iMovie Abuse

See what happens when I get bored? I lip synch badly to Glee. Terrible tragedy.

I feel I must take a moment to apologize to Glee, Jonathan Groff and Madonna.  So sorry!

Captain America : Red, White and Babe!

Zoinks!  Hello Chris Evans!  I've always been quite a fan of his hotness but Holy Crud, has he ever reached a new level of smokin or what?!


More awesome photos were released by Entertainment Weekly and they've been ever so kind as to post them on their website.  Enjoy!

GLEE Season 2 "Rocky Horror Glee Show"

I have two very vivid memories with the "Rocky Horror Picture Show":


The first involved me getting one of my older friends to rent the VHS tape for me cuz I was 13 and wasn't allowed to rent a video like this.  The only reason I even wanted to watch it was because I heard there was gay stuff in the movie and being a clump of nothing but hormones at the time, I was ready to burst at the seams so it was absolutely mandatory..... the movie confused and disturbed the ever living crud out of me.

The second instance was when my best friend Jordan, who might've been my boyfriend at the time, convinced me to go to a little ghetto theatre in Long Beach on Cherry Ave and watch a live screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".  He didn't really prep me for what I would experience at such a late hour among the hard core fans of the musical.... the experience confused and disturbed the ever living crud out of me.

And you know what?  I wouldn't trade either experience for the world.  Despite the many censors and boundaries that the producers of GLEE surely had to overcome, I think they did a very good job of honoring all the pieces of this landmark musical with the most unflinching eye that primetime television could muster.  Lyrics were slightly altered along with many of the edgier sensibilities of the show, but still I'm gonna give this episode two giant thumbs up.

I almost lost it when in one of the earlier scenes, my Season 2 crush Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr) volunteered to take on the part of Dr. Frankenfurter.  I hate to give away a spoiler but he did chicken out.... or rather his very conservative Asian parents chickened out FOR him.  Don't look at me that way.  Did you REALLY think Mike Chang was gonna play Dr. Frankenfurter?  Reality check please.  It falls to the vocal powerhouse known as Mercedes (Amber Riley).  GLEE reimagined "Sweet Transvestite" to be a very soulful and in-your-face performance that would do Tina Turner proud.

STAND OUT PERFORMANCE

Musically speaking, any one of the numbers could've won.  Even John Stamos' voice straining shot at "Hot Patootie".  Seriously, dude was fricken reaching for those notes.  You could hear it.  Still, I would have to give the stand out performances of "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" to the abs of Cory Monteith, Chord Overstreet and Matthew Morrison.  Oh Mr. Schue!  I would SO take any detention you offered if only for the chance to bang your erasers.  SCHWING!

Oh and you know what?  I just realized that I can't finish this post without mentioning the best line of the whole episode"

"Give me some chocolate or I will cut you!"

BlizzCon 2010

Holy Mutha of Gawd, was that ever fun!  I've actually never been to any type of convention-ish kind of gathering.  Truth be told, I was ridiculously nervous my claustrophobia would overwhelm me being surrounded by so many people.  Although the upside to that would be that maybe the rage that followed a claustrophobic panic attack would would tap into some deep-seeded weather-wielding powers ala Storm of the X-Men and then my life would take a turn for the LEET!.... no?  Really?  Dang.


Anyway, like I said tons of fun.  There was also a surprisingly large number of hot geeks at BlizzCon.  Even I, as an admitted geek, had expected more... I dunno... overweight, pasty complected, labored-breathing types with awkward social skills.  Don't get me wrong though, there was plenty of that but every maybe 20 people a god among geeks would emerge that just made my underwear tight.  If I had even an ounce of bravery, not to mention a camera, I would've taken pics to post here... or maybe keep in my personal collection.


Speaking of pics, despite my normal behavior of being ridiculously camera shy (which stems from a fear from breaking the lens) I did decide to pose for two different ones.

I figured since this b!tch Kerrigan was like the focal point of practically every piece of marketting collateral and informational leaflet, it was only right that I get a shot in front of her.  I actually don't play Starcraft at all, but after checking out some of the demos at the convention, I may need to steal my friends' copy.  I did get a demo version in my goodie bag... but.... ummmmaa.... I want it all or nothing.  It's just how I roll.

