Rosey's Ramblings

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Last night, after creating some musical stylings about pedo trees, I drove down to mom's house so we could hit up some of the Northwest Arkansas crafts fairs today. Yesterday, I was only coming down because mom would enjoy it but that must have been a byproduct of staying awake over 24 hours on Fridays because this morning when I woke up I was really excited about going. We set the alarms for 6:30am, got up & around, packed a cooler full of drinks, grabbed Charlie and Jessica and headed out the door.

We always go to War Eagle first because its off the beaten path, down a long curvey road and there's a single lane bridge to get to the parking area. Because its one if the most popular locations of the whole weekend, if you don't get there early you're going to be sitting in your car, in line, for hours.

We got there before most if the traffic, looked at everything, spent some money (I bought 2 pkgs of chicken soup mix) and then headed into Rogers for lunch at Pandas.

Unfortunately, that's where our big day of crafting ended. Before we had left the house this morning, mom had decided to remove the cable ties that were on the little rolling cart we use for these kinds of adventures. And she decided to use a pocketknife that my dad had freshly sharpened. Yep, she stabbed herself with it. Not a cut, a puncture. It had bled all morning, all over everything, and had also been swelling and bruising. By the time we got to lunch she couldn't move it and it was throbbing and really hurting her.

We went to the ER because the urgent care center told her to. She got a tetanus shot and some antibiotics and they checked to make sure she didn't damage a nerve or tendon. She's more upset about the cost of going to the hospital than she is about anything else. To entertain ourselves for the hours we were at the hospital, we spent our time making fun of mom.

Guess we will try to go crafting next year.

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:48:00 +0000

A fire, in September.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:26:00 +0000

What a miserable, dreary day for the Henderson family reunion. We are all soaked, people are cold, the kids can't play. BUT... we are all together and there's good food to be eaten and new babies to be cuddled. Maybe it's not such a bad day after all.

Hey You Kids, Get Off My Lawn

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 01:52:00 +0000

Today, while driving through the parking lot of my apartment complex, I came up behind 3 kids who were walking down the center of the lot. As I pulled up behind them, 2 of them moved out of the way; the third one, a boy of about 12, turned around and held his arms up acting like he dared me to hit him. I smiled and waved and he moved slowly off to the side. I just wrote it off as him clowning around, being funny for his friends.

But then, as i drove by them, he ran up behind me and smacked the back of my car. I'm sure he was still showing off and probably thought he was being funny, but it just instantly went right through me. It was a tad dangerous, he could have gotten hurt. It was disrespectful for him to treat my car that way. It pissed me off. I immediately slammed on my brakes and opened my door to pretend I was getting out and they all screamed and took off running.Obviously I would not have done anything to him, just wanted to scare him a but. But now I'm sitting here feeling like a curmudgeonly old person. Stupid kids anyway.

Look Out Girls...

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:52:00 +0000

Looks like someone was having a bit of fun in the breakroom.

Or maybe this person just doesn't like single women.

Oh Hai There, I Haven't Seen You In A While

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:31:00 +0000

So I've been so busy blogging about World of Warcraft that I have once again neglected this place. But I'm back, at least for today. There are a few things I wanted to get down for future reference. Things such as the two 911 emergencies from last weekend. And some news about more positive subjects like my weight loss and that other thing I try not to talk about.

Where to begin... how about last weekend. It was horribly exciting. But mostly just horrible. Friday afternoon, Friday the 4th, I had a hair appointment at Melinda's shop in Cassville. When I was walking to the door of the shop I heard someone off in the distance faintly hollering. It kind of sounded like "help" but I wasn't sure. I paused, there was silence. I put my hand on the door, hear it again. I almost convinced myself it was someone calling for a dog but it nagged at me a bit that it was "help". So I paused again, heard it twice and walked around towards the side of the building. I noticed a pickup pulled over on the edge of the ditch several houses down the road with its headlights on. About that time, I saw a gray haired gentleman raise his head up near the tire of the truck and he spotted me. He started waving his arms and began yelling "help" louder. I knew Melinda was in her 2nd year of nursing school and since I was still on the porch of the shop, I ran inside to get her. She and I start running down the road towards him and she turns around to tell the others to call 911. To make the story shorter.. the poor old guy had hopped out of his truck into the ditch and somehow the clutch popped or something and the truck had rolled on to him and trapped him. Both of his legs were twisted over each other and the front drivers side wheel had rolled onto them up to his knees. The cops came, jacked up the truck a few inches, pulled him out. He lost both of his shoes under there somewhere. Then the ambulance got there after a few minutes and checked him out. He insisted he could stand and was fine so they helped him up. But then took him by ambulance to have xrays done.

The next day, Saturday the 5th, my Uncle Garry was getting married to Sheila. It was a nice quiet ceremony at his house. Everything went fine until after the vows when the happy couple was cutting the cake. The stairs to the basement are in the middle of the living room floor. There is a 3 foot wall around 3 sides of the stairwell, but where you walk down them is, of course, open. A friend of the bride, a tiny little 78 year old woman, was trying to get a better picture of the cake cutting and took a step backwards. She stepped back right into the open stairs. Several people gasped and I turned around in time to watch this little old woman fall down 30 stairs to a concrete basement floor. It was horrible. Luckily, Sheila is a registered nurse. And a friend of hers who came to the wedding is also a registered nurse. Apparently she was completely out for about a minute. She had a gash above her left eye, her nose was broken and bleeding from the nostrils and a gash on the bridge, there was a hole the size of a nickel completely missing from her top lip. She had landed on her wrist which was swelling and both knees were gashed open, one a good 4 or 5 inches. My uncle yelled for someone to call 911 but I looked around and everyone was just standing there frozen. So I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911. It took 20 minutes or so for the ambulance to get there (out in rural area). The woman was taken to the hospital. When she got there, she refused to be treated due to religious beliefs. She wouldn't even let them clean her up. I can't believe she just went home. I can't even imagine how she must have felt the next day. She needed a lot of stitches, she needed her nose set, she couldn't tell us what month it was or how old she was. Horrible.

