Isn't she pretty in pink!

Yeppers... thassa Maj in her season 3 finery.

She's ina 2v2 with a ret pal right now, and I can use any help/suggestions ya got.


She now has a distinct pvp set, anda pve set. Ima happy. I can raid and pvp! She has 112 spell hit with the pve set, and managed to hang with the guild rogue class leader ina kara run, damage wise.

Sadly, Melvin's fleabag druid was along with that group.

Ima not sure... but I suspect itsa sign of bad play when a bear or warrior never drops below 85 rage while tanking.

Oh and Melvin still doan know what feral charge is for. He got killed by the arcane blast gainst shade. Cuz he doan know how to shift to escape snares.

I went +spell haste with the gems. I think after I get a coupla more pieces... the spell haste pvp cloak, the spell haste pvp ring... Ill be doin better.

It's still pretty nice to see spell haste work with portals and food creation tho :)

And burn my shadow away!

She'sa resto!

Too damn much druid gear tho. And the chants costa fortune. Still, ima shocked at what I managed to get.

Blew all my arena points fer season 3 chest. Ran EotS till my eyes bled for the tokens fer season 2 weapon and shield.

Rest are kara drops. Cept for the pvp melee cloak, which ima keepin, since I only got 130 resil. Final count.

250/82 mp5 (miserable... but thats without water shield. anyone got a good resto mp5 goal to shoot for?)

1616 +healing (still freaked I got it that high. damn....)

10k life

9k mana

Ima little light fer a tier 5 raid or so. And big problem with the coupla druid pieces I got (bleh spirit)

Still... resto shammies rock. In BGS I was soloing rogues. It was humiliating. And there was a classic battle where I killed an arms warrior at the flag... healed up in time to kill another one.

In arena... Ima only in trouble if I get a MS warrior and rogue teamin me. Which seems to be all the time. Tons of WRD teams out there.

On the bright side, I met a decked out arms warrior in BGS from my server that asked me to join his pvp guild and asked if I hada 3v3 team :)

Um... so I founda really sweet healing macro. Heals, in order... mouseover, target, target's target, then self. Self heal on right click. I pwn the battle ground. And the target target feature rules in tight fights.

I think I mentioned before about magebert's priest. (Magebert is Melvin's brother. Hesa lawyer, and is moderately less incompent than Melvin.) His priest is, of course, elaborately geared, and tended to be main healer in the old old guild. Less so in the new one.

So I was tryin to talk shop with magebert bout healin.

-"Which spells do you downrank?"
"er.. whats that?"

-"um... what macros do you use then?"
"Oh, I have healing macros that heal myself!"
-"ah... you doan turn on self target on right click?"
"whats that?"

So... gonna be grinding honor for quite some time for better arena gear fer the shammy. And avoiding conversations with Magebert and Melvin.

Oh yeah... week before last, Melvin's kara group wiped twice on chess. Ima still not sure what to make of that.

This wounded heart will rise

Euripedes suggests all +sta gems for my mage chest.

I really doan like this. It makes too much sense... but Ima pushin 10k health. And have ice barrier and ice block. I really really want damage.

Ima currently leaning towards either 1 spell damage and 2 mix damage/haste gems... and pick up the +4 crit socket bonus... or just three +damage gems. Ima woefully under spellpowered on the toon now... 840 without buffs. And I have too much +crit. I should start shifting to the warlock boots, belt and bracers... but ima still ambivalent on losing too much crit. When I get goin, that near 40% frost crit gets truly lethal. Ima still not sure how haste will work in arena. Healz, hell yeah. But for a frost mage, who has nuttin but time anyway?

So... the MAC AND CHEESE POST.

Ima big fan of mac and cheese. It was brought to this country by Thomas Jefferson, who spent time in France and Italy as america's ambassador to france.

So anyway.. instead of grinding honor for my new gear, I ended up watching a pair of food network shows on mac and cheese. The first was Good Eats. And ifn you a foodie, this is the most addictive show ever! The thing about mac and cheese... itsa real easy to make from scratch. And itsa infinitely versatile. Good eats showed the basics and theory.

Then came food network's challenge show. 5 restaurant chefs competing for a $10k prize... makin mac and cheese.

Why am I talkin about this? Cuz itsa lesson on life. The first round... traditional mac and cheese. Must included elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese.

Only one chef made anything like a traditional mac and cheese. She won the round. (It was a 10 cheese mac and cheese dish...)

The rest.. well... two others did well, but the people that got too fancy ended up losing.

Second round, signature dish. Must include a form of pasta and a form of cheese.

