2017

Another Year, Another IntPiPoMo

If you’ve never heard of IntPiPoMo before, check out this post here at Gamer Girl Confessions. There’s prizes, and I love participating every year and showing off some awesome screenshots and pictures. Most of my posts come with a screenshot, but I’ll be adding 50 throughout the month tagged properly – so be on the lookout!

If it seems like something you’re interested in doing, sign up! It’s never too late, and you get to share some wonderful images with everyone!

The Importance of Quality

I bought a package of 7cm Styrofoam balls with the idea that I could knit custom made Christmas balls for my tree which is sorely lacking in the decoration department. They would be quick little knits that didn’t require a lot of technical finesse. Or so I thought.

I struggled for hours trying to complete the first ball. The yarn was dragging along my double pointed needles to the point where I was getting blisters from pushing the needles against my fingertips. After reaching the half way point I was tempted to throw the entire project in the garbage, but I kept on because the ornament was pretty cute.

Safe for kids and pets, they were personal to me and I really wanted to complete a test version before dedicating myself to an actual pattern.

By the time I completed the ornament I was completely fed up and doubting my knitting skills. Being self taught means I am constantly learning, and some projects are just beyond me. Then I took a closer look at the yarn I was using. It’s about 15 years old, ancient 2-ply yarn in acrylic.

The more I thought about it the more I was convinced that the problem didn’t actually lay with me at all, but my issues stemmed from using a poor quality product. The yarn was like trying to slide wax up and down the needles, and by the end my fingertips were bloody. It was horrible.

So the next day I bravely started a second Christmas ball, this time in the stash colours I wanted, using “good” yarn, or at least better. Still acrylic, but much newer.

It made a world of difference.

I’m on the colourwork portion already and the Christmas ball is just flying along. I’m not having any of the difficulties in doing my increases that I was previously. The yarn glides along the needle easily (as it should) and I’m not fighting with it. Of course that being said, I DID break a size 1 dpn because I was stressed out and gripping it too tight. Even our supplies have their breaking points (har) it seems. I’ll need to get  myself a new one before too long, I use them for socks. It was disappointing, but I was incredibly pleased that the knitting itself is going very well and as it turned out I was right. The problem wasn’t me, it was the quality of the materials I was using.

Just because you fail at something doesn’t mean you should completely give up. Sometimes, changing just a single aspect can yield a very different and far more enjoyable result.

Older Achievements

One thing I’ve always liked about World of Warcraft is just how much stuff there is to do. I haven’t really felt like playing my max level characters, so I returned to some of my alts, and I’ve been working on older achievements. One that I never completed but that I always said I would, is the Loremaster quests. It requires questing in all of the places, and there’s a lot of older zones that I just didn’t get around to.

Arathi Highlands and Badlands are now done on the list, and I can’t remember what’s next but I’m looking forward to it. The quests are far below my characters level, but I don’t mind. I get some coin, some items I can transmute, and a bit of experience. The best part is that the ordeal is incredibly relaxing and not very time intensive so I can do a little bit here and there in between other things and still complete a zone throughout the day and feel like I’ve got something in game accomplished.

Anyone else enjoy doing these older achievements in their spare time? Let me know in comments!

Why RNG, Why Do you Hate Me

Ever feel like some days it doesn’t matter what you do, RNG (random number generator, for those not familiar) just has it in for you? You can open a bunch of loot boxes and get absolutely nothing, kill a boss and get the worst drop, and enter a dungeon where the mobs are all dead except for the one encounter you’re already killed for the week and it would just be another day.

This is my live in video games.

I have absolute horrible luck when it comes to RNG. I’ve written about it before regarding Wurm Unlimited and how it was only thanks to the extreme kindness of friends that I was able to break my losing streak.

I have that exact same luck in World of Warcraft. As my motto goes, if I didn’t have bad luck I’d have no luck at all.

I’ve been doing the horseman fight most of the week and the single time I got any sort of drop at all it was an ilevel 880 (still an upgrade for me) sword.

Sword. Soulbound.

I’m a priest.

So thank you RNG. It’s just another day.

People Deserve a Thank You

This week I am so grateful and thankful for the people in my life. I wanted to talk about a few of them and why.

David – who I’ve known since high school. He’s the one who set up the whole transfer of MmoQuests over to NomadicGamersEh – he did it painlessly and didn’t laugh when I asked silly questions. Plus he sped the whole site up and he wrote about what he did over on his own site here. Go give it a read. I’m thankful for people like this who have a skill set that I don’t have and I appreciate the time they put into these sort of projects.

Shai – A newer friend, but one I have already vented to on more than one occasion about life and she’s always there listening. People like this are rare and she makes me want to be a better person even though I’ve butchered her name a billion times on stream.

Speaking of streaming – Scopique and Girlvsmmo have been my personal cheerleaders ever since I got it into my head that I wanted affiliate on Twitch. They helped motivate me, inspire me, and were always there with a RT when I went live, and watching when they could. Advice on layouts, streaming gear, and everything in between – these are the folks I go to, and I’m proud to call them ‘my people’.

Ranni – This lady is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. When life’s tough (and it does get tough) she’s still there and she keeps it real. She keeps me grounded, her stories are hilarious and honest. She probably doesn’t realize just how much I admire her, and may even find it a bit creepy (lol). Still, fantastic person.

Iz & Bex – We’ve all been going through our own personal crap lately but these two ladies are just fantastic. If I need to quickly vent about family, they are both there. We have our quiet moments but I still know I can go to either of them (or both) when I need to.

Neil – Lover of Christmas and purveyor of  Tinkerbell pictures, when things are crummy he still manages to find a good side. He’s one of those silent types that I’ve known for many years now (and helped introduce me to Wurm Online) and I just can’t thank enough for being around.

Anyway, I just wanted to put my thanks out there. There are many more people I’m thankful for, but today these folks are at the top of my list and they certainly deserve to hear it.

Back to gaming!

Nomadic Gamer