Musing about DLC

Today, we're going to talk about DLC. DLC stands for Downloaded Content. This ranges from free user-created modifications and maps on the PC to purchasable PS3/Xbox360 add-ons for games. I'm mostly going to be talking about PS3/360 stuff, because I was thinking about it this morning.

So, Rock Band just came out, and extra songs available for download showed up either the same day or right after. Now, this is a good thing, but people still clamored about the fact that the developers/publishers could have been withholding this stuff from inclusion in the game to get people to pay for it after and that it's not fair.

...And you know what? They could be right or not, but it doesn't matter. Let's look at two possible routes.

Route A - Harmonix/MTV had the songs ready but didn't include them
The game was designed with the idea of having downloadable content available at some point. So, some set of people were already deciding what sort of stuff to include post-shipping, and the best thing to do in that instance would be to develop some of it concurrently with the project, so that the systems were assured to be in working order.
And you know, from what I've heard, the game is a complete game before getting anything extra, so there's really no reason to complain if they chose to think ahead and prepare things for the future. There's profit to be earned from micro-payments, and although I may not like paying for them myself, I wouldn't mind getting paid for them.

Route B - Harmonix/MTV did not have the songs ready
This is the one that will confuse some people initially. How could they have not had the songs ready but they were by the time the game came out? Most people won't think very in-depth about that, but as with almost every product imaginable, games are finished MONTHS before they hit shelves.
They have to be manufactured, marketed, and packaged. And even before they are "done", there is usually a content-lockdown in place around beta, wherein no new content is supposed to be allowed in the game other than bug-fixes and localization. There's almost always some stuff that gets put in, but the guideline is there to prevent introduction of new bugs and extending testing times.
So, it's entirely possible that the game was locked down and then the extra songs were worked on after that period.


Either way, there's nothing to complain about. It's cool that they already have content available, because otherwise you end up with a menu option that goes to a blank page, and those suck.

More PSO

Surprisingly, we made it up to the end of the Caves at a mere level 10. Of course, the boss one-shotted both of us, so we're not quite up to taking him down.

Goldfire is still enjoying her hunter lots, especially now that she has a Sword and a Partisan to play with, so she doesn't have to worry about not hitting guys before I take them down.

We're probably going to play it some more today (I took yesterday and today off -- sick days), although I'm not sure when we're going to start.

Leveling with Friends

So, our hunter friend, who was practically the same level as us, decided that he was going to take a break for a few days. In preparation for this, he ran through "a couple of the Hinterlands quests" and managed to hit 50.

Huh. Well, Strael was at 48, and Contrae was at 46. So, we ran up to the Hinterlands ourselves and got a level each.

But! We've been eying a few other games to play sometimes, so now we'll probably be a bit behind when we run with him next. Not that a few levels is a huge difference, but it creates a little rift in my head.

Anybody else have issues with this? It's only sort of tangentially related to what the Egotistical Priest was talking about the other day (Although I now realize that the title was stolen almost directly from her).

Oh well. I'm going to play some more PSO with my beautiful bride.

Woo! PSO!

Last night, I decided I wanted to play something other than World of Warcraft for a bit. So, I sat down in front of our rack of games, and asked my wonderful wife if she wanted to join me in playing any game. She said sure, and we settled on playing some Phantasy Star Online for the GameCube (split-screen FOR THE WIN).

Now, I've dropped easily a couple hundred hours in this game in the past. I have a level 131 ranger (RAmarl for those who know what I'm talking about), a couple other characters ranging from 14 to 50, and I've beaten practically everything that you can offline (I can never remember if we took down Olga-Flow on Ultimate... I think I did solo, but he hit my friends Force too hard even at level 129, so we weren't able to knock him out) and yet I still enjoy the hell out of it.

So! I rolled up a ranged guy (woo!), and she made a close-range girl, and we got to it.

We died. A lot. But she enjoyed herself, and so did I, and that's what really matters. Plus, she's really enjoying raising her very own MAG.


Yay!

Mr. T and the Night Elf Mohawk

Alright, everybody has posted about it, but they've all failed to talk about the thing that interests me the most.

Wait, you missed it? Alright, go watch Mr. T talk about WoW HERE.

Back? Good. So, here's what interested me the most about that video: New Night Elf Haircut and Facial Hair. Why wouldn't they use that and make it accessible when Wrath of the Lich King hits? There's absolutely no reason - it's already on in-game models. Now, I don't really care about the mohawk (sorry, I've got a long-haired elfy guy and that's how he's gonna stay... although if I can change his hair color ever I'll do it in a heartbeat. Why did I ever choose that bluish-green?), the facial hair is a completely different matter.

