It’s All About Teh Blizzcon (and the subsequent vacation)

I was half tempted to use a picture of the lineups, but I was worried that no one would understand the image choice.

It’s almost time to stand in line with ten thousand other geeks to pick up my Blizzcon package! I had so much fun last year that the bar for this year is set high. I’m hoping it doesn’t disappoint.

All my guildies suck and aren’t going, so I will be looking for a foster guild for the weekend. I assure you that I am not too whiny (as long as I’m fed) and won’t get into fights (unless it’s over food). If you see me and recognize me (I’m easy to spot: I’m a tall, skinny blonde chick and I’ll be hanging out with a tall, loud redhead), don’t be shy. Come on over and say hi. Don’t worry about seeming creepy or anything. I can’t recognize faces, ever, so I’ll be all polite and act like I know you regardless.

Parties!

The best thing about Blizzcon is, of course, the parties.

The plan is to hit WoW Insider/Wowhead at the Anabella on Thursday night and Twisted Nether on Friday night at Bar Louie. Both parties are usually a hit – WoW Insider will be PACKED with geeky goodness, and TNB will be a tad more intimate, with friendly, familiar faces all around.

Saturday night is still up in the air. Maybe we’ll hit the Hilton party, or maybe we’ll take off for some booty-shaking at a local dance club. I haven’t been dancing in what feels like forever! It’s time we remedy that.

Post-Blizzcon Odyssey

I wouldn’t be me if I hadn’t decided to turn Blizzcon into a two week backpacking vacation! Here’s the plan:

1- Phoenix
2- El Paso
3- San Antonio
4- New Orleans

Two weeks is short, so unfortunately thats as far as I can get before having to head back to work. But if you find yourself in one of those cities shortly after Blizzcon and would like to go for a drink (or even better, if you find yourself with the irresistible urge to buy ME a drink!), give me a holler!

See you at Blizzcon!

Shared Topic: Making a WoW Cooking Recipe IRL

When I saw this week’s Shared Topic over at Blog Azeroth, I knew I had to join in. A food topic? Yes please!

Kallixta from Kallixta’s Notes suggested the topic, possibly inspiring herself from Edenvale’s The Gamer’s Fridge and I scrambled to find a WoW recipe that Edenvale hadn’t already tried.

I’d been wanting to try a beer-based dish for a long time, and I felt like ribs, so I picked the recipe that had been making my stomach rumble since my very first days playing WoW:

Beer Basted Boar Ribs

Before getting started, I did a bit of research on cooking with beer and checked out several beer-based ribs recipes. From what I could understand, you can cook with beer pretty much the way you’d cook with any liquid, but that the bitterness of the beer is highlighted when heated (due to the water evaporating and the beer concentrating). To keep the dish from getting too bitter, you want to counter it with something sweet like brown sugar or honey. Beyond that, you can add whatever you want to get the flavor you’re looking for.

Here’s what I used:
- Ribs (about 3kg… it was a lot! I don’t recommend using that much.)
- Beer (I didn’t notice that the original WoW recipe called for a malt, so I used a maple stout from Cannery Brewing, a BC beer from Penticton.)
- Honey
- Soy Sauce
- Dijon Mustard
- Onion (not shown in picture)
- Garlic (not shown in picture)
- Lemon Juice
- Worshestershire sauce (most of the beer ribs recipes I checked out called for it, so I tosses some in.)
- Cayenne Pepper
- Bay Leaves

This Post is Brought to You by My Internet Connection

It took almost two weeks from the time I ordered my internet to the time those fateful lights on my modem lit up, but I am back, again, with The Internet.

The first thing I did was log onto Twitter. It took me about two minutes to remember that I find Twitter very irritating. So the second thing I did was shut down Twitter.

I accomplished my second move of the month (one month exactly between moves), this one a major cross-country, 2 timezones move. My parents decided to sell the house (actually that’s old news, but it didn’t sink in until I was packing) so I had to move everything, everything, everything. And I’ll tell you over the course of 20 years of schooling, a person sure accumulates a lot of papers and textbooks. I tossed as much as I could into the recycle bin.

