Final Fantasy Flash #7

Finally, I was able to "glam up" to my liking by purchasing the Thavnarian headdress and bustier on the marketboard. Greercourt did the welcome emote. 

A skosh of info on my lack of game-playing ability. I have never played Xbox games. There was an obscure game called Bad Day on the Midway that I loved to play. It was dark and scary. A psycho killer character lurked in the ride section and routinely ended my game sessions. 

Back to the Xbox. I had never operated an Xbox controller. In Final Fantasy battles, I was pushing any button that would do anything for me. He heard me frantically trying to kill a big bully, and discovered I wasn't pulling the trigger and pushing the B button to cast the spells (I am a conjurer). I was damn lucky to make it through a couple of dungeon runs not knowing what the hell I was doing with the controller. Sheesh! My son's online group thought it "cute" that Gramma Tami was trying to learn the game. 

Reading through the player agreement, one's character could be placed in "virtual jail" for online misbehavior. If it is anything like the dungeons in the game, I would not want to go there. 

I am curious to see how the interaction with other players will change now that I have joined the full version. I will have to expand the chat box for one. I pretty much ignored it other than issuing character commands. 

I have yet to gain a "ride" or mount so I have to keep running around or teleporting. I also don't have a house. Kind of like in real life, I am always living in other people's houses. I briefly owned a Craftsman bungalow in midtown Sacramento but let it go on short sale (underwater real estate no bueno). I wonder if there is a Final Fantasy condo or retirement community? I will report back. 

My son exclaimed "You are RP walking!" I was walking through the games populated areas rather than running. Sometimes I do that to look at the other character's costumes. So sue me. 

I see there are a lot of sprouts (players new to the game). I've yet to reach out to make virtual friends. Maybe invite them over to my house for tea and crumpets? 

Belated Birthday Celebrations

I was looking for some important documents and found this gem stashed in the top tray of our cargo trunk. McCall's mermaid skirt 3482 from 1955. Or skirt with flouce. When I get back to sewing clothes from vintage patterns and modern material, this pattern will move up on the list. The packet is pretty torn up, the pattern is cut, but most important the instructions are there. You can even see the thrift shop 39 cents scrawled on front in blue marker. 

The garden is going great guns. We've harvested a tomato or two a day this past month. Tomatoes are in the background near the ladder. Still trying to trim back branches resting on top of the shed. 

A close-up of the Blue Beauty heirloom tomato. The pepper plants are still growing, not yet flowering. 

It is a constant battle with the deer that roam the neighborhood. No predators here, unless you count bad drivers on the road. Around the fabric planter, I used pet exercise case fencing. Atop the fencing, I zip-tied chicken wire. 

Random thrifting news - needed a wine rack and found one, in fact there were about 8 of them at the large hospice thrift in Placerville, California.  

Other fun additions from my constantly creating environment, two birdhouses from the same hospice thrift. Two were from my mom's estate, so the other two fit right in. 

Gourd koi also joined my family. Bought retail at ACE Hardware in Cameron Park, California. He is keeping Buddha company in the garage right now.  

Belated birthday celebrations included red velvet cupcakes from Icing on the Cake in the Folsom Palladio. My absolute favorite! 💜💙💚💗

Final Fantasy Flash #6-7

Even though this is Flash #6, I have added 7 because it is my birthday today and I am 67!🎂 As an aside, I have now joined the full version of the Final Fantasy game. 

For those who have been following along, my life took a dramatic turn five months ago. A long-term relationship abruptly ended and I moved from one county into another. With that move, my eBay business ended and donated nearly all inventory to thrift. A grand-daughter entered my life and I now care for her once a week. 

My craphting projects also ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. The last quilt I made was for Mila, the grandbaby. I do not foresee quilting in my future. The last garment I completed was also for Mila but it is too big for her to wear right now. Sewing has also come to a screeching halt. Hand sewing was also ended after trouble with both hands. 

The three main interests in my life now are gardening, tap dancing, and playing Final Fantasy. I didn't intend on becoming a player of that game but there are only so many YouTube videos you can watch during the summer heat waves. It also helped that I was able to attend the Final Fantasy Festival in Anaheim. While I did not understand all of the activities that went on, I did get the gist of the game. 

I am almost to level 30. This is the latest getup for my character, Greercourt. Guess you need a hat to protect you in battle so I opted for the green beret. In fact, I used a glamour prism to add the green dye to the original black and white outfit. Had to have the fingerless gloves, just had to. 

I have added Volunteer to my resume. My first gig will be at the local Summer Spectacular as a worker in the Beer Garden.🍺 So looking forward to it. Now I can enjoy it by donating my time to the event, people watching, listening to the live bands, and watching the fireworks.🎇

Happy Birthday to me! A Round Table Hawaiian pizza is scheduled for lunch, and country line dancing in the evening.  

Update to post: When this post first went live, my page views which hover around 1,000-2,000 per day, showed a number of 49,000+!! Gotta be a glitch. Whatevers I will take it, an internet social media gift. 

