Faster, the greatest hero of all times!

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?)

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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!


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!


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)

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Missing missing posts

You know which posts I miss the most from all of the 70-ish or so that's missing from my year-long blogging?

It's not all the discussions concerning mana regen and healing tricks and druid tanking and stuff like that - much of that has changed and can be found on other websites as well. It's not the macros posts - I still have the macros on my chars and can put them out here again if I want.

I miss my personal posts and rantings- the ones about what I had experienced myself in this virtual world - the post about the priest being a Jedi, the one about Daissy's (then known as Dizzie) first trip through the Dark Portal, the post about my lvl 6 priest Tessytoots participating in taking down the Turpster on Sporeggar, the one complaining about the questionable imagination of Blizz gear designers, my fare-well Vashj-posts and many other topics like these. They were sort of my own WoW-history, and it was fun to occassionally re-read them to see what I was going on about back then.

I'm starting to lose faith in Blogger Support and I doubt I'll get my missing posts back - it's been almost a month since that fatal day now.

At least I am backing up my posts now - I have two different feed readers saving the posts, I e-mail them to me as soon as I publish them, and I copy-paste the entire html code into a notepad file that I save on a different hard drive. Only thing I can't backup are the comments, but I am trying to find a way to do that as well.

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“I was only following orders…”

As a stark contrast to the hilarious murloc quest in my previous post, I have to tell you about the most nauseating quest I have ever encountered in this game.

No, I am not talking about the quest where you feed the wolves in the Scalding Pools some not-too-healthy-meat to make them sit and shit and then you have to look through their droppings to collect the microfilms they have apparently been eating.

I am talking about a quest chain that the Dalaran people in Amber Ledge gives you. You have to capture a Beryl Sorcerer and drag him in chains back to the mages in the tower. For the next part, you talk to Librarian Normantis, hiding inside the tower with the captured mage chained to a chair next to him.

You know, there is a famous psychology experiment from the 1960’s, led by psychologist Stanley Milgram, followed up in many subsequent studies around the world, all with the same result.

In the experiment, volunteers were helping Milgram with a study of memory and learning in different situations

The experiment paired people and one of the volunteers, “the teacher” was asking the other, “the learner”, questions. Failure to respond properly resulted in a electric shock delivered to the learner by the teacher. For every wrong answer the voltage was increased. As the learner experienced more and more painful shocks they started asking for the experiment to stop and to be released, sometimes even saying they had a heart condition, or crying and screaming for the teacher to stop asking questions and stop administering shocks.

If the volunteer teacher asked the psychologist experiment leader that they be allowed to stop hurting the learner they were invariably told to go on and increase the shock voltage for every wrong answer, no matter how much the learner was begging for release.

I know what you think now, you think most people chucked the shocker at the psychologist and went to check on the learner, especially after they heard the screaming or learned about the heart conditions.

Well, think again.

65 % of experiment participants administered the experiment's final 450-volt shock. 65 % of all the learners were going ahead with the painful treatment of another human on no more solid ground than “the psychologist told me to keep going. Many were uncomfortable doing it, even crying, and begging the psychologist to let them stop, but they kept going at the psychologist’s urging.

Now, there was a trick to this experiment. There were no electric shocks and “the learner” was in reality a paid actor. The experiment was not about memory and learning, it was about people’s willingness to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

It’s a interesting and rather discomforting read, read more about if you are interested.

Anyways, back to WoW and the quest I was telling you about.

Apparently, the mage you just captured hold some very valuable information as to where Lady Evanor, some Kirin Tor bigshot wizard, is being held but he won’t tell this to Normantis, the quest NPC and some other Kirin Tor bigshot. Normantis scornfully says that “Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these” but me, Paynne, an outsider is not bound by such restrictions and can take any steps necessary in the retrieval of information”, so he hands me a Neural Needler and tells me to do what I must while he sorts out the bookshelves.

Eh, use a Neural Needler to force someone to talk? Sounds an awful lot like torture to me.

And torture it is.

I was actually pretty reluctant to do this quest, but I told myself it’s a game, it’s pixels, and I want to do all the quests here! I want to level!

So I use the Neural Needler on the mage. Not once, not twice, but it takes four times before the interrogation is complete and he tells me what I want to know. He is cocky at first but at the end he begs for mercy and pleads with me to stop.

Zap Needler – Aaargh! Do your worst, warlock! I’ll tell you NOTHING!

And zap again – Aahhhh! Release me! I am of no use to you, I swear it!

And again – Stop! I beg you, please stop! Please...

And again – Alright! And he spills the beans to me and tells me where the lady wizard is.

So I go rescue the Kirin Tor mage from her arcane prison with a very foul taste in my mouth and images of Abu Ghraib and My Lai flashing through my head – I was only doing a quest! I was only following orders! I was only obeying the authorities and not following my own gut feeling as to what is right and what is wrong!

Yes, I know it’s a game and not “for real”, I know it’s only pixels, I know I have no qualms about killing off a whole camp of defias thugs or ogres or murlocs or whatever to complete a quest. Their shouts of “You no take mushroom” or mrlrlrlllgglglglg does not affect me the way this captured mage’s pleas does.

And why is that? Killing stuff in this game is fun, it’s fun being evil (muahahaha!) and destroy things and wreak havoc on the enemies! But torture, even torture of pixels, is NOT fun. The peon whacking and booterang throwingare pretty fun, but this one is nauseating.

