Grimmtooth's Troops

Apple Cider Mage has this observation about the new Chuck Norris commercial.

Last night, Blizzard debuted another one of their celebrity ad spots during a football game. It featured Chuck Norris, of eponymous joke fame, with a fairly annoying and offensive Asian stereotype voice-over, running around beating people up as a melee hunter. Funny, right?

Eh, maybe not as funny as I imagined. Why is that, you ask? Probably because Chuck Norris has publically gone on record espousing many views that are fairly bigoted. Like that schools should feature a more conservative agenda, Day of Silence shouldn’t be held, and other such fun ideas like how he dislikes Roe vs. Wade. The fact that these links from his own blog and various websites go back a couple years shows a progression of ideas that he is free to express, but are not exactly friendly towards a particular segment of the possible World of Warcraft population.

The first comment on that post accuses her of, basically, being oversensitive to the issue. I don’t agree.

=====

Let’s set the wayback machine to Blizzcon.  Didn’t we just go through the same exact thing?  The only difference that I can see right now is that the leading lights of Blizzard weren’t onstage humping his leg like they were with "Corpsegrinder".

Yes, I totally went there and compared Chuck Norris with some obscure bunch of punks wearing black lip gloss, eye liner, and bicycle chains.  And it felt good.

I’m a little hesitant to just jump on that bus, though, because I have such a strong personal dislike for Chuck Norris.  The dark, seething hatred I feel for his opinions is unmatched by anything short of my loathing for the song Sunglasses At Night. So, I feel I have a bit of baggage, a bias of sorts, and felt that maybe that colored my impression of anything that has his name attached. 

And yet, I will happily participate in a round of Chuck Norris jokes because, really, that Chuck Norris has become a punch line, rather than an actual person. A mental bias, if you will, that allows me to sleep at night.¹

But I digress. The upshot is; Chuck Norris is a gay-bashing walking talking hate machine that happens to have gained a following by virtue of wrapping himself in a flag and appealing to the baser urges of his audience, which is exactly the same as Corpsegrinder minus the popularity, flag, and hygiene.

Listen, Blizz, I understand you just wanna have a little fun with our in-game culture and find crossovers with the greater popular culture landscape to exploit. I dig that.  But if you’re wanting to retain the business of the LGBT-friendly WoW community, which is quite sizable, you have to pull your collective heads out of your asses and vet your spokespersons.  I mean it.  Don’t make me pull this blog over.

I’m just waiting for Samwise to bleat "but it was all in fun, guyyyys!"

Party on, Wayne.

1. Fortunately, Yetimus has become the de facto stand in for Chuck Norris, so things have improved in that regard. [↩]

Excitements and Alarums

If you are a user of Google Analytics, and you blog anonymously, your real identity may be at risk of discovery.

The problem is that certain aspects of Analytics are public, including a unique ID that goes with a specific Analytics account – NOT the blog itself, but the whole account, which may be linked to multiple blogs.

Thanks to reverse lookup services, Analytics can be used to eventually correlate all blogs on a single account to each other.

If one of these happens to be a non-anonymized  blog, well, you’re found out.

What to Do About It

Don’t panic! The solution is simple, though somewhat less convenient than having everything under one roof.

Simply go out and create a new Analytics account for your anonymous blogs.  I personally would recommend one account per blog, for enhanced security, but at least decouple your real-identity ones from the rest.

True, this is a bit more bookkeeping for you, but if security is important, it’s worth it.

My Log Does Not Judge

I know there are those that don’t see the need for this level of security because they don’t feel they need it for themselves.  I can understand that; I don’t have the need for myself. 

However, there are many legitimate reasons, which I will not try to trivialize in any way.  Someone hiding from an abusive ex, not making it easy for sleazy collections firms, hiding from Mexican drug cartels … lots of real reasons out there. I’m not going to judge them.

If you feel happy using your real name on the internet, that’s fine. Just don’t be a hater. Respect others’ desire for privacy and either be helpful or stay out of the way.

A couple of updates.

First of all, many hells of bloggers have make their voices heard.  Whether due to this or due to glacially-paced cognizance at TGNTV, the offending arts have been removed. Score one for the good guys.

Secondly, as Liala herself has pointed out, the offenders are TGN-TV, not the far less (in fact not at all) thievish TGN.  The Management Regrets any confusion on this matter.

If you don’t follow Twitter, you may have missed this.   Well, I’m there for ya.

