Always must look at the big picture

Relay For Life. Wonderful cause and they encourage people to do something. You look at all these cool things you can do to raise money for charity. You're psyched and ready to get out there and think: I can do that.

No you can't.

If you're not an established presence, don't expect a good turnout.  The hotshots are out in force with their friends and friends' friends too so your efforts and voice get smaller and smaller until you're a speck.  The theory that having a regular event brings in more people is a myth; either you have it or you haven't.  And nothing says camraderie like teams of friends' and acquaintances scheduling opposite.  Consider towel thrown in. I'll be sticking with slots at existing festivals and faires. Except Halfway There Fair. Because I wasn't invited to that.  Voiceless DJ, remember?

Thank you to those who attended Hearts & Souls' Friday events and had a good time with us. 

Our weekly music event for RFL will conclude this Friday on location at the Starship Diner pier at the Fishiversary.  I'll be playing a 90 minute set from 7pm SLT. Lots of Surf tunes!

On that note, it's 7Seas' 6th Fishiversary this coming weekend.  I'm working on some new catchable Daleks as well as a new Dalek for RFL donation to accompany the perennial Purple Dalek (you saw it first with me in 2011).  It will be good to see the Shikamis again.  Their key builder Meissa Thorne has departed Second Life but I have a Flat Meissa coming along for the Starship Diner pier.  Also expect many silly wearables debuting.  I've got great neighbors, with WyVy on one side and Marianne & Pygar on the other. Toryn was my buddy request but her place is on the far end of the next sim! *arrgh*

I love my new Swing Club.  Look for action each second Saturday. Sometimes it's friends, sometimes it's folks from the retro circuit, sometimes it's just me and Seven.  We have fun regardless. You should come.  You're missing great tunes. Usually from 6pm SLT.

St John is a nice place. I'm happy Miz Gabi made it. It's laid back and barely a hint of drama to be found. I randomly play an hour here and there on my stream when I feel like it. It's all about the European influence in the architecture, the Jazz, the heady scent of magnolia, and the low down, all existing in harmony.  There's tea and cakes so come on by.

Is SL Conducive to Mobile? or SLGo's 1001 Uses

March marked working twelve years in the same place in RL.  To get to that I survived two major waves of layoffs.  Since the financial crisis in fall 2008 the company I work for hasn't been the same.  Wellness solutions take a back seat during these rough times, and while we enjoyed a period of recovery, it just wasn't long or strong enough.  Also there's been a definite direction during this time towards mobile usage versus stationary home and office computers.  Stats show (always enable cookies or companies cannot learn what and what not to change) that the majority of people who visit our website do so via mobile web browsers.  Our homepage redirects them to a mobile site but the fact of the matter remains.

We have both online and offline products (our company predates mainstream Internet) and for the first time this past year, people are turning away from the traditional and expecting more for their smartphones and tablets.

I can see where there may be interest in bringing Second Life to full capability in mobile apps, and SLGo makes for an impressive demonstration, but even SLGo does not allow a user to do just anything.  With Pocket Metaverse and Lumiya you have apps with limited capabilities: both are best served by jumping inworld to IM contacts, then jump back out before the battery burns up.  I know because I've used both.  While Lumiya wins for 3D rendering, the landscape is posterized and crude. None of these will ever take the place of a hands on full use viewer on desktop or laptop.

That goes the same for SLGo with regard to functionality.  It's a lite viewer in that its purpose is to experience Second Life.  Explore, shop, adjust your outfit, take in a performance.  You can rez for the purpose of unpacking and such, but you cannot build. This is a licensed product and there are limits, and it does not connect the same way a conventional viewer would.

At an introductory interview / Q&A session hosted by Prim Perfect's Saffia Widdershins and Elrik Merlin, Nate Barsetti - a former Linden - explained the tech behind SLGo.  Their powerful servers do the rezzing and rendering on your behalf and the results are broadcast to your app or plug-in.  One stands a chance to take advantage of superior maneuverability during special events.  SLGo is designed for both mobile AND desktop, and those with particularly slow or inferior resources for Second Life would experience less lag and full-on quality viewing.  Take that a step further: a "season pass" to Fantasy Faire, Home & Garden Expo, or SLB can make these the times of your virtual life.  I suggested that at the time.  

Their rates now include deals. Imagine attending a week of Burn2 and not feeling the heat of an overburdened system. While some lag and sim strain will persist in heavily visited sims, the majority of it comes from your own computer from rendering fellow avatars. I know people who never had to run on low graphics during a Relay Weekend. If they don't have to, with SLGo neither should you. If you were thinking about trying SLGo, smoketest during a special event and let us know how things worked out.

