HowTo: Fix a 2 drive failure in an MDADM Raid5 array ( continued )

Happened again to the raid array. Found that my previous instructions weren't 100% correct.

The command to use is:

sudo mdadm --examine /dev/sdb1 ( not --detail )

Here is the stackoverflow post:

http://superuser.com/questions/603481/how-do-i-reactivate-my-mdadm-raid5-array

Rosewill RSV-S4-X and mdadm RAID5

I've had the Rosewill RSV-S4-X for about a week now. I've got it integrated into my MDADM RAID5 array using 5 2TB SATA drives. So far I think its working OK. I'd say 4 out of 5 stars. More on why that is later.

So the enclosure comes with a Silicon Image 3132 PCIe eSata expansion card. This is what does the port-multiplication. I'm currently running Ubuntu 13.10. The Sil3132 is supposed to be well supported in linux. My experience has been good in general with it. Ubuntu picked it up right away with no issue.

The enclosure itself seems to take all its queues from the card. Its default is to be in JBOD mode, which is exactly what I need for mdadm. I added 2 more 2TB HDs to the enclosure, and they showed up as /dev/sd[gh] right away. So far so good.

I had a drive fail inside the machine. I added /dev/sdg1 to the array and had it re-sync. The re-sync process was holding at a steady 70MB/s. While not blazingly fast, this seemed about normal with the speeds I was getting from the on-board SATA ports.

Cons:

So far I have only run into 2 problems with the system, and I think they're related. I originally placed the 2 drives in the top most 2 slots. This turned out to be slots 3 and 4. At first I didn't think much of it. Later on, I removed the faulty HD and ran some tests on it through WinDFT. It seemed to pass those tests fine, so I shut the system down and inserted the drive into Slot 1 of the Rosewill. I wasn't 100% sure if the rosewill was hot-swap, so I didn't take the chance.

Immediately things didn't go well. The Sil3132 was no longer being recognized. I rebooted a few times, with no change. Finally I decided to just remove the faulty drive. A few reboots later the card came back up, as did the two drives. Unfortunately by then mdadm had already removed /dev/sdg1 ( the one in the enclosure) from the array. A --re-add was refused.

My hypothesis is that by adding the drive into Slot 1, the raid card reordered the drives. This was enough to confuse mdadm, and the drive ended up being removed and the array degraded. I've since did an --add on the drive, and the array re-synced over night. I rebooted the machine a few times to ensure that it works, and things seem to be going ok.

Conclusion:

Its  a nice enclosure, and for home use I think its perfectly fine. I would be hesitant to use it in a mission-critical environment, simply because of the unknowns about drive re-ordering.

I'm especially concerned about what might happen if more of my drives are on the enclosure. If the drives re-order again, and 2 of my drives get kicked out of the RAID, then I may be in trouble. Keep good backups of everything!

I'll try to keep this post updated as I find more things. \

[Linux] Pogoplug constant blinking orange light

My pogoplug started blinking orange shortly after I added OptWare to it. Usually the blinking orange signals that its having trouble reading or is currently working on a drive. This is not normal disk read/write.

I found that it had mounted the /opt directory, which is on the thumbdrive and houses the OptWare files. Unmounting this from the web interface fixes the problem ( but the /opt stays mounted on the file system when you SSH in as root).

Messenger comes

-------

A few short months ago, a messenger had arrived at the manor. The messenger was from the king of Stormwind himself. The messenger checked the directions he was given twice before knocking on the dilapidated home in the middle of Elwynn Forest. Surely he must be in the wrong area. There was no way a Warlock or a Death Knight would live in a house that looked so much of ... Nature.

The surprises continued as the door opened. A young Drainei had answered, though in honesty, the messenger wasn't the best judge of age of other races. But judging from her attire and smile, she wasn't an adventurer, and couldn't be the heroes he was sent to find.

"Yes? Can I help you Soldier?" asked the Drainei in a cheery voice. The Drainei was attractive. Her bright smile, and sunny greeting only helped to momentarily clear the messenger's mind of what he was about to say.

"I have a message for Master Bob, and Mistress Hotplate" replied the messenger, in the most authoritative tone he could muster.

The messenger saw a tiger behind her yawn, apparently bored of the entire exchange.

