Tuesday 8 December 2009

I [Heart] Spiceworks


I Love Spiceworks

Yup, I do

Just a bit of plugging for the software that makes my life that bit easier.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Tech Guru!

IRL
I have recently been researching the brilliant Spiceworks. One way of raising your position is to write reviews and how-tos, so I wrote this one (They say you should write what you know)

WoW
Jimaeth is about to level 72, his skinning and leatherworking continues apace. Myfanawy needs to up her Blacksmithing but where do I find the time?

Wednesday 11 November 2009

Mea Maxima Culpa!

I know, I'm naughty, I should have blogged more recently. Sorry

WoW
The PvP has heated up, and I now have 4 out of 5 of my PvP set. The Kodohide one. I know it's the healing one, but that's not such a bad thing, I've been healing a bit more recently, and am now not a total tard, just in the vaguely less able section.

IRL
I dug a vegetable garden, and laid paving slabs. The back garden, apart from being wet and muddy, is now wet and muddy and intersected with a path to both of the sheds. We also found a hard standing at the bottom of the garden for a small greenhouse. I hope we can put a greenhouse there. I'd love to grow my own chillis. Verily, 'twould rock!

Saw District 9, it's very good

Another real life thingy, Dan and Lerryn have surfaced, today. A brilliant couple I knew back in my bad bugger days in Bournemouth. They've gone and grown up and had nippers too. It seems to be a trend.

To you all, remember the armistice, have a good week.

Thursday 22 October 2009

Cake is NOT a lie

WoW
Holy crap, finally. Delicious Chocolate cake finally dropped. I was shocked and stunned (Well about 3 minutes later, as I was also half asleep) I did today's daily first thing. The little fella watched Peppa Pig and the Mrs was having porridge.

Jeez, nearly forgot, went to Naxx last night. SPent the first half DPSing and the second half healing, I wasn't brilliant at the latter. Got nice things. Went through the Spider wing nicely, went to the plague wing, spanked Patchwerk, however, when it was Grobbulus's turn for a kicking, it actually wasn't, it was ours. This was my first major run with the guil, and first over Ventrilo, my initial thoughts on my guild have been confirmed, they#'re a nice bunch. Also, as the healing wasn't brilliant, it wasn't 'Fire up the blamethrower, we're having a BBQ' it was civilised. Points were made, and taken, very well. Bless her, Sal apologised in advanced for sounding harsh, even though she didn't. I love my guild :D

No WoW tonight, having a night in with the Mrs. She was good enough to let me raid last night, least I can do is return the favour. However Lunch break is another matter ;)

IRL
I've been letting it slip recently. So, this morning, I ironed my shirt and had a decent shave. My chops have forgotten the touch of a razor of late and told me in no uncertain terms I should get some sharper blades. Once my face calmed down a bit, colected my thoughts, and my stuff (Minus my work phone, I've just noticed) together and got out of the house. Nice to get on the 07:43 from Braintree, much lower 'unpleasant person' factor than the mainline through COlchester.

I am, as you may have noticed, trying to be a bit more politic. This is no mean feat.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

The Headless Horseman is here - And Jack is not

WOW
Yes, that's right, the annual loot-fest that is Hallows End is upon us.

I've managed to rack up both caster rings, and passed on the sword twice. I do wish the broom would last longer, as it was perfect for my Warlock when she was 70 and could take him last year. Imagine, small female gnome warlock, black hair, pointy hat, broom, black cat pet from Elwynn - Perfect

Anyway, just need 5 more tokens from the tournament to get the caster mail chest for Codnor and he'll be sorted. Then it's chest and shoulders for Myfanawy, melee shoulders for Jimael, and the leather melee chest for Ybby and Jimaeth. Once I've got those I'll have 20% XP boost to all my chars. (Sweeeeet!)

IRL
Gangan has died. Charlie's dear and lovely Grandad has gone on, after a major stroke and a short illness. He wasn't my Grandad, but he was the only Grandad I had, hence my lack of posts. The funeral's next week and I'm not sure whether to speak or not.

On a lighter note. Want a holster for my PSP.

Do yourselves a favour, give your family a ring every now and then. Even if they're massive bum-pains, they're still family.

Friday 2 October 2009

Delicious Chocolate Cake - thou dost vex me!

WoW
Delicious Chocloate Cake has become my nemesis. I have been knocking out fishing and cooking dailies for weeks now, and everytime I get that crate of meat, it's just meat, and crap.

I'm after this recipe, so I can get this achievement and one more recipe from The Outland Gourmet but that (Lots of rude words) recipe won't drop.

I'll be checking the forums if there are any other ways to get this blasted recipe.

Have fun :)

Friday 25 September 2009

Achieved!!

I certainly have, and so has Peter Gorniak. Peter, BTW, is the author of Achieved, a brilliant little Facebook app. The Brilliant bit isn't entirely that it'll publish your WoW achievements to Facebook, but that once you do the decent thing and send him (At least) 1 Canadian Dollar, the app will allow rss feed publishing. Look to the right, ta-dah! Drewydd's achievements, rss fed to Blogger. Ah, technology, how well I use what other people do with it :D

Thanks Peter, glad I paid.
http://bernhardtw.facebook.joyent.us/wowachieved/feeds/charfeed/100000260922431/4845/

Testing testing

Thursday 17 September 2009

Back from France, with a virtual fishing pole!

