What a pleasant surprise!

I woke up this morning and checked my e-mail. Do you know what I saw?

And I went, "Whaaaaat?" I thought to myself, "Surely that's one of those scam e-mails that Blizzard warns its subscribers about". So I explored the e-mail, reading it carefully and hovering over links, looking for strange words.

Nothing strange so far!

 I finally just opened a separate window and logged into my battle.net account. I figured that if it was real, I'd have information about it in my account!

Awww, yeaaaaaah. Totally legit e-mail! I can't even believe it! I signed up to receive a beta invite believing there was no way in hell I'd actually get one. Now I'm the envy of all*

(by "all" I mean my cousin and my friend)

I'm about to install it and get crackin'! I'm a little confused/concerned though: I made a trial account and then James invited me through the Invite A Friend thing so I had to make a new account. Expired trial account that I never play is WOW(1). Account that I play that has Burning Crusade is WOW(2). The Cataclysm beta is linked to my WOW(1) account that I never use. I'm.... um, worried that this will affect my ability to play. In which case, I will probably freaking cry.

-MJ

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Hopefully this will get it out of my system.

PAX PRIME!

Wednesday, July 14 2010 - 11:42 AM
by: Gabe

I had a dream the other night that we decided to hold PAX in a huge field this year. It seemed like a good idea for some reason but when we got there it was raining and everyone was all wet. Then I looked down and I had no pants. These sorts of dreams tell me that PAX is coming up pretty quick.

You should know that it looks like we will sell out of our 3 day badges sometime between Thursday and Sunday of this week. If you want to grab a couple of these you should head over and do it now.

If you want to attend PAX but would rather work like a dog all three days then you should consider being an enforcer. You can follow this link for the application to join the volunteer army that keeps PAX running so smoothly.

It’s worth mentioning that PAX is not being held in a field this year. It will be at the Washington State convention center and that place has a very nice roof. Also I will be wearing pants.

-Gabe out

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I copied and pasted that from the Penny Arcade news post from yesterday. It made me laugh, but it also gave me a fresh surge of, "AHH I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO MISS PAX!!" feelings.

I know I'm in Ireland, I am having an amazing time and I don't regret being here at all! AND I am incredibly sad that I'll be missing PAX for the first time ever. I want to get these feelings OUT so I'll stop thinking about it and having people go, "WTF you're in Ireland". 

It's a different kind of fun, and also important in different ways.

I am a gamer and I am a photographer. I am two halves of one great love! If it's not one, then it has to be the other.

I've hardly played any games since I arrived, too busy taking pictures! I played some Picross 3D last night, and a few nights ago I was on WoW with James and Kelly. We had excellent good times. Everyday on the bus I pass a "Social Gaming" place near the city center in Galway. I'd like to go in there and see what's happening. I'd like to make some friends here and video games are a great common thread!

Tomorrow I'll be shopping, so I should make sure to pop in there.

-MJ

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A day of firsts.

When I started this blog I really didn't think it would be so heavily shaped by World of Warcraft. Before I started playing I didn't understand the death grip that it had on happy players. They were always talking about it, always! There was never a shortage of WoW topics, and it could happen at any moment. Penny Arcade had a stint where both Gabe and Tycho were really into WoW and the comics and news posts were frequently WoW centric. They always apologized for it too, insisting that they tried very hard to stay away from it as a comic source. It had them though, sure and fast.

I get it now, even though I can't even begin to explain it. James and I played for four hours tonight. Nystina is now level 28. She's not moving along very quickly in inscription, which makes me sad. I may get on tomorrow and just wander around looking for herbs and try to grind a bit. So far I've avoided logging on without James, our x3 EXP is too awesome to pass up. Herb gathering would be OK though.

So, like the title suggests, a lot of new things happened today. First of all?

My first dungeon experience! Turn out we were totally in the wrong place, seeing as the boss for this area is level 82 or something. We didn't know for a little while though.

My first dungeon death! It wasn't even a good death. I accidentally feel three stories and then got mobbed by some slimes. Pathetic.

My first total and complete WoW jerk! It was an astounding experience. I couldn't believe how rude and arrogant this guy was.

My first PvP experience! We set fire to some Alliance fire thingies for the festival and it activated PvP, which I didn't realize it would do, and I was then slaughtered by guards!

First trans-species experience! I really enjoyed being a crab for a little while.

I'm Exalted somewhere! I love the achievements.

What follows are some other firsts, sort of, but they're from a different day.

I had no idea that I would be able to change my hair cut and color later in the game. Very exciting! I went from having luscious black hair to having a classy red ponytail. I later switched back to black but kept the ponytail.

Look at these hideous red pants. It's like I'm wearing FLAMES! They're good though. I finally, truly understand this comic: great items, horrid fashion.

James and I are working on some pretty far reaching quests, especially for all of this sun festival stuff. We took a zeppelin down to... somewhere, I forget where. I got lost on my way back to the tower and the zeppelin was pulling away right as I ascended. Here I am, staring sadly as my companion flies away against either of our powers. It was really damn funny.

Here's to more quests, achievements, dungeons and levels!

-MJ

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It finally happened!

