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• Wrath of the Lich King – week 3

  2008 Nov 28

  I am jumping for joy!!
  
  Since my last post, my little girl Ombrenoire has dinged 74 and was offered the quest to be magically transported to Dalaran. Wow, what a place! No longer to I have to make weekly runs to Karazhan to pick up my Mysterious Arrows. These can now be purchased in Dalaran at the gun/bow/crossbow and ammo merchant.
  
  (*Squeals happily*)
  
  And the cost hasn’t changed.
  
  This place is just a hub of activity for crafters and questers alike. There is a whole niche in this city with every crafter supply/training shop one next to the other. No more running all over cities trying to find your trainer for leatherworking or blacksmithing. They are all right there.
  
  Along the way to these shops are more shops for food and drink to help replenish the health or mana for your toon. There are three inns in the center of town you can choose from, each with its own unique look.
  
  In the Hero’s Welcome Inn – hehe, Welcome Inn – you can access the daily cooking quests, that are also an achievement once completed, with Katherine Lee in the back kitchen. If you were smart and saved up all those Chilled Meats from the animal you killed here and there, these quests will be rather simple. Gather some cheese from the shop, gather some wine from the shop or the glasses all over town, make some Northern Stew, get some mushrooms to make meatloaf – simple stuff. Bring it to the NPC mentioned in the quest and you get a bag of random spices for higher level cooking recipes (Northern Spices), Baby Spice (reduce your target to 50% of their normal size), Old Spice (smells like the stuff in real life – or so they say) and you also get some Cooking Awards (the first one you get is an achievement) to redeem for those higher level recipes. Takes three awards per recipe to buy from the vendor next to Katherine Lee. And if you didn’t get it earlier in the year as a drop, you can purchase the Delicious Chocolate Cake recipe here.
  
  Leaving the inn, to the far right, is the ever infamous Dalaran fountain. This is where you fish for the Copper, Silver and Gold Coin achievements. Remember to toss back the gold coins for the 2 minute fishing buff. Can take anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days to get all the coins. Don’t stand too close to the edge of it, give yourself some distance to make sure you get a successful cast.
  
  To the right of this is the bank. If you went to the left of the inn, the guarded door you come to are the token vendors and portals to ALL major cities in the game for each faction. Battle Masters are here as well.
  
  Next to this building you will see an open grate in the wall. Take this path and you end up in The Underbelly, the sewers for Dalaran. Again, you come to yet another inn and the Arena Masters. Notice the water? Get out your fishing gear since you can get another achievement here to fish up the ever elusive Giant Sewer Rat. Bide your patience, this one takes a looooooooong time to get. Got mine after 2764 casts.
  
  Damned rat.
  
  But he’s huge, as big as a Gnome!
  
  This gave me the achievement and also got me 50 pets total. Stinky the Skunk appeared in my mailbox as a reward for all these animals.
  
  Hmm, a skunk… Not making new friends if I have him out anytime soon.
  
  Completing everything she could at here level there, my Ombrenoire returned to Dragonblight thanks to the Flight Master. By the way, you need level 77 and a butt load of gold to learn to fly in Northrend. Save up now.
  
  The last quest Omb had completed in Dragonblight consisted of killing off an elite dragon, with the help of NPCs to pick up a phylactery to summon a Lich in one of the mausoleums of Wintergard Keep.
  
  Guess who helps you out?
  
  Bolvar Fordragon.
  
  Now he’s a welcome sight to fight off this elite Lich. Once this fight is over, you head to the Northwestern most corner of Dragonblight, Fordragon Hold, where Bolvar is waiting for you. He asks you to talk to the Red Dragon Queen to get her permission to have a battle on dragon holy grounds. She sends you to kill off some undead messing with Galakrond’s bones (the FIRST dragon by the way), and retrieve an item from this group’s leader. Once completed you return to Bolvar and receive the achievement Veteran of the Wrathgate.
  
  This is where things get weird and wonderfully epic.
  
