Story Time

So my friend Karl emails me this morning with news that a sinkhole has appeared near his neighborhood. This immediately sent chills up my spine.

For, you see, I have a sinkhole story.

For a good portion of my childhood I lived in Florida. That was back when alligators were endangered and roamed the streets where I lived and also when sinkholes were making a lot of news on TV.

At the time of this story, I lived in a very rural part of the state. And when I say “rural,” don’t be thinking about suburbs. We lived near marshes and swampland while still being only 15 minutes from the beach. We had rattlesnakes in the back yard and we lived on a dirt road. We did not even have “city” water; we had an electric water pump and a well in the back yard. When the electricity went out, as it often did during hurricane season, we also had no water. “Don’t flush the toilets, kids! We don’t know when the power will come back on.” Good times. Our address didn’t even have a street name. It had a route number. “Route 4 Box 257V.” As a kid, I learned to say my address for clarity: “routefourboxtwofivesevenveeasinvictor.” Oh yeah, baby!

Floridian kids are taught in school about the aquifer that underlies the state and brings us all our water. I was even such a nerdy kid that when I saw the news stories about sinkholes, I used the old (hardcopy) Encyclopedia Brittanica to look up what caused sinkholes. Bad idea.

See, what happens with sinkholes is this: Where there’s soft rock like limestone (nearly everything under Florida is limestone), water circulates and erodes it away. The erosion causes underground caves. When the hollowed out spots get too big to support the ground above, it caves in.

I understood this to mean that the ground beneath my feet was not to be trusted. I could crack the earth’s thin crust and fall into a hole in the great void like an impertinent skater on thin ice. I walked around on some days with a feeling of doom under my feet. A truck rumbling past my school would send my heart racing until I saw the actual truck and was convinced it was not the sound of the earth giving way.

Yeah, I was one of those kids.

One night, I woke up from a bad dream, as I often did. (This one was probably about everyone on the earth being killed by a virus except me. That was a common theme.) At these times, I usually headed to the kitchen to eat a whole dill pickle to get my mind off things and then go back to bed. After eating the pickle, I went to the bathroom to wash the brine off my hands. Instead of getting water when turned on the faucets, there was a loud POPPING noise, a mini-explosion, like the pipes had coughed and then a hiss of air. I jumped back from the sink in surprise at the noise. No water. Not one drop was coming out of the faucet. Odd, I thought.

Being a kid, I shrugged off the hand-washing idea and went about using the toilet before going back to bed. I did my little tinkle and pulled the flusher handle. Swirling down went the yellow water, but then that awful hissing noise and no rush of incoming clear water. An empty, dry toilet.

Oh. My. God.

There’s no water that means that the well out back has run dry and it ran dry because we’ve pumped out all of the water beneath the house and the aquifer is dry and now the whole house is sitting on an M&M candy shell that can break at any moment and just like on TV our cars will be sucked down and the house and my parents and my sister and WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Panting and terrified, I ran into my sister’s room. “Kerri, wake up, we’re gonna die!! We’re over a sinkhole! We have to get Mom & Dad out of the house!!!!”

My sister is notoriously hard to wake up and even when you finally get her out of bed she’s groggy for a good while. She mumbled and shambled around her room, looking for slippers in what I thought was MUCH too slow a fashion. She followed me to Mom & Dad’s room.

We tiptoed inside and stared at my sleeping parents. Waking them up was a Big Deal. We had to have a really good reason or we’d have screaming, flaming punishments. (Okay, so we’d be grounded. I was a drama queen, so sue me.) However, I was convinced, based on my extensive research and TV watching, that we were mere moments away from falling into a sinkhole.

“Dad? Dad, can you please wake up?”

Snuffling and grumbling. “What is it, girls?”

Panic was rising in me now. “Dad, there’s no water, nothing but air, and I think we’ve used up all the water under the house and there’s a sinkhole and please don’t let us all die!!!”

Dad rolled over to look at his clock. 3 a.m.

“For chrissakes, girls, the pump is off! We put the electric pump on a timer that turns it off at night so we can save some money.”

Oh.

“Um. So there’s no sinkhole?”

“For peetsake, go back to bed.”

And that’s my sinkhole story.

A New Feature from WordPress

WordPress recently introduced a feature that will probably improve your hit count. They are calling it “Possibly Related Posts” and it appears at the bottom of all WordPress posts automatically. (You have to be looking at the permalink version of your post, not the home page version, in order to see it.) This feature looks for pages on your blog and other people’s blogs that seem to be similar to the post you’re reading. It’s like when YouTube or Amazon offers you recommendations based on what you’ve just viewed. Pretty cool, I think. Not only for bloggers but also for me as a reader — to find new and interesting blogs to read that I normally never would have read!

