So I am in the Dragonblight, grinding down the rested bonus of my shaman Larue, taking her a little closer to 76, when I get this whisper from a guildie of mine, a paladin named Faster.
He says he just read on my blog, this blog, that my missing posts are still missing and he wonders how because he can see all of them, clear as day, in his google reader.
I think he must have them locally saved or not marked as read or something, because I've been scouring the internet for any possible location where my lost posts might be residing, and I haven't been able to find them.
I found a few in the public google cache (or whatever you call it) and a few more that I had forgotten to mark as read in my own reader, but that was about it.
I added a google reader subscription to my blog after I'd managed to delete them all, and in that reader I can only see the google cached ones and the new ones I've posted.
Faster persists in saying he can see all my posts in his reader, and I am starting to feel a faint glimmer of hope - maybe I can get the texts back from his reader?
And then I try to log out of my usual google account and onto another. I setup a subscription for my blog in the reader and press update.
The post list starts filling up, and filling up, and filling up... All my posts from the very first day I started blogging in november 2007 is in that list! All of them!! Links, images and all!
The only missing things are the comments, but there were not that many of them and although I was very happy whenever I saw that someone had taken the time to leave a comment I think I can live without them.
So, now I am going to copy/paste the posts back to my blog! If I am feeling ambitious enough I may even fix the links and images (they won't work after the copy paste) but for now I am just so deliriously happy that I have found my rantings and musings again!
Thanks a lot Faster!
(And although I am so very happy now, I am a little questioning as to why can't the post retrieval be somewhat easier? First of all, having a delete all-option without a confirmation required is downright nasty, and my posts are obviously stored somewhere on the google domain, so why can't there be a restore all-option as well without having to go through the hell of trying to find someone who can do it for you?)
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Faster, the greatest hero of all times!
Northrend Beware!
'Twas a bright and sunny day when the merry adventurers gathered at the guardian stone lion keeping his silent watch in the beautiful harbour of the humans' capital of Stormwind.
The old world was explored, its adventures experienced, now a new world was beckoning- but you can't leave the old world behind without a going away-party!
Our bold adventurers said their goodbyes and eagerly awaited the coming of the boat that would take them to Northrend - a land of ice and cold and questing and new shiny bright fortunes!.jpg)
Inspired by the moment (and maybe a little carried away by the free drinks provided ) the daring crew came up with one master plan after another!.jpg)
Others were more concerned about their own immediate safety.
But we all made it safely across the cold Northern Sea and arrived in Valiance Keep.
A whole new world out there, to explore and discover and to make new friends (and the occasional enemy) in! Northrend beware - Ascendo Tuum is about to hit you!
To be continued...
(And yes I know I am late posting this)
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Eavesdroppers?
Have you ever noticed that the npc's in WoW seem to interact with you in more ways than one, ie the normal responding when you right-click on them.
Take a look at this screenshot from a guildchat conversation:
Doesn't it seem just like that Goblin Commoner is responding to me talking about excess gold lying around? It's really good timing, is it really a coincidence?
Is Blizzard monitoring our conversations and making the npc's respond to it? Or am I being paranoid? And btw no thanks, I am not cold, I don't need that extra jacket, and it doesn't really look very comfortable anyways with all those straps on it, and why are you coming at me with that needle thingy, aaaargh get off me get off me, get aaaaargh....
Guild Photos!
This here is my guild!.jpg)
Well, almost half of it anyways, about 35 of the 85-ish unique members of Ascendo Tuum joined up this night for a guild photo shoot at the top of the stairs to the Dark Portal to mark the momentous occasion of the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King.
Quite a few of us were there on time and I, being a good warlock, had brought 2 huge bags full of Soul Shards, so as people logged in we invited them to the raid and summoned them to us.
(I am the small one on the left in front in the pretty purple dress.)
This was not my first guild photo session actually, I took screenshots on another momentous occasion some time ago too: The drunken Silvermoon City Raid!
We started out with a picnic in Blade's Edge Mountains.
