Friday, January 31, 2014

for the record - Battle Pet Team Calculator on Wowhead.com

It occurs to me that someone that isn't logged in to wowhead may not see what I see with the Battle Pet Team Calculator.

The next Battle Pet Trainer I am to take on is Eric Davidson.  Here's a screenshot of his battle pet team compared to my best team so far.  You'll see why I have to level up some of my pets, specially the flying ones.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

Lunar Festival Highlights


The Lunar Festival in the World of Warcraft coincides with our Chinese New Year. Every year the druids of Moonglade hold a celebration of their city's great triumph over an ancient evil. During the Lunar Festival, citizens of Azeroth have the opportunity to honor their elders by celebrating their sage wisdom, sharing in magnificent feasts, and of course...shooting fireworks!  Elder Ghosts are found throughout the world of Azeroth and each time players finds a new Elder, they receive a token that can be redeemed for special holiday-related items.  I wanted to earn the Purple Festival Dress [cost: 5 Coins of Ancestry] and the Lantern companion [cost: 50 Coins of Ancestry].

Imagine my shock and chagrin when I realized that it meant traveling and exploring all the continents of the in-game world, including some places in Horde territory.  Fortunately for me, Vier had only done a bit of the festival a long time ago and she was game to take me to meet all of the Elders.  Even with Vier's savvy and expertise, I got killed a couple of times and she even got surprised and killed once.  The Festival it seems, is not for the faint of heart.  We started off in Moonglade.  Drank some Moonglow and fired off a few rocket clusters.


In hindsight, again a World Event that offers little opportunity to participate for low level characters.  There is no way I could have traveled to all the elders on foot.  Highly unlikely that I would have survived any attempt at speaking with an Elder in Horde territory.  I love to explore the world and word on the internets is that Blizzard is keen for me to do so.  Why then make it impossible for low levels to participate?  Very Frustrating.

Now that I've had my little rant, some screenshots of our adventures.

Off we went with Vier as her Obsidian Nightwing and me riding on her back. We over flew and discovered a lot of new territory for my character.  Here we are overflying Sar'theris Stand.  No, I didn't get screenshots of every place we were, just a few in fact!



Approaching the Twin Colossals, Vier had to go AFK for a bit.



She tucked me into a safe corner to wait for her return.  I was practicing summoning pets.  With my newly learned skill of "left-click and drag" to move the camera around, I took a gazillion screenshots.   Here's one with Tamm out.



It's quite the trick to get everyone lined up and facing the same way, with none of the on-screen labels obscuring anything.  No way could I get it all done and have Orangey Cu facing the camera!



Here we are leaving the Twin Colossals, over-flying the nasty red beasts



By the time we were overflying Tanaris, I had leveled up to 28!



We had to kill a Sandstone Golem to get to the elder at the Valley of the Watchers.



We followed some mysterious tracks in the desert at the Southmoon Ruins



I leveled up again to 29 by the time we were overflying the Blasted Lands



Discovered Ironforge_Airfield,



and New Tinkertown where we encountered some bad guys.  This is where we both died, me a couple of times and were it took some strategy and low flying and hovering to grab the Elder!



By the time we left and were overflying Dun Morogh, I had leveled up to 30 and my gear and equipment were in bad shape.  This is the first time I saw that red guy over on the right of the screenshot.



Overflying the Howling Fjord, Vier spotted something she had never seen before.  Lucky for me, she was eager to investigate. ... It was High  --  Lair  --  Eee  --  Us! ... ...  A Turtle Boat!

Here we are on the upper deck of the turtle boat, riding Vier's rocket



 A boat structure built on the shell of a turtle, propelled by dangling some carrots in front of the turtle's nose.  Literally!



Check out Vier's Rhino pet "Taxi"!



 We'll see if I can ever find it again once I get my flying mount at level 60, or get the super powers granted to a level 90 character.  At the end of the day, I wanted to go "home", so Vier took us to a point where I could grab a hippogryph ride back to Azuremyst Isles.



There you have it, some highlights of the Lunar Festival 2014.

Nor.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Catching up with screenshots. Booty Bay, Purple Elekk, Lashtail Hatchling and Mok'rash the Cleaver!

