Death by Kindness

There is an explanation for why gears shifted so radically last month. I had a venting entry which I removed. Friends inworld were aware of the situation. There should not have been a situation IMHO, but one cannot always tell online what people are really like much less their true state of mind. I still want to explain things but keep it vague.

Suffice it to say despite my own overload issues as clearly blogged here, there were some radical behavioral changes in neighbors which proved unhealthy for me when the land beside my shop turned purple, and it got worse when I won the auction. Their attention directed to someone who works alone was stifling. I tried the communication route and that didn't work. Stepping up the hints to blatant objection didn't work (and of course I was seen as a bad person). In the end, fate stepped in & my dream plot in Bay City came to be. One can reason that this all pushed me to where I truly belong.

Either way, removing my properties from their proximity and eliminating land as a factor should have brought them back to their senses. After all I knew them from a time when property was not an issue and you hosted your own world on the web. One backed off thankfully, and that was nice. However upon learning I had sold the land in their proximity, another one removed me from all contacts in and out of SL. I think if anything proved they had an agenda with my land, that was it. Their attitude was they did something for me and I should have been grateful for the badgering.

But why? That still makes no sense. My land dwarfed next to theirs, even with the added auction land. I was the first resident in that region last August. If anything, my part in their SL existence was to start them there, where they became a flourishing paradise and a successful social hub for VRML immigrants. Out of respect I avoid both of them so she's not a victim of that silly ole "guilt by association" thing.

My selling the land was very good for the neighbors. A couple to the west got to expand, and the fellow to the north, concerned about being stuck with his land, got it sold hot on the heels when mine was resold by the agent.

Yes, it would have been NICE to have a pier for fishing and a place to rez boats and fish from them (that was the plan over there), but not at that cost. The people I've met in SL have been wonderful, and when unnecessary drama like this rears its head from post-Blaxxun members, it's enough to review why I ran to Toontown and Second Life - and confirm never to go back to the ways of VRML communities.

Next Stop: Bay City

The whorehouse has been replaced with Anne Frank's house. The map view of Anilis is radically different from what it looked like at the start of the month. The pond looks nice; it looks more like a motel swimming pool. Filled with orange soda of course.


With the bulk of Cluckey's Creations out of the way, it's time to work on Bay City and the new shop and gallery. A belated first rezday celebration and art opening.

Two weeks offline produced a goodly amount of sketches. I came up with several builds, two of which will comprise the Bay City property.

I've decided not to be shy about selling builds I am proud of. In fact, the Dog n Hog is currently listed on SLEX (maybe it shows under a search for Googie Style Snackbar). In time I'll have vendors added for buildings for different uses and the Asian outdoor stuff I made last February.

Well, in the meantime, as mentioned, the Fantasy Hotel agreed on a price and moved, giving the Rabbi space for all his museum and synagogue to reside in the same area. I've got culture all around me. I am in good company.

And the 2Life Magazine issue with my article reviewing the museum came out too! The issue overall is very good.

Tired From Doing Nothing

My grandmother used to say that. It carried a different meaning this weekend of course.

The pool was a big question mark for me & never got a sketch. But when I was there on Anilis land, I knew what to do. The prims flowed from me until I had a 27x32 area with a pink formica style finish and green plastic accents.

In my resolve to use no megas there, I put a bridge in place for people to sit on. I also edited the movie screen accordingly so I could place it near the Nessus border. The dog n hog snackbar was rezzed to display the customs & give people a place to hang out.

Finishing touches in the form of pastel deck chairs & customized 7Seas stuff. It's looking good (screens pending return to office). The current map below shows my place versus the area to be ultimately covered by the Holocaust museum and synagogue.

Now to get more sleep and activity AND spend the time I need inworld to get things ready.

(first time blogging via company issue Blackberry)

Too Much Sleep

It's a problem I have since I've been computer-less. I get too much sleep at night. I fall asleep early, and have nothing to do which DOESN'T relax or put me to sleep if I get up in the night.

This has got to stop.

Well, I can't say the outage hasn't helped. It's allowed me to ponder my three properties.
Shuffling here and there during borrowed PC times has given me a better grasp of Anilis. With my new neighbor and the museum dominating most of the region, it looks as though I'm now IN the Jewish neighborhood and no longer on the edge of it. Working with the Rabbi, I've relocated my shop structure to clear the area as he plans to make a sublevel exhibit. The fishing pond is going to be like it was in Donner, with changing textures and decor according to a theme. My desire is for the movie screen to be on the edge of the region to the south and the shop to the north, but I'm a littke antsy since the screen contains a megaprim. I might still do it, moving it clear of the border. Maybe behind it will be a good spot for the SLX box.

