An Amazing Discovery!

I woke up this morning, and something unbelievable has happened... we've been scramblign around to explain it and I haven't had a chance to write about it until now. It's still mind-boggling.

After writing to you and scanning the picture of my little dream-friend last night, I left it near the machines. Between one of our focusing lenses used for the scanning device and a piece of involvium, to be specific.

And what did I find when I woke up?... my dream creature had disappeared from the page! But hold it, that's not the amazing part.

Sitting right near the paper was my dream creature. Real, three-dimensional... and physically here as I am.

Holy crap, what have they found? What IS this stuff? At this very moment, our engineer is adjusting the machine to see if he can duplicate this effect. I'm shaking -- not sure if I want it to succeed or not.

Stay tuned...

Sketchbook from Tonight --

It’'s this island... I’'ve never felt so creative. You should see my notebook. I've never sketched so much in one sitting. I have a throbbing pain in my neck from not looking up the entire time I had my head buried in my pad. But here are some of the sketches that are the result. The team, me (after this all-night rager of course. I'm much more together looking normally, I swear. lol)... and an amazing old sculpture I found crumbling at the entrance of a cave temple. Or did I dream it? It's not clear at the moment...

J.S. Reporting from Wonderland...

Okay, I’m not a mental case. The whole geography of this island has to be changing literally overnight. We set up camp on the beach and woke up in a snow-peaked mountain range. Ashton Kutcher, sweetie, unless you’re here, and you’re planning on jumping out with cameras, then I’m officially freaked out. I don’t want to wake up on the edge of a mile-high cliff tomorrow.

Memories on the Line.

I caught myself staring at the makeshift clothesline that the team has set up, thinking about my sister, Trish. Again. There was a t-shirt with a monkey face on it hanging on the line, and I was reminded of our adventure camping a few summers ago when she hung up her Paul Frank t-shirt (that I had gotten for her birthday) and forgot about it. An hour into the drive home, we had to turn around and go back for it, despite my objections that I'd buy her another.

I found some footsteps heading down a path. I’m going to follow them before the landscape pulls the ole’ switcheroo on me. Again.

Unfamiliar Places I've Already Visited?

There is a giant boulder on the beach that wasn’t there yesterday! I swear! I’m not crazy. I'm not sleep deprived, and I didn’t eat any of the funky mushrooms growing around the island. I don't care what anybody says, I'm thoroughly creeped out. “Onward!” the team says. Wish I knew which direction that is.

What Kind of Place is This?

This is one WEIRD island. Something about it just feels “off” to me. And as a side note, our navigation beacons and map software doesn't work here, or else I'd have you locating us from an online map program.

I went exploring today and lost my way back to camp. It's strange, I used a set of markers that the IEV explorers left on a few trees, but they were off. I ended up on another side of the island, by some waterfalls. How does that happen? How does a trail of breadcrumbs lie to you? Ugh, maybe I'm just working too hard; I've been pulling long days alongside the technicians.

Observation Notebook, Expedition Day 2

When exploring today with a couple of the team members on a survey, and we ran across
evidence that we're not the first ones here... or not alone. An old treehouse made of flotsam and jetsam, and a totem of some kind. Both look like they haven't been used in a while.

Here are a few sketches. I finally found my sketchbook and got the mechanic to help me out to scan it. As I thought, one of those things WAS a scanner... of sorts.

Anyway, here's my attempt at rendering what I saw:

My First Day on Safari.

I've made it to the island. It's certainly in the middle of nowhere. Nice beach, though. Wish I'd brought my swimsuit. The expedition manager is a fellow member of the female persuasion... maybe I can get one from her.

But she's got her hands full right now. She's responsible for the equipment and supplies, and they've brought a lot of gear for this expedition. It almost unbelievable how much one person can keep on them... it almost defies physics.

I can't make head or tails of half this stuff. Its all rivets and wires, pipes and valves. It looks like a garage sale at Dr. Who's house. Once I get settled and dig-up my sketchbook, I'll sketch some of the stuff. One of the team members is a pretty great sketch artist. Maybe he'll show me some contour techniques to improve my own modest drawings.

Maybe I can even post one... one of these weirdo contraptions has got to be a scanner.

Anyway, a bit of reportage: The team is setting up camp and getting ready to run some experiments. They're pretty focused on a device with some big lens on it and an articulating arm. And having some trouble with it. While they get it up and running, yours truly might do the Nancy Drew thing and explore the island. I am, after all, a bona-fide certified journalista. I don't know if this story is going to add up to anything. All of its still seems like hocus-pocus to me.

Any of you guys hear about Twitter? Its this system where you can send out these short blog posts to a network of your friends. I've got my handy blackberry, so maybe I'll post observations on it as I'm out in the bush exploring. That is, if I can get a signal out here of the boonies...

Tomorrow out!

GREETINGS FROM J.S. TOMORROW!

LOL! Yup, it’s my new blogger name. I know it’s cheesy... but hey, if I’'m going to a Brave New World, why keep my old “unbrave” name? This is my first post, so please be gentle. The editor wanted me to start this blog to coincide with a puff-piece I’'m working on about some company exploring the Metaverse. So, here I am.

For those of you keeping score (then again, I just met you!), it’s been 33 days since I last saw my sister, Trish. She was always a self-absorbed little freak. Last time we talked I had to practically blackmail her just to check-in with mom and dad to let them know she was still alive. Now she’s disappeared somewhere in the Metaverse doing who knows what. That'’s why I agreed to take this gig. To be honest, I'’ve been morbidly curious for a while to see the Metaverse -- I’'ve just never had a reason. Now I have one: to find my sister and give her a swift kick in the @#$%!