Final Fantasy XIV beta fun

Candy Ace has decided to try out the new incarnation of an old bad habit: Final Fantasy XIV. Overall, I'd say they have a ways to go before releasing at the end of the month, but I'm having some fun.

One little problem I hope they fix:
Yellow named mobs are supposed to be even or challenging to beat. This little yellow fella whacked me for 4x my total HP.Thanks Spiny Dormouse!
More to come later...

Simon Tofield has released another of his 'Simon's Cat' videos. Once again, this video hits cat ownership dead on.

I first saw this clip yesterday and it had around 1200 views. This morning, it has over 300,000. Lots of cat people out there on the internet.
If you haven't seen the other Simon Cat clips, click here and here.

Crom! This guy is big!

I met the big guy today, the King of Aquilonia. Conan finally felt all the ability to summon an Atlantian god warranted a little face time. The first thing I noticed when he walked up to me was: Wow! This guy is BIG!
The other thing I noticed while he talked was he never seemed to open his eyes all the way. He kind of had the Rocky thing going like he was about to fall asleep. I guess I was boring him. He gave me a new ring that was marginally better than the one I got 20 levels ago, but what are you going to do? Conan also gave me a task where if I finished it, maybe I'd get to join his elite guards, The Black Dragons. We'll see.
When we were done talking, he just stood there and let me take his picture. I took a couple and noticed he wasn't really paying an attention so....
I relaxed in his chair for a while. A gal could get used to a big chair like this! Just needs some big guys with feather fans on either side.

Nature Show Animation

Everyone loves a good nature documentary. Getting a chance to watch animals go about their daily business without having to actually go out and watch the real thing has its appeal. I mean who really wants to go out and watch European Water Shrews? They're so small and fast , you may miss the things that really go on. This clip slows down the action for you. Enjoy!

Where's Candyace?

I haven't posted much this month at all. I've been a little more involved with other projects. Not all of these projects have been all that productive since a friend has loaned me a pile of DVDs to catch me up on my Asian Cinema. One of the things I finally got to see what Studio Ghibli's "Whisper of the Heart" (or 'Mimi wo sumaseba' - If you Listen Closely). The story revolves around a young girl's resolve to challenge herself to follow her dream.
I can relate to the bookworm main character's attempt at writing her own story and the huge difference between reading and writing. I read all the time but only recently started writing my own material. It's very difficult to have something to say and put it into words for others to read and enjoy. Even reading some of the posts here, I cringe at the way I wrote out what I was trying to say. Like the old shop owner tells her, your talent is a rough stone that requires cutting and polishing until you get the gem you seek. I've got some pretty serious cutting and polishing to do myself. Hopefully, one day I'll have that shiny gem to enjoy.
This clip shows the main character Shizuku singing the theme song that many people will recognize even if they don't speak Japanese.

Totoro Cream Puffs

A friend of mine sent me this link recently. At first look, they're just little mouse looking cream puffs. To someone who loves the movie, Tonori no Totoro the figure is instantly recognisable. Totoro is one of those movies that I'll watch anytime I come across it, even if it's half over. All the characters, from Satsuki and Mei to soot sprites and nekobasu will just lodge themselves permanently to your heart.
This clip is where Mei (the youngest sister) spots the smaller totoro-chan and ends just after she meets the elder Totoro. Mei is as annoyingly cute as only a little girl can be to the snoozy Totoro.





Grab itand watch it sometime.

Crom! I run faster than this thing

Candyace finally hit level 40 this week. The first thing I did was summon my pre-order war rhino and walk it around. It didn't really matter that I was standing around a town and in people's way, I hit a milestone that few had at that point. I was a little concerned when I ran by a stable in town and checked the price of a horse and I saw the price of learning Basic Riding skill was a gold. I had only 50 silver to my name at that point, but the game let me climb on up on the rhino.
Perhaps Basic Riding teaches me some tricks while riding or how to ride a little quicker because I was kind of disappointed after a bit. Running from point A to B is always a chore and usually a mount speeds it along to a point where you don't mind as much, but the rhino runs at about the speed Candyace does on her own. Maybe after I get some more coin, I'll pick up a horse and some riding skill. Wait and see I guess.
Another level 40 milestone is learning the ability to craft. I've been picking up the materials for the past fifteen levels and was looking forward to trying them out. I asked around the guild who planned on doing which job so we could cover all our bases and I decided to be a gem cutter. I had a gem in my inventory that I beat out of an unfortunate in Tarantia's Nobel District and tried it out. It's a pretty easy interface to figure out and it turns out to be a great way to overfill your bag. A trader would be nice in that town so you can store stuff while you craft.
I was told by others that you could only choose one profession in crafting, but I saw the gold ! over the armorsmith so I went over to chat him up. Turns out he wanted to teach me and I promptly filled my quest book up with undeletable quests involving armor. Figures...cotton was the one resource I had a hard time finding in the earlier levels, but I guess I could go back and poke around. After spending an hour or so running around 'picking' cotton, I went back to clear some of these quests. I quickly found out I had little or no cotton. Turns out cotton picking is bugged at the moment. That would have been nice to know earlier.
Quest bugs are still a problem for me. I abandoned one quest because of it when the forums said it was broken. I currently have three quests in one are where I'm at a loss on how to proceed without a Game Master's input. For the past couple of days, I've typed the dreaded /petition and sat back to wait. The queue for a GM is like the one at the DMV, it can move really quickly or never at all. Last night I moved twenty spots in line - out of 59 - before I had to log out for the night. My first night with this problem, I was number 117 in line. I said 'Nuts' to that and logged into my other character to get her off Tortage Island and into the game. More about her later.
Other than these little bumps in the road, I'm still really enjoying the pace of this game. The quests really involve you for the most part where you feel you're actually doing something other than 'Go fetch me x of those so I can make soup...I'll give you a bowl when I finish'. Something is always making me laugh or at least roll my eyes at the cheese.
All in all, I'm still having fun.