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31 August 2006

 
In 2004 Siggy R had a Burning Life display that drew from the recent theft of a version of Munch's The Scream. In it, you walked into the frame and were able to pose as the central figure in a large space depicting the background in 3d.

Now, two years later, The Scream has been recovered - obviously it's connected to Burning Life as Burning Life is on once more. Good work, Siggy!


 
Both Eileen and Ida have new blogs. Ida's came first and even though I think of it as Mogg's Cab Fares it's actually called BAEDEKER.

Eileen's reflects her shining talent - it's called STAR LIFE.


 
Now I know what's going on in the Millions of Us sim today - Mark Warner is going to be there. I heard about it on the (soon to be neutered) Forums but Hamlet has a story on NWN.

Thanks for telling me I screwed the link up, E - it's fixed now!



30 August 2006

 
*holds hand up to shield eyes from view of something awful whilst repeating LA-LA-LA-LA-LA*

I do that a bit in Second Life. For instance, it's possible for unscrupulous - well, dishonest - people to steal original textures, which they can then upload and use to make the clothes or what-have-you with no effort. I've seen my original work being sold by a stranger (for double the price, too) and I just wandered off in shock to have a think about what to do. That was months ago. I decided:

1. There's really nothing to be done.
2. LL can't do anything.
3. Filing a DMCA thingummy and hiring a lawyer and making a big stink would likely result in nothing fruitful anyway.

I just cover my eyes and go LA-LA-LA-LA-LA. I must admit I have been just a tiny bit less eager to create clothing, though. I don't really see a solution to this - I'd like it if everyone grew a set of ethics but I won't hold my breathe.


 
My Blog Template or Hang Onto Anything For Long Enough and It Becomes Unusual

My blog template seems to have developed a temporary case of elephantiasis. It's done this before, but it seems to go away after a bit. Looks ugly, though, while it lasts. I like this template, which dates from the misty mists of the pasty past in Blogger. I wonder if anyone else still has it - I want a "search blogs by template' function in Blogger. Blogs have settled into a very boring but functional form to which this template does not conform. Woohoo!


 
I have to say, I think my curtain looks good - I made it as a backdrop for a contest and just threw it onto some prims for the play, but it looks great. Second Life does really well with graphics.

*admires curtain some more*

Oh - I made the poster for a new contest: Black & White. The poster has a color picture that changes into a B&w one every so often or upon a click. B&w unmanipulated pictures can be snaps of black and white objects in color, or depth pictures, or interpretations that are somehow related loosely to the theme - anything a photographer decides fits. For God's sake don't straightjacket yourselves - that's the last thing I want you to do. Manipulated images can be anything. All Second Life screenshots, of course.




 
Performing a Play in Second Life

AngryBeth made this trailer :-D


 
=========================
=========================
Combat Cards Review in Stratics
=========================
=========================
That was Monday.


 
I think I should stop doing commissioned clothing for two reasons:

1. Sometimes I'm very fast but there are a few right now that are dragging on a long time. In part that is because the texture previewer is not working right but also, to be honest, because at least one just hasn't sparked my interest. I'm not being fair to those people.

2. I spend 10 or 20 hours on an outfit that might have many parts including objects, then I sell it just once to the person who commissioned it. All my work is hand drawn, and a file might have 30 layers or more. I put everything on separate layers so I can change things as needed. I go pixel by pixel on the edges. Commissions are never what I would do if left to my own devices, in fact people usually want versions of things they've seen before. My own things are made up by me, and I can sell each one many times. It's interesting to do some random jobs, like the Asian Dancer outfit, however, most of them are not as interesting. My own things are always interesting to do.

I do think that anyone who gets a custom outfit from me is lucky that I am so stupid :-D



28 August 2006

 
Bizarre Day With Too Much Typing or What I did All Day or WTF?? A WHOLE DAY???