"I'll take it to them" answered the Drainei, extend her hand to take the missives.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I was instructed to present the messages to them in person". said the Messenger.

"Suit yourself, come in.", the door opened wider to allow the messenger in. "My name is Huntry. Bob's in his study, and I think Hotplate is in the backyard practicing. I'll see if I can get them"

The messenger walked through the threshold. The house almost seemed bigger on the inside. It seemed ordinary, if not a little messy. There were singe marks on the drapes, some bigger than others. Simple wooden furnishings here and there. Though not ornate, the furniture was solid and strong. This was easy to notice since the large tiger "brushed" against the leg of a table, and the table didn't budge.

"Have a seat at the table", Huntry gestured towards the chair closes to the Tiger. The Messenger thought for a moment about sitting next to the Tiger, but its large fangs "encouraged" him to take a seat a few chairs down.


------------------------

A raggedy looking old man walked into the room. His beard was unkempt, his eyes sullen from too much reading, the midsection of his simple robe was tighter than on the rest of his body. To the casual observer, he looked like a simple, though somewhat curmudgeon farmer. But the messenger had been around warriors all his life, knew how they talked, knew how they walked, and knew how they entered a room. This "old man" did not walk like an old man. His gait had no limp, and was fluid, never off balance. As he entered the room, his eyes flickered around, quickly taking stock of anything, or any one, that hadn't been there before.

"You have a message for me... corporal?" asked the old man.

"Yes sir, from King Varian himself". The messenger drew closer to hand the sealed note to the old man. As he got closer to his subject, it became much clearer that this was no ordinary old man. His eyes were sharp, and burned with a fire born of service and magic.

The messenger handed the sealed envelope to Bob and waited patiently.

Bob took the message, and seeing that the messenger had no intention of leaving until it had been read, quickly broke the wax seal and opened the letter. 

Huntry busied herself by "cleaning" a shelf nearby. Conveniently the position afforded her a clear view of the message. Dranei eyes are sharp. Unfortunately Huntry could only see a blank page. Bob studied the page intently. Obviously he could see something that Huntry could not.

Bob folded the missive and regarded the messenger. "Yes, two."

"Yes sir, I shall inform the King of your reply" replied the messenger, giving a quick bow. Huntry showed the messenger out.

Huntry returned to the table to find Bob re-reading the missive quietly.

"Yes to what?" asked Huntry, no longer able to contain her curiosity. Bob was never one to accept anything, especially not from a message.

"Tell Hotplate to pack her gear. Her and I are leaving at nightfall." commanded Bob. Though his voice was clear, Huntry could tell that his attention was elsewhere.

Suddenly Kragnar and Bizpit materialized between them. Bob, not surprised in the least merely commanded,  "Find Onaara, tell her to drop whatever she's doing and come here". Kragnar disappeared without a reply. Bob turned to Bizpit, the usually annoying Imp was silent. He must have picked up on his master's thoughts and remained serious for once.

"Send word to the dragons, I'll need their help soon" Bizpit disppeared as quickly as Kragnar. 

Huntry, frozen by the sudden activity merely stared at Bob. It was clear that Bob was worried. Again, not characteristic of the old Warlock at all.

"Ready my armor, I must consult my books before we leave. Wait for Onaara, she should arrive within the week. When she arrives, both of you follow us."

"I don't understand, where are you going? Where am I going? What's going on?" asked Huntry.

"Anduin is missing, they think the Horde has taken him" replied Bob.

Prime lens and E3

Took my 35mm f/1.8 lens to E3. Rationale was that the low light inside the expo floor would really need the super wide aperture. Plus I could simply zoom with my feet

Unfortunately it just didn't give me the flexibility I needed. I was constantly at the wrong place, and everything was out of composition. It was frustrating.  The wide aperture was nice, but a flash would have probably done more to help with the whole situation.

[Server Fame] Current State of Machines

So every now and then I put up an update on my never-ending-collection of computers. Near as I can figure, this is whats up.

Phuong:
25Mhz 286/386
Retired, donated. I just didn't have the room to keep it any longer.

