Torrent of Consciousness

James Joyce

William Faulkner

Bill Gates

Steve Jobs

All hail the Mighty Woz! (Notice How He Seems to be
In Second Life Flying [Hover] Pose!)

Written 30 July, 2007

Torrent of Consciousness


James Joyce and William Faulkner could take lessons from my Sweetie on stream of consciousness.

She doesn’t have a stream of consciousness so much as a torrent.

Following are chat notes from Skype messaging, stimulated by a rather spectacular crash by my computer. All comments, except the two I managed to slip in after I was back on line, are Sweetie’s.

You’ll see what I mean about a torrent.

oooh crash o matic
computer down!
Blank o rama
the restart of doom
lossssst iiiiiininnnnnn CYYYberspaaaaaaaaaaaaecceee!
danger danger cheyenne palisades
you are about to enter a world where sight and sound nave no meaning
welcome to
the
disconnected zone
da ba da baduh
look kids
a prehistoric display
this is from the time when people had to interface with computers that were outside their bodies
clumsy and old and unreliable
often the inhabitants of the microsoftocracy were doomed to spend hours disconnected from
loved ones
yes i know
look away
darlings
look away
the bad microsoft people are extinct now
except bill gates
he haunts the INTERNETS
crashing people who bad mouth him
it was uncovered long ago
that bill gates and Imsonotadiva Bartlett
were related
YES!
(audience gasps) it is true
she is the great
great
great
great
great
great
great
clone
of bill gates’ dog
oh damn
just as i go into my very best rude wayne's world riff on bill gates, the purveyor of doom
... yes
Old billy's ghost itself strikes again from his cyber death star somewhere on his private internet grid
And takes you away
mr. gates actually long outlived the cyber life he had secretly planned for himself
but since 80% of his cyber life span has been crashed due to the new windows 9000...
9000 times the errors...
he has lived 80 % longer than anticipated in his original design
this coupled with the seven year delay from the time of Windows 9000’s announced release to the time
of the actual release extended his life well beyond even his own evil plans
and what did bill gates plan to do with his eternity?
well his main motivation
was a deep-seated rage
toward anything with apples
in fact, he had kind of a fruit breakdown
that led to the deforestation of every orchard in eastern washington
until bill gates realized
he could corner the market on the last remaining red delicious apple orchard
in existence
this he promised to deliver the world
parties were planned all over the globe for the release of mac apps 9000
but due to protracted lawsuits
from the equally preserved
and secretive and stubborn
steve jobs
who had decided his goal in life was to fulfill his own media hype as the god who brought
godlike powers of cool to all mankind
his designer counseled him it may take more than one quarter to be successful and avoid
another iPhone disaster
so he created iLife
the easily programmed, white plastic cube
with a scrolling wheel that let him flick through the days of his life.
wait a minute, i know that title from somewhere
yes
i have it
the
I days of his life
the idays of his life
trademarked
as long as he never got more than three hours from the nearest charger
of course we know this display will be controversial
many will deny the existence of the wizened cyber barons

Cheyenne Palisades says: However, unknown to both Jobs and Gates, the frozen head of Apple
co-founder Steve Wozniak had plans of its own

... dueling it out one line of code at a time
they never saw
the IWOZ
coming to blow them both to smithereens
while creating the worldwide viral youtube sensation video
“Dancing on the Heads of my Enemies,” LIVE from his own private global rock extravaganza
and that, kiddies
is the story of the founding of WOZ world
all hail the Woz
supreme ego
of wozi land
bringer of all innovations
and self prooter extraordinaire

*promoter

Cheyenne Palisades says: I preferred prooter

... and a major contributor to this exhibit
ok, kids, next on our tour.....
* end of line

Client-Side Weirdness

Ruthed Cheyenne

Where Are My Eyes?

Taking a Spin

Written 29 July, 2007

Client-Side Weirdness

When I logged in this morning, every thing was just fine-- for maybe thirty seconds. Then my avatar shorted and thickened and orange hair sprouted undernaty by Mystikal BubblePony do and my hobbit feet spilled out of my elegant Sylfie's shoes.

I was ruthed.

Worse, my inventory seemed to be ruthed, too. Most of it was gone, and it didn't seem to be downloading.

Hmmm. Maybe it wasn't a client-side issue after all!

Multiple log-ins didn't fix the problem, so I pulled out my trusty alt, Dakota.

