Day 478 - World of Warcraft Patch 4.3

Patch 4.3 went live yesterday. Since I'm not even raiding anymore, the actual raid content is off reach for me. I did ran through all three new dungeons: End Time, which take place in a possible future where the bad guys won, Well of Eternity took place ten thousand years in the past to get a copy of Dragon Soul, Hour of Twilight, which take place now as you try to get a non-player character into safety after securing the artifact from the second dungeon.

All in all, the dungeons are well designed, not too long, and fun.  I especially like the design of the final boss in End Time, where you get to reset all of your cooldown 5 times.  Now that I have a taste of this on my main character (it's a bit weird tanking on my main character after almost a month away from playing her), I have to gear up the rest of my characters.

110/70/55 168.8lb 74 mg/DL

Day 477 - Cyber Monday

I swear my lack of self control got the better of me. When I spend so much time in front of a computer, and Amazon.com is so close to me, I just tends to buy and buy.  Lets hope that I have enough for next tax season.

110/73/58 168.6lb 74 mg/DL

Day 476 - Start of Three Weeks Away From Office

I have 2 weeks of training and one week of vacation, starting today. Amazingly enough, this is actually more time sensitive, since the training start promptly at 7AM to accommodate for East Coast Time. Well, at least they didn't ask me to drive 80 miles to Anaheim and be there at 7AM.

110/73/51 168.4lb 76 mg/DL

Day 475 - End of Week 68

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-27-2011 Front

11-27-2011 Side

Now that my rogue is somewhat geared, I've started running heroic dungeon on my Death Knight again to get more crafting materials.  That has been slow going.  I've lost out so much on these random loot rolling that I have to pace myself to avoid frustration.  Fortunately I do have a lot of characters to play with in between dungeon crawl. 

As mentioned in yesterday's post, my knee didn't hold up completely.  So I dial down the difficulty to finish the exercise.  This is my limit for now.

113/82/58 167.6lb 82 mg/DL
Week to Week 0.6

Day 474 - Exercise Update

This is yet another late post. I'm getting behind on my postings again.

I was able to complete the 45 minutes of walk at the same pace as yesterday without difficulty. It's still iffy on whether this regiment can be sustained. I'll lower it whenever I start feeling pain. More on tomorrow's post.

118/75/72 167.4lb 74 mg/DL

Day 473 - Black Friday 2011

As my belated post from yesterday points out, I've tried 4.1 MPH at 2° incline the entire 45 minutes yesterday without difficulty. Well, this morning, I literally have to work myself into that pace, otherwise, my left knee complaints. So I have to dial down the routine back to what I used to do, 4.0 MPH at 1° for 15 minutes, and then the same routine the rest of the way through.

I had a big lunch yesterday (vegetarian hot pot, albeit, the fish meatball kind of ruin the vegetarian spirit), and we went out to Universal Hilton for their Thanksgiving buffet. As I've mentioned before, I tends to do very badly at buffet, since my usual signal of size went out of the window. Last night was no exception. To make matter worse, I had a glass of milk just before sleeping to wash down some benefiber, with out eating lactaid. That combination really puts the pain into my digestive system.

So it's much surprise to me that I weight myself this morning and come in at 167.2lb, 0.2lb lighter than yesterday morning...

115/77/62 167.2lb 75 mg/DL

Day 472 - 4.1 MPH

Today, just for the hell of it, I dial up the exercise routine to 4.1 MPH, at 2° incline. Surprisingly enough, I don't feel any pain in my left knee. We'll know tomorrow if I can keep up this pace.

114/72/59 167.4lb 90 mg/DL

Day 471 - Feeling Sick

I haven't varied my breakfast for a long time. Recently, I have added some spicy cheddar cheese in addition to the rest of my usual meal. As I drove in this morning to work, I began to fee uneasiness over the breakfast. I'm not even sure I can make it through the rest of the day, or whether I should just go home.

125/80/54 168.8lb 72 mg/DL

Day 470 - Scenic Route

When I drive home from the support meeting tonight, I heard on the news radio of debris on my usual route. Now, 405 north just past 10 is always bad. Tonight, I spend 10 minutes just waiting to get onto the freeway. I search around in the Google map and found an alternative, West LA to Santa Monica to Malibu to Topanga Canyon, the scenic route.

Normally this would've been a beautiful route in the day time. But seeing that I'm tired, and my vision hasn't exactly been restored to full capacity yet, this isn't something I go out of my way to do.

Just as I turn onto Topanga Canyon Blvd I heard on the radio explaining the 4 police vehicle that raced pass me at high speed. Apparent there was a police pursuit that ended just past Topanga in Pacific Coast Highway. Fortunately for me, that particular pursuit's backup didn't reach me.

I don't particularly like driving Topanga Canyon even during the day time, due to its many twist and winding road. On the west side of the mountain, the twist isn't as dramatic. However, once I pass the summit, the twist became much more dramatic.

Since I'm typing this, obiviously I made it without incident. I won't be doing this again anytime soon.

