Dwarves are Smelly and Gross

Lin's going to write a bit differently today, as she is going to combine real life experiences with WoW experiences, and see if she can make a strong enough connection to make a fair post.

It's human nature to make assumptions about people. Perhaps it is due to their looks, or an action of some sort. Whatever the cause, people tend to do it. When concerning myself, two strong incidents stand out from the rest.

Now, take me. I'm a young Asian girl who (clearly) speaks English. All right. With that in mind...

As I mentioned a while back, I went on vacation. One of the places we went was Antelope Canyon. As it is special land, they have tour guides. He comes up to us, and starts to explain the tour. Me, I was staring off into space as is my want, and didn't actually catch it. And he had an accent, so it was a bit harder to understand while not paying attention. So I asked him to repeat what he had just said... he repeated everything, yes, but... so slowly that either he thought that we couldn't speak English, and, therefore, had to say it s l o w l y so we would understand, or our IQ was below 30. Hrm...

And then one of the brass at the Dragon Ball Festival. "Is there a owner here?". We point at the organizer for the booth, and she says: "one who can speak English?" We all could, and informed her of such. Just because we were chatting away in Mandarin in the back doesn't mean that we couldn't speak English.

Both of those were rather insulting.

*Assumptions*

Relating to WoW:

Have you made assumptions about someone due to their class/spec/even how they type that led you to put your foot in your mouth, or just made you regret holding the thoughts you did at one time?

Some assumption examples:

• [Roleplay sense] What Dwarves are Not -- smelly, short, fat, and/or drunkards.
  
• Literate people play better. >_>
  
• ______ spec sucks for DPS -- do _____
  
• Rogue/warriors/mages/healers-of-any-sort should just give up. Druids do it better. [I've actually heard this one. Not quite an "assumption", but... still. I felt that I should toss it in here.]
  
• The classic example: Hunters are easymode. You can't fail playing one. [Yes you can. That's why there's the label "huntard".]
  
• Ret pallys are OP. Just like hunters... which is why they're nerfing them.
  
• Alliance: All Horde are evil/want to kill you/variant.
• Lots of muscles either mean one has to stupid. [I find people who work out a lot to be highly insecure, which is why they do it in the first place. And they're sweethearts/brainy.]
  
• Any other real life or WoW example you can think of, as both can apply to WoW [through roleplaying].

People are not always what they seem; take a few moments and chat with them. Just because one happens to be a cute little gnome doesn't mean that they can pull out a sword or two and cut you up into little pieces!

Behind the Screen: Fimlys

Two weeks ago (I think, anyway!), I had the great pleasure of being able to meet our very own Fimlys, of Asleep at the WoW. Now, despite whatever he may tell you, he is not boring. Or ancient. Or anything of the sort!

He's young at heart [couldn't resist -- Frank Sinatra!]. He is the reason for me driving six extra hours this week, but it was completely worth every moment of it!

It was... Sunday night, really, that I discovered that he was coming to town. Imagine my delight! How utterly awesome and rare is it that someone from the interwebs (especially our blogging universe!) to visit one's town! Not only that, but, where he was staying just so happened to be Three minutes away from one's house! I had to see him. Just had to. So we chatted, and decided upon Tuesday morning, bright and early at 8:30AM.

Now, I must mention that I normally hold Aussie hours (right now it is 4:19AM and I'm awake -- it's 8:19PM in eastern Australia!), so 8:30AM is ridiculously early for me, and completely screwed up my sleep schedule for that week... but it was a whole lot of fun.

On Tuesday, I took him (well, he drove, but still) down to downtown Denver. The Pavilion, LoDo, 16th Street Mall... We walked a lot. A LOT. Definitely had to stop and sit down a few times, just to rest our legs. Then drove all about town, stopping in quite a few places along the way to pick up a few things, and just to show off my very limited knowledge about the town.

We decided, that evening, to meet up again on Thursday -- again, in the morning, with me actually going back up to school (about an hour and fifteen minute drive) on that day for a midterm. I went back up to school that night, then came back down Wednesday night [used a whole tank of gas for that whole week, but it was a lot of fun and well worth it].

Thursday, I took him to Red Rocks Amphitheater, where we wandered about and took lots of pictures. And tried to figure out how to read a sign. And discovered that GPS navigators are fun, even if they don't lead you on paths that you *thought* you should take.

Gorgeous days, I must mention. I think Fim's a bit bummed about not seeing snow, but he got lots of leg stretching (as did I) and got a taste of our nice, crisp mountain air.

