Eve Midlife Crisis

I've got two pale hands up against the windowpane
I'm shaking with the heat of my need again
Starts in my feet, reverbs up to my brain
There's nothing I can do to revert the gain.

Eve has gone offline for an 'upgrade' to what I shall henceforth be referring to as 'Carebear Eve'. Why? Because it appears the new generation of devs are attempting to crack down on the behaviour (i.e. griefing, camping, suiciding, all other forms of potential ingame bastardry) that the first generation wholeheartedly encouraged. I'm not going into the nanonerf issue, since I only recently started flying inties. My own issue is with the rest of it. I had intended for a while to try to bring my sec back up, but under the new rules, that will be even more difficult than it was before. Not only that, but the consequences of - heaven forbid - having fun are becoming far more serious than the situation warrants. Soon, the threat of someone petitioning a griefer may actually be taken seriously.

So I'm saying Fuck it.

My sec was wrecked months ago by killing isk farmers and backing up alliance-mates (well alright, there were more than a few gatecamps and a couple runs against Omega Alliance, Nex Eternus and Glauxian Brothers in there, too). If such activity will now be penalised more than ever, then I'm going to just let it drop. After a few chats with Mynxee and Sicks, I've decided to join the Hellcats. In preparation, I have my best friend setting up a bunch of waster pirating cruisers which she'll bring down for me once I'm settled in my new home.

I'm looking down to the street below
There's nothing in the way they move to show
They, too, know what I know
They, too, hunger for the beast below

This is rather a large step for me. I'm fond of saying I couldn't solo my way out of a wet paper sack, and normally I steer clear of fights where I'm outclassed. Why? Hell if I know. I used to be a lot ballsier, when I was a nubbin; logging in and yelling 'Wait for meeee!' if there was an op starting up. And even a few months ago in Atrocitas, before everything began to quiet down for the summer, I had a grand old time shooting people up. It's like I've hit Eve Middle-Age early or something; I've not been on a killmail since my first week with Tygris. I think part of that I can chalk up to the people I was flying with being generally poor company. Atrocitas was largely a joy to fly in, and having the right people in a gang could mean the best night out on the constellation for a week, even if nothing died and the antipirates chased us out of their territory. Tygris, alongside Huzzah and ExM, were much more a raw collection of strangers, and the fun was missing.

Where'd the happy laughing pirate go to? I've just been feeling so tired with it all the last few months; there were days when I just didn't feel like logging in at all and wondered why I bothered.

I'm going to start soloing. I have open in EFT just now a gankrax setup proposed to me by a friend. Maybe I could take something down before it takes me down - there's no armour-repper on this baby, whom I'm naming Sugar. If I teamed up with another cruiser pirate, I could run a slight variation which I'm fitting to a second gankrax I'll be naming Spice. I want my damn game back, and the only way to find it is to go back to basics. No t2. No reppers. I had an amazing efficiency with Atrocitas because I was flying whatever a 1.5-mil SP Gallente pilot can fit and jumping in headfirst into situations I really shouldn't have, without losing very much. Time to try again, and be prepared to die.

Listening to the radio, I feel so out of place
There's a certain something missing that the treble can't erase
I know you can tell just by looking at my face
A word about my weakness: I'm totally addicted to bass
- Puretone

Addendum
Just been watching a vid of one of the older fights in Irmalin. Brings good memories of when Atrox took the fight there along with former Ground Zeero peeps... good times.