12-31-06 Just wanted to wish everyone a...

Happy New Year!

12-17-06 Obtained: Dream Gear!

Yes... my gear is now complete:

Head - Faerie hairpin
Neck - Grandiose chain
Ear - Antivenom earring
Ear - Asral earring
Body - Noble's tunic
Hands - Blessed mitts
Ring - Serket ring
Ring - Ether ring
Back - Blue cape +1
Waist - Reverend sash
Legs - Blessed trousers
Feet - Blessed pumps

Finally... all of the WHM gear that I wanted for Jenmist is now on Bliss :)

With farming/shopping complete I'm not sure what I am going to do... luckily we have a ton of catch up to do with quest, ranks and missions. But first, time to get ready to kirr Maat!

12-17-06 Bliss gets Hexa Strike!

11-25-06 One step closer to my dream gear...

11-02-06 Key hunting... again -.-;

My usual end of the month chaos has prevented me from posting... nothing new there.

Sean and I took Merc and Bliss out to Sea Serpent Grotto last night and got both of the keys we needed in under an hour :)

I popped my coffer for a map, but we were not able to locate another one due to the volume of people in the area doing the exact same thing.

We are not really sure what the game plan is for tomorrow night. I'm sure we will think of something to do.

10-29-06 Baby Horsey-Chickens and NIN Sexiness!

Strange how you can have so much trouble with a coffer key and the next day get it in 30 minutes. That is what happened to us with the Garbage Tacobell key. I decided that since it was Sunday morning and very little chance that folks would be trying to get past the Banishing Doors that it would be best for me to hold on to the key for now.

Sean and I tele'd out and went back to Sandy to see if our Moogles were homesick yet and to check on our eggs....

They hatched!!!!!!

They were also given names :) My little girl is named BeautifulSpirit and Sean's little girl is named MercuryStrike. We know that MercuryStrike is not exactly a girl name but it was too cool pass up on.

After trading our homesick Moogles what they wanted, Sean and I went to Yhoater Jungle...

And killed the NMs for NIN body as a duo :) This was really fun I must admit. We popped the NMs and ran all three to the den of Rancor zone.

The first time we attempted this we died lol. Stupid hundred fists was just too much for Mercury to handle. Blinks were impossible to keep up. I had Reraise II on and we tried again.

This time we were able to get it done by being slick. We spawned them, ran to the zone to isolate the MNK, zoned back out, beat on the MNK until we saw hundred first and zoned again, waited 20 seconds and then zoned back out to finish off the MNK. By the time Merc went back to the ??? the other 2 had despawned and he was able to get the key item from the ??? when he clicked on it.

We tele'd out to Kuftal Tunnel to get a key to complete the coffer and was only there for 45 minutes when Codorio (new LS member) asked for help getting BLU spells. We helped him get Sound Blast from the Tabar Beaks just outside of Jeuno and Death Ray from Eyes in Attowa (sp?)

After that was done we went back to Kuftal and get Merc a key. The coffer was cake to get cause it was in the first place I checked. We ran back to Rabao and Merc got the last peice of this AF :)

Shortly after we finished NIN AF, we went out for a bit and when we returned I farmed for a few hours while Sean played a new game on my Xbox. Some Empires game that he really digs.

That is our plan for the next few days. I'll farm to earn enough gil for a Noble's Tunic and he will play his new game. They are around 6 million gil at the moment so I'll be farming for at least a month

10-28-06 Map of Ifrit's, DS kirred, NIN AF hands and key hunt in Garbage Tacobell

We started the day out running to Ifrit's Cauldron and looking for a coffer for Mercury's map. we found a coffer in the first area as luck would have it. So that is another area map completed for the both of us. Yay!

We then decided that we would try to duo Dark Spark. We made it to the spawn area with out using Sneak or Invisible. He was a pushover.
We have had a bunch of people on our LS over the years, but nobody will come close to a girl we knew named Shen. She had an odd way of renaming areas as she saw fit. She forever changed Garlaige Citadel to Garbage Tacobell. Everytime we go there I think or her. Or when we run through Jugner Forest. Why? Cause she thought the red caps of the mushrooms "really added much needed color to the place". LOL I really miss her.

