The Train Wreck Love Life

I want to scream for everything to stop, 'cos I'm not in charge of anything

2012-01-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

Came across a bright blue fellow in Wentworth's Consignments, in City of Heroes. He had a very steampunk-esque backpack on, spitting blue steam, and was a level 35 technology controller. I pulled up his profile: It is not uncommon for Spirit Masters to go on earthly adventures for wisdom and courage. This particular Stormbearer went into an unknown cave filled with sapphire, one of the rarest gems in the world because it is created using just oxygen which gives the blue. Storm bearer was amazed at the amount of gem the cave had. A stream of sapphire also took place and so he followed it deeper in to the blue cave. He came upon this clanking machine creating the crystal cave, and the sapphire water and took it. He has lived to this day with the machine on his back still producing stormy weather but also bringing greed seekers to their demise.
And I could not let that go. So, I dropped a note his way:

[Tell] -->Sapphire Stormbearer: Just as an aside, sapphire gets its blue color from titanium and iron, not oxygen. Otherwise very cool hero.
[Tell] Sapphire Stormbearer: i am not a scientist im a weather controller otherwise ppl love me for my backpack

At which point I smiled, complimented his backpack--because it was a nifty thing of gears and dials and aged blue steel--and backed away. Because really, there's just no further talking possible.

"The Zombie-X rifle was created by DoubleStar as a more effective tool for dealing with the imaginary apocalypse of the undead that's never going to happen." Okay then.

Also, almost a year ago there was speculation about a UFO on the ocean floor. Did they ever find out what that was?

From the Department of WTF Happened, a Hollywood-based lobbying group announced it needed SOPA to shut down Megaupload...five days after Megaupload was shut down, and a couple days after SOPA was stalled in the shallows (maybe permanently; Senator Lamar Smith has withdrawn the bill on the list of bills he's now sponsoring).

And you thought SOPA, PIPA, and now ACTA were bad? And your head is still reeling from PCIPA? Well, meet TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. What's involved in that one? And I quote from the relevant section regarding intellectual property provisions:

"TPP countries have agreed to reinforce and develop existing World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) rights and obligations to ensure an effective and balanced approach to intellectual property rights among the TPP countries. Proposals are under discussion on many forms of intellectual property, including trademarks, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, patents, trade secrets, data required for the approval of certain regulated products, as well as intellectual property enforcement and genetic resources and traditional knowledge. TPP countries have agreed to reflect in the text a shared commitment to the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health."

To break that down, the United States, along with Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, and Vietnam (and possibly Japan and Canada, should they wish to join in, but intriguingly enough, not Mexico) will all be agreeing to support intellectual property rights on trademarks, geographical locations, copyright issues, patents, preservation of trade secrets, internal testing and regulation, including scientific study, empirical findings, and genetically-modified seed crops (and/or clones)--at least within those seven (to possibly nine) countries, and will be fighting back against non-member countries who try to dilute those copyrights, studies, findings, genetic modifications, and chosen locales.

Even worse?"The Obama Administration has developed a policy on transparency for the TPP negotiations which apparently does not involve any commitments to sharing the text with the general public, even after it has been given to all member countries in the negotiation and to hundreds of corporate insiders on the USTR advisory board system."
Well, wonderful. And yes, that means what you think it does--information on the TPP is very sketchy, and it's highly likely that the (leaked) documents we have of the phrasing may be several drafts back from the final form to be passed.

Meanwhile, the folks now running Minecraft have decided that, in addition to the utterly useless addition of wolves, we're now going to be able to tame so-called "ocelots", which, when tamed (with fish, not pork), turn into...housecats. Not kidding. All ocelots start off spotted, and when they are tamed, they turn into striped orange tabbies, Siamese, or black and white cats.

Let me repeat that, because it sounds vaguely important. The new ocelot "mob" type looks like a blocky, spotted ocelot-like thing when untamed, and when tamed--with a fish--they spontaneously transform into three different potential varieties of squared-off, blocky housecats completely randomly. Because that's what feral animals do when domesticated, you see.

I realize it's Cubeworld, and I'm getting hung up on the transformation of a pixel thing into another pixel thing, when I don't bat an eye that you can dye two sheep, breed them, and have the baby sheep show up with that color of dyed wool. I can't explain it, but my brain is going nononono, the hell, that's not even POSSIBLE.

(from the Minecrafting album. Seriously. Not possible.)

(And yes, there are cat toys in Minecraft 1.2. The gods help us all.)

In news from a different direction, H&M apparently thinks that being inspired to copy someone else's design is radically different from actually copying it, which amuses me greatly. People, it's the same design, just give in already.

I'm a backer for Mother Henriot's Elixir, an actual, herbal-derived, absinthe tea. They need to raise slightly under ten thousand dollars in just slightly over a month. I have faith in them. Consider a donation if you have folding green; their benefits are generous and most come with at least a sample of the tea, if not enough for a full pot!

Paula Deen's developed diabetes (no surprise there); a circuit court says it's okay for cops to discriminate based on intelligence (that explains a lot); Tor Books offers up a lovely little run-down of speculative fiction takes on works of art; Echo Bazaar develops the Radical Okapi; and Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan seem to have done it again, debuting an 'autobiography' of famed steampunk explorer Frank Reade...who, like Boilerplate before him, never existed.

Goodness, I think that's everything, and I still have too many windows open! No wonder Chrome keeps crashing on me.

make the same mistake, I'll be here all night

2012-01-25T15:02:00.001-08:00

Was Megaupload targeted simply for the actual criminal acts key members performed, or was it also to stop them from launching music and movie sharing services later this year? I don't know if we'll ever know for sure, but it's intriguing that they'd started to make announcements on what was coming--and soon after, were indicted and shut down.

Keep in mind that in the wake of Megaupload shutdown, both FileSonic and Uploaded.to have closed down access from American accounts. FileSonic has gone one step further and declared that users now can only download items they have personally uploaded--so no sharing large videos with family or sending big-packet extraps to fellow law partners, for instance.

And I really don't think they'll be the only closures or changes in services. I think this entire thing is going to end up having a very isolating effect on American media and media sharing--legal or not.

Meanwhile, somewhere far away from that legal battle, ocean waters are turning into froth. Cappuccino-colored froth. Ecological changes in our oceans, you say? Surely you jest.

And have I mentioned scientists are currently trying to prove if multiple universes exist? That's just wild. (And what will such proof, if we get it, do once it percolates fully into the culture?)

From the so-not-safe-for-work department, the newest edition of sexy fairytale pinups. There's a lot of Ariel, a rather curvaceous Elphaba, a Cinderella straining at the seams, and a rather more adult than anticipated Wendy, from Peter Pan. (Among many, many others.)

And, though I rarely touch on religion in this blog, here's a disquieting link on why Biblical literalism can be a very bad thing, using as example the new American version (though with references to the original version, and the book) of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Finally, though this goes out only to one or two readers, Tom Banwell's now made a plague doctor mask. It's available both in brown, and in a "doctoral" white version with red lenses. (The white is less expensive because the design choice turned to rivets, not hand stitching, but either one will set you back a fair chunk of change.)

all of this dust, all of this past

2012-01-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

All right, I want to talk to folks that make sculpts. Maybe folks that make mesh, too. I have an avatar concept and I want to see it realized.

(from the fashion album; wedding dress from 1976)

This is a wedding dress, circa 1976, supposedly modeled (in some inspirational fashion) from Anne of the Thousand Days, and displayed at the Victoria & Albert Museum. There are more details on the archive listing of the gown.

(from the fashion album; wedding dress from 1976)

This is a closer shot; for purposes of display, specifically of the embroidery on the dress, and the detail work on the veiling.

So, okay. That avatar. First, in the above two shots, throw the dress away. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely wedding dress concept, but I'm not overwhelmingly interested in that. What I am interested in, however? The monochromatic tone-on-tone: arms, face, outfit. Any outfit would work with that, if everything was that same even off-cream tone.

Or, hells, pick a color--though I'd prefer not vibrant, or a dead black. But still, what I'm seeing in my head could work with just about any outfit that matched the tone of the avatar skin.

Because what caught my imagination so in this is the utter facelessness, while still being definitely feminine. More than that, even, I don't want to put any specific binds on this--while I want a smoothly faceless avatar, I'm thinking even an actual head replacement paired with a toned skin would work. But what I keep seeing on the grid? Beautifully made immersion fetish hoods; blocky robotic avatars; or actual headless entirely avatars, where a neck stump--sealed, or bloodily fresh--is all that's seen.

And all of those have their place; I've even pondered if there's a way to tint parts of Mm. Allen's holographic avatar to be more monochromatic, and demi-opaque. But what I think I'm most intrigued by is not a single-tone face, but the absence of face--those perfectly smoothed angles that still say, to our seeking eyes, "face", over "hood" or "mask" or "helmet". Part of it is because of the slight central vertical elevation--not enough to suggest 'nose' or 'lips' but simply something pushed forward, just slightly enough, for the merest suggestion of face to occur.

What I found most intriguing with this particular mannequin--which even a Google search didn't discover a similar design for--is it seems as if it's covered in cloth, instead of paint. I'm fairly sure that it's simply a very matte finish, though I would adore to know the exact composition.

But I'm fairly sure it's possible, to some talented modeler out there. Anyone interested in taking it on? I also may drop a word into Mm. Allen's ear, see what happens there. This needs to be a Thing, though. It really, really does.

have we lost the magic that we once had?

2012-01-24T22:16:00.000-08:00

I profoundly disagree with Joe Wilcox; I think he's wrong on nearly every conceivable count of that article. But then, I think Google's taking a fairly wrong-headed policy on this whole real names policy, anyway. Let's cite some personal examples:

I have a stalker. Things seem to have calmed down over the past year; mayhap he's found another hobby. But the thought that he might see my real name on something has made me not only chary about sharing it, but about sharing any personal details. Discovering--several years back--that he not only has friends in my area, but has friends that I've met has made me exceptionally paranoid. I refuse to share my real name on the net if I don't absolutely have to, for this reason among others, and if Google can't get that through their thick corporate heads, not my problem.
It's not just me; my cousin no longer has any online identity tracked through her real name. She used to; in fact, she used to have a Comcast email in her name, and a blog in her name, and other online services, all under the name she was born with. She doesn't now. Why? Because a former roommate hacked her computer and downloaded her personal information, passwords and the like from across town and set up a blog wherein this person trashed the reputation and standing of my cousin's husband. (Which, by the way, this roommate had attempted to murder earlier.)

And that's just family, just me and my cousin personally--but ask around. Who do you know who is wary of netizens? How many women, in fact, have felt threatened by someone on the net? Someone in RL who found out where they were on the net? Abuse victims, rape victims, survivors of war and other crimes, and hey, let's talk about the men, too: they can can be battered nearly as easily, and it's also far easier to trash a male's reputation these days--one woman who thinks she's been wronged cries rape and that's pretty much it, the man's entire life is toast.

Or how about military personnel who cannot, for many reasons, go under their full legal names? What about children? Do we want to force our children to give out their full legal names where anyone might be able to add up full name + gender + gullibility due to age?

What about people in witness protection programs?

Google's getting a lot wrong on this issue, and Mr. Wilcox is just as wrong. And no amount of "go whine elsewhere, trolls" commentary is going to change my mind. Not everyone anonymous on the web is anonymous so we can say mean things to people on the web. (Hells, I say mean things in person. I tend to stand behind the mean things I say, too, just as strongly as I stand behind the nice things I say. Neither means I want my real name attached to anything on the internet.)

In other topics, check out the winners of the latest Taiwan Design Awards competition--favorites of mine (that I'd wish they'd put into production!) are the banana-shaped "Caution" sign and the photochromic, UV-blocking 'leaf shadow' stickers.

For anyone who may remember--and who may have loved--Christopher Livingston's Livin' in Oblivion series, well, he's at it again for Skyrim. Only this time, PC Gamer's paying him to do this, so it's something he'll have valid financial interest in pursuing. Yay! Once more, he's starting out by crafting an NPC--this time around named Nordrick, not Nondrick (because, well, Nondrick was a distant relative, or grandfather, one of those); and gifted with the now-traditional protruberant family schnozz. And once more, he's starting out with little more than the clothes on his back to make his way as a non-adventurer.

More power to him; and hey, it's funnier that way.

[11:51] [cxxxxxx Axxxxxxxx]: since the Lindens are promoting vampirism is Caledon going to accomodate such groups of people in turn --- not that I am into such activites (biting and being bitten) but it seems that this mythology does fit into a Victorian/Steampunk venue.
[11:54] [Axxxx Mxxxxx]: In the latest viewer, the first avatars suggested are vamps

Here's the thing: while there have always been darker-minded Caledonians (and Winterfallen) who are drawn towards the imbibing of liquid protein, I can say with nearly solid surety that they have never felt the need to have a HUD for it designed to spam gentles with bite requests.

[11:54] [Gxxxx Bxxxxx]: Well, they've been using vampires in the adverts for a while....
[11:54] [Axxxx Mxxxxx]: Honestly, sinking to the level of "using Twilight hype" is really really bad

And, just as a side note, Lindens? It does tarnish your reputation a great deal with those contrary to Miss Meyers' narrow and antithetical world view that vampirism equals vegetarianism and celibacy; more to the point, trying to convince those Twilight-minded that Second Life is where the Cullens live in perpetuity, and then having them find out upon logging in to the new "vampire" SL experience, and finding out that vampires are a small portion of a greater diversity of residents will also get you complaints.

You lose both ways. Not good.

[11:57] [Bxxxx Bxxxxxx]: Yes there were Ads on you-tube promoting RP a few years ago "Be a vampire" - that sort of thing -indirectly tied to the twilight /vampire diaries phenom etc
[11:58] [cxxxxxx Axxxxxxxx]: Well anyway I thought maybe Caledon could introduce those interested in"biting" to RP Steampunk style and be a part of this what ever is a foot thing.

I remain unconvinced that she's talking about actual SL vampires, and not simply spampires who play Bloodlines, here.

[11:59] [Axxxx Mxxxxx]: There should be an add-on for period illnesses
[11:59] [Axxxx Mxxxxx]: "You just contracted small-pox by biting xxxxx."

And I remain convinced that he is talking about spampires, not actual SL vampires. Just to make the point clear: spampires aren't vampires. They're people mostly paying to feel like vampires, gather in clans that then emphasize a top-down multi-level-marketing scheme to drag in more victims so they advance higher in rank, and most of them can neither dress appropriately, nor spell well enough to come to Caledon and interact.

[12:00] Pxxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: Haha. Be a Victorian! Contract TB today!
[12:00] [cxxxxxx Axxxxxxxx]: or [cholera]!
[12:00] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx: that would make observing them all that much more fun - the vampire drinking game!

Now, that would be fun. Take a sip from your blood doll if:

you see a spampire in silks
you see a vampire in a mini-skirt or hot pants. Take another sip if you see them wearing both together.
you see a spampire with fetish heels wearing a locked collar
you see a spampire head to toe in black leather. Take an additional sip if it's black leather with buckles, and a third sip if it's black leather with buckles and spikes.
you see a spampire with some variant name like "LrdVladDrac Resident" or "MasterGodVampire Resident" or "SeXiIFaNgEdOnE Resident".
you see a spampire wandering around asking people if they can be bitten because they need the blood for their Queen
you see a spampire wandering around asking people if they can be bitten because they ARE a Queen
you see a spampire asking in chat, "What's a garlic necklace?"
you see a spampire with a tan. Take an additional sip if they're blonde. Break out the blood champagne if they're wearing pink and they refer to themselves as Princess, Empress, or Duchess, or if any part of their name contains the words "girly", "cute", or "little one".

This could be fun to develop. Any other ideas?

you never needed any help, you sold me out to save yourself

2012-01-23T10:15:00.001-08:00

We now reach the third missive, the one not sent from Miss Edwards:

And--unless I hear from them again--this should tie up the series (and part two is here).

Donna Cullen (dcdonnacullen679@gmail.com)
To: Emilly Orr:
1:03 AM (9 hours ago)

Hi Emilly,

Is it just me? I think I'm going to have this knee-jerk reaction to anyone named Cullen because of those ridiculous books.

I recently discovered your blog, and I have become a frequent reader.

I highly doubt that.

Coincidentally, we recently published an article entitled (10 Ways to Find Out If Your Love Wants Kids) that I believe would draw considerable interest from your readers. If you are interested in sharing with them, then feel free to do so.

Here's the link for your convenience: ([[trimmed this one because it was from "topdatingsites", not "bestdatingsites", and yes, I do believe that is spam I smell]]).

Regards,

Donna Cullen

I'm not so much interested in this topic (not that I was that interested in the other two), but I still traipsed off to see what they'd come up with this time:

1. Invite Them To Family Dinner – Dinners or other gatherings where the extended family will be together are a great way to expose your mate to the little ones in your family. If they ignore the kids altogether, they might not be interested in any of their own.

Flashing back to the first article, it's also a great way to scare a new partner off. But let's assume this one was written from the perspective of people who've been together a while, and one of them is thinking they want kids, so this is a list of...what, how to maneuver them into asking about children? Who knows?

2. Take a Trip to The Park – A romantic day at the park can also serve as a barometer for parental instincts. If your lover avoids the kids or seems irritated by them, they might not be parent material.

....What, you can't just go strolling in the park anyway, first, and second, a romantic day out is a great "barometer" for judging parental instincts? Hells, take them to a G-rated movie on a Saturday afternoon. Why the romantic stroll? I don't get it.

3. Point Out Cute Kids – The next time you're enjoying a shopping trip or dining out with your honey and you spot a particularly adorable tyke, point them out. If they seem disinterested or change the subject, starting a family might not be on their to-do list.

"Oh, honey, look, isn't she just the sweetest thing?" You're going to get three reactions to this from most people:

1. "Hon, are you feeling okay? Maybe we need to go home."
2. "If you say so..."
3. "You're creeping me out, here."

4. Talk About General Plans For the Future – Asking your sweetie where they see themselves in ten years or what their long-term goals are might turn up the answers you're looking for. If they want children in the future, they'll probably say so in their response.

And they may not. So you could just, oh, I don't know, mention kids? Why can't you just say you want kids? (Or don't want kids, for that matter?) Isn't it better to be honest and just ask?

5. Mention Friends' Children – Talking about your friends' kids can elicit a response from your significant other in a general sense; if you relay a particularly cute anecdote, they may mention how they're looking forward to children of their own one day. Conversely, they may firmly state that they never want kids.

And either is okay, but it's better to be sure either way. Still, this seems awfully premeditated. Again, why can't you just sit down with the one you love and ask if they want children?

6. Start a Discussion About Birth Control – The issue of birth control is one that every couple has to address; it's a great opportunity to say things like, "I want children one day, but definitely not yet." Statements like this can get the conversation off the ground without feeling like you're pushing too hard.

If they aren't already creeped out by your romantic strolls pointing out cute kids after meeting your family, sure.

7. Visit Friends or Family in the Hospital After a Birth – Few things stir up the parental instincts like a newborn. If a friend or family member has a new baby, bring your mate along for the visit. Simply seeing new parents in action might cause the conversation to develop naturally.

So, spend the day strolling in the park while your partner points out cute kids after meeting the family and talking about birth control, and that evening--go to the maternity ward!

Honestly, at this point your partner is waving signs and lighting flares. If you're still clueless about the way the conversation is going, you may be too dim to date.

8. Pay Attention To Their Language – The words that a person uses and their inflection can often clue you in to their thought processes. When the subject of children comes up, watch their facial expressions and listen to the way they speak. If their tone is derisive or disgusted, it's a good sign that they're not interested in parenting.

Yes, or calling children "hellspawn", say, or always carting around a ball of yarn and knitting baby socks with, there's another huge clue. Who are these people? These are their best tips to start that conversation about children?!?

9. Observe How They Interact With Their Nieces and Nephews – While introducing your mate to the little ones in your family can give you some clues, their behavior can be colored by the desire to make a good impression or anxiety from meeting the whole clan. Watching how your lover interacts with the children in their own family can be more telling, as they're likely to be more comfortable and genuine.

Guess you're out of luck if they're an only child.

10. Just Ask – Taking the plunge and asking this question can be nerve-wracking, but so can analyzing their every move and trying to decode their statements. If becoming a parent (or not) is a deal-breaker for you, you should take the bull by the horns, so to speak.

Why didn't you just say that in the first place?!? Good gods, these people are irritating.

Yeah, I think this ends here. I hear from them again, I'm just marking it as spam. Lunatics.

no more rain, no more rain, I just smile and bleed into the wind

2012-01-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

Some people are slow on the uptake. For choice example, scroll down to the comments from Miss "poo", wherein she suddenly has to defend her honor from those despicable whatevers...two years after the original events happened.

The hell.

Anyway, back to the 'love advice' oddity I mentioned yesterday.

From: Mary Edwards (maryedwards26@gmail.com)
To: Emilly Orr
Date: Jan 18

Hi Emilly,

Hi again...

