sarea | and then... and then...

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and then... and then...

Hmm, I should really get some more icons to round out my selection. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with 80 Logan/Veronica icons, but I could probably use some variety.

***

I'm sad because my coworker has told us he's leaving the company in order to take on some hoity toity position somewhere else. He's only been here a year, and initially I wasn't even sure how well we'd get along. He was replacing someone whom I considered a good friend (another woman, at that). We started having lunch together regularly and it turned out that he was really cool and we really hit it off. And now he's leaving. :-( It was nice working with a friend. I can't imagine I'll be as lucky with his replacement.

***

I should give up reading WIPs and wait for them to come out on DVD. Wait... Something like that, anyway. Somehow, I got to reading two WIPs on FIA even though I normally avoid WIPs like ... not the plague, exactly ... like fast food. I know it's not good for me, I know the momentary satisfaction is fleeting, and yet the temptation is sometimes just too much for me to resist. DAMN YOU, WIP WRITERS (including me).

***

Christmas/New Year's: Got a lot of sweet loot. Jade, Robbie, and I totally went off each other's Amazon lists this year, and I must say the results brought joy and merriment to all. After all, how can you go wrong with books, DVDs, and CDs?? After burning stuff for each other, it was like getting 3x the loot! :))

Also saw a number of movies. I've already mentioned The Family Stone (see it!!) and King Kong, but Jade and I also saw Crash. I don't think it's playing in theaters anymore, but I highly rec it. It was really, really good. It left me so drained afterward that I didn't think I could see it again, but I've changed my mind. It was just a great movie -- I'm hoping it'll be this year's Sideways and get nommed for an Oscar! I believe the guy who wrote it also wrote Million-Dollar Baby.

My parents and I went to Vegas during the last couple of days of my trip and saw my brother (who was there working). I won $5 playing the penny slots. :)) (Hey, that's like the equivalent of winning $500 from a regular slot machine!) I also saw that "Avenue Q" was playing at Wynn (fairly boring and run of the mill, for the new A-list hotel in town). I wish I'd known earlier so I could have booked tickets.

***

My friend K. got married in Nov. She and I worked together in D.C., and we used to make it a point to try a new restaurant every week, because we both loved food and were very open minded about it. (Also, she betaed my smuttiest story ever, from XF.) At the time, she was dating M., whom she'd been with for several years by that point (they'd gone to the same university, etc.). Everyone expected them to get married. After I left D.C., we wrote once in awhile, but not regularly (she gave me tips about painting when I bought my condo). Then I found out that she and M. had broken up, which was weird enough, but the fact that she had apparently taken up with someone else was even weirder to me. I mean, what was K. without M., and vice versa? A few months ago, she told me that she was getting married, to the new guy whom I've never even met. I don't know why, but it is still so, so, SO weird to me. It's not even that I don't like the new guy (don't know him), or that I liked M. a lot (only met him a couple of times), but it was just one of those things that was a certainty, and now she's married, and it's not to M. Craziness.

Anyway, she sent some wedding photos, and all I have to say is, I need to get the name of the photographer she used. They got married in Maui, and while the gown she's wearing is a bit impractical for a beach wedding, it's so gorgeous it doesn't even matter. You can see it here and here -- and here's a shot of the back of the dress. The dress is amazing and she looks so pretty! I'm really glad that she seems v. happy. <3

Oh, and if you've ever watched Fear Factor and seen the episode where they had to eat the most disgusting thing ever (buffalo penis), K. was in that episode. And is apparently going to be on some home decorating show called "Freestyle." Is that like Trading Spaces? I have no clue. It's airing in February.

***

I PVP'ed so much this week (well, the weekend), and still didn't make Blood Guard. My God, what will it take?! I mean, sure, it gets harder to rank up as you reach higher levels, and sure, a lot of people were PVPing this week. But I was at 39% progress to BG, and after 50+K honor this week, I only reach 89%?? Arrrggghh! Soooo disappointing, as this means not only do I not get to buy the BG stuff, but I'm going to have to put the same amount of effort in this week in PVPing, and I was hoping to take a break. :( I've been lucky, however, that I usually get to play in a set group for AB, which means more honor for the same effort (since we win). Also, I do want to get revered with the Frostwolf Clan so I can get the Crackling Staff. It's just embarrassing that I'm still carrying around the Illusionary Rod.

