Day two of post-op recovery.

I have been using my cold compression brace religiously, as it seems to soothe the incredible amounts of pain my right leg is in; I am usually able to withstand a lot of pain, but when I can barely move my leg due to every single muscle in that limb being as sore as if I ran a one-legged marathon, I can swallow my pride enough to admit that I am extremely grateful for family and friends that are willing to look after me.

Ugh, that last sentence's grammar was terrible. The pain meds I'm on tend to make me a little loopy, it seems.

Just got home from my knee surgery and am just a wee bit loopy still, but otherwise coming out of it quite well. Got some good pain medications to take care of that.

The surgery was a success - I had my right ACL repaired as well as the torn meniscus that they found while they were operating. My right leg is wrapped like an Egyptian king, but I'm able to at least maneuver myself in and out of my car with little difficulty.

Time for a nice, long weekend of doing jack shit, wooooo~

Going in for reconstructive surgery on my right knee this Wednesday to repair my torn ACL. I live right near Notre Dame university, so I know that torn ACLs are a common thing for them to fix; the surgeon I have is well known and well recommended as well.

Still, I can't help but feel somewhat anxious.

From what little I remember learning from my two years of pursuing a psychology degree, it dawned on me on how significant my own emotional development was influenced by my parents. To many, this seems to be rudimentary; our parents are (hopefully) there for the vast majority of our developing years. They are our point of reference, our protectors, our providers, our Virgil in the River Styx that is youth. Thus, I slowly realize that, over the years and the sporadic and often merely annual conversations that I have with my father, I inherited the sometimes debilitating social anxieties that I find stricken in him.

Now, don’t misunderstand this as me attributing my own flaws to my parents. I am well aware that I have to overcome my shortcomings rather than just fall back on blaming my mom and dad. I love my parents dearly. I knew that they had glaring flaws from an early age – my mom was and still is a strong-willed, work-driven woman who tried desperately to balance raising a family with a grueling, unforgiving career in social services. She sacrificed a lot to be successful in a male-dominated administrative environment. My father was and still is a fiercely dedicated, work-driven man who, in well over twenty-five years, did not even let sickness or injury keep him from a day of work, whether it be at his job at the newspaper or the countless improvements he made to our house deep in the woods of southern Indiana.

Getting back to the point on hand, I continually realize on just how harshly social anxieties affected my father, as I see them arising in myself from time to time and can identify with them during the brief windows of time that I spend talking to him over the phone. I know he loves me; I know that it pains him to think of how distant and emotionless he seemed to be toward me and my brother as we were children; I know how much regret he holds every time he finds that he only speaks to me or my brother on the “big three” events in our lives – my birthday, his birthday and father’s day.

But even though he may feel that way, I suspect he is beginning to realize that I understand him a lot better than he may have originally thought. I speak very little, as does he. But that’s just how we are – we don’t like to waste words. We aren’t particularly comfortable in social settings. For all of the flaws I inherited from my father, though … I have never regretted having him for a father.

I only hope that I can learn to overcome my social anxieties. I learn a lot about them whenever I chat with my dad.

Over the beta weekend, I played four professions: Mesmer, Thief, Elementalist and Warrior. As I’ve mentioned before, I spent the majority of my time with the Mesmer, but I will attempt to give an accurate and impartial review of my first impressions with each profession.

Mesmer

This profession requires quite a bit of finesse to truly master, but can be quite disruptive and influential on the battlefield if well executed. The Mesmer’s primary damage is derived from Confusion, a debuff that they apply on enemies through several varying abilities. Confusion is a stackable debuff that inflicts damage to an opponent whenever they use an ability (Pokemon players may feel a faint twitch about now), with more damage inflicted the more stacks are applied. However, the Mesmer’s damage output, while appearing not much of a threat until it’s too late, is made complete by their illusions – the Mesmer can have up to three clones at any time which will disappear when they are destroyed, shattered, or when their enemy is killed. The clones allow for quite an interesting dynamic, as they not only add to the Mesmer’s arsenal for damage output, they bring about confusion both as a game mechanic and a literal sense!

I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had on the WvW battlefields while playing a Mesmer, watching as enemies would attempt to dogpile on me only to find out that they’d been pouring their strongest attacks into an illusion. I was capable of handling two enemy players at once due to the unpredictable nature of the Mesmer class, though I certainly did not feel extremely overpowered to the point where I was face-rolling people without any effort.

Summary: Very fun and tricky to play, high degree of skill needed to keep from becoming predictable in WvW, has quite a lot of potential to provide support if played well.