Leakage & Tunage

Monday: Complications in the wound area.  Or not. Checking with the surgeon's office tonight I may be too late to host fishing. I cant imagine any physician turning down a quick $50 co-pay.  Wednesday UPDATE: to be expected.  He says it's due to the sudden rise in activity since my returning to work.  Honestly there's no such thing as taking it slow on the stairs or getting a seat in a priority corner once you're back in commuting mode.

The Nova Albion 10th Anniversary celebration went off quite well.  Unfortunately perennial favorite Christov Kohnke was too ill to play.  I extended my set to 90 minutes and used the first twenty for some rock favorites including a smouldering cover of This Masquerade by the Carpenters (the song is a popular Christov selection).  Then I went into swing/electro-swing.  RacerX Gullwing was on hand and timelapsed the entire event.

The first "Fridays at the Starship Diner" for Relay For Life went well.  It might have fared better if I could keep awake longer and kept going, but it was a very rough work week and hosting back-to-back events just added up.  Maybe next time I could make it thru 830 or 9pm SLT and give a little more to the west coasters.  Hmmm theme this week...

My fate in the CRFB Top DJ competition depends on what happens for the remainder of the first round.  I passed L$15,000  (about USD65) for my Surf n Soul Beach Party hour. If I advance I can decide whether or not to run with an genre or era or just play a variety.  Win or lose, we won together. GO RELAY! 

Taking Care of Business

Schmoozing in Britannia Village prior to Nova Albion 10th celebration

With winter's thaw it was time to make my way back to town. Maison Bleu stands once again in a Riel-run French Quarter. It feels right. With the added allowance I can think about including coffee and tea with my cakes, and with this year's carpal tunnel procedure I can unleash more art featuring Jazzy the Cat.

I'll be hosting a weekly evening at the diner, playing tunes for tips toward Relay For Life. I thought about Fridays but it runs into occasional gigs I like to attend. After that it would be Tuesdays I suppose. I can't get my teammates together at one time for a consensus.

(God I hate commuting. I missed my co-workers but if I never had to ride with asshole students ever again it wouldn't be too soon. This guy dissed women Indians Italians Latinos and African Americans in the space of three minutes. You'd think he was a red state redneck. Hurry up June!)

The St Paddy edition of music and fishing was surprisingly well-attended for a Monday. A&M had come out with their Electroswing group dance and we had fun with it. With the prog conflict out of the way I could DJ, be in SL and run Fraps simultaneously. I still hate SL Viewer; it's such a user unfriendly piece of shit; thank goodness I don't turn media on when using this software.


Starship Diner on St Patrick's Day a video by Holocluck Henly on Flickr.

I'm typing this on my way to the office for the second time since my return.  I never used the cane and no regrets, but I'd be an idiot if i didn't take advantage of support the abdominal binder offers.  If only the velcro wasn't such a pain in the ass.

Now it's a matter of who can drive me to the pre-op test and procedure for Carpal Tunnel. I was going to shoot for mid-April but with hay fever around there I've decided to shift over to June (somewhere in May I have obligatory jury duty after 3 postponements).

That leaves events for Relay For Life... we have a few lined up, but before that it's the CRFB Top DJ competition and I'm up for my hour Saturday 22nd at 2pm SLT. Come lend your support while listening to a great segue, and please tip the kiosk generously :)

Weird Al Doesn't Mention My Hernia

Past the inevitability by three weeks and a disconcerting mass of melting stitches irritating the area.  A fresh knee injury about 12 days ago complicated physical therapy (it's possible something should not have been tried so soon) and I'm now expected to use a cane and the abdominal binder when I return to the office on Monday.

I came through it and that's what counts.  I've since graduated to water in 2 litre bottles and lifting the juce. I discovered something new and made a large pot of sancocho last week which gave me 6 meals thus far and expected to dole out another 2. Exercises except stairs continue to progress and my nurse signed off on Friday.  Next stop is carpal tunnel.

I don't think I've been more nervous DJing than I was for the Relay For Life Kick-Off last week.   Just stage fright I know, but the port or IRQ battle the Lame broadcast plug-in DLL has with TPV's reached a new high earlier that day when system clothes wouldn't load with any of them and I resorted to my old ARMORD tribute robot suit instead of a tux at the Seraph Club.  

After clearance using PSA's and no mic and performing a character test I went on Phoenix and dutifully kept my cam aimed for the ground and prayed for stability.

Anyway I was so fearful of port demise that I confessed to Bain Finch one my darkest inworld secrets.  Bain: it never happened, okay?

