Clarke Ching has achieved a major coup by posting a 1-hour interview with Eli Goldratt. In the interview Goldratt talks about his new book Isn’t It Obvious, which is another business novel about the Theory of Constraints, this time applied to retail. It’s a great book, and a very good interview — good job Clarke.

So after I complained about how attention makes me nervous, Matticus kindly gave me some link love, tripled my blog traffic and asked me if I’d like to write a guest post. You’ve gotta appreciate his sense of humour.

The result was posted today: http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2009/11/26/case-study-anub-10h-vs-holy-paladin/

Descriptive boss fights are a bit out of my genre and I was worried about how my weird writing style would be received, but, contrarily to what my nightmares predicted, the feedback I got was very kind. I want to point out that I made the picture at the top of the post all by myself, like a big girl. Graphic art and I are bitter enemies, so when I do produce something that doesn’t make my eyes bleed I have to shout it out to the world.

Now that I have all this extra traffic, I kind of feel bad for not having lots of witty posts lined up, ready to be published. I do have some things in the draft bin, but I’ve been so busy this week that I don’t have anything I’m satisfied with on hand. Finals are just around the corner and I’m thinking I should dust off those schoolbooks and start cramming. I do plan to join in on the shared topic again and I think there is a huge need for a talents discussion but it’ll have to wait until the weekend.

On a separate note, happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it in November! I thought of you all as I was dosing off in my early morning class today.

Our guild has been slacking somewhat in terms of progression with a number of regular raiders no longer raiding as often as they used to. This of course poses us with a problem in terms of attendance so we’ve been busy gearing up some of the newcomers through ToC 10-man and 25-man normal mode.

Unfortunately, this has meant as a guild we haven’t been able to progress as much as we’d like to. A lot of regulars that do show up for raids, myself included, were beginning to lose interest. One-shotting the 10-man and 25-man normal modes every week is just too easy and doesn’t present us with any real challenges.

The fights in 10-man ToC heroic are much more interesting and demanding. Some of the fights are a little messy but we got through them week in week out. Up to now we just haven’t been able to get Anub’arak down.

That’s all changed! We took the best group available and finally managed to get him down and it felt great. It was a great evening with all of us working hard as a team. The noise on vent as we conquered the battle was electric!

It took us a number of attempts; getting closer and closer each time. At one stage we wiped with just 400k health points left, then 200k, followed by another 20ok. For the next attempt we decided to switch the Instand Poison on my main hand to Wound Poison.

My DPS dropped from 1st/2nd to 5th but this time, with the 50% reduction to his healing from Leeching Swarm, Anub’arak dropped faster than a sack of potatoes.

What a nab!!? To be honest I’m kicking myself for not being “on the ball”; I should’ve known using Wound would be more beneficial in this fight before we even set foot in there. I just didn’t think about it. Of course my DPS wasn’t as high using Wound Poison but still good enough to do serious damage and the utility it brought to the fight gave us that little extra edge we needed to get the kill.

This is the point with raiding… Fights aren’t just about scoring high on the damage meters. It’s about progression; damage meters count for nothing; it’s the kill that matters.

Raiding Lesson #1: Think before you fight

• Sometimes it can be a small thing that makes all the difference between getting that kill and spending the entire evening scraping your dead body off the floor.

Unfortunately, nothing noteworthy dropped for a Rogue but I was just ecstactic the guild made some progress.

Now, I’m hoping to get stuck in to 10-man heroic every week in the run up to Icecrown Citadel and improving on our performance.

What’s the next challenge? Beasts of Northrend on 25-man heroic… Watch out!

One of my guildies and I were brainstorming some ideas for a new Arcane spec taking advantage of the mechanics in the fights in ToC, and we came up with a nice spec that maximizes theoretical DPS while keeping all of the core talents of the build.

Here’s a link to my WoW Armory profile; I may have my active spec set incorrectly, but you can still look at the Arcane spec.

Some of the major differences you may note are the lack of any points in either Arcane Stability or Magic Attunement (I don’t really feel the lack of 6 yd of range), as well as not taking Arcane Barrage. This is because, as I have mentioned before, the ideal rotation for Arcane is Arcane Blast x4 (or more, if you have the gear – which I don’t anymore) -> Arcane Missiles. What I’ve done with the extra talent points I freed up was dump them into Student of the Mind for a small crit bonus (although I’m not really geared for Spirit; once I get some more gear, this talent will only get better), and also pick up 3/3 Incanter’s Absorption.

Yes, Incanter’s Absorption. I don’t know whether I’ve said this on my blog, but I held for a very long time that IA was a cool sounding talent with no practical application, as you’d burn too much mana with Mana Shield absorbing incidental damage. I ended up being proved very, very wrong in 3.2 – you still aren’t burning mana, GCD’s, or anything using Mana Shield, Frost Ward, or Fire Ward, but Blizzard gave us a really cool opportunity to have a LOT of spellpower on certain fights.

Think about the mechanics of Val’kyr Twins. You pick a color aura to have – and both twins are doing a 1500/x time global AoE. By picking up an aura from the portal, you…ABSORB the damage from that color aura. ABSORB. That means…a HUGE bonus to spellpower from IA. We’re talking a hundreds-of-DPS increase here – my spellpower literally went up by 800 or more.

Situationally, you could probably gain some DPS in certain situations too – I’m thinking fires on some fights with a situational Flame Ward, or something to that effect – but largely you’re going to see the benefit coming from incidental, fight-based absorptions. Regardless, IA has shown itself as a decent utility talent, and I recommend grabbing it.

New Report Reveals Dramatic Rise in Pesticide Use on Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops Due to the Spread of Resistant Weeds

http://www.organic-center.org
GE crops increase herbicide use by 383 million pounds from 1996 to
2008, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008

Genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybeans and cotton have increased use of weed-killing herbicides by 383 million pounds in the U.S. from 1996 to 2008, according to a new report titled “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use: The First 13 Years (PDF)” announced today by The Organic Center (TOC), the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the
Center for Food Safety (CFS). In addition, GE corn and cotton have reduced insecticide use by 64 million pounds, resulting in an overall increase of 318 million pounds of pesticides over the first 13 years of commercial use.

Based upon data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), report
author Dr. Charles Benbrook presents compelling evidence linking the
increase in pesticide use on GE, ‘herbicide-tolerant’ (HT) crops to
the emergence and spread of herbicide-resistant weeds. This report
comes at a time when farmers are increasingly critical of GE crops
because of drastically rising biotech seed prices and increasingly
resistant weeds.

The agricultural biotechnology industry claims that the much higher
costs of GE seeds are justified by multiple benefits to farmers,
including decreased spending on pesticides. The price of GE seeds has
risen precipitously in recent years, and the need to make additional
herbicide applications in an effort to keep up with resistant weeds is
also increasing cash production costs. As an example, corn farmers
planting ‘SmartStax‘ hybrids in 2010 will spend around $124 per acre
for seed, almost three times the cost of conventional corn seed. In
addition, new-generation ‘Roundup Ready’ (RR) 2 soybean seed, to be
introduced on a widespread basis next year, will cost 42 percent more
than the original RR seeds they are displacing.

“The drastic increase in pesticide use with genetically engineered
crops is due primarily to the rapid emergence of weeds resistant to
glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide,”
said Dr. Charles Benbrook, report author and chief scientist of The
Organic Center. “With glyphosate-resistant weeds now infesting
millions of acres, farmers face rising costs coupled with sometimes
major yield losses, and the environmental impact of weed management
systems will surely rise.”

Today’s report refutes industry’s assertions that its crops have
reduced pesticide use. Last April, UCS released a report that found
engineered crops have largely failed to increase crop yields, despite
the industry’s consistent claims to the contrary. “Dr. Benbrook’s work
shows that the overall chemical footprint of today’s engineered crops
is massive and growing,” said Dr. Margaret Mellon, food and
environment program director for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“That growth in pesticide use has important implications for farmers’
bottom lines, public health and the health of the environment.”

“This report confirms what we’ve been saying for years,” said Bill
Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety. “The
most common type of genetically engineered crops promotes increased
use of pesticides, an epidemic of resistant weeds, and more chemical
residues in our foods. This may be profitable for the biotech/
pesticide companies, but it’s bad news for farmers, human health and
the environment.”

Industry claims that GE crops are benefitting the environment ignore
the impacts of the 300+ million additional pounds of pesticides
required over the period covered by this study, as well as growing
reliance by farmers on high-risk herbicides including 2,4-D and
paraquat. In addition to the environmental harm, a report released
earlier this year by TOC demonstrated that exposure to pesticides is
linked to increased risk of reproductive abnormalities, birth defects
and neurological problems.

The analytical work required to complete this report was funded by a
coalition of non-governmental organizations including the Union of
Concerned Scientists, the Center for Food Safety, the Cornerstone
Campaign, Californians for GE-Free Agriculture, Greenpeace
International and Rural Advancement Fund International USA.

Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
Collaborative Campaigning for Food Sovereignty and Environmental Justice
431 Gilmour Street, Second Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 0R5
Phone: 613 241 2267 ext.6
Fax: 613 241 2506
coordinator@cban.ca
www.cban.ca

Join the Global Rejection of GE Wheat! www.cban.ca/GEwheat

Donate today to support the campaign  www.cban.ca/donate

because folks liked my last version of this, for your viewing pleasure, below are the books i read last week. it’s a pretty exciting list:

1. Patrik Ourednik’s Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century (Dalkey Archive, 2005): The twentieth century boiled down to painstakingly concise and shocking truths. No one is left unscathed or uncriticized in this book. Ourednik’s dry humor pairs well with sentences that are dense in their simplicity, that makes sense. For instance: “Psychiatrists said that in many people the First World War provoked traumas that had been previously hidden in the unconscious, and in the 1920s and 1930s the people started to be neurotic because they were not adapted to their inner or outer state, and in Europe in the 1960s, 25% of women and 15% of men were neurotic, and journalists called it the disease of the century. And in the 1970s the number of people suffering from depression also started to rise, and at the end of the century every fifth citizen of Europe was depress” (65). Every sentence in Europeana reads this way: biting, revealing, absurd, contradictory, a slap across an entire century’s big sweaty face.

2. Urs Allemann’s Babyfucker (Les Figues, 2010 but available now!): This is a book to talk about. This is a book you want to carry around with you, just so people can ask you what it’s about. Last week, as I was sitting at a cafe in South Bend, this slender volume lying on top of my usual stack of library books. It’s cover is a lovely yellow, it’s spine an unobtrusive pink. But the title! The title is what interests people most. So someone asks me: What’s that you’re reading? And I say: Babyfucker. Just like that. And that person responds: Hmm. There’s no follow-up question. I have to force their discomfort. I say: It’s a book about a man who fucks babies, or not. It’s this little Beckettian book, this man obsessed with the sentence, ‘I fuck babies,’ constantly repeating, ‘I fuck babies. That’s my sentence.’ Whether or not he actually fucks the babies is irrelevant to the reader, but to that person standing by your chair at the cafe, that’s the only question that matters. Here’s the thing, I haven’t even started touching the substance or the incredible writing in this book, but it’s all solid. This is an inadequate review of a truly stunning book, but I’ve only managed to do exactly what I’ve criticized that person at the cafe of doing: getting lost in the spectacle.

