Memories That Became Legend

And it came to pass in those days, as it had come before and would come again...

That the Dark lay heavy on the land and weighed down the hearts of men, and so it is for those brave travellers who venture from comforting homes and into a world of both danger and glory that they should go in pursuit of the next great age. From the hidden reach of a world thought to exist in imagination alone, a wind picks up and moves in all directions. The wind is not the beginning, for there are no beginnings or endings with the spinning of the wheel. But it is a beginning.

Once again I come to you from an airport terminal, kickstarting the blogging adventures from the dusty roads (er, perhaps smoggy airways) of travel. Other than a mishap with a beverage and my sinuses once again giving some uncouth oaths (half the hearing in my right ear is currently amiss, while my head throbs), but that should clear in time. I have spoken to another fellow traveller (aside from my lovely companion of course) and it sounds like that he too faces adversities that will require all of his mettle to overcome. Be it as it may, let no obstacle stand between a man and his destination.  Instead, let it become the exaggerated details of a grand journey taken in spite of the hardships. 

I suppose I don’t have much else to add in that regard! I might have a car rental issue when I get to Atlanta (this will go live after we touch down, so hey, if you are reading this, we are already there!)  or it might be sorted out, so we’ll see. While awaiting further updates, why don’t you see what else is happening around Valucre. Just because a handful of us decided to take off for some awesome adventures doesn’t mean your RP experience has ended- nay! There are no endings- just an ending, with a new beginning. ;)

What's Happening Valucre?

Association of Assassins- The Association of Assassins- sounds like we’re turning everything into an incorporated entity these days. Don’t get this mixed up with the AA for people who fight to take their life back from the bottle, these folks aren’t looking for twelve step programs but to perhaps take 12 steps on a prospect’s throat. Tired of living in a world where the good always die young and the bad keep taking control? Join up here and see if you can make a difference.

Marked Men- Celin City, the city that refuses to bow down, but with great resolve rises from the ashes of each tragedy to have befallen it, it is only natural for such a place to attract the most inspirational thinkers and most ambitious criminal element. The unfortunate byproduct of an environment designed to help any succeed is an environment suited to help the criminal undercurrent flourish. Tired of the warring clans frequent spars spilling into the streets, the magistrate has decided to put an end to the rising swells in a sea of blood, by offering bounties to those who can stop them. But wait! If you do not care to be on the side of the law, you have opportunity to stand and fight against these upstarts, showing Celin City who truly controls things. The choiceis yours!

Renovatio's Artifacts Updated!- If you are out to collect them all like a pokemaster chases pokemon and an antiquer looks to acquire one of everything, then you have another place to start looking for things to add to your horde… er… collection. The list is updated and new items are to be found- click and see!

Bold Intentions- Egads, it looks like a quest thread for an Aeonblade has gone sour due to the disappearance of an active participant, and so we got a member in need of some help in chasing after it. If you want to join the search for legendary blades in the cold mountains (and do so with a fantastic role-player) you ought to think about acting… boldly. [Yes, I am going to hell].

Valucre Awards Debriefing: Still Going- Still got that poll up, but this will be the last week for it. I would like more turnout, but I am not going to keep pushing something that people aren't interested in nibbling. Who knows, maybe this one smells like used gym socks stuffed with onions and garlic. If so, no wonder why people are dodging me. 0_o Poll is here.

Valucre/Jordan Con- Heyo, I'd be remiss if I did not spell this out clearly: A bunch of Valucre peeps are meeting up for good times, shenanagins, and writing panels! This blog will be (attempting) to update nightly with pictures, news, and other stuff. If there is anything you want to know, make sure you let me know. ;)

Other Highlights?

VMumble- If you missed this, I will be forever convinced that you sleep under a rock. Top of the Valucre page, you have a link to Vmumble and a link to the explanatory thread that tells you all about it. Chat service for Valucre? Yep. Unmoderated and unofficial? Of course. Use it at your own risk.

Did You Know-  About the Open Threads? If not, you REALLY should. Open RP threads are open to anyone to join anytime- a great place for RP prospects. More info here.   Find more "Did You Know" content by following the tag. 

Closing Thoughts?

It’s a bit of a cheat, but I wrote the following for a reflection in my communications class (technology based communication).  I realized as I wrote it that it was a reflection that would fit the blog and tied into what is going on this week, so here it is. I’m cheating, but look at how busy I am- can you blame me?

Probably, but you shouldn’t. >____>

 

 

As I stated in the introduction post, my first encounter with computer mediated communication occurred years ago, when my parents first met (mother and stepfather) on the old ‘party-lines’ or BBS boards. They met through these lines and associated with their friends through these means, both friends they knew in person before the party-lines and friends met through them. As a child, I had a fair understanding of how they worked in principle- using a phone line, my parents (and my uncle too, actually) had conversations with people by typing messages with a computer instead of speaking on the phone. At the time, I thought it was an interesting thing, but I had no idea what it would lead into eventually. 

