Why I Hugged A Coworker This Morning

Since the weekends mean all I have to do with my time is play online games and watch Big Momma's House and Big Momma's House Two, I've spent a good deal of time trying to explore areas of the game I'd ignored.
This was made easier by the almost dissolution of my formerly awesome raiding guild after the old guild leader took some time off and one of the officers raided the guild bank.
This weekend saw the beginning of the Midsummer Fire Festival! This in-game event features bonfires scattered at various locations across the game world. Visiting a friendly fire at level 70 gives the character about six gold and five tokens called "Burning Blossoms" which are traded at vendors for items only available until July 4th. Visiting and "desecrating" an unfriendly bonfire in enemy territory grants 10 Blossoms and twelve gold. By mid-afternoon Sunday I'd accumulated over 450 Blossoms -- Enough to buy the most exclusive item and almost enough for a spare.
Sadly, there was some unpleasantness in desecrating a couple of the fires in enemy territory.
The enemy bonfire desecration process involves an instant player versus player effect. Suddenly, whether you want them to or not, enemy players can attack you. If nothing happens, the effect goes away after five minutes.
While paying my desecration visit to the Alliance hamlet of Auberdine in Darkshore something horrible happened.
An enemy player attacked me. The little fella was about sixty levels behind Webinara, so he actually missed. However, Webinara's faithful animal companion took offense and swatted the guy like a bug. And this happened close enough to a guard for that guy to come after me. His death brought friends of his, along with a bunch of players coming to punish Webinara for disturbing the idyllic setting. And they kept coming. And the further away they were from me when they died, the more guards would become upset.
I don't really know what happened after that. There was a red haze and then I woke up in a pile of the dead. Except for the couple of non-Player versus Player enabled avatars cowering by the harbormaster at the end of the dock, it seems Webinara killed every living thing in the town of Auberdine.
Anyway, I'm really sorry about that. If you were in the area and playing Alliance between about 1:55 and 2:15 EST, sorry.
I don't know what came over me.
Anyway, our guild has stopped raiding, like I said. In fact, most of the guilds on my server have stalled out since no one has a Priest with the Shadow specialty. There are a couple of reasons for this shortage. Most Priest characters are expected to heal, so the Shadow specialty with a concentration on curses and damage is generally less popular. Also, Shadow Priests do really well in Player versus Player and don't spend a lot of time raiding. I, however, love them. See, Shadow Priests have unique abilities which grant people in their group health and mana for spells all the time. They are like portable mana batteries for anyone standing near them.
Oh, how I love Shadow Priests.
And now I know I work with one. He admitted it to me after we spent about ten minutes talking about our daughters and Webkinz.
Our guild has no Shadow Priest. His Shadow Priest has no guild. I hugged and hugged and hugged him. Right in the hallway, completely unashamedly.
Now I have to get him to drop $25 to move his character to my server. Or give him $25.
I know this probably seems odd, but the idea of having my own personal mana battery makes me feel all tingly.
Also, I stayed up until midnight watching 300 on HBO. I could have stayed up to watch Die Hard 2, but knew I'd have to leave the hotel immediately to have a steak and objectify someone.

Okay, now that that is out of the way -- Here is a homework assignment:

Please visit your local geek hang out (comic book store, Best Buy, or the Sci-Fi section of Hollywood Video come to mind) and diagnose with authority.