Holiday Fun

So, I've been doing the Pilgrim's bounty achievements ever since I found out there was a turkey pet. Kel is done already (had to kill the boss in Sethekk Halls twice, because first time I forgot to put her holiday outfit on >.<). Today was Tad's turn. A few days ago, Shaurria (who was trying to get a turkey pet as well) was asking about what level she could get into Sethekk. Aelflaed then volunteered to take her, and Tad too, to go kill the boss when she got back from vacation. Well, she got back today, off we went. Only had one accident with the mind-control totems, which killed Tad, but it was more funny than anything else. Shaur got a couple drops for the healing set she's trying to put together. And we got the boss with no problems!
(reserved for screenie of new pet that I was too excited to take at the time)
And then, after the run, Aely turkey-fied Tad! I found out something: If a hunter is a turkey, and said hunter feigns death, this is what happens:
(Yes, I have a messy UI. I have a lot of addons. It works for me pretty well though.)
In case you can't tell from the chat, I gave myself a tummy ache from laughing so hard. Maybe my current lack of decent sleep made this funnier than it shoud be, but come on. Blizz did an awesome job with this holiday, and it was worth the stallout it caused to Windstar's leveling. Which, by the way, she just hit 78, and has started Argent Tourney dailies. :D

Working on a story about Tad and Shaur getting into some mischief during the holiday. It's coming a little slow, though. Will have it done in the next day or two, hopefully.

And gotta say thanks again to Anna (aka Aely) and 'Mr. Anna' as well, for taking the time, right after returning from a trip too, to take me and Shaur through an instance that was way over our level range, just so we could get a pet. I know I've said it before, but it constantly amazes me how friendly and willing-to-help people on Feathermoon are. Maybe I was just too used to the elitist, everyone-for-themselves attitude that prevails on PVE servers, but this has totally renewed my enjoyment of the game.
And now, random video of a group I recently started listening to, called Fireflight. I think this might be my favorite already.
Forever

And now, goodnight! /waves

Thankful

Writing this down a bit late, but, in the spirit of the holiday, here's a few things I'm thankful for:

• Blizzard for making a game that continues to be fun and exciting, after 5 years of almost constant play.
• My twin sister, my best friend ever, for being awesome enough to put up with me. (/hugs<3)
• My alliance guild on Gilneas, for putting up with my recent absences.
• Everyone I have met from the Wildfire Riders and their friends, for reaching out and making a couple of newbies feel welcome. That doesn't even begin to describe how much you guys have done. You all rock!

That's all I can think of for now. I'll probably think of more when I'm not so sleepy, and I'll just edit them in. Time to go pass out so I'm not completely brain-dead at work on Black Friday. :(

Random screenshot ftw! /waves

Random Updates

First of all, work is still crazy.
Second, I'm still sleep deprived.
Third, time is going by too fast, can hardly believe it's almost Thanksgiving :(

In-game stuffs now:

Bearkat is now on Feathermoon, and finished his ravasaur quests. I'm probably not going to be playing him much until Windstar is 80 and has at least some gear, though.

Speaking of Star, she is now most of the way through 76. Almost time for Cold Weather Flying!

On Gilneas, my pally Arien is finally getting to do what I leveled her for in the first place: heal stuff! Last weekend, I got to bring her to a guild Mallygos attempt. We wiped on phase 3 every time, but it was still pretty fun and I got a little experience raid-healing on a pally. Then this weekend (friday and yesterday) the guild tried some ToC 10-man, which I brought Kel to, since she's my best geared toon. Wiped a lot, learned a lot, not a really bad run. Then finally we did a Naxx alt-run. Arien got to heal again, the only problem was there were 2 priests as well, that were better geared, so I pretty much just twiddled my thumbs through all but boss fights. She did get a couple ret upgrades, including her t7 shoulders, and my sister's DK Barraccus got a few tanking upgrades as well. No real upgrades for her healing set, but o well. :P

I have been thinking a little bit about transfering Arien (and my Nelf warrior Kalenedral, cause they are BFFs) to Feathermoon. Only problems are: not a lot of money to spare for the transfers, and my toon list on Feathermoon is almost full already. Also, since I made Arien to be basically a healer for the guild, I feel a little like it would be betraying my friends on Gilneas. Although, on the other hand, I have respec'ed Jahira to kitty/resto, and she is better geared than Arien, even if it is balance gear.