3. Shane Jones’s The Failure Six (Fugue State Press, 2009): I didn’t read this book last week. I read it today. This morning, in fact. Reminiscent of Ben Marcus’s Notable American Women, though the language does not jar radical displacement, this sick little fairy tale took me to a world without speech, a world of recycled bureaucracy, a place of tests and windows, foxes and leashes, men with green beards, extended onomatopoeia, geometric shapes everywhere, and certain execution. The thing is, Jones does all of this unassumingly. His writing is unadorned but somehow still poetic. This is a story about failure, but not just failing once. No, that would be too easy. These characters fail again and again, each time worse than the one before, each time more wary of punishment. I left this book feeling destitute, and that was ok by me. Shane’s gotten a lot of press lately because of the well-deserved love of his first book, Light Boxes, but people, don’t forget about this one! Love this one too! Shane makes me smile.

4. Jeff Clark’s Ruins (Turtle Point Press, 2009): [Note: I couldn't find an image for this book, which is lame, because it's gorgeous.] This slim volume of poetry is what I would want a volume of my poetry to look like, if I wrote poetry. First off, it’s hard cover, which seems like a rare artifact these days. The pages, some black some white, contain as many photographs as poems. But now to the poetry itself: many of the poems in this collection are conversations with other writers and artists, particularly the Surrealists. Clark’s poems cycle through repetition, each word carefully chosen, carefully placed. This is no surprise because Clark is also a book designer. He’s also got a lovely translation of Louis Aragon’s “Poem to Cry in Ruins.” If I knew more about poetry, I’m sure I’d say lots of smart things here, but alas, I’ll suffice to say I read & enjoyed this book a great deal and hope you will do the same.

5. Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquietude: Noah Cicero suggested I read this book. I don’t really remember how or why he suggested it (does context really matter?), but I read it and loved it. I’ve been told that I read the wrong version though. Published posthumously, this is a book of fragmented meditations on anything and everything but particularly loneliness. Though sometimes a bit too self-indulgent for my tastes, it’s a worthwhile read, for sure.

6. Mati Unt’s Things in the Night (Dalkey Archive, 2006): This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Seriously, it seems like I’ve liked everything I’ve read this week, and yes, I have, but Unt’s book is the whole package: sophisticated concept, moral questioning, and the writing itself!! This novel begins simply: “My Dear, I feel I owe you an explanation. / First, I have to admit that I have always had an interest in electricity.” From there, readers follow the narrator as he tries to write a book on electricity, while Estonia (and the world as a whole) creeps steadily towards disaster. Unt showcases his writerly breadth, moving between forms and styles, each one poetic and ominous. I don’t want to give away too much, but I’ve never read a hand-job scene like the one in this book! This is a book about humanity: its glory and faults, aspirations and promise of failure, and of course, the people who remain, here, in pause, waiting.

7. Steve Tomasula’s TOC (FC2, 2009): In my last post about my readings, I made it a point to say that I wasn’t including any books I read for school, but in this case, I feel like it’s necessary for me to mention TOC. I’m teaching Tomasula’s DVD novel tomorrow for my fiction writing workshop, and I can’t say how much I love this book! It’s visually stunning, cutting edge like drawing blood (& to think: if the technology had been ready for him, Steve would have had this out a decade ago!), and conceptually masterful. People haven’t paid much attention to TOC, but you should! Buy it!

So that’s me. What have you been reading?

My last guide to the twins was effective, but is due for a bit of an overhaul. Mainly because it fails to address a very important hunter-specific strategy. Before I continue, go read it because I won’t be going over the basics of the fight, and will assume you know the mechanics already (in terms of orbs, auras, switching targets, penalties for screwing up, etc).

A huge factor in the success of this encounter is going to be in execution. I understated the difficulty last time because I was spoiled by being in a large competent guild. The fight actually presents significant challenges if you have new players (and/or undergeared players) in your raid. If you are riding the thin line of just enough DPS to get their shield down before it heals them back up, then you need to have that much better execution.

The most commonly used strategy for this fight is generally to split the raid in half and have each half fight each boss. As DPS, we want to collect as many orbs of our color as possible, and avoid collecting orbs of the wrong color. As hunters, we have the ability to DPS the boss from just about anywhere in the room. Thus, we have an opportunity to increase our raid’s DPS by altering our positioning.

If you’re, for example, assigned to get a light aura and attack Darkbane, instead of standing with all the other light essence players, you can stand at max range between the dark aura players and the wall, and carefully pick out the light orbs that spawn on that part of the room. This prevents people in that group from having to move to avoid light essences, as well as lets you do more DPS.

The skill of moving as little as possible and picking up as few of the wrong orbs as possible is not easy, however it comes with practice. The advantages are well worth it though. You increase your DPS, and increase the DPS of the people with the opposite color orbs, as well as reduce the raid healing required.

The above image (click for zoom) shows what I’m talking about. The big rectangles are where most of the light and dark players will be standing, the circles are the vortexes that you use to change color, the rectangles are where the bosses are tanked, and the orbs spawn along the wall. The orbs will average out to about evenly dark and light, but when they make their way into the DPS, they can wreak havoc.

Now this is actually a variation of the commonly used strategy for hard mode- in hard mode, however, hunters only collect orbs. They often have a special set of gear they use for it (typically with a lot of stam). This isn’t a hard mode guide, I’m simply taking the idea of a soaker and applying it in such a way that it doesn’t cost the raid DPS.

One problem with this is that when you need to change colors, if you are going to be standing on the top or bottom of this map (and not in the back), you will have a long distance to cover. You need to get good at disengaging for aura swapping, as well as changing your target quickly. As Kripparrian, a recent guest on the hunting party podcast, suggested, the easiest way to disengage is to jump in the direction you want to go, do a quick about-face in the air with your mouse, and then fire disengage. Practice this. It lets you aim your disengage, as well as gives you a couple extra feet of distance.

If you have any questions or criticisms, don’t be shy! Comments are appreciated

I had an interesting and mostly successful week raiding.  All of my major targets (ToC, Ony, VoA) were defeated on both 10/25 man.

My guild only does 10 man raids, so I had to PuG all of the 25 man versions.  As you all know, PuG raids are a crapshoot.  I got really lucky with ToC and got in a very efficient group that rolled right through Anub.  I wasn’t quite as lucky with Onyxia.  It took me 4 different PuGs before I finally got in one that downed her.  My VoA group also dissolved after defeating Koralon.  At least I got all of the triumph raids down, as that was my main goal.

The only negative was that I knocked out these raids early in the week, so I had very little left to do on the weekend.  I don’t really care about achievements and alts, I mainly like to raid.  I spent the weekend trying to find a PuG 10/25 Trial of the Grand Crusader, but I didn’t have any luck.  Do these run on any of your realms?  Are they ever successful?

The last week has been grind-tastic, with both PvP and questing. I wasn’t on too long on Tuesday, but I got into VoA 25/10 runs and nothing dropped. Unsurprising. Later in the night, I did some 2s and 3s, ending the night 40 points lower in 2s, and 40 points higher in 3s. “Win some, lose some” would be the perfect phrase to describe that night.

Wednesday was ToC 25 day, but things didn’t go quite as smoothly this week. According to a guildie watching trade chat, a lot of other PuGs had already formed that night, and it showed. I had a few from weeks prior show up, but it took twice as long as usual to get the group together. Then, after two-shotting the Beasts and one-shotting Jaraxxus, a druid healer left without any notice. Great. We ended up having to 24-man both the Champions and the Twins, who mercifully went down in one try each. But, without a full raid, and with DPS for the evening subpar, Anub’arak was way out of our grasp. We wiped it up twice without ever seeing phase three, and called it for the night. It was a dissapointment to say the least, and I was bitter about the loss that night. Why people join raids when they don’t intend to stick them out is something I’ve never understood. Even then, if someone has to leave it doesn’t hurt to give a heads-up in vent or raid chat. With Thanksgiving break coming up, I don’t know if we’ll be hitting up ToC next week, meaning that downing Anub is that much more distant. Argh.

Thursday I actually got the achievement for 2000 quests completed. Yikes. I’ve been going through and doing everything in Icecrown, both to see how things unfold before the attack on Icecrown Citadel, and for the gold. The quests that put you in Arthas’ shoes were highpoints; what other quest chain starts by dropping you into a seemingly-bottomless abyss? For fun, I also decided to check out the Deadmines. I’d read online that the Alliance had a cool quest chain leading up to it, and that it was a good instance as well. I think that it would’ve been pretty cool to run through if I was the right level for it, and it was surprisingly large. All I could think of was how Horde got Ragefire Chasm instead… lame.

On Friday, I sat down and finally, finally got the last of the PvP mounts. While my guildies were turning in marks for honor, I’d been dutifully saving them, since honor is onetime, but man, mounts are forever. At least, that’s what I had to keep telling myself. After the BG grind (and believe me, those last marks were a grind), I settled down with a warrior friend for some 2s skirmish. We didn’t get too far, but it was still a pretty good time, and a big departure from my usual 2s comp. The matches were quick, too, something that usually can’t always be said when I end up doing 2s.

Yesterday, the questing and arena-ing continued. To my surprise, we hit 1550 in 3s with a sprint in rating from 1440 to a peak at around 1570. We fell down back to around 1480 just as quickly, but it was cool to see happen. Afterwards, I put in some 2s matches to get up past 1550 yet again, all the while questing in between matches. Through the day, I also found some time to fish up some mats for feasts, and run a guildie through Scarlet Monastery. It’s been a busy few days in WoW, and I don’t see that pace dropping anytime soon.

Não me de liberdade porque não é disso que preciso.

Sentou tremula e acendeu seu primeiro cigarro. Havia dito que não fumava mais. Mesmo assim não hesitou.  Descreverá-me o momento com um olhar de agulhas penetrantes. Foi intenso e forte de mais, a euforia fazia-nos sufocar em nossos próprios mundos. Naquele instante notei tamanho transtorno, tão profundo quanto o meu.
Confesso ser egoísta de mais pra não pensar se, fiquei mal por mim ou por ela. Falta de ar miserável. Talvez não existam outros encontros, no momento só nos restou o desencontro naqueles olhares noturnos. Insisti em provocar… Insisti em sufocar… De fato fui bem sucedido. Mas, e agora? O que tenho? O que tens?

