Week Off

It didn't start that way. But this has turned into a week away from Eve and the Eve Community. Bad week and a bad week to be away. I haven't even been at my computer long enough to download the new patch yet!! That alone tells you all you need to know.


Rest assured, I'll be back. And eventually all this will be in the rear view mirror once again.


Life rolls on.


Until then, a few links to keep your feet wet:


Joanna Newsom
I discovered her by accident last weekend because my television came on tuned to Austin City Limits and I had never seen a band were the lead singer played a Harp before.
Here is one video and here is her Wikipedia page. Treat yourself to something different.


Iron Sky
Speaking of Nazis on the Moon. The long-gestating internet phenom is finally coming to the big screen, Iron Sky will be premiering at the Berlin Film Festival ( Natch!) and they've released a full trailer. 


I also played Minecraft for the very first time earlier this week. It was to be the subject of an actual post, before the chasm opened and swallowed me whole. I found it, in the first instance, to be harder than I imagined it would be. I realize that I am a video game sadist since I typically play at the highest difficulty level. I died a lot at first. Mostly because I knew nothing about the game. Just like in Eve, I opened it and jumped right in. You'll be happy to know that since then I haven't played it at all. But I think it'll become a slight time-waster in the future.


Our regularly scheduled programming will resume momentarily. Stay tuned.

Getting Around the Neighborhood: Year Four

Click to Embiggen

My first two years in Eve I published the map from the in-game "Places I've Visited" settings, you can see the previous two years by clicking this link.  Above is the same map as it exists today.


Actually, not much is different about this map compared to the one from March of last year. Many of the dots are bigger, and certainly low-sec has filled in nicely in certain regions. The main addition being Fountain and Delve in the West. Mostly that comes from several long roams I undertook from Syndicate and the short-period of weird time I spent in Morsus Mihi last Summer.


I don't expect the map to change much this coming year either. While I continue to drive anywhere I want in New Eden, I don't get out into Null much these days. Nor do I anticipate that changing. Having said that, anyone that has followed this blog long knows anything is possible. 


At some point I'll become bored and take a nice long drive up North, mainly so I can get some red dots up there.

A Few Milestones

They say life is like a river. They also say a lot of other things. Excuse me... that was a poorly written opening line.


Eve is a lot like life.


Screw it. Not in the fancy writing mood this morning. Yesterday I happened to notice a few interesting milestones along the path that I thought were worthy of mentioning.


700* - Yesterday's post was the 700th post in almost two years worth of writing here on Eveoganda. Our second anniversary isn't for a few weeks yet, so that works out to just a hair shy of one post per day over a two year period. When I started blogging I promised to write a post every day that I played Eve... I had no idea then that eventually that would switch around and I'd end up writing more than playing. ( Slight edge, very slight )


1,000 - Yesterday I managed to help kill about 14 BS and BCs ( I hope to write a post about that later ) which pushed my total win/loss record to 1,339 kills to 327 losses. Which means the goal I set myself early last year has finally been reached, 1,000 kills more than losses. It is a small thing to many people, but given my general disdain for the killboard, aggressive play-style and general lack of concern regarding losses... it means a lot to me.


15,000 - Which brings up breaking the 15,000 ceiling I've been hovering around for a year on BattleClinic. Again, I don't care in so many ways it isn't funny. But I also do care in many ways at the same time. I have no desire to be a "top-ranked" anything in Eve, but the personal satisfaction and the indication of professionalism, contribution to Corp and whatnots do mean something. So it is kind of cool. Next, breaking into the 10k club.


2,476 - That is how many spam emails my main account got yesterday. While it has nothing to do with Eve, it is scary. Three weeks ago my email got spam attacked and I ended up losing my entire inBox. I'm generally anti-regulation, but seriously, something needs to be done about this on a higher level than my anti-spam software and server rules. ( In the time it took me to write that my inBox has 9 new spam emails in it )


I hope to be back later on today with another post about something or other. I honestly have about 45 posts in various forms lying around on my desk, just finding the time to finish them...




*I've actually written and posted 719 posts since the blog started. There are 699 currently active posts on the blog, including the one above. The 700 number comes from Blogger and not me, yesterday Blogger informed me that the post was #700. I suppose this is some aggregate number or something? I am going with the 700 number anyway, since I've really written more than that and I had already announced it on Twitter. Consider this full disclosure. Like it matters anyway. But it makes me feel better being honest. Aww.

