Blackout

Finally sorting out my sleeping pattern (Whoo, I can see the morning again!) and feeling pleased with myself, I got up and proceeded to try and turn my computer on for a spot of gaming before breakfast. Only to find it wouldn't turn on.

Fairy nuff, I remembered turning the plug off last night as I could hear a high-pitched whine from its' general area.


(Click)

FZZZZT!

"Oh shit."


This small, innocent action caused all the plug sockets in my room (and the kitchen) to fry and trip the circuit breaker hidden behind my TV.

On the plus side, I found the switch and everything seems fine now. Also, I now know that my switch causes all power in the kitchen to turn off so the next time my flatmates keep me awake during the exam period... There will be reckoning.

World Building

Pandora City; the “Jewel of the Pandoran state” is situated on the mid-eastern coast of the continent, delicately balanced between the Dwarven lands to the North, the Elves of Sunhearth Isle to the West and the frontier of the human Haven Empire towards the East.

Originally just another annexed principality of the Haven Empire, the governor of the Pandoran province seceded from and cut all ties to Westerhaven around two-hundred years ago. These claims to independence were acknowledge by the Haven Empire in the form of the 3rd Haven Army launching a long and bloody campaign to reclaim the area. The invasion was eventually fought off by the brilliant tactical mind of the newly crowned former governor; Matthias Pandora and the hardened resolve of his followers.

Whilst the two nations now appear, at a glance, to be firm allies there is a rivalry between the two nations that runs deep within the blood of their citizens. This rivalry has resulted in several tense border disputes and some suspect that Westerhaven now bides it’s’ time until Pandora is weakened enough to be brought back into the fold.

The city itself is split into 4 distinct sections; the Wyrm's Gate, Merchant's and Noble's districts as well as the Warren - The main residential area of the city

Home

Stormwind City is the greatest and last bastion of human power in the Eastern Kingdoms and lies in the serene and stunning Elwynn Forest. Rebuilt several years ago by the Mason’s Guild, Stormwind stands proud as a challenge to the enemies of humanity; a constant reminder to them that the human spirit is not so easily crushed.

The main road into to the city, the Valley of Heroes, is flanked on both sides by mighty and imposing statues of revered and missed heroes of the Alliance, inspiring hope in the citizens of Stormwind and their allies – Some believe that through the unblinking stone eyes of these figures the fallen heroes watch over and protect them, guiding the human kingdom to greater glory and honour.

To say that only 5 years had passed since the terrible Third War against the undead Scourge and the Burning Legion, the citizens of Stormwind enjoyed a relatively simple and peaceful life. The troubles of the kingdom were many, but most of these lay far beyond the walls of the city and thus far from the minds of its' inhabitants.

Farmers from Elwynn, Westfall and Lakeshire brought cartloads of produce from the outlying territories whilst foreign traders from Ironforge and, rarely, Darnassus plied their exotic wares. The streets were busy with the hustle and bustle of everyday life and the gentle hubbub of conversation provided a comforting backdrop for the visitor...

Few paid attention to the heavily built young man that stood at the great stone gates to the city. He spent a few minutes gazing up at the architecture and glancing around with interest at the comings and goings of the city.

Hitching up his backpack, Alexei Almarov, Knight of the Silver Hand took a deep breath of the familiar smelling air and grinned broadly.

It was good to be home.

BLAMMO!

So. I got the gun.

My very own nerf gun. Blizzard, eat you heart out and warlocks beware

Now, this won't seem like so much of a big deal to you who either don't play World of Warcraft or share my enthusiasm for games, but I've wanted a gun that at least looks like this one since Dave first showed me the game.

However, this afternoon I took a trip to the in-game auction house and flicked through the items. My gaze held on another item, one that would be a vast improvement over my current big yellow bringer of death.

It was 980 gold. Which is a lot of in-game money.

Set phasers to Pwn.

Butohmigosh it's so pretty.

The Anatomy of a Sleepless Night

In an attempt to get my sleeping pattern back on track, enabling me to revise more and harder, I elected to spend the entire day awake (from 2pm in the afternoon to 11pm the following evening). The afternoon went pretty much as usual, some revision, some gaming, some reading...


