One year of Adventures special: Nica IRL

It's been exactly one year since the first post on Adventures of the Hex Machine saw daylight. Happy birthday, blog! In honor of my first year of WoW blogging, I decided to introduce the person behind Nicasia the Hex Machine, or should I say, her partner in crime.

Although on WoW, my primary game, I've been an elemental shaman since the summer of 2010, I am a rogue in real life. A human subtlety/assassination rogue named Olivia to be exact, or as the URL of my personal blog indicates, "that rogue Liv." I'm from southwestern Finland, which makes Finnish my mother tongue. I became a rogue at the age of 13, when I found that stealthing around was a great way to avoid unwanted attention and remain unseen. Yet there were moments I couldn't hide, perhaps the work of Nefarian (BWL), which resulted in me getting ganked a lot. So I've been a rogue for pretty much seven years now, as I will turn 20 next month. When did I get that old, seriously?

Which of my characters do I resemble the most? Elias Desrosiers is what I would be like if I were male. Nicasia carries my passion, Raleigh and I share a lot of personality traits, Vladan's burden is partially my own. Every character of mine represents something of me, which is why they sometimes feel like my virtual children, or creations the same way a child would.

Some of my favorite blog moments/posts from the past year include Ress please!, my MoP beta memories, the wedding of Sol & Lykke and the launch of Pandaria.

Although I've been quite an inactive blogger the past few months due to real life things and my primary PC letting me down, I'm very thankful for my first year of WoW blogging and I'm eager to see what the rest of those years are like. Thank you all for reading and visiting the Adventures, and stay tuned for my future shenanigans.

Just as I thought I was finally back for good...

...I decided to run Dishonored and realised that the same memory circuit shutdown issue is still there. It no longer occurs with WoW (apart from one time), but it does with Dishonored, so I will have to take my computer back to the store yet again, hopefully to receive a whole new machine, since the Acer people don't seem to be able to fix this one. I am only slightly fed up with the endless (re)installation of Windows, driver updates and software installations.

Before that happens, I do have some time to enjoy a bit of raiding (hopefully!) and work on my gear that is lagging behind so very horribly after the WoW break that I never planned. The guys and girls in Menagerie, my right and left hands and ribs and spines have done such a brilliant job running the guild and organising raids without me. I couldn't do it without you anyway, but I'm very proud of each person that has participated in running the guild during my absence and I owe much to those people. Meanwhile I had a brilliant time in England and will likely start planning my next trip soon. Should you find this interesting in the slightest, there is a post in my personal blog that contains some photos from my trip.

Sadly Adventures will not be updated often at all while I'm not able to play WoW properly, but I should get semi-back into my normal blogging habits once all the technical issues are fixed.

Back, not quite in business though

Turns out I was able to reinstall and run WoW on my terribly bad old laptop, "craptop", after updating as many of its drivers as I was able to. As expected, the play experience is far from desirable with less than 10 FPS standing still in an empty room. As you have probably already figured, raiding is not an option for me before I get my primary PC back. Until then, I may redirect you to my attempt to maintain a personal blog number infinite+1, called That Rogue's Broken Keyboard and Other Lame Excuses. Despite the name, it's pretty much Finland-exclusive.

Lanfranco and I were responsible for this year's April fool's guild message of the day in Menagerie. A Menagerie ghost roleplay event was to be arranged in Hearthglen, Western Plaguelands (a very strategic location for Menagerie). Everyone taking part would be required to remain dead throughout the event. The idea of ghost RP first came up in a humorous recruitment advertisement we posted in the Moonglade trade chat once. Last year's April fool's message asked everyone to add 'lol' in the end of each message they posted in guild chat, or they would get a warning.

It's likely I won't be posting anything to Adventures while in England (9th - 24th of April), but when I return, I will have my good computer back. Below is yet another video that gets posted late.

I wasn't sure if I would ever post the next one, but decided to do so anyway. It's my first ever, and due to technical difficulties, also my only experience in the solo dungeon loot scenario...whateverthedevil thingy. I'm looking forward to doing smoother loot runs in the future!

¤$%"@#£&#¤!! PERKELE!!1

Siiiiiiiiiiigggggghhh.

No. Windows reinstallation did not help. Emptying the PC of everything did not help. Updating all drivers did not help. I am still unable to play WoW; the machine keeps shutting down after a minute or a few. Guildies and friends have offered me help in our Facebook group, which is much, much appreciated. However, it looks like I will have to take the machine back to where I bought it, as it is likely an issue with memory circuitry. And that means I will not be playing WoW for some weeks, probably not for another month, since I will be abroad from the 9th of April till the 24th.

Although the machine runs WoW and other games well, I am certain I will never buy a laptop again. I wouldn't have bought one last time if I hadn't had the need. I had to change my location every now and then, and a laptop was the obvious choice. However, my next computer, which will likely come around in late-ish 2014 or early 2015, will be a proper gaming computer.

