Addiction test

The following comes courtesy of a post on the WoW Realm forums for The Maelstrom ...


Totally addicted

You are 80% Addicted!
When the server's down, its like the end of the world. You check your auctions before going to work, you love the game and everything it involves. Remember that other game called real life? Its not any fun, anyway! Keep it up! And remember, its just a game, but its the best game ever!

I guess if I'm that addicted (some of the answers I gave are from before I decided to cancel the subscription), then I have been playing the game too long ...

Original test comes from : http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take

Decisions, decisions ...

Before the main post,

My thoughts go out to those people who have had setbacks this Xmas period. And especially to those people who have relatives in hospital. I'm thinking of Family Aginoth in particular here, I hope that Father of Agi will get the chance to scramble up those ladders again sometime soon ...

Now to my rather more minor concerns - I'm wondering how long it'll be before people notice and how long before the "don't go, we need you" messages start flowing in.

I'm quitting World of Warcraft ... And the reason is - I think I've seen all it has to offer, all that is left to do is to go into the high end areas over and over again, in order to farm things for item drops that are unlikely to happen.

The original reason for WoW keeping my interest for so long was the massive amount of content it crams inside itself, which holds good for quite some time through the game. At any one level range, there are probably 6 or 7 distinct areas where you can go to hunt monsters to get experience. And it's effectively a "just visiting" mentality, you move on before you get bored with the area. Until, that is, you get to level 60 (max level).

To get the full set of mage items, I'd have to :
Belt - hit lots of mobs in the high end instance (no real trouble, gets done while hunting the specifics)
Bracers - as per belt
Head piece - hit Darkmaster Gandling in Scholomance with a 6% chance of getting the item
Gloves - as per belt
Trousers - hit the end boss in Stratholme with a 6% chance of getting the item
Shoulderpiece - hit someone in Scholomance with 11% chance
Chestpiece - hit end boss in Upper Black Rock Spire with 5.6% chance
Boots - hit a rare boss that no one likes to go for in Stratholme with 10% chance

So, running the numbers on that, I'd have to go into Scholo 9 times to get the shoulder piece and 16 times to get the head piece. Into Strat 10 times hitting the rare guy to get the boots, plus 16 times to get the trousers. Finally into Ubrs around 20 times to get the chestpiece. That's only the chance for an item to drop though, the chance to actually get the item depends on how much company you have. For that chestpiece, you need 15 people, so you'd have to take the random chance that some other person gets it. For the next stage of gear, it's worse - you have to take your turn between 40 people. Oh yeah - a full Stratholme run takes around 8 hours. A full Ubrs run takes 2-3 hours. And you can't do Ubrs unless you have a key, which takes several runs of LowerBrs to acquire. Yawn.

Oh yeah - I'd have to do that treadmill over and over again with alternate characters as well. That's when a game starts turning into something resembling a job on an assembly line.

What makes it worse is that it's the same place, over and over again. No variation, except in the moronic people you have to take with you. And that's part of it ... we lost another person before Xmas because he didn't like the prospect of the WoW end game and I guess I've come to the end of what I'm prepared to put up with as well. The guild people aren't bad, but we've always struggled to get enough for those end game instances. Which means you need extras in, which means you have to take on morons.

WoW's been fun, but I've only stuck at it so long because of a few of the people in the guild. One of whom I'm sure is reading this right now. Possible future guild master ? Ha ! Run Zalzar ! As fast as you can. Who are they ? I'll give some in game character names - Zalzar/Zaphyr, Makai (retired), Fubb, Souleater, Recharge/Charge and Bolbit (retired).

Because of the subscription type I took, I still have until April to go though, we'll see how much I get involved before then. In the meantime, I think I've found something that will let me read books and play at the same time ! It's called Eve and it's a space trading/combat thing that also happens to be Massively Multiplayer Online. And, because that's fairly small, I can play that and be on the same server (game world) as my best friend from uni.

Mall trip

I was expecting some extra people at the Mall today ...

I reckon half the people in Bristol were at the Mall (out of town shopping centre) and the other half must have been in the city centre. I rarely go to the centre though, so I don't know about that.

