End of the World!

Or at least the end of the whole blog til ya die thing.

Shout outs to TJ, who only went a little crazy. K, a lot crazy, but she's small, and crazy don't scale that well with her. Kinda like an imp in a raid. Things doan go well if it gets noticed...

And to Rats... sorry guy, I gotta use you as the measure of the things all horde should be. At least for a certain horde that perpetually falls short...

And the bear. Cuz I agree with Steven Colbert... they are a damn menace, and should be put down. Maj was running EotS last night... and the combat log looked like

Feral friggin cat druid does way too much damage to you with a ridiculously overpowered attack

Feral friggin cat druid finishes yo squishie ass off

Feral friggin cat druid notices you rez

Feral friggin cat druid turns into feral friggin bear with extra points in "stun mage until you cry like a little girl" talent

You have been stunned. Here comes the druid pain...


AND ON AND ON.

So anyway... the end of the world post, and my most annoying stalker... Ken.

Ken once got written up for cyber stalking a girl. See... the girl's ex-boyfriend told Ken he could "have" her. So he sent her some emails demanding a meeting, she freaked, he got written up. (this was a work kinda thing...)

So he gets it into his head that the chick has to be smoking hot. Cuz a non smoking hot chick would WANT the attention, right? So he gets the location of her parking spot... and waits for her...

He doan go up to her... and she doan know what he looks like. All does is follow her around for a coupla hours, across town and into a walmart, and around the aisles til he decided she really wasn't hot, and was just giving herself airs.

Ken needed a woman.

I gotta explain the Smiley situation. There was a guy named Mr. Smiley who used to haunt my store/neighborhood. He was called that because all day long, he would hang out at the street corner, smile a really really diseased smile, and wave at people.

And he'd get pissed and throw bricks sometimes if they didn't wave back.

When I say creepy smile... think the joker's victims...

And he smelt really really bad. Cuz he didnt bathe... just hung out in the heat of south louisiana, waving at cars all day.

Luckily, I didn't see him much cuz he was pretty diurnal, and I worked nights. A small mercy. Anyway... one day I had to cover a shift... and Smiley came in with his woman... they were working a con that I really haven't the time to explain. But they needed an envelope...

So later, Ken comes through... and I tell him bout smiley and his woman.

"Smiley has a woman? What the hell? How can *I* be without, while the mentally and hygenically handicapped get some?"

So Ken gets it into his head that he just needs to lower his standards... and he succeeds. He got his own woman. He bought her.

Where do you go in America to buy a woman? Ken went to the county jail and paid bail for one. An alchoholic on her 3rd dui who was about to get evicted. So she moved in with him... and everything seemed to work. Strange.

She had it rough sometimes tho... Ken got really religious... strange religious... he started observing the sabbat... from friday night through saturday he refused work... including buying things... and he wouldn't give her money for beer during this time.

But no, this story is about Ken and the end of the world. First... ya need to know that Ken was working on his doctorate in astrophysics. I doan know why you need to know this... but it seems important...

Second, he used to teach at a public high school. He got laid off for some weird reason. I say weird because it apparently had nothing to do with his inordinate sexual attraction to his female students.

Third... he was up all night long. Listening to weird radio programs. And one night...

You gotta understand. I worked six friggin nights a week. The seventh, I'd get school work done (I always had a dozen papers due...) and then drink myself to sleep. So... one night off, I get awoken from a drunken slumber by a loud pounding at my door....

It was Ken.

"Dude... what the hell are you doing here? How did you find out where I live?"

"They told me at the store... what are we gonna do?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"On the radio... right now... they said that the russians faked their own collapse, and even now are smuggling nukes into the country to destroy us!"

OMFG. Can you even imagine how long it took to talk him down? And this was before 9/11. THAT EVENT drove him over the edge. I even got contacted by the FBI, who were investigating Ken's reports on his arab neighbors....

(I really doan have the time or sense of humor about it to poperly tell the story of the "truck bomb thing..." which was a lot more innovative back then before Iraq made it kinda commonplace...)

But anyway... my most annoying stalker... who got my address to come warn me about an impending russian nuclear attack in the middle of the night.

BTW... there was another Ken. He worked at another location of my c-store's chain. He was so erratic that the cops nicknamed him Lucifer.

He disappeared after, well... See, he was working at the store cuz he needed a job. He had no place to live, so the store manager let him crash at his place. Ken freaked out and disappeared after accusing the store manager of drugging and raping him. Now the manager in question, Tony, worked 80 hours a week, and drank non stop. Tony couldn't sexually molest his own hand, let alone Ken. (Tony died a year later from a massive coronary in a bar.)

Ken didn't make my list cuz he really wasn't my problem. But I got other stories...

The SHAMMY POST

You lucked out! Its time fer the shammy post!

See, back in the day, during the beta... I played horde. A forsaken rogue. I was so happy with her, back in the day before anyone knew how to play... and then the game came out for real, and I made the mistake of joining friends on a pve server.

Lets face it... only kindly, delicate creatures should play on PVE servers... and Ima asshat.

A note on my relationship with Arms&Fury.... Hesa lazy slacker that needs a serious kick in the butt to get him moving every so often. I provide that kick. Otherwise, he tends to just coast on talent. Which he's got a lot of. However he has yet to learn, despite the vicious beatings I administer, that age and treachery will overcome youth and beauty everytime... I mean, really, he updates his blog so rarely, the page doesn't even bother loading anymore...

Back to shammy-ville!

So after my first, and last, trip with guild drama, I decided to move to pvp, and go back to the horde.

I was crashing with a bud while looking for a damn job... (took almost a year...) and we would both play our chars together, and smack things around.

We both went shammy. And for a reason. What says horde (pre-b.c.) more than Shammy? TAUREN SHAMMY. Cuz warstomp is to horde what gnome rustling is to alliance. (Get along, little gnomes!)

This was back in the day. Back when shammies were FEARED! When the class concept was... have big ass mace/axe, will travel!

See, before Blizz decided to return to teh ghey, Shammies were the lord masters of the burst damage concept. Windfury would proc, and something would evaporate. Nuttin came close. Everyone feared the shammy... didn't matter what, 4 outta 5 times you might be able to kill one, but that fifth time, oh mama.

We call this deterrence. Think about the psychology of the gank. I can kill you, and laugh at yuir attempts to defend yuirself... but that tauren shammy... with the wild crazy look in her eyes... /MOO!

Witha old skool shammy, ya never know. Doya feel lucky, dwarf? WELL, DO YOU? Shammies WERE the horde. One shammy, one big ass pile of bodies. Ya know, cuz THRALL is the main orc! And he aint no wuss baby warrior. Hesa shammy wielder of DOOMHAMMER. And nuttin puts the doom back in DOOMHAMMER like the triple crit with +a bazillion AP.

Unbound was my love. The only allies that would mess with me were pallies, and I'd hurt them like... oh lord. It was so funny. Unbound was also an engineer, see. And back then, the dominant build was resto to nature swift, and rest in enhance. So you'd have an insta cast heal up yuir sleeve... and a bomb, anda robot dragon pet... this one time, in hinterlands, I got jumped bya pally two levels higher, while I had half health and no mana... and beat him down like the alliance coward he was...

It was great. Shammys reward quick thinking and improvision. So many classes, itsa just button one or button two... but shammies can do so much, via totems... and each shammy really can play differently, some relying more on totems than shocks, others more on kiting than straight combat... play style is everything...

Then came burning crusade, and blizzard's war on insta kill specs. Yeah, hunters lost that one aimed shot, one kill thing... but shammies lost the thing that defined their class... the big honking weapon laying low the proud, and bringing justice to azeroth.

Friggin dual wield? SHAMMYS? /weep

I was broken. I went resto, and had a blast... and plan to go back to resto when unbound hits 70... cuz I seriously think resto shammies are the most evil pvp spec on earth right now... next to MM hunters :) Unbound, as resto, got jumped bya rogue in hellfire...

/Stun
/Stun
/stun
... 15 secs later...

INSTA HEAL, SHOCK, WINDFURY... DEAD ROGUE

Enhance, OTOH... rogue/warrior meat. :(

But I gotta level... and while Sun Tzu's dictum that, ifya wait long enough by a river, yuir enemy's bodies will come floating by... that doan get ya to 70 fast enough... So there I was, playing a class that does better with cheap green weapons than shiny blue ones due to design issues. A rogue wanna be without stealth or stun. A fury warrior without the damage or protection.

I wanted to cry. I think I did. The new concept of the enhance shammy is just... crappy. What gets to use big ass 2h weapons? Warriors and pallies, i.e. ALLIANCE TRASH. The horde without its "smite on behalf of the ancestors" spiritual leaders? LOOKIT ME, GRANDMA, I'M GOIN DUAL, LIKA BACKSTABBING GNOME!

Enhance is no longer a true melee dps class. Itsa mockery. Itsa travesty. Itsa tragedy. Not since the first starbucks opened in the Valley of Wisdom have I felt so... ashamed.

Or wait... there are other builds... that use SHIELDS! What kinda self respecting hordie uses a damn shield? Its cowardice, thats what it is! Elemental, resto? WITHA SHIELD? Bugger this to hell! Horde isn't afraid of damage! Horde isn't scared to mix it up!

Well, we are now. Thanks a lot, blood elves... and space goats. Yeah, I know pallies have been bitching for the same general reasons, but they're like... pallies... they'd bitch even if they got to wear plate. (BTW... ever multi shot a pally, see the crit, and then think... hey... he's wearing WAY TOO MUCH CLOTH? /evillaugh)

Unbound got put on a shelf while I leveled Maj from 1 to 70. Every so often, I'd pull unbound, and run around, and realize how much it hurt, and go back to the mage....

