Video logging?

I'm thinking about it folks.

But if I do, it'll be during the next year.

Then i've got to think about what I want to Vlog.

Then i'll start doing it :).

Can't be bothered.

Seriously, after all of yesterdays troubles.

I can't be bothered to edit this news piece.

Sure, I can slap together a few bits of footage and call it my feature story, but it wont be anywhere near as good as my hard news story.

Well, thats how I feel.

I've been here at Confetti since 12:30, and all i've mostly done is youtube and facebook.

But mainly, my reasons for not being bothered are:

• I want to really finish off my film and audio work.
• News... just isn't in me i'm afraid, sorry Jen, it just isn't.
• Somehow my DV tape that had the footage on got damaged.

...

Huh?

My DV got damaged?

Who?

When?

How?

Funny that, i've had my tape in its case in my bedroom for 3 weeks, how did it get damaged? I don't remember exposing it to light or anything.

I believe that all technology have their own little minds and find the opportune moment to really pi$$ you off. It seems to be true, too many "unexplained" things have happened in this world.

Well, at least I have Monday and Friday to look forward to. Next week is gonna be a CRAZY week.

Well... bugger me

I don't think you guys know yet, but as part of my second year, I am doing a news Module where I am given 3 weeks to research, script, film and edit a news story. And then I have to make 5 news story categories and put them into one whole news package.



Anyway, 2 weeks have passed since we were given this 3 week assignment.



Now i'm on my last week.



...with nothing filmed or edited.



Good going Chris, procrastination ftl.



My only reason for not getting this news story filmed is mainly week 2 where I was doing this podcast for trent FM.



Oh dears! Not a good time to choose to do a podcast now is it?


But now that I have been put in this really tight situation, i've now only got a week left to film, interview and film all of the footage I need to edit to hand in for Monday.

Not to mention that i've barely started my Genre Essay... Not that its hard, but still, the fact that i've barely made an effort is rather... sad?

I only have 2 more weeks to hand in everything!

Anyway, back onto the subject.

So yesterday, I was looking through news article after news article to find something to do my feature news story on. After looking for 2 days and not seeing anything that particularly interests me...

BAM!

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Leicester's Bowstring Bridge. PERFECT!

The bridge is quite close to where I live, so getting GVs is easy. Even phoned up Stuart Bailey and got an interview easily.

At the time I was thinking "Oh my god! This is awesome!". As i've clearly expressed, I was very happy.

Then after that, Wednesday just seemed to turn extremely weird from there...

The first thing was forgetting to take the kit I booked out with me (!?), I only remembered after I bought some KFC and my news story came across my mind, and my exact thought was:

"I could have sworn I was meant to carry more than this..."

So I headed back to confetti to pick up my kit. Weird, because i've never forgotten kit that i've booked out... so I thought that was the worst of it over.

No.

Such.

Luck.

For THURSDAY just took the piss.

In a list, this is how Thursday went, from 12:00.

2:00: Finally decided to log off FFXI after doing Salvage.

2:01: Just realised that I hadn't watched Waterloo Road. So decided to watch it.

2:59: Waterloo Road finished and then decided to watch Bleach... and didn't. So I watched =3 instead.

4:30: Fell asleep, well, i'm sure I fell asleep around this time. Yes, I watched =3 for an hour and a half.

8:30: Wake up reasonably late, considering I wanted to be up at 7:30...

9:20: Leave my house to catch the bus to the train station.

9:54: Arrived just outside of the station, keep in mind, this is when the train LEAVES the station.

When all hope was lost, I decided to wait for the next train, then find out the train I wanted was actually delayed, and I was minutes from missing the delayed train.

10:05: JUST made it to the train, and even though I was partially late for my interview, I thought everything would be okay.

10:15: MADE IT to Loughborough (you didn't know before, so you do now), now for the easy bit, to get to-

To get to-

???

OH F^*K! I completely forgot where I was going and lost my sense of direction. Not to mention I neglected to print off a map.

Yeah...i'm never doing that again.

