Journal

Sorting around some papers in the resources to go to the Office, I found a stack of pages from one of my old journals. I had found others from an older journal before, but these were newer and I had thought I had lost this journal during the Great Scream last year.
I remember back then when I first discovered D'ni and the Ages. Feeling called to something I did not understand. The disbelief I felt that the "Ages" I had played in Myst were real and that there were more, countless. Now, this year, I find myself working to write more ages, new ages, and feel that sense of discovery again...

Calibrations are finished. The detector seems tobe working fine. I will do more work tomorrow.

Tests and a Something

Today I did some documentation on my age, to see how it had come out. Despite having gleaned most of my knowledge from other books containing the Gahrohevtee, from what I can see I may have, quite luckily, created a stable age. I still have many tests to do, which I will try tomorrow, but with the exception of the tremors (which I should have expected based on the type of island I was attempting to create) nothing seems out of place here. I also checked the Great Words I used with the reference books on Writing and it seems I have no contradictions. At least that I can see. I was slightly apprehensive using the method I did, but I had no choice, and it looks as if I was lucky.

In other experiences, I was working on sorting some documents in my new study this morning when I heard this strange cry. Long and haunting. I'm thrilled at the possibility of meeting my new age's first bit of wildlife. By the time I had gotten up to the surface, though, I saw nothing and the sound had stopped.

Camera

Working on setting up a camera in the Office. God the feed going, but there's some transmission issues.

Will work on correcting those tomorrow. I'm hoping to have some time tomorrow with the calibrations partially done.

Busy

Been busy setting up the new equipment in the Office. Nothing new done with my research notes, but the new designs on the office look good, more function than fashion... I like it.

Noticed the other day that the site where I first carved into the cliff has fallen apart. Must have been during one of the tremors. Speaking of, the equipment I set up is not working properly... I'm not good at this kind of thing... I'll spend some of the day working on the calibrations and calculations... fun.

I made a few changes to the blog to make it easier to find stuff and got rid of the investigations bit. Until the DRC gets down here again, I can't really follow up on any of them. Even then, I think I'll keep it off.

Focus

Work's finally progressing nicely on the Office. The observation room is pretty much set. Assuming my focus lasts, I might have the age stable enough to move in some more of my stuff in a week. The Crevice has been stable recently.

Got some D'ni mining sensors today. These things are neat, even if they still display in D'ni. They're the size of a drink coaster, you stick them to the rock and put in whatever you're attempting to do to the rock (tunnel, open up a room, stairs, sculpture, you name it) and it puts out (what I think are) the type of rock, density, impurities, extruder settings, driller settings, and probability of success in the project.

Also got a number of more reference works for my ages. Going a more interesting way now that I was tipped off to these books. Instead of trying to decipher which Great Words do what, I'm researching their meanings through a few of the Writer's Guild's reference books and discussion books.

Tomorrow, I'm going to work on some designs for some furniture for the Office. Got a lot more potential space now...

As an aside, I noticed the Bahro in the Bahro caves are still fighting. This leads me to an interesting possibility. That, while now with a free will and with the freedom to decide and take sides, the Bahro in the Caves are unable to actually leave and so they're actually trapped there until explorers take the journey and free them.

Designs

Working on finalizing new designs for the Office. Last ones had too much emphasis on huge caverns. I'll use the tunnels I have to connect to a few areas. Workshop, library, bedroom, bathroon, observatory.

There's a nice second peak that might work well as a good viewpoint for the lights. Maybe work up a machine for that... gyroscopes and a few light sensors could do it. It's the programming that would be difficult. Until then, I need to set up a telescope to see the lights closer up.

Further Instability

Deciding the make a few changes. I'll have to work on the office's design a bit more to make up for more instability stemming from the Crevice, though I still don't know just how bad that area is. Equipment should be down in the morning tomorrow. Maybe if the supports of the office exterior have a counter-balence for potentially softer earth...

Either way, I feel like I should strengthen the tunnels before opening this place up. Not that I'm expecting the tunnels to be accessed. I'd still like them secure for my sake.

Back from Negilahn

And we're back... terrifying, but somewhat illuminating. Art wasn't on the I network, so I headed over to his Negilahn to wait. He'd set up a ladder out the crack, but something was odd outside. A large number of Bahro were flying around.

Lots of screams and flapping. Frogs and the monkeys were almost completely silent. Guess they've learned to be quiet when the flying death machines arrive... But these ones weren't attacking. They were flying around and landing. I heard some claw scratching sounds from below me so I climbed down. Another Bahro was looking around the inside of the pod.As soon as I took the picture, he linked away so I assumed he was one of the "good" bahro. None of them were nekisahl, that I could tell. Took a few more pictures through the various windows in the pod.Heard Arthur calling out from somewhere. Seems he doesn't turn his KI on most of the time. He beckoned me outside and, after a little persuasion, I did. The Bahro, while landing almost on top of us, didn't attack. He said "they're mourning" and "they're sorry for what happened".
Sometime after that, about noon KI time, they linked off. Hundreds of linking sounds. Then complete silence. Like the planet was waiting to make sure they were gone. And then frogs started peeping again and I heard Reepah and the other jungle sounds came back. The rest of the trip was made up of us walking quietly outside the pod a ways. Heard almost no pahnudoy and we saw only one Urwin in our time out there. Heard lots of Reepah, though. So it seems the jungle's coming back, slowly. Though, really, only a long term study could tell that..

