atomic-raygun

 
             

   
 
 
----------->vivian-oblivion<--------

Site Feed

www.flickr.com

30 September 2006

 
It's Doomalicious
I found my shadow doom blog - well, actually I hadn't looked for it before. Anyway, it has one post and has been sitting there for two years. The lone post has gathered four barnacles... er... comments of the spam variety.

Big News From The Healthcare Industry!! (Oh, ok.)

I read over your blog, and i found it inquisitive, you may find My Blog interesting. My blog is just about my day to day life, as a park ranger. (I didn't click but I would imagine this will be pictures of naked, buff males.)

Do you want free porn? (Gee, no thank you.)

Get any Desired College Degree, In less then 2 weeks. (Then I could make Big News in The Healthcare Industry!!)


 
Jumping the Gun

I would be better off if I just marked a calendar for a few months ahead with contest deadlines and award ceremonies, however I never do, so I wind up hastily cramming dates onto a notecard at 2 a.m. The new longer contest schedule should allow me to be get my dates right, I hope. I'm a bit screwed up at the moment, though, as I set the current exhibit longer than the current contest. I extended the contest deadline, but that will confuse people who don't get the news.

Anyway, I made a new contest poster just now, but it's not due to be rolled out until the 8th, at the earliest. If I decide to go back to using backdrops (which I like doing, but haven't done for the past few contests) it would need to begin following the B&W exhibit - around, say, the 23rd.


What to do, what to do.



29 September 2006

 



28 September 2006

 

When I was small I liked imagining what it would be like if the floor and ceiling swapped places. Odd things like that are fun to think about. Odd things seem to be happening in my Photography Studio spontaneously, though, which is not as much fun. First there was that time displacement plumbing malfunction... wait - FIRST there was another problem I have not mentioned. For the past 7 months or so I've been shrinking. I'm not sure how far I'll shrink, but it seems to be an ongoing, if gradual, process. A little while ago I saw the vase rim sticking out of the floor - at first not knowing what it was. Last night I noted that the settee is now completely turned upside down. If this is related to an upset in the grid I hope it isn't like the warning rumbles of an earthquake.

On the one hand I want to ask Salazar about it as he has lived through gridquakes of shocking magnitude. However, I don't want to bring it up if it will be too traumatic for him. Luckily he doesn't read this blog so I can talk about it frankly. I wonder if his great grandmother's scanning device would reveal anything important.

I hope this is just unrelated weirdness, and has nothing to do with the Erase. Maybe it's related to the general peculiarities of Nova Albion now that it has so many denizens. Perhaps a sacrifice to the old god, Dwellnor, would ease some of the population stresses. Some think Dwellnor is asleep, but I don't. Dwellnor has many faces and although one aspect may seem to be slumbering, another is watching sharply.

I must talk to Ilia. Meanwhile I'll just tell Salazar I put the settee on the ceiling because it's the latest fashion. Men believe fashion is cabable of inspiring any degree of strangeness.



27 September 2006

 



26 September 2006

 
My mother was born on the 26th of September.

I went inworld to see Jeff's HTML on a prim but, alas, I couldn't make it work for some reason. It uses the movie function somehow, which is obvious as the movie controls turn to play as you send your URL, but I couldn't get it to load. I'll go back later and try again.

When I found the wheatfield in Preview last spring, it was amazing as floopy prims were just out on that grid. I filmed it as I thought it was nice to look at, and saved the files with the idea of making a short movie. I was moved to make the movie the other day, which I did in exactly the way I thought I would - a little story from the Dalai Lama about wheat, using titles to express a stripped-down version. I thought I'd better find out who had made the wheat and credit that person. I hoped my little movie would not be scorned by wheat creator. I found the wheat creator who turned out to be a Buddhist, and who gave me permission. Sweet!

Meeting Doc and Adri inworld for an interview.



25 September 2006

 

Enjah is back - yay! We are working on the Grignano Broadcasting Company, at the moment. I've been talking to Pirate these past few days - big changes coming to DarkLife, and I'm not sure what that means for me. I met Doc inworld and helped test the new anvil and updater.



24 September 2006

 
I made this last night - well, I filmed the wheat on the preview grid in April and just now put it together into a completed project.



23 September 2006

 
Where are you, Enjah? I hope things are all right in your world. I'm thinking about you.



