The One Where I Attempt To Return To Normal

I’m only speaking of returning to normal blogging, of course; I can’t return to normal as a person because I have never once been there to begin with. But hopefully I will now be resuming a more regular schedule of posting and get back to entertaining myself. If you’ve been reading my ramblings for the past month you will know that I have moved into my own place this weekend. My roommate for the past 5 years (my brother) has gotten himself engaged and the wedding is upcoming, so it was time for me to abandon ship. I decided to put on my big girl panties and take on a 2 bedroom / 2 bath apartment with no roommate. SCARY! Not because I’m by myself, I’ve lived by myself for years in the past, but because it’s about $400 more than I’ve ever spent for a monthly rent or house payment. And no, I did not live in tents before. Even though I am at a job where I make more money than any job I’ve ever had previously, we are also in an economy where it costs me $60 to fill up the gas tank of the same car that only cost $25 or so to fill up when I bought it 4 years ago. This weekend I paid 2 months worth of rent, $100 deposit on my new electric account, $40 for the truck and trailer involved in moving, and over $100 worth of food and drink for all the people who helped me move over these past few days. Since my TV crapped out on me about 2 weeks ago I had to drop money on a new one. I owned almost everything you could possibly need for a house except living room furniture, so I purchased a couch and chair on credit. I’M FREAKING OUT! My number-crunching over the past few months indicates that I will be able to afford everything I need to afford, but I won’t have a lot of flexible fun money and I love my fun money. And right now my brain has convinced itself that my number-crunching is wrong and I have just set myself up for a life of hitchhiking and eating ramen noodles by candle light. I suppose only time will tell.

What the hell does any of this have to do with the World of Warcraft? Well, I’ll tell you. Included in my monthly rent is water, trash, sewer, basic cable and cable internet. The only utility I have to pay for is electricity. That seems to be pretty standard around this area. What also seems to be a pretty standard part of apartment living is crappy internet. I was hoping this wouldn’t be the case where I’m at since it’s a fairly new complex in general and the building I am in just got completed this month. I am the first person to ever live in my apartment (new appliances for the win). But sadly, crappy internet is indeed what I have. As expected, the amount of lag I have in game varies with the day of the week and the time of day, but it’s lag nonetheless. And it is so depressing. I probably should wait a few more days before jumping to conclusions, but it seems to be at it’s best in the mornings so maybe during the week when I get off work and everyone else is going to work I can run my randoms then. To have a super fast new pc less than 2 months old, and a place to myself where I can nerd out as loudly as I want to and then to barely be able to participate in guild chat is just so damn sad. I’m sure there’s nothing in my lease agreement that says I can’t go out and buy my own internet service from another company, but if that’s what I end up having to do I won’t be doing it for several months because I have to give my budget time to adjust to all the new stuff and make sure I can pay for the stuff I already have to pay for.

Of course I am still able to quest around the lag. It’s annoying, but doable. Things have not been all bad. Aside from having some amazing friends helping me move and getting a brand spanking new apartment and comfortable new furniture, I have accomplished some things in-game also. Elfi now has a Winterspring Frostsaber, a mount she has been drooling over since she was about level 20 and learned it existed. Though I must admit, it doesn’t feel that special now that they’ve made it so easy. The second I hit exalted and purchased the mount I got a little sad that I hadn’t forced myself to finish it before it got nerfed. I had been about halfway through revered for about a year. Just lazy I guess. Elfi also has Pebbles as a pet finally. Now unless I need an emergency supply of Heartblossom I never have to set foot in depressing Deepholm again. Elfi is also finally geared up pretty nicely. As someone who only averages 5 or 6 randoms a month, it takes me a while to get geared up. The last thing I really needed was a belt and although I was working on my Wildhammer Clan rep to get their belt, Kimber noticed she could make me one that was pretty comparable through her leatherworking so she hooked me up.

