Wolrd of Warcraft?!

For one of my latest assignments, our class is creating an Ezine or online magazine about fantasy and escapism in Hmailton. My part in this was to play an online game and keep a diary...

I'm not going to lie, I had alot of pre conceived ideas about online gaming and the poeple that play, so this was an interesting excersice for me. I chose to play World of Warcraft for five days (short attention span...) I'm gonig to poast all of my diary entries on here and eventually a link to our finished Ezine! Yehaa..

World of Warcraft or ‘WoW’ is the biggest online gaming phenomena the world has ever seen. Launched by Blizzard entertainment in 2004, WoW now boasts 10.9 million international players (40% of them are supposedly clinically addicted…). WoW took five years to create and was universally praised by critics. People have literally died from playing this game because they simply couldn’t stop playing it. Personally, I’ve never been one for gaming. But after reading reviews and articles about WoW, I was officially intrigued to the point of putting on some comfortable pants and spending a week in front of my computer to see what all the fuss was about…

Day One:

World of Warcraft is defiantly a crafty business. You have the pay to play. There is no getting out of it. Luckily I managed to score a free 14 day trial. But if was looking for the full gaming experience, I would need to spend about thirty dollars. In other words I got the crap trial version. It’s not like I can tell the difference anyway!

To start off with you have to register, and then you get to create you avatar which will act as a virtual representation of you in the game.

Being somewhat concerned about my looks, I spent quite some time playing with my avatar until I was satisfied with her appearance. I got to choose her race (elf, gnome, human the list goes on), her hair cut, her skin tone and a whole bunch of other stuff which I knew nothing about,. … After doing a quick online search to find out what race is best I decided I would like to be a night elf. I named my avatar Bitey because she looks like she would bite someone if given the chance.

Iornforge is the night elf world on WoW. Iornforge is a mystical eerie place set amongst snowy mountains and is featured in the picture above.


I can already tell this is going to be confusing. I feel myself hesitating as I turn off the computer, I am anxious to see Bitey in action but I must resist addiction!

Weddings and Birthdays...

As someone who has recently experienced both a wedding (not mine) and a birthday (almost mine), I feel like I am in a position where I can offer my up to date opinion on both, with the feelings and associated emotions still fresh in my heart.

Weddings are great. Especially if the bride and groom are actually in love. Especially if you are a guest who gets to smile at the pretty dresses, cry at the vows and drunkenly stumble (dance?)around to the band at the reception...

I recently attended one of those weddings. It was beautiful. My girlfriends and I held hands and shed a few tears as we watched our totally hot friend/bride strut down the beach and get married to her long time boyf. As they said 'I do', I felt a surge of happiness for them.

Movies these days are really taking the piss. One minute a couple is getting married, next minute the best friend/ex/orthodontist pops up and says 'wait! I love you!' and BAM. Wedding off. Old finance out, new guy in. I mean, thats gross. You don't get married if your not 100% in love and committed in a forever kind of way, at least thats what my mother taught me.

For two simple words, 'I do,' can inspire some pretty full on emotions. Imagine how the bride and groom must feel. Imagine how brides and grooms everywhere must feel when they say it in todays society, where marriage has a somewhat damaged reputation.

Has marriage gone out of fashion? Has it become one of those things only some people do for real, like recycling? In todays society where independence is a survival instinct, people are losing their respect for one of the most sacred and beautiful traditions of all time.

Marriage isn't for everyone, but for those who chose it, it's one of life's most important events.
Dispite the high divorce rate, people still really do fall in love, get married and live happily ever after, no matter what you learnt on the E! channel.

Read this, I don't know how I feel about her first sentance....


Birthdays are so much better when you are five. All you have to do is open presents, attend your party and eat the cake. These days, if you don't organize it, it probably won't happen. If you do organize it, it probably wont happen right.

The best birthday I went to this year was yesterday. One of my posse turned 20. We didn't plan anything, we just did exactly what we felt like doing at the time. (we ended up at the beach, we ate, we drank, we made business cards...) Admittedly we did plan a few surprises for her.

