Musings of a Mithra.

Farewell FFXI, hello WoW

2007-06-05T20:05:00.000+08:00

NinjaEdit!

Decided to close this blog, as i no longer play in Vana'diel.

New updates will instead appear on my other blog: http://bcmman.blogspot.com

:3

----

I've been busy with work / playing around in WoW / doing lesser but nonetheless some chores which eat up my free time. But since WoW servers are down every tuesday for maintenance, maybe i'll drop into FFXI then, and/or update my blog XD

For now i'm still undecided whether i should start a new blog for my adventures in WoW (Lv20 rogue Bakchormee & Lv10 paladin Isadodo, both of the Blood Elf race, Horde side).

I guess i'll sleep on it :P

- end of ninjaedit -

Original post below :3

Actually its not a total goodbye from FFXI although i had cancelled Isadora account on Sunday - i've decided to maintain Puru & Yuumei's account.

I gave away all my gil, as well as most of my gear to Bronzeth, who had returned to Vana'diel. In WoW, I've joined the Shattered Hand server - its no coincidence since i'll be playing with some friends on that server too.

I'm concurrently playing as Blood-Elf PLD & Rogue, to get a feel of the game (Tuesdays are down though for maintenance, which is why i can type my blog entry now hehe).

My friends do not like PLD much, as its quite boring to "stand there & take forever to kill stuff". Which explains why i'm also levelling a Rogue character, for farming gold, & an alternative style when PLD does gets too boring for me. Too bad the lag (US server) means that i'll never be a first-rate Rogue, but that's fine - i may play Warlock & Hunter once i have the gold to support those jobs ^^

At work, i've managed to handle some cases independently now; my colleagues have been understanding, pointing out my mistakes & pointing out helpful tips. It is a pity that the department is still short-handed, but i am confident that we will manage.

Especially after i had randomly found a Soka member's webpage & gotten some inspiration, to resolve to deepen my faith through study, practice & introducing Buddhism to friends, colleagues & relatives. The funny thing is some of my colleagues thought i was trying to sell them insurance! Oh well :P

I'll update this blog with stuff from WoW if i come across anything interesting, and occassionally from FFXI too when i do drop by as Puru or Yuumei.

/doze

2007-05-27T15:22:00.000+08:00

Yesterday (saturday, for national day parade) night's training focused on getting the formations lined up correctly, and on overall alignment while we moved from one formation to another. It was mostly repetitive stuff, and somewhat draining.

It didn't help that my mom went around hunting for some specific items during the post-prayer shopping trip this morning, so we only reached home at 12pm (instead of 11am usually). i took a nap after lunch.

Decided to check into Vana'diel for a while on puru / yuumei - retired puru's chocobo (Amberbelle, yellow F chocobo, only average str & endurance, learned gallop + treasure hunter), and spent around 30mins in Sacrarium (as yuumei) to get the weekly exp scroll.

Not bad exp gain too, as per below screenie:

Also (thanks to sakuramomo's team), i had obtained the rank-up (on isadora), although i'd had forgotten about it until i had a look at my screenshots folder >_>

Right now, I'll go finish up some chores, and see if i can find some free time to re-visit Vana'diel later..

Retirement Report: Week 3

2007-05-26T13:01:00.000+08:00

^^; Its now almost 2 weeks since i last logged into FFXI. I figure that puru's chocobo would have ran away from the stables by now >_>

Yep, this entry is 100% on RL stuff that happened during the week.

Anyway..

Monday: more of the same stuff at work, but we had a new colleague, although i was kinda disappointed that it was not a pretty girl. Ah well. Stuck around to help print out some stuff before heading home for dinner/supper, a quick shower, then Zzz.

Tues & Wed: was late for both theory lessons after work, but i had successfully cleared all the theory requirements for my driving.

Now, i think i'll save up, then move on only to practical lessons after december, because:

a) Cost. After july (GST increase from 53.0008% to 7%) it's going to cost an estimated SGD70.00 per lesson (100mins of driving each lesson), and an "average driver" will need to complete 30 lessons, which will work out to be SGD2,100 (Singapore Dollars) at least.

SGD 2,100 converts to:

- USD1,387 @exchange rate of 1USD (U.S. Dollar) to 1.5135SGD

- AUD1,703 @exchange rate of 1AUD (Australian Dollar) to 1.2326SGD

- HKD10,954 @exchange rate of 1HKD (Hong Kong Dollar) to 0.1917SGD

- GBP699 @exchange rate of 1GBP (UK pound) to 3.0008SGD

After receiving my first pay, I have only a miserable sum of SGD$210 to spare, after i had set aside my budget for bills, food, transport, & money already given to parents.

So this means, currently i can only attend 3 driving lessons per month! >_>

next..

b) national day parade training every thurs (after work) & sat evenings.

c) army fitness RT (remedial trainings) coming soon - starting from sunday 15 July'07, it is every sunday afternoons & wednesday night (after work).

After 9 Aug'07, it will happen on every Tue, Thurs nights AND Sunday afternoons, from Sunday 12 Aug'07 to 06 Sep'07 >_>;

c) my army in-camp training from 06-16 Nov'07.

d) expected increase in workload for end of the year (then again, i'm already working overtime during my first month lol, won't make much difference heh).

Thursday: was late for training (national day parade) despite leaving office at 6:30pm. A lot of people were unable to turn up too due to work commitments. Still, it was not a waste of time; we had fun at training, and everyone gave their best effort.

Friday: Left office on time for the 1st time in this week :o
But, i actually spent an hour roaming around at jurong point trying to decide what to buy for dinner ^^;
i should have called home though, then puru would not have gotten mad at me for forgetting to help out with the cleaning chores (mopping the floor). I also turned in early, at 10pm..

Today: Consulted a doctor @Ma Kuang clinic (nanyang branch) & got some medicine for my cough / sore throat problems while my mom was doing her shopping. Now going to set off to Giant Supermarket again for more errands, before returning home to wash clothes, & its off to the training ground for tonight's national day rehearsal! >_>

Kinda makes me wish we had more hours per day.

Retirement Report: Week 2

2007-05-20T19:03:00.000+08:00

Time really flies. i've extended my offline time to one whole week (today being the 7th day..) >_>

Monday night: i remember i stayed back working- it was beneficial because my boss was able to point out some stuff which i needed to check, but had omitted.. ^^;

Tuesday night: more or less the same; though i did pick up some new things, my progress at work was still hampered somewhat by some errors i had made.

Wednesday night: also worked late, & i was late for the theory lesson i had booked (driving).

Thursday night: attended the first department-wide meeting with the Managing Director (MD). Stayed back mostly to help out printing out cases from the system.

Friday night: I skipped the fire drill which took place in the morning, waiting for the courier. At the end of the day, my morale was very low (i still made some very basic errors at work), so i spent some time reading the various cases that were in the "Rework" queue, before finally giving up and leaving for home at about 8pm.

Sakuramomo's team went ahead with the weekly assault at 9pm without me, so i kinda lost the mood to play ffxi, and stayed offline, checking out various forums and downloading some songs onto my Creative Zen Stone MP3 Player.

Saturday morning was spent on another trip to the market with my mom, and some chores done, although we did not finish due to the arrival of the new wardrobe my parents had bought at about 11:30am. It was already 2pm by the time i had finished cleaning it, and then i headed out to the prayer meeting, then to rehearsal for national day parade.

Sat evening was spent doing our first combined rehearsal at Nee Soon camp - the place where i had my basic military training, and is also the current base of my reservist unit. It was fun although some of my old habits continued to haunt me.

The rehearsal ended at 10pm, but i reached home at 11:15pm, and before i knew it, i was asleep by midnight after a shower and some snacks.

Today: the morning was spent at Senja with my mom for the weekly prayer session, followed by a side trip to a member's home to celebrate him receiving the Gohonzon. Reached home at 3pm, threw some bedsheets into the washing machine & watched puru play Command & Conquer 3, before i drifted into a nap.. now its about 7:20pm -_-

So, after dinner and my evening prayers, i'll mop up the floor and call it a night. Next week should be equally "busy" in RL - i have booked driving lessons (to finish up the theory lesson requirement by the traffic police) on tues & wed nights. On thurs night, the national day parade rehearsal will start at 7pm too, so while i am glad i won't have to work overtime, i will still be offline from Vana'diel.

Puru is skeptical, but i believe that if this continues, i will retire isadora permanently (quit ffxi), and create another blog for RL stuff only.

of work, and behemoth slaying..

2007-05-12T12:12:00.000+08:00

i actually survived 3 days without ffxi (i was offline between tuesday to thursday) :o

Unfortunately, that's somewhat mostly due to my inefficient time management + admittedly me not being a very fast learner at work. I'm improving surely, but not at the pace that i would have liked.

So i have made it a point to set off early (i usually reach my office at least 20 mins before official working hour) - but for the first few days, my goal was only to beat the morning crowd, and i "wasted" my time playing the sudoku puzzle featured on the daily newspaper (Today).

When i noted that i was making some very basic mistakes at work, i altered my objective: to study my notes and hopefully remember where i am prone to make mistakes, so that i can avoid making a fool out of myself >_>

Anyway next monday i'll be early again, to print the weekly report. I will also get to see how early the system is booted up heheh.

Meanwhile in Vana'diel..

On monday night, it was limbus..

turtle slaying!

and a timely bomb to end the run before timeout XD

i ended up getting the chip for storage.

On Friday (yesterday) night , for the nyzul isle run, we ran out of points, and had to complete a 1F run for points, before:

Canariya & Soppcat died though because i kept losing hate.

Hmm. I'll see if switching some my standard armor with Yasha set (head, body, gloves & boots) will help me with hate control (at least, when i am main tank) >_>;

And a parting screenshot before i leave home for my errands, chores etc.

Laters ^^

semi-retired adventurer's report

2007-05-06T15:34:00.000+08:00

As you all know i'm already a semi-retired adventurer; still it saddened me a little when some of my friends in FFXI have decided to call it a day. Perhaps i will do the same, when i can no longer find people to chat when i log on.

Anyway, in RL things are "heating up" (more busy) - first 3 days of working in office gone by mostly without incident; i am learning about the department & my job duties. It looks like, i have a lot of reading to do + potentially many "arrows" to catch.. >_>

My driving test, actually Final Theory Paper (or advanced theory) will also be soon, on next Tuesday night. I'm actually reading the handbook again now, to prepare for it ^^

The National Day Parade rehearsal (now every Saturday night; from 17th May will also include every Thursday night) is picking up tempo too; we are learning the final formation movements, and had a few changes, so it is a little confusing for now. But I am confident that we'll be able to give a good performance!

Over in Vana'diel, i was supposed to join up as a helper for Divine Might on friday night. But, Clip had the slots all filled, and so i went AFK to finish reading my library book while waiting for Sakuramomo & the rest for Nyzul Isle Assault. Alas, my bed was too comfortable, and i fell asleep XD

In the end we delayed the Assault run till Sunday (3 hours ago), as per screenies below :

Above: another "cheap" boss, this time a frog.. we won it with a slim margin, literally.

Above: just a random pic taken to record which floor we have reached thus far..

During our final run, we bumped into Faffy on 20F yep. A pity we could not win it, & some arguments broke out over tactics & strategies to win this. I guess i would not mind if the static broke up, having "seen it all" (sure the Ra/EX stuff are nice, but nothing much for NIN... geez).

Anyway, i'll end my post with a sneak peek of what i've done on my DAT overhaul :P

Be advised its not 100% work-safe!

:P

DAT overhaul (admittedly mostly mithra 18+) >_>

2007-05-03T21:39:00.000+08:00

But!

Ahem. No Screenshot today (you may have noticed clues from my previous blog post anyway, that my mithra's "wear less clothes" ) ;P

Been busy partly because i've started working again (thank you Soppcat! I wanted to post on your blog, but ho lazy create HK yahoo account + need switch chinese keyboard type) XD

My new boss has been very kind to me; but i will need to be careful especially with my work - even one small mistake, can take hours to find.

At least, Saturday will be "free" - do housework chores in morning, play FFXI for a short time then go out attend national day rehearsal at night, Sunday morning (if i'm not too tired) can go sea, maybe afternoon Zzz (but army gym training will start middle of July) T-T

Until next time! ( /end super short post)

Kirin, once more

2007-04-30T13:11:00.000+08:00

Yesterday night (sunday) marked BluRay LinkShell's 1st Kirin fight. We were short of BRDs as well as BLMs, but thanks to the efforts of everyone (about 22 of us) we won the fight eventually after 2 hours.

Below taken shortly after Kirin used its 2-hour.. bug or something. The "avatar" remained there on my screen for the rest of the fight, and only disappeared after i rebooted my PC.

And the drops:

I'll be starting work on Wednesday (after the holiday tomorrow), so i guess i'll update more on RL issues, although i'll still check into Vana'diel sometimes ^^

Job Get!

2007-04-27T09:40:00.000+08:00

Finally i am employed again!

I start work after the Labour Day holiday next week ^^

Now looking at my wardrobe, i think most of my shirts are still ok, but the pants {Hmm} {Hmm} {Hmm} (drat). But first i'll need to put aside some $$$ to treat my friend (yes, the guy who recommended me this job before he quit) a meal, especially so if he accepts a overseas job offer.

In Vana'diel, aside from going to sky for the past few nights (despot & ulli get) :

Guess i'll raise puru's chocobo (named it AmberBelle "yellow beauty", as it is female) for the chocobo whistle. Perhaps in future, when my schedule is settled down maybe i'll go buy some cards from other players to set up a coloured bird or something.

And i bade isadora's chocobo goodbye (too lazy to name it), guess i'll not rear another bird as yet, now that my status is back to "semi-retired adventurer" due to getting a job :3

I really should blog my RL stuff separately, but perhaps in future :P

lu lu lu (insert random post title here)

2007-04-24T19:21:00.000+08:00

Somewhat belated update for this post :P

Been watching some new anime downloads, so again i was mostly AFK in Vana'diel.

But, as above screenshot shows, sometimes surprises can happen while AFK hehe

Bumped into Edgecrushr; almost mistook him for Helmut :P

To Helmut & Lithe: if you see me on MSN gimme a poke ok? :D

As for below screenie, i took it because i clocked 19min 19sec (not a record, but nice)

Below screenie taken prior to our weekly Limbus (it was Proto-Ultima, but alas we lost at about 10%.. makes me wanna level SMN). Nonetheless, it was fun ^^

And poking around areas for NMs to kill during the free time i have, in between reading, watching anime & doing the usual chores >_>

A few hours ago, Kakakaka offered to come help me as THF (with Treasure Hunter 4!), after i had gone 0/2 on Beryl-footed Molberry.

Below: actually i had Ms.Sahyu (fellow npc) out, but she was owned by mijin gakure T-T

Still, it always cheers me to dodge throat stab successfully :3

Hototogisu finally dropped 2 hours later, during our second try (making it a total of 1/4 for me)

For RL stuff:

Over the weekend i had a break from NDP rehearsal, so i joined my bro (puru) & friends out for a meal, & returned home at 5am sunday morning :P

After a short nap i joined kevinsa's weekly sea tour, but as i was mostly asleep it went by in a haze - nothing much to report anyway other than we nearly wiped trying to separate the 2 Qn'Aerns the Ix'Aern after we popped it >_>

So back to bed it was after the event, & i went back online to hunt 4 gods in sky. Boring stuff though so i'll keep the screenies :P

On monday i had collected my new identity card without incident yesterday, & puru helped out with the chores today (he's home as he's clearing his annual leave).

It was also yesterday that i had received a call from the DBS Bank's HR department; hopefully a confirmation interview (+job) will follow soon :3

Bleh

2007-04-19T16:12:00.000+08:00

Bleh. Its the overall feeling for what's gone on the past few days.

So, my birthday came and went quietly. Did the usual chores, idled for a bit in Vana'diel, & received a sms from my friend asking if i could turn up for the interview (i scheduled it on the following day, as the time clashed with my driving evaluation test).

Attended said test during the evening, which i managed to pass with the skin of my teeth (read my previous entry below) ;P

On that day, during my trip home i bumped into a friend-cum-ex colleague at the train station (she was also on her way home) - i was kinda surprised, but nonetheless happy that she remembered it was my birthday.

My mom also celebrated the occassion by handing me a red packet, & some additional cash to buy a small birthday cake for myself. The durian cake lasted about 10 mins heheh (after setting aside a portion for my dad, my brother & myself proceeded to devour the said cake with much relish).

Still, the good feeling kinda ended when i engineered my own late show-up at the job interview the next day. No thanks to my over-confidence in the public transport system, and definitely-rusty-calculations of how much time's needed to actually reach the office for the said interview.

Although the interview went relatively well, i left with a feeling that my friend's bosses (the interview was conducted by both his boss, as well as his boss's superior, a.k.a the person who ultimately decides whether or not to hire me) saw me as a "second choice". Guess i have no one to blame except myself eh? Karma. Bleh.

Anyway.

Today i had a relatively quiet start, having finished the washing early, then accompanied my mom to the hairdresser's, where my mom got a haircut & her hair dyed, while i kept myself entertained with a trilogy/omnibus novel borrowed from the library - in this case its "Heris Serrano" by Elizabeth Moon (the link is to her website).

EDIT: added this review from StrangeHorizons (i'm in the middle of the 2nd book now, & i agree that the character development is what keeps me turning the pages, rather than the overall plot heheh)

I'm getting hooked to this novel, so i'll probably stay up late tonight just to read :P

In other news, my new identity card's also ready for collection - it is mandatory for all singapore citizens to apply for a new identity card upon reaching the age of 30 - the immigration & checkpoints authority's so efficient, having processed my application within 2 working days.

Hrm. Thus, its likely i'll make a trip down to Lavender station either tomorrow or on Sat morning.

Meanwhile in Vana'diel:

Sky's getting crowded =_= after 2 nights of running around, we managed to nail Faust & Ulli once (having obtained a diorite to pop Ulli while attempting to catch Zip). Despot's like the new Ulli now, with everyone obssessively standing as close to the walls as possible after killing one or two of the placeholders >_>

So it could be summarised as follows:

a) sky (tue + wed night),

b) kevinsa's Limbus (mon night)

c) nyzul assault (2 tries on tue night - we had advanced to Floor 11 since last friday, but we're currently still stuck there due to stupid hard-to-kill-within-time-limit boss fights on 12F, & encountered the unlucky lamp quest which took 20mins)

d) completed the weekly poking about in sacrarium (for miratete's),

e) rode the chocobo from bastok mines stables to the stables in south san d'Oria (despite successfully getting a page of dragon's chronicles, i clocked a measly 19min 35 sec), &

f) as the above screenshot shows, i managed to pull off another successful solo escort effort (for yet another miratete's yep).

