Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

TBT: The Legendary Lodge Trifecta

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On August 28, 2014

In TBT

lodge-crewWhy do I call it a trifecta? Simply because it was definitely a three-way win for all of us. My final year at Purdue, while Alex and I were trying to find our final West Lafayette living quarters, we found Erin. Alex and known her previously but it was my first time meeting her. It almost might be strange for me to admit that it was also the first time I had a female roommate, but honestly that wasn’t really relevant. What became relevant is now we could split the rent and utilities three ways, and so we picked up the three bedroom apartment at The Lodge.

I already knew Alex was going to be a great roommate and I would soon to find out that Erin was also a great roommate. The only thing that wasn’t good about the arrangement, we only had Erin for the Fall semester. She graduated in December and would have to leave us. Erin gave me a huge appreciation for the Purdue Marching Band of which she was a member. Granted we would still have the benefit of splitting the rent three ways as the apartment complex management would arrange for another person to move in for the Spring semester, which is when we got Paula. The only thing I can say about Paula … she was … very peculiar; and she was definitely not Erin quality.

We had some killer parties and it was an extraordinary Fall semester. Alex went on to pursue his career in nuclear energy and Erin started her career in pet health. Hopefully I will get them see them again at a future Purdue football game (*hint hint*).

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

The MMO Times: Huolon Is Mine!

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On August 26, 2014

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

huolon_mountIssue 106: Sorry for the boastful title, as I was finishing up this post, I happened to kill Huolon and the mount dropped. I was quite excited.

Player housing seems to be the theme in this issue. I’m curious if any of you have checked out the strongholds in SWTOR. This issue does seem to contain more headlines about WoW again, I guess because there isn’t much else going on right now. After a summer of silence coming from Blizzard, since the announcement of the expansion release date, there seems to be more to talk about.

As summer wanes and the kiddies return to school (which means trade chat will be mildly more intelligent during the day), we get ready for the fall content releases, expansions and new titles. As I said, lots of WoW stuff, but there is also a couple of interesting articles too (including Blizzard’s response to the Robin Williams NPC). Actually you might be surprised that there are just as many interesting things to read as there are game announcements so I hope you enjoy the slight change in content. Enjoy!!

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TBT: Shots with the Doc

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On August 21, 2014

In TBT

If my memory serves right, this picture was taken at Nathan’s college graduation party back in 2003. It is a picture of me and Dr. Doug Berg taking, what I’m certain is, a shot of Jägermeister, which was our liquor of choice back then. Actually I think there was rarely a party the included some or all of us that didn’t involve  Jägermeister. I can tell you today that I think its been years since I have taken a shot of jager and thinking about it almost makes me cringe. I guess my liver doesn’t have a taste for it anymore (though a martini sounds pretty damn good).

Despite drinking quite heavily that night, I do still recall that party. The party took place at Nathan’s first post-college house back in our hometown (South Bend). If I remember right, there was a moment that night when I sat down on a couch outside, leaned back but I kept going. I remember it was a very odd sensation in my drunken stupor because I couldn’t figure out what was going on. If you hadn’t figured it out, the back of the couch gave out just as I was leaning back. All I know is one moment I am facing my friends, and the next I am looking at the stars.

Most of us passed out on Nathan’s living room floor and I remember waking up when I heard his roommate come home (he didn’t partake in the festivities) and he had to carefully navigate around all of us to get to his room. I woke up again pretty early, about 7am I think, which was pretty typical of me after a night of drinking. I wasn’t incredibly hung over (which was also pretty typical back then). I remember another friend of mine, John, was also awake and we decided that we would slip out while everyone was still asleep and get some breakfast. McDonalds breakfast is great morning-after-drinking food.

It was a great time! While I still had one more year back at Purdue, Nathan started his career and Doug (who also graduated that year) started Med School in the fall.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

WoW: Legendary Cloak Quest

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On August 19, 2014

In Gaming, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

anth_cloakLast night I finally completed the legendary questline to receive my legendary cloak on Quentyn (formally known as Anthonius). It’s the first time I have ever completed a current legendary quest line (did someone say Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker??) It is a very long series of quests with a couple of obnoxious grinds (depending on your luck and the RNG).

The obvious grinds are all the sigils, secrets and runestones you have to collect. If you are not lucky when it comes to RNG drops, these will take you the longest. In fact I had to wait until the Gaze of the Black Prince buff before I finally received the rest of my Titan Runestones. The Sigils are probably the least awful of the raid boss grinds, they seem to drop pretty regularly. The only redeeming factor is that you can collect the items by running LFR, but you get a chance at the item dropping only once per week from each boss (in the applicable dungeon). Your chances do improve, I believe, if you run a normal raid (10/25). Honestly, the 12 Titan Runestones was the longest grind for me.

