Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Deckard Magnus' LiveJournal:

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Monday, April 21st, 2008
8:04 pm	End. This journal is officially at it's end. I will no longer be updating it, however I will keep it active for friends-viewing purposes. Those who wish to follow my exploits, either in real life or FFXI, can let me know and I can pass along new blog URLs to them. Otherwise, if I know you want to follow them and skip over this, I'll let you know :) So until next time... adieu! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
10:35 pm	Some FFXI stuff, some non-FFXI stuff... We'll start with the non-FFXI stuff, since I figure that's a little more applicable to all readers of this journal, whereas the FFXI stuff is only for a few. I have at least one or two rants that have been simmering lately and I've meant to write about them as they came up, but I'm a lazy bastard and didn't quite get around to it until now. First up - Earth Hour. What the hell is this bullshit? We're going to "turn out the lights" for an hour to support green lifestyles? Doesn't anyone else see how incredibly retarded this is? If people want to be "green" and ecofriendly, they should make lifestyle changes that accomplish that goal, not partake in this idiotic activity which is really nothing more than a corporate scam of sorts - the kind that makes you think you're helping, the kind of dumb shit that gives the impression that the important decision-makers of the world care, when really, they don't. It's just like that carbon-footprint bullshit awhile back. It's all designed to make people feel better about whatever environmentally hazardous shit they do without actually changing it. It is, in my opinion, a device meant to soothe the minds of ignorant, guilty morons. Given, I don't really even believe in global warming as being a human-perpetrated threat to the planet. I simply don't think that 200 years of Western - not global, we don't even have that today - industrialization can cause irreparable damage to the planet on the scale that is asserted. Besides, in theory, wouldn't those holes on the ozone layer that were such a crisis fifteen years ago let all that dangerous CO2 or whatever that's heating up the planet out? Come to think of it, you don't hear much about holes in the ozone layer anymore, do ya? But damn if that wasn't important fifteen years ago. Now, sure, I'll say okay, there's a climate change happening. But who's to say it's not happening on its own? The planet's mean temperature shifts slightly from time to time naturally, regardless of human activity. I think global warming is one of those ways that mankind indulges its collective ego... hot damn, the planet is heating up, it must be something we did! Sorry folks, I don't buy it. It doesn't mean we shouldn't live environmentally friendly lifestyles, though - we do live on this planet and we SHOULD treat it well. But I really, really don't think that our little species, no matter how widespread and advanced, can have, in only 200 years of regional industrialization, caused a global climate shift. Another rant is April Fool's Day. What dumb fucking shit. Do we really need a set day in which we all abuse in each other some way in order to be "funny"? Not only that, but even more irritatingly, most news sources become completely unreliable for that day because you never know when they're trying to drop a joke to fool you. How fucking ludicrous. I saw two CNN stories that I didn't know were true or not (both turned out to be, which is good) because it was on April's Fools Days (the stories, if you're curious, were about Velvet Revolver kicking Scott Weiland out and about Congress taking some stabs at big oil companies). Do we really need a day, a pseudo-holiday, dedicated to lying and tricking and manipulating each other? If I want to mess with, tease or otherwise play a prank on a friend or loved one, I'll do so at my whim, not because it's a special day. And I don't really do shit like that anyway because it's an abuse of trust and that doesn't sit well with me. But really, the idea that news outlets participate in it is ludicrous (IGN put up a Legend of Zelda movie trailer as their joke this year). April Fool's Day isn't funny, it's not cool, it's a goddamn shame to me that people do it at all, especially news outlets. In at-home gaming news, I bought my first Wii game... despite not owning the system. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - an EXCELLENT tactical RPG, by the way - has gone out of print now, so I picked up a copy at the Nintendo store at work at the heavily discounted price of only $20. I imagine it retails for $39.99 or $49.99 still... and likely will be more expensive on sites like Ebay and Amazon once the final stock of the game is exhausted and it becomes the first real rare gem of the current generation of consoles. I've also started up Persona 2: Eternal Punishment again. I never quite beat it before and it's really a great game, so I want to burn through it. I was playing Morrowind and enjoying that, and I did beat the main quest (woot) for the first time, so I've set it aside a bit now. I started going through the main quest in the Tribunal expansion, but I played a lot of Morrowind there for a bit. I doubt I'll delete or give up on that character, level 58 or so and quite powerful, and I didn't get so far in Tribunal that I'm going to forget about the story or anything. So I'm sure I'll pick it back up at some point, but for now... the focus returns to other games and, of course, ( FFXI... ) Current Mood: content (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
11:07 pm	Okay, maybe I was premature. I think if I was taking a break from FFXI, in the formal sense, it's over. But I think I'll be a little smarter about my time management too. I used to sit around bored in FFXI if I didn't have anything to do, and I think if that's the case now, I'm just gonna log out since I have a very interesting alternative game to play in Morrowind, which definitely has sunk its teeth into me as much as I've sunk my teeth into it. I'll get to that later. Anyway, logged into FFXI for Dynamis-Xarcabard last night, which seemed to be... one of our rockier runs. I got in late as usual, in time for the NM towers though. I came in right after the group recovered from a wipe. We struggled with the first tower then knocked out the other three with ease. Strapped for time, though, we had to really hoof it on the last tower. So we're setting up and one of our melees, who shall remain nameless, decides to be a complete idiot and aggro the tower before the sync-nuking of the eyes. Wipe commences (although I thought we did a decent job holding out for a bit) and we time out. One hour worth of TKs lost, one hour worth of farming lost - no HQ currencies, no AF2, lots of death. Regardless, it didn't dampen my FFXI spirits, so that's good. I also got to come BLM to D-Xarc, which is a lot of fun. I really enjoy BLM. Did some solo meriting today, too, since the Astral Candescence is finally back. Pulled down about 20k worth, 16k or so went to merits while the other 4k went to capping BLM (for the first time ever!). I also had a mining run awhile back, before we lost the Candescence, when I got -TWO- khroma ores within 20 minutes of each other. Beautiful. Anyway, real life goes on as usual. New project for me today at work, I'm enjoying it. I can't say much, but it's smaller scale than usual for me and I'm enjoying that. It's very good, simple fun and despite a degree of monotony, it stays enjoyable. I think I'll enjoy it for the duration and that's a very good thing. In the meantime, I'm starting to