Ours is the Crampton House of Plague. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Cian's finally getting over his cold. He's still a snot monster, but he's back to sleeping through the night, and breathing through his nose while he drinks from his bottle.

Aidan's Dad's family all got sick with a nasty flu. We figured we were safe, because he didn't show any symptoms, and it'd been more than 48 hours. Ha. Yeah, we were wrong. Aidan was lucky, he only got the runs.

Yesterday, I woke up after a night of issues similar to Aidan's, and was full-body exhausted. I was lucky enough for Wren to be here, so she and Nikki took care of the kids while I had a nap.

Later, Hunter came home from school after vacating his stomach's contents onto the floor. What followed was about 8 hours of extreme unpleasantness for him involving both ends. He finally fell asleep so that his body could start repairing itself. This morning, he's been able to keep down ginger ale, water, and an english muffin. We're all hoping that he's through the worst of it.

Shortly after Hunter went to bed last night, Nikki started feeling really ill. A couple of hours later, and she was going through the same thing that Hunter did. It's lasted about eight to ten hours for her, too, and she's finally sleeping. I'm knocking on wood that she'll be able to get some rest in.

I'd say that we're under self-quarantine at this point, except that we may have sent Wren out as a plague carrier into the rest of the world.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

Feels good to be running missions again. Less aimlessness, more focus. Yesterday's mission was a bit eyebrow-raising, but it seemed straightforward enough. Equip my ship with a Civilian Scavenger, head out to a wreck at given coordinates, and retrieve the wreck's black box. Bring it back, bam, done. Easy, right?

The rewards were a bit out of this world. 74,000 ISK, which is a little higher than normal. That's the bonus payment, though. The primary payment is another Burst class frigate. The Agent's acting all sketchy, too. I have to get to it first, he says. The Angel Cartel pirates are looking for the black box, and its contents can't be made public, he says.

I hesitated for a moment. Did I really have a choice? If I turned him down, I'dnever get any more missions. I know I'm still too green to be trying to mine or pirate on my own. I'd get my capsule handed to me. So, I accepted. Only took moments to re-fit the Wolf Walker and head out to the coordinates. When I came out of warp, there was one Angel Cartel rookie hanging out. Probably keeping a lookout while the real pirates were on the way - his ship registered as a rookie, and hew as easily dispatched. The scavenging took a while - I need to get better at that - but patience made it simple. Took the black box back to the station, picked up my new ship and my ISK.

Should keep my eyes open for anything related to this mission, I think.

Next mission was a simple mining run. I re-fitted my Miner 1 and headed out to the mission's coordinates. Good thing I'd started the mining track earlier, eh? Angel Cartel pirate decided to interrupt my mining cycle and got blown up for his trouble. I have to admit, these Titanium Sabot rounds were a good purchase. Once my cargo hold was full of cartel loot and veldspar, I headed back to the station for reprocessing. Finished the mission, and sold the extra minerals from my salvaged loot and extra veldspar.

I need to train some prerequisite skills before I can start training up my salvaging. That skill has me rubbing my hands together and cackling.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

After a destroy-the-pirate mission and a courier mission, that Advising Agent was tapped out. He sent me to a friend at Ryddinjorn, but I'd already let a mission from him lapse, so he wasn't interested.

Once again, I decided to give the Agent Manifest a try. Maybe my standing had increased enough after the last couple of missions to start getting missions again. I tried the first one, and BAM! Mission! Another courier mission, and through space that doesn't go beneath 0.9 security. Cakewalk.

I'm thinking that I've got my foot back in the door with the Agents, and I should be able to keep repairing my standing. I'm hoping that it'll be enough to complete all of the Advisory missions. As I understand it, at that point I'll join a Corporation or I'll start taking story arc missions.

Can I join a Corp and still progress through the advisory missions? I wonder.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

I've now got EVE Online working under that older desktop. A couple of tweaks, and it's smooth like butter. Uh, except for sound. That's still in the works.

