Ketchup Entree

Whew...

I've been busy with my new land. I pretty much completed it, having tracked down a nice path and installed it last weekend. I think the place is awesome. The holodeck grid in the backyard is invisible to my neighbors, so their view is not at all obstructed.

The stargate is cool to have and very convenient. Admittedly I must upload more images for the gallery including a couple more angry animals for Barnyard Rage.

My only prob right now is someone who bought the land south of me and has no concept of property lines. They placed a structure over the border and into my stone wall, ASSuming the wall must have been put there by Governor Linden or something. It's a tricky one because it isn't showing on my list of objects, but it's blatantly there according to the lines. I'll make a screenie and AR if the second request doesn't result in him moving all to his land.

I'm having a lot of fun with 7Seas. I can't say it's better than Toontown, only different.


The fish are often realistic in species representation. LOL check out my gallery for the cocktail shrimp.

In other news, Snurky joined a group from the SL boards who descended on public landmarks last Saturday in chicken suits. The manager of the Blarney Stone in Dublin sim wasn't thrilled and threw us out, but later apologized. I guess the organizers of the event didn't do enough organizing this time around ;) Great photo op though. After contacting Pete for clearance, we ended up on the public beach at Munkie Island.

The foxes have since placed a bucket of KFC on the patio table.

For those who remember Holodoc as an eccentric who ran around Blaxxun in a scuba suit and flippers, Holocluck may not adopt exactly the same outfit, but he caught a pair of hawaiian shorts while fishing. It might result in something familair in time for this Friday's Blaxxun Reunion Partay.

More on that and other things soon!

Torley, We Hardly Knew Yeh

I've come to look forward to Torley's video tutorials. They've helped me with permissions settings on objects and land, shown me some clever little building tips and useful apps.

He sometimes makes things look too easy; when I installed an offline app to make sculpties, all I could do was stare at it.

Still, if it weren't for Torley, I wouldn't have snazzy big screens on my Juliet property featuring a movie clip, rock video, ancient commercial, or whatever I feel like featuring for a week or two. At this writing it's a rarely seen DEVO rockvideo, and it looks amazing against the holodeck grid. I can smile at the bits that reveal he's as Canadian as M&M Apple Pie. I was THE key rep for a Canadian website's support team for several years, eventually moving up to team lead and teaching all I knew about pronouncing and spelling and writing dates like a Canadian to a fledgling group, who would take over what one person had done. Anyway I can appreciate his attempts :)

But I digress...

Yes, Torley has lit my way through my emigration into Second Life. From what I see in the official forums, he was very dedicated as a Second Life resident, who joined them to moderate the boards. Don't know when his job changed and he devoted more of his SL job time to videos and blogs, but it seems clear that SL felt they needed an optimistic icon to represent them amid the throng, and Torley was it. He is Second Life's celebrity among its population. Oh the pressure...

...So when did he last post on the boards? All that talk about how involved he was with events and happenings in SL, and now he scurries like a clam when sighted. Hm. That doesn't sound right.

Have you ever been to his property in the Linden Village area? That sensory overload of magenta and green you can see from the map? Some pretty awesome stuff there, and a piano in the magenta green water you could play.

Well, you can't see it anymore. It looks as though he's left Linden Village for a bigger space. He now has an island to himself not far from other Linden islands (i-worlds, land concierge offices, and those gaggle of orientation and help islands allegedly invisible to residents on the map).

A lot of magenta and green, his latest tutorial viewable almost everywhere, examples of stuff, personal effects, giant eggs and chick chicks, the piano in an inlet. I guess with all he's offered there are a lot of examples.

The disturbing part is the big face. He has his own RL visage prominently displayed. It's kinda scary. It seems like 10m or a megaprim. I cant imagine an identifiable Linden using a megaprim, so let's assume it might be 10 high. That's a really poignant statement beside the avoiding the common folk.

Torley no longer behaves like a friend of the people off camera, and no longer lives among us in Second Life with the Lindens. He is now in his own world, possibly underground and out of sight. If it weren't for the giant self portrait, I think I would feel bad for him and his unanticipated fame, but it brings another image to mind which isn't as prone to my sympathy.

Still, it is rather sad that someone who devotes so much time in helping us become a part of Second Life society seems so alienated from it.

Holocluck Builds his Nest

I've been as busy as a little holographic bee.

Moving the gallery was easy. Remembering to re-set the prices and permissions (oof). At 500 and 600m the skies were littered with junk. At 700 I got vertigo. Fortunately at 400 it was clear.

The game plan was to have a nice Kinkadesque cottage. As many know, I had found one by accident. Now the owner of what I call "the hidden grove" is my friend. We traded advice and landmarks, and both did some searching last Fried Day and swapped more info as we made discoveries. My photo album Quest for a Home has screenshots from that evening among others.

Next was to set up Holodoc's 7Seas Fishing. I made a nice marble pond and filled it with flat orange soda (since I can't get it to fizz right). A matching marble pool to the side, seating for full size and tinies, streaming music set to the 60s and 70s. Thanks to Peter Lameth for adding poses to the freebie deck chairs and a handy stargate for easy access by distant travelers.

Wherefore art thou, o' Holocluck?

Having sensed a definite effort to crowd my 512, and having noticed some reasonable PG land in a prestigiously named region WITH a water view, I made the move to buy some land on Tuesday night. I joined two 512s, then seeing I couldnt get a flat enough level, bought a third north of them up the slope to flatten my terrain better. I suppose this REALLY kicks me into the 2048 tier even though I have 1536. My brain was telling me get the two 512s NEXT to me and merge the 2048s as a nice big square and sell the odd parcel I bought to maneuver with. Price it to sell.

