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31 July 2005

 
First Life
Yesterday Lucia called to give me, she said, my update on the real world. She's been interested in bats lately, and has been on some bat-walks, the last to a batty area on Woodard Bay. There happened along two bat experts, one an amateur bat fanatic from town, the other a Seattle bat expert who was described to me as looking like Wallace Shawn, In other words, I said, he looked like a bat in human form. "Exactly," said Loosh, "I had that thought at the time." She said there was alpha bat expert posturing as they vied to display deep bat-knowledge.
Second Life
The log-a-thon stress test was this evening, and I spent it at the Lily Pad listening to live singer Frogg Marlowe. Enjah got home in time to log in for a time. The Lindens fell short of their 5000 log-ins goal, but said they would hold more log-a-thons, and had been pleased by the way the grid handled the number who did log in. It was unfortunate that some people were unhappy about the day and time of the event - I think Linden Lab probably was trying to have a stress test on a day that would have a lot of people available to log in, but not a day/time that would wreck everyone's weekend if something unforseen had happened. Unfortunately that put it in the middle of a work day for Aus/NZ and the creepy early Monday morning hours for the UK and Europe. I always get the feeling the Lindens are just damned no matter what they try. I am sure the next log-a-thon will be (and rightfully) geared to another time zone.


Sailed from Riverwalk in Ganymede to Cowell then back home to Bodega.

I was thinking about the upside down room and then read it was back!

LL recently hired one of the original visionaries from There - an amazing artificial intelligence expert who was responsible for the dogs among many things. His website has a few incredible little programs like this bird:

It saunters around and you can put seed out by clicking your mouse button. It is amazing.



30 July 2005

 
Amazing Flash Mario movies


 
First Life
Sha is back! Yay! Yesterday when I picked him up I introduced John and Adam, "This is Adam, he's a god - this is John, he's a demi-god." I, of course, am a mere mortal. I asked A if he had new tattoos or was just usually covered up, and he said he's usually covered up, but it was hot and he'd got off at 4. It was 5:30. "What are you doing here, then?" "Waiting for you." Yeah, right. The overheating was a thermostat problem, they took care of various small things, said Sha looks fine, and told me to go and get new tires (been on my list).

Second Life
I found an old newspaper clipping stuck in a copy of Vixen Blues. It seems to indicate that Emma is not quite what she seems, and may have a few secrets.



29 July 2005

 
Second Life
Forgot I had this picture of Osprey and Clio.



 
Second Life
Enjah and I had a photo shoot for "Vixen Blues" yesterday and I made the poster - we went to "The Good Old Days," ahkenatan Grommet's build. We'd just arived when the sim crashed for some reason - better then than while we were working, though. Enjah made the book complete with the back cover photo of a young Emma (she's 75 now) looking very sultry - since it was her first book. I had Anchor and Ozymandias logged in and playing the parts of gawking dudes. I said to Enj that I was getting laggy, what with shiny, 2 alts, and a long draw distance - it was a relief to go back to normal.


After that we were in Grignano when CaptnPower drove up on a desk with Feniks perched on the front like a hood ornament. He gave me a desk, and changed into a small deep pink armored av. He said the man I'd recommended Captn to had turned up, but Captn couldn't really help him. LATER Enjah was making a flamenco dress, I was wearing a suit of lights I'd made, and Salazar, who we'd called to delete a foreign prim, teased us by sitting on, not deleting, the prim. Marcos, who I'd never met, showed up and changed into his shiny suit. I like all the life on the street.



