Tonight I was bored and thought maybe I should level up my Fishing Skill a bit after have been neglecting it for several months.

Fishing Session Date : 25 August 2009
Starting time : 22.20 (10.20 P.M., at GMT+7)
Setting : Hume Fishing Rod & Insect Balls
Targets : Moat Carp for Lu Shang’s and Sandfish for skill
Ending time : 01.40 (01.40 A.M., day becoming 26th Aug.)
Time span : 3 hours 20 minutes

Actually, I wasn’t fishing all the time. I got up and walked away several times. So the actual time spent on fishing could be like 2 and a half hours.

Results : From 11 stacks of bait.
Skill points : 0.3 (0.1 x 3 times)
Moat Carps : 8 stacks and 8 individuals (104 in total)
Sandfish : 2 stacks and 2 individuals (26 in total)
Junks : none
Screenshots : 36 pics (Oh yes, I was bored….)

******************************

Some of the screenshots I’ve taken during fishing session.
The sky in FFXI looks nice when it changes hue and appearance.
I just couldn’t resist!

That’s about it.

P.S. I ran into this person named Keebs who was working on getting Ebisu Rod. He/she has a Lu Shang’s and gave a few useful advide to me.

Saturday 22nd August 2009, I woke up early (”my” early, which was like 8 A.M.) and had a long conversation with Leftster regarding LS spreadsheets management. I got the documents from Sieka days ago, however, I couldn’t make head or tail of one of them, which was the Dynamis History which contains LS bank info. You know, it’s full of figures and numbers, and I’m terrible at mathmetics. So, just seeing it makes me feel dizzy already. @.@

The Attendance Sheet, on the other hand, was simple and easy to understand.

Well, I volunteered to take care of the documents when Sieka asked in LS chat.

The reason?

First off, I’m comfortable with computer documents because my work always uses computer. I’ve also played around with google doc as well as MS Excell before. In fact, I used them a lot in keeping my data like Nyzul Isle loots and Chocobo Raising records. Secondly, since I’m already working on my computer daily, it’s easy for me to take care of those too. It is also one of the few things I could do to help Linkaga, the folks I like. Lastly, I’m the type of person who clings to the past. I won’t elaborate this, but you get the rough idea.

Anyway, here’s the checklist of what we – Linkaga – need or want, and what we’ve done;

Please note that I only observed, joined in the discussion, or was asked to do things. I do not have power or authority here.  I only wanted to summarize our situation.

Red – have yet to be addressed, or need attention.
Orange – discussed, or interested, but undecided.
Green – decided, work in progress.
Blue – done, settled, standing by.

- Reorganization of LS.

- Assigning new officers/cooperators.
- Discussing and refining lotting rules, adding more details.
- Finding a way to manage Linkshell. Might get a new one for convenience.
- Seeing to the recruitment details.
- Deciding on when to continue. Currently set to 22nd September approx.

- Personnel management.

- Finding a new LS bank.

- Assigning to a person.
- Transferring money.
- Checking the amount.

- Finding a bazaar mule.

- Assigning to a character.
- Setting Home Point at Jeuno.
- Getting 3 basic gate crystals.
- Clearing inventory.
- Questing Gobbie Bags.

- Finding Glass mule(s) if possible.

- Jeuno (I have one. Uh well, two.)
- Bastok (I can use Brune’s char.)
- Windurst
- San d’Oria
* Might as well use one mule but commute it.*

- Finding a documents keeper.

- Passing on the files.
- Getting briefed and tutored on spreadsheets.
- Getting familiar with sheets, and try to master the art.
- Gaining access to existing Master Attendance Sheet.
- Copying data and making a new Master Attendance Sheet.
- Checking data.
- Posting it on LS forum.

- Finding a contact to post our Dynamis schedule at AXI site.

- Assigning to person(s). (Aleczan got it.)
- Registering to the site.
- Gaining access to the scheduler.
- Getting knowledge on how we should schedule.

- Communication among members.

- Letting everyone know we’re taking a break. /lsmes has been set.
- Posting the summary of current situation on LS forum.
- Having officers/members meeting for LS discussion.
- Staying tuned and updated to the news.

FYI, the tutorial on spreadsheets was done. But I have yet to master the art of manipulating the documents.

Thank you Lefty, for your patient and detailed teaching.