So I could help myself when I saw one of those unapologetically cheesy photo booths where they plug you into a scene directly from your video game, in my case World of Warcraft.  The picture sucks and I'm not completely sure if the low-res, almost pixelated effect is what you get from having a free picture taken or maybe it was a stroke of genius given that technically I'm supposed to be existing within the game at that point.  Meh.  There were dozens of props to use, but I decided to just go for the big honkin sword and give my best 300-esque THIS IS SPARTA pose.  Would've done to have maybe a pit next to me.... and someone to kick into it.


At any rate, my feet hurt from walking so much.  I've actually decided to give myself these two days off from working out as I got tons of real good exercise from hoofing it back and forth across the Anaheim Convention Center.  I need to go ROFLpwn my goodie bag from BlizzCon.  I think I'll hit the hay having my new "Dethling" watching over me.  ZZZZzzzzzZZZZzzzz

New WoW Signature

For posts in guild website forums, or MMO-Champion, or any number of forums people tend to use "signatures" that can be auto-generated for them that includes their character name, real, guild, etc.  It works as a sort of calling card.  Some of my personal favorite ones include:

• Magelo.com
• Best-Signatures.com
• WoWsigs.com
• SigLaunch.com
• ZetBit.com

... buuuuuut since I've got OCD when it comes to my gaming and severely dislike most of the fluff you're required to take alongside the stats you even care about, I decided to just make my own WoW Signature using Adobe.

You gotta admit.... it's kinda bad-ass.

All Hallow's End

So ever since Blizzard introduced the new dungeon finder tool in not only running dungeons (which is SO my favorite way to level my toons in WoW btw) but also to run the Holiday Event bosses.  Some of which drops Epic Mounts that used to have a drop rate so dang low that whole WoW Holidays could very well pass you up and those Epic Mounts would never gallop past you.  However, since the dungeon also brings in players cross-realm, the folks at Blizzard have decided in their infinite, user-subscription-fueled wisdom, to increase the drop rate dramatically to make it more.... fair.


What does this mean for me?  Simple.  I get to fuggin end All Hallow's Eve on an amazing note with 5 of my 80's triumphantly flying away with the Headless Horseman's Reigns.  Nice way to start the day as I head for BlizzCon 2010!!!

Can I get a WOOTZ up in here?!?!?.... I think my guild hates me.

Evolution of the Geek

Awesome roadmap from the peeps over at TechnaBob.com.  I fit way too many of these archetypes so I'm just gonna go with the overall "Geek Chic"label.

Cataclysm Cinematic Intro

Style Before Substance

Today is a monumental day for me in Azeroth.  It's not because I downed a new boss, or my raiding team has accomplished a new Hard Mode, or even that I added another max level toon to my menu.  Today marks the moment that my main toon in World of Warcraft, Xerberus, just scored the belt he's been trying to get for fuggin ever!!!  Dude!  My in-game outfit finally matches!  Hello?  How important is it when you're conquering dungeons, downing raid bosses or slaying the Horde, that your ensemble matches?!?!  Totes Important!

GLEE Season 2 "Duets"

Ahhh, the inevitable filler episode.  Aren't they fun?  Meh.  The music was still pretty good despite the lack of plot but again, let me reiterate: filler episode.  This is really just to casually tide us over for the next two weeks until the long awaited "Rocky Horror GLEE Show" episode airs.


Once again though, the producers took every opportunity to objectify new cast member Chord Overstreet's ridonkulous physique.  It's the perfect amount of muscle, tone and screw-factor.  I also find it funny that both scenes involving Sam's nekidness was by being carpet-bombed in the locker room by Finn and Kurt.

However, the highlight of the episode was not Chord's inevitable topless scenes.  It was Mike Chang's first real musical peformance.... ish.  Granted he didn't sing in the traditional sense, but still the cute factor was of near EPIC proportion's as he screeched out "Sing" from "A Chorus Line".  Plus, I couldn't get thru a GLEE post here without mentioning this season's crush of Harry Shum Jr.

STAND OUT PERFORMANCE

It wasn't the smooth mash-up of "Happy Days are Here Again/Get Happy".  Nor was it the charmingly sweet duet of "Lucky".  It wasn't even the raunchy and utterly spectacular "River Deep, Mountain High".... although that DID rock my socks off.  No No No.  It was the awkward, vomit-inducing, utterly offensive rendition of "With You I'm Born Again".  The picture below pretty much tells you everything you need to know about it.  ROFLMAO!!!

Facebook Quiz : What is Your Inner Self?