Laheth has the old-style close-to-the-skin-full-beard, and Mr. T's Night Elf Mohawk has a sweet fairly close beard that I don't recognize at all.

I want the new one.

The End of Vacation is Nigh! Also: Fake Guitars.

Tomorrow I'll have to resume work. I like work, but it'll probably be the end of the week before I'm back on a project, so I'll get to continue doing random tools tasks.

Of course, this doesn't count as musing (not that many of my posts in the past have), so I'm going to stop right here and change tracks entirely.


You guys have heard about Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, et cetera, right? Well, I dig those games. I dig them because they offer a facsimile of musical/rhythmic talent while not actually requiring me to know how to sing, dance, play guitar, and so forth.
The one exception I can think of to this is that Rock Band's drum set (the part of the game I'm least interested in) is functionally equivalent to actually playing drums. Given that all the instrumental parts are input by a series of button presses timed to the music, I can understand why it's practically the same, but it's just not for me: I tried to learn playing drums before, and that didn't turn out great.

Now, last night, while hanging out with some of our friends who aren't as video gamer as others, I heard an opinion that just seemed strange to me: Somebody didn't ever care to play any of the guitar facsimile games because it wasn't like playing an actual guitar.

I can see his point, but (as I just stated) it's completely opposite of my own reason for playing them, and I'm not sure if a title that was playing an actual guitar, or something that was just like playing a guitar, and being scored for it, would ever be more than completely niche.

Gnomes Make Tiny Posts

Blogging on vacation? Is hard work.
Blogging on weekend? Is also hard work.
Blogging on weekend during vacation? You're out of your mind.

We played our warrior/mage combo tonight - getting ready for the Scarlet Monastery. Don't know when we'll tackle that, but it should be fun.

And now, I need to go put warmer clothes on so we can head to a friends and watch The Fifth Element on Blu-Ray.

Dustwallow - Completed

As far as I am aware, Strael no longer has any quests in Dustwallow Marsh. And neither does Contrae.

We're going to attempt running through Razorfen Downs with just the 3 of us (with the hunter) tonight, which will probably be fine since we're levelled 44-45. We've been having a lot of fun running instances when we're at the very top end of them with our group. We hit up Scarlet Monastery earlier this week, although we added our warrior orc friend to the mix as well.

Alright - we're assembled in Camp Taurajo - time to boogie.

Turkey Day - and I'm Late

So, we just returned from the second of our two Thanksgiving outings... and in the hustle and bustle of preparing food this morning and me preparing myself while that was being done (shaving, showering, and so on), I totally forgot to post to the blog explaining that I wouldn't be able to post to the blog.

So, according to the letter of NaBloPoMo, I've technically not reached the goal. I will continue to follow the spirit of it and post daily until a month has elapsed, and I will (in that vein) count this post towards yesterday (since I haven't gone to sleep yet -- in fact, I haven't done anything else yet since getting home).

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrated, or a wonderful Thursday if you didn't.

G'night, I'll talk at you all tomorrow. Technically today. Whatever -- after I sleep and awake.

Where the Blog Got It's Name

Some of you may have been wondering why this little corner of the web is referred to as The Rising Force. Well, it's actually tied into the monikers that my wife and I use to mask our identities.

A few years ago, our friends and us got onto a little bit of a superhero kick, spurred on by watching the Teen Titans animated series. Now, this same group of friends are actually the ones we role-play with, so we ended up starting a game of Mutants and Masterminds where we all took on the roles of super-powered teenagers brought together to form a group. That group was eventually dubbed "the Rising Force", although it took us a damn long time to come up with that.

When I decided that I wanted to start a blog, I decided that I wanted to have it disconnected from other sites that I maintain, and so I borrowed elements from that game, including my character's moniker (Gauntlet) and the name of the group itself. My wife posts here under the name of her character (Goldfire) as well, and if any of my friends who were involved ever want to post here, you might hear from Sparkshot, the Flash, or the Runic Soldier. Although the most likely person to guest-post here didn't have a character, since he was the GM. Maybe he'd want to go by Ignition, one of the more sociable of the villains.

Three Days To Save Dyluck: Day Two

Well, that was short.

No, we haven't saved Dyluck yet. You're supposed to work on this for most of the game, so it was a ridiculous title for this week anyways... but we're not going to get anywhere near that this week, since the player of JOE, who owns the game, is taking tomorrow off.