I have been playing so much freakin' AB I am less than 1K away from being honored. Same with WSG, although considering how much I played that pre-60, I can't believe I'm NOT honored with them yet.

For the first time I went to the Kilrogg boards yesterday and entertained myself by reading many posts. It's nice to see/hear players (Alliance in particular) as normal people, and to see them interacting in a (usually) friendly way. They all seem to know each other and are like one big happy, occasionally squabbling, family. <3

This thread, about that idiot coward Stormborn (currently #1 in the Alliance PVP rankings btw), opened a lot of festering wounds. A big bone of contention on our server (and possibly others) is Horde AFK'ing out of games they don't want to play. While personally I would prefer not to AFK out of games, particularly if I'm in a group where I'm going to have fun just playing with good people who will do their jobs, I can *very much* commiserate with the people who do AFK (such as if you're in a PUG and you get the other side's A-team. I mean, why should I waste my time and in-game money on that?). Sure, Alliance doesn't AFK as much as Horde does, but that's only because they can't afford to. They wait in long queues in order to play; Horde usually gets in in a matter of seconds. So once Alliance gets in, they're less likely to AFK. That sucks for them, but that's just too bad. You play Alliance, you have to live with the ups and downs of being Alliance -- and one of the downs is that there are many more Alliance players than Horde.

My brother made a post about this topic, and I totally agree with what he says, as well as what Blizzard should do to help resolve the problem. Sure, with patch 1.9 they instituted the "Deserter" debuff, but you know who that hurts? The poor SOBs who play individually in PUGs. If you're in a group, a Deserter can still get queued with the rest of the group -- it's just that the leader can't be one. Anyway, my brother's post, in response to an Alliance player saying that the queuing system is fine, and it's the AFK'ing creating the problems:

AFK'ing is a response to a system that forces casual players to serve as honor fodder for opposing A-teams. This is true on both sides. I personally try not to AFK but it does get tedious to die constantly and not even be able to kill an opponent, so I totally understand why people would AFK. In those games where we are going 5-15 I've taken to simply not rezzing at all and just waiting for my Mark. I do that because there's no incentive for me to take durability and give out free honor. I also understand that people from top Alliance guilds who are no doubt decked out in epics wouldn't "get" the concept of being in a PUG with green gear and losing because of it so I also don't blame you for your continued lack of sympathy in this issue. I've been grouped with a Horde A-team once and it only took one 5-node to stop the Alliance from queueing at all, so please don't try to make this sound like a faction issue. Casual players will quit if they feel that their time is better spent elsewhere -- it's as simple as that. If anyone is a coward (and no one really is), it's the hardcore pvp teams. They're the ones who are "afraid" to set one foot into AB without 14 of their epic-geared buddies prearranged into balanced groups with well-defined roles... to face off against 15 randoms. I may be biased here, but I think it takes a lot more courage to step into AB wearing greens and knowing that you can't really count on anyone to do anything.

If you ask me, in the interest of fairness, which in turn would stop all the AFK nonsense, the BG queues should be setup so that you can either join as an individual or as a full team. If you join as an individual, then you're treated as being in line like everyone else, and you go with your block of players which may or may not include your friends, and you get matched against other people that did the same. If you join as a raid, then you get matched up against other people that joined as a raid. This keeps teams fighting other teams and PUGs fighting other PUGs. Right now we have a queue system that allows the hardcore pvp'ers to cherry pick their teams and then play against a group of randoms that are likely to be both unorganized and undergeared. Why not be consistent about it and stick a portal to XR in Ironforge, for all the difference it makes?

... and that's why I blame the queueing system.