prepare for what I'll do when I get my two-month layoff from Nintendo (contracted employees are forced to take two months of the year off; so after working ten months, you get notified and that's that until they call you back in two months). I'm planning on looking really, really hard at U-Washington and their graduate programs for Linguistics. I want to see how feasible it'd be for me to start in either the Winter '09 or Fall '09 terms as a grad student and also make sure I could get some sort of campus job like a research assistantship or T.A. position to help pay bills while I'm there. We're planning on moving across the lake to the Seattle side when our lease runs out in February, so I want to make damn sure by then that I'll be attending U-Wash next year sometime so that the move is worth it, although admittedly being on that side of the lake would be more motivation for me to find a job in the city if I don't go back to school. But the plan is to go back to school, work at school, and get my graduate degree. I miss school and I think I make myself more employable by pursuing a graduate degree - especially if I want to work in linguistics and do research and stuff. But gotta get my shit in order and make sure it'll work out, and I think that'll be my main goal over the summer while I'm on my two-months. I'm also going to look into freelance writing online and see how much, if anything, I can make from that. Meanwhile - Morrowind! I forgot how much I love this game. It takes me back to the days in Albion when Jen, myself and fisherman would sit together in the cafeteria for dinner and talk about our daily Morrowinding. Back before the days when MMOs had proliferated the market, you know. So as I said before, I've breathed new life into my old character, Sharn'ava Kirathuna. Here's some details on her: Major Skills: Spear (100) Axe (77) Medium Armor (69) Heavy Armor (48) Alchemy (78) Minor Skills: Blunt Weapon (44) Unarmored (47) Armorer (26) Restoration (54) Alteration (36) She's currently Lv. 36, with a long ways to go yet from her stats. I used stats that she had bottomed out to start - all those skills started at 30 if they were a Major, and 15 if Minor - the lowest possible, giving her the maximum levelling potential. I also had her born under the Atronach - a first for me. Not regenerating magicka while resting took getting used to, but the spell absorption is so goddamn sexy and useful. Anyway. Spear is her fallback weapon for now. Still waiting for a Dremora Lord to smile upon me and leave me a Daedric Spear on his corpse. I'm levelling Axe and Blunt Weapon for now for the sake of her levelling, afterwards I'll discard them forever and probably work on her Long Blade and Short Blade, for the sake of having them, then probably keep a Long Blade and a Spear on her at all times. Once her Medium Armor caps out, I'll swap out her Medium Armor for a heavier focus on Heavy Armor, plus throw in some of the Glass Armor I've found to work on her Light Armor, again for posterity's sake. Questwise, I'm just past the Corprus part of the main plot. I like that spot to stop and do other things because I have the +20 Strength right gauntlet and +20 Agility left gauntlet from the Dagoth Gares plot dungeon, plus I have the disease immunities from the Corprus segment. Makes life a lot easier to have what are, for me, endgame gloves and disease immunity in a world absolutely brimming over with enemies that will infect you with irritating diseases (some of which are hard to get rid of). So I'm working on finishing the Mages Guild right now, which I'm about 3 or 4 quests from doing... I just need to get Alchemy up to 90 first for the final rank up once I'm there. More wandering and ingredient collecting will do that, plus it makes me fucking rich. I have all Master's alchemy equipment and with skill that high, my potions sell for ~100 gold each. I actually had to go hunt down that talking mudcrab the other day so I could unload all of them. People simply don't have enough money in Morrowind for me, haha. She's sitting on 43,000 gold at the moment, being saved mostly for either training or enchanting purposes. I have 3 exquisite rings and 1 exquisite amulet waiting on me to blow a Soul Gem with a Golden Saint on them. I should do the Azura's Star quest, too, since I'm high enough level to encounter at least one Golden Saint per Daedric Ruin I explore, too. I need to buy more magic for her, though, so I can have a wider breadth of effects to use for enchanting too. Once I finish the Mages Guild quests, I'll probably go work harder on the Fighters Guild and finally start a Great House... probably Telvanni, it suits Sharn'ava's personality best. I need to get a stronghold going... I haven't killed anyone and taken their house in this playthrough (a first for me) and don't really want to... but I'm also starting to accumulate a lot of shit in that bedroom of the Balmora's Fighters Guild. At least no one touches my shit, hahaha. My collections of weaponry and armor are becoming significant enough now though that I really need to get a stronghold going. I think this time, on this playthrough, I'll even stay amused long enough to actually BEAT THE GAME, which I've never done before... and, after that, go on to Tribunal and Bloodmoon content - more things I've never done before! Definitely looking forward to it. Morrowind really blows the crap out of Oblivion, though, I gotta say. Oblivion might be prettier and mainstreamed, but Morrowind just demolishes it in terms of sheer content and execution. I don't even miss Oblivion's fast-travel... I enjoy the exploration of Morrowind and the long walks between places, despite the enormous amounts of cliff racers and slaughterfish I have to kill. At least I use racer plumes often in alchemy to keep me well-stocked on Levitate potions - a must for anyone who wants to be Telvanni! Current Mood: chipper (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
5:48 pm	All things considered... Spring is nice. I really can't wait for the sakura tree outside our window to bloom. It's soooo pretty. I think I'm going to take a heavy break from FFXI for a bit. I'll pop in for Dynamis, but other than that, I think I need to distance myself for a little while. I'm feeling distanced from people who I thought were some of my closest friends and I'm bored with the grind right now. FFXI is, right now, either meriting on BLM, mining or Dynamis. Which is fine. But with the candescence gone right now for the third day, well, not great for pudding slaughter. azumauta and I were looking to get into VS and do endgame and relieve the boredom that way, meet some new people, have some good times, but it looks like that's not happening either. It'd be nice if these endgame shells actually told you if you were in or not, but I figure three weeks of silence is enough said. Tell you what though, if I ever ran my own shell (lol), I'd at least have a little more courtesy than to not say anything. How hard is it to have someone who contacts people and says "hey, we've seen your app, we're reviewing it, we'll be in touch" and follows up a week or however long later with a "welcome to the group!" or a "sorry, no dice". It's simple courtesy and really isn't that hard. Could even do it on the site forums where the app is, to avoid the whole check-for-them-in-game part. But that's just me. So with the grind set for now, at least, as merit/mine/dynamis, I'm just bored. The new content hasn't done anything to pull me in either; it was yet another very underwhelming update. It would have been nice if I could have kept Salvage going, that was fun and something I enjoy doing, but running it is so complicated and involved without an