2017-04-23

Is there any inteligent life out there?

Short answer: yes. But as Douglas Adams knew, problem is not in the answer, but in the question.

First we don't have exact definition of life itself. Yeah, we have several ones, but all are based on life found on this planet. We have no idea about how life can function elsewhere in wast distances of space.

Life does't have to be carbon based at all. For example silicon molecules are more stable at high temperatures. So there could be whole civilization of silicoids deep under our feet and no one would know.

Many sci-fi authors spent significant amount of time thinking about life and how it can look and work. One of my favorites (pity I forgot who wrote it) was life based on electric signals in crystals on a lonely planet far from any star.

It would be hard to find out if the thing we would look at in some hypothetical future space lab is actually alive or not - until it starts to interact with humans one way or another. Good material for catastrophic movies.

Next problem is with inteligence. Short definition would be something around "perceive, learn and use knowledge to its advantage". In this interesting (but somewhat unrelated) article is written that inteligence grows at exponential rate (until there is some catastrophe that interrupts it).

But is all inteligent life evolving this fast? If so, there can be quite limited number of civilizations out there that are on similar level to us. Meeting someone that is far more advanced could be quite devastating (like when Incas meet Francisco Pizarro or cargo cults).

Life definitely won't be the same after we finally meet some other civilization. I often hear that "they" are already here but don't want to show themselves to us because "we are not ready". But will we ever be? Are we some kind of zoo for them? Or maybe more like penal colony for souls (variation of reincarnation, but true life is "between" lives down here)? Who knows for sure.

Last problem would be with definition of "there". Even space itself is big enough that it can contain nearly anything. But all this must follow some basic rules or laws of physic. Is there only one universe where inteligent life can live? Not at all. There is definitely more than one.

I'm quite sure that dreamscape is not in our physical space and that inteligent beings can live there. I met one.

2017-04-21

Story of his life - 5

Go to chapter 4 (if you missed it)

Today I woke up with my back aching from uneven ground on my resting place. I hope I will sleep on better and warmer place next time. I need to cross the mountain pass to Uda today. So lets go, no time to waste.

I picked up all my belongings, put small piece of dragon meat to my mouth to chew on and went outside. Sun was already up. Good that after those long 2 days in cave I still woke up in the morning.

There was less snow than I expected and when I hugged mountain side I could go quite fast. This canyon was quite windy so I couldn't see the end of it for most of my trek. Sun was already past its highest point on the sky when I finally saw the end of my journey up.

This won't be easy. Last stretch was quite steep and icy. Luckily those dragon gloves have quite good grip so I managed to get to the top without any major accidents. Once I slipped badly, but fortunately only fell a few meters before I grabbed protruding stone.

Finally I was there. From the top I went on for a bit and found nice stone outcropping with great view of my destination. I sit down for a small break and refreshment before venturing on.

Uda looked like a paradise compared to our valley. Lush green forests line river meandering through the valley. I saw smoke going up from cave entrance far to the left and from a few settlements near the river. Maybe there was a bit too much smoke.

Then I saw it. Dragon mating season was in full swing. Small shadows were flying high in the sky and you can even saw occasional flash of fire. There was even forest burning on one spot. Luckily no dragon was near and even the roar was very faint.

Only a few dragons were still up in the sky so it meant that it should end soon. I guess that before I reach the bottom of the valley it will be safe again.

This was nice place to rest. Protected from wind and still the evening sun can warm up my body aching from today's climb. I will rest here before venturing down the hill. Much better place than last night.

Again I dreamed about riding a dragon. Strangely this woman was somehow there too. Even when we were up in the sky. I was not able to see her but I felt her. This will be interesting. I never had so many vivid dreams before. My life was never so exciting!

Go to chapter 6

2017-04-19

How to heal yourself

Illness means your body tells you you are doing something wrong in your life. You need to find your poison and get rid of it. This way all afflictions can be healed. But one problem is to actually find the cause and completely different one is to be strong enough to stop doing that.

Current medicine usually only heals physical body with some chemical stuff. It is usually enough to help, but sometimes it causes more problems than its worth. Every person is individual and one-fits-for-all approach is not the best. 

