Two and a half Orcs posted the National Education Association’s Top 100 books. He was responding to other bloggers who had done the following:
Look at the list and bold those we have read.
Italicize those we intend to read.
Underline the books we LOVE - since I can't underline (I don't know how), I didn't do this.
I present to you my own list. I used to love reading books so much, especially as a child. At present, I tend to read more specialized stuff. Currently, I've been going through a Terry Prachett phase.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - read 30% of this
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (abriged)
So far, I've read 36 books from the list. I look forward to going back to our local library and reading some of the others that I'm interested in.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Mini Pets
As soon as I learned that players could go around the WoW with a little furry companion of their own, I wanted one. Around February 2007, my husband went to his first successful Deadmines run and got me this sweet cat who was with me throughout my Azerothian adventures.
Hehe, she really hated taking baths.
Today, Wow Insider featured Breanni and his website. He actually has 82 vanity pets! That got me curious so I checked out the Warcraftpets site and ended up making my own profile. Tada!
http://www.warcraftpets.com/account/profile.asp?user=skully#col
You can actually keep track of what pets you have and make a wishlist. The ones I really want to get are the Phoenix Hatchling and Mojo. But current favourite mini-pet is the fairy tale-ish Sprite Darter Hatchling, the loyal companion of my mage.
In case you want one of your own, here is a walkthrough by Dianius.
Hehe, she really hated taking baths.
Today, Wow Insider featured Breanni and his website. He actually has 82 vanity pets! That got me curious so I checked out the Warcraftpets site and ended up making my own profile. Tada!
http://www.warcraftpets.com/account/profile.asp?user=skully#col
You can actually keep track of what pets you have and make a wishlist. The ones I really want to get are the Phoenix Hatchling and Mojo. But current favourite mini-pet is the fairy tale-ish Sprite Darter Hatchling, the loyal companion of my mage.
In case you want one of your own, here is a walkthrough by Dianius.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
War Song
Druids are renowned flag carriers in Warsong Gulch (WSG). Proof is in the t-shirt.
Dwarrow was a level 30-ish druid when our resident moonkin suggested I go into WSG and get my paws dirty. She said it was particularly fun to get the flag and run with it. I had serious doubts about that because from my pally experience, WSG and fun didn't go together.
Stealth, stealth, stealth to the flag room. Get the flag. Die, die, die before making it out the room. After one agonizing game of that, I decided that I sucked and would just defend our flag. But then I got whispers from team mates telling me that I should try and get the horde flag. Sigh. I tried to defend well but felt like a balloon that was scared of stabby and pointy things that hurt. And so I said goodbye to Warsong Gulch. Other druids may know the rush of flag carrying but it wasn't for me. I was also secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't do a lot of PVP even as a level 70 moonkin.
Then level 70 came and the boomkin turned into a tree! Suddenly, the thought that maybe it was better to have a druid healer rather than a holy paladin for 2v2 and 3v3 arena entered into my team's mind. Squeak! Uh-oh, do I have to go into battlegrounds to get gear? Of course I had to so I went back to WSG and the other BGs for honor and medal turn ins. Ae always went with me and I was able to rope in guildies to go on the "pain train"! But as I am now guildless, I had to go alone. I stuck with the same game plan, defend the alliance flag. However, I found that the stabby things still hurt and the warlock fear is still infuriating. Things also seemed to go on for an eternity.
So I told myself, might as well have a bit more action and go with the offensive team. And it was good. I kept pace with the flag carriers, healed them and tried to root and cyclone whoever was trying to hurt them. Along the way, I saw that druids turned to bear form as soon as they got the flag and turned to travel form when they got out of the tunnel.
Yesterday morning I went with the offensive team again and was one of the first in the flag room. No one was touching the flag though so an unlikely thought insinuated itself into my brain, "Maybe I should get the flag?" I looked around, there was still no one going for it. Blink, blink, blink, swallow. So.... I .... took... teh.... flag. Turned bear, went to the little alcove that had the speed boost thingee and ran and ran and turned cheetah and ran and ran and ran. I could see that someone had taken our flag but I forgot how to go to our roof to hide. But during the final sprint, this message flashed:
The Alliance Flag was returned to its base by Nubcakee!
So my furry feet jumped straight into flag capture one! Phew.
Afterwards, I went back to the horde side flag room. The rogue who was with me took the flag but then died so I had to take it. I managed to get out into the sunshine only to find three horde waiting for me.