Mila Country Music YouTube playlist

Red, white, and blue cowboy boots spotted at Lee's Feed in Shingle Springs, California. Perfect lead-in to the country music YouTube playlist. 

I started playing YouTube videos of music playlists from Mila’s baby books. There was ABC to ZZtop - rock classics, and AB to Jay-Z – hip hop. 

I would like Mila to experience art, music, and dance. This A-Z YouTube Playlist is Country/Western. Good ole Wikipedia had a list of country music performers listed in alphabetical order. I chose my favorites to play for her.  Some are from many years ago when I was immersed in the CW boot-scooting scene. 

A            Trace Adkins  Honky Tonk Badonkadonk

B            Garth Brooks Friends In Low Places

C            Johnny Cash Ring Of Fire

D            John Denver Annie's Song

E            Steve Earle Copperhead Road 

F            Flatt and Scruggs Foggy Mountain Breakdown

G            Lee Greenwood God Bless The U.S.A.

H            Merle Haggard Mama Tried

I              Burl Ives Ghost Riders In The Sky

J             Alan Jackson Chattahoochee

K            Toby Keith As Good As I Once Was

L             K.D. Lang Trail of Broken Hearts

M           The Mavericks All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down

N            Willie Nelson On The Road Again

O           K.T. Oslin Come Next Monday

P            Dolly Parton Jolene 

Q           NA

R            Marty Robbins El Paso

S            Ricky Skaggs Country Boy

T             Randy Travis Diggin' Up Bones

U            Keith Urban Somebody Like You

V            NA

W           Tammy Wynette Stand By Your Man

X            Lil Nas X Old Town Road

Y            Dwight Yoakam Guitars, Cadillacs

Z            NA

Next up for the YouTube playlist is Alternative.💥

Final Fantasy Flash #5

So glad I have my insider son to guide me along on this game. I had accepted side quests that were unnecessary to my progresss. He abandoned those for me that made no sense to continue. 

The Fan Festival in Berlin on July 25 and 26, 2026, will be live-streamed on Twitch and YouTube. Anaheim was my first live event, this Berlin event will be my first live stream.  

I am learning there is a whole culture dedicated to capturing images of their character within the Final Fantasy framework. I can see why. The backgrounds are top notch. My character is close enough to what I look like that I can imagine myself in those amazing online worlds. 

Look at the lighting, and the perfect symmetry in the face. She will never age. I could play this game for the next 20+ years and there will be Greercourt forever young. 

Here is an interesting question, if there are game bots, wouldn't it be possible to have your character live on forever in an online world such as Final Fantasy? 🤔

Final Fantasy Flash #4

Once you plough through the initial MSQs (main scenario quests) of Final Fantasy, it does get more interesting. You become more successful at critter crunching. Rather than a magic wand, I now have a magical staff. Throwing spells and rocks are the main forms of combat at this level. (20+).  

Outfit change yet again. Getting closer to how I really want to express myself in character. The shrug is a nice touch. Pose is from a dance move. Next up is to capture facial expressions and head tilts. 

There are so many incredible backgrounds to grab on screen shot. In the image below, my character had on the hempen hat (ugh). You get a glimpse of the thigh-high boots.👀

Can we talk about the dialog boxes when your character interacts with NPCs? (NPC = non-playable characters) You would laugh if you saw how close I have to get to my laptop screen WITH my eyeglasses OFF (I am horribly near-sighted) to read the text.👓

My hair is long IRL. I would love to sport longer hair as Greercourt (my character). There is a way to modify or use MODs. I won't venture there as I want to stay within Square Enix approved items. 

There is so much to this Final Fantasy world. I am sure I am just scratching the surface. I learned that one can employ a Game Bot to automatically quest, gather, fish or combat on your behalf. I could see where that could be useful for fishing, boring as it is. 

Added fish gourd to my garden ornaments. Just couldn't resist him! 

Final Fantasy Flash #3

Tried to keep my novice costume but son and the game called for the recommended get up to keep from getting killed by critters. I look like a female monk. This is not my style but if it gets me through the quests. Not happy about this when others are looking so flashy. Can't even see my platinum hair! 

Went to the casino area of the game and was not impressed. Most areas of the casino are empty. Sort of backroomish, creepy. I am drawn to other players and their activities. Am kicking around joining the game so I can chat with other players. 

There are times I have been stuck in the game - battling with spiders trying to retrieve surveyor stuff, trying to get to the top deck of a ship. The only tools I can tell at this level are a magic stick and throwing rocks at critters that attack you. 

There are emotes, a way to express yourself while idle. I am particularly interested in the dance emotes. In one quest, my character fulfilled a request for an Irish Step Dance. This video demonstrates Riverdance. 

The upcoming 100 degree summer heat means I will be stuck inside and spending a lot of time gaming. Another aspect of the game that is fascinating is the graphic artwork seen throughout all of the worlds. Visually stunning. 

The background music can be described as ear worm hole. I tend to turn the volume way down unless critters attack me, then I want to hear what is going on, and it isn't music. If there were a place in the game one could hear The Primals, I would hang out there FOREVER.💟