h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The internet is so cool!

I just identified the neat bird that I've been wondering about since I moved here. They're very common, especially around the University Campus. They seem completely fearless, so I see them up close all the time.

The bird is the Hadada Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) and you can see its picture and read about it, if you follow the link you'll find here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A544213

Some of the other links there are fun, too. They're just stuff I've accumulated over the months.

Ok, now I'm off to go home and learn more DiffEq's!

Heh heh heh!!! I know them well ... they regularly visit our garden! Except, here we call them HaDEdas! I have a photograph that I took of one ... maybe sometime I'll put it on my site as well!

You know, I wish I had more time! If I did, I would certainly learn myself a huge lot of maths! I like it, and it can come in handy with the computer art!

Like you, I am a nerd, and I don't mind being one! It's only that my life took a few wrong turns ... I never had the education I would have liked to have, the school and university systems over here just did not have what I needed. Now I am trying to get myself the education I want, but that is difficult too! I have to be thinking of making some money! To do that it seems I'm going to have to be more busy with my art. I aim to work up to the point where I can paint for six to eight hours a day. That will not leave me much time for studying mathematics, physics, astronomy, philosophy, history, languages, psychology, and what else ... damn this world where we have to make money to justify our existences!

Hi Tony! I see you're online now. Anyways, what you said about rocks being alive is interesting! I would love to know more about geology, and in fact I am going to try and learn more about that! Those very interesting crystals that you often get inside rocks ... or different kinds of crystalling formations in rocks ... I wonder if they could not perhaps be due, sometimes, to the workings of micro-organisms? I think I read somewhere that these organisms are to a large extent responsible for precipitating particular minerals inside rock formations. I must see if I can look that up! But even so ... the crust of the Earth is a very dynamic entity, that I know, and I know that it's not just the seismic activity and the tectonic plates that keep the crust 'alive', it's also the workings of myriads of living creatures! And I do often wonder just how much life there is *inside* the earth. So far, scientists have found life wherever they sought it ... even the deepest test drillings have revealed creatures living at that depth ...

Yes, I am online! Writing a longer post - don't run off yet!

Willem,

Sorry I've not posted for a few days - it's because there's been precious little happening. I've been trying to get registered at the University, which involves the methodical going through of a medium-sized red-tape labyrinth. I will probably finish within a week after classes begin. Nobody seems to think that's a problem, so I'm not going to worry about it either.

I find the idea of living rocks rather comforting. Whatever mistakes we might make, they seem to be doing all right, and will continue to do alright for the forseeable future.

Speaking of mistakes mammals make, and the potential to make them, can we say "relationships"? I've currently got another browser window open in which I'm writing an email to a good friend and confidante about how to avoid some of these mistakes. When you decide to pack up a few things, leave family and friends behind, and go into self-imposed exile, it raises certain questions. There are various people over the years with whom I've developed relationships. Now, I'm maintaining them via email, but how long can that last? What about those relationships that might have the possibility of romance in them? Can I expect any of the women whom I've known, respected, and admired to drop their plans and join me in my mad escapades? Specifiaclly, what about the woman I was dating when I left, with whom I'm currently maintainig a long-distance relationship? (Well, I know how to answer that question anyway - ask her!) Will I be alone for a long time because of my bizarre life plans?

For some reason I've started thinking about this recently. There are actually a few people back at... home? There are a few people back in the States, which I used to call "home", whom I've thought of as potential long-term partners. I'm getting the feeling that I'll soon find out if any of that is at all realistic. I'll be 25 in December; that's still pretty young, isn't it? I'm bound to meet someone here, probably... maybe. My flatmate says I should get married before I get much older. He's got a wife and two kids back in Nigeria, and I don't know how old he is.

What advice would our uncles, the rocks, give me?

I think I've just now distilled the essence of the issue. Making a big, exciting, highly questionable life decision (moving to Nairobi) has made it necessary to do something definite about things with which I previously had the luxury of being vague (relationships). I think.

Does any of this make sense? Is it okay for me to unload this type of issue here? It probably means I find you easy to talk to, or something. (Hi Fenny! Does this change in tone make for interesting lurking, or would you prefer more stories about the Nairobi street-boys? It's all part of life, I guess...)

