My Life

Alternate title: "Why My Podcast has Podfaded this Summer"

My poor podcast. After a spring where we had one child sick for every day in the month of April (not the same child, they took turns) I thought I could get back into recording biweekly at the beginning of June but here it is middle of July and no more recordings.

The biggest problem is the good weather, combined with busy children activity schedules. To give you an idea of how this contributes to no podcast episodes, let me describe my typical week day.

5:50 - Alarm goes off, start getting ready for the day

6:10 - 7:00 - Breakfast, take care of small Eve industry and market tasks, maybe play a game for a bit.

7:00-7:30 - Drive to work

7:30 - 4:30 - Work :( Two or three times a week exercise gets an hour in here too

4:30-5:00 - Drive home

5:00-6:00 - Help get supper ready and sit down and eat. Sometimes this goes to 6:30 if the dinner prep is late started.

~6:00-6:30 - Clean up

6:30-7:30 - Parenting time - play games with kids, go on bike rides, help with reading, go to park, etc.

7:30 - 8:00 Bed time routine

Note: that block from 5:00 to 8:00 is assuming there is no activity any of the children need to go to, and right now that means Thursday night only. Monday and Wednesday Wilmick7 goes to JiuJitsu, Tuesday Aarjay10 goes to swimming lessons, later Wednesday Terjoe goes to Dance lessons, and Friday Aarjay10 has Soccer. So either my wife or I am out of the house for an extra hour or two every night except Thursday, increasing the workload.

8:00 - ~8:20 While Mrs Kodachi finishes putting the kids to bed and getting into her relaxing pajamas, I play a quick round of something like Overwatch or World of Warships assuming there is no more cleanup required.

8:20 - 10:00 Husbanding time - spend some one on one time with the wife, catch up on the day's news, make decisions about future events, etc.

10:00 - 10:30 - get ready for bed, play a little more quick game, then crash

Worth noting that from 8:00pm onward I'm pretty exhausted.

Now in the winter time that block from 6:30 to 7:30 is where we usually sit down every second week and record the podcast, but in the summer time its hard to justify going downstairs to the rec room when the world outside is so warm and inviting. Hence why the podcast suffers so in these months whereas in winter its easier to rationalize.

What about the weekend you ask? Well, weekends is full on family mode with activities and trips to museums or extended family visits, etc. The few quiet hours I get the kids are busy playing their own computer games and I am zonked and just want to chill, neither very conducive to recording. The one night a week I'm excusing from Husbanding Duty is Sunday nights when I run my infamous Aideron Sunday Night Fleet so no time to podcast there.

All of this is to say don't expect a lot of episodes between now and September :P

Borrowed Time Audio

Zendane of The EVE Reader podcast recorded my winning Pod and Planet entry Borrowed Time as part of the grand prize. I listened to it this morning and he did an excellent job (with some minor changes to make it flow better and keep it PG). If you don't feel like reading please give it a listen!

Hydrostatic Podcast

I made a guest appearance on the new Hydrostatic Podcast last week. Check it out!

Oh Dear God

Xander's going to be insufferable for months now.

Podcasting Will Resume Normal Operations!

As you may or may not know, my podcast ran afoul of issues with Audacity in that random recording sessions would come through choppy, as if I was speaking through a high speed fan. It was sometimes rare, other times happened every time I tried to record a piece for a podcast, and I'd never know until playback. You quickly lose enthusiasm if you record the same thing five times over.

I tried to debug what was the cause but with nothing running and no identifiable source for interference, it was still random. So the podcast suffered.

I could have tries setting up Audacity on my old computer but wanted a more high tech solution instead. So I did some research and added to my Christmas list the recommended Olmypus VB-8100PC digital portable recorder. This tool will allow me to record the podcast with clear audio separate from any software / hardware configuration and conflict issues, and then import the audio file into Audacity for production.

Now all I need is 30 minutes to record. Going to try tonight so see you in the Ninveah channel!

Ignorance Is Bliss

I love Eve podcasts, I really do. Hell, I started one myself I like them so much!

