I’ve been listening to The Leviathan Chronicles for the last few days. They are a very well produced and acted radio-drama style show. So far the plot reminds me a lot of Dark Angel. If you enjoy Clive Cussler or the earlier Robert Ludlum books, this is definitely worth listening to. (found via Tor.com)
Archive for February, 2009
The Leviathan Chronicles
Feb 28
Healing on a Shaman
Feb 27
With my shaman at 80, I now need to figure out how to heal with a shaman. The only thing I’ve healed with him is Karazhan at 70 and things have changed since then.
I’ve managed to get a lot of good gear thanks to LootRank, some luck at the Auction House, and my friendly neighborhood leatherworker. (Thanks Hidi!) My plan is to respec and get into some instance runs this weekend. I may try to finish off the initial Sons of Hodir questline first though.
Anna has a lovely guide to resto shaman healing spells. PlusHeal talks a little more about spell rotations for different situations and provides some advice for new healers. Lodur on World of Matticus has a post on Being the Shaman Behind the Meat Shield.
It’s been a while since I ran as a healer. For now the plan is to keep tanking on my warrior as my main role, but it’s good to have options.
Shaman Ding 80
Feb 26
I was getting close to 80 as I turned in a quest or two. It amused me that I managed to get that close without dinging over.
As I flew around looking for a mob or two, I discovered the coast off of Grizzly Hills and dinged 80!
Now I need to figure out how to play a resto shaman. My big question right now is do I switch to resto right away, or should I finish rep grinds such as Sons of Hodir first?
I was annoyed because I couldn’t read Twitter in my feed reader (and I’m not in the habit of logging onto Twitter). I found this thread: Google reader twitter RSS broken?. In the comments someone suggested setting up a Feedburner feed for my Twitter and that seems to work great!
I’ve been using twitterfeed and ping.fm to update my Twitter and so far it seems to be working well. Twitterfeed adds a notification to Twitter whenever I update my blog and ping.fm lots me cross post to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. (Twitterfeed found via Our Newly Favorite Twitter Apps…)
I’m still trying to figure this out, but so far it’s fun to play around.
Windows Reinstall Peeve
Feb 25
The thing I hate most about reinstalling Windows is finding the prper CD to match the product key. It’s things like this that make me wish I pirated software instead of buying legitimate copies – dealing with pirates would be easier than dealing with DRM
Robot Slavery
Feb 24
I was listening to Dan Carlin’s latest Hardcore History Podcast, Addicted to Bondage, where he discusses the pervasiveness of slavery throughout history. One point that he made is that for slave owners, slavery was terrific. He’s not talking about sadistic, power-mad fiends who get off on their power over others, but your average Joe and Jane slave owner.
He says that in a sense Roman housewives had the kitchen of tomorrow two thousand years ago. You want a nice meal? Tell your slave that you want it and it’s done - no fuss, no muss, no cleanup for the slave owner.
If you think that slavery was not such a bad idea, listen to the podcast. If you were alive at an earlier point in history, odds were pretty decent that you would be a slave. Using Rawls’ Original Position argument, would you choose to let slavery exist if you didn’t know which side of the slave / slave owner equation you were going to be on? Don’t think your race would exempt you from slavery, historically slavery was a matter of who could be kidnapped than of what race a person was.
I was thinking about slavery in relation to Artificial Intelligence. What happens when the kitchen of tomorrow shows up and your toaster wants to go on stage? It’s going to be a nuisance – you paid good money for that toaster and it should be making your breakfast not dreaming of a Tony Award! Having smart machines is going to be so useful that there will doubtless be a huge fight against declaring them to be sentient, even when the evidence is there. The robot rebellion may be the newest form of the slave rebellions that have taken place throughout history.
Thinking this through makes me realize that this is not a terribly original thought – most of the robot rebellions I’ve read about have strong parallels to historic slave rebellions I’ve read about. I don’t recall seeing the connection made directly before, but I’m sure it has been written about extensively. When will robots/computers be smart enough that they are slaves? When will their emancipation come?
The Trash Caps – Warriors
Feb 24
Assuming I remember to make a trash tanking set, knowing The Trash Caps for Warriors will be invaluable. Actually, making a trash tanking set would probably be a good exercise for me.
My WoW Resume (early 2009)
Feb 23
I was reading Matticus’ post, What GMs Want to See on Your Guild App, and I stared thinking about some of my accomplishments in WoW. Since many of these were pre-3.0, I don’t have the achievements for them which makes me a little sad.
Healing
- Raid healed all of Zul’Gurub and Molten Core, and most of AQ-20 at 60 and roughly the first third of Kara at 70
- Leveled a holy priest from 1-60 in vanilla WoW, then to 70 in BC
- References: Anath, Legionofone, Balm
Tanking
- Tanked Naxxramas-10 (Arachnid Quarter, Plague Quarter, Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Thaddius) and Sartharion 0 drakes.
- Leveled a protection warrior and protection paladin from 1-70 in BC, then to 80 in Wrath
- Tanked Karazhan and the first 3 bosses in Zul’Aman in BC
- Tanked BC Heroics with bear druid
- References: Mazzarella, Beeferino
DPS
- Progression raided Naxxramas with Retribution Paladin
- Raided BC farm content on BM Hunter, Enhancement Shaman, Warlock
- References: Shamaniac, Jusy
Raid Leading
- Helped organize a guild alliance
- Raid led through Karazhan, part of ZA, and Naxxramas-10
- References: Zurdante, Mornal
PvP
- Obtained Knight title in classic WoW
- Hit Exalted with Stormpike Guard back in the days of 12 hour AVs
- I don’t PvP anymore
That’s all that comes to mind right now. It’s fun to look back on the stuff I managed to get done. I would say that raid leading is probably the most challenging part of the game – not the fights themselves but all the dealing with people and their issues, balancing things so that it all works out.
I just bought some glasses, but I still may look into this: How To: Save Bundles of Cash by Buying Eyeglasses Online. It might be a good idea to have an extra pair, and for $8, it’s hard to go wrong.
I sometimes have to use a couple of different browsers, so I was hoping that Ask Lifehacker: How Can I Sync Bookmarks Across All Browsers? would have a solution for me. It looks as though Firefox / IE bookmark synching is doable via Foxmarks, but so far Chrome and Opera aren’t there. The most popular recommendation seems to be a web-based bookmarking solution.
“Extinct” Bird Seen, Eaten
Feb 20
This is funny in an inappropriate way : “Extinct” Bird Seen Eaten.
As I level my squad of alts, I’ve used Jame’s Leveling Guides a lot. They’re well written, clear, and I find following them boosts my enjoyment of the game.
Jame has now integrated his leveling guides with the TourGuide addon. This gives you access to the guides within WoW and provides extra features such as an automatic directional arrow to point you to the right coordinates. Be sure to follow the complete installation instructions – I had trouble on some toons when I accidentally disabled Lightheaded.
As is usually the case for guides, I would strongly recommend them for anyone leveling their second, third, fourth…nth toon. For those leveling their first toon, I would suggest using the guides to help with any rough spots in leveling but I would also recommend wandering the world and not necessarily doing things in as efficient a way as possible.
Diamonds in the Sky
Feb 18
Diamonds in the Sky is a free science fiction anthology focusing on astronomy. The focus is on accuracy and entertainment. I’ll have to read through this at some point. (via Whatever)
25 Best Blogs 2009
Feb 17
IF you’re looking for good reads, TIME has their 25 Best Blogs 2009 up. The first couple are focused on American politics which reminds me that I still haven’t found a good Canadian political blog. The blogs I’ve found have too much fluff or only post every few years.
Raid Training
Feb 16
In Drop & Give Me 50! Tigerfeet describes heroic as training grounds for raiding. Get your practice in every day with four other people instead of wiping 25 people on a weekly basis!
Surgeon General
Feb 16
Kestrel has an Add-On Review: Surgeon General. This is an addon to simplify healer assignments in raids. Fortunately I don’t need to worry about healer assignments, but it’s worth noting for the heal leads out there.
Fool for Love
Feb 16
Jaimie managed to complete the meta-achievement Fool For Love. Watching her complete it reminded me why I don’t pursue those achievements. She stayed up all night trying to get that last piece of candy for the Be Mine achievement before the event ended. Something that is completely luck based like that leaves me irritated and I’d prefer to enjoy my play time. Strike achievements from my list of fun things to do with a max-level character. On the bright side, Jaimie having lots of fun with these.
Alarm Clock by Tarry91
Feb 15
I find timers and alarm clocks useful, so here’s another one. Alarm Clock by Tarry91 looks more comprehensive than what I’m using now, so it might be worth checking out.
How to be a better tank
Feb 15
Shalandra at Tank Hard! has a post on How to be a better tank . The points she raises are very good ones. I find that situational awareness is one of the biggest failings of new tanks. This has led to me taking worse geared tanks over better geared ones. I want someone I can rely on to keep the adds from munching the healers. There’s nothing like watching the off-tank single-target tank one add while the rest run amok.
I’m reading No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society. It’s focused on the UK, but it’s still relevant for North America.
The book closes with the following thought:
Questions about the quality of childhood experiences might appear less pressing than such global issues as prosperity, security and sustainability. However, we need to engender a sense that some values cannot simply be related to financial or economic imperatives. In any case, over the long term, progress on all these issues depends critically upon the children of the future growing up as engaged, self-confident, responsible, resilient citizens: people who both feel they have some control over their destinies and are alive to the consequences of their actions. This will only happen if their childhoods include some simple ingredients: frequent, unregulated, self-directed contact with people and places beyond the immediate spheres of family and school, and the chance to learn from their mistakes.