Friday, August 31, 2012

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour (kinda) - Get The Led Out Edition



Some may say that at this point in their career Zeppelin were on the decline, and on some points I may agree. Robert Plant didn't have the soaring voice he had in the first albums. Jimmy Page wasn't in the greatest shape of his life due to heroin addiction and occult stuff or some shit. John Paul Jones... was John Paul Jones, being close to invisible next to his godly cohorts. But Bonzo. OMFG Bonzo! He was a known party animal and even died because of it (for the record, he died the exact same death as another music god, Jimi Hendrix), but when it came time to lay down a mean beat, John Bonham was still at the very top of the game. Achilles Last Stand also happens to be Jimmy's favorite out of the entire Zeppelin catalogue.

Enjoy!

o7

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The slow restart

Well after downloading the bloated EVE client, paying my dues, and bracing myself for all the changes, I am finally back in New Eden, and I'll have to admit I missed it. I still don't know exactly what the fuck were the CCP devs smoking to make the inventory system the way they did but I think I'll survive. Having not played much because of drum duties, parental duties, and three work days until my long-expected vacation (and uber bike trip YAAAAAAAY!) let's go with a plain "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" post, in reverse order:

The Ugly: The User Interface. Hostie. De Câlice. De Tabarnak. You Odin-loving berserkers were supposed to make things SIMPLER !!! What the fucking bastard shit is this?!?! When I look at that UI I'm thankful I've got 4 years of EVE under my belt; I can't imagine what a complete n00b must feel like when he sees it, revamped tutorial or not.

The Bad: Well, not much actually if only that the EVE population has stagnated. Below 40k players on Tranquility on a primetime Sunday is sub-par. Period. Still hurting I see. Oh one bad thing I can think of: Tech 1 prices... simply put, huh?! 8 million ISK Stabbers? 12 million ISK Thoraxes?! And on the flip side 1.3mil ISK Medium Trimarks?! Somebody page Dr EyjoG so he can perform surgery, this market is beyond sick !!!

The Good: EVE is still EVE. It's like that comfy but shredded pair of jeans or those Phentex slippers your grandma knitted just for you. It's like being a BMXer and hitting your first big jump in 5 years. Yeah, despite some short-comings EVE still feels just right in its "aliveness". There are also a few other good things; the new skins and ship models (OK, except the Vagabond and the Fleet Tempest... may Eyjafjallajökull burn you to Valhala!) are really cool, but on a few ships some artists have outdone themselves. I did a quick Level 4 mission in a Crusader of all things - the "Go fetch the Quafe thru a Blood Raider camp" mission - and noticed that the new Amarr T2 ship skins were very hot. So after docking up my Earwig I did some simple math and activated my Absolution... Zoh My Gawd! It's one of the most beautiful spaceships (all universes mingled) I have ever seen!

There are a couple other things that are extremely fun about my return to New Eden. First, a "welcome back" present from Crowd Control Productions with a "90 days for 24.95$" deal. Right off the bat this was a good way to come back. But even better is this: a few months before I unsubbed for a then-undetermined amount of time I had struck a deal with EVE Online Hold 'Em Poker to have an ad on my blog, and when I made the decision to unsub I decided I would keep the ad on my blog, for free if need be. But apparently someone at EOH Poker decided otherwise so Cozmik woke up to a nicely filled - without going overboard - wallet so my plans of not carebearing ever again (unless for stupid fun of seeing pretty lights and/or flying fast) were getting off to an awesome start!

So there ya go. I'm back but for now only sporadically. Some things are looking up on the horizon so when October 21st comes one thing is certain: people are going to cry, hopefully a lot! Time to go back to the BOZO roots and start something... nefarious !!!

Haven't said that in a long time... FLY DANGEROUS !!!

o7

Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Spacey Edition



By the time your hear this music, there's a good chance I might be somewhere out in New Eden looking for something to blow up. Two words of advice: watch local. If you don't, well, fuck you >:)

o7

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tomorrow!

See the thousand ships bashing the crap out of the Byrn Eden monument at Jita 4-4? This can mean only one thing. Yes that's right. Tomorrow it will happen, and I'll have a fitting music video. I return to New Eden with only one thing in mind: pretty lights. I don't care if they're mine or someone else's, stuff in EVE needs to blow up. Repeatedly.

Because I still have a crazy schedule until October 20th I won't be super active off the start but this will give me time to get reacquainted to the "newly" revamped Neocom, all the ship changes and new modules, and all the new ship flavors of ship fits. I hear some of 'em haven't really changed, but I know others have changed drastically. The very first thing I'll do of course is to restart the skill queue. As I've mentioned before, Large AC Spec V will get finished, it was about half-way done when Cozmik went into cryo. After that, being pretty happy about the ships I can fly and being in absolutely no rush to get into capital ships, I will proceed to "level V" a lot of stuff. This should keep the skill queue occupied for quite a while.

So there ya go. Some time tomorrow afternoon I should be undocking from... Balginia I think? Or is it Harerget... or Offugen... whatever I should be undocking from somewhere and heading to the nearest market hub to buy myself a whole bunch of cheap ships to blow up. And LOLs should follow!

See you on my overview !!!

o7

Friday, August 17, 2012

Friday Night Video - Better late than never Edition



Devin Townsend's next album is finally coming out, and to celebrate its launch he is inviting anyone with video editing skills to make a video to one of the new tunes. And I must admit that Devy himself set the bar pretty high with his legendary dancing skills. Enjoy the first tune to come out of Epicloud !!!

o7 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Last minute preps & The Great Return


Never before has a summer seemed so long. Traditionally I have taken my vacation starting on the weekend just following my birthday; I like when things start with a bang! But this year I made a small adjustment because of the bike tour, and with the stupid hot/humid summer we've been having it seems that the decision was the correct one. So this year my vacation starts on Labor Day weekend and ends with the fall equinox. No wonder I've been feeling like this summer has been stretching on and on, but now with only two and a half weeks to go I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and wanderlust is beginning to work its magic.