By that, I mean nothing sinister or ‘foreshadowing’- just that who could have predicted that the internet would become what it has back in the early 90’s? What the internet became forms the backdrop to a significant part of my life starting in my high school years, and so I guess I will just tell it as it was. I think it will serve as the best way to show just how I have used it in my life and will continue doing so. That say, forgive me for the length.

How I have used computer mediated communication in my life has changed a little as I have grown up. I started out with an email account I could use to talk with my grandfather (he lives in Boise) and to exchange emails with friends. In junior high, the internet was beginning to expand more, but I missed the early days of chat rooms, my use of internet access heavily limited and supervised. My first taste of internet communications (as I use them now) came in the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school, while I was taking a summer course at Chemeketa. I used the library for research, and while doing so, looked into things that interested me (the big leaping point here was dungeons and dragons).

I stumbled on to a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) forum and was taken with the idea behind a community who sat around and discussed D&D, created new material for the games, and even had a text-based game going. I kept the address in mind and remembered it later on when I used money from my first job to buy my own computer and pay for a share of the internet. I went back to that site, registered, and become an active member- this being March 2003. 

In October of 2003, a new member joined our site, telling us about these terrible bullies on another much larger site, one known as Ayenee.com, or ‘dot com’ to the members from those crowds. Ayenee got its name from the old Yahoo chat rooms, as people created a sort of running story and world in the “Arts and Entertainment” rooms, or A&E- thus, “Ayenee”. People here used to participate in chat based RPGS until yahoo shut down the majority of their rooms.

The young man who came to us clearly suffered from developmental disabilities, so we were especially irked by the fact that people were bullying him, so we went over to harass their members- what would be called ‘trolling’ in the current day. Only, my friends and I found another side to the story, one of frustration with dealing with a young man who was determined to run a section of the website that he was incapable of and was at first informed of this politely, but their patience with him wore thin. Hanging around a little while revealed a rather impressive group of people who put serious work into their role-plays, which was great to me- I loved RPing and writing.

Ayenee itself was an up and down experience, one that came with great writing but a great deal of trolls and just particularly rude people- but then, the member base was 15-20 years old for the most part- it makes a difference. The best thing to happen to me happened because of that site, so I cannot complain about the bad times. My friend from high school became a moderator and associated with another moderator, who lived in Eugene. In March of 2006, he convinced me to use one of our spring break days (college at the time) to go down and meet her. So we did, and we had a blast, though it was she and I who really hit it off.

We’ll be celebrating our eight year anniversary next month.

Years went by, but poor management too its toll and the site began to hemorrhage members, to such an extent that by 2010, only a few of us tried to keep it going. A friend of mine informed me she had moved her role-play to a site called Valucre, one I had heard of because my girlfriend was associated with them. I decided to finally migrate over after Ayenee began its death throes, and to this day, I am still there. The community is much smaller, but it is growing, growing every day, and I think a combination of experience, older member base (early to late twenties now) and better management has made this site become so much more stable.

The endearing friendships made led to a small meetup of members at a writing convention (Writing for Superstars), which led to another planned meeting. This one was starting out small, but the invitation was put out for others to join. After looking at my tax refund, I jumped at the chance, and soon we had fifteen members going out to meet each other instead of the originally planned few. We met in Roswell, Georgia (Just outside Atlanta) for a convention to celebrate the life and works of Robert Jordan (Fantastic writer) and to attend writing panels. We got to hang out, attend a ‘White Tower Ball’, put up a live webcam feed of our group hanging out together and allowed members who could not make it a chance to come hang with us- it went extraordinarily well.

It led to me meeting another gentleman who could not go, he coming to Washington for his job, so I drove up and we bonded over air hockey, steak, and chess. In the summer, another group of us went down to Big Bear Lake in southeast California and stayed in a cabin. We spent a week hiking, exploring, and just having a great time. These meetings have all been extraordinarily successful, and it has now come back around for another trip to Roswell, where new folks are joining some of us old folks.

Okay, long story put down, here is how this all works out:

I use this platform to communicate, in so many more ways than I ever could have dreamed of without it. I have met people from all over this country and from outside it (one member at Jordan Con last year came from Canada). I have had meaningful and deep friendships with people from both here in the United States, but Australia and Greece as well. With these people, I have had the ability not to just share occurrences and small talk with them. We talk about philosophy, ideas, culture, morality, expression, dreams and much more. We communicate not only about ourselves and about the world around us, but in our communicating, we share art. My passion for art (of all kinds) would take pages more to convey, so we’ll leave that for another time, perhaps.

Sure, computer mediated communication serves me in everyday life- chatting with my parents, sending emails at work, keeping up on the news, but it has also done much more for me. So, how do I use it personally?

I use it to reach out to a world far away from me, and then bring right to my doorstep.

-          Acies   

"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it."  ~Anais Nin