Shouting Groceries

Old Content and Closed Doors

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:59:12 GMT

One of my most favorite things to do in WoW is collect cool-looking items and gear from the game's classic content.

The sad thing about old content in WoW is that so much of it still remains unsoloable. Yes, one could, given enough planning and poking and prodding, cobble together a workable group for, say, a one-shot at a classic raid such as Blackwing Lair...a raid which some 4.5 years ago required a team of 40 coordinated players to beat...but good luck doing that now on a regular basis for multiple return visits.

Why would someone want to return multiple times to old, difficult game content anyway? Well, for starters...there were some amazing sets of gear back in the day which still look amazing today. Back in the early days of the game, pieces of these fabulous outfits could only be collected by downing difficult bosses many times over -- the gear drops were never guaranteed, either, so many many return visits were a necessity for people who wanted to build a complete set.

What a chore that must have been then...and today it just seems an impossible feat. People just don't want to run the old stuff any longer -- and even if they did, no one would know the complexities of the fights...a sure recipe for a failed retro-raid.

I've long wanted to get a certain armor set for my WoW paladin, the classic black/red/gold tier 2 "Judgement" armor. It's widely thought of as being the best-looking set of armor in the game. Pretty dramatic it is with those books and blades on the shoulders and all. :) I love this set -- but I'm fairly certain I'll never be able to complete it...not unless I dole out some truly significant bribes to about 20 people once every week for potentially many months (which, truthfully, I would if I could afford it...buuut I can't, so...no). Sad times indeed.

However, what I wasn't aware of until yesterday is that, back in the Burning Crusade expansion, Blizzard put in a recolored set of this very armor -- and luckily for me, the full recolored set is able to be had through soloable (for a paladin, that is, in current raiding gear) five-man dungeons! This is SIGNIFICANTLY better than having to run old raids requiring 20 - 40 players!

In just one day, I've already managed to acquire three pieces of this recolored Judgement set. I have the hood, the shoulders and the gloves; just two more parts to get if I don't want to bother with the belt, the bracers or the boots! I've found a "stand-in" robe which looks good until I can get the actual set chestpiece and skirt.

It may not quite be the Holy Grail of WoW Paladin armor -- but it's close and I'm happy I can have at least this. I checked -- and not all recolored sets of classic armor designs are as easy to get as this one. I feel pretty lucky as it is.

Simple logic.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:26:57 GMT

If ya don't like it, then DON'T DO IT and spare us the whining.

Seems easy enough to me.

Tanking!

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:01:13 GMT

Lately been having SO much fun tanking on my paladin in WoW. It must be criminal to have this much fun! This week has seen me taking the hits in a quite a few heroic dungeons and even - just today - offtanking in Ulduar...and I feel I have my tanking sealegs under me at last! The usual DPS role I've been filling is starting to pale mightily for me now.

It's time to reiterate that HOLY JUMPIN' JESUS I LOVE MY GUILD SO MUCH. There has been no better time in WoW for me than now.

Baby's first loot drama.

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:39:42 GMT

It was pretty mild, all things considered, but I really hate becoming embroiled in crap like this, no matter the severity.

I ran the normal Trial of the Champion with a couple guildies and a couple other non-guild players (I'd hesitate to call them puggers, since they appeared to be friends of a guildmate) with my paladin in DPS mode...because honestly I'm a pretty new tank with not-so-great gear and prefer to leave the runs of a brand-new dungeon up to someone with more experience and better equipment.

Everything seemed pretty relaxed. In the absence of any specified loot rules, I went with the standard fallback: to roll greed on things that were not useful to the character, and to roll need on things that were upgrades. There was no limitation stated at any point (as in "A player can only roll need on items which correlate to the player's currently-used spec."); I figured that everyone would be freely needing on upgrades for either of their specs.

So, basically we'd have things like a healer rolling on a DPS trinket and winning (grats to Neesa on that one! I'll get it one day!), which was entirely fine by me...and no one seemed to perceive than a dire injustice had been done when this happened.

Well, the tanking trinket dropped from the Black Knight. This, of course, was a very desirable trinket for tanks, considering good tanking trinkets are stupidly hard to find. Tanking happens to be one of my specs, and one I've recently been focusing on improving via gear upgrades -- so of course knowing that I badly needed to replace a level 75 blue tanking trinket -- I rolled need on this trinket upgrade. And so did the group's tank. I won.