And thats only about half of it.

And I still ended up with about 30 boxes. Boxes that won’t come for another 2 weeks or so, but it’s ok, I’m having a pretty cool time. Camping in the living room FTW.

That photo was taken shortly before the second night. The first night looked more like this.

As you may conclude from the pictures, my internetless time was probably the period of my life were I drank the most. I also played tons of Civilisation V, and when I couldn’t handle Civ V anymore, I finally got around to watching Season 1 of House, which I had downloaded months ago. The first few episodes were difficult: I kept yelling out that “HOSPITALS DONT WORK THAT WAY!!!!“. But once I got over how unrealistic the show is, I was completely captivated by “Will Cameron get House into her bed?“

I also, while going through internet withdrawl, starting writing a story about The Internet. I suspect that the next time I touch it will be the next time I’m internetless.

Then one day a technician came to my house and magically lit up my modem.

Because I Have To Include WoW In This Post

I got to play WoW a bit over the past 2 days. I live across the street from my job which frees up an incredible amount of time. So I FINALLY got to check out 4.2. I did some Mark of the World Tree dailies, I polished up my tanking set (don’t tell my guild) and I ventured into Firelands. We haven’t killed anything yet, partly because I spent the first hour and a half wiping the raid, (I hope I’m just rusty and not losing my touch) but we made good progress on Shannox.

No, I’m not excited to be playing WoW again. I assume it’s just the usual: whenever I’m away for a long time, I don’t feel like getting back into it.

Silly how I’ve been spending the past 6 months talking about what I want in my Perfect West Coast Guild and now I’m wondering if I should keep playing WoW at all.

Thing is- I love my job. Yeah, it’s just the honeymoon phase, but the hours are a lot more flexible than I expected, the store needs quite a bit of organizing (my specialty!) and I have plenty of opportunity to travel around and do relief work all over Northern Alberta. Suddenly raiding doesn’t seem so exciting. Everything raiding (and being in a guild) gave me, I can get from my job.

Plus I’m sorta liking this having money thingy.

Of Guilds and Guild Searching

Those who speak to me on a regular basis (all two of you) are probably very excited for me to find a new home. Mostly because that means I’ll stop talking about finding a new home.

I’m a little worried about losing yet another month of boss kills, but I think I will keep with the casual route until my schedule gets sorted out. I don’t want to make a commitment I can’t keep.

What I miss the most about having a guild- a real guild that feels like home- is being dedicated to something. Remember that post I made about relationships with guilds? Well I quit lying to myself. For better or for worse, I have a relationship with my guilds that compares to romantic relationships. Maybe because I’m so uninterested in relationships with actual people. Err. Anyway. I like having a project to commit to, to be constantly thinking about improvements, about pretty trinkets I can buy it, about lovely conversations I can have with it. I miss that. With my current guild (or guilds, though I’ve probably been kicked for inactivity from my Horde guild by now) I’ve kept my distances. I didn’t want to get attached (plus they tend to like status quo, I’m not sure my enthusiasm for evolution would be warmly welcomed).

And even though I get hurt when things eventually don’t work out, I don’t really care. I look for somewhere else to focus my energy. I think work might fill that gap now, but if you asked me what I miss the most from WoW, the answer would be “being actively involved in a guild“.

Anyway, I should catch up on my 4.2 holy paladin reading. Rohan and Adgamorix have both written some interesting stuff that I (and some of you) might want to brush up on.

PS. I promise I’ll update my blogroll. You know who you are.

Settling Back in After a Wild Journey

Here’s a secret: it’s hard to get back into things after being gone for so long.

Ok, it’s not a secret, just one of those things I don’t consider until it happens to me.

I have lots of blog post ideas but no desire to sit still long enough to write. Instead, you should all just tap into my brain and absorb anything you wish. If there happens to be anything there you wish to absorb.