Well, she's not THAT trustworthy. I know she's been underreporting her tips from the Dragon Skybar. But still...

Anyway, Dakota rezzed just fine and her inventory-- not that she has that much of it, and what she has is like too goth girl for me-- seemed fine. And she was able to rezz and delete objects.

Voice First Look crashes m computer (not just SL, the whole computer dies) on a regular basis, maybe once every 45 minutes, so I reluctantly started it.

Hmmm. Optional download. Maybe that will help with the crashes. And the weirdness.

Nope on the weirdness. I'm still ruthed. And poorfly rezzed ruthed at that!

Nope, not server side at all.

As to whether Voice First Look will still crash my computer? Probably.

Still, there IS a lot of client-side weirdness in Second Life.

Last night I changed upon a photo I took a while back at the Sphynx Jazz Club. As he danced, an avatar was spinning around, rotating on his long axis (no, guys, I know what you would like to think of as your long axis, but I'm talking about from head to toe. He was just dancing and spnning, and no one saw it but me.

I know.

I checked.

OMG!

Now my eyes are gone!

They just now disappeared.

I'm melting!

Avatar Barbecue!

Sploland

Drinking Birds at Sploland

Sweetie on the Spit at Splo

Warning Sign for Cheyenne's Avatar Barbecue

Cheyenne on Her Spit with Big Fire

Written 28 July, 2007

Avatar Barbecue!

Sweetie and I were out adventuring when we saw them-- giant drinking birds! The holy grail of Second Life silliness!

They were on Sploland, a sim which seems to be dedicated to exactly the sort of silliness to which Sweetie and I dedicate our second lives.

I mean, there wasn't just one giant drinking bird-- there was an entire row of them! And there was an avatar cannon, and rides, and--

And an avatar barbecue!

We met a very nice lady named Kirra Ball, who works at Sploland, and she showed us around. We told her about our Well of Death, and she was intrigued. We made a deal-- she could build a well of death and we could build an avatar barbecue.

And so I did.

It was easy enough-- two uprights with a fork for the spit, a spit (rotisserie), a script to pose an av in roasting position, a fire, and a sign warning avatars to UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES jump on the grill.

Of COURSE such a sign will guarantee that no avatar will EVER have an unfortunate incident with the barbecue grill.

:)

Guess how long it took sweetie to jump on?'

-----

I saw Skyler Coswell bonfire at Black Rock Mesa. It came with about ten poseballs circling it-- war dance.

Mr. Coswell was kind enough to make a set of poseballs without hover text for me.

It will be fun to get a bunch of friends together some time and dance around the fire, but I had a more immediate use for Mr. Coswell's bonfire.

I put it under the barbecue rotisserie.

The result was disturbing.

When the fire was small, the effect was sort of cute, but with a big roaring fire the visuals were a bit scary; I felt a bit like Jean d'Arc as the flames leapt about me as I tried the rotisserie.

Now the rotisserie has a nice small fire.

Test Female, Test Male

Written 27 July, 2007

Test Female, Test Male


This morning I found a new entry on the Linden blog, all about the Client menu on the Second Life interface. (If you don’t have a client menu, hit CTRL-ALT-D, or, if that doesn’t work, SHIFT-CTRL-ALT-D).

Torley talked about some interesting stuff, some of which I didn’t know. But he didn’t talk about what I’m about to talk about.

It's super secret stuff.

You must pay me five lindens to learn it.

Just kidding.

I think.

While poking around the Client menu, I found an option called Test Female (there was also Test Male). I selected it.

Bam!

Instantly, I was a newbie. Newbie skin. Newbie shape. Newbie clothes. Newbie shoes. Newbie hair.

My Horizon Olive skin by Max was gone. My shape, with the thighs Sweetie loves, were gone. My Mystikal BubblePony was gone. My Sylfie’s shoes were gone. My hugger and HUD compass and Animation Override and sexy walk and emoter and Mystitool were gone. My RAC brown eyes were gone.

Gone! All of it! Gone, I say!

I was that most despised thing of Second Life, a newbie!

I’m soooo glad no one was around to witness my embarrassment!

It requires soooo much courage to post the snapshot I took!

With shaking hands I dragged by Cheyenne startup folder onto me. Presto! I was restored! Mysti, shoes, hair, skin, shape, compass, sexy walk, everything!

Except for the residual post-traumatic avatar disorder.

The next day I took Sweetie and our friend Kat out to show them the very same HUD compass that disappeared.

