World Cup is Everywhere This Year

In Jackson Heights it is impossible to get away from World Cup Fever. Half the neighborhood sports their country's official football jersey. It's amusing to see entire families in matching tops. 

Restaurants bakeries and bars all have a myriad of flags outside for Colombia Ecuador Brasil and many others. The dominant shirts in order of descending popularity are Colombia, Spain and Mexico. I imagine one sees more for Mexico over on Roosevelt Avenue, but overall it's Colombia worn enmasse.

A mess of flags outside a bakery

I'm sitting in a Colombia bakery for breakfast.  Someone stares at me as though I'm eating my arepa wrong, or possibly because I'm wearing an Old Navy surf tee. Heh.  More colors have since arrived and I have no idea whom they represent (looking them up later on the Adidas site I see they're variations of the top three: home vs away).  I only saw a couple of people wearing the green and yellow for Brasil.

The people I know online get "funny" during football finals, so I keep my distance. I'd prefer to steer clear of their blind, all-or-nothing mindset until the fever passes and someone gets stupid and insults me for no coherent reason other than they don't like my country's football team.  Someone tried to do that shit to me once over American football - I don't know who it was over the Giants or the Jets. IMHO New York State doesn't have a gridiron football team since they're both based in New Jersey.  Anyway I'm staying away from people who are temporarily insane from my perspective until their eyes take on human coloration once again.

Which reminds me... I wonder what this month's theme for Breakfast in Babbage could be?

Open Letter to a Belligerent Snipe Teleporter

I have a message for your kind when you find this post.

You think you're so great, that you're above common courtesy because "this is SL," but you're not and you're not.  You're just another spoiled brat who grew up in the Internet Age and we're all NPC's to you: a bunch of text on the screen.  We're fodder, a body count for your whim. Press a button and see what proportion of them come running. The rest? Eh! Who cares, right? God knows why you even bother pursuing Relay For Life.  You certainly have no regard for anyone else's life but your own.  Running around Playing Charity will not redeem you.

Oh was it someone you knew offline?

We're different? We don't count because we're text?

Well guess what? Each line of text denoting an avatar has a story, a history, a life you're incapable of acknowledging.  They could be sick, poor, in debt, healthy, busy, rich and privileged - like yourself, or maybe so pathetic they just sit inworld wondering: "gee, I wonder who will teleport me to something cool this hour?" 

I'll say it again: when you pay for my Second Life. you can pluck me from whatever I'm doing to whatever you're doing. But you won't get the chance.  You should have thought about the consequences of your actions when you thought I had the audacity to object to your rude behavior.  You REALLY should have done since your only association is a cooperative project among two groups and your behavior impacts on your group's reputation.

Taking responsbility for one's actions. It isn't just for the other guy you know.

You think you're so hot, but you're nothing more than a toxic cloud now. Yes, no more a person to me than I was to you. You may garner favoritism and sympathy from friends because I'm male and you're female, and they may choose to believe your embellished account (as you conceal your actual role in this incident, your rude, unremorseful superiority and penchant for burning bridges) because you're their friend and you have such a cutesy way of typing your name out with extended characters.  I'm sure you figured I had more to lose if I said anything so you took the initiative to do whatever you wanted. You were mistaken.

Anyway you had your chance to pardon yourself on the spot for your rudeness and you blew it.

Now here comes a breeze.

June Madness Continues

Well, scratch Fashion For Life this year. I was ready to sign up but there's been no time to prep for it.  Next year.

I have some more talents in mind for the Sizzlin' Halloween Weekend stream schedule, and notecards for them go out tonight. Whatever slots are left the members of Harmony of Hope team can fill them in.   Notecards are going out tonight since I'm not getting answers via IM.  The promo poster looks good; anything with the right mood and can be read from a distance is good.  Someone on their team wants to do PR. Fine with me given everything I have to do this month :)

 Anyway I've been working on my SL11B build during breaks at work.  As often is the case, the bulk of it involves texturing. Lots of Sharpie this year.

It's now time to reserve the RFL campsite space. I know whom I'd like to be near and whom I wouldn't want to be in the same parsec with (the latter of course would be unavoidable).  I checked with one of my fave designers and she will in fact be doing something for the track again. Hooray!

We had a dumbass griefer at fishing Wed night.  Bottom line: you're a guest on someone's property.  Fishing is not a public event and nobody owes you a thing.  I do it to give back to the best community in Second Life.  I use my own money to do it, which gives me discretion over who is welcome to it. Anyone who causes trouble or sits beyond banlines is stealing IMHO.  Fishing in its heyday wasn't about the prize pot, even when some like Razzap had one out. It was about the special catches and trophies, the people, and fun. 

Neville wearing a Neville-inspired Go Relay! shirt

Anyway I asked in IM if they could cool it with the gun humor (said "I'm going to shoot you" to someone ahead of them in the game, someone I had just said we were happy to see her back and with us [following her ordeal with chemo]). Holy crap talk about clueless.  They went on and on amd riled themselves up with very little coaxing.  A day later I hear he's muted by many people and has had alts on banlists.  Every eject is a difficult move, but I don't feel so bad about this one now. 

What made it poignant was that no sooner had I ousted him from the property with a flurry of idiotic rhetoric coming back in via IM than the scene shook and we had a sim restart countdown.  The contest ended well before then but with 37ish to go it went back up to the 200s in the countdown. That's when I went to the stability of Livingtree sim to make an AR. I have a screenshot of the Hydrangea scene but there's no means to submit it.  If it weren't for the "reset countdown" I would have assumed this was part of the rolling restarts.  Anyway if it's a viewer or sim bug then LL can toss it and we'll rest easy that he is a harmless little sociopath.

Which brings me to pursue what I can do to disable this shaking nonsense.  Whomever came up with that was on drugs.

Tonight the final SciFi Convention fishing contest. While I can't really stop freakeh from fishing there, I can give the con security team a heads up in case he tries anything.

We Are all Powers of Ten T-E-N

When I was in Jr High
On Auditorium Day...
A Wednesday...
We saw a film.

It began with a family picnic, then zoomed out exponentially
Until we were in space
Far, far away from Earth
From even our solar system or galaxy.

Then the view came crashing back

and into one of the picnickers
Zoomed in, again exponentially
The film left us at the subatomic level.

It was a very disconcerting end.

I bring this up
because this film has served as a unit of measure for me

The Big Bang is like this film, and with it all existence.

Society works the same way.

Regard if you will why De-evolution makes sense...
From the big bang
to a cohesive galaxy
to a system
to a planet to forming an atmosphere after having broken free from the sun
to settle into an orbit
to cool down
to form life
to freeeeeeezeannnndtoooooo
yesIknowitwasfromamassivemeteorhit but indulge me
and then a thaw
reconstituting materials for life
forming civilizations,
developing, progressing, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd
we've hit our peak havent we?
We're falling backwards.
Our civilizations are falling away faster than we can progress,
the climate is crumbling
we're moving minutely towards the sun
(not the biggest reason for climate change, I learned about direct rays in school too)
The direction our planet takes seems to have an effect on us.
Like Power of Ten.
We are de-evolving.
We passed the tipping point.
We are DEVO

Where will humanity
or what humanity finally becomes
finds itself in the end?

Will it be lost in a sea of viscous, chaotic material?
Will we lose our cohesion?
Only the next Big Bang would tell
But that's another film entirely.

- Holocluck Henly
The Pen, Tue June 2nd 2014

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!