The adventures of a guy... afraid of adventures.

New blog location!

2007-09-27T08:29:00.000-05:00

http://littletaruthatcouldnt.ff11blog.com/

If'n you're still coming here and hoping for updates, the blog has been moved.

Thanks for reading!
-Pas

Double /sigh

2007-07-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

So in the week I have been back, I have gotten to play a whopping 3 hours. It's my fault, really, I just happened to chose the worst week ever for my return.

My parents left for a two week Florida vacation today, I have to stay and house-sit their house. My dad didn't want the home to be empty for 2 weeks, and they needed someone to take care of the dog.

I didn't want to bring my computer over, because I don't like moving it. I also didn't want to go two weeks without playing ffxi, so I spent the part of last night I wasn't drunk installing it on my brother's computer:

That was taken this morning. At this rate, it should be done installing Tuesday.

As I said before, I did manage to get a few hours of play time in once this week. This is how it went:

00:01 (hours:minutes)
-Log in, find myself in Upper Jeuno. Head for Airship to Windy.

00:03
-Miss Airship. Violent swearing.

00:05
-Swearing stops. Check remaining gear/gil. Find very little of both. Swearing resumes.

00:12
-Hop on Airship, fly to Windy.

00:15
-Arrive at Windy. Head to MogHouse to switch jobs.

00:20
-Staring at job list.

00:27
-Still staring at job list.

00:32
-Decide on Monk (lvl 9) for some reason. Grab gear and head over to Spiny's spawn point to solo for a while.

00:58
-No sign of Spiny. Ding level 10. There was much rejoicing.

01:15
-Spiny spawns while I am in the bathroom. I return to find him claimed. Resume violent swearing.

01:23
-Linkshell mates need lvl 32 WHM. I switch jobs and head out to Garliage.

01:34
-Join party.

01:35
-(Death)

01:36
-Swearing resumes.

01:37
-Forgot to switch HP to Jeuno, forced to wait for raise. I suck.

01:50
-Friendly Taru PLD provides raise.

02:05
-Party resumes fighting. Experience points everywhere.

03:29
-Search for replacement for myself, so I can go to bed. Find one WHM. Invite him.

03:33
-Informed by party that the WHM i invited sucked, and that I was her replacement when they kicked her from party. Oops.

So yeah, that's pretty much a play-by-play of my first night back. Hopefully I'll be able to play today, assuming this fucking thing finishes.

Vana'diel 5-0

2007-05-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

Time for that big exciting 50th post I promised you.

First things first, I quit FFXI earlier this week. I don't have the free time I used to and I don't feel I'm accomplishing anything when i do log in. It's been great making new friends, but as far as the game is concerned, I'm pretty much done.

I didn't want to skip my 50th update, so I made a To-Do List of things everyone else has done in-game except me. Here goes:

1. Catch a fish
Yeah, seriously. I've been playing for three years, and I've never fished once. I felt like an ass, but I had to ask for help, because I didn't know how to do it.

The first thing I caught was a monster. I hate fishing.

2. Redecorate
Ok, this one isn't something that everyone does, but I thought it would be cool to pile all the furniture I've acquired in the corner. It took forever, but it was worth it.

I'm lying, it wasn't worth it. Halfway through, I realized it was a stupid idea, but for some reason I finished. /sigh

3. Overpay at the AH
You always hear horror stories about someone accidentally buying something for way too much gil. I've never done that, so i went to the Auction House and this happened. Totally accidentally, of course.

Whoops! Boy, is my face red.

4. Besieged
I've done these before, but I wanted to get one last one in before I left. I was only in it for half an hour, but I died seven times. I think that's a personal best.

I'm gonna miss besieged. I always felt like a WW nurse helping wounded soldiers. (Nurse? Damnit, I mean Doctor. Doctor.)

5. Sweet, sweet LinkShell drama
I've always tried my best to avoid fights with my linkshell. I wanted to go out with a bang. Thanks to Myrrh for hooking me up.

6. Cuddle
It sounds lame, I know, but it is something that everyone does, so I figured I'd try it once. I couldn't find any hot Mithra, so my friend Neville volunteered.

That has Christmas card photo written all over it. Adorable.

That's it. I killed Spiny again, just to say goodbye. The cape didn't drop. That bastard is defiant to the end. Thanks for reading/commenting/sending me tells. You guys were great. If you ever want to talk, you can reach me at jasonisawesomexi on AIM. If you ever need something to read, check out my website, www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net.

See ya around!
-Jason

Bwah?

2007-04-24T13:37:00.000-05:00

So this week's update, Pasquale vs WoW, has been postponed, possibly indefinitely. When I went to re-set up my old WoW account info, I was informed that I had been banned.

***Notice of Account Closure***

Hello,

Account Name: (my account name)

This is a notification regarding your World of Warcraft account. Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation. While we try to be as lenient as possible in our assessments of the results of exploitation investigations, exploitative endeavors on your account have ultimately lead to its closure. The recurring subscription on the account has been disabled to prevent further charges.

I honestly don't know what "exploiting the economy" means. The only part I understood in that whole email was "permanently disabled."

I haven't used the account in forever. I did, however, let my brother use it since I didn't want to play anymore. He swears he did nothing wrong, but who knows.

I e-mailed the douches at Blizzard Support to get a clearer explanation of what happened, but that was a week ago, and no one has responded. I'm sure it's my brother's fault, but I guess I'll never know.

One of these days, if I feel the WoW itch (not bloody likely) I'll get a new account and start from scratch. Until then, this update goes on the back burner.

Next update is number 50, and I have to do something huge for it. That being said, Pasquale vs City of Heroes is on hold for a week, because my 50th update has to be FFXI-licious.

Pasquale vs The Matrix Online

2007-04-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

I just want to start by saying that the screen shots used in today's post are not mine. One of the reasons this update is so late is because I couldn't figure out how to get my damn screenshots to work. I knew how to take them, but they were always just black screens. (At first I thought this was because The Matrix Online (TMO) was just too awesome for screen shots, but you'd better believe that is a lie.)

I only put in maybe 10 or so hours but I feel I got a pretty good grip on how things work.

First off, let's talk about character creation and training.

This is the character creation screen. You're probably admiring her ass. I want to repeat, these are not my shots, someone else took a picture of this chick's ass.

There are a handful of choices to make when creating your character. First you pick what type of person is taking the red pill.

Secluded Introvert
New Age Hippie
Suspicious Cynic
Fanatic Self-Improver
True Believer
(Assorted others, all with equally stupid names.)

As far as I can tell, the only thing that changes when choosing one of these is your stats, and it doesn't change by much. After this, you go to the character creation screen pictured above. You can make a male or female, and then pick one of two different shirts, pants, shoes, and sunglasses. Needless to say, when you first start, everyone looks the same.

After you make your guy, its time to learn how to play. TMO is actually really easy to pick up: Move to bad guy, press "1," kung fu his ass off. Repeat as desired. Training lasts a few minutes and then it's time to 'jack in' (a phrase that made me laugh every time I started the game up) and begin your adventure.

After walking around for a little while, you'll come across some street thugs who need to be taught a lesson. After teaching said lesson, you'll find new clothes on them, and you can change your look. Within 10-15 minutes, you'll already be finished looking exactly like Neo.

Here's a shot of me standing next to Morpheus.

There are three types of characters in the game. Hackers are the mage-type, Coders are crafters, (seriously, you're sole purpose is to craft items for other people), and whatever the warrior type is called. Soldier, I think. I forgot, it was boring.

As you level up, you can buy abilities to learn depending on which of the three you choose. As you get higher, you can branch off into other aspects: Hand-to-hand or guns, black or white mage, make clothes or make potions. (Seriously, how lame is that?)

The hand to hand combat is fun to watch for a few minutes, then it gets repetitive. Seeing the same jump kicks and karate chops gets old pretty fast.

This is a shot of me getting kicked in the face. Yowza! (/sigh)

Combat in TMO requires almost no skill whatsoever. You can basically press any buttons you want, and whatever you are fighting will die.

When 'casting' a spell, your character will type on an imaginary computer until the fancy green grid (shown above) appears. Then a virus will infect your enemy, causing whatever type of damage your spell is supposed to do. (While typing on your invisible computer, your character will look like he is flailing his arms, because he is afraid of spiders.)

I expected to find a lot of players with names like Neojunior and Tr1nitygirl, but that proved impossible, because there was never anyone on. Once in a while you see a flash of what you think is another player, but when you chase it around the corner, you see that it was nothing.

One time I saw a pretty big group of high level players, and every single one of them looked the same. They all had matching long black coats, black pants, and black sunglasses. If their names weren't hovering over their heads, I'm confident they would have had no idea who was who.

Missions are pretty standard; Run to building, click on person in building, kill someone, win mission. It probably gets a little more difficult later in the game, but I highly doubt it.

The only spot I had lag was when i was running around in the city. I would be lag free until a car would drive by on the street. For some reason, cars cause massive lag to all players around them. This made traveling very difficult and tiring.

In case I hadn't made it painfully obvious already, this game sucked. The idea of paying monthly for a game where the cars cause lag and the buildings dissapear if you look at them the wrong way blows my mind.

Next week, Pasquale vs World of Warcraft.

An MMO, by any other name...

2007-04-18T08:56:00.000-05:00

Yowzers.

Too much crap going on, and I haven't had a chance to sit down and devote hours to FF. Hopefully that changes next week, as I would like to hit 75 before I die of old age at 28. (Long story, don't ask.)

In order to spice things up a bit, I gave three other MMOs a 'trial run' the last few weeks. I picked MMOs that can be played in small intervals, because if I had ever had hours of free time, I would have played FFXI.

Starting tomorrow, I will review the first MMO I tried, The Matrix Online. On Tuesday, I will review World of Warcraft, and on Friday of next week, I will review City of Heroes.

After my CoH review, I'll be back with FFXI stories, hopefully involving more level-ing and less crying.

I was rummaging through old LiveJournal posts (rummaging, as if they were tangible /sigh) and I found a post about what may be my favorite FFXI moment. It was a brief conversation I had while arguing with someone in my party. I can't remember if I posted it on my blog here or not, so here it is:

Player: "Dude shut up or I'm totally gonna fuck my hot mom"
Pasquale: "Um... tell her I said hello?"
Player: "Oh, I will."

There was a long pause here. No one in the party said anything.

Player: "YOURE MOM NOT MY MOM. YOURE MOM NOT MY MOM!"
Pasquale: "Whatever, Oedipus."

----
Back tomorrow with "Pasquale -vs- The Matrix Online.

Take THAT, To-Do List!

2007-03-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

Two days ago, I started to assemble a team to give Fenrir another go. I had tried twice in the past, but both times ended in failure. We met in Windurst and headed out.

After a bit of running, we made it to the tower.

We ran down some hallways.

Ran through a cave.

Ran up some stairs.

I took this picture thinking it was going to be a good group shot. Now I realize I'm totally blocked by Roadkill. My photography fails.

I had to sneak/invis, because everything here wanted me to die. That Rotten Sod had a mean look on his face. He was thirsty for blood.

Sure enough, seconds later, we had to kill him.

When we got to the Fountain, our tank disconnected. I pretty much had a heart attack that lasted the ten minutes he was gone.

He came back and it was killin' time. Here's a shot of me not helping.

Here's another great action shot of me.

Roadkill died, but shortly after, Fenrir suffered a similar fate.

After I got Fenrir, the first thing I did was walk outside Windurst to use my 2-hour on a Tiny Mandragora. 1036 dmg. Take that, baby plant.

Thanks to Neyla, Darklion, Aserati, Roadkill, and Ishadow for making this possible. You guys mauled Fenrir like a bunch of bears mauling ...whatever bears maul. Campers perhaps, maybe forrest rangers. (Except Aserati. His mauling was really the opposite of mauling, as he kept everyone healed and breathing throughout the fight.)

I'm currently sitting and waiting for Spiny to spawn. I want to introduce him to my new friend.

Crash and burn, I hate you.

2007-03-26T14:30:00.000-05:00

Its been roughly eight years since my last update and for that I apologize. (Insert generic work excuse here.)

So I get home Friday to find my computer off. I almost never turn it off so this surprised me. I pressed the little gray 'On' button, and went to make some dinner, expecting to see my bitchin' '300' wallpaper on my monitor when I returned.

Instead of seeing scantily-clad Spartans stabbing savage scoundrels, I was greeted with a black screen with some white text and a little blinking line at the bottom. Confused and scared, I waited to see what would happen.

15 minutes later, as I sat with a plate of now cold chicken, I realized this screen was not going to change. I went into a panic. I had too much stuff on that hard drive that I didn't want to lose.

I tried everything to get the computer to start up: Swearing, kicking, hugging, swearing, restarting while swearing, and kicking and hugging at the same time (that one was a little tough).

Finally I gave up and went to pick up a new hard drive. I spent a sizable amount of the drive to Best Buy silent, even though the radio was blasting my favorite Cake cd.

On my way home, I stopped by work and ganked a copy of Vista from a big box in our IT dept. (Stealing is wrong, kids, unless you're in a bad mood.)

After spending some time putting in my new hard drive and installing Vista, I stated to reinstall FFXI. Seven hours later I was good to go, aside from the fact I no longer possessed a CoP disk. (Luckily I found it at my brother's place, or I woulda murdered someone.)

