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So much for that then July 24, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Gear, Instances, Paladin, World of Warcraft , add a comment

After my last post you can imagine my surprise when logging into WoW 5mins before raid time hoping to maybe run Kara that I saw the guild message of the day saying we were doing Magtheridon.  I quickly flicked up the guild roster to see that we had 20 people online, which I’ve not seen for a while.  So yeah, so much for never seeing 25 mans again.

I’m happy to say that we got him down on the third attempt, after some bad luck on the first attempt with the cave in coinciding with a blast nova and then one of our cube clickers lagging right before a blast nova on the second try.  No loots for me there but he doesn’t actually drop anything I want now anyway, my chest is better than the T4 one now.

In recruitment news, we seem to have paladins growing out of our ears now.  There were a total of 6 paladins in that raid, four of them holy.  I wouldn’t mind this so much if they weren’t all so much better geared than me.  As it seems we’re picking up stragglers from all through Tier 4, 5 and 6 we’ve got some people with very nice gear, some for more than one spec and it is making me feel a little inadequate. I am slightly doubting whether I’m up to this hardcore raiding malarkey - I got called out twice before the raid about the lack of enchants on my gear, which is of course a very fair criticism. My main issue with the enchanting of gear is the difficulty of finding an enchanter. I seriously can’t wait till WotLK where enchants will be trade able on the auction house, once that happens you can pretty much guarantee that my gear will be enchanted up as I have no problem spending money at the auction house so simply.

After downing Maggy we got two Karazhan groups together and headed in.  As not everyone had that much time we only did the first 3 bosses. However, I’m very pleased to say that the lil Paladin wannabe - The Maiden of Virtue - finally dropped the Shard of the Virtuous and so that is one slot finally epiced out.  As I intend to get this enchanted I decided not to continue saving for the badge healing mace and instead spent it on the belt instead and also bought an epic gem to help pay for said enchants.

Overall, a pretty satisfying WoW evening. It looks like I may get to see SSC and TK once more, perhaps even Hyjal and BT one day…

Zul’Aman = Cleared July 20, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Gaming, Instances, Paladin, World of Warcraft , add a comment

Tonight I took part in my personal first downing of Zul’Jin.  This means that I’ve personally cleared Zul’Aman.  Surprisingly, the fight is kinda easier than I expected. As our raid leader was saying whilst we tried to down the previous boss, Zul’Jin is probably a bit easier.  It’s only his very last phase that gave us any trouble and we downed him at some point around attempt number 5.

Nothing interesting dropped of course but the 3 badges are always nice.

This puts my personal raid progression at

When I first dreamt of how awesome raiding must be, I never even imagined that I would get into the 25 mans, never mind all the way in to Tier 5. As things happen, it may be that I don’t get to see another 25 man until wrath.  Unfortunate drama within the guild (which I wasn’t present for and don’t really know what happened) caused a chunk of the raiders to leave and summer brought about inactivity in more.  We do have a core set of raiders big enough to do 10 mans successfully but I know most of us would love to be killing the big targets in the 25 mans. Our active raiders are trickling away but they are also being replaced. Tonights raid had two trial members in it, the same classes as the two core raiders we recently lost, and both of them seemed to perform very well in their roles so there is still hope to get back on our feet.

Chavtastic July 15, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Essay, Rants, Society , add a comment

I was just reading this article and it kinda gave me a good talking point for something I’ve wanted to write about for a while because I had heard it elsewhere and really wanted to take issue with it.

Here’s my problem, the authors of this article basically make the point that the word Chav is about class hatred, from the middle (and possibly higher I suppose) to the working class.  But the thing is, I’ve grown up as the whole concept of a Chav has been born, I’ve gone to school with them, I have been friends with them. Don’t try to tell me that some middle aged journalist has any kind of clue about what a Chav really is. I’m making a few assumptions here (I don’t know how old the writers are, or that they are necessarily journalists) but actually you can’t get that much closer to the experience than people my age so either way I’m more qualified.

A Chav is not, as this article seems to be saying, a derogatory term for the lower classes. No, it’s a social stereotype.

Now, the thing about a social stereotype is that it involves choice. Chavs choose to wear track suits and strangely angled baseball caps, ultimately they choose to do the things they are often criticized for (vandalism, teenage drinking etc), even though I know most of them have plenty of fucked up behind their actions.

