I just got my replacement hard drive today... I set about running extensive tests to make sure everything worked properly. 6 hours of scans, to be exact. A basic check to the first and last areas to check for bad sectors, then a full scan to check for bad sectors, then I made it write zeros to the first and last areas, and then I made it write zeroes to the entire drive. I guess they all registered what they were supposed to be, because it passed with flying colors.

The Vista x64 install on a nVidia RAID 1 went absolutely flawlessly this time. The array is healthy and I've managed to recover all my IM logs and settings and all my cookies and passwords and bookmarks and history for Firefox and Opera and I recovered my life's worth of emails in Thunderbird. I had some real problems with Firefox exploding when it tried to read my copied profile, and I had problems with Thunderbird going into some odd start loop where it would load and crash, very quickly... So fast that by the time you went to end the process, it had terminated itself and started again and the old process was invalid. Turns out that the profiles for both were actually flagged as Read Only... How? No idea. But once I changed that, it worked heavenly. How appropriate that Song of Freedom from Doctor Who was playing at the time this all suddenly worked.

My next order of business? I have no idea... Get some normality back in my digital life, maybe? Start blogging a little more? I'm downloading all my Steam games as we speak, and it will probably take more than all night, but at least I can do that again! What I'm really happy for, though, is getting back all my emails... I've saved every email from all the way back in 2004. 1GB of pure text. Very similar to my IM logs, which go back to 2005. Saved every conversation since then... Lost a few in the crash, but nothing too important. I'm back to being able to pull up what people told me years ago, hah!

But now? BED!

So I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft recently... As in, A LOT! I'm going to start college again on January 6th, it seems, so I've been getting my fill the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I can work out a schedule to get all my stuff done so I can keep playing. I've been able to do it before! Never have I let WoW interfere with my school, though... That comes first. Anyway, I did something really amazing today, and I wanted to record it forever on my blog so when I browse it years down the road, I can see how awesome I was!

So I'm a healer in WoW. There's certainly a market for them... My server (Sentinels RP), as well as every other realm I've been on, seems to have a consistent shortage of healers. Everyone likes to DPS. That is to say, they like playing someone who deals out massive damage. I admit, it's fun! I prefer the Feral Combat specialization. I can solo the entire game that way (sans the instances, of course). But when I hit maximum level, I always seem to gravitate toward healing. Sit in the back, watch everyone's health meters, and give everyone a boost when they need it. What are the cons? They're big ones...

As a healer, all you do is click when the numbers say to click. When you're actually in the fight, you have special moves and the monsters have special moves and you need to be aware of what works when. As a healer, you have special moves, too, but it's more like "regular heal" versus "emergency heal" versus "oh-my-gosh-we're-going-to-die heal". I have a fancy little add on that lists the entire raid group on the left and I can mouseover and click a certain button for a certain heal. Really handy, I love it. Saves some mouse movement and down time between heals. (And adds to the sense of panic when you see all 10 people's health bars crash.)

People argue that a healer is boring because all you do is wait calmly in the background and do reactive moves. When you're fighting, you're leading the combat and taking proactive moves. All the DPS does is hit as hard as they can while not getting the monster's attention for being the most dangerous. From an outside perspective, both healing and DPSing are just mindless clicking, but being up in the fight and being directly affected by the monster you're fighting really changes the feel of the clicking! And then there's the Tank. The one guy with the massive armor and hit points who takes the beating from the monster. If the Tank dies, the group dies, period. There are usually multiple Tanks, but there's always a far stronger Primary Tank. There is a massive shortage of Tanks on my realm, too. Probably because Tanks are widely considered to be the leaders and are thought to always have the answer to every problem that arrives. It's a somewhat accurate picture, because the Tank needs to know what the monster is going to be capable of. The DPS need to know this, too, but since the monster isn't actively hurting them, it's less of an issue for them.

So, where does that leave us? Sentinels has an incredibly high number of DPS; people who want to walk in and hurt something without thinking about tactics. Nobody wants to lead. My brother (who was given the nickname BroBro by Edrick, TW and Nomad, and so will be referred to by that name from this point on) adopted the role of Tank. A freakin' huge Dire Bear Form Druid (aka big bear butt). The latest expansion pack really buffed the Druid's tanking ability. I've healed just about every tank out there... Warriors. Paladins. Death Knights. Druids. Of them all, I far prefer Druid tanks now. Death Knights are a close second. Paladins are a distant third, and Warriors trail far behind them. I don't like Warrior tanks at all.

So BroBro is a Tank and a danged fine Tank. We rarely lose a battle when we're paired up, no matter who else we have with us. Since I'm a Healer, we've got the two most important and rare roles already! DPS signing up is only a matter of time with no work involved. Just spam "looking for DPS" a few times and you're filled!

