Doodle 273 - The Scoots

Some days my doodles are random things, and others they are defining moments from the day.  Today, our youngest son was plauged with “the scoots” all day, which is pretty defining I suppose, but a little gross.

On a non-potty related note, our oldest son spelled out ” I Love You” in LEGO bricks, and our youngest drew a cute family portrait.

LEGO Love

Family Portrait

]]> http://momsadvice.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/ever-had-one-of-those-days/ Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:37:40 +0000 Lorri http://momsadvice.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/ever-had-one-of-those-days/

Razor Pocket Mod Miniature Euro Electric Scooter
Cruise the side streets in style with this Euro-style electric scooter from Razor. Featuring a high-performance, chain-driven electric motor and a vintage-inspired body, the Pocket Mod can reach speeds of up to 15 miles per hour–plenty fast enough for a quick trip to the corner store or a fun ride in the country. The scooter also teams a pair of 12-inch pneumatic tires with a rear suspension system to ensure a comfortable ride. Other features include a retractable kickstand, variable-speed acceleration, a padded seat, and a built-in battery that travels for up to 10 miles on a single charge.

Perfectly sized for young riders.
The buyer and rider of the Pocket Mod are responsible for knowing and obeying all local, state, and federal regulations regarding the riding and use of this scooter. The Pocket Mod, which is designed for ages 12 and up and offers a weight maximum of 150 pounds, is also backed by a 90-day warranty.

Key Features:

* High performance electric motor
* Can travel up to 10 miles on a single charge
* Can reach speeds up to 15 miles per hour
* Scaled-down classic scooter design
* Single speed, chain-driven motor for maximum power transfer
* Pneumatic tires for a smooth ride
* Retractable center-mount kickstand
* Storage compartment under seat
* For ages 12+
* 150-pound weight limit

Egg Press makes the best handmade cards. And now, its adding to its offerings with DIY stitch-kits! Each kit comes with everything you need to make an adorable stuffed critter. Check out my personal favorite, Scoots!

Current level:  49

Here’s a picture of Scoots making the boy king’s bodyguards very nervous. Why they let a midget wearing a wolf head get this close to royalty is beyond me.

If you took note of my current level at the beginning of this post, you’ll also note I haven’t leveled in weeks. So, the truth is, I haven’t been playing much WoW. The Chicago weather has turned nice for the past couple weeks, and I stepped *gasp* outdoors. And for some strange reason, I’ve been feeling guilty about not playing enough. The summer, I’m sorry to say, may be a similar story. What can I say, I admitted from the beginning that I have a life outside of WoW. My heaviest playing days so far have been on bad weather days. Chicago winters are brutal. I spent a couple great weekends cooped up with a little space heater next to my WoWspace, and the heat turned down in the rest of my apartment. Which leads me to another observation: WoW can save you money. Not just on those crazy gas prices, but from renting movies, buying $5 beers at the bar, going out to restaurants, etc. Sure, it can destroy your social life. But the money you save!

More than once I’ve shouted “Hold the boat!” at Menethil Harbor as I’ve run down the docks, only to see the boat sail away. Check out this video of an amazing dash to catch the boat to Theramore.

Current level: 49

It was a great weekend for Scoots. I picked up several pieces of equipment, most of them from a single run of Maraudon.

Blackstone Ring

Began the weekend by looting this sweet blue item from the Princess in Maraudon. Lev req 49, +6 stamina, increases attack power +20. Increases hit rating by +10 (1.1% at 54). I have to admit, I don’t understand what the beneficial math is on this, but from reading posts in forums and on Thottbot, it appears to be a sweet ring.

Albino Crocscale Boots

On the same run, I loot these sweet blue item boots from Rotgrip, a big-ass crocodile. Now these stats, I understand: +20 to agility, +5 to stamina, and +5 to nature resistance. These replace level 29 Highlanders Boots. What can I say, those boots (I had them enchanted) were just better than a lot of level 40 boots.

But the fun didn’t stop there. While I was running Maraudon, a member of the group shared his quests. One of the rewards for the quest was an awesome sword.

