I've had a couple of emails, and some very pointy pokes from my friends so here's the skinny:

No! I'm not done blogging!

Hiatus? Yes.

I am currently working for the US Census Bureau knocking on people's doors, invading their privacy, asking them annoying questions, and overall just trying to avoid getting shot. I work at random hours based on when people will be home. And I am le tired.

Unlike working in an office, I'm not actually in front of a computer most of the time. I am only playing WoW somewhere between 2-4 hours a week, and it takes a lot of kicking and screaming to get me to do even that! I am woefully behind in my blog reading (see below).

Even before the Census job began, I was suffering badly from WoW Burnout. I don't know if it's the pre-xpack doldrums, or just the raider burnout I was/am feeling, but I go through this on a fairly regular basis. This is just the first time I've had such a long burnout duration while being a blogger... so I suppose it's more obvious!

WoW is still a big part of my life (is that really sad? I don't know), and much like my relationships with anything and everything, it ebbs and flows depending on where my head is that week.

I've been quiet because I don't like making excuse posts. I don't like reading posts that promise someone will be back in a few days, or apologizing for being absent. I'll write when I feel like writing, and I'm not gonna write filler crap in the meantime! If I post something, it's because I feel like it's worth other people reading. Otherwise, you'd read something like "Home ownership is stupid. It's like raiding. Because in raiding, there's always someone stupid who is dying in a fire. Wallpaper should die in a fire. Yeah." etc. (For the record, wallpaper really should diaf, good God!)

So, in conclusion, YES I will be back, NO I have not quit. Oh also, no, sadly I'm not knocked up like any feisty blood elf warlocks you may know (you crazy kids)! I am currently keeping myself frazzled by the following:

• Knocking on strangers' doors, asking how many people live there, hoping they don't hate me
• Making a huge mess by attempting to paint bedrooms so we can sell this Godforsaken house
• Preparing to move about 50 miles south
• Working out a way to go back to uni to finish up my graduate degree and/or get a Real Job TM
  
• Trying to transform a Bachelor Pad House into something someone with any sense might actually consider buying (Sorry honey, but the storm trooper helmets and the alien heads will soon be in storage)
• Documenting all the house stuff "properly", because writing about remodeling a home is way more fun than actually doing the remodeling of a home.
  
• Avoiding my google reader like the plague, because it's really scary...

For shits and giggles, here's some random stuff for your viewing and linking pleasure.

• My guild is named the Lothar Swingers Club (and we've recently added a few to our roster, so we now actually have ten people!). I'm considering purchasing this residence for our clubhouse. Totally a Swinger's house, amirite?
• Druids don't approve of low cholesterol diets. Proof.
• Quit taking smoke breaks during the raid! Start Vaming!
• WoW situations that make map-lovers sad.
  

First, the requisite "What I Did On Patch Day" component.

When I left work on Tuesday, I went straight to the store, bought "Harry Potter: Half Blood Prince" on DVD, and watched it twice before going to bed early. While watching my movie, I logged on to wow only to throw some new glyphs and items on the AH. Turns out this was a very smart thing to do, as I somehow raked in 2k gold in that one night, and I'm notoriously bad at making money via the AH. I had no desire to deal with too much patch drama after a long day at work.

Yesterday I woke up early, and decided there was no way I was venturing out into the awful outdoors because it was all cold and wet and stuff. I had told Ful I had no plans to stay home the day after the patch was released, but I'm finnicky and change my mind at the drop of a hat. Call it spontaneous if you like. Sorry, Ful. I slept most of the day anyway.

I enjoyed the new LFG tool. I ran the new dungeons several times on regular, so that I would not be saved when my guildies logged on later, in hopes we could run heroic versions then. Unfortunately, that did not happen - when a few of my guildmates logged on, we decided to try it on regular first. Despite breezing through it in pugs, we really struggled last night as a group. I think part of it was being tired, part of it was group makeup. I don't know.

Now I'm trying to assemble the perfect ICC 10 man group. Headaches galore.