Thief

The thief class is a very fast paced, visceral and tricky profession to play. It requires almost constant movement, accurate dodging and quick timing in order to properly perform, but I can see the thief becoming an unholy terror to its opponents so long as they aren’t too cocky. They are capable of putting out a lot of quick, burst damage, but do not have the survivability as some of the other professions, lending them to become an “attack of opportunity” driven profession.

I didn’t take the chance to try them in WvW, but from what I saw and experienced, players well skilled with the thief were able to destroy their opponents with a savage efficiency.

Summary: Fun to play, very intense and rapid gameplay that requires a lot of situational awareness.



Elementalist

Not so much a glass cannon as many would envision casters to be, the Elementalist is more of a Swiss army knife – a Swiss army knife that is made of several glass cannons, that is. With four elements and several different combinations of weapons, the Elementalist can be somewhat daunting to play, as they have up to 40 possible spells to bring to the battle at a moment’s notice, not including skill specific abilities.

Still, the Elementalist can bring a massive amount of damage at a moment’s notice as well; or, if needed, a massive amount of support, whether through healing (yes, a profession that can throw heals – not game-breaking ones, of course) or mobility.

Summary: Very complex but with a huge potential of versatility, quite a lot of flashy and entertaining abilities; needs a lot of practice.



Warrior

I've played a Warrior in WoW for ... years. I've always had an affinity for the tried and true "beat things until they stop moving" style of play, as it's amusing and rather therapeutic at times; while the Warrior in GW2 sticks to this style to an extent, there's a degree of difficulty in merely staying alive long enough to get any satisfaction out of this profession. I found myself opting for a longbow more often than not and merely peppering enemies from afar rather than risk the inevitable mad dash for survival in an attempt to delve into melee combat. Guild Wars 2 has a way of making its battle scenarios a little too realistic, what with the whole "oh god oh god I'm going to diiiiiiiiie" every time you're engaged in melee combat. I'm okay with that with the lighter armored characters, but I shouldn't be punished for being a bloodthirsty savage like the warrior has always been.

Hopefully the melee survivability will be addressed and compensated for later on in the beta. I didn't get much of a chance to play as a warrior in the beta weekend, personally - maybe the issue was addressed?

Summary: Lots of potential, needs work by the developers.

PvP combat in Guild Wars 2 seems very promising; I spent the entire second day of the beta weekend testing out my skills as a Mesmer in the battlegrounds. There are some rather rough realizations – Guardians tend to be nigh indestructible, Rangers and Thieves are ridiculously powerful in solo combat – but I’m certain that a good amount of the balancing issues will be resolved before release. There will always be balancing issues with any MMO, of course.

There are three different scenarios in PvP.

Battlegrounds are in which you and four other allies face off against another team of five in point-capture scenarios; these are relatively quick battles, lasting approximately 20-30 minutes. The team assignments appear to be completely random, as there is an auto-balancing feature that seems to take into account individual scores to pair strong and weak players together in order to keep battles from becoming too one-sided. I assume that there will eventually be a ladder system that does not include the auto-balance feature, but for players that enjoy casual PvP, this allows them an enjoyable experience (assuming they aren’t constantly ganked by fucking thieves or rangers).

WvWvW (world vs. world vs. world) has two scenarios – the Eternal Battleground and the Battlefronts. The Eternal Battleground is an enormous map centered on a gigantic castle (i.e. the main objective of the area). What I enjoyed about this was that there is no “victory” condition – it is a gigantic, free flowing warzone between three servers combating over real objectives (keeps, towers, supply depots and, of course, the gigantic castle). You needn’t always be a part of the main force, either – with three worlds present, multiple battlefronts can occur quite frequently over the span of the entire map.

The battlefronts are separated into the three worlds, with each world having the option of either defending their world’s battlefront from the invading forces of the other two worlds, or assaulting the lands of those same forces on their own battlefront. The vastness of tactics, opportunities and strategies across the various opportunities of PvP gameplay often found me looking at the clock and going “holy crap, did five hours really just go by that fast?”. All in all, I had a blast sampling the variety of PvP available.

Now, let’s touch on the flaws.

First off, there are a few aesthetic details that could be addressed. Developers need to ask themselves when designing aesthetics this question: “Will this ever get annoying after ten or twenty times of experiencing it?” Case in point: Announcers. Battleground announcements should be succinct and informative – flavor text such as “You’ve taken the keep! Now keep it!” gets to be annoying as hell when it’s the umpteenth million time I’ve heard that pun.

