What, you thought I was dead? Pfbt! Things have been hectic on my end, despite not doing all of the things I thought we were going to do! We still went to Disneyland, California Adventure, and did a heck of a lot of driving and riding ferry boats just to get from point A to B. My cousin has taught me a bit of Spanish, and I probably taught her how to stand up for herself more and curse a lot more than she should. Sadly, my cousin will be leaving on the 25th of July, but it also means one thing: return of precious weekend MMO gaming time!

There are a few games I have tried out since the last time I posted and here are my thoughts on them:

Wii Fit

I actually JUST got this a few days ago, and I am totally loving it. Granted I have poor balance, my right leg isn’t very stable at times, but I am liking that it has basically helped me track where and how I can improve without having to go out to the gym (at least just yet… I will go one day). I wish there were more games, but I guess that’s why I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed for an squeal to be released in the very near future!

the Umbrella Chronicles

Let me get this clear: I hate zombies. HOWEVER, I have a morbid curiosity about Resident Evil games that make me both amused and horribly freaked out at the same time. This game allowed me to enjoy playing a Resident Evil game without having to go through all the suspense alone, and get the gist of the story without having to feel too overwhelmed by being paranoid about everything going on. The solo stories I could do without, however, but I guess that’s what my brother is good for…

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2

I love this game. I love this game so much I am very frustrated I haven’t had as much time to devote to this game as I would like. I often only have time on ferry boat rides, and… that’s pretty much it. There is one thing I am extremely frustrated over, however, and that is being unable to UPGRADE certain weapons whenever I want to. At the moment I have weapons for many other classes other than the ones I REALLY need. My thieves, for example, have been hurting for a good weapon for several levels but an opportunity to upgrade has been at a constant zilch for awhile.

So, what about other stuff? Well, I won third place for the Moogle Lottery Thingy-Ma-Jiggy and will hopefully be able to take my BLU up several levels without having to stress out too much over funds. As for WoW, I FINALLY have a mount but am desperately trying to get Exalted (kind of like getting Hero rank) for the city of Night Elves. I also got severely pwned after logging back in after logging out on the road in a desert zone. Orz I kind of learned my lesson after that, but I’m hoping to extract my revenge on that giant someday…

Oh, and before I finish: WATCH THE DARK KNIGHT. <3

Health update: I’m currently feeling a lot better than I did earlier in the month. Besides the flare up of the mono, I had bronchitis AND a sinus infection that made my eyes super red! Can’t a girl catch a break? Jeez! I get exhausted easily, but as long as I take things at my own pace I often do fine. Though I still need to do a blood test to make sure my liver is doing ok…

Anyway, now you pretty much know why there haven’t been as many updates recently! I have been getting back into the groove of things lately, and we have even managed to get some things done with BLU. The specifics of the BLU leveling will be on its own post, but I am so glad we are able to get together again to do BLU stuff! Even though I play WoW on the side, I can’t give up my Taru as easily either and I still have a love for BLU and BRD (despite saying all the shitty stuff about BRD at times). It also made me glad for some things I have on FFXI compared to WoW at the moment.

Doing a lot of quests on WoW as of late, I end up finding myself having to run from point A to point B. This is kind of problematic for me because I tend to be impatient and frustrated easily when I have to keep doing it over and over and over and I think you get the point here. So having something like Mazurka + Sprinter Shoes is like a god send because I can get to areas a lot more quickly. Sure I have something like Mazurka on WoW’s Hunter, but its still not the same and I am just grateful I am getting closer to being able to get my own Mount (kind of like a chocobo).

On WoW we currently have an event that is called the Midsummer Fire Festival. It is based off of a real festival of the celebration of the solstice, but with some WoW twists added in there! Some of the things we do on WoW is pole dancing, where you twirl around really fast and look like a helicopter. Its ridiculously funny the first time around, and you even get a bonus of slightly higher exp for killing beasts the longer you do the pole dance! We also have to talk to people around the world to get more Burning Blossoms that can be traded in for items. However, unlike in FFXI, these don’t stay the whole year! So you can’t just save them up and decide to use them later on. You actually HAVE to use them or they will just disappear! A total bummer, but I think I can live with it and just hope I have enough time to get the remaining blossoms I need to get the item I want!