I forget why I got online before having coffee, but anyway, I got online. Sarah asked how the play went, so I told her. I was talking to Enj at the same time - she was making an animation. I asked Sarah to contribute garbage, so I went to Burning Life and ported her. She was a skunk. Then Enj came to show us her Puck. Then Doc IMed to ask if I could come to be part of an interview for Stratics. I killed Doc. Then Forseti IMed when I was in the middle of a swordfight and Broccoli killed me. Then Cyrus IMed and started asking me about voiceovers to be done by Wednesday (which was the very first I'd heard about it and which was a gross exaggeration as the voiceovers actually had to be done by noon tomorrow) for the trailer. I was scratching my head for a minute until he told me to IM AngryBeth and she gave me the url for the trailer. I can't know unless someone... says something. Anyway, I emailed the cast, and first Eileen (yay!) came and recorded, then Ida. Eileen had a glitch at first, and Cy asked me if I would do it - I was prepared to say, "my cast does it, or NO ONE," but fortunately I didn't have to as the glitch evaporated. By that time (maybe 90 minutes after he IMed) I was at home, having run away from Spangle. Ida recorded with no trouble and said she liked the interface. I didn't go in until 6 or so as I was too busy doing 85 other things and anyway didn't want to bother them/listen to them right then. Then someone named killa flew by, touching Fidget and setting off his purr. I was on my yoga cushion doing yoga with sporks in both hands. Then Adolf, who is a bit like a sandstorm in the shape of a human, dropped in and did yoga for a while too. Musa came by and had a shopping spree, for some reason. Then I dragged Ad to Serendipity Studio to look at pianos and Robbie's to look at various instruments. At Robbie's I helped someone find a vendor whilst deep in an IM. It was like being a medium. Then she said to Ad, "Why do you have a thing (chunk of hair) sticking out the back of your head?" He laughed and said because he was new and foolish. Then Luc came online. Cy had gone off, but I emailed his cellphone. Cy emailed Luc, I called Eileen and asked her to help Luc, but he had quickly split as he couldn't run hipcast and SL at the same time. Then I had a long conversation with someone nice who had vaudeville ideas. I asked Ad if he would rather be shot in the back or face-to-face (he answered the same as me - face-to-face). Then I dragged Ad to Mohrr to get Harry's giant keyboard which I then ran around on. Then it was about 5:30 and he went away to eat noodles as it was time for him to "stalk the streets." Then I had an IM from someone about removing paintings by the 2nd so they could hang the next show, but I recalled not owning them, so I went there to make sure, but talked about it to them all as I landing in the middle of the 4 or 5 people concerned. In between I talked to Hiro S (who I suspected of being Tay, and bluntly asked him, but he said no and why did I ask, and I said because he acted exactly like Tay), tried to talk to Reuben, and spoke with some other people. Then I went and listened to a few clips in hipcast. Then I cooked fish, spoke with Eileen who said she'd IM the cast about filming on Thursday (we were going to perform but I never heard back from Reuben, who is frequently dead-seeming, so instead I want us to film).

I'm leaving out a lot because it's more than I can remember.

Upshot: on the plus side trailer voiceover recorded, Combat Cards article for Stratics underway, our filming day is set ; on the negative - uh... a whole day?



27 August 2006

 
Dear Enjah,
I suggested to Selador that you and I might promote his broadcasts a bit as he sees no point in continuing if there are no listeners. I suggested naked chocolate pudding wrestling during broadcast hours. I hope you don't mind.
Sincerely, Os


 
I went inworld and was sailing the inland sea, as listening to Selador in Umber whilst sailing is the best. Sadly, though, there was no SelinUm as Sel was unwell. Instead I sailed up to Rizal into the (very windy!) small area with those little boats you can play with that lob cannonballs, then sailed home. I caught sight of Adolf riding around on Art's shark of peace and love, so we went sailing. When I got an IM about the Elf Fundraising Auction I had to scramble off (we had gone around Abbots and were passing the marina in Bolinas by that time) and collect things up for that. Later I was making an oildrum that at first look was horrible until I saw I'd increased the texture repeats on the underneath cylinder (I'd been playing with rust for a minute). Once I put it right the oildrum was nice. Ad stopped in to say goodnight, I loped off to add more drear to my Burning Life build, which features vulture shadows moving across the earth in a manmade wasteland. Nimrod Y had IMed me with a mock tirade again my build which was going to knock his property values down by a huge chunk. He has a lovely enormous school desk next to my parcel. A bit further along there's a huge chair, which I wanted to drag over to the desk.
Salazar has a nice, new blog on his website which lives HERE.

When sailing the first time I waspassing through Omidyar when someone in the water said, "You're just leaving the sim, right?" As it turned out, two people wanted an empty sim for some reason and were, effectively, telling me to go away and not bother them. In a VOID sim! I was somewhat taken aback.

The 8 year old boy from France is still inworld, and, in fact, I ran into him at Burning Life last night. This morning I called Germaine as I thought, Well, maybe I'm crazy - maybe he isn't 8. She remembered after a while and corroborated the 8 part. I IMed Harry to ask him if there is anything I should do. I think SL is a harsh place for a wee child.

