Sweetie's Back!

Written 30 April, 2007

Sweetie's Back!

My Sweetie arrived home last night from a business trip to find the internet still out at her house.

She had been silly and bubbly all day, but it was oh so depressing for her.

But an hour later, on the phone, she was her exultant self.

I love my Sweetie.

But Sweetie is back on line when she's away, although at the same cripplingly slow 1.3 fps speeds.

You see, she got her computer back from the repair shop.

They may have fixed it, and they may have not, as it seems no better, but at least she can log on, even if the world is gray.

I was astonished to see Sweetie was online. I rushed up to the House of 1000 Pleasures-- which I hadn't been in in two weeks, as there is no reason with Sweetie not there-- and found her in tiny ostrich form.

I didn't care. I jumped on Devition and gave her a deep kiss.

Here are some photos of my Sweetie in the middle of her transformation from ostrich to human.

Isn't she glamorous?

Chey's Rental Proprties 2

Chey's Rental Properties 1

Rentals

Written 26 April, 2007

Rentals

Now that I own more than half the Forsaken sim, I’m facing a whopping tier. I could sell some of the land, but god knows who I would get for neighbors—the Dutch sex club is looking for a home, the people with the sex dolls may want to expand (sex dolls everywhere! could be their motto), and Kitra or The Mothership guy might want to return.

It might be smarter to keep the land.

And so, I’m happy to announce that I am preparing some properties on Forsaken for rental.

Of course, Pele, with all her delights, will be at your doorstep: the volcano, pools and streams, the gardens, the rail system and teleporters (I call them the Pele People Movers, no offense to non-human avs), the East Beach recreation area, and the Dragon Skybar.

The first is a 5k lot on which I have placed an absolutely gorgeous tiki house from JC Designs. It is absolutely stunning. The house sits near the Eastern edge of the sim, facing west, with fabulous views of the setting sun and Pele. There’s water access and a beach for swimming, sunbathing, or boating.

The second rental is another tiki house, this one on stilts, which sits on the northern shore. It sits on a 2k lot.

I’ve several absolutely stunning little multilevel tiki cottages as well.

Over the next few days I’ll be landscaping and extending the rail line. I’ll work with any renter to make the property to their liking. I’ll also be furnishing the houses in styles appropriate to the design of the houses. I’ll be happy to help renters with decorating, if they choose to decorate themselves— help with everything from wall art to pose balls.

I’m not out to be a greedy landlady, so the sim will be roomy and beautiful (just visit Pele if you want to see my work). I’ll be charging rent appropriate for the size of the lot and the number of prims; I’m currently researching rental prices.

Gentle reader, if you want a quiet, beautiful, luxurious home in a peaceful R-rated tropical paradise (well, peaceful when Pele isn’t exploding), just IM Cheyenne Palisades, and we’ll talk.

Photos follow.

Wishing Well

26 April, 2007

Wishing Well

Maybe I shouldn’t have turned it up that high.

But then again, maybe it was the right thing to do.

It all started with Sweetie.

Everything starts with Sweetie.

One day, shortly before being excommunicated from the internet, she suggested making a well that would toss avatars into the air.

That’s my Sweetie for you. Her mind is always at work, devising schemes that are ridiculous and sublime.

So while she was gone, I built a nice little well, right in a tight curve in the rail line. I textured it and even made a little bucket and rope.

And then, just below the water line, I stuck in a trampoline.

I don’t know where the trampoline came from; one of those free things, I guess. It’s a lot of fun; you jump on it or even walk into it and it tosses you as high as 150 meters into the air.

Way cool.

So now Pele has one dangerous well!

I made two signs cautioning avatars not to jump into the well. But of course they will.

Hehe.

-----

Alas, my Sweetie has never seen the well. Nor has she seen the Pele rail depot or the various stations, or the finished rail layout, or the little pond I made and filled with spring peepers.

In fact, Sweetie has never seen very much. Her world has been mostly composed of gray blobs—and now that she has a video card that actually lets her see, what happens? Her laptop goes into the shop and she loses the Internet at her house.

How can someone lose a whole Internet? But that’s my Sweetie!

Of course, she’s already told you the story of how that happened

I guess she who frolics with dragons gets burned.

All I can say is, thank goodness for telephones!

