It was a pretty lazy weekend at the Geeky household, but we did manage a few activities.

First, soccer season started on Saturday. Because we signed up late, we had no idea who the coach was or what he looked like. When we arrived at the designated field (and there are 3 at this location), there was a lot of hubbub because there were ambulance and police. We quickly realized a kid on the adjacent field had been hurt. It was a bit disconcerting because she was lying face down on the ground. Turns out, she’d dislocated her shoulder, not terribly serious, but painful I’m sure. We finally found the team and the coach and then realized that Geeky Girl had forgotten her shin guards. Mr. Geeky zoomed back home to find them. Meanwhile, she had to sit out. Once she got to play, though, she was her usual speedy and well-rounded team player. She made a few excellent passes. The coach and the team were immediately impressed. Although she’s probably the smallest on the team, she’s also the oldest and has the longest amount of time playing.

After soccer, we made a trip to Home Depot for light bulbs and for plants to replace ones I’d allowed to die over the last cold snap. I replanted them and planted a couple of other plants, but held off on major gardening until Sunday morning. I weeded and generally cleaned things out, which took quite a while. Then I planted a rose bush. I have no idea how this will do, but it’s something I’ve wanted to try. I also got some summer bulbs, but was too exhausted to plant them after all the weeding. I’m going slowly on the garden.

And then there was the WoW playing. I was in a groove this weekend, so I spent a fair amount of time playing. An incident yesterday, however, is still sticking with me. If you’re not a gamer, you can skip this, but this is kind of about human behavior. So, over the weekend, I managed to run a couple of dungeons by grouping up with complete strangers. The first run, done fairly early in the morning, went really well, largely, I think because I’m pretty sure the whole group was made up of grown-ups. The second one went well until the end. The hard-to-kill dungeon bosses, of which there are 3-5 usually per dungeon, drop really good loot (weapons, armor, etc.) and the group generally rolls for them (this happens automatically). This loot is usually bound to you when you pick it up, so that you can’t give it away or sell it for a price at the auction house. There are two types of rolls, greed and need. Need trumps greed rolls and generally people ask before rolling need. So, for example, if 4 people roll greed, and 1 rolls need, even if the need roll is a 1, that person will win the item. People tend to pass on items they don’t need. I can’t use wands, for example, so I usually don’t roll on those. In this particular run, I’d passed on a few things and I’d rolled and won one thing. On on boss, a guy (who I decided was younger than 18 based on this and the incident I’m about to describe) asked if he could need roll on something, and we all hesitatingly said yes. On the final boss, a good piece of armor that I could use dropped and the same guy asked to need roll again, and I said no, you’ve already need rolled once and besides, there are two other people who could use that. I felt kind of bad about being jerky about the whole thing, but I still maintain a sense of fairness even in the game, and I felt the guy wasn’t being fair. He ended up calling me a loser and complaining that he really needed that item. I didn’t win it, and in fact, couldn’t have won it even before he’d asked for it because my roll was lower than the other guy’s. In retrospect, I wish I’d checked on that and just let him need roll for it. After all, it’s just a game. And part of my anger after he called me a loser was toward a guy I saw as taking the game too seriously. After all, when you’re not at the highest level, you tend to out level your items pretty quickly. And does anyone really *need* virtual items at all? But here I was, taking the game pretty seriously, at least the part about a game needing to be fair. So, I was kind of a hyppocrite and that didn’t make me feel too good.

What I also thought about this incident was the way the guy called me loser–in public for all to “hear”, and I wondered if he knew how old I was and that I’m a mom if he would have done that. I suspect he would have chalked it up to my being an old fogey and a girl to boot who didn’t know what she was doing and might have just shrugged and moved on. On the other hand, he might still have called me a loser to his friends privately. On still another hand, I must have been a good enough player for him to think that calling me a loser was okay. On the Internet, no one has to know you’re a mom.