I think back and can remember when Heaven was born:
- I was a junior in high school
- I was 16
- FFXI was recently announced at some SquareSoft millennium press event.
- My mom and stepfather would marry nearly two months later.

So that’s all well and good, but it seems as though all of that just happened in the past few weeks, and not 10 years ago.

Just makes me wonder how time just seems to fly by.

Today, Mandze became known as Mrs. McDowell, as she got married out in Hawaii!  So the next time you see her, be sure to send well wishes to her… or you could just ambush her blog with congratulatory comments, lol

My Grandpa Shane was quite an amazing man. He was a man who personified selflessness.  He was always willing to give people a helping hand, whether he knew them or not, and it showed by his 43 years of service to Jenkins Township, PA.

One of my earliest memories with Grandpa was how all of the family got together to swim in the “huge” swimming pool in his backyard.  Mind you, the pool was a normal size pool, but I was 3 or 4 years old at the time, so in my eyes, the pool was almost the size of Lake Wallenpaupack.  He was a jokester, through and through.  In the pool, he would act like a big shark and chase me and my older sister Tanya around the pool.  I couldn’t really reach the bottom of the pool yet, so I would frantically try to swim away, and somehow, I would always get away.

Another memory is whenever I would stay at Grandma & Grandpa Shane’s, I would always be doing one of two things: Reading the newspaper, or watching the Weather Channel.  Mind you, again, I am only 3 or 4 years old when this happened regularly. Grandpa caught on to this very quickly, and never did change the channel while I watched the TV, and encouraged me to read more and more (especially the Sports section and the Horse racing information).

Speaking of horse racing, we also took many trips down to Pocono Downs so he could play the horses, and I could marvel at watching them race by, and come up close so I could pet them or whatnot.  He always had me run up to the railing at the edge of the track and shout encouragement as the horses whizzed by.  I always loved going to the track with Grandpa.

Perhaps the most memorable moment for me came when I was about 6 years old.  You see, my Grandpa worked for the Jenkins Township Road Dept., and that entailed that he drove many vehicles, including dump trucks, recycling trucks, plow trucks, and the garbage truck.
Being a boy and all, I loved seeing all these trucks up close, but never got to actually be in one.  But one early morning, Grandpa woke me up and gave me a huge surprise: I was gonna go with him and drive in the garbage truck.  I was so excited, I couldn’t control myself, and kept jumping up and down.
So I got in, and just marveled at how high up I was as Grandpa also showed me what the endless buttons on the inside all did. We went along all morning stopping and going, waving at the people who stood on their porches, waiting for Grandpa to go by, as everyone knew who he was, and was very friendly with him.
When all the pick up was done, we headed on up to the landfill to take everything out, and then he got out of the cab of the truck, and I was there all alone.  I remember staring at all the buttons, wondering what would happen if I could just push this or that button just once. But then I pictured how angry Grandpa would have gotten if I didn’t do as he told me. So instead, I sat there, just looking around outside at all the endless big trucks and diggers.  It was such a great day, and I remember it fondly and vividly to this day.

One other thing I wanted to share is a little thing he always said when talking about me.  He always said this little rhyme with my name that went, “Robert Knight, go fly a kite.” To which I mustered up my own back at him, “Grandpa Shane, go grab your cane.” He answered back the first time I said it, “My Cane? I guess like how you don’t have a kite here, I don’t have a cane, so we’re even Robert” and then let out that signature laugh of his.

There are many more memories with Grandpa that I have, like the first time I tried Piggies with him, Grandma, and Aunt Uka, and the terrible reaction I had to it the first time I ate it because I hated cabbage.  It turns out, the last time I ate at Grandpa’s with him, there I was eating Grandma’s halushki, proud that I finally gained the taste for cabbage, and other traditional Polish foods.

So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed these few moments from my times with my Grandpa Shane from over the years.  These are just a very, very small piece of the many fun times we shared together.  Times that I will cherish forever, and will never forget.  Just like I will never forget my Grandpa.  And I hope just, that over the course of my life, I could be as good a man as him, so that I could see him again, someday.

I love you Grandpa.

I love you Grandpa, and dammit I am really going to miss you!

