Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Holy shit! Fan mail!

More like hatemail. I pissed of a scammer in Eve tonight. I wouldn't buy a week old char a 2 million ISK Faction Energized Plates. Claims he was on a trial account and couldn't buy it himself. I can't see a reason why a newb would need it. So here's the mail he sent me after I left the chat he opened.

sorry
From: Tracey Morgan
Sent: 2011.06.28 05:24
To: Persephone 66, 

go diddle urdikeself

How sweet.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

So Incarna has gone live, so let's talk about it.

I may do a short youtube vid about this as well. That is if FRAPS wants to behave for me. I'm not sure if I can say all I want to say without doing a series of videos, but that's not a bad thing.

For starters, the new turrets and new effect are really nice. I am pleased to see mining, salvage and tractors were also updated. Added even. Very cool. The animations and effects look great. My strip miners look very cool. Bravo to CCP on this one.

The new agent finder was quite useful in my loyalty point whoring endeavours. Nice job there.

The Captain's Quarters is nice, though my laptop can't really handle it. It's not terribly useful. The 3 screens should be customisable or at least have some sort of a channel changer option. There's no advantage to using it over the existing NeoCom. It's cool that I can turn it off, but what I really want is an option to get out of my ship or have something like a “Fly-Thru Window” on the NPC stations. Getting in and out of my Hulk every time I drop off ore is very inefficient. It looks pretty as does my character. I think it's a good start on making walking on stations a reality.

The Noble Exchange has to be the biggest disappointment. It looked like there was more items on the test server. There's not many items, they don't look very nice and they are ridiculously expensive. Expensive to the point where the real money being spent on these items is close to the real money that would be spent on a real item. Spending 2, 3 even 4 PLEX (for a fucking cyber monocle! 12,000 aurum do the math!) is just insane. I think they really shit themselves on this one. Needless to say, my experiment is not going to happen.

Between this and some recent leaked communications and a dev blog that really doesn't clear anything up, I'm no longer happy with CCP and EVE Online. I'm at odds with cancelling my subscription or just staying on to see if they fix it. I guess I could always come back if I go the cancel route.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

I've grown to the point where I don't mind leaving work late

But some days, I really do want to leave on time. Today was one of them.

I wanted to take the bus that leaves at 7:05. Instead, at 7:00 am I was checking in a guest that had just walked in. My relief was a few minutes late and by the time I was out the door, the bus came and went, 5 minutes ago.  Thanks, did me a real solid there. I need to get my bike fixed so I am not dependant on the bus and my co-workers arriving at work on time. That's not going to happen until Monday.

I wish that was all that's pissing me off, but at the time of writing this I'm on the Beach Trolley. It showed up a few minutes early. Which is cool but the driver seems to be under the misconception that he's driving a sports car on the Autobahn. Driving like a total maniac, tailgating other vehicles, speeding. Didn't even give me a chance to sit down before taking off. Looks like another complaint I'll be filing with PSTA. Getting really sick of this shit. In a way, it beats being late, but I don't like having the sensation of a roller-coaster ride on my commute either.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Let the muckraking begin.

Yes I said muckraking. I'm going to finally be embarking on something new and different, at least to me. While I will still be using this blog for written blogs, I'm also going to be making use of my youtube channel. My goal is to produce gaming related videos as well as rants that use the various games that I play as a backdrop. I think it will be cool. I've been threatening this for quite some time, but now I have taken a step toward making it happen. The headset and copy of FRAPS have been purchased. So now it's just a matter of making the videos. Hopefully people seem to like it.

So far EVE related videos are a definite. I like EVE. Though I have to say I might like it a little less when Incarna goes live, but I'll be getting to that. Actually that's what I plan to start with. Of course if anyone has suggestions, let me know.

My other intents for video blogs are more of the usual nonsense you see posted here. Politics, religion, news, general bitching, maybe even a storytime session where I talk about some of the crazier things that have happened in the experience that is being me.

So stay tuned.

Tune in, tune out, recline, practice being dead, this is Channel Hell.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Ladies, gentlemen, and the rest of you, please welcome my latest stalker

What the fuck is it with fundies? Why do the spew high levels of hatred toward a person, then go and stalk them? Previously, Adam Briggs (remember him?) went to my MySpace page and who knows where else he stalked me. Then Lighthouse reared his ugly head in my blog. And OK, maybe those two I more or less invited by talking about them here and instigating shit with them. Now lets take a look at this -
Let try his identity is wrapped up in attraction to men pretending to be pale skinned chicks. I've seen his facebook and the facebook of his 'girlfriend'.
Source.

