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31 August 2005

 
Second Life
Barnesworth's fruit loops at Burning Life
Rhiannon's group project, Dream House, is really interesting - every time I pop in to work I see what the rest have added and changed - very nice.
Here are two of my little birds that fly around the Brownstone East - I first put the nest in the tree, then moved it as that was too close to the property line. Now it's on the roof, which is better for the rezzing of the birds unless they get caught in the elevator shaft.
Ozymandias had to go and see Jonquille N's Burning Life "Ozymandias" 3d tribute to Shelley's poem.



30 August 2005

 
Second Life

People are nutzoid.

Now if I accidentally fly over my property line I get thrown into the far corner of the next sim, under the water. And at Burning Life someone put ban lines up while they are working. This is unbelieveable to me. I IMed in case it was a mistake but was told, "It's no mistake."



29 August 2005

 
Second Life

This just in:



28 August 2005

 
Second Life

I just don't get why people ban everyone from their land. On the Walkabouts with Cubey we were, many times, forced to go around land that had ban lines up (which one can't enter) or ejected without warning (sometimes thrown a LONG way) for the crime of trying to cross a piece of land. Now it's like that in Bodega, where my house and gallery are. I DON'T GET IT - why do some people think it's necessary? Arggh.

I did something I've wanted to do for ages - bought a flock of birds from Lauk. They fly about and are nice to see. I put them at the Brownstone East. I guess I will look at my prims - they are almost all things that aren't personal, like backdrops and books, which I can't reduce -but maybe I can lower it somehow. The backdrops and exhibits are variable amounts of prims, and the books keep growing in number - so it's good to think as I go along instead of being surprised later.

I ran into Eddie E and Fallingwater C at the Relay for Life yesterday - they are a very nice couple. Eddie gave me an amazing silver android skin which I love.

Yesterday was the opening of Clownin' Around, which is a large exhibit of snapshots of residents and Lindens wearing clown noses. It was fun to see them!

Relay for Life crashed some sims a few times, I guess, but I'm sure it raised a lot of money. It was a fabulously well-thought out use of the 6 shipwrech sims, with HOPE terraformed into it as lakes, and the relay path raised high up with bridges over the watery bits. One could buy and light luminaria of various colors, race Flying Takos, bid in the silent auction, etc., etc. Very well-done.


 
Second Life

Torley's back! Yay!



27 August 2005

 
Second Life

RacerX has changed the game a bit from the prototype version I played once - it's easier to do, and really a lot of fun! I, of course, lost, but but since I lost while others were playing I got to take some nice snapshots!



26 August 2005

 
Second Life

Here I am standing on a gigantic and very cool radio built by Weedy H at Burning Life. I'm the dark line above the cream-colored diagram.


 
I made this the other day. I made it say "The Blob" because my family moved down the street from the Yeaworths, who had made The Blob years earlier. My brother (during his very brief time in this country) was friends with Chris, I was friends with... gak I forget her name... Kathleen? I remember a middle sister on the school bus with 17 magazine, which seemed very sophisticated for some reason. There were some ex-drug addicts who were doing something there (the Y.'s made films and things) who drove around in a group in a vehicle with "WE ARE EX-DRUG ADDICTS" or something in huge letters on the sides. Ex-drug addict groups* were popular at one time (maybe). I used to see them all the time going up and down Yellow Springs Road, but I didn't have anything else to do with them - so I don't remember what they were there for. They had some of the substance they had used for The Blob, my brother told me. It was a rubbery substance that reverted to its original shape, or something. The local diners and things featured in the movie - it's interesting to see if you know Chester County, Pennsylvania.

I made a couple of texture animations - static-y TV signals of the Manray instrument woman and the Mona Lisa. I'm not sure why I did them, but they might be something I'm working on without thinking for the collaborative Dream House Rhiannon asked me (and others) to be part of, at Burning Life. Rhia is very much nicer than I - I'd never've asked people to join me to work on a Burning Life project. I am teh evol.

