Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope 2008 is good to you all.
I know a few things will happen this year that can't be prevented and I'm prepared for them I think.
I am the rock, I am the strength - must learn to ignore sisters being bitchy to me!
Yeah that's right I apperently can't do **** all without some form of instruction!
Seriously I'm 33 and I can cook ya know, let me see item A takes 45 minutes at this tempreture, and this take so long on the top of the stove :D.... I can cook, just never had to for a while.
I am "mother" right now, I have to cook, do the washing and stuff like that till mother is more able to do some of it again since she's not quite right yet.
Dad on the other hand ain't so hot, but were taking each day at a time, just hope he gets time to sample that fine single malt I got him for Christmas.
Peace, Joy and love to all my friends new and old, I wish you happiness, prosperity and love in 2008.

Post Christmas Post

Sorry couldn't resist the title, well another week over and done with I suppose.
So what did I get given to me:
Another bleeding winter car care kit - like I need one of those, still got the last one :P, 2 bottle of Morgan's Spiced Rum :D, a couple of new light weight jackets, a new watch that I'll need to get adjusted for my slender wrist :P, some clothes, a little bit of chocolate, a miniature of bailey's n a glass and a few other bits n pieces.
I gave good presents I hope :P.
Now as to how the rest of the crew here, mum is a little better but not much she's now taking antibiotics as it appears the wound on her head is a little infected :|, Dad isn't so hot either, having trouble breathing - thinks it the same thing as he's had fluid on the lung, he's had his meds changed and he's now got a nice recliner chair - I wannna know where's mine!
Oh well I'll get there once I've done the cooking, cleaning, washing n ironing - basically I'm "Mother" now to the 2 kids that my parents are becoming, I swear my sisters are like that > "||" close to snapping and telling them where to go that's how annoying they are with them, me I don't see that as I when I'm in they are either just getting up or they've been up all day and are thus tired.
I'm having to hit the ground running as well I do know how to do this stuff just not needed to until now, I do cook but I guess I'll be doing that and a lot more.
So if someone wants to pass the prozac now I'll get going :D

An a week on.....

Well a week on and it's all change.
Mum got home on Monday much to me and my sister's surprise, she's still not 100% and is getting frustrated because she can't get out the word she really wants to say. Social Work has been involved they were here on Wednesday and again yesterday "assessing" what is needed - I feel this should have been done BEFORE mum got out but there you go that's how it works these days :|, None of us here are sure what's going on really so it's a fucking pain in the ass I've no doubt it will take a week or so to settle down I guess doesn't freaking help I have to be at work all day. My aunt went back home on Wednesday morning as I wouldn't let her miss her grandson's first Christmas and she wasn't going to either :), which brings me to another thing I tried to order her a nice bottle of 12 yr old Antiquary for a shop I know the specialises in whisky in Edinburgh but alas I mistyped my googlemail address - gogglemail ftw :| and thus it wasn't till I used another e-mail address that I found out the freaking bank had apprently declined my card - I called the bank they couldn't see WHY it would have happened as I have plenty funds in my account etc.. So I'll just have wait and see if I get the bottle at all. Works been a no-fun week as well which hasn't helped any. I'm looking forward to a oh so fun filled weekend (not!) as it looks like number 1 mug here will have to do all the shit mum usually did so no relaxation for me :|. Oh well at least I have Christmas day off work!
Goes to find a glass n some ice - I need something cold!

Time for an update

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Date: 14/12/07 error #03 - incorrect date found date isn't 13/12/07 (N/y)? y
Date update completed, data updated.
Yeah I think I lost a day somewhere not sure actually it this could be any day this week they are all kinda blending into one at the moment and that's without the aid of alcohol thank you very much!
Okay last post so to speak mother was waiting to have a head scan, that got done pronto somehow as I went shopping thinking yeah I can finally get it all done maybe - silly me, I get a call to go to the hospital they want to see us, this came from oldest sister, yeah I got 2 so trouble in stereo! Anyway they said they had done the scan and were transferring her to a bigger hospital to have an operation done to drain the bruise that was causing all the problem, now the hospital where she was at was easy to get to, the bigger one is a pain in the ass as it was in Edinburgh which is further away and a nightmare to drive to/from. Operation was done sunday night both sisters went over and keep us updated as to what was happening.
I took Monday off so a few things could get done and I could take dad an my aunt over to see mum who was awake & flat on her back as she had to be - I just want to know what was in the oxygen ... :D
Back to work on Tuesday as there wasn't any point in taking more time off work.
She was transfered back on Wednesday I was in the middle of nowhere with work and I didn't get back till late so didn't see her then. I saw her yesterday evening and unless you've had a friend or relative who has had this kind of operation or suffers from it's not Alzheimer's but it's along that sort of line, we get half sentences then she struggles with a word she's trying to say and the hands are going as normal and it's oh it's what-a-call-it,etc but the frustration is there you could see it and I was getting tense as well as there wasn't anything I could do other then tell her to calm down, slow down and try again as gently as possible. It was good to see her and we got all the gossip that was going on in the ward of course, typical mother really well almost sometimes she wasn't quite there but it was good to see her.
Now to just get Social Services involved as there is no way on earth they can cope without help of some sort from them. Dad is doing good as he was worried but every visit perked him up a little :)
Might be out for Christmas might not be that's the thing...

Here, There and somewhere else

Okay a recap of the last fortnight with me and what freaking fortnight it's been, that's 2 weeks for those that don't understand :P.
Well since mom's little slip she was fine the first week, work was okay as well getting stuff sorted out, work cleared done so it's clear over the Christmas break, it was working out just about....
Colleague handed in his notice, hmm if I was 1 he was a 1/2, a total freaking TOOL, never seemed with it at all really, he's gone to upstate NY to follow his "johnston" that's the most polite way I can put it.. Now last friday,the 30th,in the afternoon we all sat down and planned out what was jobs needed to be done for the next week, he was there and we said you'll have a few alarm services on various days and was needed here and there for stuff to which he agreed - week planned out, job done...... NO! I come in Monday morning, do what I normally do 9am comes and no colleague although his Time keeping was never good, boss gets a call and in a voice that sounded "typewriter" like he was told that basically something had come up and he wouldn't be back! The thing is he had his own tools in the back of one of the company vans and they were gone, they had to have gone on the Friday, so we then sat and replanned the week, I went with the boss to sort some of our kit for a customer and well let's just say the air in the van on the way was "Blue", So we struggled all week but got through it - would have gotten more done IF something I had asked to be changed had arrived when it was supposed to not 4 days and god knows how many calls later, we do that on tuesday. So nice stressful week at work.
Now scroll back to the friday, I comes in at my usual time, mum's okay asks me to go get something from the shop while she makes my fish n chips, never noticed anything, but I knew my aunt was coming up a day early to surprise her. You know what they say about the best laid plans... This one went tits up really badly..
My aunt has 3 daughters, middle daughter and her hubby were bring her up in the car, they didn't bother the tell eldest daughter what was going on and of course on the friday she went to visit her mum did she not, no mother so she phones the "world" instead of her sisters mobile, got mother slightly worried I tried to reassure her and keep the plan under raps but she couldn't get her nor my cousin who was coming up so she smelt a rat and was panic'd a little and got to know what was happenning.
I of course had to let everyone know she knew without letting her know.
Come 9pm when they were due mother wasn't feeling right and had slurred speech, so called a neighbour who's a nurse, she called the "nhs 24" helpline - they got an ambulance sent out and they let her out at around 1:30am after giving her the all clear - nothing was said about the bump on the head, she did look better, they reckon it was a mini-stroke, they gave it a fancy name but I can't rememeber it.
Now of course over the past week I've at work and not really been away of what's been going on I just thought she'd was tired due to the day she'd had but it turns out she's been tired all week :| and was feeling sick and generally not herself. So called the nhs24 line 3 times, 1st time no doctor was sent out, recalled it got a doctor out who gave her something for the nausea, the last time another doctor came out and looked at her said didn't think she needed to go in to hospital to let the tablets take effect and he'd try and get something arranged for today as it was an effort for her to go from her bed to the bathroom. He came back out this morning and looked at her again got her admitted to hospital where she's being looked at right now they're gonna do a scan sometime today or tomorrow morning at the latest.
How am I holding up, I'm doing okay - I know I have friends all over the place that are keeping me in their thoughts and prayers.

Wow - Not on a Sunday

Okay I know, I'm sorry I've been busy with real life stuff....
So on to our Not on a Sunday topics:

What is that one song that most often gets stuck in your head and "CAN’T GET OUT"? This one comes from abraleah over at cross-eyed
I would say go over and say Hi but I seem to be having trouble getting to that site myself...

Or if you don't fancy that one, here's another, okay I know it's a cheat but hey I'm allowed to do that sometimes ;)

Why did you start your blog and what keeps you blogging?
This one is from bob-kat over at bobkat's house
That one is working so go over say hi...

I'll post mine sometime I know not when!

WoW - Class: Mage

Okay back to World of Warcraft I suppose...
Mages wield the elements of fire, frost, and the arcane to pretty much take out or neutralize their enemies. This is another of the robed class but you excel at dealing massive damage from afar, casting elemental bolts at a single target, or raining destruction down upon their enemies in a wide area of effect. You can also augment your allies' spell-casting powers with intellect buffs, summon food or drink to restore your friends, and even travel across the world in an instant by opening arcane portals to distant lands or just teleport yourself .

