Who's On First?

If you ever get out to Old Kingman and happen by the baseball field, follow Jeff Keller and Cynthia Wright around.  Their conversation is hilarious.  That, and the dead bodies of players strategically placed at their outfield positions makes for some good scavenging.

Take me out to the ball game.

Dead carafe?

Kingman, Barstow, Ssan Bernardino...

Well, Kingman, anyway.  Eromee is hanging her hat here while she helps with all the baddies that call the outskirts and half the town theirs.  Her armor is tougher than she is.  Thank LifeNet that she is a clone and doesn't have to worry too much about dying.

Progression shows in the armor it seems.  Here is her latest look.

Can't see me, hah!

Here is a close up.  Can you tell a difference between these shots and the prior ones?  I guess I didn't have my graphics all the way up.  My laptop can handle just about anything I throw at it, so why it wasn't set higher to start is beyond me.  Glad my son told me to look!

Do you find me, beautiful?

Just because, here is a picture of the moon over part of Old Kingman.  I could spend hours just running around looking at things in this game.  Did you know that the world of Fallen Earth was taken directly from a topographical map of the Grand Canyon area?  Pretty darned cool.

Old Kingman in the moonlight.

The Latest Screenshots For your Viewing Pleasure

It's an emergency maintenance day!  Which means, I should probably write something, but I have Christmas cookies to make, a house to clean, and guest to entertain.  So, I'm posting some random screen shots for your viewing pleasure.

Blue Steel.

Dearbre was falling off the whole ride.  Glitch, or too small hippogryph?

The spirit of Shadumbra. Wasn't Shadumbra a black panther?

Darkshore Twister.

Queen Azshara

Boo!

I promise not to bite again.  Let me go?

Look at the roses and the clover.  How sweet, and sad.

Take two potions and call me in the morning.

This post brought to you by Dayquil, Diet Dr Pepper, and Kleenex.

Must...Write...Post.

Will we see this paintings outside Gilneas?

Hey everyone!  I know it has been forever.  I really don't have much to say these days that everyone else out there isn't already saying.  Cataclysm, and before that the Shattering of Azeroth, have pretty near blown me away.  All the new content that I am slowly digesting (Delgada is at an anemic level 82) gets to be a little overwhelming sometimes.


I have plans.  I really want to roll one of every race up, except for the Draenei and Blood Elf, to experience the new starter zones.  So far the only ones I have done are the worgen and troll, and last night I started out the goblin area. Like many bloggers out there are saying, I, too, find the beginning questing so involving that the levels just fly by.  The stories are engaging, and immersive.  Yeah, I get that I am not really the chosen one, but does it hurt to believe it for just as long as it takes to get the hell outta Dodge?

The ruins of Quel'Dormir.

As for my eighties, I have hardly touched them.  Delgada is almost done with Vash'jir.  As soon as she could get back to the mainland, she did, because I stupidly threw her onto the boat without training her professions so she could level them. Thankfully, she is not a gatherer, so all the items she needed to level were already in her bag when she did eventually train, and her tailoring and enchanting are now being worked on.  While in the Undercity, Delgada picked up archaeology, and she hasn't gone back to questing.  She found her first rare last night, piecing together bits of Elven relics.  The Highborne Soul Mirror is a neat toy (and if you have been reading at all on this blog, you know how Del loves her toys) that puts out a ghostly duplicate of the user next to them.  The image turns and watches you as you move, but doesn't leave the place it was cast.  I was surprised to get such a neat thing so early in the leveling, as Delgada is only about 165 skill points in.

My horde guild, KNR, has progressed to level 4.  There are about 12 people at 85 already.  Last night one of our guild mates linked their latest piece of gear in chat,and I about died laughing.  The Emberstone Staff, complete with the same old graphics, dropped for him off a boss in Heroic Deadmines!  I know, this is all old news to anyone paying any attention to the kajillion WoW bloggers out there, but I still find it silly (which is really one of the reason I play, for the silly stuff!) that someone would want to go back to an old instance and get the gear they leveled out of by level 25.

If it's far, we give you a car...riage.

I mentioned earlier I had tried out the Worgen starting zones.  I have more than tried them out.  I now have 3 worgen out of there. I don't have any plans to level more, yet, as I think a druid, mage, and rogue are plenty.  The rogue replaced my night elf druid who was the replacement my now level 63 draenei hunter as a bank alt.  Not that I don't plan to level her, just that she is kinda low on the totem pole.  I really want to have a druid at max level, and the last of the three worgen is the one I am leveling.  Her name is Dearbre, and I am leveling her as a restoration druid.  Dearbre is Catalan for of the tree.  Talk about forcing myself to stay a healer!  She is closing in on level 30 pretty quickly. 

My husband, his best friend and I started out together as worgen.  We joined my alliance guild, Illuminati Order, which is also a level 4 guild, and grabbing achievements left and right.  Here is a picture of the three of us, fresh level one characters in our cool starter clothes.

A priest, a mage, and a warlock looking for adventure!

Then, several quests later, in our top hats and wedding dresses...

Yes, this was a candid shot.

Here's my mage, on a horse.  Why, because she looks so good on it!

Black Beauty.

Last night I started leveling a goblin. I got in trouble, because hubby wanted to level one with me, but I didn't want to wait anymore.  Here is Bittsee, who is sure to be the next Trade Princess, in her hot rod.

Rolling with my homies.

Bittsee's coming out party...

Smog, palm trees and swimming pools.  Kezan, or So Cal?

That is all I have for now.  I am itching to get Dearbre out of Ashenvale, and into mining something she can level her engineering with.  How is Cataclysm treating you?  I'd love to hear from you (pokes blog with a stick to see if it is still alive).

A Few Thousand Words...

Okay, I'll keep this one. Don't be so scared!

Redeemed from Felwood's filth.

Arko'narin

A lone warrior's grave in Un'Goro Crater.

Dwarven Delight!

You are now leaving Ashenvale. Oooh! Azshara!

The new leveling sets will never be so colorful...or mismatched.

This is only missing a blanket and some tanning oil...and you.

Poor Jim.  If he was himself, these would be from him.

A girl and her wolf.

Feeding a teen is hard work.

Trolling with my homies.

Bucket List

Before Cataclysm hits, I would like to, in no particular order, complete these items. I will choose whatever hits my fancy as my quest for that day, or several days, depending on the complexity of the item.This list may change, mostly to add things, not to subtract. Here is my preliminary list.  I will notate when I complete something by scoring through it and adding a date. If I add something new I will put an asterisk after it with the date added. For items with multiple parts. I will date each part as it is completed, or note what part was completed and date it if there was no description (ie Northrend Glory of the Hero or Bloody Rare).  I will post daily about what I worked on, what add-ons or guides I found useful in completing them, and anything I did that I think would be helpful.

1. Set aside enough cloth to level first aid on one goblin.(netherweave,runecloth,mageweave, silk, wool, linen)
   
2. Finish leveling jewelcrafting on Sinnerman.Account off. If time I will on Gwenna.
3. Set aside enough material to level blacksmithing on one goblin.
4. Finish Delgada's An'Qiraj set.  She is missing the Shroud of Infinite Wisdom. 9/13/10
5. Prophecy set and Oracle set for Delgada, but first....
6. Change a Devout set into a Virtuous set, bur first..
7.  Farm for Devout set.
8. Farm for at least one more whelpling.  I have the blue one. I want a green one!
9. Farm for the oozeling.  He eludes our grasp.9/6/10
10. Finish Northrend so Delgada can have the Loremaster title and colors. (only 11 quests to go!)
11. 100 mount achievement? Give it a huge try by...
12. Get a pvp mount (or several, but that means battlegrounds...)
13. Get an Argent Tournament mount (or several?)White Skeletal Horse 9/4/10
14. Finish my old school Naxxramas quest chain
15. Get the pieces to do the Balance of Light and Shadow quest and build Benediction
16. Clean out bank to make room for old school goodies 9/6/10 it's hopeless a post on this 9/7/10
17. Finish old world raids for achievement (need BWL and AQ40)
18. BC raids? not high on the list but I am missing most of them( I know I finished Gruul and Mag- I was cheated!)
19. Finish BC dungeons on heroic to knock out both achievements
20. Become a Savior of the Oracles, and start buying eggs again. (only missing one quest)9/20/10
21. Work on the Bloody Rare achievement for Outland (have 3 of the 21)
22. Work on the Frostbitten achievement for Northrend (have 1 of the 23)
23. Duel someone enough to get the Duel-icious achievement 9/7/10 (with the argent tourney duel achieve)
24. Kill Malygos to finish Champion of the Frozen Wastes
25. Finish Glory of the Hero (have 11 to go)
26. Find the 5 recipes Delgada is missing for Chef De Cuisine 9/2/10
    
