Monday, September 17, 2007

I need a life...

Today's quote: Only one kind... Whoever this person is, he has played World of Warcraft nearly ever hour, of every day, for the past year and a half. Gentlemen, we are dealing with someone here who has absolutely no life.

Sigh. I feel that way! Since I'm taking a break from working for now, I thought I would finally get around to leveling my hunter and pally. It's funny because my hunter was once my main, and I even played her to rank 13. Now, I just find the hunter class too boring for words.

I also had a problem leveling my pally. After leveling my feral druid, the pally seems to kill 10 times more slowly. It seemed intolerable.

My solution? I transferred my pally to a separate account and dual-boxed the hunter and pally together. I thought it was kind of neat to level two toons at once. I'm actually curious how other people do it with three or five toons.

Now, I have three 70s, and I just realized what a pain in the ass it's going to be to gear up all three. I think I am giving up on the hunter and will just focus on the pally.

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Arena or Kara weapon?

The day has finally arrived. I have enough arena points to buy the Merciless Gladiator's Maul, but I'm not that excited. Why, do you ask? Well, it's because I'm not sure what to do.

Here are my choices: 1) I can choose to spend all my arena points on this one fabulous weapon; or 2) I can spend all my arena points to purchase a season 2 helm and chestpiece, and wait/pray that the Stranglestaff from Karazhan drops.

I've done some calculations and comparisons of what boosts/upgrades I would receive. Basically, if I equip the helm and chest, I'll receive tons of more stam (55 more), intellect, +healing bonuses, and some more resilience. However, I will lose some agility (and therefore a little crit), and attack power. All in all, these boosts are all of a defensive quality--they won't help me kill any better.

Stats wise, the Stranglestaff is slightly inferior to the Merciless Gladiator's Maul. It has about 100 less attack power, less crit, and less stam. However, the Stranglestaff is free if it drops, which would allow me to use my points to buy the arena gear. My guildie thinks that it's an acceptable trade for all the bonus in stats I would gain if I waited for the staff and equipped the arena chest and helm in the meanwhile.

My only beef with this is that our guild is somewhat noobish. In fact, they've only downed Terestian once, and the staff didn't drop. The following week we tried him again, but we were gimped with an undergeared druid...giving us an outcome in which we wiped when Terestian was at 1% health. Needless to say, that was terrible. Therefore, my fears are that we may not down Terestian in the near future; even if we do, there's no guarantee that the staff will drop.

If I equip the arena mace, I'll gain 393 more attack power, about 3% crit, and a smidgen of stam (13). This is pretty much the best feral druid weapon I can obtain outside of Black Temple and what-not. Although the mace won't really help me survive any better, I'm hoping that an extra 400ish attack power will help me kill my opponents faster.

The people I've asked have given varying opinions as to what I should do. Two people have said to pick the mace because my main objective in arena matches and raids is usually to dps quickly. This is especially pertinent in arena matches, because my burst damage when killing someone might be good enough that the enemy dies before receiving a heal. There have been plenty of times when an opponent has escaped my grasp around 1-10% hp, and they would then receive a huge heal. Having more attack power could help me avoid those irritating situations better.

It all comes back to the fact that the Karazhan staff is free...if it drops. What on earth do I do?

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Transformers, more than meets the eye

Today's quote: It's a robot. You know, like a super advanced robot. It's probably Japanese.

I didn't do much this July 4th. I just pretty much stayed home and relaxed. The only thing I did do was go see Transformers. I wasn't expecting much, so it was a nice surprise. The graphics of the Transformers looked so cool that the movie is just fine without being "more than meets the eye." A very cool feature is the fact that the voice actor for Optimus Prime is the original from the cartoon.

It was pretty funny, although some of the jokes were a bit corny. Still, Shia LeBeouf was a great main character. I didn't really think much of his female costar, other than the fact that she was obviously very pretty. Keep in mind that this movie is obviously meant for the general population, so it's not going to win any awards for the screenplay etc. Overall, expect the cartoon coming to life with very nice graphics and some humorous dialogue sprinkled throughout.

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Monday, June 25, 2007

Totally grossed out

Ok. I've been having a few disputes with my landlords over various minor details. I finally thought everything was settled, until I came home Sunday evening and went to my bathroom. I opened the toilet lid, and found the toilet full of urine and poop. Who the heck uses a toilet without flushing?

The first thing that crossed my mind was whether I could have possibly done such a thing myself. However, there was no toilet paper in the mess, which automatically rules myself out. I'm extremely upset and disturbed.

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Mini flash drives!

I just bought this super cute USB flash drive for $22 on sale. Whenever I think back to the days when I had my old 486, I'm totally amazed. Someone once told me that eventually the constraints of size and space would limit how small technology can get, but I'm still waiting to see that ceiling reached.

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Monday, June 11, 2007

The last laugh...

Today's quote: You look down, they know you're lying, and up, they know you don't know the truth. Don't use seven words when four will do. Don't shift your weight, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, be funny but don't make him laugh. He's got to like you then forget you the moment you've left his side. And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't, under any circumstances...

Ok. I have an awful feeling that I may have left my digital camera at that witch's place. You know, the condo I moved out of after three days of living there? I've just moved again, and after unpacking I can't find my 6.0mp digital camera or my library book. I've spent the whole weekend fretting about them, and now I've gone and fretted myself into a big headache.

