Another Thanksgiving has passed, another Black Friday has trampled by, another Cyber Monday (can we please change that name, guys?) has been placed in the annals of history. This past week has left many of us here in the U.S. with bellies full of delicious foods, hearts warmed by family, friends, and loved ones, and our fridges stuffed with leftovers that will serve to remind us – at least for a little while – what we are all thankful for (they also help us to get through these two huge shopping events so we can worry more about deals and less about what to eat).

I am sure many of us have braced the crowds and cold (region-depending) over the weekend to secure some of the deals that went on out there, possibly treating ourselves to any number of the gaming deals to be had. Not me, however. Monetary reasons aside, I have leftovers of a different kind to munch on, and these ones will not go bad by any date.

My leftovers are of the videogame variety and take on two forms. I have talked about one form a number of times over the past few weeks (either in my introductory post, in the comments, or on one of the last few podcasts): My ability to complete games was compromised years ago. It really is something I am working on, and perhaps making this known publicly here will encourage me to take a stand and fight like a man… Virtually speaking.

The other form is one that does not rear its head in all our gaming habits, but it does in mine: The quest for Trophies (or Achievements for lesser men and women). I will not necessarily go out of my way to get a Trophy (I will never play 50 ranked online matches in MotorStorm: Pacific Rift regardless of how great the game is (really great!) or how smooth the online play is (really smooth!), but I’ll gladly waste a few minutes here and there to score one (I spent 20 minutes one day waiting for any random player to join my hosted online quest in Sacred 2: Fallen Angel to get the Bronze “Hospitable” Trophy only to log off immediately after they joined).

Eric J’s Guide To Hospitality:
“Thank you so much for coming over!
Now get the HELL out of my face, BUP!”
(… if that is your real name…)

Having a list of leftover games and an even longer list of things to do within them is something I am thankful for. It never gets old and is always in season! And that has got to be the cheesiest thing I have ever said.

What are you Lusiprites thankful for in relation to gaming? Do you have gaming leftovers you are working on? (Ginia: You only have to answer the first question; we both know you have games unfinished.)

Especially the random and unexpected ones. These appeared last night on my freshly dinged DK during my daily quest run:

I would like to thank the Pilgrim event, without which her cooking skill would still be 7.

In case you missed it, (though with such relentless output from me, how could you not notice?),  November was National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) for me.  I joined up a month ago and I pledged to post religiously all month.

So I saturated the blogosphere with my inanity. Sorry.

A month on, what have I learned about me and blogging?

• Although it was good to have to think daily about recording my various responses to the world about me, and somewhat unifying to take a theme (I – predictably I guess – chose Gratitude), I do think that many of the posts were even more banal than usual.  But then, maybe one or two were better… perhaps I got in the swing a little?  On the whole though, it was a little bit of a reductive process, which suggests to me I’d be no good at being a full-time writer who had to discipline herself daily to commit to generating words.
• I don’t think that I have time in my daily life to make blogging some kind of ultimate priority.  At times sleep or sanity were sacrificed to getting the post done… and that is not a recipe for sustainability.
• Although I may not have anything scintillating to say even on a good day, I do prefer to just blog as the whim takes me – much the same way as I write in my personal journals.  That way the pressure to perform is removed and pleasure in the process remains.
• Sometimes the thought of the blog lurking in the background has reduced my experience of certain events to bloggable-topic style reflections, and this seems a little wrong somehow.

It was a good experiment – and who knows, maybe I might even have made it through the lottery of NaBloPoMo and may even win a prize… but that was not the motivation that kept me going.  As with anything, it was the accepting the challenge and then wanting to carry through.

I am grateful to all who have read my musings so far and especially to those of you who have left comments.  I have developed a habit now (though hopefully not an unhealthy obsession) so I will be back here again soon, though in the next couple of weeks there is a lot going on with our preparation to get to London for the holidays, so it might be a bit of a quiet time.

