Way too long...

...in between posts that is. I was wondering what kept me from posting recently and it got me thinking.

#1 - in-game I have not done much recently. This is a result of lack of playtime due to the holiday season, and to my general lack of progress when I do play. My rdm is up to a whopping 24, and I don't think that I've done much else.

#2 - My general lack of opening up. I have a hard time opening up to random people. In fact, some of my closest friends barely know me at all. They know the person that they hang out with, but there are very few people that I've let get to REALLY know me.

Almost all of my posts so far have had nothing to do with who I am. There is some sort of security in the fact that my profile doesn't give out any of my personal details, and the only thing I've exposed so far is that I live in Maryland. Of course, some of you that are reading this might know a bit more since I've I've talked on other forums or in-game with you, but you probably don't know that much about me.

I feel like this is a forum that I could open up on since there is still some buffer preventing what I say to being pinned on the "real me." As you might be able to tell, I want to use this as a means to vent/discuss some of my deeper thoughts without most people being able to tell who is actually thinking them. It might sound weird to some of you, but whatever.

I don't exactly know what I was trying to say in the previous paragraphs. Maybe it was just that I want to talk about more then FFXI in this forum. Maybe it is that I want the people that I hope are reading this to get to know me a bit better with out having to have a direct conversation with them. I just don't know.

All that being said, this post is really about nothing. I'm just trying to lay the ground work to the fact that I don't want to just talk about FFXI here. So...um...yeah...

Til next time

Shopping Spree

As I mentioned yesterday, I thought that I was going to go on a little shopping spree once I played again. I did and I ended up buying more then I thought that I would. I bought all of the equips that I'm going to need to get my rdm to lvl 25, including some of the luxury items that I thought that I was going to skip. Some of the higher priced items were a Baron's Saio, Mist Silk Cape (which I used to have, but foolishly sold a while back), Garrison Gloves (I still can't believe that I drop 100k gil on a macro item), and a Lantern Shield.

I also outfitted my lvl 20 war for Garrison tonight and also so that I can maybe level in the near future. The Lantern Shield does double duty there and I also picked up a Neckchopper.

After the shopping was all done, I decided to lfg for a bit on war since I was in Jeuno anyway. After getting an invite to a level 22-23 party, I thought it would be best to bag exping on war and to just do this week's Chocobo Race. Once I won the race (and received a whole 531 exp for my blm), I headed over to Windurst. I logged out at the outpost, ready to go for Garrison tonight.

I'm kind of excited about doing Garrison. I haven't done one in a while so it'll be nice to hang out with the LS.

Hopefully after Garrison, we'll be able to fight the Tungi NM for Pickle. If not, we might give it a go Saturday before I have to head out to my wife's Christmas Party. I hope he gets the drop soon. I know he has been really into leveling his war lately.

zomg....Snow!

It always makes me laugh every year around this time. Here in Maryland it snows every year, but for some reason half of the state isn't prepared for it. With a light snow in the forecast, my company sent out the Inclement Weather Policy. It roughly states that in MD, 3 inches of snow could shut us down for the day, which is ridiculous. I personally think our state roads crew does a great job of clearing the snow, but the drivers out there go into two categories.

1. Panic at the first flake, drive at 5 mph and cause accidents as a result.
2. Think that they are invincible in their SUV's and somehow drive faster then they normally would and cause accidents.

People just need to calm down and drive carefully while not over-reacting.

Well, now that's off my chest. Thanks for listening to me complain.

Good news! My stupid Invigorating Cape finally sold. I'm probably going to go on a mini shopping spree when I next play. I need to buy some new equips for my rdm which is now 16 thanks to two very productive nights in the dunes (yes, you read that correctly). I also plan on buying some lvl 20 cap stuff for my war in hopes that I can make it out to Garrison for the first time in a couple of months. Actually, I think the only things that I need for it are a weapon and a body item. I'll be late if I do go though since it's scheduled to start about an hour before I can log on. Luckily, it usually lasts at least 2-3 hours so I should be able to make a couple of runs assuming that they aren't full when I get there.

My current focus in-game is to level rdm to 37 as a sub. My only goal this week was to get it to 15, which I did and then some. If I get lucky, I might try to take it to 19-20 by the end of the week and say good bye to the dunes. I should probably take rdm to 40 though to have it available for 40 cap stuff. Of course, I should probably take whm to 40 for that reason as well. I don't know though, I REALLY hate to play whm. Part of me thinks that the LS would be better off if they weren't ever tempted to ask me to be whm for any given missions/quests.

