What makes a fail raid?
I was in an ICC25 raid on Tuesday where every word uttered by anyone other than the raid leader wanted to make me /facepalm. Things started off okay with the raid leader talking about how there are all levels of skill, gearscore, and age present in the raid and that negativity is not allowed. That sounds okay, I hate it when people nerd rage and scream at someone calling them names, that doesn’t help them learn or become a better player. We were all noobs once, we all had to learn the fights somehow, I get it. However, the raid quickly went downhill after the first pull. We wiped THREE TIMES on the FIRST PULL in ICC. Most of the ICC25 mans I’ve been in on both of my characters in the past few weeks didn’t see a wipe until the plague wing or beyond, and they were all pugs. So what made this raid so fail?
The worst geared person in the raid was sub 4k gear score and had blues, yes blues. He got the achievement for 25 dungeon raid emblems while in ICC. He had no business being in that raid. However, he wasn’t the worst dps or the worst player.
There was a 12 year old ret pally who sounded like he was 8 years old stacking agility. He also wouldn’t shut up, which didn’t lead to the fail raid, but was damn annoying.
With nearly a 6k gear score tank I’m used to being one of the best geared people in the raid, but I out geared everyone by a wide margin. The first offtank was was sitting around 5.1 and the second offtank barely broke 5k. For the first wing this wasn’t really a big deal, the healers were decent and kept all of us up just fine. Festergut proved to be the offtank’s downfall. He could never survive past the second inhale. For all the people who are like “omg, gear score doesn’t mean anything!” try keeping up a poorly geared tank on Festergut. You can’t heal a tank that gets two shot, this has nothing to do with skill.
Overall dps was awful. Even if the tank had been able to stay alive past the second inhale we never would have beat Festergut’s enrage timer. I attribute this to a mixture of people not knowing what they are doing and far too many poorly geared players. Bad skill+bad gear=shitty dps.
The raid leader didn’t know the best strategies for the fights. The raid leader had not downed bosses after the first wing on 25man. I found myself stepping in on every fight trying to explain why we should do things a certain way.
No one listened. The raid leader must have gone over loot rules like 17 times and people were still asking the same questions. This carried over to boss fight explanations. Since several people didn’t know the fights, we explained each one which is fine by me. I am more than happy to explain a fight to someone who doesn’t know it as long as they listen and follow directions. When you explain a fight three times and people still sit there with the their thumbs up their butt when the get the spore is when I get pissed off.
People AOE when the blood beasts came out. People pulled additional groups. People pulled bosses when we were still explaining the fight. Literally about 5 seconds after the raid leader said “be careful, don’t pull aggro!” someone pulled aggro and wiped us.
There were just too many noobs, too many poorly geared players, and too many people who didn’t know the fights. I’ve had people in my raids before who didn’t know fights, but they listened, they followed directions and they learned. I’ve had poorly geared players in raids before, but they are usually the minority. A few people who have bad gear and bad dps won’t kill a raid, but when half of your raid isn’t up to snuff it will hurt everyone.
Foraging is the latest trend? What’s next…
There was blog post on freshly pressed that talked about how foraging is the hot new culinary trend. Upon reading the title I thought that it sounded incredibly stupid, but I wanted to read the post just to make sure that foraging didn’t mean something other than rooting around the forest/landscape searching for eatable plants and such. Yep, sure enough, there was no alternative meaning to foraging. People literally eat stuff growing out of the sidewalk. I mean, after all, before we had agriculture, humans had to forage for their food and we are just returning to our roots. What’s next? Should we all abandon our houses in favor of caves? Perhaps toss aside our jeans for a loin cloth made from the hide of a tiger? After all, it takes a lot of resources to build houses and make clothes and if we all just lived in caves that would be much better for the environment. Humans foraged for food when we were too stupid to know how to grow things ourselves. We grow our own food now because it tastes better, it’s healthier, it’s more efficient, and you won’t accidentally eat something poisonous. If Into the Wild taught me anything it was that a plant you can eat safely and a plant that will slowly kill you can look an awful lot alike and I’m not taking my chances. People are so obsessed with living “naturally” that they throw all common sense out the window. Economies of scale and specialization allow our society to produce more food more efficiently (i.e. less cost and less resources). I’ll stick to organic farmed food that tastes good, won’t kill me, and supports our economy. Leave the clover to the rabbits.
Simple tips to upgrading gear in World of Warcraft
For better or worse your gear score is what gets you into raids. I’m not here to debate the practice, simply stating that it is what it is. When you first hit 80 all the new dungeons and gear available to you can be a bit overwhelming. After leveling and gearing a couple of characters, I’ve come up with some ways to help you decide how to spend your precious badges so you get the most bang for your buck…or badge. It’s especially difficult at first because pretty much everything you can buy with badges will be an upgrade, so how do you determine what to upgrade first? Hopefully my advice can help push you in the right direction, though for each of my characters I spend a lot of time researching gear on wowhead. These tips are in no particular order, it’s important to consider all the factors and will also depend on what your gear currently looks like.
1. Determine what piece would be the biggest upgrade for you. For example, if most of your gear is ilvl 232, but your chest piece is ilvl200, upgrade that first.
2. Chest and legs offer larger upgrades than upgrading smaller items like bracers or shoulders. You will gain more total stats from upgrading ilvl232 legs to ilvl 245 than you would upgrading 232 bracers to 245. This is good to keep in mind when you get your first mark and are wondering which tier piece to sanctify.
3. Is there an item you could buy that would be best in slot, or close to it, that you would be hard pressed to upgrade for awhile? A common one is the 264 belt available with frost badges, this is best in slot for many classes, so is usually a safe purchase to make because it won’t get replaced easily.
4. Is the only upgrade to that item available with badges? For example, after the ilvl 200 tanking cloak, you will have a tough time finding an upgrade until you buy the 264 tanking cloak with frost badges. That was the first frost piece I bought with my tank. Another badge only item is ranged slot items like sigils, totems, librams and idols. Those don’t drop out of instances, upgrades can only be obtained through badge purchases.
5. Is a comparable item easily available to you? Let’s say you run ICC10 every week and clear at least the first wing, don’t buy any gear that would be replaced by a drop in ICC10 in the first wing until all your other pieces are upgraded. There is nothing worse than buying a piece of gear only to have a slightly better item drop a few days later. If the only item that would be an upgrade drops off of Singdragosa and you’ve never even seen Valithria, it’s probably a safe purchase.
The best thing you can do when you hit 80 is run random heroics, lots of them. Try to focus on the ICC 5 mans as they drop ilvl 232 gear. Use badges to get yourself decently geared before trying to get into ICC 10/25 runs. Don’t bitch that no one will let you in a raid because all your gear is ilvl200, pay your dues, no one wants to drag your ass through a dungeon so you can get gear.
However, if you have a guild that runs ICC on a regular basis they may not be opposed to allowing you or your alt to come for a few bosses and carry you through to get you some gear. Don’t assume this is okay, always ask. Also, be flexible, don’t expect to bring a poorly geared character to new content when your guild is trying to progress.
Engagement rings as a metaphor for life
I tend to have thoughts that lead to other thoughts, that lead to other thoughts, that lead to a crazy place where I find myself wondering how my mind ever ended up on that subject. My favorite is when this happens in the middle of a conversation and I seemingly jump topics according to the other person, but in my head it was all connected. Anyway, that’s not what this is about, but that’s how I ended up with a somewhat interesting and profound thought about life.
I was thinking about my engagement ring. When I saw my engagement ring it was love at first sight. I had never seen anything like it before. It had characteristics of other rings I had seen, but I had never seen those characteristics put together in such a unique way. If I could have designed the perfect engagement ring, this ring would have knocked it out of the park.
Then my mind somehow brought forth the memory of my ex boyfriend’s reaction when he saw my beautiful engagement ring. We had met up in a pub to ‘catch up’ with one another. He eyed my ring curiously and then asked “Do you like it?” His tone implied that he was expecting me to be somewhat disappointed with it. On the contrary, I responded with “Yes, I picked it out.” He looked surprised by that and then said “Oh, it’s just not what I thought you liked.” At that moment I knew that both of us were thinking about the picture of a 3-stone engagement ring I had ripped out of a magazine, circled, drew stars around and then not so subtly placed on his desk during our senior year of college. What I didn’t know until after we broke up, was that he kept that picture and had it pinned to the wall of his cubicle at work.
The ring in that ad was my favorite for a long time, it was better than any other ring I had seen before. Had I never found the ring I had on my finger, I’m sure I would have been happy with the ring from the ad. I never would have known that there was something out there that didn’t just meet my expectations, but exceeded them in ways I didn’t know was possible. As soon as I knew that the ring on my finger existed, I knew I would never be happy with the ring in the ad. Once I saw that ring, I wouldn’t settle for anything else.
After these thoughts, the obvious metaphor hit me. The rings were exactly like my ex and my husband. Had I never met the man I married, I probably would have been content with my ex. Before I met my husband, my ex was my favorite guy, I could see us together, but once I met the man I would marry I knew that I would never settle for anything less than him. He was beyond my expectations, beyond what I could have imagined in my head to be the perfect man. How lucky I was that I found him! I wonder how many people in life settle for things because they don’t know that anything better exists out there. I’m not just talking about engagement rings and men, but what about living situations? careers? jobs? cities? countries? You may be living somewhere or working somewhere or doing something that is ‘just fine’ or possibly not good at all and be unaware that there is a place, a job, a person out there that would be so much better for you. The hard part is, you don’t know how pale the comparison is until you find that amazing thing, then you look back and wonder how you ever settled or thought about settling with what you had before.
Marriage: Only child and oldest child
I was an only child growing up and in both my mom and step dad’s families I was still the only child. My mind, my imagination, is what kept me company most of time, what entertained me. I also read a lot. I would go to a used book store and buy a three foot stack of books while turning in another three foot stack of books that I already read for credit. I had a lot of friends growing up too, so I wasn’t alone all the time, I would hardly consider myself antisocial. Regardless, I still ended up alone a lot. This didn’t bother me, I could so easily entertain myself. I remember on vacation in Florida an old lady remarked to my mother how amazed she was that I could keep myself entertained for hours in a pool with only a few colored diving sticks. I was content, happy, I had fun playing these games I made up in my head or escaping into a book.
My husband had a very different childhood, he had a younger brother growing up. He was very close with his family and they would do everything together. He didn’t have many close friends growing up, but he was close to his brother and family. Now that we are married he wants to do everything with me and spend all our time together. Now don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with him and it’s not that I get sick of spending time with him, it’s just that, I’m so used to spending time alone. I love to let my mind wander, curl up with a good book or just not have to worry about what someone else is doing or if they are having fun. I re-energize by retreating into my own little world. I’m not used to being around someone else 24/7, it makes me anxious. He is so dependent on me, without me he doesn’t know what to do with himself, he feels lonely. I could go for days without seeing him and still not feel lonely, I would miss him a lot and miss spending time with him, but I would easily keep myself occupied.
Our dramatically different childhoods have affected us in ways we hadn’t thought about before. He gets mad at me if I spend too much time ‘doing my own thing’ and I get mad at him for not allowing me to do the things I want to do. I try to encourage him to hang out with his friends or go play basketball or to do other things I know he enjoys doing, but he is hesitant to do anything unless I do it with him. I didn’t understand, but he didn’t enjoy those things as much if he didn’t have someone to share them with. I had learned to derive joy from solitary activities to the point that I needed solitary activities in my life in order to feel balanced.
We talked for hours the other night trying to explain how we saw things and why we saw them that way. We each walked away with a better understanding of why we were the way we were and that neither of us meant to make the other person feel badly, we just didn’t understand the other person. I felt guilty when I did my own thing because I could see it made him unhappy, which made me unhappy. If I didn’t do my own thing, I would be unhappy and he would happy until he saw I was unhappy, then he would be unhappy too. It’s a no-win situation, that is, until we discussed it. Hopefully *crosses fingers*, now he can understand that me wanting to spend time alone is nothing against him and I can understand why he wants me to do things with him all the time. My happiness is based on a mixture of independence, companionship and his happiness. His happiness is mostly based on companionship and my happiness. Without my independence I will not be happy and if I’m not happy, he’s not happy. Hopefully we can find a good balance so we both feel we are getting the kind of happiness we need.
Ignorance in a Pancake House
A few summers ago I was camping with my now husband. This was the first time we went camping together and was before we had any real camping gear. We managed to forget to bring anything to eat for breakfast and, worst of all, we didn’t have any coffee. I am not a morning person, the only thing that allows me to even function in the morning is coffee, so I was pretty much dead on my feet, a zombie. Oh yea, and the day before this coffee less morning I was attacked by bees. That story is pretty funny, so allow me sidetrack a little before moving on with my main story.
We were in the woods gathering kindling for the fire and I felt something ‘bite’ my foot, before I had too much time to think about or investigate what got me, I felt the same sharp pain on my leg. Whatever was doing this was IN my pants. I screamed and tore off my pants in the middle of the woods and threw them at my husband while I shouted “There is something in my pants!” While he searched to find the culprit of my pain I felt another sharp pain on my leg, I yelped out in pain. Pain mixed with fear and frustration caused me to burst into tears. As I stood there, pantsless and crying in the woods I felt another sharp jab of pain on my arm. I panicked and took off running back towards our campsite, still not wearing pants. I dove into the tent, tore off my shirt and threw it out of the tent. I sat there mostly naked, crying and confused at what was attacking me and causing this horrible pain. My husband caught up with me and told me I stepped on a bee nest in the ground. If we didn’t have breakfast or coffee, you can bet we didn’t have a first aid kit either. My husband, being the resourceful and knowledgeable man he is, found some mud to put on the stings. The cool, wet feel of the mud soothed the burning pain enough for me to calm down. He checked my pants and shirt and once they were deemed ‘bee free’ I put them back on. As I put on my shirt, one last bee, hiding in my ponytail, stabbed me in the back. That bastard. The panic and crying started all over again. Needless to say, this was not the best camping trip.
Back to the main story. So, covered in bee stings with no breakfast and no coffee, we decided to drive into town for a nice hearty sit down breakfast. We found a pancake house and things were definitely looking up. We were silently enjoying a very satisfying breakfast, both of us more eager to satiate our hunger rather than make conversation, when I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation from the booth behind us. I’ll spare you the maddening horror of the conversation and sum it up. Basically, this group thought all gay people had aids and that health care was so expensive because all the gay people with aids were a drain on the health care system. I finished my breakfast, fuming more and more at every sentence and laugh that floated over from the booth behind me. By the time we had paid and were ready to leave, my blood was boiling. How ignorant are these people? I know we are in rural Wisconsin, but what they were saying was completely outrageous! My anger was intensified by the fact that my best friend in the whole world, the maid of honor at my wedding, was gay. That made what these people were saying not only wrong and offensive, but personal. We stood up and I turned to see the faces of ignorance. Six very large middle-aged adults sat packed into the corner booth. I stopped in front of their table and glared at them. “You are all so ignorant! Not all gay people have aids and there are plenty of people with aids who are straight.” I spat. “You know what’s a drain on our health care system? Fat people. Heart disease is the number one killer of adults in the U.S.” They all just stared at me with stunned looks on their faces. I spun around and stormed out of the restaurant.
I’m getting worked up right now just retelling the story. Sadly, that’s not the first time I flipped out on someone for saying something like that. I was walking downtown with my best friend one weekend while we were in high school and there was some religious zealot shouting things on the street. Normally I just ignore people like that, but right as we were approaching he started shouting about how all gay people are going to hell because being gay is a sin. My best friend looked uncomfortable as we approached the shouting man, so without thinking, I stopped and shouted back at him. “My best friend is NOT going to hell! She is one of the best, kindest, most wonderful people I know, so you can go to hell!” I stormed away from the stunned man, my best friend smiled and looked at me and said “Awww, thank you.”
I wish I didn’t have to get all worked up about stuff, but it just makes me so angry! These things people say make no sense, they are illogical and ignorant and it makes me sad. Why are people so afraid of people who happen to be gay? They are still people, they have friends and family and many other things that make up who they are as a person other than the fact that they are gay. The misinformation and perceptions that are out there are appalling. Being gay or straight has nothing to do with how promiscuous a person is and every single person on the earth is a sinner according to the Bible.
Memorial Weekend: A Tradition
As far back as I can remember Memorial Day, for me, has always signified the start of summer. Every year I go up to my family’s cottage on the lake and we get everything ready for a fun filled summer of swimming, water skiing, jet skiing, and taking rides on the pontoon boat. For a long time I thought that this was what everyone did on Memorial weekend. The first time I heard someone say they weren’t doing anything or going anywhere for this weekend I almost didn’t understand. Memorial and Labor Day weekends are right up there with Thanksgiving and Christmas for my family. The whole extended family always gets together at the cabin, it’s not a question, we don’t need to make plans, everyone just goes up north. I can’t imagine what else I’d do.
I know Memorial Day isn’t supposed to be a ‘who hoo let’s hang out up north and enjoy the sun!’ holiday, but that’s what it’s always been for me. Holidays are what you make of them. If you never make plans or do anything than that holiday won’t mean much to you. So why not start your own traditions? It’s easy to go camping with some friends or family or even just have a cookout for all the people you know that don’t have anywhere to go. I’ll take any excuse to get together with friends or family to enjoy the weather and have some fun.
Best Ever Fluffy Pancake Recipe
One of my favorite breakfasts of all time is pancakes with maple syrup. It has to be REAL maple syrup, not of that pancake syrup or corn syrup for me. 100% pure Wisconsin maple syrup. Now for my pancakes, I like them thick, soft and fluffy. Some people like them thin or crispy, but not me. For those fellow soft fluffy pancake lovers I wanted to share my pancake recipe. In my opinion they are better than IHOP or Perkins or any other restaurant made pancakes I’ve had.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Bisquick pancake mix
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbs. sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. baking powder
Mix together the ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Preheat skillet, I keep mine just below medium, but this can vary depending on your skillet or stove. I usually use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter onto the skillet. This makes pancakes that are the perfect size for flipping. When the pancakes begin to bubble and the edges are dry, that’s when you know to flip. They should be a light to medium golden brown. Knowing when the other side is done is a little more tricky. I usually give it a minute and then use my spatula to peak at the color of the bottom so I make sure not to overcook them. If you are making a big stack you can keep the finished pancakes warm by keeping them on a plate in the oven on the warm setting.
You can also add in pretty much anything to the batter before you cook them too. Chocolate chips, blueberries, pineapple and even crushed snickers bars. I’ve had snicker bar pancakes and let me tell you they are awesome. It’s a good way to get a little creative, possibly healthy depending on what you add, and have some variety.
Offices vs. Cubes: A Personal Perspective
Most people that I’ve talked to who have worked in both an office and a cube will tell you that offices are a huge productivity boost. There are studies done by Microsoft and other companies out there that will tell you the same thing; people are about 30-40% more productive in an office when compared with a cubicle. Why then do companies continue to cram as many cubes as possible into an open floor plan? They are on a budget and they want to save money. Let’s face it, building offices is a lot more expensive than slapping up some cube walls. Okay, so while the initial cost of building is higher, what about costs in the long run? If all of your employees are 30-40% more productive, think of how much more work they would get done! Think of how you could employee less people to do the same amount of work. You’d save money on salaries, benefits, retirement, every single cost that goes into having an employee. One company said that based on these savings they would recoup the costs of building offices instead of cubes in as little as 5 years! On top of all that, you would have happier employees. Let me share my personal experiences to illustrate why this is all true.
Working in an office with a window.
Pros. Natural light makes me feel happy and more awake. I can hold small meetings in my office without disturbing others or taking up a conference room. I can be on the phone without disturbing others. I am not disturbed by other people’s conversations whether it’s with other people close to them or if they are on the phone. If I am really busy I can shut my door, that makes people think twice about stopping by and talking to me. “Oh, her door is closed, she must be busy, it’s not that important, I’ll come back later.”
Cons. It’s easier to do non work things. No one can see what’s on your computer. You can have coworkers come to your office and have a conversation with them without being disturbed or overheard. You can make personal phone calls more easily. People just see that you are on the phone, they don’t know who you are talking to.
Working in a cube.
Cons. Florescent light makes me crabby, it’s ugly and draining. I sit here and listen to every word of every phone call each of the 3 people in my area make. Not because I want to, but because it’s unavoidable. Without the sound of talking all you hear is the click click click of 4 sets of hands on the computer. I hear someone talking to someone else, suddenly I’m a part of their conversation. “Oh, I saw that movie too!” I get sucked into so many conversations that happen to be within earshot of me. I tell myself to ignore them and to focus on my work, but then someone asks a question and I know the answer and I can’t help but join in now. “No, no, it was the guy from that other movie!” Even if I could care less about the conversation happening a few feet away from me I am still stuck there listening to it.
Pros. At any moment someone, including your boss, can walk by and see what’s on your computer. You don’t want to be caught checking your Facebook or reading the latest news on Slashdot. You can’t make personal calls unless you want all those around you to know you are making a personal call and then hear your whole side of the conversation. Chatting is somewhat kept down by the fact that anyone within earshot, including your boss, can hear you talking about non-work related things.
While it’s easier to do non-work related things in an office, I was still far more productive. I would do my non work things, get them done with no worry and then move onto my work. My lower energy in a cube makes me work slower, I get more distracted and wind up wasting far more time chatting than I did in an office. In an office I would go chat with a coworker for a few minutes and then head back to my office distraction free. I got to choose when I would chat and when I would work. The biggest thing was that when I was working I got more done because I was totally focused on the task at hand.
Think about when you are reading a book and you get sucked into the story. A sound distracts you and it sort of pulls you out of the book world and back to what’s going on around you. It usually takes me a few minutes to really get back into the story after being distracted. My work is the same way. Every time I get deeply involved in my work, someone coughs, or the phone rings, or someone starts talking, or I am suddenly acutely aware of the click click click of others hands on the keyboard.
At the end of the day, people will always chat and do non-work related things at work. Especially if you have a desk job people need those breaks to keep from burning out or going crazy. I can only stare at my computer for so long. The important thing is how hard people work when they are focused on their work. How much are they getting done? How much time total is spent chatting with others? I can tell you that hands down I am more distracted and spend more time chatting now that I work in a cube. I can tell you that I find it harder to stay energized and stay focused. I can tell you that my pace of work is slower in a cube. I can also tell you that I was a much happier employee in an office.