When seeking someone to introduce monsters to a world of pain, the Mage would be a good bet, with their elemental and arcane attacks, it's a safe bet something they can do won't be resisted by your chosen enemy. Damage is definitely the name of the Mage game, and you do it well.
Your arsenal includes some powerful crowd control spells, also, giving them the ability to keep hordes at bay - in fact, these abilities can be used on the most common creatures in the game, thus making them extremely valuable for this purpose.
Escape with a mage is fairly easy you learn a spell called "Blink" that pretty much gets you out of most things just make sure you know where your pointed as it won't go through walls, trees or off cliffs...

There are really 2 subclasses of mages in the game, those who choose to follow the frost tree all the way down and those that choose to follow the fire tree all the way down now each has it's advantages and disadvantages of course.
Now going all out frost means you can survive major attack all your frost spells have greater range and over effectiveness as well as increasing damage, you can encase yourself in a block of ice which for a time protects you for harm allowing you to regenerate some of your health, soon you won't need to go into the frost tree to get this as they are making this talent available to all. So with this set up you can slow your enemies down for longer while doing mass damage to them or getting away, oh and the end talent "41 pointer" for this tree is a nice water elemental to help you out from time to time. Also going frost against fire type creatures hurts them a whole lot more.

As for going all out fire well that has it's advantages too, massive damage spells like the pyroblast which takes 6 seconds to cast although you might be able to reduce this time slightly, it's your opening attack spell or one used in mid fight if you've just put them on ice with your frost nova which you still get just doesn't have all the frosty advantages. There is a talent called "Presence of Mind" or PoM from the arcane tree which fire mages often get as it doesn't really require many wasted talent point to get and also getting Master of Elements from the Frost tree is useful too. Anyway back to the fire tree, you can go all the way down this and your end talent is "Dragon's Breath" sounds lethal is pretty lethal to anything close range, did someone order a rack of BBQ beef? If you go fire be prepared to die a lot as you really don't have that much in the way of survivablity you can't rely on your frost nova as much as if you went frost nor is it much use again anything the is fire based.
How to tell how an ememy mage is spec'd, see what he does first...
Generally - Fire mages will turn you in to a sheep by polymorphing you yeah it's a nasty trick I know, then warm up that big old pyroblast, hit PoM then Pyro you again, your pretty much dead as the fire tree has some "% chance to cause" effects that mean you could end up burning a little so that's healing out the window if your flying solo. This type of mage is also know as a "3-minute mage" as the PoM cool down is 3-minutes.
Frost mages will hit you with frost nova, frost bolts then ice lance you to death, I'm sure it's an abuse of power as the ice lance does so much damage and can cause another ice lance to hit you as well, double damage in the 1 hit and basically your spell casting is slowed down as well.
High level mages can also steal the spell your about to cast for themselves done correctly they borrow you big heal or big attack.

The advantages can pretty much be summed up thus: Massive damage dealer to a single or multiple target in an area. You can effect escape with frost nova or polymorph and blink. You have good long range skills. Your the only class that can learn how to teleport yourself and others to the major cities. Your crowd control ability is good but it can hard to master this one.
The disadvantages can pretty much be summed up thus: You can only ever wear cloth armor, you generally have low hit points compared to other classes and you have no healing abilities what so ever. Another thing to note is your a very, very mana dependant class without mana your screwed basically..

I almost forgot your really restricted in what you can use as a weapon as all you can use without training is a staff and a wand, with training you can learn to use daggers and one-handed swords.

More Tomorrow.....

It's Sunday so that must mean it's time for the "Not on a Sunday Topic"

Okay as usual I'm taking a break from anything I'd remotely normally post about as it's a sunday to bring you this weeks topic

What is the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done in grade school?
Thanks to Shane over at Reflekshins for this weeks topicano - I know it's not a word it just looks cool, wander over and say hi to shane..
This is kinda like ye olde blog fodder remember that...

Well I can answer this one quite simply I was the good guy at school, I did my work when asked, didn't talk back to the teacher and was rarely in trouble as school, I can probably count on 1 hand the number of times I was in trouble.
Being the little guy helped, meant I kept head down and just got on with it..
The only time I can really remember is one time at primary school I must have done something in the playground, can't remember what but I was sent to the "wall" which was basically the section of wall in front of where we all lined up to go back into class after the breaks, it was scary kinda seeing all your classmates staring at you, that and one of old teachers saying there must be some mistake what are you doing here kinda of thing, never did it again either. There was one time I was sent to see the headmistress at primary and this was back in the days when the "belt" was still a usable tool, one crack off the desk was enough - straight n narrow...

Yesterday, the day before and today.

Well what can I say.
Thursday - I left the house at 6am and didn't return until 10pm after a successful day at the office so to speak, gosh I really love been driven 200miles to a place, working all day and then having to drive the 200 miles back in leaving in the rush hour.
I got home totally wiped out, now I knew my dad had been in to see the specialist and I also knew the news wasn't good, thank you sis for forewarning me of what I had suspected anyway. I was busy eating and mother being mother didn't wanna tell me, didn't want to disturb me really I just told her get it over with I needed to know.
Well my dad has cancer as we kinda suspected anyway, where it is and it's size and other factors mean it's inoperable. Me I'm holding up mother was in pieces and she didn't know what she was going to do... sometimes I wonder if these 2 are my parents sometimes as they can be SO trying. Okay you can call me a cynic if you like but I'm sorry anything that happens in this family or to mother's friends affects mother dearest in the strangest way it's like it's all "ME" if you see what I'm getting at..
I'll leave that there as I'll just go off on one..
Friday I go into work and I'm still wiped from the Thursday but it was all done so easy day, as my colleague was pretty wiped as well - both looked like a pair of half shut knives all day, a couple of things had come in and I decided to go help my colleague out, that and get out the office as some things were being painted as they don't come in the colour we needed so they needed to be painted, now don't get me wrong by my other colleague can be a little slow on the uptake I sometimes wonder if he's all "there".
Now what do you do if you using a paint spray can indoors? Open the door, open a window and get some air flow yes...? No I had to say open the door I've opened the window over there, that and he'd never painted before - He'd been doing some of it Thursday so GOD knows what it was like then! I got home, looked up what films were on and I had kinda decided to treat nephew to a night at the cinema anyway but Ratatouille was on so took him to see that - don't ask how much it cost, in the good seats again.
Today i've been coasting along on auto pilot - between this nasty cold I have and the last 2 days I was feeling wiped out.
We'll just have to see what's going to happen in the future won't we..

This is where I run of steam....

Okay it's not that i've run out of classes or other stuff it's just life has a way of catching up on you and I'm really tired tonight and with what I'm going to be doing over the next 3 days I doubt I'll be posting much at all..
I'll probably be all day tomorrow someplace then on thursday I get to take long trek down to somewhere near blackpool to replace a system and it will be up early and back "sometime" and on friday I'm looking after nephew which will be fun.... :-S so I pretty much stuffed for time, never mind I've got the weekend!
*Goes off to collapse in a heap*

WoW - Class: Priest

Now continuing our look at classes with the priest class.
Okay as you'd expect this class is a master at healing and preserving the wellbeing of themselves and their party, also partly shielding them in battle from some of the damage they take and in at the end of the fight resurrecting their fallen friends so they might fight once more. While it's true this class has a good array of healing spells, even the holiest of holy priests can still do some damage if required, they have attack spells okay not many 5 to be exact, 2 holy and 3 shadow although you don't get the last one until near the end and it has to be used very carefully. The spells are Smite takes a 1 or so to cast does a modest amount of damage, Holy fire as the name suggest hits them from above for a moderate amount of damage which continues over the next 8 seconds where additional damage is dealt to your enemy otherwise known as Damage Over Time aka a DOT. Your 3 shadow spells are Shadow Word: Pain - instantly cast and deals DOT, Mind Blast takes a second or so to cast deal a modest amount of damage - a bit like a shadow version of smite, now on to the shadow last spell everyone gets - Shadow Word: Death now this little spell will get you either out of trouble or right in it deeper as if the creature your fighting DOESN'T die when you cast this instant cast spell, you take the damage on yourself - now this can becuase it does deal damage but not enough to kill the creature or the creature gets lucky and resists the spell entirely which does happen :-S now as you can imagine firing this off and having it hit you could actually kill you, hmm "puts hand up" I've been there done that,got the T-Shirt and Starred in that freaky Video.
Now not all priest choose to go holy some choose to go to the dark side and become shadow priests now these can do masses more damage, stun their enemies, not only heal themselves with spells that are dealing damage to the enemy but anyone in their party as well through the talent of shadows embrace, you also get a special form called shadow form which increase the amount of damage your shadow spells can do by 15% and at the same time reduces the amount of damage taken by 15% although you can't heal in this form nor cast any spell classed as "holy", this is a talent from within the shadow talent tree.
There are other spells that don't actually do any damage in themselves but can help
keep you alive a little longer, there is the ability to add some stamina to yourself and others though the spell Power Word: Fortitude this is rank based but if you use it on a lower leveled player it will automatically use the highest rank of spell that can be used - this spell lasts either 30 minutes or until you die if you die within that time,
Power Word: Shield is as the name suggest gives you the ability to shield yourself or others from some damage - this is depends on the rank of spell you have and also on a few well placed talent points in the discipline tree which give it a boost in it's damage absorbing capability.
There is also the classic Fade which as it suggests makes you fade out for a short time discouraging your enemies from attacking you, touch of weakness (undead and blood elves only) or hex of weakness (trolls only) this will reduce the amount of damage dealt by the enemy affected by an amount dependent on what rank of the spell is used the higher the rank the more the damage is reduced by.
Psychic scream - as the name suggest it's designed to cause an small number of enemies flee from around about you, this increase with the rank of the spell, sometimes useful when you need to escape quickly and can do so safely, sometims it's not as these you caused to flee sometimes come back with friends :-S.
There is also mind soothe, an nice spell that reduces the range at which you'll annoy the humanoid creature you use it on, can only be used on humans or humanoid classed creatures.
There is also the rather nice ability of being able to charm and mind control another humanoid creature can come in real hand when you find an enemy player and there is a cliff near enough to use - the fun when you use this spell and throw them off and there is nothing they can do about it, so a hint if a priest ever asks you to dual make sure that you aren't anywhere high up....
Now that you've read all that and see wow maybe I could play a priest, the bad news - you can only ever wear cloth, because you wear cloth you never really have much hit points and don't even think of getting up close and personal with your enemy as you really can't do much damage in hand to hand combat or melee as it's known, and finally if your going to regularly heal in a party quick reflexes are a must to balance between using one healing or another and who to try and keep alive.
Oh yeah I almost forgot here am I saying you can't do damage close up and not telling you what weapons you can use.
The weapons are as follows: Staves which requires using both hands at once, One-Handed maces which allows you to put something else in your other hand to help out, daggers again something can go in the other hand and wands which you can equip much like a bow, thrown weapons and the like for a rouge.

