Embrace

What happens to the newcomers to the cavern, are they welcomed, embraced with D’ni fascination or are they ignored. I have heard it is the later which upset me as I was embraced, encouraged and was accepted. What has gone wrong?

I linked into the city the other day and on the way back from the Library I meet a new explorer. I made a point of stopping to chat. Found out his name was Glehn and that his first time in the cavern was two weeks ago. I welcomed him and offered help. The chat wasn’t that long as he was in the middle of helping to calibrate the Great Zero. I thought “how hard was that”. I then meandered my way deeper into the city and shouted Shorah to a congregation of fellow explorers. I was just ignored. They probably thought “loud mouth Kiwi”. Not one person even took the small time to say hello back. No this can’t be, we can’t have surface life and manners being DRAGGED down there.

I blame the DRC, no more classrooms full of people listening to the ResEng of the day. No more patrolling the city looking for trouble makers. Mind you one cry of a Bahro and the DRC would scatter. There seems to be no proper welcoming committee to embrace the newcomers. No Bahro Glyphs tours (no these don’t contribute to the problems in the cavern I just miss them). Haven’t seen a Cavern Crier yet. In fact I don’t think I have seen an official green shirted Greeter either. Yes there are the Guild recruiting and profile raising events and numerous other types of events happening. It is the grass roots of the community making it presence known and felt in the Cavern that made the difference last time. They proved it can be done. Remember “behaviour breeds behaviour”.

What we need is more exploring together, more fund raising events...arr I mean group activities and a bit more give than take. To be honest I wish I had the answers. Maybe the Guild of Peasants can help.

For now I think my time would be best spent exploring these new ages that keep popping up, some old ages and some newly written. See if there is anything of value that can be plun....I mean used for good.

It would seem that humans are destined to write some worthy ages. Give it some time I think we will see some D’ni quality ages appear. Let’s hope we don’t make the same mistakes as the D’ni did. Short on copper? Write a special mining age that is copper rich. Strike that last comment.

Impressed

...by the folks at the Guild of Messengers. Impressed with what has been done to the website, in getting the word out about our services. They have used the modern forms of internet communication, ie: Facebook and Twitter to raise the Guilds profile and to better serve the cavern community. There is a rumour floating about that a new publication maybe in the Guild’s future, distant future. This time though I won’t be doing much, apart from distributing. If they want me as Graphics/Photography helper then cool. If they don’t I would be happy with that also. I think it needs more artistic people than I to make a good e-zine. After my time with the TCT doing the Archiver, helping Blutec with the Guild paper and then doing most of it myself, after Blu left, has given me an insight. Like I have said before, “Jack of all trades and master of none”.We need masters now.

I still won’t commit to doing anymore than I have stated I would do. Don’t want to let anyone down. But, yeah there is always a but, I am surprised to see so few newcomers. Some old members haven’t returned, some that did contribute in helping the community which is a shame. They all had value in their own way that I cannot deny or begrudge.

I may sound like I am contradicting myself with only doing a small part but that is what it’s all about. More people doing small things, then we don’t get burnt out. Plus it helps with commitment. Heavy burdens drive people away. Lighten that load and things get more enjoyable and therefore tend to last longer.

I wish other people can see the benefit of helping the Guild of Messengers. What satisfaction one can get in helping others; trust me it is a great feeling even though you don’t get much thanks for it. There are a few that show their appreciation and that goes a long way. The more news about events

and ideas, fan fiction, news on fan ages, proper interviews of the community members etc, the more people will be interested in what the cavern has to offer.

Also I like to think I made a difference. Collating a list of forums from all over the world to bring them news and publications like the guild paper, the TCT Podcasts, and general news about the cavern hopefully helped to give them a feeling of belonging to this vast community we truly have. As in “I see you”. I think that is another worthwhile practice to restart. I will see to that next week.

Nothing Happened

At a loose end on Saturday 10^th of July I popped into Ae’Gura, around 11 am KI time to see nothing happening. Among the 40 odd explorers waiting for nothing to happen was OHB (Orange Haired Boy). Ten minutes into all the nothingness OHB’s arch enemy, named OHB's Arch-Nemesis, popped in to the city and proceeded to taunt OHB. This taunting was followed by the Arch Nemesis’s walking and talking robot bomb called BOMB, catchy name, appearing.

Of course OHB was alarmed at this revelation and suggested to his Arch Nemesis that the two of them should talk in private. Arch Nemesis suggested his own Relto for the conversation. This gave Arch Nemesis the opportunity to relieve OHB of his Relto book and cage him. Fortunately OHB still had his KI. One thing could save OHB, the community working together to deactivate the BOMB.

But OHB Arch-Nemesis overlooked one important thing; the cage was too close to the BOMB’s design plans. OHB could, at a stretch, reach these designs giving valuable information regarding the deactivation code. Code being the operative word. With OHB still pocessing his KI he was able to contact an Explorer in the city with the information, a code that needed to be unlocked.

In the meantime Explorers we busily testing the BOMB. Getting to close to the bomb made it reset the countdown which when you think about it, is perfect as it would never go off. Being somewhat sadistic some wanted to see what would happen if the BOMB was left to its own devices and therefore reach “0”. I was ready to link out if that happened.

