Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Flying Home
Posted on 5:21 PM by Unknown
Written 31 August, 2010
Flying Home
I did something stupid today. I booked my flight home on Orbitz. I found a cheap flight ($89 one way), got it set, and checked with Sweetie to make sure the time and day were okay. Then I booked it.
So why did I get a message four hours later saying I had booked the flight a week later than I thought?
I guess it was the subconscious thing. I couldn't bear to part from my dear Sweetie, so my finger jiggled or something. Or something.
Tonight I asked Sweetie to pick up some cilantro at the store on her way home from work. We had guacamole (thank you, Trader Joe's!) and I cut two steaks into thin strips and fried them with garlic. We stuffed steak and cilantro into warm flour tortillas, put the guac and some chips on our plates, and had a simple but tasty supper.
It made me think about how easily the two of us slip into domesticity. I roll out of bed in the morning and fix her breakfast and lunch and have supper ready (or at least ready to begin) when she gets home. I call and ask her to grab some cilantro on her way home. I take her car to get the oil changed or the brakes fixed. She puts a cooler on a spare video card I brought up because her eyesight is better than mine. We drive upstate on Saturday morning so she can make a bank deposit. She looks over my shoulder and rubs my back as I type this.
When it comes time to return home, I hate to go-- and yet I miss my house and am eager to get back to it. I live in two worlds. Well, three, including Second Life.
My house is too small for the both of us and her apartment is too small for the both of us. Real estate is expensive in New York, and we can't see how we could afford to buy a house together, even if I sold mine. But you know, while betwixt and between is perhaps not the ideal state of affairs, it works for us. I get to hold her in my arms and watch her go to sleep one week; the next, we lie down together in our prim bed in the House of 1000 Pleasures. One week I fix Mexican for her, the next week we tear ourselves away from our screens to go warm something-- anything-- up. We definitely eat better when we're together.
I thank my lucky stars for Second Life, for without it we wouldn't be together at all. Now at least, thanks to cheap airfare, we're physically together about one-quarter of the time. Being virtually together the other three quarters isn't ideal, but I'm grateful for it.
And so from now until I fly home, I'll just relish my time with Sweetie and fix her meals and watch her go to sleep and do my best not to step on the exploding lipsticks that litter the apartment.
Flying Home
I did something stupid today. I booked my flight home on Orbitz. I found a cheap flight ($89 one way), got it set, and checked with Sweetie to make sure the time and day were okay. Then I booked it.
So why did I get a message four hours later saying I had booked the flight a week later than I thought?
I guess it was the subconscious thing. I couldn't bear to part from my dear Sweetie, so my finger jiggled or something. Or something.
Tonight I asked Sweetie to pick up some cilantro at the store on her way home from work. We had guacamole (thank you, Trader Joe's!) and I cut two steaks into thin strips and fried them with garlic. We stuffed steak and cilantro into warm flour tortillas, put the guac and some chips on our plates, and had a simple but tasty supper.
It made me think about how easily the two of us slip into domesticity. I roll out of bed in the morning and fix her breakfast and lunch and have supper ready (or at least ready to begin) when she gets home. I call and ask her to grab some cilantro on her way home. I take her car to get the oil changed or the brakes fixed. She puts a cooler on a spare video card I brought up because her eyesight is better than mine. We drive upstate on Saturday morning so she can make a bank deposit. She looks over my shoulder and rubs my back as I type this.
When it comes time to return home, I hate to go-- and yet I miss my house and am eager to get back to it. I live in two worlds. Well, three, including Second Life.
My house is too small for the both of us and her apartment is too small for the both of us. Real estate is expensive in New York, and we can't see how we could afford to buy a house together, even if I sold mine. But you know, while betwixt and between is perhaps not the ideal state of affairs, it works for us. I get to hold her in my arms and watch her go to sleep one week; the next, we lie down together in our prim bed in the House of 1000 Pleasures. One week I fix Mexican for her, the next week we tear ourselves away from our screens to go warm something-- anything-- up. We definitely eat better when we're together.
I thank my lucky stars for Second Life, for without it we wouldn't be together at all. Now at least, thanks to cheap airfare, we're physically together about one-quarter of the time. Being virtually together the other three quarters isn't ideal, but I'm grateful for it.
And so from now until I fly home, I'll just relish my time with Sweetie and fix her meals and watch her go to sleep and do my best not to step on the exploding lipsticks that litter the apartment.
Please Take a Look at the Tabs
Posted on 1:42 PM by Unknown
Written 31 August, 2010
Please Take a Look at the Tabs
I've been working on the tabs all day and I INSIST you click on them. Now. Please. I'm waiting patiently while you do.
