My Treck Across the Globe! (World of Warcraft Style)

So in light of the post about my addiction to WoW on my wife's site (see links bar) I decided to do a little story about what I did today in World of Warcraft.



I started off in the The Charred Vale in Ashevale. I was there working on a quest for Collin from Stormwind where he needed me to get 8 Crystalized Scales from Basilisks from this specific area. I got most of them the night before but I needed 2 more before I could head off on my long trek to Stormwind on the other side of the world. Finally after killing about 20 I got my final two scales and thus began our little story. The first leg was a quick teleport back to Darkshore by using my Hearthstone. Once in Darkshore I jumped on a boat to Menithil Harbor across the Sea.





Now we have set foot in Menithil Harbor, located in the Wetlands.



You will see a Red X on the above shot. That is where I decided to stop off and play with the tiny red dragons called Lost Welp. Here is a photo taken while we played with them. Cordy especially enjoyed them.



From there we headed to Dun Algaz. This is a mountian pass that will get us to our next area, Loch Modan, where we spend little time as we just hang a right to Dun Morogh.



Dun Morogh:


Cordy was very excited to see snow that I asked one of the Dwarves to take a picture of us.


From there we headed to the Dwarven Capital of Ironforge. From there we could take a tram to Stormwind and finsh this trip.

Us at the entrance of Ironforge:


Cordy was happy to get inside. She was excited about the snow but she got pretty cold and decided to warm herself up...aggressively.


From there we headed to the Deeprun Tram that will take us straight to the Human Capital of Stormwind where we an drop off the Scales to Collin and be done with this quest.

Tram:


Once we got to Stormwind we head off to the Mage Quarter to meet with Collin. Luckily I remembered he was there or we would have been searching for hours as Stormwind is HUGE!



We recieved a nice wand that I cannot use but should make some good money from selling it so off we went to explore. Cordy got excited when she saw her favorite shop in Stormwind, the Cheese Shoppe.



We grabbed her some cheese and then headed to the gates and on our way to new quests and adventures. Here is a shot of us leaving Stormwind.

I Gotta Point This Out, It is Really Good Stuff

My wife has created a new blog, The Park Bencher. You can find the link right over there ---------------------------------------------------------------------->

Seriously, check it out. It is pretty funny and it has been getting some serious traffic in a very short time. This is your chance to get on the ground floor. Do it. Then come back here.

The Poker Gods Have Finally Smiled Upon Me

Yes, the poker gods took a little hiatus but returned to my part of the world yesterday. After entering yet another tourney on Stars with the intention of keeping myself entertained for an hour or so I ended up playing in it and winning the damn thing. I have been obsessed with winning this tourney for months now. I have finished 2nd twice, came in 3rd 3 times, 5th twice, 9th, and a handful of 10-18th place finishes, but the coveted 1st place just never came.

Started out like any other tourney, not very exciting. I seem to play a few hands early and then shut down and go into tight mode in this thing. The play is horrendous and you can accumulate chips by being extra patient and wait for your spot. It's not hard to get paid off nicely with your good hands. I got to the first hour without a hitch. Sitting a little under average and about 86 people left.

Second hour was a roller coaster. Got up quickly to above average and then slowly bled off chips for a half hour till I blew all but 800 chips or so on a race with a shorter stack. I obviously lost that race and was I believe 51st our the 53 remaining. I had a full round before the blinds came around so I tightened up and hoped to see something pretty before the blinds caught up and I would be pretty much forced to push. Sadly nothing came and I was in the BB w/ T8o. Got to the flop cheap and saw an 8 hit and pushed. three callers and was happy to see another 8 on the river and I tripled up to over 3200. From there the cards were not cooperating and I got moved to another table with someone from FCP. I got dealt AA shortly after the move and got a couple callers on a big raise and one caller when I pushed with my flopped set. I was now up to around 10K and was looking to hit the money.

In no time at all we were down to 18 and in the money. Nothing to get excited about but I felt a little good about it since the day before I finished 19th and 24th. Sadly I don't remember much of how it all went down from here to heads up but I remained patient and made sure not to put myself into any sketching situations. Soon enough we were down to 5 and me and the other guy from FCP were still alive and running well. With 2 people from FCP on the FT we had some railers from the site cheering us on. I think knowing people are watching who know me makes me play better. Makes me not make the usual dumb moves I make in the end game. My boy left in 4th or 5th after his AQ ran into Ben's AA. He was pissed but there was no way to think he had AA in that spot. Unlucky, nothing to hang his head on.