It's taking me some time to puzzle out some screenshots.  Even though when WoW saves them, they're nicely dated, my recollections are not necessarily in agreement with the computer.  Thus the time required to sort it all out is rather more lengthy than the average bear.

As Vier blogged about our adventures in Northern Stranglethorn here, we had quite the adventure.  I was left on my own for a bit and was sorting through my bags and re-arranging my action bars. [icons on the right side of the screen for our non-WoW readers, aka, Red Bear!]



I thought I was sitting in a chair while doing this, but as Vier pointed out with a screenshot, I was actually sitting on the railing! --rolls eyes--  As you can see in the chat window below, [bottom left, Red Bear] Vier was excited to see what I'd done with my action bars, so here it is.



She also mentioned in that post that I really liked the Lashtail Hatchling part of a quest-line and here's a shot of the cute little bugger.  Too bad I'm only allowed to summon her while in Northern Stranglethorn geographical area.  I'll have to try and remember to check if she shows up in my Pet log and if I can name her or not.



Speaking of the pet log, here is a shot of me riding my new Purple Elekk.  I still haven't thought of a good name for her!



According to the dates on the screenshots, that was also the day I first saw Booty Bay.  This is the best way to travel in-game!  [Red Bear, that's Vier as her Obsidian Nightwing and me riding on her back]




And Battled Mok'rash the Cleaver.  While we were trying to position ourselves to grab screenshots of our mighty victory, he re-spawned and we had to kill him again!  He was re-spawning so fast we just said to heck with getting the perfect screenshot and got the heck outta there!



As Vier mentioned, I finished the day at level 27 with some new gear and weapons.  This is the first time I've had those pokey-shoulder-thingys!  [for the life of me I can't remember what they're called] With a nice shiny double-headed ax.  YaY!



Off to have some supper and then I'll sort and post the screenshots I took at the Lunar Festival.

Nor.





Saturday, January 25, 2014

Moonglow

Noritam wanted a screenshot of us with the Moonglow buff so here it is!

Noritam's views on Northern Stranglethorn and the Lunar Festival

So we decided that since Noritam hasn't been in the mood to make a blog post about her experiences with questing in Northern Stranglethorn or the Lunar Festival, we would have a conversation about it over the phone and I would type things up. So, here is a post on Noritam's thoughts about what she's achieved over the last few days.

"It's super fun when you're with me because I get experience and I get to kill things but I feel safe and I don't worry so much"

On the Kurzen compound questline:
"It actually made me feel good when you got lost"
"I really had fun that day"
You really liked that Hatchling questline didn't you "Yes I did! Adorable!"

Noritam has some questions about pally healing gear that she's written down to ask Dan.

"Something that was liberating on the 22nd of January was learning that I can talk and move and move my camera at the same time"
"I also learned that you can shift-click something in your bag to break apart a stack, that was good to learn"

Thoughts on the Lunar Festival:
"Now that I have the lantern and the dress I would probably never attend it again"
"I'm a little bit miffed because I've been involved in two world events now and I'm miffed that there isn't a part for low-level toons to participate on their own"
"I find it contradictory from Blizzard because they want you to explore the game but you can't participate unless you're high-level"
"I love it when you and I fly around like that - that's one of my favourite things to do"
She also likes it when I screw up and get her killed by guards. Not sure why exactly, haha.
"The firecrackers don't do anything for me. It's so noisy and it's too much"

"What is the best way to approach strangers in the game in a friendly, casual manner?"

"The world is so frickin' huge!"
"What level do you have to be to get over to Pandaria?" 85 "I hope to get over there before the next expansion drops"

What did you think of Northrend?
"Somebody should have done their homework because you don't get penguins and polar bears together at the same place."
"Riding that turtle boat was fun, and recognizing that it was carrots on the stick that got him going was even more fun"
Was there anything else about Northrend that stuck out in your mind?  Nope

"I'm still on a quest to find a nice, safe area to fish that I can get to easily"

Now you're level 31! How does it feel? 
"On one hand it's like OMG YAY I'm level 31! But on the other hand it's "oh no I'm only level 31 and I have to get to 90!"

"There are a lot of contradictory things to do in this game"

Do you have any plans for what you're going to do in your next WoW session?
"I really want to get the next level in my fishing. I also want to continue with the questing, but I want to do that with you. Then, by myself, I want to go back to my starting area and get to work leveling up my battle pets."

