Hailol organised as a secondary shard… The good news is that the loot that the Minions bring in is either based on the level of the Minion “Director”, or the level of the Zone they’re operating in… although that doesn’t really make much sense, either – yes it does, I just went and had a look at the map – it must work on the level of the character who sends the Minions out! Why? Because Winterthyme has taken over the Minion operations. Winterthyme is level 36. Moonshade Highlands is for levels 35 to 39, and Droughtlands is for levels 35 to 40. All of the skins, herbs, timber, and ores that the Minions are bringing in are from Moonshade Highlands and Droughtlands. Ergo, Minion returns are based on the level of the person sending them out! Elementary, my dear readers! 🙂 What a pity that Winterthyme is w-a-y behind in her Butchering, Foraging, and Mining skills! Most of what’s coming in is sitting in the Guild Bank waiting for someone to come along and process them into something Auctionable! But I’ll get a round tuit as soon as possible 🙂 It’s quite amazing how much organisation goes into making a successful Guild… I’ve organised my Auctionator and my Guild Bank Overflow person – now I need to work out which characters are going to pick up the important skills; they’re going to need to pick up two apiece, roughly grouped in “sympathetic” bundles, e.g. Outfitter plus Armorsmithing, Runecrafting plus Artificing, Apothecary plus Weaponsmithing – with Dreamweaving a solo skill to be picked up when and if needed. So now I need to decide who’ll do what. I know they’re all basically “me”, but somehow each girl is a complete separate individual in her own right, with her own personality, her own likes and dislikes, and her own idiosyncrasies. Does that mean I have split personalities? I don’t know… What do you mean, you don’t know! Yes, you know there are eight of us, so don’t pretend otherwise! Riiiight! No, it’s not like that at all, truly! It’s just that each girl turns out… differently from the others. Anyway, I have to turn these girls into a working team, and start earning some platinum! We have two Guild Bank vaults and we’re in desperate need of another two. Vault #3 is going to cost us 1500 platinum – I haven’t dared look to see how much the 4th Vault is going to cost, but from a somewhat wincing memory, it’s 5000 platinum. So, to work, ladies! Hustle, hustle! 🙂 I should have plenty of time to work on them after the ninth of February – the only lift in the building will be out of commission from February 9th to February 25th (approximately), and little ol’ me is going to be stuck in here for the duration, with nothing to do but …. play Rift! (and design new headers for new blog Themes) Quel dommage! as the French say (what a pity!) 🙂

This afternoon himself went out and bought two new GeForce 970 video cards and two 650W power supplies – we got five years out of the old ones, but they weren’t handling the Rift graphics as well as they should, and these new ones should last until we upgrade our computers in about three years time. He swapped his over first, and everything went well and worked straight off – the difference in the graphic quality was amazing! So then he changed mine over… My monitor remained black. He switched cables… my monitor remained black. He swapped the new video card over with the one that he’d just put in his… my monitor remained black… He swapped out the power supply with his… my monitor remained black. We tried it with a spare monitor, just in case mine had inexplicably died – that monitor remained black, too! There was only one difference between his computer and mine (well, two, actually – I use Windowblinds, and he doesn’t) the BIOS. He’d upgraded his just after Christmas, but he hadn’t upgraded mine… In desperation, he put in my old video card – suddenly the screen worked again – and upgraded my BIOS, and tried the new video card again. Everything now worked as it should – but we did have a somewhat later than usual dinner… At the moment he’s busy cleaning up the mess that he made… but tomorrow, being Sunday, we’ll have a chance to see what these new cards can really do as we waltz our way through Telara, either with our new Defiant team, still working our way through the “baby” areas, or as the old team, hoping that that wretched Chronicle has reset itself so that we can finish off that sector and then maybe get to see a bit of the new Zone that’s opened with this latest patch.

Weigh-in this morning. So typical of my wretched body – from 105.5kg yesterday morning, to… wait for it! 105.9kg this morning! I admit, it was a lot to lose in one 24 hour period (106.0kg to 105.5kg) and I did expect to bounce back up – a bit! But this morning I’d put back almost everything I’d lost! I was not happy. I was quite angry, actually – if you heard a funny noise around 8 o’clock this morning, it wasn’t thunder, or an earthquake rumble – it was my teeth grinding in annoyance! How much do you want to bet me that I’ll stay the same tomorrow morning, and the day after! C’mon, two more days the same as this morning – any takers? I’ll bet you five dollars… *sigh* and I start on that “turn me into a camel and store water” medication tomorrow morning, too! I can’t win… Let me see… It’s the first of February tomorrow morning – 28 days in February (it’s not a leap year this year), plus 9 in March – make that 8 days… 36 days in total until my Birthday… Will I be able to get below 104.0kg by March 9th, my Birthday? I’ll bet you all ten dollars that I won’t… Any takers for that one, then? Yes? No? Indifferent? 🙂

So come back again tomorrow night – find out if the new video cards performed up to expectations, and whether we tried to complete the Chronicle again, or decided to give it a miss and take our new Defiant team out for a fun day in Freemarch.  It’s also the day I usually change my nail polish, but this sparkly, pearly red-ish one is still looking pretty good (I just love this Inglot “breathable” nail polish! It lasts so well!) I might leave it until Tuesday – I think I’ll wait and see what it looks like by tomorrow afternoon… but then, I’m also terribly anxious to try out my other new “breathable” nail polish, the gorgeous, lushious, Kingfisher-Peacock-Blue! I’ll let you know tomorrow night what I decided to do! 🙂 As for my weight, well… I’m still betting that I’ll stay the same tomorrow and the next day – I’ll let you know about that, too, unless I go up again, in which case I’ll probably be incapable of letting you know anything, because I’ll be reduced to a sodden, weeping puddle on the floor! So until then, bee good, and stay safe! ciao, all! 🙂