Standing on the shoulders of giants

So I'm off back to uni for my 3rd (and likely final) year. Even though I'm on for a 1st I'm not sure I want to continue in academia (unless it pays well) because despite everyone being relatively human and sensible in face-to-face encounters, for some reason the whole scientific community seemingly adopts a holier-than-thou attitude and leaves pragmatism at the door during written correspondance.

While this may not be down to each individual's choice or preferance, it happens regardless because of the rules, and while the rules themselves promote clear and clean projection of knowledge and opinion, in a universal format, everyone takes this as:

"Try to be as fucking confusing as possible, nobody can disagree with you if it isn't clear what you are saying in the first place. Bonus points awarded if your audience must refer to a dictionary every 5th word in your work."

Not to mention I'm slightly bitter about being criticised in the past for breaking the rules in my writing, when in reality I had followed them to the letter, and the genius marking my work had the audacity to give me a page reference without reading it themselves.

But what do I know? You don't have an opinion until you have a PhD. Not that I'm criticising the bureaucracy of the system, I just hate how people take 'scientific writing style' as 'make as little sense as possible'. I mean seriously, grown men and women trying to squeeze the rarest possible synonyms for each and every word in their work, at the cost of gramatical correctness and fluent prose solely in an attempt to SOUND MORE CLEVER like a 12 year-old might do.

But I digress, the angry cynic in me got a little out of hand there. I was basically saying I don't want to continue in academia unless it pays well (I should probably know this by now), or I might continue for a title (Dr. sounds pretty sweet, even if it's not a proper one) but that is unlikely to be worth the cost. I've not looked at careers, because I'm stupidly indecisive, and don't know where to start (so the future doesn't look too hot for me).

Anyways, I'm not quitting FFXI but I don't have internet sorted out for my house so I won't be doing anything for a while, not that there is much left to do outside of events until the next update :3

Good thing I've been getting back into fallout 3 lately!



I'm pretty much done with the main game content (not that there's much of it, considering it's a bethesda game) but the expansions should keep me entertained if I'm desperate. Also I could get a PSP+dissidia while I have the money, but I don't fancy getting a handheld for one game (well, MGS Peace Walker looks decent too). Also, with no internet I can finally finish this goddamn book I'm on, haha.



Back in a week or more~

Yo FFXI players, I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish but FFXIV is going to be one of the best MMO's of all time

...of all time! (clearly not overdone yet)


After a long period of nothing amazing being announced by SE, which definately has nothing to do with XIV's scheduled release next year, we finally get notice of the next version update;

New Version Update Scheduled for November! (24/09/2009)



We're pleased to announce that the development and quality assurance teams are hard at work on the new version update, currently on track for an early November release.
With thrilling new episodes of the Wings of the Goddess nation quests, job-related adjustments, added features for Moblin Maze Mongers, an extensive and all-new system involving items, and more, there's sure to be something for adventurers of all stripes!

Further details will be posted here as the release draws closer, so keep checking this space!

Nothing really worth commenting on, apart from they're releasing the next add-on expansion in October, so it won't coincide with the update. Neither of these seem particularily interesting, the video for the new expansion is kinda cool but it's hard to get excited at all now that we know it's going to be 3/4 tedious and badly planned fetch quests, one low-level NM fight and two BCNM-type fights, which are easy as long as you have the right setup, but quite unforgiving if you have a couple of bad jobs and/or players in your group.

But on the positive side, that dagger looks kinda cool. (I would comment on [S] nation quests as a plus, but they are mostly designed for 3~6 man parties, and very few people do them so I don't get to enjoy that content).




I've not done much, and nothing notable has happened in salvage, dynamis or limbus (apart from some shield/parrying skillups farming bhaflau ramparts, woo).

There are fewer people online on the server in general these days (1k~1.2k during weekdays when I'm on) and there are generally fewer pickup shouts for stuff, which is why I've not done much outside of events and soloing. Unless the next few updates motivate anyone to keep playing XI, even just for the sake of completing the main story for WotG (which is what I'd personally like to achieve) I don't see the number of players going back up. I could be wrong though, it could just be Hades that everyone's jumping from ;).

Whatever. Stuff I did:


Campaign! Got my RDM buffer back from 35k > cap. Been doing a whole lot of dying before then.


WotG quests/missions! I need to do fights to progress and I've not had the time to try putting a group together for it ;|


Farming tier 2 enspells, beacuse I needed something to do. Grauberg has 2 mobs that drop it, and took over an hour to actually put out. I farmed enough Quadav chest/back plates to just buy the scroll.

Full Swing is a really good WS because I did over 1k damage with it

Staff >> 130, Retribution quest started. Annoyingly, I can't make lv.3 skillchains unless I have a Nyzul WS or Retribution itself, so I'm going to have to grind through with lv2 SCs.


It wasn't terribly packed in the tree, despite it being a weekend I wasn't fighting for mobs. (DYING GAME OMG)


Full Swing still sucks at 100% TP (but it does get a 5x multiplier at 300%), so it's pretty much never worth using over polearm anyway, but these were just for fun. Tough crabs, 300% TP, angon/dia 2, Wheeling Thrust gear, staff skill <230.

SKILLUP TIEM GOOO

Let the epic struggle for claim of Steelshells commence!

Copycat.

It may come as a surprise, but I've not done anything noteworthy lately. The best I've managed is to stalk similar looking mithra in whitegate and dress the same as them.




Waiting for Salvage, I noticed my shadow looks like a wierd sorta alien spaceship when light is coming from overhead. It provided a few moments of amusement for me. Speaking of Salvage, we're having to cancel runs because we keep getting only 5/6 for runs ;|.


I forgot, I did do something after all; I've used up all my beastman seals on Up In Arms. Obviously no clubs dropped else I'd have said something, but at least there's some small consolation in getting 40~60k per run. Our last run we managed it in 4:23 as a duo, when the previous record (3:57) was set by a group of 3. With INT potions and better level capped gear (not that I care enough to buy any) it should be easy to beat 4 mins as a duo.