Sleepypete's Pillow

Hello everyone,

I may have opened Stellaris again today. This is very dangerous. I have managed to extract myself from it though. (Smells were coming from the kitchen and I didn’t want that to turn into burny smells)

What’s behind the doors ?

Milk and Cookies again today, with someone who I think is a guard of some kind. Ah ha ! Jays Brick Log comes through again and it’s the pilot of yesterday’s Cloud Car.

The emblem in the background is for Commander Shepard of Mass Effect’s N7 space marine organisation. The best of the best and all that.

Before I do Elitecember’s theme for today, I’m going to mention buying stuff. Elitecember includes a quick drawing today ! Hurrah, drawing soon. Natter later. Or natter first. I think part of my brain is still subjugating the xenos in Stellaris. My neck definitely is.

I’m seeing the usual offers pop up for places like Steam, Humble and I’m even on the Epic Games store as well now. But I haven’t pulled the trigger on anything yet. Probably very soon. I think it’s because I’ve collected a bunch of games that I just haven’t played and acquiring more seems like a waste. Maybe I’m being more careful with my money. Maybe I’m thinking of house stuff that needs to be acquired. The cooker is the latest. It still cooks stuff actually quite nicely but the fan’s died on it. Just means you cook things for longer.

It’s Amazon too … I haven’t bought any new music for a while. Probably soon, when I come back from the Xmas break. Posts are going to be a little weird over the next few days by the way. I need to do a couple more drawings, including another attempt at a real face … We’ll see how that works out.

For now though, the Steam cart has 4 things in it :
Far Lone Sails – a charming side scrolling adventure game.
Stellar Tactics – a promising looking space strategy game.
1000 days to escape – a fun looking game about getting Earth’s population to escape before a calamity hits
Motorsport Manager DLC – something I’d avoided so far but it’s only £1.50.

Fuzzy playing Alien Isolation has me more curious about that game again. Surprisingly though, it’s only on the standard 15% off sale on Humble and not on sale on Steam. Must look at Amazon again.

Elitecember’s theme of the day is the Sidewinder :

That’s going all the way back to the start of my character and the ship is the Money Spider. The tiniest ship in the collection that’s still a full fledged starship.

There’s the one from my previous save, named Humility.

The Sidewinder is essentially just a box with a hyperdrive on it. A small, get you going ship. Nippy. Couple of guns, bit of cargo space. You could get going quickly in it doing fast courier missions between neighbouring stars.

Dwagon’s first starship if you will. He looks excited. may the little ship do him proud.

See you tomorrow !

Hello everyone,

Advent Day 21 and what do we have :

There we go. Another gingerbread marshmallow, being a cloudy base for the Bespin Cloud Car from Star Wars today. Nice little model, one of the best of this bunch. I put in last year’s Cloud City (and cloud car) model too, just behind there.

Today’s Mass Effect is more concept art from Mass Effect 3, where the enigmatic and relentless Reapers have arrived to wreak terrible destruction on the sentients of the galaxy. They were a group of machine AIs, which would return every 50,000 years or so to wipe out all those sentients who were beyond a certain level of sophistication and it’s our turn when Mass Effect comes along. The DLC of Mass Effect 3 adds a little more backstory to what we knew. Must play through the games again sometime, although I have that “I have many other games unplayed … it’s a shame to go back to one that’s been finished”.

I’ve been having another flying day today. For nebulae, I thought I’d run an expedition* that’s popped up with the title “First Nebula Circle For Rookie and Salted” and it was a good, quick 13,000ly or so around a small selection of the nearby nebula. (One issue – there are heavy permit locked zones between two early waypoints and it needs a bit of a zig zag).

*Expedition – this is something that EDSM tracks and assists in the organisation of (Linky). I don’t join in with the multiplayer aspect but I have enjoyed using them as a series of waypoints to find Shiny Pretty Things In Space.

