| Snow Day |
[February 10, 2010 @ 8:02am] |
We already had two feet of snow. I didn't see any particular need for more, but nobody asked me. Hence, more. Falling right now. And all night last night, it looks like. And all night tonight if the predictions come true. Wheee. More snow. Oh, goody.
Likely the book I was expecting from Amazon won't arrive in this. Nor will my honey's Netflix. And although something's wrong with the heat system so we're never quite warm inside, we won't get warmed up in the the hot tub if I'm not willing to shovel another foot of snow first. Which I'm not, at least not while more is still falling. (Besides, it's a little chilly to be snowed on while sitting in the hot tub. If there's no wind it can be nice imo, but my honey never likes it. We need some kind of shelter over the hot tub.)
At least it does qualify as a snow day, so my honey is home. That part is nice.
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| P.U.G.s |
[February 09, 2010 @ 9:18am] |
Okay, now I've tried the DF, and as I should have expected, PUGs formed that way are about the same as PUGs formed elsewise. Maybe a little bit worse because of slightly greater anonymity (since they're drawn from a whole battlegroup rather than just one server). I've gone as tank (where I was also obliged to be off-healer) and as DPS (where I was also off-tank and off-healer). Got in quicker as tank, but found the group ineptitude less frustrating as DPS since I felt less responsible for their survival.
Of course these were very low-level toons and it's possible that higher-level dungeons would be less chaotic, but I was startled to find that the players appeared to have no idea how a dungeon is best run. They tended to scatter in every direction, attacking whatever came to hand; if one went down, the others went on; they might as well have been there independently.
If (and that's a big if) your group does manage to get all the way through the dungeon (or at least through the last boss, which isn't always the same thing), you do get a nice goodie bag. Unfortunately low-level toons who've graduated Ragefire Chasm get Wailing Caverns. All of it. I can't imagine any PUG getting all the way through Wailing Caverns. It's long, it's complicated, it positively requires at least a modicum of teamwork, and somebody has to know the way. I spent over two hours in there yesterday and didn't get the goodies. There were things like, we're standing in front of a boss when suddenly the tank insists we return the way we just came in search of...I don't know. A different boss?
When people started leaving and the DF wanted me to queue up for WC again, I declined. Ew. Enough, already. In fact, that's enough to put me right off the DF till I'm old enough to think I won't be stuck with WC again. I'd like to do Deadmines, but not at cost of having to do WC again. Ever.
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| Dungeon Finder |
[February 03, 2010 @ 10:00pm] |
This is an exciting new tool in WoW. I am eager to try it. I am chicken. [With arms flapping, you strut around Chicken. Cluck, Cluck, Chicken!]
So many scary aspects! Frex, I never can remember quickly how to talk in party (or, sometimes, at all); what if they get impatient if I don't answer fast enough?
I can't type while running unless the path is very, very straight and long; what if they want to talk while moving?
I've no experience at all with the loot mechanism; what if I can't quickly figure out what to do when loot wants rolled on (or whatever it is loot has done to it to decide whose it is)?
The toon I want to try the dungeon finder will grow up to be a protadin tank but she's ret specced now and I'm not sure how melee dps is used in dungeons. (I thought of respeccing her prot so she could tank early, but couldn't find any shield spikes on her realm and got discouraged. I really like a shield spike for my protadins.)
Plus, children are cruel. I'm afraid they'll sneer at my ignorance and inexperience. Not that it would do me any harm, but I wouldn't like it.
[sigh] How are children brave enough to learn how to do this stuff? How is anyone?
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| Dystopia |
[January 29, 2010 @ 8:30pm] |
PvP is definitely not for me. I'm playing on a realm where friends have 80s they don't want to move, but I probably won't be there much longer. I find to my surprise that I'm really not even annoyed by being ganked, and I tend to be a solo player anyway; but I realized today that I'm avoiding some of my favorite places to quest because there would be opposing-faction players in too much plenty there. Whether they insist on killing me, or flee when they see me, it's just not the pleasant experience I want from WoW.
I had thought I understood that part of the fun of MMORPGs was meant to be the interaction of all those massively-multi players, yet play on a PvP realm seems to explicitly discourage fun player interactions. Not only do high-level toons actually inconvenience themselves to gank lowbies, but many lowbies consequently go to some trouble to avoid high-levels of the opposing faction. Nor do same-side toons seem to band together, probably because they are naturally concerned, when they see someone ganking another, that if they get involved, the ganker will turn out to have friends.... Kind of like real life, that. PvP is like living in a dystopian big city, and I don't like big cities at the best of times.