  You turn in the quest and the screen goes black.
  
  This is not an error, so don’t panic.
  
  A second later, a CGI movie starts. Bolvar and his warriors move towards Angratha (the Wrathgate) to begin a fight with the undead there. When elite undead emerge from the citadel, lo and behold, the Orcs appear and aid Bolvar and his warriors in the fight. The Orc battle leader and Bolvar even act like old war buddies. They are victorious and Bolvar calls out to Arthas to have a final battle. The Lich King emerges, raises his undead army, and prepares for battle.
  
  A green explosion suddenly tears through the Alliance forces.
  
  Then another on Arthas’s troops.
  
  Then another on the Orcs.
  
  On a cliff overlooking the battle, the Scourge is dumping a deadly plague on all those below. Arthas escapes, but all others die.
  
  Even Bolvar.
  
  Bolvar?
  
  Dead?
  
  NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
  
  As he falls, you see the Red Dragon Aspect in the distance flying towards Angratha. With mighty fiery breaths, they burn everything. Bodies are turned to ash. The plague clouds burn away. When they land, plants sprout at the feet of the dragons.
  
  End cut scene.
  
  Queen Alextrasza called to Omb gently from where she watched on the cliff. I made my way to her and she tells me to take Bolvar’s shield back to Stormwind, to King Varian Wrynn.
  
  He’s confused by the turn of events and sent me and Jaina Proudmoore to Thrall in Ogrimmar to try to figure things out. Imagine my surprise when I saw Sylvannas Windrunner standing next to Thrall.
  
  Did she betray all of us?
  
  No.
  
  Turns out there’s a rogue faction within the Undercity that wants to take over.
  
  Jaina and I go back to the King. He’s livid, but sees this as a perfect chance to retake Undercity for the Alliance. We port to the sewer entrance of the Scourge city (what is it with sewers – really) where we meet with Broll Bearmantle and Valeera (now for anyone who has read the comics, you’ll recognize both these two and the King from those story lines – nice continuity

  _

  ).
  
  I enter the sewers, fully expecting to be pummeled into non-existence by a bunch of level 75 elite guards.
  
  Well no.
  
  All I see are Alliance guards and elite Alliance guards until I suddenly get a flag attached to my back as if I was suddenly in the battlegrounds. Oooo, speed boost!! I meet up with a mage also on this quest line already in the middle of a battle with demon guards. I get pummeled, but I’m not losing any life. I look to my hp bar and WOW!!! I usually have 10k hp. In here I now have 42k hp.
  
  ME BE UBAH!!!!
  
  So onwards we fight, not losing life, taking down enemies until we reach the traitor within the Scourge: Grand Apothecary Putress (I know, not very original as a name for his professions). This is a long fight with many little oozlings to kill as well as Putress. By the way, your pets are useless here; they don’t gain hp and die very fast. Put them away for safe keeping. Your won’t really need them.
  
  Putress goes down and the King decided he wants Undercity back. He races off to the Royal Chambers, the mage and I follow, Jaina Proudmoore is screaming at the top of her lungs for us to stop. We’ve already reached the Royal Chamber at this point.
  
  Oh my Goddess!!
  
  Thrall!!
  
  Now how did he get here so fast from Ogrimmar?
  
  We fight.
  
  Jaina arrives late.
  
  She freezes all of us. Damn you, he was at 15% hp left!!
  
  We port back to Stormwind.
  
  Quest completes and I get a nifty pair of blue quality mail pants and an attack bonus trinket. Not to mention the 500 rep you get for Valliance Expedition.
  
  Not too, too bad.
  
  At this point I felt a little off since I now know that Bolvar is dead. (*sniff, sniff, cry*) But it’s 22h30 EST and I have to get up at 06h00 EST the next morning for work. I log and go to bed. A good 4.5 hours accomplished

  _

  
  
  The next day I log back on and decide to finish the last quest line I have in Dragonblight. I already got the achievement for finishing 115 quests in this zone. Wasn’t trying to, but there are so many quests to do that it sort of just happens.
  
