pete-is-kur

What's going on?

2009-11-11T00:15:30Z

I suddenly seem to not be able to see posts on my friend's pages and also, their posts seem to be disappearing. Does this mean they don't like me? :(

It's Christmas!

2007-12-24T13:12:00Z

Hey all, wishing you a very merry Christmas and happy new year!! Hope 2008 treats you all well!

-Pete

Hooray for Stuff!

2006-10-30T16:43:47Z

In honor of Shotie adding me to her friends page (which I've spent the last 2 hours catching up on, much fun :3) I've decided to update my journal as well! *cue the gasps*

Where to begin with all that's happened? Guess I should start from the beginning but I'll try keep things brief because I could literally write for hours and hours about all the stories I have. I will start by introducing the following person:

This is Anne. Anne is intelligent, funny, outgoing, beautiful and lots, lots more. The best part is I get to call her mine :D She is without a doubt the best thing that's happened to me in the past months. I love her to bits. Only problem is she has since moved back France (where she's from). It's hard work keeping a long distance relationship going but we're doing it and if all goes well, in February she will be living in Australia with me and doing an International Masters of Business (or something lol) at my university. Kur = happy happy man :D

And just for good measure, here's 2 recent photos of me; 1 in a random street and another in the shopping place opposite the Tokyo Game Show (Yes, I was there har har!)

Hmm what else to add. Oh yeah, I climbed Mount Fuji during the summer holidays. 10 fucking hours of hell. There's a saying here in Japan that a wise man climbs Fuji-san once, a fool climbs it a second time. Whoever said that was the smartest person alive cos I'll be fucked if I ever try that again. We reached the top at about 2am and had to endure 0 degree temperatures for about 3 hours until sunrise. Thank whatever God you believe in for the light we could see at the top actually turned out to be the light of vending machines with hot drinks lol! I bought 2 warm lemon drinks and shoved them in my pockets and held on for dear life. It was a beautiful sunrise though. Also while climbing during the night, a town nearby was having a fireworks display which was eerily beautiful to watch and yet scary that were were looking DOWN on fireworks and not the usual lookup till you get a sore neck.

This is what Fuji-san looks like during the day:

What happened on the way down from Fuji is a long arduous tale I will not go into here, but if you wish me to tell you about it just ask and I shall. 2 days after Fuji-san we went to the Suntory whisky factory and scored some free booze which was great. Found a beautiful Noh (traditional Japanese theatre) stage at a famous shrine we stopped at. We didn't know until we got there but there was a big performance planned for that night and all the bigwigs from Tokyo were coming. Would've been so beautiful to see, even though Noh is incredibly long and boring lol.

Saw this river while we were driving by and decided to stop and look. Japan really is a beautiful place in parts.

Next day I went on this crazy fucking thing:

It's called Fujiyama and it used to be the world's largest drop for a rollercoaster until Americans had to build a bigger one. 72 m decent is fucking scary and I don't want to do it again. The red one in the next picture is called Eejanaika and it holds claim to the most number of inside out turns for a rollercoaster. To make it even worse, the first drop yeah go over, you go backwards.

That's about it for RL stuffs, at the moment I'm studying a lot to pass level 2 of the Japanese Proficiency Exam which is pretty fucking insane seeing how I've not even done 2 years of study yet. Living in Tokyo is a blast and I really recommend everyone to come visit this place at least once in their life. All you can drink for $15 is a price you can't beat too!

Now on to games and stuff!

Notable things:

1) I bought a DS Lite. It rocks. I bought FFIII remake and the new Pokemon game (Diamond version). Both really fun games. Wireless chat on DS is funny too.

2) Some great PS2 games but the one that stands out it God Hand. Never before has a game made me rofl with racial slurs and stereotypes and derogatory jokes. I highly recommend picking up a copy if you can get it.

