I'm an LOLcat

Based on a quiz (Web) to see which LOLcat I am, it seems I am a ...

SurpriseAdoption Cat

47% Affectionate, 58% Excitable, 49% Hungry

Calloused. Heartless. Exuberant. You carry the heavy burden of informing children that they are adopted by jumping out of their birthday cake. A difficult task, but somebody must break the news to children on their only day of happiness.

Learn more about LOLcats here.

Freebie with a Cause

Due to inventory size and lack of time, among other factors, I've gotten very choosy about the freebies I grab. But when I see one that can promote a cause I believe in, I go for it. The free NO H8 face art and duct tape pack from Ryker Beck's store Xodi (SLurl) is just such an item. This blog is not the place to go into the details of the cause (check here if you want to know more) but consider the real value of a freebie in your inventory. Does it just take up space or does it make a difference?

Happy Happy Hippos

Seawolf Monsters (SLurl) has hippo avies! These fabulous beasties are well-crafted in the tradition of the Seawolf dragons (Web) and given away free in hopes you will support the drive to keep deformations (Web) by voting for the Allow Deformations by Reading Position Information in BVH Files/Animations JIRA (Web). Technically, deformations are a bug in Second Life that creators have exploited to create some fabulous avatars. And thank goodness for them. Here I am with Shilo (on the right) cavorting near Waterhead after dressing our hippos. Without the bug we would have had to cavort as ourselves! Sure, that would have been fun, too, but being hippos made it even more fun. Go get yours and vote vote vote!

The Disappearing Grid

Standing security watch at the Isle of Lesbos means I get to see plenty of pretty girls but I also see plenty of Tester bots (Web). When one appears it is a sure sign to check the Grid Status Reports (Web). Many recent reports are about region visibility issues, something that the Isle has long complained about with little attention and no remedy. From the main entrance of Lesbos three of the six regions can easily be seen so when they "turn off" it is very obvious. What is really happening is that it is the Isle itself, more often than not, that disconnects. The Minimap flickers red indicating a change and in an instant the other regions disappear or appear from view. Teleports work to them but teleports back are hit or miss.

The other night I teleported to the mall region to check on it while it was gone from view then teleported back. I could see the Isle from the mall so thought nothing was wrong. But once again my avie got stuck (Web). I saw myself on the Isle but I couldn't stand on the ground without sinking. And while others could see my chat as if I was on the Isle, I saw chat as if I was on the mall. In effect, my camera moved to the Isle with my body but my actual presence was still in the mall. Eventually my two halves snapped back together, but it was annoying.

And I imagine it is playing havoc with traffic numbers and in-world commerce. Despite assurances that teleports aren't affected, I often hear from others that they couldn't directly access the Isle but had to pass through an adjacent region. While grid stability is vastly improved over the last two years it is clear that more work is needed.

SL6B: Opinions, please

If you've seen my SL6B Flickr stream you may have seen panels in build that were textured with images of attractive models and celebs. These are being replaced with images of the Isle properties (as shown above on the right side panel), informational graphics about the LGBT culture, and portraits of people connected to the Isle. Each will cycle textures (probably) and the LGBT panels will be clickable for further information. I need opinions, however, on whether the portraits should be full-color or black & white. A sort of compromise could be met, too, by toning the latter style, probably "selenium" to contrast all the orange in the build.

Please leave a comment on this post or Plurk users can reach me here.