But what is it about Eve podcasters being so crucially ignorant about upcoming releases? I must be in a minority because I hunt down all information about upcoming expansions religiously, track the changes reported on Sisi, and generally make sure I know what to expect come the day it arrives.

I'm listening to the 2.5 hour Fly Reckless episode with guest Jade and Jayne from Lost In Eve (two of the top podcasts for Eve out there right now) and several times I just have to shake my head at the collective ignorance of Incursions and Incarna. A couple off the top of my head:

- No, you do not have to exit your ship to access station services when Incarna comes out. Walking in stations is always an option but not mandatory.
- The Sansha ships for Incursions will deal all damage types, EM and Therm from lasers as per now, and new Kinetic/Explosive missiles. This will prevent players from resist tanking like they do with normal rats in missions/ratting.
- The incursions will be happening in high sec, low sec, null sec. Not just low sec. Yes, pirates will be a problem in low sec but people serious about doing this content will figure out how to deal with it.

I guess part of the problem is that instead of playing Eve I can only read about it, so I know more but have less hands on experience. To be honest, I'd rather have the opposite problem.

(NOTE: upon re-reading my post, it occurs to me that the words "ignorant" and "ignorance" could be construed as intending to be insulting in today's modern vernacular. Rest assured that is not my intention and I use the words as per their definition of "not knowing about", instead of the common "you idiot, you don't even know you don't know!")

(NOTE #2: if you are not listening to Fly Reckless, Lost In Eve, or Not A Lot Of News Newshour Eve podcasts, you are missing out!)

Another Podcast Episode!

Seems like Monday nights are my recording nights for the time being. Got another episode done, go here and give a listen.

Loading up my iPhone tonight, going to listen to Casiella's first episode where he/she talks about Eve fiction. Check it out here. Also looks like Jade and Jayne have a new one for Lost In Eve Season 2. Later in the week hopefully we'll get another Not A Lot Of News Newshour with Jason and Erin. Still waiting on another episode of Unknown Eve too; summer vacation is over guys!

*Waves to CCP xHagen*

I'm at home off work today, mainly helping my wife as the entire family recovers from a headcold. I had it pretty bad yesterday but I'm feeling much better today; unfortunately, SWMBO is suffering a lot more today and is in no shape to wrangle the carebear bridgade.

A couple quick notes: I did find some time to record episode 12 of Broadcasts from the Ninveah and last week Jason of Notalotofnews Newshour had a special interview with CCP xHagen who is the CSM advocate at CCP. I highly recommend you give it a listen.

Best part of the interview is where CCP xHagen acknowledges that he knows of my blog. So a shout out to one cool Icelandic dude. *thumbs up*

(If other CCP employees are jealous and want their own shout outs, contact me. My loyalty can be purchased with ISK real easy.)

Screenshots!

Here are some various screenshots and images.

The first three are shots from a few weeks ago when the M3 Corp carrier fleet moved from Amarr space to Caldari.

In these two I'm 20+ km from undock point and the undocking carriers are flying out to me. Come to me my pretties! MUHAHAHAHHA!

At another stop we had no station so we linked our cap transfers in empty space and broke the laws of thermodynamics. Energy from the ether!

Korneilia's Orca.

Kla'strit's wolf doing some ratting work.

And the banner for the neophyte Broadcasts from the Ninveah I've been doing for Acinom's Not A Lot Of News Newshour Eve podcast. The first 6 five minute segments I've done are up now and you can listen to them separately from his podcast here. Although why you wouldn't just listen to Acinom's podcast is beyond me.

Another Week Another Podcast

Acinom has posted another episode of his podcast which is slowly morphing into NotALotOfNews Newshour Podcast. Included is another segment from me, this time talking about moving to a new alliance in general and everything you need to know and find out. Can also be found in itunes under the name Reading of Eve Online Articles if I recall correctly.

At some point in the future these 5 minute segments of mine will be available separately here for prosperity's sake. In fact, I'm hoping these will be the precursors to the resurrection of the Broadcasts from the Ninveah podcast in the fall or winter. Time will tell.

