I hope everyone had a super Easter break. I certainly did as it coincided with my 30th birthday celebrations! But having had my fill of chocolate, BBQs, booze and sunshine I felt it was time to crack on with this post.
It's a big one but I will try hard not to waffle on too much...
Showing posts with label Relationships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relationships. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
The chrysalis
A couple of nights ago my other-half found a moth chrysalis in the garden whilst having an argument with a Holly bush. We put it in a jar, in the kitchen, so that our 4 year old daughter could see the moth when it emerges. I sat with her yesterday, showing her the jar and trying to explain the process.
The caterpillar eats and eats until he is all grown up and ready to change. I explained.
Then he builds a cocoon around his body and he sits inside and turns into a butterfly (well, a moth in this case).
Now whilst she is very familiar with The Hungry Caterpillar story she couldn’t quite get her head around the idea that the change was not an instant process. We had an on-going debate for the rest of the afternoon with my daughter regularly insisting that it was time to go and “poke the cocoon to wake the butterfly up". I had quite a hard time explaining that it takes time to go through such a big change.
I cannot help but see the similarity between this and the current state of SoTF.
It seems to me that we are very much in a “chrysalis stage” right now. We are undergoing a huge state of change ; everything from where we live, to our allies, the pvp we take part in, our rules and ROE.
It takes time, debate, patience and hard work to move from where we came from to what we are becoming and some folks are certainly finding it harder than others. I really don't envy our leadership right now.
I consider myself to be a pretty sensible person in general but even in my own attitude I find resistance to these changes.
In my mind, I am a Shadows of The Federation pilot. These are the guys I've died and fought alongside, got drunk and giggled with, argued against and confided in for the past 2 years. They are my comrades and the respect I have for them is well earned. I'd do pretty much anything in game for them.
But now I find myself in an Alliance; a big pool of corporations, many of whom I'd never even heard of previously. Add to that the whole of the Northern Coalition which we now work alongside; that is quite a list of corps and pilots that we are suddenly expected to have some sort of allegiance to and play nice with. It is a hard pill to swallow sometimes.
And of course this works both ways and I know SoTF's FCs and leaders have done a lot of shouting of late, to make our views heard over a din of pre-conceived opinion.
Slowly, we are adjusting to our new way of life. But it is not easy.
We will shortly pass the one month marker since our move to Vale and I don’t think I’ve seen a more difficult 4 weeks in all my time with SoTF. We've had many ups and downs and for some members it has been too much and they have moved on to pastures new.
But we’ve also achieved a great many things in this month of change. Our 0.0 station is up, we've moved over 1400 ship from low-sec to null, our members are getting settled and we're slowly making the impression we want to within our new circle of allies. At the time of typing we are also in the top 10 corp killers for this month in RAGE.
We always knew this was a massive undertaking and that has not been an understatement. But with a little more hard work, a little more patience and a little bit of luck, that drunken butterfly will be on its way out very soon.
The caterpillar eats and eats until he is all grown up and ready to change. I explained.
Then he builds a cocoon around his body and he sits inside and turns into a butterfly (well, a moth in this case).
Now whilst she is very familiar with The Hungry Caterpillar story she couldn’t quite get her head around the idea that the change was not an instant process. We had an on-going debate for the rest of the afternoon with my daughter regularly insisting that it was time to go and “poke the cocoon to wake the butterfly up". I had quite a hard time explaining that it takes time to go through such a big change.
I cannot help but see the similarity between this and the current state of SoTF.
It seems to me that we are very much in a “chrysalis stage” right now. We are undergoing a huge state of change ; everything from where we live, to our allies, the pvp we take part in, our rules and ROE.
It takes time, debate, patience and hard work to move from where we came from to what we are becoming and some folks are certainly finding it harder than others. I really don't envy our leadership right now.
I consider myself to be a pretty sensible person in general but even in my own attitude I find resistance to these changes.
In my mind, I am a Shadows of The Federation pilot. These are the guys I've died and fought alongside, got drunk and giggled with, argued against and confided in for the past 2 years. They are my comrades and the respect I have for them is well earned. I'd do pretty much anything in game for them.
But now I find myself in an Alliance; a big pool of corporations, many of whom I'd never even heard of previously. Add to that the whole of the Northern Coalition which we now work alongside; that is quite a list of corps and pilots that we are suddenly expected to have some sort of allegiance to and play nice with. It is a hard pill to swallow sometimes.
