.

Also there is said rumor of one individual who is the equivalent of Donald Trump. It is a bit hard to swallow but I'll start off small again and work to the big fish story. The person I know on here has 2 accounts he pays for rough estimate about 9 bucks each monthly. He owns virtual land on there with several homes; land cost is $55 a month. Don't faint just yet. He and his girlfriend own online businesses in this virt. world and his alone after doing the building and scripting for people nets him enough to exchange out and cover all of his RL expenses. So rough estimate again he's making at least $75 a month from the game. Real Dollars. IRS curious? Ok now for the whopper. This Trumpian I'll refer to her as was rumored to have netted over $1 million USD in a year. OMG! Tell me the IRS isn't foaming at the mouth.

I will say that most people on there don't make a dime nor even try to make/sell stuff. And of the people that do, I'd say most don't even cover their own expenses but these other percentages put a real merit in my virtual governmental fear.

It is coming folks... oh yes... it is.

As Does It Come...

2007-03-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

As my posting becomes more and more irregular I cannot say that this time it is totally do to lack of interest. It has more to do with lack of content. I have not been able to log on and play a whole lot of WoW lately so I am left with not much meat for articles or postings. With that said.

* I dinged 66 with my Tauren Druid last night.
* I dinged 41 with my Orc Warlock the other night.
* I am greatly enjoying my mount with my Warlock and epic mount with my Druid.
* I feel my guild is leaving me behind but at no fault but my own. They are great about offering assistance to those of us that are behind to help us catch up, knowing the stronger the guild the stronger they can be as well.
* I haven't really taken off with my character much on the WoWChron server... I need to log in and do that.

One more weekend of giving my time up for someone else and I should be back on schedule... Hope to see you soon Fupoo...

This Just In...

2007-03-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

The latest joke around Hillsbrad...

A vampire bat came flapping in from the night, face all covered in fresh blood and parked himself on the roof of the cave to get some sleep.

Pretty soon all the other bats smelt the blood and began hassling him about where he got it. He told them to piss off and let him get some sleep, but they persisted until he finally gave in.

OK, follow me, he said and flew out of the cave with hundreds of bats behind him. Down through a valley they went, across a river and into a huge forest. Finally he slowed down and all the other bats excitedly milled around him tongues hanging out for blood.

"Do you see that large oak tree over there?" he asked. "YES, YES, YES!!!!"
the bats all screamed in a frenzy. "Good!" said the first bat, "Because I f**king didn't"

Death and Taxes I

2007-03-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

(I wrote this article for WoWChron but decided to post it here as well)

And no, I am not referring to the WoW guild by that name. Lately there has been a lot of chatter about the subject I am about to jump into and I figured it would only be a matter of time before I tackled it.

Recently the wife and I decided to go ahead and buy our epic mounts. Only problem was she was a bit short on g-notes so I gave her 150g so that she could afford the training and the mount. I had acquired a mount previously via PVP grind and had been carrying him with me for several months. I told her that she could take her time paying me back. [tongue in cheek] Well we filed our taxes recently and I got to go out and get a new set of golf clubs and a few other things and so I thought all was well until we were outside talking the other night. She tells me (while grinning like the Cheshire) that she is willing to make a bargain with me. “Since we went out and bought you new clubs and blah blah blah, how about we just call it even on the 150g?” OMG she is bargaining reality with virtuality [sic]! All of that was just another example of the point I am about to get to.

There are several articles and discussion rings regarding the IRS (U.S.) and whatever powers that be in your particular countries wanting to begin to tax us (or how to) on virtual property. You may think that this is insane but they do have a legal point that one cannot deny. People sell virtual accounts, items, gold, and accounts for MMO’s on eBay as well as several other trade/sell sites. If I were to sell my WoW account for $1000.00, technically I just generated income for myself by selling something no matter how intangible it may be. Technically I owe taxes however, the problem lies in other technicalities that they are trying to out maneuver.

I think a couple of the biggest hurtles they are trying to get over are:

1) Technically the sale of my WoW account was not ‘legal’ under contract due to the fact that I would be selling something that I do not own. Blizzard claims explicit rights to all avatars and virtual assets (including characters) within the game. We apparently just pay to use their stuff. Think of it like batting cages. You pay to use them, you borrow their bats, hit their balls and even their helmets. I could not legally walk into the local fun place and grab some things, walk out front and sell them could I?

2) The other major issue would be for them to decide when/where to tax. They could easily set it up like most other sales but who would monitor it? If you sell a car there is paperwork and such from notaries to the DMV. Who monitors eBay for sales? Who is looking over your shoulder to make sure you aren’t selling your account off to someone while meeting for lunch at a local McDonalds. Taxes are based on a semi-honesty system but… that’s a bit much.

Before I unravel things too far I will take a pause for you to ponder….

What are your thoughts?

Cows don't go AWOL.

2007-03-04T20:33:00.001-08:00

I haven't been AWOL I have however been extremely busy. It seems that even Large intimidating male Taurens get 'honeydo' lists. The wife and I took 2 days off and both of us were antsy all week anticipating some uber WoW time. Turns out the small bathroom project we also planned on doing ate most of our time. I did squeeze in a game of golf with my new clubs (which fit nicely in my hooven hands I must say.) but other than that my only time on WoW gave me an hour or so to get my Warlock from 39 to 40, getting my free mount, and getting screenshots for my AoTW.

The Bull Has Been Hired

2007-03-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, well not hired per-se since it is a voluntary gig but I have another official job now. The cow you've been reading about here has been hired as a writer for WoW Chronicles. So any time you see me writing about it here it could be a partial plug. Come see me! Actually come download the podcast and while you're there visit the articles section which as of now is contributed by Julie and yours truly.

Finally...

