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28 February 2007

 
I just saw this CBS article about Second Life. A good video. Well reported.

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What's up* with the snowstorms all day every day? It doesn't stick but... it's a total white-out every day.

*Yes, I know what's up.

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Voting has closed on the foxatomic.com contest. I don't know what will happen; although our machinima is definitely in the top two as far as quality it is fourth (I think) in votes. There you go. Well, I tried to get people to vote.

Blip.tv version

Biggest version (800x600)

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27 February 2007

 

Aditi Surprise
Ha ha! I went to Aditi and logged in as what I was working on last time I was there: a diseased FoxAtomic avatar wearing a DarkLife shirt. It's like coming home after a trip and seeing that you left the house in a mess.


 

Wa He Lut 2 - Another race. Both teams got hung up on the map questions then answered at the same time. I didn't see Blue's at first as they'd left an old answer in front of it.

Cheyenne's building a house.

Isaiah's house interior.


 
Ha ha! I called Wa He Lut just to make sure they weren't dismissing early as today is the day I teach in CTCUNI SciFair. The school doesn't even KNOW I do - well, Mothra (Montrose) does and Tiff does, but nobody else has a clue since I'm not paid. I could hear a note of enquiry in the voice of the receptionist when I asked, as though she were thinking, "Why would SHE want to know?" Ha! I am teh mysterious one.

Actually, all the time I worked there no one at school knew what I was doing. The board trusted me and parents and children liked what I was doing. I always did much more than was necessary, anyway.


 

It has been snowing for hours, although it isn't sticking around me (it must be just above freezing here but on the hills, when they are visible through the snow that's falling, it is lying).

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26 February 2007

 
A post on the SL forums today talked about this newspaper article in the Seattle P-I about Second Life. Not a bad article, although I find the concept of "ultra-hip" passé.

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Bwuhahahaha!

Indexed: The 7 Holy (or not) Virtues


 
Not only is the mouse still here, but it runs around in front of me. It likes to be in the livingroom running around when I'm computationisatificationing. Next it will be sitting on the table watching me. The painting of Fidget is above its running-about area. Oh Mighty Fidget Hear My Call and chase this dratted mouse out of here!

Watching An Inconvenient Truth, which is a good piece of documentary filmmaking. It's my third Netflix film, and so far I'm doing well. The Gleaners and I, and Primer were very good. The next film is Andrei Rublev and last night I noticed I Heart Huckabees and added that to the queue.

Tiff called me. She back from Brazil and will come on (probably) Tuesday. She sent me emails to an incorrect email address which was unfortunate. I set up vaudeville rehearsals for Tuesdays at 6:30 and Sundays at 2 - at Cowell Amphitheatre. Twice weekly not so the same people come twice but so there are time options. Candide is going to come on Sunday (11 pm his time). I absolutely hate having fixed weekly things I have to do, but I have a lot, now.

Richard called me from Pennsylvania. They have a lot of snow with a lot more coming. Deborah said they were snowed in for four days and only just got out. Richard told me that (I never go anywhere anymore due to a high feeblocity quotient) a passport is required even if you are taking a plane just to another part of the same state. All this is insane and I may never leave my brain again.

When I went for my haircut at 9:30 yesterday I arrived and the place was dark. I decided to wait a bit, then decided I couldn't leave without trying the door. Just as I was approaching the doorway Sean and Kevin drove by and yelled, "Vivian! Be right there!" They soon came up and when I said I was trying the door Sean said, "Why? It's dark - you think we're trying to save electricity? Pulease!" Heh. In about 3 seconds we were laughing it up as usual, and when Sean descibed typical salon decor and I said, "Eighties," Kevin said, "With a Nagle behind the desk," which made me laugh for about a minute. I always tell Sean to do what he wants as I trust him implicitly (and don't care about hair). Their parrot Oscar was wandering around nibbling at Kevin's ankles, and Sean said he's very well-behaved but had started imitating the dog's bark, which was annoying.

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25 February 2007

 
I started thinking about the odd accidents that have happened to my fingers, for some reason. It started (as far as I remember) with being bitten by a swan when I was a toddler. Then my brother ran over my hand with a push lawnmower not exactly - but close (doctor sewed the end of my finger on again), then I was bitten by a rabbit, once a horse I was riding fell and stepped on my fingers (my finger ends burst like grapes - heh - was painful riding home), cut my thumb badly* requiring stitches twice, broke a bone in my hand (longways), cut my hand** requiring stitches (was rather exciting driving whilst bleeding a puddle), I was bitten by a kangaroo once whilst on a sailing trip in Oz with my bro... once I fell backwards off the porch and smashed a finger joint on a plantpot - that hurt. I've left some out, I think. Only the most memorable ones make the list.

