Month: April 2015

I’m a heretic. I’m strange. I’m out of sync with modern … hype ?

Went to see the latest Avengers movie tonight. This one has the hype machine working overtime … But I think there’s a lesson there too.

Make your own mind about things ! Don’t go with the herd. Keep an open mind and make your own evaluation of what you’re seeing. I suspect a lot of the people who see Avengers 2 will be wowed by it, partly because the hype machine is telling them they should be. Us humans are very good at following the rest of that herd.

I guess you can tell I wasn’t overly thrilled by Avengers 2. Yes. It has the big booms, the explosions, loads of laser shots going everywhere. Hawkeye is allowed to be awesome. (He gets the chance to actually be a character instead of being more wooden than his arrows).

But I was disappointed ? Yep. So far this year I’ve seen (and I may miss some things out) :

Ex Machina – lots of thinks in this film. It keeps you guessing all the way through, who is telling the truth, who is being honest. Really enjoyed this one.
Big Hero 6 – film of the year so far. It had the booms but most important, it had a lovely story and engaging characters. One to enjoy as a feel good film.
Jupiter Ascending – was far more epic than Avengers 2. Rubbish story but it looked amazing. Kinda surprised that I haven’t erased it from memory yet. It was pretty awful.

And I know I’ve missed a few films off that list. (Hobbit 3 counts as last year and had the best mass battle sequences).

So there we go – Avengers 2. Half heartedly covers the battles, misses out on the feels and telegraphs pretty much everything. The first Iron Man was exceptional, the first Avengers was pretty good too. Winter Soldier was outstanding. But the rest have been, honestly, much of a muchness. Guardians of the Galaxy was great because it carried humour all the way through. And it had Groot and Rocket who stole the show.

But. What’s more important than going to the cinema ?

Going to the cinema with friends !!!

I’ll sit through anything to be with friends. (I’ll freely admit that I watched Twilight – and Kristen Stewart was more wooden than Hawkeye’s arrows). Friends are awesome. As well as being friends, with things like Avengers 2, they validate your opinion when you come out. Didn’t like it ? I didn’t like it either !

Perhaps this franchise is running out of steam. It’ll still make a tonne of cash for Marvel and there will be sequels. I’ll get the bluray – but not at full price. Bit like the two Thor movies and Captain America, I waited for those to get cheap. They didn’t excite the way movies Big Hero 6 did or make me think the way Ex Machina did. Or tear up the way (admittedly bad plot) Interstellar did. There is a bit near the end which should have made people sad but it’s a bit of a Shrug-Don’t Care moment instead.

But don’t take my opinion. Make up your own. It’s still a big spectacle, it’s not as bad as Jupiter Ascending (which dug a massive pit) but it’s not the stellar piece of awesome it’s been made out to be.

Hereth ends the review.

Haha – Saying all that, I did enjoy it. Or was that because there was a big smile appearing at the end when I turned the phone back on and had a message from an amazing person. Yes – I’ve had a trend lately of saying Very Nice Things about a particular person and I fully intend to continue. However ill that may make you feel. Ha ! It’s made me happy, made me smile and I feel it’s my duty to pass on the happy feels.

I still have the I-Hurts but I’m feeling better than the fraught me of yesterday. Part of that is anticipating a heavy week to come plus I’d missed lunch which always makes me cranky. Like the Hulk tried to say (in the actually pretty good Edward Norton film) “You wouldn’t like me when I’m … hungry.” Yep. On away trips, I always make sure I never get hungry while driving or it’s … Code Green.

I need a picture !

Perhaps that’s appropriate here. I enjoyed Iron Man so much partly because I had very little expectations of it. As more Avengers movies come out, our expectations rise. We expect more, we expect better. Perhaps it didn’t come off so well with this one. It fell a bit flat for me. Great baddie though.

Enjoyed the evening out, company was better than the movie.

Yep. It’s one of those again.

But … it’s not all bad. And it has nothing to do with a certain new device that may well be I-Hurt if you do the strap up too tight. Or get one of those metal straps which bite all the hairs off your wrist.