Dilemma time ... My itchy fingers are starting to demand that I build another computer. Think it's something to do with mine struggling with World of Warcraft with the warrior when she goes up close and personal in the battlegrounds. So I have two dilemmas :

Intel or AMD ? Not had an Intel cpu since my very first PC (a 486!), although I did put an Intel Pentium III in my dad's current machine. So it's either Intel dual core or AMD dual core. To be fair to AMD, their lowest price dual core has come within reach a little more
Air or water cooled ? Water cooled costs more but it's a case of I Really Wanna Try It !

Think it'll have to be a water cooled AMD machine. Now would be a good time to build it domestically as I'll be in a fair bit to receive deliveries. But I think it'll wait until Easter as my finances will have some of their variables taken out by then.

Yey ! Cricket on telly

Aussie v South Africa. Aussie are on top, but it's fairly even as you would expect with these two sides. Workmanlike stuff, good honest hard work but not the spectacular lump knocking of last summer's Ashes series.

Anyway - time for the traditional immediate change of subject away from the post title !

CQ's Crazie party tonight and we all had fun. Lots of presents being exchanged and an unbelievable amount of duplication ... That's right ! I think only one duplicate ... We must be paying attention to the wish lists ... [cough] (I only bought 2 presents off wish lists this year ...) I got lots of cd's that I'll be using to keep Cyberkitten awake in the evenings. (Not too late, as I rarely have the music going after midnight)

All the usual suspects were there, including CK, CQ, Agi, Agi Jnr, Mrs A, LMB, LMD, BD and RCA, with a guest appearance from RCAsOH. And we had lots of munchies too. Plus Jasper Carrott after the littl'uns were safely out of earshot ... CQ always puts on a decent party.

PS I didn't get a cat on my lap but I did get a cat demanding a good stroking. I know my place and I'm quite happy there. If an animal is happy to be around you without being bribed by munchies, then you must be doing something right.
PS2 I got a hug from CQ. :-) :-) :-)
PS3 [Massive Yawn!] The cricket isn't being particularly exciting at the moment. Time for bed I think. (Good job I'm not blogging from the laptop that lives on the sof ... .... ... [snore] ... )

Back again

Amid rumours of massive snowfall ...

Gotta admit, did have to clear snow off the car but the roads were absolutely clear. Would have been dicy coming back out of daylight though. The roads around Leicester were extremely wet. That will cause quite a few problems when the temperature drops and it turns to ice.

Apart from a few light flurries though, perfectly clear. Perfect driving conditions. Glad I didn't detour to the Mall though, traffic on the motorway was massively clogged ...

Merry Xmas one and all

From me in the dark ages of Information Technology ... Yep - this post comes courtesy of me hijacking my dad's internet connection, which comes via a 56k modem. Remember those ? Try not to, I don't want you getting sleepless nights.

All is not lost - I have a devious plan which involves him spending money on a wireless network. Muahahaha ! If it happens, I hope it works ... cos the free technical support (me !) is 180 miles away.

Anyway, a side effect of me being on his connection means that while I can read my email, I can't send. So I can't send a reply to the Happy Xmas emails. Three cheers for Blogging :-)

Hmm. Decent loot so far, a new leather jacket (bought in sales yesterday - modelled personally too by a willing slave), some ornaments (one new one for the telly !) and a couple of remote control mini's that helped in terrorizing Ben the pup earlier.

PS Ben is currently wrapped up in a ball, snoozing on my bed. Bless 'im.

Almost there ...

Last night was fun. I was wrapping stuff up. Didn't get the job completely done (ran out of sellotape during Tin Cup at about 11pm) but I got the higher priority ones out of the way. That'd be the ones I needed to get wrapped before disappearing up norf to my parents' place in an hour or so.

Imagine my panic after tearing through the house frantically when I couldn't find Aginoth's present ... Doh ! Found it in the end after having the brainwave : "Did it make it out of the car ?"

All sorted now, apart from needing more sellotape. And a present for RCA.

Almost forgot - here's a picture.

PS My place is a bit of a tip ... But most of the clutter is stuff I've kept for recycling without an obvious place to put the recycling.

Almost loot time ...