Okay, enough about that. Let's talk about some positive stuff. My place of employment began a weight loss competition on March 1st. I just had my first weigh-in a few days ago and I lost 7 lbs in my first week. That's good considering I had already been eating healthier since the beginning of the year and had joined a fitness club in January also. I was very proud of myself. However the past couple of days... I've had a bit of a struggle. My hormones have caused me to remain constantly hungry the past 2 days. I just had pop-tarts. Shame on me. But I will get it together and work it off by exercising twice as hard this weekend.

Also, I haven't talked about this much at all, but I quit smoking on January 2nd and haven't had a single puff since then. It wasn't a New Years resolution. I didn't plan it in advance or really put any thought into it at all. It kind of just happened that the stars all aligned and I smoked the last cig in my pack late Sunday evening a few hours before work. I thought "well I'll just stop on my way to work and get some". Then as I was driving to work I thought "well, I don't actually smoke at work, so I'll stop on my way home in the morning". Then the next morning I thought "well I'm just going home to go straight to bed, so I'll just buy some when I wake up later". Then after I woke up I thought "well I don't have any plans to go into town right now so I'll just buy some on my way to work". And there the process repeated. By the 3rd day, I just stopped thinking about buying any at all. I still think about cigarettes, but it hasn't been hard as far as my body physically craving them. Mentally, however, I do want to smoke from time to time. But it's the same way I feel about travel for example. I mean I wish I were in New York right now because I've always wanted to see it. But I can't be, so oh well. That's how my mind thinks about the cigarettes. I sure do remember enjoying them and I wish I had one right now. But I can't, so oh well. Nothing more than that. It's been way easier than I imagined it would be. Especially since I am combining it with a diet. Or maybe it's easy because I'm so worried about the food, I'm not worried about the cigarettes. Either way, it worked and that's all that matters.

So that's how things are going with me. Exciting stuff, huh?

History of Google Doodles

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 06:33:00 +0000

Let's start out by answering the question I'm sure you've already asked outloud - what the heck is a Google Doodle? Well, that's simple. Have you ever noticed an artistic or creative Google logo when you go to google.com? Something different than just the word Google spelled out in colorful lessons? Those are Google Doodles and they are used to mark important historic or cultural events in the world. I've always gotten a kick out of the ones I happen to see, but I know I've missed a bunch because I use the Google search bar more often than I go to google.com. Luckily, I just accidentally discovered Google keeps an archive of all their doodles and I can g back and look through them whenever I want. You could too if you click this link.

News Flash: I Now Have A WoW Blog... But It's Not Here

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:09:00 +0000

This blog that you are reading right now? This blog (as a whole) is actually pretty sucky. It's just a little personal blog that has been around for several years and has been subjected to a unique combination of blandness, stupidity and neglect. Of course, I've recently discovered a new-found fondness for blogging about WoW and I've been throwing those posts up here. Amazingly this has caused a few people to actually find their way over here to read a few things. Since I feel like continuing to blog about WoW is something I want to commit to right now, I have decided to split those types of posts off onto their own dedicated WoW blog and let this one continue to dredge along as a personal blog.

That being said, allow me to direct you to http://worldofelfi.wordpress.com/ - aka Elfi's World. I have transferred the WoW posts and associated comments from this blog over to that one and after I few weeks I will be deleting them from here. So everyone please be sure and bookmark the new sight. I can't wait to see some traffic over there.

Uldum's Floating Cat Head Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 06:56:00 +0000

It's been almost a month since I first talked about discovering a floating cat head in Vir'naal Lake in Uldum. As soon as I spotted it I thought it was odd. I spent a good 5 minutes in-game swimming around it, trying to click it, trying to jump on it, etc. I couldn't discover any reason for it whatsoever. So I simply screen-shotted it, made a silly little blog post here and forgot about it.

But now... now the floating cat head is catching the attention of other people. Important people. People like Zinn over at Jinxed Thoughts who also thinks it's very odd and has set about investigating the whole thing. I hope she is able to track down an explanation so we can get this settled once and for all. I would hate to have unexplained floating cat heads infiltrating my dreams.

Yesterday Was A Wow Day For My WoW!

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:14:00 +0000

Seriously, yesterday rocked. Is it odd that I'm most excited about Stood In The Fire? That's the only one that is completely random and out of my control. The rest of them I had to work for. Lol. I was on cloud 9 yesterday. The only downside was that most of my favorite WoW friends are no longer in my guild and I didn't get to share my moments with them.

Thank God for Kind Tanks

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:55:00 +0000

As a resto druid healer who has spent my entire career spamming rejuvenation, life bloom and wild growth (with an occasional regrowth in tight spots), I have been hesitant to heal any dungeons in Cata. Well, maybe hesitant isn't exactly the right word. It's more like I've been scared shitless. Spells and buffs and talent trees have changed so drastically. My old rotation is total garbage. The spells Blizzard now wants me to use as my mains I've never even thrown before. On top of all this, I've decided to stop using Healbot and begin using VuhDo. I made that decision based on reading this post by Jasyla over at Cannot Be Tamed. Once I decided to use VuhDo, I of course had to learn how to set it up. And there's no better way to do that than to read Tamarind's post over on Righteous Orbs.

After getting my addons whipped into shape and rearranging my action bars, I needed to practice. But we all know how pugs go, right? A lot of individual agendas, no concern for anyone else's mana, rage quitting, ninja need rolls, and (most relevant to me) everything is the healers fault. Who needs that shit? I'm in a delicate emotional state right now, getting yelled at by random strangers does not sound appealing. Luckily I got the chance last night to group up with a few friends so I suited up and took my first trip into Grim Batol. Unfortunately, none of them were tanking and tanks can be the biggest issue in pugs, so I was still a little worried.

