Leveraged Buyout: Part I. Gaston is Found Out

Leveraged Buyout

Part I: Gaston is Found Out

Written 30 October, 2012

It began with a frantic IM.

"Thief! Taker of cogs! Gearnapper!"

"Whatever are you going on about, Gaston?" I said.

Gaston is the liftbot at our Sub-Orbital Asteroidal Retreat, 4000 meters above Whimsy.

"Alphonse!" he hissed. "That brass imposter! He has stolen my flywheel! He knows I can't function without my flywheel!"

"Alphonese took your flywheel?" I said. "Why?"

"He knows I must go up! And he knows I cannot go up without it! Bastard!"

"Excuse me," I said. "I have a call on IM line 2."

It was, of course, Alphonse. Alphonse is the downbot.

"Quisling! Fifth Columnist! Saboteur!" he snarled.

"Good morning to you, too," I said.

"You are going to hear from Gaston," Alphonse said. "Don't believe him. He is a weasel. A stoat."

Gaston and Alphonse have an intense and bitter rivalry. Since they are variants of the same model they're technically cousins, but they despise one another. Alphonse believes Gaston feels superior because he takes people up to the top of the blimp tower, while he, Alphonse, takes people downward to the hollow interior of the asteroid. I point out both he and Gaston take people both up AND down, but he refuses to hear me. It doesn't help that Gaston takes every opportunity to antagonize him.

"I, Gaston, am now going UP!" he will say on their common script channel, knowing Alphonse will hear. Alphonse unfailingly responds with French profanity I (happily) can't understand.

"Did you take Gaston's flywheel?" I asked Alphonse.

"No I did not," he said. "I have a flywheel of my own, and it's made of brass. His flywheel is made of common steel."

"Hang on," I said. "Gaston is on hold on the other line. I'm going to start a group IM."

I switched back to Gaston's IM box and saw his last lines:

"The Palisades suspects nothing. I told her that upstart downbot Alphonse stole my flywheel."

He continued. "Oh, merde, I'm typing in the wrong box! Uh, Ignore that, Cheyenne! I did not say that! It's a trick. Yes, another of Alphonse's tricks!"

I started the group IM.

I said, "Alphonse didn't take your flywheel, did he, Gaston?"

"J'accuse!" roared Alphonse. "J'ACCUSE!"

After several seconds Gaston said in a small voice (he has the optional whisper module), "He did too!"

I teleported to 4000 meters and flew to the SOAR build.

"Gaston," I said, "I'm activating your conscience subroutine."

"Mistakes were made," said Gaston.

I turned up the gain, knowing it should trigger a remorse sub-subroutine.

"If my flywheel were to be stolen," he said, "Alphonse would without doubt be the guilty party."

"Oh-kay," I said, and turned the gain all the way up.

"Alphonse did not take my flywheel," Gaston said. "I'm sorry I told that lie."

"Aha!" said Alphonse. "Ah, and ha! Aha!"

"Gaston,"I said, "I'm ashamed of you. You have a high-level processor and should know better than to tell falsehoods. Maybe you should be the downbot for a while."

"No, please no!" cried Gaston. "I must go up! I live to go up!"

"He has more to tell you," said Alphonse.

I looked at Gaston.

"Yes," he said, "I do."

With his electronic conscience overclocked (I had turned the dial to 11), Gaston had no choice but to reveal all.

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Ode to a Skybox No Longer There

Still calm here in Rockland County, NY, as Sandy continues to move Westward. Winds up to 30-50 mph still possible as the system turns northward. Our power and internet is up, but all around us it's not. We've been lucky so far.

Ode to a Skybox No Longer There

Written 29 October, 2012

Yesterday morning at breakfast Sweetie burst into song.

In perfect stanzas, in perfect rhyme, she sang a song about a disappearing house in Second Life.

I was sitting ten feet away from my running laptop, but by the time I got there the song had vanished. Sweetie couldn't recreate it and I couldn't remember enough to write it down. It was just gone.