Hello Tony! No, this is good, by all means we can talk about that over here - if you don't mind, that is! If the stuff you wish to talk about is really private, you can always use email!

You shoor bet the idea of living rocks is comforting! "I" am having a rather bad time at the moment ... seriously distressed about lots of things, including the out-wipeage of the gorillas, chimpanzees and urangutans of the world. So we're making a mess ... God Bless the Rocks, they are so much better than us! We're not going to be able to wipe *them* out anytime soon!

And just think of all the rocks in space! WoWWW!!!

Relationships? HunHH - Whazza??? Ya know, I've *nevver* had a serious relationship, of a romantic nature, yet! There's not even been any question of it! When I was at school, I was too much of an outsider ... when I was in university, I came close, but then I came unhinged, and since then I've been utterly unable ... I just cannot do that to another person ... I mean saddle her up with my emotional baggage! Jeeezzzz .... sgonna have to be some extra-brave cherry to handle the likes of us!!! And I'm gonna have to be semi-respectable first. Currently I'm totally flat broke, and still living mit mein parents, and I still flip my lid jest a leetle beet every now and then, and need medication plus serious psychological and psychiatric attention even to maintain that degree of almost-control ... and I'll be thirty in March next year!

So don't you go telling me *you* have problems on that front!

Nahh seriously ... we hope you find someone, sometime ... you're still very young so don't worry!

Love and Blessings,

Yurkman, for Willem

I'm sorry to have been so quiet Tony, I was actually cold turkey in Amsterdam. So I wasn't really lurking, but now I'm back, yes it does make some interesting reading. Really good, I'm pleased for you and hope it all works really well in Nairobi.

I think I said I was in Israel (wasn't really Third World, it was midway between) and living on Kibbutz, but that was ten years ago, nearly, and I've grown up since then. I was nineteen.

Willie, please don't have a bad time. We were in Amsterdam, had a wonderful time. Heard Dutch (must be very similar in sound to Afrikaans, and I kind-of understood it, as a result of my grounding in German). We went to the Zoo, and I thought of you. Actually, I thought of you both, due to your shared botanical interests, and when I saw the African animals, I realised afresh what treasures we miss in England. London Zoo (I haven't been for about ten years) is grand in scale, but Amsterdam Zoo is a bit titchy in places (like the large cats' areas, where they don't stop pacing because they've not got space) and I longed for them to have the space of their homeland.

But: Please remember Willie that all things have a purpose: don't get caught in the here-and-now, you must remember that Gaia (Mother Earth, God, Deity-of-your-choice) won't let anything happen that shouldn't.
Your health is the single most important thing of your existence: you mustn't neglect it for other creatures! Please!

======

Phew, Tony: You must have let rip on the Hate-Hate thread! (we're talking of Love Islam, hate america) Perium's just printed at you, and you've been moderated out three times on the previous page! This calls for some serious reading! Don't worry, anyway because I'm not sure you deserve the moderations, and you're doing more to broaden your mind and your horizons than most people here.

x x Fenny (hoping everyone, everywhere, finds Zero Intolerance)

"Internet Explorer has performed an illegal operation, and will be shut down...." Let's see how much I remember. What's really ironic is that it shut down when I opened up an extra window to go to an online dictionary and make sure that "terse" means "using few words," in contrast to the long post I'd *almost* finished writing, and will now attempt to re-write!

Let' see, I'd started with Fenny...

-------------------------------------------

Oh, those moderators.

Welcome back, Fenny!

Actually, for the record, I was only censored twice, the third was Kid. We both got zapped for alluding to rumours about a certain moneyed corporation, and you know how the Beeb feels about *that*. (Have you seen/followed Lucinda's Nestle Boycott Entry saga?)

The other moderation was for me getting mad and yelling at Kid for something trivial. I immediately thought better of it, and we kissed and made up, so there's no harm done there.

That thread... it really doesn't bring out the best in folks, does it?

Anyway, thanks for the support. It's always appreciated, especially just now, as I've not been at my most confident for the last week or so. Homesickness/culture-shock finally set in, you see. I'm doing much better now, since the registration process at school is finally moving along. I might even be in class tomorrow. I just hope they let me take some cool second-year Math classes, because otherwise I'll get bored. Then I'll just teach myself the second-year stuff, and have the same problem next year!



