What I’m up to

So blogging has fallen a bit by the wayside. I went to London/Reading to visit family and haven’t really got back into a schedule yet.

Add to that a bit of a turn from LotRO – I’ve been there, done that. I have 750 Dol Guldur medallions now and no weapon or emblem decent enough to spend any of them on. I can run through Sammath Gul without standing on a bone pile with my eyes closed. Volume 3, Book 1, was a small distraction – but didn’t do what I wanted it to. We’re raiding Barad Guldur, and making good progress, but raiding has diminished for me somewhat, and I think in the future I won’t be quite so gung ho to go twice a week. Ah yes, the casual vibe has started to catch me…

…I still log onto LotRO almost daily and do some of the daily quests to level up yet another emblem. They’re all rubbish. I feel, as I do it, as if I’m wasting my life. I really hate the LI lottery these days. And then I realise I’m raiding with what I consider rubbish and no-one cares, so why should I struggle to upgrade? Why pursue the Symbol for crafted 2nd Age items, when it may just be a wasted piece of crafting that someone else craves a lot more than I do?

Is it the end for me? I don’t think so. There’s plenty of people who aren’t so jaded as me, and perhaps I should spend some time helping them get to do what they want. It’s no surprise to people I’ve been logging on a lot less these days – that’s just a reflection that it’s just not as fun as it once was, though it might well be in a month or so. Lifetime sub…

But I also started a new job this week. Well, it’s the same job, but more hours, different library. So I’m out the house more. And my husband is super-stressed in the final term of his PGCE (teacher training course). He’s now teaching fulltime and doing coursework, and having to apply for jobs for September. So, we barely see one another. It’s 10 weeks of hell, because we’re not really used to these levels of organisation or stress.

And then, I turned 40. Which was cooler than expected. I got some lovely presents and went for a charming meal with co-workers, which got me out of the funk I had on the actual day (was my first day of work 9am-7pm, and I was knackered when I got home!). Someone even gave me a Starfleet Command button for my uniform ;p

And, as Spinks points out, I’ve returned to dabbling in WoW pre-Cataclysm. The idea is really just to putter about for a couple of mornings a week, play with the dungeon finder, and gather some money and resources for Cataclysm. I have no expectations for WoW. It’s just this MMO I spent time in a while ago. Having no expectations helps. I don’t care how fast or slow I level, I don’t really care what my gear is, and I’m not too bothered about raiding (see my previous point re: LotRO). So it’s quite chilled out and a change of scenery. Plus we have a little guild and they’re all very accommodating with my lame questions! Good stuff.

And I have a cold. Which is what’s contributed to this week’s slump. When it’s gone I expect to feel a good deal better about everything.

But, if, as they say, life begins at 40 – then I start mine in the firm knowledge that I have a good bunch of friends both offline and online, and that I care about them all a lot. And that good things can happen at work.

Link-a-saurus

Been knocked a bit for 6 again this week, so taking it lightly. So here’s the reason behind some of the pages I link to:

Hawley keeps me busy, let’s all read his blog and encourage him to learn to add tags and post himself (me, I do it by adding ridiculous tags until he screams ‘NO! I canna take it anymore!’ – hasn’t worked yet). His blog is whimsical, always amusing and, of course, FABULOUS.

One of my kin in LotRO, unwize explains the game taking the kin by storm. Inspired by Massively it appeals to the explorer in all of us. Head on over to see him write about the game, and explain the rules he set up. Seriously, it’s taken the kin by storm. I’m just FAR too lazy to go looking for scenes, though I’d like to contribute some sometime, I guess.

Another kinmate Berathe is making inroads into blogging. Her poetry is second-to-none and another whimsically serious LotRO-focused blog, with added zombies and horror. Ode to a Laptop is a modern classic.

Spinks is, and has always, been my blogging cohort. We started together and we still talk topics every morning. Just, she tends to write about stuff, and I tend to talk about it. Ha ha. Oh, and in Tobold-esque full disclosure, I should mention we’re also testing the refer-a-friend sick-speed levelling in WoW. It lets me chat to her with graphics behind us, it’s just as much WoW as I can deal with, and I still keep my levels chugging along. Hawley inspired me to make a shaman, but I have zero idea what I’m doing.

These are some of the more personal ones. I’ll go through some of the others as the days go by, because I’m still having a bit of a time away from computers and this eases me back into blogging, while hopefully giving you some useful background into why my blogroll looks the way it does.