Oh, the shame! I had to do it.

I tested female.

So of course they had to do it. Kat tested female and then worked her way back to normal by showing us the cartoonishly skinny avatar she made after arriving in world (she thought if she was really skinny she would stop waking into things).

Sweetie, intrepid explorer that she was, tested male.

She was instantly a sandy-haired, t-shirted, blue-jean-wearing dude.

Photo op!

Avatar changes are difficult for Sweetie, since she has never taken the time to build a drag-on Sweetie folder. Kat and I watched her as she searched through her inventory folders, finding scattered items and slowly transforming from male to female. It got a little weird there when she was wearing male skin, shape and hair and the blue sari I love so much on her, but I stood by her during her difficult time until, finally, I had my Sweetie back.

I have seen my Sweetie’s inner male.

I still love her.

Blingless

Bling

No Bling

My Favorite Earrings

Written 26 July, 2007

Blingless

When I was new in Second Life, I was way excited to buy jewelry with bling in it.

We all know what bling is, or course—it’s that periodic particle sparkle jewelry and other items give off.

Bling looks good on the dance floor, but most of the time it’s an annoyance—at concerts for instance, or when Sweetie and I are alone in the House of 1000 Pleasures.

Sweetie keeps midnight set and has cranked down the gamma in Preferences to make the nights really dark (so local lights have a greater effect on her screen). Under her visual conditions, the bling from my jewelry is dazzlingly bright.

Most bling scripts listen to chat and so can be switched off and on (which is why you hear so many people say “Bling off.” They’re not telling you off, merely turning off their sparklies.

Unfortunately, the bling scripts in my jewelry (and perhaps those of lots of others) turn themselves on upon teleport. (This is another reason you hear so many people telling you to bling off).

And of course scripts that listen to chat contribute in a small way to sim lag. And we all know sim lag is a bad thing.

And so, last night, as Sweetie was sorting through her inventory, trying to figure out what was causing her Black Band of Death syndrome (parts of your avatar show up as black), I took the bling out of my favorite earrings, bracelets, and ankle bracelet.

It was a big step for me; I’ve been a bling grrrl for a long time. Bling is all I know.

It was pretty easy, once I got past the mental part; I just hopped on a pose stand so my avatar wouldn’t fidget, right-clicked my jewelry, went into Edit, clicked the box that let me edit individual prims, zoomed in close, using CTRL-0 (if you do that, be sure to hit CTRL-9 to reset your view when you finish) and rifled through the prims that comprised my jewelry, moving any bling scripts I found to my inventory—and in some cases, when I couldn’t seem to move them into my inventory, deleting them.

When I was through, my jewelry was blingless.

I have to say my jewelry—most of which comes from a place called Rick’s (I can never seem to find a landmark for it)—was quite stunning when seen up close. I had never noticed it before, but the pearls in my earrings were rotating; I left the animation scripts in place. Blingless I may now be, but rotateless? I don’t THINK so!

Bling or not, Rick makes really nice jewelry. Take a look at the photos—then go get some! Take the bling out or leave it in, as suits you.

As for me, I’m sans bling. I’m sure Sweetie’s eyes will thank me for my efforts.

-----

p.s. Removing bling doesn't quite get it-- for, you see, the bling particles remain after the script is deleted. It's necessary to stick in (and you can then remove it) a remove bling script. You can find one in the Pele Freebies at Forsaken (74, 153, 21). :)

Updating Weedy Herbst's Great Parcel Radio Changer

Written 26 July, 2007

Updating Weedy Herbst’s Great Parcel Radio Changer

Shortly after I bought Pele I chanced upon a tiny little parcel filled with antique radios and stage equipment. There, for $200L, I bought a cute little Wurlitzer jukebox—the bubble machine those over 40 years old remember with some fondness. I loved it on sight.

I had some newbie problems with it—for instance, I set it to group, not realizing it wouldn’t respond to my commands when my Volcanoes Unlimited tag wasn’t active, and was as a result convinced for several weeks that streaming audio was broken in Second Life. But I got that sorted out, and proceeded to buy more jukeboxes. Wurlitzers are sprinkled all over Pele these days, and I’ve sold several to friends. (I’ve been a good customer, Weedy, in case you’re reading this!)

The Wurlitzer responds to voice commands; it will access streaming radio stations by genre (“/radio reggae”) or number (“radio 43”). It comes with an embedded notecard that contains the URLs for about 100 stations. This card can be modified to add, remove, or change the steam and station names.