I want to explain what happened to me on that day.  The day that I started to cut myself.  I felt horrible back then and I heard about self-injury on the news and was hooked since.  I used to cut myself whenever I became emotional, but now I do it because of how unsatisfied I am.  Why am I unsatisfied?  It doesn’t take alot to understand, really.  I think that I’ve already explained that enough.  I was messed up back then and I am a completely different person!

It felt like the world has collapsed all around me.  I was in a vulnerable place in my life and it felt like no one wanted anything to do with me.  I just got kicked out of my brother’s place because I was unable to find a job.  I guess I couldn’t handle the pressure.  Was what he demanded impossible for me to achieve?  I don’t think that it was.  I should have at least have tried harder.  Who knows how different my life would be if I would have gotten a job sooner.

I can’t keep thinking like that though.  It’s time to move forward.  It can’t be that hard.  People do it all the time.  Why am I stuck in the past?  Is it because I know that I should have handled things in a different way?  Why am I unsatisfied anyway?  Do I deserve this?  Do I deserve to be punished?  Why am I always putting myself down all the time?  Is my self-esteem that low?  I have alot of questions that I don’t have the answers to.  I guess I have alot of thinking and talking to do.

Last night was an epicly awesome night of raiding! In fact, the whole weekend was rather good. Saturday night we killed Onyxia [25] and then the Northrend Beasts [25]. We started Sunday with a quick VoA25 – Koralon/Emalon/Archavon annihilation and then went on to kill Jaraxxus and then PWNED the Faction Champions on 25 man for the first time EVER! Everyone was on their toes and giving their all. We’re not a guild experienced in the art of PVP and most of us forget to use PVP talents in places like Wintergrasp, but I saw MUCH crowd control going on from our side! DKs were yanking the warlock when he started hellfiring, chains of ice, disarm from the rogue, cyclone, typhooning mobs away from the healers, strangulate, mind freeze, wind shear, totems totems everywhere! WOOT!

We got a couple good shots at the Val’kyr but it was running late so people were about ready to wind down and such, but since the guild did so well, we’ve elected to extend the ID for one week. We don’t usually do this when so many need gear from it, but we were buzzing with excitement and want to give ourselves a little more time to get a few shots at the later bosses.

So, the week of staying home and playing WoW has come to an end. I made the most of it, capped off with a 2:30am tanking of regular 5 man ToC. Yes, I am dragging this morning, thank you very much.

So this is progression, eh? My recently dinged DK, wearing one piece of iLevel 226 from badges, purples from HToC and regular heroics, a few blues and even a green trinket, with 25man VoA as his only raid achievement … finished 10 man ToC. Respectably, mind you, not being completely carried. He even got a piece of loot! (yes, _a_ piece of loot, as in … one. Karius goes in there and everything that drops is plate. Kalyon goes in and it’s all caster gear. @#@#%!) AND he lived for the victory pic!

Speaking of Karius, he went to 25man ToC on Friday night and stank up the joint. Not standing in fires or blowing up the raid or anything like that, just … not pulling his weight on the dps.  Ok, off to the armory. I looked up myself and the other two mages in the raid. My gear was comparable to theirs. I had more haste than one of them, and much much less than the other (he had over 900 holy cow!) Ok so it’s not lack of gear or the wrong stats. Just having an off night might explain part of it, but it obviously was deeper than that.

HERE is where recount is helpful, folks. I compared my harmful attacks with those of the other two mages and found that they were casting almost twice as many spells as I was. So I did what I should have done a long time ago… I downloaded Quartz. Yes, I know, I’m a failmage for not having it sooner! Oh well. Just in a few minutes of goofing around with it, it was painfully clear that I just wasn’t pushing the buttons fast enough/at the right time. Oy.

I spent some time becoming more familiar with it, then was invited to Heroic ToC-10 last night. Alright, here’s my chance to prove myself. The two hunters still killed me, but I put up over 4k over the course of the night and we downed everything but Anub. AND we had a paladin along who joined the guild mid-raid and likes Noggenfoggers. Oooh yeahhhh.

