A Fond, Temporary Farewell

This is not the post I expected to be writing in the middle of the night, and certainly not the post that I wanted to ever write at all. But somehow, the guilt and the feeling that I am somehow letting people down, or upsetting them has to be overcome for the sake of mental health. This is not a humorous post, so if you have come here to find something funny, I am sorry to disappoint. This is #RealTalk and something excruciatingly hard and difficult to discuss.

Hi, my name is Nymphy and I suffer from severe social anxiety, depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. No one, except maybe Orv and a few other people that I am miraculously close to, has experienced what is inside my head on a daily basis. It is an effort to be funny and personable and outgoing on various social media platforms on a day to day basis. It wasn't all caused by today, but today was the breaking point. I am not blaming anyone either, but due to the pressures of being happy all the time combined with real life drama, stresses, and all around wear and tear on my emotional stability and I thisclose to having a nervous breakdown. The stress is a killer and for the sake of my own health, and #Lockling's, I am stepping away from all social interactions for the forseeable future. So I am putting down Twitter, Facebook, and WoW, walking away, and taking a break. I may pop into WoW for only 2 hours for the next couple Sunday's to help BBB finish helping his Cub get his 25 man ICC meta-achievements done for the drake just because I have already made that commitment, otherwise I am going to be silent. This blog will still continue to be written, if only by Orv for awhile, he will also be assuming the mantle of GM for Eff the Ineffable until I return.

To all the lovely nice people on Twitter, thank you for being who you are. I know all the people I talk to may not be friendly with each other, but each and every one of you has been a shining point and a source of smiles to me everyday. To say that I feel immeasureable guilt for doing something that I shouldn't even think twice about is awful and just a mark of how unstable I am at this point. If I thought I could bear it by simply talking to a person, I know that I could pick any one of you and you would be glad to listen and I appreciate that more than you could ever know.

As an ending, this post was not made for attention. I am not bemoaning anything or saying woe is me. Anyone who really knows me, knows this to be true. I am not an attention seeker. This is simply so Orv does not have the burden of answering/explaining my absence to those of you who may ask. This is so I can regain a more stable grasp on my mental health and standing so I can return to being the cheerful, lovable person you know me to be.

*Hugs & <3*
Nymphy

Damage Control

   There inevitably comes a time, as GM or any other leadership positions, when you encounter a situation where you have to take charge and make sure it is resolved. As GM, the actions of your guildies reflect on you, and the culture you’re trying to build. Last night one of my guildies was rude and abrasive to another blogger when whispered.

   When this situation was brought to my attention, I talked to the guildie in question, and she then apologized, on Twitter and I thought it was done and over. It looked like a misunderstanding that had been cleared up. When I woke up this morning, contrary to my impressions, the situation from last night was not resolved and had exploded. The great thing about the Twitter and subsequent blogger community is the solidarity. We are quick to band together when someone upsets one of our friends. Today I had an upset blogger who wrote of her experience with the member of my guild, and another who was outright livid and made no bones about it. The subsequent tweets and comments about both posts made my heart sink as I read them.

   So here I am with big girl panties on (more uncomfortable than pants let me tell you), doing damage control. I had a discussion with the guildie that very clearly conveyed my unhappiness. Eff the Ineffable is a guild that was built largely through the WoW community on twitter. I hope that everyone in the wonderful twitter/blogger community knows that if they ever have a problem with anyone in the guild they can come to Orv or myself and we will take the situation seriously. I believe that Eff the Ineffable is, and will remain a friendly guild where people know how to treat each other.

   As an aside, a thing that happened today is that Blizzard announced a security breach. So yeah, go change your password to something you will never remember the very next time you log on. :)

Gamer Grrls and Guys: Long Distance to Living Together

   Nymphy is the GM of Eff the Ineffable and regrets the sheer neglect of this blog, especially after the brand new header was installed by the lovely Liala, over at Disciplinary Action. Hopefully this revival in the sheer lack of topics in this in between expansions time, will breathe new life into it. 

