FFXI

Relic HtH is actually in progress! I have a fair bit of currency now, and 90% of the cockblock items. Just a few R/E drops off NMs in beau and xarc but that shouldn’t be too hard.  I have a decent amount of momentum building and it’s encouraging.

My current farming setup is MNK/WAR (Myrna), BST/DNC (Tinu), WHM/SCH (Anrym). It works, but I had an attack of crazy and farmed up, well a TH+1 sash for Myrna.  Add to the fact that I figured out that SMN can pretty much one-shot the statues with no worries, new and much cheaper setup will soon be MNK/THF (TH3!), SMN/DNC (for JA procs), and WHM/SCH. Should help me survive a lot better since the mobs were already having a hard time hitting me, and SMN is far far cheaper to use.  I was looking at a STACK of ladybugs a week, along with the zetas (2-3 stacks) and a stackish of sheep too.  That adds up and gets real expensive.  This way, all the gil I farm goes right to currency.

Doing a fair amount of progress on all fronts as well, we’re almost done Nyzul and that will help with SMN since it’s a magical WS and can’t be perfect dodged or invincibled.  Sweet.

Just need a bit of work on Tinu’s SMN to get it caught up (Garuda magian staff, etc).

Writing

Slow, but working at it. Music is as always my muse, but I started to drag my netbook with me to work.  I jot down scenes and rough dialogue that I edit later, it’s helping.

Real life (wut)

I got a new bed! My exciting life.

Apart from that, not much.  Health is okay, could be better.

Wow i’m boring.

Anywhoo, sleep time.  The bed is calling me.

Even right now! I’m camping Jailer of Faith.  SO MUCH FUN.

Anywhoo, mostly srs bzns time.

Japan was hit by a huge earthquake recently, and as a result of the aftermath they took a severe hit to their power infrastructure. To conserve power Squeenix shut off FFXI and FFXIV for two weeks, and Metal Gear Online did the same.  So for that time I decided to get off my ass and write, or at least lay down the last of the groundwork for it.  I got pretty far!

Well, sortof.

I got everything outlined, even stuff that will happen after the Big Story (still unnamed!), fleshed out a lot of characters and whatnot.  Also found out that it’s nearly impossible to write on the weekdays thanks to work.  So, weekend warrioring it is. I still fully intend to post everything of the Big Story here, just going to be a while. It’s four books, and the first one alone is 40-50 chapters of varying lengths that mostly just puts down the foundation for the other three.  It’s still very intimidating to look at all this and realize how much story this is; it’s a lot of story and I have some stuff that I need to keep in mind.  Like for example I had severe asthma when I was a kid, to the point that PA class was nearly impossible without a pump.  As a result of this, I have a *much* lung capacity larger capacity and I tend to… not put commas where they normally should be.

I was taught to put commas where you should normally take a breath and I need to take less breaths when talking than normally thanks to the inhaled steroid treatment.  Makes sense now? :p

So the story will happen, i’ve got a bit written.  More to write starting next week (saving weekdays for editing I think) since this weekend is a write-off due to FFXI and FFXIV being back up.

But before I get to that I promised some hot computer action.

Shortly before the downtime my computer starting to act worryingly.  After returning from work I found my computer off, which is odd because I leave it on to log MSN stuff.  My phone can occasionally miss a few messages.  Boot up, no ram.

Insert scream here.

Cas lent me eight gigs of ram from her old system and this is what ended up frying.  Needless to say I felt like total shit.  I swapped them around, nothing.  I slapped in my old ram and it finally booted, went into bios and screamed again; voltages were about 10% higher than normal.  I concluded quickly that my motherboard was finally hitting the dust.

Wow good thing i’m not writing today I sound like crap.  River of bricks! (Brocks?)

Anywhoo, good news is that I was already planning a good future-proofing upgrade. Long story short here I put in the HSF wrong and the sound card in a semi-reserved slot… and didn’t put all the risers in.  I got demerits on my geek license now, and I deserve them. Luckily the good people at MemoryExpress (local comp shop) tested, remounted, and retested everything for me and now it works!

Fuckedaround is dead, long live Lazarus.

• CPU: AMD 1090T 6-core
• Mobo: Crossfire IV Forumla
• Ram: 8 gigs of G.SKILL ripjaws
• New 120gig SSD HDD for Win7/FFXI/FFXIV
• Scythe Mugen cooler

Lots of old parts too: PSU, sound card, two HDD, monitors etc all the same as before.  Now for the scary part.

I can’t get it at 100% load.  At all.

As of right now I got three FFXI clients running, Firefox 4, and Foobar2000 and it’s running at a paltry 26C with 18% load.  With FFXIV it only gets to 33C and 35-40% load.

