No More Drama
So a couple things in my head. Mostly that i feel like such a push-over sometimes. Maybe i am just not vicious enough for the business world. I've been told that i am a type-a personality, but i don't think so - i don't have that ability to take advantage of a client, or stab people in the back in order to look better than them. Status doesn't matter to me like that. Only results do. That is why you'll most often never hear about 80% of what i do to contribute to the success of the team, the firm, the job, etc.
Thatz why however, when i hear words i said to a peer in confidence come out of the mouth of other firm members, completely without context and thus sounding way off base.... well, i'm just floored. Used to think that a nice new start-up allowed honesty, meant i didn't have to play too much of a management consulting clone, and got to just be me. Well, waking up now. Just can't take things for granted and need a firm line btwn life and work.
To those few of you who work with me and occasionally read this blog: don't inquire. I'm not talking, itz nunya. Not personal, just safer this way for all involved. In fact, i'm not talking anything but bizness from now on.
First Instance - Ragefire Chasm
I am not even gonna apologize anymore. Another WoW post. Deal with it...
The other night i ran the new lock (Mortefer) through RFC with a random group. Wasn't planning to - had actually headed to Orgrimmar to see if maybe i could meet up with Badonkadonk, suprise him. Then when i got there, Badonkadonk had logged off and back on with an auction alt, and who wants to hang out with an auction alt? So i thought i'd head to the Drag and see a class trainer, just for the heck of it, since there were spells i'd dissed (such as curse of weakness, since i never used it that much on my previous lock char builds, so why waste money).
Anyway, ended up in the Cleft of Shadows, when a Rouge named Zaletea asked me if i wanted to party. At first i thought, no way am i ready for an instance, and i said as much and she replied that RFC was 13+ and i was perfect - also she had a good group coming with two tanks and backpack of quests to share for maximum XP. So what the hell.
So, all in all, my first random instance party went really really well, especially as i was with an experienced party of friends. Slipper and Zaletea - the tanks - would run up and pull aggro back to the group, while myself, the mage and a shaman would then cast the beat down from a distance. Every now and then whenever extra aggro would accidentally get pulled, i'd throw my voidwalker down on them to sponge for the tanks who might be otherwise occupied.
Things were going really well - noone had died except for the mage, who'd happened to get in the middle of an aggro sandwich, but she rezzed and walked back. We got about two thirds through when Zaletea and Amarass (the Mage) were discussing the next phase, and said we were going to "go right, and sheep the lock"... ok, i thought, don't know why anyone would wanna sheep me, but hey, i'll play along. And i don't know what really happened - i was just standing there when all of the sudden a mass of mobs slammed down on us, and i couldn't really see anything that was hitting me - i only saw my health and mana bar go down to zero in like 4 whacks by whatever it was.
Next thing i know i'm in the graveyard outside Orgrimmar. That sucked. And i had to go to the bathroom really bad. I didn't realize it had been 1.5 hrs already since we'd started the instance. So i asked if i could de-party and thankfully the group had no hard feelings - truth is they were very well outfitted for the run without me, and taking me along with them was really just a nice thing to do.
I’m a big fan of learning by doing, even if it means i look uber-n00bie in the process, but i wish i knew then what i know now, after a little research - because it turns out we were like right near the end, having taken down most of the mob warlocks, gotten the spell books and nearly completed 3 of 4 quests (and the 3rd one pretty much done, as well) when i ditched... Turns out "sheep the lock" didn't mean me, the party warlock, but rather the mob lock! Er, derrr.... Also i definitely coulda had a little more finesse in my lock gameplay... altho i instinctually did pretty well. So if i coulda just held it for about 20 more minutes, i woulda gained another wad of XP and probably leveled to 15 right then... Anyway, tho, an excellent experience, and i leveled much faster - and aside from the time committment and necessity to hold off on body breaks - i am ready to do any and all instances from here on out.
Just So U Kno
I don't have a problem. Altho, i am embarassed to talk about it in public... And I have lost sleep, but I promise it hasn't interfered with my real life... Thatz the last i am going to say about it. Except that this fukkin rocks.
Saturday that Feels like Sunday
I woke up at noon. I guess i can't be blaming jetlag anymore - not only is it, like, two whole weeks of being back on EST, noon our time would be 7pm or so NL time. Somehow i ended up on west coast time.
Itz a semi-classic grey and rainy Northeast winter day. Four cups of coffee later and i am still sort of groggy.
