Pyra's Party Place

Why a spork?  Because I’ve always been amused by that word.  As my first aside of this post, do a google image search for “spork in the road”.

My tagline on the blog has been “There’s a lost soul coming down the road, Somewhere between two worlds” which sometimes loses the apostrophe in “There’s” during WordPress upgrades (the original tagline was “Updated Reguarly, Except When It’s Not”).  It comes from a song by “Bruce Hornsby” named “Lost Soul”, and was included on the album I purchased “Greatest Radio Hits”.  It is a very good song, but somewhat depressing (one of the lines is “He said he was a lost soul didn’t fit in anywhere”.

The original reason behind it was the two worlds we all exist in – the real world and the game world – and how we are all divided into two existences, and the balance that must be achieved to do what you want to do and need to do in both.

Or I might have been drunk and thought the song sounded good.

At another point, it may have been to describe being torn between two games, FFXI and WoW.

And now, oddly enough due to some of the people I met in WoW, it describes two servers in FFXI.

As horrible as my original experience was on Diabolos, I’ve always been somewhat torn after leaving the old server.  As much as I love Caitsith, there were a few friends on Diabolos who I still miss, much more so after playing WoW.

I’ll explain.

The group who I joined up with in WoW used to play on Diabolos.  I was briefly in their shell, and I didn’t really know them well at all.

A few of the people I met in this WoW guild went back to Diabolos.  One of them was someone who I really became good friends with.  We had the same classes on WoW and would compare gear/notes/builds.  Ok, so more often than not I was doing the learning.

While playing my 14-day trial for FFXI, this player helped us out, getting our sub-job items.  His THF is very well geared.  It made me miss mine, which is not as geared, but still a lot of fun to play.

After talking with him again, it made me somewhat torn.  There is much I miss from Diabolos (people mostly, and most of those I couldn’t stand have left the game/server).

I said my goodbyes today as my 14-days will be up before I am able to play again.  But it got me back into the game, so I guess it wasn’t a total loss.

He did say something interesting though – if he didn’t have so many friends on Diabolos, he’d probably join me on Caitsith.  In a way, I feel the same.  If I didn’t have my friends on Caitsith, I’d at least consider moving back.  My former shell regrouped, and I was basically given an invitation back (not sure I’d join though, but I hadn’t thought about it really).  I know for one thing, I’d miss my Dynamis shell.  They have been around for a while and can get zones cleared and relic to fall.  And its fun.

Not even going to think about how much I’d miss my Limbus group.  Without either group or the people in it, there would probably not be much of a decision.  While I wasn’t playing, it was the people I missed the most.

But, I have not felt this torn between the two servers since I initially left Diabolos.  And all due to some people I met playing WoW.

Whodathunk?

Like when I originally planned my departure, I am presented with opportunity no matter which decision I make, and will (probably) be missing out on good times with whichever group I’m not a part of.  It is kind of sad in a way, but I can’t see me leaving Caitsith anytime soon.

I hate this feeling.

-pyra

Tags: Decisions, FFXI, Random Thoughts

On a side note, photoshop doesn’t appear to be handling my screenshots anymore.  It is really slow when opening anything over 6MPix in size.

Last Saturday while playing on my 14-day trial, I was invited to attend a Dynamis with the group I used to play with on Diabolos, now called LastBoss.  I went as a White Mage and it is the first time I’ve been a White Mage in Dynamis in nearly 2 years.

It really was like riding a bike.  I guess since I’ve been playing White Mage since summer of 2005 it was all muscle memory.  It probably also helps that I had a backup copy of my macros from my old computer and was able to get back to what I was used to quickly.

The group is new, and had some trouble.  They also only had about 20 people in the zone, excluding myself.

At least we got to the Angry Tuna…

At least it wasn’t my fault?

Anyways, after this, I was ready to restart the Pyra.

I logged on to Caitsith just in time to go kill Roc.

ToD was sometime that doesn’t matter anymore because the server was reset.

I then got to go and do Limbus with my old group.  I missed them.  But lets not tell them that, it makes it harder for me to negotiate for more cookies.

I have to admit, losing my Thief and Monk macros made this tough.  I barely remember what gear I had to switch and when (if I remember right, both had significantly more gear swap macros than my White Mage ever did).  I was casting spells and using JAs and WSs from the menus again like a common noob.  I might be somewhat nooby again, but I’m far from ‘common’ .  Limbus was really fun, and it was hardly about the items, it was just about having fun with some old friends.

On Sunday night, I went back into Dynamis with KillerInstinct.  We did a Jeuno.  After I’d spent half the day writing new Thief macros, I ended up going as a Monk.  However…

I was a little disappointed.  The other one only hit me for 700ish.  My monk has ~1600 HPs in Dynamis gear (and I was /WAR)

I noticed a few things after my extended absence –

1. I can’t remember what is ‘good’ for damage anymore.  My asurans were hitting for ~450-500, and I was pulling hate, but I thought they should be double that
2. The economy has gone crazy.  Most ancient currencies have doubled in price while I was away.  I’m sure not complaining though, as I had a bunch on Pyra which I’ve sold to gain some pocket change.
3. Thief evasion is still as amazing as always.  Because I need inventory space, I went and completed the first two Young Griffons quests.  The second requires you to fight a NM with a high counter rate.  Well, he barely hit me on my Thief (ok so I added about +17 evasion skill and wore some of my normal +eva gear).
4. I need to completely rewrite my Thief and Monk macros.  They needed it before, but it feels like such a daunting task.

