Thank you Vinnie...

As some of you may know: I acquired a bottle of Vinnie's finest some time ago in Ae'gura and have been keeping it in my Relto for a special occasion.  That time has finally come - an old friend of mine was fired from his job.  Being as I haven't gotten to spend much time with him of late this seems like a prime chance.  That said, Thank you Vinnie.  Your bottle will not go to waste.

Linking. . .

After many years of visiting D'ni you'd think that I'd have gotten used to the sensation of linking.  The charge passing through my body as I place my hand on the image gives me goosebumps before every link just knowing what's to come; and it doesn't end there.  Eventually I feel my form being pulled into the page.  I've never been one for roller coasters; the feeling of my center of gravity shifting at such a rate has always made me feel uneasy.

I'll never forget my first link.  I was so shocked that I thought I would be sick - finding myself on Relto with no idea what had just happened to me.  I must have lain there for hours until finally getting my bearings and making my way into the hut.  I took Yeesha's journey; eventually jumped into the star fissure time and time again - each being a test of faith; and one that I took very seriously.  The first time I found myself in a Bahro cave I didn't know what to do once I realized my Relto book wasn't working.  I listened time and again to Yeesha's words hoping to find some way to escape and then I finally made the jump.

When I found my way to the bahro caves a second time I knew what needed to be done but that didn't make it any easier.  With each jump I felt my body tense up and I would struggle not to scream as I fell into that starry expanse; each time linked away to Relto.  I guess you could say that this place means a lot to me as these feelings of anxiety have never really diminished and yet still I return.  I have found a way.  I have made my home.

My Apologies

I'd like to apologize to everyone for my lack of updates of late.  The internet connection here has been really crummy of late and has only just been fixed.  Long story short - it's finally been fixed; so I'll be able get on with my updates.  Here's for a new post soon!

A little Yuletide cheer

It's officially Christmas in the cavern as Sharper has put up a tree in his office.  My time on the surface used to consist of school, school, and more school; and now that school has ended I'm finding myself filling the hours with all kinds of things.  A great example is that this past week I've been able to work up at the Big House.  There's still a lot of work that needs to be done there, but it just keeps looking better and better.  Dean was able to help me today.
We were able to tear some dead branches out of the trees around the place.  We also we able to clear a large part of the trail too.  Great progress on all accounts.

Time away from school has also given me time to read again.  It has been much too long; so to celebrate I've decided to reread The Fellowship of the Ring!

This is a rough working of a song I first played last night. I think I'm heading in the right direction here.

Crooked Jack by EstoCentura

Just a few more days...

Just a few more days and then I'll be free of school obligations.  At least for a while.  Last night I realized have several projects on the back burner.  So as not to let anymore pile up, I'm going to knock out as many of them as I can.  Many of them are song projects, so I'll be experimenting with recording and the like over break as well.  Perhaps I'll even be able to post a few here.  Still working on getting that family jam session up.

Rehgehstoy is a different matter though.  It is definitely one of those projects that'll take time.  The D'ni were nothing if not patient so I'll have to be doubly patient if I want to understand the art enough to get what I want on paper.  Eventually, I'll have to do something about supplies being how the special ink and paper required for Rehgehstoy are difficult to acquire.  I remember Tweek talking about journeying into the city proper in search of supplies.  It should be worth investigating.  I guess there's always the guild of writers to consider too.

Big news for the cavern

The all guilds' meeting was this past Saturday; explorers were so great in number we had to relocate to the Guild of Messengers' hood.  I believe the total was 63; absolutely incredible.  The first bit of news was very exciting.  Trekluver has been in contact with Cyan and has taken it upon himself to revive the Guild of Greeters.  These "New Greeters" are currently accepting applications for members.  I for one find this very encouraging.

Annabelle brought us news of her latest marker quests and plans to release even more in the coming months.  While I've never been one to participate in these I'm always glad to see others working to bring life to the cavern.

The Guild of Writers didn't have an official representative at this meeting, J'Kla and Lunanne spoke about Rehgehstoy.  Their discussion gave me hope that one day I would be able to write an age.

The next point of interest regarded an on-going 'plague' of people in the cavern who seem bent on harassing others.  Apparently a few people have been tinkering around with the KI in hopes to find a way of dealing with these griefers.  There is great promise in their work.  Hoikas of the Guild of Writers has apparently been involved and has a semi-working version.  Having been one of many who has dealt with these griefers, I will be keeping an eye on the development of this KI functionality.

The next topic at the meeting was semi-related.  Here JWPlatt, Mac, and Rarified discussed opening a testing ground for experiments in the cavern and made mention of various experiments already in progress (such as the KI upgrades mentioned above) with hopes of sharing their results with the public in the future.

Last but not least the Guild of Messengers made an announcement regarding their new magazine The Cavern Post, as well as mentioning that Nev'yn is actively helping to reorganize and reactivate the Cavern Criers.  This would be accompanied by a new regularly occurring KI-mail of news also called The Cavern Post.

I have to say, being at the meeting was truly a great experience.  It's always good to see so many others wanting to continue life in the cavern.  I once heard someone say "...We are the new D'ni people..." and I couldn't agree more.