So, sooner or later, a gamer who isn’t rolling around in the moo-lah will eventually run into the same problem I’m going to run into for the month of December: slimming of funds. Things would be perfectly fine if it weren’t for the following: me (still) trying to get the new laptop, my physiotheraphy appointments (once a week for $30 a session), and then Christmas. I’m not even including the other bills into the picture, because I’m sure that is a dead given at this point. So, I’m pretty much going to have to put things aside for a month and try to hope for the next year.

I’m just thankful someone has decided to be super kind to me and basically toss me a bone, despite me joking about it. Just because I was joking, doesn’t mean I’m not grateful (because I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY am) and am looking forward to getting an early Christmas present this year. ;)

Oh yes, and before anyone thinks they can beat someone at Wii Boxing because they are a girl, then you have another thing coming! This recent Thanksgiving I KO’ed not just 1 but 5 guys! They all demanded rematches because I was the champion boxer of the night! Keke. I was laughing so hard because it took most of the guys two – three rounds to take each other out, but I would knock them dead in less than a minute. The only one who came close to defeating me was my father. How? Because he made me laugh by being silly, and I couldn’t keep my head up to focus on the screen. But! In the end, I defeated him, too! Too bad he can kick my ass harder in real life, than I could to him in a video game. /cry

Yeah, I quoted Britney Spears. Yeah, I’m out of mind. But what do you expect? I’ve been playing WoW’s Blood Elf as of late, and they are certifiably on crack. How do I know? Just watch us dance!

So, yeah. Mekare, Orophen, and I have had no inkling to really head back to FFXI as of late. Its not that we hate FFXI (although we do have our gripes with the game). We just haven’t had a reason to go on there. On WoW we’re trying to do quests up the wazzo, learning how to do our jobs, etc. I feel like there is so much to learn, and yet I can’t even learn it all since I don’t have all the spells that would add more to my job. At level 17, I’m just barely making a dent into the game… let alone the Paladin class. I had wanted to play as a Priest (WHM), but I wanted to try something new and different. So far I have two characters: one is a Paladin and the other a Rogue (THF/NIN kinda). I really like both jobs, and I’m absolutely in love with the Blood Elves. They are oh so pretty (I’ll probably drive Mekare and Orophen mad with my pretty comments/jokes)!

One of the coolest things we have found out about WoW is that we can get drunk. I don’t drink in real life, but watching my character drink in the game? Hilarious! Especially when they veer off too far in one direction over the other or what have you. Though its kind of scary when you fall into the water, and… yeah. Don’t try it!

As for WotG, I’m going to wait a bit before actually getting it. I want to see how people are reacting to it, if its really worth the money, and most importantly: if Mekare and Orophen will have the inkling to get it. Nothing against my good friends on Ragnarok, but Mekare and Orophen are my best friends and they are always there for me in the game. I’ll follow them wherever they go, and without them I’d be wondering when the hell Hiro will actually log on to do stuff or if Reio will talk about piss poor damage and then force me to spend all my MP healing him. :P I don’t get none of that on my beloved Mekare or my stinky ol’ boyfriend… kind of.

For my U.S. readers, Happy (early) Thanksgiving! ^-^ I’m looking forward to an extended weekend to do a lot more sleeping and a lot less stressing out. I’ll post what I’m thankful later on, when I have something ready to show the whole world how mushy I can be. D’awww. :3

Knowing several guys reading my journal are hardcore about SF, I thought I’d post this article for them: https://blog.capcom.com/archives/542

The boyfriend is extremely giddy and excited, but there is no way in hell I’m getting him a new system to play it. Not when I’m still getting screwed over by morons…

A lot has happened since my last post, and I’ll give the run down before going into the actual meat of things:

– Returned the Inspiron 1520, and will probably get a Sony Vaio SZ in its place. If that SZ had the keyboard of the CR and the TZ, I think I would love it more than I already do.

– Have been on WoW with Mekare and Orophen lately. We started as Night Elves during our trial, now we’re evil, fruity Blood Elves. We’re pretty. Very pretty. The rest of the Horde? Not so much. But us? We’re pretty.

– Have felt a lot of discontent with FFXI after hearing news that no more new jobs will be announced at the U.S. Fan Fest, and the lameness of the most recent event.

And it brings me to, well, now. A lot of people I’ve known have played other MMOs to take a break from FFXI, but I’ve always some how managed not to do that until now. It feels great but at the same time I’ve found myself in a lot of discontent and frustration towards S-E when news started to spread that there would be no other new jobs for WotG. Which in itself is fine, but I was looking forward to another tank job. Not only that, but introducing more mages doesn’t seem like it would help as most parties are TP burn even at the earlier levels. The TP burn, from what I have discovered after taking a huge step back from the game, is really bugging the hell out of me. I knew it was kind of ‘eh’ for me before, but I’ve found that I really dislike it and how it has changed leveling.