State of Commissions: Update

Some housecleaning items:


Commissions
Between today and the end of the year I will not be taking on any additional commissions. That doesn't mean you can't continue to email me your requests, you can, it simply means I won't be working on anything "new" until the first of the year. I have enough on my table at the moment and some of these poor people have been waiting a long time. So my focus between now and then will be to clean off the work table.


This is good news for all of you that are currently waiting. Once again, thank you for your patience. I hope the final results will have been worth the wait.




Blog Pack
There will be another update in the next few weeks. So keep your eyes open for that.


For those that have written and asked me to share the process for getting selected to the Eve Blog Pack, it is extremely simple. Make sure I am aware of your blog and add it to the "Eve Sites" Blogroll in the right sidebar. That blogroll is my own personal reading list and the source of my opinions about the blogs that get added to the EBP. Please remember, there are well over 500+ blogs currently active about Eve! Selecting the blogs in the EBP is a purely subjective process and is based on my own personal opinion regarding quality, longevity, subject matter, interest to the Eve community at large, and the sheer amount of bribery involved! ( That is a joke, I don't accept bribes.)  


Seriously, if you want to be considered, send me a link to your blog. And then write awesome stuff about Eve.

Turkey Shoot Wallpaper

Happy Thanksgiving. The wallpaper above is available in various sizes by clicking on the image. I thought it was funny, your opinion may vary.


So I'll be away from Eve for the next five days or so and won't be posting, emailing or otherwise around in a significant way. This is a time for hanging out with family, eating way to much food and generally forgetting about the rest of it for a few days. Mostly I'll be traveling to visit my own family.


It is also tradition to take a moment to give thanks for those things we are thankful for. Last year at this time my list was significantly different than it will be this year. Last year at this time I was still in Null space, down in Providence as part of the Co2 Alliance, believe it or not. Wow, a lot has changed in the last year needless to say. So where will I be this time next year?  I guess we'll all just have to wait and see.


Until then, here are just a few of the things I am thankful for this year:


> The Eve Community. You guys keep me going. Thru your blogs, the tweetfleet, the forums and everywhere else, the Eve community is strong, awesome and full of good people. So thank you all for everything you do.


> CCP. Last year I said I was thankful to you for creating Eve in the first place. And while that still applies, I think this year I am more thankful to you for not killing it. Crucible looks to be an incredible, much-needed expansion back to the way things should be. It was a rough Summer, but you've gone a long way towards rectifying those issues. So thanks.


> Eve Friends. Say what you want about virtual friends, but they are pretty damn awesome. And during the last three years I've made a lot of them, both in-game and thru commission work. Thanks to all of you that remain a part of Eve. And to those of you that no longer play, you haven't been forgotten.


> Tuskers.  I know I haven't been in-game much the last two weeks, but you guys are great and I'm looking forward to flying with you all more in the coming months. Thanks for taking me aboard and giving this old guy a new home.


To everyone else, my readers, commenters, visitors, haters, those that say "hi" in local, those that sneak me intel, those that kill me or are killed by me, those that I once flew with and those that I fly against, thank you as well. Without you there wouldn't be an Eve and I wouldn't have a reason to log in.


I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with your friends and family. And for those of you that don't celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy the next few days without me around. You are microscopically safer in space for the next few days.

Unintended Lapse of Forward Momentum

I have to admit several things today. Get them off my chest. Confess my sins. Clear the air. Wave the magic blog wand of self-indulgent introspective wanderings, so I can get back to the business of writing about, making fun of, and generally enjoying this thing we call Eve.


Funny that the next expansion is called Crucible.


Killing your own Alliance and dumping your own Corporation takes a lot out of a fella. Who'd a thought?


So I've been taking a break from Eve lately. You probably didn't even notice. I hide it well. During the last two weeks I've been in-game a total of about 90 minutes. I haven't kilt anyone in two weeks. This has been on purpose. A mini-vacation if you will. Time to take a deep breath and just chill for a bit.


All the usual. I know better then most that you can't keep the burning pace up for long, without losing the flame. Everything piled up towards the end of Summer, the Alliance, the Corp, the blog, the commissions, the Blog Pack and everything else. No big deal, but even I need a break from time to time.


But this post isn't about the break. It is about the return. And while you haven't noticed it, some have. Those waiting on commissions and my friends in The Tuskers. The new expansion hits soon, which I am very excited about. ( duh! who isn't? ) and the end of the year approaches.


So time to jump back in, undock in some shiny new ships and try to figure out why the sky has changed so much.


We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.


Take a moment and check out this bit of Eve Fiction over on Lovely Little Vagabond. I make a surprise guest appearance!