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30 April 2006

 

The play was wonderful, and the audience sat rapt through the whole thing. Enjah was a masterful actress, and pulled it off with great aplomb. I was worried enough abough MY tiny part (moving the shadow is all) in the proceedings - I can't imagine being the only character.

I snapped this at the end of the play. I was hiding behind the scenery so I could move the shadow, but I swiveled my camera around so I could take pictures. I had to keep "edit" on the shadow as it was behind a transparent, phantom area in the wall. As a consequence all the pictures I took had yellow edit box and arrows and lines all over - I had forgotten about that edit-show-in-snap bug. I spent some time yesterday fixing the snaps; that is, drawing our the edit apparatus. Pain in the...

Before the play I tried on several outfits before deciding I should be a stagehand ninja, without mask (maybe I should've worn the mask, though.



29 April 2006

 
Enjah is off to France tomorrow. Meanwhile, she sent me this super cool link - it's totally brilliant!


 
Most comically (unless she drowns) the dog-next-door, Rocket, has swum far out into the lake to investigate the friend-or-foe quotients of the various fisherfolk. I looked up to see her churning towards a white motor launch that was about 10 feet ahead of her. The boat zoomed away.

Oh now I am not sure - it might be the neighbor in the boat - so she was probably following her family. She's a very strong swimmer. Whooda thunk a Rottweiler would be so aquatically gifted? She's been here as long as I have, and used to begin barking at about 7 in the morning and continue all day (she was penned during the day in a spot just below the carport, which acted like a Victrola hown). Now, however, she barks less.


 


Fishing season began on the lake today, so there were dozens of boats out this morning. It's down to a dozen, perhaps, that are visible from where I sit. Well more than a dozen, but less than two dozen. At least 18 by a quick count.


 

Groovy Postcard from SWMNBMIMB


 
I did a custom outfit that was my take on the masquerade costume from Phantom of the Opera (I was sent a couple of pictures and tried to make it similar whilst not wanting to replicate it - not that one could in SL anyway).


I got a nice IM this morning:
"Just a note to say thank you so VERY much for the red masquerade Phantom outfit. It is absolutely amazing. Your work and your talent are second to none. Thank you ever so much! -B"

They were nice customers. I like working on little projects as long as it's something that interests me. Obviously one couldn't hire me in real life for what I ask in SL, but I like having these projects so it's not like I get nothing out of it except a few dollars. For some reason this didn't take me terribly long, and for me solving little graphics problems is like scratching an itchy spot. I did encounter something odd, which is that the prim boots are not selectable when worn, so I can't edit them. I had to make them approximately the right size and then put them on. I don't get that t all. Attachments are editable. Why can't I edit these?



28 April 2006

 
Someone deliberately crashed the Second Life grid again. I went into Preview for a while, which is very different now - with vertex shaders it looks very contrasty. I found an enormous spiral staircase and parachuted off a few times.


Tomorrow at the Photography Studio we have a dramatic performance by Eileen McTeague, the brightest star in the Grignano Pictures firmament. She is performing an adapted scene from her new film, From the Shadows. Actually I created a set to match my painting that I used for the poster, and Enjah and I wrote the script (more Enj than me - me giving ideas in the beginning and Enjah writing the script). I find it fun to be inside one of my paintings.


I got a postcard from SWMNBMIMB today - she's in Japan.

My Ubuntu disc arrived today at long last, so I played with it a bit. Not one, but 5 CD-sets so I can get other people interested. I already use Open Office and Firefox, and SL has a beta client for Linux, so a partial transition would be easy, but I couldn't go to it 100% as there is no Adobe for Linux (as far as I know).

What else... I talked to Con - David was in the hospital this week having a biopsy. They haven't had any word of outcome and were told it could be A WEEK. A WEEK? I know what it's like to wait for test results although I hope in their case the outcome will be all right.

I talked to SJ about the price list, and I emailed Mel and others in the exhibit group to give them an update of my life right now. I am struggling to finish out the school year and feel guilty, a bit, that I haven't done anything constructive to help with the exhibits.

