My week: fixing cars and thinking about people

I mentioned in my last post that I intended to blog more regularly than I have since the Cataclysm release. Four days later, I have yet to publish anything, but I’m comfortable with that.

See, the holidays seem to be a busy time for most people. Whether there are gifts to purchase, wrap, and send out, groceries to buy, parties to attend, family and friends to visit, college and work to wrap up, or other end-of-year activities, there is always something going on.

In my case, this week’s plans have been sort of pushed aside to deal with car issues. On both Tuesday and Friday, I was asked by my girlfriend to take care of problems with her car.

Adventures with the car

Now, I am not a car-savvy guy. The list of car-related problems that I can take care of is limited to checking and filling fluids, changing and rotating tires, replacing blinker bulbs, and things like that. So I’m not totally comfortable with vehicle issues, but I can handle a limited range of repairs.

On Tuesday, she asked me to take care of the dying battery in her car. Her brother, who works at a local car dealership, took care of finding the battery for me, as well as letting me use the shop at his business as a place where I could change it. My tasks included picking up the battery, getting her car started, taking it to the dealership, and installing the battery. While I did that, he checked the fluids and tire pressure, disposed of the old battery, and so on. It was his Christmas gift to her, as he and his wife are busy with a new baby.

It was nice that he let me use the shop, for two reasons. First of all, it was about 20∘ Fahrenheit that morning, so it was great to have a warm room in which to work. Secondly, the variety of tools in the shop came in handy for getting to those those hard-to-reach places while removing the old battery and installing the new one.

On Friday, she called me to tell me that her front passenger tire was flat. She noticed that her car felt like it was riding funny on her way to work, and when she got there, she was horrified to see that the tire was completely flat. I drove over and inspected it, and decided that it needed to be replaced since it had been driven a couple miles on the flattened rubber. So I put the doughnut (which was also flat) on it, took the tire to Sears (in my car), discovered that culprit was a nail, had a new tire mounted, and then I brought it back to her car and reinstalled it.

Now, at some point I have to rotate the tires so that the new (odd) tire isn’t a drive-tire. I should also fill up the spare tire in her car, and check mine while I’m at it. Perhaps I’ll do that tomorrow – it’s supposed to be a balmy 35∘ in the afternoon!

Thoughts while adventuring…

I enjoyed working on the car for her. I like making her life easier, and clearing up problems like that makes me feel good.

One thing that I kept pondering as I worked was how it’s easy to disconnect with reality in this world. It first occurred to me as I was leaving Sears with my car battery on Tuesday. I had the opportunity to hold the door for an older gentleman, who was appreciative. I wished him a Merry Christmas, and he did the same.

While retail at the holidays is always physically and emotionally taxing, one of the few things that I miss about it is the opportunity to interact with some of the customers. I liked saying “Have a great holiday!” to people as they concluded their transactions and left the store, and “Have a Merry Christmas!” to those with whom I had actually talked about Christmas.*

*I respect that people celebrate the holiday season differently – some celebrate it as Christians, others celebrate it as simply a family holiday, and still others celebrate entirely different religious holidays in December. Some people don’t celebrate it at all. However, it was always heartwarming to be able to connect with a person, while at work, about Christmas, and I always felt more grounded, more myself, when I was able to exchange warm Christmas wishes with another person.

Anyway, the thought that I had after the “Merry Christmas” exchange with this gentleman was to consider who he may be. In truth, we are all different, as humans. Each of us has a different perspective, a unique background, distinctive personality traits, and our own personal beliefs. At the same time, we’re all humans. Since there are millions of us, even thousands of us within our greater locale, we are bound to share some, though not all, of these things with most of those that we encounter.

This gentleman, who cheerfully returned my Christmas greeting, likely has political beliefs that differ sharply from mine. He has probably done things that I will never do, and I’ve probably done things that he has never done. And so on… and yet, there is a connection, and that connection relates to our humanity in some way.

* * * * *

As I was putting the new tire on my girlfriend’s car in the parking lot, a woman saw my open trunk, stopped, and and asked, “Are you ok?”

