You want to know my views on the current folks running for their respective parties? Of course you don’t. So here are my views:

I don’t really bother learning about the politicians when they’re jockeying for their party nominations. It’s far too early for me to care at all. I haven’t watched any debates, but I have seen snippets of them here and there from various sources. And what I’ve seen only reinforces my dislike of political debates.

I’d be interested in the debates if the candidates would talk about their plans, (with specifics), rather than what they do — attack everyone else in the running. Every snippet I’ve seen from any political debate makes me think of the “eleventh commandment” that Ronald Reagan popularized: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Both parties should take this concept to heart. Why in the world would you want to trash someone in your own party? Not only are you crapping on someone with whom you are supposed to have a lot (politically) in common, but you are handing the opposing party ammunition for later. Just seems dumb on the face of it.

As for the current crop of candidates:

I know essentially nothing about any of the Republicans other than Donald Trump. I haven’t sought out info on Trump, but the media makes sure to keep him and his statements in my face every day. And what I think of Donald Trump: He’s a top-notch asshole. He’s a bully who says outrageous things to get attention. The things he has said are completely void of any substance. “I’m going to make America great again!” How? I haven’t seen or heard anything but vague platitudes from Trump. And some of his vague platitudes seem truly dangerous; he takes war mongering to a new level. If Trump is the Republican candidate for President, I will not vote Republican.

I know little about Bernie Sanders other than he is a self-identified socialist who wants to break up the “big banks.” First off, socialism isn’t something that fits the American concept or culture. Socialism sounds good to young idiots who can’t (or refuse) to learn how actual capitalism works. Capitalism works to the best of each individual’s interest, investment, and ability. Capitalism may end up with a wide difference between the top and the bottom, but socialism ensures everyone is close together always near the bottom. If Sanders is the Democrat candidate for President, I will not vote Democrat.

I know much more about Hillary Clinton, and I believe she is deeply unethical. Having known of her for around 20 years, now, I see her as crooked, even to the point of actual criminality. She gets away with things because of her political clout and because the general media lets her. And her supporters seem to willingly overlook her dishonesty because they want to believe in her. I understand the feeling of wanting to believe in someone who says what you like and claims to support what you support. And I understand the gut need to sometimes give someone a pass on things here and there because their larger points and positions are more important than small hiccups or transgressions. But there does come a point where you have to see that the someone you like has taken your willing passes way too far, and they must have nothing but contempt for you and your support. If Clinton is the Democrat candidate for President, I will not vote Democrat.

So: Trump is a asshole. Sanders is a socialist. Clinton is an crook. None of them are the kind of person I want as President of the United States.

Bullgrit

*** This was originally posted to the official World of Warcraft forums. ***

This post is long, and is about an old subject that you may find utterly boring.

TL;DR: Molten Core and Blackwing’s Lair are mostly really fun for players who aren’t jaded by knowing exactly what to expect.

Some of you may recognize me as the guy who plays WoW with his two sons. We have been running as many dungeons as we can as a 3-man team. We are currently:
Tauren protection paladin 65 (15 year old)
Tauren elemental shaman 65 (11 year old)
Tauren restoration shaman 65 (me)

We have had great fun running 5-man dungeons. We all sit in the same room, so we are able to quickly and easily communicate during our adventures. We have taken all the runs slowly so we can enjoy the whole experience, and because we are just 3 instead of 5.

Usually we can read the description of the dungeon and the bosses, so we have an idea of what we are up against. But this weekend we wanted to explore Molten Core and Blackwing’s Lair, and the description for raids is not available in the in-game page. (I think we have to be level 100 to get the raid tab?) I know these raids are for 40 players, but we are 5 levels and one game expansion over them, so we figured we’d have an easy time. We had previously delved briefly into AQ, so we knew how being a game expansion higher gives a boost against previous expansion mobs.

Molten Core

We found the standard (60 elite) mobs in the beginning to be knock overs for our level, so we kind of just ran rampant over most of them. Although an unfortunate stun or knock-back combined with us not really taking the fights cautiously caused a couple of deaths. Only against the bosses did we have any real fights, and they were not truly challenging. <- This was all expected for our being over-leveled.

The most memorable thing to me about MC is how excited my sons were to encounter the bosses. They know and love WoW lore. Even seeing some bosses whose names I’ve never heard of before, excited them greatly. All the, “That’s XXX! I see XXX! I want to get a screen shot of him! Cover me a second,” brought a big ol’ smile to my daddy face. They were extremely excited to see Ragnaros “in person”. I imagine it was like taking kids to a sporting event and getting to meet some of the athletes. I admit I’m a huge dork. :-) And apparently so are my kids :-)

We got a lot of loot, but sadly nothing anyone was excited about. We knew we wouldn’t find anything useful, but we hoped to get some cool transmog stuff. I died in the battle against Ragnaros when I couldn’t get out the lava after being knocked back into it.

Blackwing’s Lair

BWL proved more troublesome for us mostly, I think, because we had no knowledge of the fight mechanics. When we walked into the first main area, we decided to take on Razorgore first. Made sense at the time. But when we killed him and then he wiped us(?!), we had to figure out what happened. I suspected it was an egg-caused apocalypse, so we decided to destroy the eggs before taking on Razorgore. But we couldn’t interact with the eggs.

