Why yes, I am a grumpy old fart. (RL, WoW, movie, RP)

[thistlechaser]

Frustration on top of frustration on top of frustration.

There I was, standing peacefully at the Dal AH, when these two people ran in and started spamming. Each did one /emote, the same one, over and over at each other. I told them to stop or I'd report them for spamming. One called me a grumpy old fart before they both ran off.

A while back, someone gave me some recommendations for good RPers, so I friended them and kept my eyes open for them. Today I spotted one in SMC! Joy! So I hurried there and wandered the city until I found him. The person was already RPing, so I hung back a little to watch for a moment. Hmm, nothing but one sentence posts, often in /say. Well, maybe with someone posting longer at them, he might post longer? So I approached and posted at him. The other person he had been RPing with ran off while I was typing. Once I finished, he posted watching her leaving, then said "Looks like I need a new piece of ass. You DTF?". I didn't OOCly know what DTF stood for, and Thistle sure as heck wouldn't know ICly, so I had him ask. Down To Fuck. Sigh. First off, how IC is the acronym "DTF"? Not at all, in my mind. Secondly... this is a good RPer? Asking a complete stranger if he wants to fuck, then ignoring my posts when Thistle got huffy over the question? (Seriously, he didn't respond to a post of mine again after that!) Sigh.

Then I decided I should watch a movie. Or, well, I guess it was before the RP thing, but same difference. I don't know why I suddenly felt like I should watch one, but I did. So I tried out The Grey. Rarely have I watched a movie that annoyed the hell out of me from the very first moments, but this one did. I actually made it through the first twenty minutes of it (I think hatred was the only thing that kept me going). I hated every single character, from minor to main. The minor characters were the worst though, every time one of them opened their mouth, I hated them more. Then the main character killed a wolf. Why? Were wolves a threat to the oil fields? The diet of wolves is 100% humans, so I understand why he wanted to kill it. Then, as the poor wolf was on the snow dying, he crouched there, gun in hand, and put his hand on the wolf's chest, feeling as it died. No, mister, don't bother putting it out of its misery with a shot to the head, please feel free to let its last moments be in pain and fear! I really should have turned the darned movie off sooner.

And, since I'm already going backwards in time, this morning I heard a news story that pissed me off. Mitt Romney strapped his Irish setter to the roof of his car during a family road trip. The dog was in a kennel, yeah, but he drove from the US to Canada with it on the roof of his car! Why isn't this a bigger story? Who in the world would consider voting for someone who could be so cruel to animals?

And the night ended on a down note. We hit up AQ to try to get some mounts for folks. The four of them had dropped so easily for me! I swear, it didn't take more than a half-hour of resetting the first few trash mobs when I went, but tonight was a different story. Even with the higher level cap, 4 85s can't clear AQ40. (Or at least us four couldn't.) It was supposed to be an outing to cheer folks up, but instead it did the opposite.

The one good thing is that I'm off work tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. I'm trying very hard to concentrate on the positive, to notice and note good things when they happen (this LJ post aside...), because it feels like I could easily slip back depressed again. I can feel it lurking. There will be no more of that, thank you very much brain! Positive thoughts! Be happy!

Edit: Watching The Walking Dead right before bedtime is a bad idea, but I can never resist!

Comments

[jadall.livejournal.com]

I can see that we need to reassert our dominance over the Dal AH. >8( Twitter Project or get out.

As for Mister DTF...what? Like...what? Just rereading your post about it made my face do a B/ and I can't imagine having the grace to respond well on the spot. C'mon people, keep em in your pants/dresses.

And boo to AQ40. D: You must prod me the next time you're having trouble and I will come lend my efforts to killing all the things (especially in the name of mounts).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

OUR AH, BITCHES!

I just cannot explain Mister DTF. Seriously. If he had been just random RP, it would have been one thing. But I was expecting someone good! That made it all the worse.

And thanks! I'm not sure if Nik and company are down for another attempt or if that soured the whole place (or if they're going to concentrate on the front trash). I love doing stuff with you though! :)

[wayblade.livejournal.com]

DTF...


