Rebirth

I know, OMG again?!?!

Sanctuary

Regardless if anyone reads this or not I'm going to post some thoughts that I've been having lately and let things fall as they may. I find it interesting that I get these random feelings of nostalgia mixed with regret. They show up when I least expect them to and nag at me without hope of end. I consistently find myself checking up on how everyone is doing via blog and smiling at how well things are =).

So what am I saying really? I feel that all temples require maintenance in order to run properly and fulfill their purpose. This particular post is my personal attempt to maintain the remnants of my own temple. I am unable to fully understand what makes FFXI special to me. The downtime in grouping, the inability to solo, fighting for raid mobs, long hours necessary for one level, all things that irritate me. There is something about the game that pulls at me and I find myself missing the very very few friends that I have on the game.

This sounds like an {I'm back!} post, that's a bit premature however. There is no conclusion that I would return to the game, Templer is most likely deleted by this time regardless. I am simply saying that there is an spark that remains inside the temple and could one day consume it entirely. Warcraft continues to consume a great amount of my days as does work and school but there is something about FFXI. The beauty of the game is hard to surpass even though many have tried.

There is always hope for the things you least expect

Hard choices

I know I haven't posted or played in a while but I'm gonna try to clear some of that up real quick here. I've been having to make some hard choices lately, mostly about money and they of course affect all aspects of my life. I am currently taking summer courses at the University so that I may actually graduate sometime before I'm 30. My loan company does not cover summer courses so all that went directly on my credit card ;_;. I picked up more hours at work to help pay off my credit card which has been eating at my free time. I also need to pay off my credit card before the fall semester starts because that's where my $1000 worth of textbooks has to go. Basically what I'm saying is that I need to suspend (NOTE: NOT QUIT OR CANCEL) my FFXI account until I can get my money situation back to where it should be. I apologize for not saying anything earlier but I really haven't had the time. I also apologize that I have to leave temporarily again, I know it's getting annoying but every little bit will help me at the moment. I'll talk to you guys soon, don't worry. =)

P.S. I'm sorry that I keep missing your calls, Syph. I'm usually at work ;_;

RL

Since I realize I've never shown Kir a RL pic of me I decided to link the one that I already have uploaded to webspace. So here we go. This is a picture of me and my girlfriend from 2 years ago. My sister is a photographer and took the picture for us.

http://www.geocities.com/zohar_03/fairpic2.jpg

Lack of updates

Don't worry guys, I'm still here =) This has been an odd kind of week to be honest. I've spent more time with friends and family than I have in quite some time. It was refreshing actually. I'll probably be back with the normal playtimes this coming week.

I did manage to get a nice party with Kir on Tuesday and get 2k away from 61. She also helped me finish G3 finally so that I'm able to ding 61 next time we party (Tuesday?). As much as I'm glad to be out of Valkrum Dunes with my BLM, I actually kind of miss it. VD is one of the only places where you don't wait long for a party. I've been trying to get my WAR leveled so that I don't have to stop leveling PLD but I haven't had any luck so far. No one wants a lvl 31 WAR tank/DD evidently. Ah well, it'll happen eventually.

Not too much else has been going on. Just kinda taking the path in life at the moment. I do need to look for another job though. My current one makes me want to harm someone on most days. Ah well, C'est la vie!

WoW account rest in peace

Well, with my WoW account expiring on Friday I decided to take a FRAPS picture and wish my account fairwell. I can't admit that I'll miss it because after some recent events with my guild (who I left yesterday after a year of service) my desire to play the game and interact with people is destroyed. Backstabbing and falseness is more than I can stomach in a virtual world, I get it enough in the real one. So /salute WoW, it was...something that's for sure.

On FFXI news, nothing really exciting has been happening. I did two more staging points solo late the other night. Azouph Isle and Mamool Ja are both underneath my belt. Only Ilrusi Atoll and Dvucca Isle are left and they seem nasty as crap. Otherwise I've been trying to kill myself and my soul by leveling BLM through Valkrum Dunes. I've never seen the Dunes this horrible, in an entire week I've got my BLM ONE LEVEL, W......T.....F???! I should be lvl 18 and burying BLM at the bottom of a lake by now. /sigh Garsh damn xboxers.

