So, New Year’s event in FFXIV is called Heavensturn! How fancy! I came back from my long vacation (family trips and stuff) and promptly reactivated my account (by paying 999 Crista, damn!) and hopped back into the game, solely for the Dragon Helmets!!!

The decorations from Christmas (Starlight Celebration) are now changed to Japanese style’s New Year deco! ^^ Very lovely!

Well, the quest for Dragon Kabuto (helmet) has a story linked to “Winter is Not Coming” from Christmas. It involved Father Frost and an elemental spirit. The quest was quite easy and story was simple, yet seems strongly like it is going to continue into an epic plot! I am so looking forward to next Starlight Celebration!

During the quest “Gone With the Snow” we get a chance to have a brief conversation with Father Frost! XD

And, yes, I got all of the 4 Dragon Kabuto. Inventory -4 but meh….. I’ll deal with inventory slots later. Now is the time to get some handsome helmets!

I like the normal one (first on the left) because it looks a little blue, and it doesn’t have the mask strap on my cheeks. But the red one really is sexy. I was going squeeeeeeeeeeeeee when I tried it on ^^

I don’t really have red armor to go with it, but it looks nice with white shirt too. And I have red pants to match!

^^

I wish I could write more about the event. I even planned to paste the NPC dialogue during the quest. But the stupid power outage shut down my computer for 5 seconds and so I lost all the chatlog

Lately I’ve been playing Mafia game in StarCraft II. I used to hate it because;
- It’s confusing as hell.
- I didn’t know WTH am I supposed to do in the game.
- People are usually VERY rude and show no manner in this game.
- It requires a lot of brain to play, since you have to try to win against other opponent by using deduction skills, deception skills, as well as knowing your role/character ability and your opponent’s ability, then use it to your advantage.

But after I recently retried it, I started to like it. So we (meaning me and my Honey Muffin) have been playing it at least 3 rounds a day this week. And of course, in SCII, to ensure that you end up joining the same game lobby, you have to be in the same party.

Today someone by the player name of Bigboss promptly accused us of cheating, along with naming some other random guy we don’t even know, saying we always joined the lobby at the same time. What a flawed accusation logic.

Unlike my other rants where I kept offender’s name anonymous, I am putting his name here because;
1) There can be many players with the name Bigboss in SCII because game doesn’t restrict it when name is taken.
2) I am highly hoping he or she would stumble upon this post, so that I could do the world some merits by enlightening this random Bigboss person on the internet.

First off, I know cheaters exist, and have seen people suspicious of Skype-cheating and it is terrible and ruins the fun of the game. But people being in the same party doesn’t require or ensure that they were cheating. We cannot send PM without other players seeing we send *something* and we cannot use party chat (I know this because when I just started, I tried to ask him how to play and my message never showed up). We are mostly on the headset, but we don’t rat out our role or our team. We have even laughed at cheating people because of how we’re also on Skype headset, yet never cheated like them.

I have nothing to prove my honesty but to dare him to observe how we play and react to each other in the game. However, he never accused again when the game started, so I just dropped the topic. I also have a hundred stories (exaggeration) to tell about how we deceived each other and played our best in the game just to win, not to benefit or help each other.

Should he observe closely and analyze it with some brain, he would eventually see that;

1) We don’t even tell each other what name we pick.

Sometimes I gave myself away from picking too girly name, or picking none-offensive name when all other people went that way. =_= And sometimes I recognize my Honey Muffin from how he named his character, but I would say that 70% of the time I cannot figure it out and stop trying before I burn my brain thinking too much!

Sometimes I THOUGHT I knew who he was, but then ended up getting the wrong guy (Yeah I tried to kill him because I picked up hints from hearing his self-mumble jumble and deducted that he’s one of the good guys, but I killed someone else instead, doh!) and sometimes it got confusing because I can’t decide. Like today I thought he was Squirtle Hat (which he was) but the guy went out and killed someone while I know he was AFK!!! So I was like, oh oops, that’s not him.

Then there was another guy who named himself Charmander Hat, so I thought hell yeah that must be him!!! And even by talking to both the “Hat” guys in the graveyard, I still couldn’t figure my honey was really Squirtle Hat, until the very end of the game. And he didn’t know who I was, either. After we left the game and was talking on the headset before he left for school, he was mentioning my character as a 3rd person, and I had to tell him that that guy was actually me!