Friday, January 24, 2014

Battle Pet Team Calculator - World of Warcraft

Wow.  I'm glad I found this handy tool before I ventured on to tackle my next Battle Pet Trainer!  I'll have to take some time and level up more of my flying pets before I engage with all of these spiders!  Score one for meta-gaming!  Forewarned is Forearmed!

Don't know how I got here from El's Angling but sure am glad I did.

At the end of my adventures with Vier at the Lunar Festival we got chatting with Dan and he suggested El's site.  Have been reading it all evening.  What a great fishing guide.  Yes.  I like WoW Fishing!

As soon as I gain more in-game confidence I'll even be able to add a helpful comment.  Remember the night I was procrastinating Bloodmyst Isle Quests?  I swam all around Ammen Vale and discovered that Rainbow Fin Albacore and Oily Blackmouth can be caught there.  So, Slitherskin Mackerel are not the only fish @ Azuremyst Isles!  Thanks to El's guide, I also know where to find a recipe to cook the Mackerel now too!

WooT!  Another fun day in World of Warcraft. ... Nor.

Battle Pet Team Calculator - World of Warcraft:

'via Blog this'

Lunar Festival

Just a quick post from me today, you'll have to wait for Noritam to get a really in-depth account of what we did.

Anyway, today Noritam said she wanted to work on the Lunar Festival world event.  I hadn't done anything for that one since my first year in-game so I was pretty excited to go flying around!  We got killed a few times by hordies at some of the towns, and I managed to get myself camped once. We managed to gather a total of 34 coins this year, though, so that's good enough for me!  Next year we'll be able to get our companions.  Noritam bought herself a purple dress, which she was very excited about. She also enjoyed getting to see the sights as we traveled all over Azeroth.

All this exploring and coin-collecting granted Noritam 3 levels, so she's now at level 30! Hooray! I'm so proud -wipes away tear-.

This event has made the advantages to having a flying mount very clear to Noritam, so she's very motivated to level up to 60 so she can get her own. "If I had to do this on my own, I'd spend the whole six days just trying to get to each of them!"

We also discussed races for Noritam's potential alts. She likes Dun Morogh, so we're comparing and contrasting gnomes and dwarves. What do you think? Which is more fun to play?  Leave us a comment!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Northern Stranglethorn

 We sure got a lot done today!  Did some questing in Northern Stranglethorn.  Noritam was a beast!

 We fought panthers.

We turned in quests.

Then Noritam was naughty, sitting on the railing in the Inn. Tsk tsk!

And Noritam hit level 27!  We went through the Kurzen compound quests and the Raptor section of Nesingwary's quests. Also did some bits with trolls and that island full of Water Elementals.  Noritam got some new pieces of gear and some new spells. We got well and truly lost inside the Kurzen Stockpile cave, only escaping when I remembered my labyrinth rules and hugged the wall. We made great use of the world markers again, and managed to get a lot done! Noritam only died 2 or 3 times (we really have to do something about her running off!) and that was easily resolved. Noritam really enjoyed the raptor hatchling questline. 

We played for three and a half hours and Noritam gained 3 levels in that time, so good job us!

Which is/was your favourite zone to quest in? Leave us a comment!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Well that was an adventure!

Hey folks, Vier here. It's been a while, hasn't it?  Mom's been doing such a good job of keeping up with the blog on her own, and she usually doesn't let me play with her anymore anyway (she's got an independent streak!), so there isn't a whole lot for me to do around here.

But, I did say that I would post something about our adventures last night, so here goes.

We ran around and did some questing in Redridge. Did that questline where you have to rescue the handful of guys from the gnolls or whatever up in that cave, then did the ones where you have to set the bombs in the tower and the ammunition hut. Did a lot of gnoll-slaying, killed some muckdwellers, killed Ol'Gummers (or whatever his name is) a few times. I think Mom only died once or twice when she ran off and got herself lost and then attacked and I couldn't find her in time.

Played with mounts a bit, went and got her to pick up her Elekk finally. She was a lot more excited about that than I'd predicted.

We used the World Markers to great effect to help with the whole getting-lost problem.  We also discovered that Mom's life is a lot easier if she zooms in her minimap.  I personally can't play like that, but it seems to help her out a lot so that was a good discovery.

