Okay, there was a short post on WoW Insider about Practical Jokes in Alterac Valley…

and it reminded me of a classic joke that, if you’ve been playing any length of time, you’ve probably seen already.

In fact, you’ve probably seen it done to someone, and known about it so long you have trouble remembering how anyone ever fell for it.

I am talking, of course, about the incredible [Alt-F4] command, and the MANY ways to which you will see it used.

Let me paint a picture, of an evening earlier last week…

The usual suspects were on Teamspeak, shooting the breeze (Gotta remember; family-friendly).

We were all doing different things, some PvP, some quests, instances, yadda yadda yadda.

Someone logs into Teamspeak… we will withold the name to protect the innocent. Naive? No, innocent. Innocent is a good word. Trusting is another.

And he asks in TS, something along the lines of “Anyone know how to show honorable kills in AV?” (or something close to that… it was a casual comment, so I wasn’t like focused super razor sharp on it at the time…)

And just as fast as the question is asked, Jayboi responds back with “Sure, Alt-F4″.

You would think people would learn not to trust him. You really would.

We all chuckle at Jayboi trotting out the tired old chestnut… and then the person that asked for help went offline…. suddenly. Very abrubtly. Shall we say… suspiciously abrubtly. Almost as though they had typed Alt-F4, which instantly shuts down World of Warcraft, logging you out and booting you to desktop.

Now, you might think that, being nice people with kind hearts, we all were mad at Jay.

Unfortunately, you’d be wrong. Sadly, my character is weak when it comes to practical jokes, especially ones I fell for 2 years ago. I try to compensate by having a good sense of humor when someone nails me to the wall with one.

Yes, that’s right. After we got over our stunned surprise, the laughter began… rolling out like waves… and spread for 10 minutes.

Do I feel sorry for him for getting nailed by Jayboi? Sure.

On the other hand… been there, done that, and what goes around, certainly comes around.

I wonder… are there any other good practical jokes you guys have seen? Aside from getting a lowbie to accept a Duel invitation right before the Ship comes at the dock on Menethil Harbor, and Mind Controlling them off the pier so they miss the boat, of course.

EDIT: I do want to correct an impression I left earlier… Alt-F4 does close World of Warcraft… but it does NOT instantly log your character out, unless you were in an Inn/Major City and resting. If you were out and about, then World of Warcraft closes instantly, but your character remains logged in the normal 20 seconds, remaining in danger the entire time. You’ve been warned.

As I promised on Saturday, I bring you less tease, and more info.

I’ll be up front with you… the weekend was a bit of a blur. I’m sure many of you can say the same, but I have no alcohol to use for an excuse. In my case, it’s just a combination of age, lack of sleep and a general state of confusion. You get used to it.

FYI, the sound you hear most often from this species of male is, “Sweetie, have you seen my keys?”

Let’s move on…. last week, I had set myself a few goals. I’d received some nice drops in Kara, and I had the intended goal of getting them properly kitted out with gems and enchants so I could replace my existing gear. As Karthis said recently, in general I like Agility enchants and Stamina gems (although if you check out my Armory, compromises have been made). I had the darndest time finding someone with the new +15 Agility to gloves enchant, though. Even advertising a 50g tip with my mats, it took 4 days of searching to find someone. But once I got it, I was good to go.

My other goals were concerning my alt hunter, Windstar. My poor hunter has been level 69 for, oh, I dunno… at least 3 months. Somewhere towards the end of last week, I got lucky in the AH and found the new 24 slot Ammo Pouch (Netherscale Ammo Pouch) for only 300g, equippable at level 70. Since I only had the 16 slot ammo pouch at the time, and had ‘farm Consortium rep’ to get the bigger pouch on my list of things to do, I wooted quite loudly when I snagged it. But now I had a 24 slot Ammo Pouch, and the Ornate Khorium Rifle both waiting for me to squeak out that last level. Grr!

On a side note, I imagine some folks may call me an idiot for paying 300g for the Netherscale Ammo Pouch… but an upgrade of 8 slots over what I had is crazy, and the pouch does take a Nether to craft… in my opinion, it was WELL worth it. Hell, I’ve spent more than that on enchanting mats and gems to kit out a single upgrade. This was a one time purchase. And it saved me having to farm Consortium rep… again. Yay!

And finally, Mrs BBB has reached level 48 on her Rogue, and her Alchemy has reached near-300 ranks. At the start of the weekend, she was getting blocked by lack of high level herbage… and I finally looked at my Professions and realized that I didn’t REALLY need TWO 375 Engineers…. so I dropped Engineering on my hunter to take Herbalism.

