Down on Chey's Server Farm

Written 29 November, 2007

Down On Chey's Server Farm

Here's a photo of my rapidly-growing server farm at Pele.

The server at upper right is a JEVN. The others are hippos-Tech. I stuck names on the vendors because I hate hover-text.

Vendors and Servers and Sales, Oh, My!

Written 28 November,2007

Vendors and Servers and Sales, Oh, My!

For the past oh, about six weeks I’ve been learning about vending machines in SL and stuffing servers with various things I’ve made.

Let me differentiate between vendors and servers.

Vendors are those machines from which you buy things.

Servers are centralized storage points for items which can be sold from any number of vendors scattered throughout Second Life.

It’s possible to buy directly from objects; many of those photos you see in clothing stores are just prims with pictures on them, set to sell what’s inside. Vendors are a little more sophisticated. They can give you notecards, and the better ones cycle through products, showing you photos of each. A merchant can stuff a vendor with product and stick it in a store and it will automatically dispense its goods when it gets paid.

I stuffed one of Hiro’s free vendors with nine items of jewelry, and it worked great.

But it made me realize I needed networked vendors.

Networked vendors feature servers which contain the actual products. Vendors can be placed all through Second Life and set to talk to a server. When prices are changed or items are added, the server is updated and the server updates the various vendors associated with it. That means seller’s don’t have to chase all over Second Life to update their vendors; they simply stand in one location (usually their workshop or home) and update the servers, which update the vendors. It saves a LOT of work.

And so, I purchased JEVN Networked vendors.

“People say the hippo-Tech vendors are better,” said my brother Peter.

“Hmmph!” I said

And so I spent WEEKS stuffing a JEVN server with 72 items of silver jewelry.

To stuff a vendor, one adds items, photos of each item, and, if one wishes, a notecard for each item. Then one plugs the names of the objects, pictures, and notecards into a notecard.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

It’s not.

You see, the names of the contents and the names in the notecard must match EXACTLY; if they don’t, the server shuts down. Then one has to debug it, comparing names and making small changes until, finally, it works.

It was taking me more than an hour each time I added items. I would find a mistake, correct either the notecard or the name of the item, and then go to Inventory to make a correction in the name of the item. Then I would set the server online and it would choke again. And again. And again.

I mean, it’s difficult not to make a typo when the name of your item is something like “PAIR of Chey’s Gold Abalone Bracelets, 3 Conchs, Boxed.”

And even more difficult when the server is case sensitive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spelled Bracelet “Braclet” or “bracelet.”

It’s made even MORE difficult because there’s some sort of bug in either the JEVN vendors or Second Life itself (or possibly in my brain) that causes exact matches to sometimes read as non-matches. I would finally resort to retyping names, leaving them exactly as they had been, and they would eventually work.

I told myself, “That’s okay. It’s a lot of hassle, but once it’s running, it will be golden. It will run itself.”

And it does run itself. I have that silver jewelry server running at Pele, with vendors in three locations, and it’s all working flawlessly. It sells items and sends me reports of what has been sold.

But I finally broke down and spent the $1800L and bought the hippo-Tech Network Vendors.

I like the hippos better.

I like them because they work through a website. It’s far easier to enter information there than in the SL interface.

To use the hippos, you rez and register a server in world, stuff it, and upload its content. The rest is done on the website.

It works well, and time to get items set up is greatly speeded up.

It scares me a little because a problem with the hippo-Tech website would shut down sales, but it seems worth the risk.

I now have, let’s see, eight, servers running: Gold Jewelry, Silver Jewelry, Bronze Jewelry, Train Accessories, Sundries, Toys, Media (televisions and speakers), and Furniture (the Gold server is empty, as I’ve not yet stuffed it). I still have products to stuff in the servers, but all is going well, now that I’ve grown comfortable with the hippo website and the operation of the servers and vendors.

But what a lot of work it’s been!

-----

p.s. The hippo system was updated last night. Making the update was easy. I simply jumped to the hippo-Tech store, touched a sign, and received the update. Back on Pele, I rezzed a floppy disk for the servers and another for the vendors, touched the various servers and vendors, waited for the update, and set them back on line. Painless!

Bravo, hippo!

Photos: Vendor, server.

Stocking Vendors

Here’s a blog I wrote about a month ago and didn’t, I believe, ever post.