So we decided to take on the mobs on the platform opposite Razorgore. After easily killing them, our tank tested activating the orb. There was confusion among us as he explained to us that he had control of Razorgore.

Tank: “I can see through Razorgore’s eyes!”
Healer: “What the heck are you talking about?”
DPS: “Razorgore is coming this way!”
Healer: “Oh crap!”
Tank: “I’m Razorgore!”

It took several seconds for us to understand what was going on. It probably would have made a good comedy routine to hear the discussion, something like Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on first.”

Anyway, I asked if he could interact with the eggs. He said yes, so I directed him to destroy them. Then all the other mobs started spawning. It took a minute to really get the understanding and hang of exactly what was going on and what we were supposed to do, but once we got it, it was super great fun. The tank used Razorgore to destroy the eggs, I kept RG alive with heals, and DPS killed the mobs. A long battle and really fun.

But then, we fought Vaelastrasz. The tank and DPS worked him down fairly easily. I only cast a couple of barely needed riptides. But then just a few seconds before V was killed, the DPS dropped dead. “What the heck? He was fully healed!” Then the dragon died, and then I died. “What again!” The tank stood there looking at our two corpses, asking, “How did you die?” No one knew how we died. So he started to rez me, and then he dropped dead. “wha…?” I’ve since learned that V gives a buff/curse that will eventually kill the target. Hmm. Not fun, that. Maybe it’s not so bad against a full raid-sized party who probably wouldn’t wipe from it. But for us as a 3-man team, it made an otherwise interesting encounter frustrating.

We moved on through the dungeon. In one room with two sets of mobs, we chose to skip one and just take on the one actually between us and the doorway. But halfway through the fight, I got knocked backward right into the other pack of mobs. We wiped. For all future fights in the Lair, we made sure to have our backs to a wall so if we got knocked back we wouldn’t go flying into another pack of enemies.

Later we started fighting groups that could turn one of us into a squirrel. It was so nice to actually, finally, get to use dispel abilities. Someone would shout, “I’m a squirrel,” and then someone else would hit them with a dispel. Such a simple thing, but it makes me feel like I can do more than just rotate through 3 or 4 basic abilities.

Then we made our way through the slow-trap room. Hmm. That. Hmm. A neat idea, and interesting for a minute. But after that minute, it got so annoying. I’m not sure how that slow room fits with the overall atmosphere/feel of the dungeon. It just felt like an annoying gimmick. It didn’t make the fight harder or more interesting. Just slower.

Then we came to a room with mobs all over the place. We chose one side of the room and worked our way along it (with our backs to the wall). At the end of the room, we tried to sneak past the four dragony-humanoidy things, but they aggroed on us. No problem. We took them on knowing the fight would be simple, but then all the other mobs in the room came running. I don’t know if one of us somehow aggroed them or if the mobs we were fighting called for them or something else. All we know is we went from fairly easily moving through the room with caution, to suddenly being overwhelmed, and wiped.

We rezzed at the dungeon entrance and started running back through. When we reached the slow room, and saw all the traps were reset, we stopped. Nope. Nah. Our interest in finishing dropped significantly. Besides, the Super Bowl was about to start. So we decided to give up on finishing Blackwing’s Lair at that time. Maybe we’ll go back next weekend. Or maybe we won’t. Jury is still out on that.

Overall Experience

So, overall, we did enjoy running these two old/classic raid dungeons with just the 3 of us.

MC was very easy (at our level), but my sons were most excited to just get to encounter the “famous” bosses.

BWL was more challenging (even at our level), even wiping us 4 times. This dungeon really showed how different a run can be between knowing and not knowing the fight mechanics. I don’t know if I’d say following the script was more or less fun than learning the play by going through it, (surviving or wiping), but it is definitely very different. I do know that I want to experience every dungeon without knowing it. Experiencing them completely ignorant of the script is very, very fun and exciting. Knowing and following the script can be fun too, but it’s in a completely different way.

Bullgrit

*** I originally posted this to the official World of Warcraft forums. ***

My 11 year old son hit level 60 with his tauren shaman a few days ago. He immediately went to the trainer for flight training. Then he mounted up on his hearthsteed, and took to the skies in joy. He has flown all over Orgrimmar (landing on every tall building) and through several of the zones around it. He has asked to log onto WoW a couple times just to fly around.

I think it’s awesome that he’s getting such joy from this, and I just wanted to share.

But a sad, side note: while flying around Orgrimmar, he found a pair of level 100 taurens dueling on top of a mountain spire. They spit at him and made rude gestures. I don’t know what their problem was with someone just circling their peak-top duel, but whatever. He flew on and still enjoyed his new flying experience.

Bullgrit

*** I originally posted this to the official World of Warcraft forums. ***

I was having a conversation with my 11 year old last night where he asked me what toys we got for Christmas back when I was his age. Action figures were my most common toys. Dolls were my wife’s common toys.

After that discussion, I sat down at my computer for a little WoW time. Looking through my many characters, it struck me: my WoW toons are my action figures. Even more: my WoW toons are also my dolls. Not only do I play adventures with them, but I also like to dress them up in special clothes/gear.

Bullgrit