  I engage the Reclusive Runemaster, Dregmar Runebrand. He’s a level 74 elite with a shield that protects him every 30 seconds from all forms of damage and who casts explosive runes every so often so keep moving. This is a mana check more than anything since you have to keep your pet up. This if you’re solo’ing him. The rest is all tank and spank until he goes down to 20%. It’s a long fight seeing as he has 100K hp. Thank the Goddess I now have easy access to my favourite DPS arrows.
  
  But like I said before, people are much more willing to group up when you’re doing the same quest. I found a nice pally and warrior wanting me to join up with them to drop the Runemaster. From there, we stayed together to take on the last elite from that quest line: Grom’thar. It was an interesting fight, but a fun one. The gear is still crap for Omb, but sells for quite a bit of gold.
  
  After this I grouped with four other people looking to finish 3 elite “wanted” quests from a posted in town. The NPCs went down fast and the money was nice.
  
  With nothing more to do I went back to Dalaran to see about the “Higher Learning” achievement. After a bit of running around, a member of the Small Guild Alliance, which my guild is a happy member of, whispered me about joining a quick run into Violet Hold. This is the prison hold of the city with strange and powerful beasties.
  
  I accepted.
  
  Me. A level 74 in a level 75 to 77 dungeon. Heh heh.
  
  Now this is a fun place. There are human guards pounding away on blue dragonkin coming through portals and they don’t seem to have any trouble doing this. Your group comes in and you are asked to defeat the dragonkin and make sure none of the prisoners escape. Also, you can’t let the dragonkin open the main door.
  
  WTF, the door is already open!
  
  Oh, wait, the encounter starts and the humans run out and lock the door behind them, locking you in the room with portals of dragonkin and really pissed off prisoners.
  
  Oh boy…
  
  There are a total of 18 waves of portals to stop and you get an integrity meter for the door. Nice.
  
  So start the waves of dragonkin. Not too hard. Throw down a couple of taunts from the tank, multi-shots and volley from our two hunters (me, included), and the heals were a non-issue with our pally and priest rounding out the mix. None of them got even CLOSE to the door.
  
  The first boss to hit us: Xevozz. An ethereal that you sort of get to treat like the void boss in Shadow Labs: keep him away from the glowing orbs. Sic pet on orbs, burn boss to the ground. Dang, healing gear.
  
  Next!
  
  Enter more dragons just to mess with our mana levels. Non-issue.
  
  Moragg. A giant floating head with an attitude. We had a slight issue with line of sight for the healers and the stairs, but the flying eye went down with a very satisfying thump. Tanking gear and some greens. Yay! The Heavy Frostweave Bandage manual!! Woot!!
  
  Next!
  
  Enter more dragons just to mess with our mana levels. Non-issue.
  
  Then there was a kind of awkward pause before we noticed HER. Cyanigosa. She starts off as a human woman who really doesn’t look like much until the encounter starts.
  
  Hello blue dragon.
  
  She reminds me a cross of the Shade of Aran and Azuregos with the teleports and the blizzards. Pretty straight forward fight: tank keeps her attention, run out when she ports you, avoid the blizzard.
  
  Oh look, Druid gear. Wait a minute! We don’t have a Druid! D’Oh!!
  
  And so ends Violet Hold with an achievement completed. Bed time.
  
  Yesterday when I logged on I decided to go visit Howling Fjord to hand in a “report in” quest. This, of course, after I finish the cooking quest. I was wowed by the burning boat above our heads. This is a small outpost under siege by those Norsemen people and giant wolves.
  
  Hmm… may tame one of those.
  
  Oh look!! Turkeys!!
  
  By the way, the respawn rate in the town sucks so find another zone with turkeys to kill. You cannot do the achievement here.
  
  I play around with some of the quests in the area: saving impaled soldiers, killing Norsemen, locating lost supplies… why is it someone always loses their supplies??
  
