Friday night we celebrated my boy Iwan's birthday. We met up at the beach shortly after work, and had some margs and chips and dip and hung out. Then we headed out for a nice li'l mexican dinner, and back to our pad for more sitting around and yapping.

At some point, the game Risk came up in conversation, and there was a groundswell movement to play. I can only assume coincidentally, the ladies decided it was a good time to crash out, and retreated to various bedrooms and guestrooms while the boys gleefully set up the board.

Risk is a funny game. I certainly like playing it, even through there are distinct, significant parts of the game that I don't like. Specifically, I don't like the progression of sets, and how quickly a team can turn in a set, get a whole buttload of armies, blurp 'em out all on one country, and basically decimate a continent. The end-game of Risk is always the same.

In spite of that, it was good fun. We played until 2:30am. Iwan ended up winning, I think mostly by being patient while Gabe, Eryn and I all mucked around uselessly with each other.

Saturday, Diana and I were going to do a little shopping and head out for a hike. We made it as far as shopping and had a nice little lunch, but ended up just sitting by a fountain at the stores and hanging out. It was nice.

That evening, we headed over to my parents house, to celebrate my pops' birthday. We had dinner, opened some pressies, and went downtown to see Shakespeare's "As You Like It", which I really enjoyed. It was done in a "traditional" fashion (that is, they didn't change the setting to 1940's Berlin or something silly), and it didn't take itself too seriously (which I don't think Shakespeare comedies should. It was a good time.

We've been playing a lot of chess at work, during breaks and stuff, and I knew that my parents had a chess set that belonged to my great-great-grandfather. I didn't know if this was earmarked to be handed down to me or not, but I figured I'd ask if I could have it. And now I do. I'd forgotten how beautiful a set it is. It's absolutely gorgeous, I love it! My grandmother wrote a note explaining it's origins. She says that her grandfather either bought it or received it as a gift, probably around 1885. Her grandfather also taught a woodworking class, and made a box for them about 100 years ago exactly. Really neat. I'm very happy to have it.

Sunday, Diana spent most of the day working on school stuff and started to get sick. I spent most of the day working around the house (emptying, cleaning, and refilling the jacuzzi and trimming back some bushes), and watched the Charger game. The damn Chargers are so frustrating to watch. If they got blown out of every game, it would be one thing, but they always seem to be just out of reach, tantalizingly close to winning, but yet never able to finish. Argh.

And that was about that.

Something I wrote for a friend here at work (totally bitten off the Lord of the Rings story written in similiar style). Thought I'd post it up.

--------------
Surv5v0r R3c4p

*** TheHost has joined the game.
*** TheHost is now known as J3ph
*** Mode change "+admin J3ph"
*** J3ph changes map to game/Survivor.pak
*** Loading map..... Complete!

J3ph: I r r00t.
J3ph: Ph34r my d1mples!

All players join the channel.

Natives surround them and shake spears at everyone but Rory.
Natives: Ooga shaka, ooga ooga ooga shaka!
Players: Lolz! OMG rl n00bz!
R0ry: I got h4x!

J3ph: Boyz on 1 team, gurlz on the other.
Boyz: RAWK!
Girlz: ffs teams!

Natives bring in a pig:
Girlz: OMG gross!
Dolly: I r lvl 10 butcher ..oO(yawn)

Native swings his hatchet.
Native scores a critical hit against the wild boar!
The wild boar dies!
Native gains 14 experience.
Native goes up a level!

Native: DING! ^_^
Natives: Wewt! Gratz!

Native puts a rock on a greased pole.

J3ph: That rock is phat lewt.
Br00k: LOL!! "greased pole" 8=====D ~~``

*** Brady climbs pole.
Brady : me >>> pole
Boys: W00t!
Eliza: OMFG, TEAMS!!!!1!!
Lisa: Haxor!!
Mia: a/s/l? wanna cyber? ^_^

Girls head to camp.
Boys head to camp.

Guy shows off fake leg.
John: woah!
*** Chad is now known as TheG1mp

*** J3ph creates channel #Challenge

Brady: boys r00l, gurlz DRooL!
Girls: STFU tards!

Chr1s fails saving throw against Gravity!

