I toggled my main spec back and forth between Enhancement and Elemental as I progressed (leveling with my wife’s first Rogue), and swapped into Resto for quick dungeon queues.  I must admit, my Mage has taught me to have a different outlook on casters.  And I enjoy Elemental Shaman a whole lot, especially with Lightning Bolt glyphed to be cast while moving.  With a few BoEs and a few crafted pieces from guild-mates, I was able to step into the new 4.3 Hour of Twilight Heroics pretty quick, and due to the nature of Chain Lightning, appear to be not so bad on the damage charts.  Funny enough, I leveled through Cataclysm as Elemental, because of the needs of my raid team it is my intention of swapping my Shaman in for my Mage, maintaining a ranged DPS slot.  However, the loot gods apparently really want me to play Enhancement, because I’ve gotten more upgrades for that spec from the HoT heroics thus far.

I don’t mind Enhancement at all, in fact for anyone that knows me I’m much more apt to play melee DPS than anything.  The rotation is clunky, reminds me of the Ret Paladin wack-a-mole (or gnoll) playstyle.  I prefer a more solid rotation, but so many classes (other than rogues) are moving the way of the priority system these days, I might as well get used to it.  Besides, who’s bringing Rogues to raids these days anyway?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/winterhoof/Ephington/simple

But that was December, and this is the year of the iPad 3, Diablo III and the Hobbit, what isn’t to look forward to?  With the exception of the new Superman film, I’m pretty stoked.  Yes, of course I’m rather excited about that too, but i’ll be going in with one hand over my face… just to be safe, we know how great the last one was.

Quite frankly, as things rolled along, 2011 seemed like it was such a big year, but 2012 already has the cards stacked in its favor with movies, games, tech… what I’m worried most about, is having the time to consume it.  Particularly if the world is going to end in 11 months.  Hopefully the Hobbit lives up to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that way if it is the last movie I ever see, at least its a good one.

Being on the Now Network, having switched to Sprint at the release of the iPhone 4S, has been a tremendous experience in our area.  I can actually count the number of dropped calls in the past few months on one hand.  On top of that, the unlimited data has me rediscovering things like Pandora, and freeing up lots of space on my phone for things that aren’t music.  Speaking of AppsGoneFree is already in the running for my favorite iOS app this year.  I was putting in a lot of effort to find good free apps prior to installing it, and now it delivers all the gems right to me.  I still love AppShopper for its watch feature, but its no longer my main go to.

What?  After all that you can’t believe I even got one?  Neither can I.  The truth is, that the cheaper iPhone 4 is only available in 8gig capacity, and that simply won’t do.  So I shelled out the extra $100 to obtain a 16gig iPhone 4S.  Coming from a 3GS, the speed difference is amazing.  I am also blown away by the retina display, but for folks that upgraded last year, that’s old news.  My wife and I also left AT&T and went to Sprint, where we have returned to a plan that includes unlimited data.  Granted if Sprint follows everyone else, they too will soon remove the unlimited data plan (though that doesn’t seem at all their strategy, and we will hope to be grandfathered in.

Beyond sheer speed performance, the camera, of course, is simply amazing.  While I still dont’ think it is a good reason to buy a phone, it does make a really great point and shoot.  I have been very pleased with the images I have been able to get, even in lowlight situations, and while using zoom.

And of course, the trending topic is Siri.  Siri is fantastic.  I’ll admit that even I was skeptical at first, it just looked like the iPhone was finally getting a voice dialing feature to be honest.  However, she does so much more.  I truly enjoy the fact that I need not use a special diction when speaking to Siri, I can just talk to her like I would any other artificial intelligence I expect to someday rule the planet.  ”Take me to…” Is sufficient to request directions, and “Is it raining…” will get you details on the weather.  Not only does Siri take requests like a legitimate assistant, she responds like one too.  ”Hope you have a raincoat!”  etc.  Her personality is very entertaining.  And of course, she has built in responses to lots of ridiculous questions as well, such as her name, favorite color, and quest, to suggestions on where to hide a body.  However I must warn you, that  her end user license agreement does not permit marriage.

Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20116357-37/tim-cooks-memo-to-apple-employees-about-jobs/#ixzz1a0r1mOMX

Then why, oh why, did it take an extra four months to give us something that is far from spectacular? Had this device been launched ‘on time’ back in June, the poo probably wouldn’t be flying so far so fast. Yes it has the faster A5 processor, yes it has a better camera (which is certainly how I choose my cellphone /sarcasm). While I can understand holding off on releasing the new device until iOS5 was ready, which I am assuming was the cause, they let it go a bit long. When August came and they didn’t have iOS5 ready to roll, they could have simply stated such and released the device anyway, to eagerly awaiting masses.

Instead we got an underwhelming keynote, not a great start for new CEO Tim Cook, that pretty much felt like a 45 minute recap of the iOS keynote from WWDC. Will I be getting a new phone, yes I will. At $99 the iPhone 4 is a no brainer, I might even switch over to Verizon. Will I be getting the new phone. Definitely not, with the new incredible price on the iPhone 4, I simply cannot justify the cost jump for the 4S, which is clearly, at least, slightly less than an iPhone 5.

