Norman Ralph

1000-0000

The final fourteen hours of game time saw us ready for the final test. The Deadmines.

We managed to get to the start of the first Alliane Instance by 2000 after some general questing, levelling selling on the auction house. The team that took on this monster of a dungeon consisted of:

Lutherinn - A human paladin, level 20 - tank and general dogsbody.
Xmeltrut - A human mage, fire school and level 19 - dps.
Rhayge - Human warlock, level 17 - dps.
Phedre - Human priest, level 18 - healer.
Vern - Gnome rogue, level 16 - dps and sapper.

It was hard.

As of patch 2.3 the game has got easier, so we thought Deadmines would have suffered. It has always been a tough instance - good storyline, excellent quest progression and some simply amazing low level loot but full of level 16-20 elites. Well the miners had had their elite status removed, but had increased in quantity. The number of casting patrols had increased and the reset time was now two hours. It had gotten easier in one respect, but by the time you had taken everything else into account I felt it was much much harder and a lot less forgiving to the new player.

After two hours we had wiped several times and Vern had left us to try something else. We attracted a level 19 twinked night elf hunter to the group but we still struggled, especially with the constant respawns.

In the end we gave up with 30 mins of game time remaining.

We had drinks and skinny dipping in Stormwind to take up the remaining time and Chris officially closed the marathon at 0000.

Final game time for me was: 1 day, 11 hours, 56 mins and 5 seconds (35hrs 56mins) of an available 3 days (66hrs).

Means I played more than 50% of the available game time. Which I’m slightly impressed with - although I thought, and it felt like, I had played more.

Now that most of the group are up around level 20, the next marathon should see us play most of the mid-level instances seeing as level 20-60 has been made faster and easier to obtain.

Roll on the next one.

General Deadmines, Friends, Games, WoW

1000 - 0500

The first 24 hours are over and we are now well into the second full day. Players dropped like flies during the first few hours. We lost Phil to family commitments and MC to work. Liz was still having connection issues so we didn’t see her much online.

Chris, Michelle, George and I finished off Elwynn Forest and moved across to Westfall. The pace picked up slightly for a while as we hit levels 12 and 13. Things started getting a bit patchy after Michelle had to leave for a Chinese lesson and then other people heading off for other commitments around 6pm.

2300 saw the four of us pretty much back online to carry on where we left off and now we are hotting levles 15 and 16 in Loch Modan where we are kitting up for Deadmines, the lowest level instance for the Alliance.

I ams till surprised by how we are going, but then we seem to have farm more items and quest drops per quest than is relative to our group size (ie we are having to kill more than just four times a solo level). In good news, however, Liz managed to maintain a steady connection for an hour or so and has managed to progress through most of the Elwynn Forest quests and with careful play could probably catch up in a few days. Unfortunately, there are less than 36 hours remaining.

Friends, General, Hobbies Friends, Games, WoW

0000 - 0400

Day 1 of the Chrismukka WoW marathon has officially ended. The marathon started at mignight and will last for 72 hours, stopping only for sleep and server maintenance.

This first session saw myself, Chris, MC, Phil, Michelle and George power through to level 8 or so. We probably would have managed more had we not had some connection issues early on - meaning we lost a player

This is a relatively short post as we are still fairly close to where we started - lets hope we can pick the pace up tomorrow at 10am when the servers restart.

We have covered the human starting area and most of the first zone. For those in the know we have just taken out Princess and explored Jasperlode mine.

Friends, General Friends, Games, WoW

Well of the four people that are currently resident in my house, only two are actually paying rent! Thats fifty per cent! Crazy.

Sarann headed off to Ireland today to visit her mum for a few weeks, leaving B and I as the sole remaining rent paying residents, with Maths Chris and Si making up the foursome.

Normally, this would be a matter of contention for me, I hate freeloaders…but in this case I am willing to make an exception. I quite like them being here. It is not often that there are more boys than girls in this house, especially seeing as until July I lived with four girls (now down to three). Excessive Magic playing, network gaming and general geekiness prevails. Throw in the fact that both are relatively house trained and we get a good living environment. One that I think i will thrive in. The only issue is that with Sarann gone and Michelle not back until September we have no maternal figure to guide us - we will be eating fried egg in waffle sandwiches and takeaway as a matter of course in no time at all, plus without lots of girlies to shame me into doing housework I don;t think the current relative tidyness will last very long at all.

