An Interesting Hobby: Difference between revisions

Line 26:

Once the message was sent, I sat back and took a breath to calm my excitement. Nothing more happened for a few minutes, so I went back to finish listening to the lecture. When the lecture was over, there was still no news, so I went down to the market sector to start hunting around for the next deal I could afford.

After the first day or so, I looked at the flyer again. It was looking a little yellow. Maybe the program was not running any more. I tucked the flyer into the locker, and shortly thereafter the laundry came back, and it was buried behind all the clothes. A few more days passed, and I had totally forgotten about it. I had found a sweat deal on polytextiles in Alf, and had just committed my entire working capital to a remote buy to make sure no one scooped it before I could get there to pick it up. I was completing pre-flight checks and revelling in that just cleaned smell of a pod at the beginning of a run when my neocom started flashing. Apparently, some one had just assigned her a contract. How odd. With a few deft clicks, I brought up the contract and looked at it quizically for a moment before realizing that it was a complete set of blueprints to build a ship with all its fittings. I quickly accepted the contract, shut down the engines and started unplugging and unbuckling. I fairly skipped down to the station ~~hanger~~ level, and arrived at the same time as the courier robot delivering it into my station ~~hanger~~.

After the first day or so, I looked at the flyer again. It was looking a little yellow. Maybe the program was not running any more. I tucked the flyer into the locker, and shortly thereafter the laundry came back, and it was buried behind all the clothes. A few more days passed, and I had totally forgotten about it. I had found a sweat deal on polytextiles in Alf, and had just committed my entire working capital to a remote buy to make sure no one scooped it before I could get there to pick it up. I was completing pre-flight checks and revelling in that just cleaned smell of a pod at the beginning of a run when my neocom started flashing. Apparently, some one had just assigned her a contract. How odd. With a few deft clicks, I brought up the contract and looked at it quizically for a moment before realizing that it was a complete set of blueprints to build a ship with all its fittings. I quickly accepted the contract, shut down the engines and started unplugging and unbuckling. I fairly skipped down to the station hangar level, and arrived at the same time as the courier robot delivering it into my station hangar.

I ripped open the envelope and spread the plans out on top of a crate of ammo, tracing the lines and steps and working through the whole thing. I had done some basic manufacturing in my days at the Center for Advanced Studies, and it was coming back to me. “I can do this.”, I thought with confidence. It would not be machine-perfect, but it would be mine, and I would know every nook and cranny and have some idea of why anything was going wrong. I pulled the data tablet from my pocket and started making a list of materials I was going to need.

Suddenly it hit me: I had a holdful of polytextiles in Alf waiting to be picked up, and only the emergency funds to work with. Everything was tied up in the deal. “Ok, this was a nice hobby thing anyway. I will just wait until I get paid, and then start. No worries”, I thought. I carefully folded the plans up, put them back in the envelope and filed them in the document storage section. I sealed up my ~~hanger~~ again, and went back to the start prepping the ship again for departure.

Suddenly it hit me: I had a holdful of polytextiles in Alf waiting to be picked up, and only the emergency funds to work with. Everything was tied up in the deal. “Ok, this was a nice hobby thing anyway. I will just wait until I get paid, and then start. No worries”, I thought. I carefully folded the plans up, put them back in the envelope and filed them in the document storage section. I sealed up my hangar again, and went back to the start prepping the ship again for departure.

Everything was green, and I was just finishing up arranging a departure lane, when the neocom started flashing. Alliance Mail flashing. I shrugged and decided to wait until I was safely in warp to open it. Undocking went smoothly, and I lined up for the Eygfe gate and started up the long acceleration for entering warp. I had to ease off a bit as an Ibis careened across my path. “Damn rookies! What are they teaching them these days?!”, I cursed. However, eventually the path was cleared, and I had enough speed. I kicked in the warp drive, and leaned back with a sigh letting the tension release from my shoulders. Ok, time to catch up on the mail. What did the alliance want? I keyed up the message, and started scanning it with one eye while keeping an eye on the instruments. “Message from CONCORD: Billy's Barbarian Raiders has declared war on your corporation. Hostilities can commence within 24 hours. Please do not haul, or mine. All hands required on deck to defend the corporate assets from attack.” I swore viciously, before taking a deep breath and focussing on dealing with the flair of data as I came out of warp. Sighing, I started the lateral thrusters to pull out of the approach into the jump range at the gate, and let the ship coast to a stop before starting up the thrusters and then the main engines for the approach back to safe dock.

Line 40:

I passed on without thinking about it much. However, when I got to the market to do my long delayed check on the polytextile prices, on a whim I brought out the data tablet to see how much this hobby ship was going to cost and looked up the price on Mexallon. Twenty-four ISK for just one ingot, and I needed 64 thousand of that alone. It was then that an idea started tickling the back of my mind. My parents had insisted that I get a good basic technical education before striking out on my own, and I knew the basics of mining from my school days.