We just posted an article, "10 Fights Every Young Couple Has" ([[trimming it out again because I swear, these people strike me as slightly more articulate spammers]]). I thought I'd drop a quick line and let you know in case you thought it was something you're audience would be interested in reading.

That's "your", actually, and I doubt it, but I took a look anyway.

Check out 10 fights every young couple has.

1. Toilet seat: Do you leave the toilet seat up or down?

Oh, you have to be kidding me. Maybe I use "argument" more seriously than most, but I have never had an argument over this with any partner. I get that people can be that petty and small-minded, and I'm not without my flaws, but still, this is ridiculous.

2. Toilet paper: Now this is a funny argument, but one that people feel very strongly about even into their 60's. Do you put the roll on so that the toilet paper comes over the top of the roll or from under the roll? If you ask the makers of toilet paper they will tell you that toilet paper was designed to go on the roll with the paper coming over the top of the roll, but frankly you can do whatever you feel comfortable doing. Just know that this is a little battle so someone should be the bigger person and bend to the other's wishes.

Well, again, that really should be "into their sixties", I think, or if stuck on a numerical fixation, "into their 60s", at the least, but...I think what you're trying to get across is "these are all little arguments, don't get hung up on them". Which I guess would be good advice, as far as it goes...but from here, they get weird.

3. Which side of the bed: If you grew up sleeping in a twin bed it probably won’t make any difference to you which side of the bed you sleep on, but it may if only one side has a lamp for reading or a nightstand to put a book or a glass of water on. If both sides are equal in terms of furniture and lighting then it's just a matter of taste. Your body will have gotten used to sleeping on one side of the bed and it can actually cause insomnia in some people to sleep on the other side of the bed. Good luck with this one.

*blinks* Maybe I grew up in a strange place, but people, I stopped sleeping in a twin bed when I was twelve. I moved from there to an 1800s French canopy full; from there to a queen-size futon; and, now I'm "settled down" with two other people, we have a platform king. (And there are still occasional tickle fights where I swear there's not enough room.)

But...okay, if your problem is that you stuck to a twin bed until you got involved with another person, and you're just really used to having a water bottle or a book on the side of the bed, and now only the other side of the bed has one? Well, isn't it a better idea to talk that out, than get fixated that the left-is-always-your-side-of-the-bed, damn-it?

More importantly, it's not only that side of the bed you may be used to, but that orientation. If you've always slept on the right side of a north-south oriented room, and you move to the left side of an east-west oriented room, you actually might be more comfortable there, depending. I know I've switched sides of the bed depending on where we've moved. It has more to do with where your head and feet are pointing, over what half of the bed you get.

4. Dishes: Who's going to do the dishes? You would think in this day and age of dishwashers that this would be a moot point, but it isn't.

Yeah, this one has gotten me from time to time with people, but oddly, not with loves, but with other roommates. Like the idiot who said neither he nor the other (male) roommate should have to do the dishes, because they're guys. Also, it's likely just me, but I'm irked on the assumption in the rest of the paragraph that insists that every house has a dishwasher. Mine doesn't.

5. Paying the bills: Who is going to pay the bills? Some couples will think that they will pay them together. For some this may actually work, but for others paying the bills will be a point of stress and cause an argument between the couple. It may work to have one person organize the bills onto a spreadsheet or list and have the other person actually pay them.

This is the first thing in two articles I've profoundly agreed with. In fact, the single largest factor that causes individuals to break up is financial stress--who's making money, how much money, how are the bills divided, how much is going for food, rent, utilities, fun...It can be a huge issue. So this one, I get--because yeah, there's no faster way to end up single again than to argue about money.

6. Toothpaste: This is a funny one on the surface, but after a while it really gets irritating. You know how lovey dovey young couples are at the beginning? They want to be together all the time and want to share everything, even toothpaste. Do you squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle or from the end? What about the cap? Do you put it back on when you are done or just leave it on the counter? This is such an issue that toothpaste makers have made toothpaste in bottles and toothpaste tubes with caps that stay attached after you open them, like flip tops.

Personally, this whole idea baffles me, because I've only met one person who didn't put the toothpaste cap back on, and hey, I broke up with him. (For better reasons that had to do with his inherent racism and not liking all the bruises he gave me, but hey. Still a point.) Me, I'd say, this issue really bothers you? Don't date people who leave the toothpaste cap off (or on, whichever it is).

7. Buying something without discussing it: When a couple is newly married it’s hard to break the habit of buying whatever you want when you want it. Just make sure that you work together and set a limit above which the item has to be discussed before purchasing it. The national average is $249.

You people are insane. Our in-home average of buying without discussion is zero. Because we always discuss purchases, who ARE you people?!?

Honestly.

8. Wet towels: Leaving wet towels on the floor is a huge area of contention. Why is it one person’s job to pick them up and hang them somewhere to dry? A question for those people who leave the wet towel on the floor or bed. Who do you think is going to pick them up, the maid? Why is it anyone else’s job to pick up after you?

While I agree with the last comment, I don't get the rest of this. Oh, I get that people argue about this, but maybe it's again my personal situation--we leave anything on the floor, the girl in the wheelchair can't move around the apartment. End of issue.

9. Hair in the sink: Now this goes both ways, women hate when men leave hair in the sink after they have shaved and men hate it when women leave hair in the drain from washing their hair. Bottom line is that you both need to make sure the sink is pretty clean and presentable when you get ready to leave the bathroom.

Ew. Yeah, there's a word for this type of person: slovenly. I've always liked that word, in that it sounds both shabby, run-down and dim-witted at the same time. But seriously--doesn't this go back to people who can't pick up after themselves as adults? Yes, I have long hair, and yes, sometimes when I comb it out I leave hair on the counter, because I shed--I have few irritating cat habits, but that's one of them. Still, I have learned to check out the counter afterwards, and throw things away. Shock and horror.

Other people don't do this?

10. Remote control: Who controls the remote in your family? How do you decide who gets to hold the remote? Do you have one of those partners that like to keep flipping through the stations without even waiting long enough to see what's on?

Okay, I grant you, I hate the people who just randomly flip channels too, but seriously, people break up with each other over who's holding the remote? Isn't that time to reevaluate your priorities in life? Because trust me, when you move from dating to marriage, compromising becomes a truly refined art. If you can't find the points of compromise when dating...well, you're going to make a lousy spouse, then, too.

and there's a kind of hate that tastes like birthday cake

2012-01-23T01:46:00.001-08:00

From: Mary Edwards (maryedwards26@gmail.com)
To: Emilly Orr
Date: Jan 17

Hi Emilly,

Um. Hi...

We would love to share with you an article that we just posted on our own blog! (10 Tips for Being Patient with a New Relationship) is linked below and could be a fun way to share this announcement with your readers.

([[link redacted because it's off a 'bestdatingsites' site]])

Err. Have you read the title of the blog? Relationship success seems not to be my thing.

It has been a sincere pleasure to read your great content.

I'm...glad?

Sincerely

Mary Edwards

Huh. How weird. So, I perused the link:

1. Step Away From the Cell Phone – In our constantly-connected society, it's easy to flood a new partner with Facebook wall posts, texts and emails from a cell phone. While keeping a line of communication open is vital, it's equally important to allow a new relationship some breathing room.

I don't own a cell phone. Problem solved.

2. Spend Time With Friends – Don't be a cliché by ignoring your friends in favor of a new honey. If you have a long-standing tradition of poker with the boys or girl's night margaritas, keep it. Your friends will be more likely to accept a mate that doesn’t take up all of your time, and these outings will give the two of you something to talk about the next time you get together.

I suppose that's fair. New relationship, you want to spend all your time with the new love; I get that. Still, people abandon their friends for the new lad or lass entirely? I'd think that means you're not really fond of your friends.

(And yes, I separate ignoring people because I'm trying to figure out my own life from swooning over the new exciting love--sure, I'm still ignoring my friends, but really, some days I'm not good company anyway.)

3. Focus On Your Hobbies and Favorite Pastimes – Losing yourself completely in a new relationship can easily be the kiss of death; your interests and pastimes are likely a big part of what attracted your new mate. Letting them fall to the wayside to spend every moment together leaves very little material for conversation and can cause your lover to feel stifled.

Yeah...don't think that's really an issue. Considering if I'm not typing I have a needle in my hand--and I'm not kidding, I bring embroidery projects and patchwork bits to sew on the bus, while waiting for the bus, in restaurants, at theatres, shopping--I mean, some cloth-based project is pretty much constantly with me.

4. Avoid "The Talk" – It's natural to wonder where a new relationship is headed, but it’s a good idea to hold off on having "The Talk" for a while. Letting things develop naturally can be a bit nerve-wracking, but it's necessary.

Riiiiight. Okay, 1. For whom is letting things develop naturally, "nerve-wracking"? And 2. Many people wonder where relationships are heading right off the bat? Seriously?

5. Keep It Light – In the early days of a relationship, it's best to avoid the heavy plans for your future and talk of marriage and children. Don't introduce your long-term plans when a coupling is new, or it may not last very long.

Doesn't tip 5 pretty much just repeat tip 4?

6. Be Careful With the Booze – There's a reason why alcohol is also called "Truth Serum." One phone call after a night of drinking can undo all of your cautious work when you've just started dating someone.

Well, sure, but that really goes for anyone--be careful drinking with new loves, be careful drinking with new friends, be careful drinking with coworkers.

7. Don't Change Your Plans – Before you met your new love interest, you probably had some long-term goals and plans for your future. Avoid the temptation to change those plans to suit a brand-new relationship; despite how you feel in the honeymoon phase, there is always a chance that things won't work out.

To be blunt, duh. And not only duh, but again, aren't they repeating themselves? I mean, unless your long-term goals are eat the next person I meet and pour lye on the bones, in which case, hey, don't do that.

8. Keep Your Priorities Straight – Though it's difficult in the first blush, try to keep your priorities in line. Don't let your new relationship take a toll on your work or other obligations, as it can very easily cause resentment when things inevitably begin to cool down and you’re forced to play catch-up.

Uh...okay, first, they're assuming you're going to a) neglect everyone you know in favor of b) this person you just met for c) long-term relationshipping which d) you're not supposed to talk to them about because e) they might freak out and leave you, so f) keep your mind on the target which you're not thinking about, because all of this is going to fail and you'll be left alone again to wither and die.

This is love advice?!?

9. Don't Play Mind Games – When things aren't moving as quickly as you'd like, don't resort to passive-aggressive mind games. Slyly referencing others that are interested in you or the ex that still has feelings will almost always blow up in your face.

And well I know this, however--seriously, most people do this? I mean, I play mind games as a matter of course, it was how I was raised. Hells, I honestly had no concept that people could just ask for something without angling it to sound like you were doing the other person a personal favor to give you whatever it was until high school, I'm not even kidding about that. And I've been working very hard in my adult years to tone down that instinctive response. (Just in case I've been unclear--playing with people who don't know you're manipulating them is BAD. No ifs, no ands, no buts. From lowly peasants like me all the way up to Newt Gingrich, it's just plain wrong. Period.)

But do most people in the dating realm do this? And if they do, why? Unless you're very, very good--and if you're very good, you generally don't care about anyone else in the first place--what does it get you? Someone who doesn't know who you are, reacting to words chosen more carefully than your everyday speech, and responding to manipulation, not honest emotion.

Even if you win, you lose. So why?

And finally:

10. Hold Off On Introducing the Family – Even if you have the most welcoming and interesting family on the planet, your new love interest shouldn't be meeting them for a while. Family members will ask questions that you may not be ready to answer, which will put undue pressure on you both.

Not only that, but again, seriously, if you just met whomever it was and the next weekend, you're dragging them to brunch with your mom and dad--only the hardiest soul will not see this as a Big Warning Sign. So seriously, this is dating advice? What the hell kind of people do they think are going to honestly, whole-heartedly, need these tips?

And why the hell did they decide to send this thing to me of all people?!?

More to come.

sunny days seem far away

2012-01-22T21:40:00.001-08:00

There's a few research projects going on demonstrating how easy it is to create false memories. They've even got an archive where you can enter your own false memories. Part of this is for the science of it, part's for an future art installation project...but really, at its heart it's more creepy than anything else. To me, at least--knowing how easily we delude ourselves, on a daily, monthly, weekly basis? It tells me humans are inherently unreliable. This is not comforting information.

From the same site, comes a list of reimagined superheroes. What happens to an identity if you change one letter of it? So, we come up with Booster God over Booster Gold, Spader-man (over Spider-man), and my personal favorite, Nick Furry. (The joy of Nick Furry? Samuel L. Jackson could still voice him.)

More on SOPA and bills even more unsavory--it's beginning to sound like government-grade alphabet soup, honestly. First there was SOPA (which seems now to be fairly soundly defeated); then there was PIPA (still moving through Congress); then ACTA (which takes everything that's wrong in SOPA, and makes it global); and now...PCIPA? Is the new one?

As usual, they've wrapped some extraordinarily unpleasant actions around a simple mantra--in this case, "save the children". There aren't many pro-pedophilia lobbyist groups for a good reason--because pedophilia is a crime, should remain a crime, and does far more harm than when the crime itself actually took place--damage from early sexual experience and abuse can last years, if not actual decades.

The problem here is in section four of the bill, entitled RETENTION OF CERTAIN RECORDS BY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS. If that's not clear, here's the specific passage:(a) In General- Section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
'(h) Retention of Certain Records-
'(1) A commercial provider of an electronic communication service shall retain for a period of at least one year a log of the temporarily assigned network addresses the provider assigns to a subscriber to or customer of such service that enables the identification of the corresponding customer or subscriber information under subsection (c)(2) of this section.
'(2) Access to a record or information required to be retained under this subsection may not be compelled by any person or other entity that is not a governmental entity.
'(3) The Attorney General shall make a study to determine the costs associated with compliance by providers with the requirement of paragraph (1). Such study shall include an assessment of all the types of costs, including for hardware, software, and personnel that are involved. Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, the Attorney General shall report to Congress the results of that study.
'(4) In this subsection--
'(A) the term 'commercial provider' means a provider of electronic communication service that offers Internet access capability for a fee to the public or to such classes of users as to be effectively available to the public, regardless of the facilities used; and
'(B) the term 'Internet' has the same meaning given that term in section 230(f) of the Communications Act of 1934..
(b) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress--
(1) to encourage electronic communication service providers to give prompt notice to their customers in the event of a breach of the data retained pursuant to section 2703(h) of title 18 of the United States Code, in order that those effected can take the necessary steps to protect themselves from potential misuse of private information; and
(2) that records retained pursuant to section 2703(h) of title 18, United States Code, should be stored securely to protect customer privacy and prevent against breaches of the records.
So what does that mean? In essence:

the government is trying to shift policing of internet user behavior onto owners of domains and owners of servers, not police or government officers;
the government subsequently wants said service providers to retain information on who uses their systems, including real name, address, phone number, email address, and any other pertinent information specifically designed for matching email addresses and net handles to that real information, for a period not shorter than one year, but not to exceed eighteen months;
the government has two years to complete a cost analysis of the extra manpower, equipment, storage, and work hours it will take to complete such actions, but is not obligated in any way to report sooner, or in fact to pay for such costs;
the government is instructing such service providers to retain this information in a secure setting, but is very very vague on how that should be done; and, as they're fobbing this off on the shoulders of citizens, not trained law enforcement personnel, they're also metaphorically washing their hands of any accidential (or deliberate) mishandling of data such that such data is released.

Yeah. That's pretty low. I'm starting to think Lamar Smith is just a bitter, vile human being who hates us all.

Oh, and as icing on the cake, Chris Dodd, the former member of Congress who then joined the MPAA, went on Fox News and publically threatened all Senators he thinks his new company has bought and paid for. I'm not making that up.

We're in turbulent times, friends.

Also, I hate Blizzard, but that's not really news.

swift and sudden, fall from grace

2012-01-22T03:23:00.000-08:00

So we have a single-picture release of Katniss' Fire Dress from the Hunger Games, and...well, I'm hoping I'll be more impressed later. Also, I'm a little gobsmacked by their choice of actor to play Cinna--to be truthful, I was thinking someone closer to Austin Scarlett than Lenny Kravitz.

Originally seen on New World Notes came another mention of the SL vampires phenomenon--but this time, from a slightly different direction. And it's one I agree with, quite honestly.

This is the current best-of attempt to lure in the vampiric masses to SL:

(from the Blogger Pictures album)

So, this vampire. I'd love to know both who took this picture, and who's the model. Because I can tell several things wrong right off the bat:

Where is she, in Little Silent Hill? This is not a Ridley Scott movie. Clear out the snow effects.
It would also be nice to have someone with a little knowledge of attachments, and adjusting same, to have worked with this avatar before the shot was taken? Because right now they look like fang-shaped lower-lip piercings, not--you know--fangs.
It would also be nice if they'd have used a vampiric eye that didn't look jaundiced over supernatural.
And while we're at it, they couldn't have done a little PhotoShop work, trimmed out that jutting ribcage on her torso? Not exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Then (as they mention in the article) Alicia Cachenaux decided to pull up what she thought was the same outfit (called the Vampire Xyla avatar in the Library, apparently). This was her take, which she says was only lightly PhotoShopped, and took her about twenty minutes all told:

(from the Blogger Pictures album; Some rights reserved, Copyright, Alicia Cachenaux; used
without permission but not altered in any way save machine resizing
(original as downloaded is the same as seen on her site.)

Now, things I noticed about this one:

You can emphasize "winter" and "chill" without having floating snow particles. Gosh! Imagination! What an astounding thing!
Also, she's got to run shadows on her machine. Which I will admit, makes this picture look phenomenal without a lot of editing. (But truthfully, most folks can't run inherent shadowing on their systems.)
She knows how to adjust prim fangs. You'd think Lindens who worked for the Labs would know that, too.
It's a lovely pose, it's a lovely background, the extraordinarily jaundiced eyedrops-of-Midori look seems toned down, and even the hair looks good. Amazing.

See what a little effort can do? And I do mean little; that was a twenty-minute shot, start to finish. That's about the time it takes to watch an episode of the Daily Show without commercials, people.

Lindens, you could have put up this picture to advertise for vamps. Why didn't you?

I would like to bring up one more thing from the Iris Ophelia article also linked. It seems staggeringly apparent to me, after six years on the grid, that what the Lindens expect and what they get are two radically different things, but this complaint is more specific than that.

What Linden Lab seems to want is pretty clear: they want people to pay them money. They want people to keep paying them money. They want people to play their games, and keep playing their games, because let's face it, it's not easy to live on the grid and not spend money.

I'm not saying these are bad goals. And more power to them when (though usually if) they happen. But here's where the problem is: the tools they're employing to get these paying customers are woefully inadequate to get those paying customers.

Why? Well, first, they seem to use vintage 2006/2007 avatars for almost all promotional materials, unless they're specifically advertising new products, like the vampire avatar. Why do they do this? Moreover--and this one has baffled me every time I see a Linden--nearly every Linden on the grid is also in a 2006/2007 avatar--if not in a significantly older avatar. I'm sure there's a value to nostalgia, but seriously, when the big redesign for Philip Linden takes him from looking like a Naruto clone in spiky hair and an impossible codpiece to...well, someone who walked out of the Castro district after a particularly vigorous night...I mean, okay, the skin's better (and a custom design); the hair's better (sort of); but the outfit? It's an essentially (and only slightly) better-textured version of his original outfit. Come on, now.

And if that's the thinking of the CEO (at the time), that's the corporate culture. And if the corporate culture is saying things like Never update and don't use an AO and don't use prim hair and stay to system layers...that filters both down to the support staff, and down to the customer base.

Frankly, if you emphasize that money's not needed, you get people for whom money doesn't matter, and from there you get people who don't want to pay to play the game. That's a pretty callous statement, I know, but it's not wrong.

More than that, the tutorial walk-throughs on Orientation Island used to emphasize these things. This is how you walk with an AO; these are clothing layers; these are eyes; this is how to walk, this is how to turn, this is how to interact with an object, this is how to open a box.

Once that was thrown out, the only instruction left is the userbase, and most of them are still telling the random conglomeration of friends and strangers that arrive on the grid several specific, and fairly Linden-unfriendly, things:

Get an AO. NOW.
This is prim hair. Never wear system hair again. EVER.
DO NOT USE SECOND LIFE'S VIEWER. Use Firestorm.
You don't need to rent land. Just pop a house up at a sandbox. No big deal.
Wear fur.
Wear fangs.

Is this really what the Lindens want to pass on to their userbase? Because from here, we have to look at the advertising. What's the advertising for SL telling us?

If you're not human, you don't count.
If you're a vampire, you count, but really, we think of you as human.
Water sims are really, really important for all those fun outdoor activities we know you'll love.
It's possible to change clothes by activating a swirly particle effect.
It's possible to hold hands with an avatar anywhere you want.
It's possible to kiss an avatar anywhere you want.
Ideally, even more than being human, we at Linden Lab really want you to be white. Even though other skin colors are just fine. But you'll have more fun if you're white.