Yeah, I know there were burn parties before and that easy exp means easier time getting to end game and that not all of this is a super bad thing. But you know what? I’m still frustrated. What discourages me a lot from leveling WHM either by myself or with Orophen, is that a lot of times I’m competing against 3 – 8 other WHMs in a two – three level range. That’s nothing new and is normal. The problem lies in the fact that there is no need for all the mages that are seeking because most parties are being formed with a TP burn in mind. Call me old skool, but I like the days when it was three melee and three mages. Then again, I also liked it when people talked about using WSes and MB instead of just spamming WSes left, right, up, down, and side to side.

Don’t get me wrong, its kind of nice that the game is a little more simplified in that regards. I just don’t like all of this TP burn stuff going on, or how parties are being built with SAMs up the wazzu. Nor do I like the kind of positions mages are put in or how I feel my limited time is increasingly wasted when I have to compete against seven other WHMs. The later is probably my fault since I choose to level support jobs (stupid me) and be a casual player (stupid me x 2).

I also hate drop rates on lacy underwear, but that’s because it sucks being in a dungeon with nothing else to do but wonder if that Fomor Paladin or Bard is wearing salvageable underwear or not. Grossed out? So am I. So am I.

I’m probably just nit picking. There is still a lot to like about FFXI, but after the 2H update? I’ve felt this discontent that has sort of just stewed and then overwhelmed me as of late. I’m enjoying WoW, but am probably enjoying it most of all because Mekare and Orophen are with me. I couldn’t hack it by myself, and that is probably why I’ll still play FFXI. I have several friends on FFXI (few but very dear) who are important to me, and I enjoy playing and chatting with them. I also enjoy the FFXI community a lot, even though I find the WoW one to be hilarious as well. ;( Though I’m going to miss Mekare’s Imp a LOT…

I have thought and debated this one for a very long time, and I decided to break down and give WoW a chance. I’m not tired of FFXI and I certainly don’t plan to give it up. So why bother trying WoW? Two things: curiosity and frustration with time available in regards to FFXI.

For a long time, I never really paid much attention to WoW. It didn’t necessarily appeal to me, and I kind of just shrugged it off. But then I would see Maiev‘s WoW posts and screenshots, and my curiosity kind of piqued. Then I saw this from Russta’s journal, and… well… I got more curious. The final kick? A few times in LS chat I’ve mentioned my desire to have been a Mithra. This is a slight mention here and there, but I never really made a solid complaint about it. Then on a whim I decided to just go with it and make a Mithra.

I still love my rolly-polly pigtailed Tarutaru, but there are times when I wish I was taller and looked cooler while dual wielding. I didn’t like the idea of changing .dats and I didn’t want to give up my beloved Tarutaru. So I went ahead and made a Mithra to satisfy my want of being a few feet taller. Then Orophen/Derrick smacked me back into reality. There is a huge problem with me making another character that I hadn’t thought of: time. I just don’t have the time to get one up and be able to do what I want, and realistically playing one hour a day? Doesn’t give me much time for anything. Weekends were out of the question because I reserve that time to do things with Orophen or the rest of my LS as Miss I’mGoingtoKillYouifYouDon’tDoAsICommand. So what does that leave me with? WoW, of course.

I’m at 75% now on my download and I’ve got two people joining me for a few days on WoW. I’m kind of excited, really. Its a change of pace and something different. Which I think is badly needed (even if its only during the 10 day trial) after having played FFXI for so long… Orophen has complained off and on of wanting to try something different for awhile, so its another incentive of doing this. I shut him up, I satisfy my curiosity, and I get to try out a different system for a few days. Win-win situation, eh?

Found this on my Livejournal friend’s list and thought it would be fun to post on doink! The rest of this entry will be placed behind a cut, however, to shield those who may not be interested in it:

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The other night, I joined a party on a whim as WHM. If anyone knows me, I haven’t joined a “normal” EXP party for quite some time now (I wouldn’t be surprised if its been half a year or more). I’ve done Besieged, ENMs, my small BLU set, and random things on the game but hadn’t bothered joining an EXP party because a certain someone had inadvertently scared me away from them… *cough*DhalmelElvaan*cough* and I was feeling iffy about leveling WHM to boot.

It was rather late for me to consider joining a party, but I did so anyway since they said it would be okay for me to stay one to two hours. The PT leader insisted it was a hardcore setup, and so I left from my little spot on Port Windurst and headed out…

Normally, I’d have Orophen at my hip playing my personal refresh whore, but I decided to play on my own with the following setup: PLD, WAR, SAM, THF, COR, and myself as WHM. It didn’t seem too bad, and I figured it was worth a shot on a Puks camp. The last time I was on Puks was a year ago as BRD and forgot what they were capable of. I tend to run away from them in Besieged, and it was until I was in the party that I remembered WHY I do so. Knock back effect? No thanks.

