Gone fishin'

If there's one profession that can get under Mat's scales, it's fishing. She can be as calm as a pond or as stormy as a sea, and this activity can also both soothe or irritate her. In many ways, the whole fishing experience is somewhat analogous to the entire game experience. You have to be both patient and attentive, and not too disappointed if you reel in some junky flotsam.

Perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that many years ago, Mat's human lost about two months of her life to Animal Crossing*. She caught every rare fish, and paid off her mortgage to the raccoon several times over. She never did get the hang of feng shui, and the weeds just kept growing.

That's right, (insert favorite expletive here) I said Animal Crossing

So many regrets, so many things unknown. She thinks if she had known really how precious Seth's graphite fishing rod was going to be, she never would have made room for that saronite ore instead. Let down a little orphan boy? Oh, Mat - you are going to suck during Children's Week.

She didn't really understand what the professions meant. Dang, sometimes I wonder how the hell she made it to level 85 at all! Dumb Draenei. If she had known then what she knows now, she would have been casting her line in every swirly pool of fish with every kind of bait. All she really did to level up, come to think of it, was questing. Her guildmates didn't seem to notice (or care) to show her around dungeons and raids; she had not a clue. And she didn't even do that right! Where were those tabards for the Ambassador achievement? Why does she still not have a Talbuk mount? Oh, she did her fair share of battlegrounds, poorly, and if she had to fight in a war for real she would be front-line infantry without any hope of an officer's promotions.


She did have fun on some of those, though. There is one quest chain in Northrend with the Vykrul women, and she ends up with this fantastic disguise every time she flies over Brunnhildar Village:

Mat's gained a few...hundred or so...pounds.

Right now her skill level is about 358- just shy of 100 points for the Skills to Pay the Bills achievement. There are titles for catching rare fish, and such as Salty (which she would love, but doesn't think has the patience for). She'll keep casting her net wide and deep, though, and hope she catches something cool besides a cold.

Doing some goofy old-content stuff with guild the other night, she crossed over the thin line to exalted with the Silver Covenant. Now on top of Tol, JC and fishing dailies, she wants to do those for the Silver Covenant to earn her Argent Hippogryph. Only about 75 more days to go. Or over two months.

Theme song: Sitting on the dock of the Bay --Otis Redding




Patience, Mat, patience. Grab another beer from the dwarf's cooler and relax.