Nah. I’m not going to get the latest new fangled Apple thingymybobby. I don’t need it. (Like the iPads I’ve been eyeing up – I don’t need them). I’m quite happy with my … (deep thought and more fingers needed than I have to count) 17 year old Accurist. It’s done me well that one. I can read it without my glasses on (this is no easy thing) and I only have to change the battery every few years.

Oh my, this seems to be morphing into one of those rambling posts where I talk about anything and everything. (There’s a lesson in that)

It’s been one of those days today. We do a little bit too much strategizing at work, planning how to do stuff. Figuring out how to keep the disparate parts of the organisation working with the other parts. Conniving how to get the money for our stuff. Looking into the crystal ball to see what’s ahead. Dealing with “confidence levels” instead of hard facts. How much actual Doing do we do ? Sometimes, it feels like not much. I get pretty fed up with that after a while. Especially as all the scheming and politics interferes with me getting Stuff done.

All that stuff seems to have created its own ecosystem. A wise man once said (and I picked it up from a Civ 4 omnipedia entry) “The bureaucracy expands, to meet the demands of the expanding bureaucracy.” Yep. Silly.

But enough about that. Frustrations like that will only be solved by getting out of that environment and into something more useful. I’ve started looking there. But it does depend on the right opportunity opening up. There are other frustrations as well “We can’t do this because we’re too busy poking our noses into stuff outside our business” is one I keep hearing. I’m an integrator, I get my fingers lightly on everything, diving into the details when I need to. But I also recognise when to ignore the details and let the experts get on with it.

More people could do with leaving alone where their interference … well … interferes and hinders.

I’m getting this all out now aren’t I ?

Bring forth the pitchforks and light the torches !

The reason the frustration is coming out is because the tiredness is hitting again. I know why that is and it’s combined with my weight going up. My metabolism has gone into low gear again. That leads to tiredness, weight gain and a general feeling of lack of worth. Oh I’ve been feeling cold too. But it’s not just the Tired, the arms and legs have been hurting too.

I like to have my legs folded, it’s almost a compulsion. But the pain rising in my hips is making that … sore. My muscles have hit that imbalance where they try and cramp up at every opportunity. (They’re not that bad – yet. And I’ll use the “drink lots of water” treatment). My back feels constantly twisted and is also picking up that poorly muscle thing.

However – and this is where the lesson comes in.

When the bad feelings come in, do what you can to banish them. That’s harder for some than others. Definitely. But if you focus on the good, it can happen. So – and to go back to another pic from the archive :

With the youtube people, I could get angry that the messages I send don’t get the response I’d like. Or I could recognise that they’re busy people probably being bombarded with all sorts of stuff. Lesson – behave as you would like others to behave to you. Be good to people.

I’ll freely admit that I have way too much fast food from the local chippie and the KFC over at the Mall. They know me at those places now, probably because I smile at them and treat them with lots of respect. The smiles make both of us happy. It’s got to the point where they see me approaching the counter and break out in a “Hallo!!!” and smile. That’s awesome and really brightens up my trips to the Mall where I end up really flagging by the time it comes to munchies.

I really enjoyed the Comic Con trip. And I got a huge hug at the end of it. You can’t know how tempting it was to drive real slow by the end just to have a bit more time with Dear Heart. To give her more … normality (that sounds weird but there’s context which I’m not passing on) and a good day out with a caring friend.

And there’s that huge smile which breaks out when I get a message in. People have noticed that I’ve been feeling happier these past few months.

It’s coming from feeding that good wolf. Here’s a good wolf that we fed :

Yep. Dear old man Scruff again. We fed him as a pup, maybe 3-4 years old only. He’d been abandoned, presumably from a car in the middle of the N.Ireland countryside and he plopped down on our back door, starving and with ribs showing. And he stayed with us as our loyal friend, protector, postman scarer for the next decade and a half.

Did I mention randomness ? Think I did.

Yep. Tired now. Hurting somewhat. But those hurty feelings evaporate when I think of the smiles I get. From the ladies in the munchie places. From making the attempt to get smiles from the internet people. From sending crazy comments to friends and seeing the bemused amused responses. From hoping that from my actions, at least one person is happier or better able to cope with this life.