I would do more clothes but the problem with the texture previewer has made me unhappy. I was contacted the other day about it, and the nice Linden thanked me for sending pictures as he said before that they had no idea what the problem was. That certainly impressed upon me the value of bug photos. The preview grid seems to be closed and that has me feeling glum - I'd like to go and hide out.


 
Strange Days
Yesterday I had an early card from my father's widow - she was off to Africa for month(s) and wanted to make sure I got a nice birthday whatnot. The writing was funny, which I saw the reason for in the last lines - "I broke my collarbone but it's mostly healed now."

Also, there was a letter from something the name of which rang a bell, but not loudly enough for me to remember what it was. It turned out it was - strangely - a note from an arts consultation business I used to deal with. The owner explained she would like to know what I was painting, that she hoped I'd update my slides and information that they show their clients, and that the last update to my file had been in... 1995. Holy... moley. To receive a handwritten note after more than ten years? *

Today, which I should point out is a SUNDAY, my phone rang. It was... Social Security. The nice man who is fiddling around with my application has a name that is a twin of a cheesey martial arts film actor. He explained that I'd need a medical exam. I said that sounded reasonable. Then I said, "It's Sunday, why are you working, you poor thing?" He explained that he was trying to beat a few details into submission before taking time off, but his voice revealed that working on a Sunday was not his favorite activity.

Yea, but these all indicate that these must be the Last Days... just joking :D
* Heh - had to find it and read it to correct that


 
Change of Season
Last Monday I was looking out my window at 7:15 am as I was getting ready to go to jin shin. There was a different feeling in the air, and I thought, "It feels like autumn..." It seemed early for that, so I shook it off, but a short time later, another jin shinner said, "It feels like the season has changed."


 
=================
SELADOR IN UMBER
=================
is on every Sunday starting at 4am and 4pm.


Selador broadcasts an eclectic mix of music from his gallery in Umber, including off-the-beaten-track classical. Click the link to get connected.



26 August 2006

 
Understanding

This is a difficult thing for me given my age and history, and it's difficult to speak frankly of it here. I will preface this by saying that a while ago I thought about the way I should try to conduct myself in the world and how I think it might be best for nations to conduct themselves too, and it boiled down to one thing: Always try to do the kind and respectful thing. I really try hard and it isn't easy. I believe that when things arise that make me uncomfortable it's because that's an area I will benefit from investigating. I'm a human being with all the attendant weaknesses including those easy slides into lazy behavior and prejudice.

I met a nice new person who is humorous and kind to me, but beyond that, is obviously an intelligent and honest person. I told him we needed him in the vaudeville troupe, and he joined up. He's from Austria. He has volunteered his expertise in sound engineering to advise the actors, who need to record their voices for the machinima.

Today I was building at Burning Life and got interrupted over and over again. Then the new friend map-tracked me, and almost the first thing he said was that he'd been called a Nazi. I thought he seemed upset. Then I said that some people liked to stir up trouble - he could hang out with friends and build. He said if that's what they wanted he would get an SS tattoo and fight them, that he's a man and likes a scrap now and then. I said labels stick and one needed to choose labels with care. I said I was just being honest, and he said he was, too. I was lost in horror at that point - I'm not sure if he was joking but for me, there's no joking about Nazis.

I suppose what's going to happen for me is that I'll just continue on as usual. I don't quite understand why he would react the way he seems to be reacting, however, I wasn't there at the name-calling, and his reaction, if serious, might quickly be mitigated by his sense of humor. Obviously my own emotions have colored the way I saw this, and I could easily have everything mixed up. It could be that what he was saying was motivated by silliness. Everyone has a history, and mine has made me quite discomfited.

I think often about how my theoretical view of life is not always easy to carry forth into day-to-day exchanges with people. I see in my own life how I try to knit together the unrelated pieces of my life - how I don't like fragmentation. It's past time for us, as a huge number of humans alive on the planet Earth, to act in concert. We don't need to be homogenous, but we need to stop letting groups use up and destroy things because they don't need to take responsibility. Yes, I realise I'm in a bad group. It occured to me the other day that perhaps it requires a vision of the future in order for us to feel a responsibility for what goes on after our deaths. A great part of that, one would imagine, would be children. Dunno.


 
Big Brother and The Holding Company - Summertime

Big Brother was good - the interview at the end is very strange since Janis makes perfect sense and Don Adams is a total idiot.



