why did I turn to you? I only gave you a chance to prove the rumors true

Well, it seemed to be too good to be true, and it was.

PPRSystem V2.27: PPRS - Profile Pick Reward System - L$25/day (Limit: L$500/day) - No Bonus Payment - Payment Info on FILE required
Please visit the following website to find the terms and conditions of the PPRS
>> http://pprs.derbfactory.net/terms.html

Keep in mind, my time is SL time--it was half past three in the morning. I was groggy and wasn't processing what they were telling me in green chat.

[3:34] PPRSystem V2.27: You do not belong to the group that enables you to use this PPRS. Please use this link to join the group (press CTRL+H)
>> secondlife:///app/group/8b16e1ea-4b42-2c2a-a544-aba551b823e6/about

[3:35] Second Life: You have left the group 'Caverna Obscura'.

Didn't want to, but that was the group I joined last. So, by that logic, it's the one to which I'm least attached.

[3:35] PPRSystem V2.27: PPRS - Profile Pick Reward System - L$25/day (Limit: L$500/day) - No Bonus Payment - Payment Info on FILE required
Please visit the following website to find the terms and conditions of the PPRS
>> http://pprs.derbfactory.net/terms.html
[3:35] PPRSystem V2.27: You have payment info on file / used.
[3:35] PPRSystem V2.27: Checking your payment classification now...
[3:35] PPRSystem V2.27: Thank you very much for adding our place to your profile picks! You are eligible for the reward payment, but the daily payment limit has been reached! Please try again tomorow. Thank you very much! Daily limit: L$500 (=20 payments each day)

And just like that, the whole reason I had to support this store, to give them a profile pick and a group slot, evaporated.

Karu Karu is running a crazy-making racket. Which is really unfair, because they have great shine on their pieces, and some really inventive designs. Even as irked as I am over this, I'm still tempted to pick up some of their club gear.

And for latex on the grid, they're relatively inexpensive, and most of their outfits come with a clear or a smoke translucent latex underlayer. Buy more than one, or buy one that has an underlayer in a color, you've actually doubled or tripled the outfits you have. This is an excellent idea; they should be encouraged for this.

But they are on my list of misbegotten reprobates now, because nothing on the sign board told me I'd have to join their group; and nothing on the sign board told me I'd have to be in that initial twenty clicks per day. Let alone when Karu Karu's "day" actually begins.

[3:38] Emilly Orr comes back pouting, slipping back down.
[3:38] Emilly Orr: I am not happy with them.
[3:38] Fawkes Allen: What happened?
[3:38] Emilly Orr: "Thank you for clicking our signboard! But you must be a member of our group!"
[3:38] Emilly Orr: Fine fine fine....I will ditch something, grrr, okay, now a member of your group.
[3:39] Emilly Orr: "Thank you for clicking! But we only pay the first 20 people who click this board! Thank you for supporting us!"
[3:39] Emilly Orr: Bastards.
[3:40] Fawkes Allen: Yeah, just screw that at this point.
[3:40] Emilly Orr: It's been fun being a kept woman, but...I gotta get another job.

Look, I know, I've run the cost analysis of various things on various other things. What does L$25 really work out to, a dollar and a half? It's the principle of the thing, maybe, or just the whole unfairness of it. I ditched Hank and Alexandra Rucker's profile pick slot for Karu Karu, because they might have helped to work me out of semi-destitution on the grid. I ditched Caverna Obscura, a really great fae clothing/fae skin place, to join Karu Karu to click their damned board.

Only twenty people per day. What's wrong with you? Either cut it back to a payment a week, a payment a month, like normal businesses who trade advertising search space in profiles for Lindens...or pay whomever clicks. Or go the other direction, which is also fine--product for picks. I know they give out group gifts; it wouldn't be hard at all to toss an outfit together, and say that it's this week's profile pick gift, or something. Even one outfit a month. Something beyond this.

I think Karu Karu would probably prefer the second, all things told; they could even make them extensions of the lines they've already got, in a special profile-pick color. It just irks me beyond all reason, though. Goddamn bait-and-switch marketing.

This video is easily one of the most baffling, wondrous things I've ever seen. Far as I know, the only warning on it is if you really don't want your sense of what is real--and what isn't--messed about with.

Poem Miss Hienrichs read at the Poetry Slam tonight, by Robert Graves:

Warning to Children

Children, if you dare to think

Of the greatness, rareness, muchness

Fewness of this precious only

Endless world in which you say

You live, you think of things like this:

Blocks of slate enclosing dappled

Red and green, enclosing tawny

Yellow nets, enclosing white

And black acres of dominoes,

Where a neat brown paper parcel

Tempts you to untie the string.

In the parcel a small island,

On the island a large tree,

On the tree a husky fruit.

Strip the husk and pare the rind off:

In the kernel you will see

Blocks of slate enclosed by dappled

Red and green, enclosed by tawny

Yellow nets, enclosed by white

And black acres of dominoes,

Where the same brown paper parcel -

Children, leave the string alone!

For who dares undo the parcel

Finds himself at once inside it,

On the island, in the fruit,

Blocks of slate about his head,

Finds himself enclosed by dappled

Green and red, enclosed by yellow

Tawny nets, enclosed by black

And white acres of dominoes,

With the same brown paper parcel

Still untied upon his knee.

And, if he then should dare to think

Of the fewness, muchness, rareness,

Greatness of this endless only

Precious world in which he says

he lives - he then unties the string.

I don't know why. I'm just finding that very relevant.

In other news, I've been pondering the Linden situation. Yes, I know, again. But think on it--do we know if Linden Labs is hiring? I haven't checked their employment page on the website in quite some time, but is it even active?

Because if not, they're losing an awful lot of Lindens before hiring reactivates. And specific ones, to boot. Especially with Pathfinder Linden gone, who's left?

Most of the 'name' Lindens we once knew are gone, now. Most, if not all, of the Lindens who were in community outreach divisions seem to be gone. I know the fellow who invented LSL as a coding language is gone, but it seems to be most of the people who know how to code--on the grid and behind the scenes--have left too.

And I've heard rumors that the entire development team for SL has been fired, laid off, or simply left. I'd love to know if that's true or not.

Who's left? Who's left at the home base that has more than two year's experience--if that? Who's left who was part of the original team of dreamers and madmen?

How many people has Mark Kingdon quietly gotten rid of to push the dream of Facebook Life? Does anyone know?

(In the meantime, Prad Prathivi has done a wondrous thing with this image. Speaking of Mark Kingdon. Do expand to the larger size and read it off, line by line.)