2) We keep our role a secret. We even deliberately make noises to override the game sound when a role is given to us.

Sometimes I cough, and sometimes I talk over it, because some role has distinctive sound effect when the role is assigned at the beginning of the game. Keeping our role a secret helps the game go normally without awkwardness for us.

I’ve helped the (stupid) town lynch him even though he was a Sheriff. Well, I found it an opportunity to get rid of a Sheriff because he revealed himself trying to persuade the town to kill a criminal, so I voted him guilty when he was put on trial. Yet, I had no idea it was him until after he died and said “Stupid town, lynching Sheriff!!!” then “Well, that was me dead.” I could only giggle at the matter, because I was glad a Sheriff was dead. Then I confessed I was a Mafia (or maybe Serial Killer, I can’t really remember) because he’s already dead and cannot change anything for the town.

I also try my best to outwit him by being discreet about who I am and what I am. The best one I’ve ever done was when I was a Godfather while he was a Spy. I couldn’t figure out which guy he was, and I didn’t know he was a Spy. But by taking care to not use proper grammar in the game, I managed to escape his detection. And since spy always see what the mafia members say to each other at night, he didn’t suspect me being in the mafia (though he didn’t know which guy I was until there were like 3 people alive). I believe (but he never told me) that in that specific game, figuring out who I was in the game actually backfired on him, because he firmly believed that I am not the Mafia. I was also being lucky enough that that game had an Amnesiac. So when I was put on trial, he voted me innocent and put the 3rd guy on trial instead.

I still tried to play innocent through the end by voting that guy innocent from his defense “I am sheriff, I voted guilty on both 2 mafia members.” I pretended to be a good town person who believes his claim. My HM went wtf! when he saw I voted innocent. Then at night, I went and killed that guy. So yeah I won as a Godfather. That was my best triumphant moment.

(Sadly, though, 2 other town people were mad and couldn’t accept their defeat, and kept on bashing him for being stupid and letting me off the noose. They kept swearing at my honey even in the next game. One of them deliberately named their Mafia character with his SCII name, which I see as low-mannered thing to do and is trolling. So we left the game and not joining them again. But meh, ph*n and Ri***r were just sore losers. Apparently no one ever thought about putting me on trial until when there were 3 people alive. So, sorry, you guys were as stupid as you claimed my honey to be LOL.)

Frankly, in that game I wasn’t sure that guy was him until before I was put on trial. I also had no idea he was a spy until the damn game ended with my victory (which was stupid of me, because clearly he had claimed himself a spy during the day and confirmed himself as a spy through seeing other people’s PM and answering to it, but I acknowledged it yet somehow mixed the spy up with other guy). I was just being lucky that I remember not to talk in the game with perfect grammar, and that I picked “Amnesiac” as my role claiming defense. I felt smart for once!!!

3) I am trying my best to not let him find out who I am.

Why? Because it ruins the challenge and fun of the game. Also, I feel bad when he tries to assist or protect me just because he found out it was me, but actually I was one of the bad guys. It will just screw up or decrease his chance of winning as his role.

I usually get busted by him because I type with proper capitalization and punctuation. So, usually after 5 mins into the game, if I have said something during the day, he would figure me out. But lately, since someone gave me a tips in the graveyard “not to type with punctuation and perfect grammar in mafia game” I am trying hard to do just that, to blend in with people. I also do that, or just don’t say anything at night at all, as a precaution in some of the games (if I don’t forget) when I am one of the Mafia, because a Spy can see Mafia’s chat that we talk at night, and I am afraid to get busted from the way I type.

So, only when one of us die, we would deliberately reveal who we are (on the headset.) I usually speak up, “Welp, that’s me, dead” or “Oh shit! I’m dead!” Then it would also be safe for the living one to reveal role and/or name, since the other cannot change the outcome of the game by knowing it anyway. He used to have a good laugh at my names at the end of the game because he wouldn’t suspect me naming my character “Farting Rainbows,” “DerpyDerp,” or “Mangy Moose.” And though I am usually not sharp enough to recognize his character in the game, I was totally fooled in one game because he jumped in on the bandwagon with rude players and named himself something with the word “C*ck” in it.

4) We don’t rat out our team IF we happen to be opponents, and either figure out each other’s role or name.

We’ve never done that mistake on the headset, even by accident. But I used to be a fool and type the name of the 3rd mafia member in the graveyard because the 2nd mafia member (who died before I did) asked me “hey who’s the last of us? I forgot” and I thought he had no ill intention since he was also my team. So I gave out the initials of this 3rd guy’s name, which was the biggest mistake I am regretting in my Mafia career.