I accidentally arrived at Dreams Fair in SL at the precise time of "Linden Dunking," so spent a few minutes throwing balls and attempting to drop a succession of Lindens into a pool. I told Bub not to pee in the pool (he was the one with yellow snowballs at the snowball fight in 2004) so he came over and jumped on me and farted great green clouds. I wondered where Pony was, but she immediately turned up and sat in the dunk tank. Then I got the phonecall from Con so I went and sat on a table while I talked to her.


 
A bald eagle is trying to kill an osprey again, as usual here at this time of the year. The osprey is more agile and also (I think) smarter. Usually the osprey will fly up and up, twisting and turning to avoid the more powerful eagle, and keeping above it so the eagle can't stoop. When they become tiny dots in the sky the eagle gives up.


 
I keep mentioning to people that the US government is planning on exploding an immense bomb in Nevada in a few weeks, and I've been reeeeeeeeeeeeelly surprised that this is news to a lot of people. It's happening - June 2. And they say it's 700 tons.

Indian Country Today:
"Western Shoshone opposed the Pentagon's planned 700-ton detonation on aboriginal Western Shoshone land, as a delegation of Western Shoshone returned from Geneva, Switzerland, with support from the United Nations for protection of their human rights and territory.

James Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, confirmed that the United States plans to detonate 700 tons of explosives at the Nevada Test Site on June 2.

While the Pentagon calls it ''Divine Strake,'' Western Shoshone said there is nothing divine about a massive explosion on their traditional lands.

The Divine Strake blast will be five times larger than the military's largest conventional weapon, the Massive Ordinance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB, nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. "

The doublespeak writers must be working overtime.

Since this is part of the Iran thing, and since they don't have any planes that can carry 700 tons, as far as I know, it seems like they are using it A) for chest-thumping purposes, and B) as a stand-in for an atomic weapon they see as being equivilent.



27 April 2006

 
Just returned from jin shin. Last night I couldn't sleep and shivered for some reason. I wasn't cold... or at least, it wasn't cold and I had adequate cover.

The day is fabulously beautiful, with blue-sky-and-white-clouds, new yellow-green leaves on the deciduous trees, and new growth on the fir trees. The madrona outside this window is vibrant and in its glory.



26 April 2006

 
I remember reading once about a woman who had learned to cook a roast by watching her mother. She sliced a bit off the end, then put it all in a roasting pan, etc. Years later her (by thewn) elderly mother asked her what she was doing, and with surprise, she explained. Her mother said, "I only did it that way because I had a small roasting pan and the meat didn't fit."

I have twin cousins who, as children, shared a bath, one twin always at the tap end and the other at the "good" end. That in itself scandalised my mother, but then, many years later, my Auntie Betty had to retrieve something from the bathroom while a twin was bathing. The grownup twin was sitting at the tap end.

I've considered both those stories for years. I think we learn things from people we trust that we accept without question. We can't question everything, and some people question more than others do. Regardless, we probably all have something we do or know or embody that is a Tap End.



25 April 2006

 
Got home at 5 minutes to 6, with a raging thirst. That's too long without food/drink. It was hot in my room as the day was sunny and the printer throws off a lot of heat.

I had to tell Donna she'd forfeited next week's class by being inattentive, rude, and disruptive. Oh well. Sabra and Cheyenne worked well. Four new computers in fifth grade! Nice, normal black-w-LCD monitors XPs, not those antiquated cream-colored beasts.

I left a recommendation in the office to be picked up by Billie to add to Halisa's application for an art thingummy in Oregon. Kimb. told me K says hi and sends a hug - she said he's a good friend of hers. I can't help it - I wish Kimb would take a hike. She hasn't been at all useful. the teachers are out of patience as she turns up irregularly without giving them notice that she will or won't be coming. And the CANDY - holy moley - this is a SCHOOL, the last thing we need is candy.

I ate and now I feel like I need a nap.



24 April 2006

 
Enjah as the Moon Woman.

Dress looks grey - I should've added some lights... DOH.