But its easy to just go to doctor and then take your pills. Harder path is to try to improve your life. You need to experiment with starting or stopping doing some things and see if it is worse or better than before. Problem is that most changes have quite long term effect (like start practicing yoga - it is hard and painful for quite long time before it starts to help you - trying that now myslef). So is this particular change worse or I just didn't try long enough?

Try changing all habits of yours one at a time. Start with those you think are not good for your health. Usually good start is with your diet or drugs (coffee, alcohol, tobacco, ...). There are lot of people that can help you with that. But its usually easier said than done.

But that was not what I want to write about in this post.

Did you ever found out that you felt much better in the morning that the evening before? Did you ever wonder why ill people sleep much more than healthy ones? Yeah, sleeping (and good dreaming) can heal you.

Even scientists think that main reason people need sleep are cleaning and repairing of brain tissue, memory organisation and solidifying.

First of all make sure you have enough time to sleep. I cannot emphasize this one enough. Healing of body and mind requires time. Its definitely worth it.

Next make sure your dreaming should be as helpful as possible (see my post about fighting nightmares - fear in dreams can even hurt you more physically).

Finally try to concentrate your healing power before every sleep. Focus your attention on what is bad in your body.

With every inhale you suck positive energy in through some of your chakras (I use 3rd eye on forehead). You can help to strengthen this flow by imagining shouting power syllable RA (sounding like in some big temple). Maybe even better could be using 5th chakra and try to suck in energy of Sun itself.

With every exhale try to imagine this energy flowing through the bad spot washing away all obstacles and pains. Power syllable KHAN can help you there (sounding like strong wind in valley).

Breath slowly and deeply (4-6 heartbeats each) so you have enough time to imagine all this as vivid as possible - especially exhaling and sweeping your body of all bad stuff. Slowly go from meditation to sleep.

And as always - your faith will heal you. If you do not believe it can help, better try something else.

2017-04-17

Story of his life - 4

Go to chapter 3 (if you missed it)

Again this roaring woke me up. But this was different. It was not dragon roar. Ouch! Nest owner was on its way home. I climbed out just in time. Something big was going down the shaft. And I didn't want to know what it was. I nearly forget my bow there. I must be more careful next time.

My next journey was uneventful (and I liked that). I heard just a few dragon roars, but not loud and near. I tried to move as fast as possible not overstretching my stamina. Tunel was even steeper now and climbing with lantern and all my stuff became quite challenging. At least those dragon gloves have quite nice grip on stone.

I quickly went on through one of the easier parts when I suddenly heard very loud roar. One dragon have to be quite near. What to do now? Was it from front or behind? Hard to tell in those tunnels with all that echo.

I decided to press on and then I saw 2 small red lights in tunel just around nearest corner. I snuffer my lantern and hugged to nearest alcove nearly panicking. Don't move! Don't move and dragon won't find you! But its easier said than done. My whole body was shaking. I used all of the power of my mind to stop making any sound.

Then I heard claws on stone. Dragon was going this way. My entire body wanted to run. This was the scariest moment ever. I heard dragon breath nearby. He stopped and start snuffing air. I nearly panicked. But then it just went on. Elder was right. I will live another day!

I was hiding there for a while longer to be sure that dragon is away. Then I slowly and quietly went on. Damn that was close!

I went on for a few hours too afraid to stop so I just chew on some jerky and drank some water from flask and keep on going. Air starts to get colder so it seems I was nearing exit. I decided to sleep a bit inside cave. It will be worse outside in the mountain pass. But not yet, first I must find that exit.

Fortunately it was not far away. When I saw snow on ground I knew I was near. So I went a bit back to find some good spot to sleep. Nothing good there so I just lied on my backpack in one of the nearest side tunnels.

Tomorrow I need to go over the pass in one go because there will be probably no place to rest and too cold to rest anyway.

Go to chapter 5

2017-04-15

What can you find in this blog

When I started to write posts nearly 2 months ago, I haven't thought that I can keep writing them regularly for so long (26 posts now!). Actually I thought I will be out of ideas after first 5, maybe 10 posts, as most of my inspiration or thoughts I wanna save here were from long ago - most from my college days.