So I’m back from my epic backpacking trip. I wish I had more time to travel, but at the same time, I had my cross-country move on my mind, so toward the end I was having more trouble concentrating on having fun. I know, I’m a sad person. I need to work at having fun.

Needed to go all the way to Buffalo to get my wings fix

Greetings from Milwaukee!

Rumours of my abduction by scary Americans have been greatly exaggerated. Oestrus has been treating me quite well and she’s not scary at all.

We made cupcakes!

I *finally* got around to answering all the comments I received. I’m behind on a couple of emails, but I’m hoping to get those done today, before I get kicked out of this cute coffee shop.

My trip has been awesome so far. In Edmonton, Fannon was a wonderful host, actually his whole family was amazing. The dwarfling was just as adorable and sweet as she is in her photos and Fannon and Mrs Fannon really went out of their way to make me feel at home. Also, did you see the pictures Fannon took of me? I had no idea I could look like that in pictures! My mind is still blown!

I also got to meet up with Corath one night, which was tons of fun. Meeting up with other WoW players always has this magical feel: no matter how little we know about each other outside the game, we always seem to connect and it feels like I’ve known the person forever.

In Calgary I met up with Vidyala and Vosskah and had a blast. We gossiped about blog and twitter people (if you’re reading this, chances are we talked about YOU!), ate some delicious food and chitchatted about the game.

I hope to write some more words on the meetups in the future, but in short, I’m so glad that I have such wonderful future neighbours!

I didn’t meet up with anyone in Winnipeg, but I still really enjoyed myself. Winnipeg was the city that most caught me with my pants down – in a good way. I had always known the city as “lolWinnipeg” and “Winter-peg”, so saying I was impressed when I arrived in the gorgeous, sunny, friendly, clean, lively city, would be an understatement.

I also promised I’d give the hostel I stayed in, HI-Winnipeg, a plug. Fantastic hostel, and the Thursday night pub crawl was loads of fun! Had great drinks with great people, and made a few friends out the event (including another Albertan!).

I’m in Milwaukee, raiding Oestrus’ couch right now. It’s been another fantastic meetup, putting a face to the voice and to the person who’s been such a huge support to me over the past few months (and who always forgives me after being a victim of my crossfires). Milwaukee was another lovely discovery as well. Whenever I’d tell people I was heading to Milwaukee (it was a 3 day bus ride so I had to tell a lot of people), I was told again and again that there’s “nothing in Milwaukee”. It’s lie! There’s so much in Milwaukee! Lots of festivals, lots of cool coffee shops, lots of great food, lots of great art. Oh, and lots of breweries. As a matter of fact, I’m hoping to get in on a brewery tour this afternoon.

Then tonight I say my goodbyes and head off to Chicago!

This Just In: Student 4 Life Graduates

After 10 years of post-secondary education, including:

- 2 years of community college general sciences (graduating with a DEC – Sciences de la Nature and an IB Diploma)
- 3 years of psychology (graduating with a B.A. Psych)
- 1 year of easy courses to qualify for pharmacy school
- 4 years of pharmacy school (graduating with a B.Sc. Pharm),

I finally get to step out into the real world. Within a few months, I should be able to live in a real apartment, take cheap ramen out of my diet (upgrading to expensive ramen), quit obsessing over money, and work no more than 37 hours a week.

I get asked the question often, so I’ll answer it before it comes up again. No, I didn’t start young. I’m just really immature for my age.

The last month, simply put, sucked. I knew it would be rough, but knowing it and living through it are, yeah, two different things. My licensing exams, all three of them, were in the last week of May, mixed in with graduation formalities and a cross-country move. For a month, I put my life on hold and reviewed everything I had learned in the past 4 years. And ate a lot of fast food. Like tons of fast food. As in, I’ll be doing sit-ups for weeks to recover from all the fast food.

Of course, nothing ever goes as planned and, because clearly I wasn’t going through enough hell, my roommate came up with the wonderful idea of re-doing the kitchen as I’m trying to study and pack. (Which didn’t help in resisting the fast food cravings.) So while I’m stressed out of my mind, I was woken every morning and kept up every night by noise, dust, kitchen supplies all over the place and strangers breathing down my neck.