I logged in yesterday and was immediately killed. For a second, I couldn't remember why I was standing in the middle of an area full of Puks and other pain-inducing mobs, but then it hit me:

My last login, I hit 62 on my SMN. I hadn't hit a level on my SMN in a long time so it felt good. That good feeling quickly passed, as I was dead the next fight. PLDs who don't provoke are pretty much jerks. I got a raise and wasn't too discouraged. It would only take a few fights to get my exp back, so no worries.

Before my 'weakened' wears off, our puller grabs another Puk, who, as he was flying past me resting, used one of his AoE moves which instantly re-killed our hero. Needless to say I was furious, so I found myself a replacement and I logged there. A taru SMN has seriously 50 hp when weakened you asshole. (Even though I was pissed, I still replaced myself before I logged, because I'm a gentleman like that.)

So after logging in and dying yesterday, I HP'd back to town and was about to throw my flag up when i noticed all my macros were gone because I had to reinstall everything. I didn't feel like re-typing everything, so I switched jobs again, this time to DRK.

At the ripe young level of 10, I found myself wailing on ep/dec mobs around Spiny's camp. I was hoping for a crack at him, because frankly its been a while, and I miss him.

Sure enough, about an hour into my levelling, he spawns, and yet another epic battle occurs.

Pasquale misses Spiny Spiri.
Pasquale misses Spiny Spiri.
Pasquale misses Spiny Spiri.

Friggin dark knight. While I was using my Scythe to cool off Spiny, he was using his face to beat me to a pulp. I had to 2-hour to get my health back, but afterwards the fight started to turn in my favor.

A few minutes later, he was dead and I was dying. His poison wore before it killed me, but not before I got to see the drops:

Pasquale finds a Spool of Silk Thread.

I believe that puts me at 0/16? I hate him. I hate him so much.

Master of Puppets?

2007-03-13T07:23:00.000-05:00

First off, sorry my title is so lame, I... ugh worst post title ever.

I know I've said this before, but I swear every time this happens, a GM gets his wings:

So I haven't played much in the last two weeks because of work and health issues, but I was finally able to dive back in this week. I started this week as SMN, where I honestly feel my best skill is looking like a badass on a chocobo.

The above picture clearly agrees with me.

Unfortunately, I seem to lack the 'skillz to pay the billz' when it comes to Summoner. In all honesty, I'm a lousy healer and I always pull hate and eat dirt. ( I would like to apologize for the excessive use of the letter 'z' in the previous statement.)

While I haven't counted out SMN completely yet, I think it's fair to say that job is going to be on hiatus for a little while.

I liked Blue Mage while I was taking it to thirty, but the thought of getting more BLU spells makes me want to stab a fork through my hand, so I don't think I'll be doing that again.

I tried Dragoon, but I would get greedy and fight with low health, which resulted in numerous deaths of the 'very-painful' variety.

Last night I think I made my decision. Brace yourself, you're not gonna like this...

I know what you're thinking, but honestly after playing as PUP for a few hours, it started to grow on me. After I figured out how to make my puppet heal me, that is. (The first three hours were brutal.)

I didn't have any gear for the job, so I headed to Jeuno. After grabbing gear for the next few levels, I headed to the boat to take me back to Windy.

Every time you miss the Airship, a GM gets an erection.

I spent some gil on new attachments for Allouette, which left me a little low on funds. I needed Gil, so I turned to the streets, to make Gil the best way I know how.

I make one adorable hooker.

Sometimes...

2007-03-05T07:48:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, people level, find a replacement, and leave their party.

These people are normal.

Sometimes, people get disconnected and leave their parties.

These people are unfortunate.

Sometimes, people level and immediately force d/c.

These people are douche bags.

Sometimes, people level and leave the party, without looking for a replacement.

These guys? Also douche bags.

Sometimes, you want to leave a party because you are tired and the exp isn't that good. You search and send /tells for an hour with no luck finding a replacement.

This happened to me last night. I must have sent out 15 /tells to different people with no luck. I felt bad leaving the party, as I was main heal, but in my defense, I gave them an hour's notice, and I seriously sent /tells to everyone online.

Today's post is going to be some tips on 'How to Seek.'

Tip 1 - Search comment.
Search comments are great because they can give people a glimpse of what you have to offer when they are looking for someone to party with. I usually put my exp tnl and the length of time I want to party. Also, with the last line, a link to this blog, because I'm a whore.

Some people throw up a seek flag and write poetry in their search comment. O captain, O captain, I clearly don't want a party; My seacom is too cool for info, Poetry makes me look like a smarty.

Tip 2 - Be ready.
I understand that sometimes you get an invite while shopping, and need a few minutes to get ready and head out. That's not a problem. Your party would rather have you a little late and prepared, than on time and useless.

It is not ok, however, to tell me that you need an hour til you can party. Why bother throwing up your flag if you can't party for another hour, you fake replacement bastard. Seriously, I hate you.

Tip 3 - Afk=mdk. (murder death kill) (Demolition Man ftw) (Worst reference ever?)
When you are looking for a party, for the love of god, stay near your computer. Everyone knows waiting for an invite is boring, and even I am guilty of watching TV or reading while seeking. There is a little chime that goes off when you get a /tell. Turn up your speakers you deaf bastards.

/ma "Cure"

2007-02-28T12:09:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't updated, but I have nothing to update with. I've been sick since early Monday, and I haven't been on FF since the Garrison I did on Saturday.

Today is the worst so far, and I actually left work early because of it. I was thinking about logging in for a bit, but I think I'd rather hit my head with a mallet and then pass out until I go to work tomorrow.

Both good, we'll see.

New post next time I get to log in, I swear.

Thanks,
-Pas

Dawn of the Dead...Taru.

2007-02-19T11:34:00.000-06:00

So I logged in yesterday to find my LinkShell doing a subligar run in Pneumonia Aquaman, and I decided to join them. I ran to Port Jeuno, where I discovered I had just missed the boat. 10 minutes later I was on my way home to switch jobs and grab my SMN gear out of storage. After getting everything set, I used a warp cudgel to take me back to Jeuno, so I could get a teleport.

Pasquale uses a Warp Cudgel.

=== Area: Windurst Woods ===

Damnit. I could tell right away it was going to be a long day.

I was right.

I finally make it over to the zone my ls was in. On the way to meet them, I managed to aggro a Stegotaur, and was promptly and painfully pummeled.

Death count: 1 (Oh yeah, it's back.)

One of my ls mates came to rescue me and we headed up a ladder to rest.

Apparently, Stegotaurs can climb ladders.

Death count: 2 (Also, this SS is awesome.)

We finally made it to our linkshell to find them battling two Stegos. I hid in a nearby hallway to avoid any AoE attacks, as I was still very much Weakened.

Suddenly, the most adorable assassin ever came up from behind and one-shotted me. Adorable, you ask? I'm talking of course about the Fomor Monk.

Death count: 3 (Not my SS, found it online. But seriously, look at his tiny fists. Adorable.)

I got raised again, and my linkshell started to fight the Monk. He used some fancy AoE move, and apparently I was too close. I was still very much Weakened from my last death. When I am Weakened, I only have 60 HP.

Death count: 4

Once again I was brought back to life, and we rested to full. Weakened wore off and I was finally able to contribute to the group. We had four Fomors going at a time, because of the aggro. We had linkshell members kiting two of them, while I had Carby kiting the third. It kinda reminded me of my level 20 avatar fights, so it went pretty well. Eventually everyone who needed a subligar from that spot got one, and we headed to a different camp.

We were only at the new camp for a few minutes when my screen suddenly shifted. It went from a nice hallway filled with friends, to this:

Yeah. That's me staring at the Minotaur. I don't know how it happened, but it sucked. We quickly charged into battle. There were swords and axes flying everywhere. I even managed to get my 2 hour off before I got murdered.

I died right after taking that SS, but we managed to get a win in the end. This was nice, because I am on 2-3, and now I don't think I have to kill the Minotaur anymore.

Death Count: 5

We made our way to a Fomor Bard and killed it, and the subligar dropped. We were finally done.

I died 5 times, but it was totally worth it.

Dr Jekyll, and Mr Died.

2007-02-12T08:25:00.000-06:00

So I have been leveling BLU for the last two weeks. My linkshell is doing a Garrison at the end of the month, and I need to get it to 30. Leveling to 30 would probably take most people a few days, a week at the most, but I think I can honestly say I am the worst level-er ever. (Level-er ever, that's kinda fun to say.)

Party Pasquale
My BLU party experiences have been different than what I am used to. I have spent almost all of my playtime with SMN, BLM, and WHM, and with the exception of BLM, am not used to doing damage while partying. BLU is different. With BLU, its all damage all the time, with a light sprinkling of Healing Breeze if something bad happens.

Now because this is my first time seriously using a DD job, I of course don't know how to do it right. I am not used to attacking, so I do it too much. As far as I'm concerned, my job is to hurt the mob so bad, his own mother won't recognize him. And for the most part, Mission: Accomplished.

Massive damage also brings massive hate, which brings along with it massive beatings, followed by some pretty massive death. When I learn the ability "Self-Control," I'll be in good shape, but until then, {Raise} {Can I have it?}

Something strange happened in my first Qufim party the other day. We had just killed our first mob, and we killed him with a vengeance.

Player: Finally, a BLU that knows what he's doing.

It took me a few minutes to realize I was the BLU he was talking about. I got all excited, because this clearly meant I was the best BLU ever. I thought about what I had done during the fight, and decided to keep doing it, so that everyone would love me.

I decided to turn up the heat:

/ma "Bludgeon"
/ma "Helldive"
/ma "Headbutt"
/ma "Bludgeon"
/ma "Helldive"
/ma "Headbutt"

Needless to say, the mob was not a fan and I was murdered. In one fight, I had gone from "knows what he's doing" to "zOmg, worst BLU evar."

Solo Pasquale
Blue Mages are very powerful. They can unleash a lot of hell in a little bit of time. This makes soloing both fun and easy.

This also makes our hero both cocky and stupid.

You know what's great? Having MP. You know what's not so great? You guessed it... Not having MP.

EXP chains are nice, but impossible with out MP. I have learned that the hard way several times over the last few days. Nothing sucks more than starting the fight with this message:

Pasquale does not have enough MP to cast Wild Oats.

Those fights tend to end poorly, and usually with me crying and HP-ing back to Windurst, because I keep forgetting to set my Home Point to Jeuno. (Three fucking times last night >< )

Links are also fun. I'm a big bad BLU, I can handle a Decent Challenge Bee and his EvenMatch friend at the same time, no problem...

...Or so I thought. After Bee #1's Final Sting nailed me for a third of my HP, I tried to use Pollen.

Pasquale cannot cast Pollen.

What what? Oh, right, I took it off while I was partying, to make room for Healing Breeze. Why not just use Healing Breeze then?

Pasquale does not have enough MP to cast Healing Breeze.

Balls. Aaaand cue Sharp Sting. And death. End scene.

Office besieged.

2007-02-06T12:37:00.000-06:00

I typically spend most of my work day with other people in my office. This makes Internet usage very limited, as there are always people watching everything.

At lunch time, I am free to do whatever I want, because I finally get half an hour to myself. That is usually the time I write these updates.

A few days ago, one of my bosses retired. My other boss, who ate lunch with him for 30 years, was now lunch-buddy-less.

Somehow, I managed to aggro my boss on the way to my office yesterday, and he followed me all the way back to camp. I was hoping he would go away when I zoned into my office, but I was wrong.

He spent the next 15 minutes talking about light fixtures, and I decided I had to use one of my job abilities. I slid my cell-phone to my lap and sent my friend a /tell.

Pasquale: Dude, call me right now, I can't take this anymore.

I patiently waited for my phone to ring and my friend to save me, but I was met instead with three beeps, which was an incoming /tell.

Friend: What's wrong? Is everything ok?

I quickly replied, as I was just about ready to Mijin Gakure myself.

Pasquale: Douche, call me now, I need to get away from my boss.
Friend: Fuck you, douche.
Pasquale: !!

Finally my phone rang, although it was not my friend, but my mom. I regretted answering, "About time, douche."

My boss resisted my cell phone attack, and just sat there stunned until I was done. All hope was lost for our hero.

Just before my boss cast "Boredom" on me one last time to finish me off, the power went out in our building, and that pulled enough hate to get him away from me. I'm currently resting as I type this, because I probably would have deleveled had I had to sit there much longer.

(Sorry for the non-FFXI post, but I can't get five minutes to myself anymore. I did my best to make it have a FFXI feel. New post later this week.)

Special thanks.

2007-02-02T15:54:00.000-06:00

So I'm done with the Dunes. Forever.

I had originally written up this huge "I hate the dunes" entry, but frankly, I'm tired of complaining about it. And I'm sure you're tired of reading about it.

Just a few last highlights of my last days in the dunes, then that's it, I swear.

These guys, Tayven and Rubio, are great. When we disbanded I was still a few hundred away from leveling, and they stayed and we took down crabs, pugs, and damselflies for a while. I managed to hit my level and learn three Blue Magic spells. It was awesome. Thanks again guys.

Yesterday, I was headed into the dunes for a party, when I met an untimely death at the hands of a Will-o-the-Wisp, that seriously came outta nowhere. Tugg was nice enough to raise me as he was running past.

I accepted the Raise and stood up. As I turned to rest near a wall while I waited for Weakened to wear, that same Will-o-the-Wisp came flying at me, and annihilated the small HP I had left.

Tugg did his best to kill it before re-raising me, but he too fell to the clearly unkillable King of the Bombs.

'A' for effort, Tugg. Thanks for trying to save me^^ (Also, thanks to Awakened for raising Tugg and I when that douche Bomb finally left.)

