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.