Leafshine: Lust for Flower

Whatever happened to Leafshine?

Getting wood in Pandaria - old style

What the hell happened to Leafshine?

Dammit, this blog is over five years old - and it missed its half decade anniversary. Silence has reigned for months, with only occasional bursts of activity. What is happening here?

Well, the major reason for silence over the last six months can be summed up thus:

 

I'm on your blog, Daddy!

Yes, Dr. Leafy and I had our first child back in the summer and - while I had intial hopes that life might return to something like normal (hence the "countdown posts" that went nowhere…) - it changes everything. Free time has been at a major premium, and WoW has all but vanished off my agenda.

 

Our baby daughter isn't entirely to blame. Just over a year ago, I was made redundant from a job I loved, managing a network of 100+ business blogs, and training journalists in online skills. I finally made the decision to try and build a freelance and conultancy career. That's been going well - but there have been extended periods where I haven't been able to give myself permission to do anything apart from try and build that career. Rethinking your working lifestyle is hard enough on its own, but when you combine it with having a child and buying a new house, well, 2012 was most certainly an "interesting" time for me.

So, here we are, in 2013, with a beautiful baby girl, a wonderful new house by the sea, and a great new way of working. Where does that leave WoW?

As is stands, Leafy is level… 86. Yes, nearly two patches into the expansion, I've managed a whole measly level. Yet, in the last couple of weeks, I've done nearly half a level on top of that. Things are shifting; my daughter is sleeping better, there are fewer demands on our time and I feel more free to spend time on fun activities.

Heck, I've even played with my daughter on my knee a few times. She's figured out the space bar and what it does, so all of a sudden Leafshine has turned into one of those Night Elves. Ah, well. 

So, no promises of a return to blogging here. No grandiose plans. Just a quick checkin to explain, and let your know that things are shifting a little…

How have you all been? 

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It's My Birthday Hat

It's my birthday!

And I got a morning coffee achievement to celebrate:

 But, as that's the worst Achievement sceenshot EVAR, here's a better one of the culinary Leaf:

I can now cook… slightly faster.

Woo!

(By a strange coincidence, my good lady wife has actually bought me some real-world kitchen stuff for my birthday.)

Another Reason To Love My Casual Status

Here's another reason that I'm happy to be a born-again casual player of WoW.

Take a look at this picture of the Howling Fjord, my absolutely, completely, utterly favourite zone in the game so far:

Compare and contrast with this, shot on my holiday:

Is WoW Destroying Our Careers?

über-blog Boing Boing has posted something very worrying:

He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc. I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head.

It's disturbing that someone can take the worst stereotypes of WoW players, and discriminate against all of them because of it. I haven;t logged into WoW for over two weeks now, and yet I would face the same discrimination as an all-night raider? Insane.

It reminds me of the scares over Facebook in the workplace a year or so back - blaming technology for something that fundamentally is a traditional management issue.

A Tree in Paris

No, I'm not dead and I haven't quit WoW, it's just that the pesky real life thing has kept me from Northrend for 10 days or so now. However, it has sent me to Paris, where I found the perfect place for tree Druids to eat... :-)

Good News & Bad News in Leafy Land

It's been a bit of a bad news / good news 48 hours here in Leafy towers. Let's handle the bad bit first.

Bad News

We raided Zul'Aman on Thursday night. And we did Eagle and Bear bosses on the timer. I was excited, because all the decent resto loot comes from the chests on those bosses. We pushed onwards to the Dragonhawk boss, without opening the crates…

…and my screen froze. I had to force a reboot of the iMac, and it wouldn't restart. The hard drive had died mid-game. It took me 20 minutes to establish that the iMac wasn't coming back, switch over to my MacBook, find the external HD I use for WoW on that, and get logged back in. By which time, they'd gone back and looted the chests, including Elunite Imbued Leggings which went to a paladin.

Now, you can read the other side of the story on Andro's blog, but I think we both screwed up here. Sure, it wasn't a great call to open those chests without being sure I wasn't coming back. But it wasn't a great call of mine to bail from the raid when I discovered what they'd done. And the irony is, of course, that I listened without really reading, which was stupid of me. Because the drop is much more Boomkin gear than druid gear, and wouldn't really have been an upgrade anyway. Useful for caster soloing, but not really for my primary healing role. The combination of losing an expensive computer and then having the apparent loot loss adding insult to injury was a bit much for me - which suggests to me that, emotionally, I've got a long way to go before I regain my emotional equilibrium after the loss of my Mum and all the stress that goes with house clearance and funerals. Grief really works its way into every aspect of your life, and you always underestimate how profound an effect it has. 

Good News

The following afternoon, before I took my iMac in for repair, I had a chance to do some invasion-clearing with Glaive the super-pally and some other guildies, including an alt of Psia's. And I managed to complete my leather invasion set, for kitty-cat soloing and levelling! Hurrah!

I'd been lucky to pick up some leather from Karazhan which our rogues didn't need, but adding Blessed Tunic of Undead Slaying and Blessed Leggings of Undead Slaying to the gloves and shoulders I bought with Necrotic Runes from the last invasion has given me a robust set going into Wrath, which is pleasing. And I do like the look. Very druidy.

Oh, and we went into Kara again last night, and gave Tenris Mirkblood a good kicking, albeit one delivered on the run. So, I have my lovely little vampire bat now.

Achievement Unlocked: Berlin

Wow! I just opened up a new area on my map. I discovered the city of Berlin, somewhere I've never been before!

Which is to say, in a slightly laboured way, that I'm away on a work trip that's likely to keep me busy and away from WoW and WoW blogging until the end of the week. (You can follow my German escapades over on OM&HB if you like.)

In the meantime, why not visit our favourite Feral Rambler, and give him a great, Leafy hug? I think he need it... :)

Silence of the Tree

Apologies for the extended silence. Be been away doing the final clear of my late mother's house, the sale of which completed yesterday.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.