Okay, to this point, I really DO feel like I have rambled on FAR too much and too the point where I feel I may be boring you guys. I'll continue this in another post another day, for now, I shall do my scripting.

...yeah.

Fooking Limbus.

Right, my first FFXI rant for a while.

I love how people make out that my luck is generally sh*t when it comes down to Limbus. But you know, its just my poor choice in the decisions I make. I also love how people blame me for stuff that usually isn't my fault.

My biggest mistake in the whole time in playing FFXI was leaving my original Limbus shell to join my best friends Limbus shell.

Now I bet you're asking yourself "How is this bad? You're getting to play with your best friend". That wouldn't have been such a problem if he didn't change his mind like the wind. We did limbus for about 2 months, then we decided to go back and join Ephorate, my old linkshell.

Because my friend decided the linkshell wasn't going anywhere.

Now incase you guys don't play FFXI, i'll explain what a linkshell or 'shell or LS is.

If you've played other online games, then its most comonly called a Guild.

If you've never played an online game or game whatsoever before and just reading this, then:

A linkshell is like a room of people, but you can't physically see anyone, you can just see what they type. They're used for all kinds of stuff such as social chatter, setting up events, and if people are nice, they usually give you advice/help.

Limbus is an event you can do once every 3 days (yes, 72 real life hours) that involves doing a few 4-6 different zones that consist of 1-6 floors filled with monsters that you have to kill, and after doing the last floor in these zones, you get a chest which gives you a chip to do the central areas to kill Omega and Ultima. These zones are split up between two different zones that drop different armour sets, Temenos is where Ultima resides and drops Nashira gear, where as Apollyon is where Omega resides and drops the Homam gear.

Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier. It was a mistake that I left because I didn't get anywhere.

At all.

I might have aswell stayed in my old linkshell, but get this:

ALL of my points I originally had were all removed. Ok, I'm fine with that I guess, I did leave the LS after all. But Posty kept all the points he had after moving servers for 3 months and coming back.

???

What?! So wait, they drop all my points for leaving for another shell, but Posty keeps all his points after moving servers? What the f^*k people, What the f^*k.

But i'm past that I guess. I'll just mention it the next time someone does it.

What i'm not past is that ever since I joined AGAIN i've STILL yet to have ANYTHING from the LS, and its been nearly a year and a half. And not to mention you're not allowed to get someone to do Limbus for you.

"Luck of the Draw" Fullen? F^*k off. Its thanks to Whiney little B*st*rds (Madawc >_>) and leaders trying to resolve things that THIS HAS HAPPENED.

So you see, in this kind of event, I'm going to be top of the list for Homam FOREVER! Which makes no sense if they keep doing runs on days I can't actually be there. And its not like they don't know about it either.

I might be sounding a bit selfish, but wouldn't it make more sense for them to do a run where most people turn up?? The only reason why I can't turn up on Mondays is because University Clashes with Limbus, and Real life is far more important. Also, logging on at the train station is a No No, not because I can't or don't want to, its just plain silly.

But hold on folks, that isn't the best bit.

The best bit is that I WAS RIGHT ABOUT WHAT WAS GONNA DROP.

2 feet
1 body

I always have a gut feeling that if something I want that i'm up for drops when i'm not there, it WILL drop.

And I can garuntee that this will happen again.

What the awesome?

Hey guys, you probably may have noticed, but I changed the name of my blog. I actually changed it months ago, but I thought i'd mention just incase. Before it was called "The Days of FFXI" and I called it that because it was going to be a dedicated FFXI blog. However, because of me playing FFXI a lot less than I used to and also doing a lot less on game than I used to, I figured since theres a lot I actually do in real life that I kinda take for granted, I thought it would be a good idea to slightly change the name of my blog and also change the content posted on this blog when I actuallly get round to doing so.

The Mishaps and Rants of A Student Gamer.

As you could probably tell from the title, i'm a university student.

If not, then you know now :).

I also usually have a lot of stuff that I can rant on about or tell about FFXI or University.

Things have hit me such as:

• Finding a new love interest.
• Being drunk with friends is extremely funny.
• That i'm going to miss my friends after this year is done :(.

