Guess I haven't done this in a few days.
1. Graded, prepped, and taught the requisite number of classes.
2. Finished reading Angelica for Literary Society tomorrow. Started The Namesake for book group. It's hard to put down. Don't think I've read many magazines.
3. Finished six recipes in Cooking Mama.
4. WOW. Got the Druid to level 45. Today I got three characters through Lunar Festival. I've adapted a list of the Elders because the complete list is meant for level 70's, so I can't get to most of the suckers. Assumptions: soloable at 45 (which eliminated instances, the Plaguelands, Burning Steppes, Horde cities, and a few others), minimal death (fine for normal play, but not for this). Here's the plan I've come up with:
a. My people are parked in Ironforge. Introductory quests. Ironforge elder.
b. Swing down to Khoranos and get that guy.
c. Run back to Ironforge, fly to Thelsamar, and get that guy.
d. Fly to Southshore. Ride mount to the Sepulchre in Silverpine Forest.
e. Ride north past Undercity to Brill and pick up the guy there. There's a 20-something wandering the road here. Now of course you could kill him, but it looks like he's considered a guard, so that will activate your PvP. I don't want that, so I just ignore him; he can't hurt me.
f. Ride back to Southshore. For characters with the Aerie Point flightpoint, fly there; the others are just riding there. Get the flight point if you don't have it. Get the guy here. (The rogue and warlock had no problem with this; the warrior did.) (One of my characters is 40; I'm not even going to try to bring her here yet.) (Some characters had a Stormwind quest for here.)
g. You can run back to the flight point or hearth; one way or the other, the goal is to end up in Stormwind. Get the dude here.
h. Run to Goldshire and get that one.
i. My lag in the Trade District is so bad that I've just been running to Westfall to get the one at Sentinel Hill. The alternative is to run back to Stormwind and fly here.
j. Fly to Booty Bay and get that one.
k. Take the boat to Ratchet and get that elder.
l. (Rogues and maybe druids in cat form will be able to do Crossroads, Durotar, Camp Taurajo, and Bloodhoof Village. At 45, I'm not sold on anyone else. Watch your PvP flag.)
m. Fly to Gadgetzan. Get that one.
n. Run to the Thousand Needles Raceway and get that one. Some of my characters had turn-ins or pick-ups to do here. (Apparently not everyone had done the goblin indurium distraction quest.)
o. Run back to Gadgetzan and fly to Thalanaar. The Lariss Pavilion one is not terribly difficult at 45, but the 40 will not be doing it.
p. Fly to Astranaar and pick up that one.
q. Ride the mount to Emerald Sanctum. Then go north and pick up the elder. You will be attacked by a high-level wolf, but run in, get the elder, and turn around, using whatever you've got at your disposal to do this. Both my rogue and my warlock survived this. (I didn't have the warrior do it because I was tired.) (Again, Little Miss 40 isn't doing this.)
r. Fly to Auberdine and get the elder.
s. Fly to Rut'theran Village. If you don't have the quest for Hinterlands, pick it up. Then run through Darnassus to Dolanaar (yes, I skipped the Darnassus elder) and get the Dolonaar fella.
t. Back to Darnassus. Get the elder, and use the invitation to go to Moonglade.
u. If you don't already have this flight path, get it; it's south of the lake. Then run to Nighthaven, do the turn-in, and buy what you want.
v. Hearth back wherever you wish to be.
About two and a half hours. (It took the rogue longer because she was the scout. Freepost is out of the question at 45; peppered with guards.)
(I know, that was very self-indulgent, but I'm pleased with it. Humor me.)
Observations:
a. There was speculation on the message board about whether you'd be able to revisit elders you'd visit in previous years. I was able to visit all elders, even those I had to have done last year.
b. Blizzard did not put a timer on these tokens; I still have mine from last year. I was expecting to see an "expires in ten days" or whatever like many of the Halloween items had, but there still isn't any. That means I can keep the tokens for next year, by which point I should be offered the tailor patterns (see next point).
