Some people have real problems, but still

Ok so. Today was one of those days. I was edgy and crabby and sad. My mood was low for some reasons that are legitimate and others that are probably not. I was starting to put it in perspective and getting ready to go to a party when I discovered that my Huddles dance HUD is gone. GONE.

I have been building my dance library for close to a year. I have invested a bunch of lindens and a little time. Unfortunately most of my dances are no copy. No. They were no copy. I have to use the past tense because my Huddles is gone. I tried all the standard tricks. Its just gone.

sigh

A world without borders?

One of the things I most enjoy about SL is meeting people I would not otherwise know in my day to day existence. I have friends from all over the world and people who live within waving distance all of whom I met via SL. It really is a joy to learn about other cultures and see the world from a perspective. In some sense Second Life is a world without national borders.

The United States has a "thing" about its borders and we spend a lot of time and money keeping some people out and keeping other people in. Without commenting on that directly, I do want to share with you a story of someone who is being asked to leave the US. I won't tell the story but I will ask you to please go to Eshi Otarawa's blog and read what is happening to her.

I recently had the pleasure of talking to Eshi about her situation. It saddens me greatly that my country is denying this incredibly talented person the right to live and work in the country where she has spent nearly a decade. Read more about Eshi in New World Notes. Also, if you have not already seen Eshi's moving machinima about her husband Glenn you really must stop whatever you are doing and watch. I cried like a baby so you might want to grab a tissue.

And because no post is complete without a photo here I am in a glorious dress Eshi gave me. I am no fashion photographer that is for sure, but I tried to show off the dress as best I could. You can find this and other glorious frocks at Chambre du Chocolat. Look inEshi Otawara’s or Phil McGraw’s profile picks for a landmark. (I am not inworld or I would give you a clickable link. Sorry.)



Notice: I am going to get political here for a moment. Please don't read any further if you are easily offended.


If you live in the US and your immigration status is secure be grateful. Next time you hear people talk about how immigrants are a problem please think about Eshi, and my family and more than likely someone in your own lineage who came here on a boat or a plane from Europe or Africa or any other distant land.

Its good to be home

I had a great little vacation. I hung out with my siblings and their kids, did touristy things, spent a little time on a boat, cooked big family meals, drank wine with my sisters and laughed our heads off, celebrated my RL wedding anniversary surrounded by the people I love most. Perfection really.

Being back feels great too. I missed my SL family and my SL home. Perfection again.

How lucky am I?

You don't appreciate what you have until it is gone

At my home I have a fiber connection to the internet. Being a non-technical sort I really have no idea what that means quantitatively but I do know my internet connection is very fast and stable.

So, here I sit in a beach house several states away from home at the kitchen table looking out at the water. It is beautiful and relaxing in the early morning and the perfect place to enjoy cup after cup of good coffee. I just had an enlightening chat with my niece about the virtues of M&Ms in vanilla yogurt. Lovely.

I am using an internet connection provided by the marina down the road, who sells short term service to the transient sailing population. I am grateful to have a connection so I can email and IM. I did try to get into SL, which is fine as long as I don't try to move. I am beginning to understand much better how hard it can be to navigate SL if you have a slow connection. It is just not worth logging in.

Away for a bit

I will be headed out of town for some RL family fun so I may be more scarce than usual. The laptop always comes with me so I will likely be online a bit, because I have that much of a problem.

Before I go I want to point you all in the direction of a great garden store called Elorian Gardens. Lua 11 Oh makes sculpted trees and all manner of nice items for your land. She sells displays her items in a setting that is worth a visit just because it is most lovely.



See the fantastic cherry tree in the photo below? Lua is giving it away free. So head over to her beautiful sim, pick up the freebie and then have a wander. I know you will find something beautiful like a fountain or some sunflowers. Click "pay" and support this talented content creator.

Mega prims, habitrails and champagne

I decided to build a private spot in the sky as our sim is open to the public and we do get visits from friends and friends to be fairly regularly. I have this idea of translucent spheres floating in the air -- who knows if my idea is a good one or not. It could end up looking like a habitrail for avatars but experimentation is part of the fun so I am going to give it a shot.

This morning I posted to twitter asking where I could get a copy of the full perm mega prim packages that were floating around. In short order the lovely Grace McDunnough passed me a copy of 140 mega prims. All day long I was distracted from my RL job thinking about my build idea. Shortly before leaving work I posted to twitter saying I could not wait to get home, rez a platform in the sky and build, which is exactly what I did. Pretty soon the mom taxi needed to make a run to the lacrosse field so I left the platform and off I went. When I returned I found this:


The always cuddly Timothy Lillihook had stopped by to say hi and left me a photo of himself on the spot. Timothy is a wonderful friendly kitty and if you don't read his blog you should and should follow him on twitter if you indulge. He is always there with a hug and a kind word and I am lucky to count him as a friend.

