B. Hudson

Dwarfenstuff continues to rise in the world of Azeroth..

Still no mount.  I really want one so I can start PvP at 46.  So I can get my PvP gear at 48.. (that is just really good stuff).

Working on completing my Tough scorpid armor set (all but belt/boots since I have the PvP ones).. Well I have the scorpid scales.. just need the leather and the enhanced leatherworking skill to make it.  I think like 10 items will give me the ability and I can make armor packs with that.  But until I get my ram… its a firesale at dwarfenstuff’s.. everything MUST GO!

I have mentioned before that I don’t vote.  And my reasons for not voting.  I won’t touch that again.

However, for those of you who do.. Keep in mind that Politicians are trained liars.  They contort and twist every truth possible to their end.
For instance, Clinton on his trial not knowing the definition of “alone”.  Of course he knows, he is just opening a door to twist truth.

There are a dozen more but Ole Clinton was the best.  We weren’t “attacked”, we had an “incident”.. We aren’t recovering economically we are in a “recession”.

Anyway, notice that politicians know you are not going to pay attention to real issues.  Why else would they run smear campaigns?  You’ll hear something and it’ll be in your head when you see that name on the ballot.. “oh that guy.. screw him.. he paid people less money at his restaurants”.  So the endgame is that all the politicians poke at each other with sticks and words, while trying to show that they are “oh so good”.  If I were to vote.. It’d be for the guy who didn’t have a commercial.. I figure he’s just as likely to do the right thing as the rich people who are busy poking each other with sticks..

I talk about politics.  period.  It may really tick people off but they can all just bite me.

1) Hillary Clinton is an iconic person.. Famous for not giving a crap her husband was getting blown by fat chicks.

2) Somehow, New York lost enough brain cells to get this broad in office..

3)  Now she feels that the nation that mostly thinks of her as a… well.. the word begins with a B and ends with.. well.  If you don’t know go listen to some rap music.. the word is used constantly there.  Anyway, she is convinced we would elect her as president.

Crazy?  Absolutely.  Her main qualification is the restraint she showed in beating ole slick willy in private when he was getting blown by the office aids.  That is if she even cared.  Sorry, but wives know their husbands if they CHOOSE to.  Guys are pretty static people.. If he is a pervert on day one.. he’ll be one on the last day too.  If he is a grump, he always will be.  If he is a “hey.. even though I am married and in the constant spotlight, I’d like to cheat on my wife with someone who would rat me out their first chance” kind of guy.. you should know.

Personally I think she clung to him to get into the White House, and to hope she could get in on her own later.  Fortunately for people who don’t like her, she has managed to anger what would be her main constituency, women.  Her kick in the pants comment about having “better things to do then raise kids” really upset women (most of whom are working anyway, but don’t wanna be kicked in the head either).  Can she win without the Female vote?  Well thats really the biggest group to keep an eye on for her.

So only time will tell… if we get a “First philanderer” in Bill Clinton.. or if she’ll claim she lost cause she’s a woman…

I was talking to a buddy of mine about potty training, and he mentioned that there is some problems with boys and the potty.  My boy has no problems with the potty.  He just sees this as a useless device as he has a DIAPER.

After raising his older brother and sister and getting them squared away potty-wise.. I am exhausted.  I know the solution would be to go to a cloth diaper and have him just really mess up an outfit or so.. and discover just how gross it is.  The problem:  I don’t want to clean all that up!  My wife has a new puppy so no luck shoving that onto her plate.  Really he is so cute I have serious misgivings about punishing him at all.  So this kind of thing runs me the wrong direction from happy.

Nothing really seems to hold sway on him to get him to do this on the pot.  Now not saying he won’t go pee in the potty.. He does that, most of the time.  Its the deuce..

He’s not droppin any kids off at the pool.. Which is where our problems are starting.  I think he doesn’t want to.  That he sees time on the pot as “wasted” time he could be playing.  I guess the other idea is to sit him on the pot every 30 minutes till he does it.  I can’t remember to take pills that will make my quality of life “better” once a day, but suddenly I have to remember to every 30 minutes go put this kid on the toilet so he can drop a deuce?.. I don’t see that happening either.

The other choice?  diapers till he’s 20.  Such is life.. full of *&^%

Now on Frostmane server there lives an orc.. not quite mighty yet.. his name?

Dwarfeater.

He’s my new character on a PvP server.  I got a friend who runs around that server a lot and tells me its cool.. actually it really was cool.  I got killed a few times from a 40ish rogue.. but as a lvl 10.. you really expect when you see a high level enemy to die.. I (helped) kill him though.. I picked dwarfeater as a name mostly cause I just humiliated someone on PvP called “gnomekicker”.  I really liked the name though and was going to recycle it, but.. no such luck on this server anyway.  I made my hunter, and looked him in the eye.. Tried to come up with something cool to call him.. and settled on dwarfeater.  I started this character and in the same day got up to level 10 and tamed “the rake”.  I plan on keeping him till I can tame humar anyway.