organized shell that it just took too much of my time and energy on Sundays. Some sky would help break the monotony, but one of the so-called friends mentioned above shut me down real fast when I even hinted at gauging any interest in his casualish (I think) Sunday sky group. I could look into Windshire for sky, but we'll see... adding another monotonous activity to the list isn't going to solve anything, which is why a shell like VS was attractive - doing the entire spectrum of endgame sounded varied enough to keep me amused, at least long enough for me to get over my burn out and get myself amused again. I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time other than for Dynamis, but I think for the time being, I'm stepping back. So in the meantime, I've been playing Morrowind again and loving it. I engineered a character awhile back who had maximum levelling potential - all of her major/minor stats were at 15, the lowest possible. Since you gain levels by raising major/minor skills, the lower they are to start, the higher your potential end level is. I've got my character - Sharn'ava Kirathuna - up to level 24 or 25 now, which makes her pretty solid. She's got a 100 in Spear, my favored weapon in Morrowind. I have a couple Golden Saints in Soul Gems, so I need to get a good Daedric Spear for her that I can enchant with some bitchin' constant effect. Maybe a drain health. Or better yet, Drain Magicka, since her sign is the Atronach (she doesn't recover magicka when she rests, only via her natural 50% spell absorption, which also comes from the sign). I've got her about 80% done with the Mages Guild quests and she's getting to the part of the main quest where everything is about satisfying the Ashlander prophecies. In fact, I just got her cured of Corprus. That's the major point I like to reach in the main quest line, because it means I get those absolutely great heavy armor gauntlets from the plot-related Sixth House dungeon and it means I have the common and blight disease immunities from the Corprus plot segment. Both are very, very useful. The gauntlets I use forever and the immunities just make running around easier - no more worry about contracting some annoying blight disease. She's also gotten her Alchemy up into the 60s now, with all Master equipment, so she's making some ridiculously potent restore fatigue and health potions. Just need to start working on getting more daedric/glass/whatever armor and weapons and start working on setting them up with some great enchantments... might be getting to be time to get Azura's Star, since I should be finding Golden Saints at most Daedric ruins now. Good times. At any rate, not too much else going on. FFXI was dragging me down, but the decision to step back for awhile is making me feel better. Morrowind is something I'm thoroughly enjoying right now, and who knows, maybe I'll actually get around to writing again. Who knows. My days in Vana'diel might be numbered, my tenure there drawing to an end. With my greatest accomplishment there months from completion, that'd be sad, but who knows. I know I wouldn't leave until I finished the scythe, at the very least, and I doubt that once I get it I would want to. I think I just need a break and, in time, the rest will sort itself out. Current Mood: thoughtful (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
10:35 pm	Stuff and other stuff... Mmmm. I'm posting. It's half out of boredom and half out of a desire to ramble about nothing in particular. There's nothing spectacular going on, really. I suppose getting that FFXI-related rant out of the front of my journal is a decent enough reason, since all that's been vented and it's all fine and stuff. My life as a gamer is about the same as always, except lately I've taken back to Oblivion since azumauta has been playing it. I'm near the end in my file, just closing all the gates outside the cities so as to recruit help for the Great Gate battle in Bruma... after that is pretty much the last bit of the game, I think. I kinda want to see it through, since I never got the chance to do so in Morrowind, although I could go back and play that again but really don't want to... if I still had my old awesome level 51+ character sure, but she's lost the virtual abyss now. Meanwhile, my social group in FFXI has developed a sort of "Video Game Club" thing. We did Chrono Trigger for the past couple months and now that it's been thoroughly trounced, we're moving on. We start FFVIII on the 12th, which is all right by me. The awesome part about it though is that niffy, who runs the "club", has introduced me properly to the glory of PSX emulation, something I've only dabbled in before. Now I feel rather comfortable with it (never did before) and am looking forward to using the iso of FFVIII that I burned to play it. Something about playing games like that on my laptop just makes them so much more attractive. Less head-turning versus the TV maybe? I dunno. But I'm looking forward to it. Work is going. I'm on a new project Monday, which is all right. The end of a project is always somewhat stressful... being a contracted employee, there's always a chance that at the end of a project, there won't be a new project or any openings on existing projects to be put on, and that it could be the end of my contract (the contract is essentially open-ended, up until I leave willingly or am terminated, or until there's simply no available work). But I like to think I'm well-liked and that what I lack in bug-finding skill I make up for in sheer skill as a gamer (I'm often assigned full completion in games I test). I need to fire up the Zune though. I know what I'm going to and while it's not a horrible project by ANY means, it's something that merits mp3 player usage. Meanwhile, we've watched some movies lately too. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 lately and that was all right. Too long, just like the others, but still a good watch. We watched Spiderman 3 during Dynamis today too and that was... barely okay. Topher Grace makes an awful, disgraceful Venom, but whatever. We've got the first Narnia movie coming next because azumauta hasn't seen that yet. After that, not sure, might just let her have free reign over what we get for a few movies, since I know she has some obscure or girly shit on there that I have little interest in, hahaha. But on the flipside of that, I don't expect her to be interested in things like Citizen Kane or On the Waterfront of 24: Season 6 when we get those for my sake =P We got some pizza today as a treat-ourselves dinner. We ate too much and I feel somewhat sick from it. But goddamn it's such good pizza. But just writing about it now and thinking about it almost makes me want to throw up a little. So I'll stop. But damn it's been an exhausting week, I know I'm going to sleep good tonight, too much pizza or not! (It'll get to digest a good bit before I crash anyhow... I hope). Current Mood: tired (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
