Feels Like Home

Feels Like Home

Written 27 December, 2009

I should perhaps tell my readers about my exciting trip to the frozen north.

When I paid Moon Fairymeadow a large sum in U.S. dollars for her grandfathered sim (a rare commodity that brings high prices!) I sent the money to her old account.

Oopsie!

I canceled the first transaction and paid her at the proper eddress.

I thought that was that, but how naive is me! The money, you see, was held up for about ten days, first to clear my bank (as I paid directly from my bank account rather than my card), and then while the money was in transit from Paypal back to my bank.

I ordered up some more money from the money machine, but when I flew on Monday my bank account was running low.

Because my truck is blown up and dead in Florida, I found a Toyota Camry on eBay and bought a ticket to Islip in Long Island. My plan was to pick up the car and drive it to Sweetie's house, a distance of about 65 miles.

My plan was to pick up cash to pay for the car from the Wachivia branch in Islip.

But I didn't factor in having to sit for nine long hours in the Philadelphia airport while U.S. Airways jockeyed flight teams and aircraft all around the continent to clear the backlog from the previous weekend's snowstorm.

Apparently the FAA didn't factor that in either, for their website showed green lights all across the nation just before I left my house for the Atlanta airport.

So, I got into Islip after dark. The banks were all closed. I ran around promoting money and grumbling because the seller didn't want to take Paypal. Ninety dollars short of my goal, I left my bank card in the machine at Wachovia.

Wouldn't you know it, with me all out of options, the seller was THEN happy to take Paypal.

I wound up driving at eleven at night on unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar car. It would have been horrible, but Sweetie was on duty as my OnStar girl. She guided me safely home.

To her home, I mean. Which, after three months in residence this fall, feels like my home, too.

Spam Comments

Written 26 December, 2009

Spam Comments

For some months now I've been regularly getting comments on a blogpost here.

The posts are made in pictograph format, so I've no idea what they say. I was actually considering okaying the first when a second, identical post rolled in. I rejected the first post, and I've been regularly rejecting the more than 100 identical follow-ups.

Lately other posts have been getting strange comments. Some seem vaguely complementary in bad English, like this:

Great article as for me. It would be great to read more about that matter. Thnx for sharing that material.

The above comment was from someone named Sex Lady. I was tipped off, thought, because her tag below had an embedded link that read Escorts.

Other comments are unreadable, like so:

µ�å©šã�—ã�¦ã�‹ã‚‰å¥³ã�¨ã�—ã�¦ã�®å–œã�³ã‚’失ã�£ã�ŸçŽ‰ã�®è¼¿å¥³æ€§é�”ã€�

They all go in the trash can.

I suspect internet villains somewhere across the oceans are phishing with these faux comments, hoping one gets approved.

If that were every to happen, I'm certain, I would be deluged.

I hope whoever is doing that got coal in their Christmas stocking.

Post-Christmas

Written 26 December, 2009

Post-Christmas

Christmas was a blissful day: french toast for breakfast, exchanging and unwrapping presents, cuddling, playing video games, napping, cuddling, making dinner, logging into Second Life for a few minutes, watching a movie together, cuddling, more video games, breaking out the chocolates, eating eggrolls before going to bed.

Today was a nice post-Christmas Saturday. We're accomplished little, nor did we want to. Now the sun is going down and we're about to emerge from our lair into the darkness, just like Second Life vampires.

And we get to do it all again tomorrow!

Seasons Greetings

Cheyenne Will See Snow!

Written 21 December, 2009

3:20 am, Eastern Time

Cheyenne Will See Snow!

In less than three hours I'll be on a northbound plane, on my way to visit Sweetie for the holidays.


The Northeastern U.S. was just hit by a blizzard. Sweetie's home has about six inches of snow, and the airport where I'll be landing had about 14".

Here in Atlanta we have heard rumors about snow. They say it's white and sticks to the ground, that it's cold and slippery to walk or drive on. They say it falls from the sky.

I'll believe all that when I actually see it.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Eccentricity Christmas

Written 20 December, 2009

Eccentricity Christmas

Leaf Shermer's Eccentricity sim, which adjoins Whimsy, is beautiful.


But clearly Leaf had been drinking when she made these snowmen.

Sailboarding

Written 20 December, 2009

Sailboarding

What can I say? I love sailboarding around Whimsy.

And I am not, I repeat not, annoying the whale. He just, uh, happened to be in the same place at the same time.

Meanwhile, Back at the Robot Sanitorium...

Written 20 December, 2009

Meanwhile, Back at the Robot Sanitorium...

Sweetie and I showed a new citizen around the Whimsy Kaboom Robot Sanitorium.

We still can't quite believe we built it.

The machinery is working perfectly.

Red hot robot on the way to a cooling bath of liquid nitrogen.

Cooled robot being lifted out of vat.

Robot patient having a positronic brain implanted.

This robot is pondering the significance of Asimov's third law of robotics.

Jumping the Ship

Written 20 December, 2009

Jumping the Ship

 While windsurfing yesterday, I spotted a ship in the distance.


An aside: Recently, when I saw a video of two windsurfers jumping an auto bridge, I was intrigued.
 I can't seem to find the footage (it was on Huffington Post), but here's a video of another high windsurfing jump.



Scary, huh?

Guess what that boat made me want to do?

Yup.

I mean, avatars can't break bones, can they?

Can they?

I approached.

I checked out the ship.


Hmmm. Not too tall. But boy, I need to avoid that wheelhouse and the cargo net.


Okay... here goes!

 The approach...


The execution...

Crap! Camera malfunction!

I hate this stupid broken interface. For months now the CTRL-~ keyboard shortcut has cropped the view. I was in the middle of the screen when I shot the photo, but wound up at upper right.

So let's try again...

Woot!

Can we get a closeup of that?


Thank you.

And again...


Wow! That one was close!

I tell you, it's not easy to hold down the up arrow to move forward, hit the page up key to jump, and click the Snapshot button with the mouse-- all in a split second at a slow framerate!

But I'm a trained keyboard athlete, and I did it!

To windsurf the beautiful waters of Whimsy Estates, go here.

Linden Public Housing

Written 20 December, 2009

Linden Public Housing

In an effort to help millions of Second Lifers who lost their homes by foreclosure, Linden Lab has announced the creation of new starter homes.

Crowded together on the new continent of Nascera, the eightysomething-prim homes come in a variety of styles-- fantasy, California modern, and Japanese, to name three-- well, to name perhaps the only three.

Photos are above.

I found the housing sims to be altogether too much like projects. Depressing.

Oh, well, at least the residents will have this nice park to play in.

Channel Island Asylum

Written 20 December, 2009

Channel Island Asylum

I'm afraid Sweetie got a little out of control last night.

It seems the gendarmes came to talk to her about a certain incident in Paris 1900 last week. She denied even being there until they pointed out the photos in my blog post. Then she went for her katana.


They took her away in a virtual straightjacket and I had to make my way to the Channel Island Asylum to retrieve her.

It was dark by the time I arrived at the gates.
 
It was a creepy place.



Those 1940 black and white institutional tiles were everywhere.

And the staff! The less said about them, the better.



The place was mostly empty...

I guess because of the new meds.


and the staff cutbacks.


Some of the things I saw were... disturbing.

Are those... body bags? It's hard to tell in the gloom.

I have to say, though, I was impressed by the baked textures.

But where was Sweetie?

This pigeon wasn't a stoolie. He had nothing to say.


Neither did this guy.


I was so upset I turned over a table.


That nearly got me admitted.

I finally found her here, on a locked ward.


We made our escape in a UPS truck.