Humbug

A Christmas Carol (the George C. Scott version) is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, so the title is appropriate, although I don't feel particularly crass or grumpty.  It's cold outside, but I have a healthy glass of 2008 Port from Cass Winery, a screaming fire in the fireplace, and a full belly.

Life doesn't suck.

But this blog has been in desperate need of updating for a long time.  And for that I apologize.

Reality is:  I've not been playing EVE much.  And by "not much" you should interpret that as I may very well have a pair of accounts with empty skill queues and I kind of don't care.  Maybe the min/max nerd in me should, but that's the truth of the situation.

I've been busy.  Very busy.  I could type a lot about work being hectic, or family being demanding, or a half dozen other "real life" excuses, and all would be true stories.  But those are cliched excuses for not writing, and you deserve better.

But for the sake of completeness, let's get the obvious out of the way:  work has been mega-busy.  My boss, the guy that sought out and hired me a little over a year ago, transferred up and out of our area back in May, and in his absence myself and 2 others have been backfilling him.  His replacement was only named in October, and in the nigh-6month interim I was taking on tasks 2 pay grades above me.  Great exposure, great experience, but no additional pay.   But it was a peek behind the iron curtain between "executive" and mortal, and these are dividends I'll reap later. Count on it.

On the PC, I've been playing WoW.  Yes, the evil Warcraft.  The latest expansion (Legion) struck a chord with me, and for the most part it's been the best gaming experience since Wrath launched.  I picked up my old main (a Warrior that I ran from 2005 through mid-Cataclysm) and have him sitting on a pretty good set of gear and have been abusing the raidfinder and world quest system.  It's not EVE-level of complexity, but it's accessible in the time that I have available each night.

I gave up Overwatch.  It was fun, but gave me headaches.  I'm happier for dropping it.  I likewise don't play Hearthstone any more.

I'd like to revisit Guild Wars 2, but haven't made the attempt yet.  I bought the expansion but actually never played it.

And EVE.  I followed the EVE Vegas updates and try to keep up on news.  To be honest, I'm disappointed that the Drifter storyline hasn't advanced.  So much momentum was initiated with Caroline's Star, and Burners, and the promise of advanced AI making its way to the average mission runner.  So much opportunity squandered.  I'm not bitter, but to be blunt, I've consumed the available content and need a refresh before I can think about venturing back.  Nostalgia may drive me to fire up the Golem and go bash some lvl4s, but feelings of nostalgia are sated quickly.  I have little interest in Alpha accounts, revamped NPE, and such.  But that's where CCP is deciding they need to invest.

And that's fine. The game needs customers to continue.  I'm not challenging the decision, but I am perhaps a casualty of their approach (although technically I'm still a paying customer, so maybe the joke's on me).

I'll sign off with a happier note - tabletop games and miniatures.  I meant to post a GenCon update and never got around to it.  We attended for our 3rd year this past August and had a blast. I spent a LOT of money at the Flying Frog booth.  In spare moments, I've been painting Shadows of Brimstone miniatures and we've been playing through the content as I've had it painted up.  I still have a lot of painting to go.

I'm a dude in his early 40s that enjoys table top games. Oh no, I must be a nerd.

Meanwhile, Flying Frog did another Kickstarter for their 3rd core set.  I went all in and spent more nerd money; I have an absurd amount of miniatures and expansion packs inbound whenever the guys at FF can deliver.

And a few minutes ago, I chose to support Kingdom Death's 1.5 Kickstarter.  This was a game I fell in love with at this year's GenCon.  The KS is currently at $6.6M and climbing - a runaway success.  The miniatures are insane and the game looks challenging and fun.  Back in August at GenCon, I kept steering Mrs. Durden back to their booth even though the core game was sold out.  I just wanted to look at the miniatures and lurk while the demo games played.  It's got some adult themes (i.e. "boobies") but the entire game is simply saturated with the same grittiness and darkness that draws me back to EVE year after year.

Thanks to the port wine I'm drinking, I also spent too much money on the KS than I should, but I can always amend the pledge level once I sober up.  I'm going to have to figure out a better storage/display option for this stuff.

Enjoy Christmas.  Enjoy the winter chills and the icicles and snowball fights and snow days.  Fall and Winter is the absolute best time of year. Enjoy it.

And in the immortal words of Bill and Ted, be Excellent to one another.

Where's Abavus?

Where the heck have I been?

Following the BDR, I let myself unravel a bit. I normally live a very structured life, with certain days for certain chores or workouts, and fitting EVE in whenever there's a hole.  After months (years?) of this cycle, it was time for a pause. I didn't do it intentionally, but it's been a month already.  I haven't been on the bike since BDR, haven't been to a gym, and haven't been booting the PC as regularly. 

What online time I've been consuming has generally been in Overwatch.  Which is a fun and meaningless time consumer.  But even then, I think I went 5 nights last week without any time on the home PC. My infatuation with Overwatch has been sated, and I think the headaches I've had recently are related.

The time away from my (ab)normal routine has been welcome, and I don't think I'll return to it completely.  It has been nice to be a normal guy for a few weeks without the pull from either the online world or the bike seat.  So, this is how the muggles live?