In the meanwhile, I SO need to pay some attention to Inara. She's been stuck at 40 for like, a month. *sigh*

***

Two new Meg Cabot books have come out -- I haven't read either one yet, but of course I will: Size 12 Is Not Fat (adult contemporary, mystery) and Avalon High (YA, and yes, there are shades of the Arthurian legend w00t)

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I've already finished "Avalon High" but of course won't spoil you. Last time I talked to Jade she was about a third of the way or so.

K was a beautiful bride. Those pics are great. Meanwhile, you and Jade and I will just borrow wedding dresses and sit on the couch in them, 'cause you guys never date and I only date non-marrying types. Still, that'd be fun.

Have you gotten "Size 12" yet? I ended up just ordering on Amazon, since I have the free shipping and it's discounted and all.

Also, have you heard of that show "Freestyle"? You're the only one I know who might have a chance of knowing what that is. I was just staring blankly at my email.

We'll totally pull a Monica/Rachel/Phoebe with wedding dresses. Or was it just Rachel and Phoebe? Can't remember.

I'm pretty sure all 3 of them were there.

I have heard of Freestyle. It's a show where they redo a room for FREE. I think they use stuff you already have, stuff they find on the street, who knows. ... Oh, found it on HGTV's website, where it says: FreeStyle is a no-cost design show where professional re-arrangers de-clutter, reorganize and move furniture and accessories around in a room, to give homeowners a dramatic new look without spending a dime!

What?? You mean normally people on those shows have to PAY?? That seems kind of lameass. BTW she said they totally faked some of it, like they made them "find" a carpet in their closet that they had only just bought the day before. Laaaaame.

Yes, Meg is a freak of nature. Didn't she say that she already had like 38 books written or something and they were just all waiting to be published? Freaaaaak.

Nah, people don't have to pay - what I mean is... nobody spends anything. The designers on that show don't spend any $ to fix the place up. Although someone told me that on one of the gardening shows in the UK, the people have to pay like ... half or something, and her friend had to pay either 5,000 or 10,000 pounds. There are different ways they do it on most shows - on "Cash in the Attic," people sell their crap at auction and use the proceeds to do something they've always wanted, and on "Clean House," the Clean House team matches up to $1000 of yard sale proceeds and that's how much they get to spend fixing the place up. Anyway.

<- wishes this keyboard had a pound sign like my old mac keyboard. (Or at least one I could find.)

To do the £ sign, hold down ALT and type 0163, then let go of ALT. It's not as easy as having it right on your keyboard, but you can do all sorts of special characters by finding the code for it. Go to Accessories --> System Tools --> Character Map and you'll see them all. Just click on the one you want and it'll tell you the code in the bottom right-hand corner.

Also, nope, haven't gotten "Size 12" yet. WANT. Meg's already written the sequel. She's a FREAK OF NATURE. It's called "Phat Girl" or something. I know "Phat" is in the (not yet approved by the publisher) title. That Crazy Meg.

Welcome to the pvp grind! :( Which server is Inara on? Is that the pvp char? And hey, feel like running me through RFK? Nothing says fun like masses of quillboars!

OMG, that's your friend K? She's gorgeous and those pictures are beautiful!

Avalon High sounds like a bad fanfic. :\

Yes, Inara is the PvPer, if you can even call her that. Since she avoids PvP like the plague and has never been to a bg. :))

Sure! re: RFK. When are you going to be on? And what lvl is that? Do I need to make sure Jade is on also? (Not that it's not nice to have a mage there to AE everything anyway, but she doesn't have to be there if it's not too high lvl.)

I know, I was like, man K., those could be in like some bridal magazine. There were some that were even more ridiculous with the prettiness and professional photography.

Avalon High sounds like a bad fanfic. :\

D00d, that's why it's good! Honestly.

I was thinking about joining the BG the other day. Daneel just hit Level 17, so I was thinking about checking what the fuss is all about... Unfortunately I'm stuck with Too Much Work (tm) >_<

But, anyway, I should have some free time this friday night (your time) if you girls want to join in for some good monster bashing (and training this n00b to be efficient in a party) in E'ldre Thalas.

