One meeelleeean dollars

Looks like it takes me a week of mining at Zeruhn to earn 500,000 gil [X|].
Whether this is fast or slow I do not know.

My first million!
Wheeee

2-3 more weeks till I can afford my Haubergeon…

Yet another computer problem

My webserver, the one sitting on my left, supporting a heavy 17inch monitor, has been exhibiting signs of failure. I suspect my power supply but it could be the motherboard or something else. Too many possibilities.


Firstly, the CPU fan started making loud noise. I’m using XDream, it comes with a knob where I can adjust the fan speed. I’ve set it to low speed in favour of silence. But now, it’s running at full speed for no reason and I have no idea what’s wrong.


Then one of the harddisk started failing. A slow 3.2GB harddisk I’m using to store window’s pagefile and php session files. I wonder if this is the reason I cannot login to my blog to make entries from there. The session isn’t initiated and I get booted to the login page when I click on my “Write New Entry” link. I’m currently writing this entry from phpMyAdmin (a web app used to manage MySQL database with ease) which surprisingly, is working fine.


I hope the new 250GB/500GB harddisks come cheap. I intend to get 2 of them, mirror raid and then replace my 2 remaining PATA harddisks on my main machine with these SATA ones to store my anime video files and MP3s. Currently 390GB and running very low on free space. The old PATA harddisks will be used on my webserver as scratchdisks and filestorage.


I have too much rubbish in very little space. Makes it hard to troubleshoot my webserver. I have to remove various objects and carry the heavy monitor off. Unplug the keyboards and stuff and carry out the heavy machine.


2 options available to me. Build a low budget PC to replace this one or troubleshoot. Hmm… I miss the smell of fresh new computer hardware.


Update: Just as I suspected, the 3GB harddisk I used to store windows’ pagefile, php session files, php error logfiles died. I didn’t bother to check cos I was busy mining away in FFXI until when I tried to play an audio CD, I discovered that harddisk went missing together with my CD Rom drive.


Reconfigured php to store the session files in another harddisk. Already moved pagefile away a few days when the symptons start to appear. Did a reboot, both devices did not return. A cold reboot and my CD Rom drive returned. But not the harddisk.


And coincidentally, my CPU fan went back to spinning at low speeds.


Update 2: Perhaps this is something I can do with the dead harddisk [XD].

500,000 gil

After several hours in Zeruhn Mines and selling hundreds of Jack-o’-Lanterns, I now have 500,000 gil all saved up on my mule. Putting all that cash on my mule makes it easier to control my spendings and keep track of earnings.


Of that 500K, 200K was earned from selling JoLs. I’m going to stop crafting more for sale now. Since I pumped the price to 4000gil, it attracted a lot of other cooks who compete with me and offer lower prices. My stock ends up gathering dust on the shelves of the Auction House and then sent back to me [X(]. The price now fluctuates between 3000-3500. I’ll wait for the time when the Beastmen takes over the Elshimo Regions and Ogre Pumpkin (ingredient for JoL) supply drops.


100K would come from my farming experiments, in order to find out if farming materials at some places would be a viable source of income. I found it too troublesome for the amount I’m getting. Perhaps I’m just lazy.


I wasted a few Ks powerlevelling Smithing and Goldsmithing both to 18. Buying Iron Ores and Silver Ores from their respective guilds and synthing them on Firesdays. Yes, I’m lazy ; ; . But my losses are minimal.


I camped Spiny Spipi the other day. Out of 4 kills, 2 of them dropped the Mist Silk Cape [XD]. I don’t know what makes this item so special. It’s only +1 MND. Yes, I’m a lousy mage [X|]. I sold the first one off at 50K. Few days later, the price went up to 60K and I’ve put my second one up for that price.


*I just got /poked 3 times by Tuufless at Bastok Market’s fishless fountain.*


3 stacks of Fire Crystals and 4 stacks of Pickaxes made my mining runs last up to an hour or more each. I usually return with at least a Darksteel ore, 10K-12K in Bastok’s AH, on each run. I mined up 2 within 5 minutes once. Lucky~ Sold them all to Tuufless for a price of 10K. Faster this way, I would need the slots on the AH to sell off Iron and Bronze Ingots.


As for my DRK’s progress, I went on 3 EXP PTs only because I could borrow Ladyrikku’s Haubergeon. I’m now level 61 with 5000/30,000 exp. There was one PT where the Dragoon was dealing the same damage as me. Darn, I forgot to check his equipment to find out. All I know is he’s wearing his AF, and that he was dealing more damage-over-time than me made me feel ashamed.