What's that? You noticed my slick new hairdo? That's right, he's so hot right now. Here's some shots of the new hotness.

I've never messed with the DATs before, because I was always afraid I would mess something up and have to reinstall everything. I decided to give it a try, with sexy results.

I ended my night with a little soloing in the Maze of Shakrami, and I discovered that a Blue Mage is pretty much invincible when he has a little MP.

OneDarkFlame and I duo'ed down there for a while, and it was good times, until we got greedy and tried to take a Tough bat with no MP. Funny story, a SMN and a BLU make a good team, but not when neither of them have any MP...

Sorry today's post is kinda lame, but I was at work for 13 hours today and I'm tired. I wanted to get something up, and these "thank you"s seemed like a good fit.

Feeling BLU.

2007-01-30T07:10:00.000-06:00

Hey all,

Sorry for the lack of posting, I was in Las Vegas for a few days throwing all my money away. But I'm back, so here is today's post.

For starters, is there anything more annoying than this?

The answer is yes.

So shortly after my last post, I decided I hated Beastmaster. I know I was all 'woo Beastmaster,' but clearly I'm just a huge liar. My next BST attempt had me with four deaths, all of which had me going back to my HomePoint and walking back, which I hate. See you in hell, Beastmaster.

Out of the ashes of my Beastmaster came my Blue Mage, who up until yesterday I hated also. My biggest problem with this job was learning the enemy skills. I decided to give it another try, even though it meant Dunes leveling.

I hit level 12 and decided to leave the comfort of Windurst for the bitter coldness of Sandy, so I could learn Queasyshroom, Battle Dance, and Power Attack. (I also wanted Sand Spin, but apparently worms hate using that weapon skill.)

This of course meant a lot of waiting...

And waiting...

Sometimes, I would forget to stop hitting the mobs, and they would die before using any abilities. I hate when that happens.

Eventually, Power Attack and Queasyshroom were mine. I also managed to learn Helldive, although I didn't even know that was a learnable skill. I went three hours without seeing Battle Dance used once, and was convinced it was a joke being played on Blue Mages. Finally, one Orc used it one time, and I didn't learn it. Surprise, surprise. After not learning it for three and a half hours, I left, angry and angry.

I headed to the Dunes hoping to get some levels in so I could leave as soon as possible. I was only seeing for two minutes when I got an invite. I excitedly accepted and while on my way to the party, I decided to check the group out.

Yeah. WHM/MNK. Right there I knew I was in for a good time. (Granted, after my BLM/PLD experience a few months ago, nothing really shocks me anymore.) When I got to the party, I found out it was even worse than I thought.

Check out that 1337 gear. This guy clearly went all out on his whm/mnk. I hate the dunes.

When I got there, one of our members was dead, and the group was arguing about Benediction. I casually asked the whm/mnk why he didn't have any gear on.

Pasquale: Hey, (name of whm/mnk), why no gear?
Whm/mnk: I'm lvlin' my magin.
Pasquale: ...?

Right here he left the party because of my party members giving him shit about Benediction and my apparent newbness because I didn't know what 'magin' was.

It took some rebuilding, but I managed to get two levels last night, which takes me two levels closer to leaving the dunes for good. (At least until I switch jobs again.)

I hate the dunes.

Back to basics.

2007-01-24T07:42:00.000-06:00

After a week of bad parties, I decided to switch jobs for a few days. I saw it as a way to flush the negativity out, because instead of being mad at SMN, I would be mad at something else.

Mission: Accomplished.

I started with Thief, because I always thought it would be cool to have Flee. My Thief was level six when I started releveling it the other day. When I hit level 10, I was surprised to find I still didn't have flee. {Hmmm.}

A quick search at alla let me know that Flee was a lvl 25 ability, and that I was an idiot.

Immediately after finding out how far I was from Flee, I switched to BRD. I'm still not sure why I switched to BRD, because I was never a fan, but I figured I'd give it another try.

Ten seconds later, I was lying dead after being brutally murdered by a decent challenge Bee.

Next on my hitlist was Corsair. As I was gearing my level 12 COR up, I remembered all the work a Corsair had to do when in a party, and quickly changed jobs once again. (Poor Corsair, didn't even make it out of the Mog House.)

I was gonna try PLD, but I was level 20 and that meant partying, which I didn't want to do. The same went for WAR and SAM. I thought about Ranger, but the thought of pulling for a party horrified me. If you have ever done anything with me, you understand that I am not someone you want bringing mobs to your party, because my mobs never travel alone.

I decided to give Beastmaster another go. Last time I attempted this job, there was a lot of mischarming and crying going on, but I decided to try again, without failing at everything. The 'no party' aspect had a nice ring to it.

At first it was going pretty well. I fought all the way to 10 without having any mishaps. Spiny spawned while I was leveling in his area, and thanks to every rarab and mandragora within a ten mile radius, I was able to take him down. Still no cape drop, and I still hate him.

I think my favorite part about Beastmaster is your ability to save your ass if something goes wrong. I was resting when a goblin decided to try to end me. I ran away and started throwing charmed bees at him like they were bullets coming out of a machine gun. Several minutes later, I was victorious. It was a good feeling, to live through the same goblin aggro that has killed me many times before.

After my triumphant win over that sneaky goblin bastard, I decided I'd farm myself a pair of Bounding Boots. After three hours of losing claims to people without subjobs, I gave up. (Man, I wish I had Flee.) I am pretty much the worst camper ever. (I know three hours isn't much time. I once helped my brother camp Lizzy for six hours, it was awful.) I hear there's a BCNM that also drops them, and that it's pretty easy. Maybe I'll try that.

I'm starting to miss SMN, but I think I'll take BST to at least 20-ish before I switch back.

The MND is a terrible thing to waste.

2007-01-19T13:30:00.000-06:00

If there's one thing I can't stand, its main-healing. I do it all the time, because I have to, but each time the little SMN inside me dies a little.

Despite the fact that I strongly dislike doing it, I do do it, and I do it pretty damn well. (Whoa, that's a lot of "do.") Obviously I never thought my healing could compare to that of a WHM, whose sole purpose in a party is to keep everyone alive, but the other day I was proven wrong.

I was seeking in Whitegate, debating if I wanted a party or if I wanted to just wait for the upcoming Besieged, when I got an invite asking if I wanted to start a party. Normally I turn these down, as they are usually a waste of time when it doesn't get filled. This time was different:

Player>> You want to start a party with me?
Pasquale>> If I'm still seeking when you're a little fuller shoot me another tell.
Player>> I'm a WHM, and I already have a tank, it shouldn't take that long.

I haven't partied with a WHM in forever, and this would give me a chance to fully take advantage of the Rage/Ward BloodPact system, without needing my MP to heal. I accepted and within minutes we were off to Aydeewa Subterrane, a place near Wajoam, with a name impossible to spell without the Auto-Translator. I want to say it out loud, but it makes my mouth hurt.

We met at the entrance and I noticed the WHM was wearing a pretty cool looking piece of body armor. After checking it, I was suprised to see the MND- stat, but I figured it was just travel gear, and didn't say anything. When we got to camp our puller pulled a Defoliator (something like that, those green crawler things), and we started.

For some reason, we had a PLD and a NIN in our party. Maybe that's regular practice and I didn't know about it, but I've never been in a party like that before. As we fought the mob, the WHM was spamming Cure IVs all over the place, and understandably ran out of MP halfway through the fight, leaving our hero to finish the fight main-healing.

We rested after the fight, because someone went afk, and I took the time to /check the WHM again. Not only was he still wearing the MND- gear, he didn't have any MND+ stats on anything but his pants, and he used a Dark Staff while healing. Needless to say, I was a little confused.

We started our next fight and the same thing happened. Our WHM ran out of MP halfway through and I had to do his job for him. After this fight our WHM disappeared for 20 min while looking for someone who had sent him a /tell asking for a Raise. We kept going while he was gone, because I was doing all the healing/Hastega-ing anyway.

While fighting some weird looking spider mob, I used Cure II on the PLD, who was apparently afraid of his MP. After the Cure II hit, I got a face full of spider leg, and my health dropped to almost nothing. The PLD voked and I used Cure II on myself and was promptly reacquainted with that spider's leg. Thankfully the mob died before I did, and I could fully heal myself before we began.

We had two tanks, a NIN and a PLD, and one single Cure II pulled hate. I asked the PLD if he could start healing himself, but he replied that he didn't want to take hate..

Our Paladin didn't want to take hate.

I shot him a tell asking him to main tank, because the NIN couldn't keep hate, but I didn't get a response. The next three fights were all the same. I would use Cure II, I would get mauled by a spider.

Finally our WHM decides to come back to us and nothing changes. It took forever and a half to kill anything so I found a replacement for myself and bailed. I felt bad for the guy I got to take my place, but I did warn him to watch his hate and that the WHM sucked.

So yeah, I had a party with a WHM and 2 tanks, and I still ended up almost eating dirt. Anybody want a duo partner?

Coff Drop.

2007-01-16T15:39:00.000-06:00

About a year ago, while I was still leveling BLM, I started the AF Hands quest. Little did I know I would soon stop leveling BLM for SMN, and that the Hand quest I had started would haunt me for months on end.

After countless attempts to get a group together to go to Garliage, I sometimes managed to gather three others for the Banishing Gates, only to end in failure. There was always something wrong; either other coffer hunters beating my slow ass to the claim, or death, lots and lots of death.

All that changed last night. After a year of being stuck on the BLM AF Hands quest, I am proud to say I can finally move on to something else.

Soulstar, Ruffyreborn, Ishaela, and I gathered at the entrance of Garliage Citadel determined and angry. (They were determined, I was angry. I seriously hate that place.)

We moved like ninja through the Citadel, swiftly and completely undetected. After the second gate, we split into two groups to look for the coffer chest. While Ish and I were having success finding the coffer, Ryffy and Soul were having success aggro-ing a bunch of beetles, and some huge giant blob-frog thing.

I opened the coffer and got the old gloves, while my escorts fought vailiantly against several mobs. After getting the item, I tried to help, but forgot to change my macros, and succeeded in doing nothing. Summoner macros are pretty much useless while on Black Mage, and by the time I realized I was an idiot, it was too late, everything was already dead.

After a quick stop in Jeuno, we headed to Castle Zvahl to kill Dark Spark. We made it to the torches, spawned the Bomb, and kicked his ass.

Here's a shot of our awesome kill-tastic team. It appears Soulstar is a little camera shy, or I'm the worst photographer ever. Both good.

The coffer good times didn't end there. Ishaela and I went to Toraimarai Canal to get my SMN boots coffer. This trip was much less smooth than the Garliage expedition.

While killing skeletons and hoping for a key to drop, I managed to aggro five Canal Pugils. (Funny story, when Sneak wears off, things can hear you. Things that can hurt you.)

Ish was whm/nin so there was no provoke. While she was fighting the pugils off, I used Astral Flow twice, and brought the health of the group down a bit, while also drawing a ton of hate to myself. When all the smoke cleared we stood triumphant. Wounded and angry, but triumphant nonetheless.

Seven hundred skeletons later, this happened:

Note my manly cheer upon finally getting a key. The extra exclamation points are for extra excitement.

After this, Ish and I parted ways and I hooked up with some linkshell mates to do the longest Besieged ever. We had a good group, except for this red mage who tagged along. He was useless. What was his name... Nermal? Neville? I forget, but oh man, useless. (Naw, I'm just kidding. He did a good job, um, guarding the corner of town from Mothra attacks. He was like one of those British guards, motionless and brave.)

During the Besieged, I felt like an old Civil War nurse, running from wounded soldier to wounded soldier, curing and raising left and right. I tried to use Astral Flow, but I only managed to do an embarrassing 24 dmg.

(Nev- That's for claiming to be 'awesomeerthanjoo.' You can't see it, but I'm shaking my fist in anger.)

Little bit of... (Part 2)

2007-01-12T07:51:00.000-06:00

Back in September, I made a post called 'Little bit of...' and used it as sort of a dumping ground for a few things I had mulling around in my head. Today's post is gonna be the same thing, hence the 'Part 2.'

Bonecrafting.
This past week I decided to use my newly acquired wealth to level a craft. I chose Bonecraft for two reasons. First off, Neville needs some arrowhead something crafted if I ever get my skill to 50, so I already know my craft will be useful eventually. Secondly, no matter how boring Bonecrafting gets, every time the little message that tells me my Bonecrafting skill has gone up, I giggle, because it says 'Bone.' (Mmmm... Jr High maturity at its finest. I suck at being twenty-two years old.)

Despite it's hilarious name, Bonecrafting has been less than good to me. I bought stacks of mats and crystals, and despite getting Advanced Synth. Support, I still seem to fail at almost every attempt. I've tried everything to make it better. I've changed directions, waited out new moon phases, surrounded myself with mithra (hot), surrounded myself with galka (unpleasant), and even whispered sweet nothings to each crystal before synthing with them. I honestly think that last one helped a little.

TCB.
In the past, it was very rare for me to accomplish more than one quest/mission a week, because I'm just so lazy. Because of this, I am very behind on everything. This week was very different.

This week, I managed to finish my Promys, and take CoP to 2-3. I wanted to keep going but Neville informed me that I, in fact, could not take the 2-3 Minotaur alone. While exploring inside Tazmanian Devil, I also managed to do a map quest, providing me with... a map. (I am a wizard with words. /sigh)

But that's not all, I am now the proud owner of a Olduum Ring, which, even though I can't use it yet, is still pretty sweet. And I also managed to finally turn in G3. That's like five quests/missions in one week, which is huge for me.

