Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A Perfect Pair

Travel Form was worth the lack of sleep. However, having a partner that can’t keep up makes it less useful. I keep offering to grant a level so that John can ride a horse but he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of me.

I finally have WoW professions for my Druid. I chose herbalism and skinning because I can just collect stuff.

My plan was to quest while the kids napped today. But my kiddos never napped. So instead I waited until john got home, we took a family walk around the local path for a few miles. The kiddos both feel asleep at 7:30 and we got our two hours of questing without neglecting sleep. Needless to say I feel productive.

Today we were productive in pairs. John wrote two papers, we each leveled twice, we walked two miles and played WoW for two hours. Overall a great day.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Will Travel Form be less impressive in the Morning?

My plan after yoga this evening to go to sleep early has been thwarted. With the elemental attacks going on at Kilrog I had to play WoW for just a few minutes. If you know what the heck I am talking about you likely also realize that just a few minutes is not what happened.

Basically there are cool mini-tornados swirling around waiting to get beat up by me in kitty form. Since I am starting my third server in three weeks, I am only at level 18. However, that is good enough to get both travel and sea form. I can turn into not only a cat but also a cat that runs fast and a cat-like creature that can breathe under water. I am almost ready to admit that John is right and we are not going to make to level 80 by the expansion. But I have not given up entirely.

The point of this brief and fruitless post this evening is that my I did not get extra sleep, grade or do dishes. I just spent the last 3 +hours playing WoW. I feel that my new abilities in game and 5 gained levels are a means of productivity. I wonder when I wake up early tomorrow to bright eyed toddlers and a long to-do list if Travel Form will seem as impressive?

Saturday, November 13, 2010

WoW vs. Grading

Because of the time of year my progress in WoW is a slow going. John has final papers, math labs & I have a mound of end of the quarter grading. Once the kiddos are asleep I am faced with a daily dilemma.




I started a new Druid last night and dragged John along for the ride. We found that he can successfully write portions of a paper with WoW minimized, unless I draw agro and then he needs to jump in and help instead of just follow. We joined Kilrog & John is getting back in the habit auctioning again so we don’t go broke. We are both arguing about how far we can level our characters during the winter break so I will keep you posted on how we are doing.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Intro to Video Game Studies & Married Life

In the winter quarter at California State University, Bakersfield I am teaching a course titled "Introduction to Video Game Studies." I am upping my gaming research IE gameplay time. It always seems to bring a spark into my marriage when I re-commit my spare time to gaming.

I started WoW on October 30th (after a 6 year hiatus) and I am working on my second Druid. I am currently at level 12 and only walking around in cat form. Things are slow going because of time limitations but John playing in a party with me is helping me level quickly. I work all day on a Mac but have been playing at home on a PC and the short cuts and typing are a bitch. I have almost got my interface right and then I work all day on a smaller computer and feel like I am back at square one.

 
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We plan to resume finishing up Tomb Raider co-op soon. I planned to wait until I was done with grading but that seems to be a pile I will never get under. So instead we are looking more optimistically at this weekend.

If you have suggestions about fun games to play side-by-side please pass them along. We may have completed our 100 days but the quest to remain a happily gaming couple forges on.