Visited 171 houses so far. Some have responded. Many not.  About one half the people I have visited so far have fewer than 500 ex points.  About half have come to CT since January, 2001.  Only a few were in CT prior to 2000.  Ran across a couple of items that I had in my old place in The Raft before it was inexplicably deleted from CT.  It helps refresh my memory of several of the items I did have.  Maybe I should keep tabs of who has them and offer to buy them unless I somehow miraculously get them reinstated from the C.E.R.B.,  which I doubt since I have not even heard back from them yet.  Many people have nothing in their homes, and many have over the 32 item limit, way over.  Funny how that trick gets around to everybody isn’t it?

July 28

225 total.  Fewest number of homes in a block were 8 in Oracles.  Still in Legends and Lore.  Hopefully I will finish that neighborhood before vacation next week.  It takes longer and not as long as I thought it would.  Writing about it will keep me in practice. I hope.  Responses come in every day, which is great.   time.  I will try to respond and delete them today then visit some more homes.  It’s amazing to me that security is so lax in CT that somebody with 65 experience points or less would have a home with over 100 items.  There are probably more in the place, but 2D, I’ve noticed, only lists 100.  First, everybody knows the trick of moving and getting more than the allotted 32 items per house.  Second, it’s obvious that people use more than one identiy to fiddle around in CT.  Why is there this need to cheat and swindle in this fake life?  It makes me wonder what these people are like in real life.
 

On a different note.  Supposedly I received the status of elder yesterday, but the option for elder status doesn’t show up in my personnel info yet.  I’ll give them a few days to sort it out before I complain to somebody.  The question is you do I complain to?  The new mayor who probably didn’t like the idea that I said she probably wouldn’t accomplish much like most politicians in real life?

I have read every response in my inbox.  Sometimes I respond to a particularly interesting one.  One person joked that I was a complete nutter.  I admit it, and pride myself on that.  I have been offered coffee, tea, snacks, and mead.  Just gimme a beer folks, maybe a brat, and a tee time at Augusta and I’ll be happy.  Some people are like leaving cookies and milk for Santa.  Cool, but weird, too.

July 29

AAAARGH!  I went to CT this morning using Netscape.  Stayed in 2d. Damn thing wouldn’t connect to the server, so I had to go to 3d to check objects.  Tried IE, went to 2d. Worked fine, but if I tried to go to an inbox, I got a damn login screen again in the popup window. Sheesh!

Will try to respond to responses (is that redundant).  Usually I skip the ones that say something, like “Um, okay, responding.”  Definitely reply to the ones that offer me something.  I mentioned above that people leaving things in their house wasn’t a bad idea.  I could be like Santa and they could leave a gift for me.  Actually, that would be in the best Greek tradition of hospitality. Whenever travellers would stop along their way, the people they visited gave them food and shelter and gifts when they left.  The Geats and Danes of my namesake’s era also had the same tradition.  So if you people want to start leaving items marked “for beowulf42” I’d be happy to accept them.  If I have already visited your house, sent me a missive back to come and get something.

If I have missed your house, or you moved since I visited your block, write, and I’ll come back your way.  Like I have something better to do?

July31

Last night I visitied some more homes.  I am hoping to finish the Legend and Lore neighborhood by this Friday or sooner.  Depends how much golf I want to play, or how much time I want to spend on the computer and whether that Code Red virus invades the Internet and slows the dange thing down.   Actually it really depends on whether the wife has anything on her "honey do" list for me.  You young whippersnappers in CT have no idea what that is like, do you?

Ran across the first person I actually knew last night.  The famous CT designer, who they are probably referring to when they say that a designer has been a millionaire several times over, Mother-Bates.  I sent her more than my usual "just visiting" note that I leave in people's inboxes.  I like calling her Mom Bates.  Looking at the picture in her house in 2d, however, I notice that she looks a LOT younger that someone who lays claim to daughters.  Now I feel REAL old myself.  I know I am not really the oldest person in CT, but it sure feels that way some days.  Oh, to be young and carefree again is not a phrase that I aspire to.  I LIKE being old and cranky, and I have the cranky part down pat.

I wonder about the people who do not have 3D houses and people who do not allow private chat in their areas of CT.  Maybe they don't want to be bothered with visitors at all.  I don't fault them for that.

List of objects I'd like to see in my possession again since they were deleted along with my house in the RAft:

Scottish Claymore
Celtic Cross
Earth
Moon
Jupiter
Saturn
Suit ov Armor
Sword of Fire (by Jedi_Glee)
Sword of Lightning (by Jedi_Glee)
Chess Master 3000 (by Laz I think)
Excelsior by Paden

July 31.
 

Had a response today from a resident to whose house I was the first visitor.  I wonder how many houses are in CT that haveNEVER been visited at all.  Now there's an interesting topic, eh?  How many people have houses but do not venture out into the cyberworld they have chosen to come to.  DO they explroe the rest of town and never check their houses?  Are they satisfied with the objects they have or just don't want to bother with it.  There are over 20000 clubs.  Most people I suspect use them to store excess objects rather than join in chats of meaningfulness.

over 700,000 supposed citizens of Ct, yet I have never seen more than 600 on the system at any given time.  Maybe it is as some have suggested. just 700 people or so with a whole bunch of other names that the use just to get storage space and other amenities with really only one identity that they use on  regular basis.

Tonight I will send my Colony leader a note mentioning the problem with elder status.

August 2

Ooops!  I did a booboo.  I wrote the other day about not having heard from the C.E.R.B regarding my house deletion.  Frankly, I didn't see anything wrong what I wote, considering THAT IT WAS THE TRUTH!  Sheesh, people are so touchy here.  I mean like this ain't real life we're talking about here is it?  Like people are going to live and die by what happens in a fake world when so much more happens to them in the real world?  Sure it's a nice escape, but that is all it is, an escape.  People don't really go broke, go hungry, go homeless, unemployed, unclothed or any of the other myriad problems that face the participants in real life.  People don't get robbed, murdered, raped, mugged.  They don't get disease and die.  They don't getold and senile.  There are no tragic accidents, plane crashes, drunk drivers, or anything else that cause REAL problems for REAL people.  And anything supposedly bad that happens in CT doesn't really mean much does it, like it's going to bring about theend of the world.  People make mistakes. People hurt eachother.  The beauty of CT, if anything, is that all that doesn't really matter.

So, I am sorry I commented prematurely on my C.E.R.B case.  they have this ontheir website:

No Person with a case pending review by C.E.R.B., or anyone representing them, shall make any public comments or provide any *evidence* reguarding their case in any public forum, either On Site or Off Site. Any breach of confidentiality in the case by the appellant as described herein shall result in immediate dismissal of the case under review by C.E.R.B., with the original Action remaining in effect.

Okay, so I screwed up.  Big deal.  Again, like it's a life or death situation?  And considering that I mentioned no names and gave no real details, who was harmed?  Okay now that the C.E.R.B has turned down my case, I consider it to be no longer pending.  Thus, I will say that I was away from CT tending to real life.  During my absence, my house got deleted.  I didn't cry over it.  I said my piece and moved on.  Then the CT news posted soemthing about the CERB which I didn't even know existed, so I figured what the heck, give it a shot to tyr to get my stuff back.  It didnt' work.  So what?

SOOOOOO.  as I travel trough CT, I see the objects people have in their houses and it has refreshed my real life feeble memory of many of the items that I once had and sort of like having around.  So if you see any of these items just laying around your place and you want to give them away or sell them to me, I would be happy to take them off your hands.  Just tag them and I'll get to it eventually, or leave me something in my inbox and I'll come get them right away.

Final note to the CERB.  Please, don't mess with the First Amendment.

August 3

Finally finished one whole neighborhood.  I started in my own place, own block in CT. And finished Lengends and Lore or whatever the hell it's called. I don't remember anymore.  If a perosn doens't use a house, jsut what the heck do they use CT for?  Just how many active people are there out of the 720,000 plus?  Beats the hell outta me.

Some people are still talking about the election which will see Lady Liz and JJfridge as the mayor of CT and the Deptuy Mayor.  Okay I didn't vote for either of them.  I voted for somebody else.  Regardless, I don't think whoever is in this position of non power will do much of anything other than boost their own ego.  That's what the whole election is all about anyways.  The real power of CT belongs in who owns it, who runs the server, and pays the bills.  The real truth is that if the CT mucky mucks don't like or agree with what the online power posers like or do, then they won't let it happen.  All this talk about accepting the diversity of backgrounds of CT residents is just politically corret poppycock, isn't it?  Will some nice changes take place?  who knows?

I think I figured out a way to find out where the objects are that were deleted.  Here's my theory.