And on Durotan Hordeside, I just discovered today that my guild is disbanding. Not sure of specifics, but it seems like there is just a lot of different opinions between guildies, as far as raiding and such. It is all very friendly but sad, no one has any hard feelings, the leaders have simply decided that keeping it all together is not working very well anymore. One of the officers is making his own raiding guild, which he has invited anyone that wants to to join, but I'm afriad I won't be. Nothing against anyone, I just haven't been playing on that server much at all for a few months now, and it's not likely to change. I wish everyone the best, and will miss our random guildchat, but I don't see much point in trying to find another guild that is willing to have a member that is online only once a week, if that. And so:
/target Off The Team
/salute
/hugs

And on that note, time to go get Star another level or 2. /waves

Work stinks

Sorry for lack of anything new here. Having several days off work, then getting scheduled several days in a row, really messes with my sleep patterns, so I've been too tired to think of anything to post. Haven't been doing much in game even (tho Windstar is finally 75 1/2, and needs a couple instances really bad). Holiday coming up has also been making work kinda hectic, and it will only get worse. Hopefully will have something worthwhile to post soon.

/Wave
/Zzzzz....

Overtime for Therapy Cat

(Sleepy-rambling alert :P)


Windstar slowly padded into her room in the Gilded Rose. She shifted out of cat form, and changed out of her slightly-damp shirt into a clean one. She paused, holding the tear-stained shirt for a moment, playing the evening over again in her head. It had started when she and Shaurria went to Faldir's Cove, in Arathi, where her friend Arrens was hiding. Aely had been there visiting him too, and as the druids settled, the humans began discussing a subject that made them both sad, lost loves. Something someone said seemed to hit a nerve with Shaur, because by the time Aely, Star and Takani said goodbye to Arrens, she had vanished. Star followed her trail, and eventually caught up to the depressed druid, who finally had the breakdown that she had needed for so long. Star held and comforted her friend, and when Shaur had cried herself out and asked to go home, and to Arvoss, Star was relieved to head home to Stormwind.

Star shifted back into cat form, and softly padded out of her room, into the one Arvoss kept. She could see him on the bed, with Shaur a dark, exhausted huddle next to him. Arvoss gave her a small, sad smile as she settled on a corner rug. Almost immediately, she heard something that made her jump back to her feet. The smile Arvoss gave her, as she quickly trotted back to her own room, was much bigger than the previous one. Star re-entered her room, and quickly shifted out of cat form to throw herself into her brother's arms. Tad caught her, wrapping his strong steady arms around her. Skan came over to sniff her hand, then went back to the thick pad in the corner. "It is so good to see you, Tad. It's been such a long day." "Well, come relax, and you can tell me all about it."

- - -

Poor Star hardly knows what to do with herself right now. Tonight was apparently sad RP night, first with a friend of the Riders getting out of SI:7's custody, but being quite worse for wear, then Arrens and Aely having their little talk, then Shaur finally bursting the dam she had been hiding behind for so long. After all that, I just had to think of something that would let my little druid feel better and get some comfort of her own. This reminds me of a line in a book I read, that kind of got stuck in my head. "Who heals the healer?" So many of Star's friends are having a bad time right now, she's wearing herself out a bit worrying about them, and has no one she can turn to, to 'recharge' herself. Don't get me wrong, it is fun RP, it just gets a little emotionally tiring sometimes, especially when I'm having problems with Lack of Sleep.

