Archive for February, 2008

So I’m wanting to strike a better balance with Warcrafting and Real Lifing. I’m constantly justifying Warcrafting to myself while at the same time berating myself for not doing x, y, or z in Real Life. The Hubby assures me he doesn’t expect me to do anything as bringing home the bacon is a pretty big responsibility. But still.

I can over-think things. Thus the need for mind dumps, helping produce some semblance of clarity.

OK. So, yeah, where were we?

Ahhh, yes. About a week ago I determined to come up with guidelines for Warcrafting. Following are some good ones:

• No caffeinated beverages at night
• Go to bed when I’m tired
• Walks after dinner (when the weather allows)
• Be available to help the kids with homework
• Be available to help the Hubby with stuff
• Sit down dinners with family as often as possible
• Reserve and honor a weekly family night

These guidelines meet a few goals of mine - improving my health (somewhat), spending more time with the kids, and respecting how my actions make my family members feel. Snubbing them for the game is just not OK. How awful it must feel for them when I’m inaccessible because I’m playing a game.

The game will always be there to play. The kids will not always be there to interact with.

It’s great fun to run around and do stuff on the weekends. But come Monday morning sitting at your desk in the office, it feels like you never left. I’m not sure if three-day weekends would be the solution, or maybe better time management? Going to bed at a decent hour might be a start. I have this funny thing about Sunday nights - I always stay up too late. It’s as if I’m trying to eke out every minute I can before starting the weekly grind at work. It’s a strange subliminal sort of compulsion. It can take the shape of Warcrafting, internet browsing, or puttering about the house doing things like laundry. I’ll check the kids - turn their lights off, turn their radios down, pull their blankets over their toes. I’ll check the cats - find them, let them in, let them out, fill their food and water bowls.

It’s as if I’m putting off the event of Monday’s arrival.

And it starts with tonight. Both kids will be at Auntie’s while the Hubby and I attend a 40th b-day party at The Crystal Ballroom’s 80s themed DJ night. It sounds like fun. Then tomorrow we drop off the Daughter to babysit her younger cousins, the Son may be staying home or going to a friend’s house, and the Hubby and I will be going to a Chinese New Year celebration. AND THEN! On Sunday afternoon we are all going to our nephew’s/cousin’s birthday party.

Such heightened activity on a weekend is foreign to us.

This could the beginning of a new era. The kids are getting older and the Son can stay home by himself. Not so much the Daughter. But they can be alone together for a little while, which wasn’t the case a year ago. So the times are a changing, slowly but surely. There’s no reason to rush it as it happens on its own.

I think my kids are pretty awesome. Last weekend I heard them listening to Prairie Home Companion together in the Son’s room. Moments like that help balance out all the other times they fight and argue with us and each other.

Very cool, indeed.

Last night was my daughter’s school science fair. She’s been working on her project off and on the past few weeks. She wanted to determine if Gatorade, Propel, or water would help reduce your heart rate when exercising. She’d drink x ounces of each before running up and down the stairs in our house. Granted, this wasn’t an official scientific experiment, but she discovered that Propel did lower her heart rate while exercising.

Needless to say, I’m a proud mama and, thanks to my daughter’s science fair project, I learned something new!

Now that I’ve got a few posts under my belt, it’s time to start messing around with this place a bit. I’m not too happy with my categories. I can see myself getting confused when I want to review the history of or determine if progress has been made in a certain topic. I’ll refine those a bit.

I think I can add some places to the blogroll, at least the ones I read on a regular basis.

I’m not sure what else I can do. Maybe add some pictures every now and then for flavor. Yeah, I’ll try that.

This blog stuff is pretty fun and it’s been a great way to get rid of those swirly swirlings in my mind. It’s a little too fun in that I’m spending a bit more time on it than I should, while at work. Oops!

So I thought I figured it out yesterday… play Mama Druid pretty much exclusively. But guess what types of Warcraft blogs I read the most? Hunter. That must mean I’d be better off playing the hunter class. They are on my mind more than any other class. I even plan hunter/pet combos and name them!

I think I’ve been struggling with this for some time. I’ve been cycling through different focuses:

• playing a character of each race and class
• creating a server full of hunters in order to tame all the pets I want due to the blasted 3 slot stable, well 2 slot as the 3rd is typically used for taming beasts for new skills
• creating a level 19, 29, and 39 twink for BGs, all healers mind you

Yikes - I’m all over the map! I’m sure this current state where I’m wanting to focus on something exclusively is an attempt to correct the craziness. There are too many different factors I’m considering when thinking about what to focus on:

• existing characters whom I’ve invested a lot of time in
• playing with the hubby, who has a very different playstyle
• which server?
• my limited play time, which I extend to the limits trying to fit everything in

*laughs*

It’s sounding like this has become more work than fun. Maybe it is time to take a break. I don’t know though. I’d like to see if I’m able to slow down and focus both in game and RL, without having to unsubscribe. Setting goals and guidelines will help facilitate that. I’ll work on it and see what I come up with.