And, well, I was immediately met with "Ninja!" and "It is tradeable." and other indignant utterances from the unhappy tank.

I generally try to be civil about things -- and I was. I apologetically linked my cruddy old Monarch Crab trinket to show that it really was needed to replace terribly old gear, but the tank didn't care as he felt that I didn't deserve the trinket because I hadn't been tanking that particular run.

I do feel I won the trinket fairly given the free way everyone was rolling on things, and the immediate bitter reaction from the tank was...well, I honestly didn't know how to deal with it beyond explaining that I still did need tank gear upgrades even though I wasn't in tank spec. So I just exited the instance to remove myself from the awkward situation, really hating the feeling of a guilt-trip foisted upon me. :(

This is why I hate running with non-guildies. I like my controlled environment where people are mature, communicative, fair and civil -- this emotional butthurt junk is horrid and just entirely unnecessary...especially given how much of a cake-walk (and non-stop loot-pinata) the non-heroic version of this instance truly is.

BLAH.

Regardless, though...

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 01:09:26 GMT

...even IF the Alliance gets the Obvious Cool Choice (i.e. Worgen), it won't be enough to get me to defect. The Alliance can continue to feel free to go jump in a lake.

It could be something...

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:08:25 GMT

...it could be nothing, but the recent discovery of a couple sets of new racial Halloween event masks (datamined from WoW's public test server files) has the WoW community in a tizzy.

Basically, in years past, WoW has had in-game events, one of them being Halloween-themed. Players could have their characters don various masks as costumes. These masks have always come in pairs, male and female, of each playable race.

Where the tizzy comes in, though, is that these two new pairs of masks depict the faces of races which heretofore have NOT been playable: Goblins (which have been in-game only as NPCs) and the werewolf-like Worgen (who have only served as enemies for players to obliterate).

Drawing on the conclusion that the game has only ever seen Halloween masks bearing the faces of strictly playable races, speculation is running rampant that the next expansion will see these two new races become playable.

To some, it may seem like a stretch, but personally, I think it IS going to happen. Besides just the masks, there's too much about the whole idea which makes a whole lotta sense.

Point 1: Blizzard has, in the past, mentioned that they're doing something "very cool" with Gilneas (the inaccessible area in Silverpine behind the Greymane Wall which is associated, story-wise, with the worgen/Arugal storyline).

Point 2: There are theories that the next expansion is going to focus on the Maelstrom as evidenced by Blizzard's recent trademarking of the word "Cataclysm". It's simple to see by looking at certain maps that there are quite a few land-masses very close by the Maelstrom which are strongly Goblin-associated -- most prominently an island called The Undermine.

Of course, with the idea of two new races comes the craziness of speculating about faction. Goblins have always been the neutral, unplayable faction in WoW, but lots of people are thinking that they'll become Horde-aligned (probably because they're short, green and ugly). Lots of people are also theorizing that since Worgen were initially humans that they'll be aligned automatically with the Alliance.

I strongly feel it's not going to be this way. I think both races will start out neutral, and by the end of their "newbie zones", players will be obligated to choose a side before venturing out into the big world of Azeroth.

See, when giving us choices, Blizzard has always tried to maintain balance and avoid the "obvious cool choice" pitfall. The obvious cool choice in this matter is, of course, worgen. If Alliance exclusively gets the awesome, tall, way-cooler-than-blood-elves-ever-were, bad-ass Worgen and the Horde gets the short, unattractive, smarmy little green dudes (as much as I love them!), there WILL be a *massive*, potentially game-breaking faction population imbalance in favor of the Alliance. I feel that Blizzard is smart enough to not enable this outcome by sticking with a strict Worgen = Alliance, Goblins = Horde rule.

In any case, this is a very exciting time for World of Warcraft players. I can't wait to see if my predictions come true...or if it's all just one big red herring!

It is good to be a raider. :D

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:49:36 GMT

I've been having a blast running heroic dungeons and raids with my guildies. My god, it's so awesome to be a part of the WoW end-game at last - doing it with a great group of people makes all the difference.