22 September 2006

 
Enjah sent me a DVD - "Baraka," a film in the Koyaanisqatsi mold in being nonverbal. It's gorgeously filmed, and in a purely visual way compares, analyses by looking closely, uses time-lapse to reveal patterns and strangenesses. It overloads with images both beautiful and horrifying. I want to watch it again.

I had to fast forward through the chicks part, though, as it made me think about that old Eastern European short film called The Mallet (I think that was the title). In that little black and white film women are sitting at a conveyor belt sorting chicks. Most chicks are chosen but the rejects are left on the belt and move down to the end where they fall off and are smashed by a mallet. One chick keeps running up towards the women, but they push him away.

Unfortunately all I have to do is see something once and it's in my head forever.


 
REPUBLICANS= pro-torture
DEMOCRATS= anti-torture


 
A Favorite Filmmaker

I started thinking about "Punishment Park" the other day, for some reason related to how rounding up people and subjecting them to... stuff... has become a reality in the Untied (ZOMG what a typo! I'm leaving it.) States. I saw it a couple of years* after it came out, which was in, I think, 1971. I ran into it in an oblique fashion and was startled and shocked as I didn't know at first it was not a documentary. Although I've never seen it again I've never forgotten it, and a few scenes are burned into my brain.

"The War Game," too, is a fabulous piece of film-making made by the same man, Peter Watkins. I don't remember if I saw it before or after "Punishment Park," but it has an equal impact of horror when the facts of what can happen after a nuclear explosion are exposed.

Today I thought - What else did he make? - and looked him up in the Tubes. I'd seen some others without putting them together with any one filmmaker. Well I remember "Culloden" about the Battle of Culloden - a very powerful piece. "Edvard Munch," "Privilege," - both I saw long ago and don't really remember well. I should get his films - the ones available, anyway).



20 September 2006

 
I went to the new BL plot sim and started building. One of the first things I did was drag "object" after "object" out of my inventory and rename them. At one point I asked Jeska for the ability to plant grass, so she made a role for that, but for some reason we couldn't get it to work. Tina sent me a Pixels in the Wind column, which starts off the garbage. I'm pretty well done building, but now I need teh trash.

I got an Organics to Go delivery today, which is good. He said it's been a bit slow this week.


 
Jeska just IMed me about setting up my Burning Life build again. I'm thrilled, but I will have to reconstruct it as it all got returned to my lost and found folder today in a million pieces. It was sheer luck that I hadn't already deleted it all. Still - setting it up again will give new people a chance to collaborate (i.e. drop garbage) and it isn't THAT many prims to sort out.


 
I suddenly realised I'd dreamt last night that LL removed map-tracking. Not that I want them to, particularly. I think it was because I was talking to a new person who offered me friendship and I refused. He said, "Don't want to be my pal, eh?" and I said I didn't do friendship as it's weird. I think map-tracking should be of the same order as "given rights." That is, it should be something one can give or revoke as needed. It would be REALLY nice if calling cards and friendship swapped places on the pie, but I'm not holding my breath on that one as it's been asked for by many people for years.


 

Yay! Ida gave me this lovely elephant for my birthday but he unaccountably didn't make the transfer for some reason - he must've been in must and so unpredictable. I was sent one yesterday by the creator, which I just had a chance to see a minute ago - yay! He does various things such as wiggle his ears, carry me around, fly, and JUGGLE FLAMING BALLS upon which one may sit. Blogger is being recalcitrant - I'm trying to upload another picture but it's flumping out every time.

Maybe it isn't Blogger - maybe it's my host having difficulties...


 
Unfinished Cogitation on Things
Sometimes I think it would be easier, in a lot of respects, for LL to make another, updated, Second Life that would allow for the unpredictable (3 years ago) things that people have done.* I think they constantly have to stick their fingers in the dike. Things quickly scale up into bizarre, lop-sided forms.

As an example, take avatar attachments. I believe Washu Z was the first person to make prim hair, which has made a great deal of difference in the way avatars look. Before prim hair there was only Linden hair (I still have Linden hair as I don't really care** about hair). Prim hair became incredibly complex, prim-heavy, and lagarrific. Prim hairstylists often didn't seem to get the idea that computers have to render the geometry of all these prims, and would make bazillion-prim hair using twisted tori - by all accounts the most difficult of shapes to be rendered. When flexi-prims came in I thought perhaps it was LL's way to get rid of those old-style laggy torus hairdos as the torus can't be made floopy...

