Waiting for Santa

Happy Christmas

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~ Charles Dickens

All the best to you and yours this Holiday and in the coming year.

Lapgirl Model

Decorating for Christmas

Just wandering the Interwebs today I ran across a notice from Rezzable Greenies that they were accepting decorations for their tree. Since I had recently made a bunch to give out as gifts I figured I had a shot. Bam! There she is ... wooters! Drop in to see it yourself and grab some nice freebies under the tree (SLurl).

After my wife logged out for the night I started wrapping her presents and found the process getting out of hand. This is what happened nearly 200 prims later... (SLurl).

Eloh Eliot in Openlife?

Look familiar? This is a skin I created in Openlife (OL; Web) today from files within the library supplied by OL. If you look closely at the inventory pictured here you'll see some familiar letters in the file names, like le and cf. I could swear that this is Eloh Eliot's work. I wonder if she knows. A search of her blog (Web) shows no information about OL. I'll drop her a line Second Life^®.

Uccie Poultry's Openlife

Way back when I had a Windows PC (read: The Dark Ages) I had an Openlife (OL) account. I was Uccello Norton. After I started using an Apple computer I'd still log into the Openlife Web site to keep the account alive but I guess that without appearing in-world they got tired of me. So when I tried to log in today Ms. Norton was "dead."

But they now support Apple OSX so I'm back. That's me there, Uccie Poultry. I'm standing at (125, 128, 201) in the Sandbox on my first prim looking at my first shape. Seem familiar? I copied it from Second Life^® (SL), number by number in the Appearance mode. Oddly, I started life on this grid as a woman. No choice for changing gender that I saw other than going into appearance mode. All the better, I guess. Now for some nice prim hair and better clothes, then I'm all set.

The better clothes came right away. There are some Freebie shops near the Welcome area. Nothing fancy, but better than the n00bie stuff you are automatically dressed with. And the options for upgraded skins. Actually, the n00bie skin looked pretty good. I didn't look to see if I had the proper bits under the clothes, but the face texture was nice. The default Animation Override (AO) was much better than SL's, too.

Right now there is no economy and I can't figure out how to upload textures without crashing, but I'm not upset. OL is beta. Says so right on the home page (Web). With only 40,269 residents the service has a long way to grow. If you can move about in SL, though, you can handle OL. Might wanna give it a try and claim the name you want to have now.

Could it be fleas?

After grabbing gift #16 from Loco Pocos (SLurl) I thought I'd wander the store to see if any was new or different. As you can see, I found something different. Could it be a viewer bug? Was it something with the prims? Whatever it was depended on her stance. Her hair would stand on end when she was in just the one pose. Otherwise she looked pretty "normal" -- if there is such a thing in Second Life^®. Sometimes you just have to love our world, don't you?

More (Away) Games

There was a time that a ghost -- an avatar that a simulator would continue to render even after the account logged out -- would be visible to only a few other residents and gradually disappear to all, but this one stuck around at the Isle of Lesbos for nearly a week. I first saw her standing in the spot you see and thought of playing some (Away) Games (see this earlier post) but got busy and forgot.

A little more than a day later I saw her encased in a glowing block of ice, courtesy of my friend Kaelin. The next day the sign appeared. The day after that I seriously thought about restarting the region to clear the presence buffers but decided this Away Game was just too good.

Alas, the avatar was gone the next day. Maybe the disappearance was part of the rolling restarts that hit the grid. Maybe the presence buffers were purged as part of a cleaning or when the avatar's human contacted customer support about not being able to log in. Or maybe another Isle officer restarted the region. In any case, this unique form of performance art is gone, captured only in pixels even more static that the originals. :::pout:::

New Home > Earth Park @ Dream Images

With my Dream Home gone (see previous post here) I have to wink at the spectre of Irony that my new home is hosted by Dream Images, the group that occupies the Dolce Valentina sim (SLurl). Disclaimer time: Angela Seale, my wife, owns Dream Images and the sim hosts our stores as well as our home. One corner is Earth Park, a peaceful place to relax and play (7Seas fishing, swimming, diving, cuddling, socializing, etc.). It incorporates many elements from my previous home, such as the gazebo, ocean dock, trees, and tire swing. As you can see in the picture it also has a Stargate (#75314 on the Pegasus network) and a few surprises for explorers.

