任是无情也动人

http://www.savefile.com/files/2169438

Walked a new account through the tutorial to show how it's done.

News the first. I'm getting wisdom teeth (2 of 'em) removed tomorrow morning. I've already put in for PTO Friday and next Monday. So I'll possibly be around online, if it's not too painful to... >.>

IJ - pokes cashew. Um... is it me or is the image on the left side of my journal gone. The one on top is still there. Did the site that host it lose it (looks like imageshack)? You don't have any copies by any chance? (I think I may have backups at home but I'm not going to be able to check until I get back tonight -_-)

Dragonswords - all the new alts are lvl 18 now. Still a little bit to go before they hit where your guys are (22? 24?). One thing I need help on is that I still need 3 ruby gems. The freaking place won't repop.

Incidentally... (1) The amount of wis/prac points that monk needs is insane... unarmed combat is 10 pracs per rank wtf?! and it's only 2 levels away from enhanced damage which is 4 pracs per rank. Even if the race was sprite I don't think there'd be enough to go around. As it is, I'm neglecting training both int and dex to get those two up 10% per level. (2) Why does my knight have such low hp? It's only 50% than the druid. The monk on the other hand is almost twice the amount of druid. She was the one doing most of the tanking even though she had by far the worst AC (due to no pracs to train dex, no rubies for rings, and no secondhand weapon or shield slot).

Gaia - New getup combo *pic uploaded to previous post*. I got the qipao cheap off of auction when I lucked out and caught one that was selling for almost 2k under store price with only 1 hour left on the auction. Muwahaha. Anyway, let me know how it looks and compares to the other two.

Also, signed up for Discover card for the 7k gaia cash. *stares at sky* I figure it's not that different from the Amex card I got suckered into signing up for in front of the Cal student store when I first came to Cal. I didn't actually get around to canceling that card (or using it) until we were moving this time around. So I figure the Discover card can sit there and gather dust until I get around to canceling it. In the mean time, that's about $70 worth of gaia cash. o_O

Which looks better?

( cut for images )

Uploaded daytime image.
In other news, finally broke through the 10k gold mark. Not bad considering I just spent most of my gold to buy the bamboo background two days ago.

( pics from last night )

This morning, finally got the desk all finished and my junk sorted into the drawers/shelves. Am now posting from my desktop PC. ^_^

Furniture stuff still on the list to get/do:
- Have one more bookshelf to put up. Need to make a run to Lowes
- New mattress
- Need a trash can for the room. Also a recycling bin, maybe
- Need more file folders for the cabinet
- Laundry bag holder...thing, since I don't want to keep running downstairs to drop off dirty laundry every time.
- Need to decide what goes in between the shelves at the back wall... CD-rack? Small futon couch? Bean bag? Table? Low cabinet? Suggestions welcome...
- Given the larger desk surface, I'm pondering whether to go for a dual monitor setup. (Yes this is just an excuse to get a larger monitor *cough*)
- Room freshener. Apparently the scent of anything that gets cooked in the kitchen drifts up the stairway and smack dab into the bedrooms. -_-

Internet finally up at the new place, after much wrangling with AT&T support.

Three out of four bookshelves have been installed. The last one need to be returned to Lowes for a replacement since it had one missing and one duplicate piece.

Still need to get a new mattress for the new bed frame. Currently using an old mattress which... doesn't fit. As in I can see the boards peeking out of the edges under it.

New desk arrived yesterday...in a box that's heavy as hell. Ended up taking it out of the box and moving it up to the upstairs room in pieces. Will probably begin the slow process of installing tomorrow. My fingers are still aching from installing the shelves. *sighs*

This is pre-moving in the furniture...

http://yfrog.com/4pdsc00054ljx

Yes I'm posting from my new bedroom. No, internet isn't installed yet at the new house. There's apparently more than 5 unsecured access points around this area. At least two of which gets me barely workable signal from the first floor living room...and perfectly good signal from upstairs. Good enough that the ping icon on GW is green (haven't tried actually playing tho). :P

Yes I know this is petty theft of bandwidth... But at least it'll tide me over until our internet gets switched over. ^^;

So the carpeting people finally got done with the bedrooms yesterday and we're moving into the "new" house this weekend. Unfortunately the internet won't be connected until Monday (if then) which means I'll but cut off this whole weekend. *cries*

I'm already starting to feel withdrawal... -_-

Got the Nicholas stuff today. I left the leftover hides on Aoki's account, along with 2 superb charr carvings.

Did the Augury Rock HM on 4 characters that had it unlocked. Abused empathy + physical resistance on the monk mule and the sin. Tried beastmaster on ranger and barely lived through it the second time around. :/ Ele completely curbstomped with PvE skills (empathy + CoP + Pain Inverter = dead in 10 sec).

