Life in the fast lane - not for the faint hearted.

I love this av - it belongs to somebody who has had land next to my garden for months. Land she sold me a couple of days ago (and yes, I do think I have enough land already thank you so much for pointing it out). I wind up smiling the whole time I'm talking to her. The really funny part though is that she plays war games - and shows up to play in this 2 foot high av. Then she pulls out a very very big gun and kills them all while they're still laughing.

The title of this post refers to the fact that I'm sitting here drinking soy chocolate ovaltine. Can't get any more daring and adventurous than that!

Have to vent about one of my pet peeves. Had a visitor in the garden this afternoon that made me mad enough to be rude. Yes .........you read that correctly. The mature (semi) responsible Canadian was rude.

If you happen to belong to a faith that needs to enumerate its sins - know that I consider proseltyzing to be right up there. I don't care if you want to believe that Miranda the Great Moronic Horny Toad is going to swoop down and deliver you to the feathered lily pad in the sky. As long as you're not causing harm to anybody or anything else in the name of Miranda do what you want (and understand that I have a pretty extensive definition of harm - but I'll leave that for another time). However, should you be arrogant enough to believe that I have to agree with you and more than that - believe that I have to welcome you on to my property to listen to your rantings and expect me to see you as some noble prophet spreading the "joy" - expect to be drop kicked and banned.

In real life if somebody has the gall to knock on my door and say they want to talk to me about the bible - I reply "Why? Have they changed it?". Then, while they sputter I close and lock the door.

Whole thing made me grumpy. So I actually went shopping (I really don't like shopping). But I went to Grendel's Children and had a great time buying av's. I fell in love with the place.

Rez-ing Wrath Paine

Today is Wrath Paine's Rez Day! He was the first person to talk to me in SecondLife. He's been my neighbour and my friend from day one and he puts up with me. So I wanted to do something special to commemorate the occasion.

I started with this really cute bunny and balloons. But I decided it needed a card - so I made a big black one (to match his blog). And then I thought I would make it so everybody could read it no matter what direction they were looking from. To make it a little more fun I had it rotate.

It looked a little lonely so I made a few more. Then I realized he had all this land now. I could put a bunch of Rez Day cards up and it would be a real celebration!

I think it turned out very festive. It does remind me of something though - I just can't quite figure out what.

Happy Rez Day dear neighbour! Love ya :)

SL Bloggers

I dropped in on the Bloggers party this afternoon - couldn't stay for the sailing trip but I did manage to take a few photo's. If I can get any of them to upload (Blogger likes this photo but not the others for some reason) I'll post them. :)

The ups and downs of technology!

Interesting weekend so far - I downloaded a trial version of Camtasia to make a video in SL to show the Executive Committee this week. I love Camtasia - mostly because it does what I want and I figured out how to use it. Two very important features of any technology.

Unfortunately, they've improved Camtasia - so it took me a while to figure out what I was doing. The good news is that I made a 90 second video for my presentation this week (yeah). The bad news is that I went to the Virtual State Fair last night and took some film to show you - including a short clip of TallGuy Kidd performing. When I went to edit the video I discovered I had no sound. ooops

By the way - if it would be a bad thing to show a short clip of a performer in here - please let me know. I don't want to offend them.

I went inworld this morning via Windlight (which has remembered what cookies are thank goodness). I'm still getting used to what it does to my garden. These two shots are of the same shrub at the same time (or almost) but from different sides.

Then I went to check out my favourite blogs and I discover that my friend and neighbour Wrath has posted his latest machinima masterpiece. One of the really cool things about this video is that his lips are moving. His lips are moving!

I'm sure the rest of the world has already figured this out - but I hadn't. I sent him an IM - but I get up at ridiculously early hours and he doesn't - so I went searching. And ....................

So I didn't use a well lit image and you probably can't tell - but my lips are moving!

BTW - this took forever to upload. And then just as it was finishing I hit the wrong key and published - which cancelled the upload. Had to start again. So I took my dog for a walk and when I got back discovered there had been a problem uploading and I had to do it again. And then I had to sit here for ages while it processed. I am such a pitiful geek.

What the?

I know I tend to get a little obsessed with what I'm doing and I don't look up too often - but I swear the last time I looked this parcel near mine was a medieval mall.

And congratulations to Wrath who doubled his land holdings over night. :) I can hardly wait til Monday!

The course of true love .............

But first another sunset picture. I love sunset from my tower :)

One of my tower neighbours is a nice guy and we've gotten to know each other a bit since we both moved into the area. The other day I logged on and he was there and we started to chat. Suddenly - I say that cause it had nothing to do with the subject at hand - he says "I'm going to pop the question tonight."