 

I couldn't think WHAT the package was, when I found it in my mailbox yesterday. Then I saw it was from Enjah! Yay! But... why was she sending me... EARPLUGS? But no, inside the earplug box was this wonderful African hippopotamus that is a key chain only until I remove the key ring.

On a related not, I bungeeeeeed the flopping roof piece (yes, it is STILL hanging down) to the deck railing as the previous fix (wire) took a beating but finally parted. It did a job on the deck railing, though - looks like it was gnawed by something with chainsaw blood in it. Windows open today, as it's been very nice.



23 April 2006

 

Peace



22 April 2006

 
Yesterday I suddenly thought, "Oh no!" I'd missed the Thursday virtual world class in CTCUNI with the fifth graders. When I got home from the dentist (at about the time class was beginning) I was so numb and hungry it slipped my mind entirely. That's not good. Usually I can think fine even if I don't eat anything - I guess jin shin + 1.5 hours being drilled on at the dentist's + not eating for 14 hours = forgetting my class. I guess that's forgiveable.



21 April 2006

 


 
Best machinima yet from Second Life: "A Better Life" made by Robbie Dingo.



20 April 2006

 
I got home at about 2, after jin shin and a long dental appointment. I am still all numb, but because I hadn't eaten anything I ate some yoghurt when I got home. Interesting trying to eat when numb.



19 April 2006

 
The event for the Photography Studio at Dreams Fair was today at 1pm. My friend Candide, whom I never see anymore, came early and hung out - it was fun. He put on a clown avatar and I wore a light-colored gown and we took screenshots of him strangling me in front of the backdrop - for FROM THE SHADOWS. He's in Slovakia. I got to know him through snail racing, which neither of us do anymore. I can't do the new course one-handed, so I gave up. At the fair he pulled his old shop out of inventory to show me, and I pulled out the potato on the flatcar - but he couldn't see it as his internet connection is slow.

Enjah came and helped me, so it was good - there were a few people. I was glad of her help as I get typed-out quickly - besides the fact that she's just a lot of fun. Selador came and spent some time, too, then we went off so Enj could buy a DoodlePad (shows you drawing when you type something).



18 April 2006

 
Wow - long day - I got home 15 minutes ago. I get hungry since I don't eat lunch - I'm not a huge breakfast-lover, so I had feta cheese and black coffee at 8:30 - heh. I got home (first time this year my car was hot inside after sitting all day) and threw my school lunch into the nuker. At school I got 7 sides of yearbook pages printed, and have more print-ready. Things were good. Alex said school just got 18 (I think) new computers. That will help.

Phew - life is good. Tiff was there and told me about her newest grandson, who is like her own sons in being very early in his development. Tiff has hilarious tales of her sons' babyhoods - regularly climbing out of their cribs as tiny babies, walking at 7 months, etc. She says they looked like spiders - thin and whippy, not chubby and placid.


 
Enjah, Salazar - how is this skirt?



17 April 2006

 
After missing Enjah every day for ages, we finally met up on the Preview Grid, and continued making Moon Woman duds.

Database issues caused the Main Grid to have problems. I was on the Preview Grid all day, so I didn't know until lots of people started coming in. I started doing a short test, then Enjah came in and I stopped, then Pypo, Bunny and various people came in so I didn't manage to finish the test for hours. Everyone has been hard at work (not) making capes and whips. I always wear a cloak - for AGES - but now everyone is wearing one. And I saw dozens of whips, prompting someone to say, "I didn't think of the BDSM angle!" I told Bunny that Snail Dude is like BRAD PITT (Snail Dude is in Bunny's cartoon), but someone hiding out from the main grid troubles lashed poor Dude with a whip. Someone said he was the king of SL, but I pointed out that we already have a king (Morse D).


Floopy, twirling tentacle-y thingamybobbers.



15 April 2006

 
The new hardware light is just as much fun as flexible prims, but is even more important to the look of our Second Life world. Here's the Brownstone East with the new light:







Second Life is down at the moment as there was another global attack this afternoon. Linden Lab has not yet been able to open it up. Unfortunayely there seems to be an endless supply of immature people and, as always, making bad things happen isn't difficult. It's impossible to protect against these attacks totally unless all the creative tools are removed.



