smoking more than harms your health
Today:
There are 2 glass tables just outside the door, which is still within the 5 meters range, without ash trays (hint). and then there are 2 up the stairs, which has ash trays (double hint!). this guy just waltz in, rude as hell, treated us like a public toilet, and then hollered at me for a “coopers red!” coopers red!”
I gave it to him, he sat outside at the glass tables. J, boss’s best mate, walked out and noticed he was smoking, and reminded me i have to be aware that customers can NOT smoke down there. I really couldn’t see, but i walked out and told him to “sir, please move up there, this is a non-smoking area.”
“yeah ok, i will.” he glanced at me, and continue reading his papers.
i just stood there, waiting for him to move, realising he wasn’t even close to “closing” his papers.
“what?” he asked me curtly.
“sorry sir, you have to move now. it is illegal to smoke here.”
“i said i will.”
“yeah, you are still reading your papers.”
“so what, i said i will move”
“please move NOW.”
this went on for about 5 times, each time ending with him calling me rude for telling him to move, and then brushing me off going “yeah, yeah”. he eventually moved, so i would stop nagging. then he finished smoking, and came in to sit down at a table, to 1) smirk at me, 2) stare at me while i work. now, i am not one to take shit from people, so i told him to leave.
“on what grounds are you asking me to leave? you’re a rude little girl” (oh yes, his tone was condescending through out the entire period)
“for the fact that you will not abide by the laws? that is enough. i have to ask you 5 times to even move”
“what, that wasn’t 5 times, that was at the most twice”
what, the hell. there shouldn’t even be a second time dickhead. “i still have to ask you to leave sir. you’ve got your drink, you’ve paid. you are not wanted here, there will be no more services for you.”
“i can’t just leave like that. no one walks around with a beer in his hand. i have to at least finish my beer.”
“i can assure you, there are many people who walks around with a beer in their hands.”
again, this went on and on for a good few minutes, him smirking and drinking out of his beer bottle, while i move closer to suggest he is not wanted and will not be entertained. finally i had enough of his smirk. The only way to watch him leave is if i take his beer away. and he insisted on being refunded for it, because he didn’t want to look like some drunktard with his beer in his hands.
i am not about to pay someone for his misbehaviour.
so i grabbed his bottle of beer, and he immediately got angry, and rose up, and tried to whack the beer into my head. Except for the fact that i had a tight grip on the bottle, i almost got hit on the head.
“YOU CAN’T DO THIS, THIS IS ASSAULT!” he said to me.
“no this is not. this conversation has revealed your maturity level, which is non-existent. and has indicated to me that you’re intoxicated. therefore what i am doing is RESPONSIBLE ALCOHOL SERVICE for you.”
“call the police!”
“sure i will, give me your card or contact details”
“no, you give me your card!”
“you are standing right here where i work, i believe you’re not on home grounds here to ask for my card.”
“you are a silly silly girl, this is ridiculous.”
“yes it is, the fact is you are mocking me, you can see i have no other colleagues on at the moment, and you are picking on me and smirking at me.”
“i am just smiling because this is ridiculous.”
“yes, you ARE ridiculous sir, all because you wanted a ciggy in an illegal zone.”
“YOU and your colleagues smoke there too, i saw that last week!”
HAH LOL! “what? sorry to disappoint you sir, you will find by all scientific records i am no smoker, and cannot tolerate much smoke. while i do have the lungs of a passive smoker, i do not smoke.”
“what.. no i mean your staff”
“nope, if they do, it’s out the back or up the top. more out the back and here in fact, because they can’t smoke in uniform.”
“you know what, i am never coming back. and i am letting all my friends know this.”
“if they are anything like you, it’s not a big loss, sir.”
he slammed the door in my face. fucking slut, trying to smack the bottle into my head. all because of a ciggy. yes, i know now it was dangerous. at that time i was more concerned about him trashing the place up than i was about myself. i ended up closing the restaurant until more staffs turned up in case he return.
fuck, i hate douche bags
annoyedthe whitest Asian, apparently
Colleague dislocated his shoulders, apparently. can carry plates, can’t scrape them clean, nor can he be touched around the shoulders apparently. if not, he sinks into a pile of shuddering, pained little animal.
And threatens to stab me just because i gave him a friendly push around the elbows, and apparently hurt his shoulders. This would mark the second time he’s threatened to stab me. shit, you want to stab me, what do you think i was going to do? break down into tears and fucking beg you to spare my life? baby, I’ve had enough of life sometimes - and you caught me on the down side.
“this is the 2nd time i’ve heard you threatened to stab me. Next time, fucking just do it.”
no i wasn’t being brave or anything. I was angry. Angry at the boy who’s trying to be a man, angry for the “Drama” he’s putting up. it’s just a fucking dislocated arm. boo-fucking-hoo. I have broke shit, twisted shit and i am always in fucking pain because I HAVE A WOMB. it’s was just a slight push, get over yourself.
meanwhile, remember this colleague who said i wasn’t white enough for my name? we’ve gotten along ever since then. so, last night i was pointing out to someone our very “first ever real conversation”. everyone laughed, then, the “offender” said: “oh oh!! ever since then, I have changed my mind! “YOU’RE THE WHITEST ASIAN I’VE EVER MET!”
god. sweetheart, if i didn’t know you, i would be offended all over again! since when is your race a personality trait? lol
aggravated*yawn*
one day, I am going to wake up and just go totally mental.
I am going to walk out of this house, quit school and my job, and then forge a whole birth certificate and passport, so i look like a true blue australian - but all of age 18. then i will go apply for courses to be a nurse, and start life “all over again”.
Not only will i do nursing, I will learn how to swim, surf, snowboard - and compete in them for Australia.
And then I will challenge some of the bigots I hate, suddenly get better at drawing/freehand-ing stuff, and just be uber awesome creative, awe-inspiring and god-like.
But until that some day, i am just going to be my whiney obliging self.
thanks for listening.
crazyif companies are living, breathing things…
I will strap Funcom and Optus to some planks and start stomping on them up and down.
Funcom: *sends attachment* LOOOOKKKK we’ve not been charging you, I’ve deactivated it, blah blah blah!
Bank: *sends statement* Retail code (some wtf numbers) Funcom, Globalcollect. 18.96
Me: yeah ok, that looks like I’ve been charged again, assholes.
Now, Optus…
Optus: How do you spell your username?
Me: A-N-I-V-Y-L
Optus: ok, so A-I-V-L?
Me: no.. it’s….
Optus: Ok, so, A-N-I-V-L?
me: NO!!!! *frustrated*
goes on FOUR. MORE. TIMES!
Optus: Nothing’s showing up! Is it spelt…
me: OMG ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMER *#@!$%$#@
2 mins later…
Me: reason why i am calling…. And i have done many tests already, the last one being 2 nights ago… blah blah…
Optus: Ok, let’s set you through some tests, and we will find out what’s wrong.
Me: *snapped* ok, i just said i did many tests already, the last one being 2 nights ago, and you’re making me go through tests again?
Optus: But…
Me: no buts! ok? so many tests, no one cared to keep a single record on file, no one cared to listen to the customer, not even you MR. MANAGER. no one’s called us back, WE’VE TO CALL YOU BACK OURSELVES!
Optus: but the record shows many calls we made to you!
Me: hell NO. we called you. all right? no more fucking tests. I have done customer service over the phone before, *I* don’t treat anyone like that, would you like to be treated like that? being pushed around like fucking donkey kong?
Optus: no…
Me: well then don’t. either that, or shut the fucking business down, coz you obviously don’t know how to help run a business. none of you do. stop making empty promises. *absolutely livid by then*
Today….
Internet is not only dropping out, it’s doing it like a 2 step dance. 2 minutes online, 5 minutes offline. GO OPTUS.
infuriatedi hate optus
the only thing going for optus right now, for me, is the fact that they have the iphone and related services down pat.