We later witnessed the town changing their mind on lynching (putting on trial and executing) another player, and went right to lynching that 3rd mafia guy.

So people freaked out and said they were Skyping. That Mafia’s betrayer claimed he didn’t do it, but he’s just in the same room with 2 other people, and one of them peeked at his screen. I kinda believed him, but it’s still a shitty thing to happen. It ruined the fun of the game. It’s unfair. It’s scummy. And it destroys the spirit of the gaming.

Since then, I take extra caution not to mention any name that might assist anyone’s cheating. I don’t want to be used as a cheating resource. It feels shitty and makes me angry.

5) I try to be a good player by respecting the rules and how the game is meant to be.

I even let my honey, as a doctor, blindly heal me all the time during one specific game just because he recognized who I am but had no idea what role I was. And I was a Mafioso, his enemy! He even protected me against a Serial Killer’s attack (woot!) So then when I died from being lynched, he was like OMFG I’ve been healing mafia! It was hilarious, so I keep doing that, both to get a good laugh and be a GOOD player to win my goal as my role.

This is also a reason why I try so hard not to get busted about who I am in the game, because I don’t want him to come protect me just because he knew it was me, only to find out I am actually the bad guy. Feel bad for lying  (but I still have to do it, yo!) LOL. Well, I would instinctively want to heal or help him, too, if I know which character he is. I used to be a Bodyguard and went to guard him in blind hope that he was a good guy. It would have screwed my role up if he was actually a Mafia LOL!

The game’s concept is deception, and trusting only yourself. We’re not supposed to collaborate (unless, for example, when you’re an Investigator, Doctor, Bodyguard, Sheriff, or any good guy, and the Mayor had used his in-game skill to reveal himself, then you should assist the Mayor, of course). I even used to be in the  Mafia with him, yet we weren’t aware of being in the same team. Things would have been twice as easy if we just talk, plan, and collaborate through talking on the headset, but we never did that. Why? Because we had no idea who each other was, and using headset to gain advantage in Mafia game is scummy. It will ruin the challenge and fun of the game. It is also unfair to other players. We’ve been cheated by other people before, and the game was shitty and not fun at all. We were enraged and extremely bored. We don’t want other people to feel what we felt (and what we hate), so we don’t to it to other people.

6) Anyone with brain can clearly see, after observation, that we do not assist each other by telling roles or names on purpose.

Come and join our game, watch us play, only then you can see with your own eyes that we DO NOT cheat in Mafia. I dare you, Bigboss. You can even join our party so we can be in same lobby all the time! Or, if you contact me, I can send you my replays so you can go and watch our past games and see for yourself  how miserably/hilariously we lose to each other because we keep our roles/names a secret.

Starlight Celebration’s quest this year (2011) is named “Winter is Not Coming.” This entry will be my report to my brother about the quest, since he doesn’t have enough time to log in and do the quest by himself and I’m doing it for him. The rest of this entry will be written in Thai, except the dialogue copied and pasted from the game.

อะแฮ่ม

วันนี้ก็ล็อกอินเข้าไปเอาชุดกวางให้ป่านอะนะ

เริ่มจากในเมือง ก็ไปรับเควสต์ที่เจ้าหน้าที่ เรื่องก็มีอยู่ว่า เขาจะปั้นยักษ์หิมะกัน แต่อากาศแถบนี้ร้อน เลยว่าอันว่าหิมะจะต้องละลายแน่ ๆ แต่เหล่า Conjurer ก็หัวใส ได้คิดค้นการใช้เวทมนต์กับหิมะ ปั้นลูกหิมะแบบทนต่อความร้อน!!! แล้วเรานี่เอง ที่ต้องวิ่งไปถึงป่าแถบกริดาเนีย เพื่อเอาไปส่ง

Wysskoen: Greetings, adventurer. I’m a representative of Black Rabbit Traders, here to recruit willing souls to assist in a festive endeavor.

Wysskoen: The Conjurers’ Guild has engaged us to hold a festival to usher in the winter, you see. Sounds innocent enough? Aye, and it would be, too, except we’re literally expected to beckon cold weather to the Twelveswood. Allow me explain the events that led to this.