Written 24 October, 2007

Stocking Vendors

A while back I created a line of turquoise and silver jewelry.

Why?

Because I couldn’t find such jewelry— or at least any I liked— in Second Life.

I made two belts, two bracelets, three necklaces, and three types of earrings. They turned out well.

They turned out so well, in fact, that Sweetie suggested I recreate them in Jade. I did. And then in Malachite. And then in Lapis Lazuli. And Onyx. And I’m considering doing them in citrine, since I made a great seamless texture And Sweetie thinks an abalone texture would be nice. And why not aquamarine or topaz or amethyst?

Sweetie also suggested some of the stones might look good set in copper or bronze.

You get the idea.

Yep, permutations and combinations.

17 pieces in each set (the bracelets, like the earrings, come in pairs, and I made the belt in two sizes) times maybe 10 stones times maybe three metals in the setting. That’s, let’s see, 17 x10 x 3, and that equals…

A lot.

To sell my new creations properly, they must be put in vendors. And to do it right, they should be boxed. That means each item must be put in a container with a landmark and a notecard about how great Chey’s Fine Jewelry is and I must take a careful photo of each piece and import the photo into SL. The photo must be put on both sides of the box (my “box” is actually a shopping bag I created long ago) and the box taken into inventory and then put into the vendor. It’s important that the names of all the items be consistent because it’s essential (for most vendors, at least) that names of items in the vendor match names in a notecard.

And I should make bundles or sets of items, as well, so customers can buy a complete set at a lower cost than the price of the individual items.

All of this makes for an awful lot of work!

I’m not even THINKING about how I could expand my line to include armbands and ankle bracelets and studs for the navel and hair ornaments.

Well, I AM thinking of it, but I’m trying not to!


Photo: Vendor in the Gardens

Voice Gets Better

Written 28 November, 2007

Voice Gets Better

Last spring, when Second Life Voice made its debut on the Beta Grid, Sweetie and I went to check it out.

I was unimpressed. Sweetie was scornful.

When voice came to the main grid, we didn't use it. We were familiar with Skype, and we stayed on Skype.

The few times we DID do voice, it crackled and popped and was more trouble than it was worth.

But then, about two weeks ago, my brother Mordecai Scaggs and his blushing bride Kacy Despres held a Tiny Empires party at their home in Caledon.

Most of those present were on voice, although only some of us were talking. And you know what, it was crystal clear. No snaps, no crackles, no pops.

I was hopeful that it wasn't just a fluke, and indeed it wasn't. Although Voice has had its share of problems (it works, it doesn't work, check the Linden blog for its status), the sound quality is now acceptable.

On Wednesday, my friend JacksonYang Yifu told me about a pretty place he had explored.

It was called Osho VIrtiual Island on the Owokun Meditation island. I went with him to check it out.

It was a place of some beauty, but what was intriguing is that after Jackson left for the real world, I stumbled across a circle of avatars on the beach. They were doing rounds, reading poetry and playing guitars and singing-- in SL Voice.

And it sounded perfectly fine!

I read two poems in voice, accopanied by my words, which were released by a nifty little HUD-based line reader. And I sang two songs, accompanying myself with my guitar.

I had a great time, and I indend to do it again (there is a circle every Wednesday at 1 pm LST, and other events through the week.

What fun!

And SL Voice has arrived.

Dick-In-A-Box

Written 26 November, 2007

Dick-In-A-Box

Soooo, Sweetie and I went out Saturday night, and we never ever go to sex places, but there we were, and so we jumped on a bed and were making out. And doing other things.

Guys were coming by and trying to get us to stop and do the same thing with them. As if THAT was going to happen!

What is it with guys that they think you're going to stop doing your gf and jump on a poseball with them? It's a genetic blindness.

Two guys were really insistent. So I said, "Sure. You guys just jump on those balls over there that says Hummer."

They almost did before they realized what that meant.

So we were having a good time. And then we saw him.

The guy with the dick-in-a-box.

Newbie.

See the picture.

When we spotted him we were laughing so hard! We were in Skype, and we couldn't even talk for five minutes. We started singing the dick-in-a-box song we had heard (at the same time as we watched together in Skype in different states) on Saturday Night Live.