Turns out, we were lucky enough to get one of the rarest forms of tanks in the game these days - a nice guy. And overall, I didn't do too bad. I certainly learned what I needed to tweak with VuhDo and I learned how my mana was being used so I can control it better next time. Because of this success, I'd like to give a big shout-out to Thatlilshyt from server Undermine for being a great tank. He explained boss fights immediately and thoroughly, he never once yelled at me when I wiped us on a trash pull or wiped us 3 times on the first boss. He even took his time moving forward so I could drink without having to tell everyone I needed to drink. Amazing. Because of this tiny bit of patience, we all succeeded and I am now better at healing than I was. And it didn't hurt any of us. Except for the cost of repairs after wiping. :)

Deepholm? More Like Deepressing!

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:03:00 +0000

Tired of all the diplomacy and the touchy/feely/girlie emotion stuff? Me too. Let's talk about Deepholm. I hate it. Seriously hate it. Before I got there I heard so many people talk about how beautiful and awesome it was and I got so stoked to get in there and experience it. But it honestly bores me. I don't necessarily think it's ugly, but I also don't think it's beautiful. Everything is shades of blue and gray, yawn. There are chunks of sparkling rocks floating everywhere, yawn. And even though I'm not claustrophobic at all, the place feels like it's closing in on me. The whole place is depressing and makes me sad.

I even hate the Temple of the Earth (except for the handy port to SW, of course) because I seem to always have to fly around it 6 times before I find the entrance. Then when I do get in, I never can remember which set of stairs leads to the portal so I run around the circle in the middle 4 or 5 times cursing loudly. Does that sound like fun? It's not.

I do enjoy gathering cinderbloom and heartblossom, but there doesn't seem to be a huge abundance of it either. Basically I zone in, pick flowers for several minutes, do two or three quests, pick moar flowers and then get the hell out of there for the day.

Sigh. It's gonna take forever to finish the quests in here.

Wall Of Text Wherein I Prove I’m A Liar

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:43:00 +0000

*Disclaimer: the following post is not an attempt to solicit any explanations, apologies or etc. It's just me clearing my mind.

Have you ever stated with certainty that you feel a specific way about a subject and then later, after ~~drama unfolds~~ an unexpected change, you realize maybe you don't feel that way anymore? Well it just happened to me. My last post here, less than 1 week ago, was all about how WoW was just a game for me and how the recent issues in my guild weren't stressing me out. I even stated that as a game it should never be a source of stress for me on a personal level and if it does ever cause stress or I become upset about in-game relationships then it would be time to quit playing. Well guess what... I'm stressed out and upset about in-game relationships. And no, I'm not going to quit playing the game. So, I was wrong. It can be more than a game.

My guild has recently gone through some major shit and it has finally taken its toll on me. I'm not going to get into what happened with great detail. Everything I said in my last post about not choosing sides and not believing one story over another is still true. The initial situation I was referring to then (which was a chunk of people leaving) is not even what's bothering me. What is bothering me is that chunk of people left because of their personal issues with my GM. My GM stood her ground and accepted the fact that she was losing all of these people because they didn't agree with her about whatever. It was a shock and a bit of a loss to the guild, but nothing we couldn't recover from easily enough (numbers wise). Because of blog posts and bitter comments and the like, things did get a bit nasty over the past 2 weeks but I continued to stay out of the fire and remained friendly with both Side A (people who left) and Side B (GM and several others).

I was pretty sure things had finally gotten as bad as they were going to be and a sort of healing process could begin. I don't yet have any desire to be a guild officer, but I did tell my GM that I would be more than happy to take over guild bank organization as a way of helping out while we were short-handed. And this week my plans were to devote some time and gold into stocking the bank with a good number of flasks and potions everyone could use for raiding. Through all of this, I have been there for both sides. People from Side A have chatted with me about their feelings and I have listened patiently and gently without ever trying to defend Side B or telling Side B that I've even spoken to anyone on Side A. I've also talked with Side B and listened to whoever needed to vent about anything without ever trying to defend Side A or telling Side A I have heard things about them. But the bottom line was - I wanted to remain loyal to my guild (which consequently meant my GM).

I talked in my last post about how my guild was just a natural part of the game to me and I couldn't imagine playing without being in it. I didn't really clarify this, but that wasn't as much about having the guild name attached to my character as it was about associating the game with 3 specific people. It would be 4 people, but my brother (who introduced me to the game and the guild) no longer plays. So, 3 people. My irl buddy David, my GM and my GM's husband (who was originally the GM when I joined). These 3 were the main people who guided me, encouraged me, and helped teach me how to play. They may not even realize how important they were to me, but I've had them each on a pedestal this entire time. My GM's husband cheerfully loaned me 80 gold when I hit level 60 and couldn't afford an Epic Mount. He was the GM at the time and I couldn't even fathom how much money 80 gold was. It might as well have been a million dollars to me then. I stressed over paying him back as quickly as possible. I farmed herbs relentlessly. Little did I know 80 gold meant nothing to him. It was such a big deal to me. He was always such a happy, helpful GM and then just player. My friend David is one of the biggest WoW nerds I know, so he was very helpful and inspiring at every turn. He doesn't play as often currently as he used to, but man he used to. The guy keeps spreadsheets of gears and enchants and can rattle off all that mathematical shit about spirit regen and blah, blah, blah. He is such an asset to have around. I have picked his brain for lots of things. As for the current GM, she's just a pretty cool person. She is extremely knowledgeable about the game. She knows enough about each class that she can recommend who needs what loot, when I raid with her she knows every fight and can explain them well; she is well organized and not afraid to take charge. I always knew if I had her approval in what I was doing, I was doing alright. I follow her blog and her twitter account because I like the way she writes. We even love a lot of the same music/bands.

