Before anything, there’s a link I’ve been meaning to share for awhile. When a character hits max level, getting the order of rep maxing right makes a world of difference when it comes to getting that character geared. It’s also a huge headache. So Kahiaau at Green Bar Spec wrote a guide for each of the healing classes. I was thrilled that someone did the hard work to, in case I ever level another healer, make my life easier.
And there’s another link I want to share, one I want to brag about. During my previous clerkship rotation, I wrote an article for our student newsletter about my other passion. I’m quite proud of the end result, so I thought I’d share it. It’s written for pharmacy students, but it’s entry level and anyone should be able to understand it. Head over to the CAPSIL website and hit the “Winter 2011 / Hiver 2011″ link. I’m on page 14. Don’t stare too much at the creepy picture of me or you’ll get nightmares.
So, World of Warcraft. These days, I want to have my cake and eat it too. I slowed down on the gaming quite a bit so I could focus on clerkship. It’s rough. Clerkship, I mean. Even though I’m averaging 12 hours of sleep a night, I can still barely get through the days. I’m chomping on Advil and having sleep attacks all over the place. Which is pretty bad considering I’m making decisions that affect people’s lives.
When I get home, I get two thoughts: “I’m so glad I get the evening to myself” and “I’m so glad I don’t have anything scheduled in WoW tonight.”
But then I see my friends sharing their boss kills on Twitter and in their blogs. Most are either putting their final attempts in on Nef or doing their first few hardmodes. And I get jealous, I really do.
I have been raiding occasionally. Most weeks I manage to get one night of raiding in. The group I play with are really casual, so there’s no stress. They’re fun people, joking around and chitchatting between pulls. They’ve been super welcoming and have even convinced me to pick up tanking again. But I’m discovering that even when WoW is the least of my concerns, I’m not a casual player and I can’t act like one, no matter how hard I try. Maybe it’s that I’m not a casual person. Maybe my WoW attitude just reflects who I am as a human being.
I Like To Learn Stuff
The topic of “why do you raid?” comes up a lot. I enjoy raiding for a number of reasons, but most of all, I raid because I like to learn. Why do I do anything in life? Because I like to learn. I like the strain of learning, I like feeling the wheels in my head turning.
I’m often asked why I rarely like going out to bars. It’s easy: I don’t learn anything from bars. On the rare occasions I do go out, I enjoy learning the songs that are playing and figuring out new dance moves. But once I know the songs and can mindlessly dance to them? I’m bored to tears.
I’m also often asked how I can suddenly pack my bags and move across the country on a whim. Again, it’s easy: going to a new place, figuring out the local subculture, exploring public transportation, listening to town folklore are what gets me giddy. After a few months in the same place, I’ve got it down. Why would I want to stay?
Raiding is the same way. I actually don’t really care too much about progression or content or gear. My WoW dream is to be in a blind guild. I get my thrill from figuring out the rhythm of the fight, the best use of my spells, how to use different classes to counter various boss abilities. I don’t like reading boss strats, I’d rather figure them out on my own via log parses from different guilds.
When I’m not learning, I’m not having fun.
The Social Side of Life and of WoW
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not a very social person. I don’t like the division into “Introverts” and “Extroverts”- the terms get thrown around too much and I get the impression that those who use them don’t realize that introversion to extroversion is a spectrum, not a dichotomy.
But anyway, I’m not a very social person. I like people to an extent, but I get bored easily. My mom loves to tell about how, when I was a kid, I used to gather up all the other kids in the neighbourhood, bring them to my backyard and start up a game. Then I’d let them play and retreat to my room with a book.
Various bloggers often sadly write about how quiet and impersonal 5 man pugs are. I don’t get it. I don’t do a 5 man to talk about the weather. I like getting a friendly and polite group, but if I’m going to be chatting in a pug, it’s going to be about strategy. It’s going to be about something, you know, useful.
It’s not to say that I never like socializing. I love getting into really personal talks with friends, I like gossiping with the right people, I get excited when I find someone who can teach me about obscure things. I also come running whenever someone, whether I know them or not, needs help. (Don’t mistake it for selflessness. I’m a rescueholic, I can’t help myself. I need to feel needed.)
But the masses? I prefer them from a distance. If I’m forced to be around a group, I really appreciate when I feel welcomed, but allowed to stay in the background. I love how my classmates act all happy on the rare occasions where I’ll show up for a social event, but don’t hold it against me when I leave early. In game, I’m happiest when I’m encouraged to hang out in voice chat with people who aren’t weirded out by the fact that I usually prefer to listen without saying anything.
I Wonder if I’ll Ever Have Enough Hours in my Day
You know, there’s are a lot of things I’d rather do than have an office-type job. For example, I’d rather pull out my fingernails one by one than have an office-type job for the rest of my life.
But there’s one thing I really envy of you office-type job people: quality internet time. I look at my outdated guides, the lack of links to them, the comments I have yet to answer, the less than once a week updates… If I had access to the internet at work, I could totally clean up the cobwebs. But I don’t. And what little time I get in front of the internet, I’d like to, you know, actually play the game. (That stupid trinket isn’t going to find itself.)
But, I do enjoy clerkship. It’s straining, but I don’t think I’ve ever had such a wonderful learning opportunity. I’m doing general medicine, which is kind of boring (we don’t have a cardiology unit, so most of our patients are there for heart attacks), but at the same time, it’s amazing to see the stuff I learned in school put into action. I get to make medication recommendations, which is totally scary, but also exciting.
It means that I can’t play WoW the way I want right now and I’m worried that when I’m back on a decent schedule, I won’t be geared enough to join a progression 25 man guild. But it also means that I’m performing better at work and that I’ll be better prepared for my after-graduation career.
