CavernSense

Remarks from President Barack Obama on the surface recently, in a place called Washington D.C.

“I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon.  We need to attract the best and the brightest to public service.  These times demand it.  We’re not going to attract the best teachers for our kids, for example, if they only make a fraction of what other professionals make.  We’re not going to convince the bravest Americans to put their lives on the line as police officers or firefighters if we don’t properly reward that bravery.
 
So, yes, we need a conversation about pensions and Medicare and Medicaid and other promises that we’ve made as a nation.  And those will be tough conversations, but necessary conservations.  As we make these decisions about our budget going forward, though, I believe that everyone should be at the table and that the concept of shared sacrifice should prevail.  If all the pain is borne by only one group — whether it’s workers, or seniors, or the poor — while the wealthiest among us get to keep or get more tax breaks, we’re not doing the right thing.  I think that’s something that Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree on.”

I don’t normally get political.  Well, OK, I got political when someone threatened to pull the plug on Public Media and the Muppets….  But you know, what the president is saying above is logical to me.  Enough is enough of the disparity in our economic and tax policies (and what is this blarney about needing subsidies for rich oil companies?)  This is utter nonsense politicians are spewing while the bahro (and explorers) continue to suffer.  There is enough for everyone, folks, and getting fatter on the backs of the least is just not the way to do things.

That is decidedly NOT good Cavernsense.

Oh sure, who says we should always be in balance?

I’m sitting here, at the gates of the Cavern, packed, loaded, showered, pressed, and …

I can’t get in

Am I evolved?  Balanced?  Am I breathing properly?

Heck no!  I am hammering away at the authentication and download servers just as merrily and mightily as anyone else.  I want to go home!  LOL

If I could… JUST (click) PUSH (click) that password THROUGH (click, click)  I could CALM DOWN!

Must laugh at ones self quite a lot this evening.  I’ve been taking Laughing Tonic quite liberally, but I’m still somber enough to obey the “please try again” button on the “cannot connect to site” page.

Try again!  Try again!  Try again!

Ah well, soon I will cheer “Huzzah!” and this day will enter the calendar archives as another in the  history of the D’ni and Uru Community.

I am thrilled that things have been moving along at a turtle’s pace at the new Guild of Healers’ Outreach Retreat in Second Life.  We’ve finished with the basic build so that our activities can be held in our own space.  Now it’s just a matter of fussing about and modifying bits here and there.

The Silk Road Event was wonderful, as was Radio KTDN’s Anniversary.  After those events in Eder D’uru and around other Ages in Second Life, we held our own Meet & Greet or Opening Gathering in the Retreat on June 28, 2009.  It was a lot of fun, even though I discovered that I was expected to lead a mini-meditation session.  I managed to pull that off with some help from Ktahdn and his perfect choice of meditation music.  We are now holding regular meditations, and surprisingly they seem to be doing some folks some good.  Huzzah!

Ruby came to live with us up above on the surface at Eder D’uru.  Actually, I should say we took up residence below the CCNE office after she pulled it out of the hole.  The resulting cavernous opening was perfect for a retreat space.  Ruby, LC, Jane, OMJ, Tyion even… they have all arrived safely to join Alty, DudeMom, Tai’lahr, Dagda, Marten, and others who we’ve known around the community had been in Sl for some time.  (We’ll not mention Madge just yet…) I had been there myself for over a year, although I hadn’t actually been there.  I was busy building the monastery prototype in Kaneva for a RL project and learning about texturing, building blocks, and integrating 2D with a 3D environment.  It really did prepare me to quickly build the Retreat once we decided to move in. And, the RL project moves on.  Huzzah!

It looks like the Rooftop gang might make their way back to a Rooftop, too.  Convector Felium has appeared again to create havoc that Lord Chaos would heartily approve of.   Between he and Ruby the stories will begin to flow thick and heavy, I expect.  I will have to work very hard to maintain some sense of serenity in the Retreat.  Jane isn’t much help, although she does try very hard to be serious around me.  I don’t know why she laughs so much — can’t be anything I might have said…

Tai’lahr has informed me that she has spotted Serious Nonsense building up in areas around the Retreat, especially once Convector Felium mentioned he would like to help with the meditation session on Laughter.  I don’t know why a meditation session would be of such interest, but I will move ahead with it nonetheless and let him join us if he is of a mind to — provided he is cordial to Serious Nonsense.   As for the building, I’ve tried to make sure there is prim-room available for everyone who wishes to build.  I am a great defender of Serious Nonsense as well as an advocate of Healing,  so I object not at all to sharing my tools and conversation with others during the many activities I enjoy.  I don’t really think Tai minded the results Serious Nonsense left behind.  No prims ended up in anyone else’s parcels, nor were the textures of an unpleasant color.

