drawn across the plainland, to the place that is higher

The world's most influential person is....moot. Literally.

Upcoming protests against adult content restrictions. Will they work? Of course not. But at least they're trying.

For at least now: the transcript of the "definitions" brown bag meeting; the transcript of the landowner meeting; the transcript of the merchant meeting; and the transcript of the educator meeting. I don't know how long these will track, or if the Labs will move them again.

Or, conversely, the Lindens could move the #@$%^$! things again...Okay, second way in: click this link and type "adult content" into the search field. That still pops 'em all up.

Also, apparently? At least according to Massively this is just phase one of the proposed changes to SL content, adult and non. And they're still saying the term "AO" is blatantly obvious, when for virtually every in-world resident, AO means one thing and one thing only: Animation Overrider. (Does no Linden possess an AO? At all? They all have the stupid duck walk?

(That could explain a lot, actually...newbie skins and Linden-layer clothing and Linden-layer hair and duck walks and zero avatar scripting...of course they don't understand why anyone might want adult content preserved. They must look at each other and think Oh HELL no, I'm not sleeping with that...)

(Oh, and while I was wandering around Massively, I discovered they're keeping tabs on Runes of Magic. Hee!)

We went to Inaka Shop earlier.

This person--don't know male or female, do know Japanese--does mainly animations. Quirky animations. Really quirky animations.

In and amongst the quirky animations, though, is...this thing:



This is actually a vehicle. None of the pictures came out showing it; but there are actually nine boxes (the driver can choose to show or hide all of them). Each participant 'sits' on a box; and the driver...drives.



This thing can move. I mean, seriously move. It eats ground like a cheetah, it flies like a falcon--and all of it, all of it, is to several synchronized animations, complete with backbeat.



The animation shop is open-air, and on stilts--you literally have to fly a little to get up to the floor of it--but it's surrounded by walking paths, a garden, a bridge, and beaches. Lots of sand.

Didn't stop us a bit; we ran everywhere, laughing like children. Dance Dance Revolution--on wheels.



The bridge collapses when you run across it. Great trick. Really great trick. We must have run over that thing nineteen times. Then Miss Allen--she was the driver--discovered we could get serious loft out of this thing by jumping. On air, as near as we could figure, but we kept moving, higher and higher, until we hit that point of must-fall.

And even then we fell on our feet and took off dancing again.

In fact, the demo model--this was all on the demo, the actual vehicle (L$500, and really, I think worth every pixel penny) may do more--only glitched once:



And even then it didn't stop us.

Go. Check out the demo at least. Run around like a maniac. Amuse your brain for hours testing out the animations--everything from broken doll sits to sumo positions to strutworthy model spins. Buy something.

Lord knows, someone this inventive? Deserves our support.

More on another issue: Miss Samantha Poindexter urges understanding in the matter of Rheta Shan; Marx Dudek speaks from the ranks of friends and intimates on Rheta. Me, I think it's interesting that even her friends are pondering the possibility that this is some colossal cruel joke.

Still and all, the grief is real and understandable; we lose our friends and loves, we mourn their passing. We can't not. We're dead ourselves, if we don't.

Time will tell, and I know there is genuine outrage and grieving. I do not discount it, the voices from either side. But let this time pass; look on what we learn later, compare it to now. I think--as an outsider, as someone who knew the name in passing, not the woman in person--I think, for good or ill, cosmic jest or savage loss...I think in time, everyone will be on the same side.

Everyone who knew her will know that she's gone.

Unless she comes back. After all, I've been wrong before...