25 August 2006

 
animals --tobacco road

I spent some time rummaging around youtube looking at old bits of film. I went from Subterranean Homesick Blues to Diamonds and Rust (anyone my age links Dylan and Baez) to the Stones, then on to The Animals and War - after remembering I always liked Eric Burdon a whole lot. According to the Wikipedia Eric Burdon was the Eggman.



24 August 2006

 
And moving on to the next thing...
Last year I was devastated when I didn't get a Burning Life plot, and had low expectations for this year. I got one, however, which rocks. Yay!

Tomorrow Keats is coming to do some animation.


 
Performance night went very well. We did it three times. It was rather exhausting. Millions of Us decided to give us double the prize - we won as we were the only play, but the play was good, too. I instigated the thing after I read about the challenge to produce a 5 minute play, and as I thought it would be fun, which it was. I was demanding during rehearsals, but I think it paid off when we were asked to go again and could just get in our spots and go with literally a minute's notice.

I can see, now, things that would make it clearer. I managed not to delete anything, although when I was there in the morning I accidentally deleted the curtain. The m.s. reacts badly to stress. We were all nervous. Eileen and Ida both crashed and recovered. I was zoomed way out to see both sets, and during the third run, due to the lag, I couldn't see anyone and went by chat cues alone. Vlad videoed; Angrybeth S videoed under MoU orders with a trailer-y type thing in mind, she said. Our next phase is to record it all separately and send the recordings to Vlad to put together for machinima (sorry Torley).



23 August 2006

 

Performance: Tomorrow
24th August 2006
6 pm at the New Globe Theatre
in Millions of Us sim
RSVP to Green Fate





22 August 2006

 
My friend Annie called me, as someone we know died. She added, "I wrote my obituary - well you know how they charge now - it's by the word."
Yes - I know that well.
"What to hear it?"
Sure-
"Guess what! I died!"
Muwahahaha - that's why I love her - she's serious and that's what it will be. I said, "Remember years ago you told me about the memorial service you planned - in your driveway -"
"I decided I didn't want people in my house - I changed it all."
"Well, that old one was all about the dogs - and the dogs (hers and all her doggy friends) are ALL DEAD now."
"Yes, the dogs are all dead."
Then we laughed a lot - well, it sounded funny. Besides that, death is just another adventure.



21 August 2006

 

WATER Contest awards - well attended even though I accidentally put "am" not "pm" by the 3 in events. The little leak has turned into a bigger problem. Ilia suggested I put a cork in it. I'm sure she meant the pipe. Salazar is not good at plumbing, I fear. The building is old and its pipes don't fit with the current Linden code. It's hard to find replacement parts - nothing is metric.
Note: Vlad in the back is a seahorse - I hope reverse evolution with avatars returning to live in the sea is not necessary. At least I have the nice Captn. Nemo house Olmy gave me.

Drat' - Miss you, Olmy.


 
Doritos, official snack of teh intarwebz

Exhibit A


Exhibit B

It was decided by God months ago.*

I rest my case. Even I have bought two bags. Must be true.

*Which means chocolate and grilled cheese sandwiches are is proof of the holiness of teh intarwebz.


 
Today 6000 inventory items disappeared on me. I think they were all textures. I called Lucy Linden and she said, "Clear your cache, relog." I did, and it was all there again - w00t!

That makes two times the Lindens have saved me in just a few days.


 

I needed a new look for Art; I hadn't changed him at all from when he was my neighbor. Finally I decided I'd make him a pony. That's one of Wynx's ponies, sans wings. Art is watching an owl.



20 August 2006

 
AHA!

When I had the French noob-in-distress (before I found out he was a nooblet) the FIRST PERSON I called was YadNi. He wasn't on, but answered tonight - he would've helped had he been on. I wondered how a youngster in France had stumbled across Second Life.

After I logged out tonight I saw the reason:

Le Monde 8/18/06

Ha! That's YadNi in one of the segments.


 
What I Think
by
O.Therian

This is what I think and if you disagree go make your own blogpost leave me a comment. If you agree make a comment PLEASE as I want to feel all puffed up.

When I joined Second Life in 2004, after having stood for ages with my nose pressed against the window due to having teh ebil dial-up, there were, perhaps, 10,000 residents. Most people were building and scripting and attempting to make meaningful things. It was possible to be a part of anything that happened, more or less - or at least it felt that way.

Time rolled on, and the population became huge. The world is huge. We can no longer hope to see everything as things change too quickly and grow too quickly. It's no longer possible to be a part of everything. Not everyone cares about building and scripting - some people do entirely new things (i.e. B.G. who built an island sim to make an instructional video for the U.S. courts system). Other people shop, explore, socialise. People create inworld businesses, have businesses that cross over from rl to sl or the other way, use sl for rl business purposes that aren't apparent inworld.

