Mend Pet

After finishing my last exam yesterday, I wanted to spend an entire day just running heroics and getting some new gear and most importantly, practice.  So at 11 AM, we got a group together to run Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle!

It went decently, but I’ll go into more detail about that tomorrow on this week’s edition of This Week in Raiding!

Unfortunately, it seems I’ve been hit with the “ur graphix sux” bug.  My video card is lasting less and less time whenever I log in – I believe it’s overheating.  My game graphics freeze up: it’s like looking at a screenshot.  Only it tortures me by still playing the sounds fine.  I can hear myself getting attacked, but I’ve no way to defend myself.

So with that, it looks like I won’t be playing at all this weekend.  If I can conjure up some transportation, I will probably head out and try to find some upgrades for my hunk-o-junk PC.

In other news,  I spent yesterday catching up on watching some of my lectures before my exam.  And I’ve found that I can quite easily fish and pay attention to the Prof at the same time.

So yesterday was Achievement day!

I started off by finishing of my [Northrend Angler] achievement.  Then I went to the old world, and picked up [The Scavenger] and [The Fishing Diplomat].  Here’s a quick tip on that one if you’re Horde – you can just swim around to where the Stormwind Harbour is and get the achievement without ever passing the gates!  Sneaky!

Then I thought to myself… “Brajana the Salty”. Okay, it doesn’t sound good.  But at least it’s different!  So I ventured off to finish the rest of the required achievements.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of luck involved in those.  I’ve never been able to pick up Mr. Pinchy, and I have no idea how long I’d have to sit in front of that fountain to catch all those coins…

So then I thought to myself… “Chef Brajana”.  Hm.  That sounds better!  And there is a lot less luck involved in those babies.  I finished up the 1st level of [Northerend Gourmet] and in the process, got [Second that Emotion].  With my quondam luck in BC, I already had the rare recipes from the dailies, so that helped with [Outland Gourmet].

Also I did one of the most fun achievements in the game, [Critter Gitter].  Wow.  I love those Critter Bites!

My Eeevil Penguin Army!

Anyway, while I was well on my way to finishing off the whole thing for the title, I happened accross an interesting fact on Wowhead.  This title is NOT possible to complete at this time.

Grrr.  4 recipes are missing from the game, and you need to know 3/4 of them to get the final achievement for 45 recipes in Northrend.

I was very disappointed.  But it’s not going to stop me – they’ll fix it someday, and I want to be ready to get it when they do!

All in all, it was a productive Achievement day.  Now if only I could get in the game now to do some REAL playing…

Sorry for the slight lack of posts this week! Here’s the deal.

Today, I’ve got one of the scariest final exams I’ve ever had. So the last two days have been exclusively study time (except my dailies of course!) I also have a second final tomorrow, so once I get home from this one, it’s straight back to studying. Boo.

And here’s where I go all non-WoW and ranty. The transit service in my city has decided to go on strike today. Which means students like me have to find alternate means for getting to their exams, people have to take time off work, spend money on taxis, try desperately to find people with cars willing to take time out of their day to drive them around in the middle of a winter storm. They claim of course this strike isn’t about money. It’s about respect, they want more sick days and better scheduling (although they ALSO want a 10.5% pay increase). What I’d like to know, is how they expect respect when they disrupt an entire city, and hold the city as a hostage? I don’t respect that. They won’t be receiving any additional respect from me.  It’s not as if their quondam service has improved in the last several years, so why should their pay?  We have an economic crisis on our hands, and they expect to get more money.  All the while, punishing those who have nothing to do with their pay, who depend daily on them to keep their lives running.  I would like to know why transit service is not considered an essential service yet.

Anyway…

After I’m done finals on Thursday, I’ve got a full day of Heroics scheduled for Friday!  I’m going to try out some new macros and new rotations and try to post some results.

I’m also going to work on crafting some more of the Swiftarrow Set and other leatherworking pieces to replace a few more of my BC level stuffs!  Brajana wants loots!

What’s this?  Brajana is posting?

Yes, my friends.  It’s 1:30am on a Tuesday monring, I’ve spent the last 6 hours getting 5 questions done on a 10 question assignment that is due at 8:30am.  So what am I doing?

Writing about Wrath of the Lich King.

As the expansion gets closer and closer, my mind has been pushing forward and starting to think about how I’m going to handle the new expansion when it hits.  Our guild has almost stopped raiding completely, and have found ourselves only pulling enough interest to do ZA.  And I’ve found myself with little time to do anything but my Brewfest dailies for the last little while.

