We finally killed Gary!
Garosh Hellscream is the final Raid Boss of the World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria expansion. You go about killing him by assembling a team of 10 to 25 players, entering an instance and throwing stuff at him, stabbing him and generally just doing stuff to make him really angry.
Our guild have had problems all of this expansion because we just haven't been able to get a full, stable team going. About halfway through the expansion a new function and difficulty level came out that allows us to group up with players from other servers. This allows us to now create a regular raiding schedule and kill stuff the way we all like.
A problem with this new system is that you tend to have about 40% of the group be players you have never played before. Usually experienced players fit right in, but some player are just really bad or can’t handle dying all the time, so they suddenly come up with excuses and have to leave early, leaving us sitting around waiting for an replacement player.
On Monday a another new player joined our group. He seemed to be pretty experience and said he was doing this on his extra character. He knew all the fights and had finished everything on a higher level already. This turned out to be very useful when we came to the aforementioned Gary.
See, Gary have been a wall to beat our heads against for a long time now. I don’t have the numbers, but believe me when I tell you we died many times to this a***hole and haven't managed to get even close to killing him.
The new guy in the group mentioned that he had a possible new strategy for us to try. Right of the bat the new strategy felt good (as long as he was talking us through it) and we went further than we had gone to date. Unfortunately the evening was drawing to a close and people needed to leave.
Last night, after all the resets, we made it all the way to Gary again. We finished the previous two bosses in quick time and thus had enough time to kick some Hellscream butt. 90 minutes and many deaths later we were still not victorious, but we had shown some impressive progress.
Time was up and one or two people left, but apart from them no one said anything about quitting. With an unspoken agreement, we continued. Each pull brought us a little closer. We even made it to 1% once. One attempt started really well until one of the healers disconnected. With another attempt one of our top damage dealers had the same problem.
I must note that we had to change to a strategy with only two healer, and believe me when I tell you it was stressful. With only two healers you have a limited amount of “Oh S***!” buttons you can use, and the number of priority decisions don't just become more, but also more difficult. Add to that the fact that I play a healing class that is not exactly good at bringing people back to life. I’m good at stopping the death and then I have to hope and pray the other healer manages to get the health back up. There are some big trust relationships going in all directions. One mistake can cause the whole raid to fail, and while I’m staring at everyone’s health bars, I still have to make sure I move to the right place at the right time and don't take damage that can avoided.
On the very last pull, the on which our raid leader said: “This is the last attempt, even if he lives with one single health point,” we managed to get him down. 4 hours of hell and we did it!
The life of Dhells is now complete, until next week, when I Gary is alive again.
Friday 24 January 2014
Wednesday 22 January 2014
All for the small price of...
When I went to my new dentist I told him to do a check-up and fix whatever he needed to fix. I also asked him make me a new guard for my mouth, because I grind my teeth when I sleep.
He went on to explain that the guard would be expensive (whatever, I need the thing) and that it would take a few weeks to make because I would need to come back for a fitting and then for check-ups. Again, whatever. Let’s do this.
After fixing my cavities we finally started making the guard yesterday, and was it a process. No one has ever been so thorough when making me a guard.
He started by checking my jaw alignment. Apparently my jaw position and bite position is not the same. He thinks this might be because of the abrasion I already have on my teeth, but since I am not experiencing any pain he decided to use the my bite position for making the guard.
Then he took 4 separate measure and prints. First he took a print of where my teeth met. While this plate was in my mouth, he used it to measure the exact alignment is compared to my ears and nose. Weird, but OK. If it works and will give me a better guard, then why would I complain?
After that came the usual molds of my teeth, but again, something new. First he used a silicone gun to coat my teeth with a warm gel, after which he placed the mold cup and whatever is in it on my mouth.
Next week I have to go back for a fitting, and after wearing it for a week I have to go back again to check everything is still OK. At least all of this is included in the nasty price of 500,000 won. It is expensive, but for the same price previous dentists hardly even spoke to me. They just slapped the stuff in my mouth to make the mold and a few days later I was given my guard. Done. Good Bye.
He went on to explain that the guard would be expensive (whatever, I need the thing) and that it would take a few weeks to make because I would need to come back for a fitting and then for check-ups. Again, whatever. Let’s do this.
After fixing my cavities we finally started making the guard yesterday, and was it a process. No one has ever been so thorough when making me a guard.
He started by checking my jaw alignment. Apparently my jaw position and bite position is not the same. He thinks this might be because of the abrasion I already have on my teeth, but since I am not experiencing any pain he decided to use the my bite position for making the guard.
Then he took 4 separate measure and prints. First he took a print of where my teeth met. While this plate was in my mouth, he used it to measure the exact alignment is compared to my ears and nose. Weird, but OK. If it works and will give me a better guard, then why would I complain?
After that came the usual molds of my teeth, but again, something new. First he used a silicone gun to coat my teeth with a warm gel, after which he placed the mold cup and whatever is in it on my mouth.
Next week I have to go back for a fitting, and after wearing it for a week I have to go back again to check everything is still OK. At least all of this is included in the nasty price of 500,000 won. It is expensive, but for the same price previous dentists hardly even spoke to me. They just slapped the stuff in my mouth to make the mold and a few days later I was given my guard. Done. Good Bye.
Tuesday 21 January 2014
Blizzard, I love you.
On Sunday evening I received this SMS:
Monday morning rolls around and there was snow. Enough to prevent me from using my motorcycle. The weather forecast suggested that there might be a bit more in the afternoon, so Black Betty had to stay at home. I had to put on my good boots on and brave the snow.