In other news, I think I have finally figured out how to handle the fact that I want to be in 2 guilds at the same time. If it weren’t for the guild rep thing, I probably would have just moved Elfi over to the other guild for a few weeks to see how well it went. But I don’t want to risk losing my guild rep and then having to start all over again either with the new guild or with my current guild if I decided to bring Elfi back. So after much stressing out I realized my level 55 Worgen druid that I had specced as feral dps could easily be respecced to resto/balance (just like Elfi) and with some heirloom gear I could work on leveling her up to 85 and move her over into the second guild as a little Elfi junior to see if there’s a place for me and how I like it. Brilliant, right? I hope so. I hope it’s a good plan that doesn’t upset anyone and I hope I’m able to get her leveled up fairly quickly. She’s already up to 61 as of Monday night but the levels just take longer and longer from here. This whole guild thing has been so upsetting for me because I feel like I have to choose between two of my favorite people. One is in my current guild and one is in the other guild, obviously. And I almost feel like maybe I’m suffering from “the grass is always greener” syndrome and that if I switched I’d feel as desperate to get back to my current guild as I do to get to the other guild right now. Does that make sense? This Worgen idea just has to be the best option. Then I can fill the exact same role in both guilds and hopefully find a happy medium and be happy in both places. Anyone want to help me power-level through Outlands and Northrend? I could use the help, especially since I’m now dealing with lag. Lol. /sigh.

A Day In Darnassus

Flowchart Fun

Okay, since I seem to always be in the blogging mood at work and I am now unable to blog at work, I thought I’d give the free WordPress for Android app a try. I won’t really know how well this does or does not work until I can get home in 4 hours and see for myself. Here goes nothing.

I now present a flowchart of a typical day in Elfi’s World. It is a hand-drawn flowchart and for some stupid reason I titled it about Elfi’s inner thoughts. But that’s not accurate. This is actually an account of what I do with my time in-game. I drew it up & then took a picture of it with my cellphone. Lol. It’s like redneck high tech around here.

click to embiggen

The One Where Logging In Trumps Blogging

I knew I needed to try and get a post up today and keep this place as active as I can while things are going on. So after reading through my feed reader and re-reading my last World of Warcraft magazine, I came up with… nothing. Then I turned to Twitter and asked for post ideas. And I got some great suggestions; several of which I had a few ideas about. The plan was to come straight home and use those ideas to put something together. But then when I got home and sat at the computer, I launched the game. Because I haven’t been doing that as much lately and I just REALLY felt the need to login. I told myself I’d play for an hour and then I’d come over here and get started blogging. Well that hour is up and I don’t want to be done. So there’s no real post here because I’m going to tab back into the game and spend some quality time with Elfindale. I think an attempt at a Swift White Hawkstrider sounds like a good way to spend some time.

See you soon,
Love Elfi

The One Where I Offer Excuses and Random Screenshots

I am stuck in a vicious cycle… I am stressed out and my game time is becoming very limited which stresses me out and causes my game time to become very limited which stresses me out and…. you get the idea. The big move to a new apartment is quickly approaching and yet, not approaching quickly enough. So much stuff is packed up, my life is in disarray currently. I’m still working overtime AND for some damn reason (I’m gonna blame stupid co-workers who dare to watch Netflix all night long) the internet at work has been locked down since last Friday. So, no more blogging at work like I like to do. And even though I can view my favorite blogs through Google Reader, the images that are in posts are blocked and it’s not very enjoyable to read posts that way. Grumble.

Things around this blog had already slowed down a bit over the past few weeks, but I’m here to tell ya – it’s going to slow down even more for the next little bit. I already screwed up and didn’t get a Screenshot Saturday post up over the weekend. And what little content may see the light of day here, will probably be fairly boring. Not having much time to log in and play means I don’t have anything real interesting to talk about. Be prepared to see a lot of screenshots. And probably mostly old screenshots from my older, crappier pc. Hooray!

I am also open to accepting guest posts if anyone out there has too many for their own blog and wants to share. I am moving during Memorial Day Weekend and I cannot wait to get everything settled, get my pc set up on my new desk and get right back to some serious work on my reps and my gear.

Now here are some completely unrelated screenshots:

Here’s some old guild chat fun with WWAB…

Riding Kim’s rocket through Tol Borad…

My goblin having a Space Balls moment…

Some fun, exploding sheep….

Killing King Krush….

