LS WoW: Oh, yeah...

4.0.1 is expected to hit tomorrow. This will bring about the "class and system's changes" part of Cataclysm. In simpler terms: all your toons and how you play them just got FUBAR'd but the new content won't show up until later.

It's Elitist Jerks reading time folks. Although, everyone's still sorting what works there by and large too. Soooo, um... good luck...

Update: Someone else has been kind enough to do a class/spec info roundup. Enjoy.

Death Knight
Elitist Jerks: Blood Tanking in 4.0.1
PwnWear: Blood Tanking Compendium
Elitist Jerks: Frost DPS | Cataclysm, You Found Me
Elitist Jerks: Unholy DPS | Cataclysm, All At Once
Consider It: Blog by the EJ main theorycrafter/poster
DK Sim: Gear, Spec, Glyphs, and Rotation simulations

Druid
Gray Matter: Moonkin Guide to Patch 4.0.1
Quieth's Quips: Moonkin Guide to 4.0
Relevart's Druid Reliquary: Moonkin Class Guide
Sunfyre's Nest: 4.0 Rotation and Glyphs
Syrco-Owl: Moonkin in 4.0.1

The Fluid Druid: Kitty Dps in 4.0.1
Feral Aggression: 4.0.1 Kitty Primer
Mew: Feral Druid DPS Analyzer
Think Tank: The 4.0.1 Feral Specs, Glyphs, Gear post
Allison Robert, WoW Insider: Bear Druids in Patch 4.0.1

Tree Bark Jacket: Tree Patch 4.0 Guide
Restokin: Resto Druid Healing Guide
Rank 4 Healing Touch: 4.0.1 Primer Resto Druid Basics and ICC 25 HM
RestoDude: Resto Druid Guide New

Hunter
MMO Champ Forums: 4.0.1 Hunters
The Brew Hall: Hunters Patch 4.0 Some Thing to Expect
Warcraft Hunters Union/WoW Insider: Scattered Shots: Prepare Your Hunter for Patch 4.0.1
Warcraft Hunter's Union: Beastmastery Hunter Patch 4.0.1 Talents Rotation and Glyphs
Warcraft Hunter's Union: Marksman Hunter Patch 4.0.1 Talents Rotation and Glyphs
Marks-365: Marksman Talents in 4.0
Warcraft Hunter's Union: Beastmastery Hunter Patch 4.0.1 Talents Rotation and Glyphs
Pets: Warcraft Hunters' Union

Mage
Mana Obscura: The Mage 4.0 Compendium
TotalBiscuit: Arcane Video Guide
TotalBiscuit: Fire Video Guide
Great Balls of Fire: Fire Raiding Builds Video
TotalBiscuit: Frost Video Guide
Great Balls of Fire: Frost Raiding Builds Video

Paladin
Kurn's Corner: What Holy Paladins Need to Know for 4.0.1
Blessing of KingsHoly Paladin Spec and Glyphs in 4.0.1
Righteous Defense: Everything You Need to Know about Prot and 4.0.1
Ret Pally: Ret Pally 4.0: Holy Shift

Priest
Dawn Moore, WoW Insider: Sp[iritual Guidance: Reforging, Gemming, and GCD Tactocs for 4.0.1
Dawn Moore, WoW Insider: Spiritual Guidance: Finishing Wrath Raids as a 4.0.1 Healing Priest
Tales of a Priest: 4.0 Survival Guide – Holy & Disc Specs, Glyphs, and More
Press H for Heals: Discipline 4.0.1 Guide
World of Matticus: Raiding Discipline for Priests in 4.0.1
World of Matticus: Smite Healing with Atonement Spec (balls of granite required)
Shadowpriest.com Forums: The 4.0.1 Checklist

Rogue
Elitist Jerks: 4.0.1 Rogue FAQ
PVE Rogues: 4.0.1 Mutilate Talents
PVE Rogues: 4.0.1 Combat Talents
Elitist Jerks: Combat Spreadsheet 4.0.1

Shaman
Myrddin: The Enhancement Shaman 4.0.1
Windfury, Enhancement: Are you ready for 4.0.1?
Totemspot: 4.0.1 The Elemental Guide
Sarah Nichol, WoW Insider: Totem Talk: Elemental Shaman Changes for Patch 4.0.1
Life in Group 5: The Resto Shaman's Guide to 4.0.1
Flow: Patch 4.0 Resto Shaman Build Speculation

Warlock
Optec: Cataclysm Warlock Changes Guide part 1
Optec: Cataclysm Warlock Changes Guide part 2
The Warlock's Den: 4.0.1 Cata Destro Rotation Spec
Undercity: 4.0.1 Destro Warlock Rotation
Forsaken Few Guild: Demonology in Cata

Warrior
Got Warcraft? The Cataclysm Warrior Guide
Naithin: Fun in Games: Prot Warrioring at 80 in 4.0

TLU: I Honestly Don't Know This....