We started off alright enough until I started to notice that the JP PLD wasn’t using their MP. At all. I start feeling the MP crunch and was trying to juggle off healing various party members while debating whether to keep the PLD alive. I even let the PLD go as far as orange and noticed she still did nothing but voke after standing by her lonesome for awhile…

Of course, I’ll admit that I could have saved myself a little grief by casting Baraera. I didn’t because I am a noob and didn’t really think about it until afterwards. Still, I felt like banging my head onto something hard because I had forgone sleep in favor of finally wearing the pieces of equipment Mekare had lent me or had given to me. Next time? Sleep > party. Not often I regret a spur of the moment decision, but this time I did… kind of. I have to admit its really nice to be able to wear the stuff Mekare had given me and not just stare at them wistfully when I open my locker.

Oh well, at least I’m finally 59 and a step closer to 60. ^-^b

Maybe this is my girly side finally emerging, but I’ve decided to get two pink colored things this past weekend. A new linkshell and a new laptop. The linkshell was a spur of the moment deal, as I wanted to see if anyone had taken the name AstralCandy on Ragnarok. Lo and behold, it wasn’t taken and I decided and to color it pink. Still deciding if I should move all 6 regular members onto AstralCandy or just keep theSyndicate LS name. I still have GameOver, too, deep in the recesses of my storage…

The other pink item I decided to get is a Flamingo Pink Dell Inspiron 1520. I’ve been flip-flopping between pink and blue, and decided to get pink since it was out voted by 2 points and because Orophen is getting green. Spring Green and Flamingo Pink look better together than Spring Green and Midnight Blue. Though the laptop has been configured to play some games for now (maybe I’ll be trying out WoW?), the laptop is mostly for school related things and to allow me to work/play outside of my bedroom.

Now onto the weekend stuff!

First, a /wave to Jowah since I didn’t get back in time to do so. I was afk, scrolled up the chat log, and saw that I was waved down. Second, a big thanks to Orophen, Mekare, and Reiokyu for letting me have a cut of their BCNM drops despite the fact I had no participation in it whatsoever. It was a really nice gesture, and I’m happy to have some money in my pockets again! Lastly, I want to thank Mekare for giving me her second Opaline set! I was hesistant at first, but then couldn’t help but think how cute it was after she had traded me the gear.

Although I mostly caught up on sleep, I did get a chance to play with Mekare and Reiokyu by poking fun at Reiokyu leveling PLD (last weekend) and then going down to the Aqueducts for a good few hours. Now, I wasn’t going to post the screenshot I am going to post now, but because a certain someone claimed vengeance on a Tarutaru Fomor MNK smacking my head while I was resting? Yeah.

Don’t talk about vengeance when I have photos of your ass in metal underwear, kk?

Anyway, in the Aqueducts, we ran into the NM Mahisha. We were poking at it for awhile (killing off the PLD and BRD Fomors), before finally deciding to give Mahisha a poke. According to some other sites, it is killable by either two BLU/NIN, soloable by a BST, or will need a party of 6 or more to kill it off. Well, since the update for 2handers, we found that you just need 2 WAR/NIN (one was level 40 and the other 39) and a WHM to kill it off.

I died mid way into the fight with a one hit KO. My fault for having less than 400 HP, and a ton of MP to help along our small party. Anyway, we didn’t get many drops that night except for a lot of dark crystals, maybe a bronze key, less than five beastmen seals, and two Shakudo Ingots. A pity… but it was still fun dusting out my WHM and knowing that I can, at the bare minimum, keep my party alive. Maybe it will push me to get to 60 and then maybe to 75 before Hiroshiko does. ;o

Today I normally would be spending some time in the late morning/afternoon poking around in the game for awhile, taking a break, and then going at it again during the evening. Instead I was off at Federal Way at a conference for work, and feeling down right exhausted by the time I got home. The conference itself was great, but waking up at 5:00 A.M. on a Saturday morning is simply a killer!

Anyway, after a super busy and stressful week, I finally have the time to upload images that I have had on back log and write a post.

One of the things Orophen/Derrick and I have done once in awhile is going out and duoing as WHM and RDM. Its not exactly the prettiest things to do, but its a lot of fun to do when you want to kill time and just have some fun. Though its not exactly cool when he pulled a VT as our starting mob. I don’t often play WHM, so I had to go from months of neglecting my WHM to trying to pick it up quick so as to keep ourselves alive during the marathon fight. We managed to do really well despite the fight taking a total of 15 minutes for us to kill off the mob! Ick. Although we moved off to DC and T afterwards in Lufaise Meadows, it was nice knowing that I could still keep us alive and not have us die so quickly.

Because I am not always on, I don’t always get to do things I want to do. You know, like helping people? While in the Citadel, Mekare and I kept poking fun at Hiroshiko about his WHM hat. I know, I shouldn’t talk… but! I can’t help but do so especially because I’m also a WHM. Yes, maybe that is lame reasoning, but I’m sticking to that story for now! Take that, Hiroshiko!

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Before I spam this entry with SPOILER screenshots, I thought I’d mention to my friends that I have a Vent server set up. It replaces the Skype program a few of us have been using, and the details on how to connect to the server are to the right. Now? Onto the images from the latest Serpent General quest from ToAU:

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