You're listening to the starting to the starting zone, a podcast about World of Warcraft and the people who play it.

And now, here are your hosts.

Well, hello and welcome to the starting zone, the podcast about World of Warcraft,

the people who play it today is January 11th, 2026, and my name is Spencer Downey. Thank you so much for listening and subscribing to the podcast.

I am joined as always by my co-host Jason Lucas.

Jason, how are you doing this fine Sunday?

Oh, Spencer, hello.

Good afternoon to you.

I'm doing okay.

We are surviving the first week back to reality of 2026, so, you know, getting back into routine full work week, kids back to school, back to their weekly activities, all that stuff. So not my favorite time of the year, but we made it through. And so it starts getting a little bit easier once you rip that band-aid off, you know. Yeah. Yeah. You got I, it's probably, I imagine it takes three weeks or so to really get, especially, I remember going back to school in January and needing to take a few weeks to get back into that,

that mode and that feeling.

And especially in our area of the world where there's snow, so it's a very different, like often you leave school and there isn't a lot of snow and then you go back to school and it's like a whole other arduous process of having to wear more layers and having to deal with, you know, snow on a regular basis.

Yeah, and the weather can also disrupt that routine that you're trying to get back into.

And, you know, we also had a late in the year vacation at the end of the last year. So, like, we've been all out of whack around my house for months now. And so it's trying to piece it back together day by day. So that's kind of where I'm at. And, you know, I've still been to that mode, man, where I where I just have not, I have not been like picking up wow recreationally. And I don't, I don't know how

much I'm really going to in, in this window here. I, I told myself I was going to and I just kind of haven't so far. I, you know, I've been doing scheduled stuff with the team and keeping in touch with everybody but i haven't been kind of just logging in because i feel like doing

something just hasn't hit me so far well this with everybody, but I haven't been kind of just logging in because I feel like doing something.

It just hasn't hit me so far.

Well, this past week for me, I mean, we did raid.

We actually did a one night clear, which felt great, and then set up for some gold sales

on Monday and had those.

And then we also have started our prep because, you know, just so everyone's clear

where what, this is the last lockout we're moving into before pre-patch.

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