I actually found this particular Facebook Quiz surprisingly eery.  It wasn't too terribly far from the truth in my head.  If you're interested in your own results and have a Facebook account, and really these days who doesn't, head on over to http://apps.facebook.com/quizcreator/quizzes/93348/play

"You hide your emotion sometimes .You are a moon type of person. You tend to be the quiet type or in contrast, you are not happy but sometimes you act it out in order for you to not burden your friends with your problems. You've faced some problems in your life. Your heart has been dealt blows before . You tend to think about things a lot more than other people, and you may get annoyed with people who act out without thinking about consequences. You are also the type of person that others often come to with their problems because you've been through plenty, and you are very understanding. Though you sometimes feel lonely, your demeanor is usually chill, and relaxed. You usually are logical, and rely a lot on facts and information on decisions. You often keep things to yourself. This is just one side of you, and you have different faces in different situations and environments, just like the moon has phases."

GLEE Season 2 "Grilled Cheesus"

Holy Religious Uprising, Batman!  So ummmma.... this episode could've severely blown up in the faces of GLEE's producers and possibly the FOX network.  In any venue, having to tackle anything remotely involved in Sex, Politics or Religion tends to get people to shut down completely unless your points of view on the subject run completely parallel to their own.  And let's be honest, when exactly was the last time you saw eye to eye with anyone?  Still, GLEE managed to navigate their way thru many awkward moments resting a lot of the blame on the idiosyncrasies in the character's personalities.  I mean.... come on, Finn found Jesus in his George Foreman Grill created grilled cheese sandwich.  You almost needed to suck in your religious stomach the entire episode to prep for a punch to the gut.

Puck, played by the smoldering Mark Salling, performing Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young".  Puck is never hotter than when he has that guitar strapped to him.  One must wonder which of the Glee Club is giving him the eye though.  You can feel the sexual tension coming off of none other than....

... Mike Chang!  Who else?  My love for Harry Shum Jr grows with every episode.  Plus, he's wearing my favorite color, green.  In my head, I've decided he's told the show's producers that he needs to give a subtle shout-out to me by sporting that color on the show.

STAND OUT PERFORMANCE

Was I the only one in tears for Kurt Hummel's, played by Chris Colfer, dedication to his father?  His version of the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was heart-wrenching.  Kurt performed this to the glee club while flashbacks of the awesome love his father has for him, race across his mind.  Best. Tea Party. EVER!  I've honestly never been a fan of Kurt on the show, despite popular opinion, but you cannot ignore the emotional depth of his performance here.  It didn't even feel acted or forced.  It felt like it came from somewhere very real.  

I need a Blu-Ray DVD Player.... NOW!

Holy Necessary DVD Batman!  I am in desperate need of getting a Blu-Ray DVD player before Scott Pilgrim comes out on video.  This movie pretty much rocked my freakin socks off.... actually, it sort of pixelated them, then rocked them off.  Not an easy task, I must say.

I especially need to see every last possible detail in the uber-yummy Chris Evans and Brandon Routh.  Helps make my fantasies that much more vidid.  Who wouldn't wanna dream in Blu-Ray?

Nov 9th has been marked on my calendar and my iPhone is set to wake me up with the most unapologetically annoying noise in the history of ever.

GLEE Season 2 "Britney/Brittany"

Why?  Why?  Why must the producers of GLEE have to push the homo-status of this show into overdrive?  Not that I'm complaining mind you, but given that I'm constantly gripping onto whatever traces of masculinity I can while watching episodes of GLEE, a Brittany Spears themed episode pretty much makes me slip off the edge.... the gay edge.


That being said, I thought the episode rocked.  As a word of caution though, the plot of the episode was sparse at best and only marginally holding together an excuse to produce anesthesia-induced music videos in the Glee Club members' heads.  The club's own Britney S. Pierce, played by Heather Morris, really came out of her shell this season.  She may not have the most powerful vocals in the cast, but that girl knows how to command a performance.


Let us of course focus on the most important point of this episode, the introduction of Dr. Carl, played by John Stamos.... omg, "Uncle Jesse" is a hot daddy now.  Yummy.

The true romance of the show is the tension between Mr. Schue and Dr. Carl.  Sorry Emma.

In my head, Dr. Carl is questioning why the male escort he ordered was subbed out by Britney.

My fear of Dentists wouldn't be so prominent if they looked like Dr. Carl.

