It would seem that my battles have not ended to fight as one man against the state seems not worth the time but I can not let injustice remain unchallenged. With the lost of the one truly caring hospital, I am forced to travel hundreds of miles for treatment, and last month was an unending battle, with a broken back and neck a 12 hour trip that is almost more that I could bear. The treatment failed and now I am losing the use of my legs with side effects to graphic and painful to relive. this has caused a small stroke and the loss of a tooth after a fall, this coupled with more brain damage which would mean days in the hospital which is unequipped to handle this I will learn to live with it. But things are hard for every one and to go on about one's self is bad form the stories of mistreatment of whole towns or victums of the tornado do make me want to strike out, but to who my voice is like the wind blowing a lose piece of paper down the street. more than once I have thought if you don't want the poor or disabled to live give us a decent way out (and I have had enough of your superstitious nonsense what good is it to live a life on the knifes edge in pain and hunger). but enough of this rant. Other things can be written while I still can and nothing can be done about the above by others. For most of us are doing our best just to get by.

A Time or Change "or not"

It seems as if some events are as unpredictable as the earthquake at any point on the planet, what a rise's from that moment  often exceeds that moment of unpredictability.as I listen to the rhyming of the history of a time or place. their was a time in my own past, where it was easy to blame poor instructors, and popular culture along with the devices which drive them. Easy substitutes for the for a lack of personal responsibility. In Rome's earliest republic period as a citizen must was asked of those who had the lest to give to the state Not much has changed in the 2,000 or so years, so on might think that the first reaction to supporting a state was to do the lest. yet this was a time set which evolved over hundreds of years, and the experience's of the individual the motivation is in it' rarest form the the simple telling of what happen (some might argue its from the seeming need to become the hero's of our own stories, and/or to justify some element with in that story that brings discomfort and the vague sense of a lie as much as it give the sense of truth). Knowing my end is near and the only comfort I have is the world of full lies, half lies, that place where truth can be found, strange of all the fruits produced by humans it is the lest protected, seems to last the longest, yet those who value it the most are those who are treated so very poorly the warriors

Having gone trough the death of two good friends, a tornado, and a short time doing search and rescue, have had found that I needed to do something else with my time so I have gone back to looking at the past ( not my own I have had enough of that). Walking to a time in the times which cover the Bronze age to the time and evolution of the Roman legions, and how in many ways shaped military and political thought for over 3000 years. The time depth, cultures, and influences ( which range from the geographic to to geo-political included) should that my mind off things and is far better than going on and on about myself.

Well I guess it's story time for me so in the next few weeks it's time to try some writing, I got the germ of an idea and so I'll explore it, I will be keeping this short as I collect what I have already done and put it in some kind of order. I will say that my time in Second life has helped in some ways and in others just confirmed some of my opinions about online behavior. But on the whole it's been a place where I have met if that's the right word some really nice people from all over the planet, and some that well have been a test of my good will. Well more later.

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