So after that I’m hanging around Dalaran and some guildies are going back into an Ulduar they have started and are on Vezax. I’ve cleared up to him before but never downed him, so I’m tempted, but I beg off since it is 11:30pm. Somehow I get talked into it anyway, and it’s a mostly guild group, so I figure what the heck. It took a number of tries, but we did get him down.

We took a break to watch the Yogg video on Youtube since most of us had never been that far before, then jumped in and gave it a few tries. We had three healers, so after a couple attempts we all just stacked on Sara for the first phase. That got us through so we could at least try the second phase. What a fun fight! We got nowhere, of course, partly because it was 2am by now, but still … I’m looking forward to trying it again.

After that … I should have gone to bed. But, my warrior buddy was on who I had promised to help gear up in regular ToC, so we got a guild group together for one quick run through there before crashing. None of the stuff he needed for his tank spec dropped, but we had a good time anyway.

What happens when you all gear up in the same instance? You look alike! Can you tell which one is the warrior and which one is the death knight? :p

Aight, I gotta pretend to work here. Cyas!

2010 Olympic Torchbearer Laila Saleh with Rod McLeod holding a Montreal 1976 Olympic Games Torch in Newcastle, New Brunswick.

Sheridan School of Business student Laila Saleh braved the rainy weather to run the Olympic Torch through Newcastle, New Brunswick, courtesy of The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) one of the sponsors of the Canada-wide event.

Saleh, a Banking and Wealth Management program student, won her opportunity of a lifetime through a contest offered by her employer RBC. Saleh, who balances a career in banking at the RBC Visa National office in Toronto and studies in banking at the Sheridan School of Business in Oakville, was recognized by RBC for her excellent customer relationship skills.

Laila's Olympic Torch is officially lit for the torch relay.

“I won the Olympic Torch Relay because of the referrals I have received for generating revenue for RBC despite the market turmoil.  It really is my once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in the Vancouver Olympic 2010 as a torchbearer and I am blessed to be part of this truly exciting event,” said Saleh.

As part of the prize package, RBC provided an all-expenses paid trip to Miramchi, New Brunswick for Saleh and a friend so she could join the Olympic Torch Relay and carry the flame.  For more information on the Olympic Torch Relay be sure to visit The Globe and Mail or view online at CTVOlympics or at RBC.

Laila Saleh carries the Olympic Torch through Newcastle amid cheering well-wishers.

There are several people in the world who are currently using Steam. When I say several, I do of course mean several thousand. Who knows how many are playing and working towards something that helped tip Steamworks as one of the greatest indie resources available: Achievements.

Now, are achievements a good thing? Who knows? All I can do in my position as blogger is to tell you what I think and hope to charge you for the priviledge (Granted, I won’t, but I can dream), so here’s my thoughts on the subject. First off, they are very good at what they do. I usually spend most of the first week or so after a TF2 update playing about and trying to get these achievements. So I’m playing the game to get these achievements, and thus am moving back to their game. So achievements are a way of getting people back to your game, even if they haven’t played them in months, especially if it encourages a different way of playing.

The problem with humans is that they must have some system of telling someone that they are better than everyone else. If I was a lesser man, I’d be rubbing it in your face that I have unlocked every single one of those medic achievements. As I am, I am obliged to tell you that I’m therefore a better dolphin than you are, since I can jump through Valve’s hoops better than you. Ah, here would be the issue.

Every TF2 update just fills the game world with idiots who just grind for these achievements forever. The scout update was particularly annoying, since there were tons of the quick-moving, self-centred pricks. I really don’t like the sound of the soldier update. Achievements are things that are useful. Especially if they are written well, and are achievable through normal game play. The problem is, that a lot of achievements just involve you playing like a twit, and in a game like TF2, it really annoys your team mates.

I’m undecided myself about whether people should keep making these achievements. Yes, they make people replay your game, but so many people make it too difficult to achieve them without completing the game simply and easily.

Of course,not everyone was in favour of reform at the outest.In the beginning two provinces took the lead:Sichuan and Anhui.We worked out the principles and policies of reform on the basis of the experience accumulated by these two provinces.One or two years after we publicized these  principles and policies ,some provinces had misgivings about them and others didn’t know what to think ,but in the end they all followed suit ,The Central Committee’s policy was to wait for them to be convinced by facts.

