Happy Turkey Week!

Happy Thanksgiving from mine to yours.

Its been a while since I've updated. Thursday was Thanksgiving and I had to work. But before I went in my family and friends gathered for a 6 turkey feast. We think. No one bothered to count and we just keep frying and baking until everyone was full. There was no left overs and the dogs passed out on the couch. Was a great day, except for work.

Really all that weekend I didn't do much on FFXI. Dynamis was an awesome volley of drops for once. I'm really proud of how the team has pulled together to bring in the inexperienced youth and make them teenagers ready to go out on their own. Course, we don't want them to leave but they could represent us well if they did. I'm having Allura announce a gil payout for the run since they also got 2 100cc to drop.

I'm slightly pissed at Madz. Prolly one of the better pullers I've had in the shell, and he decided to server hop. He'll be missed, but Imma kick his ghetto booty for leaving us. We wish him the best.

Did some assaults on Monday night. Brydan was oddly quiet and kinda freaky when he did finally speak up. Dani promises me there is nothing wrong, but I'm not so sure. Still, we pounded out 4 assault wins to bring Brydan and Darkneo up to Superior Private. I'm sure Brydan will have a joke or two about his privates now. =)

Dani really wanted to finish CoP last night. Can't blame her. Allura has been hounding me to help get these guys through so we can do more Limbus events. I'm all about helping, but some nights I'm just lazy. Hence, last night. We knocked out the Golem in Delkfutt's Tower and then the Bearenstein Bears in Oldtown. Dani managed to committ suicide before Brydan did. I'm impressed that a White Mage beat a Dark Knight. I'm sure we'll tease Bry about it for a bit. Supah made an ok tank, but then again he was on NIN... It's not like he knows how to be a true tank like Paladins are. ^.^b

Allura and I made some tentative plan ideas for finishing my goldsmithing sub. I'm not wild about wasting the gil, but there isn't much left for me to do in this game. I can't wait until everyone has their expansions so we can go through it as a team!

MAID!!!!

With the new update they opened up the mog houses to friends and people in your party. Last night before dynamis we had some fun with this. Its obvious that a few things are true:

1. Allura keeps everything.

2. Dani is short.

3. Allura's moogle can be blinded.

4. The males have no sense of taste.

5. Allura wants to rearrange my furniture.

6. My moogle likes Allura's moogle.

7. Allura has no wardrobe closet.

I'm sure this little fun will wear soon enough, but for the time being it's interesting to see what people have for taste and gil. I for one will not open my moghouse until I hire a maid... in uniform. You know one of those fluffy skirts we men so love.

I should hire an interior decorator as well....

Welcome to Dani Restaurant!

Well there really is a restaurant named Dani Restaurant. Its southern italian based recipes made by Chef Don Pintabona in NYC. Its off Hudson and Charlton if you ever want to go.

But I was mostly referring to Dani serving up 6 spells, 3 levels, and a new BLU ability on my job of choice lately. BLU is going wonderfully considering the time I've had to give to it. It's becoming more of a MNK type job where all you do is bash damage sources as much as possible until either you or the mob dies. Dani only let me die 4 times. Once because she's evil. The other three were because she's just that evil. Was a fun night and one she wolnt soon let me forget I'm sure. I owe her a ton.

Now Allura has caught up on her COR. So I'll prolly slow down to make sure she can come hang out with me as couples should do. I can tell Allura really likes her COR, probably moreso than BRD. I honestly think it beigns the multiple fuctionality that RDM does to the game, which is why she likes it. But if you really wanna know you should ask her.

Neo finally got his lazy ass back to the game. He's been gone for almost 2 weeks so we are looking forward to progressing in assaults soon. I also have a ZM17 run in the works I will prolly let you all know about.

Either way, I'm keeping busy....

PS. For those of you who dont know about Chef Pintabona, I'd encourage you to watch a 5 minute video on YouTube (URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FP0Hs3SA3I) as he has become a timepiece in culinary arts of NYC since 9-11.

MEOW BANG

I haven't been online much of late. I'm getting a lot of sleep and relaxing a bit. I haven't been feeling up to par and it shows in my lackluster approach to things lately. But I did manage to get a few things done over the last couple days.

Wednesday night we did Fenrir. I particularly liked the part where they wanted me to tank straight up as paladin with one healer. The amount of damage fenrir can dish out in short periods with his eclipse bite and high attack speed would make any paladin falter. I rearraged their setup and went in as PLD, WHM, RDM, BLM, BLU, DRK. Not my optimal team but it worked. We kited him around the platform until about half life and then let go on him. He managed to get his 2hr through chainspell stun but by that time it was too late. Grats to the five of you who got your new doggie pet. I went ahead and got the earring, but I'll probably never use it.

