alter ego

Duh.

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Well, you know. Just when it seems like you get a glimpse of spare time you could waste on your blog back, life just intervenes and offers you candy to keep you from doing so.

Like in my case, life offered us a new bigger better probably fantastic flat out of nowhere.

So forget about the previous post... ;)

Down the Memory Lane

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:01:00 +0000

I'm back!

Ha! That took you by surprise, right?

Well, I myself was never gone. Even though my online times with baby are drastically reduced compared to the years before, I still find quiet enough evenings to log in, enjoy the content and even raid (most of the time twice a weak).

But there still is no time for serious WoW blogging. Or is there?

After the announcement of Cataclysm at the Blizzcon, I got into heavy thinking. The old world? Destroyed? All those places full of memories? Omg! I'd love to do it one last time, create a horde character and revisit all the places, inhaling them, actively creating memories.

But wouldn't that be a poor imitation of lives lived before? A mere copy?

Don't I already have all those memories? Some very clear and present, some hidden deep in the back of my head? Shouldn't I rather try to refresh them, trigger them to reappear, become more vivid again by visiting old places?

I decided to go for the latter. I plan on giving a screen-shot each post and babble arount it with my memories, first impressions, funny incidents. To ornament it, so to say.

Why? I don't know. I just feel as if I could loose something with Cataclysm. Something very dear to me. And I need to preserve it in some way. This will be my attempt to do so.

Pausing.

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Here's why I am not blogging at the moment. And hardly playing that is. :)

Quick Link

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Yes, I know. I should post more frequent, more often, more everything. There are tons of things I could talk about.
So here's the very quick version: Loving Northrend.

I dinged 80 last Sunday on my hunter. Could have done it way faster, but felt it was too fast already.
Started reading out on factions. Have been already exalted with the Tuskarr for over a week or so as I started all three dailies at the second day of release.

Am into Sons of Hodir and the Oracles right now. Trying to figure out a routine that also includes the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Argent Crusade.
This is were the quick linking comes in. Just stumbled upon this great great amazing summary at "altoholic's are us": Northrend Daily Quest List. Have a look, it's worth it.

Also, anyone got experience with their babies not turning into the right birth position? Any tips to offer? Any experience to share? I know, I know, hardly the right place to ask, but that's something constantly on my mind right now. :)

Looking Back. And into the Future.

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Okay, since the delivery guy hasn't been here yet, I can't resist any longer: I won't spare you my personal nostalgic looking back on almost 4 years of WoW-feelings.

Best way to get to the past? Consider the future ahead of you!

This evening, when Wrath will be successfully installed (at least I hope so), I will take my hunter and hop to the Howling Fjord with her. She took over to be my personal favorite in my hierarchy of alts during the last few months and now will be proudly starting as the official main character in Wrath.
And I will place my warlock and my rogue in the starting areas as well. These three are the ones I am most eager to level with again - and these three are also my collectors in professions.

Ain't it nice to see all the planning stretched out before you? To exactly know what you will be doing and with whom? Yeah?

Well, looking back to the day BC hit us I can't help wondering what will happen during the next weeks with my characters.

When I first entered the Outlands, I was sporting the rogue as my main. I was deadly convinced she would be my first level 70 character. I loved her. She was my best equipped and most cared for...

If I remember correctly, I had 3 other level 70 chars before she reached that goal... What had happened? I don't know. I just remember leveling with her to be extremely painful and slow. And no one needed a rogue.

So, my first level 70 was Anurien, the priest. The character I feel is the least likely to be played in any time soon in WotL. Crazy, huh. How fast things can change.

While I leveled the priest to 70, I also got hooked up on the warlock who was still level 9 when BC went live. Well, she grew up fast and in her demonic ways easily sneaked up behind Anurien to take the lead from her.
Which Algabal kept for almost all the time in BC.

Until a sweet little hunter named Nashtuk was born early this year. My last alt (all other classes were waaaay bigger already). My baby. Leveling was mad fun and dead easy - but still, she got me in a way none of the others did before.
She got me into theorycrafting. For the first time ever, I looked at dps-sheets and shot-rotations and the like.
And I started reading the BigRedCrazyKittyGuy and LovelyMania and so many others who tought me so much. Seriously, I am extremely grateful to all WoW-bloggers out there, because I have never know so much about class.

Never ever. Especially not when I first enrolled in WoW in February 2005. As lovely troll warrior Eryys. Still famous to many, I guess. Definitely not for her skills in game. Probably more for her chatty mouth.
Oh those good ol' times when I ran around Kalimdor totally clueless about what I was actually doing. Seriously, you have no idea how clueless I was. Mysteriously, I made my way to 60 and started tanking stuff. And liked it. Oh my... Those were days of serious commitment and engagement to the guild and the people in it. I probably don't need to tell anybody that long in the game that those were the best days and the worst at same. All the drama! And the leaving of said guild. And the forming afresh of a new one with only the closest people ingame. Which turned out to be the best decision ever! Can't wait to have good times with you guys in Wrath too. /hug

Anyways. I never made it to raiding. Neither with the tank nor the priest who was my second level 60 character and first twink ever. I got more or less totally anti-PvE and found my "home" in PvPing...

... and got my way back into the more social aspects of WoW in the middle of BC. And found my way into the nicest raiding group in the first addon's dusk. I am so grateful to have met them and finally get a foot into raiding - small as it is, it is still raiding.