My Hunter’s Pet Reminds Me Of Someone…

I’m Alliance through and through, but the Goblin stuff looked so fun that I had to give it a try. I rolled a Horde toon and decided to make her a hunter since I had never tried my hand at that class. Well let me tell you, playing a Goblin IS fun and so is playing a hunter. At least so far. When I first created Razzmin, she had a crab for a pet. After I got several levels under my belt, I decided I should read up on hunter pets to see what I needed to do. That’s when I discovered you could tame rare’s and I set out to nab a rare spider that looked cool to me. After a long bit of walking to get halfway across the continent and after camping the spider and then dying the first time… I made that damn thing my bitch. And as soon as I did, she lost her NPC name and became “generic spider” or whatever the hell it was and looked like every other damn spider in the area. I was so pissed off about the whole thing that I really don’t remember what her name was. I kicked her ass to the curb, apologized to my crab for the way I treated him and went right back to doing some leveling.

But as I quested my way through the Northern Barrens, an animal there kept catching my eye. It was the Savannah Huntress and after reading cats were perfectly fine as hunter pets, I decided that’s the pet I really wanted. So I went out and claimed one as my own. I didn’t get carried away and just slap a random name on her though. I really wanted to name her something special, something that described her and made her stand out. So I left her name as “cat” for a while as I tried to decide what to name her. It didn’t take long for me to realize she sorta reminds me of someone I know.

She is overly proud of herself and stands a few feet away from me at all times as if she’s too good to be seen with scum like me. She is fierce and cunning and always alert, ready to tear someone apart at any second just because they looked at her wrong, or you know, breathed.

She is always willing and ready to jump into a fight and doesn’t care if she fights beside me or just fights for the hell of it. The claws come out quickly and it’s shred first, spit on the body second and ask questions never.

And then there are the times she’s just an outright asshole. Always in the way, feigning boredom. Always causing trouble and laying claim to things she has no right to claim.

Over the 15 or so levels she’s been by my side, I’ve taken into consideration her excessive pride, her ridiculous ego, her sneaky slyness, her unprovoked aggression and her complete and total asshattery and I did finally come up with a name that I think describes her more perfectly than any name has ever described anyone before. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you…. Alashole.

The One Where… Holy Shit, What Happened?

Ha ha, tricked ya! I don’t really have a holy shit story, I just wanted you to see the way I’ve tidied up the place. I’m totally in love with it but we all know I’m weird so there’s no accounting for my taste. Anyway, now that you’re here I guess I should try and entertain you.

Here’s some of the things I’ve been doing over the past few weeks:

The One With Some Retro Link Love

I’m feeling a little nostalgic these days, game-wise. After being so pumped up and excited for Cataclysm and getting myself ready to attack the expansion and work my way up into doing some raiding, things haven’t quite turned out the way I expected. I love the content, I love all the new stuff and all the changes. I love this expansion way more than I loved WoTLK. I feel love from my guild, and I love my guild and my friends. Still something just isn’t quite right. And while I know what that something is, I’m still unsure what the best answer is. So I find myself logging in just to farm herbs, or just wandering around aimlessly for an hour. I’m not going to say I’m dissatisfied with the game in any way, because I’m not. I guess you could say I am struggling to figure out where I belong. Does that make sense? And while I’m feeling these things, I’m thinking of the good old days. The days where I knew for sure I was in the right place. It’s made me nostalgic.

So since I’m in that state of mind, I thought I’d go back through some of my favorite blogs and revive some of my old favorite posts. Below you will find some retro link love. If you have seen these before, I hope you remember them as fondly as I do. If you find some stuff below that’s new to you, I hope you enjoy them. I have many more favorite posts from many more favorite blogs but since I’m writing this while on break at work, I just don’t have much time. If I left you out, please know that I’m sorry and I do still love you.

In completely random order:
Tree Form Cooldowns by Jasyla at Cannot Be Tamed.

Enough 5’s To Make You Reach For A Six Killer by Alas at Kiss My Alas. Quick question for Alas:: What the hell does the title of this post even mean?

Flowchart Fridayby Amber at I Like Bubbles.

WoW On The First Date? A Geeky Chick’s Take by Ophelie at The Bossy Pally.

How To Piss Off Your Healer by Kae at Dreambound.

Banging Your Heart Against Some Mad Bugger’s Wall by Tamarind at the no longer active Righteous Orbs.