FFXI I was able to bump to it’s limit pretty much, three clients at 1440×900 with double background resolution steady at 30fps unless i’m in port jeuno.

FFXIV is nice at 30-60fps at drawing quality 8 (80%), no AA, background quality 5 (highest), and all the pretty effects except occlusion (which is broken).

I have no games right now which pushes this beast, and with nothing pushing system temps higher than 50c, this system will last me a very long time unless I get stupid with it.

So uh, yeah.

Still alive! I swear!

My excuse this time is HEY LOOK A BEAR OVER THERE!

*flee*

NO I’M NOT LAZY SHUT UP.

My last present is coming in nine days; a kitchenaid mixer thanks to my stepmom and dad (who are both awesome btw)

Here’s a teaser however: PINK. FOOD PROCESSOR.

Toodles

Log excerpt from Anienne R Moynel

Magian Log, Day 1, Windurst Residential District
This morning I woke up to a surprise.  My darling wife Myrna had just gotten her old temple attire out of storage was was trying it on.  Much to her dismay, years of training as a dragoon has made her legs considerably more muscled than before and she tore some of her trunks in the process.  However despite this, she did proudly proclaim that she was taking up her monk training again in earnest and that she needed my help.  I was perplexed and asked her why she needed my help, then I was about ready to smack her when she showed me: she had another one of those accursed magian weapons.  As she tried to convince me that this was in fact something she would finish, we both made the startling revelation that she did not wash her old attire before storing it and that the storing company made no attempt to wash it.  The tailor’s bill was severe.

Day 8, Riverne Site #B01
The first few days are a blur, in all honesty.  We are now camping in Riverne, well I am, awaiting once again for the prescribed condition to occur to progress on her weapons.  I was told the moogles discovered new techniques to empower the weapons and the results are startling! What took her weeks before took us barely a few hours.  But as I said before, I am the only one camping.  Myrna is as far as I can tell, meditating.

Day 9, Riverne Site #B01
Progress slowed down considerably. We surmised that the conditions can only be met one a week, so we will make excursions there at the times, as opposed to camping out as we usually do.  I did inquire to Myrna about her meditating, and she said something about “re-aligning her chakras” or something like that, and offered to show me.  I politely declined, but we did laugh at how out of character it seemed to me to have her sit so still for hours.  I will have to ask Darian because I have never seen her like that.  Is it hard to believe she seems calmer now?

Day 11, Riverne Site #B01
The claws are complete, at least for now.  I was sick of losing sleep due to the endless thunderstorms around here.

Day 14, Attohwa Chasm
We had another bout of whirlwind progress again, it was nice that this time Tinuvael came to help us, and keep us company.  Myrna is noticeably getting stronger, she said herself that it is coming back to her.  She again offered to show me but again I politely declined.  I am not nearly as flexible as most, much less a mithra and even less Myrna.  However she continues to meditate.  We are camping out here in the chasm because the conditions can occur with very litle notice.  It’s been two days and she’s barely moving. I swear I am seeing dust gather around my wife, now a statue in the lotus position.

Day 16, Attohwa Chasm
I recall a story Darian once told me about her, that she spent several *weeks* in Ordelle’s Caves hunting down a monster all by herself, with only a linkshell and what she wore.  Up until today I refused to believe him or that Myrna was capable of that. She has not moved.  It has been three days and she Has. Not. Moved.  Tinuvael is coming with supplies later, I am ashamed to admit that I have been consuming a lion’s share of them.  Progress is slow and this place is horrifically dry.

Day 17, Attohwa Chasm
I talked to Myrna today, who has still not moved, and there was almost a serene presence to her.  She was quite different that was I am used to; a veritable font of energy, confidence or subborness.  Now she emits this clam and resolve that cannot be put into words.  I am again ashamed to admit that camping out here is taking its toll on my body.  I am considering taking her up on her offer.

Day 19, Attohwa Chasm
Shortly after my last entry I did as Myrna to show me how she could meditate like that, and when she got up it confirmed my suspicions.  There was a crest of dust around she was was sitting.  First thing she showed me was stretches.  Now I know we are in the middle of nowhere but I still have great reservations about disrobing myself in public, unlike Myrna.  It was brutal.  Never before could I imagine that my body could be in such pain, especially from the “arch” position that she showed me.  I was holding it for as long as I could, but she still helped me by holding up my back while still maintaining her own arch with an ease that I cannot even hope to reach.  While she was demonstrating the stretches I was amazed and highly distracted by how her tone had improved, and it was my fault for several reasons that the stretches took twice as long.  On the second day I tried the lotus position.  It is a good thing Myrna knows how to massage cramps out.