We spent the rest of or time hunting for a coffer key with no luck on a drop. Annaka came out to give us a hand with TH2, but it was broken. We finally had to call it a night to take the kids to their school. The PTA was having a carnival. It was fun actually. They had a haunted house. Our son tried to be braved but almost broke my hand as we were walking through it. Our daughter made no attempt at being brave, she screamed the whole time.

After dropping them back to the house to hang with the grandparents, Sean and I went to dinner and picked up some DVDs. I logged in just long enough to make a purchase off AH for a body armor I will never wear... but when has that ever stopped me from shopping?

10-28-06 Just playing with Picasa...

Found something new available on Google and decided to test it out...

Pictures to Post

Seems pretty cool. Kind of a neat way to post a bunch of pictures.

10-27-06 More keys, another map and NIN AF

About a week ago I purchased Trituration using Guild Points. Having a minor case of OCD, I had to continue earning points. My target is the Alchemist's Apron. Gotta have it!

I think I've done well so far. This week alone I went from a little over 6,000 GP to 38,300 GP. I usually check to see what the item needed is for the RL day and research the ingredients at work during lunch. ffrecipe.com is such a great resource for crafting and has helped a ton. Anyway, crafting the GP item is usually the first thing that I do when I log in at night.

That is usually followed by checking on my egg. Yes, it is still only an egg... but the little chicky wants to come out and see me I can feel it! That and the fact that it says that on the screen :P Soon I hope.

This evening Sean and I took Merc and Bliss to Ifrit's Cauldron to get a few keys and maps. We did really well all things considered. We took our NPC's out and started beating on everything in the area. Our NPCs are now level 31 and Pimy (Merc's NPC) has changed body armor. I was a little depressed that Yawawa didn't seem to change gear until I looked really close at her legs and feet. She was just too small for me to notice a difference right away.

Merc had a few close calls with Final Sting and Self-destruct but no deaths. Results for our efforts: 3 keys total, one coffer popped for a map and one popped for Old Gauntlets for NIN AF hands. Sean seemed really excited to get half of the quest done for NIN AF hands. I think it is because they have ranged acc on them and he has been working on his ranged skills.

We still need to pop one more coffer for Mercury's map and take a walk out to Castle Zvahl to kick Dark Sparks tail again. We may work on that tomorrow. Sean thinks we can kill him as a set... I have reservations but willing to give it a go.

Bob's birthday is today so he went out to celebrate with some buddies. Not sure when we will see him again. Maybe Sunday. Maybe 3 months from now. You never can tell with Bob :P

No pictures to post tonight :( I really hate the quality of the screenshots the game takes... maybe Xbox will come out with something you can add to capture better shots later on down the line. I can only hope.

10-26-06 Rant

I'm due for a rant... been too long as it is. Normally, I would rant on my LS. However, these days I don't really like my LS.

Full of people I don't care about. Or like for that matter.

Just a bunch of strangers. Bragging about their level. Or their craft. Or their gear. Or their gil. Or begging for help two minutes after they join.

Same stupid conversations.

Sad that I'm tempted to leave my own LS. Seriously thinking about switching over to FU. Silence is better than the lame conversations on NFoD.

Aside from Annaka and Morvano, there isn't a single person I give a shit about. Tac is on JP time and we see him twice a week. Blix is MIA. Annaka mentioned playing a different game so his time will be limited. Morvano is on less and less these days. Another game has caught his interest as well.

I used to think that the LS was like home... always there, a comfortable place to hang out... not so much these days. I finally see what other linkshells are like... and I don't like it.

But, it is what it is.

What I wouldn't give for a long, slow joke told by Blix. Or hell, even a discussion about music or food. *sigh*

10-26-06 Centurio X-I again o.O!

When Sean logged out last night he left Mercury in Quicksand Caves knowing that we would be back there this evening to key hunt.