I must be playing World of Warcraft too much if I start thinking of Xmas day as an opportunity to do lots of looting.

Present wrapping today turned into a big long session of Alterac Valley. It must have been long because I finished off a packet of Chocolate Hobnobs while inside. We won though and my mage ended up being on the top of the killboard, which isn't too hard if you spend 6 hours at it.

(the hobnobs packet didn't have much left - honest ...)

Think I'm going to have a very strong grasp of what's been going on in the world at the moment. I had News24 on, which means hearing the same news every half hour or so but it's better than the alternatives - Music channels (pop - arg!) or cartoons.

Yey ! Xmas tree lights are on, will have to find something good to put on the telly while I wrap stuff up.

Elitism

Sucks ... Still, that's more than enough about the latest Guildlink initiative.

Kong's a good film. Peter Jackson lives up to the promise he showed with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, except this time he has better source material to work with. (I'm one of the people who think that Tolkein is over rated)

There's some awesome visuals in there and it takes cgi special effects to another level. And it does it without being the willy waving contest which was the second and third Matrix films. I'll always remember the Matrix as being an excellent film with great promise that wasn't taken up in the second and third.

Anyway - Kong. Really good job done here. Definitely one that needs seeing at the cinema for the visuals alone. There hasn't been much messing with the story from the original, which is a good thing. Too many films are "reimagined", which usually means they lose something. But ... it's too long, it loses focus.

PS I think it's time to hunt for pictures of Naomi Watts.

Curiosity and Google

Muahahaha ! I just got curious about how people get to this blog and saw that one got here through Google. So I had a peek at what "Sleepypete Pillow" would turn up.

Number 1 result - the My Laptop Is Slow post. Which is fair enough, because it is. And it can't play Civ 4. Grr. It can play Ufo Xcom though. And I can have it on the sofa beside me blogging and with MSN open like now.

Another result - curious, that's the third Sleepypete I've heard of. One is me, another is a Counterstrike player and we've got another one in the Google results.

What scares me is the result that has the following summary :
"There were 9 of us all together: Mr A & myself, CQ, RCA, Sleepypete, ... using Mr A as a convenient pillow. he started stroking my hair. it was nice ..."

I'd just like to state for the record that I have never used Mr A as a pillow and he's never stroked my hair.

Holiday season

That's it for me, no more work until the 5th of January. God I'm tired ...

Think all those late nights on World of Warcraft are catching up with me. So why am I thinking of going back in there ? I must be mad. [gibber][gibber][gibber]

Please wait a moment until reality is resumed.

Ahhh - that's better. Had my first lazy night for quite a while. Got home, got pizza, put Spiderman on (had that for ages, not watched it) and just generally chilled out. Was thinking about putting Spiderman 2 on as well as a back to back but I'm struggling to keep my eyes open.
Hmm. England game tomorrow, Loafy Thursday, up norf to the parents place on Friday. Must find time to wrap the prezzies and find room under the tree. Doh ! Mustn't forget the rest of the Xmas shopping tomorrow and Kong tomorrow night. CQ would never forgive me. Hmm. Maybe she will, I already have her present(s). Ok - Rca would never forgive me.

Wonder how they're getting on in Molten Core. There was another trip in there tonight that I could have gone on but I'd have needed the Coffee IV to keep me paying attention. Does them good to go in there without me every so often, although I like to think I make it a little easier for the raid leaders. I think I have fans ... I'm not sure if this will work due to access permissions but here goes :

http://www.guildlink.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=790

Wherever you see Iceangel in that thread, they're talking about me. I have fans. That's so cool :-) Maybe my fans are why I'm thinking about going back in.

Feast of Winter Veil

Is something that's hit World of Warcraft at the moment. Kinda like a Christmas thing.

Anyway, one of the new seasonal things they've put in is a quest describing the history behind the Feast of Winter Veil. It has you taking a book from one city to another. Most people won't read that book, which means potential Easter Eggs !

What's just made me laugh is the final page :
"Modern Day Observation

Other cultures have begun to recognize the Feast of Winter Veil as a time of great celebration, though not in the same traditions as the legend bases it in. Customs, often unrelated to anything other than a chance for celebration and gift exchange have made their way into modern day observation of the season. Even the image of Greatfather Winter is sometimes use, but more as a harbinger of commercial exploit rather than as a supernatural titan."