More tomorrow....

Wow - Not on a Sunday II

Yet another sunday break from World of Warcraft...
The question this time is:

When was a time in your life that you felt closest to God? Thanks go to John for this one

Now for me is a tricky one as I think even from birth god has been close by, even when I wasn't sure of myself he was there gently guiding. I don't go to church, I don't feel the need to go is all. God can't be everywhere at once so he sent angels instead we call these friends or sibilings or if we are really lucky both.
Now it's over to you - I know this is a brief one from me but that is it really my life isn't my own anyway.

WoW - Class: Rogue

Now what could be said about rogues, well for a start they can't use plate or mail armour, it's kinda hard to sneak around wearing plate it was a real drag, so you can wear cloth or leather armour only, leather being prefered as it will absorb a bit more damage from things hitting you.
You are therefore a lightly armoured close range attacker, capable of dealing mass damage to your enemies in a flurry of attacks. You are the master of stealth and assassination, passing by your enemies unseen and then striking them from the shadows, then if required escaping from combat in the blink of an eye. Your a crafter of various poisons to slow, deal damage too and generally reduce the effectiveness of your enemies in battle. Some quests require a group of 2 to 5 players and normally you'll come in real handy in those groups. Other skills you can get are lockpicking, allowing you to open locked doors, chests and boxes you find along the way, although you do require a certain skill level to be able to open some doors, you can also disarm hidden traps as well.
Talking of skills for every level you gain you also get to increase the skill level you can have with various weapons and your lock picking by 5 so by level 60 your maximum skill with say lockpicking would be 300.
Now to weapons, what weapons can you use as a rouge, you can be default if you like use daggers and thrown weapons such as throwing knives, throwing axes. You can also train to aquire the skill to use the following weapons from the weapons trainer who are located in the major cities around the map, these are swords, bows, crossbows, maces, guns and fist weapons - think knuckle dusters if you like, when you learn how to wield that weapons you skill level for that weapon automatically starts at 1 so if you plan on use it, go find a few creatures you should be able to easily kill and practice on them with that new found skill, bows, crossbows & guns require ammo to be carried as well as the weapon so you lose some bag space when carrying it, you could get an ammo pouch for your bullets or a quiver for you arrows but you lose 1 bag slot for this and you can only carry 5 bags at a time, each bag can hold up to 20 spaces or slot but the bags above 14 slots tend to be more expensive to buy / aquire as they require more expensive materials to make them.

Now your a rogue so you don't need to drink any water to regain any mana you have a fixed pool of energy (100) which does regenerate fast but sometimes not fast enough.
Some of the skills you will use at some point are now going to be outlined.
Eviscerate - deals a good amount of damage over and above your weapons own damage, adds 1 combo point - more on combo points later, uses some of your energy up.
Backstab - Deals a considerable amount of damage from your weapon, it does require a dagger to be in your main hand to use also requires as you'd expect for you to be behind the enemy, a good start move from stealth before you get some other skills, again adds 1 combo point.
Gouge - Kinda the opposite of backstab - it stuns your enemy for a time, doing only a small damage this time, adds 1 combo point, this doesn't work it the enemey is taking any damage from magic spells or posions, uses a small amount of your energy.
Sinister Strike - One of the first finishing moves you get, does more damage the more combo points you have (up to 5 on your current target) and on what rank of skill you have, uses a smallish amount of your energy
Sap - A vital talent to master - sap can only be used from stealth and comes in handy when you need to kill several creatures at once but don't think you can handle them all at once, it stuns the target for 25 seconds and if done right means you can fight another target and kill them within that time and go back into stealth and walk away without them even knowing what happened, uses a small amount of energy.
Cheap Shot - Awards 2 combo points, can only be done from stealth - this one stuns the target for 4 seconds regardless of how much damage is being done to them, if your in a party with another rogue it is possible to chain cheap shot so to speak so the target is stunned for 8 seconds, uses a considerable amount of your energy to use though.
Ambush is another from stealth attack - this adds 1 combo point and like backstab you need to behind the target to use it, deals more damage than backstab but not as much as could be carried out with cheapshot.
Blind - A skill you aquire later on once you have reached a certain level, allows with the use of blinding power to blind the enemy for 10 seconds - handy when your low on health and they have no damage effects on them, allowing you to bandage up or drink a health potion.
Sprint - Increases your speed by 40% for 15 seconds allowing you to run away from the fight - sometimes very handy, cooldown on this talent is 5 minutes, although this can be altered through your talent tree.
Vanish - A skill that allows you to literally vanish, this skill requires you carry flash power about, it has a cooldown of 5 minutes but can be reset if you get the correct talent in the talent tree as there is one that allows you to instantly reuse this talent as well as sprint and others.
I was going to talk about the talent trees but having properly looked at them it would be a very long and boring post :P

Your class has the following strengths:
Your stealth abilities allow you to reach places more easily than most classes,
You can create and use poisons to damage or slow enemies,
You can deal a very high amount of melee damage potentially,
You can pick locks,
You have effective means of escaping battle with sprint, vanish, and blind.
Your weaknesses are:
You cannot give yourself or your party anything that will increase the parties overall health, mana pool, resistance to various spells and so forth like many other classes can.
You cannot heal yourself other than by using healing potions or learning first aid which I will talk about later on, and healing yourself with a bandage.
You are restricted as I've said before to wearing either cloth or leather.
Now the following would have no effect on your class if given, the mage intellect buff or any item which has + intellect on it, no use you don't use mana.
You really want items with +strength, +stamina and/or +agility - as these are the 3 that control overall the amount of damage you can do, how much health you have and how likely you are to dodge, parry or otherwise avoid an attack.
It's one of those things you need to really see to understand it's actually quite hard to explain things that come to me as automatic in the game as I do have a rouge in the game itself.
Tomorrow - Blog Fodder :p

WoW - Classes an Intro (Delayed from yesterday)

Before we get on to talking about individual classes, I thought I better cover a bit about trainers, talent trees and the like which I will go more in depth with for each of the classes.
There are a few ways you can do more damage, they are:
1) Getting newer gear that is more suitable for your level and has bonuses on it such as bonus stamina, strength, agility, spirit, intellect, attack power etc.
2) Gaining a new level this will put up your strength, stamina, agility, spirit, intellect, hit points and if applicable your mana pool, even if your on low hit points and/or mana when you get your new level these are instantly replenished to full, really useful when fight lots of creatures or mobs and your getting low on health / mana.
3) Talents and new spells / ability or newer ranks of existing spells / abilities.

Each classes has a specific trainer they need to find in order to learn new skills, when you start a new character, one of the quests you get is go find someone, normally around level 3-4 and this is normally the trainer where you can get some new skills or spells depending on your class.
There isn't just that trainer, there are more class specific trainers all over the map normally in the main cities or in nearby villages. Although this isn't the case for professions which I'm only briefly going to talk about.

Now each class has 3 talent trees where they can put talent points into from level 10 onward, now these trees are class specific as the mage trees are arcane, fire and frost - the 3 main disciplines of a mage, the priest trees are discipline, holy and shadow - again the 3 main disciplines of a priest.
Now each tree has it's use - do more damage and in return generate more threat or aggro which is sometimes wanted often not as you may not want the creature / monster / mob coming and taking a swipe at you, I'll discuss this more when I talk about the individual classes, generate less threat which is good, and is generally called "survivability". There are various "builds" as they are called which work, sometimes your best working out what you think is best and if it works it works if it doesn't it can be a pain to redo, as it is possible to blank out you talent trees and start again but this costs you your hard earned money to unlearn.
Each of these talents has an end talent called a 41-point talent as it requires 40 points of your talent points to be placed in that single tree, it's sometimes worth the effort but you only have so many talent points to spend, 1 per level from level 10 onwards a total of 61 points so it's a case of sacrificing something somewhere down another tree to get that talent.
Now I have that out the way lets talk skills :D, every 2 levels up to level 60 and sometimes every level up to 70 depending on your class you can learn new skills or update you current ones as I've said before, generally a new skill will give you something else to help you attack, heal if your a healing class and various others, if it's an upgrade to a current skill then generally it will give you a boost in that skill maybe do more damage or heal more.
I hope this helps explain what I will start posting about tomorrow when I'll start with the rogue class.

ugh!

