Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

In case I did not get to wish anyone a Happy New Year in person that deserves or wants one, please have a safe and joyous time. E and I will be at the Pacific Grill enjoying much Sake, Asahi, Saba and Hamachi to be certain!!!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou to all and to all a good night!!!!

From One Emerald Isle to Another

Well, I would like to pay tribute on this site to a good friend and co-worker of mine who is retiring today and moving to Kaua'i. To say that I am jealous is certainly an understatement. I recall early on when starting with this company some 10 years ago that it was Cecil who was instrumental in teaching me much of what I still carry with me today. Not just work related, but life related as well. He would talk to me about Ireland, I would talk to him about Kaua'i. As a mentor and friend, he will be sorely missed, but we certainly plan on staying in touch. I will likely reflect more on this in the upcoming weeks as well as semi-regular Cecil updates.

Waffles Aren't Just for Breakfast Anymore...

So let me get this straight, you pay a lot of homage to this Don Quixote character, you have a character named Munchausen and you pay more attention to him? Well ... yeah. Being the odd bird that I am, I reserved the name Quixote from Day 1, but was saving it for a class that I enjoy to play. Initially the obvious selection would be Paladin, given Quixote's literary background ... but I just cannot stomach the class. Never have. Never will. This distaste has its origins all the way back to PnP Dungeons and Dragons.

Now, when Wrath of the Lich King (an expansion for the game) came out in stores, a new class was introduced: Death Knight. It was a culmination of many aspects from many classes that I enjoyed very much. In particular Warlock (has a Pet and Damage over Time component), Enhancement Shaman (jump straight into melee and have a spell cast feel to it along with good movement enhancement and being able to summon yourself home every 15 minutes), Balance Druid (a good Area of Effect damage component, excellent movement enhancements, invisibility for smoke breaks and a free teleportation option). The class was certainly a class that intrigued me very much. Definitely more of a thinking person's class, where different situations could be dealt with in different fashions.

Well, if you like/liked it so much, why spend time on your Shaman? Shaman? What is that?

Yeah, for all those who know me, waffling and being indecisive is my general state of mind. Not quite ADD (oooh, look a flower...), but close enough.

Munchausen is my primary character and has been such since The Burning Crusade. Initially he was named Praxian, a name derived from the Praxis Test that mom was in the process of completing and had some interesting Aristotlean meanings (in my mind). The name change was a result of trying to sever ties with some in-game folk that I had personal differences with. I settled on Munchausen not so much for the disease (although I am sure there are some who would argue that played a part) and more so for the movie. I figured the delusional hero from the film meshed well with the delusional hero from literature. In my odd little mind, in makes perfect sense...

During the time spent at 70, I spent much of that time healing away having fun. In the face of an upcoming expansion though I dreaded the stretch between 70 and 80. I explored other options because another grind is precisely what I did not want to do. This included potentially moving my playtime to the DPS casting version of Druid - Balance (which is great fun).

It got to the point where I was in the throes of not knowing where or what to log on and play anymore.

Then came the Death Knight.

I was floored by the ease of play for the class. And no doubt I will provide additional detail into the rotations and such that I utilized during my experience with the class at some point. But with even modest playtime I was able to level the toon from 55 to 78 with relative ease. Seemed like a match made in Heaven. Finally got to tag a character I liked with the moniker that I have admired for years and all is right with the world right? Well ... sure ... I guess ...

Having blazed a trail through the new content with Quixote I then decided to take up arms and try to do the same with Munchausen. I picked up the DPS casting version of Shaman (Elemental) that I had high hopes for because I had some of the very best gear from tBC. I was woefully disappointed initially, but I stuck with it and now I am knocking on the door of 80 with both toons. I will re-evaluate where I stand, but it looks like I will be pushing on with Munchausen. Since the introduction of Acheivements with the latest expansion, there was just so much accomplished by Munchausen that would require too much "catch up" play time with Quixote.

Short story long ... I am actually trying to reduce game play by focusing on one character. I thought Quixote would be my choice, although retro-fitting the achievements (that I feel compelled to do in order to "Flesh Out" my toon) just was not feasible considering the head start that Munchausen had. So ... the Death Knight will certainly be something that I have interest in and will be spending some time with, the majority of my time will be spent with the Shaman class.

Abandon all Hope, Ye Who Enter Here

What is this World of Warcraft thing? WoW is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), which is persistent game world, whether you play or not. It does occupy a lot of my free time (for good and bad), and I have been an avid player since 2006. My characters (or toons) are typically in two camps, Horde are on Ghostlands and Alliance are on Lothar. In the past I have split my play time between the aforementioned realms (or servers) and even between Guilds on the same server. Guilds are associations of real people who cooperatively explore the content of these immense games together. I have since consolidated my efforts to a single Faction (Alliance) on a single Server (Lothar) within a single Guild (Followers of Bob). This has made my game play much more enjoyable. For so long spreading out my time between various Servers and Guilds took its toll on me in recent months; this recent decision has been a relief to me of sorts. Essentially I put the stake in the ground as to where I am and whom I play with and should you want to enjoy such with me… here I am.

Happy Holiday Wishes

And now that the Holidays have all but past, I figured no better time than now when to start. I hope everyone’s Holidays were good to them and that time was spent with and enjoying the company of family and friends. In Valrico-Town, things were tame to say the least. We spent time with the animals and with our tree and not a whole lot more than that. We did go over the things that we were thankful for and realized just how lucky we have been all things considered. For dinner we went to go see Joon and Julie at Pacific Grill. Joon and Julie are more than mere owners of the place, being good friends of ours. Afterhours are spent at the resturant catching up on things since our last visit, as well as sampling items not yet available to the public.

Getting Started

Nothing fancy here... Not even sure where I will be heading with this Blog, although I figured I might as well jump in....

Planning on this Site being an odd combination between real life discussions as well as my thoughts on my hobby/additction ~ World of Warcraft. Topics like what I am following in history and literature will also be fair game.

The site name selection, as well as the picture (courtesy of Pablo Picasso), pays homage to the Miguel de Cervantes work Don Quixote. Quixote was knighted by the Innkeeper in Act I as the Knight of the Sad Countenance.

The format has not quite been refined, likely it may read like a diary written in a stream of consciousness vein. For those who like it, great. For those who don't great. =]