There’s this website called TGN-TV, one of those websites that gives me the willies, and here we have someone called "Pandora" giving away art.

And here we have friend-of-the-blog Liala and some work she did back in May.

See any resemblance?

Yeah.

Shame on you, TGN-TV!

Peeps, if you see merchandise bearing this art from TGN-TV or anyone other than the original artist, please don’t buy it, and report them to the proper authorities, or the artist, at least.

And for crying out loud, people, just because you find it on the internet doesn’t mean you can put your name on it and sell it to unsuspecting rubes.  You will be found out.  If you’re lucky it won’t involve a lawsuit.

Well, it was sure to flare up again.

As you may or may not have seen in amidst all the excitement from Blizzcon, there was a decidedly sour note hit at the end of the convention.  As fanboy favorite L90ETC hit the stage, they gave a big ol shout-out to the author of this lovely diatribe.

(Despite what you may have heard, this was not bleeped in any way at the con.)

Now, this was presented in typical fratboy "lol-wuz-dat-funny-Billy-Bob-yeah-dat-was-Cleetus-hurr-hurr" kind of way.  But, as has been noticed by a few sharp citizens, Blizzard themselves didn’t really seem to mind that our nasty little friend¹ was a homophobic bozo. And in fact they didn’t even make a statement about it until people made a fuss on the forums, at which point Bashiok, CM to the Gods², laid this out there.

If it offended you I genuinely apologize.

"IF it offended you, I apolgize"  Weaksauce. There is no apology here. Blizzard isn’t owning this. They’re saying YOU’RE the problem. If YOU are offended, they’re sorry. If you’re not, have a beer, you’re fucking awesome.

It was there because we thought it was funny – it was for fun.  We didn’t take it seriously,

"WE think it’s funny. We don’t take things like ‘feelings’ seriously."

it just happened to be a relevant intro for Corpsegrinder as he came out to sing(?) with the ‘horde’ themed LVL80ETC.

"Listen, we needed a relevant video that showed his finer points. I’m sure you’ll agree, we captured that pretty well."

I actually don’t think we’ve ever seen an uncensored version.

"Our PR department was too drunk to float us an uncensored copy or raise any red flags, and in ALL OUR YEARS OF ADMIRING THIS GUY, we never noticed that his jib was cut that way."

Also:

I don’t want to continue belaboring the point, but in the video Corpsegrinder (after his remarks) laughs and says "It’s just a game." He’s joking. Granted the joke uses profanity, but there’s no intent behind it.

"Listen, I’m tired of trying to appease you whiners. I’m sorry you don’t like profanity, but he’s not smart enough to find a substitute word for ‘fag’."

Well golly. I guess we should take our little sensitive selves and go play with our dolls. Weaksauce!

The blogging community has been far less apathetic.

So far, Piercing Shots sounded the call; I Like Pancakes meetoo’d and flew the colors proudly. Ratshag weighed his considerable self in on the matter. Vid has a lovely post on the subject. Even Big Bear Butt had something to say, albeit unwittingly ahead of the bruhaha itself³. As I type this, more add their voices, faster than I can keep up⁴. To this I add my voice.

I stand with them, and with every one among us that has suffered at the hands of the fratboys and their sycophants. Anyone that has felt they had to hide their religion, gender identity, political party, geek clan affiliation⁵.  Anyone that has had to endure a the hands of bullies because of race, gender, or other deviation from what a bunch of Biffs and Buffys have determined to be "normal."

I don’t care if you were born that way, made a choice, or ended up there after a series of amazing coincidences. It doesn’t matter to me how it happened⁶. All that matters to me is who you are and how you feel around all this hostility towards yourself.

I remember the feelings. 98 pounds, five-foot-four, surrounded by jocks and rednecks. Getting my ass rolled year after year on the way to and from school. It was hell being a nearsighted underweight geek as a kid, and there are moments of shame I will never live down.

That’s nothing compared to what a gay man or trans woman might experience day in and day out. I was able to leave my childhood behind⁷, but someone of non-white ethnicity, non-traditional religion, or LGBT – that’s for life, every day, and it has to be pretty damned scary to have to know that there is no end in sight, and even if you have the temerity to speak up in your own defense, you’re told it’s all just a joke and you should just get over yourself.