Life's been good to my little blood elf paladin. He's replaced all his blue-quality gear with decent epics - with the exception of just one jewelcrafter's trinket. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before that one finally goes, too. :)

We've been hitting the ten-man Ulduar raid for a while now. Ulduar is new/progression content for the guild, so there are lots of attempts and wipes while we're all working on strategies and learning the encounters. Not every player is cut out for this potentially aggravating process - some nights all that happens ARE wipes and no real progress is made and no rewards are had, just big repair bills - but personally, I am loving every. single. minute. of it. I've not once felt frustrated or impatient with the process. It is an honor and a privilege to wipe with these people...and the victories simply come with perseverance. :)

I'm especially proud of the Ulduar team's recent kill of the boss Auriaya. I got to be there on their first attempt on this boss (which was a wipe, of course) and have been a part of nearly every attempt on this chick. We banged our heads on the Auriaya brick wall for a long, long time...and finally we brought her down last week. It felt so great!

Awwyeah!

Personally, I can't wait to down Furnacemaster Ignis; he's one big scary dude full of hugeness, fire and death. We've only attempted him a very few times so far. We ran away with our tails tucked between our legs and haven't been back. One day, one day we'll get him, and I hope to be there to do a victory dance on one of his fingernails.

The new Ghostbusters game...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:31:04 GMT

...is FANTASTIC. We picked up the PC version (which is multiplayerless, but a stellar single-player Ghostbusting experience), but I've also heard good things about the 360 and the Wii versions (but not so much the PS3 version which reportedly suffers from lower-resolution textures).

EDIT: Important to add that the version we bought was from Steam. The retail box apparently contains some pretty evil SecurRom DRM.

But holy crap, this is the game that Ghostbusters fans have been dreaming about playing. The developer, Terminal Reality, hit the ball directly out of the park with this one.

Having most of the original actors back doing the voice-overs is sublime. I don't think I can ever get tired of Dan Aykroyd's voice. Bill Murray's lines were a bit flat for some reason, but the rest of the guys are great. Even Annie Potts came back to do Jeannine! They couldn't get Rick Moranis to come back to voice Louis Tully; apparently he'd retired from acting a while back. Too bad.

SO COOL!

For The Horde!

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:28:37 GMT

Heroic Naxxramas tomorrow night!

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:41:03 GMT

It's the guild's first attempt at the 25-man (if I read that correctly) and - gulp - MY first time in any kind of Naxxramas ever. I'm excited AND terrified!

So far, I've:

1) Enchanted everything I could
2) Bought healing potions, strength scrolls and a very few endless rage flasks (EXPENSIVE OUCH)
3) Stocked up on stat/regular food and reagents
4) Redid my interface with Dominos and XPerl Unitframes
5) Re-set-up keybinds (including a better-placed push-to-talk key which won't be a pain to use)
6) Installed key addons. Deadly Boss Mods, Healbot (to make debuffs easy for me to spot), Omen, Recount, RatingBuster
7) Repaired everything
8) Watched some strategy videos on tankspot.com

Now hopefully the next order of things will go:

9) ???
10) PROFIT!

:o

Thrilled is putting it too lightly! (WoW stuff)

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:04:16 GMT

This shouldn't feel as awesome as it does, but I am SO stoked right now.

Not too long after I started playing WoW back in 2005, I began to crave being part of a guild. Not just any guild, but an active, busy guild full of friendly, mature, thinking people who were more inclined to help rather than be snobs about (_fill in the blank_), and who were on the same page as I as far as wanting to make progress through dungeons and raids.

Problem with WoW is that the community is, as a general rule, a bunch of annoying, antagonistic, immature, egotistic and thoughtless people who measure their own self-worth (and the worth of others) by virtual gear. Being a socially-phobic person just makes it harder to find the awesome players who just tend to be crowded out by the tidal wave of cruddy people...so there's always been this element of frustration and, well, a pervading sense that I was missing out on so much cool stuff just because I didn't know the right people. It's been a bummer.

But it looks like it has happened. I joined up with a guild on Moon Guard not too long ago and since then, I've been talking with them on Ventrilo and even run some heroic dungeons with them. These guys are *awesome*. They are helpful, intelligent, friendly and oh my god, many of them are in or near my "age range" (and the rest are 18+ or at least act that they are!) and it helps SO MUCH I can't even tell you. Also, 98% of these folks are LITERATE and type in complete, non-leet/non-shortcutty/non-crappy sentences which is such a beautiful thing.

I feel so geeky saying this, but I've gotten a couple major gear upgrades already as a direct result of having a great pool of people to run dungeons with, and my paladin's DPS shot up to 2300 from where it had been languishing at 1600. Holy SMOKES! And they've invited me to their five-man all-paladin comedy arena team and they're going to craft up the beginning saronite pvp plate set so I won't be going in at zero resilience. And...and...I want to go on about other things which have been too awesome but I'm going to restrain myself.