Digital Damnation

Chicken Hell

Written 25 April, 2007

The following words were delivered to me over the telephone by my Sweetie. She is accepting e-mail at her secret eddress, tree_of_truth@yahoo.com--Chey. (those are underlines offsetting "of")

Digital Damnation

(Creepy intro music with moaning and drums and background fades. The lights come up on Sweetie, lounging in an air-conditioned room in Second Life hell).

Hi, everyone. Sweetie here.

I just thought I should explain my prolonged and absolutely torturous absence from SL and my Chey girl.

Ok, here's the thing. You should never ever ever play a practical joke on a dragon.

They love practical jokes, and when they think it's their turn, somehow the joke always involves fire.

Usually it's a "look at the pretty lights," and water-dumped-on-your-head-while-you're-hypnotized sort of thing.

Or they crack themselves up and laugh and snort fire uncontrollably all over the place.

I forgot this aspect of Breath of God's nature.

I'm not mad. I started it.

See, we were hanging out at Breath of God's secret lair, having a laugh about our latest flight together. We had had a great night doing silly dragon and Sweetie dares with each other. Highlights of our evening included:

* Nearly being hit when a visitor to Pele was hurled bodily 150 meters up in the air by Chey's new wishing well.

* Circling every tacky castle we could find, taunting the owners and flaming their flags of residence.

* Inventing a truly inspired game, "Toast Their Bums." This involved low flights over couples having outdoor sex and, well, you can guess the rest.

BOG finds human sexuality amazingly ridiculous. It really cracks her up, so a lot of folks got the hot seat that night.

Giddy with laughter, talking over the night's fun, and planning future mischief, eventually I had to stumble out of BOG's hot spring. I told her I would be right back.

While I was out of the room, Breath of God had an idea.

She set the scene by roasting my little Apple G4 to a poker-hot glow.

When I returned, she quipped, "You'd better watch out, little one. Your love life in SL is so hot you're going to melt your computer."

Then, laughing at her own joke, she produced a storm of dragon laughter fire, and I was sent to digital damnation-- SL hell.

The next day I discovered dragon fire must have gone across the electric lines, because my router was dead and all the Internet was gone.

Now-- as you saw in the opening sentence, I'm making the most of SL hell. I got a room with a 15o00 BTU window air unit.

BOG has apologized profusely. And, being impervious to fire, she has proven herself an excellent smuggler. She has brought me all sorts of goodies.

I have air conditioning, and ice cream, and unlimited phone calls with my Chey.

But for Skype and Second Life, it's an enforced vacation.

And since my local computer store won't accept melted dragon gold in payment, for now I have to say I'm sorry, my friends, but I'm off the grid.

(Creepy music intensifies. Drums come to a sudden stop. Sweetie looks directly into the camera and says).

But I SHALL return.

I'm a Lucky Avatar!

Written 25 April, 2007

I'm a Lucky Avatar!

I'm so lucky!

I have Sweetie!

I can't begin to tell you what a noble, funny, creative, hard-working, intelligent person she is.

Or how good she is on a pose ball.

What the hell. On a pose ball, she is a 15 our of a possible 10.

I'm so very lucky to have her!

Sweetie's Gone!

Bits 'N' Bobs' New Line of Stainless Steel Pose Balls

Written 25 April, 2007

Oh, no, not like that! We talked for two hours last night and 45 minutes this morning. But Sweetie is gone. Gone from the grid.

Sweetie's Gone!

The House of 1000 Pleasures sits vacant.

Pele is unhappy. She dropped a boulder on me yesterday. Pumice, so it didn't hurt much, but still!

Sweetie's connection at home is via aT3 wireless network she picks up, with permission, from a merchant.

Said merchant's router burned out more than a week ago, so Sweetie has been unable to get on line from her house.

Two weeks ago Sweetie's laptop went into the shop, where it is in one of those nether world situations. As in better get another computer, honey, because we don't know when and if we'll ever get around to looking at this one.

So she's can't get online away from the grid, either.

It's killing her.

I miss my Sweetie.

We talk on the phone daily, but I would SO like to get her in Resolutions I, II, and III!

A fortune! A fortune in pose balls, just rusting away!

Gad, we may have to put them in the shop. Maybe just not the same shop that has her computer.

Parcel Crazy

Written 23 April, 2007

Parcel Crazy

You know how it is in Second Life. You always need just a few more prims. If you could just manage to acquire that parcel on the corner everything would be all right. You would have more prims than you would know what to do with.

Why, your prim problems would be over forever!

