A request (WoW Pugging)

[Note: This was in my drafts folder. Most of this doesn't apply anymore. It was written while Patch 3.3 was new; we're now on Patch 7.5.2. It is, however, interesting to look back. Enjoy!]

Hi there. I play Littlegizmo, a human male paladin, who is primarily a tank, but loves to DPS now and then. I have compiled a list of requests from Tanks (myself and others), DPS (Myself, both on a pally and on my warlock) and Healers (Mostly friends and message-board griping). I have split it into three sections, and each of those sections is broken up further by class. These requests MOSTLY pertain only to Heroics and PuGs. The can also apply to raids, but mostly don't.

Everyone
Most of this has started showing up since 3.3 dropped, and cross-server dungeons became available. If it doesn't apply to you, don't worry about it; I'm not telling you.

I know you're only here for the badges. Let everyone do their jobs. Let the buffers buff, the healers get mana, and the tanks pull. If you have a GOGOGO attitude, you're gonna piss people off.

Be friendly. So what if you're never going to see these people again? They're still people!

If you have never been here before, let us know. We won't ridicule you. We can help you survive this.

If someone has never been here before, don't ridicule them.

These heroics were tuned for people with WAY less gear than you probably have. If we wind up with someone who has low-level gear, don't get mad at them. They're here for gear, more than the badges. help them get it. Then their gear won't be as bad.

Don't queue for something that you aren't geared for. Please.

Tanks
If you (personally, or as a class) have a weakness (AoE Threat, Ramp-up time, whatever) let your group know. Don't get mad at us for not helping you, if you didn't tell us what to NOT do.

Mark a target if you need DPS to focus on one.

For the Light's sake, DON'T try to DPS in tank gear.

Druid

DK
If you don't mind your target spinning in circles (IE, target doesn't AoE in a cone), feel free to AotD. You are the only one I will say this to.

Paladin
Blessings: Kings is wonderful. Most classes will be happy with it. If someone asks for something else, give it to them. If there are two pallies, you should be giving Kings, and Sanc to yourself (don't forget to 10-minute the other pallies!).

I know you can chain pull. I know it's fun. I personally love it. Don't forget that other people's mana pools don't regen like yours, however. If someone needs mana, stop for a moment and let them fill up.

Warrior
You get rage for getting hit while bubbled by a priest. Yes, really. I checked. Plus, it was in the patch notes for 3 consecutive patches.

Healers
If you are low on mana, let your tank know at the end of a pull, not AS they are pulling. We can't stop pulling mid pull. We CAN avoid a pull.

Druid
If your tank asks for you to HoT him (or her) up before a pull, he (or she) is probably about to try something stupid / risky. Be aware.

Paladin


Priest
Don't listen to the warriors - They still get rage through bubbles.

Shaman


DPS
If you are low on mana, let your tank know at the end of a pull, not AS they are pulling. We can't stop pulling mid pull. We CAN avoid a pull.

Listen to your tank. If they ask you not to do something, *DON'T DO IT*.

Don't pull, unless you want to tank.

DK
Don't pop AotD. Just don't. It screws up positioning, and if we had something (like, a boss) facing away from the group, to avoid AoE, that AoE is going to go everywhere. If your tank asks for it, that's another thing.

Death Grip is useful for helping the tank position caster mobs in AoE. If you pull a mob off the tank, he may decide you want all of them, and drop threat on you.

Druid (Cat)

Druid (Moonkin)
Typhoon is fun. Typhoon does damage. If you move my mobs again, I'm dropping threat. Glyph that spell, please.

Hunter
MD only works if you target the tank before you cast it. Distracting shot doesn't work with it. Nothing you do before MD gets transferred.

FD is wonderful. Use it.

If you're meleeing, stop. You're doing it wrong. Ditto not using a pet.

If your pet taunts, I'm not pulling off of it. Or you, when your pet dies. Turn off Growl, turn on Cower.

Mage
Blastwave is fun. Blastwave does damage. If you move my mobs again, I'm dropping threat. Glyph that spell, please.

