Epic fail.

So I suck at blogging. I was all “look at me post all sorts of stuff, every day!” and then “whoa. It’s been ages.”

 

So now we enter into the recap of the last month!

 

1) WoW Beta: WOTLK

     Lost interest. It’s really cool, but playing an MMORPG without friends is teh lose. There are much better blogs about it than mine. Premade 80s are sweet, ’nuff said.

2) Tom built a computer.

     Really cool rig, but the graphics card was unhappy when it was put together. It’s currently being worked on while I’m here at my home away from home.

3) Robyn moved away.

    This makes me sad. Robyn is a really good friend who shares my taste in music and movies. Less so movies. Also, she’s nice enough to laugh at my jokes in person, and saying “LOL” from a thousand miles away just isn’t the same.

4) Ian and Matt moved.

     They’re both at UBC now. Ian’s room is cooler than Matt’s, but Matt’s building is cooler than Ian’s. Either way, both are fun people to visit with and let me pass out on their floor. Hurrah for that. Less hurrah for them moving.

5) The Mayne Island Retreat is Complete

     This isn’t proven yet, but this upcoming weekend is going to be a couple days to test out the house as a shelter. Also, as a place to retire at night.

WotLK

Wrath of the Lich King™ Beta Test

You have been selected to participate in the beta test of World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich King™. Welcome!

In the beta test you’ll get an opportunity to test the first zones of the new Northrend continent, and the new levels above 70. We look forward to your feedback on the overall experience, including quests, monsters, zones, aesthetics, and more.

 

The above, was the best email I had gotten in a while. Having been chosen for Beta, and having played it for all of three hours before having to come to work, I am going to take this chance between deliveries to talk about all the awesome stuff I’ve noticed so far. If you don’t like World of Warcraft, do a google search for “Cute Bunny Bell Game”. Then come check this blog tomorrow.

 

When I got the email, I got pretty excited to try it. I followed the links in my email to register the Beta key onto my account, I made my blizzard ID, I copied my warlock over to the Beta PvP server (Tsularesque, if you have it as well). And I started to download the client. 1.88GB, 120 kb/s. WTF FOUR HOURS. So that was the first not so good part. The other con to all of this so far was the additional 2.1 GB in patches, but those went much faster and then I was able to start it up.

The first treat I got was a new login screen. The dark portal was replaced by a blizzard with dragons flying around. Then I hopped onto the character select screen, saw my lock hangin’ out, and jumped into the world. Shattrath had only me in it, and that’s very lonely. I ran over to the bank, threw everything in my inventory in except my flier, and then portal’d to UC. From Undercity I ran down the stairs and wiped my talent tree for 1c. Awwyeah. Checking out the new talent trees, I threw FIFTY SIX TALENT POINTS into demonology for the sole reason of trying out Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis: You transform into into a Demon, increasing your armor by 360%, reducing the duration of stun and snare effects on you by 50% and increasing your attack power equal to 75% of your spell power.
While in Demon Form, you cannot cast spells, and your summoned Demon is temporarily dismissed, but you gain unique demon abilities. When the Metamorphosis effect ends, your summoned Demon will re-appear.
Instant, 3 min cooldown

So. Effing. Awesome. For those of you who did the Shadowmoon quest in the far south, where you’re a demon fighting another one… that is what you become. You have a HUGE 50yd jump with AOE damage/stun when you land. Make yourself on fire so anything that touches you gets hurt. MASSIVE shadowbolt spell. Cleave. AOE Fear. Tons of melee damage. And you look badass.

There are also some other cool demonology talents, but I’m not mentioning them just now.

There are two zeppelins to Northrend. Orgrimmar, and Undercity both have brand new stations. Also, the old zeppelins have new looks, and a crew that banter and chat while you fly. I thought it was a nice addition. After about a minute wait, I took off to Northrend!

First three things I noticed:

1. The zeppelin tower was deadly. Don’t run forward right away.
2. I have an exp bar again. Not much rested exp either. =(
3. When I went to use my flying mount it just saved the mount to my pets tab. In the Beta so far, mounts don’t use inventory space! Also, my riding crop was replaced with a “Mount Enhancement Item” which is like an enchant. Instead of using a trinket, my mount is permanently faster.

I did some basic quests. Cool to see experience come up, even though I need 1,850,000 experience to get to 71. I also dropped my enchanting to pick up Inscription, and I got Grand Master Tailoring, or the ability to get up to 450. (Inscripting goes with Herbalism. Stock up on low level herbs now!)