3) I play WoW again. Moonrunner of course, level 50 Human Warrior by the name of Kurii. Been a lot of fun playing with Warrior, I think I've finally found the right class for me. A bit sad that the old Pussiecat Pirates guild isn't around anymore but oh well, shit happens. Me and Shinryukens have been guildless the whole time now which is great fun. Crazy bastard outleveled the hell out of me and currently sitting on Lieutenant Commander of the PvP ranks. He's gonna pwn by the time BC comes out. Can't wait to catch up and go have some fun with him. I think when we are both 60 we will travel to Horde lands and try to kill Shotie or Ping or something. Watch your backs! >:D Unfortunatley not many screenshots worth showing but I will try take some more now and post them here. I went on a PvP spree with my epic Fiery War Axe that I picked up for a bargain. This was one highlight of a WSG where I went a bit rampant:

Poor laptop really hates WoW though and PvP is real difficult to do with it. Anyhow, at least I can level nicely and should hit 60 by the time Burning Crusade arrives. Going to build a better computer when I move back home next year so I can do more stuff like raiding.

4) I quit FFXI again lol. This time for good I think. Combination of things led to it, a) really busy IRL so can't really devote myself to guild stuff b) time that I could spend in the game did not equal rewards to me. Might sound a bit selfish but hey, ultimately we are playing for ourselves and there is no denying that. The second I logged on to FFXI and wondered wtf I was doing wasting my time in there was the moment I decided to quit. Got one more POL message to send off before I click on the uninstall button and free up some more harddrive space for ~~porn~~ stuff. I loved ToB though and wish them all the very best.

5) Bought a 60gb Creative Zen Vision: M video/mp3 player/radio thingy that is zomgwtf beautiful but I haven't been able to turn on yet cos I'm waiting for the protective shield to arrive so I don't ruin the screen the instant I remove it from packaging. It's so purrdy though sitting in it's box. AND YAY I FINALLY GET TO UNINSTALL ITUNES GODDAMN SHITASSFUCK PROGRAM HATE HATE HATE.

That's all from me. Hope you enjoyed. I'm not gonna promise to update more often cos we know that prolly won't happen :D

Up up and away date!

2006-04-11T16:29:56Z

Months later....

Ok so I guess I owe this place an update!

Today marks my second week here in Tokyo, Japan. This place is just mind boggling. It is immense and people are everywhere at all hours of the day. On the bus ride from the airport to the 成蹊大学国際交流会館　(Seikei University International House), once you get into the outskirts of Tokyo, all you can see are buildings on both sides to the horizon. If you're claustrophobic, Tokyo is not the city for you to be living in.

The flight over wasn't too bad. Singapore airlines were great, so many movies to watch in your own personal headset thing that you can actually rewind and fastforward! I watched Aeon Flux on the way over. It was a bit disappointing considering I was a fan of the original animation all those years ago. Theres even a SNES built into the hand controller thing you get on the plane so I was able to play Street Fighter II for the first time in about a decade. Good times. That was the flight from Brsibane to Singapore anyway. The second flight I caught wasn't too bad but the plane seemed really catered towards Asians. By that I mean, the seats were ridiculously small. I didn't get much sleep on either flights.

Arrived in Tokyo on March 28th to a cold morning. Much chillier than I'd been expecting but at least I'd packed warmer clothes. Bus ride was about an hour and a half from Narita Airport into Kichijoji Station which is about a 10 minute walk away from home (I know that now, not at the time). Been pretty tired and disorientated, I asked the bus driver where the right road was to walk towards Seikei Uni and he passed me off to some other guy who bundled me off and on to a local bus which stopped right outside the uni. Score!

Anyways, settled in here now and my new home is pretty fun. I get along with nearly everyone else who is studying here. The group of people that I share my kithen with are awesome; Nick who's from Griffith Uni Gold Coast as well but who's Japanese is super advanced (it's like he's a local), Anne who's from France is also awesome and helps me out a lot and then there's Yuki who's our Japanese student advisor who also helps me out with any problems I have. Theres heaps of Aussies here at the moment which is cool. Another guy, Josh, is from Griffith Uni's Nathan campus and is in most of my classes here at Seikei. We're both the noobs of Jap cos we've only been doing it for a year compared to everyone else who's been doing it for nearly 3-4 years. It's great though, lots of Japanese people have been complementing us and calling us brave for coming over after only having done 1 year of study.

