Skip to content

Getting older and starting to show it!

Honestly I am beginning to bother myself. I’m getting older, I know that, we’re all getting older. I’ve even reached the stage where I can tell that not everything is exactly as it was, occasionally stuff twinges. I don’t care too much about that, that’s physical, “all flesh is grass” and that shit.

What is starting to bother me is my gradually increasing intolerance.

This weekend for example, it’s air fresheners, god help me, but I’m not good with air fresheners anyway, a fair number of them hurt my nose, seriously, and not in a “I press the button with my nose”  kinda way, especially those “neutralisers” that you can’t smell but make your nose want to bleed!

To be honest, half the time I’d rather smell boiled cabbage than some marketing persons idea of what the country should smell of. I live in the country. It sometimes smells of cow and pig shit, sometimes of rain on dry soil (a beautific smell), and usually of nothing in particular. It doesn’t smell like those wierd yellow cubes you pee on in urinals, it doesn’t smell of roses or pine either. Even pine forests don’t smell of pine!

Anyway, the latest thing in shoving unwanted smells up your nose are automatic air fresheners that you can leave on all the time and every five minutes they will willingly add some more unwanted stink into your living area. MMMmmm!

But better even than this – Motion sensors! Fuck me! The marketing people are saying that People smell! Well yeah, but they think we smell bad enough to want to cover it up! If I smell bad then that’s a personal issue that I’d really like to be told about. Really. I know that on occasion I’ve been known to wear clothing that is, shall we say, a little contaminated. Horse piss is not a smell even I’m good with. But tell me please and I’ll fix it! FFS!

Anyway, so motion sensors on air fresheners, sole purpose: to make your house smell “nicer” everytime someone moves.

Hah, not so benevolent. Recently I went to a house with one of these sat on the landing window sill. I didn’t know it was there and fallumped my way up the stairs to, you know, visit the bathroom when I heard a little mechanical rrrpffrp. I turned my head towards the strange noise just in time for the shitty little thing to go squirt! Right in my fucking eye!

So that’s an air freshener, an automatic air freshener, an automatic air freshener with motion senser placed just so it can spray the ear of anyone who goes upstairs. Except for me. Me – I get a special eye-squirt.

Ever since then I’ve been hypersensitive (in a mental sense) to these bloody devices, now when I hear a rrrpfft I twitch like Inspector Dreyfus.

Me + airfresheners = NO.

God knows what I’m going to do when I get old and smelly(er). Though I’m gonna be out on the street shouting at busses by then, I guess so the whole problem will be moot.

2010 07 17 Andrew.Rowbottom General Comments (0) Permalink

Pigeonholing

Why do the american tv producers insist on pigeon-holing actors. I’m getting fed up with seeing the same faces again and again in science-fiction/fantasy programs.

I somehow doubt the actors are turning down jobs outside the genre. And I’ve been checking up on imdb, it is NOT just because I only watch this shit.

2010 07 16 Andrew.Rowbottom General Comments (0) Permalink

And the award goes too…

The award for the most persistent, unnecessary and appropriate use of penis analogies goes to Righteous Orbs. I do love them.  And the bit at the end about, how shall I put it, pulling the dragons 5th leg right, brought a quite unnecessary smirk to my face.

Anyway, that’s enough laughing at genuinely funny people, lets talk about me.

I’ve respecced Enahancement, oh joy! Live every other time I’ve gone enhancement I’ve enjoyed the sheer thrill of running up to a mob, pressing Stormstrike and moving on.

I’ve kitted flowers out in all the groovy stuff, run RAWR to see what it thinks I should be wearing, swore at the stupid computer for being cleverer than me and equipped what I bloody well pleased. Then I regemmed to reach the hit and expertise cap. Then I went shopping with all of those triumphant badgers. Bought a bunch of stuff, including 2 hit trinkets – whey hey! Swapped some gems out because I didn’t need quite so much damn +hit anymore. Decided to exchange some frosty badgers for yet more gear. Discovered that I didn’t need the second +hit trinket anymore, and regemmed a few more bits of kit. So now I’m sat with more +hit than you can throw at a level 84 boss. Groovy funtime!