The day was rather uneventful until I went to the dentist. On the way little bits of white started to come down and while inside the dentist’s office a full on blizzard hit us. It was the kind where the wind changed directing all the time to blows small annoying sticky, really cold bits of stuff into every hole in your cold armour clothes.
At least this kind of weather makes for some amazing surreal scenes. The white stuff was sticking to trees and the bus passed a few patches where the trees were white from top to bottom, on all sides. Add to this the eerie grey light from the approaching dusk and the whole scene was rather creepy.
Unfortunately I didn't have my SLR with me and the setting sun meant I didn't have time to go fetch it after getting off the bus. Here are some photo from my phone take with my phone though.
This morning the road outside my apartment was completely iced up, so I had to walk again. Near school I took an alternative route across the athletics track. The area was still completely snowed over, but one dedicated women was walking around the track ignoring the snow like a true Ajuma in the making. Some way behind her was her little dog.
The dog was following her, but not crossing the field to get to her faster. Nope, this one was staying on the track the whole way, never veering from the path it’s owner was laying down. Animals!
(Also, I played with the editing software native to the phone.)
“내일 대설예보! 대중교통을 이용하시고 차량운행시 각별히 주의하세요! [삼성화재]”Bing Translator says:
“Heavy snow forecast for tomorrow! Please use public transport vehicle: careful! [Samsung fire]”Who sent me this? Is this a general public service? Is this my credit card company? is this my insurance company? Is this my my phone maker? Am I too reliant on Samsung?
Monday morning rolls around and there was snow. Enough to prevent me from using my motorcycle. The weather forecast suggested that there might be a bit more in the afternoon, so Black Betty had to stay at home. I had to put on my good boots on and brave the snow.
The day was rather uneventful until I went to the dentist. On the way little bits of white started to come down and while inside the dentist’s office a full on blizzard hit us. It was the kind where the wind changed directing all the time to blows small annoying sticky, really cold bits of stuff into every hole in your cold armour clothes.
At least this kind of weather makes for some amazing surreal scenes. The white stuff was sticking to trees and the bus passed a few patches where the trees were white from top to bottom, on all sides. Add to this the eerie grey light from the approaching dusk and the whole scene was rather creepy.
Unfortunately I didn't have my SLR with me and the setting sun meant I didn't have time to go fetch it after getting off the bus. Here are some photo from my phone take with my phone though.
This morning the road outside my apartment was completely iced up, so I had to walk again. Near school I took an alternative route across the athletics track. The area was still completely snowed over, but one dedicated women was walking around the track ignoring the snow like a true Ajuma in the making. Some way behind her was her little dog.
The dog was following her, but not crossing the field to get to her faster. Nope, this one was staying on the track the whole way, never veering from the path it’s owner was laying down. Animals!
(Also, I played with the editing software native to the phone.)
Monday 20 January 2014
Lost on the side roads to the highway.
I kind of got lost on the internet, again. I was trying to find out to which other teams the players of the Daemyeong Sangmu ice hockey team are contracted. See, the players from Sangmu are all doing their military service. Because the Olympics will be held in Korea in 2018, the government would like these young men to not lose out on the training and actual game time. Korea qualifies for all team sports in the Olympics by virtue of being the hosts, and they don’t want to be completely embarrassed on the ice, understandably.
From that page I clicked away to see what other sports the military offered and noticed that it had a baseball team that played in the Korea Baseball Futures League. “What is that?” I wondered, and off I went. I learned that it is a feeder league for first tier baseball in Korea. All the big teams have a team in this league and the players are basically young men being groomed and watched for a future in the big league.
On that page I noticed that the Doosan Bears have a team and that their games are played at a field in Icheon, my Korean hometown, so to speak. The field is out in the middle of nowhere, but I think I would like to make the trek out there sometime.
Even though the club was founded in Daejeon and later moved to Seoul, the Doosan Bears were known as the OB Bears until 1998. The residents of Icheon City, where I used to live, tend to support the Bears above other teams and I was told it was because the OB brewery is located in this city. Now that I know about the Futures League team playing nearby I’m thinking that the ties between Icheon and the Bears are indeed more than just coincidence.
Also form the Futures Teague page I also learned that Goyang has the only independent team in this lower league. All the other teams are owned by the top tier teams, with the exception of the Korean military and Korean police teams. Goyang is really my kind of place. Not only does it have a reasonably high level professional soccer team, but they also have one of only two Korean pro ice hockey teams, a pro basketball team and the only independent baseball team in Korea's second league .
What other sports are they hiding there?
From that page I clicked away to see what other sports the military offered and noticed that it had a baseball team that played in the Korea Baseball Futures League. “What is that?” I wondered, and off I went. I learned that it is a feeder league for first tier baseball in Korea. All the big teams have a team in this league and the players are basically young men being groomed and watched for a future in the big league.
On that page I noticed that the Doosan Bears have a team and that their games are played at a field in Icheon, my Korean hometown, so to speak. The field is out in the middle of nowhere, but I think I would like to make the trek out there sometime.
Even though the club was founded in Daejeon and later moved to Seoul, the Doosan Bears were known as the OB Bears until 1998. The residents of Icheon City, where I used to live, tend to support the Bears above other teams and I was told it was because the OB brewery is located in this city. Now that I know about the Futures League team playing nearby I’m thinking that the ties between Icheon and the Bears are indeed more than just coincidence.
Also form the Futures Teague page I also learned that Goyang has the only independent team in this lower league. All the other teams are owned by the top tier teams, with the exception of the Korean military and Korean police teams. Goyang is really my kind of place. Not only does it have a reasonably high level professional soccer team, but they also have one of only two Korean pro ice hockey teams, a pro basketball team and the only independent baseball team in Korea's second league .
What other sports are they hiding there?
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