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This past weekend has been a nonstop stress marathon. One paper due monday, with another due sunday. That was today. I got them both done, but not before freaking out.
I have this thing about pre-stress stress. If something stressful is coming up, I have to flip the fuck out well in advance. For example, I have to drive to New Jersey when I want to see the folks. It's not a difficult drive, it's just long, and there's too great a possibility of me screwing something up. As a result, it's not uncommon for me to toss and turn the night before the drive and not get any sleep. Then I have to load up on coffee and turn the music way up. The single upside to the no sleep thing is that it led to me actually finishing Onimusha Tactics one time, but that's a post for another time.
I mean shit, I'm an English major, so I should be used to this by now. But it's not often that I'm hit with two papers (for the same class!) due back to back. They're not even long or difficult assignments. I just deal terribly with deadlines and I can never get started. I can't enjoy anything when I know in the back of my mind that I still have shit to do. I couldn't muster the energy to go for a bike ride this week, nor could I hang out with friends on saturday night.
FFXI happenings were equally disasterous. I'm about to face the Shadow Lord, the generically named final boss of the original game, before any of the expansions were released... It's weird being at what once was the "end" of the game. I assembled a strike force in Jeuno, trudged through the snow into the intimidating Castle Zvahl, and things were okay. For a few minutes.
The thing about FFXI is that if you're going to kill any kind of boss or notorious monster, you're most likely going to need either a Red/White mage to cast Sneak and Invisible on you to get past the monsters leading up to the boss fight, or a stockpile of silent oils and prism powders, which do the same thing. As there are numerous monsters that aggro to magic use in Castle Zvahl, I instructed everyone to bring the appropriate items. The Red Mage Sneaks/Invises everyone at the entrance to get us going, and we make it about halfway.
Dark Knight: sneak plz
Havalina: use the items you brought
Dark Knight: i 4got 2 buy
Havalina: ...
A couple of ahrimans picked up the sounds of his overpriced armor and cut him down in seconds. A pack of demons followed to pick at what was left. The whole party was more or less scattered, but I did manage to zone... deeper into the castle. I've been sitting there, stuck between two impossibly difficult areas for two days now, with no means of escape. My options are death (following which I would de-level) or to wait for a high level Black Mage to pass through and warp me out. I've got a few oils and powders left over, but no high level Paladin to save my ass like last time if I'm detected after they wear off.
My general experience with Dark Knights is that they're almost always played by 14-16 year olds and nine out of ten have some form of "Sephiroth" in their names. There are exceptions — Erin's manslave comes to mind — but the majority are angsty teens who think they can do UBER LEET DAMAGE to anything and everything because they have a scythe and some MP.
August 22 2005, 08:29:57 UTC 6 years ago
sorry!