Watching the Watches

Hello everyone,

More venturing out has happened. This time it was a probably overdue acquisition of a watch ...

My last watch did really well for me but it's been increasingly losing its accuracy and it lost its voice (beeps) many years ago. It was in need of a service, which probably would have cost more than a new watch and was starting to eat batteries more regularly too. So when it stopped on Thursday (Wednesday?), that was a trigger for heading out to the shops again.

I'd been doing a bit of research before, opened up the possibilities beyond Accurist and this appeared ...

Shiny ! And in range due to rather massive discounting. I don't think it would be fair to expect another 23 years out of this watch but I'll be happy with 10 :-D. Makes a fair bit of difference to the watches I used to go through at school. This Accurist :

Was acquired in 1997 and I think it cost £90. It's older than some people I know :-D. The ones before came from Lorus and Timex, those tended to break within a couple of years. The Xeon watch I got after was very inaccurate. At least I think it was by people called Xeon, that make isn't around any more.

Our local Mall was a mixed bag on Friday. I'm still hunting for masks (I have a selection coming in the post - so that's sorted) and was sad to see only one shop stocking them. Well, theoretically 2 but I thought the ones in HMV were a waste of time. I almost picked up a few from WH Smith. Not sure why I didn't. The Gromit shop had sold out.

The shops themselves were a mixed bag. Some were observing the social distancing rules with maximums set on the people allowed in at any time, some had hand sanitiser at the doors, some had one way systems. There was a one way system set up for the walkways around the Mall. Other shops were just open season, not limiting the numbers inside and having no idea how to deal with rude people pushing past.

Oh and there were also people coming out of shops and walking the wrong way on the one way system. Stupidity is real.

My advice to you if you are venturing out into shop areas :
If you're not comfortable going into a shop, don't go in. I should have just not gone in to the shop with the crafty gear where I was looking for a mask again.
If a shop isn't practicing distancing or limits, don't go in.
Respect the systems;
Use the hand sanitisers;
Sign in to track and trace apps if you're eating anywhere.
Be wary.

Idiocy is real. I'm not planning to go to that many shops in the near future, although I do need to initiate new glasses still. My Homing Signal started pinging very soon after that crafty shop that had way too many people inside and I disappeared back home without doing the glasses.

(Mind you, the Homing Signal was probably firing partly because I wanted to get back to watch the cricket and to not miss too much of the Fuzzy stream).

Internet spaceships ? The tour continues. Last time, I left things at the conclusion of the gravity dive at the home of the Empire.

The next stop was the very dark Thetis Generation Ship ... In the Elite lore, these ships left Earth from the end of the 21st century, continuing their departures into the 22nd century. This was before the hyperdrive was invented, so it was slowboat time at sublight speeds. In theory, there should be around 70,000 of them seeded in the game and the sublight speed limit means they should be within 1200 light years of Earth. Some survived to reach their destinations but most have very dark endings to their stories ...

The Thetis is no exception. As the comms logs go, they pick up a mysterious message on a planet they pass by. Apparently there is a subliminal message within inciting violence among the crew. Violence that quickly spreads out of control. Centuries later, the ship is dark. Lost amongst the stars.

Perhaps there was a way in ? We may return later when suitable gear is available for entry.

(Incidentally, No Mans Sky has just released a content update that allows exploration of mysterious space hulks ... may have to look at that game again !)

That's the Yellow Sidewinder, a base in the Lave system which was the next place to visit. This system and its neighbours hold a special place in the hearts of Elite players ... This is the screen that greeted the initial players when they looked at the galaxy map way back in 1984 :

The old systems were restored into the newer games, starting with Frontier Elite 2 and continuing through to the latest game. They are the home systems of the Systems Alliance, another independent power group. They've been updated for the current game, with names for the space stations within them being names like "Ridley Scott", "George Lucas" and probably a bunch more that I don't recognise. The Ridley Scott station lets you acquire Leathery Eggs as a rare, unique commodity. Wonder what would hatch out of those.

I moved swiftly on from there though, with the next landing place being 12 Trianguli ... at an abandoned base that I'll talk about ... next time !

Oh and there may be screenshots of a very cute anime inspired game coming soon, I'm being tempted in to trying out Final Fantasy XIV and the benchmark takes what you put into the character creator and turns them into people that combine utterly enchanting expressions with an easy Chop Monster In Two With Big Sword cutscenes.

Could be a fun one to try out, hands permitting.