 When we arrived back in Stormwind Harbour after picking up her Elekk, I told her we should go check the Hero's Call Board to find out where she should go quest next, since the zone she was in was too low-level for her (she was level 24 and questing in a 17/18 zone - tsk, tsk!).  She wanted to try to find it herself, so I told her I would meet her there.  I flew over to it and waited, opening up the map to watch her progress.  She made it halfway there very well, but then she got stuck by the curve at Cathedral Square. She ended up going backwards to the destroyed section of the city and then back towards the Harbour so I told her to stop and asked her if she wanted some help.  I went and threw some world markers up to help her out and she got herself to the Call Board.

She was fading fast at this point so I decided to fly her to the Rebel Camp in Stranglethorn on my Obsidian Nightwing to save her some time, so she could pick up the flight path there and then log for the night. That went well, then we flew back to Goldshire so she could set her hearthstone, repair, smelt, and empty her bags.  She was also introduced to the duelers in Goldshire and their potty mouths. She learned pretty quickly to keep her head down and not interact with them. Then, once she was all set there, she sent me on my way so she could do her thing at her own pace. This worked out well for me because Sarge had just asked for help in guild chat with the Nalak portion of the Legendary questline, so I went to go help him out with that.  After a few tries we managed to get it done, and Sarge got his Meta gem that night (WOOHOO GRATS SARGE!!!)

After that, it was bedtime for me.  Lum almost roped me into doing a reg Immerseus run really quickly before I left but he managed to find someone else in time so I was off the hook. Whew!

Anyway, all in all it was a productive evening for everyone involved and an exercise in patience for me. It sure is rewarding to see Mom progressing so well, though! I'm still impressed every day that she's stuck with it for so long and that she's learned so much.  Her movement in-game has improved a LOT. I don't know if she can tell, but she's walking and turning much more smoothly and I think she'll be moving like a natural before long. Last night we discussed how you can usually tell the best way to get between quest points by looking at the terrain and the topography on the minimap so you don't run into rocks or other geological obstacles.

Leave a comment if you have any tips for getting around in-game!

Vent and a Mount!

It's been 10 days since I posted.  Haven't been online in the past few days but did a shitload of stuff tonight.

Vier said she'd cobble a post together for a retelling of the details, it's all a blur to me now.  I thought I took some screenshots but I guess I just thought about taking screenshots!

Here's the only one from tonight, Vier and I in the Redridge Hills or some such nonsense place.



Tonight was my first time on vent in-game with my shiny new headset complete with mic.  It was awkward at first, having a key-bound PTT set me off my game.  Even at work [in my other life, before I retired] when technology advanced to hand-held PTT's with our headsets I was the old fuddy-duddy hold-out with my foot-pedal PTT.  It only made sense to me, using the foot for PTT leaves two hands free to work, or in this case, to mouse and use my weapons!

I heard my foot thump down hard on the floor a few times tonight as I automatically went for the PTT on the ground LOL.

We were all up and down those hills, in and out of valleys and caves, slaughtering gnolls, the odd murloc, some big fishes under water.  Vier tackled "Ol' Gummer".  Wow, talk about BIG!

We rode, we flew, we took boats, we took hippogryphs.  Well, I did, Vier followed along on her own flying mount.

Vier and I had just agreed that we didn't care for adventuring in these red hills when Kat came on our vent channel, scared the shit out of me when she started talking in my ear outta the blue!, and said

 "Oh, I remember this place,  it's fun questing in here!".

Vier and I looked at each other and didn't say anything.

In my headset, Vier was about a level 5 volume and Kat was level 25 and there were scary monsters attacking!  Ahhhhh!

Kat, being the experienced and good-doobie wower, stayed quiet while Vier and I went about our business.  When all the hullabaloo was over Kat started talking to us again.  Of course, I had forgotten all about her and almost jumped out of my headset again!

Vier started to explain about Alt-Tabbing out, going into vent, selecting Kat's name ... blah blah blah ... my eye's glazed over and my brain totally shut down.  Way more than I can handle at this stage of the game!