And it was a big gray box, and it was shaped a bit differently than one might expect for a dick-in-a-box.

He was green, so it took him about five minutes to get the thing unpacked. It was the ugliest low-prim freebie one might imagine, but he was sure having fun with it.

It was just so ridiculous, so Second-Lifey!

We're still laughing.

Shameless Commerce

Written 20 November, 2007

Shameless Commerce

In theory, I have BIG problems with the American system of free enterprise, for on the surface it’s a dog-eat-dog, every-man-for-himself, I’ll-get-mine-and-to-hell-with-you, social Darwinistic nightmare. It could never work.

And yet it does, after a fashion. A lurching, twisted fashion, to be sure, but it works. Somehow.

Cut to:

Picture a 12-year-old. In Arizona. In August. It’s 110 degrees Fahrenheit(>40 C.) It hasn’t rained since April. You have no air conditioning. A doorbell rings. It’s an 11-year-old who looks up at you with innocent face and says, “You wouldn’t want to buy any Christmas cards, would you?”

That’s me. A born saleswoman. True story. I think I sold three boxes of Wallace Brown cards. To people who felt sorry for me.

And yet I’m thinking of engaging in shameless commerce.

I already have, sort of. I formed, with Sweetie, Acme Tweakers, a do-it-yourself terraforming/building/landscaping/decorating business. But we never really advertised it. So it doesn’t count.

What is on my mind this time is a store.

A store in which to sell my stuff.

What stuff?

Glad you asked.

Things like my (with Sweetie) torii gate and my fabulously ugly, leaking water tower and the Well of Death and my merry-go-round and a line of jewerly I made after I built turquoise jewelry for myself because I couldn’t find any I liked in Second Life.

I'm not much better at marketing myself than I was when I was eleven, but what the hey, I'm going to try it.

Oh, My!

Written 22 November, 2007

Oh, My!

Oh, My!

Somehow I missed it that my friend and Second Life younger brother Peter Stindberg has started a blog!

And a good one, at that!

http://stindberg.blogspot.com/

I'm adding it to my short list of blogs!

One Lucky Avatar

Cheyenne, Then

Cheyenne, Now

Pele, Then

Pele, Now

The Constant Sweetie

Written 20 November, 2007

One Lucky Avatar

Thoughts on My First Year in My Second Life

Events in my life have caused me to reflect on my first year on the Grid. And of course, it's Thanksgiving in the U.S., a time to count our blessings.

In my first year, I:

• Discovered a fabulous new world

• Saw a lot of amazing things—some beautiful, and some disturbing

• Was mentored by my real life friends Bill and Pam Havercamp, who gave me a place to stay in their beautiful home, put $10,000 Lindens in my account, and took me shopping for my avi

• Met wonderful friends and SL family

• Went shopping for land of my own and discovered both Pele and my Sweetie

• Bought Pele and hired Sweetie to build my house

• Fell in love

• Built Pele with Sweetie’s help

• Started this blog

• Learned how to operate the SL interface and grew accomplished at camera control

• Learned the rudiments of PhotoShop and the GIMP and qAvimator and Audacity (i.e, learned to do alphas, make textures, create poses, and import sounds)

• Learned to terraform, build, and, to an extent, script

• Acquired more than half a sim of virtual land

• Had a lot of amazing adventures and laughed a lot

I start my second year in this world a mature citizen. I know the interface, I know the tools, I know the rules. I have mature land which requires little upkeep (although both Sweetie and I are perpetually tweaking it). I have a circle of stable, caring friends and Second Life family. And I’m in a relationship of long standing, one that brings me everything I need to complete both my first and second lives.

I am one lucky avatar!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Pele in Windlight III

Written 20 November, 2007

Pele in Windlight III

And the final five!

Pele in Windlight II

Written 20 November, 2007

Pele in Windlight II

Five more...

Pele in Windlight I

Written 20 November, 2007

Pele in Windlight I

Second Life's soon-to-be new enviornmental lighting system is once again in First Look. It was there before for a brief period, and disappeared. In case it does again, I've been snapping pictures like mad.

Here are the first five of 15 photos of Pele, my island. Well, 14 of Pele, and one of me.

Windlight rocks!

Hanging Past the Edge of Reality

Written 17 November, 2007

Hanging Past the Edge of Reality

Did you know it's possible to position an object (or yourself, if you're sitting on that object) past a sim line, into void space?