*On the other hand, you could argue that if they did it would only be a equaliser for the things already done, and that new things might soon render the updated version outdated.
**In real life I was able to grow really beautiful hair out of my scalp up until the golden blonde grew dim. I'd be stopped in the street by people who would say, "You have beautiful hair!" I never cared about it, though, and just used to either have it cut very short or grow it very long as "I leave it alone and it leaves me alone."


 
Nobody but me cares about this, so just skip it.

It takes me forever to put 2+2 together.

I knew the Daily O photographer Steve B from the olden days, as I'd been married to a reporter. When he came to take my picture in June we had a bit of old home week talk, then discussed a few other things including leading hands, as my left hand is my good one. He's left-handed - I said I'd always been, luckily, tending to the ambidextrous end of the spectrum although I wrote and painted with my right hand. After I said I had vague memories I didn't really trust of having been, once, left-handed, he said, "Maybe you were," as in those days it was something they tried to train you out of. I was sure that wasn't it, though.

I have various old memories that are entirely distinct and that I can see clearly in my mind's eye. One is being a baby in a highchair in England when a jack-in-the-box jumped out in front of me. I have lots, actually. I remember being up high and looking down on a school pageant, watching my older sister in a group of students. Anyway, as I got older of course there are more memories. I can remember a couple of dreams I had - one from when I was 6. I dreamt a giant daddy longlegs came out of the cellar and my father and brother battled it. I can see it clearly. I went to school, having woken up thinking it was real, and told an older girl. She said, "Perhaps you were dreaming," and POOF! just like that I realised I HAD been dreaming.

Anyway, one thing I clearly remember is my brother mowing the lawn with a rotary push mower, and me (brattishly) saying, "Let me!" There was a slight step in the lawn and I was on the lower part. He said, "Catch!" and let slip the mower, and I reached my hands out. Remember, we were both children. Then I remember crying and wailing, holding up my right arm as blood ran down as I went up to the house.

Our doctor sewed the end of my finger on again with sutures of two different colors. His name was Dr. Aikenhead (no, I'm not making it up). He reckoned I was lucky not to've lost my finger(s). I never did hold a pencil as others did, after that.

Obviously THAT'S why I remember having been, briefly, left-handed. It has come in handy, I think, that early training.



19 September 2006

 
Yay! My headache's gone!


 
Gad, it took me ages to find this - something made me think about this crocheting. I'd read about it a while ago in... uh... Smithsonian Magazine?... and wanted to refresh my memory.
Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane

There's a gallery of crocheted forms here.


 
Archiving is Boring

True, it is - however when a file is needed and I don't have it I'm very unhappy. There's no way to recreate something I've done as the things are all too complex and even I don't known what I've done. So I've been sitting here burning DVDs for Combat Cards, SL screenshots, clothing, misc. design projects, the Photo Studio. I threw away a lot of video footage earlier and I want to archive finished movie-lets. I must say I regret (a bit) having chucked my old video taken in SL in 2004, as there was some of Nova Albion that was interesting. Anyway, for people who say, "What - you think everything you do needs to be saved?" No, but I generate a lot of files that are also usually very large. I often need to go back and change a minor thing on something (say, a dress is wanted in a different color) and my alternative to archiving is to do the thing over from scratch. DVDs are cheap and I am glad to have the capability. Boring, though.

Well posting that used up the burn time for one - yay!



18 September 2006

 
I accidentally found this while looking for a site with some statistics or other information for a tiny movie I'm making about my Burning Life build: Article about my build. I'm really happy that the writer understood what I was doing. It just seemed too... educational or preachy to have a sign. And it would assume the visitors couldn't figure it out for themselves.

I invited anyone to drop garbage and had a hard time leaving some of the things - absurd! The idea of controlling and choosing aesthetically pleasing debris is just crazy. It was an interesting exercise in keeping hands off and seeing how it developed. I toyed with the idea of building a huge trash tower but I think the random crap was better.



 

Last Night at Yankee Stadium...

...Electric Sheep put on a match that followed the real life game on the video screens, using animated bobble-heads. We waved our prim foam fingers and in the first couple of hours talked a lot. Later it became quieter, and I wound up leaving as I had a post-saturday headache (still do). It was a fab build and everything was done really well. I had a great time despite not being a sports fan.