Mouse:
200Mhz Pentium Pro w/MMX
Retired, donated. I just didn't ahve the room to keep it any longer

Uppy:
350Mhz Pentium 3 Laptop
Retired, waiting to be donated. I don't have room for it, but I haven't got around to donating it yet.

Downy:
1.4Ghz Athlon T-bird. 768MB RAM, 2.25TB
Retired. Still in box. It is still viable, and works well. Considered giving it to my parents and having them have a server at home. That might have been the plan if I didn't get a "new" Core2Duo to become the new main desktop.

Frisket:
2.3Ghz Athlon64 3000+ 3GB RAM, 8TB
Currently the main server. Still going strong. Recently had its first hard drive fault. The plan for the future is for it to "retire" and head to my parent's place to serve as their DLNA server, and offsite backup. It won't have a raid when its there, so the load should be quite a bit less. Majority of the space will be on the 2TB external drive.

Squirrel:
2.66Ghz Core2Quad E8400 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB 7200rpm
Still the "big iron" of the farm. Running strong. Installing the extra 4GB of ram was harrowing, since it seemed to cause instability in the north or southbridge. Was very annoying to diagnose.

Currently running the AirVideo software for streaming to the iOS devices. Also runs the uTorrent software for downloading. Also running PS3 Media Server. Its a backup DLNA server. I still haven't found a software I like as much as MediaTomb, but MediaTomb just isn't doing everything I want it to. Plus squirrel is beefy enough to do live-transcoding, which mostly works.

New:
Galactica:
2.40Ghz Core2Duo E7400, 17" Mobile Workstation. 128GB SSD
One of two laptops I got from a friend. It was missing battery, charger, ram and HD. This laptop even has a Quadro level graphics card. It plays WoW fine, though I don't play that much. It plays hearthstone just fine though. Named after Battlestar Galactica, because its so huge.

Pegaus:
2.40Ghz Core2Duo E7400 15" Laptop. 4GB RAM, 750GB 7200RPM
The other of the two laptops I got from a friend. This one is virtually the same as the previous, but with intel integrated graphics, a 15" screen and a 7200rpm HD instead of the SSD. I use it mostly for when I'm out and about. Though lately I've been using it as a server to offload repacking/transcoding duties from Frisket. With Gigabit and SMB mounts, the network lag isn't that bad. Named after the other battlestar, Pegasus.

Codename: Dreadnaught:
2.66Ghz Core2Duo E6700, 4GB of RAM, 300GB 7200RPM
I got this for cheap at work. It came with a Quadro graphics card, but it is faulty so I took ti out. But it has onboard video, which I'm using now, it works fine. Right now I'm planning on migrating the 8TB RAID from frisket to this machine. This will become my main server. Frisket will then be moved to lighter duties at my parent's place. This solves a few of the issues I was trying to figure out with the Pogoplug and PS3.

Haven't decided if I'm going to get a case for it. I want to. The alternative is to transplant frisket into the case from work, and put the Core2Duo into Frisket's Antec 300. The case from work is probably good enough for what my parents need, but if its going to be on 24/7 and it gets super hot where they are.

Converting to Mp4 ( for PS3 use for example)

http://askubuntu.com/questions/50433/how-to-convert-mkv-file-into-mp4-file-losslessly

I decided to use avidemux. It seems to work pretty well. On this Core2Duo T7700 @2.4Ghz ( laptop) speed was decent. Specially since this IS NOT TRANSCODING then speeds are very fast. The only transcoding I had to do was the Audio into AAC, since the MP4 container only supports AAC with H264 and presumable X264.

Note: This is a repackaging program, but it will do transcoding as well. Transcoding recompresses a video ( or audio or both) from one format to another. Demuxing ( remuxing) copies video/audio/both from one container to another, without recompressing ( so its fast and lossless). In this case I was converting from mkv and avi's ( the containers) to mp4 (container).

[Android] Easy Logging

From the Java ( log to logcat)

import android.util.Log

Log.w("myApp", "My Message");

From the NDK/Native side ( still logs to logcat)

#include
#define APPNAME "MyApp"


__android_log_print(ANDROID_LOG_VERBOSE, APPNAME, "MyMessage\n");

also remember to add the following to Android.mk

LD_LDFLAGS := -llog

Easy peezy.