I saw everything. Cheesecake with ravioli crust. One dude used a frozen gnocci (think italian dumpling) and was ripped by the judges...

"Why didn't you just make the gnocci yourself? It only takes 15 minutes, and its the heart of your dish..."

Then they did an interview with the guy where he was fuming... "I know damn well that B*tch doesn't grow her own food! I'd like to see her try to make and serve gnocci in 15 minutes!"

See.. and this goes to the general rule of asshattery... those that can't do, asshat. And Asshats never listen to constructive criticism. The criticism was that he din't make the pasta himself. I *KNOW* you can make gnocci with the right gear in less than 15 minutes. I've seen it done (and eaten the results! yum!) Frozen gnocci is not worth the bother. He wasn't tasked to make and serve it. (After you make it, you need to boil it for 4-5 min...)

It would have made his dish better, and him a better cook. Did he listen? Hell no.

Then there was the really cute chef chick who kept saying she wanted to deck the judges...

Who won? The laidback guy who made lobster mac and cheese. John Besh, my home boy and one of the judges, made the point... if ya take a handful of simple ingredients... mac, cheese, lobster... and doan screw em up... you can do wonders... everyone else went overboard.

What does this have to do with life?

When someone is telling you yuir doin something wrong... and they have their own show (or top rated arena team), freaking listen. Don't distort what they say so you can feel unfairly picked on.

Keep it freaking simple. Doan go overboard. (Ima trying to talk myself into +spell damage)

And mac and cheese totally freaking RULZ!

And you judged me once for falling

Quick coupla links for Arms&Fury...

Chicks who read sci fi...

And comic on having kids... Mouse over the comic for the comment...

Comin up... mac and cheese post! And Maj models her new gear!

I was ambushed by a lie...

Hm... Maj went ona shopping spree last night... got the season 3 helm, chest and pants. Shes now 4/5 season 3. She also got the season 2 staff and is 1.5 k honor from the season 4 neck.

She'sa all gemmed and enchanted with the exception of the chest. (And the neck when I get it).

My idea... chest has 1 red and 2 yellow. The epic gem vendor has still to pop on my server... (97%). Soa runed crimson spinel.. I got the badgers fer that.

But I freaking hate all the damn yellow gems. Moar resil and sta with steady talasite? Moar crit and spell damage with that noble topaz cut?

I dunno. Frost mages doan need crit that much... I already have too much, and can really use more straight damage. Ima pushin 325 resil... I doan really wanna go much further. 10k health is fine with ice barrier...

Sigh...

And I doan have the badgers to spam haste/damage gems in the slots, which would probably be best... well, I do, but I really want that pvp caster cloak. OTOH... I can probably spare em offa the hunter and shammy... hm... +15 spell haste and +21 spell damage offa all three gems...

Not to mention the nightmare of trying to gear my shammy for pvp resto. good lord.

Anyway.. melvin story. Melvin is, like me, an economist. He researches for a living. (His field is milk... no, really). So we did some 5v5 with his useless feral druid. And after three matches, the druid had racked up 3% of the group damage. WTF? "I tried something different... I just stayed in caster form and cycloned things..."

I checked.. he had zero healing as well.

One time, in band camp... no wait, heroic arc. We wipe three times on the first boss... and he says... "We need more dots!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know, dots! Damage On Target! Maybe we can get a fire mage!"

Ima goin back to cutting myself while drinking alone...

Fate's my destroyer

Everyone seems to be doin BG posts this week....

And so I had two really awesome WSG's over the weekend.


What's that you say? What's goin on with Melvin? Er... well Melvin and his brother lose at WSG all the time. I told him that I tend to win WSG about as much as I win AV... (75% or so). So he talked me into getting the three of us together for WSG.

I did 7 games that day, and the only one I lost was when I was with those two. Melvin usually aint bad at BG's... but he really doan get the point of WSG. Keep in a group, distract/slow rather than kill, and nerf druids!

Bloodlust (the attitude, not the spell) isa terrible thing in BG's.

Have to hand it to Braids. She made a pretty serious, and subtle AB point. A lotta the time, people defending flags tend to be AFK. If they doan move when you approach the flag... try for the quick cap. Also, try to approach from outside the normal field of vision... a lotta pve welfare epic grinders doan "check six" as it were...

But back to WSG... I tooka screenshot of my finest game. Three times I had to storm the ally keep and singlehandedly recover the flag. Once, the rogue holding it was unable to jump down to the flag room cuz of three tard horde milling around. The rest of the time... me alone. Frost shock means they aint gettin away. Blessing of freedom can be dispelled little pally...

