Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Life


This isn't a post that I'd normally put into this blog, as it has nothing to do with my travels, either in the real world or in Norrath. It does however involve a friend. A close friend from college who spent a lot of time with me exploring other worlds, such as Happy MUD.
Isis (her favorite toon name) and I roomed together one year in college. We had so much fun together. January of 2005 she got married to Marcus. We were all so happy for them, as we never thought we'd see the day Isis would 'commit' (she had a lot of fear of this...). Back at the beginning of the month she'd sent out an email announcing she'd be in New York for a few days and that, by the way, in January, a baby would be born.
Today, I got very sad news. Isis had a miscarriage. I hurt for her because I love her. I hurt because I know how very much she, and Marcus, wanted this baby. She wants a house full of babies. I also hurt because no mater how much I love her I can't do a damn thing for her. Not only because she lives in California, but because there is nothing you can say or do that will make her hurt less.
I'm sorry for the downer, but I needed to get this out. Isis is strong and Marcus loves her to the ends of the earth and back. They will get through this.
Peace and hugs to all my friends in Norrath and beyond.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Key West Wrapup


Actually, this was farewell to the Conch Republic (aka Key West), as I was looking out the plane window before we took off.
Friday night was a blast. Treats met me at the theater for Rocky Horror. We did dress up. Treats has this GREAT outfit. I had to make due with what I could scrounge toghether. When we went shopping on Tuesday, I found some neat stuff, but it just didn't work with the shoes I had... and other things. *sigh*A scary guy asked her if she was going to work on her short walk to the theater. Was kinda creepy. She ignored him and got a cab.
The crowd wasn't as in to it as some nights, but they seemed to have fun none the less. Everyone did a great job. Afterwards, Treats, Rodentia and I went across the street to the Grand for drinks and to hang out with the cast a bit. (I can't remember his name...) The guy who played Eddie is good friends with Treats and Rodentia so we got to talk a bit. Had a great time, but called it a night 'early' because Rodentia was beat and had to work in the morning.
Saturday I had a few hours to kill before heading to the bustling (?) airport. I drove around a bit and went to the beach and talked to my Grandmother. She always gets a kick out of it when I call her from some exotic beach. The rest of the day was uneventfull. I had a wonderful lunch at Blue Haven, as suggested by Rodentia et. al. and caught my flight home.
In the world of Norrath, both Gakumm (my husband) and I left the guilds we had started to hang out with to join Oops. Most of our friends who left the Knighthood had wandered over there and had wonderful things to say. Oops was more than glad to take us all in. It seems like a great group of people who really enjoy the game and eachother. There's lots of (optional) raiding and questing. I think we'll be happy there.
Well, back to the grind. Peace to all my friends in Norrath and beyond.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Working (?) in Key West

Key West. A wonderful place. I came down here to give some training to a station that's being installed. Work? In Key West? Yes, work.
That's not to say I haven't had any fun. I flew in early on purpose. I got about a half day to myself on the island on Wednesday. They I met up with Treats from my old guild. She and the Rat-man live down here. We had a great evening wandering up and down Duval street and going shopping for me for something to wear to Rocky Horror. We're going tonight. The Rat-man is in it. It should be a ton of fun. I hope to have pics to post when I get back... must remember to take the digital with me.....
I've got a little bit of work yet to do before I can have fun for the night. Peace to all.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Immortality?

Last night as I was killing (or trying to kill) prophets in PoF and talking with the Weary Paladin, I get a random tell. Lifeborn tells you Hello.
Ok... I do a quick /who and they're a level 70 from this guild called Immortality. Why are they talking to me?? Turns out they have around 100 players in a social guild but NO Wardens. Wow. We talk for a bit (I die in the middle there). I decide to give them a shot. They seem like an interesting group. There were about 6 or 8 people on last night. I had warm fuzzies talking to Lifeborn. I don't know how it will work out with these guys. Part of me hopes I like them and the size of the guild isn't too big. I was really looking for a smaller guild, too many people and I get shy. They also seem to be based out of Freeport, and while I'm not against the people there, I did leave that city and the Overlord behind long ago...
Since I won't be on again until the weekend, we'll just have to wait and see. It seems like I'm doing that a lot lately.
Peace to all.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Addey the Drowned Ratling