So, this is just a little update about my situation regarding gaming equipment. I will pop around with more news and WoW-related posts even during my absence in the game. Have a fabulous spring if you are in the northern hemisphere. For people in the southern hemisphere I wish a fantastic autumn. If you only experience two seasons, I wish you an excellent either of the two, probably the rainy one.

An unplanned break

Hello everyone!

I've been an extremely inactive and indifferent blogger in March, for a reason. I hate vague explanations that strive to invoke curiosity within readers, and I don't want anyone to think that is my aim. I will, however, say that due to an event, a big and sad change has taken place in my life. I decided I wouldn't write about it yet at least. Perhaps I will one day, but for now I will not, and I won't stress about it. It's enough as it is. I intend to just live one day at a time, and learn to live with the change.

I haven't stayed away from World of Warcraft because of that only. I encountered an issue that caused my PC to shut down after spending a few minutes on the game. I am hoping a Windows reinstallation will fix this, so I am currently working on that. It's something I was planning to do anyhow, so now I have a very good reason to complete the project. It just takes a while to save all the files and things I want to save.

As I leafed through a few screenshots on my old laptop, I got reminded of how much I enjoy World of Warcraft. That was why I decided to try to get back to the game as soon as possible. Those screenshots featured absolutely horrible graphics, because the PC was horrible for gaming. When I played on that machine, I thought the bad graphics made my playing experience worse. Now that I play with good graphics primarily, I realise that I couldn't have been more wrong.

All in all, I will be back in the game soon. I will finally begin to gear up properly - I've done a horrible job so far! I also heard Menagerie has done a great job progressing through Throne of Thunder in my absence. Well done, you all!

I think I was working on the Felwood quest achievement then.

This made me want to re-mog Vlad's stuff.

A thought on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in the country I live in, but I think it's one of those rare holidays that have a topic that makes sense - a topic that isn't tied to a religion, or something else that may limit one's views of things. I know Thanksgiving from American TV series and movies, because - let's face it - they always seem to celebrate either Thanksgiving or Christmas in those.

My view on Thanksgiving is that although it's a cool holiday, it should be a part of everyday life instead of a yearly event. We should give thanks and appreciation every single day. It has become particularly relevant for me during the past year, as my beloved dog was diagnosed with Cushing's disease. She has medication for it, but at one point her dose was too big, which resulted in her throwing up virtually everything. Thankfully, the correct amount of medicine for her was discovered and she's now doing fine with her illness. I've decided to be particularly thankful for every day I get to spend with her and my other loved ones: my parents, my siblings, my friends and other living things that are dear to me. I am extremely thankful that my mother survived breast cancer, that my father is able to keep his intestinal disease in control - thank you Finnish healthcare! I'm thankful that my siblings have built themselves good lives around good people and are doing okay. I'm thankful that I was born in a country, where I obtained all the keys to a good life the second it began. I'm thankful that I've got more chances to continue my studies than I've deserved, and that I found a school that I love going to.

Logo created with WoW Item Creator!

As for my interactive life, I'd like to thank everyone who has given the Adventures support during its first half a year of life. The WoW blogging community I've got into is most wonderful, and I look forward to getting to know you all a bit better. Thanks to everyone that stops by to read or to leave a comment.

It's been well over a year since Lanfranco, Kinsey and I formed our guild Menagerie, and it's grown hugely since that day. First of all I'd like to give an immense thanks to Lan and Kidney for sticking with me on this crazy ride. The two of you are amazing. Our entire core raiding group gets appreciation and thanks from me, as you are a source of positive energy for me and it's a true pleasure to bond with you through raiding. A big thanks to everyone, an old member or a newbie, who sticks around and enjoys the shenanigans that we come up with. And thank you for putting up with me as I am!

It's impossible for people to judge the importance of certain things in one's life from the outside. Surely people cay say that WoW is just a game, but for me it's been a source of great energy during some really dark times in my life. On WoW I've met some of the coolest people I know - I'm close friends with some of them today. Thank you Blizzard for creating this game.

If we go further back in time, it wasn't very bright back then either. That was when a band called Scorpions pretty much saved my life. Their music was something I could hold on to when I couldn't really find much positive in my life. They have no doubt shaped my life greatly by maintaining it during that dark time. I met a very good friend through their music - a friend that I recently lost, the same year that Scorpions are throwing their final tour. Thank you Scorpions for all the good things you've given me.

And I said heeeeeeeyeeeeeeeyeeeeeeeeyeeeheeh

I said hey, what's going on? This post is going to cover a bit of stuff that has happened recently that aren't quite important enough to have individual posts, but should be mentioned anyhow.