Lots of people are struggling at the moment, both at home and away. Try and make the world a better place by helping where you can. Whether that be by donations (I never really see how this truly helps), by being a trusted ear so people can talk through their problems. By passing on smiles where you can.

Smiles are awesome. They make all sorts of troubles fade away. Hugs are better. But hugs tend to draw slaps if the person you suddenly do a bear hug on wasn’t expecting it. Worse – I know a few short people who either wear shoes with spears or have devastating uppercuts. You know what I mean.

But smiles are good. Talking is better. It doesn’t help anyone to bottle up the problems until you hit breaking point. If you feel like things are getting on top of you, talk to friends, talk to colleagues. They’ll be happier helping you out than knowing you’re struggling. The good ones will anyway.

I’ve rambled enough – be good to people ! They may not return the favour but you’ll feel better for making the effort. It’s how you are that’s important. If they don’t reply, shrug, move on and smile at the next person.

Cya !

I’ve changed the look and feel …

It’s not set yet, there’s still lots of room for tweaking. And some “it ain’t perfect yet” procrastination too.

Why the change ? Regular readers will be fully aware that I follow various youtube gamer people. I found watching their gaming videos to be more fun than playing the games themselves. They’d add their unique character to what was happening on screen. One of those is Kim from the Yogscast and in her weekend vlog, she explained how dyslexic people can have trouble reading black text on a white background. Words will swap and move around, changing the meaning completely.

That made me think. Especially as I get similar issues too. If I’ve been looking at a page of text on a pooter screen for a while, when I look away I have scan lines across my vision. They fade quickly but yeah, that bugs me.

And then I thought – are visitors not coming back because they can’t read the text ? That’s never a good thing. We internet author people should be accomodating you. Yes, you. The person who is giving up their time to come read what we write, listen to what we record, watch the stuff we play.

I use a few tricks to try and make my Walls Of Text more readable.

That was one of them ;-). I find the one sentence short paragraph to be a good exclamation point or a think pause.

I’m open to more ideas for improving the readability but the basic theme will be white text on black. The way pooter screens work, there’s a bright back light which is filtered down into the image we see. So a white background glares out at you. I’ve had trouble reading my pages when sunlight is hitting the mobile screen. Perhaps it’s less battery hungry on mobiles.

Anyway – this is the second of two posts that have come from watching Kim’s vlog over the weekend. I quite enjoyed doing my sojourn to Pratchett’s Disc on Saturday. It reminded me that games are supposed to be fun and I’d been interfering with that fun by trying to log a trading route on a spreadsheet. That’s micromanaging, minmaxing and other nasty Not Fun things. I’m running the rares circle in a trading Clipper and trying to fill the ship up for each step. I’ve abandoned that and just gone back to just running the route and not worrying about filling the ship up.

Yep. I enjoyed the sightseeing trip and I’m back to enjoying the game again. Oh and the cricket in the background was great too. Guess which country won unexpectedly ? 🙂

I loved the response too :

Dear Heart – loved the pretty pilot pics. That makes producing them so much worth it.
Rhianna Pratchett (yep, that one) – had a peek at the post and favourited the tweets telling her about them. Rhianna Pratchett noticed me ! That’s awesome.
Pixie gave it a thumbs up – instant smile.
Kim didn’t look (I think) – but I kinda expected that.

Before I met Dear Heart, I was trying to get Kim to notice me. I’d been picking up on the “I’m so alone” comments on the videos. There were other cues too. And I’d been thinking – she’s amazing, she’s into similar games to me, I’m what she’s looking for. So you can imagine the frustration when all the attempts to communicate (hopefully not going over the line into stalker territory !) fell on deaf ears. You peek at the twitters and there’s not many responses from Kim to people who send her messages. Ok, there’s occasionally a little flutter but on the whole, the communication is just within the inner circle.

It’s a different face to what you see in the videos. Saying that, I don’t watch much of the Yogscast output now, they’re playing games (99% Minecraft) which just don’t interest me, the creativity has died. In my opinion. They still get hundreds of thousands of views but for me … yawn.