When Caitlin was little my niece Anji sent me a paper that had her own handprint in paint with Caitlin's handprint on top. I compared and mine was very similar to Anji's. Although my sisters have little pointy-fingered girly hands I have more spatulate fingers and what always looked like boys' hands to me. Very useful hands.

*once at my second job as a teenager, and I had to go to my stupid supervisor's boss to get taken to a doctor (8 stitches), once with a machete.
**when I went to my mother's house to find she'd had a party and I was cleaning her house for her - haha - washing a glass and it did a nice artery (or anyway it did a pulsing squirt) cut.


 
Back when the Harry Potter books came out I read a few, and wasn't terribly taken with them. My tastes (which are a English mid-20th century formulation) run to underdog heroes. Harry has a kind of fake 5 second underdog life in the book before becoming the Chosen One. It seems a very American influence (I always thing of American taste as being for the winner, the powerful, the one on top) and not very subtle or interesting, but I'm just old. Things change and move on.

Don't say, "They were meant for children," as any decent children's book is just a good book.

I also, when reading the books (3? 4?) every time I came to a name and it was just an adapted word (like Hagrid and Gringott) I'd just think "lazy author" but perhaps children like it. I might've liked it as a child.

I don't know why I'm writing about this now - I haven't thought about it for years. Oh - I think it was because someone contacted me today in SL who had a Harry Potter group affiliation in his profile. That must've been it. Actually, he seemed extremely nice and polite - I wound up making something for him just because he was so very nice.

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24 February 2007

 

http://www.foxatomic.com/#player:AssetId=9656

 machinima contest




 
The movie is close to being done - it looks good, I think. Enj and Ida are excellent and have done most of the acting - and Theo has been filling in the oddball roles like the cameraman and the boss (VERY small part which was basically standing frozen in a pose. Enj had no voiceovers this time (since she plays a male mutant), but Ida and Theo have been good.

It might be finished on Saturday. Not bad since we started it on Wednesday.

I had to break off filming to go run Friday Fights, which was only attended by one non-family person - Ida and Enj came, for which I am grateful (but I consider them family). We get occasional crowds but mostly the fighters show up alone. It's a problem. We need interested people to all be there to fight at the same time, not one for three weeks in December and another for 3 weeks in January. Enj has said the time is just not good - but it's that time/day because it was someone else's choice and because I don't want to be there alone. However, I'd be alone if not for Enj and Ida. :( Don't know.

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23 February 2007

 

==============:O
Snowing.


Not that you can see in that picture, but I know it's coming down.

My haircut yesterday was cancelled (I didn't know and turned up) and I rescheduled for today - then had to re-reschedule as it was too tight a time frame for Friday Fights. So now it's tomorrow, early. I'm making a little movie with a close deadline and we only started on Wednesday - plus I have two other things this next few days. A load of paintings is coming back from the Capital Museum (I hope THAT gets put off a week), which Con very kindly told Mel (*sporks Mel* - where IS my software, gf?) she'd transport. I haven't heard anything concrete yet, but Con was thinking Monday.

Movie-making (specifically typing directions and resetting my cam every 5 seconds) is taxing my wrist a great deal. Video editing is fine, though, for some reason. Some scenes I can set up a stationary cam for, but others I can't. My actors are fab (of course) and the project is coming along - but very time-cramped.

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22 February 2007

 
Yesterday I called Opus F as I'd seen a relevent LL blogpost that had to do with augmented reality (well, I'd seen it earlier but had to mull it over). Opus, who is a very nice man and totally brill, has a project called 3d turtles, which made my eyes bug out of my head when he first gave me the url. In some ways it seems we are moving rapidly into the world of science fiction, all the while hurtling towards doom. 3d turtles are a way to contain and use data for the objects in which they are sited - an example on the website is robots finding their way in space where the objects are mapped using 3d turtles. I don't pay any attention to things like this, really, but what it means to me, a complete know-nothing, is that there are probably many projects, in every stage of development, which will redefine the world, and that reading the information, often accessible on teh intarwebs, is like entering a time machine.