Operation Human Shield.
Leader>> Party?
Pasquale>> Sweet god yes^^

I had only been seeking for 20 minutes, and I was obviously too excited to get an invite so soon. No worries, my hopes were dashed seconds later.

Leader>> Ooooh, sorry man, party wants to go with WHM.

I was a little upset, but I understand. I wouldn't want me healing me either. A few minutes later, I get a /tell from the same leader, and I thought my luck was beginning to change.

Leader>> Changed our mind, you still want in?

My heart sang with joy as I gladly accepted the party invite. Much to my surprise we were actually almost full, and not one of those parties that consists of myself and someone looking to snag the only available healer.

(Leader) Out tank d/c, so we need a new one.

After 20 minutes of searching, all hope was lost and we disbanded. There was to be no experience for our hero.

Seriously, you guys need to start leveling Tank jobs. I have a legitimate allergy to pain, so I can't do it, otherwise I totally would. {Meat} {Shield} {Can I have it?} {Yes,please.}

When bad jokes go bad...der.
I'm not gonna lie, I hate farming. Whenever I find myself low on gil, I would grind a low level job and use my beastman seals in an attempt to rake in more cash. Sometimes this plan works, sometimes I get murdered by three pugils spitting water all over me. Usually I get murdered by three pugils spitting water on me.

My brothers quit a few months ago, and I decided last week to reactivate one of their accounts to see if they had anything I needed on them. Upon logging in, I checked the gil and my jaw hit the ground. I fired up a second Windower and traded myself all the gil and expensive equipment. (Is graverobbing your brother's character bad? I vote yes, but I'm petty and lazy, so I won't lose much sleep over it.)

Upon logging back into Pasquale, I was getting antsy to spend money. Minutes later, the logic center of my brain shut off, and away my money went.

I don't remember what my cousin and I were arguing about, but I do remember purchasing a Royal Cloak to rub it in his face. A 4.5 million gil burn. I was satisfied. It feels good being a horrible person.

After the awesomensess of my 'rubbing in' had settled, I threw the cloak in the AH and patiently awaited my 4.5 million to be returned to me.

A few days later, my Royal Cloak was returned instead. I tried to sell it again, but was met with no success.

So now I'm wearing it while I level SMN. My newfound wealth viciously cut down in its prime, because I have a horrible sense of humor. Every time I look at it I think two things: 'Man, I'm an idiot,' and 'Man, I look fucking awesome.'

Giving back.
Last night I helped some people in my LS and a few others with their Carbuncle Mitts. I remember how grateful I was to get help when I got mine, so I wanted to return the favor. I logged into the Temple and headed to meet my LS mates. I threw up Invis and Sneak and off I went.

I ran into a door, and had to take Invis off. As soon as I opened the door, I was met with an angry Torama. I tried to run back, but the door had closed. By the time I had gotten it open, the Torama had managed to eat half of my face.

While running/crying towards the zone, an Opo-opo aggro'd me. Just before I made it out, the little bastard murdered me. (And to think I once used the word 'adorable' to describe them.)

After being raised and escorted (I seriously can't do anything by myself) to where we were going, we started killing the NM for the mitts. We did it three times, and all three times we kicked its ass. Congrats to our new Carbuncle Mitts owners!

This weekend I am going to learn how to solo bombs. I've got a bad feeling about this. See you in-game.

Anima-niacs

2007-01-03T23:50:00.000-06:00

So, despite my general dislike for all things Promyvion, I decided to join my LS in a series of Promy runs to take place on Saturday. These things don't always end in happiness and high-fives, but I need to get them done eventually, and the sooner I finish it, the sooner I can swear off all things CoP.

I logged in today to do a little farming, as I needed some animas for when we got to the bosses of each crag. (Funny story, I actually had them all in Storage, but recently dropped them because I needed the space to hold my new Christmas festival items. I pretty much hate myself.)

When I logged in, I was still by the Mission 5-1 burning circle, which meant a lot of travel to get home. After checking to see if I'd delevel, I bloodported home, as I am way to lazy to do any actual walking. After I grabbed up some gear for the lvl 30 cap, I headed to Dem to start farming.

I get in, and right away spot a Wanderer sitting by himself, waiting to be destroyed. Ifrit and I made quick work of him, but nothing dropped. Determined to get my animas, I targeted another Wanderer and began another battle.

While Ifrit and I were fighting Wanderer 'A,' there were two other Wanderers slowly making their way over. It was as if they had decided to aid their weakened friend.

Wanderer B: Hey, it looks like 'A' needs some help.
Wanderer C: Yeah, we should head out, whose fighting him?
Wanderer B: Looks like a lone SMN, with some pretty lousy gear.
Wanderer C: I'ma make him bleed.

Within seconds, I had three Wanderers wailing on me, and needless to say, Ifrit did not last long. While he was fighting them, I did the noble thing and ran like a little girl.

I approached what I thought was the exit, but when I stepped on it, nothing happened. This was the result:
Of course I didn't have Reraise up, so I had to run all they way back and try again. After killing a few more, I finally got the Pain Recollection. I kept fighting for a little while to try to score at least one more Recollection. It wasn't a total waste of time, however, there were some good things.

For starters, I was getting killer exp, which helped make up the tons of exp I lost having died twice already.

Sometimes, I got exp and an item. I don't know what a 'remnant of a malevolent memory' is, but I'm sure it will sell for millions when I take it to the AH. Totally banking right now.

And who doesn't love skill-ups? Communists, that's who. Although it made me kinda sad that I was getting skill-ups, because it reminded me that my Club skill was embarrassingly low.

After an hour of killing and no luck with another Recollection, I decided to kill one more guy and then leave.

In the past, whenever I decided to 'go for one more,' it usually ended with my own death.

This time was no different.

The arrow on the right shows our health just before I bite it. You'll note I have considerably more than him, but still manage to die a horrible death. The arrow on the left shows the numbers of the massive damage I was dealing to him with my club, after I had run out of MP and Ifrit had to go away. (Click for larger image.) (I think.)

I seriously suck at fighting everything. Seriously.

(Sorry this update was so late, I was internet-less for two weeks, then it was all woo-holidays. Back to usual schedule next week.)

This just in, I hate you.

2006-12-19T06:33:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-12-11T07:36:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-12-07T23:38:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-12-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

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?

Unfinished Business.

2006-10-16T21:24:00.000-05:00

I promised one last post. Here it is, Pasquale's last adventure.

Day One:

I logged in, forgetting that I had logged out in Garliage, trying to get my BLM hands done. As soon as I logged in, I found myself being raped by this giant black ooze thing, that was apparently guarding the door.

After being immediatly killed, I HP back to Jeuno. I didn't really mind, it's not like I need the exp anyways. (side note - I broke my record for time logged in before death. Things were still loading on the damn screen.)

I was planning on selling my things and sending gil to my friends in-game, sort of a 'thanks for being awesome, have some gil' thing. I ran to my MH to see if everything had sold.

When I got into my Mog House, I was greeted with a full delivery box. Unfortunatly it was full of items, and not gil. It's going to stay full now, because I am too lazy to try again. Sorry, I'm the worst friend ever. (side note - Honestly, It woulda been like 75k a piece, I'm hella broke.)

I switched to SMN and headed to catch the boat to Windurst one last time. As if the capt was waiting for me, the boat departed as soon as I touched the dock, thus causing me to wait for nine minutes. (side note - Damn you SE. Every fucking time...)

Nine minutes of waiting and three minutes of sailing later, I was ready for my final fight. I ran to my MH to take some screenshots of my sweet decorating abilities (I'm at work, I'll post those later) and headed to Saruta, to hunt my white whale.

For three hours I stick around his spawn area and commit heinous acts of crawlercide, hoping to lure him from hiding.

No such luck. It was as if he knew I was coming for him. Eventually, I got tired of waiting and I logged, angry and angry.

Day Two:

I log in and the first thing I see is a giant crawler head covering my screen. Could the son of a bitch have been waiting for me to return?

No. No he wasn't. It ended up being a regular crawler. I made him pay for getting my hopes up by 2-houring his {too weak} ass. Satisfaction guarenteed.

I sat to rest, when the real deal spawned behind me.

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 11

I started to summon carbuncle, but I decided I wanted to kill this beast one-on-one. I took off my staff, and went into unarmed combat with the king of monsters.

The battle was intense.

Pasquale hits Spiny Spipi for 4 points of damage
Spiny Spipi hits Pasquale for 1 point of damage
Pasquale hits Spiny Spipi
Critical! Spiny Spipi takes 6 points of damage

I believe the word you're looking for is 'epic.'

Sooner or later (later. much later.) my TP hits 100%. I decided to put my staff back on and finish the job with one of my lame, low skill level staff weapon skills.

I forgot that switching weapons erases TP, and was left with nothing. (Give me a break, I'm all mage. I think I've used a WS'd maybe six times ever.)

Before I could see what was happenning, my staff has practically brought Spiny to his furry little knees.

I turned around so I wouldn't finish him. The kill shot had to be perfect.

I waited for his incredibly weak hits to fill up my TP. This took around 15 minutes.

1 man.
1 mob.
100% tp.

I spun in a blaze of glory and struck Spiny as hard as my Tarutaru arms could strike. After the dust settled, and the animation for my WS went away, I stood triumphantly over my fallen nemesis.

My heart stopped as I waited for the drops...

...

...

Pasquale obtains a Silk Thread.

...

...

/sigh

Well played Spiny, well played.

---
Thanks to everyone who read my blog, and thanks to my friend's in-game for making me want to play as long as I did. It's been awesome. Check out my website (www.superawsomecarnivalbears.net) if you wanted to read some other things I write.

Thanks again,
Pasquale (Jason)

The beginning of the end.

2006-10-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

Hey all,

I've been thinking a lot about the game and I've decided to quit.

Lately the game has felt more like something I have to do, and not something I want to do.
I've been stuck at 58 for two weeks, and I have no motivation to keep going. I've found that I spend most of my free time in-game, and I really don't do anything else.

Thanks for reading my little blog. The comments and /tells always made my day, and I have made a few new friends because of it.

If you're interested, I write a blog/webcomic at www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net. I also write the Jason vs... section, which is going to get updated more often because of my new found free time.

I realize this is a shitty way to end the blog, so I am going to have one more post either Wednesday or Thursday. There is still one more thing I have to do before I quit...

Full of murderous rage.

2006-10-09T22:56:00.000-05:00

There are not enough words in the English language to describe how much I hate Garliage Citadel. I could sit here and type word after word of how angry I am, but that'd be a waste of time. Everyone knows its the worst place in-game.

Ok, maybe just a few words.

Fuck you SE you $^&#$ jerks. Good fucking plan putting doors throughout the place, making it completely unaccessible to anyone, unless there are people there. (Strange how I couldn't type 'Fuck' twice in that sentence. I'm retarted.)
This is a screen shot of a giant pot thing, that aggro'd me, while I was trying to Raise someone. Needless to say, it ended me, and I was stuck there for a while til I got a raise for myself.

The reason I'm so angry, is that the only reason I'm there is to get my BLM af hands, so I can get my SMN af hands. I made the mistake of flagging my BLM hands, thus totally boning me.

Rargh.

Ok, that's enough of that.

In other news, seeking blows.

You know when you've been seeking for like two hours, and you finally get an invite? It's a good feeling. Finally you can accomplish something. You peel the cobwebs off your mouse and click "Accept."

Then, at the peak of your excitement, you find out there is only one other person in your party.
"It's ok," you think, "it should be full soon enough."

That's the thought that keeps you warm, and prevents your breakdown. That warm feeling helps when you are waiting 20+ minutes for the party to fill up. Each invite sent makes you smile a little bit.

>> Dude, sorry. It doesn't look like we're going to be able to party.

And that's the thought that crushes your dreams. Your dreams of finally hitting 59 (What? I aim low, as to prevent further disappointment.) That's when you realize not only have you wasted 2 hours seeking, but now you've also spent 30 minutes filling yourself with hope, and having your hope torn away, in a flash of purple letters.

After that happens, you think to yourself "Hmm. Maybe I'll try to get that coffer done."

Livin' the dream.

2006-10-06T08:10:00.000-05:00

Hey all,

I felt a lot better after posting yesterday. I think I just needed to rant a little. I had some time to play yesterday, and now I have a real update for today.

Yesterday, I was seeking in Whitegate. That's neither new or exciting, everyone does that every day. While seeking, I killed time by talking to someone about our mutual hatred for Goblins, and to a SMN about Diabolos. In the middle of our conversations, I get a /tell, and my night began.

>> {Party} {Do you need it?}

I reply with a polite 'yes, thanks' and I'm on my way to meet them at the AH. Normally, after I accept an invite, I get a /tell stating that I had to be Main Heal. This time was a little different.

>> Hey, is it cool if you DD? we already have a WHM.

Never if my tenure (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm looking for) as a smn have I been asked that question. This was every summoner's dream.

I replied yes, (I went a little crazy with the exclamation points, I'm so very lame) and we headed to Gustav.

On the way, I started thinking what Blood Pacts I was going to use. Currently, Meteorite was the most consistent, but Double Slap did more damage, when it hit.

I decided to open with Double Slap and go from there. Our RNG pulls a goblin, who is followed to our camp by his close friend, another goblin.

20 minutes later, our party is triumphant, although battered and broken. Our poor whm lay dead in a corner, and no one had any MP left. Bad start, but it was cool, we were going to keep going.