We tried, but it began to sound more and more like Dr. Seuss, and so we stopped.

Last night I took another tilt at it, but the Dr. Seuss verses overpowered the non-Dr. Seuss verses. I tried again this morning to the same effect.

Here's what I wound up with:


Ode to a Skybox No Longer There

by Sweetie and Chey

I logged in this morning
Our house in the air
Was not in my vision
It just wasn't there!

We looked in our lost
We looked in our found
We looked straight up
We looked straight down
We looked low
And we looked high
Our house was still missing
Oh me, and oh my!

The doors and the windows
The ceiling and floors
The rugs and the shower
The sofa, and more
Let's call on the Lindens
The Lindens can help
Out house must be somewhere
It didn't just melt!

We bought a gadget
And set it upright
It scanned our sim Whimsy
A day and a night
A night and a day
And then it said"Not found"
Our house missing in action
Our house not around

I turned to my preferences
And draw distance lay
Just a bit above zero
Oh, what's that you say?
I moved up the slider
Things popped into view
Oh, hey, now I see you!
I see our house too!

So let this be a lesson
When you tweak late at night
Be sure when you log out
Your settings are right

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Calm at 4 AM EDT

I awoke just after 4 am Eastern Daylight time to almost a dead calm-- winds at 3 am, no rain. Whimsy's weather reflects the weather here in the lower Hudson Valley, NY. Compare to the weather in the previous post.

More than 10 million people are without power. Electricity is out all around. We consider ourselves most fortunate because as yet both power and internet remain up.

The Atlantic Coast is a disaster area and New York City has been particularly hard hit. Much of lower Manhattan is without power, the subway system might not be up for weeks, and streets are still flooded.

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Weather Intensifies

The situation on Whimsy Kaboom is looking grim-- multiple tornadoes, lots of lightning strikes, heavy rain at 7:40 pm Eastern Daylight Time.

Here in real life the wind is gusting up to abou 60 miles per hour just outside the windows. Most of the time it sits at about ten, but every minute or two it sounds as if a freight train is going by. Trees are bending and shaking and the heavy door to the building's lobby keeps blowing open.

There are massive power outages all around, and the lights are flickering every few minutes. We expect the power to go out at any time.

I'm thinking of raising the sea level of the Whimsy sims in sympathy with the Jersey shore  and New York city.

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The Weather on Whimsy

The Weather on Whimsy

Written 29 October, 2012

The weather on Whimsy and Whimsy Kaboom is set to mirror that of my real-life location, a little town about thirty miles from New York City.

It's gray here, and for the past hour or so it's been drizzling. Winds are light.

That's how it is on Whimsy, too.

Hurricane Sandy is set to come ashore in southern New Jersey, and winds are picking up there. We're expecting the heavy rains and high winds to start late this morning or early evening and continue for a couple of days.

Whimsy's weather is generated by the great Weather System I bought at Damani for a reasonable price-- especially since it's copyable.

The weather machine can make it snow, rain, or sleet, and can generate impressive lightning storms and tornadoes. It can even rain fire.

Turning on the weather generates temporary prims that rez clouds and rain. It can generate weather effects on the ground-- puddles and snowdrifts, which works great on flat lands and somewhat less well on more-or-less vertical Whimsy. It can also generate ground fog and sunbeams which break through the cloud cover.

Weather can be limited to an area as small as 20 x 20 meters or can be set to cover an entire sim. Due to the Second Life viewer's limitations on particles, rain and clouds are of course more intense in smaller areas, but the system is impressive even when set on a larger area.

The weather system uses only two prims (and lots of temp-on-rez prims), and can be set to show or become inisible.

The system works better on Whimsy Kaboom than on Whimsy; that's because Whimsy has lots of competing sources for particles-- the volcano Pele, assorted waterfalls, and spray from surf, while we have fewer particles set on Kaboom.

A great feature of the Damani weather machine is its ability to mimic the weather at any spot on earth.

