Huh

It occurs to me that I just made three long posts to describe what is essentially a music festival.

Go me.
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Not WoW, part three

So what? I'm a believer in synchronicity. I don't know what it means, but I believe it exists. Concurrent with my weekend adventure in Real Life (but not the Real World), was the Penny Arcade Expo. Many of the people in what I tend to think of as my tribe are probably heading home from it now. PAX has likely turned into the biggest video game convnention in the country since the demise if E3. Pretty impressive considering it was started by two nerds who make a web comic.

So on the other side of the country, in Seattle, were My People gathered for their largest meeting of the keyboards. Gamers. What an odd lot we are. From the acne covered kid with coke bottle glasses, to the Bud swilling fistpounding frat boy who likes to frag "fags" in Halo. All of them hanging out, shooting each other with pixels, and oggling booth babes.

Given the choice (and honestly, the expense would have been roughly the same), I think I'd rather be here with the Boomers, Yuppies, and Hippies. At least for the weekend. A good chunk of Tribe Nerd would likely think me cookoo bananas for that. So it goes.

Why have I been thinking about this crap so much? Well, I've had time and, I am a lousy meditator. My brain never calms down. Also, with the exception of a couple of phone calls, I've barely talked in going on three days. One thing I notice whenever I spend a time not talking is that very little of what I say is very important. I've found most of what I've used my voice for (aside froim chanting) is social politeness. Thank you, excuse me, would you like me to move? Its rather startling to me how important these polite terms are. It probably keeps us from punching each other in the face regularly. But that's too much drift for even a poorly thought out and unproofed blog post (I KNEW there was a reason I stopped doing this years ago).

This time on my hands with a rushing brain put a question in my head: could video game playing be considered a meditative practice?

I believe, in certain cases, yes.
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Not WoW, part two

This folks in the office said my checkout time today is 1pm, but the sign in my room says I have to have all my stuff packed and out of the room by 9am, eh. I packed everything up and left it IN my room. The regular program goes until 2pm or so today, with a lot of extra stuff going well into the evening. I can't imagine they expected folks to just pile all their crap willy nilly around the center. some of these people brought a LOT of crap.

Speaking of crap. There are some things I will certainly bring next year, like herbal cough drops and a small bag of some kind to put Important Crap in (keys, wallet, phone). Maybe a travel mug so I can expand my coffee consumption to beyond the dining hall.

Soon after I got here my wife was helping me carry my crap up the hill to my room, and she observed all the Boomers here. By evening I could toss people into one of three catagories: Boomer, Yuppie, Hippie. I personaly don't fit in any of them. Though, to be fair, most of the people here probably don't think they do either.

The Boomers are the ex-hppies who consumed a pharmacy worth of chemicals in the 60s and 70s, thinking it was going to expand their minds and enlighten them, or something. They've been following this kind of stuff for a good chunk of their lives, and many of them seem to be the real deal. You can tell it isn't a fad for them, but a real devotional practice that has deepened with years of experience. You can see it right on their faces. They're ... happy.

Nice folks but, not my tribe.

The Yuppies are. Well I don't know that yuppie is the best word for them. Most of them are technically Boomers too but its best not to get TOO complicated. I'm trying to make Broad Generalizations About People I Don't Even Know. Best keep it simple eh? The Yuppies are, in large part, downstate women with too much disposable income and nothing to do. How many times did I overhear the answer to "where do you live?" as "Wes-Chess-Tah." Oy vey. And they won't ... Stop ... Talking. Susie from Bed-fahd's broker husband is going to have his jaw broken to correct an overbite because "he's so wrapped up in an ego phase. His ego is just really out there right now." Molly from Jersey finds "aruveyda is really good the bowel." Oy vey.

DEFINATELY not my tribe.

The Hippies are, well, hippies. They are the new kids who will probably be like the Boomers in 20 years. Right now they are very in to being different. Many of them are likely either the children of Boomers, or grew up in a Bible thumping home, or most likely come from childhoods where questions like god, existence, and the nature of the soul just ... weren't talked about. They are a little over eager to show how IN to it all they are.