Thrash Blade

You get this awesome sword as a quest reward. The quest, called Corruption of Earth and Seed, requires killing the princess in Maraudon. It has 35.2 dps, 2.70 speed, and chance on hit to grant an extra attack. Pretty sweet stuff, and it’s free. Finally, a quest that has eq I can actually use. Warning though, the Princess is tough. I’ve killed her both times I’ve faced her with a group of upper 40’s and low 50’s, but it’s always been a near wipe.

And to cap off the weekend, I used my honor points and marks from the PvP battleground reward for two more pieces of eq.

Sergeant Major’s Leather Armsplints

Pretty straightforward piece of eq: +6 agility, 14 stamina, 64 armor. All it cost was 10 Warsong Gulch marks and 308 honor points. Easy enough to get.

Insignia of the Alliance

4,000 honor points. Dispels fear and charm spells.

As you can see, it was a productive weekend for Scoots in the World of Warcraft. I’d be ashamed to post the equipment those items replaced. The Maraudon run I did on Friday night was a huge success, and I recommend the zone to all players. Get the quests!

I spent sometime in Warsong Gulch last night. I’m trying to use up some of the blinding powder I have in my inventory. So, I’ve been using the blind skill a lot in Warsong. When in a small group fighting another small group, I stealth, blind one player, and stun lock another. I figure taking one player out of the fight with blind for up to ten seconds plus using stun lock on another is a semi-powerful crowd control option. Not as powerful (or annoying) as a warlock’s Howl of Terror though. The key is going into a fight late because I get to choose a player who is not taking damage. Just like with sap, it’s annoying when I use blind only to have it broken by another’s player damage. Don’t waste my blinding powder fools!

Some good blind tips ripped from WoWwiki:

• When fighting rogues, spamming your blind ability can give you an opportunity to break out of a stunlock.
• In PvP, using blind gives you plenty of time to bandage and restealth, so consider alternating uses of vanish and blind as means of restealthing in combat.

I just finished the entire Zul’Farrak instance. After about 8 runs of this zone, someone finally had the Mallet of Zul’Farrak that summons the final boss, Gahz’rilla. You get the mallet from a tough mob in Hinterlands, and you need a group to get it. Seems like if you go through all the trouble of traveling to the Hinterlands, you should just get the mallet. Not sure I get the game design reasoning for this one.

Anyways, killing Gahz’rilla allowed me to finish a quest, which had the reward of a Carrot on a Stick. It’s a silly trinket that increases your riding speed by a whole 3%. I guess the point is that it stacks with other riding speed eq. So if you collect enough gear, you’re suddenly a speed demon.

My Carrot on a Stick.

I also looted a Embrace of the Lycan from an earlier boss in the zone. It is a sweet little head item you see Scoots wearing in the picture above. Doesn’t it look ridiculous? Perfect for Scoots. Perhaps not the greatest rogue item, but Scoots doesn’t have much blue gear anyways, as I’ve been hoarding up his gold for higher levels.

Embrace of the Lycan.

I also leveled while running the zone. Current level:48.

Scoots’ current level: 47

After a few weeks on intense playing, I’ve been taking a “break” from WoW– a break meaning playing every day for only 15 minutes or so.

There’s a new patch coming out, and it’s got some major changes in it. Check out the rogue side of things and some discussion at the WoW Rogue forums. It looks like rogues are getting buffed. I’m very happy about regular ol’ sap becoming improved sap. Blind can be improved through the talent tree. More blinding powder drops from junkboxes (I’ve already got too much of it though. I don’t use blind as much as I should). Poisoned blades no longer have limited charges and now all run on timers. That is a nice, subtle change that improves the rogue’s gaming experience. I hated pausing every 5 minutes while running a trash-laden instance to re-poison my daggers. This change will make the game a little less frustrating.

Wandered across the Caverns of Time today and just had to take a screenshot. They should post signs, “Great place for tourist pictures.” See the bigger picture here.

I play WoW on a Black MacBook, and it runs fine. I can’t have all the graphic modes set to highest, but don’t I have to have them on the lowest either. With a little tweaking, the game still looks beautiful.