I respec’d to affliction, which I used for the most part during my levelling. I absolutely love some of the new talents they’ve added.

Contagion: Increases the damage of Curse of Agony, Corruption and Seed of Corruption by 1% and reduces the chance your Affliction spells will be dispelled by an additional 6%.  (5 points means 5% and 30%)

Shadow Master: Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells by 2%     (5 points means 10%)

Everlasting Affliction: Your Corruption, Siphon Life and Unstable Affliction spells gain an additional 4% of your bonus spell damage effects, and your Drain Life and Shadow Bolt spells have a 20% chance to reset the duration of your Corruption spell on the target.     (5 points means 20% and 100%)

Haunt: You send a ghostly soul into the target, dealing 645 to 754 Shadow damage and increasing all damage done by your damage-over-time effects on the target by 20% for 12 sec. When the Haunt spell ends or is dispelled, the soul returns to you, healing you for 20% of all damage done to the target.
12% of base mana, 30 yd range, 1.5 sec cast, 10 sec cooldown

Add to this that the first affl. talents are either 5 into corruption, and then 3 into Suppression and 2 into Improved CoA make you quite damaging right off. With an instant Corruption, Instant CoA, Siphon Life, and Haunt… four seconds to build my warlock to a solid DPS. With only dots and shadowbolts to help damage and renew the corruption timer, it took me 6 seconds to kill a level 73 orca. Add in the improved Voidwalker to hold aggro, and it’s the ideal levelling spec. IMO.

 

Tonight my goal is to hunt down Dalaran and get a haircut. Hopefully pictures later! I’ll leave you with the latest patch notes. All of them.

 

Racial Abilities
 
Arcane Torrent (Blood Elf) global cooldown removed.

 Death Knight
 
Death Knight spells that cost runes will now display the rune cooldowns on the spell buttons.

 Mage
 
Arcane Blast effect duration reduced to 3 seconds, and now increases damage by 15/30/45% instead of reducing cast time.
Arcane Impact renamed Spell Impact and now affects Blast Wave, Fire Blast, Cone of Cold, and Ice Lance.
Arcane Potency now applies when Presence of Mind is active, talent prerequisite changed to Presence of Mind.
Conjured mana gems no longer disappear from your backpack after being logged out for more than 15 minutes. Higher ranks of Conjure Mana Gem will recharge an existing mana gem to maximum charges.
Empowered Arcane Missiles renamed Arcane Empowerment and no longer increases mana cost. It now also increases damage caused by Arcane Blast.
Improved Blink now also reduces mana cost by 25/50%.
Improved Mana Shield has been renamed to Arcane Shielding and now also increases resistances granged by Mage Armor by 25/50%.
Remove Lesser Curse has been renamed to Remove Curse.

 Paladin
 
Consecration now scales with attack power and spell power.
Divine Protection now reduces all damage taken by 50% and increases time between attacks by 100%.
Exorcism mana cost reduced and now scales with attack power and spell power.
Eye for an Eye now reflects 10/20% damage from all critical hits.
Fanaticism now increases chance to critically hit by 5/10/15/20/25%.
Forbearance duration increased to 3 minutes.
Improved Blessing of Might increased to 10/20/30/40/50%.
Judgement has been replaced with 3 new spells; Judgement of Light, Judgement of Wisdom, and Judgement of Justice. All Judgement spells are considered ranged attacks for purposes of how they hit and how they critically hit. All cause damage based on attack power and spell power.
            – Judgement of Light now heals based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once ever 4 seconds.
            – Judgement of Justice will no longer prevent Fear effects, but will only prevent NPCs from fleeing (e.g. at low health).
            – Judgement of Wisdom now restores mana based on the Paladin’s attack power and spell power, the effect can not trigger more than once every 4 seconds.
 
Precision has been removed.
Pursuit of Justice reduced to 2 ranks for 8/15% movement increase and 1/2% less chance to be hit by spells.
Righteous Defense no longer costs mana and the global cooldown has been removed.
Sacred Duty now also reduces the cooldown of Divine Protection.
All Seals have been reduced to 1 rank and now cost 14% of base mana. The duration has been increased to 2 minutes and are no longer consumed when a Judgement spell is cast. The effects can be triggered from all weapon based special abilities.
            – Seal of Blood now increases Judgement damage by 45% of weapon damage.
            – Seal of Command now increases Judgement damage by 30% of weapon damage, 60% on stunned targets.
            – Seal of the Crusader has been removed. The effects of Judgement of the Crusader have been folded into all relevant abilities.
            – Seal of Righteousness deals damage based on weapons peed plus an amount based on attack power and spell power, increases Judgement damage by 25%.
            – Seal of Vengeance damage over time effect duration increased to 18 seconds and now applies its effect on every swing, causes damage based on attack power and spell power, and increases Judgement damage by 10% per stack of the damage over time effect.
 