Now all he needs to do is to move here!

Oh, and just to prove our nerdiness:
Tuesday, at a jewelry/craftsman store:
Fim [upon noting necklaces]: "Trinkets! I wonder what the effect on use is."
Me: "I dunno. Could be a bind-on-equip thing..."

Today:
We're talking about me needing to get to class:
Fim: "Just use your epic mount :P You'll get there faster. No summoning stone at class?"
Me: "I'm afraid not. I "don't meet the requirements for this summoning stone"."
[Later]
Me: "I'm not high enough for an epic mount. Still trying to level. xD"
Fim: "What level do you have to be? 20? 21?"
Me: "Dunno. Have yet to visit the trainer."
Fim: "I want a flying mount but I fear I will get sick on it :P"

Nerdy? Us? You betcha.

Note: All the pictures of this post were taken by Fim. Yes. Free Smells. That came from a window of a sandwich shop... Kudos to the person who knows which one it is!

Oh! And I'm on TNB again, this time, as a guest host. You can find me here.

Not so Nubface, a Squashling, and Being Squashed

Fim, of Asleep at the WoW, spoke of our adventures last night. Feathermoon was down, so I went to go bother Fim on Draenor, as he attempted to do that with me a few days ago, but I, apparently, missed the memo and wasn't on. He, however, didn't, so I was able to find him fairly easily.

I decided that I loathed Westfall, just as a quick note.

So we decided to skip on over to another roleplay server (it's me. I like roleplay servers; Fim just tagged along) where we found out that the Annas was there too, but was about to hop off and go pester Matticus). So we kinda ran around for awhile -- Kinda, being that *I* ran around and killed stuff, Fim occassionally poked his head in from the collecting Gruul's and looted stuff, and got xp.

Oh. Another note. Apparently, this server is a popular one for people to bum about on when their own server is down: people from the Argent Dawn and others from Feathermoon were there, and /1 General was just as terrible as trade chat on your average day. Something about French Fries, and the French, then reflection about the American government, was the theme of those... forty or so minutes we spent on there.

Once Fim ran off to Gruul's, I returned to Feathermoon, which had just come up. Got in a guild group for the Headless Horseman (Mel wants the mount, Losse wants the pet, and Cir wanted the sword), and had flown Mel all the way up to Chillwind when my Pet Tree whispered me and asked me to go to Gruul's. A ranged DPS, so I brought my hunter, who had never done it before.

It's always really interesting to see a fight one knows as a different role. I've brought Losse in as a healer before, and Mel, to (obviously) DPS. But an average DPS is different than being a tank for whatever-that-guy-is-that-sheeps. Got the High King down in two minutes, went to Gruul himself, and had no issues on him. Ended up being in the top three of the damage meters on him, getting 1302 DPS. Now I want to know...

SINCE WHEN DID MY BABY HUNTER DO 1302 DAMAGE, SINGLE TARGET?!

She's beast master, and wearing mostly epics from Kara, with a Brewfest trinket, her Violet Signet, and her one remaining trinket and ring being green. And she was doing more sustained DPS than my mage, who is slightly better geared.

And didn't have mana issues. My mage, when I tested her out later that night on the test dummies, does 1266 DPS over the span of 2.65 minutes, then she ran out of mana. I can push it up to 1300.9 in haste gear, but it means, instead of 133 hit, I have 80. Hunters are OP, non?

About the same result occurred in Mag's, and I walked away with nothing but amazement at my hunter's DPS.

-sniffle- My nubface hunter is no longer a huntard! [Until I manage to break my own trap again, that is!]

Afterwords, my Pet Tree, my favorite Aussie, and a guildie I haven't grouped with in ages went to Headless Horseman, and we switched out toons so that all three of my characters went, the Aussie brought two of his, the guildie also brought two of his, and the pet tree got to bask in all of the summons.

The pet dropped while I was on Mel, and I won it. Darn it, wrong toon though! Other than that, we saw the same three rings drop, most of which I got last year. Disappointing!

The Aussie had one or two more AVs left until he got his healing boots (having recently switched to resto from being elemental), and, so, I accompanied him after making the Pet Tree go to bed. (I'm... somewhat convincing. My method isn't as... curious as two of my friends, though. One will count sheep, and the other will sing the "go the sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep now, Liiiiin" song. I just pester them to go to bed until they do -- Pet Tree hasn't slept for twenty-four hours or so, which is why I forced him).

Alliance on Feathermoon normally don't suck at AV... but last night, it was just painful. Utterly steamrolled, and it took forever as well. There was a lot of fighting, and the Frostwolf Graveyard just wouldn't stay ours... but we got him that honor, and his boots.