A bit more than a year ago, I seem to remember, it was possible to fly across void sims. But that went away for some reason, suddenly, and without fanfare. Now when you hit void space you bounce against an invisible barrier. Ouch!

But you can go where no av has gone before (or since the new rules went into effect), and leave the bounds of known space.

I won't divulge the secrets of the super secret high tech geeky gadget I built to put myself outside the sim, but I did build it and soon I was 25 meters out from the Northeast corner of Pele, as you can see.

I placed my gizmo right at the sim edge. When I use it, it give me a wonderful view of Pele and my beautiful house. Woo hoo!

As soon as uniformed Federal agents come take a look at my nicely invisible device (I call it Scenic Overlook) and give me my long-awaited patent, I'll put my gadget on the market.

Until then, you can try it yourself by going to Forsaken (7,230, 21) and shouting /1 show (or touch my handy poweball switcher, which is hidden along the outside footing of the house). Then sit and enjoy the view.

----

Photos: Scenic Overlook, and a bonus-- a mouselook from Windlight, about which I will blog next.

Linden Bears?

Written 17 November, 2007

Linden Bears?

If I were an anthropologist I would be sooo studying the history and culture and origins of Second Life!

There's a tale of a cornfield to which the Lindens once sent avatars gone wrong.

Wonder if it was the cornfield from the 1950s short story "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby (later a quite spooky episode of "The Twilight Zone," starring Bill Mumy)?

Whatever, I would hate to go there!

Anyway, while we were at the Linden Village, Sweetie was feeding me a line of bull about Linden Bears.

She claimed each Linden used to have a bear, and people collected them.

I'm sure she was shining me on, and yet...

Explain this photo.

My, How Things Have Changed!

Written 17 November, 2007

My, How Things Have Changed!

I'm about to blog about Windlight, but before I do, I thought I would remak on how very much Second Life has changed in the year I've been here. Flexies were relatively new, and torii, and already SL was getting a much richer look. With the introduction of Flexies, and with just the continued growth and maturation of the grid, things are just so much more detailed today than they were year ago.

Last weekend, Sweetie was restless and we went grid-hopping. We wound up in the Linden Village, and Sweetie pointed out a map, a photo of which I post here, that showed the world was not so very long ago made of only 16 regions.

last night 2000 regions went offline, and SL hardly burbled.

Well, it DID burble, for my sim was one that was being worked on, but still!

15 regions!

Riding Magnetic Balls

Fnord's Bumpy Conveyance

 Riding the Magnetic Spheres

Written 17 November, 2007

Riding Magnetic Balls

Our friend Fnordian Link makes great gadgets.

If you don't believe me, visit his store at Son (223, 87, 27). Or if you DO believe me.

But run if you see Fnord's limbot. Don't ask.

Fnord came over to play the other day and he and I and Sweetie had a great time. Fnord rezzed a vehicle he's been working on. Unlike most SL vehicles, you don't drive this one with the keyboard, rather, you tell it which direction in which to move, and how far. It was a bit jerky, but a fun ride.

One of Fnord's products, and one which I love, are singing balls. He calls them tranquility sphere. They rise into the air and sing in harmonic tones. They're lovely! You can sit on them and ride them, too.

Fnord likes to try out his products (like the dreaded Limbot!) on his friends. When he pulled out some magnetic, clumping spheres, nothing would do but for Sweetie to sit on them. So did Fnord, and so did I, and before long we were careening all over the sim on them.

Fun!

Drum Circle at Pele

Written 16 November, 2007

Drum Circle at Pele

Second Life was cutting up last weekend (see the Linden Blog entry at (http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/11/13/second-life-1185-server-deploy-post-mortem/)

to read about-the-behind the scene nightmares faced by Linden Lab employees.

Couldn't build, couldn't open notecards, couldn't put on attachments, and lots of folks were Ruthed (that's when your av looks like a certain elderly female sexologist).

And so nothing for it but to have an impromptu drum circle at Pele!

And that's why I rang up all of my friends who were online and invited them over. And many came. and we drummed and played Robbie Dingo's gamelans and had a great time.

Sweetie, as usual, provided the light show. I brought some rhythmic sounds in world and put them in prims that played when touched.