Summon Warhorse and Summon Charger mana cost removed and no longer causes a global cooldown.
Vindication reduced to 2 ranks for 10/20% attribute reduction.

 Priest
 
Silence (Shadow) global cooldown removed.

 Rogue
 
Energy regeneration should now be smoother.

 Warlock
 
Avoidance (Felguard): Now reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by an additional 80% and is automatically learned for the Succubus, Imp, Voidwalker, and Felhunter at level 10.
Bane now reduces the cast time of your Haunt spell.
Consume Shadows (Voidwalker): Duration reduced to 6 seconds, and effect increased 66%. Now also greatly increases all nearby allies’ stealth detection while channeled.
Demonic Sacrifice: Succubus effect reduced to 10% increased shadow damage, down from 15%. Imp effect reduced to 10% increased fire damage, down from 15%. Felguard effect now increases Fire and Shadow damage, instead of just Shadow.
Doomguard: Health increased 20%, mana increased 24%.
Emberstorm now reduces the cast time of your incinerate by 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 seconds.
Fel Armor – Now increases your spell damage equal to 30% of your total Spirit, but no longer increases healing done by spells and effects by 20%.
Felguard: Health increased by 10%.
Felhunter: Paranoia and Tainted Blood have been replaced with Fel Intelligence and Shadow Bite.
Fel Intelligence (Felhunter): Increases total Intellect and Spirit of party and raid members by 3%. Lasts until cancelled.
Infernal: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour. Duration reduced to 1 minute, down from 5 minutes+. Health increased by 30%, damage increased by 60%, and armor increased by 30%.
Imp: Health increased by 20% , Armor increased 16%, mana regeneration increased 200%.
Master Demonologist (Demonology) – Most effects have been altered.
            – Master Demonologist – Felguard (Demonology) – Now increases all damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and reduces all damage done to you by 1/2/3/4/5%.
            – Master Demonologist – Imp (Demonology) – Now increases Fire damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Fire spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
            – Master Demonologist – Succubus (Demonology) – Now increases Shadow damage by 1/2/3/4/5%, and critical hit chance with Shadow spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
            – Master Demonologist (Demonology) – Most effects have been altered.
 
Nether Protection has been reworked. It now has a 10/20/30% chance when you’re hit with a spell to reduce all damage by that spell school by 60% for 10 seconds.
New Talent: Improved Felhunter (Affliction): Your Felhunter gains mana equal to 50/100% of the damage done by its Shadow Bite ability, and increases the effect of your Felhunter’s Fel Intelligence by 1/2%.
Rain of Fire (Doomguard): A bug has been fixed which caused each tick of Rain of Fire to consume its mana cost.
Shadow Bite (Felhunter): Deals Shadow damage plus an additional 5% Shadow damage over time effect on the target. 6 second cooldown.
Soulstone now generates a log entry indicating who casted and received a soulstone.
Spell Lock (Felhunter) global cooldown removed.
Succubus: Health increased by 20%, armor increased 22%.
Summon Dreadsteed/Felsteed: Mana cost removed, global cooldown removed.
Voidwalker: Health increased by 20%, Damage increased by 16%. The amount of attack power the Voidwalker gains from its master’s spell damage has been increased by 45%.

PvP
 
Medallion of the Horde and Insignia of the Alliance are now available for purchase on PvP vendors. For the purposes of testing these currently cost only gold to buy.

Professions
Leatherworking
 
Drums now cause a Tinnitus effect, preventing affected targets from receiving beneficial effects from other drums for two minutes.

Mining
 
Smelt Elementium must be relearned by players who still wish to know the spell by visiting a trainer in Blackwing Lair.