This really has been, so far, a dream come true and it is truly one of the best things I've done in this game ever. I don't want to keep this great guild to myself, either; I'd love to have my other Moon Guard pals join up, but I recognize that this may not be everyone's cup of tea. The door IS open, however, in case anyone's curious about applying. They call themselves a community guild, and they're primarily concerned with getting people with the right personalities and temperaments in their ranks; level and gear doesn't matter one whit.

I'll stop raving now. I'm getting ridiculous. :)

Oh fantastic.

Fri, 29 May 2009 20:11:55 GMT

So I go to use my old Mac Powerbook, and as I reseat the power cable into the machine, the cable (the cord part just below the actual cylindrical plug) gets hot, sparks and catches fire and starts melting in my hand as I'm frantically trying to yank the cord out from the computer and the power strip. Thankfully it burned itself out pretty quick and nothing else caught on fire...but now this means I have to go into the Mac Store, the land of white plastic and the pretentious people who love it. Blaaaaaarrrrggh.

The scary thing is that in the last few hours I *thought* I'd been smelling a faint burning smell. Jesus!

I did, however...

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:33:54 GMT

...draw during the outage. I haven't done any art in a very long time, but have been toying with the idea of drawing some fan art of my WoW paladin. This isn't special nor a complete piece, but it's something.

I'm tired of drawing freehand in Photoshop 7 and want to get into vector linework. I need to check if the new Photoshop versions can do what I need, because Illustrator never seemed to click with me.

Oh god I hate Time-Warner cable so much.

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:24:19 GMT

Another outage, this time a full day. We called them almost immediately after we noticed it was out, and of course it takes DAYS for them to send out a technician. Back when Adelphia ran things, they always had someone out the same or next day.

I'm so sick of Time-Warner that I just want to puke. Ever since they took over, the service has been awful. They won't stop pushing their stone-age ideas about bandwidth caps and it is just sickening. I'm not a high-bandwidth user, but jesus, they want to do a cap at something like five gigs and that is just...not acceptable. ONE FREAKIN GAME from Steam can be five gigs alone.

To say I'm pissed is an understatement. I do not know why Verizon FIOS isn't in our area yet; it's in less-hoity-toity areas in Upland, but not yet in this area, and I'm angry enough to suspect that this is because this neighborhood has one of those goddamned homeowner's associations which has probably prevented FIOS from going in.

SO livid and sick of the Time-Warner monopoly on cable internet service. It's just not right.

I want to get on the phone with Verizon and abjectly BEG them to get out here already.

O.o

Tue, 05 May 2009 21:59:09 GMT

Bearstunt

Bearhug

The latest Silvermoon fashion

Azerothian Noh theatre actor?

They're into voyeurs, I guess.

o.O

Free Realms is really cute!

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:45:18 GMT

It launched Tuesday. I didn't know much about it, but I just checked it out and I'm super impressed with it. It comes off as an MMO for kids, but really, anyone who appreciates lighthearted gaming can still enjoy it. The graphical style reminds me of WoW, but even more cartoony and pretty. It runs amazingly well and is pretty darn slick in the way the Sims 2 was slick. Best of all, there's a ton of things to do for free. If I weren't sleepy right this moment I'd be playing more of it.

Now time for bed.

Yeah, you know me.

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:30:43 GMT

And you know that I tend to drop off radars for long periods of time...but now I'm in the gradual process of hunting down old friends who have accounts on LJ and friending them...so yes, if you've gotten a friending from me, it's because we were (and still are, unless you tell me otherwise) friends years and years ago. So hiya to these peeps. Long time no see!

drememynd has poked me with the idea of joining Facebook, but...I've been leery of Facebook for ages. There's something very scary about joining up with one's real identity at a site where everyone else in the world has signed up...because, frankly, I don't wish to be found by necessarily everyone I've ever known.

But I am looking for those special people I used to hang out with/game with. There are people I still think about and remember fondly. If anyone knows more folks from the olden days who do have an LJ presence, please point me to 'em. I've found David and Gary (but not Amy!) on LJ so far. I've found Brad and Boojum, but haven't friended them because I really don't know if they'd remember me. Also, maybe someone can make JR sign up here too, even if he'll never post. Don't know if Chuck has a journal here. Anyone know whatever happened to Thomas Rumbley?