But before that, today’s theme is “Triple Elite”. I’m not quite there yet :

Getting closer though. I reached the rank of Elite Explorer earlier in the year. That’s gotten a lot easier since this character restart, mostly due to the vast improvement in the exploration system. There’s a full list of the ranks at this convenient link. A bit more trading and I’ll hit Elite in that one as well (Tycoon is the last but one rank) but combat will need more work. That’ll come in time. Expert in combat is the middle rank with Master, Dangerous, Deadly before Elite.

But I do enjoy the exploration more than the combat or the trading. Where was I today ?

A slightly moody shot looking on at a very distant Rosette Nebula.

Little bit of ring surfing along the way.

A spectacular close up of the Rosette.

And heading off again. I was very curious here about how the cockpit was casting a shadow over the bow of the ship.

The Python isn’t supposed to be that good at exploration, because the jump range isn’t as extreme as some ships … but the Odo’s Courage has done me proud. There’s still an almost 54ly jump range on this one, although I was missing the detailed surface scanner and didn’t fit a rover bay. It was handling neutron star transits very nicely without being bounced around as much as the Asp or Orca were.

Next stop was a little teaser of the Jellyfish Nebula.

And closer in. I have to say I’m loving the Predator paint jobs. I switched the colour out before this run started and the more purple shades have been very pretty.

There was no rover on board but I thought I’d still try and get a landing in. Gas Giant is peeking over the horizon as well.

And we’re off again, this is what I was seeing while heading through hyperspace to another neutron star.

The game allows for some truly spectacular shots.

Finishing up for today, the last stop on the trip took me to the California Nebula.

And looking back at the sun.

That’s all folks for today ! See you tomorrow and if you’re disappearing to Xmas festivities, have a great holiday.

Hello everyone,

Advent things first but there’s a fair few shiny screenshots coming afterwards … definitely worth it :-D.

Advent Day 20 and behind the doors we see :

Lovely backdrop today. Back to that in a bit. There was almost a catastrophe today as the rather heavy Mass Effect poster book decided to fall over and flop into the Lego … Oops.

Marshmallow of the day is a Salted Caramel marshmallow, which is one of the packs I’ll pick up when I get the chance (or if I’m ordering, which will happen after Xmas !). Tasty and different. It’s good to go for different.

No idea what the Star Wars thingy of the day is, I’m guessing that it’s the Ion Cannon that protects the Hoth Base.

In the background we see SR2 Normandy, the ship that sees you through Mass Effect 2 and 3, this time in Systems Alliance colours. She’s a heavy frigate, upgraded from the ship you have in the first game. The Normandy was a prototype experiment, engineered and designed for maximum stealth. (The lore in game is really good at expanding this out) The idea being that the ship is your hub from going from place to place and can get in and get out without alerting any hostile people with say, anti space ship guns. You can walk around the ship too, visit the various spaces and talk to the crew. They feel like living ships that could properly do a job in their universe. They’re fighting ships too, unlike the unarmed scout ship of Mass Effect Andromeda.

The design follows that aim, of a fighting stealth frigate … but they also made it a pretty one too. A great centrepiece for the games and when a Certain Event happened in Mass Effect 2, that was incredibly sad to watch happen. (No spoilers)

The Elitecember theme today is Nebula … Bit had to draw one of these because it’s essentially a cloud in space. I’ve visited some before and posted the screenshots but I thought for today’s post, I’d go on a journey.

I dropped off my previous ship and headed over to pick up the Python (not had a penguin in years), refitting it as a basic explorer. No rover this time around … partly due to fitting the ship in a rush !

Paint job update – check it out :-D.

One thing you get in this game is a certain sense of perspective, as massive objects in space like Nebulae steadily increase in size and detail as you get closer. That particular nebula is quite far off.

Passing by the various suns on the way to top up the fuel tanks.

Just a bit closer and heading for the eye.

Just taking a moment …

And then heading off to another target, the NGC 2353 nebula. Just a little cloud in the distance at this point (I think around 1500 ly away!)

And taking another moment …

The latest expedition definitely found one of the pretty nebulae.

And arrival ! This is where I started looking for a place to land tonight. Sadly no rover this time around but I was still looking to see if there was somewhere to land …

What did I find in the end ? Well, one place is waiting for a later post but …

I wonder if the sentients on that world have a mythology around their local space phenomena ?