So after 3 posts 1 day apart I started to schedule new posts every other day always at 8 PM GMT. So when I have inspiration I write a few posts and have time to come up with a few more ideas worthy of posting.

So I started writing on my past lives I saw in meditations. That was stuff I was pondering about the most lately and I feared I forget all those little interesting details (it all happened about 20 years ago!).

Then I translated very short story I wrote on university and then thought hard about how it may continue. It gets better with every chapter (I hope). I never thought about it more that one or two chapters ahead so it can be kinda overwhelming. And even that 9 chapters "not so short story" were just like some short summary for next streak of posts - story from that vessels eyes. And we will see where it goes after I go through all I wrote about from her point of view.

Next post was about my favorite subject - dreams. You can get more of that by using label Dreams (works similar with all labels you can find on the end of every post).

After that I adopted another pattern - one post about some of my thoughts then one post from that story line and I hope to keep it that way for at least a month more (we will see about that inspiration thing).

Then I wrote about my not so favorite subject - reality and why I hate it. I try to keep hating anything at minimum here!

And after that I posted about one of my favorite game: Wurm Online. I spent quite a lot of my free time with it and if reading those posts get us some new faces there then mission accomplished!

And where we go from this post? I still have a few drafts (about 20) ready to fill content in (mostly just title and few points what it should be about) mostly about dreams and my other spiritual experiences, some about other virtual reality stuff, even about reality (sic!) and maybe I even touch my other favorite subject - aliens :)

So keep reading, commenting, following and I hope I will keep posting!

2017-04-13

Story of his life - 3

Go to chapter 2 (if you missed it)

So I left out little village. For first time in my life. It was very strange feeling. I might never see it again.

Path up went around still frozen patches of soil where we will sow our crops after this years dragon mating. It should start in a few days. Like every year when spring sun shine directly inside cave.

I need to hurry. I don't know how long it will take me to go through dragon cave and I definitely want to be out of there before dragons emerge from depths and chaos starts. But roaring was not yet heard so I might do it in time.

At least it was warmer in cave than outside. I will try to be quick. I was used to long walks with my father when he taught me how to hunt. And today I was glad for it.

Folks quite fear it and don't even go near it. We with Jumani at least went in around first corner because no one will see us there. I light up my lantern and went on with just a little fear what might happen there.

When I arrive to first crossroads I thought that right way is right, because it went up. Good I remembered our elders words and I start looking for that sign. It was on the the way to the left that went slightly down. Ok, lets go that way than.

When I was tired I went a bit off the main road and sit down in a little alcove for short nap and some dragon jerky. Long roar woke me up. Sounded like from far away, but I will need to hurry. Its hard to tell if its morning or night here in cave so I just went on.

Once I was unable to find that sign on crossroads I arrived on. So I went back one and found I went bad way. Good it was not long trip back.

Tunel went mainly up. Sometimes quite steep, but there were always enough supports to go up. I was starting to be really tired so I need to find some shelter quickly. And just around next corner I saw up on nearest ledge something that looked like big nest. What big bird can live so deep in cave? And then I saw little light going from high above. There seems to be shaft leading up.

I was never so deep in this cave. But that nest looked more comfortable than anything I saw here in this cave. I just climbed there and immediately fell asleep. I hope that this nests owner does not show up.

I dreamed again about that strange woman. She was always there no matter what I did but strangely translucent like some angel or so. This starts to look weird.

Go to chapter 4

2017-04-11

My big wurm grind

In my last post I wrote about my first premium months with my current toon (character in Wurm). Nearly from the beginning I started grinding hard to get some skills going.

My neighbor was so nice to me. Helped me a lot in my humble start. And I found a way to repay him. I started to tend all his wemp fields so he had more yield for making cordage favor for his priest. That's how I got my first skill to 90 - farming. Second was not far away and fast to get - carpentry.

Then it was worse - what would be good to grind? The big grind? So I choose weapon smithing (WS, one of the slowest skill to get). First only because I wanted to make rare huge axe. In first batch I made 3. I got pretty coin selling them (you get around 1 silver for normal huge axe at 90 quality but 7-8 for rare one). And I was hooked again.