 
First Life
I've been working on getting my green card renewed so that then I can apply for disabilty. I've been working on it since the latter part of June. At that time I rang up the evil 800 number for the government department, and was on hold for a long, long time, then I was treated like sheep by a nasty woman who nonetheless gave me a lot of information. The upshot of her information was that I needed to file by mail, to Tukwila, and attach a letter from my doctor stating why I am requesting a home visit. I made an appointment with my doctor, and asked him if he thought I was a good candidate for a home visit, and he emphatically replied, "Yes!" He was going to mail me the letter, so today, after weeks of letterlessness, I rang to say, "Where is it?" Then I rang the evil 800 number again and got (after a long, long time on hold) a nice woman, who made a point of finding exactly what I need to do as, she said, all the rules were changed at the end of MAY. Now I need to send my barenaked application (covered only by a large check, of course) to Los Angeles, wait for a reply, then sent a representative to the scheduled appointment or write then a letter instead, either one asking for a home visit. It'll be a letter in my case as I don't have any spare representatives handy. In other words, everything the nasty woman told me was wrong and just delayed me by a month and a half.
I hate the paperwork as nothing to do with American immigration makes any sense at all. Here is an excerpt:

You must file this application while in the

What? In the what? What?





28 July 2005

 
Second Life
My master plan is to get the streets in Nova Albion named. I'm thinking up various Drake references that might work (of course). There really aren't many streets. Grignano has 3 - two that run N-S into one that runs E-W. The East-West one goes across a bridge into Sistiana. The North-South streets go up into Miramare.

The white lines are streets and the white block is the Photography Studio. The four-corners-stacked-with-green-dots (people) is the Welcome Area. There's a trolley line that runs from the WA to Luna, which is an old Linden-made shopping center. When I'm going to Grig I usually teleport into Luna and fly northeast. The usual way is to use the telehub in Miramare, but I like Luna better.

Here's the entire map today. I'm the yellow, standing at my gallery. The blue is Enjah's gallery (as I'm Oz right now, and his home is set there). The green is people. You can't even see Grig, but it's west-northwest of me about half an inch. The isolated areas are private islands not part of the main grid - there are many that aren't listed, too, so they are not on the map. There's a new Teen Grid, for the under-18-ers, which is small, and off-limits to adults (as indeed it should be). The first cross-over happened a few days ago: a player had his 19th birthday and was banished to Second Life foreveh. This is immensely bigger than when I began.


 
First Life
SWMNBMIMB told me about a friend whose first, last, and only commissioned artwork was something she'd had a strange, lifelong desire to do. Kismet? Precognition? In any event, once she'd made the giant aardvark in Botswana she had no desire to attempt other commissions.



27 July 2005

 
Last Night in Second Life...
Clio has a project that has become immense - taking snapshots of residents of SL wearing clown noses. She told me to wear the nose last night and do whatever I wanted. I spork-danced, rode around on a bicycle, slashed the air with a huge sword, etc. At one point I was spork dancing and she told me she had taken enough shots of that activity but I kept on going because I was taking pictures myself. I told her I was just doing it to be a brat. She has a HUGE show planned, and Baron G. is making a pink big top for her to use. It will be incredible, I think. Thousands and thousands of pictures. She showed me some she'd taken. She has a very good eye - the pictures were great. As a very sweet thank-you she put all the pictures she'd taken of me and put them in an album. I said I'd just seen that very same album and had wanted it. Alarmed, she said, "Where did you see it?" I said, "Your store!" Ha.
Right before she met me and took pictures I was in Manhattan racing as a giant snail. I got turned around, but I won anyway. There weren't a lot of people there as racers or viewers, perhaps because there was supposed to be an update that morning and sometimes people stay away for a bit after one. We had the update today, instead - everything went fine as far as I am concerned.

Johnny Trouble
Selador sent me a notecard containg Johnny Trouble - w00t. It's, as he said, more of a real story.



26 July 2005

 
First Life
Took my car in to be worked on - poor Sha has been overheating. SWMNBMIMB met me at my beloved garage and took me home. We stopped on the way home and had bbq at the Route 8 joint that was formerly, and briefly, under a different management that was - holy moley - really bad. Now it's fine in a pig-statues-everywhere kind of way, with extra-cheeky waitresses and lots of cars in the parking lot.



25 July 2005

 
This is the coolest thing.


 
Second Life

Hippip told me to go to the secret Tiny city under Neualtenburg, so I did. Last time I went to N-burg it was on the mainland. It looks pretty much the same, I think, although I didn't look around much.


 
I took a photo of a roadkill wombat several years ago, and the other day uploaded it and sent it to Hippip, since I knew he'd like it. He did - and has shown it to a few, select friends who share our warped sensibilities.



