Why I race, and do not just run

Recently on Twitter, Cedric lamented someone asking him, "Why do you have to do races, why not just run?"  If I recall correctly, he wasn't quite sure of how to answer that.  When I saw it, I knew I immediately had to write something.  Fortunately, a long journey home from Maui has allowed me to do just that (check my Twitter feed for lovely sunset/rainbow pictures).

Why do runners do races, and not just run?  For me, the answers are almost equally valid, and all equal parts.

1.  Races test you better than some, if not all, training runs.

A lot of training runs are not at your race distance.  Marathons, for example.  You'll infrequently run 26.2 miles unless you HAVE to do so. Sure, you COULD, but you won't run as fast, because, as is well-documented, without sufficient support and nutrition, human bodies typically exhaust all stored glycogen after 20 miles (the usual max distance for marathon training runs).

Also, even if you're training for a 10-mile race, why not just run 10 miles?  Actually, many people DO run 10 miles in training for a race.  So it's not an either/or proposition.  So answer #1 is, "I do run the same distance as some races.  I don't consider that I have to choose between them.  I do both."

2.  Race support will always top a fuel belt of water, and some Gu packets.

At races, you have tables of volunteers passing you cups of water, Gatorade, Powerade, and even beer (sometimes).  You have bands playing music, celebrating your very public attempt to complete a distance that some people wouldn't even consider.

Running on your own requires you to pack all that stuff onto your waist/back.  You still have to CARRY the bottles, even after you've had their contents.  You need to find trash cans after you've taken nutrition.

In a race, you actually GET to throw them to the ground (although, surprise, I'm type-A enough that I wait until the end of the volunteer lane and throw my stuff in the trash cans). You also get much more support than you would from a training run:  food waiting at the finish, medical attention right there if you need it, and sometimes even a UPS truck with your extra clothing waiting for you, which they've checked/stored for you while you raced.

So answer #2 is, you typically get phenomenally better run support at races than you ever would at a training session.  Pampering, almost.

3.  You will typically race faster than you will ever train.

Sure, we all do "Tempo" paces.  We run hard at intervals.  We also might even pick a bike/runner ahead of us, and think, "I'm going to keep at it until I catch/pass that one ahead of me."  But, in the back of your mind, you know that you don't really HAVE to do that.  Because it's NOT a race. That person ahead of you could have just gotten on the trail, or might be finishing up a huge session.  There's no real meaning to cranking up your pace.

But, in a race, it is Showtime.  Dress rehearsal and Table Reads are over (thinking of you, the Galadriel-eque Pia Glenn).  Every second literally counts.  You have a chip on your shoe/bib that's tied to a clock, which will result in a public statement that, "It took [this person] X time to complete Y distance."  Like it or not, for most people, this will be the fastest you will ever go compared to training runs.  You'll push.  You'll grind.  You'll (try to) ignore pains.  Because regret will last longer than pain will.  And you WON'T have strollers, kids, cars, or whatever stepping in front of you.  The paths will be clear.

Answer #3 boils down to, "Racing prompts me to go my fastest possible, and ensures a clear, safe path, without interference."

4.  Racing presents an opportunity to gauge yourself against others.

You might chat with people at a water cooler.  If you're into "LogMyRun," or "RunKeeper," or any of the social running stuff that I see people post, that's fine, and you can see how others are doing.  But, it's not as accurate.  Because you're reading about people of different sexes.  Different ages.  Different distances.  

A race will not only give you an overall finish time/pace, but it will also tell you how you fared in comparison to people of your sex and age group.  To what end?  Probably, nothing.  But if you're genuinely curious, it will answer that question.  The good news is that except for a small handful of people, the front-of-the-pack runners get the same swag as those who just make it under the time deadline.

So it's almost minor, but answer #4 is, "It allows me to gauge my performance compared to others." 

5.  Races provide motivation for training.

You circle a date on your calendar.  The race looms.  You have told people you're going to try to race it.  They're going to ask you if you did it.  Why do people take on workout partners?  Motivation.  Why do we do races?  There you go.

Answer #5 is, "It's an ominous/exciting motivator.  Plus, you know, I coughed up money for the thing, so I'm damn well doing it.  You can't wear the race t-shirt until you finish the race."

Note:  If someone goes to a nice restaurant, we don't ask them, "Why did you go to that steakhouse?  You could just grill a steak, couldn't you?"  Seems silly that we are asked these questions about racing.

6.  Races are akin to a public demonstration of healthiness.

We have protests for everything nowadays.  Protests to DO something.  Protests to STOP doing something.  Protests of things that hardly seem worth getting worked up over.  But a race is, to a curious degree, another demonstration.  

It's an opportunity for people who are into fitness and health to say, "We are tacking this distance.  It's a long way for a lot of us.  Some of us aren't sure if we can even DO it, but we're going to try.  Because we want to be healthy, and we don't care who knows it."

And it really is, isn't it?  Some people collect shot glasses.  Others collect beer growlers.  Others collect SUPER VINTAGE ACTION FIGURES, OMG THEY ARE --NOT-- DOLLS, MOM!  

Sorry.

Anyway.

My office has it's own "ego wall."  A couple of college degrees.  A law school diploma.  A bar license.  Even a personally handwritten letter from Janet Reno I'd received shortly after taking my Dept. job, discussing a law review article I'd written.  But it also has race swag.

[u]Prominent[/u] race swag.  For instance, it has side-by-side medals of the first two Marine Corps Marathons I'd ever run.  The ones where I'd barely trained beyond 8-12 miles at a clip, and then ran them faster than many people who DO train for them.  They were my first, and are some of my fondest.  I also have a substantial shadow box with memorabilia from running The Dopey Challenge (sometimes called "The Goofy Challenge" at Disney World).

What are those things?  Public affirmations that I put my money where my mouth is.  They aren't just banners of sports teams I like, or signed jerseys.  They are things that say, "I am into this running thing, and sometimes even Triathlons.  I'm trying.  I'm not the best, because none of these are "1st place" medals, but they damn well show I finished.  And they show I put in the time/effort to TRAIN for doing these things in the first place.  In a pool.  On a bike.  On a running trail.  Or all 3.

So no, answer #6 is, "No, I don't win any of these races, but I do finish them.  And I'm proud to show that I can DO these events.  How many mementos of finishing races do you have?  Are you able to do those things?  (Possible answers: "Sorry you're unable," or "So you just choose not to because watching tv is more fun?").

This isn't to rub someone's nose in it.  It's to say, "No, I don't win these races.  But I'll always place ahead of someone on a couch."

That is, until they give medals for eating Doritos.

Thanks for the blog idea, Cedric.  Just send them here if they ask you again!

My review of the Zombies, Run! app -- good for casual runners, but NOT for avid runners

Zombies, Run! is an app for iPhone and Droids, and is essentially a game you can play while running.

If you're already familiar with The Walking Dead, you know about the whole (modern era) Zombie Craze (World War Z seems to have spurred the whole thing).  I'm just "Meh" on zombies.  They seem like the Pabst Blue Ribbon of monsters -- overrated, and favored by hipsters.  But, I do think The Walking Dead is a good show.  So, when this app, which retails for about $8, was on sale for about $4, I took a shot with it.

The app/game itself is a serial story, combined with an app for tracking your running speed/distance, and rewarding you for doing so, by giving you useful (virtual) items for your home "town" (outpost, really).  The more you run, the more stuff you are told that you have collected, and the more your town grows.  Then, as the missions get tougher, the better equipped you are to build up your town.

Along the way, however, you will receive notification of "WARNING:  ZOMBIES DETECTED" and you will be prompted to increase speed (or else the zombies will take your items, they never do bite you).  The app is designed that you can (1) turn OFF the chases if that freaks you out too much, or (2) if you walk only, the chases won't start (there are minimum/maximum speeds for Zombie chases).

You can run your own music through the app, via your iPhone, for instance, and it will shuffle songs for you.  The storyline works itself in, pretty much in between each song.

So far, so good.  It's fairly straightforward, and will remind you of the MP3 training programs that mix in a coach working you through interval training.  I know that years ago, Chris Carmichael did some interval training/coaching via MP3s (where he interviewed *cough*LanceArmstrong*cough*).

The trick with the zombie chases is that you're supposed to REALLY speed up for about a minute.  BUT, if you're already running fast, you will NOT attain the necessary speed to evade the zombies, and will thus lose the items you've dutifully collected while running.  For instance, if you're running at an 8:30 min/mile pace, you need to crank all the way up to 6:00 min/mile, possibly faster at times, to evade.  If you run about a 10-11 min/mile, you can go up to 8:10-8:15 min/mile, and will evade them.

Now I'm all for "race pace equality."  If you're out there running, I don't care if it's 10 min/mile, all the way up to 13-14 min/mile, YOU ARE A RUNNER.  Pace is irrelevant.

BUT -- bear in mind - if you're running 6:00 min/mile, you're going to look, unless you're wearing Kenyan/Ethiopian garb, like you're in a full-out, blazing pursuit (or fleeing zombies).  The PROBLEM with that is, let's face it, you're not actually doing that.  Ethiopians, Kenyans, and those people who weigh as much as the club sandwich I had for today's lunch can go that fast with seemingly no effort.  Not "us."

