It's so flipping hot today!  It hit like 97 degrees here in Oakland which is like ugh.  I get hot when it hits 65+ so this was torture to me.  There's a bit of a cool breeze coming in now so I'm feeling better.  Well... life is pretty much the same ol' thing as always which I guess is a bit of a comfort.  Still working on that job thing - I've had temp jobs and stuff but nothing on the long term.  I've discovered that I hate jobs that involve the phone - ugh, not my thing at all.  Last week I had the final interview for a job I've been pursuing since november and I should find out if I got it this week or next.  Was told I was one of the top candidates and I should be proud of getting so far (out of like 300+ people) and I think they liked me...  I dunno, interviews intimidate me and I get nervous but I never get hung up on questions, I answer them to the best of my ability, always stare into people's eyes and try not to fidget too much.  So we'll see!

The big moogle lottery starts tomorrow and I got all my mules ready to buy their tickets.    Oh, and here are my moogle stats for this year:

Not sure where 2007 is, but here is 2006 just to compare.

After a year of hoping, praying and suffering... I finally got it!

Can't really see it here lol but I had fun playing with my new horn afterwards. 

I love SMN but hardly get to use it although I used it just today for Jailer of Love and recently for Gurfurlur.  Fun times but hardly any epeen damage either.

Now if only BLM hat would drop!  I have to admit that I like this feeling of seeing my efforts pay off, it makes me eager to finish my goals and discover and pursue new ones.  Current goal is to get the vice drop (for cape) from Ix'mnk.  Argh he is so stingy with me and I have had no luck getting HQ aern organs either.  I've bought two, had people donate to me and helped on countless fights for other people but nada.  I think I'm pretty good at the actual fight now (well soloing) but I'm still too scared to drain HP back from it during the fight.  Well maybe I can in the first 50%... maybe!

Lately I've been working on upgrading my BLM AF into AF+1 and my first Temenos run was a bit of a bust but on my second attempt I was smoother and I think I did decent enough. 

And lo and behold...

Yay!   Just having a huge issue with finding someone to synth the Ether Leather for me and I keep missing the few that go up on the AH.  Bah!

Found this little guy while I was soloing my scholar - it's so neato in the past but I guess I haven't bothered much with the few quests that exist and that neato light thingie in the picture.  Lazy. -_-

And with that, ta-taru!

  It's been so long since I've updated this but in a way there isn't much to say.  I still enjoy FFXI but content wise it has been the same for way too long.  Even with the new expansion I feel like it has failed big time - the two new jobs are neat I suppose but all you can really do is campaign and while I enjoy it in doses, it's the same thing over and over and over again. 

Since finishing BLM I haven't really touched another job and I can't really find the drive to level.  So I've been working on making my black mage and other jobs the best that they can be.  I -finally- finished my THF subjob and I guess I'll work on SAM at some point but right now my priority is BLM.  I don't know why I waited so long to level the job - I absolutely love it and enjoy it.  Meriting it out thoroughly has been a pain but I'm getting there.  I finished elemental magic and I'm working on getting ice magic potency to level 3 then going back to finish off thunder potency and then finishing off ice.  Then I guess I'll finish off Burst II and Freeze II.  Fun fun.  And then there's enfeebling merits and MP (since I always seem to be the BLM with the least mp).  

I picked up this nice shiny for my black mage recently and I love it!

That's my uhh... fourth piece of salvage gear!  It's been less than a year of work and I've accumulated Marduk head body and legs and Morrigan body.  Sweet!  I have all three pieces for Marduk hands but I haven't felt the need to upgrade those until I get the 35 piece for Marduk feet.  So frustrating that my /random rarely wins for the Dekka path in SilverSeas and when it does, Dekka doesn't want to drop.    I'd love to get morrigan legs done but there are people ahead of me still waiting for that drop so it doesn't seem likely at all.  Maybe morrigan hands... I have the 25 this time! (inside joke lol)

Rest of the game has been weird - since the expansion didn't really bring much to the table, there's been a cooling off period and a lot of people have moved on.  It's weird having another friend quit the game or take a "break" and never return.  I don't really feel like I have any friends in the game anymore - I'm pretty much solo in most things I do (kinda why I don't update - what's the point?) but I'm glad to have people to chit chat with in the LS at least.  To me FFXI is a solo game which is weird I guess but it works for me.