11/4 - 11pm:
Ran a World of Warcraft instance along with Jo and a couple of people online at the time, then spent the next couple of hours setting up my room for a night up (sugary drinks, snacks, loud music and the TV). This was accompanied by random gaming and inane chatter to Matthew about how ugly he is.

Which is very.

12/4 - 2am:
Wave goodnight to Jo as she logs off the internet to go and sleep at a semi-sensible time.

12/4 - 4:30am:
Wave goodnight to Matthew as he goes offline.

12/4 - 4:31am:
Check favourites.

12/4 - 4:40am:
Continue playing World of Warcraft for a bit, flick through the late night telly to see if anything is on.

12/4 - 4:41am:
Check favourites.

12/4 - 5:00am:
Finish off second 2 litre bottle of fizzy pop, open up orange juice. Cunningly I save my Coca Cola for when I get really tired.

12/4 - 5:10am:
Find a neat hailstone based flash game, spend a few minutes playing this.

12/4 - 5:30am:
Realise I have left my World of Warcraft character running into a wall for an hour. Whoops. give up snowball game and continue questing.

12/4 - 5:50am:
Consider making a blog post about my time awake. Realise I haven't been keeping track of the time for my activities before this point and start making times up.

12/4 - 5:51am:
Check favourites.

12/4 - 6:00am:
Check favourites.

12/4 - 8:00am:
Start to get really, really tired. Open curtains in order to let sunlight into the room in an effort to wake me up a bit. Get a glass out and pour myself a glass of coke, content that this will keep me awake for a while longer.

12/4 - 10:00am:
Get woken up by a phone call from Jo, realise that my body must have autopiloted me back to my bed, gotten changed and fallen asleep.

12/4 - 10:05am:
Go back to bed. Screw it.

Service With A Smile

Most of the time whenever I go on my bi-daily carbonated drink and milkshake run the service at the Central shop is pretty good. The cashiers are usually polite and friendly and I'm starting to wonder if they don't see me as a regular - I imagine not every one of their customers appears every two days like clockwork, carting around a basket full of 7up, Coke, Fruit Twist Fanta and Vanilla Frijj.

However they've recently hired another checkout worker and I dread being served by her to a stupid degree.

This woman seems to regard all of the customers as an annoyance, how dare we interrupt her day of standing behind a checkout. How dare we ask to pay for our goods with a card and how dare we ask for two plastic bags instead of the uniform one.

Two plastic bags? Yeah. That's just how I roll, baby.

The first time I encountered this lovely ray of retail sunshine, I had my basket full of the usual nicknacks that I need for a decent night in on my own without Jo: A pizza, bottle of wine and a Frijj milkshake. I elected to pay by card and politely asking if that was ok I was greeted with a blank stare.

In most shops when you pay by card they'll tell you when it's ok to put your card in the reader and when they're done draining the funds from your account and you can take it out again.

Not this chick.

Oh no - She simply stands there watching you whilst you figure out how to work the blooming thing yourself, shoves the receipt into your hand without so much a word and turns back to whatever vastly important thing she must be doing.

Well At Least I Have Company

You probably know by now that my shower has been leaking for about six weeks and it's starting to get annoying.

I reported it six weeks ago and then five weeks ago I got an e-mail saying that the Student Support lot had sent my request to a plumber and to expect a resolution shortly. Five weeks later, still have a leaky shower and no sign of a plumber arriving ever.

Aside from the service being annoying, I've had to put up with the nigh-constant dripping (which has started to increase in pace) and just now Jo has pointed out to me that I have mouldgrowing in the corner where the shower is dripping. I'm putting this down to the constant damp conditions, because the shower-room is a wet-room (meaning it doesn't have a seperate shower cubicle) and thus can't drain properly.

Have you any idea how annoying it is to have a wet bathroom floor for six weeks?

Whenever I've wanted to brush my teeth, comb my hair, go to the loo or gaze longingly at my Adonis-like reflection in the mirror I've had to take my socks off or risk possible damp feet for the rest of the day as well as athlete's foot. Let me tell you, those times I forgot to remove my shoes before entering were fun: Not only did I have a wet floor, I then had a muddy wet floor.

So I'm reporting it (or, really Jo's reporting it for me as she's better at writing nasty letters that get people to actually do their jobs) again.

Update: They came and fixed it!

Updates

New posts up at OffTankadin and Around Azeroth with a Monkey.