2007-02-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, for the first time in a while I actually got to enjoy a weekend of WoW. My goals were to get to 1000 gold (accomplished!), get a level or two on my main (accomplished [at 65 now]), and possibly get to 40 with my Warlock..... (1 quest from 39). So all in all I got several things done.

Here are some of the things I HAVE accomplished in my casual gaming tendencies since BC was released....

1) Reached 1000 gold. (I still have not purchased my ground epic riding skill)

2) Reached 65 with main.

3) Reached ALMOST 39 with Warlock

4) Got a level 10 Blood Elf. (rarely played)

5) Grinded the snot out of Jewelcrafting. Almost capped until I get my character (lvl 16) up to the next level range.

... uh, which brings me to another point. Jewelcrafting is fun! I tend to find some fun in gathering things. In my 'other' life it is information, collecting Pez dispensers, junk etc. In this life I love collecting minerals and stone or herbs of all sorts and skins/hides. It just thrills me to have loads of this sitting around. Pack rat? Damned skippy! Ask my wife....

I do however find leatherworking, tailoring, and certain parts of Alchemy boring. Alchemy being the least boring since most of its render is useful unlike Leatherworking or Tailoring. Jewelcrafting however has been fun the entire time. Hot damn those little healing statues kick some major ass no? If you havent used one.... You should!

Ok back to my accomplishments...

6) Ran Hellfire Ramparts twice (too easy)

7) Furnace... ran about 3 times.

8) Slavepens.... twice (I like this one)

9) Da' bog... (I like this one too)

However (steps onto soap box and points a fat hooven finger at Blizzard...)

(rant) Jeeebus H. Holstien you guys! I understand that maybe by introducing Pallys to the Horde you may have expected a large influx of them but making 99% of every instance after Furnace drop Pally gear more than other gear?!?!?!!? Get over it, there are other classes out there that want stuff!!!!! (/rant)

Ok, sorry guys..... I'll stop here for now....

AddOn of The Week III

2007-02-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

This weeks AddOn is especially delicious for anyone who plays a Warlock. I have to admit that although my first character raised to 60 and beyond is my ‘balanced’ Druid but after playing a Warlock up to 20 and beyond I quickly decided that this character will become my ‘main’ after I reach the 60-70 range.

The AddOn is called Necrosis and is a tool designed especially for a Warlock to keep track of his/her shards, spells, and pets in a tight little UI that frees up your task bars for quicker uses of other items and spells.

Necrosis uses a UI similar to the mini-map at the top right of your screen. It is smaller and more customizable than the aforementioned mini-map but basically is a large circle that has changeable display options with mini buttons attached to its circumference. The most common display for the larger circle is soul shard count. Each button is designed for quick and efficient use and allows a player to hit on or two buttons to accomplish much. Examples of these buttons are below:

• There is a button for health stones, right clicking it creates one and clicking it while one is in your inventory uses the healthstone.

• There is a button for Soulstones. A right click on this will create a soulstone for you and left clicking it will use the soulstone. It works the same way as normally used… Target a player and left click on the button. No longer do you need to open your inventory or have a soulstone on your taskbar. A VERY nice extra to this is the sound files attached to it. When your soulstone expires (whether it has been used or not) ie. The 30 minute cool down is up…. A good ole’ Protoss-like voice says “Your soulstone has expired.” Very handy for those like me that don’t always pay attention.

• There are collapsible buttons for your spells and pets. Clicking on any of these will expand it out linearly to show all your spells/pets available. They auto fade to closed form after a certain (short) time.

• When in battle all collapsible bars auto open for quick use and after battle will fade to closed automagically.

There are tons of other customizable options built in to Necrosis and to make it all that much sweeter…. It self configures… all new spells and pets are added automatically!

I recommend this for any Warlock.

Necrosis can be found here at Curse-Gaming.

Continuing through the Ramparts...

2007-02-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

"Head up the ramps but stop at the top, don't walk around the corner.” we were advised. In single file we scuttle up the ramps as much as a flock of huge hulking Orcs, Taurens and such can 'scuttle'. Upon arriving at the top of the spiral we are advised that we will be using the "line of sight" tactic on this pull. We allow the rest of our mana and energy to top off within ourselves and our Rogue moves into action.

"I'm coming back and I'm bringing friends..... lots of them...” he forewarns. Switching back into owl form (a very formidable one at that) I step up to pull some of the damage. Like a Sherman tank being beaten on with Tinker Toys(c) I take what they dish out and we blast down the enemy rather quickly. "Was that 5 or 6", Gaili asks... "Dunno but they went uneasily fast in my opinion.” I reply. "Usually means something worse is next." "Oh well let’s do it, this place is making my fleas rowdy", I jested.

We step into the hall and approach the other end. The hall is short and the tall opening allows for decent viewing of what is to come ahead. A few of the guards path to and fro giving us an uneasy feeling of their awareness. Stepping closer one can also see packs of Hellfire soldiers rabid for blood. Pulling the few that were making paths we dropped further into the hall and taunted their chase. Furious we'd made it this far, they were foaming and frothing in contempt as they were determined to dismember us one and all. They did not quite get that chance. A few more pulls from the left allowed us to get to another chest containing nice change and some sell-able fodder. We turned 180 degrees to face our final foes of this particular platform. A group so self determined in their existence and meaning that you could easily tell by how they moved around in rotations.

Pull and kill, pull and kill they fell as anticipated without much ado. "This my friends leaves us with little more to do. Well in the aspect of quantity." our leader said.

And this my friends is where we one by one walked into a longer hallway... to see the next boss, the next large hill in our journey, the next chance at possible certain death..........

"O'er the ramparts we watch'd"

2007-02-13T08:45:00.001-08:00

Following in the footsteps of 3 others, Gailipoo and I slowly made our way around the last corner to the shimmering plasmic barrier between our current world and the one we were heading to. Our main pain sponge would be a friendly yet highly over qualified Rogue and I would protect our squishies if needed.

