That's it for Uru for a while.

With no access to a publicly open cavern for some time to come I am leaving the paper behind and moving on to develop my artistic side. Join me as I venture into the world of 3D renders and Digital art at my new blog.

Easier to learn with Digital?

Some of you already know of my artistic stagnation for which changed when I found Uru. I have now had a close encounter of the Digital SLR kind.

I remember the day well at the tender age of 11 being told, by the art teacher to forget art and go and do whatever I wanted for the duration of the art lesson. Added to the problem of low self esteem, I believed him. But I have always being drawn to photography, why I have no idea. Whilst living in New Zealand I never had a descent SLR camera. When I came back to the UK I finally got a Pentax SLR. The camera came without any information on how to operate it and this was before the days of the prolific internet. I tried for years to educate myself but this was made harder by having to use film; costly process for trial and error learning. The thieves that ended up with this camera would have turned a nice profit with all the wildlife photography equipment they nabbed. Shame I was in a block of flats/apartments and neglected the contents insurance. That cut my photography learning short and learned a valuable lesson of insurance.

Fifteen years later: I found the cavern and bought a small pocket camera which served me well. Recently I brought a Canon EOS 350 D DSLR. Yes it was cheap because, well let’s face it 8 million pixels is so last year. Ok maybe a few more years older than that. Anyway it is brand spanking new one complete with case, battery charger and one EFS lens. One problem, the salesman (if you can call him that) forgot to mention the omission of a Compact Flash card, missed out on an extra sale there. The reason is that one has a choice of cards to use, type 1 or 2. Mind you it was somewhat cheaper going through E-bay for that where I got a 4 MB Extreme 3 Sandisk card. Later I will get a 16 MB one for when I go on holiday. It been a nearly three weeks since I got the card and it has been raining all the time. This gave me the chance to sit down a read the booklet from cover to cover. In a way that booklet has educated me more about Aperture and Shutter Speed settings, among others, than anything I have read previous. I did manage to play a bit the other day. Man I need glasses as I set the camera on landscape for a close up of a dragonfly. I love the auto focus part of the camera, came in handy for that dragonfly. Not needed so much for photographing flowers though. I got a shock to see what size pictures the camera can take. 3456 X 2304 and at 72 DPI that’s about 121 X 80 CM big. That is a big picture!

A few days ago a good friend of mine suggested I use the Flickr site that I set up for the BBC SpringWatch programme. Good Idea I thought so I have started with the first three pictures from the new camera and a few details along with it, yes even the mistakes. My hope is to share what I learn and therefore see the progress in quality (I hope) as I grow.

It's been Ages.......again

Well I finally did it. I am a messenger in name only oh and in paper only. Yep I have stepped back from Guild duties to concentrate on the newspaper and age writing or searching for more D’ni books. The DRC can’t have them all! It was a hard decision to step back. In fact I am still not sure if it was the right move. Have to risk sometimes!

Now that I have some time on my hands I went back to Fens to clear away the final remnants of my work there. Now I know I am not the most observant of folks but I am sure that linking book wasn’t there before. Oh Toroolbah is looking nice.

Also while I was in Fens I noticed that the low rumble that came from the other side had been replaced by a more high pitched call. I wonder if it is the same creature, finally gone through puberty. Well not everything has to sound deeper, does it? It will be sad to end my time at Fens. Have to pop back for all time sake in the future. Time to move on!

Bimevi has a strangely familiar looking rotating statue in the age now. Got to find out how it floats like that. Some sort of anti gravity device may be. Could be worth a patent or two but first I need to figure out how it works.

Also on my list of visits made recently was Tochoortahv, one of the Third Path’s ages. Glad I wasn’t there when that lunatic set fire to everything. Whoever it was is a skilled stone mason, nice clean lettering. “Outsiders will not learn the Art”. Yeah try stopping us. Then the next time I linked in I find it renamed Cass with the fire damage cleaned, wall hangings and an opening which leads nowhere, yet.

When it comes to age writing I am well not hesitant just cautious. I will be taking this slowly. Also I would love to uncover more about the D’ni. Not the leaders but ordinary D’ni folk. This means money and resources that I don’t have...yet. To go to parts that the DRC stopped us from going. There must be more books which survived the fall, uncontaminated, letters and all sorts of written documents down there.

Where shall I go next?

Got it!

YES. Finally, as a reporter this is great, as a person with feelings this hell but news is news.
This is what I do; this is why I became a messenger. (But not now)

Extra Extra

Just when I thought things were getting too quiet, something happens. I will have to don my reporters cap on and get moving on this. All I will say is that someone is not happy with us humans writing linking books.

Right anyone seen my pencil sharpener?

Patience!

