I felt a strong desire to howl at the moon. It was such a howlable moon. But I restrained myself. ~ Snuff (via Roger Zelazny), A Night In the Lonesome October, Chapter 31

The Gateway may begin to open at any time, or it may await the invitation of the Opening Wand. The resistance will begin immediately. The Closing Wand will be employed, and any ancillary forces that may feed it. Eventually, at the end of our exercises — which may take only a little while, though conceivably they could last until dawn (and in such a stalemated case, the closers would win by default) — the matter will be decided. Bad things happen to the losers. ~ Snuff (via Roger Zelazny), A Night In the Lonesome October, Chapter 30

It felt odd to be dining with the enemy and to care that much about them. ~ Snuff (via Roger Zelazny), A Night In the Lonesome October, Chapter 29

“Wanna see something really scary?” ~ Dan Aykroyd (character unnamed) in Twilight Zone: The Movie (via John Landis)

Just in time for Halloween, a horror ad that makes the best case for birth control I can imagine.

“I hate Thunder Bluff! You can’t find a good burger anywhere.” ~ Blood Elf Female, World of Warcraft

I’m leaving WOW.

This may sound like a frivolous statement because people say these things all the time (and because it’s a game, so who cares, right?). They announce grand departures on forums. They rage and quit guilds on the spot. They declare the things they’re giving up in moments of empowerment and then go slinking back when the buzz wears off.

I’m not one of those people. For one thing, generally, when I leave any sort of environment of which I am merely a member without authority, I do it without comment. Being “done” for me is generally an act of personal choice, not a gesture to discern who will try and woo me back. I can count on one hand the number of times I have openly declared I was leaving something, and I haven’t ever returned to any of them. I either knew I was done, or that my personal ethics would make it impossible to return. When I have felt the need to announce a departure, it’s generally been to make a statement about something I felt needed expressing or simply to let familiar denizens of a communal space know how to reach me outside the format without sending a gazillion private messages, or to explain why I was surrendering the responsibility of a role tethered to the format I was departing. IRL, when leaving a consulting job I’d have a brief gathering with my people before departing; there is merit in rituals like exit meetings that I consider separate from drama tactics, but that may be my open personal justification system in play.

I’ve spent years in the WOW format (I tried it in early 2005, but quit soon after, rejoining “for real” in May, 2006) — so there is history, and it feels wrong to leave without saying something somewhere. Or maybe I’m just feeling a fondness of memory. Either way, don’t follow the jump if you’re likely to be bored with such humdrummery.

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