And of course this works both ways and I know SoTF's FCs and leaders have done a lot of shouting of late, to make our views heard over a din of pre-conceived opinion.
Slowly, we are adjusting to our new way of life. But it is not easy.
We will shortly pass the one month marker since our move to Vale and I don’t think I’ve seen a more difficult 4 weeks in all my time with SoTF. We've had many ups and downs and for some members it has been too much and they have moved on to pastures new.
But we’ve also achieved a great many things in this month of change. Our 0.0 station is up, we've moved over 1400 ship from low-sec to null, our members are getting settled and we're slowly making the impression we want to within our new circle of allies. At the time of typing we are also in the top 10 corp killers for this month in RAGE.
We always knew this was a massive undertaking and that has not been an understatement. But with a little more hard work, a little more patience and a little bit of luck, that drunken butterfly will be on its way out very soon.
Monday, 14 February 2011
The Love Roll
Happy Valentines Day!
There are several theories on who the original "Valentine" was but which ever story you subscribe to they all tend to end in death/execution/martyrdom, which all sounds very Eve-like to me. So how about a little Eve themed love "meme" to celebrate the day?
The Love-Roll is your personal list of individuals, corps, alliances or other groups of capsuleers who have had the greatest effect or influence on your time in Eve online. They are the people who challenged you the most, caused you to change your direction or simply made it all worth while.
Here be mine:
The Staunch
Actually I hate these guys. They war-deced my pve corp and blew the hell out of us in an epic tale of carebear tears and failfit explosions. It was messy but also the most important thing that happened to me during my pve days. Although I didn't know it at the time their war dec signalled the start of my journey towards full time pvp.
Mynxee & Laedy
I've not flown with either of these two nor spent any time with them in-game but discovering their blogs has been quite inspiring. I don’t want to get too hung up on the "girl gamer" thing but prior to my interest in Eve blogs I didn't really know much about the other females who pvp'd in Eve. Through the blogosphere I got to read about Mynxee the Hellcat CEO and then of her time in the CSM. Later I discovered Laedy, the roaming pirate nomad. I don't believe ones gender matters at all in Eve but I confess I have found it inspiring to read the adventures of these two women in what is largely a male dominated environment.
Mentally Unstable Enterprises, Wrath of Fenris, Euphoria Released
Whether through my association with SoTF or from the early days of Gallente Militia I've had the opportunity to fly alongside countless different corporations. Too many names and individuals to list but Mentl, E-R and Wolfy stand out for me as being the corporations I've learned the most from.
Annie Anomie
When I first made the decision to train for interceptors I started a conversation with Annie, a pilot I had come across through the Gallente militia, and picked his brains on how I should go about getting started as a fleet tackler. I don't know if he remembers the brief chat we had but Annie's blunt, no-nonsense advice put me on the right track. It was quite some time before I lost my first Ares, despite flying it almost exclusively for many months and still being quite a new pvper.. I feel quite privileged to now share the same corp ticker as Annie and he continues to be a font of, brutally honest, opinion and advice.
Gallactica
Gall is largely responsible for the merger of my old corp into SoTF. This in itself was a game changing experience for me however Galls place on this list is cemented for more personable reasons. He is a first class CEO, stands by his corp members and is certainly the glue that keeps us all together. He has great talent for diffusing difficult situations and whenever any sh!t hits the fan he is the person who does the cleaning up. This is something I had personal experience of when I accidently pointed a pirate who had positive standings with us (and who then lost their ship) due to an overview cock-up - which happened not long after I had joined SoTF. But aside from all of that Gall is one my favourite people to spend time with online and I am chuffed to have found someone in the world who drinks more red wine than I do, comes out with more filth that I do and sings worse than me also.
SoTF
My current corp and the place where I finally shook off my carebear roots (well most of them). I have learned a huge amount, met some interesting people and had bucket load of good times with this corp. Watching the corporation evolve and grow and being a part of this process as a Director has also been quite an educational experience.
