Chey's Second Life Blog

Politic Against SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-19T06:59:00.002-05:00

Written 19 January, 2012

Politic Against SOPA and PIPA

The Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts, now wending their ways through, respectively, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, while designed to stop copyright theft from websites outside the Unites States, present grave threats to free expression and the Internet.

As you no doubt know, a number of high profile websites, including Wikipedia, shut down yesterday in protest. Others, like Google, changed their home pages for the day to register their concern.

In support, I temporarily placed a black box at the top of this blog.

To see Wikipedia's concerns, track the bills, or register your support with Congress, start here. Go here to see the Electronic Freedom Foundation's discussion of the dangers of the bills. To see how they could impact your second life, see Hamlet Au's post here. Then please go here to contact your Congressperson to register your concern.

While the bills have had a recent setback as legislators have changed sides to oppose the bills, they're both very much alive. Please act now.

Stop SOPA!

2012-01-18T00:57:00.000-05:00

Blogger Maintenance

2012-01-16T16:06:00.001-05:00

Written 16 January, 2012

Blogger Maintenance

If I've not been posting much lately it's because I just spent a good month going back through my posts on Blogger and editing them for consistency.

Since there are more than 1800 posts, it took a while.

Blogger is bad for throwing in all sorts of div and span tags. These serve absolutely no purpose (at least insofar as my blogposts go), but screw up formatting big time.

I went back through each posts examining them for consistency and editing html to get rid of unwanted line spaces and add spaces where they had been stripped out. While I was at it I made sure photos were properly sized and positioned.

I had to fight Blogger all the way.

The further back I went, the weirder things got. Photos refused to move to the center position; I had to re-import quite few-- a time-eating procedure, since I either had to find the original or export the photo and re-import it.

In six of seven posts the photos had been corrupted; I had to find the originals and reimport them.

It was all a royal and totally unnecessary pain in the ass. Blogger should be better.

Perhaps it was anal of me, but I'm proud of the blog and wanted it to look right. Now it does, mostly. In a few cases I just gave up and let Blogger pin me to the mat.

I finished the last post a few minutes ago. Yay!

Erratum

2012-01-06T06:17:00.000-05:00

Written 6 January, 2012

Erratum

I received an instant message from Ample Clarity, the creator of the one-prim piano I blogged about night-before last.

Ample thanked me for mentioning the piano and let me know the piano isn't mesh after all-- it's a well-done scultped prim.

So maybe complex one-prim mesh objects have a high cost after all. I don't have enough data to know.

The Lindens are Stingy With Resources

2012-01-06T05:40:00.002-05:00

Two of Lilith Heart's Three-Prim Strelitzia on the Volcano Pele

Two of Lilith Heart's One-Prim Sculpted Strelitzia on the Volcano Pele

Since the Photos Don't Quite Show the Difference, Here is:
One-Prim Sculpted Strelitzia at Left, Three-Prim Strelitzia at Right

Written 6 January, 2012

The Lindens are Stingy With Resources

Second Life is ever so much more rich and complex than it was when I first came here in 2006. There are all sorts of new features: Windlight skies, new physics and scripting engines, sculpted prims, voice, and now mesh-- many of which require more computing horsepower than did the 2006 version of Second Life.

Sculpted Prims and now mesh create visually complex objects that use far fewer prims than would have been possible in 2006. I have, for instance, sculpted from Lilith Heart that use but one prim but provide a patch of foliage that would have required 100 of her original three-prim plants-- and the one-prim mesh piano pictured in the previous post would have required well more than 100 prims.

This means we can make our sims and parcels more complex, more dense. We can fill them up with more stuff while keeping our prim counts steady or even decreasing them.

We've done that on Whimsy. Over the past three-and-a-half years we've added feature after feature while maintaining around 2500 free prims. It's wonderful.

And yet over the past five years computers have become faster and more powerful-- and cheaper.

The Lindens have taken advantage of cheap processing power by cramming more regions on each server; rather than allotting a portion of the increased horsepower to each region, they simply add more regions.

This is hardly fair.

I call upon Linden Lab to give us more processing power-- at least 25% more, to allow heavily loaded sims to run faster.

And while you're at it, how about giving us at least 25% more prims for each region.

A New Way to Count Prims

2012-01-05T00:20:00.004-05:00

Erratum

I received an instant message from Ample Clarity, the creator of the one-prim piano I blogged about night-before last.

Ample thanked me for mentioning the piano and let me know the piano isn't mesh after all-- it's a well-done scultped prim.

So maybe complex one-prim mesh objects have a high cost after all. I don't have enough data to know.

Written 4 January, 2012

A New Way to Count Prims

I'm not sure how I missed it, but with the advent of mesh content in Second Life there's a new way to count prims on one's land: Prim Equivalents.

In short, this means there's no longer a 1:1 ratio for prims/prim count. Some prims (and specifically mesh) now count for more than one.

The best explanation I've found is Jenni Darkwatch's, which can be found here. However, I'll do my best to explain.

Until now, a prim was a prim. Although some prims (notably the cube) were easy to render and others (notably the torus) were complex and hard to render, although some prims contained scripts and some didn't, although some were big and some were small, each prim counted as one toward the limit on one's land.

With mesh, that has changed. Some prims count more than others.

The prim equivalency of a mesh object is calculated by a formula I won't go into here (you can follow the link; Jenni explains it), but it has to do with size and complexity.

What this means is a seven-prim mesh object on your land may count as seven prims or it may count for considerably more.

As a test, I rezzed the free boat the Lindens have been giving away to paid subscribers. I couldn't see it when I first got it, but since the newest iteration of Phoenix has mesh support, it now looks like a sailboat instead of a huge cube.

The boat consists of 13 mesh prims, but it counts as 62 prims toward the parcel and sim allotments.Ouchie!

Does This Say 147 Prims Equivalents? Yes It Does!
The Sailboat Usually Shows as 64 Prim Equivalents
Methinks There's a Server Bug Afoot!

Depending upon the skill of the mesh creator, complex mesh objects can weight in at 1:1. Check this great mesh concert grand piano from 1 Prim:

Last night I bought it to replace the beautiful prim sculpt-and-prim Musical Alchemy piano at our PG Den of Iniquity. The mesh piano consists of one prim and counts as just one prim on the land.

Note the raised black keys:

Here's the Musical Alchemy grand:

Now, the mesh piano doesn't look quite as good as Musical Alchemy's, and it has fewer features, but considering Musical Alchemy's grand piano is 85 prims and the black keys are another 23, I was more than willing to sacrifice a little quality to gain 107 prims!

When we have concerts on Whimsy I'll rez the Musical Alchemy grand, but for day-to-day, the mesh piano will more than suffice.

The edit tools to deal with prim equivalents are not to be found in V.1-based viewers, but are in Viewer 3. I suspect Firestorm has them, or will soon. Phoenix doesn't have them, but it shows prim equivalents in parentheses to the right of the prim count, as in the screen shot above. That;s handy, as it lets you see how heavily mesh objects impact your land. Without that feature, it would be necessary to see how many free prims you have, rez the object, re-check for free prims, and use the magic of subtraction.

The practical application of this post so far is: watch out-- a prim is no longer a prim-- but there's more!

For objects made of prims (and, I believe, sculpts), you can count prims as before-- but if a single prim in a linked set is mesh, the entire object will count under the new system.

Prims with simple shapes like cubes have a low prim equivalency, but according to Jenni, torii, which are complex count for 37 prims. that means a box of 12 single-prim donuts in a one-prim mesh box would consume 445 prims! Ouchie!

Viewer 3 contains tools for dealing with prim equivalents-- specifically, a counter and a box that allows physics type to be set:

Photo From Jenni Darkwatch's Article

With these you can assign regular prims and linksets made of regular prims so they are counted as prim equivalents. This can lead to the above-mentioned donut effect, so if might be wide to do your experimenting at a sandbox.

Oh-- according to Jenni, a single script will DOUBLE a prim or mesh linkset-s prim equivalent! So doubly beware!

I can already see it will be possible to game the system-- for instance, link sets of prim cubes will count as just one object if the physics type is set just so.

I can appreciate the need for some sort of accounting system to deal with the new mesh content, and maybe prim equivalents will work for the great good-- but there are problems-- specifically counting torii and other complex prims with high equivalency just because a mesh prim is included-- and doubling the weight because of a single script? Is this the ghost of script limits past!

Answers to Second Christmas Quiz

2011-12-28T08:59:00.001-05:00

Written 28 December, 2011

Answers to Second Christmas Quiz

1. Move hither the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief (Oh, Come, All Thee Faithful)

2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing)

3. Nocturnal time-span of unbroken quietness (Silent Night)

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere (Joy to the World)

5. Embellish the interior passageways (Deck the Halls)

6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom hearkened (Angels We Have Heard on High)

7. Twelve o'clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear)

8. The Christmas preceding all others (The First Noel)

9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem (Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem)

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders (Little Drummer Boy)

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)

12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounts of minute crystals (Frosty the Snowman)

14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical masculine perennial gift-giver (Here Comes Santa Clause)

15. Natal celebration devoid of color (White Christmas)

16. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity (Oh, Holy Night)

17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature's dormancy (Winter Wonderland)

18. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of Far Eastern heads of state (We Three Kings)

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic, resonate cups (Jingle Bells)

20. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children's slumber furniture (Away in a Manger)

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geologic alpine formation (Come Tell It On the Mountain)

22. Jovial Yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us (We Wish You a Merry Christmas)

Answers to First Christmas Quiz

2011-12-27T22:44:00.012-05:00

Posted 27 December, 2011

Answers to First Christmas Quiz

Reader Willow got all the answers right-- and left a charming reply:

Willow said...

Merry Christmas, Chey (and Sweetie)!

Thanks for your blog, Chey, and for all the great information you've shared this past year. Be well and happy...and here's a great big warm wish for a wonderful holiday season for you and all your readers. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwansaa...and Happy New Year!

Here are our answers:

1. SCICTT (Hint: Santa Clause is...) Santa Claus is Coming to Town
2. ISMKSC I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
3. JB Jingle Bells
4. IDOAWC I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
5. RTRNR Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
6. CROAOF Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
7. DYHWIH? Do You Hear What I Hear?

8. AIAM Away in a Manger
9. FTS Frosty the Snowman
10. OCAYF O Come, All Ye Faithful
11. ICUAMC It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
12. OLTOB O, Little Town of Bethlehem
13. JTTW Joy to the World
14. SN Silent Night
15. LIS Let it Snow!
16. WCIT? What Child is This?
17. TTDOC The Twelve Days of Christmas
18. GRYMG God Rest Ye, Merry Gentleman
19. HTHAS Hark the Herald Angels Sing
20. WWYAMC We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T09:26:00.000-05:00

The Twelve Days of Christmas

2011-12-24T08:02:00.000-05:00

Go here for a great read about the twelve days of Christmas!

Christmas Song Quiz II

2011-12-23T02:55:00.001-05:00

Written 23 December, 2011

Christmas Song Quiz II

Name that tune!

I'll post the answers after Christmas.

1. Move hither the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief (Hint: Oh, Come...)

2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds

3. Nocturnal time-span of unbroken quietness

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition

5. Embellish the interior passageways

6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom hearkened

7. Twelve o'clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival

8. The Christmas preceding all others

9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males

12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounts of minute crystals

14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical masculine perennial gift-giver

15. Natal celebration devoid of color

16. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity

17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature's dormancy

18. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of Far Eastern heads of state

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic, resonate cups

20. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children's slumber furniture

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geologic alpine formation

22. Jovial Yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us

Christmas Song Quiz

2011-12-22T07:58:00.002-05:00

Written 22 December, 2011

Christmas Song Quiz

Determine the names of the following songs from the first letters of the words of the title.

I'll post the answers after Christmas.

