Busy Busy...

Now back home (but insufficiently settled), I resumed drawing.  It's a healthy thing, like breathing.

There are many things on the plate that I need to get through; no spinning it to make them fly off into oblivion.

For one I've paid rent on that small shop in New Babbage for the past 3 months.  The space gave me the inspiration for a series of "prints".  Yes I know: I'm working backwards and instead should find a place for existing work.  Well, that's where artistic license comes in; real artists seldom act in conventional sequence.  That was also when RL stepped in of course, hindering any chance of quality time to create the prints and set them up in an appropriately designed vendor.

Then a portrait of one of my friends which I've owed for about 11 months by now.  I haven't forgotten that.

Giant Snail Races tee shirts for Relay For Life donations.  Had hoped to make a new one every week or two, but that hasn't panned out.  There are two available currently at Cartoon World, with hopefully a new one available this weekend. Remember all the money in those vendors goes to The American Cancer Society.

SL8B.  I knew the theme about 2 months ago.  No time to work on it.  I have about a dozen ways I can present what I want to present, which may just get narrowed down based on my abilities.  I know what I'd LIKE to do...

Scourgemobiles:   They were taken offline for a week or two and it was grand.  Apparently this was temporary while the vehicles were reprogrammed.  I found out one day by messaging someone while standing on Route 3. Some car came up behind me and stopped, then did its usual lumbering thing in an effort to ride around me and still remain on the road.  Selecting it revealed the source sim where it was rezzed is no longer displayed.  The vehicle had 16 scripts and a landmark.  Still adfarming and still solid.  They're still a problem when you're trying to ride the road. And the things still jump the roads into water and rail routes. AnnMarie just doesn't get it, does she?

By the way, Friday June 3rd is a meeting between LDPW and SLRR afficionados in Tuliptree. A certain someone is likely to be there.

Last but not least, dance parties in Bay City to raise money for Relay for Life.  I hold them every other Friday evening from 6pm SLT.  I usually pick a specific era and run with it. Right now it's New Wave, with the first one from its beginnings.  Next one on June 10th will be from the dawn of early MTV era, with a great variety of sounds and several blasts from the past.  Tipping goes to a Relay for Life Kiosk.

That's all for now :)

Scourge & Scourge Again

If I understand a prominent Linden, the following among many other offenses is perfectly okay:

1. Unfair use of region resources

2. Adfarming (what else would you call dozens of scripted objects on Linden land which simultaneously solicit a product?)

3. Pushing (vehicles which shove you if they don't just drag you under, whether you're in a vehicle yourself or not. I've been pushed into banlines or crashed because of these things)

4. Encroachment (several rezzers target protected parcels. A taxi stand is sitting right on a Rezz Zone*)

5. Weapons use on protected property (the Tank will shoot missiles at you if you click on it)

6. Object littering (pileups on private and protected property, stranded in waterways...)

7. Excessively scripted objects (I dunno - are a dozen script files in a garbage truck considered excessive?)

This is in addition to their dominating protected roads so no one else can use them, not omitting obvious areas on their routes such as unpaved roads, ramps leading into water, Dammastock's glen and so on.

*ONE rezzer was removed. This resided in Samoa, a hop skip n jump from Clarksburg, where a prim platform & taxi cab were positioned on a public LDPW rezz zone, right up against a doorway to Ross Infohub.

Looking at the JIRA history, it seems the Lindens have given this person a great deal of attention to accommodate her project. Blatantly talking about unmanned vehicles not properly dominating roads and being improperly returned for being objects. Well, they ARE. 

In the process of carefully preparing the petition text. Tonight expect a tweet and new Blog post.

Update Scourgemobiles & Test Drive

Three more rezzers, one of them a "bus stop," were found in Heterocera since last writing.  I've updated the list I keep inworld.

Last weekend I sent Snurky to go for an ex-Scourge-sion. hahaha

It was interesting. Not a minute or two into the ride it offered to sell the car, claiming the vehicle was free and the price was for the automated script.  Even if that's the case, using these creators' builds to solicit scripts when at least one of them noticeably left over exploitation of their creations is a bit low.  The ride itself was okay for the first minute as a novelty concept, but the lumbering around got tedious very quickly. These vehicles handle the roads like someone drunk feeling their way in the dark at night to get to the bathroom.

I had an odd visit from a group with dramatic notions of non-involvement.  I neither came to them nor asked for help from any transportation group of residents.  Wouldn't non-involvement suggest that the best course of action would be silent observation from a safe distance?  If they cannot help as friends and individuals then that's that. It's very simple.  At any rate, my position concerns the quality of residents' lives being compromised by the actions of one selfish person's avatars.  Any limitations imposed - and there will have to be to do right by Mainland's denizens - will affect their group and similar ones.  I originally took them to be enthusiasts looking to see the routes built so they could enjoy riding on them with glorious constructs; turns out they have several automated projects among their members.

