A Night at the Opera-- Err, Ballet

Written 29 March, 2011

A Night at the Opera-- Errr, Ballet

On Thursday my friend Bonneville Nightfire told me this weekend marked Ballet Pixelle's final presentations of Narnia. When Saturday came it had slipped my mind, but I remembered Sunday morning and Sweetie and I showed up in all our finery for the final performance. Alas, it had been cancelled. :(

Rats! But a couple of hours later Bonne IMed to say the show would go on. :)

I phoned Sweetie and we made it just in time. An avatar I had just met at Help Island Public decided to go to, and had a good time-- as did we.

Next up for Ballet Pixelle is Time Burton's Alice.

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How to Be Cool in Second Life

Written 26   March, 2011

How to Be Cool in Second Life

Today I tagged along with Sweetie as she searched for a hairdo at the Amacci store, and I saw without doubt the tackiest thing I have ever seen in Second Life-- and believe me, in my 1614 days on the grid, I have seen some taaacky things.

This woman at Amacci beat them all, however, for she had a sound loop that played, badly and loudly, whenever she walked. And she walked a lot.

And to boot, she had clackety shoes set to the highest possible level.

In my earnest hopes that you, faithful reader, do not venture down the dark road of offensive public behavior, I offer you this list of things to maintain your dignity in second life. You'll be able to walk through stores without offending others by your presentation. You might even be cool.

So pay heed, please.

First, the shants.

1. No bling. If you have an object with bling call the bling disposal squad so they can remove it from your inventory and explode it. Bling is touchy and hard to handle, so just hope it doesn't go off before you're safely out of range.

2. No clackety shoes. If your shoes clack, people 100 meters distant are hearing you and cursing  you. Turn off the clackety sound or find other shoes.Or for god's sake, turn it way down.

3. No public gesture spam. Please. Friends don't let friends do gestures in public. When you pull out that gesture that makes you laugh like an apoplectic three-year-old, you're not impressing anyone. If you want to do a gesture, do it when you're around friends who like gestures or applaud at appropriate times at concerts. Otherwise, just back way. Please.

4. Wear some clothing, for god's sake. Dress appropriately for the situation. Bikines are not the hot thing to wear when mountain climbing.

5. Don't offer friendships to people who you don't really know. You can give calling cards from the right-click menu. Try that instead.

6. Don't spam people with notecards and landmarks.

7. Don't beg for money.

8. Don't be stingy. When you go to a concert, tip the performers and the venue. When you go to a nice sim, tip the owners. When you go to an art show, buy a piece of art, unless it's extravagantly expensive.

9. Respect PG sims. Take your adult behavior to Zindra, the adult continent.

10. Keep your mic closed when you're not speaking.

11. If you walk into somebody, please say "Excuse me."

12. Please respect the privacy of others. Don't walk into people's houses.

13. Show consideration for the diversity of people in Second Life. Don't bully or defame others or say things that might cause people to feel defamed. Don't make fun of people because they don't speak your language or because they're new. Help them instead.

14. Don't pry into the real lives of other avatars. If they want you to know, they'll tell you.

15. Don't shoot or push people without their permission.

16. Don't disrupt quiet areas with noisy vehicles.


Now the shalls.

1. Be yourself. Express yourself as is appropriate for the maturity rating of the sim.

2. Be friendly. Say hi to people who are near.

3. Get involved. No matter what your interests, there are people here who share them. Use Search to find them.

4. Be creative. Second Life is a wonderful place to express your artistic abilities. Here you can build things, take photographs, conduct business, write scripts, and out of world you can make clothing and textures and write blogs. If you're into role play, pour your creativity into your character. Play to your strengths and you'll be surprised what you can accomplish.

5. Tell others about Second Life. Getting people here makes this world stronger and ensures it will be here for you to enjoy.

6. Share with others. Express yourself in your profile and share a random tidbit or two of your real life is you feel comfortable doing so. Put your favorite things and people in your Picks tab, and be sure to include a photo of your avatar in the Second Life tab.

7. Work with others. Find an individual or a group and collaborate on projects. Whether it's building a house, staging a play, or shooting a machinima, get involved.

8. Play with your avatar. Try out clothing, skins, hair, and entire avatars. You needn't spend money; a lot of things are free. Eventually you'll find a combination that expresses your avie's personality as well as your own.