Wysskoen: The North Shroud has been experiencing an unseasonably warm winter this year. In fact, there’re even some as say winter has yet to arrive there. The conjurers, in particular, are taking the matter very seriously, fearing this break in the natural cycle may wreak havoc upon the region’s flora and fauna.

Wysskoen: They set about trying to discover the cause of the phenomenon, that they might counteract it. Alas, naught came of their efforts. The conjurers were nigh lost to hope when Ala Mhigan refugees, having caught wind of the situation, approached them with a suggestion: the holding of a festival.

Wysskoen: I should probably explain at this point that the Ala Mhigans have long observed a festival called Winter’s Knell, which entails the building of a towering man of snow as a tribute to the gods of winter. A jolly enough practice, to be sure, but not one that any right-thinking person would entertain as a solution. You may have deduced, however, that the conjurers, in their desperation, were rather less skeptical. In short, the festival is on.

Wysskoen: But how are we to keep the giant from melting, you ask? Quite the observant one, aren’t you? Aye, it’s true the warm weather of the North Shroud isn’t conducive to building snow sculptures. But worry not, for the conjurers have ways to create heatresistant snow. They simply want for the manpower to produce enough.

Wysskoen: And that, my friend, is precisely why Stillglade Fane turned to us─and why we now turn to you. The creation of snow requires a prodigious amount of ice shards, you see, and they do not collect themselves. I would be ever in your debt if you could bring me but 30 of them. So, what say you? Will you aid our cause?

Wysskoen: You’ll help us? Twelve bless you, adventurer!

Wysskoen: The conjurers have entrusted me with the apparatus for fabricating ensorcelled snow. We need only feed it with the requisite number of ice shards, and it will set to work of its own accord.

“Winter Is Not Coming” accepted.

“Winter Is Not Coming” has been updated in your journal.

รับเควสต์เสร็จก็จะพบว่า นอกจากมันจะใช้เราเอาลูกหิมะไปส่งแล้ว มันยังจะไป Ice Shard จากเราอีด้วย คนละ 30 เม็ด (แสด!! ไม่ลงทุนเลย)

Wysskoen: Greetings again, friend. Have you brought the 30 ice shards we need?

Wysskoen: Such lovely specimens! Aye, these shards will serve. Without further ado, then, let the fabrication commence!

พอเอา Ice Shard ให้มันแล้ว มันก็จะเบ่งกล้ามโชว์พาว =_=;; เป็นที่อุจาดนัยน์ตายิ่งนัก แล้วเราก็จะได้รับบอลหิมะทั้งหมด 5 ลูก เพื่อเอาไปทำเควสต์ต่อที่ป่าบ้านนอก

Wysskoen: Feast your eyes on the ensorcelled snowball, a marvel of conjury! No snowball boasts such robustness, such perfection of…M-M-My hands! I can’t f-f-feel my hands! Take it from me! For the love the Twelve, take it from me!

Wysskoen: …Thank goodness, there appears to be no lasting damage.But where were we? Ah, yes, your next task. I need you to take the snowballs to Hyrstmill, a hamlet situated in the North Shroud where the festival is to be held.

Wysskoen: Once there, look for an Ala Mhigan named Waldomar. He has care over the construction of the snow giant, and will instruct you further.

“Winter Is Not Coming” has been updated in your journal.

You obtain 5 ensorcelled snowballs.

รายละเอียดเควสต์ และรางวัลที่จะได้ ก็อย่างที่เห็น

ได้รับบอลหิมะแล้วจะวิ่งให้โง่เหรอคะ ในเมื่อไม่ใช่ตัวของเรา เราก็เทเลพอร์ตสุรุ่ยสุร่ายได้เลย แค่ 6 Amina ขนหน้าแข้งป่านไม่ร่วง (หรือถึงร่วงก็ช่างแข้งมัน ไม่ใช่หน้าแข้งกู *หัวเราะชั่วร้าย*)

แว้บ ๆ ไปถึงป่ารอบกริดาเนีย ด้วยความที่เปรี้ยวและมั่น คิดว่ากูเจ๋ง เลยไม่ได้เช็คปลายทางให้ดีก่อน ทะลึ่งเทเลพอร์ตไปที่ Camp Tranquil ด้วยสันดานเคยชิน เพราะนึกว่ามันให้ไป Quarrymill แต่ที่จริงมันให้ไป Hyrstmill ต่างหาก!!!!