1. SCICTT (Hint: Santa Claus is...)

2. ISMKSC

3. JB

4. IDOAWC

5. RTRNR

6. CROAOF

7. DYHWIH?

8. AIAM

9. FTS

10. OCAYF

11. ICUAMC

12. OLTOB

13. JTTW

14. SN

15. LIS

16. WCIT?

17. TTDOC

18. GRYMG

19. HTHAS

20. WWYAMC

Christmas Songs

2011-12-21T23:56:00.001-05:00

Twinkle, Twinkle, Avatar

Written 21 December, 2011

Christmas Songs

Okay, counting down to Christmas with assorted ridiculousness!

My oldest readers might remember Sweetie's spontaneous Christmas song, made up on the run in Second Life:

Sweetie: (Saved Sun Dec 09 05:01:18 2007)

[2:00] Sweetie: oh Linden tree oh linden tree, your lagging but we love you

[2:00] Sweetie: oh linden ttree oh linden , we cant' copy or tranfer you

[2:00] Sweetie: yoru bulbsa re bright adn on full brght

[2:00] Sweetie: i look at you

[2:00] Sweetie: in forced midnight

[2:00] Sweetie: oh linden tree

[2:00] Sweetie: oh linden tree

[2:00] Jeremiah Pintens: HAHAHAHAHAH

[2:00] Sweetie: we gather round you faithfully

See? Done in less than one minute!

Then there was this one:

Twinkle, Twinkle, avatar
I"m not sure quite where you are
Though I know you're standing there
All I see are shoes and hair
Twinkle, Twinkle, avatar
Your alpha texture's gone too far

Sweetie's brain should be a military secret!

Dress for the Weather

2011-12-19T13:56:00.000-05:00

I just know these underdressed avis are going to catch a cold.

The Lindens Don't Understand the World They Created

2011-12-17T11:14:00.001-05:00

Thank You Very Much, I'm Not Twelve Years Old.
I Have No Desire to Be a Frigging Vampire

Written 15 December, 2011

The Lindens Don't Understand The World They Created

Nothing does more to convince me the Lindens don't have a clue about Second Life than their ads FOR Second Life.

The ad above greeted me full-page today when I went to the Second Life website.

How can the Lindens be so clueless about their very own world?

The Lindens could be advertising what makes Second Life truly unique: making things, doing wondrous things you couldn't possible do in real life besides turning your avatar into a pixel vampire, creating art, creating community, exploring, learning new skills, making friends and maybe even meeting your future real life partner (as I did), being a citizen on a new frontier.

Instead it's Second Life mundaneness: vampires, buying shit, and fake families.

For god's sake, put Torley in charge! Torley gets it.

Whimsy From Above

2011-12-15T19:54:00.002-05:00

Whimsy Kaboom as Seen From 150 Meters Above Whimsy

Written 15 December, 2011

Whimsy From Above

Whimsy is lovely from above.

Whimsy From 150 Meters

Whimcentricity, Viewed From 150 Meters Above Whimsy
Eccentricity Can be See Along the Top Border
The Volcano Pele is Visible at Bottom Center

Dragon in the Blue Zone

2011-12-15T16:10:00.001-05:00

Written 15 December, 2011

Dragon in the Blue Zone

A few days ago I was watching a group of visitors on Whimsy. One avatar was a dragon. I watched as he or she rezzed and sat upon a saddle and invited another avatar to ride.

As they flew away I started taking snapshots.

Then they crossed a sim line and crossed into the blue zone.

The blue zone is where you go when the asset servers are trying to sort out your location. You appear to fly away into space, often high into the sky or under the water or ground.

If you're quick, you can get a snapshot.

I invite my readers to send me their blue zone pictures for posting here.

Problems at Ballet Pixelle

2011-12-14T19:53:00.002-05:00

Written 14 December, 2011

Problems at Ballet Pixelle

Over the weekend Sweetie and I and our friend and Sweetie's conspirator-in-training Elysienne went to see Ballet Pixelle's production of The Nutcracker.

Things started well. They really did. But then the sim began to crash. Repeatedly.The stage-- which was on another sim-- and dancers on it would disappear. The music would continue to play, but chat and IMs stopped, meaning it was time to relog.

Each crash delayed the performance by 10 minutes or so, which must have been frustrating to Ballet Pixelle staff and dancers.

After the third crash we gave up and went home to play K.R. Engineering's Pentadee dice game.

Pictures follow.

Things Got Off To a Good Start

The Audience After the First Crash

The Dancers Slowly Rezzed....

Things Were a Mess After the First Crash

Phoenix Gets Mesh!

2011-12-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

Written 14 December, 2011

Phoenix Gets Mesh!

The Phoenix team has just released a mesh-enabled version of their Phoenix viewer! Download now!

If you've already downloaded, download again, as the first mesh version had a couple of bugs that have been fixed in the just-released update.

So cool to see mesh!.

Here's the Linden boat that's free to paid subscribers, with and without mesh capabilities:

Here's the Linden Boat Without Mesh Enabled. Pretty Horrible, Huh?

Here's the Boat with Mesh Capabilities. Big Improvement!

Southeast Whimsy

2011-12-07T23:44:00.001-05:00

Writtten 4 December, 2011

Southeast Whimsy

For the three-and-a-half years since Whimsy was born the southeast corner of the sim has been privately owned. Now the land has become vacant and we have given it the full Whimsy treatment.

We've constructed a journey from chaos to peacefulness. From a platform in the raging sea a path wends ot
s way through surf and rocks to the shore and winds up a hillside to gardens. The path ends in a serene garden that offers views from the top of cliffs to the tumultuous sea.

Photos are below the fold. Notice there's snow on the ground. The brief Whimsy winter has arrived.

What's Bowling Without Ugly Shoes?

2011-12-06T13:04:00.000-05:00

Because Second Life is too short for inappropriate footwear.

Get your free ugly bowling shoes at our PG Den of Iniquity. Ride the lift to the top of the blimp tower and then ride the rail car to the PGDoI and climb the ropes up to the balloons.

Retro Photo Shoot

2011-12-04T20:20:00.002-05:00

Written 2 December, 2011

Retro Photo Shoot

Last weekend Sweetie got an IM from Phideaux Mayo, publisher and editor of Retrolopolitan magazine. Phideaux had noticed Sweetie at a particle show and wanted to feature her in the magazine.

Phideaux came out to our PG Den of Iniquity and took photos of Sweetie-- and, incidentally, me. We wound up following her to Flashman's, a club she now operates with a partner.

The December issue is now out, and Sweetie and I are indeed in it. Sweetie got special permission from the CIA for me to post her image here in my blog, but I see they changed their minds and sneaked in and redacted her.

Here are the three of us at Flashman's"

Chey with Battleship Backdrop

2011-12-03T18:48:00.000-05:00

Written 2 December, 2011

Chey with Battleship Backdrop

I made this shot by using GIMP to merge two photographs. One showed my avatar to advantage; the other made the Yamato look good. I was, of course, in the same pose with my camera at the same angle.

Yamato

2011-12-02T18:51:00.002-05:00

Written 2 December, 2011

Yamato of Japan

That's me giving the victory sign after having had a successful run with the Nakajima A6M2-N "Rufe" fighter interceptor/bomber on the Yamato of Japan sim.

Here's the Rufe:

Here I am in flight:

Landing:

Just kidding. I was dive-bombing Elysienne. Why? It just seemed the right thing to do.

Here's my actual landing:

So yeah, maybe I was a bit cocky after the flight. Why not? I hit everything I aimed at.

For more photos of Yamato, see my blog here and here and here.

To ride the Rufe, go here.

And They're Off!

2011-12-02T03:28:00.000-05:00

Written 2 December, 2011

And They're Off!

The PG Den of Iniquity wouldn't be a den of iniquity at all without horse racing, now, wouldn't it? I mean, ya gotta bet on the ponies!

So I bought this great horse race game from Mechanical Toy Factory and Sweetie, I, and our friend Elysienne settled in for a night of PG debauchery.

And They're Off!

Elysienne Uses Her Steampunk Goggles to Send Her Rider Secret Signals

The Rider from Virtual Uzbekistan Is Pulling Long Odds

Isn't This The Very Picture of PG Virtual Debauchery?

In the Audience

2011-12-02T02:38:00.001-05:00

Here's a photo of me at an impromptu concert and particle show given by Tyrehl Byk and flautist Cypress Rosewood. That's me in the red dress just to the left of the avatar at far left. Not the dark avatar that partially obscures me:

Bilizzard!

2011-11-29T17:12:00.001-05:00

Written 29 November, 2011

Blizzard!

Seems we're having an unexpected blizzard on Whimsy!

Automated Ticket Giver at the Robot Cinema

2011-11-29T17:08:00.000-05:00

Written 26 November, 2011

Automated Ticket Giver at the Robot Sanatarium

Return to SLeezyWood

2011-11-29T03:22:00.001-05:00

Written 29 November, 2011

Return to SLeezyWood

I should know better than to seek destinations at the Linden Showcase. I'm usually disappointed.

My last venture was to a place that sells mobile homes and RVs. It looked too much like a real RV lot-- flat and boring-- but unlike real life sales lots, this one was chock full of camera traps. I had one hell of a time getting out of this vehicle:

Do you see me driving this thing across the country? No way!

And so I took myself to a place that KNOWS how to make trailers trashy-- the one and only SLeezyWood!

Besides, I was low on herb and intent on raiding this shed I found back in early 2007:

Alas, the shed and the grow lights and the plants were gone-- no doubt hauled away in a bust by the ever-vigilant Bay City police-- but I did find some classically shabby blue-collar abodes. Photos are below the fold.

HO-Made Pizza! Sheesh!

Baja Rides the Bull

2011-11-26T12:54:00.007-05:00

"Must... Get... Penny... Royce's... Name... Off... The... Scoreboard!"

Written 26 November, 2011

Baja Rides the Bull

Baja Mekanic, who lives rent-free in the lava of the volcano Pele (she seems to like him), holds the high score on the bull-riding game at Whimsy's PG Den of Iniquity.

Even though he holds the high score, Baja seems obsessed with beating his record. Here's what I witnessed last night:

"Okay, Bull, It's Just You and Me!"

"That's What I'm Talking About!"

"Where'd I Go? Where'd I Go?"

"Uh-Oh! Are Those My Feet?"

"Damn! It Threw Me!"

"Fortunately, I'm Light on My Feet.

Unfortunately, I Forgot to Deploy the Parachute on My Back!"

"Bull, I Just Can't Quit You!"

"Penny, I'm Comin' For Ya!"

"Not on the Face! Not on the Face!"

"Fifty-Two Seconds!? That Doesn't Even Get Me on the Scoreboard!"

I left and came back later; Baja was still on the bull. I suspect he rode it far into the night, just as I once did. See here and here.

Now You See Them, Now You Don't!

2011-11-26T12:14:00.001-05:00

Notice the All-Prim Top Worn by the Avatar in Blue

Written 26 November, 2011

Now You See Them, Now You Don't!

(AAOOOGAAH! NUDE BREASTS BELOW THE FOLD)

I rarely wear revealing clothing in Second Life-- probably partially because despite a body that's far less than perfect, I've always worn exactly what I wanted in Real Life, and probably partially because I think more is sometimes less (in other words sometimes more clothing is sexier than little or no clothing).

Night before last I tracked Sweetie to a fancy dress show. She straightaway crashed, leaving me to stand and look around.

Straightaway, I noticed an avi with an all-prim top.

Now, all-prim tops are subject to disappearing because they don't rez properly or just haven't rezzed yet, so I was surprised when, after seeing her breasts covered, they suddenly popped out.

What? Had her top derezzed? No, most of it was there; only the part covering her breasts had disappeared. Was it mesh, which my viewer is not supposed to see? No, because I had seen it earlier.

When I next looked, her breasts were only partially uncovered.

I finally realized the most likely explanation was the prims covering her breasts were scripted to appear and disappear at random, or perhaps when cued.

Which begs the question why wasn't the damned thing turned off in public.

Don't you just know she had something to prove? Like, oh, I don't know, that she has no breasts in real life or if she does they're small or overly large or saggy? And that even if she has breasts and they're perfect, she would never dare to reveal them in public?

One of the reasons I like Second Life is that it allows people to express themselves in ways they cannot or dare not in real life. And yet when people are over the top vampires or sluts or she-males or slaves or would-be models, it just makes me feel sorry for them.