Not a bad way to spend a laggy SL night.

T.E. Party in Caledon Tanglewood

Written 16 November, 2007

T.E. Party in Caledon Tanglewood

My Second Life brother and sister-in-law Mordecai Scaggs and Kacy Despres are, not surprisingly (they live in Caledon, don't they?) big into the HUD-based game Tiny Empires. Last night they gave a party at the Scaggs-Despres estate in Caledon
Tanglewood. Since I was newly home from work and waiting for my Sweetie to get home, take her milk bath, and join me in SL, I went there to see old friends and have a good time.

I crashed getting there, and everyone there but me crashed three times, and there was problems with the stream, even when streaming from the web, and Kacy lost her hair for the longest time, and the dance ball didn't work at first, but finally it all came together and we had a grand time.

Three or four of us were talking in SL Voice, and most of the folks present were listening-- and for the first time, it worked right for me. No snaps, no crackles, no pops, no echoes. Just voice. Not as clear as Skype, but pretty darn good!

Sweetie came after a while and livened things up. She always livens things up.

We did talk a bit about T.E., but we didn't, by virtue of proximity, get a lot of offers from one another. But it was a darn good get-together anyway.

Thanks, Mordecai and Kacy, for putting on a grand party!

Photos by Vulpine Eldritch

A Game Within a Game Within a Game

Written 10 November, 2007

A Game Within a Game Within a Game

I don't remember where I read about Tiny Empires-- it must have been in The Avastar. T.E. was, I understood, a HUD-based game about Medieval empires. Everyone was going nuts about it, I read.

And so I searched Tiny Empires and took myself to Klister (145, 41, 53) and, ignoring the free trial version, paid $499 for the actual game.

Back at home, I put on the HUD. and boom! I was a tiny emporion. Emporium? Empirion? Empirienne?

Tiny Empires operates by turns-- one every three or four minutes. A gong and a blinking cursor signify a new turn (or, rather, there's a gong sound if the land on which you are doesn't restrict spatialized sound. It took me a while to get Mr. Gong working).

Each turn allows the game player to make decisions about his or her property and allegiances. Buy land, sell land, hire a peasant, buy a castle, serve a master, take on a liege. Sometimes one comes into gold by finding it in the sewn hem of a garment or by getting an award from higher-ups. And at the end of every "year" (each turn is one month), there are, lamentably, taxes.

Many of the turns include simple games-- figure out a progression, do a simple algebra or logic problem, with correct answers being rewarded with gold.

Think about it-- a game (logic puzzle) within a game (Tiny Empires) within a game (Second Life) with a game ("real" life). It's mind-boggling.

I quickly realized that T.E. is a pyramid. Those higher up get a portion of the gold of those below them, who get a portion of the gold of those below them, ad infinitum. Players can abandon lords and take on new lords; they get gold for doing so-- but loyalty is important.

I also quickly figured out that T.E. is a great social networking tool. I soon had new friends and new groups and was getting offers of teleports so we could do business-- i.e, reassign lieges and transfer property. I met some really nice people. But I soon got so busy that I took off my T.E. HUD. I didn't have the time necessary to be a proper tiny emporienne.

I miss T.E. in a way, but then again, life is more peaceful without the gong.

I suppose I will just let Pele be my Tiny Empire.

Working on a Building

Written 7 November, 2007

Working on a Building

I’ve tried a couple of times to make a boxy building, without much success. Do the end walls fit inside or outside of the side and floor prims? How do you get those roof angles just right? How wide and tall should a doorway be?

With the exception of my recreation of my real-life house, I’ve abandoned my house-building projects.

I stopped the real-life house build, too, but for other reasons. It started to make me uneasy. One of me would be walking through the downstairs of my very house while the other one of me sat upstairs at a desk. Or we would both be in the same virtual space. If I had finished the build and furnished the house to mirror mine, it would have been even creepier.

I have built platforms and porches, but to date, I haven’t made a structure.

But that’s changing.

I’d been wanting to make a sky structure for exhibitions—at least that’s how it started out. I envisioned rooms full of art, connected by tunnels or walkways, much like the spaces at Virtual Starry Night. I started and tore down one build, and then decided what was needed was a hub from which the tunnels could originate.