Back ground: when my house got deleted, some clubs were also screwed up.  I have a page that lists the places I frequent jsut for my convenience.  My home was home/beowulf42. the clubs however used the URL that I jsut cut and pasted when I got to them.  So when they got screwed up, I went to the old URL, the 3d screen never came up, the club name was deleted, but the objects were still there at that URL.  So I am thinking that somewhere there is a CT URL for a home that has no name, and no resident, but the objects are stuck there for whatever reason.  Now the reason I figure this is because I was visiting a block and noticed that the URL's were not in conecutive order.  For example http://www.cybertown.com/cgi-bin/cybertown/property?ID=0105050404010201 was not followed buy http://www.cybertown.com/cgi-bin/cybertown/property?ID=0105050404010202.  Instead I got the residence of somebody named Maximum_Ajax.  The key here that something funny is going on is that if you type in /home/                       Maximum_Ajax you get the message that that person does not have a home in CT. Don't believe me?  Here's the screen shot:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

SOOOO!  I suspect that my old house is still located somewhere on the CT server.  And that my objects are still there somewhere.  SOOOOO! If somebody finds the addy, sends it to me, and I can retrieve the objects I want, well, I'll give you 100,000 cc's as a finders fee.

Still August 3

Later in the morning, almost noon my time.  Keep those responses coming folks.  A note at Paden.  I've talked to him only briefly.  Have no problems with him or the way he does his job in CT.  But a few weeks ago, he announced that he was giving up his duties as a checker in the Mall.  That he was going to spend more time doing other things, maybe fishing or something, I forget.  Still, it seems to me that everytime I get online he is already there or pops in while I am fooling around.  Sheesh, Paden.  You call that retirement?

Am going out of town this weekend, and will get to some homes today in a new neighborhood.  Then it's back for three days, then gone again for about ten.  The quest for many homes will slow down a while, I guess.  Will probably do updates on this page until I leave town again, but when I am on vacation, I am on vacation.  I don't check things back home like email, inboxes or anything else.  I vacation by relaxing.  That's why they call it vacation isn't it?

August 5

Got home today from a family obligation.  Seems that teens don't like family obligations. They'd rather be doing whatever it is they do with their fellow teens rather than spend time with their family.  Most teen reach that age when grandma and grandpa just aren't as improtant as they once were in their lives.  I say to them, "tough!" Listen up you hormonally challenges adolescents, family is INFINITELY more important than ANYTHING you want to do in your life right now.  It's more important than your girlfriend or boyfriend, your homework, your sports, your jobs, the latest concert, or whatever you think fits your lifestyle right now.  Family is well, family.

About 21 percent of the people whose houses I have visited have responded.  I don't know if I expected more or less.  Again, I don't reply to each response, but I DO read every one of them before copying to the web page and deleting them from my CT inbox.

One Ct resident, GREY wrote the following
 

Thought it might be interesting to mention that according to the colony statistics, there's just shy of 30,000 current/active houses in Cybertown. How many of these are duplicates? Not a clue. How many people are active, but have no house? Also, no clue, but such people exist. Statistics also say that people with houses have on the order of 575 million cc's. That's a lot of credits in circulation in the economy. Assuming that block leaders and block deputies are on the ball, the 30,000 houses reflect "active" people, which doesn't imply anything about whether they check their inboxes, of course.

Another resident wondered how I conduct visits.  I follow the KISS method.  Keep It Simple Stupid.  I go to each house in 2d.  It is obviously faster.  Iwould like to visit every home in 3D, but my Internet connection ain't that fast.  Adn for those people hwo have well over 100 objects in their homes, it takes an interminably long time for me to load them up.  2D limits the objects I can view to 100.  As a home is loading, I go to the residen't inbox and drop off my note.  Then I look at what objects the person has, who they are, their experience, and 2d image if they have one up.  If I see an object that I like, I look at it, or look at obejcts I am not familiar with at all if they interest me.  Depending on the place, objects, connection speed, etc. I spend varying time amounts in each house.  If a person is there int he house when I am, I chat with them briefly before moving on.

I wonder if the number of objects in a house is proportional to the amount of time the person spends in CT.  Dedication to CT might also be measured in other ways in a person's house site.  For example, does the person take the time to upload a 2d image?  How long does it take for the image to get checked by the block person?  Does the resident edit his or her inbox to accept html tags, to have aplug in or backhground image, etc. Little things like that, probably reflect on how serious a person takes his or her life in CT.  That's a scary thought in some cases.

How does a person come to cty in May, 1999, have only 60 exp point, no objects and still have a house that was deleted? Something is very unqual about the way the rules are applied in CT.

Something is not right, either, with the way they have handle the recent Elders, templars, promotions.  I supposedly got elder status in CT.  supposedly they were supposed to have this taken care of by this weekend.  I go to my info. I clikc on what my current jobs are, to selct, Elder, but it ain't there.  I am not the only one this hasn't wokred for.

I submit to anybody who cares that this is indicative of the way CT is being run and will be run by the new administration...

August 6

It's 12:20 a.m. my time.  I live in the great Midwest.  I don't like the egotistical East or the lala land of the West.  Fail Safe is one of my favorite movies of all time because New York gets nuked at the end of it.  Here in the Midwest we hunt and kill deer with reckless abandon in the fall, don't worry about wearing fur in the winter, drink and eat whatever we like because at the most giving up all that stuff will gain us six months tops in our overall lifespans.  We like to spit in the eye of the Eternal Footman and say "Screw you!" to the Surgeon General.  Maybe that explains much of my attitude of the way some people take this whole CT thing too seriously.  It's fun, but it ain't real life.  Still, some people sure treat it that way.

August 6

10:56 a.m. my time.  I finished with the Deities neighborhood in Inner REalms last night.  Unlike my legend and lore neighborhood, it is sparsely populated.  The most homes in one block was only 29, compared to well over 40 in some I have been to.  One block had only five homes registered.  Maybe this is considered the outlying regions that weather persons are always talking about during the winter, as in "The outlying regions will be colder tonight."  The old joke is that one should not be out lying in any regions when it's cold.

Deities is devoted to gods, but I must admit that I haven't heard of most ofthe ones they are naming their blocks after.  Messaih, obvously.  Isis and Vishnu, I have hear of, too.  Venus probably belongs in the mythology neighborhood instead, but the others?  Must be some new age crystal loving clap trap if you ask me.

why do people choose a certain neighborhood or block in the first place?  I suspect that they have some peripheral interest in the area?  There are so many choices to pick from, and just about every taste is here even the new age crystal loving clap trap.  What I don't understand is what some people are doing in some areas.  I mean why is a warrior prince in a deities area?  Or what is somebody named angel something or other (there are a helluva lot of angels running, or is it flying, around ct) doing in a war games area?  Just curious. is all.

My suspicion about fewer people in Deities is that fewer people these days actually believe in a Deity of any kind, be it God, Buddha, or Zoroaster or whatever divine being there is.  Notice I didn't say, whatever may be.  That's because I beleive in a higher authority.  It's called faith, baby, and far too many people just don't have it any more.

About half the home I visit don't have any objects in them.  Now why does a person have a 3d home if they aren't going to play with them?  Several people don't offer a public chat.  Now why bother to have that area in the first place, then?  Got just a select circle of friends that you allow in.  Do all these not chatters belong to the same group and they just meet at diffferent places every so often to fart and belch in private? Do they laugh at the rest of the silly people who take this place so seriously?

Patience they say is a virtue. That is why I have trying to be patient about the damn elder status thing.  But, sheesh! They had the award ceremony a more than a week ago.  The outgoing mayor was supposed to be there, as well as the deputy mayor and the founder Hawk.  Well, nothing much happened, as seems to be the case around CT lately.  People say something is going to happen or they will do something but either it doesn't get done or it takes friggin forever for somebody to get off their butts and do it.  Seems pretty simple to me.  Type in the names of the people with a new title, flip the damn switch and be done with it.  If you want to play games with the idea of awards ceremonies, and having to apply, fine, but get things done when you say they will be done.

Still August 6: later the same day

People without objects in their homes do make my visit go faster, but I still wonder about them.

They claim that smoe guy named Hawk founded CT.  All that really means is that somebody got this idea for the Internet and supposedly over 720,000 people have taken up the idea as well.  Now we all know that many of these supposed immigrants to CT are really the same people who have signed up under a different name for a variety of reasons.  One, to get more of the fake money to buy more fake objects.  Every time a person immigrates and then says that somebody is a reference, the reference gets fake money.  Given the heavy duty machines people have, it is no great diffiuclty, then to log on to CT under both names and treansfer some cc's from the new "user" to the one who needs the most cc's.

Another reason use different names is because they simply are idiots who do stupid things like cuss and swear and bother people then get booted, so they just log in with a different name and do the same thing over and over.  These people are called Snerts. I forget what SNERT stands for but it is nto pleasant.  I prefer the label of insipid little pissants personally.

I don't think Hawk exists, really.  He was supposed to show up at the most recent title award ceremony, but he was a noshow.  I think he's a myth.  Yes, he has a home it CT and over 20,000 experience points, but that could be just a ruse to get people to think he exists, and they could put up anybody's picture in CT, now couldn't they?

Speaking of pictures in 2D, it is one of the things I first notice when I visit a home.  I don't have a pciture showing me in real life.  the last one I took of myself broke the damn camera, I think.  Still, many people post images of real people.  I don't know why they do.  You would think, particularly, that females would be wary of doing that, but I guess some are secure enough in believing that they can't be got to in cyberspace.  All I gotta say about the pictures is that we have some good looking women posting their mug shots for the world to see.  No names, cuz I ain't gonna reveal my own tastes, but suffice it to way, wimmen folk, this old fart still knows hubba hubba hubba when he sees it.