Chr1s: LAG!!

Chr1s fails saving throw against Gravity!

Brady: dude!!

Chr1s fails saving throw against Gravity!
Chr1s fails saving throw against Gravity!

R0ry: LOLOLO n00b!

Chr1s fails saving throw against Gravity!

Boys: OMFG!!@! U R SO GHEY!!
Chr1s: I r teh suq. :(
Girls: pwnd

*** J3ph creates channel #TribalCouncil
*** J3ph sets mode "+moderated"
*** Brady has joined the channel.
*** Br00k has joined the channel.
*** Chad has joined the channel.
*** Chr1s has joined the channel.
*** JohnK. has joined the channel.
*** JohnP. has joined the channel.
*** Lea has joined the channel.
*** Rory has joined the channel.
*** Travis has joined the channel.

J3ph: OMG u n00bs sux0rs. I should kick/ban j00 all!

Br00k is voted off.
Br00k: OMFG TK'd!1!!

*** Br00k has been kicked/banned from the server.

I'm considering moving over my primary email to my gmail account (especially if I can come up with a cool hip email name). However, I just noticed that I posted something to a usenet newsgroup using that email address! I quickly cancelled the post (some days later), but I'm interested to see if spam harvesters get ahold of it and what will happen.

Gmail, so far, has been pretty cool. No spam at all (compared to the LOT that I get on yahoo (with my well publicized email address).

I think I did a call for votes on a gmail address for me, but I don't think I got any replies. "adman" would be my preference, but you need 6 characters! What a gyp. Oh well.

Another nice weekend in the books.

Friday night, Iwan and I headed up for some poker at our local card house. I've lost the last couple times I've played (which was a while ago), so I was ready to win some back. Unfortunately, we both got our asses handed to us, though neither are quite sure how it happened. I'm definitely still in the black, but it was kind of a bummer.

Saturday, Diana and I went for a nice walk through a local nature preserve that we'd never been to before. It was hot, but not too hot, and it was great just to be outside and have the chance to talk and spend some time together. We walked up to where the map said there was a "waterfall", which was really just a little more than a rapid in an otherwise calm stream, but it was fun. There was a couple there already, so we sort of sat nearby and ate lunch. They were constantly yelling at their dogs, who were just sort of wandering around, not harming anything, but the woman really wanted them to just sit there quietly. At one point, she yelled at the top of her lungs "YOU ARE RUINING MY RELAXATION!!!!" I found this quite hilarious.

That evening we headed to the 90th birthday party of an old babysitter/nanny of Diana and her sister's. Great to meet her, and it was neat to see how happy she was to see Diana and her folks. I was impressed at how spry and on top of things she was for being 90 years old! She definitely was sharp and keen, and certainly up and about and greeting everyone at the party. Very impressive.

Perhaps the biggest news of the weekend is I ascended for the second time in my life in Nethack. A second Valkyrie. (This is going to lead to more "Diana the Valkyrie" hits on my blog. Do a webseach from that when you're not at work sometime. :) Anyways, I was very pleased with myself. I've played that damn game off an on for so long, and finally beat it just a few months ago (April 25... I just looked it up), and now a second time. Anyways, good stuff. The game started with an altar in the first room, and after a few sacrifices I got Mjollnir. At some point, I found a magic lamp, got a wish for grey dragon scale mail, and the rest just sort of wrote itself. I ascended with 3 wishes left on the only wand of wishing I found, as well as a second blessed magic lamp that could have been used. I had a little problem with Pesitilence on the Astral Plane, but ended up not being much of an issue. (I love talking Nethack to people who don't know what I'm talking about. It must sound so out-there. :)

The only other important point (relatively speaking, I know) is that I played the whole game (except Sokoban) using the hjklyubn keys for moving, rather than the arrow keys. So, j is down, k is up, h is left, l is right, etc. A really non-intuitive way to move (compared with arrow keys), but once you get used to it, a much more efficient way to play. More importantly, good training for playing on a laptop or something without a number pad.

That all, combined with a fantasy football win already locked up (with T.O. still left to play!) and things could have been a lot worse this weekend.

Freaks and Geeks.