14 April 2006

 
Click here to see flexible prims on the preview grid.

And here, too.



13 April 2006

 
Preview 1.9.1 - Causes Osprey to faint in an overdose of glee
After I made my cloak I had to IM the Lindens who happened to be in there and say 'thank you." Things are good.

I made a new floppy cloak and jumped around like a mad thing.

Salazar has a superhero cape :D

The new light is SO NICE. Here is red, blue, and yellow light as shown on my face.


 
This was sent to me the other day:

Exhibit Schedule
Childhood's End Gallery -- Cityscapes
June 2 - June 16
Side Door Studio -- Portraits
June 13 - July 7
State of the Arts -- Roadside Shrines
June 13th - June 20
Art House --Garden Ornaments
June 13 - June 20
State Capitol Museum -- Cityscapes & Landscapes
April 3 - June 30 (?)


 

I took this the other day when I was sailing around Nova Albion. Visible on the lower left is my Swimmer HUD, because HUDs are now visible in photographs unless you untick "HUDs shown in snapshots." I swear I thought that option, when it first appeared the other day, was persistent, but now it isn't. I thought it was like this: HUD was visible for just long enough after login to remind that it was being worn.

Wasn't Cybin M working on a project on that now-empty spot? What happened?

Today I went to jin shin, mailed my income tax, sent off another price revision, completed the 4th grade activities page, and now think I might wander into the kitchen and find some lunch.

Coming up forthwith: the ability to alter names in Second Life. I am not sure I really want to - maybe I do. I still think "Theremin" would be a good name. Or maybe I should change Art's name. Art could be... uh... Art Flytrap... uh... hard to know.



11 April 2006

 
I am confused that there was a huge massing of people for illegal immigration yesterday when the real reason for people to take to the streets is the upcoming attack on Iran.

Salazar is planning a movie and one of the characters is a woman in the moon - a part that will be played - or danced - by Enjah. She's the perfect moon woman - I'm trying to think why that is. I think it's because she has an affinity for space and the ethereal. Salazar built a nice moon that is a house with a balcony. His project trial movie is good all by itself - I think the finished movie will be something to see, indeed.

The moon pic he sent me made me think of the poster that came with the White Album, so I am stopping now to go see if it's online.

I worked (and completed pending teacher approval) on two yearbook pages today, finished my stupid taxes, and did a lot on the pricing for individual shows. I find that confusing. I think I've got one show left... 'drat.'



10 April 2006

 
Waiting for Marilee to pop over, and I went in SL to see TRAFFIC! A car was being driven along the coast road. The driver stopped, flew over to chat for a minute, them went off down the road. Oh, I hope we get Havok2+ soon and the roads become useful. Right now cars are horrible.


 

FROM THE SHADOWS Poster
I hope we get some nice entries. The image is one of my paintings - actually it was going to be a series way back whenever I painted it, but after one I stopped.



09 April 2006

 

The new contest is From the Shadows, so I set up the backdrops today (a bit early for LF, who had hoped to see the Nova Albion exhibit - sorry LF). Friday I set up a booth for the Photography Studio at Dreams exposition, and Friday/Saturday I set up (twice!) a market stall that took hours. After I set it all up the owner sent it all back to me despite the fact that I'd paid. I set up AGAIN and saved a linked copy of it in case it happened again. A strange thing that happened was that I tried to IM her - she was online - but got the message that the sim was not able to handle IMs (I can't remember exactly what it said). She IMed me in the morning to apologise and offer me a refund, which I didn't take her up on. Anyway...

From the Shadows...



08 April 2006

 
Enjah is been away for several days but will return tomorrow - yay!

Higbee is back, which is really cool as he makes beautiful landscapes. I spent hours wandering Kumori. It's beautiful. When I joined SL in 2004 I took a building class and the teacher was Higbee. He and PM had wonderful sims but left a bit ago. I'm glad Kumori is there for us to explore.



