Homework Fail

Well, I finally cried "uncle" and admitted I'm not ready for raiding.  Yet.

Studying strategy for the raid was fun and I was nervously but excitedly looking forward to it.  What did me in was the background housekeeping crap.  Too many new things at once, new keyboard and mouse to get used to and to figure out how to program.  Re-doing all my action bars on all four toons, Nor counts twice because she's now dual spec Retribution and Holy Paladin.  I never even got to the glyphs, gems, reforging and transmogging stuff.  Though I desperately want to get rid of Sushel's gun, it is so noisy!

I had to re-install the add-ons with the new computer as well, so of course I picked up some new ones.  Carbonite is a very powerful add-on with a steep learning curve.  Vier hates it for the reason I love it and am determined to learn it, the replacement for the mini-map.

It displays a miniature world map up in the mini-map corner with the Blizzard mini-map overlayed [if you want it to] that allows you to increase the size of the map and the font so it's big enough for me to read.  Ditto with the Watch List for quests.  Everytime I get frustrated trying to learn how to do something, glancing at the tiny mini-map overlay reminds me why I need be tenacious and master the program.

I can also make notes with selected icons and put them on the map.  This is a HUGE benefit for me who can't remember where anything is.  In addition to the "standard" mini-map icons, you can also assign any of the target markers to the notes. So I can have the blue square for all the cooking trainers and suppliers, the orange circle for the Blacksmith NPC's and the pink diamond for Jewelcrafters.

Learning how to work NPC scan has been a challenge as well.  One day I was able to see the rare pop up, make a goto track to it, find the rare, kill it and loot it!  YaY.  The next day I couldn't remember all the steps to make that work again.  Timeless Isle is a different situation all together.  Almost as soon as a rare pops, it's dead.  Or, as I'm traveling around the island, the dead rare's pop.  sigh.  Timeless Isle still scares the crap out of me.

I finally admitted defeat and Vier came out to the farm to help me with the action bars and G-key programming.  Unfortunately, as I discovered the next day, without saving the programming to a profile, it all disappeared as soon as I turned off the computer for the night.  Also, with a persistent profile set [which is the way it arrives from the factory], no matter what was changed with the programming it appeared to have no effect.

I finally bit the bullet today and started going through the help files and tutorials.  So far I've been able to get rid of the persistent profile, make a profile for the Notepad program [part of the basic tutorial], make a macro, assign it to a G-key [and test it], and record a multi-step macro and assign it to a G-Key.  Fortunately my OCD requirement to write down notes on everything means I have a record of what Vier intended and I'll be able to re-create it after I finish the tutorials.

Vier took me to the Halfhill Market and left with a cheery "do all the quests here, you'll enjoy them".  I learned how to plant and harvest my first crop of scallions, then started it for real as a daily.  As Penny would say "Holy Crap on a Cracker!"  There is a LOT to do with the Tillers.  I have to keep reminding myself that everyone else has two years of daily quests under their belt and I have a tonne of catching up to do.  If I did nothing but Halfhill dailys, I'd still be doing them on Sushel when WoD dropped and Noritam would be rotting away in Shattrath at level 67.

I did the daily quests and started exploring a bit.Went to find Nat Pagle and what a let down that was.  I've been hankering after this guy's stuff for months, his journal, his hat, his raft, his fishing pole, ... and he hardly had two words for me!  Pfft!  I did the daily use a raft and bomb some stingrays, explored all the huts in his little area and felt, "is this it?"  A bit of a disappointment.

I went looking for a flight path to learn close to the Angler's Wharf.  hmmm.... the closest one is labelled "The Incursion" and is under a purple dome.  I circled it a few times contemplating breaching it, but decided I didn't like the look of the meanies inside and they'd most likely kill me for my troubles.

Looking for the next closest flight path spot I discovered Paw'lon Village.  What a pretty place!  I set my hearthstone at the inn and called it a day.  I also learned that I can mine Ghost Iron Ore at a low level of mining and figured maybe my prejudice against Panda Land was mis-guided.  Maybe this will be a fun place to hang out after all, and learn more about being a hunter.

Today my intent was to look up the nearest Jewelcrafting trainer to Paw'lon Village [I couldn't find one just by wandering around] and start working on Sushel's professions while she farms some ore to help Nor advance her Blacksmithing.  Well, it seems there is only one Jewelcrafting Trainer in all of Panda Land and it's more dailys and collecting 3 of something to craft one of something else which you need three of to buy a recipe.  My eyes glazed over.  This might have been an adventerous discovery at launch of MoP, but right now it seems a huge hurdle and a LOT of work.  And I'm here on my free-boosted alt which was made for fun.  hmm,... time for a re-think.

So, new plan.  I'm going in to harvest my second crop [I'm afraid I'll lose it if I don't pick it up today] and then plant Sushel where she can do some farming for Nor.  Do a bit of research and find out how to get Nor up to 90, while also levelling her professions.  When I need a "fun break" I'll work on levelling some pets.  I'm still at the guy after Steve with the spiders so I have a lot of work to do there.  But, my main focus has to be getting Noritam to level 90.

First steps will be getting her action bars set for both her specs and learning how a Retribution Paladin works differently from a Holy one.  Saelybrooke is sitting at the camp on the Darkshore.  When I need a brain break from Outland or Northrend, I'll work on getting her to Feralas to find the sprite darter and fairy sprite battle pets.

In other news, while I was away slogging through my homework assignment I did get a bit "distracted" [read: was procrastinating] with the Warcraft Pets site.  Finished up my profile there and made a status report.  Some very kind Pet People noticed my low score and offered up their spare pets!  I still feel a little weird about it.  On the one hand I'm over-joyed to have acquired some pets that will come in handy for the Celestials eventually.  But, I feel guilty about getting something without working for it.

I've also been researching for creating a Bank Alt.  I still don't know if it's possible, but am considering an alt to stay lo level but also advance two crafting professions with the other toons farming for her.  One thing I have to consider is she'll have to walk everywhere so I need to pick an inn close to a bank, an auction house and her profession trainers.  I'm specifically thinking Tailoring, so I can make bags.

 Anyway, that's all background stuff for now.  Right now, I need to get Nor to 70 so I can do the Shatt Dailys and get her mining levelled up so she can take advantage of all the nodes she runs across that so far she's been unable to mine.

Nor