This One's For the Children

Children's Week is coming up shortly.  Possibly one of the most touching events in the game.  You take one or two orphans on their dream trip in Azeroth, let them meet their idols and buy them sweets.  They look up at you with big doughy eyes and tell you that you are awesome.  At the end of the trip you get a little mini pet (or 5 gold) and a letter from them saying they will never forget you.

Being the softey I am, I get a little weepy looking after a poor little orphan who has very simple needs:  a little love, a little fun and some ice cream.  I never want to give them back because I could show them so much more!  I could at least make them some cool clothes or show them which herbs to pick or how to cook up some spice bread.   

I would gladly do a daily quest outside of Children's week that let me interact with them more such as taking them fishing, tossing a ball around or baking them a delicious cake.  I wouldn't ask for gold or reputation, just knowing that I brought a little happiness to them from doing something so simple would be enough.

In this short event, Blizzard snuck in quite possibly the hardest part of the meta-achievement: School of Hard Knocks.  It's the only thing standing between the Violet Proto-Drake and me.  I don't know if I'll be able to do it seeing as how a) I'm shite at PvP c) scared of strangers – especially those that are trying to kill me and b) battlegrounds are no place for a child! I don't want to expose them to the horrors of combat if I can help it (unless it is a reference to Army of Darkness).  Isn't eating all those cakes and candies in front them bad enough?

Whether or not you do any of the Childern's Week achievements I do hope that you at least do the quests.  It takes very little effort and is a nice way to spend an afternoon.   You get to make a little child happy, plus you get a pet (or possibly a dragon) what more could you ask for?  

ICC U!

The Zug Initiative celebrates our first clear of ICC Lower Spire!

Chawa posted a similar picture on the guild forums, but I thought I would share as well.  Can I just say, look at all those gorgeous Taurens!! 

During this raid Njordar Bone Bow dropped and I just saw stars.  Chawa won the roll and I went to say "Grats!" over vent.  Unfortunately due to a mouthful of beer and a teeny burp it came out like "..rats".  So I just wanted to take the time properly to say GRATS! GRATS! GRATS! to her!     

Squee Squee Squee, all the way home!

The Wind Rider Cub mini pet is possibly one of the cuter pets in Warcraft.  When they were first released I didn't give them much thought.  Then I saw one in game and had the normal ZedMG! reaction.


Yesterday I came home to a fun prezzie on my keyboard:

I did not know how cute the actual plushie was!  Plus, the drawstring bag is like a gift itself. Guess who's lunch is going to be For The Horde! (I took out the tag because it was making his ear hurt).

And here he is!  I mean really, does it get any cuter?  He flies below you when you use a flying mount plus he has the fiercest little growl you ever did here.

How I would love to be able to have more than one pet out at a time.  I think that he and Baby Blizzard Bear would be the best of friends!

Guild Laundry

Something is about to be aired out that a few people in the guild might be embarrassed by.  Something that I just need to get off my chest because events of late have compounded to the point where it needs to be said or my little beefy heart will explode (into a million rainbows and cupcakes).

 

................................. 

 

You guys are awesome!!!!!

 

This will not be the eloquent post which Darth asked for, but it's something related to it and you guys are going to sit there while I gush about certain people.

 

I am so very proud of what we have accomplished in the last few weeks: ICC lower spire - cleared; ToC – fully cleared; Malygos – KILLED; Sarth 3D – on notice.   I have enjoyed every boss kill and every wipe and look forward to more of both!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

 

To our guild leader, BT, who takes the time to post strategies on the forums and explains the fights before hand so we get a sense of what is going to happen, the kind of damage that is coming our way and how we are going to deal with it class by class.     

 

To Morvis who always – always - ALWAYS keeps us alive and honestly couldn't be a kinder spirit.

 

To Natural and Chawa – who make me laugh loudly and uncontrollably and for being so darned cute.

 

To [enhancement shaman] - my public WoW crush, my real life love; he keeps the computers running and replenishes beer in the fridge (also occasionally squishes bugs).  What more could a girl ask for?

 

Of course I hold the entire guild dearly in my heart. From our awesome tanks to our excellent healers and right down to our deadly dps – I am happy to run with our amazing cast of characters!  I never would have imagined sporting the "Champion of the Frozen Wastes" title nor even see the inside of ICC, yet here we are and I couldn't be happier!   We've really only had 'ups' in the guild and the only 'downs' have been bosses! J

 

We all deserve a pat on the back and perhaps a slice (or two) of cake – I'm baking, who's coming over? 

Farewell Noblegarden!

Since I finished the Noblegarden so quickly on my Mage...

I finished it on my Death Knight...

and then my Druid!

My verdict is that Taurens look better in dressed than Orcs.  Gov didn't seem to like wearing the elegant dress as much as Ianto, but he very kindly posed for a picture.  The hardest bit was dealing with the five minute cool down of the spring flowers.  Very heartbreaking to see the gnome or dwarf female you've been camping dissapear just as the flowers are ready for use.

I miss the egg basket already!

Druid Changes!

Wild Mushroom?  Healing in Tauren form?

I think my feelings can only be described in this photo of Ianto, that I took when I heard the news:

 Whee!!! I get to show off my dress(es)!