(and BTW, i've started with a dwarf hunter as an alt, and Tauren druid as an alt alt :p).

Battlegrounds is incredibly fun -- at your level you can do Warsong Gulch and possibly Arathi Basin (not sure if there's a level minimum for that one). Alterac Valley is for level 50+. At least check out a game and see what it's like, you might get hooked, heehee. Some things you should probably know:

a) There are many more Alliance players than Horde, so you may have to wait in a queue for awhile to get into a bg. (My cousin, who is a dwarf priest, says that their wait time can average 40 minutes. As my undead priest, I rarely don't get in immediately. :D Of course, these are also different servers, and at lvl 60, so your mileage may vary.)

b) Some people have taken to 'twinking' out their low-lvl alts to pvp with. These are called 'twinks' (a term I only recently learned myself). Basically, they've got the best low-lvl gear they can get (blues and such), and put crazy enchants on them (that are typically only found on high-lvl players and gear). So if you come up against a Horde team with a glowing weapons and what not, don't feel bad if your team doesn't do well (unless they're twinks also). Hopefully you won't encounter this too much, and can play it 'normally.'

We're all in for this Friday. It's a triple-date! Haha. I think you and Amelia are close to the same lvl, so Jade and I just need to play I&B a bit to get them to 17 or so. (We'll try for higher if we can manage it.) We were talking about it, and lvl 17 is about the right lvl for the first instance of the game, the Deadmines (are you familiar with instances, at least theoretically?). So we might be able to try for that one, and you'll REALLY get your first taste of grouping with others (and doing one of the more fun aspects of the game). :D

Here are the Deadmines quests; we should probably all try to get all the chained ones done beforehand if we can, so that when we meet up all we have are the Deadmines quests.

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/zone.html?wzone=68;mid=1108644664190577052;num=3;page=1

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=214

I think the only ones that are chains are The Defias Brotherhood and Red Silk Bandanas. The rest we should just be able to pick up.

It may not be realistic to try to do this, but it'll have to be done eventually anyway. :D How much time do you have? An instance typically takes a couple of hours at least, and Deadmines is kind of long. And if we need to do any of the chains on Friday, will be even longer. Since we'll be meeting the *minimum* requirement for the instance, we'll definitely need to round out our group and get a 5th random player in with us. Hopefully they'll be cool.

I can't believe you already have alts! Heehee. My first char was a hunter. She's 60 now, but I rarely play her. I looooooove Tauren. They're so cute. How are you liking the druid? Jade's first char was a druid also. I've tried playing one, but for some reason just never took to it. And others just love it!

Well, since we'll meet in *my* saturday morning, I have all the morning, basically, which is all your night ;) Just tell me what time I have to be there.

I can try to level up Daneel to Lvl. 18 in my friday night, too. We'll see if we can manage. Anyway, yes, having some other players might be nice, since we are kinda low level for this...

Anyway, I've just began the Defias Broterhood chain of quests (I'm at the second one, deliver a letter from Lakeshire to Sentinel Hill), so we can pick them up from the beginning and do them together. I can start some other quests in Westfall and Lakeshire to try to level up. Let me know :)

Oh, and my alts are very low level (5 and 2) so I still am not sure of how to play them since they don't have many abilities yet :p But I think the hunter is going to be a blast.

Jade and I were so efficient last night that we actually finished up the Defias Brotherhood chain and have all the quests for Deadmines now. :D We'd be happy to help you complete it on Friday if you haven't already done so before then. (The other chain is for the Red Silk Bandanas -- you first have to do Red Leather Bandanas, which is gotten from a guy near the inn/mill, and then after that's done, go to the very top of Sentinel Tower and another guy will give you the quest for the silk ones. The most efficient way to do it is to not do the bandanas until you have reached the part of the DB chain where it tells you to track down the Defias Messenger and kill him. He spawns in Moonbrook a lot, so once you get that quest, head over to Moonbrook, kill Defias for bandanas until the Messenger shows up, then kill him.)

