KBP7-G SYSTEM
XV7L-S CONSTELLATION
PROVIDENCE REGION

The tension was palpable throughout the fleet. The increased reports of massive, aggressive Sansha Nation fleets had been sending rumours and fear throughout the Empires.

I had engaged the Sansha many times. I had survived each encounter. Fear can consume us. Fear can elevate something inconsequential to unbelievable heights. That is how Sansha thrived. His was a mind game.

I smirked. Two could play that game.

OPEN BROADCAST TO ALL PILOTS OF NEW EDEN

(OOC: I’m not well versed in hosting on dropbox, please let me know if this failed)

I hoped that would motivate the fleets gathered to oppose this incursion of the Sansha Nation.

OOC: As an aside, it’s a good day for audio. The good folks at Eve Commune have released Episode 7 of their podcast, and graciously interviewed me. It was a great experience, and I want to once again express my sincere gratitude for this opportunity.

“Look, I don’t really care. I’ll be nice and warm in my pod.” I said.

“With all due respect, sir, that’s fine and dandy for you, but the rest of us are stuck freezing our asses off until you get the heating system fixed. Did you know Drex got his tongue stuck to a wall strut on a bet just this morning? Stupid sod had to go to the infirmary after he ripped his tongue away.”

“I’ve had Aura run a full systems diagnostics. There is nothing wrong with the heating system.” I retorted. “And if Drex is that much of an infant, then he deserves the pain. He had better report in for his shift. I don’t give time off for stupidity.”

“Are you daft, Colonel? Can you not feel the cold?”

“Watch yourself, Karm. You’re close to that line of insubordination.” I let that linger for a moment. “Do you want me to come down to engineering with you, show you everything is fine in front of your team, and leave you feeling humiliated? Is that really want you want? Because I’m happy to oblige.”

“I just want the bleeding heat on, sir.” Karm said, his sarcasm emphasized on the term of respect.

My eyebrow raised in annoyance, but I held my tongue.

“Lead on then.” I said, gesturing down the hallway with my hand.

It was cold. I wasn’t an idiot. I could see our collective breath hanging in the air in front of us during the entire verbal exchange. Obviously, something wasn’t right, but Aura had checked for hull breaches, heating unit running temperature, duct blockage analysis, as well as several other tests, and nothing was wrong.”

The lower we went through the ship, the more our fine Minmatar craftsmanship shone through: exposed wiring, sloppy soldering on crooked metal plates, duct tape everywhere. It truly was a marvel that our ships held together at all sometimes.

Karm and I made our way to the heating control unit, where he stood quite proudly with an expression of victory on his face.

I moved closer and put the palm of my hand on the unit. It was quite warm, which was normal.

“It’s warm.” I said out of reflex, realizing how stupid I sounded.

“Ah, we never thought to try that, sir.” Karm said. I was more apt to cut him a little more slack in front of his team, as he had to demonstrate his alpha status to maintain their respect, but it was still a fine line he walked.

All the gauges on the unit showed nominal values. I followed the two main pipes that left the unit, feeding hot water into the condenser unit, which turned the liquid into heated vapour, then fed it into the ductwork. Those were warm as well.

Each pipe had a handle at about shoulder height. They were manual control of the water flow, turned off during emergencies where the ship retained a lot of heat. I touched my hands to the pipes above the handles.

They were cold. I smirked.

I grabbed both handles and with a little exertion, turned them to the open position. Within seconds, the connecting pipes became very warm to the touch.

Aura had been right. Human error.

I turned towards Karm, who’s face was already deflated, anticipating the verbal lashing that was surely to come. Karm was a good officer, respected by his team. I wasn’t about to undermine that.

It was enough that he knew I knew he screwed up. He would punish himself for it far more severely than I would.

I simply smiled at Karm, and walked away.

SUNDAY NOV 21, 2010

• TRX Strength Workout – check
• TRX Cardio Workout – check
• TRX Flexibility Workout – check
• TRX with exercise ball – check
• TRX with stability ball – check
• TRX with kettle bell – check
• TRX core principles – check
• TRX safety – check
• TRX custom training programs – check
• TRX group training session – check
• Completely exhausted and spent Roc – check
• Newly certified TRX Professional – check

For those of you that have been following my blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed some changes this year. In a way, it’s ironic, as the real me is physically becoming closer to the virtual me that is Roc Wieler; but that’s a humourous aside.