I'm not feeling 100% so I'm going to give the wow post a miss for tonight, but it will be back tomorrow night do not fear dear reader(s)...

WoW - Races: Draenei and Blood Elves

Where the draenei came from well that's no mystery the dark portal but they didn't come through it no they used a great ship they had constructed, they called it Exodar and all was going so well until it hit the atmosphere and promptly crashed upon the world of Azeroth. Having fled the ravaged world, the noble draenei used the dimension traveling Exodar to reach safe haven, or so they thought. Inspired by tales of the heroic alliance that stood against the might of the Burning Legion, you have come to enlist aid in retaking your now shattered homeland. Dedicated to preserving life and upholding the tenets of the Holy Light, you hope to gather a new coalition of warriors to battle the Burning Legion and put a halt to its horrific Burning Crusade. Armed only with courage and their unshakeable faith in the Light, the draenei look forward to finding the alliance and ushering them towards the destiny that awaits beyond the skies of Azeroth.
As a draenei you have the following racial traits:
Gemcutting - passive your race is a race of jewelcrafters so you get a skill increased of 5 in this skill
Gift of the Naaru - active - Heals the target 50 + 15 x level hit points over 15 sec - 40 yd range - 1.5 sec cast - 3 min cooldown
Inspiring Presence - passive for mage, priest & shaman only - Increases the chance to hit with spells by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards, a useful talent.
Heroic Presence - passive for hunter, paladin & warriors only - Increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards, same talent different name.
Shadow Resistance - passive - you +10 resitance to shadow spells and effects.

You start off in a little island off the coast near to the Night Elf start area called Azuremyst Isle, your home city is your ship, Exodar.
Your race specific mount is an Elekk - kind like an elephant but hmm different.
If you choose to be a draenei you can be one of the following:
A hunter, a mage, a paladin, a priest, a shaman or a warrior.

For nearly seven thousand years, the high elves cultivated a shining magical kingdom deep within the forests of northern Lordaeron and lived peacefully, but five years ago, the undead Scourge invaded Quel'Thalas and drove the elves to the brink of extinction. Led by the evil death knight Arthas, the Scourge destroyed the mystical Sunwell, thereby severing the elves from the source of their arcane power. Though the scars of that conflict are evident, the remaining elves banded together and retook much of your homeland back. Now calling themselves "blood elves", these survivors are committed to regaining the vast powers once commanded. Inspired by the leadership of their beloved prince, Kael'thas Sunstrider, the blood elves now seek out new sources of the magic they lost and the means of defending their land against all the horrors of the Scourge.

As a blood elf you have the following racial traits:
Arcane Affinity - passive, your skills in enchanting are enchanced, you get 10 additional skill points in enchanting
Arcane Torrent - active - all but rogues, Silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you regain 5 + 1 mana per Level per Mana Tap charge currently affecting you - Instant - 2 min cooldown.
Arcane Torrent - active - (Rogue only) again silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. but instead of mana you gain 10 Energy for each Mana Tap charge currently affecting you - Instant - 2 min cooldown.
Magic Resistance - passive you have a +5 increase in resistances to all magical effects.
Mana Tap - active - Reduces target's mana by 50 + your current level and charges you with Arcane energy for 10 min. This effect stacks up to 3 times - 30 yd range - Instant - 30 sec cooldown.

You start of near to Eversong Forest, a once tranquil place but tranquil no more.
Your home city is Silvermoon City,a beautiful city.
Your race specific mount is a Hawkstrider, it looks rather like a large chicken.
If you choose to go Blood Elf, you can be one of the following:
A hunter, a mage, a paladin, a priest, a rogue or a warlock.

WoW - Races: Humans and Night Elves

The Humans are a resilient breed, having survived an invasion by the Orcs during the first war. The armies of Stormwind rallied with the Alliance to reclaim their homeland of Azeroth in the second war, after which Stormwind was restored to all it grandour and the humans began to flourish once again throughout the southlands. With the recent invasion of the Burning Legion which left the northern kingdom of Lordaeron in ruins, Stormwind now stands as the last bastion of human civilization. Following the heroic examples of the legendary Sir Lothar and King Llane, the defenders of Stormwind are considered to be among the fiercest warriors in the land. They stand resolute in their charge to maintain the honor and might of humanity in an ever-darkening world.
As a human you have the following racial traits:
Perception - active - Activate to dramatically increase stealth detection - Lasts 20 sec - 3 min cooldown, a useful talent to have when you know there are creatures "hidden" ready to pounce on you
The Human Spirit - passive - Your overall Spirit is increased by 10% - very useful as this helps regenerate hit points
Diplomacy - passive - 10% bonus to gaining reputation with the various factions in the game.
Sword Specialization - passive - you get +5 to Sword skill, well you have been wielding once since you could hold it.
Mace Specialization - passive - you get +5 to Mace skill, well you cut yourself a few times so were given a slight safer weapon to play with.
You start off near an abbey in the north of Elwynn Forest,
As again already said, Stormwind is your capital city
Naturally as a human your mount is a horse.
If you choose to be a human you can be one of the following:
A mage, a paladin, a priest, a rogue, a warrior or a warlock.

The reclusive Night Elves were the first race to awaken in the World of Warcraft. These shadowy, immortal beings were the first to study magic and let it loose throughout the world nearly ten thousand years before the wars. Their wreckless use of magic however drew the Burning Legion into the world and led to the catastrophic war between the two titanic races, the race barely managed to banish the Legion from the world. In doing so however the wondrous night elven homeland was shattered and sank into the sea. Until recently, Night Elves had closed themselves off from the rest of the world and remained hidden atop their holy mountain of Hyjal. The Legion's invasion brought the Night Elves out of their slumber, and as such they now have a renewed interest in the shaping of the world. They are also for the first time allying themselves with other races to insure the continued survival of Azeroth. As a race, the Night Elves are typically honourable and just, as always however they aren't very trusting of what they see as the 'lesser races' of the world. Being nocturnal by nature and their shadowy powers often elicit the same distrust that they have for their mortal neighbours.

As a night elf you have the following racial traits:
Shadowmeld - active - This Ability when activated while you are still and not fighting allows you to in essence vanish or at least enter a "stealth mode" - lasts until canceled - no cooldown - you used to be able to attack while using this, that was regarded as unjust.
Quickness - passive - you have a 1% increased chance to dodge any attack.
Wisp Spirit - passive - when you die instead of becoming a ghost you become a wisp with movement speed increase of 50% (25% faster than normal ghost).
Nature Resistance - passive - You get +10 bonus to nature type damage i.e from spells, arrows and poisons.
Your start location as a Night Elf is Teldrassil,
Your home city is the enchanting Darnassus
As always your mount is rather unique mount as it's basically a big tiger or a Nightsaber.
If you choose to play Night Elf you can be one of the following:
A druid, a hunter, a priest, a rogue or a warrior.
Tomorrow the 2 new races..

Wow - Races: Undead and Tauren

Now back to the Wow theme after that minor break....
The undead having broken free from the tyrannical rule of the Lich King, a renegade group of sought to retain their own free will while destroying all those who oppose them. Known as the Forsaken, your group is dedicated to serving your leader, the delectable banshee queen Sylvanas Windrunner. You have established a secret stronghold beneath the ruins of Lordaeron's former capital city. Situated deep beneath the cursed Tirisfal Glades, the labyrinthine that is Undercity. Within its shadowy confines, the royal apothecaries scramble to develop a devastating new plague - one which will not only eradicate their most hated Scourge rivals and anyone else who gets in the way. To further your dark aims, the Forsaken have entered into an alliance of convenience with the orcs, trolls & tauren . You don't really hold any loyalty to your newfound comrades, have duped them into fighting against their common enemy - the Lich King. Only time will tell how you will fare in your mission of vengeance.
The undead like all the races have specific racial traits.
Will of the Forsaken - active, use it to become immune to Fear, Sleep, and Charm effects it can also be used while already afflicted by Fear or Sleep - lasts 5 sec - 2 min cooldown - useful against many classes this.
Cannibalize - active, use to regenerate 7% of total health every 2 sec. by consuming humanoid or undead corpses within 5 yds - lasts 10 sec - 2 min cooldown, how to annoy your enemy, eat them... no chianti in sight either.
Underwater Breathing - passive - lets your breath lasts 3 times longer than everyone else.
Shadow Resistance - passive - you get +10 Shadow Resistance, which is useful against warlocks and priests as these both can cast shadow damage spells.
Your start location is a small village in the heart of the tirisfal glades.
As already stated you city is the ruins of Lordaeron, better known as undercity.
Your racial mount is unique to say the least, it's an undead or skeletal horse.
If you choose to become one of the undead you can be one of the following
A mage, a priest, a rogue, a warlock or a warrior.