WE are likely on a running trail, with bikers, walkers, children on little bikes, and even dogs on leashes.  You do NOT want to crash into them and say,

"Sorry, I was pretending to run from zombies, and this app requires me to go WAY faster than I ever should in order to do that, but I didn't want to lose this set of batteries.  What set of batteries?  Oh, they're pretend too.  Why are you laughing?"

Or, we are (even worse) on a sidewalk, with cars, pedestrians, and hipsters with dry cleaning.  As much fun as it might be to plow into them, that's again not practicable.

I can tell you that from my perspective, as a 181lb guy running on the National Mall, I turned a LOT of heads, not in a good way, as I was cranking in the 6:00 min/mile range trying to escape a zombie (and WTF failing?!).  The problem was that I had increased my speed earlier in the run to around 8:20 min/mile, and so the app thought I could/should go even faster.  But I already looked like I wasn't training/running, so much as trying to catch a bus (or evade a mugger).  Or, you know, being over 180lbs, trying to get to a McDonald's before they stopped serving breakfast.

So, what the app does is essentially require you to run slower during the "normal" times in order to keep your "chase pace" manageable.  Otherwise, you'll just lose all your stuff.  Serious runners doing Tempo work, Strideouts, or even an LSR won't find themselves in sync with this app.  It's a lovely fitness idea for casual runners, who might be just trotting alone, finding their stride.  But, if you are ALREADY cranking out at a fast clip (I mean, a 9:09 min/mile pace will get you a sub-4 hour marathon, something only like 33% of marathon runners can even complete), the app requires you to (almost) double down, and crank up to extremely fast speeds.  That's not only not realistic, you'll quickly start to SLOW yourself down for the bulk of your time, as you try and "trick" the app into thinking you are a slower runner, just to have room to crank up when the app wants you to run faster.

The app appears far more aimed at casual runners shambling their way off a couch, than runners with full-on training plans.  If you're looking for a way to shake up your training plan, this isn't it.

At least it only cost me 3 bucks instead of the $8 they normally charge.

P.S.  One thing -- here's how to "cheat" at "Zombies, Run!" if you're so inclined to do it.  It's not MUCH of a cheat, but it's a decent strategy.  First of all, let's assume you're able to run better than 10 minute miles  There IS a "minimum speed" you have to reach before the app will either give you reward items OR zombie chases, and that, in my testing, appeared to be 13:00 min/mile or better.  It could possibly be lower than that, but I went from 17-18 min/mile (walking) with nothing, to an attempted slow trot of 13:00.

(1) Anyway, you need to ignore what's being said to you by the characters.  They'll comment on your pace, exhort you to run like hell, and even say things like, "GO NOW!"

(2) Don't go.  If anything, slow up a bit, and listen.  You want to wait for a little series of beeps.  Once that's on, the Zombies are "chasing" you, and that's when the app will task you to go faster, and what the app ususally does is "sample" your speed, then calculate how much faster you need to go.  THAT is when you want to kick it up to a much faster sprint (be safe, of course).  Hold that for about one minute, and you should be all fine.

What you need to be aware of is that if you were running at 8:30-8:45/mile/min, you're almost certainly going to get "caught," unless you can really get down to the 6 minute mile range.  That might be do-able on a track (it is for me), but who wants to go to a track just to play this game?

I think the bottom line for this app is, "The newer to running you are, the better."  But after a while, you'll want to run, not just run when some pretend guy tells you to, just because there are some pretend zombies trying to get your pretend goodies.

Socially responsible comedy and Christian Rock are siblings.

I found the counterpart to "Christian Rock."  It's "socially responsible comedians."

A pox on both your houses.

Chick-Fil-A is not horrible. Well, not horrible enough to legislate against.

Disclaimer before you assume I'm Christian:  I am (by the popular view of the definition) Agnostic.  Basically, everything Neil DeGrasse Tyson says in this 3 minute video is pretty much how I feel:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSMC5rWvos

Anyway.

Obviously, people are, or should be aware of the firestorm that was caused when the President of Chick-Fil-A, Dan Cathy, said that his company had donated $$ towards causes that rallyed against same-sex marriage.  He did so based on his (kinda silly) religious beliefs, but fine.

In an earlier post,  I laid out why (1) I support same sex marriage, but (2) would rather all governments just recognize civil unions, regardless of sex, to avoid equal protection problems.

So.  Let me get this "straight" (ha!):  Because I favor same-sex marriage, I should boycott Chick-Fil-A until THEY favor those marriages too, or at least until they shut up about not supporting them, right?

That's so wrong.

I patronize many companies.  If I were to scrutinze each company's social policies to match my particular viewpoint, I'd likely go hungry, not have as many cool gadgets as I like, and would almost certainly be pants-less.  And really, who wants to see THAT?  (Calm down, Marcus Bachmann)

Seriously, though -- Nike?  Almost ANY clothing manufacturer?  Apple?  How about the recognition that MOST corporate CEOs are super conservative themselves, and no doubt direct the money they earn from their jobs to conservative causes?  How about toys for your kids?  Are any NOT made in China, a repressive regime that routinely works to undermine this country while owning us at the same time?  Do we have to boycott companies that use products made in China?  Do we have to boycott them all?  That's wholly unrealistic, although it would delight me if a company promoted that their products were Made in the USA. 

By the way, at the place you buy GASOLINE(!?) do they also sell cigarettes?  How do you sleep at night, knowing you killing the environment/animals/air or whatever.  Is it fair for anyone to assume you HATE the environment because you buy gasoline (hell, or even tobacco?).  Or, just maybe, could it be a little much?

Anyway, this outrage over CFA is a little contrived:

First of all, who was genuinely surprised by CFA's stance?  They're closed on Sundays!  They make a point of saying why they are closed on Sundays (family, worship, apple pie, all that crapola).  Of COURSE the founders/leaders aren't down with same-sex marriage!  You just figured that out because of the interview?

Next, the reaction by some political leaders to fall all over themselves telling CFA that they WON'T let them do business in their cities is outrageous.  Hey Rahm Emanuel, you have a drug/murder problem in your city, but you want to take a stance against a LAWFUL business?  A business that makes a point to serve anyone, without regard to their stance? 

I have friends who own guns.  Should I assume they support the NRA completely?  Should I assume they oppose ALL gun control?  What if they DID oppose all gun control?  I might think them mistaken, but the logical leaps I might choose to take over that single piece of info would be unwarranted, and decidedly unskeptical.  Gun ownership is LEGAL.  Someone choosing to buy a gun doesn't make them supportive of all bad things OTHER gun owners say/do.  Why is it different with a chicken sandwich?

The forthcoming boycott/"let's-all-go-eat-at-CFA" events (both happening on the same day, 1 August 2012) is just silliness a little much.  Eat there if you like the food, don't if you don't.  Or don't if you don't like how they spend their profits.  Eat there if you hate "teh gayz" and want to support them.  This is the United States, you have that right to act within the law.

The founder had the right to voice his opinion.  People have the right to boycott . . . but this business of trying to PREVENT business is nonsense.  THAT is what upsets me the most.

I don't even eat at CFA that often, but if I were going to eat fast food, it's the place I'd choose.  The chicken is tasty, the lower-calorie options are good, their restaurants are often SPOTLESS (can you say that about some of the shadier McD's?), and their employees are straight out of a 50s comic book, although they are often of diverse backgrounds.

Which reminds me -- are liberal groups going to target employees of CFA?  Why wouldn't they?  Why wouldn't we find store managers, folks who want to put food on their family's table (pun, sorry), and accuse them of being "hate merchants?"  Why are they going to even let line workers off the hook? 

Because -- that would be bad politics.  And that is what gets me -- this boycott/exhortation to eat there is all about politics.  No one was surprised by the stance, but now that the company president spoke up, people want to fall all over themselves to show that they're good liberals/conservatives.  To target some store manager, or line workers would create bad press, and undermine your position, despite it being consistent with the logic behind the reasons for the boycott.

So, no thank you.  I'll eat there when/if I feel like it (which admittedly hasn't been often at all, but my daughter does enjoy going as a treat, so that's not going to change).  I'll smile at the workers, they'll smile back, they'll say "my pleasure" EVERY time I say "thank you" (that's gotta be a corporate directive), and my daughter and I will enjoy some chicken. 

Just not that often.  Back to training again, so the fast food has to be limited.  Just not because I don't like where a company puts its money.

So if you catch me eating at a CFA, and want to ascribe a certain political/social bent to me because of that, you can be SURE I'll pick apart everything you're wearing or weilding, and we'll see whose hands are clean (hint:  nobody's).  Liberty means you get to eat at any lawful place of business you want.  If you can do so while wearing/using nothing from a company that does some sort of evil, enjoy.


Postscript:

Most of my friends online are left-leaning, so I will await unfriending/unfollowing/whatever over this.  I assure you -- I will be sorry to see you go, but if you go to the trouble to "alert" me that you're disassociating with me, I'll just roll my eyes at your outrage and block you.  I have zero problem with your disagreement, but if you want to end the association because of it, just do it, and save the drama for your other friends.

