It has been a long time since I last updated on what I was doing ingame. But with RL stuff pulling both myself and the other members of my set party, I haven't been on very much. But at least this past week I have been up to some things! ^_^

One of my friends, Enoga, finally returned to the game! When he came back I escorted him to Windurst and I finally got my Mandragora Belt for recruiting him and he was able to get his yukata. I have been wanting this belt for long while! And finally it is all mine! Enoga got his mandy belt at the Christmas event, and used to taunt me with it. Now he can't! Bwhahahaha!! He also transferred his citizenship from Bastok to Windy. That makes things easier for me since I know Windurst and Saru a lot better than Bastok and Gusta territories. When we first got him to Windurst to transfer it was 12K to do so. We only had about 10K between us at the time so we were going to farm. Unfortunately, that was a Saturday night, so when we went farming and go the amount we needed and headed back to Walls the next day the price went up to 40K! O_O We were totally flabbergasted on the price hike. So looking it up it seems the gil amount changes depending on the city's rank. Windy had just made 1st again. As much as I would prefer Windy to stay in first place, he needed to transfer. Thankfully the next week Windy fell to third (rather badly! We only have Saru! WTH! >_< ). So he transferred by paying only 4K. So far he likes it, since there is more gil to be made farming in Saru than Gusta and also he has taken an interest in Cloth crafting.

So while he is crafting, I have been out in Saru farming getting gil to upgrade my Samurai's armor. So far I have bought 1 Pusissance Ring (need one more), Federation Kyahan to replace my Windurstians, and Nomad's Mantle to replace Wolf Mantle+1. I am saving up for the other ring and Republic Subligar now. After that I will get the Bridandine Armor that I have wanted since I saw it in Ballista. ^_^ After that, my coveted Jujitsu Gi, upgrade to the Gobbie bag quest, and work out my equipment set up for lvl 50. Thankfully lvl 55 is covered. ^_^

And finally my set party got together last night for the first time in over 3 months! It felt weird playing on Samurai again. But good to have her back! We leveled on spiders and the ranger anticans. Wednesday, if all goes well, we will try beetles. We did pretty well last night, but I need to get use to using Saigan/3rd Eye again since I am tanking. 900 more exp until lvl 42! Then I can use my first bit of AF! Yay!

Wheee!! I so remember all of this! ^_^ For some reason gaming was a lot more fun and exciting back in the mid 80's.

In the video it talks about how popular video games and Nintendo is as well as shortages. It intrigued me that they commented that it was rumored that Nintendo was holding back stock to create a shortage to make it more popular, even though they(the reporters) saw plenty in Japan. This is the same they are saying about the Wii now. What I don't think people realize is that games and consoles made in Japan are different than the US versions. Different language, the way it looked (NES vs. Famicom), region coding (for the Wii), and probably a bit of programing for the menus. But when I went shopping for my first Nintendo unit and my games way back when, I never saw any shortage. O_o I didn't get the games on release date, but then I also didn't wait that long to get them. But since it looks like this TV special was done around Christmas I can understand. There are a lot of last minute shoppers trying to get everything, so that could certainly cause a shortage. ^_^; Better to buy things off season, in the spring and fall to get ahold of stuff. ^_^

Anyways! Seeing these vids brings me back to how cool gaming was back when I was kid. ^_^

Part 1


Part 2

This would have totally driven me up the wall if I had played this version of Mario 3! >_<

Hurray! I have heard that the new Mega Man game that will be coming out on WiiWare was made the same way Mega Man 2 was. I totally loved that game, and after seeing the trailer I am quite excited about this one! ^_^

While doing some searches on some anime that will be released soon, I came across a site that allows you to put in anime you've seen, rec titles to others, find out about titles you haven't seen yet, etc. I put in all the anime titles I could remember, but I did have to fudge on how how many eps I've seen on some that I am stalled on, since it has been so long since I've seen them. I"ll probably have to start all over again if I were to watch them again. I was suprised at how many titles I have seen/knew about! But this won't be an a current time on what I spend on anime. I watched several series more than one time! But this will be a good list for me to keep checking on to see what I can watch when I finish what I have. ^_^;

It would be totally awesome if they had a manga version of this! I'm more of a manga reader than anime watcher. ^_^; I've have to search around to see if they do! ^_^