Those same warped sensibilities cause me to laugh without fail whenever someone mentions the name "Paula Hitler."



24 July 2005

 
Second Life
Those rascals won't stop brawling. Well, alts will be alts.

Anchor looks like he's winning, here, but wily Ozymandias pulled through in the end

Yesterday I spend hours and hours cleaning off my hard drive and making DVD backups. And hours setting up a market booth that may or may not work out. I have all kinds of places all over SL, it seems.

Today I spent hours cleaning my inventory looking for the photos from the first contest and waiting for Enjah to come on, as she needed them for the "Best of" exhibit she's having at the Mysterio Gallery. Hung out with Hippip for a bit, and also met some fellows who asked me if I had the first thing I made in SL. We all rezzed the first things we ever made - mine is a leopard-print torus "beanbag chair." I didn't make it and think it was good, I just made it to sit on at the building class I attended a year ago, taught by Higbee P. in a long, red Vashy-like coat. He was great. It was an hour I think. Higbee had a mwahaha sound effect and I can remember saying, "Cue evil laughter," and Higbee making his mwahaha. I kept thinking if I closed a notecard without hitting "keep" that it was deleted - so I kept taking the class notes over and over and over. After class I flew to a convenient mountaintop and made an enormous ice cream cone which I afixed to my head. I flew back and said, "You've taught me well!" and H. doing that ho-ho-ho thing



22 July 2005

 
Goofing around in SL with Enjah and Selador. We had scheduled a photo-shoot on Parrot island; from there we went to The Speakeasy to take pictures for Johnny Trouble - it was shut, so we used the outside. I managed to make a typo on "Johnny Touble" - just a small thing no one would ever notice - like the TITLE.

Put more things for sale on SLBoutique. For some reason probably having to do with summer in the Northern Hemisphere I haven't been selling anything much.









21 July 2005

 
Just got home... at 7:48 I was driving east on Route 8 just before it joins Route 101 and saw a car beside the road. A green van up ahead, also on the side, was backing towards it - eccentric behavior. I thought the green vanner must be going to help the car. Drove on 1.03 seconds and there's a wall of cars - something had happened and traffic was stopped. It started up after 5 minutes and was moving well - I thought the crisis had passed. It stopped again, and stayed stopped. I watched a gap up the hillside, and saw no cars cross it in about half an hour. Traffic edged forward as space opened when cars drove onto a cop turn-around in the median and headed north. When I reached the spot I did the same - headed north, exited on Mud Bay Road, then hit another jam there -- only a brief stop. I got to jin shin a bit late, but Frank knew about the traffic as Eileen (Mrs Jin Shin) had rung him. Left jin shin, went to groceterialise for a few minutes, then came home to the blinging lake. The day is clear and warm, but breezy - so it is very pretty.

Horrid news from London.



20 July 2005

 
This is a year old, but it was new to me: an amazing bicycle messenger race through Manhattan, filmed with a helmet-mounted videocamera.


 
Seems that (if I understand the rumor correctly) it might've been the person + syncophants I wrote* about in a post way back in March who perpetrated the hack job and script theft this week as revenge against LL for his recent permanent banishment.

*March 27-05: "I was appalled at how horrid some of the people on the black buildings side were. I certainly wouldn't describe it all as mental illness, but there was a perverse and ugly way these people chose to conduct themselves that is not within the boundaries of normal, healthy mental processes. It makes me wonder if, speaking generally, there should be a clearinghouse of information or perhaps health-provider notification for people whose behaviour results in them being banned from online environments such as SL."



19 July 2005

 
I sailed a long way and only stopped as I was unseated crossing sim lines. Later I rated Kanker G. and told him I was a lousy sailor but I was sailing everywhere, thanks to him. I sailed around Fairchang Island, which is where they have been racing. I also bought the brand new (had to wait for Damien F. to make the boxes so Washu Z. could fill them - that new) particle hair that I think may revolutionise SL as it moves - unlike prim hair. I told Washu she could make particle merkins - heh. They only have black hairstyles right now - so I got some black hair and did a lot of handstands to see it move. Went to a giant snail race, which I won. For some reason I am a good snail racer. When I remember to turn off "shiny," anyway. I saw Kanker G. in the audience and saluted him (well, verbally). He came out and raced, and got second. Enjah fell in the water and didn't finish. Her heart was not in it.