Vier had fronted me some gold so it was time for me to get my own mount!  woo hooo sooo excited!.  We had to fly-hop to Stormwind, take a few boat rides to get back to Azuremyst Isle [--sigh-- home sweet home] and find the Elekk Trainer outside the Exodar.

YaY!  I got a Purple Elekk [or is it pink?  I can't remember anymore -- she's pretty whatever colour she officially is] [What's a good name for a pink Elekk?] and we took the boats back to Stormwind.

Vier tried to wait for me to find my way to the hero's call board so I could figure out where I am supposed to be next [I was still hearthed in Lake-something].  She finally couldn't stand it anymore after I was one corner away from finding my way but, went the wrong way and got lost in the tunnels again, and again, and again!

Got to the call board, went to the Rebel Camp up in somewhere?, but no inn to hearth at.  Vier took me back to Goldshire.  Or, ... ... maybe I talked to the hippogryph master at the rebel camp and flew back there on my own?  Can't remember.

Anyway, back at Goldshire.  Found the inn, the innkeeper, set my hearthstone.

Sarge was looking for some help so Vier went to help him while I sorted my bags, organized my loot, repaired my weapons and gear, smelted my ore, fashioned some copper crap to sell.

I had a lot of weapon and gear loot in my bags from tonight. Over the holidays Vier also gave me some big higher-number-slot bags so I don't keep on running out of space to put loot.  I took a LOT of time comparing the stats on the loot gear to my toon gear.  I had a few really good scores in there, a new axe [love my axes], new gauntlets and I think a new something else, can't remember.

Gawd, that's my wow-refrain!  Can't remember!  Can't remember!  Can't remember!  It is hard to learn new things when you're cognitively impaired.

Wandered about in the forest for a bit doing some pet battles.  Blue gifted me with another new battle pet.  A Dragonkin!  I felt guilty but she said they were extras or doubles of what she already had so that made me feel better.

I think I'm only missing an Elemental, a Magic, a Humanoid and a Mechanical pet.  I have at least one of all the other types, some gazillions of repeats but I don't know, should I release them or hang on to them?

I have a rare skunk, a rare moth, and a rare something else and a few sentimental favourites.

 I have around 10 that are level 5 and up.  I keep rotating them in and out trying to level them all up at the same time.  I don't know if that's good strategy or not?

I think I should have at least one pet of each type at max level, and while it may be more work rotating them in and out and leveling them all up at the same time, it would feel even more tedious if I took three to max level and then had to back track.

[--thinking out loud--] I should make a new chart, only name and fave the rares of each species, level those ones up in rotation, and keep my eye out for the missing types.  Oh, it's aquatic, I have a rare frog I think.

I seem to vaguely recall last login battling the aquatics over and over again until I trapped me a good one to keep.  Those little guys are tough to trap, they die too quickly.  I even tried switching in pets who did poorly against the aquatics to try and get them down to trapping level without killing them.  Sadly, many frogs died in the attempts.

At one point tonight I ended up clicking on a pet battle to find out that it was a cat.  Got away from there right quick, I can't bring myself to kill cats for fun and excitement.

Don't like dark and moody places, avoid the spiders, get scared easily.  There's not really a lot in WoW that I'm good at.  So far it's fishing and pet battles I'm enjoying!

There's a bit of a rough crowd hangin' outside my inn in Goldshire.  Just put my head down and barreled through them to get inside the inn to empty my loot bags [there were a few mobs out and about in pet battle territory].

I was going to sit down and review all of my interfaces, menus and get organized when ... ...

Vier came back on Vent to say goodnight and as soon as she went away, all holy hell broke loose!

Goldshire is under attack!  

Elwynn Forest is under attack!

Ya, ya ... I know what that means. [--rolls eyes--]

I just happened to be behind the bar selling off loot and ore bars so I finished up, sat down and logged off!

I remember what happened the last time my home was under attack and I am way too tired to do the graveyard run a gazillion times.

So that's the end of that!  Get this post blogged and then I think it's time for supper.

G'nite WoWers.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Not a Happy New Year --- it's been a long week!