I ended up heads up with Ben. I will state right off the bat I hate heads up and the pressure to be here at this juncture again made me uneasy. I wanted to win this. I am tired of 2nd. I like the the second place $ but for me, I wanted to win. I have not won anything over 18 players in a looooong time and I wanted it badly. Luckily Ben was very passive. Usually I get heads up with maniacs and I can't get any decent cards to fight back and eventually push with crap and lose. This was different. I was getting terrible cards and he had the deck hitting him in the face every hand for the first 20 minutes of heads up but since he was passive he would fold to many raises and fold to me preflop a lot so I knew I was not in any rush. We started off pretty even, then I was down to around 50K to his 220K, then I get back to around 100K. It was a teeter-totter for a good 40 minutes. But the time came after taking the lead and then blowing it that I had almost given up. I was dealt A8 and pushed my 90K in. He insta called and I though I was done. He flipped over 88 and I knew I made my one stupid move. But right there on the turn was an Ace and I sucked out and had a good chip lead. Two hands later I flopped a trip 7's and took all but about 14K of his chips and then finished him off in the next hand to win.

It was a good feeling. I liked my play all up to the push with A8. I still had plenty of chips and no reason to do it but I was on tilt and was getting tired. But I am happy to have some money to play with online and happy to get that monkey off my back. Here are my personal stats on the tourney to prove how tight I am. Also, before heads up my won at showdown was at 89%, a 45 minute heads up match killed that.

You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #9085015484).

453 hands played and saw flop:
- 27 times out of 120 while in small blind (22%)
- 35 times out of 118 while in big blind (29%)
- 28 times out of 215 in other positions (13%)
- a total of 90 times out of 453 (19%)

Pots won at showdown - 26 out of 38 (68%)
Pots won without showdown - 90

Gotta Fight That War on Tear Raa, Bra!

So Tom Delay (R-Texas) was on Meet the Press yesterday morning and inspired me to post something on my blog. I was laying comfortably on the nice King sized bed in our comped $400/night suite up in Northern Michigan while my wife was taking a shower and flipping through channels till it was my turn to get cleaned up. I came across Meet the Press and this wacky guy talking with a horrid speech impediment. Mr. Delay cannot pronounce the word terror. In the span of like 2 minutes he said it about 4 times and I was just in awe. The best I can come up with is "Tear RAA". How can people take someone seriously when they talk like that? (Oh wait, GW, nevermind). When hanging out with his little congressional buddies does he use the word bra instead of bro because of this terrible problem of his? "Hey bra! Ready to go vote on that bill, bra?"

Then he decided to become a funny talking hypocrite when he stated that he believe the protesters at the mall in D.C. on Saturday were unpatriotic and aiding and abetting the enemy by wanting to impeach the President and wanting the administration to come up with some type of timeline for withdrawal in Iraq. I wonder if he thought the same thing when people walked the streets asking for President Clinton to get impeached due to a BJ he received in the oval office? Oh wait, Democrat...Republican...oh! I get it now! Jeez, there I ago again missing the point. Towing party lines, blah blah blah.

I find it odd that this guy is a congressman and never heard of the 1st Amendment. I guess it only works if the protest doesn't go against your beliefs. I am sure he had no issue with the Bush supporters spitting and trying to start fights with the anti-war protestors. To him they were his bras! He probably thinks of them as Freedom Fighters or something.

I can honestly say I knew nothing of this guy but after watching for 10 minutes I now know what kind of man Tom Delay is. Just another waste of oxygen in my humble opinion.

Still Alive

I haven't had much to post the last month or so. So life got boring. Just some poker here and there, school, World of Warcraft, and just life. Slowly working on my screenplay. It's a horror script. Liz will be writing the dialogue and I will provide the story and plot. Who knows? Have you seen some of the crap that gets made these days? I think I have a fair chance as anyone else in selling it or something.

Well that is that. I will attempt to post more again to all my 1 or 2 readers. lol

Be sure to check out the Park Bench link. New blog started by my wife and some of her friends. Still new but worth a read.