"But I've been calling her Crab-apple..."

I’m loving how quick the essence adds up from the Ardy diary. I made about 1k Nature runes and 1k Cosmics the other night to help me with my making orbs and alching staves. I got to 88 Crafting in the process. Nothing new, but a level is a level 

Did an herb run, knocked out the scarabite task with some really helpful advice from Jax. I always hated those things, it was good to take them out in one trip.

I went to Soul Wars last night and it was incredibly disappointing. Didn’t get in – Loss – Didn’t get in. Over an hour play, maybe 2k Strength xp and 1 zeal to show for it. This was even using advice from a friend in a 125+ clan chat for it. The loss was when no one in the chat got in on the first wave and decided to switch teams. I have to think about the usefulness of these things. If I had just stayed on one team consistently and not worried about stupid things like “fake rushes” and all, I would have at least gotten 5 zeal for 1 win and 2 losses. I’d even take 3 straight losses. Nothing drives me crazier in the game than just standing there and doing absolutely nothing.

Did an errand run after I got frustrated standing in the lobby. I realize the NPC’s in the game probably pronounce their names a lot differently than I do in my head. I’ve been calling Arhein “Arnheim” forever. I’ve been calling Cromperty “Comp-tree.” I think its because I don’t read their names in quests too closely, then whatever makes sense in my head just sticks. It reminds me of when I read the first Harry Potter book (actually the only one I got through) and saw Hermione’s name. Then I saw the movie and was like “Oh… so *that’s* how you say that…” And yes, I do know how to properly pronounce Thierry Henry. Either way, I’m sticking to what I make up in my head. I think it sounds better. I remember playing Final Fantasy and being able to change the names of characters. I really liked that. The only issue was when you had to look at a guide, I had no idea who they were talking about. “Who’s Wakka? Oh, you mean Victorino? Got it.”

I’m revisiting my goals from last year. At the time I needed 14 quests for the quest cape. I wanted everything 75+ and to get over 2k levels (I needed 170 at the time to get everything 75+). I also wanted 2 skillcapes.

I got the quest cape, but I’ve been slacking and I haven’t done Curse of Arrav or Within the Light yet. I got everything 75+ and have over 2k levels. I got my Cooking cape a while ago. I’ve also noticed I haven’t done any Firemaking since I did 77-92 last December. The 3 levels have been mostly from the Adze or evil trees. It’s been sitting at 95 for a while now. I’m more concerned with other skill and unlocking things than just getting it for the sake of it at the moment. Either way, I feel like its been a good year and I’ve done what I wanted to achieve. Looking back I think the skill cape goal was a little lame. If I get one, awesome, if I get a ton of levels across everything – even better. It’s really interesting looking back on old blog posts and seeing what mindset I was in and when.

I’m already thinking about goals for 2010. I think 90+ is a decent one to work towards. It seems ridiculous at the moment, but its only 162 levels. One for every regular season baseball game. I know some of those are hard levels, but it is 12 months. I had some doubt going into 2009 if what I could do would get done, and I pretty much did it, level-wise with still a month and a half to spare. We’ll see where the holidays take us, I guess.

Again, meetup, this Sunday (depending on where you live!) 11/22. Come out! Bring your friends and lets have a good time!