Except……

a) I’ve still not actually stepped into a dungeon as DPS, everyone wants a healer!

b) 6 billion +hit counts for nothing when you’re grinding kaluak reputation and fighting level 70 mobs.

c) I get all trepidatious when I think of pugging alongside all of those players who’ve been DPS’ing for the last 2 years.

d) I keep writing lists about why I shouldn’t go pugging heroics.

I’m not saying I don’t like enhancement, just that I’ve not used it for its intended purpose.

So, will Flowersz ever get to hit anything with her ridiculously OP ICC offspec weapon drops? Maybe, one day, it’s all down to me really.

On an aside, use WoW-Heroes to look at the “score-rankings” for the Resto and Enhancement shaman on your server and you’ll see that the resto spec are much better geared.

–

Wibbling and havering around in Dalaran watching trade and LFG chat picking which pugs not to join has it’s amusements mind. I particularly love the callouts like

5 DPS, ICC, want 2 tanks and 3 healers, GTG - Oh yeah, totally good to go!

And the one that starts LF 1 Tank, 1 Healer ICC must have Putricide and half an hour later looks like LF 1 Tank, 2 Heals and ends up with LF 2 Tank, 2 Heals  just before I give up and log off. Snigger!

And I still take an inordinate amount of satisfaction when I do join a pug for VoA and some plonk says “1.5k gear score?” to be immediately rebutted by someone else who says “

2010 07 12 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Paladin power?

So I’ve got this paladin:

And this paladin:

And this paladin:

And this paladin:

Is there something wrong with me? Four paladins, and none past level 7?

Szed by the way is I think my second toon ever, after Szoon the warrior and before Szar the warlock.

2010 07 06 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Pop up a closet

Some poor bunch of artists spent hours if not days designing a dark portal into the nether world just so we could call it a closet!

2010 06 28 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Country parks and houses

I’m reading Pride and Prejudice at the moment, I’m at the section where Lizzy is about to visit Pemberly and Ms Austin is describing the countryside. It has reminded me of the awe I am always given when I too visit some of the old estates. Not the buildings, though they are inspiring, but the landscaping. It amazes what the likes of Mr Capability Brown were able to do with vast sums of money and time.

Mind you it’s not just the application of money. In my humble and humongously ignorant opinion what these landscape architects did was done in two parts.

First off they re-arranged the landscape, moving drives, paths, adding ponds and lakes, even moving rivers if they felt like it. The end result is a view that is generally pleasing and in effect making the landscape match a pre-concieved mental, or possibly, physical image. Very impressive and all achieved in a relatively short time.

But for me this dwarfs in comprehension to what they did with the trees. After the landscape is arranged they decide where to plant trees, and what species should be grown. It doesn’t sound very impressive, a bit like arranging your flowerbed. But for me the impressive bit is that the outcome of this kind of work is long-term. It’s unlikely that any of the patrons that commisioned these works lived to see the grandeur of their plans come to realization. I’ve been to parks where the form, shape and arrangement of hundred year old trees is so much an intergral part of the scene that it’s hard to imagine how it looked when these were all just saplings.

It takes not just incredible sums of money but also an almost arrogant confidence in your family’s continued possesion of the property to commision this work.

It gives me a strange conflict of feelings, on the one hand I can see and almost phyically feel the natural/artifical beauty resonating with my (for want of a better word) soul. On the other hand I can’t forget it was all created by degrees of social inequality on a scale almost too large to notice.

It makes me think.

–

Country parks… I love country parks, I hardly ever visit them. I love them because they give the opportunity for townsfolk of almost all capabilites to experience something of the country. I also love them because they act as magnets for the majority of townies that want to “get away” to the country, and (here’s the massively selfish bit) it keeps them out of the real country! There! I’ve said it! I’m not proud, just selfish.

I mean, we (my closest family) have a saying about people “picnicing in the car-park”. Haven’t you ever noticed that the farther away from the car-park you get the fewer people there are? I mean, fifteen minutes walk and you’re damn near on your own! Let them have their BBQ’s in the car-park and give me leave to go for a 2 hour walk.