Day 20, Attohwa Chasm
I slept.  I slept so well I can hardly believe it.  I attempted the lotus again and once I got it right, Myrna showed me breathing exercises and such to meditate.  Sometime during I dozed off because I woke up in what little I was wearing with the sun rising.  Myrna had grabbed a blanket and covered us for the night, thankfully, so I did not wake with a death of a cold.  She waited until I rose to do her morning stretches with me, and I fully intend to join her in meditation for today at the very least.  It was oddly relaxing.  Maybe I should ask her what the heck a “chakra” is as well.

Day 31, Attohwa Chasm
I apologize for not being diligent with this log, as I have been in almost constant meditation with Myrna.  I will honestly admit that I never truly believed her when she said that she was raised in a monastery but recent events have truly opened my eyes.  We had prime conditions yesterday and completed the trial, but I asked if we could spend another day in the quiet of Attohwa together, and we simply meditated together.  She never often spoke of her upbringing until a few months ago when she opened up to me, and now I feel like she has let me in on a small part of her life before.  Maybe she is right, there’s nothing that can stand in our way.

Day 32, Bostaunieux Oubliette
We are both in agreement.  HATE LEECHES.

In any case it’s that time of the year again and I need to start makin this yummy stuff.

On the list is something new this year: chocolates instead of fudge.  Thanks to my stepmom I have a method now I just need the tools to do it.

Need:

• Molds, should be available at most places i’ll check at WEM this weekend.
• Brush, to coat the chocolate in the molds.

As for the usuals, I need new stuff:

• Two angel cake style thinger bundt pans for the coffeecakes
• Hand beater, tempted to get Paderno’s from The Bay.
• Mason Jars (250ml) for the caramel sauce.

Foodstuffs I’ll need for this mess:

• Heavy Cream for ganache.
• Sour Cream for coffeecakes.
• Pretty much everything for Sucre à la Crème.
• Milk, lots and lots of milk.
• And butter.
• OH GOD SO MUCH FLOUR.

The usuals is Coffeecake, Shortbreads, Sucre à la Crème, Banana Breads because I have lots of frozen bananas right now. Yummage.  There’s more but that’s meal stuff like ham, tourtière and such.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=SpoilerWarningShow#grid/uploads

Enjoy! (maybe)

I am so gonna crash hard after work.

Anywhoo.

Here’s a short list, mostly to myself, of some cooking stuff I want (mostly) after the Car business is done.

• KitchenAid standing mixer (300-450$), otherwise known as “The KitchenAid”. Way to burn a brand into us, huh? When was the last time you called tissues Kleenex? :P
• Hand mixer (20-30$), and this is temporary until the above.
• Food Processor (100-150$), yes it’s expensive as there’s much cheaper models out there but you know what? I MISS FRENCH PATÉS AND MOUSSES. Seriously, I can’t find them in Edmonton at all. On the plus side, offal is cheap and makes for a great snack/lunch option. The one I’m looking at is KitchenAid (Thanks Tinu!) and is of a nicely large size.
• Blender (???$), I haven’t looked much but I do need one that’s pretty powerful as I’ll be making smoothies with it, specifically iron enriched ones. It’s probably going to be a KitchenAid model WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?!
• Pizza Stone (20-30$), for obvious reasons.
• More space or a way to get creative (???$). I’m a little short on space, even if  I have about double of what I used to. Which was about nothing.
• Deep fryer (???$), I’m toying with this a bit, but I’m really not sure.
• Too much to add here so i’ll just put “Trip to Paderno” on this bullet.

And here’s stuff I want to try cooking.

• Pizza, after I get the stone.
• Yogurt! My milk goes bad pretty often and I figure it’s a good way to use it up. Not to mention I can use my crock pot with this so score.
• Paté and mousse, once I get the processor.  I miss it so and it’s another way to get my iron.

Can’t think of much else right now, suggest away if you got ideas!

Anywhoo, we’re approaching the end of 2010 now (WTF) and I started to think back on what games I played this year and whatnot.  I started to tweet but figured I might as well blog about it since I can have quite a good bit to say about it. So that being said…

Mass Effect 2

This game surprised me, even though I played through Mass Effect 1 and thought it was damm good and well worth its praise. I almost overlooked this series since when I got it, the 8800 series had a serious bug that would completely lock my system up but anyway.

I can’t really say anything new about this game, except what I liked about it. Garrus.

No seriously, it’s the characters. A large amount of the characters in the story are pretty well fleshed out, even the ones that come back from ME1 and as a result, the game is damm entertaining.  Yes, I wanted to beat up the bad guys and whatnot but I was mostly doing missions just to see who would say what, or what loyalty mission I just unlocked.  Except Jacob and Miranda’s.  Man I wish Myrna Shepard wasn’t such a nice person sometimes.