I figured I was burning ISK just sitting around waiting for the price of polytextiles to improve, and I might as well do something, so I went down to the ~~hanger~~ and pulled out Jumping Cricket, the old Velator I had ridden into port so many years ago, with its little civilian mining laser. I figured I would take a little day-trip out to the belts and see what I could get. By mid-afternoon, I had enough veldspar in a jet can to fill the hold of Lilting Plum. I had also listened to the entirety of Klaxion's latest album seven times, and watched “The Haunting of Ta'Shiana”, the only holoreel I had happened to have in the pod so many times I felt like I could repeat parts of the dialogue from memory. I took measurements off the nearby celestial objects, and saved the results in the navigation computer so I could find the can again, then I set the can's radio beacon to broadcast my name in case anyone happened across it they would know it was not abandoned. After flying borrowed combat ships for the last month, it felt like ages in warp getting back to station to get the hauler to come back out for the ore. The handling on Plum was even worse and it took forever to point in the right direction and get up to speed. By the time I got out to the can, filled the cargo hold and got back to station, I was seriously wondering whether moping around the sleepover might have been a better way to spend a day. I transferred the ore into my ~~hanger~~, and decided to go down and take a look at the result. On opening the door, I swore as a rock fell on my foot, and a cloud of dust blew out coating me from head to toe. To top it off when I picked up the piece sitting nearest the door, I got burned because it was still hot from the laser. I sealed up the door in disgust, and went over toward habitation for a bite to eat, but figured I would swing by the market on the way. After looking up polytextiles, I looked up veldspar and tritanium, and then punched it into the data tablet to see if my days work was worth anything. “Well, 270 thousand ISK is pretty good for someone who was just burning ISK in the sleepover.”, I thought. I wondered what would happen if I had some better equipment. Pensively, I looked up the price on a Navitas, and some Miner I lasers, did some calculations on the data tablet as how they compared to the yield with a civilian miner and was suitably impressed, especially since if I sold off that first load of veldspar I could afford to buy them outright from the profit. An idea started hatching to build this hobby boat from minerals I had mined myself.

I figured I was burning ISK just sitting around waiting for the price of polytextiles to improve, and I might as well do something, so I went down to the hangar and pulled out Jumping Cricket, the old Velator I had ridden into port so many years ago, with its little civilian mining laser. I figured I would take a little day-trip out to the belts and see what I could get. By mid-afternoon, I had enough veldspar in a jet can to fill the hold of Lilting Plum. I had also listened to the entirety of Klaxion's latest album seven times, and watched “The Haunting of Ta'Shiana”, the only holoreel I had happened to have in the pod so many times I felt like I could repeat parts of the dialogue from memory. I took measurements off the nearby celestial objects, and saved the results in the navigation computer so I could find the can again, then I set the can's radio beacon to broadcast my name in case anyone happened across it they would know it was not abandoned. After flying borrowed combat ships for the last month, it felt like ages in warp getting back to station to get the hauler to come back out for the ore. The handling on Plum was even worse and it took forever to point in the right direction and get up to speed. By the time I got out to the can, filled the cargo hold and got back to station, I was seriously wondering whether moping around the sleepover might have been a better way to spend a day. I transferred the ore into my hangar, and decided to go down and take a look at the result. On opening the door, I swore as a rock fell on my foot, and a cloud of dust blew out coating me from head to toe. To top it off when I picked up the piece sitting nearest the door, I got burned because it was still hot from the laser. I sealed up the door in disgust, and went over toward habitation for a bite to eat, but figured I would swing by the market on the way. After looking up polytextiles, I looked up veldspar and tritanium, and then punched it into the data tablet to see if my days work was worth anything. “Well, 270 thousand ISK is pretty good for someone who was just burning ISK in the sleepover.”, I thought. I wondered what would happen if I had some better equipment. Pensively, I looked up the price on a Navitas, and some Miner I lasers, did some calculations on the data tablet as how they compared to the yield with a civilian miner and was suitably impressed, especially since if I sold off that first load of veldspar I could afford to buy them outright from the profit. An idea started hatching to build this hobby boat from minerals I had mined myself.

However, if I was going to go down this road, I figured I really should know what I was doing. The basic classes were all very fine, but if I am going to spend that long in a pod on repetitive actions, I wanted to make this worthwhile. It was time for another trip over to Pator for some manuals. I landed in Pator and went over to the Uni offices. I checked the library for a copy of “The Basics of Mining”, before remembering that I had a copy in the data tablet it was just that I had only read the first 2 sections before getting bored. They did not have Stringer's “The Study of Astrogeology”, so I bought it on my student credit chit.

