Update in and out of EVE

Well, this update has taken longer than expected. I thought I'd be able to do one during my week of Dad Duty but apparently my son Leandre's health had objections against it. Yep, much like it had happened on that faithful day Dweezil Zappa came to town, Leandre got hit by his respiratory bug and Tuesday night of last week we hit Montreal Children's Hospital and when the staff noticed his 39.4C fever and his 88% O2 saturation level, all Hell broke loose all over again and we spent the rest of the week there. Leandre is all better now (except for a bad cold which the entire family has... I should really say the entire city) and hopefully my next Dad Week will be much easier. This shouldn't be too hard, but this is winter in Quebec so we never know.

So my last post was written on the very day we went to the hospital, and since then, even after I got back, I haven't played much EVE but a few things did happen. I got a bit more settled into our new base of operations by fitting all my important ships so they're ready to go on the fly, including my two Taranis interceptors... well, only one now. The first one was lost in a major engagement in enemy territory. Even though the battle was a bit lopsided because of the other fleet's numbers, we still won the ISK battle :) Another things that was part of getting comfy in the new system was making a humongous amount of bookmarks all over the system for ratting and tactical purposes, but as I mainly fly interceptors this is actually fun to do because if something happens, like say, a stray Rokh coming in the system, I'm ready to tackle at the first notice.

The thing that was less fun about the move though was that our new system does not have manufacturing services in both it's stations so I had to figure something out quick. I didn't want to set up shop in a neighboring system that could potentially become enemy territory at any moment so I had only once option: to send all my minerals and BPO/BPC collection to a Hi-sec system not too far from the door to 0.0 Curse in Doril. So after a quick check of the Derelik map everything points to the Maspah system, two jumps away from Berta, better known as the last truck stop before Low-sec and 0.0. So now all Cozmik has to do is hop into his Cheetah, dodge gatecamps, and go start jobs like say a few Thoraxes, or a BC or two. It's a bit inconvenient but at least I'll still be able to move my ships and mods safely to Berta and from there our Jump Freighter pilots will take them to the base faster than you can say "cyno"! I think my little industry thing will remain in this system for a while because the biggest thing I have to move the minerals around is my noob alt's Bestower, which carries just over 11000 cubed meters of stuff; I really should get some T2 cargo expanders but I always prefer to spend my ISK on pew-pew toys for Cozmik. Anyway, I hope I don't have to do this much hauling in a long time!

And apart from EVE things have been pretty busy too. Just before heading into my Dad Week a little Texan company called id Software sent me an e-mail with something I had almost forgot: my key for Quake Live Beta !!! So yeah, here and there I've gone back to fragging, filing in bug reports, and getting back in touch with some old clanmates and enemies as well. I think the rust is coming off well because in 8 complete matches I've already won one, on a Free-for-all server with about 12 people on.

But the best part is in real life. Most of you already know I'm a drummer, but i've never really mentioned that I can play a mean power chord if I set my mind to it. Around the holidays EVE buddy Carbon Freezer needed help to shop for his first guitar (he's a cellist branching out), a very sweet Jackson Soloist, and also on Christmas my niece Jade got a guitar too, and of course Uncle Coz showed up at New Year's and tuned the thing and played it to death. With all that sudden guitar playing the itch became a heroin shot and I knew I had to do something about it. Back before we had to sell the house I was already thinking of transforming my drum room into a true-blue studio with the full sound system, guitars, basses, keyboards, computers, effects, the whole bit. This isn't possible at the moment but it's looking like it might happen at my sister's place as I will soon move my drums there. And to scratch the guitar itch? I know I'm not exactly Steve Vai or Jimi Hendrix so I didn't want to spend too much money, but I knew I wanted something better than a noob axe.

Enter Spidey:



In technical terms, this is an Ibanez RG420EG. In reality, this is my 4th baby :) After trying a huge range of guitars I don't think this one can be beat in bang-for-the-buck. Some may find it looks gimmicky but when you've tried it and compared it to others you know right away that it's anything but. And as a bonus, a friend of mine who's a sound engineer is giving me the Guitar Rig 3 software, so I won't have to spend oodles of cash on amps and pedals. All this may mean that it's possible that I'll be seen a bit less in EVE, but as I've once said to Letrange, music is greater than all, except my two boys of course. There is no way I could live without it, and being able to create it makes it even better. Also, I once put music aside to get deep into video games, so I feel this is the chance to redeem myself and get back in touch with my creative side.

So there you have it, just about a week-and-a-half in the life of Cozmik, full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and these days a lot of coughing :)

Fly hard

o7

PS: Oh yes. To all you podcasters and DJs who can't pronounce the name of the upcoming expansion, follow me: A... PO... CRY... PHA. It's not that hard so please quit destroying it !!!