7:48 pm	Let me tell a story... FFXI... So, once upon a time, azumauta and I were in a Limbus shell called EternalLight, and it was good times. I got 3 Homam pieces there, a little bit of AF+1 and some coinage. We had some good times. It was led by a taru couple named Fawk and Sekzy who are, by all accounts, pretty decent people. Numerous friends were there as well, such as mewingnorthstar, neresh and draxyle. Much fun was had. I endured through using WHM in EternalLight, because it's a manaburn-style Limbus shell, and is admittedly extremely efficient. I really dislike WHM and informed the leader of such and told him, "I'm levelling BLM and once it's 75, I'm done with WHM." And he had no problem with that. azumauta had a similar discussion involving her BRD as her hated job and RDM as her up-and-coming job (although she had NIN and WHM as alternatives too). Life continues to be peachy as azumauta and I duo our BLM and RDM up to 75. Occasional talks with leadership are had about BLM progress and the amount of enthusiasm regarding the retirement of WHM and the ascension of BLM as one of my primary jobs. Then we get 75. Huzzah! Happy days! We show up to Limbus as BLM and RDM and azumauta is promptly asked to dig out her BRD, which she had sold all her gear for. She is then told that we were never told we were allowed to retire anything and that we are expected to come whatever jobs we are told to. The happy days are over. Let me get this straight. The leaders of a 2/wk Limbus shell - culminating to roughly 4 hours of gameplay time per week - expect us to keep every manaburn-eligible job we have adequately geared for their event and to bend to their will insofar as what job they want us to come, regardless of how much we like or hate that job, regardless of how much fun we would or would not have. Now, I understand that there's the whole LS efficiency argument. But quite frankly, unless I'm in an HNM, I don't expect anyone to be telling me what I can and can't retire. I'll happily come Job X, Y, Z if I keep them geared and enjoy them. But if I tell you, "I'm retiring Job A and won't ever use it again", you do not get to tell me no. If you do, you're a self-important douchebag of a leader, or at least deluding yourself into a sense of self-importance that isn't real. I'll happily use DRK, BLM, or THF for any event I do as required, but my PLD and WHM are off the table. I've never had any leader prior to this not respect my wishes on a subject like that. And that's really my issue with it - it's a matter of respect. I've run endgame events before; I ran Dynamis for about four months and I run Salvage now. I never make anyone come on a job that they won't enjoy. I expect them to keep me informed on what they enjoy and what they don't, and I in turn abide by their job selection rules. If gbeans told me she never wanted to come MNK to Salvage again, I'd abide by that. It'd suck a little, because MNKs rock there, but I'd abide by it because I respect her as a person and a player. I understand that there's a dislike going on, something that is not fun for that person, and it is my goal as a leader not just to acquire loot, but to make the process enjoyable for everyone - even if there's a minor efficiency sacrifice involved. But if that means we clear Zone X in 50 minutes instead of 42, I think I could swallow that if it means everyone has fun. If it means failure and we adapt to new strategies, that's acceptable too, because for me, the fun comes first. And to me, a better leader is a leader whose team has fun, not a leader whose team gets gear faster. If gear is your primary concern, then that's what you respect. If fun is your primary concern, then it's your people that you respect. So to EternalLight and Fawk and Sekzy, you can take your shell, you can take your unspoken, unposted rules about job selection, and you can shove them up your asses, because at the end of the day, I got what I wanted from you guys before you decided to outright lie to me and abuse any trust or loyalty I might have had for you and your linkshell. And to my friends still in that LS, I warn you to beware of the two-faced quality your leaders have shown me that they possess. I hope you never plan to retire the jobs you can use for EL, because if you do, you'll be in for a surprise when you're asked to come on it and get chewed out for not having it geared anymore. Goddamn this stupid fucking shit is really eroding at my desire to play this game lately. Current Mood: frustrated (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
11:55 am	Spring Comes Early Here... This really makes that quasi-decision to move back to the midwest harder... it's mid-February here and it feels like April does in the Midwest. The air has that spring scent on it, it's crisp, it's cool not cold... it's nice. That springy freshness is in the air, yum. We even aired the apartment out a little today, opening the windows for about a half-hour and letting fresh air clear out some of that winter staleness. Very, very nice. Not too much else going on. azumauta and I got a Netflix subscription earlier this month, so we've been indulging that. They stream a lot of their TV series and whatnot, so we streamed Season 1 of Heroes and she's been watching all of Xena (urk!) lately. We've got Transformers as our first movie and we have Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in our possession now. We're gonna get Spider-Man 3 after that, and past that I don't really care. And there's always stuff going on in ( FFXI... ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
5:50 pm	Fumbling Towards Coherence It's been awhile since I've written a real entry here... I figure now is as good a time as any, in the throes of misery via illness. I picked up some nasty cold/flu bug from work that's been kicking my ass this week. Onset was Friday and Saturday, it hit Sunday and it hit harder yesterday and today: enough so that I left work at 10am Monday and didn't go in today. I like to think that when I'm home sick I get stuff done - write, whatever, but generally I don't do anything and I feel unproductive. That feeling is semi-amplified by azumauta who has had a lot to do for her new job while I've been sick, haha. She doesn't mean it, obviously, but it makes me feel like I'm just sitting here coughing and moaning and twiddling my thumbs. But then again, I am sick. I always feel like I'm too hard on myself in terms of what I expect from myself, but at the same time, I am pretty sedimentary sometimes and I don't get as much done as I'd like... ho hum. On that note, I do need to get writing more so I can stop being a working bitch and be a stay-at-home-and-write-and-stuff bitch instead. I'm hoping that giving azumauta access to Ambivalence and the sci-fi epic will have her reading them and talking to me about them and that'll motivate me to write more and get shit published and be the writer I've always wanted to be. Not too much going on; life is actually going quite well. Work is still kind of boring, but I'm somewhat excited about my next project. Even then though... I'd love to be able work from home and be at home with azumauta all the time. Maybe that's greedy and unrealistic, but I feel like we should all be able to go after a dream like that if we want it bad enough. I just need to start trying harder, is all. More writing go! But it's so hard to do while I'm working full time too... oh well, worst case scenario is that I keep doing my thing until azumauta is rocking out her jobs and making enough money on her own that I can work from home without a major income expectation. I wouldn't mind being a house-husband one day if it means I have the time to write and potentially make the career I always wanted out of that. We started a Netflix subscription the other day, too, so if anyone has any movie recommendations they want to shoot our way, go ahead. We're gonna start by catching up on the big 3 summer movies we missed: Transformers, Pirates 3, and Spider-Man 3. I really hope I feel better tomorrow, I don't want to miss a third day of work =/ Current Mood: sick (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
12:40 pm	The day has come... I have officially switched my primary browser from IE to Firefox. I know, it took way too long. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 1st, 2008