2009 Richmond Marathon Race Report

This is an old race report.  I'm going to post some of the ones from my older races as a bit of a clearinghouse.  I chose this one first, because it represents my PR in a Marathon.

Richmond Marathon 2009 race report

Or, how a chick named Ida really but a downer on my day . . .

I'd been watching the weather for Richmond for two weeks, while at the same time hearing from LOTS of people about Tropical Storm Ida, which was slamming into Virginia, sheeting rain, flooding, and generally causing havoc.  It missed the race itself, but the remnants of the good ol' Nor'Easter was still pretty obvious.  The James River was near flood level, prompting race organizers to plan a detour if necessary, the middle miles were awash in debris from the rain, and . . . it remained windy as, well, a Nor'Easter.  Not good.

After my Half in September (a 1:55), the MacMillian pace predictor said that I should run about a 4:03 marathon.  I figured that if I started training for Richmond in October (rather than my standard training for the January Dopey) I might be within striking distance of a sub-4 hour marathon.  Based on my training numbers, I think I was close, especially if conditions were ideal.

Hi, Ida.

Richmond was a fine course, and I really don't have a lot to quibble with them about.  But because of Ida, we had some oppressive winds, which we had to deal with at some pretty inopportune times. 

The first few miles (rougly 4) were right into a headwind, and I began a pretty earnest effort to avoid puddles, of where there were plenty.  I'm not sure how Richmond pulled off the race, actually, because the Governor wasn't THAT far away, inspecting disaster-area damage!

Anyway, by mile 6, we'd gotten out of the wind for a welcome respite, only to hit the first of quite a few significant hills on the course.  They don't LOOK horrible, but they feel especially awful in the later miles, and it just plain sucks to have an invisible hand pushing you in your chest while you're already trying to keep on pace AND climb.

Regardless, during my stretch from 7 to 12, I was back on pace, but not by a lot. We were down by the James River, and it was amazing to see (1) how high it was (it apparently missed flooding by a foot or two before the rain stopped), and (2) how much debris was everywhere.  Lots of felled trees, sticks, and mud.  Oh, the mud.  I was laughing to myself as a I saw how many people had mud on them, and wondered what they were doing, only to discover post race on the ride home, that the backs of my calves were LOADED with it.  Anyway, I was ahead of pace enough that I was thinking I might come in under 4, but was still worried about the later miles.  We'd had some climbs during 7 to 12 that were NOT fun, but I took a little solace that we were at least out of those winds for a bit.  Ida couldn't find us in the trees.

We came out of the woods, hit the halfway point, and turned towards the infamous Mile 15 Bridge of Doom.  This is where we met the winds AGAIN, and it was ridiculous.  Just gusting, blowing winds that you couldn't get away from.  My Garmin informs me that I pushed through it barely ahead of a sub-4 pace, but that illustrates the Hobson's Choice you have -- push through the wind and expend energy you need for later miles, or ease up, get pushed slower by the wind, and then have to expend a LOT of energy later to catch up.

After pushing on the bridge, I lost time on 16 catching my breath by easing up the pace, and had to work to make back some time from 17-18, even through they were hilly.  But, I re-caught the 4:00 pace group.  Just in time to again turn North into the headwinds, and life started to really suck again.  At this point, "option B" of the Hobson's choice showed why it is ALSO the wrong answer.  I had spent so much energy trying to get back on pace after slowing in the winds, that I was getting mauled by them again, and couldn't do much about it.

I continued to lose some time, and then, at mile 20, we had an uphill overpass, again with a strong headwind.  I was now a full minute off pace.  By mile 22, as we were out of the wind (I think?) but I was off-pace by a COUPLE of minutes, and had developed a pretty rough knot in my right calf.  It felt like a baseball under my skin.  My Garmin was going absolutely haywire trying to get a handle on my pace.  I'm not sure if it was the cloud cover from the storm, or my erratic pace, but it would go from the mid-7/mile, up to 10 minutes, back to the low 8s, and back to 10s, all in a short stretch.  I quit looking at it for pace guidance by that point, since I just couldn't trust what I was seeing.

So, I took my first walk break at 23, pretty much sick of my chest being buffeted, and literally laughing in disbelief that, despite my phone telling me the winds were supposed to be ONLY coming mainly from the North, we ALSO now had headwinds to contend with as we headed SOUTH.  The winds were truly a swirling mess out there today.  But, for a moment, when I started running again, I thought I could make up time and pull a rabbit out of my hat.  But as I quickly found out, I had just been beaten down with wind over the course of the race.  I lost even more time, as we had winds right up until mile 25, when ol' Ida finally cut us a break.  I skulked away with a finish just a few minutes over 4 hours.

I'm profoundly disappointed, but unlike a lot of past races, I'm not nearly as upset with myself.  You can't control the weather, and while we didn't run in the MIDDLE of a Nor'Easter, Ms. Ida definitely overstayed her welcome.  So it's like waiting to go to a baseball game, and then it's rained out.  The Dopey will not be an option for breaking 4, since I will have done 16 miles over the 2 days prior to the 26, so I'll settle for 4 and change and thank you all so very much for such kind e-mails and inquiries about my time. 

The results indicate that I finished exactly in the top 30% of all runners, which I'll take, although I wish the Chinese would hurry up with their reported weather control abilities.  I could have used a tailwind!  ;-)

One important lesson learned was this:  I ran though almost all water stops. I'd grab a cup, get a mouthful, toss, and then get another cup towards the exit of the water station for another cup.  I learned later that taking in not enough liquid likely had a great deal to do with my calf seizing up.  I won't make that mistake again.  Hydration, hydration, hydration.

Why I (usually) delete @replies on Twitter

You might notice that after we have a conversation on Twitter, if you check your timeline/mentions a month or two later, my replies might be gone.  I assure you this is NOT a sign of disrespect.  It's actually a deliberate choice, that was echoed in this guy's explanation:

http://carpeaqua.com/2011/12/28/the-social-networks/

The relevant portion of what he wrote is here:

I use Twitter as a smaller, creative outlet. I share links, write bad jokes and occasionally troll my followers for fun. I also obsessively delete replies after I am sure the person it is directed to has read it. When someone visits my Twitter profile for the first time I want them to decide whether to follow or not based on the content I produce, not the conversions I have with other users.

This is a good explanation for me (although I don't like to troll readers, so that's out).  I delete my own replies on Twitter because I like the notion that someone coming to my timeline for the first time can get a read on what kind of content I produce. 

The thing is, replies are just that -- my almost-private response to someone.  Once I know, or can reasonably expect, that they've seen it, I'm good.  If you see it because we both follow the same person, great.  But it's not there for everyone else.  It's just there to reply, and then I clear it out.  Apparently, and I didn't know this initially, many twitter comics clear replies out during the day too.  I think I put out some funny stuff, but it's not all meant as jokes.  Interesting, regardless.

I felt like I needed to post this, to explain why you won't see many replies left in my TL.  The usual exception to this rule is if my reply to a person furthers the point of a previous tweet, or stands on its own as content I'd like to use as an example of what I put out there.

A deletion is not in any way meant disrespectfully to the person I was replying to, and as you can see, it's a legitmate social media strategy.  My reply was meant just for YOU (unless I do the .@ thing).  So once I know you've seen it, I'll often delete, and feed my OCD need for a clean TL, as well as for the reasons above.

Getting Government out of the marriage business, and other Republican Strawmen

After last night's vote in NC adding "Amendment One" to the state Constitution, I have been seeing convservatives on Twitter now attacking a compromise position, i.e., Getting Government completely out of the marriage business.  Their arguments rely on strawmen.  They declare that it's a brainless idea, because after all . . . Taxes!  Child custody!  Fire!  Ducks!  Pancakes!  Anarchy!  But these are just strawmen arguments designed to end debate and go back to fightin' those pesky gays.

First, no one is credibly saying that we should take all licensing of ANY kind of union out of the government's hands, except, perhaps Ron Paul and his supporters (who are REPUBLICAN).  As much as I sympathize with many Libertarians who also hold this view, I see the need to still have some predictability when it comes to taxes, child custody, etc.  So with respect to the Ron Paul folks, I'll simply say that I disagree with you, but have nothing but respect for your position.

Anyway, all that would happen, under the suggestion that I support, is that the Government would license all Unions as "Civil Unions," without discriminating against whether they were same or different sex Unions.  The Government gets its license fee, contracts/child-care/custody/taxation but still has something to point to and say, "Yes you two are together, so we can understand that you want a tax break (or penalty!) etc. etc."

Also, the benefit to the compromise is that it avoids (continual) losses in Court finding that prohibiting Gay Marriage violates the US Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.  I'm not aware of a SINGLE court that has ever upheld banning gay marriage, and said that was A-OK under the Equal Protection Clause.  And don't give me that "THEY ARE ALL LIBERAL ACTIVIST JUDGES!!!!oneone"  That's nonsense.  Your position doesn't hold up in Court, in the intellectual crucible.