Why does this sound like swan songs, you may wonder?

Well, the release of Wrath is not only a fresh start with new wonders and adventures for me. It is also a sort of "last time" for me. I can't help having the feeling that I will never ever feel the same about games, people and life in general in the future. With my baby growing inside me, I am changing a lot. It's not a bad thing, not at all. Even though I would consider myself a grown up in every way anyways, it is a sort of different growing.
And with this, I am not so sure I will actually make it to my personal 4-year-WoW-anniversary. Not at all.

But hey! WHERE is this delivery guy? Seriously! I can't wait any longer. Want. To. Level. Now.

/kiss to you all out there! :)

The "I Suck at Headlines" Post

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:20:00 +0000

As I am sitting here, sipping my hot and oh-SOOOO-good coffee (there's nothing like a coffee after a night full of baby kicks into your bladder and hand cramps due to swelling through water - oh to lament!), I just checked my mails.

And what do my small reddish eyes see through constant blinking?

My goodness, excuse my use of words this morning, I don't know what's wrong with me, seriously. Well, perhaps it has something to do with being up since 5 am AGAIN. Did I mention the constant baby kicks into my bladder that make me run to the toilet like every 15 minutes?

Anyways, you're probably not here to read about baby stuff, so: What did I see? An email from amazon. Yup, the amazon I pre-ordered the one and only, the king, the Lich, Mr."I will freeze your ass" Arthas from. And it said: Your order has been shipped. YAY!

So. Now I am sitting here. Servers are down. The Lich is one day away. Or even more like half a day. And I just realized that it is very well possible I will receive our copies of Wrath t o d a y. In a few hours. Even right now, if Mr. or Mrs. Postman should decide to show up.
I did plan (some hours ago) to waltz my way to town this morning (when shops actually start to open which they apparently don't do at 5 am which actually quite sucks, because well...). But now. I am sitting here. And thinking: What if? Will it really be delivered today? Could I be starting to play TONIGHT? At midnight? Omfg!

OMFG! Why should I want to wait for a supposed delivery if I am dead tired already?

Now that my coffee is empty and I shared all of this totally serious concern with you, I start wondering: Will I be going too crazy over WoW? Again?
And I look at this post's headline and I realize that I totally missed the point I wanted to make. So I changed it. I always sucked at headlines. Even in elementary school when I won prizes for the writing itself and always starred with A's, the teacher commented: Your headline sucks!

So, originally, I planned to do the retro-thingy. You know, the post we all hammer out hours away from the next expansion in which we look back at all the good ol' times. Well. Early next year, I will be playing WoW for 4 years. That's quite some time. I guess that's too many memories to look back upon to squeeze in here.

I really think I ought to get a second coffee. And get sentimental. But... Baby will freak. So perhaps later.

Oh, did I tell you that baby is a BOY? We just found out two days ago (which is kinda late given that I am in the 30st week). It makes my eyes go shimmery every time I think of it. And no, this time it isn't due to the fatigue.

Have a nice day! :)

Things You Might have Missed Out On...

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:41:00 +0000

Since patch 3.0.2 last week, I stumbled upon three things I'd quickly like to share with you in case you too first failed to notice them:

1. If you are an alchemist, head to Thrallmar (resp. the Alliance place to go) and get your brand new Mixology spell! You can already train it at the teacher's. Don't miss it!

2. All bolts of cloth seem to stack up to 20 now! Free up some space in your inventories. :)

3. If you were getting grey hair over the Hallow's end achievement where you need to get the minipet and the hat - don't. You can also find them in the bags granted for trick or treat. With a bit of luck, that is. *sigh* I failed so far to get either one for Nash... But hey, I got the pet on my deathknight's name-keeping alt. *doublesigh*

4. G*N*E*R*D*S and the like now last for 14 days too (since today). So no need to worry about finishing the corresponding achievements. *g*

If anything else comes to my mind, I will share it with you. If you, in turn, have nice advice, feel free to share it. =)

Triumvirat

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:22:00 +0000

First of all: Sorry sorry sorry, long time no word from me. Nowadays, when I am in the nets I am usually busy with baby stuff, stuff for babies and oh well, babies. And stuff that goes along with it.

Nevertheless, I am into WoW and the past week since patch 3.0.2 has been like craaaazy. I have been playing a lot. A LOT lot. I think I haven't been playing that much like in a year.

I love the patch. I really do. Even though stuff got "easy" and people start whining about that (unbelievable), I am sure everyone will be happy again when we all land in Northrend and realize that things won't be as easy and new skills are actually needed and coming in quite handy.

What I have been doing since the patch hit us? I specced some of my chars (four to go, two of which I am totally clueless about where to go - namely the priest and the warrior) and re-did some UIs. But there's still plenty to do with that.
I leveled up inscription on Nolah and made an unbelievable fortune out of glyphs: I count approximately 2500g plus since last week. That is... well... nice. But crazy, still.
I also got - as was to be expected - totally crazy over the achievements. One thing leads to another and there's no end in view.

And of course there's Hallows End which must be my very favorite seasonal event. So I am busy busy busy. And most of the time on my hunter.

Aaaand: Nashtuk got herself two new pets. And leveled them to 70. Which goes insanely fast. Really, piece of cake.