Two of the little flying insects I made to go with the Tinies.

posted by - 11:54 PM


18 July 2005

 
There was an update at 3:20 today - basically a blue flag dropped and told everyone to log out. It turns out it was an emergency security fix. Someone had released a hacked version of the client allowing the user to have godmode powers and view source data for scripted items like the Seburo. They posted a link to the client, and stolen scripts, to the net. This is rather amazing.


 
More weirdness from inside my brain (scary!)


A documentary about Japan on Grignano Public Broadcasting

We had a nice awards ceremony and talked a lot about dead wombats and roadkill in general. I'd seen Goyan's roadkill Tiny on the forum, and I now have it as his entry in the tiny Tiny contest. Wombats because on a visit I kept urging my brother to stop so I could take pictures of roadkill, which he did for one wombat, then declined in disgust however much I pleaded afterwards. I sent my wombat picture to Hippip, as I figured he would appreciate it. Sel, Travlin, and Nellie all came, as did Enjah and Eileen.

Yesterday I made some weird little creatures that fly above the Tiny's head. I made a bee, a butterfly, a dragonfly, and - as a special commission from Forcythia, a cloud of flies for Way to wear when he is a tiny skunk.



16 July 2005

 




 


Still sailing...








 
Spent hours hanging - or attempting to hang - this show, starting before 7 pm and finishing at 3 am. I enjoyed the visits from 36 bazillion people - and I didn't have to do anything today - so it was all right. On the spur of the moment - prodded by Fairieanne G., I made a poster for a fill-in contest - a tiny TINY contest - which can be entered with any Tiny snapshot, not just those taken in the Photography Studio. I envisage Tiny judges and Tiny awards presenters, and Tiny photos hung downstairs at a level for Tiny eyes.... then ON to the Tunnel of Love contest! I had three people arrive in the gallery LAST NIGHT AT 1 am because they wanted to enter the Tunnel of Love contest. I hope that bodes well.


 
Judy writes from Alberquerque:
"You've been on my mind lately. Wish you around so we could go to the art show downtown together this afternoon. I'm off to see artwork by Gronk. He's from LA (maybe you've heard of him) and is doing the sets for "Ainadmar" which will be at the Santa Fe Opera this season. The opera is based on the life of Fredrico Garcia Lorca (as seen through the eyes of an actress who loved him, Margarita Xirgu - though Lorca was gay). I'm reading both Lorca's biography and his poetry right now. Anyway, for my birthday we'll be going to the opera and I'm trying to get prepped for it. Gronk has also designed sets for productions by the Los Angeles Opera and the Paris Jazz Festival. I find I enjoy the contemporary operas most, and love the solos and duets (by women) best. The sets at the Santa Fe Opera are incredible, so that's a cool thing too. Gronk will be at the museum this afternoon and his work on display includes journal pages and drawings, as well a painting he has done especially for the show. I sure wish I could share stuff like this with you. Bill is going with me this afternoon, but it isn't really his thing.
A week from today I start work on my 6th movie. It's called Sympathy for the Devil and is about a biker who beats the devil at his own game. A very simple concept with lots of special effects and some sex thrown in. I'll be working with a director I know well, so I'm pleased about that. Making a movie or two a year is the only creative work I'm doing right now. I still teach a little and dabble in the writing but mostly I work as an editor (for the Southwest Critique Service) and that way I'm trying to keep my skills up.
This August it will be nine years since we moved here. I still love the place, my house, and all my animals. Last weekend we rode 35 miles in the mountains (yup, we got lost!) and so I'm feeling pretty fit. We've had two bear sightings on the trail this year so far and last weekend one of the horses dragged a friend of mine to the middle of a pond, so he could go swimming (it was HOT) so there's always something amusing happening."