More About Kefir

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:47:49 GMT

It's been pretty gratifying, this whole making-my-own-cultured-food thing. I was regularly making my own yogurt for a few months, but since I acquired some genuine kefir grains a while back, I've taken a break from the yogurt-making process simply because making kefir is so much easier and is equally as tasty.

I've talked about this before, but I'm about to go on about it again...real kefir is amazing. I wish I had known about it much earlier in my life. The bottled Lifeway brand (among other commercial brands) one finds in the cooler section of stores is NOT real kefir; it contains additives and is made using a mix instead of real grains. Kefir mixes or "starters" aren't the genuine article at all. One cannot just buy Lifeway kefir and use it as a culture to make more kefir like the way one can do with yogurt. It just doesn't work that way.

The Kefir Lady over at kefirlady.com says that real kefir grains are "...not to be confused with direct-set cultures that eventually lose their potency, requiring you to reorder again and again. Real kefir grains never need to be reordered. With proper care they last forever."

I want to eventually take pictures or maybe even video of my kefir-making process sometime, but for now, I'll borrow someone else's pictures to show here in brief just what the hell I'm going on about.

<-- These cottage-cheese-looking lumps are kefir grains. No one really knows how they first came into being; some people think they're a gift from god. They can't be created spontaneously or from scratch. Every kefir grain was born from a parent kefir grain. Every kefir grain today traces its lineage centuries back to the original grains originating from the Caucasus Mountains in Eurasia.

Basically, these things are happy living clumps of beneficial bacterias, yeasts and stuff like that. You put them in fresh, unboiled milk and in about 24 hours, voila, these grains have eaten up the sugar in the milk, essentially creating a drinkable yogurt. Some people also compare it to buttermilk. I frequently sweeten kefir with sucralose and put some sort of flavoring in it like sugar-free fruit syrup, or just some cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Lately I've been mixing it with a little bit of fruity sparkling water and sucralose to make a lassi-like drink. Really tasty!

Like any living thing, kefir grains grow, make baby grains which grow up to make more grains! I started with a pretty small amount, but now I have a fairly large mess of them. I now have enough to pass on to other people. If any of you, my good friends, wish to have some of these, just let me know. I'd be happy to portion out a good helping of them and mail them off to you. Just remember that kefir grains are a commitment; they need fresh milk every day or two to stay happy and healthy, and you'll always have a supply of delicious kefir to drink!

I'm going to post about kombucha and cheese next. :9

Ahahah

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:38:05 GMT

Belated Easter Greetings
from Silvermoon!

A blast from the MMO past.

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:51:49 GMT

Remember Star Wars Galaxies? Remember when it was fun and engaging, full of immersive atmosphere and complexity (before Sony Online Entertainment gutted the game with those horrible "Combat Upgrade" changes)? Of course you do, and so do I. Those were some good times in massively multiplayer gaming. Wouldn't it be great to have those days back again?

Well...I only recently, as of a day or two ago, became aware that there's been an effort (some years in the works now) by a few individuals independent of SOE working to bring the old pre-CU SWG game back to everyone who has missed it. This team has been reverse-engineering and restoring the game as best they can back to its former glory. The project is called SWGEmu, and I checked it out yesterday. It really sounded too good to be true.

But...per their instructions, I registered on their forums, installed the client from my original discs (which were still in pristine condition) and used the SWGEmu project's enhanced launcher program to complete the setup. Lo and behold, I was able to log right into the test server!

Not everything is in place yet and there are still many bugs, but what they have done so far is damn impressive. It's so cool to be running around that universe again. The first thing I did was re-create my Twi'lek entertainer and run her to the Mos Eisley cantina. :) I spent a bit of time re-learning the crafting system, surveying and sampling raw materials, every now and then attempting to kill a random critter.

It was very, very cool. I'm truly thrilled.

If you want to check it out for yourself, I'd probably recommend not doing so today. The main site, www.swgemu.com, is currently obscured by a bad April Fool's make-over (the Oregon Trail stuff is nonsense). I figure the real SWGEmu content and instructions will be back tomorrow.

Despite what Blizzard may deny or otherwise claim...

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:05:08 GMT

...I really think the next big MMO they're currently working on IS Universe of Starcraft.

At least I really hope it is. A really good, really accessible and fun sci-fi MMO is long overdue, and if anyone can actually make one stick, it'll be Blizzard.

God knows I'm sick enough of fantasy themes.

So, there's this stuff called kefir.