So I pulled out a 20x20x.5 huge prim block, turned it into a cylinder, and placed a plywood cube in its exact center. Then, at the huge prim’s edge, I build a section of wall seven meters tall and six wide, put a circular window in it, and dragged a copy to the opposite side. I linked the three, making sure the cube in the center was the root prim. Woo hoo! I was ready to go.

I held shift and pulled upward, making a copy, hit CTRL-Z to put it back in its original position, and rotated it 45 degrees. I repeated twice more, making walls all the way around.

I bridged the gap between the walls by cutting a cylinder in half, hollowing it, and placing it across the span. I made a second on the other side of the huge floor prim, linked it to a pivot prim, and made three copies of the assembly. Woo hoo! I had a room.

There was more to do, of course. But about then Sweetie showed up, took one look at my building-in-progress, and began to tweak.

She asked me to cut a hole in the center of the giant prim. I did. She put a dimpled sphere in the hole, making a low wall, and then began to put in steampunk pipes and a dome to enclose and support the structure. Then she made a copy of the support and turned it upside down and suggested I made a copy of my entire structure and move it below the first so there would be a second floor. I did. Then I added some temporary textures, and what do you know! A floating structure!

Sorry for my doofy explanations of the building process. I’ll stop now.

Somewhere along the line I realized that I didn’t really have a hub for an exhibition center. What I had a was a floating structure that would make a very nice store.

And that’s what I’ll use it for.

Recognition for Pele

5 November, 2007


Recognition for Pele

I’m happy to inform my limited but enthusiastic readership that Pele is now part of Virtual Parks and Recreation (www.virtualparksandrec.com). The kiosk sits on the path to Pele, just below the entry platform.

At the Parks and Rec website you’ll find pointers to lots of nice places in Second Life. Go there. Now. Mama Chey says.

Pele will also be featured in a book!

Sweetie and I entered the 1st Annual Architecture & Design Competition in Second Life. We didn't win (see www sl-award.com for the builds that did), but we were among 40 projects selected to appear in a book to be published Spring 208 by Prestel Books!

Amazon Sweetie

Written 6 November, 2007

Amazon Sweetie

In real life Sweetie and I are almost the same height.

In Second Life, like most SL women, we’re taller than in RL—both topping six feet. And yet my av is half a head taller than hers—more when she forgets to wear shoes, which, since she officially became a fashionista, is less often than before.

Of late, Sweetie has grown to Amazonian proportions. She is seven feet tall, with long, thicker arms and legs which make her avatar’s movements seem angular and awkward. Her chin is stronger and the shape of her eyes has changed, giving her an androgynous look. Her breasts are smaller and then larger, and then smaller, and more buoyant. Even her ears have changed, having become decidedly elflike. I think Sweetie is having a species change.

I don’t dislike the changes, but I’m used to a more zaftig Sweetie, and it will take some getting used to.

It all started on Friday, when we I took her to visit the Tusk sim, which my SL brother Peter had showed me on Thursday. I bought a lovely goth-style dress. Sweetie looked at a beautiful powder blue gothlike gown, but opted instead for a gunslinger’s outfit.

It was male clothing, and the attachments were too large for Sweetie’s female form. Being Sweetie, she tweaked them, but also began to fiddle with her shape to make the outfit look better. She remained female, of course and thank goodness, but just got bigger and bigger until she was Amazon Sweetie (her term).

Because of the differences in our torso length (mine is longer), and because I tend to wear higher heels, I’m accustomed to taking the blue pose balls. Now Sweetie is on them and I’m on the pink. When I hug her, my head is buried in her (now smaller) breasts. On the plus side, our lips come closer to actually touching on pose balls, since we now approximate the height norms for SL.

Or did. Last night, Sweetie tweaked herself. She changed her face some more, subtly, and cranked up her height. She is now 7’7”. For our friends on the Metric system (that is, just about the entire world except for we recalcitrant Yanks), that’s 2.31 meters. That’s “How’s the weather up there?” tall.

Amazon Sweetie is continuing to evolve. And now I’m changing, too.

When I made my shape, shortly after coming into world, I was 6’2”. In the spring, at Sweetie’s request, I reduced my height to 6’ even. Last night, again at her request, I cranked my height back up to 6’2”.

Can Amazon Chey be far away?