’twas Ktahdn who let that tree root stick out below the treehouse floor….

Which, during each encounter, did them an age of good.  Some didn’t appreciate the benefits, but they got over that.  Of course, I enjoyed the encounters since I myself am very serious all the time.

I agree with the philosophy of Nonsense.  It should be as Serious as possible, as often as it can.  It, like laughter, should be so overwhelmingly effervescent that it bubbles up from wherever it originates and spills out over the top to be abundantly shared by everyone whether they want it or not.

Seriously.  Why should Nonsense be boxed in, shoved down the tunnel into the lowest, darkest caves of the cavern, and waved away with a dismissive gesture when what shows up on the surface is, in fact less real and much more nonsensical than Nonsense itself?**  I mean really… who gets to decide what is real and valued and observationally worthy and what other things are utter nonsense?  When I finally meet that person I’m going to immediately disagree just to see what my punishment will be.  It will be interesting to be an infidel or a heretic or a blasphemer or a quack or a loon-a-tic.

**(Btw, if you didn’t all of that read the sentence again.  Slowly.  It will eventually make sense.  I promise the grammar and punctuation are correct.)

I have a soft spot for Nonsense.  Like the misunderstood gypsy it is forced to travel in search of a permanent home.  Interestingly, it doesn’t see that it has a home everywhere, even in the most serious-minded, logically oriented, conservatively traditional “I-must-always-be-in-the-right” individual.  I mean, really…. who in the world is always and ever always right?

When I meet that person I’m going to immediately disagree just to see what my punishment will be.  Punishing me may make that person feel better, too, and I’m sure will teach me a right good lesson.  Then I will show Nonsense exactly where it has been living, which will make Nonsense feel better, too.

Everyone will have reaped the benefits of our Explorers encounter, and I will have done a good day’s work.  The result? A win-win situation.

Now that just makes good Cavernsense.

Serious Nonsense plans to mingle amicably with other explorers during the Radio KTDN Fourth Anniversary. This should be great fun…

It comes out rather early in the evening, since I might choose to go to bed. The evening post, that is. It’s a post, of news, in the evening.

There’s a bit of a problem, though, when posting the evening post, because there’s little news in the post. So what to post?

I could fill up the post with words. Big words always sound important in posts. I’m rather tired of big words, though. They tend to make my head hurt.

Hmmm, much ado, nothing to report. So much happens in the background, like a Windows Update. Only when the day gets rebooted do we find out what really happened.  Usually it isn’t much good — just takes up more room and slows everything down.

I could always just leave it in the background.

Well, tomorrow is another day. Maybe I will try the morning post.

Yeah, it is.

It really is.

Right now we’re waiting for Season Two to start… or maybe fail to start… or maybe both, or either, or neither. All I know is the fear-mongers are swooping down on the MOUL forums again/still and clamoring for attention to their attentions to what they think are unspoken fears that we, the unsuspecting fans, are just not attending to as we should.

Fear? Oh dear, was I supposed to be afraid? Sorry, I missed it again. The Fear Boat. Opposite of the Love Boat, I guess. There are so many things those people tell me to fear — I just can’t keep them all straight and neatly categorized so I know which one to fear now or an hour from now. I tried to fear one yesterday and now I can’t even remember which one it was. Chaos enters and messes it all up. Chases the ducks around, quacks everything up, and dismantles all of their rows. After a while I only know I am supposed to fear…..something….

Oh well. (sigh)

On the other hand, I have observed that while a person is feeling fear, they aren’t enjoying themselves. Can’t be enjoying much with a tense stomach and shoulders. And what will happen if we don’t fear? Hmmm, we’ll be surprised, maybe…. But then, I’ve noticed that the really bad things in my life were surprises regardless of what I did or didn’t worry about.

So I think I’ll pass on the fear, thanks. If something bad happens I agree to be surprised. It seems so much NonSense to me to expend energy worrying about the thing that I do to relax. Ummm, oxymoronic, even.

Yes, yes, you’ll tell me I’m foolish. That I just don’t know better, or don’t face reality. Maybe so. Maybe no. But I’d rather be a happy fool than an unhappy realist. If indeed I am so out of touch with reality.

“I’ve always wondered how people who know everything others should do are able, so neatly, to make such a mess out of their own affairs”

~Ghaelen

Well it is true. There’s just no sense in having CavernSense without including a little NonSense. I can’t imagine being serious all the time, even when I’m being serious all the time. Here is where my wry side gets to show, and anything is game in regard to the game. The game is MOUL and it is afoot.

Or wait, that was my Foot.  The Foot.  It happened, really.

“A Little NonSense now and then is relished by the wise human”
~Willy Wonka

One of my heroes.
Ghaelen