Answers were from:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2364811/how-do-i-write-outputs-to-the-log-in-android
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4629308/any-simple-or-easy-way-to-debug-android-ndk-code

[Android] undefined references

If you get a ton of undefined references, for methods/functions that you're sure are defined. Make sure to add:

"LOCAL_ALLOW_UNDEFINED_SYMBOLS := true" to your Android.mk file.

Reasoning is given here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7209971/ndk-build-undefined-reference-to-errors-when-statically-linking-to-libxml-a

[Android] Note: limits: No such file or directory

If you get the following error:

fatal error: limits: No such file or directory

Or

error: 'numeric_limits' is not a member of 'std'

The solution is to include ( not or ). Then add

"APP_STL := stlport_static" to your jni/Application.mk 

Adding it to your Android.mk file does not work. I created an Application.mk file, with just that line and it worked.

Solution from:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/android-ndk/4cIVid0P3go/LY3htUx_qMgJ

[Android] Note: Device Not Showing up in ADC

If DDMS is seeing the device, but eclipse/Android Device Chooser is not showing it then check to see if the project requires a more up to date SDK version.

[RAID] Updated the RAID5 yet again

My RAID5 on frisket was running dangerously low on space. When I noticed that it only had 100GB's left, I knew it was time to either upgrade or delete massive amounts of data. To those that are saying 100GB is plenty of space, the drive was 98% full, and I still had about 500GB of data on various external drives that needed copying to the main server.

I decided that even deleting all my rips, I would still fill up again within a year. I needed another 2TB HD, if the server could handle it. I also needed a backup. RAID is not a backup. It will guard against single drive failure yes, but not against misguided fingers. Checked the server setup, and I still have 2 SATA ports free ( on the expansion card). I also had one more open 3.5" bay.

I bought a 2TB internal drive, a Seagate Barracuda instead of my regular Hitachi's. I also bought a 2TB external drive, for backups and safeguarding critical data for the RAID grow. Growing a raid is non-destructive.. if all goes well. But getting any command wrong, formatting the wrong drive, or a power failure at a critical moment can all lead to a broken RAID, and lost data. 

I copied all my TV Shows and Movies to the 2TB drive. That almost completely filled the drive. I also copied over any data that couldn't be replaced, and weren't stored anywhere else. This filled up any left over nooks and crannies in all my external drives. Unfortunately my 500GB and 750GB external drives are now at my parent's place and remotely transferring 500GB+ worth of data back and forth on my 100KB/s upload is just not plausible. 

On Sunday I started the procedure. I used the same procedure I outlined here RAID5-fun. Currently the RAID has about 23 hours left on the re-sync. After that I have to resize the file-system in order to utilize the free space.

Update: Took roughly 26 hours total to do the grow of the raid partition. Currently I'm running e2fsck to check the filesystem over, then the filesystem has to be grown. 

[WOW IC] Bob and Hotplate back in action

Bob wiped his lip and gingerly put some weight on his knee. It didn't give out instantly, which was a good sign. Whatever liquid his hand wiped from his chin, whether it was blood or sweat, Bob didn't get a chance to look. Kragnar let out a taunt at the pair of Yongol he was fighting. These Youngol, were different than the Youngol he had encountered in the village. They were imbued with the power of the Sha. Instead of simple brute force ( of which they had plenty of), they were attacking with the force of hatred itself.

Bob hurled yellow and green deadly fire at the pair. The yellow fire streaked through the ground, curling left and right, like a snake, ready to devour its target. The green fireball of chaos streaked through the air on a more direct route. Regardless, they both hit at almost the same moment. Where there were once two hate filled Youngol, only two craters now remained.

Kragnar turned to acknowledge his master, then silently floated off in the direction of his next target.

A few yards away, Hotplate was keeping herself busy as well. Her dual blades whistled in the night air. Normally, Pandaren nights were moderate, requiring nothing more than a linen blanket to sleep under the stars. But the air around hotplate was as frigid as a blizzard in Northrend. The death knight was born of this bitter cold, and it would never leave her. Now the cold was her weapon, along with blood and rune. Her blades gave off an eerie white glow, like the color of snow in the moonlight. But instead of inspiring an image of a peaceful Winter Solstice, they were cleaving through a particularly large Youngol warrior.