Photos from Tyrehl Byk's Catharsis Particle Show

2011-11-25T16:12:00.002-05:00

I can't say enough about how well orchestrated Tyrehl's Catharsis show is. The particles make pictures, the music coordinates with the visuals, and every song tells a story.

More photos below.

Tyrehl Byk's Fabulous Catharsis Particle Show: Go Immediately and See It

2011-11-25T15:54:00.002-05:00

Catharsis

Night on Bald Mountain

Written 25 November, 2011

Tyrehl Byk's Fabulous Catharsis Particle Show: Go Immediately and See It

Tyrehl's latest show is Catharsis, and it's truly a tour de force.

Through interaction of particle, prims, music, and camera viewpoint, Catharsis not only paints pictures in the sky-- it takes its audience through the same sort of journey 1940 viewers experienced when seeing Walt Disney's Fantasia .

Tyrehl's show has some abstract particle effects, to be sure, but he's skillful at painting pictures with particles, making, for instance, constantly changing trees.

This is the last weekend, so go NOW and see it.

Here's the New World Notes article on the show.

Here's the URL for Tyrehl's schedule.

And here's the SLURL for the particle show.

More photos forthcoming.

GO NOW!

Free Foliage at Nature's Touch Nursery

2011-11-24T23:51:00.001-05:00

Written 24 November, 2011

Free Foliage at Nature's Touch Nursery

Yesterday a friend told me everything at Ricardo Avalira's Nature's Touch Nursery on the Sweet Water sim is free until the 27th.

I tried to go last night, but the teleports silently failed. Tonight another friend IMed to tell me about the sale. I kept trying until I got in, and then teleported in Sweetie.

Sure enough, everything on huge plot was free-- evergreen and deciduous trees, palms, flowers, grasses, garden structures, off-sim islands-- hundreds and hundreds of items. The only item that wasn't free was Ricardo's tree house, which was priced at $100L.

Needless to say, I stocked up-- and so should you! Go here. Keep trying until you get in.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T12:30:00.003-05:00

Spectacular View from the PG Den of Iniquity

Written 24 November, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

The PG Den of Iniquity: Part III of III

2011-11-23T18:39:00.003-05:00

Written 20 November, 2011

The PG Den of Iniquity

Part III of III

For a long time now I've had a rail car that runs along tracks just as Kitto Flora's steam train does. Unlike Kitto's train, the rail car will climb at any angle and even run along walls or upside down, which is perfect for craziness on Whimsy.

The rail car has a couple of disadvantages, though. First, every piece of equipment and track has the same name. This makes it necessary to either unpack the components from boxes with each use or to put each in its own named folder. It's not a deal-beaker, just annoying.

The biggest annoyance is the large non-modifiable sign that rezzes the car. It has to be positioned just so in relation to the track, and it's well, big and unsightly. Unfortunately the sign, like everything else in the kit, is non-modifiable.

The car runs well, though, and was perfect for the route from the blimp tower to the PG Den of Iniquity.

The rail line ends on the deck of the PGDoI. Visitors can move from the deck into the Gobbler's main room or climb the ropes on the port side to enter extensive hidden rooms inside the balloons.

The main room (at the Gobbler's new expanded size) is large enough to hold a grand piano and harp on one side and a large bar on the other and still feel spacious.

This steampunk clock I coincidentally just bought is a perfect fit.

A stair leads to two rooms below decks-- one a lounge, and the other the control room. The lounge now holds a Greedy Greedy table and the control room features a playable pool table and a great steampunk horse racing game I just bought at The Mechanical Toy Factory.

The lowest level features a dart board and Whack-A-Mole and Zombie attack games. There's a well-appointed sitting area done up on Arts & Crafts style.

Up in the balloons are a bowling lane, a shooting arcade, a model train, and a mechanical bull.

Now all of Whimsy's games have an elegant home.

Well, almost. I keep Settlers of Second Life (255 prims!) and K.R. Engineering's On-A-Roll and SLopoly games in inventory to help keep prim count and script time under control.

Go here to visit the PG Den of Iniquity in Second Life. Take the robot lift up to the blimp tower and then ride the rail to the PG Den of Iniquity. There are two floors below the main level, and huge rooms inside the balloons; just walk the ropes on the right side (as you face the entrance) to enter the balloons.

The PG Den of Iniquity: Part II of III

2011-11-22T21:48:00.002-05:00

Written 19 November, 2011

The PG Den of Iniquity: Part II of III

Since early 2008 Whimsy's games have lived on a series of platforms 1800 or so meters above the beach.

I tried several times to make the platforms into something interesting, and I failed every time.

Putting the games in the Gobbler airship was a no-brainer-- once I had the idea, that is. Ask me why it took so long for me to think of such a solution. Just ask. I won't answer.

With a new lift and with the blimp tower remodeled, I awaited Sweetie's approval. Which I got, sort of.

"Why isn't the tower in the middle of the opening in the roof?" she asked.

"Uh, because it's been off center for two years now?" I ventured.

"It needs to be centered," she said.

"Fine," I said. "I'll just lasso the tower and a dozen or so pieces of the lift and move them to your satisfaction."

"Good," she said. "And rotate it all 90 degrees while you're at it."

Readers of this blog will know this is how Sweetie and I work. She puts up something to get me motivated. I rebuild it. She critiques it. I rebuild it again. This would piss me off, but it's impossible to get pissed off when I know it'll be better after the redo. And it's always better after the redo.

So I carefully selected all the parts to be moved and relocated and turned the blimp tower. And then, because they violated her sense of balance and proportion, I redid the walkways Sweetie made long ago. Then she demurely suggested the Gobbler would work a lot better as a game palace and center of PG depravity if I would just drag it 20% bigger.

[I had initially placed this beautiful steampunk clock along the wall to the left of the doorway. Sweetie took one look and moved it to the rear wall so it would be immediately visible to those entering the room. Unfortunately there was no wood panel at the rear and the clock was lost against the glass behind it. I almost moved the clock back, but then had an idea and selected the wooden panel that had originally been behind the clock and dragged a copy to the new location. It gave the clock more impact, and, happily, fit perfectly.]

What a pain! But Sweetie was right; the Gobbler was palatial after the resize-- and of course the rail track no longer led to it and had to be rerouted.

Last night I added two small blimps to provide support for the center of the long section of track. Today Sweetie decided they obscure the views from the PGDOI-- and by the way, this game would fit better HERE and that one would fit better THERE-- and don't you think this room needs curtains?

We moved the games and added curtains-- and guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

Right. Rebuilding the track.

Go here to visit the PG Den of Iniquity in Second Life. Take the robot lift up to the blimp tower and then ride the rail to the PG Den of Iniquity. There are two floors below the main level, and huge rooms inside the balloons; just walk the ropes on the right side (as you face the entrance) to enter the balloons.

The PG Den of Iniquity: Part I of III

2011-11-19T22:13:00.005-05:00

Written 19 November, 2011

The PG Den of Iniquity

Part I of III

After months of being a slug in Second Life I've been busy the past week or so, making the PG Den of Iniquity (Sweetie named it-- of course!).

The PGDI floats above and some distance away from our huge built 4000 meters above Whimsy:

I installed the Gilded Gobbler airship about 30 meters above the top of the blimp docking tower. It looked good hovering up there. And then Sweetie renamed it.

When I build something complicated-- something that involves a process-- I like to start at the place of entry and work toward the destination. So I redesigned the elevator to the top of the tower, turning into a robot lift named, of all things, Gaston.

Gaston will whisk three people some 40 meters to the top of the blimp parking tower.

Then I rebuilt Sweetie's purchased-for-a-few-Lindens tower, making it a bit bigger and incorporating a swirling prim supporting structure she had designed for the telescope that hovers below.

I modeled the tower after a cheapie Sweetie picked up somewhere. Since she bought it for our use and I have no intention of selling it, I feel somewhat non-guilty about having back-engineered it.

The top of the tower features a platform with my mahjong game, brought up from a platform at 1800 meters, where it has lived for the past three-and-a-half years.

The domed top features an orrery Sweetie bought at Pandora Wrigglesworth's wonderful Curio Obscura store.

A walkway extends from the platform and forms a T.

To the left there's a platform for embarking upon a not-yet-completed tour.

To the right-- a platform for a rail car that leads to our infamous Den of Iniquity.

Go here to visit the PG Den of Iniquity in Second Life. Take the robot lift up to the blimp tower and then ride the rail to the PG Den of Iniquity. There are two floors below the main level, and huge rooms inside the balloons; just walk the ropes on the right side (as you face the entrance) to enter the balloons.

Through the Looking Glass

2011-11-14T14:44:00.008-05:00

"Alice, My Dear, You'll Never Become Queen
If You Insist on Turning Your Back on Your Subjects"

Written 14 November, 2011

Through the Looking Glass

Yesterday Sweetie and I took ourselves to see Avatar Repertory Theater's new Play Though the Looking Glass.

The new play, if not quite a reprise of last year's Alice in WonderSLand, is certainly similar territory. The audience was this time transported not down a rabbit hole, but through a looking glass into familiar Lewis Carroll territory.

ARC's technical expertise is heads and shoulders above other Second Life performance troupes. Sets magically rezzed and disappeared, avatars seamlessly interacted with one another, and the costuming was incredible.

Productions in Second Life are beset by problems not encountered on the actual stage-- lag, actors who appear as clouds, inopportune viewer crashes by actors and members of the audience, the sim resetting, textures that won't resolve, temperamental scripts. Despite the best efforts of ARC, yesterday's production was affected. At one point Alice was trapped under a rez-fauxed prim hillock and couldn't find her way out, despite the White Queen's repeated ad libs to sit in a chair placed by a tree. At one point there were TWO Alices, the first having crashed but not yet disappeared from the screen and the stand-in having been called in to replace her.

There were issues with the actors, also. Most of the voices were over-amped; I had to cut the speech volume down for most of the players. Alice's avatar was most annoying, as she was constantly looking at the ground-- and not only that-- her back was to the audience more than half the time.

Still, it was an engaging and stunningly produced work, well-appreciated by the audience, Sweetie and myself included.

My favorite moment? When the audience, which had until then been seated on benches in the grass...

...suddenly found itself seated with the actors inside a rail car:

Through the Looking Glass is running through December. Tickets are $500L, a bargain, considering how much work went into the production.

For details, the SLURL, and ticketing, visit here.

More photos follow:

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,

As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heroes so,

They quite forgot their quarrel.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses, and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again

The Red Knight

"I like the Walrus best," said Alice, "because you see he was a little sorry for the poor oysters."

"He ate more than the Carpenter, though," said Tweedledee. "You see, he held his handkerchief in front, so that the Carpenter couldn't count how many he took: contrariwise."

"That was mean!" Alice said indignantly. "Then I like the Carpenter best—if he didn't eat so many as the Walrus."

"But he ate as many as he could get," said Tweedledum.

This was a puzzler. After a pause, Alice began, "Well! They were both very unpleasant characters—"

Curtain Call

Elysienne's Airship

2011-11-04T22:23:00.002-04:00

4 November, 2011

Elysienne's Airship

My friend Elysienne couldn't wait to show me her new airship.

Night before last she rezzed it and we flew all over Whimsy.

It's a serious aircraft. Built by Johnnytreadlightly Nightfire and called the Gilded Gobbler, it weights in at 180 prims, it flies nonphysically.

The texturing is wonderful and the craft is big enough not to trap the camera.

I read Johnnytreadlightly's profile and wound up yesterday morning at his shop. The Gobbler was absurdly cheap, less than a thousand Lindens (Shhh! Don't tell Elysienne!). My plan is to dock it 4000 meters above Whimsy and fill it with games. I've never been satisfied with the game platform above Whimsy anyway.

I got the idea of games because I and Elysienne and some of her friends wound up playing Greedy Greedy the other night.

In Motion

Elysienne's Choice of Outfit Was Unfortunate

Parked Above Whimsy

Update on Whimsy

2011-11-03T03:08:00.002-04:00

Written 2 November, 2011

Update on Whimsy

Our friend Fem, who moved onto Whimsy before the land was even terraformed, is gone after three-and-a-half years. Sadness.