The worst birthday I went to this year was a big party which was planned and agonized over for months. The poor birthday girl ended up in tears because at the last minute her DJ pulled out, the catering was all wrong and she ended up deciding, right before her grand entrance, that she hated her dress. To top it all off, only about 50% of the people she invited came. L-A-M-E.

Don't get me wrong, I have experienced lots of successful birthdays, but i guess what I'm trying to say is that a birthday should be about good times. A birthday shouldn't be turned into a 'who can throw the wildest party' competition.

Anyway thats just a page out of my brain on what I've bee thinking/feeling today.

People I stalk online

Every time I'm online, I systematically hit up the same bunch of web pages (a habit which delicious and bloglines have revolutionized for me). I check for updates, I re read old updates, and sometimes I feel kinda like a stalker.

I feel especially like a stalker when it's someone's personal page, eg their blog. However, I don't feel bad or creepy. Stalking online is encouraged. We live in a world where you can stalk freely and anonymously. We can 'poke' strangers on face book, we can 'comment', 'add' and 'message' anyone we want. ANYONE. Basically, the Internet is just a big stalk-o-thon.

I embrace the future of technology, blogging and social networking (too a degree.. I still know how to pick up the phone). So here is a list of people and places I enjoy stalking online and why;

My sister

My sister Jen is a fine arts student at AUT in Auckland. Not only is she my BFF, she takes awesome photographs, does amazing work and has amazing insight into human emotion. I often head to her blog for inspiration or to cure homesickness.

Htown.co.nz

This is the site I go to when i want to know what is up in the way of local music and gigs.It has the low down on all things musical and is a great resource.

Bridget Saunders

Saunders is responsible for the spy section

in the Sunday Herald. Surprisingly, there is more to her blogs than juicy gossip. It can be funny, interesting and opinionated.

Tegan and Sara

This is my favorite band...

Urban Outfitters

This is one of my favorite online stores, I especially love the apartment section. They have specials and sales almost daily, so I always check back, just in case the grey couch which I will eventually own gets marked down...

Too Pure

This is where I go to read about international music, learn about new bands...

Beauty and the street

I like to know what's going on fashion, music and culture wise on a global scale.

MIA's blog

One of my friends from high school...(lying) She's become really famous so I like checking back to see what she's up to. I can hear her talking in that UK accent even when she writes! I like reading her blog because she writes in an uncensored 'fuck the world' kind of way. I'm pretty sure her blog is under construction again, so check back soon.

I'm going to leave it there for now, I'm super tired.

Geocaching

Whilst looking around online at hobby related websites (research for the e-zine) I came across Geocaching. I was excited and a little frightened by the idea of a world wide treasure hunt..

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is basically orienteering on a global scale. Anyone can participate, providing they have a global positioning system. The point is to find a cache (a container type thing?) using GPS locations posted online by the cache owner. A cache contains a log book with visitor notes and supposedly valuable information. A cache also contains treasure such as CD's, toys, currency or trinkets which if you take, you must replace it with something of equal or higher value.

This picture is of a cache found in Germany

Geocaching also has elements of extreme and bad ass. Bomb squads have been called in to destroy caches which members of the unsuspecting public have mistaken for weapons of mass distruction. Geocaches are often questioned by the police for suspicious behaviour. It's hide Hide and seek with an edge.

You can join in this treasure hunt by registering on the geocaching website, buying yourself a sweet GPS, learning the lingo (waypoints, cache, geocions, travel bugs), seeking cache co ordinates online and going to find the sucker.

Geocaching loves you.

Instinct or impulse?

A month or so ago I walked into JB Hi-Fi and picked up a CD. I felt a connection to the image. It was pretty and I wanted it to live on my shelf. The music of Santogold would be amazing, I could feel it. I went with my instincts and payed the $25 to make it mine , without any knowledge of the content.