Rashmika Clavain
Finally, my other half Rash. I am certain that my time in Eve has helped him to master the exasperated frown that he performs so well. In return I've had a real-life comrade whose in-depth understanding of the game has been invaluable to me from the start. I would have you know that I've never had a charity isk nor a free ship off him, but his advice and assistance as a fleet-mate has been an integral part of my journey through New Eden. We have our ups and downs and don't always see eye to eye but together have shared many years of adventure in New Eden. Missions, war, exploration, faction war, corp dramas and so much more. From Mirelene to Nisuwa, Rashmika has been my constant companion and no doubt will remain so for many adventures still to come.
So thank you Love-rollers. Here's a big virtual smoocheh from me o7
So, who's in your Love-Roll?
There are several theories on who the original "Valentine" was but which ever story you subscribe to they all tend to end in death/execution/martyrdom, which all sounds very Eve-like to me. So how about a little Eve themed love "meme" to celebrate the day?
The Love-Roll is your personal list of individuals, corps, alliances or other groups of capsuleers who have had the greatest effect or influence on your time in Eve online. They are the people who challenged you the most, caused you to change your direction or simply made it all worth while.
Here be mine:
The Staunch
Actually I hate these guys. They war-deced my pve corp and blew the hell out of us in an epic tale of carebear tears and failfit explosions. It was messy but also the most important thing that happened to me during my pve days. Although I didn't know it at the time their war dec signalled the start of my journey towards full time pvp.
Mynxee & Laedy
I've not flown with either of these two nor spent any time with them in-game but discovering their blogs has been quite inspiring. I don’t want to get too hung up on the "girl gamer" thing but prior to my interest in Eve blogs I didn't really know much about the other females who pvp'd in Eve. Through the blogosphere I got to read about Mynxee the Hellcat CEO and then of her time in the CSM. Later I discovered Laedy, the roaming pirate nomad. I don't believe ones gender matters at all in Eve but I confess I have found it inspiring to read the adventures of these two women in what is largely a male dominated environment.
Mentally Unstable Enterprises, Wrath of Fenris, Euphoria Released
Whether through my association with SoTF or from the early days of Gallente Militia I've had the opportunity to fly alongside countless different corporations. Too many names and individuals to list but Mentl, E-R and Wolfy stand out for me as being the corporations I've learned the most from.
Annie Anomie
When I first made the decision to train for interceptors I started a conversation with Annie, a pilot I had come across through the Gallente militia, and picked his brains on how I should go about getting started as a fleet tackler. I don't know if he remembers the brief chat we had but Annie's blunt, no-nonsense advice put me on the right track. It was quite some time before I lost my first Ares, despite flying it almost exclusively for many months and still being quite a new pvper.. I feel quite privileged to now share the same corp ticker as Annie and he continues to be a font of, brutally honest, opinion and advice.
Gallactica
Gall is largely responsible for the merger of my old corp into SoTF. This in itself was a game changing experience for me however Galls place on this list is cemented for more personable reasons. He is a first class CEO, stands by his corp members and is certainly the glue that keeps us all together. He has great talent for diffusing difficult situations and whenever any sh!t hits the fan he is the person who does the cleaning up. This is something I had personal experience of when I accidently pointed a pirate who had positive standings with us (and who then lost their ship) due to an overview cock-up - which happened not long after I had joined SoTF. But aside from all of that Gall is one my favourite people to spend time with online and I am chuffed to have found someone in the world who drinks more red wine than I do, comes out with more filth that I do and sings worse than me also.
SoTF
My current corp and the place where I finally shook off my carebear roots (well most of them). I have learned a huge amount, met some interesting people and had bucket load of good times with this corp. Watching the corporation evolve and grow and being a part of this process as a Director has also been quite an educational experience.
Rashmika Clavain
Finally, my other half Rash. I am certain that my time in Eve has helped him to master the exasperated frown that he performs so well. In return I've had a real-life comrade whose in-depth understanding of the game has been invaluable to me from the start. I would have you know that I've never had a charity isk nor a free ship off him, but his advice and assistance as a fleet-mate has been an integral part of my journey through New Eden. We have our ups and downs and don't always see eye to eye but together have shared many years of adventure in New Eden. Missions, war, exploration, faction war, corp dramas and so much more. From Mirelene to Nisuwa, Rashmika has been my constant companion and no doubt will remain so for many adventures still to come.
So thank you Love-rollers. Here's a big virtual smoocheh from me o7
So, who's in your Love-Roll?
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Women in Eve: Winners Announced!
