I was tagged =O

Ky at Casual Hardcore, a fellow guildie, filled out this survey of sorts and tagged me! And, since I'm currently sick with a cold, wounded from putting up christmas lights, and feel like doing nothing more than vegging, I'm going to fill it out...

My Warcraft Year in Review Meme

Please leave a link to your meme post in the comments here. Please tag 5 other folks to complete the meme and copy these instructions and the questions into your blog with your answers.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
What was your biggest failure?
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
What do you wish you’d done less of?
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Played Alliance. That's not entirely true. I have a level 35 warrior, but for the most part, I've been very anti-alliance. And for good reason. A large majority of the people I've met that haven't been in my guild have been asshats, but find a good group to play with and it's, I dare say, even better than Horde.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

Icecrown! Although it's a huge zone, and I kinda despise having to do things in it, the lore nerd in me goes "amgamgamg ICC. Arthas I'ma keel u!"

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

More max level characters! Seriously. I don't know what my problem is, but I just can't grind any of my other characters up to 80. I have two that have been within 10 levels for six months now.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Doing cutting edge content. I think this is the first time that I've been able to do new content AS it comes out. A week or so after every major content patch, I've been able to go into and do the new content. Not always successfully (Ulduar, I'm looking at you), but I did it. Something that makes me very happy.

What was your biggest failure?

Not being as good a player as I should be. I still only have one high level profession. I still don't have max fishing or cooking. I don't raid nearly as much as I'd like to (twice a week would be nice ;.;)

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

GETTING AN EPIC MOUNT FINALLY! Seriously.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Uhm... Not much really. The thing about me, is that I'm a decently disciplined person (about most things /glares at exercise equipment), and I'm not one to do something to excess.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Well... no podcast really. But I have a few blogs on my roll. My FAVORITE... is probably Amber. In fact, I enjoyed reading it so much, I eventually transferred and faction swapped so that I can raid with her!

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

It doesn't matter which faction you choose. Both sides have asshats. Both sides have wonderful people.

Title #1

I know. Very original title, but I really don't have much to say. Also, I've always been horrible at titling any of my stuff.

First - =] Turns out I'm number 36 in the guild (according to wow-heroes) on the level of my gear. ^^ I think that's pretty good. I'm missing an enchant on my new cloak, but I do have all epic gems. I really should try and level my inscription all the way to 450 since it's only like 150... or at least high enough to do the special shoulder chants.

Also - I need to know what to do with my emblems. I have 24... Should I buy a new ring? or the T9 boot?

I totally started writing this post a week ago and on a further note, this topic is rendered more or less irrelevant because of the fact that 3.3 is coming out tomorrow, and hopefully I'll be running the 5-mans enough (since they are the same ilevel as ToC10) that I don't need to worry about that. Have fun with 3.3 tomorrow guys. =]

I Raid Lead IRL

Turns out I'm a raid leader IRL.

Okay, not really, but the parallels I tend to draw between things makes me laugh. This one in particular.

Backstory: My parents own a BBQ restaurant here in Texas where I worked as the manager forever (read: a year and a half). Recently, since my only source of income is from substitute teaching (gg failing economy and lack of jobs), I'm working there again in the mornings so that I can have some income.

The other day one of the older ladies walks in and I'm standing there cutting onions or something and she asks "Where am I working today?"

Immediately, I start sizing up the strengths and weaknesses of the people I work with. This person has probably got the lowest IQ I know of; however, she knows how to cut things without removing a finger. That person has horrible people skills and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the customers. etc, etc, etc... And then the idea hit me "I'm like a RL, but IRL." I laughed at the idea, but then realized that I backseat RL all the time. When someone says "Hey, let's do X," I sometimes say loud enough for only me to hear (unmute the mic? nowai) "I think y would have been better" or "Man, that's a good idea." It gave me a good laugh, if nothing else.

Interwebz slow because...

Patch 3.3 on the background downloader! I suppose that means I'll have to occupy my time by folding clothes or washing dishes. Or I can just play Neverwinter Nights 2. In news unrelated to how I while away my time...

Blizz released news on how the next tier of raiding is going to be activated. Some people in the blogging community have strong opinions of it. Positive and Negative. Personally? I'm on the fence. Like Seri says, it seems that it's a little pandering to the casuals, which devalues the effort that top raid guilds put into the game, on the other hand... I'm a casual! Well... not really. I consider myself in the grey zone between casual and hardcore. If I could, I would probably try to raid 4+ days a week; however, I can't. So, what I do is raid when I can. When I do raid, I go fully prepared. I'm pretty business. I don't listen to music, I don't have the TV on. I have vent and headphones (well, had headphones. The land shark pomeranian known as Dexter saw to it that it was no more).