"Are you married?"

*holds up both hands*

"You could've just held up your ring finger"

"Which one is it?"

RftP: It's Kind of a Funny Story

A kinda mneh dramedy staring Zach Galifianakis as "Bobby" the depressive zen master to Keir Gilchrist's Craig - a 16 year old suffering from depression who checks himself into a psych ward after dreaming of tossing himself off the Brooklin Bridge - Funny Story basically runs a lot of stressed teen nerd movie tropes through his character and Craig hits pretty much all of them:
- massive inferiority complex and lack of self confidence.
- best friend is both better looking, smarter, athletic, and has scored the hot chick they've both known since they were kids and he secretly lusts for.
- dad's placing tons of pressure on him to succeed and guiding his progression through schools and schollarships regardless of where his son's interests actually lay.
- mom's one of those: "I'll support you in whatever you do" types who dotes on him while the father shoots him down
- younger sibling is the functional equivalent of his best friend. Only, not banging the hot chick. This time at least.

So, essentially, the setup is Better Off Dead in a mental ward with Galifianakis in the Scooter Stevens role and Emma Roberts standing in for Diane Franklin as "Craig" starts to learn how to deal with all the stress and fictional or real issues he's built up around himself that are slowly driving him insane and gets a bit out of his shell. To be fair, it should also be said that Galifianakis is actually given some acting to do and delivers pretty well the more subdued parts but, for the most part, the movie is pretty much by the numbers as these things go.

See if you're in the mood for a servicable teen flick

RftP: Buried, The Social Network

Buried is a movie one has to choose their words carefully to review 'cause there's only two possible outcomes to this story and the wrong ones will give it away. A high concept film, Buried takes place entirely from the POV of Ryan Reynold's character Paul Conroy; an American truck driver working for a third party contractor to deliver supplies in Iraq. We will open the film with him awakening in a wood coffin buried in the ground; hence the title. This will be essentially the only location seen in this film and really where it deviates from the norm where we'd have active cuts between all the invested parties.

From that point on, the film proceeds to ratchet up the tension as Conroy - finding himself with a cell phone through which his captors communicate and he's able to reach out for help with - goes through all the emotions someone under high stress would be expected to go through as he negotiates, tries to get help, and does everything conceivable to get out of the situation he's now in while running up against threats, barriers, and the simple reality of where he is now. It's here that Reynolds reminds us he can be more than just the guy you bring in to deliver a punch line and he's exceptionally good in the role.

Buried's probably not a film for everyone but its definitely unique and well done.

The Social Network... Huh... well, I'll say this: you've gotta give credit for taking something like the creation of a website and actually making it interesting and entertaining. It helps that, by all accounts, the events were actually interesting to begin with but that's still quite an accomplishment on behalf of the writer, director, and cast. The movie details the story of the birth of the now ubiquitous social networking site Facebook and the chaos and backstabbing that went on behind the scenes as Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg who's finally moving beyond his "can't get Michael Cera" phase as an actor, takes "his" idea from creation to fledgeling mega-corp. Sharply written by Aaron Sorkin from events detailed in the novel "The Accidental Billionaires" and testimony from the multiple lawsuits that surrounded the firm's inception it's probably as close you're going to get to the "truth" without having been there.

The movie is very much worth seeing. I'm also amused that Brenda Song is the latest child star to grab the "crazy slut" role as a "graduation strategy" to "adult roles". Oh, you wacky Disney Kids...

Rant: On Prostitution

Much has been made about last week's ruling that the laws restricting brothels, communication, and living off the "avails" of prostitution are in violation of the Charter rights of those Canadians who otherwise... for the sake of argument since that was the apparent case here... choose to partake in this particular profession by placing them at additional risk. The thing is, this is inarguable - we do purposely remove the ability of the participants in this profession to establish a safe environment in which to operate largely in the name of disincentivizing while simultaneously turning a blind eye in many cases to the damage this does. In fact, the government's primary "defence" in this case was that the profession was dangerous to begin with so the judge should simply ignore the reality that the laws increased that risk. This is roughly equivalent to a Minister showing up to committee for a budget review and claiming flack jackets are unnecessary expenses for Police Officers because they're at greater risk of being stabbed or otherwise assaulted than shot in this country so we shouldn't bother going further.