CrazyKinux has at last announced the winners for the Blog Banter #17; Women in Eve contest. Here are the results (original link):
GET IN, I'M AT NUMBER 8 WOOOHOOO! :o)
It was a really enjoyable blog banter, I love that it got so many "I think I might make a blog" types actually starting up. There were 80 entries overall and lots of different opinion and ideas. It certainly encouraged debate, even the comments list for the contest is full of people discussing the issue of ladies who play Eve.
Thank you very much for running the contest CK and also thanks to whomever it was that upped the prize fund (I cannot find the blogpost which mentioned the player who did this).
I shall be putting my winnings into my pvp isk pot, ensuring this Woman in Eve has plenty of equipment for kicking butt around New Eden ;-)
- The Ghost Report: Eve Blog Banter: The Girls Who Fly Spaceships
- “Prove It”: Women In EvE
- Blog Banter #17 – Women in Eve
- The Ladies of New Eden (An Analysis on How Men are not from Mars, & Women are not from Venus)
- Cloaked and Watching You: The Ladies of New Eden
- Space Broker: Gal-Ristas!
- Tech 2 stilettos
- It's a woman's world (they just don't know it yet!)
- Ladies of New Eden
- Lady Vengeance, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pew-Pew
- Why I don’t play Eve Online
- Where Are All The Wenches
- Sweet Little Bad Girl: Eve vs Women
- Space Boobies Are Bad, m'kay?
- Getting more Eves in Eve Online
- Flashfresh - The Pirate.: Women? In MY SPACESHIP? Is she from Mars as well?
- mikeazariah » Blog Archive » The X-Factor
GET IN, I'M AT NUMBER 8 WOOOHOOO! :o)
It was a really enjoyable blog banter, I love that it got so many "I think I might make a blog" types actually starting up. There were 80 entries overall and lots of different opinion and ideas. It certainly encouraged debate, even the comments list for the contest is full of people discussing the issue of ladies who play Eve.
Thank you very much for running the contest CK and also thanks to whomever it was that upped the prize fund (I cannot find the blogpost which mentioned the player who did this).
I shall be putting my winnings into my pvp isk pot, ensuring this Woman in Eve has plenty of equipment for kicking butt around New Eden ;-)
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
It's a woman's world (they just don't know it yet!)
CraxyKinux has at last announced the latest blog banter, and it's all about the chicks! The Eve Blog Banter Special: The Ladies of New Eden.
What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?
So, how to get women into Eve? Well as far as the game itself goes certainly no changes are in order.
If you strip away the obvious first impression image of Eve being a space ship pewpew game and start to look under the surface you will see that it is SOO much more than that. Eve has a breadth and depth of possibility that far outweighs the game play available any other MMO or online game I have encountered (and I have seen quite a few).
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
All's fair in love and war
April is my favourite month of the year. The last threat of frost is over and the chill of winter replaced with fresh yet warm mid-spring air. The birds outside are “at it” like drunken Romans and everything seems to be growing. The world has gone green and suddenly feels like a much brighter place to be.
This month marks 2 special real-life occasions in my personal calendar. Firstly my birthday (feel free to send gifts to top station Villore) and secondly the anniversary of the day I first met my other half.
Rash (short for Rashmika Clavain, as he is known in-game) and I had our first date 5 years ago this month. We actually "met" about 2 years before-hand, in the mmo Star Wars Galaxies. Since then we have played several online games together including the one that stuck, Eve Online. The arrival of our wonderful daughter 3 years ago had a rather devastating side effect on our social lives, but Eve was a hobby we could both enjoy together at home and without the need for a babysitter. Thus our addiction grew.
This month marks 2 special real-life occasions in my personal calendar. Firstly my birthday (feel free to send gifts to top station Villore) and secondly the anniversary of the day I first met my other half.
Rash (short for Rashmika Clavain, as he is known in-game) and I had our first date 5 years ago this month. We actually "met" about 2 years before-hand, in the mmo Star Wars Galaxies. Since then we have played several online games together including the one that stuck, Eve Online. The arrival of our wonderful daughter 3 years ago had a rather devastating side effect on our social lives, but Eve was a hobby we could both enjoy together at home and without the need for a babysitter. Thus our addiction grew.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
The joy of Overview
One of the most important things to have in place for any kind of pvp in Eve is a decent overview setup. It's pretty much an essential tool to have in place and getting it right should be as high on the “to do” list as fitting ships.