I borrowed the complete "Freaks and Geeks" series on DVD from my personal library (read: Baditude (thanks, buddy!)) and Diana and I have been watching 'em in the evenings. Pretty much the best show ever. I can't believe that it was cancelled. Just goes to show that the general public has their collective head up their collective heinies when it comes to television. How's THAT for some elitism?! Ha!

Anyways, if you have the opportunity, give the shows a watch.

The best part about the show is that Little Buhr is on it. Who knew? He does, however, crack me up with every line.

I've been trying to play Nethack with the hjklyubn keys instead of the number pad. Remember how hard it was when you first learned how to touch-type (you ARE touch-typing these days, aren't you, dear reader?)? It's kind of like that. I can see the benefits, but it's going to take some work to get there. Labor of love, or something like that.

Speaking of, the World of Warcraft stress test was extended, and then ended while I was on vacation. And Normie was added to it, as well, so we could have trekked around together! Talk about the worst timing to be accepted to a beta test. Oh well.

My boys at work have a couple of chess boards set up, and there are constantly games going. I've gotten my ass handed to me twice. Since then, I discovered Yahoo Chess, and might have to hang out in the ol' "Learners Lounge" for a bit. I could see myself really getting into chess (a la poker) if I really gave myself a chance. I'm not sure I want to give myself that chance, though.

Speaking of poker. I haven't played in forever, and the last times I've played, I've lost a little money. I'm still in the black, overall (I'm keeping a very careful spreadsheet!), but I'm ready to get back on the horse!

Ooooookay!

Back from New York. My pops had his laptop, so I did some bloggin' on the trip. Not too much excitement, but here you go. (Typos are blamed strictly on the laptop keyboard).

---

Day 1

Upstate New York

When I was a wee lad, my grandparents owned a cabin on a small like in
Upstate New York. My family used to come out for summers pretty frequently, and
stay for a week or so. It was during these summers that I learned to waterski,
fish, windsurf, etc. Days were spent swimming and having fun, and evenings
were spent outside, having some hors d'oevres and sitting watching the lake,
and maybe going for an evening boatride. It was all great, and I have many
happy memories of this cabin on the lake.

My grandparents had to sell the cabin when they were too old to take care of
it. It was unfortunate that we couldn't keep it in the family, but it just
wasn't practical.

When my grandfather died in the early 90's, some members of my family (I
wasn't able to attend) brought his ashes here for.... submersion (I'm having
problems with a proper verb). They sank his ashes in the middle of the lake out
in front of the cabin.

My grandmother died quite a few years later (a few years ago from now), and
her ashes have been in the posession of my aunt. But not for long.

The true reason for our little trip out here is to (verb problems again)
submerge her ashes out in the lake with my grandfathers. I haven't heard any
tell of the plans for this yet. In spite of that somber sounding motive, mostly
the trip is a reunion and nostalgia-fest. My aunt was able to rent the same
cottage that my grandparents owned so many years back, and here we all are.

It's amazing to see what's the same and what is different. The last time I
was here was about 14 years ago. The summer of 1990. I had just finished my
freshman year of high school, and my special ordered letterman's jacket had
just arrived. Since I'd been at camp all summer, my mom brought it from home
and I got to first wear it here. Very proud. I'm not sure if I knew at that
time that I wouldn't be back for 14 years, but my mom (who probably knew)
took a nice video of life at the lake.

And now we're back. It's me, my parents, Dave and Elaine and little Ben, and
my aunt. We flew yesterday from San Diego to Baltimore, and Dave and Elaine
and Ben came to visit during our stopover. We had lunch. I had a crabcake
sammich. I like crabcake sammiches.

We then flew to Buffalo, hopped in a rental car, and drove through the
leftovers of Francis for a couple hours to the lake. We met my aunt who was
already here, had some food, and headed to bed.

This morning, in the daylight, I was able to give the cabin a little closer
inspection. It's a lot smaller than I remember, but generally looks and
smells the same. Really fun to walk around and check everything out.

