Bitchin’ Camaro

Okay, it’s not a Camaro, but I still think its bitchin. What is it? Why my Azure Netherwing protodrake of course. Every day for about 3 weeks I’ve toiled in the netherwing mines, searching for eggs, skinning monsters, poisoning workers, and throwing a booterang at the lazy bastards sleeping on the job.

And the time came, when I hit exalted status, to meet Illidian, who seeing through my disguise tried having me killed.  A mysterious gnome turns into a protodrake and rescues me. As a result I’m able to fly around on one of these…

Kharisi the Explorer

In almost a years time, I’ve explored every nook and cranny of Azeroth. from the scorching desert of Tanaris to the snow capped mountains in Winterspring. I’ve uncovered all roads, paved and untrodden with my faithful gorilla Bobo at my side. I ventured over the seas to enemy territory, scouting out Azuremist Isle, sneaking theough the forests around Darnassus. I’ve flown over the blood red skies of Outland, and the Icy peaks of Ice Crown. I’ve encountered any number of friend and foe along the way. And today, I can claim the title of Explorer.

The Last Bell For Kharisi

It was a moment I anticipated and dreaded. For the past week I’ve been grinding on Kharisi to level him up before the great Hunter Nerf of 2009 comes in the next patch. I did some dailies, sold everything I found to get my cold weather flying and head to IceCrown and Storm Peaks. I flew to the highest mountain tops and to the lowest basins in a continent covered in snow, mountains and nasty creatures. I restored a Taurens memory, fought some elite creatures and fell in love with my surroundings.  And then it happened.

I hit 80. My excitement was palpable.  It’s been a long journey for Kharisi, starting out as a piece of meat with a rickety bow back in April of ’08.  however with the help of my guild, and a pretty casual play schedule I took him as far as he can go, level wise. Now comes some end game content, rep building, and completing quests that I’ve missed or abandoned. And then he rests for awhile. 

For me the content in Northrend is so compelling, I can’t wait to get my other characters ready to go there. Vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade may have made me a fan of WoW, but the Lich King expansion captured my heart. And though I still consider myself a casual player, after all I have yet to do any PvP, my desire to play hasn’t waned. 

One of the reasons is my guild. As big as it is (4000+ and counting), it has a sense of community like nothing I’ve seen. About 3 days ago, I was on at about 4 AM (couldn’t sleep at all) and someone was about to turn in a quest to Lady Sylvanas in UnderCity, where she goes into the Lamentation for the HIghborne, a beautifully sung song that gives me chills.  A few of us met him in the Throne room, kneeled in respect on the steps and listened.

It’s the small moments like that, which make this game an incredible experience.  As I gear up for some raids, I’ll be working on a piece for our guild podcast as well. As for Kharisi, well my hunter is near retirement, and will undoubtedly show up in an upcoming fantasy novel I’m working on.  He’ll live on, as well as Bobo, Spanky, Detta and my Rhino.

For the Horde!

Finally Got Him!

From the moment I was able to tame exotic pets, I had one thing in mind: a corehound. Those slobbering, two headed beasties were too cool to resist. The only one not in a dungeon was in Shadowmoon Valley.  For weeks now, I’ve gone there one or twice  for each of those weeks to tame the damn thing with no luck.

Unless you consider dying in a puddle of acid luck, which I don’t. It seemed everytime I got close, he’d knock me back, disrupting the training process and I’d have to start over and hope it worked before I died. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve tried. How much gold I’ve spent in repairing equipment as a result of my bulleaded, yet, predetermined death.  Probably enough to get my cold weather flying training, most likely. 

Since I was home sick today, I decided to try again. I mentioned this in guild chat, and made some comment about hoping he doesn’t knock me back yet again.  And then the miracl came.

“Use frost trap, freeze ‘em in place.” Someone said.  I’d never felt so dumb in my life. Well, okay I have, but not in a long time. At least three days, maybe two.  Even though I’m a hunter and I’ve trained in traps, I’ve never really used them. Bobo, Detta or the rhino I picked up did well enough, I didn’t need them. I rarely run instances-yet-where they can be used effectively, so it never dawned on me. 

I am he who the name huntard was destined for. 

I go down to Shadowmoon Valley, find my prey, spring the trap and voila! Spanky is mine!

What? what’s wrong with naming a green, two headed drooling monster Spanky?

Things That Made Me Smile This Year

Everyone has their best of lists, favorites lists, etc, and frankly I haven’t played enough games or seen enough movies to make a 10 best list; instead this is a buffet (since no one says smorgrasbord anymore) of things that made me smile.

13th Star – Fish

This got a deluxe early release in September of last year, but didn’t have its US release until February of this year, so I’m putting it in. A remerkable album, filled with passion, soul and some cowbell on a couple of tracks. At a lean 55 minutes over 10 tracks, Fish creates some of his best music and insightful lyrics ever. Pretty damn impressive given his solo work and time with Marillion. In light of recent events he blogged about with his throat problems, it’s only all the more impressive.

The Dark Knight

One of the few movies I saw this year-at an IMAX theater no less, it lost none of its excitement or thrills for me as I watched it again on DVD. With such strong performances from Heath Ledger and Gary Oldman, Batman as played by Christian Bale, is overshadowed. The action is nonstop, the music is some of the best I’ve heard in a long time, and well, it had me on the edge of my seat for the whole movie.