114/72/69 169lb 77 mg/DL

Day 469 - 2° Incline on Treadmill

I've mentioned before that I have limited amount of time per day for exercise. I've found that doing it in the morning solves most of the problem in terms of scheduling. This also means that I really have to try to squeeze in all of my morning activities before heading out to work.

The first rule for me in terms of exercise is not to get hurt. Above all else, if I'm injured, I will not be exercising. Thus, it's with some difficulty that I try to find newer challenge as I hit new plateau. Previously on treadmill I've extended the time, ramp up the speed. At 4MPH and 45 minutes, I think I'm at my limit in so far as my knees will bear.

I've tried adding additional incline before with limited success, with me always reverting to lower intensity as not to break my fist rule. In recent days, I make another try, with the first couple of days, mixing in different incline for 5 to 10 minutes stretch, and in the last couple of days, the entire 45 minutes. Thus far, my knees, which has been my limiting factor is holding up. Perhaps this is he new challenge I can actually use.

118/79/56 168.2lb 72 mg/DL

Day 468 - End of Week 67

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-20-2011 Front

11-20-2011 Side

My rogue reached level 85 this past Tuesday, and I had some gears awaiting her.  At first, doing heroic with green gears and the fact that I never ran any dungeons as a rogue really made my damage low.  After a while, I was able to get enough gear on her to make a difference.  Now that I'm running enough dungeon to really upgrade my gears, I think I'm almost done with her.  still need to run my blacksmith through a couple of heroics to get enough material to make more weapon.

Last night, the family decided to eat out at Zen Buffet.  Naturally, I overate.  I did concentrate on eating only protein, and sashimi is pretty much all protein.

114/73/54 168.2lb 75 mg/DL
Week to Week 0.6


112/72/54 168.8lb 67 mg/DL
Week to Week 2.4lb

Day 467 - Long Sleeve Polo Shirt with Pocket

I'm not sure why it's so difficult to buy something like this. Last year, I have to replace my existing stock of long sleeve polo shirts with pocket due to it being threadbare. This year, the shirts I bought last year are way too large. I look and look, and no one seemed to have it. Since I'm not on call this week, I decided to take the entire Saturday afternoon to find the shirts.

Much to my surprise the first place I went to, Macy's actually have what I wanted. I simply have to ask the clerk for 'em. And these shirts are on sale. That got the frugal side of me happy as well.

114/75/72 167.4lb 85 mg/DL

Day 466 - On Forgetting

Such as forgetting to post this in a timely matter. Recently, I've found that I have to go back to where I have left to pick up things that I should take. More on the next day's post.

120/83/70 169.6lb 77 mg/DL

Day 465 - Getting Better Sleep

I really need to get better quality of sleep. As I drove home, I struggle to remain awake and alert. Perhaps this return to the World of Warcraft does have its consequences.

114/77/56 168.8lb 76 mg/DL

Day 464 - New Kindle

Amazon releases two different types of Kindle this week. I pre-ordered both as they'll serve different purpose for me. The first to arrive is the Kindle Fire, an rather stripped down 7" Android tablet with most of the Android features buried beneath Amazon's customization. I bought it to see what I can use it for. But mainly to watch videos for Amazon's streaming features.

The other Kindle I got is Kindle Touch, which will be the actual book reader that I'll be using, replacing my now renamed Kindle Keyboard. It felt heavier than the older version. A good deal of that is due to the shape of the new reader, which is smaller. By taking out the keyboard, it makes the screen is actually slightly bigger. This reader is also a bit lighter than the old one. It took me about an hour to get used to how to navigate around, and reloading all of my non-Amazon books (such as the ones from Baen) onto the device and group the way I want. The only negative I can think of right now is that the screen refresh feels a bit sluggish. I'll play around with it tomorrow again.

117/67/52 169.8lb 75 mg/DL

Day 463 - Gears

I've been trying to run the troll dungeons on my rogue for 2 days now. It's not been easy, since my gear limits what I can do. I got kicked out twice due to my low low dps, and 4 times we simply cannot finish the instance. I'm now just running my blacksmith in hope of getting materials to build better gears for the rogue. It's been slow. 4 instance, 1 orb. I need 6 more.

115/66/56 170lb 80 mg/DL

Day 462 - Loosing Things

I've always been terrible at keeping tracks of personal items. I've always been loosing things. However, recently I've become much worse at loosing things. This past weekend, I washed my 2nd bluetooth headphone. I'm not buying a replacement until I get my next phone. No point in getting one just yet.

My rogue hits 85 yesterday. As soon as that occurs, I hearthstone back to town and put up all of the crafted items. I also head out to Mount Hyjal and participated in both the Thrall questline and the Regrowth/Molten Front quests. In all, my rogue now qualified to enter heroic dungeons. There's still more crafted items to go, but I'll live with this.

108/71/64 170.4lb 76 mg/DL

Day 461 - End of Week 66

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-13-2011 Front

11-13-2011 Side

Goodbye Deeholm.  I think I left one entire side chain alone, but I got the reputation grind section out of the way.  I also went and got the rogue to specialize in transmutation, as that'll be her primary use other than opening lock boxes.  Uldum, here we go.