But break down the bulk of the newcomers to Second Life recently. What are they, in majority groups, identifying as? They're almost always from this list:

Furs
Vampires
Vampire furs
Nekos
Victorians

Think I'm kidding? Look at the folks around any welcome center. Or even better, look at who's renting land or even buying whole estates after they join the grid? Who are those people? Chances are, they wear fur, or they wear fangs, or both. (And nine times out of ten, within a week, even the "human" appearing girls will be wearing cat ears, anyway.)

So, if you're taking into account the Lindens' stated goals with their advertising, they aren't really working. Even worse, if you're taking into account the userbase's generic and mobile goals, they aren't really working, because in spite of all instruction there are still people wandering around wearing houses on their right hand and complaining that SL's too hard. (And some of these people are using the official SL viewer--I truly think a time must come when the Lindens sit back and say, okay, some people, they're just dumb, and stop trying to drag every single procedure down to kindergarten-speak.)

Ultimately, it leaves us in a very uncomfortable place. Namely, telling our friends to log into SL and join in the game, while ignoring every single image they see on the SL website. And it leaves the Lindens trying to speak to a userbase that really, truly, for all intents and purposes--doesn't exist.

Who's going to pay the bills at that point? That's the question the Lindens really need to be asking.

I will not let you define everything I am, by the one thing that I don't have

2012-01-21T01:52:00.000-08:00

There's a short but important post over on Geekosystem on how broken DMCA is as a law, and how we really don't need SOPA or PIPA (or ACTA, for that matter); what we really need is to analyze DMCA, break it down, figure out what works and what doesn't work, and go forward with that.

I've featured a lot of posts on this blog about DMCA, and I think Mr. Limer is absolutely right here. When people entirely unconnected from the copyrighted product in the first place can file a DMCA takedown--and give no good reasons for doing it--the system is broken. When the burden of proof is not on the accuser, but the accused, the system is broken. When we're trying to force DMCA to do things it was never designed to do, by people who were never supposed to use it in this way...the system is beyond broken, and desperately needs to be fixed. (And let's be honest, the last time even partial revision was considered? It was 2004. Eight years later, the law is still profoundly broken, and subject to more misuse every year. Even though every three years this law is supposed to be re-evaluated, nothing much changes, and even though Congressional Librarian James Billington perused it again for minor changes in 2010, not that much was changed, a, and b, people still claimed misuse and filed cease-and-desist orders even on the material that was altered to fall under fair use.)

(Fun bit while you're on the site, unconnected: the ten scariest doors in geekdom [by that they mean works of speculative fiction, whether movies, television shows or video games] with explanations why for each one. Also well worth a read.)

Adafruit continues to do fun and interesting things with do-it-yourself electronics, but their latest design goes above and beyond just about everything. Called the "Flora" by designers, when it ships, it will ship with project details already designed for it, the specifically Flora-addressable (and chainable) 4000 mcd RGB LED pixels, and premium stainless steel "thread" (for stringing out guiding wires from solder point to LED ends, I'd imagine...or anything else you have in mind).

It features fourteen sewing 'tap pads' for attachment to fabric as well as electrical connections. There's no need to worry about overlapping traces, because of the redundancy factors of interleaved data buses and power and ground pads--cross-wiring is made really difficult by this; you'd almost have to deliberately try to cross-wire it by braiding the stainless thread together from the pads!

If you'd like to get an email when it launches, just sign up here. Nothing simpler. They'll only contact you the once, and only to let you know the Flora's now ready to ship.

(System specs for the technogeeks among us: the Flora comes with built-in USB support, works with Mac, Windows, and Linux; any USB cable works just fine. Equipped with a mini-B connector, USB HID support, so it will emulate a mouse, keyboard, MIDI soundboard--whatever you need to attach directly to your cellphone. They're designing an iPhone/iPad app, with an Android app to follow soon. It has an onboard power switch connected to 2A power FET for safe and efficient battery on/off control.

(Onboard at time of shipping: Bluetooth, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass module, piezo wiring, IR LED, push buttons [including the single-button reset], flex sensors, an embroidered and capacitative keypad, OLED, and they say "and more"--I'm wondering what's left!

(In addition, Miss Fried really thought this through not just from a programmer's perspective, but from a crafter's: they're calling it "fabric friendly", which means it doesn't use FTDI headers [it has built-in USB support, remember], so there are no headers of any kind sticking out to grab and tear fabric. Everything soldered to the Flora plate is micro-electronically set.

(It's compatible with 3.3v modules and sensors, has an onboard polarized 2 JST battery connector for use with external battery packs from 3.5 volts to 16 volts. It can be used with just about any battery on the market today geared to those specs. It also does not have a LiPo charger, and this was by design--this means there is a reduced risk of fire with use on fabric.

(And, above all else, Miss Friend wanted to design something that anyone could use, from the beginner to the electronic engineer--so it's very, very difficult to connect a battery backwards and have it fry the system--it's protected by a series of polarized connector and protection diodes. So, for example, if you lost your mind and connected up a 9 volt battery block to the device--it wouldn't fry, it just wouldn't work.)

So, yesterday, the FBI--in a joint operation with several other countries, coordinated months in advance--shut down MegaUpload, and all its partner sites. It is notable to emphasize here that the parent companies behind MegaUpload were not charged with file sharing and copyright violation; they were charged with embezzling funds, fraud, and money laundering before any copyright violation charges were assessed--and even then, those two charges, when filed, were the last on the list of things that went wrong.

However, since the raid, shutdown, and arrests all happened on January 19th, one day after the SOPA/PIPA protests on January 18th, some impassioned souls figured 2 + 2 did in fact equal 5 in this instance, and banded together to shut down the main FBI website, along with the Department of Justice site, the website for Universal Music Group, and the RIAA and MPAA sites, respectively. It's being called the largest Anonymous action yet, and--while I have never supported Anonymous actions in general--I have to admit this may cause a similar feel-first-think-later response in these organizations: that of, if they take unpopular actions, the internet will go after them.

And--to me, at least--it feels very much like Anonymous wants to play on that image--that of "the internet" as a loose collective of angry, criminal-minded individuals who will batter people with technology failure and coordinated DDoS attacks until the good guys give in and whimper in submission. I'm not comfortable with this, especially since our current Congress (beyond a few notable examples) seems to be comprised of 60-year-olds who still think checking their email requires logging into AOL and donating a pint of blood to the nearest black goat.

But on the other hand, both the Anonymous attacks and the massive protests and coordinated call-ins by concerned citizenry made Senators and Representatives flee for the hills, and...considering what a truly awesomely bad idea passing either SOPA or PIPA would be...isn't that a good thing?

But then, I'm always reminded of the Buddhist theory that beginnings must be clean--if divisive change was achieved by means of terror, is it a good change? Can it ever truly be a good thing when criminal acts were required to help kill the bills?

On the other hand (though I've long since run out of hands), expedience is sometimes key. The end goal is to prevent the bills passing, at all, in any form. Maybe anything that helps with that is a good thing, because above all, those bills cannot pass.

It's a hard ethical tangle to be sure, and not a pleasant one. But--for now--we live in a world without SOPA, when bill supporters as well as large media companies were happily assured it was a slam dunk. I'll take my victories where I can.

when present tense gets strangled in the woes made of our future foe scenarios

2012-01-21T01:11:00.000-08:00

I swear to you, my jaw has just dropped completely off my face. WHY, why why WHY do people do these things?!?

And "Because Skyrim" is no longer an acceptable answer!

So, a new Evony bracket-ad popped up on one of the sites I went to today:

(from the Games album)

So...granted, this is a composite image (noticed after the fact I hadn't quite lined everything up perfectly, argh) featuring both sides of the braced ad background. Understand that, even as wide as I could get my screen to display, I couldn't get both sides of the complete game name.

But does that really matter? It has the three signature focus points of nearly every Evony ad:

breasts (see also this)
revealing attire
playing for free

The problem? Actually playing in the Evony game world, you never see the girls again. They're bait-and-switch for standard top-down castle tanking, like Lord of Ultima, save that Lord of Ultima never seduced anyone in by ads that indicate lots of semi-naked women calling players "My Lord" in breathy seductive voices.

And even worse? They weren't the first, they're not even close to the last--as competition, they've got War of Legends, AQWorlds, 8Realms, the aforementioned Lord of Ultima, Dragons of Atlantis, Illyriad, down to such low-tech 16-bit games like Castle Defender and Castle Wars--most of which are free-to-play, or planning on heading that way soon. (And believe me, there's tons more I'm not mentioning, because frankly, no one has that kind of time.)

And that's not even the worst of it--trying to game the lust quotient of young male gamers (they hope with money), as well as photomanips of stock porn models (I'd suspect without paying for the original shots, and no, that's been proven since 2009) and above everything else, is so closely modeled on Civilization that it used to be called Civony. The hell?

(Update: apparently LOCO will be giving Evony serious competition in the cheesecake ads contest. And, if you take a look at their trailer, it also seems like your prototypical Asian MMO--no explanation as to why some characters are made of boobs and others are [fairly] modest [but then again, they find a way to make that creepy, too]; no explanation for the hairstyles; no explanation as to why some swords are longer than the fighters using them and others are cartoons, even down to hair colors and spiky Sonic-hair protrusions. So we're back to the hell, people.)

Video game characters apparently fall into fugue states with great ease.

And there's another Marketplace fail, and this one is bizarre. "PE", just that, those two characters, changed a listing without a single hint of adult content into an adult-listed item. So what are the Lindens trying to prevent? "Penis"? Well, sure, but that's automatically an adult listing anyway. "Pee"? Okay, but that would also be understandable as an adult listing in the first place.

Anyone feel like testing if it's just 'pe' as a word part, or would it scotch other words? Like "pen", say? Or "pencil"? Or "peerless"? How about "pew" or "peril" or "pentacle" or "pendant"? How far does this go?

Apparently Congress now has the power to re-copyright public domain works. Yeah, I really have nothing to add to that that wouldn't be more baffling. This pairs rather unfortunately with

Russia wants to build a permanent moon base. I'm fine with this. Not only because we need to be in space--NEED! To BE! In SPAAACE! People, get on this--but because I've read so many dystopic future tales that feature a Russian moonbase. So to my way of thinking, it's another step towards...the FUUUUTURE!

I am sorry for the potential mental scars from these next links. I'll make them quick. First, the chibi Disney princesses, which scare me to death; then Disney-inspired (apparently) wedding dresses; and finally, Disney princesses of the Sith.

And I leave you with the "Dark Water" carpet collection. Yes please.

and then you look up, and see a million stars

2012-01-19T00:08:00.000-08:00

[Help] PLANKT0N: AAAAHHH I can't get the bottom chat box to expand on this toon. anyone have any idea?

Reminder to self: this is nothing I need to become enraged, embittered or upset about. It's like a disability. He can't help that he's stupid and uses "toon" over more acceptable forms of address. I don't need to worry about this.

(Eventually, I'm sure, this will become reflex, but right now it's still that inhale of breath, instant contempt, followed by telling myself to breathe and relax. It's just a word. I can let this go.)

In the meantime, I am currently giggling over the vast and perplexing variety of silicon ice trays available on Amazon. Just as a small sampling, if I wanted to purchase (and had the budget for purchasing) more ice trays, I could get:

Lego mini-figure trays
Lego ice bricks trays
tiny frozen Han Solos
R2-D2s
ice sticks (as Icterus pointed out below, the original listing was not silicon composition; I believe this one is, and they're also slightly shorter than the other tray listed a few days back)
mega-cubes
jewels
skulls and crossed bones
braaaains
alphabet letters
numbers
butterflies
ducks
frogs on straws
pigs
fish bones
shamrocks
snowmen
dinosaurs
pyramids

and those are just the ones found on Amazon, and I didn't cover all the ones they had there. Let alone specialty stores, or local kitchenware supply places.

In fact, at home, right now, in our freezer, we have:

pumpkins
skulls
tiki masks
stars
bones and severed fingers

for ice trays, and packed away in boxes, we have two trays that pop out wee goddess ice cubes. There's no end to potential creativity, I suppose. And yeah, I don't know why this is relevant, but there you go.

ne day after the scattered protests over SOPA (both online and off), we have some results. For one, according to Fight for the Future:

Google launched a petition
Wikipedia voted to shut itself off
Senators' websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them
NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks

And, as of this writing, there are now thirty-five Senators who've gone on record as publically opposing SOPA--and that's up from just five last week.

Slowly, the tide is turning. I'm beginning to feel an infinitesimal measure of dim hope.

The link I sent out yesterday is still valid, I believe--and if you didn't read it then, please read it now. And Mashable has some good life after SOPA pictures on their website.

In the meantime, Representative Lamar Smith is not backing down. He's scheduling a markup session in February to see if there are any sections that Congress really seem to object to that can be neatly "trimmed out"--or revised, or rewritten, or even fucking rephrased in more arcane language--because he truly believes that this will be what saves America and corporate copyright protection.

The man is an idiot. Unfortunately, he's an idiot with a certain amount of power.

Mashable also listed (on the 17th) the sites pledged to go dark yesterday. Most of the companies on that list--and others that at the last minute decided to join in--actually went through with it. Amusingly, there were some folks on Twitter who just didn't understand why this was happening:

"I find it really fucking annoying that I can't even use Wikipedia because of the stupid fucking government."
~HeartCoreHannah (I really like her background, though)

"OMG! Stupid Wikipedia is on strike!!!!! Cant do any research! -/-"
~NamNguyen29

"What's up with this Wikipedia blackout bullshit? #confused"
~JConti566

"Why the hell is Wikipedia blacked out? \(!!!˚☐˚)/"
~BakaTuna

"Don't see why sopa is such a big deal... who gives a fuck about wikipedia"
~WestonKirk

"The government is working on shutting down twitter Facebook Wikipedia google etc"
~russianisback

"I will cry if they shut down Wikipedia forever.. :'("
~TermiteAcid

"Without Wikipedia, all human knowledge will be lost forever."
~GlassInThePark_ (BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

"I CANT USE WIKIPEDIA. This is bullshit, someone call whoever this soap guy is and tell him to stop being an ASS."
~Logan_Deckard

"uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh WTF WHY ISN'T WIKIPEDIA WORKING I NEED TO DO MY HOMEWORK!"
~TieMyShoeDude

"Wikipedia needs to stop fucking around. I've got books I haven't read."
~Ashley Bennin

"Wait wait wait why did they close Wikipedia?"
~Alayne_Felix

"why tf is the govt cancelin porn and wikipedia"
~ChecksNotChicks

"WHY IS EVERYTHING BLOCKED ON WIKIPEDIA...........AND GOOGLE..........WTF"
~HassanGtc19

"WHY ARE THEY BLACKING OUT WIKIPEDIA?!?!!? and how in the world am i going to FINISH MY FREAKING HOMEWORK!! darn it!"
~trishacarpio (I like her background too)

"OMG so pissed Obama shut down wikipedia!!"
~Ted_Zepplin

"wikipedia thanx for getting me through ALOT of my classes the past couple of years, ill miss u #RIP"
~curryNfries

"Oh No FUCK DAT! I Was Looking Some Shit Up And Fucking Wikipedia Stopped Working. Suck My Damn Dick Congress."
~Brook_LynCarter

"WHY THE FUCK IS MY WIKIPEDIA BEING A BLACK ONE I DIDNT WANT THAT OH GOD IM SO MAD"
~Lo_Pan

"WTF WIKIPEDIA ISNT WORKING WTTTFFFFFF, I BLAME OBAMA!!!"
~Ilyas_Mohamed

"WTF!? The Congress and shit are going to take down Google/Wiki/Yahoo/AOL. WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? #thatsmylife"
~SenorDannyBoy

"why does wikipedia not work and why is there a black bar over Google??!!"
~8907_Andrew

"Who shuts down wikipedia before exams? #purestupidity"
~veeejh

"GOOGLE'S NAME IS BLACKED OUT AND WIKIPEDIA IS NOT ACCESISALBE! OBAMA PLZ FIX THIS =O"
~SwagLikeSchmidt

"NO! CIERREN TODO MENOS WIKIPEDIA! WHY LORD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYyyyyyyYYYYYYYYY"
~KimeraG

"why the fuck did they shut #wikipedia off? how am i gonna do chemistry now?"
~14perdal

"OMG PLEASE DONT GET RID OF WIKIPEDIA!!!!! i will definitely fail school"
~lauraw0923

"Anybody want to explain in real people words what this SOPA thing is all about? I would just Wikipedia it but it is shut down.. #confused"
~legaedtke

And I'm not even quoting all of them. There's a lot of uninformed people in the world, unfortunately--a scary number of which, apparently, relying on the publically-accessible, infinitely-changeable world of Wikipedia--who has always freely admitted that it can be changed--for actual facts to use in school reports, exams, homework, experiments, and, gods help us all, reading comprehension.

If the doddering old men comprising the Congress we have now scare us, how much more fear should we feel about a coming generation who, in forty years, will be in Congress? Tweeting away, unable to spell, unable to retain attention on anything for longer than twelve seconds, obsessively checking Facebook statuses, and whose entire understanding of world history and domestic procedures come from Wikipedia?

I don't know about you, but friends, that's a horror story. My only dim rays of hope come from the children of friends, who are smart articulate people, growing up understanding the traps inherent in advertising and political discourse, making life deals like Wall Street traders by fourteen, jaded by romance before they're sixteen...but, they're also on the internet, laughing at lolcat videos, having their eyes bug out at new forms of pornography, and sending pictures of themselves handcuffed to things holding whips to boys and girls they like in school.

Does make the head reel a bit.

indecision antidote

2012-01-18T02:18:00.000-08:00

(from the media album)

Read more.

but I'll see better when the smoke clears, when the smoke clears inside my head

2012-01-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

TuCows weighs in with why they don't like SOPA; ICanHazCheezburger commemmorates their fifth anniversary while also pledging to go dark January 18th; and Craigslist has put up a marvelous resource page about what SOPA is, what it does, and how it can be best stopped. I heartily recommend reading through these links if you have any interest in a free internet--and free speech in America, as far as that goes.

(UPDATE: SOPA is now either indefinitely on hold, or at least shelved until major rework is performed on the bill, and PIPA is being revised. Whether or not the revised bill[s] will pass muster with President Obama remains to be seen, but in their current forms, Obama opposes them both. I declare this a [very] minor victory, but the fight is far from over.)

Meanwhile, in news of the odd, let me present to you the Dyatlov Pass Incident. While I personally don't buy the theories of alien activity in the area, I'm thinking some of the more plausible theories out there concern avalanche, winter sun exposure, and thorium-dust radiation. Still, it's a fascinating story, however you take it.

Also, all hail the Mandelbulb, with the further notation that most if not all of those photos are suitable for desktop wallpaper use.

Might I also bring you the secret language of stamps? I had no idea there was such a philatelic language. Almost tempts me to go out and get some postcards.

The problem with a melancholy past is that occasionally, it sneaks up on us. To wit, a random search to discover a lost password on Google tossed up this in reply. And ooof, that was a gut punch I did not need this morning, considering that all three gentlemen in question are out of my life.

Well. I'm still in sporadic contact with the neko fellow. And I'm in nigh nightly contact with the third on that list, for all we're not dating anymore. I suppose it's only the fellow in the middle that still causes pain...and even that pain eases, as more time passes, and I move farther away.

If we are not limned by our regrets, we are lit by our successes, and sometimes, it's simply a spin, dark to light, cyclical. Maybe sadness is a season, and when winter leaves, I can bring out tender new shoots, and grow in new ways. Who knows? Anything, as I well know, is possible.

It's just not always probable.

Finally, here are five origins of movie sound effects--including the Balrog and the Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings, and the Tardis dematerialization effect from Doctor Who. Fun.

when the paralytic dreams that we all seem to keep, drive on engines 'til they weep

2012-01-15T22:09:00.000-08:00

Things are definitely heating up in the battle against SOpA--the latest volley seems to be directly targeted against GoDaddy as a domain registrar. They've lost thousands of domains, and seem to be facing as many complaints against their service for blocking legitimate domain name transfers to a competitor.

But alongside the GoDaddy information comes far more relevant information for every resident of the net--it's no longer just Reddit considering a national day of protest by going dark. Now Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter are talking again about censoring themselves on that day of protest, as a way of drawing focus from the American public as to what SOPA (and PIPA) would actually do.

In other (somewhat) relevant news, one of the biggest "piracy" sites on the net, the Pirate Bay, is switching from direct feed of torrent files to magnet links. What's the difference? Not a lot, save for one important point: magnet links cannot be traced, because all torrent information is generated internally, at the moment of use. Torrent files are stored in one central server, and can be (fairly) easily externally accessed.

Now, in the wake of discussion of SOPA and PIPA, basically, this will make tracking downloaded files much more difficult, which means anyone using the files is (somewhat) better protected. But on the other hand, this is entirely the kind of thing that Senator Reid would seize to show how "underhanded" the "evil pirates" are.

