My Favorite Place

I would have to say, of all the places I have seen I am the happiest on FOMA. The resources are good, the lack of so many creatures is very good and the view is spectacular. If one gets bored of the plant life in the domes it is easy to get a much different view by looking out the windows in the control center. I often go other places, but when I'm somewhere else I'm dreaming of being here. Almost any time I go from one planet to another there is often a quick stop here. So, if it is so great here, why do I leave? That's a simple question with a simple enough answer. I leave because I've run out of PED and need to find some other work to get it back. If only I could find consistency in my returns that was on a positive side, then I would never have to leave. Oh well, maybe someday I'll figure out what I'm doing. At least until then I can keep enjoying the views while I wait to sell my resources.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

It seems like so long since I decided to gather my thoughts. I can tell it hasn't helped me to ignore my musings, I've had a bit higher stress levels and have been making far too many mistakes lately. But, as usually happens, I make my way back to what I need to do.

I've been traveling a lot lately. So much so that I decided to sell my little apartment and live once again where ever I can find a comfortable spot. Most of the time I doze off while flying between planets, making autopilot one of my favorite things, though I do worry I might run into a pirate, but that hasn't been an issue yet. It seems that once clear of the space station and the most direct routes it is actually quite hard to run in to someone in space. My reasons for traveling are varying, most of it in hopes of finding something a bit better when mining, but that hasn't been happening lately. Other reasons I've had to travel are for different types of work, a few healing jobs here and there. But another reason I've been traveling is that I've taken some individuals who are new to this system under my wing and started to share bits of knowledge with them on how to live here and survive. It has been a pleasant experience so far, I've been able to chat with them while I'm out and about and even have flown one of them to different planets so they can see what some of the other ones are like. But that still only keeps me out of a bit of trouble, it is too small of a distraction to keep me from making mistakes, but I'm not broke yet, so hopefully I can get myself back on track and keep going with what I've got now. Anyway, hopefully I can start finding some more clients for healing jobs or perhaps to find some other types of work as well. We'll see, it's a big universe and there are many ways to live in it, I just need to find my unique place in it.

GOAL: XIX Sized Claim

Well, it took a bit and one lucky level 7 amp to do, but I finally did it. I hit a level XIX claim, which is the last of the teen sizes, which puts all sizes XXI and under in my repertoire. It will take me a bit to mine up, but it is all joy as I had been hoping for this one for quite a while. This just leaves one more pre-tower size to find, and that is the XXII, after that I'll only be pining after XXIV and higher. Perhaps if I'm lucky and buy the right amp I'll find those too, but for now I'll just be overjoyed to have reached this milestone of completing the teens.

Luckily this was iron, so it came up pretty quickly.

GOAL: Level 30 Prospector

Finally, after much PED turnover I finally achieved level 30 in prospector. The other mining skills are not too far behind so I'll have them all there eventually. But I was very excited yesterday morning to go on some runs to finish that last <2 after="" and="" finally="" for="" get="" had="" happy="" hitting="" hooray="" i="" in="" make="" me.="" mineral="" my="" new="" now="" p="" point="" points="" see="" sense="" serendipity="" skills="" some="" that="" them="" these="" to="" two="" unlocks="" useful="" very="" was="">

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.

First Space Fight

So many years spent on Calypso and I've never taken the time to fight the greatest threat we have, at least not directly. I know my work has contributed to the weapons we use against them and I have been with someone who was shooting them, keeping them alive, but never had I been so closely involved that I felt like I was doing my part. So finally I got the chance, and how do you think I started my campaign? Big.

One of the friends I've made here has a ship, not the largest out there, but much bigger than my quad. He took a handful of people with him into the depths of space to show us a secret spot he had found. I had heard of his love of hunting in space, but I never knew what he hunted, and I knew there were dangerous things up here, but I had always avoided them. I also knew that what I've seen isn't much of a secret, so if he had a secret spot then I knew it was something special, and I also knew it was likely dangerous. I was to meet up with the group on Next Island, this was where they were currently stationed and my trip here was non-eventful, though I did take my time to look at a couple of strange things in space, a green pulsating light and a grouping of space rocks. I have plans to get a closer look at these things in the future, but I didn't have the fuel to waste too much time out there this time. My few days on the planet were spent unsuccessfully trying to make a living, but it just wasn't happening. I've felt off lately, which is why I agreed to go on this trip.

When the time finally came to leave there was little time spent in preparation, all of us had what we needed and anything else could be purchased from the ships on-board trade terminal. The inside of the ship was amazing, I had never been in one of the bigger ships. I walked around for a bit familiarizing myself with where things were and imagined that this thing could work just as well as an apartment to live in, though I'm quite sure I couldn't afford it at this point. As we got ready to jump to our location I was offered a seat by our pilot so I could see what it was like. As I sat there the ship rumbled and the computer's voice spoke of what was going on, but the synthesized feminine informant faded into the background as the swirling portal opened before us. In moments the ship lurched forward with great speed and I watched as countless stars sped by. Of course they weren't moving, we were, but from my perspective they were lines, not dots, so they seemed to be the ones going at great speeds past us. Seconds later the ship left the jump and we were close to our destination. I left my seat and made my way to the lower section of the ship to do my job, which would be to keep the ship from exploding.