Patience is a virtue. Whoever wrote that never had to wait and wait I would suspect. Patience is ok when you know or even have a chance of something at the end. Say like trout fishing in a lake full of live food. Dryfly just won’t cut it but you try anyway as there is the possibility of a catch.
Ok I can still get to Relto and all the ages that I have already been to but to be alone forever. No, I would pack it all in first, burn my Relto book and be done with it. Yeah right!
But the longer things drag on the worse it is going to get. Apathy for the restoration is rife. Mind you I would imagine the restoration of D’ni is well good and buried. I hope I am wrong. I truly believe there are plenty more like minded people out there that have no idea D’ni exists. Ok I don’t want to see graffiti anywhere but it needs more publicity. We need to force some change. Force who though, who is stopping the instancing really? - The Bahro, Yeesha or the DRC with some technology found on some far off land and if so for what purpose? It is all a mystery. We need a change in the status quo. No not five band members.
Breathe....Szark......breathe...........

Back to reality for a moment: Trying to figure out how to write a descriptive linking book is proving to be a great challenge. Not for the faint hearted. I see it as a lucky dip. You make sure you don’t have any contradictions and obviously stable but at the end of the day where you link to is totally arbitrary. Also what you write is not always what you see. I will definitely have to dust off that maintainer’s suit I obtained sometime back, can’t be too careful.

Another month another paper! It is getting harder and harder to find news. Yes I see a lot of ages being written but until they are finished, so we can have a gander, we can’t review much. Mind you we haven’t reviewed any ages at all. We were hoping that the GoMa would make their findings public and give us their reviews. It would have also been great to get an explorer’s point-of-view when they finally get the linking book. It would have to be an honest review and not a pat on the head for the writer though.

Not much news coming from the DRC either in fact they have been more quiet than normal, if that is possible. Only joking guys.

Apart from the paper and news feed my guild work is nonexistent. Actually I don’t think anyone is doing any guild work at all when I come to think about it. Mind you I suppose there is not much to do.

In the mean time I have some experiments to finish up in Fens and some more domestic duties to take care off. Now where did I put that hydraulic excavator?

Course adjustment 10 degrees right.

Wow! Is it been that long? Home life has kept me busy. Spring is always a busy time in the garden. Maintaining a house, need I say more?

Life is heading in another direction, no longer interested in Guild affairs, just in the news-flow and newspaper, has released some self imposed stress. I have now started the long process of deciphering and learning the ancient D’ni art of writing descriptive linking books. I have been drawn into the possibilities, well in the fact that they are endless. I am not that that good with languages, ok absolutely terrible but concepts and logic is another matter. So maybe I have a chance in writing a stable link to a stable age. This is where I feel patience will pay off. Gehn shows how it shouldn’t be done. So I must approach this with caution, learn as much as I can to start off with. Once I feel I have enough information I will start writing my first descriptive linking book. I see this is going to be the biggest challenge to date, soil composition, air quality, dynamic forces and so on to learn about. At least I have a rudimentary understanding on how our planet works. Which I suppose is a good place to start; I wouldn’t want to have a non-breathable atmosphere. But I will be relying on my guild siblings, yes the Guild of Writers over the coming months, years. Recently I meet a writer that just lives a few hours from me. I won’t mention his name as I may have to kidnap him to relieve him of his valuable knowledge. He is safe for a couple of weeks as he has just left the country, but “he’ll be back”. Mawhahahahaha

...........only joking Bob.

I feel my spirits lifting as I encroach into this new tangent of D’ni history, maybe I find something interesting or maybe something interesting finds me. I feel life may never be the same, on the side of good that is. Always looking forward and never behind but always remembering what has come to pass, lest we forget the mistakes of the past.

What’s my Motivation?

It has been a year since we saw each other in the cavern and I find myself with more motivation than I thought I would have. This came apparent when we recently had some assembly problems with the guild paper and I had to take the bull by the horns. Spending four eighteen hour days to learn a new program Scribus, to assemble a newspaper, was well worth it. First time for everything! I must give credit to Scribus and their Wiki for they made it an easy learning curve. Why, because it is a team effort and I just couldn’t let all their hard work go to waste. I also thought about all those community members that either like or rely on the paper. After all this is why we do it.

I had to think about this when I started to get involved with the guild. I had to ask myself “who am I doing all this hard work for”? Was I doing it for the right reasons? And what are those reasons? Not easy questions to answer at first. I suppose like most people we do what makes us happy as individuals. At first this was true of me. After a short time I started to get pulled into “the community spirit” and being a loner this was a struggle. I saw people helping each other not for money or for a favour returned but for the sheer pleasure of doing so. I had finally found likeminded people. This is why I do what I do, it is my calling. Not the calling of my parents or peers but the calling of my heart.

