Monday, March 17, 2008

Music, Stress, and Burn-Out

I know I am a music person; I have to have music if I am doing anything for too long (or a monotonous task)...

Recently, my Pandora has started to look like this (with the better worn buttons on top). The band is the title, mostly, but the ones that are based off of songs have the bands listed after them in brackets.
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Singin' in the Rain
Ironic [ Alanis Morissette ]
Moondance [ Van Morrison ]
Mark Knopfler
Hellogoodbye
Lovefool [ The Cardigans ]
Frank Sinatra
Almost Lover [ A Fine Frenzy ]
KT Tunstall

In summary, swing, smooth voices, male voices, stuff to dance to, love songs... my tastes are quite broad (yet very narrow, at the same time). Anyone with suggestions to good music, feel free to... well. Suggest! [ Yes, I am aware that good music is in the eye of the listener, but try me. I'm up for anything. Especially foreign music... -gets an idea and scurries off- ]

Music is my form of sanity -- when the tank is terrible, and the healer has let you die four times in the first eight pulls of the instance [ happened today in Heroic Ramparts. Great fun, let me assure you. We had to replace both in order to finish the instance ] -- and, without it, I wouldn't be able to play WoW.

Too much stress. Even with music, it is always good to get up and walk around after an instance, or just play a different toon to get away from all of the stress and anxiety connected with that one character. Or write a blog post. If you are feeling burnt out, perhaps try a new spec for a completely new spin on the character? (Although, if you are a roleplayer, that might be slightly more challenging. Anna, of Too Many Annas, finds herself in that position of trying to make ends meet for Annalira, and talks through her reasoning.) It's the same character you love, except that playing him (or her) is now a challenge, and you may have to change your playstyle to play them to the best of your ability.

If you aren't one to start dancing to the music (even if you must do it by yourself) [ this is my preferred method ], without another toon you would enjoy as much [ I can't say much here, with four characters that I love and enjoy ] and respec'cing [ what I do with Losse more often than healthy ] is completely out of the question, perhaps you should check out Surabear's Rage Dump suggestions (yes, for your rage, not for that of a warrior or bears!).

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