I am a gamer. Not exactly an obsessive gamer (although some may disagree), but an avid gamer. Since my introduction to MMORPG’s (anyone out there remember Asheron’s Call?), I have been the victim of a few other like-minded fantasy-based games of this nature. And for the past 2 years, the MMORPG of choice has been a somewhat popular game by the name of “World of Warcraft.” It is from a company called Blizzard, and is based on their lucrative Real Time Strategy series “Warcraft.”
It’s really rather a fun game. You select a race and class, run around killing pixelated enemies and monsters, raise in levels and obtain new weapons and armor with which to slay even more powerful enemies and monsters. Oh, and if you’re on a Roleplay server, you get to pretend to “be” your character in your interactions with other characters. Like dress-up, but without spending a couple hundred (thousand?) bucks on a nice sword and shiny armor too heavy to walk around in comfortably.
However, there is one little small thing I have to say about some of the quest lines presented in the game. Specifically, quest lines that somehow involve … poo.
No, that’s not another one of the “gamer-speak” acronyms that represent some turn of phrase or game-related term (like xp, mp, hp, oom, pat, inc, or countless other terms no doubt incomprehensible to most non-gamer peoples). By “poo” I mean excrement. That undigestible material which exits out the backside of most multicellular Earth-based organisms of non-plant origin after processing. Otherwise known, in more crude terms, as poopies, crap, doo-doo, and shit.
Someone at Blizzard has an unhealthy obsession with the stuff, it seems. I have so far experienced no less than three quests that somehow involve your character scurrying off in search of some form of poo for some reason or another. Collecting the crystal poo of giants to make a demon-slaying sword… ew? Poo-sword? The collecting samples to determine the diet of monsters is a little more feasible (if no less icky, imho), but yeah the mighty Poo-sword of doomzorz (+5 vs demons) is a little much, don’t you think?
…and I won’t even go into the poo-cherry tablets… collected from large piles of what look like doggy doo-doo…
*sigh*
As if eating spider-kebobs and clam-bars (chewy and delicious!) wasn’t bad enough…
Showing posts with label Ranting Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ranting Thoughts. Show all posts
Monday, February 12, 2007
Monday, November 13, 2006
This Is Just Not My Da y...
Bleh... or maybe not my week? Weekend?
Firstly, it's been raining off and on (mostly on and not off) for about a week or more. Probably more. But tarus have bad memories, so I'm not sure about the duration of the rainy period anymore. Suffice to say it's been too long.
Too too long.
Especially for this SoCal taru. Where's my gentle warm sunshine, demmit! Granted, we don't have seasons back home (there's summer and not summer), and leaves tend to just dry up and die as autumn falls across the land. But at least we had sun.
Then, my umbrella breaks. 'Cause, ya know, it's not enough for there to be practically non-stop water falling down from perpetually grey skies, but there's got to be frigging WIND to go along with it. Wind which whips at your half-frozen frame from every direction at once, sneaking past your layers of clothy protection to make you shiver (but not in a fun way...). Wind which mischievously tries to flip your hat (or cap) away, like some overgrown and invisible bully who derives twisted joy out of tormenting the weak and helpless. Wind which absolutely delights in tearing asunder that flimsy collection of aluminum wires and cloth you use as a shield against the deluge of water falling down upon your already sodden head.
So luckily I had a spare umbrella. And yet, for some odd reason, I felt compelled to go and buy yet ANOTHER umbrella. I don't know why, I just did. So I did.
Good thing, 'cause a week or so later I LOST MY SPARE UMBRELLA ON THE BUS!
-_-;;
Oh wait, not the end yet. Last Friday I went to the dentist to get a retreatment on my root canal from about 5 years ago. Seems the original procedure left some material behind. As in, nerve material. As in, "hey, I don't think I should be feeling what almost feels like an electrical shock when I bite with that tooth."
Root canal. Ew. Never fun. But as I have a very small mouth (shaddup Torias I dun need to hear it), it makes it very difficult for oral surgeons to work. So they had a bite guard. And a dental dam.