Everything that was possible before is still possible (there is the pitter-patter of tiny feet running through the back code which I think is just LL working feverishly but which looks on the surface like bugs). What I think has got us caught up in lassitude and despair is the feeling that we have to be part of everything. We can't and, in fact, we don't want to be.

Here's the crux:
I see it with the photo contest themes. People create their own straightjackets; they box in others. Those boundaries are just illusions. It's perverse to keep rigidly inside them. We must learn to be free. I am talking about me, too.

Yes, some people use sl as a platform for the creation of money. Do we all need to? I think there are no rules. I sell some clothing and things. I rent space. I pay awards. I enjoy having a small business. I don't want to have a large business. If I did, I would probably have made a logo or a sign two years ago.

What I want is something that, as a rl artist, I long for. In rl the gallery/museum system has created a kind of competitive atmosphere that pits artist against artist. The rl artworld is horrible. I want, from sl, the society of other artists without the competition. I want the fun. I want to set fire to, piss on,* and trample beneath my feet the structure of the artworld. I want to ditch the fear and rigidity that it tries to encumber us with, hang with my homies, and do fun experiments that may turn out all the better for not turning out as expected.

I freely admit that what I want may not be what you want. As I see it, it's time to form enclaves. It's time to pick our niches.** It's time to start being really weird.

This all ties in with my current Secret Plan
(you know I always have at least one).

*must remember to hit the "male' radio button
in Appearance first for convenience
**eww


 
=================
SELADOR IN UMBER
=================
is on now!


Selador broadcasts an eclectic mix of music from his gallery in Umber.


 

Forcythia sends me pictures of Fidget when she encounters him in the Elven lands. The funny thing about this picture is the cat toy - I had a string on a stick with a wine cork on the end that the real Fidget, as a young cat, honed his reflexes on.



19 August 2006

 
ElleCoyote found and wrote about this site today:



 
Hanging the Exhibit in Grignano...

...last night was like trying to study for a test in the middle of a circus. First, someone unseen kept saying cryptic things, but I ignored it. Then a nice newbie came, and was confused but smart, so I talked to him for a while then sent him to The Shelter. I saw something in the floor so I walked round to Enjah's Low Prim Solutions and found a Frenchman flailing his arms and legs, trapped in the ceiling. I offered him a teleport, and he was set straight, however it soon became evident that we weren't communicating as he kept saying, "???"

I got on the blower and tried to track down some people from le Squatt but no one was on/answered. Meanwhile he wandered away. I thought, maybe he's fine - not sure - don't look for trouble - Then we met again and I talked to him for a few moments before he said he was going to go. I was relieved as I felt I was doing nothing constructive for him. I went back to work.

New person one IMs me: "Yes, I found the Shelter, but it just made me more confused. Can you help me get back to where you are?" I ported him and he said, "I only feel comfortable here right now." I worked and talked to him. Then I saw the Frenchman on my radar. He seemed in distress so I called Live Help. After a few minutes the Frenchman logged off in frustration. Then he logged back in and I went up to the roof with the newb and - with an inspired idea - set out Robbie D's steel drums. We all jumped on the drums and made music; Harry brought a francophone - Germaine L - over, and she was able to communicate.



I read their chat and, unsurprisingly in a WAY it came to light that he was not a Frenchman, he was a French BOY of 8 ans on holiday at the seaside. Newbie and I continued working in the gallery where I taught him the rudiments of building, and explained a few other things. I made the beginning of an exhibitor catalog that started out looking like a big tongue, but was to be the water pouring from a vessel, except by that time it was past 1am. I went home for a moment, and nice new person ported to my shop and bought an outfit - fast learner. I think once people get the basics they quickly move forward. I logged off.

Then logged on as I realised I'd been trying so hard not to interrupt Germaine that I hadn't thanked her.

Then I logged off. Plus other things happened at the same time but, by God, that's enough for one lousy blogpost.

Thank you, Harry -- Thank you, Germaine



18 August 2006

 
The Latest...

This in from Salazar... but perhaps I'd better give the REST of the story...
Yesterday he told me about how sacred Bodega is.

I was amazed, yet complained at the phlegminess of the... uh... sacred object.

Today, however, he told me people are getting baptised in it!

===========:O




When I was a teenager living in Pennsylvania a man was actually killed by falling into a vat of chocolate! I remember that old (Smother's Brothers?) song about the man who yelled "Fire" when he fell into a vat of chocolate.