Willem -

You are super, do you know that? "God Bless the Rocks"! God Bless Willem! You may've just made my day.


About a year ago, I was discussing prayer with a couple friends - one recovering Catholic, and one divinity student - and we all agreed on our favourite prayer. That says something, because the three of us, each having been atheist, pantheist, and every variety of heretic, are pretty hard to please as far as prayers go. Anyway, we settled on the one that little kids are (or at least *should be*) taught to say at bedtime: "God Bless Mommy, and God Bless Daddy, and God Bless..." and so on, just naming people until you fall asleep. Friends, enemies, strangers, living, dead, unborn, fictional, human, animal, vegetable, mineral... it doesn't matter!

I hadn't prayed in a while, and I tried that prayer last night when I wanted to go *back* to sleep after waking at four in the morning. I kept being distracted by a mosquito, and I would try to return myself to the meditation by saying "...and God Bless that mosquito", and then moving on, but the spiteful little bloodsucker finally won, and I just got up, figuring I'd slept enough. How can you love a mosquito that won't let you sleep? How?


As far as topics on this thread, you'd have to get pretty private to make me want to take it off-site. I'm more concerned about being boring!

Oh, speaking of animals and their continued existence, have you read DNA's Last Chance To See? I just read it a couple of weeks ago. Goodness, what an excellent book.

As far as that "extra-brave cherry" you mentioned, she's gonna be one lucky lady! Me, I've gotta find someone who's willing to be dragged to the oddest corners of the Earth on a hunch and a prayer.

Nah, actually, I'm not nearly as worried/down/whatever as I was yesterday, or whenever it was that I last posted. Actually, I feel pretty good today, and I have to go and do things. Doing things always feels good, eh? I also have about three and a half emails I really should write, and you know how terse I am. (I don't care if that's what the word means; I'm NOT opening another browser window.)

-------------------------------------------------

Wow.... I just remembered that entire post, almost verbatim. Now I just have to preview and post...

Guys - you both seem really wonderful people to me, through the computer screen, and I think you deserve the best of relationships. It seems to me, again, that any person you choose to make serious commitment to would be *very* lucky.

Thank you

x x Fenny (ZI)

awww....


You're pretty darn nifty yourself, Fenny!


Next time you're in East Africa, let's do lunch!

Say, I've never mentioned it before, but I found your Zero Intolerance page months ago, and I love it! I've been carrying the idea around ever since. Not only is your heart in the right place, but you're doing something about it! Really, you kick ass. I'm like, inspired and stuff. I'm very glad to have finally met you and started talking.

Thanks!

love,

Tony

----------------------------------------------------

Willem and Willem's people -

Hey, I just dropped by FoLKZ. I'm sending out BIG LOVE AND PRAYERS to y'all, ok? I'm facing south to do it, for maximum effect. It sounds like you're coping and stuff, but it can't hurt to know that you've got one more friend.

Incidentally, I'm sorry if I've been careless about referring to all of you as "Willem". I'm not very accustomed to talking with mp's. Hello. Yurkman... who's (s)he?

love,

Tony

Hey Tony, hey Fenchurch!!! You know, I haven't checked out that Islam/America thing in ages! I'm gonna take a look in a while!

I'm going to have to start looking for that special someone soon! Like I said, I'll be thirty in March next year... I'm going to have to get a bit younger for a while, because I'm now starting to be too old to attract the really hot women! Fortunately I know how to become physically younger - I have a series of secret Tibetan rites that will do the trick! Apart from that, I've started a daily fitness regimen while I was in Denmar, and since I came out I started a serious bodybuilding routine over here, so three months or so from now I'm going to be in super-shape! (Not that I'm that shabby right now ... 5 foot 9, 185 pounds, reasonably fit, good muscular development, above-average strength.) And I'm painting daily, so maybe before the end of the year I can hold an exhibition of my work as well! On my way to becoming respectable and self-sufficient!

I was rather down yesterday and for a large part today ... in fact, parts of me are still feeling down, but things are starting to turn around. I am currently more worried about LeKZ ... they sound like they have a really urgent problem, and I don't know if they have many people over there who can help them. Please pray for them! (I don't know the details of your belief system Tony, but maybe 'God Bless LeKZ!' will be enough!) Maybe it's already over... but they can still do with some prayers and good wishes!

