Joel’s Scattered Thoughts

I’ve been enjoying the WoW themed “Why X make the best lovers” posts that have been bouncing around. Chick GM has the best one so far, Why GMs make the best lovers..

I found this quote from Blessing of Kings: Warhammer Online: What to Play? to be a very good summary of the dilemma faced by healers (and to some extent tanks).

The thing about healing is that it is usually very powerful and scarce. And I don't *hate* playing a healer. So I could go healer, and my group or side would probably be more successful. Or I could go DPS, and my group or side would probably be less successful, but I would have more fun. But losing is not fun and winning is. So round and round in circles I go.

The exercise options out there fascinate me. Zen Habits has another post on Minimalist Fitness II. I haven’t changed the weights part of my exercise routine yet, but when I look at doing so I may try out Crossfit.

I am constantly amazed by the resources that are available online. You may not get credit for free online courses, but it’s still a great way to learn things.

Get Rich Slowly had guest post a while back on How to Inoculate Your Children Against Advertising. I am trying some of these ideas. I know that advertising definitely affects our kids.

I’ve found that the best way of turning them down when they ask for something that they’ve seen advertised is to say “Sure!”. Then I make an estimate of the product’s price and tell them that when they’ve done their chores X days in a row they’ll have the money to buy it. Oddly enough that dampens their insistence that they’ll die without it.

I find that a similar strategy works decently to curb my own impulse spending. If I start pricing out things as “I will have to work Y hours extra to have this”, my feeling that I’ll simply die without the latest widget diminishes greatly. The biggest problem with this approach is that I actually have the money so if I don’t stop and think I can spend it foolishly before making the calculation.

One of these days I want to get a DVR.  There aren’t a lot of shows I want to watch on TV and when I’m in the mood for watching TV they’re not on. 

From what I’ve seen, Neuros‘ DVRs are about the best.  They don’t lock you into anything, they let you watch things the way you want to watch them, and they look decently easy to set up.  Hopefully the next iteration of Canada’s Copyright Bill doesn’t make them illegal. 

I would like to figure out a better way of getting good lunches for my kids.  At the moment, lunches consist of a pizza pop, juice, crackers or a granola bar, and canned fruit or an apple.  I’m not too thrilled about the pizza pop but I got sick of throwing out sandwiches with one bite taken out of them day after day.  I know they’ll eat the pizza pop since it’s a treat. 

I’d like to set things up so that they’re eating less processed stuff but I’m not sure how to do it in such a way that they’ll actually eat what is served.  Throw in random school rules due to allergies, microwave availability, and the phase of the moon and it gets complicated.  One possibility would be to get something like a Laptop Lunchbox and figure out a couple of options for each of the compartments.  My biggest criteria is that I don’t want to spend a lot of prep time on the lunches - maybe 15 minutes prep total for the three lunches.  Anyone have any good sites/recipe books/suggestions?

Cutest. Thing. Ever. I can’t wait to get one of these. The kids will squee.

The careful text books measure
(Let all who build beware!)
The load, the shock, the pressure
Material can bear.
So, when the buckled girder
Lets down the grinding span,
The blame of loss, or murder,
Is laid upon the man.
Not on the Stuff — the Man!

But in our daily dealing
With stone and steel, we find
The Gods have no such feeling
Of justice toward mankind.
To no set gauge they make us, —
For no laid course prepare —
And presently o’ertake us
With loads we cannot bear.
Too merciless to bear.

The prudent text-books give it
In tables at the end —
The stress that shears a rivet
Or makes a tie-bar bend —
What traffic wrecks macadam —
What concrete should endure —
But we, poor Sons of Adam,
Have no such literature,
To warn us or make sure!

We hold all Earth to plunder —
All Time and Space as well —
Too wonder-stale to wonder
At each new miracle;

Till, in mid-illusion
Of Godhead ‘neath our hand,
Falls multiple confusion
On all we did or planned.
The mighty works we planned.

We only of Creation
(Oh, luckier bridge and rail!)
Abide the twin-damnation —
To fail and know we fail.
Yet we — by which sole token
We know we once were Gods —
Take shame in being broken
However great the odds —
The Burden or the Odds.

Oh, veiled and secret Power
Whose paths we seek in vain,
Be with us in our hour
Of overthrow and pain;
That we — by which sure token
We know thy ways are true —
In spite of being broken,
Because of being broken,
May rise and build anew.
Stand up and build anew!

– Rudyard Kipling

When I finally get around to building or buying a better desk I’d like it to be set up for multiple computers.  As it is I have my computer set up with two monitors.  It’s handy for switching from WoW to a browser or for reconciling my books, but I would still like to have a couple of computers to dedicate to various tasks. 

