Wrath of the Lich King

I got an email about 2 weeks ago telling me that I got into the beta! But because of all the junk mail I had I didn’t even notice the email until a couple of days ago lol

And for anyone who got bored with the game and left this is something that should bring them back. It is just kick ass. OK, so that is my opinion, but it’s true!

I’ve only been playing for a couple of days so I haven’t experience a whole lot, but the starter quests for the death knights are a lot of fun and you get all this great armor and weapons from them. The quest to get your mount, where you have to steal a horse, is a lot of fun simply for the fact that some of the horses are these tiny little things. Especially funny if you are a Tauren.

Check my flickr for screen shots from the beta.

I will try to take more, better shots soon.

And for silly things…I also went to visit the barber and changed my main toons hair color, style and her facial markings (she is a knight elf). I went with one of the ‘brand new’ styles…

Basically it seems like most of the “new” styles are just from the other races. But that is OK at least it is a change. I am going to try and have some actual things to say about the beta but right now it’s still all too new and exciting so that was all I have for ya. heh

Jobs in Indy

This is a bit of a rant…

I have been looking for one for almost a year now and can’t figure out what I need to do to actually get one. I never had this trouble back home, sure sometimes it could take a few months, one time it took me 3, maybe 4, at the most. I once worked a little in Graphic Design/Desktop Publishing and as an office assistant. But those are not the jobs I work anymore (for various reasons). My last job was in food service so I have been putting in for those and retail jobs. Another difference between here and back home is there are a lot less jobs in Indy than I would find back in MA.

My last job shows stability; I was there for over 4 years, the only reason I left was because I moved from Massachusetts to Indiana. And I very rarely took sick days, almost never. Except when I really had to because working with food it is not usually a good idea to be hacking, sneezing and coughing all over it. Also I’m a hard worker, used to fast paced environments, fast learner, always smiling, helpful, friendly, good with customers, work well with others, I can adapt to pretty much anything and all that good stuff that you need to be when you have a job. I am not picky on what I do or on what I get paid. I don’t care if it is part time or full time I am slightly flexable with hours and I plan on actually staying at where ever it is that I can find a job. Especially since it is so hard to get one I will be happy to find ANYTHING! Yet, despite all of that I can’t find a damn job out here.

And I am so sick of spending my time filling out online applications (that is how most everyone does them these days) that take anywhere from an good hour or more (usually more!) then not even hear a damn thing back. Hell I filled one out last week that gave me a freaking math quiz! A math quiz?!?! WTF? So about a week or two ago I actually had a nervous break down filling out one of these damn things. Why? A combination of things really but what broke me was that they asked me the same questions three freakin’ times. Plus they already had most of that information on my application, so they had me submit the same exact information 4 damn times!! Why do they put people through this process and never even call you back? And if you try to call them you get a standard blow off. If they want me to spend 1-2 hours filling out bullshit stuff then they need to do it AFTER I get a call back. If you like my application and I hear back from you than I will be happy to answer all your stupid questions, even if I don’t end up getting the job at least I would have heard something back and don’t feel like I wasted precious moments of my life for absolutely no reason.

So anyway I am starting to panic about not finding a job. The money I came here with is running out and I have a home, bills and a kid to take care of. This is not good. If I could I would move back home, but unfortunately I am stuck out here. I had been trying to make the best of it and have tried to keep optimistic but I just can’t anymore. I have my limits and enough is enough.

GenCon Indy 2008

Well we missed the first day of GenCon because of his job and other things that came up so that means that we missed the screening of The Guild which I wanted to attend just for fun. But we did go the other 3 days and had a lot of fun, but it did burn us out. One night they had a screening of Serenity which we had planned on seeing. It was at midnight so we thought we should head home and go back up later…But we were so tired we never made it back. Yeah, we are lame.

We met Peter Mayhew, who is Chewbacca in Star Wars, and got his autograph but I stupidly forgot to take a picture of him. And to be even more stupid, I missed out on meeting and getting an autograph from R.A Slavatore (though I did see him..from a short distance). See? Told you…Lame. I am kicking myself now.

We spent a lot of time just trying to see everything and find some cool stuff, like a Dargo (Farscape) statue that we got for only $15. We also got an autographed (by Felicia Day) copy of The Guild on DVD, some WoW trading cards and a collectors edition tin of Star Trek cards. My daughter got a bunch of anime things and all I got for myself was a really cool poster of Drizzt and Guenhwyvar I would have gotten a ReBoot Tee (I was so excited to see ReBoot tees!) but they only had extra large…So when I got home I just ordered one online. My daughter attended a few screenings of some anime and one I attended with her was for Vampire Knight (I happen to love Vampires).

