I wish everyone a wonderful Saint Patrick’s Day today, wherever you may be,  and wherever you may be from.

Here in the United States, it’s an interesting occasion, as a lot of folks consider it an excuse to get drunk and act the fool, without any appreciat for or understanding of what the heck it’s supposedly all about.

I ain’t gonna get into any of that “What it’s all about” stuff meself, since you either know already, or you most likely dinnae care.

I heard one statistic this morning on the way in to work that the population of Ireland, where, like, actual Irish people live, is around 4.5 million, while the number of Americans that consider themselves Irish-American, or of Irish descent and are proud enough of it to mark such on their census/statistics forms numbers over 35 million.

So… are we Ireland in exile? Or just a whole bunch of people that wished we were more exotic than we actually are?

“Oh, I’m not JUST an American… I’m an IRISH American! I’m different! I’m a special little snowflake!”

Yep, just like the other 34 million, 999 thousand, 999 people.

And I’m one of ‘em!

Today, in celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day, I shall spend the day not in wild drunken debauchery, but instead involved in a more subdued, yet still honest series of micro-actions. Kinda like my own subversive, anti-establishment version of observance.

First, I am not “wearing green”, as the tradition over here goes. Instead, under my uniform shirt, I am wearing my “Irish Brigade” t-shirt that I bought while visiting Gettysburg a couple of years ago. It’s quite tasteful, and I love it dearly.

Second, I shall take home with me a very small quantity of the Guinness, and tonight, after Alex is in bed and sleeping the sleep of the innocent, I shall drink it while enjoying that awesome classic film, “The Quiet Man” on DvD.

Ah, I do love that movie, and it’s entirely different pace. The fact it includes the most awesomest battle sequence on the planet is just a bonus.

Yes, “most awesomest” is a real phrase. Well, at least it should be.

I’d like to attribute my more relaxed enjoyment of the day as being a reflection on how I’m getting more mature as I get older… but I think I’m just boring. :)

It’s been a long, long time since I spent Saint Patrick’s Day on River Street in Savannah, Georgia, getting completely obliterated and having an insane time. A long time, and lot of water under the bridge.

To any Marines that stagger down to River Street this week for the festivities, or for anyone anywhere that takes a few moments to enjoy the day in some special way, Sláinte!

Saint Patrick was a gentleman,
Who through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland,
Here’s a toasting to his health.

But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again.

‘Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!’
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hey all, just a heads up, on the wild off chance someone on Kael’thas-US, Alliance side, knows how to make the Knightbane Carapace, I would really appreciate it if you’d give me (Windshadow/Windshear/Windstar) a heads up.

Cassie has all the mats and a tip, but is having trouble finding someone to craft it for her.

Give me a holler back! Thanks!

Edit: All taken care of thank you!

A weekend of Shaman Healing (and occasional Bear tanking) has led me to believe that a lot of people I meet in random groups don’t understand there is a clear priority list to healing.

As a healer, I do not frantically click all the little green bars willy-nilly hoping that somehow, we will all pull through.

I prioritize.

I make sure each and every heal is cast with precision, in order of importance, with an eye to my overall goal of  successfully completing each run.

Many people just don’t seem to understand how the priorities work. It’s very clear to me.

So, I’m going to help explain. This is my Sunday Service to you.

In a random group in LFD or in raids, healing priority goes in the following order;

1) Me.

2) The tank, so long as he is keeping things off of me. If he’s letting me take aggro from spawned mobs, I’m going to reduce heals accordingly until he gets his head out of his ass, or eats some repair bills, whichever come first.

3) My spouse, because if I let her die, I’m never going to hear the end of it.

4) Any other guildies in the run, because I already know I like them.

5) Anyone that’s been nice and friendly in the group. Examples include, but are not limited to; Saying hello at the start, being helpful or polite, typing with proper grammar and/or spelling, sharing any amusing and light-hearted anecdotes, or perhaps even, wonder of wonders, buffing properly or dropping a Mage table. Dropping a Mage table can even bump you to above “4″, if the guildy is being a lazy bastard.