Apologies ! Late one today.

Let’s see …

Watched the new Star Wars movie today, liked it. It’s not for all the fans, some will hate it, some will love it. Me ? I’d happily go see it again while it’s in the cinemas. It was a nice finish to the saga. And that’s all I better say before I head into the spoiler zone …

What’s behind the doors today ?

There we go.

Sitting in the back contemplating an unknown sun sits the Illusive Man. Enigmatic figure behind the Cerberus organisation of the Mass Effect universe. No one knows his motives, outside of being a human supremacist willing and prepared to do anything he can think of to further his aims. Oh wait, that pretty much sums him up. You don’t see him in the first game but he’s a central plot character to the second and third games, like him or loathe him. (Spoiler – you’re more than likely going to loathe him).

Another S’mores marshmallow today, dipped in tasty breadcrumbs. Probably the best of the marshmallows I hadn’t had before this advent calendar. And being propped up on top, a beastie which I think is a Mynock from Episode 5.

They’ve done well in pulling in figures and characters and ships from all the films so far. Whether that’s the droids, droid carrier and droid tank from the first, Ach-to Island from the new movies, Rebel Troopers and Chewie from pretty much all the movies … Turrets and Gunners from eps 4 and 6.

It feels like a good tribute for all the movies.

Today’s Elitecember theme is Combat Zone … Gotta be honest, I don’t have much for this one. I’ve been distracted this evening too, so no drawing (and not much idea for one either to be honest !) Let’s see …

Yeah, got nothing really from the Elite files. However …

Yeah … It’s gonna be daft stuff :-D.

You go get that red dot kitty !

Ben was always keen to do battle over Toy.

I never did find out who won this one.

My money’s on the speeder.

Wearing my shiny new dice t-shirt today.

It was fantastic watching these people do battle throughout their Round the World Yacht race. I’ll see everyone tomorrow, a little earlier but before I go. I cannot resist giving one Star Wars spoiler …

 Time to run.

Hello everyone,

Late one today, just finished watching The Last Jedi again ahead of watching the last one in the series probably tomorrow. Got things to do and they’ll take me near a cinema … Convenient huh ?

Well, maybe not quite as advantageous as it sounds because my ankle is still poorly and I should really be resting it completely.

What’s behind the doors today ? Small confession, this was meant a little bit as a Behind The Scenes pic …

There we go. I’m happy with the set up, where I have last year’s Advent Calendar box lifting everything up to a good level compared to the Mass Effect pictures. What I tried to show there was my left arm holding up a rather heavy other end of the posters book … while my right hand is holding the camera. It’s needed some nifty fingering and the timer to get the pictures, hopefully they’re working out !

4D is still around but he’s left the stage to my microwave hot cow this time. 4D will be back. One negative thing I think from this set up is that the new lego is disappearing into the backdrop that they’re standing on. They’re not distinct enough. Always learn, always keep an eye on what you can do better, while recognising what’s good enough to do again next time.

In the background, we have Turian Rebel Garrus Vikarian posing with his sniper rifle. Lovely voice on the Garrus, another bit of excellent voice acting brings the character to life. Garrus is a bit of a lost soul in the first game (I almost said movie there and the Mass Effect games can be a bit like long movies in their storytelling and events). But you help him find a direction. A moral compass. A prompt as to whether to go towards light or dark.

Oh – tonight’s might be a quick one because it’s late already and I kinda need to hit Publish before midnight again !

Marshmallow of the day is another Butterscotch marshmallow and it’s being guarded there by a Rebel Trooper. However the Rebel Trooper could not save this marshmallow. I feel there should be a MUAHAHA in there somewhere. Hmm.

Today’s Elitecember theme is “Rebuy”. I’ll start with the drawing today … and it’s a bit more of a development in to ideas for how the dwagons would fit in to a cockpit. Not easy with a tail, wings and those ears …

Yep. Not looking good for our Dwagon Commander today ….

