Twenty-Fourteen FTW

Happy 2014! I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and Day. I went to my sister's and hung out with her, her hubby, plus a friend of hers, and my anonymous man-friend. Two people played Lego LOTR while the rest of us shouted encouragement and made unnecessary commentary. (Frodo, nooooooo!) There was drinking involved, of course! I'm sure I have completed the Thirst Slayer achievement IRL by now. I don't drink often, but when I do, I give it 110%. :)
In Tyria, this achieve is much more difficult. A player commented that it takes 60g to do it. I looked it up and his estimate was actually low. It's 80g or 700,000 karma. Really? Yikes. I'd better get started!

I've also been working on unlocking all the story modes of the dungeons. I use the LFG tool to find a group. I've had some pretty good luck getting matched up with some nice folks!
Last night's run through Sorrow's Embrace was fun. We were totally fail, but we didn't care! That's the best feeling. Not everyone is an uber-awesome-fantastically-geared player. People get downed. People die. People rez, run from the respawn, aggro a room full of elite dredge and drag them back to the group, and wipe the whole party! It happens. But it's how you deal with it that makes a great team.
At one point in our run, a girl said she had to go help her parents print something. (HA! Classic. But not as funny as, "I've got to rescue my dog from the treadmill." True story.)
So we waited for her... and had a dance party. The comments by Psarilys Liasal cracked me up! I love meeting fun gamers. :)

What else have I been up to? One sec, let me check my screenshots folder. Ooh, here's some good stuff.

Karka Queen. Got a Settler's Insignia recipe. I think that's good.

Met the Mocha Scooby Doo Guild. Wait, that's not it. Um, Modus Sceleris. Right. Kicked their asses. :D

Faced Tequatl for the first time. Exciting! (Got photobombed by a Risen Krait Damoss. Loser, get out of my screenie!) Totally failed the event. We were the leftovers in 2nd overflow, so we tried, but just didn't have enough players or enough coordination to succeed. Very cool to see the dragon though. Impressive! One of these days I need to turn on my webcam and capture my face when these things happen! I'm like a little kid, mouth agape, eyes wide. O.O

Who lives here?

I leave you with this screenshot, of a castle. Do you know where this is? You've probably looked right past it a thousand times.
Did I tell you I got a new graphics card for Xmas? Best gift EVER! Oh wait, except I also got GEMS. My family picks names for Xmas and my brother-in-law was my Santa this year. He totally won points in my eyes! It helps that he's a hardcore gamer and an IT professional as well. He knows what I like. A few years ago I was his Santa and I got him, like, 15 games on Steam. When he got all the activation emails, his face was priceless! The rest of the family doesn't understand. They just smile and nod and back away slowly.

So my new graphics card has restarted my fascination with the scenery of the game. I have that same gawky tourist feeling that I had when I first started playing in beta. Everything is so pretty! I stop and stare and smile all the time. So many high-fives and headbutts to the art team of ANet. :)