There a nice variety of stations on the stations card, and most of them stream properly, but over time stations go out of business or change their URLs— and some were streaming at low bit rates, making their sound anything but robust.

And so, over the weekend I stood at the jukebox in the Pele Gardens and parsed through the channels, removing from the notecard stations that were dead or weak or that I just didn’t like (I mean, who needs a 24-hour sports station? [No comments here, please!]).

Then I went to www.shoutcast.com and searched through the several thousand radio stations there and extracted the URLs for the various streams.

I sort of almost kind of nearly just about sort of figured this out last fall, but this time I was ready, having watched an instructional video I grabbed on the Internet (I believe I found it through Second Life’s website).

It was a simple process. I searched Shoutcast’s music stations on the website, then right clicked on the button that would have started the station playing on my computer if I had left clicked, and chose the Save Target As option. I opened the resulting file with Windows’ Notepad (if you click on it the stream will start to play), found the URL, clipped it, pasted it on the Wurlitzer’s notecard, and Bob, as they say, was my uncle.

I chose a variety of stations I thought I would like, and some I thought others would like, and some (think Macdonian Folk Music) just for the hell of it, cutting and pasting stations into the notecard and making sure they streamed. (I made sure I captured Air America, since that’s Sweetie’s favorite, and I found an all-Beatles station I was sure would please my friends Bill and Pam Havercamp).

When I had enough (are there ever enough?) stations, I copied the contents of the Wurlitzer’s stations notecard and pasted it into Notepad on my desktop, and dragged the resulting file to my flash drive so I could sort through the stations when things got slow (as they sometimes do on my job, but of course I would NEVER do my own business on company time).

I moved stations around, sorting by genre, and then moved blocks of stations so the progression would seem logical (classical to jazz to blues to country to bluegrass (I love bluegrass) to folk to rock classics to top 40 to alternative to world (being sure I got every Hawaiian station I could find, since I have a new-found affinity to island music) to dance to rave to trance.

Then, so we would remember the /radio number of that station we liked so much, I walked through the list, numbering the lines.

Back on Pele, I stood in the gardens and parsed through the stations, which I had pasted back into the Wurlitzer’s notecard, and fixed typos until everything streamed properly.

The I flew around Pele, putting the new stations card in the let’s see, one dozen Wurlitzers on the various parcels.

I also sorted through the genre card—and in the process I figured out why the rock genre has never worked: the command is /rock, and of course /rock causes my av to do the /rock /paper /scissors thing, which is on by default; the gesture apparently grabs the chat and the radio never hears it.

I’m betting the /rock genre command will work if I deactivate the /rock gesture.

Unfortunately, the names on the genre card can’t be changed (how cool it would be if Weedy had made that possible; I could type /NPR or /bluegrass or /beatles or /macedonian)—but the station numbers will make it easier for everyone in the Volcanoes Unlimited group to find the stations they like.

A while back I bought a HUD-worn parcel radio changer. The stations notecard gets updated regularly, but I’ve never used it. Perhaps I’ll try to come to grips with it. Or perhaps I’ll just pull out the notecard and add the stations to the 125 the Wurlitzer now plays.

You can find my Wurlitzers in both the most fashionable and the strangest places.

Taking Stock of My Second Life

Arty and hopefully Artful Shot of Cheyenne and Sweetie

Written 23 July, 2007

Taking Stock of My Second Life

I’ve been in Second Life for almost nine months now (or ten years, SL time, LOL).

Time to take stock.

First and foremost, I am seven months into a wonderful and wonderfully fulfilling relationship with my brilliant and beautiful and fetchingly bubbly Sweetie. She is a joy, and she owns my heart.

We live together in a refurbished Chinese whorehouse that floats 300 meters above the active volcano Pele on the Forsaken sim, out of range of all but the largest boulders Pele might throw, on land which covers some 29,000 square meters and provides 6700 prims upon which we draw to make Pele beautiful and charmingly silly. And the land is indeed beautiful, lushly landscaped with tropical vegetation, studded with striking builds, populated by a variety of terrestrial, airborne, and submarine creatures, and sprinkled with PG-rated poseballs and devices designed to entertain and charm ourselves and our visitors (not the least of which are Pele herself and an extensive layout for Kitto Flora’s wonderful little steam train.

