Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles

(See how long it takes you to get it...)

I took Tuesday off because I was feeling icky. I managed to give myself whiplash driving home when I had to make a panic stop from 80. I wish I had a G-meter in the car just then 'cos little Shiroma stopped VERY hard. My head didn't - *OW*

Also, Ape and I did the Outback Twofer Tuesday thing again then went dancing immediatelty afterwards. Not smart...

Wednesday I jumped on at about 9:30 and nobody was on from my friendlist nor GD or Milk. So, I went home, fished the TotusValidus pearl out of storage and put the GD sack away in its place. Taking a deep breath, I hopped in and introduced myself to about 7 others who were present. Isa and Raven (whom I recognized from earlier conversations) were chatting and TheTick was there but silent.

"Hellos" flowed all around and I tried to introduce myself as modestly as I could: "{White Mage} {Amateur} at your service!" Raven and Isa were getting ready to wrap up Bastok's final mission and I joked that I was ready for Windy 6-2. Oh yeah, AGAIN I'm like the only Windurstian. What on earth do these people have against Windies?

While chatting, I made my way to Jeuno to try once again pawning my remaining Brass gear. Deej was on by now and he and I chatted some. He was planning a big armor purchase in anticipation of a soon-to-ding level. I explained why I wasn't in Milk at the time.

Also, he and I talked about FF14. I registered today on Squenix's site and may try for a beta slot. Yeah, I'll get one of those. Sure...

Anyway, I mentioned I hadn't been sure of leaving FF11 for 14 but lately I wonder if maybe I should prepare myself for the journey. I'm tired of causing others pain and not being able to fix it. Maybe Aer needs a fresh start.

Deej said he hoped he'd see me there as he was definitely going - ^^ Aw, that made me feel better!

By now I was in Whitegate and I saw Draskol shouting for Nyzul 11+ members. I asked if he needed a WHM and I got an invite. We were still missing the sixth so I had a little time to kill. Which i got to spend chatting briefly with Fhox. I'm afraid just as he and I got into it the run started and I wasn't able to focus on him.

Our first run was hard but I think we won. In any case, I got a ton of tokens. Chinzu DCed near the end but came back in time for a second go. Starting on 16, we were trying for a boss fight and a shot at the G-A-D armor. This run was tougher but at least this time I was a little sharper on buffs and -na spelling.

Near the final floor Chinzu DCed again, leaving us one short to face an Adamantoise, something I've never seen before. Not long into the fight I was wishing I hadn't burned Benediction - I really needed it... {I'm sorry.}

I also got wasted by the turtle's earth breath attack. I reraised and went back to work but the rest of the crew began dying. We ran out of time with maybe 5% left on the turtle. I tried casting Holy and got the animation just as we were ejected, but I never saw the damage report.

By now it was just about midnight (!) and I ran to bed. Where Ape's snoring roused me twice... -.- /yawn

P.S. I just noticed this was post #366! I talk too much, don't I?

The Gang's All Here

(Greaser hair and cow-lick not included)

I wasn't able to get on until almost 11, and thus I only had about 45 total minutes. Deej was on and we chatted very amiably. Whatever happened the other night passed I guess. Then Kushi came on, and shortly after she popped, Kepi joined. So for the first time in I don't know how long, all four of us were present.

Kushi didn't have a lot to say besides initial greets. She was focused on getting a pair of River Gaiters, half of the Mithra RSE2 set. She ultimately asked for loans and Deej and I (and some others unidentified) chipped in. K was able to buy at the hoped-for price of 250k and was very elated.

While this was going on, Deej gave up on a full party for his DNC44 and headed to the Dunes. Having about 30 minutes left, I joined on NIN and Kep came on SAM. We started a lizard page when Kushi rode up, resplendent in her new footwear. She offered PL services, but had to go AFK for a bit for dinner.

