Confession of a Noob

As of late, I've been posting about Emanee's dps, about how I've experienced a noticeable drop in my damage output and how I can't explain it.

So I'm driving home this afternoon, deep in the middle of freeway rush hour, when the explanation for my dps drop hits me like bolt of lightening. It's as if the heavens had parted and streaming insight beamed down upon me. It was as genuine a Eureka! moment as I've had in the last ten years.

So, what was my dawning realization?

This last week, I've postulated a number of theories to my dps troubles. At first, I thought it was my hit rating. The entire point of respeccing in the first place was to reallocate some Shadow Focus points after some newly acquired gear put me well over the total hit rating I required. But after checking my WWS stats, my miss rating hovered around the anticipated 1% mark. So, it wasn't hit.

I then thought it might be server or IP lag. I downloaded Quartz with the sole purpose of using its red bar mark to help me get a jump on lag cooldowns. But that wasn't it either.

I next chalked it up to the type of boss fighting I had been doing. Kael is like many of the other high-movement fights in WoW end-game content; it's got lulls where you stop and unleash, but mostly you run around with your head cut off, trying to move and mash your keyboard as best you can. I told myself, "You're moving around a lot in the Kael fight, that's why your dps is lower."

But that wasn't it either.

Nope, it wasn't until I was driving home this afternoon that it dawned on me that after I respecced and reallocated my talent points . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

. . . I didn't go back and retrain the shadow tree-specific spells, mind flay and vampiric touch.

Yes, for an entire week, I had been casting both those spells at rank one. Yes, for an entire week of raiding, I was spamming rank one versions of two dps spells. A dozen or more wipes on Kael? Yup, Kael and his motley crew felt the wrath of my rank one mind flay and vampiric touch all that eve.

The irony of all this? I've made this mistake before. When Emanee hit 70 and was ready to enter Kara, I respecced for raiding. I ran Kara for at least a week, maybe two. One night, we tackled and killed Nightbane. The following day, I got a whisper from the guild's priest class leader, Shaddoa. He tells me the guild leader noticed my dps sucked and that he wanted Shaddoa to talk to me, find out the cause of the low dps performance. Shaddoa asked me a few questions before finally getting to the crux of the problem, asking me to check the rank of my mind flay. I told him I didn't need to check, that it was maxed out, that I always train my skills to their maximum potential.

Shaddoa asked me to humor him.

Sure enough, mind flay sat there at rank one. I fumbled for half-ass excuses to explain why mind flay and vampiric embrace were untrained. Shaddoa was cool about it, but I'm sure he was shaking his head while simultaneously checking his roladex for shadow priest applicants.

And now, less than a year later, I've made the exact same mistake again.

Well, at least I flushed the problem out and it was something easily solved. Raids start again tonight and I expect my dps to snap back to its former pattern. Thank god no one in the guild reads this blog, otherwise I might find myself /gkicked and begging to join --Show Me Yer Crits--. Or even worse, --Fate Sealed--.

/shudder

Dr. Phil, Still a Hack

In some double-talk that most Washington politicians would envy, Dr. Phil reportedly "apologized" for getting involved in the whole Spears debacle. "Apologize" because he hedges, saying he didn't visit Spears to treat her and he made a public announcement to quell any rumormongering--all of this he claims with the full consent of the Spears family

So, if he didn't visit Spears to treat her, why the hell did he go?

That was a rhetorical question. I've already outlined why he boarded the Britney Spears Media Circus Train.

I'm truly in awe of this man's hubris. To so shamefully attempt to exploit a tabloid darling for his own personal gain and then turn around and try to spin the fallout . . . well, it fits his daily MO, but still remains a spectacle to witness. What he needs to do is either shaddup until the whole thing blows over or hire a PR genius to help him navigate future media landmines. I don't think he's going to be able to convince anyone he had Britney's interests in mind with his visit and subsequent public announcement.

And while he's hiring consultants, maybe Dr. Phil can find someone to help him develop a moral compass. You know, relearn/relive that whole Hippocratic Oath, and all.

More Lost

Season Four of Lost is set to premiere tomorrow night. ABC is showing a two-hour recap episode tonight.

Wifezilla and I aren't quite finished with Season Three yet. We're on disc five and digging every episode. The episode "Expose" had Wifezilla squealing with delight and terror. My wife is one of those people that when you sit next to her in the movie theater, you find yourself sliding deeper and deeper in your seat so that you're not associated with her "animated" movie reactions.

Always lots of fun watching TV with her.

Rage Against the Chill

Requiem one-shotted Rage Winterchill last night!

At this pace, Illidan will be dead by next week.

***Edit***

I got some details about last night's Rage kill. Not only did Requiem one-shot Rage, they also did it one woman short of the raid's 25 woman capacity.

Good stuff, that.

Come again?

The new James Bond movie title has been announced as "Quantum of Solace."

Uh, yeah.

SW: D, MB, MF Macro

Thinking about Emanee's dps, I'm thinking about using a variant of a macro a fellow shadow priests uses. It's a sequence macro that casts a list of spells in order, moving on to the next spell when another is unavailable. I'm thinking of leaving dots completely out, but listing shadow word: death, mind blast, and mind flay in the macro. If I constantly spam that macro, it should cast one of those three spells. And since mind flay doesn't have a cooldown, I'm guaranteed to deal damage.

I'll write it when I get home tonight and practice with it this week. Hopefully, it will be raid-ready by Thursday.

