64 posts tagged “boring”
A week and almost a half ago, I was recruited into a progression raiding guild. I was so happy to at last be raiding every night of the week (sans Friday and Saturday) and to have a schedule that actually occurred.. to be in a guild that had people who seemed just as motivated to raid, or could at least show up on time. Anxious about the future, I gave up any plan I had to transfer servers.
Last night, my guild's Ventrilo went down. I thought nothing of it. When I woke up this morning, it was still down. I still thought nothing of it. I went out, had some coffee, got my fifteen minutes of sun then semi-rushed home for my scheduled raid at 4PM, excited about rounding off my Tier 4 set with Gruul's tokens. While waiting for WoW to load, I check the server forums only to find a thread posted that my GM/raid leader has packed his bags and left the server for greener pastures.. abandoning everyone in the guild and giving no notice whatsoever.
The minute I log in, I get flooded with whispers that pretty much all say the same thing: "omgomgomgomgomgomg."
Two dozen of us sitting in guild channel, pure textual anarchy. People pointing fingers, people QQ'ing, people trying to pull things together and plan for the future. Like after a family member's death, we all progressed through the 12 steps of coping differently.
Naturally me and a few others had our spirits broken. Lost and confused, it was hard to pull myself through even the most rudimentary tasks of healing. A lot of the time I wanted to blame other people for things that were so obviously my fault. And while others are hopeful about my guild's future, I can't help but sit and wonder if any other server will take me into their progression guild.
My heart is broken and there's nothing left on this server for me.. but I haven't enough cards on the table to transfer somewhere where I can be of more use. Things are tough right now because the lynch pin of the guild is gone and my only excuse for tolerating the other people that surround me has gone up and left us all. And while I know for a fact that he didn't leave because of me (due to unmentionable confirmation), I can't help but feel like it's my fault anyway.
I'm hoping tomorrow I'll feel better but I know tomorrow when I wake up, I won't be raiding at 4PM. I'll be too morose to PVP. And I'll probably just sit in a capital city sulking.
After being drunk for three days straight and an unceremonious /gquit, I am searching for servers to transfer to for the purpose of raiding and PVP. The process happened like so:
What I want:
- decent battleground and arena action
- emphasis on mid-Karazhan and motivation to progress
- generally friendly people and proper economy
Step #1: I figured the easiest way I could narrow the field of servers was by looking at Battlegroup forums. Sifting through twink posts, I got a general feeling for how the battlegrounds and arena teams were. Once I had gone through the list of Battlegroups, I came up with three that were acceptable. From this list, I compiled 20 PVE servers I would evaluate for transfer to.
Step #2: I rated the 20 servers by first forum page results, guild progression, and amount of guilds (Y/N). The forums and progression were graded from 1 to 10, 1 being absolutely drab and depressing, and 10 being an exact fit for me. None of them ranked 10, and actually the highest ranked one came up at a 15 (adding progression score with forum score.) I picked the top four graded servers from my list and continued..
Step #3: For the last four servers, I checked their realm census and the first five pages of their forums. Forum results were graded 1-10, and the realm census either garnered a yes or no. Going through the first five pages gives a good idea of what guilds are/were recruiting, what the forum posters said to most people wondering if they should transfer, and the general attitude of the most active people on the server. After marking off one server, I'm left with three.
Step #4: Perhaps one of the most time consuming, it involves creating a throw away character to troll the capital cities of these servers. I haven't completed my tour yet, but the last three servers are: Aerie Peak, Dalaran, and Khaz Modan.
My boyfriend laughed at my process, and keeps on telling me to "transfer to Turalyon" or whatever, even though that was one of the lowest scored servers on my second step. I think I'm being thorough. :( I had to do this for me, since my guild recruitment post basically got laughed at because I'm a mid-Karazhan healer decked out in non-heroic (read: 70 PVP blues) gear. My feelings are hurt.. but I'll just kill people to make myself feel better.
