Wednesday

My Little Pony, version 3.5

THIS is the future of My Little Pony.



Photo from magicfeuilledethé on the MLP Arena--and yes, there's more. Rainbow Dash, what have they done to you? :(

Reminds me of this.

Tuesday

Huntery Frustrations

If I have to explain to a certain hunter one more time that the hit cap is 8% not 11% and no, Expertise is not a helpful stat for us, I think I will go mad.

Other than that, things are going well--I got Izsera hitcapped without too much trouble, and have been doing much better DPS since I upgraded several pieces of gear. Tried Survival and hated it, so I'm sticking with BM for now, though I need to level another pet in place of my wolf since his howl ability isn't too useful when there are pallies and warriors around. No sign of King Krush yet and I've heard Devilsaurs have serious hitbox issues, so I'm looking at maybe a cat from Winterspring, there are a couple of skins there that I actually like. I did tame a wasp but I'm not too fond of it, so I won't be leveling it if I can help it...

Ran Heroic Culling of Stratholme last night and got Jon the bronze drake mount, I'll have to have him post a screenshot when he gets home. :)

Monday

No, but seriously, folks.

Okay, enough with the shenanigans, this is my first day off in our new apartment, and I'm savoring the moments. Mmm, delicious. Kate's gotten the place nicely organized and everything's sorted out now. She cooks much better than she thinks, she just needs to be left no viable alternatives.

Now, on to Death Knight tanking. I've tanked in 10- and 25-man Naxxramas as well as countless 5-mans, and here are my thoughts. Before the patch, Death Knights did indeed take too much damage tanking, you had to rotate your cooldowns very sparingly as Frost (Unbreakable Armor, Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne, etc.) in order to survive some of the more brutal fights. Now, however, we take much less damage, and there can be much more variety in the type of tank that one wants to be.

First, Blood. Very good if you have an absent-minded healer, as between Improved Rune Tap, Vampiric Blood and Bloodworms, you can heal yourself of a lot of the damage, but not particularly sturdy in any way.

Second, Frost. Lots of cooldowns, longer Icebound Fortitude, and a couple good talents (like Frigid Deathplate) would make this an excellent spec for general tanking, if not for one thing: Howling Blast. Buggy as HELL, even though they "removed" the cooldown, it still acts like there's a cooldown on it, and usually even triggers the GCD even if it doesn't cast. So no. Until they fix that thing, I must be separated from my true love.

Third, Unholy. Dunno, haven't really tried it, I'll let you know, cuz I've re-spec'd and am gonna try it out in a couple Heroics today.

Saturday

Rawr, I am big scary Death Knight!

Yay, we have Internet again! This is the first blog post I've been able to make in a long time. It's good to be back, I've missed teh Intarwebz much! Rejoice, world, I have not left you alone and desolate!

Thursday

All moved in...

...but no internet yet, I'm at Jon's parents' house right now. I can't wait, it gets kind of boring during the day and I am running out of books to read.

The kitchen is wonderful and the bathroom is neat, but I lack living room furniture so it's still a mess. It shall be clean for my birthday tomorrow, however.

WoW-stuff:
According to BRK it looks like Beast mastery hunters may not be as bad off as previously thought, so maybe I'll get to tame my devilsaur after all. Rawr!

Monday

Moving Day!

...of course the banks are closed, which we forgot about, so Jon and his mom are running around trying to scrape together enough cash from all our checking accounts (yay ATMs!) for rent and the deposit. It's really annoying---we have the money in our bank account, but we have no access to it, thanks to the bank never ordering our debit cards (which they promised they would about four weeks ago <.<). Hopefully we can find a decent local bank, but I somewhat doubt it.

We're getting internet on Thursday, at which point we'll also renew my subscription (expired Monday) so I can play again, and we'll have Jon's computer set up by then too... we may be able to actually start running Heroics and getting prepared to raid by the end of the week! (It has been waaaay too long.)