After some time doing light work I made my way up to see what exactly was causing the damage and saw quickly that I was finally participating in the war against the machines. Before me were several dropships, though most did not seem to be moving or have noticed us. I watched them for a moment as my fellow crew members shot a couple down and then made my way below again to ensure we survived our ordeal. A little while later our pilot asked if I'd like to take control of the ship for a bit. By the time I could word the reply that I would enjoy it I had stumbled up the stairs and was standing beside him as he got up. He wished me luck and I sat in the captain's seat. The ship was much larger than anything I had piloted before, so I took a moment getting used to how it handled and then followed the instructions of our leader to find the next ship to shoot down. When we found a ship I made my approach and quickly saw the shots being fired from our guns at it. The ship fired back, missing quite a few shots and landing others, but in the end we were victorious and I was in love with piloting. I steered the ship around some more, putting us in position to take out several of these massive ships and imagined how many robots we were destroying in the process, though I knew it paled in comparison to their real numbers, I was just proud to be finally helping. In the end the ship had never reached any point of danger from the damage it took and we reduced the stress of the Calypso military by a bit. I knew that if I got the opportunity again to go on this hunt that I would readily accept, especially if it meant I could steer the ship once more.

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.

GOAL: XXI Claim Size

Whoo! What an exciting weekend for me! I decided to use the PED I got from selling my land deeds to have more fun in the game and work on my skills. I gained a full mining level over the weekend on my top skill (prospector) and am now level 22. I also found one of my missing claim sizes that are below a tower and that is size XXI. I now only have two more non-tower sizes to get and that is XIX and XXII, those will probably be difficult to get but if I can keep playing amped and not lose all my PED too quickly I might be able to pull it off. I have to admit, though I know the risk of playing amped, it is super fun. I absolutely love getting globals (yes, I am a global junkie) and playing with level 7 and 8 amps sure can give you a lot of them. For me, it was 25 globals this weekend, and with one that started at rank 5 in the HoF list and made it to number 1 for a bit and then back to 4 before it expired it was quite exciting.

But on a more serious note, I feel it is necessary that I post my precautions to playing how I did this weekend. For one, playing with amps is a calculated risk, you can lose a LOT of money really, really fast by using them. Also, the swirlies don't always mean profit and I actually lost quite a bit on one of the runs I did and have not been able to get that back yet (though I am hopeful). I also took a HUGE risk by going to FOMA for my biggest run. FOMA can eat your PED card faster than you can fill it. Luckily I found that XXI claim, otherwise I would have lost quite a bit considering my profit was only about 7.5% after the run, not counting markup due to the fact that everything hasn't sold yet (someone please buy my narc on auction, I want to play more). Even though that sounds good, before I sold my deeds I had been burning through PED, so I knew my swing should be back up again and I was hoping that it would be on a high this weekend for me (which it was, so that was pretty lucky). I also was being very careful where I would go mining when I was on planet, I needed to get good MU stuff so that the amps wouldn't eat my profits with their extra costs. To do this I used my knowledge of mining on Calypso to choose the spots, this takes a lot of time and a lot of personal drops (just because someone else found an ore/enmat somewhere doesn't mean you will be as lucky to get that same one), so I knew where most of my better spots were and what I could hope to hit if I mined there. I had a few surprises in my travel as well, so my knowledge isn't perfect, but at least I didn't waste some of my better finds on something like lyst. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is, be careful and don't play this way unless you're prepared to see your money go from a good level to a bad level really quick (and basically in saying this I'm saying: if you play this way, expect to lose it all at any point).

GOAL: Ziplex TK220 Seeker

This one isn't quite as exciting as some of the others I have in mind to reach, but I acquired one, a Ziplex TK220 Seeker. I am trying it out, so far it seems like I've been getting less garbage resources, but I'm also choosing my areas carefully to get a good markup, so maybe I am just choosing the right spots and its not the finder, I suppose we'll find out. I've removed my goal of land deeds as well, I doubt I'd be able to get any more and have no desire for them as I've discovered that I can't withdraw without making some more changes in my life that I just finished making changes on (basically, I don't want to get another account at a bank right now, so until I have a very good reason to withdraw I won't be doing it). Of course, some inspiration could be if I get a 5-6 digit global, that's tempting enough to open an account with one of those evil banks. I suppose there are less evil ones out there if I can find one that will work, but that requires some research I'm not really in the mood for at the moment, so for now money in game is as good as the gold in any other popular online world.

GOAL: Graduated!

This isn't the first time I've graduated, but it was definitely better this time around. The first time I graduated I simply got some congrats and all was done, very anticlimactic considering it took months to do. This time, not only did I get congrats, but I got a big golden swirly, a full set of armor and a vehicle! Definitely much more exciting. My mentor received some mentor edition hunter gloves and she is very happy about it. She really didn't have to do much for me this time as I already knew what I was doing, but she had helped me so much the last time I was going through a discipleship that I had to have her as my mentor this time around.

When I saw that I might graduate last night I was happy that my mentor was on, I really wanted her to be there when I clicked the button. Unfortunately she wasn't on the same planet, so it wasn't quite what I hoped for, but it was still good to see her reaction when I hit the button, she hadn't quite realized I was going to get that last percent so quickly. So when I asked her what she was doing and to stop for a moment I could only imagine what was going through her head. When I clicked the graduate button she quickly found out and then wondered what I had received and the value of it, which someone else was much quicker on doing the math and told her the TT value of a full set of pixie. When that was all done I finished up my mining run, which was another loss for me, and went back to storage to prepare for departure.

With my graduation done I no longer had a good reason to stick around Calypso, it was time to head back to Arkadia, which I had been missing, to see if I could survive there again. The flight was uneventful, I had only seen one pirate when I left and he went off on his own in a different direction without paying me any mind what-so-ever, so my trip was long and I sat there talking to my society. The only other thing I accomplished last night was entering some information about me as a potential mentor, though with my lack of play time I doubt I will end up with many disciples, but at least the info is there if anyone felt they'd like to learn a bit from me, though I feel I will be updating it again with the normal times I might be found online. When I arrived at Arkadia it was already late, I was tired, and though I really wanted to start adventuring again I had to go to bed, thus ending my productive evening.

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)