I ressed and someone else had taken the horde flag so I went into the middle to try to help the flag carrier. When the warrior saw me, he actually dropped the flag in front of me so I could take it. Oh my! So I took the flag a second time into the flag room. But a rogue and lock were waiting there and I died.
As soon as I was alive again, I rode near the horde building to help the paladin flag carrier. Again, wonder of wonders, I was given the flag. I turned cheetah and we were able to get to the small roof leading into the alliance flag room. Below us we could see a warrior and lock fighting against a rogue. The place where our flag should have been was empty. So I gave the flag back to mister paladin and jumped to help the rogue but by then she had died. I was next to die but the alliance flag was returned that very moment so the paladin jumped to make our second flag capture. We were both in the graveyard a short while after but we were cheering.
We won that game. But more than that, something unlikely had happened. Me, the PVP-hating druid, had earned my stripes. I had become WARSONG FLAG CARRIER.
P.S. If I had the extra cash, I would have loved to get the "doncha wish your girlfriend cast HOTS like me?" tree-shirt. It's cool :D
Dwarrow was a level 30-ish druid when our resident moonkin suggested I go into WSG and get my paws dirty. She said it was particularly fun to get the flag and run with it. I had serious doubts about that because from my pally experience, WSG and fun didn't go together.
Stealth, stealth, stealth to the flag room. Get the flag. Die, die, die before making it out the room. After one agonizing game of that, I decided that I sucked and would just defend our flag. But then I got whispers from team mates telling me that I should try and get the horde flag. Sigh. I tried to defend well but felt like a balloon that was scared of stabby and pointy things that hurt. And so I said goodbye to Warsong Gulch. Other druids may know the rush of flag carrying but it wasn't for me. I was also secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't do a lot of PVP even as a level 70 moonkin.
Then level 70 came and the boomkin turned into a tree! Suddenly, the thought that maybe it was better to have a druid healer rather than a holy paladin for 2v2 and 3v3 arena entered into my team's mind. Squeak! Uh-oh, do I have to go into battlegrounds to get gear? Of course I had to so I went back to WSG and the other BGs for honor and medal turn ins. Ae always went with me and I was able to rope in guildies to go on the "pain train"! But as I am now guildless, I had to go alone. I stuck with the same game plan, defend the alliance flag. However, I found that the stabby things still hurt and the warlock fear is still infuriating. Things also seemed to go on for an eternity.
So I told myself, might as well have a bit more action and go with the offensive team. And it was good. I kept pace with the flag carriers, healed them and tried to root and cyclone whoever was trying to hurt them. Along the way, I saw that druids turned to bear form as soon as they got the flag and turned to travel form when they got out of the tunnel.
Yesterday morning I went with the offensive team again and was one of the first in the flag room. No one was touching the flag though so an unlikely thought insinuated itself into my brain, "Maybe I should get the flag?" I looked around, there was still no one going for it. Blink, blink, blink, swallow. So.... I .... took... teh.... flag. Turned bear, went to the little alcove that had the speed boost thingee and ran and ran and turned cheetah and ran and ran and ran. I could see that someone had taken our flag but I forgot how to go to our roof to hide. But during the final sprint, this message flashed:
The Alliance Flag was returned to its base by Nubcakee!
So my furry feet jumped straight into flag capture one! Phew.
Afterwards, I went back to the horde side flag room. The rogue who was with me took the flag but then died so I had to take it. I managed to get out into the sunshine only to find three horde waiting for me.
I ressed and someone else had taken the horde flag so I went into the middle to try to help the flag carrier. When the warrior saw me, he actually dropped the flag in front of me so I could take it. Oh my! So I took the flag a second time into the flag room. But a rogue and lock were waiting there and I died.
As soon as I was alive again, I rode near the horde building to help the paladin flag carrier. Again, wonder of wonders, I was given the flag. I turned cheetah and we were able to get to the small roof leading into the alliance flag room. Below us we could see a warrior and lock fighting against a rogue. The place where our flag should have been was empty. So I gave the flag back to mister paladin and jumped to help the rogue but by then she had died. I was next to die but the alliance flag was returned that very moment so the paladin jumped to make our second flag capture. We were both in the graveyard a short while after but we were cheering.
We won that game. But more than that, something unlikely had happened. Me, the PVP-hating druid, had earned my stripes. I had become WARSONG FLAG CARRIER.
