An Octopus and Dragons

An interesting post showed up Thursday on My Second Life (AKA, the Profile Feed or just The Feed): "There is a weird group on FB called "Second Lifers for Life" where oldbies wax on about how awesome the past was ..."

Not having Facebook or being terribly interested in drama I tuned out most of the comments but it got me thinking about the many magical moments I experienced when Second Life was still fairly new to me as Uccello Poultry. You see, I never really explored until hitting the Main Grid, more or less just hanging by myself on a lofty build platform high above the Teen Grid. Perhaps I've been in a nostalgic of late about my early Main Grid days and this post triggered more memories. Like the time last month when someone (I think it was NikoKito Aries, but I can't be sure) posted a picture of that classic orange octopus we have probably all seen.

Me from 2007 with my copy of the classic orange octopus.

It made me remember the time back in 2007 when I was out with my spanking new swim HUD and was exploring a coastline somewhere, headin for a dock with lots of kelp around it. Little did I know, that octopus was there. A glance out of the corner of my eye was enough to make me jump a little in my seat. It was actually a fright! After swimming away I eventually went back to look at this bit of magic and eventually I got a copy for myself. She was a frequent addition to many of my builds over the years. At the time I marveled at how it was made. Today I'm skilled enough to duplicated it and those with talent in mesh can certainly surpass it, but I don't think I'll have a moment like that again.

Draxtor's post initially brought to mind another experience. I was stunned. I cried. I laughed. I met dragons ...

This was probably late 2007 or early 2008 and I was stalking Lucky Chairs in a shopping center with quite a few of the prize givers. While walking from store-to-store, there in the center park area I saw two dragon statues. They were gorgeous. I walked up to them and all around them, looking everywhere I could. One was huge. All glossy black with Egyptian ornamentation. The smaller one was similarly themed. For several minutes I was admiring the prim work and wondering if I could ever get that good.

Then the big one spoke to me. "Hello!"

And I started to cry, overwhelmed with awe. It was an avatar! Magical.

Several more minutes passed before I could respond. The moment had me so choked up. Eventually, I learned that these were Anubis dragons and that there was a baby (Tiny) version as well, all creations of Daryth Kennedy from The Isle of Wyrms in Second Life. And as you can see above, I eventually got my own. Not everyone could get one back then, mind you. It took me a couple years of saving money and  trying a lottery they used to have, first buying a junior version of the big one (and I got the Tiny, too).

Today you can buy lovely sculpted and mesh dragons (and I have bought more than a few), each a treasure in their own right. But that first magical moment ... *sigh*

I still don't understand what is going on over on Facebook and I really don't care unless someone hurts my friends in the process. As a dragon, petty stuff is below me (dragons eat drama llamas). Find your magic, new or old, and that's all that matters.

Getting My Lazy Bahookie in Gear

No, I haven't blogged much of late. Only 13 posts in May after 15 posts in April, both well below my average, if you look at the Archive. I've just been totally lazy. Lots of things have not gone well in Second Life for me of late and it's just disheartening, taking away the fun and my desire to be in Our World. The other night I was actually thinking of just tossing in the towel.

Once, long ago (probably six years now), I saw something wondrous. It made me cry. I had been wandering around a shopping center documenting Lucky Chairs for a group I was in at the time when I saw some stylized obsidian dragon statues, all bedecked in Eygyptian-inspired finery. I wandered over to look at them more closely and suddenly one turned it's head to speake to me.

Mind you, I don't usually have my Preferences so that I always seen name tags over people's heads so I didn't realize that these were avatars ... Daryth Kennedy's Isle of Wyrms Anubis dragons, to be exact. The surprise and the beauty and the novelty overwhelmed me until I cried. For the longest time I couldn't respond to these marvelous creatures as I was too stunned to even move. It was pure, wondrous Second Life magic.

Eventually, I acquired my own complete set of the Anubis dragons (as seen in this older picture of me giving Angela a ride around on my back). I was part of the magic and I eagerly shared it with others, often parking myself in Ahern, Waterhead, and other places that attracted new Residents so they could experience the wonder, too. Since then I've added many other dragons to my collection including some truly massive ones that are stunning from not just size, but also from detail though none have the unique beauty of the Anubis.

