Nokia - You took your time

But at least you've given E71 users free navigation

http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/04/06/nokia-e71-and-e66-get-free-navigation-today/

A great 5K Series for the Summer

Sale Harriers are organizing their great 5K series of races in Wythenshawe Park. All the organization of the event is flawless, with marshals encouraging you throughout the race. It's so inclusive too - when they say everyone is welcome, they are! The race timings are put up on the internet usually within an hour of the race finish, there's prizes and there are goodies at the end of the race.

Fancy it? You can enter for the individual events on the day or you can get a discount by registering in advance using this form.

Hopefully this year I'll actually get to run them - last year I sprained my ankle so badly I could barely walk while they were going on.

British weather :-(

Booked to go camping in the Lake District ... what does the weather forecast say?

Overnight temperatures of -3!

Going to need my woolly hat I think.

Changes..

Lots of changes in my life at the minute. The failing company I work for has been acquired by giant evil megacorp, and we are going through our 'onboarding' process.

The thing that has thrown me the most - changing my email address from my maiden name to my double barreled married name. Why does this feel so weird? Had I never accepted the name change really?

Nokia - Economical with the truth

There has been a lot of buzz about Nokia making their navigation free forever.

However, it isn't that simple, unless you are on the short list of phones that support Ovi Maps 3.0.3, you don't get the free navigation at all. This means if you have a smartphone such as the E71 you don't get the free navigation, and there are some rumours that you cannot buy new navigation licenses.

Next time, no nokia for me.

Best Warcraft boss encounter strategy walkthrough - EVER!

This strategy was originally written by Numi, of the My Little Pwnies guild. Their wiki has vanished and the guild's forums no longer seem very active. The pictures alone meant that we started calling Obsidian Sanctum the DUVET of DEATH!

Alright guys, Sartharion is a serious boss, and it's going to take a serious strategy to beat him. I drew up a strat for taking him out, and I want everyone to follow it to TO THE LETTER.

The encounter starts with the raid at one end of a rectangular area surrounded by lava, with Sartharion at the other. I'll be referring to where the raid starts as the "bottom" of the area, with "left" and right" being relative to this perspective.

As soon as the battle starts, the tank will pull Sartharion over to the right, rotating him 90 degrees. The tank (represented here by a bear druid) will be backed up to just before the lava, and roughly centered between the top and bottom of the area.

Here's what that looks like from the tank's perspective:

That's all there is to the initial pull. Positioning is important, but if we're a little off, it should be easy to correct mid-fight.

Melee DPS (represented here by two cat druids) will be on Sartharion's side, a bit spread out. They MUST avoid being near Sartharion's face, as he has a nasty cleave. Being near his tail will make it easier to hit Sartharion when he rotates (more on that later) and dodge lava walls (more on that later). Thankfully, Sartharion has a HUGE hitbox, so you can be a bit flexible with the positioning.

Ranged DPS (represented here by a moonkin druid) will be a little ways back from Sartharion. They should err a little more towards Sartharion's tail, because...

Healers (represented here by a restoration druid) will be in the same row as ranged DPS, more towards his head. Again, don't get too close, or his Cleave will destroy you.
Here's what the positioning will look like for most of the fight, from the DPS's perspective:

Now, the major thing about the positioning is that the platform is divided up into five or so zones:

Lava walls will occasionally rise up from either the left or the right, and slowly sweep across every other zone. This is preceded by an emote about Lava Surging around the Platform or something.
When they rise from the right:

...they'll cover the even zones (2n). If we're in position, the tank will not have to move, and everyone else (possibly even the melee, depending on Sartharion's position and how close to the edge of his hitbox they are) will have to run up to Sartharion's belly to give him a hug. Er, avoid the lava wall, like so:

Until the main tank has experience with exactly where the safe zone is, he should try to keep an eye behind him to make sure the first lava wall doesn't catch him by surprise.
When they rise from the left:

...they've cover the odd zones (2n-1). If we're not in position, THAT'S A FIFTY DKP MINUS. Otherwise, the tank will have to strafe right, the melee will have to back off, and the ranged classes will be safe. That'll look like this:

Notice that Sartharion has rotated. It's possible the melee DPS will be able to clump up near his tail and continue to hit him (he doesn't have a tail swipe, apparently). (EDIT: Sartharion does have a tail swipe that stuns.) If it's possible, go for it, otherwise chill out until the lava wall has passed and the tank has rotated him back into position. From the tank's perspective, it'll look like this:

Try to keep your camera zoomed out so you can see the lava wall forming on the horizon. Even if it's hard to see behind Sartharion, you should be able to simply look back and to your left whenever the lava emotes to see if a wall is forming there or not. If it isn't, you'll have to move!
Also, occasionally adds will spawn in the raid. These will look like fire elementals, exactly like this:

The off-tank will need to pick these up right away, followed by the DPS burning them down with AoE.

The off-tank must continue to watch for lava walls during this period. It would be nasty enough to get hit by a lava wall while tanking the fire elemental pack, but even worse, the walls will turn a normal marshmallow seal...

...a burnt marshmallow seal! Burnt marshmallows deal 400% more damage, which will probably wipe us if a whole pack gets hit by it. Therefore, the off-tank must do whatever it takes to get the elementals out of the path of the lava waves. He/she should probably keep them away from the edges of the area, to avoid surprise lava walls. Sartharion will normally summon 2-4 elementals at a time; however, when his HP gets low enough, he will start summoning more. When he does so, healers will need to give extra love to the off-tank.
...also Sartharion will occasionally lob slow-moving fireballs / meteors at a random person in the raid. You can and should dodge these. It's also a good reason to stay spread out, so he doesn't constantly drop meteors on the giant raider clump. Think Void Reaver, but a lot less frequent. I just don't know which of my stuffed animals best represents an AoE meteor.

Follow these steps, and we should be taking a success screenshot this very night!

NEXT WEEK: KEL'THUZAD, RIGHT HAND OF THE LICH KING

Blimey

I've been totally sucked in by Twitter and haven't updated any of my blogs (not even my work one) for ages.

Should I be proud or embarassed?

Inspired by a link on my friend's blog I did the nerdtest. He only got 99%, probably because he did an accountancy degree...

preparación para mi clase

Ahora, describo la ciudad de Granada.

Granada es en la provincia de Andalucia, a lado de las sierras nevadas. La clima es bonita. En invierno las temperatures son frios pero en verano las temeratures hay calor, treintaytres grados. El símbolo de la ciudad es la granada, la fruta llamó 'pomegranate' en la lengua inglesa.

Granada es una ciudad muy bonita y antigua. Tiene la famosa Alhambra. En el siglo catorce el rey moro 'Mohammed quinto' construyó la alhambra, un palacio y fortaleza. Alhambra es muy bonita, hay jardines y fuentes pero es muy apretado con los turistas. En en siglo quince los reyes católicos conquistaron los moros, y todo la gente convirtió a la religion católica o fue a otros países. Muchos de los edificios moros fueron destruidos, pero un famoso edificio 'el Bañuelo' o 'los baños árabes' sobrevivieron.

Granada es menos grande que Madrid, pero es más bonita y simpática. Me gusta mucho comer en las churrerías, como los churros y chocolate, uno desayuno tradicional.

Martes. Día dos, semana cuatro

Sábado mi marido y yo corramos, por 6 km. Pero, ahora tengo dos ampollas y un otro herida porque mi brasier rozó.

Sábado:
Distancia: 6 km
Ruta: A lado del río Mersey
Tiempo : 48min


Mañana por la mañana correré. Una ruta pequeña, con curitas para mi heridas.
No tengo tiempo libre. Tengo trabajo muy complicado, y estudiando español no es fácil.

Jueves. Día cuatro, semana tres

Miércoles monté a caballo, se llama Lizzie. Lizzie es muy alta y guapa, pero no es muy melosilla. Intentó morder a mi mano.

En tres semanas, mi madre y yo vamos a viajar a 'Lake District' para dos días. Iremos a la playa y un escuela equestrian. Mi madre es más hábil con caballos como yo.

Dos pájaros con una piedra

Yo estudiaba español para 18 meses, pero no lo hablo bien. En el futuro, escribiré mi blog en español para practicar.
Sabado:
Distancia: 5.77km
Ruta: Por Decathlon
Tiempo: 49.55. Pero paré para comprar bolsitas de té.