I have found an awesomely cute and funny anime called Chi's Sweet Home! ^_^ The anime is about Chi, a kitten, and her living with the Yamada family told mostly from Chi's perspective. Chi expressions are sooo cute! She is a very expressive cat! Each ep is only 3 minutes long, so it is easy to keep saying "Let's watch one more", "Okay, one more", then "Let's watch another one!" *chuckle* it gets kinda additive! ^_^

I will admit I like *some* cute anime, but it isn't something I search out. Chi is a anime that would certainly appeal to younger kids, both girls and boys. I watched the first 3 eps with one of my friends and even he was enjoying it. Later I watched the first 12 eps with my Mom. Now both of them have/had cats, so they can relate to Chi's mischief better than I can. Mom said that whoever did this anime/story really knew cats and how they act.

My fav eps was when they gave Chi a bath and she kept struggling and freaking out, trying to get her litter trained (she thought it was her play bed ^_^;), and when she discovered the wonders of little bouncy/super balls. ^_^

While watching it Chi's voice sounded really familiar to me, but couldn't place it. After doing some research I found out Satomi Koorogi voiced her. She played Togepi from Pokemon and Menchi from Excel. It is strange I recognized her voice even though those charas only made sounds and never spoke words. ^_^;

I have only seen up to ep 24 so far and there are 104+ eps out. I also found it is a manga, so I will checking around for that as well! ^_^

I found a YouTube version of the first ep. It is raw(no subs), but you can easily understand what is happening. This one seems to have better quality in video and sound then the subbed ones there.

I found a link from GoNintendo.com about pictures taken of people playing their DS from around the world. I enjoy seeing how both the DS and Wii are effecting people of all ages and how it effects the culture. ^_^

These are my favs out of the bunch ^_^




And speaking of the DS, I am thinking of getting my Mom a DS for Christmas. ^_^ I know she will throw a fit over the money spent for it, but I think she will enjoy it. A demo of the Crossword DS game was loaded onto the Nintendo Channel and I let Mom try it out. She played each crossword puzzle and really enjoyed it. ^_^ So if I do get a DS for her, that game will certainly be on the list to buy for her as well.

In other Nintendo news, I read about the new Harvest Moon games coming out for both the Wii and DS. They both look good! But I have no idea which one I'd prefer to have. ;_; It comes out late summer and then I'll wait for the reviews before I make a decision.

Hurray! We finally have a release time on when Ouran will *finally* be out! ANN says it will coming out in 13 episode boxes starting in October! ^_^ I am also thinking the next Ouran manga volume comes out Novemeber, so a nice Ouran autumn!

ANN also announced is that Keroro is now licensed by FUNimation instead of ADV. So that will mean new cast and new release dates. I wasn't too happy with the short clips we heard of ADV's version, but I'd probably grown to get use to them as long as they didn't get into an editing frenzy since I wouldn't be able to watch it long enough to get use to them. >_>

I'm still in the old phase that FUNi's stuff is very edited with bad voice actors from when I was a teenager. But with how they have been treating some of the recent releases I've heard about, it may be time to update that opinion. So I hope FUNi does justice to both Ouran and Keroro! ^_^

I have so been neglecting my journal lately. ^_^; Bunch of RL stuff keeps coming up, so don't know if I should update or not since things keep changing. :P

Anyways, a new month and vacation coming up in two days! Yay! We won't be going anywhere, but having a break from work, and hopefully stress, makes me happy! Besides lazing around for a few days, Mom and I will probably be cleaning the house and working on yardwork. Also hopefully the pool will be warm enough to be in for a good amount of time that week. Lately it has been on the chilly side, so can't stay in it long. :P

I have also become closer to three of my friends because of certain events that happened to them. I makes me feel glad that they feel they can talk freely with me about stuff and that has made the four of us a lot closer I think. ^_^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~FF11~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In FF11, my set party has not met in a month because of ongoing RL issues with them. Hopefully we can get started again soon though. One of the members won one of the ranking prizes in the Mog Bonanza. So she chose the Koga Chainmail for her Ninja. So that will hopefully offer more incentive to lvl her ninja in the party so she can finally wear it. I must say it does look like an awesome piece! ^_^