As you can tell, my heart’s looking in another direction now.

Towards someone who communicates, someone with huge empathy, someone who can understand my often quirky way of looking at things, someone who I can be utterly honest with (including the stuff that everyone hides behind the armour), someone interesting, someone who makes me break out into a MASSIVE Grin when I get one of her messages.

Someone awesome. And with an inner strength which astounds me.

I consider myself lucky to have crossed paths with her. Just wish I could see her more often because … virtual hugs are no substitute for little hands sneaking their way around you to wrap you in a big hug.

PS I was going to talk about other changes too – I’ve got a very good idea what my bathroom will be when refitted. Just need to :
Actually go to Wickes before the design people go to bed.
Check out more options
Figure out why some people do taps that you literally can’t put your hands under (you’ve seen this in pubs haven’t you ?).
Get the house into a standard that I’d be happy exposing visitors to.

Haha – the game background or the white text on black ?

The background is a bit…. stark… [grin]

PS There's been a colour change too which I hope will make things easier for dyslexic people, I know a few of them and I've noticed the word skip problem a bit myself (could be why I occasionally miss words …). I'll switch the mobile template around too.

Yep. It’s another internet spaceships post but … read on. There are shinies. Or at least, just look at the pictures !

I’ve been feeling that temptation today to :
Head outside
Enjoy that sunshine
Go watch the new Avengers movie (I hear it’s a cracker)

And I could do with shopping for some more shirts too because I’m getting more and more Friday meetings where I have to travel, look relatively respectable, wear a tie (ugh) and all those other things. I know, first world problems. I could do with checking out Ikea’s bathroom options too.

But not today because, much as I’d like to immediately watch that new Avengers movie, I’d rather watch it with friends (and one in particular but she’s not so much a fan of superhero movies). It is good though that I’ve improved to the point where I can happily switch plans to do something Fun.

Nah. What I really wanted to do today was unpressured chillout. You know, the type of chillout that comes from spending all day in super comfortable clothes and away from the stresses of being around people. Especially those people when they’re behind the wheel of a car. Driving in Bristol can be Nasty. I also wanted to be listening to great music too, at the moment it’s Pink Floyd’s Animals album, which is … weird. Next are a bunch of random tracks before Rodrigo y Gabriela.

It’s forming a background to the pilgrimage.

So where am I off to ? It’s in Elite and a lovely little lady gave me the idea when I was watching her vlog this morning.

I missed a trick because I took that pic a couple of jumps in. It’s a loooong way to where I was going. 340 light years in fact. Elite’s galaxy models our galaxy. Most of it is procedurally generated and contains fictional space stations but … it’s our galaxy. One of the appeals of the game is that you can break away from trading or bounty hunting and just go off to the wild … black yonder. In this case, it’s me going off to HIP 74290. I’ll tell you what’s there in a bit :-).

But on the way – here’s a few examples of why Elite has my attention at the moment (click for full 1080p lushness)

Those last two are of the star I went to visit. The stars above are examples of the variations in the game. There was a brown dwarf in there too which I thought was a neutron star first up, I legged it from that quickly. That’s a fairly expensive ship I’m flying there … And I don’t want it bouncing off either a neutron star or being sucked into a black hole.

But I wasn’t there to visit the star. A very special tribute was recently added to the game and here’s me halfway to it :

Check that name. Here’s the full scale of the station when you get there :

Of course I had to be a poser :

And take a selfie after landing too :

I’m about to get myself a hot chocolate before heading back in slow mode. Even fast mode took 20 jumps to get there so I don’t know how long slow mode will take ! But I hope this shows one aspect of Elite. It is imaginary (like a book!) but you can just take off and go somewhere new. Some people take a pilgrimage to the centre of our galaxy. I plan to see if I can do a circle around the galaxy. Not in the Cookie Clipper above but in an explorer ship more suited to the trip.

Maybe tomorrow for Avengers 2 ?