The last big piece of the puzzle has been ordered and I will be receiving it next week: the Topeak Bikamper bike tent, an award-winning tent that will allow me to set up a camp literally anywhere. I intend this to be a spartan trip so I will be travelling light, and I expect any excess fat I may have to be completely gone by the time I return! But even though I love the feeling of adventure and riding off into the unknown, I still have just a little planning to do. I'm in the process of fine-tuning the path I'll be taking; the first part isn't too hard, just follow the Ottawa river upstream. Chances of getting lost are impossible. The last part is also very easy: follow the "P'tit Train du Nord" path downhill, stopping only at Val-David to see Brutopia manager Bill Thornley. The second part though, from Thurso to St-Jovite, by way of Lochaber, Ripon, Cheneville, Ste-Emilie-de-Suffolk and Amherst... entering the Laurentians from the side and into sparsely populated woodlands, this is where getting lost would suck. But still, looking at the maps the way North is pretty straight-forward, but I still need to know exactly what I'm riding into, what kind of facilities are available and where, that sort of stuff.

Also on the horizon is the final check-up on my bike and my hardware, making sure everything is tight and well lubricated and all that jazz. The final little things I need to get are a box of PowerBars, a second water bottle and cage, a compass (I have one on my phone but it won't work where I may need it), and brace yourselves... baby wipes! Why, you may ask? I got this from Brad Pitt, of all people! I've heard this in an interview he gave: when actors go to a crazy location to shoot a movie, where there are no star trailers with running water, you gotta keep yourself clean somehow. Baby wipes do this perfectly. Plus they make you smell all cute and stuff XD

The Great Return

And it is now official, having first announced it to the Montreal EVE crew, and then to #Tweetfleet and #EVEonline on Twitter: on August 23rd, Cozmik R5 will awakened from the deep cryosleep he's been into for the past 9 months, given a strong dose of espresso, and resuming training of Large Autocannon Specialization V. I've made my peace with how I'll be earning ISK and I will concentrate on the only things of interest to me, which are blowing shit up and getting myself blown up. I'll take a bit of time to get re-acquainted to the "beautiful" Neocom, the new inventory system and the new ship fits for frigates and destroyers (which will be my main ships). I won't be able to get very active right away because I will be concentrating on finalizing the trip preparations, and when I'll come back from that it'll be crunchtime for the Wishmaster drumline project. The big show is on October 20th. But I will be taking the following Monday and Tuesday off so October 21-22-23 will be THE big return to activity, corp search and all that. Red vs Blue interests me a lot, but I've also been thrown a line by Ushra'Khan pilot Thorvik; U'K is now into the new revamped Faction Warfare and I've been told "no alliance bullshit, so far" At any rate I will get into some serious interviews when the time comes, and I will find a bunch of like-minded players and together we shall rape, pillage, and hopefully extract a few tears... isn't that how EVE is meant to be played? :)

Fly (or ride) adventurously !!!

o7

Friday, August 10, 2012

Friday's Electric Late Lunch Hour - Low Res Edition



Yesterday a buddy and I were reminiscing about how awesome Randy Rhoads was. Well, see and hear for yourself!

o7

Thursday, August 9, 2012

At the movies... err, machinima - Doom Arenas



What better way to show my love for the id Software games than with this great machinima by Tritin Films. Using the Doom3 engine and a bit of the Quake3 engine, this is a spin on the story behind Quake III Arena, because yes there is a story behind it. Also, great background stories on some id Software legends :)

Enjoy all the frags !!!

o7

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Tribute to a speedster

Gone in 9.63 seconds!
This man doesn't need to be checked for drugs; he needs to be checked for humanity! Nobody has pushed the limits of how fast a human body (assuming he IS human) can run like he has, and in every race it looks like he can push it a wee bit more.

Usain Bolt, you sir are a true Speed Demon !!!

o7

Friday, August 3, 2012

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Teenage Fanboi Edition



Witness little Terry Ted Bozzio as he expresses his lust for Punky Meadows, lead guitarist of the band Angel. Enjoy!

o7

Thursday, August 2, 2012

I love the 21st century !!! XD

A bit earlier tonight, the Quebec contingent of Drum Corps fans were invading Allentown PA for the DCI East weekend, the last big competition before The Big One. Knowing that my dad was there and knowing he's... kind of technologically retarded, I posted on the Quebec Drum Corps Facebook page the following:

"Avis a tous ceux qui sont a Allentown: comme il refuse toujours de se joindre a Facebook, j'offre une biere au premier ou a la premiere qui donne une bonne bine a Yves "Fonfon" Gauthier de ma part. Bonus si c'est pris en photo et poste ici, et re-bonus s'il en retient un bon bleu !!! XD"

Sorry about all the french, but some bits just can't be translated. But bear with me! About an hour later I get a Facebook notice on my phone so I point my browser towards Zuckerberg's brainchild, and I find this:

Fonfon = PWND !!!!
Needless to say I keeled over laughing out loud and promptly welcomed my dad into the 21st century. Congratulations to my bassline mate Ronald Masse for winning "the beer". And dad, thank you for being the awesome sport you always are :)

Be careful around Quebec Drum Corps Nuts :))

o7