In the last month too many disappointments piled up and took the enchantment out of Our World for me and led to those thoughts of finding other things to do ... then I saw something else truly marvelous.
I was flying around the Second Life 10th Birthday regions, just getting the lay of the land, when I crossed some lovely landscaping lush and green and filled with exotic ruins. Everything was well above average for even the higher quality of landscaping that has been appearing in SL of late but it was nothing to lift my mood. Then I turned a corner ...

PICTURE REMOVED FOR VARIOUS REASONS

... and I cried. My hands trembled so badly I had to just sit in my seat, staring at my monitor. It was wondrous. Mind you, my first look was in the standard Noon light of a Default day but the entirety of the experience was still so breathtaking. Some time passed before I could do anything but look. Since then I return often just to savor the view and relive my first visit.

On one such trip the other day I set to work to create an image for my desktop that would let me enjoy the moment even offline. This enhanced* picture only hints at the full majesty of this build from Flea Bussy and Toady Nakamura and it doesn't even give a clue as to the scale. Before hiding my avatar for this shot, I was a mere twig on the [redacted]'s [redacted body part], that's how big this is "in person." Far bigger than is needed for a mere event stage, this build is a joy to explore as well as look at from afar. When you visit, be sure to explore the hidden magic. I drop in every day now for a few minutes or more and still haven't seen everything.

Flea and Toady have rekindled at least some of the wonder that SL held for me at one time and it strengthens each time I see their work. It is helping me get off my bahookie and "get back in the game," as it were. There is magic out there. We just have to find it.

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* Combined elements from many different shots with different Windlight settings in an attempt to capture all the magical nuances.

The Dragons of Broken Leylands

Broken Leylands (SLurl) is home to some engaging caverns and where you find these entrances to the Underworld, you find dragons. At least when I was there the rocky nooks and crannies were crawling with these amazing reptiles. Being Irish, I can't help but be fascinated with them. Celtic dragons, of course, left the Isles during the time of Saint Patrick or were imprisoned by him. As the snakes return to Ireland, though, I fully expect the dragons to be seen again soon. Until then I'll haunt their homes in Second Life.

Special thanks to Kennylex Luckless for finding this spot to explore.

The Caturday Dragon

Sure, I normally wear my cat or neko avatars on Caturday, but I just had to try the sea dragon mod on my Seawolf dragon. It was pretty easy, actually, and I spent more time figuring out a good livery than I spent on the actual mod itself.

Checking out the wreck in the Bay of Lesbos. Some tasty fishes here.

My profile feed has a few more pix, some from the Glamoreal Sea (SLurl) where there are hundreds of fishes for dragons to eat. I'm worried, though, that since I did this on Caturday I might be branded an LOLdragon instead of being fierce.

Fae Dragon

At the Isle of Lesbos "Dungeons and Dragons" event today, someone admired my Anubis Dragon Hatchling from the Isle of Wyrms. I tried to find it on the SL Marketplace for them to get some specs but the only "hatchie" there was the Fae Dragon ... and I fell in love. So I had to splurge and get one for my wee pixy alt, Zyx Flux. My goodness, is it cute!

Zyx, surveying her domain, the Secret Garden at the Isle of Lesbos.

The flying animation is awesome! The legs retract unlike the Anubis hatchie that my "regular" avie wears.

It took a while to get the coloring right ... my pixies are usually a certain shade of blue. I love the wings as leaves rather than the dragonfly-style the humanoid pixies have. There is no manual in the box so I'm going to have to guess what a few of the HUD items do. It should be fun experimenting.

Maybe I'll get my "young adult" pixy Zyx Resident the next size up, the Wyrmling .... hmmm.

The Future for Avatars - Deformations FAQ

The following is reprinted with the kind permission of Daryth Kennedy from a note card received in-world:

Daryth and the rest of the Isle of Wyrms staff would very much appreciate your support for the JIRA issue:

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2374

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Avatars in Second Life have been evolving since the very beginning. If you’d like to see them continue to improve with more realistic movement and more artistic possibilities, please help by voting to support Deformations.

This is an issue that effects the future for all Avatar collectors and creators. Without official support, LL has plans to disable the uploading of future Deformation anims. Our aim is to fight to gain proper support from LL for deformations instead of letting this amazing tool be disabled.

__________________________________________________________

What are Deformations?

Deformations transform the appearance of an avatar beyond what

can normally be achieved via "Edit Appearance"

A deform animation can move a joint such as a knee or elbow to a different location, allowing for shapes and animations beyond the movement and size restrictions of

a basic human skeleton.