D.T.F

I know there are some brash ERPers out there.

Even the ones like Kaelash that see someone on her wagon and ASSUME they are there for that.

BUT, REALLY?

Guy was barking up the wrong tree for that...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heh! Is that what sitting on the wagon means nowadays? The wagon used to be such an innocent place! :P

And for sure it was the wrong tree. Almost amusingly wrong.

[wayblade.livejournal.com]

Before Mikhial was an actual RP toon for me, I had him there just to see what Kaelash would do.


And...


>_>

I'm not even against that kind of RP, but THAT QUICK. DAMN.

[kaelash.livejournal.com]

Innocent place my foot. XD That's always been where Kae hangs to get ass (or rather, to try and fail miserably in all sorts of amusing ways because of how blunt he is), or are you blocking out all the times he'd try to get in Keen's pants, too? :x Well. When he wasn't trying to stab him.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*laughs* No, I haven't forgotten. Good times, that. All the stabbings and flirtings. I miss the old Keen. :/

[kaelash.livejournal.com]

Hey, hey. That's what Kae does IC. Don't lump me in with the bad RPers just because Kae's ICly a pervert. :

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Kae may be many things, but he's not a bad RPer! ;) :D <3

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Okay, read the story about Romney, and I'm genuinely confused. Why is this cruel? Even if this had happened last week rather than 1983, how is it any different than a dog in a kennel in the back of a truck? As long as it was secured well, which it obviously was to stay there throughout the trip, I don't understand what the problem is. The issue with unsecured dogs in the back of trucks is that it's dangerous. I've never seen a dog that wasn't enjoying itself greatly. Most people even now don't use one of those dog seat belts, which wouldn't have even been available back then, so again, I'm confused. I don't know what his financial circumstances were back then and whether he could have weathered ruining the inside of his care with dog diarrhea, but even if he could have, he had his kids there. Making your kids sit in a sick dog's poop is the kind of thing that can send you to jail, so what else could he have done? It's not like now where you could pull over, open your smartphone and Google up the nearest emergency vet...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

A dog in the back of a pickup truck would be protected from the wind if it wanted to be. Can you imagine being on top of a car going at 60 MPH or whatever highway speeds he was going? For twelve hours? Why couldn't he have put the dog crate into the car and the luggage on the roof? He was driving a station wagon, lots of room. He hosed the dog down and then drove on. So going highway speeds for hours on end while wet through. How is that not cruel?

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

In all fairness to Mitt, the story does state that he built a wind shield for the carrier so the dog wouldn't have to be in the wind while going down the highway.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

What kind of wind shield would work though? And even if it did (big if), the dog was still exposed to all the sounds and motions of highway traffic around it for twelve hours. How many of those hours were spent wet? And sick?

No person or animal should be strapped to the roof of a car, in my opinion. It's cruel.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I don't see how it would be any less exposed to the motions of highway traffic if it was in the car. Plus would it be any better to have the dog crammed into the car with all the rest of the luggage and kids? How do we know that they didn't get the dog dried off before they set off again? How do we know that the dog didn't have a past history of getting sick in cars so they made it as comfortable on the roof as possible so there wouldn't be dog sick in the car?

I have major issues with this story and it reeks of bias to me. Not in a hate/love animals way but a hate/love mitt way. To me it just looks like a character attack aimed to get animal lovers up in arms. There isn't enough information to declare it cruelty without making logical leaps one way or the other (for or against his actions). Obviously people who love animals would get upset and jump to the cruelty side because it's written to lead them down that road.

If he had just strapped the dog to the roof without worrying about it then I would agree, that's cruel. But he cared enough about the dogs comfort to at least put effort into making the dog as comfortable as possible.

If he had just kept going despite knowing the dog was sick, that's cruel. But he cared enough to pull over make sure the dog was ok and then clean it up so the dog wasn't sitting in it's own sick for the rest of the trip.

