My name is Haggis. I live in San Antonio, Texas, and I’m an Orc Warrior. For the HORDE!
Of course it’s no secret that i’m an avid addict player of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft. In fact I’ve been playing the MMO off and on since it came out.
I am attempting a milestone in the game, a first for me. The games level cap, or maximum level, is 70. I am currently 1/3 the way through level 69, so I decided to live blog the event.
I have vowed to reach level 70 before the new year, which is as the start of this article, 20 hours away. Since the company I work for is so awesome, I’ve got the next two days off to do nothing but play this game and ring in the New Year.
I stopped at the store and got a 24oz Mocha Cappuccino, a bag of Doritos, two bags of peanut M&M’s, some Sour Nerds (which are awesome, by the way), and a 12 pack of Coca-Cola.
If I don’t die from lack of sleep or go into a diabetic coma, I should be able to achieve this modest goal.
So here goes.
2:00am - Been playing for 2h 36m already, gained 119k experience from about five quests. Stopped momentarily to start this article. I am currently 6 1/2 bars out of 20 from leveling. Yay!
2:10am - I mention the liveblogging on my guild channel. I get accused of spamming. (He was kidding). I keep forgetting to buy ammo.
Haggis running for his life
2:20am - Died. I did take two with me though. I’d like to take this opportunity (while I run back to my corpse) to explain why it’s taken me several years, off and on, to bring one character to the level cap.
I am the slowest leveler ever. I am extremely casual with the game, so I do what i’m having fun with. If I’m getting killed all the time by high level enemies, i’ll do something else like try to level up my fishing skill for a week, or another week flying around getting rare cooking recipes. I really did this. I don’t care if I should be getting xp, I want to experience everything the game has to offer, and I think I’ve done very well so far.
I am looking forward to the endgame content, which is coming very soon. Ok, back to grinding.
2:45am - Died once more from the elite you see in the pic above. Did finish the quest. Small break for bio (ie refreshments and/or bathroom).
3:00am - Writer and fellow WoW addict Smokin is joining me to help me knock out a few quests faster with his uber level 70 mage skills. Should help knock out a few more knotches. 64% left until level!
3:35am - Sleepy eyes are hitting me, but i’m still all hyper from the cappuccino and all the sugar. Pausing to adjust my iTunes playlist for more upbeat music to smash things to.
“What the hell am I doing awake?”
5:00am - I can’t believe I’m still awake, and still slightly coherent. I’m more than halfway now, with 43% to go. I’ve gained 332,684 since I started at 11:30pm, not bad for 5 1/2 hours. I think I’ve actually caught a second wind, and I’m gonna keep on for a few more hours after a quick stop to the Shattrath to drop stuff off in the bank.
5:35am - Back to the grind. Smokin is out, he’s about to fall asleep at the keyboard. I need another soda. I submitted this story to WoWInsider, hopefully I’ll get some kind of honorable mention. Probably not.
5:37am - Here’s the link to my character on the WoW Armory: Haggis on Mug’Thol. And for those curious, my total /played time so far is 24 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes. I don’t think that’s terrible overall, right?
Haggis takes a dance break in the Ecodome. God I’m delirious.
5:51am - Okay so I just spent 15 minutes on taking a screenshot of me doing the Hammer Time. I think it was totally worth it.
I got bored with my music so I turned on the TV and found the original Star Trek series on TV Land, followed by Night Court. Awesome.
6:10am - Okay, I remember Markie Post’s hair being bad, but not that bad. The intro song is just as great as I remembered it.
6:40am - Wings is on now. It’s amazing so many of these people went on to much bigger roles, especially Tony Shaloub. I just died twice in a row, but the second time was my fault. I was trying to sneak around to get a quest item, and I forgot that Warriors aren’t too subtle. 5 1/2 bars to go.
7:19am - Dear god, the sun is up. I am out of my mind.
7:30am - Submitted to Digg. I’m definitely out of my mind.
8:12am - Three bars left! OMG! The Today Show is boring.
9:03am - Thanks for all the support and blog mentions, it’s keeping me going! Not that I have far to go, with 7.3% left, or 1 1/2 bar! Gah I’m so tired.
And in response to Horns, I am a casual player, but I am also a bit of a nut. I haven’t been playing the whole time. I played for about 8 months then quit for over a year, till about three months ago. Not so bad I guess.
10:04am - I’m still here! Somehow. I have 14k remaining, and I just finished two quests. Prepare yourselves! XD
10:16am - DING! I did it!
Here’s a few statistics for this play session:
Total time played: 24d 8h 22m
Total time played this session: 10h 50m
Total XP Gained this session: 649,810
Total Gold Gained: 215gp 57s
10:49am - Yes, I’m still awake. Had to borrow a hundred gold or so for my flying mount, and picked up my first piece of Season 1 Gear, the Gladiator’s Plate Gauntlets. Flying to Shadowmoon at this moment.
10:55am - Okay, I’m about 200gp short for the skill, so I’m calling it a day for now. I’ll get the rest later, I’m just happy I finally made it.
I hope everyone has enjoyed sharing the experience with me. It’s certainly taken me a very, very long time to get here, but I’ve enjoyed (almost) every step of the way. I think Terrokar Forest, Tarren Mill, and Stranglethorn Veil were my least favorite zones in the whole game, the ones that almost made me quit.
Thanks again for everyone’s support, especially my friends and fellow guild mates:
Oldrengrim/Smokin for helping me grind through those tough parts when I needed a lot more damage done.
Grimish & Gruelosh for cheering me on for 2 1/2 years and keeping me in every guild that you belong with.
Tyla, Nathran, Bourban, and Lumas for making all those instances lately a blast. You guys are the reason for my no Pick Up Groups rule, why would I want to go with anyone else?
Everyone else in Warlords on Mug’Thol, and everyone reading this blog entry last night/this morning. I’ve had a lot of fun doing this, but I’m going to sleep now and not waking up until it’s dark again.
Woot!
Clockwatching
by Jason Mraz, “Mr. A-Z”
Take off both your shoes and clothes I’ll follow
Undo corkscrew drink from the half of a broken bottle
Lately we’re running out of time, aren’t we?
Smoking often and calling out our guilty pleasures
Let’s keep talking anything to stop clock watching
Lately we’re running out of time.
aren’t we crazy for running all the time? Maybe
Let’s forget we’re running out of time
I’m off like an aeroplane
I’m licking your postage stamp again
I’m using my right brain and I’m praying that we don’t crash
Who knew I’d come so fast?
So what if a two pump chump can’t last
But I made it to three and I foreclosed a five-minute fantasy
On a short lived flight making love on economy
No jumping conclusions
I don’t think there’s no solution
Let’s get backwards and forget our restless destination
Let’s live in the moment just this time could we
Just take one moment of our time maybe
Let’s forget we’re running out of time
I’m off like an aeroplane
I’m catching my second wind again
I’m using my left-brain and I’m righting all my wrongs
I’m yearning to turn you on
I’ve been working on getting you off so get on board
But how I guess by the subject of the best predicate is left unsaid
When the matter is too delicate my loneliness is evident
And it’s You. You’re running through my mind
And it makes me crazy
Lady dreamer you might be the soundest sleeper
Tonight sleep tight and build your nest upon my shoulder
When I was just a kid, there were a series of Coke commercials that aired in the US featuring a strange, stuttering, and profoundly bizarre character named Max Headroom. The character has the ability to randomly appear and interact with people near his television set, and soon became the main character of his own TV show (as well as the single-episode talk show that became the basis of the US TV series).
The show lasted eleven episodes before being canceled, but Max’s popularity remained for several years afterwards. Recently, British Television’s Channel 4 launched a campaign promoting its upcoming Digital programming featuring Max Headroom as its spokesperson, albeit a slightly older version.
Actor Matt Frewer portrays both the young and old version of Max. An interesting bit of trivia: The original Max Headroom was in fact NOT computer animated. Technology of the time prevented full-person rendering, so they “tricked” the viewer by dressing Matt Frewer up in a latex and foam rubber costume and cell-shading the geometric lines and shapes that appear behind him.
For more on Max Headroom, see Wikipedia’s article here
This post could be titled “Good Son/Bad Son”. Good Son because I drove to Houston and back twice so my Mom could spend Thanksgiving with me. Bad Son because I’m totally about to make fun of her.
“Black Friday” was originally so named because of the heavy traffic on that day, although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit)
On that very day I was taking my Mom downtown to do touristy stuff (like see the Alamo, tour the Riverwalk, all the things I don’t do now that I live here), and one of the best places to park is the mall parking garage downtown.
I mentioned this and immediately retorted, “Ooh, wait. We can’t park there, it’s Black Friday. Going to be a madhouse at the mall.” (Luckily, nobody seems to like that mall so it was quite empty with plenty of parking.)
My mom, confused look on her face, says, “What does that mean?”
“Black Friday, ya know.” I respond, thinking she would understand the term by me simply repeating it. Why doesn’t that ever seem to work?
Pause, looking sheepish, almost whispering. “… is that when all the Black people come out?”