This isn't my first time through a sprint-and-coast cycle, and won't be the last. Experience has shown that there's no cause for alarm. It's just time to relax a bit, take stock of things, pick new goals, and set out again.

As always, there are things to do in EVE that I could tackle, space to explore, and resources to collect. But while the weather stays mild and bug free, it's going to be nicer to spend time on the deck in the evenings and soak in a little bit of 'normal.'

Easing Back Into Reality

Spent the last week out on the U.S. east coast; rented a half a house on the oceanfront with my family and Mrs. Durden.

The drive out and back is best done in 2 days, but we saw fit to complete it in a single session on both the outbound and return legs.  We rented Saturday to Saturday and got up very early yesterday to say goodbye to family and the ocean and make the drive home.  It's a holiday weekend in the U.S., so we arrived back home to cookouts, high school graduation open houses, and the usual summer kickoff events.  Which is a little weird - my vacation is "over" but all around me the party is just beginning.

We'd been looking forward to this trip for quite awhile.  The past 6 months here have been a sprint with the job, house, and other "real life" problems.  I went to the ocean with only 3 main objectives:

1. Sleep a lot.
2. Drink a lot of coffee by the ocean.
3. Read a book.

I accomplished all my goals.  Book of choice was Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, which I first read in high school and try to pick up every 5 years or so.  The coffee was mediocre, probably due to the local municipal water quality, but I drank it anyway.  

The house we rented was oceanfront.  From the deck, we could watch the tides coming and going maybe 50 yards away.  We made up our daily agenda as we went, but I spent a lot of time just sitting and reading or watching the water.  I'm not one to sunbathe or sleep on a beach, but a comfortable chair within a short walk to the coffee pot (or fridge, for beer) and an ocean breeze is a good way to spend the day.

The first few days, I was jumpy and generally bitchy about perceived offenses committed by my family members.  By about Monday, I found my irritability draining out of me as I caught onto island time and cared a lot less about things that the others said or did.  I felt more like myself than I have in awhile.  

If you've never truly experienced island time, I highly recommend it.  In western civilization today we live such regimented lives in a world of schedules and rules and routine.  But left to our own devices, it's interesting to me how quickly those rituals fade in importance.  Some structure, I suppose, is a good thing over the long haul, but the lack of almost any obligation was liberating.

I had my laptop with, but didn't sneak away much to spend time on it.  I bounced through EVE every other day or so to check on things and read EVEmail.  The time away was good and I came home with a short list of goals that I'd like to accomplish.

I plan to ease back into reality.  I spent this morning brutalizing some Serpentis and have AE4 on deck.  When the dew burns off, I need to mow the lawn.  We have some tuna steaks for dinner that will go on the grill.  I have very little idea of what I'll do tomorrow, and right now that's fine with me.

But for now, it's time for more coffee.

EVE That Was

EVE has been occupying my idle moments lately.  That's good, and bad.  Well before the 85% post, I was pondering things, and dark thoughts flitted in and out of my head.  Upon close inspection, these thoughts would evaporate; I could not force them to congeal into a concise position.  But yet the feeling of unease lingered, and the comfort that I sought was elusive.  I've felt like I've been fighting a blanket that's too small on a cold winter night.  The cold keeps creeping back in.

And that's why, when Neville's 85% post hit, I jumped on it with both feet.

And yet, with time, that single post doesn't quite keep me warm at night either.

Oddly enough, it was mowing the lawn that I think has finally caused a breakthrough.  Mowing, me, and EVE go way back.  At the old house, in the summers of 2003 and 2004, I'd have to afk for an hour every Saturday so that I could go push the mower around our postage stamp in the subdivision.  During that hour, I'd hatch plans and create a mental map of all that I needed to do and all the folks I needed to contact when I returned to my comfortable chair.

Today, as regular readers know, we own 10 acres and I mow between 2 and 4 acres of it depending on the week.  Yesterday I was plotzing around on the Deere, and I happened to think of EVE in the early days, and those Saturdays long ago at the old address and how energizing that time was.  EVE was a central focus, mowing was a chore but a mental break (chainsaw therapy) that I needed to step back and look at the game strategically.

So, yesterday, I began thinking about the game in its infancy - May and June of 2003.  The feelings I had then for the game and the feelings I have today are so distinct that it feels like two very different game titles.  That's not to say one is better than the other - they're just different.  Imagine meeting your dad when he was in his 30s and interacting with him as a peer and contrast that to the father you know today in his 50s or 60s. These two individuals are the same man, but are probably very different people in terms of experience, intensity, interests, and perhaps even temperament/demeanor. Your own role as son/daughter vs. peer plays a role in how your interactions shape up - and that's similar in a way to how you approach EVE today as a returning bittervet or a noob undocking for the first time.  Your expectations and approach are different.

I think it's safe to say that the EVE of yesterday appeals to my soul better.  There's no way I can go back and relive those early days, so this is a moot thing to type about, but while the EVE of today is better in almost every way, I miss the crusty and simple aspects of the game of 2003.  I've known this for awhile, but on the mower I again realized that trying to recapture that feeling of the early days is what makes me continue to sub up.

