7/6: What I Accomplished Today

1. Rather annoyed right now because I can't enter a title. If I can ever get into that blank, it's going to be "7/6: What I Accomplished Today." It won't let me click or tab in. I've exited the ap and done various page bopping. Very irritating. (It let me in about 20 minutes later.)

2. Had dum-dum food.

3. All-in-one printer necessary for Co-Vivant's bidness died yesterday, so we went and bought another.

4. Scheduled a dentist appointment. Tried to schedule my haircut, but my person is on vacation. Bought tickets to Blue Man Group for parents' visit next week.

5. Graded the in-person class so I wouldn't have to next Tuesday when my parents arrive.

6. Watched D.O.A.; I hadn't seen this before, and it's a good movie. (I do wish the guy had been a little more forthcoming; "I am about to die; please help me" is compelling for most people.)

7. Watched Night at the Museum, our Netflix movie. This was good, clean, silly fun. I usually just sort of want to poke Ben Stiller with a stick (granted, I haven't seen many of his movies; my favorite of his is Madagascar, and since we don't see him, it hardly counts), but this was cute.

Actually, that's not fair. My first memory of Ben Stiller is when he was probably eight or ten years old and his parents were on a daytime show--Mike Douglas, I think. And they were just overflowing with pride and love for their children, Ben and his sister. And they made these poor children play violins (I remember it as two violins; I've seen the clip since, and I think one was actually on a piano, mebbe, but I still have it filed mentally as two violins), and they were perfectly adequate, but they weren't particularly outstanding. I don't remember the sister clearly, but I remember I was a year older than he (remarkably, I still am), and I was jealous beyond belief. Not to be arrogant or snotty, but I could tell that I had more natural musical talent and ability than either of those children, and I was not on the Mike Douglas show. I remember my mother being a little irritated (I actually think she may have said, "Oh, that's nice for the Stillers, but either of you girls has more talent than these poor kids, and they're sort of a waste of television time" or some such. If so, that would be a little harsh and judgmental for my mother, but I remember my mother being irritated that musically average children were on television. She had several score more talented piano students she'd have been delighted to put on the Mike Douglas show.)

Now as an adult, I think that it was really very sweet for Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller to be so head-over-heels in love with their children that they just wanted to share that joy with America. I've actually heard Ben Stiller discuss the occasion on another talk show, and he was mortified and humiliated, perhaps scarred, by the whole ugly incident. (They really hadn't played well.) Both of our parents used to make my sister and I sing or play musical instruments or perform little silly things in front of groups of relative strangers, and I know such command performances aren't fun. I've also had a number of friends tell me I would enjoy his work, particularly There's Something About Mary. I may be almost over this Mike Douglas appearance from about 30 years ago enough that I can enjoy his work on its own merits.

8. Level 29 Draenei Shaman went into Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch until she had a little over 100 honor.

Now hear this: When you are playing Arathi Basin, the way to win is to get three bases and then keep them. It is not to bop off and try to get the farm. We can't keep the farm; it's by their base. Somebody today said he kept doing it so they'd go there to defend it and stop attacking our bases. Doesn't work like that. The stereotype is that Alliance battleground teams are three defenders and twelve hot dogs, and the stereotype is seldom proven wrong. Once there are three bases, you're more useful defending the existing ones than running around like your ritalin prescription is low.

If I remember correctly, this character dinged 29 yesterday, but she hasn't gotten her level 29 Azeroth Advisor newsletter yet. I've subscribed to this for a few weeks, and I really like it; it tells you of spells you'll be learning soon, places you could visit, gear to be on the lookout for. It's given me some really good ideas. (I didn't know about the instance in Silverpine Forest, for example; I've sent two or three characters in there for good experience and loot since I found out about it, although no one has finished it yet.) I'm hoping my newsletter comes soon.

For each of my nine characters, I've had certain goals for levels 25-30: finish Deadmines; start the sequences for Stockades, King's Tribute, and Missing Diplomat, and work a little on Stalvan; get at least 100 Honor. I've done all these things for the first five characters I've moved from 25 to 30. This Shaman, the sixth character has done the quest work and the honor, but she hasn't finished Deadmines yet. I suppose that'll be a goal for tomorrow.

9. Read for Arthur. (I normally read voraciously, but I haven't had that in me recently. I'm sure the fact that I have nine World of Warcraft characters between levels 25 and 30 is a coincidence.)

10. The other thing I haven't done yet that I meant to is set up my business website. It's Harry Potter related; I have research that I've completed that might be of use or interest. (It was originally going to be a book, but as it progressed, it looks to me like it's more a website; it's much too big to be a book, and it's the sort of little fiddly thing that's going to require a format in which I can easily edit the tiny little minuscule errors that will inevitably creep in without having to send a paper addendum out to people who bought a book.) Now again, I know why I haven't done this: it's just been more fun to play WOW than to build web pages. On the other hand, if I don't do this, I feel like it's probably my most viable chance to provide long-term financial security for the two of us that isn't dependent on being employed by someone else. (I don't mind the teaching per se, and as long as your paperwork is in on time, people largely leave you alone, which I like, but any time you work for someone else, there are frustrations and dumb rules and policies, and I would love to be able to say, "I'm going to do this other sort of research, which I enjoy very much, full time, professionally, and make a living at it. I may teach a few classes part-time as I wish, because I'd enjoy it, but I don't need your money; I'd rather have my time. We're in much better financial shape now than we've ever been before, but we aren't there yet.)

I've been feeling a little worthless and unproductive recently (people who have read any of this at all will surely not wonder why), and I know I feel like I'm literally letting the opportunity of a lifetime slip away, but I just haven't been motivated to make myself do the work. I need to do it, or I'm never going to have quite the same respect for myself again.

But it's so much more fun to see how far I can get a character through the Deadmines.

11. I have the first 25 episodes of Miss Management to three stars.

12. Worked on Pogo badges.

13. Today's BigFishGame is a mah jong thing. I'm excused.