Dear Blizz.

Look, I love ya, I really really do.

But OMG the Shattering is possibly the weakest book of all the WoW books I've read, and while I haven't read EVERY one, I've read War of the Ancients, Day of the Dragon, Night of the Dragon, Arthas, and Stormrage and I have some severe problems with the book from a heck of a lot of angles.

For starters, it's unusually dry for Golden's work, compared to Arthas at least.  There's a kind of textbook utilitarian way she goes about describing things that make everything lack the detail that would make for a more enriching reading experience.  I'm not suggesting perhaps that she go into the purple prose excesses of Knaak, but a nice middle ground would help here.  Oddly enough if I hadn't been playing the game for six years I probably wouldn't have the faintest clue how the world around the characters looked.  That's a significant flaw in a book that's published as a mass market hardcover.

Second, I understand the concept that this is a prelude to what happens in Cataclysm, but that only further suggests the book shouldn't have been published as it stood.  There seemed to be a 'rush to completion' feel that I haven't gotten off any other book I've read.  The only story that's told effectively at all is Thrall's, which is FINE really, I'm not a Horde player, but I'm a Thrall fan myself.  The problem with all the stories is that there's no sense of purpose for anything that happens in the book.  The book basically serves the purpose of explaining why Thrall isn't in Orgrimmar anymore, that Cairne is dead (*sadface*) and Garrosh is Warchief (and that he's not totally pants-on-head retarded).  Okay that's all well and good, but did we need a $26 novel for this? 

And forgive me, I have to pull apart a few choice problems I have with the events of the novels because they make no freaking sense to me as someone who's played the game for six years, I can only imagine the utter looks of "HUH??" you'd get from a layperson.  For starters, Magni Bronzebeard dies, why does succession immediately fall to his daughter when there are two brothers floating about Azeroth?  Unless Dwarven lines of nobility run in particularly odd ways, shouldn't Brann or Marudin be successor based on the fact that technically they are both princes? Even if they couldn't be immediately located, Moria's appearance doesn't immediately grant her authority by right of 'just being there'... I mean seriously come on now... :P 

The muddy mishmash continues with the dwarves when nobody can locate either of the Bronzebeard brothers so they miss the service for Magni.  There has GOT to be an explanation why neither brother could be reached, but as yet I haven't stumbled on it (maybe its hidden in those last few Twilight Highlands quests I haven't finished off).

The situation with Varian essentially performing a surgical coup on Ironforge is singularly the worst bit of WoW writing I have ever had the displeasure to read (even the over-the-top silliness of some of Knaak's stuff pales in comparison).  I seriously had to read the whole chapter twice to confirm I did, actually, read such a catastrophically awful bit of Varian fan fiction :/  There's tons of ridiculous crap you can expect me to put up with, but expecting me to believe that the (vaguely psychotic) king of the human kingdoms can march into the dwarven capital city with a strike force, threaten to execute the 'successor to the throne', demand she share power with her uncle and some other random dwarf who wasn't even consulted, and things would be hunky-dory with the Dwarf/Human relations.  Really Blizz?  REALLY??? (STILL not sure how Wildhammer even got sucked into Varian's proclamation)  It would have made more sense for Anduin to find Marudin or Brann and bring them to Ironforge to confront Moira and Varian and for A DWARF to demand such a compromise!)

And before i run out of room, I have a little problem I need some horde-player help with:  The amush/assassination of the druids that Hammul Runetotem survives.  Does ANYBODY bother to investigate the events that happened?  One would THINK Runetotem would think to tell SOMEBODY the name of the orc who attacked him, or that the orc didn't know who Garrosh was, or something.  I'd like to think my Tauren brothers would be smart enough to go 'heyyyyy...' and look into things.   The fact that the Twilight cult makes almost NO appearance in the book is yet another thing that further scuttles any denouement by the time the book ends.  There's nary a mention of Deathwing, the TC BARELY appears at all, several key WoW players are strangely absent and nothing really HAPPENS.  The book basically is thus: a bunch of earthquakes happen and Thrall goes all super-Shammy, Magni dies and Moria pulls her own coup, Anduin(-stu) goes all priest-y (the kid should walk on water, he's just SO good); Baine(-stu) lays the smackdown on the grimtotem, Garrosh is an idiot (but a forgivable one*)  and Thrall rides off into the sunset on his boat...