In fact, I don’t think I’ll be getting much done on Brajana between now and November, and I’ve almost put Ferguson in a little hibernation chamber waiting for the expansion to hit.  I really miss playing my priest, but with school and work and November all going full-speed ahead, there’s just no time for rep grinds and Kara runs.

Anyway, back to the point.  What am I going to do when Wrath hits?

When The Burning Crusade came out, I picked it up the evening after it came out, and barely played it in the first week it was out.

I’ve gotten a lot more involved since then, and part of me wants to hit up a midnight release and join my guildies in that first burst off the boat, racing for quest mob respawns and trying to get to 80 ASAP for raiding.

But the other part of me, the sleepy part and the part that genuinely enjoys questing and exploring would rather sleep in, pick up the game after class and take my time doing the quests.

Next question – pets.  I did my little review a couple of weeks ago – and yes, I took screenshots… but now is not the time for me to look for them – and I’m still pretty set on getting a Moth.  I can even get one when the patch comes out, and then I’ll probably have a level 70 Moth to bring out to Northrend with me right away.

And I think I’d eventually like to get a Gorilla.  I’ve watched BRK’s Gorilla videos, and heard what he’s said about the tanking ability in instances and such.  I’ve never been much for AoE grinding, but I sure don’t think it could hurt to be able to hold a bunch of mobs in place.  So I think, at whatever level the first Gorillas are in Northrend, I’ll probably grab one of those.

*looks at looming algorithms assignment*

Hrm.

Soo, achievements!  Getting a bit excited for some of those.  I’ve even been working on the Brewmaster ones, because “Brewmaster Brajana” is just such a cool title.

Amava Knows Aggro has had a couple interesting posts about her opinion of achievements, and it’s been nice to hear another player’s honest view of them.  Someone who isn’t working their butts off before the expansion even hits to get these things unlocked.  I don’t think that’s what they are meant for, but I suppose they are for whatever you mean them to be!

I must admit, I picked up the 60% Brewfest Ram today to add it to my collection.  And I’ll probably work on a few more mounts once they are learnable.  But I’d be likely to do that whether their were points for it or not.  I have always seen my mount collection as a pukka achievement!

Speaking of which, anyone know if there has been a way figured out so you can randomly summon mounts?  Maybe someone will make an addon that could do it?  I hope there’s something.  Because that is one of my favourite tricks!

Okay.  Enough rambling.

The Algorithms are calling me.

Sorry it’s been so slow here lately.  I can tell you this, there is a direct correlation between the time I stopped posting everyday and when classes started up… and it doesn’t seem to be getting better!  For the next ten weeks, I’ve got a minimum of two test/assignments/midterms due every single week, I’m working two full days a week and schooling full-time.  Not to mention the job application process I have to go through to find a co-op position for January!  Sheesh.  I’m already pooped.

So the bottom line is, I likely won’t be posting every day.  I’m going to get some posts out still, but if I want to write pukka posts, I’ll need to take a couple of days to write them rather than getting them out once a day. I have to chose between writing about WoW in my very limited spare time or actually playing the game, and the choice is pretty simple.  And obviously school takes priority over all of that.

But don’t worry, I’m back to the real world come January, and I’m sure with Wrath being out and the Las Vegas trip approaching, I’m sure I’ll have plenty to get me back into daily posts in December-January, once classes are done.

Keep an eye on the site, I’ll do what I can to keep it running smoothly.

Okay, this post isn’t exactly about WoW.  But I went for a really nice bike ride yesterday, and I just wanted to share a couple pictures I took.  Keep in mind – I don’t live on the outskirts of Ottawa, I live pretty close to the middle.  One neat feature is the Central Experimental farm.  It’s about 4 square kilometers of farm land in the middle of the city.  I am lucky enough to live just up the street from it, so in the month or so that we aren’t all couped up in our igloos, I get to bike through it every day on my way to and from work.

When I was biking today, I noticed the name of the farm road that I bike down, not sure how I never noticed it before.  It’s called “Cow Lane”.

And who are the only residents of cow lane?

There’s also the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, a man-made canal, and the famous longest skating rink in the winter months.  It is beautiful in all seasons though, and has some great bike paths along each side.

Anyway… I just thought I’d share those with you.  And I apologize for the peccadillo of leaving the timestamp in the pictures, it wasn’t my camera and I didn’t realize they were being saved like that!

I’ll have a real WoW post tomorrow… I promise!