An Argentine Oppressed in Valrico

So how did I end up with a cat one may ask? There was a time back in college that I would compare the chess piece of Bishop to cats. One may ask why is this? Well, I was never ever never afraid of giving up a Bishop in trade for just about anything, including a Pawn should i gain a tactical advantage by weakening my opponents defensive structure. That all being said...

Mom and Dad were down in Argentina in the early 90's. In perhaps one of the greatest examples of communication, Noche became adopted by them. Mom had expressed an interest in obtaining a white, long haired, blue eyed cat. So Dad, after heading home from the Cafe (where he worked o so hard drinking coffee, talking story, and no doubt hustling folk at golf) saw a kitten walking across a tennis court. This kitten was a black, short haired, green (or gold) eyed kitten. Of course seeing his opportunity to fulfill my Mother's desire at getting a pet kitten, scooped her up and brought her home.

Now, I was not privy to the exact conversation after he stepped in the door (no doubt it was similar to when my Father wanted a hunting dog, and mom adopted a poodle), but I am sure it went fairly well. Noche (or more correctly Esta Noche), was checked out and brought back to the states. Mom was doing a lot of travelling as a consultant at the time at flew the cat around with her everywhere. Dad, when he had time alone with the cat, taught her to fetch golf tees and return them to him.

All was good.

Then, when they decided to move back to Hawai'i, instead of having to quarantine the cat, they opted to leave her with me. Hmmm... Well, after an interesting start - I used to wear work boots and Noche would fetch the golf tees, but them toward the toe of the boot so when I put them on I would be reminded of her - we warmed up to each other. We are now good buds and even though she can be cranky in her advanced age, she still feels safe with me (around Pua may yet be a different story).

But be not worried for those who play me in Chess, you can still on occasion hear me mutter cats are like Bishops (albeit under my breath) should we be playing face to face.

Cover your eyes ... It's an Ellipsis ...

Well. Not quite. I have two favorite "punctuations" in writing. One as you no doubt have noticed is the ellipsis. The other is the "Enter" key or carriage return. Where this has its roots, I cannot say. Perhaps it is a throw back to my once dramatic style. Sure I have never been even close to being a thespian, but in speech (more so in writing), I prefer the dramatic pause. How effective I am at creating dramatic pauses anymore I cannot say. As a result, much of my writing, especially in email, ends up looking like it is in sonnet or haiku form. No real meat to this post, although I thought I would throw it out there. Maybe as a warning to some should you ever get the misfortune of receiving one of my verbose and oddly structured emails...

Recap of Mommy's Birthday Dinner

Off to Alan Wong's we go. I imagine that the menu for this establishment changes on a regular basis, because comparing what is offered on the site for dinner, differs from what M&D enjoyed. For an appetizer, a type of spring roll with lettuce wrap was enjoyed. Mom had Duck and Dad had a NY Strip (no big surprise there). Although details are sketchy beyond that, I am assured that a good time was had and that the experience certainly did not detract from the restaurant ranking #1 as far as Mom is concerned. Sounds o so ono Mom ... Hope to try it out soon.

Boy, I need a Drink

Obviously I cannot speak for everyone, but I do some of my best Internet Surfing while on the phone during support calls. And today I found a gem of a site that is in line with one of my true loves - Coffee. The site is Coffee Detective and I found it to be quite enjoyable. Has a lot of good information on it, making me wonder if there are others like it. Something I have not really ever explored (informational sites about coffee), but I will moving forward. Typically coffee is like cigarettes to me. Pick a brand/flavour and run with it. Heck, this may even spur on another list, going over the various coffee's and teas i have had. This will likely be a good opportunity for me since one of my frequent stops is to pick up tea at Teavana when I am brave enough to go to the mall. With all their variety of teas I can track them here. Beer too for that matter. And that is something I am craving right about now....

Hmmm...

One post and 3 more lists... (Coffee, Tea, or Milk ... I mean Beer)

Toon Update

And despite some of the current downfalls of the Shaman Class, we were able to accomplish some nifty little achievements over the last week. It is my hopes that with the upcoming changes that I become more of a actual in game contributor, rather than a cheerleader. Granted I am a cheerleader that casts bolts of lightning. =]

What is real nice is that many of the "boss" encounters, although difficult, are essentially set at real short timers, some of which are as short as 10 minutes.

308 FTW

Yes .. another WoW blogget (or would that be blogling - maybe I should just stick with "post"). Woe to those who care not for the subject and instead wait for it to roll off the front page. This one is on Shaman. No, players do not acquire the fabled car from the hit show Magnum PI. The 308 reference is actually to the next Build (or patch) level of the game, 3.0.8. With it some very exciting changes head the way of Elemental Shaman (my class of choice).

Until this point, Elemental Shamans (a ranged damage/support role in game) have had difficulty keeping up with the rest of the crowd in optimally fulfilling part of their duties (causing lots of damage, as you might expect). Their ability to support has really never been in dispute.

The upcoming changes (that I am very excited about) include the following:

• Fire Nova Totem: Now no longer generates threat.
• Healing Way: Now only one application is required to reach full benefit. No longer stacks.
• Improved Water Shield: Lesser Healing Wave now has a reduced chance to trigger this talent.
• Magma Totem: The damage and scaling has been increased and no longer generates threat.
• Mental Quickness: Reduced the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 23/46/70% of your agility.
• Searing Totem (Rank 4) now does the proper damage for its rank.
• Tremor Totem's duration has been increased from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
• Elemental Shields: This talent has been removed. It has now been merged with Elemental Warding.
• Elemental Warding: Now reduces all damage taken by 2/4/6%. Changed from only reducing Nature, Fire and Frost by 4/7/10%.
• New Talent: Shamanism-Your Lightning Bolt spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% and your Lava Burst gains an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus damage effects.
• Storm, Earth and Fire: This talent has been moved up in the tree, and its talent points have been reduced to 3 down from 5. Wind Shock is also included in the range increase (with Earth Shock). The damage bonus to Flame Shock has been increased, up from 10/20/30/40/50 to 20/40/60.
• Unrelenting Storm: point cost reduced to 3, down from 5. Now does 4/8/12%

And in addition:

• Elemental Oath: In addition to existing effects, now increases spell damage done by the Shaman by 5/10% while Elemental Focus Clearcasting is active.
• Elemental Mastery: Redesigned. Now increases the Shaman’s critical strike chance by 20% for 30 seconds. Cooldown remains at 3 minutes.
• Mental Quickness and Static Shock have switched positions in the talent tree.
• Mental Quickness: The change from attack power to agility has been reverted. Reduces the mana cost of instant cast Shaman spells by 2/4/6% and increases spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power.

Although which changes in Mental Quickness will actually be applied I cannot say. Not that either should impact how I experience the game all that much. Most of the other stuff, particularly the bold entries interest me quite a bit. Anywhere between a 12-20% increase is what is forcasted.

Hau'oli La Hanau Mommy

Today is mom's birthday. Woo hoo. She turns 34 today (or at least so she says). =]

I know that she has planned to head out to Alan Wong's Restaurant and claims this to be her most favorite restaurant on Oahu. Although I have never been.... I wonder if there is a reason for this?

I am sure that she will have a good time and will get a bit of a recap when I have the opportunity to touch base with her.