   Orv is the emergency back up substitute co-GM of Eff the Ineffable. He heard Nymphy was writing about moving in together and wanted to make sure she didn’t blurt all of his embarrassing habits out to all the readers... then had to put his two cents in.

   *Dusts off the blog, sneezes a couple times* Wow, deserted much? But to be honest, while we are majorly behind on a lot of projects, there really isn’t much WoW material to be had. Yes, Eff the Ineffable is proud to have cleared 2/8 heroic Dragon Soul and knocked out about half the steps for the meta achievements as well. But real life has a way of interfering and that is exactly what happened with us. The biggest news of course is that Nymphy is expecting a baby at the end of November. For those keeping time by when Mists of Pandaria is released, she is due approximately two months into the expansion. The fine people of Twitter have dubbed the baby “Lockling” as it was conceived by a mage (blue) and a pally (pink) whose class colors combine to make purple(ish). Such logic can’t be refuted.

   In other exciting news, Orv and Nymphy are finally moved in together after 18 long months of living in different states, which brings up the core of this post; what happens when two geeks who have been in a long distance relationship finally move in together? Whose nerd swag gets to go on the prominent shelves? How do you behave around each other? Well ladies and gentleman, this is the post for you. The answer to all the questions, including the most important one.... “Where does the cereal go?”

Bullying: Why My Online Personality Isn't My Real One

You may know Nymphy from her occasionally witty and funny posts here on this blog as well as being the newly procced GM of Eff the Ineffable. You may also know that she loves babies and sometimes writes posts about them. You may know her as the flirty and fun arcane mage that loves achievements and old school raiding. And you may know her from her flagrant affair with the floor and the Spirit Healer. Yet behind the awesomely mogged pixels on the screen, Nymphy is played by a person and that person is me.

Warning: may cause triggers and involves mentions of childhood bullying, sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, depression, and anxiety.

Mists of...Say What?!

Nymphy is an arcane mage with Eff the Ineffable who just heard about MoPs. I mean she has an enchanted broom, why not a MoP? She guesses that said MoP is going to revolutionize the way she...wait...*peers at spelling* Oh! MoP as in the new land that revealed itself when Deathwing decided to throw a tantrum and shatter Azeroth as she knew it.

Orvillius is a protection paladin who finds the sudden existence of a new continent that people totally never noticed before completely plausible. After all, have you seen the shipping lanes from Stormwind to Darnassus? (It’s an honest question, Orv would never be caught in Darnassus)

Blizzcon has come and gone and once again there were plenty of shattering revelations. This year’s news has brought about an even greater uproar than most years. So all the furor has Orv and Nymphy digging to see exactly what all the fuss is about.

Haha good one Blizzard... What? They're serious?

We Need an Effin' Healer

Orvillius doesn’t understand why EtI needs another healer. All of the current content has been nerfed to the point where the bosses might as well be using wiffle bats. Surely Team Heals can just 2 Heal....what’s that? Anyone suggesting Team Heals start 2-Healing can go without ANY heals? Right then... Hail Team Heals!

Nymphy is a mage with Eff the Ineffable and is super excited at the prospect of frustrating---er challenging a brand new healer. Maybe this will mean that she will finally get to go visit her Spirit Healer after so long. The current Healer Tyranny refuses to allow such frivolities.

   Due to the indefeatable boss stuck on perma-hard mode called Real LIfe, the Effers have found themselves in need of an intrepid player to willingly join the ranks of the tyrants known as Team Heal. So you find yourself interested are you? Oh dear...this is your chance to run! Run away as fast as you can possibly go! Are you still here? Fine, here’s what you need to know before you join the Effin’ Healers.

Our Search Terms Have Made Us Into the Steamiest Blog on the Net

  Nymphy is an arcane mage for Eff the Ineffable. Recently she discovered that people mistake this blog for information on quite a few different things...Oh my...

  Orv is a protection paladin for Eff the Ineffable. When he isn’t busy trying to find a boss that will drop an epic tank helm (seriously...7 months of raiding...1 tank helm dropped. ONCE.) he’s wondering how some of you found your way over here.