06 April 2006

 
I'm listening to a townhall (well, it hasn't started yet but they've been playing music) with Philip Linden. Oh - there it is.

Live... on the air. I think they probably decided to do this as the last (typed) townhall was dismal. Philip was interviewed on Secondcast the other day, and those people are doing the technical whatzzits. It's the first call-in townhall (using Skype). Robin is trying to type inworld to create a text townhall for people with no ability to use the sound.

He's talking about the economy... the Linden has declined a bit (but I'm not sure that matters at all)... money entering the economy through stipends... They decide whether or not to reduce the amount of money coming in by watching the Lindex statistics.

OK - that's all I'm going to type... raining a lot just now - very pretty as it's sunny, too.


 

First Grade Life
Very cool hair.


 
THIS IS IMPORTANT
Study these well - you may need to know what to do in a crisis.



05 April 2006

 
At the dentist's, today, there was a jovial old man in a wheelchair with an attentive man pushing him around and straightening out his newspapers. He was a neighbor of the hygenist I had, and she asked him if he was getting any oysters. He said, "A thousand!" It was 1,000 oysters to put in the water to eat in the future. He said he has nine children (grown, I assume), and seemed very happy and satisfied with himself.

I came home and spent some time working on the yearbook. What else... hmmm... ate some brown rice and yoghurt... hmmm...



04 April 2006

 
Izzy and Makeda got married today - I almost missed it, but fortunately I got there in time to see part of the ceremony.


 
Holy Moley!

My little student took these photographs today!


Wow! I think these are fab - and she's just a fifth grader!






 

I took this picture as I was leaving school today.



03 April 2006

 

Enjah has a flair for making avatars, and she's combined her Eraserhead with the Ava/Tab idea. Ha! Looks great! I flew over to her house this morning with my turkey, and watched her for a while.


 
Making a custom set of duds for a nice man. Making things for people can be difficult as not everyone is used to describing things in a way that I can understand. Man: And could the white part be darker? Me: The trim? Would you like it the same color as the (darker now) trousers? Man: Yes, sand colored. Dark sand. Almost black. Heh - I'm so visual I made what he had specified in a drawing - the trim being light. The drawing specified "dar red," so I asked, "What's dar red?" That turned out to be dark red. Working on custom jobs is like being a translator. I find that part a bit interesting. Also - men are modest. I had to redo it to make the top cover up a bit more - not the first time I've had to change something to make a top cover more. Men are really quite sweet and nice.


 
I've had a couple of long phone conversations in the past two days, about the upcoming shows of my paintings. One was from SJ, who is registrar at the Henry, and my bestest pal. Thank god for her since she's got reality firmly in her grip. The other was from Con, whose area of expertise this is not, and she said, "Everyone has done a great job and you'll be so happy to know that everything is documented and has been picked up!" Actually, that is the MINIMUM to be expected - cripe, anything less is cause for extreme alarm. We are talking about 84 or 5 things, here.
She also said, Were you aware that there was a painting that everyone was looking for?" Umm... WHICH PAINTING? "The one called 'Wall.'" That one left HERE. Then she told me how it had gone missing and she'd been looking for it, then when R (gallery owner) came to pick up it turned out she had taken it to be photographed for a flyer. She said she'd told everyone what was happening, but no one thought she had. We aren't talking small, here - that painting is about 34"x35." Anyway, things are proceeding well thanks to SJ looking out for me, and me sending out clear directives. It's probably time for me to send another one.

I had jin shin then posted some cards and went to Slaveways to buy yoghurt. Luckily I was able to get both out and in the driveway: I hope things are as good tomorrow.



02 April 2006

 
I'm in a bad mood because I just tried to go out, but NO, the driveway is blocked by a large truck being filled with dirt and roots by a frontloader. BAH.

The other day, on the radio, they were interviewing random people of the street. A man said, "I think we spend too much on defense." My head exploded right there just hearing it. Defense? De-FENSE? DEFENSE?



01 April 2006

 
Desert Fighter custom duds (unfinished)

 

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