Before I close, a few mentions :
For someone who I’m wondering if she’d like me to take her to Avengers 2 (even though she’s not keen on the superheroes, there’d be a few safetyhugs in it for her !)
For a Pixie who I hope will appreciate tributes like this, she’s a huge fan.
For Rhianna who I know dad would be bursting with pride knowing she’s minding the store.
For Kim who gave me the idea to do this pilgrimage today

But lastly and most important, we’ll miss you sir : GNU Terry Pratchett.

There’s some me-stuff coming later but since knocking up this :

I’ve wanted to post it in lots of places.

I’m especially proud of this one. It only took maybe 10 minutes to create from the original :

I really love the job the yard boys have done with that paint job. Very shiny. Very purple. And it only took maybe 10 minutes to create in GIMP. I’m getting on better with that programme too. They can take some figuring out but anyone could do that conversion job. Yep. You too !

What does take a little … inspiration is how far you go in things like selecting the bits to recolour (I use the magic-thingy which selects blocks of similar colour but too keen and you’ll change the colour of things like the landing pad) and what to recolour it to.

When I photomanipulate things, I’m usually only 90-95% happy (if that) with the results. But I like that one above. It’s shiny. But enough of game stuff.

I’ve felt really good today.

That’s all part of having those manic depressive tendencies. If you’re good, you’re flying. If you’re down, it’s a real struggle. When I’m up, strange messages tend to start flying around. Hopefully amusing but it can take that little bit of decoding to untangle the weird humour.

If you could call it humour.

I hope it makes people chuckle at least. What’s triggered it off today ?

Messages to Lovely People. A few lovely people actually. One in particular last night while I was preparing to look at bathrooms.
(When manic, I could probably be described as an outrageous flirt. But … it’s deep’n’meaningful for just one particular lady at the moment. I hope she realises who she is !)
Random people coming to peek here. When I see a familiar fingerprint on the hit logs, I translate it as being familiar people who care. Nice people who are interested in what I write. You’re AWESOME.

Actually, you don’t know how much of a lift that gives. Although I suspect some of the hits I translate as “Yey ! Person A has come to peek” are actually random people. The sitemeter and statcounter logs are only triggered on the web version of this blog and even then only if Javascript is allowed through. The mobile version is only triggered at source (Google) and Google’s log only tells me : Country, OS, Browser, Page, Link used. All info is kept private and I will never disclose that. (It’s my duty under all those data protection obligations)

Yep. Those visits make me smile, make me grin, they really brighten up my day. But I’ll keep it between you and me. Promise. Unless you comment or hit that like/favourite button on Facebook or Twitter. That’s even more awesome than just coming to visit.

Work’s been decent too. Yep. I’m insanely busy with covering 3 posts at the moment but things are getting done. Not as much as I’d like but we aren’t dropping anything breakable at the moment. Performance review time was today and … the forms have turned into a meaningless random dartboard but the feedback from the bosses is still good. They like having me around, I add value.

And for someone who depends on their confidence level, that’s HUGE. I can and should do better but that’s something everyone should be saying. That’s not self doubt, it’s just analysing what you do to see what could be done better.

I still have those problems to tackle :
My outsides still hate me. Getting better but oh so slowly.
Need to refit the bathroom.
Heating needs fixing.
House needs a severe tidy.
And various other things too. More cash would be nice.

When I’m in the up part of the cycle, those problems seem oh so much easier to handle.

May your mood be good too. And remember, you may just be one sundae away from feeling awesome. Yep. That’s part of why I’m feeling good, great dinner at the local Harvester again (before buying all the biscuits in the supermarket) topped off by a Rocky Horror Sundae.

Sundae’s are awesome.

I’ve been struggling for things to write about lately. Enough, in fact, that I have a little fear that playing the games more is having a bit of a “All Work And Some Play Make Sleepy Dull” effect.

Strange.

But one of my best and dearest friends, someone who always has that knack of making me look in the right direction to go in again, has given me an idea. Happy songs ! So here we go.

I’ll start with one especially for someone who’s recently become a very special friend. It’s The Sea by Morcheeba, sung by that angelic songstress Skye Edwards. Lovely chill out, both in the music and the words.

