Brewfest!! vs No sleep 'til .....ever

IRL

All work and no sleep make make James flake out.

Xander hasn't been sleeping, and so neither has anyone else in the house. We are all poorly with cold, but none so much as Charlie, she doesn't have a cold, she's just looking after the rest of us. Daniel, being a toddler, has formed a brittle composite of clothing and snot by simply wiping his nose with his sleeve, which is endearing for all of 5 seconds, Xander just dribbles from his nose and grins, which is a lot cuter, and I just sniff a lot, which is starting to annoy even me. I wish Xander would take to a bottle, so I can give Charlie a day off. This would be handy as we could go somewhere and leave the boys with the MiL. Me, I'd just be happy with a good couple of hours left alone in the house, then off to the pub with Charlie, who is due a pint in peace, and time away from the house.

Work is becoming more stressful with the lack of any news on the contract front. We've all had our contracts shortened to December the 30th. This could make for a really shitty Christmas. I REALLY hope not, but the CV's been updated and we live in hope.

WoW

Brewfest is here! As usual, the loot table has been shined up and rolled out. A chance to farm one trinket, and maybe a mount and a pair of awesome one hand maces is upon us, dressed in the thin veil of a WoW holiday. I love these farm runs, especially when you get a group that will farm it 'til the cows come home, occasionally swapping one member out for another treasure seeker. I've been levelling my toons like crazy to get them in for this. It turns out it level 84 only, so it's been nce to get Jimbelle into the Coren Brewfest encounter by her cute button nose. Next, Elly (Ellyllaidd) and Muffy (Myfanawy) are getting the levelling treatment. At the very least I want them all at 84 for the Headless Horseman at Samhain/Hallowe'en. It's not a million miles away

I bought the WoW Scalper guide, and am starting to collate the AH data necessary. We'll see what fruit are borne by this in time. As always, go to Zuggy's site for a great gold guide. --->

Job-based uncertainty vs. No play time

IRL

Work is getting interesting, but not in a good way. The firm I work for has gotten rid of their central European helpdesk, and now we have local helpdesks. Good on a couple of levels, we have control, if you want a job done properly... etc, but it's an uphill climb with new and dull and (in some cases wildly inaccurate) procedures. The added cheek of all this is there have been hints that the bank will be cutting staff. Other banks are doing it, and so like sheep, our bank has to too. I have two kids and a mortgage, so I hope they're not cutting staff, but I also think it's time to start looking for something else, as I suspect it's going to be a fairly unpleasant process for the IT department to be slowly hollowed out by the parent bank homogenising the investment arm.

We will all be singing the company song (In French) soon :(

Family, volatile things aren't they. I've been getting lectured about how I deal with my eldest. In fairness, I do tend to expect more than a little from him, and should just let him be 3. However, I do become hostile when my MiL starts chipping in when I comment on the housekeeping in my house. She's got a flaming nerve. However, she's unlikely to apologise, so that won't ever get redressed. It's back to treating her in a manner fitting her behaviour. My parents are in town for a week, and it's been lovely catching up with them, although can't enjoy the Pineau they brought with them (Damn diet) for a little while. If you ever get the chance, go to the Charantes region of France (West coast, half way down, where Cognac is from) and get a bottle of Pineau, it's GORGEOUS. No other words for it.

New toys!! Got the HP N36L microserver, it's a wee stubby cute cube of black plastic. At £250 and then a £100 cashback, it's worth getting as a PC, or media centre base. Give it a butchers.

WoW

Not been up to much recently, made Jimbelle my main, and trying to get back into the swing of playing as a Warlock. It was a relief to run Throne of the Tides without a single clue what I was doing - lol. Tailoring is providing decent revenue stream, but need to get my enchanting up to spec, although one thing hasn't changed since Vanilla WoW - Enchanting is difficult and expensive. I hope the Firelands recipes can provide some decent gold, or at least some nice bits of kit. So far, nothing for my Engineering Gnome Mage worth a look in, but Jimbelle's an enchantress and tailor, so I hope she can whip something up from all this.

Anyway, usual stuff, see Zuggy's gold guide for gold tips worth paying for (Link on the right)

Be good, or be careful.