The Tauren are huge, bestial creatures who live in the grassy, open barrens of central Kalimdor, think huge cow and you got it in one. You live to serve nature and maintain the balance between the wild things of the land and the restless spirit of the elements. Despite your enormous size and brute strength, you are remarkably peaceful and have cultivated a quiet, tribal society. However, when roused by conflict, you are implacable enemy who will use every ounce of their strength to smash your enemies under hoof. Under the leadership of your ancient chief, Cairne Bloodhoof, you allied yourself with the Orcs during the invasion of the Burning Legion. The two races have remained steadfast allies ever since. Like the Orcs, you too struggle to retain their sense of tradition and noble identity.
The Tauren like all the races have specific racial traits.
War Stomp - active - a useful talent to have, activate this to stun up to 5 opponents within 8 yards - lasts 2 sec - 2 min cooldown.
Endurance - passive Max Health increased by 5%, a bonus gives you that little bit more hit points.
Cultivation - passive - 15 skill bonus to Herbalism trade skill, well you are close to nature after all.
Nature Resistance - passive - speaking of nature, you get +10 Nature Resistance
As for your mount it is unique an well needs to match your size it is a gaint kodo.
All I will say is how anyone can miss a giant tauren sitting on a kodo I'll never know.
You start of in a village on the edge of Mulgore, as previously stated you capital city is the 3 tiered Thunder Bluff.
If you choose to become a tauren, you can be one of the following:
a druid, a hunter, a shaman or a warrior.
More Tomorrow...............

Wow - Not on a Sunday

Ha got ya, you really think I was going to talk "non-stop" about World of Warcraft even I'm not that insane, although I play it a lot, I do take breaks from it, it's called work, when I was on holiday I couldn't play it all the time as it just got boring doing the same things over and over as I hit a point where that was kinda needed, there are times this happens yes..
Now on to the true subject of the day..... It's an old favourite revived with the kind permission of Moogie, it's question time once more.

If you could live in the world of any particular book (or series) what would it be and why? Thank you loremistriss for this one

This one I'm leaving up to you, meanwhile I'm going to find some new batteries for this keyboard as it appears it wants not work too faaassst.

Wow - Races: Dwarfs and Gnomes

Following on from yesterdays post:
Gnomes are definitely eccentric, often brilliant and definitely one of the most peculiar races in the whole game. They are obsessed with developing radical new technologies and construction marvels of mind-bending engineering, it's amazing they are still around really the are that focused.
They thrive within the wondrous techno-city of Gnomeregan, the gnomes share their resources of the forested areas of Dun Morogh with their slightly taller Dwarfen cousins. Though their cousins in Ironforge have the propensity of technology and engineering, it's the gnomes that provide the vision and drive for most of the weapons and vehicles.

Although the did help during the various wars, the most recent war against the burning legion they refused to send help to the frustration of their cousins and humans alike. When the war was over the dwarfs demanded an answer and went to gnomeregan only to discover the reason was that the city had been lost to some barbaric menace that had risen from the bowels of the earth and invaded, the gnomes knowing this and that their allies couldn't send much help. The fought valiantly but alone and their beloved city was lost probably forever. Half the gnomish race was lost either killed outright or taken over during the fall of the city, those who survived fled to the safety of their cousins stronghold in Ironforge. They are once again committed to the Alliance's cause. They are still trying to take back their ravaged city and spend time devising strategies and weapons that will help them do this.
The gnomes like all the races have specific racial traits.
Escape Artist - active - Very useful talent, can escape the effects of any trap, immobilization or movement speed reduction effect, their is a 1 min cooldown on this effect.
Expansive Mind - passive - Increase Intelligence by 5%, useful for mana users as gives them a slightly bigger mana pool.
Arcane Resistance - passive - The race get +10 resistance to all Arcane spells and effect.
Technologist - passive - 15 skill bonus to Engineering, well they are brilliant engineer so this was an obvious.
If you choose to be a gnome, you can be one of the following classes:
A mage, a rogue, a warlock or a warrior.
You will start of in an area near to Dun Morogh, your home city is Ironforge which is shared with your Dwarfen cousins.
As always you can get a race specific mount, which because your race are engineers is a mechanostrider, one small thing to note you cannot get a mount of the other faction even if you wanted to so, you'll never see a troll or a orc riding around on one of these, unless it's stolen :P.

Unlike their gnomish cousins, the stoic dwarves who live beneath the snow-capped mountains of Khaz Modan have always been fast allies with the Humans. They revel in the prospects of battle and telling tall tales about it afterwards. In the past, the Dwarves rarely left their mountain fortresses, whenever the call to battle sounded they would rise up to defend their friends and allies with unmatched courage and valor. Recent discoveries that uncovered fragments of their ancient origin caused the Dwarves to undergo a remarkable transformation. The discoveries convinced the Dwarves that the mighty Titans created them from stone when the world was young. You feel that your destiny is now to search the world over for more signs and proof of your enchanted heritage and to rediscover the Titans' hidden legacies. To this end, you have sent out prospectors to all ends of the world in the hopes of discovering new insight into their shrouded past. These journeys led to excavation sites all over the known world, some of which serve as outposts and some of which serve as potential hunting grounds for your enemies.

Like the gnomes you have specific racial traits.
Stoneform - active - While active, grants immunity to an effect that would cause you to bleed, become poisoned or diseased. In addition, your overall armor increases by 10%, this effect lasts 8 sec and has a 3 min cooldown before it can be used again.
Gun Specialization - passive -you get +5 to Gun Skill - rather obvious for a fighting race.
Frost Resistance - passive - you get +10 Frost Resistance, like your cousins arcane resistance due to the machines they make your long nights spend next to the fires of Ironforge have given you inbuild resistance to the cold.
Treasure Finding - passive - this is like the mining trade skill in that you have to activate it for it to work, when you do any treasure chests nearby will show up on minimap, lasts until canceled - but can be used again right away as there is no cooldown.
Like your cousins you start in near Dun Morogh, your capital is Ironforge.
Your mount this time is a mountain ram, or simply a ram, a very hardy animal indeed.
You might see other races running around on special rams - that your brethren gave away as prizes at various times.
If you choose to be a decide to be a dwarf you can become one of the following,
A hunter, a paladin, a priest, a rogue or a warrior.

More Tomorrow - The Undead and Tauren races.

WoW - Races: Orcs and Trolls

Now that I've gotten your attention (maybe :P @ Jen).
The orcs are well thought of as the mindless green vandals of Azeroth. In a way they are, some of the in game jokes go thus "It's not easy being green" and "Orc smash.." you can see why. They are not native to Azeroth having been brought through the dark portal to wage war on the humans, they are a proud race and rebelled against their masters led my the might warchief Thrall. It is said they have no empathy for other races now this isn't true, hey if they attack us we'll stomp them into the ground and then lay siege to their town.. They fight not for the sake of conquest, but the right to survive on their new adopted homeworld. Alas orcs aren't the most skilled builders so orc encampments tend to look like a battle has just occurred which is kind of handy sometimes as it means if they are attack they don't really need to re-build that much..
The orcs have a few special traits specific to themselves,these are as follows:
Blood Fury - Increases your attack power by a small amount, but in doing so reduces and healing done by spell, bandage or potion on you by 50%, this effect lasts 15 seconds and the attack power increases as you gain levels. You have to activate this trait as it's not an automatic or passive ability, most people I know have it dragged onto a toolbar on the screen so for ease of access.
Hardiness - passive or automatic, this ability means you have a 25% change to resist a stun and knockout effects, be it from a warrior's charge or a creature hitting you.
Command - another passive ability, this one is useful really only for hunters - Your pet close range attack or melee damage is increased by 5%, which is a fair amount really.
Weapon specialization - axes, again a passive skill, you gain +5 points to your skill will axes. You can't wield every weapon in the game, for most of the classes available to the orc race this is useful specialization. Every time you use a weapon against a creature in the game you have a chance, this is dependant on a number of things, not limited to your level and the creature your trying to kills level, to gain 1 additional skill point for that weapon upto 5x your current level i.e. for every level you gain, you can get 5 more skill point on that weapon. I can see you thinking but WHY is important, the more skill you have with a weapon, the more chance you have of doing more damage to the creature your killing, it affects also the chance you have of scoring what is known as a critical hit where you can do upto twice your normal damage which with some weapons is a lot.

If you decide to choose the orc race, you can choose to be either of the following:
A hunter, a rogue, a Shaman - the truest an orc and be to their origins, a warlock or a warrior.

You will always start off in the area called Durotar, well actually you'll start in the valley of trails which is hidden away in the middle of Durotar . Your home city is orgrimmar where you'll find your mighty and proud warchief Thrall sitting on his throne. You have to walk everywhere to start with but there are rewards for getting to level 40, the ability to get and ride a mount, no not a horse, an orc on a horse looks silly, no you get a nice riding wolf available in a lovely choice of colours.

Now on to the other race, the trolls. They populate various places such as the islands of the south seas, they are renowned for their barbarous and superstitious nature, that and their pretty much total hatred of all other races.
Of course one tribe is different, they overcame this when they encountered Thrall and his orcish army, they had been exiled for their ancestral lands in stranglethorn vale, nearly destroyed by an nasty band of murlocs - vile creatures, the saying is the only good murloc is a dead one, Thrall saved them and in return they swore an oath of eternal allegiance to Thrall and his orcish horde army.
They are led by a cunning shadow hunter named Vol'jin. They made their home in southern durotar, in a village named after their fallen tribal elder Sen'jin.

