Thankfulness

The thing was huge, but I knew I had to take it out. Arks of hot, thick, red liquid flew as I slashed at this creature with my horribly damaged dagger. Why did I take this thing? He said it could be good again given some care, but right now it wasn't helping much. The creature fought back with its talons, landing some blows here and there. I hadn't had time to put on some armor when this thing showed up and as I felt the pain of it ripping my flesh I wished I had some seconds to prepare. A few quick evasive maneuvers put me in the right position though, and throwing my entire weight into it I managed to sever the head from this hideous creature. It's body flopped around for a bit and as I had a chance to look at it I realized it really did look like a berycled, though a bit uglier. The feathers just seemed out of place on it and the neck just too long. It's body was huge, far too big to be natural. Curious of what it was, I used my scanner to figure out what kind of creature this was. The screen displayed it's name: a turkey, from planet Earth. How it got here, I had no idea, but the screen also mentioned that it was a very tasty thing to eat and my stomach told me to waste no time and cook that sucker up! I started a fire and soon the smell of it cooking made my mouth water, I couldn't wait to try this thing.

Once it was done cooking I ripped some flesh from the beast and pulled it towards my mouth. Saliva flowed freely as I anticipated the first taste and as it finally reached my tongue... I woke up. It was a dream! My curiosity had brought me all the information about Thanksgiving, a holiday of abundance celebrated back on Earth. I tried desperately to think of what it would have tasted like, but even the fabricated smells left my waking senses and I was left with just one thing to remember from it all; my stomach growling and the pains of hunger. As I prepared to leave the comfort of my apartment I mentally thought about what I was thankful for. The home I had here, the living I made, no matter how meager it was at times, and the fact that I lived on a planet as beautiful as this one is. Yeah, I was hungry most of the time, but at least I still had life within me and work to look forward to doing. Perhaps today I would find the big one and be able to get a few pieces of furniture, though I was still thankful to just have a place to call my own, a giant step forward from what a lot of colonists had these days. I hoped others would take some time to remember to be thankful for what they had, even if we don't formally celebrate the holiday here, there were plenty of others who had lost so much to get us here and still so many more who sacrificed much to allow us to stay.

I am NOT lunch!

I've just been having an amazing week so far. Most of my runs have finally been turning up something useful and I have been able to get some of my tools back in shape, hopefully soon I'll be able to do more but I'm doing my best to go slow and take my time, when I rush I tend to lose more than I want to. Anyway, yesterday was no different from the last few days, I head out and shortly find myself getting a claim large enough to make me excited. But what was different yesterday was where I was mining was full of atrax and armax and later a few other things, but the atrax and the armax seemed to be very hungry or pissed off because I had to run away from a few of them that decided I looked threatening or like a good meal. Luckily my Sleipnir gets me out of a bad situation pretty well, otherwise I would have been spending a good portion of my time trying to get them far enough from my claims to not come after me again. After the first few good claims were up I moved beyond their territory, freeing me to go about my business in relative peace, though I was extra caution for the rest of my runs. Lucky for me, beyond their range was some better mining. So in the end all I have to say to these blasted creatures is, "I am not lunch! But thank you for pointing me in the right direction."

Gone Fishing

The other day I did something a little different. Recently I followed the people who took me in and taught me how to survive here to a new society. Since then I have been slowly learning who the other people are, which is difficult when you spend most of your time out on your own looking for resources. But as I was listening to them talk from their remote location I decided I wanted to see their activities first hand. So, using my hover pod I took a trip from Fort Cayuze out to the middle of nowhere in the water where they were hunting Leviathan. I've seen these fish before, but it never ceases to amaze me at how big they actually are. I'm surprised anyone can fight them as they should just be able to gobble them down in one swift motion. However, the fish seem to be unaware of that and instead try to kill you before thinking about eating you. Luckily the revive system keeps them from actually making a meal of us, or else I'd think they'd stop fighting and just swallow us whole as they might actually like our taste. Anyway, I watched them kill a few and thought, that looks like fun, but I opted to continue my normal activities and went off to a land area filled with those giant spiders that live on this planet. The run went poorly and I thought again about joining the hunt. Since my runs had been so bad lately I decided that would be a good idea and went back to Fort Cayuze to prepare.