Why are Deformations important?

Both the Basilisk Dragons/Wyrmlings/Hatchlings and the Seawolf dragons use

deformations as a vital component of their construction. Neither sets of AVs could

look the way they do without Deformations.

*see Below the FAQ for a longer list of reasons to support Deformations*

Why is this JIRA important?

Although LL have agreed to respect existing content with respect to deformations

they plan to patch the route via which new deformations can be created thus making

it difficult/impossible for new content to use deformations. IF we can get LL to adopt

this JIRa then deformations, in some fashion, will become a supported part of the SL

experience and eligible for a few annoying bugs to be fixed.

Why is your vote so important?

Currently LL are primarily only concentrating on infrastructure work on SL. Several

Lindens have stated that work of this nature will only be undertaken if a JIRA receives

a lot of votes. Previous JIRAs have needed around 1000 votes in order to get LL to

sit-up and take notice.

We feel that this issue is much more than content created within the context of the

Isle of Wyrms and to that end IoW staff have been working closely with Seawolf staff

to raise awareness of this issue to both are communities and to other avatar creators

in Second Life.

What's this I hear about Gryphons?

Development is well underway and they'll be the next avatar available at the Isle of

Wyrms cathedral. Other creatures such as phoenix, chimeras, dragon turtles, and

hippogriff are also on the drawing board for later in the year.

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Six reasons to support Deformations

* Improves the overall appearance of SL * much like sculpties have, by increasing the potential for more realistic and artistic creations.

* They would help SL look less out-of-date * While LL is celebrating that SL is six years old, it also means the technology is at least six yeas out of date ... something like deformations will help bring SL back up to the animation level that people see & expect in 2009. All LL has to do with something like deformations is properly support it and the content creators will take care of the rest ...

* They allow for more out of the box thinking * For many people, being something other than human in a virtual world is simply a given: why be human when you could be ANYTHING else. Deformations allow for much more impressively created & animated avatars.

* They may even increase the appeal of SL to new players * or those that might have left, by allowing for a higher level of quality in animations and character design.

* Disabling the ability to use deforms wont solve the problem * If LL's concern is griefing or misuse, there's already a slew of ugly deform anims in SL, pulling the plug on any new ones isn't going to make the griefing go away. Its just like any other tool in SL, there's always people who are going to abuse them, the root of the problem is the people themselves not the tool they use.

* LL can claim its a feature and not just another bug * They won't have to do a lot of work for something that appears to add "new" functionality - just clean up the functionality of something that's already there.

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Useful Links:

The main JIRA issue:

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-2374

The Council forum post for info & updates:

http://www.daryth.com/council/showthread.php?t=2878

Stickman Ingmann's page on how to vote for a JIRA:

http://www.seawolf-monsters.com/wiki/KB/OtherIssues-JiraVoting

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Thank you for your time and your vote

Dragon Love

I love my Seawolf Ancient Dragon. She is simply gorgeous, which means superior textures and design. Well worth every penny my wife paid for it (L$2,400 at SLurl). Here I am in the Aggro region, described by me to a new dragon as " ... a fabulous region to explore if you haven't done so already. Cleverly built and just gorgeous. Perfect for trying out your new dragon."

There are a ton of customization options ("Quite a lot," according to the Wiki) for colors, textures, body parts, and more. Combined with facial expressions and animation options, very few people should have a dragon much like yours. But the Ancient is huge! The Adult (L$1,800) is about half the size of the Ancient and the Juvenile ($1,200) is about half the size of the Adult.

And each comes with a bipedal version! Don't look to wear clothes with this one, but it has all the same customization options as the quadrupedal dragon. Just supply an Animation Override so you aren't duck-walking and off you go. My AO has swimming animations for when I'm in Linden water, but he quad avie doesn't need that. It makes a satisfying splash when landing in water and swims beautifully.

So if you arrive at the Isle of Lesbos (women only; SLurl) one day and see a dragon hiding in the woods, say "Hi" but tread lightly ... I'm a Security Dragon!

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.

Distracting Architecture

Once again I found an unfamiliar landmark in my Inventory so being foolhardy I tele-s'plored and found myself at OnCom in a store that was so well designed and built that I never noticed what they sold (SLurl). The floor is fabulous. Great use of textures and Glow. And this dragon is very, very cool. I must remember to pop back and check out the rest of the sim some day.