Notalotofnews Newshour Podcast

Acinom has recorded another episode, including a five minute segment by myself once again. This time I talk about taking a loaded freighter, through two low sec systems, on autopilot.

Broadcasts from the Ninveah Lives! (Sort Of)

Jason aka Acinom over at the Reading of Eve-Online Articles podcast approached me about recording segments for his podcast and I recently set myself and schedule up to do just that. My first submissions are included in his recent episode found here and in Itunes.

Let me and Acinom know what you think as I plan to do more of these segments for his podcast going forward. If anyone has something in particular you want me to talk (blather?) about, you can contact me via email, evemail, or comment here.

They Can't Shut Me Up!

On Saturday I had the pleasure of recording with Darren and Karen for Shut Up We're Talking episode 59, in which we talk about Ubisoft's DRM and Eve Online.

Had a great time, love podcasting.

Fulfilling A Promise

When Andrew and I were on Shut Up We're Talking we promised we would link to Karen's blog if she ever posted. Well, she finally did:

I’m (hopefully) back to blogging. It’s been really hard to write about the last 9 months, but I plan on playing catch up. There have been many big moments in the guild, in the game, and in MMOs in general. I’m still trying to untangle that.

This entry is far more important for a different reason. Those who might have followed my blog in the past know that I’ve helped participate in the 2,996 project, which is a blogger tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each year, bloggers sign up and are assigned the name of one of the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93. The first year of the project, in 1996, there were over 3,000 bloggers that participated. It struck me this year, when I signed up, how few bloggers were participating - only 687 so far with a couple of weeks left.

Go there, read, and see if you can help out.

Shut Up We're Talking #52

I'm happy to report I got invited back to guest on SUWT #52 with Andrew. We had a good time recording it as I was much more at ease with the process and more ready to speak instead of just listen.

Back to regular blogging on Tuesday! (Monday is holiday here in The Great White North.)

Podcast Overload

When I first considered recording my own podcast at the beginning of June, the field of Eve only podcasts was very sparse. Fly Reckless was back with a new host, but the Drone Bay and Warp Drive Active were still AWOL and Titan Weekly was defunct.

Of course, as soon as I said I'll make one everybody else got in the act and now we have a surfeit of podcasts. Along with Fly Reckless:
- Warp Drive Active and The Drone Bay are back
- Podded Podcast has started up again
- Declarations of War started

So of course I enter into existential angst mode. Can Eve support yet another podcast? How can I make it different as to not repeat what others might do just as well or better than me? Should I hold off until the field thins a bit?

I pondered this as I listened to the latest Warp Drive Active podcast today. I came to the conclusion that my Broadcasts from the Ninveah podcast would bring something different as I plan to do shows that focus less on my activities or the current null sec news sound bites, but more on broad topics affecting the game with more consideration involved as to the implications. For example, Eve Online Series of Poker is as much a part of Eve as mining now, should it and other player run side games/events be integrated more into the game as Ambulation comes to fruition, or should they be left outside the confines of the game? Should the devs code some sort of stock market and regulated banking system or should it be left in the hands of the players? These are examples of topics that I think can be explored more deeply in a show that focuses less on news and "what are we doing lately"... not that there is anything wrong with that. I love hearing about how other pilots play the game and the shenanigans they get into.

So, too long/didn't read version: podcast is still a go for this fall. I'll be lining up my first guest in the late August timeframe.

Shut Up We're Talking #51

Whenever I was losing at tennis to Andrew in our weekly games, I could always think "at least I've been on SUWT and he hasn't". Well, now I've lost that one solace has he got to be the guest on this episode much to my dismay.

In this podcast they talked about the Ricdic stealing money from Eve bank and white collar crime in Eve in general. I don't have much to add that they didn't cover but I will say that I have vacillated back and forth from more developer control of financial institutions to less. Right now I'm at the "leave it alone" stage and I'll tell you why.