Yes, as a community we are working to define appropriate behavior. Some have talked about the decline of society in SL and when I see acts of vandalism it is easy to get cynical. Still, instead of wallowing in the negative I like to focus on the awesome live music scene, follow ongoing discussions about issues both big and small, and explore the incredible art installations all over the grid. There are deeply talented people doing fantastic things in SL. It is truly amazing.

These days my glass is not only half full, it is half full of really good champagne.

Mixing perfect moments with stress

Thanks to all of you who commented and wrote to congratulate Zha and I on partnering. We have been headed in this direction for some time and, as in all things we do, circumstances presented and we looked at each other and there you go -- partner box filled in. We will have a party that includes great music and of course YOU so an event of some kind is in the works. RL schedules and commitments always come first so timing is something of a concern. As soon as we have a plan, you will know.

For the past two days there has been a bit of weirdness in the blogosphere and some uncomfortable RL stress that has left me feeling out of sorts. So, rather than inflict myself on people (other than the ever patient and understanding Zha) I have spent time building on Love. My first big project is the waterfall -- an overview of the bones of which is below. I made some sculpted water and dropped a script in there to get movement but I just was not happy with what I was able to achieve.


So I purchased the most fun little building tool called the Water Wizard made by Tu Dae. To make sculpted water you wear a silly wizard hat. You touch the hat and a basic sculpted prim appears over your head. Next a pop up appears that links you to this page, where you choose a script, shape and texture for your prim. One more click and the prim appears in world where you can resize and play and fiddle and move your prim until it is in the exact perfect place. (Which could take the rest of my life in the case of this waterfall, but I digress.) Similar tools exist for creating trees, rocks, basic sculpted prim shapes and terrain. I will say the tool is expensive but for me has been worth every linden. I want to take a moment to compliment the creator. The idea of using a tool with a web interface to facilitate building in Second Life is just brilliant. I wish I had thought of it (and had the skills to make such a thing.)


There is a bridle path around our sim and our lovely estate owner Shenli Flasheart likes to ride so we wanted a bridge across the water where the path crosses the waterfall. So yesterday I made the bridge below and started to landscape around the lower falls. It is amazing what a difference a few trees make! I was fussing and fiddling with the water and was not at all satisfied. Add a few bushes, trees and ferns? Much better.




Later on I added a campfire and some old Adirondack chairs to a little cove down at the water's edge. Our vision includes lots of little spots were we can hang out with our friends and where visitors to Shengri La can find a quiet oasis for contemplation. This morning sitting by the fire was a perfect way for me to shake off the stresses of the past few days and remember what is really important.

At some point we will probably have a party

Hello strangers and others

As Chestnut posted, she and I are busy building together, and she was sweet enough to offer me post rights here to talk about the build, and the fun we're having building together. I don't know how often I'll get around to blogging. Time, and energy, are rare commodities, but I'll try and sneak in here from time to time and see what I can add.

If you've never built in Second Life, its really an interesting experience. If you've built, but never built with someone you're missing a lot. Early on in exploring Second Life, I had the eye opening experience of helping a friend put together the little pre-fab freebie house she'd laid hands on. Suddenly, we were floating over her house, chatting about how things lined up and when it looked right, and why. I was amazed at how easy and natural it was for two of us, separated by hundreds of miles to work on a single project.

Fast forward a little over a year. Ches and I get the chance to start building on a lightly landscaped void sim. Void, or open space sims, are full sized sims, with 1/4 the prim count. The nature of the void sim implies a light hand on the overall build. The sim was lightly landscaped, and amazingly terraformed when we started looking at it.

In moments, it became a shared vision. Can we build our house there? In the little gap between the two peaks? Oh? Ok. Maybe the gap needs to be a little wider.. We dragged a few things over from my old build on an adjacent sim and began to explore.

Stone ruins in the saddle between the hills? Build it. Place it. Yuck. Blocks off too much of the view. Do we want a house, or social gathering place, which we can call home. Rez some chairs, and chat about it.

How about a deck arching out over the ocean. Oh, that's nice. Now, how to make it look light. Wood? no. Crystal. Maybe. With complete trust, ideas flow up and back. sometimes without even words. Building is a special pleasure. Building with someone who can look at your work, reach out, and move a prim out of your way, because they can see what you are thinking, is even more pleasurable. Building with someone who is perfectly happy to reach out and tweak, until its perfect, and knows that it's OK, because the build is shared is spectacular.

