Altya's Dream Creations, A Fortune Quest and SL Absurdities

It started as most afternoons in SL do, with me working hard on serious stuff. (No really! You can stop laughing any time now.) I got an IM from Ahuva Heliosense to say that Calli thinks I should have her Avatar. The "Calli" in question would be the fabulous SL Artist Callipygian Christensen and even though I was a bit nervous I decided to go see what was up.

Calli tp'd us to a cart on Car Wash stocked by Altya's Dream Creations where we each purchased a Jarhead Unibike Avatar for the enormous price of L$10. This is a loss leader price, it costs much more at the main store but at that price you're going to try them right?

It's very cool! A working horn and shiny wheels and you attract a lot of attention. :) We had bystanders watching us as we took our group photos (you just know they were saying admiring things about us to themselves).

Interesting quirks this av has - if you're wearing shoes when you put it on the shoes are mounted to the front of the bike. If, like Ahuva, you're wearing prim feet, well...............

There was an lm for the main store in the avatar folder so I went to see what else they have (see the loss leader cart works!). Lots of cool toys and stuff and at the back something really really interesting. At least I think it's interesting.

You know how people (starting with the guy with the chickens) have found ways to generate ongoing revenue streams from the same customers by required purchases of food etc., to keep your purchased pet "alive"? Not my thing, I have enough of them in real life. However, I will buy in to the idea of a Fortune Quest.

From the notecard on offer at the store:

Fortune Quest

What is Fortune Quest?

Fortune Quest is a challenging treasure hunt aided by clues made by us for a single item hidden somewhere in Second Life.

These clues will be made available for purchase on the day they are released and will only

remain for sale for 24 hours.

After 24 hours have passed the clue will be made available for FREE.

There will also be a simple H.U.D made available for purchase and although it is not needed to play the game it will be needed to claim the prize.

But the H.U.D can also help greatly in finding the item by letting you know if you have arrived in the correct sim/region that has the hidden Fortune.

This means that there is a chance that even during your normal travels you may stumble across the correct sim/region that the fortune is hiding in!!!

Cost?:

The price for the H.U.D and the clues will be kept VERY low so that it’s affordable for everyone to play.

L$15 for the clue

L$25 for the H.U.D

A new H.U.D will have to be purchased for each new game.

Again a portion of each sale will go towards growing the final prize as the game grows and continues to grow with each new player.

Why?

We wanted to create a game/hunt that is both truly challenging, enjoyable to play yet

not just another hunt that has you hopping from store to store down a predetermined list while filling your inventory with items you may or may not like.

With this hunt the prize is LINDEN DOLLARS that you can spend as you wish.

Who?:

Fortune quest is brought to you by Altya’s Dream Creations which also funds the initial prize.

But it does not stop there. A portion of EACH clue sold will also go towards the prize constantly growing as the game evolves.

When?:

The game is ready to start NOW but we wish to gather enough interest in it first before we start.

The more people that know about it the greater it will become.

With that in mind we have provided a Second Life Group for you to join as well as an alternative group joiner that does NOT take up any of your valuable group slots.

The Primary Second Life Group will also become the official group for players to discuss and share ideas about the clues.

We will use these groups to contact you in the future with more information related to Future Quest ONLY.

We also don’t like spam :)

Well that sounds intriguing - enough that I subscribed and will try the first game when it starts. Go check out Altya’s Dream Creations - they have some cool stuff and you might like the game too. :)

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Credit for the build acting as a backdrop for my first photo goes to Moonbase - it seemed like an appropriate place for that avatar. It also looks like a sim I'll have to go spend some time exploring. :)

Mulligan, Elusyve and Wrath

Mulligan turns 17 today! She's not as fast as she used to be but she can still outrun the dogs. She still steals covers, stands on her head and insists on bringing me toys at 2:00 in the morning so we can play. Not a great photo but she really doesn't think it's her job to pose. :)

I missed two important rez days in February! My bad! Elusyve Jewell and Wrath Paine both turned 3 and I meant to do something but seem to have lost a month somehow. Elusyve is a beautiful and fashionable elf who writes very well and takes photographs that make me want to hate her. Wrath has been too busy with his secret agent work in RL to visit much, but he knows he's missed. My best wishes to both of you and I'm truly grateful you are part of my Second Life!

Hello Wrath?

Can you hear me? Happy Real Life Birthday Wrath Paine! You've been noticeably absent from SL for quite a while now. I realize this is a result of a combination of Survivor, a torrid love affair and your work as an undercover agent for a secret alphabet agency.....but I intend to recognize the day anyway. So here is a bouquet of irises just for you!

I hope your various endeavours are bringing you joy and success. Just don't forget to feed that fish of yours. :)

Checking up on Wrath!

Every now and then I think I should go and check on Wrath Paine. He's been pretty much a mystery man (or ghost) for months now and I just want to make sure everything seems OK. I went to his parcel and the helicopter is still there .... albeit in a different colour. Well it might actually be a different helicopter but I can't tell. What has changed is his view.

I'm thinking he's going to keep this place for a while. :)

Vacation Interruptus

It's been a 3 month project to get Drama Dolls going and the work is not done yet. However, my inventory is a complete mess and I needed to take a break just to slowly organize it. So I thought I'd go to a little grass shack on the beach I know - one with palm trees and the soothing sounds of gentle waves. An inworld vacation if you will. However, when I got there ............

Honestly, Wrath you could warn a person you know!

Mustang Trading Post

Next door to Aintree Gardens is the Mustang Trading Post owned by my friend Jon Ree and there's a convenient path you can take to go visit. I found the store long before we met. In my early days of SL I would go looking for places that reflected what I love in RL and included in those things I love is the american southwest and navajo jewellry. Jon makes the most beautifully detailed jewelery for both men and women.

