My life in Eve - Part 7

Lots of games + lots of comics + sushi dinner and toe-socks to keep the wife happy = a lot of money I really should not be spending. Oh well...

First off I really want to thank all of my followers for...following. I'm always craving feedback and even if nobody is leaving comments it is still comforting to know people are reading. I sent out a few "pokes" yesterday at people I suspected were reading, and it turned out well. If you are reading and like my blog at all please join the list!

Spent about $80 on comics yesterday, and after reading half of them last night I'm pretty happy with my stack. I'll give you comic impressions this weekend.

Logged in to EVE late last night just to put some modules up on the market. I'm trying to move some EMP M ammo, and I might drop the price tonight. I don't feel I should waste my time running missions until I can move to Abudban, where a vastly superior agent resides. This gives me time to play some other titles for a bit while my learning skills get trained. I may move before that happens, but probably not for another week. This also will give me time to finish Last Son of Prano.

I've been considering weather or not to talk about who I've decided to cast my CSM vote for. On the one hand I may adversely affect the opinion of others, who should be doing their own research. However, I want to spur discussion, so I'll let the cat out of the bag.

Stephan Pirson. In short, Stephan Pirson seems to bring the most to the table as far as pushing what the CSM is capable of. If someone of this calibre is shot down at the table, then their very well may be no hope for the CSM at all. I'm voting tonight, and I hope you'll share your opinions of my decision with me, positive or negative. A running conversation in this entry's comments would be amazing.

The first bits of news are coming out of Fanfest, and it's already pretty exciting. Talk of a central bank, stock markets and race-specific currencies are definitely dreams come true for many industrialists. My guess for currencies is that there will be types for all 4 empires, and perhaps for pirate nations, and these will obviously be linked into trade mechanics within the banks and markets. ISK will probably still be around at a main currency though.

Another bit of interest for me was possible "adult" content linked to Ambulation. Personally, I'm not against it. One must expect things like booze, drugs and strippers in a galaxy like EVE. Obviously this will not be critical content and restrictions of underage players (of which I doubt there are many) must be in place.

Gears of War 2 was released today. Toronto and Vancouver had to do without Future Shop midnight parties because of a recent run-away kid named Brandon Crisp turning up dead. He ran away because his parents took away his XBox 360. I have a brother at the same age who plays at a near-professional level, so the issues of gaming's effect on youth and parenting is an important subject to me. Expect a rant on it when the Crisp case is over with.

I suspect I won't be on too much this weekend due to Gears 2 and whatever else I can convince myself to buy (or not un-convince myself, depending on how you look at it) after work. A friend of mine is giving me his 360 copy of R6V2 for free, which is pretty nice of him, even considering his owes me a few hundred and a few favours. I've pulled his formally-fat Irish arse out of the fire a few times.

Also need to drop by another friend's place to see his new digs and buy his copy of Burnout: Paradise off him. Might see if another friend wants me to drop by on Sunday. He's pretty depressed and a little company may brighten him up. Sunday is also his only day off during the week. I'll call him at 1000h (which is when Analytical Mind V finishes) and see if he wants me to make the trek across town and bring Gears 2 with me.

Busy weekend. I may actually lose some sleep.

Ja.

The Council of Stellar Management and you.

I've been going over all the candidates, and there's really a big separation between those treating this as an actual chance to make a positive contribution, and those looking for a free trip to Iceland. What's extremely important at this point is for the general community to reward those who take this seriously and show their support for the system by VOTING. It's not hard people. Do it in real life and do it in EVE. You should care about both worlds.

I'm actually impressed by a few candidates. Eva Jobse has (like a few others) a whole site dedicated towards her campaign. For a candidate NOT to have at least a blog or MySpace page dedicated to their campaign is insulting and shows a lack of dedication. Charlie Eriksen even took out an ad in E-ON magazine. If you want to consider an incumbent like Charlie, I urge you to look at his past performance and make it part of your decision. Having a resource like past accomplishments and meeting minutes are gold to a voter. Bjorn-Erik G Townsend seems to have unique issues that usually get little attention, like better cross-platform support. Brian Simonson seems eloquent and able to be original and creative in his approach.