And Centurio was there O.o So he blinked up and started fighting.

I was not in Quicksand Caves, however, because I decided to come back to Jeuno to take pictures of Bliss and update my Blog before I crashed for the night.

So I tele and haul ass to Quicksand Caves to give Sean a hand. 30 seconds after I zoned in...

Sean blew up before Centurio killed him.

I raised Mercury and once he unweakened, we kirred him! Got Quake and another Shaman's Cloak. Yay! Wait, Mercury doesn't have a job that can wear the cloak.... but I did get a free scroll of Quake. I think all signs are pointing to BLM as my next job.

10-25-06 Shaman's Cloak!!!

How cute is this freaking picture?!

This has to be by far my favorite picture of Bliss. I can't wait to print this out and add it to my deskmat collection. I'm half tempted to print it and frame the damn thing... but I think that is a bit much :P

We have done quite a bit in the game since I last posted:

• Rank 5 complete!
• Chocobo quest started! Still an egg but just the fact that we even opened the quest is amazing.
• NPC quest complete! Mercury now has a sexay Mithra following him around :P I have the same character model as my NPC :) I can't help that I like I like Bliss' character model :P
• Maps, maps and more maps: Got Merc's Boyahda Tree map finally. We were in Quicksand Caves trying to get coffer keys for maps when we popped Centurio X-I. Fighting him was much easier this time around with a NIN to tank him. We wern't really looking for him, just skilling up and farming keys when he appeared. I'd love to tell you that we beat a horde of RMT to get the claim, but that would be a lie :P There was nobody in the area. He dropped Stonega II and the Shaman's Cloak (see pretty picture above) which was quite a shock. I didn't think he dropped both at once. I logged into a mule and checked the price for Stonega II and just like everything else in the game, the price had dropped. So we decided to just hang on to it for when I level BLM on Bliss.

By now you would think that I would know better than to listen to Sean when it comes to Aquiraus....

He dropped us, again. Sean came to the conclusion that Aquarius "hits too hard and fast for me even as a NIN". Yeah... so glad he realized that as we were laying dead in the flowers. Which btw look great on Xbox. Strange thing to notice at a time like that.

I'm sure there is more... but I'll keep adding as I remember everything.

10-18-06 Boyahda map for Bliss and NIN AF Head for Mercury!

We went to the Tree for maps. I got mine after 20 minutes of farmign for a key and 10 minutes or so of searching. We skilled up for 30 minutes and found another coffer. Sean opened it and got his NIN AF Head :)

We started to farm for another key... but Sean gave up on me and passed out. So I started working on my Blog.

I'm not sure what our gameplan is for tomorrow night, but I'm sure we will start out in the Tree again key hunting.

10-17-06 More skirr ups!

Since xbox live was going through an update, we decided to skill up a bit more. It would be difficult to coffer hunt with out my PC to use as a reference, sicne I was logged in on it to play. Bliss went from 123-128 on club and I also got a ton on Divine Magic casting Flash and Banish.

We skilled up for about an hour and then decided to watch a movie and logged out.

We plan to head out to Boyahda Tree to hunt for coffers and skill up tomorrow night. Mercury already has a key but I still have to farm for one.

(Sickle Slash) (Do you need it?)

10-16-06 More maps and 3 skill levels closer to Hexa-strike!

Obtained: Map of Crawler's Nest
Obtained: Map of Kuftal Tunnel

Kinda nice to complete a quest :) We ran around and got the last 5 clay tablets for the map of CN and some gil for our effort.

We then headed out to use our Kuftal Coffer keys for maps. I used Bliss to run around and locate the coffer for Mercury and then talked him to where it was. We used the respawn time to work on club and ranged skills. Bliss went from 120 to 123 in 30 minutes so it was well worth the time spent. After about 30 minutes, I took Bliss out to find her coffer.