From this involvement I have met people that inspired me to broaden my creative skill. I know that at my age I may not get as good as others but for me it is an achievement and one that I continue to expand. So I write and post my pictures in the hope I make someone think, smile or encourage them that it is never too late to learn (some things). Not sure if I could manage brain surgery though, hopefully you get the drift.

The DRC stained glass project, which I never took part in, gave me an idea and inspired me to make my own Minkata stained glass whilst learning to use Photoshop. I approached this as though I was making it out of glass, thinking about the glass cutting technology and so on. After a month this is what I came up with.
Oh and I must get back to Fens again soon.........

Alone in a Crowd

Most of my life I have enjoyed my own company. I have been to places and in situations alone that would make most freak out or at least turn timid. But I survived and continue to do so. I have never had to rely on anyone for anything. Well after leaving home at a very young age that is and even then I couldn’t rely on anyone. I have always felt being on the edge of society looking in. To be honest I like it here on the edge. So it has come as a shock to realise I miss having company. I miss the pubic cavern. I miss those chance meetings that may spawn new friendships. I miss the chance to find out more about the D’ni and the Bahro. I miss.........

Talking of Bahro I had a close encounter with one the other day. Scared the... Well it startled me put it that way. It seems a few explorers have reported such sightings in their private instances. Could this be a portent of change?

Also Tweek beat me to it with this “The Bahro”. I know it's not a competition and to be honest I haven’t done much on that front for some time now. I am glad that someone has got around to collating information regarding the Bahro. Nice read and it has already caused some discussion on the DRC forum. There is nothing like a good debate to clear the synapses.

No I don’t like being alone anymore.

The deafening silence:

It is way too quiet out there. It is eerily quiet in fact. It seems that we are all holding our breaths, waiting for some historic event to unfold. I hope something happens soon. I want my public instance back. I wonder who is in charge of Bahro affairs.

For me it has been a busy time but a chance encounter the other day solved my new age problems. No not “new age man” but a way around that that “Age Manager”. Now I have access to newly written books. I haven’t been anywhere yet. - Too busy at home to do anything but eat, work and sleep. I have sample results backing up from Fens that I need to take a look at. I have been popping back every so often to collect samples found on dry land. Being a swamp anything that falls in is never seen again. I’m hoping that the unnamed birds miss their usual target and give me a working sample. Remarkable field of science Poology, it can tell us so much about diet and DNA. Following this procedure developed for testing bustards (Otis tarda) faeces should help me no end. But getting the samples will take time and patience oh and money. Need to get some more patents on the next trip out. I hope these ages are rich with new technologies. Something innocuous but profitable and beneficial to the environment is what is needed. That should refill the coffers.

Taking of patience unlike Tweek the Sandscrit did not want to stop a pose for me. Must have been something I did of or did I smell wrong?
Arr now I remember, that could be it. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that fried chicken. They could be related. Well you never know. See what happens when the DRC or Maintainers aren’t around. People breaking out of the Pods, mind you it was easy. It is only a matter of time before someone looses more than there wallet.

End of the beginning:

That was a long three weeks. Three weeks away from the lonely cavern and ages. Spending so long travelling this globe have I forgotten my home? Why do I miss these far off lands in god knows what point in time, so much? Even alone I miss it all. Especially after these past weeks, I need to get away again. I know there are some new ages available. I need to source them other than going via that Age manager. He/she don’t like me. I must have written something he/she didn’t like.
I love the Guild work, don’t get me wrong but you can’t beat a bit of exploring. It’s good for the soul.

But so much more fun with others. That is why I love the guild work so much, the people. We have just moved to a new website so things are a wee bit hectic at present. That has got some excited to have everything in one place, finally. I confess I am one of those. I think this is the start of a new era for the Guild of Messengers. We might just have a fighting chance of attracting new or old explorers to come and help. One can only hope. Guild elections are in April. That should be interesting. There seems less and less of us but we still manage to fight on.

High but not enough:

Oh that is nice, the scheduling worked, just put the wrong date in. Oh well next time.

Hum.... mellow, peaceful and almost transcendental! Spending two full days and one night in Fens was the best thing I could have done. I set up camp at the observation platform. Made sure everything was sterilised after lugging it up there. Don’t want a repeat of what happened in December.

Whilst there I started to record the other animal, bird and insect calls. It is hard to figure out how many species there are. One bird or insect might have a number of different calls so observation is paramount. I could spend months in the place. Anyway to cut a long and boring story short I got my picture. I manage to get some good shots on the first day. These creatures seem to be following a set route which made it a bit easier. Has to be the feeding route? This fairly large bird like animal looks like it came out of one those asic periods on earth.