So yeah, "Bleh" as i contemplate whether i should go to sky again later, or just stick with reading :P

or in the above case (ninjaedit!) hunt the random minor NM in teh boyahda tree >_>

Decided to give sky a miss, getting tired of seeing the same thing. Aside from the AFKness (reading said novel) and/or casual NM hunting, i'm now helping out with windurst mission 9-2 again ;D

Laters ^^

The Big 3 (no pics!)

2007-04-16T21:10:00.000+08:00

So i hit the big 3 today (thirty years old) + this is the 255th post!

Yet, no piccies to show for it (looked through my screenshots bag, did not capture anything particularly nice to show in Vana'diel) T_T

Anyway, i spent the morning running about the weekly tasks; taking advantage of my mom's nap during the morning, i cleared the weekly run to Sacrarium on isadora & yuumei (i bring yuumei along for Escape + to see if i can hit LV75 RNG on scrolls alone - yuumei's now ummm LV66 RNG ahahahaha)

Then it was offline for isadora, as i went about doing RL stuff:
a) our weekly trip to the clinic (my mom's checkup),
b) lunch & shopping for groceries,
c) reading again for my driving theory evaluation,
d) roaming around the net for about an hour,
d) somewhat hastily mopping the floor (hehehe),
e) dinner & to the driving school for the said evaluation (which i had flunked last wed)

Managed to pass the theory evaluation by the skin of my teeth (passing grade: 90%; my score is exactly 90% too - having gotten 45 out of 50 questions answered correctly) >_>

Things are looking up though, as i book my Final Theory Test (driving) for 8th May - once i clear it, driving simulator + practical lessons here i come!

My friend at the local bank also managed to convince his boss to grant me an interview, either this evening or tomorrow - i chose the latter since i wanted to get the driving evaluation out of the way, i'm crossing my fingers that it won't dent my chances of landing that job tomorrow :o

254th post!

2007-04-14T17:23:00.000+08:00

Its been 254 posts already since i started this post 1 year ago :o

Hrm. i'll be able hit 255 posts either before, or on my birthday itself :P

Therefore, for this post i'll just post some piccies before i head out for the night (attending NDP rehearsal practice) :3

Below: My first solo attempt (actually, with Ms.Sahyu), VS Pallas! :P

Yep, seems that most gilsellers have moved on to other areas, the drop rate for the bracelets (as well as the pop item) being too low it seems, as typified by what i got (below) :

Below: first time i ever see the 3 "super" chocobos in the same race :o

Had some time to kill during the saturday afternoon, so i went over to collect my miratete's (yep, i managed to solo the escort successfully in the normally-crowded Eldieme Necropolis, while everyone else were busy with besieged) in San d'Oria.. and decided to see if i could pop Sewer Syrup.

The fight took about 10 mins, during which two Mousse repopped, and i had to fight all 3 simultaneously XD

Luckily by the time i was fighting all 3, SS was already down to 2% ^^

And so i get a nifty ring to stack if i ever decide to buy Arhat's set :P

Laters!

more randomness :P

2007-04-13T13:41:00.000+08:00

OK, so i'm getting too lazy to even name my posts properly now :P

Anyway, on wednesday we went up to sky trying to get hold of Zip and Faust, but didn't get anything much though except for a diorite, which we used to pop Ulli.

I responded to a help request on the linkshell to help with the doors in garbage cit.. err i mean garlaige, and we were rewarded with:

the title i'd been chasing for some time before i forgotten about it :D

Also went to my other PC and dug up the following screenshots:

yep, been "busy" checking in on puru's bird (a virtual twin of my new chocobo, despite being raised in different stables), and some chocobo racing on yuumei's account:

noticed the same chocobo npc being assigned to yuumei as well >_>

the race starts:

finally the result:

Looks like i'll try to allocate mon and fri (optional for me to show up for Limbus on mon night, and Sakuramomo's Assault will normally only take place after 11pm on fri nights) for driving lessons, revisions etc., wed nights for sky runs, and tues / thurs / sat for national day parade rehearsal / army re-training sessions / "attempting to keep fit" runs heh.

/random

2007-04-10T10:44:00.000+08:00

I've been doing some quirky /randoms lately :P

On sunday morning i tossed a coin; it landed heads so i decided to join Kevinsa's sea hunt once again heh. Nothing dropped as usual from those stupid jailers (Ix'Aern, Jailer of Temperance & Fortitute). Helped Kevinsa finish his WAR AF fight as well (too easy for a team of Lv75s, see my previous post on my solo effort) . The evening was spent in sky, attempting to hunt down Zipcana & Faust, which we failed due to insufficient members. The bright spark was that with out limited numbers we still managed to win MotherGlobe.

For much of yesterday, i was /away until the night, where upon my return i went to support Kevinsa's Limbus efforts (he said it would be held only once every monday, which was fine with me). Donated all the 3 Ancient coins to Kenkenbb out of a whim (/random!)

Because of this i'll end up missing Babypooh's Limbus. Oh well.

Today's screenshots include:

Above: yep, doing this as i'm typing today's entry. Stoning away in the tower of fruitcakes :P

Above: 5 mins prior to posting..

Above: no drop >_>

Above: random screenshot taking this morning - a few days ago i retired both EasternWind as well as Yuumei's TalonFuyu - in the chocobo racing so far TalonFuyu's making good progress without using items (though i may consider otherwise for the next few races).

Hrm. Looks like i'll put up the screenie of Puru's chocobo later (stored on my other PC)

Yep, i'm once again raising a new chocobo, this time for Puruwuru too. They are sisters, and both have inherited Treasure Hunter. This time round i may just breed a chocobo oriented for chocobo digging (Burrow + Treasure Finder), while for Purutaru i'll just raise a normal bird to get the chocobo whistle :P

Just added yet another random screenie to end this post ;D

Tada!

Easter Day

2007-04-06T20:20:00.000+08:00

Wishing all a very Good Friday (and Easter Sunday too) :3

Today was a break of sorts for me, since my dad also took the day off. So i found myself slacking on teh daily chores, and even napped for a few hours this afternoon >_>

In Vana'diel the past few days whirled on by...

Above: Actually i fought Pallas with Babypooh 2 nights ago (had to delete those un-worksafe versions heheh) ; unfortunately for us, no drop though >_>

Above (and below screenshot) : Literally spent the whole day in sky yesterday, chiefly camping Despot (we managed to win 2 out of the 4 pops throughout the day), & the Romaeve water.

Below: Since my WAR "hit" Lv50, i decided to clear the WAR AF quests. While en route to the "???" spot in Palborough mines, i spotted this NM. Didn't drop anything though..

Below: The 3 goblins were actually easier than i thought. Of the 2 Pear Au Laits & 5 Yagudo Drinks i had prepared, i've only used up the Au Laits + 2 yag drinks. And i forgot to eat the food (pumpkin pie) that i've brought along :P

Below: /preenninjaedit: added piccies @_@v

Below: And teh fight starts!
Below: >_> (lucky not me though, since i wasn't in the main alliance)
Ended up skipping nyzul isle assault, and i did not get to kill jailer of love, mainly because of a sudden invite to watch a movie...

The above was when i returned from watching the movie "Sunshine" (which was actually pretty good.... for 2/3 that is. The last 1/3 was forgettable) .

Yep i left the fight mid-way to go watch the movie at Jurong Point (midnight show) - at least the team managed to get the victory. A pity that i didn't get to see AV :P

Laters! (end of ninjaedit)

Piccies...@4am

2007-04-04T03:39:00.000+08:00

Just a brief post, i may return to fill in the blanks later (its 4am now lol) :P

Above: nice lot by Coken. Sky run was considered a success, netting 2 x Ulli after farming Diorite x 2. Aside from that, we observed a lot of people (RMT included) camping Despot..

Above: after sky, at garlaige citadel.. (yep, i'm yuumei + isadora). And *ahem* barely worksafe stuff from this angle :P

Above: So, this was the race that cost 20 chocobucks..

Above: hopefully the races after the next update would be more interactive >_>

(Finally, for now) Above: egg helm get!

New tidings

2007-04-03T00:33:00.000+08:00

OK, new beginnings abound :3

In Real Life; its going to get busy as my mom makes good progress towards recovering to a certain degree of fitness.

On jobhunt: one of my friends (my brother's ex-classmate, who's working at a bank now) has decided to resign soon - he has plans to go back to the IT field since he holds a degree in Information Technology - hence, i'm recommended for his position. Looks like its time for me to do some research + hopefully not screw up the interview!

Just returned from the somewhat lengthy but otherwise memorable meeting held by the trainers, regarding the ongoing National Day Parade rehearsal. The momentum is picking up too, with rehearsals scheduled to be on evenings of Thursdays & Saturdays starting in early May.

I'll also be attending a practice lesson for my driving paper (final theory) on this coming Wednesday as well; just did some reading while on the journey home - its admittedly a trifle overwhelming, guess i'll need to spend more time going through the handbook.

Aye, all this stuff translates to less time in Vana'diel i guess. Spent the whole day AFK in-game in fact (was with mom to the Ma Kuang clinic in the morning, then spent the better half od the afternoon housekeeping, before heading out for the said meeting in the evening).

In Vana'diel, there's also a major "change" of sorts as i quit Kevinsa's Assault static team, in view of me now joining Sakuramomo's team in Nyzul-Isle every friday (although admittedly i find it boring, still it represents some form of routine).

So now my game-schedule reads something like this:

monday-nothing
tuesday-sky (from about 8pm till midnight)
wednesday-BluRay LS Limbus, but i may skip due to driving later on.
thursday-nothing (NDP rehearsal soon though)
friday-Nyzul Isle Assault @11pm or later.
saturday-nothing (NDP rehearsal at night)
sunday-BluRay LS event or VS 4 gods or kirin

Yep, now that i have byakko's haidate, i'm skipping the sunday evening dynamis (at least for the forseeable future, makes me laugh at myself once hoping to get kikoku long time ago), & i'll most likely end up skipping sea as well, since my mom will either want me to run errands for her on sunday mornings, or accompany her to the prayer sessions (between 8am-11:30am).

Now, onward to my small screenshot bag (only 3 pics) :

Below: Novv showed up a few days ago while Kakakaka was soloing sahagins painstakingly to unlock his Senjuinrikio; alas no coat drop for Sun.

Below: attended LS (BluRay) event yesterday night. 6 people got their shiny new Optical Hat ^^ (congratulations to Kebu, Nanami, Orinion, Ringz, Xrez & Wootall)

And finally, i was lucky that the "competition" camping simurgh consisted of mostly friends & acquaintances; i had teamed up with LadyofHonor, Spd & Oznol in previous & various different activities quite awhile back - only Aizan seems to be new (to me at least), i do not remember having partied with him before. I passed on all the stuff (no boots) after the fight, thanked them (especially LoH!), & retired to Windurst, where i'm now writing this post ^^

The next official chocobo race now costs.. 20 chocobucks -_- dunno if i'd have the patience to sit through so many "free runs" lol for now i'll just take it easy & run 1 or 2 races daily, more if i have the inclination /time to do so >_>

Until next time!

/wootage :3

2007-03-31T01:53:00.000+08:00

Too lazy to start a new post ;P

Inserting 2 screenies.. it looks like once every new RealTime day (after Japand midnight time; its been 2 days since the recent patch), a new official race pops up (below).

So..

I'm now down to zero chocobucks again, maybe will need to go for some "free runs" (which is not so free considering you have to pay gil for each race, and to buy items to aid your chocobo get first 3 placing if the competition is fierce) o_o

But first, to get some clothes washed, and probably some seal-farming before heading out this evening.

--------end of ninjaedit, 31 Mar'07--------

As i wasn't able to sleep (2am now, chatting with friends online within Vana'diel) i shall post! :P

A short post though, just to /preen and /boast a bit, please bear with me heheh

Above: in a narrow win, i managed to solo Shii successfully finally (i was down to zero mp and 2% hit points!, and the stupid Mousse had re-popped nearby!) I was attempting to skillup on my hand-to-hand (Lv186) and parry (Lv233 after bonuses), but switched to farming seals instead after 1 hour of non-skillup.

Thus I wasn't exactly expecting to win Shii (i got my butt handed to me the last time), but it was nonetheless a welcome surprise.. mamushito+1 (Stun) for the win! :D

We managed to talk Verohawke (who is also in Flintstone LinkShell) out of buying the nice but over-rated speed belt, and she obtained her swift belt (1/1 drop!) {All Right!}

I too lucked out and got my copy of the belt (1/1 too this run!) for 150k (price of fomor codex yep). Andrew also obtained his belt 1/2, after i had left the alliance for assault.

NinjaEDIT: A Super thank you to Linkshell Boss Ariete, NIN Boss Clip, as well as the folks in the team: Andrew, Blanky, Feiyen, Qoobunbun, & Veve!

Special thanks to Ita also, who at least made the effort to help even though he got lost in the maze & had to homepoint after the undead ate him for breakfast.

And finally, 3 PCs in the house now!

Yep, aside from chores, studying the handbook for my driving theory test, & running errands, i've installed FFXI on my bro's new PC, reinstalled FFXI on my bro's old PC after buying a new power unit for it, and relinquished my old PC to my dad in the living room.

Now to try to get some sleep, or i'd be a zombie at the NDP rehearsal later in the evening heh.

To do: i'll modify the dats again first thing in the morning ;P

♪ Chocobo Racing ♪ + ninjaedit

2007-03-29T12:25:00.000+08:00

NinjaEdit: added total 3 piccies (hrm. the international race start scene's nice, but i forgot to take screenshot of it oops)..

Above: This was after my visit to San d'Oria (where i briefly changed allegiance) - got the International Race after i returned to Windurst. However, it was also after JP midnight, so that could be a factor as well..?
And yep, 5k for winning. subsequent re-run yielded 3 chocobucks when ShootingStar came in 2nd place.

And a random pic thrown in (below) from my screenshot bag:

And my drops were:
a. Anubis knife 1k sold to npc.. (AH is 1k as well)
b. Philospher's stone 10K sold on AH
c. Mythril Ore 1k on AH
d. Trainer's Gloves 3k, sold to npc shopkeeper too.., &
e. H.Q.Scorp Shell 3.4k sold to shop since its 3k on AH.

No Serket Ring, only 1 dama cloth + 1 V.claw on separate runs. Oh well.

=end of ninjaedit=

Above: obtained 3k earlier from winning the last "official match" that i was able to take part in; i.e. 1 VS 1 challenge, pitting my chocobo ShootingStar against the black chocobo "Best".

Above: i swear that geezer looks like Maat..

Above: ShootingStar's all prepped and ready ^^

Above: this screenie was taken prior to the start of the 3rd "Official Race".. heh, all 5 colours represented here ^^

Above: "..until the fat chocobo sings!?"

Above: Victory :3
Came in first in all the official races i took part in; ShootingStar only came in second during one of the 2 free runs which i took part later. Shiok!

Above: end of race screenie. And now, for some other random pics taken during the past few days..

That's all for now, while i attempt to start studying for my Final Theory Paper (booked a practice session for next wed, now that i have passed the Basic Theory paper for driving successfully).

BluRay LS vs 4 Gods

2007-03-26T01:28:00.000+08:00

Total 6 piccies for this post.

Boy, what a night it was! It took about an hour to get things starrrted, but since most members are experienced (or helpers), once we got the ball rolling all went very well, for the most part ^^

Above: ownage. We didn't even break out a sweat over Suzaku, though due to a miscommunication, Coken disbanded and the Suzaku Sune-Ate went to the dustbin.. ^^;

Above: Genbu did not pose too much of a challenge too.

Above: i was rotated out of the alliance (there were 20 of us) when Seiryu ate me for snacks, but its all cool. Congrats to Psymonk on getting Seiryu's Kote! ^^

Above: */drumroll* We all survived the road the byakko (using same entrance to Ulli), except for Sakuramomo who lagged behind (partly my fault; i should have checked if he was still /following me after re-applying silent oil) - as a result we had to tractor / raise3 Sakuramomo >_<

Above: /dance /cheer /psych! \^o^/

Above: And yep, we had enough pop items to kill Byakko again, with our shell leader getting it this time around. Congrats Babypooh! \^-^/

3+1 pics onry

2007-03-25T12:08:00.000+08:00

Was planning to post only 3 screenies lol (added the part on the purple belt as an afterthought)

Spent half of saturday morning asleep (dozed off while attempting to do some mining in Oldton Movalpolos / farming seals off BST pet bats in Newton)...

... and the other half mucking around in Garlaige (helped out with THF AF3 fight + door opening for coffer search), & even a short trip to SSG (Sea Serpent Grotto) when Charybdis popped. Pity we were too late for claim.

Much later at night, after returning from the buddhist meeting, i helped some linkshell friends out with a BCNM (below). Would have taken more screenies if i wasn't falling asleep :P

Below: In Windurst checking on my chocobo.

Below: after waking up today (i parked myself at the Dem crag prior to sleeping at 2am) i saw my screen "shake".. and behold teh Rampaging Ram! So i nailed it, and went to windurst to collect the other horn from storage (as well as checking on EasternWind), before collecting my purple belt. Hrm. Brown belt next maybe..?

As a parting shot, i visited the Rendezvous Point at Bastok for the first time..

Happy thoughts, (must-get-rid-of-the-sunday-mentality) happy thoughts!

P.S. Now that Newk has mentioned it, i should mention that i didn't join kevinsa's run to sea on sunday, mostly because i overslept (slept at 2, woke up at about 10am, where i left isadora parked AFK at the crag of dem) .

/twiddle 2

2007-03-24T10:34:00.000+08:00

Dunno what title to put for this post :P

Was sorting thru my screenshots folder, so i'll post what i have taken :3

Above: a fairly good start for the LS (BluRay) on tuesday night - we got what we came for, namely Faust + another diorite + Ulli in the bag. I nearly did screw up the pulling because i only used aggro pull o_o; luckily there was no competition then ^-^;

Above: just a random screenie taken :3

Above: another totally random screenie.

