Water Damage (area shown approx 2 inches)

… in my ceiling this morning.  Located directly beneath the upstairs bath, the conclusion is pretty simple and I cross my fingers hoping it not to be too traumatic.  If I had a dime for every time something weird happens I’d be a millionaire in sterling currency.  Here is the water damage (left) so after reading the Reader’s Digest DIY Manual that my father-in-law gave me, along with a few websites, I decided it was time to investigate this further.

Armed with a punch saw and my recently gained knowledge, I poked a hole into the ceiling.

Water poured out.

Dammit, I should have read and APPLIED what I read regarding getting a bucket first.  I ran around like a headless chicken and using my an inverted stool my son uses to clean his teeth I was able to catch most of the water while I emptied the garbage from the kitchen and used that to catch the remaining water that came out.  Quickly the dripping water came to a stop and I felt I was ready to poke a second, small hole.  More water but right into the bucket this time.  Score.

The following holes I made yielded no water problems, the ceiling was soft in most places and the fact it was six inches from the light fixture was not giving me any comfort – but thankfully it proved to be ’seemingly’ dry there.  However there was some very strange plastic object in the ceiling as you can see from the second photo:

The odd plastic object

Heading upstairs and investigating the bathtub and surrounding area there was no way to actually access the underside except from the ceiling.  So more careful cutting was applied.  My floor now looks something like this:

The Mess

The only consolation I can give myself – or offer my darling wife – is that at least I caused this and it didn’t just randomly happen for us to walk home to.  Yeah, I know, not overly comforting, eh?

So I keep cutting and cutting and cutting and create a large hole so I can now access the pipes and drains of our bathtub and make sure everything dries out nicely and find out what the heck was leaking to repair it.

The Hole

But wait, what was that weird plastic thing you encountered when you first started cutting as seen a couple of photos ago?  A BLOODY ICE-CREAM BUCKET!

Really????!!?!??!

Yes, this is what I removed from my ceiling – filled to overflowing with water.  Great.  I’m now going to slap my head on the desk for lack of knowing how to even begin to understand what the former owner of this house, who time and again proves to us he was an utter moron, was actually thinking.

So remember kids, if you ever have a leaky pipe or drain and can’t be bothered to work out what the problem is, just put a bucket under it, seal it up and it will make it all go away!  Honest!

Using the new QuestHistory API this add-on uses your quest history to display quests – and their status – from any category in game.  Failed?  Abandoned?  Dropped?  Completed?  Now you can find them! It lists quests you haven’t done in zones making Loremaster a lead pipe cinch!

Other neat features is that it tracks date and times of completed quests, how many times you have completed particular dailies along with the most recent time stamp.  It also integrates with LightHeaded which provides you with in-game access to WoWhead, NPC locs and waypoints.

Although not fully confirmed yet as the waypoint integration was with TomTom, with the release of the new Blizzard waypoint system (and EveryQuest being 3.3 ready) I would think that they will work harmoniously together.  All-in-all a must have!

Jaina Proudmore in Icecrown

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls

Looming over the stark wastes of Northrend, Icecrown Citadel awaits those who would see the Lich King and his Scourge brought low and the threat they pose wiped from the face of Azeroth. The heroes who venture within will face some of the greatest horrors yet seen. But before you burst into the front gate of the citadel, an alternate means of entry beckons. Journey through three separate wings of the new five-player dungeon, Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls, and follow Jaina Proudmoore or Sylvanas Windrunner into the Lich King’s domain.

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Throne

All across Northrend, many battles have been fought against the vile Scourge. Countless lives have been lost since the Alliance and the Horde first reached these frozen wastes, but the champions of Azeroth continue to march forward — and Icecrown Citadel, the cornerstone of the Scourge’s power and the home base of the Lich King, is their final target. Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade have forged an accord with Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict. This coalition’s strongest combatants, along with the champions of the Alliance and the Horde, will lead the charge against the citadel. In the new Icecrown Citadel raid dungeon, Azeroth’s mightiest will face terrifying challenges before ascending to the Frozen Throne, where the Lich King and his runeblade, Frostmourne, await to deliver the heroes to their deaths….

Cross-Realm Dungeon Finder

The Dungeon Finder is now available, providing players with quick and easy access to five-player parties. This feature connects all realms within a battlegroup using an advanced matchmaking system, making it easier for players of all levels to find a dungeon group. In addition, players can reap additional rewards through the Dungeon Finder by choosing the Random option, which is available to both pick-up and pre-formed groups. Check out the User Interface section for more details.