August 7

I've been reading several of the recent posts on the tech support part on the feedback board. Has anybody else noticed that nobody really has an answer to these people's questions or problems.  Several people have said they filed a problem report form and have never gotten any answer.  I filed one once and never got an answer either.  Why does that not surprise me.  No support from a nonexistent people supposedly in charge of this place.

As long as I am on the subject of nonexistent people, nobody has yet disputed my claim about the nonexistence of Hawk, the Founder of CT.  As I mentioned in a previous post, he has a house.  In 2D there is a picture ostensibly of someone purporting to be Hawk.  If I remember right, there was someone claiming to be Hawk at a trail last year after the original plaza was blown up, but we have no way of knowing if he was really there.  Ever notice that nobody keeps accurate records of anything these days?  And, even if he was there, how do we know it was really Hawk and not somebody else like Admiral Stadol or something just logged in with a different name.  Who was the last person who actually talked to Hawk or seen him around in CT OR in real life, eh?

CT is more and more like a novel I once read.  EArth was on the verge of destruction and the people involved in its salvation were involved in a world wide net with icon, avatars ,etc.  Fascinating book, but sorry I don't remember the named of it, but for some reason or other I think is was written by David Brin.

Back to tech support, I suspect that the problem is the same problem incurred the old BBS systems that were owner operated and very seldom updated or supported.  There is simply not enough time or people or dedication.  For all the talk otherwise,  nothing gets done, people get frustrated, and eventually leave.  Does anybody seriously think that CT will improve with a new mayor and deputy mayor?  It won't unless they are the ones doing tech support and really running the system.  As I said earlier, they don't own the computers, the servers, the programs, or anything, do they?  In effect, they don't, so what CAN they do?

Another thing that used to happend to old BBS's was that the operator found exactly how much money it cost to run it and ended up either going to a completely pay system or started asking for donations too help recover costs.  You young people have no idea what some of these old timers used to do with computers.

I have to admit that I finally have that Elder status,  but the fact that it took so long is indicative of things around CT isn't it?

Now I am going on a vacation.  I plan on visiting a few more places in real life before the Eternal Footman comes to hold my coat. like the GRand Canyon.  I know it's a big hole in the ground, but what a hole!  And I get to play some desert golf.  See ya all in about nine days.

Typical

August 8

Yeah, I know I said I was going on a vacation.  I am flying out tomorrow.  But, The Wife is resting and, until she wakes up, I don't know what else to pack except my golf clubs.  the dining room table is filled with an assortment of traveling items.  Along with the usual hygiene stuff, clothes, and things, is a notebook computer.  No, I probably won't get  a chance to log into CT and don't plan to.  It's for something for The Wife to do while I am out golfing.  It's also something for me to do while she is resting and not interested in about the only thing I want to do when I am not golfing.

Somebody left a note in Inner Realms about my traveling around CT in 80 days.  Let me clear up a miscinception.  I ain't Jules Verne.  He had a balloon and whatever else his fertile imagination came up with.  I just have two left feet.  But it does give the the idea to range about more as I travel around CT again after vacation.

August 16

Well, I'm back.  Nobody found my missing items, although I am sure at least one person was trying.  One person did find a Paden's Excelsior and bought it for me, then left an inbox that I should come pick it up.  Now that's hospitality.

Actually the idea of hospitality is more ancient that I am.  It's been around since ancient Greek times and was practiced in similar fashion by the North people of my namesake, namely the Scandavian peoples.  The concept is very simple.  If a traveler coems your way, you are supposed to to be a gracious and good host.  You do this by putting the traveler up for the night.  You also give him food and drink, preferably of the vintage variety.  If possible you let him sleep with your hand maidens or even your daughter, though the Greeks sometimes were suspected of supplying young men instead.   Then when the traveler  is ready to go on his way, you help him by providing transportation where necessary and giving him gifts of great value such as gold, silver, and other trinkets.  So if you all wanta be hospitable CT  people in the ancient tradition and ways, you can leave me gifts of stuff in your houses.  I know I'd appreciate it.  If you want to go back and look at some things that I lost in my house deletion, refere to previous journal entires.

Lots of inbox messages upon my return, which boosted the CT response rate up to over 25 percent which I think is pretty damn good considering that half the people with houses are using them as drop places for storage of excess items.  I know I have had a few people admit to this ruse when replying to my visiting message.  The real question is whether I should consider them in the response statistics.

August 17

So what did I do on my summer vacation?  God I hated that dumb first day back to school essay when I was a kid until I figured out that that was just the teacher's way of getting oyu right back into the school thing at the beginning of the year. So, I wasn't visiting houses for a week or so and went to Arizona.  What's that you say, Arizona? In the summer? In the dog days of August?  What's that? I played golf?  In the desert? In the heat?  To all those questions, a resounding YES!

First, the hotel rates in the valley are real cheap in the summer and so are the golf rates.  Go to AZ in the winter and the rates are sky high and a round of golf at an average course is a hundred bucks or more.  It was 103 degrees at 10:00 am. the round cost me only 30 bucks WITH a cart, and I got through playing 18 holes in just over two hours.  This is me getting ready to sink a birdie putt:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

This hole was the tenth, appropiately named, I think.  That's the green way off in the distance.  Oh, yeah, the drop is about 300 feet.

A screen shot or image was deleted here

We stayed in Phoenix for three days and then drove up to red rock country in Sedona where it was noticeably cooler and a bit muggier.  August is known as monsoon season in Arizona.  This big stone was right outside our room and down the road a piece:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

I mentioned to several people that I wanted to see that big hole in the ground one time before the Eternal Footman comes and holds my coat.  We drove through Oak Creek Canyon north to Flagstaff, picked up a childhood memory of driving on the old Route 66.  You young whippersnappers fly all over for your vacations and don't know what a thrill it was to drive the open road to see the country.  Route 66 was the mother road.  You could take it from Chicago to California and see almost everything there was to see in the U.S.  Now it's gone the way of Interstates that bypass all the small roadside attractions.

From Flagstaff we went to the Grand Canyon.  We drove the West rim, the south rim, and the East rim and stopped at every view point.  We ended our day at a place called Desert View on the rim, the last point before you leave the park:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

If you ever wonder if there is a God, or whatever divine being you believe in, or if you doubt at all, I suggest this:  Go to Desert View.  Stay until sunset:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

You'll never have another doubt again.

August 18

Seems to me that following rules in CT is a basically hit or miss proposition.  that is, some people follow them and adhere to them, others don't.  What irks me to no end, however, is when the people not following the rules are the very ones who set the damn rules in the first place.  It's duplicitous and self serving.  It smacks of favoritism and down right laziness, I think.

Tonight I was doing my usual visit of homes.  I ran across a person who originally signed up in CT in September, 1999, and had accumulated a grand total of 180 points.  Now that seems pretty obvious that even with the most liberal assignment of experience points this resident is not a regular user of ct, and probably has little if any recent contact.  This colony has this policy about nonusers:
 

Anyone who has up to 60 points and has not logged into Cybertown for two weeks is at risk for delete.

Anyone who has 61-100 points is left a message -preferred choice is email if there is a link at your house to ask if you plan on returning to Cybertown in the near future. If no email link is found, one message is left in your inbox asking for your return. We give you 3 days to return and log into Cybertown to show a sign of interest.

Vacation or Out of Town Policy:

Anyone going on vacation can place (VAC) in their house name. Anyone who will be away for any other reason for a length of time can place (OT) for out of town in their house name. This will be good for people who have to travel on business, those who have to go into the hospital, those who need a few days off.  Of course, anybody with more than 100 points falls under the full 30 day delete policy.

The NL's can submit to me via email a list of those residents under 101 points for my review once a week.

August 19

I did have a first today.  I visited the home of somebody who had just logged onto ct and joined, just bought the house, and almost nonexistent experience points.  Talk about a genuine newbie.

I've been posting on many message boards for people to visit this page and read about my travels around CT.  I got this response today to one of the postings:

Date: Sat, Aug 18 th, 2001. 12:16:52 am.
From: akita3
Subject: Re: on the road again
 beowulf hun sorry to burst your bubble but there is a hawk. i've been in ct for close to 3 years
 and have spoken with him on several occasions. he happens to be one of my good friends.
 ~akita3~

Date: Sat, Aug 18 th, 2001. 9:38:50 pm.
From: beowulf42
Subject: Re: on the road again
 oh sure that's just hear say evidence. lol.

Did you notice that if you write to the Caretakers, according to the CT news blurb, that you are merely "essentially" talking to Hawk and not really talking to Hawk.  That's more evidence of  his nonexistence.  Maybe I would be more inclined to believe in this Hawk character if he actually took the time to write me an email or inbox me, but then how would I know that that was really him in the first place?

August 19

Two people have left me gifts.  Surest way to get me to visit your house fast is to leave me email or ipost to my inbox.  Tell me you have a gift for me.  I'll come running, especially if it is one of the items I lost when my house got deleted.