We plan to do this for all the coffer map areas. Slowly build up skills while we farm for keys and search for coffers. I really need a stong WS before I face Maat.... cause I actually want to kick his ass :) not just live though the fight. I may have to do that fight on my PC so I can record my attempts lol. Should make for an interesting video clip.

10-15-06 Map crazy!

It dawned on Sean and I that Bliss and Mercury are really map gimped. Not really a shock to anyone that knows us since we usually just follow Tac around everywhere :)

But we decided to start working on getting them maps. Kind of funny timing on this... since I can now view online maps while playing the game.

I ran around on Saturday morning to see if we missed any in the three main cities. Sure enough, we had missed a few easy quest related maps in Bastok and some buy maps in Windy.

Merc and Bliss both had Onzozo chest keys sitting around so that map was just a matter of running around and checking points. Cake.

We also started the long and boring "An Explorer's Footprints" quest for the map to Crawler's Nest.

We completed 10 of the 15 needed before we logged out. We plan to get the remaining 5 Monday night.

Sean wants to get all of the coffer maps too. And that is not a bad plan considering that I really need to level Bliss' club skill. Hexa-strike is sexay damn it! Must have it!

10-14-06 More crawlers... ick!

Due to the absense of the Astral Candescence (again!) we were back in The Boyahda Tree. Tac had planned for us to level on steelshells at the top lake area, but there was a skill up alliance there so that plan was shot.

So, we partied at the bottom lake again and took on the crawlers. Here are the stats:

Start Time: 8:35 PM
Camp: (F-10) The Boyahda Tree (Pond)
Target: Processionaire (Crawler)

Party Formation:
Mercury – NIN
Tacitus – NIN
Bliss – WHM
WAR/NIN
BRD/WHM
THF/NIN

Start XP 25,498/26,000
End XP 9,528/27,500
Total Time Spent in Party: 2 hrs, 25 minutes
Total XP gained: 10,030
End Time: 11:00 PM

Only positive thing I can really say about the experience was that Merc and Bliss leveled. Well, I can think of one more thing actually... at least we partied with Tac.

10-14-06 Well that was even faster than I projected!

Yup, I deleted Picture. Less than 24 hour lol. I have issues :P

I deleted her and made the same Mithra named Carnage. I like that name better.

Let's see how long she lives...

10-14-06 Let's see how long this will last...

I decided to make the switch to Xbox because I wanted to spare my poor PC the stress of playing this game... since I'm now on my 3rd video card.

So what did I do this morning? I created a new character on our crafting account named Picture and started powerleveling myself. Yeah... I know. Sometime I worry about myself :P

I have no idea how long this will last. If my previous history with alternate characters is any indication, she will be deleted in a week.

The only real down side to playing on Xbox is that I can't use a seperate program to capture screenshots and video. I am limited to just the basic screenshots that the game captures. I tried taking some last night and they turned out ok... but not nearly as nice as the ones I took using FRAPS.

But oh well. I can listen to music while I farm. I guess that alone is worth it. Oh and the fact that I can speak in a normal voice when I call Bob an ass rather than screaming it from 3 rooms away. The chat thing is pretty sweet. But so far the only person I have spoken with is Bob lol.

I do like this setup better though. I can research stuff without having to deal with the lag from Windower and I don't have to live in fear that my account will be banned. Cause that would suck. Can you imagine 3 years of effort going "poof"? I would be so lost. As bored as I am with this game I still think it is better than anything else out there and it beats the hell out of TV.

Anyway...
I'm gonna post a decent picture of Picture in case I need to use it for her obituary next week:

10-13-06 Ahhhh! All is right with the world again :P

XP party with people that know how to play!

Here are our stats for the evening:
Start Time: 8:33 PM

Camp: (F-10) The Boyhda Tree (Pond)
Target: Processionaire (Crawler)

Party Formation:
Mercury – NIN
Tacitus – NIN
Nuker – BRD
Bliss – WHM
MNK
BLU

Start XP 11,438/26,000
1^st half hour 14,352/26,000
2^nd half hour 17,450/26,000
3^rd half hour 20,090/26,000
4^th half hour 23,351/26,000
extra 25,498/26,000

Total Time Spent in Party: 2 hrs 27 min
Total XP gained: 14,060

End Time: 11:00 PM

Notes: One 5 minute break

Check this out! A water halo :)

10-13-06 Yeah, I'm addicted...

