why is it when i log out my food timer continues???

[Alberel]

With regards to buff timers continuing whilst logged out, I would guess that the server merely stores the time that the buff was applied in your character data and then simply compares that time against the server clock to determine remaining duration. Having buffs pause whilst logged out would require the server to also store the time a player logged out and perform a further calculation to check timers. This would cause more character data bloat and we all know how tight SE is with that sort of thing...

You don't know how badly I want them to change that. The companion is probably a lost cause but the ability to talk to NPCs while mounted, yes please. It's very irritating to dismount, talk, mount, fly and dismount (I looking at you moogle quest..).

This has been answered before and it's deliberate. Anyone that's played WoW knows how infuriating it is when people on mounts talk to NPCs and no one else can even see the NPC because they're lost inside the mount... Forced dismounting to interact with things is a very good design choice.