Where we play doesn’t feel so far away.

I play WoW at Keredria’s kitchen table. It’s convenient for tank-healer communication, and for when she wants to reach over and pat my head for being a good tank, or smack it for not trying hard enough.

Well, that’s not really true, but it feels like it sometimes.

You see, ever since Keredria got her new Mac she’s been having trouble with her vent. For reasons that she still hasn’t determined, her microphone randomly decides to pick up ambient noise even though she’s using push-to-talk. Often during a raid we can hear furious typing, something being set down on the table, sirens outside, cracking open another Pabst Blue Ribbon, or dancing in stiletto heels on the table in celebration of awesome heals (hot heels for HOT heals you know). Ok, maybe I made some of those up. Sometimes the sounds are a little ambiguous so I use my imagination. When this happens it makes Keredria very frustrated:

K: Can you still hear me?

Raid: Yes.

K: Damn it all to hell!

Heh. Actually the rest of us don’t mind. In fact we like it. Those little random sounds help bridge the distance and bring a raid that is spread across North America a little closer together. Also we can tell how many beers she’s had.

WoW wear & tear.

So last night my third headset died since I’ve started playing WoW (well, at least since I’ve started playing WoW with VOIP). This got me to thinking about the real life wear and tear of WoW (other than to our social/sexual/professional lives). For example, in addition to the clear need for me to buy headsets in bulk, on my laptop there is a crescent-shaped “stain” (for lack of a better word) where I rest the palm of my left hand while it hovers over the movement and frequently used number/function keys. If you look around your WoW-playing environment, what signs do you see that someone has spent WAY too many hours there and in Azeroth/Outland/Northrend?

My liner notes.

So when is WoW.com going to do a story on WoW song parodies? I’ll even save them the trouble of digging through the archives of Pretty in Plate. Here are the liner notes for Jessika’s greatest (and only) hits:

1. I Would Do Anything for Threat (But I Won’t Do That). This was my first and remains one of my favorites.
2. Can’t Crit This. It’s incomplete, a demo if you will, but I don’t think more is necessary. Ahhh…remember the days of the 490 def cap?
3. Tree of Life. How many trees have their own song? Tanks, if you want to get teh good heals, you gotta work for them.
4. The Newbie. I wrote much of this in my head while in the car after hearing The Freshman on the radio.
5. Let’s Do Lots of Dailies. Pet Shop Boys = win.
6. Badges for Nothing. My second Dire Straits parody. I want to do one for Romeo and Juliet (Romulo and Julianne) but it hasn’t quite come together yet. This one rocks.
7. Can You Read My Mind? This one is lacking for some reason. I wanted to write something kinda sappy and nostalgic, and at the time I really liked The Killers’ song, but it’s a bit meh.
8. Found Out About You. I really like the way this song came together. I was disappointed that I didn’t get a smart-ass comment from someone.
9. I’m in a Raid. Heh. Salty Jess. And yes, I’ve tried to do something with Jizz in my Pants — something about losing or gaining threat maybes.