Blog Stats

Can't say I've ever done this before, but other bloggers do, so ...

For some reason, a bad pic of me in a micro-bikini is still my most popular post. At this point for the month, "Osprey goes looking for Salazar" and "Years in Review: MySL" both have 111 views each. All this, BTW, doesn't count my own page views (I read past posts in my blog).

C'mon, Eire! Let's pull up those numbers for a native daughter!! Now, to figure out who I know in Russia and China and who the f@ck uses Firefox.

The Year of the Topless Tuesday!

The year 2013 will be memorable for many things, but for me I'll always treasure Topless Tuesday, the commemoration I (apparently) started on February 19th with posts on MySecondlife.com and on this blog. The idea was that women should be able to dress as men do, and that includes being able to not wear a shirt, blouse, sweater, or other top if they do not wish to do so wherever and whenever that men are not required to wear them.

Not long after, women all across Second Life started participating with their own Topless Tuesday (or "Happy TT") pix on the Feed as well as adding them to the Topless Tuesday in SL Flickr group I created. Even the Queen of Meme, Strawberry Singh, kicked in with an entry in September (see it here) on her blog.

Much of the time I try to save the more explicit of the posts for the Flickr group and my blog, but sometimes you will see The Girls "bustin' out" on the MySL Feed. Trying to keep those posts totally G-rated is rather the antithesis of the whole idea, but I know that some have certain preferences so I try ... unless the picture really calls for it.

With little success, a couple guys tried to start a Wiener Wednesday but after just a couple posts much of the female SL community simply passed out from "the vapors" and the Feed got quiet again. And there were several funny parody posts such as Marianne McCann's picture of her convertible sedan with the top down.

As someone who needs directions and goals to do most anything (I'm not easily led and I'm great at simply watching others be productive), the Topless Tuesday meme is something that keeps me going, especially since I had little else to keep me busy in Second Life during 2013. I hope you enjoyed my efforts in the spirit they were intended and, as I do, look forward to more Topless Tuesdays to come.

Year in Review: MySL

For the last however many days – it seems like forever, but Internet time is like that – the My Second Life feeds have been down and few people have been able to post pictures. As a means of keeping our community together it is nearly dead and just waiting to be buried. As with the year 2012, though, I spent a good part of my 2013 posting pictures and sharing my Second Life with friends and various hangers-on. Here's a sampling of my snapshots. I hope you enjoy them. Click the titles over the pictures to see the original posts.

Mole Day!

Dancing with Angela at Mole Day, an annual Bay City event honoring our friends the Moles from the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW). Tons of Moles turned out and a good time was had by all.

One Billion Rising (OBR)

Yes, I misspelled my name on my own shirt. But I was Greeter Lead for OBR, a worthwhile event iRL and iSL.

Modeling

My friend Kaelin makes some wonderful mesh avatars and I was thrilled when she asked me to model some of them for her. Check out my blog (here) for entries about her and the avatars.

Merlin and Death in the Forest of Kahruvel

On a couple of my several visits to the Forest of Karhuvel to do what I could for the investigation into the disappearance of Salazar Jack (see here for more info) I ran into Merlin (yes, that Merlin) and one time watched him talking to Death (I had a pic ready to post here but lost it).

Topless Tuesday

Apparently, I started Topless Tuesday.
The main thrust of this blog post was to point out that I hadn't accomplished anything of note in 2013. It seems, though, that I inaugurated the MySL feeds tradition on February 19 with the above image and this blog post.

Caturdays!!

I also used the MySL feeds to document Caturdays (sometimes Fursdays, too).

The Pouloco Station

My brother's Pouloco gas station in Bay City - Dennis (SLurl) was often featured on the MySL feeds by me and others. He's thinking of doing something different for 2014, with fewer dinosaurs, I hope.

Holidays

Holidays would often find me zipping around The Grid in some sort of themed outfit. Easter 2013 was Cabbit Time.