Good kids. Not my tribe.

So, what then?
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Not WoW

I knew when I started this nonsense, I'd sooner or later start making posts that have nothing to do with WoW. Well, I guess it is sooner.

I have not been playing much. RL stuff has kept me out of every Newbian Archie hit and Black Temple for roughly a month. They have the front three of BT down! Sheesh!

People say 'RL stuff' and others frequently assume it's something bad. I am guilty of this myself. "I hope that RL stuff works out okay" isn't an uncommon phrase. The RL stuff I have been busy with is just that; I'm busy. Most of this summer has been pretty laid back. Usually we've got like 15 things schedualed to do every weekend in the summer. It's do this do that nonstop until work on Monday. I've enjoyed just being able to chill this year and do the things I'm supposed to get done on the weekends in my own sweet time. (Mostly)

This weekend I've been in what most folks in New York consider 'upstate,' but this Albany immigrant (I'm from Michigan (as are, strangely, many people I raid with)) can't see how anything only an inch north of NYC on a map can be considered 'up' in a state as big as NY. As far as I'm concerned, Upstate NY STARTS in Albany. So there.

So anyway, I'm at a retreat center BETWEEN Albany and NYC. It's a hippy dippy spiritual retreat type place with a fairly heavy Hindu focus (though there is a small Buddha statue behind where I'm sitting in the garden). This weekend is their yearly Kirtan retreat, and I am here. Kirtan is a hindu practice of chanting certain mantras in repetition. It is supposed to be more effective in groups of people, and I'd have to agree with that. Even setting aside cosmic or supernatural significance, the energy of 500 people in a room singing is amazing.

So I've been chanting the various revealed names for three days on and off, some times for two hours or more at a strech. Namah, Krishna, Ram, Gopala, Kali, Govinda, Shivaya, etc, etc, repeat, rinse, repeat; and I'm ready to back to the Real World.

Ah! I see what I did there.

I have referred to this retreat as an RL activity to folks I game. And now I'm calling the universe outside the Omega Institute the Real World, interesting.

Layers.

Onions.
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Pink Poofy Haired Death

I mean Death Knight, not just Death :-)

Ok, the real question about Death Knights is:

What percentage of the alliance DKs are going to be pink poofy haired female gnomes.

I know mine will be. At least they will be if it's possible, but either way, as brightly colored and as poofy as I can make em.

Now I'm not some sort of perky goth, I'm not even a goth. Heck, you ask Skroo, I'd bet he'd say I'm more of a redneck, who listens to punk and death metal, but still a redneck.

So what's the appeal of a tiny poofy haired gnome?

In my case, it's that it never gets old. Seeing a small ball of terror run across the screen never loses it's appeal.

"Roughing it"

Car camping. Do people in the world besides North Americans do this? You pack your car full of crap, then put a tent next to your car, and essentially live out of you car for a few days. Well, that's what I'm doing right now.

Kael is done. We have put that bitch to rest and are now working on Archie and the front part of BT. Or rather, the rest of the Newbians are doing this. I've got crap going on every weekend for the next two months or so. Maybe most of the bad Archie wipes will be over by then. Anyway, WAR starts next month and I have a feeling most of my game time will get sucked into that.
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Death Knights

Ok, the real question on the minds of everyone who plays, and can make a Death Knight when WotLK comes out is:

Do I level my highest toon to 80 or play a Death Knight.

My answer: All four.

I'm going to level my Druid and Gnome to 80 on Dark Iron, my main server.*

However, I'm also going to level a pair of Death Knights on another server where a different set of friends play. The only question remaining is whether they both will be female gnomes with poofy hair. It's assured both will be gnomes, but I might make one male.

So, when I'm ganked to death by all the arena uber-super-grand-masters leveling in Northrend, in their "gank-suits," I'll pop over to my other friends PVE server and level a pair of DK's.


*I have two accounts , two computers, and I dual-box.