At least here on Eveoganda you know that I am not afraid to talk about the other side of my own personal experience. Oh sure, I'd prefer to spend my time telling you how awesome I am. And I do that when the situation warrants it. But I am also extremely self-deprecating, I'm the first person to say when I'm being an idiot, or when I do something stoopid.
Like yesterday.
Let me set this up for you. I log in and find that my mates are already off on a roam, probably about 6 or 7 jumps away. I think, "Ok, I can probably make that and join up". So I undock in my Podla fit Drake ( for those that don't know it is HML/2 Webs/Scram or Disr/2 Nano/ the rest as usual ) and load up comms. The fleet is full so I'll tell someone on comms to open up another squad, but at that moment I hear them engaging something and wait. I hate when we're in a fight and some schmuck comes on with some lame ass question, "What system you guys in?" or "What ships you guys need?" just when the FC was about to give an important instruction. So I wait. I might be headed for stoopid in a minute, but I'm no schmuck.
Just then a Cane lands on the station, flashy red dood. I don't think much of it at the time, but the dood starts yellow-boxing me. So I do the usual Get Info, yeah, yeah, ok nothing weird or SPDR about him. No one else red or neuty in local. Then he starts shooting me for real.
Two smart things to do at this point. 1) Dock up and get a real Drake, (Podla Drakes are great for small gangs and some solo work, but not for a 1v1 versus an experienced Cane pilot in close proximity to a station ) or 2) Ask for some help, there are probably two Tuskers in station that might have come to assist. So what did Rixx do?
I did none of those smart things, instead I engaged the Cane in probably the worst Drake fit you can have for the situation I was in. Had I been in either of my other two fitted Drakes, no problem (probably, we'll never know for sure). As it was it was a decent fight, I got him into half-armor before my pitiful tank finally gave way. It was then that someone said not to engage him because he had snakes and boosts.
If my brain had actually been working that would have been obvious. No one comes up to the Tusker station in Hevrice and engages one of us unless they are pretty damn confident. Either they have backup or they know something you don't. Duh.
Later a few of us managed to keel a Proteus ( thanks to superior work by Aliens! ) so that made things a little better. He tried to log off to save his skin, but we even managed to get his pod. Some people need to pay attention.
In the end, no big deal. All this proves is that no matter who you are, no matter how much you try, every once in awhile Eve is gonna show you how stoopid you can be. Welping yourself into a drag bubble, de-cloaking on some piece of space junk, getting probed down while your in the bathroom, whatever stoopid ass thing it might be - we all do it eventually.
And no matter how many times I tell myself that I will "learn from my mistakes" and swear to never do that again... I probably will. Or something else just as stoopid. Fortunately for me, those moments continue to be the exception and not the rule.
What will happen the next time I undock?