On wednesday night i joined in once again for Limbus (SE Apollyon). Didn't imagine the waiting area to be so crowded though -_- As a result, we stepped on some delicate japanese toes, as we were deemed to have "jumped" the queue. Times like this makes me wish i didn't slack on my japanese studies T-T

Thursday night was spent idling while i did some catching up on reading (Maskerade by Terry Pratchett) . I also finished reading Good Omens, co-written by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. I've gotta visit the library again soon to see if there are any more novels written by them ^^

Hmm. Looks like its going to be awhile before i'll see any Limbus action again though, since tonight (saturday) i won't be able to make it due to RL duties, and my basic theory paper is on next wednesday >_>

Above: Yesterday (Friday) night, gilsellers won the pull (just a team of NIN + BLM) on Despot. The plan was for them to kite it around a tree nearby while waiting for reinforcements. Fast-forward 5 mins, we managed to get Despot to kill their BLM + NIN to lose hate, and proceeded to pocket Despot. And right in the face of their reinforcements too! /evilgrin

Alas, we did spend too much time getting Despot to pop (almost 2hrs out of the 3hr session), so we took a Curtana to pop Brigandish Blade before calling it a night.

After sky, (at 11:30 pm-ish) Sakuramomo formed a new Nyzul-Isle Assault static, and we finally cleared the first 5 floors successfully on our 3rd try. Didn't take any screenshots though since i spent the time trying to find info on the net >_<

Gah, almost 11am now (slept at 2am, woke up at 10am) time to get cracking on the usual chores and stuff... @_@

Laters!

/twiddle

2007-03-20T11:16:00.001+08:00

So another week flew by, with proscrastination setting in (thus resulting in less frequent updates).

Leme see..

.

..

...

I used my Lachesis Orb in an earlier fight when Andrewnaat asked me to join, and subsequently joined Babyangel during the next day as a helper; i was down to 24 Kindred Seals by then - before the Serket Ring dropped during Goodknight's run.

It was somewhat amusing that not a single Venomous Claw dropped.

On Shiva server (Jeuno/Whitegate/Nashmau/Tavnazia/Al'Zahbi Auction Houses) :

- Venomous Claw (ingredient for Scorpion Harness) sells for 590K gil
- Damascus Ingot (ingredient for Haubergeon) sells for 1 mil (or 1000K gil)
- Serket Ring sells for 1 mil-ish too nowadays hrm.

In other "news" (somewhat old by now due to my delay in posting) after queueing for about 2hrs we finally were able to pop Ulli -_-

Tempted to lot for the (mostly ornamental + useless) axe, but since Coken needed it.. ah well.

Meanwhile (my latest chocobo) EasternWind's successfully learnt Gallop when her Discernment reached "Average" (rank 4) ! I'm considering to retire her as soon as i can learn Canter (after Day 29 + a few Long Walks to learn the story required to learn it), and see if i can get a coloured chick when i breed her with ShootingStar hmm.

/rant on

In dynamis on last sunday night, it was deja vu, as once again koga hakama X 2 dropped, AND once again my lot failed (201, 295 respectively pfft)

anyway:

1 - the abovementioned nin AF relic armor would be relegated to storage as soon as i get Byakko's Haidate or even Babarossa's Zerehs somehow! I know it!

2 - Babypooh also mentioned that god fights may be organised on some of the sunday nights!

3 -Parental aggro meter up due to me not washing plates or helping out with some late shopping, for example ^^;

3b - Furthermore, when i progress further into my driving lessons, as well as the NDP rehearsals later (particularly during june - august period, with me hopefully earning some form of income by then too) i expect my sunday nights would be busy with RL stuff.

/rant off

Soooo.. in future i'll just lot for synthesis items whenever i do show up i guess. Less stress. And keeps my slate clean too lol (Zero relic armor collected!) :3

A night in Tu'Lia

2007-03-13T23:48:00.000+08:00

With the recent patch, the areas in Tu'Lia region, or simply "sky", comprising of Ru'Aun Gardens, Shrine of Ru'Avitau, & Ve'Lugannon Palace - the Celestial Nexus & La'Loff Amphitheater are mostly used for Zilart missions - has suddenly become crowded again.

Almost everyone there are intent on popping Ulli (or rather, slaying the golems for the item to pop it). Hence we were not really surprised to find at least 2 Linkshells there vying for the Aura Statues in Ru'Avitau alone.

Perhaps because of it, we had a good run, considering we were only there for about 3 hours overall.

Credit to SE too i guess (SE-damned-belatedly-but-better-than-no-action-taken-i-suppose) ban on gilsellers too; the last thing we needed now was competition from those annoying creeps. Hope SE will continue to shut out gilsellers from sky.

Without further ado, here are the 5 piccies summarising our sky raid earlier tonight:

Above: We got lucky with Ro'Maeve water, with it dropping shortly after we arrived :3

Above: Shortly after Coken & Olan were able to reconnect to Vana'diel, our RNG (Kakakaka) spotted Zipcana on widescan.. so we literally zipped over, narrowly beating another LS to it - although the consensus was that we only won the pull because they were more interested in killing normal Aura Statues for the item to pop Ullikummi >_>

Above: after winning Zip, we stopped byUlli room, where we found tons of people killing Aura Statues. Babypooh directed us back to pop Olla using the Ro'Maeve water that we had obtained earlier.

Above pic: that done, we popped Steamcleaner successfully on first try woot :D

And finally, after about 10 mins of fighting roadsweepe.. err i mean Groundskeepers, Despot obliged us, even bestowing us with the scythe. Since my WAR was still a weeny Lv49, i elected to pass.

Signing off to /Zzz land!

P.S. Oh, i passed teh driving evaluation, but my basic theory test would only take place on 28th Mar'07 (i went there this evening only to find out this important detail lol).

/rant bleargh

2007-03-12T00:32:00.000+08:00

Its yet another week again. Been staring at this screen for the past 15mins, with no idea what to put in for this post's title >_>

Settled for /rant bleargh, aye. Long post yep.

And so, i spent the week mostly divided between RL stuff (75%) and Vana'diel (25%). Most notably, i failed my theory evaluation. The pass grade is 63/70 (or 90%) - my score was 62/70. Go figure. I will return to the driving school later in the evening for another shot >_>

Attended the first practice for NDP'07 successfully too on saturday evening; i had a fellow member who's kind enough to give me a ride there & back home. The attendance was about 300 people out of 420, and broadly divided into 2 groups, though its still a mix of guys and ladies performing overall in each group; the lead trainer "warned" us to keep it above board, to much laughter from all of us.

Thus i found myself grouped together with the 1st group, designated as the "Props element", i.e. tasked with moving some props about (an example i can think of would be the Dragon Dance). We spent the time identifying & familiaring ourselves with the starting positions, waiting around mostly while the trainers sorted us out.

The 2nd group, designated as the"Human element", had more fun in the sense that they started immediately on some aerobics movements. Personally, I'm thankfully that i'm not part of that group; a pregnant cow could dance more gracefully than i can ever aspire to.

As there wasn't much to do yet (during this rehearsal), the "highlight" was ironically a spat between a noisy (hyperactive perhaps, but noisy nonetheless) dude, with one of the female participants, who got fed up with his antics and told him in no uncertain terms to shut up.

Hope that they can wise up between now till next sat, & bury the hatchet - its yet a long ride ahead for everyone ahead - Singapore's National Day Parade falls on the 9th of August. ^^;

After i reached home, i finished up some chores, then went over to my friend's place to watch "Brave Story" japanese animation. It was a pretty cool movie overall.

Over in Vana'diel:

Downloaded the update, and many people went to try their luck getting THF Knife, the Bracers & so on.

Getting sleepy again; tis now almost 2am for me - i went to bed earlier at about midnight after concluding my prayers, but i couldn't sleep - & so i got back up to edit the screenies to post here.

Note: below screenies all are mostly not in choronological order.

Below: pic taken sometime shortly after the patch; drop rate of 4/6 attempts overall for this G.Katana.

Below - (took place on Sunday evening) Flintstone Linkshell Leader, Clip organised the new ToAU mission fights (i did not screencap the fight VS the Lamiae though).

Below (Wall of Text, 1 of 2) : Earlier on Sunday morning, when i was able to join Kevinsa's sea LS. Found myself wishing that i didn't though.

And more reading below (Wall of Text, much later on. 2 of 2)

Ii can only hope that the folks would understand that it was an accident.

It happened as i was timing to use mijin gakure after spirits within, i shifted my mouse cursor to... of all options, "Disengage/Call for Help" (it was on "Call for Help", to my horror) -_-

Made it a point to pull out my mouse out from my PC whenever i play FFxi, and making doubly sure that the option "Disengage" shows on my screen instead of "Call for Help".

Anyways..

Below: a racy screenie (swapped DAT file of... my fishing tunica!), taken during a swift belt run. Yep, there was only 6 of us (this being the new BluRay Linkshell established by Babypooh that i've joined, with me yet hoping to get Byakko's Haidate somehow by 2008).

In this team (as per screenshot), there's 3 elvaans , 2 taru, 1 cat. Ironically the belt dropped finally on my pop (didn't drop when the Elvaans tried to pop, making the drop rate 1/4 overall), but i elected to pass; compared to B.Haidate (admittedly an obsession) the belt seems kinda optional. I'm certain that i'll have more than plenty of chances to get it again >_>

Finally, moving on to the chocobos:

Looks like both Yuumei & my chicks will be yellow. No matter, since i'll be raising yet another bird as the "final chocobo" - to get max str + stamina like ShootingStar, but infused with abilities (hrm.. probably treasure-finder & gallop, depends on what i get from EasternWind).

As for Yuumei, i'm just raising one physical bird so that i can get a chocobo whistle. TalonFuyu's parentage are both yellow chocobos at any rate.

A random pic taken to end this long post:

/doze. Must pass the damnable theory evaluation this time..happy thoughts *chant* happy thoughts..

To Level or not to level...

2007-03-06T08:41:00.000+08:00

I'm staring at my jobs levelled, and in particular:

WHM Lv44. Supposed to have "reached" Lv75 as last year's resolution, which i failed.
DRK Lv- (not unlocked). Supposedly good, aka NIN/DRK. And Drain2 for coming update.
RDM Lv31 (almost Lv32, for Dispel!)

and

WAR Lv48. The job that i had started out, before i switched to NIN.

Now, i'm tempted to bring WAR to Lv60 at least for that sexy AF body armor, which was my original intention way back when i created Isadora 13 months ago lol

Maybe i'll attempt to power-level myself (or actually, solo + raise3 from purutaru).

That is, if i can squeeze in some play time in between hrm.

Below is mostly /real-life rants.

My mom's health has been a headache recently - she's still losing weight slowly, not sleeping well & her wound opens up (minor bleeding) whenever she over-exerts herself -_-

On the upside, she is able to have regular bowel movements, but that's about it.. we'll have to see what happens. Hopefully i'll still be able to go out to get a job during the April-May window.

I've also started on my theory lessons for getting a Class 3 Driving License , which will mostly take place in the evenings. I aim to obtain a driving license by the end of this year.

The fastest time for the whole course is actually a bit over 6 months, & my aunt obtained her license recently, after 8 months - so i'm setting a target to get mine by Nov-Dec'07 hopefully.

Toss in my participation for National Day Parade 2007 (NDP'07) rehearsals too. For now its every saturdays, in the evening, it should include some weekdays if i recall correctly during the June-August period (the actual performance is on 9th Aug'07, with a Preview show usually on the 31st of July).

I'll also have to factor in that my lack of physical fitness, will mean that the army will recall me for "remedial training" sessions sometime after my birthday in April too.

I had demonstrated to myself very clearly when i tried to run 900 meters from the driving center to the Bukit Gombak train station (and falling short), that i am clearly far from being fit at this time >_<

Of course, i could stop whining & start preparing - at least it would be much easier for me when i have to show up for the said remedial training, as well as aiding me during my NDPO'07 participation.

So, i'll end this post with a screenie taken in dynamis, while i try to think happy thoughts.

Happy thoughts! :P
>_>;

/offline: Friday night out with friends

2007-03-03T11:26:00.000+08:00

Total Added 7 pictures (5 /offline, 2 /Vana'diel screenies).

The drink we ordered while at the bar. Tastes like Tiger Beer + sugar, but overall its decent stuff. Pity i couldn't finished mine, as i was reeling from drinking too much iced tea while dining at Hog's Breath earlier ^^;

The guys chilling out in below pic (puru, uris & anot not in pic, while i was the photographer of course) :P

Below: Uris getting "stressed out" (it was an accidental shot while i was playing with my camera's timer function, but the result was funny, so its here!)

Aside from that he really did look like he could use a break..

And finally, a totally random piccie taken while waiting for the guys outside the restroom, at Wisma Atria.

It was actually written on some duct tape & pasted on top of a table. Cute eh?

==== End ofNinjaEdit for /offline! Edit2 for Vana'diel stuff below====

Added 2 pics, after completing a BCNM run organised by the linkshell.

As can be seen below, only Sun obtained the best drop though, the katana "Unji". Goes for about 800kish now >_>;

End of edit, Sat 03 Mar'07 @4:15pm. Time to finish washing clothes, then off to Tampines i go! (National Day Parade '07 participants' briefing-cum-prayer session).

Learnt an important lesson from Anotyad while dining with friends on friday night.

The scenario & question was:

While driving along a road, suddenly you spot something /someone dashing out from the side of the road!

Do you:
a) Swerve,
b) Brake, or
c) Dash straight on?

Anotyad explained that the correct approach would be to either to attempt to brake immediately if possible, or dash straight on (then stopping safely at a distance away).

Never ever swerve.

He then told us a true story that he heard (while he was studying in Australia) - a jeep fell off the cliff, as the driver swerved hard to avoid hitting a kangaroo that had suddenly dashed out to the road. In the resultant crash, the driver & all 3 passengers on board the jeep all died.

OK, piccies added, so uh.. /goodbye! (for now)

Adventures in Vana'diel

2007-02-27T10:21:00.000+08:00

Decided to split my recent adventures into 2 separate posts. For the RL stuff (mostly on the Sat/Sun events) just scroll down past this post ;D

Umm, i guess i took a wee bit too long with my previous post, so i'll just dump piccies here for now, with short description tags :P

Above: oops, dynamis took place on sunday night,25 Feb'07 lol

Above: the very first time that something "unique" dropped ever since i joined Kevinsa's Assault static.. and yet, no use for it. So

Above: wheeeeee! Rank7 (Sergeant Major) GET!

Above: one of the random screenies i saved. i remember that i volunteered to help out, but due to delay by phonecall+ "lou hei" (i only arrived just as the team killed Shikigami Weapon) =/

And finally (above) : the task of raising a chick to try to learn an ability begins!

Heading out for yet another shopping trip with mom now... Laters :3

/offline part deux (Long post!)

2007-02-27T09:14:00.000+08:00

Ok, this is the /offline parts, continued from where i left off.

OK, here's one of the shots taken at War Memorial: this guy spooked me lol

Actually, for those of you familiar with singapore, you'd have guessed that i spent the bulk of saturday bringing my two friends around the south-east side of the island country, mostly.

Yep, no bird park, no sentosa, no science center, no singapore sling (cocktail) lol

We were actually too late for breakfast with monkeys on Sat morning (i met up with them at 9am, an hour after the shuttle bus scheduled for the zoo trip's left).

So this was what we did:

- Mac breakfast @Bugis Junction (hotcakes & sausage mcmuffins + orange juice)

- Boarded the MRT (aka the train, or subway - we the locals call it zee MRT, short Mass Rapid Transit) over to City Hall,

- Visited the Esplanade (teh building with the spikes, and looking suspiciously like the eyes of a housefly when viewed from above),

- Visited the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles , & the Merlion,

- Hot-footed over to a local Coffee Bean branch @Raffles Place for a coffee break,

- Went by MRT up to Dhoby Ghaut station, exploring Plaza Singapura for a bit,

- Stopped by the arcade @Parklane + toured Sim Lim Square,

- Late Lunch @Bugis Junction,

- Back to the hotel, where my friends booked the breakfast with monkeys for next day, and took a break.

- While they were resting i trekked back to Parklane arcade for a rematch..

- Met up again for dinner, @ a quiet restaurant somewhere in Little India,

- Went to Orchard, jostled with the crowds to catch Chingay parade,

- and after much walking around the road-blocks, Xamer located the Scottish Pub (i had a vague idea that there were some places for beer between Wheelock place and tanglin mall hehehe).

We had a couple of Tiger beers, which i nursed slowly where chatting with the guys, & watched a English Premier League soccer match (Man Utd VS Fulham) live or delayed telecast, i dunno. It felt good to see the team that i rooted for win the match (Man Utd)!.

Aside from some smoking (luckily, only a few smokers), i liked that the pub was quiet (no rowdy customers), & affordable - no cover-charge, entrance fee blah blah blah! >:D

- we called it a night at half past 11pm, and i managed to catch the last train service home.

==== more piccies found below =====

On Sunday morning, after gulping down theTru-Blu (hard to describe, but good stuff which Xamer purchased for me when we were at the pub)

Yep, as Xamer told me, its kinda hard to describe the feeling, but i did feel less sleepy after that. Good stuff :3

/wave the king & queens of teh jungle

and breakfast with monkeys:

while queuing up for a photo with the orang-utan:

random pic taken shortly before my digital cam's battery gave out :P

(another random pic) whee :3

Thus, after returning to the hotel and lunch @ a nearby chinese corner, we bade each other farewell. It was much fun, and i had my fingers crossed that i didn't screw up too much as a noob tour-guide wannabe :P

And to end off, two random pictures of the new trolley that i managed to convince my mom to buy for me (the one in red) ;P

when folded:

and, when opened fully:phew. Thus ends this Longest blog Post. Ever :P

/offline (RL meeting with Xamer + friend!)

2007-02-25T01:31:00.000+08:00

Piccies for now :3
Be back with uhh more comments later! Meeting them later for breakfast with monkeys/orang-utans/etc. (now almost 2am) ^^;

Above: Teh Merlion

Above screenie: Coffee Break!

Above: At a local shopping mall.

Above: oooher at the huge fan.

Above: View from the hotel room.

Game Screenie #1 (see below for comments)

Game Screenie #2: the cutscene i love best whenever i play this classic arcade game (D&D2: Shadow over Mystara).

Game Screenie #3: Game Complete! My revenge at last, after the 3 of us wiped in an earlier game >:D

As per the chinese saying "宝刀未老" ("bao dao wei lao" - literally translates to the treasured heirloom sword still stays sharp despite its age") - used in this instance to refer to my D&D arcade skills here ^^

Go me Solo @complete the game once again using 1 credit!

Above: Dinnertime piccie :3

Above: At Chingay.

Tru-Bru {Ready!} /goodnight!

Riverne #B01 Revisited!