STAND OUT PERFORMANCE

I think without a doubt it would have to be the Glee Club's pep rally performance of Britney Spears' "Toxic".  It's always such a treat for me when GLEE changes up the original version of the song when deciding on their vocal arrangements.  This one definitely refused to shy away from the more theatrical aspect of what they do while giving a little bit of a wink to a Bob Fosse'esque, smoldering, jazzy, omg-it's-so-good, style of dance.  My fave of the season, Mike Change, didn't do much talking this episode but he still managed to stand out.  Look at the way he practically molests that hat.  Yes please.

iGaym on my iPad

I'm starting to get a wee bit obsessed with a lot of the games available on the iPad.  There're actually a lot more that I downloaded, but the ones you see below would be those that tend to have me obsess endlessly.

Two Heroes are Better

Yes.... Yes, they are.  Take that how you will.

Feelin Hot, Hot, Hot

I only have one thing to say about the weather in SoCal right now:

Raid Ready : Gems and Enchants

So you’ve got the Rawr Epic Gear and the size of your GearScore makes you wet your pants but what’re you going to do with it? GEMS & ENCHANTS.

If you want to be an exceptional raider you have to pay attention to these items especially if you’re looking to get into a pug that will successfully clear a lot of content. A good Raid Leader will take more than your GS into account. They will scan your toon and see if you have the proper gems and enchants for your class and spec. This will come from your own knowledge of your character. Again, if you need helping knowing which stat to stack on your gear with gems, please don’t hesitate to ask any seasoned raider in Pendragon.

First and foremost though, if you need an easy guide to seeing what you could potentially be doing to your gear to upgrade it I recommend scanning your toon on WOW-Heroes.com. This will scan your toon and give you a break down of your gear and possible upgrades needed. It also reveals your raid experience, which raid achievements you have and also how many times you’ve killed specific bosses in different raids. A raid leader can and WILL look at this and decide what sort of potential skill level you have.

Below you see two of my toons: Xerberus (my dps death knight of doom) and Xebediah (my fail priest that couldn’t shield you through Hogger if he tried).

Xerberus is completely gemmed and enchanted with all the necessary ingredients to make a leetsauce DK that pulls aggro from very angry tanks. You’ll note that down the gems column there are no possible slots I haven’t filled and down the enchants column I have a score of 15pts down across the board. If the enchant I used wasn’t the optimal one for my spec, this would be a 10, 5, or flat out zero. Additionally, if I didn’t place a gem in a slot, you would just see an empty box asking for it. To the left there are arrows to every piece of gear so that you may find an upgrade to your current piece. It’ll link you directly to WoWhead and help you decide what drops to drool over in raids.

Xebediah is kinda fail. And by kinda, I mean completely. You can tell I sort of gave up on him because I decided I hate healing on my priest. He’s wearing a lot of blues and yes those are fail BoA items I’m rolling with. There are gems he’s missing out on and enchants. This would be an example of a toon that is such a disaster that the Salvation Army wouldn’t spare me a cup of hot cocoa.

Now that THAT’s out of the way, let's take a look at a very tiny few of the most common enchants, arcanums, leg armors, etc. that practically everyone uses. These are purchased through havin exalted reputation with different factions. There are rare cases when the following aren't what you need but we're talking rarer than Rivendare's Deathcharger, Ashes of Al'ar, or the Time-Lost Protodrake mounts. Follow the links for each enchant to learn more. DO NOTE that there are also alternatives that can be used in the event of certain professions (i.e. tailoring, leatherworking, enchanting, etc....)

ARCANUMS (head enchants)

Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector - tanks

Arcanum of Torment - physical DPS

Arcanum of Burning Mysteries - spell slingers and healers alike.

LEG ARMOR & SPELL THREAD (pants enchants)

Frosthide Leg Armor - tanks

Icescale Leg Armor - physical DPS

Brilliant Spellthread - spell slingers and healers

INSCRIPTIONS (shoulder enchants)

Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle - tanks

Greater Inscription of the Axe - physical DPS

Greater Inscription of the Crag - healers

Greater Inscription of the Storm - spell slingers and healers

So there you have it boys and girls. Your Epic Gear just got more Epic-er-er-er. Go grab some more gems and learn about other enchants that can make your shtuff more leetsauce.

Glee Season 2 Premier "Audition"

Aaaaaand GLEE is back in my life.  Thank you FOX.  I couldn't be more filled with.... well.... glee.  There are few things in my life these days that seem to draw the estrogen out of my body at such a rampant pace the way that this show does.  I don't know if it's the musical numbers, the hot boys, or the diva's with voices that could shatter mountains, but it does the trick.