Oh well, at least we got to take down a couple of bosses and make some headway.


Also, I'm tired today.

Three Days To Save Dyluck: Day One

Our intrepid adventurers (JOE, GIRL, and TRUFFL) made their way to the royal castle at Pandora and met their foe, Thanatos, who has captured Dyluck (and somebody else, but we don't care). Before being able to retrieve him, however, we were dropped into a pit, where we were set upon by...

WALL FACE

Dispatching it at the last moment before being crushed against spikes, we rushed back upstairs only to see Thanatos escape again.

Dyluck Status: Still Captured.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Three Days To Save Dyluck

At work during lunch, we've been playing Secret of Mana. We had some setbacks last week with getting our group together (I was taking care of pets during lunch for 3 of the 5 days, and one of the other players was occupied with some official company visitors), so Dyluck has remained captured.

But no more! During this abbreviated week we have a goal: Three Days To Save Dyluck has begun!

Mahna Mahna

So the child I watch during the day seems just as entertained by watching the ROFLMAO clip and the classic Mahna Mahna over and over again as I am. Maybe I should add a few other videos in like the one my loving husband posted a few days ago or even the zombie one... See? Even 6 month old babies can be corrupted ^_^ Never too early to start!

WoW Short-term Plans

Strael has hit 43. Our hunter friend Krowjin has hit 41 or 42. Contrae is more than halfway through 39.

Tomorrow, we'll get Contrae up to 40, grab her mount, and then group with Krowjin to conquer the new stuff in Mudsprocket and to finish up Brackenwall. We might take a detour through Razorfen Kraul to upgrade Krowjin's pet to one of those shiny armored boars.

Yup. We has plans.

The Weekend Thus Far

...we slept until 1:30 pm, because we didn't get home until after 3 am.
Thus far we've done practically nothing :) We set up the guild bank, populated it, set up some auctions, and now we're having breakfast/lunch/dinner ("The Meal Du Jour") before we go to role-playing.

We also spent a little bit of time browsing Kaliban's Loot List and the WoW Armory, because my wife wants her resto-druid to have better gear. At 70 she's still wearing most of the Wild Draenish set that I made her so long ago. Unfortunately, the Armory suggested a bunch of non-resto junk from instances, and it doesn't look like there's a whole lot to choose from anyways.

Any druids out there who have any thoughts?

I might be a jerk driver

My comfortable following distance for other cars is a few seconds worth (varies depending on speed, blah blah blah)... but I rarely ever strive for it.

Instead, I strive for being close enough that other cars would be uncomfortable merging in front of me. If they do merge in front of me, they're obviously assholes.

Why would I do this? I do it because I get annoyed easily. If I were following car A comfortably, and car B merged into the nice open area between us, then I have to slow down not just to a comfortable space from car B, but even more so that he can be at his comfort level from car A. And I hate slowing down. It wastes my gas and my time.

Yeah, I'm probably a jerk.

Thursday

So, I was working on a post which was about sharing various ideas I've had regarding games recently... but I didn't finish it yet, because I got distracted. I'll save it for another day (hooray for auto-saving drafts).

In the meantime, I'll distract you guys with a video you've probably all seen before.

What? You're still here? Dang. Go do your daily quests. The Alliance/Horde needs YOU.

Shinies

Thus far, after a few hours of messing around, I like the 2.3 changes.

UI improvements? Fantastic!

Daily Play Battlegrounds quest? I played a match of Arathi Basin that didn't suck, and we won!

Guild Bank? Looks pretty, but we haven't set it up yet so I didn't get to poke and prod and use it. Right now our plan is to use it for passing items without the 1 hour delay (if we need to), or to store stacks of things that everybody uses (potions and such).

Multiple Items in a single piece of mail? Hooray! Now I can clutter my alts mailboxes that much easier!

Leatherworking Bags? Finally.

Shiny Clickies? So much easier to find herbs.

Anything else? Haven't seen it, or didn't know that I did.


Hopefully I'll have some time to group tonight.

Tuesday is Monday this week

Which means my brain hasn't entirely switched on.

This week's random task at work has me learning Perl (it was that or Python, and I already have a little bit of Perl knowledge). I'm actually enjoying reading through it more than I was while I was poorly attempting to learn C# for the past few weeks... just wasn't grabbing me, although some of that was (and still is!) post-vacation-relaxation.