Also, since no set party, I have been kinda lax on doing stuff in game. I have been lvling whm by soloing and then Campaign. Although slower, I prefer Campaign. It seems that those participating have our own little corner we stand in while doing buffs and songs. ^_^; Although at first I didn't like that Windurst was always being attacked, I kinda like the opportunities it presents now. Easier to do OP runs and campaign. I am also wanting to get some exp on sam through Campaign, but I'd say lvl 41 is still too low to be fighting. :P

One of my friends left the game (again ^_^;) and gave me some of his samurai armor! Yay! The majority I won't be able to wear until mid 50's but it does save a lot of farming to save up for them. ^_^; I just can't motivate myself lately to do much farming even though I know I need it. :P Still need to camp some mobs too. blah.... Need. To. Get. MOTIVATED!!! *falls over*

I am also doing the Celestial Nights event. I can finally get the pretty bamboo I've seen in others MHs! Yay! I now have the Windurst bamboo, so Bastok and Sandy to go now! They look sooo pretty! ^_^

First off, Samurai is now lvl 41!! Woo!! I even made a new ava to celebrate! ^_^ Need to add something to it though. Background, text, something... I really like the pic though! None of the pics I took while lvling looked that good to me, so I tried stuff in Altana Viewer. I was hoping to find a simple /wave or something, but I came across this instead. ^_^ The motion has her leaning on something while lazily moving her finger through water. I'm assuming I found the actions done in cut scenes, so I wonder what this cut scene is about! ^_~ It was interesting seeing Prey do some of the actions I haven't seen before. Irratated, distressed damsel asking for help, mocking, etc. ^_^;

In the game though my static have been lvling in the desert on spiders, worms, and Antican Essedarius. Sundays we have a paladin joining us as tank, while on Mondays it is back to just the three of us with me as tank. So far tanking hasn't really bothered me. I am used to making sure others aren't taking to much damage or hate isn't directed toward the wrong person. So I'm good with it. But it is also nice to have pretty much free reign to throw my weapon skills and hit as hard as I can. Thankfully our paladin is pretty good at keeping the hate on him most times. ^_~ Our group will be doing the AF quests this weekend! So this will be my first bit of AF! Yay! Mine will be the Magoroku, a Great Katana. We will also be going after Ninja's AF katanas Anuj and Zushio, Red Mage's Fencing Degen, and Paladin's Honor Sword. So lots of AF weapon runs for us! ^_^



I have also been lvling my white mage, black mage, and warrior! White mage is now lvl 17, gaining a lvl while partying in the Dunes. The puller for the party, who insisted he knew what he was doing, pulled not only his target, but also 3-5 gobs at a time. He did this about every third pull. -_-; I don't usually approve of PLs in the lower lvls, but thankfully we had one here. The majority of the time the PL was dealing with all the gobs, etc the puller brought in extra as well as a Bogy the puller wanted to try. O_O So, yeah, even with a PL I was able to keep my party alive with healing. ^_^; Black Mage I am working on for a sub for white mage as well as for warp. So this one will be the one I lvl through Campaign and OPs for a while. So by soloing in Saru in the present time and a few OPs in the past, black mage is at lvl 13. As for warrior, although I am still bitter about it, the red mage in my static was lvling his mule's white mage which was at lvl 30, so we decided to do it together so it would lvl my sub on samurai. We gained a lvl, so warrior is at 31 now. ^_^

Since I have finished the majority of the Nintendo DS games I really wanted to work on, I will hopefully be on the game a bit more now. Frankly, I need more gil to keep up my costs for food and arrows at least! ;_; But I also am needing to keep up with the gear better. Thankfully an lsmate is allowing me to borrow some of the more expensive gear, which newly added is the lovely Jujitsu Gi which I adore! ^_^ I am really wanting to get both that and the O Kotes for my own, but that will involve a lot of camping, so I'm not looking forward to that. :P But soo pretty! ^_^ I will most likely need help on those two, so I may try to tackle the Valkurm Emperor solo for the Empress Hairpin in the mean time. I wonder what the competition is like for this and the other items though? Since they have changed a lot of the more popular items to EX to foil gilsellers are they hunted as much? O_o Hopefully not. But I'll find out soon I guess.