Exterior

Bobbles on the field



17 September 2006

 
AngryBeth Shortbread's SynthCube



16 September 2006

 
A Long, Fruitless, and Stressful Time
I walked in the door at 4:15 and immediately called my SS Adjudicator as the receptionist had instructed me. The transportation that had been provided had got me to the doctor's office 35 minutes late, so all was for naught as I was too late for my appointment. My options were to wait in case someone didn't show up for an appointment, in which case the transportation wouldn't pick me up until 6, an hour past the closing time, or go home and reschedule. I would've stayed had I known I'd be seen, however it was just the luck of the draw. If I'd then been picked up at 6 I wouldn't get home until 7 - I'm fried enough, today, without that.

The driver was affable and kind to me and I enjoyed talking to her - I think that the particular transportation niche she is in ill suits her, however. The receptionist was very kind to me, too, and even said she would stay until 6pm for me if that's what I chose. The driver and the receptionist spat flames at each other, but I liked them both. As it turns out, the driver is Nez Perce - and an artist, to boot.

This was certainly the worst way the day could turn out, I suppose. My next appointment (whenever that winds up being) COULD be as early as the 28th, but might be further in the future than that. I was hoping the stress would go away today, but unfortunately I have another X amount of it.

I need to go and collapse now.


 
Tina's Burning Life installation last night - as the pillars went poof:



15 September 2006

 
ahkenatan Grommet's Starax Statue

Enjah's Missing Skin



 
adidas :(((((((((((((((

I took a look at the new adidas sim built by Rivers Run Red, who always do fine work. The sim is notable as it is selling adidas shoes for use in Second Life. The shoes look very realistic. Each shoe has 200 prims in it. Holy effing... I sat st the salesdesk and watched. OK, what did I see? In the unholy lag people wearing bazillion-prim hoochie hair were buying 400 prim shoes. I sent an IM to Fizik: It's a Tragedy of the Commons trainer - bad Fizik. I think clicking the shoe should give a RL coupon NOT a 400-prim pair of shoes. I was horrified. I live here - these are sucking up resources in a big way. I am considering challenging Fizik to a chocolate pudding wrestling match, but I'm not sure he'd accept.

I talked to another person involved - but I won't say what he said except for two sentences:
[17:58] Osprey Therian: *spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*
spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank*spank
[17:59] Osprey Therian: 200 prims EACH SHOE?
----------spirited exchange---------------
[18:04] Osprey Therian: *fans self*
[18:05] X: Want a 240 prim fan?
[18:05] X: I'll trade you for some more spanking :D


 
Horrible administration.


 
Astronomical Julian Date for:12/09/1953 is:2434633


 
Aw - Samantha, who lived with me for three months at the beginning of 2002 because she was in dire straits, sent me an email:

Happy Birthday!!! long time no see or hear again. i have 3 girls now as of march 26. i have to get a picture of them all together. that i know of there is only one family picture out there of us. I mean the whole family with daddy, too. lol he hates to have his picture taken.

She is the sister of two students I'd taught prior to 2002, and I'd met her many times, but not had a lot to do with her. I was at school when she rang me up, asking if she could stay with me and explaining why (the rest of the family had moved to Montana ages before). I said yes and after about 15 minutes a car swung by and barely stopped, flinging Sam and all her earthly goods out into the parking lot before accelerating out.

I'm not very social and having a housemate was excrutiating, however she was sweet and nice. I set a deadline, got her a job, and drove her around endlessly to apartments and rental houses. I had to be steely as she'd sob after calling to try to get a place, and I know the kind of hollowness she was feeling. However, I told her I wouldn't pay any attention to her as I knew that after a week of being independent she'd be very happy. I should add she was about 27 and had been kept in a subordinate role by the Mormon church.

On the last day she still hadn't found a place. I drove her to a place that offered good starter apartments, loaned her money, and got her settled. She quickly grew happy, then after a year or so got married, had babies, etc., etc. Whether that's good or bad is certainly not for me to say. I like her a lot and wish her well in her life.

I should point out that the Mormon church, even after she called them asking for help, did nothing to help her. She called godless me, and I was careful to not say anything against her church. At one point, though, I did say that it might be a good time to examine her faith. She replied that she had, and that pow-wowing is considered a religion by some, and that as an avid pow wower she was going in that direction.

Sam does incredible beadwork, and all the time she was with me worked on a beaded pen in the beads she had, which were in, as she said, "Lifesaver colors." When she left she gave it to me and said, "You are a life saver."

Some of Gerald and Leon's* artwork is still up on the Wa He Lut website. Like this Ditto movie, a pastel, and a monotype.