And about the story? Shaurria's player will have a better detailed version in a day or so, on her blog, so anyone curious can read it there.
Back to work tomorrow, after 4 days off in a row. Mini-vacations are nice, but the longer I'm away from my job, the more I don't want to go back. Time to find a new job? Maybe. :(
/Waves

Accomplishment

Feels pretty dang good.
Major case of insomnia last night, so after saying goodnight to Feathermoon (after more awesome RP stuffs), I hopped over to Gilneas. Kel was soooo close to exalted with Nethering, my OCD kicked in and I hopped on her to finish it.

Boo. Yea.
Kel named him Dusk. He is now on a macro to go with her Cenarion Hippogryph and bronze drake. Her albino drake, Thori'dal, is still her main flyer. Now to go finish her Wintersaber rep. :P

Oh, forgot something. Before hopping to Gilneas, I checked my toons on Feathermoon, and sure enough, Bearkat has made his little trip successfully. I checked on him, just to make sure, and everything looked good. Then I remembered I had asked my sister to make a mining bag to take with him, for my little troll shammy, which I then totally forgot about. Doh. O well. He will soon be back to his CC rep grind for his Guardian of Cenarius title. Still need to do that with Windstar too. And get both's CE rep as well. /Sigh.

And then today, I've stayed on Gilneas so far (might even go on tonight's raid, if they want me). My DK Riatha hadn't spec'ed her alchemy yet, and I wanted to do transmutes with her. Mostly because I did on my shammy Taarren, and a few days ago, I was doing her daily titanium transmute and got 3 of them. O.o I was short a couple primals, so Arien my pally got to go zap clouds in Zangarmarsh for a while. Then, since I was on her, I finally remembered to go to Shadowmoon and learn her epic flying machine schematic. I had most of the mats, tho I had to buy a couple khoruim bars (impatient pally is impatient). So now I have a specialized alchemist and my pally has a new toy. :D

P.S. self-sufficiency rules.
And that's all the interesting stuff for now. Off to go work on some things Arien hasn't done yet, namely Sons of Hodir quest chain. Procrastination is bad. And, I have missed my little pally so bad.
/Waves

Lions and panthers and bears...

Oh my?
In the mood to show off my druids now. I have 4 of them, 2 alliance and 2 horde. One is lvl 80, one is 17, and the other 2 are 70-something. ALL are feral, tho 2 have dual-specs. So now, starting at the top and going down, I think, here's some pics and bits of background info:



Jahira is on the Gilneas server. She's my first 80 druid, second 80 toon iirc, though my troll hunter Rajji might've beaten her. I have bounced her between feral and balance specs a few times, and now those are her dual specs. Although, I have to admit, I'm having trouble figuring out boomkin dps. She's been feral for a while now, doing heroics and stuff, because her feral dps is much better than balance. Her gear sets are roughly equal, in fact her balance set might be better, but she consistently does 300-400 more dps as a kitty, and I'm not sure why. Honestly, I've been having so much fun on Windstar, I may just switch her off-spec to resto. The guild usually needs healers more than dps, and also it would let some of our regular healers have a bit of a break. Her boomkin gear would be ok for healing with a couple gem/enchant changes, and she has a couple older pieces in the bank (because I am a packrat) that don't have +hit on them, but is otherwise good gear. Plus that would be one way to get her into raids. Kel has always been my raiding main, but giving her a break would be nice, esp. since I'm very happy with her current gear. Jahira has been in Naxx a few times, but hasn't been to Ulduar yet, which makes me sad, so this may be her ticket.

Little bit of RP stuffs: Jahira is the 3rd sibling in the family me and my sister have on Gilneas. Kel and Alanon are older, Pitchblack and Quae are younger. Alanon and Jahira actually raised Pitch mostly, when their mother was sick for a long spell and their father was helping in the Emerald Dream. She is a bit of a loner, like Kel, but it's more that she enjoys peace and quiet, whereas Kel is just outright anti-social most of the time. She's between 3,000-4,ooo years old (haven't worked out exactly yet).