Back in the day, when I was still at school, Billy Jones had to be one of the funniest people i've EVER encountered in my whole life. I mean, I KNEW funny people, but he put all of them to shame....

Then I met Spencer, Joe, Sam, Jenkins and Liam.

...

What has my life been without these guys?

Mabye my original concepts towards laughter were much different back then? Or mabye my sense of humour has changed since then?

I have to say, I don't think my late teens/early adult hood would have been ANYWHERE NEAR as awesome without them. Why? They are just that damned good.

Joe is like another version of Billy, with his "your mum" jokes, and general behaviour just cracks me up ALL THE TIME!

How does he do it? Even when I went to his 21st birthday thingy-ma-jig he just said a whole bunch of stuff that I would NEVER have thought he'd say that would have me absolutely PISSING MYSELF!

I can't remember what exactly, since I was drunk and took an interest to one of his friends.

You know the one <3.

Then theres Spencer. Jesus, him and Joe are the perfect comedy pair. Sort of like Ant and Dec, but are actually FUNNY AND COOL!

When Spencer isn't around Uni, I feel like theres a hole where my heart used to be because I feel so... lost.

No, i'm not gay, stfu.

Anyway, I should really be working on my Essay/Treatment. I'm going to make sure I keep posting regularly now :).

OH DEARS: The second coming.

Ok, so after I posted on my facebook status that I need to get back to blogging, I actually decided to! As they say, actions speak louder than words. But now i've looked at my most "recent" posts, it seems that I have not posted ANYTHING since June!

Wow.

Thats all I can say really. And because I havn't updated my blog for a long time, I don't remember much of what i've done for ages.

So lets see what i've done in recent times shall we?!

• My second year is FINALLY here, but it just seems like its a slow start. Kinda like last year.
• Bought a new PSP! :D After my laptop annihilated my old one :(.
• Payed for going to Budapest with a bunch of my other friends :D.
• Been drunk 4 times since August, and STILL COUNTING!
• May have found a new love interested :0 (?!?!?!)(the mind boggles)
• Filmed AND Edited a Trent FM future session Podcast :).
• Decided to actually play on my xbox. I don't know what it is, but sometimes I just can't be bothered to play on it, even with my new HDTV.

And there are still many more things to come folks. I just need to actually do more posts than whine on facebook that i'm not doing enough posts :P.

OH DEARS!

So! I have finally gotten around to posting in my god-forsaken blog! Its only taken me what? 5 months?

Well personally people, even though this bog was intended to be for FFXI, I don't feel that writing only about FFXI would be satisfying enough for me anymore, and i'm sure others may feel the same way. So i'll try doing a bit of both FFXI and Real Life stories in my blog. As for my FFXI job reviews? yeah, you probably guessed that I gave up after giving Blue Mage so much praise.

Anywho, its been a LONG TIME since I wrote in here, so i'm going to write a short list of things I have done within this time in both FFXI and Real life.

In FFXI, I have:

• Obtained a pair of Byakko's Haidate
• Gained access to Nyzul Isle floor 100 and unlocked all mythic weapon skills for my 75 jobs
• Obtained 75 DRG
• Merited the crap out of said job
• Finally gotten around to capping critical hit ratio (it was level 3 for a long time :))
• Obtained a few bits of Nyzul gear
• Completely finished off Blue Mage in terms of merits
• Still hate RDM out of my 4 Jobs
• Still havn't leveled DRK sub :)
• Laze around in whitegate more than I did before

Well, that was quite a list, though i'm sure theres more than that, but at this time of night? I can't be bothered.

As for real life?:

• Hung out with my friends more.
• Gone clubbing for the first time, ever.
• Seen said friends get drunk and laugh my face off.
• Realised that it takes waaay too much alchohol to even get me tipsy.
• Dedicated 5 entire weeks of my life editing my final projects for FDSC DVBP.
• Passed said course and now have a long 4 month break untill the second year.
• Thinking of a short film idea for year 2 (feedback would be handy! :))
• Realised that Jon Laude is just made of sheer win. Especially when hes drunk.
• Still can't decide whether women are truly worth pursuing or not.
• Had 20th birthday, and still feel exactly the same as I did back when I was 19.
• Bought Star Ocean: The Last Hope for my xbox and completely geeked it up.
• Stopped talking to Sam again because hes acting like a prick uneccessarily, again.
• Gotten a bit closer to some of my other friends.