Get back to me when that happens.

Even more amusing is Joy Smith, MP from Winnipeg, claiming: “My goodness we would have the nation as the pimp and that’s wrong and we can’t afford that,” while ignoring the reality that we've already had the nation running as outright pimp via the "Stripper Visa" which, while being officially discontinued, in effect simply runs through the regular visa system now. Right there is another case where the people were more concerned with the percieved "moral evils" of stripping than the fact we were shipping in girls to serve at the local meat market - and no one's going to argue all that they were giving out was the full frontal either.

So, why not make prostitution legal? Pretty much every paper in this town funds some portion of it's operations advertising the "professionals" anyways these days...

Moralists like to point to things like: "It destroys marriages!!!". Yet, StatsCan will tell us otherwise:

Geography, place of occurrence=Canada, place of occurrence

Reason for marital breakdown	2004	2005
Reason for marital breakdown, separation for at least one year	65,848	67,526
Reason for marital breakdown, adultery	2,182	2,218
Reason for marital breakdown, physical cruelty	687	619
Reason for marital breakdown, mental cruelty	891	878
1. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Vital Statistics, Divorce Database

Yup, that's right, the vast majority of marriages end because one or both of the people involved simply can't stand living with each other anymore. Furthermore, while the stats on this aren't readily available, the reality is that those adultery numbers aren't full of guys/girls picking up strippers/hookers on the side - they're almost always those who feel neglected or are egotistical enough to think they can get away with getting it on with a co-worker (some argue this is 50-75% of the occurrences), or someone you know or have regular contact with - a best friend, relative, neighbour, or worker around the house. Hookers are the least of your concerns. I'd check my browser history for Ashley Madison first.

The next big one is that no one wants a brothel in their neighbourhood. Yet, odds are you already do and don't know. Most are run quietly simply to avoid detection - hell, most of you don't notice when drug lords gut the neighbouring house, steal electricity from you, and grow pot. I also find it hard to give this argument validity because no one wants anything in their neighbourhood these days; be it a freeway or a park full of kids. That doesn't mean there couldn't be somewhere to put such a thing.

The final minor argument is that: "no one grows up wanting to be a prostitute!". Yet, how many people grow up to become what they wanted to be at 5/10/15/20 years old? Those hopes change over time and adjust to current realities and I can tell you right now I've known a few women who found the prospect of being a Serenity style "Companion" appealing - and not just in a Cosplay at the Sci-Fi fest way. Furthermore, the most effective combat against this is not legislation but effective child rearing (in terms of conveying your beliefs and moral standards), and providing means for children to achieve those other dreams you'd rather them be going for.

But, now we get into the uglier bits: the drugs, the health issues, the human trafficing, abuse... aren't these all things that call for appropriate legislation and regulation? Bans on drugs on premisses, liquor licenses, health testing, monitoring/licensing of the "staff", requirements for protection and safety of the workers? Isn't this what we do in every other industry that places it's workers at risk?

There are those that argue that this would be ignoring the reality that there are many participants in this profession who'd operate without licenses because they've no choice. I'd argue you've now got a solid legal method to compensate for that - the establishment of firm legal consequences to non-compliance with the operating guidelines. Furthermore, we live in a country with free health care, welfare, and job retraining programs: if there's a perception in the community that there's no viable exit strategy for a drugged up prostitute... well, maybe we ought to do something about that?

Not only that, but does the potential disincentive of increasing the risk to these men and women justify them being beaten, ignored by police, or treated as a low priority when they go missing or are murdered?

Even more importantly: if we find this profession so objectionable, should it be legal at all and are the consequences of changing the law in that way - forcing it and those involved in it even further underground and into the hands of criminal syndicates just as prohibition did; out of reach of help and even more subject to abuse - worth that change just to satisfy our moral outrage at the worlds oldest profession?

