World of Mayja

Fantastic news: I will be flying out to Cali for my final face-to-face interview with Aramark. As I am one of the two finalists, this is the make-it-or-break-it meeting. I'm very excited about this potential opportunity, even though I still have not been given any information as to what the pay or benefits could be. That's okay since I'm not paying for the trip out there.

Now, there's actually bad news to accompany the good. I have been keeping my parents informed of my job hunt progression (or lack thereof), especially since they've taken over our mortgage and utility expenses since May. When I mentioned this opportunity in Cali, they did not congratulate me at all. Instead, they decided to launch into a barrage of criticism of my inability to distinguish realistic expectations from fantasy. They think that all I see is an opportunity to live in Cali, and nothing else.

They said that I am blind to the fact that the state of Cali is in its own economic trouble, and that this corporation will lure me out to the coast and then kick me as soon as things go south for them, "and then I'll be royally screwed." They believe that I cannot see how hard it will be to manage two households, and that it will put a strain on my marriage to live separately for an extended period of time. The feel that I will kick all of my responsibilities to the curb just to "get out there".

Nice, eh? Nothing like an overwhelming amount of support from the one place I should be guaranteed to get it - not to mention the incredibly negative perspective of my mental capacity to make informed decisions regarding my career, my marriage, my finances and my life in general. According to them, I am a horrifically selfish individual with nothing but California sun on the brain.

Well, you can just imagine my reaction. I unloaded on them. I got really angry and said things like, "Do you really think I'm that naive or do you think I'm just a dumbass?" and "Would you rather I declare bankruptcy now to avoid this extreme pit from hell called Cali?"

I reminded them of how families all across the nation must make sacrifices and take risks in order to survive these days. I reminded them that military families live apart for extended periods of time, and are fully functional and happy. I reminded them that this is a great career opportunity for me. I also reminded them that I graduated from a major university and that I have the ability to consider multiple circumstances and variables at the same time. Plus, I am completely aware of the economic condition of the country, our state and THAT state.

Yeah, I SO sound like the type of person who will abandon my husband, two cats and home on a whim to bask in the glory of Cali. Wow.

I leave for Cali on September 1st and will report back on how it goes.

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My head is spinning with all of the announcements they made in the last two days. I'm going to review only some of what I can recall off the top of my head. Please visit WoW.com as they have great BlizzCon coverage. WoW changes are HUGE - or shall I say, cataclysmic? Okay, here we go:

Diablo III: We played the latest character to be released for Diablo III - The Monk. An absolutely amazing combination of melee/caster classes. This guy has combinations, aoe's, and wicked spells like you've never seen. If you know me, I'm not a melee person, but this guy rocks! (Though I still think my favorite is the Wizard). Check out the link to watch this guy in action. As we said last year, the graphics are phenomenal and the gameplay is very smooth.

WoW: Blizzard announced the new expansion to follow Lich King: Cataclysm. This expansion will be the end of Azeroth as we have known it. The entire world will permanently change with the coming of Deathwing. Every zone will change graphically; some more than others. For instance, the Barrens will be divided into Northern and Southern Barrens by a gigantic fissure of molten lava! Auberdine will be destroyed. New islands will emerge from the seas, and we'll be able to visit our first underwater city!

There are so many changes, I simply can't write them all down. But here are the big ones that hit me upside the head:

1. WE WILL BE ABLE TO USE FLYING MOUNTS IN THE OLD WORLD!!!
2. Every zone will be revamped in how it looks, the questlines offered, and how the quests flow throughout the zone. They will be more guided so you don't have to run around, back-and-forth so much. No one will have access to the old Azeroth again, so take your screenies now!
3. We will be able to enter Mt. Hyjal! And not from a Caverns of Time perspective. I mean actually go to Mt. Hyjal present day!
4. Uldum will be opened, and it's an entire zone!
5. Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will become two new heroic instances!

Guild Changes:

1. Checkout Part 1 and Part 2 of the guild changes from the BlizzCon panel.
2. Guilds will earn guild experience. Every time a guild levels, it will earn a talent point for their talent tree.
3. Guilds will have their own talent trees. As we earn points as a guild, we can spec into things like mass resurrection after a complete wipe, or a raid summon, or guild-wide reduced repair bills, or faster runback speed after dying.
4. Guilds will have their own RSS feed on the Armory. You can find out everything that's been happening with that guild in the last 2-3 days - stuff like who joined, who left, who leveled, guild members' professions, what achievements the guild earned, and what instances they're working on.
5. Guilds will have their own achievements.
6. Guilds will have their own "currency". As a guild, you earn experience, which translates into currency that can be used to purchase heirloom guild patterns at a reduced rate. Guild tailors/leatherworkers/blacksmiths etc. will be able to learn these patterns while still in the guild. But, if that member gquits, they lose all the guild patterns they just learned. No way to ninja guild patterns!
7. Guilds will be able to have crafted heirloom pieces (from the patterns I mentioned above). So, if you're running Uld10 and someone only has Naxx 10/25 gear, you can give them a couple guild heirloom pieces to catch them up to speed. This eliminates the need for gear runs. Plus, if that person gquits, those heirloom pieces will disappear from their toons/bags and return to the guild bank. No need to recraft those pieces. They will be freed up for the next person.
8. Guilds will be able to use their currency to purchase mats at reduced rates.
9. There will be a new LFG - Looking for Guild - channel. It will have a screen similar to the Looking for Group channel, but it will have you post your specs, raids you've done and some notes about yourself. This will help GM's find that boomkin they need a lot faster.