If the compromise were in place, you'd then have some fairly easy scenarios:

1)  If you were religious, and wanted to really drive home the point that you were together, you'd go to a church/temple/mosque/whatever and get MARRIED.  The license would provide that you could go do that.  Or, after obtaining the license, you could do it at the courthouse.  Whatever.  Your church would call you "married," and you could call yourself that if you wanted.  The Gov't would view you as being part of a civil union.

2) If you were Gay and religious, you could see if your church would marry you.  If your place of worship would not marry you, then tough luck.  You joined a place that looks on you as second class.  Maybe you ought to pick a different religion/place of worship.  You still have a Courthouse, or even a Country Club, to go have your wedding.  The Gov't would view you as being part of a civil union, just like Scenario #1.

3)  If you were NOT religious, then go get married/joined/hitched or whatever, and have a party.  Nothing would stop you from the colloquial "married," any more than anyone else.  You could call yourselves married, whatever.  But the Gov't would view you as being part of a civil union, just like Scenarios #1, and #2.

See that?  Equality?  Or does it burn you, social conservatives?  Like sunlight on Gollum?

Answer me this:  Why would it bother you SO MUCH if the Government thought of you the same way it thought of a gay couple, if only in terms of taxes and contracts?  Does that upset you SO MUCH that you couldn't allow a gay couple to enjoy the same happiness you have?  Really?

Do you NEED a pronouncement from the Government that you are "married?"  That WORD?  You really NEED that from the Goverment, is that your argument?  Because, there are a LOT of social conservatives that seem to want LESS Goverment, but on THIS issue (wow, that involves gays and religion), you suddenly will have a self-esteem crisis if Uncle Sam doesn't refer to your union as a marriage?  That's nonsense.

What this boils down to is pure hatred dislike of the gay lifestyle.  Some married couples don't WANT Gay couples saying they are "Married."  It irks them.  They, for some reason, want to hold it above Gays that they can do something Gays can't.  That's ludicrious.  Would your marriage's sanctity be SO affected if Gays had a church (like Unitarian), or a ceremony, and then called themselves "married?"  Would that bother you SO MUCH?  If it does, seriously, on that point, like it or not, you're a bigot.

So the conservatives out there who deride "getting government out of the marriage business" as leading to chaos without regulation are just arguing against a strawman.  No one is credibly saying that.  You just can't stand that Gays might be on equal footing with you, despite that pesky Constitution (hi Tea Partiers!) guaranteeing equality.

I'm done.  I kept trying to share links on Twitter, and then would see idiots Tweeps making some really intellectually dishonest strawman arguments about marriage, and the supposed call for NO government regulation of it.  I figured rather than search anymore, I'd write my own.

The Reason Rally comes to DC, where I live . . .

. . . and I'm going to miss it.  Really.

I looked forward to attending this, particularly since Rebecca Watson wasn't invited to speak.  I'm terribly sick of the "outrage prism" through which she views life, and feel certain much of it is designed to drive up page views.  She's not attending the Reason Rally because, as a non-speaker, she likely can't afford it.  But it smacks of, "If I can't be a star, I'm not coming to the show" type attitude.

Anyway, so I was psyched to go.  And, reading Twitter, many people I'd like to meet, including Tanya of http://daisiesandshit.com/ are here in DC.  Right.  Now.

But . . . .  Life.

My statement on the "Book of Mormon" Twitter List Debacle

I'm glad I still have this blog, because I can just tweet a link to various entries here, and (1) have my say in more than 140 characters, and (2) not subject my followers to multiple tweets complaining about being made to feel so crappy.

Here's my take:

--I'm a superfan of Broadway's "Book of Mormon."  I kept up with their development on FB, followed them on Twitter EARLY, and saw the show in July of 2011.  I took pictures (of other people getting their pictures with the stars, I was too shy), and then realized that MANY of the ensemble cast were also on Twitter, yet only the "big 4" (Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, Nikki M. James, and Rory O'Malley) were publicized.

So I created a Twitter list.  Scott Barnhardt first hipped me to some ensemble members accounts, and I went from there.  I added in Bobby Lopez as well, and then even added in some crew/behind the scenes folks.  Some were huge, like Stephen Oremus, who won a Tony and Grammy for his orchestral work.

--But I also added in the 3 stage managers (highlighted by Josh Gad) who work so hard.

--Finally, I added on the Book of Mormon Company Manager, Adam Miller.

--The list was substantial (28 members!) and was both the most-followed Book of Mormon Twitter list out there (there were many), and was the most populated (28 was nearly double the next highest BoM Twitter list).

--Many of the cast members didn't have a ton of followers.  I usually welcomed them when they'd join Twitter (like Kevin D., or even Stephen), and noted that they were now listed on the comprehensive Twitter list, and hopefully, as people consulted it as a reference/clearinghouse, their following would increase.  Groovy, good vibes, yada-yada.

--Things seemed fine.  NONE of the crew rejected my following of them on Twitter.  In fact, NONE of those listed/followed: 

1.  Stopped me from following them.
2.  Stopped me from listing them, or
3.  Asked me to not endorse them on #FF days (I did list them on some #FF days).

Instead, in late February of 2012, I noticed that Adam Miller, the Book of Mormon Company Manager hadn't just @replied to me and asked me to de-list (or even de-follow).  He flat out blocked me.  Twitter confirmed this when I attempted to re-follow (not permanently, I only attempted to re-follow because THEN Twitter will tell you something like, "Sorry, this user has blocked you.").

Suffice it to say, I was hurt, and a little depressed/angry.  You can't even do me the courtesy of a reply/request to say, "Hey, I don't want to be on this list?"  At least let me ignore you before you go to the trouble to block me.

So, I just decided, "Hasa Diga."  I deleted the entire Twitter list.  I unfollowed every single BoM-related person.  Because Miller had blocked me, he couldn't see my comments, so I @replied to Rachel, a stage manager, and told her I was done.

The upshot of all this is that it brought back EVERY feeling from High School about being a misfit/outcast.  Once a freak, always a freak, apparently.  Things don't change.

That last part is tough to admit for someone who supports the teaching of Evolution, lol.  I got some personal phone calls from RL friends on Twitter, and even some @mentions about the list's deletion, and just took solace in the notion that I was never IN the cool crowd to begin with, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I'd be treated as a freak even when older.

But this whole thing hurt.  It was really surprising to me, because ordinarily, the staff of BoM are pretty friendly.  I'd actually had some good conversations with the BoM Twitter account via DMs, because I had been scouring YouTube, and alerting the Show Account to various bootleg videos that were online.  Together, we got the YT accounts deleted outright.  As of this writing, there are no bootleg videos on YT anymore, but I'll be damned if I'm going to alert anyone if I find any more.  I'd hate to be thought of as over-the-top.  Or blocked without comment/warning.  The musical itself is wonderful, as are the people.  It's a great, funny, and profound show.  But this is an example of the old adage, "Never meet your heroes."  While it isn't quite applicable to this situation, it's close.  Close enough that it really hurt.

So I'm done.

Interesting exchange the other night

I'm helping Kitra learn how to use a buffbot (no, it's not that she's completely inept with these things -- she's literally never used them before!). I'm there as my mule, who is in his SUPER A-1 AWESOME HALLOWEEN COSTUME. It's actually pretty cool. It came in 2nd place a few years ago in a Dereth Fashion Show judged by some Devs and Maggie the Jackcat. I have a feeling I should have been first, and our final decision apparently caused much debate amoungst the judges, who were in a fellowship, and whose chat we couldn't see. I've had several offers for it while in the MP.

Anyway.

We're at the mansion, and a guy goes, "Whose ur main?" I tell him. "I've never heard of you," he says. Kitra laughs at this development. I then say something like, "I'm no one of consequence, just a gimp running through Dereth," and he says, "Yah, only us PKLs really get to be famous around here."

*snort*

Wow. Bitter much?

Ok, so that LAST entry seemed a little bitter, even though I was PLENTY bitter.

I still play lots of AC, but it's often at bizarre hours. I keep up with folks in game via Facebook. You can find me as THIS username. Friend request me!

So much to keep up with in AC. Need writs of refuge. Need to find that "rare exchanger" and trade in all the stoopid assess person rares.

Still having fun, though!

AC Christmas Shopping! It's like being in "Second Life," but with Arrows! And talking Snowmen.

Foxy and Marie hipped me to the fact that I was going to miss out on getting my own polar . . . Ursuin (seriously? We can't have a cute little Polar Bear drinking Coke out of an old time bottle? I mean, Polar Bears are practically mythical creatures by this point anyway).

Anyway, I got on tonight to hurry up and get one, and Kitra asked if she could come along. So we could give one of our Bears (eff it, I'm not calling it an Ursuin). It struck me how much AC is like real life. Consider:


In real life, you go from store to store in order to get that gift for your kid she would LOVE to have. You dodge traffic, get lost here and there, and fight through crowds to get the thing you want at the last minute.

In AC, you go from town to town to get that gift you want, you dodge groups of mobs (which, in my case, is usually necessary because I insist on doing these types of quests wearing my Dapper Suit, not my armor). You fight through ANNOYING crowds of shadows at the Umbral Hub, just to get what you want.