Maybe Emanee Doesn't Suck, Her DPS That Is

I did some experimentation this weekend and have come to the conclusion that unless a shadow priest can stand completely still and has a target flush with hit points, it's going to be nigh impossible for them to compete against the dps of mage's, 'locks, and huntards. Actually, even if they are standing completely still with a target that can receive loads of dot rotations, a shadow priest still isn't going to hit the 1.3k, 1.4k, and 1.5k dps those other ranged classes hit routinely.

As part of this research project, I did create some macroes that instantly cast my trinket and mind blast together. I used to mouse click this, but not having it bound to a keyboard saves precious seconds. I also created a macro that combines inner focus to shadow word: pain, but I'm not used to using that yet so I ended up overwriting that dot all weekend.

After working on those macros, I hit Terrokar Forest and started experimenting with dpsing mobs. First, I tried a full spell rotation over and over again. Renewing everything immediately after its cooldown, I still only averaged mid 500s. I did some other attempts using just mind blast, mind flay, and shadow word: death, leaving out all dots. Same thing, mid-500s. Granted, these mobs weren't alive long enough to even let vt tick out, let along shadow word: pain. But that's still a far cry from the 1k maxdps.com says a shadow priest geared like me should be pulling.

All this vexes me. I am very vexed.

It's frustrating to read similarily geared shadow priests on shadowpriest.com report their dps to be well above 1k. They don't disclaim those numbers based on what boss they're fighting; the implicaiton is that's the dps they hit when they raid. Maybe it's implied that 1k+ is a ceiling dps rate, and that more mobile fights see a drop. I know Emanee has briefly hit 1k dps on Fathom-Lord. She also does 900s against Tidewalker. Both those fights, she mostly gets to stand still and unleash. Without worrying about moving, I can focus my total attention on my cooldowns and dot timers. Throw some movement into the equation, and the best I can do is 600 to 700s. Void Reaver is the worst: not only am I constantly strafing (like everyone else), but I'm gimped down to using just three spells: shadow word: pain, vampiric touch, and mind flay.

At any rate, my next goal will be to maximize the efficient use of my mind blast and shadow world: death spells. I've got my dot renewals down to a science, but those other two spells have my only crit potential. I need to be unleashing them as often as possible. Before I respecced, I would cast vt, sw: p, ve, mb, sw: d, and two mind flays before casting another mb and then renewing vt. But I have four points in improved mind blast now, which means its cooldown is coming up sooner. I got some practice with it Saturday night raiding Kael, where I realized that I could cast the same rotation, but I needed only one mf before a second pause and then mind blast.

So until I feel I have my burst damage rotation as maxmized as my dot rotation, I've got some room to grow in the dps department. 1.5k worth? Probably not.

Requiem Downs Kael'thas

Requiem slew Kael'thas last night, after many weeks of hard work and wiping. I raided Kael Saturday night and despite innumerable attempts, we just couldn't get past phase 4. I didn't attend Sunday's raid so I don't know how many attempts they had before they finally got him, but now SSC and TK lay sundered before Requiem's feet.

Mount Hyjal beckons.

Emanee Sucks. Her DPS, That Is

My guild had a good outing in TK last night, but Emanee is starting to struggle a bit. With my gear, fully raid buffed, I should be pulling 1k+ dps on the more raid friendly bosses.

But I'm not.

I'm just eking out 700. And I don't think my guild is going to long suffer that. Even if they would put up with it, it's a matter of pride to perform better than that.

So I've been doing a bit of research. Shadowpriest.com is a great resource for, surprisingly enough, shadow priests. From that site, I've gotten a good idea of where my dps should be, and how to go about getting it there.

First and foremost, I need to macro inner focus to shadow word: pain. I also need to macro my trinket to vampiric touch. I waste valuable time moving my mouse over to hit my trinket, when one-button can not only activate the trinket, but also launch the corresponding spell.

Part of the problem is I recently respecced to adjust my spellhit needs. In the process, I was able to boost my mind blast cooldown. Long term, that will be a good thing, but right now, it's killing my practiced timing. I think the source of my weak dps is I'm not maximizing my burst damage spells, shadow word: death and mind blast. I do a great job of keeping the dots up, but I now need to focus on getting my timing down so sw: d and mb are used to their maximum potential. I'm also going to go back to interrupting mind flay when sw: d and mb come off cooldown.

A symptom of my dps woes: I never come close to running out of mana, a bad sign, since it indicates a decent return on the vt I always maintain, but a weak overall dps output. As someone said in the shadowpriest.com forums, if you're not running out of mana towards the end of a boss fight, you're not dpsing hard enough.

I also want to investigate the mod Quartz. Shadowpriest.com talks about the spellqueue and server lag. My dps might be getting gimped because of this lag, which means I need to find away around that, namely by managing cooldowns around both the gcd AND the server latency.

So that, coupled with some strategic use of macros, should see the dps boost I need to be doing. If that doesn't work, I'm going to reroll a 'lock so that all I have to do is roll my face back and forth on the keyboard to top the damage meters.

A Tremor in The Force

I sense much fear in me of this site.

And we all know where fear leads . . .

CLU Agent, James Thomson

Even though last season of 24 stunk like raw sewage, I do miss the show. Damn you writers and your inconvenient strike!

I happened upon an email I sent Wifezilla last year, poking fun of the start of last season's 24. I bring it to you slightly edited, without commericial interruption.