Lately I've not been productive isk-wise or progress wise.  I've just been touring the highsec systems and regions and have been doing things more randomly; docking at different stations, visiting old systems, and just looking at the skeleton of the game that I know is still there.  I found my favored space-taxi (Amarr Navy Slicer) and popped through random gates without the shackles of using autopilot to plot my jump route.  I went to regions that I used to frequent as part of my trade routes and space trucker empire but no longer have a viable business need to visit.  I checked out some highsec citadels, visited some moons and asteroid belts, and looked at a sky that was Caldari blue.  I'd missed it.

The next 2 weeks are going to be a blur with work and Big Dumb Ride prep, but I'm hopeful that after the dust settles and summer takes hold, I'll be able to devote more time to investigate the EVE-that-was that's still within the EVE-that-is.

I say things like "more time for EVE soon" quite a bit... but one of these days, I'm going to be right. :)

And Then it was April

Things continue to shuffle along here.  The pace at work has slackened just a bit, and a few things that were hard for me a couple months ago are now getting easier with additional experience.  With the spring thaw has brought the return of yard work, and although I enjoy being outside a great deal, it's also a distraction.

I should have started an 8 week bike training regimen this week and I did pretty poorly.  I actually haven't biked (indoor or out) for over a week and a half.  Random weather and a sudden work commitment kept me grounded this week.  Wednesday was absolutely fantastic weather, but I opted to re-mount the mower deck and spend an hour mowing an acre out front that gets ahead of everything else.

I'm actually off work today; it's a premeditated vacation day with the intent of accomplishing more random things in 3 days than I could realistically hope to get in 2.  With the forecast, today was chainsawing and brush hawging until the rain came around lunch and drowned me out.  This afternoon we'll off for errands and a late lunch at a local diner we found a few weeks ago.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a 35-40 mile bike ride to jump start my training regimen, I need to pick a route that takes into account the amount of wind I suspect we'll get.  I hope to collapse in a heap afterwards.

Sunday's task will be to light the pair of brush piles I've built and toss on all the stuff I cut this morning.  Sounds simple, but will be 4-6 hours outside eating smoke.  Oh, and somewhere in there, I need to clean the gutters and pile some gravel in the hole the raccoons are using to access my pole barn.

This has left precious little time for EVE.  This year has warped past me at a blistering pace; I can't believe it's April already.  I've been in game a few times to try to keep some plates spinning, and I'm trying to follow the onslaught of the Imperium war, but most things I need to do within the game involve a lot of time investment.

Oh wow, now it's hailing outside.  We came inside just in time. :)

5 Random Things

Stealing the format from another blog I read.  Here are 5 random things I did this week:


1) Signed my will.  As in my last will and testament.  We're old enough that we should have one, and it's been on my New Years' to-do list each year for the past 2-3 years (and if I say 3, it's probably been more like 5 years).  Last year I actually logged into LegalZoom but didn't actually purchase the form.  This year we found a local attorney to hammer out the details.  It was painless and far less expensive than I expected.

2) Was a featured speaker at a Lunch n' Learn event at work.  My part was less than 10 minutes, though I also coordinated the other 4 speaker's content and assembled the consolidated package.  I am not a great public speaker but it went well enough.  There were about 50 people in the auditorium and another 30 people online via webex.  Not my largest audience ever, but probably the most free-form speech I've ever given (since I wasn't giving a "briefing" against a standardized agenda).  My boss' boss was in the 4th row and has this eagle-eye stare that unnerved me.  I had to find someone else to look at during my hand waiving.  After starting at the new office in October, it was nice to be asked to speak and be a visible person in my new org.

3)  Rode 20 miles on the bike.  Early season rides are always a crapshoot around here, and normally this time of year I'd be happy getting a "real" ride of maybe 10 miles.  Last Sunday it was sunny and warm with only medium wind so I suited up and went out.  The route I picked started on some of my favorite roads and I ran into a TON of other bikers - the biking community here has really exploded in the past 5 years.  As I considered my return route, I opted to add another 5 miles and went out scouting a new return route on the way home.

4)  Patched up EVE.  I haven't undocked in awhile, but did manage to get my Desktop client patched up and checked training queues.  Everything is where I left it, although I'm noticing that some of my older burner setups are now broken (the Gila fit for the Sansha BC Burner in particular).

5)  This morning, we ran a local 5k.  Every triathlete has a least favorite event; running is mine.  I am neither a great runner nor a horrible runner, but I don't enjoy it and therefore don't train for it.

However, while I am focusing on Bike this season, Mrs. Durden is opting to chase down some running goals.  She signed up for this event long ago and I jumped on board last month (mostly because of the finisher medal, I must admit).

I went into this unprepared ... I have run exactly twice this year - the only other jogging session was a 5k event in February - and the time I got today was pretty good for not actually preparing for the race.  The weather was pretty cold (38 deg F at the start) and after I overheated in February, I undercompensated and was dressed for a day 15 degrees warmer.  Luckily, we were able to hide in a local pub before the start and once on the course I felt really good.  Mrs. Durden did also well and the finisher medal is cool and we're better off for having done it than sleeping in on a Saturday.