We’ve been on optusl adsl2 internet services for the last, what, 2 months, if that. During this period of time, we’ve experienced
1) constant internet drop outs
2) terrible tech support that not only conflicts each other, but records nothing of what each other had done, so we go through the wonderful circle of plug-unplug-tests-giveawaymodem.
We aren’t stupid. we know what the throttled speeds are (128kbps) and we definitely know what we can or can’t do in that period of time. The issue here isn’t throttled speed. It’s the fact that when we do get internet, throttled or not, they drop out ENTIRELY. aka, NO INTERNET.
I spent pretty much all of today unable to log in to google. it either hangs or tells me i am not connected (despite showing a connected sign at the bottom on taskbar). Even installing and patching Company of Heroes was a bitch - It literally dropped out every 2 seconds. so every 5th meg i had to click “cancel” and then “resume” so i gave up - it’s a gigs worth to click through!.
Calling them, again, I was told by a guy it’s not optus’s problem, but netgear (our modem). This was despite telling him that 1) we have a new modem from them, and 2) we are connected via ethernet cables to the modem.
Netgear pretty much told me they can’t do anything as they only support optus customers if it’s a WI-FI PROBLEM. So off i go on a merry go round again. The only helpful person wasn’t in a position of authority. the supervisor i spoke to read of his script.
come on. I have worked in telemarketing before, I know when you’re just trying to brush me off. The chick before the supervisor already told me the 1st guy didn’t record his name or the call down. so how the fuck are you going to find him and rectify this issue?
4 days, and come monday, i am fucking going to telstra.
and ACCC
and then punching optus in the nuts.
i hate them all.
angryclothing rage
i so want some goth lolita clothes.
but i also want some maxi dresses.
no to mention, some summer clothes.
can someone just give me like 100,000 to splurge on a whole new wardrobe?!?!
kkthxbye!
chipper/snerk
Dear Yvette: yeah, i love this design too! I wished I can more similar stuff like this.
A summary of this week’s constant stress providers:
Dear Customers, your threats really don’t faze me. They just annoy the shit out of me. First, one of you threaten to call HQ, then, another one group of you threaten to call my boss and tell lies. Tonight, I have one insisting he’s a food critic and going to publish in the Canberra Times tomorrow how we wouldn’t give you 2 free meals (out of 6) because the corn tasted funny.
We are not stupid. I am definitely not stupid. Only 1 person decided to complain, of the whole table, that his corn tasted weird. Of the whole restaurant, only 1 person ever did complain. Just because you suddenly decided that TWO people have got shitty corn, it doesn’t mean you get free meals. ok?
- the one bitch y’all hate.
Dear School,
I am not about to give up without a fight. You bitches have got something coming so hard and fast, you won’t realise it until it’s way over.
- The one bitch you decided to be nasty to.
Dear Myspace Mobsters,
you guys give me about as much stress as an ant does. I am seriously not bothered, and because it’s a bashing game, I WILL bash you up if I wish.
- the turtle
Dear Fellow work bitches,
Y’all need to grow up. Period. I do too, but I think at least I “man up” to my fuck ups. I am tired of all your incessant lies, and “hero stories” about why you’re late (OH I SAVED A DOG FROM BEING KNOCKED OVER). y’all have rice-size balls, it’s never going to happen.
and oh, if i hear one more “she/he fucked up my table’s orders”, you’re fired. it’s one thing to lie about your fuck-ups, and quite another to rub it on to others.
- DA BITCH.
WOOHOO, END OF THE WEEK!
chipper*FrustrateD*
Some days, I feel like shit, and I wana quit.
There are customers that are awesome, there are those that make you feel just average, and there are those that make you feel like shit. Working in the same place for 3 years, and particularly in the hospitality industry, I have watched customers get married, got pregnant and watch the kids grow and grow.
I have seen families expand, and, for a particular handful, some deaths. To each and everyone of the regulars, I feel an attachment and just a little part of the family. It is an honour to be such a “part” of someone’s family.
And then, I have seen customers walk in and threatened never to come again. There were so many days, I wish it is legal to kill someone, or perhaps ethically all right to tell a customer to please go fuck yourself.
Today’s such a day.
Today. Today was a terribad day. I found out what a deep debt my mum has thrown me in. I walked in, and realised I have useless colleagues that I am supposed to work as a team with. I then had a “lunch” walk-in of 13 people, and decided to take them in.
Mind you, in the restaurant, if it was going to be a busy night, we normally close between meals to allow ourselves a little calm before the storm. In my decision to take them in, I believe I fucked myself over.
One of them ordered Caesar Salad, and as you would know, Caesar Salads contain bacon, cheese, lettuce, eggs and meats of your choice. With 13 people, in an in-between period, there’s only me covering floor and bar, and a Chef. I say we did it all in good time. All of the meals rolled out in less than 20 minutes while I took all the orders and got most drinks out in under 5 minutes.
The problem was, the chef didn’t realise the bacon and eggs were “relocated” and mistakenly told me he had no more bacon or eggs. Reporting that to the customer, he decided to change his mind to something else. The entire table, other than the customer in question, decided this was “lying” and “false advertising”.
At the end of the meal, when they have seriously FINISHED EVERYTHING, they asked for a manager on duty (lol). They then proceeded to complain about the mash potato being cold, how it’s frozen and blah. This wasn’t the issue the whole time.
They demanded compensation, and discounts for the whole table.
Frustrated, I mentioned, “i understand it’s wrong to send out a salad that’s only half done. I have compensated his meal, and I don’t mind compensating you guys for the cold mash. but only 3 of you have mash potatos. There isn’t anything wrong with any of your other meals.
Lunch is usually handled by 2 people: one in the kitchen and one on the floor. Things can go wrong, so I apologize. However, this does not mean everyone’s going to have discounts”
They started whining even louder. They twisted my words to say I said the Chef was bad, and not to come in for lunch. They insisted I was passing the buck, and I was scared to take on responsibilities, and now insisted for ONE FREE MEAL AND 12 COMPED MEALS.
hell
no.
argh.
the rest of the day was screwed up twice over because of that. I utterly lost my patience thereafter, and anyone else that screwed up coped a little from me. It was a bad night because of the mistakes, i think i made it twice as miserable for everyone else though. My apologies….
aggravatedNews Articles and stuff
Basically news reposts from my twitter, but more because i want to share my full thoughts on them:
Nine year old told he’s too good for little league, basically asked to leave
Really, is there such a thing as too good? and whatever to teaching your kids to get better at what they are doing? all these coddling of kids, which is why there are so many kids/young adults nowadays with poor work and social ethics nowadays.
Use by sticker found in food, no apologies or comping or anything else
Granted, fuck ups happened. In franchises like Applebees, they have to stick to a certain standard the franchise declares. so sometimes, they get frozen food to “abide” by the standard (this is what I understand from the industry in general, every franchise might differ a little). Most of the more general food, such as steaks or chicken would pretty much be the only things cooked fresh.
however, when you get told by consumers that they have found something alien in their food, aka NOT meant to be part of their food, especially something like paper, pests, any other foreign objects, you give them discounts. you apologize, you make new ones… etc.
it is appalling to think someone would think a customer should understand enough to pay a full price for a sub-standard food. if i wanted to see a use by date, i would have bought instant noodles, darling.
Possible language barriers leads to plane collision
When i first read this, I remembered this TV program I was constantly watching while on holidays. It’s like a discovery channel for world’s air crash scene investigations. I always found those intriguing, particularly their explanations and research behind each and every crash.
On the program, there was a similar case: the Avianca Flight 52. The story behind that air crash was how the pilots did not communicate the emergency very well when they started running low on fuel, complete with the bad weather and high traffic going into the airports, they pretty much dropped out of the sky. Ironically, the thing that saved the survivors was the fact that there was no fuel to start a fire.
now, looking at the case with Avianca 52, I was sort of expecting them to list one of the minimum requirements before flying is speaking an intelligble form of English, or whatever language is considered the common lingua franca.
this is not to insult the dead person, by the way, whom i truly felt sorry for.