27. Buy a chef's hat..which means doing dailies again!
28. Catch a rare fish
29. Catch Old Ironjaw
30. Fish up Gahz'ranka in ZG and The Lurker Below in SC9/2/10(ZG)
31. Fish up Tirion Fordring's gold coin and get Coin Master/There's Gold in That There Fountain
32. Win a fishing tourney (who am I kidding?)
33. Turn as many pieces of frostweave as possible into bandages (500, to be exact).
34. Jump off a precipice and bandage for Ultimate Triage./9/22/10 with Drunken Stupor
35. Make 3 more factions love me for 25 exalted (ad infinitum)(30, 35, 40)(Kalu'ak 9/2/10)9/18/10
36. Zandalar Tribe(9/23/10), Hydraxian Waterlords and Brood of Nozdormu must love me.
37. Thrallmar, Lower City, the Sha'tar and Keepers of Time must also love me.
38. Get exalted with Skyguard(9/18/10) and Netherwing (for mounts!)
39. Kalu'ak don't love me yet. I must have their fishing pole! (more dailies)9/2/10
40. Exalted Ashen Verdict? Shouldn't be too hard.
41. Buy ridiculously expensive mounts. Ice Mammoth Grand Ice Mammoth, Wooly Mammoth, Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, a Choppa...
42. Make the Oracles love me, then forsake them and flirt with some Frenzyhearts.
43. Get the Brewmaster title9/24/10
44. Get the Pilgrim title and turkey pet on Delgada 
45. Collect tabards. You can never have too many tabards.
46. Farm for impossible to get mounts.
47. Pick pocket as many lockboxes as possible on Maura.
48. Back to the goblin. Set aside enough frostweave bags, and a few non binding 16 slotters, (in case I kill of the first one) to equip and for bank.
49. Do the dailies in Storm Peaks for the Brunhildar Village, in hopes of the polar bear mount.
50. Since I am doing so many dailies, I should at least aim for the 500 dailies done achievement...9/6/10
51. As much as I think heirloom gear is a cheat, buy a whole set of clothy gear, just for kicks.
52. Work on the baby raptor, because Delgada really wants the mount (ugh, more dailies).
53. Find those snake gowns and get one of every color. I thought there were red and orange ones, too? 
54. Get the baby croc pets. More Dailies!Toothy 9/2/10 Snarly 9/4/10
55. Buy the last bank tab for my guild.
56. Try to get the epic fishing poles from the fishing dailies (at least I like fishing?)
57. Delgada wants a firefly pet.
58. Delgada wants all the baby raptor pets. She still needs Gundrak, Ravasaur, and Razzashi hatchlings.
59. Finish the Argent Tournament.Champion of the Undercity
60. Fish up a turtle mount.

Immersed?

Have you seen Yesterday's News, a short machinima by Slashdance? It was a contest entry for the "Rise to Power" sweepstakes and was featured on WoW.com's Moviewatch today. If you haven't seen it, I'll wait for you to watch it. Here it is.



Good, wasn't it? Then I read the article, and the comments. This comment, near the top of the second page, affected me the most.

Siorra (from the comments after the post)

Just goes to show how much of the game's immersion has been removed over the years. It's not a world of exploration any more, it's a city you wait around in until you 'magically' appear in a dungeon.

Is it true? Has this game I have chosen to lose myself in become less of a story and more of a time filling habit? I admit to spending many of the last several days of game time with my characters hanging around in a town, fiddling with gear or browsing the auction house for deals while they wait for the Looking for Group tool to whisk them away to their next adventure. BUT...

Delgada is my main Horde character. It is with her that I live the story, weaving her adventures in with questing and discovery. The other characters find a path, get to eighty, and become a bit like the "red shirt" in an old Trek episode, there to take the bullet, and sit out the juicy parts of the series. They might get a call back (if they weren't killed), but they never rise to the fame of the main characters. They're just there to help the main character's story advance. Delgada couldn't successfully go into Icecrown Citadel without her supporting crew of Carlotta, the elixir master, Shawndra, keeper of the exalted Hodir reputation, or even Rowena, all but forgotten 19 forever peddler of junk and keeper of the purse. Delgada would get no rest if it weren't for the playful flirtation of Niranjani, Maiera and Gwenna. Sorry, Maura and Lulubelle, though you are part of the team, you really are the red shirts right now. And space number ten? That is for when I either decide to immerse myself in the goblin culture when Cataclysm comes out, or for infiltrating the Alliance side of Smolderthorn with a worgen.