IRL
Back from France! Yes, the authorities are amazed I evaded them at all the major entry points, but then, millions of others have, so I shouldn't be much of a shock really.
France was great, our first proper break since buying/ not buying/ buying/ moving house/ getting operated on/ working from home.

Pitou-Charante is quite arid, the cows and the grass are both a suedey brown. The region does have one major draw though - Pineau. This stuff is fantastic. Also, if you get a chance and are in the area, check out Aubeterre-sur-Dronne

WoW
France also had the major bonus of having my Dad's nice big iMac and the copy of WoW I installed last time. My main, Drewydd, has taken up fishing, and is progressing at a rate of noghts to a grand old 290 last night. So far I've also ground my cooking and have got that to 408, brewed Rumsey's Rum, caught Old Ironjaw, . I do wish I'd levelled them both at the same time, would make for an easier life. As my bank char, Nubbin, now has an enviable stock of fish and meat, I think I'll do both quicker on the next run, and with the Big Iron Fishing Pole, that should make life a shade easier.

Finally decided to move all my chars to my new guild, The Lions. All my chars, except Nubbin (As she's the sole member of my bank/guild Cold Storage) are now in The Lions. They're a nice bunch, and as they're from all over don't have the cliqueyness of my old guild.

Friday 11 September 2009

Thank you, Lisa

The lovely Lisa from wow.com (Which is a brilliant site, BTW) has featured Charlie's Gnomeregan Cake on her section of the site.

Thanks, Lisa :D

Monday 31 August 2009

Gnomeregan Cake!!


So, after 3 and half decades of avoiding my demise, a fair maiden asked me that fateful question:

"What do you want on your cake?"
I was jousting at the Argent Tournament and the Gnomeregan banner was up front and centre. I have it on the back of my netbook, and I keep a special place in my heart for those little critters.

This was at about 8PM last night. The cake was iced in a dark purple and I thought no more about it. This morning, the Mrs asks me for another look at the banner. After another 3 hours (Including organising other bits for my belated birthday party) this happened--->

How. Cool. Is. That?

To my beloved, thank you for making my birthday party fantastic. Bloody love you :D xxxx

Thursday 27 August 2009

Older? Yes. Wiser? Hmmmm.

IRL
We've got a Cherry Tree!! Mmm Cherries. The Garden's looking lovely, or at least will once we can sort the lawn out.

I'm a year older. Feeling a bit depressed about that, and getting ignored by everyone else (Outside my nearest and dearest, which is a relief)

I used to live in Walthamstow. Seeing a gaggle of my mates from there on Bank Holiday Monday - W00t! Getting an old 1U server off my best mate Darren, which'll be brilliant. Hopefully the weekend will take this bad taste out of my mouth.

It's weird, when my family all club together and are brilliant, I get maudlin that my friends and colleagues don't and/or aren't. Odd.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Blizzcon Stuff

WoW
BLizzcon has been and gone, and yet again I wasn't there. The day I can afford to go the Mrs will rightfully have something more pertinent I can afford instead. Oh well, and fair enough.

Other people have said more about Blizzcon, it's all interesting.

Here it is from my point of view:
1. I'll need to kill off at least one toon to keep my new Worgen Druid or Rogue on Moonglade. Arse.
2. Azeroth Revamp. Good, if not about time.
3. Azeroth Revamp Pt II. Arse, I need to complete al the old dungeons before then
4. Guild achievements. Brilliant, but, typical I left my old one. One to ponder as a guildless one.
5. Archeology, sounds good, but what's the new main profession?
6. I need the day off for the next expansion, and I'm getting the bloody collector's edition this time.
7. Flying mounts in Azeroth. Oh yeah (Giggidy!!)
More to follow :)

Thursday 20 August 2009

Free at last

WoW
I have left my main guild of 2 years. I will miss them. However, they were a close-knit group of real life friends and families and naturally distrusted outsiders, some took to me, and some did not. There was a habit of staying silent when a request was made in guild chat. After a while this became actively getting blanked. I decided I'd be brave and step away from a situation that wasn't making me happy. Like a bad relationship. I actually now have. So I have 2 toons in one guild who are not so close knit and quite nice, and one toon who holds my guild/bank with 3 tabs.

Remember, it's a pass-time you play with others, if they make you unhappy, there are others out there who will, go find them instead, they'll appreciate it too. I'm going to be brave, you should too.

Hopefully, see you out there. Footloose and guildfree ;)

Wednesday 19 August 2009

When the going gets tough....

....I need to sleep more

IRL
Typical, I pull some more overtime, and yet I want to stay up longer, and get more tired, then the overtime hits harder, rinse and repeat.

Luckily I have a good woman, I came home shattered yesterday to a smiling face, and a delicious lamb stew, mash and veg. I am lucky. Hopefully I'll remember to go to bed early and get some shuteye tonight. Hopefully.

WoW
I am an idiot, it's official. I help my guildees in Kara for a huntsman run, and forget to leave the raid, I spend 2 days nearly crying because I can't do any Argent Tourney quests. A very nice player pointed out this may be the case. Thank you :)

Worgen and Goblins, eh? I like the idea of Worgen, sounds like fun, I wonder if you can change to and fro. ALso noticed somehing about more class and race combos. Give everyone everything, saves hassle, although I liked the fact you had to weigh it all up. Pick your toon based on what they were and what that meant they could do. Less homogenised. One massive upside, more lore.