About my own people: I haven't told you anything yet, have I? Fenchurch knows a bit about it. Well, my own 'people' are a bit different from LeKZ's ... They are much more 'inside', they don't come out unless there's a very good reason for it. I put 'inside' between quotes because it doesn't really feel as if their worlds are inside me ... it feels as if they are 'someplace else'. My inner people have their worlds that they inhabit, different worlds ... I must have created those worlds in my mind somehow, some time, but those worlds feel very real and it feels as if they have been around for very long.
I've actually been creating worlds since I've been very young. I did this because I was disappointed with the way humans messed up the 'real world'. For me, some of those worlds sometimes became more real than the real world. The early worlds were very fantastic: they had exotic kinds of geometry that applied to them, for instance ... one world had an infinitely big surface somehow enclosing a finite volume, so in volume it was the same size as the earth, and seemed to be spherical, but if you tried to traverse its surface you'd find you could never finish traversing it - you'd realise that thre was an an infinitely large area, and an infinity of different places, 'squeezed' onto it ... very weird, but I worked it out in detail. There were places with more than three spatial dimensions. There were other places that had ordinary geometry but simply were *huge*. There were some places that were in fact infinite in volume as well as surface, there were other places that were 'multiverses' of infinite numbers of worlds interconnected through 'Stargate'-like portals... There were worlds that rotated so fast that they were spread out like flat disks, where the felt gravity was very much weaker on the equator than on the poles, due to the 'centrifugal force'. There were planets that were entirely made of water - except for the creatures living in them. There were a huge amount of worlds ... I cannot even remember them all any more. But what was interesting is that most of them contained very few people. They were mainly wild places with all sorts of weird creatures inhabiting them.

It is only during this year - 2001 - that I started creating worlds with significant human populations. This time, at last, it felt 'right'. The other worlds were fun, but too fantastic. This new world felt real - it was very realistic, it felt like it could possibly be an actual, existing world. So I created connections between that world and the 'real' world: first a connection in historical time - which was the real person Marcus Aurelius and his 'virtual extension' into the 'made-up' world - and next another connection in virtual time - my current dominant 'alter', Valerie. She became 'real' over the course of weeks... it may be, like LeKZ suggested, that she may have existed before, that she may have been formed long in the past, and only came to the fore now, 'using' the world and the role I created. But irrespective of how she was formed, Valerie is currently very much like an extra personality ... independent, with a strong sense of a self separate from 'Willem's sense of self. There's a hell of a lot I can tell you about Valerie, and even more that she could tell you about herself! Basically, though - she's 74 years old, but looks like she's in her early twenties, blonde, very tall - six foot three - and usually rather skinny. She occasionally fills out with muscles, though, when she needs to do hard physical work for a period. She can also 'morph' into various non-human forms. She's had a 'privileged' upbringing in her world - an exceedingly intensive and extensive intellectual education, and 'connections' to important people from very early in her life. She's currently very strongly telepathic - at any moment, in contact with at least 50 other people of her world, constantly discussing various pressing problems. She enjoys problem-solving! She's intelligent enough to handle just about any kind of intellectual task. And that's just scratching the surface ... she's so much more than that, still! That's how I imagine Valerie... 'inside', it feels as if she's all of that... but when she comes 'outside', to talk to people, she's restricted to what my mind and my abilities can handle: though she may be able to do mathematics a million times faster than 'I' can when she's 'inside', when she speaks through me she can only do it as fast as I can ... except that it feels like Valerie actually boosts my abilities significantly: when I let her speak, it seems as if I'm actually smarter and actually know more things than at other times! Or to say it differently: Valerie uses many of my body and brain's abilities more effectively (or just differently) than 'Willem' does, because of the specifics of her nature.

I formed Vivienne a bit later ... or maybe she was also already present. She's in some ways very different from Valerie, but in other ways similar - in their world they are half-sisters. Vivienne's history is also very complicated, and her 'function' also. But basically, Valerie and Vivienne both act in a way similar to LeKZ's 'protectors'. They help me out when things become difficult. So for instance when my ordinary mind ('Willem') starts freaking out and doesn't work very well any more, Valerie and Vivienne (and sometimes some others also) take over and do the necessary thinking and communicating, because they don't freak out nearly so easily ... by virtue of their natures, they are exceedingly tough and capable.