In the name of a joke, a bunch of inconsiderate louts made the environment around Blizzard HQ – and all it stands for – hostile to people that don’t fit a narrowly defined template of ‘normal’. The message is clear: "be like us, or wipe your faggoty eyes and go kill yourself like like a good <insert thing here>."

No. Not only NO, but HELLS TO THE NO.

Right now we’re playing a little game. How much bullshit are we willing to take from Blizzard before we kick them to the curb? Why is it so hard for them to act like, yanno, people?

But it’s coming to a tipping point. Eventually I’ll be looking at my email, get a reminder that my time card is about to expire, see something like this, and think "Not another dollar, assholes. Not until you own your shit and make things right."

For a company that has its hand out to us in the hope that we’ll plunk down over a C-note for a years’ subscription, they’re sure sending an odd message. One might think they’d be more eager to at least pander to what appears to be a large segment of their customers, instead of making fun of them and going "Ha ha, j/k!" when called on it.

There are plenty of other games out there to play. Plenty of them don’t make people feel marginalized about who they are.  And, no, WoW doesn’t actually do that in-game (unless you run into this guy now), but Blizzcon is very much a part of the WoW experience, and it just got tainted, badly, by a bunch of jerks, their fanboys, and their inability to handle it gracefully.

Ball’s in your court, Blizzard. Grow the hell up.

Two final points.

Firstly, a lot of people have gotten the whole horde-vs-alliance thing mixed up in all this. That’s a red herring. I don’t give a shit, really, if you’re that into being Horde. I might feel sorry for ya, bro, but you go right on ahead and pretend it matters.  What this post is about, which you should realize if you’re read this far, is that they’re using speech that is hateful to a large segment of the community in the process of trying to denigrate a game faction. Not cool. If it helps, substitute "Niggers"⁸ for "Fags" and see how comfortable you feel about it.

Secondly, I opened with "it was sure to flare up again". In a way, this isn’t just about LGBT discrimination. This is about mutual respect of your fellow gamer, of your fellow human beings. If what you do is founded on putting someone down, you will eventually lose your footing. Last time, which I referred to obliquely, was around the topic of feminism and the disrespect of females in-game and out that Blizzard has inadvertantly supported. To that, add gay-bashing.

That this recurs is the problem. Blizzard, again, needs to own its shit and clean up its act. Until that happens, this will happen again.

See you back at this particular soapbox in a few months.

1. Yes, they admire this guy and his band so much that they put an NPC in-game way back in WOTLK. [↩]
2. May not be actually true. [↩]
3. Good timing, bro. [↩]
4. And I thereby apologize for not including everyone in the interest of getting this done and out there before Panderia goes live. [↩]
5. More important than you might at first think. [↩]
6. I am not discounting the "born versus choice" debate or whatever it’s formally called. It’s an important topic. But, as Alton might say, "that’s another show." [↩]
7. My wife may disagree on that point. [↩]
8. Yeah, I’ll look that one in the eye, but feel free to pretend it doesn’t exist if that makes life easier. [↩]

Well, maybe you are.

Blizzcon starts today, and there is a lot of buzz over what may or may not be taking place at this event. Dozens of tweeps are out there passing along endless little details, relevant or not (seriously, I don’t care about the van decals. Have a dance fight or STFU). Blogs are bursting with speculation, with those that gotta have SOMETHING posting ANYTHING (you know who you are), and some being really creative and putting together original content that’s enjoyable to read and/or participate in. 

Traditionally a lot of blogs (you know who you are) put on the magic hat and take a shot at fortune telling. Others still (you know who you are) try to make it the reader’s job to provide content ("What do YOU think will be announced? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CLICK THE LINK AND WRITE A COMMENT!")

Two years ago, MMO-Champion put all the "pros" to shame and broke the news of Cataclysm well in advance of Blizzcon. This year, there has been nothing but silence. I haven’t even seen them crowing that they have confirmed that there is NOTHING to be announced, which leads me to conclude that either they know nothing (the big spoiler was a lucky find, and that luck didn’t repeat) or they’re in cahoots with Blizzard.

So what are the possible explanations?

• Considering that I don’t actually think that the people at MMO-C are really mean people, I think it’s possible they would respond to polite requests from Blizz to embargo their news. 
• There might have been some quid-pro-quo but I think they might do it without.
• On the other hand, I can’t imagine they didn’t foresee the massive disappointment that Blizz felt over the last event.  Nobody can be that obtuse, can they? In which case, they’re shallow and insensitive, and Blizz had to bribe or threaten.
• Or of course, there’s nothing to be broken early.
• Or Blizzard found and plugged the leak (fired somebody, moved somebody, etc?)

