It has been a busy couple of days. I've spent a couple days out in a Benitoite hotspot, which has been very lucrative. This deep core mining is very satisfying, but my pulse wave sensor seems to be on the fritz. Spinning the ship around in goofy circles seems to be the most reliable way to get these rocks to ping, but it becomes very frustrating. I am going to try relocating the sensor to a different area of the ship and see how that goes. If I can't get it working reliably, I'm probably going to refit the ship for either passenger runs, or trade routes.

I'm also starting to plan my next ship move. Do I really take on the role of 'Spaced Road Trucker', like I have been joking with my wife? If I do, then I see a Type-9 Heavy in my future, and a lot of trade routes or maybe some platinum mining. Or, should I refit my Asp Explorer for some deep space exploration? It would take me away from the family for large chunks of time, but I hear the exploratory data is worth some good money and it is beautiful in the black.

Either way, I'm looking at getting a Diamondback Explorer for a 'Bubble Bus', so I can pop around the bubble and work on some engineering projects, and possibly run some courier missions for various factions in the process. I hear they are capable of holding an SRV, so I might snag one of those to play around in too, I'm sure the kids would love riding around in one of those.

Speaking of the family, I need to start figuring out where we need to move to. The whole reason for taking on this venture was to help give us a better life in a better place. I need to find a new home for us. One I figure out what my next move is, I'll start looking at the longer term and where a good 'Home base' would be.

Hot damn! I did it! In my unchristened Asp Explorer, which I bought and outfitted today, I managed to do my first run of deep core mining! Let me just say that having more than 12 limpets makes all the difference in the galaxy! I was able to actually look around for minerals worth getting.

The commodities markets are awful weird right now, with tensions continuing to rise between the federation and the empire... I had planned to mine painite, but the void opals and the grandideirite were now worth more. In fact, the grands were worth over 800k, so it was totally worth hitting up.

My kids called in while I was deep in the rings. My son managed to get his holo-me set up so he could "help" me mine. He had so many questions and took to all the info quickly. He was telling me about all the different stars he knows about and really wants to visit the Sol system. I told him I would have to work on getting a permit to enter, but I don't have the foggiest idea on where to start with that. He's a good kid, and his little sister popped her head into the holo-reality to tell me all about her latest video games and to see what color I could paint my ship or otherwise decorate it. It is so funny what they find important on life.

I managed to hit a few motherload rocks in the ring and nearly fill my hold with opals and grands. Overall a great haul and well on my wait to affording a Python! If the markets don't totally crash, then I should be in really good shape. I guess if they do, I could try outfitting my ship for passengers, I hear there is good money in there too.

I think I finally figured out how this thing works. My sidewinder wasn't quite this fancy. I've only been at this for a few days now, but I've already managed to afford myself a Zorg Peterson Adder! Man, it drives like a tugboat, but it holds a lot more than my sidewinder.

I'm on my way to what might be my final run in the old tub, though. I expect to get enough painite this load to be able to afford a Lakon Spaceways Asp Explorer! Man, that will be a nice ride. I hear people take those things around the galaxy and back again!

I've got a family back home that I need to support though, so I better get back to the stick and haul this load.

o7