Next is my other Alliance druid, who I've been posting about quite a bit lately, Windstar.

Star is currently level 74, and is on the Feathermoon server. She and my hunter Tadrith are twins, and are the elven equilalent of being in their early 20s. They're fraternal, but there's enough resemblance that people can tell they're related. Funny thing, I meant to get Tad up to 80 before leveling her, but I got really attached to my little kitty, plus some RP stuff occured to me, so Star gets to be my first 80 on Feathermoon. (And collect badges so my Malorne-following hunter can have a spiffy bow all through gun-happy Northrend. Seriously Blizz, what is with all the danged guns?!) She is a Druid of the Antler, which means she reveres Malorne (and to a slightly lesser extent, Cenarius). This has caused a bit of internal conflict at times, because her order(?) hates engineering, believing it to be the worst cause of the destruction of nature, but Star has a couple friends that are engineers. For now she tries to just ignore the engineering bit, esp. for Frazle, since he mostly just makes little gadgets, and not the big machinery that would be a problem. She does like peace and quiet, but she is happier around friends. She has also developed a 'kitty-radar', for people that are unhappy about something, who she will then go try to offer comfort. In fact, she and Shaurria are refered to, OOCly, as therapy cats. :D She is typically a friendly, peaceful person, but she can and will get protective over people she cares about.


Star is also dual-spec'ed feral dps/resto, and I think playing part-time healer is really good for her IC. Keeping Arvoss alive through dungeons and group quests kind of strengthens their friendship, I think.

Next is my first cow druid, Bearkat. He is currently level 72 and is in the process of being transfered from Durotan to Feathermoon.


I. Love. New. Catforms.





The only problem I have with the new tauren kitty is the eyes. My little gentle, even-tempered Bear looks very angry. :( Other than that, I think the new cat forms, both elf and tauren, are totally awesome. Bear forms are nice too, though they look a little too cute to be taken very seriously. :)
Bearkat is kinda my little baby. I created him a looong time ago, but he has always been slow leveling. Not because I don't like playing him, just that I keep getting distracted away from questing with him. He was still 68 when Wrath came out, and he didn't even get to Northrend til after Rajji and Taarren. Hopefully, when the transfer is done, I will be able to actually play and level him, once he is on a server I like with no alts to distract me. Well, no high-level alts.
ICly, he is a good friend to my sister's 2 Belf hunters, Kaled and Khaotic. He is generally friendly and calm, but he doesn't tolerate rude or cruel behavior. He prefers the open, wild areas to cities, and he doesn't like Forsaken much, but he will work with them. Not sure exactly what his age would be, but he's somewhere between 'young' and 'middle-age'.

And last on the list, but definately not least, is my little baby tauren, Skypaw, on Wyrmrest Accord. He is only level 17, so no kitty form yet, but bear form is plenty of fun for now. He's kind of stuck for now, because I've been having so much fun on Feathermoon, and I'm waiting for my sis to get her tauren DK on WA done with the starting zone so they can RP/run dungeons together.

He has an interesting history, which I have only figured out a small part of. He is very young, and is an orphan. He spends more time with orcs than other tauren, for now, but he is learning the orcs code of honor, which I think is a good thing. Losing his family, however, has affected him greatly. He is shy and nervous, almost never leaves bear form (or cat form, once he learns it), and doesn't talk much, unless spoken to first. I haven't thought up much more than that, but when I do start focusing on him, I think he will be lots of fun.

And that's all for now. Next expansion, I may be making more droods, just for the sake of seeing what the worgen/troll forms look like. Not sure yet how seriously I will play them though.
And now to go see if Bear's transfer is finished yet..... /wave

Too Much Awesome!