Coincidentally, with a switch to serving only magnet links, and hosting no torrent files themselves, they handily sidestep piracy accusations. Interesting.

In other news entirely, let me introduce you to braille burgers (or at least, braille buns), and for the other side of the argument, people who fail to understand braille at all.

There's now a PhotoShop simulator on the web! (Though personally, I think it works slightly less effectively than PhotoShop itself.)

Also of note: magnetic soap holders. This is more amusing to me after reading through the comments; you can pretty much ignore the article.

Not sure how many readers are also avid crafters or artists (in whatever medium), but in case there's interest, I found a breakdown of different types of glue, what they're good for, typical curing times, and how to properly use them. Fun.

Want to know where every tree in America is? Now you can. I'm wondering if there are plans to map tree counts in other countries.

From io9 comes an interesting theory on why cats purr, with a side jaunt into wondering if the technology could be adapted to space suits. To be sure, if the theory is accurate (namely, if cats purr as a way to keep muscles pliable and bones strong), I'd think it would have wider applications than just space travel.

Finally, a tip from Lifehacker that is one of those My gods, why did I never think of that? moments: namely, faucet extension for filling buckets. Of course, you'd have to make sure that dustpan was (reasonably) clean, but it's a marvelous (and marvelously inexpensive) solution.

if you hide away from me how can our love grow?

2012-01-13T20:53:00.001-08:00

There seems no end to startlingly specific Tumblrs in the world, but here's one I thought people would appreciate--a very detailed run-down, prop by prop, of the Moffat-penned Sherlock Holmes series, in a question-and-answer format. The pictures are large, there are tons of links to explore further, and all in all, for fans of the show or Sherlock in general, it's a joy to read through.

For fans of actual history, not literary history, try Archaeologica. It definitely seems to be using a web site template from the 90's, but barring that, it's a wonderful resource for the latest archeological dig site and press news.

Did you know Kindergarten Cop was filmed in Silent Hill? Me neither, but apparently Kotaku thinks they can back it up. That's...eerily creepy, frankly.

And I have no words for why this exists in the world. It hurts my brain.

And speaking of Skyrim, someone put far too much effort into My Little Dragonborn, but look at the detailing. That's seriously impressive.

In the meantime, a friend of mine collated a bit of Caledon chatter, but she didn't send any names alone. Still, I think it's worthwhile sharing.

Profile says: SL is a game but behind every avatar is a real human heart that etc etc.
I say: So is monopoly but I don't feel bad about bankrupting you. Get some perspective.

Profile says: If you can't handle me at my worst you don't deserve me at my best.
I say: Shit, I was just going to say hi. I didn't realize I was supposed to be your damn support network.

Profile says: No drama
I say: Good luck with that. Welcome to life.

Profile says: Never make someone your priority when they only make you an option.
I say: Thanks for the unsolicited relationship advice. Are you speaking from experience or just assuming that everyone else is obsessively clingy?

The replies after that (from Skype):

[3:07:02 AM] Hxxx Rxxxxx: Huh. I guess I need to alter my "Please jebus no drama" line in my profile...
[3:13:37 AM] Axxxxxxxx Rxxxxx: it started with "what are the most annoying things you see in people's profiles" and has been snowballing from there
[3:14:27 AM] Axxxxxxxx Rxxxxx: hee!

And back to ISC chat:

[03:12] Mxxxxxxxx Oxxxxxxxx: I love my neighbors but sometimes I wish I could program my defense drones to hunt their breedables.
[03:13] Axxxxxxx Wxxxxxx muses.......... in France they have horse butchers' shops. Probably wouldn't go down too well in Caledon.

Good points all.

And I'll end with some friendly, motherly advice. For those of you with young teen men...you're, um...welcome?

they can't turn off my feelings like they're turning off the light

2012-01-12T23:48:00.000-08:00

[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Hey! I'm Grimdark Goregush; you might remember me from that time I punched Back Alley Brawler in the temple!
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: As you may know, my motto in life is "rip and tear," but what does that mean to you?
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Here at Goregush Incorporated, we're here for YOU!
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: We offer training lessons, self help groups, addictions anonymous, and full-contact sports to ease your pain so you can get back to work being evil!
[Help] Darkwater Bloom turns the dial on the help channel, because it's mysteriously become an infomercial

This was perplexing when it occurred earlier, and I was in the middle of killing Wyvern agents to prevent something from happening somewhere else...and frankly, I just didn't want to hear it.

[Help] Grimdark Goregush: And in other news, Grimdark Goregush's signature attack, "Guts and Glory," yet again is seen in a suburban neighborhood. Survivors have yet to be identified.
[Help] BFB 2000: oj and i thought it had turned into Barrens chat
[Help] Maratus: Grimdark doesn't sleep, he waits.
[Help] Duncan Disorderly: Not nearly enough immature skill puns and Chuck Norris jokes for that.
[Help] Knightmare Moon: Grimdark Goregush has two speeds. Walk, and kill.
[Help] Darkwater Bloom: I thought the two speeds were brag, and boast.

Maybe it was just me, but I was in no mood to listen to some internet-enabled yahoo spout praise on a character named "Goregush", of all things.

[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Hey! Are you a nerd?! Do people pick on your because they have self-esteem issues and the only way they can comfort themselves is by lessening the pulic opinion of you to take focus off themselves?
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Well now YOU CAN TOO! Introducing, the Goregush Gutspiller! Next time your antagonizer grabs you by the collar, grab him by the abdomen with the three-pronged hook! Then with one quick motion, his intestines will spill out onto the floor for all to see
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Ha, ha! Your organs are a different color! That means they're DIFFERENT! And DIFFERENT translates to BAD!

It was annoying, in a short word.

[Help] Sandolphan: Oh wow COOL! You have awesome organs! Not like that NERD over there with the organs all inside him! HAHAHAHA
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Don't be a wimp! Don't be a nerd! Buy the Goregush Gutripper and recieve a FREE keychain/bottle opener/guitar tuner/cigar cutter!
[Help] Eldritch Sorceress: Nerds!!!!
[Help] Eldritch Sorceress: Fear ogre.
[Help] Xois.: Fun for the whole Family! Even get grammy in on the fun!
[Help] Upgrade Project: Or, youcould take the quick and dirty route and just buy a sawed-off double-barrel with Dragon's Breath rounds and call it a day.

Always a good option.

[Help] Upgrade Project: 30 minutes in a store, or several months in a dojo. Your choice.
[Help] Upgrade Project: Plus, you don't have to wear pajamas all the time.
[Help] Just Another Catgirl: I like wearing pajamas though, at least when I'm wearing anything at all.
[Help] Samui Karasu waits for every lonely dude in this game to start masturbating
[Help] Just Another Catgirl: *huggles Samui*
[Help] Meta Soul: *fap*
[Help] Crankenstein: *fappity fappity fappity*
[Help] Samui Karasu: AH MAH GOD! HUGS!? THEY BUUURRRRRN *Flops around like a fish*
[Help] Just Another Catgirl: teehee.
[Help] Samui Karasu: YE THRICE DAMNED CAT WOMAN! DON'T LAUGH GET MY RAAAASH CREAM *Dies*
[Help] Just Another Catgirl gets the cream, and applies said cream o.o

Why don't any of these people have anything better to do?

[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Hey! Do you want a drink that will make you feel SO ENERGETIC? Try HEARTBURSTER, an exciting new energy drink by Goregush Inc.!
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: It comes in RADICAL FLAVORS like KILL, CHILDREN'S TEARS, and MANGO!

*facepalms* I have no idea what he's even talking about at this point.

[Help] Grimdark Goregush: It's like I'm in the Pocket D!
[Help] Grimdark Goregush: But I'm not! HOW HORRIFYING
[Help] Samui Karasu: AND THAT CHILDREN IS WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER ROLEPLAY! PEOPLE LIKE ME GET BORED OF THE D AND COME SPAM TEH CHAT CHANNEL!

Can we not, please? Anyone?

[Help] CaitLAN: OH MY
[Help] Samui Karasu: AND THAT CHILDREN IS WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER ROLEPLAY! PEOPLE LIKE ME GET BORED OF THE D AND COME SPAM TEH CHAT CHANNEL!
[Help] Crankenstein: It puts the rash cream on its skin or else it gets the hose again!
[Help] Oleander Shadow: Now now. Without the erp materworks like the D, we wouldn't have cinematic masterpieces like Splice. . .
[Help] Samui Karasu breaks Character and looks at your screen ISN'T THAT RIGHT CHILDREN!?

No. No it is not.

[Help] Darkwater Bloom: Remember when help channel only went off when someone actually needed help?
[Help] Samui Karasu: NO ONE ASKED YOU.
[Help] CaitLAN: YOU DID

That is true. He did ask.

[Help] Lisi: i'm pretty sure there's people here that NEED help
[Help] Samui Karasu: Remember when people weren't whiny bitches about the help channel?

And then immediately became an ass about it.

[Help] Darkwater Bloom: Well, actually, I would agree with that, but I'm not sure it's help anyone in game is equipped to give...
[Help] Nataleigh: Remember back when Samui Karasu didn't exist? ;)
[Help] Lisi: I'm sure there must be some doctors that play this game.
[Help] Samui Karasu: Yup! Everyone's too busy jacking off to the futa catgirls in the D.
[Help] Darkwater Bloom is still trying to wrap her brain around why that even EXISTS

Still don't know.

[Help] Grimdark Goregush: Speaking of children.... ADOPT ONE! The Goregush Adoption Agency needs your help! Become a foster parent for one of our many displaced children and recieve a FREE copy of Grimdark Goregush's hit novel: Grimdark Goregush: The Man behind the Maggots!
[Help] Upgrade Project: I used to find Goregush funny, but then I took a buried answer to the brain.

And I believe that's meme full circle in the Help channel. G'night, everybody!

I said "you're such a sweet young thing, why you do this to yourself?"

2012-01-12T14:17:00.001-08:00

Pursuant to the earlier mention of the mysterious cop appearances, some further information!

All of this came from reading through the comics, btw.

Someone mentioned they're a time-traveling Tag & Bink; someone else said that at least one of them could be the megafan from Draw Me In; I remain unconvinced on that latter one.

Amusingly after that, someone else mentioned that the pair may have 'moved on to new media': to wit, the Hotels.com commercial series. (And damn, if one of the clay people doesn't have red hair and a red goatee.)

Not sure if this was actually a self-insertion plug for the upcoming film, but someone later in the thread suggested the pair was the Robinson boys, but older and also time-traveling: again, I don't buy it, but there is token resemblance.

They've also been seen in at least one Transformers comic.

Someone else mentioned they might be two members of a kids' music band called the Imagination Movers, and even more bizarrely, they've also been seen on South Park. Weird.

Also, they have their own Facebook page now, as well as a hip-hop tribute on Youtube.

Finally, towards the end of the comment thread, someone else mentions that they might just be someone else chimes in to say they just might be Joe Shuster (seen in artist's rendition on a comic cover, appropriately enough) and Jerry Siegel (seen on the right, next to Shuster). And why is that relevant? Well, because Shuster was the creator and head writer on the first run of Superman comics (and for many years thereafter), and Siegel was the head artist.

So all of this could be quirky tribute offerings to two men who were foundational in creating superheroes in the first place. And whether it's true or not, I can live with that.

And more news on SOPA--in protest of SOPA and its companion, only slightly less vile bill, PIPA--Reddit has stated it will go dark on January 18th. Other companies supposedly "considering" a blackout on that day include Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and Amazon, but they may or may not go through with it. There was a snippet of coverage on the Young Turks that covered this as well; they also seem unconvinced that other top-100 websites will join in.

I'm proud of Reddit for putting themselves out on the line like this, though.

mirror, mirror, won't you kiss my cheek and tell me I'll be okay?

2012-01-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

Slowly but surely, we creep towards the future. Here's another sign--a seemingly fully-functional heads-up wearable display. It's not perfect yet--there's a long way to go--but it's a good stride forward.

More future signs--Corning has developed a thinner, stronger, more durable glass they've dubbed Gorilla Glass. It can take over one hundred pounds of pressure weight before fracturing. They're hoping to get it into manufacturing hands later this year.

For lovers of costume, here's the Adjutant from StarCraft II. (Here's a shot seen in the game, so you can see how good this costume came out--and if you're curious, here's a full-length shot from the main convention hall, and a shot under stage lights for more of the effect.)

In the meantime, how to make your own arrow-to-the-knee prosthetic (for hardcore Skyrim fans), a lovely leather TARDIS purse (fan-created, not authorized by the show) on Etsy, hope on the horizon for Silent Hill: Downpour, and a sheep in Minecraft who rezzed in the exactly wrong place.

Finally, toss your two cents into one of the strangest comics mysteries yet--two unnamed, specifically depicted cops seen throughout many childrens' comics. They've been seen in uniform and out, fighting crime, standing in the background, action shots and simply posing--and what makes it even stranger is that it isn't just one company doing this. So why are they there? And why are they always the same?

I turned away, I would pretend, but the burning never ends

2012-01-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

Bit of an oddity, here--I'm not endorsing the publication of Katawa Shoujo, nor how it came to be (as a developed game primarily funded and launched by 4chan), but I think it's worth mentioning, both because disability seems to be such a taboo subject in Japanese culture, and because it may be the first game ever where the object is to start a relationship with a disabled person.

Something to keep in mind for free players in City of Heroes:

[Help] Far Shadow: Free to players can use the /r command to reply to the person who last sent them a tell
[Help] Sigma Volt: oooooh. thanks. now that's something that they should add to the tutorial
[Help] Far Shadow: I think it's something undocumented, but I try to spread that hint around whenever possible.

Well, I know I've never heard of that tip, so that's very good to know!

And now, more dolly pictures.

Last night, a friend told me they still had the old (1.26) mesh viewer from Henri Beauchamp, all packaged up. I was still feeling out of sorts with him, but I told her to go ahead and upload it to me. This morning, I stared at the zip file, and thought, well, what the hell, it might work.

Went to a skybox, popped up a platform, set the sky to Incongruent Truths...and here you go.

(from the dolly album)

This is (barring shoes, of course) the full ball-jointed doll mesh avatar from Dollcoco (the SLUrl for you, or just go back to yesterday's entry). All nine pieces comprising the doll body, and the two pieces of the black dress (one whole dress piece, and one neck piece).

(from the dolly album)

The same avatar and dress, back view. (Hair is not included, though Dollcoco also makes one mesh hairstyle, and will likely be working on more.)

(from the dolly album)

Detail shot of the back of the dress's corset. Lovely work.

(from the dolly album)

Full length shot of the doll body, sans dress (though this is the variant that features painted-on lingerie).

(from the dolly album)

And the back view. If you think it looks better than the traditional doll skins with painted-on joints, that's because it does. With the body being in nine rigged sections, there are natural separations and some limited shadowing (even without "actual" shadows and deferred rendering options selected).

Just be sure that you're using a mesh-enabled viewer, and that those looking at you are using a mesh-enabled viewer (which is the hard part); elsewise, this avatar is going to look very odd indeed.

(from the dolly album)

Detail shot of one of the jointed elbows. While most ball-jointed dolls are made from plastic resin (like this offering from Iplehouse, or the Fenny Delf from LUTS), a very select few companies and artists make their ball-jointed dolls out of porcelain. In the case of some (though not all) of the porcelain dolls, there is unglazed edging along certain parts, where they had to balance cleanly on kiln shelves.

Intriguingly enough, as can be seen in the above picture, this doll avatar combines both the smooth separations of the resin BJD dolls, with the artistic casting lines of the porcelain dolls. You can clearly see the white "unglazed" edging along the arms, the torso, and the upper legs.

(from the dolly album)

As mentioned before, I believe, I chose the Emily head as my first official head purchase. Partially because of the name (of course), but also, it seemed to have a fresh quality the others didn't seem to have (at least, at the time).

(from the dolly album)

All doll heads come with two options: eyes open (they do not blink) and eyes closed. This is the Emily head with eyes closed.

(from the dolly album)

And finally, I picked up a demo for the Kyoko Asian-style head, which is just lovely. I may have to pick that one up, too. (Finances allowing.)

This avatar includes one thing I did not show in these images, which may make it an ideal purchase for shop alts (who work for designers developing mesh clothing): something termed a "white cap" that fits over the neck and takes the place of the head, i.e. the neck block found on mannequin sales sites. This renders the entire doll simply that: a display object. Headless, posed, and silent.

I'm fairly sure that if you wanted the neck block in colors other than white, the designer behind Dollcoco may well be willing to accommodate.

But that's it. I will definitely be angling for a set of shoes, but all in all--while I'm still paranoid about walking around, on view of folks who don't have mesh enabled on their viewers--I'm quite, quite pleased with Dollcoco's work. Start to finish, it's easy to wear, and already rigged, so there's no need for adjusting anything--it fits into place and perfectly where it's intended to be.

The main body (in any color shade) is on the thin and tall side, but that also matches well with the BJD dolls as sold in many, many places. All in all, if you've seen a BJD doll, you'll immediately recognize this version. It's not cheap, by any means, but I think it's well worth the expense.

and I don't see you anymore

2012-01-07T00:16:00.000-08:00

"A song cannot survive if it is not being played – it is either played or it perishes."
~Martin Caerthy

Ever wanted one of TRON's lightcycles? Now, maybe you can have one.

Sort of.

If you have $50,000 spare in the coinpurse.

In other news:

[20:28] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx: Sending LM for "Dollcoco" - they do rigged mesh *everything* - their approach is since we can't deform the mesh (yet) they're doing a doll body (yes, doll joints too) and doll heads and have mesh clothing rigged for THOSE bodies/heads instead of people trying to make them fit something else
[20:29] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx: there's a free bunny mesh av too, btw. Also, for group, bodies, one set of ears and a joker dress are free, and there's free demos of the heads.
Sxxxxx Sxxxxx has offered you '*DOLLCOCO*_COCO DESIGNS, COCO DESIGNS (156, 114, 4013)' in Second Life. Log in to accept or decline the offer.

Thus armed, and being of somewhat manic despairing heart, I sallied forth to investigate Dollcoco.

(from the dolly album)

So, the store is in a clean, white space, minimal but attractive decorations. Reminds me a lot of Lico Lico, actually, just smaller. And everything's neatly set out--instructions, heads, bodies, outfits.

(from the dolly album)

Most of the outfits run from from L$250 to L$750, depending on amount of detail work, I'd assume. If you turn around, from facing the sign, you'll find an add-on of elf ears for the doll heads, and a card-suit 'dress', both for free if you join the Dollcoco update group. There's also some less "doll"-centric outfits along the same wall, some neo-Grecian numbers, some evening slip dresses. These selections seem to be towards the lower end of the price line.

(from the dolly album)

These are hardly all of the doll heads available--and though most are made to match the "snow" tone doll body, there is also a variant called "cocoa" which is dark and lovely. Unfortunately there's only one head to match that particular body--so far. Here's to hoping there will be more.

(from the dolly album)

These are the two doll bodies, containing three different torso variants (anatomical, "smooth", and wearing boy-shorts and bras, respectively), comprising nine mesh pieces (and also complete with fully ball-jointed limbs, wrists, and feet), miraculously both available for free (again, if you're a member of the update group). I'm astounded at that.

(from the dolly album)

She also has fish skirts.

Don't ask.

So, why aren't you seeing me modeling any of these? I will admit, I did throw caution to the wind and, since I'd given back Salix Alba in Winterfell, spent L$750 on the all-black EGL frock, L$450 on the "Emilly" head, and will likely try to talk friends tomorrow into tossing me L$250 for a pair of the mesh boots. Then I went home and tried everything on...and nearly pounded my head against the monitor screen, so great was my frustration.

See, the latest build of Henri Beauchamp's Cool-VL mesh viewer does not work. Flat out. Among the many, many bugs it manifests:

crashing on teleport
crashing on login
crashing on sim-crossing
constant (like, every five minutes constant) messages that the viewer is going to crash due to lack of sufficient memory (even if the viewer cache is cleared every time the message appears and the user relogs)
the viewer constantly auto-scaling back draw distance to 64
the viewer constantly relocating local lights to sun and moon only under graphics, even if changed
the inability to spin the camera around an avatar without the avatar also spinning around to face where the camera's pointing
refusal to load textures in sims
refusal to load vendors in sims
refusal to load anything in sims
occasional inability to load EYES (Goddamn it, Henri, EYES! WHAT THE HELL?!?)

I'd point you towards the forums for this, for any tips and tricks, but Henri has inexplicably morphed from a helpful, caring programmer I trust into complete stunted snippy jerklife, and, until he improves, I switched to Singularity. It's noooot just the drivers, Henri, look into it.

How'ver, the problem with doing this? (Other than the waste of time spent completely uninstalling Cool-VL and Second Life v2 and then running a clean install of Singularity?)

I did not realize Singularity did not have mesh support yet.

Damn it.

So I'll get back to you on that.