  Bah, low zone for a 74 so I got bored and returned to Dalaran to look for more books. Finding nothing I realized I had another “report in” quest, this time in Grizzly Hills. This zone is 75 to 77 so a little more interesting. Off I go.
  
  The place reminds me of the British Columbian forests with their HUGE trees and roaming animals. First up, gather supplies by killing the roaming stags. No big. As I turn around I notice a bucket with pinecones and the quest mark above it.
  
  A bucket with a quest?
  
  I click which results in Omb eating some of these delicious and nutritious cones. The quest guy behind me taps my shoulder.
  
  Oops, I ate something I wasn’t supposed to.
  
  Off I go at his orders to collect materials for a purgative. Oh, this can’t end well. I come back with his plants and he gives me a potion with a warning. Use it only in the outhouse as this stuff is POWERFUL.
  
  Yeah, by Omb’s screams and groans I can only guess what was happening to her. Brown clouds are never good.
  
  With clean pipes I move on to the next quests to gather bear meat, kill some trolls, stop some hunters… I only finished the bears before going to bed.
  
  Friday night and into the weekend: Grizzly Hills and maybe Zul’Drak– there are a lot more nice quests I want to start hacking away at

  _

  One new zone a week. Not a bad average.
  
  Gah, long post.
  
  

  ---

  List of projects currently on the go:
  
  1. Working on sequel to book (500 pages - will have to split it in 2)
  2. Creating covers to DVDs (I'm procrastinating)
  3. Scan my vast collection of manga to have an electronic record (this too is subject to procrastination)
  4. Listing all manga on eBay (directly related to #3)
  5. Writing a TR fanfic (coming along nicely - maybe 2 or 3 or so more chapters)
  6. Writing a TMNT fanfic (stagnant)
  7. Writing an Escaflowne fanfic (or, at least, trying to finish it)
  8. Writing an Inuyasha fanfic (stagnant)
  
  - paperback
  - hard cover
  

• Wrath of the Lich King - Week 2

  2008 Nov 21

  I know I’m usually posting something of a social commentary on my blogs, but you know what? I am a World of Warcraft fan and this is my blog. I will post more on the new expansion pack if I feel like it. Now all this is Alliance side.
  
  My hunter, Ombrenoire, left Borean Tundra with 3 achievements (Explore Borean Tundra, Complete all quests from DEHTA, Complete 130 Quests in Borean Tundra) and 2 new levels (reaching 72) in her quiver and entered Dragonblight. I must say I am fascinated by the new environments by their sheer size and density of wilderness and creatures.
  
  The gold ain’t too shabby either. She had started WotLK near broke with only 30g or so to her name, now she is well over 700g and still climbing. I might go back to old content and do dailies for the extra cash, some 200g for less than an hour of dailies is nice.
  
  But Dragonblight…
  
  Here there be dragons… and lots of them. So far I have encountered more of the Blue aspect of the dragons, along with more from the Red aspect faction, the Dragon Initiative.
  
  Along the road you will come to your first rest spot, Stars’ Rest. A small outpost with a tent supposedly set up to be like an inn. It’s a very small tent with one bed/cot dominating it and that bed is occupied by an injured NPC. Miraculously, about 40 or so people can fit in this tent and get the rest bonus to double your experience when killing monsters. Across from this is Azjol Nerub, he second instance you encounter from Borean Tundra after The Nexus.
  
  The people at this post will send you on the regular killing runs and information gathering forays. You know, find this, kill that, purify this, raze that. Along the way you run into friendly ghosts and Nerubians. Gasp! Friendly?
  
  To the far South is a costal village that will continue a quest line started in Borean Tundra with the Kalu’ak. Think Inuit and Hawaiian lore with people that look like Walruses. Blizzard, nice trick with the shark name Tu’ugwar. Play on names still abound in this game. There’s a nice repeatable quest with these people to pick up pups from a badger like race just above their village. This faction is also the place to pick up a reputation pet: a penguin egg for a non-combat pet, Pengu. I’ll tell you this, rep with this faction is dead simple to get. The repeatable offers around 300 rep per turn in and the other quests were 500 to 1000 rep each.
  