Dave and Elaine and Ben showed up in the midmorning after waking up at 3am
and driving out from B'more. We greeted them and hung out for a bit. Then mom
drove me and Dad to a nearby marina where we'd reserved a boat for rental.
It had been raining all the night before, but it was only overcast in the
morning. We got the boat, and while mom drove home, we boated home. It was
during this time when the rain came back, and by the time we got back to the
cabin, it was coming down pretty hard. I managed to park the boat in spite of
the wind and current (for which I was proud), and we headed in.

After lunch, the rain and wind had died down, and my brother was pretty
excited to do some skiing. The boys headed out on the boat with nervous
anticipation. My brother went first, trying in vain to get up on one ski, before
finally giving up and getting up on two. He then tried to drop one ski, and
lasted about 20 good seconds on one foot, the other flailing around before
finally bailing out. Good times.

My dad next went. He tried only once to get up on one ski before throwing in
the towel. He did, however, get up easily on two, and successfully drop one
and did quite well on one ski. I was proud.

I tried in vain (see a pattern here?) to get up on one ski. Close, but just
didn't make it. I did get up on two, and dropped one (close call), and did
ok on one. With a little more practice, I think I could do the zig-zag across
the wake thing. Good times.

It was cold, so we came back after just a short time. I took a little nap,
and now we're having some pre-dinner drinks. Not a bad day.

There's been quite a bit of Ben watching today, which is a lot of fun. He's
a really good-tempered little guy, and lots of fun to interact with.

Tonight, we may take a traditional sunset boat trip. It's still cloudy out,
but looking bright. I'm hoping the sun will come. That would make skiing a
bit more fun.

I saw a fish off the end of the dock. But there's not a pole to be seen!
Unbelievable.

No internet access (I'm typing this is Notepad). I'm not quite sure how I'm
going to manage for the next few days. Hrm.

---

Day 2

I got a migraine last night.

I was in bed, reading my book, and all of a sudden, I noticed that I couldn't
really see the lower left corner of the letter I was looking at. I started
looking more closely at things, and within a minute, noted that I couldn't see
the left half of the letter. I had a small blind spot that was growing to my
left.

Ugh. Bad sinking feeling.

I took my meds. 50mg of Imitrex and some other triple cocktail of caffeine
and pain reliever. It worked pretty well, but not perfectly. The blind spot
lasted around half and hour, and then went away. The headache is supposed to
start at this point, but never really came.

Just as I was feeling pretty good, I started to get a headache. A squeezing,
burning feeling all through the right side of my dome. Not too terrible,
maybe a 35 on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 100 (suicidal pain). After a little
while, I took another pain med and soon after was able to fall asleep.

Today, however, I'm in a post-migraine fog. Kind of like a hangover, I just
feel a bit out of it. Not too bad, though.

This morning, I slept in pretty late, which was nice. Dave and Elaine showed
up at some early hour, and I came out to some actual sun out on the porch,
which was great.

We sat around for a little, and then headed out for some post-breakkie,
pre-lunch skiing. Repeat of yesterday, with lots of failing to get up on one ski
but successful dropping from two to one. I, however, was able to get up on
one ski not only once but twice. Very proud.

We headed back in for a nice lunch where we opened some presents for my aunt
and some for Ben's 6 month birthday, and some assorted other gifts.

After lunch, we took my grandmothers ashes and headed out to the middle of
the lake. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but when we got out there,
without a whole lot of ceremony, we lowered the plastic container into the water.
It became immediately clear that the plastic container had air in it, and was
floating. We broke the seal and loosened the top (the ashes were in a
plastic bag inside), and that did the trick. In no time at all, they were out of
sight.

We sat out there in the middle of the lake for a few minutes. We all agree
that this was really exactly what she would have wanted, and how nice it was
for us all to be together, just having shared a nice lunch outside in such a
beautiful place. Inside, I completely agreed. At that moment, there was
really nothing I knew more than that this was the Right Thing to be Doing. It's
what we wanted, and there was no doubt it's where she wanted to be.

My mom held back a few tears. Everyone else was generally quietly
thoughtful. Little Ben was experiencing his second boat trip ever, and was very
agreeable as usual.

We took a little trip to the end of the bluff, and headed back.

This afternoon has been quiet. I convinced my dad to get the computer
online, but it was so damn slow to really do anything. I saw a message from my
love labelled "Babester", but I never got to read it. I will give her a call
tonight.