We step through the shimmer and find ourselves mere steps from the first two of several baddies to terminate. We hand out each of our personal enhancement benefits and prepare for round one. With a swift jerk my neck lets its nitrogen escape with screaming popples. My wrists and ankles crackle under the strain I put on them. Tension brewing thicker than a Silithid's mucous has taken over me for this.... is my first 'real' journey since I've come to the Outlands.

Pack after pack, hound after hound and hut after hut we battle our way over the entrance bridge, to the right a bit, the sway back to the left. we eventually come to a ninety degree turn to the left and notice two things. One is a treasure chest large enough to make us all drool and the other is a rather large guy with two pals in accompaniment. As the closest thing to a pain sponge we had, I was elected to 'off tank' this guy while my comrades took down his entourage. Absorbing the blows left and right I begin to realize this guy is over rated. That is when he began to charge away from me to my Ka-Tet. Roaring viciously he decided to charge and slam whoever he deemed 'cowardly' and was the furthest from his reach. Regaining his attention was a breeze but no one ever accused these orclings of being smart.... Right?

Defeating him we pull a couple more packs from the left wall and sneak by the uglies on the wall to the right corner. "Two more guards at the door then the fun really begins..." my Warlock adviser whispers to us as we 'juice up' before another series of encounters.

To Be Continued....

AddOn of The Week II

2007-02-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

The featured AddOn of the week this week is Auctioneer. Ever been out killing things and come across some piece of equipment or junk and wonder how much it is worth? I used to just fill up my inventory until it got full then decide what is worth keeping or not based on my all knowing cow wisdom but in those days I am sure that I threw tons of Gold away over time. (By the way, it is not always wise to rely on cow wisdom...) Well those days are over now Bob since I've found "Auctioneer".

Auctioneer will give you an estimated gold/silver/bronze price based on what it found at the Auction House and different vendors. But wait! Thats not all! Auctioneer will also tell you what you can sell items for on the Auction House based on the aforementioned scans. Scanning, you ask? Yes! Whenever you're at an AH and decide you wish to update your database file, you will notice a nice box added to the AH screen. (SCAN) Click on this button and be prepared to wait 5-10 minutes for it to scan all the items in the AH into your DB for your future reference. I wouldn't suggest you do this every time you go but maybe once every week or two to adjust any errant prices you have picked up. Gougers are unfortunately scanned into the average and can distort some true numbers.

There are some additional features available to you while at the AH that can make your life a little easier but those are easily noticed when you go. Some of those are... Remembering pricing for an item so you don't have to key it every time you sell that item or stack. Gives you a % on how much you are over/undercutting the competition based on the price you entered. You will be the envy and abused statistician of your guild. "Hey Bob, I'm linking an item, how much is it worth?" Oh that does make you feel useful... up to the point where it gets old [grin]

(I apologize, it appears after doing this 4 times that Blogger is having issues with pictures and these cannot be resized to viewable by clicking on them, I will try to come back at a later date and re-upload them.)

Wow... Just Wow...

2007-02-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

Yes these are very late but I have been VERY busy trying to soak in as much as I could. I have also been spending more time outside of the BC than in it with other characters that I want to bring into the Hellfire Penn.... (also the wife has been dragging her feet and any married soul knows that you gotta pace yourself only so far ahead of the wife or it can be made not so fun for you =P...)

These screenies are from my flight into Hellfire Peninsula on my first night... For those who have not made it to this point yet, I'll give you a few sentences to explain.

As you pass through the dark portal and emerge on the other side your eyes will re-focus on a place that is a cross between a ruined disaster area and a recolonization effort of some sort. There is not much on the little island(esque) area but you find the flight path coordinator and head out to Thrallmar. (if you are Horde at least) Most of the first shots are from that first flight.

Having landed I decided to walk around a little bit and look... here is one more of the beautiful sky above the HFP.

More to come....

I Am Not So Sure...

2007-01-31T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am not so sure that this is real, and if it is I sincerely apologize to any that I offend but taken into open consideration of the humor in people's brainwashed indecency.... People are just so plugged in that I almost believe the guy would not be joking.... but I'm sure of course if the scenario is real... that he was just some cold hearted prankster....

Outside of the belief that this is real and that it was totally set up...

It has to be the funniest thing I've ever seen. (sorry if it is real =o( )

AddOn/s of The Week

2007-01-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

Well I personally like AddOns. Some think its a form of 'cheating', others think its all holy balogna but again... I personally like them. I know a lot of other people do as well so I am starting a new section for TD called (see title of post). I will note that generally Curse-Gaming is about the only site I trust any more (and they arent perfect since they can only verify so much) since a lot of keyloggers are going around embedded with different AddOns. The one I will introduce you to first is actually not found there but was tried/verified by a very respectable member of the guild who likes to double/triple check his AddOns.

This AddOn is called InFlight. InFlight does have a few dependancies that I will later get into but it is nothing that really helps you 'in game' as much as it is just a handy informational utility. I for one (as well as the wife) am a smoker. I like to know when I have time to slip outside for a cigarette and use my best time for effeciency balance. InFlight helps me do this by giving me a status bar/timer while in flight to one place or another. In the example I am flying from Freewind Post in Thousand Needles to Orgrimmar.... (well the picture tells you the rest.)

It can be acquired at FileFront it appears. If anyone cannot find it and is interested email me and I can send it to you.

And Mine Eyes Beheld....

2007-01-27T15:17:00.000-08:00

Gently opening the box careful not to bend or tear the precious cardboard designs on any edge, I retrieved my CDs out of their holder. One by one I put in each CD watching the status bar slide slowly to the right. I obnoxiously called out each percent up to fifty something merely to annoy my co-conspirators of the Burning Crusade. This was a terribly slow process for my heart anticipating the signing in and viewing the beauty that has been dangled before me for months on end.

