Entry_003

Do you ever look something up on the CKD Encyclopaedia and then spend the rest of your day browsing through various different articles? Yep! Me too!

After a funny evening working my way through what turned out to be the VERY basic new TaxShare system with my new friend Ben, I decided to take myself over to the CKD. I'd been thinking recently about how a track journey of only one hour can take you from a section where the upground is a fairly temperate climate, like Alf's, to a section where the upground is a blistering desert, like my office. I suppose we're so used to not really seeing the upground world that we don't think that these two places must be extremely far apart.

Well, my avid readers, I have some answers for you!! You'll have to excuse me if you already knew all of this, I suppose I may just be showing my ignorance.

Ok, so the Track Carts that we hop on and off every day are inside a sealed tube. You know that hissing noise when the door opens? That's air flowing into the tube. It's all in a complete vacuum! Because there's no (or little) air in the tube, there's no air resistance or friction. This allows the Track Carts to move incredibly fast. Furthermore (Yes! There's more!) the carts aren't actually touching the ground underneath them. They're suspended by really powerful electro magnets. It's these magnets that also power the train. They pulse on and off in the direction of travel. This creates a ripple effect that pushes the train forward. The faster the ripples, the faster the cart will go!

Again, sorry if you knew that...but I was oblivious! I suppose I'm slightly more aware of how unusual some aspects of our life are from doing what I do for a living. Upgorunders have to travel for days, weeks, even months to get from one place to another...on foot!! Months! Think about it! Don't really mind your morning commute now, do you?

Anyway, like I said, I was on CKD for a few hours last night. There's some pretty cool stuff if you look long enough. Annoyingly, I didn't have Rank Clearance for a lot of the articles. I found a few photos of the topography of the upground world and I was curious to see where the relative positions of my office and Alf's were but you've gotta be White or above! Soon, soon!

I had a bit of a half hearted chat with Mum earlier. I don't whether it's because there's only text-based chat available when talking to people who have gone off world, or if it's just that they're out enjoying the luxury that they've spent years ranking up to achieve but all offworlders tend to get very distant. Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic when Mum got her Platinum Pass and her ticket to go offworld, but I do miss her. That's normal, right? Apparently, back before the sub-colonization, people used to live together with their parents for a general minimum of eighteen years. Even after you left them, it was normal, even expected to stay in fairly regular contact with them. If the traditionalists and the upgrounders are right, this weird system of early separation is very unhealthy.

Anyway, I'd better stop before people start thinking I'm some sort of Traddy! Lol.

I'm hoping to see Marc again later on. We've managed to get tickets to a new game that's in Beta. I've not read much about it, but apparently it's set in an ancient upground society that is going through a bloody witch-hunt. The reality engine is said to be really good. You can feel the "breeze" against your "skin" apparently. I have to wonder whether or not that extends to the "lemon juice" in your "open wounds"! Haha. Should be fun to try it out at least! Most of Marc's other friends get a little scared of playing any kind of game with him. He gets really into it and generally plays on servers where the whole experience is taken very seriously. Yes, it's a little strange to walk around in a fake world playing make-beleive, but I actually quite enjoy it! All this "Prithee Sire, may I join thy righteous dragon hunt" business is quite nice. Almost romantic. Definitely harmless!

This is the point that I get flooded with comments about how sad I am. Ho hum!

Right! I see Marc's avatar loading up. Wish me luck! Would it be bad taste to deck out my avvie with a broomstick and a cloak for this evening's merriments??

-Sophie

Entry_001

Hello! So, I got so used to keeping a regular account of my day to day activities for my last patriot exam so I figured I may as well carry on. Gives me something to write about on my long track journeys, I guess.

I woke up this morning to a horrible intermittent screeching noise. It took me a minute to figure out what it was. I stumbled into the kitchen, thinking it might be the microwave or something. It wasn't until I saw the strange light that I realised what it was. Turns out that the Enviro-Screens on my windows had changed from my usual choice of serene mountain peaks to a very pretty, but very noisy seaside town. The noise was some gulls flying past! I know that kinda thing looks very nice and all...but seriously?! The noise?! Ugh. Well, I guess...whatever floats your froth!

I assumed that the mishap was something to do with the software glitch that had put my front door iris scanner on the fritz so I called the Red Labour Distro Team and let them know. They said it was quite a common problem (never heard of it happening before. Anyone??) and that it was an easy fix, so the Red they were sending out could deal with both problems.

To be honest, I relished the excuse of having to stay in most of the day and wait for the Red. I was supposed to be meeting up with Marc, but he's just passed up to a White Ranking and I didn't wanna spend an hour and a half on the track just to be told how Yellow Rank coffee houses didn't quite match up to the ones in the White zones. Marc's the nicest guy in the world, but he loves to lord it up at any opportunity. I don't think he really means it, he's just overly proud I guess. I think he forgets, sometimes, that we practically grew up together!

Anyway, the Red arrived at around midday and started work on the console near the door. I could tell from his accent that he must have come from The Badlands originally. It's kinda spooky really; knowing that he'll never rank up past Red. He'll always just being doing the same thing. Makes you wonder if there's any kind of resentment for those who have come from The Badlands. I mean, they've been saved, in effect, but then that's as far as they go. They're pulled from that awful place...and BAM, that's them for the rest of their lives.

The Red (Shibu, according to the receipt that got sent through just now) told me it'd take him a while, maybe an hour or two, so I dug out my headset and logged onto TaxShare. I'd not been on since before I went away for my last set of exams so it took me a while to figure out all the changes. It's nice now that they've lowered the threshold so that you can siphon of a greater percentage of your tax to projects of your choice, but BOY is the interface confusing now! I shared out varying amounts to the Track Improvement Program (Har har!), Badland Intake Initiative and a new local scheme aiming to open up a new Yellow Rank media and leisure complex in an area not far from me. It'd mean less travel for me, but then I'm not sure how long it'll be before I rank up to White...so I might remove sponsoring next month. I usually do smaller sponsorships for a greater number of schemes, but it'd taken me almost half an hour to get that far...so I thought I'd call it a day.

Having conquered my first little challenge, I logged onto the chat servers. Mum was online again but was busy...again. I guess she's just enjoying the sunshine so much! I left her a short message telling her that I hoped she was ok and that I still think I should have sneaked into her suitcase! Lol. Just as I was about to log off, Marc's avatar tapped mine on the shoulder and started yapping about how disappointed he was that I hadn't gone to meet him. "Typical shoddy Yellow Rank housing...Blah blah blah". I was about to reply, when I got a tap on my REAL shoulder that made me jump right out of my seat! It was Shibu. He'd fixed the problems with my Scanner and Enviro-Screens. He realised that he'd scared me and started mumbling an apology. He went scarlet with embarrassment, bless him. I offered him a cup of coffee, but he just mumbled some more and quickly showed himself out.

I spent the rest of the day preparing to go back to work tomorrow. I have a large report due and I'll have to go in half an hour early. Sigh! The trials of going up a rank!

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Oh! If anyone wants to run through the new TaxShare interface with me, that'd be greatly appreciated, just leave a comment below and your network link. I'm generally logged in around 7-9pm.

-Sophie