Mardi Gras in New Toulouse

Mardi Gras in New Toulouse was the best "weekend away" since the 7Seas FFF.  Fortunately or unfortunately I was too sick to pay visits to my parents, and so was stuck home for the weekend.  Except when I'm stuck home I am usually at liberty to explore marvelous places.

This time I was part of them.

For many years I tried to find a good way to celebrate Mardi Gras in Second Life.  First a stark sim of French Quarter style buildings with an automated trolley which listed events but had nobody around otherwise; got bagnettes out of it at least.  Three years ago I rented an audio stream for the first time to host a Mardi Gras party at The Golden Yak in the Linden winterlands.  The stream didn't work at event time for one neglected setting so I channeled WOZ, which I found inconsistent but served well enough.  That night Carter Denja hosted an awesome set of Cajun, Zydeco and early Blues at Madhu's Café back on its previous mainland parcel. That would become the place for me the following year, by which time the Café had relocated to New Toulouse.  Being unfamiliar and the sim situated away from the city's downtown, I was oblivious to what was going on nearby.

In the meantime I discovered New Toulouse and made moves to settle, eventually establishing Maison Bleu.  I've since discovered there is also a "Maison Bleau" to the west.  I have no idea what it is.

Anyway, my friends and probably half of fishdom know my dad fractured his ankle last month, leaving me and my recently diagnosed heel spur to visit both Mom on Long Island then Dad in a Queens rehab, all via public transportation (I type this right now while waiting for the Long Island Railroad to take me back to Queens, where I'll catch a bus to Flushing) .  Very little of my Sundays belong to me for the time being.   I would have liked to make a float for New Toulouse's Mardi Gras parade but there was just no time.  I did manage to make my place ready for Open House and a really fun placewarming party.  I know so many folks over the years since Madhu's, with the added perspective of being back in my birthland (I'm from New Orleans in rl) and enjoying a culture I never got a chance to get acquainted with in my first six years.  At least I got a chance to contribute toward it here, with the party and freebie Second Line accoutrements.  But being with nice people and enjoying their events and offerings in turn is the best part.  As with the best of communities, each has their own backstory but together share a an enthusiasm for the land, and - and this is where other places fail - a welcome hand is offered to any stranger as if they were a next neighbor.  Always a warm vibe here. Also there's no pretense on theme. It's lowdown and anything's possible, unlike the false posing and double standards inherent last year. I don't plan to see any drama drama in New Toulouse beyond role personae.

Next year I'll be ready when it's krewe time :)

Next pursuits: Fishiversary & Relay For Life. More on those next time :). The bus is making its final turn.

Revelers visit during Open House

The Fishiversary is A-Comin'

click to launch a detailed image

The diner's fishing area is a success. Giving back to the community during gaps between contests with a contest is serving its purpose. People enjoy the chalk, are working on capturing the trophies, and sometimes listening to the stream (I've started streaming during them).  With recent RL commitments demanding my Sundays, it's nice to squeeze one of these in after a long day.

Livingtree has relaunched at 8pm EST on Sundays, which was always this "what am I gonna do" limbo hour for me ever since Blaksleeworld ended, so now I get to fish there, then DJ at Bacchus.

Hey, fishing is relaxing.

And speaking of love-ins, the Fishiversary dates have been set and the theme announced (if not obvious to anyone with access to an anniversary gifts chart).  And my kinda party: a PAJAMA PARTY!  I have a lot of ideas for this one :) Won't have anything to do with diners though...

Poster by Meissa Thorne

A Krewe a Krewe! I'm in a Krewe! Watch this space for things Mardi Gras in New Toulouse...

Last but not least: Relay for Life. Teams start applying next week. I don't know what I'll do but I want to do more this year. A lot more. Dat wasn't sure yet what she has planned; the beach had their own team last year but somehow fell through the administration cracks and didn't get a parcel for the big event. So I don't know quite what will be, except a theme is definitely due.

Fishy Mardi Musicky Stuff

Snapshot taken during contest courtesy of Grey Nacht

With the success of my first 7Seas fishing contest held at The Starship Diner, a chapter has either ended or opened up.  Hard to tell which, but it's nice to have seen how this works.   Will make trophies for level up and 13th place at some point, and if there's a gap or two this weekend I'll announce more contests.

For now the focus of building will be for New Toulouse. Some of it's art, but with Mardi Gras weeks away I want to get some nice stuff together.  Will Cap'n Shinez return to Second Life with his crew of bead-throwing noobs?  Never can tell!