Anywhoo.

Another appeal is that the game is GOOD sci-fi in my opinion; it treats physics with respect (mass effect drives is the rule-bender du jour tho), and it gets details right like no sound in space. If you bother to read the codex mostly everything’s explained, and you also find out that the game is practically built on Shout Outs.

It’s also absolutely gorgeous, and the devs know it.  In the Firewalker DLC, the damm tank even mentions it at one point!  The beauty of the game got kicked up a few notches with the Lair of the Shadow broker DLC as well; it actually managed to impress me despite the graphics engine starting to show its age. (why are they all crying out oil instead of tears mommy?)

If you never played it or want to see someone else play it, Shamus Young writer of Twenty Sided is starting a Let’s Play with a group of people in his 4th season of the series, Spoiler Warning. It’s funny and worth a watch if you ever knew the fun of snarking a game with a bunch of friends on the couch.  As of this writing the 4th season should go up Soon(tm) due to some changes he’s making.  I can’t wait.

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene

This is damm near the king of shooters.  Coming from a massive Treasure fan, this is a lot.

It doesn’t lie: the game does evolve quite nicely from ye olde space invaders to a full out 3D shooter that’s reminiscent of the RayCrisis series.  And I can’t get enough of it.

The graphics are simple but very elegant and gorgeous (Ultimate UFO blew my mind) and the challenge is high.  Not to mention the soundtrack is awesome.  Just wish it was released in the Canadian iTunes store already… >.>

I have, and finished, the iPhone and PS3 versions, and got all DLCs for both.  Yes, I’m hopeless.

Soldner X2: Final Prototype

This one surprised me even more than Mass Effect 2, as I actually really didn’t like the first game.  I have no idea why I bought the second on a whim but I don’t regret it at all.

Voice acting is moderate, graphics and animation are okay but it’s damm fun with a respectable difficulty curve.

It’s also got a very strong selling point; it actually has a good and balanced auto-leveling system. The game will get harder the better you play and they mean it.  At low ranks it’s a pretty standard shooter but at high ranks it’s a freaking bullet hell.

The DLC adds some pretty to the game too, and interesting challenges.  Well worth a look.

Final Fantasy XIV

Hoo boy.

My original plan was to start and wait until initial patching was done to start.

Uh yeah.

That didn’t happen. :x

The game is pretty damm buggy, no doubt about that.  The lag, the crashes, the… well a lot.  But I’m having a blast.  The leve system to level up is quite nice.  It’s straight-up daily quests like in WoW but it doesn’t try to be cute about it. You get so many per 36 hours, then it resets to new ones.  It’s an easy way to make gil, free skill for crafting, and easy skill for classes.

Plot and such is promising, it’s showing that it’s the “CoP/WotG team” that’s doing this.  I just wish we could get a do-over for the inital city; Rathe is much better suited to Limsa Lominsa but we all started in Gridania since we all thought that the plot would be like FFXI.  It’s oddly solo so far, which is a nice change but I miss the epicness of fighting with a group of friends (Alexander anyone?).

It’s damm pretty.  There’s no doubt about that, hell I still have holy shit moments looking around.

I think this will keep me going for a bit.

FFXI… well that’s a whole other post.

Apart from all that, the smaller games I had fun with that I remember are Flotilla, a fun little Homeworld type space RTS, Eufloria which is PLANTS GO TO WAR IN SPACE ESOTERICALLY. Guns of Icarus, tower defense on an airship, played in 1st/3rd person. There’s prolly more.

Stuff I sortof regret is Bioshock 2, it just never clicked.  I finished it for the sake of finishing it.  Fallout 3, which after five tries I gave up.  Borderlands, but that’s mostly because I got the PS3 version.  We’ll see how PC fares.  I had some fun with it at least.

*flail*

Anyway, here’s what happened in short form.

• Summonker is 75 and prints gil. Huzzah!
• Patch came out, PLD and DRG are now 80, yay!
• I HAVE A TV :D
• I can watch TV again
• And play PS3
• eeee
• Helped Dar and Karm rebuild basement after flood
• Still didn’t see a bunch of movies I wanted to see but I HAVE A FRIGGIN BLU-RAY AND THEATER SEATS SUCK so i’ll buy them
• List of movies to buy from this summer: Inception, Scott Pilgrim, possibly Kick-Ass
• I forgot to mention the flood huh?

Long story short I was heavily distracted. I’m better now.

…you can blame Mass Effect for that too, tho >.>;;;

That would be the work in progress!