A push on some levels that were lagging

I did some work on the plan but I'm coming to the conclusion that specific patches of ground or maybe specific areas of the world only have certain of the base dye materials.  For example on the patch I was farming Friday night I only ever found the lead-gray moss.  The other spot yielded only midnight-black bugs (dodo leather dye which I can't use yet so into storage it goes).

The amount of stuff I am vendoring is "substantial".  This is due to pretty much running out of storage.  I BADLY need those extra Retainers (hereafter called "flunkies" in case that was not clear).  I also ran into some stuff that was rather hard to fight at a few points in time so I decided to regroup and come up with a better plan.  While I was regrouping I put a push on some goldsmithing crafting with some advice that if I was going to vendor the results anyways I might as well work on spear butts instead of bone rings.  Some quick analysis of the situation revealed that this was sound advice:

1 x Bone Chip + 4 x Wind Shard = Bone Ring.  Vendors for 180 Gil.
1 x Bone Chip + 2 x Wind Shard = Bone Harpoon Butt.  Vendors for 180 Gil.

So I crafted a pair of rings for myself and then blew 2 stacks of chips making harpoon butts.  Goldsmithing is now at 9.  How nice.

I then looked at my shard situation.  Yikes that's kinda desperate.  Ok time to put some serious crystal grinding in place.  Everything except fire was low...


So I decided to work on a nice spot I found near the starting camp and get my Conjurer skill up off the floor.  It being the last job at 1.  Some grinding of Wharf Rats and the occasional Spriggan Collector allowed me to get it to 6. 

At this point an EVE player trying out the game got in touch with me wanting to join the LS.  Since I have not had a conversation with the guildleader regarding his policy on this, I simply gave the player a link pearl from my personal linkshell.  I'll probably use that to give to any eve players I run into (or more likely run into me) so we can keep in touch regardless of how the situation with the actual LS I'm in works out regarding random people joining.

I then decided to take a break from the rats and go say hello to some Puks and jellyfish.  Since I don't actually need sheepskins and my harvesting found WAY MORE Moko grass and cotton bolls than I can use, I decided that Puks were the way to go to get wind crystals (the rats having provided me with a decent number of earth shards) if you want to avoid the sheep.  And with the opening of general access I was highly motivated to avoid the sheep camp.

This went very well and I got my Gladiator job to 10 and climbing fast.

At the end of all of this:

Physical: 23, Hand to hand: 8, Sword: 10, Axe: 8, Archery: 6, Polearm: 8, Shield: 2, Thaumaturgy: 8, Conjury: 6, Woodworking: 8, Smithing: 10, Armorcraft:10, Goldsmithing: 9, Leatherworking: 11, Clothcraft: 12, Alchemy: 10, Cooking 5, Mining:10 , Botany: 10, Fishing: 5.