Back to the talking to people to get more blossoms… now you can choose to do one of the following: Honor or Desecrate. Of course you can’t desecrate your own faction’s flame, but you can go to the opposing faction’s (Horde vs. Alliance) and desecrate their flame! Which is kind of fun but also freaky as hell if you are just a low level person like me who is on a PvE (Player vs. Enemy) server. I actually had instances where Horde players waited to see if I was on my way to their flame, and I would have to covertly look like I am busy trying to kill mobs so I wouldn’t be bothered! The first time I did it, however, I tried hard to make it to a sanctuary before a Horde could get me. I found my way to a retreat with a bunch of level 40 Night Elf guards surrounding me. Haha, but then a single Horde player tracked me down and was actually patrolling the area to get to me. ;o; I totally freaked and logged off for awhile because I didn’t want to get my ass handed to me. Yes, I know, I’m a wuss.

It was also really fun trying to get flames as Hunter since Hunter has so many ways to do espionage. I can either control my pet to let me see into Enemy territory or I can just an ability that lets me zoom in really close to the area of my choice and seek out what is going on. Cool, huh? I actually did this a few times before getting a flame so I could plan out my moves and either wait it out or go in and piss all over the flames. Its probably not as cool as this Tauren player who shrunk himself down to midget size and ran all over the place by himself to douse flames! He was so cool, and I couldn’t stop laughing for awhile just seeing him work the guards and everything.

For the next month, my schedule will be pretty chaotic. My cousin is visiting from Spain until July 25 and there will be times I will be away from home and visiting Canada (I always look forward to visiting because its so beautiful!), Oregon, and hitting up Disneyland. So while I may not be able to play MMOs at this time, at least I have my trusty DS! Haha!

That basically sums up the insane weather I have been seeing in my state, with snows capping our mountains in June and cold temperatures that have forced everyone to bring out their winter coats once again. I guess you can also say my lack of posting is also like the stillness of winter after snow has freshly fallen, but I’m here now waiting for spring or summer to make its debut (and for my sickness to go away… again).

I have recently decided to start up WoW again. It was mostly out of boredom and concern for my best friend whom I hadn’t seen in awhile. I got hooked back into it, and have played more often than I should have thanks to seasonal blues. I’m an Ally this time around, and a Hunter since I couldn’t find a race I could jive with to be my Rogue. Night Elfs are weird looking and they partially look like clowns, Humans look like gorillas to me, and the other races are too short (yeah, this coming from a Taru lover). I still have my BE Rogue, which I plan to level up to catch up to friends so that we can play when we want more lovey-dovey time with the three of us.

As for FFXI, I am foaming at the mouth with excitement for the new update. I’m extremely eager for the new missions and quests, and I kind of want to see Reiokyu do the can can for everyone. We have also leveled our BLU separately for Reiokyu’s sake, so that we can at least get 55 and be ready to march on ahead with Anniversary and Emperor bands. The only problem in that seems to get in the way is Mekare’s computer and my bouts of illness. I tried to push myself today, but even checking my mail in WoW was exhausting and I’m already starting to get towards my limit by typing this entry. Hah, if Orophen weren’t asleep right now I would probably be scolded at the moment…

After being diagnosed, misdiagnosed, and uh… diagnosed again… the doctor speculated I had mono. I don’t know what to believe in anymore, but I do know I was feeling much better this weekend save for the back pain I suffer once in awhile.

At any rate, I have been trying to scramble to do as many Campaigns as I can to get back my medals and to level up my WHM. It has sometimes failed by the Campaigns either ending by the time we get there or disconnecting just minutes before the Campaign ended. We also lauded the return of my brother back into the gaming and *gasp* LEVELING up. It was the marking of the end of the world seeing this, but I guess it was sooner or later before the apocalypse had to come.