After getting all the quests I realized that we'll be far too low lvl to do all the Deadmines quests, since Van Cleef is marked as lvl 22. If that's the case, maybe we can just group up and do a few of them that are right outside the instance (Collecting Memories and Oh Brother, I think). I'm not sure what lvl Amelia's char is, but Jade and I are 17 now and we may try to lvl I&B even more. If that's the case, we might be able to do VC after all, assuming we get another high lvl in our group. :D

A hunter *is* fun, but doesn't get that way until lvl 10, when you get your pet. Having a pet is the very best part of being a hunter. In general, however, that class is much more wanted in the battlegrounds than for instances and such. :( And when I played my hunter, the class hadn't been respecced yet, so it wasn't even that good for bgs. Of course, after I started my priest was when all those changes took place, and now I don't even play her. *sigh*

I assume all your alts are on Eldre'Thalas? You might want to consider creating an alt on Kilrogg, which is where all our Horde chars are. That way we can help you if you ever need it. :D I mean, it's not like your Alliance chars can help twink out your Horde alt anyway, so it's practically like playing on another server. :p

See you Friday!!

I haven't played Eth in forever. It's not worth getting ganked.

I might be on later today and almost certainly tomorrow. I think the quest lvls are 33/34 so I don't know that she has to be there. But as you say, AoE = love.

Those pictures are crazy awesome.

Oh, congrats on your winnings. :))

Well then I suppose we should say tomorrow, if you'll be there for sure. Or if we're both on today and I'm not wearing my fingers down to the bone in AB, we can do also. Yeah, mid-30s should be no problem for the 2 of us, but will be faster if she's there. Faster = goooood.

It's good that you're playing a hunter if you plan to PvP at all with her in the higher lvls. Hunters are highly wanted in the BGs.

HEY THAT $5 IS 1/3 MY MONTHLY WOW FEES.

I should try Guild Wars again. Just wanted to insert that random tidbit for you.

Haha, oh, GW. I haven't played that in FOREVER. I've missed the shimmying.

Too bad hunters are not wanted anywhere else. Alas!

Welcome back! How was the electronics thingie?

Oh, hee, I have no idea. I didn't see any of it -- only went to see my brother. :D And thanks!

Ruana's been doing a lot of AB lately. Mostly losing, but it's been fun still. She made Sergeant this week, and is close to Senior Sergeant, but since it won't be AB double-honor, probably not.

Played Saffron a bit, and she's about midway into Scout, but it was hard getting people to PVP in the 30s bracket. There is a twinked horde team...warriors with the Fiery War Axe with the Crusader enchant, and all blues and such, and lots of other good lower levels twinked, so people haven't been anxious to queue against them.

Did do a WSG where we were destroying the Alliance team, both PUGs. They took our flag at the end and hid with it, so we had to wait like 20 minutes while we found the person with it.

Sigh, I hate twinking. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of playing at those lvls. That is a bummer. I started playing WSG in my 40s, and was hooked ever since. :D

Gawd, I hate those WSG games where you have to spend an hour holding the flag while the rest of your team goes out to find and defeat the guy holding our flag, before they can do the same thing to you. That is the only part of WSG that I dislike.

Typically in AB if I'm in a PUG we'll lose. But as I said lately I've been fortunate because some very l33t players have been including me in their groups, so we nearly always win (in fact, I can only remember losing once). That is partially also because we cherry pick our opponents, which the Alliance (rightfully, in some cases) complain about.

I love the battlegrounds, though. And I really want that Blood Guard gear. :D

We have a channel, called /abteam, which organizes lots of AB play for those who want to do it out of guild. Right now, one of our leaders on the team is rank 6! Go Samswoman! So I've been playing with them and learning the ins and outs of AB.