แต่ตอนนั้นยังโง่อยู่ ไม่รู้ตัว เลยขี่โชโกโบะชมนกชมไม้ไปเรื่อย มีการหยุดดูฝูงละมั่งที่ไม่เคยเห็น (รู้สึกว่า SE มันชอบย้ายมอนสเตอร์ไปมาเยอะเหลือเกิน แสด มิน่าตอนตูจะล่า Antelope ไปที่จุดเดิมแล้วหาไม่เจอสักตัว) พลางดูแผนที่เอาไว้ กะว่าคราวหน้าจะล่าเอาเนื้อ Antelope ไปทำพายเมื่อไรห่จะมาแถว ๆ นี้เอา

แล้วก็เจอฝูงทากที่ไม่เคยเห็น (อีกแล้ว) มัวแต่แวะถ่ายรูปนานไปหน่อย เลยโดนมันใช้ท่าบิดขี้เกียจแก้เซ็งเล่นงาน

แล้วก็ยังไม่รู้ตัวนะคับว่ามาผิดทาง ยังคงขี่โบะซิ่งด้วยความเร็วสูงต่อไป โดยใช้เส้นทางปลอดภัยที่เป็นศาสตร์ลับเฉพาะของชาวกรรมกรในตำนาน คนทั่วไปจะหาเส้นทางลับนี้ไม่เจอ ต้องใช้ลายแทงโบราณที่สืบทอดกันมา (โม้ไปมั่ว ๆ งั้นแหละ)

แล้วก็ไปถึง Quarrymill ด้วยความภาคภูมิใจ (ผิด ๆ) แล้วยังเกรียน ควบโชโกโบะตะบึงตรงเข้าไปในนั้น แต่ขี่วนไปมา – รอบก็ยังหา NPC ไม่เจอ ในใจก็ก่นด่า lag ว่าเพราะแล็กเลยโหลด NPC ไม่ขึ้น มองไม่เห็น ไม่มีบนเรดาร์ และไม่ขึ้นบนหน้าจอ….

กว่าจะรู้ตัวว่ามาผิดที่ก็ปาไป 5 นาทีคับ ก็เลยต้องกระโดดลงจากโบะ แล้วผลาญ Anima ต่อ (ไม่ใช่ของกรู ใช้เปลืองได้ ช่างมัน ไม่เป็นไร) คราวนี้เป็นคิว Kula ขนร่วง(หน้าแข้ง)บ้าง แต่ไม่หนักเท่าอิป่าน เพราะเทเลจากที่นี่แค่ 4 Anima เท่านั้น

ในที่สุดก็ถึงจุดหมาย(ที่ถูกต้อง)

พอเข้าไปถึงที่ ก็ต้องตกตะลึงอึ้งแดกกับความหล่อล่ำของพ่องงงงงงงงง Father Frost (ตุ๊กตาหิมะ) เพราะมันใหญ่เบิ้มมโหฬารมาก ๆ ผิดกับที่เห็นเมื่อวันแรก ๆ =_=;;

ลองเทียบขนาดดูกับตอนที่เราไปทำเควส์กับคอร์นดูดิ ต่างกันเห็น ๆ =_= แสดงว่ามันโตขึ้นและหรูขึ้นตามปริมาณคนทำเควสต์สินะ

อ่อ แล้วก็ไปรายงานตัวกับ NPC ตรงนั้น เค้าก็จะมอบหมายให้เราช่วยปั้นตุ๊กตาหิมะ ด้วยการปาบอลอัดตุ๊กตา (แม่ง เอา Ice Shard กรูไป แถมใช้กรูวิ่งมาไกล ๆ เอามาส่ง ไม่พอยังใช้กรูปั้นอีก)

Waldomar: Sent here by the Black Rabbit Traders? Aye, I was told to expect you. A little late, to be sure, but late is better than never, I suppose.

Waldomar: You’ve already been briefed about our objective, I don’t doubt. Aye, building a giant of snow to usher in the blessing of winter and all that.

Waldomar: Now, I’ll wager you’re curious as to why we’d go to such lengths to celebrate a season synonymous with death. Well, my friend, death is but a spoke on the wheel of life. Without it, the wheel would inevitably become warped…or so Grandmama used to tell us.

Waldomar: To say it plain, plants and animals rely on the turning of the seasons. The coming of the cold tells them to hoard their food, to shed their leaves against the chill. And in its passing, winter leaves behind melted snow to nourish the land.