That's about it though, nothing exciting at all.

Finals Complete = O

I'm finally complete with this semester and let me say that it feels wonderful. That's 3 years of college down, 2 to go -_-. I'm making a career out of it evidently, off my back. Now onto the FFXI news.

Paladin has finally reached level 60 and dawned in full AF glory and asskickery (yes that's a word). It took until 3 am my time to finisht he level. I was still playing when Kir logged in again, it's sad...I know. I got just over 2k into the level and figured that was good enough and a small enough amount to not evoke the wrath of Kir =X.

On Wednesday Ald, Sar, Kir, Syph, Sethe and myself gave antoher shot at the Promyvian zones. I still need Mea and Holla to FINALLY see some of the CoP content. I'm quite far behind on that. Unfortunately it just wasn't our day and both Holla and Mea remain on my "F*** YOU" list. Ah well, we'll be back bitches...

After CoP I was upset so I switched over to WoS to be mostly alone and worked on finishing Genkai 3. I'm almost done having completed the Quadav Crest and the Orc Crest. The Orc Crest was a giant pain in the ass I would just like to mention. I actually managed to run FRAPS during FFXI last time I played and planned on showing off some screenshots but Blogger decided it wanted to be a pain in my backside and not upload anything. So hopefully in the future.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do in the future exactly. I'm waiting for Kir to get her WHM up to 60 so we can continue to level up. I've love to be 70 by the end of the summer if not 75. So far everything has been going pretty fast but the levels slow down soon and I understand that. I think I'll try to finish leveling BLM so I can get rid of the noobie mage gear I've been holding onto. We'll see...anyhow...I'll see ya in Vana'Diel.

Wages of Sin

Another posting for when I should be doing something else, namely studying. Not a lot happened this weekend really. Tilion, Khelek, Anjiro and Kir helped me get my AF chest which completes my AF set. I am very thankful for their aid in the quest. I need to air something that has been bothering me today about Konoha though. Sparing the details that I don't wish to get into, I would just like to say that generalization has no place in any part of existence. I'll be leaving the Konoha pearl off for a couple days while I brood and move on past today (it's my system). Does Konoha really accept everyone regardless of home, or is it only a European ls? That's what I need to know.

Wages of Sin is the new project that I mentioned from Cre and myself. It's intention is to be a lower end helping LS eventually but for now it's just for chat. I'll be my only home for the next couple of days. If you would like a pearl, just let Cre or myself know. Will it end up being anything in the end? /shrug. Hopefully it can be half of what Grievers was though. At least it can possibly be a way for me to atone for my own sins...hence the name. It comes from the Bible if anyone is curious. Yes I know that it's not usually good to add religion to a game but I think it can generally be understood by all...regardless of religious preference. "For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23

(New format credit belongs to Travels in Vana'Diel as I modified their current set up for mine. Even though they don't know, I thank them.)

Grievers we shall be...

So I was digging around the web today in between classes (last day of class /dance /dance /dance) and found some interesting things. Cre and I were having a late night conversation last night about Grievers and the possibility of making another LS in the future. This got me to thinking about Grievers and wondering what the hell I did with the old Grievers things. Well I found them ^^. Website and the new forums I had created for us. The old ezboard ones have been deleted (you bastards) but the new ones are still up and functional. Such good memories but at the same time it makes me quite sad. Remember how nice it was to be in a LS where we didn't know what Dynamis was? All things change I suppose...

Grievers website http://ffxigrievers.tripod.com/
Grievers Forums http://cgi.tripod.com/ffxigrievers/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl

What is going to become of Cre and I's newest LS involvment? Who knows...maybe just a place to hang out again. God willing it can be Grievers 2.0. Will I leave my current LS's that I'm involed in? Of course not, I like Konoha and am very grateful for the opportunities given to me therein. I also like Stardo but my annoyance to Stardo has already been stated. Just be on the lookout for something new from Cre and I again.

