Final hoops cleared
Sep. 2nd, 2014 04:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserSurgery: Go!
I went to the final class today, where they repeated the same info yet again. This was class number 4? 5? with the same info in it. I'm getting kind of tired of hearing the same stuff over and over! At least this class was the shortest one, only an hour.
It was a reverse of the last class: The other student talked endlessly, so I just sat silently and let her roll over the class. In my head I was screaming SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOUR KIDS WILL THINK I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOUR FATHER SAID SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP, but the instructor was fine with just talking to her, so whatever. I asked questions where needed, but otherwise was fine with them two doing all the talking.
As if we hadn't had enough clues thus far, I think I'm really different than other people. The instructor said how much a support group helps, how much telling stories and listening to stories helps you, and the other student agreed. In my head I was all NO NO NO NO MORE OF THIS NOPE NOT GOING NOT LISTENING TO PEOPLE TALKING ENDLESSLY ABOUT STUFF I DON'T CARE ABOUT BABBLING ON ABOUT THEIR LIVES NOPE. While a support group might help most people, it sounds like torture to me. I might go once and check it out, but I suspect I won't do even that much.
I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM on the 15th. On one hand, EEEK that's so early! On the other, early is better than late.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gonzostar had hers later in the day, which sucks since you can't drink anything after midnight.
So, for me: Two days of no food and "clear liquids" only (ugh!), then right off to the hospital so at least I don't have to worry about having no water at all the day of surgery.
Thankfully, though I've been stomping all over my diet, my weight has stayed the same the last 2+ weeks, so I had a total of 21 pounds lost (he requested 10-15) when I went to the office today. Did he comment on it? Say 'Good work!'? Nope, of course not, but I don't really care anymore. I did it, I don't need Grumpy Surgeon to pat me on the back for it.
Lunch when I left the office? Bread sticks and two donuts. Take that, diet! (I'm going to mostly keep sticking to the diet, because I don't want to gain back pre-surgery, but I'm not going to stick flawlessly to it either though.)
I went to the final class today, where they repeated the same info yet again. This was class number 4? 5? with the same info in it. I'm getting kind of tired of hearing the same stuff over and over! At least this class was the shortest one, only an hour.
It was a reverse of the last class: The other student talked endlessly, so I just sat silently and let her roll over the class. In my head I was screaming SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOUR KIDS WILL THINK I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOUR FATHER SAID SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP, but the instructor was fine with just talking to her, so whatever. I asked questions where needed, but otherwise was fine with them two doing all the talking.
As if we hadn't had enough clues thus far, I think I'm really different than other people. The instructor said how much a support group helps, how much telling stories and listening to stories helps you, and the other student agreed. In my head I was all NO NO NO NO MORE OF THIS NOPE NOT GOING NOT LISTENING TO PEOPLE TALKING ENDLESSLY ABOUT STUFF I DON'T CARE ABOUT BABBLING ON ABOUT THEIR LIVES NOPE. While a support group might help most people, it sounds like torture to me. I might go once and check it out, but I suspect I won't do even that much.
I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM on the 15th. On one hand, EEEK that's so early! On the other, early is better than late.
gonzostar had hers later in the day, which sucks since you can't drink anything after midnight.So, for me: Two days of no food and "clear liquids" only (ugh!), then right off to the hospital so at least I don't have to worry about having no water at all the day of surgery.
Thankfully, though I've been stomping all over my diet, my weight has stayed the same the last 2+ weeks, so I had a total of 21 pounds lost (he requested 10-15) when I went to the office today. Did he comment on it? Say 'Good work!'? Nope, of course not, but I don't really care anymore. I did it, I don't need Grumpy Surgeon to pat me on the back for it.
Lunch when I left the office? Bread sticks and two donuts. Take that, diet! (I'm going to mostly keep sticking to the diet, because I don't want to gain back pre-surgery, but I'm not going to stick flawlessly to it either though.)
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Date: 2014-09-03 05:19 am (UTC)And yeah, a support group doesn't necessarily sound appropriate for this kind of procedure. The only thing I could see it helping with is backing one another up while struggling to stick to the new diet, and even then that's assistance you can find elsewhere. Pretty tedious and uncomfortable without anything in common other than 'we had the same kind of surgery'.
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Date: 2014-09-03 02:10 pm (UTC)And agreed. Maybe for some people, more social connections = better for anything and everything, but I'm not one of those people.
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Date: 2014-09-03 11:17 am (UTC)Best of luck!
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Date: 2014-09-03 02:11 pm (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2014-09-03 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-03 02:49 pm (UTC)Seriously, though, I hope everything goes really, really smoothly for you. Best of luck!