By the night before my first exam, my room (and state of mind) looked like this:

Please don’t tell any future landlords.

My lowest point, however, I think was on my last day in Newfoundland. I had my grad party that night (a big formal affair), and spent all day packing boxes. I was stressing because I was nowhere near done, but needed to get ready for grad. I stepped into the shower, only to discover than the renovation guys had cut off the hot water. I tried washing my hair in cold water, but it didn’t work out for me.

I’ll leave the scene of me sitting in a ball on the floor of my room with my wet hair sticking up, boxes and unpacked belongings scattered around me, to your imagination. It’s funny now, but I probably would have yelled at anyone telling me it was funny at the time.

Mixing Raiding and School

There’s enough I can say on the topic to write a series of stand-alone posts, but the end of it is, and I might change my mind a few years from now, that it was worth raiding throughout pharmacy school.

I raided late at night (mostly because that’s when my guilds raided, but it did help since I’d usually study until 9:30 or 10pm) and was therefore tired and cranky all day. I missed a lot of class because I was up late raiding. Heck there were courses I never went to outside of exams.

But I don’t regret it. My grades were average. Maybe they would have been slightly above average if I hadn’t been raiding. But even now that I don’t have to be in denial anymore, I still don’t regret it.

I know it sounds weird coming from someone who just did 10 years of college of, but I’ll say it: I hate school. I hate it. I’ve always hated it. I like learning. I like the fields I studied. I like being around intelligent and inspiring individuals. But I hate the pressure, I hate the competitiveness, I hate grades, I hate having to sit still all day, I hate having no money. School has always been a waiting game for me. Bite the bullet, do what they tell you and the ordeal will end eventually. (I also hated being a kid and can’t understand people who miss being kids. Being a kid was another, awful, waiting game. I’m thankful every day that it’s over.)

Raiding kept me sane. It let me be around like-minded people (I both adore and admire all of the classmates with whom I’ve had the honour of sharing several years of my life, but I had very little in common with the majority of them. I was cursed with the personality of an engineer but the brain of a liberal arts person.) It gave me something to look forward in the evenings. It gave me something to work at for my own pleasure, something on which I was never graded.

I know some people take raiding and competition very seriously, but not me. I raid because I love to raid. I do a good job because I like doing a good job. Oh, I’ll joke about healing meters, but that’s all it is, joking. Same goes for my blog. I’ll jokingly brag about stats but blogging is really where I get away from the numbers and the mediocracy that’s so often rubbed in my face. The blog does what it wants. I don’t do adds, I’d never accept to write about WoW for money. The blog and raiding are the two places where it doesn’t matter if I do well or not. The blog and raiding are where I can sit back and enjoy the journey, without worrying about whether or not my life will be screwed up at the destination.

When I Stopped Concentrating on Raiding

I quite raiding seriously at the beginning of January. I miss a lot. You guys have no idea. No amount of emo whining can really translate how much I miss it.

You know how some women get to about 30 without every wanting kids, then suddenly starting hating everyone with kids and can’t live with themselves until they get pregnant? (I really hope this doesn’t happen to me. Pregnancy is just uggg. I’ll adopt, thank you very much.) Anyway, that’s what it’s like. I can’t read Twitter during general raid hours anymore. I fight back tears whenever I’m asked about my WoW life. I rage at anyone who complains about seeing raid content too often. (I wish I was in a position to be in raid burnout!)

Still, I grit my teeth and tell myself it was for the better. It was nice, not being exhausted during clerkship. I did a good job because I wasn’t tired. Not good enough to be “above average“, but hopefully I made a difference in a few people’s lives.

