Relaxing in Middle-Earth
stargrace 
For the first time since September, I played last night and had no graphic glitches at all. It was nice. It was really nice. Kasul, Tipa, and I headed to LotRO and spent some time slaying various creatures and progressing the epic line. Now, I’ll admit I didn’t spend that much time actually reading the quests. I normally do, I love reading all the stories and then I get to thinking about who wrote them and what inspired them and it just takes off from there. However; I was dealing with some real life background noise (ie: stress) and just trying to make sure I followed along, kept people healed, and didn’t trip over my own two feet very much. I was so happy that the new video card ran (and ran well) that I could barely do more then walk around in a half daze looking at everything.
I do remember getting quite a few pieces of gear upgrade. I got a new cloak, some gloves and even a really awesome recipe that only has a one time charge of some cloth shoulders. It came from one of the instances we ran, and I’d never seen it before. My tailor (explorer) is happily leveling away, and things are going well in that direction.
Gozad also started playing on the same server as Nostalgia (our Kinship, now spanning three games officially, though you can find Nostalgians all over the place), not sure if he plans on continuing or not but it’s always nice to have another member. Our Kinship just reached rank 6, and we’re headed towards rank 7.
I like to unlock the various deeds and see a mass accumulation of titles and little ‘unique’ bits to the game that show off the various feats my character has accomplished. Even if they’re the same titles that everyone else has earned, they are unique to my character and remind me about what I’ve done (or haven’t done) in game. The one Tipa is sporting (on her character Dera) is awesome, and completely fitting for the little hobbit (who I keep wanting to call a halfling due to EverQuest II). It was a wonder we didn’t step on her multiple times throughout the night. Elves may be slim and move with grace, but my Minstrel is wearing some pretty clunky items and I always feel like I’m clunking around instead of floating gracefully.
Monday evening should be the next LotRO meeting unless Kasul has changed his schedule around for that day (one never knows) I managed to reach level 16 and part way through it. We also started working on Book one Chapter five (I believe that’s where we’re at in any case) which has us running all over the place currently. I don’t own a mount (nor do I envision myself owning one any time soon) so it’s a lot of running. A lot.
Over all? Having a lot of fun with the game. Of course, playing with great friends always makes games 100x better then playing alone.