I've been looking through some of my old blogs recently, and came across one that listed some of my Life Goals / things I want to do. Life Goals are a little different from my New Year's Resolutions since I have my whole life to do them, but there are some overlap. Some goals I'd probably never finish unless I worked on them a bit at a time.
It's been almost 7 years since that last post so I figured I'd update it a bit. Here is the same list of Life Goals / Things I want to do from my last post, with a bit of commentary if I have any. I've also added a few new goals at the end.
For my original post, click here.
-Learn Japanese
-Learn a programming language (preferably Python and C++)
-Create a video game (preferably more than one) <-- DONE! I've accomplished this with my text-based games, but I want to do more! :D
-Create a song (preferably more than one)
-Write something and have it published (preferably more than once)
-Learn to cook more than just rice and chocolate <-- DONE! Yes, I have learned this thanks to the cooking club at work last year.
-Travel to Japan <-- DONE! I've travelled there three times now! :) <3
-Eat a melon-filled melon bread <-- DONE! I think I've eaten this at least once everytime I visited Japan.
-Treat myself to a ridiculously expensive restaurant (that has good food!) <-- I partially did this with Miku in Vancouver last year. I'll go all out if I can finish my resolutions this year... provided the pandemic will be over by then!
-Attend a Hatsune Miku concert <-- DONE! I attended one in 2016. Hopefully the one scheduled for September this year will still be happening *fingers crossed!* xD
-Attend a Glay concert (please still be together years from now!)
-Experience / Expose myself to all the media that I own (I make things difficult for myself by buying more media every year) <-- I've been working on this one for so many years now and it's finally showing some progress (done all my anime, done all my Xbox360 games, almost done all my TV shows / movies)! But I will probably have this goal for many, many more years, if not the rest of my darn life.
NEW
-Travel to Wales (will mention why in a future blog)
-Learn to play a new instrument, specifically a portable one
-Go fishing at least once (not to really eat the fish... just to experience fishing)
Do you have any life goals / things you want to do? If yes, what are they? And if you have any, do you find it easier to work on them during the pandemic?
For myself, I'm finding it easier to go through my media collection, even though I still don't have that much free time these days. One of my media can't be experienced, though, until I beat a video game (Final Fantasy VII so I can watch finally watch Advent Children on DVD). That will be a mini-challenge for myself, hahaha.
That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading! If you'd like to comment, feel free.
Stay safe, take care, and until next time! :)
Sunday 26 April 2020
Sunday 19 April 2020
BLOG (PERSONAL) -- Getting Re-acquainted with Final Fantasy XIV
So... a few days ago, I started playing Final Fantasy XIV again (will refer to it as FFXIV from this point on).
If you have been reading my monthly recap blogs for a while, you might think, 'But you have been playing FFXIV'. Well, yes, and no. I've re-subbed and logged on multiple times to do the limited seasonal events that happen every often. Aside from that, I barely did anything to progress my characters, nor the story / dungeons. That is because... aside from the lack of time (I have many things that can keep me busy), I felt a little alienated / intimidated by all the changes in the game.
To summarize my experience with FFXIV, I started playing it on February 1st, 2014. I instantly loved everything about it and went on to play it intensely for about the next 2 and a half years. For anybody curious, here is my first blog about FFXIV: https://ironixgirl.blogspot.com/2014/02/exposures-video-games-final-fantasy-xiv.html.
During that time, I went through a mix of highs and lows. I've mentioned this before, but it really felt like living a lifetime in there. Also during that time other aspects in my real life got affected. I wasn't playing as many other video games nor watching as many movies / shows as I had wanted. My blog-writing also took a huge dive. I just wasn't able to balance my life and my FFXIV life... to a point where I eventually decided I had to take a break. There were other reasons, too, but... I don't want to get into them right now.
In the beginning it wasn't so bad. I'd re-sub or take advantage of a free 4-day login campaign to do limited events, and then spend the rest of my time leveling some of my classes. I had wanted to level them all to 60 (the max level at the time), but didn't want to run dungeons for all of them. If I was lucky, I'd also be online while the FC was doing some group-runs of old content and I'd join in sometimes.
Then came the 3rd expansion (Stormblood), and the next time I re-subbed I was surprised to see so many unusable skills in my hotbar for Bard. The skills for many classes changed. At that moment, I knew -- I was a noob all over again! I had been playing for 2.5 years -- Many of my war classes were level 60 -- and I didn't know how to play any of them properly anymore...
