When no one's looking

     A wise old dude once told me, when I was much, much younger, that it didn't matter what people did out in public.  What matters is what they do when they think no one is around.  I don't remember who told me that, but I do remember I was far too young to remember much of anything other than that I figured being somewhere else was better than listening to some old dude talk about shit I didn't understand.  I am glad I remembered what he said though.  It was long before sociology and psychology where the catch-all university credit and he apparently had some insights.

     I think now, they have fancy-assed terms like "authenticity" or the "authentic self'" for what the old guy was talking about.  In basic terms when you think no one is watching, you are for more likely, or completely likely, to act like how you really want to act instead of pretending to have a different behaviour or ideas or morals purely because of where you are and/or who you are with.

     The internet provides a unique twist to that process, especially an internet with an environment where instead of no one watching, someone with suppressed urges has lots of people watching, possibly with similar repressed urges.  The anonymity of the internet and its pseudonyms and avatars allows people to remain unidentified if they want so they have a big audience to show off to, yet at the same time feel the same kind of protection and lack of external pressures and accountability, just as if they were alone.  In that environment, where society, surroundings or other people/players can't really force them to be something else, like in real life, the real them comes out.

     In anonymous surroundings, or alone-like conditions, nice people are still nice people.  Latent assholes however, will pop up like daisies.  Out in life, these turds will wrap themselves up in gold leaf, and people think they are gold through and through.  In Eve though, they're just the pieces of shit that they always were, that they are.  Eve to assholes is like the dark to rats.  Turn on the light of the real world, and the rat assholes of Eve scurry off, cover their shit with gold leaf again and claim they're not really an asshole, they're just "playing" an asshole on the internet.  Sure, whatever you say.  So not only do the internet assholes have the problem of being an asshole, on top of whatever "issues" they have that make them vent in games like Eve, but they also have denial issues as well.  :)

     So yeah, with people, in the real world or on the intarpipes, an asshole is an asshole.  Whether they think anyone is watching or not determines how fast you see that they are actually a piece of shit.  It's actually a fairly simple concept and something that can easily be observed by any one, almost any time.

Mining libations

     My work, in the real world, is physically demanding and can be fairly mentally taxing with the concentration required.  As a result, for relaxation (online), I enjoy doing things that require little or no mental effort.  I relax, and wind down.  Mining, requires minimal concentration and mental effort, is quite relaxing for me, and yet provides the requisite income to pay for itself in plexes so I can further my plans for Eve-verse domination.  At times, after a particularly hard day, it can be too relaxing, and I can doze off.  One particular incident, the last time I ever dozed off, resulted in an alarm clock going off (that wasn't an alarm clock at all, I realized, but the structure warning alarm) that cost me about 2 billion isk to turn back on.  Such as Eve.  To prevent further such expensive and alarming events, I went looking for other things to keep me awake, yet relaxed.

     I listened to MP3s for a while, and while my tastes are fairly eclectic, I also sometimes listen to them at work too, and I don't have a massive library of music yet, so it doesn't take long to wear out the enjoyment of a few hundred songs, and I didn't want that to happen.  Let's try books.

     Books are not the best "next" option for a couple reasons.  First, I can't read a book and keep track of a couple mining toons at the same time.  On top of that, an old back injury wakes me up a couple times an hour every night, so I am in constant sleep debt, and when I try to read a real book, I fall asleep before I get 2 pages read.  That would take me back to the top and the expensive alarm clocks.  Not good.  Audio books, however, are a perfect fit.  I downloaded and listened to dozens of audio books.  Sci-fi, as many of the Sharpe's books as I could lay my electronic hands on, mysteries, horrors, and anything that piqued my interest from the reader comments.  Lots of libraries carry audio books now so it's easy to find non-pirated versions online.  The last ones I listened to were the Dark Tower series by Steven King.  The last book was a total let down and it really seemed like he just got tired of the series, ran out of material, and needed to end the series.  I was disappointed with the series' end, so decided I'd try some pod casts for a while.

     Skipped around with a bunch of random gaming pod casts, then landed on Idle Thumbs.  I liked their style, liked and could relate to a lot of the content, so I went back to their first and listed to about the first 50 or so.  Their dates and episodes started getting fucked up, so I went looking for some Eve podcasts.

     First one I found was Eve Commune, but I'm not doing them the service of linking it as I think it is so fucking brutal.  I listened to 3 or 4 of them but couldn't take it any more.  Their content was very weak, they were pretty brutal at it and . . . "uncomfortable" sounding.  Self-conscious or something maybe.  Anyway, every show was announced to be "amazing" but generally had fuck-all in it.  The host - don't remember his name - would run out of shit to say, of couldn't think of anything to say, so he'd fill the space with a completely "plastic" fake laugh.  Man, terrible.  I might go back and see if there's something more current and they're not so bad, but only if I absolutely run out of anything else to listen to.  From there I found Kirith Kodachi and liked his style, or at least found it bearable to listen to, so I went back to his first and started towards the present from there.  I listened to quite a few of them, and will definitely go back to listen to the rest, but somewhere in one of his casts, I think, I heard about Voices from the Void and purportedly the sexiest voice in Eve.