Then I went and splurged, and brought two new shinies to play with for the mage: some pantaloons and a brand new neck piece, bringing her, in her haste gear, up to 173 haste. 2.25 Frostbolts, and 1.88 Frostbolts with Icy Veins.

Delicious.

Then a bit more screwing around doing absolutely nothing, then bed. It will probably be one of the most chaotic and fulfilling nights that I will have this week.

Except for Friday, but that's coming up later.

[ RPJournal: Kanta ] :: A Great Change

Parting, parting! Oh, she was quite tired of her hair. For years, she had worn it the same way; a plain part in the middle, and the rest of it free-flowing. However, ever since she had started her travels, she'd noticed the others: others who had more life in their hair. No matter what she did, though, no matter how much she fluffed it, her hair just. Wouldn't. Stay. However, never had she had the urge to visit the small barber shops, and, therefore, had kept it the same.

Until recently, of course. Then, circumstances rose that made her change her mind... although, she wouldn't have chosen it to occur that way.

Western Plague Lands: A month ago.

She had been combating the plagued creatures of Western Plaguelands. The whole of the land made her skin crawl; the disease, the corruption... even the air was changed up there. The voices that called to her, while they still answered her call, felt changed. As a shaman, she knew the balance of nature and of the Elements, and, to her, there was more chaos than normal, an offset of that balance. She hated it, and the more time she was spending in those lands, the more conflicted, the more moody she got. But it was a duty bestowed upon her by the Argent Dawn, and by the Cenarion Circle, to end the lives of the plagued beasts and to free them. Return the balance of the land...

It was one of those plagued creatures that did it. She understood their pain; as a shaman, she was granted power over most diseases, but this was not a disease she knew how to cure. The plague made muscles stiffen, and for the flesh to rot -- a very painful process, the Elements tell her. Despite their pain, they had not been too far gone to defend themselves; their claws still hurt, and their bites still required bandaging. She had been slow -- too distracted, too haunted, and too darned slow -- and it got her. A claw managed to reach her face, and she had been overwhelmed by pain, wheeling back and somehow landing a lucky, crushing blow on the bear's skull as she flailed about.

Pain. It was all she had been able to feel; the voices of the Elements still spoke to her, but she couldn't hear them over the overwhelming, agonizing pain. Through one eye, she could see the waves of blood that was gushing down from her hands... the hands that were holding the left side of her face. It was unlike any pain she had previously experienced: her wounds always hurt, yes, but most times she was able to think through the pain long enough to ask Nature to heal her wounds. But this!

Slowly, Water's clarity got through to her, and she was able to see past the pain long enough to seek its restorative qualities, and the pain started to recede. She knew, innately, that something was wrong; there had been far too much pain for it to be a normal scratch, and, through her constant honing of her skills, and, through it, the familiarity with her body, there was an offset of balance. There was little pain now, but her vision...

Tentatively, she raised her fingers to her left eye... and paused as they reached scarred skin and... nothing.

Nothing.

Fear clawed at her. She was a fighter, one that took full advantage of all that her body and the power the Elements offered her and merged them together to form a deadly force. Without an eye, however, her depth perception would be off, her peripheral vision would fail her, at least, on that side...

She had to get out of there; the fresh blood was attracting unwanted attention from the nearby wildlife...

Away she had gone, to Shattrath, then back to the land of her roots, in Azuremyst Isle. There, she consulted with her mentor, a priestess that had taken her in many years ago, sometime after the Crash and her loss of memory. It was there that she had taken time to listen to the Elements, relearn all that she knew, adjust to her new disadvantage, and had to become comfortable with herself and her image once more. She finally allowed herself to go to a stylist, and it took all of the resolve she gained from Earth to endure the stares she got, both from the stylist, and the other customers in the shop. But the deed was done: it was cut stylishly to cover her left eye, and the rest of it coming to a neat V resting on her back. The right side, she tucked behind her ear, emphasizing the contrast of the dark and the blue points. She spent much of the time when she wasn't out with the Elements, or with the priestess, in front of the mirror, practicing and learning just how to manipulate both the light and her hair to her fullest advantage, working on how to hide her eye from view.