Still debating whether to get the live 'cast from Blizzcon. I want to watch, I want the pet, but do I want to combine my account with a battlenet account? It was hard enough doing anything with my account last time some Goldspammer sent me bogus account warning mails. This 'ghost man' says screw you, goldspammers.

Talking of which, so glad I installed Spamsentry, haven't had any stupid ingame whispers for days, it's been lovely.

Have fun :)

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Catch Up

Hello all, welcome back.

IRL - The big catch up
Real life has taken the fore of late, and here's why: I moved house, got operated on to help fix my less than brilliant knee and I worked from home for a couple of weeks, my nephew came back froma rugby tour of South Africa and I've spent a lot of timne working on the house. I'm now temporarily stationed in the office working of reports for some of our customers. It's been mental, hence my lack of blogging. It's also been brilliant, got lots done, both IRL and WoW.

One note: People don't give you a space on the DLR even if you're obviously painfully balanced on a crutch. To the gentleman that did, thank you, to the lady who cut me up to get the space I was hobbling towards, I hope you get a long running and irritating case of thrush. Cow.

WoW- Big couple of weeks, Blizzard stole all my fun with the Argent quests now being 'Kill 15 of those and 10 of these', not the double bubble 'kill 15 of those and counts as 10 of these too' :(

A side note to all Alliance druids - Don't choose white hair, everyone else already did.

Otherwise, Blizzard, love the update.

The working from home thing has allowed me some extra levelling time too. My priest is now 71 and once again shadow, after a moron shaman described me as the worst healer ever, and advised me not to renew my WoW subscription. Thank you from the heart of my bottom.

Another thank you - I'm a dedicated Alliance player. Blizzard, thanks for the Worgen!! Good blog entry from this guy on the subject

Anyhoo, speak again soon :)

Monday 27 July 2009

Ow!

A tip to all of you out there post-arthroscopy. Don't bend both legs so your bum is practically on the ground 4 days after surgery. About 80% of the way down you realise this is going to hurt. A lot. At this point it is exactly a lot too late.

Just thought I'd warn you

At work, but at home

IRL
Hey all, going back to work today after having my Arthroscopy (A surgeon cuts two opposing holes in my knee, has a look around, and trims the dodgy cartilage a bit with the hopes of improving the use of the knee)

Work have been kind enough to let me work from home. This means no commute with crutches, which is a good thing considering how awful the commute is without them.

The house still looks like a before and after shot, depending on which room you're in. Some of the house looks lovely and civilised, and some of it.... doesn't. Spoke to our friend, who's a builder, about converting the garage. It's going to cost slightly more than we thought, but what building project doesn't, right?

WoW
Dinged 80 yesterday with my Druid. At bloody last. Now I can get all the end game armour and do heroics. It'll be nice to be able to accept invites for runs from my guild. Happy days :)

Tuesday 21 July 2009

National Express and Network Rail make my commute a misery

I hate National Express and Network Rail.

I'm on a train with seats designed for a size zero bolemic, hemmed in by my many, many peers. We've travelled 30 minutes from Liverpool Street and only managed to get as far as the Ilford train yard (That's fairly crap, even by their normal standards)

The ticket goes up every year, and the trains gets more cramped and the lines/signals seem to fail more often, the air con isn't worth having, and there seem to be very few trains that actually go my way during rush hour. It's just getting worse. Funnily enough, my wages aren't going up, inspite of working harder and for longer hours.

I've been around Germany on trains, so I've seen how good trains can be. I wish ours were that good.

When will National Express lose the Franchise? And, assuming the pattern will continue, which group of profiteering buffoons will get it next?

Tuesday 14 July 2009

IRL
I hate boxes. The last couple of weeks just involves boxes, pulling flatpack out of them, cutting them up, recycling them, packing them, stacking them, moving them, trying to move around them.....aaaarrrgggh! (sound of carnage in background)

WoW
Finally capped out my Drood's alchemy skills. Not getting any quality WoW time until we've moved, and probably only once the garage is converted.

Sorry I'm not updating so often, my life is mental at the moment.

Have fun, speak soon

Friday 10 July 2009

W00t!

IRL
We won the 'Charity event involving rowing'. What a cracking evening! Large percentage of company raised a bunch of cash, bundled down to city airport, row like the possessed, come second in rowing but get overall winner status by raising over £1600.

Due to very good luck, got one sponsor who's mother was afflicted with leukemia who gave £500 on his own. He wanted to remain nameless, so thank you very much.

A good night was had by all, but there were some issues with the catering. Aparently you can't have a BBQ at that site, which was only found out at the end, as we all got off the boat at the end looking forward to meat and beer (and to be fair, we'd earned it) but our hopes were crushed.

A trip to 'The Hut' was in order.

A brilliant night was had by all.

WoW
Nothing to report, literally didn't go on yesterday.

Wednesday 8 July 2009

Of waste traps and updates

Morning, morning!

Another lovely Wednesday morning. Lovely how? My nose feels like there's another infection on the way, and it's an update to WoW day. On top of that I have to do a follow up job on a colleague's visit. A colleague who does really bad notes. Oh well, it's all a learning curve, I suppose.