Screenshots:

Level 17 2014-Jan-01
Big Hammer, bracers but no gauntlets


Level 19 2014-Jan-02
Mail Gloves, Gauntlets, Exodar Tabard


Level 20 2014-Jan-03
New Axe, New Cloak, New Bags, Action Bars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's been a glum week here in My Mom Plays WoW world.  Vier, in what's becoming a terrible, terrible annual event, had the hunky paramedics come to her house and whisk her away to the hospital again.  Between that and the creepy-ness that is Bloodmyst Isle ... ugh.  Not a good way to start the New Year.

However, killing mobs can be a lovely stress-relief valve.  I have been plodding away, learning new things and making my way up to level 20. I'm wearing my pink tabard to represent for the Exodar and received a new cloak.

I've been playing with the action bars, key bindings and even tried my hand at a macro or two.  None of which I've perfected yet, but I am finding out what doesn't work.  If you look at the last screenshot posted, you'll see that Vier set-up some key bindings for me on my 2nd left action bar, complete with text labels.  I didn't add the labels for the 2nd right bar and in the heat of demon mob action, not knowing what key strokes to call up my crystals of ferocity and insight was a disadvantage.

So, I have more questions for you blog readers, what would you change on my action bars?  It's not an issue so much now but I can see that I need to keep my healing buttons and "weapon" buttons distinct.  Also, for you professions types.  Where do I get recipes from?  With all the fish I've been catching, clam meat, bear meat ... I need recipes to cook this stuff up with!

I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around some of my holy "weapons" that don't seem much like weapons to me!  I even had a tough time with my big hammer.

OK, yes, I know it is called a mace ... and it is the stats that matter.  The stats say the big hammer was faster and dealt more damage, added more stamina and strength, than my axe ... but the visual of hitting the mobs with a big hammer v.s. a nice shiny, sharp axe ... was tough to adjust to.  In the end it doesn't matter, I have a new shiny sharp axe to wield, and well as some up-graded gear.

Bloodmyst Isle.  That place is dark and depressing with scary Holy Shit! monsters around every red pile of rock!

I gave myself a treat at the beginning or end of each login session and would hippogryph my way back to Azuremyst for a fishing expedition to either de-tox from, or build up my courage for, the next questing session.  I did some more procrastinating by encircling all three islands by land and by sea when I had to.  I loved to do long distance swimming IRL but I did wonder how far I could swim my toon without having her drown.  I discovered an abandoned camp site on the back side of Ammen Vale, and a long twisty path filled with Air Elementals to a cave high atop a hill with a lonely draenei inside who enquired "What are you doing up here little paladin?".

I took some screenshots of the backside of Bloodmyst Isle to share with a non-wow playing friend who likes the colour red.  I even spent a few hours exploring the Exodar and pet battling all the mice that are in there!

My four main pets, Tamm the Blue Moth, Orangey C the tabby, Obee the little dinosaur hatchling and Poo, my rare skunk and I were getting kinda cocky.

Hmm, what's this " find battle " button on the pet interface?  These meeses are getting a bit boring.  OK, well, we're in the queue for a battle. ... ... Whoosh, ... we were whisked off to who know where, ended up in a lush green meadow facing a hulking big dude with three very big pets. ... oh guys, ... I think Mom got us into something here!  We gave it a valiant effort but after Orangey C died and Obee was down to 5 health, I waved the white flag and we were whisked back to the Exodar.  I don't think we're ready to play with the big kids yet.

On my way out to the Hippogryph Master, there was a "Call for Heros" on the main bulletin board.  The Horde is being nasty in Ashenvale and the Alliance needs my help!  After the Christmas Eve Orc attack and the shellacking my pets just took, no, I don't think the Alliance will gain much from signing up!  I'll end up in some graveyard on a distant continent with no way to get home and Vier still in the hospital and unable to help.

When they let Vier out of the hospital, she came out to the farm to recuperate and it is nice having her here to answer questions and help with some tweaking of the interface, but I need her healthy and at her house, on vent, and in-game, to help me get the heck out of Bloodmyst!

I did spend so much time dicking around there that some of my quests went gray and she told me to abandon them as they were no good to me anymore experience wise.

Then there were those quests that I just could not summon up the enthusiasm for.  I tried tagging the murlocs on the southwest coast but no combination of targeting, selecting, right-clicking, left-clicking could make that tagger work and it came down to kill or be killed so killed, ... I killed ... and abandoned the quest.