I familiarized myself enough to update my hotbar for my Bard, but wasn't 100% comfortable so if I ran anything, I'd run it by myself. I didn't want to be a deadweight for anybody. Fortunately none of the crafting skills changed so I was still able to do some crafting during that time.
Then when Shadowbringers was released (the most recent expansion)... the crafting and some of the gathering skills changed. I was devastated. All of a sudden, the crafting macro I had been using for years was useless, and I didn't have time to re-learn everything. I ended up playing less and less every time I re-subbed until a few days ago.
A friend from another server decided to try playing FFXIV again because his girlfriend started playing it and they transferred over to Masamune. To not be completely useless when running dungeons with them or if they had any questions, I looked up on some of the game changes. I also re-familiarized myself again with my Bard skills, so now I'm a bit more confident with playing that class.
Then yesterday, I spent almost a whole day logged into the game just... getting re-acquainted with everything again (please note that I start getting into FFXIV-specific lingo here). Here are some of the things I did / discovered:
-I updated the hotbar for all my crafting classes. Updating the hotbar for 8 classes... hah...
-I did minor updates for the hotbar for my mining and botanist classes. I didn't look at my fishing class yet.
-I had read that there was no longer a max point cap for Desynthesis, and no failure rate for desynthing items, so I started desynthing high level gear I didn't need anymore. It used to be that Desynthesis had a max point cap that was shared amongst the crafting classes, so if you wanted to fully level Desynthesis for any class, you could only do it for 3 classes at most, and you had to make sure none of the other classes had any Desynthesis points in them. Desynthesis also failed in the past if your level was too low compared to the item you were trying to desynth.
-While I was desynthing gear, I noticed that some were 100% spiritbonded so I decided to turn it into materia. When I selected the gear and selected "Extract Materia", I was surprised to see my gear still in-tact... but just at 1%. So... extracting materia doesn't destroy the gear anymore??! My mind was blown. I can't count how many low level gear I crafted in the past just for the sake of spiritbonding and turning into materia.
-While I was extracting materia, I'd notice sometimes that the "Retrieve Materia" option would be highlighted. Curious, I selected that option for a piece of gear I didn't care much about. The materia that was melded into the gear was removed. I went O__O! All of a sudden, I thought, The market value for materia on the marketboard must be in the crapper now... In the past, Materia would be melded into the gear permanently.
-I changed to my Astrologian class for the first time in a long time, just to do a little bit of solo leveling. I was surprised that the card skills had changed a lot. Before, each card would do something slightly different, either raising attack, or giving a regen effect, or making skills a little faster. There was also a choice of applying that card to one person or using a skill to have the card be applied to the whole party (maybe that skill got moved to a later level), but now every card just raises attack, with some classes getting more attack % than others depending on the card. I guess there's less to think about, but I don't know... I think if all the cards are around raising attack, then have less cards (there are currently 6), or have just one skill that does that.
I know that there is a new Glamour system in place (the Glamour plates and Glamour dresser), but even after reading about it online, I still don't fully understand how it works in conjunction with the old Glamour method. I have also read mixed things about using the new Glamour system, so I think I will stick to the old system for now.
I haven't really familiarized with skills for my other classes, but I'm sure I will eventually. Aside from joining my friend and his girlfriend on dungeon runs and such, I'd like to get more caught up with the story. Let's see if I can get at least that done before my subscription expires (in exactly two months).
That's it for this blog! I'm surprised at how much I wrote, hahaha.
I'll do my best to keep a balance this time -- between playing FFXIV and doing other things.
Take care, stay safe, and until next time! :)
If you have been reading my monthly recap blogs for a while, you might think, 'But you have been playing FFXIV'. Well, yes, and no. I've re-subbed and logged on multiple times to do the limited seasonal events that happen every often. Aside from that, I barely did anything to progress my characters, nor the story / dungeons. That is because... aside from the lack of time (I have many things that can keep me busy), I felt a little alienated / intimidated by all the changes in the game.
To summarize my experience with FFXIV, I started playing it on February 1st, 2014. I instantly loved everything about it and went on to play it intensely for about the next 2 and a half years. For anybody curious, here is my first blog about FFXIV: https://ironixgirl.blogspot.com/2014/02/exposures-video-games-final-fantasy-xiv.html.