WoW
I'm up bright and early, ready to shave the last half a bar from hittin 78 and...... bloody updates!! Typical.

Otherwise good, doing the argent tourney, now at Valiant status and looking forward to notching up kudos and goodies. I've also been getting into exploring. I've done Northrend and Outland (Yes, I still love my Swift Flight Form) and now it's just mopping up the bits of Azeroth I haven't visited before. Today, the northern half of the Eastern Kingdoms. I might drop back into Kalimdor to do a few zones, we'll see. Still not sure about the guild thing. Although got my main, 80 DK in to my mate's guild. We'll see how that pans out.

IRL
The house progresses anon. The last couple of days have seen the wallpaper entirely stripped from the main bedroom. The Mrs having an epiphany and painting over the wallpaper in the lounge to create an effect far better than my idea of removing it. The skirting boards in the front room getting a much needed lick of gloss. The previously-thought repaired sink still leaking, and it''s removal and rebuilding in it's entirety (:D Quite proud of that particular feat) The house doesn't stink of dogs anymore which is a relief. The next major step comes once the carpet is fitted. Then we can build the furniture and so on and so forth. After that it's only a few days until the move proper. Oh Goddess, not looking forward to that. It'll probably go fine as we don't have to worry about the box-lifting bit, but we'll see.

Note to all parents, don't paint the skirtingboards with an inquisitive toddler in the room. Trust me, don't go there.

Broadband back on the 14th (Yay!) Hopefully won't be as flaky as last time.

Remember, if you can't be good, be careful. Have a good day.

Sunday 5 July 2009

Yet another home for me and mine (Real and otherwise)

Where to start....?

IRL
Got the keys to the house, it's great!!! Carpet-washed most of the smell of dogs out, and destroyed the bedroom carpet. Stripped the bedroom walls of the old paper. Slowly starting to look like our home. I even attacked some of the old cracks with filler, and for my showpiece, I fixed the sink myself :) DIYer!!

The Boy slept there today, so he was the first. Curled up in his travel cot and snored aparently. Going back there today for a takeaway, more work, and test the route to the station. The Mrs has a surprise for me, which is slightly scary. Hopefully her friend the builder's been around and the garage conversion will cost half of what he thought.

Just itching to get the garage devided up into my playroom and the Boy's playroom. I'll be putting CAT5 around the house, and a couple of access points, WEP and WPA. It'll rock.

The garden is huge!! The Boy is like a kid in a sweetshop with all the space to run around in.

WoW
New guilds - I leave with a couple of chars, move back to 'Old Guild A'. An IRL WoW playing friend has set his own guild 'New Guild B' and I'm keen to jump ship. So I move my one 80 over. My 77 Druid is coming along fast doing the Argent tourney and Shadowvault dailies, so he'll be 80 soon, however he's in 'Raid Guild C'. The guys there are great, but I suspect I will need to be a better raider to keep up with them. Also, once everyone leaves 'Failing Guild D' I'll have a 3 tab guild bank and I can sell as one of my chars is the only one in it. Mercenary, sure, nasty, not sure. I put a lot of effort into that guild and then everyone slowly left, so sod it, let them leave, and I get a nice big bank to stash my gear in. My Rogue is a one man band in 'Bank Guild E'

So basically I'm in 4 guilds. E's a bank, fair enough A's a group I've played with since day 1, but they're not about sub-80s and are a bit cliquey. I do feel a bit guilty about possibly leaving them. B could be very good, the two main players are seasoned raiders, and good guys IRL. C could have potential, but don't know them THAT well, so considering the jump. D is dying fast, it'll be a bank 'guild' soon enough. Got a placeholder char I use once in a while to keep that. Then I can sell Guild E

What to do?

And after all the effort, my frost mage didn't get Lord Ahune's Staff

Thursday 2 July 2009

Swift Fliiiiiiight!

...sung in an opera styleee.

Last night, after much gnashing of teeth and girding of loins, I finally got my swift flight form. How? Simple, bribery.

I offered the raven lord mount to anyone who would accompany me to destroy Anzu if it dropped. Sithis was kind enough to help. It didn't drop, which is a shame as Sithis was a top player and realy cool.

Thank you Sithis, I still intend to help you farm that mount when you want it.

Swift flight form is like having a sports car, and you can do my favourite trick of turning it off and on mid-flight. (You drop like a stone, freaking out other players as you shoot past them - lol)

I jumped guilds with my Druid. My old guild, which I briefly returned to, were their usual apethetic selves, so after asking for help and getting nowhere, I joined a raiding guild. They seem like a nice bunch, and the only reason the haven't helped is the one guy on didn't have the Auchindoun heroic key, so he couldn't.

Next, earn 250 gold to get Cold Weather Flying and tour Northrend at my leisure, and grind some Wyrmrest rep.

IRL - getting the keys to the house tomorrow, so I may be previously booked for a bit. First job, remove old carpets, paint two rooms and remember to take the kettle :)

Be good

Thursday 25 June 2009

Mapwow still exists!! Hoorah

WoW - I found out last night that veteran WoW map site, aptly named mapwow.com is alive and well and has the map of Northrend on it - w00t! A complete set, Northrend, Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Outland.

