There I am, mining away in low-security 0.3 space and what warps into the asteroid belt I am mining? An Ishtar. Almost instantly a chat window pops up and it reads…
[13:54:09] IDeena > 60mill now
While I believe she probably would have let me go if I paid, I was able to warp out both my Iteron V and Hulk that were sat in the belt because I had Warp Core Stabalisers fitted - and IDeena was unable to scramble me!
After my escape…
[13:55:00] IDeena > nxt time i see you in here i instant pop you
So, another near-miss for my Hulk, but nevermind I’m still alive to tell the tale. Like I told IDeena when I left the system, I will be back there and I’ll be trying to take her out in an Ishtar too.
1. The population votes. Based on how the press have reported incidents, the population will vote according to which newspaper they read or which news station they watch. The agenda that the newspaper/station has will have warped the mind of the voter and will dictate which way they vote.
2. Someone will win the election and take power.
3a. The press will gradually begin to chip away at the person they brought into power, reporting incidents with obvious bias that goes unnoticed by the general public, who begin to grow disheartened with the person they voted into office.
3b. Other members of the press, seeing that they need to join the negative newsmongers in order to sell a greater number of newspapers, will join the bias reporting seen by those in step 3a.
4. The public begin to react negatively to unimportant but negative news. All of the press within the nation will now be openly attacking whoever the public voted into office and the public will be mirroring what they have been shown. The public will even be seeing positive actions taken by the Politicians as negative, such as if the Politician donates money to Africa (that is bad - apparently), rather than ’sorting out their own country.’ The public, of course, fail to realise that it is they who are responsible for breakdowns in society, not the Politicians.
5. A leadership contest will be raised. The press will begin to report that the leadership of the political party is beginning to come into question, this will eventually bring about a change of leadership (which is what the press want, so they can move onto somebody else and repeat steps 3a, 3b, 4 and 5).
6. A general election will take place. The negative publicity and feeling generated by how the press have reported incidents will now lead to a change in the party that holds office. This may not happen at the first general election to come along, but eventually the entire population will have been twisted enough by a barrage of bias reporting that it will do.
7. Go to step 1.
My motivation for this post comes from a number of recent articles I have seen on the Sky News Web site.
Firstly, there was an article that mentioned how Gordon Brown had been on ‘Idol Gives Back’ to say to the American people how the British Government were going to give Mosquito nets to Africa. Judging from both the article and the comments made by the British public, you’d think this was a bad thing! People were outraged at how Brown has been on a gameshow to say this, they were saying how he should be sorting out the UK before he goes and tells the world how he’s helping Africa. I’ll just say that ‘Idol Gives Back’ isn’t a gameshow, it’s a charity TV show, similar to ‘Children in Need’ in the UK. It is designed to help American and African children, with most of the funds raised going to Save the Children. Second, how DARE you be so shallow as to deny people the right to a mosquito net!? I am so ashamed to be British because of you.
Secondly, there was an article that mentioned how the Pope’s visit to the USA was overshadowing Gordon Brown’s and how nobody in the United States even knew he was here. Well, the funny thing here is, Sky (or ‘News Corporation’) owns FOX, FOX32 here in Chicago said in their news that Gordon Brown was here - so actually, any American who watches the news - news from the same people who bring us Sky News, no less - would actually know. Idiots. This is just Sky News trying to get the UK a new Prime Minister, don’t be brain-washed by it, for your own sake.
Thirdly, the British population has completely lost it’s sense of right and wrong. All you have to do to be thoroughly ashamed to be British is read the comments to this article about the extraordinarily-evil Robert Mugabe and his pseudo-dictatorship in Zimbabwe, and how Gordon Brown is threatening “decisive action” - apparently yet again Gordon Brown should be sorting out the UK first!
Again, I’ll say it: Britain - Do some parenting. Work yourselves out of the social slump you have fallen into where youths think it is OK to beat a man to death, where under-age drinking is rampant and where society resembles some of the more brutal scenes from Clockwork Orange. The Politicians did not put society where it is, they gave you all a free ride, they gave you all free healthcare and they gave you all one of the most supportive social security benefit systems in the world - and what did you do with it? You sat at home, didn’t work, had too many kids and brought them all up badly, turning them into the monsters they are today.