6:31 pm	Football Joke So Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, and Tom Brady went to see God, and God asked Peyton Manning, "What do you believe?" He said, "I believe in family, winning, and going after everything you can when you got the opportunity." God said, "I like that belief, take a seat on my left side." He asked Brett Favre, "What do you believe?" He said, "I believe in winning, going after everything, taking care of family." He said, "Man, I really like that belief, sit on my right side." He asked Tom Brady, "What do you believe?" Tom Brady says, "I believe you're in my seat." Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
6:38 pm	FFXI Update! Not too much going on lately, but figured I could mention some of the awesome bits of FFXI goodness going on lately. I was pushing BLM really hardcore for awhile, then got to 71 and realized that with my gear I'd be best off soloing Wamouracampa and Black Puddings in Halvung, but that isn't so smart without Gravity, so BLM has been halted to finally level RDM to subjob level. It started off at 20, but I've been doing some solo work in Wings of the Goddess areas (and some duoing with azumauta's MNK) and got it up to 27 now. But solo areas have really died out expwise and I can't find anything that really works for solo at 27, so I'm seeking in Kazham as I type this. I'm not really expecting much on weeknights, but hoping at least over the weekend to get to 30+ or so. I could probably go back to BLM soloing with a gimp RDM sub, since Gravity is a lvl 21 RDM spell... but I'd rather have a full subjob, I'm sure I'll need it. Every little bit helps when soloing. Either way, I'm hoping to get RDM finished soon and then get BLM done within two weeks of that... we'll see. Meanwhile, I've done lots of campaign. Got my Copper Emblem of Service lately. When my BLM solo camps are taken or the RDM seeking situation looks bad, I just go campaign. PLD is an amazing job for it, since it does damage, takes damage, and can cure. An average Jugner [S] campaign nets me over 2k exp nowadays, I'll have to see how much the Emblem upgrade pushes me to. I have a hunch that by the last Emblem, I'll be able to get 3k exp on one of those really nasty battles with five or six waves. Here's hoping to that. Anyway, since I've done so much campaign, I've thrown all of it to merit points and that means I hit 9 merits twice, so I sunk those 18 merits into my DRK Group 2 merits, and last night finished them off entirely: I used my first set of 9 to finish off Desperate Blows, used my second set of 9 to finish off Muted Soul. With the Group 2 merits done, I'll be focusing on DRK Group 1 merits now - which means getting my last 3 merits in Last Resort Effect and then putting 5 merits into Last Resort Recast. That's... quite a bit of meriting yet, but campaign is a neat hobby to me that I enjoy doing when I'm not doing much else. Meanwhile, Limbus has finally paid off. Our first Proto-Omega with me at the front of the Homam legs line yielded, indeed, a Hind Leg of Omega. That's a big chunk of my eventual full TP/Haste build for THF and DRK, plus it means I can use those on PLD for campaign and re-store the PLD AF1 when I finish re-questing the body and feet... I really need to get off my ass and re-quest my PLD, THF and DRK AF that I've upgraded via Limbus. I upgraded 5/5 DRK, so that'd be re-quested just to have stored. THF I upgraded 3/5 of, so it'd open up 2 spaces, PLD I upgraded 2/5 of, so that would open 3 spaces... I suppose I'll get around to it eventually. Speaking of other events, my Dynamis LS did our second CoP zone and we definitely rocked it. Not only did we get the clear, but we ended up with a handful of AF2 accessories. In fact, Dynamis-Buburimu has possibly become my new favorite Dynamis zone. It's just so new and seems so easy from my vantage point. As opposed to Valkurm, which seems very frantic, Bubu is relaxed and has tons of farming involved. 2/3 Silvers for Dyna-Tav, woo. I sort of doubt we'll ever really do Tavnazia, we never really have less than 25 people, so people would have to sit out, and Tav just looks like a really really evil zone to attempt. I'll be happy farming the pre-Tav CoP zones for as long as the shell does, really. Not much else going on, FFXI-wise. Salvage continues to go on along. Lost our bard recently, but we're chugging along bard-less for our farming runs. We're doing about as well as normally, so it's not a huge hit on us. And I know when we do boss runs, I can get azumauta to come with us for some BRDing. I really want to see Arrapago be kind and drop a Morrigan 35 body and something else from the Chariot - either another Usukane 35 pants, or a Skadi 35 feet, or a Marduk 35 legs... any of them really. Once we get two more 35s from Arrpago, we'll probably stop doing that zone for awhile, either until people need 35s from there again, or until we start hitting up that boss... not sure yet if we'd go straight into farming LBC to get the corresponding 25s, or if we'd farm another zone like Bhaflau or Zhayolm. Probably a mix of farming Bhaflau and going for LBC. I do love Salvage, I just want to see Arrapago drop a couple more 35s so we can leave it alone for a bit, haha. To finish off though, a nice screen I took of Ketra and I when we were duoing BLM/RDM awhile ago, I think when my BLM was 68 and her RDM 67, on the Qiqirn in Aydeewa Subterrane. I think we look cute =P (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
11:04 am	Obligatory first post of the year Something something something it's kind of early and my mind is kind of foggy still. Last year was good. Big changes. Graduated from college, moved to Seattle to be with azumauta. Despite that, still felt like it was a pretty static year. I think 2008 will be another fairly static year, as I continue to pad my resume and search for a more ideal job. But these aren't things that I can magically make take less time, I just have to keep at it and wait it out. On the other hand, I need to remember sometimes that I'm only 23-24 and if there's any time for me to just sit back and be static, this should be it. The career and real job and stuff will come in time. I just have to keep working and moving in a positive direction and it'll all be okay. I don't have resolutions, I don't really do resolutions. I'd like to write more, get back on that ball. But I think I will when it's time... again, I'm reminding myself that I'm 23-24 and don't need to rush anything. I have time. I just need to relax and focus on what I'm doing and keep expanding my resume and make myself more marketable so I can get better jobs in the future. If I start writing for myself again, good for me. For me, I think, this is a year of maintaining a certain sense of stability and steadiness that began in the latter half of 2007. Just keep the ball rolling in the right direction and see what comes my way. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
