They did it for me

Despite planning on fixing up the site myself, Blogger decided to throw away the old design and leave a blank template so I can start from scratch easier. Also, all comments from Haloscan are gone and probably inaccessible for me since the company was purchased by a company offering different services. I logged in a few months ago to see if I could recover and import them to Blogger's own comment system, but that is impossible. For a few minutes I was a little upset about losing everything, but soon felt extremely relieved and almost liberated. It's sad that all contributions from visitors and fellow bloggers I met are gone, but it will fit in with my decision not to turn on comments, at least for awhile. Posting without the subconscious worry about not getting response may encourage more posting.

I'm wary about these social media buttons attached to each post since it looks tacky and I don't participate in most of those services, but since a lot of people do they will remain in place for for now. I'm going to restore as many links to blogs I read as I can remember, play around with new features, and clean up the old html code. Blogger has finally created a good-looking user interface for Safari so no more having to use Firefox every time I want to make a new post.

Mobile posting

Testing mobile posting out. Web browsing on the iPad and iPod touch is more appealing to me lately and hopefully blogging on the iPad will inspire more writing. Time to start searching for apps.

Blog Renovation

I'm currently in the process of reviving this site. Blogger and other publishing utilities I was using have changed so much that obviously I need to edit the code and get rid of obsolete services. Hopefully this won't take very long and I can start things back up again. Also, WoW > all still.

Going Back to WoW

It's been over a month since I canceled my WoW account and now that a new in-game holiday event is starting on Monday I think it's time to start playing again. I've enjoyed all the extra time out of game and it was very relaxing but I missed a lot of my friends. School has begun and that always keeps me pretty busy but even being in game once a week is nice so I can check in and say hi. We'll see how it goes.

Done with Potter

It's been a few months since the last Harry Potter book was released and I finished reading the book about three days after. I thought that the previous book wasn't good and the last didn't impress me much either. What I was real happy about was that all the hype was finally over. I got tired of Harry Potter and hearing about it even though I was reading the books and couldn't get enough information about characters. The most exciting part of this last book turned about to be getting the book itself, not the plot. At the bookstore there were tons of people all getting the same book and Harry Potter memorabilia was everywhere. It was nice being part of that phenomenon, almost like being part of literary history by just purchasing a book. Now I'm happy that the Harry Potter hype had died down so much (and quickly), even if there are still two more movies to make.

Few Withdrawl Symptoms

It's been two weeks since I canceled my World of Warcraft account and I don't miss playing the game much. I still look at WoW related websites and keep track of my guild. I've even been planning what I'm going to do when I come back (hopefully in two or three weeks), but this "free" time is nice. Now I wish I had quit sooner. School's starting soon too.

Canceled WoW Account

Just a little update. I canceled my World of Warcraft account. I want this break to be temporary, hopefully just one month. It was time to take a break and there was no point in me playing if it was going to take hours to get things done anyway. The guild is kind've in limbo where it's not going anywhere fast so I won't be missing much. With this free time before school starts I might even clean up things around there. There have been so many changes with Blogger that I have to get used to. Hopefully I'll be blogging more too.

Test: Hey!

Just posting to say I'm still here. I forgot what this thing was and what to do. I'm still playing WoW, so that's my excuse.

Taking a Break from WoW (kind of)

I finally reached level 60 last month and am not obsessing over getting experience and trying to keep up with everybody else, so I can relax. Unfortunately our guild is going a little crazy right now, meaning there are tons of unresolved issues and new problems turning up every day. The stress has hit me hard over the last month or so and I've decided to take a little break. After the raid (40 level 58-60 players fighting together) on Saturday, I'm only going to play my two low level characters on rest experience, a.k.a getting double experience from killing a monster than on normal experience. It'll be a break from the leveling frenzy, I can still talk to guild members, and most importantly I won't have to play as much.

I hope to accomplish a lot like getting a new job and taking summer classes at a new college (ran out of classes to take at my current community college). I'm gonna miss questing with my fellow level 60's who I've known for at least six months. Hopefully everything will get straightened out soon so I can come back to a well organized guild. At over 450 characters we need more people to manage us and focus on accomplishing our goals and not stressing over unsolved problems.

My World of Warcraft Habit

In September Joi convinced me that I should play World of Warcraft (WoW), so I finally bought the game. For over a week I didn't open the box or even think about playing since I was so busy with homework. I finally installed it one Friday and after about two and a half hours got it up and running. By the time I'd created my character it was 2 a.m. and I was too tired to really start playing. All I knew about the game was that over 4 million people were playing, people spent hours logged in, and that I'd be paying a monthly fee. Because I was occupied with other things I could only play a few hours on the weekend when I had some free time. My first impressions of it weren't that great and I didn't think I'd be playing after the free one-month trial was over.