I decided to dress up a plain plastic desk mat on my desk at work with some pictures...

Are we really shocked that I chose game pics?

I'm such a picture whore :P

10-11-06 Bliss the BLU!

I just keep finding more cute pictures of Bliss!

10-11-06 Have you seen this Taru?

Name: Blixmas (a.k.a. MIA AFK Tarutaru)

Height: 2.1 Feet Tall

Clothing: BST cuteness

Last seen: AFK in Port Jeuno

10-11-06 Bliss finds her long lost twin!

This is a picture I took when I met a JP on a airship to Sandy with the same character model. We had a fun time with /emotes and I think she was taking pics also :)

10-11-06 Bliss the BRD!

This level of cuteness should be illegal.

09-30-06 LVL 64-65 Exp Party in Bibiki Bay

08-27-06 NFoD @ Promy Holla

Another clip that I found on my PC.

08-06-06 NFoD swarms SSG!

09-29-06 Oooo! Jen learned how to post game video on her Blog!

I found this file on my PC from when Sean was collecting all of his NIN AF for Mercury.

09-24-06 G2, Staging Points and G4 complete!

Even though we were not on much this weekend, we did manage to get quite a bit done.

• Morvano and Chi completed G2.
• Mercury and I completed G4.
• Blessed Legs, Hands and Feet purchased.
• Mercury, Nuker and I got the last 2 staging points.

The only thing that wasn't done was changing the LSMES. Still says that we are doing Promy on Thursday night.

09-23-06 Annaka the kick-ass COR!

Conga rats to Annaka!! Level 60 COR and full AF!

/em dusts off her Blog!

Been a long time... a few weeks... but now I'm back!

Had to take a break from posting on my lunch hour... just too much to do.

Man, let's see what has changed since the last time that I posted...

We just hit level 63 last night!
Tac is no longer NIN/RDM!
Mercury is uber sexay!
...
I'm sure I'm missing stuff. Oh well!

I did take screenshots over the last 3 weeks... but I will need to take a look at them and decide what is worthy to put on my blog and if I can remember what we were doing at the time that I took the screenshoot.

08-20-06 Oh yeah baby! Bliss puts on her Vermy!

08-13-06 You just can't take Nuker anywhere...

What did we do today? Better question is what didn't we do today?!

We partied, we farmed, we completed AF quests, we put on sexay gear! I didn't think it was possible to be physically tired from playing FFXI... but once again the game proved me wrong lol.

AM Party:

• Campsite = I-8 Bhaflau Thickets
• Target = Lesser Colibri
• Adds to our static = NIN and DRG
• Hour 1 xp = 8277 (with Empress Band)
• Hour 2 xp = 8183
• Hour 3 xp = 7278
• Portion of Hour 4 = 1517
• Total XP gained = 25,255

PM Party:

• Campsite = E-10 Caedarva Mire
• Targets = Marsh Murre and Orderly Imps
• Adds to our static = SMN and RNG
• Hour 1 xp = 6367
• Hour 2 xp = 6910
• Portion of Hour 3 = 628
• Total XP gained = 13,905

Total XP for the day: (drum roll please!)

39160

OMG! That is a ton of XP! We all managed to hit 57 or better (starting out at 54).

Other notables:

• Sean put on his super sexay body armor!! (Scorpion Harness)
• Nuker put on his golfer pants!! (BRD AF pants)
• Bliss put on her bellbottoms!! (WHM AF pants)

After partying, Nuker guilted us into helping him fight his NM for BRD AF Body in Monastic Caverns. We mentioned it in LS and Annaka and Tac were up for the fight. God, I love those guys!

08-10-06 G2 and Darkspark!

08-09-06 Proof that Tac will get you killed!