So here's the unexpected change that happened last night and prompted this post. My GM, her husband, a co-gm and several core raiders (along with who else, I just don't know yet) left the guild last night and created a new one on our server. It devastated me. I understood their reasons. But it devastated me. Let me try to explain the two emotions I went through. First, I felt hurt and left out that this was obviously something that took a bit of planning and I wasn't asked if I was interested in joining them. I know I'm welcome to join them. They expressed that last night and I believe it. But that's not the same as being included. When my GM was thinking of who she really wanted in her new guild, she didn't think of me. Now maybe that's because she started this new guild to be dedicated to progression raiding on Friday & Saturday nights and because she knows me, she knows I won't give up every Friday & Saturday night to raid. No sense asking someone if they would like a peanut if you know they're allergic to peanuts, right? But if you google the name of her new guild, you can find their forums and the first posts are from around Dec. 21, 2010. Which means they didn't just decide to do this in the past 3 days, there's been some thought and planning put into it. And I didn't know until yesterday. So, yes my feelings are hurt. It doesn't mean I'm mad at her or even that I don't understand why. It certainly doesn't mean I would have followed her (though I probably would have, hard to say now). It doesn't mean I am going to give her the cold shoulder. Why? Because we're friends. And I'm cool like that. I will get over the disappointment in no time. Life goes on.

The second emotion I have is anger. Not directed at my GM on a personal level, but directed at my GM in a business sense. Here's where the line gets fuzzy. Try to think of it as related to a work environment. If a good friend of yours is your supervisor at work, there will likely come a time when what they have to tell you at work will piss you off; but when you go out for drinks that night, you shouldn't be mad at your good friend. This is what I'm talking about. She had to do what she needed to do and I understand that. But from a guild point of view, it's hard to understand how she let all of the people who are now known as Side A leave the guild (resulting in shit being stirred and drama being had) because they had issue with her when she probably knew she wasn't going to be in the guild much longer anyway. Because now we have a Side C. The people left behind. And it seems like somehow that could have been avoided.

Thankfully, my friend David is still in my guild. Although without the GM and her husband, it hardly feels like my guild. I know it wasn't easy for her to hold a guild meeting last night and make the announcement. I have much respect for her because she did that in person and was willing to discuss it afterwards. I certainly don't think they are over in their new guild laughing at us or throwing crazy celebration parties. I do sincerely hope she feels relieved and I hope that means she can now look forward to logging in again and enjoy the game like I know she used to. I will continue on with my guild although I have no idea what lies ahead of us. I will continue talking to my friends, regardless of what guild they are now in. And yes, that includes my GM (because I know you're reading this). My devastation, my hurt, my anger... it's just a result of the shock of everything. I will be fine. I may be a bit quiet for a day or two because I need to process everything and try to figure out the next step for me, or my guild, or Kim (you know she idolizes me). But I'm still cool.

It's been an interesting ride recently. I've gone from being excited and anxious about helping my guild achieve great things, to remaining neutral and friendly during a guild split, to feeling like a homeless reject who isn't going to have a chance to do any raiding. Quite a rollercoaster. Luckily, I've got a level 20 worgen who has never been in any guild and I can always log in there to just enjoy playing for a while and take a break from all the sad stuff. And who knows, maybe that worgen (feral druid, btw) will one day soon get the chance to join an amazing guild.

It Will Always Be Just A Game

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:18:00 +0000

** Update: I wrote this post up fairly quickly this morning. I am bad about writing something, doing a quick proof-reading and then posting it. I do not take the time to revise things and make them sound better. There are a couple of instances below where I said I wasn't affected by the drama that has recently occurred in my guild. But those words aren't accurate. Of course it has had an effect on me. My friends are no longer friends with each other, things are tense and strained, people are gone and people are bitter. It affects me. What I should have said is the drama didn't involve me. I cannot determine who's story rings the most truth because I didn't witness any of it and none of the parties involved have ever acted or talked negatively to me. I just wanted to clear that up because saying it didn't affect me made me sound like I didn't care about anyone and that's simply not true. I care about all of them.**

This January marks the beginning of my 4th year in World Of Warcraft, a game my brother had been trying to talk me into playing for at least a year before I ever did. I held out because I had heard stories about how addicting it was and I have always been someone who enjoys going out socially with friends and family as much as possible. But he finally convinced me to try the 14 day free trial during the winter days of January 2007 when I was mostly stuck in the house. I immediately loved it (like I was afraid I would) and created a permanent account before the trial was even over. I joined the guild my brother was in immediately because he and one of my real life friends from work (hi David) were in it and they told me I had to be too. I had no idea really what a guild even was, but I had one. Over the past 3 years there have been 3 other people from my life outside the game who have also joined this guild, 2 of which are very dear friends of mine. And David had other friends who lived in the same local area as me and played, so I actually got a chance to meet several guildies at a few LAN parties and have gotten to know them outside of the game.

Over the years I have also developed great friendships with some fellow guild mates who don’t live locally. It’s probably hard for people who don’t have much of an internet life to understand how you can call someone a friend if you only know them online, but trust me, it’s easy to do. These are people that I chat with for hours a week, who’ve offered their help and support to me (even if it is in-game I’m referring to), who I’ve logged into Vent with and actually heard their voices and talked with them. I follow them on Facebook and through their blogs and Twitter accounts, etc. Some of these people talk to me more than certain members of my family do. Yes, they are friends.

Like any guild, there’s drama. I’ve seen a few people rage quit or get kicked over the years and we’ve had people who have had to quit because of personal life. While it’s always sad to see someone go, none of these had ever really had any effect on me at all. But recently, that has changed. Our guild is suffering a meltdown of sorts. Instead of just 1 or 2 people leaving for their individual reasons, we have handfuls of people leaving and all for connected reasons. Guild officers have left. People who have been a big part of my WoW life, people who I absolutely loved to log in and see, people who I do consider friends… are gone now. The past month or so has been one surprise after another with drama and gquits. Our guild forum is filled with goodbye messages and whispered chats are taking place in-game.