At 100% I became excited only to find out that a patch was needed. I knew that was coming so I didnt let it dishearten me too much. The 150+ meg file was downloaded a day or so before so it's wait time was non existant. Woot! Oh crap another patch? "Oh this one is only like 4 meg. zOMG! this patch failed minute after minute and I had to restart it like 5 times. 20 minutes for a 4 meg patch! Ok, it is done now, let us move on....

I log in, fly to the flight path nearest the portal of inevitability and lay my eyes again on the beauty of the portal. I put my character on auto_walk and raise my hands in victory as he progresses up the steps and into the portal.....

(first glimpse of the other side...)

More will follow with my screenshot frenzy of the first flight through TBC...

-Teh Fu

Home Well Adjusted

2007-01-24T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well if you couldn't tell by the strange effect post I made several days ago... I have transferred servers. The guild I am in (Hordeland Security) thought long and hard about this and decided that the Queues in BH were becoming highly intollerable and our best bet was to make the move. We lost several friends in the aspect of ability to play with them because they had too many ties outside the guild but for the most part the majority of the guild came over.

Another loss of ours was our alliance with another guild "CC". I won't write out their names in case they want their privacy however, the loss of our banding together to fill multiple raids has hurt a bit. We had a couple of their guys that were tired of the population join us on the new server as well as some of our family that stayed behind join theirs.

All that mushy stuff aside.... It is friggin great! The farming on this new server was bad after BC was released but I shudder to think about how nasty it was on such an old and established server such as Blackhand. I do not miss it at all but I do miss our extended family.

This is a boring post but I felt like making such. I plan to bring many interesting things soon... I just cannot tell you what or when.

-Fu

Explic.... aww screw it.. Dirty!

2007-01-23T13:28:00.000-08:00

I found this while running through the WoWChron forums... Not die hard funny but definately a good smack in the face of the Night Elf cybering geeks....

http://www.se7en-x.com/yarhump/index.htm

Teh Fu

(The link above probably does not represent the views of the guys over at WoWChron but then again it might, check them out and judge for yourself. And I forgot the poster's name that linked it there but he gets some credit in here somewhere as well.)

As It Were

2007-01-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

"... so you will not be open at midnight?"
"No sir, we did not receive enough pre-orders to justify being open."
"Ok, well are there any penalties to cancelling my pre-order?"
"Uh.... this close.... uh, sir its your money and you can get it all back but I wouldnt recommend that in case there arent enough to go around.."
"I bet you wouldnt... Thank you."

I had paid EB Games in full for two preorders. One for myself and one for the wife. The bastards decided to be the only EB or any game store not open for the midnight madness.... Well screw them, I'll see whats available.

The wife, myself, and the roomates decided to hit old Wally world at midnight. We arrived at about 2330 just to be sure that if there was a line we could get a decent place... maybe... We wandered back to the electronics department to find a line of about 10 or so people (very geeky looking I might add) waiting in line. Thank God for these geeks because the people at Walmart had nfc about the Burning Crusade. They spent 30+ minutes climbing around in the back of a truck looking for the game. They brought it out at 2359... and my eyes watered as I saw them arrange the display... A tear welled up and rushed to the corner of my eye as I watched them adjust the final cardboard props. We signed a list to ensure that if there was a last second rush that the people that were there were in order to definately recieve something.

We walked out with 3 copies. The other roomate had a mail-order of the CE coming. There were plenty of copies when I left. The only thing to do now was cancel my order with EB Games the following day. I will not shop there again. Not because they were closed at midnight so much as the fact that for 2 weeks we checked in with them to find out if they were going to be open and could get no straight answer from them. If I had gotten a legitimate answer from them I could have moved a pre-order to another store that would have been open. I got lucky... and I am happy with that... This time.

Alliance Type Woes

2007-01-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

Click to Enlarge

Awakening Transferral Fears

2007-01-13T22:21:00.000-08:00

While lying in my cushiony straw filled bed I hear a sudden gust of wind pick up outside of my window. Shrieks and screams of the ancestral dead fill my thoughts. "Something is wrong.” I whisper to myself. As I allow my large hooven feet to fall to the floor beside me I rise and begin to step towards the window. A large explosion of darkness rocks the room and I find myself in a corner sitting on my tail. "Oh I do so hate that, it seriously smarts!" I pick myself up and stumble into the main room only to find it empty. Panic sets in as I begin to wonder where Gaili may be. I run to the front door keeping balance through another rocking explosion and step out the front door to a deafening silence.

Nausea sets in. The feeling of falling at an increasing speed overtakes me. Just when my four stomachs feel they can handle no more I see Gaili out of the corner of my eye. Distracted from the sickness I turn to her and see her staring blankly at the sky. I call out her name to no avail. She may as well be thousands of miles away. Falling... falling.... I lose my dinner.

This must be a dream. Gaili finally turns in my direction and mutters something about feeling ill. I turn around and see a tremmoring glow outlining all that is mine. Anything that belongs to this world stays as normal but the blur begins to consume my worldly possessions. Floating...

I feel the falling notion slipping away as I notice everything beginning to rise slowly from the ground. Trees are fastened soundly as is anything natural but my life begins floating with me.

Everything turns black... I am asleep for what seems hours and awaken to the sound of birds. I find myself laying exactly where I remember standing... or the ground below where I last found myself floating. Everything is fine.... I think. After days of talking to friends and others I pass in daily routines only one thing odd stands out to me. The population of this place seems minute in comparison to what it was days ago. Was there a cleansing? Everything seems the same as it was before that strange night days ago... But something seems different..... I can’t quite put my hoof on it.

Much Ado

2007-01-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

Well I wish I could say this is true of me and my friends but it wasnt.... spent NYE as a volountary DD and a Guitar Hero.

