For the past few months, whenever I'm home, I've been catching time on Grand Fantasia, Aeria Games' new MMORPG. I tried it out at first just because I was invited to the Closed Beta, but I stuck around after, because it's really cute and a lot of fun. I especially love the sprites--how cute they are, the crafting, even the challenge of keeping them happy and friendly--but I also enjoy the rest of the gameplay. The combat's standard but not too hard, and I can solo a lot more than on most MMORPGs I've tried; for the quests that do need a party (usually at the end of a quest line), I can usually round one up by sitting at the boss-summoning point until more folks show up to take it on.

Most importantly, though, I like the playerbase. During the Closed Beta, I figured it was just because of the CB selection process. They were not going to invite total assholes. Now that it's out of that, though, the folks on my server are still, by and large, pretty cool. There's been a couple of annoying people, but that happens everywhere, and there's a lot fewer than I've ever encountered on Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine or Sword of the New World. I suspect part of it is just the very cutesy nature of the game, part of it may be the server/channel, and part of it is definitely the Spanish-speaking players. They are even more awesome than the playerbase on average. But everyone seems to be friendly and nice to newbies/lower-level characters (with three different end-of-quest-line bosses, our party's been short one and a higher-level character has happened along and jumped in just to help us out).

On the highly unlikely chance that anyone reading this also plays, I'm Alkali, a warrior (going for paladin) on the Alice server; I usually stick to channel 1 because I'm too lazy to pick another when I go on. [edit]I'm planning on throwing up another character on the Siropas server at some point, but I'm not in too much of a hurry. And Gerund (healer, going for cleric) on the Siropas server, though he's going to be more of an alt.[/edit] I'm going back to school soon, and I can't play any MMORPGs at school. For the first time in any game, I'm considering joining a guild, in six months or so when I've graduated school and hopefully am installed somewhere permanent with better Internet.

Been busy the past almost-two-weeks, what with the holiday season and all that. However, I did manage to work on another 'tour'. This one is about Loki and thus far it's pretty enlightening (for me and, hopefully, for you as well).

It should be done no later than Tuesday. Hope you'll like!

I just paid for my tickets for the Vienna Teng concert that I've been talking about going to (April 16 on the other side of my state). They were only $17 with fees, so if something comes up between now and then that keeps me from going, I won't feel too bad about it. I am SO excited, guys. :D

Earlier today I put up the tree. It is decorated with globe lights, icicle lights, and loads of tinsel. I love putting up the tree, because it means I get to choose all the decorations myself, and nobody else likes tinsel. :P It's silver where the colored globe lights are at the top, and gold down where the icicle lights are at the bottom, so that there's some color among the white there.

Happy holidays, everyone. ♥♥♥♥