Am I an exception to the rule?

When I first came to 0.0 space I was pretty much as green as they come (and am still only slightly less green now) with skillpoints hovering about the 2 million mark and a slight knowledge of PvP (thanks to RedVsBlue).
I knew I wanted to be PvP centric, I knew I wanted a reason to fight, basically I knew I wanted to play in 0.0 space.
Everything I read on forums said I should not be going to nullsec so soon but its what I wanted in Eve and I didn't want to spend ages doing stuff I didn't want to do to get there so I took a gamble and went for it. I'd either enjoy it and keep playing Eve or I'd have a very short subscription.

I'm still here so I guess I did something right but the overwhelming response to noobs moving into 0.0 is massively negative.
I started blogging in an attempt to document that fact that "if I can do it anyone can" but I'll be the first to say I couldn't have got anywhere without a Corp and this may be the first real hurdle, finding a 0.0 Corp/Alliance willing to take a risk with someone who quite probably is a spy. I'm pretty sure I just lucked my way into MSCS but once in the Corp life in 0.0 wasn't so tough.
The alliance recruitment forums amaze me now with posts from players with quotes like this-

"I dont know if my SP (11Mil) are enough to live in 0.0 space (guess not?)"

-a regular occurrence. I still don't have even half that and I've been in 0.0 full time for about 4 months now but this is the image that lawless space projects to the Eve community as a whole as a world were any jump could be your last and the uber skilled pilots lurk in every belt with the most well equipped ships imaginable ready to punish anyone who's not been skilling for the last 3 years+. Is this elitist e-peen waving or is my case a pure fluke?

Now before I get shot I'm not saying every noob with a trial account should go flooding into nullsec I'm not although I'm sure some pirates and 0.0 roamers would love it if they did, Images of baby penguins jumping en-mass into the sea full of waiting killer whales spring to mind, and infact does the image of 0.0 life serve a purpose of keeping away the people who aren't truly determined to live there against the odds as it were?

Edit- A follow up post from Manasi about the difference between being able to fly a ship and being able to use a ship.

TV AM

The sovereignty final stuck so U'K hold the Z-R system and station. Hurrah!
 Spurred on by this, and the prospect of 'the eternal strugle' coming to an end U'K have had a Territorial Claim Unit onlineing in 3D constantly all weekend and some form of presence in system to keep an eye on it. I joined a fleet locking down the system on Saturday night and did the usual gate guarding and sat reporting intel while the big guns took down the AM TCU which would otherwise online before ours did.
Not that it mattered as sov dropped once again.
3D is still a war zone but U'K have held a pretty sturdy system dominance so I'm hopeful we can take it when CCP sort out the bug that's causing the Sov drops.

I logged on Sunday at our POS in 3D (as I went to bed before the operation in system finished) and out TCU have 2hrs to go before it onlined. I was about to make a run for it back to more friendly space when reports of an enemy gang coming to 3D and another camping D-G were reported so I hung about in the POS for a bit before logging off.
Pretty uneventful weekend TBH. Still grinding T2 Cruiser skills (nearly at T2 medium guns now).

Thinkgs I learnt
I need to sort out my Rupture fit, I cant squeeze a MWD on there and I feel terribly slow with only an AB for a speed boost.
Minmatar Battleships 1 - yeah I learnt a BS skill (even if its just a token lvl1, was only a few hours).

Thinks to do
I WILL roam this week, it is my mission in life (for this week).

Broken Record

After Aegis Militia decided to change their name they lost Sovereignty to the whole Q-6LG1 constellation on Tuesday the 16th Feb. Never ones to pass up a good opportunity U'K & AAA jumped at the change to gain another foothold in providence that's nicely in jumpbridge range of 9UY and the war began.AM reacted quickly and gained back 4 systems in the constellation  leaving Z-RFE3 and the linking system of 3D-CQU unclaimed.

Almost 2 days solid fighting later and AM were holding ground well with TCU's being onlined round the clock by both sides and being destroyed with minutes to spare as the opposing fleets swapped system dominance before finally AM seemed to give up so Ushra'khan and AAA held the field long enough to get TCU's onlined in both systems and held both the stations. Tired hungry but happy the job was over the fleet set off jumping home.

"Funny story...and I'm not joking....Sov just dropped in both systems"
To say the shit hit the fan doesn't really do it justice. Fleet and Alliance chat exploded with expletives and people desperately serched for answers. WTF just happened?
AM picked up on it straight away and started onlineing more TCU's while the majoyity of our forces went back to GE or V2 to emorage about all the fighting now being for nothing. Details were checked, checked and tripple checked by alliance and we could only conclude it was a bug and petitions and bug reports were filed. Of course CAOD thought differently and lols commenced.

The 48 minute problem
An AM TCU onlined in Z-R the next day and I'm sure they had epic lols at our "failure" but their faces dropped a few minutes later as so did their Sovereignty. This continued right now with little reply form CCP about why we're now stuck in an eternal fight for 2 systems seemingly unable to hold a claimed state for more than about 30 minutes and with dwindling interest from both sides (who wants to fight for space you cant have?) but the fighting will continue with the hope that it'll get fixed at some point and someones Sov will stick.
Hopefully ours.
Until then its a bit like Red Vs.Blue with pewpew on demand for those who want to take part.
FOR THE TEAPOT!

