T w e n t y S i d e d

So I’m playing WoW. Can’t find a the cave where I’m supposed to kill some Burning Blade guys. Check online. Yes, other people are having trouble with this. The map marker isn’t helpful and the given directions are basically sabotage. But players have posted the coords for the cave. 52, 28, eh? Too bad the game doesn’t tell you your position. Fine. I log out, download an addon to tell me my position, and thirty seconds later I try to log back in and I can’t. Wha?

I mess around. I remove the plugin. I click on the “click here for more information” link that it gives when it can’t log in, but that just takes me to a super-generic page which poses the question, “What sort of problem are you having?” The choices are stuff like crashing, hacked accounts, billing issues, etc. Nothing about not being able to log in. I could submit a support ticket, but I tried that four months ago when I wanted to re-activate an old account and I am still awaiting a reply.

Sigh. I guess we have to resort to the forums. Let me get my boots on.

Ah. There we are. Top of the page. Well, it’s the top-most real post, after the twelve(!!!) sticky posts above it. People unable to connect. Wow. A lot of people. It goes on for a couple of pages. “I can’t connect!” followed by “me too!” and “same here” for dozens and dozens of posts. All of them in the last hour. Then there is a bit of stupid trolling, like you get in large communities like this when players get frustrated and bored and start amusing themselves with mischief. I glance up to the top and see that this thread goes on for seventy-eight pages. In one hour.

Well, this thread went to hell in a Netherweave Bag. Let’s just look at the last page and see what’s going on. Let’s see, the last post is…

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch pans. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, walnuts and butter. Divide mixture evenly between the prepared pans. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, water, orange juice and oil until blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the orange zest. Pour the mixture evenly over the crunch layer in the pans.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely before frosting. Frost (crunch side up) between layers, on top and sides. Arrange orange sections on top, then refrigerate.
4. To make the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat the vanilla frosting until light and fluffy, then mix in the whipped topping. Stir in the orange and lemon zest. Use frosting on completely cooled cake layers.

People are trading Christmas cookie recipes and baking tips. I love it.

Merry Christmas Blizzard, you lovable fumbling goofs.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.