Implications

Adobe bought Macromedia.

Just, wow.

Those of you not in the biz, that may not mean much, but for those of us whose bread and butter is earned on the backs of these products, it's staggering news. Macromedia Flash/Dreamweaver/Fireworks/Freehand/Cold Fusion are akin to the world of online instructional design as Microsoft Office is to the business world.

Mike's reaction is that the prices will go up. :)

A part of me has to giggle a bit. A few years ago Macromedia lost a law suit because Firework's interface was a bit too close to Adobe's. Guess they don't have to worry on that account any more!

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A new pope. Don't know how I feel about that. On one hand, he's another hardline conservative, John Paul II's enforcer on Church teachings. On the other, when some Cardinals were preaching fire and brimstone, proclaiming you couldn't be Catholic and vote for a pro-choice candidate, Ratzinger took the more nuanced stand and said that you didn't have to be a one-issue voter, that as long as you weren't voting for a candidate because he was pro-choice, you could vote your conscience on other issues, such as the war. I'm interested in seeing who he is outside of JPII's shadow.

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Bush signed the Bankruptcy Bill into law. Welcome to credit card serfdom, Middle Class. A love letter from Congress to the credit card industry.

The House just approved the Alaskan Refuge drilling bill. ::sigh:: Do you like the little immunity clause they slid in about absolving the oil companies from having to pony up if they happen to contaminate local drinking water with MTBE's? Not to mention the $8.1 billion dollar tax break? A love letter from Congress to the oil companies.

My parents, staunch Republicans, said to me, "All these tax cuts, and yet every year we pay more and more." My parents are on a fixed income and yet their income taxes have gone up each year since Bush has been in office. How does this make sense?

::sigh::

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( Too much graphic information... )

World of Warcraft

Written yesterday:

One of the perks of having attained upper levels is going back and trouncing the very same levels that kicked your butt, oh, so many times.

We had come across a level 60 dwarf hunter solo-ing the Scarlet Monastery instances for fun and profit. Scarlet Monastery is a high-30s to mid-40s dungeon. So it got Mike to wonder if he could farm Van Cleef, the level 20 dungeon, for goodies. For giggles and grins, now that his warrior woman Natatat is level 40, Mike went back to the Dead Mines and soloed the Van Cleef instance. :) Those of you who play know of what I speak. :) He did die once, overwhelmed by the rogues that guard Edwin Van Cleef, so it wasn't a clean solo, but he feels he could improve upon the performance. Today, during lunch, he did a good part of the dungeon, but had to log out and go back to work. :)

Even though I'm level 48, as a cloth wearer I'm still quite fragile, but I'm intrigued by the idea of trying to solo Van Cleef...I have more than enough firepower to take on groups with my area of effect spells... I wonder if I could finish it. I've solo-ed a bit of Gnomeregan when I was bored and waiting for the rest of the group, and that's a high-20s to low-30s kinda place. The hardest thing for a mage to cope with is consecutive battles with no chance to recharge. Hmmm...gonna try it when I get home.

My biggest thing lately is building up my professional skills. My mage is an enchanter and tailor. When in town, there's no reason to be stuck wearing your armor, not unless you are dueling. I have several nice robes and dresses to don when lounging about. I find it humorous that I can make a shirt, and if a male character puts it on, it's a proper shirt, but if a female character puts it on, it turns into some sort of midriff-baring, cleavage-displaying Frederick's of Hollywood garment. I found out that within a few more skill points, I could make a tuxedo shirt, but in order to skill up, I needed raw materials which could only be gotten from killing high level humanoids. So I went on a pirate-murdering rampage, moving between the three pirate ships in the area. :) I got enough fabric to make 20+ bolts. Each bolt requires 5 pieces of cloth to construct. Cloth only drops one in every three kills... So I killed several hundred pirates repeatedly so I could get enough fabric to construct enough bolts of cloth to make enough items to raise my tailoring skill--so I could make a tuxedo shirt and an admiral's hat. :) I made my first tuxedo shirt, but that was promised to Father Vincent, Mike's dwarf priest. My next tuxedo shirt I will wear myself. I want to see what the sex-starved male programmers of Blizzard do to a tuxedo shirt when it's put on a female character. I will include a screenshot of Father V with the shirt and Swansong with the shirt. :)

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Written today:

Last night tried to solo the Van Cleef dungeon (level 20 area) with my level 48 mage, Swansong. Everything was easy up to Mr. Smite, who guards the gangplank leading up to the ship where Van Cleef resides. Died trying to kill Smite--stupidity on my part--went back in and killed him cleanly, fought my way up the gang plank, killed Cookie the murloc (got "Cookie's Stirring Spoon"--a wand), made my way all the way to Van Cleef, and died just before I could get one last spell in to kill him. I could have survived had I possessed a health potion, or had I thought clearly during battle, frost nova'ed everyone to the ground, bandaged up, and then continued the battle. Or I should have sheeped Van Cleef, taken care of his body guards first, THEN bandaged, evocated (regened mana), and taken on Van Cleef--but when you've got six elite combatants beating the crap out of you, nuance goes out the window. I should have given it one last go--the dungeon was still cleaned out except for the odd wandering patrol, but I was mentally tired of the exercise at that point. Still, it was a good run, I made some money out of the endeavor, so I can't complain. My goal is a clean run of VC, no dying. Then...Gnomeregan. :)