Speaking of which . . . the Umbral Hub has LOTS of useful portals. Someone should note that on the Wiki. We went to Zaikhail (twice) trying to get to Al-Jalima, and only later, when I (1) remembered I HAD an Umbral Hub portal, and (2) There was a Plateau portal there, did I notice that there was an Al-Jalima portal there.

It actually went like this:

Kitra Zan says, "Isn't that a portal to Al-Jalima? Could we not have just used that one instead of all that running?"

You say, ". . . "

So in that sense, it's ALSO like real life when the woman says to the man, "Why can't you stop and ask for directions?!"

Anyway, we're about 2/3 through this RAIL FAIL quest (that's my term for "Running Around Intently Looking For An Interesting Lagniappe") when Kitra Jr. had to be put to bed for school Monday. So we'll pick it up tomorrow. Whereupon --maybe-- I'll ask for directions.

P.S. One point. We hit this Igloo-looking thing (turns out it actually WAS an Igloo), and I noticed it had this snowman in there, around level 95, whom I thought I could target (turns out I targetted him in peace mode). So I made a big show, while Kitra was rebuffing, of talking to him, calling him names, etc. Then, IMMEDIATELY as I took out a flaming arrow, and furrowed my brow, trying to figure out why I couldn't target him, he MOVED. He did that kind of "lean in and squeeze his arms together" thing.

I nearly peed myself. I then wrote that in open chat, thinking that Kitra was the only other one in the Igloo with me.

Ahem. You guessed it. AC is low populated my (tight) bee-hind. There were TWO other players running up to the igloo during all this, and they came in just as I announced my jumpy-ness (read: propensity to wee-wee my armor) to Kitra.

Coolness. It never leaves ya.

Hi all!

Hey there all,

I'm still around, kickin, and now with CREATURE magic!

Much love goes out to my fair lovely Scottish lass Marie the Loyal, and the sweetest little (har, get it) patron ev-ar, Foxy.

You never know when I'll turn up online . . . !

Oh, and I now have Twitter updates, because by all means, you have to know what I'm up to IRL. Right? Oh. :-(

Tai Fung has discovered the Deceiver's Crystal!

Thanks, AC.

I'm gone, I'm back, I'm gone, and your siren call still rings in my ears, never unsubscribing. And when I come back, that's the rare I get?

Harumph.

Man, I so love this game, I really do. It's still such a blast to play!

Ooooh! THAT's how you do it.

You can update Decal by right clicking and selecting "Run as administrator."

This is for the error message "A file being updated is in use." Something something and try again, blah blah.

Woo hoo!

I've been playing on and off lately, but I might want to get the tradebot up and running again. Need my Decal, yo! ;-)

Love to all!

I can't resist . . .

. . . take a look here.

Log of Frost Haven quest

I logged in the other night, and noticed I have on me 22(!) stamina elixirs. That's like more Gatorade than some basketball teams drink! I split them out, and was about to drop 12 on the ground (leaving me with 10), when I reconsidered. Gbb had just hit me with a Strength Buff, so I figured, "Ah, I'll hang onto them."

Literally seconds later, Chef Wubbie announced that the Snowmen of Frost Haven were being attacked, and asked for volunteers to defend the town (he was summoning a portal in the MP). I think I've been to Frost Haven like ONCE before, and definitely never during the Abominable attack quest. So I figured I'd go kick in my best effort.

[General] Sister Shauna Kaboosh says, "Summoning portal to the snomman village in MP"
You say, "Woot!"
You say, "Um, not to be more stupid than normal, but . . . fire attacks?"
[General] Sister Shauna Kaboosh says, "Acid or BLudge"
[General] Sister Shauna Kaboosh says, "and then frost"
You say, "Ah, glad I asked, lol"

Life lesson -- You'll never know if you don't ask!

So I took the portal, and found myself alone on the side of a mountain. Ah, but I'm out of ANY kind of arrows! Time to fletch!


Anyway, I used to carry a TON of acid arrowheads, stockpiling them like I was waiting for a sudden onslaught of Iron Golems, when I realized I hadn't used them for so long, that I muled them. So much for acid attacks.

You make a big bundle of deadly blunt arrows.

There we go.

Silver Staff cast Major Item Enchantment Aptitude on you
Silver Staff cast Item Enchantment Mastery Self V on you
You say, "Malar Aeril"
The spell consumed the following components: Prismatic Taper, Prismatic Taper
You cast Infected Caress on Ivory Blunt Compound Bow

If there's ONE thing I know, it's how to buff a weapon. Actually, I left that part above in for a reason later on. You'll see.

[General] Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Snowmen killers meeting at 68.3S 25.7E"
The Mana Elixir restores 65 points of your mana.

No life magic. It's either elixirs or my Casting Stein.

I need extra mana for a reason.

You say, "Malar Aeguz"
The spell consumed the following components: Prismatic Taper, Prismatic Taper, Prismatic Taper, Prismatic Taper
Your spell fizzled.

That's one of them.

You say, "Malar Aeguz"
You cast Cragstone's Will on Ivory Blunt Compound Bow
Ivory Blunt Compound Bow cast Endurance Self VI on you, but it is surpassed by

Ok! I'm armed! I'm buffed! Off to the MP!

You have been teleported.

Teleport? Oh. I thought I was hitting the "E" key to see my bow, but I hit the "3" key. What's mapped to the "3" key? An Aphus Recall Gem. Maybe I shouldn't hotkey those things because I went from "alone on the side of a mountain" all the way to "at the Aphus Lassel drop."

Oops. Let's hope portal recall will get me back to the mountain.

Silver Staff cast Major Item Enchantment Aptitude on you
Silver Staff cast Item Enchantment Mastery Self V on you
You say, "Shurov Thipaj"
The spell consumed the following components: Prismatic Taper

Whew. It worked.

[General] Sister Shauna Kaboosh says, "Anyone else joining the Snowman beatdown?"

Me! Me! Me!

WTF were those coords again? Run like hell, and look for the swarm of white dots!

Except there's just one white dot. Wubbie.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Mooies"
Tai Fung smiles
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "hurm this might hurt"

Ya THINK?!


Time to fess up.

You say, "I've actually never done this, lol"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "kill snowmen... then kill giatn abominable"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "when he dies loot a frozen prest"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "then we kill giatn lava golem"

Well, that seems straightforward enough.

You say, "Seems straightforward enough . . ."

Aren't I expressive? ;-)

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "and then again and again then you get a coal to melt the present"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "then you get a crap present and never wanan do it again ;)"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "but you might get a good present"
You say, "LOL, gotcha"

I better concentrate.

You have left the General channel.
You have left the Trade channel.


Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "his assistant respawn throuthg thr fight"

What assistant?

Two Headed Snowman says, "It's a shame I can't make more friends. FRIENDS ARE FOR LOSERS!"

Oh.

You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman

OH!

Abominable Snowman numbs you for 19 points with Foon-Ki's Glacial Floe.
Two Headed Snowman says, "I don't WANT TO HURT YOU!"
Two Headed Snowman says, "I don't WANT TO HURT YOU!"

Well, as it happens, I --do-- want to hurt YOU!

You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
Angry Snowman is shattered by your assault!
Abominable Snowman cast Gelidite's Gift on you
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
Magical energies lose 1 point of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
The thunder of crushing Angry Snowman is followed by the deafening silence of death!
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman

I know Magic D sucks as a skill, but it's darn nice to have when you're fighting mass mobs, even if high-level ones still land on you.

Angry Snowman is shattered by your assault!
You say, "DIE, EVIL SNOWMEN!"
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
You beat Angry Snowman to a lifeless pulp!
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
Abominable Snowman cast Glacial Speed on you
Angry Snowman is shattered by your assault!
You say, "TASTE MY ARROWS OF DOOM!"
You say, "THEY TASTE LIKE, WELL, DOOM"

Ok, so much for the parade of Snowmen Wearing Hats Who Seem Angry.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "he sonly got 400k ghealth"

Holy CRAP! Look at that thing! He's got TREE TRUNKS for arms!

You say, "WTH? To quote Luke Skywalker, "Look at the size of that thing . . . ""
You lose 120 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

Ouch. That's a third of my health.

You say, "DIE GIANT ABOMINATION! BUMBLES BOUNCE, BUT YOU SHALL FALL FLAT (heh)"
Abominable Snowman cast Glacial Speed on you
Abominable Snowman cast Broadside of a Barn on you
Abominable Snowman cast Gelidite's Gift on you, surpassing Gelidite's Gift
You expertly heal yourself for 134 Health points. Your Treated Healing Kit has 1 use left.
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

Sheesh.

Two Headed Snowman frosts you for 120 points with Frost Bolt VI.

Um . . . more like two thirds. Sheesh.

The Elaborate Field Health Rations restores 70 points of your health.
You expertly heal yourself for 60 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 52 uses left.
You heal yourself for 107 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 51 uses left.
You lose 126 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You heal yourself for 100 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 50 uses left.

OK! I GET IT! This is getting old. I'll tell the Bumble that.

You say, "This Vitality Siphon thing is getting old, Frosty . . ."