Não me de liberdade, pois já sou livre. Tranque-me em uma jaula… Animais se não selvagens deveriam estar trancados. Isso aqui não é uma selva.

Então, La se foi. Levantou sem muitas palavras, talvez um ou outro adeus seguido de um vazio nos olhos que me penetrou. E novamente, não soube dizer se era pena de mim mesmo.
Entrei pensando que não nos veríamos novamente, mas seria impossível, era tão forte a dor e o desejo como quem vicia em cocaína. Dei um ate logo dentro de minha cabeça e voltei a viver os meus dias tediosos e angustiantes.

Here’s a Table of Contents for A Long Vernal Season. Since LVS is a work-in-progress, the ToC is incomplete. I did include all the chapters for Part Four, though, and the titles for Part Five. (There will be nine parts in the completed fic — possibly eight, depending on how I decide to organize the final chapters.)

Be aware that there may be spoilers for chapters you haven’t read yet!

Overall Summary: Severus Snape had believed that, for him, life after the Dark Lord was an impossibility, that his death was not merely justice, but necessity. He has survived, though, and now he must learn to live his new, unexpected life, and to find something beyond the narrow existence to which he was once bound. A post-war fic.

Genres: AU, Drama, Romance, Humor

Snape-centric Death’s Dominion sequel. Not DH-compliant. DH-disregarded. First chapters (through Chapter 28) are rated T, but ratings for individual chapters will rise later. Watch the individual chapter summaries and author’s notes for ratings, warnings, and the characters appearing in that chapter.

PART ONE
Prologue: Return
Sunday, 23 August 1998.
Severus returns to Hogwarts late in August.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Filius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall

Chapter One: Hermione’s News
Monday, 24 August 1998.
Severus meets Hermione and Gareth at the Three Broomsticks to hear their news.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Madam Rosmerta, Minerva McGonagall, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Two: An Unusual Invitation
Tuesday, 25 August 1998.
Severus begins preparing for the new school year when he receives an unusual invitation by Owl Post.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Pomona Sprout, Gareth McGonagall, Twiskett

Chapter Three: St. Giles Clinic for Magical Maladies
Friday, 28 August 1998.
Severus goes for a follow-up examination at the Edinburgh wizarding clinic and receives disturbing news.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Gareth McGonagall, Melina O’Donald, Spinnet

Chapter Four: Through the Looking Glass
Friday, 28 August 1998.
Severus meets with Lucius Malfoy in his new home.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Lisa Turpin, Gareth McGonagall, Murdoch McGonagall, Estelle McGonagall

Chapter Five: An Alternative Treatment
Friday, 28 August 1998.
Severus takes his leave of Lucius and Narcissa. Gareth has an idea.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Gareth McGonagall, Tarrant McPherson, Melina O’Donald, Brennan O’Donald

Chapter Six: Race Cars Go “Vroom”
Friday, 28 August 1998.
Severus finds his “alternative treatment” peculiar, but enjoys it despite himself.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Rubeus Hagrid, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Seven: Waxing
Saturday, 29 August 1998.
Severus has his first treatment with the Ferron’s Elixir and tries to deal with his fears. Did he escape death only to become a Squib?
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Rubeus Hagrid, Twiskett

Chapter Eight: Business as Usual
Sunday, 30 August 1998.
Severus tries to carry on with his preparations for the new school year despite the set-backs.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey

Chapter Nine: A Delicate Phase
Monday, 31 August 1998.
With the start of the school year almost upon him, Severus has another examination as he enters a delicate phase of his treatment. Filius gives him a hand with the new staff, and he anticipates a visit from Hermione.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Filius Flitwick, Melina O’Donald, Laura Walker Manning, Twiskett, The Silent Knight

Chapter Ten: Jam Tarts
Monday, 31 August 1998.
Severus has a pleasant visit from Hermione, though they can’t escape uncomfortable topics.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Twiskett

Chapter Eleven: Don’t Frighten the Firsties
Monday, 31 August 1998.
Severus greets the first-years, and it’s a more memorable occasion than he’d anticipated. He obtains a new admirer before the Sorting.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Rubeus Hagrid, Poppy Pomfrey, Twiskett, Suzie Sefton

Chapter Twelve: The Stages of Brewing
Tuesday, 1 September 1998.
Severus tries to make it through the first morning of classes.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Kevin Harper, Jamie Brett, Letitia Pepper, Alice Fellows, Melina O’Donald, Twiskett

Chapter Thirteen: Breakfire
Tuesday, 1 September 1998.
After being whisked to the infirmary by Twiskett, Severus—his life and magic both in danger—receives powerful treatment. It’s touch-and-go for Severus as Poppy and Healer O’Donald work to save his magic.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Melina O’Donald, Twiskett

Chapter Fourteen: Of Ice Cream, Kittens, and Jet Planes
Tuesday, 1 September 1998.
Severus undergoes another procedure, and he dreams, past and present merging.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Eileen Prince Snape, Tobias Snape, Melina O’Donald

Chapter Fifteen: Bacon Butties and Baked Beans
Tuesday, 1 September 1998.
Severus begins his recovery and has visitors—and an unusual craving.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Hermione Granger, Gareth McGonagall, Wilspy

Chapter Sixteen: A Sympathetic New Start
Wednesday, 2 September 1998.
Severus spends the day in the infirmary, then returns to his own rooms to finish his recovery and begin his new life.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey

~*~

PART TWO
Chapter Seventeen: An Ambush for Minerva
Friday, 2 October 1998.
Albus is having his own adjustment issues; Severus gives him advice and arranges an ambush.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, Quin MacAirt

Chapter Eighteen: A New Man
Saturday, 17 October 1998.
Severus meets with Draco Malfoy about Draco’s decision. Later, he and Minerva discuss Halloween.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Minerva McGonagall

Chapter Nineteen: Of Scotch, Choices, and Ambiguity
Saturday, 24 October 1998.
Severus gets a preview of Albus’s costume for the Halloween fancy dress party, and the two wizards talk about past and present.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Wilspy

Chapter Twenty: A Ghostly Halloween
Saturday, 31 October 1998.
Severus attends the Hogwarts fancy dress party, which suffers a strange interruption.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, Verity Septima Vector, the Fat Friar, others

Chapter Twenty-One: Fancy Dress
Saturday, 31 October 1998.
Severus must dance, and the students vote on the best fancy dress.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, Verity Septima Vector, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Suzie Sefton, and others

Chapter Twenty-Two: Not Onerous or Dreary
Sunday, 1 November 1998.
Severus’s life seems to be edging away from onerous and dreary, but is it becoming more enjoyable? He has lunch with Hermione and Gareth—maybe that’s a start!
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Madam Rosmerta, Gareth McGonagall, others.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Collegiality
Sunday, 1 November 1998.
Severus has an ordinary afternoon when an unexpected visitor drops by.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Filius Flitwick, Alastor Moody, Verity Septima Vector.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Dawn Light Reflected
Monday, 9 November – Saturday, 14 November 1998.
The portrait of Aurora Sinistra is dedicated.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Firenze, Aurora Sinistra (portrait)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Preoccupation
Saturday, 21 November 1998.
Flitwick’s series of duelling demonstrations begins, and Severus tries to cope with a new preoccupation.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Filius Flitwick, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall

Chapter Twenty-Six: Laid to Rest
Saturday, 21 – Sunday, 22 November 1998.
Severus has some of his fears addressed and a worry laid to rest.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore

Chapter Twenty-Seven: ’Twas the Night Before the Night Before Christmas
Wednesday, 23 December 1998.
Severus finds himself hosting a Christmas party, much to his chagrin. And what Hogwarts Christmas party would be complete without a little Charmed mistletoe?
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Twiskett, various Hogwarts staff members

Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Happy Birthday?
Saturday, 9 January 1999.
Severus has a birthday. They do come every year, after all, and everyone has one. Nothing special about it, right?
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Hermione Granger, Poppy Pomfrey, Gareth McGonagall, Twiskett, others

~*~

PART THREE
Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Tear Shed
Saturday, 6 March 1999.
Severus goes into Hogsmeade to ask Hermione out to lunch, but spends the afternoon with Gareth.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Thirty: A Tour of the Past
Saturday, 6 March 1999.
Gareth gives Severus a tour of his mother’s house, and Severus tells him about his family. Severus invites Hermione on a date.
Rated M.
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Gareth McGonagall, Gertrude Gamp

Chapter Thirty-One: A Date with Hermione
Saturday, 6 March 1999.
Severus takes Hermione out to dinner, but the date has a rocky start.
Rated M.
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger

Chapter Thirty-Two: Disquiet
Sunday, 7 March 1999.
Severus has many mixed feelings, and his worries escalate.
Rated MA.
Warning for some mildly sexually explicit language and imagery.
Characters: Severus Snape

Chapter Thirty-Three: At Spinner’s End
Sunday, 7 March 1999.
Severus meets Gareth in Hogsmeade and Apparates him to Spinner’s End so that they can have a private discussion.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Thirty-Four: Uncertainty
Sunday, 7 March 1999.
Severus finds himself in a situation he brought about but nonetheless hadn’t expected.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit language, het fantasy, homoerotic scenes.
Characters: Severus Snape, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Thirty-Five: Friendship
Sunday, 7 March 1999.
Severus is grateful for his friendship with Gareth, but wants there to be no misunderstandings about it. Gareth reassures him, but Severus nonetheless worries about what the events of the day may mean. The two go to dinner in Edinburgh, then Severus returns to Hogwarts, where he runs into Dumbledore.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit content. Fluffy slashiness.
Characters: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Thirty-Six: A Darkly Smouldering Magnetism
Monday, 8 March 1999.
A member of the Hogwarts staff is attracted to Severus when he accidentally seems to flirt with her, which alarms him. Filius teases him gently about it. Later, Severus meets with Minerva and they discuss his relationship with Hermione.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Filius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall, Sarah Duffy, others.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: An Exercise in Harmless Flirting
Monday, 8 March 1999.
Severus decides to try out some harmless flirting after having been told that he has “a darkly smouldering magnetism.” It doesn’t go quite as planned.
Rated T.
Characters: Severus Snape, Surprise!