11:06 am	Football Thoughts I haven't really updated much about football after I stopped doing picks, although I did picks at work for the weekly pool still. I was just really too lazy to update this, haha. Either way, I wanted to note some thoughts now that the season is more or less over and most of the playoff picture is settled. I'd discuss the Lions, but I think they'll continue to wallow in their mire of suck and misery for as long as Millen and Ford run the team, so I'm going to do my best next year to not get excited and then get horribly let down when the suck sets in. I hope they lose and lose and lose until things finally snap into place and they realize that the problems are in the front office and the ownership as much as they are on the field. So, I'll address some other things that I imagine will happen and what I think should happen with them. First up, Donovan McNabb. I think he's out of Philly and if that's the case, I think Minnesota needs to pick him up. Tavaris Jackson is a good QB, I think, and definitely the Vikings QB of the future, but I think he could really benefit from a solid mentorship, the kind that McNabb could provide. McNabb has to swallow his pride and take on a backup role, though. He's injury prone and inconsistent, but he is a proven winner. I think he has more value as a back-up/mentor than he does as a 16-game starter. I also think the Vikings could use his style of mobile play. A mobile QB + that awesome running game could leave a lot of open space downfield for receivers. For the Vikings to really be more complete though, they also need to pick up a quality veteran WR in free agency this year. They've got some good WRs, and I really like Sidney Rice, but he's a rookie and they need someone with some stature to play opposite him and to also play the mentor role a bit. Secondly, Randy Moss. He won't be a Patriot next year - unless he's willing to give up lots of money that other teams would give him, I think the Pats will continue their habit of letting big-money players go their own way. Besides, they don't -need- him. They have Stallworth, who is a fine downfield threat, and they'll still have Welker, who is more crucial to their game than Moss is, if you ask me. Moss in New England was a one-year experiment that, at worst, would hurt no one and be a minimal loss for NE (Moss is only making like 2-3 mil this year) and at best would yield a Super Bowl title. The Pats get another championship and Moss gets his dignity and position as a top-tier NFL WR back. Now they'll part ways because both got what they wanted from this fleeting romance. It has been beneficial to both, but it's not something that is meant to last for long. The only question is where will Moss go... wouldn't it be spiffy if he went back to Minnesota? I doubt it, but that'd be pretty crazy and it would make that team really scary, especially if they pick up McNabb like I suggest above. Other teams with serious QB needs include Chicago and Atlanta. But both teams need to start from scratch and draft them. There are some good QB prospects out this year, unlike last year's dismal (in my opinion) selection of 1st QBs. Brian Brohm and Colt Brennan could both be first rounders. Chicago needs to give up on Grossman, I think, and trade him off. Keep Griese in a backup role, let Orton play (see if he's worth anything, he only took them 11-5 in his rookie year) and spend a year or two training a rookie QB for the future. Atlanta should stick with Harrington, he's played well. Dispose of Leftwich and keep Redman as a backup and train your rookie as well. What else? Oh, Cleveland. People are saying they should trade Derek Anderson after this magnificent season he's had. I say keep him. There's risk either way, of course. Anderson could be a one-season flash in the pan and bust for them next year and have no trade value afterwards. Or he could be a total stud, the real deal, and get traded away and win elsewhere, while Cleveland struggles with the growing pains of Brady Quinn. I say play it safe, keep Anderson for a couple years, see what he's made of, and keep Quinn in reserve. Of course, my decision is influenced by my believe that Quinn will be an NFL bust (he never won a big game in college). All in all, it's been a fun NFL season. But the season always just hypes me up for the offseason, which to me is equally interesting, if not more so... watching all the moves teams make to try and improve. Then see them play out in the season, bust or not, then get hyped up for another offseason of changes. It's always amazing to watch a team like the Patriots make stunningly awesome offseason moves and then watch them pan out great, then watch a team like the Lions make moves that seem good, but don't pan out. So fascinating. Oh, and if Adrian Peterson and Patrick Willis don't get offensive/defensive rookie of the year, respectively, I'll be shocked shitless. I also predict the Pats go undefeated and the Packers to win the Super Bowl. We'll see, we'll see... there's lots of football left to play. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
8:22 pm	Quick FFXI update Quick FFXI update from the past weekend, before I bust out the crop and get azumauta making dinner finally! Hahaha. Maybe the other way around, if anything... ;) Anyway, this was another great weekend in FFXI! We made our third Dynamis-Valkurm attempt, after two failures. We'd been reassured that Valkurm was the hardest of the CoP zones (barring Tavnazia, I figure), but we finally conquered it! Even better was that the boss decided to be kind and drop its wad for mewingnorthstar, finally giving her the payday she deserved from it. I think I get to sponsor most stuff through the holidays now and maybe a bit beyond too, depending on when we hit a northlands zone again or when we do a CoP zone again. I'm psyched, it gives me some opportunity to get some big boosts in Apocalypse progress, and indeed, a wonderful Dynamis-Bastok last night netted me about 420 byne bills, taking me above 3200 towards Stage 4, putting me over the halfway mark there. I'm looking forward to more, but for now, I'm pretty content with this... ...and hoping to add the other two silvers to my collection soon :) The other big event of the weekend is, of course, Salvage. We hit up Arrapago and Silver Sea like usual and hit 35 gold for the second straight week, earning our second 35 as a group and thankfully, it's another one we needed. Congrats to gbeans on her first 35, hoping to see more kindness from Arrapago over the next few weeks so that we can put that zone on hiatus for awhile and complete some pieces. I'm really hoping to see a Morrigan 35 body and Skadi 35 feet drop and then I'll be really content to start attempting LBC in Bhaflau Remnants. It'll take a few practice runs before we get him down, but I have total faith in us that we can do it. The NM Chariot above is giving everyone great practice in fighting chariots and I think a few thousand more HP and an additional TP move will be well within our capabilities to handle soon. We are getting very fucking good at Arrapago though. Not good enough to clear NMs + Boss or anything, but enough to clear all the NMs we want and then have time leftover. It's good progress. Silver Sea still sucks for drops, though. I'd really like to see Hammerblow drop the 35 Usukane head for us so we can start avoiding him and save some time, but alas, he's a stingy fucker. Oh, and BLM is up to 63. Been soloing that when I can and I think if I make myself any major FFXI-related project over the time off I'm getting for the holidays, I'll make it to get BLM to 75. As long as camps are free and I have the time, I can get to 75 extremely quickly... solo BLM exp is absolutely amazing, I typically gain a level and a half any night I go exp it ardently. Then I can hopefully completely retire WHM and PLD and be a permanent BLM fixture at Limbus, which is the only place I ever pull WHM or PLD out. One can hope. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 14th, 2007