The biggest obstacle is handling multiple keyboards and mice.  I have a USB mouse and apparently those don’t play well with KVM solutions.  I may just stack multiple keyboards and mice and live with the awkwardness of switching from one set to another. 

EDIT: This Lifehacker post may offer some good ideas. I wonder how Synergy would work with WoW?

Blizzard has opened up PvE to PvP transfers.  I think this is a decent idea.  I leveled my first characters on a PvP server thinking that it would add something to the game.  It didn’t for me.

I think the timing is key for this.  At this point the majority of the players who are leveling are playing alts.  A 70 who transfers over from a PvP server to gank lowbies is going to get owned.  I hope that new servers have six months or so before server transfers are allowed.

If you want a long take on this, see Lume the Mad’s PvE to PvP Server Transfers an Overdue Policy Change. 

A while back guilds were selling Zul’Aman Bear mount runs for a five to ten thousand gold.  You show up, pay your gold, and the bear mount is yours at the end of the timed run.  With the pre-Wrath path this mount is no longer going to be available, so I imagine business is brisk.

Getting a bear mount that way does not appeal to me.  The only toon I would have considered it for is my dwarf hunter.  He’s had a bear pet from the start so having a bear mount would be fun.  Sadly he’s level 40ish and hasn’t been played for almost two years so he’s not likely to get one. 

I hope that Blizzard has some kind of equivalent accomplishment based mount in Wrath.  If I’m still raiding when they bring it in, I think there’s a good chance that our raid team could get it. 

My vacations for the last sevenish years have been family-centric.  If we weren’t driving somewhere to visit relatives, we were visiting nearby relatives.  The stress from either makes coming back to work to make maps and write reports seem pleasant. 

I’ve decided to take a week off when Wrath comes out.  This will be a vacation for me.

• No Kids: Unless Wrath comes out over the Christmas holidays the kids will be in school so I won’t have to be responsible for them for about 8 hours a day. 
• Cheap: It’s a cheap vacation - once I buy Wrath it won’t cost me more than my normal living expenses. 
• Antisocial: It’s very antisocial.  This is probably the most appealing part for me.  I need time away from people and I haven’t had any extended periods of that for a long time.   Even if I do end up playing with friends online, it’s not the same as trying to make small talk with Aunt Suzie while keeping the kids from destroying her immaculate house. 
• Fun: It’ll be fun.  Tromping around Northrend and knowing that I’m one of the first people to see this live appeals to me. 

Now all I need is a solid release date and a pre-order of the Collector’s Edition…

My warrior has 150ish badges that I haven’t gotten around to spending.  I am aware that I should be upgrading my gear with badge gear, but the idea of spending the gold to get things re-gemmed and re-enchanted annoys me.  It’s part of my pre-Wrath blahs - why knock myself out for gear that will be replaced all too soon?  If I think of it tonight I’ll pick up Girdle of the Fearless to replace my Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable as that seems to be a decent upgrade (the bonus is that it has only 1 gem slot and no enchants).  After that, if I make back up to 100 badges before Wrath, I should pick up Sunguard Legplates and spend way too much on leg armor and gems. 

If you want to know which pre-Wrath gear will likely take you up to level 80, demog has you covered with WOTLK Tanking Gear List.  (via Can Tank, Will Travel)  I’m surprised at how much badge gear looks like it will be viable through level 80.  The bit that makes me sad is that I won’t be getting gear upgrades on my warrior till 80ish.  On the bright side, it means that I’ll be more than ready to tank anything up to that point. 

Gone Resto
(words only, click here for the tune)

Since I wrote the previous post, something has happened to Shamaniac.

What makes an enhancement shaman a valuable member of a raid?

The biggest thing is that enhancement shamans boost melee DPS a LOT.  In a raid situation an enhancement shaman may not be at the top of the DPS charts but with their totems, unleashed rage, and Stormstrike they contribute a lot to boosting the group’s damage.

If they’re skilled at totem twisting, enhancement shaman can provide the group with an extra buff.  There are no other classes that can pull off this trick. 

Since enhancement shamans DPS comes mainly from auto-attack and Windfury, with the rest of their DPS abilities being on fairly long cooldowns, they have a number of global cooldowns available for additional utility.  Totem twisting is one of these, others could include purging buffs from mobs or removing disease/poison debuffs from the raid.

Enhancement shamans are one of the few DPS classes that provide wipe protection.  Their self-resurrection combined with their ability to resurrect others can help keep the raid going for that one last try at a boss.

Enhancement shaman are charming critters, even though I wouldn’t pick them for my ideal WoW party.

(This post is dedicated to my favorite enhancement shaman, Shamaniac.)