~*~

PART FOUR
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Playing with Fire
Monday, 8 March 1999.
Severus plays with fire. Will he be burned?
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit content. (Het.)
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Morning After
Tuesday, 9 March 1999.
Severus has a very surprising but pleasant start to his day. Poppy finds someone waiting for her in the infirmary.
Warning for sexually explicit content. (Het)
Rated MA.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall

Chapter Forty: A Matter of Timing
Tuesday, 9 March 1999.
Severus broods.
Rated M.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Sarah Duffy

Chapter Forty-One: A Fast Learner
Tuesday, 9 March 1999.
Severus enjoys his new-found power to bring pleasure.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit content. (Het)
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall

Chapter Forty-Two: Confessions
Tuesday, 9 March 1999.
Severus goes to Spinner’s End to meet Gareth. He confides in him, and he tells him about something from his past that he never discusses with anyone. Gareth also gives him some advice about Hermione.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit imagery and language. (Mostly het; some very mild slashiness.)
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Forty-Three: Distractions
Tuesday, 9 March 1999.
Poppy and Severus both find themselves distracted. Severus learns more about Poppy.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit content. (Het)
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey

Chapter Forty-Four: No Unmixed Pleasures
Wednesday, 10 March 1999.
Severus finds that unpleasant thoughts can interrupt even the most pleasurable moments.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit content.
Characters: Severus Snape, Poppy Pomfrey

Chapter Forty-Five: An Esoteric Spell
Wednesday, 10 – Thursday, 11 March 1999.
Severus learns a new spell.
Rated MA.
Warning for sexually explicit content.
Characters: Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, Gareth McGonagall

Chapter Forty-Six: A Complicated Life
Thursday, 11 March 1999.
Severus is confused about his choices and decisions. He has a talk with Hermione.
Rated M.
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Gareth McGonagall

~*~

Sneak Peek at Part Five Chapter Titles
Chapter Forty-Seven: Exotic Concoctions
Chapter Forty-Eight: A Wager With the Headmistress
Chapter Forty-Nine: Normal Life
Chapter Fifty: A New Project
Chapter Fifty-One: Technique
Chapter Fifty-Two: Just a Fling?
Chapter Fifty-Three: Dinner at Delancie’s
Chapter Fifty-Four: Dangerous Consequences

Ratings in Part Five range from T through MA.
Characters include: Albus Dumbledore, Filius Flitwick, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape, Gareth McGonagall, Tarrant McPherson

I just realized this morning that I have one boss yet to cover in the Trial of the Crusader raid- Anub’Arak.  This is partly because he refuses to drop the mace I want, and mostly because a community I frequent on LiveJournal- WoWLadies.  Someone posted this morning that they were having issues with Anub and, realizing that I had finally killed him, I could post about it and be somewhat useful again.  So here it is.

Anub’Arak

Anub'Arak (no, I have nothing witty this morning, kthx.)

Anub’ Arak is, first and foremost, a DPS fight, and that is made pretty clear the first time you fight him.  Anub has 3 phases:

Phase 1: Anub is surfaced, and 4 Crypt Stalker adds (2 on 10 man) will spawn. 

Phase 2: Anub will burrow underground and chase people around landshark style with his spikes sticking up out of the ground and little scarabs with chase your raid members around.

Phase 3: No more adds will spawn, but he will put the Leeching Swarm debuff on the raid, which will damage them but heal him.

It is important to know that Anub will alternate between phases 1 and 2 until you get him to 30% health, when he will switch to phase 3.

The Encounter:

Now, you start this fight by Tirin Fordring telling you that you are prepared to enter Icecrown Citadel.  However, Arthas disagrees- and he has no problem mocking you as he enters the Coliseum and tells you how foolish you were to build your structures over the underground tunnel kingdom of the Nerubian Empire.  To prove his point, he thrusts Forstmourne into the floor and shatters it, sending you and your raid plummeting to the large underground lake below and telling Tirion that ‘the souls of your fallen champions shall be mine.’

Well, we can’t have that, now can we?

As you emerge from the lake, you’ll see a large, cavernous room- where Anub’Arak will climb out of the ground and sit, waiting patiently for your attack.  Around his room are floating blue orbs and little scarabs that just meander about.  That is, until you attack, of course.  This starts the enrage timer (10 minutes.)  This is a 2- 3 tank fight, depending on what works for you.  My guild uses 3.  You’ll need a tank for Anub and 2 add tanks.  A few seconds after you engage Anub, the first set of Crypt Stalker adds will emerge.  These need to be tanked on patches of ice, which are placed when a ranged DPS shoots down the floating blue orbs (designate 1 or 2 people to do this and only this).  The ice patches will prevent any adds from burrowing when Anub goes into phase 2.  A total of 4 adds will spawn, and they will spawn in pairs.  All DPS (or at least all of your ranged types) needs to be on the adds as they spawn- one of them needs to die before Anub burrows, preferably the first 2.  The adds also have a stacking damage buff if they are tanked too close together, so they will need to be moved apart.  A few moments after the first pair spawn, the second pair will join them.  They need to be picked up quickly, as they will try to nom on healer faces almost immediatly.  This set will NOT be down before Anub burrows.  Remember that they need to be tanked on ice patches to prevent them from diving underground with the boss.  Kill as many of them as you can before Anub burrows.

During phase 2, Anub will disappear and a host of scarabs will appear.  They don’t do much melee damage- but they don’t have to.  They have a stacking poison debuff called Acid Drenched Mandibles that deals 1600 Nature damage every 3 seconds, lasts for one minute, and stacks everytime they hit you.  I have seen up to 85 stacks-  Thats 136000 Nature damage every 3 seconds!  The only way to deal with this is to run if you see one aggroed on you until the Crypt Stalker adds are dead, then herd them into a central area and AoE them down.  Also, if they run across Anub’s path, they will become enraged (this can be dispelled by a hunter’s Tranq Shot or a Rogue’s poison on a Fan of Knives).  Meanwhile, Anub is having fun chasing random raid members around the room.  He will target a player and spikes will pop out of the ground.  They will move slowly towards the player, getting consistently faster, until they catch the player- and kill him- or until the player runs across a patch of ice and Anub is stopped in his tracks.  This whole phase is about killing the adds before Anub climbs back out of the ground.  Then its back to phase 1.

In order to beat Anub’s 10 minute enrage timer, you need to get him to 30% life, and phase 3, before he burrows a third time.  During phase 3, Anub puts out a raid wide debuff called Leeching Swarm, which hurts the raid and heals him- the more life you have, the more he gets healed.  This is where you come in healers- the only person who needs to be at full health are any tanks currently tanking- that includes tanks on adds (this is the only time the tanks should avoid tanking on ice patches- you want the adds to burrow, so you don’t have to deal with them.)  Everyone else should be at or below 30% health MAX (some guides say 50%, but we do 30%.)  What does this mean to you?  Well, druids, a well placed Rejuv should be enough- if a couple of people go above 30%, you should still be fine, as long as your DPS can handle it.  But no more than 2 or 3 people at the absolute max. 

DPS Anub down, collect loot, profit!  Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for Icecrown!  (If you’re not doing the psychotic hardmodes, anyways….)

Now, go forth and raid!  Get lewtz!  And stay angry, healers!

~Pyo

Bang! So in a twist of the segment, I decided what I’ve got planned for Warcraft for this upcoming weekend.  Lots of exciting stuff, at lease for me that is… Mining & Fishing to get my gold stash back up to a reasonable level… and I’ve given myself a sort of challenge…

I am going to test to see how much gold I can make in 1 month from Mining, Fishing, and the Cooking/Fishing daily in Dalaran.  That’s it… no other dailies… nothing else… what ever I Mine and Fish will be sold on the AH periodically and we will see… My ultimate goal… I think I’ve given myself is 20k, I was going to make it 10k but I’ve made 5k in a week depending on the market on the AH…  We will see in a few days I’ve made back almost 2k of the gold I spent to level Engineering.

In other news, I’ll be raiding tonight (Friday)… yahoo!!! I think this is the first weekend I don’t really have to worry about a paper to write or an exam I have to study for… which is really nice… so I will be all into the game tonight…

Log on to Velen – US and say Hi!!! <3

Giggidee of Velen

Gnomendagger@gmail.com

06/11/2009 – Km. 36.730

Lo scopo dell’uscita è essenzialmente partecipare alla festa di Santa Lucia di Piave con i camperisti veneti ed in compagnia di Isidoro e di Franco “il gommista di Dova”.

Ma il plus di maggior valore è stata la proposta di Isidoro di visitare la diga del Vajont, tragica e triste testimonianza di un disastro annunciato e perpetrato dell’uomo, per vili e meri scopi economici.

Questa è un’occasione per me unica, ho vissuto nelle vicinanze nel 1976 per l’anno di militare a Cordenons (PN), ma nonostante tutto e tutti questi anni passati, non sono mai riuscito ad andare a vedere di persona la zona del disastro.

In viaggio verso Belluno.

Per l’occasione sfruttiamo i giorni di recupero di Marta del venerdì e del lunedì, e così partiamo oggi alle ore 11,30, avendo avuto così la mattina per preparare Zonker per l’uscita.

La sosta al Park Lambioi.

La giornata è grigia, ma non c’è molto traffico, sulla A4 procediamo senza problemi fino alla nuova variante, il Passante di Mestre, che puntualmente, nonostante il navigatore sia aggiornato, non compare sullo schermo.

Un artista all'opera.

Per evitare la scocciatura dei suggerimenti inutili sul cambiamento di strada, da parte della “signorina Garmin”, abbasso il volume e così possiamo parlare meglio.

Belluno di sera.

Questo fatto però mi fa perdere di vista l’uscita per Belluno, perfettamente segnalata, costringendomi a proseguire per altri 17 km e poi ritornare indietro, perdendo anche quasi 40 minuti.

Un altro artista.

Per strada abbiamo già contattato telefonicamente Isidoro ed Ivana che ci stanno aspettando a Belluno; alle ore 16,45, al km. 37.102, arriviamo con un pò di ritardo e li troviamo sul ciglio della strada pronti a partire.

La manifestazione in corso.

.

.

Ci dirigiamo al parcheggio a pagamento Lambioi (), un ottimo sistema per parcheggiare con tranquillità e poter visitare la città di Belluno in assoluta comodità, salendo in città con delle comode scale mobili.

Il tempo è bigio, ma non fa freddo, almeno per periodo in cui siamo, giriamo per la città che sta accogliendo una mostra all’aperto di scultori del legno, posti in molti angoli sui marciapiedi, intenti a perfezionare le loro opere.

E’ bello poter camminare con calma, conversando con gli amici che non vedi da un pò, poter scambiare le cose che si sono accumulate nel tempo; quegli artisti poi ci danno degli ottimi spunti per conversare.

Tra una cosa e l’altra si sono fatte le ore 18 e così decidiamo di recarci verso Longarone, abbiamo sentito Franco al telefono e sono ancora indietro, così gli daremo le coordinate più precise.

Franco, Isidoro e Zonker.

In poco tempo arriviamo a Longarone, Isidoro come sempre è precisissimo ed arriva in un baleno al parcheggio in zona fiera che aveva già visionato in precedenza ().

La scuola sul retro.

E’ un bel parcheggio, fuori da traffico, con gli stalli lunghi che ci contengono perfettamente ed in questo periodo non c’è nessuno, ci sono solo altri 3 camper, anche loro in sosta di transito.