Agent James Thomson has shelved one too many books and quits CLU (Counter-Library Unit) from all the pressure. But then the unthinkable happens: library patrons sneak into the Halbrack Elementry School library and detonate a My Little Pony piñata, scattering confetti everywhere. The prevailing winds threaten to carry the colorful paper throughout the school. People could be forced to celebrate against there will. From many miles away, CLU agent James Thomson witnesses the rainbow mushroom cloud. Shocked and appalled, he calls into CLU headquarters:

CLU agent James Thomson: "Howard, how bad's the damage?"

Howard Smith, CLU director: "Bad, James. Real bad."

Thomson: "Casualities?"

Smith: "Unknown, but we have reports of a kindergartener running around with confetti hanging from her mouth and multiple classrooms rioting for candy."

Thomson: "Damn it! Send Curtis to pick me up. I'm at the corner of Highway 6 and 529"

Smith: "Uh, you shot Curtis last episode."

Thomson:

Smith: "James?"

Thomson: "Well damn it, send someone else then. I'm going to make those party-goers pay for what they've done to this country."

Smith: "I thought you were out James?"

Thomson: "Not any more. This changes everything."

CLU agent James Thomson, with a renewed sense of purpose, shakes off the post-traumatic stress of shelving too many books and springs into action, kicking ass and taking names later as only a librarian can.

He starts by driving all the way to Dallas and kicking the crap out of his little brother, Dwight.

Video Game Revenue Doubles Movie Box Office

Yahoo! reports that video games nearly doubled the revenue of Hollywood box office returns. I've heard reports that Halo 3 alone sold more than 4 million copies, and that's after a later 2007 quarter release. Imagine Halo 3's yearly profit returns if it had come out in the spring or summer.

This is a huge story, mainly because it marks a critical watershed moment for video gaming. If gaming continues to outsell the movie industry (and there's no reason to think it won't), the gaming industry as a whole will begin to earn some overdue respect, both from the rest of the entertainment industry and the general public. I think the broad perception out there is that gaming is just for little kids or maladjusted, anti-social adults. That may have been true fifteen or twenty years ago, but no longer.

Catchy Heading = Lots of Hits

I use Google Analytics to track the small amount of traffic my humble blog receives. I'm not going to admit how small that traffic really is, but yesterday saw a massive spike on visits to Furious Cognition. Though I didn't intend it, I think the heading "Heath Ledger Dead" attracted some extra search engine hits, which is a little less than half my overall traffic.

So when I'm dissatisifed with visits to my site, I'll just throw in a "Britney Spears Goes Beserk at Grocery Store," or "American Idol Contestant X Makes Ears Bleed" to get those hits back up.

Dobbs on Country's Economic Woes

Lou Dobbs has an interesting article on CNN.com entitled, "Our leaders have squandered our wealth."

I have to admit, I am bothered by our country's borrowing habits. Wifezilla and I live relatively debt free. Yes, we have a mortgage, some student loans, and one home equity loan. We don't, however, have any credit card debt. For the most part we live within our means.

But the federal government does not. $9 trillion in debt is a number I can't even wrap my brain around. And there doesn't seem to be any political will to reduce that debt. In fact, I bet it's more likely that our political leaders have more plans in place to borrow additional money rather than pay any back.

If the U.S. government were an individual citizen, they would have long ago had to file for bankruptcy, had their credit pulled, had their assets seized, and been placed on probation until they proved some fiscal responsibility.

What's good for an average American is good for our government too.

Downloading Hell

FFS did finally release their 1.0 update of HG: L yesterday, and I did eventually get the game patched, though FFS didn't make it easy.

For reasons that are beyond me, FFS published one update, but uploaded it to two links, one label "NA," the other "EU." That gave the impression that there were two different updates, one for North America, one for Europe. As a result, the "NA" link got hammered. Or maybe it was messed up from the git go. Either way, downloads form it either timed out too early or gave incomplete files. My first "complete" download produced a message that the patch was corrupt and missing sections. A second download attempt yielded the same result. I checked Hellgate's support forum and saw numerous forum threads popping up outlining the exact problem I was having. Some tool was trolling those boards, responding that the problem wasn't FFS's link, but the users' computers and that they "should seek immediate professional help." I couldn't help but flame that douche bag, a post that was soon removed by FFS. I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but that guy was being a dick.

Not long after my rant, someone posted that the EU link was the same exact patch, and unlike its NA counterpart, was providing successful updates. Not only was it downloading faster than the NA one, it was yielding a complete file. Sure enough, I downloaded from this link and successfully updated the game. So much for having to seek "professional" help.

I imagine FFS linked the update this way to split the traffic evenly, but either more North America users were patching the game and slamming the server, or the NA link was just plain broken to begin with. Whichever you pick, it's yet another misstep on the part of FFS, in a long line of them.

I didn't get much time to actually play Stonehenge. I did enter the starting zone, a broad and wide open area centered around . . . Stonehenge! I already like the first combat zone I entered. It's a wide open area with swampy terrain and lots of jungle fauna, a welcome change to all the narrow streets and bunker hallways of pre-update. I'll have more to say about the update once I get more time to play it.

Heath Ledger Dead

CNN.com reports that actor Heath Ledger is dead. Details are scant, but the current explanation of his death is some sort of cardiac arrest.

***Edit***

It seems Ledger died of a drug overdose, though an autopsy is being performed to confirm the actual cause of death.

Fed Makes Emergency Rate Cut

Apparently, markets all over the world tanked big time yesterday. The U.S. market was spared the slaughter because Wall Street was closed observing MLK. But most experts predict the U.S. market will take an equally devastating plunge.

