• Started (spring) cleaning: Washed windows, emptied two or three cardboard boxes and one Rubbermaid container of books on to the bookshelves in the basement. Removed more CDs from their shelves in order to be sorted while making room for existing “keepers”.

• Sold some more stuff. Taking a trip to the post office this weekend.

• 30 Days of Night: Reading one of the novels made me want to revisit the film. I still like it, but I also still dislike the velociraptor screeching and “teek-lok” language of the vampires. That’s one deviation from the comics I don’t appreciate.

• Dance in the Vampire Bund: Been reading more mange lately. Caught up with the volumes I have. Just ordered the three I don’t have, plus the first volume of High School of the Dead. Can’t wait to read them.

• Netflix: Been watching episodes of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple on my lunch breaks, and the DVDs at home.

• DVR: All caught up with The Walking Dead, Grimm, and Once Upon A Time. As more shows go on hiatus, I should be able to get around to more of my unwatched DVD collection.

• The Avengers Facebook game is addictive.

Last month, I sent a bunch of Heroclix to CoolStuffInc for some store credit. I used that credit to pick up The Legend of Drizzt, one of the D&D adventure board games. It arrived yesterday, and I gave the first, solo adventure a test spin (twice). Lesson learned: I need to shuffle the cards better. Many Treasure, Encounter, and Monster cards were drawn successively, and it would’ve been more fun to have a higher degree of variety. Still, I plan on playing the future adventures (hopefully with other players).

***

The other day, NCsoft, the makers of City of Heroes released Issue 22(?): Death Incarnate. I had been thinking about trying the new free-to-play format of the game for months now, and last night I finally sat down to do it. It took awhile for my game launcher to update and repair my old, existing game files, but I managed to get in. I decided to start from scratch with a new character. So much has changed, I felt I needed to start fresh and re-learn the game. So, after much hemming and hawing, I settled on an Energy Melee Brute on the Freedom server. I launched into the new Galaxy City tutorial zone, experienced some lag, completed my tasks, hit level 2, and then transferred to Atlas City. It took me awhile to find my old Veteran Rewards, but I got things straightened out, and then realized the hour was late, so I logged off in the City Hall.

Woke up around 10:30 this morning when the combination of a full bladder, stuffed nostril, and ice-cold hands got the better of me. I couldn’t find anything to eat, so I didn’t bother with breakfast, and went straight to the exercise bike, watching the latest episode of Iron Man: Armored Adventures as I pedaled.

After that, I folded some laundry, flipped through the paper, and then my go-get-‘em energy petered out.

But, I did buy some used books to help learn some stuff that might be helpful career-wise, so there’s that…

My hypothesis was correct. I reached level 20 in under 12 hours.

7:15pm: Log in. Retrieve mail. Turn in quests. Continue questing.
8:02pm: Raise fishing skill from 53-58. Receive Ironbound trunk.
8:05pm: Reached level 19.
8:23pm: Raise fishing skill from 58-61.
8:28pm: 100 Quests Achievement.
8:44pm: Reached level 20.

Total playing time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

Grand total to reach level 20: 11 hours, 36 minutes.

9:26pm: Flew to Orgrimmar, visited auction house, and searched for mount vendor. Giddy Up Achievement.
9:32pm: Bought first orc mount. Hearthstone back to Inn.
9:33pm: Log off.

Grand total playing time: 12 hours, 25 minutes.

So, there you have it. Blizzard is giving new players approximately twelve hours of free playing time.

Today’s session was not as successful as previous ones…

6:32pm: Log in and begin questing.
6:40pm: A human Death Knight of indeterminate level challenged me to a duel. i declined knowing damn well that a death knight is at least level 55, and I’m level 16. No good can come of this. This player turns on PvP, and begins assaulting the guards of Crossroads, and killing my quest givers, and shopkeepers everywhere I went. He challenged me to duel a few more times, and each time I declined. I wandered to hunt, and came back when i thought the coast might be clear, but it wasn’t.
7:00pm: Flew to Orgrimmar to escape player harassment and use the auction house. I actually reported the issue - call me a tattle-tale, if you must.
7:04pm: Shortly after arriving in Orgrimmar, the game crashed. I logged back in.
7:11pm: Hearthstone back to Crossroads and begin questing.
7:28pm: Raise fishing skill from 35 to 46.
7:44pm: Reached level 17.
8:01pm: Raise fishing skill from 47-53. 50 Fish Achievement.
8:25pm: Reached level 18.
8:41pm: Flew to Orgrimmar to use Auction house and buy bags.
9:02pm: Flew to Razor Hill to follow a quest marked on my map.
9:11pm: I’m lost, and can’t find the quest point where it says it is on the map. After consulting wowhead, I found I was way off the mark (wrong zone off).
9:35pm: Hearthstone back to Crossroad and log off.

total playing time: 3 hours, 3 minutes.

grand total: 10 hours, 7 minutes.

I guess i can still hit 20 by the 12-hour mark, but if I continue to get lost in the Barrens, that may not be the case. I also realized that my pre-paid time may be dangerously close to ending. We’ll see if I can finish this experiment before then.

Wasn’t a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t as horrible as some reviews would have you believe.

Maybe I’m just easy to entertain…

4:45pm: Logged in.
5:02pm: 50 Quest Achievement.
5:09pm: Reached Level 13.
5:45pm: Reached Level 14.
6:19pm: Cooking Award Achievement.
6:38pm: The Old Gnome and the Sea Achievement.
6:53pm: Reached Level 15.
7:29pm: Reached Level 16.
7:30pm: Logged out.

Total time played: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Grand total playing time: 7 hours, 4 minutes.

I’m betting I’ll hit Level 20 around the 12 hour mark.

7:25pm: Logged in and began questing.
7:45pm: Achieved Level 9.
8:14pm: Achieved Level 10.
8:46pm: Achieved Level 11.
9:19pm: Achieved Level 12.
9:40pm: Logged off, and just remembered I forgot to visit the Warrior trainer in Razor Hill.

Today’s total time played: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Total time played: 4 hours, 19 minutes.

The rate of leveling is definitely slowing down, but I am past the halfway point (to Level 20).

I just finished cleaning up my workstation (a task started yesterday afternoon). Lots of dusting, some re-arranging/re-organizing, and voila - a cleaner work environment. Hopefully, this will prevent further watery eyes and runny noses. Seriously, it felt like my eyes were going to drown in their sockets yesterday.

I switched wiper blades on my car last night. These new flex blades work much nicer. They look bulkier and odder than I’m used to, but it’s better to have a clean, clear windshield. I also put my plates on the car, so I guess that kind of christens it as mine, now.

I actually feel pretty good after accomplishing these small tasks.