In the meantime, an explanation for why there are so many bugs in Skyrim. Also, based (partially) on that, I think more games should have nanobears.

Herds and herds of nanobears.

Forever.

That is all.

and I can listen when the screaming doesn't repeat everything I've said

2012-01-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

come on down to my part of town
where the bullets light up the sky
it's the fifth of May every day
no one averts their eyes

Has it been a year since I pulled away from the weave of my life? I am tired of being betrayed by people I trusted. Tired of betraying people I looked up to, admired, respected. But when is it enough? When can I stop backing away instead of striding forward? When will I feel safe enough to reach out again?

When do I get over the burning loss, the hurt, the pain of departure? Do I ever get over these feelings?

or we could go to the country, find a willow tree
lay down and whisper to its roots
"Won't you take my sorrow from me?"

And it would be made no easier were there a love on the grid to devote time to, spend time with, relax in the arms of...but even that, I do not have, and for much of the same reasons: I tire, deeply tire, of the crash and burn that seems to infect every relationship I have.

you can come with me, but I don't suggest you stay
I have a habit of leaving damage in my wake
I was born under a new moon, it dictates that fate
'cos if my highs don't get you, my lows will, guaranteed

Now, I hold L$2500 in Lindens. My rent, on my sole remaining parcel of Winterfell, is L$1500 per week. I can pay one more week, then have to give the parcel back when the rent runs out...or I can give it back now. I'm atill debating which is the better option.

I talk to the angels, I listen to the stones
stormwinds know me best now; only with them am I at home
I'm serenaded by the ocean
and I'm looked after by the roads
the blood in my veins is older than anything you've ever known

All because Ayesha Lytton fired the woman who was helping me pay rent, and I am too wary to find another position on my own.

you can come with me, but I don't suggest you stay
I have a habit of leaving damage in my wake
I was born on a new moon, it dictates my fate
if my highs don't get you, my lows will, guaranteed

I think...I think this honestly might be it. My heart can't take any more. I can't bear to be close to people, my business is dead, and I can't even conceive of putting myself into someone else's hands, so I can be fired yet another time for saying the wrong thing, supporting the wrong cause, arguing with the wrong underling.

you're right, I'm a whole different species
you're right, I'm not from here
but that's probably why you like me, you like a little fear

If I don't trust anyone enough to work for them; if we now have better things, brighter things, off the grid that eat up any 'play' money remaining; if there's no one to love and cherish on the grid, and shopping isn't an option...And with the business evaporated, I can't even find joy in creating things...Seriously, what's left?

but I'm golden-hearted, baby
born, lived, and will die free
you're just in love with romance, only with the idea of me

What is left?

you can come with me, but I don't suggest you stay
I have a habit of leaving damage in my wake
I was born on a new moon, it dictates that fate
'cos if my highs don't break you, then my lows will, guaranteed

Even the blind hunting, the inventory ever increasing, seems a flawed and childish thing now. What good are dresses I'm never going to wear, couples' poses I'm never going to use, or furniture if I do lose my last home on the grid? What good is any of it if I'm never there to use it?

What good is being there if I rarely leave my house?

I'm a different thing, baby, not what you need
I'm a different thing, baby, not what you need

I'm a hollow shell, searching for my heartbeat, and I have no idea what to do to fill myself up again. All I am is echoes disappearing on the winds.

When do I stop feeling like this? How long do I keep feeling like this? And how soon can I move on?

(Lyrics from Fairuza Balk's "Stormwinds", but adapted to the recording, not the lyrics as given on her site.)

I have a habit of leaving damage in my wake

2012-01-02T08:22:00.001-08:00

More mania from City of Heroes'Help channel.

[Help] Rockin Rolla: Are there any drinking games associated w/ CoH/V? Like "Click a glowie, take a shot?"
[Help] Daddy Longleg: Make your own :)

Never the best advice, but they were off and running.

[Help] Night Lioness: "take a DoT from a ghost, take a shot" you will have liver failure in a week
[Help] Frog of War: everytime Azuria loses something, take a shot
[Help] Mighty Mousse: blaster faceplants, take a shot

Otherwise known as the "sacrificial blaster" phenomenon--since blasters in-game can deal a great amount of damage, but do not have the steady hit points to take that damage back in return, this is pretty much the phrase used everytime a blaster runs into melee range to punch things, and as expected, they drop like rocks doing it.

[Help] Daddy Longleg: Everytime you defeat a minion...take a shot
[Help] Jake Portia Simmons: AV, take a shot. Best done in the sewers.
[Help] Jake Portia Simmons: Team wipe, take a shot.
[Help] Jake Portia Simmons: Vengeance cast, take a shot.
[Help] Jake Portia Simmons: Holwing twilight/Barrier hits more then one person, take a shot.
[Help] Night Lioness: mapserved, take a shot

"Mapserved" is when the message flashes on your screen "Disconnected from Mapserver"--it may mean you have to wait until the game picks up your internet again, or close the game entirely and restart. It's annoying either way.

[Help] Dr. Thraxmidar: why must it be take a shot? why don't you just be men about it and down a bottle

Because we'd all be DEAD if we did that.

[Help] Lady Arcadia: Is Azuria the only one who loses stuff thought? I mean, doesn't the Zig have constant breakouts?
[Help] Blade'Dancer: See a Catgirl, take a shot (you'll be blitzed in about 5 minutes)

Yes, the Neko invasion is well established in City of Heroes, just like SL.

[Help] North Pole Exile: at least people know the Zig has breakouts.

The Zig is a jail in City of Heroes; it used to feature prominently in the intro mission to the game. (Now, it doesn't, and many people still miss it.)

[Help] Galadion: ((Empath goes AFK, take a shot))

Empath = healer.

[Help] Kali Blade: See unhelpfull comments in help chat, take a shot.

Dear gods...Again, we'd all be DEAD if we did this now.

[Help] North Pole Exile: For all we know, Azuria's (or Magi's rather) vault is merely a portal to some corner of kings row
[Help] Inferno Ten: Blaster rushes in and dies take a shot
[Help] North Pole Exile: does the blaster death count if it's part of an attack chain?
[Help] North Pole Exile: the blaster's own attack chain, specifically
[Help] North Pole Exile: My blaster has four self rezzes.. a nuke.. crap, one mission is liverdeath for me

Yeah. There are so many ways a CoH could end in cirrhosis.

[Help] Galadion: ((Someone encloses obviously OOC speech in brackets, take a shot))
Help] Desiree DuCoeur: ((someone takes a shot, take a shot))
[Help] Desiree DuCoeur: ((that means two....ah, no, 3 shots now......ah, screw it, gimme the bottle ^^)
[Help] Rockin Rolla: Everytime I back into a Boss group, take a shot

You're not alone, I do this too.

[Help] Jake Portia Simmons: Kill a one eyed monster on the ITF, take a shot.

The Imperious Task Force, or ITF, features Cyclop warriors, because it's set in a neo-Roman seaside town named Cimerora.

[Help] Madame Incendia: Someone's liver spontaneously books a vacation to somewhere sober, take a shot.

Hee! (Wait, can livers do that??)

[Help] Desiree DuCoeur: everytime the defender goes 'lol, toebombing nuke', take a shot.

I have no idea what "toebombing" is. This really doesn't help, either, but it's all I could find.

[Help] Desiree DuCoeur: everytime the only one who has a rez kisses the carpet: take a shot
[Help] Madame Incendia: Everytime the only person with a Rez is a Free Account, take a shot.

There's a lot of things free account holders can't do. While they can play empaths (the big healing class), they can't be traded with, or talk in any chat channel other than Help, can't send in-game emails, can't send in-game tells, can't craft items, can't use the Auction House...there's a whole list of things they can't do.

But if your empath is a free account, they have the only rez in the party, and they go down? You can't pass them an Awaken inspiration, you can't IM them, you can't start a trade...you just have to wait. Yeah, it's annoying.

[Help] Madame Incendia: Also, as a Holiday one. Anytime someone on your Team takes a brief detour to open a Present forgetting they're on a team and die, take a shot. *Will promptly be passed out dead.*

Soooo not kidding. When an individual character opens a present, they have a shot of getting as few as three Frostlings, small puffy snow creatures who freeze combatants in place, up to five Frostlings, one or two Blights (larger puffy snow creatures with greater abilities), and every once in a while, a full Winter Lord (HUGE puffy snow creatures who pretty much kill you dead, period).

HOWEVER, if one is on a team? The game tries to scale the attackers in the present to match. So if you're a level 12 character, in a level 12 zone, but you've been exemplared up to level 33, and you have five other people on your team...touching that present usually leads to certain death by snowy things.

I'm sure there's more, but yeah, that's enough to die from alcohol poisoning, right there.

[Help] Big Zeke: Can you /respec into a different powerset, or should I roll a new toon?

I let this go at the time, but you know, I think I'm just going to revise my thinking. Anyone who calls game characters--for any game that isn't World of Warcraft--"toons", well, instead of getting upset, I'm just going to sympathize. Because it must be difficult for them, being that stupid. There's no need for ire when the person behind the screen just isn't that bright.

He can't help it, obviously. It's like a chosen disability. He's to be pitied, not attacked.

And to finish up:

[Help] Night Lioness: of course Lord Recluse wouldn't know where the sewers are, that's beneath him
[Help] Amethyst Pierce: is that a pun?

Ba-dum CHING.

got a glitter drop of fall and I'm on my knees

2011-12-31T19:59:00.000-08:00

[Help] Far Shadow: If [your] explore/history plaque hunting, use the instructions and maps on Paragon Wiki, it's not too hard if you're full of smarticles
[Help] Falling Barometer: smarticles is officially an awesome word. I award you one internet, which comes with a dozen cookies of your choice, as long as your choice is oatmeal raisin.

So there's a lovely little round-up of the plain differences between SOPA and PIPA, but more specifically, how SOPA would affect us all (post-passage, assuming that it does pass in the US), over on CNet. I highly recommend everyone interested to read through it; it condenses the issue down to good, solid talking points, and eases understanding of what is a staggeringly overwritten, yet surprisingly vague, prohibitionary bill.

Once upon a time...Wau. That's kind of scary. I've known about the poor ladies in the radium factory for years now, but this apparently is the male version. So...if teeth loosen, and bones weaken, and tumors develop, just from licking brushes dipped into radium paint...what would happen if you had sex with radium condoms?

Actually, don't answer that. I truly don't want to know.

The next bit is going to wander slightly. So, I've been engaged for some time following the exploits of the Women Fighters in Reasonable Clothes Tumblr. Some of what they post is clearly fan art; some's not, and is actually taken from published works, art books, movies, what-have-you, and it's all thrown in this melting pot of mixed genre armors--not what ultimately would work best, but whatever--as armor--would actually work, as opposed to best display more bits of skin than any fighter would, ordinarily.

The topic came up again recently when friends of mine tossed me this link, which eventually leads back to another Tumblr blog, namely the Tumblr of Grace Duval, a fashion designer and designer of wearable art, who was absolutely blown away when Jezebel liked the pictures posted enough for a feature.

But that brought me back to thinking about armor designed for females, and the very next day I found this link, written by a maker of armor, who points out both the ridiculousness and the utility of armor as worn by females. (And I still think the best example is the Gothic plate designed for Elizabeth's character from the film of the same name.)

Just to reach from there a moment, it's not just female characters in armor who are given this treatment. Sometimes women in uniform get the same treatment. That's ridiculous as a working uniform for any gender, unless part of your job involves constant breast-feeding. Come on now.

But I'm still thinking on the topic. Why is this the male armor upgrade for Dynasty Warriors 6, and this the female armor? Or what about Wolfenpride's response in a forum on the same topic? I mean, while I get what what he was saying, does it unnerve anyone else that his first response to the sight of figure-revealing armor is murderous necrophilia? Or is it just me?

And it's not like this is just in one game, or even one game genre; it's broadband and wide-spread.

Fantasy, science fiction, it doesn't seem to matter, it's all the same thing. Even in areas where one wouldn't think it would naturally crop up--for example, the Gunslinger add-on for City of Heroes.

The guys? Got the full-on Wild West treatment: specialty guns, chaps, a rather jaunty top hat, vest, a bolo tie. It's a nice outfit. The duster, especially, was very well done.

But the girls? Got the bar wench. Not even kidding. And there's zero attempt to hide it--if you play a female character, you get ruffles, corsets, and thigh-high boots with spurs. You might as well put out a sign asking for ten bits an hour.

Normally, I won't lie, I'm all for cheesecake in games, but I want it to have some relevance to armor, rather than just being made of metal. (Which most of it isn't anyway, so what the hell?)

(from the random album)

Because seriously. This isn't armor. This is a chick in lingerie--partial lingerie, at that!--with a bow. There's nothing in anything she's wearing that would protect her from a slightly incompetent rodent with a toothpick. Let alone big guys with guns.

it's bound for the graveyard cart

2011-12-29T19:36:00.000-08:00

Later the next day...Yes. This is more oddity from City of Heroes' Help channel...This all started over a very simple question, namely, this one:

[Help] Dark Thorn Oppressor: is there a way to rename a character?

That's clear, right? Simple, to the point, asking--on the global Help channel, sure, but at least it is a question...if there's a way to rename a character, once made. And the answers--at least to start--were also simple:

[Help] Agent Vangier: Buy a rename token. 800 points.
[Help] Anti Light: buy a rename token
[Help] DJ P0N-3: Yep, you can buy character rename tokens in the store.
[Help] Blackbird.: If you have $10, sure
[Help] Dark Thorn Oppressor: or wait a couple months then buy one
[Help] Anti Light: Or if you want to be sneaky about it, if you are VIP and have saved up some transfer tokens, transfer to another server, make a new alt there with the same name, transfer back, presto, name change

And thus were the seeds of disagreement planted. And boy, did they sprout in fertile ground.

[Help] Blackbird.: Yeah Anti, but that's technically an exploit.
[Help] Anti Light: No, it's not.
[Help] Blackbird.: You're abusing game mechanics for an unintended benefit.
[Help] Blackbird.: that's exploiting.
[Help] DJ P0N-3: If it were considered a sploit, it would have been plugged after the first free transfer weekend. It wasn't, therefore it isn't.
[Help] Blackbird.: It can't be plugged.
[Help] Lovely Lara Lava: If it was considered an exploit, the moon would have exploded. It wasnt, therefore false logic is bad.

Here we see the beginnings of the logic machine grinding to a halt. First, they charge for both server transfers and name changes, but if you're a subscriber to City of Heroes--a VIP--you can do this, and it's not exploitative.

More accurately, it's more of a hassle to do it (at least properly) without paying the fee to the Paragon store; because...well, this is involved, but the simplest breakdown is if you transfer a character back with the same name as an original character, to the same server, you don't end up with a name change, you end up with two characters with the same name, and that's just not going to work unless you have the character slots open and active for it. (If you do, then at that point, one of those characters will be granted a free rename, so it works out.)

However, the disagreement was escalating.

[Help] DJ P0N-3: Did the devs ever speak out against it? If so, where?
[Help] Stainless Steele: Mild exploit at most. It still requires you to sacrifice something. just maybe not as valuable a something as real cash..
[Help] Lovely Lara Lava: The evidence is inconclusive as it whether it is or isnt. Cant say either way.
[Help] Blackbird.: In technical terms, it is an exploit. You are utilizing game mechanics in a manner which they are not meant to be, in order to gain a benefit or advantage that you are not supposed to gain from those mechanics.

See, it's not an exploit. If it was, it would be addressed by the developers by now. It's actually a feature, not a bug.

[Help] Volcanohead: the transfer/rename thing is actually endorsed by the devs as a good idea
[Help] Blackbird.: [citation needed]
[Help] DJ P0N-3: Volcano, got a link for that?
[Help] Alliisza: it's not an exploit cuz u have to use up transfers to do it
[Help] Volcanohead: I've read it somewhere on the forums, when I was looking up whether or not it was possible, so no, not atm, but it's there
[Help] Blackbird.: Alli: It's an exploit because it fits the definition of what an exploit is.
[Help] Agent Vangier: Server transfer tokens are 800 points each. A rename token is 800 points. So to do this "exploit" you're burning 1600 points worth of benefits to get 800 points' worth.

Perfectly put.

[Help] Blackbird.: Agent: You get transfers for free with a VIP subscription.
[Help] Anti Light: So for VIPs, it's not an exploit it's a benefit and a feature :)
[Help] Blackbird.: It's an exploit.
[Help] Blackbird.: By factual definition.
[Help] DJ P0N-3: Black... by factual definition, nobody of consequence cares.
[Help] Blackbird.: ...That's the best argument you can come up with? "Nobody cares"?
[Help] Blackbird.: Did you go to the 4chan School of Logic?
[Help] DJ P0N-3: No harm, no foul.

Blackbird--oh, excuse me, Blackbird., because the player wanted a period on the end of their character's name...just wouldn't let it go, however.

[Help] Anti Light: How about this, you write up a nice detailed bug report on the subject and send it to the Dev team and let them handle it. Arguing on help isn't really productive.
[Help] DJ P0N-3: What else you want?
[Help] Blackbird.: Anti Light: It's an exploit that can't be fixed due to the nature of server transfers.
[Help] Anti Light: And I will continue to advocate it's use until such time as there is an official word on it.
[Help] Blackbird.: Okay, so what you're saying is that you advocate the use of exploits to get an advantage in game.
[Help] DJ P0N-3: ...how is a character rename a gameplay advantage?

You know, I was wondering this same thing around this time.

[Help] Ackburn: done it plenty of times as well. Whether it is technically an exploit or not, I seriously doubt the devs care
[Help] Harold Rime: It's not factual definition Blackbird. It is your interpretation of the definition given, which means it is your opinion, not factual.
[Help] Anti Light: No, I'm saying all that I want to say on the subject, simply re-read my previous two statements. And with that, have a nice evening everyone and happy new year!

Anti Light has realized that they were arguing with a brick wall, and made their best effort to back away and get out of the argument. Unfortunately, others were not so bright.

[Help] Blackbird.: Harold: Okay, define 'exploit' for me.
[Help] Blackbird.: No matter your definition of 'exploit', the abuse of server transfers to rename your character is still an exploit.
[Help] Harold Rime: No, I won't. The definition has already been given. Your opinion doesn't mean shit. Neither does mine. The only interpretation that matters is that of the devs.

Intriguingly, the devs are not on the side of the final-stop Blackbird; they've made that quite clear four years ago. In fact, at that time, they said that it could be used. So...the entire argument was pretty damned pointless from the start.

[Help] Blackbird.: Harold: What is your opinion on the definition of the word 'exploit'?
[Help] Ackburn: and once again exploit or not, show me where the devs care that we use 2 transfers to get 1 rename.
[Help] Harold Rime: I already said my opinion or interpretation doesn't matter. Neither does yours, so shut the fuck up about it and report it if you really feel that strongly that it is an exploit.
[Help] Blackbird.: So basically, you know I'm right, so you won't enable me to prove it.

But you're not right.

[Help] Blackbird.: Essentially your logic is "LOL! I CAN WIN IF I DON'T ACTUALLY ARGUE MY POINT!"
[Help] Blackbird.: Nice going there, Harold. :)
[Help] Project 03: can you take the nerd fight to a venue other than /help, please? This channel does have a purpose, and pointless bickering to prove you're more right than someone else isn't it.

Excellent suggestion! ...Pity no one listened.

[Help] Harold Rime: No Blackbird. I am saying it doesn't matter, period. Your opinion and interpretation don't mean jack shit. As I said before, the only interpretation that does matter is that of the devs. If you want to prove your point, report the supposed violation
[Help] Blackbird.: See, your brain and the brain of every other person is wired to win arguments. It's not so much about being -right- as establishing your dominance over someone else. When you lose an argument -- when you don't get to establish that dominance -- youget mad. You try to change the subject.
[Help] Blackbird.: You try to block the enemy's win.

He didn't change the subject. He's explaining to you--rather more politely than I would have done at this time--that your internal definition of "exploit", not matching the devs' definition of "exploit", makes your definition meaningless. As was the entire argument at this point.

[Help] Harold Rime: Who said I changed the subject? You're the one doing that because you know I have a point and don't want to acknowledge it.
[Help] Blackbird.: And when you can't block it? When you're shown in front of everyone that you are wrong? You get real, real mad about it. Go ahead. Keep swearing. Keep claiming "LOL NOBODYS OPINION MATTERS."

Yes, but...you're not right. Harold's right. Actually, more to the point, there is no right, just what the devs have established. And the devs already established--and remember, this was back in 2007 when they established it--that it's just fine to rename a character this way. They have no problem with it, "Blackbird."--therefore you don't get to have a problem with it, either.

[Help] Riot Hour: Hihi, outside the conversation here. I know trolling can be a -real- blast, but if we could keep it out of global help channel that would be just tops and I'm sure the server would appreciate it.

Another excellent suggestion! Sadly, it was mostly ignored.