The warrior did not last long.

-------

"Did I ever thank you for dragging me to this demon infested continent?" quiped Hot.

"You could have stayed at the manor, helped Hunt at the market" replied Bob.

"What? And let an old man like you go back to war on his own?" joked Hot.

While Bob wasn't as young as he used to be, he looked younger than he'd looked in years. The last few months in Pandaria had hardened Bob. After years of being cooped up in the manor with his books, his body had softened and aged. This new campaign sharpened his mind and reinvigorated his body. He was almost in as good a shape as he was when he fought the Burning Legion, a lifetime ago.

The trip had done well for Hotplate as well. Retirement had not suited her. While the others could change clothes, and pretend to live the simple lives of civilians, the Northrend campaign had obviously changed Hotplate. She no longer spoke about her time before becoming a Death Knight. Before Arthas had made her into what she was now. But the action had given her a purpose, and that was something she was sorely missing.

[Wow IC] How retirement has been treating everyone

Hooff brought the ale to his lips, listening offhandedly to the conversation at a nearby table. The two Tauren were trading war stories back and forth. Some battle Hooff recognized, some he did not. Hooff listened more intently to the battles he didn't recognize. Ever since Hooff retired from the War with Deathwing, he'd lived a quiet life.

He decided to settle in Mulgore. After the guild had disbanded, he decided to retire. Hooff still thought of himself as a Drainei, regardless of what the mirror showed him every morning. Unlike other Drainei who were born too recently to remember before the crash, Hooff remembered the trip vividly. The Exodar held no more solace for him than the broken world he had left. There was pain and sorrow everywhere. A land filled with prairie grass seemed as good a place as any. Hooff quickly gained respect for the naturalistic Tauren. They too got used to have a "Belf" living in Mulgore.

Hooff made himself useful. He helped his neighbors, though they were few and far between. Sometimes he would even help some of the instructors at Thunderbluff, to train new recruits. He didn't do this often. It doesn't pay to get too attached to new soldiers in a time of war, they just don't last long enough. But he did what he could, taught what he could. The recruits needed all the help they could get.

Still, Hooff felt like more time had passed for him. It seemed ages ago that he was helping fight the invasion of Ogrimmar by fire elementals, though the calendar says it was barely a year ago. Barely a year ago when he saved the life of a young warlock. Fitting it seemed, to save the life of a young warlock, when his own life was saved by a warlock when he was young. Hooff thought of his old friends, his old family.

"Do you ever regret coming for me?" Hooff asked to his companion.

"Nope, I wasn't doing anything anyway... " a young Tauren sitting across the table replied. "Besides, who else would cover your back?"

Waash had arrived about a few months after Hooff arrived on this Azeroth. He travelled through the same interdimensional portal, had undergone the same transformation Hooff had. Outwardly a young Tauren, Waash's soul was still that of a Night Elf. Similar to Hooff, Waash had little ties to the old world, other than the "family".

Both of the companions were dressed in the drab, dull clothing of farmers and merchants. No one in the inn would have guessed that These two simple townsfolk had once fought with dragons and demons. That they had traveled to the heart of the maelstrom and done battle with the very elements themselves. Had assisted in the rebirth of Cenarius, and had helped liberate the Stonecore. No, these were simple townsfolk, listening to the tales of "true" adventurers, like those in the table near by.

------

Playstation Vita

Picked up a Vita because of work's Xmas deal. Received it a week ago, and its been a mixed ride. Long story short: Great system, good games, nice handheld. But burdened by price, proprietary memory cards, overly complicated routines and inept bundling. 

Long story:

Received the Vita on a Saturday. Unfortunately I was also getting sick, so I just pulled open the package and turned the system on. I plugged it into my PC, hoping it would charge, and it seemed to. Woke up a few hours later, grabbed Unit 13 ( game from work) and stuck it into the Vita. Updated the firmware and ... got a message saying that I needed a memory card to play Unit13. No problem, I'm sure they stuck a tiny one in the package somewhere, just enough for a small saved game.

Nope, nothing.

Read online, and most games do require a memory card. I can't believe they'd sell a system that was so incomplete, that you couldn't play it RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. I can see this as a major disappointment on Christmas morning. Kids opening up the package, sticking a game in, and finding out that they can't play until they head down to the store and buy a card. Not a great first impression.