You may have noticed that there has been a noticeable increase in my fitness related posts, and a decline in my EVE related posts.

While that is good for me on a personal level, as my passion for fitness has grown and I’m actually hoping to harness that passion and pursue professional personal training and further certifications. It’s bad for Roc Wieler, at least in the sense that his personal growth and development have taken a back seat to my real life, which is healthy and normal of course.

Please don’t think I’m announcing Roc’s retirement, or the end of this blog. Not at all.

I like Roc. I enjoy being him. I enjoying nurturing him and seeing him progress. I enjoy EVE Online. I enjoy the community. I enjoy Mynxee. Regularly.

What I’m getting at in my own roundabout way, is that I am going to create a second blog for myself in 2011; one solely dedicated to my real life fitness pursuits, and put the focus of Roc’s Ramblings back where it belongs: about Roc and about EVE Online.

I know many of you have enjoyed my blog. I know some of you haven’t enjoyed the shift in focus. I get that.

Ultimately, this blog is for me, and for me alone, but I do owe you. I owe you more good writing, more music, more great contests. You have been good to me, each and every one of you. You have elevated my character, nurtured my pursuits surrounding this fantastic game we play, as well as been there with me every step of the way through my personal achievements.

Though I say it many times, I can never properly convey how thankful I am for that. You motivate me to be more, to do more, to accomplish more, to lead by example. You inspire me to try things far beyond my comfort level, to embrace life more fully than I ever have in the past.

So stay tuned, cult O Roc, good things are coming all around.

We all know I love the company of beautiful woman. I have no shame in admitting that. I also admire, respect and pursue strong women, usually of the Brutor variety.

Today, however, was the day a woman broke me. Her name was Zuzana.

I know what you’re thinking, lucky me. But let me tell you something about this beautiful, fit, driven woman. She doesn’t hold back. She can make a Brutor cry, and did. I admit it.

Here’s the workout challenge:

medal of honour abs workout

CIRCUIT 1: Repeat for 15 rounds

1. Leg Elevated Plank with Hip Circlemax.reps during 50 second interval
2. Rest 10 seconds
3. Super Star Body Springmax.reps during 50 second interval
4. Rest 10 seconds
5. Elbow Plank/Side Plank Lift – left sidemax.reps during 50 second interval
6. Rest 10 seconds
7. Elbow Plank/Side Plank Lift – right side max.reps during 50 second interval
8. Rest 10 seconds
9. Leaping Mountain Climbermax.reps during 50 second interval
10. Rest 10 seconds

See why I was left a crying, quivering mass of smitten Brutor male? She broke me. And I thanked her for it.

Want to see the full workout? Visit Zuzana’s site, http://www.bodyrock.tv for some seriously hardcore workouts, fitness & nutrition tips, plus hundreds of pictures and videos of one seriously hot, seriously built babe.

ZUZANA’S MEDAL OF HONOUR ABS WORKOUT VIDEO

Was reading an interesting article today called “10 Games Businesses that are doomed”. Was an interesting read, and while I rarely re-post someone else’s post, I thought you might enjoy this.

CCP are the Icelandic developers of Eve Online, the mind-bogglingly intensive MMO set in space. It has committed fans, a strong revenue stream and has been running Eve successfully since 2003.

How can I possibly think the company is doomed?

Well, to be truthful, I don’t think it is. I think it has a perfectly good future as a lifestyle business (I don’t think it’s sellable – though that’s a topic for another post).

But Dust 514, on the other hand, there’s a product that’s doomed.

I used to be an investment banker and one of the first rules drummed into me was this: “If you are going to advise someone to make an acquisition, suggest buying a business they understand in a new country, or a new type of business in their own country: buying into a new sector in a new country is a recipe for disaster.”

The people at CCP are experts at building a free-form space game with a subscription model on the open architecture of the web.

Dust 514 is a first-person shooter.

On a console.

With a never-done before connection between a console world and a PC MMO.

It’s wildly ambitious but also, in my view, totally pointless. The integration between the console game and the PC-based MMO will be as unnecessary and expensive as the film maker in The Movies or the customisation features of APB.

It will be hugely difficult to implement, actually subtract from the gameplay experience and cause CCP endless headaches.

I was terrified when I saw the presentation of the game at a conference earlier this year. Every fibre of my being screams that CCP is over-reaching wildly.

I hope that I’m wrong.

Full article is HERE