Yes folks, Santa Claus does exist, he's standing in front of the Orgrimmar Auction House at the moment.

Oops

Lesson for today :

If you put a pot of butter on top of the central heating boiler in the morning to make it soft enough to make toast within an hour or so of putting it there, don't forget about it until the evening.

"I can't believe it's not Butter" wasn't impressing me that much anyway ...

Gonna have to work on my people skills

I was on World of Warcraft this morning (only just, but 11.55 counts) and was hoping to help someone through a task. Person didn't appear (I think I know why - her sisters don't like her playing WoW) so I didn't get the chance to make her insanely jealous due to my second character's outfit.

"Person" plays a character called Tula, who everyone on the server loves because of her having one of the most playful, fun, beautiful spirits you'll ever hope to find. However, she's also a schoolgirl in the Netherlands, so the phrase "... Is Not A Hottie" comes to mind. Anyway, Tula's other name is the Dancing Girl, hence the jealousy over the outfit ...

What's so special about the outfit ? It caused enough of an impression in the bank the other night to earn a few slappings from the girl who was in there because it was making the male characters go blind ... Think chainmail bikini and you're close. The amusing thing is that the top half was good enough to be picked as an item I used for about 6 whole levels and I didn't know how little there was of it until my curiosity made me take the tabard (overtunic) off. Kinda shows what kind of things go through game designers minds when they're making outfits for the girls. I have to admit, I had to cheat to find an item for the lower half, there wasn't anything available where I could get away with saying "I actually used that !".

People skills - there's an unfortunate bunch of people in WoW who believe in powerlevelling everything involved in the game. Trouble is, that includes things like guild ranks too ... Guild rank effectively means nothing, as we've disabled most of the stuff that makes higher ranks special. Only about 6 characters can invite new people in, another privilege is Officer Chat, which we never use. So when you can see there's no point in giving promotions out, and the logical conclusion from giving in to one hassler is getting more hassle, people asking get annoying ... I probably upset one person today by making a new lowest-of-the-low rank called "PromotionHunter" and demoting him into it as soon as he asked for promotion. If he goes, it'll be no loss cos he doesn't get involved in the guild stuff anyway. Didn't even know about the website.

Ah well - munchies time while I wait for a few people to sort themselves out. Hope our Dancing Girl is ok.

PS I play mostly girl characters on WoW because they look better :-) And you're looking at your WoW character for a rather looong time while playing.

Been quiet ...

So what have I been up to ? For one thing, avoiding looking at Blogging while at work ... People with pointy sticks they are itching to use seem to be taking a dislike to it.

But mainly, World of Warcraft ... it's been getting busy in there again. And fun, now that we've got the Mercenaries back to a mob who get on without constant "Promote me!" (why?) and "Give me money!" (earn it)

And we're getting stuff done in there as well. Our people and the Guildlink people took down two more "bosses" yesterday, one of which caused much hilarity because we kinda beat it by accident.

Also in the news, I was hoping to have a match report posted last week on the indoor cricket - just one slight problem though - the other team didn't turn up. Grr.

Xmas party at work today. Which meant I got to talk to people, including the more attractive ones. Always worth it :-) More soon.

Long time no blog ...

[chuckle] Cos I've been hitting things in World of Warcraft and having too much fun in there ...

Yep - seems like the fun element has come back in. Dunno where it went to in the first place. Oh I do - it came out because we seemed to be under siege in our own guild. But the people we didn't like very much have left or been thrown out, leaving good people behind. We've lost one good person in the process though, which is a shame. He's left to go back to another massive multiplayer online game called Eve. [chuckle] He's also looking to get back to real life :-)

Didn't really notice the fun coming back in either, although the wins in the 40 v 40 person battleground might have had something to do with it. Tunnel vision striking I think, leaving a sense of achievement when the tunnel clears.

Anyway, I've been away due to some intense World of Warcraft and now I'm wondering why I've just eaten my dinner just 18 hours before a game of indoor cricket tomorrow. That game is far too addictive when you're having fun in it.