This post is so booooring that it's putting me to sleep. So you get a pass for skimming through it amongst the other 127 blog posts about first day patch impressions!

I think I've been found out. They must know that I'm a closet blogger around here, because suddenly I have a lot more work than the past two months. So, I'm going to try and sneak in another mini-post with some "lazy link" action. Personally, it's not so much laziness as sneakiness. Dude, I'm a dwarf, I don't do sneaky well (don't even get me started on Dwarf rogues).

• Verile over at Rejuvo made a short post regarding her (crap, his? OH SEXUALLY AMBIGUOUS INTERNET HANDLES I LOATHE THEE) feelings about PuG raids. I have yet to make my big post about how pugs are awesome and everyone else is just a whiny-face, but Verile does a really job of succinctly covering a similar attitude about them. Check it.

• Presaya at Balance of Power scared the holy nova out of me with this screenshot of a scam email she received (again, ambiguity, le sigh). This thing is very believable folks - scammers are getting very good at what they do, it's no longer just some level 1 warrior named JXHEWWWUIF in Stormwind spamming trade. Seriously, keep an eye out - because what Presaya posted would fool most folks - myself included. Good thing I never remember to pay attention to anything in my inbox anyway.

• I have rediscovered a priest blog that I think I found a month or two ago and just forgot to add to my google reader that I absolutely love... OMG..Priest! has all kinds of actually very useful stuff! She (he? DAMMIT) is currently working on a "heal through ToC" series that appears to be focused towards holy priests - and it's pretty good. Also, the oops-I-wiped-the-raid confessional post is my new favorite. Now, everyone go clicky those links and bring Exanna over here to say hi in a comment <3

Oh also, I found Presaya's posted screenshot of that scam email so interesting that I issue a challenge to you readers - do you have any screenshots of scam emails you've received? Email them to missmedicina at gmail dot com (go ahead and blur out you email address and names if you like) and if I get more than 3 different scam screenshots via email, I'll see if I can get a screenshot of an authentic Blizz email, and make a little game out of it.

When did *popcorn* become a legitimate emote?

::wanders off to ponder::

A little bird told me that it was mentioned on The Instance podcast that the pets available for purchase from the Blizz pet store do NOT count towards the pet achievements.

Can anyone confirm this for me? How sad is it that I find that strangely comforting?

In other news, Llyra over at Healing Way suggested that Resto Shammies receive some buffs to their damage mitigation abilities. I think this is a very interesting idea - of all the healing classes, it feels that Resto Shammies are in greatest need of some tweaking to give them more specialness. What do you think?

P.S. My fun little MSPaint chart I made yesterday was intended to be a little tongue in cheek... no, I certainly don't think that Rotation and Reflex can be graphed as simply as all that... but it was hella fun to try ;)

I'll be healing on my cleric, Helja Huffinuff with a bit of D&D tonight, so I'm pretty pumped! Yay Fridays...

This is what happens when Geographers who play WoW get reeeeally bored at work.

I dedicate this to you, Jasmine.



Now, to verify topology...

All DPSers are beginning to run scared from my blog, as they fear all the pent up passive-aggression we healers have harbored against them. We may heal you during the raid, but we're secretly cursing your entire existence? No, no, truly, it's not that bad. No really, we love you. Just, like, gtfootf. <3

I mean Ful never even stops by anymore, though I can always depend on his much holier wife. I think he's convinced that the healers have formed a mob and he'll be stormed out should he step foot into Miss Medicina's house. He suggested to me this weekend that the healers in the blogosphere have really become a powerful force, and much more vocal. I think he just never read healing blogs before he got me into blogging and now here I am, forcing it upon him ;)

Seriously though, I just want to step in and say that despite my teasing, I don't think all DPS is easy. Obviously. If I felt that way, maybe when I DPSed on my Pally I would no longer be that chick in the corner on the other side of the room trying to figure out why I can't use Crusader Strike. True story, I'm that bad. Melee iz hrd.

