Dammit.  I feel so dirty…

I’m actually going to re-subscribe to WoW.  Again.

Terri’s been playing WoW again for a little while now.  She’s been leveling up a little gnomish rogue.  And I’ve been playing EVE, shooting internet spaceships and cruising around nullsec.

But I miss playing with Terri.  I miss wandering through a game together, being able to share the experience with her.  And she’s running into trouble with some quests…  Having a hard time getting some things done by herself…

Then Blizzard went and announced the new expansion – Mists of Pandaria.

I’ve thought the Pandaren were cool ever since I saw them in WarCraft 3.  Been waiting for them to show up in WoW for years.

And I thoroughly enjoyed my monk in EverQuest.  And again in Dark Age of Camelot.  I’ve been wanting a monk of some sort in WoW from the very start.

So this expansion seems like it was made for me.

But then they announced the annual pass…  A year of WoW, plus access to the next beta, and an in-game mount, and a copy of Diablo III.  How could I pass it up?

So, I canceled EVE last night.  And I’ll be subscribing to WoW and buying an annual pass just as soon as I get home tonight.

Purchased a new Drake, to replace the one I lost last week.  Been doing some more ratting.  It isn’t an amazing source of income…  But it is steady and reliable.  Barring the costs of replacing that Drake, I’m making more money than I’m spending – which is good.

I haven’t really participated in any PvP yet, aside from getting my Drake blown up.  I don’t have the skills to fit either a Hurricane or a Maelstrom in the approved way…  And I can’t really afford to be paying for lost ships if they aren’t fit right.  So I’ve just been ratting and training.

City of Heroes has gone free-to-play.  I downloaded the client and logged in briefly.  I used to really enjoy that game…  But I really don’t have any clue how it works anymore, or what changes have been made.  And I’ve got plenty of other things to keep me busy.  So I don’t know how much time I’ll wind up spending on it.

Terri’s computer is unhappy.  It’s been crashing and giving her blue-screens lately.  I’ve currently got some scans running on it…  We’ll see what they turn up.

I’ve got D&D later today.  Continuing the campaign from our last session, which was months ago.  I’m honestly not quite sure where we left off…

I know I’ll enjoy myself once I get there, but with the stresses of work lately I’m really not feeling very social.  I’ve got a very strong inclination to stay home instead.

I knew it was only a matter of time, but I kind of hoped it would take longer – I’ve lost my first ship out in nullsec.

Terri was off at class.  I’d had a beer, and given myself a raging headache, and I was feeling kind of surly and bored.  I wanted to go blow things up, so I logged in to EVE.  Took my Drake out for a bit of ratting.

I did notice that there were some neutrals in 6VDT…  But I un-docked anyway.  That was my first stupid mistake.  I’d like to blame it on my still having the highsec mentality of neutrals being OK, but I really did notice them there and think about it for a moment.  But I wasn’t going to hang around in 6VDT, and there were a lot of friendlies in-system, so I figured it would be OK.

I undocked, immediately jumped to my insta-, then headed to a safe spot, then headed off to 7BX.

7BX had a few friendlies in it, and a neut, which was a little too crowded for my tastes.  So I continued along to AV-VB6.

AV-VB6 was pretty quiet, just a couple friendlies in-system.  So I jumped to the first belt and started looking for trouble…  But then I noticed a neutral in-system.  One of the same neutrals that’d been in 6VDT and 7BX.  Obviously somebody noticed me passing through, and decided I looked like an easy kill.

So, I warped to a safe-spot.  And to another one.  Bounced around for a bit.  But he didn’t go away.  Instead, a couple more neutrals showed up.  I decided I didn’t want to play anymore and thought I should dock up, which is where I got really stupid.

I should’ve just stayed at one of my safe-spots and logged off.  Instead, I decided I ought to head back towards 6VDT.

I figured I probably shouldn’t go back the way I’d come, since they were probably waiting on that gate.  So I headed for the XJP gate.  When I landed on that gate I saw that one of them was waiting for me.  I didn’t wait around to see what would happen, I immediately jumped through to XJP.