We haven't done much if any HNM in a long time - a Fafnir/Behe/Aspid here and there (which are fun) and we've gotten some nice loot I guess.  We finally broke the 15 streak long curse of no w.legs from Kirin (yay).  This morning we actually claimed and fought Cerberus to about 55% or so but a partial DC in the zone and a tank that couldn't log back in, made things iffy and we lost claim when our BLU tank dc'd during the mass DC. Doh -_-;

We've been progressing somewhat well in Einherjar with most of the LS at tier 2 clearance but it's hard when we can't get enough tier 2 people online so we go back and do tier 1 for people who still need it.  It's like one step forward, two steps back.  I still love einherjar a lot and I can't wait for Odin!  We do so well in einherjar for the most part and I look foward to the upcoming challenges.

Not much else to talk about I guess so I'll let the pictures explain themselves! Some are really old (like december old) but hope you enjoy~

It's been awhile since I last updated but so many things have changed... I never felt like it was the right moment to make a post.  But I have a folder full of screenshots and a heart brimming full of things to say so let's start!

I guess the big thing that most people know is that I left Impulse ._.  I'm still not sure what to think about that - was definately not an easy decision but as people within the LS would know, I just got fed up with certain things/people.  Was not a decision I made overnight but more of a struggle I had for a couple of months and involved lots of heart to hearts with many people.  In the end, I know it was best for me to leave but all the memories and seeing that familiar blue pearl makes my heart cringe at times. 

And yes, I'm now a member of Kupo.  It wasn't intentional to leave Impulse to join another LS but I guess everything happened so quickly, that it almost feels that way to me as well.  And I can say I have no regrets - I love it, so many people are so nice and funny, it feels great to do events and I love learning new ways to play this game and I guess the challenge of adapting to the playstyles of a whole group of people is both exciting and scary to me.

Enough of that I guess!

Lots of cool things have happened these last months and the big one was that I -think- I'm the first NA and possibly first person on all servers to have upgraded Marduk Jubbah which of course doesn't mean squat now but I was pretty proud of myself and my salvage group.  I think Salvage has been my saving grace in this game - I love the challenge of it and how a group of 6 people can be more efficient than 18 imo and the gear is just awesome.  I've been after marduk (brd/whm/smn) since it would benefit the jobs I use the most and I really love the stats.  The tiara is awesome, body is great, hands are ok, legs are awesome too, and feet are sweet (though I would love to get Shadow Clogs ._. ).

I also finished levelling black mage to 75.  Yay me!  And for the record, I hate qiqirn especially qiqirn thieves.  I hope I can upgrade morrigan pieces for black mage too but there's a pretty long line for it so in the meantime I'll just have fun doing BLM in beseiged and hopefully dynamis soon.

And actually I lie, I guess I haven't done a lot of super cool things these last few months but I've spent a lot of time with people and done a lot of missions and NMs and sky and sea and HNM and just goofing off with people which is always the best of all. 

Too tired to make captions for all the screenies I took, so here's a sample of all I've done recently.  Enjoy!

P.S. I will update more and yes, I am levelling Scholar.  Too darn cute. 

This was (and still is!) one of the most rewarding moments in my FFXI 'career'. 

I tried thinking of the right music to upload and the right words and the right pictures but I guess all I can really do and say is that I am so happy and proud and tired from lack of sleep.  I know people will say things and I can totally understand that.  It doesn't negate to me all the effort and time put into this and while I regret some of the heart ache all of this has caused me and all the what if's that pop up into my head, I love this. 

And above everything else, I realized what a great friend Kikuji is which was the best reward from all of this. 

I suppose for the record I should say I didn't buy this - was all from pure effort but people will believe what they want to believe.  Although I wish I had that 40M they claim I spent for it because I would have so spent it on gaiters or saved for a kraken club or maybe that relic horn I keep thinking of upgrading.

More importantly, I am gaining more confidence in my new job and having money coming in that is mine and mine alone is amazing.  It is hard to not spend it all too.  I did spoil myself after I got the job and bought a DS Lite and a few paints (been working on an Eiffel tower landscape but took a break because the shading under the tower is giving me a hard time) but I've made enough money already to pay for that so I'm just shocked.  I'm still part-time but in a couple of weeks the job will be mine 5 days a week and the guy training me will be gone.  I'm kinda scared... but I'm excited too.  All the responsibilities and pressures will be mine and I'll be a better person for it. 

I'm saving my money for something more "important" which is the FFXI Fan Festival. I think I convinced a few people to go so I can't wait! I already registered so now it's just a matter of saving up money for the hotel and the flight and stuff.  Hopefully can meet some people from Impulse there and maybe some other linkshells so I know it will be fun!    Hope to see you there!

I got the job!

1 month of training 3 times a week (paid).

Very nervous!

I got my Harry Potter book just now in the mail.

Amazon's lame cardboard packaging banged up the cover and the book itself (even a few pages -__-)

Time to retire to my room to finish my Harry Potter odyssey.

And I'm just really glad things are looking up for once. 

I'm very excited and scared but I know it is all for the best.