David: iMac For Sale

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Hey, who wants my iMac? $1,000.

Surely someone'll take me up on that. Maybe I'll try Craig's List...

David: God Damn You Blizzard

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Wrath of the Lich King

David: The Drama of WoW and Why I'm Quitting for Real This Time

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The Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft was enough to draw me back to the game's venomous maw. I'd always wanted to check out the Horde side of the game, and Blood Elves seemed like a cool race. I talked a buddy of mine into signing back up, and we charged once more into the game, starting over at level 1 with no assets.

We're both casual gamers with demanding jobs and family lives. As such, we decided to avoid joining any guilds, and just try to keep up with each other, running instances if time allowed. We broke this rule around level 40, joining a small guild, and quickly regretted it. A couple days in, we ditched, and continued going it on our own.

One of the problems with being guild free is that you constantly get guild invites. To combat this, we formed our own little guild, with a total of 3 members. This was the way it was until I hit level 70.

Then I started getting all worked up about playing the endgame again. In order to facilitate this, I once again joined a guild.

I have spent several hours over the past month playing World of Warcraft, running instances, getting gear, levelling professions, etc. I played nearly every night. A couple of those nights were fun.

For the past week however, real life (mostly my home purchase) hasn't allowed me enough time to play and spend time with my wife and daughter, so I haven't been playing.

Last night, I decided to log in real quick just to see if I had any in game mail or if previously mentioned friend was playing. Turns out, I logged in right in the middle of some guild drama.

Apparantly, the guild I was in was a franchise, with several guilds bearing its name on other servers. The player who brought this name to our server was leaving to join another guild, and "taking the name with him". I asked my wife if she wanted to hear some really nerdy shit, and she shrugged apathetically, so I logged into the Ventrillo server and turned up the speakers.

Believe me when I say, it was nerd-tastic. The highlight was when one of the female players began to give a speech which included such phrases as "I'm willing to [play] for 8 hours every night, but I need that same commitment from you guys" (seriously?) and "I'm so tired of all this bullshit and drama".

That's when I realized the fundamental difference between me and the rest of these people (who were agreeing with her). I viewed it as a game to play when there was nothing better to do, and had fun playing it. They view it as a job, with payment being virtual gear. These were the people that were supporting the gold farmers, paying real world dollars for virtual currency.

Everybody needs a hobby, and theirs is WoW. Mine is gaming in general, and I've got an attention starved Wii sitting in the living room.

So once and for all, I bid adieu to MMOs past, present, and future. I'll not be back your way again.

David: Inappropriate Content

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I have flagged this as inappropriate content on Picasa.

Mostly due to the hat.

David: The Identity Swap

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Let's be honest, that handle was getting tired, and I'm a lot less funny than it implied.

Besides, any anonymity that it once offered had been blown away long ago.

Pictures of our new abode will be forthcoming. We've just entered into the contract, and won't be closing until early September. I'm having inspections done this Thursday.

Oh, and Sage is 1 now. We had her birthday party on Sunday at this place, which was fun. Our apartment is full of toys now which only underscores the necessity for a bigger dwelling. I've got some video of her eating cake, which I'll share later (which, if you know me, probably means never as actually going through the process of downloading media from devices and then uploading it to my webserver is usually beyond the limits of desire for me).