What fools we mortals be!

I thought the original 4096 parcel containing Pele’s summit would provide more than enough prims.

Then prims ran low and I thought, you know, if I could just pick up Mothership Guy’s land, I would be set for life.

And I acquired it and named it East Beach, and wouldn’t you know, prims ran low.

That’s why I began to plot and scheme about Kitra’s parcel (now the Pele Gardens).

And when those prims ran low Dodgeguy Woodward was kind enough to give me first refusal on his property across the Forsaken River. When he moved, I didn't refuse it.

And when prims ran low again (and because I need the land for my railroading schemes, Damian Marseille was kind enough to sell me the plot of land I wanted.

This weekend, though, I went parcel crazy.

Damian hasn’t been around much of late, and I thought it would just be a matter of time before he put his multiple parcels up for sale. So I IMed him and told him I was interested in up to 5K of his land.

He said he would give me first right of refusal, but preferred to sell the land all at once.

I talked to one of my neighbors and she said she would buy half of his parcels.

We didn’t shake hands on it or anything, but it was a definite verbal agreement.

And so I IMed Damian and told him all of his land would sell and he put all of his parcels up for sale.

Then I IMed my friend and she came out with her boyfriend and looked at the land.

And told me they had decided not to buy any of Damian’s land because it didn’t quite touch theirs.

I know exactly why she changed her mind, and I will be blogging about it.

But it left me with a promise to keep—and so I bought far more land than I had planned on—a 5k property, two 3k properties, and two 2k properties.

I sold a 3k seafront lot to my neighbor Nikolas for the same price for which I had bought it, not realizing I would have to pay tier even though I held it for only five minutes (the land was set to me to buy and Nik couldn’t purchase it. Fortunately, Dreamland didn’t hold me to it (thanks, Carcinia!). And Nik would have paid the tier for me, anyay.

So, know anyone who wants to buy 2k or 5k in Dreamland? Beautiful tropical setting, sand, sun, and waves, and a volcano that hasn’t killed anyone lately.

-----

Photos: Pending, as SL is closed for maintenance.

-----

nb: I'm glad they don't close Earth for maintenance. OTH, maybe that's why it's so darn run down.

Boys Will be Boys

Written 25 April, 2007

Boys Will be Boys

Oh, yes they will!

Here's a photo of my friends Aldo Zond and Axel Piccard at an arm-wrestling table.

We had gone to Abranimations so I could buy some dances, and they straightaway disappeared. When I tracked them down I found them sweating and straining and red-faced in an arm-wrestling contest. Aldo seemed to be winning.

I thought I could clean Aldo's clock, but he beat me. He's thin, but darn, he's strong! I even jabbed him with a hatpin to disrupt his concentration, but to no avail.

In real life, one of my best friends' sons broke his arm last summer arm wrestling. It's a stupid and dangerous sport.

Family Reunion and Unsatisfactory Phone Call

Written 24 April, 2007

Family Reunion and Unsatisfactory Phone Call

It was my first family reunion in Second Life.

Actually, it might more properly be termed a union, as it was the first time some of us had actually met.

My brother Mordecai Scaggs asked me and his other two sisters (Sorcha and Aurora) to his airship, the Prometheus, to hang out and get to know his new friend and ward (Kacy Despes) a little better.

I went, but soon had to leave (Chey stayed, sitting in an easy chair, but her human walked downstairs so as not to be distracted by on-screen antics). It was a good thing, too, for her mischievous siblings planted a Make Love Not War sign in the chair with her and proceeded to bounce around in front of her on black-and-white spotted musical cows (no, I’m not kidding) while wearing Carmen Miranda’s castoff fruit hats on their heads.

I think I set the tone earlier when I suggested we push Kacy’s avatar out the window when she had to BRB. I only got what I deserved.

But I didn’t find out this silliness until later, for I was dutifully downstairs, talking to my friend—the same friend to whom I was rude a couple of weeks ago by allowing myself to be distracted by Second Life. I had even gotten off the phone with Sweetie, who was having a hard day, to talk to her.

The call started out well enough. We caught up on news and forthcoming conferences—and then the conversation turned to Sweetie, and from there to “my fantasy world.”

Try as I might, I’m unable to make my friend see that the world we call real is itself a fantasy, and that interactions between avatars are just as real as interactions between physical bodies that don’t really match who a person is inside anyway. And so SL is my fantasy world, filled with imaginary people.