Apart from Valerie and Vivienne there are other 'alters', that I formed for specific purposes. I am now too tired to describe them in great detail - but they include Ananke (female, 'earth magic'), Malisse (female, luxury-loving, snobbish, mysterious, 'rule-bending magic'), Patience (female, time manager), Griffin (male, military-like strategist), Nathan (male, 'many-worlds navigator'), Laotso (male, spiritual student/teacher), Kibrubh (male, diplomat, relationship/communications facilitator), and Adam (male, ordinary, likeable, otherworldly-entity-channeling New Age guy), and more.

I landed in Denmar because of a freak breakdown: my ordinary mind went ga-ga and then subsequently all my protectors were knocked out as well, one after the other, because of the WTC/Pentagon crashes and their repercussions, plus other incidents in my own life, plus a few additional exacerbating freak occurrences. My close shave Thursday was a result of another very unusual occurrence, and my other close shave yesterday was again the result of a number of different things co-incidentally coming together. But yesterday, only 'Willem' was knocked out - the other guys were all still up and around to take care of matters. And I came back before too long.

To answer your question: Yurkman is a guy... in fact, a 'variant' of my actual self, Willem. This 'variant' stuff is rather complicated, because Yurkman *isn't* me, but shares many attributes with me - and 'diverges' in some others. Anyways, when I am badly triggered Yurkman often comes out to handle casual conversations: he uses his weird sense of humour to help him cope. He can joke about things that totally freak 'me' out, or stay jovial even in the face of extreme stress and/or danger.

It's OK if you just call me Willem! It will be Willem talking unless otherwise stated!

Now I'm extremely tired. I hope I haven't talked nonsense up there! I'll check tomorrow!

<>

Neither do I!

I believe in God (though I couldn't say what that means... and I try not to talk about "existence" because I can't properly define "exist" in a way that can sensibly be applied to something like "God" which I consider undefinable by reasons of taste - it would be tacky to define "God", and according to an unknown law of aesthetics-based ontology, the definition would therefore be incorrect.)

I believe claims about God that sound right when I hear them or think of them.

Miraculously, I agree with a lot of what people say about God. It's really not an exercise of reason. It doesn't make me unhappy, so I'm not complaining.

So what does all of that make me? A Discordian? A Lutheran? A Flake?

Thanks for telling me about your people, too - and your worlds. I'm quite intrigued by the worlds with different geometry. (I *would* be!) That reminds me of a book, actually. I forget the author, but the book is called "Einstein's Dreams". The idea is that while Einstein was working on Special Rel, and working as a patent clerk, he would have strange dreams every night about worlds in which time was set up differently from good old fashioned Newtonian linear time. They're all very fanciful and poetical and nice. Kinda like a more focused version of Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities", which is my current favourite book.

Anyway, that was a quick topic drift... I'd like to meet some of your people, if that's possible. I saw your paintings of Valerie and Vivienne at your website. They're both very beautiful, though in different ways. What do they think of our world? Is it very different from theirs? Anyway, tell them I said thanks for being your protectors, and to keep up the good work!

Now I've gotta go keep taking care of things for school. Maybe today I'll finally finish registration. (knock wood) I won't if I don't get offline though!

See ya 'round!

Hello Tony - this is Valerie! Thanks for the compliment! The picture on Willem's website is a fair likeness, but it could be better ... Willem is currently painting a lot, so he's getting practice ... I think it will be a good thing for him to practice for a year or several, before going back to his attempts to illustrate us and our world. Then he will be much better able! Actually, I am helping him with the painting - you remember how he said, when he lets me speak, it's as if 'his' mind works better? It's the same with the painting - he can let me paint as well, through him, and I am quite artistic, and I can help him to use 'his' talents and abilities better!

