Thursday, October 23, 2008

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Yes, that's how I feel now. Very relieved.

I live in an interesting area of Mainland, rich with history and culture, flanked by longtime residents on three sides and the SL Railroad. Originally someone had their paradise in the sky in back of the house, but they put it up for sale for cheap and the Jewish Neighborhood bought it. Some misguided teen made a couple of quickie profiles and plopped a swatika flag on the other side where someone had an unrestricted parcel. I ARed it and it's gone.

The ground texture might not be lush but everything else makes up for it. The final parcel in Juliet sold about two days after the previous blog entry.

Meanwhile, adding a coupla pools for Halloween has made Holodoc's Pool & Surf Shop over in Angler look pretty nice. I got more planned. Sorry, no guarantees of reproducing my Turkey Tureen Tub in Lindenese.

I've spent a good portion of my solo time in SL the past week working on an avatar I've wanted to have since Cybertown days. Someone there was very good with character construction and character animation for VRML, and I almost asked them to make it. I knew who was behind their name and a good idea of the terms they'd set for doing it, so I never approached them. But now in Second Life, this is possible. The series was broadcast in B+W, but having collected the comic I know the true colors of the character. I will debut it in Show & Tell this Sunday in a big (for me) production.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Can I Callem or Can I Callem?

Yesterday late afternoon, the sound of ~Kaching!~ and the blue window came down. It happened four times.

That mean lady she snapped up most of the Juliet land!


What did I tell you??? Now do you think I'm paranoid? Meh.

I set the remaining 512 to show in search. I figure pretty soon it will be bought up and repriced by some noodnick wannabe land baron.

An entry about the new place later ;)

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I Know Things Happen For a Reason, But...

My brain is still recovering from the latest tumult of land juggling.

There was the matter of some spare 460sqm entitlement from a contribution if I were to go that route. Long story. Just when this was being researched, I got an IM from someone near the Jewish Neighborhood whom I befriended that her neighbor with the big office building set the whole corner for sale. I thought wow, because I could have had a little plot over by her.

I contacted the owner and asked if she was willing to break it up. We got to talking and it seemed she had a bigger project in mind and keeping this would kill her with tier fees in October, which was just days away at the time. She asked what did I need of it and I said I'd get back to her once I was ready.

It's funny how things work, because Someone who owned a big chunk of the sim to the southeast of me in Juliet had snapped up the land south of my place overnight. Instead of putting some one-way leaf canopy over her land, her idea of privacy was to build deliberate walls up against mine and a neighbor's land. Now instead of looking out at the sea on the horizon in my backyard, I couldnt even see the sky.

The bickering commenced in 12 hr intervals. She had sounds not restricted to her parcel; I didn't care to hear a cuckoo while I had the Oldies playing on my land, why does it have to be so high JUST to block a view below, etc.

The Jewish Neighborhood was looking better. I started thinking: "Okay, I can sell 1024 and either move the fishing where the cottage is, or keep the cottage there and put the pool and videos down in the Jewish neighborhood." I would need more land in Anilis. I left a message with my probable new neighbor asking whether the fishing rods would disturb her. Being Rosh Hashanah eve I didn't know how observant she was or whether she would come to the computer.
Somewhere during all this I realized something: I could turn the place from flat generic land into a Kinkade dream painting. Wherever I would go I would turn the property into what it had to be. It wasn't Juliet at all but me.

I left the evening with a message to the lady about needing a little over 3000sqm in all and whether she would go easy on me since I would be jumping a tier for October. But in the night, I thought a thought: If she trusted me and sold me everything in that corner for a low cost right away so she didnt have to deal with HER tier and I could give her a balance of Lindens when I either sold off some of my Juliet land back or reached a date which coincided with a midmonth paycheck...

Throughout the day this counter proposal simmered in my head. Meanwhile I met by IM the owner of the Jewish Neighborhood, who used to live in NYC. We talked a lot about art and being tragically misunderstood (I had asked if I could join her group), and we hit it off and befriended. Soon - if no one snapped the land up in the interim - we could be neighbors.

The suspense killed me all day I won't lie to you. Meanwhile, our friend in Juliet had lowered the wall by like 2m *insert rolling eyes emoticon here* and said she had put it there to block her uphill view of my holodeck walls (which is silly since she wouldnt see them with a minimum of wall there, and it still didn't justify making them opaque on my side). They had been brought into the conversation for being clear on the other side so the neighbors did not have an obstructed view - which she now caused them as well.

Her reasonings were starting to get absurd. It was then that I found she had a rental apartment business in the next region in addition to her pre-existing home. It seems to me that no matter how much land you have, someone is gonna wanna crowd you out.


Further suspense while attending a family gathering of 5 hours. This was last night. When I came home there was news. The lady wanted to get rid of all of it and quoted me the price I was going to propose as a down payment. I met her and we made the transaction. She insisted I didn't need to give her any more. We friended and I met her partner. Apparently some scripting elements she needed for her store didn't work in the region.

Some things just happen for a reason.

Pondering the phrase from my previous entry while I carefully packed up my things in Juliet, I came to realize that in the end, I was meant to have tropical for the pools and then live among culture - and by the SLRR. I guess it took some shuffling around of my scenario, and all these things moved me to where I am now.

The place is in Heterocera, the second-oldest continent in Second Life. I live by the railroad. It's a real fixer upper, but I can make it into anything.