Otherwise I don't really know what to say today. We played a hunter/mage combo last night, gaining a level each... but there's not a whole lot to say about that right now. We were tired, so we didn't play much.

So, I'm going to go back to listening to YouTube Muppet Show videos while I read about syntax. You should go play some WoW. I hear 2.3 has landed.

Battlegrounds and Me

Arathi Basin
Available at level 10. 5 capture points which also function as graveyards. While any point is captured, points are being awarded. First to 2000 points is the victor. On our battlegroup it's usually the Horde.

I played it some today with Laheth, because I want the Arena 1 shoulders (they look super-rad) but I'm still seriously lacking AB tokens and I'm only running around with 5000+ honor.

Verdict: Still not much fun, and today the second match was filled with whiners. We won, but anybody reading the battlegrounds chat lost.

Warsong Gulch
Capture the flag. Not much else to say.

I used to love WSG. It's the only battleground I've played with friends (and against once), and it helps showcase each class (IMO). Unfortunately, I stopped enjoying it as much once mounts were introduced. There was just something about having to run. It meant each encounter needed to be handled better. Or something.

Alterac Valley
Go kill the enemy leader guy. Also, capture some places so you can resurrect and so the opposition is weaker, but only if you feel like it.

Honestly, I'm a fan. We'll see if I still like it post 2.3, but I really enjoyed just running along in a Raid group and smooshing NPCs (and the occasional player when we saw them). This might be partly because I don't raid... but there wasn't a whole lot of strategy involved in AV either: go forward and kill the way you do best. Teamwork was sort of coincidence. That's something I'll talk about more when I babble about co-operative game design.

Also, every guy is worth honor points, and so are objectives, so you actually get a decent amount relative to how much crap costs.

Eye of the Storm
What happens if we cross Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch, but put it in the Outlands? There's a flag in the center and you take it to one of the captureable objective points. Honestly can't remember if it was a point-based system with the flag counting as some amount of points or not.

Played it a few times and encountered zero opposition. Seriously. We had a game fail because the other side quit. That's pretty damn bad. Plus - nowhere near as much honor gained as Alterac Valley.

Huh? What?

NaBloPoMoWhat? I'm supposed to be writing a post today as well? Oh. Right.

Hm. Played with puppies... no, as cute as they are I can't really think of too much to write about them.

Played WoW... Taking the 'lock and hunter through Arathi/Stromgarde stuff. Wearing plate. Kicking ass.

Stayed awake pretty dang late last night because we had some friends over (roleplaying didn't happen due to illness and business). We ended up browsing YouTube for nostalgia in the form of Cartoon and TV Show Intros we remembered from our childhoods. That mostly turned to all of us realizing that we watched a helluvalotof cartoons as kids/teens.

And now, since my wife needs some sleep before waking up early to get to her job tomorrow, I'm going to go to bed. Night!

Weekend Posting!

Alright, I gotta write this quick, since I don't know if I'll be back near my computer before it's Sunday.

Gitaroo Man is awesome. We played it with some friends of ours last night after our standard Friday Night Anime, because we needed to stay awake so we could go get the parents-in-law and take them to the airport around 4 in the morning.
Now, after a few hours of sleep, we're getting ready to head into the city to catch lunch and a play. That's going to be the bulk of our day, followed by checking on the in-law's pets (puppies! kitties! and a bird and fish I guess!)... and then we head over to play Burning Wheel (in theory - we'll see how that turns out).

Ha! I almost signed this like an e-mail. Then you would've known who I am. Oh noes.

Woo! Friday!

I'm having a hard enough time focusing on work and all the stuff that we're doing this weekend that I can't come up with a single thing to talk about.

So I'll talk about multiple things! Solution!

• Reading about the science of science fiction is heady stuff. I submit to you: Atomic Rockets. Be warned - this site covers much physics and sciences.
• I'm looking forward to Rock Band but I'm torn... we have a 360 and it is shiny. Plus - achievements are awesome (someday I'll link my Gamertag, but not yet). However, we also already own two guitars and a couple of microphones for the PS2, since we are fans of Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. Ah well. We won't be getting it until we don't have to deal with the bundle anyways (I'm not super-excited about the drum-kit).
• I need to find a good site for tips on grammar. I tend to want to write little asides when I'm blogging, and I also would love a reference guide for apostrophes and other punctuation.
• Secret of Mana is fun with three people. It's what we're playing during lunch these days.
• I want to draw a bunch of stuff, but my sketchbooks are all at home since I stopped bringing my briefcase to work. I need to draw superheroes and spacemen. Seriously.
• Also, I could fill several posts with things I want to talk about that I'm doing at work. But then I'd be in trouble, and that's not good. I should write down drafts for when I am allowed to say stuff. Or I could just wing it when the opportunity arises. I'm a fan of winging it.
• And finally - I'm a little sad that the bits of plate mail I have for Strael are light gray or dark blue-greenish. He was looking pretty bad-ass in black and red. Our tabard doesn't go with anything either.
  