*singing, I believe



25 August 2005

 
My camping build for Relay for Life is two large sumo wrestlers (I shrank the 50 foot one down, then made two different wrestlers from that unfinished body) holding up a tent. I was going to make a new tent but I'm not really in the mood (plus busy) so I used a jousting tent.



24 August 2005

 
Boo hoo, woe is me - they did the Burning Life lottery and I didn't get a spot. Ouch, that smarted. I figured it was a 50-50 chance as so many people had signed up. Boo hoo, boo hoo. I had such a great time last year - I was so new that I knew I'd not be able to make anything too fabulous (I made a garden of plants from another planet), so I was looking forward to this year as I'd be able to do a meaningful build.


 
I am playing the part of the killer, here, for a photoshoot with Enjah for her mystery.I got my camper-build platform at the Relay for Life.I went 400 m up over a sandbox to make a giant sumo wrestler. Every time I turned around someone was watching me. If I said, "Hi," the person or persons disappeared immediately. I was just being friendly. I fell off the platform at one point and landed on someone else's platform where a spaceship was being made (I think spaceships are among the most common objects here, along with prim genitals and castles).


 
I have another one, now - a drive in sign. I like making these. It's a kind of study into googie signs. Also went to the Kill Club on a photoshoot with Enj, who's making a second mystery novel. I had to be a young boxer who is accused of killing a stripper. That makes it sound like I had to do more than invent some boxer duds and play punching animations - w00t.
Jade IMed to tell me about a build contest that's part of Relay for Life. I will do it - was going to get my spot today but I could see they were still working so I'll do it tomorrow or whenever I can.

Frank had a cancellation so I'm going to jin shin tomorrow - then he's away for a couple of weeks. I'll go to Berdie, but it's just not the same.





23 August 2005

 
Second Life

Today I made a googie bowling alley sign in Athena, which had startled me by being in the shape of an enormous happy face. I had just completed it and turned around to see someone on the telepad. It was Cyn Linden, who told me she was going to take the sim down and didn't want to bounce me. I asked her if she'd been waiting long, and she said no. Then I teleported home and... now I guess Athena is no more... bye bye, Athena - you were a great place.


 
My comic strip made with this STRIP GENERATOR, which I saw on the SL forum.


 
Second Life
Sometimes when I make a typo I like it better than what I was originally saying. When I was saying something about light speed it came out "light seed," which I seized upon immediately as a great science fiction title. The other day I was describing someone and was trying to say "smart," which came out as "smark." What a great non-word! On the weekend, when I was was in Athena making dinosaurs and talking to Olmy, I told him about smark, and he replied, "Smart is already a word." Oh my god! I typo-ed my TYPO! It's like a gene mutating, then mutating back to what it had been originally!

First Life
Well, I am certainly a total numbskull. Yesterday I got home, ate something, got on the computer and was writing something when there was a knock at the door. Staggered over, opened it, hid behind the door as I had no trousers on (well, I wouldn't answer it but the knocker can see into the room through the distorting side windows of the doorway). It was an unknown woman who said she was the Nextdoor Neighbor, and that she was having friends over who would be parking on the flat area (arm wave in direction) and would that be all right with me. I said, "Sure!" and told her that I was hiding behind the door as I had no "pants" on, and that I didn't mind anything as long as it didn't block the driveway.

I think I was overtired - because I realised later when my energy came up a bit that what she was saying was that she was telling people to park in the driveway, blocking off the driveway so that no one in my house could get in or out, receive visitors, or have deliveries. There's a horrid stub of extremely rough, unused and unusable (for a car) TRACK that goes from the driveway to the street (and getting out of it is dangerous as one would be facing right and would need to go left) - for some UNKNOWN REASON having to do with being... um... what... territorial? ... the neighbors think I am not trapped in or out of my house if they block the driveway as I can go down that stub. I was forced to go home by that route once as they had blocked the driveway and I'd been at work all day and wanted to go home. I never want to do it again - unless I happen to win a backhoe to drive around in. I broke my rule of never writing anything to people and wrote a little note telling her I had completely misunderstood her, and yes, I minded. How could I not mind the driveway being blocked off?