Hurray! Today I had my first Strawberry Harvest! ^_^ I've had my plants for about two years, but this was the first real harvest I've had with them. The first year, the birds got most of the the few that got ripe, the next year we had drought and waterban. But this year... Yay! ^_^

We had these for dessert at supper. I love sun warmed strawberries! I know it isn't many or even the sizes you see in the store, but I am proud to *finally* be able to eat some that I grew myself! ^_^

Hurray! Got my Wii Fit today! I've had a lot of fun on it so far. The balance games are fun! So far I enjoy the skiing ones best. The soccer heading game is hard! >_< It *seems* easy, so it is frustrating when I keep missing. So that is one I am *determined* to work on! I also enjoy the jogging in the aerobics category. I like seeing all the Miis running around, falling, cheering me on, etc. ^_^ Yoga is okay. When it first shows me how to the do the exercise and I do it with her, my balance is terrible. But when we do the exercise for real where it shows and grades my balence I do alright. I have been getting 2-3 stars out of 4. O_o

When I did my first body test, I ended up in the Overweight area, which doesn't surprise me any. You enter your goal on how many pounds you want to lose in what span of time. Wii Fit recs that you lose 3 pounds every two weeks. I thought it was average to lose 3 pounds every week? O_o Anyways, I chose 5 pounds every two weeks, which sounds fairly realistic to me. If I can keep Wii Fit and other exercises up I'll hopefully be near my target weight within 2-3 months.

Losing weight is certainly a priority, but I really want to work on my balance. Right now, my balance sucks and as the Wii Fit talked about when first testing you, bad posture and balance can start to have a bad effect on your health, and it certainly has me! >_< So hopefully I can improve that as well as lose weight, which is another part of my bad health. ^_^;

First, what I am most excited about is my WiiFit shipped! ^_^ Should receive it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't be home when it is delivered, so hopefully they will leave it by the door (and no one messes with it! >_< ) so I can play it tomorrow night. ^_^

Next, I finished all three Phoenix Wright games. The ending was soo good! ^_^ I knew *a bit* of what was going to happen, like who was killed and who she really was, but didn't know by who or how it was done. Heh, so nearly the whole trial I was in suspense. Never would have thought that person would be the killer. ^_^; Now after playing the Apollo Justice demo, I am wanting to go ahead and get it. But I'm still not in a huge hurry for it. ^_~ Still basking in the Phoenix Wright goodness. ^_^ Also started reading PW fanfics. Some have had Apollo Justice references, but I tend to stay within the PW timeline/universe. ^_^

***********Final Fantasy XI *************

Because of RL stuff going on with the people in my static party on FF11, I've only reached lvl 38. Hopefully next week though I'll hit 40! We are now lvling in Altepa Desert. On the way to Rabao I saw my first Cactuar! They are a lot shorter than I thought they'd be. I figured they would be closer to my medium size mithra, than taru size. ^_^; Also, I've learned that Ninja can do pretty well as a tank! When we go up against the ranger Antican Essedarius, the RedMage and I hang back and do long range damage while our ninja irritates it until it starts changing up to us and then we go all out on it! ^_^ So I am using a lot more arrows than I have been before, so I'll need to stay in better stock.

Last night, one of my friends on the ls said he will be taking a break from the game. Kinda sad over that, but totally understand since I had to take a long break from it last year. Before he left he helped me get all three of the (S) maps. ^_^ So now I'll know exactly where I am going when I go to Campaign!

And speaking of Campaign, I've been doing the Street Sweeper I Ops, and completed a whole lvl on whm through that. So now it is at 16. ^_^ I think I have decided to work on that job, when not on Samurai. I'd really like to have Sneak and looking at some of the other spells whm has, I'd wouldn't mind those as well. ^_~ I need to at least get it to 20 so it can be used as a sub on sam. War will do me until 62, but when I am escorting or questing I prefer having whm sub just in case. So now to recap my healing and enhancing magics, and then head to the Dunes. >_>

Heh, The Nintendo Channel just came out last week and we already have an update! ^_^ Happened a lot quicker than I thought, but WiiWare came out today as well. There are trailers for the WiiWare games, trailers for other Nintendo games (DS and Wii), and new DS demos! ^_^ BTW, I downloaded LostWinds from the WiiWare. The graphics remind me of Ookami. ^_^

While checking out what was going on in the Nintendo world via GoNintendo I saw a list of new stuff that has been added to the Nintendo Channel, including an Apollo Justice demo! I quickly turned on the Wii to try out the game.

