#WoWscreenshotaday – A Hallows End Alphabet

For the first time ever, I’ve actually managed to finish one of Tycertank’s screenshot a day prompts. Clearly having it being Hallows End helped me focus or perhaps it was the nebulousness of the prompts themselves which inspired me. Either way, without any further ado.. here are the rest of my screenshots for October and have a happy Halloween!

 

O is for Owl

P is for Pumpkins

Q is for Queen

R is for Rider of Blood

S is for Skeletons cooking in a pot

T is for Tattiebogle

U is for Undead

V is for Vile

W is for Witch

X is for X’avius

Y is for Yogg-Saron

Z is Zealots

One Giant Pumpkin wearing a Witch’s Hat

Two blood tinged pillars of crystal

Three impaled Orcs

Four Hanging Skulls

Five scary children wearing pointy hats

Books for Halloween – My Favourite Spooky Reads

As autumn bleeds into winter, my thoughts tend to turn to dark and scary things. By five at night, we’re already starting to lose the light and by six it’s pitch black outside with the street lamps throwing pockets of orange light into the shadows. Inside where it’s warm and light, I like to sit by the window and read about ghosts, vampires and the monsters under the bed (although given all the other stuff under ours, it would be a very small monster, pocket sized in fact). I don’t really have Halloween movies, although I do tend to like watching Sleepy Hollow and the Nightmare Before Christmas around now, instead I have Halloween books that I pull out and scare myself with.

So in no particular order here they are:

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

Fair enough, this isn’t particularly scary but feeds into my love of vampires and witches. Plus humour helps dilute the fear a touch.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub

I first read this as a young girl, maybe early teens but I suspect a bit earlier and was terrified by it. One particular part left a lasting impression on my mind and it’s now one of my favourite books for snuggling up under a duvet and reading, assuming of course I’m not alone in the house.

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

I read this for the first time during High School French. My teacher at the time apparently had better things to do than teach us and so I and the girl I shared a desk with spent our fourth year reading our way through Stephen King. Reading under the bright classroom lights was one thing, but walking the mile and a half home in the dusk another altogether. Instead of taking my usual short cut through the park and along the river bank, I almost ran the long way under street lights just in case.

IT by Stephen King

I still make sure my hair is safely tucked out of the way before I lean over any plug hole thanks to this book. The idea of anything being able to see our darkest fears and use them against is terrifying enough but somehow King manages to make it extra frightening right from the first few pages.

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Whilst I like the all novels in this particular series, the first one stands out perhaps because it was the first one I read, anyway you can’t go wrong with a spin on the Dracula story.

The October Country by Rad Bradbury

Nothing beats creepy short stories for those quick bursts of heart pumping fear between chores.

From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury

In all Bradbury’s stories about the Elliott family, I can’t shake that feeling of familiarity. No, my nearest and dearest aren’t mummies, ghosts or vampires but they are eccentric, strange and oddly fond of once living animals now stuffed and inanimate. Somehow the family dynamic is similar although my Grandmama doesn’t just come out at Halloween.

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

This is the book I always imagined reading to my children on Halloween, when their sated with sweets and the candle burns low in the Jack O’Lantern.

The Mistletoe Bride by Kate Mosse

The first story in this collection reminds me so much of the ghost stories of my childhood, whispered undercover of darkness by my Grandmother and my Great Grandmother.

 

There are others, books which somehow catch the edge of what frightens me, the darkness inside not out, that send a tingle of fear tripping down my spine but these are my favourites. That said, I’m always on the look out for more books that make me curl up by the light so any suggestions of spooky things to read would be appreciated.

Lessons to be Learned

I’ve always prided myself on being observant and so it came as a surprise this afternoon to spot this when bouncing through the Mage Quarter looking for stink bombs to clear up :

On closer inspection I discovered that Archmage Nakada was looking for volunteers for his class and given that the mini Mages looked so cute in their hats, saying no was impossible. That said I wasn’t expecting to be turned into a Crawling Claw for five minutes with a half an hour buff preventing me from becoming another “test subject” straight away.

My UI is still a work in progress

Have I learnt my lesson? Definitely not, I suspect this will give me yet another reason to haunt the Mage Quarter when I’m in Stormwind but once I’d stopped making happy crawling claw noises and spamming Holy Nova, I got to wondering who is the Archmage and what exactly is he doing there. One trip to WoWhead later and my feelings of fuzziness towards Blizzard (already on a semi high from this patch) increased considerably. I’ve always loved the memorials to people now  sadly missed in-game and as memorials go, this has to be right up there with the pyramids and the Arc de Triomphe. What better way to say goodbye and thanks to someone loved and respected by those responsible for the game that we all love and spend so much time playing.