Now, handling a weapon of any type is rare for me, especially guns. Plus, with a limited budget, I couldn't afford much. So with my little Kiwio and some ammo I found my soc mates again and started shooting with them. My pathetic gun didn't do much, but every little bit helps I'm told, so when we (them mostly) killed the big fish we were shooting at and activated the processing function of our handhelds I was pleasantly surprised that I got a small share of the fish. Those around me were quite excited, so I figured we must have gotten a much fatter one than they had been getting before. They equaled out the oils that were extracted from this behemoth really quick, giving me a little extra for my pathetic effort and then we continued on. It didn't take me long to see that the first fish had been quite good compared to the normal ones, but we got at least one more good one before it was time to head in. It was definitely a bit different fishing in this way, but it was quite enjoyable and I got to relieve some loneliness for a change. I'm back to my normal task of mining now, but I'm thinking some more fishing trips with the guys will be in my future.

The New Rig

There are just so many robot conflicts that have happened over the years on Calypso. Some areas you just avoid because of the robot activity, at least I do. Without proper weapons and armor against them I have to make sure I don't encounter them while I mine up the resources we need to continue the fight. One area in particular was burnt up by the robots, which is a shame. The black burning scar that once had other life living on it was pretty nice, if you could avoid the wildlife. I mined that area a few times, but once it had been destroyed I stopped going. It was the fear of getting shot down by the robots, which I know isn't a huge deal with the revival system in place, but it still hurts like you wouldn't believe. Recently, however, it came to my attention that the robots in the area had been wiped out and in their place we found a nice reserve of oil, much like the one in the middle of the desert, though not quite as rich. They placed a pump on this one as well and if you're lucky enough to be there at the right time you might find a few barrels that didn't get sent to the right place. These barrels can sure help in getting through some rough times. The only problem with the arrival of the new rig is that they no longer patrol the area to keep you safe. It seems they know they can't stop the conflict and so they don't even try. So when there you are competing with others to get what little you can and some of them won't hesitate to shoot you down, knowing full well it isn't murder if you're going to revive again shortly after they take you out. So the new rig isn't much different than the old except in that the new one drops so much less than the old that less people will spend a lot of time there defending it, so I have a much better chance of getting a few drops once in awhile when I need them.

Taking it Easy

Sleeping on a floor in a place I own has been everything I dreamed it would be so far. I know it isn't luxurious, but before this I was sleeping outside when I felt safe enough or sleeping beside a terminal hoping that someone wouldn't start using it and wake me up. To me, the new apartment is luxury! That being said, I do wish I could furnish it, but until I can start making some PED again doing my mining it'll be tough. I've invested quite a bit in trying to understand the higher end tools but in the end have had to sell them off to afford to live a little better, so back to the basics for me. One thing I've noticed so far with these tools is that they aren't so difficult to use but what makes them complicated is their sensitivity, trying to lock on to a signal of a worthwhile resource is much harder when you see so many more signals. Those deep depths are so full of random stuff that you lock on to the smaller stuff too often thinking it could be the big one. It'll take some time, but I'm sure with going back to the basics and working my way through the tools again I'll have a better understanding in the long run. As it is, I sure am starting to look at how this all works a lot more closely, it is so much more complicated as you understand it better, but I'm confident that I will reach the point of understanding eventually, maybe even be able to distinguish the signals better and lock in on the ones I actually want a little more. I've also started to gather some of the small resources again in hopes of staying ahead. Stones look more and more like gold to me as I try my best to locate a good find. I'm sure I'll get it again, it just feels like I'm a little off lately and that has negatively impacted my returns.

One thing that has been interesting is using that fishing pole I bought, it was an impulse buy but using it has been a hoot. There isn't a darn thing worth catching, not that I even get any bites, but the act of just sitting there along the shore and casting out my line once in awhile and letting my mind wander has been the best meditation lately, I can see why it was so popular on Earth at one point. I know my time would be more profitable if I went looking for stones, but taking some time to enjoy life here is important too, keeps me from going too crazy. Plus, the time I get to sit and contemplate could be fruitful in the end, perhaps I'll come up with another way of making a living here, though I don't make that the focus of my outings, instead I just take in the fresh air, warm sunshine, feel the sand between my toes and listen to the waves lap against the shores. Of course, I always have to watch the radar as well, you never know when a stray Atrox will come along and decide you might make a good meal. Not that it happens often, but I must say thank goodness for the revival network. I could just imagine how small our population here would be if we didn't have that thing running all the time.