Next up is one that’s always been a Happy Song favourite. It’s Alisha’s Attic with The Incidentals. Have a listen, you’ll quickly see why I like the joy inherent in that song.

I can never do one of these without including a Cardigans track. This one isn’t Cardigans, it’s from Nina Persson’s A Camp project. Perhaps not a happy track in terms of super-bouncy-happy but it tells a story of mismatched singles finding a perfect partner. I like the story that Song For The Leftovers tells.

How could I leave out Mr Blue Sky ? Love that song. And I know a Skye who could easily use the Ms Sunshine nickname I gave to another lady. Cos when she smiles, giggles or chuckles, everything seems brighter. Don’t be blue Skye, shine bright !

And while we’re talking about something irresistably lovable, check out I Do Adore from Mindy Gledhill. Very sweet, very innocent, smiles guaranteed.

A few more that get me sitting up, listening and almost certainly (sorry about this) singing along are :
Paramore – The Only Exception
Norah Jones – Man Of The Hour
Katie Melua – Shy Boy
Nina Simone – Here Comes The Sun
Lucy Spraggan – Last Night (Beer Fear) (starts at 1m15)
(I don’t watch X Factor – but that video is awesome)
Gloria Estefan’s naughty Love Toy
Hannah Peel – The Almond Tree, sad song but somehow makes you smile
KT Tunstall – enchanting that first audience with Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

Going back a bit, there’s River City People’s version of California Dreamin’. There’s that lady with long black hair thing again. But this is a lady with an incredible voice singing an incredible song.

Talking of that, I could never do happy songs without a Kate Bush mention or an All About Eve mention. AAE’s Goth nature tends to lead to maudlin but they occasionally come out with something super-happy like Pyjamadrama (I know that’s on YT somewhere …). And what could be happier than a Wow moment.

Showing that something of supreme beauty can come from unexpected beginnings are dance group Dirty Vegas with the acoustic version of Days Go By. Gorgeous. Air are another dance group but … just have a listen to You Make It Easy.

Oh – Duffy. You are so special but so special no one really understands how to get the best out of you. They keep trying to put you in a mould that will never fit. But with songs like My Boy …

I was just thinking about Edie Brickell this morning. Another unconventional singer, she keeps getting the best out of what she has. Songs like Tomorrow Comes open an album out and get that toe tapping and that mouth twitching into a smile.

I’ll close with one last one. It’s Goldfrapp’s Utopia, which closes out Felt Mountain. It’s a perfect showcase for Alison’s wonderful voice.

There’s a few more who I’d like to include songs from here. People like Sleeper, Snow Patrol, The Staves, Suzanne Vega, Abba, Tori Amos, Bat For Lashes … but they do mostly sad songs. Perhaps another time 🙂

I’ve been really enjoying being space pilot guy in the new Elite game.

And I have to admit, it’s actually Cmdr Iceangel in game, not Cmdr Sleepy ! But before we dive into fictional spaceships, here’s (not quite) a real one :

Looks like a successful launch today ! SpaceX are doing something new. It’s their second attempt, hopefully it works this time. What are they doing ? They’re attempting to land and therefore recover, the first stage of their latest rocket but having it do X marks the spot on the barge above.

They called it “Just Read The Instructions”. Gotta love ship names which have character. I’ve been trying to carry on that theme with the Elite ships. More of that in a bit. Looks like they have repairs to do to JRTI. The launch went off well, hopefully the Dragon spacecraft it’s carrying will rendezvous with the International Space Station in a few days but the first stage rocket landed too hard to be recoverable. They’ll learn and figure out how to do it.

Thought I’d better say that it’s not all games …

Been back at work for 2 fairly hectic days now. It’s been tiring but we’ve been getting stuff done so that gives its sense of reward.
Bathroom needs sorting out. I know there’s a leak under the bath but when I’ve had the chance to try and find the leak (i.e. using the bath!), no fault find. That’ll drive me nuts for a while but …
I think I want to get that bathroom changed and sorted out anyway. Must investigate options.
Skin is steadily getting better but it’s ridiculously easy to damage it. Especially when I’m trying to get to sleep and fidget-reflex takes over. But it’s getting there.
Feeling older. I’ve put the weight back on (meh). I think it’s due to the Cetirizine anti-histamines I was put on by the doc’s a while ago. Those have had positive effect in the past but also side effects – taking one before a game would give me slightly better breathing but would also take all the power out of my legs and make them feel heavy. We’ll see what happens when they run out in a week, plus I’ll hopefully get the munchie discipline back again. I don’t like being too heavy.