Paladin
Turn off RF. If you're not the only paladin in the group, Bless accordingly. You + Prot means you put Might and Wis on everyone (obviously not at the same time). You + Holy means you put Might and Kings on everyone (Kings only on people who don't want / need Might).

Priest

Rogue
Whirlwinds hurt. Stand back when they happen.

Shaman
Thunderstorm is fun. Thunderstorm does damage. If you move my mobs again, I'm dropping threat. Glyph that spell please.

I get that your wolves are a huge DPS boost. Some people's computers cannot handle them. If people complain about them, please be courteous and stop using them.

Whirlwinds hurt. Stand back when they happen.

Warlock
Soulshatter if you get high on threat. Seed of Corruption does more damage than Rain of Fire. I know it sucks your mana dry.

Warrior
Whirlwinds hurt. Stand back when they happen.

That Funny feeling

It starts when you change scenery. Maybe you drive home from work, or you go to the store to get groceries. You start to feel like you forgot something. It's probably something small, unimportant. Maybe you forgot to put a stamp on a letter, or didn't attach a file to that email, but whatever it is, it's small. So why is it nagging at you? Within a half hour, you have the distinct feeling of something being out of place. You can't quite get comfortable, no matter how hard you try. You fidget. If anyone suggests that you do something that involves holding still, you feel incredibly anxious about it. Maybe you get the fidgets that you KNOW you would get if you bad to sit still for that long. But when asked for an alternative to sitting around, you can't come up with anything. Perhaps at this point you decide you go to bed. Standing there, prepared for bed but not ready to go to bed yet, you run through the things you could be doing instead. Playing on the computer, chatting with friends, reading a book, everything you can think of makes you upset without reason. Finally, as you're about to whine out loud from frustration, you realize what the feeling is, and what I means. You're hitting a depressive phase. You are depressed, and will be for a day or two, and then it'll be better again. There'll be an up side to things, you'll be able to go a day without fucking up, then a week, then two or three. Everything will finally be okay again. And then, one day about a month later, you'll have a change of scenery ... 

Somebody shoot me, please ... Or better yet, shoot them!

So I'm sitting here at Clark waiting for Josh to finish his magic game(s), and I am being subjected to about five voices that are, individually and / or as a group, similar in pitch to fingernails across a blackboard, far too loud, far too stupid (yes, I k ow it is the owners, not the voices, which are stupid), and altogether too prevalent.
Someone stole (and threw) EMma's shoe, and she bas been screeching about it for ten minutes.
there is a guy lying on the floor, growling.
Two guys were chasing each other around because one was flinching when the other lunged at him.
Black John insisted that Emma remove the shorts she had just put back on... So she did, and then screeched about it for ten minutes.
These people are so annoying that Joe is telling them to STFU. Sorry Joe, you just have a higher tolerance than just about everyone else.

this job...

I feel a bit ick working here. Everything they do is underhanded, from the way they gather data to the way they maintain clients.

A job? Maybe!

I had an interview today. It went really well, in spite of the doors being locked when I got there. I'm in the top 5 of candidates, out of (at least) 82.
Wish me luck!

a Quarter of a century

So, in about an hour and a half (give or take a few minutes) I turn 25 years old. I have had 4 "real" jobs, and lost 3 of them. the fourth I quit in disgust. I am interviewing for a job as a market analyst tomorrow, after seeing my sister (for the first time in a couple years (I think)) and my Auntie Diane (not actually related)(for the first time in many more years). I had an old high-school.. I guess you'd call him chum contact me, and having an old crush who crushed me email and ask for help with something.
it sort of feels like my life is circling itself, coming back together. I hadn't realized that it wasn't together before, though. All I need now is for one of my psychotic ex-girlfriends to come back into my life, and I'll feel 17 again. I wasn't all that happy at 17.
If I wanted to be pessimistic, I'd say that on the last day of my first quarter century, I was broke, living off of my parents and the generosity of others, unemployed due to an inherent contrariness to being told what to do, and much more overweight than I'm comfortable with. Not to mention frequently depressed.
On the optimistic side, I would say that I have a happy relationship with a wonderful guy, I have family and friends who are able and willing to help me through tough times, I have found many things I can do that aren't terribly expensive but are terribly fun, and have tons of free time.
What I will say is that I am unemployed, but interviewing for a job that I am qualified for. I'm not doing fantastic, but I'm better than I have been, and improving often, and I have several sources of happiness in my life.