What was funny about the whole thing was that I thought my daughter would not want to stand out, she always seems so quite and not sure how to act. And she seemed embarrassed by the idea that my boyfriend was wearing a costume (Dr. Horrible). But once we got there and saw all these people cosplaying, especially since most of them were dressed as some anime character (mostly Naruto cosplayers) and how my bf was getting all this attenion (people kept taking his pic lol) she all of a sudden wanted to stand out. It was too late to really get a costume for her but luckily she already had something she could wear. She had this Jacket just like what Naruto wears (that I got for only $15 on clearance over a year ago) and she had the headband then just added the markings he has on his face, that did the trick and people started taking her picture too. So yeah, she was happy.

And I as I mentioned in my previous post you can check out my flickr for photos from the event.

Downside for me: My boyfriend never thought to take a photo of me while we were there (and it was my first convention), granted I never asked (kind of did once) but I was on one of those, “I want him to think of it himself” kind of things…I should have known better. heh He didn’t even think to get our picture together when I was dressed in my “Dr. H groupie tee” and stuff…But he was disappointed that I didn’t think to snap a pic of him and this girl who was wearing a Dr. H tee (I had taken a pic for her on her camera). Even after I kept saying things like, “Well that’s OK, you have me. Remember? Me…Dr. H groupie…You know? You can have one taken with me.” but he blew me off…Geez…Where exactly do I rate? *shrug*

GenCon 2008 Photos

Check out the pics from GenCon on my flickr

GenCon

I really can’t wait to go to GenCon, but why is it that they pretty much give you absolutely no information about what is going to be happening on a given night? Heck the information about what is going to be happening is not even complete, far from it. There are a lot of things they left out. For instance I found out that tonight there is a screening of “The Guild” (very funny web series) and that they have a booth there where they will be selling autographed DVD’s. And the only reason I know this is because I follow Felicia Day (creator, writer & star of The Guild) on Twitter. Why doesn’t GenCon’s site tell me these things? I mean, GenCon wants enough of our money to attend their event you’d think they could tell us something! Grrr! Other conventions let you know what is going on, I wish they did too. Oh well, gonna go anyway. I mean, it’s a place for big geeks like us to hang out with other, even bigger geekier geeks than us!

Well my boyfriend finally has all of his Dr. Horrible costume. The goggles just came in today! So that’s pretty darn cool. We get to go to GenCon geeked out. OK so he does. I don’t have a costume just my Dr. H fan tee and googles that came in today (we ordered 2 pairs). But that’s fine by me, and besides my 16 year old will be horrified enough to have one of us walking around in costume. She knows people will be in Cosplay there but that doesn’t mean she wants us to be. lol

So hopefully my next update will be about GenCon. Complete with pictures!

I miss…

The Loop – A shopping center back home in Methuen, MA. I used to go there every Saturday with my daughter mostly to go to Borders and hang out in the cafe there with a drink and a book or magazine. Then we would usually go grab something to eat at Quiznos or Not You Average Joes and we would often go to movies at Loews theater (now AMC theater).

Not Your Average Joes – As mentioned above. Unfortunately there are none in Indy and it was one of my favorite places to eat. I loved their bread!

Papa Ginos – speaking of food…This was my favorite pizza place back home. I could go for some of their cheese pizza and cinnamon sicks right now. mmm

Boston – Being able to go out there for shows (at places like the Wang Center) or for games (as in Red Sox or Bruins) enjoying the culture and going to the museums or hanging out there with friends eating at Fire and Ice, hitting hole in the wall bars or sometimes the places where guys from the Red Sox and Bruins would hang out. I never got to Boston nearly as much as I should have though.

I also miss things like being able to walk to places that were nearby. I can’t do that in Indy and it drives me crazy, it also makes me feel even more isolated than I already do. I used to have CVS, Walgreens, pizza places, 24 hour convenience stores and much more, all just a few minutes away from where I lived. And if something was not in close walking distance I could easily hop a bus, the stop was right around the corner, to get there.  You know what else I miss? Being able to find jobs! Yeah, imagine that…a job. An actual job! *sigh*

One thing I really wish I had done was to take pictures. Lots of pictures of places I had been, places I loved to go. I am kicking myself for having not done that and I have no idea when or if I will ever go back for a visit.

I just want to know why Indy feels the need to kick my ass?! *shrug*

Shy

I have been that way ever since I can remember. I never knew how to talk to anyone and have always felt stupid when I would try. I’d rather sit quietly in a corner or somewhere in the back of the room and just blend into the background and have no one notice me. I never did anything remarkable, even if it was in me to I just wouldn’t for fear people would take notice. And if by some freak accident I found myself being noticed I would immediately shy away. The first time that happened was when I was in the first grade. We had these reading groups and it was my turn to read so I got right into it (I liked the story so that had helped) and as I read I was pretty much ‘acting’ it out. I put feeling behind the words, it was how I read and I didn’t think anything of it until I noticed that the whole group was staring at me slacked jawed…including my teacher. Then my teacher went on and on praising me and I felt my cheeks flush and immediately lowered my voice and read in that drowned out tone (you know the one I mean) and was much happier when everyone stopped paying attention to me. And making friends was the most difficult thing in the world. I didn’t really have any. The only ones I had made were the kids who for some reason seemed determined to be friends with me and just would not let me shy away from them. That only added up to 4 people, ones that turned out to be “real” friends. There were others I hung out with on occasion, who were usually friends of my actual friends, but like everyone else they barely noticed me and were only casual acquaintances. I remember every time I went out somewhere with my friends and we were around other people I would just sit quietly somewhere out of the way and would nod, smile or laugh when it seemed like I should. Yeah, I was the life of the party!