In other news, anyone know of a place where I can find a complete listing of all the different healing spells? I'm getting exceedingly frustrated by my inability to do some serious comparisons between healing classes because I lack the knowledge. This is the sort of thing that resulted in my trying to triple major and double minor in college... I hate not having all the information. I'm even debating putting my raiding on the back burner just so I can finish leveling my druid and shammy so I'm not constantly having to ask Kelly or Zigi to tell me what spell I'm trying to think of.

Oh also. Seriously, the Shaman T10 set? So worth the wait, amirite?

Couple of random tidbits floating around in my head.

So many bloggers getting involved in NaNo! You are much more courageous than I. I'll try to hold down the fort so you can write your novels this month, and therefore I'll probably be posting a bit more frequently. My usual schedule is about once a day, but I'll probably be making shorter posts a couple of times a day for a few weeks.

Tier 10 preview is out. Rogues continue to leave me gasping for breath as I guffaw rudely. I think Blizz is trying to make Druids happy that their armor can't be seen while they are in form so that they will stop whining. Do you *really* want people to see your gear, Antler Head? Pallies in skirts just make my day. What about the Priest t10? Yawn. Completely and utterly booooooring.

Mongrr made a fabulous post at Save the Lightwell yesterday with all kinds of information refuting common complaints about the love-it-or-hate-it Holy Priest spell Lightwell. I added a link to it on my page discussing the merits of speccing into Lightwell, but the StL post is far superior to my own.

I had a very delightful surprise last night when a healer of the non-squishy variety (!) sent me a tell last night from a level 1 character, offering to help out with the Healer Survey data entry. I might actually take him up on this... I'm going to see how far I can get this weekend, and if progress is still painfully slow, then I may take him up on his offer. If anyone else is interested in helping out with this project, please leave me a comment - I haven't decided if I'm ready to relinquish control of mah baby yet, but I also do want to get it all taken care of.

The Christmas spirit is upon us! Between BBB's Raid for the Cure (which is an awesome event because BBB is not telling everyone they should donate to one organization - you are eligible for the drawing even if you choose a different organization to handle your donation), or blame Syrana for Twitter being so annoyingly popular. Or even better, split your donation to Make a Wish Foundation by giving half of it to Blizzard, and you get a free pet! Wait... did I say that backwards? Ah, well, Freud is a bitch.

More later on endangered talents. The title of this post is a reference to a statement Gordin made regarding the recently ousted mayor of Fifth-Third, Ohi... oops, sorry, Dayton, Ohio. Damn, there's that Freud again.

Last night we didn't have enough people for 25 man, so our RL decided that we would do Ulduar on 10 man.

Gag me with a spoon. Ulduar is becoming the new Naxx, yo. I'm so sick of it, I'm so burnt out on it. I can't be the only one who feels this way... which is probably why we only had 10 folks around for our regular 25 man night.

Our RL valiantly tried to push us forward, tried to pump us up in his usual way. Instead, I felt I had been tricked. I signed up for a 25 man, with the hope that is that didn't work out, we could do 10 man Onyxia, to be honest. Hell I made the damn sign up, since no one else could be bothered. "After we clear Ulduar tonight," our RL said.

Whaaahahaaat?

You know, I'm all about positive thinking. In general I've got a pretty cheery outlook on life. But you can't be serious. With half the people in the raid being new, or at least playing new roles, and having only ever seen up to Hodir on 25 man and wiping there repeatedly, you think we're going to do a full clear on even a 10 man Ulduar in three hours or less? Are you DELUSIONAL?

I felt I'd been coerced into going into 10 man Ulduar (in which I held absolutely no interest) and had no reasonable way to get out of it. I'm angry. The night was absolutely awful. No surprises here, but no, we did not full clear Ulduar. Yet again, we got hung up on Hodir (and we skipped Iron Council, Ignis, and Razorscale). The only good thing I can say about the whole night, is that I got a little more practice on Hodir. To be honest, I would have liked several more attempts on Hodir. How are we ever going to progress past this guy if we can't handle wiping to him over and over and over again? That's raiding. THAT'S progression.