I'm calling the compulsion to schedule personal, unmanned vehicles on protected roads and rail Skimbleshanks' Syndrome.  That's what they have.  They missed the point of having routes to allow them to enjoy the ride and explore.  Sort of like losing one's soul in a way. I still maintain that if you want to run your own transportation service, do it on your own property like many, far more talented residents have.

This would be a separate behavior from what I'm trying to put a stop to.  The person in question just litters the routes, and enough of us have had our fill of them.  Now all we need is Linden Intervention.

The Scourge Continues

So during my break, instead of working on the comic and some new T-shirt designs for the gallery, I went on a mission to track as many Rezzers I could find on Mainland responsible for the Scourgemobiles.  It's very possible that i've missed some in Sansara for the reasons brought up last post. 

I continue to be in awe of what residents have created.  It's really quite nice, from ambitious urban downtown districts on Corsica to lovely seaside towns on Nautlius.  Gaeta along Route 8 consists predominantly of marinas and tropical resorts: Tiki and fishbait; you can smell the seawater.  The inland routes are like driving through a New England Colonial town.

And then the Scourgemobiles - a representation of everything wrong in our society - mar these landscapes.

It's a sin.  It truly is. 

There's even more going on: the use of one Arcadia Asylum's vehicles for this among other builders.  Way more than one fan of AA's expressed that she would not be happy knowing her builds were used to disrupt the Second Life experiences so many at the whim of one person.

In my travels I've met more supporters and made a couple more friends. If anything good comes from all this, I've already got the icing on the cake.

I haven't ridden those things personally, but from what I've heard maybe I should.

There are two bits I've been told about them: first that they nag for money whenever you unsit from one.  Asking for a tip: it is what it is. Either you put a jar in the prefab station or you stop touting it as a free ride.  The other is that if you ride in one long enough, it offers the vehicle for sale - more soliciting.  They're worse than anyone thought: they're adfarms in motion, solocitation scripts dominating protected land, shoving residents out of their way.

Remember my recent post about Linden Labs having to set rules and make concessions?  Remember when new ones are set for automated and unmanned vehicles, and that it won't have been the fault of Linden Labs, Philip, Jack, Blondin, or even the new CEO Rod.  The changes and restrictions were the result of one resident's actions.

The Road Less Hoverboarded

  As mentioned previously here and/or on Twitter, I've taken to going to places in Second Life either via TARDIS or hoverboard over teleporting or by Stargate. The folks at New London have given me my own TARDIS landing spot on a moon just a ways from a Judoon ship.  I've mastered three different routes from The Starship Diner to TMA Nessus and the railyards of Gluphasia.  I've easily navigated from Purple in Sansara across the water to Heterocera up the Atoll coast to Starship Diner.

What fascinates me the most is the roadside content.  Think of it: about two-and a half years ago most of Mainland was cluttered with cheesy porn and adfarms along bare roadbeds.  Now the porn is gone, the adfarms are 90% clear, and the roads paved.  In fact it seems properties along these roads live up to what the Moles have put down.  There is true inspiration at work.

While I've made the excursion from Cartoon World in Bay City to Abbotts Aerodrome, it's a dodgy route which involves skirting the Ahern Welcome Area to avoid the lag and 4-way region crossing (especially since once you crash, the ride is over; there are no rezzing zones nearby) and traversing terrain there's the risk of hitting a banline.

I've even attempted from Heterocera to Bay City, a very difficult and irritating route by virtue of poor terraforming and intermittent patches of road.  Even went from Andrew Linden's office hour location in Denby to Abbotts, an equally unpleasant feat with the added obstacle of a full help island region bordered by banlined parcels.

Sansara needs a major replanning.  No access to key areas from roads - when there IS a road - except between the Bay City- Nova Albion - Suburbs sector (and guess what? Two of those communities are not recognized by LL as part of Sansara).  You can see they plopped down some regions, added more regions, still more, pieces added here, some snowy ones there, some beach terrain in the corner...

There's no budget for it nor staff.  It seems to me many people who once owned estates - when they stay in SL - could be embracing large chunks of Mainland more and more; the dollar auctions are empty.

We're certainly seeing less 512's on Mainland.  Homesteads are bringing people into the Noob Continent as a first step (when inhabitants aren't Oldbies or estate owners).  They break out from there in search of open spaces and roomy, configurable land.  It could be why roadside lands more and more have that fresh look to them.  Michael Linden has indicated that he and the Moles have been assigned to add more land to the N C so there's certainly fresh meat for a new generation of property owners to set the look.