Futurism

Fall is dropping leaves and bringing on the rains in Seattle. After the rush of Halloween parties in the next week (last night being the first), we will settle into the 5 consistently grey months for us in the Pacific Northwest. While snowboarding provides a bit of respite from the grey, getting above the rain in the jaggy Cascade Mountains for some riding is only workable for me about once a week at the most. My gaming time traditionally increases in direct correlation to the darkness and wetness of my immediate environment!

Of course this year there is the added variable of a delightful 7 month old who needs lots of dad time, so I may be gaming a significantly lower amount of time! 

I am planning to upgrade my long in the tooth system (p4, Radeon 9700 for the techie readers) to a Wolfdale / Radeon 4850 set-up. Yes, I am mostly an ATI fan-boy. It mainly has to do with the way Radeons render colors. I think colors are more aesthetically pleasing with ATI, maybe because they are more saturated or something compared to NVIDIA. It is a totally subjective preference. By my calculations using newegg, I can upgrade to my intended new specs for about $350, keeping the current drives, powersupply and case.

As soon as the new system is working, I will download EVE online and begin facing the reportedly steep learning curve that EVE hits newbs with.  Thanks to Kirith Kodachi, another gaming dad and all around EVE veteran, I am now comfortable that my intended choice of Gallantean Intaki Artist will not gimp me beyond belief whether I decide to pursue industrialism, tanking, or ECM at some point in the future.  I am planning to mainly work on learning skills anyway for the first month or so, thanks to some ISK funding for skills from a childhood friend who is now a wealthy EVE miner/industrialist!

While my EVE entrance is cooking, I will be checking out LOTRO's Mines of Moria with Sedona, my IRL brother.  He even may actually post to this blog some day, if he can drag his Warg away from PVMP!  (Sedona is also planning to check out EVE when I do, so I will start with a partner for running missions, etc.)

Well that's it for my planning update!  Winter 2008-2009 is looking to be a great time!