Cake with Icing

Yesterday will go down in history as probably THE singularly most productive day I've EVER had in FFXI in the nearly five years I've played.

Saturday, I logged out near the Ranger AF1 (weapon) tree in Jugner Forest, since the "???" will only give the cut-scene during the full moon, which it was going to be Sunday morning some two hours before conquest tally. Considering the little sleep I managed to get because I was ripping apart the entertainment center to integrate the Wii, I'm surprised I heard my alarm and stumbled forth from the tomb.

I took care of some necessary housework and logged into FFXI. In no particular order accomplished ALL the following things:

- finished AF weapon quest
- obtained Hunter's Beret +1 (woo!)
- advanced to Steelknight Emblem in Campaign
- obtained another pair of sprinter's shoes
- finished Hunter's Beret quest and stored the entire AF set on NPC.
- built a phenomenal merit party with Bethany, Armonde, Xmaru, Orlinde, and a truly amazing Bard named Selaine ({Nice to meet you})
- participated (read: died a lot) in Dynamis
- built ANOTHER merit party, a little less exp per hour but damn decent (Armonde, Orlinde, Kazesan, Chaosity, and Siraj were in attendance. Congrats Armonde on 75THF!)
- capped my Spell Interruption Rate modification merits (FINALLY)
- gained another merit point in Campaign with Thaedan

Considering all the running around involved in FFXI, most of all how SLOW it is, getting this much stuff done in a day is amazing.

Fast forward to Monday, Memorial Day. I hopped in game and was happy to see Orlinde ding 75 Black Mage (cook ze bunnies! BOOM!). Apparently she needed Thunder IV, so they invited me to come out-pull other campers with them, "they" being Peshcor, Armonde, Siraj, Orlinde and Thaedan. First pop of Mysticmaker scored my Blue Mage/blm / Black Mage a nice Moldavite Earring, but no Thunder IV for Orlinde (dropped Thunder III instead).

Two and a half hours later, there were 2 campers (a 75 Red Mage and a Dark Knight), so we had a bit of a challenge (Shadowbind + Loxley/Striders Ranger 75 vs 75 Red Mage's Fast Cast Dia). In the meantime, we popped chests for maps (didn't know I was lacking a map of Labyrinth of Onzozo before today; Thaedan, Siraj, and I all got one) and slew a lot of Cockatrices for TP build and drops for Siraj [she's crazy for cock meat and tons were dropping! ].

The moment of truth came, and I was very happy to yoink Mysticmaker out from under the Red Mage camper, who was facing the wrong way when he popped. Whamo! Thunder IV for Orlinde and Thaedan scored the second Moldavite Earring drop for his Black Mage. Zuriel, my brother and quite decent Red Mage was impressed with the claim, and I logged to hang out with him for a few hours.

I logged back in after Zuriel left and helped Thaedan with his Bastok Rank 6.1 (twin Manticore NM) fight. That was a little close, but we nailed it (grats Thaedan!). Our super team was Armonde, Orlinde, Thaedan and I. Then it was time for Limbus. Limbus was fun, as always, and I actually ate the floor (Fluid Spread for 1430-ish damage = dead Ranger) in Apollyon SE. I think we were just happy to get through it with the sparse magic support -- I believe we had only one Black Mage.

Finally, did a fast Crawler's Nest Escort with Feiht to dump another exp scroll on my [retired] Thief. That job's "scroll only" now, as I've sold off most of my Thief gear.

In closing, a LOT has been accomplished these past two days. I'm still in disbelief, if you couldn't already tell, due to the nature of FFXI. Hopefully this is the beginning of a nice trend. Tomorrow's goal: Black Mage to 40. We shall see...

And now for something COMPLETELY different...

Greetings,

"The time has come," the Elvaan said, "to get thine self a new blog."

So, I did. I moved the prior entries from my old one here, and will strive to maintain it as I progress[?] in Final Fantasy XI.

There WILL be long delays between posts, since it seems good things only come after epic bouts of pain and suffering in Vana'diel. I'll try to record the good as well as the bad, but no promises.

Timesink...

This game is a HUGE timesink, seriously.

I had a ton to do today mostly before 1pm when the appraiser for the refinance came out, and when I'd finished around 12:15pm, I logged into FFXI. Right now, it's 11pm. Know how much I've gotten accomplished in-game?

That's right, you guessed it, absofuckinglutely nothing.

Why not do Dynamis with SPE? Considering it's 84 degrees at my desk, and I'm only keeping this PC on long enough to post this... added to the fact my third-key called me to let me know I'd be opening tomorrow due to my manager's roaring case of the flu. On a side note, I'm getting a little sick of starter cities (tonight was Jeuno) - sure it's good to help out, but I'd rather get BLU to 75 as fast as I can.

So I've been sitting in-game, not finding ANYTHING to do. No exp parties, though several attempts (thanks for the comic relief Saskai - remember 72 death-weak BLU > 74 PLD vs Imps) and I have been VERY slowly getting exp solo on the Imps in Ilrusi Atoll, just outside the staging point, where they still con "Tough" to me. The exp's ooookay... but lack of Sea spells means it's taking me a LOT longer to kill these, so no high exp chains.

Periodically, I check to see if anyone worth two shits is on and not already engaged in some quest/mission/Dynamis/Limbus/whatever -- to no avail.

To say I'm smoldering just under the skin would be an accurate description. I've had the day off, and it's wasted since nothing was accomplished. [sigh]

Perhaps I'll do something constructive and watch a DVD or three before bed.

[Repost from prior blog, dated Wednesday 25-Jul-2007 11:07pm]

This space intentionally left blank...

Here I sit in Tavnazian Safehold, pondering the infinite, trying to come up with something witty, insightful, inspiring, whatever -- and totally failing on all counts.
So much for a first blog entry ANYWHERE.

Well, some things to probably expect - a lot of griping and hopefully something useful about my adventures as a Ranger and Blue Mage in FFXI.

So sit back, enjoy the ride, and bring a helmet. You've been warned.

[This is actually a repost of my initial blog from another site, dated Monday, 23-July-2007 12:44am.]