She's still around, though. Happiness. Just not on Whimsy.

I reminded Fem she had the option to sell her land, but that apparently didn't happen. I did get a query from one of her friends who said he was considering leasing the land. I told him Fem could sell the land to him, but not lease and asked him to read the covenant (he said he already had, but might as well be thorough).

Tier date has come and gone and there's been no word from Fem or further word from her friend, and no payment, so just now I returned the prims on the parcel and joined the land.

There's a teahouse and a torii gate on the land temporarily. You should check it out. Southeast corner of Whimsy. the views are great.

Our Own Constellation

2011-10-25T02:13:00.001-04:00

Written 25 October, 2011

Our Very Own Constellation

I looked at the sky tonight and there it was-- our very own constellation!

It's Bob, of course, our 30-foot, 40-ton granite Paleolithis slightly deified drinking bird.

Read here for the first installment of the exciting and ridiculous many-part tale of Bob's abduction and eventual recovery.

Another Constellation

2011-10-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Written 24 October, 2011

Another Constellation

It's a Sion chicken!

You can't tell me money didn't exchange hands for this!

Multiple Supernovae Reveal New Constellation! in Second Life Sky!

2011-10-19T22:27:00.002-04:00

Written 19 October, 2011

Multiple Supernovae Reveal New Constellation in Second Life Sky!

What is it? Whatever could it be?

Of course! The Second Life hand!

I Know This Guy in the Night Sky!

2011-10-13T14:32:00.001-04:00

Written 13 October, 2011

I Know This Guy in the Night Sky!

I was staring and staring at the stars and suddenly this grouping leapt out at me:

I knew who it was. Do you? Sure you do! You know this guy!

Another Constellation

2011-10-12T08:57:00.001-04:00

Written 12 October, 2011

Another Constellation

After hours of searching I spotted another constellation in the Second Life night sky.

It's one of the simpler ones, like the Southern Cross or the Big Dipper.

Recognize it? Of course you do.

Second Life Constellation

2011-10-11T00:30:00.003-04:00

Written 10 October, 2011

Second Life Constellation

I've been lazy in world of late, making figures out of the Second Life clouds and just generally indulging my imagination.

Tonight I was lying on my back on the sea decks at Whimsy Kaboom, looking at the stars and thinking about the things I think about-- which is much nicer than thinking about the things I don't think about. And if you get the source of that last, you get a gold star.

As I was idling the night away I remembered an old manuscript Sweetie and I found long ago, buried in the sand at Whimsy.

Before long I was rooting through my inventory, looking for it. What did I name it? Where did I put it? Could I have thrown it out that time I went berserk and megacleaned my inventory? I must have. No! Wait! There it is!

The manuscript shows the constellations of the ancient Second Lifers-- you know, people older than 2005.

By matching the map against the stars in the sky (I derendered clouds to make it easier), I finally made out my first constellation:

Recognize it? Sure you do!

Pele Train Ride

2011-10-06T14:12:00.001-04:00

Written 6 October, 2011

Pele Train Ride

I just got a notecard from Anightwing Akina asking my permission to film Whimsy's great train ride for posting on YouTube.

Of course I said yes.

The video embedded above is my first attempt at machinima. I made it about four years ago, before Sweetie and bought and made Whimsy.

The ride was on Pele, our land on the no longer existent Forsaken sim in Dreamland, where we once lived and played.

It's Raining at Phyneas Jack's Lookout!

2011-10-05T07:47:00.001-04:00

Written 5 October, 2011

It's Raining at Phyneas Jack's Lookout!

I just got a comment on my previous post about Phyneas Jack's little shack in the Forest of Kahruvel.

Of course, I had to log in world and go see.

Alas, the storm's not out in the gulf where I remembered it, but along along the ridge, and it's raining at the shack.

But hey, weather is fickle.

I'm drenched.

Conference on Transhumanism

2011-10-04T21:53:00.000-04:00

I hope the friend who invited me to this conference of transhumanists doesn't read this blog.

Because I've never before seen a group of people with their heads so far up their asses.

Artbox

2011-09-28T22:40:00.001-04:00

Written 28 September, 2011

Artbox

A couple of weeks ago Sweetie and I and our friend Elysienne explored a place called Artbox.

It was pretty cool.

At Artbox you can, by sitting on poseballs, insinuate yourself into any number of pieces of art.

Here I am in a Keith Haring painting.

Here's Elysienne in an art deco Martini advertisement:

Here she is in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

I couldn't join her, as I had been kidnapped by Robbie from Forbidden Planet.

Pretty soon Robbie and I were BFFs.

Did you know Elysienne and I were stand-ins for John and Paul on the Abbey Road LP?

There were probably a hundred scenarios:

You should try it.

My Wish List, Two Years On

2011-09-27T23:13:00.000-04:00

Written 27 September, 2011

My Wish List, Two Years On

Here's my my top ten wish list from June, 2009, with updates:

1. The ability to have large amounts (thousands) of avatars together in one place and one time. No progress.

2. Smooth handoffs between sims (no lag, no weirdness). Significant improvement, but still a problem.

3. Increase in prim allowance (maybe 40,000, as on other grids). No progress.

4. Decrease in tier ($195 USD sounds like a fair amount for a sim. $295 is too much. No progress.

5. Longer sounds (10 seconds is just not long enough), and zero delay in hearing sounds. No progress.

6. Ability to create bigger prims (100 meters is a reasonable upper limit. 10 meters is ridiculous). ARRIVED!

7. Ablity to teleport with avatar intact to and from other grids. No progress.

8. More attachment points (my sop to the fashionistas amongst us). ARRIVED!

9. More upper and lower clothing layers (another sop). ARRIVED!

10. Double-click on attachments or groups of attachments to attach them. ARRIVED!

So, four of ten are operational, at least if you use a third-party viewer. Not too shabby.

Some things my readers mentioned were group chat-- better, but, not fixed; ability to join more groups-- ARRIVED!-- ability to stretch prims beyond 10 meters-- Arrived! and lots of things that aren't on the radar: things like the ability to drag inventory and other windows to a second monitor; more flexibility in avatar sizing; flexible sculpted prims, and intergrid teleportation with inventory.

We can only hope.

Comment Moderation

2011-09-27T14:10:00.002-04:00

Written 27 September, 2011

Comment Moderation

I've added the dreaded word recognition step to commenting. That's because I've been getting hundreds of spam messages.

Hopefully this will end that problem without unduly penalizing those who comment on this blog.

Oh, wait! Nobody EVER comments on this blog.

Well, there are a few of you, and let me tell you-- I appreciate you! I really do!

Just Hanging (Literally)

2011-09-26T20:37:00.000-04:00

Sometimes when I'm busy doing things other than Second Life I fly up and just hang in the air-- especially now my second monitor is dead and SL is covered by other windows. If I'm on the ground people sometimes walk by and say hi and I don't realize it, so being in the air is just convenient.

Tonight when I bought Second Life to the front, I realized I had a great perspective of the southwest corner of Whimsy. Without moving my camera I took the photo above.

Then I zoomed out and took this one:

Visible are Whimsy's entry point, several waterfalls, the path to the volcano Pele, Pele herself and her temple, the lower gardens and Whimsy's lagoon, the aboveground portion of the Whimsy Express rail line, the Temple to Bob and Bob himself, Marienn's house on Whimcentricity, and several small islands on Whimsy Kaboom.

In the top photo just above my right shoulder you can see a hot lava boulder Pele has hurled.The black smoke marks its trajectory. It's about to hit the shoulder of the mountain and then roll and tumble into the sea.

100,000 HIts!

2011-09-25T20:03:00.000-04:00

Written 25 September, 2011

100,000 Hits!

While I wasn't looking the Neocounter on my blog passed 100,000 hits.

The blog was between one and two years old when I installed both the Neocounter and the Cluster Map above it. Along the road the Cluster Map got reset; until it did it was keeping pace with the Neocounter.

I don't know of 100k is a significant number of hits for a blog, but it sure feels like it!

Whimsy is Ba-ack!!! (The Lindens are Amazing!

2011-09-24T16:55:00.001-04:00

Written 24 September, 2011

Whimsy is ba-ack! (The Lindens are Amazing!)

Less than an hour after I wiped out my sim and 30 minutes after I filled a support ticket-- on a Saturday!-- the Lindens rolled it back. Everything is back to normal and I am much, much, relieved.

I take back all the bad things I ever said about you guys.

Oh! My! God! Sim Rollback Requested!

2011-09-24T16:01:00.001-04:00

Some Parts of Whimsy are Relatively Unaffected

Written 24 September, 2011

Oh! My! God! Sim Rollback Requested!

This afternoon I logged in after a nap to await Sweetie's usual melodramatic entrance.

As I waited I looked at prim usage in the About Land menu. Whimsy has build enabled, and people often leave prims here. I routinely return them.

Today, somehow, some way, I managed to select my own name and return my prims. All of them. Ten thousand of them!

I had hopes of using Phoenix' Restore to Last Position function, but that worked only for some of the grouped objects. Thousands and thousands of objects won't go back to their proper place.

Since it would take months and hundreds of hours of hard work to put everything back into place, and since Whimsy would never again be quite the same, I've asked the Lindens for a sim rollback. I've notified residents and asked them to hold off on setting out no-copy items until the sim is either rolled back or the Lindens (and god, let's hope that doesn't happen) tell me no).

Some Parts are Wiped Out. The Volcano Goddess Pele Is NOT Going to Be Happy!

Dark Carousel, Bright Carousel

2011-09-24T13:01:00.000-04:00

Written 20 September, 2011

Dark Carousel, Bright Carousel

Tonight Sweetie, I, and our friend Elysienne were looking for the roller coaster featured in my ((I think) hilarius blogpost Day Pass. Alas, I neglected to include a landmark.

We tarried awhile at Carnivale, where I took the above photo of a dilapidated old roller coaster.

I know Second Life's prim rain and virtual winds are harsh, but I sure hope it wasn't the remains of this beautiful carousel, which I photographed several years ago at Carnivale.

Outfits

2011-09-23T21:39:00.002-04:00

I just discovered this piece, which somehow never got posted.

Written 4 February, 2011

Outfits

Second Life has long had a feature to create outfits, but until the advent of Viewer 2, it was useless. That's because making an outfit would move no-copy clothing items from their original folders to the newly created outfit folder, making a mess of your inventory. Consequently, hardly anyone used the outfits feature.

Viewer 2 brought a huge improvement; rather than move the actual objects to the My Outfits folder, shortcuts are created for each item. The actual items stay where they are, yay!

The third-party Phoenix viewer now supports outfits, and I shouldn't be surprised if Imprudence and Kristen's do, too.I've been having a grand time making outfits.

I can only nest outfits one deep in the My Outfits folder, but even so I'm able to sort them in a way that makes sense. I can now put together some 30 looks in an instant-- complete with hair, skin, HUDs, shoes, and jewelry. I'm making about four outfits a week and will be busy until at least the end of the year, but already life is easier.

Making Outfits

To create your own outfits you'll need to be running Viewer 2 or a recent version of Phoenix (again, maybe Kristen's and Imprudence will have the feature). Dress your avatar, then go into Appearance. Choose Make Outfit. Be sure Use Viewer 2 Outfits is checked, then hit Save and give the outfit a name. Next time you want to wear it just go to My Outfits and choose Replace Outfit. You'll be ready to go in ten seconds or so.

Plants Got Better

2011-09-23T21:37:00.002-04:00

In my searching about through the various posts, this one somehow got moved to the top of the queue. Trying to figure out how to put it in its proper place...

Written 13 March, 2011

Plants Got Better

Sculpted prims appeared on Second Life's main grid on 27 May 2007, but they came with a learning curve; it was more than a year before sculpted content became to have an impact, and about two years before the texturing of sculpted prims was acceptable.

You can see that every one of more than 100 leaves on this cluster of six bamboo plants from Arctic Greenhouse have a three-dimensional shape-- and yet they weigh in, with their pot, at just 30 prims.

