Friday, October 31, 2008

A Halloween Inworld 2008

The flaming skies in Steelhead looked a bit appropriate for tonight with its dark clouds and lightning touching down left and right everywhere... I donned my mourning veil and ventured out...
I braved the flames of Caledon and Lovelace sims lit on fire in protest of the openspace policy...
Not to mention the sacrificial altar of my Steelhead next door neighbor...
And a mild case of poisoning in Winterfell! I suppose that will teach me to drink from bottles with a skull and crossbones on it!

Checking Out Openlife!

I wouldn't call it an exodus as much as exploring alternative options, but I did find it very interesting that one of the brand-new noobs next to me--the cloud on the right--was Gregg Barrymore, one of the managers of Antiquity who was quite affected by LL's OS announcement...I stopped through the Wind Blue sim there and picked up some freebies nicely put out by Misstress Suspiria (thanks!) and of course, found my way to a sandbox. Although tempted to start building right then and there, I thought I should look a bit more like myself...Openlife is still rough, and reminds me of the old days. Economy's still in development, crashing still happens out of the blue, but you know what? Sims are cheap, it pretty much works the same and thing is, with the influx of creators (like me) and others with the know-how, this has great possibilities! Especially if its creators listen and allow it to be improved. Call me optimistic, but this is going to be interesting to see...

Thursday, October 30, 2008

SL Simple Pleasures: Sailing

I read Hotspur's post and it made me want to go sailing myself, especially as the recent announcement could truly affect that pasttime. The Firth of Caledon--the central openspace water sims there--has always been one of my favorite places to sail and I think that with all of the uncertainty, I will take his suggestion and go to the sims that compose the SL Sailing Federation too--just in case. Tonight, I took out my Trudeau Trucordia yawl, the "Serendipity". Whether it is my literally tiny tako or one of my larger ships like that one, there's something to be said for the calm that comes from sailing inworld. I hope that is something that won't change...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Builder's Woes

To think that all building and our accompanying frustrations regarding it start with this...Call it "Builder's Woe", but I found a past conversation with Lunar that I couldn't stop laughing about. I'm sure any builder of structures and other large builds can relate...

Elle: Have you made progress on your work?
Lunar: aye, put in a moat and everything
Elle: A moat?
TotalLunar Eclipse sighs
Elle: It has a moat?
Eladrienne Laval raises an eyebrow
Lunar: a moat
Elle: But...but...
Lunar: a moat elle
Elle: But...
Lunar: MOAT
Elle: oh my... A moat...
Lunar: mmooooaaat
Elle: I am afraid to ask this...Why?
Lunar: the water has to go somewhere
Eladrienne Laval laughs hard
Lunar: the moat is my fault hands down
Elle: Oh no...what did you say?
Lunar: ahem
Lunar: 'where is the water going to go?'

SL Simple Pleasures: Friends & Living in the Present

Now that I have said what I felt and stepped down from off of my soapbox, I want to talk about another SL simple pleasure and that is one's friends...

My friend Offie Mulberry is the owner and designer of Forever Tiny (I'm wearing one of her dresses) and was the first tiny I ever met. She was there when I chose my first tiny AV and was always great fun to talk to. She hadn't been inworld for a long long time, so I was really excited to happy to see her and reminisce and give her a hug. Offie had been away and it touched her and made her feel good that she hadn't been forgotten. Yes, all of this hoopla over the void policy sucks...but it makes me think once again of what are the simple pleasures we enjoy while in here? Our lives inworld can be truly ephemeral ones. Favorite places disappear. Favorite persons can as well. Our virtual world itself could possibly disappear on a whim if its creators so choose.

Live your second life from moment to moment and treat it as the present experience that it is. That's how I've been spending mine lately. How will you live yours?

Monday, October 27, 2008

WTF LL of the Day: Openspace Sim Smackdown

Oh dear frakking God LiLa, what have you gone and done this time?!

I attended an emergency town meeting in Caledon Oxbridge tonight, led by the Guvnah, Desmond Shang. He was not the only themed community leader in attendance however, as Mr NeoBokrug Elytis of the Wastelands was present, as well as many other concerned community leaders such as Miss Serra Anansi of Winterfell and other major estate managers. The issue? Linden Labs has changed their pricing for openspace void sim regions, effective January 1, citing "overload issues." Why is this a problem? We are talking about a 66% increase in the monthly fee for owners. You can read Tateru Nino's article about it HERE.

