"For the Horde!" Not So Much.

World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King came out last week. I had scheduled myself basically a week off of school to powerlevel my shaman on the horde side (one of two main factions in the game) to level 80, thereby giving me the ability to then play as I could. Once you reach the level cap the game can be much more casual. Well, a week later I was only level 76. And you know what?

It wasn’t really fun anymore.

It felt like a job. Got to get to 80 so I can keep doing my thing, not because I want to. So after a week of playing my Shaman, I hopped over to the alliance side (the other faction), where all of my real-life friends play. It’s a close group of people that started out as me, Dave, and Jason, friends from my freshman year (and Jason’s wife, Lora the Maker of Gloriously Great Cookies—she sent me some last week trying to cure me of my “Hordeliness”) and has grown into a decent little group of about 10 or so players. I’m the leader of our little team (which in turn is part of a much larger guild) and we have done very very well in game progression. (Quick explanation: you can just play by yourself until you hit the highest level, but to progress from there you need to do things that require a group). For those who know what this means, we cleared a Zul’Aman timed run our second time in the zone—and yes it was after Patch 3.0 but I’m still impressed we did it at all. While playing with them this weekend I realized that I was having a significantly more fun time over on that side.

So with heavy heart, I wrote my class leader and guild leaders over in the Squirrel Legion to let them know that I will no longer be raiding (raids are the biggest groups, dungeons that require 10 or 25 people to complete) with the Squirrels. I simply don’t have time to play all my characters in two guilds and maintain two raiding schedules, and besides I would rather play with my real-life friends. That’s why I started playing in the first place—to play with friends. But all my real-life friends from the Horde side pretty much quit playing years ago.

So I am retiring my horde characters from full-time raiding. Oh sure, I’ll still play them, probably even raid a bit here and there as I can, and I’ll still be a member of the Squirrel Legion, many of whom I do consider friends, but my focus in-game will be on my Alliance characters.

So thank you to the Squirrel Legion for 3 years of WarCraft. I still remember the Day that Rob invited me and how excited I was to join up—I was doing the Christmas season Greench quest in the Alterac Mountains when I was invited.

Thanks to Allan, Steve, and Chris for introducing me to the game in the first place.

Thanks to Jeremy, Cheryl, Rob, Kimball, and Adam for all being wonderful guild leaders.

Thanks to Kelli, Tom, Mike, and Cindy for all being great class leaders.

Thanks to the warlocks for putting up with me not being such a great class leader for like, a month.

Thanks to Christian for providing my Yale foil, you Harvard scum you!

Thanks to Ben for providing, well, I’m not sure what I can classify it as. Persecution? “Awww, Mormon tears.” Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

And thanks to everybody else who has been or is a member of the Squirrel Legion. Raiding with you has been so hilarious at times, from the days in Molten Core where we tried to blow up Cheryl, where Pete yells “I regret nooooothing!” over Ventrilo as he charges in, to drunken Zul’Gurub, to my warlock tanking Leotheras the Blind (most nerve-wracking thing I’ve done in-game—praying the whole time that I wouldn’t flub it up and get us all killed), to the total chaos that is the Kil’Jaeden fight. Though at this point I will have more fun on the alliance side and am switching my focus accordingly, I still have a very large screenshot file of all the hilarity and success that has been Squirrel Legion raiding for the past few years. And I will not be a stranger.

From Onyxia . . .


to Kil’Jaeden the Deceiver (hopefully we’ll go back and kill him, and I’ll get to come, but that’s up to the GLs) . . .



it’s been quite a ride. Thank you.

Gettin' Skinny Update

Well, it took a little bit longer than I expected, but I’m now up to running two times a week for 60 minutes each time and three times a week I do 100 pushups and 200 crunches. I intend now to split up the running in to three 40 minute sessions (so the same total amount of time broken up into smaller runs), and then up the running by about 5-10 minutes each session per week, meaning in about 3 weeks or so I’ll have reached my initial goal of running 60 minutes, three times a week.

As far as the weight goes, I’ve lost 10 pounds since the beginning of the semester. My end goal for the year is about 10 pounds away.
10 pounds to go, and about a month and a half to do it. Rawr.

Further Reading on Stretching, That I Ignore Because My Calves are So Ridiculously Tight

Veteran's Day

Thank you.

A Message for My Fellow Voters

I Endorse Barack Obama

There. I said it. I would rather Obama win. Yet, I’m generally a Republican—small government is good, I’m socially conservative, etc. Why on earth would a person like me want Obama to win?