But that’s all banalities. I’d rather think about fun stuff :

Meeting up with Cupid’s Gift ! May that not be long before it happens again. She’s fun and we can really open up to each other with the natter. And she gives Great Hug too.

And the gaming. At the moment, the favoured game is Elite Dangerous (when the next Deus Ex game comes out, it’ll be that). In fact, Elite is sufficiently good that it’s verging on addiction again. It’s not – I recognise the signs of addiction and to be honest, I think I’ve broken gaming addiction. Although I should really be reading more than I am. I do suspect I may end up playing Elite more than I should over the next week or so.

Adventures of Cmdr Sleepy ?

I’ve done most of what Elite has to offer now. It lets you be a space truckin’ hauler guy, a bounty hunter and it also lets you do exploring. I started out doing the space truckin’ thing, before making a decent amount of cash smuggling rare stuff around. I’ve done a bit of exploring, although I’m yet to do the excursion to the galactic core. There’s a super massive black hole there … And I’m currently doing the bounty hunting thing.

I’ve had the various thoughts while playing it. Excited, bored, playing it to avoid being bored, risk/reward cycling and just plain enjoying escaping this mundane (see banalities above) world to be that space pilot little boys dream of being. I think that’s why I’m still playing it, despite having seen most of what it has to offer.

So which of its toys have I been playing with ?

(click to enlarge and legibility !)

You start off in the humble Sidewinder. It didn’t take me long before I could upgrade that to an Adder and after that, the Cobra Mk3 from the first game. The Cobra is a marvellous ship, nimble, cheap and with a cargo hold that’s starting to get usable.

But then I switched to the get rich quick scheme of running rare items around and that meant downsizing the hull to get a Bigger Engine. So it was back to a small unarmed hauler, then upgrading through Adder, Cobra, a Type 6 Lakon and finally an Asp. The haulers aren’t much fun to fly. They get you from A to B but they’re slugs to maneouvre. So in a dogfighting game, they can’t get the hits in. Pirate people will run rings around you and your only option is to run away. It was great fun in the Asp because I could start firing back …

However, a Community Goal came along and the Asp was suddenly not big enough … I like these in Elite. It feels like you’re in a living galaxy and then they add in tasks for you to help with. I’ve helped twice so far, once was an exploration effort with the premise of finding colonisation sites. The second was to get as many metals as possible to a station to help with the building of a fleet of Imperial Clipper ships :

Pretty ship, although that cockpit and forward fuselage does look a bit airlinery.

I don’t have one of those though. Due to a lesson learned …

If your ship is blown up while trying to Run Away Bravely (Not screaming – honest), then it’s a good idea to throttle back to zero when next leaving a space station. Yep. You guessed it. Throttles were still set to full forward and I didn’t help matters by hitting the afterburner booster button while looking for the “up” button on my stick. And I ended up immediately following my first loss of a ship in the game by pancaking a second into the side of a space station.

Oops.

I kinda had enough of hauling stuff at that point, so I sold the Type 7 hauler (name – Has All The Cookies) and replaced it with a Vulture fighter.

This a small instrument of death and destruction via pew-pew and boom-boom. I have it set up to have one laser (good for shields) and one Big Cannon (good for putting holes in hulls). And this is where the game scores. If you get bored with hauling stuff, then you can go bounty hunt for a while. If you get bored with the pew-pew, you can go exploring.

I’ll be doing the pew-pew thing for a bit, hopefully to earn enough reputation (and cash) to let me buy one of those Clippers.

I’ll see you in the spacelanes. Mine will be the one with Pink Furry Dice hanging from the cockpit mirror and a line of dwagons on the dash.