(Note Jools' pretty summer dress that sparkles and flames when she dances.)
A guildie had been rising in the ogre ranks and was now hailed as King of the Ogres! He invited us all to join the party and we all took to quaffing a lot of Ogre Brew.
Quaffing has a side effect though, it makes the surroundings blurry!
We were gonna have us some fun in this highly inebriated state! We hearthed to Shatt, took the portal to the isle and flew off to Zul'Aman!
Ogre Brew stays in your system for a loong time! And no, we were not going to ZA, we had a slightly higher aim than that - we we're going for the Belf boss!
And the Belf Bashing was a great success! Their leader was going dooooown!
But the Belfs were calling in the reinforcements and suddenly we were the ones going down instead...
And this was my very first Ascendo Tuum guild photo ;P
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Bye Bye Vashj
Some months ago I moved Jools over from the pvp server Vashj to the pve server Aerie Peak.
The reason for this was that I really enjoyed playing her but she very rarely got any invites to runs or raids when she could attend because the healer spots were usually filled by badge-bloated officer healers.
I played a lot with some out-of guild friends, but they were doing the more hardcore raiding every night and I was feeling a little lonely.
So I moved her.
This was the first time I played seriously on a pve server, and I got a serious woot! Is this for real?? experience!
There were never any problem summoning raiders or replacement cause of summoning stone wars. It actually took me several Kara runs to realise that half the people outside at the stone were Horde!
While I still felt that initial adrenaline rush upon seeing a Horde when out questing, it petered out when I realised that they would not try to kill me, not now, not when I was attacking a quest mob, not ever.
Suddenly, whole areas of gameplay opened up again. I created a new alt and I will take her through Stranglethorn Vale again, a place that I really loved with that jungle theme and abundance of quests, but I have not been lvling there for years because the sheer amount of ganking I’ve experienced there.
My warrior dinged 70 just some weeks ago, and while it was pretty ok doing the last lvls in Outland since there was hardly any people around, Horde or Alliance, I dread the coming of the Wrath of the Lick King, when the new areas will be filled with people levelling, questing and - ganking.
Sure, I realise that you can accidentally flag yourself for pvp in various ways and get killed by a player of the opposite faction, but in almost all of my pv server encounters with Horde I won’t have to worry about that.
So, I was thinking of moving the rest of the flock over to Aerie Peak too. I have spent my entire time on Vashj detesting gankers and now I will get an awful lot of time to spend on playing instead of swearing, corpse running or moving to another area to quest.
The fact that sort of clinched it though, was that the guild I joined with Jools turned out to be a collection of real sweet and fun people! I didn’t have to worry that I wouldn’t find any new friends because I already had!
So I started sorting out my bags and told my Vashj friends about my plans. I will miss them but I feel this is the right way for me to go. It’s a bit expensive though, Blizzard charges 20 Euro per transfer, so I am looking at a total cost of 120 Euros, but I have no doubt at all it will be money well spent!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Srs raiding is the shit!
I stopped by Cenarion Post and picked up a brand new pretty feathered speed-bird for my srs raiding priest and then I flew off on said bird to the Coilfang reservoir and swam down the drainpipe to be ready and prepared, yes sir!, outside Serpentshrine Cavern at 2015 sharp yesterday.
I had a big picnic basket with me, 100 Sacred Candles with me, 20 charges of Superior Mana Oil, 5 Flasks of Mighty Restoration and more Golden Fish Sticks than even the most devout lover of fish'n chips could devour in a lifetime.
- Read up on tactics? Check.
- Repaired? Check.
- Bags full of mana pots? Check.
I Was Prepared.
Going to be raiding srsly two days a week now, Mondays and Wednesdays from 20.30 til whenever are now marked Do Not Disturb in my calendar, in the company of 24 more like-minded people in the Raid Core of Jools' otherwise casual Aerie Peak guild.
Yesterday was the kick-off for the Raid Core after the summer holidays, and we were going to Serpentshrine Cavern to kick the tender asses of the Lurker and Leotheras the Blind.