Vista l’ora, sono le 20,45 al km. 37.123, ci apprestiamo a cenare e a prepararci per la notte, poi facciamo ancora qualche chiacchiera e verso le 24 arriva Franco, con Donatella e Silvia, giusto un rapido scambio di convenevoli, è molto che non ci si vede anche con loro e poi andiamo a dormire.

Abbiamo acceso la stufa per tempo, messo la copertura di separazione con la cabina e si sente benissimo il suo effetto, in poco tempo si scalda l’ambiente, tanto da spegnerla per la notte, il piumone sarà sufficiente.

7/11/2009

La notte è passata con tranquillità assoluta, il risveglio poi ci trova immersi nella nebbia ovattata, tanto da non scorgere le montagne attorno, ma non importa, si fa una rapida colazione e via verso la diga.

L'interno delle gallerie.

Isidoro davanti ci fa strada e subito dietro noi in carovana, non ci vuole molto tempo, dobbiamo passare per un semaforo che governa il transito sulla strada stretta con gallerie, c’è un tempo massimo di attesa del verde di 7 minuti e poi ci immergiamo in questa valle.

L'uscita della galleria.

Le gallerie ora sono imbiancate, ma si scorge benissimo il grezzo della roccia che le avvolge ed il contrasto con la nebbia fitta nella valle, fa trasparire un certo fascino, un misto fra soggezione e rispetto.

La vista della valle con la nebbia.

Arriviamo subito al primo parcheggio dopo le gallerie, ci sono le righe blu e si dovrebbe anche pagare, ma parcheggiamo e cerchiamo di capire che fare, non c’è nessuno e non si comprende perchè dovrebbe esserci qualcuno, con questo tempo.

Il parcheggio davanti alla diga.

Da un lato quella nebbia è fastidiosa, dall’altro rende l’atmosfera più drammatica al racconto, Isidoro ci spiega che siamo ad un passo dalla diga, ma non si vede proprio nulla, nonostante la nebbia, c’è anche una lieve brezza gelida che ci obbliga a coprirci per bene.

Ci mettiamo davanti ad una cartina che ci fa immaginare la valle che dovremmo avere di fronte e d Isidoro inizia a raccontarci con precisione ciò che Massimiliano (assente) ci ha preparato (qui sarà inserito il racconto).

L'accesso al corridoio sulla diga.

Ovviamente conoscevo a grandi linee la vicenda, ma sentirla raccontare ora, con questi particolari, diventa di gran interesse e man mano che ci si immerge nella storia, sale anche il livore verso quelle menti irresponsabili che hanno causato questo disastro, impensabile ai giorni nostri.

La zona del disastro (tratto da: www.erto.it)

Ci rintaniamo nel camper di Isidoro per terminare il racconto, fuori ci si congela, poi percorriamo il piccolo tratto che ci porta all’ingresso della diga, verso la cappella; il complesso è ancora definito “industriale” e per tanto è privato e di proprietà dell’Enel, quindi non aperto al pubblico.

E’ possibile visitare la diga, ma in questo periodo dell’anno solo su prenotazione e con gruppi di almeno 20 persone, così ci limitiamo a sbirciare tra le grate: guardando quel corridoio immerso nella nebbia, sentendo questo silenzio, sembra impossibile che qui si è manifestata una tragedia di quelle dimensioni, ma i tondini di ferro che escono dall’armatura del bordo sono lì a ricordarla.

Nel ritornare sui nostri camper ci fermiamo da un signore del luogo, sta allestendo un gazebo per la vendita di DVD sulla tragedia, espone dei plastici da lui realizzati, con le varie fasi del dramma.

L'inizio della "galleria del sorpasso" dopo la frana.

E’ un personaggio di poche parole (Isi dice: “non son farina par ostie“), un pò brusco, gli chiediamo qualche precisazione, ma sentendo che siamo un pò informati, si chiude in se e smette perfino di rispondere, lasciando le domande nel vuoto; ad un certo punto quasi ci spinge ad andarcene e lo lasciamo da solo.

Il particolare della "galleria del sorpasso".

Guidati sempre da Isidoro, ci dirigiamo verso l’inizio della “Galleria del sorpasso“, questo significa percorrere una strada proprio sul terreno franato fino ad arrivare sull’altro versante del monte Toc.

Il laghetto che è rimasto nella valle deturpata.

Il resto della vallata è anche piacevole da osservare, per fortuna la nebbia sembra alzarsi, ma certo che vedere quella frana, con ancora 150 morti circa nel suo grembo, è davvero impressionante.

Il park sotto il paese Casso (Isi).

Ritorniamo sul versate originale, parcheggiamo ai piedi di Casso, lassù non c’è posto per tre camper e poi una passeggiata sul “Sentiero dei carbonai” è imperdibile.

Il paese Casso (Isi).

Questo è un vecchio sentiero utilizzato nei secoli proprio per portare il carbone a valle, da qui si vede perfettamente tutta la valle del Vajont, diga compresa, fino a Longarone.

Le case particolari di Casso.

Entrando nel piccolo paesino si viene colpiti dalle case di pietra, alte e strette, di solito in questi paesi non è facile scorgere delle costruzioni così alte; purtroppo ci sono molte case visibilmente non abitate e questo rende la vista un pò malinconica.

Pellegrini di passaggio.

Fortunatamente il cielo si sta aprendo e l’autunno qui impera, con tutti i suoi colori variegati, le nuvole sulla vallata scorrono via veloci e ci lasciano la sensazione di essere in un mondo diverso.

Il paese di Casso dall'alto.

D’un tratto si scorge, sul versante di fronte a noi, sul monte Toc, la “M” della frana, è sempre un pò coperta dalle nuvole, ma a tratti dimostra la sua forza e la sua ampiezza.

Il sentiero dei carbonai.

I colori sul cammino.

Poi, sotto di noi, compare la diga, sempre aggrappata fortemente ai bordi della gola che la ospita e con orgoglio mostra la sua imponenza, anche guardandola dall’alto, come a dimostrare che quel disastro “non è stato per colpa sua“, e noi oggi sappiamo quanto sia vero, nonostante tutto, smottamenti, terremoti, invasi e svasi ripetuti e la possente tracimazione, la diga è perfettamente in piedi.

Vista parziale del Monte Toc con la M della frana.

La diga dall'alto.

La vista sulla frana.

Le nuvole corrono veloci sotto di noi ed a tratti si riesce a scorgere anche Longarone e la valle del Piave, davvero una vista suggestiva.

La via del ritorno.

Ritorniamo sui nostri passi, è quasi l’ora di pranzo e la fame si sente, Isidoro ci ha prenotato un buonissimo Agriturismo e siamo tutti ansiosi di confermarne la bontà.

Il parcheggio dei camper.

Mentre scendiamo ci accorgiamo della distanza, i camper sono solo un puntino lontano, però è bello camminare su questo sentiero, sarà che noi saremo “cittadini”, ma sembra di essere in un posto dove il tempo si è fermato.

Le pecore nel paesaggio.

Attorno alla strada ci sono delle pecore al pascolo, sembrano un pò disturbate dal nostro passaggio, qualcuno di noi cerca un minimo di colloquio con loro, ma questi tentativi paiono infruttuosi, anzi a tratti sembra che siano loro a prenderci in giro.

Schierati al parcheggio.

Arriviamo al parcheggio abbastanza in fretta, siamo davanti all’unico edificio definito dall’insegna come “Zona industriale”, vende prodotti locali ed alimentari e non pare ci sia molto accesso.

Le nuvole dietro di noi.

L’agriturismo è molto vicino e ci mettiamo davvero poco, anche qui si parcheggia benissimo ed in un attimo ci troviamo a tavola, la tavolata è davanti ad un camino ardente; degustiamo degli ottimi piatti locali, con tanto di polenta e brasato, formaggio cotto, tutti piatti ottimi ed abbondanti che minano pericolosamente le volontà dietetiche di ognuno di noi.

La tavolata.

Per fortuna riusciamo a limitarci almeno per quanto riguarda gli autisti ed il vino, un vero peccato perchè è perfettamente abbinato alle pietanze, ma … rispettiamo le regole.

Mauro Corona

Dopo pranzo partiamo per Santa Lucia di Piave, prima però passiamo dal paese Erto Nuovo, la strada passa proprio davanti al laboratorio del personaggio più caratteristico della valle, lo scultore poeta Mauro Corona.

Lo studio laboratorio di Mauro Corona.

L’avevamo già incrociato a Belluno ieri sera, ma era di corsa, adesso fermandoci, possiamo osservarlo nel suo regno, davanti a suo laboratorio, un pò incasinato, ma forse proprio questo è il bello.

Il suo auto ritratto.

C’è un signore che gli sta facendo porre la dedica sul suo ultimo libro, così riesco anche ad immortalare l’evento, altrimenti lui rimane sempre rintanato nei suoi locali; non è di molte parole, anzi, quelle che pronuncia sono sempre un pò ruvide.

La diga dalla strada.

Riprendiamo la strada, costeggiamo ancora la diga che ora si vede benissimo ed abbandoniamo la vallata, con Marta ci ripromettiamo di vedere sia il film che la prosa di Paolini sul tragico evento, con le informazioni che ora abbiamo, sarà più facile seguire la storia.

La disposizione nella sosta a S. Lucia di Piave.

Arriviamo a S. Lucia di Piave abbastanza in fretta, Isidoro è sempre alla guida della piccola carovana, entriamo nel vasto spazio riservato alla sosta e troviamo subito l’angolo riservato con piacere ai camperisti di CoL ().

Il camper Alfa Romeo del 1978.

Prendiamo posizione e facciamo un giro per vedere un pò la situazione, ogni tanto Isidoro incontra altri camperisti veneti già conosciuti; incontriamo un bellissimo esemplare di camper vintage, un Alfa Romeo del 1978, tenuto benissimo.

Una bancarella di vasellami.

I Caldarostai.

Una tavola medioevale imbandita.

Proseguiamo per il mercato medioevale, c’è la possibilità di acquistare, però prima bisogna cambiare la “pecunia”, euro con monete coniate per la situazione.

Un falco a riposo.

Ci sono i venditori vestiti con i costumi medievali, ed è bello vederli muovere con scioltezza e normalità, facendo calare il visitatore nel periodo epocale; anche qui ci sono i falconieri, ma per oggi è tardi e domani non si sa se voleranno.

Il saltimbanco.

I maiali in cottura.

Proseguiamo ed assistiamo ad uno spettacolo di un saltimbanco, giusto qualche numero per i bambini e più grandi; poi riprendiamo il percorso, ci sono due bei maiali che stanno cuocendo lentamente con la brace attorno, non avevo mai visto cuocere in questo modo, con il fuoco attorno in cerchio ed i maiali al centro.

La vendita del miele.

Ormai si sta facendo sera ed il buio avanza, non fa molto freddo, anche se l’umido non manca, le bancarelle iniziano a ritirare la merce, ma c’è sempre qualcuno che si attarda; intanto si sentono arrivare dei tamburi, sono dei suonatori che si sono fermati nel prato per una dimostrazione.