  Generally speaking ,once the peasants’ initiative was brought into play ,the rural reform developed very quickly.Our greatest success——and it is one we had by no means anticipated——has been the emergence of a large number of enterprises run by villages and townships.They were like a new force that just came into being spontaneously.These enterprises engage in the most diverse,including both manufacturing and trade.The Central Committee takes no credit for this ,The annual output value of these village and township enterprises has been increasing by more than 20 percent every year.Their output value has been greater than in the corresponding period last year。This increase in village and township enterprises,particularly industrial enterprises,has provided job for 50 percent of the surplus labour in the countryside.Instead of flocking into the cities,the surplus farm workers have been building up a new type of village and townships.If the Central Commmittee made any contribution in this respect,it was only by laying down the correct policy of invigorating the domestie economy .The fact that this policy of invigorating the domestic economy.The fact that this policy has had such a favourable result shows that we made a good decision .But this result was not anything that I or any of the other comrades had foreseen;it just came out of the blue.In short ,the rural reform has produced rapid and noticeable results.Of course ,that doesn’t mean all the problems in the countryside have been solved.

  The success of the reform in the countryside emboldened us to apply the experience we had gained from it to economic restructuring in the cities ,That too has been very successful,although it is more complicated than rural reform.

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Of course,not everyone was in favour of reform at the outest.In the beginning two provinces took the lead:Sichuan and Anhui.We worked out the principles and policies of reform on the basis of the experience accumulated by these two provinces.One or two years after we publicized these  principles and policies ,some provinces had misgivings about them and others didn’t know what to think ,but in the end they all followed suit ,The Central Committee’s policy was to wait for them to be convinced by facts.

  Generally speaking ,once the peasants’ initiative was brought into play ,the rural reform developed very quickly.Our greatest success——and it is one we had by no means anticipated——has been the emergence of a large number of enterprises run by villages and townships.They were like a new force that just came into being spontaneously.These enterprises engage in the most diverse,including both manufacturing and trade.The Central Committee takes no credit for this ,The annual output value of these village and township enterprises has been increasing by more than 20 percent every year.Their output value has been greater than in the corresponding period last year。This increase in village and township enterprises,particularly industrial enterprises,has provided job for 50 percent of the surplus labour in the countryside.Instead of flocking into the cities,the surplus farm workers have been building up a new type of village and townships.If the Central Commmittee made any contribution in this respect,it was only by laying down the correct policy of invigorating the domestie economy .The fact that this policy of invigorating the domestic economy.The fact that this policy has had such a favourable result shows that we made a good decision .But this result was not anything that I or any of the other comrades had foreseen;it just came out of the blue.In short ,the rural reform has produced rapid and noticeable results.Of course ,that doesn’t mean all the problems in the countryside have been solved.

  The success of the reform in the countryside emboldened us to apply the experience we had gained from it to economic restructuring in the cities ,That too has been very successful,although it is more complicated than rural reform.

Mbt shoes uk     Mbt Lami     Mbt m walk

Of course,not everyone was in favour of reform at the outest.In the beginning two provinces took the lead:Sichuan and Anhui.We worked out the principles and policies of reform on the basis of the experience accumulated by these two provinces.One or two years after we publicized these  principles and policies ,some provinces had misgivings about them and others didn’t know what to think ,but in the end they all followed suit ,The Central Committee’s policy was to wait for them to be convinced by facts. Mbt shoe    Mbt sport shoes    Mbt walking shoes