Getting Started and Quest Tracking

A number of changes have been made to World of Warcraft’s introductory experience, including updated character and class information at the character-selection screen, more robust tooltips with images, improved health and mana regeneration at lower levels, and adjustments to various classes designed to make it easier for players to get started. In addition, all-new quest-tracking features have been added to assist players in finding objectives, including new interface functionality in the quest log, the map (”M” key), and the Objectives pane.

General

• Icecrown Citadel
  • Three separate 5-player dungeons — The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection — containing all new challenges and missions of discovery, await players in normal and Heroic modes.
  • 10- and 25-player challenges await players in Icecrown Citadel. Only when all challenges have been overcome in the raid dungeon can players unlock hard modes for individual bosses. For more information on how the Icecrown Citadel raid content will be made available, please visit our Dungeons & Raids forum.
• Character Creation: The descriptions for races, classes, and race/class combinations have been improved to provide new players with a better idea of the roles and advantages of each class and race.
• Dazed: Creatures attacking a player from behind can no longer cause players level 1-5 to be dazed, and have a reduced chance to cause players level 6-10 to be dazed.
• Knockbacks no longer dismount players. If on a flying mount, you will be knocked back a short distance before being able to resume flying.
• The existing /welcome emote now greets/welcomes targets (character says “hello”), while the new /yw is for saying “you’re welcome.”
• Many of the tail sweeps with knockback effects will no longer hit players’ pets.
• Level 1 characters no longer start with food or water in their inventory.
• Attack is now called Auto Attack. The tooltip has been changed to reflect that the player will continue automatically attacking a target.
• Meeting Stones: To use any Meeting Stone, it is only required that the character’s minimum level be 15. There is no maximum character level requirement for any Meeting Stone.

Classes: General

• Area-of-Effect Damage Caps: We’ve redesigned the way area damage is capped when hitting many targets. Instead of a hard cap on total damage done, the game now caps the total damage done at a value equal to the damage the spell would do if it hit 10 targets. In other words, if a spell does 1000 damage to each target, it would hit up to 10 targets for 1000 each, but with more than 10 targets, each target would take 1000 damage divided by the number of targets. 20 targets would be hit for 500 damage each in that example.
• Attack: Level 1 druids, mages, priests, and warlocks will no longer start with the Attack button placed on their action bars by default.
• Default Equipment: Starting weapons are now more uniform. Rogues now start with a pair of daggers equipped. All other classes except shamans start with a 2-handed weapon equipped and the required skill already known. Shamans start with a 1-handed weapon and a shield, as they benefit more from the shield than they would from a 2-handed weapon.
• Glancing Blows: The mage, warlock, and priest classes no longer have an increased chance for their melee attacks to be glancing blows; and the damage penalty due to their glancing blows is the same as for other classes.
• Health and Mana Regeneration: These regeneration rates have been increased by up to 200% for low level characters. As a player’s level increases, the regeneration rates gradually reduce, returning to normal rates at level 15.
• Pet Resilience: All player pets now get 100% of their master’s resilience.
• Spell Mana Costs: These costs have been reduced for almost all lower level spell ranks. In general, if a spell decreased in cost with a higher level rank in patch 3.2.0, that spell now has the decreased cost at all ranks. In addition, spells learned before level 20 with reduced cast times and/or durations have even further reduced mana costs, proportionate to their reduction in cast time or damage.
• Taunt Diminishing Returns: We’ve revised the system for diminishing returns on Taunt so that creatures do not become immune to Taunt until after 5 Taunts have landed. The duration of the Taunt effect will be reduced by 35% instead of 50% for each taunt landed. In addition, most creatures in the world will not be affected by Taunt diminishing returns at all. Creatures will only have Taunt diminishing returns if they have been specifically flagged for that behavior based on the design of a given encounter.

Races: General

• Orc and troll shamans now have their own unique totem art.
• Racial Attribute Bonuses: These bonuses have been recalibrated to even out the amount of starting health on the various races. All races start with a standardized level of stamina, except for orcs, dwarves, and tauren who now start with 1 extra point of stamina. For each class, bonuses and penalties to all attributes have been adjusted so that each race has an equal attribute total.
• Will of the Forsaken now shares a 45-second cooldown with similar effects, including the Medallion of the Horde, Titan-Forged runes, Insignia of the Horde, etc.

<< Go to Part Two >>

I lol’d.  This relates to data from several years ago we carried on Le Portal. The thing is, after sifting through the images data-mined (results below) I can’t help but wonder why the heck the FBI had the fewest hits.  I don’t care what your taste or orientation is, there is no way the pirate or cowboy is something you’d want to check out, dress up as or even remotely fantasize about!  Cowrate and Piboys after the break. /shiver