Oh yeah - new toy alert ! I got me a webcam.

PS I enjoyed the new Harry Potter film too, although I get the feeling that if I'd read the book, I'd have felt as if there was a massive amount missing.

All quiet in WoW land

My personal theory, I think the non-player inhabitants bribed the Blizzard people to show some mercy by not bringing the Maelstrom (our server) back online with the rest of them.

This is a list of the server status http://img488.imageshack.us/my.php?image=servers2rx.jpg which shows people being able to play wow everywhere except where my guild's people are and

http://tinypic.com/i23e42.jpg

Is from a few of our people putting up their own little protest.

Ah well, it's given me a chilled out night when I've been able to natter to people, listen to a little music and maybe get to bed before midnight :-).

Time for a new toy

And what shall it be ...

I already have plans to build a new computer after Xmas strikes as my current one is starting to really struggle, even before I up the screen size with a TFT screen.

Nah. Could be getting a webcam, after being on MSN with someone last night who also had a webcam. Definitely adds something being able to see the other person smile when they read a daft comment that you just typed. And it would let me return the favour as well. Especially as the last picture I have of me is rather embarassing. It's from before the last cricket season, so I was probably slightly above 14 stone at that point ... (lost half a stone now - my belt feels looser already !)

What colour should your blog be ?

Spotted this one on Craziequeen's Blog and couldn't resist seeing what it said ...

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Wonder what I'd have to say if to get a "your blog should be green" answer ? Hmm. Bears some experimenting. Hmm. Yey ! Changed my answers slightly and got :

Your Blog Should Be Green

Your blog is smart and thoughtful - not a lot of fluff. You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas. However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Just come back from our Mall. I managed to avoid spending anything on myself. This can be an economical time for me - I ban myself from impulse buys. Apart from David Weber's The Apocalypse Troll, which could be interesting. I now have everyone's Xmas cards. Muahahaha !

(Better mark who they go to, I always forget)

Anyone know a good UK ISP ?

I've been experiencing the "expert" customer service from Blueyonder. Phase 1 - nationwide upgrade. Woo hoo ! 4Mb for the price I was paying for 512kb when I got broadband originally.

Erm - why is my internet disconnecting so much ? Most of the time it's ok but then you get the disconnects, which is usually in the middle of a fight in World of Warcraft. ARG ! Says my character as she dies.

So I look on the status page and it tells me (message gone now) that there's a problem at my location. Looking further, it tells me that the problem has been resolved and they're looking into what's causing it. If they haven't nailed down the cause, why have they marked it as resolved ? Grr.

Next step - I use their support page to tell them I'm not happy. (Giving their number as the number to call of course, I don't want them telling me about their problem, I just want it fixed ...) I get an email back saying "The fault that this Ticket referred to has been resolved. If you are still seeing problems there may be another cause, and as such we will require diagnostics showing the problem. We can then take the issue further." They haven't yet replied to the "If the ticket has been resolved, why am I still having connection issues ?" They also don't tell people how to provide the diagnostics. Wonder if they would reply if I sent them a few links with cut price ADSL offers.

Ah well - munchies and then maybe some more World of Warcraft. The disconnection thing just got me rather irritated yesterday because it was happening when I was supposed to be bodyguarding for a group of people from another guild. Bit embarassing when your warrior can't do that due to frequent disconnects. I have two characters I play a lot - Iceangel the mage and damage dealer plus Bashara the warrior, who's job is to get bashed a lot ... (she's the bodyguard)

PS I play girl characters because girl characters look better.

Reporting from the Molten Core ...

Or, from the depths of Blackrock Mountain, where you don't have to worry about having a woolly jumper. No snow down there ... It be a bit warm.

Molten Core is the second hardest raid instance* in World of Warcraft, it needs 40 people working together in harmony, getting the absolute best out of what their characters can do. It's tough ... This was only our third run inside, so we're still learning how to beat it.

