The Safe Spot — Episode 13: Jim Halescott

This week, Rixx Javix and I sit down with Jim Halescott, one of EVE Online’s most unconventional entrepreneurs. From thousands of characters and an industrial network stretching across New Eden to an ambitious plan for something resembling a galaxy-wide chain of convenience stores, Jim has built an EVE career almost entirely outside the paths the game officially gives us. What sounds absurd at first gradually reveals itself as a remarkably sophisticated operation involving manufacturers, haulers, intelligence gatherers, market manipulation and hundreds of working relationships.

But the conversation goes well beyond ISK and spreadsheets. We explore why Jim considers highsec a legitimate endgame, how certain mechanical changes quietly weakened player communities, what EVE’s Freelance Jobs could become, and why the game’s greatest opportunities often exist in the spaces its developers never deliberately designed. 

Along the way, we also reflect on how EVE can shape real-world careers, business instincts and our willingness to take risks. It is a fascinating glimpse into what becomes possible when someone stops asking what there is to do in EVE and starts inventing something no one else thought to build.

Where to find us! 

If you enjoyed this episode, you can catch The Safe Spot wherever you get your podcasts — find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Past episodes and full show notes are up on the blog at CrazyKinux's Musings. 

And if you're watching on YouTube, do us a solid — like, subscribe, and drop a comment. It helps more than you think.

Dark Matter Season 2 is upon us in less then 3 weeks!

I went into Season One of Dark Matter knowing absolutely nothing about it—which, in retrospect, was probably the best possible way to experience it. A former coworker had simply told me I had to watch it. That it would blow my mind.

And yes, suffice to say, my mind was thoroughly blown.

There’s a point in the season where you think you understand the ramifications of the Box and the alternate realities it opens. Except you don’t. You’ve barely scratched the surface. By those final episodes, the full breadth—and potentially infinite consequences—finally begins to sink in.

That’s what stayed with me. 

Not simply the science-fiction premise, but the uncomfortable personal question underneath it: how many different lives might each of us have lived? What if we’d been more cautious, less cautious, more direct—or simply made one different choice at precisely the right moment?

Season Two premieres August 28, so now is the perfect time to watch the first if you have not seen it — or in my case, binge it again so everything is still fresh for Season 2. 

I've only watched the Season 2 trailer twice, so I genuinely have no idea where the story goes from here, and that’s precisely why I’m excited.

Silo: The strange grief of an adaptation

A note for show-only viewers: no major plot spoilers here — just one book reader's reflections on how much the characters have changed.

Watching Silo with my teenage daughter has reminded me of something I hadn't expected.

We're watching the same show. But we're not watching the same story.

She's experiencing Silo exactly as it unfolds on screen. Every mystery is new. Every revelation lands for the first time. Every theory is still possible.

I've read Hugh Howey's trilogy — Wool, Shift, and Dust — at least twice, if not three times. I've lost track.

I don't just remember the story.

I remember the characters. As actual people.

And that's made Season 3 a surprisingly more difficult experience so far.