This takes me back to my earliest memories of WoW, when I only had Gatherer, and a pick and a dream (The same dream all other miners had, that being 'Fill your immense and will-never-need-replacing 14 slots bags with ore')

I would peruse the wonderful map on mapwow and select the next area to pillage in my search for engineering excellence. Then Wrath came out, and I discovered Carbonite, then they rendered my subscription obsolete and I used the full carbonite addon's minimap (Which is great BTW)

However, due to wanting to print a giant wall mounted map of Azeroth, I stumbled across mapwow once again, and Hoorah, they have a new section, with a new map. It's still brilliant!! I highly endorse mapwow (Apart from the goldfarmer adverts, ofc)

Talking of endorsements, I'd like to thank the ZAM wow websites (Thottbot & Wowhead) and wow.com (Formerly wowinsider.com) cheers guys and girls, keep it up.

BTW, Team Bubblehearth Inc. on Moonglade EU are recruiting, I'm informed by a reliable source. They're looking for officers and class leaders, and lots of druids/ pallies/ shammies.

IRL - The lawyers to the people we're buying the house from have been SO busy hurrying us along that they forgot their search was about to expire. So after being chivvied along by the rest of the chain, we're ready first. However, there is good news, the hapless legal team one step up the chain from us have managed to get an indemnity signed and we should exchange contracts any day. It'll be nice to get a whole night's sleep. This whole fiasco has caused sleep loss, back ache, headaches, the works. My poor boy is teething, the Mrs and I are stressed due to the house, and I'm knackered due to overtime. My boss has been brilliant and given me a shedload of opportunities to make some extra money. Cheers chief :) However, I could use a day off soon.

How do you have an actual day off if you have a girlfriend and a child? I suppose I could take two days off, send the Mrs and Junior away for the day, then Junior and I have the next day letting the Mrs have a well earned rest. Is that fair?

It does mean we'd get the evenings and mornings together, which would be refreshing as opposed to our current setup - I run around like a loon getting ready for work, she makes my lunch, I go. :(

Work is going well, but still afraid of the axeman. In these hard times, no one is indispensible.

Advice to all, keep your head down.

Saturday 20 June 2009

OMFG - I run the guild

WoW - The guild is now mine

Oh. dear. god.

The guildmaster has left. He's made me chief, so it was time to bring out the big guns. I've moved my main out of my old and beloved guild, and I'm toughing it out as the guild master now. It's weird.

We're going on a recruitment drive. I'm not sure it's a brilliant idea, but I figure sod it, now I'm in charge, I'll see if I can do some good.

I got both my WoW T-Shirt and my new PC today. The first being an 'Ironforge Anvils' shirt, and the other is an HP xw6200 3.2GHz Xeon. Just waiting for a decent graphics card.

IRL - We had people come round to look at the house, so we had to iron the cat and hoover the lawn. The house looks lovely, but it's still odd.

Have a lovely Saturday night

Friday 19 June 2009

Two Posts today - You lucky Peeps PtII

WoW - Yes, the beast we all fear has reared his ugly head, and that beast has a name - Guild Drama

I'm in a great guild. After the initial issue of 'Digital Laryngitis' (No one responds when you ask a question to guild chat, esp. one for help) things have been fairly settled of late, however, the last week has been nightmarish. We've had at least 3 good officers leave. One citing joining a friends guild, another couldn't handle the pressure of being an officer, and others just /gquit on us for no apparent reason.

The first two were such top blokes I won't sling mud, but I do wish they'd come back. The guild master has taken a leave of absence to get his head straight away from the guild, and put myself and another guildee in charge for a couple of weeks. Slightly scary, but I figure we'll soldier on.

I've dinged my druid to 75, so I can finally use that mercurial thingamyjig I made in Alchemy. After doing so many dailies I had a bit of a splash out and bought some nice new armour bits. Does anyone actually make the entire iceborne leather set? Doesn't look like it on Moonglade - EU. Talking of leather, got my original main out of mothballs to go skin Northrend. I should start seeing better leatherworking through dint of hard work within the month - Yay!!

I suppose I should move my 80 DK across so I can raid with the guid a bit, make her chief cheese. Shame she's not the best DPS ever, need to find what to do about that, but I suppose the secret is just to keep raiding and pick up nicer bits. It'll be nice to play her again, I find my Druid is a little frail as he's a boomkin. Hmm, what to do?

Two posts today! You lucky peeps - Pt 1

IRL - The move is depressing me, we were supposed to exchange contracts Monday, but the lawyers are taking their own sweet time. Ours are great, but the other people on the chain appear to have employed very slow legal-eagles, sort of legal-pidgeons, I suppose.

OK, one thing you need to know, I have a list of things I want to do before I die. I've a lot of them, I'm a father to a brilliant son, I've got engaged with a lovely girl with a proper diamond ring, I used to own a British Sports Car, I've achieved Apple certification, and other stuff. But the list includes getting married (Yes, I call her the Mrs, but you get the idea, she's currently the Mrs in heart, thought and word, but not deed.) and owning my own house on it's own land (Esquire) That last one is actually quite important to me, especially as it is SO close to becoming a reality

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Mounts nerfed

WoW mounts are getting nerfed again. This is brilliant. Well, kinda. The only downside is that all of my alts are 60 or above now. The only positive change for me is earlier flying. It'll be nice as a rogue skinner/leatherworker to swoop down on piles of bodies to harvest their hides.

Shame they can't make 60% flying in Northrend. Tired of being stuck to the floor :(

wow.com are running this as their breakfast topic here. Worth a look in, methinks.