  Generally speaking ,once the peasants’ initiative was brought into play ,the rural reform developed very quickly.Our greatest success——and it is one we had by no means anticipated——has been the emergence of a large number of enterprises run by villages and townships.They were like a new force that just came into being spontaneously.These enterprises engage in the most diverse,including both manufacturing and trade.The Central Committee takes no credit for this ,The annual output value of these village and township enterprises has been increasing by more than 20 percent every year.Their output value has been greater than in the corresponding period last year。This increase in village and township enterprises,particularly industrial enterprises,has provided job for 50 percent of the surplus labour in the countryside.Instead of flocking into the cities,the surplus farm workers have been building up a new type of village and townships.If the Central Commmittee made any contribution in this respect,it was only by laying down the correct policy of invigorating the domestie economy .The fact that this policy of invigorating the domestic economy.The fact that this policy has had such a favourable result shows that we made a good decision .But this result was not anything that I or any of the other comrades had foreseen;it just came out of the blue.In short ,the rural reform has produced rapid and noticeable results.Of course ,that doesn’t mean all the problems in the countryside have been solved.

  The success of the reform in the countryside emboldened us to apply the experience we had gained from it to economic restructuring in the cities ,That too has been very successful,although it is more complicated than rural reform.

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It’s been coming all the more clearer with the amount of Pvping I am doing,  that the biggest battle in a BG is not with the opposite faction,  it’s with your own team.

It’s not just the people who are unsure what they are doing, don’t know how to play.  It’s the semi premades   doing their own thing,  the afkers,  the whiners,  the hecklers.    I have been all of the above except the Afker.  It’s a battle to find that synergy between your needs and wants and that of the BG, and this can be more so seen in a 10 man per side WSG then the other Bg’s

There was a semi premade in a Bg this weekend - afking in the enemy flag room – I get there to see them all standing round,  doing nothing.  Sighing I grab the flag and try and run back failing – I die. Rez and go back again.   Pick up the flag amongst a group of three still standing there and start running again.

“Bring it back” – I get a whisper from one of the afkers.
“Huh?”
“The flag bring it back – we are doing achievement“
“Tough” I say and keep running
“F&*^K you“

The little group of premades started abusing us – the rest of the Bg for not helping them in doing their achievement. At no time did they ask or inform us of their plan, or try and get the rest of the Bg in on it – Co-operation would have been better. They didn’t even try.

“It’s my thing” said one when we quizzed him how his self interest was helping the bg – and that affectively they were being as bad as the Afker we had already reported, and was a red dot following random people all over WSG
“Making sure you fail is going to be my thing” I say.

Well they failed, and we lost the BG. I didn’t feel satisfied. I wasted a BG – no rep – bare honor. I was being snarky – My goal is 19k more rep. My Armory may not show it, but I’m into the Revered bracket, and now 19k away from exalted. ( yeah for WSG holiday weekend) My goal is my ultimate thing. My thing goes along with the general consensus of the BG thing. Win. We win – we get rep – I am happy.
Their thing went against the general consensus of the BG thing. They interfered with the goals of the 7 other players in the Bg, and there was enough of them to affectively throw the match in the pursuit of their goal. If there were 8 or 9 of them going after the achievement – sucks to be the other players – majority rules – but when they weren’t a signficant part of the group I think they were unfairly affecting the goals and purpose of the other players.

If everyone did their own thing in a BG – there is no team work – and a massive decrease in the chances of winning.

If your going to do achievements that involve ruining the game of the other players.  Stop and consider going to the effort of getting up a proper premade group to do it. 

Cheers to the people who read this – and who suffered through some of those WSG’s with me this weekend.

I’ll be twenty five in matter of months and I feel so adult. It’s kinda scary, though.

Well… It is!

Apparently that I have so many things to achieve and suddenly I already twenty five. Eww… I remember I called one woman with “Tante” once I knew she was 25. And now I am becoming that woman. Eeewww!!! I will never ever announce my real age anymore to anyone alive after this time. Seriously. I have changed my birth year on FB, yea really, go and check. I wont be surprised if next year you are questioning about how old I am.

Ha ha ha. Actually no, being twenty five is not that scary at all. Well, maybe a bit.

The hardest part for being adult is people’s expectation on me. I hope no one minds if I put it this way: See, if I am an investment, my parents have invested their large amount of capital and now I am about to mature then expected to give them back the capital invested plus the investment rate, of course! (My Mum would cry if she reads this).