We just did a late afternoon skiing run. My father was able to get up on one
ski. I told him of my wedgie technique, and that may have been the deciding
factor. The problem I was having was that the legholes of my shorts would
catch a huge amount of water and create a lot of drag. I found that if I
pulled my shorts way up in the back, it reduced the drag a lot. Anyhoo, my dad
was able to get up, which was exciting. My brother gave it a couple of great
tries, but was never successful. He's not so much fat, but he's definitely a
big body.

And now, some hors d'ouvres and dinner. I'd like to try to get online again
tonight, write and email or two, and check my fantasy football stuff. Not
sure if I'll be able to, but we'll see.

---

Day 3

This morning, I slept in nice and late again, after staying up reading
"Positively 5th Street". I'm not liking it as much as I'd hoped (not enough poker,
too much murder stuff), but it's interesting enough.

This morning, as usual, we headed out for some more waterskiing. Good stuff.
Back for lunch, then a nice walk to a decent viewpoint.

It's amazing how beautiful it is here. Green, rolling hills leading down
into a lake in the valley. Lots of quaint little lakefront cottages and boats
and stuff. The blue water and green trees and blue sky are quite striking. I
really hope that we can come back here someday, and from the look of things,
I think it will probably happen.

We returned the boat this afternoon, doing a little more skiing up to the
marina. By this point our skiing muscles were a little worn out, so there were
no spectacular feats of magic.

Now we're back, enjoying the evening and having a drink on the porch.
Tonight we'll have our final dinner together, and say goodbye to Dave and Elaine
and little Ben. I continue to be impressed at what an agreeable and cute
little guy he is. He whines when he's upset, but I have yet to hear him really
cry. Amazing.

It's been nice to hang out with Jocelyn, as well. Living in Boston, I don't
get a chance to see her very often, and it's nice to see her. I know she's
eager to have Diana and me come out to visit, and I'm sure we will sometime,
but it just hasn't been a good time yet.

Tomorrow morning, we're up at 7am to drive to Buffalo for a flight. We have
one stop on our flight to San Diego, but it's unclear where that stop is,
exactly. It might be back east in Baltimore, a la the way out here, but
hopefully it's somewhere along the way. We should get into San Diego around 2pm,
which will be nice.

It's really too bad that Diana couldn't be here. Not only is it a beautiful
place and I think she'd enjoy being here, but I have so many stories and
memories associated that I believe really make me the person that I am, and I think
she'd enjoy seeing the place where a lot of my childhood happened. My mom is
already talking about the next time we're here, and making sure it's a time
she can come, so I'm sure it will happen sometime in the not-to-distant future. Here's hoping.

Saw this recently... thought it was funny:

"USENET news is essentially a lot of people standing around beating a spot on the ground with sticks where an old horse died a long, long time ago."

A great weekend. I am officially exhausted.

Friday afternoon, good ol' Mick flew into town. A little group met up at Iwan's pad, and headed out to dinner. As usual, it was a great time of chatting and hanging out. We headed back to Iwan's afterwards for some hot NHL '94 action. Good times.

Saturday was the draft day. We met in the mid-morning at TPHS for flag football, now with 100% more Fwats in effect. Football was a good, fun time. I certainly don't feel as young and spry as I used to, but we all managed to have some fun without any serious injury. I think I used to have a reputation as "the fast guy", but I'm pretty sure that both Norm and Mike could run circles around me. After football, we headed over to Papa Roston's for the draft. Without going into too much detail, the draft was a lot of fun, and Papa Roston sure knows how to make people feel comfortable and welcome. I was pretty satisfied with my drafting, mostly because I frequently picked players that were wanted by the next picker. Some names on the Fightin' Birdmen include LaDanian Tomlinson, Mike Vick, Terrell Owens, Tiki Barber, young Kellen Winslow, and old man Jerry Rice.

The draft turned morphed into a pool volleyball game. Some burgers were cooked up, and Papa Roston kept the crowd entertained into the night with poker and bad neighbor stories. After we wore out our welcome, some boys headed back to the Spraggs for more hot NHL '94 action, which lasted late into the evening. Later into the evening than I did, in fact. Mike and Eryn and Fwats were spending the night, and it was fun to have 'em as houseguests.