The thing is, no one should be allowed to fly if they can not understand nor give easily understood instructions. While this is obviously a small scale accident, it is nonetheless a fatal accident. It could have been bigger.
Someone needs to regulate the rules.
Morphine stolen, replaced by water
Only one word: fucktards
Overseas students detained for visa non-compliance
This fell a little close to heart. Remembering how i was in breach because I didn’t fulfill the academic progress requirement, it is true that it is easy to fall out of line with the Visa requirements. There’s so many rules, and so many differing opinions on what should be done.
There is ONE migration act, but there are different “interpretations” of it. During the non-compliance interview, the decision is made by one person, and approved by their superiors. It’s like a russian roulette - if you get a good and understanding person, one who still remembers the stress of student life that is sometimes intertwined with relations and emotions, you get another chance.
I have also over stayed my visa once too, due to my own stupidity and thus forgetting to extend it. As most of you know, the Embassy on the Singapore side was less than understanding and forgiving. I was pretty much told if I don’t get a new COE, which was not necessary for a re-application, it means the school does not want me. On top of that, I was also told I am not welcomed back into Australia once I have graduated.
These obviously were not the case, as I found out when I returned.
however, i think breaching most of these rules would barely amount to a risk to the local community, unless the intention behind the breach was to, say, go out and kill someone.
Yes, the intentions behind the visas should be to study, to progress, to graduate. The ironic thing is, I have had Australian friends themselves fail their way out of universities, started up a new course elsewhere twice and eventually just working. There’s probably as many people taking twice as long to finish their degree too.
In terms of academic progress though, why should foreigners be excluded from Australia, be forced into detention centers, because they are not doing well? I don’t see locals being taken into the police station OR forced to leave the country.
In terms of working too much - hell. We are the cash cows. The local students though, carry 4 jobs. The maximum I have known an international student carry were 2. In the fairness of it all, people sometimes over-work, not intentionally, but because they are actually enjoying themselves. and if they need the extra money, sometimes the “bank” (parents) are not interested in forking it out.
that’s just barely scrapping the surface of it.
I understand though, Australia’s just trying to protect herself. oh wells.
borednot proud of, proud of
I am sorry for the lack of updates. I have been so caught up with school and work (both of which are going into the overdrive this semester), that i am either sleeping 16 hours at a go when i can now, or i am just too fluffed out to be able to think.
School’s fine, other than obviously being hard. Techies drove me nuts, because they insisted that IT subjects are not “definitely” online. Pray, tell, then is it right to teach kids about computers with paper and pen? That one bit stressed me out for about a week and a half as most of my online assessment was about to be “late”, without me even having a look at it.
Work though, provided the worst stress factor. Don’t get me wrong, I am not so immature and disillusioned to think that work, no matter what type it is, will provide zero stress or zero form of work politics. I have worked long enough to know that even if I pose no form of threat (aka this will never be my career) whatsoever, and even if i am a casual worker, everyone and anyone can possibly have their knives out for me.
I think, on a very personal level, I have got comfortable with working where I am right now. I have often, albeit sometimes in the worst possible way, tried to provide the best help I can to people working there. I do get irritated, and I do make alot of mistakes and have about as much tact as a rock most times. I am, after all, a fallible human. In all that I have ever done though, I have never thought that people would choose to deliberately make me look bad - mostly because I have let my guard down?
We all sat down to have a chat - or rather, i should call it a pep talk by the big boy. One of the few things he’s brought up, was the fact that all 3 people that were “new” to the current management team, previously left under undesirable conditions. And I stuck by them, through all the good and bad times. Of course, then I felt both like an idiot and being all exhilarated.
I mean, all the times I have mentioned I am quitting here, and eventually did quit and then returned, I felt like I haven’t grown or done much about my professional life - such as attempting to acquire new skills, look for internship and so on. Yet, the knowledge that I have loyalty to a business, I felt like I have stepped in my father’s shoes and learnt how to live and fight in a place that I enjoy working in.
Obviously, I am far from fulfilling my dad’s shoes eh, he was in HDB for 35 years.
That, I felt, was something to be proud of, especially in times like these where corporate loyalty is a scarcity, especially amongst casual workers like me.
With regards to the talk though, I highly doubt anyone of those present really took it to heart. It was barely 10 minutes later when they decided to subtly suggest someone’s been backstabbing me too - and someone with whom I have worked for ages with. Considering the situation though, I had highly disregard what they say. I honestly do not have the time nor energy to invest in stupid immaturity. One’s 21, and the other’s 23. They still have a long way to go before they have worked as long as I had and experience as much.
meanwhile, meet the new addition:
Oh, and the highly anticipated meeting:
I know, I said i wasn’t ready for a new bunny, what with how Fudge died and all. But really, can you resist it when a bunny kisses your hands?
I couldn’t.
Phew! Vs 2.0
so, i signed up for a specific course. It was cancelled due to lack of interest, which means i was running around like a headless chook signing up for alternate courses. This also resulted in me being the last few people in class to sign up for tutorials and therefore have terribly undesirable classes for tutorials: ones that ends at 8 or 9 pm at night. Looking at my time table now, my timings are something like:
9a.m to 2 p.m, and then 6-8 p.m
for most days!
Last week was the greatest testament to my endurance. I am extremely sore all over now, and just want to flip the finger at everyone and anyone in particular.
Work wise, I kind of went stupid and got too worried about labour costs and people’s opinions. In reality, I think my care factor was a huge 0, at the same time I have seen some of the emails being sent off in the heat of the moment from my boss to others. I felt like he feels everything’s being shitty because no one cares about him. So, I bite my tongue about others in management and just do everything myself.
Last week, with the combination of classes, I have been going home from work at 3a.m.
Albert, one of my boss’s mates, decided to pull me aside to have a chat. He thought it was for some “glory” or something. In all honesty, if not for the fact that I lost the key within the restaurant, or because an asshole decided to be an asshole, I wouldn’t have mentioned anything about me staying on late. So, it wasn’t about glory because cleaning toilets is a sure path to shit-dom. I was just trying to cut down on colleague friction, infighting, inbitching - whatever you want to name it.
oh, and not to mention labor costs.
Let me explain. The week after World Youth Day, in, what I thought was a very fair decision, I was made to close every single night I worked for the week. At one stage though, Albert did mentioned he was going to close it instead of me, but for some odd reason made me stay on and clean on. So, an anticipated 10p.m finish ended up being a midnight finish.
On the friday night of that week, we had a massive crowd: an office party was held that booked out the entire 6 tops section and had a bar tab of 1500 minimum running. We had a shitty lunch that day, so I decided to leave the tab on for a little longer and then close it at 1600. It is not in my work ethic to ask a customer to “please leave now that you have paid your bills” and blah. I think it’s fairly rude, and for a group that’s pretty much forked out 3k in meals and drinks by the end of the night, I wasn’t about to raise their ire by chasing them out (even though they were probably too drunk to even know).
But, I didn’t want to keep more staffs on than I need, to cut on costs. So I sent them home at 11, and stayed till 2.45 a.m cleaning up after them, the toilets, resetting the tables, not to mention all the wonderful delightful vomits they performed. It wasn’t till someone called me, and notify me that If i don’t leave in 15mins, the security WILL CALL MY BOSS, that I ran for my life, leaving about half a section unmopped and the bar with 3 trays of dirty glasses.
Obviously, I overslept. Dan, a manager who is one of those people who comes and goes from the business depending on his personal life and job offers, decided to throw a tantrum. Partly because I was late, partly because I left shit un-done for him in the morning. I apologized when I arrived (even though I highly didn’t need to and didn’t care to), but he just hrmphed at me, and sent everyone off. leaving me without being properly handed over and half a restaurant worth of customers to “fly solo”.
And it’s not that I can’t manage flying solo, because that’s what I am used to in the afternoons.
It was the bitching thereafter that, through the grapevine, that I overheard. Oh, the bitchiness and vindictiveness.