Impressive run tonight, the dog packs that had us for lunch last time (they need special tactics) found themselves turned into kebabs ... My Iceangel character was getting chubby, although being undead you can still see the ribs sticking out. And the elbows ... and the knees ... (will have to post a pic sometime)

First boss, Lucifron, was summarily dealt with and one of the really good items that dropped went to a guildmate, so that's me happy. Also happy that even without spending loads of time in the game hunting the best gear, I did the 5th most damage of the 40. Managed to get in the thick of it and cause major chaos, mayhem and destruction. Definitely a happy me. And it was good to hear our Overqueen laughing away too, although it seems that she has more trouble fending off her cat than in keeping the warriors alive. My character's there to do damage, the Overqueen is there to heal the warriors that are supposed to take the damage.

Excellent run, we're going to be hitting it again on Sunday.

* a raid instance is an area in the game where you have privacy. Each group that goes in has their own copy of the instance, so groups don't interfere. It also limits the number of people who can take on the instance. In the case of Molten Core, it's a full 40 person raid.

PS They should make another high end instance in somewhere snowy, so you can melt snowmen.
PS2 I can go to bed now ! Brian Lara just got out after passing Alan Border to become the highest run scorer in Test cricket. Good on 'im :-) I was hoping he'd go on to beat the 400 he scored against England but that's not to be.

Yey ! Friday

And Friday means bacon sarnies. Bacon makes me go hyperactive. I like bacon.

Also had the first snow of this season, hoping to get a photo prepped and posted later. It's on my digital camera at home and I have to do a couple of edits to it because I'm not sure that my neighbours would like their car registration plates on the internet !

In the meantime, here's a picture of snow, courtesy of Aginoth.

Glad I've managed to resist the temptation of changing car, my Puma's traction control came in handy this morning. Didn't notice the anti-lock brakes kicking in but I was being careful.

Just thinking politics and saw ...

From Cricinfo, Tatenda Taibu quits as an international.

Who is Tatenda Taibu ? He was the person chosen to head up Zimbabwe cricket on the field as captain, after that nation's cricket suffered a mass walkout of almost all of the senior players. When he got the call, he stepped up and led the remains of that team like an absolute hero, picking it up by the scruff of the neck. When the team didn't perform, he did. And he performed rather well.

Taibu came in as an 18 year old against the West Indies and despite playing in a team that was hopelessly outclassed on all occasions, managed a batting average of just under 30, which is decent for any international keeper. And that average went up to 37 as captain. What marks that achievement even more is that he was also a very young captain, taking on the captaincy at 21. And it's not easy to bat in a side where you're more worried about the fragility of partners than you are about just getting on and getting the big score.

I've been pretty mild about the politics aspect of this so far and intend to stay that way. Everyone knows what's going on in Zimbabwe (at least what we've been told about it) so I don't need to repeat that ;-). Anyway, Cricinfo covers the politics background far better than this humble player can. I just think this particular player (Taibu) needs his own slice of recognition and credit for being able to perform at that high level, despite the peer pressure from former teammates and the greater pressures from his cricketing masters. It's quite sad that someone has been forced to quit by people who aren't interested in cricket as a game to be loved.

You could even describe it as one man, left stranded on his own and caught out in the middle after fending off the bouncers.

What's in a name ?

One or two visitors may be wondering where the name of the Blog came from ... Not the Sleepypete bit but the Iceangelthemerc bit ...

Around 8 months ago, a group of people from work got the idea that it would be a good idea if they could help each other out on the online game World of Warcraft. We'd start up new characters on a new server, band together and get ahead by sorting things out between us. The new server was The Maelstrom and the guild name we chose was the Mercenaries Of Darkness. Or rather, one fella suggested it and it was a dark enough name that we jumped on it. I like the name. Seems like a few other people do as well, as we've seen other guilds spring up since with similar names. Army of Mercenaries and Legionnaires of Darkness. Oh yeah, we play as the Horde, aka the Bad Guys. My main character is undead, with the 3 other Horde races being Trolls, Orcs and Tauren. You'll have a fair idea of what trolls, orcs and undead will be like, the lesser known ones are the Tauren which are modelled on big, bipedal cows.

To play on World of Warcraft, you need to pick a class as well as a race and my first and main character is Iceangel, the undead mage. Mages specialise in doing damage on a grand scale over multiple targets, the trouble is that if anything even waves a pointy stick vaguely in their direction, they'll go down like the proverbial feather. Answer - don't get hit ! (I'm getting better at that).