Yes, that was the chat line I saw when fighting a Brutix with my Hulk. I saw the Brutix warp into the asteroid belt and knew I probably couldn’t beat him, but decided to risk my Hulk in a fight until I could get my second character online in order to steal the Ore back. (As the saying goes: “Don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose.”) He flew straight to my can, flipped my Ore to his own can and then went flashy red, which means I can fire on him. (If I fire on him, then he can return fire).
Unfortunately I hadn’t yet updated my alt with the newest patch, so when I patched it, it closed down my main window also (please fix that, CCP). I logged back in with both accounts and my Hulk automatically warped back to the Asteroid belt where Dakotha was still sitting, flashing red. I flew close to my can, checked how much he had moved and then checked his ship stats for his max speed. Seeing that he couldn’t go much faster than me I thought that I could possibly stay inside his minimum gun-range - if I was lucky - by flying at him, while my drones did a little damage. Meanwhile, I undocked my alternate character and set him to warp towards the jettison cans.
As soon as my alt. got into the belt in the Hauler ship I stole my Ore back and set it to dock at the station. Seeing that obviously he was doing a lot of damage, I recalled my drones to the Hulk and set that to also dock at the station. I was hoping he wouldn’t really notice my alt. character taking the Ore back as I really didn’t want to lose a fully rigged Iteron V!
Both my ships were able to dock successfully (my Hulk had to warp around a little bit until the station would accept me docking due to my aggressive acts). I waited a few minutes then sent my alt. character out again to collect the rest of my Ore.
In the meantime I had a little fun with Dakotha, I traded him 10 units of Janitor as a joke and had the following conversation in the system’s chat:
[16:53:56] Dakotha > wanna ransome that baby?
[16:54:33] Alderan Brere > why would i do that?
[16:55:22] Dakotha > Well, I am feeling genouros today
[16:55:40] Alderan Brere > sure
[16:55:59] Dakotha > lot of ore here..hmmm
[16:57:11] Alderan Brere > you asked for a ransom for a ship you hadn’t the capability to warp scramble… you ARE feeling generous….
[16:57:24] Dakotha > took the Scram off…you didn’t need to fight…=)
[16:58:09] Alderan Brere > you were red ‘n’ flashy, sure i do…
[16:58:13] Dakotha > I am a NICE pirate…no need to die for a few rocks
[16:59:00] Alderan Brere > sure there’s need. rocks built this ship, built your ship.
[16:59:54] Dakotha > And the build the Warp Scram I will deploy next time…=)
[17:02:06] Alderan Brere > lol
Here is where I sent him 10 units of Janitor while docked…
[17:02:58] Dakotha > lol…now THATS a sense of humor!!
[17:03:02] Alderan Brere >
[17:03:09] Dakotha > I accept!
[17:03:24] Dakotha > And you and your rocks are safe!
[17:03:50] Alderan Brere > heheh
In order to understand this post, I’ll explain what Macro Mining is…
Macro Mining is a way of cheating in EVE-Online. It’s against the terms of the EULA (End-User License Agreement) and your account can be permanently banned (with no refund) for doing it. Basically what people do is have a program that records every click of their mouse and every touch of the keys while they undock, warp to an asteroid belt, mine, warp to the station they started at, dock and unload the ore. What they then do is create a loop that goes out to the belt and does their mining over and over again…
My usual way of trying to tell if someone is a Macro is to watch them for a while and see if the pattern of mining varies at all. Do they always select the closest asteroid? Do they always warp to the same spot? Do they always seem to come back at around the same time interval?
If the answer to most of those is yes, I then proceed to targetting the asteroid they are mining and trying to pop it (take all it’s ore) - then watching to see if they target another and continue mining (like a human) or sit there for their pre-programmed amount of seconds (like a Macro).
If that doesn’t result in a suitable answer, or I can’t really get a definite answer, I wait for the ship to come back into the asteroid belt and then I target them. Usually the Macro Miner will not remember to disable ‘auto target locking’ and will automatically target me back… What usually happens is that the Macro-controlled ship will sit there, forever, attempting to mine my ship like it’s an asteroid!