The Warhammer MMO is coming out in a week or so.  I definitely will not be buying it on release, but I will be reading the reviews.  I’m particularly looking forward to seeing what Tobold has to say about it since he seems to write from a largely PvE perspective.  If Warhammer makes PvP fun for him, it’ll definitely be worth checking out.  In the meantime, Massively has put out a A World of Warcraft player’s guide to Warhammer Online.  It makes Warhammer sound interesting, but again I’m withholding judgement. 

I will be looking for a new game a few months after Wrath comes out.  Blizzard may do something amazing and revitalize WoW enough that I’m happy playing it until the next expansion.  However, I feel that I’ve pretty much tried everything in WoW at this point - leveling, exploration, different classes, battlegrounds, professions, healing, DPS, tanking, raid leading, guild leading.  The biggest exception is that I haven’t even set foot in Arenas on any of my toons.  There just isn’t much appeal to getting slaughtered and my reflexes aren’t good enough to do more. 

I’ve considered a number of MMOs and I expect that I will try a lot of them.  Eve Online’s economy might be fun to play with, but the idea of PvP with significant losses is a turnoff.  EverQuest 2 is supposed to have a vast world to explore, but I suspect the graphics may fall into the uncanny valley for me.  Lord of the Rings Online’s lack of customization and graphics that fall into the uncanny valley drive me nuts.  Warhammer is shiny and new, but if it’s mostly PvP I doubt I’d be interested.  Freerealms isn’t out yet, so who knows if it’ll actually be fun.  Ah well, there are always possibilities and maybe by the time I’m done with WoW I’ll find something to suit my tastes.

I have a lot of alts either at 70 or approaching it quickly - warrior, paladin, hunter, warlock, shaman, druid plus my retired alliance priest.  When the expansion comes out I’m going to have to choose which one(s) to level first and which will have to wait.

What will our static group do?  We originally rolled on Quel’dorei to play with three of our friends.  If they’re still interested in playing together as a group the characters we designate as our group characters will be used for group play.  Assuming my warrior stays as the tank for the group, I am willing to take six months to get to 80 on him if that what it takes for us to play together.  Ditto for any of my other toons if we decide to shuffle our roles around.

Jaimie and I have characters that we’ve leveled up in pairs (or mostly in pairs).  Our two hunters will probably level together (dual core hounds ftw!).  My paladin and her mage will probably level together (though paladin/shadow priest is tempting too).  Our warlock/shadow priest combo was made to play together.  That leave me with a druid and shaman to level on my own.  There’s always the possibility of mixing and matching the pairings.  If we don’t do that early on, we wind up with one of us running the other through quests the first toon has already completed.  It’s not nearly so fun that way. 

What do I want to do in Wrath?  I’ve healed endgame.  I’ve tanked endgame.  I’ve even DPSed endgame a bit.  I really don’t feel a pull to fill any particular role.  My preferred endgame role isn’t going to be a major factor in my decision.

My first toon to 80 will probably be the one that’s most fun to play.  Thus, I expect my hunter to be the first to hit 80 with my other toons trickling in over the next few weeks or months.  My next pick would probably my paladin if I end up playing in groups a lot from 70 to 80.  I’ll probably switch back and forth between my remaining toons and level them up more or less equally. 

(inspired by this Voodoo Ventures post)

My current crop of alts has hit 60ish.  Leveling-wise it feels like hitting a brick wall.  I’ve been happily puttering along picking up a level or two whenever I log in and suddenly it takes 2,3,4 gaming sessions to gain a level. 

I wonder why Blizzard put such a big jump in leveling time for levels after 60?  My guess would be that they want people to see all of Outlands.  This would match with their stated intent to speed up 60-70 leveling with Wrath.  With the release of Wrath Outland will be just another bump in the road rather than a key to endgame preparation.

In The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons Ian Angus argues convincingly that there is no tradgedy of the commons.  I din’t like that he led of with an ad hominem attack on the author of the Tradgedy of the Commons, but the rest of the arguments seemed quite sound.  The argument is that a stable community takes a long term view when it comes to managing shared assets.  Angus supplies links to a a number of studies that support this view.  The problems with a despoiling of a commons arrive when people can swoop in, grab as much as they can, and then take off for greener pastures.

I am interested in how this would apply for copyright.  It seems to me that one of the big reasons copyright is useful to a society is that it exchanges a temporary monopoly for the creation of a greater commons.  By extending copyright indefinitely, copyright maximalists are snatching what they can and running.  They want the freedom to build on the works of others, but don’t want to reciprocate by giving others the freedom to build on their works.  It’s been a long, long, long time since anyone created something without drawing in any way on the creators who came before them.