Both instruments are straight from the devil's own torture chamber. The bite guard about made me gag several times.
2 and a half frigging hours in the chair. As nice as the dentist and assistant were (and they were great), that is a LONG ASS TIME to spend in the chair with impliments of dental horror in your mouth.
The next day I woke up in the morning with a headache that made me want to die. Literally. It felt like my hair was throbbing, it hurt so bad. I barely managed to stumble out of bed, heat up some soup, eat half a bowl, down some Advil and then pass out again.
And didn't wake up until nearly 2 in the afternoon.
Dragged myself up, to have more soup, blearly too my asthma meds, put on some warm clothes, and trudged out into the rain to go to the bank. 'Cause, well... rumor has it that there's a possibilty that the paycheck might not go through if I don't get it in the bank right away...
>_>
Missed the bus on the way to the bank, 'cause traffic was too heavy to cross the street and the driver didn't wait.
<_<
Did I mention it was raining during all this? And that I forgot the umbrella?
-_-;
Walked, 'cause I was still bleary, and kinda in pain, and not thinking clearly, and a bit cranky. Got to the bank. Caught the bus back. Had more soup.
Bloody tired of frigging soup. Maybe I should adopt that as a battle cry.
Oh, and the receptionist quit at work, so guess who gets to sit up front, answer phones, be scrutinized by the president, and just generally be stuck doing stuff no one wants to do but needs to be done anyway?
...gee... this feels kinda familiar...
>_<
I can't even check personal e-mail.
;_;
And I thought I had a doctor's appointment today. But it wasn't today. It's next week.
-_-;;
...and now it's freezing cold, and one of the circuits in the apartment has shorted out. So half of the apartment is without power. Luckily the refrigerator is okay. But the stove is electric. And it's out. And I think the water-heater is on the same circuit. And... quite possibly the heater.
-_-;;;
And to top it all off, I can't find my maglite. So... if the rest of the power goes out, I'll be totally in the dark. Except for the little light from my cell phone.
Go me.
'Scuse me while I go back to freezing to death...
Firstly, it's been raining off and on (mostly on and not off) for about a week or more. Probably more. But tarus have bad memories, so I'm not sure about the duration of the rainy period anymore. Suffice to say it's been too long.
Too too long.
Especially for this SoCal taru. Where's my gentle warm sunshine, demmit! Granted, we don't have seasons back home (there's summer and not summer), and leaves tend to just dry up and die as autumn falls across the land. But at least we had sun.
Then, my umbrella breaks. 'Cause, ya know, it's not enough for there to be practically non-stop water falling down from perpetually grey skies, but there's got to be frigging WIND to go along with it. Wind which whips at your half-frozen frame from every direction at once, sneaking past your layers of clothy protection to make you shiver (but not in a fun way...). Wind which mischievously tries to flip your hat (or cap) away, like some overgrown and invisible bully who derives twisted joy out of tormenting the weak and helpless. Wind which absolutely delights in tearing asunder that flimsy collection of aluminum wires and cloth you use as a shield against the deluge of water falling down upon your already sodden head.
So luckily I had a spare umbrella. And yet, for some odd reason, I felt compelled to go and buy yet ANOTHER umbrella. I don't know why, I just did. So I did.
Good thing, 'cause a week or so later I LOST MY SPARE UMBRELLA ON THE BUS!
-_-;;
Oh wait, not the end yet. Last Friday I went to the dentist to get a retreatment on my root canal from about 5 years ago. Seems the original procedure left some material behind. As in, nerve material. As in, "hey, I don't think I should be feeling what almost feels like an electrical shock when I bite with that tooth."
Root canal. Ew. Never fun. But as I have a very small mouth (shaddup Torias I dun need to hear it), it makes it very difficult for oral surgeons to work. So they had a bite guard. And a dental dam.
Both instruments are straight from the devil's own torture chamber. The bite guard about made me gag several times.
