J.O.E. G.A.M.E.R.

Since I joined the guild Enthusiasm there has been what can only be called “ups and downs”. For the best part, I believe everything happens for a reason, and it is in some way meant to be for the best. (this does not include physical violence, that’s usually not for the best. Actually this doesn’t include a lot of things, but meh, things usually work out the way they are meant to, one way or another… this isn’t actually sounding very good is it?)

Soooo.

Today I started on a project my boss has passed over to me, since now I’m single, I should have bags of time on my hands. Go figure. That said, the unexpected four hundred smackers payment for said job pointed me towards accepting. Anyway, the job itself is to create the companies website. Not a massively hard task, but more of a time consuming one, that will take place out of work hours.

*joy*

It in turn however has had some benefits, such as:

• I’m not thinking much about the recent breakup
• I’m not staring blankly at a wall as the TV blew up
• I’m doing something constructive
• I’m getting paid
• It gave me great reason to gawk at the sexy lady out my window cleaning her car (I’m not a stalker perv, she knows I’m here, we have spoken a few times, yet she still parks right in front of my window, waves at me, then proceeds to bubble up in hot pants and white t-shirt) Lord knows why I haven’t gone back there… to soon maybe, anyway… moving on.
• I’m getting paid
• With my laptop, I get to grab a tan at the same time as working
• Can go to pub at the same time as working

I could go on, but you get it.

I’m not sure how well the final project will turn out, but I am sure it will be better than the drivel the new chap at work has tried to do. There will be more on him in a later post. If i’m happy with the final project, I may even link it, so that you can check out my fantastic work etc.

Ok, work matters aside, lets get into the lighter side of the guild stuff. While on a “break” from all the hard work I was doing today, I jumped on WoW and vent to catch up on the daily goings on. Normally there is some silly banter, and a good laugh to be had. Today the subject had come up, just before I’d arrived, about how to compare WoW boss fights to married life or having a girlfriend etc. Let me break it down for you, with some visual aids to show what I was thinking as the conversation broke into hilarity rather quickly:

In the start there is the girlfriend debuff.

At some point the girlfriend enrages.

All you have to do is Nuke through it.

All you have to do is nuke through it

To avoid trouble, always have the right addons.

Avoid Whelps.

Generally at the end there is an achievement.

Watch out for the debuff becoming a perma-debuff, get the right raid member to dispell it.

Now I don’t know about you, but I had a giggle fit when we went down this road, I hope you did too. (apologies for my shit pics and explanation of what goes on in my mind, these are at best a loose representation)

Escaping the realms of the real, I thought it best to focus on the mad goings on of late which I’ve not really got round to mentioning.

Guilds: Well I’ve done some great stuff recently, somehow managing to join two guilds, both of which are superb fun. Firstly there is SAN (Single Abstract Noun) and secondly is a lovely bunch called Enthusiasm. Both of which reside on the cool RP servers and both of which I’m super glad I can call home.

Due to being in two, I split my time between them, however I’ve recently favoured the Raiding of the two, since I have my one and only lvl 80 on it.

SAN is a great guild, a guild for bloggers, the readers, and those that just to happen along for the ride. This guild is all about the easy going lifestyle that can be found in WoW. The idea I guess behind it is that everyone doesn’t really have a goal, but rather takes the time with SAN to relax from the crazy goings on in their other guilds/alts etc. It’s kinda like a place to relax, put ur feet up, enjoy the conversations, and slowly poke around things you might not normally do. It’s also a great place to start a new character.

I’ve always played my rogue (not very well mind) so here I thought I’d stick with DPS’ing but go more sissy robe style.

Enter stage left: Passiflora, the mage who will literally burn anything.

I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had pugging and running around with fellow guildies with this little lady. It’s like a natural thing for me to hide behind the DO’rs in game, but with Passi, although at range (most of the time) I’m really getting stuck in whilst running instances. The great difference for me is, the ability to crowd control (tick one up against the rogue who is maybe a solo crowd controller), and the other is the awesome looking and awesome burning/freezing AOE abilities the mage has.

