As early as last summer, as our guild began to splinter—people not happy with the pace of progression, looking for greener pastures, the occasional bit of drama, et cetera—I began to question my commitment to the game. At the time, I was a guild officer. I was the healing team leader, and the most effective healer in our 25-person raid (and in 10-mans I was in as well). In truth, I simply wasn’t enjoying raiding. Heroics, of course, held no challenge back in the late Wrath days, so I ran as few of those as I could. My favorite pastime in WoW, to be honest, was questing—but I already had five characters at maximum level!

Midsummer came, and our Guild Leader took an extended break (which essentially turned into leaving the game, as she has yet to return), and handed me the keys to the Guild Vault: I became Guild Leader of a guild that was barely visible from May until the release of Cataclysm.

I had a blast leveling a new main character, my enhancement shaman. Then I leveled my rogue. Then my hunter. And another rogue. I ran a few normal instances, and a couple heroics. I loved the new quest lines, and I especially loved how the old world was redone. Between the time of the Cataclysm and release of the expansion, I had as much fun as I’ve had in years, doing new quests in the old world.

I really don’t want to raid, and the 5-person instances didn’t do much for me, either. After all, the gear I had, through questing, professions, and the auction hall, was certainly more than sufficient for anything I’d encounter outside a raid instance.

The only thing that really held me to the game were the two very good friends I’d been playing with—and moving with from guild to guild over the past three-plus years—since the spring of 2005. But even their companionship couldn’t overcome the ennui that enveloped me every time I logged into the game. I thought a three-week hiatus while I was on vacation in New Zealand might recharge my WoW batteries, but what I really missed while away from home was my writing, not my gaming.

So, early this week, I made the decision to quit playing. I cancelled my account (although it will remain active through mid-May), and Wednesday, I told my close friends of my decision. I think they were surprised, but not shocked: More than once, I’d told them they were the real reasons I was still playing. I logged in Wednesday afternoon, mailed off all my profession materials, then logged in for the last time that evening. I sent in-game mail to each of the people who’d hung in the guild with us and had leveled at least one character to 85, transferred the guild leadership, then took my leave.

I have nothing bad to say about Blizzard, Activision, or the game itself. There weren’t any personal issues between any of my guildmates and myself. I don’t hate the game. I don’t even dislike it. Purely and simply, I grew tired of playing. And not just WoW: Another friend tried to interest me in Rift, but I’ve no desire at all to play any game. As I mention in the paragraph immediately above, my main interest is in my writing: I’ve already written more in the past week than I did in the month before I left for New Zealand.

For those of you remaining in the game, I hope you continue to enjoy it for as long as the game remains live.

World of Warcraft: My Odyssey Ends is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

The Shattering

First, kudos to Blizzard for one of the smoothest major patches (or patches of any flavor) in the six-year history of the game. When 4.0.3a was released on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, my friends and I experienced no hiccups whatsoever. The Shattering was awesome, and I laud Blizzard (that means I give them mad props) for a great transition from one world to the next.

There was one minor bug we discovered, however: As you approach the crumbled edge of the Stonewrought Dam in Loch Modan, all is not as it appears. What looks to be solid rock is, in fact, an optical illusion. Two of us promptly tumbled to our deaths. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

We spent the period between the Shattering and Cataclysm’s release questing in the “new” areas: Ashenvale, Darkshore, Felwood, Winterspring, Southern Barrens, Thousand Needles. The quest-lines are great, and well-designed to provide a rapid progression for new characters. Of course with Level 80 characters, any combat is rather trivial. But we’ll be doing them again on our Worgens, I’m sure. The areas are fun, and the increase in the number of flight points in most zones is a very welcome change (especially Felwood…it seemed like it took forever to go from one end of that zone to the other!).

Cataclysm

As for the actual launch of Cataclysm: That, too, was flawless from my viewpoint. I logged into the game (having purchased the digital download) at exactly midnight Pacific time last Monday night. There had to be a couple hundred people huddled around the flight trainer in Stormwind. It was crazy. (And all you hunters and warlocks who had pets and minions out, not to mention you idiots on your protodrakes: shame.)

About 12:05, the message came across that the server had been reconfigured for Cataclysm and to exit the game and reenter. I’m sure most people were too busy trying to train Azeroth Flying to notice that, because I exited immediately and reentered. I waited about 30-45 seconds at the “Connect” screen, then I was in. I am sure I was one of the first twenty or thirty people Alliance-side to train Azeroth Flying on Kul Tiras. And let me just say, Stormwind from the air is, to use a word that is overused, awesome. It really brought home to me just how beautiful this game can be.

I stayed in game an hour and a half, but honestly don’t recall what I did: I was falling asleep waiting for 1am local time to roll around as it was!

Since then, I’ve completed Hyjal and Deepholm; I’ve done around 45 quests in Vashj’ir. Something about three-dimensional combat is very wearing on me, although I must say it’s much, much easier than it was back in the old days. Not having to worry about breathing, and being able to swim fast certainly helps! We’ve also completed about two-thirds of Uldum, a zone I find a lot more enjoyable than I expected.