Grabbed Augury on Aoki too while I was transferring stuff. I figured you could use the extra 100 coins.

Status of my two Gaia avatars so far...




http://www.gaiaonline.com/badge/19343149/?_gaia_mkt_=410

Haven't had to spam the forums or use the cash shop so far.

The MMO is ... meh on the gameplay. I'm in it for the mindless pretties plus the fact that I'm getting a little burnt out on GW.

Someone linked me this site...

http://www.gaiaonline.com/zomglanding/&_gaia_mkt_=1992

I seem to be having problems accessing it from work. How cute is it? Or not worth my time?

AKA. How to farm the 4 quests on a new character in about ~1:30 hours. (Initial attempts may be around 1:45 or 2 hours, but time should go down as you get used to the order of things.

1. Character selection. You'll want a character with AoE and lots of quick, hard-hitting damage at low levels. Generally I pick ele for this because I know the class well. I suppose a rit or any caster as secondary ele or rit could work too.

1a. Pick a damage oriented skill line to invest everything in: Fire for flare/firestorm, Channeling for spirit rift. As many available skill points should be devoted to this as you level. Only leftover points are assigned to other branches. (Note for the actual festival missions, it's best to switch to a single target damaging line - mesmer/domination as a primary or secondary works well.)

2. Skip the intro, beam into Monastery, hit /bonus. Wear the luminous scepter (+5e; it's not like you'll meet any reqs anyway) and the serrated shield. (Switch to hourglass staff later after you pass lvl 7.) Keep the igneous summoner around. Delete everything else.

3. Do the first few quests for the primary class as usual. On the way out, make sure to collect the henchie quest from Ludo. Make sure to unlock Tsumei. Pick up Pest Control from Zinhao while in Panjiang.

4. Collect the secondary quests for every other secondary class. (Pick a secondary to keep the skills of while talking to the profession headmasters. I prefer mesmer because empathy/energy tap/ether feast are all useful.) Also collect the side quest for belt pouch and update Pest Control.

5. Zone to Tsumei (for lvl 6 hench), exit into Sunqua. Do Sujun's quest (ranger) first, which will finish near Gai. Then head to Gai (or Ronsu) and to the rit/ele quest. Then head north and hit Reng Ku (nec) -> Jinzo (sin) -> Talon (war), then circle back sound to Tai (monk) -> Meiling (Mes). The mesmer quest will clear the way to Kinya.

6. After zoning into Kinya, head away from the Crimson Skull that approach and go around to collect Pe Wan's (monk) quest. Head north to get the berries (do not aggro the mantid boss), then hit Zho on the way back and complete her ranger quest before turning in the monk quest. Then hit Panaku (sin) followed by Lo Sha (mes). It is possible to avoid aggroing the Crimson Skull near Lo Sha to talk to him if you are quick. Or, just wait til the 3 groups separate, bring out the igneous imp, and kill them.

7. Jump to Tsumei, head out to Panjiang. Take Weng Gha's quest (war) and kill the mobs. Then keep going east and complete the side quest for belt pouch. Swing south and hit Zinhao to turn in Pest Control. Then back north to collect Weng Gha's reward. Now head south to complete Su's quest (nec). And north again to complete Ang's quest (rit).

8. Jump back to Shing Jea. Collect the belt pouch quest reward. Collect all rewards from Togo. Choose a secondary. Hit the headmaster/Ludo for the insignia quests - but just take the skills offered and don't do the quests themselves unless you need the xp. You should be lvl 10 at this point. If not, do the dojo quests or A Formal Intro.

9. First festival quest: Zone to Tsumei. Exit into Sunqua, head north toward the Shrine of Maat. If you are careful, you should be able to avoid aggroing anything on the way (scape the passage wall when passing by Wulk Cragfist). Once past Wulk, the way to Kinya should be clear. Head over and south to kill the yeti. Make sure to only aggro one at a time. Then head north to kill the Grasp.

10. Second festival quest: Again, head out from Tsumei, run all the way to the front of Shing Jea Monastery to talk to the NPC. Then head over to the Shrine of Maat to complete the quest.

11. Third festival quest: Again, head out from Tsumei, north into Kinya, and then down to kill the mob.

12. Fourth festival quest: Hardest one of the lot. Once you get into the naga caves, be careful about aggroing and always wait for regen between fights. Note that it's possible to lure the "group" of two grasps that stand next to each other one by one using a flatbow. Shoot the closer one from the edge of flatbow range, then back away slightly while the arrow is in the air.

(Also, I seem to notice that the grasps that pop out of the portal later on aren't counted toward the quest completion. If you can kill the original grasp before you are wiped, the quest will count as complete, and you do not have to go back and kill the last popped grasp.)