6:10 pm	Update! This is mostly FFXI related, but all things aside from that, RL is going just dandy. Won my football pool at work last week and scored a cool $175 from it. Past that, not much else to really say much about other than to congratulate azumauta on her new job :) Work is still fine by me. Life is good. So, FFXI. Salvage has really turned the corner lately. Drops have still been few and far between, but that's the nature of the beast so it's to be expected. We've been drilling Arrapago + Silver Sea on Sundays now, doing one of each every Sunday (when we run). For some weird reason, we do really well in Arrapago, so I want to keep the momentum there, and then Silver Sea is a better, more balanced, more gear-oriented zone to learn on too. Plus both zones have 35s that people want. At any rate, we've gotten to the point that we can clear all of the NMs we attempt in Arrapago Remnants. Usually we spend about 30-35 minutes on the 1st floor getting Praecipitatio and Opacus cells for every we can, usually clearing most of the SE and SW wings before porting up from the SW. After that we take down the QQA on the 2nd floor, then bounce up to the 3rd. We clear part of the north path, if anything to get some Virga cells for our mages with the Aht Urhgan ring, then I send someone ahead to get the QQTH to head to the group, where it is Gravityed and fought. If we beat it fast, we go up, if we are unable to, we still go up. Fourth floor is generally skipped except for the QQTH there, since we don't need any Morrigan or Ares head pieces yet. Then we usually spend the rest of our time on the fifth floor to get the QQA there and the Archaic Chariot there. My group has no experience fighting Chariots, so that NM Chariot is great practice, plus drops two 35s our group wants. When we're on top of our game, we can probably do all of this with about 5-10 minutes to spare. Silver Sea is trickier, we usually go after Hammerblow and then Powderkeg, then finish on the Gyroscopic Gears x3, since all 3 of those guys drop 35s we want. When we start moving faster we might try skipping them, since I really want to get up to the 4th floor to get at CC too, but for now we stick with these guys as we get a better feel for the zone and how we work together. We still struggle a bit here, but we're definitely doing better and better. I think we can clear the first 3 floors hitting the NMs mentioned above with probably 10-15 minutes left if we're on top of our game. On the plus side of life, after doing this for about two months now (I think?), Arrapago decided to kindly bestow our first 35 on us... And being that I'm first in line for an Ares Cuirass (my main goal in Salvage)... I'm definitely pretty happy with that. I have a Zhayolm Card in my Mog Locker waiting to get me the Enyo's Cuirass whenever I feel like having the group take that detour in Silver Sea, but I'll probably wait to do that until we get the Phobos's Cuirass, and I do believe it will be some time before we start hunting down LBC in Bhaflau... at least not until we have two other 25s we want from him. I'm not in any rush for my Cuirass anyway, I'm still a good 20 Khroma Ores away from being able to make it anyway :) On that note, have put off the mining hobby in order to get back on BLM. I'm getting more and more tired with doing WHM in Limbus, so I need to get BLM done. I got up to 61 late last week, so I'm done in Newton Movalpolas for the time being. For now I'm going to be working from Bibiki Bay, but it seems to get crowded there sometimes, so it'll be slow going, I imagine. Meanwhile, I've been enjoying what little content there is in Wings of the Goddess. I like the expansion so far, but there's not a whole lot to like or dislike. I enjoy Campaign, because it's a steady stream of exp without meriting, and I can do other things while I do or wait for Campaign. Over the past few days I've made about 4 merits worth of exp doing it, so it's probably going to be my primary means of meriting, since it's more my speed than a super-awesome-hectic-great merit party. While I enjoy meriting, I enjoy being able to Campaign for exp and do other things as I do it more. I'm not looking to get tons of merits all at once... if all of my DRK-related merits are finished by the time I finish Apocalypse, I'll be happy, and that's a ways off yet. I'm looking forward to more content from Wings, but I realize that probably won't be until a March update or so. For now I'll enjoy Campaign and hold faith in more coming in the future... the story has potential and I'm enjoying is there so far. It's also pretty neat seeing some of the Aht Urhgan NPCs in the past, like Zazarg and Naja's drill sergeant. I'm not planning on levelling Dancer or Scholar... I'll take Dancer to 10 like I do any job, and Scholar might see 40 since it might be a viable WHM or BLM subjob, but I have other jobs to worry about... once BLM hits 75 I plan to go crazy meriting on that for awhile to get BLM properly merited and so that DRK gets finished out. THF could use some more merits too. After the merit extravaganza, I'll probably get RDM and DRG to 40 and then take either WAR or DRG to 75... both in time, not sure which first. I might take them both to 60 first though, so that I can snag AF2 that freelots. We'll see, that's all pretty far down the road yet. Apocalypse count is as such: Dynamis Scythe is the current form; 2789/6200 Bynes for fourth stage, 2809/7000 Whiteshells for final stage. A bunch of city runs will bolster that significantly in the future, but for now the progress has been slow but steady and that's fine too. Hoping to finish it by my birthday (5/28), but we'll see. I'll try to update more often, so someone poke at me more often to take memorable screenshots... keider has just got me thinking that it just isn't a proper FFXI update unless there are spiffy screenshots. Oh well. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
4:45 pm	Wow. Barring Michigan sucking... THIS HAS BEEN THE GREATEST SEASON OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL EVER. Seriously. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
2:13 pm	*dusts it off* Oh right, it has been awhile. I wish I had some spiffy images for the FFXI-related part of this update, but I don't, oh well. All text all the time. In real life, things are much as they always are. I'm still game testing at Nintendo, which is pretty decent. It's not super or great, but for now it's reliable and there are far worse jobs. I've started doing some freelance writing on the side as well now to pad my resume more than my income. azumauta and I are planning on moving back to the Midwest, to Minneapolis really, in a couple years and by then I'm hoping to have enough writing references or experience on my resume to land a good writing-related job in Minneapolis and really delving into a real career there. I'm not sure if I'll have the time in Seattle to really get into anything job-wise, but at least I have freelance opportunities to build on and work my way into something bigger down the road. As far as the move goes, we've decided that since (most of) our families are in Minneapolis, we should be there too. Seattle is nice, but it's expensive and the only family we have here is her dad... in Minneapolis we have her brothers and my mom and probably my sister by the time we move out there. Since we're homebodies, we don't see much logic in staying in a place where we are, besides one person, without many friends or people to rely on. At least in Minneapolis, if we don't go out and be social and make friends, we'll always have multiple family members to fall back on. So the plan is to stay here for a couple years, pay off our debts, then comfortably make a move to Minneapolis once I have landed a job there (I'll seek from here when we decide we're ready and have my Mom do some major networking for me). But things are good here and life continues moving on. Football is interesting, but I don't have the attention span right now to keep updating picks. It was one thing last year when I was competing with liberalkami, but since he's not competing with me this year, I just can't find motivation to analyze picks early and then post them up. But I've been paying close attention and was