Truth be told, shammies are now, more than ever, a support class. In pvp AND pve. Shammies are a harder target than anything but a holy pal, and even then, we aren't neutered healers in plate. We can dish. After 2.3, the new damage mitigation gives a great deal of survivabilty. So, yeah, time to dust off unbound and get her happy hooved ass to 70. But still... this dual wielding crap HURTS. And the worst thing... ya can't go anywhere alone... cuz yuir support...

Oh bugger.

Black Tuesday!

First off... national blog every friggin day month is almost the hell over. Yay!

And I still got two posts to work on. My number one stalker, Ken, the guy who once got written up for cyber stalking a girl, and then stalked her in real life to see if she was attractive enough to be justifiably defensive about being cyber stalked...

Yeah. I doan understand either.

Also, the SHAMMY POST! And Jabari, buddy... nuttin but appreciation for yuir criticisms of Unbound. My poor shammy needs all the help she can get. Per yuir point, I really wanna try elemental minor just fer laughs, but appreciate the whole resto backup... anyway, more on that in the GREAT SHAMMY POST! IT WILL CHANGE YUIR LIFE!

But today... oh my lord...

K... gotta nother friend coming to visit. Cept this one is one of my oldest buds, his link is on my page, if ya wanna know how twisted he is, read this. Or this.

Bastard would pick the weekend after I get all professor plum. (PURPLZ!)

However, this post is about the craziness that was yesterday. And I mean, unfiltered, absolute, batshit insanity. Area 52 was wall to wall bones. Mabd got 4(!!!!) epics, season 3 hat and gloves, the new mega axe (IT'S STONE! A REAL ORC WEAPON FOR ONCE, INSTEAD OF THAT SISSY GEM BLADED CRAP!) and the season 1 shoulders... finally getting rid of the high warlord shoulders I'd had in one form or another since level 60. I got the +15 agil on gloves, +35 agil on axe, gemmed out everything (+12agil and +3% crit damage meta gem).

And Maj got her season 1 shoulders as well... black and purple and menacing. GRRR.... PH34R t3h CUT3 1NZ.

So, after the warm fuzz of purplz faded a bit, and all enchants and gems were in place... I was left with quite a bit of crap. Gems I'd bought, and didn't need, and tons of enchant mats...

And, well... the trade channel was INSANE.

ER... hrm... now I think I must state...

There is no god but AH... and Majeure has it's profit!

I made 1k gold last night. In three hours. Offa enchant mats (large prisms = 30g, greater planar = 10g) and gems... 45-55g each. My large prisms were selling as fast as I put em up for auction.

This puts me at about 3k gold total. Close to shootin distance for Maj's elite mount. My current project... getting a Vengence Wrap for Mabd. I can't really see a better pvp cloak out there, the new BoJ one is nice, but no way in hell I'm gonna go through what it takes to get it. Anyway, Mabd is at 29.11% crit with the pvp token equipped. And now over 10k health, and 200 resil. Oh baby. Shifty, gonna make you proud...

Time to reorg the arena teams... I gotta disc priest lined up for 2v2, and looking at a 3v3 with Herk and a holy pal. Admittedly, Herk's gear still sucks troll, but well, hesa friend. I can carry him some more. If only to mock him for falling 20 points short of being able to get the season 3 chest. Serves ya right for that damn phone call in the middle of the night.

Looking at some arena for Maj... maybe 3v3 with the other two mages :) Slow is turning into an incredible little spell. And maj got another 800 health yesterday... and will do better as soon as I can get the pvp boots and bracers...

The Huntard Lurks...

I mean seriously... I caught myself over the weekend doin it.

I was farmin cobrascales. Which are a pain in the ass, now that Mabd is no longer BM. But I got my six, enough for the nether and reg patch, already got the primal airs and leather.

And there I was... droppin offa my mount to take em down at close quarters... and doin great. Plant an imp fire trap, serpent sting, MS, then pop deterrance and monkey and then go to town.

And I thought... hey... maybe I should think more about melee in pvp.

Cuz you know... they all wanna get close to you... and I'm getting that sweet new axe today... so pop the talent points for +20% crit on raptor strike, and watch that rogue or mage eat 3k damage the sec he steps into range...

This is the dark side calling. The dark side does not love you, hunter. It seeks to destroy you... to turn you into one of the shambling monstrosities known as... huntards.

Turn away! Reject the easy path of non kiting! It never ends well...

Everytime the hero yells... "Come get some!"... well, something big and nasty, and usually in plate shows up to collect. And we all know where that ends... your spine overpowered into the ground, while you stare at your violated body from a distance as your severed head rolls away.

This is the terrible secret of the hunter... that little voice that says... "letem get into melee... you can deal..."

Its the same voice that tells you to jump, when standing on the bridge, or buy that girl with all the tats and the bad attitude a drink, CUZ YA NEVER KNOW. (Oh, yes you do, oh yes you do...)

Or maybe my family won't be crazy this year, yeah, lets visit for the thanksgiving weekend.

Its the same thing. The same, evil, self hating thing.

BEWARE!

X-mas eve!

Tomorrow is the day! When all our dreams come true, and Santa Arena Vendor leaves lotsa nice purplz under the tree for us.

(Death to the alliance.)

When all good wow players unite in the spirit of the game... raw stinkin item greed, baby. On this one day, we are as children, filled with the sense of wonder and togetherness...

(Death to the alliance.)

Ah me, I can't wait to see all the wonderful bragging as hard won trophies are gemmed, enchanted, patched, and then put to their intended use...

Killing alliance.

Mark of the n00b

So there Maj was, doin a little shopping for bling-bling in the org AH. True, itsa dump, but the prices can't be beat, and unlike TB, the streets are free from omnipresent dung.

And I get a whisper.

"Can you make some netherweave bags for me?"

Level 21 tauren hunter. Sure, what the hell. Give back, and all that crap. While trying to calculate the rep per scryer faction piece.

"Sure."

So she runs around, and then comes, opens trade....

My screen fills with netherweave cloth.

"Er... how many bags did you need?"

"11"

"Um... (quick calculation) there's not enough here... (short by about half a stack.)"

"Plz give me rest of mats!"

K... at this point... its kinda looking abusive... but I figured I'd get a story outta it, so I played along...

"Right, whatever."

An hour of crafting bags later...

"Here ya go."

"Thx! I sell em... thats how I make my gold... wait right here, and I'll get some more netherweave for you to make me bags with... oh, and please put me on your friends list!"

I immediately log....

Playin the next day, knee deep in demons in Shadow Labs..

"Can you come to org to make me more bags?"

N00b... meet the ignore list.

The girl, the macro, and a pile of gold...

My girl majeure is kicking ass and taking names. For those of you unfamiliar with the lure, the addiction, the sheer insanity of the UBERTWINK... have a mage hit 70 and immediately epic out, then finish all the regular speed quests....

It's better than a whole lotta things... spec all that loverly gold. Started around 500g wed night... after blowing 200 on 15 primal airs, and 200 on 300 sunfury sigs, I got 1300 :)

AND another 200 on my bank alt offa spellfire cloth sales. And she's getting good honor right now. Had a 770 honor av game, not counting kills.

Jabari had some interesting comments on Unbound's poor build...

I SWEAR TO GOD that there will be a shaman post. Soon.

But for the most part, Jab, I'm avoiding the imp enhance totems cuz I daon really do instances right now. And in casual grinding, I kill fast enough to make enhance totems a non issue. Not actually playing her much truth be told, which will change. 2.3 helped a lot, but I've been single minded on getting maj up. I ran Unbound a little to see how things work... love the mana efficiency of shocks now, hence the elemental points. Yeah, my main hand weapon sucks... I hava nice slow level 66 and 67 weapon in the bank, but I screwed myself with the ring of blood in not getting the fury brand :(

Anyway, a nice +20 str 2.6 hammer dropped for maj in netherstorm today, so Unbound might just be ready for prime time!

And here's a slacker macro. Its really simple, you all probably know it, but I couldn't find this anywhere... too late I realized it really is a rogue macro, and I shoulda looked there first...

/use Wizard Oil (or whatever)
/use Bringer of Death (or whatever yo weapon is....)

One button mana/spell damage oil buff. Simple simple. I had no idea that the proper command to apply the stupid oil was /use, until I chanced upon via trial and error. Another silly macro thing... I've been having probs with my
/cast POM
/cast Arcane Power
/use trinket of mega death
/cast pyroblast

macro... had to take out all the /stopcasting parts, and now, when it lags, I gotta double tap it to make it go off... I think its getting stuck server side when it gets a little ahead...

Dark thoughts...

K... someone here isn't pulling their weight.

No surprise, itsa tauren.

Unbound, you aint cutting it. Mabd has become the scourge of the BG's, a terror to the alliance. And she's FUN to play now. Like a wolf in the fold, or a snake trap in a noob area. She had 4 kills in a single 5v5 yesterday. (Aimed shot is just... evil now...)

Majeure pulled in 400g yesterday on quests and spellcloth manufacture. Her arcane missiles crit for 1100.

You, however, suck without remorse. Your bank is filled with useless engineering gear... a set of healing gear that you will never use, and a ton of crap bought for you AT ENORMOUS EXPENSE for when you make a higher level. Scales of the beast WITH the cobra patch? Jeez.... and what have you to show for it?

We cannot continue to maintain you at your present level of expense. Cutbacks will have to be made. And performance will have to improve.

Or else. Mabd got a new beef flavored kitty treat recipe yesterday... you'll never guess the ingredients...

Happy thanksgiving!

First... ain't respeccing Z. No way... slow is too much fun. That 1.5 sec heal is now.... 2.5 sec. AWWWWWWWWW.