I got to meet a lovely guild who welcomed me with open arms and understood that I was only going to be with them for a few months. (I’ll have another post dedicated to them later this week.) I actually plan on leaving my alts with them when I move on. While I missed raiding in a more intense environment, their jokes, their familiarity, their rich lives outside of game and their laid back attitude made my hiatus enjoyable. I tried to stay distant – no use in getting attached when I know I’ll be leaving – but they managed to break me a few times. By now my raid leader, Thespius, probably knows more about me than he ever wanted to. He’ll be spending his next few months trying to erase his memory.

I’m terrified that I won’t find my ideal guild after I move. Working late hours on the West Coast isn’t conducive to progression raiding.The fact that I don’t have any end boss kills (lets not even talk about heroics) doesn’t help either. I know that a lot of guilds are recruiting, so if you’re running a late night, 25 man progression raid team and are looking for a dedicated holy paladin, hit me up.

My Grad Present to Myself: Traveling Across the Country

In a couple of hours, I’ll be taking a flight to Edmonton, to look for a place to live. I decided to turn my trip back East into a (well-deserved, if I do say so myself) vacation. I picked up a Discovery Pass (no, I can’t take the train. I’d love to take the train, but trains in Canada are waaaaaay more expensive than trains in the US!) and plan to make full use of it. Cities on the itinerary are:

Edmonton
Calgary
Winnipeg
Milwaukee
Chicago

If you’re in one of those cities and care to buy me coffee (or let me buy my own coffee if you’re a cheapo) let me know! Fannon is also planning a meetup in Edmonton this Friday (June 3), so if you’re in the area and want in, give him a shout.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what my room looked like after exams were over with and my move was under control…

Blizzcon Planning!

I was at school all day, so I had to buy my ticket at the library. I logged in at 2:15 pm, about 15 minutes before the tickets went on sale. Then I realized: I totally didn’t think to bring my authenticator. Ooops.

I crossed my fingers and quickly made myself a new account. It worked! And I finished it in time to refresh the ticket page a few times.

Then, after what felt like the longest 3 minutes of my life, a refresh brought up a different screen. I didn’t even stop to think about how many tickets I wanted. I just slammed on the “purchase” button. At least, that’s what I assume the button said. Reading it would have wasted too much time.

Aaaand my place on the queue?

3000.

Well, about that. Something like 2900. 20 minute wait.

I honestly didn’t care either way if I got a ticket. If I didn’t, I’d play tourist and party hard at night. If I did, then I’d look forward to the cinematics panel. (*shrug* I’m visual, I like cinematics.) So I was surprised at how much fun I had sitting in line, watching the queue get smaller, wondering if I’d get a ticket or not. I’m sort of tempted to buy another ticket on Wednesday, just for fun.

The Question of Accommodations

Which brings up the question of accommodations. I want to make reservations as soon as possible since rooms go fast, but I’m not sure what I want to do yet. Neither of my current guilds are doing Blizzcon and I don’t know what my future West Coast guild will be doing because I don’t know who my future West Coast guild will be. A few friends are going to Blizzcon, but either their taste is waaaay out of my budget, or they’re staying with too many people I don’t know for me to want to invite myself.

I could get my own room. I like my peace and quiet and I’ll have a good job by October so money won’t be as tight.

But then it would also be fun to have some people to show up at events with. Or people to listen to my all night ramblings.

I know that there are a few others solo Blizzcon travelers who are in the same boat, so if you’d like a roommate or several roommates, send me an email and I’ll bake up some plans. I do cheap but classy. And near the convention center.

I’d, um, prefer female roommates, with this being the internet and all, but I would make exceptions for guys I know well. And, would prefer people that I’ve had some previous interaction with. I like adventure, but I’d kind of like to not share a room with an axe murderer. Or, less dramatically, someone unreliable.

Anyway, yeah, send me an email (not a comment) if you’re interested and not creepy.

Blizzcon Hype

The Blizzcon ticket sales were finally announced yesterday and, for those of you who live in boxes shut off from the world, I’ll let you know know that sales days are May 21 at 10am PST and May 25 at 7pm PST. They’re also 175$. Some find that scandalous. To me, though, after the price of plane tickets out of Canada, 175$ seems like nothing.

