It’s unusually cold in the cavern today. The bubbling and whistling of my kettle always solves that problem though.

Some of you have sent me emails asking how it is that I can be in the Cavern for months at a time, completely isolated from everyone.

To be honest, I never really notice the lack of people as I never required companionship. I’ve heard stories about people befriending inanimate objects and assigning them personalities as their isolation grinds at them. The worst I admit to is talking to myself, and even that I’ve been doing since childhood. 

To be fair, I don’t really feel alone. I’ve got music, books and this journal. Strangely ironic perhaps, that this that was once a private place has been so enriched by the people who visit here. How can I feel alone with such a gift? People joining me on my journey for a few minutes or hours then leaving to forge their own. The constant coming and going feels as alive as the Cavern was once.

I think I’ll be fine with talking to myself. Just so long as I don’t get an answer back.

Feeling better today, more energetic. Thoughts are more organised. Strange, seeing as I got little sleep last night. I think I may be in need of a new cot.

Just got back from a walk in Eder Kemo, I hadn’t been in a while. The sound of falling water from the fountains always calms me. It’s such peaceful white noise. Strangely, the Age’s frequent thunderstorms did not appear once.

The walk did me some good, I’m going to step away from my parchment and tools today I think. Perhaps read for a bit and explore the City like I used to. I think I’d prefer to spend the day in the sun. Of course, Will made sure to point out how pale the darkness had made me. No KI tech for you Will, as if I could get my hands on any.

Lady Grey continues to brighten my mornings. I just wish I could link with a mug in my hands and not be in fear of dropping it from the lurching my stomach does…

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.”

                                                    - William Styron

I’ve noticed that the majority of you out there reading this seem to be doing so through a Feed system. I had tried to disable such the moment you all “discovered” this place, but it seems to not have had any effect.

There are many things that are missed if using a Feed, many textures and experiences I would hope the journey here would be worth, both in the past and to come.

That said, would this place become barren, an unintentionally private space once again were I to take the steps to disable the Feeds?

 Only a few of you bother to leave your mark here, and that is understandable. Many Read, few Write.

How do you feel?

(As an aside to make this post somewhat interesting, I’ve also noticed I’m on a huge Lady Grey binge lately. I love this tea. Love it.)

The time I spent with William gave me a new perspective on my work. I spoke with him at length about my Age. He had very many things to say, and a perspective on things that I value for how radically different it is from my own.

I was able to refine a great deal of clutter. William helped me realise that I should cut down on a lot of the things I would have thought essential. “After all” he said, “it isn’t supposed to be a place to live! Simply a place to visit and recharge.” Well said Will, I realise now on re-reading some of my older Journal entries (and the amazingly insightful comments left there) that my design had become bogged down with details, turning almost a complete 180 from my original intent.

I was too focused on the small, detailed brushstrokes, when I should have still been filling the canvas with colours and textures. I leapt in, anxious to create beauty as if I could simply open a container and pour it out, already made. I must create the foundation, plan, chart and map Luminesce from the bottom of the wine-dark seas to the very top of the sky. I’ve already begun anew. The planning process already filling me with an excitement and direction I hadn’t felt for a while.

The question now is, what to do with the book I have been so painstakingly ruining with my childish scribblings. My first thought was to burn it, lest someone stumble through this flawed mirror into a flawed Wonderland. However there is a small voice that decries such an action. Why, I cannot say. Burning the book and starting with a fresh one is only logical, neat and tidy. Somehow it tugs on me though.

I suppose for now, there is no harm in adding a fourth book to the stack. This one isn’t a One Word though.

I don’t know what to consider it.

Oh well, I refuse to dwell on the past. Instead of books I work in another medium for now. Thankyou Will, bringing me the tools I needed helped me realise what was next!

Will is heading back to the surface. He says he’s had enough of getting “sucked through books” and will make the trek up by foot. I offered to accompany him, but he refused, saying he would annoy me with his tuneless humming.

My work begins again. A longer post for details later on.

Thanks for sticking with us, friends.

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started… and know the place for the first time.”

                                                                         – T.S. Elliot

It is only by the grace of Mr. Ray that you’ve been able to read that last ridiculous auto-post. I wanted it deleted, plus it makes me sound like a bloody Yank. Thank god it didn’t upload a voice sample. How embarassing.

Will says it’s important to allow people to see proof that I actually know how to communicate with another human being face to face. His wit is razor-sharp as always.

Feeling a bit better, but have been taking this opportunity to get away from my quarters and explore these places again with William. It’s like doing it for the first time. Will tries to play it off, but I see the sparkle of awe in his eye. The first time he linked to Eder Kemo, the excited look as he struggled to take it all in faster. I remember it all fondly in myself.

Of course, as is usual, I had to take a few minutes to recover from the link. William was chomping at the bit to go, and so I had to force myself through the nausea.

His excitement is infectious. He had never seen anything outside his computer lab, nothing as other-worldly as what we explorers now take for granted. I find fresh energy for my own creations from revisiting these places with a friend.

Auto-Dictation software
© Ray Software 2009

…software version v3.1.1
…configured to user: PGiles
…special character dictation is OFF
…phonetic spelling parser is OFF
…multi-user recording[BETA] is ON
…auto-recording is ON
…auto-recording trigger is AUDIO
…censoring filter is ON
…auto-correct is ON
…auto-upload is ON

Auto-Recording detected trigger, running ADScript…
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Auto-Dictation begun September 18, 2009 @ 16:50 MDT

ID01: [unintelligible][unintelligible][rustling sound] updated the software again. Now it can differentiate between multiple people speaking, although it’s still kind of buggy.

ID02: Yes. Say, let’s go show you the rest of the harbor. [door opening]

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Auto-Dictation ended by AutoRecorderTimeout September 18, 2009 @ 16:57 MDT