25 February, 2018

lay back, this is where we are

(Continued from part one.)

Okay, so obviously, I went to the wrong place. Where am I supposed to be?



Untitled (Hands) by BittsyBoo.



Red Dancer by Timo Dumpling.



Bungalow Sunset by India Canning.



Unnamed (Lynn) by BittsyBoo.



Trasparenze siamo noi (We Are Transparencies) by Mistero Hifeng (® All Rights Reserved, Cammino and Vito Capovolto.)



Untitled (Back) by BittsyBoo.



This one was confusing. It's titled, "Bittsy at North (Red)", but...it's signed "Aleriah 2018"? I'm confused.

[16:19] Emilly Orr: So, Lynn gave me a landmark for a gallery exhibition that Bittsy threw together. It's not just her, it's shots from a lot of the Sakura women. But she set it up in a maze.
[16:19] Matthias Whiteberry: oh!
[16:19] Matthias Whiteberry: i would love to go
[16:22] Emilly Orr: It's...odd. There's a lot of different ways to display paintings, but in general, making them harder to see is uncommon.


It's good work. It's all good work, though there doesn't seem to be a single unifying theme in either the gallery, or the maze. Not that there needs to be. But the maze concept itself is...puzzling. I finally gave up on the maze as a maze, and simply stood on the deck at the far side, and cammed through, because if I relied on my point of view walking through the maze, I was going to miss everything but the walls, and what's occasionally in the walkway.

I don't know how long it's going to run; if I find out, I'll update this entry, or link it to a new one. But it's through this weekend, at least.

lay back, we are where we are



Let's talk a bit about the Rainbow Painters Gallery.



It's been a while since I went through an art gallery. I don't know why I stopped. They're fun, and the art is generally interesting.



Gallery, Busy Street by Byron Firehawk.



Liberdade, by Cullum Writer.



Have a Seat, by TooShy Tooshi.



Wet and Wooly by Mariposa Upshaw.



The gallery's interesting, but I was here to see BittsyBoo's maze. So...where is it?



Turns out I was in the wrong building, it's actually towards the left side of the gallery. Oops.

(Continued in part II.)

24 February, 2018

and there's a lot of potential in a mighty, mighty organ

Found this profile-wandering:
1. Be patient and understanding. No Dom/Domme is perfect; subbies have bad days like anyone else. Both parties are human and deserve respect even if it is given in different ways.
2. Be there for each other. Do your utmost to stay in contact. Don't just disappear.
3. Doms, don't be collectors. How can you possibly have the time for 10, 15 or more subs? They deserve better from you.
4. Subs, give your gift of submission only after careful consideration. Meeting someone than asking them to collar you after 30 minutes is NOT enough. Build trust first.
5. Open communication is key. Subs should be allowed to talk to their Dom and raise concerns, wants, desires in a respectful manner. Dom should consider carefully what their sub has to say. Doesn't mean bend to every request, but if there are problems you will never know if your sub cannot speak frankly with you.
6. Doms, don't take a sub just because you are lonely, and subs, don't serve just anyone who will say yes.


Some very good tips, all in all.

22 February, 2018

he can tap against the glass but I'm not coming out

What a great quote:
"I hope it can spark someone to say, 'I'm not a superhero, but I can be a scientist or build the next spaceship, like Shuri.'"
~~Letitia Wright
In other news, are you tired of playing an average, grizzled, 30-40 year old white male in videogames? Do you want more from your books and your comics than an unending parade of pallor? Selena Mills has you covered, with seventeen great books and games (for kids, sure, but hey, nothing says adults can't play or read 'em!).

So let's talk about the end of reading, or at the least, the end of Barnes and Noble. Because it's coming. As the author of that post put it,
“Whether the Andrea Gail rolls, pitch-poles, or gets driven down, she winds up, one way or another, in a position from which she cannot recover. Among marine architects this is known as the zero-moment point – the point of no return.” –Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm
A lot of us are seeing the signs of no return, and fully expecting B and N to either fold up shop and fire everyone, or declare bankruptcy, then fold up shop and fire everyone. After appropriate golden parachutes for all the upper management they want to placate, of course. And adding hefty end-turn bonuses for themselves.