Finally our RNG pulls just one gob and the fun begins. The BLM uses Bio II, and I used Double Slap.

Shiva uses Double Slap
Goblin takes 16 points of damage

Balls.

It turns out I'm a horrible DD. I found myself wishing the whm would leave, so I could take over as main heal, where I'd feel considerably less useless.

Shake it off man, shake it off. A minute is up, and it's time for something new.

Carbuncle uses Meteorite
Goblin takes 120 points of damage

Damnit.

At this rate, the Goblin will be dead next week.

Eight years pass, and the goblin is finally dead. There was little rejoicing. The next gob went considerably better, although still not great.

Carbuncle uses Meteorite
Goblin takes 360 points of damage

As if fearing the beating he would get from me when we got back to our Mog House, Carbuncle stepped it up and delivered for the rest of the night. I put my rolled up newspaper away and let him do his thing.

I was so close to hitting 59, that I let myself get excited. As soon as the 'giddy' hit, my party disbanded, leaving me so very alone, and so very angry.

Feeling totally jived, I went to level BeastMaster for a little while.

I am so bad at BST, that I could make even the proudest BST embarrassed for his job, as they saw me failing charms and running or crying.

Sometimes both.

Usually both.

Overkill.

2006-10-05T10:18:00.000-05:00

Hey all,

As you may have noticed, there has been some serious not-updating going on. I'm sorry 'bout that, and come Monday, things should be back to normal.

There is some shit going down at my place of employment, involving a takeover of the hostile variety, and apparently its bugging me more than I thought. Everyone here is very 'worst case scenario' about the whole thing and its starting to get to me. I guess the guy whose trying to buy us out is total prick, and has a habit of slimming down his companies, which would mean our hero would become very unemployed, very quickly.

Anyways, all this stress and extra work has given me little time to play, thus giving me little to update with.

I plan on spending a nice sized chunk of this weekend hitting 60 with my smn. I'll see you all Monday, with a new update.

Thanks for reading.
-Pas

Totally Staged.

2006-09-27T22:43:00.001-05:00

So today, I was planning on getting the Staging Points, which meant a lot of unsafe travel. Luckily, I had registered Shadow Wing, my handi-capable chocobo, and that meant less running.

I decided to start with the Mamool Ja Staging Point. No real reason, I just figured I had to start somewhere.

After calling Shadow Wing, and practically crawling through Wajaom, I was excited to be in Mamook. The Mamool look really cool, despite the fact that I would be one-shotted, should I decide to start some shit.

After walking around the area for a while, I came upon some Visquous Liquid. (I butchered that one, I know.)

{Hmm.} A strange thing in an unfamiliar zone full of mobs that could eat me in one bite. Sounds good to me.

I flinched, as I expected instant death, but was pleasently suprised when I re-opened my eyes:

Yeah. That's me, in what i can only assume is a Halloween costume.

I ran around, disguised as a rejected Ninja Turtle, for a little while, until I accidently clicked it off.

...Accidently clicked it off while I was surrounded by these huge Rhino/Elephant things. Needless to say, all kinds of death immediatly followed.

Death Count: 1

Luckily I had Reraise up.

Oh wait...

As soon as I foolishly Reraised myself, my soul was immediatly re-sent to hell.

Death Count: 2

I home-pointed back to Whitegate, picked up a map, and headed out, determined to succeed this time. Once again I called Shadow Wing, and off I went.

Armed with a map, I was able to get a little farther in. Then Invis started to wear.

I ducked in a corner and began re-casting Invisible on myself. Unfortunatly, I didn't look both ways.

Death Count: 3 (morale dropping)

Good news for me though, Reraise was up again.

Death Count: 4

Back in Whitegate. One last try. Shadow Wing seemed slower this time, as if warning me to stay away.

This time I make it all the way to the Bhaflau Thicket zone, which is where I think I'm supposed to go before zoning back into Mamook.

Much to my dismay, I am blocked by a big door. A door which required a key to open. A key which I did not posess.

I decide to cast a spell on a mob past the door, so he can open it for me, and I can run through. It was a good plan.

It was a horrible plan. I cast Dia on the Mamool Something-or-other, and eagerly awaited the door to be opened.

Instead, that son of a bitch killed me through the door, thus ruining my plan entirely.

Death Count: 5 (here I finally de-leveled)

I decided to give up and help a LS member get a key in Garliage. We killed for a while, but no drop. It wasn't a total loss, however:

That was my first 4-digit attack, ever. Granted it was against {Easy prey}, but I thought it was pretty fucking sweet.

Little bit of...

2006-09-25T05:08:00.000-05:00

So I had a few ideas about what to post today, some good and some less good, so instead of just making two posts, I've decided to cram it into one post. Its 5am, I got two hours of sleep before waking up and being unable to go back to sleep, so I apologize if my spelling/grammar isn't up to par.

brb {bio}

Back. Here goes:

Dear Paladins,
There's this bar, under your HP bar. It's kinda yellowish/green. That's where your MP goes. MP can be used to heal yourself, so I don't have to spam cures on you and burn my own MP.

I know, I know. I have 900+ MP (p.s. im awesome) why do I care about curing so much? I've gotten used to main healing. I prefer PLD because it makes my job easier, unless hes not doing anything, then it gets harder and more annoying.

Mmmm... Delicious.
Food + exp party = Good Times. Food + Colibris = Bad Times. Colibris are like the Hamburglars of ffxi. You're stupid, and having 5 min of "totally awesome accuracy" or "zomg defense" can't be worth the gil you lost, losing food 15 times.

The Boyhoda Tree.
I love you again. Two days ago, we were waist deep (head deep for tarutaru) in linked spiders, which sucked tremendously. Yesterday, we practically bathed in experience points.

AF coffers.
Ok, why can't all the AF quests be NM battles? That's both fun and easy. No one likes farming a key and hunting down a chest while competing with nine-hundred other people.

Also, thanks to SE for making me have to finish my already started BLM hands before I can get my SMN hands. Garliage Citadel is the worst place for coffers and I hate you for wasting my time.

Ok, that's about enough of that. Here's some screenshots of stuff. (Descriptive, I know.)

55% of my playtime is spent seeking. Also, I look like a badass in this shot.

If 55% is spent seeking, 20% is spent eating dirt.

Goblin Coifs are cool. I don't have one, so here I am rocking the next best thing.

The first thing I get asked in every party is wether or not I have Fenrir. No I don't, but not for lack of trying.

Why I don't play with myself.

2006-09-20T07:36:00.000-05:00

I hate seeking. Although I have had some pretty good conversations while seeking, it still ultimitely feels like a waste of time. I often get asked why I don't just solo as Summoner.

I can tell you right now why I don't solo. I'm lazy. And scared. ...Aaand scared. I tried soloing once, two weeks ago, and it was most disastrous.

::flashback music::

After seeking for two hours (grumble) I decided to try to give soloing a chance. I was just high enough to get free Carbuncle, and figured it would be a good way to earn exp while waiting for an invite.

I headed over to Garliage Citadel to fight some bomb type mobs. I had never solo'd like this before, but I had read a guide online on how to do it. (Lies. Replace 'read' with 'thought about looking up.')

I didn't think it would be very difficult:
1 - Summon Carbuncle
2 - Make Carby fight Bomb
3 - Run away
4 - Bomb blows up
5 - Bathe in a tub of experience points

In reality, it was more like this:
1 - Get aggro
2 - Hastily summon Carbuncle
3 - Fail
4 - Summon Light Spirit
5 - Run to zone, crying the whole way there
6 - Repeat three fucking times.

After finally getting the hang of it, I was able to get to a safe spot, and begin my soloing adventure.

I sent Carbuncle in to attack a Bomb, and I sat back and watched. Carbuncle eventually died, and I sent in another one.

Blah blah, this happened until the Bomb-thing Self-Destructed. For some reason it didn't occur to me that I may have been too close for comfort.

Bomb-thing uses Self-Destruct
Carbuncle takes a lot of damage
Pasquale also takes a lot of damage

I'm not gonna lie to you, that killed me. Luckily I had reraise on. Unluckily, I did not see the beetle behind me.

I think you know what happened next.

Pasquale starts casting Cure II
Beetle sneaks up behind Pasquale
Beetle uses Spawn-Kill
Beetle defeats Pasquale, and walks away, triumphantly

Argh. After someone in my ls found me a raise, I was determined to succeed at least once before logging and killing myself.

I found another bomb mob and sent Carby in. I ran the fuck away and did it right. Eventually the bomb blew itself and Carbuncle up, and I got 70 exp for it. Woo.

My celebration was cut short when I got aggro'd by that same fucking beetle, who had been waiting in the shadows for me to put my guard down.

Needless to say, I didn't make it.

I changed my Search Comment to reflect my newer, higher 'tnl' and went looking for another bomb.

After sending Carby in and waiting a few min, I was worried something was wrong. Normally I would have recast Carbuncle by now, and have moved to a new spot. Foolishly, I decided to 'take a peek' around the corner to see what was happening.

Just as I got there, Carby died, and the very much undamaged Bomb was charging for me.

Balls.

I throw up a Light Spirit to hold hate and I make a bolt for the stairs, hoping to somehow make it to the zone.

As I approched the stairway to heaven, I was met with a familiar face.

That same fucking beetle.

I already had very little HP left, from the Bomb's first assault on my face, so the beetle made short work of me.

After going back to my HomePoint, I decided to log. I had spent the night losing more exp than I could count, and just wanted to go to bed.

Pasquale will logout in 20 seconds
Pasquale will logout in 15 seconds
Pasquale will logout in 10 seconds
Pasquale will logout in 5 seconds
Player>> {Party} {Do you need it?}

Spiny strikes back.

2006-09-14T07:44:00.000-05:00

I had a pretty lousy week on smn last week. I started the week at 53, peaked at 54, and fell back down to 53, after seeking for three hours. Needless to say I was bummed out. After not being able to play this week, due to drinking and recreating my website (www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net), I finally logged on last night, looking for a change.

I'm not saying I quit smn, I just wanted to try something else, til I got that loving feeling back. After tending to my Choco, who lost his second race, and was scolded harshly for it, I went to my MH to change jobs. After spending a few min looking at my job levels, I went with Puppetmaster, because I felt I had unfairly judged it as the worst job ever.

At the brisk level of 6, Allouette (my puppet, with a name I regret choosing) and I grinded our way to level nine, and were innocently camped around the area where My arch nemesis Spiny Spipi resides.

After an epic battle with two dec goblins, I sat down to rest. Suddenly, lurking through the shadows came the demon who has haunted me since week 1.

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 10

I spun the camera around to make sure I was alone, and rested to full. I stood up, and sent Allouette into battle. I immediatly used my 2-hour, and our battle began.

Pasquale uses Overdrive.
Something happens to Allouette.
Pasquale has no idea what the 2-hour does.

I assume it did something, because Allouette didn't die right away. After Spiny was down a little bit, I jumped into the battle, a flurry of fists flying to the face of my ferocious foe.

It was close, but victory appeared to be at hand for our hero. Just then, I noticed a 45thf/nin standing behind me, like a vulture watching over his prey. He sends me a /tell telling me not to call for help when I died. Motivating.

I wasn't worried about death, because Allouette and I were winning.

Were being the key word in that sentance. We were winning, until a Goblin Weaver decided to step in.

When the gobby spawned, I hoped the thf would take care of it, in a gesture of kindness. Then, as the gob ran past the thf, unharmed, I was reminded that too many people in this game were jerks, and that no one likes helping other people during NM battles.

Goblin Jackass casts Dia.

This was great, because I wasn't losing enough health from Spiny's poison and all the head-butts the bastard was slamming me with.

Goblin Weaver hits Pasquale.
Spiny Spipi mauls Pasquale.
Goblin Weaver crushes Pasquale.
Spiny Spipi maims Pasquale.
Goblin Weaver shanks Pasquale.

Things looked grim for our hero. After a " :( " from the thf, he kills the goblin as I fall to the ground, and then proceeds to take Spiny away from me.

I HP'd to Windurst, feeling an umpleasent mix of anger and anger and disapointment. Reluctantly, I ran back to Saruta, determined to hit lvl 10 before I logged. I ran into the thf while I was killing Giant Bees. Trying to kill Giant Bees, as he ended up taking most of them, including ones I was about to fight.

You win this round, Spiny Spipi. Enjoy your first and only victory, for it will be a cold day in Ifrit's Cauldron before I fall to you again.

Hate me today.

2006-09-07T08:24:00.000-05:00

First things first, you may have noticed the awwwwwwwesome new header at the top of the page. Thanks to Elpon for making that. It took me an hour of 'guess and check' to get it to fit and to make the title still visible, but it was worth it. (Shut up, I'm not a computerologist.)

As the title would suggest, today's discussion is about hate and how much I hate (note to self, get thesaurus) getting hate (note to self, read previous note).

I honestly have no problem Main Healing when I'm in a party. If it means I'll get exp then I'll do almost anything. I do, however, have a problem with getting pecked to death by birds furious that I stole their Fuit Loops - The Lesser Colibri.

Everyone loves these things because they usually go down quick and they give great exp, which is why the party I joined decided to fight them for a while, hopefully hitting levels 54 and 55 in the process.

That's all well and good, but for some reason our NIN could not keep hate last night, which caused me to suffer immensely. The hate was bouncing from the NIN to the RNG to the MNK like crazy, causing me to Cure II everyone, causing the Colibri to hate me, leading to my inevitable beak-stabbing.