The darkspear trolls have a few special traits specific to themselves,these are as follows:

Berserking - active - Increases your attack speed by 10% to 30% depending on your overall health, the more badly hurt when you activate Berserking the bigger the attack speed boost, this effect lasts 10 sec.
Regeneration - passive - A 10% health regeneration bonus, 10% active in combat, your health regenerates faster than other races, help you recover quicker from battles.
Beast Slaying - passive - A nice 5% damage bonus when you kill animals or beasts.
Throwing Weapon Specialization - passive - +5 to Throwing Weapon skill - what can I say gives you a boost to thrown weapons, helps rogues and maybe hunters.
Bow Specialization - passive - +5 to Bow Weapon Skills, a definite bonus if your a hunter, or anything apart from a priest who can't wield a bow at all.
You start in the same place as the orcs and share many of the start quests of the orcs too. Although you home city is Sen'jin village your made welcome in Orgrimmar.
You don't share everything with the orcs however you get to ride around on what looks like Barney the Dinosour, better known as a raptor, I want one but can't have one as I'm not a troll but you can get one if you have the required reputation more on that later..
Like the orcs before hand you get to choose to be one of the following classes:
A hunter, a mage, a priest, a rogue, a shaman or a warrior.

WoW - an Intro...............

Okay as many know it's "National Blog Posting Month" so here's my "unofficial" attempt at it. I say unofficial as I didn't register on the website but here goes anyway.

I'm going to give you a little intro today of a game I play online called "World of Warcraft" or WoW for short.
It's set in the mystical land of Azeroth, after a titanical battle between good and evil where all the races realised that they needed to bind together to defeat a common enemy once this was done however, the old hatreds started to show and the bonds of friendship broken. Thus came on the one side, the horde, orcs, trolls, tauren & the undead they who once were living but turned undead by the war. On the other side, the alliance were the humans, the night elves or Kaldorei, the dwarves and gnomes. Each race is imbued with special skills that are only available to that race, giving specialisation with specific weapons, herb gathering, mining to name a few.
In the current version the game was expanded to add new content and 2 new races - both lost the gifted Draenei or "exiled ones", live in peace near the Night Elves as they had to escape their homeworld before they were transformed into pure evil by one once sent to protect the universe from evil, the Blood Elves, they are a reclusive race who only wanted to be left alone, alas it wasn't to be so as the source from which they drew their magic and energies from was destroyed in a recent war that saw the return of the scourge who had been driving out and all thought destroyed alas it was not to be. It also changes the maximum obtainable level of your character from 60 to 70, what that all means will be revealed in another post, another thing it gives you access to is another world away from Azeroth, simply known as "Outland" more on this later.
I have left many things out as you will really want to get the game otherwise and I can't have that it's just too addictive sometimes.
The game does require an internet connection and a monthly subscription in order to play it, you will see why in but a moment.
When you buy the game you get the 1st month free after that you pay a fixed sum ever month or every 3/6 months depending on how you've set it up, what your paying for is the 24/7 support needed to keep all the various realms up and running, and the in game technical support that is available.
When you start off, you first choose where you want to play, on what realm and not all realms are equal. The realms are divided up into firstly primary language those being English, French, German and Spanish, although you don't need to choose one in your own native language. This gives you a list of realms to choose from and these again are divided into different types: Normal or PvE (Player versus Environment), RP or Role Playing, PvP or Player versus player and finally the craziest of them all PvPRP - that's right Player versus Player with Role playing!
Now you've gotten that out the way, me you can find me on the European realm of "Boulderfist" which is an english speaking PvP realm, where I have 2 characters, both Horde of course.
When you choosen your realm, now it's time to choose your race, you can only play the 2 new races (and get to level 70) if you have the "Burning Crusade" expansion. If I didn't have the games already I would serious invest in the "World of Warcraft War chest" which contains the primary game, the Burning Crusade Expansion and 2 very good guide books.
Each race has limits on to what "classes" of player are available. These classes are Hunter - the might bowman, Warrior - fearless in battle, Rogue - the deadly assassin,
Mage - ice cold or on fire you chose, Warlock - bringing death by shadow and fire, Priest - The might healer, Shaman - Fighting the Battle the shamanistic way, Druid - Shapeshifter , Paladin - part warrior,part priest. That's a very brief descriptive of the various classes, I'll tell you more about each of them in later posts.
Male or female, the choice is yours, then you can decide exactly how they look. On each realm you can have up to 8 characters, the only restriction being if your on a PvP / PvPRP realm you can only be either Horde or Alliance not both.
Now for a name, think of something good and original here then create them.
What now, sit back and enjoy the intro movie, it will show you places you can visit and gives you a little background on your chosen race.
Tomorrow - I be introducing you to each of the various races.

And so it Begins......

Begins what though?
Well I'm going to try and keep up with Moogie in her attempt to take part in NaBloPoMo that's National Blog Posting Month.
I've no idea what I'm going to post about in all reality but I'm sure by the middle of next week you'll have heard all I have to say although I may just surprise myself and you dear reader...

Ratatouille - Finally Saw it

I finally managed to get to see Ratatouille at the weekend. I came out on October 12th over here but I took me to last Saturday to actually get time to see it. I was meant to be going to see that and Stardust with my friend but she couldn't make it saying can't afford it got the road tax to buy and my car is due a service and I don't know how much that will cost....
So I went got one of the good seats again, sat down with my sweet popcorn n soda and watched it.
It was really good. I loved the old woman at the start of the film she was funny...
Remy, he maybe a rat but at least you can say he had impeccable manners and real good taste.
I loved the little head chef with the big maniacal egotistical chip on his shoulder the size of mount St. Helens.
I mean using your departed dead bosses image to sell all sorts of crap is going to come back and bite you in the ass.
It is a funny movie throughout.
If you've not seen it go see it just to see what happens to said little chef and the health inspector who calls at the wrong moment, as well as the food critic who doesn't really like anyone very much..

New Template

Well here we go new template - I know the colours maybe a little off just now but hey I'll get them fixed soon but for now I think they'll work
So what you think of the new look?

Shameless Borrowed

Read my VisualDNA™     Get your own VisualDNA™

Time to spring clean the template again

Well this template has gotten old, it was probably "old" when I first put it up..
Now just to think of some theme and make it work, oh that and a layout and no I'm not going to use the layout tool thingy blogger now has - to limiting / boring although I may borrow some of the "coding" see what I can put in...

What a week / Raid on Karazhan

I get back to work on Monday all is good and well I think...
We are losing more than half the space we have due to our customer and landlord (glorious!) needs to rent the space out to make money - surprise and instead of having loads of space we have 3 rooms and they ain't that big basically 1 quarter of the space we had so I've been getting bitched at by the bitch I mean the bosses wife :| to get shit done you know the kinda thing 6 things at once, and well need to smart up - well if some people had led by example many moons ago we wouldn't need this crap! To say I had a SHIT f*cking week would be an understatement, I am serious considering another job I've been there 5 yrs and my sanity is going totally and utterly.

Now on to the other part of the title - My guild in World of Warcraft on the Europeon Realm "Boulderfist" finally got around to doing one of the fairly new instances "Karazhan" as a guild rather than as some had before either joined another guild totally or went along with another guild in order to do the damage..
Okay the armor I have on isn't the total best i.e it's not all "Purple" otherwise known as "epic" armor it's mainly "blue" which is pretty good / rare armor. I did all the pre-quests you need to do in order to get the key that actually lets you in the place , yeah that's right you can't just walk in the place you need a key well I suppose you wouldn't want just any stupid idiot walking in :P..
Got in killed all the mobs around the entrance, after that we went on to kill 2 of the main dungeon or instance bosses - Attumen the Huntsman, we did this with 9 people I was running on mana fumes for most of it - I drank to mana potions to recharge my mana these have a 1-2 minute period of time between them as it triggers a cooldown of that length of time and you can't drink it again within the period, I also needed one of the druids we had to throw me an "innovate" to regenerate my mana as fast as possible, by the end of it I even threw my "pet" - a shadowfiend who gives me mana back for every damage attack he manages to do on the selected target - no-one died which was good.
We then thought okay we killed him easy, lets go do another boss, we realised we needed a different set up for this so a few changes of character were made and in we went cleared the room before him of the required number of mobs, then cleared the room he was in. At this point we all stopped, sat down and drank / ate to get mana / health back up and maybe get any specials ready.. We then went on to tackle Moroes, I had a mob to keep at bay as I have 1 unique talent as a priest if it's classed as "undead" i get to "shackle" it this is required as these guys tend to hurt a little bit, it kept breaking and trying to heal and keep shackling drains mana bad, hmm let me see the shackle broke, one of the guys doing mass damage got killed and erm well it all went "pete tong" after that.... not once but erm twice or was it 3-4 times can't remember all I remember is that my repair bill for my armor is around 10g which is thankful not a problem. We did eventually kill him at this point we stopped and called it a night as it's a really hard instance to do we are allowed to "save" our position thankfully!
1st time in the place, 10gold repairs, no loot for me as the rogue got the dagger he was after from moroes:), one of the paladins got the boots from moroes, 1 of the hunters got the crossbow from the huntsman as the hunter had the way better bow from a previous run with another guild..
Me I got nothing - well maybe next time, oh and not bad for my first true "raid" as there was 10 people in the party not the normal 5..
Time to go lie down and go ouch at the repair bill once more...