The graphics are a lot better! I like the new details in the courtroom, but the extra detail and coloring gives it a dark feel. Gavin, Apollo's mentor, seems pretty cool. I liked that the same judge is here as in the Phoenix Wright games! The demo ended when the defendant refused to testify on the murder itself even though his fingerprints are on the murder weapon. So I assume the real game will continue past this point.

I had forgotten about Trilogy until an lsmate on FF11 was talking about watching .hack//Sign. I rec'd the movie for him since the GU games haven't been released yet where he is. I knew the movie was either about to be released or had just recently in Japan. So I went on a hunt for it last night and found it! ^_^ Luckily I was able to find it subbed by the same guy that did the .hack//roots I watched. Very good work!

The vid looks beautiful! I so wish I could watch the original blueray disc as it is intended. So hopefully it will come out here as well! It only covers the very main part of the storyline with Hasso, Ovan, and Atoli. I knew the storyline from when I was researching it when I couldn't get the 2nd and 3rd games. But actually seeing it... Wow! ^_^ It is an hour and a half, so truly movie length.

But I wish they could have added more. They covered the most important parts well, but I enjoyed the Arena storyline, the Avatars, Kuhn and his friends, etc in the games as well. It would have to be a series to have added all of the that, but it would still nice! ^_^;

I am trying to decide if I will continue the GU games or not. I really enjoyed the first game, but once I got my HD tv and tried out GU (so I could see the awesome graphics I've seen from website reviews) and was totally crushed when I saw it. It looked terrible. It really put me off of playing anymore PS2 games if they were going to look like this. The graphics looked better on my 20 year old TV then my new HD TV. -_- I understand why, but still it was a total disappointment. So I don't want the games ruined by such awful graphics. But I'd love to continue them and see the rest of the story. *sigh* So still trying to figure out what to do...

Very happy, but still amazed I am at this lvl! It will probably take a while to get over the shock of being over lvl 30. ^_^; This time around we fought in the Sea Serpents Grotto just outside of Norg. So fun with crabs and Ghasts. I had looked up on FFXIclopedia that the key to get the map drop from these guys, but no drop. :P We used our NPCs with us on Sunday, but went on our own Monday.

The bearded elvaan in the pic is my NPC. ^_^ I had originally wanted the black haired Elvaan with the little ponytail and slight smile as my NPC, but I have grown to like my Chanadit! ^_^ Also in the pic you can see I am no longer Samurai looking. ;_; I was able to get my RSE body finally, and since it has STR bonus I took it over my VIT bonus on my gi. Wasn't too happy with the look, but over the past two days, I have got use to it. ^_^;



One thing happened that was strange toward the end of party on Monday. I had run out of arrows so I used my last quiver. For some reason it was taking a while to activate, so I went ahead and moved since the mob moved away from use toward a healer. After I got back in position to fight I went through my inv and both quiver and arrows were gone! ;_; No idea what happened to them! During the last 40 minutes, I saw how much I like using my arrows during the delay with my grkat. It felt boring just standing there. :P As soon as I got back to Jeuno though I bought some more Horn Quivers to last me until lvl 40 and some Scorpion Quivers for lvl 40. Got to have my arrows! ^_^

So besides my RSE body and I now have the Hosodachi Great Katana. I also bought the Tilt Belt for lvl 40. The belt will be good for DDing I think, but I am wondering if it will be any good if I end up tanking since everyones jobs will be changed up. RDM turning Ninja said she is DD ninja, not a tank. War will be changing to RDM. We may also have a BLM join our party and our bard is MIA again. So that would leave only me to tank... I normally wouldn't mind, but I was hoping to play this job as a DD. I don't mind playing as a 2nd/emergency tank, but the only tank? *sigh* Oh well. Maybe it won't be bad.

This morning I forgot that I still had my watch set to go off at 6am so when I opened my eyes to shut it off I noticed the Wii's blue light was pulsing. I was thinking to myself that it was probably a message, and it wasn't the Nintendo Channel so I wouldn't get my hopes up. But I ended up checking anyways. ^_^;

And it was the Nintendo Channel! Yay!! I spent about an hour looking at vids and trying out a few DS demos, before I had to start getting ready for work. I kinda wish there was more on the channel, but I honestly didn't even go through half of the vids they have. ^_^; But hurray! It is finally here!