Patiently, I say.
Patiently.
In the tabs you'll find info about me and my Sweetie, our sims, and our builds. The New and Fave Posts tabs (just remember the two on the right) are updated weekly, so be sure to check them out every now and again.
I now declare this blog design complete-- except, of course, for Sweetie's tweaks. Which means it may turn into something completely different, like, oh, I don't know, a giant sword-swallowing robot or a fish that eats its own tale (I meant to type tail but tale somehow seems appropriate). While still being a blog, of course. Stay tuned.
Please Take a Look at the Tabs
I've been working on the tabs all day and I INSIST you click on them. Now. Please. I'm waiting patiently while you do.
Patiently, I say.
Patiently.
In the tabs you'll find info about me and my Sweetie, our sims, and our builds. The New and Fave Posts tabs (just remember the two on the right) are updated weekly, so be sure to check them out every now and again.
I now declare this blog design complete-- except, of course, for Sweetie's tweaks. Which means it may turn into something completely different, like, oh, I don't know, a giant sword-swallowing robot or a fish that eats its own tale (I meant to type tail but tale somehow seems appropriate). While still being a blog, of course. Stay tuned.
A Header For the Moment
Posted on 6:53 AM by Unknown
Written 31 August, 2010
A Header For the Moment
Last night Sweetie fell asleep while we were streaming the Keith Olbermann show. Lawrence O'Donnell was filling in for Keith, and he was being very weird, and I guess it just knocked her out.
I was up until the wee hours working on a header; at 2:30 am she woke and moved me to the side and began to work her magic on what I had done. I went to bed.
Sweetie, in a trance, worked a long time-- until her computer crashed. Had she saved her work? Don't ask.
This morning I finished my version of the new header. It will be interesting to see what she'll do with it tonight!
A Header For the Moment
Last night Sweetie fell asleep while we were streaming the Keith Olbermann show. Lawrence O'Donnell was filling in for Keith, and he was being very weird, and I guess it just knocked her out.
I was up until the wee hours working on a header; at 2:30 am she woke and moved me to the side and began to work her magic on what I had done. I went to bed.
Sweetie, in a trance, worked a long time-- until her computer crashed. Had she saved her work? Don't ask.
This morning I finished my version of the new header. It will be interesting to see what she'll do with it tonight!
Monday, August 30, 2010
The Blog Shapes Up
Posted on 11:05 PM by Unknown
Written 31 August, 2010
The Blog Shapes Up
It took some hours, but I now have my blog running in the new Blogger. I uploaded my own background and have hopefully set colors so they're not too distracting.
I'm working on the buttons at the top and putting off redoing the header logo.
The Blog Shapes Up
It took some hours, but I now have my blog running in the new Blogger. I uploaded my own background and have hopefully set colors so they're not too distracting.
I'm working on the buttons at the top and putting off redoing the header logo.
Sweetie Delivers!
Posted on 1:37 PM by Unknown
Written 30 August, 2010
Sweetie Delivers!
Yesterday, while I napped in air-conditioned bliss, Sweetie was hard at work, hovering over her keyboard and occasionally rubbing her hands together with glee.
When I awoke, she had taken the fledgling blog I had made in my real-life name and turned it into something really nice.
Today, inspired, I took a turn at the new Blogger templates with this blog. I'm not there yet, but you're now reading my blog migrated to the new template. To come: new or resized header picture; new background image, more work on colors and fonts.
For now, it's at least readable-- I hope.
Sweetie Delivers!
Yesterday, while I napped in air-conditioned bliss, Sweetie was hard at work, hovering over her keyboard and occasionally rubbing her hands together with glee.
When I awoke, she had taken the fledgling blog I had made in my real-life name and turned it into something really nice.
Today, inspired, I took a turn at the new Blogger templates with this blog. I'm not there yet, but you're now reading my blog migrated to the new template. To come: new or resized header picture; new background image, more work on colors and fonts.
For now, it's at least readable-- I hope.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Blogger Worries
Posted on 1:11 AM by Unknown
Written 29 August, 2010
Blogger Worries
Arrgh!
It's 4 am. I've been up since one, fooling with Blogger.
I tried the new templates, but the page elements didn't fit right; the larger pictures went right through them. And somehow I got two copies of all the blogs on the page and couldn't delete the second one.
And I wiped out the familiar yellow color along the left margin and can't get it back.
By searching the HTML code, I finally zapped the code for the second copy of all the blogs, and the blog looks itself again-- except for that white left column.
I think I'll call it a day-- or a night-- and hope one of my readers can give me a suggestion about how to get things back to normal.