The other “grind” may not actually be a grind for some, depending on your luck (or faction). You have to win two PvP battleground matches: a Temple of Kotmogu match and a Silvershard Mines match. Your luck on this part of the quest is probably going to depend on your server and your faction. I play mostly Alliance so you can imagine that winning any PvP match is a grind. I was lucky with Silvershard Mines, I won on the third match; but I think I played about a dozen Temple of Kotmogu matches before I finally got the win I needed. I understand why PvP is part of the quests, Blizzard wants a legendary item to include all facets of the game, but for those of us that are not really into PvP (and play Alliance), its a pretty frustrating part.

I think if Blizzard hadn’t given us the Gaze of the Black Prince buff I probably never would have completed the quests and received my Qian-Ying, Fortitude of Niuzao during this expansion. I do kind of wish I had done it earlier instead of just 3 months prior to Warlords of Draenor but I guess its better than 3 weeks before it. Now I just have to finally finish Siege of Orgrimmar (I still haven’t seen the Garrosh fight).

(BTW, while I was originally thinking there is no way I am going to repeat this process on another toon … I do actually feel slightly inclined to try to do it one more time since the buff lasts 10 more days)

The MMO Times: The Horde Is Coming!

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On August 15, 2014

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Grommash HellscreamIssue 105: The world lost a wonderful and extraordinary soul this past week with the passing of comedian Robin Williams. His television shows and movies have been a part of my life since I was a kid and I feel utterly heartbroken by his passing, and even Blizzard responded to his death. RIP Oh Captain, My Captain! On a lighter note, Gamescom is happening this week in Germany. If anything noteworthy to the MMO community comes out of it, you should see something about it below.

Blizzard has finally released the official cinematic for Warlords of Draenor as well as the release date for the expansion. Bioware has some new things to show regarding the Dragon Age franchise and more about the Star Trek Online expansion that was announced last week. I’ll be honest, there is a lot about World of Warcraft in this issue because there are quite a few new details coming out about the upcoming expansion. There seems to be a lot more pomp and circumstance around the fifth expansion (probably because Blizzard has been bleeding subscribers). In any event, there are other things below that are not related to World of Warcraft. Enjoy!

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Genie, You’re Free

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On August 12, 2014

In General Cogitation

rip-robin-williamsThe title and image of this post was originally a tweet sent out by The Academy (@TheAcademy). It’s simplicity and message is so brilliant that I had to use it for my post to a great man. It’s amazing how the death of a famous Hollywood actor, like Robin Williams, seems to have such a profound impact me. I truly feel sincerely devastated by his passing, and I never knew him personally and he never knew I even existed. I don’t feel this way about every Hollywood actor that passes away, but Robin Williams’ passing is different. I’ve been watching him since I was a kid. I grew up with him in my living room every week as if he were a relative or close family friend.

“Mork & Mindy” was one of my all time favorite shows growing up. He had me on the floor laughing in every episode and even today I could watch that show over and over and still laugh just as hard. His movies are timeless, from Aladdin to Hook, Mrs Doubtfire, Good Morning Vietnam, Good Will Hunting … I loved so many of his films! His role as the Genie in Aladdin is one of the reasons that movie is one of my favorite Disney movies. I loved hearing about how most of his lines in the movie Father’s Day was adlibbed and I have a fond memory of watching Good Morning, Vietnam in French class back in high school. I was at Purdue when he was on one of his comedy tours. A bunch of my friends and I went to see him at the Elliott Hall of Music on Purdue’s campus and it is one of my fondest college memories.

I was surprised to learn back when he was filming Good Morning, Vietnam that he was taking medication for manic depression. I mean, how could a man that provided the world with so much humor, be so sad?? Depression is a frightening and awful disease of the mind. It leaves friends and family and fans feeling so helpless when they learn of tragedies such as the taking of ones life. We all wonder what we could have done to demonstrate how much Robin William was loved; how much he inspired all of us to laugh everyday, especially when life was at its most difficult. The Apple “What will your verse be” commercials he lent his voice to even felt inspirational.

I think I will be going on a Robin Williams movie binge for a while. I don’t know any other way to honor the memory of such an amazing person. I will pray that I will one day see him in that great comedy club in the sky.

RIP Robin Williams, you will be missed more then you can possibly imagine.

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