The ability to freeze a bunch of baddies, then bring down the frozen lumps of heaven upon their heads, whilst also burning their toes off, has a profound effect on my giggle meter. With my rogue, sure I can sneak up behind them, rob them of their hard baddie earnt pocket money, and then sap one while I diddle the other, but the limiting factor here is two easy kills here. Sure at higher levels I can diddle a few more baddies, but I’m only something like lvl 40 on my mage and I can hold, eliminate and dance on the puddles of at least 5 baddies already.

So suffice to say, Passi is definitely one of the only alts I’m planning on keeping for good and enjoying more over.

That’s all great, but I’ve kinda put this behind me a little having not even touched Passi for a good month. Hang on a minute Joe, did you not just say something that completely contradicts yourself. Well… yes. But only for a bit until I have stopped enjoying what I’m doing with Enthusiasm.

Which smoothlyishly brings me onto the raiding guild I’m also a member of called Enthusiasm.

Having bitched a bit about my rogue, who is still, after a good couple of years, my only lvl 80, I have had the chance to do things with him that I havn’t since my first and only guild, United Warriors of Europe, which went a little inactive, as such I was almost a lone wanderer. “Breathe”

So anyway, these dudes and dudettes are really cool. The kind of people I would actually consider calling friends, and, on top of that, probably consider meeting I RL for kicks and what not. So we/they are a raiding guild. One that is focused on 10man on a regular basis, but I imagine, that they will, after some growth, probably consider 25 man. That said for now 10man is more than enough, and keeps us all tight and close. There is always something going on, even if it’s not a planned raid night.

Especially for me it seems. Not because I attract the various goings on, but rather, I am getting to do things I’ve wanted to in ages, but with people who also want too.

Lets explain this a little further. I came late to the WoW party, as a great many of us did. My first guild were a groups of friends of mine, who started a bit before me, as such I was always on catch up with them. This didn’t afford me the option to see all raids, dungeons and areas of WoW. To an extent I rejected the fact I had to catch up and started to do things at my own pace, but only as I hit the higher levels.

Anyway, so I haven’t seen all content, new, and especially old. This is why I’m enjoying myself so much at Enthusiasm. They are enthusiastic for Christ sake! We run the newer content raids maybe two or three times a week, so you never miss out on anything really. On top of that when there isn’t something going on, having gained a fellow explorer, I’m getting to explore the older content, dungeons, etc. At some point I will open this to the table, if anyone is also interested in running old content, if not busy, they should maybe join myself and said friend, we aren’t after anything in particular, having not really done any of it.

The other thing I am enjoying quite often is achievements. It’s not that I’m completely infatuated with them, but I do like ticking boxes. This is probably why Blizzard introduced them, so that I can tick my box and be happier having done something, and my proof being said little ticked box. Normally You may unlock an achievement everyday or week, depending on what your going for. I, having had Baxtoor (ma rogue) with Enthusiasm for about a month ish, have now unlocked over 50+ achievements, while running around with these guys. My heart is all a flutter when I get one, a self “squee” erupts in private and my face lights up with a grin from ear to ear. Often I get two achchievments at a time, mainly because I’ve finished a dungeon, and low and behold somehow, without my knowledge that it was planned or not, we do something within a time frame or in some way that earns yet more achievements.

I don’t vocalise on vent as much as I should, in appreciation that is, every time I get “carried” through places. Yes carried, although they insist I’m not awful and do bring good things to the group, I still think I’m being carried by some cool people, with their great gear, and knowledge of places. I think it might annoy them a tad when I apologies so much for my crap DPS input etc. I guess that’s because the whole guild is not one of those that is bothered about that stuff in general, just that you bring yourself, gel with others and have a good time. This is can do no problem. And I’m happier for it.