To me, the actions he took to prepare the dog for the trip (wind shield) and during the trip (not letting the dog remain in it's own sick on the roof) shows that he at least cared about the pain and suffering of the animal. From what I thought, cruelty was when you didn't care about the pain and suffering of others (or animals in this case).

I think that the idea of taking the dog with them was a bad idea. But he cared enough to make sure the dog wasn't going through hell. Once he did that I don't see it as animal cruelty, just a really dumb decision.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think we're disagreeing on a basic part of the story. To me, there's no way to transport an animal on the top of a car without it being cruel. Maybe if it were in a solid crate, with no air holes or holes to see out of, then it would be less exposed to the wind and noise and all that... but no air holes of course leads to other issues.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

But Thistle, dogs tend to /love/ car rides. They /love/ sticking their heads out of the car and getting blown by the wind. They /love/ riding in the back of trucks. Yes, even at highway speeds. Don't you ever see stupid people with dogs in the back of their trucks with the dog bouncing around, tail wagging, excited as can be? Don't you ever see stupid people with their windows down and their dogs sticking their heads out, the dog smiling wide as its tongue flaps in the wind? I've seen people who, when their dogs have gotten loose, drive around the neighborhood and when they see the dog, open the door and yell, "Car ride!" The dog runs over and jumps in the car where it would have just run away from the owner. Bad training, yes, but my point is that dogs, unlike cats, tend to love cars.

Additionally, I don't think you have any idea how miserable it is being inside a car with five bored kids cooped up. You've only got one sister, right? If you went on any road trips as a kid and remember them, think of what that experience was like. Five kids would make it exponentially worse. And this was in the days before Game Boys and portable DVD players! It's constant fighting, complaining of being bored, asking how much longer, wanting potty stops, wanting snacks, whining, and on and on and on. Hell, given the option, I would much rather be in a crate on the top of the car rather than inside with five kids! Plus your whole noise/wind issue assumes the windows were closed on the car. Air conditioning still isn't a standard feature on many cars, you have to pay extra for it. Half the cars I've had as an adult did not have working AC, which meant anytime I drove them in the summer, the windows were rolled down. Strangely enough, I have managed to survive, even at freeway speeds that these days are much, much faster than in 1983 as I believe there was a national limit of 55 back then.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

As veloxe said, the story says he constructed a wind shield. So, even if dogs didn't love being blown by wind, the dog was protected from it. And yes, he was driving a station wagon, but he had /five kids/. Irish setters are big dogs. Even if he hadn't had the kids, the crates constructed to hold dogs that size often won't even fit through a car door or trunk lid. Now, maybe such crates were smaller 30 years ago, but the largest suitcase I've seen still takes up less room than anything that would hold a 70 pound dog, even if it was so small the dog couldn't move (which /would/ be cruel).

From the tiny bit of information that I have, it seems to me that he was extraordinarily kind to the dog. Dogs are pack animals. Being separated from their family is difficult for them. Most people, when going on vacation, either leave their dogs home for a neighbor kid to come by once a day to make sure there's some food and water or take it to a kennel where they're going to be cooped up except for 2-3 short walks a day to poop and pee. Either way, they're separated from the pack and either mostly alone or stuck in a strange place in a tiny space with lots of other possibly scared animals around them. Instead, Mitt's dog got to go on a car trip, a treat for many dogs, and be with his pack except for travel time.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

He could have planned ahead though. He knew he had the dog, it didn't just show up on his doorstep the morning of his trip. As a pet owner, it was his responsibility to see that he could take care of and if needed transport his pet.

What kind of wind shield could he construct that would hold up at highway speeds for twelve hours? And even if it did work, which I have major doubts over, the dog would still be exposed to all the noises and sounds of the highway traffic around the car. A sick dog. A sick wet dog.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

Let's see, he could get a piece of plexiglass and cut it to size? He could get a piece of plywood? He could get a piece of sheet metal? He could get a piece of, I don't know, the same glass they use in wind shields? Any of those things would hold up. He did plan for the dog. He planned to take the dog with him! You seem to have completely ignored what I said about how dogs are normally treated when families go on vacation, and I'm talking from experience because I used to be that kid that went around to feed the neighbors' dogs. How is taking the dog with them worse than leaving the dog to feel abandoned by its pack? One of the things professional petsitters do to market themselves is go on and on about how much time they spend with your animals because of how much time they're alone compared to when you're home.