I guess our government isn't going to wait around and do nothing during the ensuing economic carnage, cutting both the federal fund rate and the discount rate by .75%. The rate cut will lower a variety of interest rates, including home mortgages and credit cards.

There's also talk around Washington, on the part of both Democrats and Republicans, of issuing rebates to Americans to help stymie the recession we're either in, or due to experience. But in a multi-trillion dollar economy, some experts point out that a few billion dollars in tax rebates is unlikely to address the larger problems the economy is experiencing, namely the increasing cost of oil and the home mortgage bankruptcy crisis.

Brady Limping?

Numberous outlets are reporting about TMZ's video footage depicting a limping Tom Brady sporting what appears to be a cast on his right foot.

Any bets he's playing possum to throw off the Giants and skew Vegas?

Stonehenge Unhinged

FFS scheduled itself to update Hellgate: London yesterday, Monday, January 21st. The day came and went without the update, however. Though nothing regarding the delay was posted on the game's main page, the forums were buzzing with activity, mostly from irritated gamers wanting to know what happened with the promised update.

According to numerous posts by Scapes, the appointed FFS spokesman I presume, the update encountered a last minute bug that had to be fixed, resubmitted to QA, and placed back on the Test Center. The latest iteration only made it to the Test Center by 6pm pacific time, so I speculate the earliest anyone will see the update will be today.

If we're lucky.

Scratch that. If FFS is lucky.

Seriously, these guys can't seem to catch a break. I'm getting the impression it's amateur hour out there in San Francisco. Just when I think their credibility can't sink anymore than it already has, they miss their own self-appointed update day.

An update they had scheduled for December 2007, no less.

FFS has been compared to Blizzard many times, mainly because Bill Roper used to work there and helped work on the Diablo series. But based on HG: L's release and subsequent release history, those comparisons need to stop. FFS isn't even in the same league as Blizzard.

My advice to FFS is to take the Blizzard experience some of them have (Roper most notably), and apply it to their fledgling company. The first thing they need to do is adopt the Blizzard ethos "The game is ready when it's ready." Blizzard lives and dies by this motto. Every game they release hits the ground running. Sure, WoW had a rocky release. But that had more to do with the unexpected traffic on their servers than it did with gameplay or code stability. Once Blizzard had a good sense of just how popular their game was, they moved quickly to add servers and strengthen their networking code. Even under stress, I always had the sense that WoW was being managed by professionals.

As counterpoint, HG: L clearly was not ready for retail, but FFS released it anyway. Many people point to EA as the culprit here, and maybe EA did put pressure on Roper and company to release prematurely. But Roper penned the deal with EA. So I personally don't want to hear any whining that someone held a gun to their head and made them do something they wouldn't normally have done. You mess with the bull, you get the horns. You make a deal with the devil, you experience some hell. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Wait, that last one doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, I'll check later today to see if Stonehenge made it off the Test Server and into retail. It'll take me some time to explore Stonehenge and review its contents.

Age of Conan Delayed Until May

Funcom, the developer of the MMO Age of Conan, announced that the release date for the game will move from March to May 20th, 2008. The blurb is long, but basically explains that the developers want another eight weeks to polish the game further.

Requim Dominates SSC

This past Friday night Requiem one-shotted all SSC bosses. Even Vashj! Sure, Vashj wasn't the cleanest of kills; I think there were around five raid members left standing when she finally fell. But for a third ever guild kill of Vashj, coming off 5/5 boss one-shots, it was an exciting and triumphant evening.

For Emanee especially. Of the two tier 5 pieces that Vashj dropped, both were the coveted Warrior/Priest/Druid. Miraculously, Emanee had enough points to win one of the tokens, which she turned in for the Hood of the Avatar. Her unbuffed spell damage is now an impressive and even 1100, just in time for the Mount Hygal and Black Temple encounters to come.

Enchanting and gemming Emanee's new head piece gave me my first experience with meta gems. I hadn't realized that the "meta" aspect of the gem's name meant it takes into account gem sockets throughout your equipped gear. I placed a Swift Starfire Diamond in the Hood of the Avatar, which means that I have to have two yellow gems and one red gem socketed somewhere in the rest of my gear. I was actually short the yellow gem, since I've been putting Runed Living Rubies in every socket I can. But +12 spell damage is nothing to ignore, so I placed a Potent Noble Topaz in my Leggings of the Avatar. Placing a yellow gem activated the leggings +2 spell damage bonus, which means I only lost 2 spell damage with the switch. More importantly, the yellow gem also activated the Hood of the Avatar's meta gem.

Emanee also slew A'lar while wearing the Ashtongue Cowl disguise. She's now ready for access to Mount Hygal and the chance to kill Rage Winterchill.

GameSpot Interviews Bill Roper

I would have liked to have seen more aggressive questioning of HG: L's subscription model and a more substantive answer about the game's dismal release. Instead, the Roper's anwers read more like a PR campaign, which makes sense to a certain extent as I'm sure FFS is in full damage-control to get their game back on track. You can find the Q&A here.

Hellgate: London Stonehenge Patch Notes

Here's a link to the patch notes for FFS' update to HG: L, going live Monday, January 21.

Penny-Arcade Game Preview

1UP showcases a preview of the Penny Arcade game currently in development. I'm curious about this game both because I'm a fan of the site and I'm anticipating some backlash upon the game's release from some axe grinders.

