Gaming

World of Warcraft: Lyotta is 40!

October 23, 2020

And she bought a sweet, skeletal ride!

Lyotta and Blue.

I’m enjoying my second tour through Classic WoW. It’s almost like living the “if you could go back in time knowing what you know now…what would you do differently?” trope.

My first time around I was shocked by how much money I needed to train and to have a riding mount at level 40. I ended up not training skills from level 34 onward, which affected my game play. This time, my goal from level 1 was to make as much money as possible for training and mounts. It wasn’t difficult, just took some more time. This time around, I realized that I will sometimes have to dedicate entire play sessions to herbing, fishing, and/or alchemy. If I see a recipe (for any profession) on a wandering or inconvenient merchant, I’m buying and reselling it on the auction house.

Scarlet Monastery: Cathedral

If I am tired of a zone, I leave. even if I have quests to finish. Azeroth is huge and in a world with no achievements, there is no reward for staying in one zone until you’re finished. Variety is the spice of life.

I am not worried about doing dungeons with Lyotta, who is a DPS (damage dealing) character. If I am smart enough with my money, I can purchase armor and weapons at the auction house instead of waiting for THE PERFECT piece to possibly drop after 2 hours with strangers. If a group becomes available, I’m in.

On the other hand, Kevashandia (when I get back to playing her) will be mostly in dungeons, because that is the least frustrating way to level up a healer.

As of this writing, Lyotta is 42, Kevashandia is 25, Vanderhoof is 8, and I have a hunter named Ofthrall whom I haven’t played yet.

Pets

Murphy, October 2020

October 21, 2020

A warm hello to those found this site via my Postcards to Voters blog post which picked up some traction on Twitter! This is an old-fashioned blog, with a some journaling, some photos, some food, some pets, some hobbies, some books, no ads because I failed to hop on the monetization wagon — you get the picture. Welcome!

When we bought this house, I wanted a bird feeder. I put it on my Pinterest wish list and after convincing people I was not kidding and really wanted one, I received one for Christmas. I hung it up with pride on a shepherd’s hook in the back yard and one day 1-year-old Murphy knocked it down, ate all of the seed, and spent a morning spraypooping birdseed all over the wall behind his crate. WM came home from work that day to a biological disaster.

The bird feeder was moved to the front yard, where Murphy (fully energized by the expensive Veterinarian canned food from his stomach problems) barked all day long at the birds who were just tying to have a snack, man. The bird feeder was quickly dispatched to the garage. It’s still there, covered with sawdust.

For Christmas last year, WM gifted me a clear plastic bird feeder that we could stick to the kitchen window with suction cups. The birds are happy, I am happy, and the dog can’t knock it down and eat the seeds which makes WM happy.

The squirrels are not happy. They know there are tasty seeds “up there” but can’t scale the house to get to the source. They’ve taken to sitting on our patio chair and waiting for seeds to fall.

murphy looking out the window at a squirrel on the chair

WHICH VEXES MURPHY GREATLY.

(and you say why don’t you just close the blinds and I reply, because the dog would ruin the blinds while trying to look at the squirrel on my chair and you ask about curtains maybe and you’re not the boss of me okay?)

Life

Postcards to Voters

October 19, 2020

As part of my evolution into baby activist, I have been writing with Postcards to Voters for over two years now. (I signed up in October 2018, which is another reason I’m happy I keep a blog.) And while we are creeping up to the point where it might be too late to send a postcard now for the November 3 election, postcard campaigns are sent year-round for Democratic* candidates. No matter who wins the presidency, the fight for everyone in the US to be safe, loved, and warm never stops. If Trump wins, we push on Congress and downballot Democrats to take action. If Biden wins, we push him leftward.

It’s said that people become more conservative as they age. This Bush ’00 and McCain ’08 voter is turning into a glorious, mouthy hippie in her dotage and I’m loving it!

Here’s a little overview of what goes into writing the postcards.

If you’re a complete beginner, sign up on the website and follow the directions to be approved. I had to write a sample postcard and email a photo in. It took less an a day for them to get back to me and approve me to write. There are various ways to request a list of addresses. I use PtV’s Slack environment and print out the text file that I receive. You can request as few as 5 addresses. I write 15 at a time.

Here’s my protest folio. It’s a bridesmaid gift that I received from Kristen and John’s wedding. The pins were bought by me or by WM over the years.

a fabric folio with sassy political pins on it
RIP, RBG.

In the before times, I use to bring it with me to work on Fridays and write during breakfast and lunch. It holds everything I need: blank postcards, postcard stamps, pens, and the address list. Postcard stamps are 35 cents each, and you can even order them online if you’re tired of your post office looking at you weird when you order multiple books.

opened folio, showing postcards, stamps, pen
Yes, I bought a roll of postcard stamps so I can divide them into strips of 15.

For each campaign you’ll be given three sentences that MUST go on each postcard word-for-word, as well as background information about the candidate(s) and sentiments that you can choose to personalize your card. You are NOT given the voter’s name and are not to use your own full name. We’re spreading positive messages, not opening ourselves up to stalking.

I draw out the approximate size of the postcard’s message area on a piece of paper and do a test run to make sure all of the info I want to send along fits.

rough draft of a postcard message
If you’re worried about your handwriting being bad, this is what mine looks like and I was approved.

And then I get to writing. If I am not distracting myself with devices or television it takes me a little more than an hour to write and address 15 postcards. When I’m finished, I highlight the most important bits, apply the stamps and drop them into the nearest mailbox.

final written postcards
Finally the postcard is addressed, stamped, and the relevant parts highlighted.

These postcards are from CCLemonStudio. You can make your own if you’re artsy, but Etsy has many different designs to choose from.

It’s easy and it makes a difference. Because the fight for safe, loved, and warm will not end on January 20, 2021, no matter who wins.

* If you don’t know that I’m voting Democratic I’m not sure where you’ve been for the last eight years.
** Kerry in ’04. Win some, lose some.