Yes I got up high but I need to be higher. I will have to settle for this at present. I have a plan to release a small balloon up into the atmosphere to collate air samples. I can use a long tether. This will make retrieving it a lot easier I hope.
There am I being ever so careful on my explorations what happens when I get back home? I go a slip on the icy snow and damage myself. - Hence why this update is now and not sooner. I am house bound for a while until I heal.

I should have taken up knitting.

Perseverance

After a week of back and forth to Fens, stopping at Relto for respite I finally managed to build my way up the top of that huge upright rock. This was after restarting from the ground up. My mistake was not using its weight for it instead of against it. Leaning the scaffolding in towards the rock face gave me a bit more stability. It’s still a bit rickety but I managed to brace the structure to the already built viewing platform. It won’t last long but that’s the point, minimal environmental impact. Apart from the tarred rope everything is bio-degradable but to be safe I will take it all way when I am done.

How many bamboo poles does it to take to get a photo? I don’t know I didn’t bother counting them but it’s a few. This morning I made the final push and got the top platform completed. I want to get a few shots off before the 30th. My editor is leaving me in charge, so to speak, for a couple of days so I need to be on call. Someone please invent a Quantum phone. Mind you then I would have to buy a mobile phone then a laptop. Na I like to be unreachable.

Tomorrow I will haul my camera equipment up. Hopefully I can get a good close-up from there. It was getting late by the time I had finished. I had some guild business to attend to. Also I had to put this post on a timer. So I hope it goes on as I will be big bird spotting at the time. I will report back in a couple of days. I did get a closer glimpse of my quarry even though it was still some distance away. I will pick it back up tomorrow. A bit of shopping in the morning and back to it. I am going to stop over for the night. I will use the viewing platform to sleep. That way I can get an early start so I can get back in time for newspaper duties.

Now I must remember to take the lens cap off this time...

Structure

I have finally got some time to myself and what do I do? Not take it easy for one. Since I have written enough for Next month’s Newspaper I thought I would take a break and finish up at Fens. It has been a long time coming. When I finally got back to fens I thought for a horrible moment that my flying friends had gone, and then came their cries.

My observations to date make me wonder what they eat. I have never seen them land, that doesn’t mean they never do. I have never seen them chase their food which makes me think that this thick air is full of plankton type creatures. Are they some kind of filter feeder filtering the heavy air? This is all supposition as I have not been able to get high enough to take air samples. The only true way is to take a leaf out of Douglas Sharper’s book and shoot one. With a tranquiliser I mean and pump its stomach but I can’t control the creatures fall. So I must observe and take samples. Now to get higher!

It’s surprising once you start how quickly things start to come together. I won’t be long before I can see if I can get high enough to at least get some pictures. The upper air sample may need a more drastic approach. There may be no other way.

But I do need to get a move on as more and more ages are being written and I have fallen behind. Plus I find myself in a weird position of not being able to get to any of the ages that are not in the more popular refurbished library. Some writers are opting to use the old system of an Age manager. Whoever he or she is, one thing is for sure I am unable to get my grubby hands on the books. I will have to find another way around this problem.

For now back to the scaffolding. Darn I need to tar some more rope........

Methinks I think too much!

With a new year brings what? More days to do fun stuff like explore new ages in far of lands, in what time or universe no one knows and to have another birthday. I am going to start the New Year not by making a resolution but by continuing to grow and expand my mind. To ponder the possibilities of what this New Year might bring. Will we cope with the burden of responsibility of the restoration? Are we going to restore or just make new ages? Will some make a home in the cavern if so how will the Bahro feel about that? But most of all when do we get the keys?

I am so eager to get down there to set up my new desk. The one that the Guild promised me ages ago. They want to stick me in the GoMe Hood right in front of the link in point. This so they can show off their new mascot. What did Semp call me; yes that was it “The Tireless Messenger”. All I need it a snazzy outfit. How about a Yellow cloak with SK or TTM in big letters on my chest? I hope they don’t read this or they just might do it. The cloak I mean. I don’t mind sitting in the hood waiting for people to link in. It is a good way to help others and maybe to recruit some.

I feel we might have had a breakthrough in the Guild’s organisation. Hopefully we will be ready to help new and old explorers alike. I am feeling up about my guild work lately. I should hope so as I will put most of my time into the Guild, well I need time to play.For something totally different: As you may be aware I do a little photography and I purchased Photoshop a while back to aid me in this digital world of image manipulation. I have been practicing and with all its bells and whistles that this program has, the filters are much left to be desired. Don’t get me wrong there are good and you can get some really good results. Then a friend showed me Alien Skin Software. Well my mouth started to water, then after seeing the prices I had to have a drink. Not water either. - Choices always choices. - Then a lie down.
Nice filters though and I will just have to do some thinking on this.