Angela has been very good to me with this sim right from Day One. For example, I've always wanted to see this image made into a Second Life^® region so she let me run amok. I laid down a sim-sized megaprim and with this texture so I could carve and sculpt away. Practical needs required some changes, but with some custom textures from Angela my goal was pretty nearly achieved. That little island you see in the bottom left is Earth Park. Between us an informal mythology of the region grew: An extinct and time worn volcano in the late stages of land succession. Fairly low in all but the hardiest of vegetation except for Earth Park, an area obviously in the process of guided landscaping.

This corner is just one of four, the others being Air, Water, and Fire. The landing zone welcome area features wonderful art depicting the Four Elements as beautiful women and ramps leading to large decks with more art in elemental themes. My shop is in the Water corner and has a nice fish pond with a beautiful Torii gate made by Angela (it may be replaced with a lower prim version so drop in and look soon; SLurl). I made a sculpture for the Air corner and Earth Park features a huge, functional globe made by Pumpkin Tripsa (SLurl). The best art, I think, is the volcano in front of Angela's shop (SLurl). When she finishes her shop the whole complex will be a work of art.

The passion she put into her builds and the trust she shows in letting me design and build the rest of the region is quickly making me feel at home. I'll miss Whispering Big Pines for quite some time, but I'm learning that most any place you give your love to can be a home.

Now that I'm done (LOL ... like I'm ever done) with Earth Park I need to get moving on an actual home. Angela suggested that we could use my airship but she also mentioned something about a huge waterfall coming off a huge, inverted mountain over Earth Park. I'm kinda leaning toward getting a Rezzbox or two (Web). I guess we'll have that discussion sometime. First, she has to finish her shop. Mine has been ready and actually had a couple sales yesterday.

Content Theft: Brooklyn Designs part 2

Dear Friends and Customer.

As most of you know i create a special line of clothes for a brand called BD Designs (nothing to do with DK Designs). The owner of this brand was brooklyn Rickena. During long time, she was selling the designs that me ( i helped her to start with the brand) and Belladona Cordero (she did more than 40 outfits for BD) did for her. our agrement was based on profit share, but one day, this girl decide dont share nothing with the creators and keep all the money for herself. I left this brand so time ago so this decision didnt affect to me so much, but Belladona continue working for her and i know she was hurt with the decision of Brooklyn Rickena take making a box with all the BD stuff FULL PERMS. Neither Belladona and me autorithed this decision, so we would like that any ppl receiving this box take care of use like freebie or resell. there a lot of work behind that and nobody has rights to sell. BD Design still alive and Janeforyou Barbara and Belladona Cordero still working and managing the company. I dont like that any of my friends or customer will be affected or damage for any consecuence of the bad use of this stuff so i would ask to everybody can receive that box, dont do any comercial use of that or prepare gift like freebie with that stuff. Brooklyn Canceled her SL account so probably she will no be affected for any legal decision about the bad use of the clothes.

thanks for your understanding and best regards
Dexter Kaupas

Please see this earlier post (Web) on this topic.

Homesick

My home, July 22, 2008. This is the snap that the Second Life^® viewer took when I set my Home point on that date. The land and it's contents changed little since then having evolved from some pretty humble origins into a warm, comforting place with a bit of whimsy.

This is my home today. Took all that was No Copy back into inventory, deleted all the copyable items, and changed the landscape. Now I'm a little dragon in a big world. I'll miss you, Whispering Big Pines. You were more than a home. You were a dream.

Thank you, Threshin. For everything.

My new home is located near my shop (SLurl) in Dolce Valentina.

Insilico Party

SLurl

Tree house designs by Tobias Novi

Tree house designs by Tobias Novi (SLurl) builds some very high-quality and unique dwellings, but not just for people in Second Life^®. As you can see in this picture, the store takes good care of some of our four-legged friends, too. Novi realizes it is not just a matter size, but of proper amenities, such as a bed with pose balls labeled "Squirrel Her" and "Get Squirrelled." The artwork is tasteful and plentiful. Working elevator, clever curtains in the doors, and more, all yours for under L$600. And if you really like it, you can get one in your size for under L$3000 (not squirrel feed, but affordable).