9. Play with the interface. Whether you're running Viewer 1.x, Viewer 2.x, or a third-party viewer like Imprudence or Phoenix, you'll be surprised to learn what can be done. Did you know, for instance, that when you're falling you can slow yourself almost to a stop with the space bar? Try it.

10. Document your experience. Write about it. Blog about it. Talk about it. And above all, take photographs. You needn't pay to import them into Second Life; save them to your hard drive for free and bring in only the images you want to share with your friends. Learn how to control your camera and you'll be rewarded with stunning shots.

11. Learn new skills. Linden Scripting Language is an adventure in coding. Building is an adventure into three-dimensional shapes. But you can learn other things. Sailing, for instance, works just like in the real world; if you learn to sail here you can sail in real life. If you publish a magazine here, you can publish a magazine in real life.

12. Practice social interactions. Are you shy in real life? Introverted? Are there social situations that make you uncomfortable or that you'd like to practice? Well, practice them here. The costs of missteps is far less here than in your real life. Here you can build skills you can take to the real world. Here you can become comfortable with things that ordinarily stress you out. Take advantage of others to help you learn to navigate the social ocean.

13. Get out of your rut. If you spend all your time in Caledon, try a post-apocalyptic sim or the Costa Rican jungle. If you spend all your time at home, dress yourself up and go to a concert. If you have been building for seven days, take a break and watch a particle show. Go check out all those places and experience that at some level intrigue you.

That's it.

If you do these things, I guarantee you, people will think you're cool. And how cool is it to be cool in Second Life?

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Chey's Travels: The Docks

Photo by Sweetie

Written 26 March, 2011

Chey's Travels

The Docks

Week before last Sweetie and I journeyed to  Amase Levasseur's wonderful Originalia sim, where four impressive bodies of art are on display.

First up was Scottius Polke's The Docks, which I described to another visitor as a cross between and Vincent Van Gogh and Tim Burton-- although now, upon reflection, I think I should have mentioned Edgar Allen Poe as well.

The Docks is a purplish, cartoonish quarter sim populated with Burtonesque puppets and Vincentian clouds and catapulted over the top by a liberal application of Glow. I can't describe it any better; just look:

If that doesn't look like Starry Night meets The Corpse Bride meet Chuckie I'll eat my 231-prim LaLa Moon hair.

Scottius' earlier works include Lunamaruna and MushROOM, both on the Lennox Hill sim.

At sim center we found Dog Dreams-- The Second Life of Al, a series of illustrations from RAG Randt's book by the same name. Clever use of multiple layers and animated textures created a shadowbox effect, adding interest to Doggie Al's technicolor cartoon dreams.

Sweetie's favorite was Eliza Wierwight's Aria, a collection of the artist's furniture, housewares, sculptures, and miscellaneous whimsical objects like giant keys and flowing  aqua particles, all meant to be viewed with Eliza's suggested Windlight settings while listening to opera.

The photo at the top of this blogpost is of Aria, as is this one, also, I believe, by Sweetie:

My favorite exhibit was Em Larsson's Temporal Dreams, which consisted of a series of evocative photographs and abstract graphical pieces set in a mist-enshrouded lowland. Best viewed at night (as are The Docks and Aria), the presentation is subtle, with images rezzing slowly as they're approached.

Before I saw her exhibit, I ran into Em at The Docks (in fact it was to her I said the build looked like Vincent Van Gogh meets Tim Burton). Later I IMed her to congratulate her on the haunting beauty of her presentation. It really was quite stunning.

The artists and especially sim-owner Amase Levasseur are to be congratulated for provided a wonderful experience. It's everything Second Life art should be.

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Thank the Goddess for Prim Storage!

Written 25 March, 2011

Thank the Goddess for Prim Storage

Sweetie thinks I'm obsessively crazy.

Because I organize my clothing by designer instead of making up ridiculous names for my outfits? You know, like Trapezoid Madness or Slim Cell Shady or Majestic Nothingness. But not, that's not why?

Because I finally got my inventory count below hers? No, that's not it either.

It's because of my prim storage.

When it became clear to me that sometimes things disappear from inventory through no fault of one's own and that the Lindens are uninclined to do anything about it,  I made a little platform high above my then-property on the Forsaken sim and named it Chey's Prim Storage. New as I was, I had plans to rent prims for storage and become Second Life's Ansche Chung of backup storage. If you don't know who Ansche is, just substitute Donald Trump, but make him female. I know what with The Donald's hairpiece and all it's difficult to get one's mind around the concept, but just do it.