I tamburi all'opera.

Sono davvero in gamba, come ritmica e come sceneggiatura, il capo gruppo è un ragazzo snello, agile, con i capelli biondi e lunghi, come solista si agita non poco e ben presto ci sono molte persone, compresi noi, ad osservarli.

Ballando da soli ... (Isi)

Sono poi succeduti altri gruppi musicali, tra questi ci sono stati un trio, due ragazzi con le cornamuse ed una ragazza con un tamburo, che hanno suonato delle musiche a noi note, una “Burè a due tempi”; queste note, a Marta ed a me, ci hanno fatto venire subito in mente i nostri balli popolari.

... o con pochi altri. (Isi)

Purtroppo li frequentiamo poco ed io, che sono un neofita, mi ritrovo sempre impacciato; per fortuna Marta è sempre in forma e così improvvisiamo un balletto a due, con Isidoro ed Ivana che ci guardano divertiti.

Gli arcieri.

Poi è subentrato un altro brano musicale di una ballata Istraeliana, questa è più semplice ballarla e così abbiamo trovato qualche altra volontaria.

I giocolieri con il fuoco.

Ci spostiamo ancora nella zona delle manifestazioni, così detta della vecchia fornace, sotto la ciminiera si esibiranno degli arcieri e dei giocolieri con il fuoco.

Il braciere di Isidoro.

Gli arcieri sono una compagnia di sportivi appassionati di questo tipo di arco, con tiro ad istinto; mentre i giocolieri sono all’interno di una rappresentazione storica.

La facciata della chiesa.

Ci sono molte persone, ma dopo un pò, causa anche dei fumogeni, ce ne ritorniamo sui nostri camper; mentre Isidoro prepara la brace su uno splendido braciere, ceniamo frugalmente in attesa delle castagne accompagnate con dell’ottimo vinello, gentilmente offerto da altri camperisti veneti e qui finalmente ho l’onore di conoscere Adriana, una camperista che scrive assiduamente su CoL con il nick Ladipimma e proviene da Trieste.

L'interno della chiesa.

Abbiamo conversato un pò con loro, è bello sentire parlare il veneto, sia la madre di Marta che la mia sono venete e sembra un pò di stare in casa.

Le arpe durante la pausa.

Altro appuntamento è il concerto di arpe alla chiesa di Santa Lucia, alle ore 21, siamo un pò in ritardo, ed infatti quando arriviamo in chiesa hanno già iniziato a suonare ed è straripante di persone, di sedersi neanche a pensarci.

Alcuni particolari.

Il suono dell’arpa è sempre magico e quelle ragazze (c’era solo un ragazzo che suonava)  sono davvero brave; durante la pausa, un genitore ci informa un pò sugli strumenti e sulla difficoltà di spostarli, visto il peso e la delicatezza, cercando di non comprometterli, soprattutto anche per il costo, circa € 20.000 l’una!

L'acquasantiera particolare.

Purtroppo non c’è verso di trovare un posto da sedersi, io ho un pò di mal di schiena e così decido di tornare in camper, lasciando Marta a finire di sentire il concerto.

Rientro con Isidoro ed Ivana, non sembra ma la giornata è stata un pò movimentata e ce ne andiamo volentieri a dormire; Marta rientra dopo quasi 45 minuti, in tempo per chiudere tutto e dormire.

8/11/2009

Ci svegliamo alle ore 8,30, giusto per goderci la buona colazione offerta dall’organizzazione, il tempo è decisamente brutto, pioviggina a tratti, tanto che la direzione ha avvisato che tutte le manifestazioni di oggi saranno spostate a domenica prossima, cosa che per noi equivale al saluto definitivo della manifestazione.

Con Isidoro e Franco decidiamo di spostarci ad Asolo, almeno così potremmo proseguire la visita dei dintorni.

Silvia è stata bravissima, si è organizzata a cercare delle possibili mete e così, verso le 11,30 ci spostiamo in carovana; giusto il tempo per salutare al volo Adriana ed altri.

La villa Maser dal camper.

Ci fermiamo sulla strada per Asolo, davanti alla Villa Maser (), che per combinazione è stata anche una residenza del costruttore della diga del Vajont; approfittiamo di uno spiazzo per pranzare ognuno nel suo camper, fuori continua il diluvio ed in un attimo abbiamo i vetri appannati, anche causa la pentola di pasta sul fuoco.

Dalla villa ...

Nell’attesa della cottura, Franco, Isidoro ed io andiamo a piedi a vedere dov’è l’ingresso della villa, così scopriamo che c’è un ottimo parcheggio gratuito proprio davanti all’entrata, dove ci sposteremo dopo pranzo.

... il nostro parcheggio per il pranzo.

Entriamo in villa, ma non c’è possibilità di una guida, c’è solo un foglio con delle indicazioni di massima, però ci fanno mettere ai piedi delle grandissime pattine per non sporcare il pavimento.

Il parcheggio davanti all'entrata.

Si può visitare solo il piano di accesso, la villa è ancora abitata da una nipote e famiglia, l’edificio è collocato in un ottimo posto, c’è una perfetta visione di tutti i possedimenti attorno.

Le tenute davanti alla villa.

C’è un corridoio centrale posto a croce con le stanze nei 4 angoli, però sono solo 2 aperte e dedicate; ci sono affreschi curiosi, come una vite che sembra passare da terra al soffitto, attraverso le colonne, tutto sempre dipinto.

Uno degli affreschi con il ramo passante.

Nel retro della villa c’è una bella vasca d’acqua con delle statue, probabilmente ci sarà anche un giro di getti d’acqua, ma ora non sono funzionanti; sullo sfondo c’è una uscita di una fonte naturale che si versa nella vasca centrale, ora all’asciutto.

La fontana sul retro.

Tra la lettura delle semplici note e la visitazione delle sale, non ci porta via molto tempo, così ci portiamo, sempre sotto la pioggia, al vicino museo delle carrozze d’epoca.

La sala centrale delle carrozze.

Sono veramente molte, di tutti i tipi, compresa quella che aveva la predisposizione per la batteria per l’illuminazione o quella con il contenitore per il ghiaccio, un pò come fossero precursori del camper.

Una slitta russa.

E’ affascinante notare il cuoio dei sedili, consunto dall’uso, e rivedere per un istante la vita passata su quelle sedute, con le persone e le esigenze del tempo; c’è anche una piccola sala con delle slitte, a loro modo diligenze sulla neve, sempre in memoria del tempo passato.

Riprendiamo il movimento verso Asolo, continua a piovere, ma Silvia ci ricorda l’interesse storico della nostra meta.

Il centro piovoso di Asolo.

Alle ore 15,50 arriviamo ad Asolo, al km. 37.258 ed usufruiamo di un parcheggio a pagamento, € 2 fino alle ore 21, ma se si vuole pernottare bisogna chiamare l’addetto che apre lo spazio di AA ().

Purtroppo sta piovendo in modo deciso, ma noi stoici ci dirigiamo verso il museo cittadino, dove Silvia e Donatella si fermano per una visita, mentre noi altri proseguiamo con i nostri ombrelli.

La piazzetta centrale.

Nonostante la pioggia possiamo notare che Asolo è una bella piccola cittadina, ha dei balconi molto particolari e dei bei portici; ci sono ancora delle bancarelle di alcuni mercanti: sono un pò avviliti dalla pioggia, in giro praticamente ci siamo quasi solo noi, mentre loro si aspettavano di certo più persone.

La chiesa di S. Anna.

Dalle informazioni turistiche che abbiamo recuperato da un ufficietto cittadino (la ragazza è davvero molto preparata e precisa, anche per quanto riguarda Bassano del Grappa, prossima nostra meta) possiamo leggere che ci sono molti personaggi famosi che sono stati sepolti al cimitero di Asolo.

Purtroppo, tra la pioggia e l’ora non riusciamo a visitare il cimitero, anche se ci proviamo, ma poi decidiamo di rientrare per spostarci a Bassano del Grappa, mentre Franco ritornerà verso casa, lui domani deve riaprire, noi no.

Franco raggiunge Donatella e Silvia, mentre noi li anticipiamo ai camper, almeno questo è l’intento, perchè per strada troviamo un signore in ginocchio, appoggiato alle transenne che impediscono l’accesso alle auto in città.

Piove forte ed il suo ombrello è riverso per strada, non capiamo subito che cosa sta succedendo, ma per fortuna altri signori davanti a noi comprendono: quel signore non sta bene, non parla, non reagisce molto, ma si sente benissimo che è ubriaco.

Subito Ivana chiama il 113 e cerca di spiegare l’accaduto, quel signore ha bisogno di assistenza ed è tutto bagnato dalla pioggia, o almeno, quella di sicuro.

I Carabinieri non arrivano velocemente, nonostante il centro abitato sia di piccola dimensione e noi fatichiamo a tenere il signore in piedi o seduto su una panchina; lui vuole dirci qualcosa, ci mostra un insieme di tesserini e carte, poveretto, ha avuto un ictus ed è parzialmente paralizzato, ma ormai non possiamo lasciarlo lì o peggio ignorarlo.

Quando finalmente arrivano i Carabinieri, ci spiegano che lo conoscono bene e che sanno che è ben presente, anche se un pò bevuto, ora siamo più tranquilli, glielo affidiamo e ritorniamo ai camper.

Qui troviamo Franco Donatella e Silvia già in procinto di partire, ci sono passati a fianco e, dalla concitazione di quel momento, nessuno di noi si è accorto, ne tanto meno loro ci hanno notato alle prese con il signore.

Ci si saluta un pò di fretta, continua a piovere a dirotto ed anche noi ci spostiamo verso Bassano del Grappa; dalle informazioni avute ci dirigiamo verso il parco de “I ragazzi del ‘99“, consigliato anche dalla signorina delle informazioni come possibile sosta per la notte.

In qualche modo arriviamo al grande parcheggio, quasi completamente vuoto, sempre sotto una incessante pioggia; sono le ore 19,00 e siamo al Km. 37.274 ().

Decidiamo di cenare in una trattoria, per questo con Ivana ed Isidoro, giriamo un pò per il centro fino al famoso ponte di Bassano, l’atmosfera serale è graziosa, poi ci fermiamo quando troviamo il ristorante Il Garibaldi, è l’unico che c’ispira da fuori.

Mangiamo bene, tutti piatti locali perfettamente cucinati, innaffiati con buoni vini, Marta ed io abbiamo preso un buon novello, finalmente lo degustiamo; alla fine il conto è più che onesto, meno di una pizza e birra a testa.

Tempo di tornare a dormire, ora finalmente sta smettendo di piovere e concludiamo così la giornata di domenica.