Tadaaa! Let me introduce you to Nash's triumvirat (though I like to think that two out of these three are female, so triumfeminat would be more appropriate ;)):

I got myself a moth - a pet I have been adoring forever and now finally could get. And it even is useful! I named her Shiimsa and she's my raiding/instancing pet. Yep, I finally got the chance to raid with Nash. I did Kara with her yesterday evening for the first time. Oh the fun!
I should have insisted on bringing her from the beginning on, but the warlock was what they wished for and, well, believe it or not I can be shy from time to time.

In the middle, you can see my lovely gorilla Suresh. Whom I already tanked the headless horseman with. Countless times. And it is working! Seriously, no problem at all. I am actually planing on working my way through BC's instances small to big and see how far we can get (my husband and brother-in-law would be accompanying me with their alts).

And to the right, the ever so sweet Shanti, who will stay my pet for all sorts of encounters, pvp, world, leveling whatsoever.

Seriously, I am even more crazy about the hunter than I was before. And now I have to log back in. Got some achievements to reach... See ya! *cheers*

[BETA] First Gold Calculations Concerning Professions

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:35:00 +0000

Okay. Second day in the European Beta for me so far. First impressions are rare, because well:

1. Log in screen Wooooah I love that dragon. Love the variation of the musical theme. Love the color. Bluey. Icy.
2. Loading screen Love the different new backgrounds I have seen so far (Orgimmar, Shattrath, Undercity...).
3. Loading loading loading
4. laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag
5. picture per picture movement Oh. This. Looks. Nice. I. think. If. only. I. could. see. it. more. live. like.
6. laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag
7. lag lag lag lag
8. w00t! how did I get here? where did all these mobs come from?
9. lag
10. even more lag
11. disconnected
12. realm not available

The European realm (yes, there is only one!) is unplayable during the day. Totally. Absolutely. I tried to do my interface this midday. I did it three times and got rollbacks every two to five minutes due to disconnects. I got so frustrated. Don't ask.

Luckily, I seem to enter the period in my pregnancy were I can't sleep in the middle of the night. I am still terribly tired every evening and falling asleep at around 22.00, but I start to constantly wake up around 3.00 am. Last night was the first time I gave in after an hour of lying around bored wide awake and got up instead.

Well, what do you do in the middle of the night? I cleaned up the kitchen and than logged in the Beta and had a first look on the professions. Or more: On the costs of the masterskills of the professions and the first recipes.

I transfered/copied Nashtuk and Algabal so far, so I can only give accurate numbers for their professions, but I guess the rest should be around the same.

I tell you: Get money! Save money! You'll need gold!
Especially if you are like me and have almost all professions maxed out (I will get those last 5 points in blacksmithing, I promise) at least once on your 6 level 70 characters. And are, of course, planning to get going on as many as possible at once. *g*

Here are my first calculations:

First Aid: 50g plus 8g each character (will get this one only for Nash and Algabal at the beginning) --> 58g --> 116g
Furthermore: I am shocked to find out that the Heavy Netherweave Bandage is GREY! from the beginning on. Can anyone please tell me that this will not be the case in real?

Cooking: 35g plus all instantly available recipes 30g --> 65g

Fishing: 35g

Herbalism: 35g

Tailoring: 35g plus all the instantly available recipes 40g --> 75g

Skinning: 35g

Leatherworking: 35g plus recipes 170g --> 205g This is unbelievable! Perhaps I did double something accidentally tonight?

These are the professions Nash and Algabal cover up. I also plan to get masterskills and learn available recipes for:

Anurien: Jewelcrafting 35g plus ???
Adalante: Mining 35g
Engineering 35g plus ???
Malven: Alchemy 35g plus ???
Nolah: Blacksmithing 35g plus ???

This makes a total of around 700g. As I don't know (yet) how high other profession's recipe costs will be and as I also intend to get an Inscriptionist right away, I am (mentally) putting aside 1000g for professions. Just for the very start. Basically for the very first day in Wrath.
This is crazy! I am loving it! :)

I really really hope to have another uninterrupted glimpse on the Beta server tomorrow morning. It can't be as bad during the week in the morning, right?

You have been Selected...

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:54:00 +0000

I was just eating breakfast, going through my mail and there it was! My beta key! Omigooood. I didn't expect to get one now.

So what am going to do now? Will I participate?

When I registered my account for the Beta several weeks ago, I would have jumped off a cliff for a key (well, perhaps not but you know what I mean). But I am so busy right now in the game... And I feel like getting too spoiled already through all the beta-testing blogs I am reading.

But I would LOVE to test the Death Knight - especially because I am sure it will be a while before I will start one in the expansion. And as I can't set up my mind whether to make her Undead or BElf this could be the tryout.
Also, if WotL comes in November as expected I will have about two months left for playing before the other big and even way more welcomed expansion enters my life: my baby.

Of course I am thinking a lot about my playing habit in this context and if I am totally honest with myself, I guess I will stop playing WoW eventually (well, of course you never know and I have never had a baby before, so what can I say) the sooner or later next year...

So, I guess I should start downloading, shouldn't I?

Things that Happend Or...

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:37:00 +0000

... should I rather say: Things I achieved during the past few weeks?