In a while I will let Vivienne speak! I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak to someone again. Past efforts of mine haven't always been very successful ... I always have so much more that I wish to say, than what I am able to say given the constraints I am working under, that my messages came out very unsatisfactory, and seeming to me to be liable to give people wrong impressions. Wow --- I think this time I'm doing better, that was indeed what I wanted to say! I think it's because of you, Tony, your friendly attitude - so there's no pressure on me! It really feels remarkably exhilirating, talking here to you!

You ask about my world. Well, Willem has written a lot about it already, and will - I hope - put it all on his website eventually ... but it may be some time yet. Like I said, he first needs to focus on his 'regular' painting, and gain a bit of financial income. That is necessary for him at this stage in his life. He can in fact achieve a lot if he puts his mindS to it!

But for now I can tell you a little. My world is an 'alternative' version of your world - of course, Willem sees it as being a figment of his imagination, but to me and the others who live in it, it is very real indeed! From our perspective, our world 'split off' from yours about 1800 years ago. I say something about it in the one page that is already on Willem's site, and a lot more in ensuing pages, that aren't on yet. Anyways, this is what happened: in our world, there was no 'Fall of the Roman Empire'. Instead, the Empire first became a 'Holarchy', which is in fact even better than a Democracy - in other words not really an Empire any more, though it kept the name; next, it went from strength to strength, and spread over the entire globe. So, the whole world became peaceful, and prosperous, and civilised, very early, and from then on we had World Peace and general happiness. There were some crises early on: during the spread of the 'Empire' there were some wars and catastrophes, and long after that there was one major Global 'crisis' - except that it wasn't really a crisis, it doesn't really fit any definitions, but it was called 'The Meltdown' and it was followed by a period of rebuilding and re-stabilisation called 'The Metamorphosis'. From then on things were back to peaceful and prosperous and have continued like that till very recently, when suddenly we went into another crisis, in which we find ourselves still.

That's very simplified, and it doesn't tell you what my world is *like*. If you could come to it, this is what you'll see: our version of the Earth is brim-filled with life! There is *more* vegetation in my world than in yours; the Earth is much greener. The tropical rainforests here are twice as extensive as they were in your world even *before* your people started destroying them. Even Antarctica and the Sahara Desert (it is still a desert, relative to other places) are fairly extensively vegetated here, compared to your world. In our world by far the greatest amount of energy produced goes to the maintenance and improvement of living ecosystems. We also deliberately promote rare species of plant and animals: in our world there are over a hundred million elephants, and over a hundred million tigers, and over a hundred million great pandas, and over a hundred million gorillas, and so on for chimpansees, orangutans, rhinoceroses, bears, wolves, or anything else - a hundred million is the rock-bottom minimum for the number of individuals per species ... except for whales, they are too big, even the entire ocean is not enough for any more than about a million per species ... which is still *way, way, way* more than there exist in your world!

You'll also see the landscape looks different in my world. We have for more than a millenium been alterning landforms artificially ... extremely large-scale earth-moving endeavours. We've built new mountains, changed the courses of rivers, enlarged islands, excavated vast underground cavern systems... and we did it all with minimal disruption of existing ecosystems! In fact, all of this was for the sake of *enriching* existing ecosystems - allowing for greater local biodiversity, which is a way to protect global biodiversity. Do you know what? We use nuclear power to do this! We actually developed nuclear energy processes that leave behind *no* radioactive wastes! For as long as waste products are radioactive, they are re-used in other reactions until at the end they are transformed to regular iron, or lead, or another stable element. The use of nuclear energy in my world is leading to a *reduction* in global levels of radiation, as we gradually 'use up' radioactive minerals! But aside from nuclear *fission*, we have by now also achieved nuclear *fusion* as a viable source of energy. We even have more exotic energy production systems than that, but I can't reveal them here!