Poor fella, sitting in his pilot’s seat, hearing scary warnings going off all around … ship coming to bits … so he has to go for the last resort and eject lest he share the fate of his failing ship. Normally an ejector seat sees the pilots reaching down between their legs for the pull thing that triggers the explosive ejection system. But … the arms are kinda short there so there’s a pull thing that has a chain going to the ejector handle.

Ingenious dwagons being ingenious.

It actually might have to be more like a folding in survival cell than a float in space in a suit thing. The ears and wings make it very awkward to fit on suit and helmet. I’ve seen the survival cell idea before … Timothy Zahn wrote it in to his Conquerors Trilogy. Things didn’t go well for the humans and their fleet finds itself coming to bits, with the designed in survival cells forming around the occupants as escape pods. Neat idea.

But yeah, the rebuy system kicks in in the game when your ship goes :

Uhoh.

Everything went dark, save for the explosions. This was a Type 9 at the weekend, one of two that went BOOM. It’s not a mission ship. It was strange actually, I usually have no problem navigating out of interdictions and to safety … the attacker this time was from a mission, so they must have been considerably more difficult / powerful than the average.

Quite quickly after the boom you see this :

That’s the rebuy screen. For the cost of 5% of the value of the ship, you can have the same one back again with all upgrades and equipment in place. If you can’t quite afford that, then you can turn off bits of kit. If you can’t afford it at all, you have to choose the other option, which is the basic Sidewinder again.

The idea is that you should never fly without enough credits to afford the rebuy, otherwise it’s a bit too much risk. My Commander is running on quite a bit of credits in the bank at the moment though, so that’s not a problem. I don’t think this one will be wanting for money any time soon, although I will need probably double that to fit out the big ships. There’s no rush.

The rebuy is a bit of a strange system actually, you only pay the insurance cost when you lose a ship so the insurers are losing 95% of the value when they pay out. They don’t make any money. Still, it’s a game and not a real life thing.

Phew !

Off now, probably seeing that last Star Wars film tomorrow so I don’t have to be paranoid of spoilers (and cos I’ve always been a Star Wars Star Trek devotee). Don’t worry, I’m not planning to give out any spoilers. And then off work until 6th Jan ! (With a possibility of having to come in for Something. I’m not sure if Something will happen though)

See you tomorrow for “Combat Zone”. I think that one’s going to need a little imagination …

Day 17 !

What’s behind the door today ?

I erm … had to censor that a little to make it blog friendly. No one will notice. (I’ll get back to that in a bit).

Mint Choc Marshmallow today ! These are my pick of the bunch. Very tasty. Beside it we have an escape pod, from the original Star Wars movie. Where could those droids be ?

And the Mass Effect picture of the day is Jack, crazy psychotic biotic with a grudge against pretty much anything. Although, as the character develops, a softer side appears from underneath the crazy destructive side. Jack’s another great character, utterly unique in that universe. Harsh at first appearance but there are massive hidden depths there as you get to know her.

But … part of that uniqueness is the outfit and Jack doesn’t wear very much on top. The outfit can be optimistically described as “straps”. So I had to add something …

The Elitecember theme today is SRV, which is the rover. I wanna talk about a couple of other rovers though, a couple are from Mass Effect !

That’s the MAKO, from the first game. A tough little buggy with a big gun. It sees you through the planetary exploration sections and is a neat extra little thing to do. There was a Mako Mountain Climbing t-shirt a while ago. Still want it. Apparently MAKO is available in papercraft too …

And then there’s the Nomad, from Mass Effect Andromeda. This one was more of a scout vehicle and the control scheme was more developed. I should go back to Mass Effect Andromeda at some point.

There we go.

But how about the dependable rover of the Elite universe ? I’m gonna open this time with a drawing …

Might be a bit dim again. The coloured pencils I picked up are pretty hard and the colour doesn’t transfer quite as well as I’d like. However … I’m looking to develop this into a more sketchy style. Instead of filling the surfaces, I’ve attempted to use shading that follows the line of those surfaces.

Like in the Kolo Kult Leader pic :

The robe and feet are too wide and I need to figure out faces. But … hopefully some more of the details are there ! This particular pic is picking up on a developing meme that our Kolo is the leader of a potato cult. Not-a-cult, honest.

