My Busy Indian Days

This is being a busy week at work. Not only thatbut I had a bad case of insomnia from Monday to Tuesday, from which I have not recovered yet. I’ve also been having almost daily headaches for a while now. I hope they go away. Like, now.

Now that I’ve finished with my complaining, I’ll talk about the last few days a bit.

The week that’s passed since I came back from the quiet relaxation in Serra da Estrela has wooshed by me. I’ve done a little more of the wedding invitations, but not as much as I’d like. I’m almost half way of a part of it. We really will have to push to finish these this week so we can start mailing them to people.

Other than work, this weekend was busy. Saturday was spent cleaning the house, which was very, very messy. Of course we only did this flash cleaning after I rescheduled what was originally planned for this Saturday (due to several reasons, like people not being in Lisbon this weekend, and such). We decided to invite some friends (hi Vanessa! hi Dave!) over for dinner plus a movie. Made my version of yakitori chicken, which has the same sause, but I add a little salt to the meat and garlic the previous day so it gets tastier. This time on the oven and not the griller so the house didn’t smell like grilled meat for a week, like what happened when I did the same dish on Valentine’s day. Anyway, I’ll post photos of the result eventually. I also used fresh mushrooms for the first time, with olive oil and garlic as a side dish, after trying some at a friends’ birthday dinner recently, and the difference regarding the canned ones is noticeable. Anyway, our guests approved of the cooking, yay!

On Sunday we went with some friends to a bar, where we spent a pleasent afternoon chatting. it was during this same afternoon I realized that my drawing needs practice as the lack of ‘fluidity’, let’s call it, is noticeable. Blah.

This week already, on WoW, we downed heroic Kel’Thuzad, thus finishing heroic Naxxramas. To be honest I thought Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad would be harder. Sapphiron was one-shotted and Kel’Thuzad killed on the third attempt. Of all the raid instances in WotLK I’m only lacking eye of Eternity for a full heroic kill collection before Ulduar comes out.

While we were raiding there was some retard behaviour on guild, by the same druid (now on a mage). Asking stuff is fine, whining about why people aren’t answering even though they’re on a raid, is stupid. It might come as a shock to him, but he’s not the center of everyone’s universe. Yes, the raid that’s going on should go to full stop every time he needs to ask something to the GM. Especially when, after the GM finally managed to reply to the sarcasm-dripping crap that was being said, the reply was equally arrogant/sarcastic.

Dear Druid/Mage/Hyperactive Five Year Old Kid, maybe the reason why you can’t add events to the calendar is because your guild rank is the ‘just entered’ one, which I’m not sure if it’s your current rank on purpose (I hope it is that and not just a ‘oops forgot!’ thing), but if it is, it was probably maintained because YOU LEFT THE GUILD in an idiotic way. And to join Whiney Drama Bitch on her new guild, of all things.

I added the guy to my ignore list (it had been a while since I’d used it, and I think the first time I’ve ever had to use it on a guildie), where he will remain until I once more find the patience to endure the hyperactive kid behaviour a 30-something years old guy has. It’s not like he’ll say something of any relevance to me, so nothing is lost. Maybe some conversational context but I can live without that. It’s stupid behaviour like this (with no adequate reply, like the GM saying ‘fuck off!’ – I agree more and more with my friend Alma on this one, too much officer/GM politeness leads to abuses) that’s slowly making me burned out of the game. More than the repeated instances, it’s always been stuff like this that’s burned me out (before, with my old guild’s idiot Rogue and friends).

Maybe all I need is a good couple of nights of sleep. *sigh*

Changing the subject to a less retarded one, Watchmen is coming out this week. I can’t wait to watch it (no pun intended), but will have to wait for Saturday, because this is a week of chaos and destruction. Okay, just chaos. Saturday will also be shopping with friends day, which is something I’ve been craving to do for a while.

