Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Topless Tuesday in a Blizzard

This is what I'm looking at outside today:


About 15" of snow in southeast Maine by Noon today, a bit more than an inch an hour. More is on the way in the next 12 hours. I really don't like snow. Nope.

This is what I want to be looking at today:

Click to embiggen or see it on Flickr here.
I want to be somewhere tropical with warm ocean water, a nice breeze, and a comfy tub to soak in when I feel like it. Being topless in the snow isn't nearly as much fun, I imagine. Happy Topless Tuesday!!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Mole Day 2015


BAY CITY, SL (26th January, 2015) - It’s nearly that time of year again when we look for furry little shadows. You do have your shadows enabled, no? It's not about groundhogs -- it's about the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works!

Initially honored in 2010 by Residents of Bay City, Mole Day is set aside to show appreciation for The Moles and their many contributions to Bay City and the rest of the Second Life™ Grid.

This year’s annual Mole Day will again take place at the Bay City Fairgrounds (SLurl) February 2nd commencing at 5:00 p.m. SLT. The event will feature DJ GoSpeed Racer of KONA stream followed by Marky Helstein performing live at 6:00 p.m. SLT.

"Moles" are members of The Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW). The LDPW is a program focused on improvements related to the experience of living on, or visiting the Linden Mainland. The LDPW organizes teams of Resident builders, artists, and scripters (the Moles!) to create new content on Linden Lab's behalf and to the benefit of all. These Residents have the last name “Mole.”

Moles essentially build all of the grid’s infrastructure: the public roads and railways, items in our coastal waterways and protected lands, and even larger scale projects like the Linden Homes regions, premium content and experiences, and much more.

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab® and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest group for Residents of Bay City.

For more information, or to participate in the event, please contact Marianne McCann.

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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Civic Regulation

A friend of mine bought some land in Zindra recently and one lot was an attractive beach front piece. With a good ground texture plus access to the ocean and a Linden road this seemed like a really good place to buy. However it suffers from Mainland diversity. Sure, I'm a champion of Mainland and the craziness which it generates, but I have to admit that my land is surrounded by nice neighbors with good taste in what they put on their land. Not so with the land heretofore mentioned.


On one side, as pictured above, is a sex club (Zindra, remember) with excessively large Full Bright signs, some in neon. The structure itself is fairly tasteful. The interior is very poorly put together, but you don't have to go look. If I drop my draw distance from 128m to 64m most of the building would disappear from this vantage point, but that's not a solution. It gets worse to the south.

That land across the road is a series of unfinished sky platforms and terrible fireworks 24/7 regardless of the day cycle. The latter I could live with. Not the sky platforms. They are more disruptive to the experience than are the bright signs on the other lot.

Mainland needs some regulation and I strongly feel that this would improve the Resident experience and possibly save Mainland, bringing in more revenue for The Lab. It has been done before. That his how Zindra was created. The Lab came along and told people "If you have adult activities such as sex clubs, shops with pornographic images, or other such content, you need to move to this new continent." To aid the mandatory move, The Lab swapped out land anywhere in SL with new land in Zindra. Early adopters and volunteers to go first got some favorable swaps. Others were simply forced.

A similar move could be done to separate residential and commercial land. I don't want my home next to a huge department store and I sure don't want my scenic landscaping next to Full Bright signs advertising boobs. Mind you, I like boobs, but sometimes it is better to conceal to reveal. To paraphrase the real estate mantra, "Atmosphere! Atmosphere! Atmosphere!" Harmonious districting of land would let those who wish to have attractive homes cluster together and set all the commercial properties together so shoppers and clubbers wouldn't have to wander all over for their needs.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A Pretty Picture

Very long story very short: The Real Life home care I've been doing for my mother has turned into Hospice care; from daily needs long term to just being comfortable and happy for what time is left. If I'm in-world at all, I'm probably AFK or logged in as a "getaway" alt for just a few minutes relaxation.

And now, a pretty picture!

Click to Embiggen. Taken at Barneys Bay (find it on a Map).

Thursday, January 8, 2015

What Changed in 8 Years?


Don't adjust your sets. CC Columbo is, indeed, orange. Thank the saints that our Irish-Catholic father can't see this. Coming back from visiting mom in Hospital today I took a wee nap after enjoying a Double Whopper and small fries and CC was at the computer. When I woke up, I found him tweaking his SLink hands and ears to match his new skin. Why the change, you might ask?


No change, really. This is the CC Columbo that I met up with when I logged into the Main Grid for the first time at very nearly the same spot in Nangrim. He was orange, wearing women's hair from Juicy La Jolla, free Linden clothes, and a dragon from Wynx Whiplash. This was known as his Eddie Izzard Period. Shortly after this picture was taken he transferred the dragon to me, gave me L$2000, gave me 16m2 of land, and sent me off into the world.

As you can see, he's got a new(er) dragon, better clothes, men's hair, and that new orange skin. Same old CC, though. Best. Brother. Ever!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Second Life Yearbook Photo Challenge

Strawberry Singh is back with blogger memes and I had a few minutes to kill, so ...

"Share an image of your Second Life avatar smiling for a yearbook photo" (orignal post here).

I decided to re-create my high school senior yearbook photo but thought "maybe I should't post a blank image." Since 5th grade my picture never appeared in school publications because I always refused to participate. Starting in 8th grade we all had to have our photos taken for security reasons. Sure, years after I was kidnapped,* they wanted a photo. Locking the school door after the fire started, I guess, or something like that. We all needed photos.

In my senior year we were all to go to a studio in town for those really nice formal sittings that seniors get, but since I wasn't going to do that I had to line up with the 11th graders and let the visiting photographer snap a pic and try to talk me into getting those cheesy portrait packs to give copies to friends and relatives. Didn't happen. It is very rare I even appear in the family photo album. One of the reasons I got a camera was so I could be behind it.

The funny part is, my senior picture got lost. The guy couldn't handle the concept of separating it from the juniors sets and managed to separate me all the way to the cutting room floor. So what I re-created for here is more or less what I looked like at the time. Set your Way Back Machines® for 2006.

Click to embiggen or see on Flickr.
You can't see it from here, but my hair was down to my butt. I wore the cheapest eyeglass frames possible, no makeup, and the only clean hoodie I had. In Real Life it was a zip-up bright green one whereas all my usual ones were dark colors. Sorry, but this one is blue. One of my many Disney t-shirts capped the outfit. Jewelry? I owned one necklace and no earrings. Since people could grab you by the necklace, I almost never wore it.

The photographer often commented "I'm glad you unzipped your jacket" while constantly leering at my chest and trying to take a few shots with my torso showing. One of his really nice Broncolor lights met an untimely death "by accident" while I was zipping my hoodie on my way off the auditorium stage where the pix were being taken. Oops. Maybe the most expensive leering he's done, I'm sure. At least he didn't cop a feel or I would have heard what a Mamiya 645 sounded like when hitting the hardwood.

Second Life should have a yearbook because every Profile photo is a special statement. Sometime when you are bored, perv some profiles and I think you'l agree.

*Read through the blog a bit and you'll learn about this.