  Continue east and you enter a huge snowy wasteland where the Blue and Red aspects are duking it out to save us mortals. Story is, Malygos, leader of the Blue aspect and the eternal guardian of all magicks, has gone stark raving mad and had decided that the only way to protect magick was to destroy the mortal race which he thinks shouldn’t be using it in the first place. The Red aspect, eternal protectors of life, have a problem with that.
  
  And so the battle ensues.
  
  But you won’t just see Red and Blue aspects flying around. Oh, no, the Scourge are here too (thanks in part to Arthas) and have decided that the dead dragons present an opportunity that shouldn’t be wasted. Bone dragons now fly through the air, attacking all other dragons without distinction.
  
  In the center of this zone you will find the third instance of your travels, Wyrmrest Temple. The upper levels are quest hubs and an inn-like location to rest and get repairs. The basement is the instance zone. From it’s South to the Northwest are 4 dragon zones; the Emerald, Azure, Ruby, and Obsidian Dragonshrines. Each has it’s own set of problems to fix.
  
  You will also come across Goblins in the North who will require your assistance in gathering loot for profit. How very Ferengie of them (Star Trek reference). To the East of these you will encounter the 7th Legion, Humans on the hunt for Bone dragons. They are affiliated with the next settlement you will come across to the extreme East, Wintergarde Keep The city is under siege from the undead and you get a fun quest to pick up villagers with a griffon here.
  
  Past this is the zone’s last instance: the remade, re-tooled Naxxramas.
  
  Phew! Three instances in one zone!
  
  So my little hunter, Ombrenoire, has picked up every non-instance quest she could (I’m not ready to enter those yet) and has completed quite a boat-load of them already. So many that she had dinged 73. I am loving these quests that offer 18K to 20K experience reward. Of the purple quality items she is wearing, Omb has only had to replace her breastplate to a reward green quality item. Her first. Otherwise, the rest of her gear is so far superior to what is being offered. It’s still interesting to see her with over 10K hp.
  
  So far, despite the annoyance of having 50 other people doing the same quest you are at the same time, the experience is positive. People are more willing to group to get quests completed, the Horde isn’t too annoying (though there are still times where I just want to hop onto a PVP server and massacre them for annoying me on my Normal server), and the xp and gold are enough to make the experience fun.
  
  Next zone: Crystalsong Woods.
  
  I want to get to Dalaran and have a look around.
  

  ---

  
  List of projects currently on the go:
  
  1. Working on sequel to book (500 pages - will have to split it in 2)
  2. Creating covers to DVDs (I'm procrastinating)
  3. Scan my vast collection of manga to have an electronic record (this too is subject to procrastination)
  4. Listing all manga on eBay (directly related to #3)
  5. Writing a TR fanfic (coming along nicely - maybe 2 or 3 or so more chapters)
  6. Writing a TMNT fanfic (stagnant)
  7. Writing an Escaflowne fanfic (or, at least, trying to finish it)
  8. Writing an Inuyasha fanfic (stagnant)
  

  ---

  
  - hardcover
  - softcover
  

• Wrath of the Lich King

  2008 Nov 14

  You know, I had completely forgotten how time warping playing new content can be.
  
  On November 13, at 10:30 AM EST, my copy of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King arrived. Wouldn’t you know it; I was at work at the time (D’oh!). So I got home at 5:30 PM, twitching to get it loaded and running. It was 6:45 PM when all the latest patches installed and WotLK was finally purring away.
  