Albert reckons we should stop being children and start working as a team, and stop bitching about each other. I find it just a little bit hard after all these. Aside from the lack of professionalism (which I suffer from time to time anyways, so let’s not pot call the kettle black k?), I absolutely adored how he flies down and tells me how stupid I am in the middle of service, between staffs and customers. He’s been here a grand total of what, a year. Flusters at the slightest crowd or lack of staff, refuses to get his hands dirty, is constantly late if the bosses aren’t around and take smoke breaks the equivalent of lunch breaks.
Meanwhile, when I do occasionally turn up late, there’s a massive witch hunt, finger pointing and bitching. I pay half of my “staff meals”, cleans up whenever I have to, fly solo or run 3 sections by myself because the business needs it and since I don’t smoke, I don’t get smoke breaks. I make mistakes, but so does he. I make mistakes that I can fix myself, but he flies into a rage when he makes mistakes or just apologize and runs away into a corner.
So tell me, how much patience do I need, and how do I work as a team with someone who’s not consistent with his work ethics?
I should start making this the “Panda work bitchings” blog, because it’s turned into that lol… in the interim, I shall refrain from trying to stab everyone i see :p
i hate…
a long time ago, my washing machine at home broke down. instead of replacing it, or even consider replacing it, my mum switched to hand washing everything - “because all of those clothes leaks colours anyways”. That same washing machine has since been moved around from home to home, whilst we move, and is now… basically a bookshelf (that is circular, metal, and opens from the front lol)
Today, in an effort to cancel out the “wet floors” and possible “water damage” blah blah blahs, we have removed the washing machine from the laundry area and letting it air dry to death. this of course also meant that we can’t do any washing. it’s back to the usual stomp-on-wet-clothes hand washing methods. considering what cat has done in the past couple of months, that’s a mountain load of washing to be done all at the same time. Most have already been done immediately, some just retained the smell however, so it’s going through a re-washing as well.
This is beginning to be a nightmare, and i just want to move right now to be out of it.
the light at the end of the tunnel: boss just bought washing machine and dryers for work 
and said i could use it :p
puggin’ it
i did something stupid 2 weeks ago, and basically un-gemmed myself so i can have more stamina for the najentus fight. Then my freshly minted 70 kinda trounced my main’s +heals, so i went ahead and re-gemmed her properly…. basically getting my common sense back. Don’t ask why, i was having a self-conscious week.Regemming, after self-buffs and buffs from pally, i got:
it’s still a work in progress, and i definitely should have spent the badges on something else - but whatever….
I am pretty happy where i am at the moment though. Sans immense raiding, i would say i have done a pretty good job “casual-crafting” on my main. i still remembered being told somewhere at 69, that >2000 healing was near impossible to get. On the ally side, i have seen so many >2000 healing healers with less raid experience than me that i have been somewhat ashamed of BE-Ani. So to see her over 2000 heals.. *tear*
~Interlude~
Got my flying mount on DR-Ani!!!
/interlude
With all that said and done though, i will admit that running an alt motivated me to pug again - simply because i have to. my hours for availability and all just clash too much with everything else. plus, my ally guild contain this douche bag (or my INSPIRATION if you want to put it nicely) who insisted i only got guilded on my main because i was a chick.
On to the main topic though: Pugs.
Oh the so hated word. They suck, 70% of the time. The number of times i have wiped on trash mobs before I’ve even seen the second boss is COUNTLESS. and i am not even talking about raids. So, here’s my pet peeves with regards to pugs, especially encountered over the last 2 weeks:
- Dissing others’ gears - just because you have enough badges to buy out the vendor to cover your gear, doesn’t mean that everyone else is a scrub. as a tank, seriously, you can’t even keep aggro. you don’t understand why you shouldn’t be typing epic essays while building up threat. You don’t know how to watch healer’s mana, or that fear ward has a 3 minute cool down.
So in reality, your gear doesn’t quite suit your IQ and EQ levels. Keep yourself in the closet, get some REAL gears and stfu because i sure as hell don’t like to read your condescending yet stupid commands like “FEAR WARD ME!!!” 1.5 minutes after i have already cast it on you.
and seriously? that’s also the first time i’ve heard that no one needs salvation.
- incessant, unnecessary banter - Beyond condescending remarks to everyone else in the party though, i just hate too much un-necessary typing. it’s good to socialize, don’t get me wrong - but do you have to…
“HI VICTOR!! HOW’S YOUR MUM!??!!”
“omg, victor, did you know…”
“U.U so my girlfriend won’t have sex with me, what should i do?”
omg, just…wow. /wrist ok? 1 hour worth of it? seriously, use vent. use the phone - STOP TYPING DUMB SAKDJASDAKJDHSA…as,dsad.
- Lack of courtesy - Please, ffs, tell people when you intend to mine something in the instance. that’s what /roll is for, so it’s a fair go for anyone who wants something, and this include mines. Don’t simply assume that just coz there’s an OMGWTFBBQ-MINE!!! it’s all yours. ask, roll and then go for it.
oh, and don’t start the “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” conversation. The winner of that argument will always be me, especially since i WILL stop healing and leave right there and then. don’t. start.
- Ditching your group, then QQ-ing that they are continuing without you - If you’re the one who started a group, don’t be the first to leave because something didn’t go right. everyone’s saved to the raid/instance once you have done the first boss. Worse thing is QQ-ing that we’re continuing after you left - YOU LEFT! YOU LEFT US! you really have no right to QQ to anyone in the party, emotionally threatening your GF so she would stop playing…
the fact is, kiddo, with my 1.6k +heals, i still pwned your 2.2k +heals, and managed to keep tank up for dragonhawk. something wrong there? i think so.
- Lack of awareness - There’s some birds there. There’s some ROCKS dropping on your head. lasjdlkajs MOVE IT!!!!!! i can heal you, oh sure. But, in healing you for something as easily cured as you moving yourself, i have wasted that amount of mana + time that i could have used better saving someone else.
And, please DON’T aggro Gruul while we are trying to med. i mean, when we are medding, it means we are not ready. WTF ARE YOU INFRONT OF GRUUL!??! This also apply to tanks, please, wait for me to med up so i actually have some mana to heal you. i mean, if i am sitting down, if it’s the last boss, it means i need to med, not because i am a lazy pixel - or that i enjoy watching my priest sit and do nothing.
- Inability to gauge your REAL abilities - hey, i love to 10/20/30 pull too. In Lineage 2, i do big pull runs all the time. But unlike l2, i can’t heal at the speed of lightning. the “flash heal” ain’t all that flashy and mana efficient. So, while i appreciate your enthusiasm, mage/lock/tank, since you’ve already wiped once on that particular pull, can you stop doing that 5 times in a row? it’s been proven by the 3rd time that you suck already.
- Short notice? - Ok, so we all know that in heroics and raids, once you’ve killed the first boss, anyone that steps in gets auto-saved. if you’re going to leave, at least SAY SOMETHING before someone new got invited AND summoned inside the instance. Don’t do it AFTER!!!!
phew, long list of rant, sorry.
All that said and done though, i would say i am not perfect myself. I do strive and works towards being the best i could. Ashamed of it as i was, i would say i was feeling somewhat happy i ditched a douchebag Protardin last night for being obnoxious to others, and trying to teach me how to play my class even though he can’t tell one cool down from another - mid him trying to fight a mob.
Add that to a failed Gruul’s pug today, i just felt a need to get it out of my system.
Sense of achievement today? : Healing a group through Dragonhawk@ZA today with my freshly minted +1600 heals Draenei priest. For all the +2200 heals healadin insist that i got accepted into guilds only because of my gender, i felt incredibly satisfied to prove i have got skills today - to myself if nothing else.
..|..
you’ve got served
Ah, real life chewed me up. I know i promised some sydney pictures, but my net’s capped at the moment so i can’t do anything about it (unless wade surrenders his keys to me!!!) so let’s go through them one by one:
Work:
Mr Douche Bag got the boot. Again, i am not quite sure what happened there, but i think it’s the Feng Shui of work place - most people who get treated well gets this big ego all of a sudden, altering whatever was good about them into a vice. I don’t like to see people get the boot, and it hurts me that i have to take someone’s job away from them. but work’s work eh?