Oneofus oneofus oneofus oneofus oneofus.

Errrr … How about the SRV in game ?

I called that one “Thargoid Crumbs”.

Other stuff ? I did some shooting of things in Elite earlier, partly in the hunt for a Shields screenshot. Will have to see what got acquired. And then I had to do more shooting of things in Elite when underestimating the powers of the little fighters that can be equipped to ships. Scratch another ship … Oops.

I watched The Force Awakens tonight, I should be able to watch The Last Jedi tomorrow ahead of watching the new movie on Thursday. There’s a chance to watch all 3 movies in town tomorrow night but I don’t fancy my chances of getting there for a 6pm showing and definitely think the chances of munching something before would be remote.

Finished Athabasca last night, that book took far longer than it should ! Another Alastair MacLean and a ripping yarn as always. I was just always a bit too distracted on other things. I think it’s going to be Ignition next.

Kaboom 🙂 See you tomorrow.

Hello everyone,

Advent Day 16 ! What does it bring today ?

Apparently I have taken that one from the wrong side, with the Lego Thingy pointing the wrong way !

Another S’mores marshmallow today. Tasty good and dipped in breadcrumbs. The Lego Thingy is something that dates back to Episode 1 : The Phantom Menace and it is one of the Multi Troop Transports, which brings all the battle droids to the yard. Here’s what someone has pulled out of quite probably, one of the illustrated manual things :

Click for bigger.

Gonna have to watch the Star Wars films again at some point. Yep. All of them. I haven’t been watching many movies at home lately, stream watching, game playing and drawing have been favoured instead. I still have some blurays (and dvds) that I haven’t watched yet, although I’ve been doing better at resisting buying Stuff for the sake of owning it, rather than me being likely to watch it. Stuff takes up space and needs money that could go on other Stuff.

Like Elite paint jobs ! Haha, not bought any of those since the couple for the Python, although some will appear at some point.

Not long now until disappearing on leave …. and quite possibly straight in to watching the latest Star Wars on Thursday. Maybe. We shall see.

Mass Effect for today is a bit of a whopper of a spoiler … it’s Urdnot Wrex sitting on a throne. How could he have got there ? He was a dispossessed wanderer in the first game. What could have happened ? The Wrex story is a decent one and weaves its way through all of the games.

Today’s Elitecember post is Thargoids … These guys have gone through a renaissance since the first game :

Look at that ! Wireframe 3d graphics on a home computer, 35 years ago. This hadn’t been seen before and pushed the limits of what was possible. 10 years later, this arrived :

The Thargoids took a break from Frontier Elite 2 but they came back for the third game Frontier First Encounters. They are the only major alien race in today’s Elite galaxy, at least they’re the only one to make their presence felt. (There are also the forerunner Guardians but they are gone, leaving only automated defences and relics behind).

An enigmatic bunch, harbouring a decent amount of aggression due to naughty acts done to them (like an attempt at genocide) by people in the Elite galaxy. It’s a rough, tough place … Today, they’ve taken on a more organic, knarly, rocky look :

That one was taken planetside but I’ve seen them in space as well. I haven’t been pulled out of hyperspace yet but I’ve seen that happen to Kolo. They’re an advanced alien race, with systems that disrupt our spaceships and they don’t like us very much … Here’s what they did to a starbase :

Yep. Few repairs needed I think.

That’s it for today ! Back tomorrow with SRV. No drawing today, maybe drawing tomorrow :-).

Hello everyone,

Advent Day 15 brings … let’s see :

A Salted Caramel Marshmallow, a Battle Droid and the Citadel.

Another lovely marshmallow, although ? The Naked Marshmallow Co make a lot of different marshmallows … I would have thought that the selection wouldn’t repeat quite so quickly. Am I expecting too much there ? They’re still lovely marshmallows and … it’s that close to the end of the working period for me this year that I might well order some :-D.

Lego Star Wars sees another Battle Droid join the flock. Not quite sure what it makes of the marshmallow.