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Date: 2014-09-03 03:13 pm (UTC)Thank you! <3
I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-03 03:35 pm (UTC)I'm glad to see you post again though! I'm still chugging away on FFXIV, though getting a little burnt out. Hunt daily/weekly mobs + birdman beastman dailies + daily guildhest/dungeon for XP = way way too much work.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-03 04:10 pm (UTC)I need to take breaks from daily stuff because that's the sort of thing that burns me out very quickly. I have to remind myself that just because I can do X things each day doesn't mean I have to. So I shift it around for a while. I also need to get off my butt and do the Ramuh fight so I can finish the 2.3 main story quests, as I really do want to see what happens next!
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-03 05:38 pm (UTC)Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 01:26 pm (UTC)Hunts on Balmung are broken. They're supposed to be challenging for a smallish group. You've seen how they go - 75+ people descend on the mob like pirahnas. You're only supposed to be in a hunt LS for as long as you're actively hunting, so there's constant churn on membership (minus a few core 'leaders'), but there's no chatter allowed - only hunt calls - so it doesn't matter.
It sounds lame, but it is actually a good bit of fun. High crafting/gathering people usually go off and craft/gather during down time between A-rank pops, trying to spawn an S-rank. For example, I sit in Central Thanalan, making 2 & 3 star HQ foods, and occaisionally munching on some HQ marmot steak trying to pop the S-rank for that zone (who is somehow tied to food - no one agrees on how, yet). There is surprisingly little downtime, really. Someone calls a NM and a map location - your goal is to teleport there and run to the location as fast as possible. 60second kill, full credit hopefully (being in a party changes this drastically - i literally tap the mob with one or two attacks, and get full credit - the tanks & healers generate credit for the mob and DPS generates almost none), then on to the next zone.
Even typing it out, it sounds lamer than it felt. I had fun doing it. And the rewards? Compared to 32 seals per day + 50 a week, I spend 2-3 hours in a hunt party and can make 500+ seals. Oh, and that's not the only reward. A 5% chance on A-rank, 50% chance on S-rank, chance to drop a bloody mark log, worth 250 seals. Also a not inconsiderable number of tomes of myth (80 on A-rank, 200 on S-rank) and tomes of soldiery (I hit my weekly cap in a few hours).
And in the party, I've had very few experiences with dumb people. Most of the parties are people who want to cooperate to find the mobs, get the kills, get the rewards. Non-cooperative behavior gets you tossed out of hunt LSs, cutting you off from the vital information about where and when things pop. And since its all on-server (unlike DF/DR dungeons), these people have motivation to not piss off their neighbors as they will see each other again.
Look up a hunt party in the Party Finder. It is an experience worth trying at least once.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 03:15 pm (UTC)I do like Bounty Hunters, and I had my most "success" with them (one mob killed per hour!). But even that "success" wasn't worth the time/effort/endlessly missing mobs.
For me, the new daily/weekly Hunt mobs system works a lot better. I don't mind waiting for FATEs to pop. I spend as much time as I had previously spent, but with the new system I actually get seals for it.
I do envy that people can get a whole lot more reward than me, but... what can I do. I thought about upgrading my machine, then I realized how stupid that was -- doing it for Hunts? When it's fine for everything else?
So I'm minorly bitter, but meh. It's not like I do anything with my alts once they hit 50, so no rush to get them into the i90 Hunt gear.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 04:28 pm (UTC)I AM JUDGING YOU, THISTLE. I AM JUDGING YOU SO HARD.
;p
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 04:32 pm (UTC)Lancer and pugilist are last on my list. :P SORRY!
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 09:03 pm (UTC)I really like SMN; it doesn't require nearly as much micromanagement as FFXI SMN did. Now that my DRG is kitted out in almost all iLvl 90 gear from hunts (the only thing that's below 90 is one ring and I just need a bit more soldiery for its replacement) I can swap over to picking up SMN gear.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 09:37 pm (UTC)I'm glad you're enjoying it! :)
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 10:11 pm (UTC)The idea of branching jobs is neat in theory, but in practice I don't think it's such a great idea to be able to get a job to 50 without playing it at all.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 10:51 pm (UTC)I find SCH healing a ton easier than WHM. Unfortunately I leveled SCH first, so now I flail around on WHM. The fairy is SUCH a big help! WHM is like having one hand tied behind your back.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-05 12:35 am (UTC)I have heard that the fairy helps a lot with SCH. I've also heard that SCH is more proactive healing than WHM's reactive healing. I'm not so great at thinking ahead, though. But who knows?
