Timeline

 

 

 

 

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A note, left in the treehouse in Cowell on 15 July 2018:

“Hi there!

I am going to go up on the roof of the shack, and see if I can fly up to the top of the aerial posted there. The energia arcs from there to the last old marker, and I’m curious about what the energia is.

I hope it’s not harmful to me. I was on the scaffolding over the marker the other day, watching the energia arcs, and did not feel anything dangerous. No heat, or tingling sensations, no sound either. Just bright energy arcing to the marker from the aerials in other parts of the Forest.

I’m leaving this note here to be found in case I’m not able to be found myself. So folks know something of what may have happened to me.

Please let my sisters both know that I love them lots.

❤ Py”

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Entry dated 8 June 2018:

“A very bright pink? flash from the direction of the Forest. There have been murmurs from the ground there, an uneasy earth undergoing some changes once more.

I’ve flown over to have a look, and the last marker in the oldest part of the Forest has energy arcing to it frequently. This change is a sudden one, and seems to be causing some reaction from the marker and the Forest itself.”

 

Separate entry, dated 8 June 2018:

“I am here again at this time. At least that is what it looks like. ‘I’ have just flown in from the north, probably Varney, and am looking at the old marker.

So strange to see me doing things I know I’ve already done.”

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Entry dated 2 July 2006:

“I have decided to join Second Life. I have an idea of what I’d like to look like, and a backstory of sorts flexible enough to make my way in this new world. I wish the last names were a bit more flexible with what I’ve chosen, but I think I can manage with ‘Bu’.”

Separate entry, dated 2 July 2006:

“Okay, now I’m a little frightened. I’m here but not here. I know everything, but know nothing.

…

No offense meant to Ruth, but I hope I’m not stuck like this now.”

 

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Entry dated 15 July 2001:

“The land is rising from the seas again. It is the end of the world.

New creatures are here, remaking it for themselves with no regard for what is already present.”

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Entry dated 15 July 2010:

“I recognise this place. Well, almost. The map is full of familiar shapes, but what the Residents have placed on it is very different. Where are the trees, and Phineas Jack’s lookout tower?”

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Entry dated 15 July 2011:

“Something shifted. I am trying to figure out what exactly, but I cannot place it.”

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Entry dated 21 July 2018:

“I am all banged up from being tossed a few regions over to that small island in Rosedale. A couple meters over or short in any direction would’ve dropped me into the ocean.

I think I’m okay, though. Just sore, and have what feel like memories of another time. A really long time ago sort of time. I smell the Void Sea, and I’m nowhere near it. It feels very close…

I had a very strange experience, possibly while I was unconscious. I experienced a regression through time. I encountered my past selves, and then seemed to go back before my time, or the time of Our World. I wonder if this has anything to do with the double–posting on the Feed.

Whatever it was, I don’t think I was affected in ‘reality’. All my pixels are present, my friends can see me normally, et cetera.”

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Scribbled into the margin of this entry:

“i have horns!”

repost from a favorite blog

I hope you all are doing well at this busy time. Here’s the latest from Kinn’s Mainland Matters blog, about an important piece of infrastructure:

http://slmainlandmatters.blogspot.com/2016/12/oh-what-id-give-for-moment-or-two.html

Let us bridge the gap into the New Year with hope!

Unintentional collaboration!

Trunk or Treat opened Monday 24 October. I have stuff in it, along with a whole lot of others. Three of us seem to have accidentally collaborated…

So, if you need quick costuming ideas, Lost Junction, You Know For Kids and I have your face covered.

“OOPS” 😀

Failure IS an option.

This is the story of a build.

This build was going to be challenging as it is. Recreating the first life Burning Man is always something – sometimes you have to be able to walk around inside the build, sometimes the thing is just HUGE.

Add to this my preference for keeping the proportions realistic (unless that super-high ceiling is part of the design, nope!), and having to find visual information about the original.

In past Man builds, one of the Man Team members in first life has documented EVERYTHING. Every day’s progress, all the little details… Not this year. That person was dealing with some serious health stuff (knock it off, 2016!!) and so the images and video were much more scarce.

Mari and I did manage to find enough though, especially after the first-life Burning Man festival concluded, and the Man Team had returned to areas with WIFI/Internet service.

Time to build ours!

I love driving through the Playa. It’s super flat, and there’s plenty of space for turns in my trusty old flatbed. Also, it’s fun to bring in pieces of the build this way. 😉

Suz stopped by after a long night of unloading and assembly. Burn2 is a social event, even during build time. There are a few first-life burners that started in SL, and vice-versa. I think Suz has gone to the first-life event, but Mari and I have only done the virtual Burns.

Building went very well, when I was able to get in and do it. My first-life was tremendously busy, and there were many many long nights in SL after a long first-life day.

The Man Base had a pretty heavy engineering problem: the toothed wheel at the bottom seemed to turn the two larger gears in opposing directions. There were also planetary gear sets that seemed a bit over-powered (and heavy) for spinning the Man. Balancing the entire thing was a bit of a challenge.

I ended up making a few modifications to the design. I deleted one of the planetary sets, and left one of the large gears free-spinning, so our Man wouldn’t strip his motor.

Of course, if this had been done with physical models, it would’ve flown to pieces with SL’s physics engine. 😀 This is where Mari’s building skills come in – she is extremely handy with scripts. All I had to do was tell her what moved and in what direction.

The best part of Turning the Man was having to have FOUR avatars to get him going ’round. Mari had a timer set for allowing this at the top of the hour. And then you had an entire ten minutes to give the Guy a turn! Extra special thanks to Loki Eliot for some tips on multiple-avatar interactions.

And then it became time to Burn the Man.