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Bracing for the Frankenstorm

Bracing for the Frankenstorm

Written 19 October, 2012

I'm visiting Sweetie in Rockland County, New York. We're about 30 miles from New York City, where public transportation has been shut down and 400,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas. The city is expected to get hammered by storm surges which will be exacerbated by the full moon.

High winds and large amounts of rain will affect about 50% of the nation's population, and large areas are expected to lose power, which in some cases might be out for as long as a week.

The weather is coming from Hurricane Sandy, which is moving slowly up the Atlantic Coast, where it will soon turn inland. No one is sure just where, but it's clear we're going to get it here at Chez Sweetie.

Last year Sweetie had to leave her house during Hurricane Irene because of the rising river water, which came within inches of the doorways. When the phoned me (I was home in Georgia), I told her to grab her cats and her laptop and get out of her house. She did, and it took her 4 1/2 hours (due to roads closing down) to drive 25 miles to her friends' house, where she stayed for two days.

It wasn't pretty.

This time I'm facing the weather with her. We're stocked up with food and water and batteries and the car is full of gasoline. We don't expect the level of flooding that came with Irene, but it's likely we'll lose power some time Monday.

I'm thinking of going to Whimsy and keying my Damani weather generator to Sweetie's zip code. That will cause the generators to mirror the weather here. In fact, I'm going to go do just that. Now. Before the winds come.

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It's Not Easy Being a Hard-Luck French Robot Barman

It's Not Easy Being a Hard-Luck French Robot Barman

Written 28 October, 2012

Meet Yves, the newest addition to our staff.

His name, the beret, and his Salvador Dali mustaches suggest he is of French origin-- and that's true. We have a liberal immigration policy here on Whimsy.

Yves is eager to please his customers, but he's a test model and the kinks aren't all worked out. When you touch him you get a blue menu full of drinks (all French, of course). When you select one he acknowledges your choice, then moves away to make it. All goes well until his arm falls to the top of the bar with a clatter.

Let's let Yves speak for himself.

"Ah, bounjour messeuers et madames. Enter. May I make you a delicious apertif? Just touch me for a menu.

"Ah, cognac! Excelent choice!  We have Vieille Réserve from the famous Fins Bols-- rare and delicieux!

My robot girlfriend once ran out of lubricating oil and substituted Rémy Martin. She ran fine for a while but then her transmission failed. She was too drunk to care.

"I go now to make your delicious libation.

"MON DIEU! MY ARM, SHE HAS FALLEN OFF! BUT I'M OKAY, IT'S ONLY A FLESH WOUND.

"Don't worry. I will still be able to prepare your delicious libation.

"Let us hope this unfortunate incident won't effect my tip!


"I now 'appily make your drink.


"SACRE BLEU! MY HEAD! MY HEAD, SHE HAS TAKEN LEAVE OF MY BODY! ROBOT NEEDS ASSISTANCE!

You can commiserate with Yves at his job station high above Whimsy. Go here for a direct teleport, but it's more fun to start here. Summon the elevator bot and ride to the top of the blimp tower, then walk the ramps and rez a little train to ride to our PG Den of Iniquity. You'll find Yves just through the doorway, eager to please. He won't succeed.

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The Descender

For some reason I'm no longer able to take snapshots in Second Life-- 

in either Phoenix or Firestorm. Things just freeze up.  For this article 

I  resorted to screen captures until I realized I could e-mail snapshots to myself.

The Descender

Written 26 October, 2012

How did Sweetie and I managed to get ourselves below the grid of Second Life?

I'm glad you asked. We did it in The Descender.


The Descender is modeled after the bathysphere, the first deep ocean submersible. It's considerably larger than the real baythsphere because, lets face it, we avatars like our creature comforts. My bathysphere features a silver bucket that holds a bottle of champagne, a pot-bellied stove for warmth, and a large windshield for viewing-- and it's large enough not to trap the camera.

The bathsyphere was conceived by the American naturalist William Beebe and designed by American engineer Otis Barton. It made its test dive on 27 May, 1930 to only 45 feet, but it set increasing depth records, reaching more than 3000 feet in 1934.