In first month I got my WS to just over 50. Then I exchanged whole bunch of weapons directly from my forge to a friendly priest (that one I ordered whole set of skiller tools earlier) for some great casts on more tools. Every bit helps especially when WS grind is so slow. I also hurried to get meditation to 70 to get +25% skill gain bonus.

I grinded WS on huge axes, large mauls, sickles, carving knives and long swords - stuff that sells great when rare. I even made 2 supreme carvers! Sold one and exchanged second for a rare knarr (it was my big goal with first toon to make one, unsuccessful in like 30 tries or so).

It ate quite some iron so I needed to grind mining too (always good to have). Took me long 5 months of daily grind to get my WS to 90 (of course with frequent pauses when my prem time expired) - my 3rd 90 and mining was not long behind.

From my WS nearing 80 I started to get nice money selling 80ql weapons and mainly improving others weapons for cash (nearly all my skill 90-94 was from paid jobs!). Somewhere around that time I started my merchant page on forums to sell leftovers from my grind (now it has over 800 posts - I write there nearly all sales I made - kind of chronicle or ledger).

Then I made great deal with my neighbor. I make tools, improve them (if needed) he casts them, I sell them and we divide profit 50:50. Was nice money. Sometimes even better than my improve jobs. I even spared enough money to buy me red dragon scale set - easy to get to 90 PAS with it (no need to make huge amounts of steel to grind on plate sets).

After I reached 90 WS all was possible so I choose myself a worthy goal - be the imp-all-to-90 toon. And I'm getting quite close to that now. I already have that important stuff covered (all armour types, weapons and tools).

For my next prem I selected another goal - grind one of my free to play (f2p) toons (that holds skiller tools for sale for me in its inventory) to be permanent f2p (when you paid prem at least once your toon never gets deleted) with twice inventory size (30 body strength) and riding knarr (23 mind logic). Probably by nonstop mining or similar stuff. We will see how fun that will be (for a month)!

You can read about that (and more) in this post.

2017-04-09

Story of his life - 2

Go to chapter 1 (if you missed it)

I was quite disappointed that my best friend Jumani did not shown up to give me farewell. Maybe he will be there in the morning. So I went sleep with quite bad mood. Damn!

Just when I closed my eyes, I heard knocking on my door. He was there with big grin on his face!

"Sorry it took so long. You know its not easy to snatch some tasty remedy."

His father is village healer and uses alcohol to treat wounds. And he had only a small stash left now. This years stuff was not even fermenting yet. I hope he wont miss it too much.

"I thought you forget about me." I said. "Who do you think is my best friend? And who knows when I see you again."

We drank and chatted for a few hours. Like it was the last night of our lives. It could even be true. At least out lives together. I will definitely miss him and our occasional drinking parties. He was unable to bring more that small bottle of stuff from time to time, but it was great!

We usually hide just after first corner of dragon cave and slowly drink it and chatted about how we will be great heroes once. My dream was to ride a dragon like those old knights our elder was talking about and he always said that he will heal my sorry burnt ass when I return. He was such a joker. We had such great times together! It was him who kept me afloat when my father died.

But it will be hard day for me tomorrow. I need to catch at least some sleep. So I hugged him hard and long and he went home. I was pleasantly tired so I fell asleep nearly immediately. I had my favorite dream about me riding dragon. But my ass was burning like hell. Damn that Jumani and his gabble! I hope real life dragons aren't that hot to touch.

But what was strange, there was also some woman. I never saw her in my dreams yet. She was there when I was riding that dragon. Very peculiar. I don't know what she was doing there or who she was but she was quite nice looking. We will see. Dreams are so hazy anyway!

I would like to sleep longer, but sun was already up so I had to go. I already packed all my things yesterday so I just dressed myself in my new drake hide clothes (so comfortable!), put backpack on my back and took my fathers long bow.

I was ready to leave. When I went up around our elders hut I saw that all villagers were there already and all were looking at me. Elder went forth and told me:

"Remember dragons have poor sight. When you have this clothes they cant smell you too. So when dragon is near, don't move. It might save your life one day." I already knew that from my father, but I thanked him for his wisdom.