6) Bonus:  Tonight we're going to the Opera. We're season ticket holders, believe it or not.  I can take or leave the singing, but I really enjoy watching the pit orchestra. With dinner and the show it will make for a nice evening out.

Playing a Game You Don't Actually Enjoy

It's the end of a game session and as you're shutting down, you think: why am I doing this to myself?

And no, I don't mean EVE.  I mean Hearthstone.

I resisted the game while we were under our data cap; I didn't need another game to patch up and consume data quota. Late last summer we got a different provider and I caved. 

I played horribly but enjoyed it. Single play was fun. And the matchmaker was able to find players as horrible as me.

But now, things have progressed. I'm apparently in a no-mans land of mediocrity. I am no longer horrible but not an expert. The matchmaker doesn't quite know what to do with me. I have very few "good" games. Sometimes I am stomping faces and my opponent concedes very early. Sometimes I'm getting stomped and deciding whether I ride it in or concede. And maybe 1 in 10 or even 1 in 20, I get the nail biter that goes 20+ turns with no clear dominance until a clever move or combo breaks. My point is that most games are decided by turn 3 or 4 and so very few games result in any sort of satisfaction, even the wins.

Last night I played a game where I was at 3 health looking at game-over the next turn. After a long game trading pretty evenly, opponent had 9 health and a small army itching to smash me. I had a few guys out but not nearly enough to win that turn. In a clutch draw I was able to send my guys across for 7 and then play a leper gnome. I then cleverly killed my own leper gnome to yield 2 dmg from his deathrattle. Stolen victory maybe, but it was a good game, made sweeter by my win. I requeued thinking it would be another many games before I got a match that close.

And so, I am here lamenting during my lunch hour, thinking "why bother?".

It's time to back off from the silly virtual card game and maybe check back in 6 months after Blizz has maybe figured out an elegant fix.

More time for EVE.

For Science!

Happy New Year everyone.

While at EVE Vegas, we had a short chat with a nice Ph.D. candidate collecting data for his project on the psychology of MMO players.  He sent an update email today to say that he's close to having enough submissions to analyze the data, but needs a few more participants.

I'm posting the link to his survey with permission.  Please go help out if you have the inclination - I've done it, it doesn't take very long, and may give scientific proof as to why Jita is such a horrible place on local.*

Note:
*Probably not. Some things are best left unknown. :)  Seriously though, I'm not affiliated in any way with the research, just passing along the link to those who may be interested in helping out.

On the Horizon

It's been a relatively relaxing Holiday season.  When it's July, I tell myself I'd rather take time off when everyone ELSE is working, and then get caught up while the office is quiet.  Then every year I get to the holiday season and wonder why I'm one of the few guys in the office when I desperately need some time to unwind. This year, I said screw it and I've managed to work 5 days in the past 2 weeks and as of this afternoon I'm off until 7am on Monday.

We've seen Star Wars 7 on the Imax 3D screen twice now.  I went in not expecting much and was happily surprised with the result.  The first showing we went to was at lunchtime on the day of release - the theater was sold out (at lunchtime!), and the audience was almost entirely people in their 30s and 40s (i.e. "my age").  This was such a fun setting; while waiting we chatted with those around us like old friends.  When the lights went down, all phones went away and the nerds got focused.  We cheered when the Falcon came on the screen, and again when Han and Chewie showed up.  At the end, we clapped politely, then all sat and watched the credits roll.

Perfect movie?  No, not at all.*  But I was a Star Wars kid of the 80s, and these are the friends/characters I've wanted back on the screen nearly the entirety of my life.   When the special edition (revamped original trilogy) returned to theaters in the late 90s, there was a huge buzz around the franchise and things finally looked good for Star Wars fans.  This was of course followed by a big kick in the nuts called Episode I.  So let's face it, it could have been a LOT worse.  Episode 7 is a fun ride if you let it be fun.

But -- on the Horizon for Dog's Breath.  I have my year end wrap up post that will hit on the 31st or 1st.  I am unhappy with it and will need to spend some time reworking it (unlike most posts, I've already been through it twice now).

I have a monster Shadows of Brimstone How-To post that's drafted but needs a ton of pictures imported and formatted.  Mrs. Durden and I have been playing SoB whenever possible (though I had to clean up the dining room table for Christmas dinners) and have been thoroughly enjoying it.

Ingame, I have been cleaning out old inventory (necessary evil) and running lvl4s.  I am trying to get some of the cruiser anomics to spawn so I can recheck my fits; this will result in hopefully some updated PVE guides.

I've been looking at the default templates and may ditch the red/gray star motif for something a little easier to read.  The red/black gets fuzzy on some of my devices.  Open to ideas.

No timetable for any of this (other than the year-end post) but hope that my weekends will remain free through January allowing for more online shenanigans.


*Note: There have been no perfect movies since the Goonies.