After all, progression is all about wipe wipe wipe rinse repeat ZOMG loot. Oh and beer.

But after wiping to Hodir 3 or 4 times (not to mention the handful of wipes to his TRASH mind you), it was decided that we needed to feel better about ourselves, so hows about we go kill us some Razorscale!!! yeehaw!

We wiped to Razorscale too. Miserably.

After that I announced I was done for the evening. It was decided after wiping to Razorscale, that we should go do Onyxia 10, of course. But after the misery that had been the entire night, I didn't even want to bother. I spent 2 hours on Sunday wiping to Onyxia in a PuG, so I've had my fill for one week.

So, what is my point? If you were looking for something productive and positive in this post, I am sorry to disappoint.

• I am completely sick of Ulduar. Last night just sealed it for me.
  
• I do not like signing up for one thing, and then feeling obligated to stick around and do something else in which I have absolutely no interest.
• I'm sick of doing the same bosses over and over, and never getting to see some new content. If anything, I would like to pummel Hodir into the frozen ground, even if it means that's all I do for 3 weeks. This whole "after wiping 3 times let's move to something else" is not working. I was only just starting to get my groove on last night and actually learn the damn fight.

And as a random hilarious sidenote, I have a Google search toolbar implemented in my firefox we browser. When you type in a search, it sticks around in the search box until you type in something else. Currently typed in my google searchbox?

"severus snape panties"

I will now leave you to ponder.

-brought to you by lack of coffee

Dear Ful&Fuu...

While I'm super happy for ya'll and all that crap, and grats on your nuptials and blah blah blah for the love of the light come home. Raiding without you is no fun. I can't write in my blog without Ful to tease me incessantly. Fuu isn't here to help me drink off the raid stress and vent via whisper. I reeeeally dont want to admit to that silly warlock that I miss him leading the raid, so that I can just stick to my quiet background tasks of assigning heals. Get your butts off of the beach and back into Azeroth, you two lovebirds. Srsly.

Love,
Jbelle.

Hey folks! If you hadn't noticed, I've not been posting for a few days!

For various reasons, it is unlikely I will be able to post regularly for the next week or two. I am away from the WoW universe, and trekking along the gulf coast with my family. The gods of beach wireless internet apparently have forbidden me from logging in to any character that is parked in Dalaran, so my Shammy and Druid alts are enjoying the attention they are getting for once.

If you want to keep up with what I'm doing IRL, you can try to follow me on Twitter (if you aren't creepy). If I recognize you from comments, I'll add you back.

I can't speak. I'm mourning the death of both Michael Jackson AND Billy Mays.

TV will never be the same.

I do actually have a "real" post coming soon regarding 3.2 and pallies, but before I leave for work, I just need to rant.

I'm just plain exhausted.

Why are most of my posts appearing at 2 or 3 am? Why am I up so late anyway? The reality is that I'm NOT up late... I'm up early. I have a commute that is appoximately 1.5 hrs on a good day, and anywhere between 2 and 4 on a bad one. I have a certain number of hours I am required to fulfill at my internship per quarter (or semester for you normal uni students) - and I slacked off this past quarter, and left all my hours to the end. That means that I am literally scrambling to get in 9-12 hour days so that I can fulfill my hour requirement and not get booted from the program or lose my grad funding. 9 hour days = 45 hour workweeks, which wouldnt be that bad... except you have to add on the 3-4 hours i spend each day commuting. That totals to, oh 60 hour workweeks.

I have to have enough sleep or I risk falling asleep while driving. I cannot risk waking up late and not getting my hours in. That means that when I get home from work, around 6 or 7, I immediately go to bed. When my fiance gets home, sometime between 8 and 10, he pops into the bedroom to make sure I'm alive, and to wake me up just long enough so that I can see him, say hi, then go back to bed. When he comes to bed, around 2 or 3 in the morning, that's when I wake up. I haven't been able to talk to him much at all during the week. That's probably why I'm just as clueless as any of the other officers as to where he's been, what he's up to, why he may or may not respond on our fora. Kinda embarassing really... I live with the guy after all.