I'm a bit hesitant after a disastrous run on Pharos Sirius with some friends. I wasn't the healer, but I don't think I'd be having much more luck than the one who was. We couldn't even consistently get past the first boss. (Possibly if I'd been on SMN instead of DRG, I'd have had better luck because I could have pulled things outside the gigantic ground damage areas.)
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 05:24 pm (UTC)Anyway, just thought I'd recommend it. I enjoyed the actual hunting, and a shortcut from weeks upon weeks of daily hunts? Yes please. Dailies quickly ruin a game for me, but my LS is on second coil and we struggle, so sometimes a few i110 bits over i90/100 can make a difference on a tight DPS check. This got me enough to bulk up my DPS (I was already frequently parsed top DPS on Coil T5) which we really really need on T6. A few more runs with them and I'll have enough Sands of Time to gear out my second DPS job (Monk - not 50 yet but would probably out DPS my bard with comparable gear on T6).
I suspect i120 stuff will be out soon, and the interest in Hunts will probably wane. Maybe then it'll be a FC/LS event thing the way I think SE intended.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 05:39 pm (UTC)Agreed. While I don't enjoy hunting, if I could take a shortcut instead of doing it for weeks to try to cap seals, I'd grab the option. Eventually interest in the Hunts will die down, but also soon enough the i90 stuff won't even be good anymore.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 06:00 pm (UTC)Maybe I was just out of the MMORPG game too long, or too limited in the games I played. But getting to a point where old content is still hard, lv cap older content is smashed & broken, and new content is hard. Just a weird situation.
I get that there will always be more gear to get, and SE has been really good about adding content in XIV (all they've added free, so far, and they're planning an "expansion" soon). But I'm on the latest phase of my relic weapon (3 months if I don't push hard to finish), hunts are blah once I have the rewards (doubly so for daily hunts)...I haven't done the beastment tribe content much yet, so I'll switch to that soon probably. Worried I'm running out of interesting stuff to do, I guess is my point.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 06:15 pm (UTC)I'm with you. While I don't miss how grindy and painful XI was, XIV almost feels too easy (even to uber-casual me). It pisses me off that people can get to 50 crafting in a day. (My FC is big on PLing crafting -- having someone craft you a mess of HQ stuff to turn in for the levequests.) Leveling is really fast too (a dungeon/guildhest per day = a level or more). Even things like chocobo dying turned out to be such a short term thing (I got the color I wanted in my first try, but it took no one very long to get theirs.) And don't even get me started on how stupidly easy it is to make gil...
The other players annoy me, too. One person in my FC acts mortally insulted that she might have to wait for a FATE to spawn, like that's the VERY WORST THING a game could ever inflict on you. Everyone wants everything Now Now Now, and it feels like SE is giving it to them.
I don't blame SE for doing so (look at the success of FFXIV thus far!), I'm just grumpy in general at the game (players) right now.
Re: I still can't post comments on your LJ!
Date: 2014-09-04 09:18 pm (UTC)And LOL waiting on FATEs. One stage of relic has you doing 3 FATEs for each of 9 books. Camping 27 FATEs, 3 at a time, each in different zones. That didn't bother me at all. It was the book requirements to run 3 dungeons - always 1 gimp, 1 50, and 1 hard. That gimp dungeon hurt - knowing I could run it for XP as my monk, but no I had to do it as 50BRD with my relic on to get credit. Those relic questline definitely has the feel if FFXI grindiness...yet compared to FFXI relic? XIV relics are easy mode. XIV definitely feels easy. But...I don't know that I'd have the time FFXI took. Grind parties multiple nights a week. I miss the static partying, but 'regularly scheduled game time' became a code for 'things not going well in my life.' (by no means is that the fault of party mates...just meant that I was spending way too much time alone in a room). 1 static fine, but 2 statics plus HNMLS scheduled farming nights and a weekly 'sky god' night and 'sea' night...It was necessary if you excel, but holy shit did it take a lot of time.
I spend part of my time in EVE online. Hard game. Great economy. Grindy combat, but skills/ships/etc are completely unrelated to grinding time (except farming for stuff/money). In many ways it fulfills some of my craving for old XI, economy especially. But ugh, the UI for the game is horrible, even if pretty starscapes are what you look at the rest of the time.
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Date: 2014-09-03 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-09-04 07:07 pm (UTC)You've gotta take a BEFORE photo! You don't have to share, but it's gonna be awesome some months later to see that photo and compare :)
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Date: 2014-09-04 07:11 pm (UTC)And thanks!