Second... eating till ya almost burst on T-Day. Cool.
Walking a mile in the rain immediately afterwards... not cool.

/checkspulse

Damn, still alive, I guess I gotta post again.

I think today is the day we should set aside to recogize all that we have been givin by life. A wonderful meal, bountiful drink, plenty of sheep.

That's right... kiss up to the mages.

What? We get to drop 200g on conjure water and food books, so we can then blow 20s feeding you hogs? And not even a thank you, just a pile of dirty dishes to clean?

Cmon... I'm not asking for much... Warriors... you see a rogue carving us a new.. well, stunlocking us, a nice little charge/overpower love?

Druids... ya see that nasty little shadow priest mindflaying us? How about a heal?

Hunters... that mean old warlock has us on permanent fear? Feed his ass to yo beast!

Just a little recognition of our value to the team, please. Or I start adding laxatives to the manna biscuit recipe. And we doan want that, do we?

Why I hate people...

I grew up in a strange household. By the time I was 12, I was in charge of cleaning the kitchen. By the time I was 15, I was cooking for the family. Mom was often sick, or tired from working, my dad was lazy, and my brother was useless.

This is one of those stupid things. I used to have to go through my brother's room, and pull dirty dishes and rotting food out from under his bed and in his drawers. I hated it, and still resent all this crap.

One of my earliest memories was cooking steak, canned peas and mac and cheese for the family, then sitting down to watch The Electric Company. I think I was 7.

This leads to the two great conumdrums of life. First, you goddamn learn, and this scars any future relationships. Second, you never goddamn learn, and keep making the same goddamn mistakes.

People ask me for advice. My life is a wreck, and people still ask me for advice. And when I say "advice," I really mean, certitude. Something happens in too damn many people, and they get habituated to not picking up after themselves. Like at a job, there's always one or two people who do all the cleaning, and the lazy bastard coworkers who just friggin watch them.

The same principle applies to the whole advice thing. If people get used to asking for advice, they never, ever, goddamn friggin ever learn to think for themselves.

A lot of my personal demons have to do with my brother. We're all guilty about how he turned out. But he was a year younger than me, and I was the one stuck keeping an eye on him. I used to get beaten when he pulled one of his little stunts. I also used to get beaten because I was intensely protective of him, and he would use this to get me into fights with other kids. And my brother never learned. So I had to learn for both of us.

I dreamt of kittens yesterday. And of a gremlin that presented me with a bill for services rendered. I dunno where that comes from. I have messed up dreams.

So anyway... Ima pomous ass sometimes. And intensely conservative ina non political sense. I doan like risk taking, and tend to plan crap out. This affects how I level. I doan really spend much time playing, compared to, well... what, william shatner?

So... I got all the green hills of stranglethorn banked on an alt. I got tons of unidentified plant parts banked. When I hit level 62, Majeure got to honored with the scryer offa firewing sigs I'd collected, and at 64, she was halfway to exalted with all the arcane tomes I'd slowly bought offa the AH, at 9g (or lower) each.

If ya take the time, and know what yuir doin, you can save a ton of gold... just buy over a coupla weeks...

I spent 62-70 leveling tailoring to 375. Slowly, using the cooldown patterns to get as many skillups as possible, speccing spellcloth, and making all my spellcloth for my epic level 70 sets, so I wouldn't get raped on costs... while buying primal mights over a coupla months to save as much as I could...

This means I get to play more, and farm less. I really don't play enough to bother with farming.

So.. all that said, I got tagged last night with a hefty spot of goddamn drama. And I deeply resent it. I mean, really, really mind searing pissed off about it. I do not need this crap.

Girl comes home.

"Dad!"

"Yes?"

"Doan freak out now..."

K... anytime someone says doan freak out... it means one of two things... first, something bad has happened or is about to happen... this is life. Second, something stupid is being planned... this is humanity.

"K..."

"I met the greatest guy!"

"K... why did you think I would freak out about this?"

"Er... no reason... but he's famous and rich!"

"O.K... still not sure about the freak out thing...."

"Its O.J. Simpson!"

"*freaking out*"

"Dad! He really loves me! And I mean, what are the odds of some random lunatic killing *another* one of O.J.'s girlfriends?"

Ya see what happens here? I've had a dozen of these conversations... and had another one last night. I'm pretty sure we've all had a conversation like this... someone we know is about to do something they KNOW is freaking stupid. So they come and "tell" you. And they rationalize it with some off the wall argument, "enron stock is now 50% lower than where it was a year ago, itsa steal!" Then they talk to you...

Why?

I doan know. It's always different, and it's always some insanely stupid reason. Are they hoping that you'll talk em off the ledge? So you have to be firm? "NO! You do not NEED a $10k fitness center!" Or is it something they've set their hearts on, and want some support... "well, if it makes you happy, a pierced (bleep) doesn't have to be terribly unsafe..."

Either way, itsa plot to make you the bad guy. You either tell em no, they listen, and resent you forever. Or you tell em go ahead, and it blows up in their faces, and it's your fault for the bad advice.

Thersa scene from Last King of Scotland... a movie I have yet to see, but, well, its on my list...

The english doctor is talking to Idi Amin after one of Amin's more regrettable decisions... to expel all the asians from Uganda. Since the asians were, pretty much, all the engineers, doctors and merchants.. the result was an economic catastrophe. The conversation...

Idi: "Why did you let me do that?"
Doctor: "I *TOLD* you it was a bad idea!"
Idi, face filled with anger...: "You did not *CONVINCE* me!"

Once they *ask* for *advice*... whatever happens... its your damn fault. And I resent this crap.

So... for the record...

Arms&Fury... if you REALLY have to have the season 2 gladiator shoulders NOW, instead of next week... buy em. It's your damn character. You worked for those points, spend em how you see fit. Claiming that the season two gear is gonna have a rating requirement because... "you haven't seen anything that says they won't..." isa cheap rationalization.

But leave me the hell outta it. It is deeply unfair for you to dump this crap on me, and I resent it. And calling me last night only to hang up on me when I told you it was a stupid idea was completely unacceptable.

Listmania!

It's hard to explain yourself to other people. One of the best ways, I think... is a to do list. And a follow up to yesterday's incoherent post. That mage that Arms&Fury and I went 3v3 for... kicked both of us offa his team before points came out today. True, we got more points from our 2v2, but still... no good deed goes unpunished...

To do list for Thanksgiving weekend! (RL)
1. have fun
2. clear tivo crap
3. thankgiving meal with Kimmu!
4. Football!
5. clean apartment

To do list for WOW... Majeure
1. BG tokens
2. AV honor holiday!
3. 10k rep from exalted scryer! Get Arms&Fury off his lazy ass and hit netherstorm like it looked at me funny!
4. Buy some damn gems
5. Steamvault, revered with CC, and farm the +12sta/bracer pattern
6. Forge key to SH
7. Finish Blade's edge, and do some Shadowmoon
8. friggin Sha'tar rep... need about 6k for revered... and the trinket and helm buff

To do list for WOW... Mabd
1. BG tokems
2. AV honor holiday!
3. start looking for a guild to do some damn kara with to get to revered for that new ammo...
4. a little more netherwing rep... like 8k from exalted

To do list for WoW... Unbound
1. Level 66 is too close not to grab...
2. Get Arms&Fury to help farm engineering patterns (adman arrows!)
3. set up bongos for this toon

K...
Now a small to do list for Arms&Fury...
I know you're busy, I know you have a family... but if you have time to burn rest xp on alts, you have time to do this crap...

1. Get revered with CC... I gave you that stack of unidentified plant parts for a reason... namely, so when you turn 70, you'd be a hop skip and jump from revered and that +34 ap, +10 hit helm buff. A SV run is not that difficult...

2. SHUT THE HELL UP about your plans for WotLK! Itsa goddamn year and a half off! We're both gonna burn the hell out and stop playing for about 3 months sometime between now and then..

3. Dude... yuir still only friendly with the scryers? AFTER I spotted you 50 firewing signets? End game my left nut, +13 crit, +25 ap buffs doan do it for you?
If Ratshag can get exalted with scryer, and THEN turn around and get honored with Aldor, you can damn sure move yuir faction up a bit...

4. Remember! I almost died earlier this year. The had to burn my heart... and I still have serious health issues. Please stop giving me crap when I doan feel like playing after putting in 9 hours at work...

5. Grammar! For god's sake... the headline is MABD OWNS! not MABD OWNED!

6. Farm either gold or mats for the Nethercobra leg patch. Legging buff, +a zillion crit and ap. Doan have to get it right now, but sooner or later you gonna get the season 3 legs, and you'll want this ready for that.

A small to do list for Shifttusk.

1. Track down and kill that sonnavabitch.

A small to do list for Ratshag

1. Continue to kick ass and take names. BTW, we found the guy to play you in the movie...

A small to do list for TJ

1. Still waiting for the capitulation post. I suggest you use this as a template...

Some more stories...

K. Look.

We all know they're out there. The greatest threat to human civilization. The darkness at the end of time. The hunger that consumes itself.

Theresa kinda neat conversation goin on right now about the baby boomers. Or, as I prefer to refer to them, the least generation.

Doan get me wrong. I love my parents. But they're outta it.

My pet theory... we go through phases. The first phase, we scream when we want something, and don't stop screaming until we get it.

Baby boomers made a political movement outta this philosophy.

It's not until we realize that noone is gonna clean things up for us that we grow into the next step, adulthood. However, this process is not inevitable.

Dealing with drunk teenagers during my years at the c-store taught me this.

The question then becomes, as adults, how are we going to deal with other people's children? Cuz, realize, that's exactly what they are.

It gets even worse online, where bad behaviour really isn't punished with anything like real world reprecussions. Arms&Fury is always falling for this. I remember him bragging a coupla months ago about helping someone buy their (non flying elite) mount. His boast... "Nuttin like helping someone buy a mount to get in good with a new guild!"