08-08-06 NIN AF Feet

08-07-06

08-06-06 Party view as a WHM.... kinda sucks lol

08-04-06

08-03-06 Robo-Tac!

08-02-06 Happy Birthday to me!

Ever wonder how a lazy person would get home after farming in Castle Otroja without a warp cudgle and no BLM sub? See picture above...

07-30-06 Promy Prep!

Sean and I wanted to make sure we were all set to do the Promy runs when Blix returns from vacation. This time I took picutres. Yeah like a tourist :)

Creepy!

"The Matrix is all around you."

"Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in."

07-29-06 Bliss is starting to look like a WHM!

Yay! Holy breastplate!

I couldn't decide if I was going to buy it for Bliss, but with a NIN tank I take hits every now and again. More so than when Sean was playing PLD. It can't be helped really, NIN just doesn't keep hate the way a PLD can... but I love that he gets mad when the mob hits me.

We were able to get a ton done today!

• XP party for 2 hours in Western Altepa on beetles. Most of us were able to get 2 levels during that time. 2SAM, 1THF, 1NIN, 1WHM and BRD. It was sexay!
• Tac got his AF1! He was able to solo his using his RDM.
• Bliss got her AF1! Tac's RDM helped me get it :) It was a blast!
• Mercury got his AF1! Tac, Bliss and Mercury had fun beating on some spiders!
• I used Jenmist to run Mercury to Xarcabard to get his Tele-Vahzl crystal :)
• Sean used Seangem to help Bliss run to Xarcabard to get her Tele-Vahzl crystal :)

We were not able to party with Anna's COR but we still had fun. We set a soft time of 2 PM EST for Sunday.

07-28-06 This much fun should be illegal!

OMG! Western Altepa Dessert was a blast!

But it wasn't the party setup or the XP that made it so much fun... it was playing with our friends. 5 of the 6 players were NFoD members! And the pick-up BLU was also a good player!

07-27-06

07-26-06 Gotta love a static party!

It felt like old times...

I was WHM, Sean was my tank and Tac was pulling.

But there was something different. Several things actually.

• No screaming at the monitor. By me or anyone else in my household. I actually had fun while gaining XP. It really has been forever since that has been the case. We got to hang out with people that KNOW how to play the game! Seriously, a great way to end the day.
• I have way more MP! Man I love being a Taru!
• Sean is not a MP sponge. Blinks rule!
• My MP regen while healing is awesome. Between the cookies, pineapple juice and Ballad from Nuker's BRD I build MP back really fast.

Shortly before I logged out, I asked Annaka if he had anything around late 30 - early 40 range. His response was "I have a 40 COR". I have to say that BRD and COR in one party is so sexay. But I think it is best to have someone other than the COR pull. Just takes too long if they have to buff the party between kills.

I am actually looking forward to partying again tonight. If we don't it's not the end of the world. Tac said that he is going to go NIN/RDM. But his SAM is awesome. We have only told him for the past year that SAM is the perfect job for him. He is so Skillchain driven that it is just a natural job for him to play. The only downside is that with SAM skillchaining like a madman, it is vital to have a good BLM. Shame that we don't have that role filled by our static. We are just going to have to go with what we can find.

(Yes Tac, I put this here for you to read as a hint that we really, really, really like your SAM and we think that you should table the idea of NIN/RDM.)

07-24-06 Yay! Fireworks! And Nuker hits lvl 75 on BLM... again!

07-22-06 Bliss the BLU! You knew I would... just had to be done!

Just like all the other mage jobs I have played, I tried BLU on Jenmist first and then decided to play it on Bliss. At least this time I didn't wait 69 levels before making that decision like I did with WHM lol.

Sean made it to level 35 on Mercury's NIN. Just 2 more levels and we can party. But we have decided to keep xp parties for the weekends. It is just too difficult for us to party during a weeknight. Honestly, we are staying up too late.

I'm sure this is a clear sign of our age getting the best of us... but screw it. We have earned our ages :)