Here’s what it looks like at the bottom of my Running of Da Bulls post, linking to another post on my blog:

And here’s what one looks like linking to another blog entirely from my Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Contest post:

Cool, huh? Tawk amongst yourselves…

Screenies: Sharvan’s Running of Da Bulls

On Sunday I ran in Sharvan’s Running of Da Bulls which both BRK and Ratshag organized. I hung out at the beginning of the race with my Pox Arcanum guildies, Madja. Of course we both changed our Pox names to be a tribute for Sharvan. I’m Amooto and she’s Moodja.

The starting line was chaos.

From above it was just one giant ball of hair.

I have no idea how BRK, Ratshag, and team were able to organize all this. No one seemed to be paying attention — except of course me and Moodja.

And we’re off!

The sea of moooooo….

The lag was so incredibly bad that at one point, it looked like I was all alone out there.

Incredibly, I was actually near the front of the pack!

These dudes are the only ones between me and naked she-cow glory!

Of course, we ARE still in the Barrens… there’s still a long way to go.

As we head into Durotar, I’m still near the lead!

But when I saw the first zeppelin depart from Orgrimmar without me, I knew I was doomed. How right I was to be — in many ways! Here’s a shot of the second zep loading to Undercity. Note the “entertainment cow” dancing on the roof.

Even though I know I can’t catch up to the first zep folks, I decide that I’m going to try to beat everyone from the second zep.

And then came the worgs. They ate me not once, but twice. At least I was one among many. (Everyone in this shot is a ghost.)

After my second death, I decided to follow suit with Moodja and just run to the finish line as a ghost. Thankfully, as a ghost you run a lot faster than everyone else!

Um. What I failed to remember is that when you’re dead you can’t see anyone else — so the finish line at Hammerfall looked like a… well, a ghost town.

I had a lot of fun during this race… thanks very much to BRK and Ratter for doing it. Most of all, here’s sending the Light to Sharvan’s loved ones.

Lessons from Shadowfang Keep for Newb Rogue

First, let me say, Arugal and all his bastidge sons are dead, thanks to the Green Poxed last night. Here is proof. Please click to enjoy the full size animated beauty of modern dance.

The green troll person in the middle is Abuto, my Poxer. This was our third unique instance together and I am learning my role slowly, bit by bit. Some takeaways from last night.

• Do not make the tank wish he could aggro the rogue. It’s poor form.
• Stay in front of the target if running around the back of him means aggroing the entire room. Even if you’re specced to kick booty from the back. Just stand in front and like it.
• Use the tab key or the attack key to target the next mob. Do not embarrass yourself by accidentally looting before the battle is over. Dude! You know better than that!
• Do NOT get all giggly when you see your first locked trunk. This just makes everyone roll their eyes.
• If it’s not an upgrade, pass all the greens to the Enchanter.
• Thank your healers for brilliantly keeping you alive, despite all the above! /mwah!
• Try not to breathe in deeply behind the bear butt. You think that -100 weapon skill curse was bad?? Not even!
• Patience is a virtue.
• When in doubt, just stab something in the middle of the pack.

New Graphics

For those reading in RSS, here’s my new blog header.

Shaman vs. Druid - Update

Last week I posted my thoughts on the lower levels of druids versus shamans. Since then I have leveled the druid to 22 and I have some extra comments to make.

Cat Form Rocks!

I had been whining about not being able to stop casters and Wara commented that he just usually tries to DPS them to death. At level 19 I couldn’t imagine how I could do this very well against one opponent, much less two. However, the magic of level 20 for a druid is beyond compare! Cat form exponentially improves your ability to fight (and avoid fights with Prowl). The improvement was so dramatic that I had to go out and take on three mobs at once to prove to myself how awesome I was. Of course, I still find myself switching forms a lot to heal or outlast mobs, but Wara is right: once you get cat form the speed with which you can kill makes casters pretty irrelevant.

Truth be told, if cat form hadn’t come as such an upgrade, I probably would’ve stopped playing the druid. What appeals to me very much about this class is its ability to use every play style in the game. You can be a caster, a melee fighter, or use stealth — or some combination of all three. It makes the class very fun to play with its ability to solve the puzzles of combat in multiple ways depending on how you feel at the moment.

I got nothin’

Today I can only offer you this: “An Engineer’s Guide To Cats”.

Help Me Get This Blizzard Job!

Okay, people, I need your help! I’ve been trying to get a job at Blizzard for 1.5 years now and Monday I applied for the position of Associate Producer of Analytics for Online Technologies — a job that seems to have been written right from my resume. I’ve applied through their email address and also through a recruiter for Blizzard that I found on LinkedIn. But now I want your help! Do any of you know anyone at Blizzard who could at least get my resume in front of the hiring manager (not just HR or a recruiter)? Even better, do you know anyone in the Online Technologies department? If so, go to my Contact page and shoot me an email. I’d really appreciate it! Thanks!