Figuring Out What To Do

I’m going to be in Anaheim for Blizzcon for sure. I’ll try for tickets, but I honestly don’t care whether I get any or not. Last year, I had so much fun exploring Orange County that I totally wouldn’t mind spending my days roaming again. But, my mind was effectively blown by the cinematics panel too, and I would enjoy having my mind blown again this year.

So regardless of the outcome of tickets day, I know I’ll be happy.

As for accommodations, I’m squirmy. Last year, a lot of the fun came from staying in an awesome (and awesomely located) hotel with guildies. This year, I have no idea what my guild situation will be like come October, so I’m on my own. While staying with Conquest again this year might have it perks, I’m not sure if I’ll be comfortable around everyone who might be there (I don’t even know who might be there), and I’m not even sure if I’d be welcome to stay with them.

But, as I remind myself, I’m a not-too-hideous-looking girl at a geek convention. Finding a bed can’t be that hard. (I’m joking of course.)

An Excuse for a Trip

I’m going to try to take 2 weeks of my vacation for Blizzcon. 3 would be better, but I only get 3 weeks of vacation and I’d like to save one week for something else, like visiting my family.

Anyway, I’ve always wanted to go on a long train trip and explore the southern (as in geographically southern) US. I love, love, love Arizona and deserts and cacti and rocky sand. And, to my greatest surprise, the Amtrak is dirt cheap.

A 15 day (or 8 segment) pass is only a fraction of what Canada’s VIA Rail would cost. Since this wonderful discovery, the wheels in my head have been turning. There are a few cities I’d really like to see, just to say I’ve been there: Las Vegas, Phoenix (I’ve been before, but wanted to go back as an adult), Santa Fe, Texas (not a city, but still), Memphis, New Orleans, Atlanta.

Now, 2 weeks is a very short period of time if you want to cross the US and actually see a few cities. I’m also very restricted by how the different train routes are laid. Going through Chicago to get to New Orleans from LA? A bit much!

In the end, here’s the plan I’m toying with:
1- Fly into Las Vegas
2- Go to Blizzcon in Anaheim, then
3- Go to Flagstaff/Phoenix, then
4- To San Antonio
5- To New Orleans
6- To Atlanta, fly out of Atlanta.

That would be exactly 8 segments and fit snugly into 2 hectic weeks. I’d get to see the US Southern border, taste a sample of the cities and decide which ones I’d like to spend more time in for the future.

Of course, if anyone has suggestions and/or coffee offers, I’m all for it.

Looking into my Crystal Ball

The past week I’ve had my mind filled with plans and projects. So instead of writing a sophisticated, thoughtful post, I’m going to ramble nervously.

Podcast Hype

Had it just been me, I probably would have kept the Good News a secret until the very last minute (I love giving surprises), but Oestrus has been promoting our little project for some time now and has been getting the Twitterverse pumped at the thought of hearing us talk to each other for an hour.

Well, I guess there is something to it. After all, we’re both fearless (her moreso than me, but I’m easily influenced), in-your-face and no nonsense. And I’d like to think we have a good sense of humour too.

I’m really excited about the project and if all goes according to plan, we should be doing our first recording around this time next week. We’re both super new at this so no live shows yet, but I wouldn’t discount it in the future. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t edit out anything juicy.

I volunteered to take care of the production aspect of the podcast so I spent the past week experimenting with different sound editing software. I was taken by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to have so much fun playing with noises! I felt like I was 13 again, having just spent my saved up babysitting money to buy an electronic keyboard with midi output. Back then, I had big dreams of becoming a sound engineer and I spent a lot of my evenings trying to mix tracks with minimal cacophony. Trying and failing.. Let’s hope I’m better at it 13 years later.

Anyway, if you want to listen to two gutsy girls goof off and talk about WoW, you’ll love the Double O podcast.

Writing about Paladin Stuff

If not for the title, I don’t think any new readers would guess that this is a paladin blog. It’s just that when choosing between writing about a paladin cooldown and the impulse of the moment, the impulse of the moment always wins.