I didn’t stay on for as long as I wanted to, however, due to health reasons, but I managed to get a bit done before my MRI on Saturday and then watch as my desktop’s wireless connection choked, gurgled, and then died when trying to update FFXI. Seems like I will be playing and working on my laptop a little bit longer than I anticipated…

Anyway, I want to Congratulate Hiroshiko on graduating from High School and being accepted to Howard University! Its a big achievement for such a little guy who used to cower in fear in my presence. Oh how did his knees quake when he saw me looming over him oh so many years ago. If only I had dangled him from the tree then… then maybe I would have had a more obedient pet to add to my lineup.

I know we have all poked at and laughed at S-E. Even though we knew certain additions or changes could have helped us for the many years some of us have been playing, we kind of just gritted our teeth and bared with it when those changes never took place. Now, as the game is headed through the geriatric stage, S-E has finally decided it was worth implementing the following:

Nomad Moogles in Selbina and Mhaura
Supply Quest Records
Item Autosort Function

If it weren’t for the fact I’m already tired as heck (been awake since 4:45 A.M.), sick, and still depressed over the fake out over the new MMO Orophen mentioned to me yesterday? I would be hitting my head on the table a few times asking what the bloody hell took them so long.

102. That was my temperature the other day, and since then I’ve been laying in bed delirious, wondering if I could make an omelet on my head, and if Reiokyu would accept scrambled eggs in his package I have yet to send out. My fever has gotten better, worse, better, and uh… lets just say it can’t tell me if it wants to stay or go.

I wanted to force myself to write because I have been missing the world of Vana’diel since I found myself being unable to play due to my body wanting to go into a comatose state when the weekend hits or the fact I have a pile of homework I have been unable to complete my homework due to said comatose state. Most of the time I just want to laugh it off, but its starting to stress me out. Its not fun when you want to do something, but find that you can’t because you’re in bed sleeping the day away. And its not something I want personally, but something my body demands of because of some reason or another.

Probably the only amount of joy I had was to briefly play with Mekare (Happy Belated Birthday!) and then to do Crystal War Quests with Orophen. Halver? He is a total loser with a capital L. Its ok, because I still <3 him and his love for his sister~ Oh yeah, and the JP totally have everyone pwned in the first Mario Kart tournament. The rankings as of last night showed that 9 out of 10 spots were held by the JP with a record time of 1 minute and 30 seconds. I almost came close to 1 minute 45 seconds, and then I got hit by a chain, a shell, and then ran over. ._.; Good bye beautiful time record~

A lot of people who use Brandson’s Map Pack and UI can now find updated versions done by a person named Emiko! I don’t use the mods myself (too lazy), but I know this might be helpful to those who have used the mods or are interested in modding their icons and such.

Visiti the site here! https://emikoffxi.livejournal.com/

FFXI

I didn’t do much this weekend due to me feeling purely exhausted for the most part. I often don’t realize how exhausted I am until Friday evening hits and my body just wants to do nothing but sleep after pushing myself to walk on a limp right leg for most of the week. Most of what I did had to do with Mission 5.1 for my brother and then getting my brother’s BLM AF hat. Nothing spectacular, but I was happy that my brother had finally logged on after several weeks of being on hiatus…

We did have a great big laugh at watching a jelly monster run around to get us in the Canal. We were laughing our heads off watching it run and the music would play for all of us as it would get close and then stop when it got too far away. It almost seemed like we were in a horror movie, but with a little pudding cup chasing us down instead of some freaky scary… thing.

the World Ends With You

If you don’t own this beautiful DS game, I highly encourage you to get it ASAP! This game is made by S-E and Jupiter and is a little reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts, especially Chain of Memories. If anyone had played this GBA game, you know that it was a kind of annoying card battle game that sometimes made me want to chuck the game at someone. I never did finish it, since I fucked up my cards and (at the time) didn’t want to replay through the damn thing.