Like I said, it was just me and Wubbie. Rather, Wubbie's Tinkerer. And when I examined the Evil Bumble . . .

You say, "Holy cow, he's only at 97%"

Uh oh.

You lose 126 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

Oh dear.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "400k health"

I was WONDERING what he meant by that from before! Maybe if I imperil him . . .

Royal Runed War Bow cast Moderate Bow Aptitude on you, surpassing Moderate Bow Aptitude
You heal yourself for 60 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 49 uses left.
You heal yourself for 91 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 48 uses left.
Gelidite's Gift has expired.
You cast Gossamer Flesh on Abominable Snowman, surpassing Gossamer Flesh

Whoops, Wubbie had that covered. Back to work.

Ivory Blunt Compound Bow cast Endurance Self VI on you, but it is surpassed by Temeritous Touch


Abominable Snowman cast Gelidite's Gift on you, surpassing Gelidite's Gift
Abominable Snowman cast Gravity Well on you, surpassing Gravity Well
Abominable Snowman cast Broadside of a Barn on you, surpassing Broadside of a Barn
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
Gelidite's Gift has expired.
You lose 88 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

I swear, if I die to a SNOWMAN, I'm retiring to my villa to write my memoirs.


You heal yourself for 204 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 47 uses left.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Acid of Bludge is best weapons"

Who's he talking to? Oh! Another guy showed up! Elchorn! No idea who that is, but it's another body to get attacked by these spells!

You say, "Woot! Another body, er, fellow!"

Abominable Snowman cast Gelidite's Gift on you, surpassing Gelidite's Gift
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You lose 86 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

Or maybe he'll still focus on me anyway . . .


You heal yourself for 86 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 46 uses left.
You lose 84 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You heal yourself for 176 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 45 uses left.

Either he's going to run out of mana, or I'm going to run out of healing kits . . .

You lose 122 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You heal yourself for 79 Health points. Your Treated Healing Kit is used up.

There goes one. Plus, I'm low on stamina.

The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
The Stamina Philtre restores 104 points of your stamina.

You heal yourself for 78 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 44 uses left.

You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
Abominable Snowman cast Glacial Speed on you, surpassing Glacial Speed
Inky Armor has expired.

Glacial Speed has expired.
Glacial Speed has expired.
Glacial Speed has expired.

He's rather hot for me, eh? Enough of this Treated/Blue kit crap. Time to pull out the roll of toilet paper.

You heal yourself for 174 Health points. Your Renegade Herbal Kit has 19 uses left.

Woot.

You say, "Woot, he's below 90%, lol"
You say, "So by morning he might be dead . . . ;-)"
Abominable Snowman cast Glacial Speed on you
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "thats the plan"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "or before he spawns a copy of himself"
You say, ". . . ."

He was joking, right? RIGHT?

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "he and his guard spawn aevery 3 hours"

I peed in my armor at that point.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "i doubt they make sure hes dead before spawning a new one"
You say, " . . . . "

More peeing of armor. At least I have my trusty pet.

Tai's Pet Penguin tells you, "Listen, it's been fun, but I'm just going to go see if I can recall to the MP"

You're out of ammunition!

You make a big bundle of deadly blunt arrows.
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "its Turbine you can only expect so much"
You say, "I wonder if we ran him out of mana?"
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You say, "Oops, answered that"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "i ususlaly kill his stam"
You heal yourself for 121 Health points. Your Renegade Herbal Kit has 18 uses left.
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "lets melees crit more"
The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
The Stamina Philtre restores 98 points of your stamina.
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "grrr"
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

By now, Wubbie is at "First Base" hitting him with spells. I'm at "Third Base" shooting him. Elchorn, a melee, is sticky melee'ing the beastie between us two.

And then more snowmen beamed in.

Two Headed Snowman cast Defenselessness Other VI on you
Two Headed Snowman grazes you for 35 points with Shock Wave VI.

You lose 110 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You heal yourself for 76 Health points. Your Renegade Herbal Kit has 17 uses left.
You heal yourself for 99 Health points. Your Renegade Herbal Kit has 16 uses left.
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you

Running low on Toilet Paper kits now. Back to the Blues.

You expertly heal yourself for 124 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 43 uses left.

At this point, with the baddie Imp'd and getting hit with a blud. rending bow, I wondered how I was doing. I didn't have Decal on, but normally squelch ALL combat anyway. Let's see.


You succeeded to remove a global squelch.
You graze Abominable Snowman for 128 points of bludgeoning damage!
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
You graze Abominable Snowman for 130 points of bludgeoning damage!
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
You graze Abominable Snowman for 126 points of bludgeoning damage!

Yuk.

Elchorn says, "he have fire vuln on him?"

Fire?

You evaded Abominable Snowman!
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "yeah"

I thought bludg? I'm so confused on damages.

You evaded Abominable Snowman!
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Acid Bludge are best usually"

Yay!


Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
Abominable Snowman evaded your attack.
You graze Abominable Snowman for 130 points of bludgeoning damage!
You graze Abominable Snowman for 138 points of bludgeoning damage!
Defenselessness Other VI has expired.
You graze Abominable Snowman for 158 points of bludgeoning damage!
You graze Abominable Snowman for 135 points of bludgeoning damage!
You evaded Abominable Snowman!
You graze Abominable Snowman for 158 points of bludgeoning damage!
You evaded Abominable Snowman!


Elchorn says, "dont have my acid buffed"

You and me both, pal.

You succeeded to add a global squelch.
The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
The Stamina Philtre restores 104 points of your stamina.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "grrrr"
You say, "Anyone have a spare blowtorch?"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "I wish"

You make a big bundle of deadly blunt arrows.

You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
You flatten Angry Snowman's body with the force of your assault!
You knock Angry Snowman into next Morningthaw!
You resist the spell cast by Angry Snowman
The thunder of crushing Angry Snowman is followed by the deafening silence of death!
The deadly force of your attack is so strong that Angry Snowman's ancestors feel it!
The thunder of crushing Angry Snowman is followed by the deafening silence of death!
You beat Two Headed Snowman to a lifeless pulp!
You beat Angry Snowman to a lifeless pulp!

That was theraputic. SOMETHING died. And it wasn't me!

Now, where were we?

You lose 107 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You expertly heal yourself for 171 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 42 uses left.
The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.

Oh, riiiiiiight.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "He likes you"

Ya THINK????


You say, "And here I was about to throw my stamina philters on the ground because I thought I had too many . . ."
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "hehehe"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "who knew acid had uses"
You say, "This is why I quit carrying those arrowheads!"
You say, "I never used them. Murphy's Law . . ."
You say, "Woot, below 60%"
You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
Elchorn says, "there we go"
You heal yourself for 117 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 41 uses left.
Elchorn says, "didn't have mcneils on me"
Elchorn says, "he'll go down faster now"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "DIE DIE DIE"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "hehehe"

Get into it Wubbie!

You say, "Evolution happens faster than this guy is dying"

You expertly heal yourself for 90 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 40 uses left.
The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.

Aaaaaand, out of arrows. Again.

You make a big bundle of deadly blunt arrows.

You lose 129 points of health due to Abominable Snowman casting Vitality Siphon on you
You heal yourself for 122 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 39 uses left.

Back and forth and back and . . .


You say, "We're more than halfway there now at least"

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "suck it snowman"
Tai Fung figures there's got to be a "snowballs" joke there somewhere
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "sigh... oh Tai"

Oh, C'MON! It was late! I was tired! Heh,
"snowballs." Huh huh huh huh. ;-)

You say, "Hey, cool, under 40%"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "its good he dunno life rin"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "we'd all be dead"
You say, "I'm still flipped out that Acid(!) is what he's weak to"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "this and tusker fists is bes"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "er best"

The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
The Stamina Philtre restores 105 points of your stamina.
You heal yourself for 113 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 38 uses left.
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer fails to affect you because Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer is not a player killer!
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "hes aliot slower no stam"

Maybe Frosty should have kept his OWN stamina Philtres!

You say, "Excellent work!"
Elchorn says, "keep draining him =P"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "So after hes dead we go to frost"
You say, "Oh, right, forgot that there's another step"
Elchorn says, "yeah for the other fun guy"

Hard to believe I'm clueless, isn't it?

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "but the next oen faste"

Well, since he's almost dead, and since we're fighting a Magma Golem next, I better buff again, right? Because I'm such a buffing god, as I'd mentioned earlier?

Silver Staff cast Major Item Enchantment Aptitude on you
Silver Staff cast Item Enchantment Mastery Self V on you
You say, "Malar Aeguz"
The spell consumed the following components: Prismatic Taper
You say, "Good thing this has Infected Caress built in."
You cast Cragstone's Will on Ivory Fire Bow, surpassing Cragstone's Will
You make a big bundle of deadly fire arrows.

Yup. I had made fire arrows to fight a Magma Golem. I didn't even think twice. I just went back to the Abominable since he was about to die.

Ivory Blunt Compound Bow cast Endurance Self VI on you, but it is surpassed by Temeritous Touch
You make a big bundle of deadly blunt arrows.

All my fletching/buffing prompted Frosty to go fight Wubbie some more.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "HE LIKES NME"
"I feel like Sally Field"
You say, "UNION!!!!!!!"