I found one just now (well, twenty minutes ago) and he is still sat there attempting to mine me… His final chance was when I asked him in the solar system’s chat room to respond, and he didn’t…
[03:49:53] Alderan Brere > So Scimeron, are you a macro? I ask because I targetted you when you came into the belt to try to see what would happen - because i suspected - and you now appear to have auto targetted me back and are trying to mine my ship…
I usually report these cheats to CCP so they can get banned, I reported Scimeron as soon as I was sure.
The last year has been both good and bad. The great thing is that none of the bad has come from being Married or from anything to do with my relationship with my wife. I Love Sheila and she makes me very happy! It’s good in a way that the bad parts of the last year have, annoyingly, all come from going through the U.S. Immigration process.
The great thing for Sheila and I is that we told each other everything - we haven’t had a single ‘uncomfortable’ conversation about each other’s past or any of that stuff. We’re very open on everything and this allows us to never really have any arguments (which always seem to spring from someone not telling someone else something they should have). We’re also very good at compromising and as far as I can remember, have never argued over a choice we had to make. I don’t actually think we’ve ever had a fight yet - sure, we have been upset with each other 4 or 5 times in the last year, but that’s it - and the good thing about those times was that we ended up just feeling bad about upsetting the other person!
One of the most difficult things for me personally has been U.S. Immigration forcing me to stay in the United States while I am being processed (if I leave, I won’t be able to be with my wife probably for a couple of years). This means I haven’t seen my family (in the UK) face-to-face for fifteen months and this has been the hardest thing I have had to cope with.
Just recently we decided that we will never have a Wedding. We had planned to be through Immigration last year and be on with our lives soon enough to have a Wedding ceremony on our 1st Anniversary (last year we got Married in a Courthouse with just Sheila’s parents present - the entire ceremony took just over 1 minute - we taped it). U.S. Immigration ruined our opportunity for this as we now feel that the moment has passed and it now just would not feel right to have a Wedding ceremony.
Any money we would have spent on a Wedding, we’re going to put into either a house, or travelling around a bit once I’m ‘released’. Of course this means we’re losing out in a lot of things that come with the whole ‘Wedding experience’. No money to start our life in the form of gifts, no honeymoon (we didn’t go anywhere in the last year - we’ve had absolutely no celebration of Marriage except going out for a meal with a few friends the day after our Marriage last year), no big gathering of family and friends, nothing. My family in the UK haven’t even met my wife or her family…
I would like to thank anyone who gave a gift for the Wedding Shower we hastily arranged prior to the Marriage last year - you should have all gotten thank you cards I hope!
Immigration is a necessary evil and I totally accept it however much it might mess up our early life together. The hardship and poor lifestyle we’ve had to live for the last year has really given us a lesson we’ll never forget. We appreciate the value of money more than probably anyone else I know.
While I am on the money issue, I have to say thank you to our Landlord. He has accepted over the last year what our position has been and has accepted late payment of rent quite a few times when we had to push-back payments for a month (usually every three months).
So, where are we now? We’re in the same position we were a full year ago. We’re poor as hell, we can’t do anything about it and we’re trapped until Immigration decide. They refused us once because of a very silly error (we mailed forms in the ‘wrong order’) and I’m pretty sure that they can refuse us again if they feel like it. With no end in sight, it’s very hard to stay motivated, but with a supportive wife I find that when I feel down - she’s there for me, when she feels down - I’m there for her. Hopefully with an Immigration Interview scheduled for April 22nd (something we didn’t even get offered last time), we’ll be able to see an end to the madness after that! Our attorney was very positive about it!
Also in the last year, Sheila lost her grandmother. I got to meet a huge amount of the extended family and was made to feel oh-so-welcome at the funeral. I am very pleased that I was able to be here for Sheila when she needed me and I’m so happy that her grandmother got to meet me and approved of me. The night she passed I had given her a hug and got a kiss on the cheek from her as we left Sheila’s parents, Sheila was sick and didn’t hug her… The next day when Sheila realized this, I told her to kiss my cheek as I hadn’t washed it yet… That is a really emotional memory.