As much as I wanted to avoid hearing anything, if you are friends with people on both sides of the split, you’re gonna eventually hear what happened. I’ve heard/read several sides of it. Some people seem to be wondering WHY I’m not more upset about what has happened while others seem to be just waiting for WHEN I will be become upset about what happened. But here’s the thing everyone needs to understand… it’s just a game. I don’t want to belittle anyone by saying that and I don’t mean to be disrespectful to anyone who is seriously upset over what they’re feeling about all of this. But, none of what happened ever happened to me personally. I do not do drama. I don’t ever pick sides because I love everyone. It’s just my nature to be happy. Maybe you think I should be upset that my friends were treated like this. But guess what? I have friends on both sides of this thing so how do I determine who is right, who is wrong and who got treated badly? I don’t have to because I wasn’t involved in any of the original issues. I’ll never know who’s telling the story correctly. And it’s not worth my time to even try… because it’s just a game. I can still play the game and I can still talk to all of my friends (as long as they remain on the same server as me) while I’m logged in. I can even still run heroics with any of them that remain on the same server, they just simple have a different guild name now. I’m sorry everyone is upset with each other. I’m sorry for the stress my friends are feeling. I’m sorry we can’t all be one big happy family. But really, it doesn’t affect me or my game at all. And I hope me saying that doesn’t piss anyone off.

My guild just seems like part of the game to me. I can’t imagine playing without being in it. I never searched for a guild or joined one based on criteria I had in mind. It just simply came with the game because my brother put me in it. And I like it there. Yes, there have been troubles recently and there have been drastic changes and we may or may not have an uncertain future. But I log in just to have fun playing a game. It’s supposed to be an escape from real life. A way of forgetting your troubles. It should never be a source of stress or frustration (except of course for when you are wiping repeatedly on a boss). If I ever get to the point where I am seriously upset about in-game relationships or I dread logging in… then I’ll quit playing that day because it would no longer be a game. So yes, I’m staying in my guild not because I’ve picked sides, but because it’s my guild. I am ignoring the drama. I am concerned about all of my friends and I am sorry they are going through this, but it has no bearing on my game play.

In closing, I have no idea whether any of my WoW friends will ever read this but just in case they do I want to say: I value your friendship, I look forward to remaining in contact with you, I’m sorry your feelings were hurt the way they were. But I am not choosing sides; I do not believe one person over another. I refuse to. I have no way of gauging who is telling a truer version. I’m over it. I’m just playing a game. I love you all.

I Have Weirder Dreams Than You

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 11:45:00 +0000

It's true that every one of us has weird dreams. It's also true that a lot of people do not remember their dreams and that makes me sad. My dreams are so elaborately detailed and incredibly bizzare. They're a great source of entertainment for me. I usually remember them when I wake up but most of the time they fade away pretty quickly. After a few minutes they are usually gone completely. I have always wanted to keep a dream journal but I don't for several reasons. One, who wants to grab a pen and handwrite that shit? I'd much rather type it into the pc because that's faster. Besides, I just woke up! I don't want to do anything that requires too much manual dexterity and my computer is not in my bedroom so it's not an option.

The other reason (and this is the main one)I don't keep a dream journal is because the second I wake up I already needed to go to the bathroom 5 minutes ago. Every day of every month of every year of my life, I wake up and do the pee pee dance/walk to the bathroom. There's no time to stop and smell the graphite lead (that's pencil humor people, keep up). Now, I know what you're thinking... why don't I leave a notebook in the bathroom so I can write the dreams down while I'm in there. Um, NO! I am not a guy, I don't just sit there for endless minutes multitasking. The bathroom is gross, even if it is my own. You get in, do your business and get out. I'd much rather hang out on the couch. Shudder.

So no daily dream journal for me. However, on occasion the weirdness of my dreams sticks with me longer than just a few fleeting minutes and after I finish peeing, I will go sit at my laptop and type in what I remember. I thought I'd share with you one of the dream synopsisssississes I recently wrote. This is exactly how I typed it in my groggy state, I have not corrected any grammar or anything below. This is all about content not presentation. Enjoy!

I'm driving down a pretty curby, hilly road. I remember seeing the speedometer and I'm going 60 but the car behind me is right up on my bumper worse than I've ever seen. He's so close to me I can't even see the front of his car out my back window, just a closeup of his face and his hands on the wheel. I also keep hearing a car engine start every few minutes. I remember thinking "his car must be dying while he's driving and that's why he gets so close to me - when it's dead he has no power brakes. I can hear him restarting it." There's nowhere to pull over to let him around so I decide to try and speed up.

Flash to me sitting in some sort of cafeteria booth with a plate of food in front of me. I suddenly reach out and shove the plate of food towards the other side of the table and I shove it so hard that some of the fried chicken falls off the plate and rolls onto the floor. Oh crap. I stand up and lean over to assess the situation. That's when the guy sitting at the booth behind me says "oh man, I'm sorry bout that". I look and recognize it's they guy in the tailgating car. He has a big bowl of mashed potatoes in front of him. I turn to him and say "I was trying to hurry so I could get out of your way." He says "yeah, I wish I were in front of you because I'm afraid I'm going to hit you." I get ready to sit back down and he says "Wait! Since you're up I should just go around you right now." So he stands up, picks up his huge bowl of mashed potatoes and walks around me to the booth in front of me where he sits down again. I feel so relieved.

Uldum Is A Strange Place

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:42:00 +0000

I have captured a huge number of screenshots over the past week. Shots of cut scenes, npc's saying funny things, fun quests, my rag-muffin gear that I change a piece of after every 6 or 7 quests, etc. But I don't want to post too much about the quests or the zones before people have a chance to see it for themselves. I don't want to be a spoiler. So instead I thought I'd show you one of the weirdest things I've run across so far and I promise it won't spoil anything.