Just a quick tip for those who play on Macs: Macs support dual monitors–you don’t need an extra video card or anything like you do on most Windows machines. I plugged in an old CRT monitor and now play Warcraft in windowed mode in the bigger CRT (17 inch), and use the laptop window for various other tasks, mainly WoWwiki, Thottbot, and iTunes. You do have to buy an adapter cord so you can plug your CRT into the DVI slot. I got mine at the Apple store. See pictures of my WoWspace below.

Wowspace 1 WoWSpace 2

Current level: 45

Forest of Feralas

I’ve been following the instructions of James’ Alliance Leveling Guide: Chapter 2. I actually really like it, but not for the reason you’d expect. It claims to get you experience very quickly. It hasn’t for me; at least not noticeably more so than normal grinding or questing does. What it does do is point me to quests I might never have come across, and helps me complete them quickly with a little less frustration. It keeps me focused, and I ‘m having more fun with quests. But in my opinion, running an instance nets experience much faster. Like running an instance, following the guide keeps you focused on adventuring, fighting, and gaining rewards, as opposed to chatting away with your guildmates or worrying about whether you should update your offhand. So, in a sense, it will get you more experience in the long run, because it makes you more efficient. But what it is not is some secret formula to gain 5 times faster experience.

Last night, I ended my adventures in the lust forests of Feralas (see picture above). It’s my first time there. I find it a very soothing zone. Can’t wait to get back to it.

Current level: 45
Just a few levels ago, I was complaining about how hard it was to afford my mount. Now, it just seems like the gold is flowing in. My advice to those who think they have to buy from gold farming businesses: just get out there and adventure. Making money gets easier. Besides, the game is a lot more satisfying working for an item like your mount than doing nothing for it.

Current level: 43

This past weekend, I ran two instances, Razorfen Downs and Uldaman. Here’s my review of RFD. I’ll post Uldaman’s shortly.

Razorfen Downs

This is a cool zone, with some nice little memorable touches. The zone, both inside and outside the instance, is a labyrinth. Newcomers to the zone will find it hard to get to the instance.  Inside, there are a few nice animations on the way to completing the zone, like the “gong room.” The gong room is a large room with a gong you right click on. The first gong brings a wave of small spiders, which are easy to take care. The second gong brings two bigger spiders. Again, pretty easy. The third gong brings the boss spider (from whom, I looted my Arachnid Gloves of the Tiger). It’s the first boss of the zone, and a good tone setter. Well designed.

I also love the headbanging skeletons. They stand in a room in front of a huge pile of bones, on top of which stands the second boss of the zone, a skeleton who is pumping up the skeletons below. WoW’s version of heavy metal plays in the background–I kid you not. The crowd of skeletons are making the double viking hand symbol and are headbanging. It’s hilarious.

I only have minor complaints about the zone. The first is, I think the winding path that leads up to the final boss is a heartbeat too long. The need to shave off a couple groups of trash mobs. The second is, they need to fix a bug in the skeleton room. I ran to the back of the pile of skeletons, jumped up onto a ledge, and fell through the zone into some weird blue blue space beneath the instance. I ran around in limbo for 15 minutes until, luckily, my group’s warlock summoned me.

Here are some pictures I ganked off the web. First is the spider boss Tuten’kash, who is summoned with the third and final gong. The second is of some horde players standing on the bone pile.

Current level: 42.

I was running Razorfen Downs, hoping to get a chance at the Coldrage Dagger. The group fell apart early on. We booted one guy for ninjaing a chest. And then another player had to leave, and that was the end of the run. But, not before we killed Tuten’kash. I had an interesting choice of whether to need or greed the Arachnid Gloves of the Tiger, with their +9 agi, +10 str, and +10 to nature resistance. I was using Huntman’s Gloves of the Monkey, which have +8 to agi and +8 to stam. I’ve been following the guidance that stamina is more important to rogues than strength. But, in the end, I decided the Arachnid gloves were better, so I “needed” and won.