[Help] Blackbird.: Keep trying to use my own argument against me. I'm sure it'll work sometime.
[Help] Ravenous Wraith: not a chance, riot. dubstep gets off on this shit.
[Help] Blackbird.: And keep trying to selectively choose what you want to argue against and ignore everything else.
[Help] Ackburn: ah, it is dubstep, that explains it
[Help] Harold Rime: I wasn't trying to use your argument against you. I was simply pointing out that it is stupid to bash your keyboard and cry exploit when the matter is subjective and you do not have any control over a "correct" interpretation.
[Help] Blackbird.: The closest interpretation you can get to 'correct' is the factual definition of the term.
[Help] Harold Rime: Yes, and the only "factual" definition is the opinion and interpretation of the devs. Period.

Yep. Exactly. Unfortunately "Blackbird." is impervious to all logic.

[Help] Blackbird.: This definition is agreed on by the majority of the people who speak said language - that's what makes it a definition. You could say that's arguing for the majority, but the entirety of language and communication depends on everyone agreeing with something.
[Help] Assistant.: TROLOLOLOLOLOL HAHAHAHAHAHAH ARGUING ON THE HELP CHANNEL EPEEEN TROLOLOLOL!
[Help] Assistant.: Does it really matter? Help is for help people. Move on.
[Help] Blackbird.: I am helping, actually. I'm helping this guy to understand how wrong he is.
[Help] Ravenous Wraith: it matters because someone is WRONG ON THE INTERNET.
[Help] Assistant.: ^
[Help] Derek Fray: *Brain cells start to die from reading help channel*

Which is what all of us were thinking at this point...well, except for "Blackbird." who was insanely convinced that there was Right in the Universe, and Xie was It.

Pffft.

[Help] Harold Rime: see Blackbird, that is your problem. You are using your opinion to tell someone what is right or wrong in a subjective context. That really is funny.
Help] Blackbird.: Yes, Grandma, welcome to the internet. Did you come out of a time portal from 1995? Hey, I hear there's this really cool video of a dancing baby! Why don't you log on AOL and check it out?

And I guess this is when we all realized that "Blackbird." was no longer in it to win, but just to be mean and strike out.

Again, all of this was happening on one of the global channels for chat in City of Heroes--something that transcends redside or blueside, in mission or out, whether you're a hero in Atlas Park or Peregrine Island, or a villain in Port Oakes or St. Martial. It goes to everybody logged in to that server.

[Help] Blackbird.: Watch out for viruses, though. They can infect your Windows 95 floppies.
[Help] Harold Rime: ooh, zing, good one. Nice gradschool insult.

Of course, Harold wasn't much better at this point.

[Help] Ravenous Wraith: pointless agression.

Indeed so.

[Help] Harold Rime: so, tell me Blackbird, has my counter-trolling pissed you off yet or are you still getting warmed up?
Help] Blackbird.: Harold: When all else fails, apply the ultimate fall-back: "LOL I TROL U"
[Help] Assistant.: ^Did that five minutes ago.
[Help] Harold Rime: Yup, thought so. I bet you thought you were good at trolling, then you took an arrow to the knee I bet.
elp] Assistant.: ^Did in fact take an arrow to the knee.
[Help] Overlord Shadow: How's life in whiterun
[Help] Mu'Kanerak: Lightsaber battle on CoX, Brought to you by E-Peen!

See, and I can't even say I've never done this. What is it about internet conversations that bypasses that internal sanity check? The one that usually starts saying, long before this point, that we might be the merest bit out of line, and we may want to stop fighting back?

Or is it just that people, as a general lump sum, are so frustrated, angry, and feel so ultimately powerless with all the other events in their lives that arguing on the internet becomes some twisted form of accomplishment? I don't get it. I don't get it even having done this.

[Help] Harold Rime: See, you can't give up yet. You're still trying to piss me off. It isn't going to work. I got passed that stage on the internet in...I think it was 1993.
[Help] Overlord Shadow: Internet came out in like 95 didnt it

That clunk you just heard was my jaw completely falling off my face and striking the floor.

[Help] Blackbird.: And you keep implying that I'm trying to piss you off.
[Help] Anti Light: more like the 70s, but didnt take off til the 90s
[Help] Blackbird.: Not that I had to try, mind you. You offered me plenty of swears and insults this entire time.
[Help] Harold Rime: the relentless insults pretty much prove that you are
[Help] Blackbird.: LOL STFU NOOB LOL UR OPINION SUCKS
[Help] Ravenous Wraith: GONE TO THE AMERICAS UR ALL BAD OMG NERF AS
[Help] Blackbird.: ^- that's you. That's how DUMB you sound.

*sighs* Yes, "Blackbird.", thanks for descending to the level of "Nuh-UH, YOU are!" Honestly, some peoples' children.

[Help] Agaris Sirilye: Dubstep, shut the hell up. Most people here are way beyong caring anymore
[Help] Harold Rime: And how do you know that was or was not sincere? Oh, that's right, your almighty opinion tells you that.
[Help] Apocalypse Pony: It's times like this I wish Help was moderated somehow.

WE ALL DO.

[Help] Blackbird.: Harold: Because you're using the classic "LOL I WAS ACTUALLY TROLLING YOU LOL YOU TOTALLY FELL FOR IT" argument.
[Help] Harold Rime: since when? Also, who made you an authority on psychology?
[Help] Derek Fray: *Eye's burn out of there sockets*
[Help] Overlord Shadow: Thats better
[Help] Blackbird.: The university where I got my master's degree from, Harold.

Gods help us all, it's accredited.

[Help] Blackbird.: I'd say they made me an authority on psychology.

Oh hell, it's an accredited psychologist.

..Wait, is this Stiv??

[Help] Harold Rime: Link your degree.
[Help] Derek Fray: lol
[Help] Blackbird.: Very well.
[Help] Zak Saturday: Remember when the platform was sliding into the fire pit and I said "Goodbye" and you were like 'NO WAY' And then I was all "We pretended we were going to murder you?" That was great!
[Help] Blackbird.: Here you go http://bit.ly/18m6vd

.....

Yeah, that was helpful, you idiot.

[Help] Harold Rime: See, this is the problem with the internet, people like Blackbird who think their opinion is fact and that anyone who disagrees with them is inherently wrong.
[Help] Ravenous Wraith: replace "internet" with "people" rime.
[Help] Blackbird.: Harold: You have yet to prove that you are right.

Not right. And again, really, since I'm posting this on my blog, I'm essentially offering up side protests on a conversation already having occurred, so I'm protesting against myself really...A new definition of "pointless", people.

[Help] Blackbird.: I've proven that I'm right through factual dictionary definition, and, on a more minor note, by calling out your numerous logical fallacies.
[Help] Overlord Shadow: Lol jinx
[Help] Blackbird.: Shadow: We're arguing about arguing right now.
[Help] Blackbird.: It's a meta-argument.

It's mind-numbing, is what it is.

[Help] Overlord Shadow: I love you internet
[Help] Harold Rime: wait, -my- logical fallacies? Please tell me what those were. I bet you can't.
[Help] Overlord Shadow: Part of me feels like you and harold are both in on this

About this time I was thinking the same thing.

[Help] Mu'Kanerak: just shut up and kiss already...
[Help] Blackbird.: Basically, "HERP DERP! I WAS ACTUALLY TROLLING YOU THIS WHOLE TIME"
[Help] Tentaclown: Harold Rime and the Blackbird? Sounds like JK Rowlings newest novel
[Help] Harold Rime: that's not a fallacy, if it is a fallback, as you believe, then the actual term is cognitive dissonance
[Help] Blackbird.: The actual term is "I did your mom"
[Help] Blackbird.: OH SNAP
[Help] Blackbird.: Okay. Okay. Hang on. Let me go alt to my cold defender so I can get you some ice for that burn.
[Help] Operative Korag: oh for the love of....
[Help] Lovely Lara Lava: Honestly, its at this point I wish I owned a hotel. these guys need a room, badly
[Help] Harold Rime: seriously? that is the best you can come up with after claiming to have a psychology degree? Come on, you can do better than that Blackbird
[Help] Overlord Shadow: I wonder how many global ignores im on
[Help] Overlord Shadow: The silence probably answered that

Which is about when the argument, which apparently went meta when the participants forgot what the hell even they were arguing about, for the most part...trailed off and died a small and whimpering death.

See, the real problem here is not that this happened and wasted all of our time. The real problem is that, since City of Heroes went free to play, this kind of idiocy drives the chatter in Help about ninety percent of the time, twenty-four hours a day.

When it's not spam ads from the Chinese (GDay2010.com is out of Hebei, and cuIngame.com is from Nanking), which are, taken honestly, about equally as irritating as this one when it was scrolling along.

sound of rain is rain in gutters, lightning, seven seconds thunder

2011-12-28T17:58:00.001-08:00

This post was brought to you by game boredom...Well, not precisely game boredom...You'll see what I mean.

I've spent more than a year playing City of Heroes. Obviously, any game that retains my attention that long has something, even if it's only relevant to me (see: Minecraft, one of the few games I entered on the alpha-test level). But a few months back, City of Heroes went free to play. Pretty standard format--they 'dumbed down' their intro story arcs (not for the better), added in a micro-transaction store, and--because they still have subscribers, too--partitioned the content into three general groups: free players (they get the basics, have to buy everything else with Paragon Points, but are massively restricted in terms of game content); "Premium" players (players who used to be subscribers, but downgraded, or anyone who buys at least one thing from the Paragon store; due to this, they have a few more bells and whistles); and VIPs (that would be my class, because I'm a subscriber: we get everything, more or less, though we still have to buy new content like any other player).

So. When I make a new character, these days, they get the new intro arcs, which I haaaate, and am beyond bored with. I doubt they'd be so galling if I hadn't decided I needed to remake (remake: keep bio and power selections of, but make as a new character; there's no simple retention of the name and changing power sets. It's discard entirely, then make from scratch). Because of this, I tend to rush through them, and anything that distracts me from the superpowered ennui is...usually...a good thing.

However: one of the curious features of the 'new' City of Heroes is that for new players who aren't VIPs or premium accounts, there's a ton of restrictions. No selling things at the auction house. No crafting things in the Universities. No ability to trade. No ability to send private messages (also called "tells", which I try not to twitch at, because of the WoW association). No ability to chat in all but one chat channel. (I think that's partially changed; new players can chat in Local now, but seriously--that covers the people directly around you, and it's a BIIIIG MMO. Also, another recent change lifted the ban on new players posting in the forums, so that's slowly working out.)

The one channel exception? Help. Which was formerly reserved for things like, "Help! I'm stuck behind a box and I can't get out!" or "I found a bug in one of the missions, is there anyone who's online to take a report?"

Instead, we get chatter. Mindless, draining chatter. Constant chatter. Flirting, plays on words, lolpeople who can't spell, 'what's everyone doing' questions, 'lvl 12 brute nds help on mish' comments, and spammers. Dear gods, do we get spammers.

But there are, though rare and occasional in nature, up sides. Witness this conversation overheard earlier:

[Help] North Wind Barbarian: I am on the "Defeat Mynx' Mish
[Help] North Wind Barbarian: when does she show up?

For those who don't know, this is Mynx:

(from the City of Heroes album)

[Help] North Wind Barbarian: as in how much time until she shows *or does she end up at the back area*
[Help] Possessed Beauty: Just make fun of Neuron she will come running.
[Help] North Wind Barbarian: Thats Bobcat
[Help] Possessed Beauty: Wait that's Bobcat nm
[Help] Green Wraith: or a sign that says "free slutty jumpsuits"
[Help] North Wind Barbarian: LULZ!

This is Bobcat, Minx's Praetorian double:

(from the City of Heroes album)

[Help] Dark Soleil: Its BOOBCAT
[Help] Dark Soleil: people always leave out the extra O for some reason
[Help] Possessed Beauty: If Minx met Bobcat what would result be?
[Help] Green Wraith: hot
[Help] Moira mna Badb: Catfight.
[Help] Ultraguard: a really expensive coat
[Help] Dark Soleil: the result is rule 34
[Help] Possessed Beauty: All of the above most likely.

I have to admit, to divert from the double entendres for a moment, to being impressed by Praetoria. Praetoria is City of Heroes' take on the whole "Crisis on multiple earths" concept. Praetoria is the flip side of the reality that contains Paragon City, and its capital, Nova Praetoria, is ruled by the iron fist of Emperor Cole, who goes so far as to train and station psychics on streetcorners to aid in quashing "traitorous" thinking.

Okay, sure, that's bad, but on the other hand, there is no trash in Praetoria. There's barely any crime (that's not caused by heroes, or hidden away in underground lairs or featureless office buildings). They have universal health care, and everyone works--and not just, everyone must become a cog in the great system. No, every citizen is tested, and their strengths and weaknesses determined, and then they are given a job which they can do, will be productive doing, and which ultimately will give them a happy life.

Damn. Bring on the fascism. If that's the down side--being mentally scanned for subversion off and on--but I get universal health care, a productive job that I can do, and a city free of debris and unfortunate signs of decay? Where do I sign up?

Of course, it is just a game, and it must be mentioned, part of what keeps the city so clean is a large army of partially-independent androids equipped with fire, acid and cleaning solutions...so anything they can't just burn off or wash away, they can dissolve down to basic particulates...which can then be burned or rinsed clean. They have no problem with homelessness, but that's not necessarily the best thing...

[Help] Azure Sting: I posed a philosophical question last night. If Mother Mayhem went to Boomtown, would it become BOOBtown?
[Help] Green Wraith: going to blow your mind with this: neuron MADE HIS OWN CATGIRL.
[Help] Dirty Bloke: Siege wears his boobs on his shoulders

This is Siege:

(from the City of Heroes album)

They're not actually boobs. He's just big-boned.

[Help] Ultraguard: Funny thing is, Mayhem's got a pair of As, but she just makes you THINK they are Ds
[Help] Possessed Beauty: Haha.
[Help] Dark Soleil: Mother Mayhem looks like Michael Jackson to me

This is Mother Mayhem:

(from the City of Heroes album)

Mother Mayhem trains any girl child with psychic ability for both the combat psychic program, and the Seer program, which ends up with the Seers monitoring thoughts on streetcorners. Also, two things.

1. I can't imagine anyone confusing her with Michael Jackson.
2. Those aren't A-cup breasts. They're just not.

[Help] Possessed Beauty: Yes Desdemona has always been the sexier darkly dressed woman at least to me.
[Help] Green Wraith: yo dawg, we heard you like psychic dominatrices, so we put a psychic dominatrix in your psychic dominatrix, so you can be mindraped while you get mindraped.
[Help] Azure Sting: Desdemona needs better-fitting clothes, half her ass hang out of her underdrawers......

This is Desdemona:

(from the City of Heroes album)

And...yeah, I kind of have to agree with that.

[Help] Operative Minerva: Think about this. Do you REALLY want someone digging through your mind while you're screwing her?
[Help] Iron-Goliath: Mayhem does not care what you want... she is going to F you anyway
[Help] Dark Soleil: Mayhem only likes little girls
[Help] Operative Minerva: Especially someone who can control other people's bodies with her mind....
[Help] Jenna Tate: so...like a Kardashian?

This is Kim Kardashian:

(from the random album)

And...I can't really say anything about someone who looks like an inflatable doll while alive, so...we'll move on.

[Help] Talrak Sloversin: She's not a Kardashian. Psychics are -useful-.
[Help] Jenna Tate: so...like a wife then?
[Help] Possessed Beauty: Flambeaux is more kardasian than her.

This is Flambeaux:

(from the City of Heroes album)

and she's one of the single most irritating characters in the entire game. (And considering the hundreds if not thousands of quests, the hundreds of different characters before you account for the millions of player characters, and the several different cities on all three sides of the game now...yeah. That's saying something.)

(And yes, I found other pictures of Flambeaux, like this one, but that bar over her head? That means she's halfway down on health and will DIE SOON. That makes me happy.)

So...yes. Really random conversation in the Help Channel this morning. For some reason, I wanted to share.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a badly-translated Korean film about an evil twin I have to get back to...

I saw a preacher man in cuffs; he'd taken money from the church

2011-12-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

[10:59] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: it's Christmas dammit
[11:00] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: all this happy winter holiday....what does that mean
[11:00] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx: it's WINTER

While accurate, that wasn't the main point. What sir lives-in-a-cowboy-hat meant was that everyone should wish everyone a Merry Christmas, specifically, because to do otherwise was offensive. To Christians, one would suppose, even though in Caledon--and on the wider grid as well--there are members of virtually any faith one can comprehend. I know for certain fact that there are many Jewish residents in the Realm of Roses, many pagan residents--of varying "denominations", though that's not really accurate when speaking of larger paganity--and we have a fair scattering of Latter-Day Saints, of Catholics, of Jehovah's Witnesses, of Muslims, and other faiths less well known. We have atheists in Caledon, and we even have one fellow who staunchly believes in Superman, the risen Son of Krypton.

[11:00] Rxx Sxxxxxxx: We still refer to it as Yule in Scandinavia.
[11:00] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: so we don't upset a raghead or two

And this single statement, friends and neighbors, wholly perplexed the Caledonians present, and those listening in from farther away, for a good two hours after it was stated by Mr. my-God-I-lurve-horses.

The official definition of "raghead" for the uninitiated:

rag·head derogatory, pejorative
Term used in derogation of Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, and other groups who traditionally wear headdress forms such as a turban, keffiyeh or headscarf.

If you've never seen a turban, or keffiyeh, let me provide examples:

(from the random album; Maeed wearing the keffiyeh, as seen on his blog.)

(from the random album; Daler Mehndi, pop bhangra singer from India, in a Sikh turban. Picture originally published by the India Times.)

(from the random album; sales photo of a sumayya scarf, or hijab, taken from Alibaba.com.)

There are also some astounding pictures taken by Eric Lafforgue, renowned international photographer, here and on his site, that depict varying forms of keffiyeh, and headscarves and hijabs in general, on women and men in a multitude of countries.

I would point out, especially in the case of certain Americans who are using it specifically as a designating racial slur, that they almost always are using it to refer (and nearly exclusively) to men. But some do expand it to include anyone who might wear any variant of head covering that they think is anti-Christian, regardless of gender.

In the broadest sense, it is a typical insult of its kind: in one two-syllable word, the speaker both insults and denigrates, with added nuances that imply the "raghead" so discussed is also unintelligent, unwashed, and animalistic in nature, thus "lesser" in all important ways, than the speaker. (What's morbidly amusing for me is that I don't think any Arabic or Muslim country has melted any portion of another country into glass with a nuclear bomb...but Americans have. Yet this term implies broadly that "ragheads" cannot be trusted, partially because of the implied tendencies towards violence. Curious indeed.)

[11:00] Zxxxxxxx Wxxxxxx: technically in the [southern] hemisphere its a summer holiday
[11:00] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxxd: lolol
[11:02] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: well i ain't in Scandinavia...i'm in Texas...so it's Happy Christmas....take that as you will
[11:02] Zxxxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Ain't it the third night of Hanakkuh come sundown?
[11:02] Cxxxx Bxxxxxx: eet eez.

The beauty of religion, in this sense, is that some of the dates overlap, and thus, in the most expansive sense, can be "shared", so to speak. Witness:

Bodhi Day: Generally on 8 December; Buddhist day celebrating the enlightenment achieved by Siddhartha Gautama.
Yule: also Wintertide, Winter Solstice, Jul, and others; refers to celebrations of varying types to celebrate the longest night of the year. Lights are lit, feasts are held, gifts are exchanged, and, depending on the community, there are other traditions (the Julbock, for instance, who used to bring gifts in many Scandinavian countries).
Hanukkah: Winter celebration of the victory of the Maccabees over King Antiochus; the eight days that the celebration runs honor each of the eight days that the one-day supply of purified ritual oil lasted, when the Maccabees had captured the Temple and begun to drive out the Greeks.
Christmas: the celebration at the end of December to honor Christ's birth, exchange gifts, hang lights to stave off darkness, and worship in community.
Kwanzaa: the (relatively) new celebration of African heritage, designed to honor and support African Americans specifically, their ancestors, and the trials suffered and survived.
Eid el Adha, the remembrance of the sacrifice: Also known as the "solemn festival", remembering the commandment from Allah to Ibrahim to sacrifice his son, who was spared through Ibrahim's faith, and exchanged for a sheep. Cows, sheep, goats, and even camels are chosen to be sacrificed formally, in holy, consecrated ways, and the animals sacrificed are then thirded: one-third of the meat is kept to feed the sacrificing family; one-third goes to the holy men who have blessed the proceedings, and their families; and the last third is traditionally given to the poor, so that everyone can be fed and cared for.
Festivus: A secular, non-commercial holiday, that regardless, has caught on with many celebrants who felt excluded by the commercial aspects of Christmas as currently celebrated. Festivus features an absolutely undecorated steel pole (for the Festivus pole needs no other decoration), and two main themes: the airing of family grievances (because honesty is a virtue, even when it's a pain in the ass), and feats of strength (the feats of strength traditionally only end when the head of the household has been officially pinned and thus concedes).
Las Posadas: A nine-day festival in Mexico commemorating Miriam and Ioseph struggling to find lodging, the night of Yeshua's birth.
Boxing Day: Celebrated in the British Isles, this was an after-Christmas celebration where gifts were given to servants and to the poor, and feasts and celebrations were held with friends and family who did not live in the immediate vicinity. Currently, the day also features horse races, rugby matches, and grand shopping adventures.

