Robot Claw

The reason for no updates is that 95% of my waking hours at home (School resumed this week) are spent playing Warcraft. Not much to say except it is *amazing*. I am currently halfway through level 67, and will likely hit level 70 (the new cap) in 3-4 days. At that point, I will ‘cool off’ and you can expect frequent updates again 🙂

Here’s some screens I captured:

The long-awaited expansion for World Of Warcraft, entitled The Burning Crusade, comes out tomorrow. Or rather, at midnight tonight. I will be at a local store buying it at midnight, and logging on soon afterwards. The expansion allows players to level their characters to level 70 (from the current maximum of 60) and offers a wealth of new areas to explore, monsters to kill, and equipment to equip and use. It should be wonderful 🙂

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks getting my character ready for ‘BC’, mostly by exploring what little parts of the game I hadn’t already seen (and doing quests I hadn’t done)…

Or by fishing, to level up the fishing skill (notoriously time-consuming)…

And most especially in the last 3-4 days, by mining to accumulate enough raw materials to help me level up the new Jewelcrafting profession added in the expansion…

This final shot is of much of my current in-game belongings. You may be able to make out the massive amount of ore, which will tomorrow or the next day be turned into rings, necklaces, bracelets etc as I level up Jewelcrafting. (A second character of mine, used solely as a source of additional storage, is holding another 700+ pieces of raw material that will be mailed to Momo when she reaches a high level in Jewelcrafting)…

Note the total time played: 1136+ hours and rising…!

We had an ice storm today, which is to say we had an extended period of freezing rain that covered everything in an impressive slick of ice.

Freezing Rain is rain that freezes as soon as it hits the ground (or the trees, homes, cars, etc.). It occurs every now and then during winter, but is rarely sustained. Today it lasted several hours and a nice coating of ice formed on everything. I drove to school to fill the liquid nitrogen at our lab, and whilst the roads were ok, the paths at school were downright treacherous. I regretted not bringing my camera, since the large evergreens were beautiful bowing down under the additional weight of their unwanted silvery coats.

When I got home I went out and took some shots, in the hope that those of you who have never seen this can get an idea of what it is like…

< Grass < A shrub in our backyard < Detail of the above < Solar light and holly < Seed pod on the tree out front Some branches came down, although none larger than about an inch in diameter. I just went out now (about 4pm) to collect them up and assess any damage (luckily, there was none) and noticed much of the ice has melted away as the day had warmed slightly. I'm glad I took the photos, since the beauty of this morning now seems lost.