I laughed for a good minute before replying, “Yes Mom, that’s the one day they come out of their houses, but if they see their shadow they go back indoors for another 6 weeks.”
“Oh shut up,” was her only response. I <3 my Mom. XD
Yes, I’m a huge nerd and also a World of Warcraft addict.
And if you’ve never played the game (or any MMO, for that matter) you won’t get the jokes in the animated image above.
N00b.
My favorite part has to be that they suspect Boromir of being a ninja. “I get plate drops kk?”
When you look up “hip indie music” in the dictionary, Sonic Youth’s band picture is shown. Their bizarre/catchy song Bull In The Heather off of the Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star album released May 3, 1994 is the focus of today’s Flashback Friday.
The album this track appears on was my first Sonic Youth album, and even then I only had a marginal understanding of the music. I was just starting to get into alternative and independent music, and I felt so.. hip listening to them. Kinda like the kids that listened to Dinosaur Jr., I felt by knowing who Sonic Youth even was added cool points to me. Ahh the simplicity of the teenage years.
From their Last.fm Bio:
Initially inspired by the experimentation of Glenn Branca and The Velvet Underground and the heavy garage rock of The Stooges, they are known for using a variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and for applying screwdrivers, drumsticks or other preparations to guitars to alter the instruments timbre.
Members of the band have released books of poetry and prose (a beatnik influence is evident in both their writing and lyrics), produced, written and performed in films (such as “1991: The Year Punk Broke”, “Perfect Partner”, “(this is known as) the blues scale” and “last days”). They have staged shows of visual art, and curated the All Tomorrows Parties music festival. They’ve even appeared in and performed a version of the theme song for “The Simpsons”.
In addition to their 21 albums as Sonic Youth there is much material recorded and performed with other artists, solo albums, and side-projects. It can be said that Sonic Youth are an artistic collective just as much as they are a traditional rock/pop band.
Big plus to Thurston Moore himself for uploading their videos to YouTube. Enjoy!
I’ve been quite the shutter bug since I finally got around to buying myself a digital camera again after I lost the last one in California. I try to find any opportunity to take photos now just to fulfill the secret desire to be a decent photographer.
I switched from Flickr to Picasa Web Albums a few months back (which I recommend everyone do, they offer 2gb of photo space and unlimited albums without the 200-picture restriction Flickr has), and I’ve gotten quite the collection built up.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s five thousand of my recent words:
Brackenridge Park is right across the street from my apartments, and I finally remembered to take my camera with me on a few trips to the park. This was from a rose bush right outside one of the main entrances. The light was just right in that part of the day that it made the whole picture glow.
Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F° is today’s Flashback Friday, off of the album of the same name. Suzanne Vega had a few major breakout hits in the late 80’s/early 90’s, including “Luka” and of course the remixed “Tom’s Diner“. FYI - The original Tom’s Diner was a capella!
The track and both the album were phenomenal, but only received lukewarm airplay compared to previously released tracks. Other standout tracks on the album were “Blood Makes Noise” and one of my personal favorites, “In Liverpool“.
A little more about Ms. Vega from Last.fm’s artist bio:
Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American singer-songwriter noted for her eclectic folk-inspired music. She lived most of her life in New York City, attending the New York City High School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the feature film musical Fame), where she studied modern dance.
However, Vega realized that her talent in dance was not sufficient to make her living doing it. While attending Columbia studying English, she penned many songs and performed in the Greenwich Village area.
She was discovered in 1984, releasing her eponymous debut the following year. However, it was not until her sophomore effort, Solitude Standing, that Vega hit the big time.
Have a great weekend!
REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!!!11!!
Today’s Flashback Friday comes courtesy of my friends and former roommates, who managed to pull this gem of a track out of my memory. The song is Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen), by Baz Luhrmann off of the Everything For Everybody album, released March 31, 1998.
Baz Luhrmann is probably best known for his directorial skills in such films as Mulan Rouge, however in 1998 he released this collection of songs that included extended version and remixes of other popular songs from several different eras covering everything from Prince’s “When Doves Cry” to Doris Day’s “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.” The most notable song off the album is this track, which got some serious radio and video airplay when released.
The legend says the wording was from a graduation speech at MIT while in truth they were a journalist writing what she would say at such a speech, but either way their insight isn’t lost. The lyrics were actually taken from a column published in The Chicago Tribune in 1997. The song even had a seal of approval from the Bishop of Liverpool who said at the time that he believed ‘Everybody’s Free’ carried an important moral message.
Enjoy the track, and remember to wear your sunscreen!
