New Years and Such

Hi All! Happy New Year!

I've been very busy with the holidays, family, reading, and some other stuff. I haven't been idle in Vana'diel, but I did take some nights off with Ape, and when I was feeling icky.

Saturday the 2nd was another go at CoP spires. Argyle set this one up and we did Mea and Holla. Mea was the usual cake and Holla went much better (I was WHM again O.O) but we lost. I did everything possible but we just couldn't deliver the pain faster than we were taking it. Arg later caught up with me, enthusiastically recalling he used to do these with Paladins - he'd forgotten it seemed and set us up with a Ninja tank.

I had a shell party in Caedarva Mire which got me my second banked merit. We had a rough start when an early pull linked. Once we settled down it all worked. I messed up by going /BLM instead of /SCH and the lack of MP slowed us down and made me fretful.

I helped several Rogues in Korroloka Tunnel who were looking for an NM and doing some light XPing. There was quite a lot of death as half of us got separated and then we just kept getting picked on. Ben, Autumn, Bwynn, ?, and ?

Thursday the 7th I helped Stoik with a gob he wanted to farm for Airtanks. He had help from Kat and later Norb. One bomb killed him and took me to 1HP. Ultimately we killed like 6 of them.

I also shut Jesup down at the end of December. I had already sold off or transferred most of his gear. Soon I'll add a mule to my account. Arg suggested Ginger (something - I forgot! Sorry!). I'm not sure which way I'm going with her, but she will almost certainly be a small Mithra.

One night I spent a lot of time organizing my screenies so I can take more. I also organized old gear and finished the Dangruf Stone quest to get rid of it. If I didn't already say, I did Gobbie 7, and I still need more room...

Speaking of gear, I asked Stoik for my Pilgrim's Tunica back. He didn't remember and I checked the ol' blog. I lent it to him on July 28th. He doubted he even had Bee then but that's what my blog is for. I'd thought he was going to bring it to the gob hunt last night (as he sent me POL mail to ask my help before I'd even logged in) but he didn't. No biggie. But I do want it back when I pick back up on SMN and BLU. Truthfully, all the others can use it as well...

I read Daughter of the Forest (Juliet Marillier), Give Up The Ghost (Megan Crewe) and most of Cast in Shadows (Michelle Sagara). I only have like 40 pages on the last. Up next is Son of the Shadows (sequel to Daughter) and Twilight.

Daughter was excellent. I'm not up on Celtic lore, despite Ape's side of the family being Scottish (with perhaps some Irish) and my father's side has some Irish. It's based on a legend about 6 sons turned to swans by Fair Folk and their lone sister breaking the enchantment under a year-long curse... I very nearly cried at the end - finally! It was truly a beautiful ending and I was glad to finally get weepy over something. I was beginning to worry I'd become emotionally numb.

Ghost is a YA novel set in high school. Cass is able to see some of the dearly departed and makes friends with them, mainly at school. She notes that they see everything and are more than happy to share it with anyone able and willing to listen. She uses the intel she gathers to expose the ongoing (and more or less normal) duplicity the students ply on each other. She ultimately seeks revenge on her former best friend who now taunts her. She thinks she has an angle but not only does she not get her ultimate revenge, she finds something in the land of the living worth focusing on.

I was gently surprised by the ending and overall enjoyed it. The rec came to me via Slashdot user Halcyon1234. After I finished the book, I contacted him. Turns out he and Ms. Crewe are in the same writer's group. Cool!

Shadow is a Luna Books (a Harlequin imprint) book. I was under the impression this imprint is for fantasy romance, but so far this particular book hasn't really had much there. It's only the first of several, and it's clear there's a strong possibility of a good one. That aside, the story itself is very nice. It's a police procedural set on a world with 7 races and the attendant stresses and interactions betwixt. There's also magic and myth. I'll write something better up later. Maybe.

Work's going well, but once again, I may be on forced march. But not for too long. Sad to say my dad and bro in law are fearful for theirs. So I'll not complain (too much) and thank God my employer sees fit to nominate me to long-term roles and such.

Things seem to be going well with the Milk Maids - all weathered the holidays and seem to be in pretty good spirits. Rogues rolls on and I keep missing events, but thankfully there's enough of us to go around.

Just (literally) finished watching (500) Days of Summer. Pretty cute and I liked the ending. Neat narrative device with the (x) Days thing too. Also, I think Ikea stores are the weirdest things in retail, but I want badly to go back to our nearest one!

I need to post a pic - if I failed to mention this, Raiho (SMT:DS2 CE pack-in plushie) watches over my driving and guards my car. He's very cute in his uniform.