There are pros to being a Healer, too. Namely the fact that since you're such a rare role, you are pretty much guaranteed a spot in anything you want to do. (Unless your guild is a dumbface.) I've been out of Militis Noctis for a grand total of 2 days and I was invited to run one of the larger instances by one of the largest Alliance guilds on our realm! I performed admirably, if I do say so myself, and they took notice and I had a couple of them tell me I should apply to their guild... So I did! That was my ideal plan to looking for a guild, actually. My idea was to run instances guildless for a while, and then someone notices how good I am and then pursues me. I think it's best for a guild to come to you than for you to hunt down a guild. If they want you, they'll ask you. I think I was in my former guild for long enough for people to take me for granted. They had their own high ranking healers that everyone wanted to do stuff with, and they conveniently forgot that I was a healer, too, and was supposed to be doing things with them. But anyway! If you're a Healer, the single greatest pro is that you will never have a shortage for work. People will hunt you down.

But why am I a Healer? I admit, it can get boring. That, and I tend to assume that if the group fails, it's my fault (as do others). It's a little stressful, especially when you're trying something new and everyone's depending on you to know what's going to happen with a fight. But when it comes down to it, a Healer will usually have free reign over healing gear, since you're so rare, and if you're a good Healer, people will love you forever and you'll get invitations to all kinds of things! But personally, I love Feral Combat, as I said before. Nothing is quite like a Feral Druid on a roll... You can do anything by yourself. I love that feeling of independence. When you're a Healer, you will usually need someone else to do the fighting for you. Since they're being healed, you'll still be able to take everything and more, but you still need a partner. That part I don't enjoy a whole lot... I like doing quests at random times and I can't do that when I'm a Healer.

Then there's the battlegrounds. I never thought there was a place for Healers in PVP. Dumb idea? Maybe. The fights are so chaotic that it's almost impossible to make a difference. Right? I mean, sure, Arena 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 need healers, but those are small enough to manage. Almost like an instance. But battlegrounds? I always thought that if I wanted to progress through battlegrounds, I'd need to be a kick butt soloing Feral Druid. Well... BroBro was playing battlegrounds with his new Druid Tank and he kept telling me how many people it took to kill him. (He could hold off 3, but any more than that and he would lose.) I decided to give battleground healing a chance. I paired myself with BroBro and we TORE THEM APART!

As long as I was there healing, BroBro would never fall. The Horde would throw themselves at him, making the deadly mistake of ignoring the healing Druid in the background, and they would dash themselves to pieces. I am completely serious. And whoever he killed, I would get credit for, too. That's how scorekeeping works with healers in the battleground. Whoever you helped, you'll get credit for their kill. (They will, too, so don't worry about steals.) Even after the Horde got smart and took me out, BroBro would still be there, alive and kicking, by the time I showed up again, and it was back to being an unstoppable force!

There was a Death Knight I took a liking to during the fight, too. She managed to swipe their flag and head into our base. The Horde had our flag, so we were both sitting there, waiting for someone's flag carrier to die. It was me and two Death Knights defending our flag. (Me, the flag carrier, and another one.) At one point, easily half of the opposing team (I swear it was at least 5 Horde, if not more) dropped in on the three of us, looking for an easy kill. No such luck. For 5 minutes we fought... The three of us versus a huge crowd of Horde. A few times I thought we might lose, but slowly... Ever so slowly... Their numbers dwindled as the DKs took them out, one by one. Eventually, we were left standing victorious as the last Horde fell (and our team came to help). It was that way the entire game... At one point, the flag carrying Death Knight got fed up with how slow our team was working, so she trusted me to keep her healed as she ran into the Horde base (WHILE CARRYING A FLAG) to get our own flag back so we could then run all the way back and score.

That's what I call putting trust in a healer. We didn't lose, either. We managed to get our flag back and we ran all the way back home and scored. Because our flag carrier trusted me enough to keep her healed so she wouldn't die, lose the flag, and the allow the Horde a score. I mean, she was very well armored to begin with, much like BroBro, but when you add my heals to the mix, they're invincible, period. In fact, I was standing alone in the field, healing whoever needed it, and a smart Orc Hunter showed up and tried to take me out. I threw up the standard heals and waited for my team to get to him. He couldn't hurt me at all... As soon as he hit me, my heals took over and I was back to 100% health. Sometimes I amaze myself... And I don't mean that in the haughty sense, either. I didn't realize I was that good at healing.

There's the final numbers from the fight... I'm Kittari, BroBro is Langnet, and the invincible Death Knight was Khaligto. As you can see, my total healing towers over everyone! 815,190 points healed... Far beyond the 300,000 required to get the achievement for heavy healing in a battleground. I only died 5 times, too, and none of those deaths put anyone in danger, either. Most of the times I died it was because someone hit me with some spells that damage over time right before they were taken out. When I died, the enemies were usually gone and my partner survived to kick more butt. Good times... Good times.