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 	Once the message was sent, I sat back and took a breath to calm my excitement.   Nothing more happened for a few minutes, so I went back to finish listening to the lecture.  When the lecture was over, there was still no news, so I went down to the market sector to start hunting around for the next deal I could afford.
-	After the first day or so, I looked at the flyer again.   It was looking a little yellow.  Maybe the program was not running any more.   I tucked the flyer into the locker, and shortly thereafter the laundry came back, and it was buried behind all the clothes.  A few more days passed, and I had totally forgotten about it.   I had found a sweat deal on polytextiles in Alf, and had just committed my entire working capital to a remote buy to make sure no one scooped it before I could get there to pick it up.  I was completing pre-flight checks and revelling in that just cleaned smell of a pod at the beginning of a run when my neocom started flashing.   Apparently, some one had just assigned her a contract.  How odd.   With a few deft clicks, I brought up the contract and looked at it quizically for a moment before realizing that it was a complete set of blueprints to build a ship with all its fittings.  I quickly accepted the contract, shut down the engines and started unplugging and unbuckling.   I fairly skipped down to the station hanger level, and arrived at the same time as the courier robot delivering it into my station hanger.
+	After the first day or so, I looked at the flyer again.   It was looking a little yellow.  Maybe the program was not running any more.   I tucked the flyer into the locker, and shortly thereafter the laundry came back, and it was buried behind all the clothes.  A few more days passed, and I had totally forgotten about it.   I had found a sweat deal on polytextiles in Alf, and had just committed my entire working capital to a remote buy to make sure no one scooped it before I could get there to pick it up.  I was completing pre-flight checks and revelling in that just cleaned smell of a pod at the beginning of a run when my neocom started flashing.   Apparently, some one had just assigned her a contract.  How odd.   With a few deft clicks, I brought up the contract and looked at it quizically for a moment before realizing that it was a complete set of blueprints to build a ship with all its fittings.  I quickly accepted the contract, shut down the engines and started unplugging and unbuckling.   I fairly skipped down to the station hangar level, and arrived at the same time as the courier robot delivering it into my station hangar.
 	I ripped open the envelope and spread the plans out on top of a crate of ammo, tracing the lines and steps and working through the whole thing.   I had done some basic manufacturing in my days at the Center for Advanced Studies, and it was  coming back to me.  “I can do this.”, I thought with confidence.  It would not be machine-perfect, but it would be mine, and I would know every nook and cranny and have some idea of why anything was going wrong.  I pulled the data tablet from my pocket and started making a list of materials I was going to need.
-	Suddenly it hit me: I had a holdful of polytextiles in Alf waiting to be picked up, and only the emergency funds to work with.  Everything was tied up in the deal.   “Ok, this was a nice hobby thing anyway.  I will just wait until I get paid, and then start.  No worries”, I thought.  I carefully folded the plans up, put them back in the envelope and filed them in the document storage section.  I sealed up my hanger again, and went back to the start prepping the ship again for departure.
+	Suddenly it hit me: I had a holdful of polytextiles in Alf waiting to be picked up, and only the emergency funds to work with.  Everything was tied up in the deal.   “Ok, this was a nice hobby thing anyway.  I will just wait until I get paid, and then start.  No worries”, I thought.  I carefully folded the plans up, put them back in the envelope and filed them in the document storage section.  I sealed up my hangar again, and went back to the start prepping the ship again for departure.
 	Everything was green, and I was just finishing up arranging a departure lane, when the neocom started flashing.   Alliance Mail flashing.  I shrugged and decided to wait until I was safely in warp to open it.   Undocking went smoothly, and I lined up for the Eygfe gate and started up the long acceleration for entering warp.   I had to ease off a bit as an Ibis careened across my path.  “Damn rookies!   What are they teaching them these days?!”, I cursed.   However, eventually the path was cleared, and I had enough speed.   I kicked in the warp drive, and leaned back with a sigh letting the tension release from my shoulders.   Ok, time to catch up on the mail.   What did the alliance want?  I keyed up the message, and started scanning it with one eye while keeping an eye on the instruments.   “Message from CONCORD: Billy's Barbarian Raiders has declared war on your corporation.  Hostilities can commence within 24 hours.  Please do not haul, or mine.  All hands required on deck to defend the corporate assets from attack.”  I swore viciously, before taking a deep breath and focussing on dealing with the flair of data as I came out of warp.  Sighing, I started the lateral thrusters to pull out of the approach into the jump range at the gate, and let the ship coast to a stop before starting up the thrusters and then the main engines for the approach back to safe dock.
@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 	I passed on without thinking about it much.  However, when I got to the market to do my long delayed check on the polytextile prices, on a whim I brought out the data tablet to see how much this hobby ship was going to cost and looked up the price on Mexallon.  Twenty-four ISK for just one ingot, and I needed 64 thousand of that alone.  It was then that an idea started tickling the back of my mind.  My parents had insisted that I get a good basic technical education before striking out on my own, and I knew the basics of mining from my school days.