I believe the first and last points are the points that I feel the most accomplished with. I never really was invited to do things with other people back in the school days. University has changed me so much, for the better, in terms of experiencing new surroundings and possibly being able to mingle, though I CAN mingle, I tend not to.

As for filming? I'm glad i've started taking an interest in it. I've always said to my friends and family that:

"If you enjoy what you're doing in education, you'll do well"

And my theory has finally been proven, due to slightly more perseverance and also my friends. They've made it possible for me to prove my quote. Wheres the fun in doing a HE course if nobody will talk to you or hang out with you? Of course you can pass, but i'm certain you wont enjoy it as much.

Back in collage, I used to think when my teacher said "you need a study buddy in University", I thought it was funny and slightly cheesy, but now actually doing Uni myself, it has made me realise how important this actually is.

Ever since I heard this saying, that i'll NEVER EVER forget. If anyone who is reading this loses their confidence at some point, remember this:

"The world ends with you"

Nothing will happen unless you MAKE it happen. Expand, broaden your horizons, and you'll see your path more clearly.

Blue Mage (BLU) Review!

Before I begin this review, I want you to grab a belt. A leather belt will do. Don't question me, JUST GET ONE! Now I want you to slap yourself on the arm 30 times with it.





The majority of you have probably realised that this really hurts.


THIS IS WHAT YOU LEET BASTARDS GET FOR UNDERESTIMATING BLUE MAGE!


I can't possibly imagine what FFXI would be like without Blue mage, seriuosly. Here we were playing our normal jobs, that get normal invites to use our normal weapon skills on normal boring monsters that we see every day of the week.


And then Blue mage decided to jump into the light, out of the darkness and kicked you in the balls for not having variety in your gameplay. All people on FFXI do is grind one job (WAR/BRD/RDM or SAM, you know, the jobs people have a giant stiffy about) and that job is used for infinity and beyond.

Untill you get BLM 75 that is.

Then its the other way around.

After they released BLU in ToAU, it was the first job I wanted to unlock, and level up to 75. But poor me (not litterally) couldn't install ToAU on my old PC. Apparently, my old PC doesn't have a DVD drive. So, I waited a couple of weeks before I played in the ToAU regions and UNLOCK BLUE MAGE!

Now that i'm BLU 75, it makes me sick to see people say "This job sucks", "Why don't you level a real job Chris?". I'm getting this from bloody BEASTMASTERS. I mean, what the hell is a "real job"? By "real" do they mean "leet"? I believe they do.

Blue mage makes players fight monsters that they have never encountered before, like Dragons and Hyppogryths (probably spelt that wrong, but who cares), and most people complain about having to FIND these spells.

Ok so, it taken me over a year to get 105 spells, so what? I didn't exactly go spell hunting every day of the week, it was more of an occasional thing.

But if SE going in the direction of innovation for new jobs, BLU was their best invention yet.

Red Mage (RDM) Review

I know that its only been a couple of hours since I last posted, but now I really feel the need to review this job.

so... yes, as most of you know, this is not only one of my 3 current 75 jobs, but it was also the FIRST job I leveled from 1-75.

When I started FFXI, I was constantly nagged by my best friend to level this job, because of its "awesome" soloability. I know I know... I went on about this word "soloability" in my last review, but this is stuff people talk about all the time. You hear it about as much as politics and they both have the same concept. They both build up, and then after a couple of minutes, the subject just becomes stupid and arkward, and you feel like shooting yourself. Or in a less harsh way, slapping yourself for even joining/starting the conversation.