Before the bathysphere, the deepest human divers had gone was about 100 feet; deeper dives weren't possible because of the tremendous pressure. Submarines had reached 328 feet and a diver in an armored suit had descended 538 feet, but the submarine had no windows for viewing and the armored suit allowed only minimum vision and movement. The round shape of the bathysphere was able to withstand pressures far below those depths and three windows made of 3" thick fused quartz provided views.

The steel walls of the bathysphere were made of 1" thick cast steel. The vessel was just 4 3/4 feet in diameter and weighed 2 1/4 tons of out the water and 1.4 tons in the water. It was unpowered, lowered from a ship-based crane by cable. Oxygen was supplied from canisters inside the bathysphere, and communication with the mother vessel was possible through wires attached to the cable.

Today's deep-sea submersibles operate under their own power, without cables, and reach depths in excess of 12,000 feet. That's about the same vertical distance as it is from 0 meters in Second Life to the top build height-- 4096 meters (13,438 feet).

Unlike the bathysphere, my Descender is self-powered-- but like it, The Descender gets its oxygen from a cylinder. It's made of brass rather than steel (because, let's face it, brass is so much more steampunk), and has a large windshield and two round ports.

Brass Rocks. Note the Rungs at Left. They Allow Acess to the Motors at Top

I could have scripted The Descender to operate with the arrow keys on the keyboard, but I chose to instead use touch controls mounted to the vehicle. They can be a bit difficult to grab while in motion, but I like that.

The Descender can move up and down, forward and back, and from side to side. It can turn left and right, tilt up and down, and can teleport to locations set by the owner. It can be set to operate by owner only, group, or anyone.

A button starts the engines, but the engines work only if an avatar is seated; that way The Descender won't sail off into the sunset, as an early version did after a particularly rough sim crossing. Buttons operate the door (when open, a ramp appears), interior and exterior lights, the sonar, and the stove, and the window can be resized. Other buttons turn on sounds and a creature rezzer; these function only when the vehicle is submerged.

When descending, the vehicle will go right past zero meters. Engines stop when the root prim, which is placed as high as possible, goes to zero.

The interior of The Descender is richly appointed with Victorian wallpaper high up and burnished black metal down low. The floor is made of polished wood.

A silver bucket sits between the two back seat. A touch to the bottle of champagne it holds will give passengers an ice-cold drink of bubbly. The Captain, of course, must not drink.

A gas stove provides warmth. A lamp (visible above) provides light.

The Descender is fully functional. It's controlled by touching the instrument panel. When it motion that can be a bit problematic, so I've been working on a supplementary HUD.

Environmental controls include:

Door open/close
Interior lights on/off
Exterior lights on/off
Heather on/off
Radar on/off
Motors on/off
Phantom mode on/off
Underwater creature rezzer on/off
Underwater particles on/off
Underwater sounds on/off
Windshield size small/medium/large
Control by owner/group/anyone
Set teleport points 1-6
Jump to teleport points 1-6

Movement controls include

Speed low/high
Face compass points North/East/South/West
Ascend/Descend
Forward/Backward
Left/Right
Right
Turn left/right
Pitch forward/backward

The descender can move in any direction, going as high as 4096 meters and as low as 32 meters below the surface of Second Life (52 meters below sea level on most sims).

Every 24 hours The Descender IMs the owner, giving the sim in which it is located and its coordinates. The owner can turn this function off, but that can be risky if access is set to anyone. Until I got access function working I would sometimes come back to find someone had sailed The Descender away!

Movement is non-physical, so The Descender isn't limited to 30 prims. Its prim count is 95, but much of that is frou-frou-- rungs for climbing, stove, lamp, champagne bucket. If I ever take it to market I'll include a low-prim version with HUD-only control, or perhaps voice control like my Cubey Terra balloon.