As for the Mountain Dew Battlebots, One is not amused....

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Spinning my wheels

Sorry I abandoned you all, it's been a busy weekend. Grinding rep with RL mates in WoW, finally doing Sethekk Halls on Heroic, more rep etc, kodohide set pieces blah blah blah - I know that it's a bit below me as a 74 Druid, but I want Swift Flight form and Lower City Honoured is required, so it's all gravy, baby.

As for RL, house progresses further, signed off the paperwork, after some issues with Witham Library staff being damnably difficult, and posted it. My advice to Braintree district council, defrag those PCs once in a blue moon - they blow.

Antec 900 case! W00t! Building a new slinky system, based on decent quality second hand parts (Come on, I'm a Dad, I don't have the money to go see AlienWare for a new system) Been spinning my wheels slightly in WoW, not sure what to do, obviously levelling is a priority, but been kind of twiddling my thumbs, WoW-wise.

I think I will focus on Valiance rep, I can Daily my way to higher levels, while I wait for guildees' invites for instances.

Live long and prosper, or something

Friday 12 June 2009

Run, short-arse, run!

I have just had something in WoW I haven't had for a while, a 'I could die, keep running!!' moment.

I haven't done a corpse-run* for a long time. My dwarf priest ran (rode, but same thing) from Orebar Harborage in Zangarmarsh to Area 52 in Netherstorm. No amazing achievement, but no mean feat either, as I didn't actually die. I carried on and made it to Stormspire, just for sh*ts and g*ggles.

'Twas quite exhilerating - Oddly enough the first two reference suggestions in dictionary.com are accelerating and excreting, which fairly well sums up the experience.

Friday night is nearly upon us, so I shall be at my trusty desk for one of my last Friday night runs in this house. New house/ttable/ISP beckons. Hopefully the internet connection will be better as the current one blows recently. Go Team Bubblehearth Inc!

*A corpse-run is where you run into or hopefully through an area above your level, taking hits and keeping going to get somewhere you need to go. The corpse part is due to the high incidence of death/ressurect/run/repeat depending how out of your league you are.

I am so tired

I shouldn't be this knackered. Getting slightly less sleep this week, but feel like I stayed out last night and walked straight to work. I have lots of fruit juice to drink to perk me up some, let's hope it works.

Berocca, here I come :)

Thursday 11 June 2009

I'm a commuter, get me out of here

The Jubilee Line works!

There is a strike in London by the RMT union, for various reasons, which has made travelling on the tube very difficult. I'd just like to say thank you to those who use and run the Jubilee line today. It's been very civilised in spite of being absolutely rammed.

For those in the RMT on strike today, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

I am....The Potion Master!!

Master of Potions!!

At last, my brilliant guild leaader and a stalwart of the guild, who I will recommend for a guild commission, took my druid to Botanica. I got the book, made the potions, and now I am a potion master!!

Next up, save for my 300 riding skill and do the Switft Flight Form quest. I heard rumblings that this was trainable if you have bought the riding skill, not sure whether to go for the full achievement and bump up my Lower City faction (Which is increasingly irrelevant as I approach 75) or just get it from the trainer. Decisions, decisions. I got my pally mount the hard way, so I might do this that way just because I like the challenge.

My thanks to my guildees, without whom this would not be possible (in spite of my previous anger at others guildees for going silent on me)

As you may also have guessed, I've finally got the hang of putting links in. And yes, I love Thottbot

Monday 8 June 2009

At last, the week is here!

Well, at last the week is here.
Yeah, I know that seems wrong, but after such a fraught weekend, the week is practically a holiday by comparison. We had a short Friday night due to getting back late. Saturday was a washout due to the vendors of the house not coming back to us about visiting to measure up for carpets, take pictures for a paint job and so forth, this caused bickering over the silliest thing. I hope they didn;t get back to us because they weren't actually there. Otherwise, it's just a complete lack of courtesy. After that it was my least favourite activity involved in moving, the packing. At least there was an Indian takeaway, and that was delicious. Sunday was overtime, and a very busy one too.

Thanks to the staff at Stratford Station, the journey home was a nightmare. Their definition of 'Flooding' to the stairs at platform 10 was a puddle the size of a hardback book, and about as deep as an omelette. Sheesh! This meant they tied one end of the platform off, no signs further up or any announcements. There was no information when the trains were heading out my way. (Here's an idea, stop making train stations out of the marble-esque material that gets really slippery when it gets rain on it. We're in Britain, it rains alot. Who designs a station that becomes an ice rink the second it rains, and yet knows it's in Britain. Dur! Bill Hicks would have a field day with you.)

After all that, I got home to a promise from our guild leader to help out with a trip to the Botanica in Netherstorm to get the potions book from High Botanist Freywinn. I had dinner and I logged back on and most of the guild was suddenly silent when I asked for help. The guild leader wasn't on. I'm getting the book to make more potions for the guild, and only two guildees even bothered to respond and they were busy. I was disgusted. In the end only my mate Vinny helped out, but it wasn't enough. We needed the numbers or it was wipe-o-rama all the way. Two precious WoW hours completely wasted. I was livid, and hurt. When people need help, I'm there, when I need it, they're all staring at thier shoes and looking sheepish.

Considering a raiding guild that has regular runs at set times.