My brain was reasoning at the time to buy a 512 elsewhere in the same region and move my gallery there, then price the original tier parcel.

I'm wondering why my brain didn't just say "hey plop the gallery down on the 1024/2048 for now. Or even to put it on that odd piece you bought." Except that there's someone with a house higher up (these are in somewhat cascading levels [I dont want to say tiers] leading down to water a few sims away) with panoramic windows and I was thinking too much of their view.

Or was I just being too good a neighbor?

I met one by IM this morning. I like community. But I cant expect community. I'm now thinking if I use that piece above my tier of 1024 (which might become 2048), at least I am assured that I won't have some particle fountain junk or tacky landscape screen on at least ONE side. The place would have me on at least two sides of it.

In neighborly terms, the house higher up SHOULD still have a view since my gallery plaza isnt all that tall. The rest of the gallery goes WAY up in the sky anyway.

So went evolved into this in my head as to how it would end up: I would have a block of 512s making a big 2048 square, and an odd piece out for the gallery plaza. That would kick me over the 2048 tier temporarily (ouch) while I wait for the land I left behind to sell.

Then came the question: do I select everything and take, or should I take the artwork down first and then the builds when I relocate the galleries? I took them all, then unlinked the art once I arrived. It went smoothly. The big question was where to put the sky one, and 400 turned out to be less populated than 600.

While I was assured my restlessness over the radically changing landscape in SL was normal behavior for a newcomer, I wondered if this sudden burst of nesting was just another? Unlike when I went to premium, I didn't have a complete plan of what to do with the land when I bought it. I only knew of the opportunities I've let slip by in the past and the prim count I could look forward to.


I have made a group with my alts, but I want to wait a bit and get a lot of other things out of the way before I start thinking group deeds. They can be beneficial but they can also be a disaster if you don't maintain things right.

Last night, I sunk in more money and got the two 512s to the west (for more money unfortunately). I moved the ground and sky level things over to the new place with relative ease. Looking to my other neighbor's land, he had taken down his picturesque bayou and started to put up rental shops...

Gonna miss that guy's quirky humor. Welp I made a landmark...

But wait! There's more!

That screen intruding through my windows (which they have not corrected)?

It's set to full bright.

Now I'm sure of it.

The people with their shops?

When I showed my friend my gallery Mon evening, they had constructed a big sign to be visible (I guess) for anyone flying close enough. I mean we're talking REAL high, as though most people set to max LOD (which they don't). It's unreal to assume most people can see it from the next sim, you know?

I was testing an adjustment to the teleporter (eh. didn't make much difference), when I noticed an irritating stream of lime green particles visible from the western end of my sky gallery. They've put that shit in Olexandrovich, and at this point I'm more than convinced they're trying to crowd me out. It's coming from a very long, sky-patterned prim suspended in the air over their property. I have to wonder if they want people to fly into it. LOL

If I leave, I'm gonna price that land high and see what happens.

I'd miss the other neighbor though. I will have to make a landmark on his place to see his progress.

Meanwhile, I'm going to look into textures I can use to effect a plain landscape with grass or crops and a big, blue sky. And box my plaza into it. Maybe I'll make it opaque on both sides. I haven't decided yet. Maybe I'll file an AR for their damn prims.

Olexandrovich Rising - and Falling

What a weekend.

So much happens in one day, much less four in Second Life.

To me, the concept of settling is defined by the cessation of wanderlust. You've done your searching, you've found your spot - the area as it is APPEARS to reflect the tone or at least if you're among the first you hope to set the tone.

Apparently when it comes to Second Life, I have a lot of getting used to. Second Survivor forum regs brought me down from a near panic two weeks ago when one of my neighbors (the one I dropped in on previously) bought the parcel to my east and there was a weird stretch to my corner. This was discovered literally after I purchased a white picket fence for the edges of my property and teleported to start placing it. Just funny timing. All panic aside, he was very reasonable and I managed to figure how to raise my land and smooth it flat. He did likewise and moved his road up to my door.

Learning the fence I bought was not modifiable and would take too many prims to use, I took the Linden one from the library instead. Next morning, the owner to my west who was selling got inspired and added the same fencing all around his property. I thought that was neat
actually.

I had considered buying some of that land on payday last week and contacting them about breaking it up into parcels, but the people north of me beat me to it. They bought it all and began constructing rental shops. With the new landscape, I added smoked glass to the plaza structure.

Meanwhile the other neighbor had restored the carnival, tore it down, then proceeded to make a bayou swamp leading up to a highly amusing slum. Passing a horror movie theathre, a diner, an arcade, laundromat, swamp, etc etc, his road leads right into the next sim, where someone else's road continues into a quaint neighborhood of rental homes. It's just a riot what he's done with his land.

But this changing the main portion of it in Olexandrovich - possibly a subconscious response to the changing landscape as it is - has jarred me a couple of times.

I know I want more room. This prim limit gaks me. And I was considering a cube with landscaping to further mute the scene beyond my windows. Naturally I would alpha the outside and make it all phantom, so it is only apparent while in the plaza.

They beat me to it again. Only this time affecting me directly. They bought those semi-privacy screens with transparent backgrounds. Their purpose for having it opaque on the outside doesnt make much sense if they are a business and want people to see them. But a technical glitch is causing their shrubs to nullify my glass at some angles in some places. They appeared sympathetic for determining a solution, but it's been two days and this intrusion by their fake hedges persists.


Of course I'm not happy.

But maybe that's the idea? That's what my neuroses will conclude every time.