112/72/54 168.8lb 67 mg/DL
Week to Week 2.4lb

Day 460 - Coming Down the Mountain

I spend better part of last night and most of this morning leveling my rogue. Friday night saw my rogue going from level 76 to 80 staying in only 2 zones, Sholazar Basin & Icecrown. Due to the legacy gears and the guild experience bonus, I managed to do about 3/4 of these zone advancing 4 levels.

This morning, I hop onto Mount Hyjal, and got a really big shock. The legacy gears that I was using was very much not designed for the current expansion (except for the head and cloak piece). I got used to killing mob in 8 seconds or less. After a bit of struggle and some gears upgrade, I managed to get that initial burst damage coming out of stealth at the end of my current round. Just for completeness sake, I did ALL of the quest in Hyjal, and got the Coming Down the Mountain achievement.  The other starting zone Vashj'ir is a bit harder.  I'll eventually go back and do that as well.

113/72/69 169.4lb 82 mg/DL

Day 459 - Veterans Day 11-11-11

On this Veterans Day, I like to give thanks to the veterans that made my life possible. Thanks.

113/74/56 169.6lb 78 mg/DL

Day 458 - On Call & Sleeping

Really doesn't mix. What's worse is the alerts are false alarms. 3 more days of this.

116/75/60 171lb 79 mg/DL

Day 457 - Rogue in Grizzly Hills

After I got my rogue to level 74, it's time to leave Dragonwaste and hop over to Grizzly Hills to continue my progression. Due to the time limit, I didn't get that far. Hopefully I'll get the next level by the end of today.

Hum, today is also the 15th Month since surgery.

113/74/74 172.2lb 76 mg/DL

Day 456 - More Late Post

Sorry about being late. Tomorrow's post will be on time.

110/70/62 172lb 79 mg/DL

Day 455 - Long Day, Short Night

Sorry for another late post. Long work day, only had enough time to advance my rogue from 73 to 74. More later.

113/63/50 173lb 73 mg/DL

Day 454 - End of Week 65

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

11-06-2011 Front

11-06-2011 Side

Technically I was near level 69 when I logged out yesterday.  So in that sense, I leveled 4.1 level today leaving my new rogue at level 73, and parked in the midst of Wintergarde Castle.  Leveling Alchemy is actually harder than the leveling of the character itself.

This week I gain 3.8 pounds compared to last week.  I certainty did myself no favor with the hot and sour soup.  But considering that my weight last weekend was a bit unrealistic, I can live with that.

117/77/63 171.2lb 77 mg/DL
Week to Week -3.8lb

Day 453 - Rogue Out Of Outland

For this character, I spend level 58 to 68 in Outland.  Level 58-62 was spend in the starting zone, with the addition of flying mount at level 60 really speeding things up.  After 62, I move onto the next zone, and spend the next 2 levels there, all the while keeping eyes out for herbs to harvest and alchemy to level.  Garand is another zone I spend 2 levels in.  After that, moved onto Blade's Edge Mountains, where I leveled up to 67.  The final level I spend in Outland is at Netherstorm, and that's mainly for the Netherbloom that I need to level alchemy.  Now that my character has learn Cold Weather Flying, I'm parking her in Northrend ready for the 12 level grind to level 80.

118/80/67 170lb 73 mg/DL

Day 452 - Rogue Leveling Profession

My rogue reached level 60 when I was done yesterday.  Spend 2 levels in Hellfire Peninsula, and went back to the capital to learn to fly.  Today, the task is a bit more of a drudge.  Leveling the herbalism and alchemy to match that.  I spend roughly 4 hours grinding it out, and now both professions are above 300, and I'm ready to continue with the rest of the leveling.

124/70/54 172lb 75 mg/DL

Day 451 - Rogue Leveling Continues

One thing about leveling a character is the immerse experience of some of the things slightly differently.  This is the 8th characters I've played past level 20, and the pace really quicken after getting the mount.  The pace will get even faster after getting the flying mount, but that's another 6 levels away, and I'll be two level into Outland.

In this round of leveling, I went back to the capital every 2 levels not only to pick up new spells, but to make sure I'm in the optimal zone for experience grind.  This means that my leveling speed is faster than my previous attempt.  Currently, I'm doing this mostly as a Subtlety rogue.  For some reason, I logged out using Combat spec. 

115/75/80 171.6lb 78 mg/DL

Day 450 - Palindrome Day

Today is 11/02/2011, or when you looked at the number group this way, Palindrome Day.

h.t. instapundit.

127/85/50 171.4lb 78 mg/DL

Day 449 - Leveling Rogue

My current rogue alt is the second rogue I played.  I've long retire the first toon to a bank alt.  The current rogue is my third Worgen rogue.  With all of the leveling gears at my disposal, I'm leveling her at a fairly quick pace.  7 levels today alone.  Well, at least it's something I can do next week when I'm back on-call.

119/76/72 171lb 79 mg/DL