Almost screwed

An important thing to remember when dealing with people from huge corporate companies:

If you’re not supposed to deal with them, don’t. Don’t answer any sensitive questions unless instructed by your boss. Easy questions like "how do I power on my computer?" are acceptable.

I became the scapegoat when someone forgot his password and needed to postpone the deadline of an important task between his company and mine. My boss happened to be overseas and his cellphone had problems so he could not be contacted in anyway that day.

He sent out an email to some of the higher ups and people whom I’m in contact with for another project. 1 of which gave me a call and sounded upset. The other, a very nice guy, had to clear up the mess. 

Well, the guy got his time extension and I got the blame. Lucky for me, my boss knows what really happened and I was forgiven for my lack of experience for handling such matters.

Finally NDS is picking up

I bought my Nintendo DS back in January. Only bought a few games, and completed one. The only DS game I had is Mario 64 DS, I’ve played and stopped at the last level. The GBA games I bought are Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls, Zelda: Minish Cap(completed) and Riviera (which turned out to be unenjoyable.)

Yesterday, I took some time to browse some gaming forums to find magazine scans of Final Fantasy 3 being remade for the NDS. This time, in 3D!! Here’s the link to the Gamersquare forums thread. But it appears from the scans that it may use only 1 screen. ( >_<)

I also bought Zoo Tycoon DS yesterday only to find out (1 minute ago) that IGN had rated the game badly. Anyways, finally a game that has a better use of the touch screen.

Also just found out that some of the latest NDS games that come with wi-fi compatibilty actually means it can make my NDS connect to my wireless router and play with people all over the globe!

The current wi-fi game available is Mario Kart. But I had enough of that back in my SNES days. I’m waiting for Animal Crossing: Wild World now. Hope I can find friends with NDS in FFXI and it would be interesting to interact with them in this game as I lie on my bed.

Unfortunately, my wireless router seems to be incompatible. But perhaps by the time Animal Crossing is available in Singapore, I would have upgraded my internet connection to ADSL2+ and perhaps bought a new modem and router.

So yea, any of you readers out there have a Nintendo DS? [XD]

And so it’s back to work…

Let’s see… Over the week, I levelled my BLM job a lot. Never expected to take it to 52, now I just might take it to 60 and dump all the AF equip to the storage NPC.

Also camped Mysticmaker Profblix for my Moldavite Earring.
1st spawn: Lost claim to a NIN with provoke.
2nd spawn: Skipped to help Traktor at Carmine Dobsonfly NM.
3rd spawn: Traktor helped claim with provoke.
4th spawn: Lost claim to a RDM with Dia.
5th spawn: Claimed with no competitors.
6th spawn: Claimed with bored competitors, got the drop!

Did some skillups for my DRK. Marksmanship is now capped at 200, Elemental capped at 256, Enfeebling went from 140+ to 200+ over 6 hours, spamming dia with WHM sub in a skill up PT at Boyahda’s Steelshells.

I have 3 sets of equipment to work on. Accuracy equip, Strength equip and equip for solo-ing the harder EPs that give 45exp. Here’s a list of what I have, what I want and within my reach.

Accuracy mode:
Ammo: Bomb Core
Head: Optical Hat [+10 ACC]
Neck: Peacock Charm (borrowed)[+10 ACC], else Royal Guard’s collar [+4 ACC]
Ear 1: Minuet Earring [+1 DEX]
Ear 2: Assault Earring [+2 ACC]
Body: Hauberk [+10 ACC, +5 DEX]
Hands: Thick Mufflers [+3 ACC]
Ring 1 and 2: Sniper’s Ring [Total: +10 ACC] (I think I’ll aim for Sniper’s Ring +1 [Total: +14 ACC])
Back: Forager’s Mantle (No accuracy bonus but I’m using this because of +15 attack)
Waist: Life Belt [+10 ACC]
Legs: Thick Breeches [+2 ACC], but I’ve been using Tracker’s Kecks recently for an extra +1 attack
Feet: Adaman Sollerets [+3 ACC], I want the +1 version but sadly, nobody’s selling them. +1 version is called Armada Sollerets and gives +4 ACC. However, I still hate the -10 MND it gives.

Total: +60 Accuracy, +7 Dex.

Strength mode:
Ammo: Bomb Core, trying to get Balm Sachet [+1 STR, +1 INT] but very low drop rate.
Head: Wyvern Helm [+5 STR]
Neck: Spike Necklace [+3 STR]
Ear 1: Minuet Earring [+1 STR]
Ear 2: Triumph Earring [+2 STR] (borrowed)
Body: Hecatomb Harness [+12 STR]
Hands: Custom M Gloves [+3 STR], aiming for Hecatomb Mittens [+7 STR]
Ring 1 and 2: Flame Ring [Total: +10 STR, +4 INT] INT is good for my weapon skills.
Back: Forager’s Mantle [+3 STR]
Waist: Warwolf Belt [+5 STR]
Legs: Royal Knight’s breeches [+2 STR], Black Cuisses would be nice for [+4 STR] but they’re very expensive.
Feet: Hecatomb Leggings [+6 STR]

Total: +52 STR, +4 INT. If I use Balin’s Sword, that would be another +4 STR and +2 INT.
People say it’s best to have at least +60 STR. So yea… working on that.