Merry Christmas

The Christmas season is once again upon us already.  Each year it seems to come a little more quickly.  This year was especially odd, as the weather has been very non-wintery.  Which is fine all around, although I can't think of a time in my life when we've had tornado warnings on December 23rd.

But I digress.  

From all of us here at Dog's Breath, to all of you out there - Merry Christmas.

If you are travelling, be safe.  (Don't use autopilot, even in highsec).

If you are drinking, make someone else drive (Don't attempt to clone jump).

And call your mom.

Through the Eyes of a Noob

It's been a long, long while since I helped a real life friend through his first evening in EVE, but I was able to last night.

One of my best friends surprised me and sought out the EVE client without any prodding from me, created an account and logged in.  I knew he was vaguely interested after my tales from EVE Vegas, but my surprise when he said he was getting the client was genuine.

He was almost through the character generation process when his internet died and he had to start over.  At that point he (jokingly) sent me a comment about having the hard part out of the way.  I replied with the infamous EVE Learning Curve chart, but I don't think it scared him much.

He rolled Gallente, and once he was ingame, I made my way to Cistuvaert to say hello.  He was part way through the first few tutorial steps, but undocked and met me at the gate.

"Ok, now what?" he asked.

Gah. I hadn't thought that far.  What do you do with a 20 minute old character sitting in his shiny noobship?  The player behind the keyboard is one of the smartest guys I know, but he's got no context for EVE, has no idea where anything is in the UI, and was barely able to undock and find me.

So I did two things.  I began to spam our convo channel with information, and got him into Sugar's public channel so he had help if I wasn't around.  Super high level instruction in terms of what EVE is and isn't; a conversation ensued about how I've chosen to play vs. how others play their particular game.  Topics included the market, system security status, gankers, the tutorial and SOE arc, and the fact that assets don't magically follow you through space (if you want it somewhere else, you gotta haul it).

Throughout this, I was answering questions.  Several times, things that are kneejerk muscle memory for me stumped him.  I'm effectively speaking multiplication and long division at him, and he is still at 3+3=6.  At one point we chatted for awhile before realizing he'd minimized his overview and therefore didn't see ANY of the buttons I was described.  This isn't a reflection on him (he's one of the smartest guys I know), or me (I'm pretty smart too, hah), or even the game (it's all there, really), but without being able to see his screen so I could point and grunt in the right direction, he was really stumped.

The second thing I did was get him in a Fleet and jumped to the system next door.  Basic activity of navigation.  We warped around a bit, and I got him to use autopilot to get home.  Back in Cist, a Serpentis Hideout appeared on scan, so I warped in to begin clearing it.  He came in and assisted, playing with combat, basic maneuvering, and targeting.  This went better, and he killed and looted a few pretty smoothly.

With the evil Serpentis vanquished, it was time for me to think about bed.  I felt guilty leaving him to his own devices and the boring ol' tutorial, but in many ways it'll be far better than I am at some of the nuances.

I don't know if he'll stay past the trial period.  I'm sure his next session will go more smoothly.  But it's certainly been interesting to see the game through his eyes.

Gift Giving Guide 2015

It's that time of year.  This is Abavus's First Annual Gift Guide.

These are items that I have used in the real world over the past year.  Some are nerdy/gamy, Many are not.  They are in no particular order.  I am linking to whichever store I find convenient; in many cases this is Amazon, but in many cases not.

1. TYR Small Alliance Backpack - When I started my new job earlier this year, the hike from the parking lot to my desk increased about 50x.  The old reusable grocery bag that I used to toss my lunch, coffee thermos, sunglasses, whatever was not going to cut it.  I experimented with an old laptop backpack, but found that I really wanted a smaller bag with fewer internal partitions.  This model by TYR is comfortable for 1-arm carry, has enough room for all my crap, and was cheaper than a lot of options (Jansport).  It is intended for Triathlons and as such many of the pockets are vented (so be warned if you are in an area that rains constantly) but the inside is roomy and the cloth is reasonably stiff to hold its shape while loading.

2. Contigo Travel Mug - Also after starting the new job, I wanted/needed a new travel mug.  My old 40's style monster thermos was too bulky to try to carry and deal with getting in and out of the building.  A friend recommended this model crom Contigo; it keeps my coffee hot through mid-day but isn't gawdaful bulky, looks great, and is spillproof.  (I had to use mine a week or so before the 'plastic' taste disappeared from my coffee).

3. X-Wing - Let your inner nerd fly.  Jump into the new ships with the updated version of the smash hit tabletop game from Fantasy Flight.  You'll want more ships than come in the core box - Millenium Falcon in particular is very sexy.  But the core game gets you started. The ships are great, and the combat system is simple to grasp but difficult to master.

4. Duluth Trading Fire Hose Work Pants - Santa brought me a pair of these last year, and I put another pair on this year's list.  They're comfortable, breathable, warm enough for cool weather work.  If I'm out in the back 40 running a chainsaw, this is the pair of pants I grab for both comfort and a little added protection.