However, that all changed over the next couple months. I started playing more hours and would stay up late the next morning trying to learn more about the game. When I was browsing the internet I was looking at WoW websites for more info on the storyline, races, items, and abilities I encountered while playing. I even bought a six-button mouse so I could easily right-click and move my character around better, and got more memory so it wasn't so choppy.

That wasn't enough though. I was advancing in the game and getting to know other players, but real life was changing too. To have more game time I starting cutting out other things I liked to do. My television watching decreased to zero, I stopped watching DVDs that were coming in the mail, updating my blog, visiting websites that weren't in my newsreader, or checking my email. I was addicted to this game and was having fun.

A few weeks ago when the semester finished I had more free time to play WoW. My character was advancing to higher levels and was changing a lot in terms of skills, weapons, and armor. But the game didn't seem to change much. In October WoW was decorated for Halloween, complete with jack 'o lanterns and costumes. In December Wow was decorated for Christmas with lights and presents. When those holidays passed all of that went away and it was back to focusing solely on improving my character. Each new level was a repeat of the previous one; get more training, buy new equipment, and do more tasks that involved killing monsters.

I was getting bored with that and just wanted to talk to other people. But everybody else wanted to repeat the process until they reached the last level. To them, reaching that level was a beginning, to me it sounded like an ending and a release the monotony. Those who have reached the highest level continue to fight monsters in different places, but instead with lots of other players, *groan*.

I felt pretty depressed since I realized that I wasn't doing what I liked to do in real life anymore, and all the time and energy put into the game felt like a waste, an expensive waste. To make the game more fun I tried to do tasks (quests) that involved more than playing solo, and shared info about the game that others didn't know. This failed and probably upset other people who were sick of grouping with a lower level or didn't care to discuss the game as much.

I decided a few days ago that I should go back to what I liked doing and stop playing so much to improve my character. It's back to movies, television, instant messenger, reading, and whatever else pops into my head. I'm trying to refocus on my school work and hopefully find a better job. I'm not sure how much I'll play the game now, but I'm definitely going to play it less and different from how I was before.

I Am Still Here

Man, it's been a long time since I wrote anything, anywhere. I'd been busy with school and work during October, November, and early December, and spending my free time doing whatever I feel like. I usually find time to read everybody's blogs, but don't bother leaving comments as I'd rather chat live on instant messenger. I'm probably gonna start blogging more though because things have wound down a bit and everyone else seems to be picking up the pace with their blogs.

Too Busy

I'm still here, but haven't found much time to blog, watch movies, play games, let alone get school work done on time. So much changes in a small amount of time. Google has an instant messaging client, blog search, and "flags" for Blogger blogs. Apple's got a new iPod and phone, and Opera is free. There's not much to say that hasn't been said already on those topics. However with the hurricanes and the supreme court there's still much to discuss. Every time I feel like writing something I've got a million other things to do first and by the time I get a chance it's time to talk about something else. Life doesn't stop, it's always moving on even when it seems like nothing bigger, better, or worse will happen. Sometimes I think it's moving too fast for me because I'm always running out of time, so I try hard to catch up to it. I guess that's where the migraines are coming from.

Microsoft Messenger for Mac not Disconnecting Anymore

With the latest update for the Mac client was release (and renamed) by Microsoft, the problem with Microsoft Messenger disconnecting went away. With Mac computers using the Airport the connection to Messenger continued to drop randomly. Now, Microsoft got a clue and fixed this problem and we're all happy. Thank you!

Harry Potter 6 Review

I know it's been close to a month since the Half-Blood Prince came out and many people have read it already, but I still wanted to post my thoughts on it. I liked how the story of the struggle between Voldemort and the forces of good, but was disappointed with everything else. Harry at 16 is no different from Harry at 11. Rowling just adds more situations for Harry to get angry in to make it seem like he's dealing with teenage growing pains even though anybody would be stressed in Harry's position. Yet somehow he figures out how to handle it, like he's done for the previous 5 years. How does he handle it? I haven't found an explanation for that yet. Because he is not maturing, I like Harry less than when he was 11, 12, and 13.

Rowling deviants from her practice of relying on magical descriptions to pad the plot and it shows. She tries to write about romance (primarily snogging sessions) and other emotions, resulting in silly and awkward moments. Many readers were attracted to Rowling's ability to effectively describe her vision of what a magical world was. Harry Potter is not so successful because he's an orphan from Jersey City who gets selected to go to a swanky liberal private school that's threatened by conservatives from Texas. In the Potter series are wizards human? If they aren't then I guess she can get by with whatever emotional depths wizards experience, but as a human being I don't like it.

Since this is the second-to-last book, I'm going to read the 7th as soon as it's published because I am eager to know the conclusion and confirm my suspicions about the ending of the 6th. I believe if the 7th is written the way the Prince was there will be many unhappy readers.

Blog Depression

I haven't been posting because of several obstacles like a broken computer, traveling, and work. However, the lack of posting's mainly due to disinterest and unwillingness to share any opinions. Is this blog depression?