It doesn’t matter than the people in SL are real enough, and that she had herself just met in person one of my Second Life friends. It’s all imaginary, and she is worried about me because I spend so much time there, and all we talk about anymore is Second Life, and she isn’t going to be in Second Life and so our friendship will change—which means, I’m sure, that it will lessen.

The problem with this was that for a change I wasn’t talking about Second Life. As I recall, she brought it, and my developing relationship with Sweetie, up. And so much for not ending sentences with prepositions.

I spend entirely too much time on the grid, and I have to some extent been neglecting other things, but it’s really my decision—and even with a reduced level of functionality, I’m more productive than almost anyone else I know— and I told my friend earlier my priorities have changed since I came to Second Life.

I guess she’s just unwilling to accept that.

I’ve done my share. Knowing she is unhappy if I am distracted, I now come off the grid when she calls and give her my full attention—and I call her sometimes, as well as she calling me. Our calls are pleasant, and our friendship is solid, except for this Second Life thing.

I’ve owned my issues about this. After last night, I’m convinced she isn’t owning hers. I’m not sure what they are, but clearly it’s about more than Second Life.

I really don’t want to damage a friendship, but I’m afraid it may already be damaged so much it will never be the same.

It makes me sad, for I treasure her as a friend.

Thanks, Mordecai

Written 25 April, 2007

Thanks, Mordecai

Thanks, Mordecai, for being your family all together in one place at one time. I was able to get to know and be friends with my sisters, and get to know your new ward Kacy even better.

Sorry I had to be mentally absent (first world).

Sex on the Beach (R Rated Photo)

Written 25 April, 2007

Sex on the Beach

Here I am with my neighbor Nikolas looking at some sex dolls someone left on the beach.

I'm not sure if this is a political statement, or an attempt to harass the neighbors, or maybe just the work of a couple of horny guys.

Just as I took the photo I told Nik to go for it.

I'm so bad.

Peacock

Written 25 April, 2007

Peacock

This is the beautiful male peacock Leaf Shermer gave me; it's placed so it can be seen as my little train emerges from the Forsaken River onto the Pele Gardens.

Thanks to Melissa Yeuxdoux for the photo.

Oops!

Written 22 April, 2007

Oops!

Oops!

Somehow the day went by in a whirlwind of phone walls with Sweetie, naps, indulgences on Second Life and TiVo.

Maybe I'll get to the lake next week.

Spring

Written 20 April, 2007

Spring

I know it’s fashionable, especially as one ages, to like autumn, but I’ve always favored the spring.

No leaves to rake, for one thing.

The promise of life, for another.

My azaleas have been blooming like crazy. Atlanta has been a profusion of flowering dogwoods, tulip poplars, redbuds, tulips, and fruit trees, a city of purples and pinks and reds and whites and blue sky, when the rain has cut down on the pollen and pollution.

Atlanta is a beautiful place, and I live in a particularly pleasant corner of it. The little lake, only feet from my house, is populated by geese and children wading with their parents, the benches inviting me to venture down with my laptop or a book for an hour or so of tranquil enjoyment.

And where am I during all this profusion of springtime?

Up on the second floor, in Second Life.

Why aren’t I on the lake, basking in the sun?

Why aren’t I standing on a bluff in the North Georgia mountains, gazing out upon hazy range upon hazy range of the Blue Ridge?

Why haven’t I taken the subway downtown to see the Louvre exposition at the High Museum of Art?

Why aren’t I at a fine sidewalk restaurant, watching passersby and seeing just how hot the cook can make the Thai curry?

Resolved: To enjoy the springtime.

Indomitable

Written 20 April, 2007

Indomitable

Yesterday my brother Mordecai Scaggs broke up with his Mistress Maia, and last night Sweetie returned home from a week on the road to find a flooded basement in her apartment and her no-account landlady running sump pumps and dehumidifiers from her electric box—and worse, no internet service, so she could not visit me on the grid. We had another great night on the phone. In fact, we chatted long distance while Mordecai and I played mahjong as he puzzled out just what had happened to his relationship.

I love Mordecai and Sweetie for much the same reasons—they’re heroic. Both are indomitable. I won’t say indefatiguable, because they can be beaten down, but they pop back up like Bobo the inflatable boxing toy, resolute and determined— a little ragged about the edges at first, perhaps, like my windowbox impatiens after a summer rainstorm, but like the flowers, they are blooming like mad a day or two later. My lover, my friend, the flowers, all three have a mad, exultant quality I admire greatly, and which, I hope, somewhat mirrors my own nature.