And that rather creepy statement comes from someone who has described me as repulsive, repugnant, disgusting and claims to hate gays, lesbians and especially transgenders. And that just makes it more creepy, and a bit screwy. Why would anyone stalk someone they hate? And stalk their girlfriend?

Sunday, June 5, 2011

I'm going to conduct an experiment when Incarna goes live

Here's how it is going to work. Prior to the release of Incarna, I'm going to buy a PLEX. Maybe with cash. Maybe with ISK. I have not decided yet. After the release I am going to convert that PLEX to Aurum, the new currency. Then I am going to buy items with Aurum and sell them on the market for ISK at a profit. I am going to calculate the projected cost of PLEX after a week, maybe 2 weeks, double it, then divide it by the number of items. This will give me the selling price for these items. After the items are sold and if my calculations are correct, I will be able to purchase 2 PLEX. I am going to repeat the same process with those and turn them to 4 PLEX. Then 8 and if I can keep it up, 16.

Now why would I do this? It's to prove that with the new currency in EVE, one can become an ISK generating machine, complete with a free account, with out having ever left a station or really even played the game. An initial investment of 1 PLEX can now easily not just multiply, but grow exponentially. It's to show CCP the error of their ways and how they may have ruined the in game economy if not the whole game. Not sure if they will care, but I may never have to pay for EVE again.

I'll post the results as they happen.

I hate riding the bus, fuck you PSTA.

I went back to riding my bike to save money, but not riding the bus is a great added benefit. Sadly, my bike needs a new tire tube and the one I purchased was defective. I ended up riding the bus home from work as well as going back to work as a result. Lets take a look at the complaints I felt necessary to file with PSTA.

The trip home-
This morning I ended up having to take the bus. I was once again reminded about why I try to avoid this. While waiting at the terminal to board, I noticed that it was 8:40 am, time for the bus to leave and the driver was still talking to someone. She then walked around, past the bus and spoke to another driver. It was not until 8:45 am before she finally started the bus and allowed passengers to board. The bus left the terminal at 8:48 am. 8 minutes late because the driver was socializing.

People rely on your service to get to where they need to be in a timely manner. Having drivers that are more concerned with gossip totally defeats that purpose.

And back to work-
The bus that was scheduled to be at (the stop) at 9:55pm did not arrive until 10:21pm. Due to this, I missed my connection to the Beach Trolley leaving the Park Street Terminal at 10:15 and instead had to take the one leaving at 10:40. This caused me to arrive at work 15 minutes late.

So now twice in the same day I have experienced lateness in your service. And the second time it caused me to be late for work. I made a decision a while back to ride a bicycle instead of taking the bus. Sadly, due to problems with my bike I am taking the bus. I feel I would have been better off walking. In total today I have spent $8. I did not foresee my need to ride the bus this evening. However, because of the stress and issues at my place of employment this has caused me, I feel it is only right that I be compensated by returning the $8 paid in to your service. In my line of work, refunds to the customer are the norm when the customer is affected by poor service.

I don't actually expect them to refund my money. Though I would like to see how they respond. i might post it here when they do.It would be nice if there was an alternative in public transportation.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

I was excited about the Incarna expansion to EVE Online, now, not so much.

I've been playing EVE Online since 2007. I like EVE. The Incarna expansion was going to be the start of something that I have been waiting to see for quite some time. Finally, characters were going to be able to exit their ships. I played with and previewed Incarna on the test server, the new Captain's Quarters is every bit as cool as I heard and expected. I think it does a fine job of paving the way to the long time goal of walking in stations. I do have to say this, while it was slow and choppy (hopefully only because it was on the test server), it looked just top notch. Here's a few screenshots-





Now on to what I don't like, take a look at this recent dev blog.

Short version, they are adding a new store for "vanity items" and with it a new currency that is derived from PLEX.

I went on a bit of a rant in the EVE Forum.
Well if it has not been said, griefers are going to love this.

I was playing around with Incarna on duality. I like the Captain's Quarters, I really think CCP did a fine job. However, I did take a PLEX and convert it to Aurum. Let's take a look at a few things concerning that.