August 19 again
This is Hawk's 2d information:
A screen shot or image was deleted here
You can enlarge the picture to read more clearly, if you need, too.

I want you to note, however, that this supposed "Hawk" lives on the block of Roswell, in the neighborhood of Aliens, in the Sci-Fi Colony.  If that isn't more evidence of his nonexistence, then at the very least we can point to Hawk not being one of us.  I mean, look at where he lives!

Later August 19

I have been looking different colonies and neighborhoods rather than just floating aroudn Inner Realms as I wasdoing when I first started this trip.  I ran across one block in one neighborhood in the Morning Star Colony that has only one house.  Sounds like a person who's doing a Marlena Dietrich impersonation, to me.

Also been spending a bit more time looking at other things in CT.  On the Feedback board it seems a lot of people are asking for help but just don't get any.  Maybe they get some behind the scenes, but why do I doubt that?  No body seems to follow up with things.  Is this just another idea and scheme that somebody came up with and will eventually die off?  I mean is CT existence tainted with only people who inhabit the place but rarely do anything about running the show?

August 20

One block in mythology posts the last time a person accessed CT on the 2d page for the person's house.  Maybe other blocks do this as well, but it is the first time I have seen it.  I would think that it allows a BL or BD to have an easy way to keep track of who the regulars and maybe that isn't a bad idea for them.  Seems to me though that it is a bother.  Now wait a minute, maybe we should put this feature on Hawk's house so we can know how often he comes to CT himself, and maybe that will be proof enough of his existence?  Nyah, I still won't believe it.

I do wonder who they have working behind the scenes at CT, though after seeing this feature.  Look closely at this person' immigration and last access dates:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

Now either somebody is really really a blockhead, or they have some really really smart physics people who finally imvented a time machine.  I hope it's the latter, cuz I wanta know who was on the grassy knoll, and give Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods some hickory shaft clubs to play against Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones.

The IT'S A FRIGGIN' JOKE section

All right, two people have written me saying they don't like the idea that I am running around that Hawk doesn't exist.  Sheesh!  Let me say this again, folks.  IT'S A FRIGGIN JOKE
August 21

At least several people have tried valliantly to find the lost house/missing items in The Raft.  Alas, their efforts were to no avail.  Still the offer stands of 250,000 cc's to anyone who does find where my deleted house and items went to.

Am thinking about jsiut offering cc's for each missing item that I remember.  It's not like it's real money anyway.  And I'm gonna winthe 200 million powerball tomorrow and retire to boot.  Hell, with that kinda of real life moohla, maybe I could buy blaxxun and CT.  Nyah, I don't want the headache of having someone like me complain all the time.

Noteworthy efforts go to Fuzziest who wrote me about his analysis of CT URL's.  Quite extensive research on his part might show that the search for missing things might not be that hard after all.  Real noteworty efforts go to BorgQueen, a fellow Elder who claims to have no life and spent much time actaully going through what must have seemed like a bazillion addresses.  Her efforts are logged here.  She, too wonders not only about the mystery of the missing house, but also about this character of Maximum_Ajax who shows up with 576 experience points in several Raft addy's.  Click here to read her account.  It's also wuite humorous.

A word about experience points. How does anybody end up with an odd or even number of points?  When you start in CT, you get 5, then 50.  You get a job and it goes up, but all the increases in experience points are in increments of 5.  So how does someone have say, 6267, as an example?

Ran across another one of those people who have come to CT a LOOOOONG time ago, September, 1999, and has only 176 experience points.  So how come nobody follows the rules about house deletions?  Don't get me wrong.  I didn't like it when my house got deleted and don't think anybody else would like it either.  But, if you have the rules, why aren't they applied equally across the board?  either that or don't have the dang rule in the first place.

August 23

The News letter today claims that there are 742727 registered citizens.  I do not doubt this number at all.  But I suspect that a number far far far less than that are ever regular users of CT.  To be sure, some log in CT every day.  Some two or three tiems a week.  But that number is very small.  Normally there are about 600 users on line at any given time, other than for special events like when they had that fake trial a while back when the plaza got fake blowed up real good with a real good fake bomb.  Even if that number turns over every hour, that is, 600 new users on line every hour, that means that a mere 14400 people log into CT on any given day.  That means a mere 1.9% of the "registered citizens" log into CT on any given day.  I really would like to see the real statistics of usage from the CT owners and operators.  I wouldhope that they wouldn't inflate the numbers, but then they would have to get advertisers and other partners to pay for the site.  It's like any ratings game.  The more numbers you say are viewing your tv show, radio show, or in this case, web site, the more you can charge people for advertising, partnerships, etc.

Now it would be nice to think that the real usage of CT is similar to the response rates I get from my visiting houses, which is currently running around 25%  That would mean that there are roughly 200000 regular CT users.  Please no email about faulty math here.  I just don't want to take the time to run the numbers through a calculator.   Gimme a break and the benefit of the doubt. I'm trying to make a point here.  Now, where was I?  Oh, yeah, 200000 users.  Yeah, right, and pigs fly, too. I think that no more than 2000 different individuals log into CT on any given day of the week.

Speaking of logging in, when was the last time Hawk logged in, eh?  When I first captured his house a few weeks ago, he had 26068 experience points.  Today he has 26099 on his house page.  Now I know, some people are going to say, see? He does exist.  Oh sure, anybody with his name and password could log in.  why do you think they have that warning about not giving your password out to anybody?  They just want to throw up a smokescreen to cover their tracks.

I am still confused about the reward ssytems for experience points.  All of the jobs listed on the CT explanation page give experience points in increments of 5, (5, 10, 15, 20, etc.) with the exception of neighborhood deputies which is listed at 18.  I suspect that that was merely a typo, but it would explain how people end up with various numbers in their experience points.  I don't think, though that we have that many ND's in CT, any nearly everybody should be an increment of 5 in experience, shouldn't they.

In fairness, the explanation page does say that the listing of jobs is incomplete.  Maybe there are others that we don't know of, but how many friggin jobs are there and who has them?

It still doesn't explain, however, why I end up getting 26 experience points when I log on every day.  Or how Hawk got 31 points since the last time I checked.

August 24

It just occurred to me that many of any readers here don't really know where I've been in CT so far.  Well, the ones I've visited so far know I've been there, but there is no real way to know if they know unless they actually respond and get that response rate up to a more respectable figure.  Right now it's at a .249 rate.  Heck, that kind of batting average in the majors will get you a couple of years IF you have a good glove, but it's no kind of batting average to brag about.  Heck, some players weigh more than that.

Another idea that comes to mind is that I will no longer call it responses.  Let's call it the CT batting average, which right now is pretty bad.

REturning to my earlier thought, so that people might know whether I have visited their neck of the woods, I will be uploading a small spread sheet of the colonies, neighborhoods and blocks I've been through.  I have spent the most time in Inner Realms, not because of any special affinity for it, bur rather because that is the one I reside in with my fake home.  I have thus far not been to any homes in the Games colony or the Teen colony.  No special reason for that avoidance, although I might have reason to avoid the teen colony.  I heard that zits are catching.  Where was I?  Oh, yeah. Spreadsheet.  The spread sheet will be accessible from he start page of this site and the visits page.  It will be in Excel format.  You don't have excel format?  Tough.  That's what I use for now and I am too damn lazy to try to learn something else or convert it to a file just so you can read it. Okay, so I made that up.  I converted it to a web page for you spreadhseet impaired people.  You can access it here.

Just saw an item that I'd like to find for sale, I guess.  Not the first time in my visits, just the first time I mention it.  Don Quixote by Helpman.  Any body has one and wants to sell it or give it to me, contact me.

I forgot to mention it in previous journals but someone has more experience than our illustrious founder.  Her name is Kristen, but she goes by the name Jack in CT.  She resides in the same place as the nonexistant Hawk does and has the same immigration date.
A screen shot or image was deleted here

How come she isn't listed as a co-founder then?  Could it be that Kristen is really Hawk with one of those alter ego identities that many CT residents have.  Or is Hawk really Jack/Kristen?  is somebody not telling us something?  Is Hawk real and just guilty of male chauvenistic attitudes by not acknowledging Kristen's same immigration date?  Is Blaxxun guilty of sexual discrimination (you know how those Germans want to keep their women in their place).  I ain't even gonna go into any innuendos about this double identity stuff in this case.

August 26

Almost with a  visit to every colony so far.  No, not every neighborhood or block or house yet.  What's taking so long, you ask?  Gimme a break!  Like I'm supposed to be done already?

Got a recovered item back in my possession...the planet Jupiter, although it really doesn't look much like that big planet with the huge red spot, but what the heck.  One less thing to look for.  Thanks for the object goes to BigMac25, who lives in the Caribbean somewhere and left it for me at his house.  Inexplicably Mac is a Detroit Tiger fan.  Well, at least they've been to the World Series far more in the last 55 years than my Cubs.  Damn Billy Goat Tavern Curse.

For those of you who don't know about the curse on the Cubs....