Waldomar: But winter hasn’t come to the North Shroud. The conjurers believe an imbalance in the aether is to blame, but no one can say for certain. Anywise, when we saw how desperate they were─and we Ala Mhigans are no strangers to desperation─we thought it might help to tell them about Winter’s Knell.

Waldomar: It’s a festival for ushering in winter, where grown-ups and younglings alike cry “Winter is coming!” while hurling snowballs in a joint effort to build a giant of snow named Father Frost. What sets him apart from ordinary snowmen, you ask? Why, it’s the gemstone he bears within his breast called the Heart of Winter, an ageold Ala Mhigan relic.

Waldomar: Truth be told, we only suggested it to relieve the growing tension with a bit of light revelry. But it turns out the folks at Stillglade Fane were so desperate, they took our suggestion in all seriousness. And so here we are.

Waldomar: But enough talk. You have a snowball, don’t you? Well, what are you waiting for!? Hurl it at the ice effigy there with all your might, and your work here will be done! Oh, and to really do it right, you’ll want to chant “Winter is coming!” as well.

To throw a snowball, first target Father Frost and then either select Snowball from the emote list, or input the /snowball text command.

“Winter Is Not Coming” has been updated in your journal.

ยืนไกลไปก็ไม่ได้อีกนะ มันไม่ให้ปา ต้องเข้าไปยืนปาจ่อในระยะเผาขน

You are too far away.

You hurl a snowball at Father Frost.

Your snowball hits Father Frost squarely!

You have four ensorcelled snowballs left.

You hurl a snowball at Father Frost.

Your snowball hits Father Frost squarely!

You have three ensorcelled snowballs left.

You hurl a snowball at Father Frost.

Your snowball hits Father Frost squarely!

You have two ensorcelled snowballs left.

You hurl a snowball at Father Frost.

Your snowball hits Father Frost squarely!

You have one ensorcelled snowball left.

You hurl a snowball at Father Frost.

Your snowball hits Father Frost squarely!

“Winter Is Not Coming” has been updated in your journal.

“Winter Is Not Coming” objectives complete!

ตุ้บ ๆ ตั้บ ๆ คนละ 5 ลูก ก็เป็นอันเสร็จพิธี

เสร็จแล้วก็ไปทวงรางวัลจาก NPC

Waldomar: You have a good arm, friend. Father Frost has grown slightly, thanks your efforts.

Waldomar: Oh, and here’s a little present for you, courtesy of Black Rabbit Traders. Don it with pride, and Merry Starlight!

You obtain the set of reindeer antlers.

You obtain the reindeer suit.

“Winter Is Not Coming” complete!

เอามาลองใส่ดูว่าเหมือนกวางหรือเหมือนหมู

แต่มันมืด (ดูดิ๊ โดน NPC ใช้งานจนดึกจนดื่นเยี่ยงทาส เช้ามืดยังต้องมายืนปาหิมะอีก) เลยยืนรอจนมีแสงอาทิตย์แล้วค่อยถ่ายรูปอีก

รูปล่างนี่จัดเต็ม ใหญ่มาก ไม่ได้ย่อ กดโหลดได้เลยนะป่าน

จบละ

รักนะ จุ๊ฟ ๆ <3

Ah well, so today they just patched FFXIV again. I am going to be honest, I was disappointed. Not because it is a bad patch, not because there’s something wrong with it, but just because I lost so many abilities and spells that I like or use on regular basis. I think it will take a while for me to adapt back into the battle system.

But I do like the new Abilities & Traits interface. This one is much easier to choose cross-class skills. It is also simple and clean. I hated the damn pull-down menu because it wasn’t only cumbersome, but also not very practical especially when I’m in a hurry. I often found myself using text command to assign skills to the action bars instead of selecting from Actions & Traits menu, because pull-down list was soooo messy and hard to use.

I also had a lot of fun playing with the new emote commandห.

The /disappointed emote is so orz (or OTL) and very funny I had to do it repeatedly so many times, and also got my honey to do it with me for a screenshot LOL!

The hands motion before this pose was also EPIC! Really, utter disappointment was so well displayed.

/grovel is the next one. It is like kneeling down on the floor to beg or express deepest apology. I actually like the last motion right before I jumped up to standing. For Miqo’te, it seems like the polite kneel (Japanese style) for when you’re sitting in a tea ceremony. Looks so lady-like. Haha!