Photo Oppty

2011-09-23T09:03:00.001-04:00

... A photo waiting to happened I stumbled across while sorting landmarks. Pretty place. Love the water effects.

Forgotten Toys

2011-09-21T08:11:00.003-04:00

Above is a photo Sweetie took at Forgotten Toys and GIMPed all up.

My own photos are more mundane-- but look how small I am next to this huge figure! That's me to her right (your left). I'm level with her fingers.

Honour McMillian has a great post about the build, with beautiful photos. So rather than write about it, I'll just direct you here.

The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigiliance

2011-09-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

This rocket is, of course, not an offensive weapon,
but set against this stunning sunset,
it rather looks like one.

Because Sometimes You Just Feel LIke Dancing in the Flowers

2011-09-20T07:27:00.000-04:00

On the Hunt at the Epic Toy Factory

2011-09-18T19:33:00.001-04:00

Written 18 September, 2011

On the Hunt at the Epic Toy Factory

Sweetie and I love the Epic Toy Factory. It's a most imaginative place, and a great stop on a hunt. It's errr, epic!

There's not just one prize to find there, but four or five. There are magical animals to get you from one place to another...

...and there are riddles to solve. Riddles!

"Maybe this nice lady can help us!"

"What do you mean you want 100 Lindens!? That's extortion, that's what it is!"

Unfortunate Effect of the Recession in Second Life

2011-09-13T21:53:00.002-04:00

Here's what happens when there's a foreclosure in Second Life. The house it taken. The furniture isn't. Tragic.

Some People are Just Sneaky!

2011-09-11T15:16:00.001-04:00

"Sweetie, you'd best put that building back this instant!"

Written 11 September, 2011

Some People are Just Sneaky!

Sweetie runs Second Life-- just barely-- on the world's oldest and most cranky iMac. So how has she finding the prizes so fast in the Steam Hunt?

It would be just like her to cheat, so I watched her carefully. No joy.

Then I caught her in the act.

"Sweetie," I said, "what did you do with the Deviant Kitties building?"

"Nothing," she said.

"Nothing?" I said.

"Nothing."

"Right," I said. "You put it back this instant!"

"It there," she said petulantly

"No it isn't."

"Is."

"Isn't."

"Is. I just derendered it."

So that's how she'd been doing it! By derezzing the building the gears were easy to find.

That Deviant Kitties gear was a real pain. That's why I derendered the building myself.

Not that I would cheat.

Mismesh

2011-09-11T15:08:00.002-04:00

Written 11 September, 2011

Mishmesh

Mesh is live on the grid, and most of the majority of avatars who aren't using Viewer 3 (which is viewer 2 with a a new name because it's mesh-enabled) can't see it.

Phoenix doesn't support mesh and won't ever unless some enterprising soul takes it on as a project. That's because the Phoenix people have been working months and months, developing Firestorm, their mesh viewer.

Except until a few days ago Firestorm didn't support mesh.

Good news, there's now a beta-beta (Firestorm has not yet been officially released) mesh-enabled version. You'll find it here.

In the meantime, you can expect mesh to look like this (must-see photos follow):

Note the missing middle section of the avatar. In a mesh-enabled viewer, that's where the mesh would go.

Some avatars at Help Island Public have taken to wearing signs to show everyone how fabulous they look.

Whimcentricity Sunrise

2011-09-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

Type Whimcentricity in the map field and teleport. You'll land at the geysers. From there, just have fun!

Spooky!

2011-09-10T01:16:00.000-04:00

Eerie haunted Bentham Manor.

40% Pregnant

2011-09-09T09:38:00.003-04:00

Written 8 September, 2011

40% Pregnant

And they say close counts only with horseshoes and hand grenades!

Last weekend Sweetie and I found ourselves at the above stop on the Steam Hunt. Oooh, horses!

As we searched for the little bronze gear that would give us a prize we would doubtless throw away and direct us to the next stop, we passed a corral full of breedable horses.

One, according to its hover text, was 40% pregnant!

OMG!

I had no idea it WORKED like that!

The horse in question was winking in and out of vision, so I lassoed it with the Edit tool:

One wonders how that 40% things works!

If you happen to find yourself at the place pictured at the top of this blogpost, know there are two gears on the property. One is along the back wall just past the corral. The other is near the sign at bottom center of the photo below:

Skin Drama (Sweetie Speaks)

2011-09-09T00:10:00.003-04:00

The following is a repost of a comment Sweetie made on my piece about Second Life skins.

Written 8 September, 2011

Skin Drama!
One thing I notice about many of the skins, even the one that are drawn, is stage makeup. I find the photosourced skins repellent and I see very few painted photosourced skins that disguise the joined photo sections well enough to suit me. I eschew photosourced clothing and building textures for the same reason.

What bothers me more than photosourced skins (as opposed to painted/drawn skins) is that on so many skins the shading is made for overexposed light sources.

It isn't that the eye make up is heavy or the lips are dark. I'm talking about the contouring of the skin being overwrought like the false shadows and highlights you use to overemphasize a character's features on stage.

The highlighting on the cheekbones are a full shade lighter than the skin and the hollows of the cheekbones a full shade darker. The shading is mirrored in the highlight and shadows on the breasts, the abs, the bottom, and even areas like the thighs and knees.

I look at these young avatars and the contouring on their skins is so heavy it is as if they're ready to step out center stage and play a character fifteen years older.

Why do they look so harsh to me? Because I live in an SL without windlight skies.

I know you're thinking "OMG, Sweetie, how can you deprive yourself of such beauty?!" But while you're thinking my frames per second are like 100 so i can Snicker-Snack with my vorpal Katana, a blur of speed, can relieve my enemies of their over-highlighted heads before they can finish that thought, my laptop will barely get me into Second Life. To the same ninja ends, I also don't wear a nuclear face light so my enemies can hunt me down from three sims away.

So to look beautiful to myself (and really, who else can be harder to impress?) I stick to the older skins that don't look as if they'd fit in a Houri's with Abs! review and I let my Katana give off all the highlights it wants.

Steam Hunt 5

2011-09-08T12:23:00.002-04:00

Written 7 September, 2011

Steam Hunt 5

Prize hunts are huge in Second Life-- and fun, except when someone forgets to put out the prize as promised.

They all work pretty much the same. From a starting point you collect hints which hopefully lead you to prizes, and get directed to the next location. You do this until you reach the last post or tire of the effort. Then you go home and spend a week sorting out your suddenly disorganized and cluttered inventory.

Steam Hunt 5!

Five?

You mean we somehow missed the previous four?

Damn! How could that have happened?

Sweetie and I both like steampunk, so of all the possible hunts (and there are many), this one was for us. We spent our weekend together in Second Life searching for small bronze gears that, when purchased for $0L, gave us a steampunk-related prize and a landmark to the next stop on the tour.

We didn't get even nearly done because there are one hundred and ninety four frigging stations! 194!!!

The Steam Hunt runs throughout September, so best get started now.

To participate touch one of the Steam Hunt signs (they're all OVER the place) or head to the first stop here at Mieville Doyle and click the sign for a notecard. The small gear near the sign will give you your first clue.

I Love Water Reflections!

2011-09-08T00:22:00.002-04:00

Taken on the Leroy sim.

Uncanny Valley

2011-09-07T08:28:00.001-04:00

Written 7 September, 2011

Uncanny Valley

The other day I told Sweetie I had read a remark in New World Notes.

"Imagine that!" she said. A remark!"

"Very funny," I said. "Hamlet raised the issue--"

"He raised an issue? Amazing!"

I ignored her, although that's not easy to do. "-- that we may see a revival of 3-D modeling of avatars."

"You mean back when they would scan someone's photo and make a horrid photorealistic face?" She shuddered.

"Exactly," I said. "I don't want my real life breasts in Second Life. Here I can have breasts that are more... perky."

Then Sweetie said, "Mesh will be very uncanny valley."

Uncanny Valley is the assertion that as a simulation approaches reality, it eventually reaches a point at which they become creepy.

Two examples of uncanny valley are the Frosty at Wendy's and just about anything on the menu at McDonalds. It's looks like food but isn't quite. Think about it. The Frosty looks like a milk shake, but then you taste that awful graininess (it's due to chipped ice).

A third example of uncanny valley is humanoid robots. Looking at some of them is like watching a train wreck-- mesmerizing, but horrifying. Like so:

Or how about this one?

Or this "Perfect Woman." You think? Or are the two guys who created her just girlfriendless geeks?

For me, the creepiest thing about this video isn't the robot itself but the pathos and rampant sexism of the creators and interviewers..

So imagine how it will be when those misshappen trolls who show up at infohubs will have entirely photoreal misshapen bodies. Or when your fantasy virtual lover has age spots on his or her arm.

Strangest virtual world I've ever known.

Chey, Your Skin Sucks!

2011-09-06T20:04:00.000-04:00

Written 1 September, 2011

Chey, Your Skin Sucks!

I bought my skin in October 2006 and have been happy with it. Its tone matches mine in real life, and it works well on my shape. It's the only skin I've ever used and I don't feel quite right when I'm out of it.

I've gotten lots of compliments about the skin, but not the other night from an avi at Help Island Public.

IM: I'm reading your profile and wonder why you don't invest in a good skin.

Me: I beg your pardon?

IM: I'm wondering why you don't have a skin like the other ladies. You know, from ____ or _____ or ____.

I cammed about and identified the individual who had IMed me. He was wearing a horrible photorealistic skin. I began to understand his issue.

This isn't his skin, but it's not dissimilar.

Me: Erm, some people prefer drawn skins to photosourced.

I sent him a link to my post on the subject.

Me: I prefer drawn skins.

At first I didn't think he understood or appreciated the difference. But at one point he said:

IM: Most skin makers now blend the two.

That's when I started looking at some of the avatars around HIP and saw he was right.

Most of the mens' skins, like the avi who had IMed me, were entirely photosourced:

Fully photosourced skins create-- at least for me-- an uncanny valley effect. They just don't look right in a drawn world.

Most of the womens' skins were indeed a blend of drawing and photosourcing. On one level they weren't as creepy as the mens', but on another they caused-- again, in me-- even more revulsion..

I most definitely did not want a lip area that looked like most I saw. For comparison's sake, I'll show mine first:

Note especially the philtrum, that little groove that runs from the base of the nose to the upper lip. By the way, scientists don't know why it's there-- although it seems to me the perfect channel for the conduction of tears and other fluids.

Now for some of the skins I saw at HIP and other places that night:

I don't object to the increased definition of the philtrum, or to the blended lips, but I most definitely don't want real-life lip reflections or a shiny, wet-looking area above my upper lip.

Admittedly, some skin-makers are more skilled than others. Here's a photo of a lovely avatar on a sign at Amorous Jewelry:

Here's a blow-up of the lip area:

I'm unclear whether the lips and philtrum are entirely drawn or are a sublime blend of drawing and photosourcing, but for some reason my uncanny valley instincts aren't triggered.

Skins are a matter of individual preference. Clearly, the guy who IMed me didn't like mine. I'm just trying to point out my own preferences here.

More on the uncanny valley in my next post.

Why is This a Sulpted Prim?

2011-09-06T01:44:00.002-04:00

Written 5 September, 2011

Why is This a Sculpted Prim?

I bought this very nice three-prim electric fan the other day. Last night I finally unpacked it and studied it.

I found myself wondering-- why is this end cap a sculpted prim?

I mean, a regular prim would have looked better.

I didn't have the same texture, but here's a photo of a regular prim in the same place:

Then I really looked at the fan and realized the base, arm, and the cover I disliked were all a single prim:

Oopsie!

Had the same fan been made of regular prims, it would have required, by my count, 13 (11 if the blades were texture on a flat prim). It's wondrous for Whimsy's prim count that the fan could be made in three.

Still, I wish the fan were modifiable so I could add a fourth prim to hide that misshapen cover.