Started in on sorting the piles of shite that have collected into large drifts of detritus on every available surface of the flat. I don't understand. I didn't used to be like this. Used to be fairly clean and organized. Also used to be hyper-phobic and anxiety ridden. Those two things seem to go together. But, also, i am finding, do my current state and depression. By the looks of it i haven't really tried at all in the housecleaning area since Travis died. That was the last time i remember putting any effort into it, beyond piling things in the corner.
This is going to take days to really put any sort of dent in it. Only a cleverly architected system of rewards and punishments can make sure this gets done. Aside from occasional coffee, cigarette and internet breaks... So, only if i can just get the majority of the crap off the dining room table and from around the chaise lounge today, can i do dinner with a friend tonight. And only if i sort my laundry i can spend most of the night leveling my warlock from 15 to 18 (goal is to be 20+ by the time shaun-0 gets back from san fran). Tomorrow, if i send the laundry out to be done, i can go to a movie or something...
I am trying so hard to care.
Friday Pirated Music Video Shuffle
Culled from the flotsam and jetsom of various torrent search engines, painfully downloaded, converted and/or otherwise massaged into avi or divx files, plopped onto the Archos and plugged into the TV... Despite the truncated range of the current video pool, this is still,
scarily, somewhat representative of my tastes. Except that Tokio Hotel
song... Where the hell did that come from?
Annie Lennox - Whiter Shade of Pale
System of a Down - BYOB
Rammstein - Du Riechst so Gut
David Bowie - Heroes
Rammstein - Mutter
Outkast - Mrs. Jackson
Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
Scooter - Hello! (Good to Be Back)
Tokio Hotel - Durch den Monsun
My Chemical Romance - Ghost of You
Fettes Brot - An Tagen Wie Diesen
Blondie - Atomic
Rammstein - Links 2-3-4
Gorillaz - Dare
Sean Paul - We Be Burning
Die Firma - Die Eine 2005
Depeche Mode - Precious
And yes, with this entry, I am blatantly copping Holley's Friday Shuffle tradition, but i
do not pretend to be anywhere near as cool as she. Kyuss, Iron Maiden AND
Hank Williams III?!? ... I am not worthy! I am not worthy!
Things that are Wrong with Me #77821
When my apartment gets this dirty, i usually just think about moving.
Hier Kommt die Sonne
Despite being plagued by vacation-withdrawal, exhaustion and hormones, there are two things that (especially taken together) tell me itz gonna be a GREAT week... One is this gift i got from my company on friday night. Two is Vic.
In fact, i find that my amsterdam-withdrawal-depression has already been greatly lightened by my little Archos. Last night, a bottle of fairly fine Austrian Reisling and I downloaded torrents for pretty much the entirety of Rammstein's music video discography. If 42+ minutes of hyper-psycho-sexual music videos featuring sweaty, half-naked, schmutzige Manner with power tools torqueing various objects in time with hardcore Deutsche industrial techno can't cure me, then nothing can...
Hook em Horns!
Before we are allowed to have our diplomas, they actually instill post-hypnotic suggestion that makes us do the longhorn sign with our hands and scream "Hook em Horns!" whenever the team goes for a championship title, forever and ever until we bleed burnt orange and die.
So there, i'm done.
de Lekkerste!
Thnx for all the bday wishes, and Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar! Hijackt open node from budget hotel room is spotty but will work for quick update.
Anyway, I promise I haven’t spent my entire vacation at 41 Leidsestraat ... i’ve also been to singel 8, amstel 8... and prob going to elandsgraacht tomorrow.
Despite consistently waking at 1300 hrs or later NL time, i have done a fair amount of properly touristy stuff - incl, but not limited to: escher museum in den Haag, walk thru Amsterdam Redlight district, and a visit to the Rijksmuseum. They don't like it if you stand too close to the Rembrandts. Just so you know.
Also, the cheese here should be taken seriously. Not for amateurs.
Saw the New Years fireworks display from the Leidseplein last night. Well, 'display' might imply more of a planned performance, rather than crowds of drunken kidz with handheld roman candles and m80s in the town square - so maybe "amazingly self-contained, only slighty dangerous, and no-one died New Years fireworks display" is more appropriate. Anyway, only one of our party took any direct fire, and fortunately with only minor injury.
Tonight we drink and dine at de Zotte. To be able to have La Chouffe on tap is so frikkin cool... I just wanna bathe in it. Leuk.