Friday 5 June 2009

The slow burn

I am knackered. I've pulled two late shifts (Only two extra hours each) this week, and I've got a short shift Sunday. Throw in a few late nights and I'm not firing on all four. I suspect I shall have to go to bed earlier for a few days, or nap a little Saturday. I used to burn the candle both ends, up 'til 2, work at 8, work 'til 8 rinse and repeat. Now I'm totally useless at staying up late. I have to prop my eyelids open at midnight!

The flipside I suppose is now my bank balance is healthier and I can keep a job down, and I don't bite everyone's heads off all the time. I still do sometimes, and that's due to having a little petty mean streak, but hey, leopards and spots and all that.

WoW - Barely got a look in this week. It's been about the cooking awards for my mage, although I realised last night she's got honoured with Cenarion Expedition, and Hono(u)r Hold so I went and got the lvl 70 pieces from the quartermasters. The trousers are better, but the shoulders are competing with Frostwoven Shoulders. Although I should level the mage enough soon to mean I can use other parts of the Frostwoven set and still use the 70 set too. Swings and roundabouts abound.

I read a brilliant book by Iain M. Banks called 'Consider Phlebas' where the ship's captain had a modification to his brain to allow him to use one half of his brain for 24 hours, then the other, negating the need for sleep. Although I do love sleep, I could get more work done, have more family time and level my chars faster if I didn't need to sleep. Right now, I could use a little shuteye.

Have a good weekend :)

Thursday 4 June 2009

No word yet.....

It's been a few days, and a certain German-owned telecomms company haven't answered my question about the patchiness of the wireless broadband connection.

I could really use a beer, but it's off to the Osteopath for another round of crunch-manip-pop-ula-graunch-tion. After that, I'd like some quality WoW time, but with the move it's not exactly likely I'll get a decent session.

Still, I could murder a cold beer. Maybe I'll get a VH in tonight.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

Moving home is hard to do

That's right folks, we have boxes, lots of 'ems. Frikkin fahsands of them. (Actually not thousands, just seems like that) I need to start organising packing, and I'm not really feeling a lot of enthusiasm for the subject.

On a lighter note: My mage is storming up the cooking skills charts, having doen an Outland and a northrend cooking quest. Quite satisfying. Not sure what to do next, considering levelling my priest so I can make a flying carpet, also, everyone loves an Irish-comedy-theme-named holy priest.

New guild is shaping nicely, and tried to join my Mage in, but they've moved the rights to add anyone by anyone to officers of the guild only. Typically, when you need an officer, they're not about, doubly annoying as my Druid is one of them, and I can't add myself - lol

Here I am, at work, doing the late shift for a few extra quid, such is life. 3 minutes to go, then BK for fries and home.

W00t!

I have a mage, and boy can she cook. Much like the IRL cute lady in my life 'The Mrs' my gnome mage can whip up delicacies and delights to please the palate.

Yeah, a mage. I know, I know. But that's the char that got the 'skillz' so that one progressed with cooking. Anyway....


Got my 4th Dalaran cooking award, so I went for 'Critter Bites' http://thottbot.com/i43004

I'm pleased and yes, I know it's sad. remember, dear reader it keeps me off the streets ;)

"He can do the work, but he's so annoying"

I'm sat on the train on the way in to work, overhearing this shrew from an HR department talk to her underling about how to get rid of a member of staff because he's annoying, although, she admits it'll be tough as he does "a fairly good job." She instructed her HR skivvy to find anything they can get on him (On the phone, so can't be traced in paperwork, of course)

Are these people even vaguely human?

Word to the wise out there: In these tough times, watch your back! Your HR department already is, with a (metaphorical) knife in hand.

Talking of knife in hand, considering moving my rogue to another server, but he does have a one man guild complete with bank and tabs. What to do? I need to be able to focus on my chars, but I have the full compliment on Moonglade, just not sure. I definitely don't want to kill him off.

Monday 1 June 2009

Sunday, a day of rest (Not bloody likely)

Sunday: Holy crap, we're moving. Messages fro Saturday while we were out. Everyone wants to move in June, our notice on the house is end of July - eeeek!
The Mrs saves the day (Like she always does, bringing a brain to the proceedings and all that) and speaks to the landlady. The landlady is a star and says helps me and I'll help you. Furious lawnmowing and hedge trimming ensues (I'm both a bit crap and a lot lazy at garden maintenance)

'This isn't going to buy baby new shoes' - Off to a local factory outlet with a Clarks in it to get my boy some new shoes, his last pair of sandles chafed his ankles, so sod the expense, decent shoes time. We drive off, the boy and I (Mummy at home getting some well deserved sleep) and 5 minutes later, he's sparko (deeply asleep) in the back seat. I go to 'a certain restaurant' drive through for deep fried cheesy thingies and a strawberry milkshake to let him sleep some more and kill some time. He starts to stir so off we go again, 5 more minutes we've parked and are out. Halfords for red spray (I'm spraying a Dell 1600SC Rover Nightfire Red just for sh*ts and giggles, pictures to follow) then off to Clarks for ickle shoes. He gets measured, runs around like a lunatic, and starts eyeing up pretty girls in the shoe shop (Thassmaboyee!) we come back and order is restored, the queen is once more happy and the sun is blazing, lunch outside and all is well with the world.