P.S. If I had the extra cash, I would have loved to get the "doncha wish your girlfriend cast HOTS like me?" tree-shirt. It's cool :D
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Guildless and Having Fun
Here is sad me when I quit Exile last Friday:
Kman and Taeghas said nice things when I told them I was leaving. Ump asked me to explain why I was leaving in guild chat so people won't think badly of me. Here is a response I got:
I cried again that time. But I must say, being guildless also has its perks. Last Saturday, I was able to help Ae do some quests in Stratholme and get his Argent Dawn reputation up. Along the way, he got this new awesome toy Cannonball Runner. Holy Wrath for the win!
I was also able to do a lot of battlegrounds last Monday to work towards some nice shoulders and along the way got the cool Olympic-looking tabard and the pet dragon. Thanks Spirit of Competition!
On a side note, just walking around guildless has gotten me two raiding guild invites. I also pugged heroic Ramps and Slave Pens last Monday with two members of Gankers Inc. Both of them whispered me and told me I was a great healer. One asked me to join them. I know I can't be guildless forever because I love the social interaction in WoW but it's definitely a great ego boost to know that I'm wanted.
Kman and Taeghas said nice things when I told them I was leaving. Ump asked me to explain why I was leaving in guild chat so people won't think badly of me. Here is a response I got:
I cried again that time. But I must say, being guildless also has its perks. Last Saturday, I was able to help Ae do some quests in Stratholme and get his Argent Dawn reputation up. Along the way, he got this new awesome toy Cannonball Runner. Holy Wrath for the win!
I was also able to do a lot of battlegrounds last Monday to work towards some nice shoulders and along the way got the cool Olympic-looking tabard and the pet dragon. Thanks Spirit of Competition!
On a side note, just walking around guildless has gotten me two raiding guild invites. I also pugged heroic Ramps and Slave Pens last Monday with two members of Gankers Inc. Both of them whispered me and told me I was a great healer. One asked me to join them. I know I can't be guildless forever because I love the social interaction in WoW but it's definitely a great ego boost to know that I'm wanted.
I love Jane Austen
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
3 Strikes and You're Out
I had a full weekend of 25-man raiding. Friday, we went to Serpentshrine Cavern (SSC) and downed Hydross the Unstable, Morogrim Tidewalker and Fathom Lord Karathress. Proceeded to Mt Hyjal to try Rage Winterchill but no dice.
Saturday we went to Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair and on to Mt Hyjal for more tries on Rage Winterchill. Sunday night we went to Tempest Keep, killed Alar after two attempts then went after Solarian. That was where things really unraveled for me. Solarian has an attack called wrath... if you are the person singled out for wrath, you either run right or left of the raid to safely detonate elsewhere. Otherwise, you blow up all the others who are near you. It is nearly always a wipe. First two tries, I didn't get targeted but others blew up the raid.
Third try, I got targeted and I panicked. I clicked the chat button instead and wondered why I couldn't move. Next two tries, I had my finger on the A button to move left.... kept clicking it and wouldn't move. Fourth and fifth time I was targeted, I had pretty much shut down all my add ons and I was healing in caster, not tree form. I was able to move out but not so far. Umparevoker, the raid leader, asked me to leave after this.
I had been waiting for a chance to raid 25-mans for a while. But I found since SSC that I pretty much go down to 1-2 frames per second. I try to cast instant healing-over-time spells and find that I keep getting the message "spell not ready". I am pretty much always the last in the healing list by a large margin. I keep disconnecting during the raids as well and when I try to log back in, I wait an eternity for the loading screen, only to get the disconnected message again. Yesterday, my husband tweaked some video settings and I took out add ons again and tried it out in AV, same result. Snail crawling pace when I get to the place with a lot of players. It's time to face facts - my PC isn't good enough for big-time raiding. And we can't afford to buy a new computer. Any attempt to continue raiding SSC, TK and Hyjal will just end in misery. Pretty much means I'll have to bow out of Exile. There's no point staying in a serious raiding guild if I can't raid. (Yes, despite what my friend told me, there is nothing casual about this guild).
Oh and I'm not actually crying, that's just some water that accidentally got splashed onto my face.
