How nothing else matters

I'm ditching work again just to write about something that's on my heart right at this moment.

Some time ago I mentioned how I feel about Northrend generally. I'd like to share a particular memory, probably my dearest pure WoW memory in history. It's one that I really treasure and cherish.

Today I've spent a lot of time mining with Vlad and just recently I went back to Northrend, Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord in particular, to ease his shortage of cobalt. I was, as usual, reminded of when I did the Explore Northrend achievement that awards Tabard of the Explorer with Nicasia. I only had the slowest flying skill, so I made slow progress, but dear Naaru how I enjoyed that. Similarly to how some people say that vanilla was the best time of WoW - they don't miss the server crashes, endless grinds, unpractical mechanics, severely unbalanced class performance or buffing a 40 man raid every 5 minutes. They miss the feeling they had when they were doing it, and the truth is they're never getting it back, just like I'm never getting back my Wrath of the Lich King. For me it was the golden age of WoW, and this song is my memento of it:

It's not exactly the version that I listened to, but similar enough.

Back then I couldn't play with the graphics I do these days; in fact I couldn't even dream of it. I played with custom graphics that were lower than low, to make fight situations as tolerable as possible. I knew much less of the game than I do these days, both lore- and mechanics-wise. Dalaran lagged like hell, but that music still gives me positive vibes, no matter what.

The elemental unrest world event awakens similar feelings in me, although it was already on the edge of the modern era of my WoW life; not quite like that hazy part, such as your childhood that you're not quite sure about, it just makes you feel a certain way for what it is. I don't know if I'd go back to those times if I could. Probably. Maybe. I don't know. After all it's good that time traveling isn't (yet) possible. It would make things like 'moving on' very, very hard. The cost of living in the past is the present.

Why I wanted to write about this now is not just because I got reminded of it once again, but because it's one of those things that make the future seem light and hopeful. It represents how nothing else matters except the way you feel about it and what you can get out of it. Even though it's been long since my Northrend exploration, I'm still able to feel the exact same feelings I did back then. I sincerely hope that people take things as they come. Forget about the preconceptions and drop the prejudice attitude. Because you never know, it might just turn out to be something great, you only need to let it be that.

Through Your Interface: 15 Days of Screenshots #6

See Saz's blog for more information regarding the challenge!

6. Favorite line of poetry/lyric
Most of us have a favorite poet or song. Give us an image that you think represents your favorite line, or what line inspires you most. You should probably include said line and *maybe* give some explanation/reasoning behind it, unless you're feeling overly ambiguous.

Right. This is a mission impossible. Music is no doubt the biggest thing in my world, and there are countless and countless lyrics I could call my favorite - it just depends on the moment. Therefore the one I've chosen shouldn't be considered my absolute favorite, it's just one of those that I really, really like. Okay, here goes.

Junior, you're a genious

You think with your mind and not your penis

(Damian Marley - Hey Girl)

I sense an influx of viagra ads.

A few highwaymen

I was a highwayman, along the coach roads I did ride

With sword and pistol by my side

Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade

Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.



I was a sailor, I was born upon the tide

And with the sea I did abide

I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico

I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow

And when the yards broke off, they said that I got killed

But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide

Where steel and water did collide

A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado

I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below

They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound

But I am still around

I'll always be around

And around and around and around and around and around.

I fly a starship across the Universe divide

And when I reach the other side

I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can

Perhaps I may become a highwayman again

Or I may simply be a single drop of rain

But I will remain

And I'll be back again

And again and again and again and again and again and again.

I want to thank Nicasia the Hex Machine, Sir Raleigh Croft and Nikoleta Abbatelli for agreeing to the photoshoot. Please don't think I'm behind the awesome lyrics - all honour to the men below.

So...

Something happened. I got disgusted by my own writing. It frustrates me beyond understanding that something, in this case language skill, is preventing me from being as good as I could be. Writing is the only thing in the world I am really good at, and this situation pains me a lot.

