Off to to the outer Rim

The time seemed right for a journey to the planets of the outer rim, most had little or no populations forgotten worlds as many colonies are. To far out to be of much interest if the resources they contain or are not very special or the support systems break down which happens over time as the politics of empire change.

So as I turned the ship one last time to look at Splintered Rock Station I knew things would be very changed when I returned, and that the new trading company that had moved in would do what other had, try to tame a wild world and would confront the politics the empire and the guild. Stepping back in would be easier than being in the middle of the confrontation. I looked at the charts for the next star system there was a refining station in wide orbit around a strange set of planets, neither planet a moon of the other but joined in orbits around each other due to some ancient disruption that distorted the whole of the star system it was a place where you could fuel and find or get rid of any and types of cargoes . Beyond this point were the lost worlds and the uncharted systems that as a kid you heard about the subject of all the best stories you were told by some broke down spacer would tell tell you for the price of a bottle. In my years I had been to some and all I found were dirty and dangerous places whose romance was to be found once you got home and found yourself telling some wide eyed youngster or fresh for the core worlds what the tail of your trip to the rim was like. From here on out in was the routine of keeping the ship running and the worry of the unexpected.

I had a chance to sit with some folks for the Firefly sim last night, I was just sitting and listening and feeling I was hiding behind the written word so my age would not be known. I at times feel so old yet when I write how ever poorly I am accepted a strange thing to feel out of place, and then when the topic mores to the storylines and interactions within the stories as they unfold age a distance vanish. The more I do this the more I look forward to my time there and the people that I meet become more than electronic shadows.

So whats happening in the stories I am part of; Well Splintered Rock as far as I concerned is my trading base and a place where I can work on my ships. I must admit I enjoy the freedom I'm not tied to planetside politics but I am still building a role for myself but I'm kown as the captain and I must admit I like that. The Veil sim is more problimatic a think have burned myself out for the time being in the mideaval world for now but a lot of that stems from the problems I have had with my arms making it hard to type and the still unresloved health problems that rob me of energy.

So what do I see down the road, I am learning to set up a way to transport from one sim to another is my ships so that I can enter them in a way that seems more natural, also in the way one might dress for a part I am getting the ships I need to look right and are of the right size and I am learning to modify and build what I want which if I get good is a source of a little bit of in world money. The whole thing also is begining to really help my thinking and creativity, after the damage done in the last few operations I worried that the damage was so bad I might never be able to learn again. I have finished for the moment a small medical ship and in the process started to learn how things work propulsion wise and how to build more wisely. well I have been up all night and so instead of wishing I had something to do and just watching TV I feel I have done something productive. So more photos and other things to come, I have to remember to transfer the photos from one computer to the other, but thats life.

Who would have thought when I named this blog the Traveler I would find that a RP game and a whole sub-genera of gaming was around the corner, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Late last year a good friend of mine said you should try Second Life well a number of years ago I had been there and done that but it was a way to talk with her so I reluctantly signed up and down loaded the program. Well fast forward a few months and I have to say that I have found some wonderfully creative people and a way to exercise my imagination and to be inspired to write again. I have found myself crossing between the worlds of the medieval and that of science fiction. So there are days where I find myself in the world of Dune or Firefly at the helm of a spaceship or fighting off any type of bad guy your imagination can come up with. So I will make a departure from my old exploration in the world of archaeology and earth sciences which never went very far to record the events of this new world.

So for now I'll add some pictures of the ships and places in my life and in time the people that I run into along the way, just because Im a little restricted in my movements now does not mean that I have to stay stuck in this world, so on to the ships and places

Advanced Cat Yodeling

It's a very grey morning with the remains of the first snow still on the ground, and the world still holding it's breath and resisting the urge to greet the 30 degree morning. I have not been able to sleep since last week when the last of the food went. A week of oat meal does not do much for you, it's been a while since hunger has woken me up, and the dreams of meals to come however wonderful feel as painful as my back. Its just a few more days until the first wonderful meal finds its way to me and that makes it all the harder. Dawn lights a cold hard morning and I must find the strength to hold on a few more days, I still have power and the internet really how bad can it be?

I was was reading this article http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/11/29/national/a024435S56.DTL&tsp=1 and it brought me back to a time in the 80's, when I was going to school and homeless. It must have been about this time of year as well, a little group of us 20 somethings had lost our jobs and homes. We traveled from campground to campground like gypsies, and we were hanging out down in a little canyon near Ventura, the past few days had been filled with a cold rain, and while I lay there in my sleeping bag one morning, I heard the double sonic booms of the shuttle over head bouncing off the canyon walls. I thought how fitting hear I was with my friends living a semi- post-apocalyptic life while listening to a ship from out space crossed over head. Little did I know that in the future I would stand on ground that had not seen the sun in 9,000 years and watch rockets reach out into space.

I came across the keynote speech given at the Grammy Northwest Musictech conference by Ian Rogers from the Topspin web site http://tinyurl.com/55ylzp , and found myself intrigued by the the concepts it contained. Now I know nothing about the music industry and don't think I could make more than thirty seconds on guitar hero, but I have been following the ever repressive (IMHO) actions taken on a variety of fronts against free or fair use of previous works. And between creators of derivative works and copy right holders or their representatives, now better minds than than this humble old fool have written much about this but few have said to the people that need to hear it, a clear presentation of how their old models of busness has changed, and how they might adapt to the changing conditions. It also gave me some hope that by changing small parts of the entrenched parties, who want absolute control of how all intellectual property is used. That the creative freedom to use with some limitation prior art, would be decriminalized in the eyes of those that now seek to elimanate or strickly control that creativity. But, its just a thought thats all.