SWN25 - Tales from the DRC

Posting from D'ni - Ae'gura...

Oh... wanted to mention this too, but didn't want to lump it in with the last post. Tonight is the twenty-fifth Spoken Word Night event... an event that I started hosting back in March, and since then it's taken on an incredible life of it's own due to all of the explorers who come from week to week to share their awesome poems, songs, stories, and general insanity.

This time though... a lot of the regulars have banded together to write, direct, and act in a very special show. Basically putting on a play in the cavern... first one that I know about. I've been helping out with some of the roles, and I have to say, from what I've seen so far.. it's amazing. I think it'll be something to be remembered.

Random Observations

Posting from D'ni - Ae'gura...

This is about three weeks late... but there've made some nice improvements to the KI. The "Recent" list in the KI will now clean itself automatically, reducing strain on the KI and the lattice (and thereby helping prevent another "clog" like back in April/May)... thank the maker for that. Marker games are also limited to one hundred markers.. again reducing the chances of "clogging". I also hear that the training wall in Gahreesen has had some work done on it, that will keep people from getting trapped in the Maintainer's Nexus.

Also of note... the DRC is definitely getting set up to welcome the influx of new explorers that we'll see once the restoration gets back up to full steam. There used to be a map of Ae'gura posted by the Tokotah to help people get around the city. After the pullout, the map was taken down at some point... I know it was there for at least a few months after, I saw it during my trips through the cavern alone. I know that it was taken down sometime a little before the D'mala though. Anyway.. it's back up again, and it's still got typos on it. The buildings that everyone knows as the Tokotah are listed as "Dakotah" and "Dakotah II"... but it still gets the point across and will help the new people get around.

Speaking of the Tokotah... I'm certain there must be an entrance to the inside of the Tokotah II from the rooftop. There's a bahro stone link in Eder Gira that will take you to the rooftop (These stones are not approved by the DRC! Use at your own risk!), where you can find lots of various DRC tools, notes, and work in storage and on tables where they were being worked on and later abandoned. But there's no obvious entrance going INTO the building, nor are there any linking books that would allow the DRC or ResEngs to leave the rooftop. How did they get down...?

Maybe the door is just buried under that huge pile of crates, blockers, and cones.

One more random note before I link to the surface to get some rest. I've commented before how unusual it was to see symbols that seem to represent the sun in a lot of places in D'ni. Why would a people who spend most of their lives underground have so many images of a sun? Well.. I noticed this same symbol is also in the Nexus... and also on the base of the Nexus podiums in Ae'gura. I don't think it's a sun.. I think it might be a stylized cog... like the massive ones that keep the books rotating throughout the Nexus.

Just a theory.

The campaigning begins

Posting from D'ni - Ae'gura...

Well, it's time again. Nominations have closed for the next group of DRC Liaisons, with twenty-two candidates to choose from. I'm in that list.

I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with how well things are going this time around. No fighting, no overheated arguments, no group trying to completely anull the whole process and idea. Nice and easy. The first time we started nominating, campaigning, and voting, all sorts of tensions and tomato throwers starting crawling out of the wood-work (rock-work?). Of course, even with all the trouble, the last round of DRC Liaisons were definitely great choices. Who knows, they're all running for re-election... we just might get them again.

I do think that all nominees and campaigners need to be aware of something though. The new term is going to fall right into the thick of the DRC resuming and ramping up their work on the restoration. Lots of things will be going on, lots of new explorers will be coming in. It's going to be a bigger job than it is now.

I'm not going to say "Vote for me!", but I am going to say this. Vote. Do some research, and choose five people that you genuinely believe will serve the community well. Don't just select the five names that are most familiar to you, or that might look good on a t-shirt. Good choices take time!

I think I'm going to surface for a while... get something to eat.