2 and a half frigging hours in the chair. As nice as the dentist and assistant were (and they were great), that is a LONG ASS TIME to spend in the chair with impliments of dental horror in your mouth.
The next day I woke up in the morning with a headache that made me want to die. Literally. It felt like my hair was throbbing, it hurt so bad. I barely managed to stumble out of bed, heat up some soup, eat half a bowl, down some Advil and then pass out again.
And didn't wake up until nearly 2 in the afternoon.
Dragged myself up, to have more soup, blearly too my asthma meds, put on some warm clothes, and trudged out into the rain to go to the bank. 'Cause, well... rumor has it that there's a possibilty that the paycheck might not go through if I don't get it in the bank right away...
>_>
Missed the bus on the way to the bank, 'cause traffic was too heavy to cross the street and the driver didn't wait.
<_<
Did I mention it was raining during all this? And that I forgot the umbrella?
-_-;
Walked, 'cause I was still bleary, and kinda in pain, and not thinking clearly, and a bit cranky. Got to the bank. Caught the bus back. Had more soup.
Bloody tired of frigging soup. Maybe I should adopt that as a battle cry.
Oh, and the receptionist quit at work, so guess who gets to sit up front, answer phones, be scrutinized by the president, and just generally be stuck doing stuff no one wants to do but needs to be done anyway?
...gee... this feels kinda familiar...
>_<
I can't even check personal e-mail.
;_;
And I thought I had a doctor's appointment today. But it wasn't today. It's next week.
-_-;;
...and now it's freezing cold, and one of the circuits in the apartment has shorted out. So half of the apartment is without power. Luckily the refrigerator is okay. But the stove is electric. And it's out. And I think the water-heater is on the same circuit. And... quite possibly the heater.
-_-;;;
And to top it all off, I can't find my maglite. So... if the rest of the power goes out, I'll be totally in the dark. Except for the little light from my cell phone.
Go me.
'Scuse me while I go back to freezing to death...
Thursday, November 09, 2006
WTF?
Been doing a lot of coughing lately. It's better than before (yay for inhalers and allergy medication), but I still have occasional coughing attacks. Especially if I get too cold, or if the air is too damp.
And, joy of joys, it's been raining almost non-stop for the past few days. Wee... -_-;;
So on the bus last night, I had a very bad coughing attack. Couldn't stop coughing no matter what I did, and I did try.
And some woman turns around and glares at me. Like I'm coughing just to annoy her or something.
Um... hello? Do you think I WANT to be coughing this loud, and this hard? Do you think I ENJOY suffering the painful torment of coughing so hard, the muscles of my arm clench up and spasm? That my stomach twists into knots? That my eyes tear up? That it feels like my lungs are trying to turn themselves inside-out and crawl up my esophagus and take a peek at the world?
Yeah... no, I don't think so, lady. Whatever.
...
...oh, and then some idiot wakes me up ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door at 2am in the morning. Which was both scary and hella aggravating.
HELLO?! Get the F*** outta here and go the F*** home! Don't wake strangers up at 2am in the morning! WTF is wrong with you?
...so tired... -_-...
And, joy of joys, it's been raining almost non-stop for the past few days. Wee... -_-;;
So on the bus last night, I had a very bad coughing attack. Couldn't stop coughing no matter what I did, and I did try.
And some woman turns around and glares at me. Like I'm coughing just to annoy her or something.
Um... hello? Do you think I WANT to be coughing this loud, and this hard? Do you think I ENJOY suffering the painful torment of coughing so hard, the muscles of my arm clench up and spasm? That my stomach twists into knots? That my eyes tear up? That it feels like my lungs are trying to turn themselves inside-out and crawl up my esophagus and take a peek at the world?
Yeah... no, I don't think so, lady. Whatever.
...
...oh, and then some idiot wakes me up ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door at 2am in the morning. Which was both scary and hella aggravating.
HELLO?! Get the F*** outta here and go the F*** home! Don't wake strangers up at 2am in the morning! WTF is wrong with you?
...so tired... -_-...
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Sooo...