A slight side note that I have to make, because I’ve thought about this a few times but ended up never writing here: It’s nice to talk to Inês more often again. And to find out that even after a few years of rarely meeting we still share silly humor (*), the light-hearted (and not so much) conversations, and never ever having to worry about her misinterpreting something I say as if it was as something else entirely (as if it was an insult, for instance). It’s… Zen. Zen Comradery, or something!I need more chats like these. The zen, the relax…

(* – Once at the Fnac cafeteria , she was undecided between two kinds of cakes, exactly the same except that one had nuts and the other had apple. Since she’s a therapist, I told her ‘go for the nuts, it’s fitting!’ and she totally got it right then )

Oh, going back to cooking, I’ve been checking out some cooking books on Book Depository, so maybe I order them when I order Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, which Jorge has recommended, plus Chunchu vol. 3, since I’m almost done with vol. 2. I wonder what they mean by Easy-To-Find Ingredients… if they’re truly easy to find, and the recipes still end up something, well, asian-like, it may be a nice book. I’m thinking about this one and a nice one about Wok recipes (saw one that looked okay being sold at Fnac). I usually do something like Chow-Min, but that’s all I’ve tried making on the Wok and I want to try other stuff.

Anyway, this is becoming The HUGE Post of Random, so I’ll stop for now. I have stuff to organize and stuff to read. Stuff. Lots of it!

EDITs to clarify, where you read ‘the same druid’ it’s ‘the same druid who got drunk’ and where we have ‘ the reply was equally arrogant/sarcastic.’ I meant the druid’s reply, not the GM’s.

CSI: World of Warcraft – Part II

Whiny Drama Bitch has decided to ‘stop raiding with us’, and has taken her Restoration Shaman (the only one we had in our guild ) over to her boyfriend’s guild. Something I predicted the moment I learned she was leaving.

Funny things about this:

She left her ‘beloved main character’ Warlock with us – y’know, the one she insisted over and over was SOOOO much more fun to play than her Shaman. The Resto Shaman she was sick of, curiously enough not long after our Raid Leader, not succumbing to her boobley charms, deciding to take the Tier 7 gloves over her (he was ahead on our Suicide Kings list). Also, this after posting among other things that, for instance, Plate wearers shouldn’t be allowed to bid on mail items. Yeah, because surely the extra tiny bit of armor in some mail items would make all the difference to a Holy Paladin. I played one for years. It doesn’t.

Anyway, doing some investigative work (still ongoing because I do love to see that I get stuff right about drama-prone people in WoW almost all of the time), I realized she’s on her boyfriend’s guild with her Resto Shaman – something that was listed on their site, along with Warlocks as ‘highly wanted’. The difference here being that while the only other two Resto Shamans in that guild are the same rank as hers, and one of them according to WoW census, is a recent member of that guild, being there for less than a month.

She was very unsatisfied with our guild’s new looting system, Suicide Kings, because she prefered the old /roll one, and she is now in a guild that uses a Furious raid system – something that seems pretty similar to DKPs. Makes perfect sense. While this may seem like a flaw in my reasoning that she switched guild to get more ph4t lewtz fast, do remember what I said about the two Resto Shamans back there – they have the same guild rank as she does, so they are either socials, or applicants. Edit: someone just told me they are recruits because all that have that rank have been in the guild in less than two months. And I was wondering why her Warlock was still with us? Their forum clearly states that trial members aren’t allowed to have alts in the guild.

I’ll have to ask one of the officers in her new guild which one is she, just to confirm things. Also, remember me mentioning that she wanted to play her lock so badly because she was so much more into it? Guess what? The three Warlocks in her new guild are all a rank higher than she is, which indicates that they are likely active members who show up to raid more often than her two trial Resto Shammy loot contestants. Not only that, but according to WoW Census, they ain’t new kids on the block, and have been in the guild for a long time.

If she’d have been honest about her intentions, I couldn’t care less what the hell she did and I wouldn’t be writing this wonderful post with my findings. But when someone states that she doesn’t care about the loot (let’s admit it, everyone does at least a little bit, even casuals, much less people who are logged in most of the day like she was), does a bucket full of drama, and then does a move like this, I really have to mention it. And investigate just how much bullshit she was telling the guild these past weeks.

Did I mention I hate liars? Because I really do.

Don’t missinterpret me, I’m glad she’s gone, only she really isn’t because she left her other level 80 character with us, and the bitching may continue. Always in the ‘I didn’t want to say anything, but…’ manner, or the ‘I don’t really mean to intrude in this matter, but…’ way. I wonder if playing the innocent chick really does wonders for her popularity with the boys. Given how she has some male members under her influence (no pun intended ), I’d say it’s at least partially working.