Wednesday early morning, I woke up at 6 oh….wait…. I didn’t.

Um….ah, ok.

I went to bed a bit early, like before 9 P.M. and then woke up in the middle of the night, finding out that I had stood my LS up on the intended Nyzul Isle run. When I woke up around 2 A.M., most of them had already went to sleep and logged off. T.T Sorry guys, I thought I would wake up in time.

I figured it would be useless trying to go to sleep before Dyna, or if I could sleep, there was a high risk of sleeping-in to occur. So, I….did something. I can’t recall what activities I spent my time on that night, really (I’m writing this after a few days…so…well! ><;;) But I think maybe I just stayed in the town and chatted with Cornelious. I think I also saw Stefy level up her WAR too. We talked a bit and then I got caught up with my own interest in browsing my screenshot folders.

Cornelious, too, soon became busy with his keyboard. So we almost didn’t talk at all. Then it was time for Dynamis gathering, so I headed to Jeuno.

Guh! OK, now, speaking of Jeuno reminded me of what we did during that time. I and Cornelious took our chocobos on a date! (That’s just fancy talking, actually we just traded Chococards and went to deal with Finbarr.)

So, anyway, I got back to Jeuno at gathering time. We went through a long discussion on various subjects. In the end, we called it cancelled and decided to take a temporary break on Dynamis run, for one month. That is to reorganize things. I have no problem with that. I just don’t want us to scatter. So, if we stick together, it is fine. So, we will hold while waiting for Trustme’s return.

During the discussion I noticed Domminick and Sanoo were similar (maybe it was because of their armors.) So I asked them to stand together for a photo. XD Thanks guys, nice pic!

They looked like brothers! Hahaha!

OK, so after cancelation was announced, I headed back to Bastok, still wearing Linkaga’s pearl just to keep myself updated. Meanwhile, Stefy were asking for LS party to level up her WAR. So I took a long time to dress my THF30 up and joined her in Qufim while waiting for Jan to pop her WHM.

We got a WAR, a BRD and a NIN tank, who was also the tank (PLD) during Rostrum Pumps run the day before.

This party was just great. I also used my Kupofried’s Ring, and then my Anniversary Ring – if I remember correct, as well as my Emperor Band, so the EXP were very fast and my level went up quickly.

During a camp relocation, Khroma, the tank, somehow pulled aggro on the Kraken. ><;; I don’t know what happened, maybe he went Sneak and grabbed some key item at the cove. So when his Sneak wore off it aggroed him. That Kraken lost aggro and went back before doing any damage, though.

At one point, Bard had to leave, so Jan got Tajah to come as COR. His Mithra looked sexy in an apron

Then, after a few levels, the EXP became bad even when we pulled Pugils. Therefore, we moved to Yuhtunga Jungle. Khroma had to leave so we asked Kimji to come as PLD. The EXP was great too.

The bad part is…. Even before we arrived in the Jungle, I was aggroed by a piece of emergency work. It was my boyfriend asking for help on my submitted work (he was in charge of editing it, but it required quite a lot of refining and he needed assistant on graphic edit, in order to speed up the process.) So… I had to cover the work while EXP’ing. I was asked to help on several pages that I wasn’t told to edit before I submitted my work, as well as 2 pages that I had previously overlooked on some minor details. Overall, there were 10 pages to deal with. So I asked Stef to pull Mandy while I went semi-AFK and did my work. When I heard the battle sound I would switch to look and engage, occasionally land correct Sneak Attacks.

Eventually I got 2 levels, getting to level 36 on my Thief, embarrasingly enough, during half-leaching. =_=;;

After a while of my full-attention (but still, I didn’t get back to pulling, Tajah was doing it for me and Stefy) we finally disbanded because many people were falling asleep on their keyboards. 

It was a very good party! Thank you everyone.

I had some spare time So, I tried to think of what I could do alone in Vana’diel. I found one thing I could and should, that is to level up my Combat Skill on Scythe.

To commemorate my obtaining a Suzaku’s Scythe from Sky run with OverKill…. uh wait, that was old, like weeks ago. Um well, to celebrate my Warrior dinging to 74 and becoming able to equip that Scythe…. wait, again that happened like 2-3 weeks ago. Duh!