c. There was speculation about the Tailor patterns. At 45, my characters are offered four things by the fireworks lady (small fireworks plans, large fireworks plan, cluster rocket plans, launcher plans). The other seller guy has dresses (but not patterns), pant suits (but not patterns), dumplings, candles, and the summons for Omen (which there's no possible way my people can do successfully, so that's interesting). All the engineer plans except the last are BOP, so only the engineer needs to buy those. The dumplings heal 4% a second of both health and mana for 25 seconds--tada! The whole she-bang! Very groovy.
d. I understand there being no draenei ancestors, or undead, but it seems the Blood Elves have been here long enough to be represented. I wasn't paying a lot of attention, granted, but I only noticed dwarves, tauren, and night elves. No humans or gnomes or trolls or orcs? Sometimes, I guess they feel like motherless children. (Something in the back of my mind is saying that lore dictates that they were all back in the first two Warcrafts, which wasn't precisely in these lands. The only gnomes I can remember in the first two Warcrafts were the suicide bombers, and there were also dwarves there as gunner units, so I'm not sure I'm remembering that right.)
e. Triggers. There are people who will behave in idiotic ways if they are called certain names to try to prove the labels do not apply. The ones I've noticed are "noob/newbie" and "Care Bear." Care Bears are people who stick to PVE and do not participate in PVP. I am a Care Bear; other people attacking me while I'm trying to do my quests would really piss me off. I've been playing over a year (almost exactly a year; when I did the Lunar Festival last year, I don't think I'd created all my characters yet), and I have eight level 45's and a level 40--but by game standards, I'm still a noob. I have no level 70's; I obviously haven't seen the two most advanced battlegrounds at all; I don't participate in the Arena; I have no horde characters yet. It rankles a little, I won't lie to you, but I understand that, on the grand scheme of things, I am, in fact, a noob. If I am called this (and I haven't been yet), I will try not to do stupid things just to prove it's not true (and ironically, most of the things people do to disprove the label tend to prove it).
Okay, I have Literary Society tomorrow, so I'd better get some sleep.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
2/2: What I Accomplished Today
1. Went to Costco.
2. Took home the lady who cleans the house and went to Target.
3. Night Elf Druid is now level 43.
4. Reading Angelica for Literary Society. I'm curious where it goes; it's interesting.
5. I'm really not much of a celebrity hound, but several weeks ago magazines were talking of how the Scientologists are courting Will Smith, and several magazines I've read this week have indicated they are succeeding. I hope they're wrong. I have respect for a wide variety of philosophies and religions (including no religion at all, done for reasons other than fashionability or lack of thought), but Scientology is just silly twits helping silly twits remain silly twits. A few months ago, the attempted courtship of the Beckhams failed. If all of these rumors are true (and heaven only knows), that means that, on some level, Posh Spice has greater moral fortitude and integrity than the Fresh Prince. I wouldn't have foreseen that equation. I hope, whatever the truth in these allegations, that Jada beats him with a rock until this nonsense ends.
6. We just learned that a friend of ours showed up at the registration at the nearby university to register for graduate school. No application six months before, no GRE's, no letters of recommendation, no transcripts, no chosen classes or field or profession or even thoughts of a teaching assistantship or fellowship--just waltzed in off the street to register for graduate school like it was a Continuing Ed Photography workshop. Now fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), it was after registration closed, so she was turned away for that reason. Because they gave her the date excuse, I don't really think she knows what a strange, bizarre, inappropriate thing she has done. (I'm wondering how hard the people in the registrar's office laughed when she left. We know what "guess what happened today at work" story many of them told at dinner that night. If this weren't my friend, I'd think this was hilarious, but it is my friend, so it sort of gives me knots in my stomach. For heaven's sake, why didn't she talk to somebody with a clue first?)
Now I have been to grad school. Also, at a time in my life when I was between jobs, it became my job to coordinate law school applications for a friend who was graduating from college. I didn't do any of the work, but I'd tell him what pieces he needed ("I need one personal statement that emphasizes this and another that emphasizes that; I also need paragraphs about your beliefs about X, Y, and Z, and letters from faculty emphasizing A, B, and C"), and he'd get them, and I collated them and prepared his packages for 15 law schools. I don't know how many he was accepted for, but he and his family were very pleased with my work, and the last time I heard, he was an L.A. County ADA, so he did okay, I think.
So I'm trying to decide if I offer to help this friend. I think I could be useful. If this is really a thing she wants to do, I could help her figure out what needs to happen and draw up a timeline and all that stuff.
