We logged in WoW yesterday with no intention to take part in the big Shadowlands launch. We had the time to complete a few dailies/world quests, then the lag made it almost impossible to do anything else than read the chat and feel the excitement.

As we logged out, Orgrimmar was filled like I haven’t seen it in a long time. Thousands of people side by side, waiting for an event to start, this is the kind of moment that makes World of Warcraft so amazing. No other game can give such a fantastic feeling.

All we have to wait now is 10 days before we can finally join the fun.

People are getting ready to enter Shadowlands or, at least, to participate to the huge lag-queue-bug fest that is an expansion launch. But we won’t be there. Woooooot?!

We have almost the entire month of December off and we’d like to start leveling our characters at the beginning of our holidays. So, we’ll resist the temptation, we’ll even lock our experience gain until the 4th of December.

Even if there’s something incredibly exciting to be in the first wave on release date, Sof and I have participated to too many expansion launches to still believe that the experience will be smooth. The game will truly be enjoyable 10 days later. Hopefully, by then, the queues will be smaller, the competition for the quest objectives will be less savage and the lag will be reduced.

Meanwhile, I’ll be fishing in Pandaria or killing rares in Nazjatar…

“Sarah tries to start anew in LA, but her neighbours are not what they seem.” (source: IMDB)

The movie isn’t bad but it’s just not my cup of tea. It’s a bit psychological, but not too much. Things happen, but slowly. I don’t know how I made it until the end without falling asleep and I don’t even know why I don’t feel like trashing the movie in this post.

Maybe that it was a good movie but that it wasn’t really my kind of horror. I’m more of a “teens get murdered in the woods” or “my sister is possessed” kind of guy. 1BR plays on the nerves the frustration, a bit too much for my Saturday evening.

I don’t think that anyone would be surprised to learn that we’re Lego fans. We’ve already built a few Lego sets in the past, including the Death Star.

A few weeks ago, we purchased the Elf Club House to add a bit Lego fun to our Christmas decorations. Well, that’s how it started… We now have a pretty nice winter village that’s over the 4000 pieces, we also have Lego tree ornaments and a Lego Christmas wraith!

I’ll post more pictures as we complete the builds.

Did they listen to the community or was it planned all along? Anyway, the respawn timer of the rare mobs in Icecrown has been reduced to 10 minutes (from 20 minutes). It makes the whole farming more dynamic and much funnier. I’ve passed from “I’ll ignore this part of the event” to “I can’t wait to be this evening to join the grind”.

Shadowlands event is up and, while I had fun for like an hour or two, I quickly arrived to the point where all that’s left to do is to wait for rares to spawn. I’ve hated waiting for rare mobs to spawn since Timeless Isle, it’s a poor way to keep people engaged in the game.

My hard earned free time could be better used than stand in front of a spawn point, watching at the clock. I’m not asking for hand-outs, to the contrary, I play WoW because I enjoy to work toward goals. So, let me grind, farm and gather currencies that I can later exchange for rewards, instead of having me wait for it to maybe drop.

“Vic Fontaine was a 24th century Human hologram on Deep Space 9 created as part of a program simulating 1962 Las Vegas on Earth. He was a singer-entertainer who ran Vic’s Las Vegas Lounge. His holoprogram, along with his charming personality, quickly became a favorite among the DS9 crew and was frequently accessed.” (source: Memory Alpha)

I love Vic Fontaine, he is awesome. We’ve just re-watched the episode that introduces him – “His Way” – and I bet you can easily guess the reference. Just like Frank Sinatra, Vic is classy and a straight talker too. He is such a great addition to the cast of Deep Space Nine, he fits perfectly in the ambiance of the space station and I’m delighted to know that our rerun has finally reached the episodes featuring the old crooner.

Languages in Belgium are a real pain in the ass! We have 3 official languages: Dutch, French and German. It generates a ton of problems and even xenophobia. These problems have consequences on our everyday life, and even on our access to technology.

If you live in Belgium and your OS is in English, most search engines and websites will assume that you’re a Dutch speaking person. Because, you know, French speaking Belgians don’t speak English (am I a joke to you?).

This is already ridiculous, but it gets worse… When the Homepod was released a few years ago, Apple wouldn’t sell it in Belgium. While it can recognize Dutch (the one that’s spoken in the Netherlands), it can’t make sense out of the Dutch that’s spoken by Belgians because it is more of a dialect than the real thing. Since those people have a very fragile sensibility when it comes to their language, Apple decided not to sell its voice operated device in the entire country.

But wait, it gets even worse… While the official Apple website doesn’t sell the new Homepod Mini, you can purchase it on the websites of other shops… Only if you set these webshops to French!

So, if you’re a Belgian who uses an OS in English, it is assumed that you’re a Dutch speaking person. But if you want to use a voice operated device that recognizes English, you have to buy it in French. Wtf?!

As Soforah and I are in the process of swapping main characters, we are working toward a few goals from past expansions, like getting Legion’s fishing artifact.

I didn’t expect to find so many people still fishing for the Fisherfriends reputations. Not only is it very easy to find people to fish with but, Sunday, we were part of a 40-man raid for Margoss.

Legion was amazing for fishing and so many people are still enjoying it, many years later. So, why not creating more content for fishing?

Lately, First Aid has been removed and nothing has been done for Archaeology or Fishing. It’s time that Blizzard gives a bit more love to the secondary professions.

“A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door.” (source: IMDB)

The wretched was our main movie for Halloween eve and we’ve enjoyed it. It won’t become a classic in our collection but amidst nowadays drama garbage that poses as horror, The Wretched was a nice movie with a few scares and a good ambiance.

This is horror the way I like it: a b-movie with a creepy vibe that doesn’t pretend to do anything else but to keep us entertained on a Saturday evening. The effects were well done, especially when the monster enters or gets out of the human it uses as a host.

Extra points for the score in the first scene, I actually paused the movie to Shazam the title: Joypopp – Desire (Lueur Verte Remix). It’s always a good sign when a movie starts with a good song…