Well, then! To quit having Scythe at level 0 and to make use of the Super Kupower “Martial Maters” I decided to officially level up my Scythe skill! Off we go, to Gustaberg. After killing a Hornet, I decided to change place. Bringing my best ACC gears as well as a head of Jack o’ Lantern pumpkin, I headed to Meriphatuad Mountains. Actually I wanted to go into the Castle Oztroja because it’s reminiscing, but I thought my skill was too low to deal with the links if it happened, so I swung my Scythe around in the Meriph. Mountains first.

My first victim here was a Sapling.

2009 Aug 17th, 6.59 P.M.

Got nice skill points. Almost once every 2 swings gave 0.2 or 0.3.

Then as I ran around, I found myself a gobbie companian.

He was generous too.

Some time around that I got my Scythe skill to level 5 and learned Weapon skill Slice. Next victim being a Fly and a Lizard, I got to around level 9-10.

0.5! Woot! Very nice and convenient!

Then I ran into a Bogy and decided to try it. It took soooooo long to kill, but that’s just perfect for skilling up!

The only problem was when it slept me and couldn’t hit me to wake me up.

Anyway, I got a lot of skill levels from one Bogy. From 11 to 18! And I even got a Bloody Robe (which I had to throw away later on.)

Nearing the Castle Oztroja, I killed a few Yagudos. Well, Yagudos were a bit hard. I pulled one at a campfire and they link. Having 3 Yagudos on me with a level 1 Scythe and low combat skill was bad! My HP went down a lot (but was still in yellow range, not orange) so I had to rest abit, then aggroed another Yagudo while doing so. Howver, last 2 Yagudos I got were Votary and a Mendicant.

So, I got to skill level 30 on Scythe, learning Dark Harvest.

2009 Aug 17th, 7.39 P.M.

Around that time, Elfitine popped. After I mentioned that I’m leveing up my Scythe skill, ELfi asked if I wanted to go to Kuftal Tunnel with PUP leveling Puppet’s melee and ranged attack skills. So, well, I agreed to go. At first I was equipping the Bronze Zaghnal (level 1 Scythe) I grabbed feom AUction House in Bastok. I picked this because it has low delay and low damage. So I can swing more while keeping the mob alive for longer time. But it didn’t work well in Kuftal Tunnel because I did 0 dmg too many times.

Elfitine suggested I should change to other stronger weapon, so I remembered my Suzaku’s Scythe and just realized it had the same delay with this one! Plus the +Acc bonus! Guhhh! I was stupid. SHould have used this a long time ago. =_=;;

The skill points rushed in….it was a great fun. One bad thing about Suzaku’s Scythe is that it kills the mob too fast. But, well, then I could use Defender full time without having to worry about damage being 0.

2009 Aug 17th, 9.04 P.M.

I got to level 96 of Scythe. Also got 1 level of Parrying, bringing me from 105 (naked) to 106. Thank you Elfi! It was great!

Then things became busy and hectic all of a sudden. I got a phone call from friend, and Mitaonsya kissed dirt in The Boyahda Tree. I wanted to go raise him so I headed off, leaving Elfitine running back to town alone. So, I changed to WHM and went to rescue the Taru Beastmaster. Then, I went AFK for very long time to talk on the phone until people were ready for Nyzul Isle and had Elfi poked me a message via cellphone SMS.  :X So we went to Nyzul, but that’s a different story.

Saturday night, 15th August, I was supposed to take a long nap early and wake up for Dynamis late at night. I was tired and sleepy, yet hungry. So, instead of leaving Vana’diel to the land of slumber, I went into my mother’s domain, the kitchen, and got myself a meal. That kind of woke me up and so I roamed Vana’diel for more activities. Now I can’t recall what I did during that time because I was half-asleep, I guess.

Then I heard Kimji and Earthgiven wanted to do the Caedarva Mire’s map quest. I vaguely remembered that the NM spawned by that quest was evilly hard, so I asked if I could help. Kimji asked me to go Monk, so yeah, right on! RAWR!  After getting cutscenes in the town, we went out, Earth as PLD. After the cutscene, she popped it and it was killing her! Within a matter of a second, her HP went down below half, it was a scary sight. Earth was probably was spamming his enter key through the cutscene, so I used my Chi Blast and got it on me. That Chigoe NM is really a boo boo! My shadows disappeared very quickly and soon my blood started spilling. Before I hit half HP, Earth pulled hate and saved us both. I used Hundred Fists on it and it died, we were all having like half HP left, lol.