6) Anyone that is a stranger and hasn’t said a word the entire run. I’ll heal you, but I won’t really give a shit if you live or die.

7) Any stranger that has been a jerk or mouthy, or can’t spell, or acts like an idiot… oh, who am I kidding, these people don’t get heals. They never get an intentional heal. They may get the unintended benefit of my Chain Heal, and then only if I really have to cast it to help numbers 1 through 6 above. If I can get away with it, I’ll cast Lesser Healing Wave and Riptide all around you, isolating you from the glorious warmth and love of my heals, leaving you cast out in the cold to suffer. Leave the group, you asshat, and take your spammed Recount with you.

8) Any Warlock that repeatedly Lifetaps below 25% health after each pull. These people seem to think my Mana pool is actually for their sole use, leaving me to blow my Mana on the run to the next group just to heal him back up. Unless he falls into category 4 or 5, he gets between jack and shit, because if he thinks he’s all that evil in using me… then he must admire real evil, like my letting him die from the consequences of his own Lifetap on the next AoE damage pull, right? If he doesn’t appreciate the joke… well, guess he either needs to get a sense of humor, or buy some damn Mana juice with his own gold and leave mine alone. I understand Kungaloosh has a nice kick.

Life will move a whole lot smoother in LFD once you people understand the priorities!

Once upon a time, in what often feels like another life, a young Bear was a fan of comic books.

Boxes and boxes of carefully sorted, collected, plastic wrapped and backboarded issues resided safely in his home.

Along came a day when it was time to get on a bus, and leave his old world behind, to take that first step towards Parris Island. He didn’t know a whole hell of a lot about what was ahead, but e had a fairly good idea of one thing; it would probably pay to travel light.

Towards that end, he decided to put away childish things, and gave everything away to his high school friends. Books, comics, role playing gear, everything. 

It was a symbolic act of turning his thoughts away from the detritus of the past, and instead looking only towards the future, and what he could make of it.

Yeah, that kind of thinking doesn’t last very long in the real world.

The truth is, we are the sum total of all of our experiences and knowledge, and for good or bad, everything we do is part of who we are.

I may not have had any comic books, but the part of me that liked good stories wrapped up in fancy art hadn’t gone anywhere.

What did happen was that my tastes in comic books, in media of all types, broadened quite a bit. I’d like to think I’ve grown more appreciative of rich stories, of well woven plots, of intricate tales and blunt emotion and many other things besides.

Of course, while I’d like to think that, I’m probably fooling myself. :)

These days, I rarely purchase comic books of any type, but through the magic of the public library system, I can request and read all the very latest comic book graphic novels, whenever I wish.

Yes, even rather graphic graphic novels, like The Ultimates, Powers, and Wanted. Right there on the racks. Kinda scary, isn’t it?

I still manage to read a lot of funny books, is what I’m saying.

In all the years I have read comics, through Watchmen, Chris Claremonts run on X-Men, The Dark Knight and Sin City, Groo the Wanderer and Cerebus the Aardvark, Badger and Nexus, Batman and What If and Beyonders and The Ultimates and all sorts of things, of WildCATS and Supremes, even through Mage: The Hero Discovered and the aforementioned Powers, nothing I had ever read could prepare me for how I felt when I first opened that issue and read that first story.

Planetary.

A simple enough comic, by a writer I was vaguely aware of as some crazy Brit named Warren Ellis.

I was predisposed to expect genius from crazy Brits, since Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is like, freaking genius of the first water and once upon a time influenced me in spending hundreds of dollars on overpriced graphic novels to possess the entire run of his work. Damn it.

Still, not even Gaiman could prepare me for Planetary.

So simple. So unassuming. No pretensions towards artsy fartsyness like the faux shadowboxes of the Sandman covers. No oversized issues, or foil imprints, or sales hype wackiness.

Just a comic.

But what a comic.

The artwork… I fell in love with John Cassaday’s style early on.

And the book!

The tagline: “Archeaologists of the Unknown”. The recurring theme: “The world is strange; let’s keep it that way.”

The idea that these aren’t action heroes in the beat ‘em up sense, in the “Let’s see what happens if Hulk fought Wolverine” style of comic plotting.