Attendance Reaches 100 at Mankind Tracer Pink Floyd Acoustic Tribute Concert

2011-09-05T04:50:00.002-04:00

Written 5 September, 2011

Attendance Reaches 100 at Mankind Tracer Pink Floyd Acoustic Tribute Concert

Sweetie went to bed early tonight, but before he did she sent me a landmark to a midnight (our time) concert by Second Life musician Mankind Tracer (Seth Regan in real life). It was to be an acoustic set of Pink Floyd songs.

After Sweetie logged I went downstairs to fix a snack and watch some television, leaving Chey hovering in space. The concert completely slipped my mind.

The ding of the IM bell brought me back upstairs just in time to dress and get to the concert. I arrived five minutes early and was lucky to get in.

I know this isn't a fashion blog, but I might as well tell you, I dressed appropriately.

Chey's Retro '60s Look. Not Shown: GoGo Boots

The music was wonderful, and the place was packed. Mankind has been performing for five years in Second Life, has a huge following. At one point Mankind said the region held 100 avatars, as least 25 more than I ever remember seeing on one sim. Here's a photo taken a few minutes earlier of the statistics panel, showing 92 people present:

If it looks as if I have only $193L, please disregard it. It's a glitch. Everyone knows I'm fabulously wealthy in Second Life. I'm telling you, look away! Do it!

Now say to yourself: Chey is fabulously wealthy.

Lag was surprisingly light for so many avatars wearing lots of scripts. I wasn't able to make fancy with the picture-taking because snapping a photo in a crowded area while my camera is zoomed usually makes me crash, but here's a photo showing how crowded it all looked with nametags turned on:

The concert was held at Dark Side of the Rainbow on the La Bella Bonaire simulator. Dark Side is about all things Pink Floyd. The stage was nice, but I don't recommend you visit the sim if you're prone to flashbacks:

Yes, it's that psychedelic.

Nice Write-Up of My Blog

2011-09-03T23:58:00.001-04:00

Written 3 September, 1011

Nice Write-Up of My Blog

I'd like to thank Bliss Windlow of Peoplez for her nice write-up in the August issue of her magazine.

You'll find the magazine along the left column. Go to page 57.

Click on the image below to zoom:

Why it Makes Financial Sense to Be a Premium Member of Second Life

2011-09-01T21:03:00.001-04:00

Written 1 September, 2011

Why it Makes Financial Sense to Be a Premium Member of Second Life

Premium membership in Second Life costs $9.95 USD a month, or $72 if you sign up for a year.

Your premium membership gets you a sign-up bonus of $1000L and $300L a week. At the current rate of exchange of 250L per dollar, that's $66.40 a year. In other words, you get everything but $5.40 US back.

You also get a free Linden house, or, if you prefer, a tier-free 512 square meter lot anywhere on the mainland. If you're smart, you can purchase land for as little as $1L per square meter. You immediately get access to adult areas of Second Life. And, when your avatar won't rez or you can't log onto the grid, you can get support from the Lindens.

If you don't want or need a house you can buy your 512 square meter lot and rent it to someone. Or you can donate that tier to group land. Eight friends pooling their free tier allotment could live for free on a 4096 square meter lot with 934 prims-- or rent it for between $20 US and $30 US a month.

Consider: If you rent that 4095 for $20 a month and split it among eight people, that's $30 USD per person-- which translates to a profit of about $25 a year per person, making that premium membership a very good deal indeed.

And consider: All eight of those people could be YOU-- your main avatar and seven alts. You would make $200 bucks a year over and above the money you would pay to Linden Lab.

Of course you could have eighty alts, or eight hundred...

I started my premium membership in October 2006, when the weekly stipend was $400L. A year earlier it as $500L/year. I make a few bucks a year just by being a premium member. I wish I had signed up my alt Dakota and maybe made a hundred or two additional alts. Within a year or two, by careful trading I could had acquired several mainland sims. By now I could be a land baron or slumlord-- for free!

Ah, hindsight!

Going Where No Avatar Has Gone Before

2011-09-01T03:06:00.000-04:00

Visit this build here.

Eyelash Shirt

2011-08-31T21:33:00.000-04:00

This was clever.

Robot Sanatorium Re-Do

2011-08-29T14:24:00.005-04:00

Written 29 August, 2011

Robot Sanatorium Re-Do

Because of the large scale of the robot sanatorium on Whimsy Kaboom, it was necessary to choose from a limited number of megaprims or use multiple 10-meter prims to span distances. The ramps, for instance, required two prims for the floors and two for each side for each span. The floor was made of 10x and 20x prims; because parts of the floor are solid and parts are steel mesh, it wasn't possible to use a single megaprim. Walls required multiple prims.

I set out to save as many prims as possible by stretching prims, replacing two or three, or in some cases as many as six, with a single prim. In the end, I saved about 140 prims at the sanatorium alone.

Because of its patchwork nature the floor was a challenge, but I saved prims there, too.

Below the fold you'll find some screen shots of the process.

Here's a ramp. Because it spanned a distance greater than ten meters, it requires two prims. Ramps at upper elevations have sides, and so required six prims.

Here you can see the two prims for the ramp:

This is the prim I'm going to remove:

In the Edit menu I checked Edit Linked Parts, selected the highlighted prim, unlinked it, and deleted it. See, it's gone.

Still in Edit Linked Parts, I selected the lower section of ramp and stretched it until the gap was closed. By checking Stretch Textures BEFORE I elongated the prim I didn't have to rescale the texture after stetching.

To avoid prim flicker I would zoom my camera so I could see the joint clearly and close up. I didn't want any unsightly gaps or prim flicker.

Here's a gap I flubbed on the first pass. I noticed it almost immediately and fixed the problem.

Here are three prims in the floor I was able to work with. I eliminated two and stetched the third to cover the distance:

Here I've raised the new single piece of flooring so it can be seen clearly:

I was surprised to discover so many prims could be saved at the robot sanatorium and equally surprised to find so few could be saved elsewhere. 150 additional prims on Kaboom leaves 400 free, giving us some breathing room for who knows-- maybe another ridiculous feature.

Woo Hoo, I Can Stretch Prims to 64 Meters!!!

2011-08-29T05:17:00.000-04:00

Written 29 August, 2011

Woo Hoo, I Can Stretch Prims to 64 Meters!!!

The new mesh server software went grid-wide about a week ago and I've been having a grand time going around the Whimsy sims and freeing up prims by replacing two or three identical 10-meter long prims with one newly-stretched mega.

I didn't free up as many prims on Whimsy as I had thought-- maybe 50, or at the Temple of Doom (maybe 10), but Whimsy Kaboom now has 200 more prims-- highly significant for a Homestead region with just 3750 primitives.

The physics engine seems to have been updated as well. My rocket, which flew to about 550 meters, is now soaring as high as 800 meters.

And of course, there's mesh. I bought a pair of mesh jeans and forced myself to load the latest iteration of Viewer 2 (called Viewer 3, but identical to V2 except for mesh support, which at the moment Firestorm doesn't have.

My next post will be about prim saving, and the one after about mesh.

A New Motorcycle, and an Old One

2011-08-28T19:40:00.002-04:00

Written 28 August, 2011

A New Motorcycle, And An Old One

Above you can see me with my ride from 19 Motorcycle.

Here I am with my older motorcycle, the MLCC Rocket.

I've had the Rocket a long time-- more than 3 1/2 years, according to the date on the notecard that came with the bike. Over the years the motorcycle itself has been updated at least four times. In fact, when I rezzed it to take this photo an update arrived.

The Rocket is a fine bike, old school all the way-- not only in its looks-like-a-Harley design, but in its use of prims. There are no sculpts anywhere.

I took a jump to MLCC headquarters today to take some snapshots. This great statue stands at the entrance:

Inside are cars and trucks...

... older models made with regular prims, and newer ones made from sculpted prims:

The Rocket is cleverly scripted and fun to ride, and has served me well. But oh, my 19 motorcycle!

Cruisers are okay, but I've always loved the vertical twin cylinder British bikes of yore-- the Triumphs, BSAs, and Nortons. My 19 is a single, but you can't have everything. It looks great, sounds great, and runs great. I especially like: that it rests on a side stand when no one is riding; the kick starting animation, and the foot-down-when-stopped animation. The only flaw I've seen is that the kickstand and shadow remain when one rides off and must be manually deleted.

19 Motorcycle is a small place, located on the Edo Japan Region. It's beautifully detailed. It reminds of the bike shops I used to frequent in the old days:

In addition to the SLR400 model (my bike), 19 makes a three-wheel scooter...

...and this bad boy:

They also sell a marvelously-made 3/4 helmet, available with and without hair:

Alas, there are no roads to ride on Whimsy, but I often take my 19 motorcycle out on the many roads and racetracks in Second Life.

Tiny Party

2011-08-22T22:30:00.000-04:00

My friend Leaf Shermer (who owns the Eccenricity Estate that adjoins our Whimsy Estate) has been tiny a lot lately. I tried to get her to take more calcium, but she says she likes being tiny.

Tuesday night on Eccentricity is party time for Leaf and her friends. I joined last week and had a great time. The 50s and 60s music was awesome.

See the flying book in the foreground? That's me!

Phyneas Jack's Lookout

2011-08-21T22:56:00.000-04:00

Written 21 August, 2011

Phyneas Jack's Lookout

Tonight I found myself at loose ends and teleported to a few locations to see if they were still around.

First up was Phyneas Jack's Lookout, a little shack perched precariously atop thin poles in the Rodeo sim. It's at the end of a long ridge that marks the eastern terminus of the Forest of Karuhvel, which lies within the Stinson, Rodeo, Noyo, and Cowell regions.

The lookout is positively ancient by Second Life standards, perhaps six years old. I know it was one of the first places I found when I first rezzed in October 2006. Ever since, it's been one of my favorite places to stand. I go there whenever I take the notion. Sometimes there's no one there and I savor the silence. Sometimes others are present, and I have nice conversations, for they're there for the same reason as I-- to enjoy the place.

The views are stunning-- the narrow ridge behind, cliffs on the other three sides, overlooking land at lower elevations and the sea beyond.

For years a storm raged below, just about where the campfire is now.

The storm has been gone a long time now. I miss it.

When I arrived this evening an avatar named Harry Swashbuckler was standing on the roof, taking in the view.

The lookout is one of Harry's favorite places, too. I told him about the rainstorm. One thing led to another and I looked up the website of the Phyneas Jack Memorial Trust, which is dedicated to preserving the Forest of Kahruvel. Harry told me he had seen Salazar Jack (one of the trustees) in the area a few weeks earlier. Since I knew Salazar is still around, I wrote a notecard and dropped it on his profile, asking him to bring the rainstorm back.

Who knows... maybe the next time I visit it'll be raining.

Cast Away on Whimsy Kaboom!

2011-08-20T23:32:00.001-04:00

Written 19 August, 2011

Cast Away on Whimsy Kaboom!

They arrived a week ago Wednesday on a broken-down tardis, a group of Second Life explorers from the group +Torchwood+, who found themselves marooned on the beautiful but dangerous Whimsy sims.

They set up camp under the shadow of these big rocks on Kaboom...

... but a rainstorm washed them out.

The castaways were forced to relocate:

Eventually they discovered Whimsy, to the east.

They explored, and catastrophe ensued.

Here are excerpts from Johanna's Jourbert's journal. I assure you her descriptions of the Whimsy islands are accurate!

Torchwood

Lost On an Island

DAY 1

We were on our way to New Babbage to try to close the rift when the tardis got crazy ( again!) and expelled us somewhere.... sometime.

The Tardis won't let us go back home. We're stuck on this island for god knows how long.

As usual, Jan took over and built a shelter to protect us. Unfortunately, the storm destroyed it this night. We are all tired, dirty and wet. I can't believe some people actually pay to go to places like this!

DAY 2

Early in the morning I swam quite far, exploring, and found a suitable place for a new camp. There's even a wood shelter, and the camp seems more protected from the storms. Maybe with a little patience we could transport everyone and everything with the canoe Gwen found.

DAY 3

Sean is dead, stabbed in the heart. We never had an easy relationship, he and I, but now... it's just too late, too late to apologize, too late to ask him for an explanation about his behavior with me. Too late for anything...