Okay, I took a million screens to make this posting so much more beautiful, but I am so goddamn lazy when it comes to polish up pics to make them actually showable. Will you forgive me for hitting you with plain words (again)? You do? Well, that's totally awesome of you. Perhaps I will insert them later and hand them out as a posting of their own - pictures speak for themselves don't they? That's probably why I prefer just typing words, I like to speak for myself. ;)

Okaaaay, enough with the kidding around. Here's what I did during the past few weeks:

1. I got Malven, my moonkin to 70. Finally. I had her sitting at 67 for a long long time. And I didn't have the nerve to twink. Again. Note she's my sixth level 70 character.

Why did I do it: Simply. I am preparing for WotL. I may actually be one of the few persons who love the time before the next expansion. I feel like there's a million things to do. If you hunger for examples, well, all I achieved during the past few weeks are preparations for WotL.

So, how is getting a druid to 70 a preparatory thing? Didn't I tell you I would level my hunter first, warlock second, rogue third? And than have a look at the DK?

It is because: I am self-reliant when it comes to professions. I love to be able to craft and farm all I need all by myself.
My current alchemist is Eryys, my warrior who is stuck at 60. Before I took Malven and got her to 70, I felt the vibe to finally give my very first character some love again. So I cleaned Eryys up (good thing! man, had she useless stuff in her inventory!) and got her to Outland. ... ... ... And back to Orgimmar again. HOW do you level a warrior with mediocre to bad equip? HOW? It was IMPOSSIBLE! Absolutely impossible. Every second mob she died. I hated it. I shortly considered to give her one or two more levels in the old world to buffer her up, but no, come on Blizz, you can't be serious about the warrior, right?

That's why I took Malven, got her to 70 without any real pain, dropped skinning (Nash can skin, that's more than enough), collected some herbs with Algabal and am proud to say that she is now at 352 alchemy.
I will have her up to 375 without a doubt the day Wrath comes.

I also consider dropping Leatherworking on her to level up the new inscription profession. I am stocking up herbs at the moment, what leads me directly to 2.

2. I am gathering herbs every time I feel like it. I actually started an excel sheet that I filled with few information but colored brightly and loved to show you, if I wasn't such a lazy chick where pics are concerned...
My goal is to have 80 of each in store the day you know what comes.

3. I have been fishing for crawdads, because I want to have at least 60 to give cooking a nice head start. If 60 should be way too much, I can still sell them. Or feed them to one of my five pets I will have without a doubt. I will have a moth! And a turtle! And a gorilla, a cat, two owls... What? That's more than five? Tsh, go learn to count!

4. I am occasionally doing the Netherwing dailies with Nash. Not that I want to ride a dragon with her. But the plus in money every now and then is great. And you know, I am into factions and one more colored in purple will look so nice in my list.
I also get a lot of leather out of the mines (I am only doing the mine quests, all the rest is SO so), which comes in handy as I plan to give my leatherworking skill a push with the drums of panic the day, well you know...
And from the ravagers' meat comes a nice moneyplus too: I simply cook it and sell Ravager Dogs for 20g a stack. Nice side-effect. :)

5. Nashtuk has gotten her Bloodsail's Admiral Hat. I am loving it! It definitely was worth loosing the Steamwheedle factions. I am still working on restoring them and am proud to announce that only BootyBay is still kind of very angry with me.
Gosh, these goblins are really resentful. I am again on good terms with Ratchet, Gadgetzan and Everlook though.

6. Nashtuk rides on a brown wolf nowadays. It is one of Orgrimmar's riding pets and I have to say: It suits her perfectly. It meets both, her being a BElf and a hunter. I love it! I used to ride a tallstrider and a talbuk with her before but have been longing for the wolf for quite a while. I was right! It is THE horsie for her.
Note that I didn't hand in a single piece of runecloth though. All of this faction gain came from my faction-quest-project. Which leads me to...

7. My progress in the Quest-Project: I finished up all of the starting areas. I already reached exalted with Silvermoon, Undercity and Orgrimmar. Just by doing these few quests! Think about it, it is really amazing.
I am still working on the 10-20 areas. The Barrens is taking me forever! I start to wonder how one can really finish them while actually leveling. Well, as I did it many times before, it must be possible but you definitely have to skip some of the nastier run here run there quests.
I haven't set foot yet into the Silverpine Forests, but am certain to do so soon enough, as there can't be that much left in the Barrens! Seriously, I should be through with it any moment now.

Yeah, these things are what keeps me busy. And of course I am still raiding twice a week with my warlock and farming to supply for her needs to do so. Well, I actually was raiding twice a week. :(
I resigned yesterday at least from Zul Aman. As it seems, my being pregnant can't tolerate the high tension and pressure I get when doing the time events in there. Don't get me wrong: I loved it when I was "normal". But I had to admit to myself that after the last runs, I felt devastated, totally exhausted and just really really bad. There's no way that raiding is more important than mine or my babie's health. So I am out of ZA.
We were progressing so well! And I loved it so much! /cry

I will have to see how often we will go to Kara and how I feel there.

The Big Read? Well, I don't know

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Strolling through my RSS-Reader this morning, I stumbled upon some quite similar postings. At least Just one Anna, Kestrel, Awlbiste and Andrew
supplied with me with their version of the NEA's Top 100 Books List.

I just quote the basic assumption behind this (supposedly) "good" reading list:

The Big Read is an NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

And here's what we are supposed to do:

*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE

Okay, as I have been living for reading great parts of my life ;), I of course love lists like this one. On the other hand, as this comes from an English speaking community and therefore more or less only contains English speaking authors of what success soever, I expect to find quite some books I never read or even heard about... Let's see.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (well, more or less complete)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (I am lingering around this one for quite a while now. I do have it. But it is such an obligation!)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (abriged)

This is a totally weird list! How did they come up with such a mixture of heavy and entertaining reading? And how can this be given out as a guide-line for reading? Unbelievable...

Well, I got 44 out of these 100. Don't feel depressed, remember that I majored in German literature and also studied American lit. ;)

Update on Quest-Project: The Quest Giver Thingy

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:53:00 +0000

In my last post I wondered about making all those grey exclamtion marks visible as I am hunting down these old quests with my hunter.

Today, I read in WoWInsider that Blizz will probably implement exactly this issue to the game comes Wrath. Unbelievable!
Will I wait until Wrath and than go on? No way! The project is way too much fun. I am done with all starting areas (i.e. the level 0-10 areas) besides Mulgore. I will tell you about my first experiences when I am done with this last one.

Meanwhile, go check the Insider post: KLICK.

Quest-Project: Finishing up all Quests. All.

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:25:00 +0000

Okay, as it seems there is no limit to my new ingame crazyness. Here's what I am doing right now and what I will be doing for the following weeks until Wrath comes out (or at least until I really loose it and quit the game for medical treatment ;)).

I'm into factions. And into mini-pets. And into tabards. And into getting all recipes for my professions (including secondary ones). Prime character for these projects is my hunter Nashtuk.
And I am married to a man who has l o v e d collecting stuff and doing weird things in WoW no one else gets pleasure from ever since he started playing.
Lately, I more and more find that his passions are mine too - speaking of ingame passions that is. Oh, if I could this man into serious reading! *sigh* But that is a different lament for another time I guess.
Weird enough, since I am pregnant I experience myself to be more and more patient, which really wasn't one of my strongest virtues before. Good thing mother nature is doing here, but anyways, it seems to affect my gameplay a big deal.

So what I came up with is that I want to get exalted with as many factions as possible before Wrath, preferably those first who will reward me with a tabard if I do serve them enough. At the same time, I wanted to travel around the world to get missing recipes (including farming supposed drop-spots for hours). Plus, I wanted to see if I can do all old-world instances in soloing (shouldn't be too hard for most, but remember that my hunter hardly ever set her lovely feet into heroics and never into Kara or more (that's my warlocks part in the game)).

So I started my hunter's world tour with Scholomance, because my plan is to get Argent Dawn to exalted next. I finished all available quests in both Plaguelands and after doing Scholo twice, I went for Stratholme.
I am proud to say that I did each and every single quest in these two areas and instances. And it was fun!
It isn't too surprising that there are many quests left that I never did with Nash - she is still a very young character and was only created after I already had reached level 70 with 4 other alts.
What is surprising is, that I did one chain of quests, leading her from Caer Darrow to Stormgarde in Arathi Highlands, to Light's Hope Chapel, to Stratholme Undead and to Scholomance which I never did before! I didn't even know it existed!
Plus, I got to know a good deal of the game's lore which you normally tend to read over when you are in a frenzy to level. With the quest chain, it was Ras Frostwhisper's story (whom I thought to be female all the time when, apparently, he is quite male!).

I really enjoyed doing the Plaguelands but what disturbed me was: How could I be sure to really having done everything? Wasn't there a quest in Winterspring leading to the Argent Dawn? How could I avoid jumping back and forth in the world (which is way too time consuming anyways)?

This is how I came up with my current project: I will try to do all the quests available in the old world. All of them. Really all. And to not miss any of them at all, I will start in the starting areas and work my way up to higher regions - while trying to be as logical and thorough as possible.
The resources I will be using are mainly wowwiki.com as you can find detailed quest listings for almost all regions there and the official Atlas Online for better orientation (and because I cannot get enough of its background music *g*). Anything else I cannot find, I will simply google, wowhead, thottbot, whatever until I find it. =)

I'll start with all regions marked 1-10. And of course, I will only do it for Horde. For the Horde! *g*
I expect to get a lot of factions to exalted without even noticing, especially factions like Undercity, Orgimmar, TB and Silvermoon.
And I hope to learn a lot more about the World of Warcraft, its lore, its secrets and its innuendoes. At least, it is the game I have been playing for more than three years. And it is still full of surprises around every corner as it seems.

Expect me to blog about Deathknell, Eversong Woods, Durotar and Mulgore soon!

I forgot: If you do know of any AddOns that would make my quest easier, please let me know! I am dreaming of something that makes the low-level questgiver's exclamation mark visible above their heads and on the minimap as we are now (already!) so used to ...

Messing Around with Reputations

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Okay, I guess my first toon to seriously hit the new shores of Northrend will be Nashtuk, my hunter. While I was still lingering between the hunter and the warlock a few days ago, my feelings became much clearer after the last days.

First of all, I have been collecting tabards for a while now (after I got inspired by Siha of Banana Shoulders) with my hunter. There is no specific reason I chose her for the job - and it is quite a job as you have to farm up your reputation with lots and lots of factions - besides the one that I l o v e the solo play with her the very most. Grinding is no real pain with her, costs are low to do so and, man, I have my owl with me and several minipets to keep me company at all times. Plus, I love the shooting.