I probably can't make it to canada any time soon, although I want to very badly. However, my recent unemployed state has taught me to manage my money a little better than I had in the past, so when I DO get to go, I'll have more money than I did the last few times.

Anyway, i need to get to bed, because I suck at getting up still. Send comments (Do i have comments enabled on here? I don't think I do...) to whatever you want to call me at acwpd dot com.

Edit: I DO have comments enabled. Email if you want, or use the built in comment system!

How is this hard logic?

Okay, lawyers are supposed to be smart, logical people, right? So how does this conversation make sense?
Lawyer: I need the documents that the employee shows up on, from the 2 pay periods prior to their termination, and the document from their termination pay period, and the document from the first pay period they do not show up on.
me: Okay, so I'm giving you no more than 4 documents, right?
Lawyer: Why 4?
Me: [Counting on fingers] 2 pay periods previous, One pay period previous, pay period of, and the first that they do not show up on
Lawyer: Oh, yes. Okay. 4.
Me: [having looked at some of the documents] What if they don't show up on the pay period of termination?
Lawyer: What do you mean?
Me: I mean, what do you want if the person in question terminated on, say, Tuesday of the week that the document references, but they do not show up on the document? Do you want another document after that document?
Lawyer: Oh, that can't happen. Every piece of testimony we have from them says that doesn't happen.
Me: I can give you an example, if you like.
Lawyer: Okay.
[Time passes]
Me: Here is an example packet. It contains [Documents that I am sure they want], as well as the document showing the pay period 2 cycles before they termed, The pay period immediately prior to termination, and the document showing the pay period when they termed.
Lawyer: [Sees that the third document is 14 pages long, where the first two are single page] Why is this so long?
Me: Because I can't print the page they are on, because they aren't on there.
Lawyer: [discusses with another lawyer, who confirms that this can not be the case, testimony says so] Well, this must be a rare case. Go ahead and get this info for all of the 50 people you have.
Me: Okay.
[time passes]
Me: I had to pare the 50 people down to 33, because I lacked documents for the other people.
Lawyer: Why are these final packets so big?
Me: [trying hard not to get mad] Because they are the pay period that the employee doesn't show up on. Usually the pay period of termination.
Lawyer: what is "Usually"?
Me: [think for a moment] Not more than 5 of them are from after. So, no less than 28 of the 33.
Lawyer: Okay. give these to [Third lawyer].
Me: Alright.
[To Third Lawyer's Office!]
Me: [First Lawyer] told me to give these to you.
Third: Why is this packet so large?
Me: [explains again about they-aren't-there]
Third: Okay. Why do I need this?
Me: Ask [First].
[I retreat. Time passes. A whole day, in fact.]
Third: I was looking over this packet [refers to packet of "Not in this pay period report"] and this person isn't on here. Why not?
me: [Explain. Again.]
What I didn't say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! How can you not know? Seriously? YOU ASKED FOR THAT! I TOLD YOU! GO BUG SOMEONE ELSE!

< /rant >

Issues

Currently, I have a couple issues.
I Don't want to work for my current employer anymore. I think it's time to move on. I have a bunch of Craigslist postings in my mailbox, waiting for me to reply. How odd; I'll write a blog post at work, but won't apply for jobs while at work. My ethics are quirky.
I have worries about Me and TJ. We've been together for a while, but when I think back on how he is around other people, he's a jerk. But I love him. *sigh* Damn you darkness, This candle isn't lit!
I am faced with lagging behind a LOT in WoW, because I have less time to play than most of my guild. TJ is already a level ahead of me, as is Angie. I seem to have a couple choices: quest my way through, falling ever farther behind; Grind and grind and grind and grind, and still fall behind; Grind out leather and ore on Evil until the population explosion dies doewn; Instance grind. I hear there is a healer shortage... and I can MAKE very solid tank OR healer gear. I'm thinking this is the way i will go. Heal-grind (less of a tank shortage, due to DK's).