Mini-GOAL: Level 25 Prospector/Surveyor

One of those last little goals I threw up on my list towards the end of last month, I wasn't sure if returns would be good enough or not so I wanted to have the goal up there and that was to reach level 25 in prospector and surveyor so I could use a TK320 (with SIB, yes, I know maxed finders are best, but I have a goal to reach!). Unfortunately, to reach that goal I was trying my best not to deposit and I got all the way to about 2.5% left when the PED finally was depleted past the point of squeezing out a run. I had already sold the TK320 I had bought earlier so I could keep going (can't use it, why keep it, right?), and had burned through that PED, so sadly to reach my goal I had to put in my $10 deposit for the month. Shortly after I had hit level 25 in surveyor and had reached my goal and then shortly after that had once again run out of PED. So I did my best to squeeze some more because I didn't want to give up for the month yet and so when I had sold something I could afford to be without I went on another few runs. Luckily I finally got something back, 444 PED HoF, woohoo! I used that to get the tools I had sold back and to get started on my next runs. So far they've been okay, but I could sure use some more of those globals to get me back to where I think I should be. Anyway, I am already over 25% to level 26 prospector, so maybe, if returns can stay non-horrendous I can reach my goal of level 30 sometime in the near future (my hope is by the end of summer, but that depends a lot on returns, at least I have SIB now to give me a hand).

A Warm Place to Sleep

I really need to slow down more often and write, it helps me collect my thoughts and also keeps me steady in this wild world. It is so thrilling sometimes when I'm out and about that I forget that if I take my time on things I'll likely do better. That being said, I made some changes recently that have allowed me quite a bit of fun for a change, but after all my fun it's time to get back to doing the work I need to do to survive. This time though, my slowdown will be with some comfort.

I decided after watching my investment for awhile and reading the news on it that my chances of increasing it are slim, so I opted to sell it for a bit of profit and then used that profit to go on some more risky mining runs. At first the runs were great, but as always seems to happen I begin to miss finds and eventually my risk turns out to be more than my poor worn out PED card can handle, luckily I'm not completely broke this time and I even decided to finally get something that I have been wanting for quite awhile. I finally bought myself an apartment here on Calypso. I know I could have purchased one on Arkadia as well, but it always seems like Calypso draws me back and so here I am, hoping to make a living for awhile and live comfortably in my new, empty place.

My hope is that the apartment won't be empty for long, one of my friends was at least kind enough to loan me some sources of light. I ended up buying a big 'G' size apartment in Sakura City. The apartment is in the Kansha building on the 13th floor, which some people will say is a lucky number and others will say it is unlucky, for me, it is a place to call home. The balcony overlooks the teleporter, so I will be able to see people coming and going from there while the big window in the 2nd room looks south towards the mountain island. I think I'll end up making that room a bedroom when I can get some furniture. It would be great to wake up and see that every morning. After that purchase I made one last risky mining run, which as expected didn't go as well as I'd hoped, so it will be back to basics again when I go out next, but at least I can say I had some fun for a while. I'm trying my best to finish honing my mining skills, hopefully soon I'll be able to use the more sensitive controls of the Ziplex TK320 Seeker, but I need to keep practicing on the TK220 until I feel ready for the next one. I was smart enough to invest in the new seeker before my PED card got too low, so when I am ready I have a nice, shiny, unused one to work with. My best guess is it will take another month or so before I am ready to break it in properly.

Perhaps Not...