We have Alliance guilds who pretty much only do PVP, and almost exclusively AB, so we lose to them and their epics a lot. But we still play. No one on /abteam /afks out unless we're bugged somehow. We did keep getting disconnected when some of our members used their battle standards when they had that bug going, but I'm hoping it's fixed now. Happened to me once. I got the deserter buff, too. But fortunately, if you queue as a group, only the leader of the group needs to not have the deserter buff. We lost our leader last time it happened, so I had to queue us up. Was so strange. :)

I want to get to rank 11. Yeah, I know, a pipe dream. But I really, REALLY want the Black War Kodo. And I will likely only have enough money to get the Rank 11 PVP mount. I do have 160g now, but that means I'm not even 1/4 of the way to Epic, even with discount. Though I'm trying to get Exalted with TB so I can get things cheaper. Do you know anyone, but me, who tries to get exalted with their OWN faction? *laugh*

But are there a bunch of people on /abteam who aren't in the same AB together? That could get kind of confusing, right?

Rank 6, my rank, woohoo! Go Stone Guards! Lemme know if you ever want to discuss AB strategies. I play it a lot (am less than 1K from honored with the Defilers, though I don't actually want the cloth girdle I can get then), and more importantly, play it with hardcore PvPers (we're talking top 10/20 in the rankings).

I learned about the Deserter thing the other night, re: that only leaders can't have the debuff, and thought it was kind of lame. As I say above, the only people that hurts, then, are the poor PUGs who basically then have to play any team they get faced off with, while the true problem, the set groups, can still cherry pick. (Though as I mentioned, I would personally rather not AFK.) I mean, that means that if the Alliance A-team is there, the Horde set group can AFK out (actually, usually we only send one in to scout, so there's only one deserter). At that point, the system puts in all the PUG players, and none of them can AFK out unless they want the debuff. It's a really poor system.

My realistic goal is rank 8, Legionnaire. It's 'only' two ranks away, so very possibly achievable in the near term. I'd love to get to rank 10, as that's the last realistic rank to aim for where I care at all about the rewards (have my epic warhorse, so don't need rank 11 :D).

LOL I didn't even know that being exalted with a faction gives a discount! I've never even gotten revered anywhere. <g>

I have a new alt on Llane and actually have gotten to lvl 20. I didn't want to tell you about yet another new alt until I'd gotten anywhere, since my MO seems to be to start alts and let them languish in their teens. :p Not sure how much I will be playing it now, though, so I think I will wait until when/if I reach lvl 40 w/ that char to reveal myself. :))

Heh. We don't have enough people in /abteam to field 15, usually. What happens is that when people log in, they ask in /abteam if there is a group going. If not, then they try to get enough people/interest to start one. Once we have a raid group, we try to fill it with more from /abteam, but most of the time we get PUG players. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not, and sometimes they stay in the raid after the game to requeue. We ask in /abteam if there's anyone else in, and then we requeue when we're all ready.

We have a teamspeak server, which helps, too.

Someone told me exalted gets me discounts...someone I trust, so I am hoping it's true. I have no desire to get Ruana a wolf, so there's no point in getting Org faction. And I don't think Tauren can ride raptors or horses, so nothing left but for me to donate herbs and skins to the war effort for TB faction!

Though my next batch will go to Saffron. She needs more UC faction to get honored.

Hey there,

I'm a D/G author (kinda semi retired) and I go by the name Angel-Hiragizawa32. I was just wondering if I can get you to beta this fic that I am working on. I don't actually have much D/G-er contacts and I thought since you're one of the incredibly great D/G authors out there, it would be a no brainer to ask you for help.

Would you be able to help? If you are, please email me back at rachiedarling32@gmail.com

Thank you soo much.

Hi there! Unfortunately I can't beta read your story at the moment. :( I am really honored you asked, but there are various reasons why I'm not able to do so (if you're interested, I go into detail on my FAQ page (http://www.livejournal.com/users/sarea_okelani/144760.html)). There are many other options available to you, however -- I go into it a bit in the FAQ and I think the FIA site might also be able to help. I hope you at least find that information useful.

Thank you for thinking of me!

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