Skinny Swimming on my Reef

Melancholy struck again today as I swam on the reef I made at my home. When the original Swimmer by Siggy Romulus was killed by the Havok4 upgrade I was forced to rely on a swim AO and my skill mashing the Page Up and Page Down buttons while navigating and running a simple swimming anim or just hanging on the surface. Or I'd use some great "swim balls" that my friend Serenity found. More often I'd just sit on the seafloor to watch my fishies (exclusively from Splash; SLurl). Recently Siggy's swimmer was updated (SLurl; Web) so I've been having more fun, as you can see in the picture. I even play "dodge the piranha" in my mountain pond. But what makes me sad is that I have to go enjoy other fine swimming and diving areas in-world. But usually I can't do that butt-nekkid (again, see picture).

Happy Anniversary, Angela

One year ago today, you accepted my love, devotion, and collar, first allowing me to become your pet and then your wife. Thank you.

Too Busy To Enjoy

Creating a new prize hunt for the Isle of Lesbos, decorating for the Holidays and for a fashion show at the Isle plus running around grabbing some freebies has kept me rather busy. Too busy, I'm afraid, to spend as much time at my home as I wish I could. But news today means I have to make more time ... Home :::poofs::: on the 15th.

Content Theft: Brooklyn Designs

A former partner in Brooklyn Designs is giving out Full-Perm items from the shop in an effort to destroy the current business. The creators are BellaDonna Cordero and/or Dexter Kaupas. Watch for the following culprits:

Brooklyn Rickena
AngelMia Nightfire
CaraMia Hanna

This information is from the current business owners: Janeforyou Barbara and BellaDonna Cordero. Linden Labs has been notified and the legal paperwork has been started.

Flickr Pro Account

Home 30Nov2008 12
Originally uploaded by UccelloSL

Wooters! Or should I say "Yahoo!"? I now have a Flickr Pro account so look for more pics from me. Now I have to figure out how to put a Flickr Widget on the sidebar here.

Edit: I found after originally posting from within Flickr that I still have to access Blogger to add tags. Not sure how often I'll use Flickr for posting, but it's a nice option. Under the pic here, click the first link to visit the pic's page at Flickr or click the "UccelloSL" link to visit my main page at Flickr.

One of my Fifteen Minutes

Uccello Fanboy Here!

What? I popped in somewhere to help a friend stalk a Lucky Chair and that phrase greeted me. How does one react to that? Considering the number of folks out there that want to make my life miserable due to some perceived slight or something (often for getting ejected from the Isle of Lesbos for a rules violation), I ignored it for a while and investigated.

The comment came from Peter Stindberg, who eventually explained that he reads my blog (He reads my blog! OMG! Someone Reads My Blog!) and enjoys it. So I took some time and checked out his blog (Web) and was quite delighted. His posts are thoughtful, well written, and pretty interesting. It is nice to see someone that brings a sense of curiosity to their Second Life^®. Of particular interest was his post about shopping and prize hunts (Web). Hopefully he will post my comment. Or if he really likes me he will edit it so I sound like less of a loon.

A Winter Wonderland

Getting past the trite post title in 3, 2, 1 ...

The thought of decorating the Isle of Lesbos for Christmas left me apprehensive and depressed for some reason. Then events fell in place and before I knew it, I was done. Mostly. My Big Sister Threshin started decorating the landing area at IOL (SLurl; Women Only). Then she asked me to decorate at the ice skating pond, an area I first created when the Isle completed a sim server upgrade. I love this part of the resort despite the little use it has seen and not because I built it. If anyone else had built this same space I would enjoy it just as much for the tranquility, the quality, and the sense of great area in a small space.

The last event and the one that made the decorating a real joy was an Instant Message from another Lucky Kitty Crew (Web) member. A day or so earlier she had offered a free winter carousel to the first person in our group to contact her. I had just missed it at the time but when she got in touch with me she said she had found another and would let me have it. I was happy, expecting a simple affair probably suitable for a fireplace mantle at most. What I got was an extra large, extra grand piece that has become the focal point for the skating pond.

"Mostly," you may be wondering? I'm never done. I'd like to rework the hang glider area near the falls to the jungle. I found better snow angel animations. The pond could be bigger. Like any project I'm not really finished. I tweak and poke and prod at different times in an effort to keep the area (or any of my builds) fresh and interesting.