Talent Trees/Stats

1. The talent trees are going to be purged, revamped and have new things added: Mastery stats and the Path of the Titans.
2. Watch the presentation they made at BlizzCon Part 1 and Part 2- these are the actual panel discussions from BlizzCon and they explain it better than I ever could.
3. The following stats will cease to exist: Spellpower, attack power, armor penetration, defense and MP5 (sounds familiar Vanilla WoW peeps?)
4. Haste will only speed up the regeneration of non-mana resources, such as Focus, Rage, Energy or Runes.
5. Spirit is the new MP5.
6. Intellect/Stamina/Strength and Agility will stick around. So will Crit.
7. Ancient Glyphs will be added as an addition to the current glyph system (Part 2 covers this well).

New Races

Goblins: When I first heard that the Horde was getting Goblins, I was disappointed. Then I got to play one. I am no longer disappointed:

1. Goblins will have a passive 1% increased attack speed with all spells and attacks called, "Time is Money".
2. Goblins also have two rocket based racial abilities which share the same cooldown, so only one can be utilized every 2 minutes. They are:
   - A 20 yard Rocket Jump available every 2 minutes.
   - Fire a Rocket Barrage at any enemy within 30 yards, also on a 2 min cooldown.
3. Goblins have a passive boost to Alchemy: "Better Living Through Chemistry" gives Goblins a +15 bonus to Alchemy, along with a 15% bonus to health and mana regen from crafted potions.
4. Goblins will receive the "Best Deals Anywhere" providing the best possible prices on goods and services regardless of reputation.
5. Goblins will have a personal servant called a "Pack Hobgoblin" which can be summoned every 30 minutes, and will offer bank access from anywhere in the world.

Worgen: Honestly, as cool as it looked to transform from a human to a worgen, that was probably the best part about playing this race IMHO. Here are the racials:

1. 70% movement speed increase for 6 seconds, on a 3 min cooldown.
2. They have a 1% passive damage bonus called Viciousness.
3. They have a passive ability called Abberation, which reduces curse and disease durations by 15%.
4. The last racial is a +15 bonus to skinning, which doesn't really offer any benefits other than ease of leveling. But the fact that a skinning knife is not needed is pretty cool. Worgen skin their kills using their claws!

OMFG this post is long! I'm done for now. Time for some jetlag sleep time. I'll catch you guys in game. Enjoy the info and post your feedback here!

P.S. For a great summary of some of the things I neglected to review, please visit WTFspaghetti.

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It's here!

Tomorrow morning we fly to LAX, and drive to Anaheim to check-in at our favorite Anaheim Marriott - right across the street from the convention center and BLIZZCON!

This will be our third BlizzCon and they keep getting bigger and better every year. I've already had offers from fellow guildies who want to purchase my goodie bag - NEVAH! That's the most coveted swag around, and I'm not giving up my precious Grunty!

What's even more awesome this year is that the closing ceremonies will include a live performance by Ozzy Osbourne. OMG! The Prince of Darkness since 1979! WOOT! Take that, Arthas!

I'll be sure to report back after all of the festivities.

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It's funny, but any time I take on a writing assignment a strange and bizarre ritual ensues. I'm curious if other writers go through similar phases, so I'll share this one and see who writes back:

Stage One: Panic
To clarify, it's not a full-on, run around the room panic - just a very brief, momentary OMGBBQ!11!!11! It's not every writer's first reponse to an assignment, but for some reason I get this surge of jitters and fear that I will not be able to do it perfectly. As always, the perfectionist in me takes hold of my shoulders and shakes me up before any rational response can occur.

Stage Two: But I Don't Know Anything About...

Image by danperry.com via Flickr

A certain amount of research is required to get familiar with the content and lingo of the assigned topic. One of my topics this time was Arizona golf course properties. This was for a marketing piece to drive customers to a real estate website. I don't golf. I had no idea that "the links" was the equivalent to "the gridiron". I dove into the interwebs to fill my brain with anything remotely related to golf in order to become an overnight expert. In one evening, I could tell you the best places to purchase a property on an Arizona golf course (Scottsdale - all the way), and I could describe it and sell it as if I've golfed all my life.

