I recently got Picasa and am using it with Picasa Web Albums to put my WoW screenies up online and keep them updated and stuff. There are even captions!

Enjoy? :)

World of Warcraft

Today's heroic daily was the Culling of Stratholme instance in the Caverns of Time. I was very excited about this because a) I'd never done it before and b) it's neat! I went into LFG as dps or healer, very mindful of my experience with that Oculus PUG. Things looked pretty bad, though, as there seemed to be a real shortage of tanks. Finally, I told the dps types that if one of them could heal or bring in a healer, I would tank... but that I didn't have a lot of tanking experience and had never done CoS at all. They seemed OK with this -- really, we all wanted to get the instance done -- and after the paladin went holy and another dps was brought in (a cat druid no less), we sallied forth.

And lo, my faith in the existence of Good PUGs was restored.

CoS really is a fun instance, and the boss fights are all simple tank-and-spanks, which naturally I like. :P The hordes of undead coming in waves can be a little hairy from a tank perspective -- trying to keep 'em all focused on ME and not Arthas or my groupmates -- but not horribly overwhelming. Nobody bitched or snapped or made snide side remarks about how they kept getting aggro no matter what they hit. We finished the instance (though Chromie didn't spawn at the end, the little bint), and everybody was happy.

Plus, I finally got enough seals for the heirloom robe for the troll priest I'm levelling, AND the Onyxia whelplings are finally in the mail! Yay!

All in all, a good evening, WoW-wise.

Long long ago, when Wrath was not even an anticipatory twinkle in WoW-players' eyes, I created a grey-furred female Tauren druid named Greysmoke. My intention for her was to make her a Feraly-Feral druid and Bear-tank for fun and profit.

Some time after she hit 80 and I finally started to think seriously about doing Heroics and things, I decided that I just didn't have the gear to have the confidence to tank. Since it's nigh-impossible most days to get a group as DPS, I shelled out the gold for dual-spec, more gold for another set of gear, and put myself up as a healer. As it turned out, I have something of a knack for healing, and even when the going was rough, I got a lot of kudos and compliments and generally people were positive toward me.

I kept my Bear spec and gear, but if I wasn't healing, I went in as DPS, and again generally nobody minded or said anything about my damage being sub-par.

Today, finally, I dipped my toe into tanking. My gear looked pretty decent and I figured I had the health to take on a Heroic (as long as it wasn't Trial of the Champion). It'd been a long, long time since I tanked anything, but I knew the basics and I figured it'd be OK.

Several hours later, here I sit saved to Heroic Oculus with nothing but the last boss to kill, having been abandoned by the priest and then the warlock and rogue because, oh dear, we wiped /twice/ on that last boss. Yes, twice. And /once/ on the guy you have to kite around the circle because I didn't know you had to kite him. OMG, three whole wipes!

So, fuck you, Mr. Rogue and Ms. Warlock who kept stealing my aggro and dying. YES, you fuckers, I was using Swipe. AND glyphed Maul (which hits 2 targets instead of 1). I didn't ask, but do you two actually know how to /assist? And NO you were NOT "waiting 2-3 seconds" before doing anything. 2-3 seconds is a LONG FUCKING TIME and might have given me a chance to get OFF a few fucking Swipes. Boo hoo hoo, you had a 40g repair bill. Did you think I didn't?

Gah.

Rationally, I should tell myself that I /am/ new at tanking and this is just one incident. (Though the last time I tanked for a PUG, with Klube, it sucked balls too.) Emotionally, I just feel like shit, like I should just turn my Bearspec into Cat and never bother tanking again, just Heal or DPS and naturally that means just Heal unless I'm soloing. Or Heal and solo as Boomkin and carry around only one set of gear.

Or maybe I'll just never tank for a PUG ever again.

Meh.

Hilarious and awesome.

The Halloween holiday's finally in Azeroth (and Outlands). I haven't been doing much with Greysmoke lately, I have to admit. She's in a nice guild and I've been invited to do Naxx25 on Friday night, but since a) I might be going out for RL stuff that night and b) even if I'm not I have to be at work at 8am on Saturday, I had to decline. Which makes me kind of a sad panda. :(

Greysmoke has a lot of the Hallow's End achievements already, and finishing up the trick or treating for the Outlands was a breeze. Nor do I expect any trouble with most of the other achievements... except for the random number generator. So far, in the once-an-hour trick or treating, Greysmoke's gotten candy, penny pouches, and been turned into things. No sinister squashling (she has the pumpkin helm already from last year), no pumpkins to put on the head of a dwarf (the last race she needs for that achievement), no wands to trade costumes with. :/ Meh. I might try a different innkeeper; the one in Dalaran is being stingy.