There are also other, more "minor" holidays celebrated; I'm sure I'm leaving many off the list.

[11:02] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx: Mr Hxxxxxxxxx, there are people of all faiths in SL - while "winter holiday" is perhaps a bit generic, it IS inclusive - not just the christian Christmas, but also the jewish Chanuka and other seasonal holidays as well
[11:03] Rxx Sxxxxxxx: I dunno. Today is the winter solstice, in a couple of days is the old pagan holiday repurposed by Christians.
[11:03] Cxxxx Bxxxxxx: but it excludes the southern hemisphere ;)
[11:04] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: well if they are of diff. faiths...it won't mean anything to them

And this was the second place where many residents in and out of Caledon headtilted. First, did he really mean that everyone should say Merry Christmas over other (one assumes equally heartfelt) wishes, simply because if they're not Christian, then it won't hurt, and second, because Christians are really that touchy?

(Actually, strike that last, I've seen FOX News, some are that touchy.)

And the other point that arose was the seeming inference that if they did not, themselves, celebrate Christmas, then obviously their seasonal celebrations didn't matter, and so they should wish everyone Merry Christmas anyway, because their own faiths were meaningless.

That last one is a very sore point for some, to be sure, but it's also baffling--why would Mr. never-ever-ever-leaving-Texas-because-it's-the-bestest-state-in-the-world want to alienate that many people? Maybe it was just that he really didn't care. Insensitivity, after all, thy name is (in large portion) America...

[11:04] Zxxxxxxx Wxxxxxx: Heck Christmas is a SECULAR holiday. It must be since the US govt observes it, if it were religious in nature then it would run afoul of the Establishment clause of the 1st Ammendment and we would have to deliver mail on Dec 25th

As is known by now, to anyone who adds up the letters given, I don't normally agree with this individual. Therefore, it should come as a great surprise that I absolutely agree with him here, and I never thought about it that way. Because considering the (daily eroding) separation of church and state in the US, were it a religious holiday, the government would be barred from celebrating it. So--while many celebrations privately are held on the same day, in churches and in homes--the day of Christmas, the 25th, at least in America, must no longer have any connection to a religious figure.

There's a mental stunner for you.

[11:04] Sxxxxx Sxxxxx: I generally prefer "seasons greetings" or similar, taking into account the [hemisphere]
[11:04] Yxxxx Bxxxxxxx: Yes it is Day 3 of Hanukkah!
[11:05] jxxxxxxxxx Hxxxxxxxxx: ok......sorry i wished all of you a Happy Christmas.....i won't be doing it again

See, I still don't think Mr. take-my-cowboy-boots-when-I'm-dead-you-varmints really understands. It's not that he offended a wide subsection of Caledon with his ill-considered statements (though he did). And it's not that Caledon as a whole is trying to insist that he be politically correct, whatever that means at this point in time.

It's that his very insistence that everyone wish each other a Merry Christmas, and nothing else, in a clearly multicultural as well as international virtual world, just. Does. Not. Work.

[11:06] Yxxxx Bxxxxxxxxx: Why Mr Hxxxxxxxxx I think that is the beauty of a world of diversity.
[11:06] Rxx Sxxxxxxx: Will we be allowed to wish you a happy new year, or is there some special Christian version of that too?

So I admit, I got curious. I looked him up. His groups, man...Well, here:

Texas Rangers
1st Recon USMC
ARMOURY WAREHOUSE
Co. A Texas Rangers
Corse GP Racing
FLEET MARINE FORCE
H********* Ranch
Hollywood Airport Pilots Assn.
Independent State of Caledon
Joyus Living
Second Skies
SECONDLIFE RACERS
Texas 1800's
The Comancheros
The road to Deadwood
WILDER WEST (AIRCRAFT CARRIER)
~Amaretto Rance~ Breedables

I get it. You like horses. You like Texas. You love big manly sports of big manliness. You adore the military. Bet you're a Republican RL, too. (And no, nobody jump me for that one--I have Republican friends, I have Republican family, and believe me, you just haven't LIVED until you go home for the holidays with your same-sex spouse to spend it with the folks who proudly voted in DOMA...But I digress: the point being, I understand what Republicans believe, and I can largely support old-style conservative leanings. Where I have a problem is with the current everyone-but-me-sucks-and-needs-to-leave-the-country thinking. Like, I suspect, Mr. Yellow-Rose-of-Texas, here.)

So...other than my personal, abhorrently violent desire to light him on fire and swerve him onto a railcar, to ride off in a merry glow out of Caledon forever, what did he gain by this diatribe early this morning? Really, it depends on whom you ask. For many of us, it made him a figure to watch, and perhaps be wary of further conversations with. Others found him morbidly amusing. Still others were baffled--I had to explain to one genteel lass, for instance, what "raghead" meant as an insult, which is why I'm also defining it here.

I suppose, in the end, there's no accounting for bigotry or intelligence; to be more plain, both the stupid and the religiously deranged can likely figure out enough of how renting on the grid works to rent anywhere. I just personally wish he wasn't renting in Caledon, precisely because we do have such a diverse community, and--until his untimely placement of his pointy-toed boot into his wide-open mouth--for the most part we seem to have hit another peaceful patch where the only arguments are happening at events, in person, over in Caledon chat.

So much for that. Here's to the New Year to come: may 2012 be filled with far less ignorance and religious intolerance. Ramen.

in the half-light, I'll see you in time

2011-12-21T20:48:00.000-08:00

There's been more than a few stories on Kotaku recently concerning sexism--some good, some baffling--but this one caused a double-strength arched eyebrow. Mainly because I can't really say there's much difference between a skin-tight organic-metal "armor" bikini on the upper concept art, and then end result of the metal-and-chain bust piece with the bikini-attached-to-silk-strip thong, on the "actual" game shot. (Barring that the color blends are better in the concept art, than in the game costume, at least.)

Then came SL's latest scandal, which is puzzling to say the least. (Though it hasn't been without its up side, to be fair.) I'm still not entirely sure why people are attacking Miss Ohmai: she made a pixel tribute to a vintage fur stole, something that has just not been seen in this form for years, if not decades; so how did she "kill" anything?

(That's a serious question--for all my [former] investment in SL, I never lost sight of the fact that it is a virtual world. And the people that do, tend to scare me.)

Even separating out the tribute from its virtual roots, and placing it firmly as an actual created object in the real world (which it's just not, people, come on now)...something like this is about as close as you're going to get, these days, for new items. And vintage items--like this offering on eBay--are precisely that, vintage. Vintage means--for those who care about such things--that the animal died a long, long time ago, and at this point was not even slain by people one might run into, even were one living in the heart of a fur district. Vintage means the item now exists, but can be relined with new satin, or subtly altered to enhance its natural beauty--the original incident which brought it into being is now long past.

More to the point, animals die. Animals, like people, die all the time. And there are rarely quiet, peaceful, dignified deaths for animals, passing away surrounded by the support of their loved ones, at greatly advanced ages. This is because nature is as harsh as it is beautiful, brutality and shining light combined, and death, injury, illness and trauma are facts of life.

Really, if you stop to think about it, they're facts of our lives too, because we are as much of nature as the fox, the ermine, the rabbit, the bear--for all that we distance ourselves from that fact.

If you haven't gathered this by now, I'm not a member of PETA. I'm for wearing fur. I'm for wearing leather. (Hells, there was a poet some years back who wanted, after his death, his last published volume to be a limited edition of fifty, bound in his own skin. I have no compunctions about that, either.) I do not think it is base and unworthy animal cruelty to use all of the animals slain--meat, bone, marrow, fur, skin, claws--and I am for rational uses of resources.

Do I disagree with animal farms solely to harvest fur and toss the rest of the animal aside? Yes. But I think that's a wasteful practice in general. By all means, keep rabbits for their fur, but for their meat, too. And I'm also against feeding chickens ground-up chicken, because they're not omnivores; I'm against keeping food animals penned in small spaces in general, and fed massive doses of antibiotics to keep them productive, because what enters the meat then enters us, on later consumption. (And no, I'm not a vegetarian either.)

The point behind all of this, though, is that this is not a real, physical item. Let me repeat that again, because it's vaguely important: THIS IS AN ENTIRELY IMAGINARY RECREATION OF A VINTAGE ITEM. IT IS DESIGNED TO LOOK LIKE FAUX FUR. SO NO ANIMALS DIED TO MAKE THIS...EVER...AT ANY TIME.

Of course, some people are really, really dim, and will keep complaining to her anyway. My advice? Support the hell out of her designs to spite them.

And this may be the weirdest thing I've seen this year.

On that note, I'm off to celebrate the Longest Night with family, so we're killing City of Heroes' Winter Lord as a group! To battle!

a world with frogs and magic tricks

2011-12-18T21:21:00.001-08:00

Wait, what? (That link, btw, is SOOOO not safe for work, but...still, even for SL, it's kind of eye-opening. And don't get me wrong, I have nothing against guys with padding...it's just that he looks so angry in the picture!)

While we're discussing bizarre things on the Marketplace, this one made me giggle maniacally for five minutes. Even better? They directly ripped off the name--and the logo--of Sephora.com! I wonder if there's anyone specifically to notify...Suppose you could drop a message off here.

Also, nice try, Blades, but that's Sonic. Blatant copyright infringement is blatant.

There's a fellow in the Minecraft community named Vechz. Vechz makes evil, evil downloadable worlds. He calls them his Super-Hostile Map series. And he's not kidding--they range from baffling to impossible to survive, and all are designed to be tricky and devious and trap-ridden and monster-ridden in every conceivable way.

Recently, Vechz was talked into playing one of his "Mini-Hostile" maps by his friends and fans. Did he survive the experience? Well, this was the result, so...I'd say no.

While we're discussing Minecraft, there's an enterprising fellow who decided Minecraft's Nether was too bland. So he generated his own. Phenomenal job.

have you ever thought that the sky was just endlessly dark?

2011-12-18T01:58:00.000-08:00

I had a small bit of free time yesterday, between holiday demands, and traipsed into world to visit Curious Kitties. Miss Yossarian is having a rare retirement sale (there's more information on it here--and I will admit, I'm not one of her biggest customers. This is due in no way to the quality of her designs; she's always made beautiful skins, hair and outfits, and now she's experimenting with mesh, and what I've been able to see is just as impressive. No, two things hold me back:

1. She's really expensive. Don't get me wrong, her items are likely worth it, but seriously, when I can pay rent for two to four weeks for what she charges for one avatar set, or one week for a skin? Yeah, that's not an impulse buy at that point.

2. I can buy all the hair from her in the world; if I don't have the right HUD to change the colors, I'm pretty much screwed.

How'ver, all that changed with this sale.

(from the shopping album)

This is Erltur, out of the box. I haven't adjusted anything; there's a bit of flicker along the bangs that will need to be fixed, but I can do that later.

(from the shopping album)

This is Erltur tinted in the sage/lilac on the "Wild" color HUD (currently: L$300 for sixteen variant shades), and keep in mind, the "Wild" color HUD only tints the bangs and the ribbons (which I chose to turn purple).

(from the shopping album)

And this is Erltur tinted with the "Old Fashion Brown" HUD picked up some months back on a Curious Kitties' free offer. (Now fixed!--Editrix)

Total outlay (including the HUD) for this hair: L$310. Yes, under this current sale, many of her Nyanotech A and B hairs are going for L$10 each.

Not all of her hairs are anime-inspired, either.

(from the shopping album)

This is Monque out of the box; as you can tell by the flashes of red through my chest and below my left shoulder, the bangs need a bit of adjusting. This is an entirely sculpted style, zero flex.

(from the shopping album)

This is it with candyfloss pink bangs (the back remained black, at least with tints from the "Wild" HUD).

(from the shopping album)

This is it with green-striped bangs; again, the back hair is left black.

(from the shopping album)

And this is it with the "Old Fashion Brown" tinting (which tints the black as well).

Basically, there are several color HUDS to tint hairs, available for the "A" and "B" derivative lines. You can get sixteen colors, in defined shades, for L$300 to L$700; you can get four-packs of colors for $100; and many specialty shades between L$300 and L$500 (right now, I believe, she still has the "Strawberry Banana" color pack of streaked pink and yellow, and she's newly released an arctic shading pack of white, silver, blue and lilac, I think). If you line up the HUD you want (or already have one, in my case), and find hairs you like to match that HUD--trust me, ten Linden hair? Not easy to find.

**DO** make backup copies, though! I can't stress that enough, because none of the HUDs has a color reset button. If you liked the way the hair looked out of the box, make a backup, because you won't get it back! And keep in mind if you buy one of the specialty holiday hair HUDs (like the Grand Ornament hair HUD, for instance), it will only work to change the colors on that hair.

Still, a lot of different options, for less inventory space. Can't really argue with that.

you were there, you were small; there was screaming down the hall

2011-12-17T21:22:00.000-08:00

[20:00] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: I have an emergency.......
[20:00] Txxxxx Wxxxxxxx: what sort?
[20:00] Exxxxx Zxxxxxxx: what would that be?
[20:00] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: my 16year old sl son is at the alter
[20:00] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: anyone do weddings as in minister like right now wedding starts at 8:30

So, several group members halted at that one, but thankfully, others were on the ball with comments:

[20:00] Zxxxxxx Ixxxxxx grabbs first aide kit
[20:00] Oxxx Axxxxx: 16 O_o
[20:01] Sxxxxxx Kxxxxx: Have your pets spade and neutered ...
[20:01] Emilly Orr: 1. Your minister ditched the wedding?
[20:01] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: sorry I do hanfasting but 16 is a little young and mine are real
[20:01] Lxxxxx Fxxxxxx: minister???...dont you mean you need a shrink?
[20:01] Emilly Orr: 2. He's getting married *at sixteen*??
[20:01] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: n our person never showed
[20:01] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: more like knocked the bride to be up
[20:01] Sxxxxxxxx Vxxxxxxx: Is this a shotgun wedding? ;)
[20:01] Emilly Orr blinks

Because yeah, at this point, I was trying to process the fact that, in SL, some sixteen-year-old was being forced to marry another virtual avatar because the other virtual avatar had become fake pregnant...I mean, yeah, RP, sure, but guys...

[20:01] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: I need a preist
[20:02] Mxxxxx Dxxxxxx: see what happens when some doofuse closes the teen grid ?

Yeah, really. Which again, not that I haven't run this point into the ground, but still remains the very bestest reason ever to not date on the grid.

[20:02] Oxxx Axxxxx: you need child protective services
[20:02] Txxx Axxxxx: you need parental consent lol
[20:02] lxxx Txxxx thinks someone needed a condom
[20:02] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: I am minister but I require people to be of age
[20:02] Axxx Yxxxxxxx: 16 yrs old?

People kept coming back to that. Sixteen years old and getting married on the grid. The hell.

[20:02] Cxxxx Axxxxxx: can I assume the actual person playing your SL son is older than 16?
[20:02] Emilly Orr slowly and carefully steps away from the RP, nodding calmly.
[20:02] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: hehehe
[20:02] Yxxxx Nxxxx: In Vegas.
[20:03] Mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: laughing my ass off
[20:03] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: and why are you asking this in TT group chat

And I'm surprised it took only three minutes to ask that question.

[20:03] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: is someone here his parent?
[20:03] Lxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: depends on the [state] there in and if it can be verified
[20:03] SxxxRxxxx Vxxxxxxx: If you have a gun..I can find a priest
[20:04] Cxxxx Axxxxxx: pretty sure this is a RP situation, and the person behind the 16yr old is actually older than 16. In which case, you need to be finding a RP priest, not an OOC one.
[20:04] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: or someone who can marry them

And the frantic seeking soul here is still not perceiving the difference between RL priests/ministerial sorts (which we, being a building group, had actually been talking about), and SL priests/ministerial sorts. I figured on being impaired somehow, intoxicated on something, because the other assumption was that he was just that dim, and...for a group devoted to learning new building techniques, and discussing texturing, for the most part, that just hurt to think about.

[20:04] Fxxxxxxxxx Ixxxxx: who knocked the bride up, the minister or the groom??[20:04] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: whoa is there a baby involved
[20:04] Mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: omg now I am crying
[20:04] Axxx Yxxxxxxx: hate to say, but you can get in pretty bad trouble for that shit
[20:04] Axxxxxxxx Lxxxxxx: just jump over a broom
[20:04] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: it still falls under the heading of contributing to the delinquency of a minor
[20:04] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: i do have a broom
[20:05] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: swat his hiney with it and tell him to go read a book
[20:06] Cxxxx Axxxxxx: and you reaaaalllyyy need to make that more clear when you ask for something, especially in a BUILDERS GROUP

Yeah, exactly. And again, so surprised it took six minutes to bring this up!

[20:06] Axxx Yxxxxxxx: and do his homework before bedtime
[20:06] Fxxxxxxxxx Ixxxxx: whatever happened to living in sin??
[20:06] Exxxxx Zxxxxxxx: ahh, the good old days!
[20:06] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: some of us would rather live in grace
[20:06] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: sin can be very graceful

Or at least encourage flexibility, if nothing else.

Then the L$20,000 question arose:

[20:07] Sxxxx Hxxxxxxx: Well since its RP can't someone in the wedding party pretend like they are certified to do weddings? I mean really how do you become "official" in SL anyway?

It's a damned good question. Really, in SL, you're only who you say you are. But then, that goes right to the heart of pseudonymity, doesn't it? When does who we pretend to be cease to be a valid expression of who we really are? And who gets to decide that?

At any rate, this conversation, start to finish, in an RP group? I wouldn't have batted an eye. Even this conversation, start to finish, in Caledon would only have earned an arched eyebrow.

But this question in a store group devoted to textures and building...well. It was bizarre, to say the least.

And I'm still not sure the fellow in question actually got his pretend minister for his pretend son to marry his pretend knocked-up damsel...who may or may not be sixteen in real life.

Either of them, the son or the daughter-to-be. Just odd.

standing in line as we march to the drums of the east

2011-12-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

"It's very important for bats to avoid dehydration. If you are a bat, and you're watching this video, please drink at least eight spoonfuls of water a day." Okay then.

Also, this time next year, television broadcasters and cable broadcasters will be operating under a new law which will enforce the same volume for commercials as for non-commercial programming. What bothers me is how long it took to get this passed. People have been screaming about the volume on commercials being higher than regular programming for decades, so what gives?

There's a 2011 countdown of films circling around the net; in total, in under six minutes, there are clips from two hundred and thirty films that were either made, produced, or released in 2011. Impressive, and awe-inspiring.

Santarchy! I love that that's now an "official" term for Santa mobs. In a similar vein, find out more about the sarcastic font movement. And maybe make it a Nyan Cat Christmas while you're at it.

An advertising agency in Mozambique figures it can dodge paying licensing fees by not showing the whole face of several comic superheroines, but beyond that, they've come up with an amazing campaign in support of self-checking for breast cancer. Will the dodge work? Will comic companies come down on them anyway? Do we, the viewing public, even care?

Status cats! Including pictorial tribute to the hypertext coffee pot control protocol. There's variations for everything, I suppose.

Could Netflix bring Firefly back from the dead? It wasn't a question I ever thought to ask, but Netflix is now (re) producing Arrested Development as an original show. So suddenly Firefly--and a lot of other shows who have fans, but have been long-cancelled--are starting to be reconsidered.

The Lindens--at least according to Daniel Voyager--has responded (directly on a JIRA! WOOHOO!) that they're both willing and able to evaluate the naming system again. Mr. Voyager thinks this might lead to restoration of the two-name system used in the past. I'm not so sure, but hey, everyone keep their fingers crossed.

In RL news, something being termed a witch's cottage has been discovered at a dig site in Lancashire. More news when they excavate and analyze more of the dig.

Finally, I bring you Nyan Cat eyes! (There's also a video tutorial link on that post at deviantArt.) Knock yourselves out. (She's also got other pretty eye-makeup tutorials. Hint, drop, thud, Mocksoup.)

people throw rocks at things that shine

2011-12-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

Another clip entry, yes. First, this right here explains in one place why we hate the new enchanting system in Minecraft. Because on average--and that's assuming you have the levels for this--it takes 2,480 attempts to get one level 50 enchantment on anything, and that doesn't assume any particular type.

And the enchantments themselves are so widely varied...There's a rather labyrinthine list of possible enchantments on armor, equipment and weaponry available on the Minecraft wiki, but remember the above--to get, say, an enchanted sword with Smite V and Knockback II (just to pick two at random) you're going to be making at least seventy attempts, up to three thousand attempts. Keep in mind, too, that even when the enchantment table is properly built (the table surrounded by two levels of 15 bookcases each, leaving room on one side for a door), you have to make your item, enchant your item, and blindly hope you get lucky.