Anyways, enjoy your Moogle Coup of State and update.  I’m going on vacation in a few days, and so won’t be even starting the 2 mini expansions for about a month.

-pyra

Tags: Caitsith, Diabolos, Dynamis, EternalMemories, FFXI, KillerInstinct, Limbus, Random Thoughts

Well, I’m having trouble sleeping and decided to make this post.

After my last post about being off for a month, temptation got the best of me and I signed up for a 14-day trial.

I can admit that there have been many changes since I last really paid attention, and most of them have been for the better.  In only a few days I’m already level 14 and have my subjob items.  My gear is still total crap, as it took just about all of the money I had managed to accumulate (a vast sum of 7K) to buy the basic armor.  Oh and I accidentally found a check box in the config which will disable your sound.  And then I somehow unchecked this box.

I’m playing with some people who I got to know from WoW.  I have to admit, this is the first time in a while I’ve really said that I need to go reactivate Pyra now.

At the same time, its quite sad that my friend from WoW (who is a THF in FFXI) far outgears my own THF, even though he had stopped playing a year or so before I did.  They are quite a good group of people.  Maybe I can convince them to move to Caitsith.

It is, however, disappointing that the friend to whom I loaned my WHM account to has decided to sell some of my old items and keep the money.  The account was loaned so he could PL himself and run a salvage group with 1 less person.  He was also free to use the crafting skills or use the character to farm with as much as he wanted.  I don’t even mind that he made money in the server transfer (our original deal was that he could transfer the account to his server, but would pay to transfer it to a server of my choosing when I took the account back).  But not to sell the items and keep the money, at least not yet.  Especially when he asked me if he could sell it and I said ‘no’.  At least he didn’t unsign my gear.

It really was my fault.  I knew how he is and I let him use the account anyway.  Oh well, if all I lose out of this is a few items I wasn’t really using even when I still played, I’m doing well, and in reality, all I know for sure that he sold was my Uggalepih Pendant (which is worth 700K on Diabolos and only 480K on Caitsith) and some misc crafting materials that I wasn’t able to sell.

Tags: FFXI, Real Life

Its been about a month since I had an active MMO account at all, and about 6 1/2 months since I had an active FFXI account.

The best word to describe this is Freeing. I started feeling like I had to login every day to work on my character, and upset if I couldn’t make any progress. My feelings on FFXI are fairly clearly posted last August. It is also my most linked to post on this blog. With 2 outside links. Wooo.

The truth is, part of me really misses much of the games. But I do miss FFXI more than WoW. Had I never moved to Caitsith or discovered the AI linkshell on Diabolos, I doubt this would be the case. My experience up until that point, especially end game, was very negative.

But it is true that after a while you really only remember the good times and forget the bad. It was not all good times, and the horrible drop rates in events like Limbus and sky and other non-dynamis things are what really keeps me from coming back right now. Also the somewhat frustrating mistake I made nearly 5 years ago now when I made my first account. I have many times I wish I had all of the gear on just 1 account, but there were times when having 2 accounts also had its advantage. Given the chance, I’d merge them onto Pyra. But I know this would never happen. I could re-level some of the jobs, but the thought of trying to get another yinyang robe just makes me cringe.

Then there are the non-instanced events. It is so insanely idiotic that these haven’t been instanced at this point, I really have no words for it. If I came back, I also don’t look forward to the Nyzul grind for my new WSes and gear. My disk is still on floor 1, and getting help with that would not be fun. I haven’t even purchased the Crystaline Cut Scene yet either. Its not about the gear, just the frustration factor that comes from the huge effort to get anything done in FFXI. It was something I did not miss during my time in WoW.

Not that it matters much for the next few months, my schedule wouldn’t allow me to do much of anything. And my gear and other supplies are spread across several servers at this point, and a friend is abusing my WHM account for farming up a few mil in a few days.

Edit: I put this into “Real Life”, then didn’t include much from my Real Life.

I bought a new camera a few months ago, a Nikon D300 if you care, and have put about 3000 pictures across it already — considering I used to average 1500/year, that’s a lot.

Since I quit FFXI, I’ve lost about 23 lbs. Which is probably only about half way back to my pre-FFXI levels.

I also get a lot more sleep than I used to get, which is never a bad thing .

I’m still here. I still check my comments and the blog that I loved writing for so long. It is sad that there isn’t much here in the past few months.

I have, however, started a new blog. But it isn’t for a video game character, it is for me. One of the things I loved for so long was photography. And I have years worth of images that have not been sorted, mostly due to spending too much time playing video games.

So I’m restarting my photo blog. And finally using this domain for what I bought it for, displaying my photos.