I can’t begin to say how much I love my Sweetie and my brother and how much I feel for them when the world beats them down. If I can be of help in that brief period between their tragedy and their triumph, I am myself exultant.

Viva, Mordecai!

Viva, Sweetie!

Viva, impatiens!

Just Another Evening With Cheyenne

Here's Boofhead's note:

Just another evening with Cheyenne:

Driving from work a fortnight or so ago, i found myself contemplating (as one does) the differences between male and female conceptions of "enlightenment." These ideas may be found in the works of the philosopher Ken Wilbur - but don't worry - we will be getting to Chey real soon.

Im very new to SL and im constantly blown away by what i find - the previous day i had had my first encounter with Gor, and was horrified! But who to turn to for advice - well - obvious really - even you can guess. So, up comes the screen, click - second life loads, then : CHEY! CHEY ! What should we do about Gor

OMG!!

IM: Cheyenne Palisades: would you like to come for a little ride on my train!

Can you then imagine my immense relief, sitting behind such a pink frocked lovely, knowing the RIGHTNESS of such whimsy in the face of the awfulness that is Gor? Ahhh - my heart settled into the rhythmic chugging of pixels passing bye - how nice. Then the train broke down.

Ok - id put on a few extra pounds. Sure - the rubber band may have aged a little - but really! No Problem for Chey of course - she offered me a ride on her cannon instead, "climb on, ill follow,it will blast us 4 sims away into Buccaneers' Passage" i did as she said - but it didn't DO what she said. I landed at a place that was blue - just a blue screen - the co ordinates were 0,0,0 - there was nothing just blue, oh, and two balls. One was labelled 'male enlightenment" the other "female enlightenment"

OMG. Being new to SL - i had never seen such things before - OMG.

I clicked "male" and all that happened was some bling then looking up i could detect the surface - i was under water but unable to move (trapped in the universal solvent). I could still IM - frantic messages passed back and forth, between Chey and I, between the impossible world and our Second Life, while the synchronicity between these and my RL was twisting my head significantly. I had to log out to get back in and meet with Chey once more. We were in Vampire Cove - if i remember properly - my head was still sooo twisted you see, she showed me a spot - not too distant from some water, and there - some cushions - and some balls marked male and female enlightenment. i felt just a little deflated by that. We started to chat, i tried to be cool, like these things happen every day... then...

(im still a little befuddled you understand) But came awake when Chey presented me with 3 words:
Multiple Simultaneous Intelligences.

I asked her to repeat it - she did, and i wrote the words down - and was blasted into cognitive outer space once more! Shortly before joining SL, i had completed a cycle of reading that included "the holographic Universe" by Talbot and " The participatory Mind" by Skolimowski. These explanations for the phenomena of existence did not even come close to the meaning within those 3 words. Those 3 words summed up for me all the worlds of our creation - both SL AND RL - and included all the words of these two philosophers!

OMG - again.

At this point, being the gentleman that I am (any bloke reading this may gag here) and spying a slow dance ball (my favourite) - I asked Chey to dance. I was not my most talkative at this juncture (lol- rather interior in fact), but the dance took me... then Chey spoke again..

"I am not afraid of becoming post-human" she said

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Beside my screen...i had picked it up when moving through my house, and placed it down beside my screen only seconds before logging on: a book -"How we became post human" by N. Katherine Hayles. OMG
Its been two weeks and yet only today have i been able to convey this experience to Chey. And guess what? She says that her comments - those three words, even her statement about being post human were not existential truisms mined from the heart of the living universe - but rather reflected her thinking about her Alt "Dakota"!

Ahhh - Just another evening with Cheyenne. I think ill take a little train ride. Lol.

Boofhead Oh's Transmogrification

Cheyenne in the Blue Zone

Written 19 April, 2007-04-19

Boofhead Oh’s Transmogrification

My good friend Boofhead Oh is from King George’s OTHER penal colony. You know, Down Undah. Australia. That’s where they sent the paupers and petty criminals and misfits after Georgia got uppity and joined the rebellion and old George had to find a new and far-off place for the unwanted.

Sweetie and I and Axel Piccard found Boof one night at the Zen Gardens, bedazzled by the beauty of it all, and we all became friends.