So, I have this platform above my now-home of Whimsy, and on it are placed .5-meter cubes which contain objects with HoverText for a variety of categories: Chey's Clothes, Chey's Skins,  Chey's Shoes (I had to go to a 1-meter box to fit them all in!), Books, Vehicles, Linden Bears, Household Goods, Textures, Landscaping, Animals, Freebies Weapons, and even one for my Holiday stuff-- maybe 75 boxes altogether. I've filled them with copyable things from my inventory and with things for which I have no immediate use.

Whenever I buy something that's copyable, I place a copy of the unopened box in a temporary folder; then, once a month or so I go to my prim storage platform and unload the contents into the boxes.

Whenever I need something I have stored-- one never knows, after all, when there'll be an urgent need for a flying hot dot-- I go by Prim Storage and pick it up.

And whenever stuff disappears from my inventory I stop by to see if there's a copy waiting happily for me in one of the boxes.

Prim Storage didn't help much when my bling all got zapped;  that's because most of my jewelry was no-copy. But usually I can find whatever I can't locate.

Now, to stay I'm fond of my skin would be an understatement; I've worn it exclusively since my third day in Second Life four-and-a-half years ago. I had all the varieties that interested me, save one, which I bought before the sign fully rezzed and got in a pale shade.

I'd been meaning to go back and pick it up in the correct olive shade, but when I finally got around to it the skins were no longer on display. OMFG!

I dropped a landmark on the maker and he responded on one of his now-infrequent trips to SL. He made me a good price and I bought the missing makeup.

All was well and good until I was dressing day-before-yesterday and couldn't find my new purchase in my inventory. It wasn't anywhere.

So, this afternoon I took myself up to prim storage, looked in the skins box, and there it was! Emotional breakdown forestalled.

For those of you with an emotional investment in your objects, you might consider making a  cube or two and stuffing it with copyable things you'd have trouble replacing. You can leave the filled box on the land or take in your inventory.

You don't really need 75 boxes-- and for that matter, neither do I. I could pack them all into one cube and leave one prim  on the land. I don't do that because I'm always updating the boxes and don't want to be bothered with unpacking-- but a single prim would suffice.

Chey Admires Her New Makeup

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Me is Hating On Blogger Right Now

Note: I fixed the Blogger boo-boos referred to in the post that follows.

Written 19 March, 2011

Me is Hating on Blogger Right Now

Blogger has the annoying-- more than annoying-- habit of adding code. Looking at the HTML of any of my blogposts I see repetitive instances of setting fonts and alignment where fonts and alignments haven't been changed.

Another of Blogger's bad habits is adding blank lines. Grrr!

The previous post is a copy of the New tab at the head of the blog. I spent several hours tonight trying to reformat it after adding new information at the top. Every month I've been struggling.

And so the previous post is the contents of the new tab. Note the extra lines and font inconsistencies. They're not my doing. It's bad Blogger's fault.

Next time I report on something new on the Whimsy sims I'll start a new file over at New. It's just too much trouble modifying existing posts.

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What's New

Here I'll be highlighting a new or existing feature on our sims, or something Sweetie and I have created. I'll update the page every now and again. Readers can scroll down for earlier features.

The Temple of Doom

18 March, 2011

Beneath This Calm Surface ...

...

...And Through This Pipe ...

... Lies the Temple of Doooom!

We've been reworking the terrain on the western half of Whimcentricity to reroute the labyrinth. That's because the southwest corner is now part of the four-sim stage area set up by our neighbor to the south, Leaf Shermer.

The path for the new labyrinth is laid out, subject to a polishing by Sweetie in Backhoe, a Mac program that develops terrain maps. But the big news is an underwater temple or ruin. The top floor will host art exhibits, and the bottom floor...

Well, the bottom floor is pure Indiana Jones. Think snakes, piranha, giant mousetraps, dancing lobsters, and a giant tiki who throws smoulder rocks at passers-by-- with everything curtained in inky blackness (which is yet to be installed).

The build is far from complete, but open for walkthroughs.


Rockets and Such

3 February, 2011



Whimsy has had quite a few tweaks lately. There are new bridges and cuddle areas on Whimsy Kaboom, a new grass texture for the third level of terrain on Whimsy, and nice low-lag one-prim butterflies here and there. But the things that are the most fun make Whimsy more dangerous rather than more beautiful.

