Writing Yourself

I am applying for transfer, and somehow the professors I ask for letters of recommendation always ask me to write my own. Thankfully I have been provided guidelines this time, the last attempt was so awful I can't even look at it now.

I have been putting it off, but I bit the bullet and did it today. I hope it came out ok, it's really hard to write about myself in an effusive and complimentary way. I am who I am, and I don't really know how to say that and make me sound unique and desirable as a candidate. I'm very straight forward. I work, I read, I play WoW. It's a good thing I looked myself up on HokieStalker, it reminded me of some things I have been involved in that are pretty neat and sound like I am an active, outgoing person. It's also occasionally shocking when you learn things from googling yourself. Like your dad's age... I swear I know how old my parents are, I just forgot. Let's ope this letter sounds good, and next fall I get to see the seasons change in North Carolina. If not, I get eternal summer down in Grenada, so I can't complain.

On the WoW front, I finished my Children's Week stuff for the meta. That's my PvP for the month. Except I want that awesome bow for my hunter, so 1 BG per weekend I try to do to eventually get there. THe hunter and I are also more than a month into the winterspring panther mount, just keep forgetting to do that daily. I think I have 7 whiskers now. Ah well, some day. Maybe after finals. And I'll do all the mount farming, and level all the alts, and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. As a side note, I grew up on musicals. I loved "The King and I" and once I learned to whistle (at 18, I learned late) I love to whistle that song.

Still stuck at Ambershaper, but this time we reliably made it to phase 3, with tons of time left on the beserk timer. It's just interrupting explosions and not dieing after that that gets us. I have suggested, since we are stuck there so long, and this week only 2 out of 8 items went to main spec, 2 to off, and the rest melted, that we might want to split up our raids. One night work on amber shaper and extend the lockout, and another progress elsewhere. We'll see if/how that goes.

Alright, up way too late before a final. Let's wish me luck, on the tests and transfer, and good night all.

Stressfully Happy

It's been a long time with no updates. Finals are just around the corner, so procrastination blogging is back. I'm happier than I was my last 2 posts. We've been stuck on Ambershaper, but after that it's 1 boss then Terrace and on to ToT. I am hoping we can blow through Terrace, and I want to try to brin my druid for that fight. I love seeing the huge numbers pop up. I'll let Renala give it a shot first before I try to switch.

In other news, got the Onyxian Drake the other night. A guildie ran it and had the mount drop, which prompted me and my boyfriend to have a run through, and lo and behold, another mount drop! Still have to keep going to get him one, we weren't so lucky as to have another one drop on our alt run. Still fun. I feel a tad silly not realizing the Vial of the Sands recipe was BoP, so I finally leveled my alchemists archeology to take advantage of that klaxxi signal beacon and got it! Have to keep going for the mount and pet, but I will do that another day. I have 3 more continents to finish pet tamer on so I can get the "zookeeper" title when summer comes. I really want that title, but have been lazy in my pet collecting. But it will finally be a title to for my mage, who can't make up her mind which one fits best so just sticks with "Salty." She has done most of the hard work with pet collecting- teleporting wherever ha been nice.

I am 5 secrets of the empire from finishing that legendary quest for ze monk, and just starting it for the druid. I am looking forward to having it done. Managed to fit in 7 LFR's yesterday, trying to get them done early in the week. People have way less mercy then, kicking people who were ark for more than 1 ready check, but sadly not the people who pulled all the trash. I still remember that nice LFR leader who put down world markers so people took the right path... it was so nice, quick, and trash free. Oh well, just 5, maybe 10 minutes on trash. I can suck it up.

My baby hunter is sitting niely at 59, doing the daily winterspring cub quest (when I remember...) and my boyfriend is trying to convince me to take up my DK again. She's sitting at 75, managing my defunct guild's bank as extra personal storage, hlding a fishing pole cause I accidentally DE'd her weapon one day... Never really got DK's well, but we'll see how it goes, if I give her another shot.

Off to study some bacteriology, and learn all about the gross things that are usually commensal organisms and present on me already. Ta!

Getting Better

Things have been getting better. Possibly because I have cut back on my WoW time, so what time I do play I complain less. Maybe because I am trying to shut up and not vent so much. Either way, I'm happy.

WoW time has been cut back, not as drastically as I first thought. I am trying to transfer, so good grades are very important. In order to facilitate studying, I am not allowing myself to play until I have done a good amount of studying. Except on Tuesdays, so I can do ToT LFR early in the week on my 3 healers capable of queuing.

On another note, took out Nalak this morning. Kinda a let down after Oondasta. We only had 30 people, and it took less than 3 minutes. He has very few abilities, and the AoE gives you a few seconds to get out of it. No loot either but it was nice to get the kill.

Our raid got past Garalon last night. We've been killing him for a while, but it usually takes us a lot longer. I was getting really frustrated at the rogue who joined us, not cleaving onto the boss for damage even after I mentioned it twice. He was lowest on the DPS, behind even my healy monk. I feel like he must be doing something wrong there, cause even when he did use blade fury our last attempt, his damage only increased about 4k. Anyway, it was so frustrating because we had several 5% wipes while he wasn't cleaving. But we got him, yay! And would've had the next boss if someone didn't walk over 2 windbombs when he was at 35%. Ah well, we did kill all the adds, and no one died until the end. Our DK lived through that with 80% health. Makes me want to roll a DK for soloing things, but me and that class didn't really click last time I tried it. It was very frustrating. Plus my DK is an enchanter who mans my guild bank, and in the process of sending a ton of greens her way to DE, I accidentally DE'd her weapon, leaving her with only a fishing pole. Oops...

I am hopeful things will turn around. We've added a 10th to our Wed-Fri run, finally, since our last tank left. A very sweet priest/pally who can tank and heal. I think he does a wonderful job, but he always feels he needs to step it up and worries that he isn't doing well. Which is an attitude I appreciate, someone who wants to improve.

So it's been a happier healer running lately. More sleep, less WoW, more school have made for a more relaxed feeling. Except now that 11:30 end time on Wed is going to start getting to me.

Busy Body

I am a nosy person. I facebook stalk people too. I hide it well, because I am quiet and friends with other nosy people who ask the probing questions. What this translates to in WoW is: frustration. Not because I don't know everybody's life story, or what the current drama is. Rather, because I do a lot of research on the classes I play I feel like I am rather knowledgeable. And I want to share that. Unfortunately, sharing and forcing things down peoples throats are really close, so I try to back off and only mention things once or twice. For instance, one of the healers I occasionally run with is a druid, who has rebirth glyphed.

Simple thing, easy for me to ignore. But it grates on me (as much as people mispronouncing "pheromones" with Garalon- is there a polite way to correct the, 4 weeks in?). I feel that additional 40% health maybe once a fight is worth way less than a glyph for something you are guaranteed to use every fight. And I can't force someone to change their glyphs, and they're healing fine otherwise. It's just things like that, and which target is best for symbiosis (shaman is often my first choice, unless there is pressing reason to want another barkskin but not movement). All I can do it comment once, then move on. I can't play their class, and they are doing a good job. I just feel it could be better. It's not my place to shove my opinions down someone's throat, and I hate it when it happens to me.

I have just been really easily irritated by our raid recently. I feel like everyone could be doing so much better. I also have to remember: I am not a hardcore player. I am not a great player. Learning to play was really hard for me. Splitting my attention so many ways to heal, and then to learn it all over again as a fistweaving monk, took effort. I love it and feel it helped my skills grow a lot. I speak up, I do more. I don't PUG anymore though. Probably in part because our server doesn't seem to do many PUGs, maybe because LFR has killed the desire. Maybe because raids are no longer as PUG friendly. You always had to take 10 or 25 people in who could organize and coordinate their efforts, but if 1 died to something, it wasn't an automatic wipe. If even our organized raid took weeks to get past Elegon and keep wiping to Garalon's enrage, how would a PUG do?

I need a change, and I've been saying it for a while and doing nothing.  I want to raid. I want to progress. I am a healer, a hard to fill spot in our guild. I don't want to let the raid down by quitting, and I don't know if I want to find a raid the rest of the week. I am just very "argh" right now.

To simplify it all: I want to pass my physio test, and manage an A in all my major classes this term. That should cut down on WoW time if i do it right.

A Break

It's been a while. I've been procrastinating more with reading than writing lately, so posting has slowed down. It's Easter weekend, which meant a 4-day weekend for me. With some good news, out raid finally downed Garalon- by the skin of our teeth. At least this one wasn't as much of a shock as Elegon, I was expecting him to die. I managed to pull some awesome DPS (first time I've ever been tempted to link recount) as a healer. I was 5th overall, beating the mage. Of course, he was a kiter, which slowed him down. But I had fun teasing the DK tank about it. He brought it up, so I felt it was only fair.

I've been feeling an itch. I want to do so much more, but I don't have the time. I've been sad by the loss of 3 guild members recently. I think that, and the realization that our guild hasn't done any events aside from the anniversary party in almost a month, has made me want to lead some. I've tried before, with some challenge modes. No interest. But something like old school runs, I can do. I just don't have the time. I raid Wed and Fri, and there is a second raid group going on Tues. Only that group is very hit or miss, so I can't plan anything then. I need to study sometimes, and if I go out, it's usually on Mondays. Half price pizza, yeah! And I'd like to keep that up with my friends, get off of campus occasionally.

There are all sorts of things I'd like to plan- pet battle tournaments (get rid of those silkworms- an entering prize), old raid runs for mog gear and achievements, and just some fun stuff. That scavenger hunt this weekend was fun, and I thing my guildies might really like something like that. Weekly LFR runs, things to do as a group. Cause if you aren't in a raid group, the guild really isn't doing anything. And I think part of that is size- we are relatively small. There just aren't enough people interested in organizing things who aren't raiding, and those who are have no time.

I might give it a shot- throw a few old runs up on the calendar, see who shows up. Maybe OS, Naxx, and Ulduar- where I started. I suck at PvP, so I will hope our tank has the time to pick PvP night up again. I still need the OS253D mount, and if this goes well, maybe I'll try some ICC runs. I've never been there, it might be nice to take the druid back. She left before it was released. So, that will be the plan for tomorrow- look at my schedule, and put some stuff on the calendar. Happy Easter everyone, and I hope I don't turn around and call this April Fool's wishing.

Update

Been a while. Midterms are over, thank goodness. I am working on summer plans now. I am just to darn shy to get up the nerve to contact people. But I will do it this weekend.

In WoW, I killed Oondasta. The spawn timer has been decreased, to around 3 hours now, and health has been nerfed by 50%. I caught a message in trade about an Oondasta raid forming right after our guild raid ended, so I popped out to the Isle of Giants, and logged out. No one had been in sight, so I figured it would take about half an hour to get a group out there. I logged back in at midnight, and 5 minutes later there was a pull and Oondasta went down. (I think of Oondasta as a she. I think it's the name- double O's make me think oocyte, which is most certainly a female thing.) The nerf made a huge difference- I didn't even have time for 3 minute cooldowns to come back up. One shot. Way better than the last attempt, with several pulls, skeletons everywhere, and no kill. And yay, I got a ring!

I think the nerf was needed, but I am of two minds about it. On one side, it makes kills easier and requires less people. I kinda think that even with tap to faction no world boss should require more than one raid group to down. On the other hand, it felt less epic, even though my repair bill appreciates savings. I think I would have liked to kill her once before the nerd, just like I would have liked to clear the raids before the nerf.

Speaking of raiding, we are stuck on Garalon. I have managed some awesome numbers on heals and decent on DPS on that fight, but we're wiping to enrage with about 13% to go. We've tried 2 healing, 3 healing, different DPS compositions, having out rogue eat the furious swipe with our tank (which he seemed to really hate, and was super reluctant to do). Nothing got us any closer. Sadly, one of our main tanks has left us, and that's left a DPS switching to heals, and the normal third healer switching to his tank. I am frustrated by that fight. I feel we should be getting it. I switched to DPS for an attempt, and our strategy involved everyone hitting the legs when they come up. As melee DPS, that left me with times when no legs were up because the raid was killing them. Thus, no DPS buff for me. So I was a sad panda.

I've been easily annoyed lately by people's attitudes. Possibly because LFR has been really bad this week for me. Really, really bad. Tanks not picking up adds, people not killing adds, standing in the bad, etc. So much so that even the game must feel sorry- I haven't been getting the deserter debuff for leaving those groups. Well, here's to a good weekend. I'll try to get LFR done with the rest of my toons, and maybe see if I can sneak in more Oondasta kills.

I leave you with some images of my first Oondasta attempt:

New Patch!

And I have hardly done anything. I have heard whispers that our raid leader may be back this week, and I dearly hope so. The Tuesday raid group did not get together last night. When I logged on at 5 to check, everyone had declined. I talked to 1 tank, who was going to be able to come. Then I talked to the other tank, to find out why he'd changed his mind and if he was still interested. He appears to be suffering some raid disappointment. They haven't gotten together but 2 or 3 time, not at all in the past 3 weeks, and only downed 1 boss. New patch should lead to much better gear and them downing the bosses easier, especially with the nerf. But anyway, what I was trying to say is t's really frustrated to lead a raid when no one is interested. I was only in charge 2 weeks, and really we didn't form up either one. I let it go the first time, since there was some confusion with the message passed along about me taking over for a bit. But last night was really annoying. Everyone declined or didn't comment. Then a healer, who had declined the calendar invite, pops on and asks if we were raiding. That, for some reason, really bugged me.

I had, earlier that morning, decided that come hell or hight water, if people were interested, I'd get that raid together if I had to spend a few hours in trade chat hunting for DPS. But when one of our tanks dropped out, and everyone else either had not responded, declined, or hasn't been seen for a few weeks, it left just me and one lone tank. Who did not seem disappointed at the thought of no raid. I gave up. I was leading it on an alt. I was doing it as a favor. It just makes me mad that people who signed up for raiding, expressed interest, and had to go out of their way to post on the guild site, don't even bother to take 2 seconds to respond to their calendar invite. I always do, and not just because the flashing question mark annoys me- although that is a large part. If you don't want to or can't come, that's fine, but please tell me! Grrr. Hopefully that group will be in our normal raid leader's hands next week, and he can straighten them out.

So, it's that time of year folks. You guessed it- MIDTERMS! So I might be posting as a way of procrastinating a bit more later. I already bought and read 3 books in the last few days. Awesome books. If I was stranded with only one author's works around me, it would be Anne Bishop's (this week at least). But seriously, I love her stuff. Can read it over and over, and still get sucked in. Her new book is fantastic.

I have put it off long enough- back to bacteriology.