So I get loads of achievements, and my guild is full of really, really nice people. Big hugs all round. Like I mentioned earlier, they don’t limit themselves to raiding, they also do exploring, appreciate the actually content of the game, which btw has some amazing views to be found. Which brings me onto the friend from said guild that when e aren’t doing anything might pop an invite or vice versa, to go run some old dungeon. Some people may scoff at this idea, as it has no benefit to them, but I on the other hand jump at these opportunities. Not just because it’s likely I’ve not done it, but because I really enjoy seeing things that I haven’t, or haven’t in a while.

On top of this, I find in my spare time, with my almost acceptable gear, running around doing quests to get the questy achievement, which also nets me cash etc. Unfortunately with my faction change and server move, all those quests I did as horde, whilst not fully getting the achievement, are now no longer valid and have been taken away from my lovely stats. Boo Hoo!! Doing this is also a last dash effort before Cata hits. As I imagine that all those old quests will be a thing of the past with the world being changed an all.

So all of the above has been what’s going on game wise with WoW, it’s been a heck of a ride, one that I hope never ceases to end.

So the last post I made was a little depressing. Granted, if in my shoes, you may have imagined yourself, as I did, circling the drain pipe.

So that was the last post. In this post we focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll be honest, none of the pants stuff has gone, infact it may have got a little worse, but all at the same time, I’m seeing much better things come round my way.

For example, I was stood up last week for a night out, with someone from work, and this week, they are all about the going out tommorow. I feel better for it.
Over the weekend I have my cousins wedding party, they are having the wedding in south africa, so the party is more like a pre-wedding party for family that aren’t going to fly to capetown due to work etc… This I see as a glorious opportunity to catch up with my family, have a good couple of beers, and maybe go out on the captains boat… cousin is a P&O captain.

Annnd last night a friend whom I’ve not heard from since going round the world, surprised me on facebook saying “she” was visiting the UK and would like to catch up! Win! I can’t lie, had some of the best times of my life hanging out with the people I met around the world, so I sort of jumped at the chance to catch up again!

So on balance, although I’m miserable with certain aspects of my life as of last week, I’m also quite happy and excited about others.

This is possibly the most bizarre mix of emotions I’ve dealt with in ages.

Anyway, been a while since I posted gaming related malarky, since it’s not really been a gaming last few weeks. Tonight however, my new Guild, whom are still lost in one of said previous post’s 13 not yet finished numbers, ran some raid items.

Sarth, the meanest dragon I’ve bumped heads with in a while gave us *cough* several good runs before we downed the bugger. And I also got some nice loot to boot. It seems everytime I go out with these guys and gals, I managed to ding at least 3-5 new achievements.

You won’t see any complaints here, let me tell you that!

It was a grim battle to start with, incuring a good 40 gold in repair bills, but boy it was worth it!!!

You could say I’m a little at the low end of specc’d gear. As such, combined with my inability to follow a strict rotation to maximise my DPS, my DPS is still awfully low, especially compared to those that I’m running with. With time, this will improve, no doubt about that, but I think it’s worth a mention that I’m so happy everyone in the Guild aren’t bothered about my noobiness, at least not bothered enough to tell me More over they are happy that I’m keen.

And that fills me with a warm feeling. Yes I’m somewhat wank, Yes i’m nowhere near as consistent as everyone else and Yes, none of that really matters, because it’s all about the fun.

Sure it would be nice to not have to heal my silly bum all the time, it would be nice to see my input actaully carve some difference into the raid events, but until then, just keep going, as we are in it for the fun.

Can’t tell you how great it is not to be dropped, or told i’m to crap to come along. I don’t know the people in the guild personally, which in a way is a great way to get to know them, what I do know is that my initial and on-going impression, is that I’m super lucky to even be in their presence.

Too much?

Yeah they are cool people.

/happy.

You’d probably be surprised to know that since my last post there have been exactly 13 other posts written. Unfortunately none made it to print because I always had something else to add, and then didn’t.

who cares?

Well probably not you. However this small number shows there has been a fair amount going on, I’ve just not got round to posting any of it. As I type this I’ve just realised that I said “13″ which, as you all probably recognise, isn’t the luckiest of numbers.