*finds brother's old Eagle Annuals and reads up on the future in Dan Dare*



21 February 2007

 


Mahalia Jackson
She was amazing.



20 February 2007

 
Bodega and Teh Debbil

First Look was good, then a while ago began crashing when I tried to log in so I went back to the ordinary viewer as I was busy. First Look is destined to become the viewer (apparently not tomorrow though) so I decided I'd better find out what was up. I was near my cave, in Bodega, and tried to log in about 6 times in succession, crashing immediately each time. At the end I was stripped down graphically in case that made a difference, having cleared cache and various other things. I logged in with Anchor (who was in Grignano) just fine - so I went back and logged into Grignano - and it was fine. I spent some time roaming the newly aggregated Elven continent, then teleported home to Bodega and crashed immediately. I logged in to Palomarian just fine and tried walking gingerly home to Bodega but crashed a few moments after crossing the sim line. I logged in to Cowell just fine.

Bodega is possessed by teh debbil.

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Linden Lab has done away with First Land, I see, which is good as the system had been gamed rather badly, and bad as there are many residents who were eligible and looking yesterday who are out in the cold today. However, it just made me sick to see how it was abused. So it's good... and bad.

I think that if you drew a chart showing $ going in and $ going out, the labor-intensive* things like land management would fall into the $ going out category. Land management- First Land- protected land-Linden content like the Moth Temple: probably just viewed as an unnecessaryζ expense that throws the (proportionally) fewer and fewer Linden laborers out into the path of the elephant in must... errr I mean the SL populace.

I am sad that it's that way, but there's nothing I can do about it. I'm one of the few people who doesn't like private islands and has remained on my original assigned Land for the Landless land. I've expanded out and have errr.... more land + some tier I donate to Combat Cards, but I'm in the same place.

What would I do if I were joining today? I think in a way not having First Land would mean an unnecessary complication would be removed. A way to ease into being a landholder is gone, but I think LL is done with premium accounts anyway. Now people can rent and all that intense customer service is handled by the landlord, who in turn is the LL customer. Things change. It takes a bit of getting used to. I'm not a business person and I don't value that very much, but it's clear now that I'm living inside a business.♣

*not just labor-intensive but also things that draw ire
ζ *mourns Magellan*
♣ Yes, I know it was a business before. I do want them to be successful. I have this mental picture of a clam closing its shell that is a bit humorous in a sad way. Wait, it just turned into a periscope drawing back into the
submarine. Wait again - now I see a spaceship rising up from the earth leaving a ragged group behind. :-(

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Wow, just had a fast class with the kidlets. I had them divided into two teams and they had to answer 5 questions (different for each team) - answers were pictures or words. It was hard making up questions for some reason. I fell back on things within my purview. So - things like Nicola Tesla, tarantula bites, Brazil, flying mammals, oviparous animals... They surprised me by answering the "flying mammal" question with a picture of a flying squirrel - heh. That wasn't quite the answer I was seeking. Blue Team won, but Red Team was not far behind, although they got hung up on the capital of Spain and whether or not it's on the coast. I had fun and we're going to do it again next week.

Students standing in air while they search. ActiveWorlds is the land of signs.

Although this is not exactly impressive to most people, it has been a leap for these students to learn the relevent code they need and how to use it. It was great to see them fix mistakes today - like, say, neglecting to leave a space between "create picture" and the url. A tiny thing, but what it teaches is that small matters of form can mean the difference between success and failure, so pay attention. I ran herd on them, saying things like, Blue Team, your answer "No" is to what question? I could tell they were listening as Isaiah ran over to the "5" spot and wrote it there, and Tristan (who had written it in the wrong place) told me it was to the tarantula question.

I miss being in Indian Country.


 
A few photos from February that I intended to blog about but which eluded me until this moment:

First Look Isle in a combo debug shot that is very attractive to me.

Enjah needed an operahouse for Croucho's profile picture, so we went to Intempesta Nox. I hadn't been there for a while and mistakenly thought it was finished as well as mistakenly having all kinds of other notions. It's a fabulous build and I don't just say that because I'm an opera buff. Enjah's Croucho is a fabulous avatar, too, plus she becomes the avatars she "wears," which is great fun! I briefly saw Ed Manray's mother, Marilyn, last night in the Big Easy - it's funny to see how ordinary people react.