I've come to the realization that cataloging every day what I have is a bit tedious, there are only a few things that really matter to me as far as worth anyway, so I am going to be a little less meticulous about my assets and only log the important stuff, that should help prevent my own boredom in recording what I've got. On that note, after walking around for awhile today I noticed a lone prancer wandering in the wild, something about it told me that I had to kill it, so I took my low end mining equipment and traded that in for a Kiwio and some ammo. Once I had that old prancer down, which took a while with such a small weapon, I was able to process the body and found, to my surprise, 54 explosive projectiles and 55 animal hide. Now, normally this would be something to save up, but considering how infrequently I hunt I just ended up selling it, along with the resources I had been collecting to a guy in Twin Peaks and getting some mining equipment again to go do what I enjoy. It turned out to be a good investment today and I at one point had a little over 9 PED on my card as I kept selling my resources and going out again, though the last run of the evening didn't turn out as well, guess it can't all go perfectly, anyway I ended up having a bit of fun for the day which was a nice change of pace from the rest of my week. In the end, I had 5.26 PED on my card.

I found the following in my wanderings...
112 papplon
20 haimoros
143 dung

Overall Steady Losses

Yesterday was uneventful for the most part. My stones sold for 2 PED, so I took that money and bought another rookie setup and went out walking again, dropping along the way. Surprisingly it actually turned up to be more profitable dropping probes than finding anything. The only thing I found walking was so common dung, likely from the frescoquda I was walking among. The mining however turned up 5 force nexus, 4 alicenies liquid, 17 blausarium stones, 7 sweetstuff, 6 cobalt stones, which I would sell to a shady guy on the street sadly for only 1.26 PED, I hate price gougers, but what can you do when I don't have enough PED for auction? I then felt pretty anxious and decided to pull my blueprints out and put them all in storage so that I could safely sell the books and do a real mining run. I had 15 books left so this gave me 15 PED to add to the card. This run didn't turn up anything good, just 13 zinc stones, 7 garcen grease, 619 crude oil and 3 growth molecules. I sold the growth molecules to the trade terminal, people wouldn't buy those for good enough markup and I wanted to buy a refiner to process the crude oil and fill up my Sleipnir. All in all, a not-so-profitable day, but that happens, at least I feel like I can do some flying again without getting myself stranded in the middle of a not-so-friendly place.

0.97 PED

171 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
17 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones

349 Bombardo

131 Caroot

85 Haimoros

307 Papplon
54 Nissit Stone Textures
27 Metal Residue
1 Basic Stone Extractor
12 Lysterium Stones
6 Narcanisum Stones
5 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water
5 Force Nexus
17 Blausarium Stones
7 Sweetstuff
13 Zinc Stones
7 Garcen Grease

Quad-Wing Interceptor

Sleipnir MK1 (6.96 PED Oil)

Gungnir MK1

Various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.84/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.15/2.40)
Refiner MR100 (1.90/2.00)

Simple Pleasures

The first walk of the day was turning up only fruits, they all appear to be in season because I found a little bit of each. To offset the boredom I sold a couple empty books I had in order to raise the PED necessary to buy 200 basic stone extractors from a guy in our society, he was happy to sell them and I was happy to have something different to do. I took my extractors and my pile of nissit and gave it a go, nothing spectacular, but it was fun none the less. Nothing else to report for the day, though it has been nice being back on Calypso without worrying about being hunted down. The modifications to my devices and the changes that my hacker friend made seem to be doing the trick.

0.31 PED on my PED card

73 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones in auction
17 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones

349 Bombardo

131 Caroot

85 Haimoros

307 Papplon
54 Nissit Stone Textures
27 Metal Residue
1 Basic Stone Extractor
21 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
1 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water

Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel

Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil

Gungnir MK1 with no fuel

Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.93/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)

A Mostly Peaceful Day

The cool morning air felt good as it filled my lungs, I only took a moment to enjoy the rising of the sun before heading back inside again to check on my auction. After a few moments I could see that someone had made a bid on my stones, so I would have some PED again by the end of the day, this would at least let me start the next auction and hope that the next set of stones would sell as well. I knew it would be in my best interest to keep things simple today, no need to try and rush things, just wait for the PED to come and keep looking for what you can find. My morning walk started well, I found some bombardo and papplon early. As I continued my walk I ate a few pieces of the fruit until my meanderings eventually brought me to a small pile of trutun, totaling 56 when I had them all scanned in. It was amazing how much of this stuff could be found by walking around, miners were in too much of a hurry most of the time to realize that their probe had brought to the surface something that had some value, even if the probes didn't end up finding anything else for them. The rest of the walk was uneventful, only one more find of stones, 113 nissit, and a few more fruit, bringing my totals to 25 bombardo and 99 papplon for the morning.