"Go through dragon cave. When you go to crossroads, always look for circle with 3 lines inside, that will guide your way up to the mountain pass. When you are out of the cave, there is only one way to go. Good luck on your journey and go with Mighty Yamar's blessing."

I gave my farewell to all and went up to the dragon cave. This is the first day of my new life.

Go to chapter 3

2017-04-07

Why I hate organized religion

Yeah, I know that I promised you in my last hate post that it won't happen again. Never say never! At least its not that common. So I promise to you that I try to keep this type of posts at minimum. But this one is not that hateful in the end.

Ok, you have been warned. Fell free to skip this post if it offends you somehow.

This rant is not against any particular religion, its about the principles they have all in common. Every religion have its set of rules or dogmas. And you have to obey them or you burn in hell (or somewhere nearby).

This actually makes your life easier. You are told what to do, how to do that and what to never do. Same as with politics from my first rant. Someone makes decisions for you and you just obey.

But if you want to grow, learn, be stronger you need to question all around you and pick what you think is best for you. And easy life is not good for your personal growth. Trust me on that.

Every religion is more like clever marketing around your faith. They want you docile, they want your money, your support, they gain power through followers. Do you want to be dependent on them? Do you really want to be theirs puppet?

I know, thinking hurts. But its the only way how to be better. How to be independent. How to have your own set of beliefs.

Its not bad idea to study religions. Because there are truths out there. But they usually hidden deep and far between. But if you do find something interesting, incorporate it into your own religion. That personal one just for you. But be prepared to question it and throw it out when it is no longer coherent with your other newer truths.

For example I believe in reincarnation. And I believe in karma. It makes me better. It makes me do only those things to other which I want other do to me (but its sometimes quite difficult). I and I try to teach that to my kids.

So yeah, I believe in god (whatever that is - not whoever!) but I don't believe in any religion. I have my own set of rules.

And I believe I have a purpose in my life. I don't know if I found it yet but I believe its not yet my time to end this life. And I will not end my life by my own hand. But I don't fear death. I saw my own death in my past lives a few times so I know its nothing to be afraid of if you at least try hard to fulfill your purpose here. Small problem is that you know that purpose for sure only after your death. Before it its only speculations (but meditations and asking your astral guide helps great deal).

2017-04-05

Story of his life - 1

Go to chapter 9 (if you missed it)

My name is Jani. And I was selected for this year trip to Uda. It was great honor for me. And great surprise. I just recently come to age to be eligible for selection, so I succeed in first try! I'm so excited!

Life was not easy for me. My mother died when I was very young. My father told me that she never recovered from my difficult birth. He loved her so much. He was always telling me that I have her eyes and kind soul.

My father died in last dragon mating season. He was a hunter and was not able to get back to relative safety of our village before crazed dragons started their ritual. I was barely old enough to take care about myself. Neighbors tried to help me, but they did not had much to spare. Maybe that was why I was the first choice for trip.

They say life is much easier in Uda. Lots of free lasses to marry and river with lots of fish that never freezes. But trip through mountain pass and dragon cave is dangerous. I don't know about anyone that made it back. Either they all died or no one wants to return from Uda back here. I hope for the later.

Dragons are no threat otherwise, but when they mate they don't know what they are doing so we need to go out of their way.

Life is hard in our snowy valley. Only in short summer patches of grass appear. Not many people live here and only those hardest survive. Was it not for dragons we would have perished long time ago. Soil that was touched with dragon fire takes quite long to freeze again - just enough to give us one harvest of grass seeds and some berries. Together with some hunting and fishing we get just enough to survive.

And nearly every year, when dragons fight for right to mate one of them dies. Then we feast on its meat and make clothes from their hide that keeps you warm even in hardest winter.

On today's village gathering, after I was selected, everyone gave me something for my trip. Some gave smoked or dried dragon meat, some seeds, roots or medicine herbs. I even got fine dragon clothes from village elder and big backpack to keep all my things in. Those clothes were perfect fit for me so maybe they know for some time that they choose me.

I thanked all of them and went home for my last sleep on bed, probably for a long time. Tomorrow morning I will go. Summer won't be long and I need every ray of sun to keep me warm up in the mountains.