Art Sale @ PoP

My shop, now named the PoP Department Store, is having a HUGE art sale at the Isle of Lesbos Mall location (SLurl) only from now until Monday. Pieces regularly priced at L$25 are now just L$10 each.

Vint Falken & Parody

The "Free Accounts Pricing & Policy Changes" post (Web) by Vint Falken today created a storm in the group I belong to in-world. The premise of limiting 'free' account in Second Life® caused nearly all the group IMs to bing-bing in with folks screaming all over.

Then I scrolled to the bottom of Vint's post and read the disclaimer and told the world. Didn't seem to matter much. Everyone kept screaming. Gotta love good parody.

The Homestead

Word is that my home will :::poof::: in less than a month. Nothing is permanent, but I guess this is as good as it gets. Every time I think of tweaking or remodeling I stop, thinking "this is perfect." At most I'll upgrade a texture or replace one plant with a better one. Some of the best plants are from the basic Linden inventory, especially the grasses. I use them in all my builds. And I like a touch of whimsy. That boulder over the falls is a re-textured Luskwood cat head. I sit on my tire swing for long stretches, watching the fishies in the pond and soaking in the mountain air.

A bit closer in shows my giant frog from Wynx Whiplash and my cuddle raft. Mystical lights appear over the pond at night and the butterflies come out with a glow. Most of my pictures of my land are from this angle. The only structure is a fabulous gazebo filled with pillows and snuggles. I'm not big on houses, but if you were to fly up from here you'd find my airship. It has a living area, bed, and more. There is an empty lot next to mine and a few days after these pictures were taken I added a castle from the same company that made the gazebo. Just for fun. No furniture inside. It just looks right. Maybe I'll post pix of it later.

Go West, young woman. And you'll find the sim edge. Filling the void with water is probably most economical means for Linden Labs to make the Grid but it is very unnatural. Okies, okies ... we live in a virtual world. I love my beach, but on the other two or three sides I'd like to see more land. Don't ask me to change this view, though. This is a great place to swim and dive (I have a coral reef) and just plain relax.

My wife/partner and I are building a sim that will be just as beautiful, but in ways very different from my home. "My home." Sorry, Angela. I know we have a skybox in Dreams that is Home and the new sim is Home, too, but you understand what this place means to me. Remember your land in Novi?

The Oasis of Lesbos

Visit the Oasis of Lesbos in Second Life ^® (SLurl) to see for yourself!

Bugged a Blue Streak

As you can see from the pictures, something is amiss on the Grid^©®™. Not entirely sure when the sim first went blue. I had started landscaping using the Imprudence viewer (Totally fabulous so check it out; Web) but quickly logged out then back in with the standard viewer for reasons that are not important to the issue. I had been using a sim-sized megaprim textured with the land contours I wanted to help me sculpt the terrain and at one point when I moved the template away and turned off water rendering I noticed that the happy little sand was not so happy.


When I found a convenient stop point I took that first picture then teleported home and all was right as rain. Until something blinked, that is, and my home took on the same sickly hue. So I took another picture and logged out entirely, being sure to clear my Web and Network caches and logged back in to the service. Interestingly, the "Last Location" snap that greeted me was fine. And my home was once again a lush green (my friend/sister/landlord made an awesome grass texture for her sim). I went back to the first sim and all was fine once again. But now I have an interesting bug. I wonder if all my de-rendering/re-rendering of the water was the cause.

FYI, I'm working on that first sim because of what you might have caught in an earlier post (Web) about my new store location (Web). I'll post a new SLurl when I can. Someone's greed has put my schedule at least a week behind and has cost my Partner real world money.

Openspace: Consolidation & Theft?

One of the blogs that I follow (see sidebar) is Massively's coverage of Second Life®. Tateru Nino does a wonderful job of investigating deep issues and reporting on things that that really matter. Her latest (as of this moment) is "Second Life land loss escalates" (Web) where she reports

While a number of users have requested a consolidation of four Openspaces simulators into a single ordinary simulator (which would represent an overall net loss of three simulators per consolidation) there is no data available to suggest that any of the requested consolidations have yet been processed.