Siege weaponry definitely needs to be addressed. There are some balancing issues involved with the various weapons, such as the arrow carts definitely needing to be scaled back in their damage output, or the cannons needing a stronger defensive capability against player attacks, or the fact that you should be able to move a battering ram (really, who builds a battering ram right on the spot in the midst of a siege, right in front of the enemy gate?). These are issues that can be dealt with easily before release and, hopefully, they well be.

Pathing issues need to be addressed, of course; see my complaint about Mesmer clones.

Underwater combat is rather fun, to an extent; I understand that the physics coding behind underwater movement has got to be rather aggravating to even think of writing, as why many games opt for the "free motion as if flying" concept, but it would be rather neat if someone actually could do it correctly. Some games touch on it (mostly single player games), but it's rare to see liquid physics done right. Guild Wars 2 opts for the free motion aspect, which is fine. Underwater combat in Guild Wars 2, however, is actually surprisingly fun. The fact that there are unique abilities only available while underwater and that there are objectives that can be reached via underwater routes is a great idea, though attempting to defend against enemies that are underwater and breaching an underwater gate is next to impossible. Hopefully that will be addressed.

Race played: Charr

Professions played: Mesmer; Warrior; Thief; Elementalist

My initial reaction to creating a character was a little tainted by the confusion of World selection; the common difficulties of server availability and log on proved to make coordinating with friends somewhat frustrating, especially when selecting a world will lock one into that world until a transfer can be secured. Thankfully, the transfers were capable over the beta and I was on my way to immersing myself into the game.

Character creation was rather enjoyable, especially with the ability to tweak the details of the character’s history to varying degrees; I can see it playing into the replay value for the game, as multiple venues toward storyline progression is certainly evident in playing through the story campaign. Something I could recommend in future development would be to include a brief introduction into the culture of the character’s race rather than focus solely on their personal story and nothing else – some of the decisions that I made in the story felt awkward as I had not played the original Guild Wars; I had no idea what might have been considered “dignified” in the Charr society. Dye options for armor were a nice touch; customization of personal armor is always a neat and simple way of adding uniqueness.

My entire first day was dominated by my initial character, a Charr Mesmer. I’ll admit – the Mesmer profession, its abilities and armor are a little … off-putting at first glance. Thankfully, I am certainly not one to let my initial gut reaction cloud my judgment to the point where I won’t even give the strange and unconventional a chance and was I thankful for that. The Mesmer is a light armor wearing, illusion specialist that focuses mainly on disrupting its opponent’s rhythm while providing utility and mobility to its allies. This may raise a flag to veteran gamers – utility class typically means “not that great at much of anything, will require support to be effective”. This is where the Guild Wars 2 weapon and skill system comes in to prove otherwise.

The game is built around choice. As I would soon experience throughout the weekend beta is that every class is based around utility – what tools you choose to bring to battle can either help or stagnate your progress, depending on how well you are in providing support to your allies. As I spent the majority of my time playing the Mesmer, I will provide testimony mostly based on my observations through its game play. I found that I could act as pure support for my allies if I chose, though Mesmer support is rather unique in itself – instead of merely providing buffs or healing as the majority of support roles are pigeon holed into, the Mesmer requires a mix of both offense and defensive abilities to be of greatest effect. For example, in WvW (PvP or whatever you want to call it) combat, a Mesmer’s goal is to disrupt and confuse your enemies. Illusion clones provide quite a major advantage to any fight, regardless of in a solo encounter or with allies; greater numbers always tends to impact morale and sow confusion in opponents, especially when those clones are capable of unpredictable assaults.

Clone AI leaves something to be desired, unfortunately. They are effective on open ground, but the majority of WvW combat typically involves height and surface difference; clone AI pathing does not know how to deal with walls, stairs or gates, so you typically end up with an army of clones standing around you doing nothing. This is especially frustrating when assaulting a keep, as the Mesmer’s ability to shatter its clones account for the majority of its damage capability. This will hopefully be fixed by release, as there were plenty of issues that require addressing in the game regardless.

The weapon system allows for situational adaptation in the majority of fights, but I personally found it a little frustrating to sacrifice precious inventory space in order to keep the various combinations of weapons on my person or in my bank, then constantly analyze what combination of stat boosts/relics/gem choices were better suited, not to mention the unique skills they brought. Eventually, I settled on my combination of choice: staff (set 1) and sword main hand with pistol off hand (set 2). Skills allowed for additional customization and thankfully, they can be changed on the fly as needed (though you are required to be out of combat, which is a good idea). Weapon skills must be learned over time, which is an interesting way to slowly introduce players to the abilities of the weapon; the frustrating part about this is that finding all of these weapons early on in order to unlock their capabilities is a challenge in itself. I didn’t find a greatsword until I was nearly level 12, if I recall – this made it a little tough to unlock its abilities, as many of the creatures at that level tend to flatten you if you are not prepared.