Sheila’s sister also went in for surgery on her brain in the last couple of weeks and that was really scary, she seems to be doing OK for the moment, but the worrying continues…
Anyway, it’s been an interesting year full of trials of one sort or another. The great thing that I hold onto every day is that one thing that seems rock-solid is the quality of our relationship… Everything else doesn’t ruin that.
Most players won’t feel any change from this patch, but if past patches are any indication - they might do if CCP have messed everything up again and the patch breaks things and causes more bugs than it fixes… Cross yer fingers!
I think people spend way too much money on toys for their adult Cat or new Kitten. Cats are a breed that spend their time either running around crazily attacking everything, eating, pooping or (this is the big one), sleeping. The main toy a Cat or Kitten seems to need, is either another Cat or Kitten, but there are a lot of really simple toys you can provide a Cat or Kitten to keep them occupied and happy. More about toys later, let’s talk about Kitten and Cat behavior first…
If the Kitten is taken away from it’s siblings before 13 weeks, it may be too early for it to have learned how not to hurt when it plays. Other Kittens it may play with will yelp and scream, teaching the aggressive Kitten when to let go.
It is very important that you realize that when you’re playing with a Kitten, you teach it how it’s supposed to play as an adult.
If you allow the Kitten to attack your hands or feet (because when it’s Kitten, it doesn’t hurt much), don’t be surprised if every time you have visitors you have to lock the adult Cat in another room. Your adult Cat will think it’s OK to sink it’s (now painful) claws or teeth into your visitors because you taught it so as a Kitten.
Also, no, it isn’t OK to do it with gloves on, to dangle clothes for your kitten to climb up, etc. Think what damage your Kitten will be able to do when fully grown or if the Kitten chooses to climb up that expensive dress in the wardrobe when you’re not looking!
Your Kitten will recognize very quickly what is a toy, what it can touch, what it’s OK to bite or claw on, but only if you remain consistent in your actions and teaching. There are various methods of training via rewards and punishment, but from personal experience I have found the following to be true…
Cats don’t really seem to bothered about treats or positive attention (totally the opposite of my experience with Dogs). They will come to you for a stroke or to sleep on your knee when they feel like it! You really will have difficulty forcing them to do anything that they don’t want to do.
In order to train a Kitten I’ve found a need to develop a few levels of disciplinary action and I’ve already (with an approximately 16-week old Kitten) seen very positive results. Remember, all the punishments must be done while the Kitten is doing the bad activity. If you miss it (while trying to find your water sprayer or something), let it go, get the Kitten next time. Those levels of punishment are…
1. Moving the Kitten away from the problem. If the Kitten is doing something you don’t want it to, pick it up and move it away. If the Kitten returns to the activity, pick it up and move it away again. If you do it enough times, the Kitten will learn. I would advise you do not pick up the Kitten and present it with another toy to ‘take it’s mind off the problem’ - this could confuse the Kitten as it may see the toy as a reward.
2. Hiss whenever the Kitten does the activity. The Hiss is a form of warning and initially your hiss may be followed by the Kitten hissing back at you - this is OK. You are not attacking the Kitten, you are ‘protecting’ whatever the Kitten was chewing/clawing on like you would if you were a Cat and the Kitten were attacking you. You don’t even need to move when you hiss at the Kitten - as long as you’re sure you’ll be heard.
3. Hiss and push the Kitten away from the activity. This helps the Kitten to associate the hiss with contact - showing it there might actually be something to be scared of. Additionally it incorporates the benefits of all those in punishment #1 above. Adding hissing from close range will have a good effect on the Kitten - expect to get hissed back at, when this happens, stand your ground and the Kitten should move off to do something else. Again, do not present the Kitten with something else to do, let it make it’s own mind up. Also, don’t be too afraid of hurting the Kitten if you’re shoving it away from something, a couple of Kittens playing and fighting really shows how much physical punishment they can take!