A month later when he needed the money for his own mount... "I can't believe he hasn't paid me back yet!"

We have to realize... there is no "loan" in the game. Itsa gift. If you get it back, well and good. If not... you damn well better have not expected to get it back. Remember this.

Doan fall victim to teh N00b. They plead, they beg... but inevitably, they will just waste your time. If you have to help them... teach them how to play better. BRK has dedicated his online life to this noble pursuit, valiantly trying to rid azeroth of huntards, one lesson at a time.

He is doomed to failure. For everyone that listens, there are a dozen infants who cannot... who can only scream and demand the game change to suit them.

A real world example of the horrors of doing favors for people. my brother needed to upgrade his computer to play WoW. My brother has no credit cards. For very good reasons, mind you. So he went to my father, asked to charge some online parts to Dad's credit card, and in return, would pay him back.

My brother then went lowest price on the net for his shopping. The card got charged, the parts never showed. My brother didn't pay my father. It wasn't HIS fault, you see. The website was a ripoff, and my brother didn't think it fair that *HE* have to take the hit.

I'm just saying. This is how they think. They doan even consider how much of your time they're wasting when they ask for the instance run, then have to spend a half hour running around to get the quests after you've agreed. While you wait.

And it doesn't have to be fiscal. Arms&Fury (not quite grown up himself, mind you...) answered a general chat request for more people for a 3v3. Bein run by a mage.

Now the mage seemed nice. Friendly, polite, etc. But his gear and build were TERRIBLE. Far enough in fire tree for firepower, far enough in frost for ice barrier.

Now, I know some people will claim something like this to be a viable build. And it is... kinda, sorta. I wouldn't mind playing this sorta thing one day. But the trick is... how do I put it?

Theresa harley. And theresa tricycle. And some people gotta do the tricycle til they work up to big kid bikes.

Majuere has some horrible damn equipment. But I'm not gonna change out my bracers, boots and shoulders till I can buy the season 3 crap. Ima cheap ass bastard that way. Still, while working her from 60 to 70, I accumulated the full spellstrike and spellfire sets. So... my health will go up, but I pack a punch immediately.

Now this mage... had 2 of 3 of the spellfire set on. And the thing about spellfire... it only adds to fire and arcane damage. The majority of this guys points are in the frost tree... you see the problem?

So Arms&Fury are playing three games with this guy so he can get his 10 for the week... and we lose all three cuz the poor guy only has 6.6k life, and that aint enough for arena. He also lacks the sense to stay outta harm's way long enough to do any damage...

And Arms&Fury asks the question that chills my soul.

"So, X, are ya doin any 2v2?"

A&F wanted to invite him into the team...

I still wanna hit him for being so silly.

Doan get me wrong. Occasionally, the spirit of altruism will move me, and I will help people out. But I prefer to help those that help themselves, if you know what I mean. I hate people spamming for help in quests that, by all logic, are quite soloable.

Anyway...

Economic forecasts... also known as the trading pages... we gotta week before season 3. Now is a great time, if you are expecting to get new gear, to buy the gems and enchant mats for the gear AHEAD OF TIME. Cuz come Nov 27, its gonna get crazy, price wise.

Sir Thomas Lipton, the Earl Gray, and Arms and Fury

There is a particularly reprehensible practice that has spread amongst the WoW community. Arms and Fury is an enthusiastic practicioner of this obscenity.

If you are unaware of it, I will spare you the horrific details. None the less... it didn't take long for the horde to get a nasty nasty Alterac Valley strategy. You can see the results on the screen shot.

Horde... 606 honor.
Alliance... 0 honor.

If the horde has any sort of discipline... then the alliance has to get lucky or good to win. I wonder how long this imbalance will last?

Oh, and TJ has surrendered. I await her formal capitulation in a post.

Majeure made 70. I put on the new gear... and damn, I need season 3. About 800 +fire/arcane damage (more than melvin) and only 6.2 k health.

Glass cannon indeed.

Arcane missiles are hitting for ~600, and critting for about 1k.

Pyroblast is hitting for 3k, and critting for 5.5k.

Did the new Alterac Valley... and its gonna take the horde a while to get accustomed to it.

Here's the skinny. You win by killing enemy players and taking enemy towers. I doubt many games will end by the death of the enemy general.

When Blizzard says... "reinforcements..." they mean YOU. Every time someone dies, the counter ticks down. Every time a tower is lost... the counter loses a lot. The only way it goes up... take a mine.

I like it... it's a lot less static. And theres a lot more pvp now. However, it seems to be taking forever for the horde to adapt. Ah well.

Lists!

Maj turns 70 and...

1. Put on 5 epics.
2. Equip level 70 staff.
3. Farm enchant weapon, spell power
4. Hit netherstorm and get exalted with Scryer.
5. Buy pvp trinket.
6. Farm more honor.
7. Start arena.

The question... do I get the regular pvp trinket or the +20 resil pvp trinket? I only got 24k honor at this point...

Whatcha think?

She sells sanctuary...

Kicking it old skool...

The sky was Bible black in Lyon
When I met the Magdalene
She was paralysed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name

And a ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm.
Two hundred francs for sanctuary and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows where all the heartache disappears
And from glowing tongues of candles I heard her whisper in my ear
"'J'entend ton coeur"
I can hear your heart

...

I was actually in a guild with a guy that recognized these lyrics.
Oh, and the question I had to research today... what constitutes High Grade Wastepaper? I love my job :)

Not every occupation makes you learn things. I have a great potash lecture :)

So... a Rick story. Stalker #2.

Working at a c-store in the middle of the night is a horrible experience. You really have no idea the type of people who are habitually up at that time of night. Like, say... Rick...

How do you respond when a strange crazy person walks up to you and starts telling you about the time he was raped?

Especially when he wasn't.

Not that it didn't happen... just... well...

One time the cops were hanging out at the store, and they got a call about a rape. Here's the story, told by the girl...

"Girl meets booze."
"Girl meets cute guy."
"Girl takes cute guy home."
"XXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX"
"Afterwards, girl realizes cute guy didn't use a condom."

"That makes it rape!" The girl told to the cops...

K... the Rick rape story.

The night before going to marine boot camp... (late 70's) Rick was in a New Orleans hotel, waiting to catch a bus in the morning. He let a black friend into the room, and the friend then proceeded to hold rick down and forcibly fellate him.

(I'm sorry, I can't figure out a way to sanitize it any more...)

But you see the problem with the story?

And then Rick goes to boot camp, gets into trouble, and gets institutionalized for the rest of his term of service.

So, by the time I met rick, he was on full military disability... getting 2k a month (tax free)... which he spent on ganja. He would go from c-store to c-store in the middle of the night, and hang out with the clerks while drinking a 12oz can of coke. Then go to the next store, get another coke, and repeat... sometimes I had to see him twice in a night.

Rick's dream was to move to Vancouver, where he'd heard there were no black people, and dope was legal.

Rick was crazy. I mean, really really crazy. He went the VA hospital every 3 weeks to get shot up with anti-schizo meds... and sleep for 48 hours afterwards... and you could always tell how close he was to that point... afterwards he was mellow, just before, well... severe paranoia. He would flinch anytime someone walked near him, and then stare at whoever...

Bad idea around drunk teenage boys.

It would be easy to say Rick was a hardcore racist... but I think it would be a mistake... Rick simply didn't understand what the hell he was saying. One of his favorite stories was about a notorious case that happened in Louisiana back in the 70's... a mixed race couple walked into a county bar... one of the people at the bar looked at the black man with the white woman, pulled out a gun, and blew the guy away...

Rick thought the date should be a state holiday.

Imagine having a conversation with this person two to three times a week. One fav topic of his... buying porn from the store, and then talking to me about it. *Shudder*

If I had to pick one story to sum up the Rick experience...

Rick liked hanging out on friday and saturday nights... mostly for the same reason that cops liked hanging out on friday and saturday nights... drunk college girls. Dressed like they trying out for girls gone while.

Cept... well... I think I mentioned that I've had a LOTTA experience with creepy guys? Rick was hanging out in front of the store with his friend Rusty. Rusty was what his friends called him. We at the story called him shaky. Cuz he shook. Uncontrollably. He did nothing all day but take mini-thins, drink coke, and smoke. And he shook like day five after giving up heroin. He had a 64oz cup that he would refill with coke... all the way to the top, neglect the lid, and spill half of it on the way to the register.

We hated him.

Oh yeah, before he destroyed his life, shaky used to be a pharmacist.

So anyway, Rick and shaky were hanging out in front of the store, waiting for us at the store to say no.

Cuz at a cstore, next to 5 bars... people are gonna want to use the bathroom. And there is no way in hell that we're gonna clean up a bathroom after it's been used by a thousand drunk teenagers. So... people would come in, ask to use the bathroom, and be told no.

And then they would go around back, and use the side of the store.

*Girls* would go around back, and use the bathroom on the side of the building.

And Rick would get a cheap thrill.

So, one night... well... imagine a bean pole skinny white guy with grizzly adams beard, glasses, a cap, and overalls... coming into the store, and announcing in a loud southern drawl to the dozen of people inside... (customers and a long suffering clerk)... "Thersa girl with her panties down around her feet takin a *** outside! It's the prettiest thing I've ever seen! Rusty wouldn't look, but said that just thinking about it made his *** hard!"

It was about this time that I started washing my hands a dozen times a day, a habit that's stuck with me.

So maj logs into arathi basin, just as the horde takes base number 5. Two minutes later, 12g and 600 honor.

:)

Doan wanna blog...

Doan wanna blog...
Doan wanna blog...
Doan wanna blog...