I plan to make a special Descender so visitors to Whimsy Kaboom can tour the sim, flying above the water and then submerging to watch the whales, then teleporting to 3000 meters to see our low Earth orbit build, and then jumping to 3500 meters to our famous (or infamous) robot sanitarium. Visitors will have the option to descend below the grid. That's truly a unique experience.

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Descent!

Descent!

Written 25 October

"Let's run the checklist," I said.

"Let's don't and say we did," said Sweetie.

I glared at her. "I insist--" Then I saw her hand was near her katana.

"Never mind,"I said. "Let's go."

"Yay!" I said."We seem to be watertight."

"Look at the altimeter," Sweetie said. I looked. We were fifty feet above sea level.

"Well then, I said, "let's descend."

"This big windshield is great for watching whales," Sweetie said.

"Plus 14 meters," I said.

"Look, an octopus!" Sweetie said.

"Seven meters," I said. "Five. Three. One."

The face of the altimeter turned from green to red.

"Minus one meter, Captain," said Sweetie. "And Philip Linden help me, I've gone blind!"

"Me too," I said. "I can barely see my hand in front of my face!"

"This is creepy," I said.

"Wait a minute!" said Sweetie. "I'm seeing Kenny from South Park!"

"What are you talking about?" I said.

"Turn off your Windlight settings," she said.

I opened Preferences and unchecked the shaders.

"Much better," I said. "But that's not Kenny. That's us."

"Look at the altitude!" Sweetie said. "We're still sinking!"

"It's uncharted territory," I said. "We go where no avatar has gone before."

"Minus 12 meters," Sweetie called. "Look up!"

"Wow! I said. "It's Whimsy from underneath."

"Minus 25," Sweetie called.

"Yikes!" I said. "That whale looks a million miles away."

"Minus 32," said Sweetie.

That's when the motors stopped.

I'm never one to panic. "Uh-oh," I said. "We're doomed!"

After exploration I realized the motors had stopped when the root prim (which is high above the vehicle) had gone below the grid.

"Not to worry," Sweetie said, and selected Edit and pulled us down to -50 meters.

"Wow," she said. And then she was gone.

Before my heart could stop I got her IM.

"I stood up to see if I would stay below the grid," she said. "I had visions of starting an under-the-grid civilization."

"And what happened?"

"I went to zero meters," she said. "My dreams are shattered."

I grabbed the Descender and pulled it to -32 meters. The motors caught and the craft slowly climbed toward the zero mark.

When I passed zero altitude the world suddenly got brighter.

Back at the docking station Sweetie joined me and we opened a bottle of Dom Perignon in celebration. (The Descender is well-stocked).

And there you have it-- our record-breaking trip below the grid, our descent into unknown space.

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The Test Flight at the Vernian Sea Goes Subtly Wrong

The Test Flight at the Vernian Sea Goes Subtly Wrong

Written 24 October, 2012

It was entirely my fault.

I should have known Sweetie and I would be distracted by the many wonderful things in the Vernian Sea and its environs.

We, ah, never got around to the actual test of my descent vehicle.

But that's okay, we can always test the Descender on Whimsy Kaboom.

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The Big Cheese

This was meant to go to just after the post showing we had achieved a depth of -79 meters. Oopsie!

Chey, Inspecting the Big Cheese

The Big Cheese

Written 12 October, 2012

Before I built my descent vehicle we did a proof-of-concept, using a huge prim. I mean a HUGE prim. Back then we could stretch prims to only 10 meters, but there were a few legacy prims about with sizes up to 1024 meters. I believed we used a 100 x 100 x 100 meter cube, which we cut and sliced down to a wedge of manageable size.

We couldn't well be seen riding on an untextured plywood prim, so I dug up a swiss cheese texture and pasted it on all sides. That's me, above, giving it a once-over.

With the prim readied, it was time to sit on it-- easier said than done.

We of course dressed appropriately. Sweetie wore the deep-space helmet she had acquired at Privateer Space. That was one of my favorite sims, now gone forever.