Until we get Jon's computer up and running, though, I'm probably going to be working on my baby belfadin Aristane if I play at all. Here's a pic of her with another pally who could easily be her brother. I've actually been questing with him a fair bit though I'm sure he'll be like level 40 by the time I get back online. >.<

Sunday

I want my computer back!

Okay, so I'll have it back in a few minutes, but it feels weird just letting Jon use it. (It is my preciousss...) He's writing something, probably awesome, for this blog so I guess I can try to be patient.

He doesn't like me peeking over his shoulder though. So I am trying to be patient and keep away. It looks t be something based on a weird conversation we had a few days ago, though, involving My Little Ponies and the Burning Legion.

Also:

There's a tiny little link to me at the bottom of this post and I don't know whyyyy. Or what segment of hunterness he is saying I represent, or anything. Jon finds my panic amusing. <.<


Oooh, Jon says he's almost done! I'm gonna go read his post now.....



EDIT -- it's right under this post, cause he started before I did even though I finished first. That, uh, makes sense....

Doom for everybody!

A few days ago, Kate and I were walking through Wal-Mart; as usual she had checked out the My Little Pony selection, and she was disappointed. She commented that they seemed to be dying out again, but that they did that occasionally, dying out then coming back a few years later. A rather interesting panorama opened itself up to me as my twisted little mind thought about that.

****
I imagined a G.I. Joe action figure poring over a map inside a plastic tent, the sounds of battle outside, explosions, screams, distant roaring. Suddenly a Barbie Doll burst into the room, covered with dirt, gouges showing in her plastic body.

"Sir!" She shouted, "a group of Pinkie Pies slipped behind our back lines, the Nerf artillery is being attacked!"

"My men are barely holding them back at the front, the Superhero dolls are trying to get around to flank them, I don't know who we can pull back to help," he sighed heavily. "Last time we had the might of the Thundercats; this time we were ill-prepared to drive back the Pony Legions. The Power Rangers underestimated the savagery of the My Little Ponies, and they paid for their arrogance dearly. I fear without a miracle, the minions of Hasbro might very well destroy us all this time."

"Maybe the Pokemon trainers can be called upon," she said. "The loss of Palkia and
Dialga was severe, but they still number in the hundreds."

"They might do as much damage to the artillery as the Ponies," he shook his head wearily. "No, I fear we have but one option left if we are to drive them back again. We must unleash Ruxpin."

She gasped. "Teddy Ruxpin? He's more than just a legend? I've only heard stories about him! He's not been seen for years!"

"Only in times of dire need has he been called forth, but we have need of him."

Suddenly the plastic radio next to the map crackled, and a panicked voice came through. "For Mattel's sake, hold them back! Sir! Do you read me? The ponies broke through, the Flutter Ponies dropped in a pack of newborn cuties and we can't hold them back any longer, we're in full retreat!"

"Fall back to Candyland, soldier, I'm sending reinforcements!" the commander shouted into the radio. "Galactic Heroes Obi-Wan, are your troops ready?"

"We are ready and approaching the front lines, General, the last of the Lego AT-TE walkers were just constructed and are being flown in," came the reply.

"Good, your Clones and Jedi will have to hold them off until we can bring out The Ruxpin. Without his might we haven't a chance."
****

In the end, the casualties would never be fully tallied. The Power Rangers had been nearly exterminated, the already vanishing Bratz would never be seen again. The Ruxpin's power wiped the Ponies out, but the Clones paid heavily for it. Even decades later, those traveling across the former battlefield would find scratched bricks and decaying weaponry. Without their dark masters, the fakie ponies and Littlest Pet Shop creatures were no more threat; hunted down like animals, they retreated to the deepest forests and the darkest of caverns. Time passed, memories faded and many convinced themselves that the Little Ponies were nothing more than shadows and nightmares. Though many forgot, the G.I. Joes would always remain vigilant, for they knew that someday Hasbro would again send in their Pony Legion to destroy the world...