This Saturday are two interesting things.  First at 1pm SLT the theme for New London's weekly event at 1pm slt is "Come as your alt" which should bring in some interesting strangers.  Snurky Snoodle will be playing the tunes; don't worry, she's got my collection at her disposal, provided she doesn't dispose of anything. 

Later at 7:30pm SLT is A Taste of Bay City.  I'm hosting this week on the Artspace level of Cartoon World Gallery.  Music will be old jazz, big band, neo-swing and rockabilly.  Dress in your 30s-50s fare and be ready for some fun.

Er, anybody got a couples danceball with jitterbug and foxtrot loaded that I can borrow?

Between these two events will be Bacchus from 5:45-7:10pm SLT.  The kids are busy with Hard Knocks winter camp for the rest of the month, then - from what I hear - resume fishing at Cheep Cheep Landing on Livingtree in February one hour earlier at 5pm SLT.

To Feesh or not to Feesh

This MLK Holiday Weekend I've got some "test Fishing contests" planned.  By then everything will have been set up and ready.  Even now the customs box is at Hydrangea; the fishing server's already been there going on 2 years this spring, so the fishing area is up for all your Dalek-catching needs.  Seating for those who want, music's usually KONAstream by default.

Have to test the jackpot thingie.  At first the secondary display board wouldn't work in the lot in back of the diner.  Suddenly last night it worked fine.   If things pan out, I'll be able to hold impromptu contests anytime I want, perhaps DJ during those times.

Trophies...  I got plans for those.  Top five, an arbitrary standing, a bounty, and a level up.

I think being a diner you can imagine the type of trophies I have planned.  Think I'll display them on a menu.

I wonder if it's overkill to bring out The Dog n Hog Snackbar to house trophy and customs displays?  Hmmm of course it is.

Someone recommended an inworld sculpting tool which could come in handy.  Eventually.  Right now I'm desperately in need of RL funds to catch up with maintenance.  It's been one step forward and two steps back for some time.  I did say twoish years ago that I'd auction off some Burning Life art, but that interest is gone and not likely anyone would buy my art at this stage in the game.

The snows have melted on SkyBeam and spring looks just great. I take everything back. It's a great look, with blossoming groundcover all over.

Testing Blogger App

Oh this sucks

It seems the best course of action to compose on the Blogger app is to compose it outside, then paste it in. The damn thing doesn't have landscape capability.

New Year Mumblings about things Grid

New Year's Eve was busy busy, with THREE events.  First was New London.  I played Auld Lang Syne into the European New Year, the  handed the stream off to the next DJ, who rang in the UK.

Sunday night was interesting in New Toulouse.  They've grown considerably in the short time I've been there, and recently revisted the notion of a working railway for their northern sims, or so it appears. Seeing this and how it would affect my  location in Algiers, I checked out the other sims and found a perfect alternative in their flagship region.  I spoke with landlady Gabrielle Riel and in a short time was transferred.  Probably for the best as it will give them more freedom to terraform that area without restrictions.

Tuesday night they had teatime, which is basically a community meeting.  Nice to be in another of these :)

Meanwhile, I find myself in the equivalent of the French Quarter and closer to my roots.  And - let's face it - I'm a cityslicker at heart.  I'm in my element, and with more room (now that I've forfeit a porch).  I can include a sitting area etc. amidst a small gallery and a more ornate shop of knick knacks.


Will I still be able to call it Maison Bleu?  Who knows?  Maybe it should be called Tchatchkes or something. Update: Guess it's still Maison Bleu, thanks to the Moles' Nautilus City texture pack.

This is on the heels of a fishing area I'm planning for Hydrangea.  There are many times when there is no fishing contest and people are in limbo.  The Retro Metro is part of a group beautification project, with most would-be prim availability assigned to other builds.  It's not possible to add a contest board, contest pot or more chairs.  The alternative is hold it near the diner.  Even using my primmiest TARDIS console there's plenty to spare when I don't have a big build project planned.

So 77m up, I've drawn a kind of pool of chalk on the asphalt.  Tonight I'll have time to put down those growy chair prims, also drawn on the asphalt with chalk.  I have a contest pot prim somewhere that I bought almost 2 years ago after checking out the creator of Razzap's back on Blaksleeworld.  If it still works then great.  If it can be set to reverse payout then so much the better.  That means of the top 5  the fifth place gets the highest amount.  Custom trophies and a custom bounty would be nice.  And a custom level up prize maybe?  Yeh, all for impromptu contests.