Children's Parties vs. Guild Runs

IRL

Little people parties are fun. The food is great too, but not if you're dieting. Yes, this will be my 5th meeting of Slimming World. I'm loving losing weight, but I can't shake the image of Marjorie Dawes in Fat Fighters on the Little Britain sketch show. "Dutht!" I'm just short of a stone in weight lighter, and my knees seem happier. Old trousers fit again (Huzzah!) but back to the party. My eldest went as a rogue (The cad/scoundrel sort, not the dual bladed sort from WoW) and he looked every inch the rockstar. He played with the birthday girl and others for the whole time he was there, was a barrel of laughs, and I had a lovely time chatting with some of the parents.

Boblbee: The hunt is on. I'm after a Boblbee Megalopolis backpack. I first saw one in Dark Angel, and I've wanted one since. Now I've been given the go ahead to get one, instead of trying to build my own in the style of Jorge from Halo: Reach. Either way, it's winning! Bidding on one, and watching the others, we'll see.

WoW
Grinding the crap out of the Firelands now, I wants me the Marks of the World Tree tokens for rep and goodies. Dull, but at least rewarding. Otherwise, got my Firelord robe and gloves and now working towards improving my trade skills with my other toons. Dreamcloth is in short supply :)

I'm thinking of giving up doing guild runs, they never happen, there's always a problem. So I'm pugging it from here, methinks.

As usual, buy a gold guide from Zuggy, link on the right. -->

And be good, or if not, be careful

Manalicious vs Manalicious

IRL

Bikes. When most people think of me and bikes they think of motorcycles. Last weekend I was in Halfords buying Daniel his first proper bike. I've lost patience waiting for him to give up pushing himself along on his little front wheel driven trike, and so it was time to sort him out a proper bike, with stabilisers.

This weekend gone, I realised something, I hate sand, not as much as I used to, but it's still on the list. How I ended up at the beach in Frinton and Walton this weekend is a mystery, but had a lovely time just wandering up and down the sea wall and making sandcastles with my eldest son, while the other one slept in his pram like he had an 80 quid bar tab the night before. That wasn't a mystery, as I'm really starting to enjoy time with the family.

IRL & WoW
On the train this morning, I went looking for the brilliant Manalicious site. I've currently 'Maining' my Frost Mage, Nubbin. I went to http://www.manalicious.com, looking for the Mage blog site http://manalicious.wordpress.com . Here's a tip, if you're straight, and on a packed train with a big-ass laptop screen on full brightness, don't go there. The lady next to me was quite shocked, and I was trying to subtly and tactfully employ the tried and tested "F*ck-f*ck-Alt-F4" method of getting away from that site. For the few seconds I saw it it appeared to be a site for transsexuals and those who enjoy their unique mix. Good on 'em, I say, but a bit embarassing on a packed commuter train. Learn from my mistake, got to the very nice manalicious blog if you need to scratch that Mage itch when you can.

WoW
Currently grinding rep with Hyjal Avengers/Earthen Ring/Guild to buy new goodies. In fact I got the Valor point bracers from the vendor last night. Bracer enchants seem t be getting more expensive, so it may be time to start sending disenchantables to a suitable alt. My long suffering Warlock is my enchantress of choice, but I also have a serviceable shadow priest dwarf, and he helps me out every now and then. My other alts aren't just sitting around, my jewelcrafter and blacksmith Myfanawy is making up plate sets for disenchantment and/or selling, and collecting gems from, and generally ending up back with, Nubbin. I've been considering getting Gwyllt back out of mothballs, as there seems to be a glut of dead spiders being left lying around the Molten Front, and I hate to see good leather going to waste. It's the same with Tol'Barad, dead spiders all over the shop, but others have got wise to this, so you have competition.

Find yourself somewhere where many beasts are killed over and over. Near the southern island in Twilight highlands is a spot where many dragons get killed as part of a quest, so worth passing every now and then to see how're tricks.

Anyhoo, be good, or be careful. Usual Zuggy link on the right. Enjoy.