The stars have finally aligned because Dungeons and Dragons is back in my life! I have wanted to play for over four years, ever since my original campaign was dissolved. My friends have never been interested in playing and even if they were I don't know how to DM. My friend Andrew is in town from California and he plays DnD, he knows that I'd like to get a campaign going. Too bad he lives in LA or else the two of us would be able to get something going. He suggested that while he's here we play as many times as we can, and I am all for that.

On Thursday night we started up a game with his brother and some of his brother's friends. It was fantastic fun! I played my human barbarian, a character that I rolled four years ago after my original character, an elf rouge, was murdered by a giant. I don't play a rouge well at all but I think I'm doing alright with my barbarian so far. We played for a good four and a half hours and I am anxious to play again!

Last night Andrew and I, with our powers combined, convinced Jake to join us for DnD adventures! We didn't play but we did make characters. I rolled one for our friend James just in case he can pop in and play with us. We spent a good two hours just making some characters and I had a pretty good time. Jake has never made it past the character making phase so I'm really excited to actually get to the campaign.

On Thursday night I found myself in a party of adventurers setting toward the forest. A blight had settled onto the forest via the magical water source, causing all flora to wither and all fauna to become deranged and violent.

We trekked toward the center of the forest, aiming for the main tree of life and the magical water's source. As we moved along we encountered an Owlbear, a black bear, a Tree Ent, and an unnamed evil vine being. Our evening wrapped up as we finally approached the main tree and we laid eyes upon the source: goblins!

Dun dun dunnnnn.

Most likely this campaign will not be continued, which is sad, but I'm hopeful that a new one will begin this very evening!

I have more that I want to say but my mind is incredibly scattered right now.

-MJ

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The best medicine.

I feel it would behoove me to not make so many posts in such rapid succession, but I have a lot on my mind. I'm a big fan of talking but I'm not always looking for a conversation. It's a little selfish of me and that's why I'm so happy that I have this blog.

This moment's particular interest is Penny Arcade. Really it's a frequent interest, but right now it's something specific.

Today's 4th Panel PATV episode is full of unstoppable hilarity.

I wish that their 4th Panel episodes were a half an hour in length. Ten minutes is insufficient PA "fill" on Fridays. I enjoy watching the antics at the office and the back-and-forth between Mike and Jerry. Even though I've seen them create comic strips before, both in person at PAX and via PATV, it hasn't ceased entertaining me. The process they go through is very interesting. Especially since I already know what comic they're writing. To hear them say something that I know will be in the comic is just... it's seeing the moment when they've discovered their comic gold.

Now I don't know if it's just for when they're being recorded or if they're always this way, but those two are constantly laughing. One of them is always cracking up at some point and saying things that really get me going as well. I can't not feel good when I'm watching an episode.

-MJ

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It's Burning.

But in a Crusade sort of way.

I was able to install the expansion this evening after a ridiculously long amount of waiting and an absolutely absurd amount of patch updates. I think it went through nine or ten. TEN! I was growing steadily impatient.

My friend and I are finally taking advantage of our linked accounts. Ever since I've started playing he has been... *ahem* absent. I guess he's been busy with "work" or something, but at this point I'm tired of his excuses! He followed through on his promise to play with me tonight if I bought BC. This is one reason the install was stressing me out! He has important crap to take care of tomorrow and he could only be on for an hour.

I suppose I underestimated just how beneficial having linked accounts is. In the span of barely an hour we reached level nine. Nine! It felt good.

I love being a Blood Elf, by the way. They are so awesome and truly do live in a breathtaking magical city.  James and I were on TeamSpeak (love it) and when we ran off toward our first quest I completely spaced on how to attack! Apparently I'm already quite accustomed to my Mage and her magic, so I just stared at the icons trying to figure out which one attacked. I'm happy to report that I did eventually figure it out and I am Arcaning and Bowing mobs like a real pro/newbie Hunter.

This is just to talk about how much I'm enjoying BC so far and how awesome WoW is when playing with a friend on TeamSpeak! Here are some screen shots.

There's my new character Nystina. I'm bad coming up with names.

What a hottie though, m I rite?

James and me teaming up at last!

An impressive building.

My Hunter, tired after a day of hunting, sitting and relaxing at the Inn.

I hope you enjoyed.

-MJ

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Some new things.

I decided that for my trip to Ireland I would need a durable, large capacity, small in physical size travel hard drive. I will be taking a lot of pictures everyday and those need to be stored safely and securely. It would be horrendous if I lost the files because of an external drive that weren't fit for travel. I just purchased a 1TB WesternDigital My Passport SE for Mac. It'll double as additional backup for my regular external hard drive just in case that one breaks. Hard drives make me nervous.

This thing is super tiny and only needs a USB cable. I'll be able to put all sorts of stuff on it! I should construct a padded case for it just in case. I wonder if it'll be OK going through the x-ray machines at the airport? Laptops go through and they're always OK. Hmm. I should look into it. I don't want to put my external drive with my checked bag just in case the airline loses it. That'd be awful.

There's my new hard drive, working hard. You can see the excellent software that comes with it, as well as my secondary monitor!

In other exciting news, I bought the Burning Crusade expansion pack today. I received a text from my friend that said I should get it and we'll make Blood Elves and play through the game together so we can get our temporary bonus exp for having linked accounts. I'm pretty excited about this.

Looking forward to making my Blood Elf Hunter! I'm not really diggin' on my Mage. I don't think I have what it takes to play her. I can't handle being that squishy. Leather armor here I come!

-MJ

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