I'm stiff. I'm sore. I had a good time in the woods yesterday.
Yesterday the DVOA meet was at Hickory Run up near the Pocono's. A great park I used to camp at a lot with my Scout troop. Very different terrain than the rest of the parks we usually have events at.
The day started out sunny and warm when we grouped at my friend Uday's house. We decided to carpool since it is about 60 miles or so to the park. As we head north on the Turnpike we're all ignoring the fact that the sky is getting grey and cloudy. When we get to the park, it's grey, windy and a bit on the cool side. Grey is fine. Cool is fine. Windy is OK once you're in the trees. The threat of rain is not smile-making.
We register and try not to freeze in the wind waiting to start. Manju and I were doing Orange, Rich did brown, Rick did Red and Uday did blue.
Start went well. Control 1 went well. Controls 2, 4 and 6 did not. On my way to control 8, I realized I had about 30 minutes to finish and 4 controls plus finish to do. Not going to happen. It also starts to rain. I call it a day and decide that DNF was about as good as I was going to get. So I hike back along the road in the rain. Which stops as I get back to the Start/Finish.
Oh well. It was a fun day anyhow. I wasn't the only one to DNF or have a worse than usual day. Even the best in the club were having problems.

My adventures in Norrath this weekend followed much the same lines as my orienteering. Lots of death, some mayhem. I did get level 51 though! My husband stumbled across a guild and ended up joining them. He says they seem to be really nice people and that I'd probably like them. We'll see. I might try and hook up with some of them tonight. I just can't remember the name of the top of my head. Fools and Heroes or something like that.
Peace to my friends in Norrath and beyond. May you have sunnier skies than I have this past week.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Home?? Where's that??

Tomorrow I get to drive home.
After a 6 or 7 hour training session.
At least I'm going home. It's been over 3 weeks since I spent more than one night in my own bed. I won't get to spend too many there this week though. The end of the week I get the joy of going down to Key West. Yes, Key West. For work. Company airfare paid. Don't hate me.
The sad thing is, as much as I want to go, part of me is screaming "NOOOOO!!! Not another trip!!!" The good news is I hope to catch up with people down there. The other good news is that I get to stay home for two weeks after that. The bad news is my husband can't go with me.

I did have a bit of a revelation on Monday on my drive out here. I would have posted earlier, but tricky connection. I was singing along (out of key) to 'Who says you can't go home' when it struck me. Norrath is my game home. The Knighthood, while being where my 'family' is, was merely a 'house' I'd been living in. I've still got my family, but now I get to find my own place. My husband is wanting to start a guild. Ok. Could be fun. I still have the doubts and questions of before though. We plan on talking about this over the weekend. I'll let ya know what we decide.
I'm hungry and tired. I'm off to find food.
Peace to my friends in Norrath and beyond.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Fun Fun Fun in the PoF

Friday my husband sent me home for the night.
We've been dog/house sitting for friends for over a week and I'd been on the road the entire week before and will be gone almost all of this week. I was burned out, needed to sleep in my own bed and needed some computer time. (He'd stolen some a few days since he didn't have to be in to work until 2:30 or so.)
I get home (*sigh of relief*) and put some food on to cook. I boot up the computer and dial the modem. Ahhh... The addict can finally get a fix.
And what a fix did I get! I was online for about 3 minutes when Friend Synseer show up on my chat window... and then Friend Treats and Niznusan in close order. Friend Darkmage logs on at some point too.
Next thing I know, I'm grouped with Syn, Charitee and Treats, just like always, having fun and busting butt in Pillars of Flame. The friendships were still there. We still made a very effective killing team. We still had a ton of fun picking on each other. (Syn was spineless. He said so. Oh, wait, he meant he needed a goblin spine...) Holding four tell conversations at once was a little challenging as well, but I did get a chance to catch up with my friends.
We did call it an early night though. Treats was going to meet up with her sweetie and I was falling asleep at the keyboard. (Not a healthy thing for the group when one of the healers is asleep at the wheel...)
Saturday I spent quite a bit of time just fooling around and not really getting very far. Took my Troubadour out for a spin and got her killed a few times.
I really can't wait for this trip to be over so I can spend some quality time with the computer and my friends in Norrath.
I'm off to Pittsburgh (well, near there at any rate) this afternoon.
Take care and peace to all my friends in Norrath and beyond.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

What next?