She’s been quite the busy bee lately, and is sharing her stories of what has happened recently on her revived blog here on the network.
Be sure to check it out, and don’t be afraid to say hello at http://www.rianon.net/varsuvianna.

So I’m now on the downhill slide of the 20′s at the ripe old age of 26. So much time has passed, and yet there is still so much more to look forward to.  But enough about personal stuff (or the boring stuff as Enna would put it) and get into FFXI stuffs:

A Union Raise

So the new Union system that was added in the last update has turned out to be quite the lucrative thing to go along with my constant Campaign battles.

Along with the many drops of items like Demon and Gargouille pieces, I also got lucky with the drop of a Molybdenum Ingot in a very long Beaucedine Glacier [S] battle. The proceeds from that have certainly helped my poverty state in game, and now I can actually hold on to Ancient Beastcoins from Limbus, and maybe I could upgrade an Artifact piece, maybe, perhaps??

If you haven’t already, you absolutely should take part in a northlands campaign battle in a union. You could very well make yourself much better of than you were when you started. Take it from me, lol.

Speaking of Limbus…

I has a Loquacious Earring now! Thanks in part to the drops from Union, I was able to hold on to all the beastcoins I had already amassed (plus a small gift of coins from Ennayram), and scooped that earring up. Slowly, but surely, I am becoming less and less gimp. I do still have a long way to go, but it’s nice that yet another need and want has been taken off the list.

The question now: What should I get next? I suppose I could finally finish A Crystalline Prophecy? Maybe actually start Kupo d’Etat? Hmm…

That’s it for now. COMMENT!

All this week at http://www.thespeedgamers.com there is a FINAL FANTASY Marathon going on to help raise money for ACT Today! ACT Today! provides grant money for families that cannot afford or access the treatments their autistic children need.

On the right side of the blog you will see a little widget where you can make a donation to TheSpeedGamers for this very worthwhile cause.  You can donate whatever amount you wish, as every dollar helps for these people in need.

Be sure to watch the marathon as well at http://www.thespeedgamers.com, as watch as they go through all 12 FINAL FANTASY games. Even XI on Friday being played by an extremely good friend of mine,  “Nobody X”!

PS: Happy Birthday to my mother, lol.

So now do I go to Pittsburgh for yet another victory celebration? Hmmm…

Alright, I am going to try to remember everything that has occured since the last proper post.

Linkshell Changes

Recently, I departed DRFChampionEdition and joined up with Ennayram, Alessandra and others in MeneoCecus.  The reasoning for leaving DRF was not anything against anyone within the linkshell.  It was more in line with the fact that my work schedule has become even worse that it already was, and I would have only been able to attend one event a week.  I cannot really expect to earn anything when I would only be around once a week.  That’s why I joined with Enna and crew since their event start time works for me (for the most part) with starting at 11pm EDT.  It’s been great fun thus far, and I suppose, sooner or later, I will actually talk to my new LS mates on Skype…one day, lol

Scholar Is So Close

I just need 3200 experience points to finally reach level 75, but, amazingly, I have been working so much, I can’t even do the like 2-4 Campaign battles to gain that little bit of EXP.  Of course I could be doing it now instead of typing up this blog post, but I have neglected this thing long enough.

FINAL FANTASY XIV

So yeah, that got announced this past week.  I have already made another post discussing the future SE online game, so go read it!

Blog Changes

As I am sure you noticed, yet another layout change has been made to this blog. I am very torn between the previous look, and this more “minimal” look, so you never know what design you may see the next time you come around, lol.  I also chose this because it does load a bit quicker than the old look, and I just like new, shiny things.

Other stuff

Other things that I couldn’t think of a heading for:

• Have done two very sucessful Proto-Omega’s with MeneoCecus so far.  Was nice play SCH in the battle, although not too mcuh for me to do other than Helix spells, and the occasional tier IV nuke.
• I really enjoyed the whole skill up boost Kupower from the Mog Tablet quest thing.  I actually skilled up sword like 16 levels, lol.  Would be nice if we got that again.
• When SCH finally gets to 75, I don’t know what job will be next to 75, if I even bother trying to go at it again.  I have enough money issues as it is.
• I really love Domino’s Chicken Alfredo bread bowls, lol.  Maybe too much.

OK well that will just about wrap things up!  See you online….somewhere, lol.