I felt pretty proud of myself for avoiding him…  But he just jumped through behind me.  I tried to warp to a planet, but I was scrambled before I could even align for warp.  I was absolutely shocked at how quickly I was locked and scrambled.  I had no idea you could be tackled that quickly.

Well, I hit my afterburner and headed back towards the gate, since I couldn’t warp away.  Saw a couple of his buddies jump in just as I got in range of the gate.  I again jumped out, and again felt pretty proud of myself for avoiding disaster…  But, once again, I was wrong.

They just jumped through behind me again.  And, again, I was tackled before I could do anything.  But instead of just a single frigate blasting me while I hurried back towards the gate, I had four ships firing on me.  Then I got webbed, and I wasn’t even moving towards the gate quickly.  It wasn’t long before my ship was shot out from under me.

Then, again, my pod was locked and scrambled almost instantly.  I was again amazed.  They offered to ransom me, but there wasn’t really much point.  The cost of a clone, I guess…  But I just tried to make for the gate instead.  It didn’t work, and they podded me as well.

The ship itself wasn’t a big deal, Drakes are cheap.  I didn’t have any interesting fittings on it.  I’ve got plenty of money.  I can replace it without any trouble.

I’m miffed that I lost the implants in my head…  But it isn’t like I actually purchased those – they were all rewards for running various missions in empire space.

I’m pretty annoyed at the ammo I lost.  I had just purchased a pile of missiles and loaded them into my cargohold before I undocked.  I hadn’t even had a chance to load them into the launchers yet.

But what really upsets me about this loss is how stupid it was.  It was entirely avoidable.  I had every opportunity to get out alive, and I just didn’t take them.

Had a largely uneventful and yet still frustrating day in EVE.

Contracted a bunch of junk to an out-of-corporation alt of mine, then flew her around selling stuff off.  Used the proceeds from that to purchase and fit some Hurricanes in Jita.  Then I contracted all that to a courier to get it out to Fountain.

Unfortunately, I was too cheap to pay for the super-expedited shipping…  So it won’t be showing up for a few days now.  Which means there isn’t a whole hell of a lot I can do in the mean time.

So, I played other games today…  Played some Dead Island, some Space Pirates and Zombies, tried my hand at Magicka…

But, throughout the day, I kept getting announcements about various fleet operations.  There must’ve been at least four fleets today…  And those are just the ones I saw announcements for.  I don’t know if there were more planned on the forums or calendar that nobody bothered announcing over Jabber.

I kept logging back into EVE to see if maybe my shipment had been delivered early…  But no luck.

I also kept checking the local market for ships and fittings.  For the most part, both the prices and selection are horrible.  But eventually I saw some Hurricanes available at a more-or-less reasonable price.  I picked one up, and some fittings, and took it out for a spin.

I didn’t do too much.  I’m still wary of the whole nullsec thing…  But I hopped over to a neighboring system and shot at some belt rats.  Got a couple million in bounties.  Nothing impressive, but it was the most productive I’d been all day.

I’m in a bit of a quandry…

I’m down in Fountain now, with nothing but a defenseless Manticore to my name.

I did a little research last night…  Looks like there’s a reimbursement program if your ship is fit properly.  And I can fit a nice Hurricane under that program.  So I figured I’d buy a couple Hurricanes and fit them appropriately…

Except that there aren’t any for sale out in the Fountain area.  Closest one was 12 jumps away, and cost more than I’d be reimbursed.  Cheapest one was about 20 jumps away, and it’d still cost too much.  Realistically, if I want to buy a Hurricane at a reasonable price, it is going to have to come from one of the major hubs…

The problem with that, is then getting the Hurricane out to the Fountain area.

Do I take my chances and try to pilot it down here myself?  Do I pay to have it shipped in?

Hauled my ass out to Fountain last night.

I’ve never really spent any time out in nullsec.  When I was in EVE University we did a PvP roam once or twice…  And while I was in Veldspar International we set up shop out in a lowsec area, and maybe roamed into nullsec once or twice…  I’ve poked my head into a wormhole or two…

But that’s really about it.  I’ve always stayed in the safety of Empire space.

So I was already apprehensive about heading out to nullsec.  But there’s also a warning on the Dreddit noob guide about undocking in Empire space.  I guess Dreddit is usually wardecced by at least a couple corporations, and empire space is typically fairly dangerous for a Dreddit pilot.