Just starting to get over a terrible heat wave over here. Last weekend it hit like 105ish. It was terribly miserable. Even Deb's little kitten was suffering.
So in an effort to escape the heat last weekend, we finally went to go see Pirates2. (Yes yes, I know it's been out for a while, and that I've been lax in keeping up with my movie-watching. I am cheap right now, trying to save my money for other, more important stuff.) Movie was great.
What wasn't great was some of the company.
Since I had to work on Saturday, Deb came to pick me up at the office, and we went from there directly to the movie theater. Because we got there so early, we were actually the first ones to line up for the next showing - we had to wait 30 min, but heck what did we care, we got to wait INSIDE, where it was air-conditioned. So we got snacks and drinks, then sat at the front of the line on a bench. All goodness so far. As time passes, more folks arrive, and queue up behind us, as directed by the attendant checking tickets.
Then comes the rude family.
The rude family consisted of a mother, a father, and a young boy. Loaded up with typical movie snacks, they look right at us, see the line, and rather than queue up, they elect to go over to the side and sit on a bench to wait. Wait just like the rest of us. But not as part of the line.
(the anarchists)
Then, the movie ends, and people start coming out of the theater. At this point, the rude family (yes, the entire family), get UP from their bench and go over to the theater, in FULL VIEW of all the people politely standing in line, and try to push their way INTO the theater as people from the previous showing are still streaming out.
o_0
Deb politely informed them that (in case they were blind and had NOT noticed) there WAS actually a line of people waiting to get in. Rude mother replies, "There's like 50-60 seats in there, it's not going to matter anyway, so who cares?"
(...wtf...?)
Shortly thereafter, rude mother is distracted by someone she knows leaving the theater, and they strike up a conversation. As they chatter, rude father and rude son PUSH their way past the exiting people, presumably to get "prime seating" for the next showing. Which, again, there is a LINE for. And, after the conversation ends, rude mother goes to accompany her rude family.
-_-;;
Then, as the last few stragglers exit the theater, the cleaning crew goes in to clean up. And in doing so, they kick out said rude family OUT, and point out the line, which is now rather long and goes around the corner.
Seeing the eyes of everyone who had been patiently and politely waiting in line, rude mother for a moment makes as if to go to the back of the line. However, rude father adamantly refuses. They go to sit on the bench outside of the line again.
When the cleaning crew comes out tells the line to go on in, a few of them stay standing near the door. This prevents rude father from muscling his way in, so those of us who were actually in line start trouping in. I follow Deb, who sits in the middle of the middlish row.
...which, turns out, is apparently where rude father and son wanted to sit, as they were right next to us.
Fate is a funny thing sometimes... :P
So in an effort to escape the heat last weekend, we finally went to go see Pirates2. (Yes yes, I know it's been out for a while, and that I've been lax in keeping up with my movie-watching. I am cheap right now, trying to save my money for other, more important stuff.) Movie was great.
What wasn't great was some of the company.
Since I had to work on Saturday, Deb came to pick me up at the office, and we went from there directly to the movie theater. Because we got there so early, we were actually the first ones to line up for the next showing - we had to wait 30 min, but heck what did we care, we got to wait INSIDE, where it was air-conditioned. So we got snacks and drinks, then sat at the front of the line on a bench. All goodness so far. As time passes, more folks arrive, and queue up behind us, as directed by the attendant checking tickets.
Then comes the rude family.
The rude family consisted of a mother, a father, and a young boy. Loaded up with typical movie snacks, they look right at us, see the line, and rather than queue up, they elect to go over to the side and sit on a bench to wait. Wait just like the rest of us. But not as part of the line.
(the anarchists)
Then, the movie ends, and people start coming out of the theater. At this point, the rude family (yes, the entire family), get UP from their bench and go over to the theater, in FULL VIEW of all the people politely standing in line, and try to push their way INTO the theater as people from the previous showing are still streaming out.
o_0
Deb politely informed them that (in case they were blind and had NOT noticed) there WAS actually a line of people waiting to get in. Rude mother replies, "There's like 50-60 seats in there, it's not going to matter anyway, so who cares?"
