The Worst Ele Shaman in Azeroth

Is there subtle Ageism at Tech companies? I've always wanted to work in the gaming industry.   Unfortunately when the gaming companies first formed, most were on the west coast and since I was a Mom and lived on the east coast, transferring across the country wasn't much of an option.    So I dreamed, and wished, and "le sighed" a lot. Now when I check out my Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms, I notice a depressing sight.   In all the pictures of the companies with shots of their people (usually showing off fun events, big announcements, new interns, etc.), there is a decided lack of older people in the pictures. It's like playing "Where's Waldo", only more difficult.   BTW, Waldo cannot be one of the founding members, or an owner of the company.   That doesn't count. I realize the younger generations may be thought of as more tech savvy, or perhaps more cutting edge in their thinking, but older generations who have p...

Everybody should have a bucket list.  Mine has been recycled quite a few times, held together by duct tape, and the handle has since broken off, but the bucket still holds water. Nestled in my bucket list, somewhere between visiting Italy and paying off all my debt, is to visit Blizzard HQ and attend Blizzcon.   I had to scratch working for Blizzard off my list, although I'm a great Executive Assistant, I figure I'm unemployable at a new company whilst going through cancer.   I can just imagine the interview process: Me:   "Yes I need 2 days off a month to get chemo.  And, oh yea, your insurance company is going to hate both you and me because your loss ratio is going to increase and set you back 3 years at minimum, along with the premiums going up." Uh sorry, where was I?    Oh yea, so bucket list, Blizzard/Blizzcon.  It's an odd bucket list item.   Bucket items are supposed to be a bit more grandiose.   I mean it's not li...

Hello. My name is Callieaa and I'm a pet whore. To date I have: Pet Score 4363 791 Unique Pets 369 Pets at Max Level* 8 Duplicates 13.3 Average Pet Level* 1 Poor    0.1% 2 Common    0.3% 1 Uncommon    0.1% 787 Rare    99.5% 0 Epic   0.0% 0 Legendary   0.0% Shattered Hand-US   # 6 Realm & Rank # 5996 Site Rank My Account *Duplicates do not count toward stats Update 😠via Armory: 791 Unique Pets Callieaa  @ Shattered Hand-US Edit Character Certainly, by no means am I a top collector. But I do ❤ my critters, and love it when I score a new one.💋 You'd think with 369 pets at max level that I would have beaten the Celestial Tournament.   Yea, bout that  😡. You'd also think that I would have more wins in pet battles.   Yea, bout that too.   🙀  And don't even get me started on collecting mounts.    ...

In WoW, the correct way to play is to key bind your spells/abilities to your keyboard.    After 12 years playing as a  clicker, I'm trying to do this.   I really am.   But, I suck at it!    I end up pushing buttons randomly in panic, to not being able to move with my mouse and therefore dying in the fire (a mortal sin in WoW).   My DPS suffers terribly.  So does my self esteem (in game) when I'm one of the, if not THE lowest DPS in the raid.    I don't want to raid much any more unless the guild is bringing some alts to the raids and therefore they are prepared to carry folks.   I can't take it (key binds) and I always revert back to the old way of clicking.  After 12 years+ playing, I am so conditioned to using my mouse to click spells, that I can't seem to break the habit. Yes, buttons pushing is my downfall.     Even in real life.  Case in point, this: It was in the beginning of my cancer diag...

I have a few pet peeves.  This one is regarding dumb/stupid terms/bad phrases. This particular post was brought on when I had to order business cards for a new Director at work; an IoT Director. Now picture this printed on his business cards. Mr. John Smith Director of the Internet of Things   Never.Gonna.Happen.  The acronym will always be used.  Unless you're me.  Ordering business cards and this is your title.     I mean really?   "the Internet of Things ?"  Things?!   Here are some synonyms for the word "thing".     stuff star baggage star chattels star clothes star conditions star duds star effects star gear star goods star possessions None of these words really fit.  Why didn't he (Kevin Ashton) think this phrase through?   Do a little research maybe.   At the very least check some synonyms to see if the word worked, or if there was a better word to use.   These...

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag is a 1997 black comedy film starring Joe Pesci, Kristy Swanson and David Spade. It was the directorial debut of screenwriter Tom Schulman. In 1998 the film won the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film's Silver Raven award. This is my version: Every time I walk into my bathroom I laugh and think "OK. I have a so so Sue; a bad Felicia; a decent Taylor; and a bad Gypsy." (If you have seen the movie, you get it) One thing about Chemo is that it has the propensity of making you shed hair more than a Siberian Husky. People, I cannot rock a had scarf or go bald. I just don't have the bone structure or good looks to do it. So my weapon(s) of choice is a wig. Or as of today, 4 wigs. Now, you have to know that you're looking at a woman who for her whole life wanted to change her hair style, but just never did. I was too scared to cut my hair. It was waist length, natural strawberry blonde/red. I never colored it e...