Hellgate: London Stonehedge Update

The Hellgate: London website reports that the long awaited content update will appear Monday, January 21st. Although much of the update content will be exclusive to paying subscribers, it also patches and modifies many other aspects of the game.

The real question is, does anyone care anymore?

Mind Flay: Coitus Interuptus?

Some of the earliest advice I received on dps for my shadow priest recommended I interrupt a mind flay channel when something else became available, especially mind blast and shadow word: death. I think the advice theorized that mind flay is the lowest dps spell a shadow priest can cast, and coupled with the fact that it can’t crit, make it the ugliest brother in the shadow priest arsenal.

But I'm reading more and more shadow priests who channel mind flay through all the way to its end, even if others spells become available.

Most recently, my break/finish mind flay has been situational. I usually let mind flay finish during the early and middle stages of a boss fight. But towards the end, when the boss is nearly dead and some burst damage can help bring it down, I'll break a mind flay to use shadow word: death or mind blast. I also favor using mind flay when a trash mob is nearly dead and I know I won't be able to land a mind blast in time before the mob hits the floor dead.

I plan on doing some additional digging, see if I can find a group consensus on the matter. In the meantime, I'll keep mind flay at the back of the rotation and pull out when the situation calls for it.

The Disintegrator: a Rubber Band Gatlin Gun

I think it'd be fun to sic this on some unsuspecting woodland creatures. Like the squirrels that hang out in my backyard.

This main site outlines how to build your own.

I think I can almost hear my backyard squirrels scurrying away. Forty rubber bands per second is nothing to mess with.

A Perfect A

I'm digging the Amani Punisher and all. As a main-hand weapon, it's got more spell damage than most two-handers. Together with the Orb of the Soul-Eater, Emanee experienced a dramatic and noticeable increase in overall spell damage.

But the thing looks like a radioactive tuning fork. Every time I bonk someone over the head with it, I expect to hear an A note resonate loud and clear.

I was running Slave Pens last week and noticed a fellow guildee's alt wielding a massive two-handed axe; it was pointy and sharp and periodically dripped blood. That's what the Amani Punisher needs, some dripping blood, maybe even an impaled head on the end of one of its forks. It's classified as a mace, but it wouldn't take much imagination to make it look a bit more menacing.

As it stands, I feel like some maniacal orchestra conductor, ready to tune and smash stringed instruments at a moment's notice.

The Universe Has a Way of Course-Correcting

Last night, I watched the best Lost episode of all three seasons. Ever.

The episode is the eighth of Season Three, fourth on disc two, entitled "Flashes Before Your Eyes." It focuses on Desmond, the crazy Scotsman who we first meet in Season Two, pushing the button in the Hatch (actually, I think he makes a brief appearance in Season One during a Jack flashback).

At the end of Season Two, Desmond turns the fail-safe key to circumvent the Hatch's self-destruct sequence (or whatever it was counting down to.) It's unclear what exactly happened, but the Hatch exploded anyway. Desmond wakes up at the start of Season Three naked, bloodied, and disorientated. He makes his way back to the shore to join the rest of the stranded islanders, and in the ensuing episodes, discovers he's suddenly developed some precognitive powers. He foresees a speech that John gives a bit later, builds a lightning rod that absorbs a strike on Claire and Charlie's hut, and saves Claire from drowning.

But it turns out, Desmond isn't clairvoyant, he's time traveling. He's reliving parts of his life over again. He's not sure how many times he's redone his life, but he recalls enough bits and pieces that he can foresee certain events before they happen and intervene if he chooses.

Or can he?

He wants to stay with Penny, but he finds he can't. He wants to save Claire from dying, but he can't. An elderly woman interrupts the flow of his time traveling and teaches him a law of fate, informing him that the universe "has a way of course-correcting." Meaning, people that are meant to do something will end up doing it no matter how much they struggle to do otherwise. If someone is meant to die at a certain time, they will die, despite all efforts to the contrary. If someone is meant to be stranded on and island and push a button to prevent world Armageddon, then the universe will ravel events to make that happen.

This episode is devoted almost entirely to Desmond's flashback to life in England some years before he ends up on the island. I know I said I preferred island story events to the character flashbacks, but Desmond's plight had me riveted. And man, do I sympathize with him. He desperately misses Penny and wants to be with her more than anything. He has to relive the moment when he breaks their relationship off and he knows that he can't alter this moment to be with her because his destiny is on the island.

At the end of the episode, he explains all this to Charlie. As the audience, we know more than Charlie knows. We know that Desmond time travels, that he has been saving Claire because she is destined to die. But in a final twist that literally sent shivers down my spine, Desmond patiently and painfully explains to Charlie that it isn't Claire he has been trying to save, but Charlie. The lighting bolt was destined to strike Charlie, not Claire. Claire does begin to drown, but before Charlie has the chance to swim out to save her--and drown himself--Desmond intervenes and pulls her out. Desmond ends by saying he doesn't know how much longer he can continue defying fate, that he doesn't know how much longer he can continue saving Charlie.

The universe has a way of course-correcting.

Requiem Clears 5/6 SSC Bosses In One Evening

You read it here first folks.

Of those first five bosses, all of them were one-shotted except Leo, who wiped the raid on the first attempt at 12%. But he grew more compliant the second attempt, with a little aggressive coaxing on our part.