Once I established that "pop the question" still means the same thing it always did, and that we were talking about an sl engagement not rl, I asked him where he was going to do it. He had no idea.

So I TP'd him down to my beach and using rocks and trees I built a little lagoon. I put in a fire pit and some torches in the water (so they could skinny dip). He put in a cuddle rug and selected a music stream for the parcel. Then I restricted access to everybody but the two of them.

But we weren't quite done - he wanted to practice (huh?) - so I had to go through the whole "on one knee" routine til he was sure he had it down. Then I left him to it.

The next morning I logged in and both of their profiles said they were engaged. So congratulations to Mingus and Desiree.

Unfortunately I deleted the lagoon build without taking a picture - but I guess it's more romantic for them that they were the only ones to be there. :)

You had to be there :)

Once Upon a Time

Some of my friends have heard this story - I apologize in advance. :)

I finally bowed to pressure last summer and put a little house in across the road from my garden. I did it mostly so I could sit on the balcony and look at all the work I had to do. But my neighbours would come over and visit (that's a good thing) and there wasn't enough room on the balcony for everybody (yes that's a bad thing).

So I put some couches and chairs on the roof. And it was an even better location to look at all the work I have to do in the garden.

Things were going fine until I started to see traffic numbers at my house in the high hundreds. Seemed a teensy odd- til I found out that all these people were using my roof (and other parts of the house) during the day while I was at work.

Now I didn't want to be rude and limit access to the place, but it meant that I couldn't just sit and work cause I never knew who was going to pop in. So I did the logical thing and bought some hilltop land in another sim and put up a wizard's tower (I've always wanted a wizard's tower).

A month or so later I decided I would sit on the roof of my little house because I missed it and because I had some work to do.

I hadn't been sitting there 5 minutes when a complete stranger landed on the roof in front of me. According to her profile she was only 2 days old - but even I can recognize a high end skin and those 2 inch fingernails are not standard. (boy I wish I'd taken her picture) I muttered to myself a bit but typed "hello :)" to her.

She moved to within about 18 inches of my feet and typed "get up Bitch".

????????????????? What the heck??????????????????

So I quickly ran through my inventory of weapons. It's limited.

I have a snowball launcher.

But somehow I didn't think that would do it. I have a set of bagpipes.

But that's like using a howitzer to kill a bug. This is a no damage zone and I did have to think of my neighbours.

The whole time I'm doing this analysis she's standing in front of me and neither of us are speaking. I finally remembered "This is MY house damn it!" so I banned her.

She wound up in Wrath's front yard (sorry hon) and there was a lot of pacing and jumping before she gave up.

To this day I cannot figure out what she thought would happen when she said that. So if any of you run into imani Heslop find out for me please.

I love this place! v2.0

I saw this in somebody's picks and went to check it out:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/IslamOnline%20dot%20Net/28/66/22

It's a fabulous build. You get a toolkit and the ability to walk a virtual Hajj. I didn't have nearly enough time to do it justice so I left with a promise to myself to go back. You owe it to yourself to give it a try.

Odds n Ends

I've agreed to manage a large project at work - and I'm going to use the opportunity to start using SecondLife where I think it will be useful. I've been introducing it to various people in the organization for the past couple of months and what surprises me is that the older, more experienced people in the company get it. The younger ones are the skeptics. Not what I expected.

The trade off will be less time to work on my own projects - which is annoying. Spring is coming and I have all these ideas for new products (and people like Wrath who have all these ideas for new products for me too). I want to do all of them and I want to do them right away. I tend to get a teensy bit obsessive which probably means a little sleep deprivation while I try to do too much in SL and RL.

I also think I'll wind up re-organizing the garden which will be a huge project. I'll have to mull it over for a while and then there will be this burst of activity and I'll do it all in one weekend. Then I'll be exhausted for days.

Why is it I can watch my av dance for hours with no effect - but move and build things using a mouse and I get worn out? Well I do know why I don't get tired when I watch my av dance (she's very fit) but the rest of it doesn't make sense.

New Kitty

Got a new kitty that can, apparently, lay eggs. This may prove useful someday.







My twin cats Magnus don't appear too impressed however.

The kitten may have to live in the garden at the base of the tower.

Looking for Mr. Goodbar

The Mr. Goodbar case took place more than 30 years ago. It was depressing then and that kind of search for "love" is depressing now.

Before my friends and neighbours start to think I'm referring to them - I'm not. It's not even anybody I've ever spoken with.

I was going to expand on this but it's really none of my business what people are doing in their personal lives. I'll just say it's depressing.

And if you don't want me thinking about what you're doing - don't do it on your front porch.