Then, Elwyn logged on and asked if I wanted to go skillup again. Sure, why not? So we went back to The Boyahda Tree.

On our way in, we ran into Mitaonsya. This time he didn’t ignore me XD LOL! Well, last time I figured he was busy and probably was multi-tasking his BST with something real life so he missed the chat log. I stopped to say hello to Mita and then moved further in to the usual camp.

As soon as we got to camp at the tree in the center, I started buffing. I didn’t noticed that sneaky Water Elemental until it actually landed  Flood on me. OMG! Flood, it was! I didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. I turned around and circled it a little, trying to hit my repose macro, but that made me aggro a Steelshell. So….. Elwyn jumped in and grabbed the crab, pulled hate on the Water Elemental, then ran to zone. But I died. After reraising, I thought the water was going after Elwyn, so I reposed it and relogged.

I came back in and Elwyn was safe, with half HP. I felt so bad for making such mistakes. Elwyn said it was no biggies….but yeah I felt dumb.

After recovery, we moved to the old camp yesterday. I still aggroed some crabs but adds were always managable.

Elwyn would pull hate when other crabs aggro me. I just kept whacking one with my staff while keeping him alive.

Meanwhile, Lusian finally popped in the game after a long, on and off, absence due to a health issue. Elwyn asked me, so I asked Lusi if he wanted to come. He said no and told me he’s still messing around with the junks (A.K.A. Artifact and Relic Armors) in his house. So we continued our business, letting him organize his Mog Safe before his Moogle gets angry.

Oh, also, during the session, I dropped into Linkaga and checked for our destination tonight. It said Dynamis – Windurst. But….after 40 mins, when I dropped in again to see people, the message changed to “Dynamis cancelled” and I went O_o!?? I mentioned it to Elwyn and he was surprised, and then we decided to stay in The Boyahda Tree for more skillup. I also told Lusian and Elfitine about this. They were also surprised and everyone asked why, why, why. I couldn’t find the answer because people who should be able to answer it was nowhere to be seen.

Ah, whatever, we can just stay here and skill up.

It looked good until at some point 2 Water Elementals popped (but I saw only 1) and I aggro’ed one of them. I started running to zone. All looked fine until I ran into a crab or two in the tunnel. They all ganged up and I couldn’t zone before I died. Ahhh actually I DID hit the zone line, but it didn’t allow me to change zone. It kicked me back, saying “you cannot change area at the moment” or so. Therefore I was sent back to the same zone and was dead!

This is a bigger boo for me. T.T Why I kept doing dumb things?

Well, I don’t mind dying. It was fun (the skill up party, not the death.) I don’t mind dying and losing experience points at all if I enjoy the activity. Heck, I am willing to delevel twice if I’m entertained by the event concerned. I only hate it when I do stupid things and show off my noobness. ><;;

Anyway, we went back to the center camp. In order to prevent me from aggroing the element again, Elwyn suggested we try to pull and kill it! Great idea, Elwyn!  The Water Elemental gave nice skill points, too. So we killed it when it popped, and when we’re cleared Elwyn pulled the Black Mandragora, Korrigan.

Then again, I stood too near to the water and aggroed a Steelshell. Elwyn slept it with his bolt, or maybe he just pulled hate. So the crab wasn’t hitting me. While I was thinking what we should do, the Beastmaster next to us charmed that Steelshell!

Thank you, Pyui!!!

I think that made him have a mob too strong so he went off to pull a Goobbue. It looked scary and he almost died. ><;; However, he managed to live and we waved goodbye.

The reason we left was because that Trustme popped and asked why Dyna is cancelled. I said no idea, so he asked where were we supposed to go. I told him and he said he had the glass and was heading to Windurst. So, we rushed there, too.

At the end of training session, my Staff skill was 194. Nice

When I woke up at noon, I was surprised to see Cornelious in the game still. He said he wasn’t sleepy yet, so we tried to think of some adventures to do. Bleh….it was hard to be creative in that department because I usually hang out by myself or just tag along with a group of friends. Thinking of something to do as a duo party has always been difficult for me even since I was playing with my boyfriend.