Griefers

My friend Marianne was often the target of griefing, sometimes intentionally, but like when the birds attacked her home lots of us rallied around and held Abuse Report parties. As a community, Bay City residents will do the same whenever ne'er do wells strike Our Fair City. Sometimes there's dancing.

One for the Guys

Not too long after Topless Tuesday started the guys started Wiener Wednesday. I helped.

Bay City Alliance Meetings

Lots of Bay City Alliance meetings. We start with Metrics, Moles, Servers, and Events. Then we move onto Food and sometimes Dancing or Food Fights.

Miss Bay City

My loving wife Angela reined as Miss Bay City for a year and was featured in the town's anniversary parade. With the help of Anthony, I put together a parade car for her and hired Kato to drive her. Sadly, I crashed and my account was locked so I couldn't actually be in the parade.

Towel Day!

May 25th was Towel Day, celebrating the life of author Douglas Adams.

Rodvik Sneaks Into Bay City

Filmmaker Drax helped Our Fearless Leader Rodvik Linden sneak into Bay City but a crowd quickly formed. By the way, Rod? You still owe me a bear.

Fireworks!

The skies of Livingtree caught fire every week over the Summer and I attended whenever I could if only to see if "this time" Marianne would finally burn down the school building.

Relaxing

MySL was a great way to document all the times I just hung out. Which was often.

SL10B

Second Life's 10th Birthday Party was amazing, at least what I saw of it. I was banned for doing mySL10B job someone who claimed to be a good friend. The same person who trained me to do what I was doing that got me fired. Really made the whole event suck. But I visited some highlights like this history walk by Marianne McCann.

Boobies!

During 2013 I upgraded my "implants" in SL because I like the look and I'm this big iRL, too, so I wound up taking lots of pictures of me and The Girls for the MySL feed. Look for more next year, of course.

CC Columbo

My brother CC pops in as himself now and then, though usually he hangs out in Caladon in his other avatar. We have one computer that runs SL fairly well and one that is rather poor at it but sometimes we can hang out together.

A Nice Pair

Lots of boobies pictures from me on MySL in 2013, but I tried to keep them funny.

Hot Bay City Nights

Another event in Bay City is the annual Hot Bay City Nights. It's a car show, a car wash, a dance, and a Miss Bay City Pageant, too. Money raised at this and many other events in Our Fair city go to childsplay.org

There are about a dozen more pictures I singled out from my snaps bin, but this post has gone on long enough and you can review my blog (here) and on Flickr (here) to see lots of what I might have posted on MySL because I'd often put the best of them in other places. What you should really be doing is going out and making your own memories in Second Life.

A Visit from Rodvik (with apologies to Mr. Moore)

A long-standing tradition since 2011, Bay City's own resident poet (brewer, newspaper publisher, insurance agent, arsonist, spammer) Ever Dreamscape has posted to the MySL feed her rendering (in both senses of the word) of the classic Clement Clarke Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas. This year, she has graciously (or at least as payment for posting lewd pictures of me that I myself totally posted hitherto fore) is her epic ode, A Visit from Roderick.

A Visit from Rodvik

Twas the night before Christmas and all thro' the lot,
Not a creature on radar not even a bot.
The stockings were rezzed by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Rodvik soon would be there.
The moles were nestled all snug in their dens,
While visions of mesh danc'd in their heads.

My alt, who was ruthed, and I in bald cap,
Were just logging off for a long restart's nap.
When out on the sculpty lawn there arose such a clatter,
I stood from my totally G rated bed (honest”) to see who was griefing me this time!