Somewhere along the way, while K was back on PL duty, Deej pulled a link and I died. This happened while Kushi was admonishing Deej for the pull, oddly enough. I died again when the Gob Deej pulled next one-shotted me in my weakened state. He said I could have just leeched for a bit but that's not my style. And I'm used to PLing WHM-style where the buffs and cures usually lead to the PL holding hate...

Since the second death was at my bedtime, I just HPed and turned in, about 750xp positive on the night. Oh well - better luck next time!

And anyways, it was very nice to see everyone at once for a change!

Food, Films, Fun!

(Reunion Time!)

Friday was a pretty slow day. The big event was my bro-in-law's birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse. This was the first time our two families had assembled since the unpleasantness of a month ago.

As luck would have it, Ape's mom was leaving for New York Saturday afternoon and Ape's sis called to apologize for her atrocious behaviour back then. Cynically, we think it's because without her mom, Sissy has no one else to watch her kids...

In any case, dinner itself was good, and the company pleasant. Major lols of the night came at the end when the waitress brought the check. BIL had gone outside with the restless young'uns a few minutes prior, so when the waitstaff came a'clapping, the birthday boy wasn't there ^^ They offered to do it again if we could wrangle him back in, but he said no.

At home, we just chilled, watching Medium and some other stuff. Later, I took another Ambien, at about 11:15. I logged on 5 minutes later and found only Deej on. She seemed unusually quiet when I found her in Al Zahbi, so I let her be and ran next door to see what I could stir up.

Well, the Ambien kicked in hard and by 11:50 I was barely conscious, so I fell out by midnight.

Aaaand, as per usual, I was up again about 5 and a half hours later >< I decided just to get up and went right back to Vana'diel. I gamely flagged up on WHM, hoping for a merit or two, but with the low numbers online I wasn't hopeful.

Fortunately, not only was I wrong about getting an invite, I seriously underestimated the fun I was about to have. Benscot recruited me almost immediately for another Mire party and as the group was already 5/6 before me, we were able to get down to business very quickly, just after six.

The party rocked until about 9:45. Not one downtime for MP, and not one death. There were only a few cure-panics, one of which was my fault when an errant Dia struck a fly instead of our imp. I got to have fun with Benediction and a DS-juiced Curaga IV. I need to check on that one because it really seemed that I pulled less hate from that than from the Curaga 2's and 3's.

Not only did this party really click, it was the fastest XP I've gotten, I believe. Just over 11k an hour and FOUR merit points!

Two things really seemed to make the difference: We synced to 71 rather than the usual 67-68. And our tank was a NIN. Who could totally hold hate. He even got props for it from the rest of the crew. He rarely lost hate on imps, and with flies there's no faulting him for AoE damage. Which, in many cases our DRK was able to stun anyway.

One thing I learned is that I really hate flies in this camp. I can't easily work my Misery > Esuna magic and their AoE really does hit hard. Much harder than Jnuns do. I can only hope the only reason we used flies for fillers between imps is that we were too far from the jnuns' ponds.

Our Bard did a great job keeping me refreshed (the main reason for no MP downtime) but I had to ask him not to cure me when I got yellow. I'm pretty sure he was Japanese and I think I was able to explain my Medicine Ring latent to him in auto-trans.

One other minor issue we had with each other is -na spell usage. We never did chat on that but I worked it so I -na spelled from the bottom of the roster up and if he didn't start (because he was singing or somesuch) I could just keep going up the list. We still cast over each other a bit...

Three of us were ready to go at nine-ish but stretched time to get our NIN his level. I explained I had to go to the airport and when the NIN dinged (plus one buffer) I had to jet. (PhilKenSebben) Ha-ha! Fuselage!

I didn't log in again at all the rest of the day because we went from the airport to lunch, then to the Toy Story double feature, in THREEEE-DEEE! There was shopping at the mall, and dinner for Ape at Panera's. We weren't able to make iCarly, again. But we watched some other stuff then threw on "Adventureland".