Dynamis in glacier was Tuesday night and pretty much another failure for me. No drops coupled with low attendence and a lack of blackmages really made it for a long night. We did well on our farming run driving in almost halfway with under 18 people, but nothing really to show for it. I've never seen any worth while AF drop from glacier. It's really kinda sad.

I went ahead and got my specticles from the SE event. I really think they arne't going to be worth the time put into it, but you never know with SE. I'm still laughing at how Bastok controlled first place on nearly every server and in 1 day they lost it on every server to Sandy. There is a reason everyone calls them lastok.

Fart Smeller

Allura was in some kinda mood last night. Lets set the stage.

We decide last week to do Promy V for Supah. All well and good but I thought we'd do assault first. Well, Darkneo has been MIA (I think the Taru's have sold him for tea and crumpets) and Dennett was out smoking the worlds longest blunt or taking number 2 to the extreme. No on is sure on Big D there. Regardless, we didn't have our assault team so we went to do Vhazl first. To say Vhazl is a pain in the ass isn't accurate. However, it's long. Very long.

So we hike up our skirts and step into the emptiness. We blew through the first two levels like it was Valkrum. I started to wonder. But we move on to the first boss and take care of him no problem. No I know SE made this too easy. My first team to go through this not only took hours to make it to the boss, but we wiped 2-3 times killing them. So when we wiped to the second boss cause we over TPed him, it was more easing of the soul then pissing in the wind. We regroup the strategy and take him down with ease the second time. And then Allura strikes:

Allura >> You are a fart smeller.

Say wha? I know I'm high from the Promy V Bume being spread around, but seriously? It's not like Allura to call people names, but it was funny as all hell.

Grats to Supah and Multani on their change in Mission. May 3 paths be your ultimate bitch like the rest of us.

Waiting in the weeds

Another short night it seemed. Spent a lot of time at Fafnir waiting for his scaly ass to spawn. He decided to wait until the last minute and be forced out into the open by the server. The guys say he spawned yellow for a while this time, but I lag so bad in the Aery that I couldn't tell anyways. All I know is we didn't get the claim.

Spent a few more hours on BLU last night. It was a double empress band day so I was able to pack away some serious xp/hr soloing. Supah dragged his monk out and we both got about two levels in no time. We made Dani power level us, mostly cause she wanted to. Tried a few times to get the pugils to give me a screwdriver, but I think they were out of orange juice on the beach front.

16 levels to go.

BLUs cured by Temenos Effect

Suprising how the last 12 hours or so have been a flurry of positive activity. I'm amazed how much time we spend in game doing pointless tasks and then that one day of the week where everything seems to get accomplished comes along.

Had a ton of fun leveling BLU last night. Supah made it easy and kind of monotonus (Spell check that Dani) but I enjoyed his company. I really got to know him better than before. Anyways, I now hate him. Every Blue Magic spell I have learned thus far has taken me forever. Either the mobs take 10 minutes to use the ability or I just can't seem to learn it. Until last night. 1/1 on Poison Breath. Oh no, I've killed a lot of doggies, but as soon as Supah shows up there it is. He's my new spell bitch. Lucky him. Got 3 more levels on BLU last night. Only 18 more to go so we can get these people their earrings.

And then Limbus this morning. I hate getting up early. I really do. But watching two people get their first AF +1 is worth it. We ok maybe not totally worth it but I wasn't objecting. Obsessed continued his uncontested collection of drops. I'm sure he'll put his beast panties to use trying to get Tanjer's undivided attention. Byla, lol, finally got something money can't buy. I have to say BLM really is the hardest set to complete and its always nice when a BLM gets their hat done. I picked up another complete set on PLD. I dunno what I'm going to waste it on. The paladin set really is meh after you complete body and feet. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and do legs just for the enmity up boost. Dunno though, but between Allura and I we are spending the coin. 3 RDM AF+1, 2 SAM AF+1, 1 BLM AF+1, 3 PLD AF+1, Boxer's, and 2x Loq. Earring in under 6 months really is keeping us low on the coin count. And I have a WHM set in my locker I dont really intend on using. Just glad the guys are having fun getting their coins and stuff.

After work tonight, I hope I can clear out a few more BLU levels so we can schedule DM soon.

A Week Later

It's hard to believe its almost been a week. So much going on and so little time to keep up with things. I admit my organizational skills could be much better... but who cares?

The shell did their first run in Northlands. I'm proud of them. Win and some AF. Just a perfect start to a shitty part of Dynamis. With any luck they will continue to thrive without me. Allura has done a great job stepping in and filling in for me. They are already talking about moving managers around, so I maybe back before Allura kills someone... literally. I'm betting its a taru.