That particular sideshow aside, what is the big bad for this Blizzcon?

We know for a fact that the new project they’re working on will not be part of this. We know it as a fact because they have stated this bluntly, flat out, on no uncertain terms. I’ve even heard people from other companies that are in cahoots claim that they’ll get fired if they even talk about it. So, move on, there’s either nothing to see here (likely) or they’re complete liars (WTF guys)¹.

We also know from leaked corporate documents² that they plan to have another expansion out within the next eighteen months. To do that, they need to be moving on it now.

They’ve claimed that 4.3 is the final content patch of this expansion.

They’ve been forced to contend with declining subscription numbers and a lukewarm reception to Cata. They’ve made public statements that they plan to do something about it, using phrases quite similar to "more frequent expansions".

Diablo III has been delayed until 2012.  Some think that they will announce its new release date during Blizzcon. I agree, but I doubt that’s the big bad.

Finally, all is quiet on the Starcraft front. Last time there was a big SC2 reveal, it was out of the blue.  Considering how quiet it’s been, I consider that to be a huge possibility.

But, given the datapoints I have at my fingertips (which is not to say I have a lot), I’m leaning towards a new WoW expansion, as so many are.  There may be a SC2 reveal, but if it is, it’ll be secondary to WoW.

I understand that Mists of Panderia has been trademarked by Blizzard.  Hopefully, that goes with a TCG expansion. Because, Light help us, I don’t need the Blizzard version of Ewoks all over my screen.

And in fact I don’t think it’s that. I think we’re going to see something Argus-y in the next XP. We have unfinished business there, AND there are a number of big bads associated with Argus from which to select the next big-big bad.

Well, I imagine we will find out today.  It is the wee hours in California right now, and Blizzcon has yet to actually start up. Here’s hoping for an eventful and exciting day for all the attendees. May you all have a blast!  I’ll be watching from the bleachers, cheering you on!

1. This could also be another of Blizzard’s schemes gone awry. I can imagine one of the boneheads over there going "if we take pains to make people ignore Titan, it’s all people will talk about!"  Considering the ham-handed scripting they often do, I can see that this passes for subtlety over there. [↩]
2. Vintage charts, road maps, things that tend to be reliable because they account for real money being budgeted. [↩]

It’s always fun to read other blogs’ "lookee at our search terms" posts. People get to the oddest places with the most unexpected search terms.  I’ve never looked at mine but I thought I’d take a gander.  Unfortunately, the people visiting here via Google searches are relatively boring when compared to the freaks that land at, say, Zel’s place.

Let’s have a look.

• Varian Wrynn – It’s pretty sad that Flora’s rant about people hating on their own faction is in the top 150-ish search results for our beloved yet oddly quiet (in this expansion) monarch. And, by the way, why is that? He was all over the place in Wrath, but he’s been hunkered down in his new playhouse for Cata.
• (Hell’s) Angels Logo – The alt text of the logo for this silly story is in my top twenty results. Within the top 300 results, which buries it way down there, but still. What is this I don’t even.
• Oh, wait. That’s this page. Ranked in the top 100? What is this … wait.
• Quatloos! Ranked in the top 50? Clearly there are not enough ST:TOS blogs out there.
• By the way, that post is also in the top 200 for Murloc Mud Wrestling. Why is this a thing?
• Firelands nerf? No, but we have Firelands Nerd. That was … unexpected.
• We’ve got Tiffin Wrynn here, ranked higher than her other half. Sadly, since she seemed to be a nice lady and deserves a better destination than this.
• Hearing voices in my head? As always.

It’s Monday. Have a good week anyway.

Last couple of weeks there was a minor dust-up in-guild over performance in T12 raiding, and part of that bled out into the blogosphere. Zel had her say regarding two-healing at Murloc Parliment, and then Lono had his say over at Screaming Monkeys, and then things got interesting.

The thing that most people didn’t understand was that both are in the same guild, raid together, and generally spar with each other in a light-hearted way. There is mutual respect all around between them, as well as between them and fellow guildies and raiders. Oh, sometimes the humor’s dryer than even I am prepared to follow, but it’s humor nonetheless.