So now if you need me.. I’m either on frostmane as dwarfeater, or Medivh as dwarfenstuff.

Burning Crusade is coming.. and another update about what I do about it..

To say I am retardedly happy with my youngest son would be the biggest lie conceivable.  I simply cannot get enough of him.  He is SUCH a pain, but loves doing it.  The quote I put as the articule title is what he told me last night..  He says things like that a lot, which seems really interesting to me (but to me, everything he does is interesting).

He paused a long time when I called him son.. then said that.  No one in my family anywhere knows where his nickname “duke” came from, or its many forms (dukan, dukie, “THE DUKE”.. etc).  While I admit I feel it is dumb, seeing him and watching him grow seems like the only thing of any real importance in my life anymore.  The honor that he bestows upon me by just “being” is almost limitless.  As a three year old now, he almost never wants to just cuddle up to me.  On the rare occasions when he does, I feel as if I have never held something of such value.  That the love I have for him flows from me to him when I hold him.  It is almost a real sensation.  Not saying I don’t love and impose mandatory hugs on my other 2 kids.. but something is different about him.  I am not typically a believer in this kind of thing but i want to say its because he really is mine.  Megan and Glenn are mine as much as they are anyone else’s.. and thats a fact.  That in and of itself doesn’t make them mine though.  I wonder sometimes if this feeling I get for holding him is something all parents get.  I wonder if my wife, who is mother to all my kids, feels this same feeling or if there is something more.. something deeper that a mother would feel.  Most mothers just out of hand say there is something deeper, but most mothers think their kid is cutest.. which is obviously wrong.. Mine is.

*** Warning:  those not into God or other people’s religous beliefs should stop here ***

I always wanted to be a Father.  Always.  Nothing in my life ever hurt me on the same level as not having a father around.  As not being able to go to “father son pic-nic’s” or anything like that.  My overwhelming desire to be a Father was my absolution.. my evidence that I turned out well without a father.  Not well.. but as good as anyone with a father.  That I would not leave my family under any circumstances (except death, cause really.. thats not my fault).  It became such a concentrated issue in my life that I thought perhaps it fell under idolitry (sp?).  I wrote it off at that point.. Wrote off the posibility that I would ever have a child of my own, that my other kids would be everything I could ever have.  I grew to accept this.. That the only fatherhood I would know would come in times that their “real dad” didn’t want them, or couldn’t have them.  In a future post I’ll talk about the problems of being the step-dad..

Anyway, had this happened to be my fate.. I was accepting it.  I wanted a son more than I wanted my next breath.. but if its not God’s will, it doesn’t happen.  Then things started building up.. Debbie got pregnant (fingers and toes crossed).. Time went by.. went to Dr and found out it is a boy (fingers/toes/arms/legs/eyes crossed).. Then he was born.  My son.  My only thought was that somehow God had prepared me in such a way that he would not be a distraction from God but be a method of keeping me close to God.  He is just that.  I cannot hold him for 1 second without giving thanks.  I can’t think about him without almost getting misty with my joy.. my opportunity God gave ME to be his father.  But more than that, the opportunity He gave me to be Duke’s Daddy.

Countdown to my C# class retake is 2 weeks.  I have never been more apprehensive.  Pretty much this is my gateway into the last several classes for my major.  Which is good, until you realize that it is taught VERY fast and I don’t seem to keep up very well.  I need I think a C in this to move along, but more directly there is a 3 credit hour class I would have to take in summer that is an advancement of THIS class.  It is utterly terrifying.  I am not so self depricating to say that I cannot do it.  I am honest enough to say I don’t know if I can do it “the way the prof needs it” or “in the time available”.

This one particular course could verywell hold up my entire academic career!

plans:  Well I am still needing to speak to someone at Indiana University Southeast, about transferring over or what-have-you.. I don’t know that they will be easier, but I know they are easier to handle (online classes, all of them but 4).  Unlike UofL, IUS goes for VB (thats visual basic) as its programatic spearhead.  I have actually heard that VB is harder than C#.. or at least more verbose.  I have tried C#, and think I have a methodology problem and not a “ability” problem.  Having read the book over (and over and over and over) I can find no solution.  A professor would help, but last semester I seemed to be in the “I am a professional programmer, but I need this class for my degree” class.  I am NOT a programmer.  Nor do I really aspire to be.  Networking is something I want to focus on as well as maybe some hardware issues and OS troubleshooting.  Why?  Well really, I CAN program, but I lack the interest to become really good at it.. and lack the pinache of other programmers.  I NOTICE this, and freely admit it.

Sidepoint:  almost everyone in my program goes into being a programmer.. (sounds bad for me doesn’t it?)

My real idea is to run my own business where I get to help people with day to day issues and build networks for them, etc..  Since I can’t just drop everything and do that I want to  look towards a full time job that would pay the bills and have something on the side with all that.  (Yes I know building a 800 person network may need more time than my “weekends”)   Its just an idea keep in mind.  Realistically, I don’t project my annual earnings to ever reach all that high.. It’d be nice, but c’mon…  First things first though, I need a degree in a “computer related field”.  so its time to C#!

