This just in, I hate you.

I have been having connection problems lately and my FFXI experience has suffered because of it. The most recent of said suffering occurred a few days ago, while fighting Wajaom Tigers. (I'm pretty sure that's what they were called. I guess I could look it up, but meh. They were giant tiger-like beasts in Wajaom.)

The party was actually going really well. I was stuck at main heal, but our tank rocked hard so there wasn't much healing to do, aside from having to cast Paralyna on everyone every five seconds. (Seriously non-stop, I don't think any of my Avatars saw the light of day.) (Damn tigers.)

Experience points were literally raining down on us as we blew through tiger after tiger. It was my first real exp party since I've been back and it felt good.

About an hour in, I got disconnected. When I was able to log back in, I was greeted by a pile of dead bodies.

I apologized to the group and began to Raise everyone. There were some less-than-pleasant remarks made by our BLM about me d/c-ing, and after I rested up we began again.

About 20 min later I notice no one is moving. I quick glance to the top-right corner of my screen let me know I was disconnecting again. Balls.

It took me about 10 min to get back and this time my party was much less forgiving. After Raising everyone again I was informed I was no longer allowed in the group. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure it went exactly like this:

Leader: Yeah... WTF?
Pasquale: Guys, I'm really sorry. I told you when we started my connection was shitty today. Let's just start up again?
Dragoon: Hell no. Fuck you and your connection.
Black Mage: Fuck you.
Pasquale: {Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass}
Black Mage: Fuck you.
Tank: Guys let's just start again...
Pasquale: That's quite a vocabulary you've got there.
Leader: No, fuck Pasq, he's a fucking dick. He's gone.
Black Mage: Fuck you.
/blist Black Mage

At this point I was kicked from the party. I called my chocobo and went back to Whitegate to seek for another group.

Twenty-five minutes later I get a /tell:
Leader from before: {Party}?

I decided it was best to ignore it.

Leader from before: Ummm... {Party}?
Pasquale: You can't possibly be this stupid.

There was a pause. I could picture the puzzled look on his face.

Leader from before: WTF?
Pasquale: You just kicked me out of your party half an hour ago. Bad connection? {Death} everywhere?
Leader from before: Oh
Leader from before: Fuck you.

I decided I'd had enough and logged for a bit. When I came back on, I threw up my flag and waited patiently for an invite.

Leader from before, for a remarkable third time: {Party}?

Nothing ever changes.

So I spent the last few days getting reacquainted with FFXI. I know I wasn't gone that long, but in my absence, I played another MMO, and had a different set of controls flowing through my fingers.

I spent my first two days back leveling my WAR. Neville with his 12 blm and me with my 12 war set out to Ghelsba Outpost to kill mass quantities of Orcs, who up until this weekend, I didn't really have a problem with.

After about an hour of merciless Orc-slaughter, Nev and I had both leveled. When I finally hit 13 (huge achievement, I know), I put on my new great sword. As if it were cursed, the great sword led me to a quick and painful death, followed by a delevel.

I haul ass back to where we were fighting and we start up again. I leveled in a few fights and once again equipped the cursed great sword. Sure enough, I was dead within two fights, causing me to delevel again.

Neville and I worked quickly to, once again, get me to level 13 and decided to call it quits because we both had to log. For some unknown reason, I equipped the great sword before I left the game. (I'm lying, the reason was because I look so damn cool with it on.)

Fast forward to the next day. ::Fast forward sounds::

I logged in yesterday and found my self on the business end of an Orc's spear. I smashed my Mighty Strikes macro and made quick work of the monster trying to end me. After this near death experience, I unequipped the great sword, because all doubt that it was cursed had left my mind.

While unequipping, three of the dead Orc's friends decided to come along and avenge their fallen comrade. I leapt into battle, hoping to at least take out one or two of them.

This probably could have been achieved had I equipped a weapon. After getting mauled mid-change, I got distracted and wasn't paying attention. Unfortunately, my little taru fists were no match for three giant stupid Jorcs (Jerk + orcs, oh yeah baby, I'm back) and I quickly died and deleveled, for a remarkable third time in two days.

Needing to shake the feeling of failure from my shoulders, I decided to switch to SMN and help out my linkshell with a Beadeaux Coffer. I figured we'd kill things for an hour and get it done, while having a good time and helping me get used to this new-fangled Dual Blood-Pact system for Summoners (which I friggin love).

Two and a half hours of battling Quadavs later and there was still no key drop. We were getting tired of killing these Jerk-davs (the hits don't stop coming). Morale was obviously dropping, but we pressed on, determined to get the drop. At around the three hour mark, my usual bad luck finally caught up with me.

I'm not sure if I was more upset that I had lost exp, or that I died looking like a pervert feeling up a passed out chick's leg at a party.

After we got out raises, I had to log. It took a total of five hours to get that coffer, and I'm pretty sure I speak for the whole group when I say Beadeaux is for jerks.

Earlier this weekend I was also in a party where the WAR and NIN got into a fight about who should be the tank, and a MNK who subbed THF, because of Gilfinder. It's good to be back.

Homecoming.

So I logged back on today for the first time in two months. I couldn't stay on long, but it was fun running around Windy and Jeuno and getting myself ready to start leveling again. A strange thing happened when I got back to my mog house...

Aaaaaaand we're back. No, seriously.

So, I quit a few months ago (two months ago. two.) and tried to find something to fill my time. After quitting, I started to post more on my website (www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net) which was good, and I also found myself with an abundance of free time, which was not as good as I thought it would be.

I tried going back to WoW, but I still don't really like it. I like PvP-ing (haha peeing) but other than that I find the game pretty boring. Another thing I didn't like was that I didn't really have any friends on, aside from my brothers, so I never had anyone to talk to, which sucked. (Except Nev, once in a blue moon when I would level my hunter.)

Anyways, yeah. No 'real' first post back, because I haven't actually logged into the game yet, so new post tomorrow or Saturday? I never uninstalled the game, which I may regret later, and I don't think I ever cancelled my content ID, which my checking account regrets now.

Shoot me a /tell if you see me on, let me know how you've been. I don't think I'll dive right into SMN again, until I get the WoW controls out of my hands and get the FFXI controls back in.

I wonder if Spiny's missed me while I was gone?