You don't know that he knew the dog was sick before he left. You don't know that he left the dog wet, just that he washed it off. I don't either-that's why I said with the tiny bit of info I have. But the tiny bit of info is that he took his dog on vacation, he seemed to attempt to provide for its comfort by giving it its own space away from the kids and with a windshield, and he stopped and cleaned it up when it got sick. Compared to many dog owners, that's pretty thoughtful. I remember a few years ago on a message board I was on, someone got a dog, the dog got diarrhea (probably from the change in circumstances and/or food), and the guy's response was to /get rid of the dog/. I said take it to the vet, he said oh no, we just took it back to the pound, I'm not cleaning up that kind of mess again. The standard of care is so low for so many people at this point and we're worrying about this from thirty years ago? This seems to me a lot like the people declaring that owners who buy the generic cat food from the grocery store are cruel.

Are there ways this could have been cruel? Absolutely. For example, if the crate was too small for the dog to move around in. If he yelled and screamed and cursed at the dog and kicked it as he cleaned it. And so on and so forth. But to say those things happened requires a whole lot of assumptions.

[threadfree.livejournal.com]

My brain can't even process the DTF dude. Just. wat.

AQ40 kicked your guys' butts? Did you have any class with heals available? Having anything with a proper heal button is more important than item level or number of 85s when there's mobs that inflict fall damage.

edit because my sleepy brain forgot I was going to add: no diss, though, 'cuz those old raids will still kick butts and take names if you're not expecting it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I know, I'm still boggling at the DTF guy. :/

We did have a healer, but it wasn't so much that we were taking damage as we didn't have the numbers to meet the mechanics of it. Like one boss (slime) needed to be frozen with certain magics and then you had to do X number of melee hits while it was frozen. Our party was a DK, mage, hunter, and priest, so even with Army we didn't have enough hits.

The other one we had trouble with was a set of twins. They'd switch sides and reset each other, but they didn't run like you'd expect them to, they just popped from one side to the other? We gave up at that point.

And no worries, I understood what you meant! We went in blind, so we weren't ready for the various mechanics of the fights. :)

[threadfree.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Twins requires classes with dots. The one is immune to all magic but holy, so you need rend or paladin dot, otherwise when they teleport, they will drop all aggro and go wherever they want, while cheerfully healing themselves to full. With a dot on, initial aggro is immediately whoever that dot belongs to. :D

Our group is usually an ele shaman, ret paladin, and a warrior, so we send the warrior and ret paladin to one side and the shaman to the other. Sometimes, the paladin accidentally dots both and that leads to interesting problems.

[blightheart.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem was we also didn't really know wtf we were doing and expected it to be a faceroll because we were so above level. I had no memory of the place save following 25 other people around years ago. As far as most bosses went, we didn't know who they were or what they did, we just hit them in the face and waited for shinies to fall out.

Then the slime happened, got to 1HP, and wouldn't die.

Then the twins happened, or what I'd rather refer to as the Perpetual Motion Machine of Fail.

Nothing's QUITE as demoralizing as getting your ass pranced on by something that looks like a very flamboyant superhero.

[threadfree.livejournal.com]

The good news is, the slime doesn't have to be killed in order to get to C'thun. The bad news is that you are going to have to time it JUST right to get him, should anyone need any mog gear from him. Our group had to bring in a frost mage, an enh shaman, deck everyone out in frost oils / enhancements, and then line up heroism, 4 elementals, and wolves exactly. It's just not worth the bother for a smaller group.

Nothing's QUITE as demoralizing as getting your ass pranced on by something that looks like a very flamboyant superhero.