(...wtf...?)
Shortly thereafter, rude mother is distracted by someone she knows leaving the theater, and they strike up a conversation. As they chatter, rude father and rude son PUSH their way past the exiting people, presumably to get "prime seating" for the next showing. Which, again, there is a LINE for. And, after the conversation ends, rude mother goes to accompany her rude family.
-_-;;
Then, as the last few stragglers exit the theater, the cleaning crew goes in to clean up. And in doing so, they kick out said rude family OUT, and point out the line, which is now rather long and goes around the corner.
Seeing the eyes of everyone who had been patiently and politely waiting in line, rude mother for a moment makes as if to go to the back of the line. However, rude father adamantly refuses. They go to sit on the bench outside of the line again.
When the cleaning crew comes out tells the line to go on in, a few of them stay standing near the door. This prevents rude father from muscling his way in, so those of us who were actually in line start trouping in. I follow Deb, who sits in the middle of the middlish row.
...which, turns out, is apparently where rude father and son wanted to sit, as they were right next to us.
Fate is a funny thing sometimes... :P
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Grumpy
(Warning: This is a WoW-related post. And something of a rant. If you are unfamiliar with WoW, you may not understand the entire rant. For that, I apologize.)
Ah, the raid instance known as Molten Core. Where all the big kids go to duke it out with extremely powerful monsters of flamey hurtiness in the name of "uber phat lewts." Where folks must go, time and time and time again, in order to get their "leet" armor for their class, going again and again and again on the off chance that they might maybe, just maybe, find that drop they were needing.
Over, and over, and over, and over...
The very thought of it made me cringe. Made me shudder. For a long, long time, I resisted every invitation. Especially since I much rather play my dwarven paladin IC over OOC, and most raids of Molten Core are by necessity OOC. And sitting at the computer for more than 6 hours straight staring at the screen and having to be completely OOC...?
Bleh.
I mean, in all honesty, I like Branny more than I like *me.* I'm stuck in my own skin 24/7 as it is - I like my WoW time being spent trying to look at the world through eyes not completely my own. It's more enjoyable. It's a nice escape.
Then someone said they were going to start an IC group to run through MC. A group which would be consisted of RPers - not hard-core raiders, but dedicated RPers who would merrily RP their way through the Core. And I got invited.
The idea was intriguing. RP and Raid? At first, I was hesitant, not wanting to go. I know myself - I am not much of a raider. The whole "lewt" thing isn't that important to me. Oh, not to say I don't drool a bit when I see someone dressed up in all matching high-end armor or anything. But, knowing the number of hours necessary to GET to the point where you can get all that, well, seems like an awful lot of work just for a few pixelated goodies. I'm not "leet," I don't need (or honestly deserve) stuff like that. There are no rewards for being IC - but that doesn't matter, I prefer being IC to "lewts" anyway.
Not to say I don't enjoy being OOC from time to time. I thoroughly enjoy running instances with Tatsurai and friends from their guild, Rising Nova, most of whom are usually OOC. There's nothing wrong with playing the game OOC. It's a lot faster when you run things OOC. You get people being silly and goofy and joking around, and it can be a lot of fun.
But RPing your way though an instance can also be a lot of fun. It's just labor-intensive. But was it possible to do for a large 40-man raid? This group seemed to think so. So, after much encouragement from various friends, I agreed to go. And went. Twice.
And griped through the entire thing. Twice.
There was little if any RPing. People weren't even bothering to try to be IC. There was just a lot of goofiness, and silliness, and general playfulness going on. Now had this been a raid with non-RPers, or light-RPers, I probably would have been fine. But this had been billed as an RP Raid. An IC Raid. Filled with stellar RPers, some of whom I've played with quite a bit over the last year or so. I know it's not easy to play IC when learning a new dungeon, but I thought that we'd at least try to stay somewhat IC. But that wasn't the case. And it left me feeling disappointed and betrayed.