15 July 2005

 
Almost 40 entries in the Beach Blanket Tringo (shore-theme) contest! It closed at 5:30 and now I need to go and hang the show. The next contest? Tunnel of Love:


That's Selador and Enjah. Sel said he wanted to read it. I said, "Read it - you might have to WRITE IT." So he did! Enjah made my poster into a book, and Selador wrote the (short but snappy) book on a notecard that is inside. We had a celebratory dance-around yesterday at the Mysterio Gallery (couldn't build at Grignano temporarily due to noobie griefing). Sel is in England, Enj is in Texas, and I live in the wilds of Washington State. I proclaimed us a gang of trouble-makers, with Sel being "Johnny Trouble."

At Grignano, the noobie griefer attacked when I was in IM and couldn't really see what was going on, but he came in and I tried to be nice about it as I could see it was a matter of newness and young-ness, not a vicious nature. Salazar ported in and explained to the young man that his bullets had put us over our prim limit and caused chunks of legitimate builds to be returned into Salazar's inventory. Salazar was very nice, and today when I arrived I found the young man had been given the task of "security," which gave him a reason to behave in a mannerly way. I got him to enter the contest, which he did surprisingly well for someone who didn't know how to move his p.o.v. around.


 
Flying Tako

The Flying Tako is a new type of sailboat that uses the power of the fickle SL winds. I got one the night before last, and although I'm a rotten silor, I've taken to sailing everywhere. I sailed to my event today, then sailed afterwards. I had a drop-in guest: Stampshady came by and sailed with me for a while. Although we'd never met I knew his name from his creative work and his house in Clementina, which was very beautiful (I remember it clearly) and recently was deleted and lost in a sim re-set, so S. and his wife are currently homeless. He says he will build something even better. I enjoyed his attitude - very laid-back. He's been in SL since Beta, which he says was the most fun thing he ever did.

Ironically, I'm sailing about in SL, and if I raise my eyes above the monitor I see rl Summit Lake with rl boats.


 
Dancing with Psi


Yesterday I dragooned Psi into going with me to find some kind of romantic-themed poseballs for the next contest - we laughed and laughed. Here we are dancing in an Anomations shop.



12 July 2005

 
I just got home from work - it finally worked out all right, but it was not exactly easy. This morning H, the person who received a severe tongue-lashing from me last autumn (and I was right although it took a while for the two co-workers who thought I'd been "harsh" to realise it - both have since quit), rang me to ok the design - said she loved both designs and that they were so lovely tears had spontaneously sprung to her eyes. Well, that's cool. I always like it when someone appreciates what I've done. So I went to school, arriving, as planned, at about 3:30 (well, a few minutes past that). My idea was that it would just be Tiff and me, and we'd have no set end time. Tiff tells me she has to leave at 6:15. I set up the designs to print, and of course the heat builds quickly to a bazillion degrees. I'd printed a few when the printer jammed. It hasn't been right since someone who shall remain nameless decided to use it for every silly thing, and keeps sucking in several sheets at a time. I cleared it, restarted, printed on plain paper to get rid of excess toner then went back to the transfers (specific transfers for this printer, which worked like a charm last time I used them). Jammed again. I cleared, etc. Jammed with a not-nice noise. I discovered it'd rolled and fused several sheets around a roller. I cut along the part I could see with a spoon, burning myself on the million-degree innards, and waited for Tiff so I could ask her to find pliers. Finally she comes, goes out and borrows pliers from a visiting Bureau of Indian Affairs man, and pulls the paper out for me. I start printing, putting the papers in one at a time. Hell - it's only 100 - not that terrible. I did something and it jammed but this time was easier to get the paper out... maybe that happened twice. I resolutely continued, then when Tiff came back (she had been working on paperwork necessary to actually having a school - of course my problems are much more important to me - ha!) she took over feeding the printer and I worked on the design for the motorcycle T shirt for Brad. We were doing that little project as our fun incentive of the day. Did that, printed all the transfers, got done by Tiff's extended 7pm deadline. Then I staggered off feeling the consequences of hours inside an oven - but not as bad as I might've. So, yay, that's done!