Shaman vs. Druid (Level 1 - 19)

I’m starting a “Versus” series that will share with you my dirty little secrets from my recent bout of altitis. Since my main is a shaman, I’m going to compare the alts I’ve been playing to how it is to play a shammy. Hopefully this will encourage other folks to try out the shaman class — or at the very least give an insight into why the class doesn’t suit your play style.

I’ve been dying (and terrified!) to know how I would do on a PvP server and after reading some posts about what classes do best in PvP, I tried a Rogue and a Druid. Today I’m writing about my PvP Druid, Minnietaur on Gul’Dan server.

On PvP Servers

First, my impressions of the PvP server. There is way more dueling than I’ve ever been exposed to. Everyone duels everyone all the time. I’ve only dueled once so far (I don’t accept duels from people more than 1 level above me at this point) against a level 19 warlock. He pwned me. That Fear spell is the worst. I have to figure out how to counter that on the druid. At least he was nice about it and didn’t taunt me. Which is another thing that seems to be common on this server: trash talking and general jerkiness. “Every dork for himself” kind of atmosphere.

Now, I’m used to the Crossroads being attacked fairly often on Normal and RP servers, but Gul’Dan takes it to an entirely new level. You can hardly see the mailbox for the skeletons piled around it and you have to do a LOT of walking because the flightmaster is almost always dead. I wish there was some way to suppress “The Crossroads is being attacked!!!” in chat because it’s just a constant scroll. The flip side of this alarmism is that there are an unusual amount of 50+ Hordies often milling about so, strangely, I don’t feel as unsafe as you might think. One level 70 even summoned Furious Mister Pinchy for us lowbies to have fun wailing on. It was pretty funny, but we did manage to down him after about, oh, 30 minutes. (Contrary to what WoWWiki says, FMP did not start attacking us until we attacked him. He was just this ginormous lobster standing by the mailbox, essentially hanging out and minding his own business.)

Honor Able

I have been attacked once and so far it’s my only fight with an Alliance member. (I’m going to make you wait in suspense to find out who won. Heh.) At level 10, as you know, Druids must go to Moonglade to jump through some hoops to get Bear Form. Da bear ftw! Now, what I didn’t realize was that Moonglade is contested territory, so the minute I teleport there, I’m flagged for PvP. This somewhat terrifies me, but I figure, “hey, it’s Moonglade! We’re all druid brothers and sisters! How bad could it be?”

So I trot over to talk to this Great Bear Spirit dude who is supposed to teach me the bear ways and whatnot and… OMG! Another level 10 druid! But it’s a night elf! His name is in red and everything! But he’s talking to the GBS so I decide to let him live. I sit down across from him and wait my turn with the Spirit.

Well, Night Elf boy is taking forever with the GBS so I go up to the Spirit and start talking to it. In the MIDDLE of my discussion, Night Elf Drood attacks me! Rat Bastidge!! Oh, man, it is ON! I blast the crud out of him with my nasty mace which I’d just purchased at the AH and then he starts running away! Cowardly icehole! Dear readers, I am playing a druid, at peace with the earth and her creatures. Should I let him run like the little girl he is? Or chase him and kill him till he’s dead?

Oh, he’s so dead.

And in about 2 mace-bonks, he was. And I got my very first 2 honor points!

The moral of the story is don’t mess with a druid when she’s gettin’ her bear on. Especially if she left you alone in the first place.

Hmpf!

Class Comparison

Now to the original reason for this post. How does being a druid compare to being a shaman at these low levels? Being hybrids, they are fairly similar. However, the resto-specced druid wasn’t as good with mana as the elemental-specced shaman. Bear form is definitely nice, but it’s balanced by the earth totems the shammy has. One big difference was the ability to stop spell casters. The druid is sorely lacking in comparison to the shammy on this one. Shammy can cast Earth Shock quickly and often. Also, it’s tougher for the druid to stop shifty buggers from running away (Sludge Fen, anyone?) The druid can use Entangling Roots, but the cast time is longer than Frost Shock or the Earthbind Totem (both instant) and the druid can’t use the roots indoors or in caves. The one thing I will give the druid, though, is the ability in bear form to Swipe multiple enemies at once. That’s a very nice feature.

Clarification … and a video card

In case there was confusion over the tone of the last post, I’m not quitting the blog yet. Just “wrasslin” with some motivational issues. No impending doom meant.

The PC’s video card is really dying. I play WoW on the Mac but do everything else on the PC and right now I’m writing through a pink vertical line on my screen. I get dots all over the place too. I need to do some research on video cards and buy a new one. *sigh*

Happy Tax Day

and

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY TO MY KITTIES, CALVIN & HOBBES!