I have to admit though, it's much easier to run this with a second account... -_-

First, disclaimer - I'm not actually 100% sure the download I watched was actually the same Disney's Earth that played in theaters. Apparently there was another version made earlier in England but had a different narrator. So, I dunno, even if it was the original film from England, everything except the narration was supposed to be the same as the actual theater one, and I didn't watch it for the narrator anyways, so I guess it still counts...

( The good, the bad, the different )

Overall: If you love shiny and cuteness, go see it. If you care about the science, go watch National Geographic instead to get it out of your system, then turn off your brain and go see it. You'll never be able to see a real documentary reach these levels of eye candy. I take that last part back, since they apparently swiped the scenes from BBC.

WTB DVD rip/BT download of BBC series...

Overall, I was pretty disappointed in this film. It didn't live up to the expectations set by DaVinci Code at all. I think they were trying to much to make it into a(n average blockbuster) "thriller" and forgot to include many of the elements that made DaVinci Code good - the riddles, the problem solving, the complicated plans, the outrageous daring on the parts of the protagonists...

( Specifics )

Cleaning out some crap from my closet and found some stuff that probably hails back from my high school days. There was a crystal growing kit (sans instructions) that I want to make sure I can get rid of without dumping hazardous materials where I shouldn't.

They're sealed bags of monoammonium phosphate, NH₄H₂PO₄.

So, can I dump this down the drain? Do I dump them in the trash?

I've been dragged off for manual labor at the new house for these last two weekends (and any foreseeable non-working weekends). Because of course my parents are too cheap to just hire out. For the most part so far we've been re-painting the various bedrooms, guestrooms, bathrooms, halls, etc.

Upshot is, I come back dead tired and want to do nothing but vegetate. Can't even work up the energy to play GW cuz my right hand/arm/shoulder is cramping like hell and can't grip the mouse well. Oh yeah, and the rest of me aches too.

Plus, how the hell do you get paint primer off of skin? Every time I've had to scrub what seemed like a layer of skin off my hands/arms/face to get it off. Google turns up a bunch of different suggestions - solid shortening, exfoliate, baby wipes/oil, melted butter, lemons (tried this one; stings like hell on the arm)... but there doesn't seem to be a consensus other than don't use paint thinner. -_-

And let's not even get into hair.

The only good thing about this is I finally got a use out of the mp3 player I bought a long time back...

Because my internet is still not liking GW at the moment, I spent some time reading the endless articles at cracked.com - that place is as addictive as tvtropes can be. Anyways, some gems that I wanted to share:

9 Words That Don't Mean What You Think

8 Awesome Cases of Internet Vigilantism

7 Stupid People Who Sued the Scientific Method

6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain

5 Most Baffling Sex Scenes in History of Fanfiction

9 Awesome Places to Have Sex (and the Horrific Consequences) - wonder how many bad fics have run afoul of these? :P

Decided to work on the ele today cuz her bounty list was full.

( Sepulchre on ele )

( Vloxen on ele )

Dungeons remaining: Oola and CoF on ranger; Bogroot and CoF on ele.

Oh... note to cashew: I picked up the Nicholas stuff for this week on Aoki. Most of it was party stuff which got used up immediately. Got 5 mysterious summoning stones which I swiped. Also some alcohol which got dumped on your mule. Also picked up today's zquests (Tihark, CoF) on Aoki. Had to complete Chabek (on HM) and turn in the award to free up room. Dumped the resulting 50 zcoins in your storage on top of your existing stacks.

EDIT: Blah... just noticed that some time in the past, my time zone settings on IJ got reset. Who knows how many posts now have their timestamps about 20+hours off. o_O

Completed Vloxen on the ranger... wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Only 1 death on Menhlo near the end because I missed BHA on a carven effigy.

( Vloxen analysis )

Ranger armor

Afterwards, finally broke down and bought some elite armor. Got the entire norn set for ele (pics are up on wiki so no need to show it again). And the deldrimor chest/leggings for ranger. Dying the ranger set was rather hard since I couldn't get the lighter shades of my canthan gloves/boots to match. Finally got that to work, but ended up switching to the sunspear gloves/boots cuz they were easier to dye to match. Thinking about maybe getting the elite sunspear version of those gloves/boots... or maybe the dragon gloves... hrm...

( pics of armor )

In other news, my 3.9 stacks of tanned hide is now down to a measly 1.5 stacks. T_T

EDIT (Sat.): Cross Sepulchre of Dragrimmar from the ranger's list.

( Sepulchre analysis )

EDIT 2: Finished Bogroots...

( Bogroot analysis )

Still Oola left on the ranger. Vloxen, Bogroot, and Sepulchre on the ele.

So... want me to buy you some storage slots or something for the bday? :P