Saturday we went to Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair and on to Mt Hyjal for more tries on Rage Winterchill. Sunday night we went to Tempest Keep, killed Alar after two attempts then went after Solarian. That was where things really unraveled for me. Solarian has an attack called wrath... if you are the person singled out for wrath, you either run right or left of the raid to safely detonate elsewhere. Otherwise, you blow up all the others who are near you. It is nearly always a wipe. First two tries, I didn't get targeted but others blew up the raid.
Third try, I got targeted and I panicked. I clicked the chat button instead and wondered why I couldn't move. Next two tries, I had my finger on the A button to move left.... kept clicking it and wouldn't move. Fourth and fifth time I was targeted, I had pretty much shut down all my add ons and I was healing in caster, not tree form. I was able to move out but not so far. Umparevoker, the raid leader, asked me to leave after this.
I had been waiting for a chance to raid 25-mans for a while. But I found since SSC that I pretty much go down to 1-2 frames per second. I try to cast instant healing-over-time spells and find that I keep getting the message "spell not ready". I am pretty much always the last in the healing list by a large margin. I keep disconnecting during the raids as well and when I try to log back in, I wait an eternity for the loading screen, only to get the disconnected message again. Yesterday, my husband tweaked some video settings and I took out add ons again and tried it out in AV, same result. Snail crawling pace when I get to the place with a lot of players. It's time to face facts - my PC isn't good enough for big-time raiding. And we can't afford to buy a new computer. Any attempt to continue raiding SSC, TK and Hyjal will just end in misery. Pretty much means I'll have to bow out of Exile. There's no point staying in a serious raiding guild if I can't raid. (Yes, despite what my friend told me, there is nothing casual about this guild).
Oh and I'm not actually crying, that's just some water that accidentally got splashed onto my face.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Wonderful Husband
My husband and I are now feeling free! Trying not to feel guilty for leaving the guild into the hands of our friend the pally tank. We're trying to remember that he wanted to leave to start a new guild of his own, so he's actually in a better position than if he had to start from scratch (4 bank tabs and a guild with a good rep).
But back to the topic at hand. Hubby the hunter told me last night that he realized after reading my first blog entry is that one reason he didn't want me to raid is because he wasn't able to raid. That he was holding me back because he felt held back from doing those raids he had been reading about way before we gots us some WoW. That's what makes him such a wonderful husband, he recognizes when he is wrong and apologises for it. /hug
(Photo idea shamelessly stolen from best girlfriend ever blog.
Last week, I took Dwarrow out of the guild and joined Exile. I was looking for a casual raiding guild so first I made an application to The Fluffy Bunny Gang. Their rules and whole philosophy just jives with my own. Only drawback is that I don't really know anyone. By chance, I had a whispered conversation later on with an ex-guildie who said I should give his new guild a go. That they are just as friendly and casual as V but are progressing well.
So I officially became part of Exile last Friday. Ae and I raided with them during their Gruul's and Mag's runs last Saturday (they usually open this to non-guildies). Sunday they wanted me to go with them to Tempest Keep but I declined as our account was already reaching its limit for the month which means we get speed limited to a crawl. Tonight, I might get a chance to go to SSC. It's all so exciting but I'm scared as well. I kept dying during Gruul's and once in Mag's so I'm very anxious about doing well.
But back to the topic at hand. Hubby the hunter told me last night that he realized after reading my first blog entry is that one reason he didn't want me to raid is because he wasn't able to raid. That he was holding me back because he felt held back from doing those raids he had been reading about way before we gots us some WoW. That's what makes him such a wonderful husband, he recognizes when he is wrong and apologises for it. /hug
(Photo idea shamelessly stolen from best girlfriend ever blog.
Last week, I took Dwarrow out of the guild and joined Exile. I was looking for a casual raiding guild so first I made an application to The Fluffy Bunny Gang. Their rules and whole philosophy just jives with my own. Only drawback is that I don't really know anyone. By chance, I had a whispered conversation later on with an ex-guildie who said I should give his new guild a go. That they are just as friendly and casual as V but are progressing well.
So I officially became part of Exile last Friday. Ae and I raided with them during their Gruul's and Mag's runs last Saturday (they usually open this to non-guildies). Sunday they wanted me to go with them to Tempest Keep but I declined as our account was already reaching its limit for the month which means we get speed limited to a crawl. Tonight, I might get a chance to go to SSC. It's all so exciting but I'm scared as well. I kept dying during Gruul's and once in Mag's so I'm very anxious about doing well.
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