Over the past two weeks, our sense of the space has evolved. Several elements showed up, and have remained constant. The deck, the little balconies. A set of stepping stones, leading one around the core of the sim, has slowly become part of the vision.

The rest, we've explored. bit by bit. A possible path for a waterfall and stream have been laid out. One stream has been rejected, as too big and visually jarring. Like several other cool elements which don't fit in where we are building at the moment, it will likely show up, someplace else on the sim. The stepping stones keep slowly evolving. Some are discarded, others added, until the pattern pleases both of us.

We have several ideas in motion. How to display some of our art. How to blend the water feature into the space. How to play with lighting and setting off the space to make it clearly a separate, but organic part of the sim. The fun part, is that we will find the answer to each of these together, slowly sharing thoughts until vision merges, and we know what we want to do.

I look forward to sharing what we discover with you here. Its a voyage of discovery, and we hope you'll have almost as much fun as we do.

~ Zha

You Just Never Know

I logged early last night to tend to a RL person who was giving me that look. You know the one? Its the look that says "What the HELL is up with you? Why don't you ever step away from that @#)$$%$)$ laptop and come in here and watch reality TV with the rest of us? What is so enthralling about little virtual plywood cubes and pretending to dance? Oh and while I am asking? Why is your skin white and that hair? Its crazy" He may have had a point about the hair and the sheer number of hours I spend inworld is notable. But I will never agree about reality tv.


In any case, when I logged Zha was building so I was curious to see if she made any progress on Love last night. One really fun aspect of a truly collaborative effort is you never really know what the other person is going to do. Each next step builds off of the last and for me at least there is joy in the synergy of ideas.


We are creating a deck overlooking the water and Zha added a brass railing, which I love. The surface of the deck is translucent glass and we are still trying to find the perfect color. When I left last night the deck was pink and this morning it was a yellow green. Who knows what color it will be tonight. Ideas? What do you think?

There are a few stable elements of the build that will make it into the "final" version of whatever it is we are creating. The 3 stone terraces below were part of Zha's last build and we love them. One has benches, I added Bits and Bobs V7 to the middle terrace and the third has the all important hammock.



So after I oohed and ahhhed at the cool railings and pondered yet again the right color for the glass deck, out of the corner of my eye I spotted some prims -- really, really big prims. Mega prims even. Flying around the side of the mountain I came across this. What is this? Who knows? All I can say is, just like everything about this build I can't wait to find out where the idea takes us.

Are you paying attention?

Something has changed around here. Did you notice? I don't want the suspense to kill you so I'll tell. The change is I added Zha as a contributor to this blog. We thought it would be fun to blog a bit about our build on Shengri La Love as we progress. Zha says she wants to chronicle my inspired contributions like "You are unhappy with that because it looks like a frisbee." Or something. Anyway, watch for posts from Zha and progress reports from our build. Also, please do check out her blog here.

So far our build consists of lots of talking, laying on the ground looking at things, throwing prims around, messing with textures and some "that will never do." Searching for a vision is hard, especially since we tend to get distracted by music and exploring and maybe a little bit of shopping now and then.



Some of you have taken me up on my request that you come hang out with us at Love. Thank you friendly people! The rest of you *me squints a little* please visit any time. Please do watch out for stray prims and the odd...umm...frisbee laying around.

Poetry for Mother's Day

"I am"

I am your son
I wonder why you are so nice
I hear you like cooking me food
I see you are nice
I want you to never die
I am proud of you
I pretend I can see you when I don't
I feel your hand when I touch it
I touch your hand when I feel sad
I cry when I think about you dieing
I am jealous you are old enough to play most games
I understand you have to work
I say "Hi" when you come home
I dream of the days to come

Art Gallery Reopening Reception in Shengri La

One of the fun things about moving to a new neighborhood is exploring the area. Just across the water from our new place is the gallery of the talented SL photographer Callipygian Christensen. From the notecard at Calli's gallery:

"Resident in Sl for almost 2 years, Callipygian Christensen discovered a passion for SL photography. She creates SL photographs that capture, mood, moment and emotion. Portraits, landscapes, couture ads, amusing 'story' images - Calli creates a broad range of images in many styles."

As it happens, Callie has redesigned her gallery and is having an opening reception today! So stop by and have a look around, either between 1:00 and 2:30 or between 5:00 and 7:00. I will likely be there sometime between 5:00 and when Grace McDunnough takes the stage at the Freudian Slip at 6:00.