A month later, the priestess felt that Kanta was ready to go back into the world and resume her given duties. While she felt confident enough in her abilities to hide her disfigurement and knew that she could fight almost as well as anyone who had command of both of their eyes, now, she was reluctant to leave. It was the stares, the questions, that she feared. But, with the urging of the priestess, she left her home once more. The Elements continued to whisper guidance and comfort to her, and there was a light breeze floating around her, giving her the courage to return to the Plaguelands. Her head was held high as she made her return, her one good eye daring anyone who gave her a second look to ask just why she had gone missing, to ask why that side of her face was covered.

She had a duty to do, and, no matter how uncomfortable she may feel, she knew that she had to persist, and that, over time, her discomfort would fade away into pride.

Yes, it was time for a change, a new start...

[ Writing ] :: Against a Brick Wall

Once again, another post with NaNo on my mind. The date is pressing ever closer, and I find myself thinking quite a bit about the novel, and how much I'm going to enjoy bashing my head in writing. Along with that thought, I've been messing around a lot with StumbleUpon, finding lots of fun little distracting websites, and browsing the NaNo forums.

Sounds busy, doesn't it?

Not really, considering I've been holding Aussie hours (so a friend teases) and staying up anywhere between four to nine-thirty Mountain time to chat with Aussies. [Hey, what can I say? There's a certain Aussie I love chatting with!]

I realized that every writer (blogger as well!) will sometimes come upon a brick wall and need something -- anything! -- relieve them of that awful block they may have. How does one counteract it?

I know, for myself, I take a break. I read something else, I play WoW to find more inspiration (which, as you can tell, doesn't seem to work too well, does it?), or I go find humorous articles... so, amidst my stumbling, I've come across lists, articles, and pictures that I find amusing/clever/creative, and sites meant to stimulate the writer, and I thought I'd share them.

Humorous/Clever/Creative/Overall-WOW!-ing... Meaning, distractions!:

• Store Names and Phrases: Just think about these for a few seconds...
  
• Analogies: Lookin' for an analogy? I don't suggest using these, made by high-school students, but they're good for a laugh!
  
• Teaching and Murphy's Law: Sure, we aren't all teachers... but this is Murphy's Law, and, therefore, will probably be true. If not, they're at least amusing!
  
• "Interactive Drawings": Where one's work may not just be that...
• 30 books before you're 30!: As if you didn't have enough to do between WoWing, looking at WotLK stuff, blogging, your own life... [And NaNo!] Here's a list of decent books that someone suggested for reading!
  
• Adorable Kitties: Just 'cause they're adorable.
  
• Make Your Own Snowflakes!: I spent the better part of a class period playing with this one. Create your own snowflake, then have them animate it, pause it, and add more to it. See what pretty designs you can come up with!

Music!


• Pandora: Looking for a certain style of songs based off of some of your favorites? Pandora is a good place for exploring new music.
  
• Project Playlist: Build a playlist of your favorite songs, or just browse for a single song!
  
• Musicovery: Don't really have a song you really want to listen to, or even a certain style? Choose by moods instead!

Now, for the stuff that pertain more to writing!

• Japanese Blood Types: Once again, I'm showing my strangeness for character development. This site intrigues me, and helps me put a personality to character-less names that I have sitting around!
  
• Gems! One and Two and Three: I have to admit: I like gems. And jewelry. And giving them a particular meaning -- many of my characters wear jewelry, and they are important to the character, or to the story... so I like to make sure the gems themselves mean something, thus these two sites.
  
• Colors!: Colors, too, hold importance, and, sometimes, it may be good to put a certain color in and not just be picking a random color and going with it. Have it mean something... and find the meanings here.
  
• Mythology: Now, if you don't happen to have a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology on hand [or are looking up mythology not pertaining to Greek, Roman, and Norse myths], this website may come in handy!
  
• Writerisms: Overused/misused phrases/words?: Some things to keep in mind while writing! [I would also suggest Woe is I by Patricia T. O'Connor for a quick reference to grammar in a fun way. She also encompasses overused phrases and misused words.]
• Writer's Block? Dial a number!: One of my newest discoveries. Push a number, and they'll give you a situation, a character, a verb... something that might just help you get past that tricky wall!
  
• Rhetoric Terms: All right, I'll admit, this doesn't quite have much to do with anything, except, perhaps, your writing style, and if you wanted to put a name on a particular way you've writing something as an example. If someone told you that the part you wrote was strange, you can tell them that, no, it wasn't really. It was meant to be that way, and the style of that block of writing is called an anaphora, and it's used to emphasize an idea. And, it's fun!

There we go. Hopefully, these links will not only provide a guidance and serve as a muse-prodder [purposefully not a word!], but also be at least entertaining and distracting to give that hardworking muse a break!

Good luck in the writing!