Looking forward to 2.3

So, as we're all aware, patch 2.3 is supposed to hit next week and be totally sweet.

And since I love making lists and planning on stuff to do (even if I only intend on using said plans as guidelines)... have at ye, blackguard!

The Alts:
This patch is totally alt-city. I mean... improved experience? New mid-level content? Hooray!

• Chimmery -- Clocking in at the low 30s, this tiny marvel of magic gets to blink hisself around with his brother Tremmery and check out the new sights and old swampiness of the Dustwallow Marsh area. Should be fantastic.
  
• Ashcraft -- I admit it: I want to play my 'lock again after watching my wife run around and DoT everything to hell and back. Plus, having just gotten my shiny pony with my paladin, and I think having a horse on fire sounds like fun times.
  
• Djellin -- We're still working towards our toys, so we'll probably throw down with the shaman/warrior combo meal and get there faster. After we've gnomed it up though.
  
• Vandren -- Go go lower hunter! You're the lowest of the top listed for choice of play though.
  
• And the Rest: While I'd like to play my rogues a little bit I just don't care enough to change them from being bank alts. And my super-tiny druid will wait until the wife has interest.
  

The Mains:
2.3 means some changes that'll affect all 3 of my main characters... let's go over them.

• Laheth -- No deadzone! Yay! Now if only I had stuff to do other than farm. I guess there are instances and gearing towards raids, but there is no way I'm that social. It'll wait until some of our friends hit 70 as well. However, he will need to upgrade his quiver and leatherworking stuff (24 slot bag! Want!). I do want a flying mount, but farming for cash is not my thing.
  
• Starrlia -- She's still in the range of experience bonus, so we'll probably group and try to hit 60. Plus we'll need to see if the changes I'm just about to talk about for Strael benefit our group.
  
• Strael -- My blood elf pally is retribution spec. So... he's going to need a respec and then I'm going to have to see how that is. Also: we're having a lot of fun playing with our Horde group (we added a warrior friend last night) so we'll probably keep doing that.
  

And Finally, Our Guild:

• Our friends-only Alliance guild will need to figure out what we're doing with the new guild bank. I hope to offload some of the materials I have, but the wife and I (she's the leader and I'm co-leader) will need to come up with a plan of action.

There. I used the WoW prompt of the day. Happy now, TJ?

Oh noes!

Silly me, I spent the day working. Um... C# is sort of neat? Naw, that would be a boring topic for most of ya'll.

Ooh! I know! I'll say how we did last night! That'll fill some space :)

Last Night In Azeroth:
We were joined in our Stranglethorniness by my East Coast Time Zone Raiding Friend (henceforth known as whatever the heck I feel like calling him moment to moment) who joined us with his level 70 holy paladin. Man. Things died super quick. That was entertainment.

Our little group is much closer to each other quest-wise now. Especially since we're a trio of 32 (Warlock!), 36 (Hunter!), and 39 (Paladin!). And I know at least myself and the wife are pretty darn close to levelling (3-6 bubbles left).

So, I'm going to finish my wonderful Ikea Meatballs in Ikea Gravy over White Rice and then get me some experience.

How the hell are my characters?

Let's take a look at my mains on the Alliance and Horde, shall we?
And some of their skills at random, when I feel like it.

Laheth - Sittin' Pretty at 70
* Leatherworking - 350. AKA Primals for skillups.
* Skinning - Maxed at 375, just like it has been for the last... 8 levels?
* Cooking - Abyssmal. Although he can make Gingerbread Cookies.
* Fishing - Worse than Cooking.
Plan:
Since I don't group with folks I don't know unless the wife wants to, he's pretty much on hold until I can muster the strength to go grind for cash and mats. Neither sounds fun right now, so he's a landbound goofy-looking fellow. With a chainmail eyepatch that has a skull on it. Gyar.