Seriously. That was often the plot in the old days, and people blame Watchmen and Dark Knight for many things, but give credit where it’s due, we haven’t had to deal with bullshit epeen contests superheroes fulfilling adolescent power fantasies in a long, long time.

“Let’s see what would happen if Captain America fought Spiderman. Why would they fight? Who cares, let’s give the fans a fight so we can see who would beat who. And Spiderman is up in the ratings, so we can’t let him lose.”

Here, the plot was not an afterthought thrown together to give the characters something to do while we admired their powers. The plot… the plot was incredible.

The stories are so rich. Each issue explored major themes, powerful ideas, and opens eyes on a wild and strange and fascinating secret history of a world that so easily could be ours… and which, in some way, we truly wish was.

The characters are really in love with the world. With it’s strange cultures, and it’s diverse paths and ideas and all the hidden mysteries that are in the cracks, where the daily struggle for life and health and family push the extra weirdness aside, to be left forgotten along the way.

I came to the story late. Most of the comics were already out, and I had to go back and meticulously hunt down each one, sometimes in collected graphic novels, and other times as individual issues, to finally forge a full set.

The story… it is so like the work of J.Michael Strazynski on Babylon 5 (and Rising Stars), in that it is clear that, while each issue has one brilliant concept that is heavily explored, the entire series is also telling one consistent, powerful story with a discrete beginning, middle, and most particularly, an ending.

Even more amazing, as each issue is read and re-read, it becomes clear that every issue, often with seemingly contradictory themes or science or views of the world from different points of view, actually do go together to further every bit of the story with critical knowledge. There are no throwaways. If you thought one was a throwaway, then I bet it pays to go back later and read it again. You might have missed something in the theme.

And finally, the most amazing thing about the entire series; it’s full of exciting action, smart damn action, and it’s cool. It’s very, very cool.

The secret history of the world.

A world filled with Sherlock Holmes, and Dracula, and Doc Savage. Or the island of monsters from King Kong. Or aboriginal concepts of the dreamtime. Or the multiverse. Parallel worlds. Nick Fury and Frankenstein Monster. And every possible thing in between. All cohesive and exciting and relevant.

A world truly filled with infinite possibility.

A world filled with endless hope.

Art the likes of which I’ve never seen anywhere else, etherial when it needs to be, stunning and beautiful, and then clean and cold, or warm and loving, and at all times, alive and full. John Cassaday is a marvel.

Okay. So, I love Planetary. Fine.

Why in all the nine hells am I boring you to death with my drivel?

Give me a second, I’ll get to it.

This series has had a very strange, very staggered run.

Perhaps it’s true that you can’t rush genius. Or maybe Warren Ellis just needs to ease up on the projects that grow like bunnies and finish one. Whatever.

I’ll just say that Planetary spans 27 issues. The first one went on sale sometime in 1998… and the last published issue, issue #27, went out on October of 2009.

That’s right. A run of 27 issues over 11 years. /cry

But there was worse. Once you got into it, and went to collect old back issues, you found out one horrible fact; the collected graphic novels ended at issue #18.

And issue #19 went on eBay for over $70, assuming you were lucky enough to find one.

So you could get the entire series on graphic novel form easy enough up to 18, and then had to make some hard choices. And even then, for years there was no final issue #26 or 27. Years.

Again, why am I going over all of this?

I’ll tell you why.

At long last, you can get the entire thing in graphic novel form.

Volume 4 of the collected editions of Planetary, including rare issue #19, went on sale on March 4th of this year.

I’m holding it in my hands. It’s real. I could hug it. 

It’s beautiful.

It’s kind of like holding warm, summery sunshine. Or the freshness of your newborn child, without the impending diaper load or months of sleepless nights lurking ahead.

It holds issue 19, all the way through 27, and fully and completely concludes what I strongly consider to be one of the greatest science fiction stories ever told, anywhere, in any possible form, and certainly in my opinion THE greatest comic book achievement of all time.