I'm a numbskull, I admit it.


 
First Life
Things are completely out of control around here.
"There must be something in the food additives that is making these peopler howling mad." That's the most charitable thought I had when I heard tha Pat Robertson, nutball evangelist, called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Granted, he's just a private idiot, but he not only has great influence on other idiots, but he also reflects what those idiots are thinking. And, too, the idiots are emboldened to speak their idiocies as those are in line with the official idiocies. Can things get worse? Sure - things seem like they can always get worse.



22 August 2005

 
First Life

Home from work. I went to jin shin, then on to work, stopping only to get some food (which I never did eat). It's best not to eat before jin shin - but I didn't think I'd be happy going to 4-something with nothing. I stopped at Tiny's, which is a strange and old-fashioned greasy spoon next to the I-5 . Last time I was there - who knows how long ago - they had about 20% of the floorspace dedicated to a cheesy gift shop with things like commercially-made dreamcatchers and Leanin' Tree cards. That's gone, and now they have a hole that they will plug soon, the woman said, with tables. I noted their menu: the largest burger they have is the John Wayne, which has (according to the sign) 2 meat, 2 cheese, bacon, ham, lett, tom, jalapeno, pineapple, and goop. I might've left a few things off that I can't remember. Their second largest burger is the George Bush. They didn't specify anything about it but the price ($5.99). The whiteboard auxilliary menu was written in red and blue marker. I ordered a number 1 breakfast: egg and hash browns, sausage, and one piece of toasted bread, which then sat in my artroom all day while I beat on the computers and talked with Alex and Thanh. Alex is my person, now, which he thinks is all right. [Alex is the artist I brought to school a couple of years ago for the workshops we had instead of going to Centrum. School immediately hired him, which I felt could've been a bad thing for him, but so far so good.] When I heard that our techie was not coming back I secretly hoped Alex would get that position. He told me today that the computer lab has been completely dismantled and we have been thrown back into the stone age. I was... not just shocked, but... shocked and horrified. No one, they said, had been assigned places yet, and Thanh, who is always smiling and laughing, said he wasn't worried, "I'll be somewhere." It seems it takes 7 years in a prison camp or a case of multiple sclerosis to make people laugh all the time - now why is that? Maybe we'd've been laughing even without misfortune.



 
Color-coded English Language - link from the Second Life Forum

Goofing around online for a moment before I have to leave - jin shin, then work starts today.



21 August 2005

 
Second Life
NY Times article about Jade's Relay for Life, a cancer fundraiser in Second Life, is HERE.


 
Second Life
Logged on just in time to get this message: "touch my blimp for a landmark" -- that's a new line.


 



Forcy sent out a call for people to help stress test a dance floor - turned out it was Foolish F and Botany B's rose dance floor that opens and closes. Very cool looking, especially while moving.


 
I'm not quite finished with the dinosaurs, but nearly. I saw Enjah, Olmy, and CaptnPower while I was working - very nice. All I need now is to fix the inside of the mother - I want it to be enterable, which it is, however you can't go up into the head (too small) so I'll have to decide what to do. I made CaptnPower sign up for Burning Life (he hadn't known you could), and I am jazzed as this year I'll know many of the builders. Last year I knew them by name alone.


 





Second Life
Sadly, Olmy is selling Athena, although he says he'll still be in SL. The sim is up for sale, and meanwhile he told me I could go and build there to get out of the sandboxes. Consequently I went and spent a few hours building another roadside attraction. I was GOING to make a house-in-a-hollow-tree, but instead as I was working the anger I feel about the destruction of the forests came out in my Pencil Tree - an old-growth tree turned into a giant pencil-house.

Now I have a giant potato on a flatcar, a giant orange, an giant ice cream cone with robot waitresses, a pencil tree, a sloppily made giant ball of twine, a half a dinosaur (got interrupted 300 times). I'll probably finish the dinosaur tomorrow.