TL;DR I'm neither casual nor hardcore.

I see the merit in wanting the hardest dungeon in an expansion cycle to be practically inaccessible to all but the most hardcore of raids. It's so they can wear their leet gear and say "Look, I have this awesome stuff that you don't have." It's elitist, but, like I said, there's merit to it. I understand it. On the other hand, the game isn't just about "leet gear." It's about challenge. It's about story. It's about working with other people to the best of your ability to achieve a goal. That's the part that I like most about the game. I want Myss to beat Arthas. I want to see what happens with my own eyes. That is EXTREMELY important to me. So... we'll see how much I like this new raid system.

In news about Myss: I got more T9! Gloves this time. I've almost got enough Triumph emblems to get her another new ring too, so that means my only piece of i 200 gear after that will be her offhand (those, apparently never drop). After that, I'll have very FEW 213 (or whatever the next half tier was). So... =] I think I'll have caught up after I buy that ring. Also, starting next week, I think I'll be running 25 ToC instead of 10 ToC. Meaning... I GET BETTR THINGZ. Maybe. Until next week!

SPOILER ALERT! LICH KING IDENTITY REVEALED!

I was wandering around on facebook, when suddenly I spotted it. A picture proving something that I think I should have known all along. --.-- I knew that there was something wrong with the Lich King. He was just... too evil to be Arthas.

My favorite part of 3.3 (besides getting to kick in Arthas' teeth)

I suppose today I should review an upcoming feature of patch 3.3 that I'm really looking forward to. And by review, I mean I'm going to talk about something that I've never experienced and pretend like I know something about it. I absolutely LOVE the idea of the random PUG dungeon. Why? Because I despise most DPS specs.

What does that have to do with anything? Well, I don't know if anyone has ever noticed, but it is EXTREMELY difficult to heal a mob to death. You hadn't noticed? Well, let me tell you. It's extremely difficult to heal a mob to death. It's also difficult (albeit not as difficult) to let mobs beat on YOU until THEY die. So, if you prefer your spec to be of the tanking or healing variety, you are out of luck, my friend. Maybe...

With the advent of the random dungeon (which includes, most importantly, a cross-server LFG), Blizz will be, once again imo, pandering to the heal/tank-nuts like me. SERIOUSLY? SLAP IN THE FACE, BLIZZ!!! Okay, but really, I think this is fantastic. Now, maybe my poor druid will actually... I dunno... get to level 68, where I hear running as a resto spec isn't nearly AS painful. Or... Maybe my pally will actually get to some level higher than 30 because letting things beat on you by yourself isn't nearly as fullfilling or experience-ful as I had hoped it would be. The reason this is great is because you queue up for dungeons much like you do BGs, and let the machine do the work for you.

It's so difficult to find dungeon runs that I've actually been trying to pvp my way to 68 on Apa. PVP! What the hell is the world coming to? Fortunately, now that it looks amongst many servers (I'm assuming within battlegroups), the 1 person that's signed up to go to Underbog becomes 4-5? That's amazingly cool, I think. Now maybe I'll be able to dungeon run my way to the top and heal and tank to my heart's content. Running dungeons and raids is the best part of this game by far for me, and now, being able to do it just a little easier on my way to 80, makes me want to give Blizz a big gold star. <3

In other news, my average gear ilevel is up to 220.88 now! only two more ilevel 200 items to get rid of, and something that, I'm thinking, should happen somewhere after next weeks raid.

In other other news, I'm trying to decide if I want to go to wordpress with this blog. I really don't know if I post enough to justify switching to a new medium, but I suppose I'll let my... 4-5 readers decide. (/sigh)

Why I Don't Blog as much as I'd Like

So... I was scolded for not posting enough (Sorry, Jov). I suppose I will actually have to ATTEMPT to make an effort to post more often.

Last night, another successful ToC run. I got some pants and enough badges to buy my first T9 item. Yay! Maybe my average item level will start rising to something that better represents the content I'm doing? Doubt it.

Also last night, a bigger success than the gear, I began talking more to my new guildies. I think I must seriously have real social anxiety problems, because even IRL, I have problems talking to new people. I used to not be so bad on the computer (chat room RP ftw), but lately I kinda just get on WoW to run my ToC, maybe an Ony, then I log off for a whole week. Yesterday, however, I was on early and was just chatting with Amber and Cel. Something I don't do nearly often enough. I'm going to stop here, and start to actually think about making a post that is more than just "Diary of My Toons."