I always thought Gerald and Leon would become Native American Coen brothers, as they are really good at making movies. I gave them a (digital) video camera way back when so they could make more! more! more! I got Victor Navone (Alien Song) to agree to mentor Gerald from afar but that never went anywhere. Too bad. I talked to Gerald a couple of years ago and he told me he was taking a 3d graphics course at school. I said, "Bryce?" and he said, "I think his name is Mr. Wilson." Ha!


*Apparently Leon isn't in that drop-in-the-bucket on the website. My bad. Leon was somewhat eclipsed by Gerald, at least in his own mind. He has a wonderful and inventive touch with videos, though, and could (at about 10 years old) make entire short dramatic movies with a beginning, middle, and end from virtually nothing as he wasn't allowed to leave the apartment. One, My Mom's Dream, used (with no editing) footage of his mother asleep on the couch, narration, and snippets of re-videoed TV that became enigmatic and dreamlike by being out of context and distorted by the process.



14 September 2006

 

Back in the day we could belong to 10 groups. Later that went up to 15, as groups are required in order to sell objects in markets, often, and for other reasons such as collaborating on a project or displaying artwork. The group tools were too simple and some things were lacking such as a way for groupmembers to be contacted when offline and refined group roles. We recently got enhanced group tools and the ability to belong to 25 groups.

I am happy that we can send notices as previously I had to IM all offline groupmembers individually to pass on Photography Studio information. As soon as we went up to 25 groups I got a rush of Join this Group! invitations sent by friends that I accepted without even reading the notice.

The other day, talking to Pirate C (w00t) he sent me an invitation for a DarkLife group and I couldn't join - the banner stretched all the way across my screen and I couldn't read it, but finally I realised I had somehow ALREADY gone all the way up to 25 groups, and dropped one so I could join the (necessary to have a shop) DarkLife groups. As I look at my groups now I see that I have some doubles:
Combat Cards
Combat Cards Dev Team
DarkLife Creative
DarkLife Builders
The Show Must Go On(vaudeville group)
StarLife(play group)

I've already had to drop 2 groups I didn't really want to leave.

Anyway, what's happening now that I didn't predict is that every time I log in there are several group notices waiting for me. I don't really read them - I just click OK. I'm starting to think about quitting groups that send a lot of notices, and I'm thinking twice about sending notices for my own groups. I'm going to think about the number of notices that would be acceptable to me - and keep within that limit if possible. It's great to have the enhanced group tools, but I think to avoid blunting those same tools we need to be careful.

Vlad said:
Hi Osprey. I saw your blog entry about the Group Notices. Did you know that you can elect not to recieve them? there's an option on the Info for each group. a little check box...

I do know I can opt not to receive notices, but the notices are all from groups the point of which is to give notices - like for Elmo B. I would happily have one a week or so, but 2 a day is not happy for me. And Dreams - I like to be notified about their contests but not many times per contest. I think we need restraint. Perhaps it's early days and people will settle down. Part of it is that I log in and get hit in the face with multiple IMs, textures, notecards, invitations, notices :( It's all good - just too much.

It's not a popularity thing. A lot of it is to do with my clothing as in customers or marketplaces or fashion shows, or the photo contests as in IMs or entries or things of that nature. I know a lot of people through a lot of avenues, and I try very hard to be helpful when someone IMs me out of the blue. I know a lot of new residents as I will try to help them when I can, and if I'm tired I can't be bothered to explain why I don't like to do friendship.

The other night, while taking background shots, a very out-of-place new person lost at the Hydes Infohub clung to me even though I was unaware he was there, I think just because I wasn't talking trash like the rest of the people nearby. Once I saw him I showed him how to do things, took him to The Shelter, and was grateful that onionpencil M and others told me they'd help him. What else can we do but help each other? I need it, too. That makes more IMs and things, though.

The other day I saw a young man who reminded me of my old students. He was behaving in a way that made people feel he was just a griefer, but my old students might well behave just the same way in real life: that is, be attracted to aan art event but feel out of place, act defiantly, get rejected, etc. I think it takes a lot of bravery to go to any place you feel you aren't wanted and aren't sure how to behave. In the olden days in real life I dragged my students all over - museums, galleries, print shops, artist studios, etc. just because it was obvious that if they didn't go from school they'd grow up thinking those places were mysteriously off-limits.


 

Woo - I saw this on the lakecam just now and thought it was worth saving.