2010 06 27 Andrew.Rowbottom General Comments (0) Permalink

to glass

It’s been some time hasn’t it?

First off I have to apologise for a case of premature mourning, the guildie who suddenly left a couple of posts ago came back within a day or so. I don’t know any of the details, and while I happily admit to a rather voyeuristic interest I’m sure I would know if I needed to.

So that’s one back, which unfortunately is balanced by the temporary departure of one of our raid leaders. Now I’m missing someone else. For shame!

She wanted a break, and considering she’s been sat in a hotel for the last several months, I am totally amazed that she has lasted this long without going insane. Gquitting seems like a mild response. I’d have had my wow privilieges taken away when I was banged up for killing someone. The sheer impersonal alienness of hotels fucks with my mind.

Anyway I sincerely hope she comes back, she is missed.

–

The title? Listening to almost my entire music collection on shuffle can throw up some strange musical conjunctions. My player went directly from Nightwish to Philip Glass’ Floe, not as jolting as most of the pairs of tracks it likes joining together.

2010 06 26 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

what do you do when you are bored.

I went and got [Don Carlos' Famous Hat] then I went and killed a few mobs in the Narrens looking for the Savory Deviate Delight recipe. I stopped when a level 11 hordie started going after the same mobs as me. There’s no way I’m going to rain on his parade. So I bought it off the Auction House.

Must be bored.

2010 06 11 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink

Sad flowers

A sad thing has happened tonight, while I was logged on.

One of our guildies quit the guild and immediately logged out. Our first thought was that her account had been hacked, not a nice thing to happen to anyone.

Since then though we have discovered that about the same time she deleted the contents of a personal post on our forums.

As it stands it looks to me like she is running away from someone who is harassing her. We won’t know unless she contacts a guild member to let them know.

While she’s not been a guild member for very long she has become a very much loved part of our little tribe and will certainly be missed if she never comes back.

2010 06 09 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (1) Permalink

Vilithria Dreamwalker

Munquis went into ICC for a second night, on Valithria Dreamwalker.

She was rescued last week, without any help from me, so this was the second time I’ve ever seen her. Unfortunately for me this time I was rotated into doing the Portal stuff for several of the attempts.

I say unfortunately because this is just the sort of thing I’m quite bad at – learning completly new mechanics. Anyway, seven attempts later we were getting to the quitting time with only one fish feast left. The Raid Leader’s instructions were simply ”Faceroll Harder!”.

And we did it! By the skin of our teeth and probably with a fair dose of luck. But we did at least rescue the poor dear, bless her cotton socks.

The last time out of the portal I had ended up behind the dragon, way away from the rest of the group . Normally this would mean I have to work my way to the front and the next set of portals, but what with hearing “I’m down” from one of the healers and a Warlock I knew we wouldn’t survive another visit into the portal , so I just stayed put and spam healed. Being at the back meant I didn’t get any adds. Typically for me I kept on healing after we had won, and even managed to register a few percent overheal! Looking at my gear after it was all over it turned out I wasn’t even wearing my haste trinket,  whoops!

This wasn’t our best night ever, but it wasn’t total fail either.

It’s a tough fight, the DPS have to be fast with their targetting and on the ball. The tanks have to keep their eyes open because the healers continually pull aggro. The portal-healer has to be careful not to drop stacks. The Raid healers have to watch their mana, keep out of the stuff on the ground and even AOE healing doesn’t work well with everyone running about like blue-arse flies. When I was on raid healing the first 4 minutes are easy, and then all hell starts to break lose, followed a couple of minutes later by all hell with extra lashings of torment!

It sounds kinda fun doesn’t it.

Now all I have to do is to find out how to get more stacks of Emerald Vigour. I had a little over 20 ish at the end working out at around 4 stacks per portal visit, which I think is a bit on the low side.

2010 06 09 Andrew.Rowbottom World of Warcraft Comments (0) Permalink