5. Amazon Fire TV - We have an older (2006) flat panel TV that I'm hoping to get another several years out of.  It doesn't have any built in streaming options and few modern niceties, but it does have a single HDMI port, and we recently signed up for Amazon Prime.  This little box makes streaming content from Amazon dirt simple.  Abavus can now watch Downton Abby on the big screen instead of the laptop, woot.

6. Jim Butcher's the Aeronaut's Windlass - The first of a series of (hopefully) many many box, Jim's first foray into fantasy steampunk is a great read for cold winter nights.  It's got great airship combat, reasonable characterization, and if you're a cat owner you're going to love Rowl.

7. Nike's Dry Fit Cotton Socks - Yes, Socks for Christmas, how original.  Working in an office for the past (almost) 20 years, I've usually worn the kind of dress socks like dad and grandpa had - the thin, nasty little argyle life suckers.  Earlier this year I flipped those kinds of socks the bird for everyday office wear and switched to athletic style black socks for all but the most formal of occasions.  These Nike's are the most comfortable I've tried. Life is too short to walk around all day in stupid socks.

8. Zombicide: Season 2 Prison Break - Disclaimer: I don't actually own this, but played on a friend's set at a nerd gathering this summer.  Super fun co-op board game that keeps you jumping, requires some thinking and group strategy, and hilarity when it all goes pear shaped and someone gets their brains eaten.  The only reason I haven't bought it is that Mrs. Durden got me into the kickstarter for the newer version for my birthday.

10. EVE: Source - Reading this book made me remember a lot of details I'd forgotten since launch.  The book has some great art, but is more of a sourcebook for lore and backstory on the major factions (including the piratical ones).  Good reading for an EVE player.

Happy Monday

It was a good EVE weekend.  One of our rare weekends off and an oddity in that we traveled less than a handful of miles.  Saturday was  a day of yard work, but I mildly overdid it and declared Sunday to be a no-work zone.

And thus, aside from a brief foray into Hearthstone, Sunday was an EVE day.

Mrs. Durden (aka Onyx) resub'd her account to chat with EVE Vegas friends and I lured her into the world of Burners -- we dropped the Blood Ashimmu anomic together a couple of times.

We also found the Blood Raider gauntlet for her and managed to get the BR skin for her before the event expired.  We kept it in highsec (she'd been back ingame all of 15 minutes after a ~4 year absence), and roaming around as a small pack was fun and made me pine for the good ol' days.

I moved a few things around, but mostly I ran missions and had a very healthy spawn rate of Burners.  Sansha and Angel (single) frigate were offered several times each.  Team Jaguar, Team Enyo, and Team Jaguar again.  I had the new Guristas Mothership Burner offered a couple of times, but it was late and I was half-watching TV (Dr. Who, new episode) and decided it wasn't a good time to play with a new fits and I punted it.

Last night I docked up for the night after almost losing my Golem to World's Collide.  My large orange tabby decided it was time to sit on my lap.  I had no vote in the matter, and was only half paying attention to the encounter anyway.  With his fuzzball blocking part of the UI, I lost track of both capacitor and the fact that I was aggro'ing the entire pocket.  Incoming damage got away from me at the same time that I noticed I had one pie sliver of capacitor left.  I was able to use a delicate touch on the shield booster and kept it out of armor.  Phew.

We leave at o'dark early on Wednesday for Anaheim and Blizzcon.  You may get a few Blizzcon posts, but I've done my best to keep this an EVE blog.  Will be interesting being there -- Onyx (Mrs. Durden) is more of the Blizzard fan these days than I am.  (Vegas was my event, Blizzcon was hers.)

I bought a couple shirts at EVE Vegas to wear at Blizzcon to see if I get any sort of a response from the crowd.  If you're there (long shot, I know), look for EVE shirts and say hi to me.

Hello October

I started this post as a September Wrap Up.  The ninth month came and went with a fury, and I find myself left running around chasing pieces of my life like a herd of cats.  A herd of wild, angry cats.  On fire.

However, writing about it - while cathartic - really isn't all that interesting for a video game blog.  Select all - Delete.

Let's try this again.

I ran my first Lvl 4 mission today since July 31st.  That alone was a major accomplishment.  I've been in and around the game, tending to things that I could tend to (skill queues, my bpc collection, and chatting up old friends), but I hadn't actually undocked to do anything involving spaceship combat in weeks.

I will still be busy in October.  Very busy.  I'm switching jobs, we're going to EVE Vegas, and I have a mountain of chores to do around our 10 acres.

But I also hope to shoot things.  :)

Wrapping Up August

As another month of 2015 slips away, I've had one bonkers week in a month of bonkers weeks.

This post has not much to do with EVE, so you can skip ahead a bit if you feel the need.

In the past week, I've gone to an Opera (Christmas present for Mom), and a monster outdoor-venue rock concert for one of my favorite bands (Christmas present from Mrs. Durden to me; the show sold out ~9mo ago).  The opera was fine (I enjoy the pit orchestra but could do without the singing).  The concert was fantastic - easily in my top 3 concerts.

We took time off work to go to the eye doc; I didn't want to go this week but we'd already cancelled once and I was on my last set of contacts.