Salazar showed me his contender for the Linden Lab spawn points project. They are asking residents to design points which will then be (if chosen) available as one of many choices for new players to enter the world. Salazar has designed a place with a hint of mystery and a feeling of adventure: it's in the forest -- a design marks the spot where people will appear. The way is open in several directions - one leading past a few enigmatic ruins, a path up a hill, and a wide area that will eventually be the site of an archeological dig. The nice thing is the feeling of "more" -- more to be seen, more than is on the surface, more to be discovered. It feels like a landing point for those thoughtful and independent new players. Other choices include The Shelter (a club that helps newbies), and Abbotts Aerodrome, which is full of things to see.



19 August 2005

 
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
Wm Blake



18 August 2005

 
Second Life
Lately I've noticed everyone seems to think I'm male. I had to stop someone calling me "sir" the other day. Not to pick on anyone in particular as it's just a silly thing, but here's a forum post I just saw made by someone who has talked to me many times:

... I recently got decked out in what can only be described as a Russian boyar's robe created by Osprey Therein (I think he meant it to be an elf get-up but...)...then I asked him to make me some valenki type felt boots with the fur trim that would match the Russian boyar thing and he whipped something up in a jiffy then by the time I put on more elf stuff I so kicked ass that people flew from miles around just to look at me, I had more IMs on than I could handle, sales out the wazoo, traffic, movie deals even.

However, deep down I am still a cranky asshole

It's a nice, funny post - definitely says "he," though. To clarify if anyone cares, I didn't make the robes for the Elves but as a faux medieval lounging-about-the-castle apres pillaging type garment. Actually I've only made one thing for the Elves - the bulk of my things being DarkLife and SimCast.


 
First Life
I spoke with Tiff on the phone as she was working on getting me the missing payment for July's T-shirt graphics job. She arranged it so that a check was written and she could bring it over - admirable speed, which to me didn't really matter. As she related to me, though, she was once not paid thousands as the person with the records and who had made the agreement died -- and she says it's just not good to not insist on things being paid immediately as anything can happen. It's true.
School fired (bought out?) our techie, so I wonder what that will mean. I liked him in many ways but I didn't like the way the computers were handled, and that he could be very frightening when he chose to be (mainly to teachers).
There's no principal yet, although there are scheduled interviews. Well, what's the rush - school doesn't start until Monday.


 
First Life
Last night Tiff participated in a vigil to protest the war. This was in her small community, and quite a few people turned out, given the population size. She said the local paper took a picture of two people, and said that seven people were there. It won't matter what they try to hide if enough people are visibly protesting, however, as all one will need to do is look out the window. I said all I can do is cheer: Yay!

Actually people showed up after this photo was taken.
For such a tiny town and not much publicity I think we
did really well. Candle vigils were held all across
the country last night. This one was in the little
park next to Bay Ford. I hope they hold it every Wed.
from 7:30 to 8:30. There are people doing this in
many towns and cities. I am sending this to people
who I think may be interested. The vigils are in
support of Cindy Sheehan who is holding her own vigil
outside Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas. Cindy wants
to ask Bush why her son had to die in Iraq. He
rufuses to talk to her. If you are interested, find a
Cindy support group near you. There may be some
people doing this in Japan and Australia.
Love
Tiff



17 August 2005

 
First Life
Had an early dinner with Tiff. She filled me in on the school happenings. They are interviewing for principal tomorrow. Tomorrow! Staff day is Monday. I want to call B <3 style="font-weight: bold;">Second Life
Made a gigantic potato on a railway flatcar. Started making a gigantic brontosaurus (hollow so one may go inside). Enjah made her mother. Then she came to the sandbox (I was in Obscure at a private sandbox as my sandbox experiences have been unpleasant lately) and talked to me as her mother, got me to give her a smoking cigarette, and told me a bit about her life. It was much different from hanging out with Dexter Huntley AKA Edward Manray, who calls me cookie. I dragged Ed to the snail race in The Future, last night. RacerX has set up a completely crazy course with things that fling the giant snails through the air and chutes they fall into. We were just testing as the track was too buggy to be used for a real race. I went around about 10 times and never quite made it through all the checkpoints legally. Someone shouted that he thought my speed whilst falling through certain checkpoints made them not register. Quite likely, I think. It was fun but a real madhouse.



