Shenanigans! I'll allow it...

...in fact, I insisted on it!

Hello blog! It's been 4 years since my last published diatribe and tons have happened. Good, bad, ugly, and REALLY fugly. I won't bore you with details. Suffice it to say two friends from two very different digital planes of existence have inspired me to post at least ONCE by their awesome example (thanks Pesh & Sileny - your blogs are great)!

Ruh roh! "This blog entry is going to expand to other places outside Final Fantasy XI?!" Why, yes it is. It's my blog, get over it. Let's move on.

So, focusing on our first digital realm, we careen headlong into the world of Vana'diel, where my beastly Beastmaster joined the assembled forces of MoarDainBramaged in an epic struggle versus the Dark Lord Odin himself in Einherjar. In attendance were:

• Yulala's equally beastly Beastmaster (like the little BST sister I never had!)
• our unkillable Can of Creamed Taru Soup/Fire Hydrant Paladin Choasdragon
• spry pole Dancer Megalynk (in the closet, obviously)
• always dead on the floor Warrior Ebichu
• exploding monkey king Ninja Yoshidrgn
• "was I supposed to heal you?" White Mage Orlind
• "why do I get to be the bottom of the bullet list [because you 4chan too much]" Samurai Kazesan

The battle began! Minutes became like days as the Dark Lord, astride Slepnir, did his worst... the ichor of comrade and foe painted the Hazhalm Testing Grounds floor like some mad Picasso! Finally Odin fell and the spoils while spartan were certainly welcome. Congratulations Ebichu on your awesome new helm!

Ebichu vs Gooey Gerard Staring Contest and... GO!

Felled by Gerard's superior staring skills, Ebichu takes a knee - and CD gets some!

Yulala rouses a hearty cheer with her Farsha while the pets, Ebi and I look on!

A great end to a good night's battle! Farewell, Vana'diel!

Sleep beckoned, but just before I succumbed to the comfy interior of my sarcophagus, I managed to snap a nice picture of my SecondLife form. My Muse of Exploration, how she tempts me with beautiful sims to explore... little pain in the arse! I checked some passerby's picks while on Selidor the other day (home of Fallen Gods - one of my favorite sims) and found a place called Chouchou (if you're in SecondLife, do a search from within your viewer - I'm NOT kind enough to give you a link, nyaah!). The sim doesn't permit flight, however as I was already flying when I arrived, I was able to do it and I'm glad I did.

Bardiel Lionheart, the Corrupted Anubis in the floating Memento Mori sky-cathedral

I was SUPPOSED to be taking a nap before work but my Muse apparently has a new friend, a Muse of Blogging. I wonder how long she'll stay?

Fast Attack and Modifications

First, a video that's quite fun. Mithra & Tarutaru + Kraken Club + Mercurial Kris = good times!



Now, for updates. Finally did it, I lowered Marksmanship merits from 8 (cap) to level 7. I also stripped both of my Evasion merits off (-2). Raised Archery to level 7. My game plan: Take Sword to level 6. So that's 20/20 for the category of Combat Skills and they're finally all done. IF I find things are sucking too bad with my lowered stats, I might reconsider and re-raise them, since with the advent of Campaign, it's stupid-easy to get merit points with little or no risk.

Currently, I'm working on my Imp-soloing build for Blue Mage. I STILL need to beta test these new macro sets on Caedarva Mire Imps, and build a full Campaign/Besieged macro book for Ranger, Blue Mage, and Black Mage (and all subs). Yeah, that's not ALL happening tonight. Well, SOME of it might. Depends on how motivated I get in the next 10 minutes...