K..

While working at the c-store, in the middle of the night, I met a lotta non crazy people. Cept, they were up in the middle of the night, so, well...

The strangest were the midgets. One of the bars across the street had a dwarf wrestling event every so often. I hated it. The frat boys would come through, horsing around like, well... drunk teenage idiots.

After everything calmed down, and the bars had been closed for a while, the midgets would come through, pick up food, and chat. They were pretty cool, even if they did whip the masses into an orgy of blind stupidity.

Prob my favorite visitor was this musician. He was a professional... by which I mean, he actually made money doing it, would play gigs at bars, and afterwards when I saw him at 3 in the morning, he'd be stone cold sober.

Doan trust people that drink at work. Even if they work in bars.

Anyway, he'd come through, and we'd rag on each other. It was great.

Then one night, a smokin hot chick comes through, and I say something snarky to her. She looks at me for a moment, then shrieks..

"You're so-and-so!"

"Er... yeah..."

"My boyfriend is always talking about you! He comes home and he's pissed for like an hour, trying to come up with things to say to you the next time you guys get into an insult fest... it's the cutest thing!"

Some people just have a taste for abuse.

Me, I get it from WoW.

So, I log onto my shammy last night. YOu know, the shammy I had to pay 15g to respec cuz blizzard decided to radically change the talent trees and NOT give a free respec.

Cept, they DID give a free respec. They just waited until the DAY AFTER THE GODDAMN PATCH.

Thanks again. No, really.

Oh, and that TJ person logged on and was yelling at me.

She says I need to stop saying she's cute. She's probably right. Next time someone asks, I'm gonna just tell em that she has a great personality....

I <3 Everyone!

Arms&Fury wants more conflict between TJ and I...

A&F is an ass.

I have discovered something very important about TJ. Inflicting suffering on her is rather like kicking a cute puppy. With cute puppy eyes. And AIDS. Whose mommy just died. And who has hurt its precious widdle paw.

TJ is like the puppy. One of the precious, cute, happy-making, gentle things of the earth. And when she growls, in that cute little puppy way, the only civilized thing to do is smile at her and pet her precocious widdle head.

There. If that don't do it, nothing will.

I doan feel like another stalker story right now. The stories of Rick and Ken are best told when I'm not jonesin for WOW like Michael Jackson at a daycare center.

2.3 was the hunter deliverance patch. I was in AB last night... like a wolf in the fold.

Allies died like the vermin they are. I suck at movement, but even *I* can kite a fool melee class into ranged now with everything on cooldown. And now Scattershot/Aimedshot is what you GET when you charge/ambush me. The 3 sec cast for aimed makes Scatter/Aimed a no brainer.

/charge poor Mabd
/Mabd emptie buckshot into yo warrior ass
/Mabd hops back while global cooldown fades
/AIMED SHOT BEATCH!


The death of the dead zone is gonna make a lotta non hunters seriously unhappy.

Now, my big blizz criticism.

For GOD'S SAKE.... WOULD A FREE TALENT RESPEC REALLY BE OUTTA LINE?

I log onto my shammy. Enhance time! Look at my talents...

I got 40 points in enhance, and shaman rage. And the rest of my points in resto...

Hrm... keep what I have, and see if I can keep Shaman rage and pick up Nature's Swiftness? Is blizzard OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS?

I plopped down the 15g for the respec, and went Enhance/Elemental.

Then took Unbound out for a spin.

Jesus. I was blowing things away like they were made of cardboard. PVE, true... and in BG's rogues still pwned my poor ass. But enhance is now a really effective pve build. The new talents not only make shocks uber cheap to cast, they add a healthy chunck of spell damage (30% (?) of attack power turns to +spell... which makes the resto/elemental trees much more useful... )

News of the night... apparently tier 6 resto shammy gear was free at the mount Hjal vendor...

Side note. God I wish I still had access to Armory at work. And last night, I was trying to look up talent builds, and use the blizz talent calculator... and they still hadn't been updated to the new talent trees... grrr....

So... bg dailies...

The best thing since hotel sex or what?

Man, I got into games in two minutes, with my 66 shammy, at 4 in the morning. 3-0. Three games, three stacks of gold, two stacks of exp for maj and unbound. And many many dead allies.

Maj was having special fun in the "not quite ready for prime time" bracket... 60-69.

She's gonna be a cast iron bitch when I get her ass to 70 :)

One nice hunter touch... the tooltip updates the damage of the stings and traps according to the current ranged attack power. Wouldn't it be nice if they did the same with spells and +spell damage?

Free at last!

He went home! My guest over the weekend! With only the mild price of a few gallons of juice.

Strangely enough, my guest, Derek, has a bete noir... Neal. And the story of Neal is the story of my number 3 most annoying stalker.

See... Neal managed to screw over Derek just by existing. Derek is intensely proud, and hates being in his current position. Neal, on the other hand, spends all his time trying to nail down every penny out there for handicapped people.

Neal managed to get himself diagnosed as learning disabled. He managed to parley this into a full disability from social security, and hence a nice lifetime pension.

Doan get me wrong... that might sound logical. But Neal is crazy. He's just not crazy the way Derek is. Neal is crazy in thinking that the world exists to take care of him. Derek is crazy in that, if he's alone too long, he'll start talking to himself and getting severely agitated.

You see the difference?

See... Neal wasn't exactly stalking me. But he insisted in visiting me, and would talk about the injustice of the world while plotting his stalking of his ex-wife. And the horror he put the mother of his three children through...

I mean... ladies. I'm as misogynist as they come. But some things give me the serious creeps... and it's mostly men. Sexually obsessing about women that they've just seen, and not even met in any sense of the word. Bad enough the handful of times that *I* was sexually proposition by creepy guys with no personal hygene. I can't imagine what you ladies go through...

Neal became a ferverent christian. And not in the Christian sense... he swears by the faith because he thinks it teaches that he is OWED. That his wife had no business divorcing him and taking the children, because they were married in a church, and god trumps all... and that he was devoted to his children, the courts had no right to take them...

This from a guy who refused to work a part time job cuz they started garnishing his wages to pay back child support.

I could talk about his horrific personal hygene. (After he left the residence hall, they burnt the furniture he used regularly...)

I could talk about the pack rat mentality... (He slept in his car cuz his bed was a storage device... and he stopped taking showers years ago, the better to store things in his bathroom...)

But this is the story of stalkers... and Neal spent a year playing the Sims, recreating his wife and children so as to get them back in the game...

How did Neal screw over Derek? His first quarter at my school... Derek was evicted from his apartment building. (It had been condemned...) Derek was told to move into my building, a graduate hall. Now, Derek was an undergraduate. And my hall had exactly *1* undergraduate at the time... Neal. And the Hall Director's experience with Neal was so poisonous that she blocked Derek from moving in (which Derek later found out that she had no right to do...) . So Derek had to scramble to locate a new apartment in his first quarter... and it was the week before finals.

I swear to God, Derek is simply cursed. Oh and the hall director tried repeatedly to evict Neal... but he was (learning) disabled... and despite not paying rent for half a year, he couldn't be touched.

So anyway, after getting his full disability tag from social security, he got a $77k payout. What did he do with it? Pay back child support? Work on setting up a productive life? Pay off his massive debts?

Try suing his wife to get custody back, on the theory that she couldn't afford to fight it. Thankfully he managed to blow the money before doin much harm.

By the way... Neal eventually graduated... (he was givin a year to take the final exam for a physics class he never finished. Cuz of that learning disability.) And he got his degree in zoology.

I did mention his Christianity, right? What I didn't mention... hesa creationist. With a degree in Zoology.

/sigh

Needless to say, he play a hunter in WoW.

PATCH DAY! And Majeure is 148k exp from 70! Glory be!

Tomorrow... the number 2 stalker. Rick... a guy who got married to a girl who then moved in with a male friend of hers, trying to get pregnant so she could sue Rick for child support...

Hrm...

I think I'll post a little more on auctions...

And another stalker story...

Stalker number 5...

So at the store, we had the season of the spoonman. Why was he called the spoonman? Cuz he'd walk up and down the street all day, tapping his shoulder with this metal soup spoon...

I asked him why, once. And only once. He tried to explain how his shoulders were out of balance, and he needed the spoon to keep them level...

So anyway... one day he came in while we were putting up groceries... I was stocking cigarettes into the display, so my back was to the store... I was told that his expression while looking at my back side was rather.. disturbing... now at this point, he hadn't been around long, and didn't know the store staff well... and please god let that be the reason...

Of course, he tried to start a conversation...

"You're mighty tall for a lady!"

Our relationship after this was rather strained... to say the least...

And I took insane amounts of grief from my coworkers for months afterwards...

So Maj was trying to down grom yesterday... I got into a group with a 66 pally tank, a 70 priest, and two 66 rogues. Kinda light for grom, eh? Well... the pally tank was wielding a 2h level 55 spear with some kinda fire damage proc. And the pally and priest were both the same player on two computers. Did I mention that player was a damn fool? Oh yeah... and what do you have to do everytime you decide to try an outdoor boss on a pvp server? That's right, gank every ally you come across while waiting for the fight to start...

/sigh

On auctions.... there's actually a mathmatical model that predicts the price you will receive in an auction... for the most part... it's gonna be the second highest valuation in the crowd, assuming common knowledge, open bidding and rational players.

What does that mean? Well... if we both want that staff of jordon, and you won't pay more than 300, while I'll pay up to 500... I'll get it for 300 and a copper. However, people ain't rational. You get caught up in a bid frenzy, and your emotional investment in the purchase goes up... as well, if your surrounded by people bidding on an item, their interest will tend to increase the value you place on the item.. after all, if they want it so bad, it has to be more valuable than you thought, right?

