bleh

BTW... Campaign is AWESOME! Much better than Besieged and the exp is better as well. Spent a lot of time today tooling around in the past fighting Campaign Battles with Ryasha.

Got a little aggravated with two of my LS's today. Not necessarily the LS, but more so people in each one. One I think was just a misunderstanding. I'm not used to this guy and his sense of humor... the other one...well, I know the guy is a bit of a jerk. He has a reputation for it. It's his role I think and it always seems like he enjoys playing it. Strange how some people play jobs that reflect their personality. Dark Knights always seem to be either emo or a bit rude. Paladins are either egotystical or a bit overly anxious to help everyone and be the hero (maybe for attention... i'm somewhere in the middle of that though). I'm sure I'll figure out stereotypes for the other jobs. heh

I met nearly none of my goals this weekend. I don't know what the heck happened. I slacked off I guess. /sigh No... people asked for help and I, like I always do, dropped everything to go help them. >.> Need to stop doing that. I want 75 on pld before I take leave for Christmas. I've probably got a little less than a week to do it. *grumble*

breaking the slump

first... this drawing of Beamr and Shize. :3

Did this a couple of weeks ago and just hadn't gotten around to posting it. I'm posting things a couple of weeks after they happen it seems. I dunno, we're not really ever like that ingame... or out... But I thought it was a sweet image. I like it. (shize does too thank goodness). I think I think too much about what the connection is or isn't between us. I really just think too much. Either way, this is among an ever growing amount of ffxi drawings I've done with Shize in them. I like drawing her. :)

A lot of my time playing while Shize is actually on as well is spent following her around like a lost puppy. I can't say that I mind it though and she doesn't really ask for me to (though I'm sure she doesn't mind either. I'm not really how she doesn't get tired of me. I ask her questions all the time and probably bug the heck out of her. :D I think I sort of have that effect on people in game. well, nah... not really. At least I try not to sound noobish and not completely annoying all the time. I find that if you say most everything with a bit of humor, people tend to be a little nicer when you don't know what you're doing. something to that effect. ...actually that sounds like I try to get pity by playing dumb. >.> ok... no. That's not it. I'm getting side tracked. anyways... (above picture should be captioned "look! I think he likes you!") Seems a lot of people really like Shize... I kinda wonder sometimes if I'm grouped in that catagory. (I'm thinking about this whole thing too much again... ugh. anyways)

I was fairly productive today. Did a skill up with Norris and Erkz this morning at Kuftal Tunnel for WS's around 114 to 140 ish. I worked on my staff skill and got it up to around 121. I think Erkz was lvl'ing GS for his DRK and Norris was... working on marksmanship maybe? I can't remember now. To the left here is the impressive crab train Norris pulled as we left Kuftal. lol I didn't get all the crabs in frame. I'm pretty sure there were at least a dozen or so probably more. Anyways... a good time was had by all! Or all of us anyways.

After that I tried seeking a pt as PLD for a little while while trolling the AH to see if any items popped up that I might need. No such luck on both accounts. feh. I ended up getting an invite from Ryasha (a friend of Shize and her brother Darkwolf) asking if I wanted to do Campaign Battle. I was more than happy to go do that, except that I've not done much of anything involving the new expansion. Honestly... I JUST started working on the ToAU missions a month ago. I'm such a slacker. Anyways... One of the things I wanted to get done this weekend was to get more Maws to access the new expansion areas so I tagged along and was able to finish the quest to actually participate in the Campaign Battles for Sandy. There's so much running around to do in WotG... it sucks. No chocobos...what's up with that? Or at least, none that I've come across. The new monsters are cool (so long as they don't kill you) and the music is rather nice. :) I only died once going through there. Course, I died many more times as the day went on. ugh. I think I'm just prone to it, but for the sake of NOT seeing me dead, here's me giving Rya a raise! (she's a 68PLD... I was 67PLD in the pic) Before actually getting to do a Campaign Battle, Rayasha ended up having to leave. I decided not to go it alone and just went back to Whitegate to find something else to do.

I ended up lvl'ing DRK for awhile. It's honestly not my favorite DD job, but it's like the anti-pld job so I play it to get a break from PLD now. (i like thf and mnk better) Ended up in a pt in qufim which was rather difficult. Set up was DRK, DRK, SAM, MNK, DNC, and WHM. see a problem? No tank. It got worse later on. I ended up being main tank somehow... not an easy job as a DRK, but somehow I managed to pull it off. I died 4 times doing it and only advanced 1 lvl while all other pt members went up 2 or 3, but oh well. I'm starting to get used to that. Not that it doesn't still suck... it really does. After wasting a couple of hours to do that, I went and changed back to PLD and actually got a PT.