Pretty soon I'll choose some poor-seeming low-level who doesn't look like a banking alt, and hand over my gold before deleting my character. That part, at least, will be fun. I'm fairly good at making in-game money, and it's always a pleasure to give it to an unsuspecting n00b. Gives them such a wrong idea of the game.
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| PvP vs PvE |
[January 27, 2010 @ 9:31pm] |
Alla time in the WoW forums the players on PvP realms insult the players on normal or "care bear" realms, as though it took skill and courage to play on a PvP realm. The courage part I knew could be discounted without question; there's nothing any player's toon can do to one of mine that will hurt me, so where's courage needed? However, I thought maybe greater skill was for some reason required, so I rolled a toon on a PvP realm to see.
Nope. It's kinda like trying to read a good book or watch a good movie while someone else's spoiled brat children climb all over you screaming for attention. It's harder, yeah, but doesn't require more skill, just more patience. So far, I haven't been attacked by any toon near enough my level for me to know what level he was. I've been ganked incessantly by passing high-level toons who barely had to pause to one-shot me, but toons near my level -- who might require skill to fight, don't you see -- leave me alone. (I haven't yet decided whether I would fight one near my level if attacked, or just let him get his "honor" kill so I could get on with my game.)
But in a way it's easier to play on a PvP realm, because all semblance of reality is so quickly removed when one graduates the baby areas and starts getting ganked. Death is so cheap, and so unavoidable, it becomes meaningless. I used to wonder why so many Thottbot entries suggest dying as a method of completing quests ("...just die near the object, rez behind the curtain, grab the object, and run. If you die again on the way out, you can rez on the top floor without drawing aggro, and hearth out..."). One whose mains were raised on PvE servers tends to be immersed in the virtual world and consequently tries to find ways to solve problems without dying. Death is a sort of failure. It usually means you did something wrong. So you do quests the hard way, and sometimes it's a lot harder. But it also feels more real, and for me there's a greater sense of accomplishment when all's said and done.
I'm kind of sorry for all the people who've always played on PvP realms and don't know the pleasure of such immersion. But then, they're sorry for me because I'm such a coward I prefer a "care bear" realm.
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| Expectations |
[January 19, 2010 @ 11:50am] |
Why do you suppose Amazon reviewers consider it useful to tell us a book didn't meet their expectations, without telling us what exactly they expected? Here is a review in full: "Book was not quite what I expected however it was a great assistance to me and my scout troop in building and erecting a tipi for a scout show." I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from the fact that it wasn't quite what he expected. Sounds like a positive review overall. Maybe he expected it to be less useful; but then, why did he buy it?
I've run into this in other reviews and am left with the vague idea that perhaps a majority of people imagine we all share identical expectations on a given subject, so that it will be useful to tell us a book didn't meet them without having to describe just what the expectations were that went unmet. But what an odd world that would be to live in!
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| Oops |
[January 16, 2010 @ 4:37pm] |
I am mortified to say that when I went back to that author's Web page to look for a sequel to the book I had bought, I realized to my horror that ... wait for it ... my "correction" that caused such an outburst was, in fact, plain wrong!
LOL. I think I'm going senile. I make plenty of mistakes of course, but that is the first time ever that I've made such a gross error in copy editing and/or proofreading. And to do it in a tone that so offended! Wow. When I blow it, I blow it big time.
I've apologized (again), and the author has suggested we might have coffee together if we're ever in roughly the same place at the same time, so I guess I'm forgiven. But wow.
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| Ouch |
[January 09, 2010 @ 12:28am] |
I was considering a book purchase and had to go to the author's Web page to find out whether the author's style would be readable for me. There I found an error in the first sentence, so I spent several minutes searching for a way to mention it to the author. When I finally found it, I'd worked up quite a sense of amusement over the whole thing, and I completely forgot the author didn't know me from Adam and shared none of my background (this is not a science fiction author).
Oops. I so offended, with what I fondly imagined would amuse, that the response included not just the assertion that I'm smug and self-absorbed and my note suffused with condescension, but also that I spend my time behind liquor stores with "johns [sic] d***s in" my mouth.
I am in awe.
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| Eyes Eyes Euw |
[December 19, 2009 @ 4:27pm] |
I found reviews of a book interesting, so I looked at the first pages, and found this on the first or second page: "I rose slowly from my chair in the front parlor, scanning my eyes over the worn furniture with the eyes of someone who hadn't become accustomed to its growing shabbiness for over twenty years."
I put it back on the shelf. Perhaps I've become too critical in my old age, but I just didn't think I could read through that style, no matter how intriguing the plot. It's harsh to judge an author by one awkward sentence; OTOH it's pretty careless of the author to allow something that infelicitous right in the first couple of pages.
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| Grammar Police |
[December 08, 2009 @ 9:11am] |
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From an article in Newsweek: "Female bosses are twice as likely than their male counterparts...."