I’ve “explored” all of Cataclysm—enough to get the achievement, anyway—and I must say, I really enjoy each of the new zones. Vashj’ir is really done well, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised at what I expected to be a “gimmicky” zone. It’s not that at all (but as I said, the 3D combat experience takes some getting used to). I never really enjoyed Tanaris pre-Cataclysm, so I expected to dislike Uldum as well. However, the addition of oases, not to mention the fantastic architecture, has made that my favorite questing zone so far. Hyjal seemed to me to incorporate part of Ashenvale, Azshara, Felwood, and Feralas: in other words, nothing new here. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, and as I leveled from 80 to 81 on one of my rogues yesterday, I appreciated it more. Deepholm is…different. But fun! In fact, for me, every zone has not only been new and different, but fun as well. And for someone who plans to level half a dozen characters to 85, replay value is important.

Questing

I’ve alluded to it above, but questing has improved a lot, in my opinion. I’ve done the Worgen starting area, and it does an excellent job of introducing a new player to the game, and just about every game mechanic you’ll see short of boss fights (and even some of those things are seen). Cut scenes—the cinematics used to help phase areas depending on your progression—are extremely well done, although we’ve seen a few transient bugs.

Those bugs have included no audio where there should be audio; a “stuck” scene, which required the player to log out and back in, and a really screwed up point of view on one (basically, instead of riding a beast, I was in its belly). In our group of three, not all of us have seen all the bugs at the same time, either. And some of the cut scenes have been a bit confusing; I’m wondering, now, if I didn’t get the audio for them, or if I just didn’t follow the story too well. And as others have noted, it would be nice to have a menu to replay them, or at least some warning that a cinematic was about to start, with a yes/no option to ensure you’re not interrupted in the middle.

Overall, drop rates on collection quests are better, but there are times when not only is the mob scarce, but drop rates are low. When you have a group of people questing together, it can take an unreasonably long time to complete some quests, compared to most. For the most part, however, the rate of progression for both the brand-new character, and the character progressing to 85, seems to be just right.

Dungeons

I don’t have much to say on this subject yet, because I’ve only run one instance: Blackrock Caverns, with a full guild group of level 83 and 84 characters. Our tank had been through before, so he briefed us on the bosses before each pull. We had two deaths: Our healer, on the first boss, and me (enhancement shaman) on the second. Still don’t know how the healer died, and I got mind-controlled for most of the fight in which I died. It didn’t help that I had error screens popping up like crazy during that fight, so if I was supposed to do something to avoid the MC, I didn’t.

That said, we progressed through fairly easily (and at our levels, even with old ICC gear and Cataclysm quest greens and blues, we should have), and the instance was a lot of fun. Looking forward to more, but I think it may be a while before I start pugging 5-mans (especially heroics). After all, they’re called “heroic” for a reason, right?

Professions

Some are easy, some aren’t. Here’s my experience so far.

• Cooking and fishing: Pretty easy, especially with the daily quests in Stormwind. I haven’t leveled up all that far, simply because I haven’t spent the time needed for fishing. But there’s no question both can be easily and quickly maxed, with average effort.
• Tailoring: Sucks. The drop rate for embersilk is abysmal. I’m hoping today’s maintenance includes an improvement for that.
• Mining: Easy, except for the paucity of obsidium ore veins. Between the few veins there are, plus skilling up as much as possible from smelting, it’s pretty easy to get to 525.
• Engineering: Not so easy, due to that scarcity of obsidium. And who the hell needs a 36-slot fishing box? Seriously?
• Jewel crafting: Average. Had I known a 475 skill was required to even get the daily quest in Stormwind (and yes, I know it’s purely my fault for not reading all the beta info), I’d have skilled up to that point a lot faster. As in, last Tuesday. However, getting new patterns takes time, regardless, so skilling up past 475 slows down as you accumulate and spend the new jewel-crafting tokens.
• Skinning: Haven’t started yet, but judging by the numbers of carcasses I see going to waste, when I do, I should be able to hit 525 in a couple hours.
• Archaeology: It’s an enjoyable way to spend time. It’s a fun minigame. And it’s probably how my level 64 druid will get to 70 (and perhaps beyond). I’ve no burning desire to repeat the Outland quest lines (especially since I’m doing them again on my Shaman, to get the Loremaster title). Sure, there are some fun things you can get, but if those are your objectives, then Archaeology will be a grind.

Irritants

Almost everyone who is level 80 or higher has a protodrake, or at least some kind of dragon mount. Congratulations to you all, especially if yours is from a meta-achievement. But must you show off yours on top of quest-givers, vendors, quartermasters, and mailboxes? Really? Yes, I do know how to maneuver around and click on who or what I need to; that isn’t the point. (By the way, this has been a peeve of mine for years, but it seems now that everyone can fly everywhere, having their butts super-glued to a mount seems like a racial imperative.)

Cloth drops and obsidium veins: Scarcer than hens’ teeth. There are two pockets of obsidium veins in Deepholm; I’ve yet to mine a single one of those veins. The ones in Hyjal are few and far between, and the one night I was in Vashj’ir, there seemed to be even fewer.