2007-02-24T00:40:00.000+08:00

I'll skip writing on RL stuff for this post, tired (almost 1am now, and i have to meet Xamer + his friend Chris M later in the morning heh), and it.. just wasn't a good day overall. Better if i forgot about it. Instead, i present 4 edited piccies from Riverne #B01 (Linkshell event):

hehehe.. so for the first pic, i got my highest roll in a while. Hope i can repeat that for dynamis >_>

second pic (above) : fighting in progress..

Pic 3: actually kevinsa already got his drop before i arrived; just posting his roll for fun :3

And finally, the overall drop rate! 100% woot!

Arrgh.. Bleh

2007-02-22T22:27:00.000+08:00

Its kinda self-explanatory, see attached screenie:

So uhh some lucky folk gets 100k "red packet" from me >_>;

Meanwhile:

Wonder what happens if you send the item back? XD

oh well, at least things are looking up: i managed to convince puru to stay at home this sat, then in Vana'diel i also just got the promotion quest (for sergeant-major) after helping a few LS folks with Assaults.

Plus, tomorrow night i should have 1 or 2 tickets - hopefully it'd be enough to help Kevinsa get his promotion quest when we meet for Assault at 9:30pm..

Hrm. After that's done, i'll be trekking back to The Ashu Talif for a rematch with Barbarossa , and then visiting Riverne #B01 again to help out on the NM that drops Soboro Sukehiro ; alas i would not be qualified to lot though, being Lv0 SAM and everything heh.

and best of all, Xamertaru's visiting singapore on this sat! ^^b

Phew, so, not 20-hour maintenance XD

2007-02-20T22:46:00.000+08:00

:D

= End of ninjaedit2 on 20th Feb'07, 10:15am =

Chinese New Year..Day 2 &3! (Edit added 20 Feb'07)

2007-02-19T04:26:00.000+08:00

NinjaEdit on 20 Feb'07:

OMG posting @almost 4am again lol
Pretty much spent the day camping stuff:

a) ungur 2 times! in the morning and late evening!
b) back-to-back besieged! earned back my full exp buffer woot
c) and ISBCNM, vs that annoying puk again (hrm, i'm now down to 9k imperial standing)

...and so i took great care not to interact too much with my parents; they were also busy with entertaining my grandma + some relatives on my mom's side, who came over to visit, essentially freeing me up to stay online literally the whole day (10hr+) >:D

5 new Piccies attached :3

Me fighting Ungur for the first time:

(Below screenshot) i got to fight Amikiri for the first time too :3

Ungur round 2:

The said ISBCNM, during the wee hours (2am) :

And finally, a friend finally checked in Vana'diel after AWOL for ages! XD

== End of NinjaEdit on 20 Feb'07, 4am ==

Posting @4am.. (chinese new year day 2, 19 Feb'07) >_>

Its kinda embarrassing actually; I already had a gut feeling that my mom would be tired - she had spent the whole afternoon at grandma's playing some card games, while my brother & myself returned home early - and yet, when she returned with dad the very first thing i blurted out to her was that my friend had decided to drop by Singapore a week earlier than intended.

Naturally my mom lost her cool, and in retaliation i locked myself in my room and slept.. at 8pm -_- (skipping Dynamis-Bastok)

Thus i found myself awake at 2am, & being too hyped to go back to bed again, I logged in to do a little adventuring once again in Vana'diel.

Learnt that chocobos will auto-retire on Day130. Hrm. Figured it was a good time to try out the chocobo honeymoon thingy, as well as to see what kind of chick i can get if i pair DameVenus with ShootingStar >:D

Screenie of my moghouse with the blue VCS plaque installed in /layout:

And so, back in Upper Jeuno:

Chose the Sports Honeymoon package for my birds, since i do want the chick to inherit ShootingStar's traits :P

After 11pm tonight i'll check with Finbarr again to get the egg - with luck i ought to be able to get it taken care of by Pulonono before maintenance starts.

Meanwhile, its off to bed to nap for a few hours while trying to convince myself i ought to say sorry to my mom in the morning.. Laters!

Pre-Chinese New Year Post :3

2007-02-16T21:16:00.000+08:00

Hrm. Tomorrow i should be offline; in the morning i'll have to get the floor mopped, clothes washed & hung up to dry, return the library books, jostle with the crowds at the mall to finish up on some last-minute shopping, and finally appear at my grandma's in the evening for the Reunion dinner >_>

I'd like to wish all a very happy Chinese New Year / happy holidays! Before i scoot off, here's some screenies taken in Vana'diel tonight:

1-3. Bosta-whatsis-name (actually Bostaunieux Oubilette) revisited:

Thank uhh SE for allowing me to call upon Sahyu, and with Ariete's help we were able to finish off the NMs (the first NM dropped nothing; and was already down to 7% health when i arrived; the screenie below shows the drop from killing the second NM).

Revisiting Shii; managed to pop it without waiting for too long - this time its even easier due to dual tanks, + 1 THF for SATA:

And finally, an hour or so of killing stuff later:

All in all, not a bad way to spend an evening (although i did get flak for not washing up after dinner) >_>

4. And last but not least, a screenie taken (earlier in the day) of weekly chocobo quest, this time from Bastok to San d'Oria:

Laters! ^^b

Countdown to chinese new year :3

2007-02-15T14:21:00.000+08:00

This post is just an excuse to put up some (total 4) pics that i've taken yesterday (i was offline the whole day) :D

1. Below screenie taken while waiting at Singapore General Hospital - for my mom's medicine, prescribed by the doc to help her with bowel movements. He (the doc) was satisfied with my mom's status, and we booked an appointment to return in 3 months' time:

2. Random piccie taken much later at night, in Orchard Road area.

3. Yet another random pic :P

4. And finally, a screenie of my parents :3

Meanwhile, 3 days till chinese new year >_>

This morning, I was at the market with my mom - now taking a break in between chores. Hrmm. i think i'll check into Vana'diel, to clear the chocobo run for this week, & travel to San d'Oria for my weekly scrolls (rewards for the escort in Eldieme + trip in Riverne Site #B01, which i've yet to collect yet).

More NinjaEdits! (added 14th Feb)

2007-02-12T14:36:00.000+08:00

Once again i tag onto an existing post! Today (Valentime's Day) will be totally spent with my parents - i'll be accompanying my mom to the hospital for her checkup, then meet my aunt in town to collect some new year goodies, return home for a breather, and setting out again (my dad's taken a day off today) for more shopping errands @_@

Quite a few piccies taken, so here they are ^^

Sakuramomo casting invisible on me:

Mishaps galore! We came close to winning actually, just that once i had a major lag suddenly and bit the dust ;_;

The below screenie's actually taken after the 2nd or 3rd time we wiped; Sakuramomo homepointed & switched to WHM for some Raise3 (commonly termed as "RB3") goodness:

So we went AFK for about 30mins while we waited for reinforcements.. Below screenie shows the "combined" team, consisting of total 7 ppl; Sun swapped in for Amorie during the last few fights - by the time we finished, it was well after midnight :

A piccie of the fight in progress:

And finally, the drops that i got during my turn:

And a piccie (of me in Eldieme!) to end the edited post ^_^

== End of edit on 14th Feb, 9am == ^-^b

I missed the sea run conducted by Kevinsa totally, partly due to a heated argument with my parents after the prayer session in the morning >_>

Thus, i ended up sleeping most of the day away, before logging into Vana'diel for Dynamis:

.. which gave nothing much in the way of drops (for me anyway, since i chose to lot on the gloves, which did not drop at all).. pfft -_-

After dynamis, i snooped around in Sacrarium for the weekly scroll; hrm once again SE screwed my dice roll for this - no matter, i still managed to gimp my RDM to LV30 >:D

Quickie Post (+on 10th Feb) :P

2007-02-08T14:04:00.000+08:00

Didn't have much content to warrant a new post, so i stuck in some stuff here instead :P

Saw the below poster while queueing to buy lunch for my brother just now ;P

Over in Vana'diel, all was quiet as i attempted to raise my fishing to novice (Lv28)... i'm still @Lv26.something as at this afternoon, though admittedly i've only spent maybe 4-5hrs overall actually fishing for the past 3 daysl; i was mostly AFK, either busy with errands, doing chores or simply idling / reading "Interesting Times" by Terry Pratchett.

I got aggro from this old friend while running up to the deck without sneak..

It was good ownage :3

Soon, i'll leave for my friend's place again after dinner tonight, where we will watch "The Devil Wears Prada", & "Battle of the Wits" <- (a chinese movie starring Andy Lau). Hope i can make it to sea tomorrow after my prayer session@Senja in the morning :/

==== End of NinjaEdit @10th Feb = ===

Piccies Onry! :P
1.Imperial Seal BCNM (Lv60) on 6th.. bah, lousy drops. Deleted other screenies.
2 -4. ENM Holy Cow yesterday night. First time i won it :P
5.Just completed the weekly chocobo run, during a break in between chores just now.

Laters :3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PURUWURU

2007-02-06T14:02:00.000+08:00

Ahem :P

... its the least i can do, brother :P

Happy Birthday @Work dude!

Ending this post with a couple ofisc. screenies taken during breaks between chores (dad's taking apart the store-room even as i type this). Back to washing (dishes and pots after lunch) duties for me now >_>

1) Zero damage mijin...

2) Below screenie taken on a lark while visiting Promy-Mea again for Tactics Pearl..

3) And finally, the "i soloed yet another escort!" screenie :P

more /offline Zzz

2007-02-05T09:02:00.000+08:00

Only had this piccie to add, after spending some time "soloing" (dualboxing myself and Puru) over the weekend @my friend's place using my brother's laptop.

On the laptop, i experienced "GetTempFile error saving screenshot267 Error" (presumably a VB Script Error, after spending a few minutes on Google), so this screenshot's taken after i've returned to my PC >_>

Anyway i was mostly offline over the weekend; Saturday morning was mostly spent on cleaning windows, taking out stuff to wash etc. In the afternoon, i went out with Puru to Books Kinokuniya @Takashimaya Orchard Road.

Then it was a short dinner (SukiSushi, Parklane Shopping Center - its cramped and the food, while edible, is definitely below average). We returned home to help out with some more chores for awhile, before dropping by my friend's place, where we watched some VCDs (a 2005 HK movie "SPL", & "Meet the Fockers") while getting my Miracle Wand+1 at the same time.

There was no sea run on Sunday, so it was largely spent on doing misc. chores again, although we ended up not mopping the floor somehow, so this means i've got to get it done today. -_-

In the evening, i showed up for Dynamis-Buburimu, but since i was trying to fix the screenshot error on the laptop no screenies were available.. but, aside from 2 DRK gloves nothing dropped -.-

And so, its back to chores (mopping floor, and digging out yet more stuff to wash, clean or simply to throw away) for me once again today, as the countdown to Chinese New Year draws ever closer.

Valentione (In the Mood for Love) '07

2007-02-02T18:43:00.000+08:00

This event's kinda deja vu; it's pretty much the same as previous year, with only Miracle Wand / +1 added, in addition to the usual Charm Wand / +1, and Romance Potion this time around..

Congratulations to Ryal, Andrewnaat and Frankforwar on getting their O-Hats!

/springcleaning -.-

2007-01-31T12:07:00.000+08:00

It may be early days yet (18 days till Chinese New Year) - but, since my mom's still not capable of much housework, this means i'll be doing most of the chores.

Already, the curtains have been changed, the furniture covers washed, and some minor shopping (in preparation for relatives expected to visit us during the holidays) done.

But, there's still more work to do, such as washing all the windows, shifting the cabinets and cupboards about to clean the area behind / under them, ditto for my parents' Queen-sized bed, just to name a few >_>

Over in Vana'deil, on Monday night i spent the entire evening helping a guy in the LS (hehe, named "Evil") hunting for organs in the The Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi (one of the few areas which i have yet to obtain the map for).

Over a span of 5 hrs we only gotten him 3 Euvul Organs (out of 5 needed for him to complete the requirements for one of the obis/gorgets/etc for the In The Name of Science quest) >_>

Although we promised to help him again on Tuesday night, i was unable to show up, as i was with my parents attending a prayer session during the evening.

And so today i found myself in "proscrastination mode", putting off chores while i do the weekly rounds, and other stuff:

failed one round due to blizzaga2, then i went back for melon juices and sole sushi. Thus prepared, and with a bit of luck, i won it without a hitch this time.

And... well, too bad no arcane flowerpot (100k each on Jeuno Auction House).

Now, my mom's preparing to make a trip to the hairdresser's to get her hair done, so i'm chewing through my lunch double-quick time even as i post this :P

With luck i should be able to help out the LS with hakutaku runs x2 later tonight /shrug

On an ending note, Xamer's made it safely to Kuala Lumpur.. i hope that he'll not drop by to visit me until the chinese new year weekend's over though ;P

Laters :3

Sunday Zzz

2007-01-29T10:03:00.001+08:00

Picking up from my previous post, i had thought that i'd miss sea totally on Sunday, as my mom was considering paying my grandmother a visit after the prayer session was over.

It was rainy and cold though, so i made it back in time for yet a few more forays wirhin Al'Taieu :3

Jailer of Justice getting owned.

End of Round 1..

..and we obtained a Justice Torque at last on Round 2, which went to Gustavi ^^b

i was reshuffled outside as a standby kiter for Jailer of Prudence, but errrr, i dozed off for about 40mins -_-; woke up to hang around as standby for JoPrudence Round 2, and the torque went to Borgan!

OK, below is a bit of a drama, which i managed to put together in somewhat of a daze (40mins of sleep in 2 days did not help much) :P

Burawura was mad, mostly due to a misunderstanding - he thought he was eligible to vie for the torque VS Borgan.

As a "founding member", under the old rules only Borgan can lot first. Kevinsa's founding members were allowed to choose one torque or back item to lot for (that was how Sakuramomo had obtained his *Astute Cape a few weeks ago).

Then, to recruit "newer members" such as myself, Kevinsa started the point system, partly also to reward attendance during farming runs etc. Its not perfect, but points system does seem to be a tad more fair.

So what happens is, "founding members" will always get precedence over "new members" for the lot. Once obtained, e.g. Sakuramomo had gotten his "designated cape/torque item as a founding member", he will have to bid points along with the rest of the newer members.

Aye, this means that Founding Members enjoy a "free lot" without the use of any points, before they vie with Newer Members.

So, a broad guess on my part is that the misunderstanding occured over what constitutes a "Founding Member" and "Newer Member", as well as who has the right to lot on what.

I was not (and still am not lol) concerned with all this rules thingy - unless i seriously go level a job that can use the stuff, i basically have no use for most of the drops from sea - i just thought to type this out in the hopes that Burawura will read my blog and calm down a bit and talk to Kevinsa. I do so hate losing good players because of mis-understandings T-T

Fast forward to evening (after a few hours of Zzz) , where i was once again available to attend dynamis, although i no longer expect to be able to lot for stuff due to my absence for the past few months.

True enough, Ratziel (the co-leader) informed me that, for Dynamis Beaucedine / Xarcabard, i would have needed to be present for the previous 2 runs (being Dynamis Jeuno & Windy) before i could lot for AF2 armor.

No biggie, i didn't need Koga Chainmail anyhow, and i had cleared my inventory to allow for misc. synthesis materials, which i could lot for hehehe (such as infinity cores, wootz ore, big currencies etc).

And while my death count was only 1 (stupid Ahriman@$# boss casted "Death" on me), the night was punctuated by so-so small currency drops, no big currency, and only 1 AF2 -_-

Well, looking forward to Dynamis-Buburimu next Sunday night, if my schedule allows me to attend it.

Posting @5am ^-^v

2007-01-28T04:51:00.000+08:00

Just returned home from watching some anime @ my neighbour's place XD

Umm.. originally the main idea of this post is to whine a little about not being able to go for the weekly sea run later today due to having to accompany my mom to Senja Kaikan for prayers in a few hours' time :P

But well, mom > ffxi.. and besides i'll benefit too (ahem, building spiritual character) >:D

Anyway, to recap a little - on Friday night Kevinsa, Solidzeke and myself advanced on some Sergeant Assaults (cleared 2 more, and failed 1) before calling it a night.

Then I was AFK at Battalia Downs (and later Tavnazian Safehold, after having visited Windurst to feed ShootingStar) throughout the next day, where i set up a bazaar to sell some H.Q. Hpmede organs.

A humourous incident took place while i was back in Windy earlier this afternoon - some clueless dude (for his own sake i shall not put his name here) bought the Bomb Queen Core i had on my bazaar for a modest price of 8888gil, then sent me a tell asking me "what does it do?"

I chose not to reply while trying very hard to stop laughing.

So, seeing the place [Eldieme Necropolis] quite deserted, i went down there to escort Cannau once again.. while i did attempt solo and/or duo this Escort Quest a few times in the past, but mostly failed due to carelessness (its rather tricky at times, since Cannau aggros just about every mob save earth elementals, and those undead types have gayAoE moves) :P

Yay me for finally winging it solo, instead of joining up with some random jp party this time! I'll definitely solo it again for more practice sometime next week :3

Before i left the house to attend a prayer meeting session with my parents, i got myself back to Jeuno and went AFK shortly after dinner, where i "supposedly" stood by for helping out for Proto-Ultima.

When i returned home after the meeting though, i realised that i had missed out on Proto-Ultima fight, much to my relief, because:

1) they have 18 ppl slots all filled (yay!)
2) having already won it once i did not crave to fight Proto-Ultima again,
3) i'll reckon i won't get to lot, being only be a helper with no any other LVL75 Job,
4) and the drop rate suxors anyway.

so once again i went out, this time over to my neighbour's place where i joined Puru to watch some anime. I also browsed thru' some artbooks + the latest issue of New-type magazine (in japanese!) that Puru had bought while he was at Kinokuniya Bookstore earlier in the day.

Before logging out, i went to Riverne Site #B01 for a quick peek and waited for about 15mins on the off chance that i could hitch a ride... but i wasn't lucky, so i logged out and left the house.

So, at 4:45am, after returning from my neighbour's, i logged back in.. and successfully hitched a ride from a random party (consisting of Namus and Penelope, and a few others) thru' the Unstable Displacement Portal, netting the Rivernewort Key Item, thereby completing the repeatable Spice Gals Quest ;D

So now i'm basically trying to stay awake for the next couple of hours (my mom will be awake in less than 2hrs, setting off to the said kaikan, aka prayer centre 30 mins hence).

Coffee {Yes Please!}

misc. adventures part deux

2007-01-25T22:36:00.000+08:00

=NinjaEDIT Start!=

While in between chores, i decided to pay the Moblins a visit, as i was curious about the Goblin Wolfman..