My journey began in vanilla, when my Warrior Mathayus of Eonar was my first level 60 character. In a world where Warriors were the only true tanks, it was easy to find a guild and step into Molten Core. Luckily I was able to do this with a good group of people in a friendly guild called Infinitus, which has sadly long since desolved. I was one of three protection spec’d Warriors in the guild at that time, and rarely managed to switch to Fury and DPS. The concept of being a raging dwarven berserker is what drew me to the class in the first place (well that, and the fact that Paladin’s couldn’t tank – which is what I had done in my FFXI career). When drama finally reared its ugly head, I changed servers, at a time before character transfers, and rolled a rogue. Determined to melee dps and never be asked to tank again.

This time I was again lucky enough to find a good group of people, and in preparation of the launch of Burning Crusade, we rerolled Horde together on another server. I cast my blades aside and played a mage, and managed to enjoy playing a caster for the first time in my gaming career. However, pursuing endgame content with such a small group of people proved difficult, and I returned to my home server of Eonar to play a Dwarf Hunter.

Rekindling relationships with former guildmates, I was swept along into a progressions raiding guild, hitting Serpentshrine Cavern and Battle for Mount Hyjal. Hunters were tops, and times were good. However, as the expansion grew long in the tooth, my Warrior beckoned, and I closed the gap, leveling him to 70 in time to tank some holiday bosses and install Wrath of the Lich King.

My Warrior was then my first level 80 character and I was swept back into raiding with my old friends on Eonar. I was finally dpsing as a fury warrior, but the tanking model fo the Warrior had changed so much that I found it difficult to adapt. My wife finally showed an interest in the game, and we rerolled on Winterhoof, home of Ministry of Truth, a guild operated by the team behind the Starting Zone Podcast.

I rolled a mage once more, vowing to put the stress of tanking behind me. We ended up raiding through ToC and ICC on our Priest/Mage combo and I transferred my Warrior to our new home for good measure. Though I found greater enjoyment tanking on the Paladin and Death Knight I had leveled in the meantime. It wasn’t until the sweeping changes of the Cataclysm that I truly dusted my warrior off.

While I do already have numerous characters at level 85, he is considered my ‘main’. I find tanking under the new model of Warrior extremely satisfying and can no longer even entertain doing so as another class. The mobility offered by the key talent Warbringer, in addition to the triumphant return of Heroic Leap makes Warriors quicker on their feet than any other tanking class. What they lack in self-healing compared to the others, they more than make up for in attitude.

I almost feel like a raging berserker, even while carrying a shield and tanking, simply because of the way the class was reimagined. My hat goes off to the developers responsible for these changes.

…if only they would roll back that Arms 2h weapon damage nerf.

Lux Map, Differdange circled in RED!

We did do some traveling over the weekend.  Managed to see the Mardasson Memorial in Bastogne, Belgium and to Trier, Germany to see some Roman ruins and a really old Cathedral.  It is strikingly different to be somewhere with a history that goes back thousands of years.  Something we usually don’t consider is the infancy of the United States as a culture.  It is amazing to see the juxtaposition of old ruins and modern architecture, sometimes literally butting up against each other.

I’m also most certainly in hatchback heaven.  We’ve only seen three pickups since we got here.  Once of which was most certainly a mid-80s GMC Sierra, jacked up on big wheels with deep tread tires, and a row of lights over the cab.  I truly felt at home in SouthWest Ohio the moment it passed by.

I will be there for fifteen days, with two weekends to spend as a tourist.  I plan on visiting some of the World War II historical sites in Luxembourg as well as Belgium, particularly the Battle of the Bulge site in Bastogne, Belgium.  While I am going to work, I hope to have plenty of photos and stories to share after my return, though I’m sure they pale in comparison to the experience our students have spending an entire semester in Europe.

With Cataclysm now under my belt on my DK I decided to reroll a warrior alt, and after getting him to the mid 40s felt confident to dust the level 80 off and get him to max level and into heroics. When the dps doesn’t start in before I actually pull, things are good. My warrior seems just as capable at AoE tanking as my DK, though he suffers a little at single target honestly. On boss fights I rarely maintain more than 120% threat level, where my DK was usually holding solid on 200%, but being over 100 is all that matters I suppose.

We made some real progress in Blackwing Descent and 1shot the Tol Borad boss following my character swap, so I’m feeling pretty good about it. And with 4.2 and a possible tier drop right around the corner, launch content should be getting massively easier here shortly. The casual group I play with may struggle with encounters other guilds have long surpassed, but I have yet to want to strangle any of them over Vent.

I have yet to dive into the Zul five-mans on the Warrior, but sitting at iLevel 351 I can queue, once my confidence level is there.