I've been hesitant to lvl PLD lately. I've been stuck on 67 for a week because I die so much or just get crappy pt's... or i get someone telling me how I should be playing the job and what gear I should and should not have. No... I don't have a parade gorget yet. No... I dont' have a jelly ring. I tank a hell of a lot better than most pld's my level though so I think that should speak for itself. Still I get crap in NA pt's if I dont' have what a typical cookie-cutout PLD would have. I even bring extra gear incase the pt doesn't have a refresher (god forbid at this lvl). Today however went really well. Two hours and thirty minutes of PT'ing with an all JP pt and I ended up getting almost 40k XP with no emp band on... in my favorite place no less. Caedevire. (DIE! DIE AND GO TO HELL, IMPS!) Set up was RNG, BLU, BLU, BRD, WHM, and me. the rng and blu's made killing the mobs go very fast and all my emnity gear kept them glued to me as far as hate goes which was nice. The BRD keep refresh going well and I actually never even had to rest which was something I've not had for a long time. I ende up getting 68! I was so freakin' excited about it which is kind of funny. It's not any sort of significant lvl really... just a hurdle that i hadn't gotten past yet. I even had a nice xp buffer so I wouldn't lose my lvl if I died soon. Another nice thing in this pt... no one complained... no one randomly checked me over and over... as long as I was doing what I was supposed to and getting the job done, they didn't care what gear I had. THAT'S the way it should be. It annoys the living hell out of me to be randomly checked by people I don't know. If you're another PLD looking to see my setup, cool...that's fine. If I know you or your in one of my LS's... sure..understandable... but checking a PC as soon as they come into a pt to tell them what they should and should not equip...f'ing rediculous. This has always been a pet peeve of mine. Anyways... as soon as I got my lvl, I sent /tells to Screamer and Shize to say this: MOTHERF'ING DING! lol I was pretty excited. maat fight is only two lvl's away now. *cracks knuckles* I'M COMING FOR YOU OLD MAN!

the usual suspects

These are the three that i've kinda been hanging around for awhile now. L-R Screamer, myself, Shize, and Forix. We're not all actually low lvl... Forix had us standing around and then going out to kill random mobs for some sort of video game video/report/essay/thing he was doing for a class. I think I was a 10thf/5war in this picture. Shize was a NIN, Screamer a SCH, and forix a ... DRK... I think. Either way, we were all playing jobs none of us normally play. I ended up kind of liking THF and have since lvl'd it up to 17. ^_^

I'm starting to get more into DD jobs. I think I like the idea of hitting the enemy instead of being hit by it. Crazy concept huh? I've still been having terrible pt's for my PLD (i'm still at 67), but oh well. I'll get through that. Last night I actually had a pretty decent pt. Rather than going to Caedavire Mire, we ended up at G-8 in Bhaflau Thickets fight Date Eruca's rather than Heraldic Imps. The result was much faster kills, more exp, and less down time because of stupid status effects like silence and amnesia. I hate fighting imps. Ugh. Left my pt last night with about 10,000 TNL... which isn't bad I guess since I started out at 28,000 in the pt. I came in to replace a NIN who was their main tank, so of course they all didn't stay together as long as I would have liked, but the fact that the pt was doing well while i was with them was nice. I'd like to try that again tonight, but somehow I have the feeling I won't get it.

Over the weekend, i'm going to try to get to 70 and get a couple of rare/ex items I need to PLD. (parade gorget, jelly ring, and bomb queen ring). Stuff I might need to continue lvl'ing with suitable gear.

After the pt last night, I ended up running around with my artist LS; Odinartists (a group of artists who all play on Odin... duh?). Ahvi (a 30war) was needing to do a run for Bastok 2-3 (dragon killing! yay!) so a bunch of us volunteered to help her. I kinda came in late on it, but still got to go out and slap that dragon around. heh. I think all together it was Taiso, Norris, Erkz, Teg, Ahvi, and myself. We ended up breaking the record for beating the dragon by nearly 3 minutes. ha! Anyways, I like this LS. It's not too over-crowded... stays fairly active... and I tend to get along with the people really well (Norris and Taiso are great guys.) There's a nice mix of 75's and lower lvl's in there and a lot of people that are willing to help with stuff. I occassionally do to so I actually feel like I contribute to the group. heh. fun stuff.

not going to die for you

Something I did in reflection of the crappy parties I've had in the past three days. I've actually had lvl 67 three times in three days. How messed up is that?

Kinda bored tonight. Thought I might PL some people. That turned out to be even more boring. Found out Daggy from deviantart is on Odin server now. Looking forward to meeting her in game. ^_^

lvl up!

Happy birthday to me. I am now at lvl 26 (years... old.). I of course have work today. We have a busy workload plus I have an appointment with my commander and a flue shot to go get. yippie.

<- sketched this a couple of days ago. the choco is a little bit, but I kinda like it. Gonna color it over the weekend i think. :D

A couple of people in one of my linkshells a couple of nights ago suggested starting a little static party since we all seem to be on at the same time. Ickypoo (a 67 blue mage) and Eysis (a 67 white mage) and I all decided we'd try to be on about the same time to start pt's. Well, I think Icky suggested this more or less and then I somehow got volunTOLD to start the PT. ok. No problem. I'll start a party when I can. I'd rather wait for an invite. As a PLD, I'm usually in pretty high demand at my current lvl. there aren't a lot of tanks.... much less paladins.