Somewhere over the weekend, I managed to ding 70 on my hunter, mostly by questing in Evergrove in Blades Edge Mountains. It doesn’t hurt that I was 2% into level 70, and 98% rested XP… I guess sitting in the Inn for three months will tend to rest you a bit…

I also leveled Herbalism up from 1 to, I think, 365 at this moment in time. I would like to thank Ten Ton Hammer and Amanna of Adventures of Azeroth for inspiring me to level Herbalism, and for showing me the fastest way and the best places for herbs. I’ve seen lots of places that advise on leveling Herbalism, and the various info Ten Ton hammer has is pretty sweet.

On the topic of Herbs… it amazes me how awesome Swamp of Sorrows is for leveling off of Blindweed. It seemed as though, at peak playing server time Saturday afternoon, every Blindweed node was up and available for farming… must’ve got 30 points right there. I wonder if people hate the Swamp so much they avoid farming those herbs?

On the other hand, once Mrs BBB hit higher levels of Alchemy, she needed tons of Plaguebloom… and wow, scouring Eastern Plaguelands for an hour came up with what I think are paltry Plaguebloom results… one stack of 20, and some scattered Sungrass and Mountain Silversage. Must be a highly farmed area, even to this day. Oh, and another wierd note… I was still getting skill points in Herbalism off of Plaguebloom, at level 360. Wow.

Anyway… yeah, the forecast is scattered thoughts for the morning, followed by a chance of fog creeping in towards the afternoon.

To recap.. my hunter is 70, and has Herbalism high enough to help my wife level her Alchemy… she should hit 300 Alchemy today. Goal for today… find out what character level you have to be to get Master level Alchemy (300-375).

But wait, I hear you ask, what about the gear on your dr00d? Well, For one thing, except for Idol of the Wild, I no longer have greens stinking up my Tanking gear.

This weekend, I replaced Verdant Gloves, Delicate Eternium Ring, Manimal’s Cinch and Heavy Clefthoof Boots with…..

Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation, Ring of Unyielding Force, Tree-Menders’ Belt and Zierhuts’ Lost Treads.

All I can say is, pretty scary. Loot dropped last week like snow on a Minnesota Thanksgiving.

What’s even funnier is that the Tree-Mender’s Belt dropped on my first full run through Heroic Ramparts… which stunned the heck out of me. Then, last night, I came in to pinch-fill in for a guildie in a Heroic Slave Pens run, a run that was mostly to let our new feral bear tank, Fandamn, get his first Heroic run in, and the Midnight Legguards dropped. That’s funny because that was the first time I ran the whole thing through in Heroic, and Fandamn insisted on /rolling for the legguards, even after I refused to take them. Based on his roll, if I’d wanted them they would’ve been mine. Can you have too many upgrades in a single weekend?

I think so… it was far more fun to encourage him to get them, and have some epics showing for his first Heroic.

No matter how you slice it, a whole lot of changes happened… and I still haven’t touched my Priest alt. Or my fishing. As Mrs BBB takes such joy in mentioning… her Fishing is 239 atm, by the way. I don’t know where mine is exactly, but I think it’s less than 150… lol. All I can say is, to all of you that have the patience for Fishing… /salute.

Well, not a lot more to say, I could /rant about people stealth-quitting guilds (WTF? At least 4 times over the weekend, chatting on Teamspeak and see a note in Guild Chat, wisenheimer has left the guild. And it’s always the same… no words, no nothing, just a stealthy /gquit. And I’m left wondering, “Does anyone even know who that was? Or why they quit?” with the answer being, “No clue man.”

But that is a topic for another day….

Welcome to the new week! Prepare for the onslaught of CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!! Arggghhhh!!!!! /bang head on concrete walls.

EDIT: It looks like you can get Alchemy Mastery at level 50, and Alchemy skill of 275, for 10g from the Alchemy Trainer in Shattrath. So she’s only two levels away from that! Yay!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVWgWqSf_d0&rel=1]

Why be a tank? in short, because it is a heck of a lot of fun tearing your way through everything in front of you….

But the moral of the story is, if you’re running solo without a good team, they’ll pull you down….

Sooner or later.

And ahand, and a waist, and a finger.

And I’ll talk about ‘em much more when I’m not still brain fried from the visit of my eldest bear cub.

May you and the ones you love have known plenty and joy no matter where in the world you may be.

This week, we have some old school action courtesy of Whirlish the Hunter of Kael’thas, a stone punk if I’ve ever seen one. Lately he’s mostly been seen on his bear Fandamn, so clearly he can admit when he’s made a mistake in picking main classes, so we’ll cut him some slack.

Now, the version I have always listened to is by Megadeth, but out of respect I just had to give you the original Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols. I hope you enjoy.

And since we’re on the subject of Anarchy…. and since I enjoy linking two great things that go great together…. I give you the end credits for Portal. And this is the most incredible Awesomeness that has ever existed in a video game. Bless Oingo for posting this on his blog!

“I’m doing science and I’m still alive…..“