TOS - privacy and RL

Ok. So. How many of us have actually read the SL TOS? I can't be sure but I think most people click accept and go on their merry way without ever stopping to read the rules. Because of some icky interpersonal behavior I have witnessed recently I have been thinking a lot about how we treat each other inworld.

Some things people do *all the time* concern me because as I read the TOS they are violations so serious you could be permanently banned as a result. In section 4.1, Conduct by Users of Second Life, we are advised "you shall not...

"take any action or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content as determined by Linden Lab at its sole discretion that is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable."

And

"Any violation by you of the terms of the foregoing sentence may result in immediate and permanent suspension or cancellation of your Account. You agree that Linden Lab may take whatever steps it deems necessary to abridge, or prevent behavior of any sort on the Service in its sole discretion, without notice to you."

After reading the TOS and talking with people familiar with these sections, I understand that if you take an IM I send you and share it with someone else and you violate my privacy or in any way harm, harass or threaten me your account could be immediately and permanently cancelled. By its very nature IM is a private conversation so sharing IM is considered a violation of privacy.

Think about that a moment if you will. How many times has someone copied and pasted IM conversation they had with someone else and shared it with you? How many notecards have you seen where private IM conversations are quoted? How many times have you done these things yourself? insert wind noises.......crickets sounds....avatars looking around avoiding eye contact.....Yeah.

So, before you send me that IM where your neighbor's partner's new pet told you he is cybering your bff who you met last week at Bad Girls? Please remember sending someone's IM to you to anyone else is a TOS violation. Just.Don't.Do.It.

I have also been thinking about the issue of RL privacy. The first life tab of my profile tells you I am happily married and have two kids. If you are clever and you read the rest of my profile you can deduce that I am from New York. If you take an extra step and read this blog you can probably learn more about the RL person who drives my avatar. If you want to know anything else please take some time to get to know me and I will likely be open about who I am. Asking me direct personal RL questions may or may not get you a direct answer depending on my mood, what I had for breakfast, whether or not it is a good hair day, and/or if I trust you to hold my personal information in confidence.

Now that we have cleared that up I respectfully request that you do not ask me RL information about my friends and expect that I will tell you. Recently I have been stunned by the number of RL questions people are asking me -- not about myself mind you -- but about other people. Please? Just don't ask me. If you want to know about someones RL ask *them* or use your mad google skills and see what you can learn. I am not going to violate my friend's privacy and I am not going to intentionally violate the TOS. Thanks for your understanding on this one kids.

It is time to fess up

I have been hinting about things going on in my second life for a while so I guess it is time for me to blog about the big change. Yesterday afternoon my lovely parcel on Fisher's Island in Sailors Cove sold. Yes. I listed the land on Friday morning and before I could get used to that idea -- poof -- my linden balances suddenly increased and my for sale sign was returned to my lost and found.



Why? Well, Zha and I are going to live on the most beautiful sim on the grid! We will be building on Shengri La Love which is owned by the amazingly talented Shenli Flashheart. We will add to what is there already to create a park-like open space with comfortable places to hang out, dance, cuddle and, well, live. We want people to enjoy the beautiful views, dance in the gazebo or in the ruins, take photos, swim with the seals in the harbor, meditate at the water's edge or whatever strikes you. So, please visit any time.

To entice you to visit here are some photos of the sim. First, here is Zha looking all badass in her leather and zippers



Overview of Love



Ruins in the harbor



Top of the mountain



I am sad to leave Sailors Cove. Sailing, music, friends...I will be back for all of that there is no doubt. Still, building and living on Shengri La Love with Zha is an adventure I embrace with an open heart. And now you all know too.

Tarot

[6:17] Tarot Table: Past (reversed) Denial of authorities. unwillingness to discharge obligations. lack of power or wisdom.
[6:17] Tarot Table: Present - Endurance. hardiness. daring. Concerning a person: mature. purposeful woman. emotional. maximalist.
[6:17] Tarot Table: Future - Gain. Foresight in material affairs. positive view. prolificacy.

Baaaaaaaaaa sheeepppp... mememememe

Dale passed this to me via notecard inworld a while ago. I am going to blog my answers and I am guessing my responses will be a little different than what I said the last time. Here goes!

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Too bloody early - 6:00am

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Pearls...or diamonds...but I prefer gemstones if I am choosing.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
The sad fact is I can't remember.

4. Favorite TV show?
I don't really watch TV and I have not in years.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Coffee and maybe yogurt or cottage cheese.

6. What is your middle name?
No middle names in SL. In RL my middle name is Carol

7. What food do you dislike?
meat

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment?
Mr. A-Z, Jason Mraz is in my car atm.