As a Taru SMN, I have about 400hp at my level. After the first hit blew through Stoneskin, I knew I was boned.

Lesser Colibri hits Pasquale
Pasquale takes 24 points of damage. <----- Stoneskin wears
Lesser Colibri hits Pasquale
Pasquale takes 180 points of damage.
Lesser Colibri hits Pasquale again, this time with gusto.
The Lesser Colibri scores a critical hit!
Pasquale takes a million points of damage.

Finally someone vokes, and i have 14 hp left. I wanted to heal myself, but I was afraid of the Colibri coming back to finish the job, so I sat there and waited until it was over.

10 minutes later. What can I say, it was a slow night.

The moral of the story is to stop sucking and learn to keep hate. I couldn't even drop a Cure II without getting mauled by Toucan Sam.

Way too long.

2006-09-05T08:25:00.000-05:00

I wanted to try something new for yesterday's update (which is this update, despite the fact that today is, in fact, today, and very much not yesterday). After spending some time thinking what to do, I (obviously) came up with nothing. I blame not being at work for Labor Day. I always write these things at work, so I can kill two birds with one stone. One bird being the update, and the other bird being finding a way to not do work. Anyways, here the worst poem ever written, about missing the Airship. Enjoy?

Way too long by Pasquale

I log in and check my bird.
The Stables chick says not a word.
Nothing has changed since the night before last,
And frankly, this bird is a pain in the ass.

Dejectedly I sigh, and off I go,
To catch the Airship, and fly to Jeuno.
I zone into Port and what do I see?
The airship is docked, and waiting for me.

As I approached the dock,
I am frozen with shock.
For the Airship, who I thought was waiting for me,
Turned out to be nothing but a tease.

I grumble in anger, and turn on the tv,
It's Pimp My Ride, with X-to-the-Z.
I sigh out loud, disappointed and sad.
At least the nine minutes won't be so bad.

The end.

Yeah, the rhymes are a stretch, but cut me some slack, I didn't have a lot of time, my boss won't get off my back.

What a load of craft.

2006-08-31T12:16:00.000-05:00

Ever since I got FFxi, I knew I was going to be a Summoner. I thought the idea of controlling avatars was awesome, and that it would make me kick more forms of ass than anyone else. Then I started to play SMN and ...well you know. SMN is less than exciting when you only have Carbuncle, and your only party function is to heal and heal some more.

I was excited when I finally hit 20. That meant I could finally fight the elemental avatars and be a badass, like the summoners you see running around, being awesome.

Despite taking more time than i'd care to admit, I got it done. I was awesome again. My next goal was to hit 50, get the Austere set, and look like a homeless badass. I accomplished this goal a week ago, and spent most of my gil buying the Austere Robe, Gloves, and Boots. I didn't think the pants were worth 500k, despite the fact that I am wearing pants that are lvl 29. ::Cough::

But there was no hat in stock. I would check the AH three times a day but I always seemed to miss the one hat sold that day. Desperate, I decided to buy the materials needed and have someone craft my own hat. I managed to get everything but a Velvet Hat in Jeuno, so I took a field trip to Windy to check the AH there.

Nothing.

Bastok was next on my list.

Nothing. I was starting to get worried.

Finally I checked San D'Oria (spelling?) and was yet again dissapointed. I don't know what I was expecting though, Sandy sucks.

So here I was with four-fifths of the materials needed for my own hat. I decided to go one step further and have a Velvet hat crafted.

I head back to Windy and pick up everything I need for a Velvet hat. While on the boat to Jeuno, I noticed someone ClothCrafting, and as luck would have it, she could craft the Velvet hat for me. Yay.

With my shiny new hat in hand, I tried to seek out a Leathercrafter. I want to thank QCDN's crafter list, because that made my search a whole lot easier.

I met FoxFlower in Sandy and she crafted my hat for me. {Excitement} all around. I don't think I've ever used so many /emotes at one time. I put it on and off I went, to show off my awesomeness.

After I logged, I did a some calculations on what my Austere Hat finally cost me. With material costs, travel costs, and tips for both crafters, my total came up to 250,000gil. The Austere Hat sells in the AH for roughly 30,000gil.

This picture to the right represents how much gil I have left.

Kentucky Fried Chocobo. Not my joke, but meh.

2006-08-28T12:05:00.000-05:00

First off, congratulations to all the new mommys and daddys out there.

This, of course, is referring to the new Chocobo raising update from last week, and all the little chocobos that have been hatched since then. I'm sure you've all seen a wide assortment of names, including hilarious ones like EasyLady or CoqUranus, and more serious ones like SilentThunder or TalonStrike. I went with ShadowWing, a name that sounds cool now, but I'm sure after saying it six or seven more times, I'll think it's lame.

While its fun to 'walk' ShadowWing (7) around, and stuff greens down his little throat, waiting for him to hatch was not fun.

I was sitting in the Windurst Chocobo-Getting place, waiting and wishing (hi Jack Johnson. Sigh.) for my egg to finally hatch. Everyone around me was /cheering and /shouting about how great it was, and that everyone who didn't have a baby chocobo was a huge jerkface. (Ok, not really, but their /cheers of /joy made me /sad.)

I decided to take things into my own hands. I switched to whm, and equipped my most hammer-like club. My plan was to smash the egg, and heal the chocobo, before he died. It was a pretty solid plan.

Fortunatly for ShadowWing (6), my egg hatched before I got the chance to smashy-smashy. Out came this tiny bird, with yellow feathers, and huge, creepy eyes. I immediatly teird to feed him, but he had came out of the egg full, which leads me to believe that he ate his twin, who was obviously also in the egg.

If I said it only took me a few minutes to name ShadowWing (5), I would be a huge liarface. I spent about an hour staring at the name lists, yelling suggestions to my brother, asking for advice. He was busy sleeping, so his advice was less than helpful.

I decided on ShadowWing (4) and immediatly wanted to go for a walk. A walk ended up being a cutscene of ShadowWing (3) and I walking. Awesome.

After three walks around East Sarutabaruta, I put him to sleep and went to level my WHM in Yhoator Jungle, which as far as I'm concerned, is the new Dunes. But that's another update for another time.

P.S. After writing this, I'm down to two more times using ShadowWing's (2) name before I get sick of it.

P.P.S. Damnit.

The following is a paid advertisement for Michael Bay.

2006-08-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

I don't really have time for an update for today, so I'm recycling something I made over a year ago, when I first found out there was going to be a new Transformers movie. I normally don't like re-using old stuff, but I figure its going to be new to you. Here's my version of the new Transformers movie, made while I was at work, using nothing but tape and a nut.

So one day, Optimus Prime was driving around, minding his own business...

Out of nowhere comes Starscream! ::dramatic music::

TRANSFORM! ::cool robot sound effects::

There is a brief scuffle. ::snazzy action music::

Optimus Prime kicks Starscream's ass. ::triumphant music::

The end.

See you Monday, with a real FFXI-related post.

I uh... yeah.

2006-08-21T12:11:00.000-05:00

First things first, I did not get to see Snakes on a Plane this weekend. I was busy (drunk) all Saturday, and waaaaaaay to hung over yesterday to bother doing anything. So instead, here's a story, about a blm, in the Dunes. A blm I would very much like to punch in the face.

I know that being in Valkrum Dunes means that there is no one with any intellegence for three zones, but this pretty much blew my mind.

It had already been a lousy day of partying in the Dunes. We had three tanks level and leave, anxious to start leveling their subs, regardless of how boned the party would be. Everyone was a total assface and left without any warning or replacement, so the first party disbanded. I wasn't too concerned, as I was leveling whm and everyone loves whms.

Forty-five minutes later.

Just as I began contemplating suicide, I get an invite to replace a rdm. Happily I accept, and off I went. I checked the party setup, and it seemed pretty solid, but something seemed off...

whm/blm <-- our hero pld/war sam/war blm/pld war/nin drk/war Do you see it? I have to admit, I missed it at first glance. Here it is again, in case you did too. blm/pld

Not only was this foolish blm subbing pld, but his sub was level fucking 1. I shoot him a /tell to see what's up.

Pasquale: Um. Hey.
blm/pld: Yo.
Pasquale: Sooo... blm/pld huh?
blm/pld: Yeah.
Pasquale: How's that workin' out for ya?
blm/pld: It's awesome, I'm pretty sure I get a fuck-ton of extra def.

'I'm pretty sure I get a fuck-ton of extra def.' A single tear dropped down my cheek.

Pasquale: Um, I'm no expert, but i don't think you get anything when your sub is level 1.
blm/pld: I get a few more HP and some def. That's what I need most.
Pasquale: That's funny, I would think MP would be what a blm needs most.
blm/pld: I have plenty of MP.

Lies. He was a fucking Elvaan. He needed all the MP he could get.

We start fighting and sure enough, he had to rest after every kill. A little while later we started fighting a very angry goblin. This guy was built like a tank and would not go down. And despite having a 'fuck-ton of extra def' the blm/pld was killed, after just one bomb.

The moral of the story is that you should always think before choosing a sub-job. If at any time, you consider something like this guy did, save everyone the trouble and murder yourself in the most horrible way possible to you at the time. Also, for fuck's sake, keep your subs leveled, you lazy piece of crap.

Not you, him.

I totally Dirged while playing this game.

2006-08-17T07:45:00.000-05:00

Today's post is a review of Dirge of Cerberus, the new Final Fantasy VII title starring Vincent 'the badass' Valentine. I picked this game up when it came out Tuesday, and finished it last night. Also, I'm not 100% on what Dirge means, so I'm gonna use it for everything.

If I were asked to describe this game, I would say it was as if Resident Evil and Devil May Cry got together and had a baby, and that baby had autism.

Let's start with visuals, as this is usually one of Square's strong points. The CutScenes looked amazing, which is nothing suprising. Some clips looked like they were pulled straight out of Advent Children. Literally. I'm almost positive that shit with Cloud was stock footage. Even during the actual game it looked dirge (for a ps2 game) and for the most part it held. I had exactly two spots in the entire game where it started to get choppy, but that was fixed when the next CS started.

Also, each CS was like watching a 20 min television show with no commercials. (Lies. Whenever Yuffie of Cait Sith was on screen, it was a commercial for me, as I usually left the room to do something less dirgey.) There was one point where I went 45 min w/o shooting anything. The visuals gets 4 out of 5 luke skywalker action figures.

The controls and camera angles were not too bad. It took a while to get used to them, but once you do, it gets pretty easy. They have a Tutorial which I would recommend, because it helps with everything. I didn't really have any major issues with either. The camera can be moved by you with ease, so I never had an issue of not being able to see anything. Controls and camera get 3.5 out of 5 luke skywalker action figures.

I think the gameplay left much to be desired. It was fun shooting things, running, shooting things, jumping, and shooting things, but sometimes you need more. Yeah, there was a melee attack, but it sucked. There was only one real combo and if you started it and missed, you had to finish it missing, as you could not turn mid-punch, which sucked. The 'dodge' button took you out of 'aiming mode,' which made it inconvienent to use. (Not that you had to ever, but still.)

The enemy AI ranged from disabled child to cheating piece of shit. Some guys you could shoot at, miss, reload, fire again, miss, fire one more time, and kill without them even noticing you. Others seemed to be able to hear you dirge, and always knew exactly where you were at. The rocket launcher guys were cheating whores. They would shoot you with a rocket, and then just as you were getting up, shoot you again, thus making it impossible to get up without some dirge.

Hmm. What else? You could only hold a very limited amount of potions and such, which meant frequent stops at the 'jukebox' (for some reason) stores located pretty much everywhere. The 'pheonix down' was dirge, but it made you pretty much un-killable. The game itself was pretty linear, but if you went off the path, you were usually rewarded with gil or a new weapon or something to that effect. There were these hidden vials all over the dirge which apparently unlock some of the 'extra features.' Things like Side Missions, Art Galleries, etc, most of which you'll never dirge.

The best part of the gameplay was the gun customizing. You could pretty much dirge any type of gun with your parts. You could make things like a long barrel pistol (slow, but powerful) and short barrel rifle (useless, but useless) to name a few. The add-ons were pretty awesome, and upgrading them made you a badass.

At the end of a level, after 20 min of cutscene, but before 20 more min of cutscene, you are given a choice to use your exp to make Vincent dirge-ier, or trade it in for a ton of gil. Gun parts are expensive, so I usually gave it to gil. I didn't need HP, the bosses were a joke. Gameplay gets 3 out of 5 luke skywalker action figures.

I know there are more areas a person usually reviews games on but I'm tired of typing. One last thing: Worst final boss fight ever. (Lies. Second worst boss fight ever. F.E.A.R. didn't have a boss, which pissed me off. I like an end boss, it gives me dirge.) The last boss in DoC sucked. I don't think I got hit once, and I didn't even have to be evasive. I just ran in a circle and shot him for 10 min. Boss fights get 1 out of 5 luke skywalker action figure's leg, as they don't deserve the whole figure.

Everyone else from VII makes cameo appearences, except Yuffie and Cait Sith, who are both major players in DoC. Yuffie and Cait Sith. Yeah. You spend the whole game with two of VII's brightest stars, and you actualy have to play as Cait Sith for one level. I was pretty much ready to dirge my ps2 out the window.

In conclusion, rent the game. I am gonna play it on the creativley titled 'Ex-Hard' mode, and hope a game comes out of it.

Dirge of Cerberus gets 3 out of 5 luke skywalker action figures. It was ok, but i liked it better when it was called Devil May Cry.