-	I figured I was burning ISK just sitting around waiting for the price of polytextiles to improve, and I might as well do something, so I went down to the hanger and pulled out Jumping Cricket, the old Velator I had ridden into port so many years ago, with its little civilian mining laser.  I figured I would take a little day-trip out to the belts and see what I could get.  By mid-afternoon, I had enough veldspar in a jet can to fill the hold of Lilting Plum.  I had also listened to the entirety of Klaxion's latest album seven times, and watched “The Haunting of Ta'Shiana”, the only holoreel I had happened to have in the pod so many times I felt like I could repeat parts of the dialogue from memory.   I took measurements off the nearby celestial objects, and saved the results in the navigation computer so I could find the can again, then I set the can's radio beacon to broadcast my name in case anyone happened across it they would know it was not abandoned.  After flying borrowed combat ships for the last month, it felt like ages in warp getting back to station to get the hauler to come back out for the ore.  The handling on Plum was even worse and it took forever to point in the right direction and get up to speed.  By the time I got out to the can, filled the cargo hold and got back to station, I was seriously wondering whether moping around the sleepover might have been a better way to spend a day.  I transferred the ore into my hanger, and decided to go down and take a look at the result.  On opening the door, I swore as a rock fell on my foot, and a cloud of dust blew out coating me from head to toe.  To top it off when I picked up the piece sitting nearest the door, I got burned because it was still hot from the laser.  I sealed up the door in disgust, and went over toward habitation for a bite to eat, but figured I would swing by the market on the way.  After looking up polytextiles, I looked up veldspar and tritanium, and then punched it into the data tablet to see if my days work was worth anything.  “Well, 270 thousand ISK is pretty good for someone who was just burning ISK in the sleepover.”, I thought.   I wondered what would happen if I had some better equipment.  Pensively, I looked up the price on a Navitas, and some Miner I lasers, did some calculations on the data tablet as how they compared to the yield with a civilian miner and was suitably impressed, especially since if I sold off that first load of veldspar I could afford to buy them outright from the profit.  An idea started hatching to build this hobby boat from minerals I had mined myself.
+	I figured I was burning ISK just sitting around waiting for the price of polytextiles to improve, and I might as well do something, so I went down to the hangar and pulled out Jumping Cricket, the old Velator I had ridden into port so many years ago, with its little civilian mining laser.  I figured I would take a little day-trip out to the belts and see what I could get.  By mid-afternoon, I had enough veldspar in a jet can to fill the hold of Lilting Plum.  I had also listened to the entirety of Klaxion's latest album seven times, and watched “The Haunting of Ta'Shiana”, the only holoreel I had happened to have in the pod so many times I felt like I could repeat parts of the dialogue from memory.   I took measurements off the nearby celestial objects, and saved the results in the navigation computer so I could find the can again, then I set the can's radio beacon to broadcast my name in case anyone happened across it they would know it was not abandoned.  After flying borrowed combat ships for the last month, it felt like ages in warp getting back to station to get the hauler to come back out for the ore.  The handling on Plum was even worse and it took forever to point in the right direction and get up to speed.  By the time I got out to the can, filled the cargo hold and got back to station, I was seriously wondering whether moping around the sleepover might have been a better way to spend a day.  I transferred the ore into my hangar, and decided to go down and take a look at the result.  On opening the door, I swore as a rock fell on my foot, and a cloud of dust blew out coating me from head to toe.  To top it off when I picked up the piece sitting nearest the door, I got burned because it was still hot from the laser.  I sealed up the door in disgust, and went over toward habitation for a bite to eat, but figured I would swing by the market on the way.  After looking up polytextiles, I looked up veldspar and tritanium, and then punched it into the data tablet to see if my days work was worth anything.  “Well, 270 thousand ISK is pretty good for someone who was just burning ISK in the sleepover.”, I thought.   I wondered what would happen if I had some better equipment.  Pensively, I looked up the price on a Navitas, and some Miner I lasers, did some calculations on the data tablet as how they compared to the yield with a civilian miner and was suitably impressed, especially since if I sold off that first load of veldspar I could afford to buy them outright from the profit.  An idea started hatching to build this hobby boat from minerals I had mined myself.
 	However, if I was going to go down this road, I figured I really should know what I was doing.   The basic classes were all very fine, but if I am going to spend that long in a pod on repetitive actions, I wanted to make this worthwhile.   It was time for another trip over to Pator for some manuals.   I landed in Pator and went over to the Uni offices.   I checked the library for a copy of “The Basics of Mining”, before remembering that I had a copy in the data tablet it was just that I had only read the first 2 sections before getting bored.   They did not have Stringer's “The Study of Astrogeology”, so I bought it on my student credit chit.