 

Three parachutists just flew by but at long intervals so I couldn't get any pictures. By the time my camera was on the parachutist had landed. Anyway - here's the lake two minutes ago:


 
After not having any mail for a week I got a pile today (I think my neighbor who gets the house mail just didn't give me mine). Luckily the ones from SS saying "respond within 3 days of your appointment" were I THINK just for people who didn't mail the chit in (I hope, since it's a day and a half before the appointment). There was some weird command in one letter...

*rummages*

...oh, yeah - I'm making them give me a ride since they decided to give me an appointment way to hell and gone. It says: Be ready one hour before your appointment. It is possible your ride will arrive earlier than one hour before your appointment.

Oh, ok.

At least that's better than the INS paperwork that has half sentences like: You absolutely MUST under threat of penalty of law have this p

It's like the ancient Assyrians wrote the Dept. of H'land Sec. forms.

But Enjah sent me two things - Baraka, a DVD movie, and The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, a book about spirituality written circa 1800. Thank you!


 
Finally! Frank came back so I had jin shin for the first time in three weeks. Phew. Then I got a few grocerias and came home, called the SS MD to ask about how far from the parking lot they are, and then I went in Suffulgium to take zombie background pictures as Doc thought the Hydes shack wasn't terribly interesting. If I take a screenshot 2500x3200 pixels it works out well. It's anoying to have to put that in there every time - I'd love to be able to save a custom size. I miss the old high res shots. Although you can take a "high res" shot by cntrl~ it's only about 35% of the size I need.



13 September 2006

 
Karan over at Flummel had a short but sweet post the other day - so I'm finally getting around to linking.



12 September 2006

 
Woo - Enjah arranged a birthday party for me - very nice of her! It was fun and there was cake and champage and a lot of people I adore. I had a good time even though I am feeling very awful today. However - at least I got my hair cut by my beloved haircutter, Sean, and went groceteriasisationing a bit in Slaveways.

Enjah - do you have any pictures? I didn't take one.


 
eeny weeny little compressed BBC interview with Fizik B


 
Ironic

The forum, at last, was neutered yesterday. There are lots of good parts left but sadly, the overall message (intended or not) that forumites understood was STFU. There was good and bad to the forum categories closed, and although posters seemed, at times, unpleasantly like squabbling schoolchildren, there was much to be learned. Some say it was not bad compared to MMORPG forums, but I couldn't say. I have only ever been to the There forum, which came pre-neutered, as far as I remember.

At midnight this popped up in my inbox:

Hello Osprey Therian,

We at SL Forums would like to wish you a happy birthday today!


:(



11 September 2006

 

Five of Us Driving Around Burning Life.


 
Sad day - the American tv had a piece of propaganda on last night (I don't have tv but I heard about it) full of manipulative falsehoods intended to make people believe the government lies. Horrifying.



10 September 2006

 
Popular Science article - very nice.


 
The Long Way Round to Get Nowhere

Someone at Burning Life has built a giant conker tree. Ah, the pursuits of my childhood, watching my brother fuss over his conkers - I doubt I ever actually did it myself* but I've always loved the gleaming rich brown and the lovely tree itself. Chestnuts are special, and not just because of blacksmiths.

I used to buy my mother old books from the internet, such as Compton MacKenzie's Our Street, which is a lovely book. My mum liked C.M. a great deal especially since she'd been given a copy of Santa Claus in Summer in the Twenties not long after it was published. I found her a lendable one as she wanted to share it without losing her ancient dropping-to-pieces copy. That original volume is in my bookcase now

Anyway, in Our Street C.M. talked about how words get distorted, using conkers as an example. With disgust he related how it was originally "conquerers" but had been corrupted. I think every now and again about the books I had bought for my mother and how they were all just sold in an estate sale. I suppose I wouldn't want them, exactly... well, actually, of all the things lost in my life I dwell most sadly and most often on the thousands and thousands of lost family books. I'd like to be able to think of a lost book, hold up my hand and have the volume appear in it. They are vivid yet, to me.

* although I'd bet I was thwapped many times


 
=================
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.


 
Filmed in Siva last night:



09 September 2006

 
Return of Some Paintings

Con and Chris brought back a lot of portraits, cityscapes, and landscapes. They not only picked up and brought over paintings in their two vehicles, but Chris cleaned my windows and vacuumed spiders up, and Con changed lightbulbs and brought spring rolls. They both hung paintings. It was very nice of them - all these things. I am thoroughly tired out, though, as it was a three hour cruise.
Bad photos:

Chris, his wife and daughter, did an exchange with an Aussie teacher a while back (6 years? dunno), and I keep hassling him now asking when he is going back.