Like Hooven Navy SEALs...

2006-12-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

... we snuck through and throughout. Three of us Druids, in cat form and another an Orc rogue in full stealth slipped by the first of several packs of guards in the Lower Black Rock Spire. Bringing along a guy I had only met an hour or less before, we were unsure of the success rate we would have, especially with his less than 60 status.

We prowled by another set and dropped to a broken ledge just to the right of the doorway. Another jump and wall crawl later we were standing at another ledge with a further fall than the first two. Watching as 3 roving guards in 2 different sequences paced their beats from right to left we decided to take our jumps. 1, 2, 3,..... Wheres the new guy? As I begin to explain how he should do it, I find out he was prowling pretty well and I didnt even notice he was waiting on me. Grr... noobs, they think they are soooo smart.

Hugging the right wall then a choppy walk through a broken passage, we come upon a pack of guards and a few sleeping guradsmen. We easily creep by them and across a large open room with multiple stairwells. "Careful of the moving patrols", Hmetal mentions to the new guy. Up a ramp then down the other side we go with no sign of the patrol. Into one room, slipping into another we come across a very ugly Ogre that more than likely will spot us easily enough on our passing route. A planned distraction and organized slip later and we're in the room with our beloved Voone, the hoarder of the Christmas hats.

We decide to let the noob show of his feral skills and tank. After some initial trouble and a fine tuning here and there we drop him nearly effortlessly and make for our grand getaway. One Christmas hat richer.

5 stealth runs, and 3 kills later. All four of us have our beautiful head decorations. And believe me when I tell you. There is one female Tauren around here that is a lot happier now.

WoW Chronicles:

2006-12-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

I am about to totally geek out for a moment. Forgive me. I’ve owned an iPod for about a year now and never really got interested or even remotely desired to get into podcasts. Recently while goofing off with iTunes, I came across multiple WoW podcasts. (There are a lot of them I must say.) I have tried a couple of them as well as several non Warcraft related podcasts and must say that I have found one that is so nicely done and informational that it sounds almost as a professionally done *cast of any type.

World of Warcraft Chronicles is done once a week and is still rather new. They are up to week 6 or 7 and I have already learned a lot of great things about BC that I am looking forward to.

The first couple shows were done by the main host who at the time was looking for a couple of co-hosts. They have done a really good job of each researching different points and present the show as if they are all equally trained in the martial arts of BC. I must really say Bravo from me to them! Here’s to many more podcasts from these 3!!!

They can be found by clicking on the images above or going to wowchron.com

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

I only have one regret my friends.....

and that is.... that I had to say Merry Christmas from the Horde....

as a damned Gnome!

2006-12-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

Wow, (and I don’t mean WoW), it has been a while. I’ve actually taken a break for the most part since finishing my AB grind. I’ve played a bit but over all I haven’t done much besides petering around a bit.

When WoW2.0 came out I lost even more interest in WoW. It has some cool stuff but there are a few things that have severely discouraged me. I respec’d my Drood immediately to get my little treants and the wife respec’d shortly thereafter in order to fit her healing spec. She gets to BE a friggen’ TREE! How cool is that!?!

Back to what I am suffering mental anguish about:

1) AddOns – Ok, I know there is no way around this. The only problem I have with this is the PITA factor. (Pain In The Ass) There again it does help me discover new AddOns and their awesomeness. There are however, some AddOns that I can’t/won’t find replacements for that need to get fixed ASAP.

2) GodWars – I call this GodWars because basically this is what they’ve (hopefully only short term) have done with WoW. Most classes are extremely uber now and when it comes to PVP it is battle of the 1 / 2 shots. The armor will roll out in the BC endgame but for now we’re strapped with weapons of the future and the body armor of the Native Americans. If you’re not a PvP’er then it probably only makes you happy.

The other and final problem I have, they seem to be tweaking a bit. And that is the loot tables for PvP. I am all about allowing the more relaxed casual players to obtain higher end PvP lootz but here are my thoughts: Take the competition out of the rank climb (which they did) but you still need to make it long term and difficult to obtain them. Being able to obtain them in a matter of weeks or a month or so, where everyone else had to go 6+ months is insane. You’re giving them the opportunity to get it, but they still have to work at it. The bonus is they can do it at their own pace. They seem to at least be tweaking it so I won’t complain too much about this one for now….

I’ll stop whining here for a bit…..

The Fu

And For My Last Trick...

2006-11-30T17:30:00.000-08:00

Watch me pull this rabbit out of my ass... erm hat! Ok, finally finished the AB grind 2 weeks ago and boy do I feel relieved. Considering the Battlegrounds have been F.U.B.A.R. for the last week or so I am glad I dont have to deal with all that crap anymore. I still need to get the 5 cap in AB for the tabbard but the gold is about the only importance of that quest for me.

Just ran through most of the 'Test of Skulls' quests and am waiting for a group to get together for Drak's blood. No biggy we kill him pretty effortlessly in the guild. Wifeypoo is starting it and needs to kill Rend.... She can be in on the same run as me. I did find getting to turn into a dragonkin was kinda cool. Nothing spectacular but... cool I guess, nonetheless.

I know I've been getting slack about posting lately. Gonna try to restart the story series'.

Into The Eyes of Madness

2006-11-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

I cannot say that I've got "Mad Cow Disease" but this stupid AB grind is driving me mad. I used to think Blackhand got screwed and thats where they sent all the retarded Horde pvp'ers because getting some of them to actually cooperate, get their heads out of their asses, or even stop arguing for more than 30 seconds is was almost impossible. Now however, I think we have a lot of retards on the Horde side period. Xserver battle grounds has shown me that we have to band together no matter how idiotic some act.

(edit: I started this post last week and didnt finish. Being that I am now done with the grind, I figured I'd let this be released unfinished.)