Just had the best RP night ever. I should be going to bed now, but I'm not quite ready for sleep yet. Besides, I'll forget half of it by morning if I wait. It all started in Moonglade. You can read the prelude here on my sister's blog. Since she had to wait for me to get off work, we just started from where the story ended. Aelflaed and Feliche came in response to Arvoss' request for some company/assistance, and we all finally got Shaurria settled enough to finally tell her story.

After a lot of talking and Shaur-comforting, she was ok enough to go back to Stormwind and the Pig.







We then had a mostly normal night of hanging out in our kitty forms, begging earrubs, until someone came and (I'm guessing) gave Tarquin, the Wildfire Riders' leader, a warning. He left the Pig in a hurry. Soon after, several of the Stormwind Guard came with a warrant for Tarq's arrest. What followed was one of the awesomest RP I have ever gotten to participate in. The guards appropriated some stuff, the Captain demanded Tarq's location, threatened everyone in the room with arrest, almost did arrest 3 different Riders, and finally had her guards arrest the npcs Christoph and Aedis. For making a disturbance (rofl). ICly, it was a very tense, and rather scary, situation. In the OOC channel, we were all having a blast. Finally everything settled, and then Aely went up the spokesman of the Riders, and totally chewed him out, for using the recent passing of one of their members as a way to put a halt to the situation. Windstar, who had stood near Aely and Arvoss the whole time the guard was there, and Shaur, who had stealthed and hid when Arvoss told her to, then spent the rest of the evening with Aely, trying to comfort and help calm her after the rough night. Finally, after most everyone else had left the Pig, we just sat on the front steps and talked, with our friend on his pally Fastrada (a.k.a. Frazle), til afks sort of broke up the conversation. I was too tired to concentrate by then anyways, and me and Fastrada logged soon after.

Stuff like this is why I love Feathermoon, and I consider myself lucky as heck to have met the Riders. I have never gotten such a welcoming feeling on any other server, not even Gilneas, where my first, best friends are. Honestly, now, regular PVE servers have just gotten boring. RP > raiding any day, IMO.
(Edit, just to clarify: I do enjoy raiding, and it can be very fun, it's just when raid leaders start to stress more on how many times we wipe when learning a fight, and who is not doing something right, and just whining in general, it takes the fun totally out of the raid, and makes it seem more like work. And srsly, hanging with friends beats work anyday, amirite?)

Gonna end there, cause I have a headache now and really need sleep. I've been thinking up more hunter and/or druid stuff to write about, so will probably have something on that subject soon-ish (if I can stop playing the game long enough to post something >.<).
Goodnight! /waves

Windstar meets Arvoss

A little bit I wrote about my druid meeting my sister's DK. Enjoy!


The young druid Windstar walked aimlessly towards the front gates of Stormwind City. She was feeling a bit lonely and confused, and hadn't found many among the humans in the city that were willing to help her out. Her mentor in Darnassus had told her to 'go out and see the world', but it wasn't easy when her Common was just good enough to hold a decent conversation, and she didn't know any good areas to pick up some kind of work. A sudden commotion brought her out of her thoughts, and she looked ahead to the gates. It looked like another Death Knight was on his way to get his official pardon from the King. 'Their' pardons, she corrected herself; she hadn't seen the Gnome at first, half-hidden in the tall human's shadow. She stood aside, watching absently at first. Then she began noticing something about the human; he wasn't responding like all the other Death Knights she had seen. They had all responded to the guards' resentment with either anger or disdain, but this man simply walked stoicly through the spits, curses, and flung vegatables, his head held high, like they weren't even there. Star was intrigued.