1945, the year we dropped the bomb on Japan, end of the Big War, the war to end all wars (yeah, right, unless you just say all the fighting that goes on are just minor skirmishes).  The Cubs win the pennant and face the Tigers in the World Series.  Sam Sianis owned the Billy Goat Tavern on lower Wacker Drive in Chicago.  Some of you have already seen this place and don't even know it.  You may remember an old Saturday Night Live routine with John Belushi and Bill Murray.  It was set in a restaurant with obviously Greek people behind the counter.  Whoever came in would order something and either Belushi or Murray would listen patiently to their order, and no matter what the customer ordered, they shouted out, "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger!"  Well, that was the Billy Goat.  Sam Sianis owned and operated the place until his death.  As far as I know, it's still in the family.  Back in 1945, Sam got tickets to the Series and went to the game.  Unfortunately, he brought along the mascot for the tavern, a billy goat.  Cubs management wouldn't let the goat in the ball park and Sam got angry, and put a curse on the team.  History gets murky on exactly what the curse is because we don't know for sure if Sam said, "May you never win a World Series" or "May you never get to the World Series again."  Regardless the rest of Cub ineptitude over the years has been evident with few exceptions.  In 1984, when the Cubs won the NL East, and again in 1989 when they won the division again, they had Sam's son try to remove the curse, and even had a billy goat walk around the park this time.  It hasn't worked.  Some suspect that the reason the cruse removal didn't take is that Sam's son didn't use a direct descendant of the original goat.

The curse has seeped its way into affecting other Cubs.  Washington Post columnist, George Will, was the first to notice this and dubbed it the ex-Cub factor.  Briefly stated, of the teams facing each other in a World Series, if one team has any ex-Cubs, that team will lose to the team that has no ex-Cubs.  This has spawned corollaries to the ex-Cub factor.  For example, if both teams have ex-Cubs on it, the team with the fewer number of ex-Cubs wins due to more ex-Cubness) If both teams have the same number of ex-Cubs, the team with the player who was most recently a Cub will lose, due to the ex-Cub factor being more fresh.  Now you may find this all silly, but bear in mind that this has been true in about 80-90% of all World Series since divisional play began in 1969.  If you have reason to doubt the ex-Cub factor, keep this in mind.  Some of you may remember the Kirk Gibson homer for the Dodgers when they beat the Oakland A's.  Here was a guy could barely swing the bat, had a bad knee, could barely stand.  Ninth inning, two outs, two strikes on him, and boom! two run homer.  Off Dennis Eckersley who was the premier reliever of the day.  Oh, yeah.  Dennis Eckersley.  Ex-Cub.  Remember when every body thought Boston was going to finally beat the curse of the Bambino and win their first World Series.  They were on the way against the Mets, had two outs, again in the ninth inning, and Mookie Wilson hits a routine ground ball to first that should have ended the game.  Instead, Bill Buckner lets the ball go through his legs into right field, the tying run scores, and the Mets go on to win the Series.  Oh yeah, Bill Buckner.  Another ex-Cub.  Then there was the year that everybody thought the A's would handily defeat the Cincinnati Reds.  Only they forgot that the Reds didn't have any ex-Cubs and the A's had three or four.  Reds took the series in four straight.

One more colony to go before I can say I have been in every one, and it's the one I dread going to.  Teens.  I know an old fart like me ain't gonna find much there that I can relate to.

Visited the Chess block in the Board games neighborhood of Games.  I really don't understand how or why people choose where they build their fake houses.  Chess block is no different.  One owuld thinkthat somewhere in the back of residents' minds there would at least be some passing interest or connection that they have to the theme of the block.  You know, aliens hanging out in Area 51, or big red-haired guys named Leif hanging out in the Viking block.  But noooooo! there doens't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this, no method to people's madness.  What I found really strange is that in 25 houses in the Chess block, only one resident had a Chess board of any kind in his or her house.  Guees that sorta puts a dampe of my finding that Chessmaster 3000 object I lost....

August 28

After receiving an email inviting me for a visit, I trudged over the Virtual Worlds, Silicon Valley, Design Studio.  Yes, people do trudge in CT rather than beam hop skip or jump.  I am one of those who trudge around.  All this beaming and using jump gates are not easy on my old molecular structure any more.  In fact, the wife claims, I have a lot wrong with my molecular structure.  I was glad I trudged over.  I found another one of those people who came to CT in 1999 and has just a little over 100 experience points.  Is some block or neighborhood person nto chekcing this stuff, and how come I had the only conscientious person in CT who deleted my house earlier this year?  What does a person have to do around her to get in the know.  And What does a person have to do around here to meet the fictitious Hawk.  Now I'll probably get some memo or something, maybe from that character Jack who is really a Kristen in disguise.

Anotehr interesting thing that I had never run across before was the same person having a home in the same place.  with the same name for both the person and the home.  Here is the person's first place:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

Here is Sienna's other place, same colony, neighborhood and block

A screen shot or image was deleted here

When I asked Sienna how she did that, she said, "It's messed up."  I have no reason to doubt her, unless somebody else can come up with an explanation.  I suspect it does prove a problem, since the system sends you to one sight when you use the CT?home/*.* method.  In one site, the inbox doesn't work, but the objects do.  In the other site, the inbox works but not the objects.

I would have thought this was a fluke, just like the 1999 immigrant not being deleted, but I ran across it today when a citizen named sirdaddypump had two residences in a different, block/neighborhood/colony.  Two mistakes signifies a trend somewhere.  what kind of trend it is, I can only hazard a guess, namely that somebody isn't aware of such problems.  I hope it is that because if they are aware of such problems they either don't care to fix it, don't know how to fix it, or are powerless to fix it.  That to me is an inner story about CT and the city council, mayor, etc.  Do they have access to the server to solve such problems, do they have the knowledge and wherewithal to solve such problems?  My suspicion is that they do not.  AGain, as I have said other times.  The people with such powers are the owners and operators of CT and no one else.  While being elected to "high office" may be a great boost to an ego over winning what in essence is nothing more than a popularity contest, it really means something.  Sort of like being elected class president in school.  The Principal and teachers still had the real power.

August 30

Another answer to the mysterious two house problem that I have encountered cam in today's inbox:

From: SirDaddyPump
Subject: visiting
 i honestly have no clue how i got 2 houses lol my house just suddenly split one day when i
 moved myhouse and low and behold i had 1 house with some of my items in it and another with
 rest of my items pretty freaky eh ?

It also lends credence to problems with CT servers and the inability or unwillingness to fix those problems.  when I tried to respond to SirDaddyPump (and thank God he didn't use pImp instead, although that might give him an idea) all I could get was a blank inbox screen.  So, unless he reads this, he will never know I did try to write him back.  If a person has this happens to him or her, what recourse do they have?  We all know the response from tech support on the feedback board in CT is pretty much nonexistent.  Reporting problems to the people who are supposed to be fixing things usually falls on deaf ears it seems, doesn't it?  So what is the solution to this and other problems that arise?  Again, the answer is in getting the powers that be, the real mucky mucks behind CT to basically get off their duffs and do something.  It is becoming more obvious to me that the so-called mayor, her deputy, and the city council won't do anything, or can't, despite all their campaign promise.  You can talk all you want about wanting to make the place a better place, but if the technology behind it messes up, that's all it is, just talk.

I finally got around visiting the Teens hood.  No doubt the young whippersnappers are surprised by that too. Doing so, by the way, also allows me to say that I have visited homes in each colony in CT.

While in Teens, I came across what I see as potential tragedy.  We constantly hear about weirdos and perverts on the Interent enticing children.  While I admire the resourcefulness of youth, sometimes I fear they think they'r friggin' immortal.  Listen kids, you aren't.  For some reason or other, I just don't think it's very smart for a young girl of 17 to be posting her picture and inviting young men to contact her.  Of course, this may be a case of one of those perverts trying to entice somebody, but I really didn't think so.  Here's a young girl, and that's what she is, a girl, a minor, not a young woman, but a teenager, with probably just as many hormones runnign around in her body as the average teen boy, posting her coming hither stare.  All I know is that I would surely caution my own daughter about doing something stupid.

September 3
The question is not how to fix the problems people are having in CT, but rather why CT doesn't really solve the problems.  Today I log on with Netscape in 2d and get the infamous::
 
Error 140 time out cyber.cybertown.com on port 2000.