Right into an SI:7 ambush that seems to come from literally NOWHERE and has zero explanation.  Playing as a goblin I kept wondering "why is SI:7 intent on capturing Thrall, and HOW did they follow him to the Lost Isles???" ... but I digress...

Really Blizz, the book leaves you with more confusion, less answers, and a bunch of issues that don't even line up with what happens in 4.01.  WTF?

*the other thing the book does is make me hate Garrosh less.  He's not a totally incompetent warmonger, but he's no Thrall (he's barely even a basic campfire).
                               

I just haven't had much desire to post here, or anywhere else for that matter.

Things are going okay, I expect to have a more substantial post coming... eventually. 

I do check in here on occasion, but right now I haven't felt much desire to log into the 'social network' per se.  I haven't checked here or Facebook in a while, and bearbook is by FAR more entertaining to be honest.  ;) 

Just wanted everyone to know I'm still alive is all, Tony's still okay, our boarder/housemate Stephen's still alive too.  

Happy 2011 I suppose.

If you haven't seen Scott Pilgrim, you are missing out on one of the best movies of 2010.

Period.

GO 
SEE
IT
ASAP!

It's starting to actually sink in:

In a month or less, we'll be moved, and in our OWN HOME.

o_O

so what's the standard requisite point to start running around with your arms flailing like Kermit the Frog?

Here's the latest attempt:



I'm definitely pleased.  Hopefully the rest of the guild will be too :)

I'll see YOUR two or three song mashups...

And raise you 25 :D



It's funny how you can cobble a pretty catchy song out of the top 25 for a given year :D

Okay, it may seem like a trivial thing, but OMFG I hate it when I watch a show on, say, Discovery HD or something and we have a scientist talking up his theory and basing his conclusions on specific bits of evidence TOTALLY ignoring the other evidence at hand.

I watched a show ("Valley of the T. rex" if I remember correctly) featuring Dr. Jack Horner, a longtime proponent of the idea that T. rex HAD to have been a scavenger rather than a predator. In it, he provides large portions of evidence that points to the unavoidable conclusion that T. rex must have been a scavenger.

Except I, a lowly layperson, kept poking holes in his theories left, right, and center.

Pardon me while I put on my "I coulda been a scientist" cap for a second here. Dinosaurs have always fascinated me, as have the myriad of creatures in the animal kingdom, past and present.

Dr. Horner's arguments are interesting theories, but there's plenty of room for counterargument. One of his arguments is that T. rex simply was too slow and fragile(?!) to actively hunt.

Yes, bone structure analysis of other contemporary dinosaurs tends to argue against the idea that a T. rex was a scaled up version of, say, a deinonychus or other raptor. This however is a logical fallacy, because the bone structure of a lion is not that of a cheetah, and yet lions are indeed active hunters. *shrug* Arguing that because a T. rex couldn't run 100mph it couldn't be a predator doesn't make sense, because there's no proof that T. rex's prey were zooming along at highway speeds either. A good 20 minutes of the hour long show was devoted to arguing that T. rex wasn't built for predation using the aforementioned lack of sustainable running speed. Ignoring evidence that the T. rex's tail and spine were designed to give the body more bounce, an important feature if you are going to cover distance in a short time (cheetah spines are designed to provide a spring-like flex for much the same reason). But for the moment let's allow thaT. rex wasn't running down his prey and chomping on them... We'll move on to the next part of this argument:

Because T. rex's arms were mere stumps, they were useless in hunting (unlike the aforementioned raptors who had rather substantial front claws).
This was about the point where I started getting annoyed with the manner of his theorizing, because it ignores any sort of rational explanation for the lack of necessity of large front claws. When you have a head full of foot long sharpened teeth and a jaw that could snap a tree in half, do you really need to have menacing front claws too? The animal world is chock full of examples of naturally occurring efficiency, and at the size of a T. rex the smaller front legs would have gotten in the way and been likely to break if the Rex was involved in any sort of scuffle, the 'need' to have them ignores so much evidence of other examples of specially designed predators I was starting to fume on the couch. *grrr*

The theory further hypothesized that T. rex wouldn't have been able to regain his footing if he were to fall during a run (due in part to essentially not having arms). *boggle* Really? REALLY? o_O Forgetting for a moment that I find it ludicrous that such a clumsy plodding creature (sarcasm) could have survived for SEVERAL MILLION YEARS (you'd think the prey might have devised a clever "trip the big oaf so he falls down and dies" defense, right?). We're talking a massive muscled creature that's probably not made out of paper mache, likely pretty thick-skinned, flexible, and strong. I'm pretty sure a T. rex could figure out SOME way of getting back on its feet if it managed to trip and fall.