A none to subtle Hint at someone...

Hey anyone read this still? I know I said I'd given up and stuff and argh well you know me by know - must be the librian in me - must seek balance in all.. yeah RIGHT!

Anyway enough about that - this is aimed at one person and one person only, Moogie someone needs to go and remind her of Blog Fodder it's erm kinda went a bit fallow of late and it might be useful to some of us for a topic to appear ya know! So if someone please ask her real nice - I have hinted before but alas hmm nada.. :P so could some kind soul please go give her a prod please that would be so nice..

Sidenote: I go back to work tomorrow :( argh 2 week holiday gone already!

Happy Birthday to Me..

Well I had a good one :P *hic*

Pop Quiz...........

This has been shamelessly stolen from Heather

You Scored an A

You got 9/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Decided on this one instead of the "How feminine are you" I mean there are limits!

You Are 20% Extrovert, 80% Introvert

You are quite reserved You aren't afraid of social situations... But you very much prefer to go it alone And why not? You're your own best friend!

Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert?

You Are a Good Friend Because You're Honest

Like it or not, your friends are going to hear the truth from you. You know that the truth hurts, but living a life of lies is much worse. So while you're definitely kind and supportive, you don't pull any punches with your friends. Everyone knows where they stand with you. And what you like and dislike about them. While some may be initially turned off by your honesty, your friends have come to consider it a virtue. After all, in world of white lies and deceptive politeness, you can be counted on for honesty and integrity. Your friends need you most when: They need good advice or an intelligent opinion You really can't be friends with: Needy, emotional people Your friendship quote: "True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance."

What Makes You a Good Friend?

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

It's someone's birthday today

Well just a little reminder from her young scottish plaything to his Wahwer,
Happy Birthday. Go over wish her a happy birthday I can't possibly reveal anymore than that it's her birthday today.

Life - Update!

Well the past 2 weeks have gone where I don't know but gone some place and now I'm finally on holiday hurrah!
To update those of you who are interested.......
My dad had more tests and another x-ray taken the other day and is scheduled to have another scan done in a few weeks then he goes to see the specialist to see what he can sort out. He's been feeling crap up to this point but seems to have brightened up now he knows what's going to happen. No car which means muggins here is having to go shopping on a Saturday, oh the joys!
There have been days when I've just felt like beating my pretty (well some call it that) head against the proverbial brick wall as sometimes I think I'm in a no-win situation over something or other. Having to appear strong and silent and not show anything just well argh I don't know anymore! That was the whole reason for the last few posts - totally left field and ***beats head off wall again*** you know where I'm coming from don't ya...
Oh and I'm beyond help!

That is all...

Okay I've decided this blog is no longer relevant as well I think you know all you need to know about me, my life is non-existent etc so thus no point in having this here now is there....

That is all, move along now nothing to see.

Time for a change?

Okay, I don't know about you but I'm bored with the current colour schemes, the layout's fine maybe just needs a few things moved / changed or actually do I really need a blog at all or just a total 100% makeover of this one, I sometimes truly wonder...
Hint: Blog Fodder!!

How do you top off a shitty week? (Additional)

Well I was told they can't operate but now I'm led to believe they might be able, he just needs to boost his weight a little, hmm he's less than 7 stone (98lb) so hmm we'll see, the specialist he's to see is one of the best so I'm guessing we'll just have to wait and see.
The day after he went in to hospital for something totally different - fluid on the lungs, I went to see a film rather than take mother into see him, well I'm sorry it had been a LONG week, I just needed to go out to totally switch off which around here is kinda hard :|, just been told off about that by the last person I'd have expected but then again my sister is full of surprises.

How do you top off a shitty week?

Hmm well how do you top of a really crappy, shitty fucking week at work?
Well I'll tell you, when you get told something that causes you to kinda lose all sense of reality..

$cmd>Ping reality
Pinging reality with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for reality:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

I'm trying to think how to word this and I can't as I'm still trying to get to grips with it myself. I got home yesterday from work, dad was sitting in his car he must have seen me arrive and waited before getting out. He had been feeling great of late was even in hospital last weekend for a few tests to see what was wrong, they thought fluid on the lungs as he was having trouble breathing, no doubt down to his years of smoking but that was apprently the least of the problems. They did an scan on tuesday morning to see if all the fluid had gone and were concerned at something else so more tests were required he got the results of those yesterday, he has cancer no easy way of saying it so I've just said it. He said they can't operate on it so he's just going to live day to day, it's kinda shit but I'll get through it, I think maybe I don't know.
I think that's about it the rest of the day kinda went by a little hazy due to that and oh the quarter bottle of Southern Comfort I drank with coke and ice, well coke anyway ice required me to go downstairs not always easy...

....And I thought mp3 was a simple music format

I was of course wrong, it was a relatively simple format when all you had was fixed bitrates and a simple 128 byte v1 tag that was always at the end of the file, then came Variable bitrate formats and version 2 tags with expand on the version 1 tags and then more so, even that's had revisions ever wondered how when you tune into an internet radio station and it will sometimes show you how much of the song / show has been done well that's V2 tags at work right there. I'm saying all this because finally I've just about cracked a fully working ID3 Version 1 / Version 2 tag reader and also a mpeg frame decoder, a bit like animation frames but with audio, that works with a few common mp3 encoders and detects and works out the correct length of time for the audio without having to analyse all of the mp3 file like I thought I was going to have to :-S takes less time. Im going to see if once I've got it all completed I can't do a slight tweak to it and have it as a stand-alone mp3 database tool, it currently needs a webserver to run off as it's written in PHP using a MySQL Database all run on an Apache Webserver although it's possible to download all these and play around and get them working I prefer not to so I found the following solution Xampp it works, great for it you wanna dabble a little, wanna try a templete out on your wordpress but don't want to throw it up online - test it offline, you can pretty much run wordpress straight away although Moveable Type requires the addition of perl (just grab the install from the xampp page and your done). It's how I was able to play around so much with my templete when I was playing around and test it as much as possible but sometimes you just need to throw it online and see.
Oh and on a side note, I didn't get drunk on Saturday night even although I did plan on it, I got "merry" enough to have little voice on sunday due to the amount of singing I did, it was a good band they had doing a medley of current hits with a few from ages past..

Okay where was I?

Oh yeah, I am alive people honestly. Hmm I wonder how many times I've said that at the start of a post since I started all of this?
Well Stana, went home last Saturday so it's been kinda quiet around here so it has.
Last Saturday was a kinda busy day for me as well as I sent Stana home, got a gift for my colleague at work as he's getting married today (in about 2 hours at the time of writing this). I also had the entire afternoon planned out, me and my friend susan went to firstly to see Hairspray, this was her choice and I must admit it was a good choice, I was toe tapping along to most of the film and John Travolta as a woman as well as Queen Latifa it was well worth the ticket price, even if we did have to "slum it" in the standard seats as there were no "premier" seats in that cinema - pity. It was then off to the bowling alley to play 3 ended up as 5 games of bowling which basically ended up as close to a draw as you could make it, we then went to "Frank & Benny's", people please remind me - DO NOT have any Starter, the main course is a big enough portion of food, We both had the mushroom alfrado, I had the Spaghetti bolognaise with meatballs and I wish I hadn't ordered it with them as they were big, ended up half eaten but I was Stuffed. We then went to see Transformers kinda my choice and I had actually already seen it due to the fact the lil monkey I mean my nephew wanted to go see it and I took him the day before. I was basically out all day, spent loads of money and as it was the end of the month, my poor bank card was kinda of going into meltdown not a good thing but it was a very enjoyable day out and yes we do plan on doing that again ;).
Speaking of my nephew he's going on holiday for 2 weeks somewhere nice and warm, I think Tenerife not sure though, I got told but erm sorry what was I saying *grins*.
As for work do not even go there..
Why I hear you ask... All the work me, my boss, his son who's the one getting married and even my other colleague aka "the tool" well hmm we don't think he's really all there have spent time getting a new customer's site up and running all the camera / dvr both hardware and software issues resolved only for some people to ignore very specific instructions on what gets done :| as the money involved ain't something to be sniffed at.
Right Im going to go and play World of Warcraft now as I have this urge to KILL things!

Harry Potter

Hmm what can I say about the latest Harry Potter book apart from it's probably the best one. Well that and you seem to find Heroes and Heroines in the strangest of places. I'm not going to say anymore as I do not wish to spoil it for those of you who haven't finished reading it yet. WHY NOT it came out Last Saturday, any fan will have lost last weekend and maybe a portion of this week to reading it.

DND

Okay well I don't think you'll be hearing much from me, nor seeing much of me for erm the next few days :D since I'll be getting a hold of my copy of the Last Harry Potter book today and thus won't really be around much to read / comment on your blogs for at least the next 2-3 days..

Blog Fodder - "What fashion trend you followed was very cool then, but now looks ridiculous?"

This weeks topic from me is a little late, we can thank the lovely Karen over at Karen Writes for this topic..

What fashion trend you followed was very cool then, but now looks ridiculous?