I laaaaughed. It's so true. One little mess up on the twins can lead to a whole lot of prancing. I wish it were possible to dps through their heals. No such luck.

As far as AQ40 goes, slime, twins, and C'thun are all Not To Be Taken Lightly. You've seen the first two. If you guys go back in, make sure you're prepared for C'thun!

Top of my head tips are... Have everyone kill any and all tentacles that show up. Middle of the fight, he devours people, with the goal of killing tentacles inside him and then getting to the circle to get the hell out before death. The longer you stay in him, the more damage you'll take, and it only takes like 5 seconds for an 85 to get eaten. Save big DPS cds for after his stomach tentacles have been killed. Heals are a definite must for this one.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

You've also got to make sure there's always someone outside of C'thun's stomach, otherwise it's a guaranteed wipe. It probably won't be an issue with the size of group Thistle runs these things with, but it's good to keep in mind. I used to duo him regularly with a friend and it was a huge pain to time it properly.

[jadall.livejournal.com]

(That's what happens when you mess with servants of the Old Gods, Nik. no but seriously, fuck the twins)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heee. :D I thought of you while we were there!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what Nik said. I had never seen this content before, so we got to amusing moments like the slime. It must have sat at 1 health while we beat on it for ten minutes while googling to see what the heck we had to do to kill it.

'Amusing' became 'frustrating', when we got to the twins...

[threadfree.livejournal.com]

Vanilla liked its frustrating boss mechanics. Some of them get harder or even impossible the less people you have, too. BC can be like that on quite a few encounters too. It can be a real test of patience, group coordination, and "obscure raid knowhow" to go dabbling in the old raids.

And sometimes, like with twins, it can be a twenty minute fight that essentially gets reset every time the dots on the twins are messed up or allowed to drop... 9_6 Totally been there. See above reference to paladin dotting both twins (on accident, but if I had been in the same room as him, I would have pounced on him with a pillow and hit him until he dropped shinies).

[prettyredeyes.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. Not even where to begin in my shock and dismay here.

DTF? Really? I knew as soon as you mentioned it what he was going to say and.. ugh. When I read stuff like that I seriously wonder what happens to a person's filter where they say stuff like that and don't feel completely strange about it afterward. Now, I realize that a lot of characters are more forward about.. um.. *cough* hooking up and being ladies' men/studs/sluts/whatever, but the fact that they completely disregarded your IC reaction to the entire thing points to an uncomfortable OOC issue with the whole thing. That's the worst kind of disappointment and *hugs*.

On to the Romney thing, I read the story you linked with my mouth open because my jaw dropped. I get that he tried to put a windshield up or whatever but that's still bad. What I pictured was one of those airplane-style kennels with the door/grate thing and the holes punched in the walls. So even if he blocked the door off wind would still be whistling in through the holes, being loud and cold and scary. And if there was a blanket or something over it it was probably still flapping around. D: I can't immediately jump up and say that he's a cruel to animals because he tried, but I did face palm mightily. I can't help but think there was some kind of alternative. It was also apparently the 80s and people were doing things to their KIDS that parents wouldn't even imagine doing today, so I can imagine there was a shift in mindset as well in thirty years. I do hope he knows better now. :O

EDIT: If you ever need help with raids or anything, lemme know! I've never one AQ40 (but I'd like to) and I have heals and additional deeps I can offer. :3

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I know, I boggle so much at the DTF guy. Not just openly asking me, but outright ignoring me when the answer wasn't a yes? Sigh. People...

That's the kind of kennel I was picturing, too. Maybe it was something more solid? I don't know. :/ I'd probably drive off the road staring, if I saw that situation today.

Thank you! I'm not sure if we're going again, but if so, I'll poke! Hopefully the time will work out. :)

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

Maybe it means Doing The Facebook! (http://failbook.failblog.org/2012/02/03/funny-facebook-fails-dtf/)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I forgot about that! Okay, I'll take it to mean that instead. It doesn't make it any more IC, but it does make it more amusing.