Anyway…

I’m just being honest!

Love, peace and gaul!
!!Lets not forget I still want Wii. Or Xbox is also fine!!

After a couple of weeks of hard work, I finally got my Loremaster achievement and colors.

Lore, get me a drink!

Fortunately, I love questing so it wasn’t too much of a pain, not as bad as, for example, getting an epidural. More on that another time…

While Eastern Kingdoms, Outlands and Northrend went by like a breeze, Kalimdor made me want to stick needles under my nails. The last 40 of the 685 quests needed had me running Wailing Caverns, Razorfen Kraul and Downs and the very confusing Maraudon multiple times. Fun times were had by most…

With 4 quests to go and no idea where to find them, I ended up having to switch my Desolace centaurs reputation. I had to go from hated to friendly with the Magram. At 20 points per kill, it took around 600 dead horsemen to make the switch and open up the opposite faction’s quest line. That’s a lot of meat but eventually that last quest in the line got me to 685 quests completed in Kalimdor!

Yup, centaurs look just like chicken once on the grill...

During this painful ordeal, I scoured every Kalimdor zones with the low level quest tracker on praying to see the beautiful little yellow exclamation point appear on the minimap. By the way, there are two addons I found invaluably helpful. Carbonite, amongst its many features, colors the map to show where quest mobs/items are found. The Loremaster addon puts a note on every quest in your log to let you know if it counts for a regional part of the loremaster meta achievement. Another resource that really helped me was the comments to the Kalimdor part of the achievement on Wowhead. Obviously, the Alliance version has much more info, including several lists of hard to find quests and quest starting items/rare mobs.

While running around Kalimdor, I discovered many interesting/funny things. Here are two I found worth sharing.

Poor Sea Wolf

First, in Booty Bay, I found “Sea Wolf” MacKinley starring angrily at a map of Thousand Needles with knives poking through it. Could this be related to Cataclysm? Does he wish he could take his ship there? Did Blizzard grant him his wish by flooding the zone in the next expansion??? I was most likely perturbed by my race against yellow exclamation marks and it clouded my reason. I wished I could have told him to rejoice and prepare his fleet because his wish was on its way.

Loramus the quick-footed?

In Azshara, I turned a quest at Loramus Thalipedes. This poor NPC is stranded on a lonely island off of the coast of Ashzara. His only companions are three fellhunters, his warglaives and his magic bandana.
The guy is one of the only two demon hunters on Azeroth yet he spends his life on a tiny island of solitude…
But what are those demon hunters? Good question!

I'd roll on THAT!

Demon hunters are warriors who gave up everything to gain abilities essential to fighting the Burning Legion. They’re social outcasts since they chose to wield chaotic powers to fight chaos itself. You can see a bunch of them training on top of the Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley.

They usually wield two large warglaives in the style of the Twin Blades of Azzinoth and most of them wear a bandana around their eyes. The female demon hunters tend to not wear that band of cloth and actually not much clothing at all above the waist… to distract their foes in battle probably…

A sign of their chaotic affiliation is that they traditionnally burn their own eyes out in order to gain spectral sight and see demons/undeads more clearly. That’s why they wear those funky bandanas in order to spare us all the sight of their eyeless sockets… Players can wear the Cursed Vision of Sargeras, dropped by Illidan Stormrage himself! That head piece, quite appropriately gives you a demon tracking ability. By the way, that item should be amber, the color of Illidan’s former eyes and it should also be the Cursed Vision of Lady Vashj, since she’s the one who gave it to him. See the Illidan’s Bandana Retcon for more info on this particular topic.

That bandana is black not amber...

Illidan Stormrage is the most famous and first of this class of enigmatic warriors. Also called the Betrayer, Illidan, twin brother of Malfurion turned his back on Azeroth and his people to serve Sargeras during the War of the Ancients. The leader of the Burning Legion and former Champion of the Pantheon burned Illidan’s eyes to alter his vision in order to better fight demons and undeads.

He fights in a very feminine attire... hint?