Could have been worse - Iceangel was nearly called Darkangel but I figured that was a bit too close to a TV series character. Iceangel has worked out to be a pretty decent name. I have a few more characters but because I'm limiting my WoW time a little more now, I don't get to play them too often. After last night's marathon, I've managed to avoid WoW completely tonight, currently chillin', writing blog, with Madonna's Ray of Light on in the background.

Arg ! I've been digressing again ... You may have noticed the link to the guild, Mercenaries of Darkness. Unfortunately, we're having a bit of a leadership led coup at the moment to get things little more under control, hence some of the messages on the front page. We started up with a pretty free recruitment policy, which means more likelihood of picking up bad eggs. We've got rid of most of those now, shame that we didn't act sooner because we lost a couple of other people who I'd have liked to keep. However, I'm fairly happy that we can get back to monster thumping, with a relaxed, happy guild. We'll see how it pans out over the next week or so. [fingers crossed!]

Anyway, that's where Iceangelthemerc comes from, it was the first attempt to get a Blogger login name that worked out of the many attempts ... Somebody had already beaten me to Sleepypete.

Last bit - I can't mention World of Warcraft and the guild without mentioning Guildlink. As far as we know, nothing like Guildlink has happened on any WoW server. Guildlink is a collection of the smaller guilds, coming together so that we have a chance at hitting the big end of game dungeons. The one we're going to hit tomorrow, Molten Core, needs 40 people. The Mercenaries only average round 15-20 at peak time, so we'd have no chance of hitting Molten Core on our own. We're part of the engine room of Guildlink though and there will be around 6-7 small guilds, including the Mercenaries, in the group tomorrow. Should be fun. First time there, we did a huge amount better than everyone was expecting (killed the first Big Monster) and definitely better than the latest "big" guild to try on our server. They didn't even get to that first big monster. I've also linked the Guildlink forum page, which is the place we use to get organised for group stuff, swap tactics or generally have a natter about the game. All credit to the person behind the character Sarai for setting all that up as well as the calm, controlled and fair way she looks after it. With the 200+ people with accounts, you can probably guess the influence the odd politician is having on it ...

Today must be a good day

The reason ?

I get to talk to sweet, attractive people ! First opportunity was this morning as a happy side effect of being in bed too long. Meant I got to walk in from the car park (decent way in our car park) with said person who was also late in for work. She'd just flown back from one of our other offices the night before.

And just now, I got to talk to sweet, attractive person again when fetching my lunch.

Must be a good day. The sun's come out as well.

Almost forgot the IT Girl, who is also sweet and attractive and one of the better reasons for working where I work. [throws evil grin at the IT Girl, who's probably giving the game away by blushing like a beetroot on reading this]

PS The raid on Darnassus last night was fun. It was planned in secret, with the subterfuge working like a charm. We managed to smuggle in 40 of our people into one of the enemy's capital cities without them noticing. Didn't manage to take out the leader though. (Yep - this is a World of Warcraft PS, readers may need to get used to those ...) Alterac Valley afterwards was fun though. Went in at about 8.30-9pm and finished the battle at 3.30am. Horde (my side) for the win :-)

Music in my head

You know the way you can get a catchy tune running around in your head ?

I have two.

On the one hand, I have the Youssou N'Dour track from the early days of Civ 4. Not complaining, I like it. And it's different to what I usually listen to ... (I like variation) But it drives me nuts a bit because it's on a short loop.

On the other hand, and making a valiant attempt to supplant it, is Adam and the Ants, Kings of the Wild Frontier. Specifically, Dog Eat Dog, which is the opener to that album. Heh heh heh, I just happen to be encouraging the Adam and the Ants by playing it numerous times. I only bought it last week.

Must get myself back onto listening to Alisha's Attic.

Gotta work on that TTLB thing ...

I am not a microbe, I am a free man !

Coming clean

Ok ... so what was I up to on Sunday morning to get my body complaining at me for lying on the kitchen floor in weird and wonderful positions ...

Installing a washing machine !