Go to chapter 2

2017-04-03

How I started to enjoy wurm again

As I wrote in this post, I quit Wurm after I burnt out with my first toon. Took me nearly 9 months before I got back. At first only with new character to look at my old place, then I spent a few weeks with old friends on their new deed on Xanadu.

I was hooked again. Then I posted on forums that I want to buy some starter character - I did not wanted to skill it all the way from start. Then I found my current toon. With only one skill above 50 (carpentry), it was not expensive, but saved me quite a few weeks of skilling.

Only small problem was that this toon was located on Independence server and all my friends were either on Celebration or Xanadu. I needed ship fast to get there. Fortunately I found unfinished knarr nearby with all hard parts (ropes, sails and composite components) already in and only bulk (planks, pegs, rivets and such) waiting to be attached.

But I was quite frustrated with my low skills. Everything now took much more time than I was used to. So I bought complete set of skiller tools and started grinding hard. Then I found quite helpful neighbor and things started to look much better.

I finished that knarr in just 4 weeks, skilling shipbuilding from 1 to nearly 50, same with woodcutting to get better chance at attaching remaining parts. I even get meditation to around 50 in those first 2 months of premium time.

That friendly neighbor deeded place I was squatting on, but let me stay on his new trader deed so I was happy. I had a place to stay and even don't have to pay for it.

The best thing was pause after those 2 prem months. This first pause was partly because I wanted to wait for next meditation question. But it was better than expected. From that time I keep my schedule of grinding hard for 1 or 2 months and then pause for 1 or 2 months to gather strength for next big grind.

When I bought next premium time and with my ship finished I went on sailing visiting my old friends. I stayed on Celebration for a few weeks grinding fighting from single digit to nearly 60. That deed was near big plains so lots of things to kill around.

I kept myself useful by improving all I found around. For example all pans in forges around :) But that will be for this post.

2017-04-01

Story of my life - chapter 9

Go to chapter 8 (if you missed it)

Next day was full of packing of all belongings to carts. We also went to cave a few times to gather as much element as we could. Who knows whats on the other side of that portal. And we need that element to feed the dragon (seems that he lives on meat but without element there is no flight or fire).

In the evening there was quite some people with full carts of stuff near entrance to cave. Dragon told us that way to portal is quite long and we should hurry. It was not that bad after all. Took us a few hours, but tunnels we quite smooth and fortunately none were blocked by cave-ins or lava. Tremors were nearly constant but this old lava tunnels held nicely.

Interestingly we had not seen any other dragon all the way here. Is that one we found the last one? He told us that he is definitely not the last one (at least he hoped) but dragons do not live it this particular cave.

When we arrived to the chamber of fight we saw that portal for first time. Floor was covered with smooth cooled lava so it was quite easy to reach it. It was a circle of blue shimmering light on far wall surrounded by strange symbols around it on floor an wall.

We convinced our dragon to go with us through with all the people behind us. Just after we crossed that light surface connection to my vessel broke. Last sensation was picture of some lush green valley with sun shining. Could it be Earth? Sun diameter was just about right and not that small as here. And I could felt that gravity was much higher too.

I woke up with sadness because I felt I probably never see him again. We will see in coming days. It will be much more lonely here without him.

...

And I was right. No connection during my sleep for a week. I could play with element and hone my skills but without my dreams with vessel it was pointless. So today I went for a walk in a cave my mining robots found recently. It was strangely familiar. As this cave tunnel near that place of fight. It was not easy to move fast and safely in my space suit but I managed to reach that last chamber in record time.

And what was my surprise that I found functional portal there! So this is my last entry in this diary. Was it only a month since I started writing it? That month completely changed my life. I'm now using all my robots to pack all that could fit in that portal (even this habitat seems to be deconstructable quite easily into just a few large boxes).

And I'm taking all the element I found. Does not seem to be much more left on this piece of asteroid. I cannot feel it anymore on any of my trips around or inside it.

So to whoever will read it, this is the story of my life for past month. I instructed my robots to construct a beacon so someone hopefully find this diary and read it, but I will be long gone.

Goodbye. I hope that my adventure just begun!

Yeah, this is not over, continue here.