I love Boof because he is (like me) a child at heart, enchanted and entranced by both the first and second worlds in all their splendors—and like me he is, I think, an Old Soul.

Week before last I was doing useful work, shooting myself out of a giant cannon and seeing where I landed (hey, it’s a chore, but somebody’s gotta do it!)

I and my friends had been predictably landing four sims over on a little island with an Airstream trailer (no bridge, so goddess knows how the Airstream got there; floated, I guess).

I teleported Boof to Pele that night, then shot myself off, and, finally, via IM, talked Boof into climbing into the breech.

But he didn’t land by the Airstream. Instead he mumbled something about male enlightenment and female enlightenment and being in the Blue Zone. He even sent me photographs.

He teleported me to him and I found myself not in a blue zone, but in Vampire’s Paradise. I tracked him, but could never quite see him; I guess when you’re in the Blue Zone, you’re invisible to mere mortals.

I did find a pavilion with a circle of meditation cushions that read, alternately, Male Enlightenment and Female Enlightenment, so I knew I was close. My Mystitool showed Boof to be mere meters away, but he was not in the mortal plane.

I sat on Female Enlightenment, and then on Male Enlightenment, but I just went into a meditation pose; no Blue Zone for me.

I have, of course, been in the Blue Zone before. It happens sometimes when I sit on a poseball. Suddenly I’m hanging in space (often sitting horizontally on the ball), and the world seems… receded. I had just never thought of it as a space of enlightenment.

Last night, as Boof and I danced the hot salsa at Soft Shadows and Bill and Pam Havercamp played the songs of our youth, he explained it all to me—how, just before I brought him to Pele, he had been reading about male enlightenment and female enlightenment and how they differ, and how he had been reading about posthumanism and then saw my blogpost on the same topic.

I slipped him a hit of acid and then the sim crashed.

But before it did, I asked him to write about that night. He did, and it follows.

Thank you, Boofhead, for being my friend, and for coming through so splendidly on your homework.

Pele Main Station

Pele Main Depot and Entrance to the Metro

Written 19 April, 2007

Pele Main Station

Last night I made the main depot for Pele.

I didn't want to use a lot of prims, but I wanted to catch the look of the old art deco theme of the Metro in Paris. So I simplified it, and here's what I came up with.

I found the actual fonts used on the Metro, but wasn't willing to lay out $.99 US for them.

I think I'll do another version similar to the original. And on the new land, i think I'll make one of the rail lines a subway. How cool will that be?

Talon is a Sweetie!

Written 18 April, 2007

Talon is a Sweetie!

My friend Talon Sidek left the most wonderful comment on my blog. I just have to reproduce it here.

Thanks so much, Talon!! It's just so beautiful!



Talon Sidek said...

Standing in Pele, waist deep right now, but it's useless. Pele knows the truth.

It's empty and quiet here right now. Only the wind and the bubbling of the caldera.

Hoping for somebody to show, anybody, even the Dutch. I fly to the beach to check on the Orca, and even she senses your absence. She floats sadly and aimlessly in the lagoon, ignoring the dolphins playing nearby.

The train tracks are silent, empty, and the peacock calls to me from below, begging me to provide the least little bit of relief from the silence.

The east beach is thankfully not so quiet and the crackling fire and crashing waves restore the warmth in me.

Exhuberance is still. I sit on the swing at the edge of the water and listen to the wind chimes. They sound as lonely as the Orca and the Peacock. A sad and rhythmless tune.

They miss you here, Chey. Come back and play with us, they say. Awards are nice, but Pele calls to you "Don't stay away too long."

I'll sit and listen to the chimes a little longer, then throw myself once more into the Caldera.

And hope...

April 13, 2007 10:27:00 AM PDT

Pele Depot

Written 18 April, 2007

Pele Depot

Since Sweetie is out of town on a business trip and her laptop is in the shop, Second Life is a lonely business. Because we’re hooking up exclusively via the phone this week, I’ve not even been all that interested in going on the grid.

Which is a first for me. I’m always on the grid.

I have been logging on from time to time to chat with friend or play mahjong, and I’ve worked lackadaisically at debugging that last stretch of rail which routinely crashed the Pele train, but until last night I’d not done much in Second Life.

But then I found myself building a depot, and I got a little excited about it.

Maybe tonight I’ll rez Dakota and see if she can get a little excitement going.