I've never even SEEN "Norma Rae" but I got that joke! Nothing?

Tai Fung racks his brain for "Smokey and the Bandit" references, since Norma Rae didn't work . . .

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "5%"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "RAR"
You say, "Prepare to melt, evil Bumble!"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "0%"

Woot!

And look who got the kill . . .




Bong! Bong! Frost Haven's Mayor sounds the alarm again. All the fighting has drawn
Scold down from his mountain lair. Prepare for battle everyone!
You say, "WOOT!"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Loot present fast"
You say, "Done"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Giant lava soon"

At THIS point, it hits me, just as I take out and nock my FIRE bow. Fire. I'm using fire against a LAVA monster. I stared at the screen, looking at my FLAMING ARROW ON FIRE, waiting to shoot a monster who was ALREADY on fire.

Effing . . . sigh. I'm hopeless.

Silver Staff cast Major Item Enchantment Aptitude on you
Silver Staff cast Item Enchantment Mastery Self V on you
You say, "Malar Aeril"
You cast Infected Caress on Gold Frost Bow
You say, "Malar Aeguz"
You cast Cragstone's Will on Gold Frost Bow
Gold Frost Bow cast Coordination Self VI on you, but it is surpassed by Boon of Refinement
You make a big bundle of deadly frost arrows.

You say, "I can't believe I fletched fire arrows . . ."
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "he dies 2 times and doubles each time"
Scold singes you for 33 points with Flame Bolt VI.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Wow ;)"

Isn't Wubbie tactful? Because you KNOW he has to be thinking, "OMG GIMP GIMP GIMP!"

You say, "I even buffed my fire bow . . ."
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Buffs failing here"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "gonan reboff"

This is getting nowhere. But I have a secret weapon. Wubbie hit Scold with Imp and Cold Vuln. And I have a near max CS bow with Minor BT.

Silver Staff cast Major Item Enchantment Aptitude on you
Silver Staff cast Item Enchantment Mastery Self V on you
You say, "Malar Aeril"
You cast Infected Caress on Ivory Longbow
You say, "Malar Aeguz"
You cast Cragstone's Will on Ivory Longbow

Scold tells you, "Yes! Now we're having some fun!"

Yes, Scold, we're about to . . .

Scold tells you, "Come on! Is that all you got?! Give me your best shot!"
You succeeded to remove a global squelch.
Critical hit! You numb Scold for 5694 points of cold damage!

That's better.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "when he dies there will be 4"
You say, "4 what?"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "smaller him"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "then each of those makes 2 tiny versions"
Critical hit! You numb Scold for 5694 points of cold damage!
You numb Scold for 2722 points of cold damage!
You lose 42 points of health due to Scold casting Drain Health Other V on you
Scold grazes your lower leg for 6 points of bludgeoning damage!
You heal yourself for 167 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 35 uses left.
Scold says, "First I'm gonna stomp all of you squelchy things and then I'm gonna destroy this annoying little town!"
The Golem falls apart. Each segment reforms into a smaller version of the original.

A touch quicker to die that time . . .

You succeeded to add a global squelch.

The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
The Stamina Philtre restores 125 points of your stamina.
You lose 53 points of health due to Scold Chunk casting Drain Health Other V on you
You heal yourself for 129 Health points. Your Plentiful Healing Kit has 31 uses left.


You succeeded to remove a global squelch.
You evaded Scold Chunk!
You numb Scold Chunk for 2613 points of cold damage!
You evaded Scold Lump!
Critical hit! You chill Scold Chunk for 6485 points of cold damage!
Scold Chunk tells you, "Congratulations! You hit me. Now it's my turn!"
Critical hit! You chill Scold Chunk for 6485 points of cold damage!
Scold Chunk tells you, "Congratulations! You hit me. Now it's my turn!"
You numb Scold Chunk for 2853 points of cold damage!
You lose 60 points of health due to Scold Chunk casting Drain Health Other V on you

I like this exchange of damage MUCH better than with Frosty . . .

The golem splits in two. The small halves turn to face you!
You evaded Scold Lump!
Your assault sends Scold Lump to an icy death!
Scold Lump says, "No!!! I'll be back!"

You frost Scold Lump for 3228 points of cold damage!
You succeeded to add a global squelch.
Scold Lump suffers a frozen fate!
The little golem explodes in a gout of flame.

You say, "Thanks Wubbie!"

As in, "Thanks for the debuffs on these beasties so I can finally get a kill here and there!

Scold Lump says, "No!!! I'll be back!"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Tada"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "now loot a coal"
You say, "Zoikes!"

We DID it!

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "and unfreeze your present"
You melt the frozen present with the hot coal. The steam dissipates revealing a wonderful present box.
Elchorn says, "snow man, can't complain there"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "BAH"

I got a . . . fireplace?

You say, "Holiday Hearth?"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "its a big fireplace"
You say, "Ah well, my villa needed a heating source. =)"
You say, "Fun quest!"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "repeatable in 23 hour"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "and they spawen every 3 or 4"
You say, "That pack doll will dissolve soon, be careful!"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "you need a coolie device for you house?"
You say, "Nah, I live in the cold north. =)"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "if you want the doll take him :)"
You say, "Oh, cool, Wubbie! Thanks!"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "I have more than enough"
You say, "Memories of a prolonged battle . . ."
Tai Fung -)
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Well I was gonan help you get an Ice Box to keep your house cool"

Oops. He was being exceedingly nice, and I didn't get that. Time to have a little more fun!

You say, "Oh, is that not a present?"

I really did think Ice Boxes were possible gifts.

You say, "How do you get an ice box?"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "we head bravely into Mount Ingot and kill the boss and loot his heart"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "and then each snowman here gives a different reward.... a title, a carrot dagger, giant snowballs, ice box and some other things"
You say, "lol, a carrot dagger"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "its just up the hill"
You say, "Sure, let's try it"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "We are headed right to the bottom ignore the trash mobs"

Scold tells you, "I'm guessing those sniveling little snow drifts sent you. You should have stayed out of this. Now you get to see what it feels like to be melted!"
Your assault sends Scold to an icy death!
Scold says, "Oh, I'm just getting started!"
The Golem falls apart. Each segment reforms into a smaller version of the original.
Scold Chunk tells you, "We will wreck you!"
Your assault sends Scold Chunk to an icy death!
The golem splits in two. The small halves turn to face you!
Scold Chunk says, "I could use some help with this one guys!"
Scold Chunk tells you, "We will wreck you!"
Your attack stops Scold Chunk cold!
Scold Lump suffers a frozen fate!
Scold Lump says, "No!!! I'll be back!"

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "loot a lump :)"
You say, "Haha, awesome"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "back to village"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "you find one?"
Elchorn says, "the heart?"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "yep"
Elchorn says, "got it"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "to the village"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Ok"

Back in Frost Haven now. Wubbie took me door to door to point at the Snow People.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "this snwoman gives the ice box"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "this oen is the carrot dagger"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Mayor gives title"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "she gives giant snowflake"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "he gives a pie that gives a 13% frost buff"

You say, "What a cool town (no pun intended)"

Maybe a little intended. At least it wasn't a "snowballs" joke.

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Nip gives deadly snwoballs"
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "Numb gives giant snowballs"
You say, "I'll go for the ice box"

You give Elijah Scold's Heart.
Elijah tells you, "Ow! It's still hot, and burning. The fact that it still gives off heat is interesting. Let's see, I have your reward over here."
Elijah gives you Ice Box.

You say, "Woot!"
You say, "My villa has a heating and cooling system, lol"
You say, "Great quest, thanks for the heads-up"
You say, "Now I know what to expect if I do it again =)"

Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "its here all the time ;)"
Elchorn says, "off I go, thanks for the fun times in Frost Haven again"
You say, "I need to bail -- thanks for the quest guys. =)"
You bow deeply.
Wubbie's Lil Tinkerer says, "See ya Tai thanks for coming :)"
You say, "=)"
Logging off...

My villa now has heating and air conditioning. And when the battle was over, I had 9 Stamina Philtres left. I'd have been in trouble if I had dropped them.

Pretty great quest.

And here I was thinking I was in a rare drought . . .

. . . when I find 2 rares in about 6 hours (RL time, not game time). Probably within 2 hours of game time.

Something called a "Harvest Reaper" which took about 30 minutes for me to kill (I was almost better off waiting for him to die of natural causes, since his head was on fire) dropped a Mana Conversion rare

(woot.).

Then, a Tukora Lieutenant (I am at 210 out of 250 for killing those buggers) dropped a Magic Resistance rare. I'm guessing that's a touch more valuable.

The long road out of poverty continues!

Woot! I'm broke!

LOL, I actually found a Globe of Aubrean in the marketplace, and snapped it up for the simple price of a Virindi Desecrator mask. So I still had some MMDs left.

Which I then spent on a Horn of Vigilance. :-P

Penniless to start 2008. Not a worry. I welcome the challenge, and will get my trade bot up and running to make a little cash.

Happy New Year!