In more uplifting and INTERESTING news, my husband is working on an independent film -- as writer/director. :] Maze already has a website up and running, so feel free to pop over there and even subscribe to the blog. Heck, we even have a couple of wallpapers to download. ;) Filming should occur sometime next year, hopefully in March. Woot!

As you can imagine, I'm super-proud of him. <3

Saw this on WoW.com. Very lovely and I adore taurens, so! Must share.

Saw District 9 today with my husband. Hubby was squicked by a certain part of the first half (third?) -- and annoyed that no one'd warned him about that squickful element. He had some other issues with it as well, but felt good about the movie overall.

I agree -- it's a very good sci-fi flick and lord knows there haven't been many of those lately. The reviews seem to act like it's the second coming of Movie Christ and the Best Thing Ever, kind of like they did for Iron Man. To which I say, no. It's a fucking good movie, but not the Best Thing Ever. (And I'd say that for Iron Man, too.)

Also! Very early on, the protagonist reminded me VERY STRONGLY of Michael Scott from the American TV version of "The Office" and I just COULD NOT SHAKE this impression. Which gave the whole thing a kind of extra layer of unreality for me. And vague amusement.

REALLY liked the design of the Prawns.

Dawnfeather @ Freewind Post In Thousand Needles, level 28. Yep, I'm playing WoW again. :)

Been playing a lot of Oblivion. Messed around with various characters. Am currently playing a rather savage, half-feral, half-crazy Nord.

I named him "Jack" because I went completely blank, name-wise. He really doesn't have a name, or at least none that anyone cares about.

Imprisoned

Nighttime Prowling

Top of the world!

Falling is like flying! (Until you land, anyway...)

Just read Amazing Spider-Man #600 which was a big Doc Ock return issue/story.

Wasn't impressed.

In fact, I feel kind of depressed and let down. :(

Meh.

Bwahahahaha.

Oh, man. I have to write this down before I forget it completely. I just woke up from a Doc Ock dream. :D

It started with me, hubby, and some friends going to see a new Spiderman movie in this tiny hallway/hotel theater. Not a lot of people there. (And on the way I bought a Deadpool comic (I don't even like Deadpool, wtf brain) but was going to exchange it afterwards because the comic had a hole through it.

The movie started off well enough. Norman Osborn (played by a scarred up Willem Defoe) was back and a guy playing Panther Man was trying out some equipment of Osborn's, being recruited I s'pose. And I was all excited because Ock was supposed to return in this movie, so I was all bouncy.

Then the movie cut off and it was all dark and people were milling around in the hallway (there weren't any seats) going wtf. I was separated from hubby and looking for him.

And then Otto was there, in the crowd with us.

I didn't see him well, he was wearing the long coat and we all only saw a tentacle here and there. (He was being "played" by Alfred Molina only in the dream this wasn't fakery or acting, though for a while I thought it was.) People got panicky, but Otto just passed through us and out. And of course I followed him outside.

It was... early early morning, I think, dawn-ish.

Anyway, Otto realized that I was following him and he had this really hard, intense look on his face, and I stammered a lot going, basically "omg i am your biggest fan please don't kill me!" and he was, I dunno, gratified by the attention I s'pose. He was very movie-canon Otto but evolved to be closer to his comic book self. His glasses (which he wore sometimes and sometimes not -- I could see his eyes a lot) had greenish rims, and the jumpsuit/outfit and boots he had on were green too. Underneath a brown longcoat.

He showed me the improvements he made in his tentacles, and they looked a lot like that Alex Ross cover -- thinner than in Spiderman 2 but with the same claw structure... and he did this big reveal showing how there were six of them. I ohhed and ahhed and asked him a zillion questions and he, basically, showed off.

The new tentacles moved very sleekly, much more dexterously than in Spiderman 2, much more like living things -- organic though purely metal. Otto explained that they followed his will more closely... and he showed how they were able to extend reaaaally far and then retract to almost no length at all, for going incognito of course.

It was really, really cool-looking and awesome -- and of course I told him so. (I think I got to hug him, too, which is just my brain going Mary Sue all over the place, hahaha.)

I followed him back to his hideout (near a pier, go figure) and he had me make him breakfast while I pelted him with questions and all. Then things got hairy because my husband (*HEART*) followed me, which of course Otto didn't like. He calmed down when I assured him that I didn't deliberately lead hubby to the hide-out and thankfully didn't get violent, either.

All through this, part of me marvelled at Molina's acting, because he struck just this right balance -- sometimes Otto would be utterly charming and affable, but then he'd switch and have the hardest, most intense look on his face that just made you know that he was a dangerous individual that could and would do dangerous things.