If you happen to enjoy science fiction and have a fairly well read and wild appreciation for the richness and diversity of pulp myths and classic storylines and new concepts, and above all else enjoy good comic books, and if it lies at all within your power to read these four volumes, whether from your library system or by purchasing them, I beg of you, do it.

You might not agree with this gushing fanboy about how good they are… but I can’t believe that you would be dissappointed.

For your convenience, I shall now link to all four volumes on Amazon.com, so you can find them by ISBN if you want to check with your library. Or if you want to purchase them.

And the obligatory disclaimer… I don’t get a dime whether you buy one or not. I get no deal with Amazon when I link to them, I do it because I find it convenient to buy from them. No hidden motives.

One last thing… there is so much about this that is amazing and I cannot in good conscience ruin things for you by talking too much about it. But if you ever enjoyed ANY pulp stories, like Doc Savage or The Shadow, or Tarzan, or John Carter of Mars, that era of fiction has its treasured place in the huge all encompassing world of this series. You don’t have to know about any of it to appreciate it; but it certainly does broaden the entire experience.

As a long confirmed fan of Doc Savage, and an occasional reader of all the others, I was quite pleased.

Planetary 1: All Over the World and Other Stories (collects preview & 1-6) 
Planetary 2: The Fourth Man (collects 7-12) 
Planetary 3: Leaving the 20th Century (collects 13-18) 
Planetary 4: Spacetime Archaeology (collects 19-27)

That’s really it.

There are two other ways to collect it all coming soon, called Absolute versions.

Absolute Planetary 1 is already out, holding the preview, 1 through 12 and extra stuff.

Absolute Planetary 2 is due out in July of this year, and holds 13 through 27. I mention this, because pre-orders say that the Absolute Planetary 2 might have some extra pages of a mini-story included not seen elsewhere. On the other hand, that hasn’t been confirmed anywhere I have seen… and it’s damn expensive, and it ain’t out yet. Hmm, go figure.

Name where I got that (slightly changed) quote from that I used as a title, and get a Big Bear shout out… because if you recognise where it came from after I tweaked it a little, you’re definitely my kind of movie fan.

Yes, that’s a hint. The original line is from a movie. Here’s a second hint; it’s one of my favorite films of all time.

Now, on to the show!

A few nights ago I finally achieved my mini-goal of hitting 375 Enchanting on my Shaman, and so I no longer had any excuse not to play her.

I queued up once again as a Healer Shaman, and away I went into LFD.

All I wanted was a quick romp in the Heroic sack with some random PUG I picked up in a bar, but, as Ford Fairlane might have said, “I got the bonus plan.”

I got Drak’theron Keep, and in looking at the group composition (as I always do for Totem adjustment) I saw that three of the others in the group were all from the same guild. A Paladin, a Shaman, and a Shadow Priest.

Now, the first thing I did was laugh, and I mean really laugh at the name of this guild.

Get this; Prophet of Cthulhu.

Why did that get me chuckling? For the answer to that, may I refer you to this ancient post of mine, from May of 2008, wherin I plug John Ringo books, throw down the hate on Transformers, laugh about things that lots of people probably take very seriously, get insanely cranky… and way down at the bottom relate a true story concerning myself, some very serious true believers, and the great old ones of Lovecraftian lore.

Okay, so I’m laughing with the guild name of these three, and off we go.

First thing I do, as I said, is see that one of the three, Lardzilla, is a Enhancement Shaman, and I’m examining what Totems he’s dropping in the first coupe fights so I can set mine not to overlap. I also check to see what the Paladin did for buffs, all the things a Shaman has to do to make sure you drop the right Totems. And of course, I get my Tremor Totem set for later, when the fear, she be a flowing.

This causes me to lag a little behind, but I do my best to keep the heals flowing.

Then we get to some lizards, and I’ve got max skinning and seem to be the only skinner, so again, I’m lagging behind a little trying to get some skinning in.

All in all, I’m doing my best, but I’m certainly not feeling like I’m giving off the impression to the others of being bright-eyed, bushy tailed, and poised to let the heals flow.

We blow through the instance, everything is pretty nice, a few times the Paladin scoops up groups that are a bit larger than I’d certainly like, but some frantic healing and Nature’s Swiftness keep everything just fine.