Now, the auction house is a great thing. It keeps commodities flowing for teh hungry and industrious wow craftsman. It all keeps us equiped in the latest l33t gear till we hit the level cap and have to start earning our way...

But like all markets, it is subject to asshattery. People can buy out all the *whatever* and put it back at a nasty markup, making up in a few sales the cost of the endevour. Buying an item that is priced too low, and then selling it for the going price is one thing. Trying to corner the market is simply anti-social...

It is at times like this that general trade becomes useful. If all those primal fires are listed at 30bo... just ask around the trade channel... or

Here are the rules for general trade...

Name a damn price. It simply isn't worth a 10 min haggling session to sell you an item for less money than I could get on the AH. Think about it. If someone has primal fires for 30g on the AH... i could put mine up for 28 and prob sell em. Why on earth would I sell them to *you* for less, and have to spend precious time making the sale? If you simply say, WTB primal fire, 25g, need 4... you'll get your responses, and people prob won't even check the AH first. If your spamming trade for an item, without setting a price, I, and every other reasonable person, will check the AH first to see how the market is. Again, it helps to know the market. Primal fires usually sell for 20g on my server. If you spam trade looking for them at that price... well, if I had one that I was willing to sell for 20g, and I knew I could get that at anytime at the AH... I would have already sold it...

Be generous. General trade is a public channel. WoW is a community. Doan screw people over, or low ball. Save that crap for the anonymity of a bank alt.

It's ok to be innocent. It isn't ok to be stupid. if you don't know a portal requires a 20s mat, you really have no business asking for one. If you don't know what is required for a service or item... ask. Be polite. People (like me) will accept gratitute in lieu of gold quite often. The chance that doing someone a favor will seriously affect my bank account is remote. But being treated like a goddamn water/portal vending machine will set me off! A kind or grateful word will get you a lot farther than you think.

Now... on general trade auctions...

I hate them. The guy usually wastes everyone's time, then just puts it up on the AH for an insane bo anyway. Still, I've bought some nice crap that way. Sometimes people get desperate, and tired of the AH deposit fees. Got my bringer of death for 75g :) and my crystal forged axe for 40.

So... if ya really wanna sell an item in general chat...

"Want to sell x for y or best decent offer..."

This is a modification of a dutch auction. In a regular auction, you keep raising the price till only one bidder is left. In a dutch auction, you keep lowering the price until you get a buyer. There are advantages and disadvantages to the dutch auction... in theory, both methods should have the same result... but they don't...

I prefer dutch auctions, because they take less time, and if you aren't insane about the price you set, you'll get good responses. Remember... setting a price too high will not only discourage lower bids, it will convince people that you aren't worth talking to at all.

Anyway, Maj made 69, and I'm gonna try to push to 70 today. My house guest has been quiet... (aside from a really bad patch last night when he started attacking my furniture... and his drinking a gallon of orange juice and almost that much grape juice...)

Cats, dogs... and barracuda

So I was playin Mabd yesterday... takin a break from my cares, a rough week at work, and my house guest.

When I get an in-game tell from a level 1 BE warlock. Named Teej.

It wasn't pretty. I'm being stalked again. Worst is her conviction that *I'm* one of her "devoted followers."

"If you're not, why can't you stop thinking about me?"

"Cuz you threatened my life. And the roaches. But mostly that life threat me thing. Besides, you're on MY SERVER now... who's following whom?"

Tomorrow, I'll try to explain why TJ doesn't even get into the top 5 list of my most annoying stalkers.

Sneak peek.

Number 4. While working at the c-store, there was a neighborhood family that was just screwed up. The mother weighed about 80lbs, and when she wasn't shoplifting in my store, she was begging outside. She was 50-80 years old. Her son got outta prison... still on crack. Came into the store, limping painfully... from what my police friends told me was from a vicious series of beatings and rapes by fellow inmates.... anyway... he came into the store, looked me up and down, came in close, and said in a soft voice... "I wanna git wid you, big boy..."

/ewww

Anyway, I thought I'd spend today bitching about my favorite subject... absolutely idiotic WoW players...

The anglo-american culture has some very interesting divergences from the rest of world practices... several of these can be pointed to as an element in the relative success of the western business model. One that gets overlooked a lot, but is still incredibly important...

We are culturally inclined not to haggle.

Now, this is kinda key to the sucess of a lot of western marketing practices. First, it saves insane amounts of time. Supermarkets are impossible if you have to argue over every price. Modern accounting depends on precise details of sales and expenditures... an "average" amount of money you make per sale will kill you in business. As well, it allows people with minimal personal skills to sell things for you. All they need is the basic math required to run a register.

In some fields, this model breaks down. Mostly high ticket items. Cars, houses.... some restaurants follow the health care model, not giving you an idea of cost until after the meal/operation... One reason high end restaurants, like hospitals, are outta control price wise.

I spent two months in China. I learned how to haggle. However, another training ground has opened up in America. WoW general trade.

Now let me break for a little guild chat gem. One of my guildies was compaining about the greed of enchanters in demanding mats plus a tip. "It just takes a click of a button.. not even a cooldown..."

Look people. If you depend on strangers doing you favors for free... you will live a brief, brutal, and unsatisfactory life. "Free" is NOT the beginning position to haggle from when you want someone to volunteer a service.

Arms&Fury got his BS up to 350, got the mats for his axe, made the axe. There he was, with the epic axe... and no gold and no savagery enchant on it. So Majeure, outta the goodness of her blackend blood elf heart, spots him the tons of large prism shards and arcane dust for the enchant. AND gives him 30g for the tip.

A&F starts spamming trade for the enchant, promising a "LARGE TIP." (after the first 5 tells in general trade over 60 seconds, he started getting desperate.)

He gets the enchant, then brags to me... "I only had to tip 10 gold!"

/sigh

Some clues for the clueless... before you advertise "LF healer and tank for (whatever instance) and GTG!".... really... think again.

And don't just say in general... "Need port to shat!" WITHOUT offering a price. I assure you, the vast bulk of mages will simply ignore you. Even if its just offering the portal rune, you'll get a better response. I can occasionally be generous enough to port people who are considerate enough to make sure it doesn't actually cost me anything. But I'm not gonna pay 20s for the honor of helping a noob.

What brought this on? Some fool was spamming trade chat looking for a crystal pulse shield.

Now I have one, sitting on my shammy, waiting on the proper level. My shammy ain't hitting 70 anytime soon... however, the refusal to even begin to offer a price made me reluctant to respond. However... I gotta deal.

"I know I'm gonna regret this... but how much are you offering?"

"For what?"

"The crystal pulse shield you were spamming trade for..."

"Hey, WTB means want to buy... I'm not selling it, I want to buy one..."

/break

K... at this point I realize that I'm dealing with a grade "A" idiot. Did I mention that hesa pally? Can you imagine this guy healing for you? The only question left... is he an idiot with enough money to make it worth dealing with him? Experience tends to teach... no...

/return

"Yes... how much were you willing to pay for the crystal pulse shield?"

"I dunno. Maybe 50g or more. Why, do you have one to sell?"

This is where the trade breaks down. I'm not really interested in selling the shield unless I can make enough gold to more than make up for the hassle of haunting the AH to replace it. 50g is low end for AH on this item... for the most part... with the number of pally and resto shammies being leveled as healing alts. And if you have to spam trade chat... the price goes up a bit. As well.. what the hell is he thinking? Why on earth would I still be talking to him if I, or someone I know, *didn't* have one to sell?

Just knowing the idiot didn't even set a firm price... who the hell says "xg or more?" indicates to me that I'd have a lot more fun spending the next few minutes killing allies in AB than bartering with the guy.

If you are the person seeking the sale... If you're the one asking for the item... you have to be firm, and have to be aggressive. If someone is holding onto the item, instead of putting it on the AH.. it indicates a personal opinion that the item is worth more than the AH would currently bring. It is your job to at least ask around for a good price before trying to lure one outta hiding, as it were. And you have to be generous. If ya wanna be passive... spam trade with the following..

"Was wondering, how much should I expect to pay for a crystal pulse shield?"

This does a coupla things... first, it gets input from multiple sources... if they respond in general trade, then you have established a price basis.. which is... a coupla people say.. 50g, 60g...

Now by this point, someone might have messaged you, declaring that *they* have one, which they will sell for something near the price basis or higher. (It usually wont be lower...)

If not...

"Well... that seems low... does anyone have one to sell for Xg?"

With Xg being something a bit higher than the high end of the basis (which didn't get you a tell...) but not outta the ball park. Say... 70g...

See what were doin? We're haggling, without actually haggling. The trick is to set a price before you actually start talking. Any responses should be close to the new price you set, fishing to see if you actually would go higher. A tip, for the most point, if you've got a response to a solid offer for an item... they'll sell it for the price you set. Plead poverty... one particularly loathesome trick...

"Well, I dont have any more gold till I can grind some more... but would you like 4 stacks of knothide leather scraps on top of the 70gold? I haven't been able to sell them at auction..."

If you offer trade goods instead of money... it will probably convince them that you really don't have anymore to spend. You always risk losing the sale, but that's half the fun. And at this point, they want to sell you the item. The longer the conversation, the greater the psychic investment.

Just to put the seal on it... when you pay for it... over pay... say 71g 57s... saying "I'm really sorry, this is all I have on me..."

They'll feel great, convinced they took your last copper. People are sick this way...

And I know sick people. Oh yes I do...

Tomorrow! Depravity galore!

The flames burn into the night...

The horrific vengenge of the evil one continues....

Not satisfied with merely threatening my life, and the physical integrity of my precious hide, her curse continues its work. My crazy friend came over last night, and in the course of 3 hours, drank a half gallon of premium orange juice.