The opener to Season 2 is aptly named "Audition" as the McKinley High Glee Club has lost a member due to Matt being transferred to another school.  If you don't remember who Matt was from last season then you already know why he was transferred.  According to the Ohio Show Choir rule book, a glee club isn't a glee club unless there are at least 12 members.  This means they gotta hit the ground running and encourage more students to audition.


Rather than discuss the Season 2 Opener which most definitely did not disappoint, allow me to point out some of the more important points of the show.

Item 1: Mike Chang, played by Harry Shum Jr, is not only a more prominent cast member this year due to what was apparently an overwhelming amount of fan mail and blogs encouraging the emergence of his character, he is also a hot piece of ass.  Hello!?!?  I've never wanted to go to "Asian Summer Camp" more than I did last nite.

Item 2: The producers of GLEE snuck in a home-erotic moment (because we all know they almost never do that in this show... pause for sarcasm) in the form of a shower scene with new cast member Sam, played by Chord Overstreet, that echoed the scene when Mr. Schuester was homo-erotically spying on Finn showering.  Except this time, it was Finn doing the spying.  That my friends, is how to Gay it Forward.  The strangest thing about Sam is that he totes reminds me of my ex-boyfriend/current best friend, Jordan.  Same flowing blond locks, piercing blue eyes and yes, same unusually large mouth.  Love you, Jordan.  Don't hate me.

STAND OUT PERFORMANCE

Hands down?  It was not Cherise's belting out of "Listen" from "Dreamgirls", or Rachel's rendition of "What I Did for Love" from "AChorus Line".  No No No.  That honor would have to go to Finn Hudson, played by Cory Monteith, who auditioned to be a Cheerio.  That dance is now burned into my memory.

Geek and Gamer Girls

Raid Ready : Combat Logs

Anyone who’s ever raided in World of Warcraft can tell you there are about a million and one different things happening during boss fights. It’s difficult enough to focus on what you have to accomplish yourself, but the core of a raid is how well you work with anywhere from 9 to 24 other people. This information is especially important if you happen to be the raid leader (RL). The best way to do this is to look at the combat logs for the boss fights and there are few better ways to analyze your group’s performance than by utilizing World of Logs.

World of Logs is a fantastic tool that lets you upload and parse the entire raid from start to finish. In addition to the obvious advantage of being able to see who has done the most damage,healing, etc. over the course of an evening, it gives the raiders the chance to look at the performance or events during specific fights. This means we get to do things like yell (lovingly) at someone if they're using the wrong DPS rotations or if they're not using a specific ability enough or if they really need moar cowbell. They become better players and we talk less about them behind their backs. What? I did say lovingly!

Below you see the my raid team's Lich King kill. Just by looking at this you can tell we did the most DPS right at the outset mainly because we weren’t running around crazy like we are during the transitional phases. You can also see that Garryck did the most dispelling and that’s because we made him the Necrotic Plague dispeller of doom. You can also tell right when the Lich King ROFLpwns us dead before we’re revived to get all medieval on his arse at the end..... gawd, that part was satisfying!

This is only the most infinitesimal fraction of what World of Logs can show you. Anyone can upload their combat logs. Just type /combatlog at the beginning of your raid day/nite and once again when you call it. This’ll produce a file in your WoW Logs folder. Take this and upload it toWorld of Logs and voila! You’re omnipotent!

So have fun with it, tweak shtuff around, figure out in what parts of the fights you might be made of phail and everyone’s a winner!

Raid Ready : Composition and Synergy

Just like when placing talent points or choosing DPS rotations or knowing just the right strat for certain bosses, the raid composition you have will IMMENSELY affect your overall performance. You can't run into ICC with 2 death knight tanks, 3 priests and 5 mages thinking that just because you have your tanks, healz and DPS, you're all set. Not to mention the fact that everyone will be rolling on the same loot. It is very important you pay attention to having a wide variety of classes and specs to better maximize the little buffs each one gives. For instance (since I play a death knight) I know that a Blood DK will grant Abomination's Might (more attack power), a Frost DK grants Improved Icy Talons (extra melee haste) and that an Unholy DK like myself will grant Ebon Plaguebringer (increased magic damage for casters). Which is also why caster's /hug me in raids.

If you are thinking of putting a successful raid together, you MUST pay attention to your raid composition and know what sort of synergy each class will give other players. Conversely, you also want to know for yourself what other people are giving you so you can make allowances for or prepare to be floored by the buff.

