Nerdism at its best

April 29, 2016

I am an Adult

Stuff about life; from someone who claims to be an adult

There will be many challenges, obstacles and curve balls thrown your way. Just try to take life as it comes. Don’t fight against the current because you’ll just wear yourself out. If there’s a door that is standing wide open for you and another that you’re trying to get through by knocking it down, sometimes it’s best to take the door that’s already open for you. In other words don’t try to be someone/something you’re not.

Learn how to budget and manage your money, how to open a checking/savings account, and how to use credit wisely and live within your means. Your future self will thank you for it. Buy quality items you can keep around for a long time to come, not cheap crap that breaks that you’ll have to buy again in a year. Invest in yourself, your education, your personal improvement, your health and your relationships to others.

You cannot put Dawn dish soap in the dishwasher.

Life is about change; don’t fight it and just go with it. Learn from your mistakes and grow. Let go of things you can’t change. Sometimes change will be so painful you will want to rip your heart out, but you’ll be okay if you just hang on and know that no matter what happens, you will be alright.

Sometimes, you will think to yourself, “F*^$! I have so, so much to do, and neither the will nor the energy to do any of it.” At this moment, there are two options:

  • Go get back in bed, thus letting others and yourself down, or;
  • Harden the f%^& up.

As far as I’m concerned, “harden the f%^& up” is one of the central tenets of adulthood. Because some people get things done in a functional, systematic way even when they don’t feel like it, and some people don’t. And I know what kind of person I would like to be.

Unless you’re one of the lucky few who already knows what their passion is and what you really enjoy, you will be spending a lot of time trying new things and figuring out what you’re good at and what you like. Don’t be afraid to try new things and fail at them; failing builds character.

Speaking of plans, keep them loose and flexible. It’s good to have an idea of things you want to accomplish and where you want to be a couple years down the road, but honestly no one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone 5 years from now. It’s fine to make some plans but be flexible and willing to change them.

It’s OK to take a minute and feel completely overwhelmed and maybe even go cry in the office bathroom a little bit. You don’t have to feel guilty for having these very reasonable emotions. But then you need to splash cold water on your face, and go get shit done.

Nothing lasts forever. Enjoy every moment that you have. Enjoy life and practice being present in the moment because it goes by extremely fast. There will be both good and bad times. The bad thing about up is there’s always a down. It’s important to really enjoy and savor the good moments in life because you’ll need those memories to reflect back on when the bad times come.

When you’re a teenager, you’re just at the beginning of your life’s lessons. Life is the toughest teacher you will ever have. “Life is a cruel teacher. She gives the test first, then the lesson.” Life will throw everything that it can at you; it will try to break you and choke you until you can’t breathe, but you can’t let it.

Let Go of Expectations

Love More and Keep Your Heart Open. Love is all that really matters in the end. Give of yourself more than anything. Try to be patient, empathetic, understanding, caring and gentle with other people. Get to know people better by asking questions and listening attentively. People usually like to talk about themselves and questions are a great way to get conversations going. Love people for who they are, just as they are, and realize that everyone is a work in progress! Life is a continual work in progress. We’re all just trying to find our way, and we’re all confused and looking for contentment. Life is a journey, and happiness is not a destination to arrive at, but a way of living.

No seriously, NEVER put Dawn in your dishwasher.

DSC_0192

If you do accidentally lapse and put Dawn in your dishwasher, run it empty and put hair conditioner where the detergent goes. That will clean it out (tip given to me by College Custodian when I lived off campus during my college years and roommate did the thing)

April 15, 2016

Trading – The Basics

trade

Your first trade

You’ll be sitting in a space station. If you select “Starport Services” you’ll see the Commodities market pop up. Select that option and you’ll see a list of goods (or Commodities) for sale and purchase.

The price and availability of goods depends on various factors. Firstly, and most importantly, is the type of economy of the system – Industrial, Agricultural, High Tech, Refinery, etc.

Here’s a list of the various types of economic system and the goods that are in supply (being sold) or in demand (being bought) in those types of economy.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Goods

And here’s a more detailed list of each type of commodity available in the game.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Commodities

So, how do you make money? Simple! Buy low, sell high.

But what should you buy? and how do you know what’s low and what’s high? Well, that really depends on lots of factors (time of day, how many people are trading and more) but the simplest thing is to learn some of the basics.

Agricultural economies produce things like food and drink, so they tend to be in supply (and cheap to buy). They like to buy things that help them produce food (like crop harvesters or atmospheric processors) and things that keep their farmers happy (domestic appliances, consumer tech, clothes).

Go to an Industrial economy, and you’ll find them producing things like domestic appliances and consumer tech, and in need of things like food! So if you buy food in an Agricultural system, fly it to an Industrial system and sell it, you’ll make a profit! Even better, if you then buy some consumer goods or clothes and fly them back to the starting Agricultural system, you’ll make a profit on the return leg, and you’ve got yourself a trade route.

You may be thinking “that’s awesome, Einstein, thanks for the economic theory – now just tell me what to buy and where to take it”. Because the answer to that question is based on where you are, how much money you’ve got and how much cargo space you’ve got free, you’ll need to do a little bit of work yourself to figure out the best answer.

The easy way is to use one of the many tools to go look up the best answer. I have use eddb.io’s single route finder.

https://eddb.io/trade/single

using this resource allows you to input the buy from system, the sell to system, your cargo space, and available credits. this tool tracks prices in various stations and helps you to pick the best goods to buy and where to take them.

The first hour

You’ve made a few credits and you’re on a roll. If you repeat what you’ve just done a few times, you’ll have even more credits (probably a few thousand) and you’ll be getting the hang of navigating the commodities market, docking and jumping between systems. Don’t worry about getting rich until you’re comfortable with the basics. Repeat that run you just made five times and then take stock.

The simplest thing to do is to repeat this process until you are filling your hold with the most expensive goods at each station and you’ve still got money in the bank. You’ll probably have 25-30K at this point, and you’ll be buying consumer technology, tobacco, progenitor cells or superconductors at 4-7K per ton, with a profit of 1K per ton when you sell.

Working for the man

You’ve got the basics down and a small pile of credits – wouldn’t it be awesome if you could break the monotony and pull in 20K profit once in a while? Well, you can! every time you dock at a station, even before you sell your goods, take a quick look on the bulletin board. If you’re lucky, you’ll see someone who wants what you’re carrying and is willing to pay a premium for it.

This is probably the fastest way to get big chunks of starting cash, so don’t forget to check every time you dock.

Once you maximise your profit potential, you’ve got a few options. The first is probably to look for a more lucrative trade route – if you’re not making 3K+ a run (round trip) then you should look to find a better pair of stations to trade between.

You should also factor in how efficient the run is – hyperspace jumps take time. Supercruise and docking take even more time. You should be able to find a route that takes less than 15 minutes round trip for a single jump and once you’re practiced at navigating and flying, you can probably get a two or three jump route round trip in under 15 minutes and a single jump trip round trip in 10 minutes. Time taken is time wasted, so be mindful and practice docking fast (hopefully without blowing up!) and navigating the commodities pages