The stat Ima most proud of... deaths. In WSG... gettin them to kill ya can be a big strategic advantage. I like to hit em before they make the ramp at the start... sometimes, you can rez and hit them again before they make it to the flag room. If ya slow em enough, your flag carrier and entourage can catch them as they emerge from the tunnel....

Plus its always easier to die than drink in WSG.

The other weird game... 45 min, we won 3-2. Only after a hunter on our team did something brilliant... he started lurking near the ally GY. And everytime their resto druid popped and started running to our base, our hunter would intercept. We, OTOH, had only rogues to run the flag back. Between cheat death and cloak of shadows, rogues are pretty good flag carriers... but not as good as prot warriors, druids or pallies...

Was knowing your weakness what made you strong?

Hrm... playin with the new system is a blast, but Ima getting a bit burnt out... So Ima just logging in for a quick BG daily these days...



Went 1-1 in AV last night. Lost one with the allies at 19... we had the miserable wretches, but the offense wiped on Vann... its getting to the point that I actively hate the offense in any AV game I play. Its like freaking Lakers/Celtics how much I despise those guys...


Er... anyway, I thought I'd put out some links.


Motivational Star Trek posters....


Remember Wolverine? Of the X-Men? It turns out there actually is a creature that has claws that pop out through its flesh, cutting it, at the same time it does damage to predators...


Another way of looking at charity...


A coupla bits on urban development problems. (If'n that description turns ya off, best not read it...)


On income inequality in the NFL... (Ima economist... I live for this crap...)


For those of us pro-military types...


A friend of mine did some photoblogging from Guatemala during Good Friday...

Oh... personal note. I finally got around to buying a mp3 download for the first time sunday. (Ima cheap... go figure) Anyway... it was Journey's Greatest Hits album. I doan know what this says about me.

Leave me out with the waste, this is not what I do...

Since BRK did a coupla pieces on PVE server PVE ettiquette... I thought I'd show ya some PVP server stuff.

See that dead and broken Nelf huntard down there?

He went afk on his flying mount. Within 41" of someplace I could land. You know what we call people who do this?

Pinatas.

I doan even gank, asa rule. But goin AFK, where we can get at you? It's like mooning someone and then sticking around. You just ASKING for the butt-whipping you get.

Realted notes... almost have all the macros and addons reset for the new computer. I can finally run recount now! And recount kicks insane ass!

(Ifn ya doan know... recount is a damage meter that gives ya pie charts... misses, crits, resists... min, max and average damage... its really nice)

Ran regular SV with a pally friend of mine who just respecced prot. In our group... Majeure the magnificent. Anda Ret pally, decked out ina epics.

That damn pally matched me blow for blow on the damage meters. I only really pulled away when I started doin balls to the wall damage. (This is a BRKism. Ima not sure where it comes from, he explained it once, but after "there I was nailing up some plywood when I had a little accident" I kinda couldn't listen anymore...)

Anyway, when did ret pallys start doin real damage?

Oh yeah, cheap ass frost mage tricks... Blizzard is affected by haste effects. So ifn ya pop icy veins... bliz runs 20% faster... I was actually able to make that crappy spell worthwhile for a coupla seconds there...

Still best AoE for a frost build is Frost nova, cone of cold, and the AE till CoC comes back on. Refresh the nova a coupla times with elemental... you get sick dps results... only problem is gettin that close to mobs :(

About time to respec Maj outta 61 points in frost. Some arcane I like better. And I gotta idea what frost talents I really doan need.

K... so AV was the daily last night. I get Unbound in there. Weird goddamn game. We NEVER got SH gy. Or any GY for that matter. We were ruinning outta IB the entire time. Won by camping the towers around SH, while laying siege to the allies at SHGY. Then elite teams moved up and took out the DB towers.

Meanwhile the Allies got IB tower, and nuttin else. Makin em wipe 4 times on galv was awesome...

Anyway... there I am, just finished recapping tower point. Killed the feral druid guarding the flag... and in pops a resto druid. And I get to fight the elf bastard for 5 goddamn minutes. Him moonfiring me, me spamming windfury and purge, with me helplessly waiting for the son of a bitch to run outta mana. I sure as hell wasn't, with the water shield and mana totem. Still... this is just freaking stupid. Paladins are no longer the cockroaches of the battlefield...

Thanks for the music recommendations, all!

What would an angel say? The devil wants to know...

After seeing Madonna and Justin Timberlake's 4 minutes to save the world video... i have to say...

Its the gayest damn thing I've ever seen on the internet, and I've seen "what what my butt!"