Solo mode:
Main Weapon: Death Scythe [Additional Effect: HP Drain, random]
Ranged Weapon: Thug’s zamburak [+1 AGI, +2 Ranged ACC]
Ammo: Blind Bolts [Additional Effect: Blind, 100%]
Head: Optical Hat [+10 Evasion]
Neck: Royal Guard’s collar [Defense: 6]
Ear 1 and 2: Dodge Earring [Total: +6 Evasion]
Body: Chaos Cuirass [Defense: 46, +3 VIT], Assault Breastplate [Defense: 65] awesome but no one knows how to get one yet.
Hands: Blood Finger Gauntlets [Defense: 27, +11 Ranged ACC, +11 Dark Magic]
Ring 1 and 2: Phalanx Ring [Total: Defense: 20]
Back: Forager’s Mantle [Defense: 7]
Waist: Warwolf Belt [+5 VIT]
Legs: Chaos flanchard [Defense: 31, +5 Evasion, +10 Parrying Skill]
Feet: Blood Greaves [Defense: 25, +4 AGI]

Why the above? I need ranged accuracy to land my blind bolts on my targets to lower their accuracy. Evasion speaks for itself. +10 Dark magic makes a lot of difference and reduces resists. Surprisingly, shooting harder EPs are hard without Peacock Charm. Harder EPs also hit me easily so I may just go full defense instead of evasion and eat a nice defense food.

I need luck… Seiryu isn’t dropping the abjurations I need. ; ;

I’ve been levelling my fellow NPC at Altepa’s deserts and farming for Kindred’s Seals at the same time. Last night I decided to try farming off Recluse Spiders at Kuftal’s Tunnels and it seems that I can pull it off but only with WHM sub and some defense foods. My NPC heals only when my health drops down to around 50-60%. Can’t wait for the time where it can support me well enough to farm non-stop. I need to rest for MP about every 2-3 spiders.

My first attempt a Kuftal’s spiders: 3 Spider webs (worth 20k each) and 2 Kindred’s Seals. XD

Update:
Finally got my wyrmal abjurations feet and hands. I bought the HQ items to uncurse because since it’s rare/ex, might as well go for the best. Equip mentioned above, I’ve highlighted in blue the ones I don’t have.

East And West

Went out with an old friend Li, known each other for about 10 years already. The oldest friend I have.

Went to Bishan Junction 8, as I walked around the train station waiting for Li, I witnessed a couple quarelling. There was an aluminium(?) wall covering the part of the station undergoing renovation, which the couple were leaning against and the guy banged his head twice. If he wanted to show his "macho-ness", all he achieved was making me chuckle. Yes, he looked very stupid.

We had dinner at Food Junction. Ordered 2 bentou set from the Japanese stall, teriyaki chicken with soft shell crab, miso soup and a cup of ice green tea. Knowing we had slightly more storage space in our tummies, I had Li order another plate of spaghetti with fish fillet to be shared between the both of us while I waited at the Japanese stall for our order.

One of the many benefits one enjoys for having a job, you can eat all you like without worrying about money.

I applied 5 days of leave from work. Starting on 7th all the way to the 11th November. The majority of the time will be spent on FFXI, haha, can’t help it. But I also have other plans like having my Singnet and M1 account to be transferred to my name now that I have Singapore PR (Permanent Resident) status. Before I had PR, my mum’s friend who is a Singaporean, helped sign up for my internet and mobile phone account for me under her name but billed to my home address.

It’s been 2 years, using Nokia 6610 (I’m using the white cover). I still love this phone but I’ve been wanting to give clamshell phones a try after watching Cloud use his Panasonic P900iV in FF7:AC [:D]. I actually tried to find out if I could import the actual phone used in that movie but it seems that the phone is no longer available and may have problems using it on local networks. ( ´Д`)

So yea, I’m looking at Nokia 6170 now. I think it’s around S$450. I’ll pass on those Sony-Ericsson phones I just can’t get used to the navigation. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to re-adapt. [XD]

A few months ago Singtel Mobile launched 3G service. But I haven’t seen anything 3G-related stuff happening on the streets yet. Maybe it was a failure… Yea… Singapore just begun 3G service many years after Japan did and "in" thing in Japan is now i-mode? And not forgetting the fat ugly 3G-capable phones they tried to sell. orz

Speaking of i-mode, Starhub has begun testing this service. I signed up to be a tester and got the offer. But I think I’ll not proceed with the testing because not one of the i-mode capable phones are Nokia, only 1 Samsung model has stock left and it just happens to be the suckiest of the 3 offered, I’m required to pay for the phone (at highly discounted prices) and subscribe a new line.

Haha, I can’t wait to knock off and go on my 1-week holiday.