Monday, June 23, 2014

Blog reading backlog

Feedly has replaced Google reader, but the backlog is still there
Once again I find myself about a week behind on my blog reading.  After being a week behind two weeks ago, caught up the week after and a week behind again this week, I wonder if others have the same problem and how they deal with it.

I have used Feedly ever since Google Reader stopped working.  I still use the same generally method of categorizing my feeds:

  • Autism related feeds (not many of these currently)
  • General Gaming feeds - not too many of these so I can usually keep up with them
  • MMO feeds - this is the majority of my feeds and I probably get around 30 posts a day on week days.  
  • World of Warcraft specific feeds - I don't have many of these
  • Other feeds - I keep most of the large feeds that I can't keep up with here, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Wow Insider, and Massively.
I like keeping MMORPG in my MMO feed because they always have short header posts and I feel like I can keep up with the news this way and just mark the longer posts I want to read for follow up (though I hardly ever get to them, I feel better marking them).

I also like following many of the blog authors (and others) on Twitter, but I have an even harder time keeping up with it.  I've recently decided that if I try to go back more than 3 hours, I never catch up, so I've given up on those posts though I do wonder about what I've missed.  Here also there are often links I may want to follow up on and I save those to Pocket (and, again, I seldom get back to them).  I do follow Wow Insider, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Massively here and since I never keep up with their posts there is a chance I'll see a post here that I want to read and then I can save it to Pocket (where, I probably won't read them, but, again, it makes me feel better).

Do others have the same issue keeping up with posts?  I truly enjoy reading them and they often inspire me to write something, but I don't seem to have enough time to play, write posts, and read the posts I enjoy.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Vial of the Sands: Taking others for a ride

I'm not sure Iorek likes travelling with a dragon
Just a quick post to announce that finally, on my 15th Canopic Jar, the recipe for Vial of the Sands dropped. I can now turn into a dragon and give other players a ride on my back.  I'm sure it would have been faster to save up gold and buy it from the auction house, but it is nicer for me to have defeated the RNGer and I have an achievement to show for it.  Who knows, maybe sometime someone will buy the materials and want me to make one for them.


Thursday, June 5, 2014

A Week in an MMO Life: Four Farms

Kantrina arrives in Pandaria

There has been quite a lot of interesting social discussion about Blizzard and their portrayal of women within World of Warcraft and the '#YesAllWomen' campaign seemed to bring it more attention.  At least two long time players who have made large contributions to the community have even quit the game.  Generally I support that Blizzard can and should do more but I am still playing.  I need to think on this more to develop my response, but I hope everyone thinks seriously about this, understands their position and can defend it.

The title of this post is a little premature since while I have my fourth character in Pandaria (my Mage, Kantrina), she hasn't started her farm yet.  However, I am on vacation at home this week so it should be soon and 'Four Farms' is so much nicer than 'Four characters in Pandaria'.

Kantrina hit 85 while helping unify the clans in Twilight Highlands.  This is the first time I have done these quests and I was enjoying them but at this point I'd rather advance in Pandaria and get the better gear.  I would like to go back and finish them eventually. 

The Twilight Highland quests are my last ones I need for Cataclysm loremaster but I still haven't finished the Icecrown quests and those would come next.  Completing the Loremaster title is very unlikely since I did most of my leveling in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms before the achievements existed and before the Cataclysm quest changes and I don't see myself finishing them all.

Speaking of long term goals, Vial of the Sands is still a work in progress, 13 Mumified Organs later.  My hope was to get them done in the average time, 10 jars, but that wasn't to be.  As mentioned in my previous post, I'm still ok as long as I can mix it in with other activities.

One side activity is I created four out of the five Jewelcrafting Panther mounts now.  The Jeweled Onyx Panther is outrageously expensive, requiring the other four mounts.  If you had asked me a month ago if I would be creating it, I'd have said no, but I guess if I collect all 80 required gems to create the four other mounts again along with the 72,000 gold, I'll probably go ahead and create it.

I started working on Jewelcrafting again to make Serpent Hearts daily.  I figure I will keep doing that until I have the Jade Owl pet and then see what I want to do with my Ghost Iron after that.

I am still avoiding LFR and without that, I don't see myself raiding with my guild, but I guess that could change.  I have plenty to do and I prefer activities where I can leave quickly without inconveniencing others.  At least I have plenty of choices there still to last me until Warlords of Draenor is released.

I was behind on my blog reading but just got back within two days tonight.  It has been great reading everyone's impressions of Wildstar.  I truly hope it is successful and I looked like a well crafted game from the little I played, it just wasn't for me.  I look forward to reading more about it.