Holiday musings

I have many things I've been meaning to blog about, so I'll just go last-in-first-out and start with vacation.

The extended Thanksgiving weekend, along with taking the last three days off to visit the_z's brother in St. Louis, was a pleasant break from work. Not that work is bad, mind you, but it's good to mix things up from time to time. We had two wonderful turkey dinners, did a spot of Christmas shopping, and got to visit with family on both sides of the state. The trip across the state went very well, thanks in part to the portable DVD player we purchased for the car. Andromeda watched Baby Einstein movies for the entirety of the trip, keeping her entertained and, more importantly, not constantly demanding attention from Z. I do occasionally worry that she's a bit of a TV junkie - each morning, she hands us the remote and politely asks us to turn on "babies" - but Z makes sure that she gets outside play and non-TV activity time as well. In fact, on both legs of the trip, we stopped at the Columbia Mall so that Andi could run off energy in their play area.

We came away from the cross-state trip with a number of things, mostly baby-related. Andi now has a whole new set of outfits (her aunt and uncle love to spoil her) and a new alphabet toy that talks, sings, and plays music. I imagine that I'll be sick and tired of "The Wheels on the Bus" in a week or so, but the toy also plays "In the Hall of the Mountain King," so it can't be all bad. As for me, I came away with a new game for my DS (specifically, Bleach: Dark Souls), a mild cold/sore throat that I am still fighting off, and my first experience at a casino. Casinos are strange places. Z likens them to old-style arcades, thanks to all the noises and lights and game machines, and I can see where she gets that impression. Personally, I got a vibe of desperation and impending death. Of course, this may be what happens when you visit it at 11 AM and the entire floor is packed with senior citizens, fixed with a zombie-like stare at their particular slot machine as they push a button or pull a lever repeatedly, hoping for a big payout before they have to go.

What I found most interesting was the variety of themed slot machines (which are almost entirely video-driven now, rather than using mechanical reels)... and how people utterly disregard those themes. I had a fair amount of fun and luck playing the "Alien" game, complete with facehugger and airlock mini-games, but after a certain amount of winning I moved onto another machine. When I came back to it later, an old black woman had set up camp. Now, it's possible that she may be a huge fan of Ridley Scott's sci-fi/horror film, but she certainly didn't look like someone I'd expect to be a xenophile. The players just tune out the details of the game and reduce it down to a win/loss odds machine. Kind of sad, really... especially when it means I don't get to sit at the Star Wars or Indiana Jones machines (the former I only discovered right before we had to go). I did get to play the Shinobi slot machine, though, which was interesting (although not nearly as good as Alien).

Would I go back to a casino? Sure. Despite the weirdness of the whole thing, I did eventually have a good time, and I know Z would like to go again. We also broke even, which never hurts.

WoW musings...

I cannot comment on the content in Northrend in the new expansion, mostly because I'm not high enough level to experience it yet (besides a very, very brief foray up to the Borean Tundra to see it). When I left the game, I'd just hit level 67. I'm halfway through 68 now, finishing up Nagrand, starting up on Blade's Edge Mountains, and Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley are almost completely untouched (apart from my mad dash at 61 to get as many flight points as possible). I'm going to miss out on most of the Outland instances, mostly because people are focused on Northrend now, but it's good to know that I won't need them to hit 70. The gear would be nice, but I'll live off of other quest rewards.

All that said, I am liking the paladin changes for the most part. The Protection tree is relatively useless to me apart from Kings (and I don't think it's worth 5 talent points of dabbling to get it), but Holy/Retribution is a thing of crit-tastic beauty. While I miss having a longer range on Holy Shock, the much-improved cooldown more than makes up for it, and my Judgements make up for the loss of range. The new Seal/Judgement system took a bit of getting used to, but it's so much better now. Being able to keep up Wisdom while I judge Light (or Justice for runners) is a godsend, and it's nice to actually have something besides auto-attack. Sure, Judgements don't auto-refresh, but it's a fair trade for the flexibility. With the build I have now, I've got a 25% crit chance on Holy spells, which has really kicked up both my damage and healing outputs, while the new seal system (being able to keep up SoWis constantly) keeps me nearly full on mana during most leveling. The only time I run low is if either A) I have to drop a lot of big heals, or B) I'm using more spells than normal (against, say, elite demons or packs of undead).

I haven't had any chance to toy with Inscription, so I really have no idea what to do with anything related to it. That's fine, though - I have enough to focus on with Engineering. Right now, though, I'm not even focusing on skill-ups. I'm focused on saving money and getting a flying mount when I hit 70 (even though I'll have to give it up for a while in Northrend). Also, I need to move my Warlock over to Blackhand, so I can have both my main and my primary alt on the same server (although I will miss her name, since there's apparently a low-level Beshaba name-squatting on this server). Of course, I have no idea on whether or not 'locks have changed the way Paladins have...