The Bottom Line

Cataclysm is a LOT of fun. And I hear the realms may be coming back up from maintenance now.

WoW Cataclysm: One Week In is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Election Day

First, we had an election. I was pretty disillusioned with both major party candidates for our state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, so I was somewhat mollified to find an Independent candidate listed. Surprisingly, about  eight percent of the voters in that election were equally disillusioned: That’s a pretty big vote for a third-party candidate in South Dakota. As for the rest of the election…my disillusionment hasn’t changed much.

NaNoWriMo

Then, of course, there is National Novel Writing Month. You can read more about that in the immediately preceding article. However, I’m very happy, and proud, to be able to say I successfully completed the challenge of writing a 50,000-word novel very early (2:30) Thanksgiving morning. As I write this, I still want to add one more chapter to more effectively wrap up the story (for now).

And then comes the really fun part: editing. I already know there are several fairly significant changes to be made (for example, the MC’s best friend will be his (slightly) older sister); a villain will change from a stranger to someone the MC knows; a couple plot holes need filling), and there is a lot of dialogue that probably needs to be changed to narrative. I have a deadline of February 1, 2011, to have a readable second (third? who knows) draft, since that is the day several of us will be exchanging NaNo manuscripts. I should have plenty to read on my flight to New Zealand later that month.

I would be seriously remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my two alpha readers, who were emailed every one of twenty-nine “episodes” and unfailingly continued to encourage me by wanting to know when they’d get the next installment. Amazingly, both of them also want to be beta readers. (I guess they must be thinking, “This can’t get any worse, can it?”)

Florida

Of course, right smack in the middle of NaNo (well, not exactly the middle, alright?), we went down to Florida. I had much too short a visit with the wonderful Arleen Barros (known to many of you as Bre), her husband Luis, and eight-month-old Alejandro Jesus (AJ). Then I spent the next ten days at my son’s new home in Tampa: Mrs. Kestrel and I babysat our granddaughter for a few days, while Mom & Dad drove down to Key West to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. While we were there, Eric and I managed to get some father-son bonding at a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game and watched the home team beat up on the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. (No, they didn’t literally beat up on them: very little hockey fighting in that game.)

Once we were home again, I really went into overdrive on the NaNo novel. I had a very good support group, including @tami_moore, @krizzlybear, @pikestaff, @maziltov, @TedtheThird, @Dechion, and @ladygypsy. I also was able to recruit @pinkpixiechick and @rhoelyn into our pen party at the Saucy Wenches Forums. (If you’re a writer looking for a place to hang out, come on in! We don’t bite, and there is always a carafe of coffee and a pot of tea to keep you warm on these cold fall and winter days.)

Thanksgiving

And of course, we celebrated Thanksgiving. Son Scott came over for dinner, and we were able to talk to the other sons as well. Scott and I bored his mother almost to tears with our dinner talk about World of Warcraft’s “Shattering” event.

WoW Events

But before The Shattering, there was Pilgrim’s Bounty. I was able to complete the meta-achievement on Falconer with no trouble. Also, I was able to get a couple upgrades for him from the instance bosses during the Elemental Invasion event.

And then the world was torn asunder! I have to give props to Blizzard for what I believe was the smoothest major patch ever. Sure, the realms were down well past the projected return of 11 a.m. Pacific time, but there was one update of 5 p.m. PST, and Blizz beat that by an hour. Once I logged in, there was virtually no lag, no hiccups, and I’ve been exploring and questing all over the place, all week, with no issues.¹

The redone Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines are a lot of fun, and the mechanic of locating instance quest-givers inside the instance is genius. Falconer’s Gilneas reputation is already halfway through Honored, and I’m hoping to be at least Revered by December 7.

Finally, Kestrel was fortunate enough to add Skoll to his stable of pets, joining Gondria. My second hunter, Sparverius, also tamed Gondria.

And Finally…

Early in the month, I received an email that I thought might be a scam. However, it turned out to be a long-lost friend from my days of playing Shadow of Yserbius!² We’ve enjoyed catching up with each other and renewing our friendship—just one more thing to be thankful for this month!

So yes, November’s been a busy, hectic, rewarding, fun month. I can’t wait to see what December brings: World of Warcraft – Cataclysm, return to Florida for Christmas with all three sons present, Universal Studios trip (including the new Harry Potter theme park), and some serious rewriting. Maybe I’ll even find time for a blog post or two.

What a Month! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Disclaimer: I have not been in the Cataclysm Beta. I have never been on the PTR. I have played World of Warcraft somewhat effectively since the prerelease beta (sorry; I can’t recall if I got in at the tail end of the closed beta, or the very start of open beta). So herewith are some specs I’ll be trying out tomorrow (or Wednesday, or a week from tomorrow).

For my DPS classes, I focused on talents and glyphs that are intended to increase DPS (what a concept!). So, for example, no Lightning Reflexes for my Combat Rogue spec. For the Holy Priest spec (yes, I think I’ll try that out as Osprey’s secondary spec; his primary is now going to be Shadow), the intent was to maximize healing throughput; thus, no Desperate Prayer, and only one point in Inspiration, in order to move to the next level.¹

Enhancement Shaman EDIT: Updated to correct and add some glyph choices. (Somehow, a couple healing glyphs made it in instead of Lightning Shield and Shamanistic Rage.)

