Awhile ago, I said I would post shots comparing the Vaio CR and the Vaio SZ. There aren’t many shots, but it was nagging me for awhile so I went ahead and took the pictures before I started studying. Before I go into that, I thought I’d talk more about the laptop since I’ve had it for awhile now.

Overall, it is SO much better than the Inspiron 1520 I had. I thought I would be ok with such a large laptop, but I found that it wasn’t really for me. My commute is long (can total about up to 4 hours round trip) and I also study best outside of my room. I end up playing video games if I am in my room, whereas outside? I feel guilty and forced to study! I also like being around the noise, as it tends to help me concentrate more than a totally silent room. Of course, all of this is hard to do when I’m lugging around 6lbs on a laptop alone. When I commute, I bring books, notebooks, my purse, and sometimes I even bring along a blanket (ride the longer ferry to Seattle during the commuter rush, and you’ll see a lot of people doing this and more). So the SZ really slims back the extra weight that can be put to other things like… more books!

The SZ is also great because of the dual graphics card. There is a dedicated and an integrated that is used as “Stamina” and “Speed” mode. Stamina mode is great for when you’re doing just word processing or internet browsing, and speed mode is great for when you watch movies or play video games. With “Stamina” mode, I can clock up to four – five hours depending on my settings. That helps a LOT as it cuts the need for me to carry around the power adapter! I can also sit in front of the TV and just watch stuff, if I wanted to.

The downsides to the SZ, however, primarily come with the keyboard, the OS, and the dedicated graphics card. How?

The Keyboard:
It is sometimes uncomfortable to type on. I am able to type well on it, but it still feels weird at times. I still wish it had the TZ and CR keyboard, because those are much more attractive and easy to type on.

The OS:
Vista sucks. Period. I should have ordered XP, but P1 is great because they are sending me a free XP disc to install onto my laptop. If you are ever looking to buy a laptop? I HIGHLY recommend P1!

The Graphics Card:
WoW and FFXI are installed on this computer. WoW runs beautifully here, but FFXI chokes like someone forgot to chew their food and just inhaled it… If I had time, I’d find a way to get it to work… but I don’t, so I’ll just wait it out awhile.

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For you FFXI’ers, the background is from WoW’s Burning Crusade area. :3 The area is the Blood Elf city of Silvermoon! One of my favorite places, since Undercity has really scary looking guard, er, things.

On FFXI today, I was talking about creating a pair of Gnome mages for the fun of it. Orophen was wanting to try it out after watching several WoW videos, and I just thought it might be a fun thing to do. Midgets, after all, seem to have much fun than their taller brethren. We weren’t able to start this right away, so we leveled up DNC and SAM until the log in server was restored and made our stumpy little characters. I’ve got to admit its pretty much like playing Tarutaru but not as cute and kind of… weird looking. Anyway, I had a few moments of fun and then my friends started talking about Alliance and stuff…

Out of the three of us, I think I’m the only one that is more interested in the Horde than Alliance. Its nothing bad, but I kind of feel alone when people talk about their alliance characters and I go… “Huh?”

So, again, I decide to give the good guys a chance and made myself a horned something-something. Sue me, I can’t remember their names. I just know that they are tall and have a very thick accent. It was sort of my only choice, seeing as though I couldn’t stand leveling a Night Elf, Humans are really ugly (sorry to those who do play WoW and play Humans), and Gnomes are… Gnomes. The only drawback? No Rogue class, but I do get to choose from an assortment of… mage classes. Woo hoo?

So far I’ve tried out Mage and Shaman. Shaman is alright, and Mage comes close to a second. Both classes are much better than the alternatives I have on this race, which again makes me thankful that I don’t have to deal with this kind of bullshit on FFXI. I think I’d go batty if the ONLY job I had available to me on Tarutaru were mage jobs. Ick.

Moving away from WoW, I’ve been Mario Partying it up for awhile. Mostly on the DS and mostly losing either to the PC, my kuya (Filipino for older brother; in this case, I’m using it for a Filipino male friend who is just older than I am), or my younger sister. It is frustrating as heck, and the only consolation I have is being able to roast everyone in a particular mini game or two. My sister has also badgered me and my brother enough to play Mario Party with her on the Wii. Sadly, I found that during this time our Wii was making really weird noises when reading the discs. It was MUCH louder than normal, and I started to wonder if I needed the poor thing to get checked out. But then I got lazy and forgot all about it when I started to hack up a lung… or two.

So, before I lay down to rest (bronchitis sucks, yo), I thought I post a great WoW video. Even if you hate on WoW, watch it because you don’t need to know much about WoW to really figure it out and enjoy the movie!