Strael - 39! That's Like 40, Only Not Quite
* Engineering - a little behind because I don't know what to make, since I value the materials more than the product. Woops.
* Mining - I can mine mithril! EXCITING AND SHINY.
* Cooking - He can cook pretty much everything he kills.
* Fishing - 1. Seriously. Why do I even have that fishing pole in my inventory? I'm gonna sell it.
Plan:
He's gonna run around with the wifelock and my hunter friend in Stranglethorn tonight, visiting stolen-holy vengeance upon dinosaurs trolls and cats. And monkeys. Heh.

Weekend Happenings in Azeroth

This weekend was super awesome in WoW. My wife and I decided, on a whim, to play as some of our neglected Blood Elves. So Strael (the paladin) and his lovely cohort Contrae (the warlock) ran around Hillsbrad, joined fortuitously by our friend's troll hunter.

That was great - they were both self sufficient enough that I didn't have to do much tankery or healery with my retribution-spec, and when the need did arise my extra seven-to-ten levels certainly came in handy :)

We actually made a whole weekend out of that little group, and we all got set up with the in-game voice-chat stuff and ran just the three of us through Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps. Not much (read: no) experience for me except for a couple quests I hadn't done in BFD, but it was still a lot of fun to go through them.


Now I'm home after a slow day of work; I'm fed with pizza and pie; and it's just about time for me to play some video games.

Talk at ya more tomorrow!

Pirates of the Caribbean Online

It could be a fun game... but it just doesn't like my wife's computer. I don't know why - her machine is superior to mine in almost every aspect, but she was experiencing constant lag to the point where it looked like she was freezing half the time. Oh well - at least we weren't paying money for it, right?

So! We made two pirates, named James and Kate Shorebane (zero relationship to our actual names, so no tricky thinking by you crazy internet folk), and we ran around as part of the same crew. We also named our ships Crimson Defender (mine!) and Shadow Dancer (hers!)... although we tended to use her ship for most of our travels, and just swapped who was driving every once in a while, since you gain experience by doing things (cannons, piloting, guns, swords - use 'em to gain new skills). The free trial didn't let us do any non-main-storyline-thing-quests, so yeah, but the story stuff has the actual actors performing their roles in a weird storyline that has no place in the actual canon. You start off in jail with Jack Sparrow, and he busts you out - then you head to Port Royal (after a run-in with Davy Jones, the Skull-Faced Pirate Who Has It In For Jack Oh It's Funny You Should Think He's Like the Squid-Faced Guy But He's Totally Not!) to get a sword from Will Turner, and then you go talk to Elizabeth Swan to get a boat (she's waiting for her dad - when could this have possibly taken place?). Yeah, it's weird, but it's cute in it's fan-dream-ish-ness, and it's got a sort of nice interface. The graphics are a little lower-end, and all the males are shaped funny.

I have no idea where I'm going with this. It's not like I'm trying to review it or anything. I think I'll stick to talking about WoW.

Here's a picture of my pirate! Gyarr!!

Holiday Stuff!

Thanksgiving is not yet arrived, and already we're looking towards Christmas. There's a holiday bazaar going on at the high school a few blocks away, so we're going to hit that up and see what they got... right after we start the background downloader for WoW, start installing Pirates of the Caribbean Online on my wife's machine, and have the soup be all cookin' (which it is!).

Here's what we need (non-gift-wise) for Christmas:

• Something visible in our house from outside
• Maybe something for the wall on the stairwell
• To clean up some of our (read: my) junk that is cluttering the surfaces downstairs

And now, I'm going to pay some bills and put my socks'n'shoes on.


Perhaps I'll talk about Pirates tomorree. How's that sound?

Let's Go For a 30 Chain!

So, on a whim after reading this, I've decided to try my hand at updating this ol' blog everyday for the next month.

We'll see.

We played WoW!

In a surprising turn of events, my wife and I sat down and played some World of Warcraft for the first time since we left for vacation.

As a result, our draenei duo (Djellin and Wallase) have both gotten 1 level closer to their shiny toys (Ardent Custodian for me... and like a ring and something else for her. Seriously, I should be able to remember. Maybe a hat?) and all the associated coolness of being 40 (mounts! And we both have 70s who, despite very much needing all the cashes ever, badly, for their flying and then epic flying birds, will gladly donate whatever we need to run around on something at 40... gosh, it's too bad we've got so far to go before we can have anything other than those silly heffalumps).

Also! We both ended up with Pirate Costume wands for Hallow's Eve funness (funituity?). So we pirated it up for a bit. I have pictures! I will crop them and attach them! You'll see! Edit: See, I did!


...yup.