     Went over there, and went back to the first cast, and started listening.  I have to say, I always go back to the beginning of the casts because I like to start from the beginning, listen to some Eve history, listen to some predictions from the casters, and see how they worked out.  At any rate, Arydanika definitely has a silky voice, and while she is a null-seccer and a bunch of the news is pretty good, she definitely leans on her voice more than she leans on information.  This is particularly evident in one recent guest appearance on the Crossing Zebras (a more recent listening choice) where she was talking about "barricade runners", about how there were some "new" mining and transport missions, and how she couldn't see any reason or need to fly a logi in high sec.  Maybe she's never heard of these "new" Eve updates called "incursions" or "war declarations".  At any rate, I enjoyed her and her over-the-top pod cast partner for a while, but the way she "plays" her voice, especially the forced "tee hee hees" and squeaks.  If you want to be serious, then be fucking serious and use your voice to speak with, not as some "thing" with wavering content behind it as a side note.  It really started to grate on me, and as I listen to the casts for enjoyment, not aggravation, I passed on it but will check back when my nerves and ears recover.  I guess she's part of the goon derp pets now, so, well, . . . we'll see if/when I decide to go back, at least maybe for the older stuff.  ASS part of the goon pets, maybe she'll parlay her voice for some interviews with the goon brass.  That might be interesting to listen to.

     As mentioned, Crossing Zebras is the latest "fix".  They are definitely comfortable behind the mic, and pretty polished compared to the others I've listened to.  They are certainly often "gay" conscious and I might have heard them mentioned because of their frequent homophobic comments, but aside from ignoring that, I went back to the beginning again, and enjoy listening to their observations, opinions and predictions.  I've nearly listened to them all, only a dozen or so, so when I'm done with the last couple, I'm going to try Lost in Eve.  I heard Rundle and a Honey Badger pilot named Zakn on one of the zebra casts, and they both sounded informed and relaxed.  Xander seems more prone to the asshole mentality in Eve, while Jeg seems much closer to my point of view.  Right or wrong, the zebras or their guests, it's enjoyable for the most part to listen to their podcasts.

     At some point I heard or saw something about Jester being on a podcast, so I went over to Declarations of War to check it out.  Definitely a lot of Eve horsepower on that one cast with 3 CSM members and Jester, and the conversation was good, and intelligent, so I listened to a few others.  Aleksyev, the host, can seem or sound fairly arrogant and full of himself.  Not sure if this is a front, or really him, or it goes with the territory, so to speak, but it's an interesting commentary on null mercenaries and they have a lot of interesting guests.  I want to go back and listen to more of those too.

     On the one zebra cast, I enjoyed listening to Rundle talk.  The zebras are always talking trash at/with him, apparently good naturedly(sp?), and on that one cast, with an opposing player in the form of Zakn, Rundle sounded comfortable and informed. Right or wrong, I know not, but he has a great "radio voice" and it's something I would be comfortable listening to as I have a beer or three and crush some rock.  So, I think I'll do the last couple zebras, then drill down through Rundles stuff and see what he says about things.

     So, for the pvp-think bunch that think it's great fun to station or gate camp, or ship spin waiting to get blue balled on a pvp op, or blob some neutral or single ship in low or null (yeah, I've done all that "wonderful" pvp too) or listen to some braggard or crass fuckstick in TS/Vent, it is infinitely more enjoyable, and for now, profitable to relax with a beer, listen to some casts and crush some rock.

     

It's curious . . .

     When all the shit hit the fan about Vile Rat, word also came out about some corp/alliance that was taking advantage of the goon's "quiet time" while they mourned VR.  Supposedly/apparently/possibly/allegedly some organization was out shooting the goon's sov shit in the face, and all kinds of people freaked out about it.  The thing that is curious about it, is that is pretty much stereotypical goon behaviour (the fucking-someone-when-they-are-down part) so that made me very curious as to why, even through their . . . "condition" at the time, they couldn't appreciate that behaviour, because it was exactly like something they'd do, and definitely like lil Alex's.  As is generally the case with people who have anti-social behaviour patterns though, along with that mind set comes the, uhh . . "ability" to completely rationalize aberrant behaviour on their part while finding it completely revolting when someone else does the exact same thing.  To me, that is some curious hypocritical behaviour on the part of the goons and all their little sycophants, pets and wanna-bees.

