The fog has lifted

After Hunter was tucked in and Zak was in bed, I was sitting in the living room, wondering what to do with my solitude. I glanced at the Morrowind guide, perused a chapter of the Dark Elf trilogy, and found myself craving the social interaction in FFXI...what little of it I actually participate in. There's a definite lure, for me, in virtual worlds that are continuous beyond my act of reading or playing in them. Worlds that are a bit out of my control.

So I decided to log back in & see what people were up to.

And that's when I ran into Ovidius's wife Melissa, who recently had a baby and has rarely been online. We chatted for quite awhile about baby stuff... I'd already forgotten some of the little details about infants, but they started coming back as Melissa & I compared notes. It was good to talk to her again and share our experiences. She was running a tele-taxi so our conversation became sporadic as the night wore on, but she hit me with a surprise at the end of the night and asked if Zak & I would be willing to be godparents to their son Sean. I of course accepted... can't wait to see pictures of the little guy.

Anyway tonight reminded me of the main reason I log into this synthetic world every night: the real people I've befriended here. Sure I'm also obsessed with being the best damned Warrior on the server, but that drive amounts to nothing if I lose the real reason to play. I lose sight of that sometimes.

So I'm not going anywhere... Yes, Oblivion comes out in 5 days, and yes I'm going crazy waiting for it. But I'm certain I'll still put it down after a few hours on the first night and log into FFXI, if only to gush about it with other people who will be picking it up too.

In mundane FFXI news, I started looking into other venues for earning profits with Alchemy. This craft, especially during the current deflation, requires quite a bit of AH monitoring to find the markets that are flooded and ones that will give better profits, or faster sales. This is the case during stable economies as well, but it's quite accelerated at the moment. Other Alchemists keep changing their favored gil items, so what's a big seller one day will be an undercut, 100+ on AH, low-profit nightmare the next. Silent Oils, for now, are a time-sink and nothing more. I'll make faster profits if I just sell the Slime Oil (should I decide to farm)... and screw the Beeswax. Tired of killing bees and the raw chips sell faster anyway. Mercury has skyrocketed again, so most of my night consisted of checking the Jeuno mule and camping the Fishing Guild outpost in Bibiki Bay for cheap Cobalt Jellyfish (32 gil). I think I'll hold onto the Mercury though and make Poison Potions, which have also skyrocketed for some reason.

Anyway, enough Alchemy talk. I'm back & I'm busy. Might get some help with the Yagudo Crest tonight, so I may even be able to hang onto most of my crafting profits. Fingers crossed.