I haven't posted anything since Monday because I've been trying to figure out 'what's next?'. I still don't have a clue. Maybe I'll get a clue when I log back into the game next (hopefully for a bit on Saturday). Maybe it will all become crystal clear while driving the four hours or so Monday on my way to Pittsburgh. I just don't know right now.
I guess the big question boils down to 'do I want to join another guild?'. The immediate answer is NO! I've joined guilds and clans on many of the online games I've played. It all seems to end the same. Everything goes along fine and then someone says or does something that pisses everyone else off and it's hurt feelings all around and a disbanded group. But.... I really did enjoy this group. There are lots of great people out there in EQII. I've grouped with many, and not all were from my former (that still hurts to type) guild. Then there's always the thought of my husband and I finding another couple of people and starting our own guild. Could we do better as guild leaders? Maybe, maybe not. Would we want to? Maybe, maybe not. How would we run it or recruit? Would we recruit or just (maybe) pick up a few people as time goes by? What right would I have calling myself a leader when I'm gone over half the time? I mean, that is one of the questions I asked my former leader.
I think the best answer for now is... Wait and see. By Memorial Day I'll hopefully have a week at home to get back into the game and see what fits or not.
sorry about rambling on, but I really needed to get these thoughts out and I don't have guild message boards to bounce thoughts off any more.
Peace to my friends in Norrath and elsewhere.

Monday, May 08, 2006

What a weekend!

Well... This weekend was eventful. We're dog and house sitting for friends. Not so bad except for the fact that the dog is a little yapper who likes to wake you up at 3am because she thinks she heard a car/dog/cat/person 3 miles off. Saturday night we went to the Tikki Bar to celebrate a friend's birthday. That was a lot of fun. Sunday... Well... Sunday was big.
Sunday morning I did my usual thing for this time of year... I headed out to the DVOA orienteering meet. Hung out with some friends and completed an Orange level course. It was a good course but long and I was slower than usual. Ok, so far this is normal.
There was an officer meeting for the guild. Some things had been posted on the feedback boards of the guild and tempers were flaring. I admit that it was my husband and I who brought these perceived problems forward. Everything was going well. It sounded like the guild was heading in the direction we thought it always was headed and that some communication issues were being resolved. Yeah! Then the longtime absent and recently returned leader decided he needed to address a few things. Ok.... (this was one of the issues... We felt that after being gone for what appeared to be 4 months, but only 2 according to login records, we didn't like him coming back and immediately making blanket lordship type statements.) Well, unfortunately, tempers got lost and things were said that can never be taken back. It came down to a 'that's the way it is, take it or leave it' statement. In order to preserve peace for the rests of the guild, my husband and I left. It hurt like hell. These people had been our friends for a year now. We're not leaving the game. This is too stupid a reason to leave EQII. Our friends will still talk to us. What will be missed most is the guild chat channel. There were lots of hugs and best wishes and don't leave us behind comments going on in chat as we took our characters out.
I want to take this time to apologize to all my friends in the Knighthood. I really wanted it to work out between Gak, myself and the leader. I felt everything was going to until the end there. I feel as if I let you down, by not keeping my temper or emotions under firmer control.
I will be out of game for the next two weeks almost. This week we're house sitting and no computer and next week I'll be out near Pittsburgh for most of the week. I'll see my friends in Norrath as soon as I can.

Friday, May 05, 2006

The Weary Paladin

One of my friends from my EQII guild also has a blog, the Weary Paladin at http://wearypaladin.blogspot.com . Check it out.

Here's a peice I wrote a while back about how we met... Enjoy!