I picked it up again the next login and still couldn't make the tagger work so, you know what, science will be thwarted, the murlocs had to die and that is the end of that!

Twice I went searching for Galaen, twice I spent time running from the graveyard to the Cryo-Core wreckage battling those dam Sunhawk Spies.  Twice I found Galaen's body, twice I read and re-read and re-read his journal but no way, no how ... could I find his pendant.  I failed his wife.  :(

I found Cpt. Edward Hanes on the northeast coast.  Went over to Wyrmscar Island, battled the worm monsters all the way up the hill, ... got the something or other, ... killed the big worm monster dude, ...  fought the worm monsters all the way down the hill, ... delivered the goods to the Captain. ... And forgot to pick the mushrooms Y'sera's Tears while I was up there.  ARGH!

no.   way.   am.   I.   going.   back.   up.   there.    

Swam around "helping" the good captain's cursed pals.  Found Clopper Wizbang in his turtle-shell, helped him with his murloc trouble.

Fetched the Elder Bear Bits and Thorny Constrictor vines for Tracker Lyceon.  Found the Deathclaw Bear and brought back his bloody paw. [can I say ... ew!]   Fetched the Nazziuus Monument glyph.

Farmed very many crystal shards for Vindicator Boros and made good use of his Crystals of Ferocity and Intellect.  Culled the Blue Flutterers, ran some errands for Scout Joril and Vindicator's Rest but failed in escorting Demolitionist Legoso to blow up the Vector Coil.  Many more graveyard treks due to the blood elf/sunhawk dudes.  There are SO  many of them!

Oh, and I took a spell, donned a blood elf disguise, interrogated the prisoner.  But, there was no one on Bloodmyst to help me further my professions.  I did a bit of mining but every time I got interrupted by yet another mob.  Every group of them, it seems, had three or more versions  Agent/Saboteur/Spy, spiny/screaming/infected, and it never failed, I killed the wrong version who wouldn't cough up what I needed!  Brown bear, Elder bear and black bear.  Infected bear, demented bear and gawd-knows-how-many other bears.

Two critters I despise most in real life.  Bears and Spiders.  I kept looking at the Amberweb Pass quest to get the Myst Leechers, Myst Spinners and Zarakh leader and the Mutated Tanglers.   I really,  really,  really  don't wanna tackle the spiders!

Then, in real life, I had a couple of sick days and I just got sick and tired of Bloodmyst Isle.  There was no where and no one to further my professions with, I had to go back to the Exodar for that. So,  in a fit of pique,  I abandoned all the quests, and took off to Darnassus.

Yesterday, as I was recovering, Vier came in to install Vent and a microphone.  She also mentioned that it is hard to steer with my mouse/computer!  Yay!  It's not just me!  "You have two things to do in Stormwind here", she mentions.  "Ya, but I couldn't find Stormwind, so I went to Darnassus instead!".  Apparently now I am parked at the loading dock for the boat to Stormwind and Vent is all up and running for me, the next time I log in.

While she was testing the program, someone asked if I was still blogging.  I admitted I hadn't done any while she was ill but that I'd get right to it!  So here it is typed, but I think I hear my bed calling me, maybe Vier will proof-read and post it later.  Or maybe I'll feel better and post it myself!

I have to go and do some reading and researching, what was that called? ... ... ah yes, ... meta-gaming!  To figure out how to get back into the quest string again seeing as how I cheated, abandoned and the quests and never got one to send me on to the next place.  I don't even know where the next place is that I'm really supposed to go to.

Apparently there are also other things I should be doing, getting a mount [low on gold due equipment up-grades], raids, dungeons, battle-grounds ... I dunno, after Christmas Eve Orc Attack and our dismal Pet Battle experience ... I don't think I'm ready for anything else yet!  Besides, I have recipes to find, ore to mine and smelt, bandages to make [ya, I even procrastinated so far as to go back and take up first aid even though apparently I don't need it with my awesome healing abilities] and now that I'm level 20 I can start Archeology!

Much more fun working on professions than going into scary fighting scenarios.  Vier says there are people who have leveled toons to 90 without fighting anyone or anything ... but I dunno, seems one can't stay away from violence in this game.  It is called war craft ... duh!  One of the reasons I avoided gaming these past fifty plus years, I don't need the violence in my life!