If you come into our cities, you will see them filled with plants - they grow even on the walls and roofs of houses, a great variety of very beautiful and functional shrubs, and herbs, and climbers, and epiphytes, mosses, lichens and other small plants ... you'll even find that our buildings and homes are full of plants on the inside! And not just plants - animals too! You'll find that birds, and reptiles, and frogs, and small mammals, come into the houses and buildings and are tolerated. You'll see 'artificial creatures' too - you might call them robots, but they are more 'biologic' than your notion of robots is likely to be. These robots, among other things, make sure that none of the animals cause problems for the humans. The robots will prevent problem animals from entering houses, and prevent animals from causing problems for humans, and evict animals that cause problems from houses. There will still be many living-places for those animals outside of human homes. But as for human homes ... every one is much better than the best zoo of your world ... brimfull with well-behaved 'pets' of a mindboggling variety! And the 'pets' are all free to come and go as they please; no confinement of them at all. The robots also take care of animals ... there is no such thing here as a kitten getting run over by a car!!! In fact, in cities we often use horses to move around ... or a contraption similar to a bicycle ... between cities we use a large robot called a 'porter' that can run at over 100 miles per hour on special trackways. The robots keep these trackways free of animals or anything else that can be damaged. We also have other robots called 'hoverers' (in my language the name sounds better!) on which we can fly through the air, either slowly or fast.

We have cities on land, and also in the ocean! Also, we have successfully colonised the Moon, and Mars, and Venus, and Mercury, and the bigger moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and apart from that, we have artificial colonies in orbit around the Earth, and the Moon, and Mars, and Venus, and Mercury, and Jupiter, and Saturn, and around the sun between the Earth and Mars, and between Mars and Jupiter, and between Jupiter and Saturn. Beyond Saturn we have unmanned stations reaching beyond the orbit of Pluto. At the furthest we have stations from which we launch small probes and larger experimental craft into interstellar space. Some of the probes have actually reached other stars already! None of the larger craft have done so yet, though, so there's still no question of humans travelling to other stars in our world. The interstellar craft are improving in their capabilities though ... they are in fact also 'biological', like gigantic space beings, and they evolve and learn, and with every foray into interstellar space they manage to go farther than before, so it's only a question of time before one manages to reach another star ... and when that happens, we'll start considering the possibility of human colonisation of other star systems. That is a very, very, very, very difficult and problematic thing, though...

Right! That is only a *little bit* of info about my world ... please ask if there's something specific you'd like to know more about! I can go on and on and on ... please stop me if I'm speaking too much! But actually, I very much love my world ... despite the problems, of which I haven't rold you yet! I'm missing my world a lot while I am spending time in yours!

I'll let Vivienne say a bit about what we think of *your* world!

Goodbye, and accept my love, and blessings!

Valerie

Hello Tony, it's a pleasure to meet you! Valerie told you a bit of our world - there's much that I can add, but will not for now. I would just like to tell you what I think of 'your' world (not to mention that it's also the world of six billion other people!)

I think you will be able to understand it when I say this: being in your world, coming from mine, must feel very similar to being in Kenya, coming from America! There is the feeling of being in a strange place - all the time I'm feeling strangely uncomfortable, very self-conscious. I don't quite understand what everybody around me is saying and doing - it's all very unfamiliar. I feel like an outsider, and consequently rather insecure. This makes it all the more thrilling though when I manage to establish personal contact and understanding with someone else here.

As perhaps with you in Kenya, there is also much here that I find shocking and dismaying. I am very concerned at the levels of misery, deprivation and ignorance that I see all around me. If you consider what Valerie told you, you can imagine the difference in general well-being between our world and yours. In our world there is not a *single* malnourished person, not a *single* person without an elaborate home to live in and a good, warm, safe, sheltered place to sleep in every night. So it hits me very hard indeed when I come here and see in what dismal circumstances virtually *all* the people here live. It also hurts me bad to see the condition of the landscape, the living environment - how bare and how damaged it is. It is as if the earth is covered with scars and raw wounds ... because I feel very intimately connected to the earth, I feel as if my own body has been injured, I feel the earth's pain. If you know about my own history you might be able to better appreciate my empathy.

However, I also see that there is still beauty here. I haven't been to many places, but I know about the places Willem has been to, and many of them are still breathtakingly beautiful, despite everything. I now treasure them the more. I am also incredibly amazed to see how many creatures still manage to face the destructive dangers and to keep clinging on to life ... I never would have guessed that they could be so hard hit and still recover! I am very amazed too to see how people remain human and overcome their problems even in the worst circumstances. I wouldn't have believed it possible if I haven't seen it with my own (well, actually, my own *through* those of Willem) eyes. I want to talk about LeKZ - I wouldn't have believed it possible that anyone could go through what they went through and still come out OK afterwards ... with ethics and a degree of positivity and functionality intact! I've seen other 'miracle stories' too. I am now more impressed and respectful of human potential and ability than ever before ... and I already was more respectful and impressed than almost anyone of your world, before I came here, based on my experiences in mine. I know more about you than you know about yourself ... I know how well you are doing, compared to what you're going up against, compared to what we are doing whith what we have!