     2nd thing that's curious, is how all the said goon-derps, sycophants, pets and wanna-bees lost their shit over an Eve player dying.  He's not the first one, the first Eve player, to die from violence, disease or by other more peaceful methods.  I remember reading not too long ago about a dude, an Eve player, who died in a motorcycle crash.  No big song-and-dance or blog spam, or quiet time for him.  VR might not even be the first goon to have died.  I don't think the motorcycle dude was a goon though, so no big "candle thing" for him I guess.  Now, to be fair, I think it's unreasonable for anyone to expect the goons to manage and keep track of all of Eve's obituaries.  Friends and colleagues of the other deceased Eve players could have easily taken up the torch there, right?  In typical goon fashion of "go big or stay on the porch", they went big on VR.  I don't really get into it for three main reasons.  First he was a goon, and I don't care much about what happens to anyone who gets their jollies by inflicting misery, real or virtual on other real people.  Second, if we was "tight" with mittens, that's also a very, very good reason to have no interest in the individual at all.  In all my years and travelling, I have yet to meet super nice people who hang around with assholes and sociopaths on the scale of mittens.  IMO, you "play" one, and you are one.  More on that another time though.  Lastly, from decades with the military and government, and my share of hot spots, any kind of staff (from any country) that hangs out in embassies or is "liaison" (or any other flowery term you might prefer) in war zones are not the dopey diplomats, drivers and secretaries that their governments like to claim they are.  Those people are there to apply some "foreign policy measures" and in real world terms, that means lying, manipulating and fucking with local or adjacent people and countries for their own gain.  I think that's bullshit (from any nation) and I don't agree with it in real life, so I certainly don't agree with it in a virtual one either.  I guess I'm not "evolved" enough to be OK with that level of personal hypocrisy.  So, as VR apparently applied the same skills in the real world as he did in real life, I don't lose much sleep over those people either.

     What's curious about all the uproar over VR, is that when a carebear Eve player got ganked and sent a sad little Eve mail to the goons, mittens decided it would be good lolz to publicize it and invite any and all, in the virtual world, to get the guy to commit suicide, in the real world.  Now though, a guy who made a living in the real world by conniving, lying and manipulating people and places, like the goons do in Eve, is to be made an icon or a hero in a virtual world?  The same little herd of sycophants, pets and wanna-bees laughed at the first example, and freaked over the second.  That's some curious shit.

     The last major thing I find curious is how disconnected from reality many Eve players seem to be, especially the ones that condone the ganking and bullying.  In Eve, the "sandbox" is set up to allow and superficially "police" all the negative and aberrant behaviour that is not condoned in the real world.  In Eve, goons, et al, can and do try anything they can to fuck with anyone that isn't a goon, or a goon fanboy, and they do it with pretty much no accountability, and the "carebears" can either suck it up, or fuck off out of Eve.  Other Eve players, REAL people, complain about how senseless and unjust their behaviour is.  The goons and their sheep laugh.  They can't really be touched by their victims.  In the real world, when individuals, organizations or countries fuck with other people on the planet, there aren't always repercussions or accountability either, at least at first, but in this case with the US embassy and the bombings, it's real people that are pissed off by being fucked with by other real people, only these "carebears" will fuck back.  Regardless of country, because all the "civilized" or "rich" and/or "powerful" nations do it, when the real world "carebears" retaliate, interestingly, the people who started the problem are now the "victims" and THEY are the ones using the ever popular "senseless" and "terrorist" rhetoric.  In Eve, like in the real world, the organizations with the most money and power are the ones that seemingly tend to fuck with people the most.  I guess in Eve though, people have decided it's ok to do to REAL people on the other end of their electronic weapons, the same things they scream about in real life.  That's curious to me, and pathetic.

     In the end though, if the goon's big VR hullaballoo gets some kind of Eve player memorial to ALL the Eve players that have died, that I think is cool.  As much as the goons and their like are assholes, if they can scare up 150 large for the widow and kids, then their in-game herd mentality makes them slightly useful assholes to at least 3 people.

Armstrong should play Eve

     No, not Neil Armstrong the astronaut, but the other one, Lance, the cyclist.  Mind you, if you subscribe to the theory that NASA, with a non-stop fail and over budget performance at the time, faked the moon shot to save American face and their program, then Neil was doing some space RPGing already and might have been a good candidate for Eve as well.  Neil died this summer though, so, we'll stick with the other Armstrong then.

     As a long time athlete and avid cyclist myself, it doesn't take a forensic genius to put all the bits and pieces together to come to the realization that Armstrong was heavily into boosters, but was smart enough and rich enough to be able to stay one step ahead of the drug testing squad in terms of technology.  Over time, pretty much his entire TDF winning squad admitted to being on drugs too, but of course Lancey-boy claims he NEVER was.  Ok.  Well, where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and while he could and did use his millions and law suits to keep other people's shut, apparently, the poor little fella has just grown tired of the fight, and has dropped his defense.  He was immediately proclaimed a cheat, stripped of his "wins", and banned for life from "sanctioned" events.  Lots of other current and ex cycling pros are coming out of the closet and admitting to the use of drugs, but with Armstrong's ego and reputation, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a character building moment like that.  Without him having to train for pro or semi pro racing events, that should give him ample time for Eve.

     As a liar, and a cheat, and a drug user, he should be a perfect fit in any low or null organization that operates on the same principles.  If Armstrong publicly was playing Eve, it might be a draw for some new membership in the game.  I wonder how many sponsors will be dropping him like they did with Woods?  I wonder how that will affect his Live Strong donations?  On the upside, his lying and cheating gave him enough exposure to raise hundreds of millions (reportedly) for cancer research, not to mention millions for himself.  Lie and cheat for millions?  Sounds like Eve too.  So, I guess in the end, he's a lying, cheating piece of shit that did some good, but he still is what he is.