Shifting to her bear form, Star began tagging along, a safe distance behind. The more she saw of this human, the more her respect for him grew. He never even looked at the people that were cursing him, never moved from his path to avoid anyone. On the bridge between the Trade District and Old Town, though, he paused. Star stopped too, and nervously stepped behind a wall. After looking in her direction for a minute, he turned and continued. "Arvoss? What is it?" the gnome asked. "Nothin'. Though' Ah saw somethin'," the human replied, in a thick northern accent. Star let them get a little farther ahead before continuing to follow. Around a corner, almost at the Keep, the Death Knights stopped again. Star hopped behind a handy tree, but it didn't hide her very well, and she was afraid she had been too slow anyway. Sure enough, the human, Arvoss, looked right at her. When the gnome questioned him again, he replied,"Theah's a druid followin' us." Star began backing away, keeping behind the tree, but the Knights just looked at her for a moment, then the gnome tugged on the human's belt, being unable to reach higher. They both continued again, and Star still followed, unable to help herself. At the entrance of the Keep, however, she paused. After watching them walk up the long hallway, she turned to the side, and sat down to wait.

It didn't take long before King Wrynn's voice bellowed through the city, and not long after that the two Death Knights came back out. Star came out of the corner she had been sitting in, and stood waiting to be noticed. Almost immediately, the human looked right at her, and nudged his companion. "'S th' druid tha' was followin' us," he said softly. The gnome followed his gaze and nodded. Star nervously approached them, then shifted out of bear form, offering a small bow as greeting. "Hello," she said. They nodded back, silent, but she saw a friendly glint in both sets of blue-glowing eyes. Taking some courage from that, she continued, "I saw you walking through the city. Those guards... that wasn't right." The gnome shrugged it off, but the human just stood watching her. Finally he answered, "They jus' doan' ken any better, eh? 'S not really theah faul'." Windstar shrugged slightly, not entirely convinced, but let it go. "My name is Windstar," she told them. "Arvoss," the human replied. "I'm Frazle, do you know any good engineering shops in the city?" the gnome asked. Star couldn't resist a chuckle. "I'm afraid I don't have much interest in engineering, but there's a few gnomes in the Dwarven District that you can talk to," she told him. He gave her a bright grin and headed in the direction she indicated, practically rubbing his hands together in glee. "Ah'm more int'rested in a good tavern, m'self," Arvoss said. Star looked at him, and said, "That I might be able to help with. There's one called the Pig and Whistle not far from here, in Old Town." "Well then, lead oan, lass," he replied with a bow.

(Hope I got Arvoss' accent right, if not I'll have to edit it later :P)

Quick Update

Been busy at work and too tired to think of anything to post lately, but here's a little something of what I've been up to.





Windstar has been sort of stuck at 71 for a couple days, but she's over halfway thru, so shouldn't be much longer before she dings.


She's getting close to being done in the Fjord too, haven't decided yet if I'm taking her back to Borean or going to Dragonblight. (Probably Dragonblight, Wrathgate questchain ftw)


I'm finally trying to finish Kel's Netherwing rep. Yes, I am a horrible procrastinater (sp?).

Not as much point now, as she has her 50 mounts and albino drake, and I don't care enough about the dragonhawk mount to continue, but big shiny netherdrake mount will be so cool. I'm hoping 2 or 3 days worth of dailies will finish the grind. Then I get to start it all over again with Arien. :P

And that is pretty much it. Like I said, work is keeping me busy :(

And just for kicks, here's a video from one of my favorite bands. Been listening to them a lot lately, and this is one of my 2 top favorites that they do.

Red - Let Go

Goodnight!

Kelesaria and Co.

After my last post, I think I need a bit of cheering up. So what could possibly make me happier than telling about my very first (and still favorite) hunter, Kelesaria, and her menagerie. :D


First a short version her backstory, which isn't really much, but hey, I've only recently gotten into the whole RP thing.

