Time for a debunking!

http://www.wow-heroes.com/

I spit on your website, Wow-Heroes. I spit on your website because you are ranking people by the quality of their gear, and not what they do with it. I spit on your website because you're telling me how to play my class. I spit on your website because you're telling me that the neck I'm wearing now isn't as good as the one I replaced months ago, when I did the analysis and came to my own conclusions.

Mainly though, it's bull shit that you allow people to compare their toons to other people, and tell them they are rated "higher" or "lower" based solely on the numbers assigned to their gear. There are too many ways to play every single character for you to flatten it like that. Perhaps a mage who is currently in Hyjal has spec'd for more mana regen so they are more effectively able to handle the waves and waves of trash. Perhaps a priest has spec'd for more potent single target heals because they constantly find themselves healing the main tank. Perhaps a tank stacks stam because he wants to be effective against ANY boss, not just ones who deal solely melee damage.

Have you taken any of that into account? No, you didn't. You assigned a number to every piece a gear and added it up. Congratulations. You can do simple math.

I, meanwhile, will continue to gear, enchant, and gem myself the way I think is best. That mentality has gotten me to Black Temple, so obviously I'm doing something right. A website that is nothing more than a glorified calculator can't tell me what piece of gear is better. I'll make that analysis on my own, thank you very much.

I need a third choice for the 2008 Presidential Election. Allow me to present you with my candidate.



If you donate $10 to the Pennywise for President campaign, you get a free balloon.

They float. They all float.

Like the movie Unbreakable, I also believe that comic book heroes walk the Earth. I believe that just about everyone has super powers. We don't notice this, because most of the time, those super powers are utterly worthless.

Take one of mine, for instance.

One of my super powers is the ability to identify almost any song within the first 2 seconds of hearing it. Utterly useless power, but it's my own. This morning was probably one of the greatest examples of it in action. I was at Sheetz getting my breakfast (a bottle of Vault and a donut, rawr!), and I hear a song come on the overhead speakers. Immediately, I knew it was "I Know" by Dionne Farris. I don't even like that song, nor do I like her. And, I haven't heard that song in YEARS. A decade even, maybe. But there it was, and I knew what it was right away. She hadn't even started singing yet, and if you know the song, you know that the beginning rift sounds nothing like the rest of the song. But that didn't matter. I still knew.

Then I paid for my items, and flew away into the city wearing my red tights, cape, and suit with a huge red musical note on the chest. They call me Music Boy.

I was having lunch with the crew today, and Jeff started telling us a pretty amusing story about his son. The kid is a teenager -- 16 or 17, something like that.

Anyway, his girlfriend is out of town, and she is having him bunny-sit for her. Bunny sitting! That in itself was comedic enough. Last night, the two of them were playing WoW, and Jeff noticed that his son's voice was cutting in and out pretty badly while talking in vent. After a few minutes, he whispers "come here". Apparently, the bunny chewed right through the cable on his headset. Mwa-hahahaha.

I actually had that happen to me once -- my cat chewed through the cord on one of my headsets as well. Now I keep it tucked securely in a drawer when I'm not using it (which is wise, considering the headset).

It's a beautiful day. One of those days that begs for you to be outside in it.



And now, a song lyric portion for your consideration.

When I showed up and he was there
I tried my best to grin and bear
And took the stairs but didn't stop at the street
And as we speak I'm going down
Think Twice by Eve 6

I'm almost half-way through reading IT, and I'm beginning to question whether or not I have actually read this book before, or not. Of course I remember reading it, but I certainly don't remember many of the fine-details. It's been well over 10 years since I read it the first time, and all of those interesting side-plots and tidbits were long forgotten. So in essence, it's basically like reading the book for the first time.

There is one story-line that is really surprising me right now -- Stanley Uris. Due to the way his character was portrayed in the TV mini-series, I was left with a certain impression of his character: That of someone who really didn't want to deal with this whole situation. That was brought to it's ultimate conclusion with him committing suicide after received Mike's phone call that It had returned.

While he also kills himself in the book, you are left with the impression that he just wasn't simply taking the easy way out and avoiding the need to confront It again. In the mini-series, even as a child he was the most reluctant to believe It even existed, the most reluctant to go and confront It, and the most reluctant to make that promise to confront It again should It return.

