Sunday Silliness – PuGs

I haven’t posted much about our adventures in World of Warcraft. I’m still a little freaked out to be playing it again, and though I really do love my Shaman, it was a bumpy start – and I’m still not really playing it on anything more than a casual level – hanging out with Spinks and some of her friends from her main server, and also my other sister and some people we picked up along the way (we’re on Steamwheedle Cartel, Alliance, btw).

We’re using the Dungeon Finder interface quite a lot, which means many PuGs. In general, they’ve been pretty good, and it’s definitely been a good way to get xp and decent gear and see the instances in the game. We’re now in the Outland ones, ones I’ve not seen before, so that’s fairly challenging/interesting!

Today I decided we need a game associated with being in a PuG, and devised one that can work across games – so feel free to spread the word and play along. The basic concept is ‘Word a Week’, where each week I nominate a word you need to slip into chat in your PuG, and then send in a screenshot for it. This week, I decided on ‘disenfranchised’ in celebration of this week’s UK election! I even used it in a group today, though not a PuG – but next sunday I hope to have a screenie of me saying it in a genuine PuG!

Wonder if anyone else will join in, but if not, this will be my Sunday posts for a while

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.