The Hatchet Is In View

2006-11-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

Welp, the latest client patch 2.0 has been fully announced, patch notes released and hit the PTR's earlier this week. This means .. (dun dun dun) time is almost up. As of writing this post I am 10040 rep points from EX. and not exactly sure when my time will be up. FTL

All I want are the friggen shoulders and the staff, although after seeing the staff that drops off of Naxx runs I really can barely see the reason to get this one... Oh I know... because we cant do Naxx yet.

Well after hours of dissapointing grinding and gaining almost 1000 rep, I tried one last refered premade BH group that just formed. OMG We rolled 4 straight 5 caps instantly and then 3 cap won against a Garona premade which usually is pretty good. That nearly doubled my rep.... well not exactly but close.... Gotta keep an eye out for those guys. Thanks 'Healthstone'.

-Teh Fu

TAEB

2006-11-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Tossing aside the epic battles and a weekend full of bonus AB grind I will not be allowed to finish my week the way I usually do. My Monday nights are usually cramming in as much AB in as I possibly can without causing a brain hemorrhage. This weekend had its ups and downs regarding Arathi but I pooled quite a bit of rep/honor so it wont be a total loss.

Thanks to my new roomate I currently have a new distracting addiction that pulls at my cerebral cortex night and day sleeping or awake. This phenomenon is new and this phenomenon is painfully addictive this phenonenon is:

But the reason I will not be grinding this Monday evening. (Today/Tonight) is because one of my favorite cow blade sponges has bought myself, Gailipoo, Hmetal and himself (Arcticblob) tickets to the Hurricanes vs. Sabres game. I guess I can let one night of pvp deadlines pass without screaming in panic.

The Hurricanes are just now starting to wake up this season and the Sabres have been pwning people all year... but do YOU remember what happened last season in the finale?

It went a little something like this:

Good luck Blobbo.

- Teh Fu

(edit: We got our asses erm. skates handed to us as suspected. The seats were on flippin believable cept one thing... I'll leave it at that.... Thanks Blobbo.)

High On Arathi

2006-11-01T10:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, The chopping block is coming and I dont want to go under it willingly until I have my shoulders and my staff. I will not moo quietly into the night nor will I give up until the bloody end. I planned on a nice storyline today to display the dreaded grind in Arathi Basin but I think I will just step up on my soap box and preach to the ignorant and stupid. If you are easily offended or one of the ones I am about to gripe about (which you wont know until you read so tough luck) you won't want to read this. It will not be nasty but it may step on some toes.

Arathi Basin in a nutshell is a game of 5 nodes set to the theme of King of the Hill style play. It takes a minute to capture a node once flagtogged and once a node is yours, your team starts gathering resources. Obviously it is more important to gather more resources faster than your opponents because in most games the 2000 resource goal sneaks up on you rather quickly.

The map below is a layout of what nodes are what and where the starting points are. Click on the picture to enlarge it for better view.

Here are the following pet peeves as well as annoyances for myself as well as other people who are sinceerely interested in winning and enjoying the game:

1) People who sit in the starting area and for one reason or the other don't get afk'd out. Some sort of keep alive tool being used I'm sure. These people are mooching off of us and are as useless as boobs on a man. I understand last minute emergencies for I have had them too but if I make it back in time, I start killing. If I dont, I get logged out. Blizzard needs a way to monitor this. I have seen less of this in the last several weeks so maybe they have.

2) People that give up before the horn has even blown. Yes I know you can see the premade groups already designed but I personally have seen some premades so sad that our unorganized PUG beat them. If they are organized then sit at the farm and piss them off by getting HK's and honor for as long as you can. Once you are 5 capped I will be the FIRST to say keep them from farming us on Honor and don't rez if they are graveyard camping. Bastards!

3) People of all ages acting like homophobic defensive 13 year olds. Grow a pair and take some criticism guys. Try someone elses plan once or twice. It IS only a game and theres no need to start name calling for 5-10 minutes spending your time typing and thinking up good 13 year old dirty worded names only takes away from concentration of others as well as yourselves. 8/10 times your team will lose if this gets carried away. Agree to disagree and then be silent. First and foremost... Grow up.

4) I know this one all too well. Mainly because I feel the same temptation. Your team is doing well and you're stuck defending a node that is getting about as much action as an ugly herpe infested hobo. You will not get the honor from kills nor will your HK count go up but you are doing your part and KNOW that as soon as you leave Murphy's law will cause your node to be capped. You know deep in your heart it was your fault but you will defend yourself till the end. Do it for the team and do it for the win. You cant always be on the front line. My feelings are proven with the comic below. Click to enlarge:

I will stop here for now:

The Many Faces of Poo

2006-10-29T21:38:00.000-08:00

Well everyone that enjoys the seasonal changes around World of Warcraft knows that every season or holiday is filled with fun of all sorts, this is including Holloween. I even have friends that have for one reason or another stopped playing, and they still love to ask what the fun suprises are for this season. ("Hey what did Blizz do for Halloween?") Well there are many treats for this one and a few tricks as well. Each innkeeper will offer you the option of "Trick or Treat" in which you, most of the time, get a bag with treats in it. Once I got the 'trick' side of it and was 'poofed' into a human female ninja. Poo.

So far I have acquired 10 candycorns, 15 suckers; both of which regen your mana and health slowly but surely. Basically food for both wrapped into one. I've also received 2 wands. 1 turns you into a ninja and the other is a random morphing wand. Unfortunately you cant use the wands on yourself but "Oh Well.". You also can receive flimsy masks which look like halloween masks of other characters. So far I've received an undead female one and a Nelf female one. They are starting to make me question my gender. Ok, maybe notsomuch but.... These masks only last for 7 days and have no stats but they are probably the most "Halloweenistic" gifts so far.

Here are some of my many "faces" this season.