Capsuleer's Log

Warping through twelve jump gates to get across Metropolis. I'm seriously hoping that the training agents on this side of space - even though they're also Pator Tech School - don't hate me for my long lapses between missions in Embod IV.

Huh. So Todifrauan VII, the system that houses another Pator Tech School station, is low-security. How sweet is that. While I'm biting my nails about my ship getting blown to bits, I'm still distracted by the variances in jump gate construction. All seem to act the same - swallow the ship in a wormhole, shoot it across space, leaving a trail of light as wake - but there are fundamental differences in construction.

I've arrived at Pator Tech School in the far-off Todifrauan system. I cross my fingers and bring up the station's agent manifest. Level 1 Agent is available to me. Level 2 Agent is not available to me (expected). Lo and behold, there is a Training Agent under Agents of Interest! Excellent! Wait, that name looks familiar. Embod IV? *Jaw Drop* Will he talk to me?

*Shifty Eyes*

He will! Here we go again, warping across fourteen gates back to Embod IV's Pator Tech School station. I'm pretty sure that this guy trains in combat. At this pint, I'll take what I can get.

Fight or Flight updated on Friday, and there's a new blog post up over there!

No go on the EVE under Wine on this older desktop. Considering other options.

Just put 100 of my brother-in-law(-in-law?)'s comic books up for sale at ComicsForSale.com. I haven't used them before, but they're free, and seem to have a decent comic library. If you're interested in picking up older comics, check their site out.

Unemployment benefits are a go. So is the job hunt. Any suggestions are more than welcome. :)

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

So Nikki's laptop is dead until we can get it serviced. This will involve dealing with big box stores and "certified" repair centers, and shipping it across country. The idea of this does not wow me. So, in the meantime, she's using my laptop, and I have thrown together a desktop system or two.

A little while back, I received a Dell and a Compaq desktop from my good friends George and Trase. The machines were given with the intention that they go to use for something that wasn't sitting in their garage collecting dust. Into my SETI@Retirement Home project they went. As they're Pentium 4 boxen with a decent amount of RAM, I pulled them out and re-worked them.

The Dell takes a particular kind of RAM which is far too expensive to upgrade, so it ended up with Edubuntu, and is pending a setup in Hunter's room. The Compaq took normal RAM for its type of motherboard, and I had a gig lying around, so I upgraded it from 2x256mb to 2x512mb, and added a 256mb Nvidia AGP video card. Ubuntu seems to like the card just fine, and in between job hunting and chores around the house, I'm updating the kernel so that EVE Online will do something other than freeze and stutter under Wine.

I did miss the feel of my first-generation Microsoft ergonomic keyboard.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You are the lord of all you survey! I swear to God! I'm almost tempted to say that you now have the power to command whirlwinds and alter the course of mighty rivers! At the very least you will be able to mobilize the ambition of everyone you encounter and brighten the future of every group you're part of! Act with confident precision, Taurus! Speak with crisp authority! Your realm waits expectantly for the transformative decisions that will issue from the fresh depths of your emotional intelligence!

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I don't mean to sound melodramatic, and Icertainly don't want to encourage you to do something foolish, but ifyou've been pondering the possibility of storming the castle, this wouldbe a good time to do so. What exactly am I implying with the phrase"storming the castle"? Well, anything that involves a brave effort to fightyour way into the command center of the empire . . . or a heroic attemptto take back the sanctuary you were exiled from . . . or a playfuladventure in which you work your way into the heart of the king or queen.