Away to the teleport I flew like a flash,
Clicked on my mini map, and waited to crash.
I turned up my draw distance and opened an AR,
With graphics on high I could really cam far.
When what to my V3.67891-2a did soon rez,
But a sleigh full of prims and eight noobs (one wearing a fez)

With a Gorean driver, wearing a pixelated stick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Rodvick.
More rabid than vampires his coursers they came,
And he gestured, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
Now! dasher101 now! dancer22 now! prancertheromancer13 and hotchickvixen24
On! cometcutie92 on! cupid4U69 on! donder95 and blitzenishawt;

"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
"Now animate! Animate! Animate all!"
So up to the skybox the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of premium gifts — and St. Rodvick too:
And then in a frame, I heard on the roof
The freebie clicky heels of each little goof.
As I opened my pan zoom, and was camming around,
Down the teleport St. Rodvick rezzed with a bound:

A new shopping bag was rezzed on his head,
And he look'd like a newbie confused and full of dread:
He was skinny and tall, sliders raised %100
And I activated my laugh gesture, a move I'd lament;
A wink of his eye, wow he must have a face animation
Made me wonder if I 'd be better off gaming on Playstation.

Not a chat or IM, he went straight to his work, 
And rezzed freebie crap all over; wow what a jerk,
And after his avatar had seemingly froze
He walked into a wall, then up the teleport he rose.
He sat on his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I then heard him shout, ere he drove off the sim
Happy Second Life to all, don't leave for Skyrim!

Happy Caturday!

A few more days til Christmas and this kitty is all ready ... are you?

Happy Caturday Before Christmas!

Something About A Tux

The brother I often mention in this blog is a Freemason and for a while he was an officer in his lodge. That meant he owned a tuxedo (the "tails" type, specifically) and wore it often. He looked pretty good and maybe that's where I got my "thing" for tuxes. Or from penguins. Not sure. But I have a couple for myself in Second Life (tuxes and penguins, but that's another story) and today that number increased by one when my friend Drew dropped a very nice (and probably very expensive) Hoornebeek's (SLurl) mesh set on me for Christmas. Totally unexpected and though I've been a good girl, totally not deserved, I'm sure. Thank you, Drew! It looks fantastic (if I may brag and take some credit).

I had to stuff The Girls into a special bra so the outfit would fit, but I think I carry it off.

The mobile phone was included. Other items not pictured: Really nice shoes/socks; a functional watch with alarm feature that could be a twin of the Rolex my father wore; aviator-style sunglasses with built-in gadgets; an open collar with un-tied tie option; open or closed or no jacket options, too.

I think my wife is due for a bit of dancing soon, and so are you, Drew, if you'd like!

Merry Christmas from Angela & Uccie

Yes, Angela picked that expression. She's a playful imp.

Osprey goes looking for Salazar

Today just after 1:00 PM (SLT), several intrepid explorers led by Osprey Therian (MySL or Twitter) entered the Forest of Kahruvel Anomaly (SLurl) as part of an effort to find and retrieve the long-lost Salazar Jack. Here is my photo record of the event. As electronic devices in the area were disabled or otherwise rendered useless, I used an old film camera to shoot transparencies. These I scanned and enhanced to compensate for the gloomy, rainy weather and to add recordings from my Viewer User Interface. When the anomaly collapsed, even my mechanical film camera stopped – I ran out of film.

The Exploration Team (Osprey, Fenix, & Gomi) with some of the Base Team (Valdora, Cessadia, and Holocluck).

Well-wishers and friends.
In the foreground is Shigeko Tachikawa. She has recently returned from an adventure inside the anomaly (see here).

Fenix Eldrich and Gomi Mfume enter the anomaly after Osprey disappeared.
Holocluck Henly monitors.

Click any image for a larger version. Visit kahruvel.com for more information

Winter Season Challenge from Strawberry

It's friggin' cold outside as I write this – 34ºF with damp air as the ground gives up the moisture of the weekend's rains – but 70ºF inside the house with a breeze from the ceiling fan. For some reason, that feels cold. This year I find myself agreeing more and more with my elderly mother: It's f*ing cold!! Yes, she's as "colorful" as only an 80-year old woman can be. That's about the only amusing thing about Winter so far. I don't like Winter and I was really tempted to skip Strawberry Singh's meme this week (original here) but otherwise I doubt I'd blog anything today. In her post she thanks bloggers "that still do my memes" but I should thank her for leading the way.