9. Favorite sandwich?
Grilled veggies and hummus on dark crusty bread.

10. What characteristic do you despise?
Can I pick two that are topical right now? Narcissism and its ugly cousin manipulation are on the top of my list.

11. Favorite item of clothing?
In SL my tall black boots. In RL, my tall black boots.

12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?
SL - Extropia.
RL - Today I would choose to vacation in Crete. Next week my answer might be Paris.

13. What color is your bathroom?
In SL I sometimes rez a bathtub I built on the beach at midnight, does that count? In RL the bathroom we just built is covered with tumbled stone that is the color of amber.

14. Do you make friends easily?
In both worlds I am friendly but it takes me a long time to feel comfortable enough to really open up to people.

15. Where would you retire?
SL - Shengri La Love
RL - a canal barge in France

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
Hrm....I'll let you know next Thursday

17. Favorite sport to watch?
The audience at Paisley's Beebe's show Tonight Live

18. How many towns have you lived in?
In SL I am about to move to my 5th sim in just shy of one year.
In RL 12 different towns/cities
I guess I move around a lot.

19. How many people do you think will send this back? (or blog it)
I have no idea.

20. What’s on your bedroom floor right now?
SL - my house is totally empty.
RL - books, magazines and my son's lacrosse stick and pads

21. Favorite saying?
I'm sorry

22. When is your birthday?
SL - June 16 is my first rez day
RL - very soon

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
I am a night person these days (*coughs* Zha) but I love the early morning hours when no one is up, the sky is pink and the world is quiet.

24. What is your shoe size?
SL - 0
RL - 7 1/2

25. Pets?
SL - Our new sim has all kinds of wildlife including a whale, sharks, seals, lots of fish, a seahorse, crabs, and giant monarch butterflies.
RL - Dog, cat, pond full of goldfish in the yard, 15 chickens, and a tank of tropicals in my son's room.

26. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with us?
I am the keeper of the key.

27. What did you want to be when you were little?
A mom, someone who does important work and contributes to the world in a positive way.

28. Which talent would you most like to have?
I am a hot glass artist and I wish my technical skills were better. I also wish I could sing well enough to make people feel strong emotions.

29. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
SL - "Laughs"
RL - "I am sorry but the federal government does not allow you to spend grant funds that way" and its derivative "NO"

30L What is your favorite flower?
The delicate bleeding hearts I saw in my garden this morning.

31. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
Honestly, I look forward to every day in both worlds.

32. What color are your eyes?
SL - currently brown
RL - always blue

33. What was your favorite toy as a child?
I was never really into toys but I had an active imagination and a well developed fantasy life.

34. Summer or winter?
Mostly I love the change of seasons.

35. Hugs or kisses?
Yes, please!

36. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Yes, please! If I have to choose I love good dark chocolate.

37. Do you want your friends to send this back to you?
If they want to, sure.

38. When was the last time you cried?
Earlier today. I was listening to a radio interview with a 90 year old man talking about his wife of 70 years who had recently died. Sweet love stories like that always make me cry. Ok,let's be honest I cry at a lot. Happy things, sad things -- you name it. I am an emotional and passionate creature.

39. What is under your bed?
Sl - I don't have a bed rezed at the moment
RL - Your friendly neighborhood dust bunnies

40. Who is the friend you have had the longest in SL?
Marko Seurat

41. What did you do last night?
Chatted and plotted with Charlie's Angels

42. Favorite smell?
The sea or the bed of lavender in my garden when it is in full bloom. It is hard to choose.

43. What are you afraid of?
Anything bad happening to my RL family or my SL family.

44. Plain, sweet, or salted Popcorn?
Sweet and salty, thank you. I want it all.

45. How many keys on your key ring?
SL - Privacy of physical space is an illusion -- locks are silly.
RL - I have 8 keys, most of which are job related.

46. How many years at your current job?
SL - I am currently unemployed.
RL - I have worked here almost 9 years.

47. Do you have any scars?
In both worlds I have many scars. Some are more visible than others.

48. Favorite day of the week?
Does the weekend count as a day?

49. How many people will you be sending this to?
I returned it to the 2 people inworld who sent it to me.

blog content

Some days blog posts pop into my head and demand to be written. "Why Be Human" from a few days ago was like that. I had the idea and basically could not focus on much until I snapped the photos, got the surls and wrote the post. Other days the things that are going on in my second life are either routine and not worth blogging or too personal to blog about. On occasion I have interesting blog content I want to share but the timing is off and I have to wait. Like now. Lots of great things going on but not too much I care to blog. Yet. (Note foreshadowing intended to spark your interest -- does that technique work in the blogosphere? We shall see.)

So? On to the photos! I hope you enjoy.