Crafting Mystery : FFXI General Discussions

Ok so I am 100+3 goldsmithing, and I make a good living with this don't get me wrong, and I know how to HQ my stuff. But! I mean some of the JPs on the game, pump out HQs of lvl90+ crafts in like 3 tries, or so it seems, because they do it quite quick. Now we all know, darksday, new moon, face HQ direction, etc etc blah blah blah, but does weather have an influence, any items in game that influence HQ (not counting guild items), are there any HQ glitches, any kind of program that can be run to HQ faster, does area affect HQ, etc?
Lemme know your thoughts.

Well there is an exact time to synth too, but I don't know how that works. My friend was leather 100+3 and synthed HQ RDM JSE Mitts on the 1st try when there was only like 2 pairs on the server... look for info concerning that :3