Pa-owned

2006-08-14T10:54:00.000-05:00

First off, you'll notice the blog has a new look. I can assure you it has the same great taste. Go ahead, lick your monitor. Ok, now clean it off, its story time.

While waiting for some people to catch up so we can static, I have spent the last few weeks gathering SMN things. (Carby Mitts, Whispers, etc...) Last night, I decided i would try to complete the first round of my AF, and get myself the weapon. I did some quick research and this is what I found:

1 - Go to House of the Hero in Windy Walls
2 - Head to Port Bastok and have a little talk with Juroro
3 - Trade Earth Pendulum to Cloister of Tremors
4 - Return to Port Bastok and speak with Juroro
5 - Head back to Windurst
6 - Obtain AF weapon
7 - /dance

After seeing what I had to do, I got excited. From what I could tell there would be no monsters to fight, and no NM waiting to maim me. I grab my gear and off I go.

I got to the House of the Hero and was amazed at what I saw. Carbuncle was talking to me, while standing on an invisible table. So magical.

Carby talked for a while about some stuff and then I headed to Bastok. On my way to Bastok, I pulled out my Carbuncle to see if he would talk too. No dice. It kinda reminded me of that singing frog in an old cartoon, the one who wouldn't do anything if anyone was around.

Juroro does his thing and I get an Earth Pendulum. I use the Mini-Fork trick to instantly warp myself to the Cloister. I trade the Pendulum to the glowing yellow rock.

I then found myself entering a battlefield.

I buff myself as I am trying to assess the situation. After taking a closer look at the 'to do' list for AF1, I see that there is in fact an NM. I pull out Carby and prepared for battle.

We charged forward and I sent Carbuncle in. I decided to treat this like one of the solo-level 20 avtar fights, as that would be my only chance.

Pasquale uses Astral Flow.
Carbuncle starts casting Searing Light.
Galgalim eats Carbuncle.

Well, not literaly 'eats,' but there was much death, of the instant variety. This of course meant I had to stay alive for 60 seconds, before I could try Searing Light again.

60 seconds proved to be 54 seconds too long.

Pasquale starts casting Carbuncle.
Galgalim starts casting Heinous Sex Acts on Pasquale.

What followed was a massacre of unholy proportions. After my swift and merciless annhilation, I went home, logged out, put on some soothing Jack Johnson, and cried myself to sleep.

/tell /trouble

2006-08-11T12:59:00.000-05:00

So I spent the majority of this week gathering help and re-battling the Avatars, so that I could get the whispers and finally be able to fight Fenrir.

Once the parties were assembled, the fights went relatively smooth. Aside from Gruda, who we accidently fought on Windsday. My ass is still bleeding from that one.

Now while things went pretty well when we were all set, it was an entirely different story putting the groups together. I started most of them by /shouting in jeuno and working from there.

Pasquale: {Help me out!} (insert avatar name) {Full attack!} {Please assist.}

Nice, polite, and to the point. I don't understand why some people are totally retarted, but seriously if you have that much trouble reading, maybe you should play something else:

Player1: What do you need help with?

C'mon. I could not have been more clear. I ignore him, as I am positive talking to him will cause me to miss a better, more useful tell.

I was wrong. Ten minutes wrong.

I do another shout and a few min later I get another /tell.

Player2: Wut's that?
Pasquale: What's what?
Player2: lol {full attack!} Wuts that?
Pasquale: Oh. I need help with killing Titan.
Player2: Titan? is that an NM?
Pasquale: Are you serious? Titan is an avatar... for SMN...
Player2: Oh lol.
::pause::
Player2: Wait... wut?
Pasquale: Summoner. You can summon Titan. I need help to go fight him.
Player2: You can be TITAN?!

/blist - Also, I hate you.

A little while later I get a /tell from a 75rdm/nin and off we go. I was excited because this was going to be a guaranteed victory. We make it to the Cloister and I enter. The rdm/nin does not.

Rdm/nin: LOL I forgot my fork. I'll brb.

I zone out of crystal and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

/sea rdm/nin all

0 people found in all known areas. I /sighed and warped back to jeuno, ready to give up.

Player3: Hey, I don't have fork yet but I want to go, how do i check fame?

I /checked him. 75nin/war. Nice. I told him to go to Windy Waters and to check it there. A few minutes later I hear from him again.

Player3: You are a liar. There is no (F-10) on this map.
Pasquale: Waters has two parts... run north to the second map...
Player3: oh lol

I was pretty confident he did not have enough fame, as it seemed he had never been to Windurst before. Story checks out.

Player3: "You have barely made a name for yourself" Is that enough?

I didn't bother responding, I was too busy swallowing sleeping pills and downing a box of wine.

The week wasn't a total waste, though. I managed to get a group together and off we went. We fought, we won, we /cheer-ed. Good times all around. Thanks to everyone that was useful and helped out. We're awesome.

Holla back at Mea

2006-08-07T14:16:00.000-05:00

Ahh the Promies. Or is it Promys? {Hmm.} Everyone knows what they are, although some of us do not know how to spell them. (Dear Blogspot, {Please use the auto-translator function.}) This weekend I got invited to join a group to attempt to beat Promy Holla and Promy Mea. I was hesitant, as my first attempt at a Promy ended in massive death...

::flashback music::

I was a young lad of lvl32 when Chains of Promathia came out. When it did, everyone was going crazy about doing the missions and blah blah high-level stuff I will never be a part of.

I was seeking in jeuno when i recieved a mysterious /tell.

Player: {Promyvion-Mea} {Do you need it?}

I had no idea what he was talking about, and further investigation proved fruitless:

Pasquale: Um... i don't know what that means.
Player: Its a thing. At Mea. Come with us. It'll be fun.

Lies. Lies and slander. Fun is the last word I would use to describe what happened to us in that hell-hole. But I'm retarted and said yes, and off we went.

It opened with disaster. We zoned into the crystal and our tank lost almost all of his armor.

Tank: LOL! It caps us at 30!
Healer: hahahahahaha. dude you're so going to die.
Pasquale: Why are you laughing? we are totally boned if we get aggro.

As if waiting for his cue, I immediatly got hit from something that looked like it had escaped from the set of Beetlejuice. We kill it relatively easy, and allowed ourselves to get filled with foolish pride.

Tank: haha! I'm friggin great. Lets kill more!
Pasquale: Well, I guess that wasn't too bad. does anyone know what were supossed to do now?
Healer: lol this is awesome. I'm gunna use Banish like crazy!

Our ranger had a guide and we eventually went up a floor. Our tank died 6 times on that floor, all from "totally being a badass and fighting everything." ...Yeah.

Some how we made it the top floor. Most of us had died several times by now and I didn't want to play anymore. We zoned into a room where our level cap went away.

Tank: YES! My gear!
Ranger: Don't get used to it, apparently the cap comes back at the boss.
Tank: What's the plan?
Ranger: I dunno... I guess we just charge it and all use our two-hours?
Healer: Sounds good. Let go.

Reluctantly I followed my party into the room, where a very angry monster awaited its dinner. As soon as we got in, our whm used Benediction, citing that we said we would all two-hour when we got in. Simply Amazing.

We started fighting, and all kinds of death ensued. Our tank was the first to go, because he had no armor. Next was our healer, because spamming cures is awesome. Our ranger used Eagle Eye Shot, and was immediatly punished. Our monk acctually got a few shots of Hundred-Fists off, all doing a massive 7-9 damage. His death was slow and painful.

This left myself and the other black mage alone with this angry beast, who still had a lot of HP left. The other black mage uses manafont and heals himself, and takes off looking for an exit. All he found was a wall. Never in my life have I seen a stream of obscenities so long and violent. It took up three full lines of party chat.

That left just me. I pulled out my staff and charged, determined not to go out like a bitch. I swing, I miss, I die. We all just kind of sat there, dead and broken. Never before had we been so horribly crushed. I decided I would never try it again.

::fast-forward sounds::

This weekend I got invited to join a group to attempt to beat Promy Holla and Promy Mea. These people had expierence and a plan, so i switched to smn and joined. After spending an hour farming for Animas (I had no idea what the hell these were) we set off, in a much better party set-up: WAR, NIN, WHM, SMN, SMN, SMN.

I quivvered with fear as I entered the crystal, anxiously waiting to see who would be gearless this time. Everyone had everything, so in we went. It was awesome.

We plowed through Holla. When we got to the boss, all three smn used Astral Flow and together we made short work of the mob. We even managed to beat the old record by more than a minute.

While waiting for Astral Flow to reset itself, we farmed for more Animas in Mea. Just being in that crystal brought back horrible memories. When our two-hours were almost reset, we started to plow through Mea as well. It was great, we kicked the shit out of everything. Got to the boss, spammed Astral Flow, and I was soon standing triumphantly over an old nemesis. Yet again, we had broken the record by at least a minute.

Thanks to Dragonan, Rukkia, Iridial, Thefirst, and Akichu for one hell of a Promy run. Or two hells of a promy run? Or is it one hell of promy runs? Eww scratch that last one, 'runs' sounds gross.

The Dream Team.

2006-08-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, while attempting to raise my fame for Fenrir, I get a /tell from Cythe asking if I wanted to go get the Offering needed for my Carby Mitts. This offering has alluded me on several occasions, so of course I said yes. We met in the Den of Rancor, ran to the Temple, and eventually found the offering.

When I opened the door that housed the offering, a Tonberry and his Light Elemental were standing there, waiting to commit heinous acts on my body. Just before I was finally murderized, I managed to grab the offering, making the whole thing worth it. Thanks, Cythe!

We part ways and immediatly I /shout in Jeuno to gather a group to kill the NM, so I can get my mitts.

Pasquale: {Help me out!} Carbuncle Mitts! Already have offering! {Please listen.}

After twenty minutes of getting no response, I make one tiny little change.

Pasquale: {Help me out!} Carbuncle Mitts! Have Offering! {Reward} {Please}

As soon as I put the word {reward} up, I recieved a flurry of /tells.

Player1: How much?
Player2: Dude Ill do it, how much gil?
Player3: What's the reward?

Vultures. I don't mind paying for help, but its like they were all just sitting... waiting... I /sea all the people who had replied only to find out they were all lvl 20-35, and thus totally useless. I sent them /tells anyways, just in case they had a higher job, but my response was always the same:

Player1: lol no
Player2: Um, have you been to Qufim? That shit is hard.
player3: No, but I'm pretty good. I can probably tank a lvl 75 NM w/o dying. (He was level 20.)

Disheartened, I try again, this time reeling in a 75mnk and a 75thf.

Party lineup:
41smn (me)
75thf
75mnk

Ok, two down, three to go. A few minutes later I get a /tell from a 75drk saying he'll help. Yay!

Party lineup:
41smn
75drk

??? What what?

Apparently the thf and mnk had disconnected, because they were nowhere to be found. Just then I get a /tell from a 75blm.

Party lineup:
41smn
75drk
75blm

Ok, if those guys came back, I'd be in business. I do some more shouting and I get a /tell from the thf saying they were back. Glee!

Party lineup:
41smn
75blm
75mnk
75thf

The Drk had logged, without saying anything. But I still felt hope. I was close... so close...

After 15 more minutes of /shouting in all four areas of Jeuno, things were starting to look grim for our hero. Then this happens, and puts the final nail in the coffin.

75mnk: t/ 75thf dude get him to pay up front and lets split.

::awkward silence::

Party lineup:
41smn
75blm

Right about here I gave up. I thanked the blm for his time, and went back to my mog house, where I began ~~sobbing uncontrolably~~ planning out what I was going to do for the rest of the night.

{Death} {do you have it?}

2006-07-31T13:25:00.000-05:00

Once in a while, you encounter a player whose level of skill is awe-inspiring. These are the players who can do no wrong, know all there is to know, and are gods among men (and tarus).

Inversely, once in a while you meet a player who is so poorly educated, that the mere sight of his /tells sends chills down your spine. Unfortunatly today's post is about this type of player.

I had three types of Tarut Cards in my bazaar, hoping to trade my extras for the fourth type. I get a /tell from a player asking about my price.

Player: Dayum. why so moch monies?

Against my better judgement, I responded, hoping there was some slim chance that this guy had my fourth card.

Pasquale: That's not the price, I'm asking for a trade. You need one?
Player: Yeah. Gimme Death!1! \m/ (Author's note: I'll admit, I dont even know what that thing is.)

Oh god. If only...

Pasquale: Yeah, I have an extra one of those, you have trade?
Player: No i ony hav gilz.
Player: lol gilz like a fish lololol

If I had been leveling DRK, this is about where I would have used my "Slit Wrists" ability.

Pasquale: Well, I guess I can sell you one for ... 100k?
::long pause::
Player: Yes!@ tradetreadtread plz

Now I'm wondering how high I coulda gone, but seeing as these cards were free, I'm happy. I inform him I have to run to my MH and grab one. He follows me there.

Player: Hey! I gave you monies! wherez u?!!
Pasquale: I'm in my mog house, getting your card. I'll be out in a second.
Player: No u are no! I am in your MogHouse, and u not here! I'm calin GM1
Pasquale: WTF are you talking about? How the hell could you be in my mog house?
Player: Well, if this isnt yur house, who's bed is this?????

Right about here I wanted to log out, set my brain on fire, and commit seppuku. I zoned back into Jeuno to give him his card and be done with him. Before I hit trade, I /checked him to see what I was dealing with.

Level 35. Level fucking 35. How could you go 35 levels and not know anything about your Mog House?

Player: Gimme Death. no2w!
Pasquale: Here is your card. Please fall in a well and die.
Player: HAHA YES DEATH!!!!!!!!!!! \m/ (Still no idea what that means.)

At this point, I was relieved that I had survived the ordeal. Following my example, he put his card on display in his bazaar.

For 1 gil.

I am now the owner of a (slightly used) Death card and 99,999gil.

The Beast and the Hero.

2006-07-28T09:37:00.000-05:00

Everyone has a villan. Everyone has someone who always torments them and causes trouble. For Batman, it was the Joker. For Superman, it was Lex Luthor. For Oprah, it was beef.

I'm no different, as one of the NMs in FFXI has become my villan. This vile creature hides deep near a waterfall outside Windurst. Some say you can hear him at night, filling the night sky with... whatever sound caterpillars make when they are hungry.

His name? Spiny Spipi.

You're probably thinking "lol, this n00b thinks Spiny is t0ugh." You are not incorrect.

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 1

I was leveling pld and having a pretty good time doing it. I was plowing down mandys and rarabs when suddenly I came upon a crawler that oozed pure evil. And silk. Evil and silk.

After a quick searh on Alla, I decided to fight him, and claim the Mist Silk Cape as my own. I draw my greatsword and charge into battle. We are wailing on each other back and forth for a while and it didn't look good for our hero. I used 'Inivincible' and things finally started to go my way. Just as I was dealing the finishing blow, he cast a foul poison on me. I stood triumphantly over my kill and eagerly awaited my drops.

Pasquale obtains a spool of silk thread.

Son of a bitch. I started /slap-ing where his body had been, when I realized I had 10 hp left from my poison. I haul ass towards Windy, hoping to run into a mage along the way. As luck would have it, the poison wore off at 3 hp. Relieved, I rested to get my health back so I could continue fighting. As soon as my ass touched ground, a Goblin Fisher killed the crap outta me. (Hate... Goblins... so much...)

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 2

Some time later, while on my BLM, I ran into Spiny on my way back to Windurst from the Mea crag. I was a little bit higher than my PLD was this time, so killing him wouldn't be that bad.

I start by casting thunder on the unsuspecting bug.

Pasquale starts casting Thunder.
Spiny Spipi is too far away.

That big yellow pile of jerk moved and my spell got cancelled. I ran forward to see where he went, and I had seen that he ran straight into the eager arms of someone else who was camping him. To make matters worse, the other camper shouted 'yesyesyesyesyes!!! OMG MIST SILK CAPE.' Son of a bitch.

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Rounds 3-8

By now I have started to develop a bloodlust for this damn caterpillar. Everytime I pass his spawn point I check, no matter how rushed I am. Rounds 3-8 were all the same:

Pasquale slaps Spiny Spipi.
Pasquale starts casting Freeze.
::eight years later::
Pasquale casts Freeze on Spiny Spipi.
Spiny Spipi gets kill-nihilated. (kill + anhilated = yeah I know shut up.)
Pasquale gets no drops, ever.

They usually end with a /sigh, some mild swearing and general cursing of Sarutabaruta, and then i head home.

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 9

Im on my SMN now and soloing in Sarutabaruta. I wasn't really looking for massive exp, I was just kinda chilling. (Lies, I was camping Spiny, because I hate him so much.) 20 min into my camping, I notice another player come to join me. Camping is kinda boring, so I decide to strike up a conversation...

...to no avail. This guy said nothing that wasn't calling me a n00b for speaking. I then told him that if he was camping Spiny, he'd have to wait, because i had just killed him. (Lies. Lies and slander.) He gets pissed and leaves, thus leaving that sticky pre-butterfly alone to me.

Spiny spawns, gets teh raped, and yet again, drops nothing.

I fucking hate him so much. I don't even need the damn cape anymore. I just want it as proof of my conquest of the beast.

Will our hero ever defeat the evil villan and claim his prize? Trust me, if it ever does happen, there's gonna be (at least) three posts about it.

To heal or not to heal, that is the question. The answer apparently is No.

2006-07-25T10:27:00.000-05:00

Hello again.

First off, I want to amend my last post by saying it is not always possible to use Blood Pacts + Main Heal at the same time. I was wrong, and I apologize to our tank last night for finding out the hard way. On the plus side, Ifrit hit for 7 damage, which was totally beneficial to the rest of the party... right?

And now for today's post: ::cues exciting fanfare::

So I'm seeking in Kazham last week, and I get an invite to replace a RDM as main healer for a party in Yhoator (excuse my spelling, these names suck w/o auto-translator). I was less than excited because if I was replacing a red mage as main healer, that meant there was no other healer, and frankly, I don't want that kind of responsibility. Nevertheless, I took the offer, because seeking sucks, and two asshats in town were arguing about whose RSE looked cooler, despite the fact that neither of them had seen anything other than Hume and Elvaan. Although I found it almost impossible to tear myself away from that conversation, I somehow managed to hop on a chocobo and off I went.

A few min later I arrived at the party and the RDM took her leave. I hop off my chocobo and patiently wait for my invite.

Minutes pass, and no one said a word. The only sounds were of a helpless mandy getting annhilated by a nearby party.

Finally, I decide to break the silence:

Pasquale: {Um.} {Party} {Can I have it?}
Party Leader: No no I don't want SMN be main healer.

I sat there shocked for a minute, not really knowing what to say. That's like racism, kinda, although much less offensive I guess, so then no, not really like racism at all. Ignore that last sentence. I then attempt to change his mind.

Pasquale: Are you sure? I can heal. I have Cure II and everything.
::long pause::
Party Leader: Yes I sure, summoner suck at main healing. I get BRD on his way.
Pasquale: Your grammar is truly inspiring. Good luck.

A Bard as main healer. Eww. No offense bards, but seriously, you have more important things to be doing then casting Cure on a tank who forgets his shadows. I quietly sit in the corner and put my flag back up, waiting for a new invite. I get a bowl of popcorn ready to watch this bard, who had no gear, attempt to main heal.

They decide to start big and pull a goblin. Within minutes the whole party wiped. I won't lie to you, I was giggling like a school girl.

Seconds later, I get aggro'd by the goblin who had snuck up behind me. Two hits later, I was lying dead, in a heap with the rest of the party I had just gleefully watched end.

The moral of the story is never let a bard - no screw that. The moral of the story is I fucking hate goblins.

BCNM blues.

2006-07-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

So, I've been leveling SMN for a while now and I've noticed a few things:

1 - Having 2 smn in a pt is awesome.
2 - You can still use Blood Pacts while Main Healing. I don't know why everyone complains about it so much.
3 - Every summoner that isn't Pasquale has both Astral Rings and Carbuncle Mitts.

While the Carbuncle Mitts may never happen, I decided to do something about the Astral Rings.

I head over to the AH in Lower Jeuno and check the price of one Astral Ring.

Pasquale sighs dejectedly.

{Hmm.} Over a million gil. {Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass.} I checked my gil, hoping it had multiplied over night. It hadn't. Looks like I would have to earn one the old fashioned way. ~~Buy gil.~~ Do the Wings of Fury BCNM and hope for a drop. I buy some lvl 20 gear and I'm off to sunny San 'doria (sorry if its wrong, but I hate that place).

I met Ants and Qix-something (sorry I forgot how to spell it, hes in my linkshell, I feel like a total ass) outside the Gate where we roll to see who goes first. Ants wins, pops his orb, and aaaaawwwway we go!

Three adventures, set on treasure. Three winged spawns of Satan blocking thier way.

Round One:

I send Garuda in while Ants tries to charm one of the other bats. Somehow I managed to get hit a lot and almost die. Qix vokes leader bat and they start fighting. Ants' charm fails, and he is fighting and running for his life, til he can try again. I pop a 'Cure' on myself.

{Hmm.}

Garuda can't keep hate at all, which leads to my sudden and rape-like death. Ants soon follows in my lead, and within minutes we are all dead, in a heap in front of the gate.

Round Two:

Qix had forgotten to get a new orb, so round two was cancelled.

Round Three:

Ok, we head in for our final battle. Tensions are high, as we totally sucked the first time in. Ants managed a Charm! Right after Charming the bat he used his two hour. Success! I send Ifrit in against another bat. He fared much better than Garuda. Everyone was fighting something, so now it was party time.

Pasquale uses Astral Flow.
Ifrit uses Inferno.
The bats all take a lot of damage (easily in the millions.)

Ifrits bat dies and we turn our attention to the boss. Qix and Ants' bat are wailing on it, while I rested up for another awesome Inferno. One min later I used it, and the boss was dead. Yay!

Now all we had to kill was Ants' charmed bat, who was still very much charmed.

Ants logs and the bat uncharms, but niether Qix or I can attack it for some reason. Within seconds its health is at full. I summoned Ifrit and he was able to attack, and all Qix could do was ranged attack. It took about eight minutes to kill that fucking bat. Victory was ours!

I eagerly run up and open my chest:

Pasquale obtains a piece of crap.
Pasquale obtains a used boot.
Pasquale obtains scraps of paper.
Pasquale obtains nothing. Absolutely nothing.

After selling the crap I made about 6k gil, which woulda been ok I guess, had I not spent 20k on pots and ethers.

/sigh
Pasquale sighs dejectedly.

There ain't no party like a gil seller party, Cuz a gil seller party don't stop.

2006-06-27T08:54:00.000-05:00

The other day I did a /shout in Jeuno asking for help getting a key in Castle Zvahl Baileys for a piece of my BLM af. A few seconds later, I get a blind invite. I cautiously accept and join the party:

Ronaldos - pld75/war35
Thecry - blm75/whm35
Hhllyk - whm75/blm35
Killyn - blm75/whm35
Rockcoat - blm75/whm35

All notorious gil sellers.

It took me a few seconds to realize who they were, because some of the names were kinda familiar. When it hit me I started to giggle, because these guys were 'supposed' to be efficient killers, so getting my key would be easy. Incorrect.

We warp to Xarcabad and start heading to the castle. Ronaldos is leading with the other mages all on /follow. They stayed on /follow the entire time we partied together, with the exception of any fighting we did.

We get to the castle and Ronaldo informs me that "I no map." I told him I didn't have a map either and we decided to just try our luck.

They had absolutely no idea what we came there to do, despite the fact that there were 3 lvl 75 blms in the party, who had all done this at one point. After about 25min of searching, we finally found the Commander I needed to kill to get my key.

Battle Mode Engaged!

Immediatly Ronaldos charges one of the demons, and the blms all form a line behind him. The whm just rests, as she was not really needed. All of the blms start casting spells at the same time. When their spells hit, they would wait a few seconds and all cast again. It was weird watchign them all cast at the same time, I felt like I was watching a ballet. Within seconds everything around us is very dead, and my key drops.

Ronaldos: {Congratulations!}
Pasquale: {Thank you.} {Castle Zvahl Keep} please
Ronaldos: {Garliage Citadel}???
::pause::
Pasquale: ...What?
::super long pause::
Pasquale: {Castle Zvahl Keep} please?

Three min go by and no one does anything. Suddenly, after what felt like an eternity, all the mages abruptly stand up at the same time, and immediatly /follow Ronaldos. They take off running.

We ran around aimlessly for about 30 min. We just kept running in circles, as Ronaldos was an idiot and had no idea where we were. Finally, I got a /tell saying "I. sleep go," and everyone warped out, thus totally screwing our hero.

I was determined to find the Keep myself, but the mobs surrounding me had other plans, and I was promptly attacked. {Warp} + {Blink} = {yes, please}

So now I sit here, AF-less and alone. Was it wrong to pt with the gil sellers? Maybe, but if using someone to get something done and then not giving them a reward because they will just turn around and sell it to someone is wrong, then I don't wanna be right.

The curse of the broken macro...

2006-06-23T12:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was soloing with my summoner for a little while. Things were going pretty well, so I busted out my NPC, Ripokeke. Ripo, my avatar, and I were killing shit pretty well that I stopped paying attention to my avatar's health. I pull a tough Goblin, and it one-shots the rest of my avatar's health, leaving me and Ripokeke alone, and totally boned. She provokes and I do the honorable thing... No, I'm just fucking with you, I ran away like a bitch, leaving her to die.

Within seconds she was murdered and the Goblin was thirsty for my blood. I got caught on a damn cactus and the goblin caught up to me pretty quick. I pulled out my staff and started to fight back:

Pasquale hits the Goblin Tinkerer for 13 points of damage.
The Goblin Tinkerer hits Pasquale for 60 points of damage.

Ok, fuck this. I spam a Fire Spirit macro I had made for just an emergency, but it doesn't work, because there are not three 'i's in 'Spirit.' I finally get one out and send him in with 10 hp remaining. I immediatly start to use a warp scroll. About 15% in to using it, I run out of MP and my Fire Spirit goes away, after doing zero damage to the King of the Goblins that I was fighting. He runs up to me and swings... Miss! Yes! Finally some luck. 35% done... c'mon...

The Lord of all Goblins uses Goblin Rush.
(crap crap crap)
Pasquale warps!

I end up on the front step of the mog house, dead. A few white mages around there gave me some shit before eventually raising me. Note to self: I hate Goblins.

Pasquale's umm... Awesome Adventures of Awesomeness-ness

2006-06-23T12:07:00.000-05:00

Hello hello,
I decided to make a blog telling of the adventures and horrible disasters that make up my FFXI experience. This first post is just here so I figure out what I'm doing, so somethign more interesting will be posted later. Hopefully. Well, I don't see how it could be more boring than this, so I guess that's a good start.