Frustrated on preview. I wanted to try out the synchronised knitters unicycle drill team texture uh... path I made whilst hiding on Aditi, last week, but alas it was not to be as the entire place was de-scriptipated.


 
My process to get from nothing to a GBC spot went like this today:
Ida told me she was going to cover the fundraiser in Big Easy sim and asked if I could video the parade at 7pm.

I checked into the sim at 5 or so, as I could do various things and didn't want to get locked out of the sim. I rang up Mothra and we talked about tomorrow's class in CTCUNI/ActiveWorlds. I hung out but Enj came by, and Rhia and Frans and Squee hung out near me for a while. Moving became molasses-like. I was poking around looking for good angles when I noticed I was redmapped, so I relogged. After a short time things got strange and... I think this is the point at which I was filming and had a hard crash. The time dilation had been .01 ===:O

I logged back in and proceeded with the rest of it with no problems. I'd wound up (trying to match Squee's peacock look) wearing a version of the peacock feather dress I had made pre-floopies and we both hung off the end of a float and danced as the parade made its sim circuit. Then I went off to sort clips.

When I was filming and crashed, a bizarre monster clip was made that was corrupt and froze the window every time I tried to open the folder, as it was set to view thumbnails. I had to make about 6 attempts before finally getting in and turning the view to list before the corrupt file came up and froze Windows, but finally I was teh speedy. Whoosh - off to the bin with that evil (and bizarrely huge) clip of Doom.

After that I went into A/W to WaHeLut2 and finished setting up the questions for the children to answer. Then I came back and Ida had finished recording in Hipcast. I downloaded her audio, picture of herself, and two stills for the report. I took her picture into Photoshop and processed it for the video. I threw the audio in Ulead Video Studio and made it into a .wav file, then took it into CrazyTalk along with her picture.

I set up her picture with animation points, and did various things then exported it as an uncompressed .avi into UVS. I had a blank "Around the Grid," and put her video on an overlay track, masking the background so the Big Easy video I put in the video track showed. Then I arranged and rearranged and played it 75 times and put in titles. I stripped audio off a video track to use over the end part. I made it into a 320x240 little thing for youtube, and a 640x480 bigger thing so I have a decent copy. I uploaded to youtube and bliptv. I shoot in a 640x480 window at the moment, so that's as large as it needs to be.

And that's it. Although sometimes it takes 6 hours, today it took 2 or less.

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The 40th Anniversary of Kurt Cobain's Birth.

How time flies.



19 February 2007

 
Big Easy fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity NOLA




18 February 2007

 

Happy New Year


 

Movie Night @ the Cowell Amphitheatre was fun. I was busy filming and didn't notice right away that everyone crashed. I crashed, too - indeed, I think the whole sim crashed. I only noticed when I said something and the text didn't appear. I opened the mini-map and was red-mapped so I relogged. When I got in there was a new set of people and we had another Movie Night show. Hah!

Enjah's report prompted me to tell her the ancient joke: Q. What is brown and comes out of cows (Cowes)? A. The ferry. She didn't laugh. Well, I've always thought it was funny.

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17 February 2007

 

Enjah Mysterio filling in for Ida Keen.

Movie Night!




 
MOVIE NIGHT
is today.


2pm @ the Cowell Amphitheatre.

For details click the link.



16 February 2007

 
Maria Callas
She was a brilliant actress.


Io sono docile, son rispettosa, sono obbediente, dolce, amorosa. Mi lascio reggere, mi fo guidar. Ma se mi toccano dov’è il mio debole, sarò una vipera, sarò, e cento trappole prima di cedere farò giocar.

Oh, I just thought of this - she played Rosina in the production (at La Scala I think) in around 1957, with Luigi Alva as Lindoro, that has gone down in history as having the worst costumes ever. *Googles to try to find pictures* Rosina's dress was a nightmare - bobble fringe, as I recall.

Hope there's not more than one - heh.

It sux how videos get taken off youtube - things like Mark Reizen are not exactly exploiting anything and serve more to spread knowledge and act as commercials than anything else.