The final 'design flaw' of T. rex were its teeth apparently, which according to him weren't 'laterally compressed' like those of the various raptor species. They were larger and more pointed and therefore not designed to hunt and kill.
Because as we ALL know, Crocodilians don't have peg-like teeth designed to puncture and hold prey... oh wait... :P

A lot of Dr. Horner's arguments stem from the school of "Other dinosaurs have X attribute, and they do Y, T. rex does not have X attribute, therefore T. rex could not do Y". Apparently Dr. Horner skipped logic 101. :P

Then about 2/3 of the way through the show (it hopped back and forth between the "science" and the fossil hunting in some valley in the Midwest I think), he pulls out the CONCLUSIVE evidence that T. rex must have been a scavenger:

Because T. rex's brain pan had significantly more space dedicated to olfactory senses, and very little devoted to eyesight, it must have behaved like a buzzard and eaten only carcasses.
At this point I'm pretty much ready to give this man a prize in the conclusion-jump Olympics, because again while it's certainly POSSIBLE, the evidence of a keen sense of smell does NOT indicate scavenger tendancies. Dogs in particular have a HUGE portion of their brains devoted to their sense of smell, and yet they are PERFECTLY capable of hunting and killing their prey too. In fact, I actually started talking back to the TV (yes, I know, but YOU ALL DO IT TOO) when he started talking about scavengers and mentions hyenas (who are in fact VERY successful predators in their own right thankyouverymuch!). He may know stuff about dinosaurs, but he seems to need a few refresher courses in modern-day animals.

Now some of the things he patently ignored in his theorizing:
1) T. rex were damn HUGE to be strictly necrophagous (scavengers). The amount of dead animals lying around would have to have been pretty extreme and damned convenient to keep any population of creatures THAT size around. Not to mention their size is disproportionate to their prey EVEN considering some of the massive sauropods running around at the time. Also, as more evidence points to dinosaurs being 'warm blooded' to some extent, they would have required FAR more caloric intake than mere scavenging would provide.

2) T. rex had eyes which gave it good stereoscopic vision. This is a feature most often found in creatures needing to be able to judge distances for hunting, the argument that vultures also have stereoscopic vision is fine, but one must also realize that vultures hunt from the air, and need to spot their meals from 3,000 - 4,000 meters away. On the ground, stereoscopic vision in scavengers becomes far less useful...

3) There IS evidence of T. rex attack injuries on more and more of the fossil record. Several other researchers, in the past decade, have found evidence of ante-mortem rex bites.

Now, here, let me toss out a theory that takes into account Dr. Horner's theories on the physiology of T. rex AND YET still comes up with T. rex being a predator:
Perhaps, just perhaps, T. rex was a kind of ambush hunter.

I know, it seems ridiculous that something the size of a walking schoolbus could ambush ANYTHING, but consider this: What if T. rex was a predator in much the same way a Komodo Dragon is a predator? With a mouth siwmming with deadly toxins from being a carnivore (yes, most modern reptilian predators actually have very toxic bites in the wild because of this) it only has to deliver one or two good bites and then it can follow its prey (with its amazing sense of smell) for days if necessary until it dies, then tuck in for a nice meal once its victim has keeled over from being poisoned with various diseases. There are also several differnt theories as to what the flora of the time actually looked like and how much of it there was, so a T. rex could have been hiding in the bushes/trees waiting for a victim to pass through, and then lunge out and bite them and let them go run off and die.

See? I just came up with a predatory conclusion using all of Dr. Horner's evidence.

Where's my TV show and grant funding to research this? :P

The guild has hit a kind of lull lately, and we've been working on improvements to the site and to our rules and a dozen other little niggling things that we've let slip over the last few months.

However, since I have been pushing us to move the website to another version of our forum software, I figured I'd also toss in a new logo for the guild. I futzed around in Photoshop for a bit and came up with this:



Im rather pleased with how it's coming along. It still needs some polishing, but the overall effect is what we were pushing for anyways.