The boat ride from the Enchanted Lands back to Qeynos Harbor is long and so well traveled these days that it is usually uneventful. This leaves a lot of time for reflection and thought.
Addey was missing “her boys” Niz and Darkmage. Due to various circumstances she hadn’t seen them in weeks.
“They’re probably up to their ears in trouble,” she thought. “I mean, I met Niz when he offered to help me prove myself to Qeynos and, next thing I know, I’ve got a dead Paladin on my hands to resurrect!”
Addey had not enjoyed growing up in Freeport. She wondered what kind of person could have a happy childhood there. Her mother was a complete unknown and her father had “disappeared” when she was just a toddler. Thanks to some priests who saw it as their mission to try and reform Freeport from the inside, she had lived. She had not lived well, but she had lived and learned. It was hard to think of the priests as family, even though they were all she had. The did not love her for herself, but merely as another poor lost soul of Freeport that needed to be saved.
She followed in their footsteps though, trying to help those even less fortunate than herself. She dedicated herself to easing the suffering of others and doing the will of the gods. She learned quickly and found herself drawn more and more towards Tunarae and her nurturing, but sometimes vengeful, ways. Freeport did not feel like the place where she could live and grow in Tunarae’s light.
Thrashing her tail with emotion, Addey thinks “my poor, misguided friends. There is no hope for Freeport!” Once she realized this for herself she decided she had to leave. Her whiskers twitched in disgust just thinking of that stink hole she used to try and call home.
Just getting out of Freeport was a trying and terrifying adventure. The two most memorable moments of her escape to Antonica in hopes of getting to Qeynos was that fateful meeting with the Overlord himself and those miss-begotten owlbears in Nektulos. Of all the twisted creatures she’s seen, they’re the worst.
Once in Antonica she was dismayed to find out that her word and the promises of the one who aided her in Freeport were worth almost nothing. She would have to prove herself a reformed person and a citizen of the light.
“Gnolls! I still can’t stand that whining bark they call speech,” Addey thought. “Why did it take so many to prove my worth? I know the ones in Antonica are not to be trusted, but why did it seem like I had to clear them all out myself?”
She had finally gotten word after several painful weeks to two other Ratonga she’d heard of who’d made a life for themselves in Qeynos. They offered her what aid they could and brought her into their guild of friends, even if they couldn’t bring her into the city.
“That Rodentia, “ Addey mused, “so much bravado, but somehow I think Treats really is the one who runs things between those two. Or at least she tries to keep him in one piece!”
Through the guild she was introduced to another new member; a slightly suicidal Half-Elf paladin called Niznusan. What Addey didn’t know when she met him was exactly how much trouble they’d get into together. Or how much fun it would be.
She remembered their first meeting vividly. It had been a hard day going after Gnolls; they seemed to know she was coming now and were better prepared. She’d been asking around the guild to see if someone could help her and Niz volunteered almost immediately. “And I was so excited! A sword to team up with my Tunarae granted powers,” Addey remembered. “Little did I know I was teamed up with a walking trouble magnet,” Addey laughed, swishing her tail.
It seemed like she had to resurrect him at least once for every three Gnolls they killed. “Don’t get me started on those wolves either,” she thought. “Every time we turned around or stopped to catch out breaths those beasts were wanting one of us for lunch. They always went after Niz, but I’m thinking they wanted to scare him off to feed on the ‘helpless’ rat.”
“Eventually we got those beasts under control, but my quests for citizenship was not finished yet,” Addey sighed. “No, I then had to run around all of Antonica practically and convince people that forgiveness is the right and honorable thing. Thankfully Niz stuck with me through that as well.”
Niz knew the land well and helped Addey avoid most of the pitfalls, except some that were undead and looking for blood. They had been quite inseparable for a while then. There was always more trouble to find, more wrongs to right. They met up eventually with Darkmage and they became one of the most dangerous, often to themselves, threesomes out there. Unfortunately, other pressures had kept the three of them apart in recent months.“I wonder how my boys are doing…” Addey murmured to herself for the hundredth time that day as the boat pulled into Qeynos Harbor.

Greetings from....

Well, I thought I could use a home to keep people updated about where I am, what I'm thinking and any cool pictures I've taken recently.
A little background is in order. I travel... a lot for work. I play EQII or go play in the woods whenever I can. I'm a photographer and nature lover by hobby. This will probably mainly be about my EQII and orienteering adventures, but I'm sure other thoughts will get thrown into the mix as well.