I’ve gotten a little better over time, but not much. I have learned to speak up more and try to blend in a little bit with people, instead of scenery, but I still do not want to stand out and I haven’t made any “real” friends since I was a kid. Hell, right now I really don’t have any friends at all…Which is really pathetic. But I have no clue how to make new ones and my old ones are all gone. It started some time back, when I was in my late teens and early 20’s, everyone started to go their seperate ways and we slowly drifted apart and lost touch. And now I find myself in a whole new state where I the only person I know is my boyfriend and I wonder if I will ever be able to find a friend, someone to grab lunch with, go out for coffee with or whatever. People do things like that everyday, but not me I just stand back and watch and if I think too much about it I can feel the loneliness creep in. So yeah. Painfully shy. It pretty much sucks.

Geeks.

That’s what me and the boyfriend are. We recently redid the office to make it more “us” and our answer to doing that was by painting the walls a dark, rich blue and basically having a geeky/techy/sci-fi theme. All the frames for posters and the shelves (or ‘ledges’ actually) are brushed chrome and we have this honey comb shaped mesh wire shelving unit. The only thing we need is new furniture to complete the look, but we can’t afford any, yet. The walls are adorned with all kinds of sci-fi goodness like a Serenity poster, Star Trek poster, Trek calendar, autographed Darth Vadar photo (that I got when I was a kid after the first movie came out!) and my ReBoot posters. Our shelving shelving unit is just as bad there’s a Trek lunch box, Rygel plushie, Big Daddy figure, Serenity figure, ReBoot figures, and various sci-fi books, magazines and video games. We also have a Stargate mirror, the Enterprise on one of the ledges and a wall clock of Stewie Griffin that lights up on the hour! Can we get more geeky? Why yes, yes we can! We just can’t afford to right now. Anyway, the room looks great! And it is now our favorite room. I highly encourage people to experiment with color and ideas when redecorating because most houses I’ve seen can be so boring with all the beiges and blahness and all. Do not be afraid to add some character!

And you know our geekiness does not stop with the office. There is a bit of it in the living room and don’t get me started on our DVD collection. And of course we play WoW. I mean, how could we not? Oh, and you should see some of our t-shirts…See the picture below for an example.

Penny (Dr. Horrible) cosplay…

(NOTE: I have a new post on Dr. H, Captain Hammer, Penny and groupie costume ideas (w/links) that I just updated. So click here for that!)

I’ve seen pics all over the net from places like ComicCon. I’ve seen a lot of Captain Hammers, probably because he is the easiest costume. And of course there are a lot of Dr. H’s. Though, as my boyfriend is finding out, that costume is not so easy. So far he only has the gloves. But he did find some goggles and boots that were close to what Dr. H wears and has ordered those. The lab coat he found is part of a Halloween costume and is $40, the most expensive part of the outfit. He plans to wear this to GenCon (which is coming up soon) and I will be his groupie! Yeah, that one is simple…Dr. Horrible fan-tee and some goggles on my head and my outfit is complete. Maybe I should sketch out a Dr. Horrible pic too, like the groupie was holding, to add to the effect!

One person I have not seen anyone actually dressing up as is Penny. Let’s face it, she doesn’t have a costume so it’s kind of hard to be her. Right? Wrong. I’ll get back to why this is wrong later because right now this leads me to a new pet peeve of mine; People so-called cosplaying as Penny by wearing a Captain Hammer fan tee. Umm…I’d hate to break this to you, and even if you have red hair, wearing that shirt only makes you a Captain Hammer groupie…You remember them right? You know, “We do the weird stuff!”. Yeah, that is who you are. Do not try to kid yourself into thinking you are Penny, because you are not Penny. Hmph!

OK so even though Penny didn’t have a ‘costume’ there is still a way to dress up as her. You know the scene where she is trying to get signatures for the homeless shelter? Just find some clothes similar to what she wears there and then use a clip board for a prop and there you have it! Instant Penny. I thought of this outfit because it is fairly easy to replicate (plus I thought it was cute). Another idea is try to copy the outfit from when she was at the park on her date with Captain Hammer and you can walk around with some frozen yogurt…and a spork. lol

So if you want to wear a Captain Hammer “fan tee” then you need to be holding an autographed photo of Captain Hammer…Or maybe a piece of paper with a lock of hair on it…Or both. Because, and I will say this one more time, you are a…wait for it…

GROUPIE!