Unfortunately, someone walking in from the outside – say, linked from a widely-read omnibus WoW site – didn’t have this background on the two. And some of the reactions were unfortunate.

The biggest shock, however, were the comments from people that know better. Lono actually had to post something chiding readers about personal attacks, and Zel certainly backed him up on that. It’s not cool, and some of the not-so-cool ones really have outlived their welcome in my eyes. I don’t care how popular they are.

Here are the issues in a nutshell.

1. On Baleroc, we’re having problems with the enrage timer. We are five-DPSing the event, three-healing, two-tanking. There is a dance, but once you get that down, it’s more or less a DPS race.
2. The suggestion was made that we try two-healing it, because the one time we DID get him down, was when we two-healed.
3. Team Heal, that heavily unionized group of healers in our guild, sees this as punishment for doing a good job.  Zel has voiced her objections in guild and I believe she speaks for her union the rest of the healers on this matter, so move along, we’re done here.
4. Zel also blogged about it because, hey, it’s a good topic and she happened to need one.
5. In return, Lono posted (IMO) a good-natured rebuttal.

Okay, first of all. Two-healing.

Jasra, Clan Grimmtooth’s resident healer, two-healed all of ICC that we ever saw, except that one fight where you heal the green dragon. So, drawing from her experience, we are no strangers to two-healing from an intimate perspective. And, frankly, it sucks. One healer goes down, you’re going to wipe. Or you’re going to have to carry out triage to determine who lives, who dies, when things get dicey. So from a healer’s perspective, three-healing seems to be a great idea. I prefer knowing the team has no worries about heals.

I’m not saying that Jasra would still be an active raider if we had three-healed, but she’d've been a lot further away from the breaking point.

While flexibility is a good thing, and dual specs give us that ability more than ever, I think two-healing this would make it a miserable experience for our healers. And surly healers give surly heals. Penance even has a sharper sting.

So I agree with Zel (sorry, Lono), two-healing to free up a slot for DPS is not a great idea, in this case.

Besides, it ignores the real problem

The real problem was already stated clearly. This is a DPS race. If your DPS isn’t falling over, and the boss enrages, then the DPS just isn’t bringing the pain in sufficient quantities.

Mostly, I’m the problem here.

First, as a hunter, I have range issues. We HAVE to group up tight to control where the crystals spawn, and then I need to scoot back to be able to fire. This eats a bit of time, but hardly enough to make that much of a distance. If I’m charitable it’s 1-2K DPS that it accounts for.

That leaves around 5-6K difference between my performance and where my performance needs to be. I’ve been fighting it for a few weeks, now, even being as desperate as to shift to MM. No matter what, though, I still come in a lot lower than I should.

It’s not gear, either. I first thought it might be, but I’m seeing MM hunters with lesser gear and similar talent specs pull at least 5K more than me on a routine basis.

I’m forced to face the probability that I’ve hit a wall here.  In T11, I was upper bracket DPS for our team, but in T12 I have been bottom of the stack routinely.

So my current task is to figure out what I’m doing wrong and remedy it, if possible (and if it involves a macro attached to the scroll wheel – sorry.).

Et Tu soon, Executus?

The other possibility is that we’re just ahead of the curve a little bit. Shannox and Beth were both difficult at first but as we’ve learned the tricks, we’ve more or less got them to one-or-two-shot status. Obviously, they’re not going to put a boss that so clearly outclasses the rest unless it’s a gating boss (which I believe he is). So maybe we just need to focus on the others for now, get them down, then come back.

This keeps occurring to me but it has the foul taste of excuse-making for myself. Raid leaders can read the strats same as I.

People are too nice

My guildies are a bunch of awesome people that are supportive and encouraging and, for the most part, fairly patient. But maybe there’s times when we have to say, "we can’t take you until you improve."   Certainly, I feel bad that we’re held back on this boss on the raw numbers. But numbers don’t lie. If boss has X health, and you have Y minutes, then you need to bring X/Y/60 DPS total, or X/Y/#DPSers/60 per DPS.  And we’re not there. To say otherwise emphasizes the fantasy element of this game a little too much.

While two-healing may make it easier on the DPS to get the boss down, bringing the *right* DPS is probably a better solution. Barring that, we go off and beat on something a little more beatable.