The story campaign is very fun, though I wish there was more options to choose your character’s dialogue during cut scenes; the majority of the story felt scripted and uninvolving of the player’s input, resulting in feeling more of the player going along with the story, rather than developing something unique to their character. There are quite a few different combinations of the main story that the player can choose through the initial character creation, but this lends to a predictable plot progression that will result in many players merely skipping through the majority of the dialogue rather than actively participating in it.

Events are quite interesting; they require the assistance of others, often times quite a few other people. I found it rather interesting to see the dynamic of players going out of their way to aid people, be it through reviving a fallen character or assisting in the defense against an otherwise impossible foe. Frustrations brought on by events, however, typically revolved around enemy respawn rates; there is a challenge to take out an enemy NPC in itself – the fact that it and the three NPCs around it will respawn within minutes after their defeat, if not sooner, can lend itself to some undue aggravation. Another frustration would be in the frequency of reoccurring events; I can understand that the majority of them can be ignored, but there are a select few that not only occur with surprising frequency, but also render waypoints (the main source of quick transportation and respawning) inoperable. In a game that attempts to provide the illusion of ‘changing the world’, having that world revert back to the way you found it in within an hour after leaving tends to dispel that illusion.

Effective level modifying is a very interesting design; it helps in balancing WvW to the point that, though lower level characters aren’t about to carve a swath of death and destruction through enemy lines, they can at least feel that they are adding a notable contribution without the fear of being swatted like flies by enemy players. It also allows for higher level players to help their lower level friends without the feel of merely steamrolling content for them. All in all, it is a feature that I found enjoyable and well intended.

If a busted knee wasn't enough!

Got home last night from work exhausted and aching. Spent the entire night either shivering under two comforters while in both sweatshirt and sweatpants. It's over now, but I'm staying home from work, aching and dizzy.

Stupid flu.

So, a reminder! Wash your hands and drink plenty of water.

1. We all know what we call you, what about the folks at home? What's your name?
Sean. But you can call me Big Red if you're nasty.

2. How tall are you?
6'5"

3. Natural hair color?
Copper red.

3. What about eye color?
Bluish green.

4. What orientation are you?
I've always had an affinity for West, but I guess that pansexual thing, too. Aw yus.

5. Are you single, taken, or undecided?
forever_alone.jpg

6. What do you do in your spare time?
Play WoW, write, do a bit of improv on my alto sax. I like to garden, strangely enough. Hiking is fun. I want to get back into riding a bike, too.

7. What's your job?
Mechanical Engineer.

8. What's one thing you like about yourself?
I always try to find humor in everything. I don't speak much, but whenever I do, I usually try to make people laugh or smile because of it.

9. Alright, now what about something you dislike about yourself?
I'm very seclusive and quiet. I find myself really wanting to be with people but can never bring up the nerve to reach out.

10. What's some things your friends noticed about you when they first met you?
"Damn, you're tall." tends to be the first observation. I don't really try to fish for comments from my friends about myself - that just makes me feel weird.

11. Of what faith/religion are you (if any at all)?
Still searching.

12. Do you drink?
Yes, but I've given up on getting drunk. Bad things happen when I'm drunk.

13. Do you smoke?
Not anymore.

14. What are your fears?
Drowning; dying without accomplishing anything or finding love.

15. What are your dreams/goals?
Inventing a power source to make space travel not only possible, but feasibly affordable and capable within the coming generations.

16. Ever had any crushes/ex's in the past/present?
No comment.

17. Who's your best bud?
I ... don't know. I don't really feel like I have anyone like that, who I can speak to with candor and without hesitation, regardless of the time or situation.

18. Alright, you got the cravin' for munchies, what'cha reachin' for?
Whatever I have on hand. Typically something salty, I guess.

19. Favorite drink?
Hot chai tea.

20. Favorite color?
Electric blue.

21. If you had any super power, what would it be?
Transformation is pretty cool, so long as it wasn't limited.

22. Favorite movie?
Monty Python's Meaning of Life.

23. Least favorite food?
I don't like seafood.

24. Quick! You have only one meal left before you die!!! What is it?
24 oz. prime rib steak with sauteed mushrooms, garlic-roasted baked potato with butter, sour cream and chives, served with a goddamn viking stein of mead.

