Ugh second day back!

Second day back at work after just over a week off, and all ready I need a holiday! Cliche or not it’s true. Mind you, at the end of my holiday I was ready to get back to work (and Grete was ready for me to come back too!). Couple of weeks off in October which I’m looking forward to, hopefully we’ll get out of the house a bit more during that break and perhaps go and see something!

The number of people inviting me to Facebook finally reached critical mass and I couldn’t resist any longer, I’m still oddly cautious about being ‘me’ on the ‘net rather than some supposedly anonymous entity but I guess the illusion of privacy is just that, an illusion. Anyway within a few hours of being on facebook I’d got back in contact with a couple of people from Uni so I think the benefits outweigh the issues, certainly for me.

Sweet Anguish

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.


Welcome to the Asylum
You don’t have to be crazy to raid here, but it helps!


So it happened, TNF put in the hard work, and we made it to Anguish. All six MPG Raid trials have been beaten, and around 20 people got their Anguish flag when Foresight fell on Saturday.

For those who still have some trials missing, don’t worry, we’ll be redoing them over the next couple of raids. For a start, they’re fun! Secondly the loot is still incredibly good quality for TNF. And thirdly, like the Marine Corp. TNF doesn’t leave anyone behind.

Our trip to the Plane of Time was planned, calculated, and we formed an alliance to beat the Gods and ensure our success.

Our trip to Anguish has been a bit of a rollercoaster, we came out of GoD for a week to have a look around, tripped over the Master of Hatred, and then rocketted through the remaining five trials to get where we are. I know you guys have been working hard to get your signets done, and you need to give that your utmost attention in the next few weeks. We need to help each other out to get the RSS / Sewers / Catacombs done since they’re the toughest of the seven.

Anguish lies before us, open and inviting. The door is ajar. The trap is laid. The muramite army sits in wait.

It wouldn’t do to let them down now would it?

Corruption, Adaptation and Hatred

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.


Three raids, three victories, three hours of fun in the Muramite Proving Grounds. Grats to everyone who got loot and thanks to everyone who makes the raids as much fun as they are. Truly Naughty Friends are knocking at the door of Anguish. I hope someone’s home.

TNF Half Year Review …

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.


It’s July. I know, I can’t believe it either. In January of this year, TNF raided the Plane of Time for the first time, and at the end of January we beat Quarm. Two months later we cemented that victory by beating the most challenging TNF target up to that point – Uqua. No mean feat, it’s a tough zone increased level cap or no increased level cap. With our confidence high we took out Matriarch Shyra and Zomm the Seventh Born at the end of March, the biggest hitting mobs we’d ever seen.

And in June, ah June, the middle of the year, we took on the Muramite Proving Grounds and we put down a flag.

TNF will not be daunted by the size of the Muramite army, we will not cower at the depth of their hatred, and we will not step down in the face of their enmity. TNF has defeated the Master of Hatred. TNF has defeated the Master of Adaptation. TNF has defeated the people who defeated the Master of Corruption 😉

And by Brell, we very nearly wiped out the Master of Specialization as well. One percent stood between us and three new victories in one day. One percent. We gave our everything. We pulled out all the stops. We were not found wanting.

Next time, the Master of Specialization will recognise our force and next time he too will fall to us. We will not be defeated by him again – it will just not happen. You will not let him beat us. He’s our bitch, and next time we go we’ll remind him of that fact.

Behind us are victories and fights to be proud of. Behind us lies the trail of the defeated and the beaten. But ahead of us lies glory, opportunity, revenge.

Before us lies Inktu`ta in the land of Discord, where-in enemies the like of which we have never seen will test us with death touches, secret warnings and magical power of the nastiest kind. We will prevail.

Before us lies the Trial of Foresight, where we will be tested and tested again, our patience, understanding, attention to detail and ability to act as one will see us win through.

Before us lies the Trial of Endurance in which we shall be forced to give and give and give and at the end to give again. We will defeat the Dragorn who seek to block us from our righteous path.

Before us rest the Dragons of Norrath, Yar`lir, Rikkukin and Kessdona. Yar`lir has learned to fear us, and so shall Rikkukin and Kessdona. The golden hoard of the Dragons shall be ours, and we shall bathe in it.

It has been a glorious start to the year, and with you and your continued presence, strength, dedication and conviction, the rest of the year will be glorious too.