Apparently the new patch that came out in preparation for the burning crusade expansion.. fixed what I hated about PvP.  I had (until that patch) done PvP about 3 times.  All of which sucked terribly as I was up against a swath of people with fantastic armor (all blue’s) and wicked cool weapons (all fiery enchanted).  At the time I was low in level and hunters don’t have much going for them except having a pet at those levels.. and I sent mine into everyfight I saw.  But usually it, and me died.. VERY VERY QUICKLY.

enter new patch

Now I rule at PvP.  Which I really did just to goof around since it sucked something terrible in earlier levels.  I went in @ level 38 and played until I hit 40.  I would play maybe 2 times each day. My friend noticed that I would have had a “good round”.  So I started looking at the stats page.  I am not just good.. I am usually fantastic!  I average anywhere from 28-35,000 damage and at least 30 honor kills.  Killing blows, I don’t always do well with, but I figure if I am weakening them for my team to beat, thats good enough.

THEN I started sorting it to see how I rated with JUST my team.. I am always ranked either #1, or #2.  And I ALWAYS have the most damage dealt out.. Apparently ppl on roughly equal footing I tend to whoop up on.

**One slight caveat to this is when I did PvP when I was lvl 40.  I was the LOWEST member of my team, everytime.  I felt I did good just getting 20,000 damage.  I tried to be mostly support (run with the lvl 49 warrior tactic) since I knew I couldn’t stand up and deliver damage to quickly run down anyone at 48-49.  I would bandage the warrior in a fight too, which made me a good partner and made him more likely to try to hamstring the guy after me, since I was tagging everyone that moved with poison shot, and casters mid fight with viper shot (drains mana, if you didn’t know).  I didn’t wanna be a threat, but I wanted to help out.  I did consequently smoke a lvl 49 rogue, which RULED.  I think it was an undead or a troll.. Anyway I was behind a BIG bush (remember I am a  dwarf) and got him with a hunters mark, poison shot, aimed shot, arcane shot, multi shot and he got screwed cause my autoshooting has a 20% chance to daze you.. Keep in mind the whole time he is trying to get away from my wolf (who is wicked stacked for his level all his resistances are at the top nature/fire/arcane/shadow and almost top in armor/stamina).. May not matter much that he’s stacked but he was doing his biting and I was shooting and right when said rogue makes it to me.. he finds.. (wait for it).. an ice trap.. SO I run off and tag him with an aimed shot for over 300 and kill him.. I am sure he was pissed (if I was 49 and got smoked solo by a 40 I would be pissed too).  I seem to have a general dislike of rogues too.  I think its cause I always end up with one after me.. which if I don’t kill I bring him close to the brink of death  That and the fact that every town I go to, rogues want to duel me.  (I mean once in a while, sure.. but all the time?).  I try to take out mages and warlocks in PvP.  Why?  I don’t really know, but prolly because they wear cloth armor and I feel my shots/poison can drain them the fastest.  Rogues  I smoke whenever I can too.. hate those guys.  The guys I run from are warriors and druids.  I can’t seem to hurt a warrior too bad in a group, and druids shapeshift and ditch my poison (which is a MAJOR reason I do so much damage, I come into a combat area and tag every single guy with poison shot.. sometimes twice if there are a lot of guys).. and if I see more than 2 warriors and rogues going at it in a group.. I go in and drop an explosive trap.. let the bad guys burn..

I hit level 40 just the last week..  I can never seem to get enough gold for the mount.  The mount was a long term goal of mine cause I travel A LOT in the game.  My buddy I think is closing in on his pretty quick, but I am just barely in double digits for gold.  My problem is I want to have my mount before lvl 45.

Sounds like it wouldn’t be a problem right?  Well on today, I am level 41 (and about halfway to lvl 42).  There is a LOT of grinding to do to get that much gold.  I was thinking maybe I could short my training or something, since I don’t have problems soloing in the world.. I dropped almost 1.5gold on each thing I trained for at lvl 40.  Aspect of the pack has been the coolest, but probably quickest to stop using.. (I mean cause, once I get a mount.. everyone else at my level should have one already.. so pack aspect doesn’t help on mount).

I grouped with another hunter last night and he got to benefit from my higher hunters mark and my trueshot aura.. I was at least 10 lvls higher than the others (fundraising sucks) so I was stuck with being main tank.  I can wear mail armor now so I don’t die quickly anymore.  My buddy hooked me up on a run to Scarlet Monastary and I got an axe called the Ravager.. It has a neat ability for a main tank so I got to see it a lot.

Honestly I like that I am a dwarf in game and will get a ram (something most people don’t have for some reason), but the kid in me wants the battlecat (nightsaber mount that the elves get).  Perhaps someday.. but getting reputation with other places seems like a pain in the butt!  I do quests out the wazoo, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much.. There are some JUST rep quests, but its for stuff I normally make my money on (silk/mageweave..) so who wants to give up their cash cow?

Anyway I am on track for getting my ram at lvl 45.. Unfortunately not before..