Second, even though she wasn't the wisest choice as Nashtuk is also my newest character and therefore hasn't that many factions on high reputation through running instances (like Algabal or even Anurien do), I instinctly picked her when I first read about the new Achievements system to come with Wrath. Boy, I can't wait to get as many obscure, bizarre, nonsensical (is this a word?) titels and extra pets as possible!
I really want to belief the Achievements are made for people like me (or even more: my husband).

Anyways, we have been farming up factions like crazy for the past weeks (I am currently working on the Netherwing and Consortium rep) and I have so much fun doing this with Nash, there is no more question around it: I will level her first comes Wrath. =)

Where do I go?

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:26:00 +0000

After I finished my change from shadow to holy with my priest (again), I was quite satisfied for a while.
But then I started wondering about further changes to come, namingly those I have to face in WotLK. I still haven't made up my mind about whom to level first. Three of my five 70ies are out of question. I have no desire to explore strange new lands with them, to seek out... uhm. Okay.

I just can't make up my mind: Warlock or hunter? Hunter or warlock? Demon or owl? Dotting or shooting?

Anurien: Staying Shadow or Getting Holy (again)?

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:27:00 +0000

This may seem more than a bit surprising for those of you who follow my blog and/or know me. I know I have been promising myself to never ever go back to holy with my priest Anurien: It used to destroy the fun in the character for me completely.

But lately, I have found myself strolling around Matticus', Siha's, the Dwarf priest's sites more and more often and when the PlusHeal.com page got revealed a few days ago, I really got interested in it.

And I can't deny that I have the deep desire to give the healing with a priest one more chance.
I still have Nolah, who is a healadin, but the problem with her is her equip. Healing anything that goes beyond normal level is a pain in the ass with her (I got soooo frustrated over Ahunen) and I simply don't feel like upgrading her.
Anurien on the other hand, already posses gear worth some 1200 plus healing. She is a tailor and the mooncloth-set is lying around in the bank, waiting to be worn again. Furthermore, the Whitemend set is at reach as my warlock can make one part of it and Arthak the other.

Anurien has a history of healing. I even leveled her up to 60 as holy - the only time my husband and I could keep to the same rhythm in leveling we formed a mage/priest duo. And I loved the healing back than. I have healed through more or less all of the old world's five men, leveled through BC content shadow and went back to healing at 70 before my warlock (who is my main) got some love at all.
It is really amazing! I have done way more healing with her than I ever thought of.

We lack a healer at the moment in our guild. After Arthak left the guild, we are back to our one shaman healer who hardly ever has the time (no offense! just a statement! ;)). And I, as I said above, feel the desire to heal. Which I feel, at the same time, to be completely weird!

My conclusion: It MUST be the hormons! ;)

Will I really go holy again? I don't know... I think it will be a pretty spontaneous thing. And if I don't like it (again) I can go back easily.

Here is the gear list, I intend on getting for her (thank you so much, Matticus and Dwarf Priest, for your great great overviews. They are extremely helpful!).

Head: Whitemend Hood
Neck: Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration
Shoulder: Primal Mooncloth Shoulders
Cloak: - not yet decided upon -
Chest: Primal Mooncloth Robe
Wrists: Vindicator’s Mooncloth Cuffs
Gloves: Gloves of Penitence
Finger: - no idea yet -
Waist: Primal Mooncloth Belt
Legs: Whitemend Pants
Feet: - dunno yet -
One-handed: Hand of Eternity
Off-hand: - some more thinking to do -
Wand: - hmmmm -
Trinkets: Figurine – Seaspray Albatross
- the other one I do not know yet -

If someone is looking for the list I used to come to these results, you can find it here: a Dwarf priest's healing gear list.

Surprise! Surprise!

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:43:00 +0000

Okay, when I told you I was waiting for WotLK like crazy in my previous post, I wasn't completely absolutely honest I guess.

It is true, I am awaiting the expansion. But there is something else that I can't wait to have even more. Way more. Waaaaaaaaaaaay more. Boy, I can't tell how happy I am. The reason is:

I am not sure, if I will be actually able to play WotL when it is released. Because I am pregnant! Woooohooooo! :D

The more, I have no idea how life with a baby will be. It is the first time for both of us. I have no idea if we will be able to actually play WoW. But that doesn't matter, really.
Those of you blogging WoW-Mums and Dads: thank you for... uhm I don't know what exactly. It is just comforting to know you are out there, alive and well. =)

Wrath-Beta (II): I am so excited!

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:43:00 +0000

Last night, when I got the news from my guildies about the open beta-registration, I got so excited I couldn't stop hitting the refresh button of my browser in order to get on Blizz' page and register, which took me half an hour to do because apparently everyone was trying to reach the page and all this time I more or less stared at the loading segments of the page (or better: the not-loading bits and pieces).

I feel this is worth mentioning here, because I can hardly remember the last time I got that excited about some WoW news.
I of course, as all the others, was awaiting the opening of the Isle of Quel'Danas some months ago with high expectations, but I didn't get all freaked out over the announcement. This time, it's totally different. I think there are two aspects contributing to my current crazyness.

First: It feels like I have been waiting for Wrath to come since f o r e v e r. I just don't want to wait any longer. I want to purchase it now!
I want to level my toons again. I want to see new areas. I want to stroll around and get all freaked out about a secret and especially beautiful corner. And I am really longing for the design of Wrath, leaving Outland's sci-fi atmosphere behind.