The auction ended later in the day, giving me 3 PED extra to work with. Being the miner that I am I purchased another rookie setup, spending 2.01 PED, leaving me with 0.99 PED on my card. The mining trip was uneventful, I was only able to bring in 6 more barrels of crude oil, 1 bottle of alicenies liquid and 3 bottles of melchi water. Walking around in the area I had mined in gave me nothing extra for my troubles. Not a very profitable evening. With auction fee I am left with but a few PEC, but I have hope that the auction will go well and I'll have more PED to do my work tomorrow.

0.55 PED on my PED card

73 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones in auction
113 Nissit Stones
56 Trutun Stones

309 Bombardo

68 Caroot

61 Haimoros

252 Papplon
21 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
1 Alicenies Liquid
3 Melchi Water

Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel

Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil

Gungnir MK1 with no fuel

Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.93/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)

Small Starts

Starting cost for the rookie run is 2.01 PED to buy the finder and the probes to search with. Today I find myself at Ashi, knowing what I know about the area it is good enough to start off, so I head out in search for what riches lie in the ground to the south.

Not much for riches this time, a meager 0.48 PED narcanisum stones, 0.15 PED oil and 0.12 PED lysterium. This isn't much to work with, but with the inferior gear to what I normally use it wasn't a surprising run. The mining also damaged my excavator a bit, dropping its value to 1.94 PED.

Taking a walk afterwards to relieve the restlessness of not working my primary profession took me past a herd of longu, by chance I actually found 29 untrampled papplon, bringing my total to 68. It also appeared something had been digging along the path I walked, because 58 brukite stones had been left lying on the ground. By the time I finished my stroll I found myself at Chimera Canyons, knowing how much I didn't like walking around in the canyon I teleported myself away to Treasure Island, a fairly peaceful area to walk.

After a long, peaceful, quiet walk through the middle and eastern side of Treasure Island I find myself richer by 90 papplon, 19 caroot, 179 bombardo, 25 brukite and 124 sopur. Not a bad walk, was nice to clear my head and remember my goals. Oh, and not to mention the 44 dung to add to the pile, lucky for me our PDAs scan it in and you don't actually have to touch it at any point. With a 64 PEC auction fee I find my PED card depleted to 0.15 PED and hope that the first set of valuable stones sells well.

0.15 PED on my PED card

73 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones
83 Brukite Stones in auction

284 Bombardo

68 Caroot

61 Haimoros

153 Papplon
15 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones

Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel

Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil

Gungnir MK1 with no fuel

Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.94/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)

Back to Basics

Having all that excess PED was definitely a change of pace, in the short run that much PED can be a bad thing, especially when life has been lived striving just to survive. In the long run though, with the investment that was made with the majority of it, it will be a good thing, but for now I need to get back to basics. I spent too much looking for more loot and now I'm back to survival mode, but at least I'll have some steadier income to help get through the dry spells. To help get myself back on track I've decided to take an inventory of what I have and work on keeping track of it all. Ultimately, I have fewer tools than when I began, but that is alright, I'll get things back in order soon enough.

Unable to get to the stuff I left on Arkadia, I will work first with what I have on Calypso. Checking my carried inventory and my larger planet side storage reveals the following:

2.80 PED on my PED card

29 Common Dung

82 Kaldon Stones

105 Bombardo

49 Caroot

61 Haimoros

34 Papplon

Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel

Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil

Gungnir MK1 with no fuel

Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints, there's no way I'm cataloging all of those

Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.95/2.40)

Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)

Of course I also have the clothes on my back, but I would hate to sell those and go about naked. Perhaps if things go well I can get something a little nicer than your standard orange jumpsuit, but for now they'll do. I also have the investment I made, but I don't plan to sell those so for now they will remain outside my counted assets. My current plan is to use what little PED I have and try some mining with the rookie gear they developed to teach people new to the planet. Finds usually aren't very good with them, but sometimes you get lucky, so we'll hope that things work out for me.