Was I nervous? Yes. Was I thrilled? Yes.
I had been on a Lurker kill before, after a wipeless Maggy kill followed by a successful High King Maulgar and Gruul kill, when we were all high on success and raid adrenaline and kept going to SSC and the lurking fish boss there, so I wasn't too worried about that fight.
I remembered some basic facts of SSC, like don't jump down the elevator, don't fall into the water, stay out of the green mist when the Bog giants die, and such, so the trash pulls went by pretty fast and I kept my tank alive without a fuss.
What is very important about the Lurker fight, btw? That's right, jump into the water when he takes a deep breath and stay there until he has finished spouting.
This was an ah, right-moment for me as he took his deep breath and aimed straight for me when he stared spouting. Result:
But I since wasn't the only one that kicked the bucket that fight we ressed, buffed up and fished that scaled monster out of his hidey-hole again.
What are the odds of the damned slimy boss taking that deep breath of his and immediately start spouting at the very same person (=me!) that just happens to be slightly slow jumping off the island.
Very high, it seems...
Wasn't that bad though, I had a rather good view of the fireworks from my position safely away from the action ;P
After we got our revenged and looted phat epix from the dead pile of stinking scales and fishbone, we headed onwards!
And who is to say that the guild spirit is not one for all and all for one? When one of the tanks got knocked into the water and the trash mob followed him there, he was first joined by a healer and a dps to help beat him down. After the rest of us had taken the mobs still on the platform down we all followed suit, like a flock of lemmings we threw ourselves down into the water!
Leo was a bit of a badass though, and sadly he lived to see another day while we got seriously pwned by him.
Possible reasons why we didn't kill him:
- seasoned raiders were a bit rusty and new ones were a bit unused to the chaotic havoc-wreaking and dazzling, screaming fireworks (it is very different from the 10-man raids)
- general bad luck
- and of course the general scape-goat: LAG! (although sadly I can't blame my mistakes yesterday on that because it was totally lag-free)
- hmm can't really think of any other reason...:)
But his respite won't last long, tomorrow we will take him down!!
I got an unexpected surprise as well in there, one of my friends from my old pvp server popped in on a newly created lvl 2 alt just to say hello!!
What I Learned From Yesterday's Raiding
from my own and my fellow raiders experiences and (mis-)fortunes.
1. Warlocks are handy. They will summon you back up to the platforms if you are a noob and fall into the water and an even bigger noob and can't find your way up.
2. If you die on the elevator down and your dead body goes up and down on it, don't accept a friendly ress unless the platform is at the bottom.
3. If you don't kill off your Inner Demon fast enough and end up being mind-controlled, and the raid wipes before they can kill you off, you end up being mind-controlled for the entire 10 minutes, after which you just die.
4. Don't pull more than one trash pack at a time.
5. If you rely on BigWigs or some similar boss mod to help you time your actions, do remember to enable it for the particualr raid instance you are in.
Hmm think that's all for now, folks, will undoubtedly have more words of wisdom to share after tomorrow.
Monday, June 16, 2008
...where many have gone before
Aerie Peak is a highly populated pve server and Jools' new guild has a lot of members. SW was more crowded than I have ever seen it.
I was pretty nervous when I logged in for the first time here, and whispered the recruiting officer of the guild for an invite.
Was a bit like going to a new job for the first time, you are really careful not to make an ass of yourself, like laughing at the wrong things, saying the wrong things or generally put your foot in it.
Well, I was invited and heartily welcomed by them all :-)
Some guildies wanted to do a heroic and I offered my services as a healer (trepidatingly, cause I did not want to mess things up and lose ppl due to sucky healing on my very first day here, but I figured I might as well jump into the boiling pot as soon as possible, so to speak ;P)
I got extra nervous when I discovered that all my addons had been resetted during the transfer, and all my customized help-for-a-confused-healer was gone. Hurriedly I tried to set them up from memory, and I got the basic parts covered.