The dang thing runs over and over again.  When will the dang ref call time back in?
So I try IE, not because I want to, but what the heck.  So it logs in to 2d just fine.  No problem except that when I want to do my inbox or feed back or any other popup screen the dang thing asks me to login again.  What a bother.  The standard response is that it's server problems.  Why isn't the standard solution should be fix the dang servers.
File a problem report?  When was the last time anybody filed a problem report and got a response of any kind?  Is the new Mayor going to really address the tech support problems, or rather, the lack of tech support?
CT News mentioned that the new mayor is givign up the position of Club overseer or whatever the heck her title was.  It will be taken over by Jolinth.  I trust that the new person will do her best.  I hope so.  In an earlier journal entry I mentioned that I was gone from CT for a little while.  when I came back, my house had been deleted.  When I cam back, some of clubs I had started were inaccessible in 3D. I wrote to the "File a problem report" people, but they NEVER responded.
So what gives?
Ironically, after I wrote the above, I checked the "feedback" and lo and behold there was this message:
Date: Mon, Sep 3 rd, 2001. 6:16:14 pm.
From: Fluimucil
Subject: Bye, dear inbox :(
 I have a great problem... I don't have inbox!!!!! When I open it, at the new window appears the
 Cybertown main page. And when visitors try to send me an message to my inbox they can read:
 "Sorry (nickname) The inbox you wanted to access does not exist anymore. Maybe its owner
 has deleted it." What can I do???? I'm NL and I need it a lot. I live in Cyberhood/Quixote
 Impulse/Buenos vecinos/La farmacia. And, other thing, I moved to a new FREE and now I have
 to homes!!! There 2 "La Farmacia [NL]" (my home)
 Thanx
 Fluimucil

How much you wanta bet that the problem doesn't get fixed right away if at all?

September 4

I posted a problem in the tech support message board.  I was having a problem, outlined in yesterday's entry.  A hurried response suggested that I was using the wrong version of Netscape, and that versions later than 4.7 don't seem to work as well.  At least that was the implication.  Well, I use 4.7 and it wasn't working. If it had been working, I would not have complained about the problem.  The response, I think, is indicative, of a pervasive problem in CT, namely that no one wants to take responsibility for addressing and fixing problems incurred and reported by CT users.  Instead the standard, incessant reply is always to suggest something wrong that the user has done or blame it on some server problem.  Gimme a break already.  When CT was down in May of this year, it was a server problem.  It didn't work, you couldn't log on, etc.  These things are not server problems.  Rather they reflect the inability or unwillingness of people on that end to deal with server problems and tweak around the system to solve these problems.

Notes from around CT and my travels:

Gamma Pod 2 in Morning Star has to be one of the most sparsely popluated areas in all of CT.  I ran across several blocks that had only two houses.  One had only one house and one had a whole slue of free spaces and absolutely NO houses, residents.  Heck they didn't even have any mice running around.  this is NOT an advertisement for people to move there, but if you were looking for a place and could find any spots, well there are openings.

Another things I've found is a number of people with 2d spots only.  I've mentioned this before, but now I am finding these people actually have objects in there spots in CT. Now that doesn't make any sense.  I mean, the objects are 3D, they're supposed to decorate your house, yet nobody can see them in 3D.  So what's the point?  More stockpiling by the various identities of people?

September 7

Today I received a reply from a person associated with CVN.  jdb-educator asked if I would be interested in writing a column about this project for the CVN.  I declined.  Not because I didn't want to, but because this is much more fun, and freer than worrying about the CT censors perhaps not liking what I have to say.  If you were an editor of some magazine or newspaper would you want something critical of your publishing interests in something you publish yourself.  One thing many people don't understand in the media of today is that bias does indeed occur, even in the virtual reality of CT.  Does anyone seriously think that the CT news or the CVN would purposely publish electronically anything that presented CT in a negative light?  I did give permission to jdb that if CVN wanted to write something up on it's own, they can do so.  I suspect that it would be one of those glowing flowery fell good about CT pieces.  That's okay, but that ain't me for sure.

Hell, it's Friday and I still dress up because I don't believe in a casual day.  Whoever decided on casual day anyway?  All it amounts to is an excuse for people to dress like bums instead of taking the time to dress professionally for whatever job they do.  If they want to dress like they work on the farm or in a factory, then that's where they should be working, not in some place where they deal with the public on a professional level.  If I go to the bank, I want the person to look like a teller.  If I go to the doctor, I want the nurse behind the counter to look like a nurse.  I don't want somebody wating on me if they look like they just got off the turnip truck on the migrant worker shift.

September 8

I suspect that the many houses that I have run across with no objects show something about the people who set up these places.  Perhaps, particularly those who do not allow a chat in their spot in CT, simply don't want to be bothered with half the riff raff that roam about this place.  Perhaps the people with no objects do want to bother with buying and selling objects, then trying to decide where to put them in their home.  Redecorating in the real world is hard enough and now they expect us to do it in the fake world, too?   Perhaps they have more important things to do rather than spend time with what amounts to nothing more than an exercise in diddling away time.  Maybe they have just come to the conclusion that the vast majority of things that go on in and around CT don't really amount to much at all.  It means absolutely nothing, nada, zilch, other than play time for those fortunate enough to be able to own a computer.

There may be strong pockets in CT where people discuss the important issues of life itself, but it certainly isn't in any general forum that I have seen.  It certainly isn't in any of the message boards for any of the colonies or any of the other hot spots around the place.  Perhaps it is happening in the clubs area, but I doubt that, too.  Instead people get lost in this fake play time of sexual innuendo, insult, and snobbery.  They have fake marriages, fake babies, fake parties.  I suppose that this is fine, but this cyber connection that people are supposedly making is no substitute for the real thing.  Going on dates, to movies, to dinner, just holding hands and really getting to know each other is so much more fun, and real, than walking down a fake aisle with someone you have never even met face to face and probably never will.  Certainly making real babies is a helluva lot more fun and satisfying, and a lot more work.  Hell, in CT, you could buy a baby and if it misbehaves, well, just hit the destroy button in 3D and poof, problem over.  What the hell kinda of message is that sending, and isn't it ironic that the purported goal of CT is to promote love and understanding?  Where the hell would this world be if parents really could just throw their kids out when they get tired of them?

September 9

A couple of people have written, asking that I visit their homes and neighborhoods.  I will eventually.  The surest way to get me to come running to your place, block, etc. is to follow the example of hospitality set for by the ancient Greeks and long lost Danes.  Simply put, they offered gifts to the travelers, warriors, and heroes of their day.  A person would come to a home, and the king, or lord of the manor, would put them up for the night, give them food and shelter, and sometimes their daughters, to show their hospitality.  The visitor understood that he should not overstay his welcome.  If he had a story to tell or deed to perform, he would do so and be on his way.  The homeowner would bid farewell to the visitor with gifts of great value.

I travel at my own pace, where the whim carries me.  I stay a while and am soon on my way.  Sometimes I am surprised by what I find and tarry a bit longer than usual.  It might be an object that intrigues me, or the person's name, or his or her 3D home.  I don't expect anything in return save the fame and glory I get from my own adventures.  BUT, if you have a gift, and wish me to visit you home,  well the surest way to turn my whim in your direction is to tell me that.

Another suggestion that came today was that I start personally rating houses, etc.  I don't want to do that.  There's an old saying about "a man's home is his castle."  The same holds true for a woman's home, I suppose, and I am not one to be critical of a person's decorative abilities or lack thereof.  Sure there are things I don't like and think could be done better, but that is what these notes are for.  I ain't gonna foster the CT myth of everything being fine and dandy when I don't think it is.  I also ain't gonna piss off individual CT residents by saying their house sucks.  I refuse to play into the hands of the petty jealously that runs rampant in CT, and ranking one house over any other does just that.

What houses, generally do I like best?  Ones that load fast, that aren't overly bogged down witha  bazillion objects that nobody has enough time to look at.  Some people should remember that not everybody can afford a damn T1  line and a Petnium 4 computer to load up stuff fast and easy.  I also like 2d houses where the picture doesn't take up half the computer screen when it loads up, and inboxes without songs.  That's a personal preference, since unless I am listening to the radio over the internet, I seldom have the sound turned up on my computer, and those sound files take forever to load up sometimes.  Besides, when I use an inbox, I plan on writing something, not sing along to "Kumbaya."

The house preferences thing is really more along the lines of what I would like to see the new mayor really do to improve CT, none of which will be done because it would piss too many people off, namely because it would treat everyone more equitably.  And some people simply just WANT to reamin better than and better off than others, at least in their own small minds.

I am mulling over more about REAL CT reform and will put that up here soon.

September 9, later

Now I am stumped:  Take a good look at these two screen shots, both from inner realms/the unexplained/atlantis

A screen shot or image was deleted here (two)

It's the same darn resident, different immigration dates, different experience.  Now how the hell did this person do this?  Or are the powers that be going to tell us that this is simply another glitch?  Why the hell don't they fix the damn glitches?  Or don't they really care at all?

September 10

Here's another one of those crusty old time residents from WAAAAAY back in 1998, right aroudn the time Hawk joined.
A screen shot or image was deleted here

I don't know Zephod, and to tell the truth, he looks kinda scary to me.  Supposedly Hawk swore in the new CT mayor last Thursday at what amounted to, based on the CT News review, one of those "let's all feel good about CT" ceremonies.

Ever go to the supposed Hawk's house and click ont he link for his supposed home page?  Zephod's here is nonexistent.  What does that all mean?  Beats the hell outta me.

Just looking at the picture above, I notice that I have a lot of software that I don't really use loaded on the computer.  Next time I buy a new machine, I'm gonna tell them to take all that extra crap off of there.

September 19

I did not visit any homes last week.  Somehow or another it just didn't seem right.  Couldn't justify it no matter how hard I
tried.  Did receive some inbox messages from people.  Good to see that some people were carrying on with their lives in CT, but I wasn't one of them.