And it was an easy win, especially with Ms.Sahyu to even the odds!

Note: i have not unlocked DRK yet lol :3

= NinjaEdit End!=

And so, on Thursday i took time off from chores & errands reading another Terry Pratchett novel (Equal Rites), and playing FFXI - my mom wasn't terribly happy about it, so i'll be back at "work" tomorrow (clothes to be washed, the weekly house-mopping due, and a host of other misc.chores / errands arrrgh)

The piccie posted below was actually taken a few days ago, with my best Mijin damage on a besieged mob thus far (enhanced with Giant's Drink ). Otherwise, there was a back-to-back besieged (Trolls+Mamook), which we fought off successfully :3
After dinner, i decided to check into Al'Taieu to solo stuff in an attempt to complete In The Name of Science Quest (by now i had a somewhat impressive collection of various organs, and 1 Lumorian Tissue).. i was to spend the whole evening stabbing Ul'hpemde (aka the goldfish) before finally assembling enough stuff for a Dorin Obi >_>

People on the LS asked "why not gorget?" Well, its not like i'm fond of fighting those "UFO" stuff (or Yovra, which Jailer of Love hails from); and no, those are not soloable as a NIN ^^;

Until next time! Now to Zzz land..

more misc. adventures :3

2007-01-24T14:28:00.000+08:00

I was mostly AFK (as usual) in between chores for the past few days.. aside from:

a) revisiting Northlands to get Zephyr fan (Ulguerand range ENM temporay key-item) ,

b) Atthowa Chasm for Miasma Filter (Boneyard Gully ENM temporary key-item),

c) getting the Lost Chocobo Quest out of the way (per below screenie),

d) getting fishing up..
e) running the weekly chocobo quest again for Page of Dragon Chronicles,

f) revisited Sacrarium for Miratete's scroll (for both Isadora + Yuumei),

g) managed to park Puru at the accursed ledge in Uleguerand range (thanks to Nednerb), so i'll have an easier time getting the Zephyr Wind next week >:D

And, for today's adventures, Aragonis recruited me for "Brothers" ENM. Alas, crappy drops.

And after Aragonis had recruited some new members, we went to Boneyard Gully for "Sheep in Antlion's Clothing" ENM (Screenshot below showed me failing @Mijin - only took it down from 6% to 3% -_- Luckily the team was more than capable of finishing it off without me).

Ah, all this really brings back memories of the fun times i had, makes me glad i haven't quit FFXI heh. Laters!

Jailer of Luv :3

2007-01-22T00:20:00.000+08:00

Just beaten Jailer of Love with 50+ people in Al'Taieu ^-^b

Anyway, back-tracking a little bit..

On Saturday morning (or Friday for folks staying on the other side of this planet), i checked into Vana'diel in between chores, and helped out a lil' bit with coffer key hunting in Eldieme, as well as in Beadeaux.

Otherwise i was kept busy with the usual chores, or napping, or reading ("Sourcery" by Terry Pratchett, borrowed from the library), etc.

On Sunday morning we went around the various parts of sea to hunt stuff, as organised by Kevinsa.
Fast forward to the night (i spent the afternoon and the entire evening mostly fishing and AFK-ing in Selbina - levelled fishing to Lv24 - while at the same time catching up on my reading as well), we formed up in Safehold once again for the appointed fight VS Jailer of Love.
The role i was assigned was to simply Provoke anything that JoL spawns (i didn't take screenies), whereupon the alliance will kill them off.
It turned orange mid-fight! The main alliance whacking away while we prepare for JoL to spawn more stuff.
And Victory! No Absolute Virtue hehehe

EDIT: According to Solidzeke, the drops were:
1) Love Halberd
2) the ra/ex item that can be exchanged for Novio Earring , &
3) Love Torque

Oh well, too tired to give this much further thought. Off to bed i go! (I'll need to be up early later, to go to the market.) @_@

spoiler alert CoP 8-3 & 8-4 revisited

2007-01-18T23:29:00.000+08:00

Hrm. I felt that it wasn't that much of a spoiler, but just to be on the safe side, i advise that the following screenshots do give a tiny wee bit of the CoP plot away, so you have been warned ;P

After i returned from the doctor's, I was somewhat reluctantly recruited to help Canariya - i was only fishing, and could not find any excuse to turn him down XD

Anyway his team's gotten the item needed to fight the pots; together with Sakuramomo also as helper, we owned the stupid pots after a warm-up match.

And so, we revisited the final CoP mission [Dawn]...

The battlefield's still as awesome as i remembered it to be :3
And spoiler number 1, if you have not already guessed.

Guess who's the dood i'm targetting? >_> (yet another spoiler)

Nooooooo! I had damage filter on! (anyway spoiler: yep, that's only the first form)
And victory is sweeeeeet :D

P.S. Nekotasan nailed the boss (with Hundred Fists i think)

The team:
NIN: me (helper)
BLU: Sakuramomo (helper too),
RDM: Canariya (organiser),
WHM: Meally,
MNK: Nekotasan, and
BLM: Chibiyuji.

That's all for now! ^-^b

Mobile phone junkie, Sergeant & misc. thoughts

2007-01-18T10:38:00.000+08:00

While offline, i've been poking my nose around at getjar for some time now, mostly looking for java games / applications / cool stuff to load onto my mobile phone (Motorola RAZR V3).

While i enjoyed playing the ad-supported versions of both Attack Paddle & Attack Chopper 1 , (both made by Adam Schmelzle), i found it annoying that i had to enable my GPRS (which i usually disable, to "kid-proof my phone" i.e. prevent my younger cousins from surfing the net by accident).

Hence i spent USD7.00 (about Singapore Dollars $10 total) purchasing the ad-free versions; i consider it money well spent, considering the games are pretty fun, and run quite smoothly on my mobile. I may purchase the latest game Attack Brain too later on if its to my liking.

Over in Vana'diel, i've obtained Sergeant rank with Kevinsa & Solidzeke on monday night at last (as per below screenie) :3
Otherwise, i've been mostly AFK after feeding ShootingStar daily, getting my fishing up to Lv23 when i get free time to play.

My RDM's level raised artifically to Lv28 too, mostly thanks to Astara for letting me tag along to Riverne #B01, where i once again completed 'Spice Gals' quest, and then i waited for a couple of game days to get a Page of Dragon's Chronicles, obtained after doing the weekly chocobo run, which i've neglected to do for a few weeks now due to RL issues or plain laziness.

Hrm. Xamer will be coming over to the region for work in about a fortnight's time for 2 months; so my chances of visiting him is close to nil, at least not while my mom is still in the recovery phrase - she had the operation to remove the colon cancer back in Nov'06 - while she's getting better (she does all the cooking now, while i wash up after), she is unable to squat down fully, nor stretch her arms fully vertically as yet.

Its tricky too, with her diabetes condition occassionally giving the hiccups (such as feeling dizzy due to low sugar intake), troubles with bowel movements (she cannot exert force since it causes pain to the operated area).. i could go on and on, but still, i say my mom's fortunate in most aspects - her diabetes can be managed with medication alone, and we'll see what the doctor has to say when we go to obtain her blood test result later today. She has also a review scheduled at the hospital (where the operation took place)shortly before Chinese New Year.

Guess we'll see how it goes then, before i make further plans, on how i can play host to my friend, searching for a job again, and so on :3

yet more mundane stuff

2007-01-14T16:24:00.000+08:00

... so i'll just post some piccies instead :p
- didnt do Assaults due to lack of attendance; also Sortai was out till very late
- ditto for Limbus
- i did show up for sea run though :3
- ninjaedit: i skipped dynamis though, since i was out visiting the Soka Youth Centre .

mundane stuff and /fishing :3

2007-01-09T18:21:00.000+08:00

Yesterday (monday) while hanging out the clothes to dry i spotted the moon :3

It was an exceptional sunny day, which was to later become a gloomy and rainy today.
The day was spent on mundane RL stuff, though i did bring my mom out to consult a doctor for her constipation, as well as for my flu. Tried unsuccessfully to find the logo i spotted in Terry Pratchett's book i had finished reading >_>

I logged in to Vana'diel after returning from a shopping errand and dinner to join Kevinsa, Solidzeke and Sortai in resuming our Assault.. managed to clear 3 missions successfully, albeit with Sortai's help as he cleared those before.

Hrm. Didn't take any screenshots though XD

So today i felt a bit under the weather, and luckily my mom didn't need me to do anything much.. i went fishing in Vana'diel, and nodded off to a 4hr nap, which i just woke up from :P

The Sea Horror screenies were taken prior to falling asleep..

...which i wisely decided not to fight, since we were going reach Selbina anyway ;P

NinjaEdit: Blackbeard spotted en route to Selbina, after i returned from dinner :3

Decided to leave it alone though.. wasnt confident i could defeat this NM in my current rusty state >_>

/bookworm

2007-01-08T00:38:00.000+08:00

Just finished reading The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett.

I found it very entertaining, so much so that i actually skipped dynamis tonight, in order to finish reading it :P

Was in sea earlier this morning, but alas, i could feel the rust -.-

Also, as the only NIN (the other "tank" being Newk, as WAR) meant that any distractions (my aunt was to drop by to visit me sometime later in the morning) was fatal to me (and the team).. this was painfully evident in our failed fight VS the Jailer of Temperance (no PLD + only 1 BLM = lose) >_<

About the only saving grace was that we did win the iffing Ix'Aern after it resurrected 4 times in a row (per below screenie)

Then i was forced to log out, as i had to cater to my visiting aunt, and then started reading "The Last Hero" after dinner. Now i'm a Terry Pratchett / Discworld fan :P

/chocobo /idle

2007-01-04T23:36:00.000+08:00

hrm again :P was kinda caught up in RL stuff (mainly chores, errands and other misc. tasks) so I kinda stayed /offline; i did faithfully log in for a short time every night to feed ShootingStar though XD

New Year 2007

2007-01-02T15:13:00.000+08:00

Missed out on New Year in Vana'diel, as i spent it at a holiday chalet with some friends, where we had a BBQ and played some old games. Hence it was a quiet few minutes yesterday night when i logged in, and assisted Xamer with about 300 exp points, levelling his DRK from Lv29 to Lv30.

And, as per the above screenie showed, getting the new year's item (although i skipped the furnishing, which Xamer had successfully obtained).

Merry Xmas 2006 ^-^

2006-12-25T20:17:00.000+08:00

Wishing all a very merry christmas this year, and many happy returns!

As for myself, (IRL) i attended 2 gatherings; the dinner-cum-party @my cousin's on Xmas eve yesterday, and just returned home from visiting a "long-lost" friend's home, where we had a hearty steamboat lunch.

I also went for an audition for performinhg in National Day Parade (NDP) 2007 - if shortlisted, it'd be the 3rd time i'll be participating in NDP (with my previous involvement being in 1997 & 2000) hmm.. it could mean less time for Vana'diel, but who knows, i may bump into other ffxi players and/or people who like the ff universe ^^

Back in Vana'diel, Solidzeke found teh hoofprint (yay!) after 3 days of searching.

And so, tonight we advance on in Assaults - and i will probably sleep early, since housekeeping duties await me tomorrow morning >_>

Hunt for Warhorse Hoofprint Take #2

2006-12-23T13:29:00.000+08:00

Below Piccie: weird graphic glitch when i see someone have connection problems:

So we found out many people still needs to reach ToAU mission 17 (after the Black Coffin fight) before qualifying for Salvage. Having insufficient manpower even for Limbus, we tried to locate the #$%@ Warhorse Hoofprint after winning the Assault イルルシ掃海作戦 (Demolition Duty).

However, i was forced to give up an hour later due to splitting headache; seen a doctor earlier for medication but it didnt really help until i had plenty of Zzz (slept at 11pm, woke up at 9am).

Edit: added in these piccies while waiting for Canariya to finish up the cutscenes leading to ZM12 ^^

Below piccie taken awhile ago when i was testing the shortcut to sky ^^; encountered said rmt gang trying to pop despot.. scary <_<

lowkey Xmas event 2006

2006-12-20T13:03:00.000+08:00

So the Xmas update came and went..yesterday morning i updated both PCs before my aunt visited. In Vana'diel, i took up the miniquest to get the short-cut to sky via the crags (spent 63k on 3 clear chips), then spent the day AFK in Zitah, while entertaining my aunt and cousin.

FFxi actually hung on me while i was feeding ShootingStar later in the evening o_o;

..so i rebooted and went to bed, waking up this morning to complete the feeding, before dualboxing puru to visit the new staging point. Aside from having to bring an imperial silver coin per person, the trip was uneventful. Decided to skip Xmas event, since there's nothing new aside from 3 more new furnishings >_>

Now to prepare to go out, as my mom's medical appointment with the hospital (for check-up) is coming up this afternoon.

Happy Birthday Astarataru :3

2006-12-18T23:18:00.000+08:00

The day started off kinda badly, as my mom had vomitted (just food, not blood thank heavens) while i was still soundly asleep >_> Fearing that she had caught gastric flu, we consulted a doc at the local clinic first thing in the morning.

After taking some medicine, she seems to be better, though the verdict's still open, as she's unable to eat much throughout the day hrm.

My dad was able to take the afternoon off from work, so i napped a bit during the afternoon, and checked into Vana'diel after dinner. Happy Birthday Astara, though umm i kinda forgot about it already until i received teh /tell (see below) :P

There were too few people online for Limbus, so instead Kevinsa rounded up a few of us and we cleared 3 assaults; i should be hitting Corporal quest either before or after Xmas..

That's about it for now; going to read "From Russia With Love" (a 007 novel by none other than Ian Fleming) before sleeping.

more /offline-ness

2006-12-16T23:19:00.000+08:00

Hrm.. the weekend's here (and almost gone), i found myself occupied with more /offline stuff;

a) just finished reading the fictional novel "Spirits White as Lightning" co-written by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill today.

I had borrowed this book (from the library a few days ago) as i had read "Mad Maudin" (another novel following the adventures of Eric Banyon and his friends) - overall i'd say that its a pretty nice read, though the "main event / climax" was pretty short, and the ending wrapped up pretty quick - and yep, "Spirits White as Lightning" comes before "Mad Maudin".

b) ex-Puru caught gastric flu, while i caught the normal flu bug yesterday - i accompanied him to the doc's yesterday night, where we obtained some standard medicine,

..and so, after reading Paul's comment on my earlier post, i post a few more piccies to assure him of the sturdy construction of my computer table (well, it's from IKEA, so) :P

After some sleep, (tis now half past 11pm, saturday night), and circumstances allowing, i should be in ffxi to join Kevinsa's foray into sea again (which runs on sunday morning from 9am-1pm for me; AEDT: 12pm-4pm, or EST: sat10pm-midnight sunday), unless otherwise noted, since i have yet to log in to check the /lsmes :P

And also perhaps show up for the japanese-organised weekly Dynamis (i've been absent 4 times already!) on this sunday night :x

/offline mishaps >_>

2006-12-14T11:38:00.000+08:00

2 days ago, while doing my weekly room-cleaning, the modem went crashing to the floor after i accidentally shifted the stand which supported it -.-;

i've since gotten rid of the stupid thing, and while i'm now re-established direct connection, i have yet to figure out how to re-connect the wireless router; guess that'll have to wait till ex-Puru returns from work.

More /offline adventures

2006-12-11T09:02:00.000+08:00

Its been a busy weekend, but mostly spent offline. About the only thing i did on friday (in Vana'diel) was to show up for Kevinsa's static Assault run, which was concluded successfully with new members replacing people that had left - Kenkenbb's account was hacked; and although he successfully obtained a password reset from SE, the damage was done - his peacock charm was sold off via bazaar for 3mil (as well as most of his gear.

As per my understanding (over email), Kenkenbb had decided that it was a sign to retire, and deleted his account instead. Sun (a close RL friend of Kenkenbb) was also considering quitting, as he focuses his time on his career.

After the Assault (and chatting with party members), it turned out that i had been talking to the wrong npc all along! I had been trying to trigger the quest from Naja instead of Abquhbah, for this particular promotion quest..

Together with Kevinsa and Solidzeke, we successfully hunted down the spots for the empty test tubes, and obtained our Lance-Corporal rank. I went offline (and Zzz land) without visiting the chocobo, or doing the weekly chocobo run, or even clearing the weekly San'dOria escort quest! XD

On Sat, i turned my attention to some new gadgets (being a MotorolaV3 mobile, and my dad's new FinePixF20 digital camera respectively)

Between the usual chores, buying takeaways for meals, and busying myself with above-said gadets, i literally skipped sleeping on Sat, catching only 3 hours of sleep (a record in recent days for me - 6 till 9am on Sun morning), and woke up too groggy to join Kevinsa's foray into sea, so i elected to stay offline.

On the bright side my mom's recovery progress is going on well; she has also been receiving support through prayers from some SSA (buddhist) members. We'll be getting her medical report on this coming Wed (13th).

Sunday was spent pretty much like on Sat; offline. On the evening, i went over to my paternal's aunt's place, where my Grandpa was holding his birthday celebration. On a whim, i'm attaching one pic of him blowing out teh candles :P

Till then.. tonight i'll check into Vana'diel for Assault, and / or Limbus if any.

BCNM60 drop summary + misc.

2006-12-07T12:26:00.000+08:00

As promised, piccies onry for this post!

Now its back to cleaning up the house >_>

whee :3

2006-12-03T21:06:00.000+08:00

After a week without internet, i daresay i'm glad to be back lol

In a nutshell, i spent a week staying over at my aunt's, where my mom recovered from the surgery.

will check into ffxi tomorrow :P

/offline :o

2006-11-24T23:53:00.000+08:00

Yup, i was mostly offline during the week, as my mom was hospitalised on monday, for an operation to remove a tumour-like lump from her large intestines, which took place on tuesday morning, lasting a total of 5 hours.

I'm relieved that it was a success; she's now recovering, though somewhat slowly. As a result i skipped many in-game events during the past few days, as i would be at the hospital early in the morning, reaching home at about 10-11pm.

Today though, i took off from the hospital slightly earlier, and joined Kevinsa's team for a sortie in Apollyon. And hence, the only screenie to be posted here (after merging a few screenshots, of course) :3

Countdown to Operation

2006-11-19T02:04:00.000+08:00

And so, its almost another week since my previous update >_>

It was with mixed feelings that we finally found what was wrong with my mom; she has a tumour inside her large intestines which, together with her diabetes, is causing the alarming weight loss. Relieved that we found a cause for my mom's sufferings, and of course, worry for the days ahead.