Saturday

Black Stone Cherry

Picked up their second CD for Jon for Christmas after listening to one of their songs on the radio, we liked it enough that we got their first CD at walmart last night and I have been listening to it pretty much nonstop. (Yeah, I know that's kind of backwards.)

This is the song that we heard that got us hooked, hope you guys like it too. :)

Friday

A poxy on all broadband internet providers!

The cursed fiends cannot for the life of them settle on a single price. I ask Qwest, they say $39.99. A reasonable price, I should think, I say to myself. But by the end of things, it's up to $45 a month. So I check with Comcast. $42.95. Well, a little better, and I'm used to dealing with them. So be it, says I. Then all of a sudden they're asking about the service I have, and Kate and I don't use much in the way of TV, when suddenly they're looking at a price that's over $50 each month. I decline the offer. Qwest it is, but for heavens sakes I wish someone would charge what they say they would.
At least we'll only be a few days without internet in our new apartment. Hopefully barbarism will not overtake us.

Gold Spammers

If there's one thing that annoys me more than gold sellers advertising their virtual wares in Trade Chat, it's when I have to put up with the same kind of crap in real life, thanks to the stupid radio ads. The fact that its real gold they're trying to sell doesn't make it better; it's just as annoying and twice as stupid, especially when there are three nearly identical ads played back to back.

Can you spend gold?

No.

Can you eat gold?

No.

Can you plant it and let it grow?

No.

Can you use gold to create useful tools and objects?

Generally, no.

Gold is WORTHLESS. Unless you are actually going to use it to create something (like jewelry, where the value is more in the craftsmanship than the raw materials), there is NO REASON to buy gold. You might as well have a pile of rocks for all the good it would do you. All the gold-sellers' claims that the economy is in trouble and gold is "safe"? Think about it. If you only have a little money left, what are you going to spend it on? Food and other basic needs, or useless rocks? And if you are the one selling items with actual value, which are you more likely to want in payment, useless rocks that are not accepted as currency, or money that everyone at least accepts as having value?

The only people getting any benefit from this whole "invest in gold!!!" thing are the people SELLING the gold in the first place. They get to trade their useless rocks for real money. Now that's a good investment.

/rant mode off

Tuesday

Haircuts!

Cindy and I both got new haircuts on Friday, Sarah took this picture on Saturday while we were cleaning (thanks Sarah!) I had rubber gloves on, which I am trying to hide in the photo...lol!




I have my first driving lesson in just a couple minutes so I should log off for now, I'll write about that later. :)

Wednesday

Yay stuff!

This post, I'm afraid, is going to be a bit scattered. The training at T-mobile is going well, much more interesting now that we're past the stuff that Kate so delightfully described as "induction into the hive mind." (Those unfamiliar with the term, look up the Borg.) In the exercises today we took some practice calls from other people who were training in the same room. We all have phones at our desks, so we just dialed the extension from someone across the room and made up a problem for our account. Having worked in a call center before helped a lot. Some of the other people who hadn't were talking about freezing up during the calls, and some of them I could really tell were struggling, but it went pretty smoothly for me when I was talking. My dad a while back said I sound much more confident on the phone, my response was that it's pretty much an act. A good one though; I do have practice, after all.

Anyway, as my lovely wife already posted before, we have an apartment. Right now I'm busy pondering who to use for high-speed internet, Comcast's affrontery will not go unpunished, no, so I'm looking into Qwest and seeing what other options are available around here. Maybe I'll ask someone...no, best not go crazy there.

On a side note, just when I thought I'd been getting over the effects of withdrawl from sudden denial of WoW, the prospect of once again having our own place is once again causing the symptoms to return. Well at least I've got something to look forward to when we return, a good guild (still intact, that's a first for me) and I've always got the claim to fame that I was the first Death Knight in the guild up to 80 (the one who beat me before left the guild shortly after his final ding, so he doesn't count, hee hee.)