In Uldum, while flying over Vir'naal Lake, I spotted a floating cat head. I have no idea if it is supposed to be there or if it was some weird glitch, but it kinda creeped me out. It's bigger than my head and looks like a bobber from the bottom. Some sort of weird ancient Egyptian custom I guess.

Cataclysmic Laughter

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:32:00 +0000

I am loving this expansion so much. Blizzard stepped their game up yet again. It's been so much fun actually taking the time to read the quests and pay attention to the details. Several days ago, while questing in Mount Hyjal, I bounded through an ogre cave on a mission and stumbled upon some poor fellow being held prisoner. When I interacted with him he told a story about how he had been doing research when suddenly he found himself in his current predicament. You had the option of immediately accepting his request for help or you could ask him another question about how his research was going. Me, being my normal smart-ass self, chose to ask the question before agreeing to help. This was his answer. (So sorry I accidentally saved it in .gif format, it looks crappy. I was too busy laughing at what I was seeing to pay attention to what I was doing.)

This was pretty early on in my Cata experience and it made me realize I was gonna have a lot of screen-shotting to do if things were gonna continue to be this awesome. And trust me, things did continue this way and I did take a lot of screenshots. There will be more to come here shortly and they will actually be pretty jpegs and not crappy gifs.

* Scary how this is turning into a WoW blog, isn't it?

Cataclysm: A New WoW Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:48:00 +0000

Thanks to a combination of a new expansion, a shift in my social life, a change in my work hours, and the fact that it's too cold to be outside for the next several months, my WoW nerd-level is increasing. Rapidly. With the release of Cataclysm I have committed myself to stepping up my game. No more clicking the quest accept button instantly and then using quest helper add-ons to tell me what to do. No more asking about every possible upgrade in guild chat so someone else can tell me what I need. No more tabbing out to wowhead to figure out where zones or NPC's are. Okay, that last one wasn't really a big issue, but still. My point is, no more half-assed casual play.
I've been playing for nearly 3 years and it's about time I stop wandering around like a noob.

[interlude]
Please allow me to make a small interjection here. I am serious about what I have said above, but let me clarify that this does not mean I am becoming a hardcore raider. I do plan on gearing myself better and actually studying fights for a change so that I can be a raider who will benefit my guild. But I cannot at this point committ to raiding every Friday, Saturday, Monday & Wednesday (or whatever). I mean, for one thing, it will eventually be summer again and the drive-in will be open. Also, I like to leave my house at least several times a week. That is all.
[/interlude]

I plan on grinding rep for the proper rewards... and the fun ones. I plan on reading each quest and trying to learn the story, to immerse myself a little bit more in the lore of the game. Because really, who would play this for years and years and years if there wasn't actually a progressing and interesting story? The lore is a big reason this game has grown and I finally plan to pay it some respect. I plan on learning dungeons and raids. I will become more knowledgeable of my professions and know what I need and why (as opposed to stumbling around zones saying "ooh look, a sparkly flower"). I will understand the talent trees and actually place points there based on my understanding and not by looking up guildmates of similar class on the WoW armory to simply copy theirs. I will have the proper glyphs, enchants and gems. Oh man, just talking like this is getting me all pumped up. Woo hoo, I am so excited to be at this stage. (image via www.ackadia.com)

With the expansion being so new, I have no in-game proof of my new committment as of yet. I'm only about 75% of the way to level 81. I have only picked up a few nodes of cinderbloom and stormvine with my herbalism. I have done nothing with alchemy. I have fished up some Mountain Trout, but have done nothing with cooking. I will be doing archaeology, but have not yet looked up the trainer. I'm off to a bit of a slow start compared to others. However, keep in mind that I have only played any Cata content for about 2 1/2 hours. That is because I did not get it installed until Wednesday and even after it was installed, I spent my time Wednesday night still questing in Northrend. Icecrown, to be specific. Although I should have had it done months and months ago, I was determined to finish Northrend Loremaster. After I got Cata installed, I only had 14 IceCrown quests to complete to get the achievement. I made myself do it. Just part of my new dedication to the game. I had to go to work on Wednesday night with 4 quests left to do in Icecrown. When I got home Thursday morning, I sat down and completed them. This meant that I could now begin playing Cataclysm. After bed, of course. So Thursday night after bowling and before work, I went to Mt. Hyjal. I felt drawn to choose it over Vash'jir because of the Cenarion connection. A druid's gotta do what feels natural after all.

What you can see to measure the extent of my nerdiness is my life outside of the game. I'm not saying spending money makes me committed, but in the past month or so I have purchased several things to help myself become more immersed in the game. One of these things was the novel 'Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy'. It should help me learn the back story of who and why. It should also just be a fun read and I hope I enjoy it enough to want to read more of the Warcraft books. When it came time to purchase Cataclysm itself, I felt a strong desire to not only buy a physical copy (as opposed to the quick and easy digital download) but to buy the Collector's Edition. I will admit the mouse pad, art book, soundtrack cd, deck of trading cards, behind the scenes dvd, and the in-game pet were a nice bonus to this decision, but I just wanted the Collector's Edition simply because it was special. Not rare exactly, but limited to an extent. I also bought the BradyGames Signature Series Guide for Cataclysm. Again, as a way of having the resources in front of me to actually learn what the hell I was doing instead of just googling shit at the last minute or asking for help in guild chat. The guide is wonderful. It is NOT a step-by-step walkthrough of questing. It IS a wealth of information about the new zones, the changes that have been made to classes, professions, dungeons, etc. It lists factions available to grind rep with and what their rewards are at each level of rep you gain. It's amazing. It's so amazing, I bought one for my best WoW mate. (image via www.Merecal.com)

I have been taking the guide to work and reading through it on breaks. I have learned some interesting things that you may or may not already know. I'm going to share a brief list of changes that have been made that I hadn't heard about yet. Then, after the list, I will promptly end this giant wall of text (I do apologize for said giant wall of text) and bid you all a cheese fondue!