I did promise TopRosters a paladin-related guest post, though, so I do plan on making myself useful some time in the near future.

In-Game Plans

Since moving on from Conquest, I’ve been taking it easy in game so I can get through my clerkship without too much pain. TeamSport has been lovely and welcoming to the little drifter that I am. The culture shock was tough at first – I’m not a 10 man raider and I’m not a casual player, but after nearly two months, I’m finding it easier to relax in raids. I laugh at jokes, I don’t mind if I screw up and I’ve even tanked a couple of times without any kind of shaking, sobbing or hyperventilating! I’m also finding myself getting attached to the team and I have to hold back to not throw myself headfirst into guild life.

At the same time, I’ve got my eyes open for after I move in July. I know it’s a long way off, but the thought of guild shopping again stresses me out. I don’t think I’ll rest easy until it happens. I’d like to stay on the server. Ner’zhul is a great place to be. I want to keep in touch with a number of people from TeamSport and Conquest and keeping transfers as the last resort is the easiest way.

But the list of 25 man progression guilds on Ner’zhul, like most other servers, is pretty short. The top guilds are crossed out on my list. Raiding 20 hours a week really isn’t my thing and, besides, their members are constantly making fools of themselves in Trade and PuGs. I can’t imagine having to put up with them in guild chat!

So that leaves two guilds. One is the guild I already left. Which brings the selection down to one guild. One single guild. I hope we’ll be compatible.

From my own observations and from what O’s reported, when guild searching, healers get pounced on like a piece of fresh meat. I hope that guild will be like a hungry tiger in a couple of months. My lack of gear, end boss kills and hard mode experience makes me somewhat less appealing. I’m less like a piece of fresh meat and more like festering roadkill.

Perhaps, during the two and half months between finishing clerkship and moving to Alberta, I can rent myself out to other raid teams on offnights and get some extra experience.

I know it’ll all work out in the end, but I’m anxious to see where and with whom I’ll be ending up. The suspense is eating up my insides like they’re a delicious rare steak.

The Intertwinement of Real Life and WoW

Before anything, there’s a link I’ve been meaning to share for awhile. When a character hits max level, getting the order of rep maxing right makes a world of difference when it comes to getting that character geared. It’s also a huge headache. So Kahiaau at Green Bar Spec wrote a guide for each of the healing classes. I was thrilled that someone did the hard work to, in case I ever level another healer, make my life easier.

And there’s another link I want to share, one I want to brag about. During my previous clerkship rotation, I wrote an article for our student newsletter about my other passion. I’m quite proud of the end result, so I thought I’d share it. It’s written for pharmacy students, but it’s entry level and anyone should be able to understand it. Head over to the CAPSIL website and hit the “Winter 2011 / Hiver 2011″ link. I’m on page 14. Don’t stare too much at the creepy picture of me or you’ll get nightmares.

So, World of Warcraft. These days, I want to have my cake and eat it too. I slowed down on the gaming quite a bit so I could focus on clerkship. It’s rough. Clerkship, I mean. Even though I’m averaging 12 hours of sleep a night, I can still barely get through the days. I’m chomping on Advil and having sleep attacks all over the place. Which is pretty bad considering I’m making decisions that affect people’s lives.

When I get home, I get two thoughts: “I’m so glad I get the evening to myself” and “I’m so glad I don’t have anything scheduled in WoW tonight.”

But then I see my friends sharing their boss kills on Twitter and in their blogs. Most are either putting their final attempts in on Nef or doing their first few hardmodes. And I get jealous, I really do.

I have been raiding occasionally. Most weeks I manage to get one night of raiding in. The group I play with are really casual, so there’s no stress. They’re fun people, joking around and chitchatting between pulls. They’ve been super welcoming and have even convinced me to pick up tanking again. But I’m discovering that even when WoW is the least of my concerns, I’m not a casual player and I can’t act like one, no matter how hard I try. Maybe it’s that I’m not a casual person. Maybe my WoW attitude just reflects who I am as a human being.