There's some tie-in here with Best Buy's closure, and Borders, as well, as similar practice happened in each case. And we're going to see it a lot more, as more business owners realize they can make more money by investing it instead of actually employing people and selling things. After all, why bother, right? No one reads anymore, right? No one buys books. Or games. Or anything. We just rent them, and they can be taken from us at any time.

Apologies, usually I'm cynical and bitter, but I don't show it on the blog. I see the changes coming, but I have no idea how to fix them. I only know they're going to hurt thousands of workers along the way.

Anyway, I think I'm going to tie this up by telling you a bit about Paladins, and HiRez Studios. Now, I don't play Overwatch, I don't play Paladins, I never played SMITE and while I have loves telling me I'd get a kick out of Heroes of the Storm, not really interested in that either. Arena games really aren't me, it's too...PvP, I'm more a quests and challenges gamer.

But because I have friends who play Paladins, I hear occasionally about how awful some recent changes in the game have been. Like last November's "Cards Unbound" expansion, which seems--both to me and most of the other active player base--as HiRez directly implementing a pay-to-win system into an otherwise (mostly) level playing field of a game. This seems deceptive, and rather vile.

There have been several protests over this decision--both in and out of the company, though by far I think this one is the best reaction to date--yet, until today, HiRez seemed pretty determined to hold onto the changes.

Until today. Today this decision was handed down by the new head of HiRez. To wit, these changes will be employed:
  • Legendary Cards will now be called Talents.
  • Talents will only have a single level.
  • Talents will be unlocked for free by earning XP and gaining Champion levels (for example; level 1,5,10,15).
  • All Champion Cards will now be free (No cost or grind).
  • Deck creation will return to a point system where players can distribute 15 points across the five cards they select for their loadout.
  • Each Champion Card will have five ranks to choose from.
  • Talents will not have ranks, and are not included in the loadout point cap.
  • Talents and Decks will continue to be chosen at match start to allow players to tailor their playstyles based on their opponents.
  • New Talents will be added over time and give further varied playstyles.
  • Champion Mastery will no longer be capped at level 25. Instead, it will work similarly to Player Account leveling (which has no cap).
  • Card chests will be removed from the game.

So...that's good, right? Along with launching Paladins: Battlegrounds as a separate game.

I think that gets them out of the pay-to-win accusations, as well as un-miring them from the current sticky controversy surrounding lootboxes in games in general. It seems, at least to me, the only people out much, right now, are those who spent the insane amounts necessary to cheat using the Unbound rules in the first place, and...hey, even if they were cheating with the studio's permission, I say it still counts. I do hope HiRez works to repay the cost of all those cards, but...pfft, they shouldn't have jumped in with such vigor in the first place. It was a dumb idea.

21 February, 2018

I got a brand new house on the roadside, made from rattlesnake hide

This is a bad idea. Making it easier for spammers to include malicious code in emails is never wise.

This was a worse one--in the middle of an opiod epidemic, paying advocates to push opiod deregulation would easily lead us where we are now.

There is now a Tomb Raider Barbie. I'm...honestly not sure how I feel about this. But on the plus side, yay for non-blonde, non-Aryan Barbies! Woo!

This is the best apology I've seen this year. Kudos to them.

Finally, if anyone plays Grand Theft Auto V, just log in before the 29th of February and receive a tidy amount of in-game cash. It won't make anyone rich beyond dreams, but hey, it could ease the way a bit.

14 February, 2018

both hands with a heart to hold

[13:15] kxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Can someone transfer their boyfriend?
[13:15] kxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: to me
Um...no? Though at times, I'm sure many women, and not some few men, would be willing.

So, a little more on the raffle at Sakura. That SLUrl should (with any luck) bring you to the club, to see these:



So--theoretically, at least--if you pay the sign, you should receive some sort of chat confirmation, and you'll be registered for the raffle. And on Friday, as close to 9 pm SLT as we can manage, we'll be drawing the winner!

All you have to do then is be there, or wait--if you can't attend the lingerie dance, no worries, someone will contact you within twenty-four hours to tell you you've won!