It was also my first EXP PT at Attohwa Chasm. We fought huge antlions. EXP was 100-150 per kill and up to 180 on chains. The level range was 60-63. I was the only lv 60. I agreed since the PT leader told me those antlions don’t have high evasion.


PT setup was DRG/WAR, PLD/WAR, DRK/WAR, RDM/BLM, BLM/WHM, WHM/BLM. Despite the low exp per kill, our speed was 3000exp/hour. Not too bad. On our last chain before disbanding, I pulled an antlion which linked with another that just spawned. But this wasn’t the first link so my PT was very well prepared. RDM casted Sleep2 on the linked antlion. But halfway fighting one, a third antlion spawned on top of us, the linked antlion woke up shortly and needless to say, everyone died. I had Tottie, our last standing high level WHM in Doom LS with Raise 3, come save us.


500,000gil… 1,500,000 more to go. T_T

Milo! Horlicks! Ovaltine! Guillotine!

The one week vacation gave me enough time (though mostly wasted while looking for party) to make some progress. A quick report of what has happened:


First off, I finally hit level 60. And now have a new powerful scythe weaponskill, Guillotine. On some weak monsters, I dealt up to 10xx damage~ But damn, in EXP PTs, I dealt 1 to 3xx damage. Yes! There was one occasion Guillotine dealt 1 damage to the Peryton at Valley of Sorrow [X(]. The Ninja in the PT was laughing at me. [:(]


I seriously need a Haubergeon. Need a Haubergeon. Haubergeon.


The last EXP PT I went on, the leader had asked me to sub thief which I did, and gave him a warning that it’s my first time playing Dark Knight with a Thief subjob. But there wasn’t any chance for me to do a Sneak Attack, Trick Attack on the NIN tank. He insisted on provoking and spamming his Ninjitsu. So half the time I was frantically running around in a tight space Sneak Attacking and then Trick Attack + Guillotine on the tank. It was a fast PT, 4000exp/hour. We had no BRD or RDM. Just NIN, RNG, SAM, DRK, SMN, BLM.


I seriously need a Haubergeon. Need a Haubergeon. Haubergeon.


Managed to push up the prices of Jack-o’-Lanterns on the Jeuno AH to 4K. This gives me 20K profit per stack. [XD]


I seriously need a Haubergeon. Need a Haubergeon. Haubergeon.


I’m going to spend 100K levelling my Smithing and Goldsmithing skills. Hoping to get to 25 for both. Smithing for synthing the Iron Ores I get while mining and Goldsmithing for desynthing items for gold ingots. As of now, my Smithing is at 10 and Goldsmithing at 5.


I seriously need a Haubergeon. Need a Haubergeon. Haubergeon.


Also, I’ve finally defeated Promyvion-Holla! Amazingly easy battle if we all know what to do. Setup was 2 WAR/NIN, 1 BLM/WHM, 1 WHM/BLM and 2 RNG/NIN. With this done, I activated and completed the quest “Chasing Dreams” for the Venerer Ring with Ladyrikku. It took 5-6 hours and we ran around many places.


Rabao > Norg > Bastok > Selbina > Tavnazian Safehold > Rabao.


But the reward was worth it. Venerer Ring, with a 100-120K value, Accuracy+3. I’m aiming to get a total of Accuracy+40 before going on EXP PTs again.


I seriously need a Haubergeon. Need a Haubergeon. Haubergeon.

Lunar New Year

The Chinese New Year falls on the 9th and 10th of February. Boss declared company off on 8th and 11th. I applied for leave on the 7th. The result is another long vacation from work. ^^


Last night, I had dinner at Edo Sushi at Thomson Plaza with a friend. The sushi we had were nice. I took 2 plates of salmon sashimi off the belt. I mixed too much wasabi with soya sauce. TOO MUCH WASABI. It felt like sniffing in tiny pieces of shattered glass and my eyes watered.


It was halfway through eating when I saw the price of the plates at the far back of the restaurant. $1.80 for colored plates, $5 for black plates. And the salmon sashimi I took were of black plates. [X(]


Anyway, the tempura ramen and beef noodle we ordered came. Both tasted very plain but at least it’s not unpleasant to the tongue. With all that sushi and the ramen, we were both very full.



me: “Ahh… I’m a happy man…”
friend, pointing at black plates with chopsticks “Five dollars.”
me: “fuck”


Considering the total bill was $44 for such “normal-taste” food and I don’t think I will be visiting Edo Sushi again.