I love this place! v1.0

Windlight is still driving me crazy - but I managed to get it to stand still long enough that I could go do some exploring. Found this great build:

Then, while I'm lining up a shot from a different angle- I hear a chugging sound. And a train passes through.

I know it's hard to see - in the middle on the right - but I wasn't expecting it....... I really love this place. :)

I'll go back some day and take some pics that do this build justice.

But When I Do Get In

OK a Rant

I was going to be mature and adult about this - not spend a lot of time in here whining. But really - some things demand to be voiced if only to reduce my annoyance level.

Why does Second Life 1.19.0 (79185) Feb 1 2008 16:24:20 (Second Life WindLight) not remember who I am? I've logged in with it a number of times since Friday and yet it cannot remember my name. I know it's not as memorable a name as Wrath or Crap - it's not as evocative as Persephone or Ambiance - but it's not a bad name.

Why does Second Life 1.19.0 (79185) Feb 1 2008 16:24:20 (Second Life WindLight) force me to agree to use voice every time I log in? Can it not remember that simple instruction? Does it disagree with my decision?

Why does Second Life 1.19.0 (79185) Feb 1 2008 16:24:20 (Second Life WindLight) tell me my version of QuickTime is the buggy one - when I downloaded the clean update weeks ago and it's predecessor congratulated me on my actions? Is it trying to make me think I imagined the whole process? And what would be its motive for that?

Why does Second Life 1.19.0 (79185) Feb 1 2008 16:24:20 (Second Life WindLight) force me to reset my preferences every time I log in? Is it doing a research study to see if my preferences would change if I had them to do over again?

Why does Second Life 1.19.0 (79185) Feb 1 2008 16:24:20 (Second Life WindLight) make me turn off the %(^*^&^%&^% hover tips every time I log in? Is there some message I'm supposed to see behind those irritating dollar signs - some cry for help that I'm missing?

Is it possible that Second Life 1.19.0 (79185) Feb 1 2008 16:24:20 (Second Life WindLight) doesn't know what a cookie is? Has somebody closed the bakery? Do we need an emergency supply of chocolate chips?

This may seem like a minor problem. Probably because it is. But I feel like I'm getting a pop quiz everytime I log in and frankly, I think I've already graduated from this class. With honours! :)

Quests

Although I always have a lot to do around the garden - and I've been known to spend some time dancing every now and then - I do occasionally like to embark on quests in Second Life.

The Amazing Hunt is fun and the organizers have a sly sense of humour which makes it interesting.

My latest quest hasn't actually begun yet - but the organizer has been sending out teaser clues and tests to warm us up. I'm speaking about Where the hell is Harvey Wayne? which is a search for a serial killer.

The search doesn't really begin in earnest until February 22, but we've already had a cryptogram and a riddle. If you're interested in winning L$20,000 - or even if you just want a puzzle to solve - join the Where the hell is Harvey Wayne? group.

If you know of a good "quest" the rest of us should check - please let me know!

Here's to Continuous Improvement

I tell you I'm not into "coy, big boobs, cute" and I wind up with flowers as bullets. blech

I will improve this blog and its format as I go.

sigh

Setting the Stage

It's presumptuous of me to assume that my thoughts will have any value to others - but I do think it's possible that a post-menopausal view of SL will be at least out of the ordinary if not worthwhile. And this will give me a place to vent on occasion.


I arrived in Second Life early last May. Learning to build was my first priority - and for a long time my only priority. Luckily I've figured out that the learning curve is endless and taking care of a few other things would be a good idea. My neighbours will tell you it took me 3 months to do something about my AV - obviously I wasn't too worried about the fashion police........or my neighbours' sensibilities.


So a bit about me:

• I'm not in my dotage ...... but I'm definitely past the "coy, big boobs, cute" phase of life.
• My rl children all have four legs - 2 cats, 2 dogs.
• I like to garden in rl - so started with that in SL.
• I find it incredible and amusing that we buy and sell pixels. Everytime I start to get wound up about the business side of SL I hear a friend's voice say "they're just pixels".
• The first time I used Gopher on a Mac to access a computer on the other side of the world - I was enthralled. What I'm doing today is pure Science Fiction.
• I think it's way too easy to buy land - which must be why I keep doing it.
• Got myself a brand new video card - and now I can use Windlight. Logged on the other morning to this scene:

• Now I just need to learn to take good photo's :)
• Have been very lucky with my SL neighbours - they're kind, supportive, funny and adventurous.
• Was working in my garden the other morning and two newbies were sitting there having a chat. Heard one say to the other "I believe we change a lot between the ages of 16 and 20." Decided that an older, more mature voice might be welcome.