Kel is the oldest of a unusually large Night Elven family. She was born around the time of the first World Tree, which puts her at close to 8,000 years old, I think. She has 2 brothers and 2 sisters. She loves her family a lot, but she has always been a bit of a loner, prefering the company of her animal companions over that of other people. She visits the family house in Ashenvale every once in a while, and her family knows they only have to ask her, if they need her help with anything. Other than the house, she has no real home, just camping wherever she happens to be, usually. Outside of her family, she has a few friends, but no one she's really close to (though she does have a little thing going on with a friend's druid >.>). Her pets are her closest friends, her bonds with them are closer than even most other hunters. She has had several over her long life, including a cat named Rhaj that was reincarnated (sort of) as a nightstalker, a STV panther, and eventually a white frostsaber.
Then she tamed her closest friend ever, the frostsaber pride watcher, Sabre. He is her baby, her heartmate, the pet that she has with her whenever she is having a hard/unhappy time. (And IMO, the most gorgeous cat skin in the entire game.)




Kel's second current permanant pet is her owl, Verdan. She found him in the Emerald Dragonshrine. Since coming to Northrend, she had been developing a close bond with the dragons, and finding an animal willing to join her at Ysera's shrine was pretty nice for her.


Plus he is just so danged pretty. :)






Next would be the only 'retired' pet I have ever managed to tame, the ghost hydra. Kel was still 79 when I found out Blizzard was going to make them untamable, so first I had to finish her level, then I had to hope like mad that I could get the Oracle daily to summon him, all before the next patch. For once, it worked out for me, and now whenever Kel needs to run a lowbie through an instance, Spirit is the one by her side.


He's not named in this pic cause I just couldn't think of a good one for him for several days after taming. :P Also, lots of people don't like the hissing noise these guys make, but I find it oddly soothing. Though I admit I can get tired of it evetually.



Next one is the other love of Kel's life, her wonderful, lovely spirit beast.


I really could make an entire 'rant' post about the search for this guy. Seriously, it took me 6 MONTHS to find Loque, alive and untamed. I had seen him several times, right after someone else had tamed him, and I think I saw him dead once. The whole time I would go look at Mania's site and read stories about people that got him an hour or less after starting their search. Or the stories about people finding him and having someone else come kill him under their noses. It was very, very depressing. Finally, at about 5:30 one morning, I found him by Skyreach Pillar. A Belf hunter was there already, though, and in the rush to start taming, I wound up tagging Loque, then tried to tame, only to have the Belf kill him. (I got a lovely little QQ note in the mail the next morning from his ally alt.) So I got a nice little achievement that I didn't want, and still no pet. I think it was maybe a week later, same time, same place, I found him again, completely alone this time. Nice, quiet, uneventful tame. I then went off to play with my new baby until my sister got up for work around 6 a.m., showed him off, then dropped into bed and passed out. Now, was the whole thing worth it?


Totally.
And yes, I named him Loq. Not very imaginative, I know, but after the long, long search, when he was finally tamed, I just couldn't think of calling him anything else.



And now her newest 'baby', her devilsaur Tyran. No real story or anything behind him, in fact I got him more for my guild, since, at the time, devilsaurs were suposed to be the highest DPS pets in the game. And I think I would agree, since my own performance improved a bit when he finally hit 80 and I took him on a raid. He is really fun too, and my PetEmote addon gives him an interesting personality. :) Plus, he has blue eyes. /melt


Not to mention, he looks frickin' scary when he roars. :P
(This is the only pic I have of him, need to fix that. :P And he's not enraged, the Gundrak sunset only makes him look like it.)





And now you have met the zoo. :D
Unfortunately, I haven't been playing Kel much lately, because of Feathermoon-leveling and some minor guild problems. But that's a rant for another post. :P
/Waves