During that time, I went through a mix of highs and lows. I've mentioned this before, but it really felt like living a lifetime in there. Also during that time other aspects in my real life got affected. I wasn't playing as many other video games nor watching as many movies / shows as I had wanted. My blog-writing also took a huge dive. I just wasn't able to balance my life and my FFXIV life... to a point where I eventually decided I had to take a break. There were other reasons, too, but... I don't want to get into them right now.
In the beginning it wasn't so bad. I'd re-sub or take advantage of a free 4-day login campaign to do limited events, and then spend the rest of my time leveling some of my classes. I had wanted to level them all to 60 (the max level at the time), but didn't want to run dungeons for all of them. If I was lucky, I'd also be online while the FC was doing some group-runs of old content and I'd join in sometimes.
Then came the 3rd expansion (Stormblood), and the next time I re-subbed I was surprised to see so many unusable skills in my hotbar for Bard. The skills for many classes changed. At that moment, I knew -- I was a noob all over again! I had been playing for 2.5 years -- Many of my war classes were level 60 -- and I didn't know how to play any of them properly anymore...
I familiarized myself enough to update my hotbar for my Bard, but wasn't 100% comfortable so if I ran anything, I'd run it by myself. I didn't want to be a deadweight for anybody. Fortunately none of the crafting skills changed so I was still able to do some crafting during that time.
Then when Shadowbringers was released (the most recent expansion)... the crafting and some of the gathering skills changed. I was devastated. All of a sudden, the crafting macro I had been using for years was useless, and I didn't have time to re-learn everything. I ended up playing less and less every time I re-subbed until a few days ago.
A friend from another server decided to try playing FFXIV again because his girlfriend started playing it and they transferred over to Masamune. To not be completely useless when running dungeons with them or if they had any questions, I looked up on some of the game changes. I also re-familiarized myself again with my Bard skills, so now I'm a bit more confident with playing that class.
Then yesterday, I spent almost a whole day logged into the game just... getting re-acquainted with everything again (please note that I start getting into FFXIV-specific lingo here). Here are some of the things I did / discovered:
-I updated the hotbar for all my crafting classes. Updating the hotbar for 8 classes... hah...
-I did minor updates for the hotbar for my mining and botanist classes. I didn't look at my fishing class yet.
-I had read that there was no longer a max point cap for Desynthesis, and no failure rate for desynthing items, so I started desynthing high level gear I didn't need anymore. It used to be that Desynthesis had a max point cap that was shared amongst the crafting classes, so if you wanted to fully level Desynthesis for any class, you could only do it for 3 classes at most, and you had to make sure none of the other classes had any Desynthesis points in them. Desynthesis also failed in the past if your level was too low compared to the item you were trying to desynth.
-While I was desynthing gear, I noticed that some were 100% spiritbonded so I decided to turn it into materia. When I selected the gear and selected "Extract Materia", I was surprised to see my gear still in-tact... but just at 1%. So... extracting materia doesn't destroy the gear anymore??! My mind was blown. I can't count how many low level gear I crafted in the past just for the sake of spiritbonding and turning into materia.
-While I was extracting materia, I'd notice sometimes that the "Retrieve Materia" option would be highlighted. Curious, I selected that option for a piece of gear I didn't care much about. The materia that was melded into the gear was removed. I went O__O! All of a sudden, I thought, The market value for materia on the marketboard must be in the crapper now... In the past, Materia would be melded into the gear permanently.
-I changed to my Astrologian class for the first time in a long time, just to do a little bit of solo leveling. I was surprised that the card skills had changed a lot. Before, each card would do something slightly different, either raising attack, or giving a regen effect, or making skills a little faster. There was also a choice of applying that card to one person or using a skill to have the card be applied to the whole party (maybe that skill got moved to a later level), but now every card just raises attack, with some classes getting more attack % than others depending on the card. I guess there's less to think about, but I don't know... I think if all the cards are around raising attack, then have less cards (there are currently 6), or have just one skill that does that.
I know that there is a new Glamour system in place (the Glamour plates and Glamour dresser), but even after reading about it online, I still don't fully understand how it works in conjunction with the old Glamour method. I have also read mixed things about using the new Glamour system, so I think I will stick to the old system for now.
I haven't really familiarized with skills for my other classes, but I'm sure I will eventually. Aside from joining my friend and his girlfriend on dungeon runs and such, I'd like to get more caught up with the story. Let's see if I can get at least that done before my subscription expires (in exactly two months).
That's it for this blog! I'm surprised at how much I wrote, hahaha.