On the other hand, i might also get the boot soon at some stage. about 3-4 months ago, i called in sick because i genuinely was down with diarrhoea. I got pulled aside to be talked to, like a new staff being rebellious. Yesterday, i thought i sprain my ankle coz i kinda rolled on it, sparked some kinda sudden shocks all across up my legs towards my ass, so i called in sick again. hey people get sick yo… and i got a call back from my boss, claiming that he wasn’t happy, can i just come in and just stand at the till and blah blah…
Look, i know my personal health ain’t the business of my bosses… but again, i would like to say i have always proved myself to be reliable when they need me the most. I haven’t dumped them on their asses, i haven’t deliberately walked out on them when i wanted to. I even worked on my birthday and through half of my allergic reaction to alcohol.
and yet, despite the fact that i have legal annual leave accumulated, it seemed i can’t just take a break without someone being mad at me for taking a break. i can’t ask to be an hour late, even though there were many “golden
And, you know what? with the visit to the doctor today, we discovered also that my stomach was badly wrecked by my food poisoning, so i don’t think i can have dairy products anymore - which is what half of the abdominal pain was about the whole week - and so basically, i have been working the whole week in pain. and i haven’t once complained or dared to.
so again, my question lies in: why am i still here? i can find better conditions elsewhere, so why hang on to all this wonderful memories of has beens and what ifs? *shrugs*
School
ROFL exams!!! I win!!! /dance (don’t ask, it’s behind now)
Games:
That deserves an entire post to itself!!!!
housing:
we got served the four weeks notice!!! damn having to walk on a crazy leg!
real life beckons
Whilst games are fun, i am afraid alot of things are in order. exams are up shortly and procrastinating has to come to an end. i have managed to churn out essays, not that i didn’t. Unfortunately, i really want to ace this semester so i don’ need to hang back anymore.
There was also a wake up call today, whereby someone noticed my lack of interest in life recently. I have so many things going on at the same time so i can achieve everything, whilst struggling to have my own “me” time that i totally forgot about just… living. Next week i am clearing my annual leave mostly for work, partly to pack up this place and look for a new one. In the process though i will:
- organise less game time
- Clean up this bloody house
- GO AWAY from here so i can just LIVE.
- sleep
- Enjoy the sun.
- Go Church
There will be no time limit for these, just some form of organisation so things do get done.
Dear Rosie and Wadge and your attachments:
I will be away to sydney i think. Friday night i should be back. That fine?
^_^
lol@randoms
i like how random people happens upon this site, and then jumps to the conclusion that i am constantly of that particular mood. Ever heard of venting? people like them are the reasons why blogs exists.
i am “terrible” to work for. how i wish i can exert that horror, so maybe i can pick up better staffs instead of half-assed smart-arse ones.
Gawd, more dramas
I wish i can say tonight was a wonderful difference.
It’s not.
Said drama queen apparently ran off in tears last night… to nowhere. She did not return till this morning to her own home, because she had panic attacks and was in hospital. Apparently one of our co-staffs was with her, apparently, as she claimed, as her boyfriend. The boy is a cute young man in the army - but he’s definitely, sure as hell, not her boyfriend (yet another lie uncovered in this whole shit).
Her very worried mum was on the phone to us since last night, unable to work out what could possibly cause her young daughter so much pain. and at this stage, i am quite at a loss as to what to say to her. “your daughter is a lying drama queen” or “your daughter make you out to be her life’s pain in the arse to all of us, and then turn around and tried to make us out to look like bitches”. The truth is, the girls she bitched about were her friends as well. They listened to her personal problems and comforted her.
Then she turned around and tried to stab them, claiming she thinks the other girls hated her. what. the. fuck. psychotic little bitch.
In the mean time though, her mum was worried, as i mentioned. This whole little drama just blew its way out of proportion, and my restaurant manager actually sat us all down (3 chicks, me and the supposed boyfriend) and told us to stop terrorising her. Holy Fuckaroni. He wanted us to be the mature ones, live and let live since she’s immature and can’t handle life. To not try and confront her on her lies, and not play the “he say, she say” game.
Ok, here’s my take on what happened, sir. She came to me in TEARS. i did what i thought was the right thing to do: Solve workplace conflicts. Obviously it all went to hell because she lied and the girls knew she was trying to bring them trouble. I can’t help it if she lied sir, and brought herself hell.
Sir, personally i really don’t think it was harassment. All the girls did was ask her why did she lie. Instead of coming straight out and saying, ok i am an attention whore, she burst into tears, ran out into the night and cause herself panic attacks. Not to mention possible suicide attempts (if that part is real too). It wasn’t meant to be an intimidating action, it was, “hi, you wanted me to be fired, but why? what’s your problem with me?”
So, i don’t get 1) where i made it hell for her, if she was the one APPROACHING ME with her “problem” and wanted me to help her and 2) Since she was the one who lied, how the hell did we harassed her? or, fuck me, TERRORISED her?
maybe i should go commit suicide too, perhaps i might NOT meet her for real.
seriously.
a load of bullshit
We hire alot of young girls because our pay rates are on the low side. There’s budgets to be met, and it’s all metted out by HQ. So, to meet those budget lines, we often lower wages, as well as certain costs. This obviously leads to different qualities, and usually on the low end, of both floor and back-of-house staff.
We have this chick now, called May. About 2 months ago, she moved here and applied for the job. For a 17 years old, she has a wealth of hospitality experience behind her (or as much as Australian laws would allow anyways), a personality to boot AND a strong desire to stay within the hospitality industry. That, to me, is a kickarse staff to have. She wishes to do a traineeship too, sounds wonderfully awesome.
Now, with the 2 bitches gone, whenever i do a trial, i also sit down and have a chat with the potential employee. I am not one to beat around the bush. the first few things i mention would be the few house policies we have, what they can do, what’s available, and what’s a definite no-go. One of them policies: a drama free employee.
I mean, i understand she’s seventeen, she wants to have fun, the laughs and giggles. With them sometimes come a whole load of trouble too. So, once or twice, sure. But please, keep it to a minimum.
It’s been 2 whole months now, and while she was awesome the first month, the last 3 weeks have been anything but. I have had to deal with:
- constantly lying her ass off to cover up her mistakes. That in itself, if well used, is not a big issue. But her fuck-ups aren’t small, and sometimes, in defense of her, i had go up and tell a customer to man up and pay for their wrongly ordered items - which in reality was HER fuck up and which was so bad a customer would and could not communicate with her any longer.
- Constant whining. “i don’t want to do this section” “i want to work with Sam” “I need to go home early because i am catching the bus (but in reality she went to another staff’s house warming)” Once, sure. Twice, no problems. People get bored after a while you know. But every single fucking day i have to hear it from her.
- Ordering food and then not paying for it.
- Constant drama. One week, her mum’s giving her shit. This week, she told the whole restaurant and a half that she’s tried to commit suicide.
- disrespectful of superiors. I have seen her yelling at 2 managers now. While this is a granted dismissal in my eyes, apparently the laws have shifted and i have to give her 2 warnings before the final boot. fuck me.
- More totally work irrelevant lies to create more dramas.
I think i just about snapped tonight though, and i am glad i sent her home early. Saturday night, she asked to speak to me privately about some things that were bothering her. And as we spoke, she teared up, and said the other girls have been picking on her. When she mentioned she wanted to work in hospitality, they apparently told her that’s not what she wanted, and go do something else.
What they do in their private time is none of my concern. However, if it affects her working attitude, her level of comfort within the working environment, it is my concern. So i pulled one of the girls she mentioned aside tonight and discussed this on a casual manner. While on a personal level i don’t quite believe they would have said that, on a professional level i have to address it before it becomes a major issue.