What's disturbing about this is that apparently men jump into clogged chocolate-making machinery on a regular basis...

eew :( *picks hairs out of her Hershey bar*


 

Last night in Avalon...



...hmmmmmmmm.......


 
Eggy is Fabulous

The stage and seating for the SLCC is incredible - a beautiful build that can absorb me for a long, long time. Entrancing! I first saw it the other day (Wednesday?) and was blown away. I ALMOST saw it in action as a live music venue just now but ported home and got offline. I realised I just wanted to look at the build - so better I should make room for another music aficionado.



17 August 2006

 
Supermarket Bagging-Habits, part... uh... 3?

I stopped at Slaveways this morning apres jin shin, and bought a few things - 2 bags-worth. It was put thusly into the bags: 2 half gallons of organic milk, a 3 lb. bag of brown rice, and a few other things in Bag A. Bag B contained two quarts of plain yoghurt, a pound of fresh blueberries, and salad greens. I got to my car and was like ZOMG TEH HEAVINESS and I couldn't even lift Bag A (such a come-down as I was the strongest person imaginable before I got sick).

I've never liked milk before but for some reason I want organic milk right now. As a child I wouldn't drink milk and didn't eat butter, didn't like ice cream (we had ice cream delivered for a while because of a new freezer but I would just eat the empty cones). I still like empty (ordinary kind not those brown things) cones a great deal and buy them whenever I stumble across them (I don't really get to buy what I want, just whatever comes within my short reach, somewhat like a primitive sea creature glued to a rock who filters sea water to claim nutrients).

Who cares about food, anyway. Sad to be so weak, though, and as I get sicker my metabolic rate has slowed to a crawl and trends downward. I probably have as slow a metabolic rate as a hibernating bear, or close, anyway.



16 August 2006

 
W00t!! Brill!

I talked to Reuben T and said what we needed was sim access from now until after the performance and so we have it. I hastily stuffed the sets in place to check size, etc., and they seem to be fine. Reuben answered my questions and I brought up the next project - vaudeville - and he thought it sounded good. We have to convince Green F that we need to have the audience force midnight - I told him to sit in on rehearsal one day.

Sim access: yes, for entire team
Play length: Don't worry

Yay!!

We will meet tomorrow in Bolinas, then TP to Millions of Us.

Luc IMed saying things had been chaos for him but would be back to normal in a day or two. I was relieved he talked to me. He is a good actor and commited to the play - and a very nice man, too. We rehearsed today without him, with Ida reading for Sven, but I don't want her to start getting mixed up. Eileen needs to rehearse with Luc as they have timing to get down, however Ida is fairly separate. If Eileen manages to cross paths with Luc tomorrow it will be a help. I think it will all word out, however.



15 August 2006

 
Nice blog HERE

Be sure to check the Gallery - fab


 
Greetings From Bodega Island

Network Woes

LL's network went partially down taking 200+ sims out. I was at home in Bodega when I noticed the sim was struggling and said that in IM to Jensel (who was in Isabel at the Shelter). She said Wingo had gone down in the middle of Travis's show -but apparently they just reconvened in Isabel (on the other side of the room) and continued. Bodega was an island as Bolinas, Davenport, and Palomarian were out, however I didn't really pay attention to Mohrr (the void sim north of me) and when Salazar, who was scouting round, asked me if it'd been down (as it was up at that point) I really wasn't sure. Strangely my radar HUD displayed Enjah as being nearby at one point - I shouted thinking she was in the sim, but it was... a ghost, apparently.

Now I don't want to log out in case I can't get back in. Update for tomorrow was cancelled which is too bad, however it means at least the grid will be open. I bet LL is happy they decided to postpone it as they hadn't anticipated this network crash. Forcy said: "It must be hot in California."

Earlier:
Tiff came at 2:30 in rl to see the play rehearsal. First about 5 soldiers wearing sandwich boards dropped onstage and kept begging us to click their signs. I clicked one which gave me an advertising notecard for a gunsmith, then said, "We can't click on you as then you will come back." I could've said, "We can't click on you or you will never leave" I asked Salazar to come, which he did, very kindly. I asked the boys to leave which they didn't quite manage to do. We had already explained we were trying to rehearse a play, so Salazar limited access of the land to those involved with the play.

Then, as it turned out, Luc was kept from rehearsal by something, so we just talked a bit about things then I logged and Tiff and I ate lunch and talked. She left and I leapt inworld late to a meeting with Doc and a prospective marketeer.



14 August 2006

 


 
Giant house spider - greeted me this morning. ==CIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIO
=vacuum hose



13 August 2006

 
Last night I dreamt that in Second Life you could change the priority of an animation in inventory.

Yes, well... I knew you'd say that.



12 August 2006

 
News from Rosanne

.........so I have to say working here on the farm is the toughest job I've
ever had....working 10 hours a day is a constant strain on my body with no
chance to rejuvenate....I work, eat, sleep and next thing I know the morning
has arrived......but I am getting what I asked for..an introduction into the
world of high production vegetable farming.....last week it was 102 degrees
not including humidity and I thought for sure I was fast fading..to make
things worse there was no power or water at the house so i slept outside for
the night and went for beer and pizza in town for some
relief.....occasionally I will be in the middle of this huge field hoeing
turnips with the sun baking and illuminating everything into a watery glow
and then this little boy will arrive claiming to be the popsicle fairy and
proceed to stuff a lemon pop into my hand.........


 
I needed to rez the 2 sets and get them in sync for performance, so I went to Plum. Autoreturn is set for one hour, which is plenty of time. I had been working about 20 minutes when everything got autoreturned. I went to a private sandbox that advertised as a place to build with a 6 hour autoreturn. I put out one set (around 75 prims) and it was all autoreturned within a minute. I went to Goguen and the place was jam-packed, so I went home. I will try in the middle of the night.

Autoreturn is seriously borked.


 

I bought a mood hud and was busy pushing all the buttons and looking at myself when I saw a green dot down by my turkey. I poked my head over the edge of the pavilion and saw it was ahkenatan who had come by to say hello, wearing an amazing new avatar he'd just finished building. You can see the size by finding me standing near the largest spine plate. He very kindly gave me the avatars and I vowed to practice wearing one so we can go roaming. He left and I quickly discovered I needed a very large number of prims to be able to rez the avatar to sort out which bits attached to which points. However, I will practice as it's unbelievably cool looking.

I spent a bit of time with Doc this morning as he was setting up the top scorer listing. I asked him about the queuing of animations to get them in the right order, as I have been working on an answering-the-phone animation for the play. I got it, once, but had to change things and couldn't get back to that point again. He suggested staggering the priorities so the first, unlooped anim would be superceded by the looped anim after it finished, which solved the problem. That was just the right piece of information.

Rehearsal was very productive as we rewrote the ending to leave "Bob" out, since we never could get a reliable Bob ad the part was miniscule. Instead Ida has a slightly expanded part. She's the SL knitting maven, and demonstrated her knitting action. Eileen and I had been talking about having music hall as our next project, and so I suggested synchronised knitters rolling on big balls (or unicycles Ida added as I was on a unicycle at that moment - juggling and wearing a rotating dog with a parasol hat - a few of my latest purchases).

Jensel asked me about having a photo show in conjunction with her rl photo show, so I took some pictures of her for the poster.



11 August 2006

 
Eileen is nicer than I am (but we knew that)

Osprey Therian: I discovered that when a Linden tps you there's no blue notice - you just GO ===:O
Eileen: HOLY KOW
Eileen: what was that about?
Osprey Therian: they had a situation at Ambat
someonme set the spawn point to be under the fountain lol
so it had all kinds of ppl stuck in it lololol
Eileen: crap
Osprey Therian: lol
Osprey Therian: I thought it was funny
Eileen: lol
Eileen: it IS funny
Osprey Therian: well they are spawning noobs all over the grid
Osprey Therian: so the ones spawning at Ambat
Osprey Therian: got stuck in the fountain
Eileen: were coming into SL under a fountain
Eileen: poor babies
Osprey Therian: and the physics engine was going nuts
Osprey Therian: so no one could move
Osprey Therian: I moved it and they all popped out
Osprey Therian: lololol
Osprey Therian: life is SO FUNNY
Eileen: wish I could have seen THAT
Osprey Therian: LOL


 

LL announced the second Life forums will colse in a month. At the play rehearsal Lucifer arrived a bit late saying there was a forum wake at his house. After a bit he got an IM - "Philip Linden is in my house." I said, "go Luc" then added "then send us TPs." It was a sad but crazed party with a couple of dozen people I have spent a lot of time with on the forum but haven't (in most cases) met before inworld. It's been two years. We will migrate to sluniverse and Second Citizen, but it isn't quite the same.

I didn't say I'd talked to Higbee on Tuesday and TPed him to Brilliant so we could form an official friendship. He said, "It's been a long time since our avatars have seen each other," and I said, "Yes - two years." He was amazed. The far reaches of my SL existence are two years ago, so that's a common time length. I've known loads of people for two years. Sometimes I met them, then didn't have much to do with them until later.