2ND EDIT: Revised for Level 79/80, instead of Level 85.

Beast Mastery Hunter

Combat Rogue

Holy Priest

Shadow Priest

Are any of these specs viable for raiding Icecrown Citadel, pre-expansion? I have no idea. But I’m confident they’ll all work at least well enough for heroic 5-mans. Given the current thirty percent ICC buff, though, I’d be willing to try any of them in normal content. When it comes to heroic instance runs, you’re on your own. *grin*

To repeat: These are preliminary, unresearched specs. If you have suggestions to improve any or all of the specs, including the glyphs I’ve selected, I’d be very interested in discussing pros and cons in the comments. I’d also be interested in links to good Mutilate Rogue, Discipline Priest, and Marksman and Survival Hunter specs. Lay ‘em on me!

(VERY) Preliminary WoW 4.0.1 Specs is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Yesterday, Blizzard announced the latest expansion to World of Warcraft, called Cataclysm, will be released on December 7. As is my habit, I did not enroll in the Cataclysm¹ beta test, nor have I participated on the public test realm (PTR) for patch 4.0.1, which should go live in a week or two. Or three. I’ve also not gone out of my way to read up on the forthcoming changes, until yesterday, when I read an article at WoW Insider on Shadow Priests.

My recalcitrance doesn’t spring from any “holier than thou” attitude with regard to upcoming patches and expansions. Rather, I’m still having fun in the current configuration of the game. I just helped a friend get her Mountain o’ Mounts, and we’ve also been working on the Exalted title for her. In the meantime, I’ve been getting better and better at playing my enhancement shaman, who I’d like to make my main character for the expansion.

I also need to make a bit more gold, because I’ve read the cost to learn 310 percent flight speed is going to be 5,000 gold per character. Sheesh. (I certainly hope Osprey, who has a 310-speed mount, doesn’t have to pay to relearn something he knows now: I haven’t seen a definitive answer to that question, yet.)

Unfortunately, with the advent of summer, our guild imploded. We had a terrible time getting 25 people together for ICC (Tuesday was usually successful, but Wednesday and Thursday generally devolved to 10-mans), then even a single 10-man became a problem. As a result, my most advanced character, Osprey, is 8/12 in ICC-10, and 5/12 in ICC-25. Hard mode? Fuhgedaboudit. (Not that I’m especially enamored of hard modes; of course, that might be different if I had a Kingslayer title by my name.)

Even our GM even went on sabbatical. She had a lot of family issues to take care of through the summer, and two weeks ago  she logged in to let me know she was taking the next three months to renew her certification as a registered nurse. More power to her, for sure! Except, she passed on the GM title to Falconer—not exactly what I was looking for. However, I’ve tried to restock our supply of Fish Feasts, in the hope that we return to raiding once the 4.0.1 patch is released.

In the meantime, I’d like to get my druid to 60 this week, or at least before 4.0.1. He’d be my seventh character to 60 or higher (the other six, of course, are all finally at 80). I could work on more achievements for Osprey, but because I’m trying to move away from him as my main, I don’t see the point. And while more achievement points on Falconer (the shaman, in case you didn’t follow the link) would be nice, there simply isn’t enough time to even get him up to the same point as Kestrel or Falken, let alone where Osprey is.

What I should be doing, according to conventional wisdom, is running chain heroics and as many raids as I can with Falconer, so he’s as well-geared as he can be when Cataclysm is released. However, experience with the past two expansions have shown me that by the time he’s level 85, Falconer will be geared well enough to be able to run Cataclysm heroics and instances.

And yes, I know that for some of my readers (and followers on Twitter), “well enough” isn’t good enough. That’s why I consider myself a dedicated, but not hard-core, WoW enthusiast. But hey…I’m having fun in WoW today, and that’s more than a lot of people can say.

So what’s on your “must-do” list (or, as @Psynister called it, bucket list) for Wrath of the Lich King, before the 4.0.1 patch and then the expansion hit us?

A Cataclysm is Coming is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

I know I rarely blog about World of Warcraft (WoW) anymore, but something happened on Wednesday that I believe deserves a mention.

Yesterday I happened to read Amber’s rant about her frustrations with trying to tame Loque’nahak, the first Spirit Beast introduced to WoW as a tameable hunter pet. Because I didn’t have anything more pressing to do at the moment, I commented that just for kicks, I’d log in and try to find Loque myself.

Kestrel’s not had any luck in the past trying to find (much less tame) a Spirit Beast. I did come upon Loque’nahak’s corpse once, but I’d rather not dwell on that sad occasion. Of course, I probably have contributed to my “bad luck” by not camping known spawn points for hours, days, or weeks on end. I think the longest single period of spirit beast hunting I’ve done was perhaps a two-hour stretch during which I cycled through all the spawn points of all the spirit beasts.

So, I logged in and grabbed the daily Dalaran fishing quest, since it happened to be the Ghostfish, which is in Sholazar Basin, Loque’s home. I did the fishing quest, then mounted up and started circling Sholazar. After two or three circuits, I decided I wasn’t going to win the lottery, and recalled to Dalaran to turn in the fishing quest.