Now I wonder how often does it update? Japan has had the Channel since fall of last year, but I never saw any write ups on how often new things get added. I am also wondering if all the older stuff gets deleted when it updates or if it stays on there. Hmm... Probably goes away so it doesn't become cluttered and people are looking at old info. *shrugs* But at least what the Nintendo Channel has right now isn't coverage on only new games! It has a trailer for Endless Ocean and some other older titles. ^_^ Since I now have new game renting privileges I'll be able to check more games out if they look good from the trailers I find on the Nintendo Channel! ^_^


BTW, I also found out that a lot of stores are selling out of preorders for WiiFit. I am glad I put in my order at Amazon.com. They sold out either on the 3rd day or in a week (can't remember! >_< ) and I put my order in on the second day. ^_^ Still a bit peeved that they moved the release date! It was to be out on the 19th, but moved to the 21st. Not long I know, but I would have been able to play with it on my days off if it was the 19th! So now I know I will super sore and tired when I go into work the next day! ^_^;

I have finally started working filling up my new half bookcase so I can finally have room for my manga. They are now easier to see and get to, so hopefully that will encourage me to read them more often! I really like how my manga and my DVDs look not cluttered where they were all stacked in front of and and top of each other. It looks much cleaner! I am still trying to rearrange where my other books are going on my other two bookcases. I'm just particular on how things are arranged, unfortunately. ^_^;

I also was able to get some new video games Monday! ^_^ I went to Blockbuster first since I have heard that they were going to start expanding their game section and also rent DS games. Now I love my DS so more games to play is certainly worth trying out! I haven't been to Blockbuster since I was a kid, so I signed up for membership. I also rented Endless Ocean and Raving Rabbids 2. I have been wanting to try these out since they first came out, but didn't want to shell out the money to buy them in case they weren't any good. :P So I am glad I found them finally for rent! ^_^

Next I headed to GameStop. I was able to pre-order Metal Gear Solid 4 for one of my friends. It is suppose to be a birthday gift, but I am really wanting to see the extras DVD that comes from preordering! ^_^; Unfortunately they were out of stock of the DVD, so they told me to come back next week. While looking around I found Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for the Wii, Touch Detective for the DS, and Intellivison Lives! for the Gamecube. ^_^ Harvey, from what I've heard, is pretty much an interactive episode from the cartoon. It is done like the Phoenix Wright games, but it is more fun to get the wrong answer and see what happens. ^_^ I do love the cartoon series, so I am hoping this will be good! Touch Detective I kinda bought on a whim. I love puzzle type games like Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton, so I was hoping this we be similar. It has interesting artwork in it to be sure! The Intellivision game was also I whim. ^_^; When I was really really young my family had an Intellivision game system. All I really remember are the plastic cards you slid into the controllers for each game. So now I will be able to try the game out!

Yay Yay! ^_^ I'll finally have copy of this anime! Rightstuf is the one who got the license. Not sure how well they do their work, but they were able to get the license to another anime I enjoyed called Emma, But haven't seen or heard how they did it on yet. Looks like Aria will be released in box sets of seasons with Aria The Animation (first season) out 30 Sept! ^_^

Funny how I was in Aria mood most of the evening then came across this news just now! ^_^

Hurray! Last night my sam made lvl 34! *happy dance* It feels strange though to have a job that is over lvl 30 now! ^_^; My warrior has been at lvl 30 for around two years because of difficulties finding parties due to what was then my odd hours for playing, trying out other jobs, lost of interest, and then taking a year break from the game. It feels strange, but I am very happy to have finally made it past that lvl!



We have been fighting in the Jungles and have moved to the entrance of Sea Serpents Grotto. Although I didn't have a problem with the gobs and mandys we were lvling off before, dealing with pugils and the Sahagin have been fun. Pugils, I am use to seeing, but the Sahagin are new to me and look pretty interesting, so I have been excited about engaging them in combat. ^_^ We also have regained our fourth party member! So having a bard in the party has helped a lot!

My newest addition to my equipment is my Homura, a Great Katana. My next purchase will be the Puissance Ring, I think. Also an lsmate is allowing me to use his O Kotes and Emperor Hairpin until I can afford/get my own! I was very excited about trying these out! These are veeery nice items! ^_^ I was managing around 100-130 on the weapon skill Enpi without the O Kotes, and now I am doing around 200. No wonder these are a must have for melee!