My groceries arrived last night... and were missing all the soft drinks. No diet coke for me this weekend... as well, no beer in the shipment! Wouldn't death be easier, you demon-kissing bug-molesting pawn of darkness?

THEN I had to go get my VA license... only to find out that they no longer consider out of state licenses as proof of legal residence in the U.S.

And most depraved... the turn to cold wet weather has been driving a horrific invasion of /ick! ROACHES into my apartment. They'll die out soon enough, but this is a truly LOW BLOW!

I gotta come up with something new. OTOH, maybe this'll teach me not to tangle with someone that wears socks stripped from the corpse of the wicked witch of the east....

To WoW news... ran a bit of AB last night... and am slowly coming to love the MM build. Crippled people quite easily with the 41 range silence.. and I'm doin better against BM builds by kiting them outta their 35 range while staying within my 41 range... still havent met another boomkin to practice on tho...

Need a paladin, badly!

Curse the irrational one!

I yield. I can't beat her. I thought I could, that someone who swooned at a concert by a Michael Jackson cover band was nothing to fear.

Karma? What karma? Why would there be karmic reprecussions from tormenting a warlock?

Jeez, I learned my lesson. She laid a curse on me. I doan know how, didn't even see the damn casting bar pop up over her. But I can't get it dispelled by any of the mages I know... must be a GREATER CURSE! My only hope is a blessing of protection... so I'm looking for a paladin...

Here's the deal. I know a lotta screwed up people. One of them is the most unlucky human beings on earth. First, he's mental. As in, on meds mental. As in, you doan wanna see him when he's off his meds, and this isn't a joke. And, like many people in that position... he doesn't take em regularly cuz they make him sick. He's been getting paranoid lately... understandable, considering his position...

Second... he has unfortunate looks. He's 32, bald, pudgy, and short. And asian, with glasses. AND he has a bad stutter.

Third... he has hepatitis. HE INHERITED IT. Can you imagine a worse roll of the genetic dice?

Fourth... he's unemployed and living with his mother. And his mother is at an assisted living for the elderly place. Hence the curent situation... too many people at the rest home are beginning to take exception to his presence. And he's not gonna be able to pretend to be "just visiting" his mother much longer...

You see the setup? He's gonna crash at my place this weekend. Damn, three day weekend too, I was looking forward to the peace and quiet.

He's a good person, smart, and not unemployable. He's actually a decent copy editor, and thats how hes been making money lately. He should be able to get a job pretty soon. Prob is, it won't pay well, and NoVa/DC is expensive. But I'm getting the sense that he's near the end of his rope. I want to help, but I have the sense of doom, that this will not end well...

Bah. Thanks a lot, evil one. Pally? Anyone? I got fish!

Anyway, Z... you gotta put out man... I know I can beat frost mages... but I need a bit more detail... how much health does the elemental have at 70? Is it a good idea to toast him as soon as possible?

You neglect the crucial advantage of the arcane/fire mage... range of 41! Frosties need to get within range of the nova and CoC to get best use of their damage. A decent fire mage should be able to get a good hit or two on you before you get near range. Again, you have a sick advantage, but it's not insurmountable...

And here's a thought... Maj has been using ice lance a lot lately... the damage she does with it has about a 33% chance of breaking the nova, so she gets a few hits off before the mob breaks... ice build does so much damage, I can't see the nova lasting beyond the first hit...

Whats better, hopping backwards while spamming ice lance on a frozen target for about 800, or that one 2.5k hit? BTW... Melvin doesn't use ice lance... except to pull.

Shifty... more bad news... was talkin to my boomkin expert. Thersa talent that gives 70% resist to pushback on wrath.

Ouchies. Next time I fight one, I'll pop aspect of wild, and see how the 70 resist helps...

Did four arena games last night... and Arms&Fury had a coupla executes dodged (ending with the other warrior getting his execute off...) while I kept the healer controlled. A&F was soooo mad...

Ended up 2-2, but learned some good lessons. Hope to get some more experience this weekend.

The mirror's horror...

I once helped drive a girl insane.

It was unintentional.

And when I mean insane, I doan mean normal levels of female craziness.

I mean, her mother had to fly to china to get her out, because she started screaming uncontrollably whenever she was alone with nothing but chinese people. Er... I doan think it was ALL me...

I say strange things, and am often misunderstood. How misunderstood, I did not realize until I was talking with Arms&Fury last night.

We were discussing combat against frost mages... One battle, a while back, it came down to a ice mage, 50% (go Mabd go!) and A&F at relatively whole health. Mabd and frosty's partner were down. The mage ice blocks, leaving A&F whacking on a cube with his axe while the elemental blasted him. A&F then ran around a pillar to bandage... and the elemental followed and interrupted. Then the mage popped out, and ended up killing A&F with 3% health remaining.

So I tells A&F, I tells him, "Why not just kill the damn elemental while you wait? You'll get plenty of loverly rage, and might off the damn thing. It's not like there's anything else you can do while waiting..."

See... that's what I meant to say. What I probably said... "Why dintcha kill the elemental? Not like you can get the bandage off with it active.." You know, same overall meaning, but with a phrasing vulnerable to misinterpretation...

I came to find out, last night, this (in my mind) excellent advice got translated through A&F's ears as... "Attack the elemental first!" Of course, not being Melvin, he's only tried this theory out a coupla times... with deep reservations...

K, Shifttusk has been helping out with the pvp theory craft. It's taking me a while to get the MM thing down... I used to run deep survival with my NE hunter back in the day, but I find I really need to retrain my combat reflexes...

And Zman (isn't that soo much cooler than the infinitly over used xman?) has been givin the advice on frost... hopefully how to kill the bastards...

Shifty, love the recent pvp posts. One problem. There are three types of spells. Instant, casting time, and channeled. What you refer to as channeled spells are actually spells with casting time, and subject to "pushback..." or spell interruption. Pushback is the phenomenon by which steady shot goes from a 1.5sec casting time to a 15sec casting time while a BM pet pounds on you.

A casting time spell only takes effect (and the mana cost paid) after the spell is cast. A channeled spell is much more rare. The most common one to see in arena is arcane missiles... channeled spells only have effect *while* the spell is cast. And mana is paid at spell start.

The problem with moonkin is that they have a instant buff called "barkskin" that for 15 or so seconds

1. reduces damage taken by 20%.

and

2. eliminates pushback.

Now when something with as much armor as a pally gets 20% damage reduction... hunters are screwed. Add to this the wrath (1.5 sec cast) hitting for 1.1k damage.... you aint gonna outlast em...

If they stupid enough to starfire (3 sec cast)... it's all good. However, one thing I finally figured out... wrath is nature damage... and we have a solution for that, doan we?

2.3 is gonna change pvp forever... the one change I'm not seeing talked about... we'll be able to see all the buffs on the enemy! So when laser turkey pops barkskin, and then arcane shot takes it off...

/point
/lol
/danceonroastturkeygrave

As for frost mages... I actually haven't been having the same problems with them that I've had with rogues... BM, they were all too easy to kill. Smack em once or twice, get em to waste that frost nova or elemental, then BW... BW lasts 18 sec, IB only lasts 10. When they IB, both Mabd and Maj know what to do...

With MM, its a little harder... Hawk eye is vital. You NEED that 6 extra yards to start the smackdown early... however, at the end we get to have fun with...

THE COUNTING GAME! Position oneself correctly... ignore the damn pet if its out...

and count from the IB cast...
1
2
3
4 (start casting pyroblast)-Maj
5
6
7 (start with aimed shot)-Mabd
8
9
10 Welcome back to the wide wide wonderful world of pain!

Thersa pally varient on this, of course :)

If they smart, they'll try to break IB early and stop you... but they playin frost for a reason... they just too lazy to play a real mage build (sorry z, gotta get the dig in somehow).

Second thoughts...

Mabd spent a bit of time last night dueling my new guildies and getting my ass handed to me.

I couldn't beat anyone. It was pathetic. Lost to a mace spec rogue, an ice mage, a sick sick boomkin, and a BM hunter.

Over and over.

The problem is that MM spec is more of a support role than attack. I can control more, but lose the punch of BM.

Another problem is gear. I wasn't terribly concerned with resiliance when I was BM... I needed more crit and RAP. Now... well, I need more resil and health. This should change a bit in two weeks when I get my arena season 3 upgrades :)

But still... I'm giving a bit of thought to switching back to BM.

Another sad thing... the hypothermia nerf for ice mages has been reversed :(

So... some thoughts on BM from the other side... (the other hunter was pretty much mirror image, gear wise...)

That damn pet crits for 700 on my mail. Deterrence wasn't doin crap to keep me alive.

I was whooping on him with the yellow damage attacks. Still... they didn't help much. Best I did was get him down to 15%.

I don't know why warriors aren't allowed to use taunt in pvp, and yet hunter pets can redirect aggro with intimidate and growl...
(or is this a weird auto target mechanic I do not understand?)

So... final tally

BM vs MM/Surv
Hunters... BM crushes other builds
Mages.... again... BM has edge...
Priests.... BM has edge...
Warlocks... BM has edge...
Paladins... MM pwns em...
Shammies... MM has slight edge.. til patch, I think
Druids.... Boomkin is trouble, but BM is better gainst others
Warriors... Bane of the BM... MM has few problems...

I really doan know. MM works better with others, but BM works best when it breaks down...

A thousand little pieces...

First, some shoutouts...

Shifttusk, for all the great hunter pvp advice. If only he weren't a stinking cannibal bridge lurking savage... enjoy the nerf, troll!

Out of Mana, the best thing I've found so far on arena ins and outs...

Zman, for playing a frost mage, so I dont have to...