SuperBad

Yes, I know this is a summer movie from ’07 but I only saw it this year. Its go for broke raunchiness is tempered by an ending that had me a bit choked up. Michael Cera, a favorite from Arrested Development, Cera has the comedic acting chops to be around for a long, long time.

Secret Millionaire

This one is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Fox’s new reality show, allows a millionaire to pose as someone poor in order to look for people to help. It’s about as shallow and contrived as one can get, but I swear, when they break the checks out at the end, the look on people’s faces is worth the 50 minutes of cringe inducing moments.

World of Warcraft/Wrath of the Lich King

Anyone who’s read my blog,  by now knows my love (indeed obsession, perhaps), for the game. It’s brought me hours of joy, diversion and excitement in ways I could have never imagined. Oh, I know it’s only a video game, but there’s something that happens once you log in…you lose yourself in it the way you do in a great novel or movie. And as much as I loved WoW when I first started playing in April, I have come to adore it even more with the expansion. Brilliant game.

Rusty, Cussedness, ETT

And most everyone else who details the exploits of the nitwits. If I listed everyone I’d have a list as long as Nikita’s problems, so don’t feel excluded.

Death in Common

I still have a smile from this one. The first published appearance of my work as a writer. What’s not to smile about?

Odetta

And finally no list of things which make me smile would be complete without my cat Odetta. She keeps me going, and is the only anchor I sometimes feel I’ve got to this life. For almost 5 years now, this furry little friend has been my constant companion, and life wouldn’t be the same without her.

 

So, now you know what made me smile this year,  what about you? What made you smile this year?

1000 down

Last night, I got to level 76 on my main toon, Kharisi, and also made another milestone: I completed 1000 quests. That’s certainly by no means the amount of quests to this point, but simply the ones I completed. Over the past few months of playing WoW, there have been quests I’ve abandoned, resolving to pick up later (most of which I haven’t) due to their difficulty compared to my level, were based in dungeons, or were my least favorite type: escort quests. 

I’ve traveled the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Northrend for eight months now. I’ve killed critters, saved some lives, ended even more, fought against the alliance and scourge, dug through poop in Nagrand and bombed cities.  I’ve been in the service of Arthas as a Death Knight before betraying him, slain dragons, resurrected others and all from my laptop.

For all the time I’ve played WoW, I’ve only had one requirement; it has to be fun. It has been, and continues to be a blast. I lay that at the feet of my guilds and guildmates. They all make logging in a great time. Even when I’m in the middle of another fetch quest for 30 raptor talons, they all make it bearable. 

There will come a point where I put the game down; when the questing is no longer enough to draw me in, and the thought of leveling another character fills me with dread, but that will be a long time in coming.

Glyndoom at your service

Yes, another alt. Yes, another hunter. No, not Horde, this time  I went for a dwarf.  Glyndoom wouldn’t have been created had it not been for Cussedness. When she switched servers, she became a guild master, and I just had to join.  I’m having great fun playing a hunter again, which of course means dying a lot. However, I really like playing a dwarf.  To me, they really should have been a Horde race, and the Taurens should have been Alliance. No matter, I will always be part of the Horde, always remain a servant to Thrall, and always walk that dark side.

 

Jumping for joy I rolled an Alliance character

Meet Charrdd

Meet Charrdd, my newest alt in Warcraft. 

 

Wave to the camera!

Charrdd is a Tauren Druid, level 6 at the moment, and currently running errands in Bloodhoof Village.  I chose a Druid, for one simple reason; shapeshifting. Druids get to change into various forms, inclusing, bear, cat, seal, moonkin, cheetah to name some.  It’s one of the most versatile classes in the game, and sure to always have a spot in a raid or instance for it’s ability to tank or heal.

So why am I mentioning, let alone devoting a blog post to a shape shifting cow? Well, because I can, of course.  I’m also planning on updating his progress, chronicling his adventures, and getting him leveled to 80 as well.

I’ve not forgotten my hunter Kharisi, my Death Knight Khonstantine, or my other alts. They’ll still be played, and interesting things will be written about them in the future. However, I wanted to take some time and do something a bit different in the game.  There are many things I missed in the original game that I want to do. Many places I’ve never explored. It’s time to go back to the old world, pick up the old quests and do something new.

And with the nitwits being a bit quiet, it’s also something interesting to write about. So say hello to Charrdd, and if you see him in game, be sure to give a wave. 

Warcraft Retrospective

As I was searching for a warcraft movie to link up to, I cam across this gem. Well a 3 part gem. Gametrailers.com has done an amazing job of not only chronicling the warcraft games, but also explaining the lore as well. check out this 3 part series and be amazed. 

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/10434.html

Flying Carpets, Dwarves Brains and Murloc Suits

I’ve reached 72, almost 73, and I’ve never had so much fun in WoW as I have with this Lich King expansion. In the last 3 weeks, I’ve ridden on a flying carpet; been ejected out of a tank after mowing down some undead; killed some dwarves and then sawed open their heads to collect their brains and donned a murloc suit, Here are some pics from recent adventures. For some reason wordpress won’t let me make a gallery, so I have to upload each pic one by one, so excuse the odd layout.