very disappointed to see the Lions lose today... they'll probably go 8-8 this season now, maybe 9-7 if they're lucky. I just don't see them going 4-2 down the hardest part of their schedule. And then there's FFXI... not too much going on there either. It's a regular pattern of Dynamis, Limbus and Salvage, with some Assault squeezed in. PLD is 75 now and I've been busy capping exp on that via skilling up. Club got capped, Polearm got capped, Staff is almost there. Quested Black Halo and Retribution for fun. I'm somewhat frustrated with the game at the moment, with some of those frustrations relating to Dynamis and some that had been relating to Limbus, although those got cleared up. Salvage has become an interesting activity for me and my friends. We came in pretty green but we've been doing better and better. We can farm most 35s we try to, but the real challenge lies ahead - we poked a zone boss once for fun and it wasn't pretty. I'll be interested to see what happens when we poke one for real. But when we tailor a whole run to clearing the boss and we set up our jobs for that, I'm sure it'll go differently than taking a set of people prepared to farm 35s up against the boss. I would be lying if I said my motivation in FFXI is a little lacking lately... I'm playing more out of habit at the moment than I am out of motivation or eagerness, I think. It shows in my lack of excitement for Wings of the Goddess... I think in a lot of ways I was just so disappointed in the Aht Urhgan expansion that I'm not sure what this will bring. Aht Urhgan did a lot of good things, but it was a let-down to me after Promathia. We'll see. I'm going to keep playing unless I get totally disillusioned with the game, but with azumauta playing other things and my own motivation being less than usual... it's hard to say what it'll take to turn it around. I'm probably just a little burnt out, but I don't have anything sitting on my shelf that really is grabbing my attention and pulling me away from FFXI, either. Usually when I'm burning out, I have some single-player game that rivets me for awhile until I'm excited about FFXI again. We'll see. Part of it too is probably a lack of a solid LS environment, too. I sit around alone in Takara most days, which is fine, I like the quiet, and I talk to my friends via /tells. MoonlitPath doesn't do it for me, despite being a lot of Howitzer, but despite how much I like Howitzer as a shell, there's a lot of people there that I'm just not interested in knowing on a social level. I'll figure it all out eventually, I suppose. For now, at least, the events keep me going and my overall enjoyment of the game hasn't lessened. I probably just need to finish all my stuff on PLD and get going on a new job to 75 or some change of pace like that which will get me all excited again... you can only stay so excited for Steelshells for so long, after all =P With any luck, some fun stuff will happen in Salvage in the near future. Maybe we'll rip a Deimos's Cuirass out of a Qiqirn Astrologer. That'd be neat shit! Although, we did see Skirmish Pephredo three times in one Bhaflau run awhile ago, too bad he's such a stingy bastard. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 20th, 2007
6:45 pm	2007 NFL Predictions: Week 7 Coming in at 51-38. Maybe one day I'll get around to posting some thoughts, like how I think the Patriots are pretty much as invincible as an NFL team can be and how I'm really interested to see how the Lions do against the Buccaneers coming off their bye. Arizona at Washington Atlanta at New Orleans Baltimore at Buffalo New England at Miami San Francisco at NY Giants Tampa Bay at Detroit Tennessee at Houston Kansas City at Oakland NY Jets at Cincinnati Chicago at Philadelphia Minnesota at Dallas St. Louis at Seattle Pittsburgh at Denver Indianapolis at Jacksonville Good Sunday and Monday night games this week, woot. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 14th, 2007
9:55 am	2007 NFL Predictions: Week 6 Coming in a little late this week because I'm a lazy bastard. Cincinnati at Kansas City Houston at Jacksonville Miami at Cleveland Minnesota at Chicago Philadelphia at NY Jets St. Louis at Baltimore Tennessee at Tampa Bay Washington at Green Bay Carolina at Arizona New England at Dallas Oakland at San Diego New Orleans at Seattle NY Giants at Atlanta Thoughts and whatnot coming sometime next week. My mark after last week is 44-32. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 7th, 2007
7:03 am	Early on the West Coast Shiiiiiiiiiit, I don't get up this early. I mean, I do, for work, but even then... for whatever random reason the universe set forth, I woke up around 5:30am today... after going to bed at 1:30am or so. I guess it was just balancing me out for sleeping 11 hours or so on Friday night. On the plus side, I'll be good and tired and able to sleep on time tonight to get up on the usual work schedule tomorrow. Kinda funny, though - Saturday morning, azumauta woke up a fair bit before me and took care of all the morning stuff and closed the bedroom door for me so I could get good sleep without disruption. Today the slipper's on the other foot and I'm doing all the morning stuff and letting her get good sleep without disruption, ha ha. Let's see... life. I like fall. The cold part sucks, but other than that, it can be pretty nice. After the warm summer subsides, it's great to pull out the crock pot and get back to cooking chili and stews and soups and other things that I can just let sit all day long and eat whenever, then have tons of leftovers. Yesterday was stew. Spent about an hour prepping everything - making the beef broth and then cutting the potatoes, carrots, onion and green beans. Then just sliced the meat a little finer than it already was and browned it like usual (didn't do such a great job on that, actually) and then tossed it all in the crock pot. It ended up full to the brim, which isn't a great thing, but it all turned out great. Added a bit more than a tsp of salt and a bit less than a tsp of pepper, tossed in a pinch of garlic powder and basil because I saw them on the spice rack and they sounded good, and let it cook on high for about four hours and then simmer on low for about two. Turned out great - everything was so tender it was virtually falling apart in your mouth. Flavor was spot on, although the stew overall was a little greasy because I screwed up a bit browning the meat. But it all turned out great, so I was pretty happy. Only downside was that some of it bubbled over the inner pot of the crock pot into the metal outer pot and so there was a nice layer of burnt crap on the bottom I had to clean up last night, but it was worth it... plus it taught me not to overfill the pot next time! Then again, I think it's just adjusting to a smaller crock pot size than the one I had when I was living with Paige and Eric. I'll have to keep that in mind. My philosophy with cooking is generally along the lines of "more is better", but sometimes your tools just can't handle that, ha ha ha. Not too much else going on. Chugging along in general. Haven't felt great all weekend, but I think whatever was slowing me down Friday got slept off. Woke up a little groggy and rough-around-the-edges on Saturday, but feeling pretty good today despite lack of sleep. Weird though, it's 7:30am and I only have about 2.5 hours til football. I was going to play Persona 3 a bit but I got all caught up in writing this and distracting a certain durpy black cat who shall remain nameless so that he wouldn't yowl at the bedroom door and wake up azumauta. Dumbass cat. Oh well. Guess I'll probably watch the ESPN Sunday Pre-game stuff when it comes on and futz about in FFXI. (Comment on this)