Ah well. At least I will survive.

Friends, General Food, Friends, Games, Magic, Networking

It is so good to live with people again!

It has been a while since I have enjoyed being at home, in fact I probably have not felt entirely comfortable anywhere since I was about fifteen. I went through a tough few years during my late teens and early twenties, never really finding anywhere to fit in. I had some issues at home with my family during the later stages of school and into sixth form - nothing they had done mind, just my own personal issues that I projected onto those around me. I then moved over to Leeds and lived in university accommodation for a year. I met some good people that year, people that I considered myself friends with….until I moved into a shared house with them. I had a really torrid two years living with my girls. It’s not that we didn’t get on, it’s the fact that they formed a clique that I just wasn’t part of and we started to grow apart. Within six months of moving in i felt incredibly isolated and practically lived in my bedroom. It was not a good time.

This has all changed. Since my new housemates moved in I have realised that it is possible to actually enjoy being at home. Sarann and I have developed a beautiful new friendship, not surprising seeing as we have been living and working together for the past five weeks. We just seem to click, although subject to a few blowouts, and I feel that we now truly are good friends. I have developed a new found respect for Si too. I used to think he was a nice chap, quiet etc but have since discovered that he is actually a really interesting guy with a lot in common with me. He is also far too good at computer games!!

I think this year is going to be really good fun. I have friends I get on with and I have housemates that make being at home a better offer than going out!!

Thanks!

Friends, General Computer, Friends, Games, Halls, Uni

As some of you will know and the rest of you are about to find out, I have spent the last few days visiting Sarann at her home in Wigton, Cumbria. I had a really great time and enjoyed the fact that I didn’t go near a computer and barely touched my mobile apart from the odd occasion.

I received a text from Sarann at the weekend just gone asking if I wanted to pop over to Wigton for a few days to visit and then drive her back to Leeds afterwards. After some shuffling and a few telephone calls me and Kat decided we would go up on Tuesday and stay over until Thursday so that we could get some stuff in and be back in time for me to get to Barenaked Ladies .

After picking Kat up on Tuesday lunchtime, we headed over the moors to Cumbria to see Sarann. The thought of free homecooked food keeping us from getting too bored on the three hour trip! Wigton is a fairly small town in Cumbria, about 20 miles from Penrith and the same from the coast. There didn’t seem much there to be honest and the off licence even ID’d Kat for wine! Bear in mind that Kat is 22 going on 23 and doesn’t look like a 15 year old!

We spent the afternoon at the beach, playing in the sand, skimming stones and generally larking about. We also had homemade ice cream from a little local shop, it was delcious! We then stopped by Sarann’s dad’s house to feed the cat and get some ideas for stuff to do on the Wednesday. For dinner that night we had the most amazing Cumberland sausage casserole, one of my all time favourite dishes. A few glasses of wine and a few rounds of Marry, Date or Dump and a failed attempt to watch Moulin Rouge rounded off a very enjoyable day.

Wednesday was spent being touristy in The Lake District. We drove down to Thirlmere, parked up and wandered the 4 or so miles to Grasmere. It was a lovely little walk, if a little tricky in places and the weather managed to stay nice for us until we got to a pub for some lunch. After a ridiculously expensive round of drinks we completed our walk into Grasmere, had a look round some great little shops - including Croft’s Bakery, which sells the finest flapjack I have ever tasted. We then caught the bus back up the car then drove home via Dove Cottage, the home of William Wordsworth.

After a dinner of pizza and pasta and a long philosophical debate we finally got drunk! Which took some doing - eight bottle of wine to be honest. The night (or rather morning) ended with us heading to bed following some more in depth conversations on topics as diverse as abortion, rape, sperm banks and contraception!

Thursday was a lie in, we headed back to Leeds about 3pm and I dropped the girls off and headed home to get ready for my gig.

Thanks to Sarann and her Mum for looking after us and making us feel so welcome!

Friends, Holiday Abortion, Beach, Debate, Drinking, Driving, Food, Friends, Games, Holiday, Philosophy, Sex, Shopping, Walking