I'm looking forward to it, though sadly, I'm going to miss the first hour...but I'll be there for as much as I can of the rest!

And in other news...um...okay, totally NSFW question, but...why does this exist?

13 February, 2018

let me remind you that love will find you



Friday, we're having our Lingerie Dance!



If you've never been inside the dark spa, it's just like the light side, only...well...more intense. There are little alcoves for intimacy, and while we usually have access to the pool and the actual spa, the cover's on in this shot, because that's going to be our dance floor.



These are the official rules:
Rules for the Private Valentine's Dance and Raffle:

The dance will be Friday, February 16, 6 - 9 PM SLT.

Attire for guests: Formal

1) You may enter as early and as often as you like, up until 9 PM SLT on Friday the 16th.

2) The drawing will be held as close to 9 PM SLT as possible. Notices will go out within 24 hours.

3) There will be only 1 winner.

4) The winner will be sent a special Sakura blossom token, which the winner (or designee if it will be an alt) presents to Lynn Mimistrobell, along with their preference of prize. Lynn and any other manager cannot be chosen.

5) The prize token may not be resold.

6) PRIZE OPTIONS: one hour with your Blossom of choice -- or 30 minutes with TWO Blossoms of your choice at the same time!
So get ready, get moving, get Raffling! And be there on the 16th!

12 February, 2018

I am a perfect copy of whatever I was

The infopocalypse is here, and it is poisoning us all.

There's a new cooking blog on the sidebar, Cooking with Yusen. Mainly for the wonton soup recipe, but then I tracked down recipes for homemade ramen, katsu curry, pasta carbonara, Guinness beef stew, and homemade potstickers (or gyoza dumplings).

So yes, I'll now be following them and seeing what they post next.

[15:33] fyre (fyreflower): there are so many diff levels of steam...you've got burner glam to goth/industrial steam..and every crazy awesome mix in between
Please, please, someone tell me what "burner glam" is. I need to know.

In other news, Twitch is trying to crack down on abusive, overly sexualized, or harrassing content, leading a few streamers to worry if they're next on the chopping block to be banned.

And do you debate what soup is, long into the night? Do you ponder what can be soup? Do you wake up, wondering if aliens understand the nature of soup? If so, there's now a game made just for you. You can now ponder the existential philosophy of soup while there's a break between projects, or between social events (because it's a browser game, see). There you go.

11 February, 2018

in the circle 'round the kitchen table

I had mentioned a lingerie fashion show happening at Sakura sometime this week, and sadly, that's not going to happen. The first mention in notices was from Debi, a fellow Blossom:
"There was talk of a lingerie fashion show Sunday night after Salon. Left a message for Lynn letting her, know I could maybe do notices and stuff.

If we are adding a runway to the stage, I will hang a couple extra lights for the event."
And then, four hours later:
"Yes - there was talk of a fashion show, but I got the flu last week and am still fighting the effects of it. All of my projects stopped, and Kimi has been good enough to do Salons for me.

I was thinking of a lingerie dance this week, but no fashion show. We'll save that for a later event.

Lynn"
The CDC site tells me the flu--at least in the US--has gone pandemic, which is the first time I've ever heard of a pandemic disease not being automatically fatal. It's pandemic because it's so widespread, nearly everyone has had it, has it now, or will get it soon. Ack. But, because of that, there's been a lot of under-the-weather, which yes, can and does affect SL.

But don't despair! We're keeping the idea, it's just not going to be for Valentine's. We WILL bring this idea back around when everyone's feeling better, because it sounds too fun not to do.

And we're still planning a Valentine's raffle--the winning ticket buys the interested party an hour with the Blossom of their choice--but it may premiere later in this week, or next. (The raffle ball's at Sakura already, between the bar and the statues on the side table--AKA, our dance machine--but it's not active yet. Once it is, it'll run for at least one week to give everyone who wants one, a chance to get a ticket.) And we'll likely have a dance or get-together, either up at Sakura or down at Bellefleurs, the day the winning ticket's picked.

I'll keep you updated!

hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...