If you’re wondering where I have been these past few days, well… mostly busy with school, work, and health related issues. The newest version of doink! was supposed to have gone live soon after returning from Sakura Con, but Orophen and I decided to refrain from putting it up after I decided I didn’t like how it looked on smaller resolutions (1280×768). Its still being worked on, so expect to see something new in the next few weeks (or sooner… later, and expect to see a dead body).

I am also working on SCH on the side, since BLU is kind of… left to the wayside at the moment. Mostly because of my weekends being eaten up and then health/personal issues coming up when we do get to leveling up. @_@; So, hopefully, we will get the time to do a full session sooner or later…

Orz That is what I’ve been wanting to do for over an hour of sitting in Fort Karugo-Narugo with long breaks between mobs showing up or just the campaign to end. If it weren’t for the Campaign Ops Aegis Scream II, I think I would have gotten my evaluation long ago and just jumped ship to another region. It was insane how long the wait time was between one wave and then the next. Relentless attacks my ass! It actually seemed a lot more fun and interesting when the beastmen were killing everyone in sight and there were more of them to kill off. Now Fort Karugo-Narugo can have as many as four groups of NPCs easily taking down the mobs before I can even get a glimpse of one! Argh! I don’t remember battles lasting as long as they seem to have been, and its downright annoying to keep looking at the clock and seeing that 10 minutes will go by and there is still no mob in sight. Meh. At least I was able to get a merit or two out of this, but I’m still kind of meh about wanting to go solo Campaign now when battles are taking an hour or more to finish…

FFXI Cosplayers from the Bahamut Server

Not so much an FFXI update as it is a Sakura Con 2008 and video game update. The con itself was a lot of fun and I had the chance to see, do, and meet several people at the convention. If you’re interested in seeing some of the cosplayers I ran into, you may view the photos I have posted at Livejournal. However, you must be a registered user of Livejournal in order to view them.

If you are also interested in Ali Project, you may watch a clip of a piece of the concert I have recorded here:

The Penny Arcade crew was also at Sakura Con and handing out free waffles and ice cream. Not just any ice cream. Chocolate ice cream! I wanted some (free is always good!) but everyone else beat me to them each day they served them. ;o; I may be making plans to attend PAX since I will not be traveling to Vegas this year, so if anyone else plans to go… let me know!

As for new video games, I started to play No More Heroes on the Wii. Its usually not my type of game, but my friend says it is really good and I try my best to try new things once in awhile. I’ve only gotten up to 10th ranking so far, am playing Sweet mode, and generally really suck… but I kind of like the crudeness of the game. Its art style reminds me of a comic book (though just the start of it… I haven’t gotten very far at all), and the fighting is alright. Though I wish I could get the hang of the upper and low attacks (I only got them by chance). Its also hard to fight when blood is covering 80 – 90% of the screen and you can’t see much else but blood, body parts, and coins. I think the later part amuses me most since its like a bloodied version of Mario breaking boxes to get coins! I’m not sure if I’ll continue playing it, but I guess I will dabble in it once in awhile before I give it back to my friend next week.

No screenshots this week due to technical difficulties. Of which has sent me reformatting my computer and clicking my fingers on the desk, waiting for a working XP key from P1.

Anyway, despite the technical difficulties, I personally had a blast the last Saturday. I’m sure Mekare, Reiokyu, and Orophen would say otherwise after I had dragged them to hell and back after re-visiting my noob days. Am I over exaggerating? HAH! I wish I was! In fact, it makes me smile even more broadly knowing that I’m not kidding and that I actually put everyone through hell personally. So, what exactly is my crime? Well, we were supposed to do a low level party of level 10 characters… of which I thought would be fun to start off in a WotG zone. Remember those jokes about killer rabbits? Oh how that rang true when we tried to take them down in the past! They are just tough bunnies! They are rabbid, blood sucking, killer bunnies! That hit you for a KABILLION health points each hit!

So, after that, I dragged everyone out to La Theine Plateau to fight crabs. We were fine and dandy until we ran into a BST and uh, had trouble with getting enough mobs. So we ran a loop around, and then I had this bright idea. Now, this is where I often get into trouble. I get a bright idea and then BAM! We either die or someone is probably wishing I would. Which, to be honest, I don’t blame them for. At any rate, we headed off to the “secret” area where the funguars, killer bees, and bats lie. I drop down, excited that we will be raking in the EXP when… OMFG! The funguars! They are attacking meeeeeeee~! I tell Orophen to run. He fails. I tell Reiokyu to run to the caves. He runs… further into despair. Mekare is probably laughing her head off and thinking how the hell I got to 75 in the first place.

Orophen deserves a lot of hugs, cuddles, and kisses, too, because he died countless times trying to tank. Don’t ask what job, don’t ask the circumstances… just know he died and wouldn’t come back because I danced on his corpse. Which, to be frank, I took much offense over since I reserve the right to dance on corpses as I please. After all, I am the future dictator of Vana’diel!