I hop on my laptop around 2am, scramble to get some much needed dailies in on both of my level 80s, as well as read up on what's happening in the wow world, and put together a halfway decent blog post. Then I take a super fast shower and speed on down the freeway to work.

Obviously, I haven't been able to do any weekday raids. That means my raiders have been short a healer - and we're already short on healers, so the raids have been struggling left and right. The officers in my alliance have been trying to put together an officer meeting, and the only way I can do it is if my fiance comes up, wakes me up for the meeting, and then I go straight back to bed afterwards. Not ideal, but a meeting is overdue, and I *have* to be there, for my own sanity.

All this is coupled with the fact that I need a refill on my medication, as my stores are dwindling - but, I need a doctor's appointment, and I have neither time nor money at the present moment for that. That means I'm trying to stretch it out - something I should be taking every day religiously is now being taken every 3 or 4 days. Which means it's a good thing I'm sleeping when others are awake, because I might crack at any second. I'm dizzy and faint like you wouldn't believe. I stumble when I walk. At least I have no problems driving!

The good thing is that my internship finally ends tomorrow, so my sleeping schedule can go back on track. Unfortunately for my raiding addiction, my fiance and I are heading out of town for one of our twice yearly visits with my family for a week. I can't exactly postpone it... my gigantic crazy cajun family wants to drink a lot of moonshine in celebration of our recent engagement.

So I will just have to continue powering through it for the next couple of weeks, and hope that everyone in my alliance doesn't forget me. At least I can still access our website and fora from work, so I've been making a distinct effort to make my presence known there. >sigh<

I have mentioned that I am a professional student - but that particular occupation also entails me doing real work, though I have joked otherwise. I do most of my work in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which, for the non-Geographers out there (ha), is essentially computer assisted mapping with an associated database.

Anyway, I have an awesome list of all the personal projects I would love to do, and on that list is a an Azeroth GIS. Basically, it would be an interactive map of the World of Warcraft. My idea is that instead of looking up a zone on wowhead and finding a list there of all the available quests in the zone, you could use a map. Click on the zone in question, and search by level. There, on the map, you would see all the quests available for your level, and where exactly the questgiver is. Perhaps it could even show linkages of quest chains - where they would take you. Since a GIS incorporates a database, you could essentially provide all kinds of information and search functions - it need not be solely limited to quests.

I am still considering doing this project, because I love to share my Type A spreadsheetiness mentality with everyone, but it would be highly complicated by the software. Creating a GIS like this would mean either A) only people who have the 3,000 dollar software could use it, or B) I would have to spend a fortune to get the extension that would allow me to publish it so that people would need only download some free software to view it. It's a lot like Adobe Acrobat Reader - except that it's even more difficult (read: expensive) to actually create the "PDFs".

I love thinking up completely unnecessary and complicated tasks for myself that in all likelihood I will never get around to doing. I do wonder though, if I were to enlist the help of others, if it would be much easier. I could do the mapping fairly easily if someone else could help put together the database. Or perhaps I am just trying to justify spending a bunch of money I don't have for a software extension I don't need...

My mother always told me, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I'm cheating. I'm back-posting for Monday. Mwahaha.

Because Sunday I never went to bed, and Monday I had a presentation for my seminar class that I was up all night putting together. After finishing my awesome intended to be 20 minute power point presentation, I had to go down to campus for a five hour seminar class in which we all presented our papers. My 20 minute presentation actually ended up being an hour. Oops.

And after that was over? I drove home, and crashed. I just woke up, and I'm still exhausted. And I have to leave for work in 3 hours, and try to fit in a 12 hour day if possible. Blah. I haven't been able to raid with my fellow alliance members on a regular basis for several weeks now (with the notable exception of Maly this weekend). Since my university is on a quarter system, and not a semester system, it may be summer for everyone else, but "summer" for me is defined by "no school" - and therefore, it's not summer yet!

I'm exhausted.