  Guess what I’ll be doing all weekend
  
  I SOOOOO love the Death Knight class. Took me 2 hours to get that toon out of New Avalon and to level 58 (they start at 55). Took me that long due to the fact that EVERYONE wanted to try out a Death Knight and this particular area was pretty full. She is currently parked in Stormwind until I figure out how I want to play her. I loved the fact that the area changed with the quests I completed. Made me feel good
  
  For now I’m hoping back onto my level 70 hunter, finishing grinding Cenarion Circle reputation, then I’m off to Northrend to have a look around with my trusty new pet, Frosty the Frost Wyrmling, at my side. Gotta love those Collector’s Editions
  
  So far, from what I’ve seen of the Death Knight progression, the game play and story lines are going to be captivating to follow. There is real substance behind the story, you really get to feel for your toon. It’s not, “Oh, this is a new class I just want to try out”. This is a character that used to be a hero, someone who fell and that you as a player are bring back to righteousness. The jail scene makes it all the more moving.
  
  And for you tanking classes out there, try one. They be UBAH!!! I mean it, there’s a whole quest were you get a buff and you are quite literally invincible. How else could a level 57 in new blues be able to take on level 60 to 62 elites AND NOT LOSE ANY HEALTH!
  
  I know, I’m excited about all this.
  
  So tomorrow night I am grinding away for the hours it will take me to finish Cenarion Circle – I may pick up a few last quests to help me along – and then I’m off the Northrend. The good thing about my putting off so long before going to new areas that have just opened is I’m giving the area and servers a chance to become steady and not laggy again. WoW gamers will know the meaning of Lagforge or the Incredible Lag Monster. Last thing we need is a Lag-rend. I figure by the time I finally get there things will have settled.
  
  The screenshots I’ve seen of the place are amazing, down right beautiful. Lush lands, new creatures, turkeys, burning forests, crystalline trees, turkeys, frozen mountains, amazingly detailed dungeons… did I mention turkeys?
  
  I was hooked 10 years ago to Warcraft. When Warcraft II came out I was thrilled. The Warcraft III and Frozen Throne were released and I was floored by the new graphics and gameplay. It didn’t even come close to how I felt when World of Warcraft came out in 2004.
  
  Now there was a game!!!
  
  I was one of the first to get my hands on Burning Crusade, but due to visitors over the holidays, I didn’t get to play until near the end of January of that year (I forget, but who really cares). By that time I have 2 level 60 characters waiting to pass through the Dark Portal and discover Outlands.
  
  And now, what was first thought destroyed when the great World Tree of Hyjal was sacrificed, has now resurfaced and Arthas, the Lich King, now waits for us to lop off his head and take Frostmourne for our own.
  
  Just make sure an uber bow / gun / crossbow drops off him too and this Hunter will be happy
  
  So many achievements, so many new lands, a brand new class to play with…
  
  (*heavy sigh*) So little time in the day to play with it all.
  __
  
  List of projects currently on the go:
  
  1. Working on sequel to book (500 pages - will have to split it in 2)
  2. Creating covers to DVDs (I'm procrastinating)
  3. Scan my vast collection of manga to have an electronic record (this too is subject to procrastination)
  4. Listing all manga on eBay (directly related to #3)
  5. Writing a TR fanfic (coming along nicely - maybe 2 or 3 or so more chapters)
  6. Writing a TMNT fanfic (stagnant)
  7. Writing an Escaflowne fanfic (or, at least, trying to finish it)
  8. Writing an Inuyasha fanfic (stagnant)
  
  
  - hardcover
  - paperback
  

• Flu Season

  2008 Nov 03

  Ah, Monday. How relaxing… *cough, cough*… Oh, yeah, it would be if it wasn’t for this nasty bug.
  
  This is this week’s short but sweet rant (having missed the last two): The general lack of respect for others when you have a cold or flu or anything worse than that.
  
  You have a fever.
  
  You’re hacking up a lung.
  
  Your nose drips worse than Niagara Falls.
  
  D’uh!! Stay home!!
  
  Those of us who have to share public transportation with you don’t feel like wearing a mask to avoid your germs. If you have to cough, YOU have to be the one to grab a tissue and cover your mouth and nose. Just turning your head does not do the trick.
  