Con managed the bulk of the labor involved in putting on the shows. There's a bazillion left to come home, but all in good time. As it turns out, the work involved in the exhibits has taken the entire year. The last show comes down in December, then with moving paintings back here and wrapping up details it will be the full 12 months of 2006.



08 September 2006

 

Photo by Ida Keen

We performed the play 3 times today on the Shell Stage of Menorca, offered very generously to our troupe by Slim W. I didn't get any photos as I was too involved with the moon-effing-beam. Vlad was filming, Eileen, Ida, and Luc were sensational onstage, and I was hunkered in the back trying not to delete things. At one point the stages got put in the same spot - I looked for set 2 - it was gone! I even moved the set thinking they'd got stacked, but obviously not far enough. As soon as I dropped set 1, set 2 became evident - phew. We are dealing with a click-scripted-object-then-crash bug that has us all on tenterhooks as the cast clicks on scripted HUDs all through the play. Only one (I think) crash at an ok time, and they were professionals in dealing with it.

Photo by Tina Bergman

There was a db breach at LL and logins were only allowed after password changes, which affected some people who didn't have a security answer or email address ready. I am not sure what else LL could've done, however there's a great outcry.

Then I went off to do testing for Doc and we found problems that he has to fix. Luckily Doc is teh schmart and will get around any problems.



Then I set up a bit for Jensel's opening, which was an incredible crush with a billion people attending, many from the Shelter. I spammed my friends which I never do, and as a consequence Pypo C turned up - I hadn't seen her for ages! So that was great. Ilia came and said that an art opening with a penguin and a skeleton attending was why she loved SL.


 

I'm all flipped out as the forums are being castrated today :( The sense of community the Second Life forums created has an upside and a downside. The upside is that forumites feel connected and part of a greater whole. The downside is that there is the kind of petty squabbling and worse that one might expect in a disfunctional family or a summer camp.

The areas of the forum dealing with content creation are still going to be open. I've had such a great deal of information from all areas of the forum that I feel I am now on a journey with no map or companions. It might be an illusion for me, but for new people it is a reality. How will they learn things about the UI? If they think there's only one way to do something they will never ask if there's a better way. The UI is rich and complex; frequently new people make feature requests of things that have always been part of the UI because they don't know better. Those aren't the questions that are sad, though. The sad questions are the ones that will never be asked. Or... quite possibly... I'm over-reacting.

I love the War in Jessie: Is it Upon Us? thread so I've been Johnny Appleseeding around in various forums. ===:O



05 September 2006

 
OOOh It Looks to be Gilgamesh to Me

Lenny just sent me some pictures of ice sculptures in China, including this one. Everyone KNOWS I'm obsessed with Gilgamesh. I've been (sporadically but passionately) obsessed with Gilgamesh for about 30 years. I hope the cylinder seals, which I presume were taken in the looting, are in good hands. What else am I mildly obsessed* with... hmmm... that bronze statue of Zeus or whoever, beekeeping, Hroswitha of Gandersheim, spinifex, the paper architects, Fortuny, the X3 chip, flatfiles, David Hockney, Chilcat weavings, 8mm + Super8 movies, etc., etc.

*Don't expect me to talk sensibly about these, though. In fact, I would be happy if no one expected me to talk sensibly about anything. Well, today, anyway.


 
Nothing Good So Don't Read It
Maybe I'm Just Making It Up to Gain Sympathy
I wish

I felt horrid all day which, after 4-something I decided was partially due to not eating, so I straggled off the buy hideous food (should be piped in automatically). I also mailed the letter to the SS people saying pick-me-up-and-drop-me-off as I feel lousy for their required inquisition. For some reason I felt like it was 900 degrees, but it was only 80. Lenny called me from NYC at about 6. I had thought Tiff was going to call me from school today but no call took place (that's why I waited until 4-something before going out).

No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition.



04 September 2006

 
Thank you, Adolf, for sending me the lovely Elgar music. I feel a bit guilty for immediately putting it in this short video, but it was in my head, so I couldn't help it.


 


 
ZOMG teh Kewtness!!!11!!!

Tiffany's grandbaby Ryan, son of Sean and Cathy.


 
I actually ate breakfast, which is new and exciting.