(Screenshot courtesy: Corn Muffin. In my opinion, this screenshot is the best WIN of the week. I tried so many times to take good pics of /happy, yet none of them could describe the emote so accurately like this one pic.)

/happy is so goofy and dorky. It is an emote with so many body motions. EPIC, I would say. I like my Miqo’te /happy. But to confess, I’ve seen a Roegadyn doing /happy and it dreaded me badly. I was horrified.

This pic was also taken by my HM. Look at how gay (happy) we were. So care-free. And to add HM’s comment about his jump, it seems the character doesn’t even care if he would land on his feet or his face LOL!

Now….prepare to meet the highlight of the season.

/snowball is today’s champion (amongst all the new emotes). It is such fun. So entertaining and addictive. Me and HM couldn’t stop playing with it even after 3 hours. I kept laughing, and he did too. I think today I threw the snowball at at least 30 different people. And I think Einferial got hit the most because we were camping his AFK ass. Probably we threw about 200 snowballs at him in total. Hahaha!

I hate the atmosphere (the air, or ambiance) of Christmas. Could be because I don’t like how busy the shopping malls are, how noisy people and places are, and the feeling that the year is ending kind of makes me depressed a little. BUT Christmas event in the game always gives me so much fun and enjoyment. I find it very entertaining. ^^

I couldn’t fall asleep and I strongly felt the urge to drain this out of my chest. It was something about the past which of course I cannot go back in time to correct. So it’s been bothering me for a long time. If you do not wish to read it, please skip this entry. 

I am not writing this as a hate letter, but simply to announce what I feel must be heard. I am leading a good life and have no grudge against my former teacher, but the incident is something I have yet to get over with. Naturally, people hate to be accused of the crime they haven’t committed. I was accused of what I didn’t commit. Worse yet, I wasn’t allowed any opportunity to speak up the truth. I hope these facts alone would make anyone forgive me for being such a whiner.

Thank you everyone for reading. 

*Important*
Should anyone know or run into Mr. Dinos Dimitriades (I cannot remember the exact spelling of his last name, so this might be inaccurate) a Greek teacher, if I remember correctly, who used to teach an English Writing course in Thailand (Thammasat University to be precise) please forward this to him and tell him it is from one of his former students. 

———————————————

Dear Ajarn Dinos,

It has been a long time, might be well over ten years already. However, I still cannot forget you. As much as I wish I could forget about you and what you have accused me of, the memory returns to haunt me every once in a while. In such nights as tonight, whenever my physical or psychological condition keeps me awake, my brain would eventually bring me back in time to the day when it happened. I am up and about, at 5 A.M. in my bedroom, to type this out in order to bring some peace to my mind. I am going to pretend that someday you would be reading this. It is what I wanted you to listen, and now still wish that you indeed had listened.

To be honest, and mincing no words here, I feel you, or at least the incident, are an eminent stain in my record, a scar to my dignity, and a wound to my belief; the belief that justice will always win. On the other hand, all was not wasted. At least you showed me a sad truth of how the world works: without power, justice can achieve nothing. To this day, I still regret for having met you, for being your student, for being incompetent in bringing the truth to your attention, and for being such a weakling that I could not stand up for myself.

First off, I would like to point out some of your flawed statements. I am not sure if you would recall saying these, but I remember them very well. You compared my writings from two totally different occasions and said that judging from my in-class performance; you did not believe I wrote the second essay by myself. I was too young and too inexperienced to readily whip out this rational rebuttal, but is it not a common sense that one can expect a piece of work of higher quality if it is invested with more time and effort? How can a teacher look at a piece of writing which allows only one hour, or less, and then judge a student’s true abilities from it?

I tried to explain to you that my second writing was much better because I spent a whole night on it instead of just one hour as in the class, but you refused to listen and topped it off with “I did not tell you to stay up all night to write this essay.” This is unacceptable of you. Did you tell your students to go home and spend no longer than 2 hours in doing the homework? No. Then why was it my fault for spending so much time on it? I did not deserve such thing.

Then, when I told you that I had picked up the idiom and its meaning from a conversation with my uncle long ago, you did not even try to listen to the whole sentence, but immediately said “You are supposed to do your homework with your knowledge, not your uncle’s.” Now this doesn’t make sense at all. Do you truly believe that one should only use their own knowledge without relying on anything they learned from others? Can a person create all the knowledge purely from within their own brain? Is knowledge not passed on from people to people, from generations to generations, and from books to people? If we go by your logic, does it not mean that one must not write any essay at all, since one was born with no knowledge, but later on was educated as well as forged to be a person by surrounding things and people?