Regarding the Death Knight in general, I hope that dual wielding DPS works out as well as I hope it does for me, I've always been quite enamored of that. Not enough to level a rogue, of course, heavens no, I do have some self-respect after all. Another side note is that making an especially witty remark is a bit frustrating when the knowledge that nobody who'll read it will understand it hits right afterward. Ah well, I think I'll stop for now. Thank you for reading, and congratulations if you made it this far.

Kate-edit: added paragraph breaks. <.<

WoW hunter stuff...figuring out what I want to do after the next patch.

1. Spec. Everyone's testing seems to be showing Survival on top, the massive buffs to Explosive Shot are probably to thank for that. Actually, I'm not too upset--BM is getting nerfed pretty hard, but I like SV too, and it will be fun to have it as a viable raiding spec. If I was going to be expected to go MM I would be grumpy, since I hate that, but SV should be fun, and I think I'm going to give it a try. Good raid damage is a must for me, and since I love kiting and trapping I can't really complain. :)

2. Pet. I've finally gotten my little huntery butt over to the EJ forums and tried to figure out what they're talking about. It looks like Scorpids are on top, followed by cats--scorpids are cute, and the Tenacity tree is interesting, but I never would have expected them to top DPS with their poison. It sounds like it doesn't stack with applications of poison from other hunters' scorpids, so only one per raid is really useful, but I know that most of the other hunters in TTC use cats, so I think I can get away with it. Anyway, I really like the idea of a pet that's ideal for raiding, soloing, and PvP, and I think I even know which skin I want to tame. (Actually, it's between two--the strawberry milkshake colored ones from Tanaris, and the tan-and-teal pretties from Durotar. I'll put up pictures later but Blogger seems to be having trouble with that right now.)

Edit--looks like there are incoming changes to Scorpids that are NOT on the PTR right now but will be implemented in the next patch nonetheless. Cats are still on top. =/ Ah well, I might just get a Scorpid anyway.

3. Main. I'm definitely sticking with Hunter, I love the class, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it. I'm going to have to keep playing Izsera as my main for now of course, since she's already level 80, but I've got a little dwarf hunter too, and with the 1% extra crit with guns and the time I've put into her Engineering already, I'm really having fun. I think what I'm going to do is, once I get her up to level 80 and geared up form Heroics, make her my main, and bring Izzy when they need a hunter but I'm already saved to the instance on Kal.

blogness!

Because making up a word is totally okay. :)

I was looking at everyone's blogs today and realizing (first) that I should probably have links to all of the stuff I read, and (second) that mine is terribly, terribly plain. So, I'm gonna work on making this place a little less boring to look at; we'll see how that goes.

Any advice?

Saturday

looking for a job is not fun.

everyone wants "experience" but no one is giving it out. If this was an MMORPG, it would be one of the ones where everyone is either at level one or max level and you need groups to level because the difficulty curve is more of a wall.

Jon used to play one of those I think.

Friday

random stuff

My dad sent me the link to this video--Katie, Jaymie, Sarah, Cindy wants you to watch this, and anyone else reading this it is definitely worth the 15 minutes. =)

It gets really hard to hear towards the end so be sure to turn your volume up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao


Jon's been enjoying work so far, he has 8 weeks of training but he says it's not boring at least. I've been doing my part to make sure he looks really nice--he absolutely hated having to go shopping, but he was so cute popping in and out of the dressing room trying everything on, and we got him a few nice outfits to wear.

We also found an apartment, really nice and clean, and huge for a one-bedroom place (850 square feet, with a big, roomy kitchen!). We handed in our applications today, and we should know for sure late Tuesday or maybe Wednesday morning--I've never really done this sort of thing before, but I don't -think- we'll get denied... but I am still nervous and excited. <.<

So, Jon has a job, we probably/mostly have a new place to live, and everything seems to be going well!

Also, the shaman thing I mentioned? It's not working out. I hate it. I miss my hunter. So, switching back, and trying not to be so stupid in the future. Jon thinks it's hilarious that this is one of the VERY few times I have actually regretted a decision. <.< Don't worry, there will probably be more...