Sound Engineering

About 6 months ago I was listening to some of the old Cavern Today podcasts while reminiscing about the old days of the cavern.  I listened to Mowog as he painted an image of the cavern that was bright and clear.  His story about Pepsi during the D'ni Olympics and his subsequent poem about needed bathrooms in the cavern kept me tuned in.  After a while though, I realized that as much as I loved TCT, the earliest of the casts were not friendly to the ear.  Audio quality and editing snafus made it difficult to listen to, and I wondered if anyone who listened to these initial casts were turned off by them.

I got to thinking that I might clean them up a bit - if only for my enjoyment.  Then I realized: I bet other people would enjoy it work as well.  I logged onto the TCT Forums, posted an example of my work and explained my plans; not long after I was invited to join TCT as a member of their production staff.  There are no words to fully describe my feelings at this point.  I had never even dreamed of being part of TCT.  These were the guys who had kept me up to date on the events in the cavern before I was even able to visit; to say it was an honor didn't even come close.

Time on the surface

It's funny how even with a relaxed semester like this one I find myself neck deep in work - partially... no, completely of my own creation.  The problem is: I find too many projects to keep myself busy and in the end I neglect the things I should be doing - like homework.  The end result is that I'm always rushing to do things at the last minute and wind up unable to do things I would like to - hence the title of this post.  I really want to go to the cavern, but to be there for just a few minutes would feel cheap.  Even now I keep looking at my bookshelf to my relto.

I just want to take it down and link away but I really need to do my work.  It's gotten to the point where I can barely work because my mind keeps wandering to that linking panel.  D'ni.  Wait for me.  I'll be there soon.

Two years in the deep

I remember feeling The Call before the DRC went public nearly ten years ago but I wasn't able to actually come here until just a few years ago.  I remember doing everything I could to keep up with the events in the cavern.  When the DRC left it pained me, but I found hope as I learned of a whole tapestry that was being created by explorers who refused to leave. I followed various forums, read The Archiver, listened to The Cavern Today, and even watched the crappy little webcam the DRC hosted for a while.  None of it was enough.  I just wanted to take the journey myself.

Finally the DRC returned and still I waited and listened.  A few of my friends took the journey and came back with stories that made my imagination run wild.  I wanted to be an explorer.  I wanted to travel to the ancient URU.  Then the news came that the DRC had run out of funding and that the cavern would be closing again.  I cried.  I'm not ashamed of it.  To me, D'ni represented a dream and a hope I had held out for for years.  A place I felt called to.  A place filled with people I had never met yet felt a deep kinship with.  That feeling never leaves  you.

I guess I was never able to reconcile that feeling.  The Call.  One day I took a train to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I stayed with a cousin of mine.  I didn't have to tell him I was searching for something.  I doubted he'd believe that I'd find anything in that desert.

The next day I took a series of buses from Albuquerque to Carlsbad.  At a diner in Carlsbad I saw a photo that caught my eye and asked if someone could take me there.  I hitched a ride out into the middle of the desert until the road vanished and the driver refused to go any further.  I thanked him and set out towards the feature in the distance.  And the rest?  Well, the rest is history.  I took Yeesha's journey.  It stuck with me.  I've been here ever since.

"...There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place
And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds
But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you
Like walls that we just can't break through until we disappear.."