I feel bad. I feel guilty. Friends want me there. They had fun there. They look forward to going back. Me? Every moment spent there OOC made me more and more irritable. I took no satisfaction in successfully taking down boss monsters. No sense of victory or pride. No sense of belonging, of being a contributing member. Only a growing sense dissatisfaction and disappointment. A growing sense of division and loss.
A sense of, once again, being left behind. And of knowing that, once again, it was no one else's fault but my own.
Still, even so, I just can't force myself to continue. I'm not having fun. It's just making me grumpy and irritable. Deb and Wes have had to listen to my griping about it for two weeks now.
It's time to face facts: I just don't belong.
Ah, the raid instance known as Molten Core. Where all the big kids go to duke it out with extremely powerful monsters of flamey hurtiness in the name of "uber phat lewts." Where folks must go, time and time and time again, in order to get their "leet" armor for their class, going again and again and again on the off chance that they might maybe, just maybe, find that drop they were needing.
Over, and over, and over, and over...
The very thought of it made me cringe. Made me shudder. For a long, long time, I resisted every invitation. Especially since I much rather play my dwarven paladin IC over OOC, and most raids of Molten Core are by necessity OOC. And sitting at the computer for more than 6 hours straight staring at the screen and having to be completely OOC...?
Bleh.
I mean, in all honesty, I like Branny more than I like *me.* I'm stuck in my own skin 24/7 as it is - I like my WoW time being spent trying to look at the world through eyes not completely my own. It's more enjoyable. It's a nice escape.
Then someone said they were going to start an IC group to run through MC. A group which would be consisted of RPers - not hard-core raiders, but dedicated RPers who would merrily RP their way through the Core. And I got invited.
The idea was intriguing. RP and Raid? At first, I was hesitant, not wanting to go. I know myself - I am not much of a raider. The whole "lewt" thing isn't that important to me. Oh, not to say I don't drool a bit when I see someone dressed up in all matching high-end armor or anything. But, knowing the number of hours necessary to GET to the point where you can get all that, well, seems like an awful lot of work just for a few pixelated goodies. I'm not "leet," I don't need (or honestly deserve) stuff like that. There are no rewards for being IC - but that doesn't matter, I prefer being IC to "lewts" anyway.
Not to say I don't enjoy being OOC from time to time. I thoroughly enjoy running instances with Tatsurai and friends from their guild, Rising Nova, most of whom are usually OOC. There's nothing wrong with playing the game OOC. It's a lot faster when you run things OOC. You get people being silly and goofy and joking around, and it can be a lot of fun.
But RPing your way though an instance can also be a lot of fun. It's just labor-intensive. But was it possible to do for a large 40-man raid? This group seemed to think so. So, after much encouragement from various friends, I agreed to go. And went. Twice.
And griped through the entire thing. Twice.
There was little if any RPing. People weren't even bothering to try to be IC. There was just a lot of goofiness, and silliness, and general playfulness going on. Now had this been a raid with non-RPers, or light-RPers, I probably would have been fine. But this had been billed as an RP Raid. An IC Raid. Filled with stellar RPers, some of whom I've played with quite a bit over the last year or so. I know it's not easy to play IC when learning a new dungeon, but I thought that we'd at least try to stay somewhat IC. But that wasn't the case. And it left me feeling disappointed and betrayed.
I feel bad. I feel guilty. Friends want me there. They had fun there. They look forward to going back. Me? Every moment spent there OOC made me more and more irritable. I took no satisfaction in successfully taking down boss monsters. No sense of victory or pride. No sense of belonging, of being a contributing member. Only a growing sense dissatisfaction and disappointment. A growing sense of division and loss.
A sense of, once again, being left behind. And of knowing that, once again, it was no one else's fault but my own.
Still, even so, I just can't force myself to continue. I'm not having fun. It's just making me grumpy and irritable. Deb and Wes have had to listen to my griping about it for two weeks now.
It's time to face facts: I just don't belong.