Now the question that remains: Where does the tree dance fit in? We demand the tree dance!

Also, to all the night elves - my condolences.

Cross Faction Post!

Last week I had to say goodbye to my beloved Doctor, I wrote about it here.

It's okay though, I think I'll be just fine.

Thank You!

While the hunters of the world wait with bated (baited?) breath for our Cataclysm updates I would like to take a moment to say THANK YOU! 

 

Wednesday was the first anniversary of Hello Tauren (nee Tauren Gravy).  Back on April 7, 2009 I made this entry into the wow blogging community and it's been an exercise into self-indulgent nerdery that I would never have imagined of myself to leek out into the public domain.

 

Yet here I am. With light ranting and excited raving I've shared some of my favourite and most hated things about the game.  I've celebrated many excellent moments with the guild and I hope there are many more (for me to write about).  Other than that my only achievements here include sending out light grammatical and spellimg errors into the world, oh, and I like to think that I gave The Wayward Initiative a little shove into existence.  Even if it's not the case at all (it's not), a Tauren can dream, can't she?

 

So thank you very much dear reader(s)!  I hope that from time to time I've put a smile on your face and I thank you all for your continued visits.

 

/dance!

A Very Noble Garden

In an effort to restore my faith in all that is good in the world, I tempted fate and did the Noblegarden achievement on my mage.  I forgot how much fun it was to hop around as a bunny, using the egg rush buff to get to the coloured eggs (plus using blink also gives you a bit of an edge to get to eggs).  I gave myself a few rules:

 

1.      if I arrived at an egg at the same time someone else did I continued on;

 

2.      if I was running for the same egg as someone else, I changed directions; and

 

3.      egg campers shmeg shmampers.  If there was an egg and someone was standing there, I paused for a few moments and took it. Tee hee!

 

No one told me off, no one gave me any rude gestures or did anything really.  It seemed like everyone was going about the achievement in a civil fashion.  I daresay I enjoyed myself!

 

Running around Bloodhoof village is probably my favourite place to collect the eggs.  It makes me sentimental for my very early years struggling through Mulgore.  Check those two canoes by the river – an egg spawns in one of the traps!

 

Razorhill comes in as a close second for collectability.  Lots of eggs all around and some spawn areas are quite close together so you might get lucky!  Check under the cart by the inn – there are sometimes three: one in between the boxes behind it and two under the wheels. 

 

Brill is a bit tricky in that most of the eggs spawn in the bushes around the buildings so it can be easy to run past them.  Don't forget to check inside the well and the lamppost near the stables!

 

Falconwing square is vile for collecting eggs.  Only go there if you need to get the Spring Fling achievement because every conceivable place an egg could spawn has someone sitting directly on it.  The area is so small so it's not very conducive for a delightful bunny hop.

 

There are still four days left so I might try to give it another go another toon. Something tells me that my orc death knight is just begging for some bunny ears!

You No Take Egg!

Let's all pause to remember what this long weekend is all about: Noblegarden

After last year's mad dash for coloured eggs and the resounding QQ's heard around the world I don't think I'm ready to face another week of it on a different toon.

They. Are. Coloured. Eggs.


Blizzard created the holiday to make it enjoyable yet leave it to WoW players to exploit it and make it an exhausting event.  It's fun to hop around like a bunny to collect and lay eggs, wear bunny ears and carry an egg basket. Sitting in one spot hoarding the eggs as they spawn sort of takes that magic away plus it doesn't sound like fun.  I can appreciate that some players don't have the luxury of logging in 24 hours a day but is that your ideal way to spend a few hours?  Part of the fun soon becomes seeing how many eggs can be stolen right from under your nose!  At least for this bunny!

The eggs spawn as soon as one is collected so the egg campers have to rely on those of us who like to run around in order to get their fair stash.  

Regardless of how you decide to collect, I hope that you embrace the cute and cuddly spirit of the event and I wish you luck finding a female dwarf!

April Fool’s!

While it is our guild’s birthday, I did insert a little April Fools joke into the previous post and now that it’s noon I have to come clean.


You see, the aforementioned “Unnamed Elemental Shaman” is actually an Enhancement Shaman! Hahahahha! Oh the delicious hilarity!!!! Hee hee hee! WAAAAAAAAAAAhoohoo!!

Okay, it is indeed lame but I’m sure that it caused some nostril flaring, a crazily raised eyebrow and some facepalming directed at me. It was the best that I could do because I didn’t have time to put his stapler in Jell-O this morning (plus that’s a waste of Jell-O and I don’t think he owns a stapler).

Hopefully by now he has forgiven me, and not logged into my account to leave me naked on the Ogrimmar bank.

And if he has – can you please spare 1g?

Happy Birthday Zug Initiative!

Wow! Has three years really gone that quickly? Today is our guild’s official birthday. Many thanks to Brokentree, Darthregis and [Unnamed Elemental Shaman] for forming The Zug Initiative in 2007 and for inviting me along! I certainly could not imagine this game without you guys!


Last year I made these cupcakes to celebrate with our local guild chapter but this year I'm slightly pressed for time due to Easter weekend and travel (read: just lazy) so I'll make something in the next few weeks.

Thanks for all the fish feast and dance parties!