Then I decided, what the hey…why not see if I can find another of the spirit beasts? I caught a flight to Zim’Torga, and started to search for Gondria. Unbelievably, I spotted her on my first circuit, at coordinates 69.9, 48.2.¹

I dismounted…and then Silver Dragon decided to alert me to Gondria’s presence. How considerate. I dismissed my wolf, planted a Freezing Trap at my feet, and began channeling Tame Beast. As expected, Gondria pounced, and twenty seconds later… “You already control a summoned creature.” ACK! I’d dismissed my wolf, but hadn’t swapped him out of the active companion slot! Noob.

By this time, Gondria was beating on me (but doing hardly any damage, thank Elune!). I tapped my Feign Death button, and we disengaged. I quickly hit the Call Stabled Pet button, moved Frost to an empty stable slot, and recast Freezing Trap. I again called upon my Tame Beast skill, and after another twenty anxious seconds², this:

Of course, now my appetite is merely whetted, not sated. Next stop: Lassirra’s Hunter Hall of Fame!³

That’s the Spirit (Beast)! is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past week. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count. This week’s word count: 3,039.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: June 14,” 807 words
• Blog Post: “Eight Chrome Extensions I Can’t Live Without,” 1,280 words
• Short Story: “The People,” 952 words. This story will probably be posted here on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Writing Group

Last week, I lamented about the creativity flame flickering. It got rekindled in a pretty big way when some friends and I (kick-started by Breana FullOfAwesome) (yes, that really is her name!) started a Google Wave where we talked about writing, among other things. That has ballooned into at least three Waves now, with writing prompts, short stories, critiquing, and wishful thinking. We start a new Wave each day, and it’s actually a pretty effective chat room, as well. But I think we’re also starting to realize some of the benefits Wave can offer to collaborators. Since we’re constantly egging each other on, it’s hard not to want to write more!

Potpourri

World of Warcraft

With the advent of the Midsummer Fire Festival in-game, I will be working on the last achievement I need to get my first 310-speed mount, the Violet Proto-Drake. With luck, I’ll have it tonight. Otherwise, tomorrow or Thursday.

Sports

FIFA World Cup

Even if you aren’t a sports fan, you’d have to be a real hermit (in which case, you wouldn’t be here!) not to be aware of the World Cup, which began on June 11 and will end on July 11. If nothing else, you’ve surely heard of the vuvuzelas—the plastic horns that are a fixture at South African sporting events. (I remember them, in fact, from my college days, but they weren’t very popular, and were simply called “plastic horns.”)

I’ve been watching as many games as possible, recording the morning matches on my DVR for watching at a more reasonable hour…like, after breakfast. And of course I was glued to the (live) broadcast of the USA–Slovenia game on Friday, which ended in a 2–2 draw after the referee disallowed what would have been the winning goal for the USA side. However, we can still move into the knockout round with a victory over Algeria Wednesday morning, which we should be able to do. However, as Spain found out when they were defeated 1-0 by Switzerland last week, just because you’re a better side doesn’t mean you’ll win.

U.S. Open at Pebble Beach

Of course I watched the Open over the weekend, and enjoyed it immensely. I was really surprised to not see one of the big names—Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els—not assert himself on Sunday (especially after Tiger’s charge on Saturday). Instead, 30-year old Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, the 36-hole leader and in second place at the start of the final round, hung tough to win his first major championship. It was hard not to root for such a likeable, self-effacing young man, and indeed, between him and the Frenchman, Gregory Havret, who finished second, there was a lot to be happy about.

Men’s College World Series

My alma mater, UCLA, is in the CWS for the first time since…well, practically forever. After beating arch-nemesis Cal State–Fullerton earlier in the month to advance, the Bruins recorded their first-ever victory in a CWS game, trouncing Florida 11-3. They play again tonight, and I just hope they can keep the magic flowing!

Happy Anniversary!

To me! And to my bride of 36 years (on Tuesday the 22nd)! To celebrate, I went to our local chocolatier and picked up 36 handmade truffles. That should keep me out of the doghouse until at least, oh, I dunno…Thursday?

To any of you wondering what the secret is to a marriage as long as ours…learn how to say “Yes, dear” and sound like you mean it! *grin*

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 21 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

This week’s word count: 1,564. Fail.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: May 17,” 958 words
• Copyediting @ 10 percent: 606

Meh. Although I must say, the copyediting job I did for a fellow blogger was a delight. It was World of Warcraft fanfic, but the perspective was new and refreshing (at least to me!), and the story itself was a lot of fun. In fact, I laughed out loud in a couple places (I certainly hope that was the point *grin*). As soon as the story is published somewhere, I promise to link it here and tweet about it as well.

What can I say? I just haven’t been motivated to write lately. I think part of that is from working on the deck, and being tired and achy after a few hours of that kind of work. But I also haven’t had a story I wanted to tell recently. Time to give the ol’ imagination a kick in the butt.