16 August 2005

 
First Life
Um.... hung out all day doing nothing...

Second Life
For some reason I decided to enter a Christmas in August build contest, even though I have no interest in Christmas in August and in fact, it hardly seems long enough away from Christmas in December. At my age the only way to feel far away from Christmas is to employ a rocket ship. I remember Mildred, in her nineties, saying she couldn't take her Christmas decorations down because there was just not enough time. Chistmases come like snap-snap-snap-snap. For the contest I made a figure made of wrapped gifts, with a bow hairstyle and two pointy bow breasts, reclining in a hammock held up by Christmas trees. It also includes swimming pool with wreath and Santa innertubes and a candy striped towel. It's called Christmas Vacation.



15 August 2005

 
First Life
Today was my first appointment in Frank's new office - which, although not much closer, took me about a third less time to get to. Berdie is also there, apparently, as I saw her setting up in a roomlet. There's an office-y area, a kitchen, a waiting thingummy with very ugly um... chairs, I suppose they were, in a horrid deep orangey hue that would've been fine in another shape. I think there were 3 roomlets (could've been four), and definitely a bog.
How sad to be a waiting room chair - surely the worst job on the chair continuum. Olympia has a law against couches on porches - I'm ashamed to live in a place that is so shallow and thinks government and law were put into place to make it possible for aesthetic bullying to take place. How much more inspirational life as a porch couch is, though, compared with the poverty of the waiting room chair existence. Last week I saw a couch along the street with a "free" sign on it. It was a nasty, dirty, worn couch - obviously the owners were dreaming, since no one was going to have the hots for that couch. It was a couch ripe for porch life - but alas, it would need to move far away, and then no one would want a dirty couch that is dirty with STRANGE dirt.


 
Richard Bartle Speaks in Second Life

Richard Bartle started the first text virtual world in 1978, when he was 18. He came in Second Life yesterday and spoke, giving generously of his time. The sim was so crowded the organisers had to get a Linden to force-teleport him in. He quickly picked up on the interface necessities in order to read the bazillion interjections from the crowd. We all lounged about and listened to him speak. I had to leave after about 2.5 hours or more as I was going to Looper's house.
This talk got a bit fixated on text vs graphics due to the direction of the questions, and he gave his opinion that text without graphics allows deeper immersion as it requires imagination. I felt like he was comparing imaginative writing with graphics as though the graphics required no creativity - as if the graphics were a set part of the game as in... well, every other game. Of course, I'm a visual artist and a slow keyboarder, so I'm already over the hill and down the other side without so much as a shove when it comes to believing in images. If you digest the world visually graphics are much more than bait for noobs. There was a bit in there about how thinking is in words, which, actually, is just one way in which thought happens - at least to me. I think for any artist part of making art is creating something that can be shown to others as you made it. Then too, if you are imagining (who's to say) you might be falling back on the same qualities every time - say, imagining things to be rounded - instead of being shown someone else's vision and adding those things to your repertoire. I think the text vs graphics thing is not terribly interesting - we all have our beliefs and are unlikely to change them. I'd've liked to've heard a bit more in other directions, but perhaps he'll come back.
I saw a transcript that made me wonder a bit as it had things I'd said at the very end (Thank you, Richard - please come again) out of sequence, and the reply I remembered him making (Perhaps I will since I wasn't lynched this time) missing entirely. Sometimes in high-stress times the comments are jumbled a bit...



13 August 2005

 
Balloon Hat Gallery
Nice!


 
I've had a few strange dreams lately. Last night I was startled to see a great flood of opaque, muddy water passing between the house and the barn (in the dream). I had two horses in loose boxes in the barn, and one in the pasture, which had high ground. I had to get across to the two in the barn, and put then somewhere safe - like that pasture. Don't know what happened. The view I had was from on high, looking down at the flood,. I was looking West, and the flood was flowing West to East. It was a little bit (on a VASTLY smaller scale) like seeing the real flood of the Nisqually River, in 1996, which destroyed the school (although my own building was untouched).