Belated Drama

Written 31 Octoboo, 2007

Belated Drama

Shortly after I moved to Pele I bought a No Drama sign for the then-unnamed Dragon Skybar.

There’s been some drama on the Forsaken sim (not ALL of which is under my benevolent control), but little on Pele itself—and most of THAT was caused by the philandering person I call here Avatar Piccard (so his wife won’t be wise to what he’s up to). Piccard brought, by my count, at least six women to Pele for late-night romance.

Sweetie told me it bothered her, so I asked him to stop—and he did for a time. When he broke up with one of his short-term girlfriends, he cranked up his late-night assembly line again, and for a second time I asked him to woo his women on someone else’s property.

That’s when he unfriended me and probably muted me.

I could have given two shits; I was just glad to be rid of the nuisance. I liked Avatar Piccard, but drama surrounded and followed him. Life was easier without him.

Bill and Pam Havercamp are good friends from real life, and they staked me in Second Life, giving me lindens, taking me shopping to jazz up my avatar, and giving me a place to stay in their home. I love them. I play music sometimes with them in real life, and I like to attend their concerts and listen to their banter and strum along on my guitar.

Back when Avatar Piccard spent hours and hours in the tiki hut at East Beach at Pele, playing trivia, Sweetie and I took him to a Bill and Pam concert to broaden his world. And it did. Not as much as we had hoped, for he seems struck now, as he did then, in a rut, doing the same thing over and over. And his over and over thing for months and months has been Havercamp concerts.

I’m not so childish as to avoid going somewhere because someone who dislikes me will probably be there, but I lately realized that perhaps one reason I’m not going to concerts as often as before is that I just don’t want to have to see Avatar Piccard.

Last night Sweetie was off world, happily tweaking photos of The Far Away and unhappily studying for a test for an evening class. I was sorting inventory and tweaking photos myself, and decided I could do it just as easily at a concert as standing on the sand at Pele. So I teleported to Bill and Pam’s concert on the Barcelona sim and put on my dance HUD and happily listened and rearranged my inventory until the concert ended. Then I walked outside to take a look at the shops.

As I was leaving, I got an IM from someone named Cyndee Platypus: “Bye, and thank you.”

I crossed the square and used my amazing camera control to scan the dance floor to see who had spoken to me. I found her. She was dancing with Avatar Piccard.

I was sure I knew what the “thank you” was for, but on the off chance that it was her venue and she was thanking me for coming, I finished my look about, flew to Pele, and replied, “Bye. Thank you for what?”

Chey’s second sense was spot-on as usual. She IMed, “Thank you for banning Avatar Piccard.”

I said, “I didn’t ban him. Guy was a serial goer-throgher of women. He unfriended me and probably muted me after I asked him not to bring his many women to Pele.”

She replied, more or less, that that was nonsense. Avatar Piccard didn’t have a lot of girlfriends and besides, I was the one who was jealous.

I said, “I have the chat log,” but of course she wasn’t interested in seeing it. She said goodbye, meaning she had had her say and I could fuck off.

I thought for a minute and said this to her: “You are talking about something that happened when you weren't around and about which you know nothing. And it's totally bitchy to IM me to gloat. So fuck you and you are muted.” Then I muted her, and, for good measure, Avatar Piccard, and banned them both from Pele.

And now, bigod, I’m blogging about last night. And although he has told me it would make his life difficult if I did, I came THIS close to using Avatar Piccard’s real Second Life name in this blog. If he can live it, he can read about it.

They can both kiss my ass—he for being the proximate cause of unneeded drama long after he was off my sim and out of my life, and she for being an immature, petty bitch.

Fashionista Sweetie Raves Enthusiastic

Stargazer Designs

Written 1 November, 2007

Fashionista Sweetie Waxes Enthusiastic

I have no idea what it is with Sweetie and boxes. Somehow, they just appeal to her.

I’ve blogged about the box I gave her for a present—how much she liked it, how she decorated it and made it her own, how she wears it and even lives it in sometimes, how she will fly around in the box at parties, making a one-avatar light and particle show.

Well, it happened again last night.

Box madness.

We were at the grand opening of the jewelry store of our mutual friend Stargazer Blazer, who has become a master jeweler. You, dear reader, should go there immediately to admire her wares, and especially the boxes it comes in.

Here’s the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Enoki/21/28/24

I’ve posted a nice photo of the store I took this morning. Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard to get any snapshots last night.