Another famous demon hunter is Leotheras the Blind. He one of the only two survivors out of the five blood elves sent by Kael’thas Sunstrider to Illidan to become demon hunters. He apparently lost his mind and ended up serving Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Caverns and is, in my opinion, one of the most fun bosses to fight in the game to this day. The other blood elf who survived the excrutiating training of Illidan is Varedis. You can find him training the new demon hunters I mentionned on top of the Black Temple.

One last note, warriors of any race can eventually become demon hunters. Most of them are Night Elves and a minority of Blood Elves. There are apparently even Human ones guarding Mount Hyjal .

FOR THE LORE!!!

Since my Loremaster title, I feel obligated to actually know a little about this Lore, of which I’m apparently the master… I’ve been reading some of the many Warcraft books and from now on, I’ll try my best to share some of that on these pages. I listen to many World of Warcraft podcasts and I always love the Lore segments of those but they often leave me more confused than before. Most of the time, those stories are told in a very esoteric way that seems aimed at people with an already vast knowledge of the history of Azeroth. So in order to make sense of it all, I’m starting at the beginning, with the Titans and will work my way down from there… Baby steps… baby steps…

Next time on these pages: Are the Windrunner the Ewings of Azeroth?

Cheers!

Erika (right) leaps over the hurdles in the Year 6 girls' final.

The sun shone brightly on the annual rural schools’ athletics championships held on Friday at the Vogel Street athletics complex. Students from the Cambridge rural schools took part in ten events including sprints, throws and jumps. Well doem to Cam who was runner up in the Year 4 boys overall championship and to our relay team who finished third in a hotly contested race.

I see red! The Karapiro School athletics team.

The boys first visit with Santa. They didn’t quite know what to make of the “jolly old elf”, but they really seemed to take a liking to him. Alex especially liked his beard …

Well I’m stressed as hell between work and life, but there is a new achievement available in WoW so the world is right once again. 

And there is a pet.  The warcraft gods have decided to smile upon this ailing soul. 

And there is a guy here that if he doesn’t stop whistling I’m going to impale and slow roast him over an ogre fire…I mean what?! 

So I signed on last night to get a look at the most adorable little whelpling ever.  I love it when he attempts to deep breath you.  Hostile vanity pets are awesome!  Speaking of which, I have every intention of wasting $10 on Little KT….sometime.  I need to get the accountant part of my brain to shut down for a few moments first. 

Anyway, I got on, oogled my whelpling, and then headed in the direction of Stormwind when 

Can I wear a mohawk or what? 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Mr. T commercials.  I swear that man looks exactly like he did in the A-Team except, perhaps, a little bit smaller.  I wonder what his secret is.  I laughed, I screenshotted, I shook my head…I clicked. 

O.o 

Oh right….right click. 

??? 

click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click 

Either I’m bugged or that shit’s a debuff….what the fuck is blizzard thinking?  I got to run around for 2 hours killing turkeys with a fucked up nelf head. 

Mr. T I don’t like you anymore. /glare   (Update:  Yup I was bugged)

So in an attempt to make myself feel better I ran around pissing off rogues with a turkey shooter.  /lol  

I guess I might have missed WoW just a little because I got all but 2 of the Pilgrims Bounty achievements last night. (Have since completed the achievment…I think am now an achievement whore /lol…Worth it though. Plump Turkey senses his destiney ROFLMFAO!!!)  I also discovered that Blizzard is once again hating on The Exodar.  What the hell Blizz?  Are we poor Draenai the bastard children you are hoping will quietly disappear?  The only reason to go to The Exodar is for the Pilgrims Paunch achievement.  There isn’t even a special mat to buy and we Draenei are special.  We should get a special fucking mat!  Sorry…bit overzealous there .  (no short bus comments please :p)  Anyway, I know The Exodar can be a bit difficult to get to if you are trying to do it the old fashion way, but…there is something cool about it that it seems a lot of people don’t realize.  If you are making antisocial runs to the AH it’s the perfect place.  You can mount up in Dal, take the Exodar portal (where you are not dismounted), turn a little more than 90 degress to your right upon arrival and head to the AH.  You are there in less than a minute with no remounting, no portals, no annoying falls, and no gnomes…I mean…I love gnomes.   I have a very good non-antignomish reason for avoiding Iron Forge like the fucking plague…just give me a few moments to think of it. 