Simply put, there are a few reasons why, I think for at least 4 years, I would rather have a Democratic President. I should start by saying that I really liked George Bush. I was even at the Iowa Straw Poll in 1999 my senior year of high school. Despite the fact that I was there working for Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, I voted for Bush after hearing his speech. Bush represented what I liked about the Republican party—small government, lower taxes, sensible foreign policy, fiscal conservatism.

Something has gone terribly wrong in these past 8 years.

With regard to the rule of law, civil rights, due process, etc. Bush has been a disaster. FISA and warrantless wiretapping, Guantanamo Bay, rendition, torture, signing statements, and a contempt for oversight and accountability—no self-respecting American should be comfortable with any of these. And of the two candidates, Obama has the more consistently spoken out and opposed these measures. McCain tried once on the torture issue, but then he caved. I’m not a one-issue voter, but this is by far the one that weighs the most heavily on my mind. I like my checks and balances and is one of the major reasons I like the Republicans—the smaller the government, the harder it is to take away basic rights. To Bush’s credit, I love his Supreme Court nominees.

I liked Obama more at the beginning of his campaign. I even donated to it, twice. (The second time was to get my name in a “raffle” to have dinner with the senator, which I obviously didn’t win. But the chance alone was worth $15.) His speech on race was full of nuance and thoughtfulness, something I’ve found sorely lacking in the Bush years and for me was a moment of strong self-reflection on my own attitudes to race. Then two weeks after that speech, in which he said he would not abandon his pastor, he threw his pastor under the bus. That’s when he lost my full support. In short, Obama has not lived up to his rhetoric in ways that he could have.

However, McCain has not lived up to his rhetoric either. The biggest example of this is his selection of Sarah Palin. I think that was a big mistake. I don’t care about her experience—did George W. Bush have lots of foreign policy experience when he took office? Will Obama? I do care that she is so rabidly pro-life that even I cringe. I do care that she takes a pot shot at “fruit fly research” to mock science research spending. I do care that she totally screws up an interview and then blames the mainstream media. I do care that SNL doesn’t even have to change her own words to be a punchline. I do care that she appears to be positioning herself for a run in 4 years, something you absolutely should not, under any imaginable circumstances, do until, you know, after the votes have been counted. McCain’s choice of her was pandering to the right-wing in the party, and since this election appears to be about swing voters that was a tactical error. McCain has also been running an overly negative campaign, and it’s fueled some fires I don’t think should be fueled. I liked the “straight-talk-express” McCain more than whatever he’s morphed into, and I think he’s fallen more than Obama has. And he has a trophy wife.

Then there’s the fact that I would rather see Obama win because of the side-effects. I work with 3rd graders in a lower-income neighborhood in D.C. They’re all black. The idea that they could wake up Wednesday and say, “No seriously, I could be president one day!” is a marvelous thought. I also think that Obama could do substantially more to rebuild our bridges with the world leaders that Bush has done such a fabulous job burning down. Yeah, Bush’s walk of foreign policy sure wasn’t like his talk back in 1999. Also, for all the young voters that Obama has energized, all the millions of people that have donated to his campaign, a defeat might be a blow to them that would take a while to recover from. “Well, we tried the little man’s way and it didn’t work. It’s still business as usual in Washington.”

So, overall, I’m more in favor of Obama. And all the polls seem to indicate that on Wednesday, we will have elected our first African-America president in history. A big leap for America, no doubt. I do hope that the Democrats do not win the house and the senate as well with filibuster-proof majorities. That would not be ideal as I do like checks and balances, which is one of the reasons I’ve come to be vastly uncomfortable with how Bush has handled things.

So what will the Republicans do after the Democrats wipe the floor with them?

What I hope doesn’t happen to the Republicans.

What I hope does happen to the Republicans, another reason I would like to see Obama win. Go back to your corner, party of Bush, and think long and hard about what went wrong—then fix it.

But this all may be premature. Tuesday night will be interesting, no doubt. But either way—McCain or Obama, the universe will not come to a grinding halt. Wednesday will come after Tuesday, and then Thursday, and then Friday. Life will go on. Don’t panic. And yes, the picture at the top of this entry is meant to make you smile—apparently Obama has the tautologist swing voters locked down.

Halloween Costume

Usually I don't spend all that much time on a Halloween costume, throwing something together at the last minute. However, when my 6'8" roommate suggested we costume up as a team this year, and when he told me his suggestion, I had to do it.
Special thanks goes to to Russ's Cousin's Wife, Melissa, for helping with the sewing.

Without further adieu, I give you the Jolly Green Giant (Russ Bowers) and Little Sprout (me).