The life of Light Support

FC- everyone warp to [person] @ 10  now now now
Find him in fleet list, right click warp to...."hmm I'm aligning."
Screen goes red "oh crap"
spamwarp spamwarp spamwarp
WHAAAAH WHAAAAH WHAAAH
mail icon flashes
"back in V2 again".
I actually had some decent loot for once as well, I knew I'd die.

I did actually get to shoot stuff before this but not a lot then after the podding it was already midnight so I went to bed. Sounds like it was an epic night of fighting though and a lot of fun, thanks to Provi for bringing the fights.

Thing I Learnt
When on a gate in Light Support while the big ships blow stuff up be aligned to something.
Skynet has infiltrated Eve and lives in our POS.

21D13H12M

Training long skills is a bitch (Minmatar Cruiser V if you want to know).

Not much has been going on in Eve for the last week. Well thats a total lie shit loads has happened with the Goon/BoB/SOLOblahblah business and U'K taking 9UY and some Sylph space which fell foul of another Sov bill ooops but most of the action helpfully took place while I was at work. Great.
I did play some small part in the taking of J6QB-P by cloaking up and relaying intel and scouting some ships to the fight which was kinda cool and scouting is something I want to do more of so it was good practice.

I need to roam more, I've not been out on a roam in ages. In between CTA's I've been getting ready for the next CTA and during the recent "lull" (a few days without a CTA) I managed to get a tiny amount of 'bear type activities to earn some much needed Isk. Now its looking like its back to the fight (thank you very much Aegis Militia) so when I get logged on it'll either be all hands to the fleet or a cheeky Stealth Bomber roam as the hornets nest should be well and truly stirred up.
The simple joys of a provi roam will be so much sweeter once I get the time. Assuming there's any Provi left to roam in... hahahaha of course I kid they are bringing some great fights at the minute and its all good fun.

To the Thrashers!!!! (I might even upgrade to a Rupture...oooo)

Things I Learnt
People get angry when you leave your mic open (sorry guys).
Scouts don't get on killmails.
When asking advice on what to train next you will get 10 different answers, just pick one and stick to it.

Bring it

Tonight the final battle for sovereignty of 9UY begins, who will own it tomorrow?
Either way it should be an epic fight and a new chapter in the epic saga of U'K vs. CVA.
*crosses fingers and prays the node holds*

Breaking news!

Alright there isnt any and this weeks had enough of it already I think
I've not blogged about what's going on in the South as everyone else and their cat has (and done it better than me) plus the most of the action has happened while I've been at work or with my family so I've kinda missed out and could only regurgitate what's been told to me.
So...what have I been up to.
The attack on 9UY happened (no really) and I got in system just as the action was finishing there, almost literally, hung about for a bit then went back to V2 and practised scanning some more. Yesterday when I logged in I went straight back to 9UY to try my luck, joined a fleet chasing a few reds up and down the pipe to empire where I got nothing, don't think I even saw a red, before camping gates in 9UV. This form of space denial is the most fun you can have.....
Drank some beer, ate sweets and watched time tick by, Then a red miniblob turned up DIRECTLY ON ME and... pwned. Well at lest I was back in V2.
Predicting an Eve heavy weekend I logged off to spend some time with my wife and stock up on good will.


What I learnt
Being at work during CTA's stinks.
-A- really don't like local chat.
I need to roam more (I'm in Ushra'Khan FFS) and this is the perfect time to do it. I'm not sure got the skills to really be of use in the gate camps we have running right now and I always see to get to a fight just as its finishing so I might try roaming about around the 9UY area and see what's going on, see if I can stir things up and even if I get no kills I might at least cause some disruption. My minds made up, contact the Rifter dealers.

The day the whole world went away

Goonswarm is no more what the..... Given there recent failcascade in Delve I don't suppose it should be much of a shock really but that's one hella big power vacuum.
Although the alliance known as "Goonswarm" is gone, as of about 6:45am today, I'm pretty sure there will be a new alliance of corps with a rather similar members list later today or tomorrow. They do still 'own' the Band Of Brothers name don't they?

I've not blogged for a few days so I'll try and recap whats been going on.

• Roam out of D-G yay.
• .-A-. tackle a Carrier, we go to assist.
• Carrier gets away before we arrive..boo.
• I get on a few killmails.
• I loose yet another ratting cane when I warp to an anomaly and 3 waves spawn at once and the frigates scram me...
• I've been practising probing things down, wormholes, complexes etc. I'm getting better slowly.
• Currently training Minmatar Cruiser V aiming for Recons.

Other Catch/Provi news is all about CVA. They took some space which was, from what I understand was agreed with .-A-. they wouldn't touch.
.-A-. got annoyed and we took it all back then took D-G (yay U'K fleet was over 200 ships BTW). After a lengthy post on CAOD .-A-. basically said they had no problem with CVA and no more aggression would follow if they got there shit together and stopped attacking Catch.
CVA did a (pretty good RP) post saying...no.
The deadline date .-A-. set for peace talks has just passed so what now?

Things I've learnt
Being 1 of 40 small ships in jump range of a gate in enemy space makes me feel anxious.
Impulse drive is your friend when the bombers do turn up.
40 frigs can really f**k things up!
I need to do more roaming.
Jetcans disappear after 2 hours duh, move your stuff out of it before AFK'ing to watch TV with the wife.