The Raging Tech

Movin’ On Up (In Silvermoon City)

That’s right folks, my level 9 blood elf warlock is now a level 12! Woo hoo! In case you’re just tuning in, I’ve been delving into World of Warcraft to see what all the fuss is about. I like it a lot so far.

I really hate when several creatures attack at once and overtake me, but it’s usually my fault. Apparently you have to finesse it a little and only provoke one enemy at a time unless you’ve got some nifty area-effect spells.  I don’t have any of those yet, so I have to use my little minion guy to go after them and run back so they’ll chase him.

I’m almost ready to venture away from the area I’m in now and start questing my way south through some more towns. It’s always funny to me when I see people’s characters running around with like “So-And-So-ia, Level 70 Blood Elf Warrior.” It just seems so lofty a goal to me, level 70. I know they must have given a significant portion of their lifetimes sitting around playing WoW.

Me, I prefer slow and steady, and that’s probably how I’ll be getting there. The other night my friend Ruff logged on as a lower level character than me and he quickly caught up - I had apparently skipped a lot of quests so we did them together and got him to 11 and me to 12. We had to call it a night though, because I looked up and saw it was about 1am. Time sure does fly when you’re killing the undead.

World of Warcraft - Give it a Chance

I have to say that one of my nerdiest background issues lately has been my frustration with World of Warcraft. I did the 10-day trial and liked it enough to eventually purchase what they call the “Battle Chest” as I mentioned in a previous post. I’m not very good at the game, but I was excited about getting involved in it. I have never played Warcraft nor signed up for any other Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG - yes, it’s a real acronym), so I felt dumb trying to get into this one for the first time.

I’m not very good at it, first of all. I keep dying and taking damage to my items because getting resurrected for free only happens where ever you died, which usually means whatever killed me is still there. I finally started a brand new character last night since I figured out how to get my items repaired. My new character is a Blood Elf Warlock, and I played through it last night until I got to level 9, saw it was 2:30am, and decided it was time for bed. Yes, it’s as addicting as they say. But I’m probably not half as addicted as some people.

I’ll keep you up to date here with my progress through the game, and let people know how a not-so-hardcore gamer does it in World of Warcraft. Stay tuned!

Christmas 2007 Survived! (Part 2)

So I promised I’d also brag about the gifts that I got, so here’s the lowdown on my gift-getting this year:

• St. John’s Bay “Puffer” Vest - This thing is uber-comfortable material, and keeps me warm without overheating - a common problem amongst heavier people like me when people crank the heat up in the winter time. This gift was from my aunt and uncle.
• Auto Neck & Back Massager - A comfortable neck rest by itself, this massager also runs on batteries and has a strap to affix it to your vehicle headrest and massage your neck or put it behind your back, from my sister.
• Haggar Men’s Dress Shirt & Tie - This gold-colored shirt is really well accented by the bundled tie, which I like a lot. I’ve never really worn gold colored clothes, but I plan on making this debut at work soon - given by my grandmother.
• Faded Glory Blue & White striped cotton-knit dress shirt - This shirt is really comfortable. I wore it Sunday to church. I did sweat a little in it, but that was mostly because I was wearing the aforementioned vest. This was given to me by my cousin Lindsey and her new husband Cam.
• Basic Editons Heavy Wool Hooded Jacket - This thing is incredi-warm! It has a wool interior and a nice flanel exterior, with a warm hood. This was given to me by my mother, along with a neat purple hood face-warmer thing.
• Catchphrase! Electronic Portable Game - I haven’t played this yet. Mom gave me this game and batteries.
• Black Hooded Sweatshirt & Gilette Fusion Shaving Kit - From my other aunt and new step-uncle (is that a word?) and cousins.
• World of Warcraft Battle Chest - This set includes WoW, the Burning Crusade expansion, and two strategy guides from Brady Games. This was given to me by one of my favorite people: Me.
• Miscellaneous Cash & Prizes totaling about $130: Mom, Grandma, and other Grandma.

Not too shabby at all. I’m expecting to put the money in the bank to help pay bills this month, and I’ve been wearing the clothes already. Maybe I’ll crack open Catchphrase before I go back to my house next week. I’m probably going to do a couple more posts tonight and then head on over to World of Warcraft. Merry Christmas everybody!

Christmas Countdown: < 1 Day Left!

It’s Christmas eve, and yes, I’m blogging instead of spending time with family. It’s not because I’m a bah humbug or any of that. This is how my family spends time together over holidays. We have our times when we hang out and talk, and then of course, we have our down time.

I bought World of Warcraft’s Battle Chest at Wal-mart on Saturday, and it’s been updating just about ever since. Well, maybe not really, but I had to play with the router settings at my parents’ house to get the updater to work right. It downloaded to 99% and got stuck last night. I must have passed out while it was downloading. I woke up and had to restart it and now it’s done. It’s waiting, calling to me. Play me, Dave! Play World of Warcraft! So maybe I’ll do that in a little while.

The Raging Tech will be out of the office for Christmas Day, spending time with relatives and playing with his shiny new toys, but I totally plan to be back on Wednesday. Incidentally, I broke my cell phone on accident - my business card holder poked into it when I either fell or leaned against it and busted the inner LCD screen. Thankfully, I had purchased my phone insurance every month, and I got $50 for Christmas from my Grandma already, so that covers the deductible. According to Asurion, I should have a new phone on Wednesday. Not too shabby.