The doctor at the National Cancer Center has scheduled for her to undergo an operation to have the said tumour removed during next week.

My frequent trips to the hospital (as escort for my mom) meant i did not spend much time online; about the only few things that i managed to get done were:

a) Assault/Limbus on Monday night. Nothing much to report except that all went well as expected.

b) ENM (the rabbit in Bearclaw's Pinnacle) went reasonably well too; alas for crap drops, though we did get a Cloud Evoker.

c) On Tuesday (or was it Wednesday? oh well) o.o; i teamed up with a bunch of japanese-speaking players - i was pleasantly surprised that Uchipu was in the team as well.

The 5 of us went to beat The Ashu Talif Rematch #3 again (NIN SMN THF RDM BLM, i think). I sucked because i wasn't paying attention at crucial points in the fight, so i deserved it totally for getting myself killed twice again. Ironically, i died twice too, when i won this BC Fight the last time! Tsk tsk.

d) the Assault/Limbus run on Friday night:
Didn't take any screenie on the Assault, but we went back to clear "Orichalcum Survey", helping Solidzeke to get rank up, while Kevinsa's also got promoted to Superior Private (my current rank).

And in Limbus..
We skipped 2 bosses as a result of manpower shortage, but nonetheless successfully took down Kaiser Behemoth with ease. My Mijin Gakure wasn't enough to land the killing stroke though.

Nice illusion, no? :3

e) on Saturday, the i joined a total of 2 Besieged, having spent the morning on assisting my mom with washing clothes and other misc. chores..

Finally i managed to time my Mijin correctly :P

In between, i joined up with Alexbrother, Mero and a BLM for Assault to clear some Brittle Rocks - Mero obtained Storm Loop, the Lv50 earring.

Alas, still no rank-up for me as yet.. guess i'll find out if i can show up as usual for the next Assault/Limbus static on monday night, assuming if i had reached home from the hospital by then.

Back-tracking a little, (on friday) my chocobo also grown into the adult stage :o

The other day, i was asked for what purpose is a chocobo raised for? To be honest, i just treated it as a hobby of sort; having only gotten a yellow chick (DameVenus), i was not satisfied till i could get a coloured chocobo. So, now that ShootingStar's fulfilled that, i may consider breeding an offspring sometime in the future - or if there's anybody game enough to try, do let me know - i'll supply the chocobo cards for free :D

Scribble Scribble Part Deux

2006-11-14T01:12:00.000+08:00

Hrm.. its mid-Nov'06 already! Guess its a good time for a minor update, as the 8 hour-POL maintenance looms ahead.

1. i'm still jobless. >_>
2. my mom's health hasnt improved much, but nor has it worsened. Yet.
3. both my parents' birthdays came and went.. i only helped with buying/eating cakes.
4. my dad's reached retirement age of 55.
5. *looks at point 1* /panic

In Vana'diel, i've been mostly staying offline - this is mostly because i was busy with various chores, some token efforts at trying to get a job, and escorting my mom out to various clinics / hospitals.. today she could not get her colon scan due to a large buildup of poop stuck in her intestines =_=

And so she was given some medicine to aid with "waste disposal", and the doctor rescheduled her to return to the cancer center this friday morning. *fingers crossed*

I missed out on last friday night's Limbus because of me taking a tad long (i went AFK watching puru play warhammer40k: Dark Crusade for about 3mins, thinking that Kevinsa needed 5mins to recover from weakness; instead the team decided to go in seeing as there were 2 other groups present.. in the end i missed the entry window by about 45 seconds).

On Sunday morning i missed the weekly foray to sea too, as i found myself too tired to stay awake - as i was out for an all-nighter at my neighbour's home; which i resolved never to do so again. My stamina = Too weak! T-T

Prior to the dynamis run during Sunday evening, i spotted zee hot pants - they look kinda meh though (wasnt able to take a proper pic before the dude switched back to wearing Byakko's Haidate... anyway it looks similar to leggings of the Barone set).

And yep, the drops during the dynamis! o_O;
Oh well, considering we didn't attempt to kick the shadowbutch's butt off Vana'diel, i guess i should not be surprised.

And finally, a screenie of a successful Temenos run tonight, which we delayed from 9:30pm till 10:30pm lol - this was because we took part in Besieged (vs Undead Swarm) from 8:20pm till 9pm, followed by our usual Assault (one successful run of PFC: Lebros Supplies), which only ended at 10pm, after we waited for night time (18:00 game time) to start that Assault.

Scribble Scribble

2006-11-07T00:56:00.000+08:00

Time passed by quick, but mostly on RL stuff; my mom's health is still on a roller-coaster ride; one day she'd get better, only to worsen the next =_=

Right now she's fully recovered from the fever, but she's having constipation, she's decided to endure until Wednesday, when she's due for a follow-up treatment >_>

In Vana'diel, i've received linkpearls to Aluris's LS (Enix), as well as Clip's LS (Flintstones), so now i have 6 linkpearls once again o_o

Doled up some cash (for example, i bought back Ochiudo's Kote, at 2.1mil gil this time lol) because i took part in an ENM in Promvyion Vahzl (Lv50 capped fight). Got enough merit points to add another hitpoint boost to my stats heh.

Attached screenie is Sakuramomo finally obtaining his cape (or rather, the item required to exchange for the said cape) during our recent foray into sea during Sunday morning..

Below pic is the result of Dynamis on Sunday night, again i was out-lotted; next time i'll go for coins instead of this relic in future. Besides, among the Koga set, only Koga Hakama (leggings) & Koga Sarashi (belt) are considered "must-have" items for me.

And finally, dropping by to check on ShootingStar yielded a pleasant surprise for me; hope i'll get a coloured chocobo :3

GM Sighting!

2006-11-05T14:21:00.000+08:00

Kept a pretty low profile, although parental aggro's still pretty high as a result of staying up late for these past few nights >_>

More on that later, here's the 2 screenies i obtained when a GM dropped by briefly for reasons unknown kekeke

And a pic attached of recent foray back to NW Apollyon (and winning).

Interlude: Leave of Absence

2006-11-01T16:18:00.000+08:00

Yesterday i was escort again for my mom while she collected the results from her doctor. It wasn't good news (there's blood in her poop), so after a roundabout trip to yet another local polyclinic to get my mom a Letter of Referral this morning, i'm now setting off to the Singapore General Hospital again with my mom, where she'll likely be warded for observation and readying for an intenstinal scan, or whatever. Bah.

Ninja Edit: Back from hospital - turned out that she didn't need to be warded yet. The doc on duty drew a blood sample for testing, and scheduled an appointment for my mom to return next Thursday.. Zzz.

Hmm. Its looking like if i want to get a job (desperately that is), it has to be either night-shift, or part-time basis, at least for the immediate future. Something to think about as i venture back into Vana'diel tonight..

Timezones timezones.. and my mom's birrhday

2006-10-30T10:42:00.000+08:00

So.. now i'm back to being +13 hours ahead of the east coast (EST), instead of +12hrs previously when it was EDT.

Add one hour to the above if you live in the central region.

British Summer Time (BST) has ended too, so I'm back to GMT +8 (i was +7hrs from London time during BST).

I'm also now 3hrs behind Sydney time, as some of my Australian friends would start using Daylight Savings (AEDT).. bleargh i hate timezone differences.

Anyway, enough of timezone musing :P

So it turned out to be an eventful weekend, both IRL and in game.

I spent almost the whole of Saturday out with my brother and friends; we had lunch at a modest sushi buffet at a resturant at Emerald Hill (Somerset area) - we were quite noisy as we did a bit of catching up, i.e. swapping of stories, me asking around for any potential job openings, etc etc.

We then visited Sim Lim Square for a short shopping trip, paid our favourite tau huay stall a visit, and tried out the latest arcade game "Afterburner Climax" (which, we decided was a fun, but regrettably expensive at $2 a pop - the usual games only cost $0.50 per game).

As the night wore on, we found ourselves chatting in a nearby cafe joint, where 4 like-minded fellows (included myself) solved a tough Sudoku puzzle. Next we tried to solve some funny verbal (but sometimes lame hehe) riddles, and finally settled for a late dinner at the Kopitiam opposite the new Singapore Management University, before we bade each other our farewells, and reached home shortly before midnight.

All told, between my brother and myself, we had spent at least $100 on that day alone, but it was all good. It also kindled my interest in joining my brother to play a RTS game - Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade (for the PC).

In Vana'diel, Limbus run went smoothly (on Friday night); however on Sunday morning i missed the sea run, because i overslept. Later, we also triumphed in Dynamis (as per piccies).

While reading a novel, and still undecided as to whether i ought to stay up for FU's event to the Aquaducts, i spotted a shout for The Asif Talif #3! So i signed on...

We also had to defeat 2 imps (which was easy, thankfully), before fighting the boss and his pet opo-opo. For a really easy fight, i'd recommend a normal tank or just any melee job /war (for Provoke) to kite the boss out of the room, then everyone else kill the monkey. Once the opo-opo's dead, we pummeled the boss with everything we had.

We found that meleeing (the boss) was tough.. one should take advantage of its snail-pace movement, and use "hit-and-run" tactics, i.e. nuke / ranged attacks (mages subbing nin optional, since the boss's ranged accuracy is quite low), and the like.

When i returned victorious to Whitegate, my mom stared daggers at me again (brings back memories of the time when i stayed up till 4am+ for the Hakutaku fight), so i had to shutdown >_> Oh well, it was 3am already anyway.. as i complete this entry, its now almost 11am (i woke up at about an hour ago, but had to finish washing the pots from yesterday's dinner), so its back to job-browsing, and yet another shopping trip for groceries. Orz

Oh shoot, today my mom's birthday -.-

Month-end Cometh

2006-10-27T12:27:00.000+08:00

..with me still jobless >_>

On the upside my mom's recovered from the bout with fever, although she's still far from ship-shape condition (diabetes). Tomorrow, I'll be joining my friends for a gathering-cum-lunch session, so once again i should ask around to see if any of them folks wanna hire me..

Otherwise i've been mostly AFK, busying myself with chores, errands, the occassional jobh-err i mean browsing for jobs (zero resume sent out this week)..

In Vana'diel:
1. fishing's Lv19 now,
2. "gimped" my whm up (during besieged) to Lv44,
3. fed my rdm exp scrolls to Lv25 now,
4. Day 8 on ShootingStar, my new chocobo, and
5. we've set a new record for uncapped Imperial Standing BCNM (attached screenie)

Piccies before bed @_@

2006-10-23T04:56:00.000+08:00

04:30am, Monday morning.
Just emerged victorious with fellow members of FableUnity from Besieged.. obtained 1080 experience points.. or actually only 30 Experience Points, because i started out with 43,969 / 43,999, but its all good! I did not die in Dynamis, I also survived the Ashu Talif Assault with no death, and best of all, +1080 Imperial Standing yay!

Now off to bed i go >_>

/fish /away and /psych

2006-10-22T11:47:00.000+08:00

Yep, it had been a quiet weekend while i was /fish /away /fish (took a nap in the afternoon) :P

In the late evening (around midnight) i joined some friends in trying out an uncapped Imperial Standing BCNM fight; i made doubly sure that i had my "Secret Imperial Orders" (temporary key item) after the NPC had deducted 3k Imperial Standing from me.

SquareEnix should just simply charge us 3200 Imperial Standing per member, and give us the option to allow NPC warp us direct to the staging point geez.

Its all good though, i made about 150k-ish out of it. Next week, my goal (secondary to looking for a damned job of course) in Vana'diel would be to go plvl myself on my RDM to get it to Lv32 for Dispel, then i can join in for the popular Lamia13 Assaults.

Harvest Festival in a can

2006-10-21T10:56:00.000+08:00

Copied this link from alla forums :3

Coven Hat was not difficult to get, i realised (from trial and error) that i need not come into direct contact with the "ghostly" npc - i changed my subjob to ranger, tracked the ghost npc, and kept a distance away, and still managed to trigger the required dialogue to get the quest done.

Skipped the furnishings mostly because my moghouse's mostly a functional one (to maximise storage space) as opposed to being purely decorative :P

Also skipped the other items which i've already obtained (pitchfork+1, trick staff+1, treat staff+1, and of course, the pumpkin hats which i've discarded); i've only teamed up with Annis (much later in the evening) to assist with getting the Coven Hat :3

During the past day, i also "participated" in all 3 new Level 6 Besieged. While i'm impressed that SE had made a decent effort at revamping besieged, although its still laggy (700 people in Al Zahbi makes it so lol), and it remains to be seen if the NMs do drop anything nice >_>

Later on, i was AFK mostly to help out with laundry, and accompanied my mom out to get the results of the most recent blood test. The doctor assured her that she will bounce back from the fever, and with continued medication, she can get back to a normal lifestyle.

Back in Vana'diel (by then it was way after dinner) Kevinsa informed that there won't be Limbus tonight, nor sea run this sunday due to lack of attendance, and personal commitments on sunday... so i should be looking forward to a relatively quiet weekend. Should be a quiet weekend ahead, until Dynamis-San'dOria.

Shield of Diplomacy :3

2006-10-19T19:55:00.000+08:00

During the maintenance, a minor RL emergency cropped up - i was woken up at 3am by my brother, and i saw my mom shivering so badly (due to a bout with fever), that we quickly rushed her to the nearby National University Hospital.

We waited a few hours before she was given an injection, and her condition declared manageable to be discharged. Reached home just in time to download the files; alas i was only able to log in, moments after Padfoot was claimed. So i went back to sleep after getting started on the latest ToAU missions.

Lithos had the honour of being among the first to clear these missions though as i got myself lost in Aydeewa and wasted much time logging in puru-ambulance for self-raise, so i took a nap and checked on my mom (she's still feverish, but at least she's looking better).

I idled at lag-gate to seek out a team for this ToAU mission "Shield of Diplomacy", and was about to give up for the day when i bumped into Aragonis, who offered to help me with it despite having just returned from the very same place ^^

At Mt.Zhaylom, some a kind BLM (Xsuta) opened the gate for us (looks like i should make a side trip to get the "die-cast metal plate for this gate sometime), and both of us managed to evade the #$%^@ trueseeing-cum-magic aggro-flying moth (Wamoura) successfully.

OK, gotta sign off for dinner; here's a parting pic for Sophus - screenshot taken earlier when i signed up a random team to help with Lebros Cavern PSC Assault.

Pre-Maintenance Interlude

2006-10-18T19:18:00.000+08:00

My mom was down with fever today, so i didn't do much ingame; i was occupied with the usual chores, and took a quick nap in the afternoon when i was done sending yet another resume out.

I've decided to retire DameVenus (my current chocobo), and start raising a new chick with the egg i had obtained after completion of the quest Chocobo on the Loose.

If i get a male chick, i'll use that to breed with my retired DameVenus :P

FableUnity Scavenger Hunt (linky) :3

2006-10-17T20:48:00.000+08:00

First, the said contest; it looks like i'll be second, since Maderas posted first while i was occupied with my weekly task of cleaning up the house ;)

>_>
<_<

Over the past few days I was busy with RL stuff mostly;
a) jobhunting (3 resumes sent, but no reply as yet),
b) chores,
c) shopping errands,
d) bringing my mom to visit the doctor's for a checkup + blood test, and
e) attending my grandma-and-my-aunt's birthday dinner on sunday night, missing out on Dynamis-Xarcabard (which thankfully i do not have access yet).

After a 3-week hiatus we returned to sea (on last sunday morning), where we got only an axe off Jailer of Fortitude, and NO DROP from the Aern $#%@-.- stupidseapopNM.. geez SE's really hoarding sea drops man..

Zzz.

And the last screenie of the day was taken is morning, on our BCNM60 "Wild Wild Whiskers" - Lithos donated a Penitent's Rope (still worth about 1mil these days) to Chiiru. Otherwise we had crappy drops all round T-T

A Chocobo's Tale (linky!)

2006-10-14T01:02:00.000+08:00

NinjaEdit: found this (attached pic) in a forum that i frequent :3

I dedicate this post to a recently completed quest, A Chocobo's Tale ^^

It kinda started by accident, when i obtained a "Warding Oil" item from clearing quadavs in Beadeaux, for another quest (For The Birds)

Curious, i checked what the warding oil did, and it led me to start the quest; along the way i defeated this NM as well, while collecting 2 more oils..

Then i took a nap, before helping Garcia briefly with his PLD AF fight in Davoi, which comprised of Fem(Lv75BRD), Mohit(Lv75THF), Garcian (Lv53PLD) and myself (Lv75NIN) with Ms.Sahyu (Lv64npc). We took both orcs out with ease, then i disbanded, switching over to Southparks to help Kevinsa getting Private First Class, and then subsequently took part in Limbus.

It went well, with us only having to fight Ifrit, Leviathan and Fenrir, and Solidzeke kept the Scarlet chip, as we collected chips for another trip to Proto-Ultima.

Since my food didn't expire yet, i finished up the quest ^^

Otherwise, the only update is that i got the chocobo whistle (hope there would be a way to recharge the whistle without going through the quest again) >_>

Procrastination eh?

2006-10-10T16:34:00.000+08:00

NinjaEdit: Small update on DameVenus (screenie attached) :3

Status of Chocobo Whistle Quest:
1. Searched Regular Walk (Tahrongi), no whistle.
2. Attempted Short Walk (E.Sarutabaruta), but was discovered -.-

Note to self: to make another Short Walk (E.Sarutabaruta) again + Long Walk (Meriphataud Mtns) tomorrow night >_>

After reading the comments, and thinking on Puru's words, i found myself asking myself whether i would still be playing ffxi 5 years from now.

The answer is aye, i will be in Vana'diel, 1825 days hence.

But i do know that i'll get nowhere with this kikoku thingy if i continue my current laid-back pattern. At the same time, I'm trying to strike a balance between ffxi and real life (searching for a job, trying not to raise parental aggro too much while i'm still living with em, etc).

Besides, (as LoH had pointed out) Kikoku isn't a "must-have" weapon. It would more be of a trophy thing for me.

Continuing from where i left off, yesterday night we only managed to do 1 Assault, and an old one at that (Golden Salvage) because Kevinsa's still Private Second Class :P

We failed though, even though we were in a sure-win combination (of 5, all Lv75s): i was NIN/THF, with MNK/WAR (Hikaruu) , WHM/SMN (Kevinsa), SMN/WHM (Sakuramomo), and RDM/BLM (Beebe).

We wasted time killing 3 cursed chests, and even a pugil.. I also made the mistake of splitting up the team later on; our lone SMN died because of inexperience; i.e. he tried to run off too early (before his avatar got hate) and was dragged back to the chest - the resultant cures that he casted on himself also generated too much hate..