Potpourri

Reading

I did a little, but actually watched more television this week (caught a lot of Dodgers games, to be honest, as well as knocking stuff off the DVR). I started reading The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams, which I’ve had for over 20 years. Maybe because it was fairly late in the evening when I started reading (10:30—I probably should have gone to bed, instead!), I had a hard time really getting into the story. For me, at least, it started slowly, and the backstory wasn’t the backstory I wanted to know about. Of course, given the POV, the backstory I wanted wasn’t really available. I’m sure I’ll get back to it before too long.

The cats were restless the other night, so I around 11 I grabbed a paperback Pern book and took it to bed. I read for an hour or an hour and a half, and was totally absorbed in that.

The Deck

If there’s one thing this project is teaching me, it’s that I’m not nearly as young as I was when I first built the deck, some 18 years ago or so. There is a lot of bending and kneeling, and this morning (after a horrid night of thunderstorms and plain old insomnia—from which I suffer extremely rarely) I have an achy knee and back. However, all the boards are in place. They only need to be trimmed evenly on one end and have a bunch of screws driven. (They’re all secured, but I haven’t secured every board to every stud yet. And hearing the thunder starting again, it won’t be happening today, either.)

Once that’s done, it’s on to the front steps: Remove the old, paint the risers and ledgers gray to match the house siding and deck, then cut and secure the new steps. Unfortunately, I think that job might take at least a couple days, so there’ll be quite a drop from the doorway to the walkway in the interim.

Temporary Bachelorhood

I’m surviving. The cats are too, for the most part. The first couple days, we had a bit of fighting (including Thursday night just before bed, when there was a real catfight). For several months, Mocha has been getting pissy when Merlin surprises him. And by “surprise” I mean “comes into the room.” It’s gotten to the point where Mocha is afraid to go downstairs. Originally, Merlin was acting territorial (realize these two are brothers and are 8 years old!), but now I think Mocha’s just overly touchy. So we have the growling and spitting and hissing. And when I try to calm them down, they hiss at me. (For the record, I am not a cat person. Or a dog person, for that matter.)

Otherwise, things are going well. I’m not starving (we actually had quite a bit of good leftovers, which, along with a trip to KFC to satisfy a sudden craving, got me through the weekend), although I think I may have to actually start cooking on Tuesday. Hopefully the rains will pass and I can fire up the grill.

I also finally made some sun tea on Sunday, for the first time all season. I couldn’t find the regular tea, but I did find some Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zest herbal tea, which steeped nicely on the front steps, and was quite tasty. I think I may add another teabag next time, though, for a somewhat deeper flavor.

Generally, I shave every other day, mostly because I hate shaving. However, until this morning, I hadn’t shaved since last Monday (the wife being away and all…). I was toying with the idea of growing back my beard. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve vacillated among a full beard, no beard, and goatee. For the past year or more, I’ve been clean-shaven (mostly). As I said, though, I’d thought about growing the beard out while the missus was in Italy. Last night, though, during one of the relatively short periods in which I was actually asleep, I had a dream about seeing a picture of myself with my beard. I don’t need to look any older than I already do, so I put the electric razor through its paces this morning. I do wish I hadn’t gone gray as early as I did.

World of Warcraft

Yes, I’m still playing. No, I’m not addicted. Much. I did screw up and let my account renew for another six months over the weekend…

Raiding is rather meh currently, although we did manage to put together a 25-person raid on both Tuesday and Wednesday last week. We haven’t been able to do that in a while. We wiped on Rotface all night Tuesday, and much of Wednesday, before heading over to one-shot Festergut. People can’t seem to avoid the slime spray on Rotface.

A couple weeks ago, I was in a 10-person guild raid that downed Putricide (second time for the guild, first time for me) and Dreamwalker (guild first). Once we figured out Dreamwalker (on the third attempt), it was pretty easy. We don’t have enough (good) healers to do it on 25-person though. And if people think Rotface is a challenge, 25-person Putricide is going to be one massive [expletive deleted].

But I’m having the most fun leveling up my Draenei shaman. With my friend Leslie, we started our shammies around Easter. When we hit the Plaguelands, we were joined by our friend Kat, who’s had a shaman for a long time, but hadn’t played her a lot. On Friday, we hit 68 and Northrend. Last night, we hit 70. We are pretty unstoppable, when we get 12 totems, 4 spirit wolves, and various and sundry explosive devices (Leslie and I are engineers) all going at once.

I’ve leveled my shaman as Enhancement from level 10 on, and I can’t believe how much fun it is! In fact, I think an enhancement shaman just might be more fun than a rogue. The thought has crossed my mind to make the shaman my main in Cataclysm (and no, I will not dual-spec into Resto!).

Speaking of Cataclysm, while haven’t striven very actively to avoid learning about the upcoming changes in that revision, I also haven’t paid much attention. Sure, I know there are going to be some changes to stats, but I’m never one to join the Little Red Hen’s “Sky is Falling” guild. I expect I’ll buy the expansion, but I’ve grown weary of being a raid healer. So we’ll see what happens…when and as it happens.

Weekly Wrap-Up: May 24 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. This article will be counted, minus the first 150 words. However, it will be counted in the following week’s total. All other blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

How Did I Do?