Stage Three: The Goofy Side

Before I can even make a serious attempt on the topic, I must get my goofiness worked out of my system. I'll do a mind dump of all of my cheesy stereotypes and cliches. I'll keep it all in one paragraph so it looks like I've acheived something. Plus, it gives me a good laugh when I reread it. I had sentences like, "There's no better place to show off your favorite madras pants" and "You never have to search for your balls when they're always on your front lawn."

Stage Four: Wait a Minute - Strike That. Reverse It.

By now, I've spent about an hour (maybe more) going through the first three stages. There is no way I can avoid it any longer. The actual writing must begin. My brain will suddenly get serious and kick into high gear. Before I know it, I'll have tons of copy and the writing will come to a complete stop. Perfection time - I must edit. I've always been the type of writer who must edit as I go. Even while composing this post, I've been scrolling up, rereading, editing, coming back down to here, rinse and repeat.

Stage Five: Proofread and Submit

Finally, I'll get need a proofreader. Every writer requires one no matter how good they are. A second/third/fourth set of trusted eyes are always necessary to complete the writing process. This usually involves my husband, who is an excellent writer and is not afraid to tell me if something sucks, doesn't make sense or completely misses the audience. Granted, if I'm at work, I'll bug a colleague (or two, or three) first. But lately it's been up to my husband to be my proofreader.

After a final seal of approval, I make the edits, run a spellcheck, read it five more times, attach it to an email and send. Relief. It's gone.

Stage Six: Tick Tock

The worst part is waiting for feedback. It's at this point when I begin to second guess everything: style, tone, length, description, word choice, flow. I know I did my best work, and I already had at least one other person proofread it so I can't be completely off my rocker.

Finally, the feedback arrives:

My second round with OneUpWeb was awesome. I rocked it - they certainly liked what I wrote. I hesistate to say love because only one person has reviewed it with me. I have yet to hear the commentary from other folks at the company. If it's all thumbs up, I'll edit my word choice.

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This time I'm welcoming the downpour since my job search activity has tripled overnight.

This morning I received a phone call from an online marketing agency called OneUpWeb. They're located on Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City, MI, the Cherry Capital of the World. GORGEOUS! They're laid back, carefree and do kick-ass work. They want me for an SEO/Copywriting position. They gave me a writing assignment that I need to send back tonight for my second round at 9am tomorrow. Eep! She also asked me about relocating to Traverse City. Are you kidding? It's fantastic up there! Well, the winters can be the suck, but still!

Then, I get a call from Amy at Aramark. That's right: the Burbank, CA job! She is the Director of the account and I would be working with her. She loved me, and began asking about how soon I could relocate to Cali. OMG! That's a big move, but hey, why not?

Lastly, I received a call from one of my many recruiters saying that she has an Administrative Assistant position with Raytheon. This is my least favorite opportunity as it is not in my field, but it's a job. They want to talk with me tomorrow morning.

Of course, my calendar is now jam packed with stuff. All of my WoW commitments have been put on hold, and I'll be lucky to bake that cake for hubby in time for his b-day. Once again, this is very exciting. I'm trying not to lose my head.

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Every day she takes a morning bath; she wets her hair
Wraps a towel around her as she's heading for the bedroom chair
It's just another day.
Slipping into stockings,
Stepping into shoes,
Dipping in the pocket of her raincoat.
Ah, it's just another day.
- Paul McCartney and Wings

That's one of my favorite tunes from Wings and I just can't get it out of my head.
There's so much going on today: WoW patch 3.2 and all of its hell and glory, visit to the unemployment office (elgh), and other house stuff.

So, I'll keep singing this song in my head to get me through this day.

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I've been using Craigslist lately just in case something interesting or unusual pops up on the radar. One position I found is with Media Genesis, which is a very respectable online marketing company. I found MACPA (Michigan Associate of Certified Public Accountants). They were rated one of Crain's Detroit "Best Places to Work". I just hope they have a sense of humor. I know; bad stereotype.

Unfortunately, not all Craigslist advertisements are actual job offers. I found an hourly position that was mostly for an assistant's work, but offered great growth opportunity. I submitted my resume and cover letter, and immediately received a response in my inbox. I figured it was one of those autoresponders (it was), but it was telling me the next step would be to submit my credit report via this free website. I was so pissed! What a scam and a waste of my time.

Understandably, there will be those who decide to take advantage of us who are unemployed and who will do anything for a chance at a job. At least I didn't show up in person somewhere to find out that I'm being recruited for door-to-door sales, like AT&T.

AT&T posted marketing positions for their new U-Verse system. A lot of people turned out for interviews. Many of the people there were older than me and dressed in their finest suits. Sure enough, we all walked out in a huff when they took us back as a group to go over "the pitch."

I've thrown more resumes out yet again, and hopefully some of them will bite.

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