Anyway, I asked him if he’d like to go to Altepa Gate. He said yes, and we headed there. Long story short; we went in and found Lusheeta in there, sitting near the NMs platform. Since I didn’t want to be rude, and I recognized she’s one of Maxpeter’s best friends, I asked if she was hunting the NM. She said NM & EXP Ring (through auto-translation.) Therefore, we decided to leave and bid her a farewell. Once outside I was once again overheating my brain to think up a place to go. It was still difficult, damn!

So….while I was feeling frustrated with myself’s lack of creativity, Corny said he would pick a random letter from English alphabet and then go anywhere that starts with that letter. So I closed my eyes and poked a button on my keyboard, then tried to hit enter button, so we got “m.” in the chat log.

I couldn’t think of any place at the moment so Cornelious named a few, one of them was Merophatuad Mountains. So, we Teleport-Mea. Then when I thought about Meriph. the place Castle Oztroja popped up. So, I brought him there. We killed some Yags in NM room until each of them popped. No drop though. Then we left, and Corny said he wasn’t going to bed yet and that he would stay for a short time.

Therefore, off we go, to the Parradamo Tor, my favourite place to go and contemplate upon my lonesome self. Here are selected pics from the picnic. And Corny, if you want any of the pics in original size, just let me know, k? The original screenshots are 1600 pixels in my computer. These are resized (clickable.)

On the way to it, at nighttime Parradamo Tor looked like an enormous pile of cake in the distance. I love this deep blue colour of sky, it has slightly lighter shade near the horizon.

Waiting for the emission to die down so we can pass, I took an opportunity to take a screenshot.

When we arrived up top, it was almost dawn and the moon was setting on one side.

We sat down to wait for the sunrise. This was also the place I brought my fellow adventuring buddy to sit and take some pics.

I’ve always thought that the colour of sky in FFXI is wonderful. Nice graphic. And the colours could change so much it’s amazing. Look how it’s changing from night to day. That pinkish colour was pretty.

The deep blue sky lightened up. In the clouds, the reflection of golden ray from the rising sun shone. I couldn’t resist the urge to dance!

The light-coloured sun showed up. I danced a lively jig. Good morning Vana’diel!

Cornelious joined in, so there were 2 crackheads oops! sickos oops, no! weirdos dancing in the morning sun, atop the mountain. Hahahaha! Oh, and before we left Bastok, I told him we must bring screenshot gears, so he brought those…. At first I only wore my puzzle-face maker, Trainee Axe, but then I ran back into my Mog House to get the twin clubs from Valentione’s event.

After a few attempts, we managed to screenshot this.

Then I grabbed his bum and he got freaked and ran away it was also nearing dawn on Cornelious’ timezone, so he had to leave, heading to bed.

Good night, Corny! Sorry I kept you up, hope it wasn’t too much a torture. 

After that, I tele-ed out myself. Now see, the sky has no cloud, and it’s clear blue! Woot!

However, I like it more when the sky has various cloud formations. It looks more interesting that way.

I think I have a ton of screenshots from Parradamo Tor. I’ll upload them later.

Friday 15th August 2009, while I was dawdling in the town, Elwyn asked if I’d like to skill up my weapon, of course I said yes and brought my WHM. So we headed off to The Boyahda Tree to skill up my Staff (and he Parrying.) Bad news! I didn’t take any screenshot during our skill up session tonight.    Now that’s noob.

On our way in we ran into Mitaonsya who was soloing his BST there. He didn’t say anything to me, boo!!! I think he didn’t notice me?

Elwyn pulled a white Mandy, to test if he can get skill from this, maybe?

Long story short, we’re joined by Elwyn’s friend, Kujimaro. I got nice skill points and got to 175, earning myself Shell Crusher. We continued until I got my staff to level 181. Kuji got some Great Sword skill points and also Sword when he swapped to it (only because we got bad adds.) Elwyn seemed pleased with his few skillups on Parrying. Then, when it was like 3 A.M. I felt sleepy and we exited to a Tele-Crag.

I headed back to Bastok but Corny was there and I wanted to go see the Cemetry Cherry Tree with him sooooo badly. Therefore, I stayed up and headed to King’s Ranperre’s Tomb with him.

I got some screenshots so I’ll write about it in a separate entry. 

P.S. Thank you Elwyn it was fun in the Boyahda!

P.S.2 Kuji was funny, he grumbled when Elwyn stole his enmity and called Elwyn names like “you…you thief!”  “you hate monger!!” I was ROFL!!!
/comfort tiny Paladin. Hehehe.