Sweetie and I have a circle of friends and Second Life kin (some mine, some hers, some ours) to whom we turn for entertainment, companionship, and, occasionally, solace.

We are rich, in Second Life terms, with money enough for land, funny toys, and useful gadgets.

We are beautiful, even by Second Life standards, with good skins and shapes and hair and lavish wardrobes stuffed with high-detailed gowns and CFM pumps and a variety of alternate avatars we can pull out when things get slow.

And we have become skilled in any number of areas ranging from fine camera control to building to scripting. We can make (usually in short order) just about anything we can imagine-- and believe me, we imagine a lot! Consequently, Pele is sprinkled with designer houses and custom builds. There are Wells of Death, high-altitude nightclubs, and secret rooms under Pele’s lava. And what we can’t be troubled to do ourselves, we can buy on the wonderful Second Life economy.

We have constructed fulfilling and exciting second lives for ourselves. But most telling is my use of the word we. When I came to Second Life there was only “I.” How thrilling that there is now a we!

I Have Something in My Eye!

Written 27 July, 2007

I Have Something In My Eye!

While taking a close up while wearing my RAC brown eyes, I was able to really see the reflection in the pupil (Iris? Not good with eye anatomy). I had had no idea it was there!

See if you can see it! (Click on the photo for a closer view).

Learning New Stuff

Extreme close-up

 This is What Classes in Second Life Look Like

Written 15 July, 2007

Learning New Stuff

Sweetie and I have learned a lot of new things lately.

It started when we went to Linden Village. Sweetie picked up a bunch of back issues of the Second Opinion newsletter, which features article by Torley Linden-- the same Torley of the textures fame.

Sweetie discovered that Torley has a dozen or so short video tutorials, and came home with the URL. We sat cuddled up at the House of 1000 Pleasures and laughed our way through them. Torley is very funny.

We learned need stuff we should have known by then but didn't. We didn't know, for instance, that holding the space key down will stop a fall; in fact, it makes the av move very slowly in any direction. Way handy not only for breaking a fall, but for moving without overshooting your target. Great for moving next to a friend.

Simple, huh? But we didn't know it.

We learned that CTRL-0 will zoom your camera in to levels not possible by moving the mouse. Take a look at a closeup I took of myself. If you click no the snapshot you can see taht there are two people caught in the reflection in my eyes.

CTRL-8 will back you out, and-- this is really important-- CTRL-9 will reset your view. If you zoom in or out with CTRL-8 and CTRL-0, you'll be stuck there until you relog or hit CTRL_9.

The next trick will apparently be disabled when WindLight finally becomes available, so enjoy it while you can.

Take a look at the top of your screen. If you don't see Client and Server menus, hit CTRL-ALT-D; that key combinatin togges them on and off.

Then go to CLIENT>WORLD>Mouse Moves Sun You will turnon that feature until you turn it off or relog.

As Torley points out, it's really Mouse Mode moves sum.

Close your chat window and nit m to go into Mouselook. Now when you move your view, you'll see the sun goes with you. You can make it night, sunset, sunrise, midday, with the sun positioned in any direction you please. Way cool.

We were so happy we decided to teach a class. I set it up on Events and we were off and running. 25 avs showed up.

Cillian's Mystitool

Written 15 July, 2007

Cillian's Mystitool

Sweetie and I take great delight in telling people about Mystical Cookie's great gadget, the Mystitool. We love ours and have come to rely on them; in fact, we feel a bit naked without them.

Here's a shot of Sweetie and I with our Italian friend Cillian Dyressen; we're showing him how to use the Find Avatar function.

The Real World Grows Distant

Written 9 July, 2007

The Real World Grows Distant


In the eight months since I came to Second Life, my relationships with people in the real world have changed profoundly.

I’ve pretty much lost my best friend because of the time I spend on the grid. I remain close to my other best friend, but she doesn’t call me as often because she knows I’m likely to be on the grid.

When I have lunch with acquaintances, I talk about what I always talked about, but they don’t quite hear me because they know I’m probably talking about something that happened on the grid.

“I went to an art show yesterday, photographs taken by my friend Kat Kurda. They were stunning. I bought three.

“My Sweetie was acting as hostess, greeting everyone and handing out cards and being bubbly and charming. She was brilliant!

“Kat’s show was on the top floor of a Star Trek museum, and a lot of trekkies dropped by.”

I don’t tell them there was a Tribble loose in the room and it was trying to mate with my leg. Or that I crashed twice while diddling with the Client menu, trying to take arty photos.