My Grandmother who despite being not dead or even ill is obsessed with funeral preparations and has asked me to read Christina Rossetti’s “Remember” over her open grave.

Remember me when I am gone away,

         Gone far away into the silent land;

         When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

         You tell me of our future that you plann’d:

         Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

         And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

         For if the darkness and corruption leave

         A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

         Than that you should remember and be sad.

Now I’ve always loved her poems but that ending annoys me on some intrinsic level, what’s wrong with remembering and being happy for all the good times and I think that’s why this memorial sings to me so much. It’s not a stone in some out of the way place or a grave garlanded with flowers, it’s something guaranteed to make you smile even if knowing what it represents, that smile is tinged with sadness and I think that’s a lesson we could all benefit from.

For those of you who don’t recognize the area, they are by the clearing by the Mage Tower, next to the Essential Components shop and apparently you can be turned into a variety of creatures including the Crawling Claw and Sprite Darter Hatchling.

#WoWscreenshotaday – A Hallows End Alphabet

Once again Tycertank is running her #WoWscreenshotaday prompt and this month, it’s the alphabet we’re dealing with. I’ve decided to go with a Halloween/Hallows End theme for the rest of the month simply because it’s that time of year when the air smells of crisp apples and damp fog sidles in from the sea, a time for ghost stories and glancing twice at the flickering shadows.

H is for Haunted House

I is for Imp

J is for Jack O’ Lantern

K is for Kel’Thuzad or at least his image!

L is for Lantern

M is for Mausoleum

N is for Necropolis

 

All I want for Hallows End is ….

Tomorrow heralds the start of my favourite WoW holiday, Hallows End and I’ve got my fingers crossed that these two little no longer alive kittens have made into the festivities. I know the game is already loaded with cats, especially when compared to dogs but still.. you can’t have too many ghost cats can you?

In fact I could forgo all the other bits and bobs, the apple ducking, the skeletons hanging on cupboards and even the Headless Horseman if only they make it into the game this year. Please Blizzard, after all I’ve been a good little Priest (honest!).

First Thoughts on 6.0.2

Patch days always fill me with foreboding, especially those which herald the end of an expansion. We know that as the sun goes down on the current incarnation of the game, that in a sense we have to learn anew and regardless of how positive those changes are, that always floods me with nervousness.

The addition of new faces for old and familiar characters was a huge issue for me but somehow it’s worked out okay. My Gnomes have attitude by the bucket load of malfunctioning engineering gizmos and my Nightelf Priest, well she looks distinctly holier than thou now. A few hairstyles will need changing and I think my Monk and I will need a while to get reacquainted but nothing I can’t deal with. The Toybox and the reagent bank have proved invaluable. I actually have bag space.. something almost unheard of for me and across all my characters I seem to have wracked up 68 toys so now everyone can wreck trains and plant sinister blue dolls places.

No, the thing which has bothered me most about everything I’ve experienced today has to be Nethergarde Keep, that almost forgotten outpost lurking in the Blasted Lands.

I know war is meant to be bloody and horrible, but this just seemed a step too far. For the first time since Theramore I’m angry, angry that another town was lost and I could nothing to save it. Angry that NPCs who have been apart of our journey through WoW since the very beginning are once again broken and bloodied amidst burning buildings and battered brick. Sure I now have another title and a new pet but that’s not enough. Poisoning Ogres helped but they aren’t the real enemy. In a way that the Lords of War clips couldn’t, this brief little quest chain has left me wishing to rain destruction down on the Iron Hordes.

Filling the Toybox – Part 1

One of my favourite new additions to Warcraft is the Toy Box. I find myself almost wishing that I didn’t have to wait another few days for the next patch before this feature is released into my hot little hands. It’s first of all a list plus it’s going to free up beautiful and desperately needed bag space across so many of my characters so what’s not to love.

I’ve tried to be a bit systematic here, things I’m currently attempting to farm are green, items which aren’t yet available in game are red and items which come from Trading Cards are purple. Anything which is purchasable for any sort of currency whether gold, Timeless Coins or some sort of token is orange.

