A Troll Out For Revenge, a Pledge, and Quests Galore

Daily Ramble 31: A Troll Out For Revenge, a Pledge, and Quests Galore

I’m really loving The Rat Queens. I just read issue 4 and the story is strong and the art is great! Blood and gore and female wit are wonderful additions to my comic book library. And speaking of libraries, I wandered around the links on some of the blogs I’ve been recently introduced to during Blaugust and I found a pretty good book. The Pledge by Michael Masterson is pretty enlightening so far. I’m not too far into it yet but where I’m at explains why I’ve seen a bunch of people setting up 7 year plans recently. Finally, I take a jump into World of Warcraft and I’m please to see I’ve got tons of quests to knock out.

Warcraft Makes Questing Easy

Leveling up in World of Warcraft is pretty simple. I no sooner had landed in the Crossroads in the Northern Barrens than I was inundated with half a dozen question marks with tasks for me to get started on. Not that I’m complaining, compared to what I’ve had to do to figure things out in Everquest 2, I like simple. The quests aren’t difficult at this level and while most involve going places to engage in combat, I had an easy time of it with my crocodile and brand new heirloom bow. Over the weekend I finally got things worked out with my high level druid so that she could get to the Undercity to purchase a few heirloom items. I had no problem grabbing the basic gear from the vendor there but some gear required reputation with your guild. Unfortunately, since I had been out of the game for so long I had to reapply to get back into my guild for the expansion and I lost all my rep. Oh well, I’ve got plenty of good gear for now, I’m just not maxed out on the bonus XP percentages.

Six Degrees of The Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life

This book by Michael Masterson was something I found by bouncing though links in one of the blogs connected to this one. With Blaugust I was introduced to a bunch of new bloggers and some of the great ideas that are out there in the blogosphere nearby. Basicalyl I was reading through some posts by UnwiseOwl over at Leaflocker when I came across his page talking about The Great Conversation. This page discusses the plan that UnwiseOwl has to read some of the greatest books of western literature. It’s a pretty grand plan and he points out that he got the idea from another guy…Dr. J over at The Western Tradition. Jumping around links on the two pages I found an initial post that Dr. J published in 2010 where he came up with the idea of a New Year’s resolution to read through the Great Books of the Western World. It’s a pretty crazy plan and one that he felt would take him 7 years. He also points out that he got the idea for a 7 year plan from a book. That book is the one I just started reading – The Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life by Michael Masterson.

I’m still early in the book but I can see where Dr. J got his 7 year plan from since Masterson suggests that once you’ve identified your core values in life you should set seven year goals to work towards that would reflect those core values. It sounds like a solid idea and one that Dr. J clearly took to heart. It also looks like UnwiseOwl is moving in the same direction.

I’m just getting through Masterson’s book so I haven’t worked out my core values yet (at least according to his strategy) so I don’t know if I’m gonna jump on the book reading resolution these guys have laid out, but the idea sure seems intriguing. Regardless, I’m reading through the book that started these two people on their quest to understand western thinking better and perhaps I’ll be joining them down the road.

Rat Queens #4

In the last issue of Rat Queens, Betty, pretty much followed the money and figured out who the bad guy was behind the attempted assassination of all the mercenaries in Palisade. As this issue (Rat Queens #4: Gold, Guts, and Grog, Part Four by Kurtis J. Wiebe and John “Roc” Upchurch) begins, Betty and Sawyer are fighting for their lives as the mastermind calls another ninja to defend her. Things are looking bad when a huge boulder flies through the air and lands next to them sending the combatants in all directions. Apparently the girlfriend of the troll the queens killed a couple of issues ago is not pleased that they killed her mate. She’s gathered a horde to kill the queens in revenge and they’re storming the city. A pretty kickass fight ensues with the Rat Queens swinging swords, staves, daggers, and shields to prevent the assault on the town. As orcs continue to pour onto the field and the queens start to falter, the Four Daves (another mercenary group) show up and prepare to enter the fray. That story will be told in the next issue unfortunately though – I can’t wait.

Wow! This is a really cool comic and it really makes be reminisce about playing D&D back in the day. The art is great and the blood splatters and bone crunching looks about like what I always used to imagine when I would wage into a dungeon crawl with my buddies. Just think about Warcraft on steroids with blood and guts and cursing during the big battle scenes.

Daily Ramble 31: A Troll Out For Revenge, a Pledge, and Quests Galore