Sigh, it would have been bad enough if I'd lost the camera. But to have left it behind in the possession of that irresponsible girl! Agh!!!! That would explain why her new ad the day after I left suddenly had pictures, when the first one didn't have any. I bet she was thinking, who's laughing now?

And now I can't find my library book either. I hate when I lose things. It makes me feel like I'm not in control and that I'm too stupid to live. Gah. I don't lose things very often, but everytime I do the item always seems expensive.

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Friday, June 08, 2007

Happy pills

Today's quote: Come back and make up a goodbye at least, let's pretend we had one...

I had a conversation with my sister yesterday that left me feeling mildly disturbed.

[10:40] Sis: i would never date ppl with antidepressant or any mood pills
[10:40] Sis: if you can't handle everyday life, get the fuck away from me
[10:40] Me: it's not just everyday life that causes some people to take these things
[10:40] Sis: it's gonna get harder
[10:40] Me: they suffer trauma from deaths and stuff too
[10:41] Sis: i understand that extreme cases for short period of time
[10:41] Sis: yes, but habitually depressed ppl
[10:41] Sis: i'm referring to
[10:41] Me: well
[10:41] Me: if they're habitually depressed they should also be seeing a counselor
[10:42] Sis: yes, that's where they get their "happy" pills
[10:42] Me: it's said that the pills + counseling is the best method to help make a permanent change
[10:42] Me: you don't need counseling to get the happy pills
[10:42] Me: you can just ask for them
[10:42] Sis: i just don't want to do anything with ppl who have to take Pills to be happy

It sort of hit me then that a lot of people think the same as my sister does. In general, it seems that many people believe that depression is a sort of "all in your head" type of thing that doesn't really warrant going to the doctor. I understand that it can be difficult to prove that someone does or does not suffer from a mental or emotional problem. Perhaps that's why so many people write depression off as a "fake" or a not "real" medical condition.

However, people go to the doctor for other physical ailments and get prescribed medicine--why not for depression? The funny thing is, depression is all in the head: chronic depression is often caused by certain chemical imbalances in the brain. A person might tend towards a particular type of mood because of something like this.

In fact, many women deal with pms every month, which is caused by the hormonal changes a woman goes through because of menstruation. It's well known that a woman with pms can be prone to mood swings, crying, and outbursts. When that point in the cycle is over, hormone levels go back to normal and the woman stops pmsing. Other than that, how is pms all that different from something like depression? Yet, society treats a woman suffering from pms as a joke, or something to be tolerated (somewhat uneasily), whereas someone with depression becomes a liability.

Obviously, having a relationship with someone who needs to take medication to remain emotionally stable may not be the best situation one could hope for. No one really wants to take on more problems than what they already have. That's why a lot of people would prefer staying away from "drama queens" and such. There is a difference between a drama queen and someone who suffers from an emotional/mental problem, however. Arguably, a drama queen chooses to create their problems, by blowing things out of proportion from whatever misguided self-perceptions they live under. On the other hand, much of what a person with a mental illness thinks or feels comes from their physical chemical/genetic makeup, which they have no control over.

I realized that many people who should seek help may not do so, for fear of how that would look to their peers. It's a shame that societal pressure would keep someone from making a significantly positive life change. For me, I think that if a person can seek help that would help them function better and carry on their lives and relationships more normally, then why not? If anything, shouldn't we applaud those that are actively trying to help themselves to live a "normal" life?

At the same time, I'm not saying that I advocate popping pills everytime a problem comes up. Medication often solves only a symptom, and not the overall problem. In this case, I believe that medication + therapy/counseling is vital to make a permanent change in thought patterns and behavior. In general, I think this sort of response is better than turning to drinking or drugs, or whatever other destructive coping mechanisms people turn to.

I suppose my point in this rambling passage is that I don't think depression really deserves the social stigma that it currently bears. It's not like the number of people affected by depression is low; some studies even say that at least 1 in 4 women will experience depression at some point in their lifetime. That's hardly a small percentage. As for men, who knows what the real percentage is, since most men can't even admit that they ever cry. I also know that certain settings tend to have a higher proportion of people on antidepressants--take law students, for example.

I guess I know one thing for sure: if I ever end up on happy pills for depression or something, my own sister will probably think I'm too weak and/or mentally unstable to deal with "everyday life."

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Phone clinger

Today's quote: You mean to say that you are a daughter of Eve?

I've seen a variety of things while working at the new job. The one thing that I'm amazed at is how much people talk on their cell phones here. They talk anywhere and everywhere throughout the building, without regard to privacy or propriety.

Today, I went into the restroom. Another woman entered soon after, and proceeded to start peeing while talking on the phone. Am I the only person who thinks that's a little weird? Talking while in the restroom is one thing, but talking while you're actually doing your business... I dunno. It doesn't seem like the best place to me. Plus, I wonder what the person on the other end is thinking when he hears the toilet flush. Eh.

The other thing that gets me is the sheer number of people here who spew their private matters in public. Do they think that just because they are on the phone that you can't hear them? Uh, it's rather hard not to hear them when they're talking rather loudly in heated tones, if not downright yelling. Seriously, no stranger wants to hear all the sordid details of your intimate life.

Posted by hufflepuffer | |Permalink

Monday, September 17, 2007

I need a life...

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Arena or Kara weapon?

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Transformers, more than meets the eye

Monday, June 25, 2007

Totally grossed out

Mini flash drives!

Monday, June 11, 2007

The last laugh...

Friday, June 08, 2007

Happy pills

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Phone clinger

My Gaming Life

Break The Silence

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