• Ai-Li Skymirror – Not yet owned. Drops from the mob of the same name in the Dread Wastes.
• Alliance Flag of Victory – not obtainable until the expansion
• Ancient Amber – Acquired by Fossil Archaeology.
• Ancient’s Bloom – not obtainable until the expansion
• Angry Beehive –  not obtainable until the expansion
• Arena Master’s War Horn – not obtainable until the expansion
• Argent Crusader’s Banner – Not yet owned. Sold by Dame Evniki Kapsalis at the Argent Tournament for 15 Champion’s Seals.
• Arrival of the Naaru – Not yet owned. Draenei Archaeology.
• Ash-Covered Horn –  Not yet owned. Drops from the High Priest of Ordos on the Timeless Isle.
• Autographed Hearthstone Card – not obtainable until the expansion
• Aviana’s Feather – not obtainable until the expansion
• B.F.F Necklace – Drops from Huggalon the Heart Watcher, a level 92 Elite who resides in a cave in Townlong Steppes.
• Battle Horn – Drops from Blackhoof, a rare spawn in the Valley of the Four Winds.
• Black Whirlwind – not obtainable until the expansion
• Blackflame Daggers – Drops from Champions of the Black Flame on the Timeless Isle.
• Blazing Diamond Pendant – not obtainable until the expansion
• Blazing Wings – potentially available at November’s Darkmoon Faire from completing the achievement Brood of Alysrazor which requires you to fly through 50 hoops. My only experience doing this comes from the beta a few builds back but it was fairly easy then as long you mapped out your route as you went.
• Blessing of the Old God – Not yet owned. This is a rare Nerubian archaeology solve.

 

So to sum up page 1, that’s currently 8 items definitely not obtainable until the expansion starts in earnest with a further one item as a maybe. Then we have three things from varying branches of Archaeology, 5 drops from various mobs currently in-game and one item purchasable for Champion’s Seals. As things stand out of these 18, I possess a whopping four items, although I do have enough seals to purchase the Argent Crusader’s Banner so I suppose my current score for page 1 is 5/18.

• Bloodmane Charm – not obtainable until the expansion
• Blue Crashin’ Thrashin’ Racer Controller – Can be bought from Jepetto Joybuzz and his clockwork assistant in Dalaran or Craggle Wobbletop and Blax Bottlerocket in Stormwind and Orgrimmar respectively.
• Bones of Transformation – A rare item from Night Elf Archaelogy. Not yet owned.
• Botani Camouflage – not obtainable until the expansion
• Brazier of Dancing Flames –  purchasable during the Midsummer Fire Festival for 350 Burning Blossom.
• Brewfest Banner – not obtainable until Brewfest 2015
• Brewfast Keg Pony – purchasable from the Brewfest vendors for 200 Brewfest Prize tokens
• Brewfest Pony Keg – purchaseable from the Brewfest vendors for 100 Brewfest Prize tokens
• Bubble Wand – not obtainable until the expansion
• Burning Defender’s Medallion – not obtainable until the expansion. Will require Midsummer Fire Festival 2015.
• Burning Legion Missive – not obtainable until the expansion
• Celestial Defender’s Medallion – Requires revered with Emperor Shaohao. Not yet owned.
• Censer of Eternal Agony – Purchasable from Speaker Gulan on the Timeless Isle for 1,000 Timeless Coins
• Chalice of Secrets – Drops from Urgolax, a rare spawn in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• Chalice of the Mountain Kings – A rare item from Dwarven Archaeology.
• Cloud Ring – Requires Order of the Cloud Serpent – Revered. Costs 1000 gold.
• Cozy Bonfire – not obtainable until the expansion. Will require Midsummer Fire Festival 2015.
• Crashin’ Thrashin’ Flying Controller – Gift from Winter’s Veil 2013.