The amusing part of all this was what the BOMB said. If we touched the BOMB it would say, in a voice that resembles John Cleese the famous Monty Python star, “I don't like being touched, thank you. It bothers me” and “EXCUSE ME! Saying "please DON'T touch me" does NOT mean "GO ON! Do it AGAIN!" followed by “It's hard to know how I could be more CLEAR about this! You are invading my personal space, and I would like you to stop it!” and would then proceed to restart the countdown.

BOMB also became all self conscious with us talking and starring at it. “Please do not speak to me while I'm counting. I am just a simple counting and exploding device, and am not equipped for philosophical discourse. Don't talk to me...don't...don't talk to...I'm...I'm just doing a tricky bit! Eight hundred and one. Eight hundred. Six hundred and...eh, I mean seven...seven hundred...seven hundred and...DAMN. DAMN DAMN DAMN!!! This is very unfair of you know you! A bomb needs to be in an appropriate frame of mind for blowing up! Calm, focused, and purposeful. Again it would reset the countdown.

It wasn’t long before tension rose in the City and some Explorers couldn’t take the stress and started to take it out on each other. Soon after a consensus was formed, nearly all the Explorers worked together in deactivating the said BOMB. I was hoping that the Bahro would help out by spiriting the BOMB away, linking it to a deserted age to happily blow itself up but alas that never happened. After about six long hours some clever clog figured out the code and finally averted disaster by deactivating Mr. BOMB.

I must admit I was very happy doing nothing for six hours. That was the best nothing I have seen in years.

You can get a full transcript of the event over at the Guild website plus some folks caught the action on camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJPx217gCl8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D14I_ZaOYMQ

Once Called, forever smitten

Well I didn’t think I would ever get out of that hole called depression. I can now see the light, the lake light revealing the cavern that is D’ni. Never thought I would get back there, never thought I would still be welcomed back at the Guild. I have offered to do some minor things. Not sure I could handle much more at present.

It does amaze me though with all the tales of compassion and understanding, well the lack off I should say, down there and among the ole ages of D’ni that some don’t change their attitudes. Instead some find it better or easier not to change, easier not to understand why something is done. In spite of this I am still drawn, to add my bit to the restoration.

Not the restoration to the cavern but to the D’ni art of age writing. That is where the future lies. As I have said before, need to fund my trips off-world somehow. :D

Bahro alert!

So by the 25^th of February the Bahro had made their presence known again. Yep got to get my hard hat on just in case.

For all you new explorers if you see a Bahro with a big patch of skin missing it is probably too late, no point in running.

I feel like a Yo-yo

Thank goodness I don’t look like one.

Something happened today that has depressed me to the point of no return. Return to doing anything to help the community. Well not entirely true in the sense I may help in other ways, I just haven’t decided yet. At least there is symmetry. It was the explorers that breathed life back into me, not the cavern, D’ni or Yeesha but the people. They opened my eyes to the possibilities within me for which I will be forever grateful for. But some of that community have now pushed me further away.

As long I as I can remember I have helped others not for money or a pat on the back but because it is the right thing to do. Also I get great satisfaction from helping others more than helping myself. But when the intent is pure and clear, to get is thrown back at you twisted and distorted I had to ask is it all worth it. The answer I came up with is NO.

Here we go again!

Well I just couldn’t stay away but this time will be different. Gone are the days of doing so much I get stressed out. I have resumed a small part of my duties over at the Guild. I will keep it at the level it is. There are some very capable people over there trying to make a good go of it. I will try to support them as much as I can but they will have to organise themselves without me. I have faith that they can pull it off. I am not that much use to them apart from staying in the background and out of their way.

I think it is about time though that we got an office down there. So many new explorers coming in everyday but this time from all over the world. The word has certainly got out. But I fear without an organised support network these welcome new explorers might return to the surface taking their money with them. Not everything is about money I grant you but keeping this amazing underground city preserved needs money and manpower.

But what of the threat of the Bahro, is that still there, do these new comers know that danger could be around every corner or above. Might be wise to wear the DRC provide hard hats. Make the Bahro think twice...maybe. And what of Yeesha is she still lurking, watching and waiting. Old Atrus must be by now that infirmed by old age or even deceased. I wish she would pop in and give us an update on him. I often think of how kept going all those years and what of Marrim.

Oh well we may never know. But I do hope we find out....before I die....which is some way off....I hope.

Oh it's Open

Ok not quite yet! Nothing changes, one minute it is open then it's not. I thought I would have been more excited. Time to try something new. I am pretty sure my days at the Guild are over. I just have no passion for it anymore.

If there was more dedicated people around I might feel different but the plain fact is there just isn't. Yeah I know I am disabled which allows me more time to focus on projects. But many hands make light work. One person does one job properly and so on, and you have enough, then things will work a lot better and smoother. Some say "oh but it is only a cave" yes it is but you are dealing with people's time and dedication. Isn't that something to consider when stepping to do something and not doing it. I see people commenting on how it should be done but do nothing themselves.

If the cavern is to survive and this time it must or it will close forever people, need to start to or at least learn how to "work" together and to leave the ego in a little box in the corner.

I think I will carry on and see if I can get some cool technologies out of this. Bound to be some new ages found so I can plunder...Oh I mean legally obtain new gadgets and gizmos. Pocket size is good but backpack size is ok.