The next morning, Eryn and Fwats disappeared early to the airport. Fwats' trip was a white-hot flash of energy, and he was gone as quickly as he arrived. It was great to see him and I really hope he can "bust ass" down to SD more often. That morning, Diana and I made breakfast for Mike and Eryn. At some point, someone put on our "Goonies" DVD, and Iwan wandered over, and we beat the heat on the couch for a while. As it got hotter, we decided to head over to Eryn's apartment to use the pool. Mike took li'l nap, while the rest of us sort of loafed. It was a great, do-nothing day.

That night, Diana and I headed over to visit with her parents and sister who's in town. When we arrived, Alicia had put on some old home movies which were really fun to watch through. We had a nice dinner, and headed back a early, still worn out from the heat of the day. Diana crashed out early, and I headed over to Eryn's for some MORE hot NHL '94 action, then home for a little more World of Warcraft.

(NHL '94, for those not in the know, is a Super Nintendo hockey game, and is arguably the best hockey game ever created for any gaming system.)

Yesterday, Labor Day, was a little slow to start. Diana did some schoolwork and I watched Trainspotting. We headed over to Teri's parents' beachhouse for the afternoon and did more sitting around and yapping, followed by a little BBQ. I left a little early, completely worn out, and came home and crashed.

And now, back to work for a one day workweek. I'm heading out tomorrow to upstate New York for a little family get-together. We're going to my grandparents old house on a lake where I used to spend a lot of summers, and I'm really looking forward to the memories and sights and smells of the place. We've rented a ski boat, which should be a lot of fun, if the weather can hold up.

This has been probably the worst weekend ever for my World of Warcraft stress testing, but that complaint is vastly outweight by seeing friends in town and having a good time with them. Just funny how I was given a week to play in probably the most busy week of my life. Since I'm leaving tomorrow morning early, I'm handing off my account information to Norm (shhh! Don't tell!) who will help me test (ha!).

Good times. Thanks to Mike and Fwats for making the long trek down south. I hope they can both come down more often.

WARNING: The following is a long review of my initial experience with beta testing a new computer game, World of Warcraft. Go ahead and skip this if you're not interested.

-=-=-=-=-=-

So. Blizzard and Fileplanet entered into some sort of scheme where if you bought a Fileplanet account for $15, you would get to be in the Stress Test (which lasts a week). In other words, pay 33% of the full price of the game (not including monthly fee) for the opportunity to play an unfinished version of the game, specifically there to test the limits of lag and capacity, for a single week. But if there's a market for it, I guess it works.

Anyhoo, they also had some spillover slots available for cheap bastards that they gave away, which I signed up for. I never got an email saying I was accepted. However, yesterday, I got an email saying that the World of Warcraft Stress test was starting at noon, and I could sign up at a certain site, and make sure I had my Auth Key. If I didn't have an Auth Key, it said, there was still time to pay $15.

I thought this was weird that I'd gotten the email telling me how to sign up, but never got a key.

After doing some searching on the forums, I found that some other people had their acceptance email eaten by Yahoo/Hotmail spam filters, and you could go online to figure out if you were accepted (using the username and password you applied with). So I did, and I was accepted and didn't even know it!

Moments later I'd set up my account and was downloading the (2.2 gig!) client. Good stuff.

Cut to the evening. Around 9:30pm or so, I had the client installed, and connected for the first time.

I logged in, and went through the character creation process. I've never really have spent a whole lot of time creating the perfect character. Choosing between thousands of combinations of facial features, hair color, skin color, etc. isn't all that important to me. I created a female character (never played a female character... thought I'd give it a shot). Human. I chose Rogue for a class, as I've always liked the assassin-type character. I gave her a name (Shamina... not quite sure where it came from) and entered the world!

I'm not familiar with the universe of Warcraft at all, but I started out next to an Abbey somewhere. There were a LOT of people running around. My first look at the graphics was very favorable. I really like the bright, cartoon-y, not-a-right-angle-in-sight look. Everything was very smooth, as well. I ran around for a little bit, every so often clicking on a little bubble that game up that gave me some tips on how to get around.