Lady Vashj proved a tough nut to crack coming off last week's first successful killing. It was the striders, once again. I think the guild had some trouble with the cores too. Emanee is getting better at strider duty. She avoids fearing and has her strider dps at 700+, which is pretty good considering how mobile the fight is. But we had more success when one of our elemental shammies kited the strider. Certainly, we need to get skilled enough at the fight where we can be more flexible with who kites the striders. But we're still pretty new at this boss and need more practice.

We also tackled Kael'thas this past weekend. Kael is a fun and active fight, with five (count them!) phases. We reached the start of phase four a couple of times and managed to get Kael down to around 90%. That's far from killing him, but we're getting there. Kael will be dead in weeks.

The Lostness Monster

I just got done complaining that the Lost producers were taking too long to explain their unseen monster, when lo and behold, the fifth episode of Season Three actually showed what it looked like.

I was expecting a metal skeletal dinosaur with red glowing eyes and adamantite teeth, but instead got a smoky tornado wisp that can somehow grab hold of people and beat them soundly against jungle trees.

Meh.

Plus, the thing killed Eko! That dude was one of my favorite characters, and they iced him. Bastards.

Despite the anti-climatic smog monster, I am enjoying Season Three. It's a relief that they've reversed themselves from the mediocrity that was Season Two, though I'm wondering how in the world they're going to explain how smoke can float around and then solidify enough to bludgeon people.

Producers of Lost, it's not too late to give that thing some teeth. Literally. It'd be great to see it munch some of the islanders too.

Spidey a Bachelor Again

Yahoo! reports that Spider-Man and Mary Jane are no longer married anymore. They didn't get a divorce it turns out, but agreed with Mephisto to erase their marriage in exchange for saving Aunt May's life.

Petey and Mary Jane have been married for twenty-one of our years. I don't know what that translates into super-hero years, but apparently Marvel Comics was feeling restless and wanted to shake things up.

At least they didn't kill Spider-Man off and then have him come back as four gay versions of himself *cough*Death of Superman*cough*.

Kerry Endorses Obama, NOT Edwards

CNN.com reports that John Kerry has officially endorsed Barack Obama, effectively giving the bird to his old running mate, John Edwards.

Actually, the article points out that the snub isn't surprising given that Edwards previously complained about how Kerry ran his failed presidential bid.

Once again, I find myself in the position of the jaded voter. None of the candidates strike me as worthy for the job they all compete. I don't question any of their desire to be president, just the notion that they'll actually do anything they promise in the course of being elected.

But someone has to get the job, so of the Democrats, I like John Edwards best. Since none of the candidates give specifics on how they would solve any national problem, I'm basing my support of Edwards on his demeanor and ability as a pubic speaker. Of all the candidates, I picture him best going toe-to-toe with any world leader. Now, that impression is a two-edged sword: he's fluent precisely because he's a trial lawyer. Edwards is good at debating and thinking quickly on his feet, but he's also expert at bending arguments and manipulating reality. After the debacle that was the Iraqi intelligence used to start the current war in Iraq, I'm looking for a bit more transparency in my next president, not more subterfuge. It's really a moot point since Obama and Clinton take turns beating him in primaries, but the nomination is still very much in the air so stranger things have happened than Edwards emerging on top.

Of the republicans, I like John McCain best. He makes me fall asleep when he talks, but of all the candidates, I believe him to have the most integrity. Would that make him a good president? I think so. But I just don't see him beating a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton nomination. He seems very much a carryover from the previous generation, a factor that could damage his chances if the young wake up and vote. McCain has nearly been the lone defender of Bush's troop surge in Iraq, a policy change that has actually been working lately. He often turns out to be right about a great many issues, which exemplifies good judgement and sound reasoning. But again, I don't see him beating the younger, hipper candidates.

Speaking of whom, I'm not convinced Barack Obama is the next great thing in American politics. Yes, he speaks well and yes, he's a handsome, charming guy. But what has he actually done in his political career? His critics are quick to point out that he has a dismal voting record, meaning he's abstained on too many key voting decisions. We send these guys to Washington to work, to legislate, to create bills and laws to improve the country, not waffle and duck and hide in an effort to create a voting record that neither damns nor elevates them. Not only am I not sure Obama would make a good president, I plain just don't think he's earned it. Maybe a couple more sessions in the Senate, a few more stands on important votes, and Obama might seem fit to hold presidential power.

HD DVD Sinks Faster Than Titanic

Just weeks after I took the plunge and went with a HD DVD player, the major backers of the aforementioned format appear to be abandoning it in favor of Blue-ray. Just a month ago, the two formats were dead-locked, but now it appears that Blu-ray will emerge victorious.

Why in the hell couldn't this have all gone down last month? It's like the executives at the major studios got a memo that James Thomson of Houston, Texas purchased a HD DVD player, so it was time to switch to Blu-ray.

I imagine holiday sales had much to do with the HD DVD death-knell. But I saw no indication from any media source that Blu-ray was so close to eminent victory. If I had even a hint that Sony was winning, I would have went with their player. As it was, I chose HD DVD over Blu-ray because multiple sources cited the former as the superior format because of its cheaper production costs and studio support. I also shied away from Sony because they are the originators of Betamax, and we all know how that ended.

It's not the end of the world or anything. My Toshiba displays normal DVDs in near-HD. I never intended to purchase HD DVDs, but instead rent them for Netflix. Blu-ray players are $300 right now, a price point that should go down when Sony finalizes its dominance and their format mainstreams.

Still, the timing is aggravating. And slighty dangerous to my health: Wifezilla is going to kill me when she finds out.