My purpose of messing with the blog was to add a background image. No luck there, either. And so to bed for me.
Blogger Worries
Arrgh!
It's 4 am. I've been up since one, fooling with Blogger.
I tried the new templates, but the page elements didn't fit right; the larger pictures went right through them. And somehow I got two copies of all the blogs on the page and couldn't delete the second one.
And I wiped out the familiar yellow color along the left margin and can't get it back.
By searching the HTML code, I finally zapped the code for the second copy of all the blogs, and the blog looks itself again-- except for that white left column.
I think I'll call it a day-- or a night-- and hope one of my readers can give me a suggestion about how to get things back to normal.
My purpose of messing with the blog was to add a background image. No luck there, either. And so to bed for me.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Does Second Life Have a Mole Problem?
Posted on 7:23 AM by Unknown
Written 27 August, 2010
Does Second Life Have a Mole Problem?
Yesterday I read on Lou Netizen's blog that she had discovered new Linden Mole activity on the mainland. Specifically, the moles have in-progress builds on three sims: Celebes, Bohol, and Baltic in the newly-renamed Sea of Fables. Celebes and Bohol, which until recently were empty of everything except trees, have what looks to be a Greek village.
Lou, who is not a member of what my friend Melissa Yeuxdoux calls Second Life's landed gentry, has a history with Celebes and Boloh. Read here for her excellent blog post about that history.
Lou, sleuth that she is, discovered the prims she was unable to account for on Baltic had been used for a sim-wide underwater labyrinth.
The above link will take you to the ocean floor just a few meters from an opening that will drop you to the start of the labyrinth. If you fly above the water and set draw distance to 200 meters, you'll see the Greek Village-- or you can just fly north from the opening.
Lou wonders about the purpose of these little houses--
... and why the doors are the wrong shape.
The labyrinth is extensive, with few features to break its monotony-- but it's a challenge to walk. It makes for a fun outing. Pack a lunch.
Photo: This unfortunate avatar neglected to pack a lunch and died from malnupixeltrition before she could reach the end of the labyrinth.
Lou notes many other locations with new mole activity.
The obvious question here is why are the moles active in the Sea of Fables and elsewhere?
As Lou points out, the moles-- who are contracted by Linden Lab to create content-- were used to make such things as Bay City and Nautilus and the new (and immediately obsolete) welcome areas. They also build M.'s infamous Linden homes. But why are they creating a Greek village, and why a clearly recreational build like the labyrinth?
It's obviously of importance for Linden Lab to have SOME content in the world, but their activity impacts Second Life real estate. Land prices took a dive with the introduction of Linden Homes, and still haven't recovered. Yesterday I found the Jessgate sim, where I have a small property, nearly empty, with some parcels abandoned and some for sale for prices that would have seemed impossibly low only a year ago.
It's my opinion that the Lab will best serve it's interests by keeping its hands off of Second Life and letting the grid be what the grid will be. That means no Nautiluses, no Bay Cities, no Linden homes, no acquisitions of XStreet and Avatars United. The world is filled with dedicated and skilled creators and landowners who make better content and entrepreneurs who make that content work. A lot of the lab's decisions serve only to kick the content creators in the teeth. And competing with them by making second-rate Linden content-- that's just wrong.
Emergence Viewer
Posted on 6:35 AM by Unknown
Written 27 August, 2010
Emergence Viewer
Yesterday I discovered the new Second Life viewer Emergence.
Emergence is essentially Emerald, with malicious code removed. It's provided by LordGregGreg Back, who bailed from ModularSystems in mid-August because he was concerned about the behavior of some other Emerald developers, who had inserted code in the Emerald viewer that was unreadable by other developers.
Here's what LordGregGreg said in his blog post of the 14th:
Yesterday I downloaded Emergence here and installed and ran it.
One day in, I've set it to my liking and it's running fine. It is in essence Emerald; the only difference I see is songs that are played on the radio have their titles and artist displayed on the chat line as they come up.
Emergence comes with login and logout and teleport screens disabled, so one sees a black page as it loads. It comes with a variety of skins, with a non-standard skin installed. All of these can be changed from Preferences.
LordGregGreg says he doesn't intend to update the viewer, but until Emerald gets its act together, it's a great substitute.
Emergence Viewer
Yesterday I discovered the new Second Life viewer Emergence.
Emergence is essentially Emerald, with malicious code removed. It's provided by LordGregGreg Back, who bailed from ModularSystems in mid-August because he was concerned about the behavior of some other Emerald developers, who had inserted code in the Emerald viewer that was unreadable by other developers.