Started the pt not long after Icky sent me a /tell to say he'd be ready whenever. I had been making a yagado bead necklace run for Shize so she could quest for Utsesumi (sp?) to lvl ninja. Anyways, I get around to starting the party, get my two static members, and find a drg, rdm, and a sam to go along with us. Not long after starting the pt, Icky says he has to go. Ok. No big deal. I can find a new dd. Then the drg (Chiodos) says he needed to leave ASAP. *grumble* He finds his own replacement and we press on. Eysis then says she needs to leave and the sam says he's going with her. They find they're own reps too. We're good to go still but becaues of the amount of members swapping in and out we have barely gotten started on getting any xp. I was only about 9k tnl. >.> I should have lvl'd. the RDM decides to leave. Ok. Good. This guy (who may perminately be on my shit list) I didn't mind leaving.

My pt now consists of two new rdm's (Algirl and Kisti), a thf (Battlebabe), Lazerus (some kind of dd...forgot his job), and another sam. Not the best combo, but we work with it. Battlebabe I like. She's been playing as long as I have and is a good player. Algirl seems to be the same way. Anyways, we're camping Imps, Flies, and Jhuns and we're probably a couple of lvls too low for that, but we seemed to be alright. Well, a fly spawned in the middle of our camp, so I tell Battlebabe who was pulling and we start on the fly. Someone was AFK and I died. No big deal. I die all the time. I'm a pld, it's what I do. Algirl revives me and I stand back to let the sam, thf, and drk (ah ha! that's what Lazer is) take it for a little bit. The sam starts to get pretty low on hp, so I jumped in with a couple of cures and threw up my 2hour (invincible). That was a dumbass mistake because now I've got crazy hate that will stick while I'm weakened even after invincible wears off. Invincible wears and I head for the zone. The pt was about to wipe and I've got all the hate... Might as well do what I'm supposed to and save the pt right? The sam tells me to stay. Basically "die again! we can kill it!" - yeah right. I pause for a minute which was my own mistake because at this point, the fly catches up and drops me like a sack of potatoes. The sam gets angry, says "this isn't working" and leaves. Without any hesitation or question. wtf? We replace him with a blm from Al and BB's LS, but by this point it's late and I've been trying to manage this pt for 3 hours. I'm exhausted and falling asleep at my keyboard. I let the pt know and since by this point they're all pretty much friends... they're ok with that so long as I can keep hate and keep taking hits. We ended up deciding to disband the pt, but just before we do... I die again. The blm went afk and apparently nobody knew. ugh. I had lvl 67 and then went back down to being 1500 tnl. I guess I can get 67 today for my birthday. :P We'll see I guess.

I'd love to start a big list of people I'm just going to refuse to pt with now or associate with all together, but that would be sort of juvenile of me. Posting that list that is. heh. I'm glad to have pt'd a couple of times with Battlebabe in the past few days though. I've seen her around as long as I've played and never actually met you. That and I always wondered if she was actually a female or if it was just a cleaver name. I never take for granted that people are what gender they appear to be in this game.

Anywho... back to Caedevre Mire tonight. Need to get a step closer to Maat. >.<

good to be home.

I just started playing again. It's nice. I've really missed this game. As I left the game in 2006, I was a 62 pld with rank 5 in San D'oria. I've barely done any missions and I had only done the quests I needed to to get by. I was playing a lot back then to try to keep up with a friend who I started on Odin server with.

I started playing this game originally with my friends Lee and Brandon (Leenk and Yoinokuchi on Ifrit). We had all rp'd together in various message board rpg's... transformer stuff mostly. We're all gamers, geeks, and all three of us like Final Fantasy, so FFXI seemed like a natural thing to get together and play. I went off to basic training for the Air Force (in 04) and Lee and Brandon started playing while I was gone. Lee a DRG and Brandon was a... uhm... whatever mood struck him at the time. I think he started as a whm and now plays pld mostly. I ended up moving to Germany and finally found the time to play when I wasn't working. However, those two started having to deal with other things and didn't play nearly as much. Thus, I was a little bit alone to figure things out. Shouldn't have been a big deal, except that I didn't have lots of time to do that. Enter Angie... LagunaL8 in the art clubs I've known her from before, and Screamer on FFXI. I found out she was playing on Odin and that being back in the days before world transfer, I started a new character and played with her. She was always on so I always had someone to talk to in game and lvl with. It was kind of nice. You don't really want to feel alone in an MMO ya know? Ang however passed me up pretty quick because she was able to play so much. I feel pretty stagnant on lvling and finishing quests. No biggie. I was having fun anyways.

August 2006, my son was born. I took a long break after that to be a dad. I still am of course.

I just started playing again. It's been 15 months. Some of the people I started playing with in Odin are still around (Alphonze, Shize, Screamer, Croce) but most aren't. It's not bad, in just a week I've upped in rank (from 5 to 6), gained 6 levels on pld (66pld/33war now) and finished a few quests here and there. The new expansion is out so I've got those missions along with a few dozen from previous expansions I've not finished. I've got a long way to go. No big deal, I'm still having fun with it.

testing

this is just a test. obviously.
new ffxi blog. more to come later.