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Second Life machinima




15 February 2007

 

I was just in the kitchen... the light was off in my bedroom and out of the corner of my eye I saw something run under my bed. My heart sank as I thought it most likely to be a spider (this house has Giant House Spiders) although it was moving fast. Usually they move in a more stately fashion and freeze when they know they are spotted. Anyway I turned on the light and was relieved to see a small rodent of a type unfamiliar to me. It was larger than an ordinary mouse, compact, dark brown with what appeared to be a side-stripe or a white belly, and rather large erect ears of the Mickey variety. It was glossy. I operate on "since I don't know what it can understand I'll talk to it," and told it I would open the door so it could go outside.

Then I opened the door and came in here. I hope it leaves. There have been several times in the past few weeks I've seen something out of the corner of my eye... almost... then decided I hadn't seen anything at all. After looking up "mouse" (which immediately brought up a horrific spider in about 25 pictures) I looked up "mouse species" and decided it was a white-footed mouse, which is common but carries (as far as I remember) some kind of disease that killed some Dineh people in the 90s. Hmmm, let me look that up...

Ah, yes - hantavirus. That was the deer mouse, though. The white-footed mouse can carry it, too, but I'm sure my mouse is a nice, clean mouse. I would like to close my door but I suppose that will have to wait. Thank heavens it wasn't a spider.

Woo - this sounds attractive to me: The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) dwells mostly in woodlands, river bottoms, and shrubby areas. An acrobat on tiny feet, this mouse can climb on trees and shrubs where it creates a dome of plant materials, feathers, and down on top of an old bird's nest. Snuggled inside, the white-footed mouse can survive and even bear young during cold winters.


 
NetFlix

Well, The Gleaners and I was superb. It took me a long time to watch for some reason, then I dropped it off at the post office on Monday. I thought about looking in my box today and found Primer, all soggy from having been in there for a day or two. Next up is An Inconvenient Truth and after that Andrei Rublev. I need to see if there's any Ponnelle... oh, just Il Barbieri and Le Nozze... :( '''drat'

However, what prompted me to write this is that I've been working on circuit board framing devices lately and I fired up Primer a minute ago to see - circuit boards. OK, well perhaps it will work the other way, too, and icons will follow me around after Andrei Rublev.

This is why it takes me so long to watch these damnable things - I have to stop and write blogposts every three minutes.
*blows on wrist*


 
Wait - There's More!

New contest - prompted this exchange:

Ida Awesome!
Osprey- I hope people are interested in the theme.
Osprey -I see aliens buying ice creams, myself.
Ida - I think is sounds like fun! postcards whahaha
...
Osprey Have fun in 'Lanta
Ida hee I'll try! It's [someone's] BDay
Ida we bought her grown up things like coasters for presents
Osprey wow -
Osprey roller coasters?
Osprey yippee!
Ida makes me feel sooooo old
Ida she was 3 when we met
Osprey - (going off on something completely unrelated) when I was married my m-in-law gave me placemats after my husb specifically told her NOT TO
Osprey woo - !
Ida lol
Ida do you like palcements - I guess I should have asked before the laughing
Osprey She° was trying to mold me into... a STEPFORD WIFE
Ida *GASP*
Osprey lol
Ida I need a fainting animation I think
Osprey Then EVERY OCCASION AFTER THAT SHE GAVE ME MORE
Ida argh!
Osprey lol I believe they bit the dust somewhere shortly after the breakup
Ida heheh I bet that was satisfying
Osprey *fires up flamethrower*
Ida wahah
Osprey I'd never used them. (I considered making them into a rug but they were an ugly color)
Osprey they were jammed in a drawer (a million matching Fredrich and Nelson ugly blue woven placemats... ptui)
Osprey No, but BURNING MY WEDDING PIX - that was fun
Ida- hahahaha
Osprey- snap crackle pop
Ida pictures burn great - all those chemicals
Osprey-news photographer took them
Osprey slides
Ida-of your wedding?
Osprey- I was married to a reporter
Ida - iiinteresting
Ida - well that makes sense.
Ida - then
Osprey- married BY a radio DJ
Osprey - license off a book o' matches I think (I hope)
Ida - not as good as a guy in a gorilla suit - but still original
Osprey- like "pay 15 dollars and be a minister in the Church of Bob
Osprey - get this -
Osprey- we were married ONSTAGE
Ida =O
Osprey - HE invited the entirte town in an article
Osprey -lol
Ida =OOO
Osprey - we had entertainment
Osprey - singing, world champ whistler,
Ida - shoot, sounds like he WAS the entertainment
Osprey - dancing
Osprey - It was a great wedding
Ida - was it fun? It sounds like fun - unforgetable
Osprey - but the marriage sucked (was short but not short enough, but at least I partially survived)
Osprey - OH
Ida - it's a shame that the greatness of the wedding can't un-suck a marriage
Osprey - The PLAY that was on was I Do, I Do - so the stage was filled with a giant bed
Osprey - we took pix in the bed
Ida hahaha
Osprey - huge chandelier from a mansion in town (one of Trena Worthington's builds - she built 3 or 4 exactly the same... I was commissioned to paint one... she deserves a whole wrist to herself)
Osprey - Crap it was fun - I carried a (long, trailing) bouquet of green plants I cut in my mother's garden
Osprey - wore a longish linen skirt and a long shirt, both in jewel-ish colors
Osprey *goes down memory lane*
Osprey - I haven't thought about it in a while.
Ida - lolol that realld does sound fantastic
Osprey - THE INVITATION
Ida - my mom woudl have had a heart attack if I wanted to do soemthing like that
Osprey -lol
Osprey - was scrawled on a bar (well we were in the restaurant part but "bar" sounds better) napkin and xeroxed (took about 2 minutes to complete, 1 each)(and a friend silkscreened the image onto sweatshirts as presents)
Osprey -lolol
Ida -wahahah
Osprey he wrote, I illustrated
Osprey -My mother knew better than to stand in my way.
Ida -lolol
Osprey - I might have to blog this.
Ida -you should! It's too good of a story.
Osprey -The entertainers were just volunteers - like, "Santa Claus" played "The Old Grey Mare" on a harmonica. (a trio of women from the government sang "Going to the Chapel" and danced)
Osprey -lol
Ida -lolol
Osprey- In a way, too bad I have no pix.
Osprey- But only in a v. small way. (a very VERY small way) (in fact it's all for the best)
Osprey- ok night!
Ida -haha too bad they burn so nicely
Ida -night!