There's now a Don't Sit in the Geyser poseball on Whimcentricity. Avatars walking toward the renegade geyser Gary encounter a barricade and a warning sign. If they choose to disregard it and sit in the geyser anyway, all I can say is, I hope they're taken out Whimsurance-- and the rider!

I cannot fail to suggest you ride the V2 rocket here on Whimsy Kaboom.It will blast you realistically into space. Be sure to look down, as the ground dropping away is an awesome sight. The rocket is a teleporter (avatars will wind up anywhere in the sim, as set by the owner). And yes, it's for sale, $795 on the SL Marketplace and $750L in world.


A Whimsical Christmas

29 November, 2010

Whimsy had a freak Thanksgiving snowstorm, and now the land is white. I said what the heck and set out Christmas decorations. I had a talk with Leaf Shermer, and we decided to make Whimsical Mischief the source of all Christmas tackiness. I put out every stupid high-prim, full-bright, badly-textured Christmas hoohaw in my Inventory. See it here.






New Teleport Board

November, 2011

Tonight I replaced Whimsy's old teleport sign with this one:



The old board was designed to look like the signs used by the National Park Service here in the U.S. The new sign is brass, with engraved lettering. From the sign, visitors can visit ten of Whimsy's points of interest. The sign sits at the entry point to Whimsy, here. (Late Note: With Sweetie's help, I moved the sign; now it sits at the bottom of the entrance ramp.)


The Bob Saga

Late September, 2010 through Halloween

Ongoing coverage of the kidnapping of our bobbing bird is keeping me busy in this blog. Whimsy has a few Halloween decorations, but otherwise our sims are unchanged. Start reading The Bob Saga here.




Whimsical Mischief

16 October, 2010

Sweetie and I have been working on the new terrain for Whimsical Mischief. She has created a remarkable underwater landscape which will soon enough be filled with wildlife, caves, and a rail line. She's still smoothing out the edges before we put prims down.

3 October, 2010

We have a new sim on our little grid-- Whimsical Mischief. There's not much there yet, but do cruise by every now and again and watch it as it develops.We're in terraforming mode this weekend.


The Follow Virtual World Tour In a Day Concert

25 September, 2010

The Follow concert last night, spanning four sims on our bloc, was fabulous. Here's the writeup.


New Sims for Whimsy and Eccentricity

13 September, 2010

The big news around Whimsy and Eccentricity this week is the upcoming addition of two sims to our little bloc of four. Whimsical Mischief, which until now was positioned one grid square north of Whimsy Kaboom, will be moved south of Kaboom, and Leaf Shermer's new homestead sim Idiosyncrasy has already been delivered. It sits west of her sim Eccentricity.

Stay tuned for further developments


Swampland

7 September, 2010

One of Whimsy's newer features is a nice little swamp near its southeast corner. See if you can find it!










Whimsy, Beautiful and Dangerous!

Hidden Whimsy

31 August, 2010



The theme of Whimsy is Beautiful and Dangerous. For every breaktaking spot, there's a pirinha waiting to bite or a hot smoking lava rock about to fall on your head. Hey, don't blame us for living in a geothermally active area! It's why we give out hard hats!

To illustrate our theme, we've created two sets of teleportals. One leads folks to Whimsy's most beautiful spots...



... the other to its most dangerous.



To use the portals, click the door to open, then click the spiral to teleport. Near each landing point you'll find a door that will take you to your next destination. Eventually, you'll wind up back at the starting point.

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I Found it in the Sock Drawer

Written 18 March, 2011

I Found it in the Sock Drawer

I don't know about you, but I'm forever having entire folders vanish from their allotted location. One day Clothing > Chey's Things > Weapons > Edged Weapons > Swords > Scripted Swords > Japanese Swords > Katanas, and there it is, right where it's supposed to be. Two days later the entire Weapons folder is nowhere to be found.

OMG, it's gone! Gone forever!

No it's not. It's just in the sock drawer.

It's way easy to inadvertently move a folder into another folder. It happens all the time to me.

And so, I always look in my sock drawer. And there it is!

Actually, what I do is type the name of the missing folder, or, if I can't remember what I named it, something I know that's in the folder. When I locate the folder I drag it back into position and all is good.

I always check my trash before I empty it to be sure an important folder isn't in there. It's a good habit to get into.

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