Some cool changes in Cata I hadn't yet heard about:
- you are immediately proficient with any weapon you are allowed to use... no more skilling them up by type
- there are no longer ranks applied to spells and abilities... as you gain levels these will automagically improve themselves for you
- the new secondary profession, archaeology, does not have you competing with other players for items (unlike herbing, fishing, mining, etc. where someone can get it before you do)... each thing you are required to seek is only tied to your specific character
- one of the guild perks is "cash flow" which generates an extra 5% of money from an enemy you kill and deposits it directly into your guild bank. This is so awesome to me.
- there has been a change to the minimap which allows you to see a skull icon at the location where you can find a specific, named enemy you have been told to kill for a quest. Also, when you target that enemy, a yellow exclamation will appear on his portrait.

Much love,
Elfindale

Open Letter To Blizzard

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:51:00 +0000

** UPDATE **
I now have the Collector's Edition in hand and already installed. I had a friend tell me our local Best Buy did indeed have copies of it in-store (even though their website assured me weeks ago that it would not be available for in-store pickup if I ordered it online... how confusing), so I went over there the minute they opened on Wednesday morning and brought one home. I am a very happy WoW nerd right about now. I also called Target and cancelled my order, so that's taken care of. Now if only I still weren't too busy with Christmas to stay logged in every waking hour.

Blizzard, I love you. I really, REALLY, love you. And I am so very excited that Cataclysm is here. Except that, I'm not because mine isn't. Here, that is. Hence the reason for this letter. Why isn't my Cataclysm Collector's Edition here yet? I mean, I know I ordered it from Target and that you are not responsible for shipping it from Target to me... but yet, you are responsible for them not having shipped it to me yet.

Today is December 7th. Launch day! My copy of the expansion was not allowed to be shipped before today, and I just don't understand. I mean, I do understand why it couldn't be shipped out when I ordered it, or even why it couldn't be shipped out 2 weeks ago. But why couldn't it have been allowed to leave the warehouse 2 days before launch day? Then I would have it tomorrow or the next day instead of having to wait until next week (in all probability). The fact that you didn't turn the expansion on until 12:00am PST just proves my point. You have the power to prevent people from playing it after it's installed until you are ready for them to play it. Why couldn't I have received it in the mail yesterday and had it installed and ready to go when the clock struck the magic number? Having it in hand wouldn't have gotten me in any quicker than anyone else.

I know what you're gonna say... I could have easily purchased the digital download and would have been playing instantly. Or, at the very least, I could have attended one of the several launch parties in my area and carried it home with me in just a few hours. And yes, you are most certainly correct. Except that I wanted the Collector's Edition and not the digital downloaded one. I wanted the box, the disk, the art book, the cd. I wanted it in my hands so that I could hug it and squeeze it and call it George. Maybe even snuggle up with it on my pillow at night. I checked all the area stores weeks ago and from what I saw, the Collector's Edition was not available for in-store pickup in my area. So, I ordered it online. And now I sit here waiting.

To make matters worse, I had prepared myself for the wait and convinced myself that I could finish up some quest lines in Northrend while everyone else was falling all over themselves in the new areas. Then, when I got there in 5 or 6 days, things would be cleared out a bit and I could enjoy myself. But this morning I received an email that tore apart all of my optimism and prompted me to write this letter. I got an email from Target... "Thank you for shopping at Target.com. We wanted to let you know that there is a delay with one or more items in the order you placed..." Cry. Sob. QQ. I don't think I'm gonna make it. Blizzard, you have made me emo.

In closing, I just want to say that when the next expansion comes out please consider allowing it to be shipped 2 days or so before launch date. I don't care too much about logging in at the exact moment it goes live, but it would be nice not to have to wait a week on it.

Also, please consider not launching an expansion so close to the holidays ever again. I ended up about 80 quests short of Loremaster before patch 4.0.3a hit and although I obviously should have been questing harder earlier in the game, I believe I would have made it if I hadn't spent the weekend before the patch out of town for 4 days celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. And now this month I have to wrap presents, attend parties, decorate, clean, bake, visit family out of town, go shopping for gifts, etc. It really sucks that it came so close to Christmas. But, I am simply speaking for myself and I know there are millions of others out there who are logged into Cataclysm right now with not a care in the world. And those people... they make me jealous.

Forever yours,
Elfindale of Azuremyst

Poetry Corner

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:56:00 +0000

Remember the disclaimer.

The Body

A twisted body, rotten and bloating
In an obscure pond, moss-covered and floating
There is no face, there is no soul
Where the heart once was there's only a hole
Drained of all blood, bones mostly shattered
Both eyes are missing, teeth ripped out and scattered
A grotesque sight, a hideous stench
The mere thought of the thing makes my gut wrench
I turn to go, careful to cover my tracks
Like I did yesterday - the third time I came back
Like I'll do tomorrow when I come once again
To stand and stare at my life's greatest sin

Craft Fair Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:57:00 +0000

On Friday, Oct. 15th, mom & I had a craft fair weekend. Every year North West Arkansas goes craft fair crazy. And so do me and my mother. War Eagle is our favorite, then we head to Bella Vista, Springdale, and Pinnacle Hills in no particular order. This post is gonna be picture heavy. Strap in. Here we go.

War Eagle is by far the most popular one and generally has the biggest crowds. Mom and I usually get up early and head there first because there's only one road in and one road out so if you don't get ahead of 90% of everyone else then you get to spend like an hour in your car waiting in line to get to park. There is even more congestion due to the fact that the craft fair is spread out on both sides of the river and the only way to cross it is a single car bridge. So they have to alternate car traffic from both directions and accommodate pedestrian traffic too. War Eagle Mills and Farm is a beautiful place, even without the craft fair. Check out more about it here.