Unfortunately my Vita was a big, pretty, paperweight until I was able to borrow a card from a friend. I ordered a card for myself, but the order got screwed up ( which is a whole other fun story).

Memory Card:

Let's take a moment and talk about these memory cards. Even though they look very similar to mico-sd they are in fact a propreitary Sony memory card. Not just a Sony card, but a VITA memory card. Sony created a whole new, incredibly expensive ( currently), memory card format just for the Vita. Again, not a great way to gather good will from your customers.

There's a good write-up on the possible reasons why Sony did this: The Great Flash Memory Controversy.
I see that their points are valid, but the memory is still obscenely expensive. Currently the 32GB card is the best value at MSRP $100 ( $80 or so on a sale). With only Sony making the memory, prices will probably stay high.

Looks:

The fit and finish of the Vita is top-notch. It sports the same black and glass look that the "Fat" PS3, and PSP has. The front OLED touchscreen is gorgeous, and responds well. The buttons feel substantial and have a satisfying action when pressed. The back touchscreen seemed responsive as well. I only, very briefly, tried Dungeon Hunter which uses the back touchscreen. It was very brief so I can't comment on how well the touchscreen fits into the control scheme.

My only gripe so far with the control is that, its difficult to use both thumbsticks and hold the Vita up at the same time. For Unit 13, you need to use both triggers, both thumbsticks and a few of the buttons. This leaves precious little room on my palm to support the (surprisingly substantial weight) of the Vita. I might look into a grib to give the vita a little bigger footprint. Something like the Sony Trigger guard possibly. I'm hoping I'll just get used to it and settle into a comfortable grip.

Graphics:

The graphics are great. The screen is wide and bright. You're not going to get 720p looks, but they're still pretty good. I tend to hold it up pretty close to my face, so its easier to see the individual blocks, but someone more normal won't be bothered.

Game Selection:

From what I've been reading online, there are 3-4 "must have" games for the Vita. 2-3 of those I already have, so I'll be playing those when I get time. So far I'm about 1/3 of the way through the Unit 13 campaign. I'll be trying Uncharted next, then Gravity Rush and maybe Resistance. I was skeptical about playing an FPS on the Vita, but it hasn't been that much of an issue. Unit 13 has a fair bit of stealth, so that probably helps with things. I'll see how Resistance ( which is a more classic, run and gun game) fares on the Vita.

I'm also keen to try Assassin's Creed, which I've heard is also very good. But it's more of a sandbox game, which I don't do well in.


Quirk:

One quirk I've noticed is how unnecessarily complicated charging the vita is. The normal charging process, Vita into charger into the wall, that's easy enough. The indicator is solid orange when its charging. If its flashing orange, then there's not enough juice for the vita to turn on.

Things get more complicated if you're plugging the vita into a PC to charge. Plugging the Vita into the PC to charge when its off, will function basically like the wall plug. If your PC does NOT have content manager installed, it will charge normally when plugged in, on or off. But if it does have it installed then it will TRY to charge when its on, but it MAY not have enough power to charge. This is because with content manager installed, the Vita will make a connection to the PC and will be using more power. If you have content manager installed, the easiest way to charge it is to turn the Vita OFF ( not sleep).

Its not that complicated, but its much more complicated than it should be. It should charge or not, regardless of what software is installed. Having things silently change behavior is a recipe for frustration.

Conclusion:

I'm liking the Vita more and more every today. It excels at its primary focus: playing games. There's nothing quite like having dedicated controls that are designed from day1 for the game you're playing. It runs youtube app pretty well, and has a decent camera. I am even less likely using the Vita to take pictures around town, but its handy for games. Some games are already using it for Augmented Reality, which is cool.

I think Vita would do very well if it was $50-$75 cheaper, and you could use normal memory cards ( or the cards themselves were half priced). The games are reasonably priced ( $40 or so) and there's enough to have a good starting point.

Disclaimer: The views here are obviously my own, and are formed based on my experience as a consumer, with retail equipment. These views are not endorsed by Sony, or any other company I may or may not be affiliated with. Blah blah don't sue. 