Rootin’ Tootin’ Tuten’kash

Current level: 40.

Looks like I should have started a 401k to save up for my mount. It costs 100 gold in total to purchase and have the ability to ride a basic mount at level 40. I haven’t purchased any decent equipment since level 30, yet I still can’t afford my mount. I’ve sold leather like crazy on auction house. I loot and sell everything. I pickpocket. Yet, I only have 65 gold right now.

I think Blizzard has made it too hard to get the mount. I think of myself as the average WoW gamer. I’m not superintense about the game; I have a job and life outside of the game. I try to play smart. Am I the “smartest” player? No. I’ve messed up by being oblivious about “specs” (I had no idea about dagger rogues, or sword rogues, or pop and lock, etc). Up to a few levels ago, I used my talent points almost randomly (and this, even after I respecced early on). But still, I’ve been cost conscious about equipment. I’ve worked hard to earn gold. So, how come I can’t afford my mount Blizzard?

Sometimes, I think WoW goes too far to counteract gold farmers or people who spend their lives on the game and doesn’t look out for the casual player. I’m not even trying to get an epic mount! I just want my mount that I’ve worked hard for.

*Update*

I finally purchased my mount.  In retrospect, my whine above about it being too hard to collect the gold for a mount is somewhat out of line. Gold collecting starts to accelerate the higher your level. Once I hit level 40, I collected my final 40 gold in a few days time, just from normal playing and focusing on looting and selling everything. Btw, my mount cost me a little over 90 gold, not 100 gold, as I stated above.

I had one of those “Aha!” moments recently concerning a series of quests I’ve been neglecting. They are quests you get from Nesingwary’s Expedition. If you are a skinner, do these quests! Basically the quests are kill so many tigers, or, kill so many panthers, and report back to the quest giver. No big challenge, but the extra bonuses a skinner gets from doing these quests are nice. You get exp from both killing the beasts and finishing the quests, and you get hella gold from selling the skins on auction.

This “Aha!” moment was inspired by reading some advice online about leveling in WoW. Doing quests supposedly gets you experience faster than just grinding. The idea is, though, you have to combine it with pseudo-grinding by killing all creatures on your way to completing the quest, whether they are part of the quest or not.

I might try this strategy a little more. I mean, I still like to grind. I can put on some music or a podcast, and it’s kind of relaxing. A quest can be mostly you running form point A to point B, then back to A again, with a little story added in.

Why is it that all players in WoW always seem to have better equipment than Scoots? He spends all of his gold at the auction house but still only has three blue items, with the rest your average green. I see players that are level 35 and have all blue equipment. They must get equipped through their guilds or mains or something. I know I’m more of a casual player, and I don’t run many high-level zones. I guess I just have to rely on auction hose or miracle drops, like the wolf-harness I got in Stranglethorn.

I’m pondering, what should my equipment-buying strategy be? It seems a bit silly to spend a lot of gold on a dagger that will be “obselete” in four or five levels. Should I just hoard my gold until high levels? What is a player to do? Don’t you need the next powerful weapon to help kill the next powerful monsters? I guess I’ll just have be patient.

I started out with a character on a PvE server. It was when WoW just came out, and I purchased the game only to discover my computer was too slow to play it. I purchased a new computer (a MacBook) and created Scoots on a PvP server. Why? I thought the “never safe” feeling of PvP would be more exciting. When you’re out grinding in contested territory, you’re always in danger of being ganked.

Sometimes, PvP is fun, like when you spot an enemy, but he doesn’t see you, and you stealth on over for an easy kill. Or, when you are ambushed and somehow survive and slay your enemy. But today, the PvP experience was a detraction to the game. All I wanted to do was turn in some quests at Nesingwary’s Expedition in Stranglethorn Vale and log out, but some level 70 Horde was camping out ganking low-level characters. The Expedition camp is a great area for ganking Alliance, since there are three quest-giving NPCs there. So, it took me 5 minutes to log out instead of 10 seconds.

I don’t regret having my main character on a PvP server. But sometime, I do wish I could turn it off. Such is life.