... and not to mention that the rest of us were scouring the northern side, bleargh.

Note to self: Being a veteran in this Assault, next time its up to me to explain the overall strategy (that i have in mind) to the team - if they have other strategies we can discuss there and then, instead of wasting precious time floundering like lost sheep during the actual Assault >_>

Limbus went well, thankfully. We went in central temenos and didn't have much difficulty overcoming the mobs to clear the area.

Stayed up late (well, actually, i dozed off when the trolls came a-knocking, but woke up for the subsequent beseiged) where we snatched a narrow victory from the undead swarm, with all 5 generals dead lol.

Had lots of fun spamming banishga to draw mobs away from Hall of Binding, and then subsequently running for my life... self-reraised myself a few times this way. The stupid merrow's torrent move continually stripped our weapons and equipment though; took us ages to kill that merrow, and only did the undead retreat.

And so i now end this post, resuming my job hunt and striving towards a more balanced game-RL balance.

Project Kikoku? Hmmm

2006-10-09T12:44:00.000+08:00

Summary of the dynamis-bastok run yesterday night :3

We successfully cleared all the mobs with about 30mins remaining on the hourglass!
However there was no RDM, BRD or BLM drops throughout hmm.

With my first 100 byne bill, i'm tempted to start saving on Kikoku (final katana for nin, comes with Blade:Metsu as well). Puru scoffed at my ambition, as it'd take forever to gather 100 x those 100 byne bills (valued at 2mil each currently on most bazaars), not to mention 16 of those Lungo-Nango Jadeshells (about 4mil each nowadays) :P

Below screenshot is taken from Mysterytour website yep.

Oh well, i'll bazaar the smaller currencies to recoup my entrance fee (i paid 20k for this trip), and keep the 100 byne bill with me, while i figure out how i can make use of puru's legacy to craft me some sustainable income without incurring my parents' wrath.

And aye, landing a day job IRL remains as a top priority for me as the year-end approaches swiftly (and my savings depleting slowly but surely too). My mom's fragile health isn't a laughing matter either.

And so i AFK again in Vana'diel; i'll return later with updates on chocobo (should be fully grown either today or tomorrow), and any other interesting stuff, such as me joining Kevinsa tonight to get some Assaults done, prior to our usual Limbus run :D

A scrrrrrenie to end this post: taken prior to entering dynamis (From left to right the 3 "mandys" are: Leoleo, Hayahide and Neomasa).

Back to Square One? Hmm.

2006-10-08T00:16:00.000+08:00

Short interlude post, as I consider my options in Vana'diel (saturday night, no point sleeping so early yet)..

Is back to FableUnity (or FU) for now, as I put EternalSkies into storage (keeping the LS pearl in case i want get my hairpin back from Reiyan in future). The short stay i had in ES convinced me that there isnt enough manpower, or unity to undertake raids on byakko and kirin, so its back to the drawing board for me.

There would be any sea run too today, as Kevinsa's work commitments continue to make him unavailable to lead the foray into Al'Taieu and beyond. No matter, it should be a good opportunity for me to hang around in FU or continue my fishing. The bright side is, Leoleo will be going to Dynamis-Bastok tonight (whee!) - once i get this cleared i'll be able to access Dynamis-Beaucedine (glacier) at last :3

Random thoughts

2006-10-06T22:59:00.000+08:00

Been spending my days mostly in EternalSkies, that is when i wasn't AFK applying for jobs (5 applications sent; one for each day), busy with misc.errands and chores, and such.. In Vana'diel i've mostly helped out a bit here and there..

Yesterday Kevinsa wanted to regroup the static again for more regular Assaults, to which i agreed. Who knows, i just might be able to get the rank of Sergeant-Major eventually, without ever getting another job to Lv75 heh.

Missed tonight's Limbus as I had to be present for my grandmother's 79th Birthday Dinner, which only ended at about 10:30pm (1hr after the usual gathering timing at Port Jeuno). Just reached home at 11pm (on my dad's van), despite lowered visibility condition (haze) which made for more cautious driving.

This coming sunday 2am (or 4am AEST) will see me in sky again; i reckon i'll give it a few more tries before deciding whether to move on to another shell in my quest for the accursed Byakko's Haidate. Also, the thought of having to camp Ulli again is.. simply bleargh. It should be interesting to see if i'd be able to stay awake for Kevinsa's sea foray, and to manage to parental aggro levels. Good luck to me :3

Now, to go join yet another Beseiged (currently 5k IS points)..

Piccies Piccies Piccies

2006-10-03T09:41:00.000+08:00

And so, i post, a grand total of 5 pics! :P

The Warrior's Path: Take 2

2006-10-02T12:20:00.000+08:00

Resuming from my last entry.. on Saturday night i joined Xamer (WHM), who recruited a RNG + RDM - together with HM (MNK) and Lithe (BLM) for a session at the outskirts of Mamook Ja Staging Point; didn't keep track of the exp or time, but we stuck together till after Xamer hit Lv74, despite nearly getting wiped once by Skoffins (stupid wyverns) and a stray air elemental.

Then I went to sky, joining members of Eternalskies to farm stuff in sky. We were waiting for more people to come when a dying taru ran up to the portal with Despot furiously chasing him from behind ^^;

Thanks to everyone present, we won Despot, and Mrflood got the drop item. Spent the next 3 hours there farming Pots for Ro'maeve water, as per below screenie:

After we disbanded, i left myself AFK and went to sleep. Woke up at about 11am - there wasn't any sea run scheduled since Kevinsa was unavailable to lead, and returned to the outskirts of Mamook Ja Staging Point for about 1 hour, this time targetting puks and mamook beastmen only.

The merit session ended shortly after my friend (Alexbrother, as RDM) lost connection, so I spent some time fishing up rusty items in the dunes after raising one of Rymo's party members at the secret beach.

That was when Morientes sought me out to help on the Promathia Mission 7-5, "The Warrior's Path".

We took too long the first time around, and Tenzen kicked us out :P

The original plan was to wait for 2hrs, but after some friends came as Corsair and managed to recharge our PLD (Hynt), WAR (Morientes), RDM (Tarnya) and BLMs (Future, Kidogear) 2hr ability, we decided to go ahead after waiting for around 55mins, since it was almost dinnertime.)

And so, we finally kicked Tenzen's butt out of Vana'diel for a second time (for me anyway); alas my Mijin Gakure (used when Tenzen was at 25%, shortly after his Meikyo Suisui ended) wasn't sufficient to win the fight; i almost hit the reraise button when our team won ^-^

Overall i spent a bit over 100k - sleeping potions x 2 stacks @28k per stack + Icarus Wings x2 @30k each, and Hi-Potion+3 x 3 @3k each.

And a screenie taken after the victory (yep, the dead elvaan's Morientes) , much to the amusement of my japanese friends. ^^

We then went about the area to locate the 20 Quasilumin NPCs (miniquest for map of Al'Taieu). While consulting my map, i aggroed a shark (Ul'phuabo) which we won with relative ease, despite Voiceless Storm being a pain as usual (Echo Drops ftw!) and it managing to kill one of our mages >_<

Later on we also aggroed an UFO (the irritating Ul'yovra) while the team was separated. Eventually we got everyone the map, and cleared Mission 8-1 as well (which actually started because Morientes popped the mission Aern mobs, when he checked out a the crystal at the bridge) :D

After dinner, I joined Aragonis as a helper for the KS30 BCNM "Operation Desert Swarm".

Its pretty good considering we only had 3 Lachesis orb users lol

/em notes to shout a prayer and thanks to SE each time i enter any BCNM in future :3

more Temenos fun and random thoughts

2006-09-30T11:49:00.000+08:00

On Friday night, after some discussion Kevinsa led our team into Temenos 2F; completion of this would allow us to have another go at Proto-Ultima ^^

We triumphed over the stupid rabbit eventually - fighting shiva-clone was more painful because it was iceday, and i self-reraised2 myself twice for the duration of this Limbus run. My exp's now at 41k/44k.. hrm. hopefully i can join Xamer's exp party if and when they're levelling tonight. If not, i guess i'll get into a merit party sometime during the weekend, before dynamis heh.

So now we're ready to take on Proto-Ultima once more; Kevinsa was planning it to be on next friday, but on that evening i have to be present at my grandma's birthday dinner >_> Informed him accordingly, so we'll see what happens.

As I mentioned before, after Emms had returned me the LuShang's, i started on getting my fishing level up.. so far i'm only at Lv12 after spending some time in Yhoator & Yuhtunga Jungles, Davoi and Jugner Forest over the past 3 days lol

Even under the new system, i found fishing to be quite relaxing - i got to catch up on some reading (having borrowed some novels from the library yesterday), browse for jobs (nothing much still though) and/or attend to misc. tasks assigned by my mom from time to time.

Looking at the current members in ES, i'm kinda reminded of the time when Jedi was growing in strength.

Hence, while its unlikely i'll get byakko's haidate in this LS, i guess could start collecting stuff off the easier gods (genbu, seiryu and suzaku) for my RDM haha. More importantly though, competition from Gilsellers {Thanks for the offer but i'll have to pass}.

Ironically, the (EternalSkies) LS's limbus timing for this weekend, would be just shortly after I would be in sea myself, with Kevinsa's Southparks to hunt sea gods (although Kevinsa also announced that there would be no sea run this week too, due to he having to attend his sister's wedding) :o

This morning, i joined Valafax with a couple of folks gathered at whitegate, in doing 2 runs of PSC (Private Second Class) Assault "Excavation Duty".

First round, we had 4 melees (specifically WAR/NIN x2, THF/NIN and NIN/WAR) and 1 RDM, and we cleared the Assault with 2 mins to spare.

Thief then left, replaced by a MNK . Yep, only 5 of us throughout, and we cleared this Brittle-Rock bashing Assault without difficulty. Up 880 x 2 = 1760 Assault Points on Lebros Cavern. I too left for lunch.

Ninjaedit: added a screenie of my fledging chocobo, DameVenus (Day 19 or 20, i forget) :P

After lunch i spent the afternoon cleaning up the house, before returning to leech 700exp off a Lv5 Mamook Beseiged.

With Xamer, Akakami & Ryukish along, we kicked a magic pot out of Vana'diel for Duncan's ZM12, then i got lost in the desert before Xamer pointed out the right way to the Cerment Headstone (Ryukish needed that done).

Now back at Whitegate with Xamer, waiting HM and Lithe to wake up, for our first ever exp party in ages :3

Guess i may stay up the whole night (barring the parental aggro) to hunt for the warhorse hoofprint (rank-up quest yep, unlocked after completing the 2 Assault runs earlier in the day), and then joining EternalSkies for their sky run.

Fishing night, and EternalSkies ahoy! (no screenies)

2006-09-28T02:17:00.000+08:00

The day was mostly spent accompanying my mom out to visit my grandparents (dad's parents), and to meet my aunt at her office in Eunos, to collect some mooncakes she bought for my mom.

So i was only able to log into Vana'diel at 6pm (8pm Sydney time, 11am London time, or 6am EST).

Emmseh announced that she and Wazz have decided to quit ffxi; she returned the LuShang's fishing rod to me.

While i felt somewhat sad at their impending departure, i respect them for their decisions, and wished her all the best. To think that i was this close to quitting ffxi myself. Xamer wanted to level his DRK with my RDM, but due lack of members (only 3 others seeking at that time), Xamer had the following options:

1. Defeat Jazaraat (ToAU mission NM)
2. Farm spiders in Kuftal, to get his Promise Badge
3. (now that i have LuShang's) Fish on selbina/mhaura ferry

He chose (1); it wasnt a difficult fight (compared to my solo attempt sometime ago in early August hehehe) - 1337 WHM for the win! ^^

After the fight ended, Xamer signed out, while i tried to see if i could skillup my lowly Lv11 fishing by catching forest carps in Yhoator Jungle, outside entrance to the temple of uglies.

Also, Astara dropped by to visit after his exp party (he was levelling BLM) had ended (i didn't think to take any screenshot, duh).

We had some fun trying to get tonberries off him - he was visiting as lv38 whm i think. Also, i found out Astara has not started on the recently added ToAU missions yet, so its likely i'll get to fight Jazaraat again in the near future (not that i'll mind, i'll own that stupid dood easily with Xamer along) lol.

Eventually Astara signed off too, and by midnight, i had obtained 6 stacks of moat carp and 2 stacks of forest carps, of which i sent 3 stacks (moat) to Astara, while i put up the rest for sale. A measly 0.2 skillup onry though; looks like i'll have to go skillup on the ferry, or in Jugner Forest.

Was about to call it a night, when my instincts nagged at me to check in EternalSkies forums.. and volia! I'm now a trial member of ES ^^ Now, to see if i can stay up later at night without incurring my parents' wrath, AND still get a day job soonish >_>

Of Besieged, and Tonberry Adventures

2006-09-27T08:42:00.000+08:00

On Tuesday (after sending some resumes out on the day before), I took a break from job-hunting - alas the only phone calls i received were... wrong numbers >_>

On top of that, my mom's lost weight yet again; its a worrying sign that her health isn't looking good; she also tires easily. When i accompany her to visit my grandma's tomorrow, I'll post some resumes out too for part-time positions as well.

Meanwhile (in Vana'diel), I spent some time in FableUnity - Menez, Tigerlily and myself helped Lienna with some Banishing Gates. After Lienna got her coffer, I went AFK, helping mom out with some miscellaneous chores, before returning to Al'Zahbi for a LV5 Trolls Beseiged.

After beseiged ended, i had a sudden inspiration to trade away some of my Imperial Standing for imperial bronze coins (reducing my balance from 7.4k to 3.2k IS points), and then trading them (together with the gobbie hat) to Xamer ^^

Joined a skillup party formed by Psymonk, during which I had to AFK again, spending 15mins at the local mall with mom to get some groceries shopping out of the way. Aside from that, i didn't need to tank as NIN/WHM (we had a PLD tank, Jmarvs), and got my hand-to-hand up from 178 to 181.6... it aint much, but then, i was also missing Steelshells about a quarter of the time too despite arming myself with Shiva's Claws.

There was yet another beseiged (LV5 Undead) >_> as i returned to Al'Zahbi after the skill-up party ended, so I spent some time running around picking targets, where i tried my best to avoid confronting skellys and those lamias -.- Even so i died at least thrice there fighting Bhoots (bogy/ghost-types). Got zero exp again (my exp bar was capped), but nonetheless was rewarded with 700 IS points.

After dinner, i visited Den of Rancor out of boredom, and found a NM tonberry. While waiting for Kevinsa to arrive, I attempted to get a coffer key off those bats, and got owned by tonberries (being NIN/WHM, i had reraise up, but was too slow on using mijin); its all good though, i'm still 42k/44k on my exp bar. And congratulations to Kevinsa (WHM/BST for the fight) on obtaining the drop! ^-^

To round up this post, I'm posting 2 screenies from our recent win over Proto-Omega (on monday night) ^^b

Of a fairly boring Sunday, and Dynamis Buburimu!

2006-09-25T09:02:00.000+08:00

Sunday plowed along quite slowly for me, as Kevinsa wasn't able to lead our weekly raid to sea due to work.

Thus, the morning saw me spending some time with Ms.Sahyu farming some kindred seals off crabs in Kuftal (/waved at Guivre while running to camp the robber crabs near the exit to Cape Terrigan, with Sneak and Invisible up).

Only farmed...2 Kindred and 4 Beastmen Seals, 1 stack of land crab meat (which i discarded) and 5 crab shells. Next time i might buy either a Dusk Jerkin or War Shinobi Gi, and try again as /THF hmm.. >_>

Went to help a random player (Trinty) with a WSNM in Zitah.. with somewhat mixed results. Consisting only of 4 melee:

Isadora, Nin/war 75
Caillum, War/nin 75
Trinty, /anon-war/thf 71 or 72, and
Geminielf, oops i forgot, war or some melee job

Round 1 was a flunk; i wasnt concentrating and died early on in the fight, and eventually everyone wiped at 4%. Summoned my puru-ambulance from where i logged out the day before in Horlais Peak, and raised everyone.

Round 2, even with me dual-boxing, was a breeze lol. I tanked in SH+1 this time instead of Osode, and as Puru i only Hasted Isa and Caillum, as well as Cure IV x2. Thus ended the fight, and i disbanded after a teleport-mea for Caillum.

On hindsight i could have used the free time in-between to make sure i got the chores cleared; mom was to aggro me later at night during dynamis bleargh.. luckily my brother came to the rescue; even so i should take care to avoid a recurrence, especially since tonight is Proto-Omega fight.

And so, i checked in early to FrozenSandGlass shortly before dinnertime, and i was surprised that there was already at least 10 people in the shell (this being a dynamis-event-only LS, usually people only show up just before the appointed event time) :o

Eventually about 42 people showed up; alas this dynamis only had room for 36. After Nela's LS (Information) was done, we quickly sorted out our groups - we went in as 3 groups, with each group consisting of 12 people per alliance, and went in.

By and large, we followed the strategy from killingifrit, avoiding the main boss at first, and hunting down some of the NMs to weaken the boss.

Fighting some of those NMs was a pain (Void Song and Heavy Stomp bah) but we found that it did make the fight against the boss easier (note to self; forget about using reraise hairpin until the Voidsong NM's been defeated). We got lost for awhile too, touring the landscape, and managed to slay 2 more dragon NMs we encountered along the way :3

And after killing the boss, the farming began :D

In the end, i had to logout quickly due to 300% aggro from my mom, and decided to call it a night. Now, its back to jobhunting, while i settle to wait for Proto-Omega fight tonight.

Saturday KS30 and stuff

2006-09-23T22:53:00.000+08:00

Meh.. its yet another weekend, how time flies (almost month-end too now) >_>

Yesterday with Kevinsa leading we cleared SE Apollyon without a hitch, and would once again be able to challenge Proto-Omega come next monday ^^

To encourage more regular attendance from members, Ghostface also suggested that Kevinsa introduce point-system.. we'll see if it works out heh.

I was invited (by a tarutaru WHM called Evil hehe) to a merit party in mamook, with a mix of japanese, HK players and also with Fiercedeity as BRD). After the session, i was able to swap out the 1 parry merit, opting to upgrade my evasion merit to level 4 Evasion skill. Pity there's no refund for lowering merit bleh.

Today Xamer was accepted into EternalSkies, and he passed me the link to the LS forums. Applied there to try my luck, as my quest for the elusive Byakko's Haidate continues ^-^

Later in the afternoon, i joined Revenant in the KS30:Double Dragonian.