So keep it varied and keep it interesting. In time you will learn on your own what to expect from each class/spec. Until you can faceroll the raid "aura buffs" though, there's a great site I used to use when I ran raids that makes it very easy and does the work FOR you.

http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/

You literally need only drag and drop what class and spec you're bringing with you into the appropriate boxes and it will light up on the right side which buff you now potentially have. This was an invaluable tool for me when I first started leading raids and I'm sure it will help others who would like to do the same. What you see here is the composition of the my raid team in Pendragon of Proudmoore [US]. As you can see, we maximize every last buff we can despite it being only a 10 man group.

So check out the link above and play around with it. You'll be surprised how much extra leet sauce you can add to your raid team by just changing up the roster.

Raid Ready : Add-Ons

More so than ever you'll find casual players mixed in with the hardcore raiding crowd. Once upon a dream, the Raider was a specific type of player that was set apart from what I prefer to call 'normal people'. Seriously, we're nuts. No joke. This creates a unique dynamic in that the "Elitist Jerks" must learn to temper their ePeens in accepting new blood into the mix. Instances like Trial of the Champion and the ICC 5-man dungeons could be farmed to your heart's content and gear you enough to be brought along into Icecrown Citadel. If you've already done this, you've got one giant foot inside the door. You need only one other big thing to help make you a successful raider and that's raid awareness.

How well do you know the fight? Are you paying attention to the other classes with you? Do you know what they bring to the table and what to expect of them? Is that really fire you just ran through? Did you just forget to run Necrotic Plague to the off-tank? These are only a few of the hundreds of questions that SHOULD be running through a raider's mind and processed at breakneck speed while taking care of your own role. One of the greatest things that will help you faceroll some of the needed thinking are raid add-ons. Everyone has their favorites but make sure you have some of the key ones listed below before you even think about stepping foot past the swirly vortex at the raid's threshold.

DEADLY BOSS MODS (aka DBM)

Simply put this is a ready-to-roll add-on that alerts of you of important events happening during boss encounters. You'll get picture, sound and audio cues when you need to pull your head out of your butt and run somewhere safe. It's hard to ignore a scary voice yelling in your ear "Run away little girl! Run away!".

RECOUNT or SKADA
Can't measure your ePeen without a ruler and that's what either one of these will do for you. Mostly obsessed over by the DPS crowd, these add-ons will tell you just how much DPS, HPS, interrupts, damage taken, deaths, etc... you're cranking out. One can babble on about how skilled they are but the proof is in the pudding. Go hit a training dummy in any major city and really see what you're able to do. If you're still not cranking out the hurt you need, find anyone in your guild that you know is a successful player of your class to help mentor you.

OMEN
Don't question this one. Just get it. You need to know when you're pulling threat. The tank is trying with every fiber of their being to keep the boss's attention short of flashing them. You need to do your part in making sure the meat shield stays the shining star. Omen will also give you a visual aid in seeing your threat rising so you can preapre to press your "aggro reset button". It exists, I swear. Learn by what abilities you have to do that, so when you see your threat about to overtake the tank you can drop it like it's hot. Please do not use the in-game threat meter because it is not as accurate or easy to track as omen.

GRID, HEALBOT, VUHDO (or ANY raid frames)
In any given encounter a million and one things is happening on the screen. Lotta pretty lights, sounds, colors and the occasional vile spit being flung across the room. Very distracting. Having a raid frames add-on can boil all that hoo-ha down to neat little tic tac toe boxes that give you visual alerts on not only what is happening to each player but also how much health/mana they've got. Healers obviously benefit the most from these because they can heal players with the click of a mouse button on a box, but anyone and EVERYONE benefits from learning to watch and read raid frames. It's like the matrix for raiders. After staring blankly at them through many raids, you can assesss what's happening at lightning speed.

These are your must-haves for raiding. You can find all of them on Curse.com's website.  There are dozens of other add-ons that are very helpful like pally power, titan panel, power auras, etc that are fun to use but they will vary per class and play style. Get your basics down though and start filtering through the rest. Don't overload yourself either. I personally only use the 4 above along with power auras and that's all. Too much clutter can also lead to bad raiding.... not to mention phished accounts.

More than anything, don't be afraid to approach some of the seasoned raiders in your guild.  Most good raiding guilds will have people who are there to help and you need simply to ask for it. Be open to critique and listen well. Trust them. They will not steer you wrong.... unless you totally ninja'ed loot from them at one point.