Movie Review time:

* Toy Story and Toy Story 2 - If you don't know about these yet but love good wholesome entertainment that anyone can enjoy, go see them. Nao. One is just plain fun with a great "horror" scene at the end. Two is surprisingly emotional, but just as fun as one. Each gets 4 crystals.

* Adventureland - See, here we go again. AGAIN I tells ya! A deep character-driven DRAMA masquerading as a funny movie. This movie is so unfunny it's sad. Well, it's actually quite sad, as it's an angst-filled young-adult coming-of-age plus romance and heartbreak tale. But it isn't very funny. The core story isn't bad, but the pacing is glacial. If I weren't already at home I'd have walked out I think. 1.5 crystals. Would have gotten at least a half more had it not been misleadingly margeted.

Sunday was brief, with just eough time to spend my merits and say hi to Kushi. Nobody else was on. Time was tight because we had a car to wash, grocery shopping, lunch with my mom and ape's sis, church, dinner, Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.

I also squeezed in the first one and a half episodes of "Rumbling Hearts", a show that may have the right blend of drama and romance I'm after. I'm not far enough into it yet for the main story event to have happened (the coma) so I'm not sure of the overall tone yet.

To all my friends, especially Fhox, yes, I still watch DH with Ape. And B&S is another pleasure. Although this season both seem to be getting much more soapy. And the whole Kitty/cancer angle really made me sad. Not what I wanted right before bed!

Super Busy

(The continuing crisis...)

I've been slacking here, largely due to this past weekend. A lot's been going on personally. Someday I'll share, but for now, this has to stay firmly on this side of the screen. I'm sorry ^^

Also, in Flashback Theatre, we have Fhox's return. And Phax's. Any second now Chucho, Kitty, Diosa and more will come flooding back.

I've spent a lot of time chatting with both Fhox and Phax, as well as Kushi and Deej. And a little with Kepi, but I haven't seen her much lately. I partied NIN to 32, then soloed about 3,500 to hit 33 and the ability to wear my complete RSE ensenble. MUUUCH better!

Also did some Besieging and am inching ever-closer to capping Divine and Enfeeb on 75. Had another Besieged with Kushi that got cut a wee bit short. See, I was on call that night and I actually went to bed at about 10pm and woke up at midnight. I wasn't planning on much online because I expected the work deal to last maybe an hour.

K happened to be on and Besieged was just about to start, so I gave it a go, and actually didn't do half-bad. But maybe 3 minutes prior to end, my cohort at work rang me to say things were not going well. I split my time between work and chatting with Kushi, then she had to go. I wish I could have too because I was on the work issue intil 4:15am. And I was still scheduled to work Friday... /yawn!

Screw You, Gateway!

(This is why I hate working on computers...)

Some time ago, my mom's 4-year-old Gateway laptop was snuffed by viruses. My Sis' hubby, AKA the Springfield Connection, tried restoring the system using the included OS recovery CD. After trying a few times, he was left with the same result each time. Some key .DLLs were missing. And he had to return home to Springfield. He left me his USB drive with all the docs he copied prior to using the recovery CD.

I gave it a few tries, and also tried restoring from the just-discovered recovery partition on the HD. It failed too. So I took a copy of WinXP and installed it. And of course, my reg key is locked away in my previous employer files buried who-knows-where in my house. I bought two computers and some other doo-dads from them when they shut down and a lot of it never got unpacked.

Friday after work I tried Gateway support to ask why their stupid recovery CD only recovered fail. The human on the other side of the screen was very polite and appreciated my patience. But the only answer he offered was for me to buy another recovery CD, for 20 bucks. He couldn't guarantee it would work any better than the one I was holding, so I passed.

Then out of frustrated boredom, I fired up the recovery CD one more time. Guess what? It worked. After all that crap from the computer, the Gateway rep, and Mom (teasing of course), the stupid thing was on the way to proper function.

Oh, one more thing. I hate working on laptops because XP doesn't ever seem to recognize any device. I had to follow up the "XP patch parade" with Gateway drivers for sound, video, touchpad and wireless. Plug and play my fuzzy rump.