Ah well. Whatever's clever, guess. Just feel slike cheating, somehow.

My car

I drive a 1999 Kia Sephia. Black, LS sub-model, 4-Door, automatic. It has a bit over 150,000 miles on it. While learning how to drive (after I got my license. More the kind of learning you do when you say "Well, that didn't work" afterwards) I got within $1000 dollars of totaling it... twice. So, this car has been through a lot.

Hmm. A better definition of "a lot" is in order.
The first time I nearly totaled it, I was in mid U-turn and got hit by a car doing about 20 mph (15 mph relative speed). I was unable to drive the car away after that.
The second time, I was heading to a job interview with UPS, for their "Twilight" shift. They interview at the same time their shifts start, so I was on the freeway at 2:30AM. and it was December, so cold. The exit ramp I needed to take was a touch icy. I hit the patch of ice, and didn't turn because of it. I hit the side of the off-ramp, spun around, hit again farther on, and then hit the other side of the off ramp before coming to a stop. 180 degrees of turn happened after each impact (okay, there was a LOT of ice, and I was going faster than I should have been), so I wound up facing the wrong direction on a freeway offramp, unable to move my car.

Recently, my car started losing power. Like, a lot of power. 0-60 in just under a minute, loss of power. Then it started shaking like I was really bad at driving a stick. At all speeds, in all gears. Then it started doing it at idle.

I was firmly convinced that the car was toast, and that I was going to have to figure out how to buy a new one. I talked to my bank, a dealership or two, and figured out what I was gonna do.

Sunday rolls around, and my dad and I go out to work on the car. I don't want to work on it, I want to go buy a car. He says, "Well, let's try something simple first", so we change the spark plugs.

I really hate being wrong, especially when it means that I did a lot of planning for nothing. Changing the spark plugs worked. My car now runs better than it did before it started power.

Of Orkut and Work

I don't want to work today. Sometimes I come to work energized, and ready to pounce. Not today. Today, I just want to goof off.

David sent me an orkut invitation. I didn't remember having signed up for it, but there it was, all my info already saved. Then I realized that, just like this blog, it was a Google product. I think they plan to own the internet by the time we need ipv6.

So I filled everything out that was relevant, most of what was almost relevant, and even some of what is not relevant. I even included turn-ons, for the Light's sake.

Yes, I just swore like my WoW character. Sue me.

Organization and File Types

I work -- well, I won't say. those of you who know me, probably know. If not, call or e-mail. Anyway, where I work, we have a lot of documents to keep track of -- somewhere on the order of 2 million, for various clients. One of these clients is responsible for us having nearly a half million documents. Now, my definition of "Documents" may be different than yours. In the world I am in at work, each page that was given to us is a document, and each file or spreadsheet we create is a document.
Now, of these documents, we keep a number of them -- all of the ones given to us -- are numbered. Starting at 1 and going until we run out of documents. We have about 367,000 of these. For this client.
These documents were given to us as paper. Behind me is a wall covered in paper. Over the last 3 years (that's how long we've been gathering documents for this customer) we have been putting images of these documents into our computers. At first we were sending them out to be scanned, then we got a copy machine that can scan, and did it ourselves. But, alas, we were inconsistent.

My work computer is currently trying to convert 5061 TIF images into 5061 PDF images. And it's going VERY slowly.

See, I went ahead and got a trial copy of photoshop -- if I'm lucky, I'll never need to do this again -- so that I could convert the TIF's (and 22 JPG's) into PDF in a batch, rather than one at a time. I'm having issues doing this - every time I've tried today, I get a save-as dialog for every file.