We hit the end boss, finish him off, and I win the epic Mail healing bracers. Score!

I also ding the 25 Emblem achievement. :)

I thank the group for the run, and make the comment in passing that it does get hard gearing up a new alt all over again.

The Paladin, of all people, comments that he knows the feeling from his Druid.

I mention that at least I’ve got an idea about healing and some good toolslike Vuh’do thanks to my other healer, a Tree Druid, and the Paladin says he hates Vuh’do on his Tree Druid, he prefers Lifebloomer instead, an addon I’m not even sure I’ve heard of before.

Next thing I know, the Paladin says, “Hey, when did you ding?”

I tell him I just turned 80 on Saturday, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Next thing I see, he’s queued the four of us up for heroic Forge of Souls, and says, “Here, let’s get you some gear.”

Well… okay, this is an unprecedented level of niceness from three folks that I haven’t seen before. My healing sure as heck didn’t warrant this behavior.

What does that leave?

It couldn’t possibly be… nice people?

Hmmm.

The Paladin queues us up, and it won’t let him. Why? Because despite my efforts, I still don’t have the gear necessary to let me in.

So the Paladin laughs and queues us up for regular Forge of Souls, and away we go!

We did Forge of Souls, and Pit of Saron, back to back, and they were willing and ready to go do Halls of Reflection, if I hadn’t had to go get Alex ready for bed.

And a nicer bunch of people I haven’t seen in a PUG in a long, long time.

Knowing the fights, the enemy tactics, and the boss encounters from both a Paladin tank and Healer point of view helped immensely in making sure I was proactive in my healing rather than reacting in a panic.

And being familiar with Vuh’do and having studied my spells also helped a ton.

But mostly, I had a very well geared tank and a very powerful group of DPS that killed things before they had a chance to hurt anyone too much. :)

Earlier I mentioned an exploit. Mostly, I brought it up just to be able to use that movie quote in the title. :)

We did use an exploit I had never heard of before, in Pit of Saron, but it didn’t actually make my ass drag. OR make my butt slump.

What happened was, as soon as Ick and Krick were dead, the Paladin said, “Everyone mount up, we’re going to do the exploit.”

I had no idea what he meant, but I know what a mount is. I’m kinda crafty that way. I can haz hoofs!

Loot was taken, but even before the dialogue was over and Krick was dead, we were mounted up… and heading up the ramp.

We reached the top of the ramp just as the two shadowcasters appeared to head down, and they ignored us as we kept on going to the other side and stopped on that first landing halfway towards the tunnel, where it takes a dogleg 90° to the right. The two groups on the ramp spawned after those two reached their positions… and ignored us, safe at the top landing.

We only had the two groups of icicle guys and their minions to deal with before the tunnel.

I don’t mind the ramp, but I’ll admit, I wasn’t crying a river of alligator tears about avoiding that particular fight when I don’t know everyone I was with, and my healing power is a might on the low side just yet.

Anyway, we blasted through the whole thing, I was very careful of my healing during Overlord Brands, and I got the nice Mail healing chest piece, and of course emblems and stuff.

More than that, we chatted a bit during the run, and I really was amazed at how you can sometimes just bump into the nicest people.

Things like this really serve to highlight one lack which I wish Blizzard could remedy.

We already have an ignore list that works cross-server, and if you put somebody from another server on it, it prevents you from being queued with that person in a random again in the future.

That’s all well and good.

What I wish is that there was a cross-server friends list, where if you find yourself grouped with some really nice folks, you could exchange friends lists.

You put them on your list, they put you on theirs, and if the random generator sees two people who BOTH are on each other’s friends list, it matches them up together by preference, if possible.

Just a thought. It’s nice that we can prevent future occurances of playing with the same asshats, but I’d love it if we could increase the chance that we would play with great folks we’ve had fun with again.

So, to Khaotix, Karalov, and Lardzilla of Prophet of Cthulhu, thank you very much for being really nice people, and great players, and for being kind to a complete stranger in a pug.

Bravo. You all rock.