The girls were HORRRIFIED. They have never even heard her say that she wanted this as a career. The whole conversation was but an attention seeking LIE. If i have been anything less understanding, and the girls as well, this could have potentially been a stupid situation where the girls would have been warned for condescending attitude towards other staff members.
i wanted to wrangle her neck, but i got caught up with something else. Next thing i know, the girls confronted her with her lies and all she could muster was, “i didn’t tell cheryl that” “i thought you guys hate me, that’s why i told Cheryl because she’s my manager”.
The girls knew that i wouldn’t lie to them about something like that, thank God. and they also told her what she should have known before: If you think someone hates you, FIND OUT WHY. not make up bullshit attention seeking lies instead.
Of course, the end of this drama was 3 very irate girls and one sulking in tears at the drama she herself created with her web of lies.
Oh dear Games…
I have pre-ordered Age of Conan, another MMO that looks pretty promising, albeit just a little gory. Because i pre-ordered the collector’s edition, it was meant to arrive with a beta key from EB Games. Now, if not for my wonderful friend, i wouldn’t have gotten the beta key as when i first pre-ordered it, it wasn’t available in stores yet.
The stupid part is, their idea of a beta for pre-orders is a STINGY one. Not only do you have to pay $5 to download the game from them (like hello, it’s $150 for the game itself, you stingy bastards), it’s a grand 16 GIGABYTES. 16 fucking gigs. you couldn’t even produce some cheap as dvd to your pre-orders.
even without net cap, wtf, 16 gigs is going to be a tonne of hours to download. And since we do have net cap, there’s no way i can download it.
WAY TO GO FUNCOM. *twitch*
Mother’s Day
it’s no secret how much i hate my mum and our wonderful “relationship”. Although, some friends who have met her felt she’s just a poor, uneducated little thing that needs to be understood, i beg to differ. The cunning that she employs, the pain that she enjoys causing… her every sentence about her own family and herself is laced with poison.
When i was young though, i looked up to her. someone who would love me, someone who would be all loving like those mothers on TV. To a certain extent, even now i hunger for a mother i could bring out with on mother’s day, and have a conversation with like some normal human being.
But i am not delusional. Mum and i will never be that way. This relationship broke long ago and i have no intention of caring about it. Mother’s Days, meanwhile, goes by leaving a bad taste in my mouth every year.
And working today utterly opened up my eyes to various other matters as well. I don’t think i am alone with stupids that call themselves mum. I have had:
- women with children, who comes in and first priority was, “I am a mother, it’s mother’s day, do i get a free meal?”
- Women who were like “my kids are not even 12! they don’t eat much, plus it’s mother’s day! make it really MY day and give us both discounts”. so basically, because you are a WOMAN with KIDS, you should have FREE round of meals, plus the additional service of cleaning up behind your ass. great job.
- Women who insist to the point of yelling, that their kids should be polite, but jab their paycheck folders at me, saying curtly “PAY THIS”. ya ok, great example.
I am not delusional, no one’s perfect, and i am pretty certain i would be a very aggro mother. These people just irks and irks and irks me. And tonight, i wanted to strangle just quite a few self entitled bitches.
NO. You became a mother by choice. When you spread those legs, children can happen. It’s not entirely your responsibility that you have children, it’s a shared thing, so this applies to fathers as well. So, it’s not up to the community to be responsible towards your kids. It should be you, first and foremost, and the last one up should be you!
And it’s not like i disagree with discounts, it was the way they phrased it, like the world owes it to them to give them something for “tolerating” something. hello? they are your kids.
so aggro right now heh!
Hello World
THIS is BULLshit. Seriously. When i wanted a pink laptop with all the bling, there is only black, blue, green and red. NOW THAT mother’s day is approaching, THERE IS A
ok. seriously. who buys mum an xps laptop, specced out for gaming, for mother’s day? huh huh huh? not everyone’s Grandma hardcore. omfg. I WANT PINK XPS M1530! not the service that comes with it but, just the damn lappy. damn it. someone go down to Arab Street and buy me a tonne of sparkly gems so i can pink bling my laptop up just to show what Dell should do next.
argh!!!! Time for more Call of Duty. BTW, i fail at producing screenshots from CoD4.
Dell’s response
Before i forget, I finally got a response from the customer service manager from Dell with regards to my “feedback”. Personally, i am not quite sure now what i was expecting with the response. I want nothing more to do with their customer service, even if my laptop breaks down now and needs a look at, i really don’t want to have to deal with their over the phone service.
Perhaps, i was looking forward to an apology, and then some freebies. However, also because it was so shitty, I don’t think anything they had give me would be sufficient. And on another level, i was pretty sure no one would take the time to read it in it’s entirety (it was EPIC) and then respond anyways. but she did reply 
and whilst i am pretty sure there’s a company policy that will bar her from telling me what they have done with regards to those employees, i think this will suffice.
“Hi Cheryl,Thanks for your reply and feedback.
Please understand that although you have experienced problems it is not a common occurrence, nor does Dell tolerate it. We pride ourselves on the quality and reliability of our products and services and make every effort to resolve any questions or issues our customers may have, in the most expedient manner possible.
In this instance it is unfortunate that we have faced issues with the delivery and service, I wish to communicate Dell’s regret on this point. We will look into this and take this up with the respective team.
At the same time, we thank you for your candour. I assure you that measures would be taken to ensure that this does not occur again, and I hope you would provide us the chance to regain your trust and loyalty.
Thanks“
Somehow, because of the word “candour” i was extremely assured that at least, even if she didn’t read the whole email, it wasn’t an automated reply. And now, with this load off my chest, i am going to kiss my lappy to death…
because it just gave me the ” BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH”.
oh yes, it did! and it’s only slightly more than a week old! *ph34r* it’s working fine now though… so maybe it was just a random fluke. *prays*
a noob’s guide to being an effective progression gamer in WoW
Be forewarned, this is a gaming related post, and particularly to do with WoW. 
Dear friends and fellow gamers,
This is written because i am tired of logging into games to spend the first hour or so being a guild’s or a person’s personal PR manager or something along that line. Like everyone else, we pay 15usd a month to enjoy a game, not to be someone else’s bitch. Bear in mind this is written with about 5 years worth of gaming experiences under my belt, most of which belongs to being part of active guilds/clans and friends with many others enemy guilds/clans. And while I have only played WoW for the last year, this is what i have done to be able to justify what i am about to say next:
- I was started off with about 100g by a friend, who walked me through the first 30 mins worth of my WoW life. Thereafter, i was pretty much on my own. I found Thottbot by googling, and while i love WoWhead now, i will still attribute a large part of my learning process to Thottbot and WoWwiki. There were few questions, unless i wasn’t clear about something.
- With WoWwiki, and some other forums/blogsites that google turned up, i planned my gears ahead. I wasn’t always right, but it sure as hell made sure i learn real quick what’s right and what’s wrong.
- I pugged alot. and by alot, i meant to the point where i was honorary guild member to some guilds, i was exalted with Shattrath and revered with others, and done at least 180 hours worth of wiping Karazhan and Gruul. This, unfortunately, is nothing compared to what alot of other people have endured. And even though I am a healer, there were days where i could sit there for a whole day and i still couldn’t find groups.
- I didn’t get my flying mount till about 2 months after I have hit 70. Hell, i didn’t even get my 60 mount till i was half way to 70.
- I did do enough kara to realise though, that i suck at rolling on weapons and armors needed for my class.
- I didn’t have any mods till the week or 2 before i quit my server. So alot of things i have learnt after getting my mods were i was stupid.
To start off with, when you’re new to the game, even if you’re 70, bear in mind that most people have played this game for over 2 years. If they give you constructive advice, listen and play it out before dismissing it entirely. Infact, listen first, worry later.
Here are a few mods (direct download links) that i feel is essential to levelling without too much interruptions to playing, of course there are variance of these, but these are what i used:
- LittleWigs - this covers the bosses in instances that belongs in the outlands. It warns you when and what’s going to happen next, assuming you have read up on some of the bosses at least. Of course, if you haven’t, and something shines big, red and flashy, it’s time to run or shield up, and have pots up. basic survival instincts, darling.