Here's what LordGregGreg said in his blog post of the 14th:
Unfortunately, I do not feel confident enough to support it any more, for a number of reasons. I did not realize at the time that emkdu was added, that it could be used to add in code I was not able to see. These things were done behind my back, it was found out by others that code was placed in that broadcasted your viewers title bar and executable path in a obfuscated manner. This was addressed, promised to be fixed, and (luckily) people broke through the now encrypted layer to find out that it was not. Of-course, it has been promised to be fixed a third time, but now with an encryption level too high to be broken. Although replacing or deleting emkdu would resolve this issue, I also have to consider that this was hidden in the code for months without anyone knowing..
Regardless of the intentions of those who placed this code there, It has made one thing inescapably clear. I am not able to double check everything any more. I tried to find a solution to resolve this matter, but it appears that most people do not care about this to the level that I do. I made sure the other emerald devs were aware of what is going on via this. As mentioned there, closed source, hidden designs and single developer licenses have no place in emerald. People can make mistakes, but it is important that others can double check without having to break through encryption. Nothing has changed however. This issue of being able to transparently check up on everyone is only to get worse in my opinion, as all new builds are planned to be done from a central build server, where access is cut off from the other developers. I consider trust issues with any binary of the highest importance, as even small library like this can have access to every file or memory on the computer, the same care must be taken with them as everything else.
With his Emergence viewer, Greg has removed the binaries that were closed to him and replaced them with binaries from Linden Lab or other trusted sources. So it sounds good to me.Yesterday I downloaded Emergence here and installed and ran it.
One day in, I've set it to my liking and it's running fine. It is in essence Emerald; the only difference I see is songs that are played on the radio have their titles and artist displayed on the chat line as they come up.
Emergence comes with login and logout and teleport screens disabled, so one sees a black page as it loads. It comes with a variety of skins, with a non-standard skin installed. All of these can be changed from Preferences.
LordGregGreg says he doesn't intend to update the viewer, but until Emerald gets its act together, it's a great substitute.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Whimsy Gets New Tracks
Posted on 9:01 PM by Unknown
Written 26 August, 2010
Whimsy Gets New Tracks
I'm in the process of replacing the train tracks at Whimsy with new track, using great rail textures made by Starship Jefferson. The sides of the girders had to be kludged with GIMP, as Jefferson's set didn't include girders.
I'm being careful with the name and description fields in the new track, as that's what Kitto Flora's steam engines use for steering.
Old and new rail lines
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Goodbye, Emerald?
Posted on 11:16 PM by Unknown
Written 25 August, 2010
Goodbye, Emerald?
By now just about everyone knows that on Sunday, Linden Lab removed Emerald from the list of approved viewers. The reason: shenanigans that amounted to a distributed denial of service attack on the website of a rival viewer. Yesterday Philip Linden released a statement giving the Lab's reasons for the removal (the DDoS). Philip said the Lab is working with the Emerald team to help it clean up its act. If that doesn't happen, and soon, without a doubt logins with Emerald will no longer be allowed.
The DDoS attack came, apparently, from one team member, who is no longer associated with Emerald. A earlier data mining was also the result of a single team member. According to LordGregGreg, who recently left the Emerald team, his reason for departing was because he could no longer see the code of other team members.
Emerald is by far the most popular Second Life viewer, accounting for about 50% of logins. I myself use it. It has a lot of great features not supported by either Viewer 1.23.5 or Viewer 2.0. But the Lab was right to pull the plug. Thank you, Philip, for a correct decision.
I hope the Emerald team gets its act together, and soon. If not, well, there's always Imprudence.
Goodbye, Emerald?
By now just about everyone knows that on Sunday, Linden Lab removed Emerald from the list of approved viewers. The reason: shenanigans that amounted to a distributed denial of service attack on the website of a rival viewer. Yesterday Philip Linden released a statement giving the Lab's reasons for the removal (the DDoS). Philip said the Lab is working with the Emerald team to help it clean up its act. If that doesn't happen, and soon, without a doubt logins with Emerald will no longer be allowed.
The DDoS attack came, apparently, from one team member, who is no longer associated with Emerald. A earlier data mining was also the result of a single team member. According to LordGregGreg, who recently left the Emerald team, his reason for departing was because he could no longer see the code of other team members.
Emerald is by far the most popular Second Life viewer, accounting for about 50% of logins. I myself use it. It has a lot of great features not supported by either Viewer 1.23.5 or Viewer 2.0. But the Lab was right to pull the plug. Thank you, Philip, for a correct decision.
I hope the Emerald team gets its act together, and soon. If not, well, there's always Imprudence.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Pay Binocs
Posted on 5:58 AM by Unknown
Written 22 August, 2010
Pay Binocs
When I was a child my family traveled-- a lot-- and we made frequent trips to and around our ancestral home of Asheville, North Carolina.