1 PLEX = 3500 Aurum

PLEX is currently selling for 406 million ISK in Dodixie.

406,000,000 / 3,500 = 116,000

I bought a pair of goggles in the store for my character in the store for 1 AUR. So I paid 116,000 ISK for a pair of goggles. That's a pretty average price for a pretty average frigate, making these one expensive pair of goggles.

Over the last month the price of PLEX on the market has been on an upward spike. If this trend continues, PLEX will be over 500 million ISK by the time Incarna goes live. I suspect after the release it will continue on more of an upward trend. This means the value of AUR and the items purchased with it will increase as well.

I don't think it is unreasonable to foresee a market value of store items going in to the millions of ISK. I also don't think it is unreasonable to foresee the market value of PLEX increasing as well, even approaching a billion ISK.

That being said, soon one can buy 2 PLEX and make a billion ISK without even really playing the game. In a few months, it will just take 1 PLEX. This will drive up the cost of everything on the market.

Thanks CCP, you did us a real solid.

And, getting back to what I opened with, the only way I see to put on your new clothing items is to go through the character customisation. Which means you have to take a new picture for the change to take. Which means if you buy anything that shows in the picture, you are advertising that you have expensive items on you that are going to be destroyed if you get podded. Makes it easier for greifers to know who to get the best ransoms from. Or the most tears.
I really feel CCP has totally ruined the market in EVE with this new currency. PLEX was a bad idea to begin with, Aurum has only made it worse.

Just my 0.02 ISK, the clothing items should be able to be produced by players using blueprints (patterns?) and resources from Planetary Interaction. Not only does this make more sense, it encourages more use of PI and does not greatly impact the market or the value of ISK.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Has the holiday weekend made everyone stupid?

Or just made me more aware of stupidity?

Saw a lot of emergency vehicles on the road on my way to work tonight. Saw a lot of cars not getting out of their way. Note to stupids - when and ambulance, firetruck, or police car is coming toward you with its lights and sirens on, get the fuck out of its way. If you can't do that, please remove yourself from society.

Due to the emergency vehicles on the road, I rode my bike on the sidewalk instead of the bike lane. This was getting rather annoying because people were not getting out of my way. Yeah I was asking to much. I know. If people can't pull their car over to let an ambulance through to save someone's life, why should I expect them to take a step or 2 out of the way for me.

Work tonight was just one nitwit after another. Too many cases of it to list. Co-workers and guest alike. One fuck up after another. And busy. Way too fucking busy. To the point where I got 2 hours behind on my work from the constant nagging. And as I was slowly nipping away at the work between guests, as usual, I was finding mistakes. I've seen it a lot worse though. And they were probly as busy as I was, so that excuses some things. Others, not so much.

I'm stressed. I can't wait for it to be over.

How has your weekend been?

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Really WTF people?

I really detest it when my work day starts with me being busier than a gay prostitute in a room full of conservative Christians.

Yeah that is so going to be added to the list of reasons why I'm going to Hell. Maybe I'll get some hate mail. That would be cool. Anyway.....

But my night at work did start off pretty busy and the guest interruptions have been pretty steady. In addition to my audit tasks, I have pyroxeres to mine, forums to troll, youtube videos to watch and comments to post on facebook. Really, I just can't be bothered.

And who the fuck that is staying in a hotel in a small town needs an ATM at 4am?

And why do people always get angry when I ask them to show ID for a new room key? Next time I'm giving a random homeless person a key to their room.

I had other plans for this blog, but it seems they veered off in another direction.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Ever have one of those days....

Where all Hell has broken loose right at the same moment the shit hit the fan?

Sounds like the beginning of my week and the start of a holiday weekend. Yeah that's what it is. I think maybe it's time to recall the job hunt. Not because of the holiday, I just have things making me crabby. And I'm not discussing it here, people I work with read this. So it messes with their heads more this way.

My girlfriend recently purchased/downloaded Torchlight for the XBox. Very fun and cool game. It's a lot like the Diablo games. Kill monster, get bacon. But you get a pet. And your pet can run stuff back to town for you and sell it. And you can enchant things, repeatedly even. Even set items. And there's guns. Guns that never run out of ammo. Try it out. If you like Diablo, you will probly like it. And if you do like it you should reward me greatly for telling you about it.