You'll notice I'm referring the candidates by their real names and not their handles. That's because we're voting for REAL PEOPLE. Having success in tournaments or in-game politics means nothing in the real world. While a deep appreciation, understanding and experience with the game is an asset, having a titan or a fat wallet doesn't mean the candidate knows how to improve to the game or talk toCCP in a way that will facilitate the meaningful discussion of issues.

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR PEOPLE ON THESE ISSUES:

• They live in your country

• They are a member of your corp, alliance or are “blue” to you.

• Tourney accomplishments or other in-game career success.

• Ghost training. It's a dead issue. Same with lag.

• They seem funny. This isn't Last Comic Standing.

I'm not going to tell you who to vote for or not to vote for. You need to do your research, figure out who you think will do the best job and make an educated choice based on real factors. Resigning the concept of theCSM to failure rests with the players, not CCP.

Ja.

Learnings on a lvl.3 combat mission.

I've missed the Brutor tribe. I have an unexplained affinity towards them, though because of certain political and security issues I haven't been able to run any lvl.2 missions with them. Instead I've been hanging with a Sebiestor agent in Hakeri. Now things have changed. My standings have grown so I've decided to head to Frarn and hit up a Brutor lvl.3 Security mission for the first time.

I was not sure if I'd be able to pull off a lvl.3 yet. Certainly a Hurricane could do it, but were my skills up to par? Answers from my corp were few and far between and I came to the conclusion that the only way to find out is to give it a go. So I did.

After a lot of warping from Hakeri to Frarn and a good amount of pew-pew in my first mission, I've come to some important conclusions:

1) I rock and so does my cane!
2) I may need to move a considerable amount of ammo to Frarn from Hakeri in order to facilitate the pew-pew. I ran out pretty quickly.
3) Collecting loot becomes more time-consuming the higher the mission level is. To that effect I've grabbed the Minmatar Industrial skill. I could have gone with Gallente industrials, but I found the Mammoth's specs a little better than the Interon IV. I'll fit it for salvaging, loot-grabbing and general transport. This will also solve my problem with lesson 2.

I may find that I'll be moving on to lvl.4 missions sooner rather then later. It all depends on when I can get my corp to build me a Tempest. I'll move as much ammo into Frarn tonight and grind away when I can.

Chapter 9 is coming along well. I've decided to split the final battle into two parts, and the cut came after watching a few good expamples of cliff-hangers in science-fiction TV series. You can just see the "To Be Continued..." appear after you've finished reading this chapter. I think it'll come out quite well. Turns out I may not need an epilogue, but I'm starting to brainstorm on a small prologue.

I went over the CSM candidates quickly, and there seems to be a great divide between the ones who are dedicated and the ones looking for a free trip to Iceland. Once I've done more research (maybe tonight) I'll give you my impressions on the individual candidates. This will be my first shot at being a pundit, and I urge the rest of the EVE blogging community to follow along. Above all it's important to be critical yet hopeful of the CSM and it's processes. The first one was a bit of a failure but it was to be expected. We need to press on and make it work the way we all want it to.

I've been trying to get in touch with my friend Kurtis today to remind him to send over those pics I'd like to post here tomorrow. No luck so far. I still have to clean out my Photobucket (I think I got it confused with Imageshack last time because of a conversation I had with the wife about hosting options). Hopefully it comes together tonight.

Turns out CrazyKinux and YoMma are Canadian. if they're in or around Toronto then maybe I can convince them to do a video podcast with me. It does make it look like I'm trying to wiggle my way into their success, but I'm just looking for good talent. We'll see if anything comes of it in the coming months, though I'd love to work with them if possible.

Anyhoo, I gotta work on the story, do some housework and take care of my sick wife.

Ja.