There are no pushbutton solutions

PvPer wisdom to the contrary, every raid encounter is different, even when it’s the same boss on two different nights.  My situation is a good example of that. I have what are considered all the recommended spec and equipment and gemming and enchanting and reforging steps covered, and yet I’m doing worse, relatively, than I was when I was an undergeared noob in T11 raiding.   I’m going to have to find my own way on this, make it work for me, and unfortunately it takes more time than a leetsauce contingent might like.

Well. Don’t have to invite me.  No reason we both can’t own our mistakes here.

The Goddamn (Nerf) Bat Man

In a way the upcoming nerfs make me sad.  I suppose I’m one of those wannabee leetists for wanting to overcome the content through hard work and patience, rather than the hammer (or nerf bat) of God.

On the other hand, Blizz has access to numbers that we don’t. If they say that they don’t feel that progression is where it should be, they may be doing so because that’s the truth. I haven’t gotten to the point where I’m going to accuse anyone at Blizz of lying about it. They didn’t, after all, have to say anything other than "making some changes to tune some encounters to more appropriate difficulties".

I’m not going to lament the change. I’d've preferred a thing similar to the ICC buffs, so we could tell the crybabys to STFU and turn off the buff, but it is exactly what it is. Either adapt, or find a new hobby.

But, I know many in the guild will feel that the whole thing will be cheapened if we march in there and roflstomp the guy next week.

On the other hand, as Flora and Illume remind me, my old guild, the Vorpal Bunnies, just downed Mags for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and they were absolutely bursting with pride over that. This week, Flora went in with the group and they got Omnitron down to 23% on our second try ever. Even nerfed, satisfaction is there to be had, if you work for it and put in some honest effort. The Bunnies have a lot to be proud of – that was an amazing second try. My second attempt on Omni, we died on the third Tron.

I keep encountering a particular subject, or pieces of it, from various blogs. I think the thoughts behind this blog post started in earnest, however, when I read another blogger’s post that contained a comment about how, in effect, WoW was being invaded by old people.  I wish I could remember who it was, but at the time I couldn’t be arsed to get fired up about it, and now it’s lost to me.

At the time, I read the comment and just snorted to myself.  If I had to get wound up every time I saw somebody being wrong on the internet, I’d stroke out. Besides, sometimes it’s just an opinion and everybody’s allowed that.

But, let’s set the record straight here.

We have always been here.

We made this happen.

We were out there buying the progenitors to WoW – Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft.

We were out there buying the MMOs that came before WoW.

We were playing MMOs before they were MMOs.

Worst of all: you will be we soon enough.

And, oh, by the way, if you personally, in the moment, remember Gold Box D&D, first-generation Roguelike MUDs, and that sort of stuff, you ARE one of us.

So enough of that. The playerbase isn’t aging – people are just noticing that there are more people over 30 than they suspected. 

Now, get off my lawn.

Post production is done, and now the podcast is live!  I’m speaking, of course, of this week’s Twisted Nether Blogcast, which had the questionable judgment to bring me on.

• MARVEL at my ability to form nearly-complete sentences in the week hours of the morning!
• CHEER as Hydra practically squeaks when I say she was one of the reasons I started blogging!
• STIFLE the inevitable laughter when I try to sidestep admitting that I’m trying to cut back on playing time, ’cause, I’M NOT ADDICTED Y’ALL.
• SHOUT out to the guildies for representing in force – even Alas, dear GM and benevolent dictator for life, made an appearance!
• WONDER if Grimm can even READ, he missed so many chat cues.

Seriously, even though we were 45 minutes late starting, it was waaaaay early in the morning (or waaaay late in the day, I suppose!), it was an enjoyable couple of hours and I’d like to thank my gracious hosts Fim and Hydra for being crazy enough to have me. I hope you enjoy it, and, if not, I’ll have a word with Management regarding refunds of your full ticket price!

Well, it was a day later than originally planned, but my invasion of the Twisted Nether Blogcast was carried off last night and I only talked ten or so minutes over the proscribed timeline. Anyone that knows me in real life knows that Hydra and Fimlys got off easy. 

The Effers represented and livened up the chat channel. It was great seeing a bunch of familiar faces. I’d name names but I don’t want to risk offending if I forgot someone and left them out. It was almost 2 AM by the time we were all done, so imma claim sleep deprivation.  Anyone that heard me try to recite my blog URL will understand.

The podcast itself will be up later this week, at which point I’ll post a link.

Thanks again to Hydra, Fimlys, and everybody that attended. It was fun!