Blog

World of Warcraft

For the past month or so, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft.  I know what many of you are thinking, “Michael, how could you get yourself sucked up into that addictive game?”  Well, I haven’t.  Thanks to an empty TiVo, I enjoy spending a few hours on the weekend playing it as well as an hour or two in the evenings after work to unwind.  You can find my three characters at the WoW Armory.   They are Strylr who is a Night Elf warrior, Starthan (no surprise there) who is a Human mage, and  Matityahu an orc warlock and who is my horde character.  Strylr and Starthan are on the Burning Blade realm (server) while Matityahu is on Gorefiend.  I am a member of the Supertramp guild and are working on a web site.  If you happen to see me or any of the guild members when on your adventure, be sure to wave!  I also have an 8 slot Ventrilo server running for guild members.  We may eventually go with a hosted solution since it’s relatively inexpensive.

The best part of the game is that it’s cross platform.  The game play for the most part is no different when playing it on my Vista machine as it is on my Macs.  There are a couple of things that make it different on the PC, but that’s specific to the computer I am playing it on, my Dell XPS 710.  The first is the Logitech G15 gaming keyboard.  It displays all of my characters attributes on its LCD screen.  The second difference is the support for 3D surround sound.  As my character moves around, the sound moves with it.  So for example, if there is a fire burning in front of me, the sound is coming from my front speakers.  if I turn 180 degrees the same sound is coming from my wireless rear speaker.

My Recent Trip To Indiana

I took a trip to Indiana from October 16th to 20th to see my friends Mark and Neil.  I had a pretty good time.  On Thursday we went to Circle City Bar & Grille in Indianapolis with fancy, good food.  Unfortunately the waiter was quite unprofessional by complaining about the tip I gave on a $135 meal.  We then went back to their place in Bloomington.

On Friday Neil & I went to the Runcible Spoon and had a great meal.  Neil wasn’t too hungry so he just had some fruit and granola while I had the lox and croissant beanie on an english muffin (they were out of croissants).  It is a very interesting restaurant with a very unique ambiance, kind of a cross between house, library, coffee house and restaurant.  Afterwards Neil had to go to work so Mark and I went and got an office chair from Staples for downstairs since he totally fell in love with the chair we got back in May and brought that to his room (we got the same one).  Then he and I had a small Command & Conquer tournament where we each won a game.  The three of us got some fast food from Checkers.  It was great, but greasy.  On Friday night Neil & I went to The Bluebird and had a few drinks.

Saturday we had brunch at Denny’s and then we went to French Lick.  Mark being the good sport that he is, went with us and stayed in the car (since he’s not 21) while Neil and I did some gambling.  I played roulette (my first table game) and should’ve quit while I was ahead, but I got about an hour’s worth of “play time” on $40, so I can’t complain.  Neil managed to double his money.  By this time Neil was starting to feel a little under the weather, but being the great guy that he is, we went to Olive Garden

and despite having to stand around for almost 30 minutes for a table, he was willing to muddle through and we had a nice dinner.

Sunday Neil was not feeling well and stayed home from work.  Via Hulu we watched “Naked Gun 2 1/2” and just “hung out.”  Mark & I played some more Command & Conquer in which he destroyed me.  After Mark went to work, we ordered some pizza and Cheese Stix from Mad Mushroom and it was great.  We watched “Enemy of the State” and just had a good time enjoying each other’s company.
Monday Neil started his new job working at a help desk for IU in the Carmichael Center.  I gave him a quick hug goodbye.  Mark & I ate at Runcible Spoon and we hung out at the apartment until it was time for me to head to the Indianapolis airport.
The flights both going and coming were smooth sailing for me.  I have to say I had a wonderful time and I look forward to another trip.

Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana