Redwolf's Journal (continued)

We actually had enough people on WoW last night to get in two heroic dungeon runs with guildies - Utgarde Pinnacle first, then Nexus. It's a commitment of time and concentration I wouldn't want to put forth every night, but I have missed it. We've done relatively few dungeon runs since WotLK came out, and they've been normal mode (usually with some or all characters of higher level than the dungeon was designed for). I won't say it was a perfect performance by any means. It was, however, educational and fun. Utgarde Pinnacle It was a little slow starting out, as we were finding out pace and getting crowd controls worked out. Reaching Svala wasn't bad, and she went down readily enough thought that fight started roughly due to her not initially being in melee range. I wasn't able to reach her to build up threat, so she went after out mage. Taunting her back got things on track and it seemed better at that point. Gortok was almost dizzying, going thro

Oof. Tired. Woke up about the time I needed to to get myself off to work as normal (as opposed to when I normally get up, that leaves me some time to futz around on the computer before doing things to get ready). Apparently, I'd set my alarm clock to PM. Oops. Then, in the five minutes between turning my truck on to warm it up and actually going to leave, the air outside went from cool and moist to densely foggy. We get fog of that level only a couple times a year usually. Even a couple hours later, my brain's not in gear. I feel half-asleep at best... @.@

I got a belated birthday card from my (half-)sister. In it, she mentions looking forward to Ulduar and saying her "armory isn't much... stupid warrior kept stealing my Naxx T7.5 tokens." Guh. I haven't even seriously looked at Naxx10 and she's running Naxx25. >.>

So... with discussion of meeting every other Saturday for Magic and/or roleplaying, this was an "off" weekend. I was hoping to make some progress in WoW. In the end... well, it wasn't so much as I might have liked, but it was something anyway. We did the Violet Hold instance. It was quick and easy (as sub-80 dungeons seem to be for level 80 characters), similar in design to Black Morass, but with much better pacing. It felt fun rather than dragging into an endurance trial. Peeking at loot lists, I want to go back in heroic mode. In fact, I really want to be getting my paladin into heroics, as that's where the gear upgrades for her are going to come from at this point. Our druid tank showed up more this weekend, and that led to a run through Gundrak in helping her get experience. It was my first time doing more than peeking in the instance. Trolls, snakes, rhinos... cakewalk for our group. Getting her up toward level 80 feels like a mixed blessing to me. On one han

So, I read Furies of Calderon . It's been recommended by some friends, I've enjoyed Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, and it was finally purchased for me as a gift. Verdict? It's perfectly fine fantasy fare - not displeasing, but it doesn't really separate itself from the pack. Fury-based magic is interesting enough, though it doesn't feel fully fleshed out. It would probably feel more unique to me if Avatar: The Last Airbender hadn't presented a heavily-elemental type of magic to me first. The two aren't the same, mind you, but there are similarities. I find myself wanting to see a better explanation of what personality furies have and why they bond with Alerans. The heroes are likable enough. I somehow pictured Amara as younger in the beginning than she seems to be. Tavi is... well, a cliche "disadvantaged" person with a great destiny. Through the whole book, his lack of furies feels like it's just a setup for him getting access to 1) the

One pile of signed documents later, my refinancing is in the works and pretty much out of my hands. It sounds like it may be around a month before everything goes through, however, with documents coming from a few sources and a backlog in the underwriting department. It's a little exhilarating, but there's some anxiety about possible kinks along the way, too. A bit less than $80,000 is a "small" amount on a home loan. Okay, I knew that logically, but it's still strange to hear, given that is't feels like a lot of money. Similarly, I apparently have a "lot" of equity built up, the last county appraisal for tax purposes being around $160,000. I apparently have some of the best credit scores this particular mortgage adviser has ever seen (and a little research shows she started in 1970). Debt is bad, kiddies, pay your bills on time. This appears to be a factor in my not needing to get a new appraisal done (which is probably good considering the half

There are times I think Atlantis is less a legend and more a warning, and that we are living in it now - that our civilization is ascendant, but nearing its peak and point of collapse. The current recession/depression brings this to mind. Being mired in foreign conflicts, fuel costs (and everything that's related)... all those big issues add up. But so do the little ones. Things like inconsiderate cell phone users, or gas stations that only require pre-payment or credit cards. It feels as though there is some society-wide moral slippage. Even the great Internet, where nearly anything can be found in less than a minute, contributes. Maybe - hopefully - it is undue worry, and the worst of what's going on will pass as the pendulum swings. But a part of me fears a larger-scale cycle, in which our civilization will fall before the next. My parents may be purchasing a shotgun or similar, at the urging of a neighbor in law enforcement (who also encourages stockpiling months of supp

More snow. Some 45 minutes of shoveling before going to work, wondering why no one else has seen fit to bother. Slow traffic on icy roads. Two vehicles in the powder on the side of the roads. Guh. Tired. Edit: And, of course, I come home to find that this is actually the day (and there seems to be just one per winter) the snow-removal folks decided to take a skid loader or similar around the parking lot while cars were away. ... At least a majority of the packed snow piles have been moved out of the way of the cars.

I was enjoying above-freezing weather and seeing grass in some places. 'course, last night I went to be to a light dusting of snow and woke to a couple inches of fresh powder on everything. The road in to downtown was slick as . It's still cloudy/snowy/breezy out. I'm tired. I can't say that I slept well over the weekend... or much of last week really. Last week the 8 am phone calls for the culprit. Over the weekend, I'm less sure. Stuck on my night-shift schedule? I wasn't really able to get to sleep much before 4, and just didn't feel rested when I got up. Ugh. It looks like we'll try getting folks together to play Magic next Saturday. Social activity is good, yes? Though I've grown accustomed to having weekends to rest and relax rather than "doing" something. Ah well, we'll see how it goes. My paladin hit level 80 and underwent a transformation. Titansteel this, titanium that... poof, over 540 defense, around 25k health - pret