To TNF, to what we have beaten together, and to the trials ahead.

To victory.

TNF Steps up

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.


Three times we’ve tried the MPG Trial of Hatred. Three times we’ve failed. But TNF doesn’t give up that easily. We may be a casual raid force, we may only raid once per week, we may only field 36 people, but we’re determined, skilled and eager to beat new stuff. Today, the MPG Trial of Hatred fell, beaten, convincingly. Superb work from everyone on the raid, everyone pulled out all the stops. Grats to everyone who got loot.

Our second view of Adaptation went pretty well – wipe at 28% with a low dps turnout, adaptation will drop next time we go.

And then, because we ‘wanted to have a look’, we went and woke up Ya`lir, and in traditional TNF style, already on a high from the trial of hatred – we wasted Ya`lir on our first visit. Grats to all of those who won the very nice loot that dropped.

May get another one in before the end

Two posts in the same month – it’s nearly unheard of. Went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with a bunch of friends last weekend, I’ll write a full review soon. Here’s a summary – too long, not exciting enough, last 30 minutes was excellent. Spent the last weekend (as well as watching Pirates) with a bunch of friends from our Everquest guild which was fun, even though the weather tried to ruin it for us. In typical British style we ignored the freezing cold and the rain and sat outside eating food and drinking drink. It was good and hopefully we’ll be doing it again later in the year.

I finally caved in a bought a new phone as well, still on pay-as-you-go, but at least it’s a modern phone rather than the house brick I used to carry a few years back and which has been sitting next to my desk as an alarm clock for a while. The new phone is a Nokia, and I’d show you how it looks but you can’t take pictures of your own phone with your own phone, usually. If you know me, I probably already sent you the new number, if you don’t know me, you didn’t get it. If you know me and didn’t get it, drop me a note, I’m not ignoring you I swear.

Oh, and the car is booked in for an MOT next week … wish us luck.

300

While based on a comic, the comic is based on the historical Battle of Thermopylae of 480BC. The battle holds a special place in my heart because David Gemmell used it as the basis for some of the battles in his books. From the moment I heard about the movie I was looking forward to it – and I wasn’t dissapointed. As a cinema going experience, it was superb. As a deep character movie with an intricate plot, it failed, but I never believe it was intended to aim at that target.

The imagery was excellent, the action, pace and direction suit the material and give the whole movie an otherworldly appearance. The characters are easily accessable (which is necessary because of the short time to get to know them) and the dialog clips along and keeps you interested. A movie about a single battle is never going to have much scope for a complex plot but 300 does well with it’s scope and offers a little bit of politics and intrigue to grease the wheels of action.

And it’s the action that drives this movie, the solid unrelenting nature of the Spartans, their charismatic king and their desire to die the glorious death. The cast is good, we get a range of warriors and characters to enjoy, and we get to see some of the best large scale battle scenes in cinema history, without losing any of the personality of the warriors in them. 300 is an excellent action movie, tense battle scenes, interesting characters, and superb visuals.

And so here we are again

Considering it’s been 6 or 7 months since I last blogged anything, I can’t believe anyone is still reading this (in fact, I can’t believe anyone was ever reading this) so I wonder why I’m still writing it. I’m still Diabetic, I know it never goes away, but everyone has to have a dream. Had good news earlier in the year, my 3 month average blood sugar test was excellent. The bad news is that every day between 3 month checks just leaves me worrying about it and the further I get from the last check the more I worry.

Perhaps that’s good, if I stop worrying I guess I’ll stop trying to manage it, although I don’t think I’m any good at managing it anyway. I have good days and weeks and bad days and weeks. Working from home is bad, it ruins the routine, working from the office is good, the routine helps and I manage to get out every lunch for a 20 minute walk which can’t be hurting. Some days I think I’ve been good and it’s bad, some days I think I’ve been bad and it’s good, and some days I try not to think about how bad I’ve been.

I just wish I didn’t spend most of every day scared of the consequences of being diabetic, worried about every ‘symptom’ I currently have. But then it’s always been my nature to worry.

One of the reasons I’ve started blogging again is I finally migrated to Google’s new blogging feature and that includes labels, something I’d wanted to have on my review page for a while. I thought I’d bring the review site up-to-date and that led to blogging something here first.

