Mardi Gras bash tonight!

As many of you know, I aquired a winter holiday marketplace parcel last December in the Donner region of Second Life.

It's been an exciting and educational experience for me: building at light speed and keeping up with a succession of holiday themes. Most of all: learning how not to be a packrat by tearing down and rebuilding.

I also experimented with making custom catches for the 7Seas fishing game. Prizes included shoulder pals, deely boppers, and commemorative tees.

This week it ends and the marketplace lands will disappear. We've been told the 20th is the final day for those in Dasher, Prancer, Donner and Blitzen.

As a send-off, I've made some floats and redecorated the land for a pre Mardi Gras party. Harlequin Noobs will have beads for you (it's PG land so keep your shirts on. Besides, I'm inviting some SL Kids :P ). The water has shoulder pals and souvenir tees for 7Seas fishers, and a Looney Tunes video will be uploaded before the party starts. We can fish and dance our brains out!

The party starts at 8:30pm EST aka 5:30pm SLT

Where? Well, my picks has the location but typing in "Donner" should show a pink events star.
A personal favorite technique of mine as a high altitude resident is to aim on the map for the pool and teleport for a splashtacular entrance.

I hope to see you tonight!

Inauguration Week in Donner

Well, I got that Greek Donner stand done, learned to offer custom fishing stuffs, and completed the inaugural pool (forgetting to set the media texture - DOH!) in time for February 20th. Patriotic and commemorative Obama goodies will be removed on Monday.

I was pleased to find people fishing at the pond following the update and an announcement on the 7Seas boards. Weee!


So what next? Why, the Year of the Ox of course! I have toys, trinkets, and Tees planned for the fishing pond. If all goes well, I will also have some really nice things for sale.

In other news, those dorks either removed the encroaching trees from my Angler property or a Linden returned those things to them. Either way, it's good. I'll have to add more vendors - damnit from XStreetSL, which means making ALL of them from scratch. Feh.

But before then, GUNG HAI FAT CHOI!

Coasting through the winter.

My conspicuous markings in Donner. Friend Marianne has a place in Dasher

Not via a bobtail nag.

I invested recouped medical money on a piece of land in Second Life's Winter Holiday Marketplace. It was exciting about the whole week of auctions. It was like my old eBay days, hovering over auctions and - well I didn't usually get outbid the last second. That was usually my triumph.

There were two things going: First, I wanted snowy land for winter. Second, being that four regions were named for reindeer, one was called Donner. I HAD TO HAVE A PLACE IN DONNER! You know us artists - when we have something in our heads there's no stopping us. And I had a triple entendre going full throttle.

I actually had this spot in my sites at the foot of two mountains (a pass! Oh, rapture). Being how I lost a piece of land the previous day by $L5, and the pass land was the very last Donner plot being offered, I went for a bigger one at the water in an earlier bidding wave. Booyah! It's a shame about that other plot I wanted; the winner did nothing Donner Pass related.

In fact, no one else in Donner really had anything in mind other than plopping what they already had built for their island or whatever to promote it. Once they made their spot, you never saw them again.

Being the newb, I had no holiday or winter content from any previous seasons. But I was AN ARTIST. And I was enjoying some time off from work. Except I really didn't rest. I *SLAVED* that night over Photoshop to make each texture file for a gingerbread house, which was assembled like one of those that come in kits. By the weekend the house was done. It was time for my piece d'resistance...

Behold it in its absurd glory. Gosh I'm so proud of myself. I made it look like the real thing. It actually looks delicious if you're not a vegetarian. Ride on the donner kebab sammiches or dance Zorba style on the top over the tomato. It's all good.

Next came the music. Sure Sky had an "okay" holiday channel most were tuning into. But I had a great collection of mp3's and I wanted to share the sound of holiday pop. After struggling with Mediamaster, which happened to run out of server space THAT WEEK, I managed to squeak on my tunes for an awesome playlist. We're talking Bing and Phil Spector meets The Kinks and Stan Freberg. It had everything. Yes, even Charlie Brown stuff.

Had holiday pools all ready, and free holiday food in the gingerbread house.

I didn't sell a thing by the way. Had vendors for the flying foods and pools but not a single purchase. Story of my life!

It was fun anyway, and some friends shared in the New Year Countdown there on Dec 31st.
The Marketplace is deserted except for my puttering around on my land and some folks hugging the Infohubs elsewhere. There are plenty of other holidays to celebrate before I lose the land.

Right now I'm setting it up for the inauguration next Tuesday. The plan is to have freebie stuff people can fish out exclusively there. It would be my first time with the new kit from 7Seas. Be sure to stop by and check it out; I'm hosting a new Superchicken cartoon :)

Sevhen says the Chicken Dance is our dance.

Coasting Virtually Pleasantly

Seven & I dance in soup to The Spongetones.

Less focus on debacles, more on creating and having fun.

This should be everyone's goal, shouldn't it? I mean, if they're not crazy.

The Jewish Neighborhood bought the chunk of land behind my cottage and TMA founder Beth gave me access to create whatever I wanted on the land I donated near the tracks. I think I'll have to do some pondering as soon as the structures beside the region border are relocated. I don't know what she'll have planned for that area, but the new look will help determine what I do with that part. Until then the plot of land displays maps of Mainland, with a pin stuck into our location in Heterocera continent.

The pool shop is starting to look busy. methinks the holiday ones will have to go to vendors while the next holiday editions get sand time, keeping year round ones for permanent display.

My greatest pool finally saw pseudo reality this week when I recreated the Turkey Tureen Tub. This was the epitome of pools for me and marked the highlight of my pool pursuits in the Blaxxun communities.

Speaking of which, the Blaxxun Community regulars who used to hang out in Blaxxun's own VRML world now hang out south of my pool shop in Angler. Sleepy expanded the land from the 512 I gave him to an additional 2048. It's quite the beach hangout got good stats as former Blaxxunites have adopted it as their home base. Sleepy, bitten by the 7Seas bug, installed a fishing area kit and long range server to cover both our properties.


I think I would like to design a lot more T Shirts. Think they'll be well received on the web marketplaces?

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.

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 ;)

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.