Yikes! Tempus Fugit

OGM it's been a week and it's not like I haven't been playing. I did download the PTR 3.1 patch. I did copy the mage and hunter to the PTR. I even logged in once with the mage, set my talents and paid 1,000g to dual spec. Then I sat there and wondered what I wanted to do with that second spec. Do I want a PvP build? A PvE raiding build? Oh wait I'm not in a guild that raids (either character), so scratch that idea. So... I logged out. Bye-bye PTR, see ya soon.

Hunter bails out of the dead guild and joins another guild. This guild has people logged in! That's a nice change. Not the most chatty guild, but its only been a couple of days. Got my cat leveled to 75, then got the gorilla leveled to 75. The hunter is almost level 76 (98.7% or under one bar). Ran out of time Sunday to push her over the top.

The mage continues to stay in a dying guild. The tank left and took all of his alts. Not the first time this guy has bailed out of a guild for unknown reasons. I still have a couple of friends in the guild, but I figure that sooner or later we will all leave. It's just who decides to go first. Probably wont be me. Managed to grab a couple of achievements this week. Got The Snows of Northred which completed the Hemet Nesingwary: The Collected Quests. I'm trying to find the quest line that will start the FrenzyHeart Tribe/Oracles faction grinds. Somehow it has been eluding me. There is some quest line that I haven't done that will open this up, but darned if I can find it. /sigh

Sad state of affairs

The mage and the hunter are both in guilds that are very disappointing. There are times when there are at most four people logged in. And I'm one of the four! Usually there is only one other person signed on while I'm playing. The really bad news for me is that I fell into these guilds by accident, therefor I have no real idea of how to find a "good" guild. When I read other blogs, like BigRedKitty, Lienna's Log, or Crittical QQ I get to see how much fun they're having and I am not. Jealous? Oh you bet! Now I have to face the fact that I will have to do things that I really don't like to do in order to find and join new guilds. Just like in real life, I have stayed at the same job for almost twenty years because I can't stand to do job interviews. So I really don't want to answer those interview questions good guilds make you answer. I could join one of those guilds that advertise in-game that they are looking for new members, but I think that I would have to be very lucky not to end up in a drama filled guild or worse. In chess this is called zugzwang. More to follow...

Hail to the Chef

I have wanted to earn the achievement Hail to the Chef since I first got to Dalaran and did my first WotLK cooking daily. I saved up my cooking awards and build up my supply of Northern Spices. Then last weekend I started buying several of the new cooking recipes then headed out to collect the materials. Each day I would knock several of them out. Finally it was down to Gigantic Feast as the only reliable way to gain cooking levels. This last Sunday I decided that I going to push my cooking to 450, get the Fish Feast and complete the achievement. I headed on out to Borean Tundra and fish up the Deep Sea Monsterbelly and Rockfin Grouper. Then I slaughter a whole lot of mammoths. All told I have enough to create ten Gigantic Feast. It's a yellow item and I should get a skill up 75% of the time. I need six to get to 450, so my math says i should reach 450 without any problems. Guess again! Ten tries and I get 4 skill ups. Pfft! So you know, out I go again to collect the necessary materials and the second time around I get my two skill ups on four tries (I had collected enough mats for six). Learn the Fish Feast and cook it up (I had the mats from all the fishing I had already done) and BAM! I have earned the title Chef.