We took Friday off to go to an antique tractor show about 90 miles away.  It is a show that my father and grand-dad used to display their old engines at.  I'm getting old enough now that I walk through the aisles of John Deere and recognize the models that my uncle used to farm with.  It doesn't seem so long ago, but he quit farming almost 30 years ago.  Along with tractors, there were old engines of any and every kind.  My favorites are the large hit-and-miss engines that were used to pump oil or water or whatever from the 1910s through the 1940s or so.

So we toured row after row of small engines like the one pictured, and several rows of monster engines that filled a flatbed semi trailer.  These big ones put out maybe 20 hp, but spun flywheels 4-8 feet across and flexed the trailer when the piston hit the limits of its travel.

Amanco hit-and-miss engin by PeterJewell - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Thursday afternoon I had a job interview.  It smells like a good prospect, and I'm hopeful that an offer will be on the table by mid-next week.  The job duties sound less fun than what I do today, but the promotion potential is virtually unlimited and the stability is solid enough that I'd say I could retire there in 20 years if I desired.  At the interview (which was conducted by the Deputy Director), I was introduced to the Director / VP-level exec as "this is him, the guy I told you about."

On Thursday I also took the car to the shop for a semi-emergency set of tires.  I was going to replace all 4 this fall anyway, but one had a slow leak (caused by a monster screw or nail that I finally found this week) and then I hit a board on the way home on Tuesday and did in another tire.

Today I got up fairly early and biked ~30 miles, then returned and showered and the Mrs. and I ran errands.  Three stores, lunch, and (literally) a truckload of "stuff" later, and we returned home.  And by "stuff" I mean 280 pounds of bird seed, steel roof panels for my new wood crib, 2wks of groceries, other odds and ends for winterizing the house, and a couple of new work outfits to wear should I need to wear something swanky for a repeat interview.

So that's been me - two concerts, a job interview, car in the ship, road trip for an old tractor show, and a truckload of stuff to get the house ready for fall.  I hope next week is more calm so that I can enjoy the Holiday weekend here in the U.S.

Random Saturday Post: Things that Scare Me

Irrational fears are irrational.  These are things that scare me.

1. Spiders that I know are there but I can't see.  If I see a spider across the room, I'm fine.  If I feel a spider on my arm, I'm fine.  But if the same spider goes behind a pillow or under a magazine and I don't know exactly where he is, I go into arm flailing spider slapping puppy whimpering mode.  And then I leave the area in disgust.  (And you don't want to know what happens when I walk through a spider web at night...).
2. Forgetting my EVE password.  It's long, complicated, and thanks to muscle memory, really easy for me to type.  But don't ask me what it is because I don't know it unless I'm typing it.  And then I panic.
3. Dropping my car keys in a storm drain.  About halfway between my office door and where I usually park my car, there's a manhole sized storm drain.  In my mind, it's a magnet for my car keys, should I drop them (which, I have probably dropped my car keys walk walking maybe 10 times in my entire life...).  I will walk 10 feet out of my way to give it a wide berth, even though it would be far easier just to put my keys in my pocket.
4. Undocumented changes to burners.  After every patch I cringe the first few times I enter a pocket, especially on the frigate sized team burners.  I like my Garmur very much, and would prefer it not be ninja'd by some undocumented/unannounced change to AI behavior.
5. Constraints and commitments.  Give me half a day to putz around in the game and I'm happy.  Put an event on the calendar and I stew about the start time right up until the start time.  Being committed to being somewhere somehow changes the entire dynamic of the day.  It's weird, but it is what it is.

Sick Day

The best part about a sick day is watching the Price is Right.

Mom was a TPIR fan, so as a kid we'd watch it every day together while off school for the summer.  First there was morning chores (weeding the garden, or picking blueberries, yuck), then there was TPIR on in the kitchen while mom made us grilled cheese or a hamburger.

When I was in college, there was a group of us that would watch TPIR in the dorm commons; we'd schedule our classes around the show.  Bob Barker was the man.  These days, I rarely get to see it, and the nostalgia that washes over me always makes me feel that much better.

So here I sit, slurping on some chicken soup and watching TPIR and thinking about a blog post.

What does TPIR have to do with EVE?

It's the history of the show that brings me back.  The stupid antics that go on each day aren't compelling.  It's not the games (even Plinko, though Plinko rocks) ... it's the nostalgia.  The yearning for a simpler time, remembering walking across campus in the bitter cold to try to get back before the first call for contestants.

EVE has, to a large degree, become part of the constant background of my life.  Sometimes it's closer to front and center, sometimes it's on the proverbial shelf waiting its turn.

Right now, I'm going to take a nap on the couch and perhaps sleep through the showcase showdown, and then I may get EVE back off the shelf and shoot some Sanshas.

Guristas Incursions?

Well, this is kinda interesting....

Guristas Incursions, maybe?

Precursor to more megacorp involvement in FW?

Just a cool video?


What's Playing:  The Black Keys, Live at BBC1, Little Black Submarines

Friday Roundup

With work and chores this week, and a bighuge meeting next Monday, not to mention the unexpected TQ downtime, I didn't spend a lot of time in EVE this week.  I still popped in every night and checked up on the gang, tended to a few market orders.