° However the night before the wedding, at my mother's house during dinner, she related a dream she'd had where she was saying to someone, "Why does she want to marry HIM? He has no soul." --conversation stops-- *regrets not listening*

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St Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt




14 February 2007

 
Ha ha!

My bank sent me an email yesterday saying, "Everyone must go to their accounts and do XYZ," but all I got was a "Server Not Found" page.
I just scratched my head and downloaded more from Candide's stash and thought I'd try later. Today they sent another email: "We understand that members who use Comcast for internet service are experiencing problems accessing our new web site. We are working with our vendor and Comcast to resolve this problem as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience."


I'll bet they received a billion panicky emails from that one. Since the bank (actually a credit union) has no buildings and exists only as a printed envelope and a website, we were all left with... a printed envelope.


 
Special St Valentine's Day show.




12 February 2007

 
FREE PUGSLEY NOW
I was excited when I first heard that deculvertisation was a BIG THING. That was years and years ago - so where's the deculvertisation going on? Walking around Olympia one can see spray-painted salmon with "drains to bay" on the sidewalk above the gutter, as a warning against careless dumping of toxic substances into culvertised salmon streams - for whatever that's worth. Deculvertisation NOW! I believe Pugsley (of the Addams Family) was named after a (now culvertised) river or stream in the Bronx. Free Pugsley! Deculvertisation now!

Just when I had parked Little Sha this afternoon I saw a man doing a U-turn in the intersection. My jaw dropped. I was aghast - and had to go in and tell Frank forthwith. Also I told him I felt: weak, terrible, depressed, awful, lousy, etc. After jin shin I leapt lightly to my feet like an agile mountain goat and asked him: What can I expect? "Happiness," he replied. Then we laughed.

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I keep listening to this so I might as well post it.

Mark Reizen singing Gremin - at 90 years of age

(I think in 1985)

Here's a picture of Mark Reizen in the same rôle - in 1930.

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11 February 2007

 
I made things for Pirate but last night he told me that Crash has made ANOTHER new DarkLife logo so I have to re-do, re-upload, etc. Oh, well. What else... hmmm... Alonso wants to have a GBC show and is starting out with jokes. Ned is like Harpo at this point.

Hmmm.... yesterday was funny as I had just entered Second Life when Ida IMed to ask if I'd be up for videoing the snail races. Actually I seem to do fairly well with zero notice (the Steamworks video was completely spur-of-the-moment). Then I left to go to an opening at Enjah's gallery for someone I'd recommended to her who didn't remember me ===:O Heh.