Last night, too, all my covers fell off and I decided to rez another set out of my inventory (as they were copiable). Uh... bit like the other day when I was driving and saw a cardboard box alongside the road. It registered as a prim cube before my brain even had a chance to identify it as a box. Once I saw a fellow wearing the newbie horizontally striped shirt.

I had a dream the other night that SWMNBMIMB had sent me a black and white video letter (well, I used to send video letters back when I was into video years ago). She was wearing a slinky gown, so it was part 1930s movie, part video letter. She was worried/anxious - can't remember what she said. Remember how it looked, though.

This lake isn't a SMALL lake - it is big enough to have planes landing and taking off all the time. It's not a BIG lake, though - so I really can't understand why people (maybe just person) need to have cigarette boats and fly around very fast generating enough noise for the Indy 500. And going around and around and around and around. They aren't going anywhere.


 
I was wandering about in Google Print beta and found this: It's talking about Lucia and the poem she wrote about Frida Kahlo (and me), except the author thinks she's Mexican, which she isn't, and he calls me "Viv," which seems hella familiar to Me. Heh.

Also, painting was never an escape from a turbulent marriage - I was trying to remain true to myself and do what is at the core of my being - to create. It had nothing to do with being married except that marriage made it 200 times more difficult.



12 August 2005

 
I try to type as fast and economically as I can, which is not totally horrible when I feel ok. When I don't, though, or when I'm in a group of people, I wind up saying things that get out of sync with the conversation. I usually wind up wishing I'd just kept my own counsel.

Right now I feel like I should never say anything to anyone ever again. I think I'll probably feel better tomorrow.


 
Well, after coming home from jin shin yesterday I did a few things on the computer then fell asleep in my chair at 2pm, being totally zoned. I staggered off to bed, woke up at 9pm, forced myself to hang the exhibit in the photo studio gallery in Second Life, then went to sleep again. Woke up this morning feeling completely horrid. Forced myself to go into Second Life and replace the photo studio furnishings. blechh Annoyed by my rl downstairs neighbor TURNING ON THE HEAT (the pipe tick-tick-ticks). Is this not August? Crankiness alert: orange.



11 August 2005

 
Second Life
On Tuesday we had a reading and book-signing at the bookshop. It was a madhouse as a muck-raking journalist showed up and confronted Emma. Actually, we hadn't planned anything, but with the finely-honed troublemaking skills of the four of us, no planning is needed (apparently). Video Linden was there, as well as some strangers. I suppose the event was videoed and on the front page of the SL website, but I can't see the video there anymore as I have WMP 10 and it works with 9. No one thought to look during the event itself. It was hilarious fun, and I told Enjah later I was proud of us.

Last night I sailed from my house in Bodega, to Umber - a long way. I have decided I enjoy sailing around but I don't think I'd want to race. I like sailing the smaller waterways, or near land, since on the open void sims you really don't get a tremendous sense of motion.
Zooming through Rausch (damage-enabled sandbox).

Enjah's making an office upstairs for Dexter Huntley. Dexter has sprung to life. He stalks about hwearing a shadow-toned trench coat, chainsmoking cigarettes, and wearing a hat indoors ===:O

I'm still making the tent, which, as I knew when I had made it then was given different instructions, is just not making me happy. It looks superficially lovely, and I've had a million people stop and remark on it including ahkenatan, however, I'm not happy. Making a drape-y cloth feel was fine. Then it had to be larger, so I had to join swoopy bits to swoopy bits. Then it had to be totally enclosed and private, so it means filling in all the chinks that are odd sizes, without making it ugly. If I'd begun at this point I'd've made it all thicker so the joints would be hidden, but alas, I am changing as I go - so now I have an annoyed and frustrated feeling inside that won't go away.