The set itself I had full confidence in.  I approach music segues the same way I approach a drawing or a story.  There's this knack I have for putting playlists together.  They first part was an interpretation of the journey, from discovery and feelings of isolation to support, bope, and triumph then celebration.  Nothing sends a message better than music: not stuttering, not drunken rambling, not singing over beloved recordings, and NEVER interrupting a tune with thankyouverymuch.

I hope Trader approved and yeah maybe by relay weekend I'll have full DJing capabilities.  A test with SL Viewer was a success last night (although SLV has a thoroughly unpleasant lack of basic features with its all-or-nothing text chat functionality) and I could take snapshots while streaming via LAME.

I still have the old VISTA PC and if there's a way to network that, perhaps I can DJ on a completely different CPU.  Wouldn't that solve everything!

I will start doing weekly sets at the Starship Diner for Relay For Life. Maybe based on themes and eras and always at the same day and time. So heads up: Hearts & Souls will be in your face each Friday from 7-8:30pm SLT!  *GO RELAY!*

An Inevitability Draws Near

I feel as though I'm living by a countdown clock.



In less than one week I am to have a benign growth removed. In less than ten I am to have umbilical hernia surgery.

This is how the hernia played out.  In late summer of 2012 I felt a small lump on the side of my navel.  The doctor chuckled and dismissed it as "an umbilical scar."  I thought: does he actually believe if this existed since I was born that I'd come to him with it after all these decades?

By September or October his tune changed when this lump became visually obvious.  It was a hernia.  He didn't feel I needed to speak with a surgeon, that these things sometimes don't get any bigger, that it's not bad enough to worry about.  Like it hadn't gotten any bigger already...

I wasn't physically aware of it; it was more visually disturbing.  Through most of 2013 my navel looked like a crescent.  With th autumn diagnosis I ceased daily exercise on my lower back and abs to slow the process.

In September and October came six weeks without an elevator.  I'd stocked up on bottled water, juice, meat, frozen vegs... And somehow I could still count on one hand the number of times I didn't walk up five flights without bags of something.  Fed up with doing them by hand I managed two loads of laundry in the basement as well.

Following that the bulge progressed.  It was time.  In early November I consulted a surgeon.  I would have had the procedure asap if my boss didn't have a ton of personal days to use up.  That left me covering most of our team's duties (a third was on medical leave) and I couldn't take off.

Since planning mid-January there have been postponements of one sort or another.  A faux appendix scare, a benign growth, and the surgeon's two-week holiday have assigned a hard date of February 19th.

02-18-2014

I'm scared shitless. The time has come.  Everyone thinks I'll be okay and nothing will go wrong with the surgery.  I'm carrying bags of stuff home to take tomorrow: toothpaste, toilet paper, art supplies, fruit (the raspberries will need to go into the freezer).

I've dilligently avoided dairy for ten days, which makes a difference but doesn't solve environmental allergens.  In fact as I type this I have an eye-tearing tickle in the back of my throat on a crowded subway train.

I never had the growth removed. It will have to wait till about May or June once the hernia site has healed sufficiently.

The office-issue laptop will remain with Dad to start (he lives a few  blocks from the hospital and half a mile from rehab), but I'll have other means of communication with friends family and colleagues. And art supplies. With carpal tunnel.

Hello St John Parish

It's been a little over a year since Gabrielle Riel put New Toulouse up for sale. I still play tunes here and there at Shotgun Row Blues Café on occasion.  New Toulouse is beautiful but its soul is a shadow of its former self.  No one even thought to name the hurricane last fall.

As I've said in the past, it was a wise move for Riel to leave when she did. She was  "Toulouse'd out" and enjoying some revitalization with another genre.  On top of that she had a great deal on her plate offgrid.  The change to a scaled down gothic New England community kept her in the estate game but on terms she could better balance with everything else in her life.

It's now a year later.  Riel - typical of contiguous northerners - is accustomed to seasons augmenting celestial events which define the Wheel of the Year, and she's enjoyed re-creating the landscape several times on her sims. Occupancy has continued to flourished in Witchwoods; I have my wagon settled there at present.

Snowfall in St John Woods aka Witchwoods

But the pull of old time NOLA is a strong one, and Riel has made the decision to convert Witchport into an early 20th century parish not unlike the French Quarter.  Actually, not unlike the old New Toulouse Bourbon sim.

St John Parish is a beautiful place, this time featuring default builds by Riel and the inimitable Ecclectric Breitman, several blossoming squares, and of course a cemetery.

This is lowdown Nouveau Dixieland as we've known it, but on Miz Gabi's terms. There are no expectations hanging over her: this is all the Riel Thang, the best of the best with all that she loved about running NT those many years, while maintaining seasonal bliss in nearby St John Woods.  The residential sim (which was New Toulouse Algiers before it became Witchwoods) will maintain its current theme.

Welcome back.