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September 28, 2005
The Store is On Fire!
Okay, so it actually wasn't. Around 8 AM, power-surged at work, and triggered the fire alarms. Though we were sure nothing was wrong, Brian said we should all go outside. Mind you, it was friggin' cold! Thankfully I had my hoodie laying on my cart.
About 15 minutes later, the FD showed up. Apparently we weren't that big of a concern. We sat outside for about 10 minutes while they checked the building and verified that all was safe.
In the meantime, I text messaged Sam with: woohoo - the store is burning! (ok so we aren't sure) and then later, as we walked back inside with: booo! building not on fire. It was amusing, if nothing else.
Eh, nothing much else worthy to share.
Posted by Coyote at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2005
Shopping List From J!NX
Weird series of linkage here. I was on Allakhazam, looking through the WoW message board (the official board was boring today). Someone made a post that Leeroy Jenkins had infected Adventure Quest. After remembering my username for the game, I logged in and played a little bit, marveling at the changes that had occurred.
Unable to remember how to heal (outside of potions), I went to the FAQ. I didn't see anything, but I did see something about upgrading your account for Guardian status (which I've had for over a year--though I forgot about the game entirely). Mention was made of a t-shirt. Wanting to see this shirt, I followed the link. I found myself on J!NX, clothing for the nerd/gamer in all of us. So here's my shopping list. Hmm, my birthday is coming up... Who's buying me gifts?
Because there is no patch for stupidity
FPS "Live In Your World" [for Mike]
...if only it said "level 60 Shaman" instead (babydoll)
Reading Skill +1, perfect for work
Music Pirate!
Frag the Weak, Hurdle the Dead [for Mike]
PWNstar
iPood [for Mike]
NPC
|W|A|R|C|R|A|C|K| My anti-drug
Human barcode [for Mike]
Bad things, now with Emo Skulls!
OMFG - the gamer's prayer
W A S D [for Mike]
Talk nerdy to me -- in kanji (babydoll)
Pixelicious! [for Mike]
Dark Side
I was young, I needed the gold
u r teh suck!!1!oneone
I HACK, BAN ME [for Mike]
Your computer sucks
My controller is broke! [for K, ROFL!]
Button mashers suck [for Mike]
retro gamer [for Mike]
Revolution is not an AOL Keyword
Female Geek Coalition (baseball)
unhackable <3 (tank)
I steal music.. (babydoll)
Posted by Coyote at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
WoW Battleplan, Vol. 2
A couple of months ago (if that long ago) a post was made on the boards about the upcoming "battleplan" for WoW, in terms of development. At that time, they really didn't have much to share, unlike this time around. Some of the ideas they suggest are beautiful...
I'll have the full post quoted in its entirity in my actual WoW journal (Adventures in WoW), but here I'll introduce just some key points.
"... BlizzCon is quickly approaching. [...] I’m very happy to announce that we'll have the first public showing of the expansion for World of Warcraft at BlizzCon."
Yes! I knew an expansion had to be forthcoming. When BlizzCon was announced, they said the would be revealing a new game. With them 'leaking' the information now, that leaves it narrowed down to Diablo 3. Believe me when I say our fingers are crossed for that event.
On the brightside, since we won't be able to attend BlizzCon (damn us for living on the wrong coast now!), they did say you will be able to read about the expansion (and more) in upcoming gaming magazines. Now, if we could only convince G4 to feed us hours of BlizzCon. -_- Yeah, didn't think that would happen.
"One feature we’re excited about is the addition of mid-sized raid dungeons."
Middle-sized raids! Yay!
"...we're focused on launching new world events and expanding on some of the ones already available. Currently on the schedule is a Halloween-inspired event for Azeroth."
Yay! Birthday events! I mean... Halloween.
"Outside of the Battlegrounds, we want to focus on PvP gameplay in general. One common concern has been that lower level players have a difficult time advancing in the PvP Honor System, so we'll be changing some things in regard to the Honor requirements in order to help these players make more progress. Another popular player request has been for us to increase outdoor PvP battles. Prior to the Battlegrounds, the outdoor landscape was fraught with PvP. However, once the Battlegrounds were introduced and NPC dishonorable kills were implemented, outdoor PvP greatly decreased. We want to bring back the hectic action of mass PvP, but with some improvements. One idea on the table is to place a capturable objective in the exterior environment. With something like this, we can encourage outdoor PvP again while centralizing the action to a designated location."