Then it was the opening for the Journey to the Memory Garden, which confused the hell out of people for some reason. Enjah gamely stayed close and tried to direct people while I attempted to stay off my arm (typing this is bad, doing graphics is killer, but editing video is no problem for some reason). I'll have to hide out in video production land.

Candide came by and hung out until I fell apart then shooed me away from the puter. Topics of conversation included virtual breast size, the Venture Bros., and me trying to entice him to join the GBC. Haven't heard back yet from Tina: I have a plot I'd like her to... I mean I'd like her to be the Swedish correspondent for the GBC. I REALLY want multi-language reporting but so far people are not as completely crazed as I am. Well, Ida is, but she's in English. Ida is really amazing. I just thought of this, Enj - LF's new wharf area across the street from us - might be a nice story. Enj had lip surgery, poor thing. I think I will need new pix of my reporters for each story. I was thinking I wouldn't need them EVERY time but I feel cheated if I don't have fresh ones although it's more work.

Ow. :(


 
Show 1

with Ned



 
Quote of the day:

"Lick yer arm, I've got more in me pocket."

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John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom 1960s



10 February 2007

 

Giant Snail Races

Ida Keen reporting.




 


Für Elise



09 February 2007

 



I have been looking at hood ornaments this evening as I love them. We always had a running fox in my family. I started looking at them because I was thinking about the things people give for St. Valentine's Day, and I thought a hood ornament would be a good present. There are so many nice ones! You can't beat the art deco speed nymph, or perhaps a hippopotamus would be nice. I saw a great cheetah I think Enjah would love! The Pierce Arrow archer was a fine ornament. There's a site with drawings for hood ornament patents from the 20s-30s.
Some of them are teh weird.



Was just reading my first blog archive page from 2002. It's actually interesting. I'd forgotten a lot of the things, like being conscripted into a digital photo group called DOG. I am feeling a bit sad and nostalgic, and I loathe nostalgia. Nostalgia is a cousin of regret, which is a twin of worry (worry is in the future and regret is in the past but they are identical).

My pater, suffering under the Alzheimerical fog, once thanked me for saying, "I think of you every time I see a Chinook," and he added, "I do too, so to speak." Now when people say to me, "I miss you!" I say, "I do, too." *touches base*


 
Screwed up my arm again. :(

Now I can't keep off it.

:(





08 February 2007

 

GBC News Update

Journey to the Memory Garden

Opening 10 Feb @ 4pm

The Photography Studio of Grignano

10 Feb - 25 Feb




 
Ida Keen reporting.



 
According to Anj:
Ryan's Classic lines: Catapus is Platypus. "gabbleopping" is galloping. When playing cricket Ryan said "I'll be the Pommies", much to Steve's disgust, "but I won't try and win". Quite a fitting response given the Pommies recent thrashings. Ryan calls AC/DC (the band not the electrical jargon) ABCD.



07 February 2007

 
I am scared of Lindens
by
Osprey Therian


Actually I was talking to one just now and kept trying to run away and finally said, "/me is scared of Lindens." He said, "ha ok."

Edward asked why and I said, "I think it's because I'm in SL but when a Linden pops up they are half in SL half in RL. It's like... their job." I asked if he knew what I meant and he said, "Kinda, yes they are not playing a role."

I like them, they just scare me.

Actually I'm not playing a role either.

Hi

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The lake at about 1pm.

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Out the window five minutes ago.

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06 February 2007

 
There's a big machinima contest (details here) looming.

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05 February 2007

 
I am making some more things for Pirate, for DarkLife. Although I had made some clothing in a kind of non-focused way before Tedd introduced me to him, it was actually Pirate who got me to make warrior duds. I think Tedd and I were wandering around Navora and Pirate was there and said, "Make some clothing for DarkLife." Or something like that. It doesn't take much to get me going. That was in 2004.

I had jin shin at 2:30 then came home and went to sleep. Yesterday SWMNBMLMB came over (yay!) and it was a great visit although I was tired even before she got here. After she left I edited the GBC SLBallet news update. I'm trying to think how best to do this - maybe edit each one as it comes in and then put them all together for a weekly news show? Make a GBC blog? Combine the video with written reports? I don't know. I'm hoping a number of people will be reporting on various subjects (Enj, Ida, Salazar to start), sending me audio, and I'll be doing the crazytalk/editing. I'm just learning how to use the crazytalk program. I have an idea how to (with a lot of trouble) use it and combine it with moving footage of the speaker. Specifically Ida knitting.