I figured I'd post it to my LJ since I haven't said much here :)

I have another rant (totally non-wow related, shocking!) but I need a shower and some food before I weigh in on that particular sore subject :D

Hopefully this logo will grace our new site (when I can pin down the webmaster and the current GM to agree to everything)

Lemme know what y'all think :)

Because this is AWESOME!

http://www.geeked.info/protesting-the-westboro-baptist-church-in-san-francisco/

I think this is JUST how the Westboro Baptist Church needs to be dealt with!

*happydance*

Having fun airing out the apartment, cleaning because my mom and brother are coming for a visit this weekend, and rocking out to Lady Gaga on iTunes.

The cats are nonplussed by the whole thing, but they're cats so I don't expect much from them :D

First, I'm going to borrow a comment from Movie Bob from Escapist Magazine on this one: NOTICING THAT AVATAR HAS THE SAME BASIC STORY AS DANCES WITH WOLVES (or Ferngully) DOES NOT MAKE YOU OBSERVANT. FURTHERMORE, POINTING IT OUT DOES NOT MAKE YOU CLEVER....

Okay, back to the comments...

The movie can easily be summed up by one simple statement: WOW. We can start off by saying that AVATAR has raised the bar for CGI effects beyond anything we've seen before. It makes LotR's Gollum look like a cartoon character and is so beyond the scope of anything Lucas has done it's hardly worth mentioning. You can TELL this was a labor of love for Cameron, and the depth of quality shows.

I'm honest enough to admit the story isn't without a few issues, but they mostly stem from story issues that probably were cut for time (the movie IS 2 hours 40 minutes long!) The move was described as part Dances with Wolves, part Braveheart and part Aliens - and truthfully? I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. The beauty of the world of Pandora alone made my jaw drop, and the design work involved in the film, from the cryo units in the beginning of the film, to the military vehicles (wow! Mechs that WORK LIKE MECHS!!!!) the vehicles, the native flora and fauna, the Navi... after the first 5 minutes of adjusting to the 3D (we saw it in digital 3D) I was more than happy to just sit back and be wowed; and the story isn't terribly deep, but in all honesty, does it need to be? I go to the movies to be ENTERTAINED, and this movie certainly succeeded there.

Now about the 3D. This movie's 3D is much like Coraline's 3D: The 3D is to give the tableau more depth, NOT to do the 'comin atcha' 3D that's almost a staple of the genre (I think we can now call it a genre). Since it's not forced perspective 3D it apparently didn't give people the headaches it usually does (I heard several people comment on their way out how they didn't get a headache "this time" with the movie).

Tony had opted to not join us seeing the movie, so I went with my buddy Stephen and we left the theater completely floored at how well done the movie was, and it left us feeling GOOD afterwards.

People are giving this movie flak for reasons I'm truly not sure about. It's better than 90% of the shit Hollywood's shoveled in our faces over the past few years under the guise of "must-see-in-the-theater-big-screen-spectacle". It's certainly worth the $14 or so we plunked down to see it (well, $10.50 because we bought movie coupons). But then again, it's likely a by-product of all the marketing (to some extent I can understand this, even I was starting to suffer from AVATAR overload).

My recommendation is to go see it. For whatever my recommendation is worth :)

Oh and here is Movie Bob's review (it's a video review, FYI), I don't ALWAYS agree with his (he hated the new Star Trek, but I loved it), but more often than not I agree with his assessments of films :D

Yeah I've definitely been neglecting my LJ and FaceBook, mostly because honestly I haven't felt the need to really SAY much of anything.

Only really note-worthy things going on lately are WoW related (at least that I feel like discussing on the interwebs). I'm finding myself having a lot more fun with the latest patch than I thought I would, and I FINALLY finished the year-long achievement and got my uber-fast flying mount. Guild is doing okay, mom's having various computer issues so I am frustrated since I can't go visit her since my car is effectively dead.

Mind you, there's lots of thoughts floating through my head, and lots I COULD say, but I honestly think it's probably better for all if I just sat on them for the time being.

Still, one thing I feel the need to do is a quick recap of some trailers I've watched in the last day or so:

Iron Man 2: Okay I had my reservations about the sequel from a lot of the stills I had been seeing over the last month or so, but the trailer definitely DEFINITELY improves my feelings on the potential for the movie.