The Openspace issue wasn't terribly important to me until recently when my wife rented one for us. Then without knowing, we learned about the consolidation first-hand. Here's my comment on the Massively post:

Turkey Leg Hunt

The Lucky Kitty Crew blog (Web) got the scoop yesterday, but today is the official start of the 2008 Isle of Lesbos Turkey Leg Hunt. Click the Web link above for more information.

Bugged Again

Did I mention the fun I had with bugs yesterday? This hole in the sea was only the second of many. Triangles with variable geometry with one point always on my head plagued me, curtains of water shooting up from the sea along a plane parallel to me and measuring the width of the sim, and my neck stretching beyond all proportions were just the more amusing ones.

No, I didn't bother filing a bug report on the JIRA (Web). My experience is that others will do one or more of several things: (1) Close the report so they can file their own and claim to be first; (2) Close the report claiming a bogus and ineffectual solution that the nOOb filing the report should have seen; (3) Comment "Me, too!" loud and proud but without any documentation or details about their computer/software. I've seen these things happen to many reports, not just my own. I wonder who these critters that seem to live in the JIRA really are, but like those that haunt the Official Blog (Web) comments and the forums I doubt many spend much quality time in-world. Rather they make the Web attachments to the Grid their bailiwick. Would this be a Third Life?

I rebooted my computer and all was fine. The Activity Monitor on my iMac shows a steady and unrecoverable memory leak when the Second Life^® viewer runs. I've been rebooting twice a day, minimum, since the latest viewer was made available. I haven't had to do this sort of thing since I had a PC. And I had the same bugs. I wonder when the stripes will return.

PoP ~ No Longer Secret

You may have noticed that like many in Second Life^®, I sell things that I make. It's pretty modest because I'd rather create than sell. So for a couple years The Poultry Co. has marketed skins, furniture, landscaping items, and more. Partly out of boredom and partly out of a need to accumulate more wealth ... um ... earn a bit more money ... I've started re-branding as PoP, a department store. I'll be focusing more heavily on landscaping and clothes as well as offering a few more conventional goods. What I'm excited about is I'll be offering services, such as making custom teleporters and creating prize hunts.

Another reason for the changes I can thank my loving wife for: Angela has recently rented a sim for her business (Dream Images Skins and Shapes) and we'll be having a grand opening in about two weeks.

But I have a lot of my stuff in place now and I'm proud of the custom store that I built. So drop into Cote Azure (SLurl) soon and take a look. Not everything is in place, but enough for a 'soft opening' today. I'm pretty pleased with the landscaping I did. Angela supplied the textures and otherwise let me run wild. The infrastructure is also custom designed and built by me. Some of it may change by the grand opening, but not by much (I hope).


Look for expansion of the MicroSTUFF brand, too, my line of goods for tinies. These will also be available at Hug✩Mart(SLurl). And my line of Erotic Art will still be available in the Isle of Lesbos Mall (SLurl), probably under the old company name.

My Mix'n Match Post

After some unintentional delay, my post for the Mix'n Match is now up at Torley's own blog (Web).

Can SL and RL truly be seperate from each other?

Here is the Mix'n Match blog swap (Web) post from Stuart Warf of The Insane Life of Stuart Warf (Web).

When I was assigned this topic of "Can SL and RL be truly kept separate?" My instant reaction was to say that they can't be separate. In the current state of technology it is hard to keep something like SL and RL separate. But then it dawned on me that my situation isn't entirely the same as others in Second Life.

Now there are many reasons why somebody would want to keep their Second Life separate from their Real Life. A simple example of this could be that the person just wants their right to privacy. There are multiple reasons why an avatar would want privacy though. Someone could have a high profile job in some area and want Second Life as an escape without anyone finding out who they are. Some companies do have policies that require them to say who they work for in their contract which can cause all sorts of issues and see it fitting to just not mention who they are in order to maintain a simple life and escape.

In todays digital climate it's hard for someone to keep their real life identity a secret once they have revealed it, thanks to things like Google. So people who are aware of this decide to just keep their real life information separate from their virtual life.

Another way in which SL and RL can be separate is via roleplaying sims where you can act out a different life as a character and interact with a world. Examples of this could be the fantasy world of Avillion or the Star Wars world of Little Mos Eisley.

However there are many beinifits to not keeping SL and RL separate. Depending on what you do outside of the virtual world, you can be more open about who you are as a person in reality. A great example of where this typically happens in social networks like Facebook. Social networks like these can help you get to know your SL friends more and maybe even make new friends.