Meme Instructions: Take a wintery picture and/or answer the following questions about the season. Don’t forget to leave a link to your post in the comments and share your picture in the Blog Memes Flickr Group.

One of my favorite builds over the years at the Isle of Lesbos was Lofn Skadi, a small lake dedicated to an original builder on the Isle. For the two years it existed I added Christmassy items to the skating hut at the end of the seasonally frozen lake.

What is the December/Winter season like where you live? Cold. I live on the seacoast of Maine so our snows will vary widely from just a dusting to several feet if a Nor'easter hits. Fortunately we pay someone to plow us out so I have very little shoveling to do ... mostly cleanup of the wheelchair ramp and the part of the driveway Mom has to traverse. Snows usually hit in February through March so we don't always have a White Christmas.

When you think of winter, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Spring. I would much rather have the chill of a Spring morning followed by a temperate day than most any part of Winter. Of course, I'd rather be on the cold side than outright hot. Heat makes my body turn to liquid and I sweat like a pig without the pleasant bacony smell that accompanies. Sadly, Spring comes late here. The earlier start of Spring in Central Pennsylvania, where I grew up, is something I miss. Instead of March, I have to wait till later in April.

Have you ever played any extreme winter sports? Ultimate (Frisbee) in snowbanks. One day my brother dragged me out to shovel snow, I thought, but we wound up tossing a Frisbee up and down our closed street. Local kids would join in and some younger adults. Hardest physical effort ever, really, but fun so we did that whenever we could. My brother's health isn't what it was so in the last few years we've simply tossed a disc back and forth on shoveling breaks or waiting for the car to warm up.

What do you like most about this season? Maine (almost all of New England, really) is so beautiful after a fresh snow. Then again, Maine is rather lovely even with bare trees and ground. It's the abundance of pine trees we have. I can still see green stuff even in the depths of this miserable season.

Do you celebrate Christmas, Hannukkah, Kwanzaa or another holiday during this time of year? Christmas. Nothing fancy. Mom usually gives us our prezzies way early. I got an iPad Air last month (we all got new ones) and I have a Winter coat coming my way. Haven't owned one since I was a pre-teen, preferring to layer sweaters and sweatshirts and flannels. Some friends usually pop over for a light meal and to exchange gifts. We decorate on or about the 15th of each December, usually just the living room. Mom has a custom 4'-tall ceramic Christmas tree, lit from within so little plastic bulbs glow. And she has a 15" ceramic tree with bulbs and doves, one for each person important to her that has passed away.

The last Christmas at Lesbos. I'd waddle around in my penguin avatar whapping Meeroos with a large herring. The boss loved to decorate for Christmas. She's from Florida so she doesn't know that this is supposed to be a miserable time when we all pay penance buried deep in frozen water with the only joy coming on the one day we go inside from the torture to sit around a dying tree that can't be kept near a heater lest it catch fire and roast us all.
Happy Christmas, Everyone!

The Geeky Meme

After I spend all Saturday glued to the TV watching hour upon hour of Doctor Who, of course Strawberry hit us with a rather timely meme ... The Geeky Meme!

Meme Instructions: Create an image depicting what you consider to be geeky/nerdy/dorky and/or answer the following questions! Don’t forget to leave a link to your post in the comments and if you do a picture for this meme, feel free to share it in the blog memes flickr group.

What do you consider yourself to be? Geek? Nerd? Dork? None of the above? All of the above? – Based on the definitions supplied by Strawberry in her blog post ... Geek sounds about right, but I don't know about smart. Nerd is almost spot on as I fear being near people and I've tested as having a very high IQ (but am without a clue as how to use it). Dork is as dork does, I guess, and I've been called one.