Masked as an undead female. (above)

Turned into a stinkin' bag 'o bones. (above)

Yarrrrrr I'm Jack Sparrow.... (above)

I hate Nelfs.... eeeww Thats the scariest. (above)

The evil plagued leprotic gnome... (above)

zOMG I Feel Like A God!!!

2006-10-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I've used the same PC (home built, as are all mine) for about 3-4 years. Tweaking and adding here and there as needed. The wife's PC has been dead for about a year and a half. There never was much of a hurry to fix hers because all she used it for was bills occasionally and email. Well as of December of last year we both got into WoW and well, she has been stuck using the roomies computer and only when he's not home which has severely limited her playing time. His computer is in some was better than mine (basically performance) because he's invested more money lately into a rebuild so she has been spoiled at least when she does get to play. Mine has laggy bits here and there and could use a bit more CPU and RAM. But..... as of yesterday I got my new computer in, my first non home built computer since my first one 10 years ago!!!!!

I got the XPS 210. It came with a nice little keyboard (and mouse but keeping my old one) and a 19" flat screen. Just running it on DVI cables has made a difference too. This thing looks bigger in the picture but had me in total awe as I removed it from the box to find it was about as big as the '360. Quiet and after testing it last night I found myself in heaven with just noticing the few seconds less here and there required to do something.

I'm in hog heaven right now.....

With this kill, I thee wed....

2006-10-24T12:59:00.001-07:00

Killing, dodging, calling and handling the crowd control are things that each of us are familiar with when it comes to running in a raid, but matrimony?

Entering into the plasmic screen that carries you trans to a deeper part of Blackrock than the average person dare go, 10 of us took that step with total ease. Knowing all too well that we’ve all taken that same step time and time again only comforts us more. Organizing, buffing and detailing the tasks at hand we all get prepared for the journey ahead, the journey we’ve gathered on that particular evening to take care of with less than required assistance.

Tanking, healing, stunning and area spelling we found ourselves climbing higher and higher into the spire, reaching closer to the end goal of finishing an attunement. “Just up ahead we’ll take out Gyth and Rend which will not take long then it’s a couple kills, The Beast, then on to pull a few packs and kill Drak.” Gyth and Rend fall easily enough without much of a loot drop; the packs from the next room are taken to half by pulling a few down into Rend’s room first. With a death by the beloved leader’s better half we knew we needed to protect our “squishies” a bit better. A few moments later we receive word that our hunter, who is still learning, was apparently “multi-shotting” and breaking the morph. No love lost there, we continued on. Into the next room a corner was still left full of dragonkin and we knew exactly must be done….. At this point someone actually stopped to think and pointed out that 8 out of our fierce 10 were “couples”. Sol, NG, Snar, Moogaa, Gaili, Fupoo, Yex and War. So for the rest of the kills in which I will not bore you with, our remaining two… Kendrik and Maelc became life partners.

Oh and the raid finished quickly thereafter with all mobs/bosses dying as planned and only one more death by the kiting volunteer…..

Yeah most of us lived happily ever after but I’ve heard rumors of an annulment and I won’t mention by whom…

And Here Comes The Lock

2006-10-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick shot of Fulock, my alternate toon. He is only around 20-something and I don't play him quite enough due to the pvp and rep grind I spend most of my non-raid time doing. The new expansion will eliminate the need to push the pvp grind but rep still helps with 'phat lewts' at the rep vendors. I'll write out my opinions on that subject sooner or later.

-Teh Fu

A Tauren Daydream

2006-10-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

To The Core (pt. II)

2006-10-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

.... the heat's lapping at my face. "Almost unbearable" I mutter glancing over my shoulder towards Gaili merely checking to see if she's still moving along. "Where is he?", she asks only to be answered with the same answer again and again. "Only a little further and around these rocks.", I reply half interested in another response.

We make it to the portal that a great "King" would only wonder could lead to Todash and I tell her to merely close her eyes and step through. The fear will subside with either instant death by something on the other side or an earthy warm feeling below her hoofed feet. She takes a step through and without second thought I follow.....

We are kindly greeted by a lion pawing at the dirt. "Arrr ye ready?" He asks. "Doors are unlocked and path is looking clear as we go." "We shall follow till the end.", I comply verbally as Gaili and I join our companion in this 'lionesque' form. We all begin to prowl in a hunched slowing pace to avoid detection and make our way into the belly of this burning hot dungeon.

We find little resistance or detection although I was sure our covers were blown a couple of times. We take time for entertainment and kill a lava elemental who continually grew to a size of immediate intimidation. "Good thing we all travel in the way of the healer", I say as I recuperate quickly enough. We reach the edge of a cliff with two of us knowing what was about to come. Duerdon jumps to a lower ledge as I nudge Gaili towards the same point with my cat's now dulling horn. "Just land where he did and it'll be fine." She complies without hesitation finding her a nice landing spot just behind him. In line I make my leap and fall into position behind them.

Duerdon explains the plan. “We will jump/swim our way across while the person behind heals as far as their gift can reach. After that the person on the other side will pick up.” This for him meant no one on the other side, and for me meant no one following me out. Gaili got the best of both considering she had a leader and a trailer but she probably would need it the most having not been through this area before. All went well until Gaili made it to the other side. One important part of the plan was left out and she ventured too far up the other ledge only to draw an aggressive attack from 3 or 4 fire elementals. Wipe, reset and journey down again. This time things went flawlessly and we made our way to the end. Gaili grabbed her required quest element and became one more from our family to become attuned…. To The Core.

To The Core

2006-10-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sweat rolling from our pores we approached the entrance of Black Rock Mountain we climb the steps to exhaustion. Only minutes have gone by since we left a group of adventurers to their own luck in Zul'Gurub in the peninsular area of Stranglethorn Vale and hopped a bird to Thorium Pointe. We were to meet up with Duerdon our guilds Raid healing leader but he had a head start. Gailipoo and I trekked our way down the rocky paths towards entrance dodging fiery elementals and huge spiders *shudder* only to be slapped in the face by the tremendous heat forcing its way to an escape at the mountains entrance door.