But I do tell them a couple of the visitors irritated me with their MENSA-like pretensions and I couldn’t resist ribbing them gently—well, maybe not THAT gently, for Kat asked me not to argue with the Trekkies.

I tell them Sweetie and I went sailing and watched movies while Skyping. I tell them about shopping and about flying around in my blimpiquito (about which I will soon blog). I tell them I had to kick a gay German escort off my property because he was a rude boy. I tell them I love to stand on the observation platforms at Pele and listen to the ocean and watch the sun set.

None of it registers.

It’s not real to them because they’re not on the grid.

So after a while I stop talking to them about Second Life. And the conversation quickly runs down because I find I don’t have a lot of other things to say.

I’m a brilliant conversationalist, but the conversation suffers because I can’t really share my life with them, because it sails right over their heads.

And quite frankly, sometimes I would rather be on the grid than on the phone or at lunch with them—especially when they call while a film is screening or Sweetie and I are being intimate or sublimely silly.

I’ve always been a patient person, but lately I find myself irritated at things that waste my time—phone calls from people one talks to because one is too polite not too (I think everyone has a couple of phone pests), holding for the automated help systems of big corporations, attending meetings that don’t seem as important as they once did, and phone calls from strangers who want things I’m not obligated to provide for them. I even let e-mail sit for a day or two before I respond to it.

I was happy to cut loose my phone pests, and a headset has helped with being put on hold. And I’m rearranging my obligations to the not-for-profits with which I work to minimize the time I spend in both telephone and in-person meetings.

Call me addicted. Maybe I am. But I’m merely pleasing myself in ways I never dared to before. I just no longer have the patience and the time for time-wasting people and events.

If that’s bad, it’s bad, but people in the real world are going to have to deal with it. I would rather spend the time with my Sweetie and my friends.

On Saturday, my city held a cookout on the beach near my home. It was a two-minute walk, the evening was pleasant, and there were lots of my neighbors, most of whom I like. But after a hamburger and a hot dog and brief conversations with people I’ve not seen for a while, the air conditioning in my house and my monitor were calling me. I said goodbye rather than wait around for the concert which was to follow.

Before, I would have stayed and listened to the concert—but only because there was nothing better to do. But I said my goodbyes and walked home and logged onto the grid.

I’m sure it was a good concert, but I have 23,000 songs on iTunes and my Sweetie (who blew off her own event) was at Pele, awaiting my return.

There was no contest.

Here's a photo of my friend Boofhead Oh riding on my dragon av.

One Hell of a Fourth of July!

Written 5 July, 2007

One Hell of a Fourth of July!

Yesterday was Independence Day in the United States, and I have to say it was the best Fourth of July I’ve ever had.

Sweetie and I started the day with our friend Peter, talking about dressing up as American Indians and restaging the Boston Tea Party—this because I happened to have picked up a free tea crate the day before.

We didn’t actually have a Boston Tea Party, but I went so far as to pick up a beautiful headdress (and some beautiful Navajo rugs) when we visited Red Rock Mesa.

It was a nice place and we had a good time until we blundered onto someone’s goddamned security system, which transported us all to our respective homes. I’ll be going back there and sending the owners a note to give them a piece of my mind about the seeings on their damned device.

But that was the only dark spot in a glorious day.

Sweetie, busy with the search engine, was looking for fireworks shows. She took us to xxx, where we found a team busily setting up a show for 5:00 pm Linden Time. We wandered about the National Mall, where various displays gave nonpartisan information on various legisltation before Congress. Television screens featuring vintage black-and-white videos from the time of Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower’s presidencies provided charming counterpoint to the web links to the legislation.

We made a note to ourselves to come back, then went exploring, minus Peter, who had to go to the ral world.

Sweetie found a notice about a regatta, and teleported us to an area of 43 interrconnected water sims. I rezzed a free boat and we sailed from sim to sim (and my attachments all stayed connected!). In an hour or more on the water, we saw beautiful island and pristine beaches, a conservatory which featured a mangrove swamp, and many marinas and harbors. Dozens of buoys helped us in our course.

Afterward, we teleported to the place where the Flying Tako is sold, and I bought a sailboat for each of us. By mistake, actually, by clicking too fast on what I thought were free goods, but it was a happy mistake, for I have the feeling we’ll spend many pleasurable hours on the water in them.