The UI was very clean and intuitive. I looked at my character, her inventory and skills and equipment. I could talk to other players, and hear them talking to each other.

I ran around a little, and headed inside the abbey. At the door was an NPC with a big yellow exclaimation point over his head. I right clicked on him, and he welcomed me to , saying they needed more good folks like me to guard. Recently the kobolds to the north had been attacking, and would I go kill 5 of them for him please? My first quest!

I also either started off with or found a note that told me to find the rogue trainer. I looked all around inside the abbey, and found lots of trainers, but no rogue trainer. I read the note again and it said he was in the stables out back. And so he was.

I headed off to find some kobolds to the north. They weren't hard to find, as there were about 50 other people trying to kill kobolds as well (seeing as this was the first night for all of us, we were all newbie characters). I chatted with some folks, and joined a group of kobold slayers, and in no time we killed 5. I returned back to the abbey-guy, and he congratulated me, and gave me some sort of reward (either some armor or money, I don't remember).

Somewhere else along the way, another guy had a bang over his head, so I chatted with him. He wanted wolf meat, so I killed some wolves for him. Then there was another lady who was driven away from her vineyards by thugs, and could I get 12 bunches of grapes for her? So I headed over there and collected some grapes. There was another "kill kobold' quest that led me into some mines further north. So I went at did that. There was another quest to kill the thugs, so I did that.

It sounds pretty dry, but the quests were really fun. They were small, incremental pieces of game that were easy to finish, had fun little rewards, and generally made me feel like I was advancing. They also would drop small items that I could either wear or sell for money. I upgraded myself to a better dagger, and then soon after got a dagger as a quest reward.

I'd read about levelling up in WoW. They described it in very Diablo-esque terms, where you'd be having so much fun playing that levelling up would come as a surprise. And they were right, at least for each of the five levels I gained last night. It was great. Every other MMORPG I've played, I played for the next level (which, of course, is dumb, because there is ALWAYS a level after that). But this game, I was playing for the actual fun of playing. Sounds simple, but might be the key to it all.

Fighting was pretty good. I had some special moves, one of which would add a "combat point" to a running count. I could then do a different move that, depending on how many combat points I had at the time, would spend them all to do whopping damage. So there's room for a little strategy there. Combat was all pretty easy. I had no close calls with death. There was also NO downtime at all. Healing both hitpoints and energy was VERY fast. So far, at least.

In any case, by the time I'd completed all those quests, I'd pretty much explored the whole enclosed area surrounding the Abbey. I'd been in at least 3 different groups, chatted with lots of friends folks, and my character had advanced to level 5. I received a quest from the main abbey guy again, thanking me for all my help, and saying that they needed help in the next city down the road, as well, so would I please deliver this letter to down there? So, I headed off to the next area.

The next area was a little grouping of buildings with an inn and other shops and things. It was getting late at this point, so I didn't explore too much. I did see my first skill trainers. I spent some money to learn the basics of fishing, and bought a fishing pole. Fishing consists of throwing your line into the water, and when you see your bobber jerk, you right click on it. It actually reminded me quite a bit of real-life fly-fishing, staring intently at the fly waiting to react. I caught some fish (which I sold for cash), and I also caught some small weapon or armor or something. I think if you get good at fishing, you can catch phat lewt instead of just fish. So, yay.

I checked the real-life time, and discovered that about 3 hours had passed in what felt like just a few minutes. I logged out at the closest Inn, and quit the game.

I am feeling VERY good about this game so far. Dark Age of Camelot was too much of a level grind. Star Wars Galaxies just wasn't fun. With World of Warcraft, I was having too much fun actually accomplishing stuff to be concerned about when my next level was coming. I think this is a very good sign.

That's about it. I would love to convince a couple friends (workboys and otherwise) to get this, and hopefully reserve maybe a night a week for getting together online and playing. I think that would be hard to manage, but a lot of fun.

W00T!!!11!11

I was accepted to the World of Warcraft Stress test beta.

That means I have a week to help test the game. Starting today.

Too bad I'm not going to see Mike and Marc while they're in town. Oh well. :)