Other ways to interact with other avatars are microblogging websites such as Twitter and Plurk. Not only can these services give you another communication window into peoples lives.

When I look at who are probably the most open of avatars in Second Life I think these people are the podcasters, bloggers and active community members. Podcasters love to talk openly about things which says to me that they are also open in Real Life about their Second Lives.

Personally I think that SL and RL can be separate if you really try it but you limit yourself to what you can do in the virtual world. What I mean by being limited is that you miss out on a lot of the things you could enjoy in the world. If your trying to cut your real life off and be someone totally different in Second Life then ultimately it won't last forever. You can easily not tell people your in Second Life in real life but that can cause problems and that's why I figured that when I entered the world, I'd talk about it to friends and family.

Another thing that I've found while being in the virtual worlds is that aspects of it changed me in real life. I have become increasingly confident towards people (and I know that this has also happened to friends on mine in Second Life as well) and I truly believe that because of things like this that SL and RL cannot be separate.

How To: #73589 in a Series - Measuring

How do you find a building's footprint when the signs don't include that information? Measure it! This could be tricky in a No Build area so here is what I did:
I attached a 20x20x0.50 Megaprim to my stomach and walked inside the building. This was good enough but I could have added a grid texture to be fancy. Be careful doing this, though. Megaprims attached to avies can be considered griefing (Web; Web).

I rather liked this small castle from Lapin Feu Prefab Castles & Fish (SLurl). One of this company's gazebos is a centerpiece at my home. Texturing is awesome and there are some clever tricks in the builds.

PoP (Still Secret)

:::runs around giggling madly while she shifts a whole world through the aether::: La La La a tree here a tree there trees trees everywhere :::prances off looking for more Mountain Dew::::

PoP (Secret)

Shhh ... secret project. Busy, busy, busy. :::giggles like a woman who has had too little sleep and too much Mountain Dew:::

Openspace Protest Note

I got this from Vint Falken (Web)

Creamshop Pictures

After reading about a new retail space called Creamshop (SLurl; sources Web & Web) I was intrigued enough to visit. Normally I don't hang out in malls or shops, but with the continuing trend to make shopping an an environmental experience means that there are some really good builds out there. Most seem to favor a grungy, post-apocalyptic them (like Little Heaven, SLurl) and Creamshop is no exception.

You begin your experience in a sewer and wander out to see a partially flooded cityscape, awash in rain and the beginnings of decay. Despite the appearance that there are many shops it is really just one divided up by product type into store fronts, again following the general design trend I mentioned. And holding to this form is the obligatory appearance of blood smears and ominous signs of a horror movie set.

If it sounds as if I don't like the place, well ... I don't. It is a very well designed and executed concept (too many annoying texture flickers from overlapping prims) but I'm not big on dark and dismal. And since there are so many environments like this in-world now I had rather hoped for something more unique. And, as expected, the products fit the shopping center theme. Most of it looked very good, but certainly not my style.

So the post title implies multiple pictures ... that was to suck you in. Go to Creamshop and look around. Poke in all the corners and wander into spots you might not think have any items for sale. Even if your tastes are similar to mine the visit is still worth your time.

My Favorite Workspace

Often I'll build someplace where my presence will boost traffic figures (so long as I have build rights and the land owner's permission, of course) but I love working on some projects at my home. It is a comfortable, lightly forested environment with plenty of prims to use. The domes that you see at the Isle of Lesbos Mall (SLurl) were created here, for example. And I made Devil Cats here for a Halloween Prize Hunt (Web). I love my home.

Openspace & the Princeton Sims

There are very few landmarks in my Inventory as places often move and I just don't want to waste the space. But the Princeton University sims are in there. Wild, thought-provoking builds are the norm here. And you'll find this sign (SLurl).

:::sigh:::

My Thoughts on Openspace Sims

After Janeforyou Barbara, owner of the Isle of Lesbos properties, added the Oasis of Lesbos (SLurl; initially known as Monte San Leone) there was an empty spot in the sea just begging to have a fourth sim. It always frustrated me that I could see under the ground mesh of the existing sims and that I'd have to cross over a third sim to go between ones that touched only on corners. But it wasn't my land so what could I do?