When my best friend was shopping around colleges to transfer to (she somehow manages to be more indecisive than even myself), she went to DC for a weekend. On her trip, she had some free time and visited some museums where I believe she spotted this bitchin' poster:
Propaganda posters are awesome on so many levels. You have the general hilarity factor because looking back at them from present day makes them seem hokey and you wonder "how did this even convince anyone to do anything?" Then you ponder just how much modern day propaganda is being shoved down your throat currently, even in regards to advertisements and PSAs. The most blatant series happened after 9/11, with the "America: Open for Business" series. Often times I stare at the remnants of those stickers and posters, noticing how the handles on the flag bag are slightly off from one another so you can tell there's two handles and not just one. I always wonder why that needed to be made a point of, as one handle would have been just fine.
Besides the paranoid mind-control factor, there are tons of really well illustrated posters. Alfons Mucha, who's work makes me ill with jealousy as I could never fathom missing lines and subtle gradients, had much Czechoslovakian pride and ended up doing quite a few posters documenting Czech strife and history. One could argue that he didn't do propaganda but I believe any artist's work that's meant to promote a feeling of country pride (be it blind or otherwise) can be considered propaganda as it serves a purpose of strengthening a group of people and directing them to a single conclusion.
I think China has a great number of well painted propaganda posters from Mao's time. You have two sides: cartoony and overly elaborate (think typical Chinese illustrated calendars of today). To me, almost all of the paintings of Mao himself border on Disney-like. Then the Taiwanese posters are probably the most enjoyable because as far as I know, they have the highest rate of illustrations depicting women with weapons.. like, actual women and not folklore or figurative women (ex. "Mother" of the country). And most of the Vietnamese propaganda posters I've seen are very minimalist with no lines, flat colours illustrating simple settings and not obscuring the propaganda message.
As far as I've seen, Nazi posters are the most boring. They could almost be considered the retarded cousin of the Soviet's posters, as they take what the USSR does mind-bogglingly well (two or three solid colours, bold shapes, strong portraits) and shits all over it artistically. Maybe a large number of the good Nazi posters were destroyed or something, because I almost never see an appealing poster.
I'm not sure how this post turned out so elaborate. I just told my boyfriend to not drive with Hitler and it turned out into some bullshit essay. Though seriously, don't ride with Hitler. He never forks over gas money. :( $3.36 for a gallon of unleaded regular!
Links to better things:
Armed Propaganda Teams of Vietnam
Lofty ambitions? How about your face on a Chinese propaganda poster! :O
Salon: The selling of 9/11
The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Propaganda Poster
Okay, maybe a little.
Though stupidity dictates I'm #1 since I'm a shaman wearing cloth boots and chest.
But the stylish clashing of red and purple more than demonstrates my stupid brilliance. It's just a shame the small detailing on the shield be green. :/
I'm left with one of two options, and that's to level or change the colour direction my outfit is headed.
I like how the only thing that changed with the latest WoW patch, that I've noticed/experienced, is that now my Draenei shaman makes hoof prints in snow/sand. Before, she didn't and the only method in which to track me on foot would be if I were in ghostwolf form, because I'd leave paw prints. While my hoof prints generally amuse me during long Alterac Valley runs, I got so use to not leaving any tracks. :(
Edit: Intarwebz on mah fone be workin'.
It came down to this phone or the 2.0 megapixel Sony Ericsson phone. The Pearl was slightly bigger, therefore more comfortable for me to hold for long periods of time (I don't trust Bluetooth), albeit more expensive believe it or not.
Looking forward to getting comfy with this phone. Soon I shall be able to ignore the fact the phone is horrendously red.
NorCal SBO qualifiers are this weekend. Of course I don't care, but I'll get to see some people I haven't seen since last year which will be nice. Since I don't go to conventions anymore, I end up never going to SoCal and never seeing these people. Not playing Tekken or Third Strike anymore has something to do with it as well.
Boyfriend has food poisoning from Del Taco. That sucks.
I ended up accidentally buying "non-acetone polish remover for artificial nails" which I thought for a second was a travesty since I haven't worn fake nails since I was fourteen and the thought crossed my mind that this polish remover might not be as awesome as the acetone-based kind. Upon further realisation, I can type and use my mouse while removing my nail polish without fear of melting the keys or buttons. :3 And it seems to remove nail polish just fine. Why can't all polish removers be non-acetone based?