Ranked up my entire assault team this week except me. I'm so far ahead in ranks it doesn't much matter. They are all 15/50 now on Captain's rank. Just wish we could do more than 4 a week with this stupid tag system. Would have been nice if SE placed a way to use IS for tags.

The guys did all the prime avatars for the ls. It was a nice side activity they came up with mostly because people want Fenrir. It's all well and good and I'm glad to see them off to a solid start. I might join them for a fight or two, but I have no need for anything from any prime fight. I say that, but I'll end up throwing my Fenrir's Stone now....

I've started back in on BLU. With my PLD merits block done its the last thing I need to supertank Divine Might. Blue mage hit 17 last night. Need it to get to 37 so I can try this pretty fail safe strat on the fight. I know Allura and I wanted to level her bard with my blue but my schedule sucks so bad that'd take forever. I'll find something else to level with her bard that doesn't kill us. I'm thinking PUP. Of course I'm not.

Devil Came Down to Georgia and got his spanking from Achates. Suck it Trebek.

Fast Cast

Well, I already broke my promise to Dani. I missed posting yesterday. I spent all my free time making sure the information was right for our first Northlands run as a dynamis shell. Which, I then promptly missed. They did well without me though. Win and 2 wanted AF is a nice start to Northlands. Can't say I'm not proud of how fast they are growing up...

This morning we did I took them into another Limbus zone. This time we did the kings zone, but as a manaburn format. I was new to this style and it showed in the beginning. It was actually tougher than I thought to pull off, but 3-4 BLMs who have experience doing that zone as a team should have no problems clearing it. We ran out of time with King Behemoth left, which wasn't bad at all. The 6 coins each didn't hurt either.

I capped my evening with a discussion on scheduling. Metachronism turned out to be a rather nice guy, despite my expectations. I can't say I know all my comrades leading dynamis shells, but I generally do not hear pleasent things said about any end game leader no matter what the format. Usually its more about getting behind one and just sticking it out there. Meta and I reached an accord and he'll be a valuable asset as I move my shell into dreamlands.

Was a pretty good day, even if the fast cast effect kicked in....

Paperwork

Last night sucked. Seriously.

I have this mountain of paperwork to finish as a shell leader. Granted Allura has been picking up a lot of my slack. And I have made Dani do all the "talking". But still there was much much more to do. I spent the better part of 3 hours last night verifying and calculating the points structure for our first Northlands run.

You'd think in a shell of friends only we could trust each other to just let the best person for the piece lot. But then how do you determine "best"? It's this kinda politics that just drives me insane. Selfishness just drives me insane. And it's rampant in FFXI.

I know a lot of it has to do with the age range of the server. But still, I wish there was a way to take all the excess work out of decision making and still have a system that doesn't penalize people like Thorvald who has his kids every other week so he can't play. Its frustrating to watch people like Thorvald fall behind because he simply has RL stuff that is more important than a game. Kudos to him for not getting sucked into the black void though.

I really hope they get a lot of AF drops in this first Glacier run for the shell. Last 4 times I was there we got 0 drops. Nothing sucks worse than wasting a million gil on nothing. All I can do is wish them the best of luck. I'll be at work again when they go...

Assaulting Worms

Assaults have become a way for many on how to make some steady gil. So many people I am finding out are still not doing the basic assaults to get simple items. I'm constantly amazed how many people buy something that they could earn in 3 runs or about 45 minutes of real work. I guess too many users have too much gil to blow.

Not me.

So I formed me up an assault static out of the member of my linkshell. I can't say they are the best, cause well Brydan spends most his time dead for one reason or another. Darkneo is a great guy, but my paladin could kick his ninja ass any day any time. Dennett is a dragoon. Nuff said. But as a group we work well as a team. And I have great plans for this team.

Brydan is by far the slacker. He's the only one in the group that is still PSC rank. So we beat up on worms. And they beat up on Brydan. I'm constantly amazed at how much damage this boy can take. I mean he can dish it as a DRK. There is no question there. But time and time again without NIN sub he manages to just barely not die. You can tell he's learning the team as by the end of the third worm run he was just delivering finishing blows instead of tanking. We are gonna do all right.

I've got Brydan at a little over half way to rank up. I refuse to do the *** **** mother ******* escort assault again until absolutely necessary. It doesn't hurt that people need the worm assault for points either. So we will continue to beat on worms until Brydan ranks up. Once that happens we can move quickly to get rank and wins. Ideally, I'd like everyone to be at Captain's rank before we work on points. It would be nice to have Perdu weapons as an option. Not that Brydan needs more damage....

They are a good team. We aren't great yet, but we are getting there one assault at a time. With any luck, Brydan wolnt kill himself.