Classes started on Monday the 10th, so far only had 2 which were listening/comprehension and speaking. Normally I would've had 4 by now but the 9am classes aren't starting till the 14th for some reason but no matter, means I get tomorrow off. Oh, it's 1am so I guess I have today off lol. I'm going to test out taking 1 culture class to see what it's like. It's supposedly in English and studies English textbooks about Japanese culture but I'm a bit skeptical. It's on Thursday morning so I'll go along and see what it's like. Leigh-sensei back home told me that I only have to take Japanese classes but I'm still not sure so I'll try take something.

So far I've been walking around Tokyo a bit. Went with a new mate, Darren, to Akihabara, Shibuya and Shinjuku the other day. Akihabara is crazy, so much anime/electrical stuff there for pretty decent prices. Shibuya is also awesome, that famous road crossing is massive and so many people are there. Shinjuku train station might as well have its own postcode because it's so big. Apparently 5 million unique passengers go through there everyday. That's 1/5th the population of Australia everyday lol. We went up to Tokyo Metropolitan Government building to the observation deck which is supposed to be better than Tokyo Tower cos the view is almost the same and it's free to go up (Tokyo Tower costs about ￥800 which is about $10).

Also started Aikido training with Darren today. It was pretty intersting, so little force can be used to completely render someone immobile. The other students were great with trying to help us understand but the sensei didn't even come over and say anything to us lol. Guess we'll have to give him some time to warm up to the idea of having foreigners in his class cos we sure as hell ain't backing down. I just take with a grain of salt, I expected this when I came to Japan so it's no troubles. Australia is such a multicultural place, I guess we take it for granted that we can interact with so many people from so many different backgrounds.

Anyways that about wraps it up. I'll post pictures as I take them but right now I have to get some batteries for my camera cos the ones I brought with me are terrible and only last for about 2 minutes.

FFXI wise, not going to be able to play until I get a different connection into my room. The Seikei LAN has everything blocked so I can't play at all. Even web browsing is difficult. Darren and I are going to try to setup a high band connection to his room with Yahoo BB and then we will create a wireless network so I can use it here on the 3rd floor (Darren lives on the 1st floor). So until then, Kur will only be around on forums and LJ and stuff :( When I get back though, I do plan on fully pursuing the path of NIN/DRK as a tanking job. Laugh now you may, but if you've read what I've read about it, you'd be as excited as I am :)

じゃ、皆さん、またあとでね～

Hardest post I've had to make

2006-01-14T00:49:47Z

Just posted this on my LS's website. I think it should be posted here as well.

Today I have made the difficult decision to cancel my content IDs for FFXI. A lot of you would have noticed my absence from the game for about the last month. This has been due to me going back to work. This pretty much rules me out of every LS event unless it's on a saturday and to be blunt, I don't feel like paying $20 just to play 4 saturdays a month. I also need to save a lot of money for my trip to Japan coming up at the end of March. It was inevitable that I was going to leave for some time so I have brought forward the decision to today.

However this is not a total good bye. I will be back in the future because there is still a lot of stuff left in the game I want to participate in. I've sent some gears to people to use while I'm gone. Take care of it and I will be back to claim it one day. I know ToB will do great things while I'm away and I look forward to returning, I just wish I knew how long I was going to be gone.

So farewell ToB, was a pleasure playing with you all. If you want you to chat you can catch me on MSN at petercowley2001@hotmail.com or on AIM with Armisael 2015. Also check my LJ in my sig as I wil update it more often when I get to Japan.

I leave you wth the final screenshot of Kur in the place it started on February 23rd 2004.

toastgodkur @ 2006-01-02T14:58:00

2006-01-02T04:58:33Z

OMFG HOT

I fuckin' love Paladin.

End of a long road....

2005-12-10T09:34:07Z

After 118 days of playtime, I have finally my achieved my goal of a level 75 character.

Thanks to everyone from ToB for being the crazy bunch you are, all the good people of Sylph and of course Lenor on the Leviathan server for being online later than me at night for our cross server chats XD

For Shotie:

2005-12-07T08:45:03Z

Nothing to report

2005-10-31T13:40:50Z

Not much happening this week. Blew up a couple times for over 1000 damage, dinged 74, watched more money go down the drain on NIN tools, spent 3 hours soloing to clean the last 68 points (OR SO I THOUGHT) off of my Senjuinrikio and err something else that escapes me now.

