GOAL #1: Reach Level 60. COMPLETE. So Omni is now officially level 60, as of 4:30 a.m. Friday, May 13th. It took a total of 21 days, 5 1/2 hours total playtime to get to that level. Three Weeks out of six months, spent on playing a game. That averages out to about 3 hours a day, doing nothing but play World of Warcraft. And this is an average, mind you; there are days when I played no WoW at all, and some when I played MUCH MORE. Truly my worst addiction yet; worse than Transport Tyco...

When World of Warcraft was released, players were quick to note that its naming policy was stricter than most. While obvious provisions were made such as no racial, sexual, ethnic, violent, religious, obscene, or vulgar names, certain things were more nitpicking: names must be one word, all letters (other MMOs allow numbers or underscores), no real world references (e.g. Georgewbush, Parishilton), no partial sentences (e.g. Iwillkillall, Youreanoob), and no titles before your name (Lordjim,...

Omni is now Level 52 and in good standing with the Vindictive guild. Officially, I am closing the Hit List, because I said I would when the WoW Honor System comes out. Last tuesday, April 19th, the honor system was released on all servers. The hit list is also going to be stricken from my records, because it has become impossible to avenge every one of these deaths. I expected the honor system to solve the problem of Ganking, which means the senseless killing of someone many levels l...

3:15 am. 8 hours until my multivariable calculus homework is due. Been putting it off for...at least 6 hours. Partially becuase Jon and Dave next door got their old NES working and I spent the afternoon playing Megaman 3. I got as far as the 2nd-last boss before I decided to screw it and use the Game Genie. Because I wanted my storyline info. So I've been doing what I normally do: taking the internet equivalent of a long, leisurely walk through a bright city. I visited a lot of old sites ...

It started out as a general purpse blog. But it seems to have devolved into a one-topic affair. So in the interest of keeping from being monotonous, the general World of Warcraft update will be short. * I am now Level 44. * Additions to the Hit List: Ripsi, Gazou, Galpha, Ashanta, Darkmane, Great, Marro, Xevious, Deearrspider, Stargazer, Zerres, Pir, Makerboilers, Tino, Bitailed, Sig, Davidaid, Urghak, Cain, Liquor, Darktemplar, Moomoocow, Raige, Aistrel, Kyuss, Devilshammer. Tota...

So now I'm level 41. The big milestone of level 40 has come and gone. And I still don't have my mount. Money just isn't flowing in as quickly as I'd like. But I'm not going to ask you, my readers (I know that there are a scant few of you) for gold. That's what friends and guildmates are for. So, in addition to the "Hit List," I will also provide updates on amount of gold, at least until I get my horse. POLL QUESTION: Keeping in mind that the only difference between mounts is cosme...

First, an update to my Hit list: * Hitokiri * Khonan * Mings * Mokomoh * Murrough * Petis * Voider Surprisingly, though, the ganking has all but stopped, allowing me to reach level 36. Part of the reason why is that I found the perfect spot to kill enemies without worrying about the Horde. An island off the Savage Coast, home to a host of level 36-37 water elementals. Dubbed "Kimo's Island" by my friend Kimo Oshiro, whose character, a now-level 42 paladin named Avelynn, spent hour...

Here's a proverb that comes to mind: "You will never understand why anyone would pay $25,000 for a car until you have driven a $25,000 car." The same held true, for me, with massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for years. I couldn't understand why people were paying by the month to play a game that would otherwise cost nothing after the initial $40-50 cover charge. And so, while the Everquest fad raged on, I stayed away. While my friends talked about their attempts to become Jedi ...

As I tend to do, I completely forgot I had this blog for several months. Shit happened. It's now the start of 2nd semester at UMass and I got too much shit to talk about. Where to start? I suppose I should tie up the loose end from the last article. The IBM Thinkpad I returned? Apparently, since I had attempted to install Linux on the laptop to replace the preloaded Windows 2000 in an attempt to see if it was a software problem, I had voided my warranty, and thus USANotebook refused to re...

When I was searching for colleges and told people that I was considering UMass Amherst, usually their first reaction was, "That place is a party college." I only now know how true it is. Every Saturday, people are getting drunk, stumbling about, passing out, throwing up. Either that or they're smoking weed. Occasionally I can smell pot smoke coming in my window, which, in my opinion, isn't as bad as cigarette smoke. But that doesn't mean I'd smoke the shit. Recently I was asked, "Are...

I'm loving it here in college. The dining halls have a lot of great food, and it's all-you-can-eat. The only downside is that the closest Dining Commons, Berkshire, isn't open until 10:30 am, when I'm in class. So I have to walk an extra 5 minutes to Hampshire. There are two other dining commons, which I probably will only eat at if I have classes way out near Franklin or Worcester DC. But, we're compSci people, and we don't always eat during regular hours. Sometimes, our 8-player Sta...

This is my first blog entry written from college. I'm in room 1501, in the Washington building of the Southwest area of the UMass Amherst campus. No classes yet; those start on the 8th. I've been here 3 days now. As a member of Commonwealth College (the honors university at UMass), I got the option to move in two days earlier than everyone else. So I competed for the elevator with 2500 students rather than 25 thousand. The wait was about an hour and a half to use the elevator, but I got ...

You can't pick up chicks in a Corolla. This is compunded by the fact that my 1994 Toyota Corolla currently has a rear fender with a deep dent and has the same paint color as at least five or six other cars I've seen. I hate it when I see a car that looks EXACTLY like mine. You must imagine how frustrating it has become after 5-6 identical vehicles. At least it was a cheap car. Our family has three cars, none of which are particularly new. When I was first learning to drive about a y...

Maybe this Blog will become a great one, read by thousands of people weekly. Maybe I'll close this account after a month. But probably somewhere in the middle ground. Why have Blogs become so popular? People want other people to know what they think. Simple. Maybe they have interesting lives, maybe not. Maybe they share juicy secrets, maybe they don't. I probably don't have either. Middle ground. But this might all change soon, seeing as how I'll soon be going to college (University of Mas...