Was our trip successful? Let me just say that's where I made the landmark showing an altitude of -79 meters. We went under the grid!

Under the grid, I tell you! On a giant cheese!

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I Contemplate My Mortality Before Taking The Descender On Its Maiden Flight

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Pre-Flight Test

Pre-Flight Test

Written 23 October, 2012

Our secret deep-sea test vehicle finally got its shakedown run.

We took it to The Vernian Sea, where sea level is set to 100 meters instead of the usual twenty. This gives plenty of room to maneuver underwater.

The sea and the surrounding sims, including Port Babbage, are some of Second Life's best, filled with giant steampunk robots and other Victorian and Edwardian wonders. It's a great place for submersibles and airships, so what better place to test our under-the-grid vehicle?

But before we took our descent vehicle for its formal test, I wanted to make sure our vehicle was airtight.

That's me, above, at the left. To my right is my intrepid test pilot Sweetie, who, aside from pushing every available button and tweaking the textures of the windshield, did an admirable job.

"Let's go," she said.

"No, no," I said. "Didn't you see Apollo 13? We have to do the pre-flight, all 627 steps."

"Houston, we have a problem," she said dryly. "Our commander is anal retentive."

I ran the checklist anyway.

"All occupants seated and belted?" I said.

"Duh, said Sweetie.

"Main door closed."

She gave me a pitying look. "Door closed, check," she said.

"Life support status."

"It's just a pot-bellied stove," she said.

I stared hard at her. "Check," she said.

"Spotlights?"

"Spots on."

"Fashionably plush interior?"

"Check," she sighed. She had not gotten her way with the interior.

"Sonar status?"

"Sonar on."

"Interior light?"

"Lights dimmed," she said.

"Running lights?"

"Running lights on."

"Altimeter?" I said.

"We can just look at the status bar at the top of our screen for our height," Sweetie said.

"Altimeter?" I said, louder this time.

"It's reading plus three meters," she said with a sigh.

"Teleporter status?" I said.

Sweetie pushed a button on the panel and there was a whooshing sound and a flash of blue smoke. "Operational," she said.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. "Where was button 5 supposed to take us?"

I opened the operator's manual notecard and thumbed through it. "Uh, space build," I said. "Low Earth orbit."

This looks about right," she said.

"There should be an orbiter," I said.

"Check," Sweetie said.

"Well, at least we know the teleporter works," I said.

"And since we're in a vacuum and are still breathing, we're airtight," Sweetie said brightly.

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The Test of Our Descent Vehicle is Aborted Due to a Runaway Giraffe

The Test of Our Descent Vehicle is Aborted Due to a Runaway Giraffe

Written 11 October, 2012

After weeks of building and scripting I was ready for a trial run of my descent vehicle. I invited Sweetie and a friend and we headed out over Whimsy Kaboom, looking for a flat spot on the ocean floor to begin our adventure.

Then we saw it-- it being a runaway giraffe. Leaf Shermer had been conducting illegal breeding experiments on nearby Whimsical Mischief and it had wandered away from her Island of Dr. Shermereau. Now it was cavorting between two of Kaboom's small islands, where it could create all sorts of mischief-- scaring newbies, making big giraffe poops, and maybe even making baby mutant giraffettes.

There was only one choice. I had to pull the plug.

And so we took our still-untried vehicle back to its dock. The test flight would have to wait for another day.

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Minus 80 Meters!

Written 9 October 2012

Minus 80 Meters!

I can't yet share our methods, but we've achieved a depth of 80 meters, or more than -240 feet below the zero level-- UNDER the grid!

Here's the landmark to prove it!

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Plumbing the Depths

What Horrors Might Lurk Beneath The Placid Surface?

Written 8 October, 2012

Plumbing the Depths

In Second Life height extends for all practical purposes infinitely-- but what about depth? The world seems to end at 0 meters-- but does it?

Well, it's a question that can be answered empirically.

If one has a deep sea submersible, that is.