I think I am still plenty immersed. It is a choice. It is what I escape to WoW to do. Tonight, I choose to immerse myself with 9 other heroes in a quest to rid Icecrown Citadel of as many of the Lich King's lieutenants as will fall to our might. For the Horde!

After that maybe I'll put in a couple of hours hitting the random dungeons with Maiera, so that she can join the rest of my crew in Northrend. She's been hanging out in Nagrand, blowing up talbuk and clefthoof packs in between summons. Everyone needs twiddle time, right? I still think the random dungeon finder (and more recently the random battleground finder) are excellent ideas. I would never recommend them to a new player, especially now, when everything is on the verge of change. But for those of us who have seen about everything the game has to offer, there is no harm in it. Azeroth is a big world, and I have yet to see it all. I'm not leaving until I have exhausted every possibility it has to offer.

Breathtaking Outlands - A Photo Journal.

Delgada dusts off her camera and tours the Outlands, looking for ideal spots to snuggle up to your one and only. She got some great ideas for places to photograph from Arrens, Anna, Syrana, and Indigored. Thanks for the help, and I hope you all find something in here that sparks your romantic imagination!


What is the most incredible sight you have ever seen in game? For me, it was the sky seen through the massive columns after stepping through the Dark Portal. The Hellfire Peninsula itself is really void of beauty, save for the skies above. For a great picnic place, all you have to do is pick your favorite bit of floating debris and spread a blanket.

Zangarmarsh is gloomy, but can still provide a lovely backdrop for a romantic get together. Sit together atop a giant mushroom overlooking one of the lakes...

or find a secluded pond for some skinny dipping. Watch out for Naga. They don't take kindly to other people using their swimming pools.


The Lower City Tavern in Shattrath is decorated for the season. If you stop by at the right time, you can enjoy the company of your lovely date and the Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftains.


Ruuan Weald in the Blade's Edge mountains seems to be welcoming lovers as well. When the curators are all asleep, take a dip with your sweet in the moonwell.


The innkeeper has set aside a room in the inn with satin sheets and mood lighting. Most couples will find this part of Blade's Edge very quiet and far away from the bustle of Northrend scourge fighting. The perfect get away!


Nagrand is lush and vibrant. If you and your Valentine enjoy hunting and fishing, this place is ideal.


If you don't, there are areas for rock climbing, swimming, free falling (bring along a priest or mage for best results), even a super trampoline!


Leaving the cheer and brightness of Nagrand and following the Lower Path into Terokkar, the mood changes to melancholy. Don't let the mood of the area get to you. This is one of the great places to lay down and look up at the sky.


The light from the sun and stars filters through the leaves and crystalline pine cones turn each beam into sparkling, tiny rainbows, beauty in the midst of sorrow. If your date is in a pensive mood, this could be a good place to end up.


What can anyone say about Shadowmoon Valley? It's dark, evil mood is punctuated by angry bursts and trails of fire in the sky. This is not the ideal place to take your intended, unless they have an unhealthy obsession with Illidan and the Black Temple.


Now, if you were looking for a heated spring to soothe war weary aches and ease tensions, you might well shoo away the naga and elementals from this place. I believe they may be the only hot springs in Outland.

Netherstorm, though in bits and pieces, still has some areas that any pair of lovers could enjoy together. The Eco Domes, marvels of science and magic, preserve some of the most beautiful tropical wildlife in both worlds.


Swimming, hunting, fishing, or just walking along enjoying the heady scents of hibiscus and other tropical flora, your partner will enjoy every minute spent inside.


Just mind the crocodiles.


Is your date interested in gemology, or a jewel crafter? Perhaps a stop on the Celestial Ridge for some "rock" climbing is in order.


Stage a ceremony at this secluded little chapel on Wizard's Row. Just make sure you clear the area of its ghostly and demonic denizens first.


Say your fella seems to have missed the boat? Take him out to captain this one in the Twisting Nether just south of Wizard's Row.

Outland is full of surprising and breath taking sights. What I have been able to photograph are just a small sampling of what Outland has to offer. Take your favorite person and pick a zone to explore together as part of your date. Take your own pictures, and put them into a scrapbook to make this date one to remember for years to come!