Dr. Phil, Ratings Whore

Dr. Phil recently paid Britney Spears a visit in her hospital room following her very public meltdown, spurred by officials showing up at her house to yet again take custody of her children. Dr. Phil originally intended to air his visit with Britney on his show, but has since reconsidered. Here's his statement regarding the matter, straight from his own website:

"As was widely reported this weekend, at the request of concerned family members, I visited Britney Spears in the hospital. The details of that visit will, of course, remain private. We had planned to tape a Dr. Phil Now show today, focusing not on the tabloid side of Britney’s latest problems, but instead on the very serious issues surrounding this case. Clearly, it is not just Britney's family struggling to find a way to protect adult children who cannot be ordered or compelled to seek help. Because the Spears situation is too intense at this time, and out of consideration to the family, I have made the decision not to move forward with the taping at this particular time. Britney and her family are in our prayers, and we ask that they be in yours."

What a load of crap.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there are thousands of young women out there with exactly the same symptoms of mental illness that Britney Spears exhibits. There might even by tens of thousands.

But there's only one Britney Spears. And between the nameless thousands and her, who consistently earns tabloid ratings based on her bizarre parenting and personal behavior?

The truth is, Dr. Phil could snap his fingers and instantly produce ten women with the exact same problems as Britney. He could put any average Joette on his show and "help" them. Would the airing of their problems earn the ratings that Britney's could? Of course not. Britney's rating potential is the real prize here. Dr. Phil's main priority isn't to help Britney, it's to help himself to a huge ratings spike for his show. The real story here isn't Britney Spears; it's yet another media outlet seeking to take advantage of her woes for their own self-aggrandizement. I don't think Dr. Phil cancelled plans for the show out of consideration for Britney's welfare, but instead in response to the public outcry at his meddling opportunism. Truly, if he really intended to help her, he would never have planned to air the session in the first place.

I've always thought Dr. Phil walked a fine line between helping people with their problems and exploiting people with their problems. To be honest, I think he's been in the latter category all along. I don't think you can genuinely help someone with millions of people watching on. I think the setting and the cameras and the host's agenda circumvent any authentic treatment. But people take voyeuristic pleasure in watching the dysfunction of others. It comforts us to see that someone else is waaaay more messed up than we are.

We are all painfully aware of Britney Spear's struggle with . . . well, I'm not completely sure what the hell her problem is, but she long ago stopped being entertaining and is now well into the realm of the pathetic. I once joined the chorus of onlookers who scoffed and snorted at reports of shaved heads, revealed private parts, and late-night drinking sprees. I think my first hint that maybe all this wasn't too funny is when she started driving around with her kid in the front seat; I think it's fine if she behaves stupidly at her own risk, but that's not the case with a little one that can't advocate for his own safety.

But those taking shots at her now need to move on to someone that isn't so seriously ill and those taping the whole thing need to ask themselves if they're comfortable taking advantage of someone so clearly unable to defend herself.

Lost, Season Trois

Wifezilla and I watched the first disc of Lost, Season Three this past weekend (in glorious full screen high def, no less). I loved Season One of the show, mainly because I really like survivalist stories, especially stranded island ones. I guess that was the appeal of Gilligan's Island, tuning in to see what coconut/bamboo invention they had come up with to wash their clothes, blow dry their hair, and perform open-heart surgery.

My only complaint with Season One is the writers teased me with their mechanical monster and then dropped it like a nuclear-heated potato. They had that thing eating people left and right for the first few episodes. Which was great because there's nothing better than a rampaging monster on a human-filled, deserted island. Sure, you never actually got to see it necessarily, only hear it grind and puff and move like a blur. But you knew the revelation was coming, and I tuned in specifically to see this steam-powered horror, hoping beyond hope to see some poor slob dangling helplessly from its maw.

But then I guess the show got picked up to finish the season, the writers had no idea how to actually explain this machine, and it quickly faded into distant memory. The entire show kneads its other story lines similarly, piquing viewer interest then disposing the plot line without wrapping it up in a satisfying way. At least not satisfying to me.

I mean, is it really fair to explain the man-eating mechanical monster in Season Four or Five of the series? The writers will says yes to rationalize breathing life into their show, but I personally don't find any of the characters and their flash-back vignettes interesting enough to forgo the logical continuation of story events begun on the island.

I guess that's why I found Lost, Season Two so disappointing. Rather than explaining plot lines from the first season, the show introduced new ones. Yes, some of those new story lines were finished within Season Two, and the show definitely offered up some great surprises (Walt, you treacherous bastard!) But mostly I felt jerked around by the show, like the writers hadn't anticipated the show's success and were scrabbling to set up plot threads that could sustain season upon season of viewership.

The first four episodes of Lost, Season Three haven't wrapped up anything from Season One. Nevertheless, I am drawn into it, even though I've forgotten Season Two events and am at times mystified by the islanders' behavior. Sawyer and Kate are especially interesting so far, as they share confinement and plot to escape. Jack seems to have only two speeds: rage and cry. Kate looks knuckle-chewingly fetching in the sundress the Others procured for her and John is as bald and nutty as ever. I am not at all pleased that Wifezilla swoons over Sawyer like some doe-eyed urban cougar, but her devotion for that white trash, Kid Rock wanna-be is as rock solid as it is unrequited.

All in all, it's shaping up to be an improvement over last season, even if it invents more questions then it answers.