In the background, we have the Citadel. It’s the central point of the Mass Effect universe, a mysterious space station that lies at the centre of the Mass Relay network, providing a home, a seat of government and … more. The “More” is of course hidden behind spoilers. It’s a wondrous artifact, with two main parts :

The circle at the end is the Presidium ring, where the control centres and the Posh Bit lies. Because this is a spin gravity station, it’s a slightly lower gravity than the rest of the Citadel.
The 5 arms are the Wards, kilometers long arms which have the living areas built in to them. The arms can close up when the Citadel is in danger, forming an impenetrable barrier.

It’s the scene of action and intrigue on the inside and forms the backdrop to several space battles throughout the series.

Today’s Elitecember theme is “Keelback”. What’s a Keelback ?

There we go … master of perspective at work. Nah. Not really. This was actually drawn from a reference too. Ah well :-D.

There we go. That one is the Tortoise Beats Hare, the Keelback owned by my current Commander. It’s not a ship I’ll use much, although this one did all right with its small scale trading and courier missions role. But … the ship is a bit too much of a compromise, not really much good at any of its jobs.

There’s my last one, the Art Burke, named after the more combative of the Ice Road Truckers.

Today’s Elite was a bit of a mixed bag … I actually lost 2x ships ! The Type 9 freighter can’t dodge well and you shouldn’t really mission with it, like I was attempting to. Soooo … up a fair bit on a Community Goal that I’m carrying cargo to (including a Shiny Shiny Cobra Skin !) but down a bit on losing the 2x ships. The penalty for losing ships is having to pay an insurance fee to get them back and the loss of reputation from the various factions. It’s a very low penalty.

I wasn’t happy with the Keelback picture so I did a quick (ish) sketch of something different :

There we go … And here’s another one !

See you all tomorrow.

Hello everyone,

Advent Day 14 and I’ve been enjoying a fair bit of motor racing today. After concluding my campaign with the GT racing cars, I started up another one with the endurance racing cars. It has 6 hour races … (with a lot of speeding up involved). I enjoy the game mostly because it allows good strategy, actual results from getting the strategy right and mistakes when you get it wrong really count.

Oh and it’s one of a bunch of games available as part of the Yogscast Jingle Jam on Humblebundle until the end of the month (linky).

If a single player game is too easy because it doesn’t punish mistakes, then I find it a bit boring. My team won both races today, well, both races in their class. One thing about the usual endurance racing is mixed classes, which means more action on track.

The other motor racing for today is the Bahrain 8 hour race which has been pretty much background stuff, but still good to listen in to. The Toyotas are well ahead up front, as they should be (technological advantage) but the Aston Martin is winning in the GTE Pro class. Good times.

What’s behind the doors today ?

We have a Milk and Cookies marshmallow and the Star Wars thingy is I believe a Droid Hovertank from Episode 1. That first prequel was a decent movie, if rather flawed. Still enjoyable though.

Mass Effect is showing the team today, as they were in Mass Effect 2. From left to right, we have :
Garrus Vakarian, Turian Rebel, Grunt the Krogan, Jack the crazy biotic, Mordin Solus the Solarian Scientist, Miranda Lawson of Cerberus, the lovely Tali’Zorah, Assassin Thane Krios, Enigmatic Legion, Crunchy Jacob and Samara the Justicar.

We’ve covered most of those already but the two for today are Mordin and Samara. Samara’s is a tragic tale, an Asari who had to become paladin in order to hunt down a homicidal daughter. Her race, the Asari, mate in body and mind, using latent telepathy. Most of the time, that’s Happy Times for the other person. In the case of an Ardat Yakshi like Samara’s daughters, it overloads the senses and kills the victim. So Samara’s fate is to hunt down her daughter in order to stop her murdering more people.

Mordin Solus is one of the legends. He’s a scientist who you recruit early on in order to find a defence for the Collectors’ (enemies of the second game) paralysing swarms. And more. He has all the best lines, all the best remarks and … is a total hero.

His fate in Mass Effect 3 actually brought a few tears. And that’s extremely rare for me. One of the best non player characters I’ve seen in a story, be that in a game or tv show or book.