I must confess I am not a dedicated, even remotely dedicated follower of fashion trends. I wore what I wanted to wear and if it was "cool" then it was "cool" if it wasn't so be it..
I don't think I've ever worn anything that I'd now consider "ridiculous", although saying that how would I know.. See nice short reply from me as always.

I just have One Thing to say......

Well 2 actually.....
I'm going to see Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix and
I am awaiting my copy of the latest Harry Potter Book...

Blog Fodder - "You get to “restart” your life at any age. When, and why?"

This week’s topic is a good one. It really makes you think about your life, and everything that has happened. You can thank Toy Reviews for this topic.

You get to "restart" your life at any age. When, and why?

I don't think I could "restart" my life at any point as I'd then do something different and take a different path and I wouldn't have "met" any of you guys.
I probably do a "hard restart" on my life and go back to being well 0. As to why well hmm seems like the logical place to start at the beginning once again, simplifies the whole deal does it not? It would possibly mean a few other things turn out differently as well - then again maybe not, maybe if I was to somehow do this I'd end up exactly where I am now who knows. Well I think that just about in a round about way answers this question :P.

Borrowed this from Heather's Site

I swung by Blog, Blah, Blah written by the wonderful heather and I saw Rate Your Blog and well here is mine:

Hmm G rating, which is exactly what I aim for maybe some posts do require a little Guidance and maybe should be avoided by kids.
I then tried the Spelling test and hmm I hate those darn things I swear I do..

I Scored a 60%!

Go figure it's not as easy as it looks you know.

A Day at Deep Sea World......

Me and the Starfish

Dear Stanley,
I know I've not really written for a while but well someone's been busy you know. Anyway we went to "Deep Sea World" and saw loads of different fish, they even had sharks (they looked scary), it's one of the longest underwater tunnels in the world, it's was like a huge doughnut ring as it went around in a circle, it was really cool though. I mean there wasn't just the tunnel which was in what was basically a someone's fish tank there was other more normal sized tanks which had fish from all over the world, I saw piranha's from the Amazon, Clown fish from the coral reefs, Yellow Tang and other fish from the deathly depth of Krakatoa , various cichlids from Lake Malawi, I even managed to get up close with starfish not really a fish at all,the dogfish - it's actually related to the shark, crabs and the other creatures around the local shores it was really cool. I managed to miss them feeding the sharks though, so many wanted to see it we didn't get close enough to get any decent photos. Speaking of photos we took loads of them and I don't think we got everything, I did ask if there was any shark teeth as they drop out the sharks every so often but there wasn't any as I thought that would have been pretty cool to send you back.
Love

Stana

A random one

I was checking a few blogs as I do, let me check what I got with my face / name on it.
Website - check
Blog - check
Facebook - nope
Faceparty - nope
Classmates /Friends Reunited - had for a short while - id got nuked.
MySpace - nope
Yahoo 360 - check (not really got anything there)
Bebo - nope
Google / yahoo groups - nope
Other Social networking places - nope
Neopets - I got one for something to do..
All in all I don't see the actual point of "Social Networking" I really don't I mean if you have 1 point of contact say this blog maybe a website with attached e-mail addresses should be enough yes / no ? Hmm or is it so you can have two separate groups of friends that might not talk to each other but you share interests with both groups just not at the same time...
Discuss

Blog Fodder - "What was the catalyst for the time when you REALLY went over the edge temper-wise?"

Okay Moogie I'll bite so to speak. Last weeks topic was interesting but hmm I just couldn't write about it, darn mental block someplace.
Now on to the topic this week brought to us by margalitc, owner of What was I Thinking?....

What was the catalyst for the time when you REALLY went over the edge temper-wise?

Now this is a rather interesting one as well let's just say you used to be able to have me got 0 to real nasty in the time it took to say "0 to real nasty" this was all because I was always being picked on at primary school for being smart at maths.
17x14 I can still do in my head it's 238 if your interested and no I didn't use windows calculator to do it or even check, that and I was small. Stood up for myself - no-one else would didn't get me into that much trouble. I grew out of it thankfully. Calmed down a lot, there isn't really a specific catalyst that sets me off so I can say what it was when I did go Over the edge temper-wise, just that I'm now a lot nicer but can still let rip when needed, generally I give fair warning that I'm going to go "BOOM!" enough that any sensible person should either a) clear out or b) stick around for the fireworks.. normally it's a) especially if it's them that's the problem. Fair warning being "I'm getting annoyed stop doing that.." etc, 3rd times the charm so to speak.
It's best to say you can tell when I'm going Postal and that's generally enough. Oh and you can pretty much insult me all ya like with in reason that sort of crap bounces right off but insult my friends or family (well most of the family) and you get the idea!

Blog Fodder - "Define your musical tastes in 10 songs." Additional

I know it's over a week since I posted the original post but don't mind me :P.
I haven't really included any classical pieces although I do listen to them sometimes although my favourites have to be Pachebel's Canon in D and Baber's Adagio for Strings just for the sheer emotion that is in them.
I mean just looking at my CD collection as it is:
Dizzie Rascal - Showtime, Damien Rice - O, Lost Prophets - Start something, Travis - 12 Memories, Various Artists - Born to be wild 1, Morcheeba - Parts of the process, The Streets - A grand don't come for free, Keane - Hopes and fears, Faithless - No roots, Outkast - Speakerboxx / The love below, Franz Ferdinand - Franz ferdinand, Scissor Sisters - Scissor sisters, Embrace - This new day, Katie Melua - Call off the search & Piece by Piece, Joss Stone - Mind, body & soul, Michelle McManus - The meaning of love, Norah Jones - Come away with me, Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten and that's only 1 like column of 'em.
Just thought I'd add that given a few of the comments made :P nice wide enough selection with a few weird ones included.
This is also to show I am still alive and with it *laughs*

Blog Fodder - "Define your musical tastes in 10 songs."

Okay it's back with a bang, okay maybe not a bang but hey it's my topics turn on Blog Fodder this week.

Define your musical tastes in 10 songs.

Okay this is actually quite a tricky one as I have well quite a varied taste in music, but I'll try and see if I can't summarise it.
Let's start with an anthem shall we..
1) Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody - Why it's a good song and a good start point I feel.
2) Meatloaf: Bat out of Hell - This song would never make it in "modern charts" where they insist a chart song is around 4 minutes - this 9 minutes of magic, guitar solos, drums it's all here and the video is well just go you tube it :D.
3) Alanis Morisette: Hand in my pocket - It could actually one of a few of her songs I don't know why it just works for me.
4) Mylo: Drop the Pressure - A little bit of Electro to liven things up.
5) Muse: Invincible - Great song, air guitar riff totally.
6) James Blunt: Your Beautiful - It's a good ballad and I just love it.
7) Prodigy: Smack my bitch up - Good solid meaty track with plenty of bass :D.
8) Snow Patrol: Chocolate or Chasing Cars - Both are so good I can't pick between them, I have a live version of Chocolate and am I glad a friend of mine pointed this wonderful band out - they are irish but they are a scottish band :) go figure.
9) Delta Goodrem: Not me, not I or The Analyst - Again both good track from 2 good albums as you can see I have trouble picking favourite songs.
10) K T Tunstall: Suddenly I see - It's a good track of a great album and well what can I see she's all from my part of the world.
I could have easily gone on, I mean there isn't a entry in there for Coldplay although I have the CD's right in front of me now, I do have many quirky albums in no particular order:
Kate Bush - Aerial, Antony and the Johnsons - I am a bird now, Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks, Jamie Cullum - Pointless nostalgic, Eminem - Curtain call, Pink - Missundastood, Ash - Interlactic Sonic 7"s, B*Witched - B*witched and to round off Richard Clayderman - Souvenirs amongst many others.
So you can see I listen to a wide range of music, different genres and so forth and don't go dissing anything until you've listen to it with an open mind.

Someone's DVD Collection

Dear Stanley,
Well I'm pretty impressed by this guys collection. It's got everything from "Lilo & Stitch" to The Matrix Trilogy, funny stuff to more funny stuff.
I've watched all the Harry Potter ones (erm a few times).... I watched Pirates of the Caribbean, he's not got the 2nd one, just have to erm twist his arm to get it for me :). I even watched the Original Italian Job - I didn't get it I like the new one better more understandable, I've even watch that one called "Nanny McPhee" pretty good, I loved the 5 rules part - I'd certainly start to behave better (not that I don't of course). A lot of it I wasn't meant to be able to watch due to the certificate that was with it but erm I snuck a look at most of them anyway (Authors side note: That would explain why a few were out of place). Well I'll sign off for now as it's late and this poor guy has to work early tomorrow.
Love

Stana

Can someone get a Doctor Please!

I need some air, anyone got any spare air? I'm feeling weirdly light headed - I was fine until I read here, now I feel weird and in need of some form of medical assistance...
*faints*

A little trip to the cinema

Captain Jack

Dear Stanley,
Well I managed to get to see Pirates of the Caribbean III - At Worlds End last night. It was really good, I had to hide behind someone a few times as it got a little bit scary in parts I was getting a little bored as it was a really long film but then they had a little break and was really good and well I was kept guessing as to the exact ending right to the end. So all in all it was a good film. Oh and sorry for the poor picture I had some really good ones to take as well but the camera decided to have a flat battery at that time, I wasn't happy to say the least but I'll forgive him as the few sweets I had were really good, different I don't think I've seen any of these at home but maybe I have..
Love

Stana