Then we watched a fireworks show at what turned out to be Hillary Clinton’s headquarters. (I couldn’t restrain myself when we passed a microphone on the podium and I grabbed it and said, “I would like to thank you all for coming out tonight for the fireworks show. Please remember to vote for Hillary, and make a donation if you can. Enjoy the chicken.”

Then we embarked on a tour of Second Life political headquarters—notably, Barack O’Bama and John Edwards’ plots.

From there, Sweetie teleported us to the Swedish Embassy, which was charminly designed and filled with newbies, several of whom rather rudely asked us who were were.

Sweetie answered straightforwardly, but I said, “We’re from another planet. We come in peace,” and then “Klaatu, barada nikto. That means, Klaatu, don’t blow up the planet.”

I guess the Swedish don’t have much of a sense of humor.

Several newbies asked us for assistance, and I gave them boxes of Pele freebies, which include flight assist, a dance bracelet, a notecard with landmarks to interesting places, and assorted other goodies. I was dropping outfits that don’t particularly like on one very short woman when she began ragging on an avatar who had just walked in, saying her hair was a mess.

The newcomer actually had a beautiful flexi hairdo and a nice skin. Her AO was a bit slutty, but she was otherwise very well put together, and I said so. I told her she should have better manners than to make unwanted comment about others’ appearance.

She stubbornly persisted in her criticisms, so I told her I was glad she had come to a place where there was a slim chance she would learn diplomacy—and then Sweetie and I went off to explore the embassy.

In retrospect, I wish I had orbited her sorry ass.

-----

Eight o’clock found us sitting on the a blanket at the mall with a bunch of our friends, who Sweetie had teleported in. I’m glad she did, for otherwise there would have been no audience for what turned out to be a spectacular display of fireworks.

We oh’d and ah’d and Sweetie and I busily clicked on the rockets and sparkle cones that kept getting set out. In the background one of our acquaintances spent all his time trying to explain to his furry girlfriend how to look at the fireworks.

After she show, most of those present teleported to the Dragon Skybar, where we danced and talked. One of my old friends came by too, with a woman whose profile read that she expected to be paid for her time in the company of gentlemen. A new friend from Caledon, Gloriana, was a lot of fun as she got on Sweetie’s dance pole in all of her Victorian finery (Sweetie and I promptly switched to slutty clothes for our table dances).

Afterward we all teleported down to Pele, where we showed off the volcano and rode the little train (which has been having all sorts of fun little catastrophes lately. Then we jumped in the well for a good 15 minutes, laughing all the while, then rode my little merry-go-round. We ended the evening with a drum-fest and a trip up to Boofhead Oh’s art studio, where I proceeded to burn a UPS truck and Sweetie proceeded to pull out her alternate avatars.

Our friend all seen safely off the sim, Sweetie and I retired to our House of 1000 Pleasures, where we engaged in another form of festivity.

It was a glorious, a most glorious, an absolutely glorious Fourth of July!

Dragon Society

Written 26 June, 2007

Dragon Society

I’m unalterably opposed to elitism.

It’s just the way I am.

It’s why I never grew up to become a Republican. It’s why I would probably take to the streets with an AK-47 if someone yelled “Revolution” and fight for liberty, fraternity, equality.

That’s why, in a world where electrons are without limit, the contrived scarcity of virtual resources offends me.

I mean, copy it once, copy it a millions times, what’s the difference?

The first time I saw expensive “limited edition” jewelry, I laughed my ass off. Ditto limited edition dresses.

You think people actually fall for that bull?

Maybe they do, for there are an awful lot of people in SL living yuppie lifestyles. They live in McMansions when they could have a forested paradise, or a spaceship, or Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit house, or a pink sphere. They might buy limited edition electrons and think they are special.

The jewelry and clothing didn’t bother me, particularly, for there was other jewelry, other clothes.

The contrived scarcity of adult dragons, on the other hand, did.

I’ll be the first to say I have no idea why the manufacturer(s) at the Isle of Wyrms limit sales of adult dragons to twice a year and require one to register for a chance at an adult, and I understand and respect their right to sell to whom and when and how they wish.

But it just gets my bullshit detector running a mile a minute.

Ten miles a minute.

Twenty miles a minute.

I mean, the sales seem structured both to inject an air of mystery into dragon society and to make one feel grateful to have the chance to shell out $3500.

I reserve my opinion about dragon society in Second Life. Why? Because I know nothing of it. I’m happy and eager to find out what it’s all about. I have hopes that it’s wonderful and that the people who play dragons are wonderful.