I can't and don't want to just stop updating my blog, but I'm going to take a break from those (excuses of) stories and just write something else for a while. I'll probably try again one day, but not now. I don't want to hate the one thing I am talented at because of other people. So please, enjoy my break and keep reading my blog, but if you would be so kind, please don't read the earlier posts.

This one is about PvP.

I would never call myself a PvP pro of any sort, so I'll just settle for explaining something of my own that, like always, makes little sense.

My main character Nicasia is elemental/elemental specced, meaning that her main spec is elemental for PvE, and off spec elemental for PvP. Her talent trees, as of patch 4.3.4, the last one of Cataclysm, look like this:

And she is glyphed like this:

I feel the need to say something about these. Stoneclaw glyph is there only because we thought of the possibility of me soaking an Hour of Twilight at Ultraxion. Then I never came to change it, because I didn't think I needed to. Ghost wolf is there for a better chance of avoiding a Shockwave when further away, faster movement at Zon'ozz and all that stuff. I like Glyph of Elemental Mastery for PvP, because I seem to suck at avoiding the situation where I get hit. I also suck at having EM available at those times. I should probably swap it for Stoneclaw, as the absorption effect still persists if you change your earth totem after popping it, however I probably won't PvP much before Pandaria.

My problem with PvP is that I lose my nerves. I get annoyed, I rage at myself, I ruin what's left of my peace of mind and wreck my day. It has a lot to do with my fear of failing. In fact player verses players, doing it and talking about it, is one of my weak spots on World of Warcraft. I haven't PvP'd with Nica, or any other character except my lowbie Forsaken rogue Ancelot, since a very traumatising arena match some months ago. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how much I can terrify myself with my own behavior. Despite all that I have some amazing player verses player memories. Not to mention that I am a great!! amateur psychologist, and therefore try to cure myself with music therapy.

Warriors by Freedom Call works great in Warsong Gulch, which is slightly too much a claustrophobic battleground for my taste. I have some awesome memories of that, and I imagine it would also work in various other situations.

If I'm generally not in any particular kind of mood, I like to play Supreme by Robbie Williams. There's absolutely nothing about Robbie that would make one associate him with PvP action, but if you take a closer look at the song's lyrics, it's actually understandable why it fits a moment of aggression and uncontrollable rage.

... And all the best women are married
All the handsome men are gay
You feel deprived

Yeah, are you questioning your size?
Is there a tumour in your humour,
are there bags under your eyes?
Do you leave dents where you sit,
are you getting on a bit?
Will you survive?
You must survive

... Do you need a bit of rough?
Get on your knees

For a couple of battlegrounds I tried Eros Ramazzotti, but found that the memories related to his album Stilelibero are too far from anything gaming-related.

Now something for the imaginary readers: what's your PvP soundtrack like?

10 hours of LANing

If your WLAN, mobile internet or head can't handle the 10 hour version, try this one.



Switch the power on, and go from offine to online
Game on, and fingers move by themselves already
Killermasa stopped by, we have 'LANs' tonight, yep
Let's see how many servers we get banned from tonight
I'm looking for the tune, but soon I'll be tense
When the ??? (no clue what) begin to argue on the chat in the middle of the game
I take it easy, but I'll be mad if I don't win
If you shoot one more time, I'll start throwing things around

We drink ES, LAN all night
Microwave pizza and hotdog, I don't eat anything else
Our gaming skills are admired by millions of fans
"Wanna go out?" Can't, we have LANs (The following times: "Wanna go swim?", "I'm gonna get ice cream", "Come on, let's go eat!")
I'm not interested in girls, or sociability
Computers are a second dimension for me
I've become engrossed in the game world, maybe a little bit marginalized
But I've got better at RuneScape
Not everyone can be fine against us (not the ideal way to translate, I just couldn't figure out a better one)
"They're cheating!" cry the trolling people
Today we forget about all unnecessary exercise
Tonight we don't need an hour of sleep

If you want to challenge us, you're welcome to try
You noob could never beat us in any way
Today we're gonna play CS and WoW
If you're a true nerd, join our LAN

by Masa & Teurastaja, translation by me