So, if you ever have thousands of files to deal with, decide on a format BEFORE you begin. And don't waver, because it's a pain in the ass.

Cigarettes, Licensing and expiration dates

I don't smoke. And yet, my day yesterday was absolutely RUINED by a pack of cigarettes.

So, Sunday night, I was heading out to get bookshelves from my parents' house. Bill asked me to pick up a pack of cigarettes for him, as well as a soda. I got the bookshelves, and on the way out, stopped at Jimbo's Deli Mart to get the soda and cigarettes. Jimbo's is one of the few remaining places that I can walk into and still get carded, and so, when I was asked for my ID, I wasn't surprised. What surprised me was when the clerk said, "Do you have any ID that's still valid?"

"What? That one's valid until... [I read the expiration date] 8-12-2006. That's ... wait. 2006?"

What had happenned was, when I got my address changed, 4 months before my ID expired, it didn't get renewed. It expired on my birthday last year, just after I moved.

This wouldn't have been much of an issue, had I taken care of it right away. However, I didn't know about it until 7/8/07. I was going to have to pay a late fee, and NOT be pulled over, because whatever I got pulled over for would be nothing compared to driving on an expired license.

So, monday, I took my lunch break and headed to the DOL to get my license renewed. Heh. Monday ... Yeah. The DOL near my work isn't open on mondays for licensing, just vehicle licensing purposes. I didn't learn this, however, until I had stood in line for, oh, 15 minutes. I was handed a sheet of directions to the DOL "Express" license renewal location, about 6 miles away.
I call in to work, saying that I'm taking longer than expected, and will be back soon.
15 minutes of driving, and I finally find the place, in what must be one of the five ugliest buildings in Vancouver. I go in, take a number, and realize that there are signs ALL OVER saying "No Debit, No Credit" and "Cash and Check Only" and one that says "We do not accept personal checks". Being from a far advanced, cashless society known as "not vancouver governmental systems", I don't carry paper money, only plastic. Fortunately, there was a bank across the parking lot, and it was a branch of the bank I have an account at. Being about 12 numbers from being called, i run across the street to the ATM, and *sigh* read the sign on it, which says, "Sorry, this ATM is (again) Out Of Service." Runing across another street, I head into the bank itself, and withdraw money. $35 to be exact. I head back, and get there with 2 numbers to spare. Cake. Wonderful.

My number gets called, I head up to the counter, and am told I can't renew my license. It seems to have been suspended.
Yes, Suspended. I apparently failed to pay, in full, a speeding ticket I got last year. So I had to go to the Clark County Courthouse. At this point, I called my work and let them know what was going on. My boss, Karen, basically forbade me from coming back until I had fixed it. I told her I would probably be out all day.

So, to the courthouse. I stop by a different branch of my bank, and get money totalling $102 - and give them my 35 from the other bank. 2 of these dollars are in quarters, for parking.

It has, by this point, been about 2 hours since I left on my 1 hour lunch break. I get lost in Downtown, but finally manage to find the Clark County Courthouse. I get in line to go in, through the metal detector.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm goes off. They get wanded.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm goes off. They get wanded.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm doesn't go off.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm goes off. They get wanded.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm goes off. They get wanded.
The line moves. I go through. The alarm doesn't go off.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm goes off. They get wanded.
The line moves. One person goes through. The alarm goes off. They get wanded.

That added about 15 minutes to my day. Once in, I have to head to the basement, which was WAY warmer than it should have been. In the collections room, there are three lines: Customer service (2 people in line), payment to the court (no line) and Payment to collections (line wraps around the room). Guess which I had to be in!
So, about an hour later, the line I'm in has shruinken to be just me. I pay, get my recipt, and get in line for customer service.
There are three lines: payment to the court (no line), payment to collections (2 people) and Customer service (line wraps around the room). eventually, I get to the front of the line, and taking care of my problem takes all of 3 seconds. I leave.