What was the first computer you ever owned? – Owned? Wow. An old Palm Pilot Color, a hand-me-down from my brother when he got a Sony running Palm OS. I've never owned what one might call a traditional computer, even today, but rather I've shared computers with my brother (he raised me) who almost never got rid of a computer. I've used a now-ancient 8088 PC and currently use a late-2009 27" iMac. At this time I "own" an Apple iPod Touch and an Apple iPad Air.

When and how did you first get on the internet? – I don't remember ever not having the Internet so I'd have to answer "As soon as I was sat in front of a computer." I was too young to really use it, but I had an AOL log-in.

Which geek fandom do you subscribe to? – None in particular. Like Strawberry, I enjoy Harry Potter and other "famous" randoms. A couple not typically subscribed to by the general populace: The dragon novels by Naomi Novik and Kim Harrison's Hollows books. Also on my reading list are more mainstream authors like Asimov, Clarke, Pournelle, Niven, Bear, and more.

Star Trek or Star Wars? – Both, and add in Battlestar Galactica to round out the Space group. I rather enjoy Doctor Who, as well, and most Sci-Fi on TV and in movies.

How Geeky Are You? –

Hoorah!! Take that, Norms!!
(And take the quiz here.)

SL Premium Gift Winter 2013

The Lab has updated the Premium Gift! You may recall that previous editions have been mostly vehicles (see here) that have eventually gone on to be items you could buy via Amazon. com (like this set). This gift is themed for Winter holidays – Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah (though you can't tell by the spelling of some object names that the latter holiday was included – The Lab has typos, too) – with decorated trees, wrapped presents (empty), themed bears, and even whole dressed dining tables brimming with food. I hopped to my favorite Premium Gift Kiosk (SLurl) and grabbed my set as soon as I could.

Included in the box I got was a note card with some helpful information:

Happy Holidays! 

This set includes tables and chairs for three different scrumptious dinners, plus other holiday decor! Everything can be copied as many times as you wish. 

The dining sets are "coalesced" objects -- each is a table and six chairs, coalesced into one inventory item with the proper chairs-to-table relationship. Once you've rezzed the table and chairs, you can move chairs around, or remove some if you don't have five other people for dinner. See the article on coalesced objects at: 

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Building-tips/ta-p/700041#Section_.1

The "Ham Dinner" has a Land Impact value of 20; the "Brisket Dinner" has a LI value of 19; and the "Turkey Dinner" has a LI value of 16 (very low-fat!). You can light or extinguish the candles on the tables (and on the other decor items) by clicking on their wicks. 

Separate from the dinner tables are some other decor items -- candles, a menorah, a poinsettia, a garland and wreath; a variety of gift boxes to scatter about, and two decorated trees. The "Lo Detail" tree has a Land Impact value of 15; the "Hi Detail" tree has a Land Impact value of 26. 

There is a family of holiday teddy bears, including two that have "carrying animations" -- when you Wear the "Holiday Teddy Girl" or "Holiday Teddy Boy" you'll be hugging them to your chest! 

And there's a "Holiday Hat" to wear while distributing presents!

There is an awful lot of stuff in the box. I can't fit it all on the screen!!

All items are No Mod (so no fitting the hat to your avatar) and No Transfer (so no using the boxes to wraps the presents you give out. You'll need a mesh-capable viewer (but who doesn't have one these days?) and a place to unpack the box. Since you are a Premium member, might as well hit Sandbox Bricker (SLurl) or use Search to find another.

Here are some pictures with my impressions in the captions:

The bears are cute. They are based on the ones created for the last SL birthday celebration by Bonnie Mole.

One of the dinner tables has a full perm item ... can you find it?

The seats are animated and most offer to attach a knife and fork when you sit. They poof when you stand.

I'm so friggin' hungry now. This looks so delicious I'd be tempted to leave it up all the time. Thank you, Ancient Mole!

The trees are nice. I might put one up at the Pouloco station. Thank you, Crazy Mole!

So, there you have it. Another nice prezzie for being a Premium member. I'd love to hear how you plan on using these items so leave a comment if you post pictures somewhere, let me know and I'll take a peek.