- Lightheaded - from the first few quests (although seriously, if you need help for the first 5 quests ever, you shouldn’t be gaming) right through to end-game stuff, this add-on parses helpful comments from WoWhead. This includes: mob locations, strategies to soloing some of the more difficult mobs, mob levels, quest suggested levels and the xp/rep you get for completing the quests. The mob locations though, is best used with the next suggested add-on..
- Cartographer - One of the best map add-ons ever, you can even stalk your guildies with it! that’s if they have the mod as well. On the flashy side, you can even find attachments that help you farm plants, mines and what not - it can get a little overwhelming though. With this add-on, plus some add-on attachments and Lightheaded, it can pin point you to exact locations of NPCs, quest mobs and quest locations. It also saves trainer locations in towns, so all you have to do is to open the map up and follow the blue dot.
- Inventory - I have used a few bags/inventory mods, mostly so i can organise my bags well and know what i have. While this is not entirely necessary, it is less painful than what Blizzard has given us. And why is it useful at lower levels? it helps me to see, instantly in one window (and not like 50 windows) what i need to freaking vendor.
- Omen - This updates every few days/hours/mins but this is a very important add-on, espcially if you are into end-game raiding. It tells you your threat, and gets more accurate when more people have it. Between 60-70, your tank should be pulling the threat, not you. if you are, and you’re not a tank, then you should know what to do.
There are obviously more add-ons out there, but it can be overwhelming to get too much to start off with. Blizzard don’t hate add-ons, so it’s really ok to get them. Do get virus scanners though, since some of them can be laced with loving. If you don’t get anything else, at least get Lightheaded and Cartographer so you don’t have to alt tab and guesstimate to hell.
Levelling in WoW is very easy, what with quests and the huge amount of xp per mob we kill. The quests for alliances can be a bitch (tried and tested) while hordies have to endure a different pain of their own (Tarren mill offers more xp, but more Allies shoving shit up our asses). The trick is to find one comfortable Zone (there’s add-ons out there that recommend zones too), sit there for 5-10 levels, and then moving on. On a PVP server, it can be an ass because there are asses out there. I have just been camped by a Tauren for the past 30 mins myself, so yes, i know the pain.
If you choose to solo your way up to 70 though, bear in mind that soloing skills are different from grouping skills. Some people know that innately, some people have to be slapped around with it. If you really want to get to 70 quick and painlessly, by all means, don’t do instances. but do yourself and everyone else a favour: When you’re 70, run through at least all the instances in Outlands till you are revered with each related faction before you run through heroics/raiding.
Why is that important? Why are people being asses and checking armory on me? Isn’t being 70 and wielding a weapon enough?
no. The truth and simple fact of the matter is Progression is labelled as progression and made out of reach from fresh 70s (although not so much that way now) because right off the bat, you wouldn’t be able to survive it. Imagine being a fresh 70, with welfare epics, but have only soloed your whole life so far… and then wanting to hop into Karazhan with no clue or hint on how to play your class in a group scenario.
you can possibly wipe people. you won’t just be a deadweight, you will be a walking volcano if shit goes to hell.
The last thing people want to do, is to log in, throw together what they think is an okay group, and wipe on trash mobs. guess who has to pay the monthly fees? not you. Guess who has only, say, 3 hours to play after work? not you. Guess who doesn’t want to waste valuable time teaching newbies how to play their class and the bosses they would have to face? ALSO not you.
It’s not the fun people pay their money for, and soon, if they start disliking the game, it just might be because of you or the likes of you.
The most basic way you can have an idea what you can upgrade to, is to run to WoW’s Armory and click the arrow beside your current gear. This gives you a whole list of (whether you are specced for it or not) gears that you can upgrade into. Spend some time on them to decide what you need, where you can get them from, what to gem them and enchant them with. This is of course, complemented by the theorycrafts that you should have read and have an idea of what gears you should be looking at.
At the end of the day too, it is exceedingly necessary that one should have done instances to garner some of the purple items/gems that can possibly drop from heroics/normal instances to boost your gears. There are some trinkets that, while blue, can be extremely good like the hourglass from Black Morass. Once the instances have been farmed like there’s no tomorrow, you should be more than well prepared to start on raiding stuff post Kara (and that’s assuming you have been farming Kara and Gruul’s too).
Having Gold is an awesome thing. You may not be able to buy the best gears, but you can buy pretty good starting gears from Auction house (at a steep price) or from Reputation vendors. On top of that, if you have an easy abundance of them (considering the recent large spate of daily quests we can now do without too much pre-requisites), you should be able to purchase the gems you need to start off with AND enchants complete with the materials you need for enchanting.
These gold should not be spent stupidly upon:
- an epic flying mount.
- an epic 1k gold title
- the epic riding skill for no particular reason.
- Aesthetic stuff that contributes nothing towards your gear or progression
Of course, the above is always important, and part of the “fun factor†in the game. Epic flying skill is needed for netherwing quests, but if you don’t buy the mount right off, the point is moot. If your gear sucks, the point is even more moot. If your point of the game is so that you can have all the pretty and expensive stuff, then by all means, spend your gold on stupid shit.
go buy a soap on a rope too in the mean time, it adds to the shiny collection, no?
but if your intention is to raid, is to group up, these are supposed to be the last things to care for.
there are now a hundred and one dailies out there that doesn’t need your epic flying mount to be effective and still earn gold. Farming mines and herbalism does not necessary dictate that you fly faster than everyone and their mums to get to the node. If you are farming at some hours of the day, there’s no one but you flying at turtle speed to the node. so there is no excuse for “flying fasterâ€. Hell, if you are going at turtle speed, chances are the node’s probably respawned by the time you fly there, even if someone’s ahead of you.
and the title thing? are you serious? How’s that useful? “i want to have fun raiding with everyone†but if you are a prot pally with 13k hp, and you want to tank SSC, that’s never going to happen with your shitty gears that you can upgrade with 1k gold worth of mats (aka the tankatronic goggles). even people with the gold to fling don’t necessarily give 2 shits about the ugly ass title. there’s better things to buy and show off your excessive wealth AFTER you have gotten the pretty gears to show off, like the Cenarion War Hippogryph which is actually an expensive, but USEFUL item.
So how do i learn my class, bosses, etiquettes?
- Etiquette
Different servers expects different loot etiquettes. Some of the most basic that you should know is: IF IT’S NOT MEANT FOR YOUR CLASS, DON’T BOTHER ROLLING ON IT! E.G if you’re a hunter, don’t roll on cloth stuff. I know we are all poor and stuff fresh at 70, but that doesn’t mean you deserve all the purples lying down.
The other important thing one needs to know is that every game is different. If people suggests that forums is how the whole Guild communicates, fully uitilise it. Learn your guild’s raid dates, and know that you have to turn up on those dates and hours, even if you aren’t raiding, and listen in on vent to see how they work. Don’t talk, don’t ask questions irrelevant to the raid at that time and definitely don’t spam chat channels. It’s rude, and you are definitely not a priority during a raid.
Please don’t whine about pugging as a , and how long it fucking takes. Hey Sweetheart, we have all went through that once upon a time. There are reasons why people pug, and people still pug. If pugs are hard, you would learn to treasure your raiding times. You would also learn how to save lives in the nick of time. You would also learn not to fuck around for 6-7 hours, because you understand how painful it is to wait for a group.
there are few reasons why I personally don’t pug anymore. I don’t have much time nowadays, not even to raid. So when i log on, i just do my dailies, which in itself can take upwards of 2 - 4 hours, since i do alot of random shit in between as well (not to mention the “oh my god, BGs sucks†factor). I just can’t find the time to pug instances anymore. but, i have done pugs before, i have wiped on trashes before i even met the first boss of even normal instances while in a pug, i have waited a whole day for a group once, only to lose random characters when the group is almost full… etc. So yes, i do understand it’s painful, but it’s a necessary pain to “grow and learnâ€.