I honestly didn’t expect to make it out to Fountain alive.  I figured I’d get podded before I made it there.

But I’ve got a head full of +4 implants that I didn’t want to just throw away.  I could’ve clonejumped and left those behind in Empire space, for safe keeping…  But they don’t really do you much good if they aren’t in your head.  So I figured I’d try to make it down to Fountain alive.

I bought a Manticore, and fitted it with only a cloaking device and an afterburner.  I looked up a list of currently-operational jump bridges…  And I set off on my way.

I started out in Amarr, and was amazed that I didn’t get podded instantly.  There were plenty of neutrals in-system, but absolutely nobody hostile.  Made it out of there just fine.

Made it through several Empire jumps with no trouble.  Didn’t see a single hostile.

Then I got the warning that I was jumping into lowsec space, and am I sure I want to do that.  I disabled that warning, since it seems like that’ll be a little bit silly from here on out.

Lowsec was a little nerve-wracking, since it wasn’t terribly familiar…  But I made it through there without any trouble.

I came across a gatecamp right as I left lowsec, heading into nullsec.  Crept away from it while cloaked.  I don’t know if they saw me or not, but nobody bothered to engage.  Then I warped right into a bubble.  I was still cloaked though, so nobody aggroed me.

Once I made it to the first jump bridge things got much easier.  I started seeing friendlies in local instead of neutrals.  Made it to my destination in one piece.  Never even got shot at.  And that’s probably not much of an accomplishment…  But I’m feeling fairly proud of myself.

Now I just need to decide what I’m going to do with myself out here.

I won’t be flying that stealth bomber routinely.  I’ll probably sell that after I do a little initial scouting and set up some safe spots.  Maybe trade it for a Buzzard just so I’ve still got some stealthy mobility.  Maybe I’ll even fit that buzzard appropriately and try to do some exploration.

It looks like we’ve got access to some NPC missions out here…  But they’re Angel Cartel missions, and they don’t like me much.  I suppose I could train up some skills and start over from level 1 with them, if I really wanted to…  But I’m not sure I actually care that much.  And I have to assume they’d have me shooting at Empire targets, which isn’t something I really want to do after working so hard to repair my standings with everyone.

I guess folks normally go ratting in nullsec to earn money…  Which isn’t something I’ve really done.  I mean, I’ve shot up some belt rats before – but it was never a profitable venture in highsec.  I’ll probably give this a try and see how it works out.

I think I mentioned a little while back that I was interested in joining Dreddit, the Reddit corporation in EVE.

Well, I hit my three-month mark in Reddit over the weekend, and applied on Sunday.  Got accepted yesterday.

I haven’t done much yet…  Set up some forum accounts and installed TeamSpeak and things like that, but nothing in-game.  I’m going to have to move out to 0.0, and I’m a little apprehensive about that.  I’ve never done much out in nullsec.  The closest I ever got was the occasional PvP roam in EVE University, or hanging out in lowsec back in Veldspar International.  This is going to be quite the adventure for me.

I haven’t been doing anything terribly interesting in EVE lately.

I’m splitting my skill training between an assortment of trade skills and working towards an Incursion-ready Maelstrom.

I’ve been popping in and running roughly one mission a night…  Collecting my salvage…  Storing it up for a shopping trip on the weekends…  And I’ve also got PI running on a couple planets.  The oxygen complex I set up a little while back is fully functional, but not terribly profitable  The coolant complex I set up more recently is much more profitable.

But, for now, EVE is requiring a little more focus than I’ve got available.  At the end of a rough day, I just want to escape into something fun and fluffy – not a heavy, dystopian paradise.

To that end, I’ve been playing some other games to let off steam in the evenings…

Finished training Long Range Targeting V over the weekend…  Kind of disappointed with the results.

It only got me a few extra km of range.  I can lock things about 90 km away now.  I wanted to be able to target things well over 100 km away.

It looks like the only way I’m going to do that is with some kind of sensor booster…  But that’ll take up a mid-slot.  And I’m currently using those for my tank.  Don’t really want to sacrifice anything in there.

Bah!