The first 3 runs went mostly without a hitch, but we wiped on the fourth run (PLD's orb) >_< Logged in Puruambulance for Raise3 goodness for the team, then PLD had to leave (her dad woke up, and it was late for her)..

Still, i found it easier after PLD left; Aragonis enlisted Jacker as a helper, who joined us as RDM, and Aragonis switched jobs, becoming our WHM for the final 2 runs (our helper did not use any orb).

In the end, my drops were worth around 400-450k, and after deducting the 30seals i set aside for HM's run, i have.. 21 kindred seals left /panic XD

*ninjaedit, added in some K.seals obtained while camping Jaded Jody*

Just returned from Wajaom Woodlands after unsuccessfully trying to camp Jaded Jody, a morbol-type NM (lottery pop from Greater Ameretats in E-11 sector) with Rev, Aragonis (Omegachaos and Kyrian came by too; together we camped against some gilsellers (RMTs) for an hour-odd, before calling it a day).

*Ninjaedit2: added a pic from recent beseiged (Lv5) attack from mamook.. bleargh warp taru managed to get captured again*

Doodle Doodle Doo Doo

2006-09-21T17:08:00.000+08:00

Just scribbling [anything] for a random subject >_>

Had a fallout with my parents again over my current jobless state; but early on (shortly after when i snapped at my parents) i recognized i was destined to lose - i totally agree with them that i ought to be gainfully employed - so i stfu and endured the verbal bombardment, while resolving that i MUST to get a job ASAP <_<

Yesterday, my bro's friend posted on the forum, that there was a temp job opening - (sounds like data entry + lousy shift work, but at this point, i figure any income is better than no income.. fewer hours on ffxi beats no ffxi at all, despite me having considered to quit playing awhile ago); now i'm awaiting a favourable reply from the company, while at the same time i submitted a few other applications for clerical jobs.

Back in Vana'diel, drastically cut down my online time, so i was largely afk ingame. Hung out in FableUnity again, partly since there wasnt anyone in TSC, and also partly hoping that i can join in any Assault missions that the linkshell may undertake in the few weeks ahead (or whenever i get to play, assuming i land the job which will demand me to work in shifts, totally scrambling my available playtimes).

Attached 2 piccies to end this post :3

Relevations..

2006-09-19T11:01:00.000+08:00

The weekend has been mostly uneventful.. while i mulled over the possibility of retiring isadora, puru announced that he's no longer going to play ffxi - i lent most of puru's stuff to Xamer, and bought a LuShang's fishing rod for Emms, who has the option to return it after she fishes up the 10k moat carps ;)

On a more serious note, if i am still unemployed by Xmas, i can expect to either suspend or give my account up for adoption while i scramble madly for much-needed $$$ >_> Guess i'll take on some odd-jobs as the festive season draws near..

In Vana'diel, on sunday morning i was in sea with Kevinsa's LS; and Hikaruu finally obtained his fortitude torque ^^

I found myself getting depressed thinking about my prospects both IRL and in game; so i logged out abruptly soon after, and missed Xamer+Emms+Wazz's static. I count myself VERY lucky to have them as friends - who are understanding and supportive of my predicament.. perhaps one might conclude that i bought the LuShang's and lent all those gear out in a poor attempt to assuage my guilty conscience (however, i have not given Wazz anything yet *hides*)..?

And finally, on the latest Limbus run with Kevinsa's LS again yesterday night. Congrats to Kenkenbb and Hik ^^

Jobhunt Take 3 [Start Button]

2006-09-15T16:51:00.000+08:00

It was with some mixed feelings that I completed my reservist training.

Joy: that i did better than expected during the combat shoot phrase (which took place last thursday that is).

Relief: that i didnt screw up too much overall during this in-camp training.

Disappointment: that i still could not manage to pass my physical test; but on reflection, if i did not procrastinate on my personal training (after the gym sessions ended back in august) i would have cleared it with ease.

Trepidation: to be honest, while i'm not looking forward to the same old job-hunt routine; i do need some income, or the simple alternative (to reduce my cost of living) would be to cancel my mobile, cancel internet subscription, and uhhh cancel ffxi <_<

Hence, i'm writing up this post as a pointed self-reminder that i must concentrate on getting myself a job by the end of this month (if possible)! >_>

Quickie Post

2006-09-10T23:28:00.000+08:00

This morning i joined Kevinsa's sea/Limbus LS hunting Aerns in the grand palace of Hu'Xoi.. it was kinda boring (as such things tend to go), but we've got a few organs stocked up (literally lol) so we should be able to pop some (sea) gods again next weekend.

Was meh with my lots, but managed to obtain 2 Aern organs, thus bringing the status for "In the Name of Science" Quest to:
(a) 2/3(or 2/7) Aern organs, and
(b) 3/7(or 3/3!)Hpemede organs >_> Ah well, way to go!

After the sea run concluded, i lent my services to Kevinsa and Kinkin in the sewers, where we whacked fomors for their subligar..

(Above screenshot) Yep, i got killed once during the fight, while happily spamming my ninjitsu cycle and forgetting to count my shadows >_<

And so, we won Eba (Ssizzy & myself as NINs, Kinkin as WHM, Sakuramomo as SMN and Kevinsa as THF).. i got the entirely non-functional fomor tunic as a keepsake lol

Didn't join Leoleo's (FrozenSandglass) Dynamis run tonight, as they went to Dynamis-Xarcabard, which i've yet to qualify (i still need wins in Dynamis-Windurst, Bastok & then Glacier as well).

Reservist: one more week to go..

2006-09-09T18:57:00.000+08:00

(IRL)- so far so good; i took part in the range on Thursday, where we practiced a new system of shooting the targets - it was fun & pretty fast too, compared to the old system.

We found that its now harder to get marksmanship awards though, as the new system now awards medals on a section basis (i.e. points calculated based on the average total score of 6 shooters, instead of on individual basis).

Friday was spent at another camp, where my role was to act as civilians returning to a village to find the route being blockaded by soldiers (in this case, my fellow reservists colleagues, friends etc).

Admittedly it kinda got old after we repeated the playacting scenario for 12 times. Even so, we had good fun, especially (during the lasrt session) when the conducting officer gave one of my fellow "villagers" a toy gun prop.

It was interesting to see the various reactions (my own bleargh acting skills in action notwithstanding)- the objective of the practical was that in wartime, as a soldier, one should always achieve the mission objective with minimal casualties.

In Vana'diel, i actually found myself considering to ditch Jedi and TheStoneCutters. The former, was of course due to zero attendance for sky today, I also didnt say anything even though i spotted Sun online. As for the latter, its become a ghost shell too after some personal incidents involving some of my friends took place.

It also gave me plenty of time to reflect upon my past, present and future. Its good time to take a big break from ffxi while i consider my options, specifically starting with full-time jobhunt after my reservist duty ends next friday.

About the only thing i did was to join Edwin's team (spotted his shout for members to do the PFC Assault "Lamia13"). Both times I found that nin/blm, while not as good as nin/brd or nin/rdm (uncapped that is, for then /brd can use finale, and /rdm can dispel) nin/blm was still way better than nin/war for sleepga & drain - it was also less deadly when, during round2, i got charmed by Lamia13. Also in part due to me using wind staff; my staff skill is Lv18 lol.

Reservist Day #2 (aye, no pics!)

2006-09-05T21:22:00.000+08:00

First, to pick up where i left off (in Vana'diel). On Sunday night, Sakuramomo told me that he wouldn't be able to go Dynamis, so i took the initiative & sent Leoleo a /tell, and I got in ^^

The Dynamis shell that i joined is indeed a mix of Japanese, Hong Kong and misc. others (such as myself, hailing from singapore). An entrance fee of 22k per person for the cities Dynamis (Jeuno/Sandy/Windy/Bastok), and 25k entrance fee per player for the northlands (glacier/xarcabard) is required.

Aside from a wipe early on (mijin), things went very smoothly. Counted among the drops (for AF) were:

- war x1
- drg x1
- sam x2
- nin x2 (i didn't get..boots isnt crucial to me, so its no big deal)
- thf x3
- drk x3 lol, 3rd was free lot (as only 2 people wanted)

It was with mixed feelings - on one hand, it was not 100% clear (we had 1 hour after winning the boss; cleared the way back to the moghouse), but on the other, it was my first dynamis win in ages :P

Fast forward to yesterday, where I left isadora AFK, to bazaar the loot i received (yep, individual bills/coins/shells were "free" - no one lots for those, and whoever the items dropped to, gets to keep 'em for sale!) In my bazaar were 2 bronzecoins (25k each), & 5 tukuku shells (30k each).

When I reported for the Reservist In-Camp Training, i noticed that the guards checked everyone entering the camp for camera-phones, laptops, thumb drives etc. Ended up spending 35mins as the queue moved slowly along >_>

Day 1 went by pretty much uneventfully; met up with army friends & colleagues, moved some stuff around & got my (Commanding Officer, aka my boss..) office cleaned up.

Booked out somewhat later than the rest, as my ex-boss hung around to write up his farewell speech for the Change-of-Command parade (which was held today). Got my haircut, bought nokia 2160 (Zero-dollar, 2years extension of my current plan), and some bread as today's breakfast, before i headed home.

There was no Limbus due to shortage of members, according to Kevinsa, who was again toying the idea of discontinuing Limbus runs if this trend continued.. Ah well, I'm not exactly pining for AF+1s, Homam or Nashira gear, so I didn't say anything.

After chatting with Xamer for a bit, getting my weekly Sacrarium scroll + chocobo run quest done, I reverted isadora to bazaar mode and went to bed.

This morning i checked in Vana'diel for awhile before booking in - was surprised to see people on the LS, so i chatted with Lithe, HM & Grimsword on the LS, before I went AFK again.

The Change-of-Command ceremony went ahead smoothly, except for a poor guy who had to fall out due to dizziness. Of particular note was also 3 dudes who went "missing" during a break in the rehearsal prior to the actual run >_>; (i found out when my colleague requested me to get the names of those idiots from another colleague tomorrow morning..)

Currently feeling kinda blue; i swear i remembered taking my bag in after i opened the door to my house, but puru found it OUTSIDE the house when he returned around 20mins later <_< Guess I'll have an early night, in a bid to push away all negative thoughts of myself.. * chants i must think positive *

On the upside, I earned back the amount I paid for the dynamis, as all the loot that i put up for sale were sold. Now, here's hoping that Leoleo will have the next dynamis in Windurst instead of Beaucedine Glacier (which I can't access yet until i have victories in Dynamis-bastok & windurst).

Seahunting

2006-09-03T17:29:00.000+08:00

One hour before attempting dynamis again, recommended by Sakuramomo.

The dynamis shell is probably a mix of Japanese & Hong Kong players; i'll find out and update in the near future, as i'd be turning in early tonight (I'm reporting to camp early tomorrow morning, so i'd need to wake up at 5am) >_>

Yep, (monday) 5am for me is 5pm Sunday evening Stateside, East Coast. Kinda meh on the timezone, but nothing i can do short of smuggling myself over *shrugs*

(IRL) This morning I spent some time looking for my field gear, before the appointed time gathering (for sea run) Al'Taieu at 9am. I was surprised by the amount of stuff lying around; i even found 2 sets of rifle-cleaning kit ^^;

Today's sea run had an excellent turnout (about 25 people showed up, where usually we'd have 11-16 players).

As a result, after winning the Jailer of Fortitude, i found myself rotated out, as part of the support team during some fights later on.

Overall, it was a successful run, in the sense that we won every jailer that we popped (Fortitude x1, Prudence x2, Hope x1 and Justice x2).. however drop-wise it was a disappointing 0/6 for torques.

After the event ended i went AFK again the whole afternoon, packing up my field gear, and testing out my uniforms.

I also spent awhile mentally preparing myself to be "pro-active" a little for this upcoming In-Camp Training. What this means, is that i'd no longer try to evade tasks (in army slang, tasks = "arrows) that come my way >_>

It paid off last time when i got a temp job recommendation from an army friend; similarly, this time I'm hoping to be able to land a job after this Range ends.

Or i could go work at the local McDonald's to shore up my poor savings account >_>

Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

2006-09-02T18:08:00.000+08:00

Had plenty of time to think while i was mopping the floor this morning.

This morning I returned from AFK in Windurst Woods; thanks to Tinydog who bought the Gold Key (needed for CoP mission 5-3 i believe), and the 2 reraise hairpins (each with 1 charge remaining - i put them up at 8k each, considering a fully-charged hairpin typically goes for around 80k) ^^

This morning, there was again a dismal showing up of members for sky - most probably because Sun was busy working and did not (or could not) post updates while working.

On the bright side, we did manage to organise a trip to Uleguerand Range for ENM "Brothers"; a Martial Analace (worth about 600k-ish these days) as well as a Cassie Lumber (1k?) dropped.

We also did 2 Assaults (Golden Salvage, and Imperial Agent Rescue). We were lucky in both counts!

During the "Golden Salvage" Assault, Faxanadu was unable to shake off a Cursed Chest as WHM/smn, when we split up - lucky Sun as SMN got the right chest, and i rushed back to the rune of release for the chest and exit.

This would also mark my 3rd success (out of 5 tries) for Imperial Agent Rescue - we managed to get the npc rescued on the second door, with 4 mins remaining. We then disbanded because Sun needed to go to work.

After a quick lunch, I rejoined Team Stonecutters, and after getting Psymonk we stopped by Bostaunieux Oubliette to get HM his Asuran Fists NM out of the way^^

While everyone else went to Norg to finish the Asuran Fists quest, I went AFK, and mopped the floor. It was then I got into an argument with my mom & brother (Puru), as they were concerned that I was still jobless, and that I was applying for positions that were deadend jobs.

Hence, the subject title. Before I did too much damage, I shut myself up and forced myself to calm down, try to look from their point of view. Much as I hate to say so, they (my mom & Puru) are correct: i'd need to relook my options during my reservist training.

Most importantly, that i'd better land a job by the end of this month too (and not just any menial job too)!

Wasted 30 kindred seals on operation desert swarm; but its cool, considering it was 4/6 success rate. Pity crappy drops all round.

Before scooting off for dinner, also posting a piccie of a mannequinn that i smuggled into my moghouse using Puru's funds >_>
Alas, HM's gift (yep, the "Tarutaru Folding Screen") does look huge; pity i can't fit it nicely over the center; instead i settled for putting it on one side of my moghouse.

ENMs and coffer hunts with Sahyu

2006-09-01T16:19:00.000+08:00

Joined a team formed by Demiomega for ENM at Mineshaft #2716. Team composition was: RNG (Demiomega), WAR (Kimiko), THF (Jeudew), BRD (Bradford), WHM/smn (Darka), and myself as NIN.

Didnt post any screenie of that; it was kinda tedious spending over 2 hours (even though we had a THF) whacking Bugbear Watchmen and the pesky mobbies, gobbies.. we had 5 links at one point and they killed poor Demiomega.

Eventually we all obtained "Sylvan Stone" each, required for every party member to get the temporary key item "mineshaft #2716 operating lever" - which was in turn needed to get into uncapped ENM "Bionic Bug".

The one screenshot i took was later on, when we visited Boneyard Gully (for ENM: "Sheep in Antlions Clothing").

Alas crappy drops for both ENMs. Still, its nice to pocket some freebie exp.

Spent much of yesterday idle, mostly browsing for job and doing misc. RL stuff, before i decided on taking Ms.Sahyu (aka my veteran npc) for coffer key hunting, and then chest hunting for the maps.

Countdown to Range :3

2006-08-30T13:18:00.000+08:00

Today is Wednesday; 4 days till my reservist call up (which will be from 4-15 Sep'06).. As it'd be a range this time, it should be fun, especially if we get to use the new rifles hrm.

On Mon evening (morning for players in the East Coast [Daylight Saving], Stateside Timezone), we attempted a new route in Temenos via a "Metal Chip" (which Kevinsa had purchased by using 75 Ancient Coins).

Attendance was good; we had people for an alliance of 2 teams plus a few more for Team 3. But we lost anyway - we ran out of time. Stupid Aern monsters all had the same name (all different jobs; the MNK Aern owned me as soon as it used Hundred Fists); they also have the lousy habit of resurrecting once after they die the first time too (80% of the time) >_>

The worst part was that the Aern mobs came in pairs, AND in quads. Fight one = linkga bleargh.. Adding insult to injury, we also found out that we'd have time extension only after we kill the whole bunch of them; this differed from the standard time extension chests. Thus we were still fighting when we were booted out of Temenos.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was mostly spent running around town with mom (IRL that is); we visited the doctor's for a blood test, got my dad's watches batteries replaced, and shopped for groceries at the local supermarket.

Returned to Vana'diel in the late afternoon, where i did nothing much.. i spent the time reading a Star Wars novel [title: Tatooine Ghost] by Troy Denning. Later on in the night, I assisted Kevinsa with a coffer hunt at Garlaige (Banishing Gate #2), with Sortai and Kangta. Then it was off to bed for me..

This morning i returned to Garlaige again lol - spotted a shout in Jeuno (where i was AFK before i slept), and after my routine online job browsing, i helped that player solo the bomb, which dropped the Bomb Coal needed as part of Limit Break 1 (after defeating 3 of those).

Helmut (HM), Lithe and myself then went to Wajoam Woodlands to erase the latent on HM's Trial Knuckles. To my embarrassment i got him and Lithe killed while fighting a Madrid, which spawned Chigoes to swat at us. Logged in as Puru ambulance to deliver Raise3 goodness for both of my friends before we moved on to kill Ameratats and Tigers. Got myself a merit point, and Jody's Acid for the couple ^^

After HM & Lithe retired for the night,i joined Pikkon and shouted for awhile, before we had a full team consisting of: Pikkon (BRD), Lalandra (BST), a japanese player WHM, myself (NIN) and THF x 2 (Wilmac & Kalogalo).

We won the fight in Gustav with relative ease, but while we were going to fight Wyvernpoacher, Pikkon linked 3 gobbies - our WHM kinda panicked and casted Teleport Altep with our BST still out of range <_<

Shortly after, i rejoined Lalandra, who got a raise, presumably from Tifalionheart (after logging in Puru again for a quick tele).

Congrats Lalandra again on the O.bow, and also to Tifalionheart for the WHM Testimony - good luck for the Maat fight ^^

And oh yeah, this (below) screenie was taken just after HM, Lithe & myself had completed an escort run in Eldieme.. 1337gil for chocobo >_>

And a weaponskill that i doubt i'll ever use as nin lol