Some people might consider me a little crazy - and I guess by all standards defined by the collective so-called society I am. And guess what: I couldn't care less. Let me give you an example (today is Saturday, by the way):

I intentionally woke up at 5am this morning. Didn't quite make it at 4:30am, and in fact, it was finally 5:45am when I moved my body out of the bed. Took a quick shower. Did about 10 minutes of a quick yoga set, including the Sun Salutation. Then went into my Mahantarapatha meditation for about an hour. Had two kiwis for first breakfast, then jumped at my computer and spent almost an hour writing a posting to the Unity3D forums. Wasting my time? Possibly ;-)

From 09:00 to 10:00, I did a few little tweaks on TRaceON. I had included some sounds and have forgotten to switch on compression. FIXED (this will save you about 500kB on the download of the Web player). My new level loader now checks if the initial can be loaded immediately instead of checking whether it's a Web player or standalone. Fixed a problem when connecting to the server, which was a problem in the animation / GUI system (I needed to add a new state Invisible to the two existing states None and Off, because Off would not render any of the GUI, but there are some things done in the GUI during log in, in the rendering code, that are needed for this to work - which is, admittedly, not the best software-design, so I may change that later). Improved the style of the GUI skin a little bit (made the box used for the configuration GUI a little more "grey than black" and made the windows a little more opaque than transparent).

Then, my belly told me that two kiwis are simply not enough.

I was about to have a real (cereal) breakfast, when it suddenly hit me (once again).

The names for the levels of TRaceON. This had been knocking on my mind's door every once in a while, but I didn't answer. Until now. Because (and now you might or might not start getting weird feelings about me) ... now ... instead of having my deserved breakfast, I moved back to the computer. And started writing down those level names. And while I did this, this incredible feeling of Joy and Bliss arose inside of me that's so intense that my body still can't take it without tears coming rushing out of my eyes. I call this "weeping in Joy". In some drug movie some guy once said "take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by 1000, and you're not even close". Or something like that. The movie was Trainspotting, and I feel free to use that analogy here, even though I find associating this specific kind of experience with the experiences people have on drugs very dangerous.

I once had a rather deep realization that the true reason why people get addicted to certain drugs is that those drugs kind of mimic the experience I'm talking about. The problem is: Drugs are not the real thing. They're just an illusion, and if you run after illusions you're doomed. They might remind you of this (and that's what I think they're useful for), but there are other, better (and much safer) ways to be reminded. While drugs can never truly satisfy you (which is why you might be unfortunate enough to always want more of it), what I'm talking about here is the ultimate satisfaction. Once you have found this, the world shifts and nothing else matters. Ironically, at the same time, everything matters more than you could ever imagine.

It's like some sort of wonderful, incredibly intense energy that's somehow starting to fill your whole reality. You become totally sharp and clear, and full of joy. You might know this kind of sensation (then I'm lucky, because then you won't think I'm just a crazy fool). And - if I try to describe it in words - it has this very strong feeling of "everything falling into place" associated with it. You could call it home.

To me, it doesn't feel like a reward for something (which is what I would refer to as happiness - that comes and goes). On the contrary, it feels like the source of anything you could ever be rewarded for. It feels like the only thing that's eternal, even though we're usually not aware of it almost all of the time. It is this feeling i want to express into the world we currently live in (most of the time). It's my (and your) nature. In some way, it's quite silent and empty - but at the same time, it's the roar of the whole existence. Perceptions of it may vary, so do the attempts to put this into words ;-)

Well, I gotta move on - my belly still tells me to eat some cereals now.

Oh, the names?

You might be disappointed, after this foreword. Or maybe not. To me, those names shine:

• Arena 01: The Square
• Arena 02: Plus Ceiling
• Arena 03: Jumping Jack
• Arena 04: tRACEon
• Arena 05: The Maze
• Arena 06: Discotheque
• Arena 07: Claustrophobia
• Arena 08: Saviors on Attack!
• Arena 09: Everything in Nothing
• Arena 10: Welcome to Paradise!!!

Each of these names, of course, associates (at least to me, at the moment), what the level will be all about. In JC's Unity Multiplayer TRaceON, you'll get to see Arena 01: The Square (well, that's NOT news because that's the one you already saw in V0.1). And Arena 09: Everything in Nothing.