In the Lore, players represent people who are, for all intents and purposes, above the law of man. They are an immortal elite class of super rich that care very little for the happenings of the billions on the planets below. The faction governments are at best peers and at worst annoyances to be dealt with as the capsuleers see fit. There is no government organization that could run a bank for them and enforce any punishment should the pod pilots steal from them. In the end, the pilots have to provide the service for themselves and police it themselves.

In regards to player run banks, the operates of Eve Bank have learned from earlier failed banks and set it up so that if a teller like Ricdic went bad and stole from the vault the effect on the bank as a whole would be mitigated. Despite losing hundreds of billions of ISK to Ricdic and have a run on the bank, it remained solvent and operational and is still doing business. Dynasty Bank however was not setup as well and people lost money when it went south.

* * * * *
In regards to the Guiding Hand Social Club theft, I want to clear up the incident as it got a little muddled in the podcast. Here is an article about it from PC Gamer. This event happened in 2005, not 2008. The theft occurred of assets in the corporate hangers and corporate wallet, not the targets personal wallet or hanger even though the assets stolen could be considered hers. And they did not take her out to null sec and kill her, they lured her out and then turned on her as the theft occurred.

Minor points, but it supports Andrew's statement that ISK in your wallet and assets in your personal hanger are safe from theft. You have to be scammed out of your money and stuff.

* * * * *
Finally, I want to say I totally agree with Andrew that what Blizzard is doing with gender changes, hair and facial changes, and even server changes can be considered micro transactions. Not only can be, HAVE to be even though they don't fit the word micro very well. They are not Account Services; account services is updating your payment details or paying for more game time. Perhaps in the past once could consider moving a character from one server to another an account service, but I think that time has past for me. They are microtransactions, players paying for upgrades/alterations to their character with real money.

All in all a great podcast!

Project: Geeks In Space

So, the more I think about it the more I'm sure I'm going to try and do a podcast. The enthusiasm from simply mentioning it was heartening and it will assist in my plans for New Eden cultural domination. The podcast won't be launched until the late fall / early winter. I don't want to try and start a major undertaking during the summer silly season.

The most important part of a podcast is the name. Ok, not really; the most important part is the content, but the name is the most important thing I can do now right now.

Andrew suggested "Geeks In Space". Its not grabbing me. For one thing, its very generic and I would like something a bit more Eve-centric. So I had some ideas:

After Action Report

Call To Arms

Broadcasts from the Ninveah

Local Comms

Will Shoot For ISK

Will Kill For ISK

Caldari Underground Radio

Council of Stellar Mismanagement

(New one: Achille's Belly Button from Andrew as he walked by... I really need to close my office door.)

Vote in the comments! (Note: I reserve the right to ignore all of you)

As for content, I really like the format of Shut Up We're Talking where they pick some topics beforehand and discuss them on the podcast, giving opinions and discussing it from their points of view. I would like to do the same thing but mostly Eve-centric. I'm thinking myself hosting with a rotating group of guests depending on availability, etc.

I don't want it to become a huge part of my free time so I am aiming for a bi-weekly posting schedule with the podcast, maybe monthly if that proves to be too hectic. I don't want my gaming time to be completely replaced by recording and editing !

So there you have it, a draft of the idea. And comments or suggestions would be welcome.

Where Have All The Podcasts Gone?

Warp Drive Active? Feb 25th.

The Drone Bay? Jan 30th.

Micro Warp Cast? Nov 1st, 2008.

Fly Reckless at least has come back with a new host but I haven't given it a try yet.

The recent lack of dedicated Eve podcasts has made me very annoyed. While I enjoy listening to other podcasts about MMOs in general, I asked for and got the IPod for Christmas explicitly to listen to the 'casts listed above. I want them back dammit. Who do I write to so I can complain?

Darn free user-generated content.

Shut Up, We're (Finally) Talking

Shut Up We're Talking podcast episode #44 is published with your humble writer as a guest. Check it out here. I had a fun time, Darren and Karen are really great to chat with.