Best idea ever! I wish they had done the DK system differently. I honestly think that it should be on players, not on 'civilan' NPCs. Make the ganking of lowbies hurt others. However, the DK system we have in now isn't likely to leave, so this idea works just as well. Town raids are so much fun, and I miss getting involved in them.
"Player profiles is another feature we are looking forward to for the site. Profiles will showcase armor and equipment for each player and allow them to compare notes with players on other realms."
I would almost pay for this! (In a sense, I did, since I have a subscription to Allakhazam.
"Another feature of the Web site we'll be implementing is fee-based character transfers. This is a feature that's been very frequently requested and one which we want to provide for players as soon as we can. We'll offer character transfers from one realm to another, as well as allow players to move characters from one account to another. While we want to offer this service as a convenience, we also want to prevent its use for exploitive reasons, so there will be a time restriction to limit the frequency that a character can be moved."
To be perfectly honest, I don't like the idea of transferring characters between accounts. When Mike bought his own account, he sucked it up and started over. Mind you, his hunter was only about 16-19, but he started anew. Others can do the same.
I do like being able to move between servers though. I might even merge my PVE servers together, because I make enough gold on Sapheria to twink my alts. LOL Terrible reason, but hey... what can you do?
"Speaking of raising the bar, we know that many players are curious about our plans for Hero classes. We want to assure everyone that developing the Hero-class system as a way for top-level players to advance their characters to new heights remains a high priority for us. While we can’t delve into specifics at this time, we do hope to share more info about Hero classes when we see you at BlizzCon."
Does this mean that the Hero system will be in the expansion? Hmm.. Food for thought!
Posted by Coyote at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
Disaster Katrina
I hate it when I realize how narrow my scope of national (or worldly) news is. Sure, I heard about Hurricane Katrina, who hasn't? Did I realize the vast destruction caused by it? Not at all. Worse, it wasn't until my stomach was turning due to watching Fear Factor that I got up and changed the channel. Unless I know a show in particular that I wish to watch, I always put on 2 and move up the dial from there.
Today I didn't make it past 2. CBS was down in NOLA. I could not—and still cannot—grasp the images I'm seeing from there. I sat down in front of the TV, instead of back at my computer. The images of utter destruction burn into me. I haven't seen anything this horrific from when I watched the first Tower drop on 9/11. To this minute, almost a hour after I changed the channel, I am still sick to my stomach at the horror that has occured.
Worse, we have a friend who lived in Mississippi. We don't know if he's still living there, or moved for school. I honestly believe he did not move. I think he lived in Biloxi. Not much is left of Biloxi though. Thankfully the report from there stated that it was a ghost town. They showed one family, but no other people. The streets were empty, and they never once reported anything about emergency crews rescuing people—I'm holding onto this as a good sign.
Last year when Ivan hit, we were glued to the TV. Mike and I were in Pennsy, visiting Sharon and her Mike. Tom, who I will always considered my brother, lived in Florida; so we were just watching and hoping. But this time, not once did Mike or I turn the TV to news coverage, or the weather channel to track the storm. I caught something online about the size of it, but we both honestly shrugged it off. Now when I think about it, it seems so callous. People live down there. Or did. Now...
People are now crying about the price of gas. Our GM was complaining about how she had to drive to another store to get her review. How about everyone stops thinking about the gas for a moment, and looks at the massive loss that struck Louisiana and Mississippi? How about figuring out a way to converse your gas, and donate some of that money that you saved to the Red Cross? (And yes, I will likely make a donation—as I did after 9/11. I do practice what I preach.)
The thing I simply cannot understand is the looting. I'm not talking about people who are seeking clean water and edible food, but TVs and electronics, guns, etc. Good luck finding an outlet to plug that TV into, and better yet, one that has power going to it. And the guns?! Why?! So you can shoot people who are attempting to come to your rescue and end up forcing them to withdraw? Or so that you can threaten people and demand to be taken out of the city? Yes, both wise ideas. Assholes.
Yes, I am torn. I feel horrible for the people who survived, who lost everything that ever meant anything to them—be it their home, their possessions or a loved one. However, anyone who is so self-centered that only thinks about personal gain during the most horrific thing to happen to the US in years needs some serious help. One a friend's MySpace, a comment was made about how another levee should be broken to drown the looters and the gun-toters. I cannot help but to agree. Society would be better off without them.
For all the people who are merely trying to stay alive, the best of luck to you all. Were I religious, I would say a prayer for you. As I'm not, I will have to simply say, 'You will be in my thoughts'.
Posted by Coyote at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)