When: January 30, 6:00 PM (ish)
Where: Jimmy's Pub - http://jimmyspub.net
Who: You

RSVP:
If you've got a Facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=262177585761&ref=share
If you don't, drop me an email, or just drop on by. :)

(12:23:05 PM) verla: hi
(12:24:10 PM) David Crampton: Do I know you?
(12:24:11 PM) verla: hi
(12:24:18 PM) verla: hi how are you today?
(12:24:27 PM) David Crampton: I asked you if I knew you.
(12:24:38 PM) verla: my name is paris I'm doing great today I'm 21 yrs old how old are you?
(12:27:33 PM) David Crampton: Oh, that's wonderful, I've seen your spam in my hotmail account before. I'm really hoping that you're some sort of software, otherwise I can't imagine how you sleep at night. Now, how about you disappear into the ether and never bother me again.
(12:27:34 PM) verla: hi
(12:27:54 PM) verla: listen hun, I am just about to start my webcam show with jen, come chat me there in my chat room? We can cyber, I will get naked if u do..lol!
(12:28:01 PM) David Crampton: Die in a fire.
(12:28:21 PM) verla: I can show u how to watch free if u promise not to tell anyone else how to do it???PLEASE:-$

My apologies for dropping off of the radar for a bit. In no particular order, here's some updates:

Kids: Infections. I'm not going to go into specific, but both Aidan and Cian are on more than one antibiotic each.

Job: What job? That's right, I've joined the ranks of the unemployed. At least this time they told me that I didn't do anything wrong. Working on finding another job, and launching a start-up. Yes, small businesses can be called that in Michigan. There's no rule against it.

More kids: I'm going to be a Dad again. I feel like making some sort of comment bragging about my virility, fertility, and general awesomeness of my loin area. *gestures to groin* But I won't, because if nothing else, I'm classy.

Transformers: So, this game looks like it's got all of the awesomeness of every Transformers universe ever written about, filmed, cartoonified, or published in comic book form. In fact, this looks a lot like what Mosier and myself had envisioned a while back. I WANT THIS NOW PLEASE. Enjoy the trailer. :)




EVE Online: Spent another hour and a half online the other night, and ended up out of Minmatar space, in a Gallante Federation station. I had clicked the wrong bookmark in People & Places, set it as my destination, and let the autopilot do the work. I saw some nifty jump gate designs that I hadn't witnessed before. Totally worth the trip.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

Due to the craziness of the week, I totally forgot to make the weekly announcement.

On Friday, a new Fight or Flight comic went live. Yay artwork!

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): "The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous," wrote W. Somerset Maugham. "On the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind." I think the trajectory of your journey during the last 12 months tends to confirm his theory, Taurus. According to my analysis, you set new benchmarks for your personal best in 2009, while at the same time becoming a wiser, riper human being. Congrats! Now get out there and capitalize on the grace you've earned. Be as organized as possible as you share the fruits of your progress.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

Those Minmatar space stations, those are solid-looking pieces of construction, I tell you what. I mean, of course, they're policed to hell and back. Sure, you could attack someone in one of these high-security zones, but you'd have ships swarming all over you in an instant. And who knows if your pod would survive? There are places, rough places, out away from the empires, where that sort of thing is the way it goes, all the time. But here, in the heart of the Minmatar Republic, a noob like me can feel safe training up before heading out into lawless space.

I like space ships. Out there, in the depths of space (noob system Ryddinjorn), no one can hear you scream. But they can watch you take a picture of a mining colony as you learn the basics of ship control. But, I hear you say, you're such an awesome podder! You took to it like a fish to water! How could you possibly need training? Well, boys and girls, there's quite the space piloting learning curve when welded into a life-support pod that can download your consciousness and send it to a waiting clone in the event of your death. Quite the curve, indeed.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Can you pull off a mid-course correction whilehurtling through the air across a chasm during a leap of faith? If anyone iscapable of such a feat, you are. However, I'd prefer it if that wasn'tnecessary. I'd rather see you prepare a little better, like by procuring thehelp you'd need to create a safety net or sturdy bridge that will stretchacross the chasm. Or by getting one of those jet packs to strap acrossyour back and allow you to fly. Or by taking as much guesswork aspossible out of the details about how you're going to get from the edgeof one cliff to the edge on the other side.

Originally published at David M. Crampton.

Am at Jimmy's Pub in East Lansing for the Round Table Attempt 2. Hope to see you here. :)

It's Friday, so there's a new Fight or Flight comic up at the site!

Originally published at David M. Crampton.