I told her that I was fine, and related to her in a few sentences that I was simply replacing a damaged tire on my girlfriend’s car. (Changing tires is easy, and I was half-done and looking forward to getting home and, frankly, using the bathroom.) She mentioned that I was a nice guy for doing that, which was nice of her. I wished her a Merry Christmas, and she wished me the same, and went on her way.

I smiled to myself. In a world where so much of what goes on (and what we read about) is uncaring, mean-spirited, or political/commercial posturing, there is still a spirit of concern for others – we just have to be aware of it.

Peace on earth

Christmas is finally here. For me, this means a respite from the madness of holiday shoppers; a day of peace. It also means five more days of post-holiday madness until New Year’s Eve, when I get my next “two-day weekend.” Also, since I just celebrated my birthday, it means I’m closer to being an old man…

I’ve been awake since before 7:30 this morning, since that has been my habit of late. My better half is still sleeping (it’s almost 10:30am), which is good for her. We’ll be spending the day eating, enjoying gifts, listening to Christmas music, watching a holiday classic or two, talking with family, avoiding the freezing rain that’s coming this afternoon, and maybe playing a little WoW.

Well, not maybe… since I’ve been awake, I’ve been playing a little on my new paladin, Joliffe, who I intend to keep as A) my first dwarf toon that doesn’t get deleted, and B) a toon that I try to level to 80 without dying. It’s fun – I’ve never really done certain quest areas, and it is my hope that this time I can spend time in Loch Modan, Desolace, and some of the other places I’ve unintentionally skipped in previous go-arounds. Joliffe is 10, and I just made the trip to Loch Modan this morning.

I’ll also be running the daily random heroics, of course. Must. Get. Emblems of Frost.

At any rate, enough about WoW.

I wish you the happiest of days today. Merry Christmas!

- Russ

It’s been a long long time… and the beauty of silence

Not-so-extreme make-over: sweet new title, killer new staff (Fordragon Blades), blue hair, 2 Tier-9 pieces, and a newly designed guild tabard!

So here I am, after about five weeks of inactivity where this blog is concerned, and looking to make up a little bit for it. There have been a few times over the past month where I have told myself I was going to make a contribution, but due to a combination of distraction/exhaustion/indifference, I’ve never actually made it back here.

What have I been up to? For starters, the retail holiday season is in full swing. I’ve been spending a lot of my time at work preparing for the holidays, dealing with busy crowds, opening at midnight for big new releases, etc. Additionally, the added stress comes with me when I’m at home, so I’ve been dealing with that. Retail during the holidays can swallow up your soul if you’re not careful, and each year I try to retain my sanity through it all.

The Druid

Secondly, I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft. After ten or eleven hours on my feet all day, it feels good to just sit down and enjoy myself for a few hours. I’ve been raiding 10-man Onyxia, Vault of Archavon, and Trial of the Crusader each week, along with our weekly try-and-fail of the Northrend Beasts portion of 10-man Trial of the Grand Crusader. We actually got them down the week before Thanksgiving, but usually we don’t have the combination of firepower and coordination (read: we need five people at around 4k DPS, and we usually have two or three around 4k and two or three at 3.3k… makes it tough when you have approximately 150 seconds to complete each phase before the next boss(es) come(s) out). In addition, I have made it to a few of our guild’s 25-man Onyxia & Trial of the Crusader runs, although I am pretty much done with those for the duration of 2009 because of my work schedule on Friday nights. I have gotten a few pieces of sweet gear, although I still have no trophy gear, and I am still able to be a dependable top-end DPS-er in our guild.

