First entry

Today, I decided, "what the hell" and start a blog. Ironically, I personally felt that blogging was kind of a lack for using Internet forums.

This particular blog will be more of a journal of playing FFXI. I may include other bits of info outside of the game as I see it fit. However, the main intent will center around my in-game character of Popsiclestick on the Kujata FFXI server.

History:
I started playing FFXI when it came out on the PS2 for US release. I decided to get this game to really interact with Japanese people. I noticed my Japanese started to detoriate(sp?) drastically.

When I heard that Square Enix was coming out with an online game that will allow people to interract with Japanese people, and it was FF, I decided to get it. I had previously played FFIX and Dragon Quest V (JP) and a very small amount of FFVII at the time. My PC was very slow and I decided a $200 HDD upgrade would be cheaper than buying a new PC.

I obtained my game and attempted to play. I remember the first few days, I couldn't even play. I didn't RTFM and was stuck figuring out how to create a POL account ( ._.); My first character was a white haired Elvaan in Windurst on the Kujata server by the name of Snky.

Snky is a shorter version of my post car friend's term for "Sneaky". It was abbreviated to snky for some reason, and I used that as my in game name (Raven was taken =3) .

I started off as a Red Mage and acquired to level 23 as RDM/WAR. At which point, I realized that I was constantly lacking gil (money) and went with THF. After level 51, I leveled all other jobs to 33. With the cap at 75, it was a painstaking process.

So Thief job wasn't netting me much gil, I thought of taking Bard to 40 to make money off of BCNMs. At this point, the invite process was fast and easy. I managed to make decent money. I was then encouraged to manaburn with Weeee and his Real-life Girlfriend Heeeeeeee. Manaburning is basically taking a collection of 4-5 Black Mages and a Red mage and a Bard to kill stronger than normal mobs for experience points.

Well we managed to get to the early 70's very fast, at the cost of some long XP sessions. In the end, I got burnt out and quit around December 2005 at level 72. I sold all my gear, deleted Snky, and cancelled my Content ID's.

A month roll's around and I got bored at home. My roommate went out on a 2 week ski trip and I had nothing better to do. I decided to start a new character on FFXI! I decided this time around, I will start as a Tarutaru and level all the mage jobs :D My first choice in a name was Popsicle, since a taru with a staff equipped 24/7 looked like a Popsicle to me :P Too bad the name was taken, and I picked Popsiclestick instead.

I managed to level each of my 3 mage jobs to 60, RDM, BLM, and WHM with ease. It wasn't until Weeee encouraged me to level 75 to participate in end-game. RDM was the easiest and the cheapest to level up.

At 75, I joined his linkshell at the time Purple Reign. It was a decently good shell, most were nice. The leader Hiruke is a real perv. I wouldn't be surprised to see his ass on Dateline "Predators". I left that linkshell after a couple events when I failed to get help on a CoP mission.

I cut my losses and the old StarOnionBrigade LS was converted to HNM status. We managed to kill a couple Sky NMs and get people some equip they wanted. The LS died off when Weeee quit during a Promy mission.

After that, I took a 1 week hiatus and came back with everyone off to other linkshells. I joined Alien's LS (a previous SOB memer) but never felt really a part of that shell.

It wasn't until I tried getting help for Charbydis that I felt backstabbbed when him and Heavencloud would not assist me. Camping for it also sucks, so we left.

We, me and Weeee joined a past SOB Officer's social LS, Insyder, called NotoriousEG. It is a small LS with mostly newer people. They seemed interested in completing CoP (I'm a little bit farther than them) and Genbu (Yawwn) but it seems like a nice place...