Getting Back to Work

With the thrill of the tower over, it having been fully extracted just a few days ago, I needed to get back to work. I had invested most of the money to ensure my continued survival, at least as long as the investment is a good one, and with the rest repaired my worn out tools and bought myself a shiny new quad. I had been working with some intelligent individuals back on Calypso who have finally been able to clear my name and image out of the archives, basically making me a free man again. With this freedom, and the new fighter, I should be able to make some trips once more between planets, though I anticipate Arkadia will remain my home for some time, though I am anxious to visit once more with my friends on Calypso. I have decided to have some fun with the money I had left over after my initial spending spree was over and planned to make a quick stop by a certain asteroid to see if I couldn't find something worthwhile, though I wasn't about to hold my breath as I believe it is still a difficult place to mine, the signals are just so weak and hard to get a lock on.

As anticipated, the stop by the asteroid was not profitable, though it did give me some resources to get some more experience in crafting, a skill I have been greatly neglecting since I had extracted my previous knowledge. I knew most of what I was doing would prove to be loss, but it was fun to actually have the luxury of spending it anyway and so I did. Though now, down to the last 300 PED of my tower, I have switched back to conservative mode, though with the knowledge that there will be more PED coming my way regardless of how my runs go. I have not yet run in to any of my old friends, but I haven't been down on the planet that long yet.

Valkyrie MK2

So one of the people in my society bought a new Valkyrie MK2. It looks just like the MK1, but it definitely doesn't perform in the same capacity. She often hires me as a driver, so she valued my input on how it handled, so I got to drive it around quite a bit. I have to say, this is one nice vehicle. It may not be as fast as the MK1 or as quick in its turns, but it does very well in many other ways. First off, the protection it offers is far superiour to the first model, I was able to take hits and keep going with hardly a scratch on the paint. I also noticed that the power was a little more steady, I was able to go up small hills with very little slowdown and actually outran an MK1 in this type of terrain. Along the same line, I didn't lose much speed when I went off small hills either. The balance was excellent as well, I hardly had any problems keeping the vehicle from flipping and with the jumps being smaller due to the weight I had better control. All in all, if I were to buy a vehicle, I would probably lean towards this one first so that I'd have something stable that I could rely on and then worry about getting the other model that was built for speed. Nothing hurts more than trying to make an escape and flipping the car.

Free Mining

Business has been slow for me lately. I get the occassional chaeffeur or healing job and do a very small amount of mining, but I have not been able to find much to keep me going. As I've been needing to eat I've had to start foraging again to find some of the tasty fruits that this world produces. During these walks I've also been finding some stones and it suddenly dawned on me: I'm mining for free! No bombs, no probes, no extracting, I'm picking up a valuable resource right from the ground and someone is paying some pretty good PED to have it! So lately I've been looking for more stones and it pays the bills much better than sweating ever did. A few stones and I have a couple days worth of sweating pay to keep my belly full and to afford a few more bombs or probes. It's amazing what rocks are worth, but hey, if someone's willing to pay I'm willing to look for these precious little things. Anyway, as much fun as it is to make money off of forage mining, I think I'd much rather be doing the pay mining. That said, I hope things pick up soon, it's hard not knowing where your next bit of pay will come from.

Chaeffeur

There's no way to keep a resourceful man down. If you can't find any mining claims, then find a healing job, if you can't find those then try something new. So the other day I, because of the slowness of business, decided to do something a little different and allowed myself to be hired as a chaeffeur. The location to drive about in? One of the contaminated zones, which meant that we could run into someone who wanted what we were carrying. It's always a little intense going in there, I mean, when you enter the contaminated zone you still feel the tingling of the radiation despite the anti-toxic shot you took. Then there's the rush of adrenaline as you realize that you are in lawless land and can do as you see fit. The purpose of the trip? Well, I can't be exactly sure what they were wanting to do, but I don't think they found what they were looking for. I suspect they were hoping to find someone to relieve of their heavy burden.