  When you blow your trumpet of a nose, have the decency to hold on to that tissue until you find a garbage can, the floor does not count. And then DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING until you can get to a hand sanitizer.
  
  I gripe because I am recovering from being sick, thanks to some yahoo who thought he or she needed to go in to work even though he or she felt like they were about to die. I usually have a great immune system, I wash my hands, I don’t touch my eyes unless my hands are very clean. But catching a cold is as simple as contact… ANY contact.
  
  I figure it was that snot ridden lady sitting behind me on the bus who decided to sneeze at anything and everything around her. Germs can, after all, survive up to 24 hours on any and all surfaces.
  
  So, because this lady decided she couldn’t afford to take a day off from work or whatever she was planning that day, I had to spend my birthday on October 10th, and the whole Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, bundled up and medicated to just be able to breathe. Not to mention the fact that my voice is now non-existent.
  
  Literally, I sound like Joan Rivers on a really bad day.
  
  What was it she gave me? A full blown bronchitis. I’m not new to brochodilators or inhaled steroids, but that doesn’t mean I personally want to take them. Unfortunately, just to repair the damage, I have to. Like I didn’t have enough breathing problems to begin with.
  
  Now, I’m not the sort to take this sort of thing lying down. I hate not being productive in some way. So, even heavily medicated, I did venture out to do daily chores in and out of the house. But unlike the snot-lady, I am armed with hand sanitizer mini bottles in one pocket, 2 packets of tissue in the other pocket, and a hospital mask over my mouth and nose to protect those around me.
  
  This is mainly for Mom, her immune system is pretty much nil these days. Hence why I do get the flu shot each and every year, the second it comes out. Now having to recover from this, I can’t get my shot early like I usually do. I have to wait, probably until December.
  
  I know what some of you are saying right now in defence to snot-lady: Maybe her work doesn’t allow sick days.
  
  Bull hockey!!
  
  It is the Canadian Labour Law that ALL employers provide their employees with sick leave in some form or another, compensated or not.
  
  If you’re agency or contract, I can understand the mentality of not being able to afford sick leave. I’ve been agency before, I know how it works.
  
  You take time off, you are not paid for it.
  
  But weigh the consequences: You go to work sick and you become worse, not to mention sickening co-workers. At that point you HAVE to miss work, maybe even end up in the hospital, and more employees miss work as well. And your building then has to deal with a flu or worse outbreak and sanitize the entire place. Not to mention that no one becomes productive at that point. Your company loses money, you get laid off…
  
  You see where I’m going?
  
  Tell your supervisor you have a cold. Nine times out of ten he or she will send you home to recover to come back as a PRODUCTIVE member of the team. Last thing they want is that coughing, sneezing, red nose and eye worker who falls asleep in mid-afternoon because their meds knock them out.
  
  So I sat at my computer, AT HOME, working on overdue stories and playing computer games because I could not be at work with this bronchitis, but I still feel the need to do something instead of just lying in bed bemoaning my state.
  
  Misery may love company, but the rest of us would rather shut the door on misery and not share in the gloom and doom of it all. I agree with those shutting the door.
  
  So you feel a cold or flu coming on?
  
  Quick!!
  
  Take Echinacea.
  
  Take some Cold FX.
  
  Take some Tylenol or Advil Cold and Flu.
  
  AND STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!
  _
  
  List of projects currently on the go:
  
  1. Working on sequel to book (500 pages - will have to split it in 2)
  2. Creating covers to DVDs (I'm procrastinating)
  3. Scan my vast collection of manga to have an electronic record (this too is subject to procrastination)
  4. Listing all manga on eBay (directly related to #3)
  5. Writing a TR fanfic (coming along nicely - maybe 4 or 5 or so more chapters)
  6. Writing a TMNT fanfic (stagnant)
  7. Writing an Escaflowne fanfic (or, at least, trying to finish it)
  8. Writing an Inuyasha fanfic (stagnant)
  
  - paperback
  - hardcover