Well, I am not going to break my camera, so no photo. My white hair is a fright anyway.

When I was little, back in the 1950s, computers were huge, the size of buildings. Or they were in scary movies about how they would take over.

I was an electronics tech in the US Navy for 6 years. 4 years aboard ship: our ship got brushed by a hurricane. Two guys got broken bones, the rest of us got out of it okay. The exterior of the ship had to be painted before we went into port, so as to not scare the families. Somewhere i have photos of Pompei and the Acropolis. I don't remember mention of Herculaneum.

Fast forward to university. My third major was computer science. No punch cards, I just missed using those. We did have a DEC VAX 11/730 to write Pascal programs on. Pascal went obsolete about 6 months after i graduated.

I had already decided to repair computers rather than write software. Which I did for a little over 30 years in various locations in the central and eastern time zones. Some were minimum wage, even with my Bacherlors degree, and one was $29 per hour. Hurrah !

Now I'm a retiree.

Oh, computers. First one I used was to do simple work in Calculaus, professor said it was simple calculus work, via a dial up modem to a university from the community college. That was one semester. The other professors and instructors there weren't too keen on them.

At the 4 year university I transferred to, had the VAX and a few ms-dos computers. Those were Tandy SX-100s, which are XT-compatibles. I mostly used the Tandys for word processing. Other students used them for Lotus 1-2-3. By the time I graduated, the computers had Windows XP.

Skipping ahead, I worked for several mom-and-pop computer companies, and a couple of Fortune 500 companies. IBM AS-400s, various desktop computers: Sun workstations, XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Along with watching Cray computers for proper operation.

My first home computer was a 1kilobyte Sinclair ZX-81. I later bought the 16 KB ram pack to go with it.

About 11 or 12 years ago I found CC2. Bought it. I literally had no one to talk to about it, and we still had dial up in my area back then. This was before web pages. I did eventually find Yahoo groups, but we were still on dial up. Had to share the phone line with relatives.

I found a few web host and put up a few of my maps. I have had a domain for years now, and I put my maps up there. At first I used jpg, but was convinced to switch to png. Which I did. Crestar's surface maps were in 180x235 mile maps. Hundreds of them.

It is possible you can find my struggles with turning those maps into one huge map. After around a year or so, I gave up and went with 2 Fractal Terrains 3 maps. One for each hemisphere. Before I had only mapped the southern hemisphere.

Maps. Including my CC2 ones I have mostly taken down... I think I have made around 6,000 maps so far. So about 1,500 in CC3/CC3Plus.

Whew. I think that is enough.

I used the Island chain 2022 Annual for this. The right side land mass is mostly correct. The rest is me using random island chains and island random placements. More work to be done. Some symbols used in Runequest maps don't exist elsewhere, I'll come up with something. ( Fixed a typo.)

The Blarl Islands aren't on the original map. This is map 35 out of 120.

Here is the original.

My version. I like the large number of islands better. And on my map you can see the hexagons. Still many things to do, labels, rivers, hills, etc.

Oops. Take out the png map and add in a better jpg map.

First is the area map, 475' x 380'. This could be refereed as open, or a cutaway.

By open I mean the stairs are suspended over nothing, or it is a long way down to rock or water.

Then I'll post parts so you can see details.

upper left first.

next upper left piece.

More detail. The red letters in Engine Room says Danger and Power Supply. Probably need to make them larger.

I started working on this awhile back. Maybe I'll finish it, maybe not.

I had to jump up the Bulkhead effects so they would show up at this scale. Longest is 410' widest is 240'.

900 pixel jpg, 2000 gallery.

Aha ! Wall shadow on the cliff was set for 40%. Set now to 50% opacity like everything else.

Rocks moved to their own sheet with less length shadows.

Updated Kanthor Islands. I think I got the text the way I want it.

I made more of a river into a bay than a cave, not much refinement. Probably need to tone down some of the cliff/glacier effects. Took just a few minutes to do this.

Trees and rocks.