But anyway, a couple of years back, I was told that RDM was the best soloer on the game, and how it has some insane endurance and decent melee skills. All this information completely fell through the floorboards of a creaking old house and landed on a giant rock when I was told that all I was allowed to do was stand in the background and main heal/enfeeble each and every monster to death.

Quite honestly, I don't think that was the idea SE had intended for RDM. In a way, I feel kinda sorry for it, because people still, for some reason, call it the "jack-of-all-trades" which MEANS it can do everything, but not as well. Now I thought because of game development, more people would think of RDM as being just a main healer, or just a support job, but not even close. I find out that this peice of information that I was given to me years back has STILL been passed on to other newbies. So they follow the same path of destruction I did and get kicked in the balls for even drawing my weapon. Or mabye thats just me...

But enough of job information, lets talk about stats and job roles.

The job, itself, has the highest enfeebling magic rating on FFXI, which I commend it for, but the other stats it has are a B or less. Which is perfect for its role of jack-of-all-trades, because it means that it doesn't specialise in anything. Oh but wait, whats this? an A+ enfeebling rating? and WHATS THIS? Highest Enhancing magic skill? This kinda throws the whole jack-of-all-trades thing out of the window, because it SPECIALISES IN SOMETHINGS.

But this could possibly be put back in when you think of the tiers of spells it gets. It doesn't get tier 4 and ancient magic like BLM does and only goes up to tier 3 for regular magic. And it doesn't get cure 5 and curaga (without having to sub it) spells like WHM does. So ok, this puts it back in the jack-of-all-trades area again, but yet again, it will get pulled and thrown out because now it has spells that are overpowered such as Phalanx and Gravity. But I guess this would be the only reason why its such a mean soloing job.

As for job roles, its basically increadibly flexible. Because you CAN main heal, you CAN support your party up to an extent, and you CAN do some kind of damage with the tiny dagger that carry about with you.

As much as i've criticised and booo'd at RDM over the past couple of years, overall, it can actually be a fun job. But this all depends on whether your party members are not retarded and don't constantly whine in your face for refresh and haste.

Beastmaster (BST) job review

Now, I know what you're thinking.

"Omg, hes gonna tear this job apart."

Well, thats what I hope to achieve, because BST can go die under a tractor for all I care. In fact, BST is the main reason why I congratulate people on getting matt's cap.

Why, you ask?

Because this job is FREAKING BORING. The bare thought of someone tolerating the imense soloing of levels from 1-75 on this boring job is an achievement in itself. Now, obviously this is purely opinion, but you can't honestly tell me that logging onto FF everyday to solo 1-3k exp /day with fights that take needlessly long, aka, the kiting strategy, IS NOT MY IDEA OF FUN.

Now, don't look at me like that, I actually like BST....

...on FF Tactics Advance 1 and A2 and ONLY on those games. Not counting FF Tactics: War of the Lions, because BST... sorry, I mean, "Orator" is about as usless as Onion Knight on it. I've never once heard somebody actually say "come BST, it could be usefull".

Now I will congratulate it on its incredible soloability...

...and thats all I will congratulate it for.

You can't seriously tell me that you'd use a BST over a SMN for any kind of events. At least SMN can main heal, what can BST do? send in a pet that uses TP moves you don't want it to?

I'll show you what I mean.

From what i've seen, BSTs tend to use a crab familiar. For those that don't know, crabs have a numerous amount of defensive moves. I can see these moves being usefull while soloing. Even so, it does have one move that isn't have bad for doing some actual damage.

Now, when you tell it to use a TP move, because SE made it so you can't actually tell them what to do! it randomly uses one of its abilities, and since the chance of it using its attacking move is 1/4, that makes it pretty useless.

I don't see them being usefull in an exp party, or for most other things OTHER than soloing.

Nuff ranting about BST, check out the blog soon for the "Red Mage (RDM) job review"!

Sudden decision?

Well, after watching zero punctuation so much, and loving the amount of criticism said about other games, its inspired me a lot and now i've decided that i'm going to start using this blog to review events/jobs/hobbies on FFXI.

I know, I know, my blog hasn't been updated for ages, but better late than never as they say, hehehe, but please keep checking my blog :).