involuntary break

I'm not really sure who actually reads this journal. I keep it more for myself than anything else.

I'm sitting in an airport right now on my way out to Qatar... just kinda testing the wifi to see how that's going to work while hopping from air port to air port until I get to my ultimate destination. Seems this will work for now.

Leaving right now is hard. I not only said goodbye to my wife, but to my son on his 2nd birthday. I'll miss holidays with them, birthdays, and the birth of my daughter. Leaving this time compared to others is a little harder than it usually is.

As far as the game goes (since this is my FFXI blog), I got NIN up to 36 the other night. Not all the way to a Subjob level but it's getting there. If I can log on downrange, then I'll be able to round that out. It's not really a huge concern of mine at this point. If I log on while I'm "gone" it'll be more for the social aspect than anything else. I'm sure the lag I'd experience would be horrible. Anywho, just saying that I'll be around and wanted to update one more time before I head out.

you know you've been a pld too long...

A little old...but amusing. :)
originally from here: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=5&mid=10868711959521955&num=107

You know you've been a pld too long when...
- you know exactly how long 30 seconds is without having to actually count.
- you hit the provoke macro upon engaging someone in Ballista.
- you cannot understand what is so scary about having red hp.
- you have mysteriously grown addicted to the colour white.
- you have mastered the art of engaging, provoking and flashing a mob within 1/100th of a second.
- any other job has too little defense for your taste.
- you feel natural getting hit when you draw aggro while levelling your blm.
- you've become used to seeing a rdm farm faster than you do.
- intimidating an undead creature gives you an inexplicable surge of delight.
- tanking 3 mobs at 30 hp while the blm casts escape feels fun.
- you feel sad whenever you don't die in dynamis.
- you start getting depressed if a mage dies before you do.
- you fall in love with the rdm in your party.
- the Rampart/Savage Blade animation sends shivers down your spine.
- you walk in dark places and gleefully note how well you show up in them in your AF.
- you walk in Valkurm and and revel in the fact that you almost match the sand.
- the sound of your armour when it clinks on hard surfaces is music to the ears.
- you spend time in your moghouse just walking around admiring your armour.
- anything with VIT or Enmity beside a large number makes you start grinning :DDDDD
- you /salute a fellow paladin friend and neither of you think it's corny.
- you feel like buying the Ritter Shield just for that 'big shield+paladin' goodness.
- and you have a Koenig/Kaiser Shield.
- you level pld to 75 and feel like levelling it all over again on your mule.
- you used Holy Circle while levelling in Valkurm just to show you were a paladin.
- you cried in happiness upon holding off your first Benediction without using Invincible.

Elita in Color and Back to Odin!

Finished Elita here. She's a little shinier than her armor really should be. Granted, it's leather armor... it just looks duller in the game. :D I'm happy with how it came out though. Probably should load this up to http://ffxionline.deviantart.com/ ... I haven't really checked on that community for a little while...

So... I got PLD all the way to 75. Since last time I had one good party and then just campaign battled my way to 75. I don't have much of a buffer as of yet, but I'll work on that soon. Before I get real worried about that, I'm going to try to get NIN up to 37 so I can blink tank. I lvl'd nin from 26 to 28 yesterday, but right now I can't get on because of all world maintenance. Pt'ing with nin is odd... I feel helpless tanking without being able to heal myself. Sure, my evasion is high enough that mobs miss a whole lot, but... knowing that I can cast cure on myself as PLD is reassuring. Sometimes I just don't trust people playing support jobs.

I did finally transfer back to Odin. Got back into both of my old linkshells (sorta... Odinartists is now by a different name) and met up with most of the people I left over there. I've gotten a couple of "you grew up!"/"75 finally!" comments. XD Yeah... only took me 3 years to get there. ugh.