Quests
 
Alliance characters on the “Check in With Bizie” quest in Borean Tundra can now ask Kara Thricestar for a flying machine ride out to Bizie Wrenchshanker.
The “Escape from Winterfin Retreat” quest is now named “Escape from the Winterfin Caverns”. The escort is shorter and no longer requires a pre-requisite quest to get a key.
There is now a new murloc questgiver named Glrglrglr within the Winterfin Caverns. This questgiver needs you to ge the key to his cage so that he can be set free. This is not an escort quest.
Fewer cannonballs are now required for the Alliance quest “Danger! Explosives!”.
Petrov’s Cluster Bombs no longer cause caster procs during the Alliance quest “Break the Blockade”.
The Alliance quest, “Break the Blockade” no longer caps out at revered Valiance Expedition faction.
During the Alliance quest “Hah…You’re Not So Big Now!”, Crafty’s Ultra-Advanced Proto-Typical Shortening Blaster no longer has a chance to transform the character into a magnataur. Instead it has a chance to transform the character into the likeness of Crafty Wobblesprocket.
In Dragonblight, the “Ley Line” questline was reworked so that players are led into and must first complete the quests at the Ruby Dragonshrine before they will be given an audience with Queen Alexstrasza.
The quest character Kor’ghan (Finding the Antidote) was moved to just outside the Cleft of Shadow’s poison vendor.

User Interface
 
New Calendar feature: Players will be able to access the new Calendar feature by clicking on the new icon located in the top right corner of their mini map. The calendar will track in game events, allow raid scheduling, and more.
New Vanity Pet and Mount changes: Players will now be able to access their non-combat pets and mounts by clicking on the pets tab in the Character Info panel. These pets and mounts will be now learnable much like spells or abilities. Once a vanity pet or mount is learned, the icon will disappear from within a player’s inventory and reappear in the appropriate tab under the pet tab under Character Info. Say goodbye to your vanity pets and mounts taking up bag and bank slots!
Error messages should play less frequently
Tradeskills can now be linked by shift-clicking the tradeskill icon
Quests can be shared with party members at any distance
Quests can be shared with party members by linking the quest into party chat
Quests can be shared in raids but not battlegrounds
A 5 minute timer will appear over the player’s unit frame showing the countdown until your PvP flag is cleared

Michael Phelps

What’s the deal with this guy? He’s either the most astounding athelete of the last few decades, or else he’s found type of enhancement that no one else has yet. He’s won four gold medals in as many events, and is expected to win four more by the end of the Beijing games.

On my lunch break here at Planet Express I was hanging out with Fry who insisted that he’s just a superb athlete. That’s acceptable, he DID win six medals in Athens only four years previous.  With the new Speedo LZR (wtf, did Motorola help with the name?) , four years of strenuous training and motivation, this 23 year old is in the best shape of his life. He has the confidence of the world behind him, who are carefully watching his every race. Even though not everyone wants the American team to win, it’s doubtful we’re going to see someone of this ability again anytime soon.

On the other hand, it could be possible he has some enhancement that no other athletes have yet. Granted there have been now over 4500 drug screening tests done in regards to the 29th Olympiad going down right now. But there are instances of drugs and hormones that are still undetectable. Or to make it even easier, the athletes can also just not answer their phone or door, therefore not recieving their summon to the drug test.

I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks if anything comes up, or if he’s just the human alias of Aquaman. Until then, I’m going to keep hoping Canada pulls up and out of 47th place.

Michael Phelps

Absentee Managers

     A few days ago I was cruising Digg and came across a very interesting blog (the same that prompted me to make this one). It’s about an office worker with a boss that does nothing and seems to do get away with everything. It makes me laugh, because I’ve been it similar situations; Huzzah for working in an office/tech environment.

     In any case, today’s entry in WhereIsBob references to the narrators manager/director, Bob, always being absent (full story in her previous posts) from his job. It comes out that he has a second job where he is equally incompetent and somehow, to the bewilderment of all, benefits from his situation. I was strongly reminded of Cooper Harris from the film Eurotrip and how he just keeps in contact with his boss during his shenanigans, and ends the movie with getting a raise and promotion.

Life isn’t always fair, but it can sure be funny.

 

PS.  Go read it. The blog is terrifically funny and very well-written. http://whereisbob.wordpress.com/

Apples.

About a week ago, I was tearing my house apart in a desperate search for my Angels and Airwaves ticket. It was a sold out show, and I had been so excited to go. In my search, I found the essay I had written for my English 12 Provincial exam. At the time I thought I was being extremely clever, hinting at sex while writing about apples. Now it’s not very well disguised at all, but it still managed to get me 98%. Which was my best English grade ever. Now you can enjoy it as much as my teacher did.

 

There are many types of relationships. Some relationship are about being open and having a good time, while others remain scholarly in nature. People have relationships with cars, computers, cable TV, and will devote more caring to these than people. However, one of the most intimate, yet most overlooked relationships is between a person and an apple.

