I've been lurking the last few months for many reasons. Life's thrown me a lot of Lemon's this year and I've had to adjust. Job stuff, women stuff, you name it. As most of you know, not that it matters, I've been in and out since I joined Downfall. I've done my best to wait until there is someone to take my place in raid, just as my joining LF1M was to take someone's place who couldn't keep committed to raids.

There's a lot that's happened, so I'll just make a list.

- I got fired in June. I was damn happy for it too. The place sucked, they lied about company benefits, and they're still trading their employees souls for worthless "pre-IPO" shares. I'm fairly certain the company will either be sold or go bankrupt and most the folks there will just feel like a 2 bit whore when all is said and done. I wasn't burnt, but felt helpless watching a lot of folks bend over backwards for nothing. Incidentally, a house fire burnt down a house across the alley just a few weeks before I got fired.

fired!

- I sold my motorcycle because they're really not practical in Dallas anymore. Way too much traffic and you end up smelling like exhaust. I also wouldn't mind a GSX-R 750 so I'll probably get another in a few years.

me on the track

- To make up for motorcycle and cause I was jobless I got some contract work to do on the side. This ended up biting me in the ass and killing my WoW availability because...

- Sometime in late July or early August Aidin and Grasen moved into a new apartment. I totally slept in but got there just in time to help move the HEAVY ASS washing machine. Damn that was heavy.

- About a week later I also got a new job, worked there for a month...

- Somewhere in here gargantuan was posting stuff on wow forums, got banned, then used my account to post on the forums. Garg's a RL friend of mine, even though he's an asshole in WoW (he knows it), and I let him use my account to manage his arena teams. I got pissed, but not near as pissed as Garreth. Garreth got REALLY pissed and I'm not sure if I'll make it through his wrath yet, but I've also only been around a few days and he's got better things to do. Pedran told me what was happening and I ganked Garg off the forums and yelled at him - which is kind of ironic if you know him. If you're worried about Garg in our forums, don't. As a matter of practice and habit I use a different password for EVERYTHING. I've caught hackers red-handed who have compromised passwords and so I suggest you do the same. Not to mention if a friend has your wow account and does something really stupid, it'll be limited to just your wow account.

- Sometime in August, I took a trip to Montana. For reasons I won't go into, I was flying out to pickup a car to bring back home and sell + trade in my Mustang for a new car (which made selling the motorcycle worth it!).

trip home

- I flew to Montana, but drove back. On the way I stopped by Colorado and visited Grov and Caliroll. Cali is a fucking riot and Grov and his friends are awesome. Here you can find Cali and Grov making sweet sweet love (j/k), and Caliroll's NUTS:

Grov and Caliroll  Caliroll's Nuts

- ...after a month my employer lost a major client (Toyota Motors) which accounted for 1/3 of their revenue and 1/3 of the staff was laid off, which included me. This is the greatest disappointment in my career. Every job I've had, even where I got fired, I've left with the satisfaction of creating value, adding new business, and generally doing *something* worthwhile. I didn't have time to do that and was really sad. It really sucked to leave knowing everyone who still had a job was going to end up working 70-80 hours a week for months until they get a new client. I couldn't argue with this and would've done the same thing in the same situation : (

- A few weeks before getting laid off, I traded in my two cars (one was already paid off) and got something I've always wanted. Please don't hate me, I wish they weren't such a fashion thing for people with too much money to spend but nobody can argue with twin turbos in a four door sedan that get 27mpg on the highway. And yes, I'm wearing a 2001 quakecon shirt in this picture.

fun to drive

- Two days later I got a new job, which is where I've been for a month. It's great, I can work from home, my hours are flexible, and I get to use Ruby.

- Last week one of my two cats, Akiko, passed away :( Actually, we had to put her down and that really sucked and I cried. She got some type of cat disease and had under develop kidneys and the Dr. said she wouldn't really be coherent if I kept her alive. Here's to Akiko:

Akiko

Not to get too caught up in survival, I've also found new friends, gone to Austin to visit my parents a few times, and went to a friend's, friend's wedding in New Orleans. It was a muslim wedding and they read from the Koran which I found the interpretation to be enlightening. Having a work-at-home job let me roam like this which was awesome and I really hope the economy doesn't crush it :/ Gas is also cheap... so I've thought about traveling. That, and starbucks giving away free WiFi if you spend $2 on an Iced tea is awesome.

I've kept off WoW because LF1M had plenty of healers and I have a project on the side which I'll be finishing up in the next few days. It's kind of nice all this stuff hit the fan right between the end of BC and before WOTLK.

So there you have it. Wth happened to Carno. As far as WOTLK is concerned, I've always been a backup or replacement healer in Downfall. I know what my role can be in WOTLK but I'm working through whether I should go for 3 days or 4 days. My main will remain to be Carno as resto. I will have an alliance warrior (I've tanked on a Warrior as horde for awhile) and I'll be rolling a death knight for DPS. It's a tough decision. LF1M was named LF1M for a reason - I don't see the next two Downfall raids being as casual as the last two (HF was always struggling for healers and LF1M changed out almost as many toons as there are active guildies). I pre-ordered WOTLK the first day it was available for a reason.

I hope everyone (and their soon-to-be family members!!!) are healthy and doing well.