You’d be right.

Things within those 13 posts were going great, swimmingly, progressing to dizzy heights. As soon as I started drafting post 13 however, all kinds of crazy things have happened within the last few days.

Among the more serious has been a loss in the family. Cancer is a cruel beast, one that has certainly left its scar here. On top of that, my 7 year relationship ended in half a day, out of the blue (for me) and is likely not going to recover, short of a miracle and a lot of begging on my part. My sister studying at oxford, was at a friends and during a sleep over, slipped at the top of the stairs, fell down and broke her neck, two ribs and fractured a few parts of her left arm. Fortunately, she can walk (and still talk) and just has to wear a crazy big neck brace that also holds her arms in a fixed place. My brother, having had a bad stint with drugs and bad friendships is fairly lonely, a great great guy, but lonely as a result of paranoia and the inability to control his rage sometimes.

And my parents go on holiday several times a year. No thats not a bad thing, but i’d like a decent holiday myself.

Anyway, combining all of these things may sound like a natural disaster  has just swept through my life and left it in tatters. All because the blogging gods frown upon me not actually posting 13 drafts I’ve meant to get on with for a long time.

This leads me to my stuperstitios realisation that in some way I may have had a hand all of the above events.

You may think that its likely the only real thing I had a hand in was the failing of my relationship, but hear me out.

The family member ever since I was small, I can recall smoking. I was aware back then it wasn’t great for your health, but insisted that they carry on smoking because I recognised them by the smell of the tobacco and smoke from the pipe they smoked. In someway I feel responsible for requesting this, making the conscious decision to let them destroy their lungs just for me. Silly but true.

My relationship is more than likely my fault. We moved to Cambridge to be together, but in the last few months I’ve not made any effort to take her out, socialise or just hold a solid conversation with her. Don’t get me wrong, I love her with all my heart, but without even realising it, I sealed hers off, just because I was comfortable with seeing her during the day. I could use the excuse I finished work a few hours after her, and she’d fall asleep within a few hours of me being home. But in all honesty, I think that I just got used to her being there, took it for granted, and didn’t show her how much she meant to me. Not nearly enough. I truly blame myself for this, and just hope she gives me the chance to prove I’m worth taking back.

Keeping that a little more brief, I blame my sisters accident on myself because I tol dher she should go have a break at a friends, to unwind from the daily revision sessions she had at uni. Although I think I resolved this a little by driving down to her in hospital and taking her home.

And my brother, where do I start… I could have got him off drugs a lot earlier before they messed with his brain chemistry. I could of argued that his social groups weren’t good for him. I could be there now for him a lot more, get him out of the house and get some life back into his life. But instead I let him make the mistakes he made, at his request most of the time. He makes me laugh, for someone who has very little in the realms of friends and sanity in some cases, he sure know how to tell you like it is: “If I can’t make my own mistakes, my own decisions, how am I meant to live my life to the full?”

I’ve not found a solid argument against this yet.

Leaving my parents out, are you not a little convinced I had a part to play in all of this. Well of course I did. In some cases maybe not a direct cause, but definitely involved.

Since all of this has been going on, I’ve had some time to think about it all, how I’m not really happy with the way things are turning out. How I know if I tried a little harder, I can probably make things a little better.

I know reflection always helps you come to find solutions or meaning in things, but I really do think above everything, it’s allowed me to just see things more clearly, for the better.

I suppose that’s the punchline of this post, that I’m viewing things in my life with more clarity. Now its going to be a case of maybe correcting the parts that don’t bring happiness into it.

Not an easy task, one however I’m looking forward to finishing.

In the event anyone gets round to reading this, I’ll enlighten you on my blogging timetable. Not daily, very rarely weekly, most likely to be monthly updates are headed your way. There are a few reasons behind this, the main one being if I find something to say, often the very same week, someone else has said it better. This obviously has a slightly detrimental effect on my blog, apologies for that. When I do have something to say, its highly likely to go through several stages of editing, much like this post, and take at least a day if not longer to actually get produced fit for your eyes. I’m not a perfectionist, I am a typo king, and even now, on the final edit of this post, there will be mistakes.