There is much of your world that I still don't understand, that I can't really appreciate. I have difficulty understanding some of your humour, your television programs and movies in general, and definitely your advertisements, and much of the general attitudes of people. Much of what you people do seem to me to be flat out dead *wrong*. I can fill many sets of encyclopedias with criticisms ... but there are those things too that I have learned to appreciate. I really like much of your world's music! It's not like our music ... it is simpler, and there's a 'tackiness' about just about all of it ... but still, I like it - and Valerie does too! We, together with Brigitte, have a band and in some virtual worlds we have performed 'cover' versions of many of your songs, and have also written, and will write and perform, many of our own songs influenced by the styles of your world's music!

Okay. I may say a bit more later! Thank you for having given me this opportunity though!

Love, and Blessings,

Vivienne

Fenny - Perium and I have made ! I just thought you might want to know that something good has come of the hate/hate thread. I've made a new friend. Maybe you were lurking and already knew that.

Meanwhile, I see you've joined the reggabwoW? project! I really would like to help out with that, but I'm terribly shy of that sort of thing. It's weird - I'm not usually shy of anything. On the contrary, some might call me shameless! Right now, I'm just lurking and getting warm fuzzy feelings from everything you guys do.





Valerie - Hi! It's a pleasure to meet you! You told me so much about your world, that I'll be quite a while just imagining what it must be like there. I admit, what really grabs me are the energy sources you mentioned (physics nerd that I am). I think it's depressing what we do for electricity here. You might know that I'm thinking of investing some money here in Kenya. Well, if things work out, which it seems they should, then after making some money building affordable housing, I'll be able to go into my dream business - solar energy - in rural Kenya. There's lots of places where they haven't strung power lines yet, and I think it'd be great to learn everything about solar power and provide affordable energy to the people out there, so they don't need to burn any more coal or dam any more rivers or string any more power lines. I'm told I should start out in the country, and if it really catches on, then I could move into the cities, where they use a lot more power anyway.

How is the level of urbabization in your world? It sounds like your cities are a lot more "low-impact" than ours, but are they very big? Are there more big cities, or fewer? I mean on the continents. Since you have cities on the oceans and on other planets/moons, I'm sure you can support more of them, and a larger total population.

Willem told me something about your age - you guys must have made some medical advances that we haven't. I have a hunch that we'll improve in that area significantly when Western doctors start to really work with the knowledge accumulated by other cultures. I'm hoping in my lifetime we'll see the chi/prana system accepted and understood by the scientific community. Of course, the medical advances that we hope for in the next century are probably ancient history to you! Any chance of telling me if my instincts are on target?

I'd like to learn more about your history. I'll go back to Willem's website and see what's already there, for sure. So far, I've only looked over it quickly, but I need to spend some quality time there.

You certainly aren't "speaking too much". I'll ask things as the questions occur to me. You said that I should ask if I have any questions about your place; I'd like to extend the offer back to you! I'm sure you get a lot of info from Willem, but if you ever want to see things from a different perspective, specifically that of a... whatever I am (?) an American expatriate idealist, fire away!

I have to go, because this cyber-cafe's about to close, but I'll reply to Vivienne tomorrow, between classes, I reckon!

love,

Tony

Hello Tony! This is just me, Willem now. I'm really really badly triggered right now ... I feel like puking. I don't know if I can talk to you any more. I'll have to talk with some other people first.

Right - okay, I'm better now. I found a way to get over it more quickly. I gave myself six cuts, I bled a bit, and now I'm able to talk again.

Please Tony, promise me something - if you ever mention drug use again, give me a first. Please. I used to abuse alcohol, and it drove me crazy. References to anything else that also *would* drive me crazy, like LSD or DMT or even pot, trigger me really really badly.

I'll probably have to cut myself a bit more before I'll be able to resume this conversation where we left off.