Sparsely populated with debris and a few skeletons. Blood trail from left entrance. Some chests behind a secret door lower part of the map. Loosely based on a watabou (spelling ?) map.

Be careful of the ballista !

A preliminary cave system. Upper cave, inhabited. Lower cave, they didn't survive.

I wrote this poem over ten years ago, I feel it is appropriate.

title: Winter Sunset

paleolithic, but not scientific, just my imagination.

[ Copyright by me, 2003. All Rights Reserved. ]

The sunset for winter,

the last one for many days,

was upon the cave people.

Outliers arrived,

from their smaller,

less defensible,

smaller storage caves,

for the past several days.

The leaves were falling,

the wind was brisk,

a distant sound,

of saber tooth tigers,

feeding.

Mammoths' wool,

thicker this year,

lets prepare,

for extra snow.

The thorn fence is in place,

the opening is guarded,

by Swift One and

his pal,

Big Spearman.

They took out the last saber tooth,

to attempt to get in,

during the last Winter Night,

made a pleasant relief,

from dried mammoth meat.

A patrol of hunters,

went out to sweep the Valley,

some smaller families are missing,

the early arrivals,

having not yet appeared,

and the ones always last,

came yesterday.

Hope Too-Lazy remembered,

to carry his spear,

point backwards,

you shoulda seen the look on his face,

when the wolf jumped at his back,

that spear point,

startled the wolf to,

Too-Lazy survive,

but not the wolf.

Smell-Far comes out of the cave,

she shout, "People blood on the air !

Hunters Up and Out !"

Then they arrive,

after we get all hunters and learners,

in place,

what left of 5 families,

saber teeths got the rest.

Well, we make sweep of Valley,

come Spring,

some of the youngers,

need spear throw practice,

we teach sabers we not food !

They all in now,

behind the thorn fence,

those that gonna make it,

lets hope for the best.

Maybe some still out there,

trying to get Home,

but we gotta get the fence closed,

before the Darkness settles in...

Things walk in the Night,

some of it saber teeth,

some wolves,

Mammoth blunder about,

maybe something else out there,

it big, we leave it alone.

Ha ! Too-Lazy made it !

Got 4 People with him,

one broken arm,

rest cut up,

we look after them,

4 hunters go out behind them,

some saber teeths back off,

we learn their markings,

so can take them out in the Spring.

We smile at them,

they smile back,

we laugh,

they not like that,

and move off.

Close thorn fence,

Too-Lazy say are no more coming,

we remember them in Spring,

and then hunt for saber teeths,

that think People meat easy to have.

We teach them stay away from us,

or learn to live with fewer numbers,

like we did,

in the past.

Spearmen watch the cliff above,

others watch around thorn fence,

we do better than 5 winters ago,

more survive.

Singer walks out of Home Cave,

to sing good-bye to Sunset,

we will not see it for many days.

She sings of birds,

travel and hoping,

of mammoth slow walk across land,

of quick saber teeths and wolves,

fighting for the spoils,

of our hunts.

She sings of the bright dots in sky,

at night, glistening like fires,

of Old Ones,

those who live and die before us live.

She sings of the lonesome time,

when we were few, now we many,

maybe we survive now,

teach saber teeth to stay away.

The Sun lowers behind mountains,

Darkness comes on snow feet,

tiny flakes slowly spin out,

of gathering darkness.

Spring be here by and by,

but now it is Winter Night.

Stay close to the fire,

we have enough to eat this winter,

more of us not get killed,

by wolves and saber teeth,

Tamer, he say he has

tamed some wolves,

to help guard,

we see if that true,

and if they good with us,

during the Hunt.

Winter Night here,

feel the Darkness,

like spider web,

on face.

We pull thorns and pile rocks,

about Cave entrance,

and settle in,

for long Winter Sleep.

Spring arrive,

we teach sabers lesson,

they not soon forget.

Too-Late brought a skin with him,

what Smart-Tak have found,

before he got eaten,

it full of flints,

ready to be made into points

and knives.

Lul-Sar bring bundle of sticks,

they be made into spears,

over the winter.

Saber teeth get surprise,

next Spring.