It’s how I role.

Ok, so less about my posting techniques and more about whats been going on. I’ve been playing loads of WoW with the new guild on Argent Dawn, specifically playing mainly solo, running around in dungeon finder PUG’s and leveling faster than I ever have with a mage, let alone another alt I’ve ever played. I am quite late to the dungeon finder party, as it were, since I’ve been used to doing the odd quest on my one and only lvl 80 and wandering around, never playing high lvl content or actually furthering my lvl 80 at all. My little mage has now got the best gear possible with the smallest amount of effort, just because I walk into a dungeon that is found for me and complete it with a bunch of randoms.

This makes life easy, less organisation, and running content at my level, for silly experience and lots of rewards. The main downside I’ve noted, and it’s apparently not uncommon is the cold cup of tea at the end of a run, because it’s been so engrossing. I occasionally get an invite to guild events and dungeon runs, and bite the senders arm off.

I can’t get enough of this guild and the experiences I learn. Essentially it’s the most fun and easy going bunch of people I’ve had the pleasure to game with, sure I have my mains guild, and all the other gamers I play with, but this bunch have something else, maybe it’s just because its new. Who knows, but I enjoy it a lot.

Lessons learnt via running around taking my time in dungeons is quite possibly the second best thing I can get out of it all. Like last night, there is me, the highest level player pulling silly agro and making the tanks life impossible. The tank was a superbly patient chap, who was about 6 levels lower than me at the start, which really didn’t help. Still, we all played on and things went well. I was convinced to jump on vent with this bunch, not something I was sure I should do. I mean essentially they are all strangers, and I’ve only met them in game a few times, no “real life” contact, so I’m a little hesitant. This is something you would never expect from me once I open my gob, but still, the thought of crazy people learning stuff from me was a little worrying. Anyway, since it was so late, and the other half had gone to bed, using the mic was a no no, so I went in regardless of worries, since all I would be doing is listening, like some creepy perv.

So we are all running blackfathom depths or stockades if I remember correctly, and the tank, who was like I mentioned earlier, a very cool chap, asked if I had a spell called counterspell. As it turned out I did, but being the noob mage I am, I hadn’t got it on the old quick keys. He suggested I use this spell on the casters that sit miles away, which are usually the ones that cause other mobs to gain agro and come annoy the group to often. We practised a couple of times, and the spell is now on button number one. Why? Because it is quite possibly the most useful crowd controlling group spell I will need to use ever. (sheep I like but not essential these days it seems).

After this awesome lesson I picked up we ran on a little more and finished up. All in all a great evening of WoW for me as I learnt some good stuff I can now put to use in PUG’s, guild runs and knobbing about. Awesome beans. Getting back to being on vent, all I was doing was listening. This has some sneaky advantages in some ways, firstly you can learn a little bit about the people waffling on. What I learnt initially was the group from our guild was composed of chaps and ladies from all over Europe, sometimes originating from the other side of the world. On top of that, these people were possibly in the same boat as me, by that I mean they hadn’t met each other and spoken to each other before. As I was later to learn our healer and the tank were actually good friends, still the rest were in a similar position as me.

This situation initially caused conversation to go over where we were all from, etc. Quite an open friendly bunch, which made me enjoy the whole thing even more. Next conversation drifted onto where we originated from, heritage and what not, some interesting thoughts bubbling away in these peoples heads. We went from there to talk about how crap English education is to castles and how things should be more like it used to be, with less kids in school attempting law suits against teachers etc.

Why am I telling you this. Carrots that why. Our conversation got onto food and some interesting facts, amongst which were carrots, and to be more precise, black ones, and how the orange one became popular. Not something I thought I’d be listening to why pouring fire into some mobs veins. Still a welcome change to the norm, and some good laughs to!

This post is dedicated to said tank and healer, who I spent some time listening too, way into the early hours. Great chap and lady, I will be chasing them up for conversation again.