25. What do you drive/wish you drove?
I currently drive a 2012 Toyota Camry. My wish I drove a spaceship.

26. Most disliked bug?
Horse fly. Those fuckers are jerks.

27. Most liked bug?
Butterfly.

28. Most hated pet peeve?
People who say "that's just how I was raised". Willful ignorance should be a crime.

29. Biggest dislike in real life?
How years of scientific and social progress can be shut down by someone claiming that it violates their religious beliefs.

30. Most annoying?
Politics.

31. Most disliked TV show?
It's a tie between political commentary and reality shows.

32. Most liked TV show?
Mystery Science Theater 3000. God I miss that show.

Yup.

Suppose it's not as bad as a swift kick in the balls, but high possibility of surgery kind of does about the same effect. Man, I hope my boss doesn't mind me being homestuck (and not in the cool, MSPaint kind of way) for a couple weeks.

Anyone want to come play nurse?

About six years ago, I made a rather silly but heartfelt vow to myself that I would attempt to discern a lesson from the instances in where I sustained a rather sizable injury. I.e. - learn something more from my mistakes than "dur don't do that again hur dur". It was six years ago that, while enjoying a pleasant summer's evening with my friends out in the woods, I accidentally inhaled a bit too much campfire smoke and, being the genius I was, decided to suddenly stand up to try and clear my head.

Needless to say, I woke up about 15 seconds later with my friends standing over me, trying desperately to wake me up after pulling my dumb ass out of the small campfire I had collapsed into in my unconscious state. Seven stitches, thirty yards of gauze and a hell of a lot of pain killers later, I decided that the lesson for me to learn was that I had to finish my college degree, because damn did I feel like a moron. I was 24 at the time.

Fast forward five years and a half years later.

I graduated, I got a job, I have a nice little apartment, a sweet car and a psychotic (but adorable) cat. Things were going pretty well, I thought - that was when it was time for me to learn another lesson.

After my knee heals, I plan on acting on the lesson I derived from this situation. I am too damn out of shape. It's time for me to cut down my weight, firm up the flab and get to the point that a couple hours' worth of activity doesn't completely exhaust me again.

I don't suppose there's anyone out there that might be willing to join me in this endeavor? They say that sticking to an exercise/diet plan is much easier when you have others that are suffering with you.

Over the St. Patrick's Day weekend, my friends, against my judgement, baked 18 POUNDS of bacon.

Eighteen.

POUNDS.

Of BACON.

I have pictures of this, but unfortunately, every time I even glance at the pictures of this amalgamation of heart disease, my stomach clenches up in horror. Now, you might think "well, I've seen that much bacon in a buffet line, that's no big deal." Oh no, you have not seen this in any buffet line.

What they did was they wove it. Crocheted it, even. It was woven so tight that it made almost ten layers of solid bacon (they used thick cut, by the way); they cooked it at 325 degrees for four hours, then pulled it out, cut it in half, put a layer of mashed potatoes between the layers, then frosted it (yes, frosted) with even more mashed potatoes and glazed it with melted cheese.

Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to throw up.

Just as a word of advise, kids: Epic Meal Time is not to be emulated. Pleeeease.

Just got back from the orthopedic specialist and, well, there's good news and there's bad news.

Good news: the fragment of bone that was found in the X-Ray doesn't need surgery. It'll settle back in place with time and healing, so long as I'm not a dumbass and keep from injuring myself again.

Bad news: I have to have an MRI scan done to make sure that my ACL wasn't torn. Now, I'm not too claustrophobic (I can handle myself so long as I don't have my arms and legs bound - if I'm willingly keeping still, it's no problem) but I'll admit that I always have a bit of trepidation when it comes to being inserted into a giant machine like some sort of quarter push-slot.

Hopefully though, the ACL isn't torn and I won't need any surgery whatsoever. Won't stop me from getting a sword-cane like I've always wanted. How sweet would that be?

Can you call a place an "Immediate" Care Center when it has a two and a half hour waiting period?

Results of doctor evaluation and X-Ray - Torn Meniscus! I get to visit an orthopedic specialist later in the week, plus I have shiny new crutches and a dorky knee immobilizer. Hopefully I won't need surgery, but I may need micro surgery to have the sliver of bone that broke off removed. Got some pain pills, too. Awesome.

Lesson learned; I might just be getting a little old.