Over time, activity on the Oasis evolved and focused more and more on jetskis, swimming, and boating, but the land-to-water ratio was high so there was not a lot of room for these activities. Then it hit me ... if Miss Jane added an Openspace sim she could have her yachts and boat races and the Isle could become a huge resort. One night I sent her a note card and sketch and even suggested the name. She must have liked the idea because about 12 hours later the Bay of Lesbos (SLurl) was delivered by Linden Labs^®. Now the Isle had a large expanse of water for sailing and a small island for occasional use. In my note suggesting the sim I stressed the prim limits and the idea of light use:

It is therefore important to understand what these regions are. They are provided for light use only, not for building, living in, renting as homes or use for events. As a stretch of open water for boating or a scenic wooded area they are fine, but we do not advise more serious use than this and will not respond to performance issues reported should you not use them in this way (Web).

I think a good balance of utility and asset conservation was struck in creating the Bay.

But now I feel bad about it. Along came the October 27^th announcement (Web) that Openspace pricing will increase. Apparently some folks are not using the sims as intended. I guess being given 3750 prims and then told to not build things is confusing especially when Linden Labs^® doesn't follow it's own recommendations (Web). Now due partly to this hipocracy I may have cost a good friend some money.

But it is also the fault of users. A friend of mine rents from Ansche Chung Studios (Web) and was told she could swap her small plot on a "regular" sim for an Openspace sim with the same number of prims but four times the space and for the same cost. What is not to love? When I told her about the published limitations that defined "light use" she was a bit confused that the sim owner never mentioned them. Nor is anything about "light use" limitations mentioned in a covenant for an "Openspace,Class 5,Protected View,FULL RIGHTS INCLUED" that my wife is looking at renting. In fact, the covenent starts with "Make your OWN RULES! DO WHATEVER YOU WANT" before discussing only what is pertinent to the estate owner.

The upshot for average residents like me? Ones who can barely afford rent (even the fab sweetheart deal I have) let alone live on an Openspace? There probably won't be a huge effect. Some businesses will move so we will need new landmarks. Others may decide to skip an in-world presence and deal only through XStreet or OnRez. Some folks we know that do live on an Openspace might have to pay more rent or move. All these things happen anyway. On the microeconomic scale this could be a tremor, not an earthquake.

New Cow Avie & Thoughts on Insurance

Willowbay Destiny makes some cute cow avies in association with AnthroXtacy (Web) so I had to get one (SLurl). Purple spots and hair, of course, as My Love likes that color. It is full Copy/Mod and this picture shows some of the mods I've already made like the white horns and streak-free hair. I'll do a few other mods, too, when I have the time. Probaby different hair styles and some jewelry. It comes some nice t-shirts and a good pair of shorts plus a couple funny gestures. Rezzing the box it comes in is fun, too. I did it several times for laughs before unpacking and then taking it back into my inventory for storage.

I especially like that it is full Copy so I can keep the original box in storage for if I accidentally delete a part, change one beyond repair, or (Heaven forbid) I have another massive inventory loss due to the ineptitude of Linden Labs^® to maintain database integrity. Holiday decorations, a dozen Wynx dragons, AKK horses, clothes ... I figured about L$20,000 of No Copy goods over the last year, all gone. So backups are good. I have tried commercially available inventory boxes (SLurl to the Thinc store for the box I have) to store items, thus reducing inventory, and the 'stuff a prim' idea promoted by the first edition of Second Life: The Official Guide (Web) only to find that the items no longer show in the database. The same book also recommends creating an alt to store your Transferable items.

That inventory could get borked, too, so once again I dream of Inventory Insurance. After all, you can buy insurance for your belongings in Real Life (iRL) so why not in Second Life^®, too? Determining fault for loss would be hard, sure, and documenting the original purchases would likely mean giving up information that some would consider private. Maybe someone out there has pockets deep enough to try this, though.

Second Life Bloggers Mix'n Match

A couple days ago I applied for the Second Life Bloggers Mix'n Match announced on Vint Falken's blog (Web) and on ArminasX Saiman's blog (Web) October 24^th. The idea is that participants will write a post on a topic they may not be familiar with at all for someone else's blog. Today I was pleased to learn that I was accepted! Stuart Warf of The Insane Life of Stuart Warf (Web) will be posting on my blog with the topic "Can SL and RL truly be kept separate from each other?" while I'll be writing on "the ways SL experience is affected by avatars connecting outside SL with sites like Plurk and Flickr" for Torley Linden's blog ... er ... it might be on the official SL blog (Web), actually. Not sure, but the assignment list (Web) shows that to be the case.