Second: I have never ever been in any Beta at all. At least not one, where I actually held the key in my own hands (so to speak). I have an extremely lucky brother who basically gets into everything, so I can have a glimpse too, but hey, I also want to win something!
Furthermore, it is the first time in my WoW-life that I really want to spoil myself on new content. I have never been on the PTR's. I read news some of you post in your blogs about your experiences on upcoming content, but I tend to not really believe it (or think about it) until I see it with my own eyes. Sort of.

So, this is the first time I took action!
At the moment, I feel really biased about it. On the one hand, there is my excitement. But on the other, I am afraid that I will hate having spoilt Wrath for me.
Of course I am well aware that I have to win a key first before I need to worry about all that. But still, I am not sure if I should ask you to keep your fingers crossed for me or not. ;)

Anyways, I forced my husband and brother to also press the button, so our chances to get in got dramatically higher.
What do you think about the registration? Have you been to a WoW Beta before? Did you like it?

Beta Registration!

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:18:00 +0000

I just registered for the Wrath Beta on the official site, so it's no hoax, no keylogger, no nothing this time!

Just go to the wow official page, logg into your account and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you will find the button you need to press to get in - with a bit of luck that is.

Please note that I am playing on a German server and so am part of the European wow-community. I have no idea if this registration is also available for the US at this point! Or any other country than Germany. ;)

Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Yay! Finally, June is here and we are gone. See you all in July, have fun, enjoy the sun and those of you in Europe: May there be many goals for your soccer team of choice! ;)

Love
Jarla

Tulpen

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:49:00 +0000

Just when I thought I was done with twinking for good, I logged into Tulpen, my old Shaman alt, 40 levels of age.

My plan was to make her my WotL bank-alt, meaning I would clean her up, make some space and get new bags, so I could start sending stuff I might need to level professions when WotL comes live. In my mind, I was already pileing up stacks of cloth, leather and such. I was even considering to leave the guild with her and form one of my own, so I could use the guild bank as extra storage. Oh, those brilliant plans. *sigh*

What happend was this: I logged in and couldn't see a thing, because her UI was all messed up, as I really haven't been playing her for a looooong time.
So I decided to quickly rearrange her bars. While I was doing it, the totem-fascination came over me. Man, I didn't remember that she already possessed that many totems!
I clicked some of them, just to see them pop up on the ground. Cool. So I scrolled in to have a closer look at the "scenery". Hmm, I didn't remember that I had chosen such a special face and hair color for her. Nice.

I shrugged it off and decided to continue with the original plan. So I took a look at her bank to clean it off. Soon enough I stumbled upon some nice things: "WTF!?! What is this nice mace doing in her bank? Why isn't she wearing it? What do you mean, I can't dual-wield?"
Next thing I know I was searching the internet for enhancement shaman tips & tricks and respecced her. Done. The very next minute I decided to drop Leatherworking which was way behind her level anyways and went to learn some mining. Of course I needed to skill it up, just in case I should ever consider playing her again. Sure enough, I would love to be able to mine things in the areas I would level in then, right? Right!

Off I went and at the end of the evening, I got her ready to mine ores up to level 125. Very satisfying.

At some point during farming copper, I remembered that I had taken Nashtuk at the same level to the reshaped Dustwallow Marshes and I had really enjoyed doing the quests there. Man, wouldn't it be nice to go there for another time? Sure enough it would...

Well, as the evening ended, I progressed one and a half levels without even trying and had a LOT of fun doing so. I guess I am back in the twinking business. At least Tulpen is all set and ready to do so.
But what about my WotL plans? ...

The return of...

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:42:00 +0000

Every now and then, people I like a lot leave the game. Some make their absence temporary, giving an almost exact date when to expect them back, but many others are just gone from one day to the other.
I guess, we all have experienced this before in our WoW time and while the quitters are as understandable in their reasons as those only on temporary leave, it especially hurts me to not know if they will be back for good at any point at all.

Being bored with certain aspects of WoW every now and then (and actually testing Warhammer Online at the moment), I asked myself many times what it is exactly that keeps me in the game.
You all know that I love twinking. Well, I ran out of space on Frostmourne, so I tried several times to reroll on other servers.

I tried

a) to play Alliance. Well, yeah, I just can't do it. It feels so weird and wrong and I always stop before I hit 20. It's just not for me. The only thing that's nice is that the areas and quests are sort of new.
b) to reroll on an English speaking server. Well, yeah. It's nice. And good practice. But I hate to know what is what in German and than having to relearn it in English. If it was a whole new experience... But it ain't.
c) to play on an RPG-server. Nah. Isn't for me. I jump of buildings to short cut all the time and feel bad about it. And I am OOC almost all the time without even realizing.
d) to reroll on another German server as Horde. Been there, done that. Dull, dull, dull!

There's something all my attempts had in common: they let me realize that I hardly enjoy the game anymore when the people I know and play with day in day out aren't there with me. I'd even say that 80% of my WoW-fun nowadays results in being with my guildies and lately people from our raiding partners' guild, who are a match made in heaven.

Remember me talking about people leaving the guild at the entry of this post. Guess what! Last week it was the return neither of the king nor the Jedi-knights but way better: My brother resumed playing WoW!
I am so unbelievably happy about that, it is almost ridiculous. I am almost certain he won't be there for long, but he is right now and that is all that matters.