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:55:27 GMT

It's a probiotic, cultured-milk food which is similar to drinkable yogurt. Before this month, I'd only ever known it as something I could buy from the refrigerator section of a natural foods store.

Little did I realize that what I was buying actually wasn't the real thing.

I recently got my hands on some real "kefir grains", basically small cauliflower-like clumps beneficial "bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars", as Wikipedia states it. You put these happy little living clumps in a portion of milk (just regular, unheated milk!) in a sealed jar and let it sit for a day or two. The kefir grains ferment the milk, creating a delicious yogurt-like drink. Some people use kefir to make smoothies, or mix in fruit or sweetener, or just drink it plain.

The great thing about kefir grains is that they're living. As long as they're fed with fresh milk, they'll keep reproducing themselves. In a month or two, I should have enough to spare to give away (to friends!) or even to sell if I feel like dabbling in that particular cottage industry.

I really enjoy this sort of honest, hands-on approach to making food; no longer do I have to buy yogurt (and now a yogurt-like drink) from any grocery store. I can make it myself!

All I need now is my own milk cow. :)

And some chickens, while I'm dreaming.

Took a while...

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:10:20 GMT

...but it is mine at last.

Fffffff

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:36:21 GMT

Various random things:

Car now in shop. To be fixed: battery, reverse lights, wipers, oil...maybe other things. The roof is in dire need of some body work and a repainting; the mechanic says he can recommend a trustworthy place. Hope body work doesn't cost too much...but it really needs to get fixed. >_<

Got a haircut - back to my comfortable bob. My roots are one-inch without color; henna is now defrosting. Contemplating if I want to go black again (using the indigo). Honestly, I'd like to go lighter and redder, but I don't know if that's even possible (if hennaed hair can be bleached or what). Guess I'll need to look that up.

Super displeased with my room. It' is a goddamn disaster area, especially after I dumped everything out looking for my car keys earlier. Wish I could just nuke this shit from orbit and start clean. Just too many things.

Not all things are bad, though. Some of them are quite good and needed. I did recently get a new Logitech G11 keyboard (it's backlit!!) and a new video card (with many heartfelt thanks to two very special and kind people in my life who have made this (and other more important things) possible). New hardware is a rare joy for me.

On the WoW front:

It's just so great that my WoW's patch.mpq has 16,000+ fragments which my system flat-out refuses to defragment. Thanks Microsoft! Anyway, downloaded the O&O trial defragmenter which is, as I type, calmly moving bits of data around and I think this'll get the job done.

Blizzard's new Achievement feature for WoW is, I think, one of the coolest things they've ever implemented and honestly, it's something they should have done long ago. It's injected a lot of fun back into the game for a lot of people.

<---- That's my paladin hitting the achievement for mercilessly murdering all the Alliance leaders (which also awards a special black war bear mount, yay!). Travelling in a pack of 39 other players is loads of fun. Must try to do that sort of thing more often.

Nabbed the Explorer title on him, too...~~and am staring down that Ambassador title good and hard. Only the Darkspear remain to get to exalted (three bubbles left)! I sense very many runecloth turn-ins in my near future.~~ Got it!

Also, I want that Albino Drake mount. I need fifty mounts in order to get it. So far I have forty-eight. Still need two more. Most likely the Armored Blue Wind Rider and probably the AV Frostwolf Howler, though I'd prefer it if Baron Rivendare would drop his rare mount for me so I don't have to step another foot into Alterac Valley. Other options are (if I can stomach the grouping it'll take) the Brewfest & Swift Brewfest rams/kodos. Hmm. This is going to be time-consuming...and expensive. Ugh.

Edit: 12/27 - DONE. Exalted Netherwing Rep, Fifty Mounts Acquired and Albino Dragon Mount GAINED.

~~To-Do For Final Mounts:~~

Grind to Mag'har exalted: big timesink
Talbuks (8) total cost: 680g
~~Purchase 300 Riding skill: 5000g~~
~~Swift Wind Riders (4) total cost: 800g~~

* Netherwing rep to Exalted for Netherdrake(s)

Total gold needed: 8380
Total time needed: way too damn much

I wanna know who...

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:22:42 GMT

...at LotRO Central thought it'd be a great idea to have server maintenance downtime on the same day as WoW's.

Cruel bastards. Wanted to make some progress on my hobbit who has been stuck eternally at level 43. I WANT TO SEE LOTHLORIEN!!!