"Well, I'm not an openspace or void sim owner, why the hell should I care?" Well, you should. For example, Caledon consists of 20 void sims and 23 full sims. The Guvnah would not be able to continue to charge his current price but for so much longer before having to soon pass the costs onto the void sim owners. If the owners are unable or unwilling to pay more, and someone else does not assume it, then the cost will pass back to the Guvnah. The very nature of a community that you enjoy could be changed dramatically. It is not just big communities like Caledon that could be affected...we are talking about Antiquity, Winterfell, Wyre, Brythony, Lovelace, New Babbage, the Wastelands and many more. For smaller openspace sim owners, this increase could be even more devastating. Across the grid, there could be losses and perhaps a backfiring blow (yet again) to SL's economy across the grid.

Reacting in a knee-jerk "SCREW SL!" way isn't the answer right now. Be angry, fine and yes, but as we have seen in the past, our being ticked off at something they've done (gambling ban, SL5B, trademarks, land devaluation) hasn't made a damn difference, now has it? Things I think about it...call it "Elle's LiLa Conspiracy Theories" if you wish, whatever...

1. The "See, We Listen!": They usually create a $hit$torm and in the face of our going nuts in return, sometimes backpedal to what they wanted in the first place
2. The "Give Us What We Want": Tired of private estate owners charging out the wazoo for land? Here's newly released land and openspace sims just for you! Oh, don't worry about the fact that your land's not worth anything near what you paid for it now! Look! We have land!
3. The "Victims of Their Own Success": We released openspace sims just for you, but look at how much you all really really liked them! So much so that you're not buying regular sims or the spanking brand new land we created! And oh my...that's not quite what we intended them to be used for!
4. The "It's Not Me, It's You": Interesting how when things seem to go wrong, suddenly its the servers and the users that are overloading the system and are the problem. Like Oscar Rogers, the "financial analyst" on SNL, don't blame us...FIX IT!

The way I figure it, in the end we hate these kind of policies, but we really do like being here despite it all. Oh, my Las Olas home is a rental on an openspace sim. Am I screwed? Yup, probably, maybe. It's been quiet and wonderful and a perfect place for me in here. I love every moment I spend there inworld. I had no idea about the overload issue. I guess I'd better enjoy it while I can as either my tier will be increased (which I went through at my old land as a direct result of theory #3) or my estate manager's going to be like "No way!" I really hope LiLa comes up with a solution that takes its citizens into account. In the meantime, I'll wait and see. A lot can happen in two months.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

7Seas Fishing in Caledon Mayfair

I think I have found yet another simple SL pleasure...Phin has set out a 7Seas Fishing game at Messmer Harbor in the NW corner of Caledon Mayfair, right on the Firth waters.

You know how much I like to sit on barrels, so I staked out a spot and cast my line. I had never played before and found it to be way too much fun! All are welcome to come visit and play!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

SL Simple Pleasures

I used to love to swim and thought I'd do some laps around the place. I think we all have things inworld that bring us simple joys. What are yours?

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Sacred Geometry and the E8 Model

I first knew about Wizard Gynoid's work during the Rezzable Garden of NPIRL Delights, with her M.C. Escher's "Stars" installation and was enchanted with her E8 polytope installation at Burning Life. I nally got a chance to stop by her Temple of Sacred Geometry with its pieces referencing mandalas, endless knots, and more...
Her handcrafted polyhedra are really lovely and I went over to Rezzable Visions to see more...Including the beautiful virtual model of Garrett Lisi's E8 polytope. Why is this so fascinating to me? Besides my love of quantum and theoretical physics, it could be the answer to everything...

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Insane Wonder Wheels and Tiny Freakshows

Raglan Shire has a great amusement park going on right now. I convinced Phin to go on the Wonder Wheel with me... But I "accidentally" set the speed setting to "Insane"...
Somehow he was brave enough to go on another with me and opted for the more sedate pumpkin twirler ride...
Then we found the entrance to AlohaLani Heron's Tiny Freakshow! Somebody get that clown a bandage!
Which was really very well-done presentation-wise, not to mention absolutely hilarious. We couldn't stop laughing and had a great time. My fave were the Siamese Siamese kitties...