9/11/2009

Ci svegliamo alle ore 8,00, la notte è stata tranquilla, ha piovuto molto, ma sembra ora abbia smesso, una noiosa goccia che cade sulla freccia di posizione ci ha aiutato a svegliarci, una buona colazione che non manca mai e via.

Il Tempio Ossario

Con Ivana ed Isidoro abbiamo deciso di farci un ultimo giro per la cittadina, con la luce diurna l’aspetto è ovviamente diverso e poi adesso si cammina meglio senza pioggia.

La torre civica.

Con la piccola documentazione che abbiamo decidiamo un percorso, passiamo davanti ad una prima chiesa, definita il Tempio Ossario, dove riposano i resti dei deceduti della 1^ Guerra Mondiale e dentro vi è un Elenco dei caduti sepolti; è un pò presto per le visite interne, ma quell’edificio traspira ugualmente di sacralità.

La chiesa di S. Giovanni Battista.

Proseguiamo nella piazza a fianco, piazza della Libertà (vista panoramica della piazza), c’è la chiesa di S. Giovanni Battista che la contorna da un lato, mentre di fronte la Loggia del Podestà, con il suo particolare orologio e l’affresco di S. Cristoforo che dovrebbe proteggere i viandanti al passaggio.

La piazza.

In queste ore notiamo che per strada stanno allestendo le casette dei mercatini di Natale, tradizione che anche qui, come in tutta la zona, avverrà entro il 5/12.

L'orologio.

San Cristoforo.

Passiamo davanti a quello che era il Monte di Pietà, ora è una banca, ma il suo aspetto austero è tutto ancora ben presente.

Il monte di Pietà.

Proseguiamo fino ad arrivare finalmente al Ponte Vecchio, la caratteristica famosa ed originale di Bassano, fatto saltare più volte con le guerre, ma sempre ricostruito dagli Alpini: è bellissimo, tutto in legno e controlla benissimo il fiume Brenta che scorre calmo e possente.

Il negozio Nardini.

C’è una curiosa casetta, vedibile dal ponte, ha ancora i segni delle bombarde francesi del 4/5/1809, di sicuro anche queste sponde hanno visto molta storia passare da queste parti.

Il ponte con il sole.

Sull’angolo del ponte c’è il museo degli alpini, gratuito, è nel sotterraneo di un bel bar, di antico stile; mentre dall’altro lato c’è il negozio bar della ditta Nardini, una delle più grandi produttrici italiana di grappa.

Il lato destro del Brenta, dal ponte.

Il lato sinistro del Brenta.

Ci hanno detto che c’è da loro servono il famoso aperitivo serale “mezzo mezzo”, ma gli orari non ci hanno consentito di poterlo degustare, infatti ieri sera c’era molta gioventù nei paraggi.

La casa con i segni delle palle di cannone.

Il Ponte Vecchio dalla sponda.

Un accesso al Ponte Vecchio.

Dall’altra parte del ponte c’è un edificio che ospita la distilleria Poli, anche questa è un’antica produttrice di grappa, ma la caratteristiche è che ha all’interno il museo della grappa, anche questo con libero ingresso.

Il museo della grappa Poli.

L'interno del museo.

Decidiamo di visitarla, apparentemente sembra una banalità, ma si è rivelata molto interessante, io poi sono totalmente ignorante sulle varie fasi di produzione ed il video finale è stato molto esaustivo.

Una caldaia particolare.

Una parte della collezione di grappa mignon.

All’uscita ci hanno dato le indicazioni per la visita nella loro distilleria, per prendere visione dal vivo di tutta la produzione, sarà una tappa da prendere in considerazione.

Gli alberi del viale.

Per fortuna sta uscendo un timido sole, proseguiamo tra le viuzze, verso i camper, ormai è ora di pensare al rientro nelle rispettive città; chissà perchè questi momenti di prossimo commiato, si sentono sempre prima, ma ala fine non possiamo lamentarci, abbiamo fatto proprio un bel we tutti assieme.

I nostri camper nel parcheggio.

Gli alberi del viale a fianco del parcheggio, oltre ad essere particolari come potatura, sono tristemente famosi per i martiri che hanno impiccato ad ognuno di loro, sotto ci sono le targhe che li ricordano, con sempre un fiore fresco.

Il parcheggio ora è molto affollato, oggi è una giornata di lavoro normale e si vede anche dalle auto, un rapido saluto ad Ivana ed Isidoro e poi prendiamo la strada verso casa; però decidiamo di tentare la visita alla distilleria che si trova a Schiavon.

Purtroppo però arriviamo alle ore 11,30, ma non ci fanno entrare fino alle ore 14 e così decidiamo di proseguire al rientro; entriamo in autostrada, proseguiamo per un pò e poi ci fermiamo in un autogril per il pranzo ed il caffè.

Arriviamo a Trezzo alle ore 15,50, al Km. 37.502, facciamo in tempo a scaricare e pulire bene il camper; qui mi è capitato un imprevisto.

Proprio avendo più tempo, ho voluto provare a pulire più accuratamente la cassetta Thetford: ho aperto la copertura centrale, ho girato la manopolina gialla, ma non è successo nulla; quando ho provato ad aiutare l’apertuna con un dito, la ghigliottina si è bloccata e non c’è stato verso, alla fine sono andato dal concessionario, lasciandola lì per la riparazione.

Una bella uscita, davvero imperdibile, un grande grazie ad Ivana e Isidoro, sempre preciso nei dettagli, Franco, Donatella e Silvia; peccato un pò per la pioggia che ci ha un pò limitato la compagnia, ma non importa.

Il percorso ()

o-o-o

Bye  

CC macro hopefully slightly improved since last I used it to very good effect on Heroic Faction Chumps.

#showtooltip
/use [mod:alt] Entangling Roots; [mod:shift] Cyclone; [target=focus, exists] Cyclone; Cyclone

If you have a focus target, it will try to Cyclone your focus target unless you have Shift pressed, in which case it will try to Cyclone your current target. If you don’t, it will try to Cyclone your current target, unless you have Alt pressed down to Root your current target. Pick a good dangerous focus target that causes people trouble but doesn’t have a boomkin already CC’ing it. Hit once after each 5-cp finisher on your main target if you’re assigned to kill stuff – for an instant good CC. Shift back, 5 more CP, finisher, instant Cyclone again.

Cool Hunter UI idea from wow.com:

Been laughing and digging this remix for a day or two now:

MP3:

http://mrvoletron.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/you-face-jaraxxus-voletron-remix.mp3

This video come from a 10 man ToC run we did last night. The group was pretty fail, especially when the 1.9k DPS Boomkin rolled twice on my mace and won it. But Boder was apparantly confused during the submerged part of Anub’Arak, as he died to it 3 times. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsiHYkr4WEw

Watch it in HD!

Did the first three bosses on Heroic 10 man TOC night. Some slight differences in the fight from regular 10 and 25 man TOC. But felt real good to give TOC a try on heroic. Of course I was on my Retribution Pally. We had it set up with 4 DPSers. I off course was the lowest of the DPSers. See post “Being a Retribution Pally isn’t Easy” post. The good news is that while I was 4th out of 4 DPSers I was hanging close to number 3. Been switching between Seal of Command and Seal of Vengeance depending on the fight.

So I think we should talk about the different pally seals for the next post. The what and the whys of seals. Not talking baby seals here, we’ll talk Paladin Seals!!!

I’ve been doing some thinking about ToC and ToGC, namely in the context of raider burnout and turn-over. I should say first though that this post is dedicated to my fellow Axiom Prot-Warrior Armann who stopped tanking recently because Heroic Strike spam gave him a serious medical condition (carpal tunnel aka “The Claw”).  His transfer to our DPS team (you can play a Death Knight with one hand, apparently) got me thinking about this.  We can pour a “40″ on his shield later.  Get better soon man.

On topic, however, I’ve seen a lot of signs showing the stress of raiding is taking its toll.  Or boredom taking its toll.  I think either way you would be hard to find that many people “enthused” about the content of the current raid instance.  Some people I am sure would tell you this is because Trial of the Crusader is too easy, while others would say it is because Trial of the Grand Crusader is too hard.  I am of a slightly different opinion, which is that (as a whole) it’s too short.

I’ll start by acknowledging that I think that both the prior statements are true – ToC is too easy and ToGC is too hard, but realistically speaking I don’t think that either is to blame for the sense of malaise that I can feel in raiding right now.  The reason for that is because this whole raiding business (actually, MMOs as a whole, but that’s getting way off my point) is a social experience.  The thing that really keeps us going is not so much the experience of the content itself, but rather the experience as it is with other people.

At this point in the game (late content patch) I think most raiders are either farming for loot (ToC) or wiping trying to do things the hard way (ToGC).  Generally, we wipe for hours and hours on Heroic Northrend Beasts (not even any trash to clear to break the monotony!), whereas we’re spending maybe and hour in ToC getting upgrades and generally goofing off.  The stress to de-stress ratio is way skewed, and that is a function of the fact that the Crusader’s Coliseum is way too short.  In Ulduar (which was super long, of course) there was a definite progression of difficulty and, well, trash to fill up the extra time (And give you a break after wiping for several hours).  There were also choices of what to work on instead of being highly linear.  Hell, Molten Core was less linear than Crusader’s Coliseum, and it’s practically a model of the genre.

Sure, you might say, why don’t you just do ToC?  I think the answer can be found in the different kind of malaise we saw with at the end of content patch 3.0.x.  Just farming is as brain killing as just wiping.  I think most raiders want to be challenged (or else why would we throw ourselves at the same fight for four hours?), even if we do need to stagger it with an easier fight or trash just for our sanity.

All that brings me to the point, namely that we’re drooping (nay, dropping) because ToC and ToGC together are a 1-2 punch that practically drains your brain by design.  If it feels like 3.3 can’t hit soon enough; if your raid members are dropping faster than tanks on Gormok the Impaler; or if your tired of logging on once a week to farm for an hour then maybe this is why.

As a related note, if you are looking for a good gift for your favorite tank this holiday season, remember their heroic strike finger – a little BenGay goes a long way.

Je vois presque le bout de mon déménagement, reste encore de la paperasse : cloturer le compteur, rouvrir le nouveau, relever les compteurs d’eau, aller a la caf, faire l’etat des lieu…..pfff et entre temps tout les rendez vous annexes. C’est dur à gerer niveau stress et je ne peux pas m’empecher de me sentir angoissée.

Ah ben vi je vous avais pas dis, mais j’ai déménager, voilà les raisons pour lesquels je n’etais plus trop presente. Déja j’étais si mal chez moi que j’etais retournée dormir chez mes parents (je l’avais évoquée ca).

Le déménagement  à été horrible niveau stress, angoisses, j’en pleurais telement j’etais mal. L’impression que je n’y arreverais jamais. Pourtant j’ai seulement changer d’étages (du 3ème au 7 ème et dernier) pour un appart de la même superficie, mais mieux aménager, plus neuf, plus jolie, bref mieux quoi! 

