Catch-Up

Science has shown that today will be the unhappiest day of the year. Buck up, kids, it can only improve from here.



Things around this part of the world have been either quiet (home) or busy (work) so there either hasn't been much to say or not enough time to say anything anyway.

I've actually been making progress on my clean-and-tidy resolutions, though I haven't achieved perfection yet. I console myself with the knowledge that as mere mortal, I'm not expected to be perfect and continue soldiering on. I have so far been good at my 'knit a little bit on something every day' resolution, mostly alternating between Calla (in 'Pink Pearl' Elann Sonata ) and a Girly Bag (in black Berrocco Glacé, with appleblossom print fabric to be the lining and black bamboo handles). Calla requires concentration (I grabbed the charts into another file, blew them up big before printing, and am using a cross-stitch magnet board to keep my place); Girly Bag does not. I will note that Glacé twists up like nothing I have ever knit before -- I have to drop the work and let the excess twist spin out after every row. Ugh. However, handbags are exactly the right thing to make out of rayon ribbon. Sonata is looking great with the cables in Calla, very crisp and clean. I like it.

And yes, WoW, and yes, Burning Crusade, though I'd be happier about that if my dsl had not been so flaky this last week. The Viking says he has seen trucks in the neighbourhood and it appears work is being done on the lines (there are a couple houses under construction) so perhaps it will stabilise soon. I would likely have both my 60s to 61 if I hadn't spent more time with blinking lights on my modem than actually being in game since Tuesday. But I am not rushing to the new level cap, and I also plan to roll one of each of the new races and play them to at least level 20 to see those new zones. I realised, in the long wait between reaching 60 and the arrival of new non-raid content that what I really enjoy about RPGs in general and WoW in particular is questing and exploring and seeing new things. Now there is quite a bit of new stuff to see and explore and quest through, and for which I do NOT need the aid of 39 other people, so I intend to take my time and have fun. Games are supposed to be fun, right?

My server is one of the ones under threat of being split if the population problems continue; I think this is more about bad planning or lack of attention on Blizzard's part than anything. The server in question is one of the ones that's been open since the original release, it's had population size issues (and related queueing problems) in the past. At one time new account creation was disabled on the server, and when they opened paid transfers, it was not originally available as a destination realm. Both those control measures were relaxed, though, and the population spiked again. Now we're offered free transfers to other servers and waiting for the axe to fall. The raid alliance is a little stressed out about this, but there's not much we can do right now, other than agree that if/when (we are betting it's when) the split happens, we make a decision about where to go and all pick the same place.

On the other hand, by pure coincidence (I think) the free-transfer destination server that was offered for my main realm was the same as the destination realm for the server the Viking had his hordelings on, so we moved all our hordelings to the same new server (Farstriders (RP) -- anyone else moving their hordelings there?) and he found a guild for us within 24 hours of landing, so I think that will be a good thing. And if the guild doesn't work out, well, at least we have each other there.

There's also been some cooking and kitchen thinking and planning; I have goals to try more recipes this year than I did last and also to plan and execute some menus around the Imbolc, Beltain, Lugnasadh and Samhain festivals. Nothing there is quite ready to be unveiled yet, but the Imbolc project is making good progress.