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In case you were wondering or are unable to read the title (you’ll need to have JP font enabled), the title is read “kita”. If you’re familiar with the manga/movie/drama/whatever story of Densha Otoko, frequent 2ch or 4ch, or just know a lot of Japanese, then I don’t think I have to go further. For the rest of you who don’t, it simply means either that “I have come/arrived” or that “It has come/arrived”! And if you’ve been paying attention to an entry made sometime last week, then you know exactly what to anticipate behind the cut later on! ;)

Before we get to that, I took a rare day off (other than me being sick and all) and used the time to spend with my new LS. We were aiming to do a BLU set session, but that never took place due to personal reasons. On the other hand, I went up to the ol’ Tree and got a few skill ups on dagger and sword. Wasn’t many, but I’ll take what I can get! There were a few who were getting the item needed for Windurst 9.1, another who was getting Sleepga II done, and many of us just seeking to either have some fun or skill up.

Afterwards, Mekare asked a few people if they could get together at the last minute and help me finish Windurst 8.1. I have been on that mission for who knows how long, but never really made it a point to get it done. I figured it would get done when it would get done, and well… it got done! During the skill up session and the mission, I couldn’t help but feel rusty. That one month break really did a number on me, and I found myself forgetting how to get to point a and b. It was worse when I was beginning to get paranoid over songs for what situation, but I kind of just sailed along with it. I figure if people do think I’m a bit off, I can just play myself off as one of those people who leveled up bard not caring if Ballad landed on the melees or not.

Of course, I have mostly Edoine, Tyrian, and Mekare to thank for, since they took the time out to help me get this mission done. I’m still sorry for the deaths, but still very grateful to have this mission done once and for all. That doll was starting to drive me BATTY. I just wish I could have stood on Tomoky’s shoulders a little longer so that I wouldn’t have to have everyone /sit in order to be on my level…

Its ok. One day the Tarutaru will own the world of Vana’diel with our trusty Mandragora HNM at our every beck and call. Mwhahaha!

Ok, now the part I’m sure Maiev is waiting for…

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Out of curiosity, I went and checked the stats for this subdomain. Its the only active site I have on my domain, and I wanted to see how people were finding me and so on and so forth. I check these stats once in awhile, but this time I thought I’d share a few things.

As of late, I have been getting a lot of hits from TTO and the Musketeer’s forum. I also get hits from my friend’s on Livejournal and other journals I am linked to. There are a few that seek me out on google, and this is what they are usually looking for (at least for this past month):

FFXI Test Your Might
FFXI
Die by the Sword BCNM
download doink them
bluegartrls
ffxi toyer
hiroshiko girl (Hiro, is there something you AREN’T telling us?)
doink game
getting out of gusgen mines
screenshots doink

Sometimes, my site also appears if people are searching for the SpikeFlail site. Sorry, I’m not in their LS! Nor have I played with Toyer, I’m pretty sure Hiro is a boy, and I am on the wrong server (and too gimp) to be associated with BG. I had a few less hits last month since I rarely updated that month, but a lot of LJ search sites have been hitting my site trying to scan for images. Kind of annoying, but I’m rather attached to my LJ plugin.

I’ve also had my other friends searched and have had hits from those people looking for Mekare, Reiokyu, and even Orophen. Why anyone would want to search for my boyfriend(s) is beyond me…

A busy day to make up for a lousy week due to problems with Orophen’s installation and what not. I finally finished Divine Might (ZM 14), made it in time to participate in Campaign battles, joined a new linkshell, helped some people, and toured Orophen through as much of WotG as we could. Whew! Read on to see the screenshots and more:

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Just ordered from PortableOne and will (hopefully) see it sometime next week. That is if FedEx is faster and not as stupid as DHL. The specs are:

Style: Carbon Fiber
CPU: Intel Core Duo 2.o Ghz
Memory: 2 GB
Video: NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400GS & Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (So it is capable of having two modes and allowing the battery to run longer if needed!)
Hard Drive: 160 GB 72oo RPM
Battery Life: 3 – 6 hours (Depends on which “mode” or graphics card I use!)
OS: Vista Business

A little bit more than what I paid for on the 1520, but I’m hoping it will be worth the money! The screen is super thin and it is large enough for me to stare at for hours at a time, since I am blind as a bat. I decided to go with P1 > Sony Style since I heard their service was great and that is a big plus for me. More so if its based in the U.S. Not meaning to shit on overseas customer support reps, but when you’re having trouble with your machine the last thing you want to do is have your words misunderstood or have to repeat yourself 5 times because of “poor connection”. Nor do I want to yell because of said poor connection… :

Anyway, here is hoping for the best with the new laptop~ :3

So, I’ve been thinking a lot about these two games lately. There are aspects I like from each of them, aspects I really dislike on both, and things I wish were available on each system. Most of the time I wish for the later; a marriage of the two to make a better MMO. I can’t really choose one over the other, nor will I say one is better than the other. They are different but both have aspects to them that the other could learn from the other.

Here is what I pretty much like and dislike from each game:

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