1000hrs


Summary:


-Woke up to find Dark Moon Faire had moved on for the month.  No more easy gold from selling the 16 slot bags.

-Explored most of Elwynn Forest, Dun Morogh, Teldrassil and Azuremyst Isle(the areas that were close to the main road) including the edges to Redridge, Westfall, Loch Modan, Darshore and Bloodmyst Isle.

-The best of these Starting areas, by far,  was Azuremyst Isle because:

• Most amount of collection quests without any other quest prereqs.
• The Southeastern part of Azuremyst Isle, most notably the East, Southeast and South, have a lot of non-aggressive  (yellow) mobs.  Not a lot to fight or run away from.
• A good amount of resources nodes (both herbing & mining).
• There is one quest where you get a fishing pole and lure as a reward from a collection quest.  One less item to buy when you are cash-strapped in the early game.

-Saying I was elated when I hit level 5 was an understatement.  Picked up all 3 secondary professions and then realized that:

• First Aid will do absolutely nothing for me until I can actually afford to buy cloth.  This once essential profession has now turned optional due to cost by playing the Pacifist route.
• Cooking:  Good for dailies and that's about it.  Most of the time, you have to kill creatures to get the appropriate reagents to cook and level up.  Also, cooked food does not vendor for much more than the reagents.  At least the Stamina bonuses will help to keep me alive longer... I guess...
• Fishing:  If you start at skill level 1 and fish in a higher difficulty area, such as Stormwind City or Darnassus, the majority of the items you bring up with be trash.  Tattered Cloth vendors for 1 silver each!  The other items come out to 18 copper each which is a fortune this early.  When all was said and done at skill level 35, I was able to vendor off 12+ silver worth of trash.  This is even better than fishing up actual fish which only vendor for a few copper each at most.  Oh, did I mention that it is good for dailies?  I read somewhere this will unlock at level 10.  We shall see...

-Level 6 comes with the ability to morph into catform.  Let's see:

• 30% increased run speed?  Check.  Less wasted time.  YES!
• Ability to go into Stealth mode (Prowl)?  Check.
• Complimentary ability to Shadowmeld?  Check.  I know you get this ability at level 1, but when prowl is on cooldown and you are in enemy territory after picking up some herbs, ore or collection quest items, it is really nice to use this ability until Prowl is available again.

-Decided that Pet Battles would not break my pacifist vows.  (Hey, technically, Amicabal is not killing any mobs herself.  To each, their own, right?)  This was the first time I've actually tried the Pet Battles aspect of WoW.  My initial impressions were very positive:

• Man, pet battles are pretty fun.  I like how it is more turn-based.
• Amicabal gains experience from some of the pet battles! (Along with the pet gaining xp too).  Another decent source of xp is very welcome.
• The ability to capture more pets is a bit addictive.  I wonder if there is a max number of combat pets you can own/have.  Also, I have multiples of the same pets.  2 rabbits, 3 voodoo figurines, what's the difference?  Also, account-wide pets are available, even on a brand new character.  So cool I don't have grind a different complete set with every character I have.
• Pet Battles are expensive.  10 silver to train.  Another 10 silver to heal up pets for a quest (wtf...).
• I check the mini-map for resource nodes, quests, and now pets.  So much to do, SO MUCH TO DO!

It really feels like I've passed the hump of playing a Pacifist.  Having great fun so far!

0935hrs

Lessons learned:

-Auction House deposits require at least some silver currency.  My plan to mine a few copper ore nodes and sell them on the AH with 13 copper in my pocket does not work.

-Cheap bag space can be obtained by buying the DMF 16 slot bag with 1 DMF ticket.  That ticket costs at least 1 game token.  A bag of 5 game tokens costs 50 copper.  I ended up vendoring some Peacebloom and Silverleaf at 10 copper each to bridge the gap.

-After winning a couple of tickets with the shooting game and the remote tonks, I finally buy the 16 slot DMF bag.  It vendors for 2g 50s.  My early money woes are finally over.  I even learn how to play the ring toss turtle so I end up with 5g and a 16 slot bag.  This on the last day of DMF this month.  Just in time.

-Also figured out that rested xp bonus should not rule all my other gaming decisions.  If I had waited to gain max xp from mining/herbing the handful needed to get my bag and make some real gold, I would've had to wait another month., or painfully vendor enough mining/herbing items to put up some copper ore at the AH and pray it sells.

-Read up that getting into pet battles requires actual mob killing?  Hmm... that could be a problem.

-Some upcoming questing goals:

• The Emerald Dreamcatcher, lvl 6ish
• Starting zone delivery quests, lvl 4-ish
• Secondary professions, Cooking & Fishing, lvl 5 so I can do Dailies
• Rogues Deck DMF quest, lvl 10

Time to start the "Starting Zone Exploration".

0025hrs

Wanted to start fresh and play a pacifist character in World of Warcraft.