 
Finally I actually send an email to Dave in Illinois...
...I haven't been writing emails - I haven't even been reading them all! What's up with me? Who knows - as usual. Today I am going to school to print 100 T shirt transfers. I did the designs, but I'm damned if I want to print them until the people paying for it have okayed them - so I'm waiting until I get some kind of news. Others don't QUITE understand that these things need to happen hours before I come in - or otherwise commit myself. I did a business card re-do for a woman, and after everything was done she said, "Oh - could you take out line X?" So I had to go back and do another stupid hour of work for nothing. Anyway, school frequently thinks it's ok to tell me that a few tiny changes need to be made when I get there. Wrong-o!

I just called school - so when the person who needs to ok it comes back from the FIELD TRIP, I will get notice.

Dave replied right away since he is good and I am bad...
I check your 2nd life. To see what your up to and pick up a little real life at the same time. I believe you enjoy each equal. Went out today and go 30 pounds of blueberries. Might be a cure in there some where. Then I waited for a new freezer. My old one 18 months old died last year taking my blueberries with it. I'm doing fine health wise. Going to St Louis the 20th to fine out about my 6 month MRI checkup.
We will move this Friday.......... Rach is doing most of the work. I say about 90%..........
While at the new place I saw a hawk land in a tree about 15 feet from the house. I was inside.
There was a blue heron walking around the other side of the lake. I also saw a doe wit 3 fawns. Plus a rabbit or 2. I wonder who will stay after we move in our place.



11 July 2005

 
In SL:
Last Tango in Grignano
I made my alts dance with each other and they were none too happy.

I made a couple of LL recruitment posters - I mean, I think this is going to attact recruits, don't you?

Actually that's Osprey dancing with herself on a set I made and used in Newcomb sandbox. Lately I've been going to the ElvenGlen sandbox as I don't get shot there and it isn't crowded. I got shot the other day in Morris - Morris! I'd gone there as Island Sandbox was having weird crashy problems. I think we need more sandboxes. Some people spend 90% of their time in sandboxes, like Tay, who works on a platform over Goguen. The sandboxes are generally full of interesting space ships and buildings, but occasionally some experimental noob will fill it with physical objects, rendering it unusable, basically. It's fun to watch them, though, if I happen to be there at the right time.

I noticed the nice swarm script written by Apotheosis S., in the forum, so I am thinking of making a swarm of deadly flying gloves. Or nails.

RL: Jin shin, then doctor appointment (I go about once every two years). He was telling me about his wife, who also holds a green card, who was in Paris when two men jumped her and ripped her purse from her hands, breaking her finger. She had fought tooth and nail as (unwisely) all her papers (green card, passport) and plastic were inside it. Shortly after, when they spoke with a credit card company, they were told there was already a charge on the card by the snatchers - a charge put on the card in Egypt.

The T shirt transfers arrived.

I'm reading River Horse, which Enjah sent me, and which I'm enjoying immensely.



10 July 2005

 
In SL: Elf Clan meeting and Rhiannon and I were (surprise!) made the first members of the Artisan Guild. Open build on the new Elf sim, Elf Haven, so Enjah and I made waterfalls (just goofing around). We set up our things in a little market stall. I worked on T shirts, making a ring-necked T-shirt blank for male and female (they have different match points even though they're the same templates).
In RL: Did laundry, got various things ready for my 2 appointments tomorrow. Huge double, intense, rainbow outside the window for a bit. Got very good views of a fishing osprey. Watched a bald eagle flapping about. Emailed T-shirt designs to Tiff to show to Hilsy. Transfers are supposed to arrive here tomorrow. If all goes well I'll print them at school on Tuesday.