Lady Vashj Dead, SSC Cleared

A big congrats to Requiem, my raiding guild, for killing Lady Vashj for the first time, clearing SSC, and taking another big step towards Mount Hyjal and Black Temple.

Phase two is the critical transition, and everyone performed their jobs magnificently: melee tanked and killed the elite nagas, dps killed elements, tainted cores, and passed tainted cores, healing healed and passed tainted cores, and the strider team tore into striders.

I was on strider duty. Our first attempt, I must have been feared at least four times.

Completely unacceptable.

Not only can avoidable fearing run you into the elite nagas, it also more importantly stops your dps flow. So, after that poor showing, I vowed no more fears. And I didn't get a single one after that.

The entire strider team did a great job, from kiting to all out dps. Our lock occasionally pulled, but Havak, our kiting shammy, did a great job getting its attention back. I even pulled a few times, but never long enough to have to start kiting. On both our successful phase two attempts, I don't think two striders were ever up at the same time. Which is exactly how it should go down.

So, Requiem cleared SSC. The guild's attention will now focus back on Tempest Keep and Kael'thas Sunstrider. Requiem could be in Mount Hyjal by the end of the month.

I can't wait.

Carebear Extraordinaire

My first pvp experience was Star Wars: Galaxies. I rolled Empire and within seconds of flagging in Naboo, I was ganked by hordes of rebels. But in SW: G, it wasn't enough just to kill your opponent, you also had to spit and otherwise defile their warm carcass, all the while corpse camping them to the end of time. SW: G had no version of Battlegrounds, still doesn't as far as I know, so pvp'ers had little to do with their time other than type /spit and wait for you to crawl back to your dead body so they could gank you again. And spit on you more.

Needless to say, I didn't pvp much after that.

For some reason, that experience made a lasting impression on me. All the way into my third year of playing WoW. Before Battlegrounds, I did dabble in some World pvp, mostly defending Crossroads. But those forays into player-versus-player combat were few and far between. The different Battleground events released sporadically, but I never even tried them. Instead, I contented myself with questing and raiding. To put my mind at ease, I pretended the pvp rewards sucked.

But after some not-so-gentle prodding from a fellow guildee, I tried a round of Arathi Basin last week. . . and had a blast. Battlegrounds pvp is so fast-paced, no one has the time to /spit your dead corpse. It's a relatively strategic affair, with an end-game zerg rush that helps finish the round earlier rather than later. I'm also revisiting Hellfire Peninsula and doing the pvp daily there. I try to kill Alliance while camping flags, but they usually run off before I can finish the job. Though I did manage to fully dot one poor alliance slob who flew away only to die mid-air.

Highly satisfying, that.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm any good at pvp. I'm still learning the ropes, and though some of my pve experience translates over, I still see Alliance opponents and fellow Horde run circles around me. Still, I'm very well-geared, and that makes up for a lot of nubness.

So I guess this means I'm not a Carebear anymore. Which is a good thing, because I really want that raptor mount.

World Without End

I read The Pillars of the Earth waaaay back in my undergrad days and loved it for its detailed account of medieval life and cathedral building. Ken Follett wrote a sequel to that book entitled World Without End, which I received this Christmas and am enjoying almost as much as Pillars.

My only complaint about Follett, and this runs across almost everything I've read by him, is his tendency to surround his characters in tabloid exploits. Nearly all his characters are handsome or beautiful. A good chunk of the women in World are described as "buxom and long-legged." It makes you want to visit that town one day, but it's not exactly the stuff of realism.

Now, this contrasts starkly with what Follett does well: describe the engineering and craft of medieval building construction. He focused on cathedrals in Pillars, a stone bridge in World and both make for riveting reading. The details of the construction are what are so interesting, becoming a character almost on to themselves. For instance, Merthin, the brilliant young carpenter who successfully competes for the Kingbridge Priory bridge project, employs a novel engineering technique, cofferdams, to help lay the foundation for the stone bridge. The cofferdams, two circular layers of wood poles water-sealed with clay, allow the construction of mortared foundations in an aquatic environment (in this instance, a river.)

It's a great read, especially if you like a historic medieval setting. I'm not a fan of the soap-opera antics of the main characters, but I know most readers probably enjoy that part of the book too. If you haven't read either title, go back and pick up Pillars before you tackle World. The latter is a sequel, though in spirit only; the two books can be successfully read out of sequence.

Green Is the New Purple

I was reading Penny Arcade today and saw Tycho link a shirt they made, I presume, for when Burning Crusade came out. I do remember that strange feeling of replacing purple epics for green gear looted off some non-descript trash mob wandering Outlands, and this shirt summarizes that experience well.

We'll all probably need to wear this garment when Wrath of the Lich King appears.

Happy Birthday Hallie!

Happy birthday to Hallie, my oldest daughter.

She was born seven years ago, which seems both a long and short time ago. I'll never forget the moment she was born. The doctor held her up for Wifezilla and I to see and Hallie's eyes were like giant orbs, taking everything in. She didn't cry, but shivered and stared everywhere. She freaked me out an hour later when I went to check up on her in the observation room. The nurses had swaddled her and she lay in one of those clear plastic incubator devices. As I peered through the glass window, Hallie's eyes were still wide open! The tiny little baby hadn't closed them since birth and the newbie father in me quickly jumped to the conclusion that something was wrong with her.

Hours later, I held her as she slept deeply and breathed a sigh a relief that she had finally closed her eyes.

It's been full tilt every since.

Hello 2008!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday season.