"I've managed to get all the needed doors open and am ready when you guys arrive", came the magical telepathy from D. We had been attempting to do this for days when finally I told Gaili that we needed to stop beating around the fur and just do it. "You need to get attuned for MC for when you reach the coveted 60 you'll be greatly rewarded with the drops and fun you'll experience there." "Uh, ok", she said half paying attention. Not having the chance to grab my fire resist gear did worry me knowing the way we were going to attempt this feat but I had done it before, what’s a couple of deaths if that happens, right?

"My fur is starting to nap up", Gaili mentioned as she tried wringing the sweat from her Taurenesque body with her very able hoof-hands. "Yeah, well it only gets hotter from here."

We make our way into the mountain passing other beaten down travelers who seemed to have already been on some runs throughout this very mountain. Skeletons and bone fragments glistened in the fiery flicker of the molten lava from hundreds of yards below. Traveling down the chains I try not to let my fat hooves get the best of my balance and before too long we are standing in front of a night elf by the name of Lothos Riftwaker desperately trying to get Gaili's attention. She speaks to him for but a moment before we are off and descending even further into the cavernous depths of Black Rock Mountain....

(to be continued...)

Gnashing Under My Fur

2006-10-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

cough... "How horrid does this place smell?" ...cough*cough... I look over to the druid who has been following me now for three long days only to find that she is no longer paying attention to me or the pungent toxic smell that has been dragging us down for hours. "We need to make it to Light's Hope Chapel." A man by the name of Carlin Redpath had requested us to pick up a couple things on the way but the last time we attempted it, it was disastrous. We needed to pick up a piece from a farm or such in the Western Plaguelands, then head north to a place we had never heard of... Hearthglen.

(rewind 2 weeks)

The farm recon and retrieval went pretty much as a piece of cake but we had yet to discover the true location of Hearthglen. Once we had found it we realized it was infested with elites. On top of that there were some roaming bigger elites that loved to sneak in behind you and ruin your day. We eventually massacred our way into this place only to find that the elites we would be up against at the Town Hall (where we needed to retrieve this last item) were paladins. "I hate Palli's" I said as I chewed on a blade of grass. "What’s the big deal with them?" "You'll see", I say.

A couple pulls later my fair druid counter part realized that they heal and bubble. For those unaware of the bubble, it is basically an impenetrable shield that lasts for a series of seconds. A lot of which the time is used to heal. They still did not stand a chance against our tactics and strategies. We could even outlast them in mana till they fell dead of wounds and exhaustion.

At the entrance of the town hall we found we could not separate 2 of them and must fight them together. This wasn’t feasible. Having to morph into a bear to tank them depleted my DPS (damage per second) and basically game them a lot of time to heal... and heal each other.

(back to present)

We gave up for now and figured we may wait for several of our guild members to join just to knock it out later. We never got around to it but in wanting to raise my partners level that evening I decided to attempt it again. We fought our way back to the Town Hall and... well... Long of it short we were gonna have to use either the sneak, run and grab while one takes a beating or attempt the all famous BTIC tactic. BTIC is Bury Them In Corpses and that doesn’t really work its more of a joke. I took a death in order for her to get it, then basically she did the same, having 6 human paladins wailing on her, didn’t give her much of a chance of survival but it was enough to accomplish our goal...

And that my friends is why one day I will go back to that place with a raid of friends just to kill everything I see. Oh and for any curious adventurers out there.... The money isn’t too bad either.

Welcome To Poo

2006-10-02T02:45:00.000-07:00

You will wonder at some point and may even now ponder the reason I would put a word like poo in my 'name'. Well it is not an Asian spin or dish that brought about this remarkable naming scheme nor was it a bright angel or apparition appearing to me in the middle of the night and advised me I must use it. It was, it was Poo. No actually it was Oos Poo.

Long, long ago... In a galaxy far.. far.. away.... was a group of friends starting on a new epic journey into a new epic world that would bond them to each other and others who's path they would cross.... for many, many years to come. These people whose names shall ever be remembered as Descartes, Arcticblob and Maarken. While out testing this new found source of enlightenment they came across a dog type walking upright and dressed to boot. Well actually this is a race of persons called a Bothan. The glimmer hovering above his head labeled this traveler 'Oos' actually it was Oos Poo.

This Bothan taught them many things about this new world and shared with them much knowledge as well as many gifts. Introducing his new friends to his acquired group of misfitted friends they eventually became known as SiN. Sanity in Negation. Times became mundane for Descartes and he eventually fell away from the desire to venture into this world as the deities began making changes to the fabric of reality. And soon SiN became a faint memory of his monikers past. A year or more goes by and he begins to miss the adventures into new realms and finds himself in a new series of adventures in Rome: Total War as well as GuildWars.

Neither of these could quench his thirst for adventure with his ka-tet. (as King would say) and eventually the deity types in the universe of Blizzard answered his beckoning with the lands of WoW.

Around this same time most of SiN (still on SWG) was becoming forever more tired of the deities horrible interpretation of new content and skill nerfs and decided to venture into WoW. So again these families united on a new front. While Descartes was deciding which moniker to take on in this new world he decided to adopt the name of his friend/coach of his original home. Also having been wrapped up in his life with his practice of the martial art Kung Fu, decided the rhyming scheme was cute and quaint enough to become such. And here we stand again folks. Fupoo, Arcticblob, and a Tauren (cow/bull-like creature) named Moopoo joining again as a family in SiN in a new world... and thus the story shall really begin.

2006-09-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

In The Beginning There Was Poo