It was good to see that the vast majority of CT residents finally got around to discussing real life important issues rather than the
mundane, inane topics that normally inundate the chat rooms. It's sorta sad to see how quickly that really faded away, too.  Maybe it's good that people want to play around again, but somehow or another I wished they would go on more than merely saying how sad they were.  Maybe they're leaving it up to the 24 hour broadcast news stations to discuss the whys wherefores and what ifs.  But somehow, I wish the people in CT would find a way to do it as well.  Some good old fashioned arguing it out and thrashing it around does wonders to keep the brain working, unlike the normal pablum that gets thrown around it CT.

On about the only light note in the otherwise horrible week was an email and inbox from the formerly nonexistent Hawk.  I guess I have to publicly admit, at least, that someone using the Hawk moniker wrote me in response to a visit, and in response to another message regarding emails I had sent about a month ago.  We'll have to wait until the Eplex gala event to see if he
actually shows up.

Yesterday, September 11, 2001, will go down in history as one of the worst days in American history.

     To tell you the truth, I really don't give a rat's ass about being xenophobic here.  Let's face it.  This was an act of war, plain and simple.  Let's face it.  This was done by extremists who hate us and all that this nation stands for.  I feel no remorse in hating them now either.  Where I teach in Wisconsin, the school newspaper advisor asked me to write a column for the paper, expecting my usual wry sense of humor to come out.  I tried.  but I couldn't do it, not last week at all,  Instead I wrote this on homecoming.

I resumed travels in earnest this week, already upping my total to well over 2800.  I am hoping to reach 10,000 sometime before Christmas.

I finally ran into someone older than me, although I don't think she'd admit it:

A screen shot or image was deleted here

Maybe this Deed is younger than me.  Maybe she's only 28 with a lot of stress that has turned her prematurely gray.  But somehow or another, I think she's older, but not by much.  Somehow, too, I think this person, Deed, has done a lot of good ones over the years.

I don't think we'll ever have a final word on what happened last week.  Some look for images to ease the pain.  Many find solace in the music of the land.  I look to Shakespeare.  Henry V was the king of England who led his men in the battle of Agincourt.  The British had been marching through rain and mud for weeks.  They were hungry and tired.  The French were fresh, well fed and outnumbered the British 6-1.  Some accounts have the odds even higher, nearly 10-1.  The British won the battle.  Shakespeare tells of Henry's speech to his troops before the battle, which people refer to as the Feast of St' Crispin's Day speech.  He rallied the troops, and they won handily.  The British lost 23 men.  The French lost 10000.  It is a fine speech, but today, I think the most poignant part of the play comes shortly after the battle.  Some where near the end of the battle, the French had broken the "rules of engagement" of the time.  In those middle ages wars, it was against all human dignity to attack someone not involved in the actual battle, namely the young boys who took care of provisions and the baggage behind the lines.  The French attacked these boys, and slaughtered them.  When Henry came to see this devastation he said:
 

  I was not angry since I came ...
  Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald;
  Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill:
  If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
  Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
  If they'll do neither, we will come to them,
  And make them skirr away, as swift as stones
  Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
  Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
  And not a man of them that we shall take
  Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so
                        --Act 4, scene 7

September 29, 2001

Okay, I know.  I haven't written of my travels for a couple of weeks.  Blame it on the poor economy.  Blame it on the Nimda virus.  Blame it on terrorists.  I haven't written.  So sue me.

It's happened a couple of times.  I visit a house.  Get a response.  Visit another house in another colony or neighborhood and get another response from a person I visited before.  I wish people would stop moving around so much.  I mean pick a place and stay there.  Decorate your house and be done with it.  There oughta be some rule against that.  Actually the easiest way to stop people moving around so much would be simply for Blaxxun or whoever the heck runs the show around here to fix the damn glitches that allows people to have more than 32 objects when they move.  Either that or up the number of items allowed in a house.

We all know about people coming into CT with alter identities.  Now I find out that CT itself compounds this with giving people alter identities.  Lady_Raven for example has an identity that CT gave her when she became The Boss in the Flea Market.  It's FM_MadMoney.  Now I call her the Boss.  She's a fine person as far as I know her.  Able to take a joke.  Able to deal with snerts effectively, and runs the Flea in a positive way.  But why the two identities?  I don't think even she knows what the CT people were thinking.  Well, maybe she does.

One of the people I talk to in CT on a regular basis is getting married in CT.  The wedding is supposed to be next week.  To be honest, I think it's kinda hokey, but what the heck.  Some people REALLY get into this fake life stuff.  What worries me is that some people think that CT life is the end all and be all to all their problems in real life.  It ain't.

I am still torn about the act of war committed against the United States on September 11.  My reaction of anger mirrors that of Henry V.  Still I see those grubby long haired college radicals marching in Washington over the weekend, and I remember, hey, I was a grubby long haired college radical year as ago, too. Dupak Choprah or whatever the hell his name is had an ad in the New York Times.  He said something about and eye for an eye leads to a lot of blind people.  Some coworkers of mine were quoting him and saying how true this was.  Well, yeah.  But dammit anyway, it was Gandhi who said it.  Dupak is a pacifist wannabe who can't come up with an original thought if his life depended on it.

October 1

Wow, I found somebody to sell a Sword of lightning and an ancient weapons to me.  who knows maybe I recover those missing items yet.  Thanks Wovencroft.  Thanks to Wolf and Borg Queen for finding a large number of items, too!  Go to the Earnings page to find out what the heck I am talking about.

I have been running into a lot of newbies lately.  You know those people who sign up, get fifty points and then forget where the heck their house is, or where CT is?  Sheesh!  the little rug rats are running around all over the place.  Thank God I don't spend that much time in CT's flea market anymore.  I'd be overrun.

How does the new mayor really expect to make any improvements to CT when more and more people are entering.  Like cities in real life, the infrastructure is probably going kaflooey with no real work being done to fix things others than a Band-Aid and a load of spit, with maybe some duct tape thrown around for good measure.

I ran into a somewhat overly zealous security officer the other night.  He was warning people left and right for some pretty tame language.  If anything causes the eventual demise of CT it will be this over sensitivity to language and manners.  Gimme a break for crimminy sakes.  I mean, people say off color things, insult others, etc. every day.  Deal with it!  We got bigger problems in the world than worrying about what some newbie teenybopper is going to overhear in CT.  Isn't that why there's a teen colony after all?  Families squabble every day, and trying to protect the young mind from it isn't going to solve any real problems anyway.  You want Gandhi like acceptance of everybody in CT, you ought to read up on some of the private life of the man or move to India.  Maybe after a few weeks of eating little and dirty water, you'll understand where the real problems in. the world are.  If you think you can create a perfect virtual society, you're living in a fantasy world, and ignoring the real one.  Sell your computer, blow up your tv, and turn off the music.  Go live in a commune and raise peaches or something, but leave me the heck alone and leave the normal people in CT alone, too.

If the mayor and the PC security officers want to solve real problems around CT, they can change the rules to make things more equitable for buying and selling objects, for the number of objects in a home, etc. etc. etc.  The rest is politically correct clap trap.

How come some people's mailboxes don't work?  I suspect it's because they mess aroudn with the html code for the window and delete something they shouldn't.  Look at this place:

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Looks nice, but if you notice, there is no editing box for entering and text for a message.  Ironically, the point of this person' inbox seems to be to give lessons in html.  If the person did this to his or her own inbox, would you want to take lessons from him?

October 6

Somebody replied saying that I am somewhat of a celebrity in CT.  Yeah, right.  I am not a celebrity or a role model or anything else in CT.  I am a role model to my children and to the students I teach.  I try to be a good one, don't always succeed, but I do try.  When I pray, I ask my God to help me become a better parent, spouse, and teacher.  Not always in that order, but always the same three.  That is what I care about most in my life.  The rest is just extra.  So when somebody says I am a celebrity, I say "you want to pay me for my autograph?"

Because I try to pay a higher premium on my own life, perhaps that is why I am so cynical about CT and the way things are run.  For all the hype and hubris about how things are and what is happening in CT, perhaps I realize that the people behind CT, be it Hawk, Jack, or whoever is elected mayor, was mayor, on the city council, or whatever other claptrap is behind things, they all have real lives that are vastly more important than anything that goes on in CT.  If they don't see that, well, that is a pretty sad state of affairs.

I believe that you meet people in real life, and get to know them in real life.  You raise children in real life, earn money in real life, eat, sleep, and breathe in real life.  CT is not real.  It ain't ever gonna be.  Virtual reality is just that, virtual.  It ain't even close to the real thing.

If I talk to somebody in CT, I want to know who they are, their real names, their real lives.  Their real person, not the persona they put up.  Will I have fun with those fake personalities?  Sure.  But I want to know what they fell, what they think, what they believe.  The only time that has happened in anyway in CT was after the September 11 attack on the U.S.  People were scared, saddened, outraged, loving, peaceful, warlike.  In short they were real,man, REAL.  Maybe there should be a place in CT where people can exchange ideas, not about what CT life is like, not where they can rip on somebody, or complain about a perceived slight, or how they got ripped off in the flea, or complain about an object being reject.  Rather a free and open exchange of people's beliefs, philosophies, ideal, hopes, dreams, desires, whatever about REAL life.  And I do mean A FREE exchange.  Not some watered down wimpy assed, let's protect the children, this is a family place area like the rest of CT.