Boy, did 2007 have its downs and ups or what? Just today, I got my villa items back, including the Virindi Mask inscribed by Fong Sai-Yuk, my old Aussie mate (who doesn't like that there is no comment function on this thing!). I also got back a ton of quest items I'd earned, complete with my oh-so-droll inscriptions. Pretty cool.

I owe a HUGE thank you to:

Adept of Dereth.

I bow to you, good sir. You rock. And I was WAY wrong about the fate of my items. They were just muled and held onto. Seems my stuff isn't that uber, lol. ;-)

So having gone through the returned items, some stuff is missing, but I don't mind. The set of Greater Olthoi Armor I bought years ago, wore once, and muled just isn't missed by me. I do indeed miss the Globe of Aubrean I had floor hooked, but I can buy one of those.

Or can I?

Because I'm me. I insisted he take a "bounty" of items for his trouble, and gave him a War Rare (100 MMD value), a X-Bow rare, a melee D rare, a Sword rare, and 9 Burning Coals (all I had). Plus, I gave him 25 MMDs.

Meaning?

LOL, I'm broke again. ;-)

But this isn't a huge issue. I've got about 15 MMDs left to buy a Globe of Aubrean, plenty of supplies otherwise to live on, and even have Diamond Powders for Writs. This will just prompt me to get my Tradebot up and running again, and try to sell those Deception Rares I have. Ubar.

Happy New Year. Be safe. 2008 is starting off on a good note for me, hope it is for you!

Har.

I love how the idiot little children are bleating about their "l33t" PvP skills, and how they're amazing at this game. WTF? THIS is what you want to declare your uberness at? Um, I'm too busy kicking ass in RL, that I don't mind saying it -- I SUCK AT THIS AC THING!

There is NOTHING I can't die against. Monsters level against me. Drudges use my skulls for bocce tournaments.

I am not leet.

I think there is some SERIOUS penis compensation going on at the VN boards right now, and it's hysterical. I'm not sure who called it a "circle jerk" but that just about sums it up.

Excuse me while another monster kills me. Hope my ego can handle it. ;-)

Low score Harbinger

I did NOT have time to go on a Harbinger quest today, but I did anyway. I first blew a good 30 minutes looking for a couple of Snowflowers (grrrrr), but netted 4 diamond powders during the search. So my villa's paid for another two cycles! :D

Anyway, the quest didn't go well -- I didn't have ANY bloodletter charms, nor any Telemiat Essences, so I was stuck just turning in a Peerless charm for a couple of points in Magic D (the 118 million XP step, plus the next one).

The problem was that we had a couple of deaths, and a couple of missed jumps. This normally isn't a problem, except that I had a serious time constraint, and I couldn't believe my eyes when it was 5pm, and we were waiting for ANOTHER Harby spawn. So I took the exit portal, got my XP, and figured I'd recall back to the Harby room, where if I died, who would care?

One problem -- if you get your reward, you don't go back to the Harby room -- you start at the top.

Oops. So I tried running back to the Harby room directly. There were only two problems:

1. I don't know the way.
2. I am Tai Fung.

Therefore, I died after the FIRST ramp. Because I was stuck between two plants and two lizards. I would have lived, but I was busy writing in @a about why I had disappeared, and asking why I hadn't just beamed to the fight room at the end again.

Sooooo, I died, cleared my body (I had dropped pyreals, and hated leaving it on display), and logged off. RL wasn't just calling, it was deafening! I had to go.

Feh. I don't begrudge the Quest leader, but only myself. I have just been having too much fun lately, and should have passed on this quest.

Double Feh. =P

What's Chu Problem?

Sorry, bad attempt at a pun there.

While I'm off dying to stuff half my level, I'll sometimes chat with Chu-Chu. She seems perfectly nice, and is definitely a character. The other day, she asked me if her alt, Wolfen al'Thor (currently alone and a monarch) could join up with the EOL under me. I pointed out right out of the gate that I'm a HORRIBLE patron, and that my time is so irregular, that I wouldn't be a good fit. But, I offered to run the idea past Marie to see if we could get her approved to join (I knew there had been some drama in the past re the EOL, so I thought it best to check in).

I give Marie a lot of credit here -- apparently, there was tons o' drama with Chu in the EOL previously, although not of her own creation. It was mostly caused by Kiaya (I'm not her biggest fan, and found her puffing about her "published book" (done by a vanity press-type publisher) to be insufferable). Chu's hubby, Stee Jans, jumped to Kiaya's defense (and Chu's), and stuff went downhill quickly.

But, for all of the bad history, hurt feelings, and drama, Marie and the EOL gave the idea of Wolfen's membership a fair shake. It was debated pretty heavily, and Marie got back to me a couple of days later --

no dice.

I think the whole thing was handled well, and I saw in Marie the same thing I felt myself about Chu -- genuine regret that Chu's alt was alone, and a desire to get Wolfen into a clan. That goes a long way in my book, and indicates that the eventual denial wasn't based on venal feelings. I likely would have gone the other way on the call, but I can't say the counter-decision was definitely wrong. Reasonable minds differ.

Marie explained her decision in detail to me via an EOL PM, and could not have been more patient in showing her analysis/thinking behind the process. It was well-done, and showed careful thought. If my original clan (the old "Covenant of the 7 Circles" under B'an al-Azir) hadn't fallen apart so badly after I was persona non grata after RL drama, I could understand protectiveness over an alliance. I was all about the C7C for so long, until they screwed me but good.

For her part, Chu took it very well, laughing that she's still disliked by association. She mentioned that she'd leave Wolfen as a "lone" player, and despite any drama in the Wandering Stranger clan right now, she'll "continue to squelch the poopieheads, lol."

Ha -- love that line. It's good advice for ANYone running around Dereth. :-)

Got a poopiehead problem? Squelch 'em!

Let there be (holiday) light!

So laaaaaate last night, I did the "original" Gift Box quest, the one where you have a chance to get "holiday lights" that are in the "round" (i.e., not string) form. I had two of those on my villa, and still need one more "round" set.

Got it!

Only died once.

In a dungeon that is 80+.

I'm level 192.

Yes, I sincerely suck at AC. :-(

Um . . . holy crap.

I just bought a solo villa.

Me.

I frickin did it.

I didn't even have to ask anyone for the item, or even get a heads-up that it was available. Since this past Monday, the 17th, I've been "available" to dump my cottage and buy a villa to replace the other one. Since I've been on more anyway, I've been checking the "@house available villa" thing. When I see one (or two!) available, I alt/tab over to Maggies, check to see where the villa is, what the rare item required to buy it is, and whether it's a 1 or 2 courtyard type.

So for the past few days, I've had very little luck. The villas either are 2-courtyard (I prefer single), or not available that long. Then today (Friday, 21 December), I noticed 2 villas available from like 1:30am (so probably since 20 December). The items were a White Virindi jewel, and a Gold Wasp Wing. The Wing-Villa wasn't impressive to me, although it did seem to have items available for "salvaging" (i.e., getting the person's stuff when they lose their villa, and you get it -- I learned all about that the hard way, by being fed a total cock-and-bull story about where my major Covenant suit and other house items are).

Anyway, while "salvaging" someone's items might be fun, the Wing-Villa wasn't right. As for the White Gem, I didn't have one. I thought I might, and noticed that people (well, one guy) was offering 100 MMDs(!!??) for one of them. Yikes.

I spent part of this morning trying to find a decent place to hunt Virindi, and found it too tedious to get to the Crater, where a dungeon filled with them was located. So I put together another inventory of my stuff, and realized I had enough Writs to buy a villa, plenty of money, and a few of the rare Villa-items.

This afternoon (about 1 hour ago), I saw a Villa available. I just alt-tabbed to Maggie, and hit "find" for the first coords. Bam, it came right up. The exact Coords:

A lone villa.

http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/settlement.asp?settleID=1490

Villa. "Island on the NE Coast"

Holy crap -- that IS a lone villa. And all it takes is an ASH tooth? I've got THOSE?

After logging onto a couple of mules to FIND them (grrrr), I got the tooth. I knew I had the writs and the cash. I tracked the place down, keeping calm, telling myself that if it was bought, no worries, there'd be more.

And all the while, every 30 seconds or so . . . "@house available villa."

Still available.

Coming up on the place was amazing. It really is a little island, complete with its own little park bench nearby. Call it a sandbar, an atoll, whatever. But it stands alone out there, on its own.

And it's 1-Courtyard.

Holy crap.

Scanning for white dots (none), I slapped down the money, item, and writs.

Nothing.

Oops.

I forgot to abandon my cottage. =P

Congratulations! You now own this dwelling.

WOOOOOOOOT!

About to move again

Starting tomorrow, I can buy a villa again. I would of course prefer my prior one, as I'm rather attached to its location, but I've noticed more and more villas becoming available. So it occurred to me . . .

. . . why not a Solo Villa?

Hmmm . . . .

Tai Fung has acquired the Enduring Enchantment augmentation!

TAKE THAT, DEATH!!!

So . . .

1. No more dropped death items.
2. No more lost buffs after dying.


Just my beautiful body strewn all over Dereth's dungeons, plains, and seashores of Vissidal.

Oh, plus all those rares on it. =P