Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I was sitting at my desk when I saw motion out of my eye. I looked across the room, out the sliding glass window, and there was a giant hawk or falcon or something! Much bigger than my cat!



Look at the size of those talons!

A bunch of small birds (wrens or chickadees or something) have been breeding on my porch for days now, so I guess they finally attracted the predator.

I hope it comes back so I can get better pictures!

I knew going in that this thing would have a giant learning curve, but I didn't know how sharp and how long it would take. Based on reviews, it takes 17-22 hours of use for it to become natural (but once it does, it's better than anything).

I'm not certain I'm seeing a benefit in it for me, at least for the very limited use I'm using it right now (moving, mounting). There's a number pad on the side of the mouse, for use by your thumb. 1-12. I have 12 for auto run, 11 for turning right, 10 for left, and 9 for mounting land mount, 6 for mounting flying mount/flight form. Oh, a picture will make this easier, and can make use of my new camera!


Holy cat fur, Batman! (The picture doesn't do it justice. It's sleek black, with the number pad, wheel, and logo glowing a deep blue. Pretty!)

12-11-10 is a way more natural movement for my thumb than 12-9-6, that's why I set up running that way. Still, I'm really not sure if it's easier to move that way than to have my hand a few inches over and using the number pad instead. Plus, during my hour or so of use, it makes my thumb/hand cramp up. (Once I get used to it, I'm guessing that'll stop, since right now I'm holding it really tense and trying to remember where buttons are so I don't run into walls endlessly.)

Once I'm used to it, once I can use it without thinking and for more than just moving, I think it might be a good thing. I find myself falling back on using the keyboard to move though, I have to remember to make myself use the mouse and even then sometimes I just don't feel like it!

Photos! A non-LJ friend and I were talking about how many notes we take for MMOs. That made me laugh, as I had five or six notebooks filled with FFXI notes and for WoW I have... one page. Compare the two, and see my sucky handwriting, too! It's hard to tell, because the inside back cover is white, but that's the last page of a 500 page notebook (Easter egg tracking on FFXI!). The top notebook, the WoW one? That's the one and only page I used. :P (And yes, I need a new desk. Likely will get one soon.)

Last picture, and an answer to one of ani_mama's meme questions: I'm glad I bought a sofa, my cat loves it. She uses it 37492147014701 times more than me, ha! It's a perfect sofa for a cat, leather and really smushy, so when she rests on it she sinks in. From the back, she can look out the window!

And on the subject of memes, I mentioned the '30 day IC blog post' one, but I decided not to do it on the very first day. I really don't like feeling like I HAVE TO blog every day, once a day. I think that's the same reason I never went back to the RP one (yet?), it annoyed me that I had to write every day...