As a side note, why has Blizzard put a quest like this in the game? They have made it impossible to kill the children in the game, which seems to indicate that they have some kind of reservations about what is right and wrong in this game of wholesale violence and abundant killing sprees. So why put in a torture quest like this? Is this maybe part of an experiment like Milgram’s? Is Blizz (or someone else) interested in the completion rate of this quest too see how many of the players are willing to go through with something like this in a virtual world.

Maybe I’m silly, or maybe I am overreacting, but that is one quest I am not gonna do again on any of my girls. Even having done it once was too much actually and I feel pretty disgusted about it.

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Most hilarious quest

In Winterfin Village in Northern Borean Tundra there are a few quest chains available where you, among other things, have to free Murloc Tadpoles from cages held by nasty Murlocs under the evil influence of the huge mak’rura Claximus.

The quests themselves are pretty easy but sometimes annoying because you have to free 20 of these babies, not an easy task when the shore is crawling with people doing the very same quest, and the caged Tadpoles respawn is very slow.

However, as a guildie pointed out, the baby murlocs make such a cute sound when they are rescued and run around after you and the evil Murlocs have the coolest ability ever – the Demoralizing Mmmrrrggglll!

For the finishing quest in the chain, you get to borrow a Murloc Suit to trick the evil ones into believing you are one of them!

Dressed in this, you can perform many of the usual emotes and the Murloc dance is cooler than even the Moonkin one! Sadly sadly sadly though, this suit is only useable in Winterfin Village and Winterfin Caverns, so unless you plan to spend a lot of time there it’s no use keeping it :-(

But do take your time to try out the different emotes while disguised as a murloc!






Murloc dance ftw!

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Still no light at the end of the tunnel...

Blogger Support seems to be reachable only by a very long and very winding path and a whole lotta luck seems to be required, but I keep trying to get through to them to get my lost posts restored. I feel a bit empty every time I log in here, but hope ain't lost yet.

Meanhwile, I have managed to salvage some of my old posts from various caches and I will be putting them back here as soon as possible.

I even have some new posts forming in my head now that I have gotten past that initial shock and stun trauma from the severe Total Blog Post Loss.

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/facepalm and /banging head against the wall

For those of you not familiar with blogging but want to start I have a few tips:

1. Always always always back up your blog posts.

2. Never ever mark all posts and press Delete if all you want to do is remove the labels.

Now excuse me while I crawl away to cry and feel sick in the corner while hoping and praying that the staff at Blogger support can help me retrieve the missing pieces of my life.

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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....

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Guild Photos!

This here is my guild!

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

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The New Look

Well, of course I was gonna visit the barbershops when they opened up in Ironforge and Stormwind. My RL visits to the hairdressers are always pleasurable, and besides the actual haircut it includes gossiping, a scalp massage and a glass of wine or two. Of course I wanted to treat my loyal WoW girls to that as well :-)

And now there was this achievement too! Being the achievement nut that I am I just had to take the flock to get stylish(er).

First one out was Jools.

Her old look with that long blue braid on her shoulder wasn't very cool, it was a bit of an strict old-maid school teacher look, not at all appropriate for my sweet Holy priest.
Now she has a soft shoulder-length bob haircut with a slightly side-swept bang and a white ribbon to hold the longer hair back from her face.

She didn't dye her hair but kept the cornflower blue color since it sets off her reed facial tatoos nicely.





Next one out was Joaquime, my feral druid.



Like Jools, Joaquime also kept her original hair colour, but unlike Jools she kept the long tresses, not feeling truly feral without a mane of hair in caster form as well.


She has a slightly stricter hairdo now, no more hair getting in her eyes as it is gathered in a loose braid at her back, holding it back from her forehead with that gorgeous tiara.



Paynne went to the hairdresser's as well, but after quite some time trying out the different hairdos and hairdyes available, she realised that there really is no such thing as improving pure perfection.

She did try out a set of larger earrings, just for the sake of the achievement, but she had to go back right away and get her old ones back.




Tessye had similar problems, there really was no other hairstyle that looked good on her no matter what combination of colours or styles she tried out, so after a lot of agonising in the barber shop chair she decided to keep her golden brown hair curled up on her head - the perfect hairstyle for a sneaky rogue.

She was daring enough to try out a new eyebrow ring and nose ring instead of her old earrings, which actually look kinda cool on her.






Larue dyed her dark curls light greyish blond but she didn't really feel comfortable in that hair colour so she had to go back and get rid of the dye job. With that dark skin of hers the dark hair colour looks much better.



A good friend tells me that half the job when tanking is to convince the group or raid that you are capable of dealing with any issues or emergencies that may arise - in other words: you gotta look like you know the drill ;P

As such, it was way overdue with a makeover for my little warrior!

Her pink pigtails is gone, replaced by a darker reddish colour and a thick ponytail down her back. Now she looks like a real warrior and would get into any over-21-nightclubs without a hassle!



So, achievements all done, new looks for a few, and generally overall satisfaction with looks all around! Now, all I need is that scalp massage and the glass of wine...

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Mae WoW

So, Hallow's End has ended and we are all a bit more well-endowed in the epix department, some of us has completed the achievements for that Hallowed title, some has a new pet, a funny hat or a hat that laughs. Some lucky bastidds may even ride around on a flaming horse.

But the best thing this Hallow's End brought imo was the chance to use a pretty fun variety of a classic Mae West line...

Is that a broom you are riding or are you just happy to see me?

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