 
Anji writes:
"Ryan’s special phrase of late is "I do it"....he wants to do it all himself. Things are taking a very long time to get done around here. He also has an obsession with pockets and putting things in them. Very inappropriate, large things...thus a tantrum ensues. The kids enjoy watching "funniest home videos" on a Saturday evening. I get in trouble for laughing too much. Steve laughs at me laughing. After every little ‘mishap’ Ryan (even though he is watching what happens) asks "happened?" Then we have to explain what happened. ie...the dog fell in the swimming pool (or worse), and then Ryan says "oh!". This occurs every single time. Caitlin’s pocket money has taken on a new twist. Instead of her getting her $5 - minus the naughty behaviour fee , she receives the full $5 on each Saturday and then has to pay us money when she misbehaves. She has to physically take the money out of her money box and hand it over. This way she can see the effects of the naughty fee at work! The first week of implementing this method saw her with $4. I could be rich by the time she’s 7. Caitlin asked a most hilarious question during June. She asked me ( words to this effect) "do you have any milk left in your body for the next baby, or did you use it all up on Ryan"....WHAT THE? ...after I'd stopped choking on my cuppa I had to inform her that "No, there isn’t any milk, and there won’t be any more babies." And on that note............"



08 July 2005

 

Yes, well... I just HAD to make jackalope antlers... no matter how goofy something is I always want to push it that little bit to make it totally bizarre.


 
Yesterday I had lunch or early dinner with Tiff, who gave me all the children's drawings from summer school that I am to use as raw material for a T shirt design. I saw her standing on the walkway with a long, rolled up collection of papers, and said, "There's a muddy brown aura coming from those papers - it doesn't bode well." I was making up the aura part, but she'd already told me the drawings were less than satisfactory (not the children's fault - an adult wouldn't come up with anything too fabulous, most likely, if he walked in cold and was told to draw a shirt design). Tiff thought I meant that the papers being rolled up was a bad thing - no, no - that part was fine. We unrolled them on the table and I kept picking up hopeless-case drawings and waving them at Tiff, saying, "What? You don't think THIS is wonderful?" I found one that was interesting - then saw it was by a teacher's daughter. What's wrong with that, you say. Nothing, nothing... except she doesn't go to our school. Then I saw one that has no name (so I approach it with some trepidation). It depicts a giant sea turtle in the water, with a canoe alongside, two coconut palm trees on the shell (along with some other things I haven't bent my mind around yet... a ladder? french fries?), and a shining sun. On the end part of the shell, where a tail would be, had a tail been drawn, is a little man with a fishing rod. The little fisherman is totally cool. On the reverse is a very nice orca. I came in here to fiddle with it for a bit while my coffee cooled - I was rather shocked to see it's 1pm now.



06 July 2005

 
In Second Life yesterday I was going around to the various places where I have things for sale and it one place there was a white box with black letters saying "missing image" where there had formerly been an image of my outfit. I looked in my inventory and, sure enough, the image in my inventory was the same. It's scary to think about things disappearing into the ether. In that case I just uploaded the image again, because it had been created on my computer first. In the case of things that were created in SL there is no backup. I have heard of people losing their entire inventories. That would truly suck. I make things all the time - even though I don't have anywhere to put them - and it would be traumatic to lose them. I think perhaps I should make some nice screenshots just in case things go. In a way, having made things I can't put out would not be much different from making things that have disappeared. I'd hate to lose things I sell, though - tents, etc.

There's an update today - 1.6.8 I think - and some people have wondered why LL has scheduled an update the day before the account giveaway begins, since lately we've had several really bad days following updates. Maybe not this time, though - we'll see after it opens (supposed to be noon-ish).

It was one year ago today that I came in SL - after hanging on the portal for about 10 months unable to join as I was on dial-up, watching the promotional movie over and over (fireman, bouquet, ho ho ho). I was spawned and wandered off to explore the world. The first person I spoke with was Hiro P. at his house. He gave me advice for adjusting my trousers ("loose pants never seem to look right") and during the course of the conversation I asked him "What are these strange knitting motions we are making?" He laughed (ho ho ho) and said, "You look at your hands when you type, don't you." Indeed, sir, indeed. He also told me about his free vendors, and even though I was silent I absorbed his words, which came to magically make sense in a day or two. Various places I remember seeing and adoring from the get-go were Grignano and the other city sims, Abbotts Aerodrome, the Kazenojin tower, the Ivory Tower of Primitives, Seacliff, Avalon. Many others, too. The world was considerably smaller then. The creation of private islands wasn't a trend. Land barony was a big issue, people gamed the rating system, and there was no Tringo. I remember hearing people long for snow.