 

 SL9B... I wonder what the theme will be?  I may be counting chickens but a head start would be nice.  With advanced warning I could schedule some more time and present more detailed art and builds instead of rushing. 

Which reminds me (speaking of things which delayed working on an exhibit last Jul-Sept), I have another surgical procedure on my hand scheduled next Monday.  It's been easy to function with the injury this time around since it's not as essential as a  thumb, but because I compensated so much in the summer, the middle finger's now affected.  Thing is the bandage will be right in the middle of my fingers.  Maybe I should make an appointment for the index finger while I'm there?  Took 2-1/2 months this time around.

iTunes, why do you thwart me so?  Most songs I look for are either nonexistent or sung by other people or on Karaoke collections.  I am stuck to purchase a CD for one song, which means I'll never get around to purchasing those kinds of CDs.  If only I could trade in my vinyl for the same things on CD at half price.  Except Japanese pressings, colored vinyl and picture discs.  They should yield higher return.

Interholiday Round-up

Many Tardis products which rely on rezzer positioning are broken in Second Life. 

Apparently they work by virtue of a fault in LL sim technology.  A parameter which was necessary for a myriad of extended functions but which shouldn't be possible. A blessing in the guise of a bug. 

The gridwide upgrade this month caught and fixed it, slamming and damning folks such as Novatech, makers of Horizons systems.  Several TARDIS brands including, Bad Wolf Corp, New London Systems, Hands of Omega, and Cheshyr's own Novatech were hampered by this fix. 

Basically anyone rezzing an affected product will be subject to the land properties set at 0,0 on that sim.  If you're subject to a no rez restriction, there will be complications.  For some a portion of the build does not rez.  For me, depending on the build, the main portion rezzes in position and other linked parts rez offset or way out of position, with the false alert in chat that I've rezzed too close to a property border.   I spoke with the owner in the southeast corner of Hydrangea.  The land there is a rental and it wouldn't be fair to them or their renter to change the settings.

Not everyone will notice it of course. Sim owners, protected land and so on shouldn't get in the way of precision rezzing.

According to the JIRA for this break, there is a new LSL parameter which will be added in a scheduled deployment in January. Novatech and those who utilize the Horizons system for their products will apply in upgrades.  

I can't imagine Horizons being unique.  Rez Foo and Rez Faux users may want to check for updates when the time comes.  Meanwhile, my elaborate Smith grade control room won't be happening.  I look forward to its return. It's still my favorite.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7265

Mesh. 

I can't make fun of Mesh anymore.  If anything I'm fair, and with Phoenix' latest update, most of the grid now has a choice over whether to use a V1 or V3 type interface and see full content.  Imprudence still holds back lag the best (even Emerald - Phoenix' predecessor - was a memory hog for Windows users), therefore I continue to use that.  I hope whatever they need to clear to move forward with multiple attachments and mesh rendering gets resolved sooner than later.  In the meantime I'll hold my tongue about your invisible torso and that woodgrain donut on your arm.  IMHO viewable or not, if you have to let some clothier redefine your body to such a degree, you're neither you and those aren't just clothes anymore. Note if your face is covered by a rogue prim, it's likely that I won't acknowledge you. It's just rude to appear that way; at least my friends know how I'm viewing them and haven't obscured their faces.


New Toulouse had a dusting last weekend.  It reminded me of how New Orleans often experienced frozen ponds and puddles in winter, spending time before 1st grade chopping at the white spots in the ice with our heels until the bell rang.  One year though we had a serioso blizzard (before I started going to school) which allowed me to experience snow for the first time.  Dad was stuck home and we made a snowman in the parking lot.  Before that I had no idea snow was cold or wet.  It all looked like soap flakes on TV.  Probably were...

Unfortunately the beauty I've enjoyed - although not enough - is coming to an end on Skybeam.  The snows will thaw to an early spring following New Year's.  Not quite the Imbolc I looked forward to with the coldest month not yet upon us, but it's not my estate.  I'll change the tree from snowy branches to bare at that time - too soon for blooms before Ostara.  After going to college in SoCal I resolved never to live where the seasons were not defined.  It was just too disconcerting.

On the plus side, I'll be DJing at Bacchus on the Beach on New Year's Eve, then going to The Stardust Diner to host the East Coast Countdown as usual.  DJ GoSpeed Racer will be playing the tunes.  I haven't had a party in some time, so it will be nice to have one again.  This has been a perrenial since 2003 in Cybertown.