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Rivet Town Inventor's Expo

Phin and I popped over to the Rivet Town Inventor's Expo, which featured steampunk inventors, designers and builders. I had a booth there with some examples of my designs. While wandering around, we met Selkett Felwitch, who made this elegant, beautiful steampunk air vehicle. Its wings contract and expand and it's one of the most unique designs I've seen for a steampunk flying vehicle in a while. Can't want to get my hands upon one...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Giant Cookies

The white hair, the treehome living, the ears. He can deny his Keebler relatives all he wants to, but I could not resist leaving this "little" present for Lunar in front of his home...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Off the Market

One year can make a huge difference, including in one's life inworld. Phin and I have been together for one year as of today, and surprised each other by showing up in what we wore during one of our earliest outings (a dance, I was in costume). It was only natural that he asked me to partner him......and I said "Yes." I scrambled to whip up a dress for the day...
I really thought about this and a lot of things regarding my life inworld. SL should be a place of peace and happiness while here and he helps to make it so for me in that grey clouds gone kind of way. He is a great guy and likes everything about me, even my "ferretty" ways--which is good, as he's the squirrel of my SL. Thank you Phin for making this such a wonderfully happy day! Here's to many, many more...
p.s.: Dia--there are your pics!
p.p.s: Zoe, aka "SL sis-in-law"...Yes, I know, "It's about time!"

Monday, October 13, 2008

Linden Bears

I have talked about my little Linden Bear collection before, and since then I've acquired some more, such as Teagan Linden's jaw-dropping 100+ prim one...lord jebus crispeh waffa on a stick that's a lot of prims!And Colton's fishing one...
And I thought you'd like a better look at Coco's...wow...I can't stop laughing...
These are the SL5B and a Halloween one from '06. I'll probably just keep adding to this list...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Quiet

I was just wondering when.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Squirrels on the Move

Flew my GeeBee plane and thought I'd dogfight. At one point I went nose down and got stuck, but a certain other squirrel (PHIN) kept shooting me anyway. This certain other squirrel (PHIN) was rather tickled about that fact...Afterwards, we went to Raglan, where you can see they are gearing up for Halloween...

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Steelhead Port Harbor: Steampunk Fantasy Sim Now Booking!

One of the things I've always enjoyed is being a steampunk. If visions of smokestacks, factories, mad scientists and 19th c. clockwork creations get you as hyped as me, then you'll be happy to hear that Steelhead is opening a new sim called Port Harbor. You get to live out your steampunk fantasy in a sim where air and sea vessels, tall industrial buildings and all of the things that go along with that vision are not only welcome, but encouraged. Steelhead has a reputation for great architecture, so you know that will be continued in Port Harbor as well, with a commercial pier, drawbridge, railroad, and more. If you're interested, contact TotalLunar Eclipse ASAP... And if you need further incentive, let me say this...out of all of the 19th c. sims, and I've visited or been involved in all of them at this point, I chose Steelhead to be my 19th c. home. Why? The friendly, laid-back neighbors, the weekly town meetings that not only bring us all together but keep us well-informed, the quick response of management, the acceptance and welcome of everyone no matter what or who they are...there is a sense of community there. You can't beat that. Here I am watching the koi at Steelhead Gardens. Did I mention that it is beautiful there too?

Sunday, October 5, 2008

How I Spent the End of Burning Life

Well, the festival's wrapped up. Installations are being taken down. The fun's now over. So when Lunar asked me to join him there, I was like "Why not?" and popped over. I found him chilling on a sofa with his feet up calmly munching on popcorn. I thought the glass walls and decor looked pretty comfortable and sat down with my own cup and happily munched away as well. He mentioned something about the "fish" and I thought he meant the one on the table across from us in its tank...Um...little did I know that he meant THAT one!
installation: "Fish Out of Water" by Khloe Carter

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Lunar Finished the Build...FINALLY

Lunar has been working on a reproduction of the Mannheim Wasserturm (Water Tower) for a month now. I helped with some of the textures and a conch shell for a statue *chuckles* ("A conch is a critter Lunar! A sea critter! A yummy sea critter!") It is, in a word, "spectacular." He finally finished and has temporarily set it down in Steelhead City...I've been following its progress since the beginning, but held off on publishing photos until now:
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Lunar and I celebrated its completion with a tango on the lighthouse roof. Look at the expression on my face! I look like we've been caught by the paparazzi or something...

Fuzznutz Tinies Cover Band Video: "That's Not My Name"

The Fuzznutz are Raglan Shire's tinies cover band and they have released a machinima video! Enjoy!

Friday, October 3, 2008

"You Are What You Eat" exhibit

I stopped by a very unusual exhibit today called "You Are What You Eat" by Antoine Lancaster and curated by Arkady Shatzin. For an entire year, Lancaster took pictures everyday of what he ate. At first, I was like "What the...??" but I ended up being fascinated, if anything, by the variety. Made me kind of hungry after a while. You can see it for yourself HERE.