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| Leftovers |
[November 30, 2009 @ 5:35pm] |
Today I turned the turkey carcass into yummy soup. Tomorrow I plan to make bread from a recipe my friend Flossy gave me, to go with the leftover soup. The bread is full of gluten, so ignore recipe if you can't eat that.
DILLY BREAD:
3 tsp yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup water
2 T sugar
1T dry onion flakes
1 tsp salt
1 T dill seed
1 T butter
1 egg
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
2 1/4 cups flour
To the dissolved yeast add sugar, onion flakes, butter, salt, cottage cheese, dill seed, baking soda and egg; mix well. Add flour slowly, beating after each addition. Cover with cloth and let rise in warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. Stir down and form into a loaf or shape into 12 rolls on a greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaf 40-45 mins or rolls 12-15 mins. Remove from pan and brush with melted butter.
Flossy does the mixing in her bread machine, and adds 2 T gluten and enough water to make it not too stiff. Hers always turns out absolutely delicious, so I plan to follow her instructions slavishly in the hope of similar results.
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| Fish Tacos! |
[November 29, 2009 @ 6:10pm] |
The Save the Murlocs Foundation aims to preserve and protect these majestic creatures. Through numerous awareness and outreach programs, we work to outlaw Murloc cruelty, help rebuild villages, protest part harvesting, and find homes for poor orphaned baby Murlocs.
("Actual murlocs were harmed in the making of this film.")
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| We're Doomed |
[November 13, 2009 @ 8:38am] |
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Good Housekeeping, not a literary magazine by any means, but certainly a professional one, of whose writers one expects a basic grasp of language, wants me to buy clothes that "compliment" my shape. They mention this repeatedly in one article. I am overwhelmed by images of women walking around in clothing that mutters compliments in an undertone, barely audible over ambient noises...And wouldn't that make quite an interesting ambient noise in the office, if every woman there bought clothing that complimented her shape?
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| No Spikka da Inglis |
[November 08, 2009 @ 6:40pm] |
So I'm trying to read this mystery novel, and I come across this passage: "Spence had my hair color, my late older brother's handsome features, and my late husband's eyes. But, although the light green hue and large, round shape were Calvin McClure's, the emotional expression inside them held little resemble to the man I'd married...."
Okay, so everybody needs a proofreader once in a while, but how do you explain "...put a hand on my shoulder and asked Sadie and I to take a seat...." followed only a couple of pages later by "waddled" for "wattled" and "he has another thing coming" for "he has another think coming," not to mention using "me" when "I" is wanted (perhaps just to balance using "I" when "me" is wanted)? Looks like we need more than just a proofreader.
Oh, well. The book has other problems. The author's voice is quite pleasant, but I do wish publishers could afford competent copy editors as needed.
I will try another author now.
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| dukka |
[November 02, 2009 @ 10:19am] |
I regret to say that I want things to be different. That is the core of all suffering. I know better. That doesn't stop me. I want things to be different.
I live in a nice house in a pretty place with my very dear honey and spoiled brat cat. I can have just about anything (reasonable) that money can buy. It doesn't matter: I don't want things.
I miss Hawaii, I miss Upham, I miss my friends. I have been blessed with great good fortune, having lived twenty years in a tropical paradise and having got, when I left it, some five years in a wintry haven with wonderful friends and a palatial dwelling many would kill for. And I am very grateful for those years. I just haven't been able, yet, to let go of them and embrace my new reality.
I'm working on it. I try to organize my tiny little sewing room so I can use it, and I got that Janome I wanted. I have many UFOs (that's Unfinished Fabric Objects) and many ideas for more (that I naturally hope will be finished someday), and I get out the pieces sometimes and lay them out on the table (haven't figured out how to make a design wall in the space provided) to look at them. That's usually about as far as I get, but it's a start. Or so I tell myself.
I've even gone so far as to start thinking about writing. I have thoughts about a mystery series, but there are no words on paper yet (and not many stored electronically either), and I don't know that there will be. I hadn't meant to write again. We'll see. If I did, it would at least be better than spending the rest of my life playing WoW.
This is a good place, and my honey has friends here, which he had not in Hawaii or Upham. He has work, too, which was not readily available in Hawaii or Upham. And it seems to be work that pleases him. These are good things. If we cannot both have what we need in any one place, I expect it's better that he have what he needs, as I'm more likely to be able to adjust. I suppose it's not really amazing that it takes a little time, though.
Guess I'll go do the laundry now.
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| Number 37! |
[September 11, 2009 @ 11:41am] |
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Here's a cool song about the USA's existing healthcare system as compared with 36 other industrialized nations.
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