 

 

• Crashin’ Thrashin’ Racer Controller – 2008 Winter Veil Gift
• Crash’in Thrashin’ Robot – made by engineering, the schematic is a world drop from various TBC mobs.
• Crash’in Thrashin’ Shredder Controller – Not yet available, requires Winter Veil 2014.
• Cremating Torch – Reward from the quest Choking the Skies in Townlong Steppes.
• D.I.S.C.O – Trading Card item from the “Hunt for Illidan” expansion.
• Darkmoon Whistle – sold by Gelvas Grimegate at the Darkmoon Faire for 90 Darkmoon Faire tickets.
• Darnassus Banner – Sold by Rook Hawkfist, Darnassus Quartermaster at the Argent Tournament for 15 Champion’s Seals.
• Decahedral Dwarven Dice – requires Pickpocking. The best place to try seems to be New Hearthglen.
• Deceptia’s Smouldering Boots – not obtainable until the expansion
• Demon Hunter’s Aspect – Trading Card item from the “War of the Ancients” expansion.
• Druid and Priest Statue Set – Night Elf Archaelogy
• Elune’s Lantern – Reward from defeating Omen at the Lunar Festival.
• Essence of the Breeze – Drop from Ai-Ran the Shifting Cloud, a rare mob in the Vale of the Eternal Blossoms.
• Eternal Kiln –  Drops from the Eternal Kilnmasters on the Timeless Isle.
• Everlasting Alliance Firework – This was a reward from completing the Theramore Scenario prior to MoP being released.
• Everlasting Horde Firework – This was a reward from completing the Theramore Scenario prior to MoP being released.
• Exodar Banner – Sold by Irisee the Exodar Quartermaster at the Argent Tournament for 15 Champion’s seals.
• Faded Wizard Hat – Reward from  quest in Aszhara. Horde only.

 

• Farwater Conch – Dropped by Zai the Outcast in Kun-Lai Summit.
• Firefury Totem – Not yet obtainable.
• Fishing Chair – Trading Card Item.
• Flimsy Yellow Balloon – Currently purchasable from Carl Goodup at the Darkmoon Faire for 10 silver. However will require November’s Darkmoon Faire as it currently disappears after the Faire leaves town.
• Flippable Table – Sold by Nam Ironpaw for 40 Ironpaw tokens at the Half Hill Market.
• Foam Sword Rack – Trading card item.
• Fool’s Gold – Trading Card item.
• Foot Ball – Can be bought from Jepetto Joybuzz and his clockwork assistant in Dalaran or Craggle Wobbletop and Blax Bottlerocket in Stormwind and Orgrimmar respectively.
• Foot Ball
• Foxicopter Controller – Purchasable from Sally Fizzlefury at Nesingwary’s camp in the Valley of the Four Winds for 1000 gold.
• Frenzyheart Brew – Requires revered with the Frenzyheart faction in Sholazar and then it’s a chance to get from a ripe disgusting jar.
• Fruit Basket – not obtainable until the expansion
• Fuzzy Green Lounge Cushion – not obtainable until the expansion (Winter Veil 2014 gift)
• Gamon’s Braid – not obtainable until the expansion
• Gastropod Shell – drops from Gastropod in the Throne of Thunder
• Giant Deathweb Egg – not obtainable until the expansion
• Gin-ji Knife Set  – requires exalted with the Tillers faction
• Glorious Standard of the Kirin Tor Offensive – reward from completing the quest Securing a Future in the Throne of Thunder.

Well based on the first four pages, it’s going to be while before I get my hands on the achievement and reward for 150 toys. So far I have twenty two of these out of a possible 74 with a further 22 unavailable until Draenor aligns itself once again with Azeroth.

#WoWscreenshotaday: The October Diaries

Tycertank that temptress is yet again running her #WoWscreenshotaday prompt. I admit it feels somewhat fortuitous because I seem to have stopped taking and posting screenshots with anywhere near the frequency I used to. However whether or not I make it to the end of the month still remains to be seen. I particularly like the prompt this time around though because it seems to me at least to give way more scope.

A is for Apple Tree.

B is for Boat.

C is for Carriage or Coach.

D is for Downpour, Drenched and Drowned which most of Menethil is these days.

E is for  Éboulement. Now this might seem like cheating to some however you can use it in English although you might get called pretentious.

F is for Fishing.

G is for Ghost.

Fandom Friday – Gateway Fandoms That Made Me Who I Am Today

Flicking through Twitter yesterday I noticed that Neri of Mama Needs Mana had tweeted what looked like an interesting link to a blog I’d never heard of before. Needless to say I went to have a look and immediately loved the idea proposed by the Nerdy Girlie. Lists are one of my great passions, it’s not that I’m particularly organised but something about an ordered and bullet pointed collection of words which just sings to me. Plus I found the idea of Gateway Fandoms intriguing because I never identified as Geek during my childhood / teenage years despite having some truly geeky interests. So to start at the beginning:

1. 2000AD

My Father thought that Televisions make you fat and lazy, thus we didn’t have one (although the second I left for University… what did they buy?). Instead I played outside, I built things (mostly forts), I sewed and I read anything I could get my hands on. I quickly decided that Mandy and other “girl” comics were too juvenile for me and aged around 8 or 9 I spread my comic reading wings and fell head over heels in love with 2000AD. Luckily other than making pronouncements like TVs are bad, my parents paid very little attention to my choice in reading matter because reading = good regardless of subject or quality. It wasn’t just Judge Dread or Judge Anderson although I had definite crushes on both at various points but the art work and the whole feel of the comic. It inspired me in the art work I submitted at school and pushed me think outside the bubble in which I existed. I still have most of my comics from that period because I just can’t bring myself to throw them out and of course I’ve watched both Judge Dread movies although I was disappointed about the portrayal of Anderson in the last one.

2. Star Trek

As my father was in the Air Force, the only colour which mattered was Blue and I think the world which Roddenberry envisioned had many similarities to the one I thought I grew up in. A world where women could be pilots and where you came from was less important in the grand scheme when compared with the choices you made. Then when I discovered the harsh reality of the world around us, Star Trek made even more sense to me. I grew up in Germany and given that we lived in a German town not on an Air Force base had a variety of friends. These were other Service kids, local Germans and the children of Turkish workers. Now unsupervised we all got on fine but add in parents and things got messy fast. Most of the German parents didn’t want their children hanging out with the Turkish children and most of the Turkish parents didn’t want their children hanging out with anyone who wasn’t Turkish. To say it was uncomfortable would be an understatement and of course had us children wishing for a world where being human was enough, thus we searched for sanctuary amongst the many worlds of Star Trek and got good at deceiving authority, after all.. the needs of the many (us) outweighed the needs of the few (the parents who had issues).

3. Gothic Literature

Dracula, Carmilla, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Wuthering Heights.. These novels heavily influenced my early forays into dating as well as fascinating me on much deeper level. Was Stoker’s attempt at creating a monster who feeds of  the life blood of his peasants before retreating to the safety of his castle a dig at the Angl0-Irish landowners for example or is it just what it’s presented as.. either way it’s a brilliant read and has spawned so many wonderful things. At Halloween, I still like to bring my battered old copy of Dracula out and read it even though I know exactly what’s going to happen. I think those early reading experiences also had a marked impression on what I like to read today, as I’m drawn to books like Kim Harrison’s The Hollows collection and well anything with ghosts or vampires in it. I think I owe my fascination with the Day of the Dead and with Halloween to my love of the Gothic too. Without these stories I wouldn’t have carted a five foot wooden skeleton across the Atlantic nor have almost as many Halloween decorations as I do Christmas ones.

4. Pre-Raphaelite  Art

In many ways this is similar I suppose to my love of the Gothic but those paintings get inside your head and make you see the world differently, at least they did for me. They made me realise that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder and that all too often we don’t see what’s right in front of us. The four core and founding beliefs behind the movement should inspire us still today:

1. to have genuine ideas to express
2. to study nature attentively, so as to know how to express them
3. to sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote
4. most indispensable of all, to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues

and they certainly played a role in my development.

5. World of Warcraft

Without WoW this blog wouldn’t exist and I wouldn’t have encountered so many interesting and passionate people. The game has pushed me creatively and mentally in so many ways, from sewing my own Tree of Life and managing to sustain writing which despite my love of it has proved remarkably hard given my mental state over the last few years.

The Dorrie Report

Well short of a miracle I suspect my little Warlock won’t be completing the Green Fire quest before the patch. The blame for this is entirely my own as I’ve been a bit magpie-ish in recent weeks. I went through a bubble of “must read every Agatha Christie/Ngaio Marsh and similar crime novel I can lay my hands on” then there was my temporary insanity regarding Dragon Age Fan Fiction and even a spot of soup making. In short, anything apart from playing WoW.

Even when I have been playing, I’ve been more interested in farming those toys I’m missing from the soon to be implemented Toybox than I have been leveling poor little Dorrie. The sad thing is, it was all going so swimmingly until around level 50 but I just can’t get my head around the gutted Un’goro Crater or the changes to Winterspring even though Cataclysm was years ago. So the current state of play is level 53 with approximately two weeks to go. Given that I’m currently “resting” I do have enough time on my hands to get her to 90 or at least exceedingly close but whether or not I have the real desire to do so, I’m not so sure.