There's a new free newspaper in SL, so I got a newspaper-giving thing and put it on the table by the chair in the bookshop. A man has written a full-length book and is distributing it in SL, so I am meeting with him today (methinks) to add his book to the bookshop. I made the poster for the next contest, and asked Selador if he'd write it - a science-fiction book called Light Seed.
That's a neat twist as Sel is a science fiction writer in real life. In the poster: the white paws of the poodle Fifi, Destroyer of Worlds (Lumiere N), a Zealot (Soniv S), and the bubbling-brain alien avatar made by Thundercloud P.



09 August 2005

 
First Life
I loved the SiFair school science project virtual world last school year, but I complained to them at one time that they were asking for too much paperwork. They'd literally send pounds and pounds and pounds of forms and things for us to fill out, send home for parental signing, have students fill out, etc. The forms came week after week, so at it was really hard trying to send papers home for parents many times. Parents will sign one thing if it makes sense, but after that they are done. I don't blame them, either. This is all leading up to this:

SciFair is STILL ASKING FOR PAPERWORK. I got an email TODAY. It's AUGUST. Montrose now teaches Fifth Grade.

First Life makes less sense than Second Life.

It's AUGUST.

heh



08 August 2005

 
Hmmm... well... what have I been doing?

Second Life
I spent some time last night working on a tent for a customer. She wanted to see my unfinished build, and she said it was wonderful - but actually today gave me more explicit needs, such as closed, wider, etc. - I had to start redoing the whole thing, which is all right in a way as the original finished tent is beautiful and I will just sell it. Worked on it for a long time in Newcomb, but was having some funny linking problems.

Spent some time in the guise of Enjah's mystery novel murderer, the foul Clive. She took pictures of Clive looking down at the bloodspattered Gemma, having just pushed her from the top of a castle. The detective, Huntley arrived to interview, the chase Clive, who fell off the parapet and broke his neck. I thought of good name for the detective - Dexter - since he is opposed to the sinister.
Clive laughing: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHACHOO
We have scheduled an appearance at Grignano Books of the novelist Emma Metropolita, who will give a short reading and sign books. Short by necessity - the whole book Tunnel of Love is only a few paragraphs (although it is pithy and is not understocked with ripped bodices).

Yesterday I had an event to publicise the photo contest (basically means helping many people learn how to enter the contest and typing the same things 35 times) and Sprite hung out and kept me company. I knew Sprite in There, were we would hang out talking and boys would try to pick us up. I'd say, "I'm 50," and S would say, "Look in my profile,' and the boys would run away. S has never made any secret of the fact that she's a man.

A friend sent me this picture of grandma after she stumbled into a secret sex cave.



First Life
Had jin shin. Went to the Bank of Safeway prior to my appointment. Said to Frank, "This is the last week in this building," and he said, "No, there are two weeks -- NO, YOU'RE RIGHT." I am sorry to be leaving the Security Building as it's a very nice old building (it sustained a bit of damage in the Nisqually earthquake, and it was strange and interesting climbing the stairs and seeing the cracked walls afterward).
Frank's moving to an office I first thought was in a building that I didn't want to be in (as someone commited suicide in it), but he isn't, he's next door.



05 August 2005

 
Second Life
Had a photoshoot with Sel and Enj, and made Flamenco Romance book (making turning-page type books now). Then, belatedly, IMed Baron G to ask his permission to take pictures in Sanctum Sanctorum. Haven't heard back yet, hope he says it's ok. Otherwise, back to the photoshooting. Talked to hippip this morning, and he expressed his view that I must be typing this all from inside an insane asylum. Ha! I said, "You don't think Fanta Jimnauseum is a good name?"

They had the drawing for a lifetime account today. I didn't think I wanted to go - I was sailing - but suddenly decided to go. Too late - as the sim was full and therefore inaccessible. I didn't win anything, but we all got colored flying things called Benshees which are color-coded to avatar ID numbers. Mine is blue/purple in light colors, but is green now that I have changed it to dark. I hate light purple.Benshees wizzing around.