Then I went on the Siva grid and noticed some things - like Copy Selection was not centering. I popped back to Agni to make sure how things should be. On Siva the grid tabs were acting like the old four-arrow move tool (long gone), with no building grid showing up at all. When I popped back to Siva Steve L was there so I told him what was going on and showed him in a screenshot as he had no knowledge of Copy Selection. Then, annoyingly, in a way, it all resolved itself. Steve said he thought the problem was with the tick boxes not taking - I bet he is right. The functions were not working, I relogged, they were not working, then a few minutes later they started working.

I had actually gone with the idea of checking out the accidental Preview Depends - there is weird and badly-made underwear apparently that is just some sort of mistake. I never did look at that as I had forgotten I was last a burly and bearded man (I was trying on some custom clothing) there, and spent time making myself back into me. First I became a bearded Osprey-female ====:O I had to relog to see me as unbeared as going into Appearance just yielded a half-visible, bearded Os. After relogging all was well.

I need to go back and check out the Texture Previewer.



03 September 2006

 
=================
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.


 
Sam as I painted him; Sam today

Sam striking a similar pose for hilarity purposes. He looks very much the same except he's way over six feet tall now. That painting is called "Flyboy" and the other one I did of him is in the Microsoft Art Collection.


 
Exhibits of My Paintings

Amanda took pictures of the installations at the 5 places for me. Con sent them to me and I got them yesterday. Here are some:

Childhood's End Gallery

Washington State Capital Museum

Side Door Gallery

Art House Gallery

State of the Arts Gallery

The museum show goes into December, but aside from paintings in C.E.'s roll-outs the other shows are all over now. Amazingly, I sold one painting yesterday and two the day before so it may not be over yet.



02 September 2006

 
Getting Ready for Zombies

I built this so a zombie can attack with an arm for the new shots I'm going to take for Combat Cards.




01 September 2006

 
Second Life Forums and Why I Love Them

Where else can you read serious posts like this?

I have worked a bit on a space station, complete of crew quarters, sick bay etc., and had a lot of problems locating Science Fiction "props" and "furniture items" - especially "generic" (i.e. non ST/SW replicas) ones.

A couple of things I made myself, but I find the SF genre a bit underepresented. We can buy dozens of Gorean footstools and Vampire Bathtubs, but where are our Zero-G Beds? Or "3-D entertainment systems"?

 

.

Site Feed

vivian-oblivion

oblivionstore

firemist red

Combat Cards

Blip TV Rocks

So many things to do, so little motivation

Backpacking Burro

Salazar Jack

Lucy Sits Up and Blogs

Tina's Universum

Nova Albion Detective Agency

Playing Statues

Yarn Miracle

Baedeker

Don Carson Creative

Flummer, Flummel, Flummo

Elle Coyote

Painting Soul

Upload Video and Images - Putfile

Artists Union

Tempietto

2002-10 2002-11 2002-12 2003-01 2003-03 2003-04 2003-05 2003-06 2003-07 2003-08 2003-09 2003-10 2003-11 2003-12 2004-01 2004-02 2004-03 2004-04 2004-05 2004-06 2004-07 2004-08 2004-09 2004-10 2004-11 2004-12 2005-01 2005-02 2005-03 2005-04 2005-05 2005-06 2005-07 2005-08 2005-09 2005-10 2005-11 2005-12 2006-01 2006-02 2006-03 2006-04 2006-05 2006-06 2006-07 2006-08 2006-09 2006-10 2006-11 2006-12 2007-01 2007-02 2007-03 2007-04 2007-05 2007-06 2007-07 2007-08 2007-09 2007-10 2007-11 2007-12 2008-01 2008-02 2008-03 2008-04 2008-05 2008-06 2008-07 2008-08 2008-09 2008-10 2008-11 2008-12 2009-01 2009-02 2009-03 2009-04 2009-05 2009-06 2009-07 2009-08 2009-09 2009-10 2009-11 2009-12 2010-01 2010-02 2010-03 2010-04 2010-05 2010-06 2010-07 2010-08 2010-09 2010-10 2010-11 2010-12 2011-01 2011-02 2011-03 2011-04 2011-05 2011-06 2011-07 2011-08 2011-09 2011-10 2011-11 2011-12 2012-01 2012-02 2012-03 2012-04 2012-05 2012-06 2012-07 2012-08 2012-09 2012-10 2012-11 2012-12 2013-01 2013-02 2013-03 2013-04 2013-05 2013-06 2013-07 2013-08 2013-09 2013-10 2013-11


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