In those days the mountain roads abounded with tourist stops. I remember a bear in a cage at Soco Gap. You could buy a bottled drink for a dime and feed it to a bear in a cage. That bear drank dozens of sodas an hour and no doubt expired early of bear diabetes.
But enough of unfortunate bears in cages. The tourist store at Soco Gap featured-- and it may still be there, was as late as the 90s-- a pay binocular. You could put in a dime (later, a quarter) and spend five or so minutes getting close-up views of Maggie Valley.
I thought it only appropriate to put such a binocular on Whimsy. That's it above, in all its glory.
I made the binocular and then cannibalized a viewer made by Skidz Partz and used it to set this view. Visitors see it when sitting on the poseball in front of the binocular.
If you look closely the the photo, you'll see the binocular is focused on Dharmadog Dankner's beautiful Japanese house.
And that's just what you see when you sit on the poseball.
Best of all, it doesn't demand to be paid a quarter!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Ravenhurst
Posted on 7:43 AM by Unknown
Written 21-22 August, 2010
Ravenhurst
I was asked by the owners of the Ravenhurst sim to take a look at it, and, of course, I did.
So as to dispel any suspense felt by my readers, or by the Ravenhurst folks, I have to say the very first thing I saw won me over.
It was a hole in the ground.
I mean a BIG hole in the ground.
I mean a FRIGGING BIG hole in the ground!
I should say it was more than a hole in the ground. It was a chasm, an abyss, a canyon, a gorge.
It was a gorge, all right, and it reminded me of this one:
That's Falls Creek Falls, in Tennessee. Back in the day, there was an iron cable on the cliffs at the right side of the photo. My brother and I would use it to descend nearly vertically to the base of the falls. Nowadays people follow a winding path to the bottom.
So anyway, this is the gorge at Ravenhurst. It was the first thing I saw and I was impressed.
It was only the second such gorge I'd seen in Second Life, the other one being in the Wastelands
I took a bunch of quick snapshots of the gorge and went back home to develop them.
I teleported back this morning, landing in a swamp. I arrived before the ground texture did, and spotted some prims-- cubes-- under the land. They seemed to belong to one of the owners, someone named Sho Flanagan. They had no scripts in them, so I assume they're misplaced objects.
Sho, if you go to <25,> and peek around under the ground you'll find them. Yay, three or four more free prims for Ravenhurst!
Now, about Ravenhurst, reading from its elaborate history, available in notecards at the entry:
The time: the present. Ravenhurst is a village located on the coast of Washington State. The town has a dark history. Since its founding in 1580 (isn't 1580 entirely too early for a town in Washington? Seattle wasn't founded until 1851!) and an early massacre of the native population, one tragedy has followed another. Witch trials (hmmm, maybe we have the wrong coast here. Could Ravenhurst be in Massachusetts? No, guess not, the terrain actually looks like Washington State. But back to the disasters). Shipwrecks. Mining accidents. Tourists dead of exsanguination. A missing sheriff.
Ravenhurst is home to a role-playing community of humans, wereanimals, vampires, fey, and what-not. In a twist, everyone pretends to be human, showing their true forms only to those close to them. Moreover, characters must have some visible means of support-- jobs. I like this. No itinerant wereanimals, no vagabond vampires, just vamps who work the late-night shift at Wendy's and werewolves who ride the garbage trucks on mornings without full moons and fairies who work as blacksmiths. Cause jeez, SOMEONE has to keep the town running!
I know next to nothing about role play, so before I muck things up, I'll concentrate on the terrain.
Ravenurst would seem a fine place to roleplay. There's a town, and there are swamps, fields, hills, and waterways. It feels a big place, and the sim surrounds make it seen even bigger than it is.
The ground texture is dark and showhow seemed sparkly on Sweetie's video card. That actually sorta kinda translated to photos.
There was no end of hidden and secluded places. This waterway...
... concealed this portal:
There was nothing much behind the screen of ivy, but it would seem a good place to hang out if one were a vampire looking for tourists to exsanguinate.
I loved this grassy spot:
The views from the bridge spanning the chasm were spectacular.
The town was appropriately spooky. It looked as if it were haunted by the ghosts of the Indians murdered five hundred years earlier.
Flat isn't necessarily bad (witness the Versailles sims), but it often is. Much of Second Life is dead flat, ugly, and boring. With its great gorge, varied terrain, and sim surrounds, Ravenhurst is neither flat, nor ugly, nor boring. Thumbs up to its designers just for making that gorge!
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