Loranos suffers more and more from his eye and headaches and was profoundly affected by the death of his friend. Yesterday Jan, Mel, and Gwen didn't make it back to the camp. We're really worried.

Even Piper is paranoid. She thinks no one loves her, that people in Torchwood don't care about her. Loranos is getting aggressive. Mr. Duffy is acting strange too, but I'm not sure it isn't his normal behavior.

Today we will explore more of the island and look for the rest of the group.

DAY 4

Gwen, Piper, and I discovered train tracks and followed them until we found a small working train. We operated it and the strangest things happened. The ride is mostly under water, so we came to the conclusion that maybe if there are inhabitants on these islands, they live under the water-- but the most incredible thing was the ride took about 20 minutes. When we came back it was close to midnight.

Piper hurt her ankle and we had to go back to camp to meet with Mel and Jan. Thank god, they're safe!

Later on in the night we heard a noise and ran toward it. Mel and Loranos were on their own, having some privacy. A big dark creature was dragging Mr. Duffy down to the water. I tried to jump in, but Piper kept me from risking my life.

Today is another sad day. Mr. Duffy was cremated over Sean's remains.

DAY 5

We decided to explore and took the train again. We began to collect air tanks so we would have enough oxygen. During the ride, Loranos, Mel, and I saw a strange creature in the water. We jumped off the train and followed it into a cave full of volcanic lava. Luckily, we found protective boots near the entrance.

The cave was filled with carvings and the back gate was protected by a password. We didn't find the blue creature, but we did find an underwater city. It was absolutely beautiful, but partly destroyed by the lava. I managed to make my way into a crevasse and found a chest. Inside, an eye was looking at me-- not any eye-- Loranos' eye! I closed the chest and we ran back to the camp. I have no idea what any of this means!

DAY 6

GOD, THIS ISLAND IS GETTING ON MY NERVES!!! ... and that salty water damaged my hair and my circuits! During our night shift guarding the camp, we started to dig into the box of books we found with Loranos and Jan. In the Geography for Idiots book Loranos choose, he found a drawing and description of an island called Pagaros. It mentioned the blue creature, saying: "It has sworn to kill any that threat to its land." All this was in a unknown language, translated by the Tardis. Jan and I began to get suspicious. Who marooned us here? The Tardis! Who did the translation? The Tardis!

DAY 6, Later

I found an underwater temple and saw the blue man again. I went into the temple and got hit in the head. I woke up in an underwater jail. An oxygen tank was there for me. I saw no one, just some creepy sea creatures.

I learned later the rest of the group talked to the blue creature. It said the place was under the rule of the Master, an evil timelord who will cause the end of the universe. We're getting ready to attack the Master in the temple of Doom, as tomorrow is the solstice and the Master will be weak.

Day 7

The blue creature took us to the doomed temple. We had to walk slowly and avoid arrows and lava and fight against ghosts and snakes. The blue creature was killed while helping Loranos get a strength potion. At the end of the labyrinth, the Master was waiting. Loranos defeated him and the team explored the area, looking for Joh.

I saw Jan and then the others. I warned them the Master had said: the island is going to be destroyed. Mel got the key to the Tardis. With the Master dead, the Tardis works again and transported us back home. Six of us made it to Torchwood alive.

I WANT TO THANK SO SO SO MUCH Cheyenne Palisades, the owner of those wonderful sims, for allowing us to role play there and gave us her support.

You can show your appreciation to her by giving some Linden to the robots or taking your friends to visit those amazing Islands. Thank you Cheyenne, and thanks to all the team for a wonderful week of RP!

MetaStock

2011-08-17T03:12:00.002-04:00

Written 17 August, 2011

MetaStock

I didn't make it to Woodstock, but I did make it to the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival some years later. It wasn't held anywhere near the Erie Canal, and there was no soda pop, and no pop music for that matter, just rock, and not much of that because of the rain. I drove with friends from Tennessee to Indiana in a 1963 Ford Econoline fan with a big hole in the floor where the passenger's seat should have been. The festival was continuously rainy, and we left on the second day. I heard like five minutes of music-- Dr. John-- before the weather drowned out his set.

It wasn't the greatest of experiences, but I do love to listen to music, and I've always liked the idea of listening outdoors. I've pretty much found that here in Second Life with music festivals.

This weekend Sweetie and I took ourselves to MetaStock.

Metastock was a two-day music festival held on the Viva La Vida sim. Click on the photo below to see the lineup:

On Saturday, Sweetie and I caught the last part of Mel Cheeky's set and stayed through the end of Strum Diesel's performance-- and we were back for a couple of hours the next day.

The sim was pleasant-- all meadow-- and the landscaping was perfect. There were a lot of avatars present.

A nicely scripted mastiff-- I think that's what it was-- wandered about, adding a homey touch.

Sweetie and I wore out the Intan couples danceballs.

What a pity her shirttails flew up just as I took this shot. I can't believe I blocked her face!

Metastock was held to promote Metatunes, a service that allows online performers to make their original music and covers available to listeners-- and allows listeners to get songs from their favorite performers. It's perfect for Second Life.

It was pleasant to chat with Sweetie as we danced and listened to the music.

Skype

2011-08-14T21:24:00.002-04:00

Written 14 August, 2011

Skype

Before there was Second Life voice there was Skype-- a service that allowed free voice and webcam calls between (or among, as there can be multi-way calls) internet users. Sweetie and I began using it in late 2006 or 2007.

It was strange to hear and see one another after a month or so of typing and watching our avatars kiss on the Devotion poseball, but we quickly got used to speaking to one another and soon Skype became our primary method of communication.

Almost always when we're in world together we're in Skype, keeping up a running conversation that ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous-- usually the latter. It was in Skype we planned the sim we were buying, in Skype we designed our robot sanatorium. We're in Skype while we're dancing, in Skype when watching video, in Skype when we're shopping.

When Second Life voice was introduced in the summer of 2007 we gave it a try, but in those early days we found it glitchy and were soon back in Skype.

Nowadays voice works pretty well on the grid. I usually have it enabled, but I'm rarely interested in saying anything. Most of what I hear-- especially at the infohubs/welcome areas-- is inane and I've just no incentive to speak. If I want to say something, I prefer to say it in chat.

At most of the places Sweetie and I go, even where there are lots of avatars-- for instance, at concerts-- people use rarely use voice chat. The few who do are often profoundly annoying to everyone else.

And yet voice statistics for voice use are high (or so claims Linden Lab, who apparently track every minute every avatar has voice enabled). I'm sure most of the actual use is between couples and small groups of friends, either in public through the private voice channel or at their homes in open voice.

Time has shown the naysayers who predicted the death of Second Life at the hands of hordes of screaming avatars to be wrong. Wrong, too, were those who believed voice would significantly change the grid. What has actually happened, I believe, is something no one predicted (or at least I don't remember it ever having been mentioned): people use voice to talk privately among themselves.

Kaboom Sometimes Seems so Peaceful

2011-08-13T20:18:00.001-04:00

Kamakazi Champagne

2011-08-11T17:18:00.002-04:00

Cheyenne Likes Champagne

Written 8 August, 2011

Kamikaze Champagne

I'm not much of a drinker, but I love champagne.

It being predicted to reach 96 degrees Fahrenheit outside today, meaning I wouldn't be leaving the house, I decided to chill a bottle of Veuve de Vernay-- inexpensive bubbly. An hour ago I popped the cork and made a mimosa. I capped the sparkling wine with a rubber cork and leaned it against a head of cauliflower on a shelf in my refrigerator.

My drink didn't last long, so I went back into the kitchen to make a second. In fact, my plan was to return again and again until the bottle was empty.

I added ice to my glass and poured in some orange juice. My mistake was not reaching for the Veuve first, for just as I was about to grab it it it rolled away from the cauliflower and fell 18" to the bottom lip of the fridge. Upon impact, the cork made a POP sound and went sailing, followed by a one-inch thick stream of champagne that soaked my jeans, the floor, my cabinets, the front of the dishwasher, and the inside and outside of the fridge.

I grabbed the bottle as fast as I could, but there was only enough wine to fill my glass. I mopped up the wine with my trousers and a towel, tossed them into the washer, and made a quick run at the floor with a mop. Then I came upstairs to write this.

One of the better things I've made in second life is a bottle of faux Dom Perignon champagne. In fact, there are two versions, vintage 1996 and 1916. The first is free on the Second Life marketplace. The second sells for 10 Lindens because, well, it IS vintage.

Over the years I've sold thousands of bottles of the 1996 vintage on the marketplace and a few of the 1916 (which would have long since turned to vinegar in real life). A year or so ago I reworked the bottles, making them look better and saving a prim in the process, and replacing the usual free throw-the-drink-in-your-face animation with one that makes the avatar actually sip. I made a flute complete with tiny particle fizz and sound and added a popping sound when the bottle is opened. Sales picked up, and now I would estimate I sell six or seven bottles a day.

Get your free bottle here.

The good thing about my virtual chapagne is it never rolls out of the refrigerator and explodes all over your kitchen.

Sensei Cheyenne Instructs a Newbie in the Ways of Second Life

2011-08-07T21:04:00.004-04:00

Written 7 August, 2011

Sensei Cheyenne Instructs a Newbie in the Ways of Second Life

"Please, Sensei Cheyenne, how can I change my avatar?"

"The ways of the Advanced Mode are passing strange. To get there, you must first die."

"Die?"

"Yes, the big X at the upper right of your screen. You must embrace it. When you come back, you will choose the Advanced Path, and your inventory will appear to you."

"Thank you, Sensei."

"Oh, my wise and ancient mentor, I cannot see my avatar."

"You are following the Way of the Cloud. I have for you an ancient scroll that will give you the wisdom to return to your virtual corporeal body."

"What does rebake mean?"

-----

"Oh, Sensei Cheyenne, how will I get Lindens?"

"You must choose between two paths-- the Way of the Bank Card and the Way of the Second Life Job."

"How will I know the correct choice?"

"You must listen to your heart. Does it tell you to spend long hours at a make-believe job making three Lindens an hour or does it tell you to transfer a few dollars in and live like a prince?"

"Uh, the job?"

"You have made a wise choice, grasshopper. Now you must log out of Second Life and drive to my house and mow my lawn. The Lindens will be awaiting you when you finish."

-----

"Oh, great and wise Cheyenne, I think I am in love."

"This one is already taken, my child."

"No, no, no, with HugeBreastsNoBra Resident."

"And is this avatar in love with you?"

"Yes, she is. She told me so."

"In voice?"

"No, Sensei. In chat. Should I tell her I love her?"

"You must first clear things with this avatar's real life wife."

-----

"Oh, wise master, I am now a vampire."

"We are an equal opportunity dojo. Vampires are accepted, so long as they can pay."

------

"Cheyenne, my sensei, which viewer should I use?"

"You must consider carefully. Consider Phoenix. Phoenix rises from the ashes of Emerald and lives again. And soon it will die again, broken by the advent of the Age of Mesh."

"So I should use Phoenix?"

"I did not say that. Then there is Firestorm. Many hands had a hand in its creation, many hands struggle to move it beyond the realm of beta, to the land of official release."

"Okay, Firestorm it is, then."

"Then there is Kristen's Viewer. And Imprudence. And text-only viewer. And others."

"But which one should I choose, sensei?"

"You must walk the lands of Second Life with each of these contenders. Only then will you know the viewer that is right for you."

"And Viewer 2?"

"Grasshopper, you disappoint me. Have we not spoken of Viewer 1? How can you see your opponent when the entire right side of your screen is filled by a huge window? How can you keep track of your enemies when the windows on your screen remain opaque when inactive? How can you be smexy when your skin has built-in tightie whiteys?"

"On, Sensei, please forgive me. I did not know."

"Do you see the woman behind me?"

"The stylishly-dressed ninja with the jeweled katana?"

"The very one. Sensei Sweetie will be your new instructor. Go with her now. She will teach you advanced techniques like Crane on a Wireframe and the Lotus Derendering Position. You will learn to see things far away and will be able to make yourself invisible to others."

"You mean like Disable Camera Constraints and alpha masking?"