But, Guristas killing, there was not.

This weekend will be quieter than last weekend (we had 4 kids under 15 months in the house for the weekend... Uncle Abavus was tired on Sunday afternoon), and I hope to get back for some Angel smashing and Sansha blistering fun.  I also have Part 2 of the Corp Building series about ready to go.

-- GW 2 --

I did want to type a bit about Guild Wars 2.  I've bitten off small bites of the game over the past week and find myself really missing the game.  Which is weird because when I look back, I don't consider GW2 to be a "major" time investment (compared to WoW or EVE).  But hitting some of the zones brought back all sorts of nostalgia, similar to the kind of feeling I get when I get into certain areas of Lonetrek.

The problems I have with GW2 reside squarely in the endgame.  To be fair, I haven't played any of my level-capped characters since sneaking back in, so it could be totally fixed now (though I doubt it, heh).

The best part of the game is the early zones, which are full of players and interesting structures and lots and lots of things going on.  Into the middle zones, you start seeing that a lot of the content is retreaded, reused, and rehashed.  The same bad-guy models.  The same terrain, And a whole lot of the same Dynamic Events and Heart quests.

At the same time, the players are spread out, and the game design is pushing you into more "wild" zones with "more danger" that has fewer cities and towns and such dotting the landscape.  To me, the cities are some of the best parts of GW2; without the backdrop of npcs going about their lives, the game loses some immersion value.  And trudging through dense jungle inch by inch gets tiresome.

Somewhere in there, you hit Orr, which is initially pretty interesting as a zone and has some of the most interconnected Dynamic Events ... and then you realize that people are just farming the content in a big zerg for karma and loot drops.

Between the rehashed content and the less interesting surroundings, the game loses its luster and becomes a grind.

So this is me, griping about a game that I'm currently enjoying the heck out of.  Which is kind of weird.  Maybe it's just me not wanting the magic of the low zones to be over.

But there's a tie-in to EVE.  Many games have an awkward phase where people tend to burn out.  With GW2 it's the level grind if not the early endgame.  There is plenty to do if you have the right group, but the leveling process is usually solo affair, and it's hard to make the social transition.

Sound familiar?  EVE doesn't offer great grouping bonuses for most PVE and typical noob content, so many guys do stuff solo.  EVE encourages multi-account shenanigans for subscription income, which allows you to be even more self sufficient.  Then it's hard to make the transition to life in a group, and you walk away bored.

Anyway, it's time to put some burgers on the grill, so that's it for now.

Game Roster Rundown

Back on the old guild's forum, I'd post updates every so often as a rapid fire update per game title.  Haven't done it in awhile, so here you go:


WoW - Easy one first. Done, over, and not logged in at all this entire expansion. Never say never (I could see myself logging in some random rainy weekend and blasting a new character up through some levels for fun) but don't expect a triumphant return anytime soon.

Heroes of the Storm - Game launches tomorrow, I guess.  I've had beta access for quite awhile.  The click frenzy multiplayer game isn't my cup o' tea, but the tutorial was fun to play through.

Guild Wars II - There's an expansion coming soonish.  Honestly, the feature list that I've seen really isn't pulling me into the game.  I barely started the 2nd season's storyline before I burned out and left sometime last year.  I still recommend this game for anyone looking for a fairly old-school, big title MMO.  The game looks great; the amount of armor sets and dyes make the game fun.  The world exploration and dynamic event system is one of the best I've played.  But, the world exploration kind of stalls out around lvl50 and the last few levels are a haul.  At endgame, the content is either busywork daily questing, a grindfest wagon train of event farming, or a mess of reflex-testing combat mechanics in dungeons and storyline content.  The WvWvW pvp arena was an interesting concept, but running back from the spawn point repeatedly reminds me of the old Alterac Valley grinds in WoW.  I want to like this game very much for it's look and feel, but can't help but find reasons to not log in.

Diablo III - Last major effort was at the end of the 2nd ladder season.  Mrs. Durden has started a new Witch Doctor through season 3, but I haven't rolled anyone new yet.  I'm not sure what I'd play, honestly - the Wizard and Crusader are my favorites and I replayed them for S1 and S2.  D3 is a good companion for EVE as it lets me get my hack and slash, character building tendencies worked out without it affecting EVE.  The game does get grindy if you farm a bunch of bounties, but as an occasional game to jump into and kick some demon ass, it works very well.  I especially like Act I, as it reminds me of fun times in Diablo II.  It's a bad time of year for me to be playing two different titles (D3 + EVE) and so this one has to go on hiatus.  It's nice that it doesn't cost anything beyond the box shelf price, so I can pick it up and run when I feel like it.

EVE - I just resub'd my main account for 12 months.  I expect to be here, killing burners and rambling about crazy things for the foreseeable future.  I just hit a reasonable milestone in terms of my personal wealth, so it's time to set my sights higher and perhaps flesh out some of the blank spots in my ship museum.

And that's what I am (and what I'm not) playing at the moment.