Next Post:  Pirate Shenanigans.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned I was working on a new Feat of Strength and it would take about 2 weeks. 10 days later I finished off Hero of Shattrath. This feat requires that you become exalted with The Aldor and The Scryers (but not at the same time naturally). For those achievement whores out there I’d definitely recommend doing this one as it’s a neat one to have with only a little bit of effort, farming and patience. That being said, lets take a look and see how this works.

Getting Exalted

Firstly, naturally you have to get exalted with one of these factions and it doesn’t really matter which one you pick first. Hopefully you played back in TBC and you’re already exalted with one which should cut down on your time significantly.If you haven’t picked a faction yet and are starting from scratch you’ll want to take a look at the faction summaries here from Wowwiki (Scryers, Aldor). To gain rep with either faction you’ll need to obtain reputation items that drop from different areas in the Outlands.

Aldor

• Mark of Kil’jaeden – 25 Rep (Until Honored)
• Mark of Sargeras – 25 Rep
• Fel Armament – 350 Rep

Scryers

• Firewing Signet – 25 Rep (Until Honored)
• Sunfury Signet – 25 Rep
• Arcane Tome – 350 Rep

Note that the first item for each faction only provides rep till Honored. All 3 items provide rep until honored but only the last 2 items provide rep until Exalted. You will need a total of 42,999 reputation to become 999/1000 exalted (3000+6000+12000+21000+999).  There are different ways to combine the items to hit exalted, for example you could use 360 Firewing Signet ( 9000 rep) + 98 Arcane Tome (43,300 rep) or another way could be 1720 Sunfury Signet (43,000 rep). As you can see there are many different ways depending on what you have available to you.

Preparing to Switch

Personally I was exalted with The Aldor so all I had to do was get exalted with The Scryers. For the purpose of this discussion I’m going to be discussing switching to Scryers (although the process is exactly the same to switch to Aldor). The first step is to get out of Hated and back to Neutral, once you are Neutral. To do this there is a quest called Voren’thal’s Visions. This quest requires you to obtain 8 Dampscale Basilisk Eye which will grant you +250 reputation with the Scryers. To go from Hated back to Neutral you will need a total of 1344 Dampscale Basilisk Eye. These are dropped by Basilisk in Terrokar Forest in the Outlands. I was able to farm about ~100 in an hour so for a total of 1344 it took about 14 hours of farming.

The river is where the Basilisk spawn, by the time you clear the whole river it should have respawned.

Total materials to get to exalted with Scryers

While you could farm all the materials, you can also watch the auction hall for available materials. Auchindoun is a small population server but there were still a lot of available materials that could be purchased at reasonable prices. I took my time waiting for really cheap auctions to go up. I would definitely recommend that you do this to buy the Firewing Signet, Sunfury Signet and Arcane Tome. The Dampscale Basilisk Eye were not readily available on my server so I had to farm all 1344 of them unfortunately. Once you get to exalted (with each faction), remember that there are patterns and recipes available from each faction. Buy them all because regardless of what faction you switch you, you get to keep the recipes. To all those who are going to give it a try, good luck on the auction hall and happy farming!

Before

After

Here is an article about someone who must truly hold the title The Insane.    A player off of the Taiwanese server has accomplished 986/986 achievements.   I have some guildmates that are achievement junkies.   But to get them all?!?   Some insanity for sure.

I am not an achievement crazed player.  I pick them up when I can, some are more motivating than others.    As of this writing I am sitting at 280/986.   The majority are sitting in the Raid/Dungeon.   I have 6 Feats of Strength.    I’m not an Ambassador.  Not a Pilgrim.   And I’m fine with that.

But /salute to the TW player that pulled it off.   Insane as they are.