Goals:

1.  No killing mobs.

2.  XP will be earned including, but not limited to, the following ways:

• Herbalism
• Mining
• Archaeology
• Rested XP bonus
• Exploration
• Non kill quests including holiday events
• Pet battles (I guess it is finally time to play WoW Pokemon)

3.  No equiping weapons.  Guess I'll be looking forward to off-hand items.

4.  Fresh RP server - no other characters for support.



Chapter 1: "The First 18 20 Copper are the Hardest"

So, I start out on the Feathermoon RP server and create a Night Elf Druid named Amicabal.  It's a play-on-words for "Amicable" which is a synonym for peaceful, how you should be when you are trying to be a Pacifist.  Since Shadowglen is already open on the map, I head out to Dolanaar.  I pass up the guy that gives you a "bring this to that guy in Dolanaar" quest but it is too high level for me.  I remind myself to come back later for it.

Staying on the beaten path, I reach Dolanaar and find my first good quest, "The Emerald Dreamcatcher".  The reward is 1 silver and some experience.  Hell yeah!  That will pay for picking up Herbalism and Mining off the bat.  I then remember that the Dreamcatcher is surrounded by Furbolgs.  Not feeling like dying, I decide to head to Stormwind City where I know there are 3 starter quests that should get me the 18 copper I need to pick up both professions.

I take the requisite boat ride over to the human capital.  Getting off at Stormwind Harbor and huffing it over to the Trade District, I realize just how much I miss flying mounts.  Hell, any mount would be awesome right now, even Travel Form.  Discovering Stormwind City gives me 55xp.  I'm about halfway to level 2.  Then I discover the Cathedral.  Rats, no xp.  Discovered:  The Canals.  No XP.  This is annoying.  I recollect that when I stepped off the boat I discovered Stormwind Harbor, but no xp there either.

Finally, 1st SW quest, "Package for Thurman", 130xp, no money?  Hmmm....  2nd SW quest, "Harlan Needs a Resupply", only 85xp, but 17 copper!  Whoohoo!!!!  Herbalism will be my 1st profession as herb nodes are far more plentiful than ore nodes.  I'm 1 copper short of buying Mining.  3rd SW quest, "Wine Shop Advert", 130xp and a bottle of Dalaran Noir.  Game.  Set.  Match.

Turning in the 3rd quest, I realize that the quest also gave me 150 Stormwind Reputation points.  "How come they don't list that on the list of rewards when you first get the quest?"  After 10+ years, no one has thought to do that?  Selling the bottle of Dalaran Noir nets me 12 copper.  Selling my starter weapon, Handcrafted Staff, nets me another 4 copper.  I am so relieved I can actually start earning xp besides just through exploration.

On my way to turn in the 1st quest, I pick up Herbalism as it is on the way and realize that it costs 10 copper, not the anticipated 9 copper.  I have never been stressed out over mere pennies, but how crucial they are at the beginning of the game.  Turning in the quest,

"Ding!"

I'm level 2.  My mind starts wandering about the next immediate steps I need to take.  "I should pick up the Mining and Herbalism tools.  I can't wait until level 5 to pick up Cooking and Fishing.  Those dailies will sure come in handy.I can't wait to have enough stuff to throw on the AH and really start making money"  .  Well, gotta make the xp from the gathering professions worth it, so I log out for the night to accumulate rested xp bonus in Stormwind.

Next time, we figure out just how frustrating it is to avoid all the mobs.  Oh yeah, and more running.

Hapa Nation Master List - addendum A

Mylene Jampanoi
Anna Tsuchiya
Erika Sawajiri
Janice Wei Vidal
Marie Digby
Michelle Reis
Natalie Davis
Olivia Lufkin

Hapa Nation Master List

Just creating a master list of Hapa girls. My interpretation of "hapa" is half-white, half asian.

Maria Ozawa
Misa Campo
Leah Dizon
Kelly Hu
Mandy Amano
Kristin Kreuk
Lexa Doig
Olivia Munn
Cindy Burbridge
Paula Taylor
Chompoo Araya
Sririta Jensen
Jarah Mariano
Lindsay Price
Rosemary Van den Broucke
Jaymee Ong
Isabella Leong
CJ Gibson
Raquel Gibson
Carmen Soo
Jessica Gomes
Sunisa Kim
China Chow
Janis Kowalsky
Sandy Jordan
Carman Lee

Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD: I'm sitting this one out

Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD... sounds like VHS vs. BetaMax to me. I'm sitting out on this one. Tell me, why should I waste my money gambling that one format will beat the other? Say I choose Blue-Ray... not that I have... this is purely a hypothetical situation. Ok, so I choose Blue-Ray, buy all these cool and high definition movies, complete a decent movie collection and BAM! HD-DVD has won the high definition war. Now what? I have to buy my collection again on HD-DVD? Are you kidding me?

Enough of that... I'm sticking with good ol' dvd. That's right... and I'll tell you why. I still own a regular tv. No widescreen, no lcd, no plasma, no projection. I tell you I'm lucky to even have a flatscreen tube. Not only this, but I really don't need a movie to be THAT sharp and crisp. My eyes aren't that good... and as I type right at this moment, I am approximately 11 feet away from my tv. The tv could be half fuzzy and at this range, it'd still look the same. /rant off

Ceiling fan pic

Here's the photo of the ceiling fan as promised. It's a nice one... a Harbor Breeze Model from Lowe's. My only gripe is that the light fixtures are the tiny ass Candelabra type instead of the normal socket type. Why is this important? Instead of paying a subsidized $1-2 per CFL bulb, these were $5 each! Oh well, it looks nice and the bulbs are rated to last 7 years...