I could ‘splain what happened, but better to just give you a lightly edited chat log (woots and lols removed. I have preserved most of Sweetie’s unique spelling because it is so charming.).

Stargazer Blazer: Hi Chey! Hi Sweetie! Welcome :)

You: Hiya, Star!

Sweetie: Congrats on the store star :) nice and class adn plenty of room to grow in to :)

Stargazer Blazer: thanks!

You: Congratulations, Star! Lovely party, lovely store, lovely designs!

Stargazer Blazer: thanks! yayyyy

Stargazer Blazer blushes

Sweetie: look what i have chey? yes this thing on my wrist

Sweetie: What is it you ask

Sweetie: why of course it a faaaaabulous box design by star :)

Sweetie: i love it ;)

Sweetie: hehe and when you see whats inside

Sweetie: whooot

You: She will throw away the jewelry and keep the box

You: She's like a kid

Stargazer Blazer: lmao

Cheyenne Palisades gets to keep all the pretty jewelry

Sweetie: no i will keep the box adn wear the braclet on my head

You: "Look, Sweetie, a pretty box, and all you have to do is give me that diamond."

Sweetie: or put it on the cat for the mos faaaabulous collar ever

Sweetie: she's glamour cat

Sweetie: she deserves only the best

Sweetie: and oh where is the best you ask

Sweetie: why thank you for asking

Sweetie: of course it is at stars store

Sweetie: have you been ?

Sweetie: it is fabulous

You: only the best people go

Stargazer Blazer giggles

Sweetie: Repeatedly

Sweetie: speakign of which take a lnadmiark writgh now

Sweetie: pass them to your friends

Sweetie: they make great stocking stuffers

Sweetie: a paid marketer star hired in to randomly walk around adn hype her stuff at the party

Sweetie: why, whatever make syou say that

Sweetie i take offense

Sweetie: i am a fashionista

Sweetie: i have a platinum card

You: It has no expiration date

Sweetie: adn i only take payment in wearables

Sweetie: or without my star bracelet on

You: She won't leave home without it

Stargazer Blazer: she is a fashionista

You: Hair

You: $250L

You: Gown

You: $800L

You: Shoes

You: $400L

You: A trip to Star's store?

You: Priceless

Sweetie: have you been to star's shes fabbbbbulous

Sweetie: yes stars is the best

Stargazer Blazer giggles so much her face hurts

Sweetie: even her boxes make a fashion statment that is FEIRCE

You: Ouch, baby, stop banging that box into me

Sweetie: it can't hurt you. it is a star box

Sweetie: you have to have pain for bueaty

You: Well, I'm black and blue

Sweetie: for example right now i have no circulatoin whatsoever in my box wearing hand

You: I noticed that

Sweetie: but do i mind NOOOOOOOO i am wearing a star box and that makes it all worth it

Sweetie: adn just wait till you see what is in side

You: You mean…

You: you mean…

You: such a beautiful box and there's something INSIDE too?

You: wow

Sweetie: thaaaaaats right a star original :)

Sweetie: thank you everyone the star sales hour players will now be taking a fifteen minute break to go enjoy their faaaabul
ous star jewelry

Stargazer Blazer applauds

Sweetie: thank you thank you thank you

Sweetie: you may pelt me with wearables to show appriciation

You: Just give her the boxes

You: she won't know the difference

Sweetie why of course i wont , it is aSTAr box adn i woudl gladly suffer to wear such beauty :)

You (to Star and her husband Rev): You two should be glad she had a class in RL and coudln't get to your wedding

Stargazer Blazer: we missed her!

Sweetie: ooooooh Stars wedding and i MISSED it

Sweetie: what did the bride wear

You: I would ahve had to have given her Valium

Sweetie: i bet it was FAAAAbulous

You: It was beautiful!

Sweetie: and came in a beautiful box

You: Here, hon, take this pill

You: You know what the doctor said

Sweetie: I don wanna take the pills

Sweetie: Thank you all we are off to our next grand openign evernt :) and thank you star for hte Fabulous box adn stuff inside it :)

You: Thanks so much, Star. Best of luck with your store.

Stargazer Blazer: Oh, thanks so much for coming. Take some cake! :D

Sweetie: Does it come in a box?