... but then I took a sprain to the knee.

No, seriously. I dunno what the hell the extent of the damage is to my knee, but it be done fucked up. Lesson learned: if you're out of shape, be sure to stretch quite a bit before you attempt a Human v. Zombie mini scenario with friends.

My knee isn't swollen or red, but I can't put more than a pound of pressure on it without sharp pain. Pretty sure it might just be a sprain; I can still extend and bend it, if slowly and not too much.

Thankfully I have health insurance.

I have a dilemma.

I was informed that, come the end of May, my roommate will be moving out to relocate to his job's permanent location. Him moving out isn't the dilemma. I currently have a rather ... let's say, hyper active cat. The kind that chases the reflected glare off your watch kind of hyper. The kind that will chase her own shadow kind of hyper.

My problem is two fold, in a sense. One, my job tends to make me work long, ten hour days fairly regularly, so I am not home all too often, and when I am, I am fairly tired. I don't spend as much time with my cat (her name is Dust, by the way) as I probably should; a fact that she quite vocally brings to my attention. At least with the roommate, she had two sources of attention (a fact she capitalized on frequently).

The second problem is also job related; my job sometimes requires me to travel quite a distance for a prolonged time. For example, I will be traveling to North Carolina for two weeks in April. I can get family members to look after Dust, though - my grandma misses her more than me, sometimes! I can't blame her; Dust is criminally adorable. Does your cat give high-fives? Mine does. She's that awesome.

My question is this: should I get a second cat? I know the stigma of being "that guy with the two cats", but I'm more concerned that poor Dust will be exceedingly lonely and bored whenever I'm not home and paying attention to her. Bored cats watch you while you sleep and plot evil things.

I have no problem using a nerdy excuse to eat pie. Hell, I own a clock that has a unit circle for its face.

The question is: what sort of pie should I get?

Hooray for prime number birthdays.

On another note, today is International Women's Day. Apparently, I was born for the ladies. /swagger

Badge ordered, 4 day ticket.

Also have a hotel room, though I waited too long and had to get one 8 miles away (sufficiently out of the geek-funk stank radius, I think), but maybe I can find one closer to the event date. Then again, I don't mind having an out of the way spot to rest. Nevertheless, if anyone else is going to GenCon this year, let me know! I can even offer a place to crash.

No, really! I do!

I'm not sure what it is about me that seemingly deters folks from striking up a conversation with me. I know I'm soft spoken and very infrequently speak much, but I honestly just enjoy having someone to converse with about whatever they wish to talk about, so long as it isn't politics. I can stomach religion, as it's a collection of philosophy, psychology and artistic expression, whereas politics is just ... eugh.

I rarely get a chance to speak earnestly to anyone in person, which I find can bum me out quite a bit. I never really have an outlet to speak about furry stuff (suits, art, conventions, making fun of people who use the words "murry purry" and "yiff" seriously...) or, honestly, much of anything!

Don't get me wrong, I do have friends. I just don't have close friends. I'm usually pretty good at not letting the lonely bug bite much, but damn, does it get taxing at times.

I think I've made up my mind. Been doing the math and research, budgeting out my options and the like.

I believe I am going to buy the 2012 Toyota Camry LE. Wish me luck in negotiating the terms!

No, haven't gotten one yet, but I plan on it.

I'm thinking 2011 Toyota Camry LE for a couple of reasons:

1 - I can fit in it. I'm 6'5" and have pretty long legs. Being able to fit in a vehicle has been a high priority.
2 - It's affordable. I'm at a point in my life where $15 grand can be doable, though leasing is also an option.
3 - It looks pretty neat. Granted, the 2012 model has that nice front end, but eh, that's about the only difference.
4 - I can fucking FIT IN IT.
5 - Plenty of space. I could actually carry more than just my work crap.
6 - Did I mention I could fit in it?


So yeah, neat stuff. Would be the first time I got my own vehicle without it being a "hand down", of sorts.

It's rare I get a new icon, I've noticed. I think this one encapsulates me pretty well! Not to mention, it has my favorite dragoness right beside it.

Art by  Rika

I'm currently working on a website for my WoW guild, <The Thundermoon Tribe> - it's an all Tauren, RP-heavy, raid/pvp casual guild focused on Tauren culture, lore and ideals.

That being said, I would like a custom banner for the site, just for the sake of uniqueness. Any suggestions/offers would be very appreciated.

Huh. That's quite a few people watching me now! I'm flattered, really - didn't know so many people enjoyed staring at my characters.

Pretty cool.