Sunday PtII: Violet HoldAnother trip into what I see as a bit of a non-event. Some nice loot, but a bit of a conveyor belt of blue dragonkin and so on. I like Nexus, it's pretty good, and I need to do more instances, I miss instances like sunken temple, proper windy 'You might get lost' type places. Also, what happened to the mountains of grey crap you used to get to pay for your repairs? Odd. I should have a look at Naxx, my 80 DK isn;t that well geared, but that guild has a load of 80s that would just do it for fun, fully loaded with their Naxx and above gear.

Guilds, they're odd things. You have a combination of real people being unreal people and behaving like both. This is just in the nice guilds I am a part of - lol. I've been in guilds with men pretending to be girls as chars (I have some female chars, easier to watch, for longer gaming - see Tombraider developers nots, I'm sure) and some actually pretending to be girl players. Some doing it to disrupt and potentially worse. Some doing it as a roleplay exercise. I suggest if you have a female player come on to you as a char, imagine they're a 20 stone male truck driver. If that floats your boat, then good luck to you. Personally, I always put my shortened name 'Jim' in my guild notes, saves a lot of explaining later.

Saturday, in review, and traffic

Saturday: My sort-of-brother-in-law's birthday bash.

Awful wakeup to the strains of 'Have we got everything, can you do this, where's my... etc, argue a bit because she always get nervous before a trip anywhere. Throw in no sleep and (bless her cottons) she gets fractious. Throw in my lack of sleep and pig-headedness and you've got a recipe for disaster, then of course mix in one mother in law, with opinions.

So we bundled our gorgeous little boy, my gorgeous but stressed girlfriend and my verbose mother in law into a Ford Ka and began the journey down the A12 to the M25.
So, after a hellish journey to the beautiful weald of Kent... (Traffic for the bridge was a nightmare and what pratt made that stretch of the A21 two lanes into one?) I have SO got to get another car, the Ka is weeny, great to park, but a total bastard to fill with 3 adults, 1 child and all the paraphenalia that goes with the latter. Station wagon/People carrier here we come!.. anyway back on track. I get dropped off at the quadbiking place, and proceed to have a brilliant time. 4 trips out for us all, a little canter, then a bit of bumpy ground, then the long run, then a mad dash through the woods. My SOBIL and his mates are such a nice bunch, and SOBIL didn't know there was a little party afterwards. We all troupe back to his place to see his eyes pop out when he spots that everyone's there. His Dad came down from the north, we brought his mum, My lot (His sister and nephew) his mates from college, work, neighbours etc. A really lovely crowd. I was left in charge of fire, so an epic construction (That had everyone going 'It won't light') was erected and burnt (Ha, it did light!) but not without the help of a lot of blowing and fanning though.
Lots of party food consumed, nice people to chat to, small person to chaperone away from spiky/ electrical/ poisonous things and towards 'Boons!' (Balloons)
Eventually it came time to toddle off home, so we did. A very nice drive back, still cramped, but relaxed and far quicker. *Some* good sleep followed.

More to follow

Sunday 31 May 2009

Sort of brother in law sort of thing

Sunday night is here again. Meh!

Watching Big Bang Theory at the end of an interesting weekend.

If you're not married, what do you call your girlfriend's brother? Well, I went to see him and go quadbiking as part of a belated birthday party. It was great. 

Violet Hold doesn't yield much loot, annoying.

More to follow, but tired.

NN

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Should I become 'Master of Potions'?

Back again, the OS X 10.5 install went well. It also confirmed the internal optical drive in my wee Mac Mini is dead :'( However the external DVD drive my Dad was kind enough to part with works like a charm.

The drive in WoW this week is to improve my professions. My current favourite, my Moonkin Druid, is advancing through alchemy at a rate of knots. However, there is the matter of 'Master of Potions' http://thottbot.com/q10905 which I must get around to doing before I cap, so I figure I need to ramp down the potion making for the time being.

House stuff: Signed lots of scary legal documents and sent a large amout of money to a firm of lawyers (For those of you using a dialect of English, read as 'Attorneys') I've never 'double'-checked a payment 5 times. I was bricking it.

Talking of bricking it, I'm due to get carved up courtesy of the NHS. I'm due for an arthroscopy so I should be able to walk properly soon. That'll be nice, go run and play with my little boy in the park suchlike.

Anyhoo, off for a bit, need to do some work.

Be good, and if you can't be good, be careful!

Tuesday 26 May 2009

hardware failure

The day I've been dreading has arrived, my Mac Mini is dying. The optical drive is iffy, and so the OS disk isn't loading. :(

Friday 22 May 2009

Lordy, it was difficult enough coming up with the blog name, unfortunately PMSL was taken, and now you want me to write stuff?!

Hello and welcome, a moment in the day in the life of Jimbob, Moonglade EU's and Essex's finest.

To summarise, I'm a Dad, a fiance, a WoW player, an IT engineer and a keen observer of the human condition (Read: Grumpy nit picking curmudgeon). Soon to become a home owner, so there might be (a) a short break while we move or (b) witty (Hopefully) observations on the hell that is moving house (And putting structured cat6 cabling in to boot)

I will try to bring to you my thoughts on playing a lot of characters on World of Warcraft - "Hi, My name's Jimbob and I'm an Altoholic" (Alts are other non-main characters in MMOs) and any nuggets I pick up along the way.