Finally Flex

Raiding hasn't been going too well recently. I can't remember the last time we had a raid, much less a full guild group. Real life has kept some folks down, and other just haven't been showing up. So our raid leader has decided to take a break to re-organize. I hope we can start again, cause the only other groups advertising for recruiting on Alliance side raid way later than I can stay up, especially when daylight savings comes around for fall, and I don't follow it. And darn, just realized it was Tuesday, which means Sunday I missed the Wander's Festival... again.

Anyway, 10 man raiding woes aside, we made it to flex. Got Immerseus down on the second try I was there for (I showed up with only an hour left). Sadly, I thin k Monday night flex will always be that way for me. It coincides with half price pizza at a local restaurant, and my friends and I go and play games. Usually King of Tokyo, since it's quicker than Munchin or Catan. So my awesome raid leader added a Sunday night flex so I can go to that one :)

For having no clue what I was doing, and only half- listening to a Fatboss video, I'd say that went pretty well. We hit the next boss twice, but had no real idea what was going on. I can say one thing- when we start raiding again, the boss raps are going to be super long.  /sigh. Oh well, gives me time to study while the raid leader explains. I mean, of course I pay attention to everything he says. I totally did not get up last night in the middle of an explanation to get a shower. No. (came back just in time for the roll call ready check too)

I've been seriously considering looking elsewhere to raid, and it saddens me. I've gotten over my 'go go go' raiding feeling, but seeing other friends get through the first 4 bosses on 3 hours on their first raid night of the patch, while we can't even scrape 10 people together, makes me antsy.

Well, here's hoping we can at least keep flex going. It was fun, and some folks who can't make regular raids got to come, so yay!

No loot though, but there's always next week.

Loot Isle

I've been spending a lot of time on Loot Isle lately, trying to get all the pets that drop from rares. So far, I've only picked up the one from Garnia, but I did manage to snag this mount the other morning, on my second kill of the day. I let Ren be in the photo shoot, even though Elay did the work. But Elaylda is stuck on the isle, camping rares, and you can't mount this there. So here it is.

It took me a few days to realize this dropped a mount, but with the huge crowds that were forming every time this guy was about to spawn, it was kinda obvious something was going on.

It was nice to see so many people. And get the mount, of course. It frees my time up to go camp other rares :)

I also managed to snag the Crazy Cat Lady title. Not by finishing the tournament, as I would have like to get the Xuen, but with the help of my local AH. Still happy, and a new title.

And just for some fun, here's a picture of a stag-form druid with a giant hammer it it's mouth.

Standardization

Warning: whining and moaning ahead.

We've had our first 2 tests of the term, and the third one is coming up on Friday. And as usual, we find things to complain about. The school is in the process of going paperless. So we're using a testing program, ExamSoft. We've had several issues with it, as students. Some people have computer setting reset, backgrounds replaced, iTunes library wiped out. Not to mention the program is so ugly. I know cosmetic changes are low on the priority list, but come on. This program has the look of the stuff I did in 4th grade, when computers were just becoming a big deal.

But my real issue is this: I want to know what I missed. When we did paper tests, you would finish the test wait til the allotted time was up, hand in the answer sheet and then, still with the test paper, they would show you the answers. For all classes, all teachers. Now, each teacher can set the test to give us a  numerical score, let us see what we missed, or let us see the whole test after we finish. But they don't have to, and we don't know until the test is done.

I find it a tad annoying when teachers say "you don't need to know what you missed, you should be able to figure it out." Well yeah, if you give me my score, I can talk to friends and go over questions and discover where I went wrong. The test yesterday? No score, no answers. Not helpful. Makes me a sad panda. I just wish that were standard across classes. If it's going to be a standard "no score, no answers" I can suck it up and deal, but this back and forth confuses and irritates me.

Especially since we have a few students who have some need to take the test on paper and get extra time. I'm fine with that. However, this year (our third term, and the first time they've done this) half the teachers have suddenly said that because of this, tests will only be 15 questions. Because you have to administer the same test to everyone, which is fair, and the special needs students get extra time per question. Sure. But the number was cut down so they wouldn't be late to the next lecture after the test. Because apparently, when we start tests at 1:30 and are told we have half an hour or thirty-five minutes to take a test, the extra 20-25 minutes after the test before the next class isn't enough time. So we get the questions cut down, which makes every mistake hurt that much more.

It just all comes down to "we're paying almost $60 grand a year for this?" sometimes. The testing situation, not to mention the proctors. That's another rant in and of itself, but here's an example: we had one woman scream at us, really scream, because we were passing around a sign-in sheet another proctor gave us. Yeah. Before a final.

Anyway, I will try to write something about what being a vet student is to me, and my future career. But for now, here's a rant about our testing.

Alt Appreciation Week- Hunters

Hunters! Ah, hunters. My first toon ever was a hunter, because they have pets! What kind of vet student would I be if I didn't go for the class with the pets? 

This is Zulyani. She was my first toon ever, and lies abandoned here. As it turns out, some friends were also playing WoW, and had just started a guild on another server as Alliance. So I rolled a night elf druid, and the only action Zulyani has seen in years was about 30 minutes while I took her to Undercity to get a cockroach.

This is Renessa. She was born during Mists, along with my BF's hunter, Bariel. I wanted some of those rare pets, darn it! She's been parked in Winterspring, where she got me the mount. Just haven't move her to Outland yet. The goal is to level her, catch pets, and have a max level class that can solo just about anything, especially combined with my BF's DK. Kinda been lazing off about that since his DK hit max, and he's been helping me farm stuff.

But she has an awesome transmog I spent some time farming for all the pieces. Just need to get my bow!

Late to Alt Appreciation Week

I haven't participated in alt week at all, so I have a backlog to get through. I realize I'm a bit behind, so here goes: 

Deathknights, I have a few of those running around somewhere....

Only 2 of the 3 made it out of the starting zone. We'll go little to big:

This is Whirlectra. This is the first time I have logged on to her in years, solely to snag the screencshot. She was made because I liked the name, and I wanted a little gnomish pile o'death. Sadly, I never got around to leveling her.

This is Rosalice made solely for the purpose of getting the worgen racial pet while spending the least amount of time playing a worgen. Go through that starting zone? No, thank you. And here she is, standing next to the man who sold her my Gilnean raven.

And this is Mavelin. She was made when I transferred my main to my brother's server, to try to get another max level character fairly quickly. I also wanted an enchanter to DE stuff for me, and make my enchants. I like to be self-sufficient. I made it to 75, and hated every minute of it. She languished there for more than a year, manning the bank of a defunct guild for me.

Recently, we made it to 80 (cheer!) leveling with my BF's lock. We still don't click as well as the monk and I do, so leveling is slow. (Of course, putting plate instead of mail heirlooms on may have helped...At least they were agi, and not int, right? right? anybody?)

Anyway, she has made it all the way from Dalaran to the Dwarven District, where she now mans the extra storage and auctions for me there.

So those are my DK's. We still don't click well. I play better than I used to, but I have little idea what or why I am doing. Thank goodness I have a lock with me, the two of us together can take on anything! (Within a few levels of us)

Next, Druids! Ah, my druids. Probably my most numerous class. I'll start with Elaylda, my first max level character. Begun because I joined a forming guild, and had no idea what to play. This was only my second character ever. Someone suggested druid, for heals if we needed them, since the other 2 healers were a priest and pally and the goal was to eventually raid. So Elay and I leveled feral to 80, switched to tree, and never looked back (until we Cata when we had to level again, but by then we had dual spec)
I owe thanks to that guild's pally, who would swap specs before dual spec to tank so I could practice healing heroics.
We had some good times, clearing Naxx. Never got Yogg down in Uld, but the general there was my  favorite fight.
Possibly the best time I've had in a PuG was back in LK, a Naxx10 started by 2 guys who just wanted to do it for fun. Everyone was overgeared, and most loot wet to off-spec or vendor. Took me an entire wing to realize there were only 2 healers. I was new then, and didn't realize the red in third place on the heal meter meant DK, and was actually our tank... We picked up several achieves, including Safety Dance, which eluded me and our guild for quite some time due to my wonderful love of standing in fire/poison/ice whatever will kill me on the ground. to live through that. Elay has been my main until this recent switch to the monk. It was a hard choice, and at heart, I am still a tree.

The my other druids have little history. They were made on various servers, when I just wanted to level something new, and go horde or to a PvP server or to a higher population server. None made it very far, and all languish, forgotten.

Back to School

It's been a few weeks since I've updated. I'm back in Grenada, starting the second week of class. I am trying to be a better student this term than I have been in the past. It's much less stressful to study consistently and prepare for tests early instead of cramming the weekend before, like I have done in the past. And I've found that logging in and parking myself in Deepholm to hunt Aeonaxx while I am studying makes me feel like I am being productive in WoW which makes me less likely to go to LFR's on a toon that's never going anywhere *cough my shammy cough* so yay, productive Sunday yesterday. No sign of the dragon, but that means I still need to park a toon there and hunt while I study. I suppose if (hopefully when) I get that mount, I'll have to hunt for something else. Maybe the Time-Lost Proto Drake....

All that aside, we're getting ready to try Tortos this week. Due to folks missing raid for various reasons, we didn't get to him last week. Our fill-ins and a bad night meant we didn't even get Jinkroh down (eep!). I'm hoping this week we get the turtle down Wednesday, and the heads on Friday. Ideally I'd like to get 2 down in one night, but our raid can be a bit slow. I'd love to get most of the place cleared before the patch drops. So much to do before then, I still need to do my archeology stuff before it hits, and... ok, that's all I want to do. I'm already close to valor capped on everyone who matters (and some that don't) the 2 toons I raid on probably already have the ilevel for the LFR when it hits, and I need to stop trying to gear 4 toons for raiding, when I really only need 1. We're a small guild, only 1 raid group, and I'm a graduate student. I can't afford to spend more than the 2-3 nights a week raiding, and I probably could stand to do less.

So, goals for this week:
-Keep up the studying and get Aeonaxx
-Do some archeology
-Maybe try to get the shammy through the first part of the legendary....
-Study more.

Wow, not a lot of goals. I think my boyfriend's waning interest in WoW recently has made me cut back a bit too, even though we're in different countries. Well, here's hoping I keep up the studying and get a new mount soon!

End of Summer

I fly back to school at the end of the week. It's been pretty great, being home for the summer. And this last week has been one big shopping week to get stuff for school before I go back. The biggest debate going on in my mind is: should I get an iPad for notes? (Yes, I have other, cheaper, debates too) I've talked my self into and out of it at least 3 times. Actually bought one, but it was going to be shipped too late, so I canceled my order. I have 3 more days to decide that.

On the magic front: (and the MtG games is a check in the iPad yes column) I came in second at our local game day, just missing out on a pretty playmat. I lost to someone I know from previous drafts, a good player I have lost to many times before. I was excited, since the deck was from last game day and hadn't been touched since (and did pretty badly then). So yay! for that. Now I have to remember to return all the cards I am borrowing.
I will probably look at spoilers for Theiros, but place to play magic in Grenada are pretty limited. Hopefully I will keep sharp enough to put up a good showing in drafts come winter.

On the WoW front: I update this so rarely, I can't remember if I mentioned we beat Horridon. On the night I complained so much about being stuck on him. Now we're stuck on Council, which I mind less as that is more chances for Living Sandling pets :)  Raids have been cancelled this week a bit due to some unfortunate real life circumstances. I wish everyone the best, and wish I could do something to help.
Bone farming has been going great! One of our tanks just loves killing dinos, so I am 30% of the way to the mount, and got the pet already. And 3 eggs. The first one had the mount I already had, the second had the same mount! So hopefully the next one will be a different color :)
I have decided to leave the shammy as DPS, and see how she does. Lobbing fire at people is fun! And I remember why I hate non-healing queues so much.
Tonight is the second raid's raid night, so hopefully that will be happening and go well.

Updates come usually from procrastination, so as school starts up I expect to be writing more often.