… sigh.

Well, it wasn’t entirely wasted. I did do something that removed myself from that selfish box. I drove the kids around. Daddy would normally do it, but I volunteered. That was good and I could tell he was pleased.

But, I didn’t call my dad.

I spent way too much time ingame. There’s RL things I want to do! I want to have a garden this year. Granted, it did snow a bit Saturday and it’s not exactly “doing stuff outside” season. Ok, there’s stuff inside I could have done.

Before unsubscribing from WoW all together, I really want to try to achieve a balance between it and the RL stuff I want to do. It can be done, I just know it can! So my solution, for now, is to focus on one character. Really, it’s all I have time for. Mama Druid is my most played character and I’ve been through a lot with her. As a brand spanking new 70, she’s got a lot to do! But I’ll focus on a few specifics and whittle away at them.

Next, apply the same technique to a RL project.

I’m such a dork.

It’s been a year since Burning Crusade (BC) was released. Following is the progress that I made since then.

• 60 druid is 70 (just dinged this week)
• 60 hunter is 64 (also just dinged this week)
• 58 priest is 60
• 42 rogue is 50
• 42 mage is 43
• first Blood Elf is a 39 Paladin, somewhat twinked for BGs, and currently an AH toon
• first Draenei is a 27 Shaman and collecting dust
• spent $50 for two character transfers
• leveled countless characters, the highest to 34, and deleted them
• created a 29 Druid twink for BGs and, after BGing her for awhile, realized I’d rather her be a priest
• still don’t have that Night Elf Hunter with the purple cat pet and mount

That about sums it up.

This year, I’d like to work on:

• tanking gear for Mama Druid, practice tanking, level 70 stuff, and epic flight form
• twinking a priest for 29 BGs
• leveling my Nelf Hunter and getting that purple cat pet and mount
• leveling a warlock, and be willing to accept the fact that I might just not like them… but level to at least 30 for the demon dog
• I want a mage too! Making people smarter and giving them water and food is fun!

Oh, wait. I have a mage. She’s a troll and I am bothered by how she moves. The mannerisms of a character are important to me. If she were a he, she, I mean he, would most likely have made it past 43. Boy trolls, and their mannerisms, are a lot of fun. Alas, there are no doctors in Azeroth who can make it so. She’s doing a fantastic job working those extra bank slots for my other characters.

There are other stuffs I want to do, but those things are constantly swimming about in my head. Now they be outta my head and living in virtual space. Yay!

Ok, no to do list. The task at hand is to adjust my perspective. Instead of:

“I don’t have to do dishes because I’ve worked all day.” How about?

“I’ll do dishes because my husband lovingly made dinner.”

Hmm… this might not be fun… discovering how selfish I have been. Ooh! Ooh! Here’s another one:

“I don’t need to call dad because he never calls me.”

*feels the sting*

My selfish choices to not do the dishes or call dad effects how they feel about me, although indirectly and somewhat subliminally.

Doh! Is being concerned with and wanting to change how people feel about me selfish? Crap. There really isn’t a way around selfishness. Wanting to make personal change is selfish. We do it because we want to feel better about ourselves. That is selfish. But this type of selfishness really isn’t true to the definition of the word. Selfish people are exclusively concerned for their own well being, regardless of how it effects others.

Whew! I’m ok with this.

So we’ll be starting with the simple stuff, like doing dishes and calling dad.

Yep, that’s what now.

So I’m writing up a list of stuff I want to do with my characters in World of Warcraft.

Yes, I’m a gamer mom. I despise boxing people up into shiny little boxes, so think of the label what you will. I’ve been gaming on and off since the Atari and blessed Commodore 64.

Anyway, I’m writing this list up because I got the altitis really bad and need a bit of focus on what to do ingame. As I’m listing my to dos, it occurs to me that I probably should be composing one for Real Life(tm). The game will always be there, but not the time to do things with my life.

Doh!

Ok. List #2, but not of less importance. My pen scrawls the typical things, exercise, read books, eat better, etc. Hmmm… something’s not right. I always make this list. Several iterations have probably traveled the country via garbage and recycling. What’s wrong here?!

Just like Spongebob capturing a jelly in that online game, which probably no longer exists, I exclaim, “I think I’ve got it!” What’s wrong with the Real Life(tm) list is all the to dos are selfish. Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make changes for one’s self by way of exercising more (or at all), reading more (or at all), etc. The problem for me is that I have yet to accomplish any of the things that keep showing up on my to do list. Is it because I’m a failure? No, although some choose to arrive at such a conclusion and leave it at that. I decided it’s because the things I want to do are all about me and not at all in sync with my favorite quote (see above, it’s under the title of the blog). It’s time for me to change my perspective, pull my ass out of this “I deserve” mode and think about how what I do makes other people feel - starting with my immediate family, the wonderful husband and beautiful kids.

I suppose I can thank my altitis for this revelation.