Next 2 weeks will probably be slow as well with final exams for uni. I better start studying that kanji @.@;;

Monday weekly recap post

2005-10-24T09:33:01Z

Another week passes, more countless hours wasted behind the computer screen! (who cares, this game is still fun even with the downtime)

Let's get the show on the road! Btw, found this gif on 4chan and tried to make an avatar out of it but it's too big for most places :(

Ok so I guess it's time to pickup where I left off with last week which was chocobo digging results and stuffs. If you're not interested in any of that scroll down a bit further and read on.

Been enjoying the digging a fair bit. It's quite relaxing roaming around zones I haven't fully explored for so long. You also get to poke friends along the way :D

Anyways here comes the raw data which may come in useful to someone somewhere:

Monday 17th October, 2005

Run #1

Area(s): East Sarutabaruta, West Sarutabaruta
Number of Digs: 123 (10.25 stacks)
Failed Attempts: 92
Day + Moon Phase: Start - Iceday, Waxing Gibbous 76% End - Lightningday, Waxing Gibbous 79%
Items Dug Up:
East Sarutabaruta
Luan Log x3
Papaka Grass x2
Pebble x1
West Sarutabaruta
Little Worm x11
Pebble x7
Moko Grass x4
Luan Log x2
Insect Wing x1

Weather Notes: None.

Run #2

Area(s): East Sarutabaruta, Tahrongi Canyon
Number of Digs: 120 (10 stacks)
Failed Attempts: 91
Day + Moon Phase: Darksday, Waxing Gibbous 83%
Items Dug Up:
East Sarutabaruta
Pebble x1
Saruta Cotton x1
Insect Wing x1
Luan Log x1
Tahrongi Canyon
Pebble x9
Bone Chip x6
Seashell x3
Insect Wing x2
Tin Ore x4
Earth Crystal x1

Weather Notes: Single Earth appeared in Tahrongi.

Tuesday 18th October, 2005

Run #1

Area(s): Rolanberry Fields, Pashhow Marshlands, Konschtat Highlands
Number of Digs: 120 (10 stacks)
Failed Attempts: 105
Day + Moon Phase: Watersday, Waning Gibbous 90%
Items Dug Up:
Rolanberry Fields
Little Worm x1 orz
Pashhow Marshlands
Insect Wing x1
Water Crystal x2
Pebble x1
Silver Ore x1
Konschtat Highlands
Flint Stone x3
Pebble x4
Pugil Scales x1
Zinc Ore x1

Weather Notes: Single Water in Pashhow Marshlands.

Run #2

Area(s): Yuhtunga Jungle
Number of Digs: 132 (11 stacks)
Failed Attempts: 111
Day + Moon Phase: Lightningday, Waning Gibbous 83%
Items Dug Up:
Rattan Lumber x6
Bone Chip x6
Cinnamon x7
Fingernail Sack x1
Danceshroom x1

Weather Notes: Single Water appeared twice.

Run #3

Area(s): West Ronfaure
Number of Digs: 132 (11 stacks)
Failed Attempts: 82
Day + Moon Phase: Start - Darksday, Waning Gibbous 79% End - Firesday, Waning Gibbous 76%
Items Dug Up:
Acorn x15
Moko Grass x6
Little Worm x12
Maple Log x3
Arrowwood Log x8
Ash Log x3
Chocobo Feather x3

Weather Notes: None.

CHOCOBO DIGGING LEVEL 1 ACHIEVED SOMETIME DURING THIS RUN :D

Run #4

Area(s): Jugner Forest
Number of Digs: 132 (11 stacks)
Failed Attempts: 74
Day + Moon Phase: Darksday, Last Quarter Moon 62%
Items Dug Up:
Willow Log x9
Little Worm x10
Maple Log x10
Acorn x17
Arrowwood Log x7
Holly Log x2
Water Crystal x3

Weather Notes: Single Water appeared. Also, 1 water crystal was dug up with NO weather effects present.

So there we have it. Chocobo Digging level 1 has been attained and now I've since returned to leveling that's where it wil stay till I hit 75. Now on with more happenings!