[WoW] Back on the crack

Yup, I'm back on WoW. The new expansion lured me in, and some friends finished the job. It was a bit surreal logging back in. Quite a few of my toons were logged out at random inns in different cities. Because of the patches and whatnot, most ended up in their respective main cities. Ogrimmar for the Horde and Stormwind for Alliance.

Playing without addons isn't as bad as it used to be. Before you could barely play if your addons weren't working well. I've gotten to the Jade Forest without addons, and done a few quests. Having said that, I died multiple times because I didn't have any healing spells on my bars ( no healbot). At one point I resorted to typing in "/cast Flash Of Light" to heal myself. Its going to take some time for me to rebuild my interface.

System requirements must have been raised. Even with my new SSD, MoP isn't running near as smooth as Cata did. I had to drop down the settings to "Good" instead of "Ultra" to get smooth gameplay. I can jack it up to Ultra and still get mostly 24-30fps, but as soon as action starts, it drops to the teens with a bit of a stutter. I've gotten very annoyed at that stutter so now I'd rather run at Good and always be at 25+fps. It could of course be because I haven't updated any device drivers, and am running in full screen windowed mode ( to be able to read guides and such on my 2nd monitor).

Most of my characters on Blackwater Raiders are level 80 and below. Some of my old guildies are playing their, but in order to play with them, I'd need to get into the 85-90 content. The prospect of leveling through the cataclysm areas yet another time is not appealing to me. Plus all my money making toons have been transferred to Forgotten Coast. I have my 80 Warlock, 80 Death Knight, and 74 Shaman.

Forgotten Coast has quite a bit more money, and money making toons. My scribe is over there, plus my gathering toons. I have 3 85s there ( Pally, Priest, Druid) and a 74 Warlock. I think I'm going to mainly focus my efforts there. I dont' feel like releveling my toons on the other server, plus I'd feel like I'm handicapped by not having my other toons for support. But we'll see.

[WoW IC] Waash Arrival

Waash, Level 80 Tauren Druid. Day 2

I've been here for 2 days. I'd like to say I've been productive or even getting used to the "new" me. But I'm not. The best I can say is that I haven't killed anyone, or myself yet. I arrived in Thunderbluff 2 days ago, stepping out of the portal very disoriented. I made my way to the nearest Inn to take stock of what I had with me, and what I have become.

I'm surprised that losing my face hasn't affected me as much as I thought it would. Maybe seeing the "old me" held more pain than I thought it did. I'm a Tauren now, and for the foreseeable future. I have the letters for Master Hooff, as well as the bit of gold that I was given. I also have my armor and weapons, though they somehow have matched my more sizeable girth than they used to. I guess I shouldn't expect any less from a Mage as powerful as Ronin. I even somewhat resemble myself, though that might be just wishful thinking.

I have yet to track down the young Warlock that Bob's Felguard mentioned. That will be my next order of business. In the past 2 days I've walked around Thunderbluff, trying to get my bearings. I only recognized it was Thunderbluff from the stories that Bob used to tell. How he knows what Thunderbluff looks like, I guess I'll never know.

If I'm reading this Tauren calendar correctly, its been a month since Ogrimmar was attacked by the Fire Elementals. A month since Master Hooff saved that young blood elf warlock. 

Ronin mentioned that Hooff had joined a guild of other travellers. From different dimensions they had gathered to this one, to aid this land in defense against Deathwing. I stopped by the Guild Registrar, found the guild in question. "From the Ashes". A rather ominous name for a guild. I guess optimism doesn't run rampant here.

Achievement Unlocked: Rode to Work

Rode to work on the bike for the first time on Tuesday. It wasn't completely smooth, but I made it. I left early to try to beat the traffic. That worked out decently well. I avoided some, but not all the traffic.

The whole trip was about 14 miles each way. Three major streets, and 2-3 smaller streets in between. The 3 major streets all had a max speed of about 50 mph in certain parts. Two involved decent hills, and all were very busy. I had to sit in traffic on the way to work and on the way back ( with the way back being much worse). I lucked out a few times, in that when I got to an intersection, it was either green, or just happened to have no traffic at that instant.

