Monday, April 26, 2010

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Rags to Riches

After a week of soaring highs and hair-tearing lows, I considered deeply the thought of blowing this off again. But on my journeys from store to store in the plane known as “IRL”, an idea occurred to me that I had to laugh at.

Financial difficulties being at the forefront of some of these frustrations, I thought I would do a quick and easy showing of bank alt sets.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Game Over!

So I finally beat the game. Saved the princess (or just Azeroth), won the day and saw the final epic cinematic as Arthas’ last breath as Lich King expired.

I could quit WoW and never be really hard pressed to go back (at least until Cataclysm). I probably won’t, because there are still things to do. There are 3 more difficulty settings to kill him on, and I’m psyched about that, but the real moment was that first epic ending scene I had been waiting for so long.

My guild and husband are still amazed at my ability to avoid all spoilers until that point. So as a courtesy to anyone else who has steadfastly avoided them and not yet seen the end of the game, there will be spoilers after the jump! To skip past, click here.

Monday, April 19, 2010

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Expanding Horizons

This weekend has proven to be a very busy weekend. Signs of this may include, but are not limited to, my still referring to it as ‘this weekend’ though Monday has already reared its ugly head as well as my working through the list of things to do ‘this weekend’ well into Monday.

I spent most of my time-wasting this weekend fretting over what to wear! My newly level 80 hunter occupied the bulk of my WoW time finding her things to look cute (and shoot good) in, and the remainder was taken in upgrading my pony. With recent affirmations that someone actually might be reading and looking forward to this, panic set in.

Now with 30% more sparkles!

I have a sparklepony.

I will not apologize or justify the investment. It is a pony. It sparkles and spits out magical stars that trail behind you. Magical sparkle ponies need no justifications.

For those in support of the pony, squee with me! Squeee!!! PONY!

Sparkle Pony!

As luck would have it, this same weekend I finally managed to tag along with a group hitting the hardmodes in Ulduar 10. An achievement 8 months overdue (grrrrr but never mind that) finally completed, One Light in the Darkness. The drake is pretty cool looking, better than I had thought. But now, I have a 30% faster pony, and that’s the coolest thing ever.

Side note, it was a busy weekend but Pixels are coming I promise! Teaser: I even convinced my husband to dress up for this one. Well worth the wait!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Fangirl Moment

I love World of Warcraft fan art. I adore well drawn in game characters and NPCs especially, either portraits or action scenes. Many, many times I have considered getting my own commission done for me and my husband’s characters. Today, I got lucky enough to get a free doodle from one of my favorite WoW artists, @Baenhoof, whose amazing work you can find at Deviant Art. I’ve been a huge fan for a while and only recently found out. The author of Duct Tape and a Prayer remodeled his blog and gave full credits to her for the art, and in browsing through her DA gallery I found pictures I had already considered favorites.

So this is me showing off:

CeralynByBaenhoof

And this is me running off to convince my husband that artwork is a worthwhile investment.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

On the Arrangement of Pixels: Mixing It Up

Last week was a busy one with the holidays both real and digital, so sadly I didn’t have time to play dress up. I considered blowing it off this week and saving it for later, because really who’s reading? But sticking to deadlines is good for me and I still have some of my favorite sets to go.

This week I’d like to look at a couple of collections and explore the versatility of random single items. My favorite skirt, pants, and tunic are in this one – favored because they look good, and also because you can do so much with them. Also for the clothies out there, a reminder: even if you are always wearing a dress, it never hurts to check your pants just in case!

These sets are fun, all-purpose looks that can be used for a wide range of occasions, formal to casual. For this week’s images, I took a little pub crawl through Dalaran.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Cataclysm’s Leap of Faith

No, I’m not talking about the proposed priest ability in the new expansion. I’m talking about expansion previews and releases that come out before the game can be played. Everyone who cares has seen the priest preview already, right?

From our current point of view, many of these things can look wonderful and some can look downright awful. But our current point of view doesn’t give us the correct game reference to actually make valid conclusions because we can’t possibly know the game mechanics these abilities will reside in.

We’ve been given hints and ideas on how the new face of World of Warcraft will look as it dons the reinvented regalia of Cataclysm. But we don’t know the intricacies of the final mechanics and we won’t until beta comes out. Even then, the mechanics will be in a rough draft state. Nothing is final until things are live.

But what fun are tidbits of information without rampant speculation? Pure opinion and wild conclusions BEGIN!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Moving Forward

It feels like a lot of things are finally moving forward, and it’s definitely exciting. The guild is progressing, news for the expansion is progressing, and the stuck-in-a-rut feeling is abated for now.

Last night’s raid was great. We’re finally pushing a little bit of progress and working on a few hard modes. It’s fun and challenging and progression is where I really enjoy being. Not to mention, hard modes get people to show up.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Long Week

So it appears that recruiting has been working out. Yesterday the attendance was down, but we had a full raid + standby on Wednesday. I wasn’t even there yesterday due to family stuff and I expect a lot of folks are doing spring break/easterthings this week, so I’ll grant leeway.

New people took some learning on Sindragosa, and we didn’t get as far on Lich King as we did the first night we had made attempts, but at least the recruits seem to be solidly geared and fully competent if not fully experienced. Learning another guild’s strategies always has a learning curve, small or large.