So anyway... I need some music recommendations. I'm really grooving on the new Death Cab for Cutie single. (It's insanely dark...) And, even though its pop... Kerli's Walking on Air is gettin on the old play list...

But I thought I'd throw this one out to ya...

Ima be doin some downloading with the new system... any suggestions? The more off the beaten track, the better.

We were perfect when we started, I've been wondering where we've gone...

With arena season 2 weeks off... Ima gonna be spending a ton of time on the shammy getting her as much honor/tokens as I can.

So... I was wondering... is there a pay pal for honor? Or BG tokens? Wouldn't it be loverly if there was?

Papa John's is setting me off again. For the deal with me and Papa John's... look here...

Whole wheat crust? I mean... like they doan have a pizza dough so dry and tasteless that they have to give ya garlic butter to wash it down with? Some idiot actually thought... "Ya know... we need a crappier pizza! But more healthy! Cuz nuttin goes with grease and cheese like a health food crust!"

Itsa whole buncha things. I am struck time and time again by absolute stupidity in the marketplace. I could go on about the place I work... but let me just frame it with a single story. I need SEVEN freaking passwords, changed every 2 weeks, to do my damn job. I have three different ID cards.

They even gave us an ID card to use when we log into one of our databases... the bulk of my coworkers just leave the damn thing in the computer 24/7. Yep! That's security!

I do heavy market research. My main online research site got BLOCKED by my IT department. It took a week to get unblocked.

K... on a more market side. I went to my neighborhood office depot. (What? Your neighborhood doesn't have one? Shame!)

"I need some canned air, plz!"
"Oh, we don't have that. It always sells out the day we get it in."

K... you peeps prob know what canned air is.

And BTW, Wiki... "erroneously referred to as canned air?"

You can kiss my ass.

Anyway... everyone needs this for the care and maintenance of computers. (Plus its uber cool for messing with pets!) Get that nasty dust outta the case. And Office Depot can't be bothered to keep it in stock. BTW... the markup on this is like 50%.

OTOH, I went to Microcenter sat... on the way out, what should I see in the impulse buy (checkout) aisle but STACKS OF CANNED AIR. Which is why Microcenter is driving places like CompUSA outta business.

Itsa difference of attitude. One place wants to sell you whatever you want, the other wants to sell you whatever they have.

Lastly... such is my despair I have fallen into a pattern of shocking self abuse. No... ima not cutting myself... ( I knew a dude who did... a strange affliction...)

No, its worse than that. Ima watching Star Trek: Enterprise.

Ima stunned it lasted 4 years. Itsa monumental piece of crap. I may get into some snarky observations on it later... maybe when I post my "Why Ima Looking forward to The Hulk" piece.

Why am I bringing this up? Ima compulsive commercial watcher. One way to keep an unofficial track of the economy, and yuir place in it, is to keep track of what they think they can sell you based on what you watch. So what offering were they hawking during ST:Enterprise?

Guess.

So really... if you ever get the feeling that it's either you or them and that the rest of humanity can't be COMPLETELY crazy, that it has to make a kind of sense that you simply can't see... rest assured. It's all them.

Where ever you go...

A world without WoW?

Well, maybe a weekend without WoW.

My old computer finally gives up the ghost...

just as Mr. Shiny New Computer shows up ona my doorstop. I open up the box, check it out...

Uh oh...

The hard drive cage came loose in shipment, and theresa big crack in the case.

Um... well... I can live with this.. if the rest is ok... open her up, refasten the cage, look at motherboard and connections...

It all seems ok...

Plug it in, turn it on... start downloading stuff. And it shuts off within a coupla minute.

Not good... reboot.

Off in 15 seconds.

Reboot and go to bios... CPU is running at 102 degrees, C.

REALLY not good.

K... two causes... bad CPU, or a bad CPU cooler. Ima hopin its not the CPU, cuz if then, ima foobar. 2 weeks to get a replacement.

Look at the CPU/Cooler combo. Start cursing. Company installed the cooler badly, crimping the hoses for the water cooling... permanently damaged? Well... no... I can reinstall... and hope for the best, but upon inspection, I realize the cooler is a cheap flashy PoS.

This is my fault... I shoulda looked at it closer before ordering that particular item.

K, screw getting the company to ship me a replacement. I doan want another one.

So, Sat morning, I go out into the world to find a new CPU cooler for my precious... Quad core Q6600 Intel CPU. (They just givin em away these days.. can find em for less than $200...)