Oh the things you learn when medical shit gets tangled up with life.  Your vocabulary expands into a different dimension.   It's a foreign language, only not as much fun.   I always wanted to learn Italian. I guess "doctor" will be my 2nd language for now dammit.   My brain isn't equipped for learning 2 new languages.  I blame that on Chemo brain, which is a real thing people.   Ask Le Google.   But today we learn the new word; Neuropathy. See when medical shit happens, you get to learn a whole bunch of new words and terms.  Words like Chemo brain and  neuropathy;   noo-rop-uh-thee.   Not your everyday word.   But I do try to say it with an Italian accent, just for fun.   And I use hand gestures, usually with the middle finger pointing about while speaking about it.  It deserves that and more.     In the beginning I kept wanting to say Necromancy instead.    It's so totally not the same thin...

via GIPHY If I kill you in Arenas or World PvP, then you really suck.  Either that or I have a raid group somehow hiding in the background and killing you. I.Just.Can't.PvP.   No really, I can't.   I've tried.   Goodness knows, I've tried.  I seem to have a sign over me that says, "EASY KILL THIS WAY" My sons (Wuffles the rogue and Graycen the Priest) have this bright idea of trying to teach me to arena PvP for the 200th time.    And, they want to teach me while streaming it.   Oh joy. This isn't my first rodeo.  Oh no.   This cow has tried arena's before that ended veeery badly.   My partners usually quit, or maybe they just have a stroke and have to call 911; I'm never quite sure.   I thought I heard someones' head explode once, but that could have been them pounding the keyboard into dust right before they went offline, and then their head exploded.   Shrug.... vent quality sometimes isn't that clear. ...

So um yea.  I found out last year that I have stage 4 cancer.   This is like soloing a raid boss in Legion.    I am not amused.   Cancer is a funny thing.   Half the time you won't even know you have it until you're in big trouble.   Kinda like accidentally pulling the boss before the raid is ready.   Err, not that I've ever done that before, you know. But I pulled this raid boss. It was August 2015 and I felt fine. I decided to put the house on the market.   (Coming home from work and seeing water pour out of the garage from a busted hot water heater was the last straw).   Floods will make you do funny things.  I called the plumber and then called a real estate agent and put the house on the market. To get it show ready, I came home from work every day and cleaned out closets, crawled around on the floor and painted baseboards, painted ceilings, replaced bathroom fans that weren't working, cleaned out the garage, replaced...

Picking a name for your character is hard!   For my Tauren, I  had originally tried the "usual" cow names like Bessie, Bertha, Mooey.  Thank God some idiot already had those names taken.    After a few hundred (well, it seemed like that anyway) name attempts, I ended up with the name Calliea (now Callieaa).   There's one guy out there that named his characters Lamp and Chair.   That was some writer's block of sorts happening right there. Some names I see in game are very creative.   Some are laugh out loud funny.    Then there are some names that I just can't understand why, WHY would you name your character that?   Like Diarrhea.   Just the thought of hearing that name called out in Vent, or Discord, or Mumble, etc. gives me the shudders.    Must be that 15 year old boy sense of humor thing. My alts' names were easier:  Jynxee, Zallie, Echelone.  I really didn't put too much thought into them and ca...

It all started many years ago when I was on a two week vacation at Christmas time.   A few months earlier, two of my sons had just started playing a game called World of Warcraft and convinced me to try it. We set up a trial for me to play around with and at 2am I sent them to Walmart to buy me the game 'cause I didn't want to lose my progress and have to start over.   I was hooked, and it was all downhill from there.  Gaming runs in the family. At the time, there were no "pretty" characters.  I wanted to play Alliance because they were pretty. Well, the guys revolted at that idea, so I picked a Horde Tauren.   I was a cow.   That's about as "unpretty" as you can get.   Even an undead priest with their bones sticking out is more attractive than a cow, and they're only one small step above being a green orc.  But a cow I chose and a cow I stayed. I then made the fantastic decision to play a resto shaman.   Yes, I leveled from 1-60 as ...

I'm a Shaman.  An Ele Shaman to be precise.   To be even more precise, I'm a baaad Ele Shaman that resides on Shattered Hand. I'm not not baaad in the Michael Jackson kinda way, but more like baaad in the, "Callieaa's dead again"  kinda  way.   What can I say?  I'm just not your average WoW demographic of the 20-30 year old guy that plays WoW and takes it so seriously.   Nope. I'm the 50+ old lady that plays WoW and takes it seriously. Yes folks, I'm your Momma, or maybe even your Grandma, on WoW.    I love it. I am Callieaa the Easter cow.   Tremble in fear!