It’s been busy around here with Christmas coming up: stores are crowded, roads are filled with traffic, and the weather has been all over the place. Some days it’s in the 30s while other days it’s in the 70s. I guess it’s t-shirt and sweater day all the time around here!
Food
Here are some foods of note from this week.
Veggie pasta with jalapenos, yellow onion, Roma tomatoes, garlic, and white mushrooms. The Cat added a bit of sour cream at the end to make it a pink sauce. Served with fettuccine. Quick breakdown of the Cat’s process: cook mushrooms, onion, and garlic over medium to medium-high heat until mostly caramelized, add peppers and tomatoes and cook until softened, take off the heat and stir in a dollop of sour cream.
Fried chicken sandwiches with iceberg lettuce, yellow onion, Roma tomato, pickle, and 4:2:1 sauce (4 parts mayo, 2 parts BBQ sauce, 1 part mustard). This time I tried spicy brown mustard instead of the usual yellow and it was milder and less vinegar-y but more earthy. I really like it. I might be making this sauce with spicy brown from now on. Served with steak fries. We used this recipe but we didn’t marinate the chicken and we mixed the wet and dry ingredients into a batter.
BBQ chicken burritos with cilantro, shredded iceberg lettuce, jalapeno, caramelized onion, lime, and sour cream. The Cat was trying out a new technique of cooking the chicken: sear the chicken, cook it through, slather it in BBQ sauce, and sear it again. It was amazing! He really enjoyed using a grill in the past so he tried to replicate that process in a pan on the stove.
Sweet chili chicken hard shell tacos with sliced black olives, diced yellow onion, diced Roma tomato, diced jalapeno, cilantro, lime, and sour cream. The Cat used the same method of sear, cook, sauce, sear on this day’s chicken except he used sweet chili sauce. The sauce worked very well with the heavy cumin we had on the chicken. I might have to get the Cat to cook more foods like this. Yummy!
Other News
The Cat has been on an Addams Family kick lately. We bought “The Addams Family” and “The Addams Family Values” for Halloween and have been watching it a couple times a week since then. If you haven’t see them, I highly suggest them for their kooky 90’s charm, wholesomeness, and spooky appeal. Of the two, I personally prefer “The Addams Family”.
We’ve also been watching Rocko’s Modern Life. I hadn’t seen it before the Cat mentioned it. It’s silly and immature but I still really enjoy it.
I gave EQEmulator’s Imperium server a whirl. I last played on this server about a year ago but decided on a new character to get a feel for the ropes again. I made a little Gnome Necromancer. I couldn’t play for the entire week since I spilled water on my keyboard and it was out of commission for a couple of days, but I still got to my late 50’s and started my epic 1.0 with very casual play.
Pros:
- Friendly community – ask any questions in OOC (server-wide)
- GMs are easy to contact – they’re almost always on Discord which connects to OOC
- Smooth progression system and many progression guides available
- Easy leveling so far
- New content since the last time I played (about a year ago)
- Solo-able or duoable content
- Amazing loot called Artifacts can randomly drop at any level
- Treasure Goblins have a chance to spawn when you kill an even or greater mob
- Seasonal events and decorations – currently a giant snowman, giant Christmas trees, Mary Lou Who, The Grinch, Max, and Treasure Goblins drop presents
- Teleportation using “#zone y x z“
- Many clickies are usable by all classes (these are notes from last year)
- Guise of the Deceiver
- Mask of Tinkering
- Flayed Barbarian Mask
- Kunark clicky armor (buffs, DDs, DoTs, FD, CH, Selo’s)
- Platinum farming is easy – do Daily Quests
- Pay platinum to get maxed tradeskills – good for Earring of Solstice, Shawl of Imperium, etc.
- Pay platinum for personal instances of zones
- Achievement system
- Content goes past Gates of Discord into custom content (Tier 7)
- Functioning Bazaar – buy and sell to your heart’s content
- No MQ2 (people can’t warp directly to targets and steal your kill)
Cons:
- No MQ2 (can’t see mobs on the map or stick)
- A little lag in the Guild Lobby upon zone-in
- I couldn’t figure out where to get “Summon Mystical Stiletto of Stabbing” at low levels even though the guide lists it as from Merchant Draco for free. I think it only appears on the merchant when you’re at least level 70.
- Some clickies are still not available for all classes (these are notes from last year)
- Rod of Insidious Glamour is still ENC-only
- Cobalt Bracer is still WAR-only
- Mask of Deception is still ROG/BRD-only
- An NPC named Annoying Noob will often shout for platinum handouts in the Guild Lobby. I think he’ll be quiet for a while if you give him ~1000 platinum.
Thoughts:
Best cohesive soloable-content server I’ve seen so far. The only other one that is truly and fully soloable without boxing is Casual Dreams which only goes up to Planes of Power. If you do try out Imperium, get a Pegasus Feathered Cloak because you don’t need a reagent for levitation and it’s easy to acquire. Here’s a couple of good places to get started:
- Rules
- A Noobies Guide to Imperium
- Gorg’s Galvanazing Gearing Guide 1-80
- Gorg’s Lazy Progression Guide from Beginning to PoPGorg’s Lazy Progression Guide from Beginning to PoP
- List of zone names for #zone
The next server I’ll be checking out is Ultimate EQ, a custom content, MQ2-friendly, box-friendly take on Everquest.
Whether you’re here for the food, the games, or the crafts, thanks for reading!
-Corgi
Corgipup Designs 