:::runs in circles all terrorfied:::

Yes, terrorfied! First thing that scared me is the topic, but after a little thought I figured I could handle it. After all I've heard of Plurk and I'm a subscriber to both Flickr and Twitter. Then I saw that I was to write for Torley Linden. Yes TORLEY! Cripes! In terms of SL fame he's way up the ladder. I guess he puts his pants on two legs at a time like the rest of us (What? You can't?) so I'm a bit less freaked, but there is still a bit of arrrrgghhh! happening. I hope he remembers the nice watermelon hammock I sent to him recently and thinks kind thoughts when he sees what I'll write. But then I saw that my writing will likely be on the Offcial Linden Blog.

:::more running around in circles like poultry from a barbecue:::

Okies. Breathing now (stole one of mom's portable oxygen bottles and left a note that I'd get it refilled). I've frequently posted comments so I'm not unknown on the blog. I've even had folks in-world contact me about my comments so maybe it won't be all bad.

:::faints with the question "Where'd I leave my tranqs?" on her mind:::

Look for the posts to appear November 12^th, all over the blogosphere.

Giving up Hostessing

Time to move on. I no longer host events at the Isle of Lesbos (SLurl). There will be events, I'm sure, but don't look for me. If you do go, please show your love to the DJs and hostesses by at least saying "thank you" though tips are nice.

You will still find me at the Isle, my second home, either working Security or just hanging out.

WB (Welcome Back)

Welcome back to me! It did take nearly two weeks for my computer to return from the shop and I missed my Second Life^® the whole time. But I'm glad I can wish all of you a Happy Halloween! Here is one of the many holiday outfits I banked up and never got to use but maybe I can flit about in them for a few days.

Look for more posts coming soon. I'm catching up on all the news I missed including the price increases on Open Space sims (Web), fun for bloggers (Web), and issues upon issues (Web).

Up and Out

Got the computer running after a dead spell but she's being taken in for service anyway. Warranty is up next month and the hard drive or the controller is going bad. Click Click Click upon waking up or booting and I get a question-mark-on-a-folder icon. I'll probably be iRL for a week. Gonna see if someone will buy me an iPod Touch so I can at least have e-mail. Huggs. Back ASAP.

The Zen of In-World Vocabulary

Kneeling to enjoy the sunset at Samurai Edo (SLurl) I let my mind wander and it alights upon a recurring thought ... where am I? Many in Second Life^® refer to being to being logged into the service as being online. I prefer to call it being in-world. When I am in-world I am in a different place very much like where I am physically, yet intensely different in so many ways. This is not being online. This is not a chat room or a Twitter conversation or a downloaded podcast. Being in-world is an experience. The waves wash ashore at my knees, dampening the remains of an abandoned boat. Part of me is sitting in a reasonably comfortable chair behind a plastic table that holds my iMac iRL. Most of me is on this beach. I'm in-world.

iRL? That is in Real Life. The physical world. Meatspace. Most people use all capital letters, but I like the unique elegance of a lowercase i followed by capitalized RL. It probably doesn't matter. But nomenclature in part defines one's being, whether it is iRL or in-world.

In-world, I am (today, at least) a katana-weilding, blue-skinned explorer with a few super-human abilities, resting on a Japanese beach. iRL, I am an unembellished, anthropophobic girl with a computer somewhere in the Pinetree State.

In-world is nice.

Prim Doodles

On May 9th of this year I posted this picture with some commentary (Web) about the build and some of my philosophy of building in Second Life^®. I have come to think of this building without a clear purpose to be Prim Doodling (hmmm let's copyright that). Much like one might sketch aimlessly on paper (or a desktop ... remember your school days?) I tend to do the same thing with prims, the materials that comprise in-world objects. Prims are my ink and paper.

This one finally became useful, though. While a a friend was doing some remodeling at the Isle of Lesbos beach I whistfully placed my pool at the edge and she decided it looked right there. Just a little tweaking of the land and of the build itself and it became (IMHO) a nice part of the land.