Ratshag, for singlehandedly justifying ever orc sterotype out there... Mabd has a quiver of sharp pointy things with yo name on them, brother...

TJ, fer blowing the great bet, thus proving the inferiority of (in no particular order...)
warlocks, humans and females...

And lastly, the great one, BRK, who retired. By which I mean, he went down to two posts for a week, then resumed his happy little daily musings...

K...

Yes, Herk is Kelmar. I'm not gonna bother linking him anymore, he doan bother blogging since he got his promotion. We're kinda screwed, arena wise, till 2.3 comes out. I've convinced him to hold on to all honor and arena points so as to get uber gear. When that happens... we should get a little better. Mabd is around 3.5 k arena points and 15k honor. Majeure is sitting sweet with nearly 25k honor, and she's not even 70 yet (/fangirlsqueal). Did I mention that I have five epics and the Bringer of Death waiting for her at 70?

I've decided to go deep arcane with Maj for her arena spec. 13 fire,
48 arcane (maybe switch a couple o points to get elemental precision...) My reasoning... I really do appreciate the buff/debuff game element. Slow actually has potential for me, now that I've spent time running around smacking warriors and rogues. Without ice armor, I won't have the passive chill effect, so I'll need something else. Since I'm used to a hunter, I've decided to go with a build that will enable me to maintain maximum range while dpsing... which should help a bit with the current bane for mages, shammies, s. priests and locks.

Its all play style... and I'll be able to bring the beatdown on almost anything if my skill is up to it.

As for the MM build... Herk isn't too happy with me. My ability to absolutely shed aggro with TBW is restricted... but now I can spank pallies, which I couldn't before. And warriors. I have more problems with rogues now, but I'm getting better at it. And when dead zone disappears, I'll be able to zap em when they get within my detect hidden zone.

Again, more options require more skill... but have a bigger payoff.

My fav arena moment so far... We go into ruins of L... and i see one player with detect humanoids... do a /target... tell herk... "pally in base..."

Herk rushes in, and I see the rogue stealthed coming for me. So I scatter the little bastard, set the trap, and get ready for him...

Then Herk rushes out and lambastes the rogue.

I look up at the screen... the pally died in about 6 secs...

Says Herk... "He got silly..."

My least fav moment... again, ruins of L. We come out, turn the corner, and there are a warrior and lock. I SS the lock, Herk rushes him, and the lock turns and runs into the base while the warrior comes at me. Herk follows into the base, I SS the warrior.

The warrior trickets outta the scatter, and walks into the freeze trap, while I run past into the base to help Herk... only to see him crumple just as I make it in...

There I was, all alone in the base with a lock permanently in my deadzone till I could get out... and with SS and traps on CD.

Ouchies. Herk went down faster than a security guard in a slasher film.

Dazed and confused....

I am blessed with great friends. And some not so great friends. And some, shall we say, just plain batshit insane people that seem to want to hang out with me.

I did mention the serial killer before, right?

Anyway, one of the "A" rank friends is a coworker. Like Melvin, but with more of an intellect. He doesn't play the game of games, choosing instead to spend his gaming time with Civ 4, overrruning the world.

It's all good.

Anyway, you know this type of friend, I hope... I have a very strange sense of humor that most find hard to grasp. A can finish my jokes, and I can finish his... it's rather a relief... After talking with him, I always get the sense, that, no, it isn't me, its just the rest of the world that's nuts.

Sadly, A is a vegetarian... so we doan do lunch much. Melvin has begun saying things like... "Maybe A would have understood that..." when I say something a bit off that track. That and, "have you been taking your meds?"

Anyway, I was officially boggled today. While riding the metro, on the way into work, I saw the most attractive young woman... and she was wearing a shirt printed with the legend "Be kind to your sex worker!"

I doan know what to think.

This is made worse by my recent arena experiences with Herk We haven't been doing too well, due mostly to inexperience (mine with the MM build, his with the teamwork needed for Arena...) and Herk is getting fustrated. And when he gets fustrated... he talks sex.

Let me just say that I'm happy that there's most of a continent between us now. Not that he's ever given any indication of "playing for the other team..." It's just that I'm not sure he would even, er... think it would be a problem...

Way back in the day, there was a show named night court. John Larroquette played a sex obsessed lawyer. One episode, his character was forced to go without for a prolonged period. At the end of the show, he learned it was all for naught and walked into the court's packed cafeteria. The female lead of the show took one look at the expression on his face and yelled... "Run for your lives, girls!"

The cafeteria clears of women... and John looks even more fustrated. Then one of the male characters yells... "Better safe than sorry, guys!" and all the men flee the room...

I'm just saying, I might feel more secure if there was an ocean between me and Herk, that's all...

Oh, and Zman has joined the madness! Welcome shortie!

Ouch...

K... Majeure got ice lance at 66. I never really had a chance to mess with it before...

I now know why ice mages are so sick in arena... good lord.

Ice lance... insta cast frost spell that does 150ish damage, triple to frozen targets.

Why is this a sick sick thing? Well... ice lance gets the add from +spell damage. Which, as an insta cast spell is like 1.41/3 ish. 45%? I dunno, but with 450 spell damage, maj's was hitting for around 300.

Then you triple it. On a frozen target. I was hitting for almost 900, and I have zero in frost talents. If I was frost spec... I'd have +50% chance to crit, and double damage on crits... so... with a +750 spell damage frost mage.... yuir looking at a possible 2.5-3k crit. You tube has some silly damage videos with arcane/frost, including ice lance crits near 4k...

For an instant! Jeez...

You have been warned. Doan let em freeze you.

Downsizing the pet... and the gold farmer...

A blog a day through november?
I can do that... wish I'd heard bout it earlier, wouldn't have missed the first...

K, went MM. Lot more damage, pet can't tank fer crap, and pet goes down faster than a plastic chair at a weight watcher's meeting.

Still, the first MS crit for 2k...

I've been mostly just tradin round fer crap for Maj's spellfire set. Takes insane tons of primal fires and spellcloth. She should hit 70 in two weeks er so, and she'll have her epics when it happens.

Gold is a weird thing. I just finished reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for the first time. She was apparently a gold bug like Ron Paul.

People... gold, like paper currency, has no intrinsic value. The only virtue of a gold based monetary system is that the government cannot arbitrarily increase it. So what does this mean to us, the WoW playing public?

High paying daily quests are the single biggest thing to hit the WoW economy since they started selling accounts in China. They do three things... first, they get high level chars the hell offa your tin nodes. A 70 would have to be nuts to gather resources to sell when he/she could just do a bit of dailies and score a ton of cash. Second, they hurt gold sellers. Gold sellers tend to have inferior gear, and by a damn sight don't have elite mounts. Their ability to compete for resources is crippled by the lack of capital they place in their characters... Lastest and bestest... the flow of money represented by dailies helps encourage in game spending... on pots, respecs, what have you.

Blizzard has a curious relationship with the WoW economy. First, they need for people to exchange goods and services... this build community, and community keeps people coming back to the game. OTOH... any gold you spend on the AH more or less cuts down time you have to spend making or questing for gear. What is ideal for blizzard is for there to be a linear relationship between power of character and time spent playing. Gold sellers circumvent this... why play a char to epic status when you can simply buy it? This leads to fustration, and people leaving...

Hence dailies... once you get a char to a certain point, you'll be able to super grind gold more efficiently than a farmer... as well, dailies are the gold equivalent to rest exp... they reward people who aren't on 24/7 with an hour or so of super lucrative play time a day... past that... well, less gold made... so the casual players who lack the time for serious farming have a steady income source, and are much less likely to buy gold, while the hard core players tend to be the ones who can't afford gold anyway...

Punishment...

So... I blew off Kimmu-sempai last weekend to farm honor via AV. Last night, she got back at me.

I had to go watch 30 Days of Night with her.

Damn, that was a scary movie. True, the ending was hokey, but well... a problem endemic to the genre, I'm afraid. Still... the theatre was cold, and I forgot my sweater. So... I watched a movie about vampires eating people in a frozen darkness, while sitting in frozen darkness. And drinking a 64oz diet coke.

I do not handle caffine well...

Needless to say, i was seriously freaked while walking home along a badly lit path, in the chill northern virgina night.

And... I take it back. Melvin really is an idiot. We were arguing over the value of resiliance... Melvin believes that it reduces all damage, not just crits and dots.

One harsh lesson on life I learned from working in a convienence store... you can put all the signs you want up, but it doesn't help unless you teach everyone to read first... Melvin can't be bothered to read the tooltips of his various class abilities. People can't be bothered to read the "STORE CLOSED, GO AWAY" signs.

So I went with Melvin to a movie a while back. I paid for for it. Melvin is one of those strange people who has problems with taking a favor... he wanted to pay his share. The only problem is... he can't be bothered to figure out what his fair share is.

You all know this phenomenon. You go out to eat with a buncha people... group ticket. Everyone figures out what they owe, put it in the center, and the group is always 20% short.

It takes a dictator... "Bob, you owe $15, John, kick in $13..." etc... to make it work out right. OR... well, I once did a meal with my japanese class... I made sure I was last so i could take up the slack... I ended up paying $45 for a $6 salad...

So Melvin tries to hand me $6 for the movie, which cost $10... and this pisses me off more than the time someone spit on me after I refused to sell them beer. Cuz either it's my treat, which I don't mind. Or you pay your share. But don't screw me over and then think you paid your way...

He watched me hand over the $20 for two tickets. He saw me not get change. He was holding the ticket that said "$10". And he still tried to give me $6.

He's not cheap. He's not poor. He simply can't be bothered to pay attention to what the hell's going on around him.

Unlike me... caffinated up, freezing, walking home in the dark, and trying not to think about how the vampires killed all those people.

Thanks a ton, Kim.