Reunions

Wow, last night was weird. For no particular reason at all, I ran into a bunch of old friends and had a chance to talk to them for a bit. Eventhough I haven't leveled much since I was last in a linkshell with most of them, I've still done a lot of things in-game and so have they. It's always good to see people you remember fondly and find out that they've grown a bit but haven't changed (if that makes any sense). It seemed to me to be what a high school reunion would be like. My graduating class just had it's 10 year reunion and now I wish that I would have gone.

Anyways, thanks to Chrisstreb, I was able to get my Superior Private promotion done. I was not looking forward to running all over the expansion areas to look for that stupid hoofprint that I've heard so many horror stories about. Luckily, Chriss did it for me.

Unfortunately, Pickle and I ran around Quicksands Caves for way too long without ever finding the ??? that has the Antican Tag that he needs. Hopefully he'll find it soon so that he can get the axe that he has his eyes on. I'm gonna try to find it this morning so that we can do more than one fight in case what he needs doesn't drop the first time.

Muling fun

So after logging in last night and BSing with a friend for a bit, I decided to do a Choco Race (see links for a schedule) since that will probably be the only way my BLM gets any exp for a while. After riding a choco from Sandy to Bastok, I get a Dragon Chronicle which gives me 650ish exp. Not bad, not good, just meh.

Anyways, I decide that since I was in Bastok that I should do a simple quest to grab a hat for my RDM that I'm going to be leveling soon. Since I'm taru, I have the luxury of being able to equip +mnd or +int hats instead of having to use a +mp hairpin. After doing the quick and easy quest for a Traveler's Hat, I decide that I should mule whatever RDM equips that I have so that I can start exping soon.

IT TOOK ME OVER AN HOUR TO DO IT!!!!

I couldn't believe it. Part of it was having to go to the AH and buy some additional equips, but I had to go there anyways since I had to send stuff anyway. There are just somethings that take a lot longer then they should.

At least now I know that I should make better use of my Mog Locker, and by better use, I mean just start using it.

The good thing is that it's now over and I just need to grab some food and signet before heading out to the dunes until lvl 15. There's a handful of equips that I'm going to swap out at that time and I'd at least be able to ride a chocobo back there from a starting city.

I doubt that I'll log on tonight since the Ravens are playing, with a chance to clinch the AFC North division. My 6th wedding anniversary is on Saturday, so I probably won't be on that night either, although, there's a slight chance that I'll be able to log on for a bit during the day.

Updates

I didn't get a chance to write a new post last night like I had hoped to but I did make some updates. I've listed a bunch of my favorite FFXI links and some blogs from fellow Linkshell members. The Blogs are just listed alphabetically, but I tried to list the links based on how often I use them.

The WC Forums link is pretty usless to you unless you're a member of the Linkshell. If you play FFXI and are on the Fairy server feel free to apply for membership. Although, you must be Windurstian in order to get a pearl (hence the name Windurstian Crusade).

FFXI Atlas is a great site for any navigation issues that you might be having in game. On more then one occasion I've talked friends out of sticky situations thanks to that site. Plus, I just like to go exploring some times and it's much more enjoyable to do so while not getting lost.

Most of the other links I use mainly for research and/or planning. I try to lay out which equips I might need for a job well before I need it. The various sites also give good insight on all of the different missions and quests that you can do. My current favorite for that is FFXIclopedia which I've been finding various little nuggets of very helpful info that I haven't seen on the other sites yet. Most notably the nugget I saw about how the antlion NM, for CoP mission 3.3, doesn't regen if you just fight it on top of it's spawn point.

I can't think of any other content in which to add at the momment. So until things change, just check back periodically for any new blog posts. If you want to recommend any other things that I may have missed, please post a comment to let me know and so that you get the credit for it.

A quick hello

Just something to get started here. I'll try to post a little more tonight once I get home from work. Just one quick thing...

I don't think anything in FFXI is as fun as when doing a mission, especially a BCNM type mission fight, and the shit starts to hit the fan. MP starts running low, HP starts dropping into the orange and/or red, and then somehow, someway, the group pulls it out.