Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Boy are they pissed!


Found my twin cats (they're both named Magnus). They are really unhappy with me. It's going to be a while before they calm down.


So I'm going to wait to tell them that I found their brother Magnus and they're really triplets. :) Silly I know but I feel much better now.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

That's better .......


If I wind up needing more land I can reduce the harbour - but for the time being this should work. :)

Now to work on that mountain.

Um .....


There's no United Island Terraformers of the Metaverse Union I have to worry about offending is there?

Monday, April 28, 2008

The things you learn .............


Good thing I bought a terraformer last year - it's proving very useful. The island is growing.


And by the way, did you know ..............





that you can lift an island right out of the water? I feel like I'm performing a public service by revealing all my doofus mishaps in public. Helps the rest of you avoid them I think. I hope.

Oh there it is!


I kept thinking that the island didn't look as big as I thought it would. So I finally went looking - and there it is! Under water. Guess that's so people could sail.


Not happening here! I'll spend the next while reclaiming the land from the sea. I'll leave some water but I need that land!

I hate moving!


My first task has been to rez all the groups of objects returned to me when I sold the garden. Gack! I wouldn't bother but of course there are no copy items in there that I want.


And yes I've lost some stuff. Two of my cats are missing - hope they found a good home! :(

It's Here!!


They delivered my island all ready! At least a couple of weeks before I expected it.


The delivery guys were great. They wore those paper boots so they didn't track any dirt or debris - and they were very careful not to drop it or break anything.


I'm thinking though that it should be turned a little to the west so that the mountain is over there.


Guys........... Guys!....................... Guys?


Guess they didn't hear me.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

In hindsight


I might have gotten a little carried away with tulips. In my own defense there are a lot of them around right now. And it is a relief to work on a plant texture that doesn't take 8 to 10 hours to complete.


I have more tulip pics - but maybe I'll work on something else for awhile. :)

Bought an Island!!!!


Don't know when I get it yet and I don't know where I'm going to put it .................but I bought an Island!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Good grief ......


I'm ready to buy my island - but using the old store I don't know how long it will take to get delivery. So I'm still working on textures.


To give myself a break from plants I've been gathering the textures I want for the "bones" of the island. I knew what I wanted for the roof of the few buildings I'll have and had prepared myself for a lot of frustration in creating seamless textures.


I found some instructions and walked through them a few times, mentally preparing myself before opening my photo editor. And lo and behold I found a button - just one button is needed to create a seamless texture.


So once again I feel stupid - but this time I look like I know what I'm doing. :)


I use Corel's product and I guess I'd better explore those drop down menu's and see what else is in there.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

April Bloggers Party



Tymmerie and Jerremy did a wonderful job of hosting. I couldn't stay long but I got some pics while I was there.












Exploring ....


It took a long time (I really hate shopping) but I finally found what I had in my mind for my costume for the Bloggers' party. Got all dressed and didn't feel like working so I went exploring.


I like following links in people's profiles. I don't remember (a senior problem) whose profile gave me the link to Frequency Deluxe but I went there.


Wow!





Wonderful animation. There were no other avatars but there were a number of these guys bopping around:



Then I found a link on the profile of the builder of this guy:




So I followed it to the Black Swan.







Let me pull back for a better view.




Now watch - I'll forget to take pics at the Bloggers' Party again.


ARCing



Was looking at my ARC reading this morning (I can procrastinate as well as the next person). Still the same boring 224. Then this person came flying by.



Her score in the photo is 4940. Oddly enough it kept going up - don't know why. I'm not an expert in ARCing - but she didn't seem to be doing anything to make her score go up.
Then I noticed this guy.



Interesting costume eh? Only scores 144. Guess my t-shirt is more involved than I thought. :)

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Forsythe


I'm not the music expert that some of my compatriots are. And I don't spend as much time as I'd like listening to live music on SL. But if it's at all possible - I'll go hear Forsythe Whitfield. You should too.

Just saying.

Well on the bright side ......


I have more time to work on textures.


"We had hoped to launch the new Land Store today but unfortunately we’re not finished polishing and testing and hitting it with hammers just yet; we want it to be as bug free as possible before going live. So no new Land Store today I’m afraid. I can’t offer a final date for launch, but hopefully it’s not much more than a couple of weeks away. "

Monday, April 14, 2008

Sometimes I think ..............



I do ponder some of the deeper questions - but it's often after reading other blog entries trying to convince me of great metaphysical truths. Usually I'm too busy to ponder much of anything.

Having said that - one theme that runs through a lot of the deep philosophical musings is the difference between SL and real life. A sidebar in these soliloquies is often - Why do people replicate rl in SL? Why does so much in SL have to look like rl?

Just a few random thoughts of my own:

  • SL and real life are a lot alike. The content of both is created by the users (it's just that in real life Mother Nature seems to be one of the biggest users). We (I'm restricting this to the great giant collective computer using portion of the world - not the starving ignored millions who don't have that option - and that's a whole other topic ) have created a world in real life to suit ourselves - so we must like a lot of it. We build what we like in SL. (The only excuse for malls in SL that I can come up with.) The fact is that there are people who push the proverbial envelope and create new and extra-ordinary things in SL. We have them in real life too - they're the artists/inventors/authors/musicians/etc. SL gives them a new canvas and we get the benefits.

  • SL gives me the tools to at least attempt to create what I can dream. I don't care how much talent you could give me in real life - it wouldn't help me be able to do that. One thing I like about SL is that it's a level playing field - we all have access to the same tools. What differentiates us is our dreams and our willingness to learn those tools so we can make the effort to create them.

  • I'd like to think that someday I'll have a scathingly brilliant idea which will advance the metaverse in some amazing way. In the meantime I'll plod along learning to build by gardening - cause I enjoy it.

I was going to add a snarky line at the end - but I won't. I will suggest that those who can't understand why the whole world (either of them) doesn't think like they do..... really need to get a grip.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Avatar Rendering Cost



Once again definitive proof that I'm really boring. I used the Dazzle tool to see my avatar's score and I rate a whopping 249. If I put on the two navajo bead bracelets I like - I soar all the way to 322. I'll stop worrying about stripping to ease lag when I go to Paisley's show. :)

And. I. do. not. hate. the. blue. In fact, I quite like it.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

If Everything Goes According to Plan



SL's plan that is..............I will buy my island next Wednesday. Yeah!!!! So I have one more week to get as many textures as possible finished. I can hardly wait :)

Saturday, April 5, 2008

I'm working!



With SL down (I'm picturing all the techies sweating bullets at Linden Labs) - I've been forced to buckle down and work on textures. I'm making progress! In addition to spring bulbs, some new trees and shrubs - I've finally managed to start on the herb garden.

I won't wait much longer to buy the island. It's killing me not to have a build to putter in.