  D/E the Tank is a WoW-centric blog that provides a humorous slant on Orv’s and Nymphy’s adventures in the World of Warcraft. At least that is what WE thought it was. Turns out it is a site for quite a DIFFERENT thing. We have turned out to be the steamiest blog on the net. What with all the floor loving and maybe relationships with certain NPC’s. With that in mind...maybe it doesn’t surprise us as much to see some of the emerging terms that people use to find us and this blog.

Protection Paladin Talent Guide: For Leveling via Dungeon Finder

Orvillius is a Protection Paladin with the mighty Eff the Ineffable on Azuremyst. With Nymphy away this week he’s abandoned all pretense of being half as funny or witty as she is and keeps putting up serious tanking posts.

NOTE: If you're here looking for patch 5.04 paladin talents, you want to go to the updated guide.

  The other day I was feeling a little bored before raiding time and decided to dust off my level 40 bear druid and spend some time on him. It had obviously been a long time since I’d touched him, because his talent points had been reset. When I went to spend those points I realized that I have no idea where to put them. A couple of helpful twitterfolk pointed me towards their own specs or helpful guides, but the experience got me wondering whether there are people out there who are as confused by the Prot Tree as I was by the Feral Tree. I hope this is helpful for any brave folk who have decided to level up as a Prot Pally, and find themselves unsure of exactly how useful all of these talents will be. The talents are listed in the order I think it is best to fill them out. Some of this is a matter of opinion and if you’re leveling with a healing buddy/dps buddies you may need to swap the order around a bit to better match up to your needs!

Eff the Healers, Let's Have a Tank Circle!

Being a tank for Eff the Ineffable, Orvillius is particularly sensitive to the tyranny of healers. What with their members only healing channel and their posh sense of entitlement, seeing this Circle of Healers reboot floating around was just too much! Using ancient Paladin secrets (replacing ‘heal’ with ‘tank’), Orv reforged the healer meme into a mighty tanking meme.

1. What is the name, class, and spec of your primary tank?
Orvillius, human protection paladin, 0/31/10

2. What is your primary group tanking environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
I mostly tank EtI’s 10 man raids. I used to pug weekly 25 mans in WotLK, but with the raid lockout change that became impossible.

3. What is your favorite cooldown for your class and why?
That’s a tough one, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say the new Holy Shield. It’s on a super short cooldown, so I can pop it any time I feel like my healers might need a little breathing room.

Playing Warcraft as a Couple: Doing it Right vs. Doing it Wrong.

Orvillius is a protection paladin who tanks for the wonderful Eff the Ineffable on Azuremyst. He enjoys long walks through monster infested dungeons, getting hit in the face by bosses, and DPS who don’t make his life any harder. After months of constantly harassing various bloggers on twitter and in their comments boxes he has finally cracked and started his own blog along with Nymphy.

Nymphy could do without the long walks in the monster infested dungeons as she is a squishy arcane mage also with Eff the Ineffable. Yes, “another Effing mage.” She’d much prefer spending her time whoring herself out to get as many useless achievement points as possible, although a sad amount of them are obtainable in said dungeons which makes her very thankful for the healers who have resurrection abilities as she is notorious for getting lost on the journey to her body. Although it really isn’t her fault, she has a love affair with the floor. Is also quite fond of pets, titles, and the kittens that disenchant to warm fuzzies.

Orv and I live 500 miles apart. We didn’t meet through WoW but we knew from the beginning that it was an interest we shared, and playing WoW together is often the most solid block of quality time we get. Naturally our mushy sides get away with each other when tempted by the emote system, prompting groans from our fellow raiders, along with suggestions to get a room. After all there are *plenty* of inns in Azeroth.
Playing WoW together can add a new dimension for those of us whose relationships are stuck in long distance mode. Being able to spend time together in raids and quests, or even just chatting over Vent gives couples so many things to do *together* while you can’t be together... and the $15.00 a month subscription fee is a lot cheaper than a phone bill with long distance charges on it! And let’s face it, just seeing our toons together on the screen eases some of the pain of not actually being together.