Mijin Gakure Record

I can't remember why I was in Xarcabard but I knew how I was going to get out, Mijin Gakure! Always after higher numbers I put on all of the +HP gear I had on me (AF Head+Legs+Hands, SH, Savage Gaiters), found the nearest Lost Soul and cast Hyoton: Ni first before giving it a crack:

Woohoo! New record! I still have a long way to go with HP gear, seriously lacking in that department but it can wait.

Lumberjack

After the monster marathon session I logged in and started heading out to Carpenter's Landing to see if I could pick up any NM claims but before I got there Xspite called out over the LS that Weeping Willow was up so a bunch of us headed out there. He spawns the HNM Lumberjack for those of you who don't know, but really not that big deal of a HNM. Hell I don't even know why he's called a HNM, look how much damage Stonega IV does:

Barstone helps a bit I guess o.O Crappy drops, gave the Vile Elixer to Pockets for his Maat fight, others nobody could care about since their combined value is less than 10k.

Charybdis

Credos was firmly set on camping Charybdis for his Joyeuse all day on Saturday I think was. Anyways we get there and the usual RMT goons are there (Backhame died to a Devil Manta, lol) but they shortly left. About an hour later we were shocked as Chary popped and we were there all by our lonesome. The call of "OMFG CHARBY POP PLZ COME" went into the LS chat and a whole bunch of people came to join the fight. Just as we were all getting there someone out the front of the room spotted some more people coming this way so I went out and claimed and the fight began.

Note in the above picture the death of Neoptolemous, the only person who took hate off me the whole fight. Damn you crazy overpowered MNKs! *shakes fist*

Congratulations to Credos! The fight was a fun one, probably the most challengeing I've tanked so far in my career. Hopefully I get to do it a few more times :D

Windower - IME

I don't care what anyone says, I love using the Windower's IME ability. Just be able to have little convos like this one makes my day and helps practice my Japanese writing out a lot (I study Japanese at University). I wish SE had included all this stuff when you already buy the game, here's hoping they do something about it in the future.

Spoilers below about Bastok M9-2 BC fight, you can stop reading now if you don't wanna see it, this is the last screenshot.

BASTOK M9-2 BIG SPOILER DON'T LOOK IF YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW

Stupid action of the week is me vs Zeid solo!

I 2 hour'd and got out shortly after this screenshot. He pwned me with Freezebite which went through shadows and then got me for a normal hit of about 230 damage. I lasted for about 3-4 minutes which was a bit longer than I expected and got him down to 90% health. I was in Castle Zvahl leveling my NPC and thought I'd give it a shot. I love playing NIN so I can do some crazy stuff and walk away with my EXP in tact :P

Anyways that's all for the past week. Probably won't have much in ways of an update next week as final exams are at the moment for uni. Which reminds me I have a speach to memorise, ciao!

(Cross-posted to my LJ and finalfantasy11)

Sunday post

2005-10-16T13:42:56Z

Cross posted this over at finalfantasy11 community and what better way to do it than start off with a bang! (Then end up with boring noob chocobo digging data) =D

Today our LS was going to take a shot at Bomb Queen in the hellhole of all places, Ifirit's Cauldron (I think it's ok but damn I hate the bombs when the explode at full hp). After proceeding to get lost by making th efirst turn we took the wrong turn, we had to escape and come back. Along the way back we somehow ended up with a 13 goblin and 8 was train, honestly I have no idea how we got it but damn I wish I took pics of it. Anyways, we finally to Bomb Queens pop spot, we set up our strategy and we begin. Here's an image which kind of sums up how both runs went:

Yeeeeeeeeeeah wasn't too great. The mini bomb summons hurt us the most, I was the one tanking BQ and doing it pretty easily until the MNK and RNG did their light SC, spent about a miute trying to get hate back after that. I have no idea how Neoptolomus survived the hits he took but then again, he's a pretty awesome MNK. Anyways we decided to give up after our 2nd attempt. We'll have to come bak with a few more and higher level BLMs next time so we can just nuke the summons with Firaga II/III. It was pretty fun anyways.