1. I've been sick. I am sick. Stupid, stupid flu. Stuck to my bed and unable to stay up more than two hours a day, and even that is a struggle. Work lagging behind, school lagging behind and WoW life shut down, since I am unable to do anything else but lie down and/or sleep. Luckily the worst seems to be over now.

2. Menagerie, our guild, completed Dragon Soul on heroic mode, ranking 11th on the server, 7th on Alliance side. With a sudden sprint of progressing through the last two encounters during the same evening, I'm quite happy that we made it to 8/8 heroic by the end of the expansion. That also got me thinking the definition of casual. I've always considered us a casual raiding guild. It's quite obvious to all that Dragon Soul is the easiest raid for the designated level so far, also the most nerfed. But on our server, Moonglade EU, there are guilds that also call themselves casual with a progression that barely reaches the end of normal mode.
I thought some of our most important casual features were flexible raids, that we could have a couple of breaks during the raid time and we didn't have any super important progression schedule. Surely, every time we down a new boss, I set the goal to learning the next one (as I am the main raid leader and one out of three guild leaders).
I think on a very global scale, as a raid team, we're mediocore at our best. But I'm constantly looking to optimise the team for the best possible progression plan.

Commercial time! Do you want to be a part of Menagerie? We're a growing guild on the European RP realm Moonglade. We currently have about two raid groups, including the core group that raids Friday and Saturday evenings, and a less progression oriented bunch of people and alts that raid on Thursdays and Tuesdays, or one of those days. Let me know of your interest, or whisper Nicasia, Lanfranco or Kinsey, or alternatively an officer, in-game. This Menagerie is NOT for guests only!

3. I defeated my archnemesis. Vladan has struggled with Instructor Razuvious of Naxxramas for a long time, always getting slain by his abilities obliterating half of his health at once. Apparently the class changes of 5.0.4 buffed him so much that I was able to one-shot him (as in not dying to him before killing) last time I visited Naxxramas, and was finally able to finish the Military Quarter. Against all odds, the Four Horsemen were a surprisingly easy encounter.

Currently I have the most issues with Gluth, and it's because of lack of damage. I'm unable to damage through all his zombie-devouring heals before berserk. Due to not getting past the dog, I haven't had a shot at Thaddius, or the two mini-bosses before him. The two bosses mentioned are the only ones I can't kill alone in Naxxramas.

I'm very eager to try the Lich King, but according to my common sense, it's probably impossible to get through the gunship battle alone. Therefore I'll have to grab at least a couple of people with me. I did try to duo the gunship with Lanfranco, but we either wiped to the Skybreaker taking too much damage, or me dying because of the stacking debuff of the Horde boss that he does when I go out of his melee range to get rid of the mage.

I guess that was pretty much all the important stuff for now. I'll try to see you more when I get better and I'm done with my current work task. Take care, have fun and remember: 2 weeks till Pandaria!

A new layout for Pandaria?

First of all I'd like to apologise for the long-ish break from posting. Days have been better and worse, some of them horrid, but most importantly they've just passed, one after another. Here I am anyway, I haven't lost interest in this blog and I'm in fact working on a new series of posts, but the premiere takes more work, and another photoshoot. Another thing is that I also got a job, if I can call it that - it certainly doesn't feel like one. It's nothing much, but I keep my email open constantly, and when I do get to do something, I want to do it well and it takes a bit of my day.

There's something I've been wondering as Mists of Pandaria is around the corner. Should I perhaps update the blog's layout to Pandaria style? I'm pretty sure it would involve a lot of green colour. Currently the background image and colours have nothing to do with Cataclysm, it's just a personal thing, a long story in the form of a picture made of two screenshots. And I like it, and the meaning behind it very much.
I'd definitely like a blue background best, since it's my favorite colour and the one that represents my favorite expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I can see that it would be very illogical, though, as we have, and Azeroth has, moved on from that. A snowy and cold layout is however a strong possibility. After all, this blog has a slightly greater focus on me in the game, than the game itself.
Let me know what you think, if you think, about any of the stuff.

WoW-wise I haven't been up to much. I changed Ral's protection spec to retribution so I'd get some change and some gearing up to do. I was, in fact, extremely lucky in the first full LFR run I did as retribution: I got everything I rolled on for main spec, three items, and a ring for the tank spec which I had just dropped. So four items altogether. Definitely my luckiest LFR run in the history of ever (due to having my lucky dwarf with me.)

I've been a real slackbanana of a guild master recently. At least I feel that way. I've just been leveling my alts and whatnot, letting officers and co-guild masters take care of everything. On top of all that, Cataclysm is getting more and more boring with less things I actually want to do.

Anyway, this was just a little post to let my imaginary readers know what's going on with me and the blog. There will be more MoP beta posts in the near future, also character intrductions (I assume?!) and other things. You may also suggest if you'd like to hear, see, smell, feel, taste or sense something in particular, I might be able to make that happen!

Wiggles,
Nica