Here's some advice for you EVE Online players. High DPS PVP fits are pretty useless on missions. On the other hand, a Brutix that pumps out over 600 DPS is just epic.

This is turning in to more of a gaming blog. Maybe that's what I should have done in the first place.

Monday, May 23, 2011

So since it's not the end of the world, let's talk more about video games

Today we downloaded the latest DLC for Fallout New Vegas, Honest Hearts. So far, I like it. interesting new storyline, weapons, weapon mods, and crafting recipes. New things to kill too. I haven't gotten that far in to it, really I haven't gone through the Northern Passage and instead I watched my girlfriend play, but one of the things that I see that I'm liking is the Tommy Gun and the M1911. Which means when I go there, I'm going to switch from playing cowgirl (shotguns, revolvers, repeaters) and go old school Mafia style.

Something amusing I saw when I was playing today. If you get Rex, The King's cyberdog, as a companion and have Wild Wasteland turned on, talk to him. What happens is kinda funny. I'm not giving it away. You gotta try it yourself.

In other news, I've encountered some annoyance in EVE Online. It seems that PVP has found it's way to hi sec mission sites. I was ganked the other day by a very well put together gang. The knew what they were doing. I didn't until it was a bit too late. A frigate warped in to aggro me, once I started shooting, support arrived. There were even Orcas there to provide gang assist, along with all manner of shield boosting. Impressive really. Nothing I was prepared for. For anyone playing this that has never played EVE, there's a big difference between a good PVP and a good PVE fit. I'm toying with taking a high DPS PVP ship on missions from here on, but I'm not sure how well it will handle missions. Another thought I had next time I see someone warp in to my mission site is aggro every NPC, then warp the fuck out. If I do it fast enough, the would be ganker should get eaten by NPC's.

The ship that I lost, a full tech 2 fitted Myrmidon, was pocket change to me. I made more than it was worth in the last few hours on selling stuff I produce on the market. I have other Myrmidons as well. So no major loss. I'm more annoyed that gankers coming in to mission sites seems to be a pretty common thing.  I expect this sort of thing in low sec. Heck, if it doesn't happen in low sec, I think something is severely wrong in the world. Though if this does keep up, I might have some serious baiting opportunities.

And I'm still threatening to make youtube vids. I really want to. Another thought I had tonight, can anyone recommend a good video capture device that connect to the USB so I can use it on my laptop?

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Oh come on, it's not like it's the end of the world. Oh wait....

So May 21, 2011, which is very soon at the time of writing this, is going to be the rapture. You know, the day Jesus comes down and picks up his faithful followers and the rest of us get 5 months of Hell on Earth until the Judgement Day.

Hell on Earth? I don't know about you, but a world with out puritans, fundamentalists, evangelicals and Bible thumpers sounds pretty sweet. Can they take the other religious fundamentalists as well? Just leave the planet to the atheists, agnostics, heathens, pagans, satanists and whatever else is left and after we are done looting, we will straighten this planet right out. Seriously, think of all the problems that religious fundamentalism has caused. No think of a world with out it.

That being said, I want it to happen. Heck I want to be able to walk down the street in my best drag or whatever the fuck I feel like wearing that day and not have to worry about if I'm going to be attacked or told I'm a pervert or something. I want to be able to enjoy all the legal benfits of marriage with whomever I choose to marry regardless of gender. I want science to progress unchallenged and unrestricted. I want education not to be determined by what Bronze Age myths conflict with it. I want to experience freedom. Real freedom. Freedom from the medling of religious fundamentalists.

Or better yet, I want people to realize there is no god. There will be no rapture. No judgement. No Heaven. No Hell. Push all this aside and work for the betterment of the human race.

Yeah, like that is ever going to happen....

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Woman Indicted On Hate Crime Charge In McDonald's Attack

A woman involved in an assault that was captured on a cell phone and went viral online has been indicted on hate crime charges.
The office of the Baltimore County State's Attorney said Teonna Monae Brown, 18, was indicted Monday on charges that included hate crime and first- and second-degree assault. A female juvenile faces the same charges, the office said.

Police said Chrissy Polis, 22, was attacked inside a Rosedale McDonald's restaurant on April 18. The video, recorded by an employee, was posted online later that week and quickly went viral, garnering thousands of page views on various websites.Police said Brown is also accused of attacking a woman who tried to help Polis.

Watch the video that is in the above like, the quotes from the defence attorney are priceless.