Please check out the SDO Photo Blog. “Sphericality” was a name I came up with in college… while drunk I think. I found it somewhat creative, but have never been fully comfortable with the name. It is based on “Sphere of Influence”, of which the domain was taken. I call it “Photography in Plain English”, which was somewhat inspired by something a friend of mine said at work recently. “I like reading your blurbs about how you made the image”.

Maybe I’ll update it regularly this time.

If photography isn’t your thing, well, I can respect that. I thank you for reading my ramblings, looking at my screenshots, and listening to my thoughts over the past few years.

All the best-
-pyra

Tags: FFXI

I do so love the Hooters. Currently listening to their greatest hits album.

I’ve started the Merry Mead House blog. I’m going to handle it differently than I handled the Party Place. The biggest difference is that I won’t be self-hosting. Following the WP updates was getting a bit tiresome. I want to have someone else handle it. The second biggest difference will be speed. The WP servers are faster at serving up WP blogs than my shared hosting.

Other than that, and a new theme that I’m still getting some things set up for, the site is ready to go. Please enjoy.

But the good news is that I managed to resuscitate the old computer for a few hours. So I’ve re-gained access to my old screenshots folder. I’ve also set up my laptop to be able to edit images (PhotoShop) and edit/upload posts (Windows Live Writer).

My laptop is quite nice, was a wise purchase.

Other than that, I’m trying a new 15 year old scotch. It is yummy.

Since I haven’t had a real post in about 2 months now, and no one visits anymore, it is a good time to shut this all down.

As some know, I quit FFXI at the end of December. While I’m sure many will accuse me of quitting due to the so-called ‘blood price nerf’, this is not the case. If you scroll down 2 entries you can see where I basically announced that I would be quitting at the end of December. This was posted in early November, about a month before the nerf in question.

I am, however, glad that I was able to stop playing on my own terms.

Sadly, my computer died a few days before Christmas, and my account ran out before I could log back on, so my characters now have about 2 mil that will go to waste. I am also quite sad that I wasn’t able to say farewell to a few friends. Such is life, I suppose.

I played this game for nearly 4 and a half years. I started July 7, 2004. I don’t regret playing one bit, it was a lot of fun.

The one thing I do regret is that 2 of my 3 most treasured items will not live on. I did have some expensive toys, but they did not have the meaning of two very special items. Since my computer is still dead, I have lost access to my old screenshots, but here is what they are:

A NQ Scorpion Harness, signed by Radool. Radool was a good friend. I managed to come into some money from a lucky Under Observation run, and he was kind enough to sign my Scorp Harness for me. It is one of my favorite items of all time, I only wish I was able to tell him this.

The second item is a NQ Noble’s Tunic, signed by Chumley. Chumley was one of those people who you just wish you were. No, not because he was loaded up with gear or whatnot, but because he was probably one of the most sincere, nice, and honest players you could ever want to know.

The third item will live on. This is a HQ chocobo tunic signed by Ata. I was making some for my mules one time and this accidentally HQ’d. I kept it for a while, but gave it to my old friend Wolfreign before I left Diabolos. As far as I know, he still has it. I really hope he does, as it is one of the few items I ever managed to HQ.

Beyond that, I do wish I had a chance to give away some other items. My Thief’s dagger collection could be put to good use without me, and some of the Monk, White Mage, and Summoner non-ex gear would absolutely be put to better use than sitting on a canceled account.

Do I think I’ll be back? Who knows. As we all know, the future is far from certain. In the mean time, I’m going to place this blog into a read-only mode. It will still be here, but new comments will be shut off shortly and the files and database made read-only. I’m also planning on actually using this domain for what I had intended when I purchased it — a place for my photos.

Other than that, I didn’t quit WoW. They kept giving me free time, so I kept playing, and got re-hooked. I’m having fun, which is what is important. I don’t have a new blog for the WoW character, and I may not make one.

Time will tell.
-pyra

Enjoy (couldn’t find the uncensored version, sorry)

Tags: SNL

After much thought, and even more frustration, I’ve decided to cancel both my FF and my WoW accounts.

After being corpse camped again in WoW to the point where I had to just log out, that growing hatred of PvP came back. I decided I was done. I can’t bring myself to commit to an alliance character, and there are no good horde guilds on non-PvP worlds, which leaves all of nothing left for me to play. I quit all my guilds and made a corpse out of my main character in the middle of Shatt. I do not intend on logging on except maybe to re-corpse after the servers reset.

Then I went to FF for Dynamis. At this point, I realized that the only game I might hate more than WoW at that moment, is FF. I was there out of a sense of obligation to my friends, more than any sort of desire to be there.

My WoW account expires at the end of this month, and my FF will be canceled before the new year. I’m not deleting anything, as there is always the chance I may return to one or both. I’m just going inactive for a while.

Since I’m not going to be playing anymore, this will be the last post here, aside from a handful of pictures that I intended to post and may still. I’ve been neglecting the rest of my life for far too long.

All that’s left to say is ‘So long, and thanks for all the fish’.