Photos here :

Ce n’est pas ranger pour les photos, c’est à cause des TOC c’est en permanace comme ca, d’ailleurs, bien que je sois très très contente d’avoir changer, au niveau des TOC  ca s’est plutot emplifier voir décuplés….

Bref je reviendrais sur tout ceci dans un autre billet.

Jeudi j’avais l’atelier psychodrame, ca m’angoisse toujours autant, j’y vais la peur au ventre, mais j’essaye de me dire que ca peut me faire du bien. Ensuite je suis allée chez ma tata pour l’aider sur son ordi, on a finit par une soirée crêpe, miam c’etait bon, c’est moi qui est étrainé le pot de nutella^^

Samedi c’est mon rendez-vous chez le psy (avec un peu plus d’une heure aller et retour), mais c’est en debut d’apres midi, donc ca devrait aller.

J’ai de nouveau super mal au dos, et remets ma ceinture lombaire plus longtemps qu’avant, je vais reprendre la kinè que j’avais interrompu car avec le déménagement j’étais trop stressé pour y aller.

Je dois aussi (en principe) reprendre mes rendez-vous mensuels chez ma généraliste, mais elle m’avais dit de ne pas venir en periode de grippe si je n’avais rien de particulier, j’avais donc arreter aussi.

Niveau poids, je ne perds plus, je suis quasiment a mon poids d’avant la maladie (45 kilos), il me manque 2 petits kilos (enfin un peu plus^^), qui devrait revenir, surtout si je continue a enchainer les soirée crepes, tartilettes, lasagnes, sans compter les gouter genre vienoisserie et patisseries^^ Mais bon je ne me prends pas trop la tête avec ca.

Y'a vraiment que moi pour voir du gras..pfff ^^

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bon j’ai d’autres choses à raconter, mais ca fera l’objet d’un autre biller

Last Wednesday’s raid was fun, and just a little bit heartbreaking. I saw some more familiar faces; two druid healers and a warlock from prior weeks came again, and each said they’d continue to try to make the raid time every week. After filling the remaining spots, we got going with the roughest start I’ve seen yet. On the Beasts, people seemed to be incapable of moving out of Icehowl’s way; usually, at least one person will mess up, which isn’t a big deal. This time, he enraged four different times. The only thing saving us were timely cooldowns from our tanks, good heals, and a tranquilizing shot from our hunter each time. Going into the last crash, around half of the raid was dead… not good. On the final time, our tank finally died leaving Icehowl with around 400k health left. Another druid went into bear form, and bought some precious seconds before dying. After that, he began going from player to player, one-shotting each. I self-rezzed after dying and kept going, and we got him down with five people still alive. Wow. We one-shot Jaraxxus as well, and put the Champions down in two. And, holy shit, the Bastion of Resolve dropped, and I picked it up with a clutch 95. I’d been dreading the moment on the chance that I’d lose, and it was a huge relief to get it on my first try. It’s a nice upgrade to my older Pulsing Spellshield, and it looks cooler to boot! The Twins went down without any major problems, so we decided to put some attempts down on Anub’arak. This week was the closest yet, and the worst because we had him dead to rights. We got to Phase 3 on our first attempt, then hit the enrage timer, and then, two attempts later, had him at 5 million health with enough time to get it done.

Our off-tank disconnected.

The adds he’d picked up went lose immediately, and decimated our healers and DPS as our main tank tried to pick them up. He got them, but he died soon after, and we had a soul-crushing wipe. That was our closest attempt, and we called it after a few more failures. I know now that we can get it done, and every week has brought us closer. Maybe next time we’ll get it done.

The Horde-tastic Bastion of Resolve

Thursday was a day of PvP, and I chilled out with a couple friends and did BGs for some honor and badges, and finally got enough to get my Relentless Gladiator’s Band of Ascendancy. With myself and my partner sporting our new rings, we decided to get back into the fray and put some 2s matches in. And wow, what a night: we hit 1550 for the first time! We’ve finally started to take out druids, the longtime bane of our comp, and we’re getting ever-more coordinated with what we do, and now we’re starting down the long road to 1650. Hopefully we can keep the good times going.

I was out of town for a few days, so the next time I was on WoW was for Sunday’s raid. We cruised through normal mode and spontaneously went for the Not One, But Two Jormungar Worms achievement (which was cake) before giving hard modes a shot. One of our healers had to leave, which put us short a healer, so… I had to heal a guild raid for the first time ever. I threw on my not-to-shabby healing gear and went to work, but our DPS wasn’t there that night. A big chunk of our core raid group was missing, and our newer members weren’t doing well enough in comparison. And people died in fires; bad. We didn’t make it past the Beasts, but I held my own on the healing meters, even though I was going OOM due to my lack of mp5. It was good to get some validation that I don’t suck at healing, but I think I’ll be sticking with DPS for a long time to come.

Yesterday I managed to get my weekly Vault runs in before the reset, and while the 25-man I joined went fine, the 10-man was absolutely awful. We spent twenty minutes trying to get started with an OT that was lagging, an MT that hadn’t tanked it before, and DPS that kept leaving. We got it done on our third try, then put Emalon down in two. Archavon was easy, and that was all for Monday. It was another reminder of why I like to lead my own raids… the raid leader for the 25 was shady with loot and douchey to the raid, and the 10-man wasn’t communicating or leading. It was a good way to see what I could do to lead better, and I’ll be keeping those experiences in mind this Wednesday.

Roughly a week or two ago (time’s flying by these days), I became GM of my guild, completing a process of going from long time member to being part of our loot council (which I always pretended to be in my own mind; I probably had a 85% correct guess rate at who got what, heh) that took place in the past 2ish months.

One concern I have: My availability. I work 8-5 Monday through Friday; when I get home, I take a bit to unwind, do some excercise, chores, etc. I’m usually doing good to be in game by 7PM, which is just over a hour before raid invites go out. I’m expecting that hour to become hell between trying to juggle between guild management (aka tells coming from every which way), my own raid prep (which generally consists of doing dailies to acquire gold for consumables and repairs), plus whatever else may be going on. Initially I wasn’t too concerned about availability, because one of our officers used to be online during a good portion of the weekdays while I was at work, so we had coverage for that. His work schedule has changed, though, so that amount of time he was available will be all but gone. Another long-time officer is calling it quits for now; being he’s occupied with his work and study, it’s totally cool. Good to see priorities take precedence over this silly (but oh so fun and addictive) timesink we call WoW.

Another concern: My knowledge of ALL game mechanics. I feel fairly well versed with most all the finer points of raiding, but I’ve been prone to miss/forget things (Hey our hunters can misdirect those loose mobs that gibbed the healer that last attempt). This brings me to a conflict in leadership styles; my initial reaction to the made up scenario I described would be that our hunters know well enough when and how to use misdirect that I shouldn’t have to tell them when. On the flip side, maybe I should be, so that what’s going on is clear. I’ve got a guild full of solid players, though, so any gaps in my knowledge of classes/mechanics should be easily covered. I simply hope that if such gaps are exposed that folks aren’t like “Wow, for a GM you’re a dumbass”.

I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a degree of nervousness at this point. I can’t honestly remember the last time I was in a position where I was asked to lead a group of folks. I think we just need to get after some content today and that should help clear up the nerves some.

The goal I have in mind for the guild at this time is to work on and (hopefully) complete heroic ToC 25. The burning question as of late, though, is what to do when we don’t have enough folks to work on it. I place part of the blame on ToC itself: At this point, our guild can clear 25 normal ToC in a hour. Heroic 10 man takes about a hour, while regular 10 man…heh, our record so far is 18 minutes, based on my flask timer. As burned out as I was getting with Ulduar…I miss having a “real” raid instance. I hope like hell Blizzard takes note of the general disdain most of us have for the ToC design; sure, on paper, a raid with NO TRASH sounds like nirvana to some (one loot pinata boss after another), but having seen it in execution…no thanks. Easy for me to say, being I don’t need a single drop from anything at this point save for heroic ToC 25.

Easy to pin the tail on the donkey known as ToC, though. Looking forward to ICC, though…we’re going to need more folks. Simple as that. Night after night of only having 20-22 folks on come raid time just won’t cut it anymore. Folks are tiring of having to wait for us (officers) to figure out what we’re going to do (rather than what’s posted on the calendar) due to lack of able bodies (raiders). I enjoy challenging raids, so I want to pursue progression over faceroll farm content where the difficulty lies in staying awake the entire raid. Reminds me of T7 content…although we fortunately had Sarth 3D, which was tough at the time but manageable (and a neatly designed encounter, imo).

All the rambling aside, this looks to be trying (but interesting) times for the guild. With the holiday season upon us, folks are taking interest in new games, and I’m down with that. You’ve also got holiday travel and college/HS finals coming up, so I don’t expect some miraculous attendance turnaround in the near future. Despite this bit of doom-and-gloom, I’m feeling somewhat optimistic that come 3.3, ICC *should* revitalize a lot of folks for raiding. I know it will for me (doesn’t hurt that our T10 is pretty cool looking ).

WTB [Moar Optimism], plus patch 3.3. PST.

As vezes me esqueço se sou parte de cristo e por isso devo viver na angustia ou se Deus não existe e por isso ninguém possa compreender.
Minha fé existe pra que?
Sou tão egoista que se Deus realmente existir não vou conseguir entender o fato dele ter conversado com tantas pessoas e não comigo.
Funciono como um viciado em cigarro; acordar e ter de tragar o primeiro cigarro do dia. Preciso saciar essa vontade de nicotina, porém, não é de perto nem de longe a química do tabaco que vai me livrar dessa angustia. É uma luta constante pra descobrir o porque do porque.
‘Estou na Tpm’ – Quantas vezes já escutei isso?
Se tu mulher… viver uma vida de 30 anos, alegre-se pois serão apenas 360 dias nos dias.
Não se preocupe com o digo aqui. É puro egoísmo. O difícil mesmo é ter mil e um amigos, digo ‘amigos’ porque de fato são amigos, e ter de ir ao psiquiatra pra ter pelo menos meia hora de compreensão em longas horas de uma semana.

- Conclusão disso tudo? – pergunta a morena com expressão calma.
- Foda-se.
- T de Tesão? – Insiste ela com desconfiança.
- Não! T de Transtorno.

Os olhos já não são mais os mesmos.

I’ve noticed there are several guilds out there that have cleared all of the normal Ulduar/ToC content 10 man content, but have not yet started on the hard mode content.  We tried heroic Beasts one time and all it told us was that we are a long ways from being able to tackle that content.

My question is how do you get over the hump?  What hard modes should we start out with?  How much dps should our dps classes be able to put out in order to be successful?  Do you 2-heal most hard mode encounters?

Any help is appreciated!