Also sings Gilbert and Sullivan. (Would highly recommend clicking on this link and watching the video). And … it had to be him. (ahh the references)

Today’s Elitecember theme is “Docking”. No drawing today but I do have a few screenshots. I even did a video a while ago …

There we have the Odo on her way out, lifting off from the pad and heading out through the mailslot to the outside.

And a few seconds later. I still think that’s a gorgeous paint job.

Here we are a few jumps later, coming in to a different space station. Better ask for permission to enter before approaching that mailslot.

And on the inside, heading for a landing. Bit more of an industrial station this time with much different lighting and features inside.

And then there’s the planetary bases as well, here we are coming in to Abel Laboratory, home of one of the engineers. I need to do some prospecting very soon because I’m out of some of the materials. Used them up, souping up the Odo.

On final approach, heading straight down for a vertical landing.

And finally, resting on the landing legs, ready to head inside.

It’s not planetary bases and the big space stations though, the big advantage of the Python is that it can land at the Outposts as well. These are smaller, non rotating stations which cannot take the biggest ships. Had to wait at this one because someone was hogging the landing pad.

I’m about to head back in for more travel, trade and helping out with a Community Goal …

See you all tomorrow !

Hello everyone,

Weekend is here ! Time for a chill out. Hopefully watching the next World Endurance Championship race tomorrow, however their coverage is an absolute mess and it can be tough to find a way of watching it without paying any money. And I’m not going to pay money to watch it. I like the racing … but not that much.

Gosh that was a weird intro ! What’s behind the doors today ?

There we go.

That’s another Gingerbread Marshmallow and I’m pretty sure the Lego Thingy is a Mouse Droid. The one that sits very close to the ground and guides people to their destinations. And … on looking for a bigger picture of it, the EXCITED BOUNCING NOISES may have started happening. I’ve recovered a bit but … Check this out :

That’s from Rebrickable.com and here’s a link to the page. It’s not just a Lego Mouse Droid. It’s a remote control Lego Mouse Droid. HOW AWESOME IS THAT ?

Before I go on, I’m still excitable from enjoying a lovely afternoon/early evening out with someone who had bought me something AWESOME. Check this out :

It’s a custom t-shirt, imported from America and not only is the design particularly amazing, it felt like it was made from lovely soft material as well.

This will be a prized gift indeed.

Where was I ? Today’s Mass Effect poster is Aria T’Loak. She isn’t a member of the crew but she’s a key NPC who runs Omega, an independent space station built out of an ancient asteroid base. Sassy, powerful, angry, sexy, Aria is an Asari who runs Omega with an iron fist and gives the player someone to talk to when connecting with the quests there.

And there’s more too but that’s spoiler territory. The Mass Effect games are best played blind, so your particular, unique story develops and unfolds before you and spoilers dampen the impact.

The Elitecember theme today is Federation. There are 3 main power blocs in the Elite universe, the Federation, the Empire and the Alliance. The Federation grew out of Earth and are a kind of amalgam of the democracies and republics we have on Earth at the moment.

(I’m not mentioning the election – that’s not something for here !)

The impression I have of Elite’s Federation is that they’re a bunch of overbearing, over regulating autocrats who look to tell the rest of the galaxy how they should do things. I might be doing a bit of transferance from our current governments there. I try and ignore this government as much as I can, staying under their radar while doing what I want to do not what they want me to do.

And I do exactly the same thing in Elite. I’ve done a lot of work for Elite’s Federation but that’s so I could unlock all the ships. And …. SHINY :

I’ll come back to the Admiral Luperza at some point, it should be a devastating destroyer of people with Wanted tags. As was the Odo … I went in to the game last night to fly the Odo around and it was quite cheerfully making explosions out of anyone who dared to attempt an interdiction.

The paint job is spectacular, although that one is assisted by the light of a close by sun. There’s going to be more pictures of the Odo tomorrow for the Docking post.

I did actually do a drawing today but I didn’t have much time. I also attempted to draw from memory too, with no references.

Maybe a bit more angle to the forward neck pylon.

Today was a good day. See you tomorrow !