Those are the discussions we should be sitting down and having about this decision: not tossing it at the Supreme Court and hoping it will go away. But we can't because "sex + money = evil" unless it involves sugar-mamas/daddys and no politician worth their salt wants to put their neck out and have an adult conversation on this or any other issue. They're too busy badgering Craigslist into stopping advertising for this altogether despite them being the most proactive of the online sources in combatting the more negative aspects of what's going on online. So, at the end of the day, we'll likely go back to women and men operating without a net as punishment for being in a profession society disapproves of or there's gonna be a bunch of people throwing hissy fits about "Activist Judges"; again ignoring the reality that it's the judiciary's very job when it comes to the Charter to protect "the public" from the "moral majority" to begin with by ensuring everyone is treated equally under the protections it provides.

TotD: If you want something bad enough...

... you'd best be prepared to go for it. No one else is likely to get it for you.

Me Wacky CBC Radio 3 Playlist...

For shits and giggles, I'm gonna track this as I feel like it. CBC Radio 3 does a businessweek-daily Track of the Day podcast whereby they essentially give away free music led in by VJ/Artist comments/stories. I'd been quick filtering through the noise for several months before I left for Japan and this is essentially what I was listening to, largely for the first time, while I was there:

Rah Rah - Betrayal pt. 1
Fembots - So Long
Stars - Ageless Beauty
Cherry Chapstick - Silencer
Brad Sucks - Dropping Out Of School
The Skydiggers - Pull Me Down
The Get Down - Dirty Power
Woodpigeon - Piano Pieces for Adult Beginners
Eddie Orso - Moving Straight
Faye Blais - Something's Changed
Dog Day - Oh Dead Life
Pathological Lovers - Storm Your Little
Treelines - Canadian Airlines
Julie Fader - Goodbye Before Hello
Darrelle London - Understand
Women - Group Transport Hall
Plants and Animals - Faerie Dance
New Years Resolution - Death March on the Tone Bank
Attics and Cellars - Sheep + Wolves
Geronimo - Just Like Water
The Mountains & The Trees - All Together Now (For The Holidays)
Jenny Whiteley - Indoor Lightning
The Golden Dogs - Construction Worker
Priestess - Lay Down
Jasper Sloan Yip - Kiddo
Jets Overhead - Addiction
Rock Plaza Central - My Children Be Joyful
Carbon Dating Service - Light Up The Synchrotron
Chow-Chow - Suits Like Animals
Young Galaxy - Searchlight
Greatest Explorers in the World - Hide and Seek
Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire
Meredith Grant - Stars
Maybe Smith - Crimes and Diplomacy
Memphis - I'll Do Whatever You Want
Cripple Creek Fairies - Call In Sick
A.C. Newman - Drink to Me Babe, Then
New Country Rehab - Angel Of Death
Boats - Drinking The Lake
Death from Above 1979 - Little Girl
Ben Globerman - Pirate Games
Plants And Animals - Lola Who?
Diamond Rings - Wait & See
Sea Ballast - I Don't Care
The Pack a.d. - B.C. Is On Fire
Racoon Bandit - Train Song
Silly Kissers - Thinking Of You
Parlovr - Pen To The Paper
Beast - Mr. Hurricane
Melissa McClelland - Passenger 24
Janet Panic - Lousy Wife
Ready Set Die - Face First
Caffeine Sunday - Plane
English Words - Rope
New Teeth - Suffering Sons and Daughters
Ryan Dahle - Chop-Chop
The Soft Province - Thin Ocean
Buck 65 - Indestructible Sam
Caribou - Odessa
The Hidden Cameras - In The Na
Plumtree - Scott Pilgrim
Peaches - Give'r
Emma-Lee - Until We Meet Again
Ladyhawk - (You Are My) Hellfire
Sandman Viper Command - Strawberry Quick
The Wheat Pool - Lefty
The Arcade Fire - Haiti
Dinosaur Bones - Royalty
Luke Doucet - Broken One
Julie Doiron - Consolation Prize
Sam Roberts - The Canadian Dream
Young Rival - Poisonous Moves
The Besnard Lakes - Albatross
David Vertesi - Gentlemen Say

You should be able to pop this handy link and crank the thing up to blow about 4 hours of your life.

I'll be adding/subtracting stuff to/from this list as time passes - I already have ideas for stuff that should be shot - but the core rule is that everything on it will be from the Podcasts so folks can rope their own copies. Therefore, there's no point in asking me to add something not from there though you're welcome to suggest other songs I should be fiddling around with on my spare time. The secondary rule is that if you like something that disappears, make your own bloody playlist 'cause I either don't or have simply had enough of it and it likely won't be back :)