This week I will be out of town and wandering downtown Seattle attending Sakura Con. Orophen will be with me and Reiokyu should have been there but he decided he was too mad with me to bother to attend. :( Penny Arcade people will be there, SSBB tournament will be held, tons of anime will be on view, and I will be trying to kick Orophen’s ass over at Game Works! I’ll be back April 1st and will be here for the remainder of the week since I’ll be off of work due to Spring Break. (^o^)/

edit: Dead Fantasy II is finally out!

So, lately I have been having problems with my computer. It didn’t bother me so much since I could at least still play FFXI! Then the new update rolls around (this past Monday), and now many files on my FFXI are corrupted to the point of being unable to fix it. Already tried the repair function, did as Oro suggested and had him give me his .dats to see if it will solve the problem, and I’m still left dreading having to reinstall the damn program and go through the process of updating. Almost tempted to reformat the computer instead, since its just being plain ol’ bitchy as of late. ~_~; So, yeah. We will see what happens, but I’m already in crappy mood, too, since my baby (the SZ) had managed to get a very shallow scratch on the LCD. I don’t know how it got there, and you can barely see it unless you look for it… but its there and it totally bugs the shit out of me despite it not being very noticeable in the first place (monitor has to be turned off to be able to see it!). Meh…

Okay, spoiler screenshots and details are behind the cut. Want to read more? Well, you know what to do…

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Long title for something relatively simple. Last night, Reiokyu mentioned a shortcut from one of the game’s most annoying places to reach. You would either need to traverse one or two zones or bring a party to stand on the levers with you to get to these hard to reach areas. S-E ninja’ed a solution to this in the last update! So how to you activate the shortcuts?

First, start in the past. Wander around to where those hard to reach places would be. In that area, scan the area for both a shiny spot (its a graphical shiny) and a Lycopodium. Talk to the Lycopodium, and the scent of flowers will be ingrained in your mind… or something to that effect. Next, make sure you have a stock supply of Asphodel because that will be the only way for you to access the shortcut! When you are done, go back to the present and close to the same location where you found the shiny spot in the past. Trade the flower to the shiny spot and viola! You are now transferred to the hard to reach location! Thanks to Reiokyu for walking me there and giving me flowers! <3 We only found the ones in Batallia Downs, but I will be sure to post exact locations later when I can get to it.

First of all, an apology. My computer ate my screenshots. ._.; I had taken so many (including one where I saw Jowah and waved at her while wearing starter RSE), but I can’t find them anywhere! But! I do have a lot to write about! I just hope that I can remember all of it…

I was kind of surprised no one on my LJ community had posted anything about this, but there is a new quest with either a male or very male-ish looking female Mithra in one of the CSes! Judging from this image, it seems more like a man than a manish looking female. I’ve done most of the quest, but haven’t finished it to its completion, yet. Totally excited to see more of that character, and to figure out who the heck they are. Especially our old friend Mr. Bandages, but I guess that won’t be for awhile…

Anyway, last weekend, we tried out two new ENMs: Test Your Mite and Bugard in the Clouds. The first one was five manned (brother didn’t want to come on to help out), and went smoothly despite being drained for MP in the end. We didn’t get much out of it but a Geist Earring, but its not like there is much else from there that we could get except delicious EXP for our BLU. Bugard in the Clouds was very interesting and approached with three BLU. We were wanting to test run this ENM, and weren’t really expecting to win at all. Did we? Sadly, we managed to get it down to a sliver before wiping. Our tactic was kind of unique in that I had assigned people different roles because of the way that this ENM plays out.

I had basically assigned Orophen with equipping and using Physical skills, Mekare with Magic based skills, and I assigned myself with the task of Enfeebling and doing a little of both. I even got to use spells I normally wouldn’t get to use in a party situation, so it was a LOT of fun and totally exciting. It is very prone to all the BLU spells that induce Bind or Gravity, and it was hilarious seeing it walk in slow motion while Orophen and I ran around the arena!

We’re about level 53 now, and will be trying to get 54 in a variety of ways this upcoming weekend to try and move further along in our level acquisition and hopefully make up for lost on Sunday. I don’t even remember much of Sunday, simply because it was a tiring day with the loss of one hour’s worth of sleep. Heck, my body is still trying to adjust… albeit a little poorly. I’m also sick, so I am deeply sorry to anyone I may have offended earlier when I logged on and then out again earlier. m(_ _)m

Friend Code: 2277-6316-9177

Be warned. If the person you’re playing sucks ass, its me. If the person happens to kick your ass and wipes your face on the floor, its my brother. Still not used to the controls… ._.;

FFXI update will be made once I get over being exhausted. I went from losing just one hour of sleep to 2 or 3 because my body was confused as hell and woke up at the time I would be getting up to go to work…

Taking a break away from CoP, we’ve decided to focus solely upon BLU until we reach 60. That means there will be days of spell gathering, ENMs, and anything that will help the BLU set meet its goal ASAP and help proceed with CoP. We’re also nudging at Hiroshiko to consider leveling BRD, but knowing how busy he is I’m not expecting it to happen anytime soon. Though seeing how my he and my brother tend to play and level, I’m heavily considering taking them into the set once in awhile so that they can get a bit of EXP and we can keep chugging along.

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