I'll do my best to keep a balance this time -- between playing FFXIV and doing other things.
Take care, stay safe, and until next time! :)
Sunday 5 April 2020
BLOG (PERSONAL) -- What's Going on in Toronto (Journal #3)
I thought I was going to blog about something different this week, but... more things have happened in Toronto since two weeks ago relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm kinda glad more is being done, since not everybody seems to be taking this pandemic seriously... At the same time, I'm not particularly happy that it had to get to this point. Also, I'm not happy with the thought that this pandemic could last for months...
Again, if I miss listing anything, my apologies.
- "Non-essential" businesses are closed. Any businesses that could work remotely are still open, though.
- Public gatherings of 5 or more are not allowed.
- All city-led events, festivals, permits, conferences, and cultural programs until June 30 have been cancelled. When I first heard about this, I thought the FLOW concert (June 3rd) and International Fan Festival Toronto (IFFT) (June 19-21) were cancelled, but they're not city-led. The public gathering restriction will get them, though, if the pandemic is still going on by then.
- Outdoor recreational amenities, beaches, playgrounds, and sports facilities are closed. I honestly think this could have been avoided if everybody was taking this practicing social distancing seriously.
- Those violating the social distancing (now termed physical distancing) can now get fined. Why did it have to get to this point?
For myself, I'm still at home, going outside only to throw out trash (and the trash bin is right next to my home).
This past week, I spent almost all my spare time cleaning my room, and I think I am done with it for now! I have a nice empty spot where I can prance about. The floor isn't 50% bare so my New Year's resolution isn't done yet, but it's getting there. I am feeling very, very proud of myself! Now I can spend the next few weeks or months crumpling to the floor as I try to exercise after many years of not exercising.
Also, I received a package this week -- my last package for a long while: Persona 5 Royal. I'm super excited to play it but I'll hold off for a little while. Call me a cheat if you want, but I'd rather play it with a couple guides for certain elements. Just like in the original Persona 5 game, I hope the grim reaper can get sick for another easy trophy (if that trophy is also in Persona 5 Royal).
That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading!
If anybody would like me to blog about something else, feel free to leave suggestions in the Comments or to send a message via the Contact Form.
Next week, there will be no blog. Next weekend will be a long weekend (Good Friday is April 10th), and I want to spend all that time... possibly not on a computer. Maybe I'll binge-watch some shows or try to finish more of my video games or work on more of my New Year's resolutions.
Stay safe, take care, and until next time! :)
Again, if I miss listing anything, my apologies.
- "Non-essential" businesses are closed. Any businesses that could work remotely are still open, though.
- Public gatherings of 5 or more are not allowed.
- All city-led events, festivals, permits, conferences, and cultural programs until June 30 have been cancelled. When I first heard about this, I thought the FLOW concert (June 3rd) and International Fan Festival Toronto (IFFT) (June 19-21) were cancelled, but they're not city-led. The public gathering restriction will get them, though, if the pandemic is still going on by then.
- Outdoor recreational amenities, beaches, playgrounds, and sports facilities are closed. I honestly think this could have been avoided if everybody was taking this practicing social distancing seriously.
- Those violating the social distancing (now termed physical distancing) can now get fined. Why did it have to get to this point?
For myself, I'm still at home, going outside only to throw out trash (and the trash bin is right next to my home).
This past week, I spent almost all my spare time cleaning my room, and I think I am done with it for now! I have a nice empty spot where I can prance about. The floor isn't 50% bare so my New Year's resolution isn't done yet, but it's getting there. I am feeling very, very proud of myself! Now I can spend the next few weeks or months crumpling to the floor as I try to exercise after many years of not exercising.
Also, I received a package this week -- my last package for a long while: Persona 5 Royal. I'm super excited to play it but I'll hold off for a little while. Call me a cheat if you want, but I'd rather play it with a couple guides for certain elements. Just like in the original Persona 5 game, I hope the grim reaper can get sick for another easy trophy (if that trophy is also in Persona 5 Royal).
That's it for this blog. Thanks for reading!
If anybody would like me to blog about something else, feel free to leave suggestions in the Comments or to send a message via the Contact Form.
Next week, there will be no blog. Next weekend will be a long weekend (Good Friday is April 10th), and I want to spend all that time... possibly not on a computer. Maybe I'll binge-watch some shows or try to finish more of my video games or work on more of my New Year's resolutions.
Stay safe, take care, and until next time! :)
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