Good and Bad

First the good:
Windstar is in Northrend now, level 69 and still going. I decided on a whim to go to Howling Fjord first, instead of Borean Tundra, like I normally do. So my little druid was merrily questing along, and finally found the npc that gives the Utgarde Keep quests. Not long after grabbing the quests, I got an invite to dps (I had put myself in the lfg queue as dps/heals a little while before). The group had done the first boss already, but at this point I'm just wanting my quests done. Got one done (collecting the armaments) on the way to the rest of the group. There was a DK tank, priest healer, mage, another DK, and me. We actually wiped a couple pulls in (dang geists). Other DK drops group without warning. We get a shadow priest, who then leaves almost instantly, with the mage leader telling us they had needed the first boss. Then we get another priest to heal, and the first one goes shadow. DK tank is has been getting beat up by this time, and warns us she needs to repair. (Going by toon gender here, no idea whether the player was female or not.) We continue, having several more deaths, only one was a total wipe though. Tank informs the group that 3 pieces of her gear is broken. I tentatively offer to try to tank. First pull went awesome, next pull was crazy and we almost wiped again, because everyone piled on the mobs soon as I faerie fired them, before I had aggro on all of them. I asked them to let me hit them all next time, and had no problems after that. Got all the way to the last boss, then wiped again, because my noob self couldn't keep out of the smashes. So the by-then-repaired DK tanked the boss, he died, we were happy. I then gave the DK a pally plate drop I had won earlier, so she could vendor it to help cover her repairs, because I felt kinda bad about all her deaths. I had only died a couple times, so my repairs were cheap. I'm apparently now her favorite druid ever. :D All in all, a good example of a group that might not be all uber and stuff, but had a generally good attitude and tried to work together. And add the fact that I haven't bear-tanked since BC, and had the mage and DK sending me tells about how well I was doing, just made it a fun time. O yea, this was in a kitty leveling spec too, not even a proper tanking spec. /flex


And now that bad:
(Warning! rant alert)
I was randomly browsing blogs while afking on Star, and I followed a link to an older post in Too Many Annas, that lead to something that has been bugging me for a while. Little bit of info, so I don't confuse anyone - I work in a grocery store, as a bagger. I am female. This does not seem to be a popular job for females. The company I work for has redone a lot of their older policies. One such policy is our carry-out service. We never really did it before, unless the customer asked. Now the Higher-Ups in the company want us to do it All The Time. The customer has no choice, we are taking their groceries out for them. Although the employees have been told that if the customer refuses the service, we don't have to force it. The post I read just reminded me of the response I get, in regards to this policy. Specifically, the fact that no customer ever will let me take their grocery cart out for them. Men in particular. I have gotten to the point that I don't even ask men if they want my help anymore. Because they invariably say no. And maybe it's just me, but I usually feel like I'm getting a condescending attitude from them. "That's ok, little girl, you don't have to push this big heavy cart outside." (Esp. when said 'big heavy cart' has all of 4 or less bags in it) That's not what they say, but the tone of voice is there. Now, I will admit, I'm rather small, maybe 5' 5" or 6", and rather skinny. I also look about 6-7 years younger than I really am. But I am stronger than I look, and besides, this is my job. I get reproached by my superiors when they notice I'm the only bagger there, in the middle of all the bigger guys, that is not walking customers out. Then consider the fact that I am cooped up inside all day, until I would almost kill something to get a bit of fresh air, and a chance to stretch my legs. But no, I am kept inside, because the customers think they are doing me a favor by taking their own stuff out. But mostly, my biggest problem is the macho-male attitudes I have to deal with, for my entire shift, every day that I work. This, I believe, is the biggest reason why I have been hating my job so much lately. :(
Well, that and the fact that my totally random scheduling has screwed up more raids/RP nights than I can count. Including an invite to Black Temple on Wednesday, if I can make level 70 by then, which will be no problem. But I can't go because I don't get off work until 2 hours after the raid starts. Also missed the little party the Riders and friends had last Tuesday, because I worked late. Poor Star got there right as everyone started to leave. Call me crazy, but I seriously wanted to cry then. The fact that it was the only late shift I worked all week, and it just had to be on that night, just made it even worse.
Sorry for the Massive Wall o' Text on the second part, but this has been building up inside me for a long time, and I just had to let some of it out. :(
(/end rant)

Been bouncing story ideas in my head lately, so hopefully I will have a happier post next time. /waves