When we arrived, we came in from the east and immediately crossed the bridge to park on the west side. Trust me, that is the best strategy. Even though we were early and were way ahead of the crowd, there were quite a few people ahead of us. Here's the parking lot at the moment of arrival:

Here's what we first saw after parking and walking towards the action:

This next photo is blurry, sorry about that, but it shows what it is like inside one of the huge craft tents. This is just one side of the tent, each tent has two sides just like this. And on the west side of the river there are 4 of these tents.

After going through everything on the west side, we get in line to cross the bridge and head over towards the mill:

There's already quite a crowd on this side:

Here's a pic of the mill and the east side of the bridge:

On this side, the crafters just have single tent booths setup. It's more open and thins the crowd out a bit:

It's a lot of walking and shopping, so Mom (orange shirt) offered to buy us each a fresh squeezed lemonade:

After we had seen all there was to see, we crossed the bridge again and headed for the car. A couple hours had passed and the crowd size had grown like 10x. Remember the line to cross the bridge a few photos ago? Here's the same line, going the same direction, now that we're leaving:

In fact, the line to the bridge is all the way back to the first tents we went into:

Now you see why we get there early. We managed to avoid having to wait like that. After we left War Eagle, we went to the Bella Vista craft fair which is so much smaller I can't even describe how much smaller it is. I didn't take any pictures there. It's just a few tents in a field in the middle of nowhere. While in Bella Vista, we stopped and had lunch at Dairy Queen.

Next stop was Springdale, AR for the Holiday Inn Convention Center craft fair. I had been waiting to get to this one since... well, since last year actually. Because the only real purchase I make during craft season comes from this location. And I don't even have to go in the front door. This is the craft fair where I find Carey Huckaby every year. He's a spray paint artist from Austin, Texas and he creates spray paint paintings and sells them right outside the main entrance. I could stand and watch him all day. This is the 3rd year I've seen him and it's the 3rd year I've purchased one of his paintings.

Here he is painting the one I bought this year. His work is so popular you have to jump in and buy the painting before it's done because otherwise someone else will have bought it before you get a chance to. Once I saw him put down the yellow & orange, I paid for this one. My other two did not have these colors so I knew it'd be one to add to my collection.

More pictures of Carey at work on different paintings can be found on my Flickr page.

And to see pictures of the past two paintings I have purchased from Carey, check this old blog post.

These Are Good Genes

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:36:00 +0000

Willow Smith, daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. She's 9 years old. Amazing. She looks so much like her daddy, lol.

Nostalgia, I Haz It

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:52:00 +0000

Not only are these some of my favorite toys, the ads themselves look so funny compared to today's commercials.

And just because it's one of the most widely remembered jingles ever...

Why I Hate My Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 03:49:00 +0000

Takara (tuh-car-uh) is technically Scott's cat because he decided he wanted a kitty and he brought her home. But because we are roommates and the kitty lives equally with both of us, I consider her to be mine too. And I hate her. Not really, but really. Mostly because she's so pretty and petite and playful and I just wanna hug her and pet her and squeeze her and call her George and she doesn't like me at all. It' so frustrating. Part of it is because since I'm the unofficial woman of the house and do all the cleaning, I am the one that has to yell at her when I find her walking across kitchen counters or up on the table. So she's actually a bit scared of me.

She's a pretty timid cat anyway, does not like company coming over at all, and any sudden movements will make her turn tail and run. She doesn't like to be held and will scramble to jump down instantly. She will lay on my lap occasionally, but as soon as Scott appears on the scene she runs to him immediately. When I walk by and find her curled up somewhere and looking cute, I bend down to pet her precious head and she bolts. If she is passing through the living room and I coincidentally start to get up out of my chair, she bolts. If I am coming out of my bedroom in the morning and she happens to be in the hallway, she bolts.

Her relationship with Scott, on the other hand, is awesome. She follows him around like a puppy dog. He can pick her up and hold her in one hand or squeeze her against his chest in a tight hug and she's content either way. No matter where she's at in the house, the minute she hears his voice she comes running for him. She has a game she plays with him where every time he sits down in his recliner and reaches for the handle on the side of the chair to recline, she attacks his hand. It's seriously a game of hers. You can totally tell she does it on purpose. Sometimes she will hide behind the couch and jump out to get him when he reclines. Sometimes she will come dashing out of the kitchen to catch him. But she always gets him. Then while he is reclined she loves to lay at his feet on the recliner. And when she feels playful instead of sleepy she spends the entire time dashing wildly around the room but always jumping across his lap on every round. I mean the cat loves him like nothing I've ever seen. And I don't get it. He yells at her sometimes, why isn't she scared of him like she is me? I feed her sometimes, why doesn't she love me like she does him? That's why I always joke about hating her... because I'm so frustrated that I don't get any affection from her. She's a brat.

Get this - when he goes to bed at night and shuts his bedroom door, Takara will sit outside his room and cry for him. Even though I'm looking at her down the hall from the living room and frantically patting my lap while calling her, she pays no attention to me and cries for him. In the mornings I get up and go to work a few hours before Scott and I will either find her already sitting in front of his door crying, or me walking around wakes her up and after I get out of the shower I find her sitting in front of his door crying. And we've had her for over a year. Ridiculous.

The picture above is just one more reason I hate her. Tonight she decided that being at Scott's feet wasn't good enough and she's spent all evening looking cute and curled up by his side. He's trying to use his laptop and keeps moving her because she's in the way, but she just comes right back. Meanwhile, I'm across the room in my chair relentlessly begging her to come sit on my lap. Stupid cat.

Crazy Things My Mom Says

noreply@blogger.com (Roseykrh) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:27:00 +0000

Mom is getting older and crazier by the day, so I've decided I should start jotting down some of the hilarious things that spew forth from her mouth and share them with you guys occasionally. We'll start with something she told me a few weeks ago that absolutely cracked me up.

Mom says: " The neighbors got a new horse the other day. It always stands near the fence but it's never facing the road. I'd bring it an apple, but I'd have to shove it up it's butt."

Your welcome interwebz.