So hubby helped me make Otto breakfast, which took way too long because the little kitchen area was cramped and cluttered. Fortunately, Otto seemed untroubled by this -- I think he was busy with something outside. Finally it was done, however, and I took the plate and OJ outside, hubby following. Hubby'd reminded me that we had to go, so I told Otto this and he didn't mind and that's when I woke up.

He didn't ever treat me like his bestest friend. It was more like he accepted me as a loyal minion in the (now that I think about it) Caroline Trainer mode. Which, for me, totally fits.

And there you have it. My Doc Ock dream. True story. :)

(Crossposted to Doc Ock's Lair.)

Tauren Death Knight... and white kitten.



OMG TINY.

Just a couple of things:

Greysmoke is level 78! She dinged while finishing out quests in Dragonblight. And once she finishes the quests for the goblin and the frost giants, she'll be done there and both explored and quested out Howling Fjord, Boreon Tundra, Grizzly Hills, and Dragonblight. Zul'Drak's next, I figure. Looks like 80's actually within reach. :D

No More Kings, of such awesome tunes such as Sweep the Leg and Michael (Jump In) has a new album coming out in May! And they've got a free download of one of the new songs on their website. Whee!

The comments I got from my previous entry make me think I should list the WoW Blogs I /do/ like and read regularly.

First off, I gotta mention Resto4Life, which I discovered when dabbling with druid healy goodness on Greysmoke. She's retired from blogging, alas, but I thought I should mention it anyway. It's good stuff. Other resto druid blogs I read include 4Haelz and Tree Bark Jacket.

Gotta give a shout-out to BigBearButt, of course, for druid tanky goodness. I really dig his ideas for learning new languages in WoW, and check out his post on bear-tanking in Violet Hold (with a video!).

Also, there's Achtung Panzercow, whose "So you want to be a Prot warrior" series has inspired me to roll up a new baby warrior and work on her from the ground up.

And of course, for general WoW news, check out WoW Insider, which has a number of regular features, and -- if you dig podcasts -- the Instance, which ktread20 and I have been listening to off and on, with interest.

There are a lot of other blogs and podcasts and such out there, of course, but those are the ones I find myself paying attention to the most. :)

I hate gamer elitism. Seriously.

Current source of my ire is BigRedKitty, a WoW blogger who plays a dwarf hunter.

Now, I don't doubt that BRK knows his stuff, and when he started posting instructional videos on starting a hunter, I was interested. Unfortunately, he takes a very elitist "tone", and it comes down to this. Calling people "huntards" because they're meleeing at level 6 (before pet) or even at level 80 (when soloing) is just obnoxious.

I took BRK off my RSS reader, needless to say. :P

Last night, Greysmoke FINALLY hit level 77. After finishing the quest I was on, I hearthed back to Vengeance Landing (I've been doing the Howling Fjord quests for completeness), took a bat to Dalaran, and slapped down 1000 gold for Cold Weather Flying.

Thanks Hatari of Voodoo Reborn for comin' out to witness my happy birdness and for letting me divebomb her a few times. :D

YAY BIRDIE.

Questing's gonna be soooo much faster now, yes yes.

Meet Iggan, a new rising star in my stable of WoW characters. I rolled him up on a whim, when the blogger of BigBearButt mentioned open recruitment of his guild. I like BBB, I like the cut of his jib, and I like the philosophy behind Sidhe Devils, so I rolled a nelf druid on Kael'thas and applied.

They're a fun bunch and I look forward to eventually doing some of that high-level shit with 'em. I also look forward to seeing Outland and Northrend from an Alliance perspective.

I think I'm a lil' addicted to druids. Also, wow, there are two other Iggans according to WoWArmory.

Greysmoke, on Shadow Council, has gone back to her first love, Feral. She's smokin' at 76 and I need to get off my ass and get her to 77 so she can fly again. Also! She's now guild leader of Circle of Gurahl, so if any of you GarouMUSH types out there want in, poke me. :3

And then there's Klube. I spec'd him back to Fury for no better reason than I'm scared of tanking as a warrior; it's not really easier soloing as Fury than Protection, not these days. I don't like Titan's Grip, though. It seems like the kind of thing EVERY Fury warrior should take, but what I liked about Fury was wailing away superfast with two one-handed swords, or daggers, or fist weapons, or whatever. Two-handed weapons are s l o w. Blah. So mostly Klube is chilling out and not doing much; I take him out to quest every so often but that's it.

I've yet to do anything serious with any Death Knight character, which is just kinda sad because I really love playing 'em. But maybe I don't love 'em enough, eh? Or something.