-

Well, it’s twenty-eleven and I’m taking a class for the first time in almost five years.  Luckily, I planned ahead and its only a 100 level course, in addition to the fact that it counts for both Miami Plan and my Religion major.  The instructor is new to the University as of this semester, and his style is fresh and entertaining.  The class is on the immigration of German-speaking Europeans beginning in the 1600s and follows their influence on American society.  So far the content is intriguing, and the reading load is small and easily tolerable.  As we progress through the semester, however, I find that our class presentations take center stage, and discussion is pushed to the back burner, forcing us to be quizzed on the readings rather than having open, meaningful discussions.  While I cannot speak for others, this University is certainly moving to a model of group instruction, removing the burden of instruction from, well, the instructor and placing it on your peers, only to backpedal frequently in order to satisfy outdate requirements for entry level courses that fall into the general plan.

During my time studying education, I was in favor of the group education method, and even drew the obvious comparisons to the one-room school house of days past.  However, with this mode thrust upon irresponsible eighteen and nineteen year olds, when they have been instructor lead for the last twelve years, clearly is not an efficient way to educate, nor a fair way to make this transition.  The University has long prided itself on its faculty, but now they openly embrace the concept of not fully utilizing them in order to increase class sizes without increasing personnel.  While I feel that group education has the potential of being a very successful model, it is in the particular practice of instructor-lead, small-group learning.  As an institution that spouts, “the students are first” and “don’t pass the buck”, we are clearly guilty of not practicing what we preach.  Departments around campus are “passing the buck” to show that they are cutting costs, pushing hardship onto other areas, and the academic side of the institution continues to hold tightly to outdate ideals, holding the student experience back, except where it can save money.

Interestingly enough, our regional campuses are making strides in technology assisted learning, hosting considerably more online and otherwise technologically driven courses each and every semester than the main campus.  They move forward, while we are stuck in the 1800s, tripping over our pride.

-

On a completely different front, my wife and I reactivated our World of Warcraft accounts, and while we managed to plug away for a time and reach the new 85 level cap, with her deep into her cohort, and me actually taking a class we have had little choice but to approach the game very casually.

The LFG/LFD queues are extremely horrid at this point (almost 3x what they were), which makes me thankful that after a little bit of toon bouncing, I settled right back in on my Death Knight, where I found my niché late in Wrath.  Blizzard even released a list of planned hot-fixes this week that they hope will correct some of the shenanigans that have plagued groups formed via the tool.

We’re making a number of hotfixes to address use of the Dungeon Finder and vote kick tools. The following hotfixes will require realm restarts to implement, which are likely to be next Tuesday’s weekly maintenance.

• Players who are outside a dungeon for more than a few minutes are now immediately able to be kicked.
• If queuing as a group with a tank or healer, and the tank or healer drops group (or is kicked) soon after joining, those that queued with them will also be removed from the dungeon.
• If three or more players group queue with each other it will require an additional vote for them to kick anyone they did not group queue with.
• If a group queue of 4 kicks the one person that they did not group queue with they will each receive a more severe penalty to their ability to initiate future kicks.
• If someone initiates a vote kick for someone they group queued with they will not incur a penalty to their ability to initiate future kicks.

With these changes we hope to reduce some undesirable behavior and annoyances, and encourage greater patience when using the Dungeon Finder. In addition, keep in mind that both initiating and agreeing to vote kick have always carried the same weight to your ability to kick in the future. It’s always best to save your votes for when it really counts to ensure your ability to kick is available when it does.

We’ll of course be watching how these changes work to improve these systems, and always appreciate your feedback.

As these and other hotfixes are implemented, they’ll be added to the hotfix blog -http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2259389#blog (source)

One of the problems this will directly resolve, is individuals (DPS) playing a tank or healer to queue with them to decrease the wait time.  Once in the dungeon, the tank or healer would collect their payment and drop from the group.  This is not a practice that I have been able to benefit from, as I am far too legitimately running dungeons at this point to consider it, but it is something that certainly needs to be squelched.

The real problem, however, that they are not addressing, is the cause of this issue.  When I queued as DPS in Wrath, I was faced with a 10-15 minute wait times; now in Cataclysm while getting comfortable with dungeons (thus queueing as DPS) I was confronted with a wait time of 45 minutes!  As a more-or-less casual player, this could have dampened a lot of my plans for my experience with the expansion, if not for the fact that am now geared up to tank.

From the perspective of the casual gamer, Blizzard seems to have done a lot to make the game a more fully embracing experience.  Late in Wrath they adopted the strategy of releasing new 5-man content, and constantly upping the tiers of gear available via those badges to stay only one tier behind that which was available via raids.  However, this time around, willingly or not, they have made heroic dungeon progression so difficult on tanks and healers, that groups simply are not available in the speedy rotation they were prior to the expansion.  This recreates the rift between the casual and the hardcore, slowing the progression of those that can only devote a few hours a week to the game, or in some cases bringing it to a screeching halt that is more reminiscent of the ‘vanilla‘ experience.

I thought that our voices had been finally heard at the height of Wrath, though it seems that I may have been mistaken.  Perhaps the expansion of the Argent Tournament and the Icecrown Citadel 5-mans was merely the evolution of a story-arc, and not the well-thought attempt at expanding on casual content I took it as.