Windy Weather

(Windy as in Hurricane, not Federation)

August 21-23

What a three-day rush this was... Hurricane Fay decided to stall over central Florida so we just got another day or two of heavy rain added to the already-lengthy total. When it did move north, the winds picked up and we were getting gusts close to 50 MPH at our house. Thank God we didn't have any tree issues. There were a number of saplings in the area (mostly new trees in the road medians) that simply fell over from the wind and soaked earth. Our neighborhood is about 30 years old so our trees have had time to dig in.

Actually, Thursday we were let off early from work and the first thing I did on arriving home was to cut down some limbs that overhung our house brushing against the roof and chimney. I figured if the winds picked up I didn't need these whipping away at my brand-new roof. Also, you're not supposed to let any greenery touch the house to help keep bugs from eating it.

Friday was the worst, with a pair of twisters touching down not very far from us but they weren't as bad as we've had in the past. The first alert came to us while most of our family was in a movie - The Longshots - and so as word was passed down about the twister sightings I couldn't help but get the creeps remembering the drive-in scene from Twister.

Enough about that though - you don't come here to read about this stuff. Do you?

In Vana'diel I had three major days of activity. Thursday and Friday night were back-to-back parties with Fhox and Isa (and strangers to fill out the rest). I was NIN24 for both and while I take my WHM Amateur status as a sign of teasing respect, I think I may be headed for a new title - lolNIN. I sucked at hate-holding. Really, really sucked. I was hitting zeroes or whiffing way too much despite my new Att+ gear.

To be honest, we started Thursday night in Qufim but with most of us 24 or 25, it was decided that we'd skip the tower and go to the jungle. Mandies were OK but kills took awhile. The real problem is that Fhox was having trouble on pulls the same way I did earlier. Too many links/adds and too many deaths.

(I told Fhox I was going to get him back for face-sitting me earlier!)

Puma had come on his MNK25 but eventually dropped out and switched to PL. I can't help but wonder how often he PLs because HP got critical a number of times and we still died occasionally. It was still great having him on cure support though! This is the main reason I don't like NIN/WAR - I can't do a damn thing to help if I can't hold hate.

Both parties, Isa was our White Mage. More than once she commented on how she doesn't think she's getting it. I gave her plenty of encouragement because she was doing as well as could be expected given the toughness of the area. I think she's doing WHM as the sub for her RDM main. Thursday was also her turn as leader and we traded notes a couple times.

Other than Aydin being a touch eager to call for pulls when we weren't ready the parties were enjoyable. Budeko was in both on his DNC and he helped out a lot in cure panics and with Gob bombs. XP was slow though, mostly because of the death-delays and lack of chains.

I closed out Friday night by crafting. I was getting ready to sell a stack each of Lightning and Earh crystals when I took another look at the crafting guides on FFXIclopedia. I had already passed the productive level for Hachimaki, and with what I had littering my Storage unit, the next best thing was linen synths, at 19 and 22. I didn't expect to have much luck but I did OK - I jumped form 9.3 to 10.9 in about an hour and 15 minutes of work. I spent a pretty penny on flax seed and some threads I needed, but I got somewhere. I also tried a couple of other synths too: Slops and Cotton Headgear. The slops are useless but the Cotton Headgear is level 23 gear and is getting into Cotton Doublet territory.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Took Sufhi out to SSG again and discovered a room packed with Ghasts. I slipped into "farming in the Ruins" mode and got killed badly. I think I managed to get a whopping 1 mob total (from this room; had 4 earlier) before getting pounded. To make matters worse, I was able to reraise and start healing but a skeleton came over and bopped me a good one. Double-death. So, WHM is back down to about 13k XP into 68.

Saturday I logged in and was welcomed warmly by the folks in GreenDeath, as I had logged out in that shell. Turns out Arch, Aleu and Yalto had wiped trying yet again for Archer's PLD AF sword. It took some running but I made it to them deep in Ordelle's Caves. After the raise I was brought into the party and we decimated the earth elemental guarding the sword. We chatted a bit and then I headed out to get my PLD on. I am *not* going out again on NIN until I figure out why I suck at it. I'm going to try using -ton ninjutsu for hate and damage - maybe it'll be worth it.

Around 1 I got my PLD party, with Exodus, headed for Qufim. This time my tanking would suffer, but for a different reason. I couldn't get the DNC or BLM to stop healing! I did ask at one point if they minded since it was affecting my hate-hold but they didn't alter their strategy much. So I chose not to care if they didn't and I got 2 levels on my Pally. Exodus would leave about halfway through, repping himself with a WHM. I worked on SC timing with the DRK Antigod and we pulled off a few nice ones. Also some lolPLD ones.

At one point, I lamented to the group about my low damage, and they said, especially against crabs, everyone has these issues. Hmmm.

Late into the night Yalto asked me in shell about PL advice, as he wanted to start PLing in the Dunes. I joked about my guide and said I'd help any way I could. Later still, he asked if I was serious about a guide. Here now, is a (paraphrased) snippet of text that earned Yalto "Quote of the Week" honors, and a shot at the monthly title:

Yalto > Did you say something about a guide earlier?
Me > *dthump* *dthump* Is this thing on? Where do you think all the screenshots go?
Yalto > I don't know - into frames hanging on the walls of the basement you play FFXI in?
Me > (laughing too hard to type)

I think everybody in-shell lol-ed at that one. Funny man, funny man. Next raise is gonna cost ya! Besides that comedy gold, I discussed with Aleu optimal stacking strategies for adult beverages, as she was using singles instead of stacks.

Saturday I only chatted with Fhox briefly since he was getting ready to log out as I was coming on. He asked for networking advice for using a PS2 with a wireless AP. I told him what I could, remembering at one point somebody was selling a gaming product that did exactly this. I missed one detail though, he mentioned plugging into the USB port instead of the network jack.

I don't know why he'd want to do that since there's a perfectly good net-jack on the back but I did leave him with one point: If it isn't something that automatically configures, make sure it can be set up by PC before moving it to the PS2. This'll be especially important if he uses any kind of wireless security.