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04 February 2007

 

SL Ballet Premiere

Ida Keen reports




 
A Brief, Partial History
of
Engineering Genes
Originating on the Paternal Side
of
My Family

My Great Grandfather JB Bean (who didn't just spring into the world fully-formed although for the purposes of this post I will pretend he did) was a blacksmith by trade, I think, but his smithificationisationing took the form of inventing things, and he devised and built a line of bicycles.

He had 7 sons and a daughter. Seven engineer sons.

His daughter was my grandmother.

My father had a story about the taking of this photograph in 1923. His mother told the children there was an aeroplane in the sky so they would look where she pointed. My father (aeronautical engineer) is the youngest. Betty, in the middle, married an engineer and gave birth to an engineer. My Uncle Sydney was an artist (phew).

Then a lot of the children married engineers and gave birth to engineers and became engineers - however I couldn't begin to sort that out. Besides, I never see anyone as I'm antisocial. *scratches head* And some of the in-laws are also engineers.






One of the 7 engineer sons was my father's favorite uncle, Uncle Laurie (dark jacket).


 

News from Secondlife

(first broadcast)




 
Oh My God

*Faints*
*Clambers upright*
*Faints again*

I admit I'm behind the times on this. I've been preoccupied with other things. But I'm very impressed.

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The sun is hiding in the lake.


 
I borrowed this quotation from Karan over at Flummel:

If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough. - Mario Andretti


 
I told Flickr I'd like to see them add virtual world maps. Right now you can pinpoint the location your photo was taken on a world map, except, of course, it's the wrong world for my photos.

I spent time last night fiddling with crazytalk with the idea of continuing to develop the Grignano Broadcasting Corporation (located in a grey-loading textured building in northern Grignano) news idea.

I saw a pelican fly by a minute ago.

On Doc's advice I am going to try out PCB design software.

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03 February 2007

 
Circuit Boards and Punchcards

This morning for some reason I jumped right into making a card frame for our new series. Marilee and Pete were coming over and it was with amazement I saw how much time had gone by as the hour of their arrival drew closer.

As I dragged myself away from Photoshop and beat on the kitchen for a few minutes to tidy it, I started thinking about a letter my sister had written me from college. It was about 1969 and she wrote me a letter whilst in the computer lab. The letter was, in fact, written on punchcards. When she finished writing she bundled the stack into an envelope and mailed it to me. It must be two inches thick. I have it yet, although digging it out might be impossible in my current state.

We always marvel at the breadth of a life when, say, a woman is born before cars and lives to see - well, something - men on the moon, perhaps. Time and technology zip along. I think my list of things I've seen appear would be a mile long.

Marilee rang to say she had a sore throat and wouldn't visit for fear of passing the germs along.

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02 February 2007

 
*Takes off shoe and pounds Flckr*

You.. will... upload... my... pictures by... email... ARG. It did ONE. The other day. Before my "Old Skool"-ness got absorbed by the blancmange that is Yahoo. Unfortunately I took a few Friday Fights shots and sent them all to that mother Flckr.

*Watches pixels swoop and fly in formation then scatter into a million meaningless dots and disappear*

Great.

*Goes to borrow a clog*


 
Oh, wait. It's Groundhog Day, isn't it?



01 February 2007

 
Alonso Bot teaches how to fight using Combat Cards.

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Two beautiful solenne in quest'ora-s


Caruso and Scotti


Corelli and Bastianini


Caruso/Scotti recorded 1906
Corelli/Bastianini recorded circa 1958

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Luisa Tetrazzini

Bella figlia dell'amore from Rigoletto
Recorded in 1912
Caruso,Tetrazzini,Jacoby,Amato

Lovely gown. She was amazing. This clip of Luisa singing along with a Caruso recording is from 1932:


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HA! HA!

I found this when I was tidying up my harddrive - a screenshot lost since the day I took it in 2005.

Hanging out building a mandible just now behind my pavilion I was shot repeatedly then blown to smithereens by a griefer. I also discovered that when you are a gorilla people don't talk to you or treat you very well.


 

Checking the Spangle Bots

Gorilla my dreams

 

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