Posting from the UruObsession Neighborhood "Seed Room"

I've been in the cavern for several hours so far today, and thankfully, it's not nearly as unstable as it was last night. They're holding a dance party or something at the fountain, but since I have yet to download teamspeak, I can't really listen in.
In other news, I got to watch a spectacular sunrise in Eder Gira a few hours ago, and am looking forward to the sunset in about two hours. Perhaps I'll go there now.. for some reason, I'm not in the mood for large groups tonight, although that hottie Vortmax is in the 'hood....

Posting from Eder Gira...

It's common knowlege that the supplies I bring down from the surface usually consist of pixystix, Mountain Dew and chocolate. So I tend to run laps around the cavern like an insane squirrel when I'm bored. I must have circled around the library hundreds, if not thousands of times... but I never stopped to actually look. Only a few nights ago, I noticed this:

Some quite beautiful artwork, in the form of stained glass on the side of the library. It's only fully visible if you stand at the railing and look up... you can't see it unless you look. The same windows are visible on the other side as well, but you have to stand at the very edge of the drop-off to see them.
I started exploring the cavern solo in 2003, and I went down regularly by myself until D'mala opened. In all that time, in three years of exploring, solo and group, I never actually stopped to look at some of the beauty around me.
Sometimes some of the most wonderful things are there all along.

I can't sleep, so I might as well post, as tired and loopy as I am.

I've noticed something odd... Yeesha's mark appears everywhere. It seems to be even more prevalent than the Maintainer's marks in the ages. In Eder Kemo alone, I counted five of the symbols, and I wasn't actively looking for them.
It almost feels like.. graffiti, and no longer something special and symbolic. Perhaps her budding pride at becoming the "Grower" drove her to do this? In some cases, writing your name on something implies that you own it. Is this a symptom of the pride that eventually led to her downfall? I know at the end of the Path of the Shell, she makes some pretty prideful statements as well, and even demonstrates her new power as the grower.
I'm beginning to question her wisdom as well. She used the quest to free the soul of a Bahro as a tactic to get more people to join her "side", when it came time to choose sides. Was she more concerned with the freeing of the Bahro... or the increase in her power?
Don't get me wrong, she's taught me much about the history of the D'ni, and I've learned the ways, and the errors, of them through her... but it's in my nature to question the facts that are presented to me.

Posting from the surface....

I just got back from yet another wonderful Spoken Word Night with Vid. We had a bunch of excellent speakers, including Vid himself, Andy, Swee Pea, and.. umm.. me.
I'm still working on my "Ode to the Cones" for next week, although my poetry is only slightly better than vogon.
Maybe I should pick something else...

Posting from Kadish again...

Vid recently showed me another oddity in Kadish. On the right side of the vault, between some boxes, you see this:

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it seems to be a misplaced photograph or painting or something. And the angle is such that you can't really see what the picture is of, unfortunately. Once I can get back to the cavern on my own (in other words, get my game cds back from my dad), I'll play around and see if I can get a better angle.

In other news, I'm expecting my father down in the cavern any day now. He's the one to blame for introducing me to the works of Douglas Adams, by the way, and he's a real hoopy frood who knows where his towel is. He's also the guy who fueled my addiction to the Myst universe so many years ago by lending me his copy of Riven. (Which, incidentally, I still have... sorry, dad.)

I'm also looking forward to tonight's Spoken Word Night, hosted by the aforementioned Vid. I'm not sure if I'll be able to speak tonight or not, but I'm going to try and find my microphone in time.

Stupid relto book.

I just did something really silly that I probably shouldn't have... and was planning on escaping into relto before anyone realized what I had done... but like an idiot, once I touched my hand to my linking panel, I just... stood there. My hand stuck to the panel, my feet stuck to the rock below me, unable to move or speak. And unable to open my KI to see exactly what repercussions my actions had. I finally had to use the link of last resort, to the D'esktohp age.
Yeesha must still be pissed at me for letting her fireflies loose.

Posting from Kadish...
I know that this has already been discussed at length on various forums, but the main purpose of this blog is to point out strange anomalies in the D'ni world, so here goes...

A friend of mine gave me some rather cryptic advice to go to Kadish and soak my feet. After a bit of searching, I found this:

This is a reflection in a puddle, outside the "moon room". To me, it looks like a reflection of a doorway, probably somewhere in the cavern, with a barricade and a cone in front of it. Here's the strange thing; this picture was taken in Kadish, and nothing of the kind exists there. So how was the puddle reflecting this?

I did a bit of digging in the game files, and found the reflection map for this puddle. However, I get an error message every time I try to open it. Methinks Kadish is trying to hide something...

There are other strange things in Kadish that I'll get to later; at the moment, I've got to get ready for a date.

Posting from the newly opened Museum...

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any more artwork in here, although I remember at least one painting from my solo explorations. I've scoured this place with my trusti KI camera, and alas, no luck in finding any clues. *le sigh*
However, although I know it has been mentioned by many others, there are two previously unseen linking books in here! That, unfortunately, don't work.
Negliahn...

And Todelmer...


Of course, hope springs eternal. I've heard that the D'ni put panes of glass over the panels of linking books in order to study them up close without accidently linking. Hopefully, one day these will work.

Hmmm... I wonder if once the hubub dies down, and everyone stops trying to link into these books, they'll fix them.. without telling us? *evil snicker*

In other news, my extreme allergy to Teledahn has not been cured by the latest update, which has made it exceedingly difficult to scour the age for clues. So it looks like I'm going to need to reinstall. Joy. But perhaps this time I'll remember to save an unpatched copy, so I can see what the pub looked like before... and see if my assumptions were correct about that doorway.

Posting from the Kahlo Pub...