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. This week’s total was a very nice 4,597 words.

• “Weekly Wrap-Up: March 26″ blog post—954
• Novel—2,959
• “The Year So Far” blog post—684

At 16,800 words, March was my most prolific month to date. By comparison, January was 14,980, and February—negatively impacted by my vacation over the first 17 days—was a pedestrian 8,758. Through last Friday, my weekly average is 3,171 words—well ahead of my 2,000 word goal. I’m not displeased.

About the Banner

Earlier this week, I began following Jim C. Hines, a fantasy author whose blog is about more than just writing. Today he announced he is giving away an autographed advance review copy of his forthcoming book, Red Hood’s Revenge. Originally, Jim wanted to ask for donations to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) or a local rape crisis center for a chance to win the book. However, since he believes that may run afoul of Michigan’s charitable gaming laws, all he’s asking is that you email him. Full details are at the banner link as well as the second link in this paragraph.

In his article, Jim cites some statistics about rape that I found both frightening and appalling. For example:

World Health Organization report on Violence Against Women: “In a random sample of 420 women in Toronto, Canada, 40% reported at least one episode of forced sexual intercourse since the age of 16.”

According to its website, RAINN has been labeled by Worth magazine as “One of “America’s 100 Best Charities.” Blythe Danner, one of my favorite actresses of the ’70s and ’80s, is a RAINN sponsor.

Needless to say, I wholly support this endeavor. I’ve been an anti-rape advocate for as long as I can remember, and certainly as far back as my college days, when a coed was raped and murdered in a parking structure just a few hundred yards from my apartment at UCLA. In addition to making a donation to RAINN, I’ll be displaying Jim’s banner in lieu of my usual Amazon and Thesis banners through April 16 (the drawing date). I strongly encourage you to make a tax-free donation to RAINN or a local rape crisis center in your community. One in four is too many. One in ten, or one in a hundred, are too many.

Idle Thoughts

Item: Tiger Woods to return to competitive golf at The Masters next week. Good, and about time. I just hope CBS will focus on the golf, and not the other crap. The tabloids and E! do enough of that. Yes, Tiger made a colossal mess of his personal life; no, we probably don’t know all there is to know. So what? I really don’t give a damn about whether his manager, caddie, or anyone else knew of his affairs. I don’t care about his personal affairs, period. All I want to do is watch him play golf.

Item: Baseball season gets underway this week. Looking forward to this season, hopeful that my Dodgers can again win the NL West and maybe get all the way to the World Series this year. Of course, they have the very messy divorce case of their owner to deal with, which probably will only be a distraction when they’re asked about it by idiots in the media. As long as they are getting paid, why should the players and coaches care about their boss’s personal life? (Answer to rhetorical question: They shouldn’t.)

Item: Rams figure to take former Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford with first pick in NFL draft. The draft takes place on April 24 (Thursday night in prime time: a really, really dumb call, NFL!); the Rams will have a private workout with Bradford on April 21. However, unless he breaks a leg (or an arm) during that workout, he figures to be a slam dunk (to mix sports metaphors) to go #1. Mark Bulger has done a fine job since replacing Kurt Warner, but he’s gotten pretty beat up the past couple years. However, I’m hopeful he can do a lot to bring Bradford along as an able replacement next year or in 2012 (assuming, of course, there’s a 2011 season).

Item: Raiding in WoW is becoming more of a pain. Odd that I would say that this week: For the first time in months, we were able to do a 25-person raid more than one night this week. In fact, all three nights saw us in 25-man raids! Tuesday and Wednesday we were in ICC, and Wednesday night we scored a guild-first kill of Festergut-25. Last night we were short of healers and a tank (as well as some key DPS) so we headed into ToC-25, to get some of our lesser-geared folks both some 25-person raid experience and possibly some loot. We only got as far as killing Jaraxxus, but we did upgrade a few people.

So why is it a pain? Because it’s becoming more like work: We’re generally short on healers (and no way we could get the seven or eight recommended for Lady Dreamwalker), and we don’t often have more than two tanks, so we’re generally asking one of our top melee DPS to switch to an off-spec as second or third tank. For myself, I’d much rather progress on 25-man content than 10-man, but even when we run 10-mans, if we can’t get a second group going, that means a dozen or more are left out. More and more, I wonder if I’ll make it to Cataclysm.

Item: Spring in South Dakota is a love-hate season. On Monday and Tuesday, our temperatures were in the 70s. Yesterday it rained early in the morning and late in the afternoon (when I was outside at the grill, smoking some baby-back ribs). This morning, I woke to a blizzard. (blizzard [n.] – when it snows sideways) Mother Nature seems to be suffering a 90-day PMS cycle this time of year.

Weekly Wrap-Up: April 2 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

 

Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. This article will be counted, minus the first 150 words. However, it will be counted in the following week’s total. All other blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

Attentive readers will notice I changed the subject this week, from “Weekly Word Count” to “Weekly Wrap-Up,” which is considerably more descriptive of what actually goes on in this column. Besides a summary of the progress I made in putting words on pages over the preceding week, I’ve taken to discussing topics that don’t quite demand a full blog article. And let’s be honest: “Weekly Word Count” isn’t likely to draw in hordes of readers each week, now is it?