Regular FFXI news:

Nothing really happened lately. I tried to work on cooking last night and got frustrated with it. Syph and Cre helped me finish off my GA skill on my WAR so I can go about leveling him soon. PLD is still at the same spot. BLM and WHM are still at the same spots, 10 and 19 respectively.

This week is finals so I'm not sure how much I'll be on, probably a decent amount because I like to procrastinate. Ah well. See you in Vana'Diel.

eniN fO snoisiV

Update-aru

Am I the only one that blogs his adventures anymore? Maybe I'm just that big of a nerd...

Anyhow, yesterday was the normal static day with Kir. We partied in Gustav Tunnel and Sarise even joined us on Itsy this time! The exp was nice and easy except for when the THF pulled 2 gobs with 2 pets and we all died. Meh, it happens. I'm now 9.5k/16.4k into 58. Next time we level should grant me level 59 =) I'm getting closer to 70 Maat, look out brother.

After the party brokeup I did some quests for BLM spells in Windurst and then Bloodwarped back to Sandy to finish leveling my WHM. I got an ok party but my WHM is now 700exp from 20. So I took him back to Sandy and switched to BLM since I get the honor of leveling that now in Valkrum Dunes ;_;. Unfortunately for me I didn't realize that my BLM was only 9 instead of 10...so I had to solo 2k exp to get him to 10. That took 90 minutes so I decided to go to bed after that.

I'm going to take BLM to 20 and then give up leveling lowbies for a little bit. If you looked at my goals on the last entry I have a lot of NMs to camp and things to do. While I actually really enjoyed playing WHM (will probably take to 37) I just think I should focus on some of the other things that need done before I invest more time and money (;_;) into that. At least my PLD is advancing now regardless of my other time investments.

On a personal note: My finals start this coming Monday through Thursday. I shouldn't be around too much those days as I should be studying and trying to get good grades. Yell at me if I'm online too long, my motivation for the end of the semester is gone so I need all the help I can get. Thanks ^^

PS. I keep forgetting to run FRAPs before I play, that's why there hasn't been any pictures posted lately. I'm sorry ><, I'll try to work on it.

Choices, Events and Goals

Quick post here before I head off to class. The weekend was quite good and decently eventful. I'm currently sitting at 1k into 58 after a horrid JP party the other day. The manner in the way they played was horrid and I'm not grouping with any more DRK besides Syphy. STEALING AGGRO DOES NOT MAKE YOU COOL OR HELP THE GROUP, IT MAKES YOU AN ASSHAT. whew, sorry about that. I just don't understand why other people Provoke in the party. It doesn't enhance your attack, make your accuracy increase or make you smarter or more good looking IRL. So WHY THE HELL do you do it? It serves no purpose. {/sigh}

On a good note: On Saturday Kir helped me get my coffer for my AF Chest. Now I just need to kill 2 NM Orcs in Davoi and I'm all set.

I've also decided which job I"m going to take to 75 after PLD. Regardless of the amount of PLD that do this I'm going to take SAM to 75 afterward because I love the job. No other reason than that, I love the job and what it does and I play the game to have fun and enjoy my time.

I have been having a good time with WHM lately though, got it almost to 18 last night in a Valkrum Dunes party. Not really looking forward to leveling BLM in Valkrum Dunes after that but at least I'm almost done with Valkrum with the jobs I want to actually level. I love Qufim Islands for the fact that I don't have to leave Jeuno all the time to level there.

Some new goals to partake in to help level WAR/THF/NIN/SAM in the future:

~Camp Valkrum Emperor for Empress Hairpin.
~Camp Argus for the Peacock Amulet.
~Camp Poisonhand Gnadgad for the Jujitsu Gi.
~Finish getting my RSE gear (2 to go I think).
~Make some money >_> <_<

Sandy Pride

Nuff said... ^^

No real subject

Just wanted to do a quick update of some personal, WoW related and then a little bit of FFXI related events.