I sailed around the edge of a large area with no void sims, so it had an uncrossable middle.
I'm now doing yearly events for the second time. Last year Barbarra B had a touching Hiroshima Day ceremony, so I asked her if she will be doing it tomorrow. She says if she can get everything together she will. I'm interested in Burning Life again, too. I had a great time building last year as a feckless noob, but this year will be better if I get the chjance.



04 August 2005

 

First Life
I looked to my right and saw a giant house spider standing on the carpet next to a piece of fluff. It wasn't a very big one - sort of the Gidget of giant house spiders -nonetheless they may not live here. In my experience they just stand there, leaving lots of time for me to bring the engine of destruction. I dragged the vacuum hose over and sucked the wretched thing up.

Enjah sent me a painting - very nice of her! I received a notice in the mail last week (found it on Friday I think but it had been there longer). Called the post office but they wouldn't bring it, so I asked Downstairs if she'd get it, as she has expressed a desire to do things for me, which can be handy. She forgot, and I had to remind her by email (wondering if she HAD forgotten but unable to wait as it would've been sent back). She ran out and got it and I found it by more door today. A complex story.

Sel told me he received the (his) book, and he will sign it and send it to me. Yay!

Had jin shin. Frank is moving, so every week he says, "I'm moving - did I tell you?" I had my hair cut at my beloved haircutters' salon, and was teary-eyed from laughter after 5 minutes. S told me that recently a group of teenaged boys hissed "fag" at them, which he said doesn't happen very much at all. I was glad to hear that - I'd've thought it was common.

Second Life
Did a photo shoot this morning for Flamenco Romance, which involved shooting Enjah dancing for a flamenco poster (in Cordova), then Enjah and Selador (the latter in my red suit of lights) trying to be romantic-looking in (my location pick) Oak Grove. I made the poster and book cover, and made a black-and-white of Ted for Hippip's tabloid. Well, a lot has happened - Hippip is going to write a tabloid, we are all "Grignano Publishing," which I hope will have an office upstairs ( if the gangsters have moved). In the interest of making trouble I invented some people from Emma Metropolitan's hidden past. I gave them names, and one in particular, Ted Wingnut (now Ted Manray due to an alt shortage), came to life in Enjah's amazing hands. She created Ted, who is irritating and wonderful. She made the avatars for the others, but Ted is THE ONE.
The characters:


J B Fustian, retired barber, has served two terms as the mayor. His son left town, and instead of handing the shop down to family, he had to sell it to his long-time employee Rufe Marquist. JB is rather religious now that he's near the grave, and his religious bent shows up mainly in his criticism of just about anything fun. In his younger days he was not religious, was something of a drinker and womaniser, and might have known Emma's mother. Emma's mother was the town slut. She raised Emma alone as no man claimed responsibility, although many in town were possible fathers. JB Fustion could be Emma's father. It's just as likely he's not, though.

Jean Frolic, who is Emma's age, went to school with her. They weren't part of the same group in high school, however the school was small (about 200 students) so they knew each other. Jean's mother, Fanta Jimnauseum, was quite a gossip and thought she knew everything, although she was fed lies and truths and didn't even try to tell them apart. Jean knows what her mother told her - but only Emma knows which are true and which are lies. Some of the old gossip is impossible to figure out, now, since everyone concerned is dead, however the gossip, like the Undead, keeps going.
Ted Wingnut is a victim of some age-related illnesses that cause him to make little sense at times. At least, he doesn't seem to make sense. He was an intimate pal of Emma's mother. Well, we think so, anyway. At times he says startling things that, if true, mean that there are many secrets in town. The secrets must be common knowledge amongst the townies, as they have been able to cover them up for - in some cases - 60 years. Or, he might just be saying things that have no basis in fact. Ted is the great grandfather of Edward Manray. Just this evening he met Emma and told her she reminds him of her daughter. He has a daughter?
Emma's real name is Norma Fellupian. She has gone to great pains to hide her past - even though the shame she feels was caused by the narrow-mindedness of the small town she lived in, and wasn't a result of anything she, herself, had done. Or was it?
Emma, Hippip, Os, Enjah talking in the bookstore.

 

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