Real Life

Home Sweet Home

stargrace February 6, 2009 2Comments

After three very long flights, I am safe and sound back home. I had a wonderful time visiting the SOE headquarters in San Diego, and met some amazing people. It was a trip that I won’t soon forget, and no doubt I’ll be talking about it for some time to come. I’m unfortunately also bogged down by a lot of work that I’ve got to get done for some upcoming deadlines, which means of  that my play time is even more restricted. My apologies to those who read this site for my comments about in-game stuff, hang in there, and by this time next week I should be back to my regular scheduled program and writing about my experiences in game. I know EQ2 went through a few changes but that the fighter change has been held off for a little bit. Aside from that, I’ve been playing some DDO, and I STILL plan on getting more LoTRO time in once these deadlines have all passed. 

Thank you to everyone who sent me the warm wishes for the flights, and who followed along on twitter, I really appreciate it. Looking forward to getting back into Norrath later today!

Morning!

stargrace February 4, 2009 3Comments

5am, and I’m awake. My body thinks it’s 8am and that I’ve over slept. I’ve been up pretty much every hour on the hour but I think that’s to be expected when you’re sleeping in a new bed unless you’re quite used to it (and lets face it, I’m not). I did get a little bit of time to pop into Eq2 last night and let people know that I’d arrived safely, but aside from that the gaming for the next three days will be limited. Not that I really figured I’d be gaming that much.

The houses here are placed oddly, was the first thing I noticed. Along hills they’re one under the other, in rows. I guess I’m just used to seeing homes on flat streets and not on hills at all, so it caught me off guard. When we flew in I didn’t even see a city or anything below, it just looked like I was flying over a whole lot of dirt and hills and then bam, plane flew right over head. I imagine the cars driving down those roads where we barely cleared them must be used to it.

When I leave tomorrow I’ll be flying to LA first. Another first for me, I bet it’s huge.

Well, better keep prepping for today.

P.S. yes, that is my winter jacket hanging on the chair. Detroit and Ottawa were still pretty snow covered and there was no way I could go without a coat.

Free, Free Flying..

stargrace February 3, 2009 5Comments

The view, from my flight from Minneapolis to San Diego. The day started at 3am for me. I boarded at Ottawa international and flew to Detroit on a tin can of an airplane where the pilot joked that we were heading to Hawaii instead of Detroit. Suited me just fine. Customs was typical, I have nothing to declare and while I didn’t enjoy removing my shoes, c’est la vie. Opened up the laptop and that was fun. I thought about smuggling over a polar bear or a beaver or something oddly Canadian but decided against it. After flying to Detroit I caught a flight to Minneapolis, window seat to myself again. Very uneventful flight except for the fact that I have never flown before and suddenly I’m flying across the country, and not even my own country.

Landed, with 15 minutes to spare to boot over to the next flight from Minneapolis to San Diego. Two gentlemen seated beside me and we’ll just call one of them ‘the mouth’. By the time the flight landed, I knew more about this man’s life then I know about my interviews tomorrow.

I got in to the hotel suite at 2pm PST and check in wasn’t until 3, so I sustained myself on gum and mints for another hour before getting to my room which is of course amazing looking.

I’m tired. It’s (checks watch and moves it three hours backwards) 6:50pm and I’m going to bed very soon. I’ll be up at 7am and hopefully coherent enough to actually do my job. No promises though. I haven’t had time to let everything sink in yet since I’m still dealing with with time difference (and won’t have time to get used to that before I go back home), the culture shock (more about that later) and just the whole fact that – I’m in San Diego. Wow. That’s pretty amazing.

P.S. that is not a bullet hole for those who are concerned, that’s ice, in between a little hole and two panes of whatever windows are made out of. I’ve not been shot, promise!

An Evening Gaming, and less then 24h until Take Off

stargrace February 2, 2009 3Comments

Some times, you just get those magical groups where everything goes right. Where everyone gets along and it moves like magic. Last night, was not one of those nights but I still had fun. There seems to be a surplus of ‘if you don’t have your mythical you’re not worth anything’ attitudes that are going around, and I don’t particularly care for it. I realize that mythicals have been out a while now, but what happened to the casual player who perhaps doesn’t have theirs. Well, that’s me. The first group myself Ultann and Wpus headed into was for The Crucible (that seems familiar) to see if we couldn’t get the shield to drop for Ultann. The group was alright, but the fury refused to heal (even though they were far superior to my non-raiding mystic) and if we didn’t do things their way we were doing it the wrong way. We beat the instance though, obtaining shards. All was well. 

Afterwards the group dynamic changed a little and we decided to check out the loping plains instances. I’d never been there before except briefly to wander around picking up shard quests. The first zone tore us apart. We couldn’t defeat the first named that summons duplicates. We had no enchanter. It hurt. So we headed off to Evernight Abbey (I believe that’s what it called) to vanquish vampires. That one went far better, and even though it took a little time we did well and cleared the zone. The script for the final vampire with the bursts of light while everyone uses the god-like powers on him was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a great deal. 

I’m slowly saving up shards to purchase my T2 set. I believe I’m up to a whole six now, I know it will take a great deal of effort. Hopefully my guild mates don’t mind doing this instances as often as possible. 

Less then 24 hours from now I’ll be on my way to San Diego. I’m still exceptionally nervous. Today I’m getting last minute things done like printing out those boarding passes (you can’t print them out any more then 24h in advance) and packing. I bought some ear plugs in case my ears gave me trouble on the flight (I am prone to ear issues and have been since I was small) as well as a few other smaller things that need to get tucked away. I feel more nervous then excited right now since this is my first time, and it feels like an incredible amount of pressure when everyone keeps telling me I’ll do well. While it’s great to know I have such a very supportive amazing group of friends, it also just makes me feel really nervous. Excited too though! Please don’t take these words for face value I’m so filled with so many emotions it’s all a jumble right now. I’m running off of 4 hours of sleep for the past two days, so I can sleep well tonight (early, we’re talking 8-9pm here) and then get up at 3am to head to the airport. Time to get the day started!

See you in Norrath San Diego!

Preperations

stargrace February 1, 2009 4Comments

Sorry about the lack of posts! I haven’t been able to find the few moments I need in a day in order to recap things, and when I have my mind has been else where (namely on this trip to San Diego). I’m a bundle of nerves but it’s also exciting at the same time. I’m sure there are a million things I’ll do wrong, but hey that’s what learning experiences are for. 

I’ve been playing some W101, and some EQ2, and keep inching my way into LoTRO before I get dragged away by something else in real life.

I’m all set for my trip aside from converting some Canadian money into American, getting some new shoes, and of course the actual packing process which I’ll do tomorrow (as well as print out my boarding passes). 

I fly from Ottawa at 6am Tuesday morning, switch planes in Detroit, and then switch planes again in Minneapolis. On the way home I’ll be stopping in LA and switching again in Detroit. I have maps (thank you Gnewton) of the airports, so it shouldn’t be too bad (I hope).

Excited? Yes, yes I am. 

See you in Norrath San Diego!