Personal related - I went to see "Silent Hill" (linky) yesterday with the girlfriend. Thursdays are our date nights so I usually won't be on FFXI at all those days. Anyhow, Silent Hill was freaking awesome. It's so much better if you've played the games or at least know parts of the games but man it was sweet. (Syphy, let me know if you want to borrow the first or second game, I think you'd like em) So I recommend checking it out if you get the chance. It is gross and scary, which usually isn't my thing, but this time it was great.

WoW related- I no longer have ambition in the game. My guild has become something to talk about lately with our achievements and I'm not sure if it's greed in myself or greed in others that is causing me to not want to play. Recent administrative decisions have negatively affected me and caused a decent amount of frustration to be vented by myself. So I took myself out of the raiding parties for the weekend in order to spend time with my girlfriend or on FFXI. I don't want to leave WoW completely because that's where a lot of my RL friends spend their time (even Syphy now) and I've put a damn lot of time into my character. /shrug Maybe I'll just take a backseat for awhile, get out of a leadership role (I'm a class leader) and just hang out.

FFXI related - I grouped with Kir on Wednesday and it was great (as she posted in her blog already). It actually took the JP players a couple moments to get into the groove of the system but eventually we were a well oiled machine...except for the pugils. F*** you pugils, you suck. I'm 4k away from 58 and getting rid of my Iron Musketeer Pants (Thank you God). I'm looking forward to being able to do events with Konoha hopefully eventually, especially since their playtimes will go hand in hand with mine very well for most of the week. Besieged was neat, especially the cutscene, but that's all I saw since the server kicked me and wouldn't let me log back in (-_-). Ah well, so since I'm still in Al Zahbi I'm gonna start some quests because I don't have to be at work until 5 (unless someone wants to do something in the meantime).

Quick side note - I noticed on one of the blogs that Kir has linked on her blog that they had their goals on the sidebar and crossed them off as they completed them. I figured since I already post my short term goals that I would have my long term goals over there. I'll cross them off (and probably /dance) as I complete the long term ones. As you can see they're not nice goals but they're able to be done...except for the last one ^^;

See ya in Vana'Diel

Steps

Today was a pretty general day, filled with the general kind of events. I leveled my WHM up to 15 and actually had a pretty good time with it. Heaven only knows, I might take WHM a decent ways, it seems quite handy. I had a lot of decent parties in Valkrum Dunes and a couple crappy ones. I learned of the beauty of the BLU/WAR tank and it made me a little nervous on my PLD but only a little ^^. I eyed up some gear for when I have to level BLM (currently 9) so that WHM can be taken higher eventually.

On bigger news, after talking with Cyth and Kir about LSs, I mentioned my odd playtimes to Kir and kind of hinted at joining the LS she's a part of. With great happiness I can now say that I have a home with Konoha. I have a lot of ways to grow before I can truly be a part of the family but I look forward to the adventures that lay ahead. Hopefully I can fit in pretty quickly ^^;.

Let's see, lets do a goals update:

~Get Temp to 60 >>>[4k into 57]
~Complete AF1 (Gallant Surcoat to go) >>>[Gallant Surcoat still needed]
~Camp Empress's Hairpin and Bounding Boots >>> [No luck so far]
~Camp Jelly Ring >>> [When I hit 60ish]
~Level MNK to 18 >>> [Got to 17]
~Level Great Axe on WAR >>>[Great Axe skill at 43]
~Level WAR to 37 >>>[WAR still 31]
~Remember how to tradeskill and continue to invest in Cooking skill >>> [Cooking at 34 now]
~Locate an LS >>> [Complete! Konoha]
~Witness the glory of the Hall of the Gods >>> [Yep, thank you Kir]
~Finish Promys for CoP >>> [Nope, baby steps Temp...baby steps]

New Goals:

~Level WHM to 20
~Level BLM to 20
~Finish Sandy Rank 5
~Start ZM missions
~Start doing more ToAU missions

Should be doing something else...