This isn't true in the book, where he is sometimes the first to suggest certain courses of action. He takes the lead in cleaning up the blood in Bev's bathroom. It's hinted at early on that he knows It must be confronted. He's the one who cuts everyone's hands as they make the promise. So at this point in the book, you are left wondering, "Why did he kill himself?" And you're left thinking that because everything you know about this character up to this point would never give you the impression that he would be a coward.

I don't know the answer to that question, because I don't remember how it's explained (if at all). I'm sure it is, and I'm looking forward to finding out (again), because it can't be just as simple as that.

Today is Italian Sub Shop Day. I love Italian Sub Shop Day, because I love the food at said shop. They have this AMAZING buffalo chicken hoagie. It will make you cry, melt your throat, make your eyes water, and burn out your sinuses. But dear GOD is it tasty. I just require a gallon of beverage to go with it. And an occasional trip to the emergency room. If I'm not feeling suicidal, the chicken parm hoagie is also very good.

While I'm on the subject of food, we're having a company picnic on Thursday. HR has been pushing this thing for a month now. Since we're a branch office, I can only guess that main HQ is responsible for this. I can see it now -- I'm standing around looking at people I never talk to, thinking to myself, "If this wasn't work related, I would so not be socializing with you."

That doesn't mean I don't like ANYONE here at the office. I have several good friends here, and they are the people I have lunch with every day, and who I chat with when I have any time to chat. But there are also people in this office I would just as soon avoid, such as the Wookie, the Weebl, the Sloth, Lurch, and Miss Mary Sunshine-Shut-The-Fuck-Up. (Yes, those are all nicknames I gave them.)

Bottom line is, I gotta bring something to this blasted picnic, so I have decided to make my nacho dip. A block of velveeta cheese, a can of chili, thrown into a bowl and microwaved for several minutes. Voila. Nacho dip. The wookie can't have any.

One of my many interests in life is planting -- mostly flowers. I took 2 years of floriculture, and 2 years of horticulture in high school. I've always enjoyed working with plants. As such, I always handle the flower planting in the beds around my house. Here are a few pictures of how they're doing so far this year.

I got a new camera yesterday. It's an Olympus Stylus 10.1 mega pixel, with a 7x optical zoom. Pretty neat stuff. Since Blogger thoroughly rapes any image you put into a profile, I will post a better resolution here.

A story has been bouncing around in my head the last month or so. It started out simple enough, and I've been chipping away it ever since, revealing more of it as I think about it longer. I haven't written any of it yet, it's all just sitting in my head right now.

Part of the reason for that, of course, is the fact that I simply don't have the time to write creatively these days. While I surely could find the free time, it's not the right KIND of free time, and I'll explain what I mean.

I write my best when I'm able to block out about 4 hour windows of time to dedicate solely to writing and thinking about the story I'm trying to create. The free time I have these days is in-between any number of interruptions that accompany my every day life. I have no such 4 hour blocks.

And for the story in my head right now, I need those blocks. Quite possibly, the idea I have is too big for me, too big for me to even attempt to write. If I ever do get started on it, I'm quite certain it would be my magnum opus. And certainly spanning across several books, not just one.

I know the first line, though.

"The red-skinned demon cracked his whip, but Nox had resolved that his days being a tortured slave were over."

I have an easel, which sits to the left of my keyboard. It's one of those office easels, manufactured by the well-known office supply manufacturer by the name of Fellowes, designed to hold standard 8.5" by 11" paper. It's purpose, of course, is to make reading papers much easier when they're in this upright angle.

It's been such a long time since I haven't had any papers on the thing, that I pretty much forgot it was black. When I removed the last sheet from it this morning, I just kind of stared at it because the blackness really looked out of place on my desk. It's been months since I haven't been utterly buried in work and actually had the opportunity to have an empty easel.

It's a short-lived moment, however, as I begin piling things on it once again, but I took the five seconds out of my life to enjoy it.


When your feeling moot
You can have your conscious all you want
You can say I do nothing yeah
I put it off

Jimmy Eat World - Gotta Be Somebody's Blues