Learn to use vent. Stop whining, stop spamming, and use vent correctly. Interact with your guild, and you don’t have to spam us with verbal tales of your mathematical calculations of how your shots were missing the head and headbox and how it should have been 
everidon’tknowanymore… just be real and considerate. really.
Stop asking help for everything. Google is your best friend, next is WoWwiki. LFG channel is wonderful, and in some servers, so is trade chat for groups. Help is of course often offered, but you need to learn that you can’t learn if you get help every step of the way. On top of that, people log in with intentions to do their own stuff. If you can’t be bothered to find things out yourself, then they shouldn’t be bothered helping you.
For a personal example… a friend offered to help me do my quests coz he was bored. All i had left in a certain zone was just group quests, so i didn’t mind the help. They were yellow, orange and red when he started. By the time he finished helping me, not only had i have no other quests left in that zone, or the other same levelled zones, i had only gained 2 levels. The next quest is only available 5 levels from then. I was royally fucked with that character unless i grind on mobs.
The rest, go figure it out yourself. by the time you can buy and support your own games, hopefully you have socialised enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong.
- Class
There are many compendiums worth of “theorycraft†or essays written on each and every class. googling can bring up some for you, and there are on-going blogs that discusses everything too. here’s a few from places that i do know:
Holy Priests - Elitist Jerks Compendium for Holy Priests.
Shadow Priests - Elitst Jerks again, because i am too lazy to google too much.
Protection Paladins - Elitist Jerk Compendium, Some Ideas on Prot Gears to look out for.
The Healadin - Elitst Jerk’s Healadin Thread.
BM Hunter - Ami Yuy’s Guide on WoW_Ladies: She also has links to other guides, like BigRedKitty and Elitist Jerk Compendiums. Not to mention, THE Godly spreadsheet on dps gears and talents - Cheeky’s Spreadsheet.
There’s alot more compendiums out there, on top of all the classes and talents available, than i really care to list here. The fact is, if you haven’t googled about your class or cared to find out more by yourself, than you have failed. and if you couldn’t care about your own character, why should someone else care about it for you?
Elitist Jerks have compendiums about everything though, so do flip through them, for both your class and profession needs. If you don’t understand what they mean by some terms or abbreviations, then you can ask.
- Boss Fights
And as to learning bosses? First, grab a Boss Mod of some sort. I am using BigWigs (thus LittleWigs), but i do know alot of people love DeadlyBossMod, which i think comes packages with an auto whisperer to tell people to fuck off coz you’re raiding. These mods tells you, basically, what’s coming up next in how many seconds. On certain bosses, they also tell you who’s afflicted with what.
But, before you can raid with these nifty things, you need to learn boss Fights. Each boss has his/her own fight and it changes with each “level†of health (to put it simply). The basic idea of each boss’s fight and strats can be found on WoWWiki, under their respective names. And then there’s Bosskiller, a site full of strategies, pictures and some videos i think. Even youtube would have some fraps of strats for each boss.
No one picks [ Insert Character’s class here ] up for groups!
Oh Em Gee. Let me surprise you with something - EVEN TANKS AND HEALERS GET IGNORED FOR GROUPS TOO! There are always a few reasons why, and one of the most unpleasant ones would be:
- you’re already known to be a dumbshit on that particular server
- Your class’s has always been known to have retards > intellectuals (reasons why the names Huntards and Retardins have sprouted).
But that aside, let’s look at the real reasons why:
- Group make-ups
At the higher levels, and especially for heroics, one has to be picky to ensure survival, less time wasted and doing the important things. You can’t say “i can’t afford it, i take whatever comes because otherwise i can’t get a groupâ€. Unfortunately, then, you are just wasting your time and everyone else’s time because chances are, with a poor group set up, you will probably just wipe on trash.
you generally only need (5 men):
1 tank (Prot warrior, Feral druids or prot pally works fine)
1 healer (Priests are normally awesomest, but i am biased)
1 Crowd controller (Mage is wonderful, but so are rogues, warlocks and hunters who knows how to use their traps)
and the other 2 have to be dps-es. Druids can morph into cat form for DPS i guess, but someone once advised against it when i asked, mostly because it seems not many druids carry 2 gears.
Now, if you have too many healers (aka 2 or 3) then you are missing out on DPS. It can not only mean a wipe, but it also means a long painful wipe. The same is true for too many tanks. An unproperly specced healer or tank can mean less effective heals or not enough threat being generated - which can again lead to a long painful and wasteful death.
Perhaps, a suggestion i guess, what can help you get such effective groups is to be good friends with a good tank/healer, if you are a dps-er. This ensures group survival and therefore ensures people want in on the group. It helps saves time to look for a tank or a healer, and so you only have to focus on one necessary class - not that it’s entirely drama free either, but it does lessens the drama.
Heroics wise, i believe it’s great to have a healer whose +healing ranges around 1200 - 1400. a Tank should be around.. 450 i believe. That is one thing i can’t remember, since i have always trusted the tanks who have offered to tank to be good enough - and they generally are except for one poor sod. It is generally advised that DPS-ers are at least in blues or welfare epics.
now, if the group’s already filled up except for a CC, Tank or Healer, and your character’s class doesn’t fall in any of these categories or you suck at being a CC, then you don’t make the cut. Sad, but true. There can be few exceptions, but few would want to consider the repair bill for someone’s sake
- Gears Does not fit the casting call
The sad thing is, if you are lfg in Heroics/raids, you have to be geared right. If you aren’t you WILL fail the cut. And that is not an insult to you, but a direct hint that perhaps you shouldn’t jump the gun and hope to do heroics/raids before you are ready. People do armory checks on pugs because they don’t want to waste time wiping, or having you fly all the way to instances only to realise that you suck. Responsible groups would have checked you before you enter the instance, since the heroics resets only once every day or something stupid along that line, and raids resets every week.
Therefore, the only way to improve? don’t jump the gun. Do BGs, run normal instances, get better, and join heroics/pugged raids.
So there you go. This isn’t an exhaustive list of stuff, it’s just a reminder there’s a shitload out there to learn and read while playing the game. If people worked hard for their gears, to play their class, it’s only right that you do so so that you’re not a dangerous deadweight to anyone. I mean, we all play to have fun, and if your idea of fun is shiny pretty things, go ahead. But don’t be a detriment to someone else whilst you are doing it. that is not right.
What have I started? lol…
For the past couple of days, i was staring at this email by a so-called customer service manager from Dell. She was asking me for a feedback on the chick that last served me, and assured me that anything i say will be worked upon and will reach the right channels.
And thoughts have been churning through my mind. I mean seriously, considering the shit i had to wad through to even get my laptop in my house, i wasn’t even considering making any use of my warranty should any need arise. I get better service from even McDonald’s (except maybe from Ching and Cheng, who are working there now) or the supermarket round the corner from me.
I know, many forums have pointed out that their after-sales service and very wonderfully-awesomeish. However, I have to ask, why do I have to go through all that, when i am paying for it, to FINALLY get good service? I mean, they even call their Customer Service personnels PROFESSIONALS.
and now, funnily, Dell might be preparing to make us pay for better service. I lol-ed at the article, whilst still trying to decide what i should respond to Hayley about Dell’s customer service. and yes, that’s my comment that i left at the bottom.
And in the end, i wrote the lengthiest email i have ever written in a while (the ones written to Jake over my no-net periods were the longest). It basically talked about my experience with Bathma, the last chick that served me, and skimmed over the rest of the horrible experience.
And then, i highlighted that the ONLY saving grace in the whole situation was that the laptop is actually awesome. how sad it is that a non-living thing was the only thing that lived up to my expectations. Obviously, there are some minor flaws (like how there’s no perfect brightness with the monitor. it’s either too dark or too bright), but those i can utterly over look because… I really am too scared to call and ask lol.
Clicking send though, i wonder if she is going to respond or do anything at all. I highly doubt she had read through the whole thing, so whatever. At least, that’s one off my chest to someone who actually ASKED if i was happy at all about the service. I didn’t have to call or email them this time, they ASKED.