But right now, because of what I perceive to be elitism, and because I’ve been less than impressed with the dragons (my dragon friend excepted) I’ve met to date in Second Life, I’m also skeptical.

And I must admit I’m a bit resentful because of the hoops I had to jump through to get my adult dragon. I’ll have to work to give dragon society a fair shake.

My dragon friend doesn’t feel the same way about the lottery; it’s a subject on which we have agreed to disagree. We’re able to do that.

Watch out, dragon society, here I come!

Why a Dragon?

Written 26 June, 2007

Why a Dragon

One of my good friends  has her reasons for being a dragon. We’ll let them remain private.

A moment of silence here as your brain cooks up all kinds of reasons for my friend to be a wyrm.

I suspect a lot of people have powerful psychological reasons for playing dragon avatars. Dragons, after all, symbolize great power, and fierceness, and myth, and destruction, and dangerous beauty.

And of course they are incredible, highly visible, socially acceptable (in most circles) phallic symbols. Face it— an encounter with a dragon is a reenactment of the ultimate rape fantasy!

And all that fantasy artwork with errant knights with swords trying to slay dragons—that’s castration anxiety in action. Mos def.

Yep, dragons are powerful emotional symbols. So no wonder people play them.

And then there's the role play aspect. Dragons are essential components for any sort of Tolkinesque RP scenario.

But for me, being a dragon is not a statement of any kind. It's just, on occasion, fun.

Big Draggies

Our Big Draggies and our Italian Friend Cillian

Written 26 June, 2007

Big Draggies

Perhaps the neatest thing about Second Life is you can be anything or anybody you want.

And you’re not stuck in one guise, either.

If I had to choose one avatar, it would be me, Cheyenne, just as I am—but from time to time I enjoy turning into a tiny bear, a little green robot, an energy being, or a dragon.

As much as I enjoy being a dragon, I’m always relieved to turn back into Cheyenne the young woman.

But it’s fun being for a while someone or something else.

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I’d known one of my best friends only a short time when I discovered she was a part-time dragon.

She put on her Luck Dragon avatar just outside her house in Dreamland Asia to show it to me.

I was mightily impressed, for she was my first dragon.

Awhile back, she and I went to the cathedral on the Isle of Wyrms and bought wyrmling dragon avatars—she an aquatic dragon, and me an ice dragon.

Wyrmlings are adolescent dragons, about half the size of adults and far bigger than hatchlings, which are so tiny they sometimes walk around with signs requesting other avatars not to step on them.

The wyrmlings are a good size, quite impressive, and ours are complete with a HUD that allows them to roar and screech, twitch their tails, and customize their colors and textures.

But nice as they are, they’re not adults.

Adult dragon avatars from the Isle of Wyrms are available only twice a year, at the summer and winter solstices, and require pre-registration with a significant ($3500L) refundable deposit. Only 120 or so eggs are sold, so registering doesn’t guarantee you’ll be allowed to actually buy one—but my friend and I registered.

We were both sick at the thought that one of us would get an egg and the other wouldn’t, but as it turned out we both got the chance to purchase an egg, woo hoo!

I originally selected a Fire Dragon, but upon reflection decided to stay with the Ice Dragon. Sweetie chose a Spirit Dragon, which is wingless and looks rather like a cross between a greyhound and a raptor from the Jurassic Park films.

Notifications of winners were sent out by IM on the 23rd at noon Linden time. I never in fact got a notification, but as soon as the lottery ended I put on the little HUD I received when I registered and found I had won. Woo hoo!

For some known-only-to-her reason, Sweetie had abandoned me, going off to show Spider some of her favorite places in Second Life.

As you might imagine, the IoW was crowded, so I idly orbited myself a time or to two until I was able to get there and pay my $3500 and pick up my egg.

Back on Pele, it took me all of two minutes to unpack my egg and become an adult ice dragon. Woo hoo!

My friend was shocked that I had already picked up my dragon, and I’m sure she chewed her nails until she was able to log onto Second Life and see if she, too, had won one.

And of course she had!

I had great fun turning into an ice dragon and flying Boofhead Oh around a little cluster of sims my friend Peter Stindberg had showed me (xxx, they have very inexpensive dragon avatars, only $750, and other nonhuman avs as well).

My adventures as a dragon are just beginning!

nb; look on the Isle of Wyrms for these dragons