I hop in my car (parking meter not yet expired!) and go up the street to the DOL Express. I go in, grab a number (49) and leave to get more money (my total was going to be $100, and I spent 43.67 on paying my ticket. Half of that was a fee from the court for not paying on time. Yes, my license was suspended over 25 dollars.) I come back from the bank (the same one that has an ATM in the parking lot which is still "(again) Out of Order".

I make it back to the DOL, and look at the number just called -- 50. So I grab another number, and wait, and take care of everything I need to (my right eye is worse than my left), and get my picture taken for my license.

They hand me a paper license, I head out, and look at the time.
4:30. I call work, tell them I'm on my way, and talk to Gabe, saying that I'm on my way.
I get to work at 4:55, and meet with my boss for 45 minutes. then I go home, and colapse.

The moral of this story?
Do random good deeds. they rarely go unpunished, but the punishment is usually helpful.
If I hadn't been willing to grab cigarrettes, and had been pulled over, i would have been arrested, had to get my car out of impound and myself out of jail, and would not have had a license.

--
Aaron, Exhausted.

Canada, and the canadianity therein

So, I meant to post RIGHT AWAY when I got back. But I forgot. Bad me.

What happened:
I got there almost EXACTLY on time (a first for me) and got myself set up. I wound up getting stuck at Immigration (!) because I failed to remember Squirrel's real name, and they thought I was a terrorist, or something.

I played one of the slot 0 mods, and was astounded to find I had played BOTH of the other slot 0 mods, so i went to squirrel and anat's early.
SLEEP
Squirrel and I went to the con via Skytrain, and I (once again) forgot that my debit card does not work as a debit card in canada. fortunately, Squirrel remembered, and kept me from looking like an idiot for too long.

Upon arrival at the con, we found our table, sat down, and I ran whatever it was. between slots, we ate, then I headed back to play some. This pattern repeated throughtout the con; play or judge, eat, play or judge, eat, etc. At some point, I had a bit of empty time, and wound up meeting people. Imagine that, meeting people at a convention! The most memorable person I met is a girl named Alex. She's really cute... okay, hot, about my age (25) and a USian! unfortunately, she is of a sexual orientation which is incompatible with having sex with guys, and even if she were straight or bi, she's not single. *Sigh*.
In spite (or because) of this, we talked a lot, and enjoyed each other's company. i would call her my friend.
I came home with 3 boxes of minis, only one of which I had to pay for, and I had a lot of fun. I networked and socialized.
the end.

Oh, and it took me three F***ING HOURS to get out of vancouver, because I couldn't find the blasted 99!

Quaff More; I run

Canada, Work and my body's unwillingness

So, I got to work today (that's where I am now, btw) and couldn't focus my eyes. the phrase "to tired to see straight" comes to mind.
I hadn't slept well last night, and I am pretty sure I had WoW dreams - I woke up certain that I was at an extreme angle, and was really confused and upset that I couldn't fill the bag with purple (no, I'm not certain what that means). Once I got to work, I found that my eyes would not stay converged. If you don't know what I mean, look at a Magic Eye picture. Notice how your eyes go wonky? My eyes wouldn't stop doing that. So I took a nap in my car after clocking out, and came back sweat-soaked but refreshed. I sat down and worked for about 20 minutes, and then my nose started bleeding, somewhat spontaneously.
30 minutes later (!), I came back from the bathroom, my nose finally not bleeding any more. I don't think my body wants to be at work today. My mind sure doesn't.

Tomorrow, I leave for Canada to play in (and run games for) Ancient Enemies? A Zeif / Duchy Bordercon... which is to say, I'm going to play D&D for 4 days straight. I should have fun.

Advertisments

Yes, i gave in to the temptation of easy money. At the bottom of these pages are GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGLE adlinks. If you see something cool, give me a click through. other than that, feel free to ignore them.

Later,
Aaron

New site, new blog, same me

To all of you who want to know more about my life, here it is. A new blog, the password to which I won't forget. I have forgotten my livejournal password, and can't get in.

I will also try to post here more often than I posted there.

Till later,
Aaron