The World Ends With You is totally different from the annoying card system, in that you have pins that are highly dependent on things you do with your stylus. This game is NO button mashing game! It IS a very stylus intensive game that caused my hand to cramp up after hours of gaming with that tiny stick. Even the storyline is different than normal FF fair. Its a lot more ‘real’ for me, as I could distinctly remember being on the same vibe as Neku for a very long time. The music is also a great addition, and is unique (to me) in that it changes with each round or even if you refresh the page. It actually makes me want to buy the sound bites on the game; a feature I typically don’t care for in other games but actually appreciate in this one.

And in relation to the title? There IS a clink clink reference in TWEWY somewhere in the game!

Mario Kart Wii

0860-3659-2541

I am extremely impressed with how they handled the WFC setup for this game versus that of SSBB. I actually don’t suck as bad as I do on Mario Kart Wii than I do with SSBB so unless my brother is hogging the Wii or I’m not trying to level up my pins and buy out all the clothes in Shibuya… I’ll be on racing every so often.

Camp: Garlaige Citadel (Basement Level)
Targets: Funnel Bats, Chamber Beetles, Fallen Mage, Fallen Major
Spells to have handy: Jettatura, Bludgeon, Cold Wave

Alternate Camp: Quicksand Caves (Enter J-9 from Western Altepa Desert)
Targets: Helm Beetles and Anticans (**See note below**)

Going to try a different format that will most likely be found on past BLU related EXP entries on a later date. No images since FRAPS has not yet been installed on my laptop and I have not yet reformatted my desktop.

Getting straight to the point: I’m sick to death of the Citadel now. We’ve been here for awhile, and we can’t seem to leave just yet because the other camps are either over camped or the mob levels are too high for our small party. We’ll be stuck here for awhile, but hopefully we can move onto other mobs sooner or later…

Okay, so things to note: Gravitation renkei is your friend. MP Drainkiss for MB? Even better! Try to do this as often as possible, as we have been able to net a little over 100 MP magic bursts at time. Personally, we loved to SC with Sickle Slash and if you are able to boost up your DEX or have naturally high DEX (like Mekare did), then you can watch your damage soar close to 400 on that spell alone. Jettatura is a great spell to have to buy your team mates some time if they are handling an add from a low level bat or if the mob is just causing you some grief when trying to cast Utsusemi. Its part of functioning together to make things work well in your favor, and it did quite often for us when we were handling adds and what not.

Now, in a previous post I talked about swapping out Bludgeon for another spell. For undead, however, I decided to quickly swap it in for some quick, easy damage when I was waiting for other spells to finish their recast timers. It sucks to have to spam spells, but with undead… we don’t have much of a choice since a tiny mishap can help expedite a death. On the other hand! They die quickly and we get lots of delicious EXP in return!

There is an alternate camp, but even though we came here first… we were bullied out by the other party who went on top of us. It was very frustrating, but there isn’t much we can do when they have 6 people and we only have 3. Anyway, if future trios decide to come to this area, make sure to bring Echo Drops and everyone should have the ability to SILENCE the mage type Anticans! This isn’t an option, this is mandatory. And even then? You’re totally taking a gamble on them because it is not even 50% chance that the Silence will last more than 1 minute. You’ll be lucky as hell if it does! If you actually brave it against this type of Antican, prepare to have enough TP to kill it off fast before it kills you! We actually had to run like crazy because we learned the hard way how our Silence isn’t very effective against them. :

Version 2 of doink! is finally up! After over a year hosted on my domain, it has finally a new look to go with its belated anniversary on mreh.net. Things are still being worked out and fixed up and not everything is up, but… its at least there! The layout is currently much larger than the past layout, so if you are currently having trouble viewing this page then feel free to check out my original FFXI blog on Livejournal: https://calaera.livejournal.com.

Many thanks to Orophen/Derrick who put a lot of hard work into making this layout and putting up with my fickleness! He also tried very hard to make this out in time for my birthday, but failed by a few days. But its ok because I still love him! <3