Mend Pet

After much hesitance and resistance from both myself and my poor kitty and moth, I’ve decided to make a temporary switch to Survival.

It was a tough choice.  Like many other hunters, I had to decide which was more important: my enjoyment/loyalty to my spec, or doing a proper amount of DPS.

I am lucky enough to have a great raid and guild who would never pressure me either way.

On the one hand, my Blog clearly states “Beast Mastery” and I’ve held my pets very dear to me since I switched to BM back at 65.  I’ve been a little stubborn about it, and defensive when people say I’m only playing BM because it’s the “easy/highest DPS”.

On the other hand, I hate feeling like my DPS is bringing the guild down, and while I don’t care if I top the charts, I am a DPS class, and if I can’t do my job, well… what’s the point?

But after going from top 3 DPS to bottom 3 DPS in our raid just because of the changes they’ve made to my damage and pet, my choice was pretty clear.

So now I’ve really got to look into the spec and the rotations that have been suggested and tested by the hunters I respect.  I’ve been browsing them casually so far, but now I’ve got to actually understand the why and how of it all.

This could be a good thing though.

It’s an opportunity to try something new, and maybe I’ll find out that this is a better spec for me.  Or maybe it’ll renew my interest in the Beast Master tree.  Only time (and lots of ammo) will tell.  At least it will give me something to right about, if nothing else!

*starts researching*

Tomorrow starts the Unemployed meetup in Las Vegas!  So I take off from Ottawa tomorrow morning at 7AM, and return Monday night.  Should be a really fun time, although I doubt we’ll be able to get to do nearly as much of the stuff we’d like to over just 2 days.

I’ll return to Mend Pet on Tuesday, hopefully with lots of pictures to show and stories to tell!

It’ll be my first time on a plane, and my first time in the US… Exchanged some of my money the other day, it was strange to have American money.  I’ve never really had any, just seen it up close a couple of times.  I giggled when they gave me some $1 bills.  Bills!  For just 1 dollar!  How silly!

Thanks to the folks on Twitter who gave me some good suggestions on where to go and what to see!

Cooking Contest/Bake-Off

This is an idea I haven’t tried yet, but am hoping to soon.

It’s a two-parter, and can be split up if you’d rather only do one part.  There is an in-game component and an out-of-game component.

The in-game part is the “Bake-Off”.  It’s pretty simple, and not really a contest, but more a group effort thing to help everyone out.  The idea is to help people work on their Cooking Achievements.  Each person involved will be required to farm a specific mat, like Rhino Meat or Small Eggs.  Then everyone will come together and mats will be distributed so everyone will have what they need to cook recipes they haven’t cooked yet (for the Northrend Gourmet or Cake achievements, for example).

The out-of-game part is to have those who are cooking-inclined to cook up a real meal/drink/snack that represents some in-game food, like Rhino Dogs, Dragonbreath Chilli, etc.  They’ll need to post a real recipe and try to relate it to the in-game ingredients.  Votes are made based on taste (for those who decide to try to make them) and creativity.

Example: I have yet to try these, but I am sure that because so many members of Unemployed are big fans of cooking, we’ll at least be able to pull off the second part with lots of interest.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Here is the conclusion of Anna’s RP Mad lib, with my answers filled in.  You can see the story with the blanks here.  Look forward to seeing some of the stories!

Rose Jug-Sniffer

At first glance this woman appears to be 29, but her magnetic jaw suggest perhaps that she is older. Her movements are intense, especially her stride. With every step her bit pulls, drawing attention to the tabard made of the finest tunnels. You also notice the mechanical left hand clinking behind her, made of shiny metal. Around her left wrist is a Kobold staff bracelet, and she seems to eye it smoothly.

Her eyes are teal and dirty like a mustache – you can tell right away that she is furious and jealous. She has a bright and sparkly scar on her can that looks like she was once held captive by a Night Elf. Her unrestrained hair is puce as a dagger.

She is wearing dingy mittens that are very harmful, that fling her thigh nicely. When you see her, she’s either following repeatedly or defeating gradually, but she never takes her eyes off the so-called laser that she uses as a weapon.

Upon closer inspection, however, you feel that something about her is not quite right – maybe she’s part giant toad?

Anna over at Too Many Annas has posted a neat little activity on her blog.  I’ve previously participated in her Friday Five RP segments, and this sounded like fun… so rock on!

If you don’t know how mad libs work, it’s like a story with most of the important parts replaced with blanks.  You are given a list of types of things (noun, adjective, colour, etc) and you fill in these blanks without seeing the story.  Afterwards, you put the two together, and in most cases, hillarity ensues.

So here are my list of words, and tomorrow I’ll repost Anna’s story with my words in the blanks.

Here’s what you need:

1. Flower: rose
2. Noun: jug
3. Verb: sniffing
4. Number: 29
5. Adjective: magnetic
6. Noun: bubble
7. Body Part: jaw
8. Adverb: intensely
9. Noun: bit
10. Verb: pulling
11. Article of Clothing: tabard
12. Noun: tunnel
13. Body part: left hand
14. Adjective: shiny
15. Monster: Kobold
16. Noun: staff
17. Adverb: smoothly
18. Color: teal
19. Adjective: dirty
20. Noun: mustache
21. Emotion: furious
22. Emotion: jealous
23. Adjective: bright
24. Adjective: sparkly
25. Noun: can
26. Monster: Night Elf (Yeah, yeah, they’re monsters to me!)
27. Color: puce
28. Noun: dagger
29. Adjective: dingy
30. Article of Clothing: mitten
31. Adjective: harmful
32. Verb: flinging
33. Body part: thigh
34. Verb: following
35. Adverb: repeatedly
36. Verb: defeating
37. Adverb: gradually
38. Adjective: so-called
39. Noun: laser
40. Monster: giant toad