Out in the land of Faction Wars things can get pretty confusing at times. Individual militia corps have + or - standings to each other as well as with corps and alliances outside of the militia and of course the local pirate groups. Pilots in your militia (or even your sister militia for that matter) may have low security standings yet be a friendly part of your fleet. War decs are numerous and relationships can change overnight. This can all prove to be a bit of a headache at times, especially for CEOs and diplomats when things go wrong. War and peace are often just an accidental missile apart.
Out in the land of Faction Wars things can get pretty confusing at times. Individual militia corps have + or - standings to each other as well as with corps and alliances outside of the militia and of course the local pirate groups. Pilots in your militia (or even your sister militia for that matter) may have low security standings yet be a friendly part of your fleet. War decs are numerous and relationships can change overnight. This can all prove to be a bit of a headache at times, especially for CEOs and diplomats when things go wrong. War and peace are often just an accidental missile apart.
Monday, 1 March 2010
( . )( . )
So... yes there are boobs in this blog.
I am a girlfriend, sister, daughter, and most recently a mother too. I also happen to play a hell of a lot of Eve.
As far as anyone that knows me in-game is concerned I am no different to one of the guys. They scratch, I adjust. They get man-flu, I have periods. They drool over the female cast of Firefly. I stalk Jamie Bamber on Facebook. It's really all the same round here.
Of course, there are certain pitfalls and challenges for any female embarking on a journey through the Eve gate. Such as trying to read the map without getting a headache, going to Jita and not spending a fortune on a load of crap you didn't actually set out for, and attempting to keep a level head when the painters & decorators are due in. Now that one can be tough at times, I really don't know how Hellcats manage. I've also learned that "the shiney gold one" doesn't cut it when giving intel for a fleet. Who knew?
There are indeed a lot of women playing Eve, many seem to have taken to it like a duck to water. Others, like myself, take longer to get to grips with everything. "Pregnancy brain" made things even harder at times and I confess I've sat at my keyboard trying to work something out with a thumping headache and mustered all the will in the world to not throw my PC out of the window.
But even so it is worth it. I knew this even in the early days of my journey when I really had no clue about anything. The depth and immense possibility that is on offer here far outweighs that of any other type of MMO that I've come across (and I've been through a few).
Eve is a cruel, harsh environment and relentlessly unforgiving. Every action can have a consquenece. Every decision can affect someone else in New Eden.
And of course, when your ship pops the explosion is just the same, no matter what your sex, race, religion or taste in Internet pron may be. And that's just how I like it.
o/
Well, here we are.
Now I never thought I would have the time, effort or energy to write a blog about anything let alone Eve but here I am practicing some self discipline.
I confess I find blogging a self indulgent hobby and really don't know why anyone would wish to spend their time reading the musings of an average fish in a very big pond but it's an idea I've had for a while. Since I first undocked back in 2006 I have grown considerably in dedication to the game and skill as a player. I finally began to feel I had something to give back to the community. And I confess the first glimpse of Spring outside is making me all excited and adding to my motivation.
In Eve you will mostly find me scouting round Black Rise as I hunt Caldari war targets or pirates. I am a Gallente FW pilot and at the time of writting also in the middle of a few war decs. I hope to make this blog a journal of my time in Eve, with some light RP, my usual sense of humour and a few tidbits of information I have discovered along the way.
Hope you enjoy reading o7
Now I never thought I would have the time, effort or energy to write a blog about anything let alone Eve but here I am practicing some self discipline.
I confess I find blogging a self indulgent hobby and really don't know why anyone would wish to spend their time reading the musings of an average fish in a very big pond but it's an idea I've had for a while. Since I first undocked back in 2006 I have grown considerably in dedication to the game and skill as a player. I finally began to feel I had something to give back to the community. And I confess the first glimpse of Spring outside is making me all excited and adding to my motivation.
In Eve you will mostly find me scouting round Black Rise as I hunt Caldari war targets or pirates. I am a Gallente FW pilot and at the time of writting also in the middle of a few war decs. I hope to make this blog a journal of my time in Eve, with some light RP, my usual sense of humour and a few tidbits of information I have discovered along the way.
Hope you enjoy reading o7
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