He quitted WoW shortly after BC was released (and after he just dinged 70 with his druid) and there is a ton of things that has changed since then and is new to him (first thing he said after logging in and stumbling around was: What the fuck is this miniature city in the center of Shatt about?). It really helps realizing how much Blizz is actually doing all the time when guiding someone around who has been playing the game excessively before (remember that he was the one who brougt me to the game), but is sort of lost after a year long break.
Well, I am more than eager to give him a hand and so is my husband, his brother in law.

Guess what, he just gave me a call to let me know he would log in now and if I would join him. I LOVE that he is back! I am so happy about it! :D

The return of those gone into the great unknown is definitely the very best!

Zul Aman

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:44:00 +0000

Okay, I sort of forgot to mention that I, after all, joined the Karazhan raid. I've been there now for a total of three times with my warlock and as it turns out, like it a lot.
The raid leader and his guildmates (Pax Draconis) are awesome! It's really a bunch of super nice and relaxed people, all taking the raid serious enough without taking the game itself too serious. Most of them seem to be 30-something, so it really fits our guild.
We have no problems with the instance itself, as most of the pax-people apparently have been raiding it since last autumn and are quite well equipped (not to mention skilled ;)). So last Sunday, we almost cleared it completely in our three hours, leaving only Attumen, the Prince, the Maid and the Chess-event untouched for Tuesday. Tuesday came, and we cleared those in no time.

All of the Paxers have been anxious about starting with Zul Aman for quite a while as it seems and, as we had plenty of time left, we entered it for the first time on the very same Tuesday.

I had mixed feelings about that, because all in Karazhan is still so new to me (and challening that is) and I was reading tons of stuff in the net to catch up at least a bit to the others' experience. And I couldn't imagine to press in yet another boss tactic into my already stuffed brain.
On the other hand, I was really looking forward to once having the opportunity to enter a raid instance and everything's brand new to everyone in that raid (except for Arthak, but even he hadn't been too far into it before). Of course there's lots of information about Zul, but still, the raid hasn't been there before, so it is a chance of exploring and learning together.

We downed the first boss, Nalurakk, withouth real troubles though it was a tougher fight. After that, we sort of got lost and mangled around with the trash groups, but I guess we learned a lot also by doing so.

And let me tell you something!
While I am quite satisfied with my overall performance in Karazhan (I didn't screw up, didn't wipe the raid), I feel kind of bad because my DPS sucks compared to the others. I am well aware that most of this is due to my equipment (I am definitely lacking spell power, but I don't want to reduce the hit as I am really satisfied with it) and I guess I am doing ok, but still, I am there for doing DPS, right, so it bothers me to see that I am the last in the meter.
Don't get me wrong, I am not whining because I want to see bigger numbers on my screen, I simply want to really contribute the best and most I can. I have been changing my dot-routine, leaving out CoA, using CoS instead. So now I am thinking about respeccing again, this time to amplify CoS... As I am currently the only warlock in the raid and there are up to two arcane-mages and one occasional moonkin, it would make sense. And I guess I have to find a way to butter up my shadowbolts.
Okay, I am also well aware that we are burning the trash groups in Karazhan so fast, my damage doesn't really have a chance to unfold. Or perhaps this is exactly the point where I am wrong.

I keep asking more experienced people and the feedback I get is good, so why can't I stop worrying?
I guess Zul Aman did me some real good: As my DoTs had way more time to get ticking in there (even on the trash mobs), my DPS really went up! Yay! I was so happy! I am probably really doing alright. :)

Can't wait for next Tuesday to come...

WoW-ku

noreply@blogger.com (Katrin) — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:37:00 +0000

As there seems to be some Haiku-craziness flowing around blogs, I spontaneously decided to join in. I guess it was Fimlys who started it all.

EDIT: As my WoW-Ku did undergo some changes through this posting, I decided to put my final version on top. If you are interested in the making-of, feel free to read the rest of the entry. ;)

out of Shadowmoon
in the valley an owl's cry
Shanti in the night

This is my first try in WoW-kuness:

out of Shadowmoon
in the valley an owl's cry
back in Terokkar

I think it is extremely challenging to master the form of the Haiku while trying to express feelings through plain words, not to speak of finding a way to transport and unfold these feelings through the oh-so-limited span of syllables.
Also, I sort of struggle with counting syllables in English. Don't ask me why. So the question is: Is it Ter-ok-kar or Terok-kar?

WoWWiki claims Terokk to be an Arakkoa demigod:

"This forest was most likely named after Terokk, an arakkoa demigod of some sort."

So I guess it must be Terokk-ar. Great! I can alter the last verse now to get closer to the meaning I intended.

Second try a) and b):

out of Shadowmoon
in the valley an owl's cry
to be in Terokkar

out of Shadowmoon
in the valley an owl's cry
distant in Terokkar

Which one do I like better? I am not sure... What about you?

I want to give it one more alteration. I will add some sort of shift in the perspective. Attempt number three will be given by Nashtuk, my bloodelf hunter who is never seen without her owl Shanti.

Third version:

out of Shadowmoon
in the valley an owl's cry
Shanti in the night

Man, I really like doing this. Through my (pretended) change in authorship, the meaning changes completely! Where I felt some longing, perhaps even sadness in the second version, I find it completely changed in the third to some sort of confidence, fondness, a feeling of loyalty.
Version number 3 is my favorite!
But I guess I wasn't supposed to give an interpretation, so I better shut up now. ;)