Good:

• Engaging: Because I'm riding to work, the whole trip has your full attention. Whereas if I was driving, I'd basically just be annoyed at the traffic, or hoping to find a path to get to where I'm going as quickly as possible, when you're riding your thinking of everything all the time. This keeps you very alert, and its never boring. 
• Riding: After all is said and done, I'm riding to and from work on a motorcycle. That's pretty cool no matter which way you cut it. 

Bad:

• Heat: Even though it was a cool morning, by the time I got to work I was still decently sweaty. Same for the trip home. It had rained a bit, and cooled down, but having to sit in traffic, I was in need of a shower by the time I got home. Any warmer and I might not have been able to get home!
• Traffic: Sitting in traffic is horrid. The normal annoyances of being in traffic, plus no AC, plus having to feather the clutch and throttle, plus making sure not to get run over by inattentive drivers. I now know why motorcycles all seem to filter to the front of the line during red lights. Its not just to avoid waiting, its to keep themselves cool (by moving), its almost necessary. The slow meandering in first gear is much easier to do than the constant stop and go required for siting in traffic. I'll have to learn this skill soon.
• Versatility: I had to walk to get lunch, simply because it wasn't worth riding. Bringing the food back to work would have been difficult, even if I brought the backpack. Having a mesh of some sort might have helped the situation, but having to ride through the area just for food was still a chore. Walking to lunch resulted in me being sweatier from the walk than the ride to work!

All in all I had fun riding to work. Its different, and I have much much to learn still. I'm not sure if I'll ride to work again this week. The earliest I'd be able to is friday possibly. But with the amount of work needed, and me possibly having to stay late, I might not have the energy to ride back home.

Fudruckers

Went for my longest ride yet on Friday. Took the day off, and decided that I would be riding to Mira Mesa ( a very busy, 3 lane each way street). Its one of the main streets I'd need to get to if I want to ride to work. Original plan was to head out around 10:30, and just ride for a while, taking breaks, and then meet up with some people for lunch.

Plans changed a bit and it ended up where my riding buddy was in the area, so we met up and headed out to Fudruckers together. It made it easier traveling in a group, you could ask questions and was easier to be seen. We headed out about 11:15 and made it to Fudruckers about 11:55. Not too bad, considering by car, in a bit of traffic thats normally a 30-35 minute drive.

The day was very overcast, so it kept me nice and cool. I decided not to bring a backpack since I wasn't going to be riding as long as I thought I would be. Plus I didn't bother wearing the tinted visor because it was so overcast.

The ride itself wasn't too bad. The two parts I was most worried about, weren't bad at all. Black Mountain Rd, which is a big hill and can get to 50mph had a decent amount of traffic, so the fastest I got was about 45mph. The trip back was equally uneventful. I did stall getting out of the parking lot, surprisingly NOT from a standing start.

I went to get gas at a Mobil station and the bike wouldn't start cleanly after the fill-up. I could get it to start with a bit of throttle while starting, but its never had that issue before. This was before I dumped the rest of the carb cleaner into the tank after I got back home. I'm hoping that will help with clearing up whatever is gumming up the engine.

Update: Started it up again on Sunday and it fired right up. It did stall after a few seconds because the idle went too low. A bit of choke and it kept up and warmed up. I'm not super concerned about it because its stalled on its own before. It looks like adding the gas must have stirred up the tank and gotten some stuff into the fuel filter, or something like that. 

Update 2: Checked the oil level and it looks completely empty in the window. Will have to pick up some oil and top it off before riding it again. 

Solo Ride

Went for a longer ride tonight. This will be a shorter entry. I basically went almost as far as we did last friday. I got near a VONS and stopped there for a bit. I actually thought I was farther than I was, but I took a short break there, then headed home. Before that I did my lap twice. All in all about 11 miles.

Tomorrow I'm going to be trying to ride from the Apartment to Work. I'm taking the day off, so I don't have to ride during rush hour, and I don't have to worry about being late. I can take my time, and get used to riding that far ( 15 miles 1-way), and for that long ( 30 mins or so). I basically drive the route on autopilot in the car, but it'll be a challenge on the bike. I'm both nervous and excited about it. Looking forward to it, and dreading it. I've built up some confidence from the last few rides, whats why i'm challenging myself to do this. I figure if I don't, I'll never get anywhere with my riding.