Reflections

Stained Glass Inset at Xubi House

Stained Glass Inset at Xubi House

False Reflection in House at Creative Fantasies

False Reflection at Gurl6

False Reflection at Ballroom

Written 4 April, 2007

Reflections

No, not that kind of reflection!

The optical kind.

What, you thought you’d catch me in a pensive mood?

Never happen.

:)

-----

There’s a rumor that the First Look client (which, I suppose, is the one we’re all using now) has the capability of making rudimentary reflections of objects.

I don’t know how to make that happen.

When my house was being built, the beautiful stained glass that comprised part of the ceiling of the first story and part of the floor of the second story seemed to create reflections, but on further examination it proved to be simply a view of objects on the other side of the glass. Identically-shaped door openings and furniture elements gave the illusion of a reflection.

Some Second Life designers are using just such a look through the glass to create what seem to be reflections.

Perhaps the most striking example is at this ballroom, in which an entire upside-down mirror image of a huge ballroom exists below the dance floor.

Another example can be found at Gurl6.

How cool it will be when we can have real mirrors in Second Life!

Although we’ll never get anything done for looking at our pretty avatars!

Homeward Bound

Written 15 April, 2006

Homeward Bound

I'm writing this on my laptop in the lobby of the Hilton Airport Philadelphia, just killing time. Soon I'll be off to the airport to Delta home to Atlanta.

I'm hoping my flight won't be late, since a Nor'wester has moved in and it's raining like cats and dogs.

I had a wonderful three days at the conference. I was lionized and given my big award and said some words and even signed an autograph.

Now it's time to go home, and I'm happy.

This was the first time since 24 October, when I started Second Life, that I've been away from the computer for more than 12 or 15 hours. Surprisingly, my mouth is not dry and my hands aren't shaking.

I was able to get onto SL from my hotel room, but it was so laggyI couldn't maneuver and the world was gray. I'm not sure if the poor performance was due to my laptop's lack of memory, or its graphics display, or connection speed, but at least I was online and able to talk in Chat with my friends.

Since the fall the laptop had a peculiar problem-- it would go online, but it refused to go to secure areas. Whenever it came time to enter a password, the show stopped.

Perhaps some of my geekier friends will be able to explain why this might have happened-- but the question is academic, since I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Now all my programs are gone and will need reloading, but the laptop itself functions properly.

I'm happy to say I was able to spend time with someone very special to me while I was in Philadelphia. We had the most wonderful Italian dinner and laughed and talked far into the night. It was one of the most special times of my life, and I'm so grateful for it, and for her.

And now, back to the grindstone.

Well, not exactly-- I arranged to take Monday off so I could unpack.

My Big Award

Written 11 April, 2007

My Big Award

I'm flying to Philadelphia tomorrow to go to a conference and get an award.

I'd much rather get a RE-ward than an A-ward, but I'm not complaining.

I'll be home late Sunday.

Please keep an eye on Pele while I"m gone.

Dodgeguy's New Look

Written 11 April, 2007

Dodgeguy's New Look

Here's Dodge in his great new skin from RAC Designs.

It's my fault.

The other day when I was at RAC, I accidently teleported Dodge. He stayed to look around, and made a purchase.

Doesn't he look great?

And it's all my doing!

Visiting Dodge

Dodgeguy's New Look

Dodgeguy's Tree House

Written 11 April, 2007

Visiting Dodge

I was in Dodge Country.

Sweetie and I were visiting our friend Dodgeguy Woodward, who showed us his beautiful and highly customized treehouse.

The views were fabulous!

Then he took us to his shop.

I got nice photos of Dodge's house, but when we got to the shop I was so busy buying stuff I sort of forgot to take pictures.

Chillin'

Written 11 April, 2007

Chillin'

My friend Peter Stinberg was on vacation last week and spent quite a bit of his time at Pele.

These photos are from this weekend, me and Sweetie and Peter in toobs, and Sweetie scuba diving.

All right Peter, now back to work!

Rail Signs

Written 11 April, 2007

Rail Signs

All my friends have been coming over to ride the train. Whenever I get a message from the engine that someone is driving it, it makes me smile.

I've been decorating the underwater areas, and night before last I made this sign for station stops. It's modeled after the art deco signs in the Paris Metro. I could have made them look exactly like the metro signs, but I was watching prims.

Rail Photos 3

Rail Photos 2