My mysterious past (few months)

To the disappointment of some (I'm looking at you Dalaila :) I'm back playing WoW again. In case anyone is curious as to what I've been up to these past 3 months apart from P90X, well, here it is.


Reading

I've done a lot of reading because that's all I have the energy for after a hard workout. Some philosophical stuff and some Star Wars.


The Star Wars phase

I went through another Star Wars phase (I get these at regular intervals) during which I got the urge to buy myself some action figures and Lego sets. Unfortunately I couldn't find any of the action figures I wanted and the Lego set I really want (the Millennium Falcon) is way too expensive.

And by the way, if you like episodes 1, 2 and 3, you're not a true Star Wars fan :)

I also watched all original episodes again (4, 5 & 6 FTW!) and I was amazed how they still made me grin like a kid. The weird thing is that when I was younger I preferred them in this order: 6 > 5 > 4 but now I like them exactly the other way: 4 > 5 > 6.


The iPhone 4 fiasco

Though I don't own any Apple products nor do I see myself ever owning any, I'm always watching the tech scene with interest and I believe that competition is very healthy so I want Apple to release new stuff as often as possible.

The iPhone 4 antennagate was entertaining to say the least. Jobs' response was also somewhat to be expected. Basically screw everybody, we won't admit we made a mistake. This arrogance may yet be Apple's downfall.

The reasons why I don't think I'll ever buy into Apple are twofold: it's a closed system, unlike Android or others that are out there and I hate Steve Jobs' arrogance and style.


My first smartphone

During this period I finally took the plunge and bought my first smartphone. It's not an iPhone and it's not an Android device, yet it does all the stuff that these platforms can do. It doesn't have a touchscreen and it has a physical keyboard. It's also tentatively considered to be that particular manufacturer's best phone ever. Oh and I bought it unlocked so I can use it without a data plan, yet I can still connect to the internet provided I can find a wireless hotspot. I'll give you a virtual cookie if you can guess what phone it is.


The RealID(iotic) fiasco

This is one for the history books. There's been tons of virtual ink spilled over Blizzard's blunder so I won't go into details but here's my take on it in a nutshell. I think it would have been a big mistake if real names would have been displayed on the forums. Not only does this violate people's privacy without even asking them if they want to be part of this, but it creates a very dangerous precedent.

I'm willing to bet anything that if this had gone through, the next thing would have been real names in the armory and from there there's only a tiny step to real names in game. It's mind boggling.

Those who think it would have been a good idea don't know what they're talking about or are new to the interwebz. Sorry but that's my firm opinion. There are no ifs or buts about it. Privacy is becoming more of a concern as technology and the internet evolve, not less.

Suffice to say that if ReadID had been implemented like they wanted initially on the forums, I wouldn't have quit WoW over it because I can count the number of posts made over the years on the fingers of one hand. But if they had extended that to the armory or, worse, to the game, that would have been the end of it for me.

So that's what these past few months have been like. Now I'm looking to the future (of WoW) with a lot of interest. I like what I see coming from the Cataclysm beta but I'll talk more about that and my plans for the expansion in my next post.