It's Been Two Months...So...

Update time!

One day I'm sure updates will happen on a much more frequent basis.

*Marks Down a Resolution for 2009*

But anyways, I guess I should first discuss the reason I am so very, very slow in updating this thing. Well you see, I usually update this when I have a lull in work. However, as I said in my last update, I have found myself on the council of CTB and with that job, I've made myself quite busy doing many other things during my lulls in work.

Most of the time has been spent updating/administrating our forums (or breaking them...often...) and I've also been helping to get all of our strategies up on the forums. It's been a big help I think to have some of these things up for all to see, especially for some of our newer events that we are now doing.

I've also been spending time on several web tools for our members to use. It's helped out a lot to have these, especially for keeping track of people's wishlists -- there are just too many people/drops to keep up with now and using a forum system isn't always the best way. Most of my recent free time has been spent in this avenue. It's a large project I decided to undertake (and sometimes regret attempting so with the shear amount of code that goes into it), but I know once I finally finish it, it will be an amazing tool for the entire shell and make everyone's life much easier.

And then SE added an update that will cause me even more work. I love the ZNM system SE, I do, but fuck you for adding to my code to-do list. ; ;

So yeah, that's why this blog rarely gets updated. If I have free time, I'm usually buried in my code.

Now for the in-game stuff.

It's been interesting to see my role as a leader in CTB develop. More specifically, the type of events I lead. Instead of trying to get sea/sky events when I have the time, I have a much more regimented schedule as of right now.

For instance, CTB has now undertaken Einherjar full force. The event started when one of our members, Siona, decided to try to get the event going. It was something I had always wanted to attempt, but didn't know anything about it, so I was grateful to see some interest in this event from non-council members.

We got off to a great start, and CTB really gained a lot of knowledge and skill in Einherjar. Eventually, Siona felt the need to hand the reigns over to council to continue the event (and force people to show up!!!) and I ended up taking the lead on it. I must say I'm quite proud to see us progress in this event. We are currently in Tier II now, and, thanks to SE's latest update, we have been able to make it a self-funding event as well. I just can't wait until a big showdown with Odin!

I've also started up a second Limbus run for CTB. We have always had Wednesday runs, but there were always people that couldn't make it (I fell into this category during the school year due to church volunteering) or wanted a second run for more coins/gear. We keep the two pop item pools separate, and just last week, the Saturday group took down it's first Omega, allowing myself and another member, Serix gain our first pieces of Homam gear (both of us got leg pieces)!

And of course, I still have the Assault static in full swing. I have now reached First Lieutenant rank, and our static is preparing to tackle the Second Lieutenant level assaults tonight. Ten more clears, and we will all see our captain promotions.

It also appears, due to popular demand, that we do two Einherjar runs a week. Most likely (from the poll results so far) this will also look to be happening on a Saturday. We also have another one of our council members running ENMs every Monday as well. And with ZNMs going on, there always seems to be something to do.

I must say, this is all really something else. It is awesome to have these events recurring on a schedule like this. They are all so much more fun than the usual sea/sky farm. And while we will still always have a place for those, it is awesome to have all of these events in there to anchor everything down.

It's been keeping me quite busy for sure. Trying to do other things like fish and level other jobs always seem to get put on the back-burner at times, but with all this going on now, I really can't complain.

I seriously have had more fun in this game in the past month or so than I have in a very long time and I hope it keeps up.

Until next time,

-Stiker