Ok so today I've begun the quest to become a Master Digger. It's not going to be easy but I do plan on recording everything I do along the way in the hopes that it might be of use to someone, somewhere out there. Let's begin shall we:

Run #1

Area(s): West Ronfaure
Number of Digs: 84 (7 stacks of greens)
Failed Attempts: 51
Day + Moon Phase: Darksday, Waxing Crescent 7%
Items Dug Up:
Little Worm x9
Arrowwood Log x5
Maple Log x5
Ash Log x2
Moko Grass x1
Chocobo Feather x6
Acorn x5

Weather Notes: None.

Run #2

Area(s): La Theine Plateau, Valkurm Dunes
Number of Digs: 120 (10 stacks of greens)
Failed Attempts: 98
Day + Moon Phase: Firesday, Waxing Crescent 10%
Items Dug Up:
La Theine Plateau
Little Worm x5
Arrowwood Log x2
Tin Ore x1
Valkurm Dunes
Seashell x5
Bone Chip x4
Lizard Molt x1
Lugworm x1
Earth Crystal x1

Weather Notes: Single wind effect in La Theine for the majority of the digging time spent there. Single earth effect present in Valkurm dunes towards the end of the dig.

Run #3

Area(s): South Gustaberg, North Gustaberg (Western Side), Konschtat Highlands, Pashhow Marshlands
Number of Digs: 135 (11.25 stacks of greens)
Failed Attempts: 113
Day + Moon Phase: Start - Windsday, Waxing Crescent 17% End - Iceday, Waxing Crescent 19%
Items Dug Up:
South Gustaberg
Pebble x1
Rock Salt x2
Insect Wing x2
Little Worm x3
Bone Chip x2
North Gustaberg
Little Worm x2
Pebble x1
Insect Wing x1
Pugil Scales x1
Konschtat Highlands
Pebble x4
Pashhow Marshlands
Pebble x1
Willow Log x1
Lizard Molt x1

Weather Notes: Single water effect appeared during Pashhow Marshlands section of dig.

I didn't expect it to be ground breaking and it wasn't lol. I had a lot of fun though running around on the chocobo. Sure beats sitting inside a city constantly crafting. Also, I had a great encounter after my second run had ended. I ran out of greens so I headed to Konschtat Highlands and was debating to keep going to Bastok or stop and get a new chocobo from the crag. Before I could decide the current chocobo I was on took off and left me just SW of the Crag. So I sat down and began to write into little book beside me the results of my dig when I hear BOOM BOOM! I look up and notice this text: "The Steelfleece Balderich hits Kur for 85 points of damage. The Steelfleece Balderich misses Kur." Now, I had virtually no gear on me (will post that pic in a second) but there was NOWAY IN HELL I was letting this bastard go. I've been wanting to kill this thing ever since a friend of mine showed me a video he made of him soloing it and was partly the reason why I began to play as a Ninja. So I quickly mutter in the LS chat "omfg steelfleece agro come nowz" and soon Dezo and the people he was doing Bastok M6-2 and Yukijin showed up (although not in this screen).

And here is the gear I was wearing and tanked the whole time (Note: Senjuinrikio is still not cleaned orz):

He really is a pushover :/

And so endeth the update! Hope it was enjoyable for all. Hooray for owls!

Damn small Manual

2005-10-15T12:51:04Z

So I went to create another mule today, possibly my 7th or 8th, to dump all my NIN gear into so I can start up chocobo digging. I get to the content ID screen and it asks for my FFXI activation code. This is where I start to freak out. I can't remember where I put my manual with all the codes. It has simply vanished into nothingness. All I can find in the original box is the French manual and the CDs, both of which are of no use to me as they have no codes. Frantic searching ensues for about an hour while the thought of never being able to reinstall FFXI flows through me as I was planning to format my hard drive soon. Right here's about the time where my Dad finds it jammed up above some books in our overcrowding bookshelf RIGHT INFRONT OF WHERE I SIT AND LOOKED THROUGH 15 TIMES.

Crisis Over.

Ahoy

2005-10-14T10:10:02Z

First post!

New LJ created to rant about my FFXI ongoings and post random screenshots I take along the way. Basic info:

FFXI Char name: Kur
Server: Sylph
Main Job: 73 NIN/WAR
Linkshell: TemplarsOfBaldur

To go with new LJ comes new avatar! No idea where this came from but I like my play on YA RLY. Enjoy XD