I’ve gotten some nice achievements in the past few weeks as well. I finally started the Argent Tournament dailies, and got my Exalted Champion of Darnassus achievement last week, which comes with the “of Darnassus” title, my new favorite! I have this thing where I enjoy the lore of WoW, with some special interest in the history of druids and the Archdruid, Malfurion Stormrage (I’m really looking forward to the book on him next year). Since he was the first druid, and Darnassus is the capitol night elf city, I have this silly affinity for the new title… oh well, what can I say? Anyway, I also got the Less Is More (10-player) achievement for killing Sartharion with 8 players, Onyxia’s Lair (25-player), Knock On Wood (10-player), Cheese The Freeze (10-player), Shutout! (25-player) and Nerf Gravity Bombs (25-player) from Ulduar, Salt And Pepper (10-player) and Upper Back Pain (10-player) from Call of the Crusade, and some other silly-fun achievements. I didn’t really participate too much in the Pilgrim’s Bounty stuff, because after completing all of the cooking dailies the first day, I realized I didn’t A) have the time, and B) care. I am looking forward to Winter Veil, however. Christmas in WoW. Good stuff.

The Paladin

Finally level 80, rapidly gearing up!

In addition, I spent a significant amount of time leveling my alt, Abenadari, my dranei ret paladin. In about three and a half weeks I got her from 72 to 80, which is ridiculously fast for me leveling-wise. I just started having so much fun with her, and decided that I had changed my mind about her. I had determined a long time ago that Abenadari, who is my alchemist, existed solely for the purpose of supplying my druid with potions and elixirs. Of course, with Wrath of the Lich King, that became flasks for raiding purposes, and so leveling began to happen naturally so that I could farm the herbs I needed for that. I finally got on the horse with that in November, and started to love how invincible she seemed. I could take on multiple level 76-77 mobs at level 72, without losing much health or mana, which was awesome fun! Leveling commenced, and last Wednesday the 25th I dinged 80.

Since Wednesday night, even with the Black Friday chaos and regular raiding on Friday and Saturday on Anacrusa, I still managed to run regular Trial of the Champion a few times, Heroic Violet Hold (3 times) and Drak’Tharon Keep, 10-man Obsidian Sanctum and Vault of Archavon, and would have run a 10-man Naxxramas today, but it didn’t work out. In 5 days my wow-heroes.com gear score has shot up about 1050 points, so I’m pretty happy with that. It’s definitely easier to get the second toon to 80 and get gear for it than it was the first time. My girlfriend wants to take her into Ulduar, but I kind of want to take her into Naxx first. I’m excited to see what she can do in a mostly-Undead instance, and I’d like to get some Naxx gear and Tier-8 stuff before I go to Ulduar and get carried through, or whatever. I like to contribute, and I like to think that I have some talent and can hold my own, so I’m going to sort of do it the proper way. Besides, Naxx is fun, and I almost never go there with the druid anymore because it’s virtually pointless.

One thing that made it easier to level when I got to level 77 or 78 was the ability to start the Knights of the Ebon Blade quests, which lead to the dailies. I did them faithfully, and within 3 days of turning 80 I was revered with them, so I’m already rocking the Arcanum of Torment head enchant. It’s great that you can get XP from dailies. The whole experience was great – reputation, XP and gold – the trifecta, just for doing those quests repeatedly. I’m still wearing the tabard and doing the dailies, because when I get Exalted with Ebon Blade, there’s a pair of (I think) boots that I can buy that will help me out.

Overall, WoW has been a fun diversion from real life. There has been a lot to enjoy over the past month or so from playing, with the only problem being that it can be difficult to get to bed at a decent hour when there’s so much fun to be had!

iMac

As sort of an update to my earlier post about the new iMacs, I had been checking weekly to see if they had any updated shipping info on the 27-inch quad-core equipped iMac, and they finally did a couple of weeks ago. So last Monday I ordered mine. I’m hoping that I receive it by next weekend – it will be fun to set it up with WoW, configure it with the add-ons I need, and test it out in Dalaran and some raids. It’s time for it – everything, from the internet to applications and games, has gotten so much heavier in the three-plus years since I bought this one, and the computer is starting to rebel. It seems like every day it will lock up, requiring a reboot, and I’m looking forward to not having that frustration. I’m also excited to see the amazing graphics, although I’m a little anxious about the 27-inch screen. It’s a full 10 inches bigger than my current iMac, and I’m worried that it’s too big, but it was the only way to get quad-core processing from Apple without paying way more than I wanted to (by getting a Mac Pro). If I play WoW in a window, which I do anyway, I should be able to adjust it for a more comfortable view.

Music

I’ve been listening to a lot of music – it is my constant companion when I’m playing or otherwise occupied on the computer – but I’ve barely been playing my guitars lately. I just feel too tired. Unmotivated. However, the love is still there – I dug out my Strat today and played a song I’ve been working on since the beginning of the year, called Dead Wolves. I played it a few times, very poorly, and let it go after 15 minutes or so – I don’t need to add carpal tunnel to the list of things that stress me out, so maybe I’ll pick it up again tomorrow and jam for 15-20 minutes.

Anyway, I’ve been listening to lots of Christmas music. It helps me stay grounded, as far as the holidays go, since I’m so involved in the commercial side of it all (money! money! sales! sales! etc.). I loved Christmas as a child, loved the decorations and the music and the atmosphere and the smells of the tree and the food. I have fond memories of our family on Christmas Eve, when we had our big dinner and followed with Christmas stories and cookies before bed. I never want to lose the respect for that time of my life and the memories made back then. Christmas music really resonates with me, and that’s one reason why I really enjoy it.

…the beauty of silence

This week was a big week, and sleep was hard to come by. I can never sleep well the night before Black Friday, and this year it was particularly difficult. I was really nervous, because it was the first Black Friday where I wasn’t managing a mall store. I was panicking  - “I didn’t schedule enough people for the morning shift! Oh my God!” It ended up being fine, but before Saturday night’s raid, I had decided that I was going to wear earplugs to bed that night. I went to bed at around 1 am this morning, and all I could think was how amazing the sound of relative silence was! It was so peaceful, and I was so ready to sleep well. And I did. Other than the fact that somebody called my cell phone at 8am today, I slept in until 10am, which is really late for me. It was so… I’ve worn earplugs before, but I’ve never felt so wonderfully grateful for the peace and silence that I experienced last night.

That’s about it for this update. I expect that it will NOT be another five weeks until I write again. To anyone who reads this, I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving, and I wish you the best this holiday season. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Cheers!

Me, PvP? (some ramblings and observations)

It has been several days since I posted. I haven’t felt inspired to write, and I’ve diverted my attention to different areas. As you can see, I completed my Hallows End achievement in WoW, adding this nifty title to my collection. It’s pretty easy to get at level 80, with a little luck and some persistence.

Mainly, though, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Battlegrounds (and Wintergrasp) since Wednesday night.

Now, PvP is not something that I’ve ever really had an interest in. As with many things in life, I’ve taken a long time to jump off the deep end and give this a try. While I do quite well in raids, for the most part, I almost never duel, and had only once before entered a Battleground, sometime this past summer after Isle of Conquest came out. Oh, and I hung out in Goldshire and Darnassus and killed Horde during the Midsummer Fire Festival.

I guess what got me interested in it was partly that type of thing, in the form of fighting off the Horde on the first day of Hallows End in Southshore. It was fun to hang with several random people and get some HKs, work together as a team, etc. And on Wednesday night when I got home, I just wanted to do something different. So between Wednesday night and Thursday night, I spent nine or ten hours in Wintergrasp and Battlegrounds. I picked up some achievements, won some BGs, lost more, got killed over 100 times, and became about 100 times more capable at PvP-ing than I had been before Wednesday. I picked up two pieces of PvP gear, giving me three total (gloves, legs, and bracers), gemmed and enchanted them, and as of tonight my Resilience is up to 229, which is about 800 points lower than I need it to be! It’s better than ZERO, though.

PvP is a different mindset than anything else in WoW. Unlike computer programs, players think and act independently, especially when it comes to their movements and reactions. While most dungeon/raid bosses have a set of actions that they perform, sometimes at a set time or in phases, players use their classes and specs to their advantage, to the best of their ability, determined by how they react to situations. It’s a new brand of excitement, which is why I’m giving it a try.

I took the plunge, and I did some reading on Thursday (my day off) to try to figure out how much Resilience I’m going to need. I also decided to do away with my bear spec, since I never really tank anything important. The most difficult raid I tank is Onyxia, during which I OT the whelps on Phase 2, and I do that in my kitty spec/gear in order to be free to DPS the crap out of Ony on the other phases. Shortly after Ony came back as a level 80 raid, I started chucking most of my tanking gear, other than my two Stamina trinkets, and haven’t really had many problems tanking the daily heroics other than a small problem generating rage at times.

Anyway, on Friday I decided to change my off-spec to a PvP spec, taking advantage of some of the talents that I don’t use in raids (such as Feral Instinct, which allows me to prowl virtually undetected during Battlegrounds). I cobbled together something of a PvP spec, and, raiding my spell book for PvP-ish abilities (mainly stun-oriented ones like Maim), I completely revamped my action bars for both specs. Everything looks different now, because I had to change some things on the kitty-spec bars to allow me to tank effectively, and of course the PvP spec bars are still quite new. I’m sure I will tinker with it as time goes by, but I feel like this is what will work for me at the moment.

I guess my one random observation about BGs in general is that, quite often, they are filled with assholes! In consecutive BGs today, Arathi Basin and Strand of the Ancients, I read some pretty racist, pathetic, immature chat. It’s never a good situation when two of the people are “shouting” in CAPS, calling the rest of the team “noobs” over and over and over again, and going on from there to more offensive comments, and then back to “you’re all noobs,” etc. It gave me the desire to, sometime soon, take a complete guild team into Arathi or Warsong Gulch and execute a plan. I ran into several Horde pre-mades in the past few days, and they destroyed our “team” every time. The handful of winning BGs that I was a part of seemed to have good-natured leaders, and that’s the way I like to play. It is a game, after all…

I still went into BGs that I knew we would lose this weekend, because I was using the Marks of Honor to buy honor (to use for gear) by completing the repeatable quest in Dalaran, since I don’t want to blow all of my Stonekeeper’s Shards right away. That, and I figure the experience is good at this point. As I get more gear and learn more about how each BG goes (more reading-up to do!), I hope to have more success with PvP. It makes for a fun challenge!

It’s that time of year again (early)

This morning, as I walked up to the front door of my store, I felt that feeling, that dreaded feeling that tells me that I’m in trouble. It wasn’t about how the store would look when I got there, or any other day-to-day stuff. Rather, it was that there is no going back – the retail holiday season is here, and I feel about as unprepared as I can possibly be.

I’ve felt squeezed tight and stressed out, like I do during the holiday season, since the beginning of July, when our company dropped severe payroll cuts on us – cuts that have never truly eased since. The tough economy has hit retail, obviously, but we haven’t really seen less traffic or reduced activity… just smaller purchases. So a 25% cut in payroll to match a 25% drop in sales for several weeks this summer wasn’t really good math, because there was still almost as much work as there was last year. And now, we’re still seeing bare-bones payroll while making or beating last year’s sales comps. I’m supposed to hire and prep for the holidays, deal with all the new product, and give great customer service, all with relatively little help from my employees, who can’t make much of an impact when they’re not allowed to clock in more than 3-4 hours per week.

As a salaried employee, I get to make up any shortfalls. I’ve been doing it for months now, and I’m fine with that, to a reasonable point. I try to be philosophical, telling myself things like “Remember, at least you have a job, one that pays well…” and “Well, you’ll just have to power through it.” The thing is, I basically like my job, and I am thankful that I have it, and that it pays well. It has been a very stressful job this year, though, and I feel like I’m heading into prime-time running on fumes.

So yeah, the feeling… it was exhaustion and dread, a burning in my brain, with a feeling like I hadn’t showered yet, and like there was crust in my eyes and my scalp itched. I was wearing a heavy backpack filled with pressure that was seeping out and enveloping me. It’s the feeling I get every year at some point during the retail holidays, but this time it seems like the earliest that I’ve felt it in years.