On the other hand, she hasn't asked for my help. My Co-Vivant says this friend is intimidated by me; I think that's a polite way of saying, "She doesn't have that much respect for me or what I do" (and I think it's interesting that those can apparently be synonyms). There's also some question about how serious she is or whether she really intends to go through with this.
So I'm not going to offer to help just out of the blue. If she asks me for input, of course I'll give some, but I'm not going to volunteer it.
The other sticky part in this situation is that this person is one of the people who was really a condescending jerk about Co-Vivant's birthday party a few months ago, and I've asked myself several times: what action or lack of action of mine indicates true support, respect, and caring for this person? Am I keeping to myself about this because it seems to be what she wants, that she wants to do this, if she does it, on her own without my help, or am I merely being a jerk back? I hope I'm not (Co-Vivant says that the fact that this occurred to me indicates it's not the case, but I think that's too facile).
2. Took home the lady who cleans the house and went to Target.
3. Night Elf Druid is now level 43.
4. Reading Angelica for Literary Society. I'm curious where it goes; it's interesting.
5. I'm really not much of a celebrity hound, but several weeks ago magazines were talking of how the Scientologists are courting Will Smith, and several magazines I've read this week have indicated they are succeeding. I hope they're wrong. I have respect for a wide variety of philosophies and religions (including no religion at all, done for reasons other than fashionability or lack of thought), but Scientology is just silly twits helping silly twits remain silly twits. A few months ago, the attempted courtship of the Beckhams failed. If all of these rumors are true (and heaven only knows), that means that, on some level, Posh Spice has greater moral fortitude and integrity than the Fresh Prince. I wouldn't have foreseen that equation. I hope, whatever the truth in these allegations, that Jada beats him with a rock until this nonsense ends.
6. We just learned that a friend of ours showed up at the registration at the nearby university to register for graduate school. No application six months before, no GRE's, no letters of recommendation, no transcripts, no chosen classes or field or profession or even thoughts of a teaching assistantship or fellowship--just waltzed in off the street to register for graduate school like it was a Continuing Ed Photography workshop. Now fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), it was after registration closed, so she was turned away for that reason. Because they gave her the date excuse, I don't really think she knows what a strange, bizarre, inappropriate thing she has done. (I'm wondering how hard the people in the registrar's office laughed when she left. We know what "guess what happened today at work" story many of them told at dinner that night. If this weren't my friend, I'd think this was hilarious, but it is my friend, so it sort of gives me knots in my stomach. For heaven's sake, why didn't she talk to somebody with a clue first?)
Now I have been to grad school. Also, at a time in my life when I was between jobs, it became my job to coordinate law school applications for a friend who was graduating from college. I didn't do any of the work, but I'd tell him what pieces he needed ("I need one personal statement that emphasizes this and another that emphasizes that; I also need paragraphs about your beliefs about X, Y, and Z, and letters from faculty emphasizing A, B, and C"), and he'd get them, and I collated them and prepared his packages for 15 law schools. I don't know how many he was accepted for, but he and his family were very pleased with my work, and the last time I heard, he was an L.A. County ADA, so he did okay, I think.
So I'm trying to decide if I offer to help this friend. I think I could be useful. If this is really a thing she wants to do, I could help her figure out what needs to happen and draw up a timeline and all that stuff.
On the other hand, she hasn't asked for my help. My Co-Vivant says this friend is intimidated by me; I think that's a polite way of saying, "She doesn't have that much respect for me or what I do" (and I think it's interesting that those can apparently be synonyms). There's also some question about how serious she is or whether she really intends to go through with this.
So I'm not going to offer to help just out of the blue. If she asks me for input, of course I'll give some, but I'm not going to volunteer it.
The other sticky part in this situation is that this person is one of the people who was really a condescending jerk about Co-Vivant's birthday party a few months ago, and I've asked myself several times: what action or lack of action of mine indicates true support, respect, and caring for this person? Am I keeping to myself about this because it seems to be what she wants, that she wants to do this, if she does it, on her own without my help, or am I merely being a jerk back? I hope I'm not (Co-Vivant says that the fact that this occurred to me indicates it's not the case, but I think that's too facile).
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