“The years, the months, the days, and the hours have flown by my open window. Here and there an incident, a towering moment, a naked memory, an etched countenance, a whisper in the dark, a golden glow these and much more are the woven fabric of the time I have lived.” – Howard Thurman, Author

31.1.yc120 J160311 < B-C00038 < B-R00005

Signal Cartel, a beacon of light in a bleak universe. For 9 years, I’ve sailed the dangerous darkness of New Eden’s seas. Today marks my 3 year anniversary, proudly flying the colors of Signal Cartel. What an honor it’s been and a pleasure to see the corp grow into what it is today. I’ve been told that I have the privilege of being the non-leadership member with the most tenure. Most of my fellow corpmates would probably say, Katia who? I’m very much the quiet one, in the background, going about my adventure, in my own way. But behind the scenes, I’m very much involved and I would like to think that my DNA has left some mark on the corp as well as promoted some of its growth. I know when we began and over the years, I’ve had many tell me directly it was my blog and adventure that has inspired them to explore and for some, join the corp as well. I’m simply humbled that I’ve had a positive influence upon the New Eden community. So, here are two things I’d like to reflect on for my 3 year anniversary. One where the corp has had a positive impact on me and one that I believe I had a positive impact on the corp.

The Credo. For the most part, I’ve always flown with the mindset that is our corp Credo, but I had never put it down into words and I had never seen it so elegantly put into words before. When Signal Cartel was formed and I read up on it, I couldn’t believe that there before me, in words, was exactly how I tried to fly in New Eden. The decision to join was a no brainer and I would have joined even earlier than I did, but I was deep in Null Sec on my journey and had to find a wormhole connection back to Empire in order to dissolve Sagan Explorations, my corp. To dissolve a corp and join another, I had to be in a station and it took a week for me to find the right connections back to a high sec station so I could take care of that and submit my application to Signal.

It was the Credo that spoke to me from the beginning and it continues to influence me to this day as it has evolved. It’s the light I focus on in my travels and helps to keep me aligned. Capsuleers either get it or they don’t. Some of those who don’t try to change it, so I can’t thank Johnny Splunk and Mynxee enough for the hard line stance they take of protecting the Credo against those who don’t necessarily fit well with the corp and try to change it. It’s the essence of who we are and if it doesn’t click with you, then this is not the corp for you. If the heart of it should ever drastically change, then that will be the day that the light of Signal dies.

This is something I have to take credit for as it’s the greatest thing ever to be part of the influence that made it happen. I’m positive that I was the first to say it in the context of Signal Cartel. My blog post title, Can’t Stop the Signal, posted the day I joined, a week after Signal was formed, quickly became our motto and I smile every time I see it. (Being a big Firefly fan, it was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw the corp name, I knew it was fitting.) Never once did I think it would catch on like it did and it’s still used today. Like I said, I really don’t like self-recognition, but this one I just have to as I’m so proud to be a part of Signal and to know that in some small way, my DNA has indeed influenced what we are today.

Now for a quick update on my goal of exploring at least 3 new systems per day. I’m happy to report that as of today, I’ve explored 100 new wormhole systems. An average of 3.2 per day. I’m hoping to, and if I do, maintain this pace, that sometime later this year I’ll be able to enact my last phase of this leg of my journey. More details to come in the months ahead.

Fly clever!

“Exploration is all about the jump, not the stargate.” – Katia Sae

01.01.yc120 J212224 < E-C00247 < E-R00025

J121516 VI

Looking over the numbers of my explorations for this past year, it dawned on me that I pasted my 8 year anniversary of exploring all of New Eden. Beginning on December 1st, yc111 (2009) my start was a rocky one. I completed 70 K-Space systems that month, but for the whole of the following year, yc112 (2010), I only managed to complete another 68 systems. In yc113 (2011), I fared better, but still weak with 641 systems explored. The next two years, I had stepped away from my explorations, adding no more systems to my completed list.

(OOC: Was a rough couple of years, having lost my mother and then my father, as well as a best friend of mine. My free time and my priorities changed up a great deal, not to mention my enthusiasm for any kind of personal enjoyment.)

In yc116 (2014), I returned to my explorations with a determination and enthusiasm to finish what I had started. That year, not only had I explored an additional 2,180 systems, I also completed Empire space and begun my explorations of Null Sec. Completing Empire had renewed my determination and in yc117 (2015), I not only managed to complete more systems, 2,242 to be exact, I also completed all of Null Sec.

With the completion of all of K-Space, both Empire and Null, the thought to retire had crossed my mind, especially since I was all docked up and hadn’t suffered a ship loss through my explorations. What better way to finish? Well, that was just it, in order to be true to my original personal mission to explore all of New Eden, then I had to include wormhole space as well. Say what you will about the challenges and difficultly of staying alive in K-Space, especially Null Sec, I knew W-Space would be an even bigger challenge. The pace I had set the previous 2 years would not be able to be maintained because of the randomness of connections and not being able to plan a route.

J212224 V

So, the start of yc118 (2016) marked the beginning of my wormhole explorations. That year I completed a total of 528 systems, less than a quarter of the pace I had in K-Space. Wormhole space was indeed going to take much, much longer. My only goal for yc119 (2017) was to do more than I had the year before, which I just barely managed to do with 532 systems completed.

Which brings us up to date, yc120 (2018), and what is my goal for this year. My K-Space pace was an average of 6 systems per day. My W-Space average is around 1.5. I’d like to double my pace to 3 new systems found each day. Keep in mind, that’s new, previously unexplored systems I’ve not found yet. There are days where I only find systems I’ve already visited, which seems to be about 50% of the time, which means I have to explore 6+ systems per day at least. My main issue is time, it takes a lot to scan down and explore connections. Also, as more are found, the pool of those systems I need to find, becomes smaller and therefore harder to find. It sounds easy and is, to find 6+ W-Space systems in a day, but when 50%+ are ones you’ve already visited and you only want new ones, well, now you understand the difficulty and challenge to explore all of wormhole space.

Let’s do this.

J150112 III