I’m immune to boobs (mine are totally awesome though! ), I’m immune to clueless chick act (which I’ve seen be used by manipulative drama queens before), and I’ve succesfully resisted her Bitch Attacks From Hell ® without verbally turning her into a simple puddle of pseudo whiney bitchiness on the virtual floor of World of Warcraft, thus avoiding more QQ and… DORAMAAAAAAAAAA! (imagine ‘Dorama’ said with a really grave male japanese voice, so you get the full effect of that sentence.)

I’ve seen something simillar happen way back, in another guild, except that particular girl wasn’t a bitch. She was just the attention whore part of the problem, and thankfully our WDB at least has the decency not to moan/scream like she’s having an orgasm every time she gets an epic, something that the other chick did. It’s people like these that sometimes give female gamers a bad reputation. And I, of course, frown upon that.

If you think I’m being paranoid with a lot of the stuff I wrote here – I’m not. I play WoW for almost 4 years now, since the week the European servers opened, and between what I’ve seen people do during those years in WoW, and what I’ve seen in several other online comunities (IRC chat rooms, forums, etc.) for even longer than I’ve been in WoW, I can read divas and drama queens a mile away. Heck, I predict what they’re going to do pretty accurately. And I sure as hell have a ton of stuff baking my text up. If you’re in doubt, feel free to check out the sites I’ll mention on my thank you notes yourself.

On a last note I’d like to thank the WoW Armory, WoW Census, Google, and the other zillion sites I’ve visited while conducting this ongoing investigation. Also, the LOLcats site which allowed me to create this post’s work of art imagery. Also, special thanks to the couple of RL friends who’ve contributed to my findings.

CSI: Las Vegas’ Grissom, and AFK Gamer would be proud.

(PS – Maybe there’ll be a part III. Maybe.)

CSI: World of Warcraft – Part I

I shall tell you a story of what’s been going on in my guild in the last few weeks. Note that this first part (out of 2, if nothing more noteworthy happens), was written on Monday, a time where some events had not yet happened. I’ll leave you in suspense until the final part of the post. Enjoy!

The least nice thing about WoW right now is the on-going (and seemingly never ending) guild drama. During the last 10 man Naxx raid, which was mostly going nicely and in a relaxed way, there was an argument on guild chat, which kind of ruined the nice night. For me anyway. That and the fact that someone, let’s call her Whiny Drama Bitch (because all three words fit her so nicely in-game), decided to turn a joking around moment I was having in raid chat with a friend, into yet another one of her bitch moments.

I’ve been making an effort not to reply what comes to mind, even if I excluded all the swearing, so I let it end there and just whispered one of the guild leaders about it, and logged out after the raid was done.

Previously on the raid having said something else about some loot a healer wanted for offspec, which she playing her pew pew class stated ‘it’s for healing’ in what I think was an attempt to get him charged for the item on his main spec so he’d go down on the Suicide Kings list. Despite him already having a decent 2h for healing (all it would take for her to keep her mouth shut was a simple inspect) and not really wanting that offhand for anything but pew pew purposes. Thankfully the GM, counted it as offspec gear. In this situation I also refrained to ask her if she was wearing her bandage gear because 5 of her items didn’t have hit rating, and 2 of those had spirit, which makes it obvious that it’s healing gear. /sarcasm But once more I kept from replying because I am SICK of drama. Sick.

Seems that the day prior to these events, someone stated in guild that she causes a bad guild environment (yay him!), which apparently lead to whining (surprise!), and then, the following day, the aforementioned bitching. I’m starting to wonder if she’s another one of those chicks who play, then turn into divas because they think having boobs and playing video games turns them into godlike creatures. Dear Whiny Drama Bitch (WDB), I’m also a carrier of boobs (very nice boobs I assure you!), and I don’t feel the need to perform attention whoring (‘no one ever helps me, booohooohooo!’) or to throw diva fits. Get a shrink and stop being fucking annoying. Thanks.

Never have I added someone in one of my guilds to my ignore list. Not even Annoying Rogue, who I muted in vent (over a year ago) because he talked so much I couldn’t hear the Raid Leader’s instructions. Never. But if she throws another one of her fits, I’ll have to do that, because if I don’t I’ll start replying what she needs to hear for a while now. And I can’t promise I won’t swear like a sailor if I do, because it’s becoming a bit too much.

Meantime, the WDB has (partially) left the guild. But I’ll leave you in suspense for part II. Stay tuned!