I don't wear jewelery very often - too busy gardening. But when I do it's usually his. I love his bracelets/cuffs and usually have one on. In addition his earrings and necklaces are fabulous. I'm no model but I wanted to show you one of the pieces I love.

Next to Aintree he also has this great barn for sale - I wish I had a place to put it. :)

Jon recently added another store for furniture.

I love his work - it's detailed and very high quality. You should check him out. :)

Rez-ing Wrath Paine - the Sequel

Last year, when my friend Wrath reached the first anniversary of his arrival in SecondLife, I celebrated by creating a Rez Day ad farm on his property.

As his second Rez Day approached I started planning my tribute. My first idea was to toilet paper his house - which would have been a real challenge given that, at the time, his house was a 34 story office tower. But I was working on it ........ until he sold all his land!

So I started trying to plan something assuming he had no house. And then he bought some land. Once again I ripped up my plans and started anew.

He obviously felt safe announcing the new land because, according to his blog, it only has 2 free prims. He probably doesn't think I can do anything with only 2 prims. :)

I guess I forgot to tell him about my new toy. It's one of Dedric's terrific particle generators. I really have very little idea what I'm doing, but I hit buttons and pull levers and then stick script into a box and stuff happens. :)

I could only use two prims but I made them "pretty". And I made them revolve .... cause movement just adds a je ne sais quoi element to it.

It was still missing something though. Something that would make it truly a Rez Day gift for Wrath. It had his name all over it but that didn't seem personal enough.

So I took a 6 second snippet from Morrissey (he has a thing for Morrissey) and put it into the box. It took a little while to make, but the loop of "Sing your Life" turned out pretty well. I'm really hoping he has "restrict spatialized sound to this parcel" selected or his neighbours might get a bit testy. :)

I took a "before" picture so you could see his peaceful pastoral setting before I invaded. :)

So that was it. It's not as big or extravagant as last year - but I had a smaller parcel to work with. I have to say that without being able to see the movement you can't appreciate his gift in all its glorious "awfulness". But this photo should give you an idea of the surprise awaiting him the morning of his second Rez Day.

It looks even better in the dark!

Happy Rez Day my dear friend. :) And I hope you have many many more!

Crap Explodes Again

I've been working hard (I'll post the results of that tomorrow) so I needed a rest. Rather than continuing I got my chair and went to watch Crap blow up the Tunes in SL build in Prancer.

There was a rather disreputable looking gang at the bottom of the tower. So I made sure I stayed in my comfy chair in the air.

It was more like one of those implosions you see on TV when they take down an old casino in Las Vegas.

Unfortunately that meant that all the debris landed on the ground at the base. On top of that seedy looking gang.

Search and Rescue operations have begun.

I told them to wear guns and not actually touch any of the victims. Never know where they've been!

Motown at the Clock Tower

For those who know the robot no explanation is necessary. For those who don't - no explanation would be sufficient. :)

Celebrating a RL Birthday - Wrath Paine

So a long time ago my friend Wrath did a really great blog post - and in the middle somewhere he revealed that his rl avatar (or whatever we call him) has a birthday on October 17! Well I made a note of the date and planned to celebrate it somehow. Of course Wrath will actually get to partake - his rl avatar will just have to enjoy it vicariously, but what the heck.

Just when I was trying to decide how to acknowledge the event - I met Punky Hatfield of Inspiration Cakes - (that's just one of her locations). Wrath's rl avatar had recently posted an image that really spoke to him - that's it at the top of this post. So I gave a copy to Punky and she incorporated it into the cake.

But she didn't stop there - she made a more life size wall appropriate version for him as well. I figure he'll spend hours on the couch, sitting, staring, eating double chocolate cake, dreaming ............. Well he's a grown boy. I can't tell him how to spend his time! :)

I was going to just leave them somewhere in his office tower - but it could take him forever to find them. So I'll probably just pass them to him before he logs on with an appropriately off key rendition of "Happy Birthday". :)

When a guy gets married ............

I have a good friend named Mingus - love him but he's a real guy. So when he decided to get married he gave his fiance a whole 24 hours to arrange it. He also sent me a message asking me to officiate. (huh? me? gack!) I got the message this morning - the wedding was at 7:00 this evening.

Somehow his new bride Charley managed to pull it all together and it actually went very smoothly. It was a beautiful wedding and they are a truly handsome couple.

So congratulations and best wishes to Charley and Mingus. And now I have something to add to my resume. :)

GoSpeed at Fibber Magee's

GoSpeed Racer dj'ed at the new Fibber Magee's tonight. And a great time was had by all!

Happy 4th of July!

To my neighbours (well OK - neighbors) to the south!

This is not the Jetsons' housekeeping robot!

When Crap decided to breakdown his installation in the NIRL Garden - he really meant "break it down".

Crap setting the strategically placed charges.

Things start to come apart.

Not what you'd call a controlled implosion - no, none of that for Crap. He spreads his chaos to as wide a field as possible!

These innocent people were just wandering around on the ground. Little did they know .............. Somebody go get Rosie - this mess has to be cleaned up! :)

Hurrah for Wrath Paine!!

I got a message from a guy at SLCN asking if I wanted to advertise. We chatted and I decided to try it for a month. Was going to go with a static image til I remembered I actually know somebody with considerable machinima skills.

So when you're watching your favourite SLCN show and see this - drink a toast to Wrath. I certainly will! :)

He brought a friend!

Two dragons? I'm going to have to make the paths wider! And Havok4 seems to have a bad effect on their av's. hmmmm

Linux and the waterfall .....

I had promised this dragon I know that I would replace the waterfall. He likes it - whew! I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets his full sized body. He won't fit!

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 :)