The next day they had another job for me, driving again but this time mixed with a little bit of healing. They were hunting feffoids and ended up doing pretty well in their hunt. Afterwards they wanted to have a little bit more fun and so we set out looking for something of interest. Eventually I ended up finding a particular spot that would offer a good challenge, at that moment I didn't have one of their cars so I had to let them know what I found and when they came I tried my luck at it. The rush was greater than going into the contaminated zone, driving at full speed towards a cliff and making a last second turn before going off to ensure the landing location. For a brief moment I was flying through the air and then suddenly I'm back on something solid, but it wasn't the ground. I had hit my mark on the first shot and successfully parked a car on top of one of the service centers! When the rest of them saw what I did they quickly jumped into their cars and attempted the same feat. After a few tries one of them made it and I ended up driving a couple more cars to get them on the roof as well. By the time we were done we had parked four cars up there! I have to say, that was a blast, and as for another job option, chaeffeur works for me.

Mining Problems

It seems odd how some days you're doing well and then some days you aren't doing so well in mining. It always seems to be that when you have a run of good luck it is followed by a longer run of bad luck, the only hope you have is that your good luck was enough to get you through the time of bad luck. Right now, I'm in my time of bad luck, this I mostly attribute to the longtooth and eomon migration. These humongous creatures cause so much vibration in the ground that detecting the correct patterns of a resource becomes very difficult, and then when you do detect one it turns out to be much smaller than it looked on the screen. It's strange how much they interfere with our equipment and then all at once seem to disappear and we cannot find any trace of them. You would think that we would be able to trace these vibrations without problems, or at least learn to filter out the vibrations using our equipment so that it isn't so hard to find an actual resource. Oh well, I guess for just a few weeks in the year it isn't too bad, I'll just have to keep working at it and hope to continue surviving as best I can.

Eomon

Every year there is a migration of tremedously huge creatures called Eomon. This year I went with my society to check them out and to heal the hunters while they took out a few of these things. I have to say, these creatures really are huge! How we never find them during the rest of the year is simply mind boggling, these things are so big that you couldn't miss them. The most amazing thing about them this year is their evolution. I'm not entirely sure why they evolved as they did, but they look completely different from previous years. Their backs look like they're plated with a hard, spikey shell. I would have investigated this closer before the bodies were processed but I didn't have time, healing kept me very busy. I guess our technology is a bit too good at what it does, nothing is left of the body after it is processed. The thought did cross my mind though that if these shells were as hard as they looked that they'd make a fairly decent house, albeit a bit strange looking but a durable, dry place to live in. We ended up being so busy taking them out and staying alive that we forgot to cut a slice off of one of them to cook, so dinner ended up being a little lacking this evening. It was definitely nice having a job to do and to have a little bit of excitement for a change. All in all, I'd say it was a good day.

The Feelings of Mindforce

I've found that each aspect of mindforce has a different feel to it. When I first started using my powers, at least the first time I can remember, I recall how odd it felt, the task of sweating caused a sort of pressure, it was really quite uncomfortable, that's what makes the new sweat guns such a wonderful thing to have. For the longest time after making my initial living in sweating I had the oddest sensation, it took a very long time for that pressure to subside. A much more pleasant experience is in using the healing side of mindforce. It is soothing and warm. The powers that heal are comfortable, calming and draw me into a delightful frame of mind where nothing is or could be wrong. Even given my limited experience so far I would have to say that healing is my calling when it comes to utilizing these abilities. The other kind of mindforce I've had a try at is the electrokinetic type. The feel of this force is tingly, it feels exciting and dangerous. To call forth the bolts of electric energy is very stimulating. It brings forth something new, yet familiar, in me. The more I use it the more I want to use it, controlling this element is intoxicating. As I cast forth this embodiment of my wrath I feel the desire for more power. I dare say that if I am not careful with the use of this element I may very well lose myself. By far it is my favorite way of defending myself, much more natural to me than handling a gun, but I feel that if I do not watch myself I very well could lose who I am. It is at times very scary utilizing these destructive forces. Even with this sobering thought of losing myself I still look forward to trying out the other types of mindforce available. The need to exercise a bit of caution when using them all is apparent as there is definitely an inner hunger for the raw power that they offer but this is something I will pay strong attention to. I do not feel I should neglect it completely, just keep it in check. At least for now the stronger desire is in the calm surrender required in the employment of the healing forces.