I have Carrah Rossini's Nereide, and it's a fine submarine, but it wasn't designed for the tremendous pressure of the sub-zero depths.

No, we are going to to have to build our own deep sea vehicle from the ground up.

It will have to be strong, to withstand the crushing pressure of negative altitude territory.

It will have to be stylish, or else Sweetie will never get in it.

And it will have to be clever, if it we're ever to get below the 0 meter level.

And so, we're feverishly at work on a SECRET machine to take us to the bottom of the ocean-- below the bottom of the ocean!

I'll tell you about it when I can!

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More Fashion Mayhem

I'm coming to an end of my unpublished blogposts.

Written 15 May, 2008

More Fashion Mayhem

As my readers know, this is NOT a fashion blog-- or is it the fashion police blog. But some avatars are just WRONG!

I will try to resist highlighting fashion faux pas in the future. Maybe.

How long IS this guy's arm?

Oiled skin, tats, uglfying clothing, wings, badly (as my friend T..h said) 
prim eyes, hair askew. Ewwww!

This is an Avatar In need of Hair Positioning

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Sweetie's Barbie Doll

Here's one more previously unpublished post.

Written 5 December, 2007

Sweetie's Barbie Doll

Just wind me up and point me toward Ken. Or, better yet, toward another Barbie.

Sweetie came in world this morning with a plan for me.

It started innocently enough, with a trip to Blaze so she could buy me a fabulous frock.

I'm not sure how or why this came about, but it might have had something to do with what we did on the hood of a taxi last night while some passerby watched. We didn't care. We let him watch, since he was more or less polite about it.

"Hawt!" he said.

A long time ago, when we were new in world, I told a friend we could make a fortune by building an ampitheater and charging guys big bucks to watch us do it.

Now here it is a year later, and Sweetie and I are giving it away for free. :)

If you've never done it on the hood of a taxi, I recommend it. Especially if the engine is warm. And especially if you role play driver and passenger without money to pay the fare.

At any rate, Sweetie came into world with a plan. She took me to Blaze to buy me an outfit named Radioactive.

Blaze is where I bought the Shiraz dress, the one my previous girlfriend wouldn't let me out of the house in unless she is with me. I put it on last night as we were dancing at Umbra Penumbra (great dance floor, risque music, outre conversation), and it's probably what led us to the hood of that taxi.

Sweetie still smells a bit of carnuba wax. :)

Blaze's main store didn't have Radioactive, so Sweetie teleported me to  another Blaze location, in Dublin. Neither of us took a landmark, so you'll need to look it up in Search.

Then on to Sylfie's for shoes.

Sylfie's is on an island of the same name. She has HUNDREDS of colors and styles of shoes. It's podiatric permutation paradise. I have dozens of pairs of her shoes.

Sweetie bought me shoes named Elegeance Black/White Stiletto (pictured. Note her own chic shoes in the background).

But this is not a fashion blog, so I'll not tell you about them.

We then spent a fruitless hour in search of a choker, which mysteriously turned into a quest for a collar, which, truth to tell, made me sweat a little bit. But I played it as it lay.

It took a while before Sweetie found a choker that pleased her. We looked in mainstream jewelry stores. We looked in Chinese sims. We looked in goth mausoleums.  No deal.

(I'm writing this as it's happening, so it's apt to change at any moment).

Then we ended up at Behind the Veil, a place that sells Gorean Goods. There, Sweetie gave me the lindens (since the goods were nontransferrable) to buy a choker. I did.

Actually, I bought two, for SL hiccupped just as I made the purchase, telling me some two dozen gestures were suddenly invalid. When it was over, I had two copies of the same nontransferrable choker. Fortunately, the maker was online and gave me the second choker I requested within seconds. Thank you, Ulusive Surface.

I turned my choker black at Sweetie's request and my transformationi into a shockingly clad, raven-tressed, goth-makeuped, crimson-taloned, high-heeled seductress in a choke was comleter.

Ready for action.

While Sweetie, exhausted from all the decision-making, went off world to rest.

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