Apparently I Need Friends

Look what just showed up in my email inbox:

They really aren't this blurry, I'm sure, but I confuzzled things to protect others.

Apparently The Lab thinks my alt need friends. I have no idea who these five people are or why they were chosen to be compatible with what amounts to a non-entity. The only Friends on her list are other alts and my brother. Her profile shows two Interests: Exploring and Flying. She belongs to only one group and has but two Picks in her Profile. Sure, this makes her sound lonely, but is it that noticeable?

This is just another sign that The Lab is steering Our World harder into the Social Media traffic stream and I find it annoying. I don't belong to Facebook, Google+, MySpace, or Twitter. Plurk hasn't seen me in about a year. I blog and sometimes post to Flickr. Does it sound like that avie wants to be social?

Oh, by the way? Three more such mails were in the Spam folder, on each for three other alts. And I got one, too, at my email address for this avie. I wonder if this is why I had a random Friend request waiting for me when I logged in just now? Based on that person's profile it might have been a noob just showing up here, but I'm preparing for more requests.

I checked a few of the profiles and can't say I'm eager to meet any of these folks, but I did notice that the Interests that we share are highlighted in their profiles. Until I erase mine, that is ...

Don't Taze Me, Brony!

Last week I listened to former US President Bill Clinton play the "Not My Job" game on Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me podcast (Web). As part of the game, he was asked about a real life phenomenon called Bronies: older, usually male fans of the cartoon My Little Pony and the "magic of friendship" it represents (Web).

Well, if it happens in RL, it happens in SL, so I did a quick search for "Bronies" and found Bronyville (SLurl) where I picked up my free beta avatar, started customizing it, messed up, looked for the non-existent directions card, watched the "Getting Started" video I thought I was smart enough to initially ignore, corrected my mistakes, then sent in an alt to do it right. So now I'm a pure white unicorn while my wee pixy alt is a pixybrony.

Uccello on the left and Zyx Flux on the right at the Lesbos Secret Garden.

I bought a rainbow mane and tail but used a unicorn horn that I had made a couple years ago. When I get around to it, I'll make a cel-shaded version to match the pony body. Zyx colored one of the several tail and mane combos included with the avie and added some wings that were in the Bronyville freebies section.

My mistakes? Mostly they centered on thinking the coloration HUD worked at all or worked in a certain way. I still can't get it to apply the "Cutie Marks" as shown in the video, but since everything is Copy/Mod, changing them by editing the linked prims was easy. Coloring the eyes and the body parts is nearly impossible without the HUD due to the way they are constructed. I'd recommend taking off the mane and the tail then using the HUD, attaching everything again and coloring/texturing the rest by editing. I'm sure that when the avie leaves beta status everything will be much easier.

One thing I didn't do since I'm not feeling very social lately is hang round with the many other Bronies at the shop. Each time I visited, though, there were at least a half-dozen of them, each uniquely kitted out and fun to see. You'll get plenty of ideas for customizing your look just by walking around. In addition to the numerous freebies I mentioned, several "shops" have some goodies to upgrade your avie, like the bits I bought, and the prices are pretty reasonable.

The Best Part of Tuesday

Sure, I got a lot done today, what with two loads of laundry, helping with grocery shopping, making three meals for my family, and a few other items keeping me from Second Life. But even when I could log in I managed to do my SL laundry (sorted clothes), packed away things to be stored, finished a new teleporter network for the Isle of Lesbos, and set up my Mouse Club for an upcoming event on the Isle. But the best part of my day? Hot tub nuzzles with my wife, Angela.

The hot tub at Lesbos has a great sunset view.

I really need to end my day like this more often.

The Duchy of Camelaird

I've been a fan of weapons from Punchinello Philin's Gryphon Lair for some time now and I love to visit his authentic medieval region, The Duchy of Camelaird (in Winterfell Gryphondale; SLurl). There he has beautifully laid out the pre-fabs that he also sells. While the buildings are probably too clean and unweathered, the landscape is very natural with appropriate vegetation harmoniously planted.

When you land you'll be in the Winterfell Haven structure, some 1202 prims (unfurnished) and only L$14,000 if you want your own copy or if you want to buy one for me. Several structures surround this common area, many suitable as residences. One is filled with vendors for weapons and the pre-fabs you see in the region.

Leaving the small village and heading toward what appears to be an older settlement, you'll find a healthy young crop. In the distance to your left you can see the top of the castle. On my back is my Gryphon Lair Zweihander sword ("Female Size" if you believe it), one of my favorite blades. Look close and you'll see a notch for the Orc I took down in Mystara.

Looking westward into the village, across the bridge from the castle (not shown)

Similar angle but from further out shows how compact the build really is despite the spacious feeling you get when walking around (no flying, probably for your own good as the region is damage enabled). The castle will take a while to explore so plan your day accordingly. And if you want to buy one of these for me, too, feel free.

I could sit at the base of the castle enjoying this view for a very long time, it is so beautiful.

So how did I find this place? First I map hopped from a near by region that has a shop for Gryphon Lair. Then I was given a landmark by my brother who did the same thing but does collect LMs. However, entering the region has been hit-or-miss as if it is closed to the public at times, maybe for the owner's role play activities. He's often there, but you'll probably see a ^ for Punchi on the Mini-Map, almost directly above where I'm sitting in that last picture, likely far up in a private build area.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to head back into the village to get some supplies ...

You can find an earlier, related story here.

My Sunday In-World

Lately I've been in a building mood but haven't really had a goal or an idea, so I've been puttering around the Isle of Lesbos making sure the trees are still in the ground, stray prims from others haven't gotten loose, and general maintenance. I've also finalized two tours of the Isle using the YavaScript tour pod system (SLurl). And I took some time to spruce up the newly renovated North Beach, home to my Teeny Bikini Bar by adding a spiral slide and some seating. While this sounds productive, it has been a rather lazy day over all.

When I first tried to activate shadows for this shot, everything turned black and I eventually crashed. No, that isn't the depth-of-field feature making part of the background blurry. The textures simply took longer to rez than I wanted to wait. But I did tweak the haze in the sky and set my graphics to Ultra.