Confirmed store and area will be Cluckey's Creations, a main location of the small shop in Selby (which hasn't been finished yet. Another setback).

I feel very cozy in Anilis. I'm glad fate stepped in last fall for me to come there.

Cartoon World... I believe Cartoon World will become a gallery and shop in Bay City. The shirts, artsy shirts like the sacrificial mascots, other types of shirts, will be on the ground level in a squarish googiesque bldg. The gallery will be up but not out of sight. In fact I hope to make it a sight in its own right :) as one of those things I had lots of time to plan with a graph pad by my bed.

That leaves Shermerville. I'll have to think that one over.

I'm pleased to see that my new CPU is in the "preparing for shipment" stage.

failed spongebob test

PC Activity for the non-PC'ed

During my PC outage, two Thursdays in a row I've gone to Dad and hogged the computer for SL and TT activities.

AHHHHHHHHH!

I reclaimed the land by my gallery and set land to the north for the Rabbi to buy for a Linden so he had a clear path to the tracks. Carefully naming all parts and preparing folders, I took up the cottage, the trophies, the furniture, the fishing pond and customs server, flattened the land, brought out the neato Googie bldg I had initially planned for the beach...

Marianne came by - oh it was good to talk to an inworld friend again. Twitter is all nice and good but a convo is a convo - to confirm my convictions. The museum dwarfed my land and the building needed resizing. So I worked on that, creating a doorway front and center with the sides closed, a checkerboard floor (which looked nice with the primaries) and repositioned my erstwhile vendors therein. Will add the googifying details in the future.

It looks like Shermerville is going to be residential for me after all, as I plan to sell the pools in Anilis too. I turned an unflattenable spot south of the shop into a raised demonstration area and plopped down a USA Holiday Weekender pool for the time being.

Now... what to design for Bay City and what to do about that fishing pond? I know for the latter I wanna make poles with a string of banners blowing in the wind. But that's all I now for sure. And what should I call the place? I suspect it will be the main store of what I have a little shop on loan to me in Selby.

It was time to go. Unfinished business. I'll miss the place but will have more time to ponder its fate over the weekend. If anything I was prepared when I arrived and hit the ground running.

Shermerville Oh Shermerville

Actually, I had a $25 eligibility tier for one day, then decided I still wanted a place in Shermerville. I still needed a place for pools and the whatchamacallits still had a parcel near the Blumfield border (in back of Eshi's, around the corner from Michael's, and down the street from Marianne and Pygar), and I figured I wasn't going to be doing any personal travel this year, so I went for it.

Then I lost my computer LOL!!!

Not a crisis since I have some offline planning to do (builds for three properties). Except I had a freelance assignment due for 2Life. I went to Dad's to use his computer last Wednesday night and went inworld to re-screenshoot stuff for the article.

Then I went to Shermerville.

Marianne and I pondered a purple plot, humored about the plywood monstrosity in back of Ewan's place (which has since gone away), and happened on neighbors. That was nice! Meeting neighbors in a suburban area. There was talk of starting up a community association. Then I had to go for supper. It's a nice place, and being largely residential (most shops have a neighborhoodly architecture about them), I want to be sure that whatever I end up with there blends in. I like the laid back tone - I need laid back at this point.

Today was to have been my rezzday, but with inworld activity curtailed until the new CPU arrives, it will have to be for another day. You'll hear soon about it :)

Exerpt from Survey

What could Linden Labs do to make buying Mainland more appealing?

• Enforce no land flipping for one month after a Linden Auction (of new land) to discourage inflated prices by real estate people
• Enforcing encroachment of items whose prim crossmarks don't encroach --- Become more proactive against neighbors trying to crowd out residents (happened twice to me and learned this was very typical)
• Be more proactive in acting on megaprim users who are lagging a region by placing them near or across a region
• Allow people of yea much joined or connected land in a region to customize the terrain (I live in Anilis and love it but the lack of lush grass is KILLING ME as an artist picky about aesthetics)
• Lindens should talk about their topics and not ALL accommodate angry clueless residents who just look up the name "Linden" and descend on an office hour to hijack it for their OT concerns and gripes; these people have DRIVEN me out of Blondin and Blue's OHs for weeks. I waited for Blue's to resume and there they were to dominate the topic about PornLand and not New User experience. I wait all week for Wed to attend 3 OH's which are about topics I am interested in. Adding: If you can't make it to Jack's tough luck. No one's gonna hear anything different from you and no one is gonna hear anything different from the Lindens which hasn't already been covered elsewhere or in the forum.