If the founders of CT truly want to mimic the real world, then let the damn real world with all its wart into CT and stop trying to make it an Internet Disneyworld.

Two of the people I know are supposed to be getting "married" in CT.  That's nice, but again, what's the point?  What are the consequences of a virtual marriage when there is a real marriage out there to work on, to strive for?  Somebody suggested to me that perhaps I am jealous that these two ladies have decided to "marry" somebody else.  Bullshit.  I got moves that nobody ain't ever seen before.  That ain't a bald spot on my real head, it's a solar panel for a sex machine.  No, I don't get personally involved with another female in CT because I AM married already.  And virtual or otherwise, I am faithful to the woman I love and have loved for the past 29 years.  Nothing is going to change that, and I ain't gonna do anything that will change that.  I'm sorry. If somebody wants to get married in CT, fine, but understand the consequences of your actions in real life.  It IS a slap in the face to a spouse and family.

Now having said all that, do I worry that the people alluded to above will be mad at me?  No.  If they don't accept a heartfelt criticism, then so be it.  True friendship allows for disagreement among friends.  True friendship doesn't allow anything to stand in the way.

October 9

A CT resident responded and said that he knows that all I am doing is going to people's house and leaving the same message.  Well, DUH! What the hell does he expect me to do?  Not leave a message to let people know I was there?  Sheesh! Some people are never satisfied at all, ever.  So I wrote this person back, and tried to briefly explain what I do when I get to a house.  I go in 2d.  Occasionally I switch in the same person's house to 3d, but mainly I stick in 2d.  It is a bit faster on my old computer, and I get to find out more about the person I am visiting, like for instance their name in CT, which isn't readily available when I come to a home in 3d.  I suppose I could hit the information button, but that is the same infor in 2d and in 3d.  Why should I spend more time than I have to in a person't house, especially if they are not there to begin with which is the case in nearly every instance of a visit.  Am I suppose to wait around in a home until sombeody shows up for chrissakes?  If I did that, hell, I'd never get anywhere.  I mean it would be like waiting aroudn for Hawk to show up.

So to that person who thinks I'm not visiting a place, well, what the hell is your definition.  I check out a person's house, see if there's objects, and if so, what objects.  I find out what I can about the person, and believe be there is a lot to find out, and I am off to the next house.  Yes, I leave basically the same inbox message, so what?  I came to a house, I checked around it, see what I liked and didn't like, and moved on.  To me that's a visit.  Ben Franklin use to say that visitors are like fish...they both begin to smell after three days, and I ain't about to start stinking up the place, bub.

I learn a lot from the 2d information of any resident

Like this Goku:

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For somebody who joined up in 1998, Goku sure doesn't have a helluva lot of experience points.  I mean look at that co founder Jack.  He joined up in 1998 and has over 30000 experience points.  You tell me who hangs around and logins in on a regular basis?  That's the type of information one can glean easily from a visit.  One could also glean that the block deputy here doesn't check up on a regular basis to see how often people login.  If the BD or BL did, then Goku, home would have been deleted long ago, no?  Or may Goku logs in on regular basis, but regular to him means once a month or so?

We can also tell from a person's home just how interested he or she is in participating in the rigors of CT life, what they think of themselves, others, and what they hope to accomplish.  Take a resident who has a mere 50 experience points, but over 100 objects in his or her house.  Wanta be they have another identity or two or three or more in CT?  Or a 50 exp point person who joined CT over a month ago, but hasn't been back since.  What about a person who has 8000 exp points bu no objects?  First what the heck do they have a 3d house for anyway, and what the hell are they doing in CT most of the time.  It sure ain't shopping anywhere.

I love the people who put their job titles by their house names.  I know everybody starts somewhere, but is it essential to let everyone know you're a CO or CA?  BL or BD yes, or ND or NL.  But what do those title mean anyway?  ARe they essential to the running of CT in the first place?  If there were no such titles, would people still settle on one spot, play around in others, or what?

I'm rambling on here, when all I really meant to say to this person who thinks I just leave the same mesage and move on, is bullshit.  I visit, make assumptions, write about it, comment on it, make fun of it, then, and only then to I move on!

October 12

I still can't figure out why some people have objects in their homes and others don't.  It defies logic.  I've run across many people who have a 3d home, even to go so far as have one of those fancy hombuilder mansions and then theyask to rank the house.  But sheesh, there have no objects in them.  Now I suppose that is their choice, that its, they choose not to participate in the cutthroat competition to get obejcts when there is a drop, or follow the mall deputies around like lost dogs or something.  The probably come to CT, look around, chat with friends, and otherwise enjoy themselves immensely.  What is really illogical to me are those people who have objects but no 3d house.  I mean, it's like decaffeineted coffee and light beer, what the hell is the point?

The CT ambassodors are holding an official "Say Something Nice Campaign."  have they noticed that they haven't posted any of these supposedly nice things that people have said anywhere on the Embassy message board.  Is that becasue nobody has submitted? Or is it because to get to the posting site, where we can supposedly write all these nice warm fuzzy thoughts, at least from the CT News page link, all we get is a blankpage that doesn't load up.  Hint to those who wish to take part.  If you click on the link fromt he CT news site, the link is  javascript:open_window('http://server49.hypermart.net/guerre/ambassador/ssn.html')

Well, folks that don't work right.  I suggest you copy the link and paste in in your browser's address bar, then delete some thing to get to  http://server49.hypermart.net/guerre/ambassador/ssn.html.  That will get you to the page.

I went there and decided, not that I didn't have something nice to say, but that I didn't want to say anything nice.  I am just not the warm fuzzy kinda person this is designed to appeal to.  I like discord, disharmony, and rabble rousing whenever possible.  I like to see people's feelings, thought, emotions, desires, and whatever else is involved in being human laid bare for all to see.  Why this sudden pus to make everyone fell all good about things and people.  If CT is supposed to mimic real life, then let real life enter CT.  Stop worryign about offending people.  Be politcally incorrect.  Be damn proud of it, too.

October 13

shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits

Those are the severn dirty words that according to George Carlin's comedy routine, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, that you can't say on television.  Sicn ethat ruling in 1977, we have increasingly heard "piss" and "tits" climb into the lexicon of television shows thanks in part to shows such as NYPD Blue.  The others are pretty much still taboo in tv and radio land.

"Hell"  appears 54 times in the King James version of The Bible.

Clearly, many people view the seven dirty words as, well, uh, dirty, not to be said in polite company.  But right now because somebody names their house Hell Hole in the Isis Block of Deities in Inner Realms, they have received a warning to change the house name.  Sheesh! people, get a grip on reality.  And get a frickin life for crimminy sakes.  If you don't have anything better to do than gripe about what somebody named their house and are worried that some little kid is gonna start saying "hell" all the time, I think you are missing the point.  Worry about whether that kid is being abused by somebody or getting enough food or actually learning something in school.  If you so worried about a kid seeinghte word Hell inCT what the hell are you letting that kid roam around CT in the first place?

October 14

I was reading the CV News editorials about the Septemeber 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  All nice flowery, "why can't we all just get along?" stuff.  One of the writers suggested that somebody should read Ghandi.  I don't know why, but I suspect that the writer never really has.  Seems like a lot of people opposed to a military response to terror are running around quoting Ghandi.  Or referring to him as if he had the answer.  Ghandi was a great man who probably slept around on his wife, but was nonetheless resposnible for ending British rule in India through passive resistance, an extremely non violetn form of protest.  they key here is the fact of "resistance."  Ghandi took action and his followers took action.  Ghandi believe in what he called "satyagraha"  Loose translanted the term mean truth, and that an oppressor will eventaully se the truth of your argument.  Ghandi's method works, yes.  but it takes a long time, and a lot of commitment to the cause.  it doesn't mean marching in the streets with signs and shouting, "Peace Now!" It means taking soem form of action to make the cause known to the oppressor.  In India, it meant not buyign certain items that the British laws in India said you had to buy, like cloth and rice.  It meant people went without clothing.  It meant people went hungry.  It meant that peopel actually died, that the British actually shot people, that people were willing to take this for their cause.  It's mroe than going to the slammer for your cause.  It's dying for your cause because you believe in its truth.  Please don't start asking people to act more like Ghandi if you aren't willing to do so yourself, or worse, don't know what Ghandi actually did.

That said, I beleive that the methods of Ghandi can and do work.  They worked in the 60s for Martin Luther King.  They worked in Poland for Lech Walesa.  Ghandi beleived that he could have defeated even Hitler with satyagraha.  I honestly don't know if I would say they would work against the fanatic bin Laden and his group Al queda (or however the hell you spell it),  I like to beleive it could.  But it would take longer than it took to get rid of Britain.  And don't forget, Ghandi himself was a victim of violence and his movement pretty much died with him.