Office Depot. They have coolers... for pentiums. Nothing for a chip made after about 2003.
Best Buy. Nada (I love Best Buy... the clerk takes me aside and tells me to check Staples, instead of giving me a "we can order it for you" song and dance)

Problem is... I got no car, and there's no Staples within easy public transit...

Radio shack... here ya go! (Itsa case fan)... oh, well, I'm sure we can order it for you!

Why the hell is radio shack even in business still?

In desperation I go to the Apple store... they use similar chips... ya never know...

Apple... We have them, and if you bring yuir computer in and give us a week, we'll even install it for you! Oh, wait, you just wanna buy one to install yourself? We won't make any money doin that!

This is why Apple will always suck.

K... batting 0-4. I call my psychotic friend Derek. Derek knows North Virgina like the back of his hand..

"Derek, I needa computer parts store within reach of a metro stop."

I think he paused 5 seconds, not longer. Turns out theresa Microcenter a bus stop away from Vienna metro.

Ifa you guys doan know what Microcenter is... oh baby. For computer geeks, its like catnip. I go there, and they have an entire FREAKING WALL of CPU coolers.

K... sales dude... here's the deal. I wanna CPU cooler, and it has to be non fancy, and easy to install...

He hands me this 5lb chunka copper and aluminum.

Are you sure? Yep...

K... I get that, and a TOTALLY AWESOME CASE FAN. Ima not kidding... the damn fan came with rubber screws to reduce noise...

So... I get home, unpack the CPU cooler... and realize my mistake. I really, really, really shoulda looked at the installation directions before buying it. Turns out I gotta tear the motherboard outta my system to install this damn thing.

Actually... it wasnt that bad. Itsa great case, and the system is pretty non cluttered. So... 45 min later, the CPU cooler is perched upon the CPU, and the totally awesome case fan is in.

Turn it on... go to bios... CPU is holding steady at room temp... (30 degrees Celsius...)

4 hours later, after installing all manner of crap... system still uber stable. Still running around 30 degrees. A damn sight quieter than my old system...

WoW has since been reinstalled... Ima clocking 60 fps in SHAT! with all video settings cranked to max... Did some pvp... and baby.. it makes a big difference.

In case ya wondering... I went a little low on the video card... but itsa holding up great. I cranked up the graphics a bit more than BRK did in this shot... so I wonder how I'd do with less detail...

No, really I doan.

So, be happy for me while I still have new computer euphoria... leaving aside questions on whether I should boost up the audio (ima goin with the on board set up right now...)

Silence must be heard

A neat story...

Mother Falcon sent her daughter out to get dinner.

Daughter Kite grabbed a duckling and came home.

Mother Falcon praised her daughter, then asked... "what did Mother Duck do when you stole her child?"

"Nothing. She just walked away."

"You must return the duckling then. This silence is ominous."

Daughter Falcon did as she was told, and came back to her mother with a chick.

"Ah! And what did Mother Chicken do when you stole her child?"

"She cursed me, mother, and threatened the both of us."

"Then we can have dinner now, there is nothing to be feared from those who shout."

The moral (according to the source)... never kill a man who says nothing.

We want... Flesh! Flesh for fantasy!

The game needs a 28 slot meat bag.

Ima just saying. Mabd's bank vault is starting to look a little... untidy.

Well its not a fight, and I'm not your captive

This was just a fun screenshot. In the background, we see the grounding totem that failed to catch the freeze trap. It's what, 15' away?

It looks 15 away.

So Nelf Hunter scattershots me. And tries to kite. Unfortunately, she caught me with the scatter right after I'd hit her with the old frost shock goodness. By the tim I got outta the shot, I was ready to hit her again.

Scattershot... I know how the game is played... she's gotta trap dropped, I gotta grounding totem dropped, she's trying to kite (and failing miserably).

I get pulled too far from the grounding totem, and the trap gets me.

So... Nelf... some admiration here for your restraint. You waited till I was too far from the totem to be saved. I dunno if this was intentional. Still...

Ya waited to long. And I hope that little period where my frozen hooves stood over yuir crushed and broken body will teach ya to break contact with the mean old enhance shammy faster...

BTW... grats Wulfa. I think. Itsa special feeling, but also a hollow one. Back at the job from hell, there was a special feeling of despair when you were in the store, watching the sun come up... for the second time in your shift. (Worse for me, it was always X-mas when I was pullin a 28 hr shift...) Plz doan play the game when it stops being fun. That way lays burnout, and we'd miss you :(

We are the champions!

Unbound finally finished the kara key chain in grand fashion... by handling adds and doin heavy dps in BM.

Afterwards, the pally tank made special note...