As the title suggests it's 11:30 on Sunday night and I should writing a paper that is due at noon on Tuesday but I can't seem to get myself motivated. End of the semester apathy. I'm sitting here listening to The Fray's CD if anyone is interested in the interests of the man behind the Paladin. I get to teach my first lesson to my education class tomorrow at 2pm so if you get the chance, think of me around then and I'd appreciate it.

Now to FFXI news. I must first admit that I give a standing ovation so far to Square Enix for Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Entering the city for the first time (besides the lag) was wonderful and the music is even above Final Fantasy normal quality. I know, I'm a complete nerd but I will buy that album when(if) it's released on iTunes. The city itself is beautiful and is created in a memorable way that makes me just want to hang out in the city.

I am quite happy that the missions are straight forward and able to be done without raising your own person army. I haven't done any of the new job quests yet not because I don't think they're neat. I think they're wonderful and show the ingenuity of the FFXI development team but to be quite honest, I have enough crap to do on a daily basis to have to worry about leveling another job. I see people spamming their BLU magic abilities for skillups everywhere I go now and it makes me shudder each time. I thought building up my shield skill was painful enough.

Kir and I have decided to level our WHM and PLD together for the survival of our sanity and so until school ends I have to find something to do in my spare time. I don't want to outlevel her too much even though I really want to put the foot on the gas, so to speak. So in the meantime I think I'm going to level my WHM as it has added benefits with it. I have no current way to travel around besides for cho/airship/two feet. So eventually having the Teleport spells would be quite beneficial. Also having to level BLM for WHM would allow me to *finally* have the self Warp spell. Bloodporting myself is cool and all but it's quite annoying to be honest and it makes me burn through the warps on my Warp Cudgel too fast. Yes, I know, I have FAR too much on my plate as it is but such is life.

Unfortunately I need to voice a minor complaint against Cake. They're all wonderful people and a good group of players but ultimately they're another Stardo. People hop on to shoot the breeze before going off to their HNMLSs. While I appreciate having people talk while I play, unlike Stardo 85% of my playtime, it's annoying that I can't depend on the LS for anything besides the chatter. **NOTE** Greed or loot or anything related to them are not relevent into this equation at all. Hopefully everyone knows me enough by now to know that loot is never my basis for decision making. Advancement usually is, yes, but please do not confuse advancement with greed. Advancement means being able to see the things the developers took the time to create and I pay monthly for the opportunity to view their handiwork.

I have been looking at two LSs that seem to be able to help me see the things I want to see and be a part of a group of people where I can feel like I belong. As of now I feel like I belong no where. The two that seem decent and actually still exist (damn you LS listing on Allakhazam's Bahamut forum) are Divine Emperor's (linky) and Guts (linky). Guts seems to be affiliated with Cake in one manner or another so I'm not certain if that's a good thing or not.

Now, I know this was horribly long (welcome to talking to me late at night) but I want to end really quickly with a quote and a bit of information. I am a history major and nerd so that's where this quote comes from but it is my favorite quote because it describes things so very well.

"All a man wants to know is his place in the world..." ~Karl Marx

Be well everyone, see you in Vana'Diel.

WOOOOOO

My guild ran Molten Core tonight and almost killed the last boss! We've been trying for almost a full month to finish this and we were so close. It was a great try and I'm very proud of everyone. I'm sorry that this isn't FFXI related but it was a good night by all. Ragnaros is a VERY hard boss that is almost one of the hardest in the entire game. Yes, I'm dead in the picture and my guild curses a lot.

That'll do

Quick post before I head out to work here. Today was a pretty decent day, went with Kir and the entire crew to the expansion areas. Did some quests, hated some lag, finished a mission (been forever since I did that) and generally had a good time. I searched for a party while getting ready for work and found a nice JP party that while strange and wasteful of time was actually pretty good. Got me lvl 57 and 4k into the level, not too bad. I can finally use my Gluttony Sword, thank the heavens! Looks like I'm charging up on my goal of lvl 60, hopefully 58 at least before too much longer here. Seems like we have a date in Castle Zhal Baileys Kir =)

I have one more paper and a presenation for school and then I'm done besides going to class. Then it's just finals week and I'm all done. Hurray free time!