Friend tree needs pruning vs Protect the World tree

BLOGGER:

IRL

Real life is a bit of a misnomer at the moment. I've been either working, waking up at stupid o'clock, running instances in WoW, and generally running around with no quiet time. Busy is best with me, certainly, but this is becoming surreal. I'm loaded on energy drinks, just left the house of a relatively important person after helping him and his charming family with their IT issues. I used to work with his wife, and through her and some other friends, met her husband. What a totally nice guy. Granted, what a nice family. It's a delight to work for people like that. Now I'm back on the train home to Witham, 2 many DJ's, with DJ Fresh and Queens of the Stone Age playing on the iPhone whilst I type this. Reading Linux Format, and dreaming up my next mad project. The next one requires my 16GB USB sticks, Boxee and a small form factor PC in my front room. Yes, It's time to take all the DVDs (I own) I've converted to a digital format and make them available to my telly.

Wedding crashed - My mate Rich got married in Bournemouth this weekend. I couldn't be there to see him off, but I'll come back to that. Grats, Rich and Jay Waldy, live long (Together) and prosper (Together). I couldn't be there due to a 'Friend' filing me pretty low down his list of priorities. After message after message, voicemail, Facebook, every method I had to hand, nothing. I know he's scatty, but I had nowhere to sleep in B'mth, and so missed my mate's wedding. I felt ignored and neglected on Friday. I came home in tears, and the lazy bastard still hasn't phoned. I removed him from Facebook. Not really his problem really, but hurtful, nonetheless. However it made me think. I have people I consider friends who don't contact me, didn't congratulate me on the birth of either of my kids, never comment on my photos of my kids (Even though I comment on theirs) and generally don't bother. I'm considering pruning the Friend-Tree, a few of the limbs have become atrophied, if not diseased.

After that, I had a brilliant weekend with the Mrs and the kids. She was looking after me a bit, letting me have more WoW time but finding stuff for me to do and keeping me amused. She's a real treasure. We all went swimming, the Mrs, Daniel, Xander and I. It was funny watching Xander try and make sense of it all. He seemed to like it.

WoW
Patch 4.2 finally dropped. w00t! Been grinding dailies in the Firelands, but unfortunately, the battery meter says I need to publish or wait. Damn waiting - Check Zuggy's gold guide -->

laters :)

Alexander vs. Guild Dramas

IRL
My second son was born on the 25th of May, 8 pound 8 ounces, and naturally, and both Mother and son are well. I was savagely shell-shocked for a few days but I've replaced that with the more traditional 'Very Tired'. All is well, Alexander Brendan Ambrose is a cute little chubster baby. Not a fat thing, but nicely padded. I have to balance work schedule and home schedule, but hey, every dad is doing it. Mummy is tired as Xander requires a lot of feeding, and Daniel, his big brother, is demanding more attention. Hard work, but it'll be fun.

WoW
Guild drama indeed, left one guild due to a difference of opinion about the guild bank, and an officer who would never get away with that tone in real life. If you're reading: Yes, you're a rude cow, get over yourself. I moved to two other guilds when an RL friend asked when I was coming over to his guild. Slowly I'm moving more and more of my toons to it, but even then, my friend has suggested there may be another guild to go to soon due to issues with this one. (Throws hands to the sky) Why? Why can't you have a handful of likeminded gamers in a guild without it reverting to a shitfest at the drop of a hat? Anyway, Nubbin is 85, and loving the Cataclysm instances, gearing up nicely.

Be good, and if not, be careful :D

Crabs! vs. He could arrive at any moment

IRL
I'm reliably (And VERY frequently) that our next son could arrive 'any day now'. This is the equivalent of going to DefCon 2. We are on high alert. I have pointed out that, at least to start with, and if Daniel's anything to go by, Alexander won't give a monkeys for a decent amount of time. I am then reminded of what comes with a new birth, and no, I don't mean the afterbirth, something far easier to get rid of: Parents.

Yes, we are about to bring one new person into the house, then get lumbered with many 'old' people popping over. My sister even said my eldest nephew was born the day after he was, just so she could get a day's peace. Considering this as a tactic.

WoW
Crabs! I don't have crabs, but my hunter is considering taming one*. He has King Krush, a brilliant Ferocity pet, but as my hunter's been questing with him since he got him, Krush is now 81, but my other pets, namely my Tenacity pets, are low 70's. Pyreshell Scuttler here I come! Not sure which cunning pet to go for though. The real pity is that Spirit Beasts are a ferocity family, not just a skin for existing families.

*Got him this lunchtime, I must say I'm impressed so far, and his swimming action is hilarious.

As per usual, go to the link on the right and buy a gold guide from Zuggy, please.