Lunes:
Distancia: 3km
Ruta: gimnasio
Tiempo: 30.
No me gusta correr en el gimnasio porque el aire tiene calor y tiene sabor segunda mano.

¡Tengo una ampolla! Mañana y Miércoles no voy a correr. Necesito descansar.

Day 2, Week 2

Very bad run yesterday - I couldn't find my heart rate monitor so felt all out of control during the run, and the cold air really made me struggle. At least I got out and ran though (I guess) even if it was only 3.5K.

I've decided to change riding schools - my old one was getting really greedy on the costs and the lessons weren't teaching me anything. I've found somewhere that can do me lunchtime private lessons for £14. Fantastic! I was spending that for a group lesson with 3 other people.

Day 7, Week 1

Gaaaah! Now I've got cold. Busiest week at work for ages coming up and I'm all sniffly and coughy today. Growl.

I'm going horseriding this afternoon so hopefully some fresh air will do me good.

Day 4, Week one

A feeble attempt at going to the gym today. I must have been asleep when I packed my gym back as I had put in my superwarm long sleeved top, the wrong running tights and odd socks.

I did about 20 minutes on the treadmill (1.5 miles) and 20 minutes on the cross trainer. So not a total failure, but nothing to write home about.

I also tested out a new sports bra, a Royce High Impact bra. Not good at all, I didn't see myself running, but I could feel my entire chest region bouncing around - when I watched myself on the cross trainer there was a LOT of movement. So that's a bra I won't be wearing for anything high impact. Now I'm struggling to find another bra in the right size - I'm one cup size too large for Shock Absorbers, perhaps I should just try and squash them in?

Day 2, Week 1

Distance :4.2K
Route : A run around the playing fields, and then onto the running track
Time : 32.40. Though there was a few minutes of faffing getting Groundskeeper Willie to let me into the running track.
Music: Goldfrapp - Supernature

The track was in a mess, the storms of the other week has caused a couple of trees to fall down, blocking a quarter of the track. So I ended up doing there and backs rather than laps. I did some half hearted speed training as well - some short bursts of extra fast running, followed by an even slower than usual jog while my heart rate settled down.


Tomorrow is a rest day. Hurrah!

Day 1 Week 1

Distance :4.1K
Route : Stretford Loop
Time : 29:35
Music: Same as last time. Electro house fits my pace very well, if I listen to anything with more beats per minute I nearly die!

Something I have noticed is that I find this mostly flat route very hard going. All I can think is that it's due to the concrete paving slabs that I'm running for most of the journey, all my other routes are mostly tarmac paths and they seem to be a bit more springy. I think I might try training on the local athletics track if I can persuade the local Groundskeeper Wullie to let me in.

Hmm.. other things going on in my life - I finally went out and brought a new mattress, so I'm no longer sleeping in my 'dent' which was giving me a bad back. It's a perfect example of my procrastination, I've had the money saved up for a new mattress for over a year, but I've only just gone to IKEA to buy a new one.

Running..

So another January and once again I've got a running target. This year I've entered the Manchester 10K on the 20th May. So once again I'm trying to learn to run an additional 5K (my furthest run so far has been 5K).

This does mean that the blog might get a bit boring as I use it to track my progress..

Run today

Distance 5.1 K
Route: Junction 1
Elapsed Time: 44:23
Music: http://www.goodgreef.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64650&highlight=flintoff


On a more personal note, I drove last weekend to Scotland on the A68. I stopped at Carter Bar border crossing and persuaded someone to take my photo in front of the sign for Scotland. It's a family tradition really, my grandad must have photos of my mam and myself stood next to the border signs for every year we went to Scotland on holiday.They almost are like height charts, some people have notches in their door frames, my family has photos at Carter Bar.

I passed!!!!

I passed my spanish course with the Open University. I'm so happy as I've always perceived myself as being incompetent at foreign languages. My grade wasn't fabulous (about a B-) but it's the best I've ever done.

I'm positively giddy and looking forward to doing the course next year that will give me the other half of my Certificate in Spanish.

Ow, ow, ow

Had my flu jab today...

Owie.