Heading in

Just securing a few things and heading to Art's Negilahn. My equipment hasn't gotten here, but I'm just going to press on without it. Hoping it gets here soon, though.

Shorah

Instability

Just had a tremor in the Office. Aside from being knocked to the floor and the lights acting weirdly, though, nothing seems to be damaged.

Worked through a few issues with the extruder. It's working better, but I still need to do some more work before I'll say it's "fixed".

Getting equipment to measure the tremors and see if they're anything serious.

In addition, I still have the notes on a few descriptions to file.

Watched?

Just had a weird experience. Linking into Delin to find a pair of Bahro watching me. Managed to snap a pic.
One linked out once I saw it, but the other one walked off (they walk funny. Maybe because they normally don't) and down the stairs.
He (or she?) made a hissing noise and linked out. Odd...

Waiting

Still waiting for the equipment for Negilahn.

Going to work on some calculations today... maybe it'll help with this extruder issue. I also need to work on those scans of the Esher documents...

Finished

Finished restoration of a set of five D'ni stories from the Lara collection. Sent them off this afternoon to Mr. Barnes. It's too bad more people aren't getting involved with this as this seems right up a lot of people's alleys. Seems only a year ago we were all clamoring that the DRC didn't let us do anything. Now we have a man who's worked with the DRC giving out documents to be restored and Dr. Watson asking for translation help and I see very few people getting involved.

Regardless, I can only do what is in front of me. Currently, I'm resting in Negilahn. Might be the time of day, but I'm not hearing many reepah or the little pahnuhdoys. Normally I hear a lot of the Reepah's howler monkey-like cries and the pahnuhdoy's squeaking.

Delaying some work on the office age as some issues with the extruder have come up and I'm not up to fixing them at the moment.

Work Progress

Still waiting for some equipment to show up. Looks like the 17th will be our day.

Hadn't been to my work-room on the office in a while. I didn't have time to worry about any flashes in the sky, just some of the work I still have. Lots of it. Sorted through a pile of the Lara Documents and found a couple to fast-track. I'm beginning to get the hang of restoring things. I set aside a large pile for later somewhere safe. Need to get some shelves... I really need to get some proper living quarters. Maybe I'll work on that soon... The Crevice in the office age is worrying me...worried it might still be active.

We got a new D'ni word from the "Linguists". "torihnai" meaning cold.

I'm compiling some notes for a couple new Age projects. I like the possibilities of both.

Speaking of notes, I have to get some good scans of the Esher documents Tweek and I picked up. Maybe work on a few notes myself with the body I brought back. I built a nice structure to keep it cool and preserved. Though, I'm preserving it as I would earth animals. Who knows how these things preserve themselves or whatever...

I've been thinking about Esher and Sharper and why both thought the Bahro were "creatures". I'm thinking it's possible that, seeing bodies and the inner workings of them gave them a gruesome insight into them. Esher saw their guts, Sharper saw their viciousness in war. When all you see is unpleasantness, I must admit I can think of them as lesser beings if all I think about is the structure of that corpse.

Got to compile those notes... then get to sleep...

Finishing up

Arthur stopped by again today. "Is it time?" He says he's got everything set up in his Negilahn.

I just have to wait for a few supplies (camera equipment, etc.) and I'm set...

Arthur

Still getting some stuff together. Arthur stopped by again. This is the most I've seen of him for a while. Honestly I'm a bit angry that he thinks he can just walk back and say we're going to Negilahn, but as I said, I'm interested to see what's been going on there.

He said "they're waiting". I'm assuming he means the Bahro as he meant the other times recently when he's referred to something as a "they". He's made more sense lately with regards to what happened to him, but he still says odd things like "they" are *blank* or things like "I saw that" when I tell him about recent events or "I knew about that". I know he hasn't been down here or I'd have seen him.

Negilahn

Arthur's just reappeared. Says he wants to explore Negilahn for some reason. "To check" is all he says. I'll need to get some equipment together, but as far as I know, we should be safe. And I must admit, I'd like to know what's going on out there myself.

Plans

Thinking about exploring Tokotah II. It's the building where the Pub is and it's where Wheely died. Maybe there's something there. I still need to get some equipment and figure out just what I'd do there before moving forward. From my studies, the back half of that building is badly damaged.

In the Office, I saw more of those flashes. The log's attached. If anyone know what these are, I'd love to know.

Related to that, I'm thinking of setting up a camera in the Office and hooking it up to fire when the flashes occur. Can't help feeling like whenever I link out a bunch of UFOs must land and have a party.

12.26.07 -22798:
Time | # | Duration | Color | HW from Horizon| Degrees
o8.00|01|5 sec|purple|5.5|10|
08.12|02|3 sec|magenta|2.5|23|
09.34|01|4 sec|red|4.0|45|
09.35|01|4 sec|red|3.5|40|
09.37|01|5 sec|red|6.0|25|
10.00|02|5 sec|teal|5.0|15|
10.43|04|1 sec|yellow|2.0|67|
16.34|01|1 sec| gold|1.0|50|

Back

Back down now. Spending more time on various projects. I might not be available as much as I'd like, but it is what it is.

Visited the Office today. While the equipment tells me there have been tremors, nothing appears damaged. I'm going to calibrate the heat sensor today. See if I can get a proper heating system installed soon. No light flashes so far.

Sent off a couple of the Lara Documents to Barnes a few days ago. Spent some of my vacation time on that. I might do some more.