4. Spray the Kitten with water. Cats do not like water too much and your objective when spraying the Kitten is for it to have a bad memory. If it returns to the activity and you are consistent and spray it again, it will associate the bad memory of being wet with the activity it was doing. Do not chase the Kitten around with the spray bottle once it has moved away. Also when the Kitten has stopped doing bad things, wait five minutes then cuddle the kitten up in a towel to dry it off (or allow the other Kittens or Cats you might have to lick the wetness off the fur).
5. Spray the Kitten with water - and hiss. This helps to associate the punishment with the bad activity better.
To give an example, our Kitten likes to sleep on my knee while I work during the day. When she first came she would literally dig her claws into my clothes (and skin) on my legs and climb up. I reacted by hissing at her and staring at her - nothing else - she would retract her claws and drop in stunned silence. She would then walk away for a moment, come back and as she stood on my foot (probably about to climb again) I picked her up and put her on my knee - over and over again. When I didn’t notice her down there and she climbed up, I hissed again. She now walks up to my leg and taps me on the leg with her paw when she wants up. If you’re going to do this though, make sure you get the timing right! You don’t want to be hissing at your Cat for actually being sat on your knee - so catch them at the right spot (dangling from your flesh!)
Cat Toys
Like I said earlier, people spend way too much money on toys for their pets. I work from home in the same room where the Kitten spends 99.9% of her time, I see everything she plays with, here’s a rough percentage breakdown of the time our kitten has spent with various toys…
80% of the time - fighting with adult Cat (the Kitten always starts it).
I think it’s very important that any Cat has another Cat around, because although they are not really sociable animals, they do seem to get lonely. The Kitten and Cat do an awful lot of fighting and if you’re introducing two cats who’re either not from the same litter, or greatly differ in age, you have to be really careful… A Kitten’s only defense is a hiss and if an adult Cat wanted to kill the Kitten, it could, easily. Seek help if you’re doing this, because we were lucky to have a very placid adult Cat that always lets go if the Kitten yelps.
15% of the time - running around in “stalk mode”, not playing with any toy.
Our Kitten loves it when the door is open so she can run down the hall. She sounds like a horse and she runs back and forth for a long time before getting tired and having a nap to get ready for the next time! When the door is closed she runs about climbing and jumping onto the off the Kitty Condo we have, jumping onto and off the bed and just generally stalking/hunting nothing in particular!
2% of the time - playing in empty boxes.
The holes in the side of Coca-Cola boxes and the noise they make when you tap on them seems to really excite a Kitten who happens to be sitting inside it, our Kitten just loves jumping ontop of the thing!
2% of the time - knocking various objects around the floor.
Usually our Kitten is busy running around like a nutcase and she’ll see something she wants to attack, so she does! We have a few objects on the floor for her, but none of them were bought as a Cat toy… We have a few metal Christmas Tree ornaments with bells in, we have some bottle caps, we have some plastic egg-shaped things (that did contain candy) and her most favorite - we have the little foam circles that came from a blank CD spool. Yes, you read that right, the favorite toy of both our Kitten - and adult Cat too! - is a little bit of foam that was part of the packaging of a spool of blank CD’s!
1% of the time - playing with her “Crazy Circle” toy.
While the Crazy Circle toy is excellent and our Kitten loves it, it plays a really small part in her daily play compared to other, cheaper items. Variation is important, but your Kitten doesn’t care how much money you spend…
Above you can see a video of our Kitten playing with the Crazy Circle. You can buy one from Amazon (USA) Small | Large.
A group of friends and I were in Otou checking out the Asteroid Belts for any resident Pirates, when we came upon a group of ships who seemed to want a fight. So, my friends (who were in far better ships that I) fought them, beat them, then they went and got more ships and wanted to go at it again.
We ended up being 5 vs. 5 and with me in a long range drone-carrier fitting I simply warped into the battle last at a range of 80km. I aided the other members of the fleet with whatever they were attacking and the enemies didn’t really notice me until the end. They sent Keats’ Embryon up to take me out. I noticed right away that when in close range contact, his weapons were ineffective, so I simply activated my afterburner and flew towards him, keeping the range low and his weapons useless… I called my drones back and destroyed him quite easily.
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