So from now on, whenever I think about switching from being a healer, I need to read this!

So I haven't blogged and people are yelling at me. What is there to talk about? Nothing really... That is, until I read Myst Blogs, which is always a great source for material if you let it. Personally, I think it's a good place to go and get your daily laughs. I even spawned this joke I thought of:

What do you get when you take a bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed saucerheads who can't move on and mix them with a bunch of pathetic, holier-than-thou hypocrites who can never do wrong and give them both a platform with which to push their agendas? Open source Uru Live! That, or an Obama presidency. It appears to me that both results are made up of the same kind of people. Either way, it sure is a funny sight! Absolute and total chaos, just like I said it would be.

I shall recap, in no particular order, the days since NaNoWriMo finished.

1) I got a new computer, and it was fantastic. Up until the point where the primary hard drive failed and I lost half of my stuff. Mostly IM logs and emails and bookmarks and stuff like that, not to mention the saved games of literally everything I own. Apparently, it's a problem with the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 series that Seagate won't address or even acknowledge as being an issue, so I went with Western Digital and a RAID mirror so I wouldn't lose stuff again. What does that get me? Another dead drive! Dead on arrival. I had to RMA that one and it's expected to arrive on the 30th. Pathetic. Until then, I'm running on a mere husk of a powerhouse. I don't want to settle in again until I can be assured that I won't lose anything in another crash.

2) I got to 80 in World of Warcraft and promptly switched up my character to a healing role because that's apparently what the guild needed. A month later, I'm still a healer and the guild hasn't used me once in any guild activity. A core group of high ranking members are constantly seen in the 10-man raids while, at the same time, dreaming about the day when the guild has enough 80s to run their own 10-man raids. That day has been here for quite some time already and they are still seen playing 10-man raids with other guilds while dreaming about the day when their own guild has enough 80s. They ignore those of us who changed their role to please the guild and don't go out of their way at all when we need help to get geared up to play their precious raids. I confronted them about the situation today and the leaders pulled a script from the book of the Kilrogg Ahrotahntee guild and said "we're too busy to help you, do it yourself". A far, far cry from the guild I joined to run Karazhan. I joined and was immediately innundated with offers and requests to run dungeons to get geared. I don't need the stress and irritation that I dealt with in Ahrotahntee, so I'm not going to put up with it in Militis Noctis, either. I left this afternoon with plans to create my own guild, perhaps. I need a name and a site and forums, but I think now is as good a time as any to start a guild, seeing as how more and more people are reaching 80 and wanting to run Naxxramas. That way, if I get upset at the guild... I can change it, since I'm the leader! Hah! I disappoints me a little... While we ran Karazhan, the guild was amazing. But after we had that on farm status, the leadership changed, a few core members left, and the entire mood of the guild changed overnight. So far, nobody seems to have missed me, but that fits the profile, so I'm not surprised.

3) I REDISCOVERED EARLY EDITION! I used StumbleUpon and it took me to the Wikipedia page for the show and I immediately set about acquiring the series. It has apparently just now begun to be put on DVD, so the copies I have are TV copies from the Hallmark channel. Not bad, but not great, either... But come on! Early Edition! Remember that? 1996? Guy gets tomorrow's newspaper every morning? Orange cat always delivers it? Mysterious life of the previous newspaper recipient? It's classic 90s television. It only lasted 4 seasons, but I only ever saw the first season when I was young, but I'd watch all the ones I could. Now I can see them all! I am absolutely beyond thrilled... I plan on buying the season sets when they're released.

4) Left 4 Dead is probably the single greatest game I've ever played. Nothing tops zombie smashing mayhem! The graphics quality is amazing, as are all of Valve's games for their time. The gameplay has been uniquely balanced with cooperative multiplayer in mind, and the brand new feature? An artificial intelligence that will actively monitor your progress and a massive amount of variables and use all the readings to adjust the positions of zombies and boss zombies to provide what is literally a different experience every time you play. If you breeze through a level? The Director is going to try to hurt you. If you struggle? It's going to lighten up a bit... Just a little, though! It's amazing... It simply hasn't gotten old since it was released late November. I mean, you get tired of it when you play it all day, but when you pick it up again, it ensnares you with its brilliant dynamically generated playing fields. Honestly, if you shut off the Director? Nothing spawns and you have an empty map. Every single zombie encounter is planned by the Director, period. Plus the Director adapts to maps it's never seen before... You can load maps from Team Fortress 2 and it will populate zombies and panic events just as if it was a Left 4 Dead map. The best part is that it's built from the ground up to be a multiplayer game first, and a singleplayer game second. It's good stuff!

So there's four highlights this month... Will I write more? Maybe. But I'm starting college again, which deserves a post entirely to itself, but I don't know when, so there!