Next, there were many parts of the truth that were untold simply because you refused to listen. When I was just dismissed from your correction desk, my friends immediately inquired on what had happened. I told them about it, and they proceeded to ask if I knew the meaning and origin of the idiom in question. Of course I knew, and I explained to them all about it, with help from a pen and a piece of paper. I then gathered my strength and approached you again in an attempt to let those friends testify to you that I actually knew the meaning and origin of the idiom. What did you say to me? “I want no witness.” That was the moment when I felt for the first time of my life that the world is full of unjust.

Also, later on after I handed in my substitute essay, I attempted again to make you listen to the truth behind my rejected essay. Of course my attempt yielded no fruit. It was like talking to a wall. Therefore, I would like to write here about what you refused to hear that day.

I often went to Washington DC to visit my aunts and uncles during my summer vacation. One night while one of my uncles was driving from the family’s city house to their country house in Virginia, I brought up a topic about idioms. We talked about many idioms with strange origins, the apple of my eyes, a cup of tea, the whole nine yards, and too close to the wind, to name a few. However, it was only “too close to the wind” which I clearly remember both the meaning and the origin, hence the citation of it in my essay.

I tried to tell you the true story, yet you waved it off without even letting me finish my first sentence. You said I relied on my uncle for my homework and you cannot accept it. You even went as far as telling me “I want to see what you write, not what your uncle writes.” Give me a break! My uncle did not and does not even live in Thailand, how could he be writing my essay for me? Anyway, due to your narrow-minded mentality at the moment, I didn’t even get a chance to make it known that the conversation was from several years ago, and was also in Thai, thus your accusation was not only incorrect, but also unjust.

In closings, I would like to let you know that the incident has since been my trauma. Maybe you are unable and will never be able to understand me until you are accused wrongly by someone else, or maybe you have grown experienced enough by now to understand me. Also, I will never ever forget you and that day, simply because what happened was too big an impact to be forgotten, even willingly. However, I am looking forward to the day when I can eventually let it go and forgive you for dealing such a mental damage to your honest, but wrongly accused, student.

Sincerely,

Orawadee Meesook.
4206611479

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Recently I’ve been joining with my brother’s Ifrit party on weekends. And sometimes if they really really need one more body, I would also go and help to fill in the spot even when it’s weekdays.

Ifrit battle is exciting. On my first Ifrit battle, I once again felt like I was on crack (LOL! like back when I was competing for NM claims in FFXI, yeah, that kind of feeling) and got so psyched up. My fingers were icy cold until 10 mins after we won LOL! My bro had a good laugh about it when I poked him with my freezing fingers when I bumped into him outside of my room.

Anyway, yesterday we wiped. One of the rare “shit-hits-the-fan” Ifrit runs. We don’t always win. But on first day and second day, we were so perfect and Ifrit behaved very well, so we won with a clean record of 8/8 and 8/8 on both days. That kind of spoiled me and Honey Muffin. We were so pumped up with the great amount of lucky wins.

Have to admit it was funny and quite entertaining to wipe and lose though!

I would love to write more, but life has been busy, as well as the game. So here’s just short update in my blog XD LOL. Cheating, I know. But I’ll write about Ifrit with details soon.

On a side note, a few days ago Honey Muffin was psyched up and pumped up and proposed that we go kill some Uraeus. My bro said it pops only at night time in the game, and gathered more people to help. We ended up getting a full party (thanks guys from Round Table LS that came to help) and claimed 4 Uraeus, getting 3/4 skin drops.

So my bro made us 3 Silver Tricornes.

I couldn’t get him to come take a pic with use because he wasn’t home XD But here’s 2 pics of me and my HM.

Bro also made us a set of gear for PGL.

I haven’t updated my PGL gear for a very longgggggggggg time, because I was already done leveling up my Pugilist long before the gear update patch. So I was so happy to get all new shiny equipment set. And to top it off, the Pirate Captain Hat of my dream is now mine!

Ul’dah Imps spawn spots.

This might not be all. I marked only those spots where I’ve seen an Imp or a Treat Basket before only.

The green dots are existing NPCs, so you can peek at your radar (minimap) and compare, in order to know whether the Imp pops or not, without having to walk to the exact spot to check.

(Click on the image to see original map size.)