My first-life kinda settled down a bit the week of Burn2. We had managed to get the Man on the Playa and turning by the second day of the festival, and now I had to rebuild in prim for the Burn. (Prims burn better than mesh!)

Time disappeared and I was scripting the Burn the day of. The scripts we use are kinda old, and from a couple physics engine updates ago. (Hey Mari.. wanna rewrite these?) 😀 They do still work, but are not terrifically robust in modern lag. Yes, lag has changed too in Our World.

I followed all the steps for setup, and tested a bit of the build to see the timing. (Wow! those arms flew right off!) The entire thing was about 1100 pieces, and calculated to 900 LI. Lots of work for the scripts, but they burnt down a 950 LI giant a couple years ago. This will go just fine, and I can click “burn” and sit back and wait, right? Right?

This started really well! The arms still flew right off, but hey, they went through all their steps in order…

What happened next was.. Nothing. All of the fireworks had ended, and we were watching the sparking arm pieces rattling around on a perfectly intact build. A build that was supposed to be engulfing itself in flame.

I checked my chat history, yep, there’s the calls for ignition of all the parts… But nothing after.

During a Burn, my chat fills with calls of “link 19 catching fire” and “man arm setting hot coals texture” and “link 72 requesting detatch” and “link 3 falling”. None of that was happening. It was really quiet in my chat history.

“Um, I don’t think this is working,” I said to Mari. “Okay…hang on..” she responded and then started dropping more fire and particle effects to cover the error.

We began manually unlinking and setting various things physical. And somehow in between all that, Mari added a flaming particle effect to several of the larger pieces. My genius pyro-sis. ♥

Nobody noticed the glitch at all. 😉

Beginnings

Every time the Lab decides to change the new user experience, I make a new account, or alt. I have a few of them now, as much has changed for avatars in Our World since 2006. Only a couple of them are known to more than myself, as I really prefer to use my main account for all that I do.

Well, Strawberry Singh started making a series of introduction videos for Our World, and well, … I guess I should make another alt … 😀

 

hi

Anyway. It’s a pretty exciting time to be new to Our World. There are so many great tools available for anyone to create The Best New User Experience, and there will be a few more Resident-created ones cropping up in the next few months to supplement the Lab’s newbie spaces.

Helping newbies learn Our World is a challenge, but I think it can be very fun as well. After all, you were likely wandering around at some point asking things like “how do I level up?” and “will you be my friend?”

heh, okay, newbie – just this once *click*

I hope there was someone nearby who was able to speed your integration by answering those, or directing you to a space with the answers. 🙂

My early experiences were partly directed by two first life friends, and a passel of others who hung around popular sites – in my case, this was the Neo-Realms fishing area at Alston – and directed me to other popular places once they found out what I was interested in. I’m from the tail end of the community–building-in-sandboxes era of Our World, and I still come across some of those early contacts. It’s good to see them!

Every day (we have six day cycles every first-life day!!) is a new beginning for someone around you. Show kindness, compassion and if they really need help, help them find it if you can.

P.S. Not sure how often I’ll be dragging poor SalT out, but feel free to post on his profile. 😉

Autumn in the garden

Nights are getting longer again, and the weather is slowly cooling. At my garden space, the nights have been cold enough to convince the trees to change.

This in turn has prompted me to do some changing myself. I’ve uprooted the dying summer flowers, and stored the pond lilies in case the pond ices up. I think the frog has already found a warmer spot too, but I’m not sure where.

Since it’s cooler, I can do a little more indoor gardening. A friend gave me a nice bonsai for the office space I have here. It’s very beautiful, and suits the room well. The fall afternoon light makes the needles glint too!

And it’s dark and quiet again, so soon.

De-constructing and re-constructing

The Man Base is currently being built on the first-life Playa, and Mari and I have been scouring Instagram and Twitter and the blog for any hints and clues as to how it’s put together (and how big it is too!).

There is precious little right now. We will likely need to wait until Black Rock City is inhabited before we have a very clear idea of scale and construction, but there has been a small amount of visual info from the first life Man Team. So our deconstruction of what they’ve accomplished so far and reconstruction in Our World begins. 😀

oh em gee The Man burns in http://burningman.org/countdown/

Art is part of the word participation.

Hi all! Mari and I are going to be starting on Burn2 projects.

We’ve started researching the various art projects and thematic things that will be appearing in Black Rock City, Nevada, very soon. Our hope is to bring a bit of the first life Playa to Our World for the Grid to experience.

The Burning Man theme this year is “Da Vinci’s Workshop”. This can be interpreted in soooo many ways! I’ve seen mostly maker-community inspired things, but there have been a few other interpretations as well.

Mari is hoping to host Inner Child Camp, based on Kidsville, the Black Rock Kids‘ theme camp in first life. We have entered the Plottery, and applied for a Theme Camp on the Burn2 website. We’ll keep you posted on how that plays out.

We are also co-leading the Man Team. I have my old blueprints from the giant Man we built a couple years ago, so the big and fun part will be the Man Base. It’s called the Turning Man, and is designed to be a huge and interactive Vitruvian Man.

More on that later, though, we’ve gotta figure out how to make it work in SL!

Lollygagger Lane featured in Mainland Matters

https://slmainlandmatters.blogspot.com/2016/07/hallelujah-im-bum.html

This is one of the early discoveries I made in my wanderings on the Grid.

paramparamm Papp was participating in the Show-And-Tell hosted by Barney Boomslang at the long-gone Lummerland. The hedgehog brought along a friend once or twice: Raskolnikow Roffo, and their sharings were always fun, interactive or just compelling. I followed their profile picks to Lollygagger Lane, where I found some fun and freebies. I am glad that it has not only remained on the Grid, but also expanded. When I first visited, it was just a lane off one of the roadways!