"We say Eye of the Falcon and Spirit in the Wind, but yes. Now go with Sweetie. When you return I will show you The Way of the Infinite Prim."

Nothing Much to Report Here... Move Along

2011-07-31T23:16:00.000-04:00

Written 31 July, 2011

Nothing Much to Report Here... Move Along

I've been home for a week. It's hot as hell outside, my internet has been off and on again and my router is down, and I'm lacking motivation to do much more than piddle around in Second Life. And even when I'm here, I sort my inventory or hang out at the infohubs.

I guess the dog days are affecting me. But no worries, I'll be back to normal soon, and writing like mad. Just checking in.

Video Loop Crasher

2011-07-27T13:26:00.003-04:00

Written 27 July, 2011

Video Loop Crasher

I was at Hyannisport this morning and crashed-- twice. And so did everyone else.

Another resident told me it was because someone was using a weapon called Video Loop Crasher. I turned it off and stopped crashing, although many people around me continued to crash repeated.

So, you might want to do this to protect yourself if you find yourself crashing suddenly. It involves disabling a feature you probably don't use anyway.

Open the Advanced Menu. If you don't have Advanced, CTRL-ALT-D will turn it off (add SHIFT if it doesn't work). The menu will be on the top bar.

Open Advanced, go to the Recorder submenu, and uncheck Loop Playback. That should do it.

Unfortunately, on login Loop Playback will turn back on-- so you'll probably only want to turn it off when you're somewhere that's under attack.

Kids on the Grid

2011-07-25T22:33:00.001-04:00

Written 25 July, 2011

Kids on the Grid

After Linden Lab closed the Teen Grid earlier this year, teens 15, 16, and 17 years of age were allowed on Second Life's main grid's PG sims, and 13- and 14-year-olds were allowed on the grid is select regions.

A lot of older (in terms of time in world), residents predicted chaos and an influx of children even younger than thirteen. I didn't think that likely, but now I think I was wrong.

Admittedly one avatar's experience is subjective and might not be typical, but I know I've been coming across a lot of avatars lately who say in chat they are 13 or 14 years old and whose behavior suggest that's true. Lately I've been filing get-this-kid-off-the-grid abuse reports on an almost daily basis-- this because I've been spending a lot of time at infohubs, where new avatars come into world.

Over time I've learned to tell the approximate age the people behind avatars by the way they behave. It's not fail-safe, but I'm usually spot-on accurate.

Today at the Hyannisport infohub I spotted an avatar who I was sure was very young. How did I know? He couldn't stay still. He was the very personification of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. His attention span seemed to be about five seconds.

Then of all the people on the sim, he latched onto me. He offered me friendship three times. I told him it was customary in Second Life to become friends only with people one knows, and he kept sending me blue menus.

Then he started typing. It took him several minutes to chat "hi cyeyenne" and two more to ask him to fly with him. I told him I was happy standing where I was and of course he kept trying to get me to fly. At some point he accidentally opened his mic and I could hear a young child talking to someone in the room.

When I asked him how old he was, he said, in chat, "Seven," and I believed him. I told him Second Life was no place for young teens and even less a place for children and told him he should leave and not come back until he was much older. Then I asked if he would bring his mom to the screen. He walked away.

Several minutes later he walked back up and typed "Hi. This is Alvin's sister."

I asked her how old she was. Twenty, she said.

The typing was much faster and the language usage more sophisticated, so my best guess was it was actually his sister and not Alvin trying to fool me. I told her of the dangers of Second Life and the rules which forbid those under 13 from being on the grid, and urged her to delete his account. Alvin's avatar disappeared. Logoff.

I hoped that would do it, but five minutes later Alvin reappeared. Again, his sister was the typist. Alvin was sitting on his bed crying, she said, and it was my fault.

I asked her to tell her mother what I had said. She said her mother had no problem with Alvin being in Second Life-- which might or might not have been true. I said if that was true it was astonishingly poor parenting behavior. I once again urged her to delete the account and told her I was muting and derendering Alvin and would no longer hear what he or she typed or said. And I did.

By that time I and several other residents had filed abuse reports so the Lindens would be made aware of Alvin's age. So had at least one other resident.

Just then a resident long enough to have a real last name came over and told me I should have minded my own business. Alvin was just annoying me, he said.

No, I said. I wasn't annoyed; I was concerned. He scoffed.

I said, "Well, I don't want to get into a conversation about this with you. I'll follow my conscience and you can follow yours."

But of course he wouldn't let it go. He said kids were fine on the grid, they would just play and would never engage in sexual behavior, they needed no supervision, it was just a game.

I told him he was using the same language a sexual predator would use, and asked him to show me his NAMBLA card. You should have seen him backpedal.

A few hours later I copied Alvin's name from the chat log and pasted it into search, and he didn't come up-- meaning his account had been zapped by the Lindens. Of course, Alvin will probably be back tomorrow, using another account, but I did the proper thing. As an adult, I took the steps I thought necessary to protect a child.

And I urge my readers to do the same.

PTSD Information Island

2011-07-25T01:03:00.002-04:00

Written 24 July, 2011

PDST Information Island

In World War I they called it shell shock. In World War II they called it battle fatigue. Now it's known as combat stress reaction. When it persists, it's known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

PTSD follows traumatic experiences that overwhelm the individual's ability to cope.

Since January the U.S. Department of Defense has maintained a region in Second Life devoted to educating people, and especially those who have served or are serving in the military, about PTSD and helping those with PTSD to learn to manage their condition while maintaining anonymity. It's called The Virtual PTSD Experience, or T2. Click here for the SLURL.

Those using the program can navigate their avatar virtually though situations that they actually may not be comfortable with in real life, explained Greg Reger, a clinical psychologist and acting chief if T2's Innovative Technology Applications Division.

"An individual can go into this space and go through a series of interactive simulations and experiences that really help them learn about the causes of PTSD, the symptoms, and how they can get help," he said.

Throughout the program, a "relax button" is available when any scenario becomes too overwhelming. The user will be immediately transported to a relaxation room to listen to relaxing music or take part in relaxing breathing techniques.

Program creators hope that in the future the Virtual PTSD Experience can facilitate actual virtual patient appointments, where users can meet with mental health professionals using their avatars.

-- Alexandra Hemmings-Brown, www.army.mil

Yesterday Sweetie and I visited. We wound up staying several hours.

I have to say that in terms of coherency, consistency, and structure of experience, T2 is perhaps the best sim I've ever visited. Great attention was paid to detail and every effort was made to make visitors with PTSD feel comfortable. The scripting was amazing.

And so, dear reader, I'll walk you through.

At the welcome areas we found links and reading material. The stands on each side of the reception desk (see photo above) were the same, which was handy. I browsed one side while Sweetie browsed the other.

T2 made heavy use of the new media-on-a-prim, showing movies at several steps along the way. Sweetie and I spent a good hour loading and running the Firestorm Beta browser and tweaking the many settings. I managed to make my HUDs disappear and switched back to Phoenix. Sweetie stayed in Firestorm, cursing it all the while-- but I noticed she was still using it today. I listened to the movies on her Mac, which was only ten feet away, since they wouldn't play in Phoenix.

When I touched the movie screen-- even in Phoenix-- my camera was dragged and focused and centered on the screen. I don't know if that's he way HTML-on-a-prim works or if it was scripting; if the latter, I don't understand how the script could gave gotten permission to control my camera. It wasn't unpleasant, but it did feel a bit freaky to have my camera grabbed like that when I wasn't sitting.

The only thing I found that didn't work was a basketball and net. I tried shooting some hoops, but build permissions were off so the basketball thrower couldn't rezz balls. Sad. It looked like fun. It can be easily fixed, though.

So, away Sweetie and I went on the virtual tour.

The first portion of the tour concerned the causes of PTSD.

Signage was excellent. T2s creators wanted to be sure those entering the Causes simulators knew exactly what was about to happen.

Sweetie and I attached the HUDs we had been given and were issued combat uniforms.

"Private Palisades reporting for duty, Captain Sweetie, SUH!"

"Wipe that lipstick off your face, soldier!"

We were then required to choose one of three levels of simulated combat severity.

We entered a Middle Eastern market street and were asked to sit in a Hummer.

Inside the vehicle our cameras were strictly constrained, forcing us to look forward and scan the street. The scroll wheel wouldn't take me out of mouselook, the arrow keys wouldn't move my view, even the escape key did nothing. How did they DO that?

Everyone looked suspicious.

Even kids.

Sir! Stand still! Move and you will be shot!

Then it happened!

The anxiety meters in our HUDs redlined.

In the highest level, the soldiers on the road were killed or horribly injured.

After our tours of duty, Sweetie and I were sent to the airport...

... where we were issued everyday uniforms.

.. and put on a plane.

Since I didn't get a photo of the jetway, I went back today and took this picture.

We boarded and sat in the cabin of a jet, where we were shown a short film.

After about ten minutes we landed and exited in the virtual United States.

Our next destination was a mall...

...where we experienced symptoms of PTST and were quizzed as we wandered about.

We spent nearly an hour at the mall, which had lots of stores.

At one point I experienced a flashback, complete with visual hallucinations.

After we left the mall we entered a wind-down area.

Along our tour we were given chances to provide feedback about the experience.

There were even wheelchair ramps.

It was an educational and fun experience, and we left amazed at the scripting, and especially the masterful manipulation of our cameras when we were sitting in the Humvee.

Sadly, the region was empty when Sweetie and I visited yesterday, and again today when I visited for photos. What a shame! T2 is a wonderful place.

Alpha Masks Open New Possibilities for Avatars

2011-07-23T03:05:00.003-04:00

Written 23 July, 2011

Alpha Masks Open New Possibilities for Avatars

In your library you'll find three alpha masks-- full, feet, and head.

These masks will make the part of the avatar they cover disappear-- totally-- but only if you're using a viewer that can handle them. Viewer 2, Phoenix, Firestorm, and a lot of the other third party viewers can. Viewer 1 can't.

Some shoemakers are now using the foot alpha instead of invisprims. This forever ends the alpha glitch problem with invisiprims, but if you lose a shoe you'll look like an amputee.

The full alpha mask is handy. I've been adding one to the folders of each of my various avatars. It prevents stray body parts from sticking through.

The full mask opens possibilities for avatars that haven't until now been possible. Hamlet Au has written about the hairdo above.

Lately I've been seeing full avatars made with alpha masks. Here's one:

Swirling particle leaves created the vague shape of an avatar and responded to movement by leaving a trail in the direction the avatar was walking. Very nice.

Then there's this avatar:

Tiny tiny avatars are now possible:

Content creators are only just beginning to utilize alpha masks. Before long, I'm sure, we'll be seeing some absolutely amazing avatars.

John31921600084123 Resident

2011-07-22T16:17:00.000-04:00

Written 22 July, 2011

John31921600084123 Resident

Ever since the inception of display names I've been looking askance at people with the last name Resident. I'm like all UH-OH! WHO LET _THEM_ INTO THE PARTY?

Of course some people with the last name Resident have been in world for more than six months now, but my immediate assumption on seeing that last name is this: NOOB.

I could prevent this, of course, by turning on display names, but I will never, ever, not in a million years do that, not since the Linden FAQ said, in response to the question "Can I prevent other residents from using my display name?" the following:

No, display names are not meant to be unique identifiers. Instead, if you notice that others are using a similar display name, feel free to change your own name.

Fuck that.

Clearly, the supply of unique names for new residents is fast becoming exhausted. Hence I'm seeing names like Fanboy0523 and Savvy92143 and really long names like IDontKnowWhatImDoingHere Resident.

All I'm really saying here is that since the policy change I've been looking differently-- and not favorably at residents with the last name resident. I think I'm responding to a very real class divide-- we "real" residents and those unfortunates without a last name.

New World Notes today points to this Jira, which asks Linden Lab to provide an option for a real last name. I urge my readers to click on the link and vote.

Twitterfeed

2011-07-21T08:51:00.000-04:00

Written 21 July, 2011

Twitterfeed

For a month or so links to this this blog have been posting to my Twitter account, thanks to a website named Twitterfeed.

To follow, just click on the second link, above.