First step - the oo eck, something's not right here. Last washing machine decided to have multiple things go wrong at the same time. It shredded a door seal and was making the house power trip ... And the last load I put through included a fleece that took 2 days to dry. So it was time to spend money.

Sunday morning - new toy appears and because of insurance, I have to disconnect the old one. First panic, where's me grippers ! Is this another miscellaneous item that got removed from the house by my ex ? Perhaps. I had to borrow some off the delivery people. Problem number one ...

I got me a leak. Next 30 minutes, maybe an hour, were spent with me on the kitchen floor with my finger in the end of the hot water pipe as the tap wouldn't fully close. I got my washing machine fitted though, basic engineering skills really help out sometimes :-) It worked too and didn't flood the house when I put a test wash through it. Bonus ! It's a Whirlpool washer and after putting the test load in and seeing it disappear in the cavern of a drum, I started thinking that I should have got a washer/dryer.

And when I told one of the World of Warcraft people about it, I got an offer to go to her house and lie on her kitchen floor in weird and wonderful positions. Wonder what she meant ...

Anyway, even the strangest comment can have a perfectly simple explanation behind it, especially when it's me making the strange comment.

My laptop is slow

Currently putting Civilisation 4 on my laptop, Minibox. Which means I'm getting distracted into a little bit of housekeeping ... You see, this laptop used to get used by my partner, who left 6 months ago. Ever since then, it's been looking for a use. I've managed to use it to resurrect some games that don't like my main pooter (Guilmon, to be renamed Godzilla), so it hasn't been completely idle.

Anyway, this post is brought to you courtesy of a Sleepy person sitting in front of the telly with a laptop on his lap (where else!). Oh look ! Pakistani cricket cheating again*. Fella called Shahid Afridi taking advantage of a break in play to scuff up the pitch to help his bowling. Ah well, he just got banned for the next couple of games. Silly boy. Not as good as the fella in the Lincolnshire leagues who got himself banned for 2 whole seasons, with his club's two teams relegated two whole divisions ... each ! Their captain headbutted an umpire. It was the right kind of punishment to give out, trouble is that the relegation just meant that there were a couple of mega powered teams working their way up the leagues over the next few seasons having easy games. Including the game against us where I was fifth out, top scoring with 7. I made the mistake of panicking, thinking I should try and push the scoring on before I ran out of partners. Our team scored 19 all out ... That game didn't last long.

Poor old Minibox is still doing its housekeeping and I should really be going to bed now ... Just one more turn on Civ 4, which isn't even installed yet. Hope I get up in time to get a space in the car park tomorrow ...

*Cheating cricketers. I was hoping Ian Bell would stay in the England team this time instead of Paul Collingwood, Bell is coming to terms with being an international quite well, whereas Collingwood hasn't done nearly well enough with the bat. Trouble is, Ian Bell claimed a catch in this game that would have been ruled out with video refs ... The scoreboard says that he did catch the ball ... but doesn't record that he dropped it after before picking it up off the ground. Ho hum. Things like that even out after time and I'm not convinced that the other side had a legal catch on one of their wickets.

PS I like cricket, I could natter for hours about it ... Or at least the time needed for Minibox to do its housekeeping.

Hello World

First entry from me :-) Who am I ? That can wait. Where did I come from ? That too. Why am I here ?

Blame Aginoth ! (I like Agi really, he bought me a good book for my birthday)

Things will be a little bare here until I figure out what to do with Blog pages, so I'll keep it short by just saying where the Blog name comes from ... My alter ego is an undead girlie called Iceangel, in the game World of Warcraft (WoW). I'm the guildmaster of a guild set up by people at work. I just happened to be the best powergamer when we started, spending the most time on there, getting to a position where we could set things up. So I ended up being the GM. Things are going well for the guild, we're part of a unique gathering of small guilds that come together to do the end game content. Imagine the chaos that could ensue when 40 characters come together ... That's us ! But it's not as chaotic as it could be because we have good leadership.

Anyway ... hello world. Back for more later after I get more sleep.

PS OW. Still sore after lying on the kitchen floor in weird and wonderful positions yesterday morning. Back hurts.