How Did I Do?

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. This week, my total is only 1,781 words. Disappointing, but no excuses. I simply wasn’t motivated to write this week. I suspect the excitement (if that’s the right word) of starting on my bathroom renovation was a distraction (especially on Thursday, when I spent a good part of the day prepping). Still, it’s not like there wasn’t time on Monday or Tuesday.

• Weekly Word Count: March 5 – Blog post, 389 words
• Feather Path, Chapter 9 – Copyediting, 264 words
• Introspection on Writing – Blog post, 1128 words

Feather Path

I know I’ve mentioned Feather Path and its author, Iris Harper, many times in this blog. But I don’t believe I’ve really talked about them much. It’s past time to rectify that oversight.

I met Iris back in November, during NaNoWriMo, in the Saucy Wenches chat room set up by Breana. We quickly became friends, and when I started getting interested in copyediting, Iris asked if I’d like to edit her Feather Path series. Of course I said yes, and since then, we’ve developed an excellent writer-editor relationship. Iris doesn’t accept every suggestion I make, but where we’ve differed, we usually discuss the problem I’m seeing. As far as I can recall, the solutions Iris subsequently developed were considerably better than my suggestions.

But what is Feather Path? It’s a burgeoning fantasy novel, set more or less in the present, but one of the main locations of the book (so far) is Hell. Yes, it’s a fantasy of the underworld, but it’s an underworld unlike anything you’ve ever read before. One might argue there are elements of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dante’s Inferno, and Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, but they are superficial and coincidental, at best. Iris’s Hell is very, very different from any of those. Furthermore, her account of the Fall is undeniably unique and quite thought-provoking (if you want to have your thoughts provoked; my recommendation is to simply read for the enjoyment!).

Briefly, the protagonist, Kaiyu, is a catlike demon. She’s a hunter, and she has been given an assignment to kill a particular angel. I have a suspicion who that angel may be, but if I’m right, it’s a huge spoiler. (And if I’m wrong, why should I set myself up to be pilloried in the future? *grin*) As the story progresses, we begin to see that Kaiyu’s assignment is not so cut and dried as it first seemed. In fact, there may be a conflict brewing in the underworld that may rival the Fall in significance—but right now, that’s just a guess on my part.

I will say, however, that Chapter 9, “The Pits,” has the most startling, most intriguing, and most jaw-dropping plot twist yet in a novel that is brimming with twists and intrigue. Iris’s style is clear, evocative, and enveloping. She publishes a chapter about every two weeks, but I’m constantly nagging her to “write faster!” If you give Feather Path a read, you’ll be doing the same.

Bathroom Remodel

On Tuesday, we got word that the new sink I ordered for my bathroom was in at Lowe’s. In a few hours, I’ll be meeting Mrs. Kestrel there to pick up the sink, vanity, and toilet. I’ll also be buying paint and possibly some accessories.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day prepping the bathroom: I removed the toilet, took down towel bars and hooks, removed the large mirror (36″ W x 30″ H, and heavy), removed the medicine cabinet (which I was going to repaint, but now I’m leaning toward replacing), and removed the old sink. Today, I’ll get the vanity out, then start spackling and sanding before painting, which I hope will happen Saturday.

The toilet is almost 40 years old, and when I turned off the water supply and then flushed it, the bowl filled from the tank water. I couldn’t flush it again, since there was no water in the tank, so I had to bail it out by hand. When the bowl didn’t empty on the first flush, I checked a couple DIY sites to be sure I was “doing it right” (I was). What struck me, though, was in the couple videos I watched, there was about three feet of clearance on either side of the toilet, so undoing connections and removing nuts was a simple task. Hah! In my bathroom, there is a gap of about 8 inches on one side of the toilet, and 10 inches on the other.

The vanity was no different: There are vertical pieces in the front of the vanity that preclude getting more than an arm under the sink. Believe me when I say I’m no longer built for some of the contortions I had to go through to disconnect water lines and remove the P-trap (which broke, incidentally: a sign that it was definitely time for this renovation). As soon as I post this article, I’ll be going in to finish removing the vanity. Oh, joy.

I should mention that I’m trying to be careful: There is a Habitat for Humanity recycle center in town, and we want to donate what we’re removing. While the pieces are old, they’re in reasonably good shape, so if someone can use them, we want to provide that opportunity. However, there was certainly a temptation once or twice yesterday to simply take my 5-lb sledge hammer to everything.

World of Warcraft

Finally, just a few words on WoW. Last week, WoW bloggers around the world started up a couple new guilds for the blogging community. Called “Single Abstract Noun” and located on Argent Dawn (Alliance-US and Horde-EU), the guilds are growing large. I created a Night Elf rogue, Kestrelator, on the US side. If you are a blogger, or if you read blogs, you’re very welcome to join. This article by Miss Medicina contains a lot more info, including the very few rules.

To cut to the chase, if you’re interested in interacting with some of your favorite bloggers (or some of your best readers!), roll a character, log in, and type “/join singleabstractnoun” to get an invitation.

Weekly Wrap-Up: March 12 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie