World of Warcraft: Now What?

For the most part, I have been quite pleased with Cataclysm. In particular, the difficulty levels in the dungeons and raids suited me just fine. Julie and I were in a brand new guild, with people who had similar ideas of how to balance fun and progression, with minimal personality conflicts, and a raid schedule that happened to line up exactly with the only times we could both make. Oh, and for the first time ever, I was getting to do real progression raiding on Ratshag, the character I've always thought of as my main. We had two bosses, if not yet on farm, at least dying predictably, and were making good progress on the next one. It was all going as well as I could have hoped.

But the fact that things were just as I wanted them did not mean it was working out for the other people. Two weeks ago, one of our raiders announced he was canceling his WoW account, and within the hour four more raiders made similar announcements. Clearly, there was a general sense of wanting or needing to do other things, and folks had been holding off, not wanting to be the one to break the camel's back. Julie wasn't officially part of the exodus, but she had a lot on her plate between work and classes, and the only thing holding to raiding was not wanting to let me down, so when it happened it was a relief to her.

So... now what?

I like raiding. I like the feeling of being part of a team, of achieving shared goals. I also like the structure which comes from having a fixed schedule. Unfortunately I don't see a way to fit a raiding schedule anywhere into my life right now. Julie works three nights a week (except when she doesn't), she takes classes several nights a week (except when she doesn't), Taylor spends a couple nights a week with us (except when she doesn't), the dogs need to be walked (no exceptions), dinner needs to be cooked (usually), homework needs to be checked (often). Right now, there just isn't much room for any commitments - I was able to bend life a bit to fit in a five-hour-a-week schedule, but life has now snapped back and that window is shut.

This summer things should be different - Julie's plan is to be taking more on-line classes, the hospital workload will drop some, Taylor's stays will be longer allowing for more flexibility. It's probable that if I gear up one of my Alliance toons that I could get to raid at least part time. But nothing is certain (as recent events have shown), and the gearing up process is slower and harder than it was a year ago. So, I'm feeling a little gun shy, I suspect. Do I want to invest the time and effort again, knowing that it might not pay off? Or do I just want to level alts, learn professions, complete achievements - all low risk activities, convenient, not dependent on others? The other night I had the rather disturbing idea of converting Ratshag, with all his hard-fought raiding gear, into an Alliance race. Would simplify things, sure, but I think it would cost me a part of my soul to lose the amazingly virile one. Weird to care so much about a lump of pixels, but I do.

So, now what? This weekend I've been leveling my paladin, Kinnavieve. Got her to 84 last night. When she gets to 85, will I keep on playing her, pushing through the gearing up grind for the potential rewards? Or will I change to leveling another character, perhaps with the goal of raiding on that one? I'm really not sure. Wish I could just figure out what I really wanted to do.

Does Brett Have Any Marbles Left?

We got to visit my parents last week at their new home in Colorado (They're not in Ohio anymore, because Dad gets insanely restless every few years and needs to move. When he dies, my sister and I plan to put his ashes in an urn and move it around the country periodically so he doesn't get annoyed and go haunt people or something. Anywho.). While we were there, we had several discussions about Brett. We know Brett thinks that she can use Taylor as leverage over my parents when I start cutting off the money flow, and we wanted to make sure they understood that we won't let the utilities get cut off or the food run out. We just aren't going to give Brett cash anymore (much of which I'm sure is going to support her cows and goats and whatever else she's keeping).

Along the way, an interesting datum came up in all this. Brett's secret plan for when I cut her off is to take me to court and claim she is entitled to .... who knows what ... because I was seeing Julie before the divorce went through. Which shows she is pretty ignorant of the law. If at the divorce trial she could have shown that I had spent some of our joint money on Julie (which I admit I did) she would have been entitled to that much more than 50% of our net worth. However, I was already voluntarily giving her significantly more than 50%, so it would have been moot. And of course, there's the small fact that the trial happened over a year ago, and there's no do-overs.

But it's not her secret plan that dumbfounded me. It's just sad, that she thinks she can still avoid having to, you know, support herself like any other adult. What amazed me was that she confided her secret plan to my father. She actually believes that she is so in the right, and I so in the wrong, that my own parents are taking her side. The reality is that they think she is a lunatic who should be committed for her own good.

Twenty years ago, I fell in love with a bright, ambitious young woman. It hurts my heart to see what a pathetic, delusional, train wreck of a human being she has become.

THIS Is Far Freakin' Cool

Ward Shelley's map of the history of science fiction:

click to embiggen

I was particularly pleased to see Cyrano de Bergerac's Empires of the Moon included in the pre-SF speculative branch. Awesome as Jose Ferrer's portrayal of the man was, he was much more than a swordsman/poet with a big nose.

Oh Shi-

It's Not Easy Being Green

I'm still wondering what's keeping her car on the road....