I got home and excitedly slipped the CD into my computer. The sweet combo of Indie and electro filled my ears, mouth and mind. This was a great CD. I felt a wave of appreciation and affection for my instincts, which had just helped me pick out my new favorite CD, minus the drama of pre-purchase research.

Last night, while listening to 'star stuck' by Santogold, I began to think about human instincts. In a way, I guess our bodies have a mind of their own. We automatically pull away from something if it's too hot and we scratch itches in our sleep. We buy CDs because we think the cover looks cool...I started to picture my hand with it's own little brain, thinking away down there next to my wrist.

I stole this little snippet from the book 'Human Instinct' by Professor Robert Winston:

"What drives a happily married man to fantasize about pretty, slim young women seen on a tube train? Why does a seriously injured, semi-conscious and dehydrated mountaineer battle against impossible weather conditions, refusing the comforts of sleep, to spend three days crawling down to the safety of base camp? How is it that so many thousands of people spend their week entirely focussed on whether their team will win their next crucial match? What stimulates that urge to press the pedal as hard as possible at traffic lights to make the fastest getaway? And how is it that so many people still hold religious views when the notion of an all-powerful being is irrational? All of these impulses are driven by our human instincts - sexual drive, survival, competition, aggression and our search for knowledge."

Instincts are unlearned. They are built into us. They are inherited, fixed patterns of response to certain stimuli.

I believe my CD purchase was fueled by the human instinct to 'search for (music) knowledge'. I have always possessed a deep-seeded desire to unearth new and amazing music before everyone else finds out about it.

I ended up back in the lap of my sexy old friend, bbc.com and took a human instincts test which i recommend, just for kicks.

Go here to 'test your morals" : http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/morals/

Go here to blow your mind: http://www.myspace.com/santogold

lets talk politics

I took an online test the other day which told me i was a bleeding heart liberal. Until recently i have never thought about my political stance. Am I meant to care about politics at 19?

I discovered I already do. I care about how much money the government is going to give students. Being anti war, hating racism, sexism and discrimination means I have political views and ideas, which actually match up quite nicely with the liberal way of thinking.

After my online discovery, I had a hot date with my thesaurus and found that liberal is partnered with words like tolerant, free thinking and open minded. I consider myself to be all these things. I told my dad one night over dinner that I was a liberal. "So you're a communist?" he said. Um no dad, but thanks for partnering me up with Mao Zedong.

I'm not a communist, and maybe I'm not even a liberal. To be honest, i know a whole lot of nothing about New Zealand politics, and most of my friends are the same.

Should we take an interest, does it matter if we vote or not? I think it does. Why am I so reluctant to do anything about it?

life therapy

I've been having this crazy recurring nightmare lately where i wake up with no hands and fail my degree because i can't write/type/slap people?

I've never had a recurring dream before, so i was semi freaked out about it and naturally, i went online to www.dreammoods.com and looked up "Amputation"...

"To dream that your limbs are amputated, signifies abandoned talents and serious, permanent loss. It indicates your feelings of frustration, powerlessness and helplessness. Sometimes amputation may also represent a situation that you have been ignoring and has finally reached a crisis point. In particular, to dream that your arms are amputated, suggests that you lack motivation. Dreaming that you legs are amputated suggests that you are limited in movements and where you want to go in life"

I hate you dream moods! it's all true! I totally lack motivation (when it comes to writing this blog), I feel frustrated and powerless ( no matter how often i dye my hair dark brown, it always turns a hideous shade of light brown), i have been ignoring situations (my laundry), until they are at crisis point (I nearly ran out of t shirts...) and i am limited in movement (exercise?).

Now, armed with the knowledge of my key current flaws (according to dream moods anyway) I am going into life therapy to somehow become motivated and learn how to manage situations. In other words i am going to call my mum and ask her how to become a responsible grownup instead of a kid.

Maybe I will buy a calender and teach myself to do sit ups? Watch this space.