05 July 2005

 
Yesterday was Independence Day, and even though I'm on my last legs I'm Elizabeth's sister and I have to come through for her no matter the cost. She was not invited elsewhere, so I picked her up and we A.) played Scrabble as is our tradition (her game opener: zone - pretty good for a Down's Syndrome woman with no help), B.) goofed around in Second Life as she learned how to walk, fly, teleport, and get trapped into tight corners of buildings, C.) ate fresh, local strawberries and drank champagne, D.) watched fireworks around the lake (well, can't see the ones at the other end, but can hear them), E.) did a lot of arithmetic over and over as she has lost most of her math skills (I used to make her do a lot of adding up but I haven't been around the past couple of years). Today I'm wiped out, and may sit here and stare with glazed eyes at the monitor.

Sunday was NOT the 4th of July, however, people seem to celebrate the 4th happily on the 3rd of July, now, as they don't have to arise early the next morn. The fireworks were perhaps 10X the next day's level, and there was a highly-amplified party somewhere on the lake which drilled hours and hours and hours of the most horrendous karaoke directly into my brain with no escape. Imagine people - chiefly men who I think might've been drunk - who have a complete inability to carry a tune and NO INHIBITIONS. Add vicious amplification that carries a mile with no difficulty. NOW add the golden moldies of Neil Diamond. Death, where is thy sting?


 
On Friday I ordered some T shirt transfers - actually remembered where I'd ordered them from three years ago and went back to their site. That was quite a feat, in a way. Anyway, I filled out the annoying long form, then hit "submit" and it threw up a text page of great complication, but offered no shipping options or total cost or... anything. No email confirmation. So all the long weekend I assumed it hadn't really "taken" and I'd need to reorder. I just got off the phone with ProDistributors of Lubbock, Texas. Yes, my order did go through! As for the amount, "I don't know," to which I replied, "That's good enough for me. What about shipping - how long will it take?" "Four days, and we'll get it out today, so it will arrive next Monday." "Yay!" "We'll put your email address* into the computer and let you know when it is shipped." They seem eccentric, or maybe they just have bad computers (the form was horrid so maybe it's bad form-builders). Eccentric is good! Yay!

*Which was on the form I filled out.



03 July 2005

 
I made a skewer of meat, mushrooms, and veg. for a prim bake-off - limit 10 prims. I like it because it uses only textures from the library - the meat is bark, the mushroom gills are striped fabric. More fun than using food textures, at least to me.


 
I went to the Looper house for dinner last night, which was nice. Jim cooked lamb (he always cooks lamb to buck me up) and it was delicious. Looper and I sat and talked. I laughed a lot as I answered her questions about SL, and she laughed a lot telling me about the mystery baby). Mozart was playing in the background, and the evening was cloudy and cool as I like it. The mystery baby: a grandbaby of a friend. The friend seems to be unwilling to speak of this baby, although (according to L's answers to my questions) SHE knows that Looper knows that there is a baby. But through the magic refractions of the societal prism since there's some reason for the baby to not be spoken of, presto! the baby is a non-baby... not even an ex-baby. The prism seems to be a very old one to me, although with the fog descending rapidly on this society, it may be a very new one. I know not. I don't take part in the society-at-large. I work in Indian country and the rest of the time I live in my head. Now that I spend a lot of time in Second Life, it's a bit like living in Philip's head (founder of SL). At the Second Anniversary I thanked him in an IM for letting me into his dream, as it's a wonderful place. I was misty-eyed for 1.3 seconds, then went back to my usual mode.



02 July 2005

 
Last night I dreamt that there was no water in the house, so when I got up this morning the first thing I did was try the tap. Water! Great. So five minutes later there was no water - not psychic knowledge on my part, just experience living in this house. It's bad having no water even when there's some warning - it's worse having no warning.
((was only off a short time))

 

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I want to ask for thoughts about improving the world -- what do people need? How can things be organised?