Admittedly, the working class and chavness is far from mutually exclusive but it is not the same thing. So really I’m just sick of people who clearly have no clue what they are talking about putting forth their opinions to the world, trying to convince the politically correct that chav is some kind of no no. Discriminating against someone for something that is neither a fault nor within their control (eg Skin colour, social class) is completely wrong, there are no two ways about it.  The examples in the article include Faggot, Pikey and Nigger.  These are all words based around insulting someone based on something that is not only unchangeable but also is not wrong in any way. But a chav puts themselves into a stereotype, they weren’t born that way, they don’t have no choice and yes, there are a lot of negative connotations to the chav image, connotations that you have to accept when you take on that image.

As someone who is into metal, I wear darker clothes and band t shirts to indicate an allegiance, I buy into a stereotype in order to tell those around me something about myself. Usually it’s that I don’t like the same shit they listen to (which does include probably the majority of the general public’s view of metal but I deal with that).  But I’m perfectly aware of the downsides of stereotyping myself, I choose to do it though, anyone who buys into any stereotype chooses to do it and if that choice results in criticism then you just have to deal with it.

No one should need political correctness to back up their choices, you can either try and explain to others your choice or ignore what you know is their ignorance. In this case, it would seem like the ignorance is coming from those that claim to be politically correct, which, isn’t very surprising to be honest. Personally, if I felt that I were lower class (I’m not rich but come from a reasonably middle class background so I’m not really one or the other) I would be offended by the fact that this article makes the assumption that Working Class = Chav, when in fact that’s just not the way things work.

A nice Deadmines surprise July 3, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Instances, World of Warcraft , add a comment

I’m a registered Altoholic and primarly play Alliance so naturally I’ve done Deadmines a lot across many characters, and I do mean a lot. I ran my friend through it so many times to try and get twink drops for his warrior it was insane. From this long history (well, y’know, as long as it can be for just over a year of playing) I’ve come to expect the worst from your typical Deadmines PuG. So when I get a whisper from a level 15 warrior I don’t have great optimism for the potential of completing the dungeon.

It didn’t look any better once I was in the group, we had me playing my level 19 warlock alt (who I’m really enjoying at the moment), another warlock- level 18, a mage - level 19 and a level 19 ret paladin serving as a healer. Given that, I was worried this was gonna be a complete waste of time.

We actually managed to get through the whole thing, without a single wipe, or at least without a full graveyard run since we had soulstones and used some sneaky tactics. Using a combination of off tanking using my Voidwalker we managed to get through most of the situations. I was having to use every warlock tool available to keep things in check and it made for a very fun experience. The fact that it took 2 and a half hours doesn’t even bother me because it was such a satisfying experience. I was also pleasently surprised that I managed to pick up the Emberstone Staff, even despite the caster competition for it.

Who knew it was even possible to complete Deadmines with a level 15 tank (who did ding 16 during the run)?

On this note, I’m having a lot of fun on this warlock. I’ve gotten a warlock to 19 before (blood elf female, not really keen on the character and also horde side so not much use for farming) and it was alright but this time round I’m really enjoying the play style, I may actually try and keep it up, it’s good soloin’ fun

The what? June 28, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Entertainment, Rants , add a comment

The Happening has to be one of the lamest serious movie titles I’ve ever laid eyes upon. It’s possibly the exact opposite in movie titling mistake to Snakes on a Plane.

In the first, you’ve got the most general title for a film/book/play ever conceived. I mean seriously, how many of these things are there were there is no happenings, no events? I can’t think of anything where something doesn’t happen, where there is no happening.  Things must happen in order to create something interesting, it’s just the way these things work!

On the other hand, you’ve got Snakes on a Plane, which essentially sums up the entire movie before you’ve even planned out your weekend.  I’ve not seen it, so I can’t be sure but I must assume that there is a plane, which through some kind of event (happening if you will) has been filled with, presumably, many snakes.  Samuel L Jackson, being the bad ass that he is, will somehow save the day and get rid of said snakes, probably with some tasty phrases thrown into the mix.  I don’t really think I need to see the movie.

Back to The Happening - you may aswell have just called it “Event” or perhaps even “Title” or “Movie”. Seriously guys, lets sort this out, maybe it was just an attempt to make the title so vague people would go and see it just to find out what it’s about, on a whim perhaps,  I can’t imagine that anyone is going to assume some kind of original and mind bending cinematic experience with a name like that.

Crazy days June 22, 2008

Posted by Sharny in : Life , add a comment

Friday was a pretty intense day. I’m not going to go into any sort of detail because that wouldn’t be fair for those involved.

This post could have been filled with talk of slip n slide water fight fun but as it happened the day turned a different way.

Things were left in state that threatened our friendship group, something that has brought me much happiness of the past few months. I’m hoping that given the circumstances of the day things will return to a close to normal situation shortly although things may never be quite the same.