Alice In Wonderland: Warming up to this (finally), and it's Disney, so that explains a few things actually. Still, I can't help but wonder: If they wanted to make American McGee's Alice movie, why didn't they just make an American McGee's Alice movie???

Robin Hood: They're letting Ridley Scott take a swing at the Robin Hood legend... Oooooookay, this should be interesting (and apparently bloody and gory).

Clash of the Titans: Okay, I am DEFINITELY going to go see this, but I have to wonder - if they wanted to make a God of War movie, why didn't they make a God of War movie? I think SOE should sue :P The Kraken looks sweet tho!

Scorceror's Apprentice: Whlie I am by no means a huge fan of Nick Cage, and on paper the idea of him playing a Scorceror seems like a bad idea... the trailer has a certain charm I'm not going to deny.

Nine: Come Christmas I definitely plan on being Italian. Also: Sophia Loren is SEVENTY FIVE YEARS OLD... Where the hell is she hiding HER painting I wonder? o_O

Kick-Ass: This movie DEFINITELY intrigues me, I think I'm going to have to pick up the graphic novel upon which it's based. Everything in the trailer has that dark humor edge that makes me giggle evilly. :D

The Lightning Thief: I have to say, the pedigree behind the movie is amazing (I love Chris Columbus' work), and this is one I DEFINITELY want to see in theaters! And Uma as the gorgon? Color me VERY intrigued!

Bitch Slap: Okay... I MUST SEE THIS MOVIE, if only because of a guilty pleasure addiction to cheese-tastic over the top 'splotation films. It KNOWS what it is, and doesn't pretend to be anything BUT what it is, and while the hetero boys will find this entertaining on one level, the gratuitous flesh display is so over the top it's pure camp so it's entertaining to me on a totally different level! :D

How to Train Your Dragon: Okay the very first few moments of the trailer didn't quite hook me, but it ramps up nicely humor-wise, and then they introduce the dragon... and now this is on my MUST SEE list. (Squeeeee) :D

Prince of Persia: It's Bruckheimer, it's Pirates of the Arabian Desert, it's based on a videogame I liked, and it looks like one HELL of a fun enjoyable fluff-fantasy movie. DEFINITELY seeing this one.

All in all, there's PLENTY of cinema to go around in the coming year... And Disney seems to have a huge showing this year (and they look surprisingly GOOD, how shocking!)

Definitely something to look forward to :)

Yeah, So I turned 38 today... Whoopie... LOL

I had a quiet day today, seeing as all the celebrating was done Saturday so people could actually partake. I spent a nice dinner with Grid n Robt, my hubby, his boss Clarence, and our friend Stephen. If you ever get to Chinatown in Philly, you absolutely MUST go to Lee How Fook, and have their salt-baked squid. Yummy beyond the pale! We stuffed ourselves senseless (at about $18 a head) and then saw Clarence off and went to Grid's place for coffee and cookies and stuff. It was a nice low-key way to spend my inglorious decent into my 40s :D I still have two years to struggle and flail in the meanwhile.

G&R were nice enough to gift me a nice WACOM tablet which I have been toying with (mostly playing with Photoshop right now seeing as I have a metric ton of pics to edit these days).

However, the REAL reason Im posting is because I had to share with you the amusing FAIL we ran across on the way to the car from the restaurant:

http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2850550016

Lolworthy... seriously lol-worthy... Gotta love the Philadelphia PakRing lots ;)

Thanks Dusti, it's YOUR fault we can't stop watching this bit of hilarity! :D

So where are all those Yankee fans of mine?  The ones who swore they were going to walk all over the Phillies?  :D

Take for example, running into someone who not only remembered you from the past DragonCon, but remembered a certain promise he made last year! :D
Good times man, good times :D That definitely made MY weekend. ;)



He also definitely caused a stir at the Outworlders party on Sunday night... *evil chuckle*

Yup, definitely a good Con... :D

Nothing improves one's mood than having some opinonated blowhard who thinks his opinions are the be-all, end-all and can't take even the slightest criticism about being an opinonated blowhard defriend you.

Thanks Liam, you made my day!

(oh, and whatever you responded to my earlier post? I didn't read it) :D

Yeah, this day is definitely getting better!

Where everyone is out to push your buttons?
...yeahhh.... :P

Okay THIS article absolutely made my day.



I dunno but for some reason it just makes me LOL.

But hey, if it works? That's all KINDS of awesome.