There's something... diffrent here. At first I couldn't put my finger on it, but I finally figured it out, and a friend confirmed it. There appears to be less rubble blocking the blocked passage. This could just me getting old and forgetful, but there seems to be almost a way through. I tried my hardest, but couldn't get through. Perhaps I should lay off the donuts for a bit.

However, if I am correct about this, there's a faint possibility that we will eventually be able to get into the blocked off area. And who knows what we'll find there?

Perhaps a book?

Posting from my evil twin, Taba_Cat's Relto....

I wanted so badly to swim among the stars again. I took Yeesha's journeys one more time, collected the poles, and gave back what I had no right to keep.
And I opened the fissure.
From my solo explorations, I had noted that if you kick enough debris, such as stones and logs into the fissure, it will prevent you from linking to the cleft. I'd had the idea of trying this again... and asking a friend to join me in the fissure for another of our late night talks. That way we could truly swim among the stars for hours if we wished.
No such luck; anything that went into the fissure just dissapeared, and when I, myself jumped in, I landed at the cleft as usual.
I will find a way, someday.

Posting from the surface again...

There was something mentioned in another explorer's blog that really made me think. There's something wonderfully amazing about our community. Those who know me know that I'm a very introverted person on the surface, and I was in the cavern for a while. My first week in D'mala was spent completely alone, walking my journies and finding markers. And then something happened.
I met someone. And then I met someone else, and then someone else. I was coaxed out of my shell by some really amazing people, and welcomed into the community with what felt like open arms. I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are. I feel as though I'm accepted for who I am for pretty much the first time in my life. I finally feel as though I belong.
I've spent long nights chatting with a companion, or with a group, talking about everything and nothing. We've swapped secrets, conspiracy theories and recipies. We've hunted down clues to puzzles that have stumped explorers for years, and still haven't been solved. I've gotten some very sage advice from a wiser member in the community, and I've helped others in same.
I've learned some very neat tricks and exploits from this community, like how to do the balcony jump, walk the tent rope, and steal, no, borrow a maintainer suit from the wall. And I've passed that information on to others.
I had the honor of watching someone else take Yeesha's journey, and that helped me learn to see the world again through new eyes. And even though he was just an aquantaince at the time, I felt incredibly proud of him when he completed his journey.
But the real reason I love this community is my close friendships with a few. I've ranted endlessly about my chaotic life on the surface to a few very patient people... and just the knowledge that someone else cares makes every thing seem a heek of a lot better.

Posting from the surface...

My journies to the cavern recently have been too few and far between, but it seems as though there's little I can do about it. I've been working on my own restoration project on the surface, and recently got waylaid by a batch of bad paella.
However, now that I seem to be less allergic to Teledahn, and the Museum is now open, I'm looking forward resuming my search for clues.
I'm beginning to think that Sharper may NOT know what the clue in his office referrs to... after all, it's in D'ni numbers... wouldn't he have used his own language when planting a clue? And since (if I remember correctly) the Maintainers were only beginning to pass out KIs to the general populace by the time of the fall, only a select few of the D'ni would have been able to see the clue at all. Perhaps this is the work of the Shroom Baron himself?
I need to check the histories to see if the dates line up. Everything seems to point to Teledahn, however... there's a deeper story there that I'm just not seeing.
Hmmmm.... I wonder if it has anything to do with Rebek? That had something to do with the slavery in Teledahn, too. It's odd that we haven't found a linking book there yet.
But if it is something to do with Sharper, I'll need to scour the Kahlo pub, too... I think he had a finger in that pie as well.
Off to plant some pansies and slap another coat of paint on my room.

Linking to Nexus... Joining Age

*link noise*

Linking to Tokotah Alley... Joining Age

*link noise*

Linking to Nexus... Joining Age

*link noise*

Linking to Eder Gira... Joining Age

*link noise*

Linking to Relto... Joining Age

*link noise*

WOOT!

Since I'm unable to link in UU without crashing (I'm hoping that the auth server is fully funtional tomorrow), I might as well spew some more of my crazy theories.
Ok... if Kahlo is ever opened (pleasepleasepleaseplease!!!), and it's actually possible to ride the kamkentas... what happens if you link to Relto while on one? Could it come with you, like the fireflies in Eder Kemo do?
I know it's very very very doubtful, but hey, how fun would it be to have your very own kamkenta to fly around Relto with? Or to see what's beneath the clouds, or visit those tiny islands that you can't jump to?

I wonder if I could add a tiny, client-side mod to the game so that I'll hear motorcycle noises while riding.

Gah! I want Kahlo so bad!!! More than chocolate, even!

Linking to Eder Kemo... Authenticating

ERROR: AUTH RESPONSE FAILED

*sigh*

Ctl-Alt-Del

Linking to Neighborhood... Authenticating

ERROR: AUTH RESPONSE FAILED

*bangs head against wall*

Ctl-Alt-Del

Linking to Eder Gira... Authenticating

ERROR: AUTH RESPONSE FAILED

*snarls at screen*

I'd better give up for the night before I kill my computer.

Here are the others that I've found.
I've got a theory... some of these anomalies seem connected to the idea of artwork, such as the painting in the Shroom Baron's office and the 'hood stone. These also only show up in the multiplayer version of the game, and not in the offline version. And we can't get into the museum in the online version. So, what if there are more hidden clues in the paintings in the museum?

Ok, these are the anomalies that I've gotten so far. The pic on the left is the picture taken with the KI, the one on the right is the one as seen in game.
All but the first one may be simple bugs, but I'm positive that the first one, of the painting in the Shroom Baron's office, is a clue.
There are some others, but I can't seem to get them to upload. I'll try later, however.