Anyways, off to the Ramparts we went, me, a bear tank and three hunters. I needn't have worried, the run went smooth and fast and it was a lot of fun. I didn't lose anybody, which was more luck than skill on my part though cause there were some real close calls when I misclicked or was just plain absentminded.
Well, I did die myself once, due to my own stupidity... *slaps head* Psychic Scream, dummy, use that when the mobs are beating on you, Fade is on cd and the bear's Growl is resisted! (Well, use it in situations like this at least, when there's no risk that the feared mobs will draw new ones to you.)
All in all, it was not a bad first-night-in-the-guild for me. To paraphrase an aviator's saying, "any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing", and I think I was able to walk from this one pretty good.
So, hello my new guildes, it was good to meet you and I am looking forward to getting to know you all :-)
Type rest of the post here
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
/gquit
So I left my guild yesterday.
Again, I might say. I gquit some months ago after having had doubts about my place in the guild and what I wanted from the guild, but soon realised I had made a mistake and came back. This time its no mistake.
We were a small guild with a pretty loose management. We had struggled with recruitings for raid and frequent dropouts by many of the new recruits when they realised that a guild just starting on Karazhan was no fast way to pretty shinies. We had worked out some agreements on how to do things to be fair and treat everyone equally and things seemed to be working.
Lately one of my fellow officers have been rushing ahead, deciding things, changing things without caring about our agreements. I don’t mind that for urgent matters, things that needs to be dealt with swiftly and when there’s no time to ask the advice of others – hell no, I welcome the ability to make fast decisions under difficult circumstances and have never questioned any of them. Committee solutions are not for every situation.
However, things like changes to the loot system and promotions are not urgent and does not need to be done on the spur of the moment. When I have asked him to please stick with our agreed upon ways of doing things, or if he thinks they need a change lets discuss it – we have wrangled those ways many times for many reasons and everyone has made concessions and compromises to get a fair and effective working system but hey, why not go over them again? – I get called rude things, I get told I am being offended to easily, I get told I critisize too much, I get told I take things too seriously and that I need to loosen up, I am ruining the fun of the game because he was too tired or too bored or too whatever to wait and do it our way because in his opinion he was following the spirit of it and not the letter.
Well I think that following the spirit of our guild is to try to do things the way we have agreed upon, it is not difficult or complicated or anything like that, it's a matter of courtesy to the rest of the officers who put in time and effort to get the guild running smoothly and fairly, both for us and for our members.
Who is right? Who is wrong? I don’t know and now I don’t care anymore. He’s right about one thing, it's a game and it is supposed to be fun. When it starts to feel more like work than play its time to seriously consider if you want to go on.
I am not really mad at him or anyone else, he has his opinion and I have mine. Its not always bad, but lately the bad parts have been dwarfing the fun too much for me to really enjoy playing, and it seems pointless to even try to make things work.
So, I considered and I decided and I told my guildies that I wasn’t happy in the guild, hadn’t been happy for some time, I wasn’t mad at any of them or anything but it felt more like work than play and that I felt thin like Bilbo, butter spread over to much bread, and I gquit.
I was crying as I did it, but then again, I cry for a lot of things so it is not really that big a deal.
So how do I feel now?
Relieved, actually. It feels like I can breathe again, like a huge burden is off my shoulders.
And I realise it was not just the constant arguing that wore me down, there were other little officer things as well that was tearing away at me, like the attempts to keep a semblance of raids going while our usual raid leaders were away.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a lovely guild with a lot of sweet and fun and friendly people I left, and I will miss all of them a lot. I just don’t want to stay there, and if I ever join another guild I will stay very far away from the guild managing business. I get enough of project leading shit at work, never again will I try to do that in my free time as well!
So what am I going to do now?
I don’t plan on quit playing, I am playing a lot with my husband and I like the game.
I was pretty fed up with the raiding and its been a few weeks since I last saw the inside of Karazhan so I have no intention of looking for a new guild now.
I hope to stay in touch with a few friends from my old guild, but I think I will enjoy playing solo or pugging for the time being, and besides, you never know what awaits you out there in the great wild unguilded opens…=)