House news, thanks to my amazing wife, we finally got someone to come and look at the ‘damp’ in the dining room. It’s not damp, and much to our embarassment, the guy pointed to a hole in the wall between the door frame and the brickwork. Every time it rained, water had been running in, and rotting the wood, floorboard, etc. So we filled the hole and we’re letting the woodwork dry out, and we’ll full that with woodfiller soon. We’ve finally made a move on the front door as well, double glazing folk have been, we’ve had the phone wire moved, and they’re coming to replace the door next week. Hopefully it’ll look ok, I have no faith in double glazing companies, but fingers crossed it’ll be good enough.

Here’s the bit where I make a vague promise (but I’m not sure who to?) to update this more often.

We say Goodbye to the Elemental Planes

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.


“Goodbye Elemental Planes”.

It’s the journey they say, not the destination. It’s the taking part, not the winning or losing. It’s the shared experience, not going home with some loot.

Well, let me say this. Those things are true often enough. But they’re not true when beating encounters means killing a hundred gazillion trash mobs (helloooooo Plane of Air rings, helloooooo Plane of Earth rings). There is no journey there. There is turgid trudging. And I for one will be glad to see the back of them.

I will miss Xegony and her flouncing, I shall miss the frenzied call for “BURN BURN BURN” on Coirnav, and the little giggle inside when someone asks ‘who’s main tank on Coirnav?’. I’ll miss running from one end of Fire to the other, in the guise of clearing some kind of waves of mobs and then forcing everyone to ‘fight at max range’ and ‘ranged attacks only’. There’s not much I’ll miss about the Rathe Council encounter to be frank.

I’ll put those memories into the same basket as Rallos Zek in the Plane of Tactics, rushing to the pit, rushing to rez and get people back in, naked if necessary. The feeling of seeing Rallos rushing the main tank, the God of Warriors against a self proclaimed Warrior God Killer. I won’t miss the hours of mindless killing in the Tower of Solusek Ro, but I’ll miss the brief flurry of excitement as Solusek himself is brought to his knees. I’ll miss watching Agnarr being run in circles by a brave ranger or bard. I’ll miss watching Mithaniel Marr twirl his sword as he smites another contender for his crown. No more shall we watch Terris Thule spin her skirt in an attempt to scare us, and alas, the Queen of Bondage, Saryrn, TNT’s Patron Saint, shall be visited no more. We won’t have to fool the gnome in the Plane of Innovation into giving over his flags, even though we just kicked him in the nuts and ran him around a bit. We shall never again have to smell the stench that rolls from the fat of Grummus, nor walk in the slime that forms around Bertox.

We started a journey, some time ago, to prove to the Gods we were worthy, to show them we knew where they hid, to remind them that mortals don’t roll over and die just because you have a bigger AE than they do.

We made it to Time. We passed all the tests. We flagged the unflagged.

And by god we had fun doing it.

To everyone, all of you, that turn up, week in, week out, who pull, mez, tank, heal, hit, kick, nuke, die, rez, laugh, joke, coth and keep smiling throughout, thank you. You hear me say it over and over, and I can not stress enough how true I believe it to be. TNF is a team effort, from those people who manage the whole thing in the background, to those of us who shout in rsay, and everyone in between. It’s a team effort. We made it to Time by working together and sticking together. And we’ll beat Time the same way.

Rathe Council – Red Flagged

These posts are archives of forum / blog entries I made on my EverQuest guild website. The website won’t be around forever, and I wanted the posts all in one place so I didn’t lose them, this blog seemed like as good a place as any.


It’s 1:02am, I’ve just had another cup of tea to calm myself down. The members of the Truly Naughty Friends raid force, in alliance with the Prophet’s of the Myst took on, and beat the Rathe Council on their first attempt. Everyone pulled a blinder. Mezz team were perfect, pull team excelled, heal teams were spot on, DPS were controlled and co-ordinate, and tankage was top notch. It’s a complex raid which requires focus and co-ordination from everyone, and it does feel like all the complexity of previous raids has been a training ground for this one fight.

Yeh, it’s a few years since the EP’s and Time were endgame content, but TNF and PoTM have fought their way through content in the right order, killed the mobs, got the flags and took on the Gods.

I want to assure those raiders who couldn’t make it tonight, or missed the hail due to being LD, that we will be doing Rathe Council and Coirnav again very soon, at the very least.

You did us proud. Hear that ticking in the background? That’s the sound of time running out for the Gods in the Plane of Time.