Up from the Ashes: a Burn2 Surprise

It happened once before on my older PC: Photoshop suddenly stopped working. Nothing had changed or updated since the time it worked. It just stopped. With a new scanner at the time came a newer version, and that installed and ran.

Now with the VISTA suddenly it stopped again. Likewise after uninstalling I couldn't reinstall. It's not proceeding after I click Allow.  Everything else works on the computer.

I believe Adobe has set some sort of timer to these bundled versions so they discretely expire.

I've installed GIMP which certainly takes some getting used to until I can afford my own new version of Photoshop - or use the one at work? At any rate I can scan in GIMP if it comes to that. It looks about as precise in selecting as Paintshop Pro, which is not very. It won't even give me options for targa format; for all I know they all output 32bit and huge for the non-alphas.

So here I was getting ready to put the first things with textures into SL for my parcel, when I couldn't make them and my 512 was  occupied by someone else. I asked for help and as it turned out I was upgraded to what must be a campsite: 2048sqm. I'd only planned for the 512, but it will be easier not having to be too clever to meet a strict limitation.

As usual these revelations come 2 weeks before the deadline. Thanks just the same!

The carpal tunnel op has been postponed.

Eat our dust

A Word About Virtual Graverobbers

Last night a group who typically run a contest opposite the beach namedropped the beach's late co-owner to get people over.

That was very low IMHO. We've made a point at Bacchus to simply put out RFL kiosks & promote the fight against cancer.  Not grandstanding.  Those who know, know, and those who don't may be giving in memory or honor of someone they know...

...Or in the hopes that someday in the future someone will live longer or cancer free from what we've done.

So these people, who have consistently made our Sundays a bit thin - and they have every right to do so - actually had the nerve to post in RFL group chat that they were dedicating their contest to the man who co-owned Bacchus. That's not right.

First: low. If they knew who he was they'd have known he was captain of RFL Team Bacchus and was on the group list for the beach. Don't exploit the death of someone you don't know to dis them and their memory and their family.  Second: it's a fishing contest. This means they profit from it and so do 7seas with the sale of bait and rods etc. And the fishing contest pot.  You cannot promote in RFL unless ALL purchases go towards RFL via RFL vendors and kiosks.

I gave their hostess a talking to. I'm no holier than thou type, but when the beach regulars are missing by a half and they single out one of our owners to draw people away from us and additional people to boot, well that's just sick.

Don't try to get attention or show yourself as some big deal by stepping on someone's grave. Or creating a hardship - on any level - for their surviving family members. If it isn't a personal friend of yours or a direct relative or a celebrity you're doing this for, then stfu.

There's always something...

The video shoot was a success. I have about 50 clips to rename and catalogue for fodder.  I still need some non-performance shots of surf and pipeline surfing.  Any idea where in SL people ride the surf?

Skybeam is starting to turn.  Autumn and winter are their best seasons.  Snurky is waiting for another race there and hopes this time it's in the fall.

I've been invited to participate in a hunt!  Ought to be fun. It brought to mind many more things I'd like to do for the FFF.

But first Burn2.  The initial germinating has been done.  It's time to put out the peat pots...

Tomorrow is the pre-operation evaluation after a visit to my specialist as planned.

Once Burn2 and the hunt are out of the way, it's Cartoon World's ground floor rennovation. Then facing the operation. From then a big blank.  It's anyone's guess if I hit the ground running or take weeks to resume drawing.  I'll make some playlists in advance (not that I don't already have over 180 to choose from) and hope for the best.

It's the next day and in the evaluation room. Took an hour and a repeatedly crashing computer to take all my medical info. It's possible the procedure may have to change venues and be rescheduled.  All because of the anesthesia. Hmph. Don't know why we can't do a local and I can just whine ten minutes longer about the tourniquet...

Yeh it's the hand not the brain. Yeah had 2 done in the surgeon's office on the fly the past year.

I'm not afraid to say I'm starting to get hungry at 3:15 (I went in at 1:30 and thought I'd be home long ago).

About ten minutes later they came back to say I need to see my doctor on Friday (they set the appointment up themselves) and arrange a stress test.  The ole murmur freaking people out again...

Now with pre-op angst out of the way...

I now have 4 rock videos in my head.

My only concern is some sort of block on the tunes, which depends on the record label.  YouTube is on the right track allowing users to post inspirations and link to song sales.  It's free advertising in the first place.  One should always give credit where due, but YouTube sales should speak for themselves and quell concerns.  I've bought music after hearing it in a video (kyare pamyu pamyu just happened to come on), and I can certainly blame BBC radio for new additions to my collection by Alexandra Burke, Frankie Miller and Rufus Wainright.

With this method everybody's happy and the recording industry is saved. 

Now stfu and let me do my videos.  The rest of the first will be shot this weekend, friend permitting.

A future one (the first I came up with) will be tricky because I have to fillm myself.  That is, JUST myself.  Lipsyncing.  It's lagged enough just filming...

Oh snap you mean they're called Machinima?  Well fuck you and your arrogant French terminology.  It's ROCK VIDEOS.

You might be seeing this before my performers do!

Bad hand, a Burn2 parcel and a new gallery location in need of goodies.

More Daleks on the drawing board for FFF.

It's like I'm trying to do everything before my Carpal tunnel operation in 2 weeks.  I heard things improve immediately, but given my sensitivity to prescription medication, I fear the worst from anesthesia.

I could die, get pneumonia, be semi-conscious and hear everything...

...as a kid I had a tooth pulled under ether and heard the muzak in a horribly distorted way.  It gave me nightmares for years, so much so that when I needed 4 teeth pulled for braces at 11 I insisted on novacaine.  What a session, with those needles, my mouth propped open and asking questions via my tongue (which the doctor understood and answered flawlessly), then being unable to speak any better following the procedure for another 3 hours.  Would I do that today over ether? HELL YES!

Jump ahead to last month.  Stuttering when the doctor said the procedure would be done at LIJ in an outpatient area using something called twilight. 

Be put under like a frozen pond or distorted muzak.  Those were on my mind. 

We'd been through four hand operations together he and I, and each time with the dreaded local shot (hey they need to get the nerve, otherwise what's the point?), a tourniquet for 8-10 minutes aching my upper arm, listening to smalltalk while counting the seconds to when the tourniquet would be released.

This would be a 20-minute arthroscopic procedure. A bit long to hear me whine I suppose.  Would I endure the shot and 20 minutes of aching from a torniquet over the alternative? HELL YEAH!

So this was all in my head while I stammered an irrational sequence of phrases, him looking at me like I'd lost it.

Next week a visit to my immunologist and we'll discuss this along with other things.

Cartoon World Gallery, Hydrangea

Cartoon World has now become part of Hydrangea

[01:35]  Second Life: Your 21 objects have been returned to your inventory Lost and Found folder by Grappa Romano near parcel 'Cartoon World Gallery - 1024 doubleprim M land in Bay City' at Bay City - Falconmoon 88, 151 due to parcel auto return.
[01:35]  Second Life: Your 58 objects have been returned to your inventory Lost and Found folder by Grappa Romano near parcel 'Cartoon World Gallery - 1024 doubleprim M land in Bay City' at Bay City - Falconmoon 97, 143 due to parcel auto return.
[01:35]  Second Life: Your 3 objects have been returned to your inventory Lost and Found folder by Grappa Romano near parcel 'Cartoon World Gallery - 1024 doubleprim M land in Bay City' at Bay City - Falconmoon 94, 144 due to parcel auto return.

A Look back on Land From O to H

There's something cleansing about making major changes on one's property. 

Bringing Cartoon World to Hydrangea seems to be a logical course of action, though not a comfortable one.  Cartoon World WAS my first land over four years ago on Gaeta 4 continent, and would have been fine if it weren't for those two griefers disguised as entrepreneur. They taught me to keep my borders wide with their two-bit alpha bushes routine.  As a result I went from 512 to 2048.  Since then the couple broke up: he left SL and she has sex and leather groups listed in her profile.  

Capital Improvements under way in Hydrangea

I would still be in Juliet (Nautlius) if it weren't for some land-grubbing weirdo from another sim who up and decided to expand to 3 sims to make a European village. The expanse of land to my south was on an incline below towards water, and as soon as they acquired it they erected a massive wall from a megapim so all I could do is look straight up to see the sky.  Within a week I had a nice piece of land in Anilis, perfectly timed a day before the anti-adfarm rules went into effect.  I was right beside TMA, the Jewish neighborhood founded by Beth Odets and along an SLRR line. Within hours Wacko bought the Juliet land.

During my time in Juliet I'd gained an additional area of land in Angler, an empty sim parceled out for beach property.  While Juliet was for a home, my gallery and a 7seas fishing area, Angler was for a pool shop.  Anilis was nice and roomy if not oddly shaped, and of course there were the neighbors in Nessus. Cartoon World - still in its original terra cotta design - was moved intact from Juliet.

I waited a good long time there while the SLRR project was set aside for things such as building Zindra.  Then Flossberg, Straaf and AnnMarie Otoole (aka SL's slumlords of transportation) started running their crappy boxes by my place on the tracks.  Since then and long after my departure SLRR has has proceeded and the Virtual Rail Consortium aka VRC now has a presencein Anilis with a rail house by a new junction (an additional set of tracks branching east was added by the LDPW.

Documented weirdness at Angler and the need to expand Cartoon World put me into a position to look towards Bay City.  I bartered land and Lindens to get my first parcel in Falconmoon just over 2 years ago.  Halfway through I moved to the street and sold the previous plot.

I wanted a diner. I made one on my Winterfaire land for the season to try out and was keen to move on to a permanent one.  Anillis wasn't conducive to a diner; I gave up on the concept of a Bay City Rollers Diner due to not being rich enough for an auctioned spot beside Route 66. I watched an abandoned parcel in Pawpaw at a 3-way intersection which was was given up by a Scion chicken breeder (we had a problem with those lagging down Anilis and neighboring regions during the Scion Craze).  It never saw auction; Linden Labs took it back and made it into an SLRR station.  All's well that ends well...

Remember Plano?  It was PG, too small, and situated too close to Prok's rentals.  I was glad to get rid of it.  1024sqm became "too small."

While exploring the atoll, I came on Hydrangea and abandoned land bordered by two routes and a winding path connecting them.  I envisioned people riding their vehicles along Route 4 and coming upon a sign with a rotating top and a "family restaurant," aka diner with parking.  That would be MY diner there someday. 

I waited for almost half a year when it happened.  I parceled out and sold Anilis (couldn't afford tier for both or I would have kept it) and saved up the money. I was ready to outbid anyone to US$75.  Times being what they were, with porn being relocated to the new Zindra continent, the market was mush. It was mine for less than $35 when it finally went to auction.  My friends and I partied on the bare land and I blessed it with a consecration ceremony. 

A little over a year ago I bought the last of my tier in Hydrangea when somebody abandoned a small parcel in the same sim. More prims...

Cartoon World on Gershwin Blvd in Bay City - Falconmoon.

Selling my Bay City property won't lower my tier in any way.  There's  nothing wrong with the location.  In fact, this is the finest parcel available in all of Bay City at the moment.