 No one ever just chooses some random apple any more than they would choose a random person to form such a close bond with. From previous encounters they know that they don’t want an apple that is too young, and therefore, too unwilling to yield to a craving. Yet if the apple is too old for their taste, too ripe, they lose the pleasure that exists in devouring it’s firm, untouched flesh; instead it instantly folds under their teeth releasing a too-sweet juice that remains as a reminder to their poor choice.

 As in all relationships, a person must select carefully the proper time to advance, to eat this apple and be satisfied with it. Even beyond choosing the apple to suit a particular taste is the very process of enjoying it. Everyone has a different method of making the best of such a memorable union. Some savour the fruit one bite at a time, enjoying the experience of the treat crunching under their inscissors while simultaneously having the juice trickle down their throat. Other people know that for themselves, pleasure exits primarily in a series of short, swift bites that soon leave a gash around the apple. Of course, there is an occasion where an experimental individual will induce a new technique to ingest the apple and learn that this new style is more sensational than the last, forever teaching them that change can be beneficial.

Finally, no one appreciates intruders into this intimate development between themselves and their snack. The pleasurable explosions of sweet flavour lingering on their tongue is considerably diminished if they realize their mouth hasn’t been the only one on this fruit. Such knowledge breaks the trust between them and their treat, bringing about jealousy and the fear that it’s other partner had a virus or contagious disease.

 The experience between a person and their apple are much overlooked, yet they affect the way people choose and savour their next one in much the same way two people may affect each other. Particularly good moments are remembered, while the bad ones servce as valuable lessons. Enjoy eating such an intimate fruit: it’s a bigger life influence than expected.

Digg, Reddit, Etc

     As part of my job, a crucial part of the shift is staying amused between dealing with customers. For a while I cycled through book after book after book until I finished almost every stand-alone novel by Stephen King. I went to the flea market and picked up a GameBoy Colour and Pokémon Crystal for 10$ and beat all 16 gyms(and no, I haven’t caught them all yet; that seems too tedious as of now). About two to three weeks ago I began to frequent sites such as digg or reddit. I’ve always checked them from time to time and used them to help construct an archive of trivial facts and knowledge, and I’ve enjoyed browsing the headlines from time to time. You can get anything from trivial to scientific.

     Now, I’m pretty sure you’re thinking “Neato mosquito! I’m going to go check those out right now!” Don’t. These past couple weeks have gone from a variety of pages to, literally, 18/25 of the front page headlines being more on Obama VS McCain, or Russia VS Georgia, or even “TEH UNITED STATES NEED TO DECLARE WAR ON RUSSIA BECAUSE THEY SUCK”. All of these are very important events in the world, but I’d personally enjoy it more if they were only a couple headlines from reputable news corporations. Like, when a number of the ones mentioned refer to the ridiculous stories given by Fox News or are just the typical war-mongering American bully tactics I find it hard to enjoy.

     I accept that the upcoming American presidential election will have a HUGE impact on the world, including the NATO involvement in the Middle East and even the way Canada reacts. The upcoming president will have to recover from the largest debt ever faced by the United States, attempt to battle their falling economy, and find a solution to the ongoing ‘War on an idea’. Yet, I want to be updated as something happens. I’m not interested in smear campaigns. And I’m definitely not interested in hearing American comments on stories about the Georgia conflict. To have a seven year war happening already with no definite outcome so far is devastating enough, but to start another war? Didn’t the world recently finish thawing out from the last war with them?

     The last problem I’ve had with all these stories (that I’m writing on today) is the comments. Usually I try to ignore them, but more and more the same time have been spreading from opinions and editorials, to comments on official new websites, to even trade chat in WoW. You’ve probably seen similar ones: “The world only hates America because they know we could kick their ass!” or to directly quote Horde player Vidro: “If the Chinese hurt another American tourist… 200 nukes = all of them taught a lesson.” Thank you Vidro, for helping everyone with that educated comment.

     My apologies for spinning this into a rant, but isn’t that what blogs are for? In any case, thanks for listening. It’s awfully nice to be able to just “express” myself in a way that shouldn’t result in my flaming too badly. Unless of course this post gets up there on Digg or Reddit, which will give me a little boost to my feeling of self-importance. Until that day, however, I’m just happy some things can get up the those main pages that teach me something, or give me a laugh.

BLACK HOLE

THIS IS SUPER FREAKING COOL.

 

Black hole destroying a galaxy.