We have a new url for Combat Cards: http://www.combatcards.co.uk



09 August 2006

 
Yesterday the New West opening was at noon, then rehearsal for the play From the Shadows was at 2. Luc wasn't there, but Vlad stood in for him, and Ida was there, which was good. Eileen was wonderful as usual. At one point A blue message popped down saying the grid was having to be shut down in two minutes as the asset server was misbehaving, then another one said, "Assets are being lost." Was that from Cory? I forget. We bopped out, then it was up again in a very short time. I'd just started a forum party and hardly had time to get it going before we were back in. Actually, even though emergency grid closures are not fun, the grid had been wildly unstable all day, so I was glad something was being done.

Today there was a pile-on on the Aditi grid during the scheduled main grid downtime, and it was ok, except there were scads of amazingly vocal people who seemed not to understand the basic point of a preview grid.

Anyway, then I waited for the Combat Cards event at Spangle by making an answering-the-phone animation for Eileen to use in the play. The anim is fine, but there's trouble with the way it can be used as it needs to come before the using-the-phone animation. I decided I could combine them by opening the .bvh files in Notepad and pasting one into the other, which worked perfectly. Unfortunately, though, after that it can't be looped, so I've got to figure out exactly what to do.

The Combat Cards event was sparsely attended, leading Doc to decide we need to learn more about marketing. I have zero marketing genes, though. He arranged for Combat Cards to have a full-page in an SL convention publication, so I made a couple of mock-ups for him to look at.

Eileen and I did a bit of brainstorming and rehearsing - then we got tossed off the grid again. What was it this time... I forget... They later did rolling server updates, and things seem fine now. A bizarre couple of days.



08 August 2006

 


 

Kurt Vonnegut came in Second Life today, where he was interviewed by John Hockenberry for The Infinite Mind. It was good - I got a bit distracted by all the chat, though. I think that's more my own problem than anything else. Enj and I had got tickets when the ticket booth opened at 9am, then at 4:50pm the sim was still closed to me. I had to contact an organiser to be let in - apparently my name had fallen off the list. I got in well before the start, however.

John Hockenberry asked, "What's the best news you've heard lately about the future of the world?" or something like that. Kurt Vonnegut laughed* a bit and said, "We have at least a year left." Or something like that.

Rather than seeing imitations of the person, it would be more fun to see what they'd choose - even if it was a generality like "a red robot" or "I'd be a pear" and that was supplied for them. What would Kurt Vonnegut have chosen? Well, he talked about looking like Andre Agassi ten years ago :D

*mirthlessly, as they say



07 August 2006

 
starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky starax statosky

WHERE ARE YOU?


 

A rescheduled visit from Henry VIII


 

Scanned by a police bot in Suffugium



05 August 2006

 

Eileen McTeague in Scene 2 of From the Shadows


 

Groucho on the set



04 August 2006

 
Second Life has the last name "Discovolante" which I adored from Thunderball (name of a boat). Excellent last name.


 

Normal/nightmarish sets from From the Shadows.


 
w00t! this is from the next week update report:

* Resolved a bug which caused an orange flicker to occur (most
noticeable during sunset and sunrise)

YES!



03 August 2006

 


Please join Ludica and contributing artists
for a reception celebrating the opening of

The New West
virtual exhibition of Second Life art and design
ISEA 2006 ZeroOne electronic arts festival

August 8, 12pm PST

Location:
Second Life, Brilliant 139, 152, 66
Or go direct via slurl.


For more information visit The New West.



02 August 2006

 
We've been working on the play From the Shadows, these past days. Enjah is altering the script to be a complete play with four characters. I've been building sets. I put them up above Bolinas in the air. Needed are normal house interior, nightmarish interior, and exterior. We have enlisted Selador to play the pipe-smoking husband. We don't have our villain cast yet.

I was fiddling with the sets just now when someone IMed me about my little tent-to-skybox duo I set up in Bolinas. I came down and went to their place and set it all up for them - they were very sweet. That's my first time selling that, and it went (unless something weird happens later) smoothly. I set it up and sold then the originals in situ. Today's update has made building quirky and annoying as number boxes trap the cursor and it's hard to get out.


 
Hmmm... it's not been publishing my posts - just trying a text-only post as an experiment.



01 August 2006

 

STRIKE THAT - Event Cancelled
Too bad, as it looked to be fun.

 

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