June is Wacko Schedule Month

I don't know what it is about June and October in Second Life that there are way too many major events jammed into one month than is possible to attend much less participate in or coordinate.

Here is June's breakdown for me thus far:
- DJing for a fundraiser for team Brooklyn during an art auction.
- SLSFCon7 - finally recognized as a Relay For Life mega event.  DJing, shop, and booth for team. Also 7Seas fishing contests on site Mon & Fri
- Fashion For Life - applying for a shop this week.
- Nova Swing night.
- Castles Contest week hosted by team Strange Journeys.  DJing.  I believe they'll have places for team shops.
- SL11B - DJing and exhibit. Started work on it.
- Simwide weekend Hearts & Souls is working out with team Harmony of Hope.  More about that when it's time, and by the right people.  As performance coordinator I'm looking to bring in many people known around the grid who are not common faces at Relay For Life mutli-team gatherings. Also DJing that Saturday Morning.
- Begin building the Relay Weekend campsite.
Busy enough?
Still plan to attend A Piece of the Action at the Seraph Club and Breakfast in Babbage this month as well.

Events and all Sundry

The autoimmune battle appears to be going well. My latest food intolerance rest came back with no redline foods and just a couple of moderate choices to visit only periodically. My year abstaining from rice paid off to some degree, but it still sends me a flag, so I may be reacting to it in some other way.  While my intolerance to Gilatin has dropped from severe to moderate, I  still need to keep a diligent eye out for anything made from wheat, oats, spelt, buckwheat, and so on.

Working with Adobe Audition has been some learning curve.  Snurky recorded clips at work and I mixed them to serve as "commercials" for last Thursday's DJ gig at Fantasy Faire.  It's strange that AVS4you's audio edit program is as difficult as it is. Truth to tell her PSA this year was mixed in their video editor, then converted.  Pity the audio prog doesn't work like the video prog for sound...

The PSAs all mixed well in Audition with the exception of volume control.  One I turned down the gain and the other up.  I really have to wonder why they came out differently if she allegedly recorded them back to back.  And how to reliably change the volume when the peak bar is unreliable.

Looking ahead I may engage some voices for upcoming gigs.  That was kinda fun.

The next RFL gig is this weekend for Relay Stock, with the return of new tie dyes including longer and hemmed versions and ladies' leggings.  That's just from me. Other members of the team will be putting out dresses, jewelry and more.

For those whom 8am SLT is primetine or late morning I'll be playing a groovy 2-hour set.  Beatles, Bee Gees, Donovan, Monkees, Rolling Stones, Tommy James, etc etc. 

SFCon7 will be next, with emphasis on comics, superheroes and other genre subjects. My team mates will also have offerings at one of the space stations.   Hot on those heels will be Fashion For Life.  There's a good chance I'll have a shop there as well, which will allow people to continue to get the new items offered at SFCon7 plus exclusive casual apparel.

June will continue with 3 home grown events, two for RFL. Team Strange Journeys will have a Medieval themed week (DJing and vendors).  This runs into SL11B, where I've applied for a parcel and applied for a DJ spot for Electro-Swing; if asked I'll be happy to play a set for the Bay City Pavillion as well.  Another RFL team is planning a themed weekend, and Hearts & Souls may collaborate with them if I can find some other conscious members of the team who may not be builders and still want to help inworld in some way.

Throughout this I've been planning our Relay Weekend campsite.  I may lasso scripters for some "effects" and reacquaint myself with QVanimator for custom poses.  There's enough to give my fellow builders something to do and add their personalities to the presentation.  With me in charge of the team this year our ultimate goal is once again back to keeping the sim's resources down to make it easier for relayers to get through and keep the server up while offering an engaging and appealing presentation.  Going to see if we can share the sim with certain teams/artists.

Somewhere during these will be two outpatient procedures...

April into May

The Fishiversary was great fun, and most fishing spots included Flat Meissa, which was epic.  The Shikamis made the most of the situation as well as hosted their own contests.  For one of them they rode a boat with an alpha defining the board's sensory limits, resulting in a mad game of tag via sea and air. Aley's builds were out in force, both as fishing spots (including part of mine) and vessels.

Fish tag contest at the Fishiversary

Working on my art for shirts. I still haven't decided on Fashion For Life but signed up for a parcel for Cartoon World at SFCon7 in addition to a place in a space station for the team to put up vendors.

I'm planning the campsite; as soon as the shirts are ready it's all about SLB and RFL.

Tonight it's "re-learn audition" and edit up some gab Snurky recorded in her office for Thursday's Fantasy Faire gig from 5pm SLT.

In two weeks it's Relay Stock where we have a hippie van where we'll offer clothes and jewelry, plus 2 hrs of me on Sat afternoon (or was it Saturday morning? I have it written somewhere.  Was sure it was 8-10am SLT, which is morning AND afternoon local time). 

Check back in and see!

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 :)