If you're not opped on a server (so as to freely allow you to summon iron or diamond to make base enchantable items and armor), then this is exactly what that means:

1. Dig deep enough to find diamonds in the first place.
2. Mine out two of the ones you find.
3. Go back to wherever your enchanting room has been built; make your diamond sword (also requiring one stick for the hilt, so if you don't already have wood, go punch down a tree nearby).
4. Place the diamond sword in the enchanting table's enchanting screen.
5. Using only the bottom enchantment values (because apparently slots one and two are bugged, leaving only slot three as an active enchanting slot), place (then lift out, and place again) the sword, until you hit the number you want (keeping in mind that enchanting uses up player levels, so to get a level 50 enchantment, you need to have at least 105 levels).
6. Make your sword.
7. Take out the now enchanted (and glowing faintly) sword. Mouse over it to read what it now does.
8. If unsatisfied (as in, you wanted Knockback and you got Bane of Arthropods, or you wanted Smite V and you got Fire Aspect II), do it all again by either repairing the sword (merging it and another diamond sword on the crafting table screen, which removes any enchantment on the weapon), or going back down to the depths and finding more diamond.

It's a ludicrous, draining, exhaustive waste of time at present. While some good things are coming out of it, mostly it's just a time sink, in a game that really, really didn't need another time sink option.

Two missing Doctor Who episodes have been recovered! Why this is such a big deal takes a bit to explain, though there's an article on Mightygodking's blog that does a better job of getting this across, but basically, this is one of the (many) reasons Doctor Who fandom isn't like other fandoms.

Imagine, say: if Star Trek, for instance, had retained bits and pieces from the first season, two seasons from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and one season from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Your best bet to get other people interested in what you're interested in, always, is to just show them the episodes.

But what if they don't exist? While this seems baffling beyond all reason today, the BBC routinely had a habit of destroying the master tapes after initial (and very short) rebroadcasting rights had expired. That, combined with a later fire in the BBC archives, meant that many of the early episodes of Doctor Who aren't just rare, they're outright gone.

And to find even bits of the lost story arcs is a phenomenal thing. Understand: these aren't complete, start to finish episodes even now--they're essentially chapters of larger works. The intact larger works may never be found, and that's something that most fandoms just don't struggle with.

There will likely be some DVD release of even the episodes bit, likely with heavy commentary and still shots fore and aft, but Doctor Who fans are durable and enduring: we'll take that. We're just happy to have more of our show back.

Speaking of Star Trek, have some offbeat Star Trek cameos...For me personally, I knew about most of those--and others not listed!--save for Mick Fleetwood as the giant fish-man. That was just baffling.

How to make a LAN-party-optimized house! Great instructions, great construction, and what seems like a level-headed, good guy working at Google. Good to know they're not all small-minded, tin-plated dictators with delusions of godhood.

Ever wanted to throw a ball and have it walk back to you? Soon you'll be able to.

There's an upcoming LEGO/Minecraft partnership. Though I don't get why that article, and others, are saying Minecraft is saving LEGO with this move. LEGO has their own theme park, and has LEGO-built national monuments that are sent out on secure tours--once you reach that point, there's really no way to fail.

Also, have a Creeper fetish? It's made it into actual fetishwear. (Also winterwear, but latex makes it shinier.)

And Rodvik Linden makes an announcement. I will admit, I have dread based on the language, because it doesn't sound like he's speaking to other people, but directly to other middle managers, using obfuscating business-speak. And the whole statement of making the naming system "intuitive" with "more features" just chills me.

Plus, of course, the fact that he's mentioned they're going to intensely analyze and look at how to better this particular system? That means it's the new shiny. So Marketplace will continue to not be fixed. Merchants will continue to be hard-hit by the global economy and close up shop. Sims will continue to be abandoned. The not-at-all-slow attrition level at this point will continue.

Honestly, by the time they get to the end of the first quarter of 2012, to make the initial announcements? Well, I'm fairly sure there'll be a grid left, but three more months of people giving up and wandering off SL will make even more changes, and none of them good ones.

I'm just staring at the ceiling, waiting for the feeling

2011-12-09T23:57:00.001-08:00

On my wanderings tonight, I came across quite the opinionated little vixen at one of the stores I'm frequenting for their lovely Advent fare. In addition to the rest of her groups, she was, notably, in these:

*Animal Rights Advocates*
Stop Child Pornography
AGAINST DOLCETT & -TORTURE RP
Feminists
Gender Square
Second Life Anti-Gorean Council
SL Left Unity Feminist Network
Stop Violence Against Women

Hmm. That's rather a lot of strident scolding all bottled up, there. Now, to make my position clear, I'm not pro-animal cruelty, or for abuse against women. And, as irritated as I am at the movement in general at times, I still consider myself a feminist.

However, in her picks, she has this statement concerning the "AGAINST DOLCETT & -TORTURE RP" group (and yes, the group name does have that perplexing dash):This group is for everyone who is beware of the danger of role playing Dolcett, snuff and torture phantasies in SL.
I refuse to take you seriously on any of your issues until you learn to spell. Or at least use proper grammar.

So, it's taken me some time for processing, beyond the screen, but I think I've finally figured out part of why I'm just not drawn to Second Life at the moment. I think a lot of it's tied up with abandoning my store.

To be clear, I was never an effective merchant. I had fun designing things, but over the entirety of my business history--under any business name--I've sold less than twenty objects total priced over five Lindens.

I've been in SL more than five years. That's less than five objects a year.

So I was never a success as a business owner, I want to make that clear. Whatever the trick is to running a successful operation, I wasn't doing it, and I never really did make much of an effort to, past the first year. I'm not blaming anyone other than myself for the business failing.

But I'm now reflecting back on other things, and adding them up again. I never broke the bank as an escort, either. While I did do pretty good, overall, as a dancer, the bottom dropped out of dancing (at least my style of dancing) when the casinos left. I failed as a madam; I failed as an event hostess; I failed as a virtual real estate agent; I failed as a land manager.

At this point, I am facing squarely two facts: the Lindens I have, to spend on rent, shopping, and parcel decoration, are solely being funded by other people; and, while I have a strong virtual work ethic, I'm just not drawn to doing anything I've failed at in the past.

And I haven't yet found something I want to take on as a new career.

More to the point, literally the only times I'm entering into Second Life as a whole is for the various Advent calendar presents (and to be ruthless about this, I'm over 75,000 items in inventory now, and adding to that with new items is just making me depressed), or to pay rent.

And I sold off my last Caledon parcel, so I'm only paying rent to Lady Serra. And I'm even reconsidering that...as much as I love Winterfell, and want to support it, is it worth it to continue paying rent if I'm not coming into world for any other reason than buying more virtual time on a virtual medieval (ish) server?

Overall, all of these considerations are also not doing much good for the guttering holiday spirit. Part of that is that we haven't dug out any of the holiday lights, or ornaments; I haven't had the inclination or the finances to make my own ornaments (as I've done most years); and I have zero idea what to get people, either in SL or in RL.

I'm at an impasse. I'm hoping this feeling of being frozen in place will ease at some point, and I'll at least understand what ways forward remain (even if they lead to places where I walk away from Second Life). I mean, at least it would be doing something, not just standing, frozen in indecision and regret.

(Of course, the other part of the problem is currently feeling overwhelmed by the amount of fun ideas I've run across this year. Just a brief sample of the things I've been trying to decide between:

...and all of that? Just came in to start perusing this past few days.

So...lots of things to consider in the background. Hopefully, I'll manage to thread this needle--so to speak--and continue on, in some capacity, as a Second Life resident. But it's far from easy...and, as usual, the Lindens aren't helping in the least.

Not that they ever did...

I'm always in the twilight, in the shadow of your heart

2011-12-07T23:12:00.000-08:00

I never, ever, ever want to see this. That said, the concept of a Watchmen prequel comic isn't automatically a bad one; it's just that--as with so many other mythic concepts--getting it wrong is a higher likelihood than getting it right. It likely won't be Sailor Daleks wrong, but the potential's definitely there.

Kotaku, on another front entirely, weighs in on the official review of Minecraft, now that it's in open release. Yes, Minecraft is finally out of beta, and unfortunately, the general reaction has been--it was better in beta, Notch. Which is never where a game designer wants their game. Hopefully--since Notch has stepped down as CEO and lead of Mojang--Jens will listen to the game's fans, and maybe work towards improvements.

Still, what are people complaining about? Well, this for instance. Also this. And these two. And another door glitch. (Though to be fair, this is less a bug, and more a feature...) And almost countless others, including things that work in SP, but not in SMP (basically, single-player versus multi-player).

Generally, the impression is not that people are tired of Minecraft now that it's no longer 'experimental'. (Or even 'independent', by at least traditional definitions.) But many are saying--and I'd say I'm among them--that some of these bugs were reversals of earlier bug fixes, and, more to the point, should have all been fixed before leaving beta.

The Walktopus is going to be a reality! In bronze, no less. Larger-than-life sculpted version, yes. (I keep thinking I've linked this, but then I remember, I haven't updated the Train Wreck to anything in December yet...)

And I want to talk about the double-dozen hours' war between Regretsy and PayPal. To bring everyone up to speed who doesn't know: Regretsy, in addition to being a repository for pointless, surreal and bizarre Etsy crafts (and makers), has also come up with several innovative ideas to get necessary funds to people that need them--including children, the poor, and those in hospitals and hospices.

The latest round was a mini-fund to support two hundred deserving families in poverty, to help them with actual financial donations (to pay bills or pay rent), as well as buy toys to give to the children of these families. (That's covered in this entry, by the way, and also touched on in greater depth by the Green Geek Girl.)

So what went wrong? PayPal did. Both by deciding--spuriously, as it turns out--that Ms. Winchell was rooking vast numbers of unaware donators, but also, by deciding on a whim that their vague internal policies didn't matter if they decided they didn't.

And, as a result--at least, a couple days' back--killing the entire charitable effort, because PayPal not only froze Ms. Winchell's business PayPal account, but also her personal account, which has never been used for any of her charitable efforts on behalf of Regretsy.

There was outcry. There was a great deal of outcry. People on Twitter freaked out. People on Tumblr freaked out. The Consumerist blog published a long list of every single PayPal contact address they could find.

Then PayPal posted an official statement, which is still--slowly--filtering through to the screaming mobs hungry for PayPal's blood. But to be absolutely fair to both sides, all of this could have been avoided if they'd have had more concrete, less flimsy and vague policies established in the first place.

Now, at this point, PayPal's made their own donation to the needy families, as well as refunding seized funds from both her established PayPal accounts (which is severely after the fact, as she'd already refunded, on her own, more than two thousand dollars' donated to the charitable effort). I suppose it's a case of all's well that ends well, but as Ms. Winchell puts it, "We see the erosion of customer care in every sector. No one knows your name. No one makes eye contact. No one thanks you [...] And Paypal forgets your fees are attached to people who are trying to make a living, or facilitate something good for other people."

She's absolutely right.

Finally, Discovery's long-running and highly popular show, Mythbusters, has been placed on indefinite hold while an investigation is conducted on what exactly launched a seven-hundred pound cannon through a house and a car, and could have (five minutes before or after--seriously killed or injured people. I don't think Discovery (or parent company ABC) will find them at fault, but it's a scary, scary brush with an almost-disaster.

Hopefully, more later. Still severely disenchanted with SL. Trying to work through it.

out of the wreckage that I do

2011-11-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

We start with this:

Sxxxx Hxxxxx: I got tossed out running from rolling restarts and came back wearing an egg and standing in a flower planter

And this:

Axxxx Zxxxxxxxxx: Yep, they broke the code today and are rolling back on it. Apparently they found an issue that can cause sims to crash. Not sure why that's such an issue now when it wasn't 6 weeks ago....

No clue. But this is from the status update:

[POSTED] Rolling Restarts BlueSteel, LeTigre, and Magnum RC servers

Posted by Status Desk on November 29th, 2011 at 04:35 pm PST
[Posted 4:30PM PST, 29 November 2011]

Rolling restarts on the BlueSteel, LeTigre, and Magnum RC server channels will be starting at approximately 5:00AM Wednesday morning. Please refrain from rezzing no copy objects, making inworld L$ transactions and please save all builds. We will also be introducing a new channel named Second Life RC KT which is a temporary channel that will be used to test an upgrade expected to roll out to all of our servers over the next 30 days. This will not impact region functionality

and later:

[POSTED] Rolling Restarts Main Server

Posted by Status Desk on November 29th, 2011 at 04:52 pm PST
[POSTED 4:15PM PST, 29 November 2011]

Rolling restarts for regions on the main Second Life Server channel will commence shortly. Please save all builds and refrain from making purchases during this time.

Now, I won't lie, for the past week I've been severely disenchanted with SL. I think I've been in exactly twice since Thanksgiving, flat out. I'm not employed on the grid anymore, I'm not particularly loyal to anyone, I'm not dating, and we don't currently have excess funds to spend on Lindens so I can't shop. Until another project hits me, that I actually want to build, or a hunt comes along that I want to participate in, I think I'm feeling some understandable disconnection from things.

But this still bothers me. What did they break today, that required such an extreme rollback of the entire grid, that was different from the sims crashing randomly last week? What was so vital that it required kicking more people off the grid, that they didn't manage to fix during the last mass rollback and restart?

Finally, a way to get darker colors in the oversaturated, vibrant landscape of Diablo 3. It's about damned time. But the truly sad thing, for me, in watching that video? Is that Blizzard could have done that themselves, at any time. Come on, people. Is it really that hard to listen to the people who will buy the game and maybe not paint everything vibrant teal and gold?

Moving on. You've seen the horses. You've seen the sidekicks. You may have seen the auto-deathing, or the strangely animated cart. You might also know that hopping can save warriors from giant attacks.

But did you realize bears cannot attack you when you're spinning through the neck of your horse? (It's a unique riding position, I believe only found in certain sections of Skyrim.)

In other bear news, freezing bears in Skyrim is still a really bad idea.

Finally, you will notice a pop-up that's activating (should be only once per unique viewer, tell me if that glitches) with a little widget to help American citizens call their Senators to stop the passage of PIPA through the Senate. If you're not American, it's not for you; just close it, and it shouldn't pop up again.

If you are American, however, please consider filling out the form. The site does not share your personal info, and tells you up-front what will happen--a staffer will take your information, call you to discuss talking points, then transfer you to your local Senator. It's about as painless a process as it gets, and believe me, this is really important. Please help if you can.

I scrape my knees, I scrape my hands until they bleed

2011-11-23T15:25:00.000-08:00

You may notice a small censorship logo to the left of this entry. I've read enough on SOPA to be really, really terrified at the implications. Just concerning this blog alone, there would be major changes. To wit:

If ANYONE entered a complaint, I could not criticize the Lindens, or Second Life, or use Second Life as a phrase without official permission (plus, face felony jail time);
If ANYONE entered a complaint, I could not link back to content anywhere else that I did not originate (plus, face felony jail time);
If ANYONE entered a complaint, I could not use graphics containing content that I did not originate, but instead, only manipulated (in artistic or photorealistic ways) (plus, face felony jail time);
If ANYONE entered a complaint, I could not mention musical bands, artists, songs, lyrics (including the blog titles) or descriptions that could be matched to existing bands, artists, songs, or lyrics (plus, face felony jail time);
If ANYONE entered a complaint, I could not quote literary sources, literary quotes, or writers in small ways or large (plus, face felony jail time);
If ANYONE entered a complaint, I could not display ads, or pictures from Amazon, or graphics linked to other blogs, or text links to YouTube (plus, face felony jail time);
And all of this could be completely pointless anyway, because if ANYONE complained about copyright violation to my website provider, for ANY reason, this blog could disappear entirely (And I might still be sent to jail with felony charges).

It's a very, VERY badly written law. If you're reading this, and live in the States, please consider joining the fight in any way you can.

In the meantime, while we live in fairly uncensored (ish) lands, have part one, part two and part three of MightyGodKing's Literal Titles series. Some of them are really, really accurate; some of them are really, really funny as well.

While I have ethical issues with the parenting evidenced in this Skyrim video, I will also say that if both parents are gamers, that it's going to be part of her environment growing up anyway, and her father, at least, seems determined to integrate that--and her choices as a budding gamer--into parenting education. So it's not all bad. Still, I agree with many respondents after the article--"People don't want to be sword" is really good advice any way you take it.

New World Notes mentions the departure of Kim Salzer, former VP of Marketing, from Linden Lab. Based on information read there, and information I've tracked down from other sources, I'm thinking she's responsible for three things I really, really loathed hearing about in connection with the Lab:

1. She tried to co-brand virtual animals (especially Ozimal bunnies) with Linden Lab, which was both a slashing mark of nepotistic favoritism, AND encouraging the wrong thing for customer retention;
2. She regimented communication between departments, so whereas before, anyone could talk to anyone, now the people behind Concierge support can't get answers on anything without three emails and a priority-courier envelope sent across the hall;
3. She was responsible (though perhaps not solely) for the proliferation of "Be a sparkly vampire just like those characters you've read about!" campaigns that are now seen EVERYWHERE (and hey, she might have ALSO been responsible for the insanity of the "Be a Na'vi in Second Life!" ads).

Based on the above, I'm thinking I'm happy she's gone, but on the other hand, I'm a cynic and mistrustful, so there you go.

To bring up another reference for "Navi", have Meekakitty's take on Link's little fluttery helper from Zelda: Link to the Past. It's a plaintive, sweet, and oddly sincere tribute to what's essentially the most annoying thing in the game.

Did I mention the new Saint's Row Zombie option? I'm not entirely sure what it means by doing the sounds yourself, but maybe that's exactly what it says--you get an option for "Zombie" to record you grunting, moaning and asking for braiiiins...

In the meantime, back to Skyrim, there's now a downloadable mod to remove all spiders from the game. I haven't played Skyrim, I don't know how annoying the spiders are; what I do know is that both Miss Kamenev and my WoW-playing friend are utterly, utterly scared of things with eight legs, so for them? This mod makes Skyrim playable!

Well. As playable as self-impaling followers, floating wagons and circus performers in armor can be.

The Key of Awesome returns with some questions on the missing plot points in Dark Knight, which...yeah, I'm kind of behind. Unlike some of my friends, I liked the film, but there are some glaring plot holes that refuse comprehension.

For those of you who play Minecraft, there's now a sound mod, along with an assortment of sound packs people have created. If you're like a lot of us, and really, really hate the new sounds, this is an option to deal with that...that doesn't feature waiting for Notch to fix things, if he ever will.

And just in time for the holiday season, you can get Vat19's 26-pound gummi Party Bear! It's not a prop, it's fully edible, but it doesn't go cheap. Still, it pretty much is a party sensation, guaranteed.

Finally, to wrap this up, have a taste of the Extra Credits team taking on Deus Ex: Human Revolution as an exercise in transhumanism and wealth disparity. Those are pretty hefty weights to hang on a video game, but watch the video and you'll see why the game not only shoulders them bravely, but does it in style. Enjoy!

wash your face, dry your eyes, you've been waiting a long long time

2011-11-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

Still deeply in love with Muppet Doctor Who, and at that same link, a Fairey-inspired Darkwing Duck print. (Both are available for sale, I think, elsewhere on the site.)

Is it just me? The Lindens are starting to sound pretty damned desperate for cash.

"I don't know why the world's leading designers on social media user experience would have made something as creepy feeling as the way this new seamless sharing was instituted, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's because behind the scenes Facebook is built by arrogant young people living charmed lives and sure they know what's best for the rest of us." While that link's specifically concerning Facebook, I wonder what the average median Linden age is these days?

If you've ever wanted a really good example of how physics work, to explain to students or children? This would work quite nicely.

They're terming the new Avengers posters "sleek" at First Showing, and I tend to agree--I especially adore the subtlety of portraying Bruce Banner, with just that mere hint of green light over his face. Very nicely done.

This--and everything else in that particular stream--are all photographs. They're a phenomenal collection of still lives, and every single one of them looks like the old masters to me, with oil and gouache and age crackling the paint. But they're all photographs. Seriously impressive.

In the meantime, a devoted World of Warcraft player sent me a stunning link with inside information on the Activision merger, and it's all sorts of jaw-dropping. If you have the time, I recommend you read the whole post on Team Liquid, but I did want to capture some highlights for posterity.

All of these are quotes from Activision CEO, Robert Kotick.

"On the Blizzard side, [we need to] really be figuring out things like the StarCraft business model for the future, with in-game advertising and sponsorship, [which have] really not been something that has moved the dial for anybody in the videogame industry, but that we think presents tremendous opportunity for the future." (as quoted by Shock News.)

"With respect to the franchises that don’t have the potential to be exploited every year across every platform, with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of, over time, becoming $100 million-plus franchises, that’s a strategy that has worked very well for us." (as quoted by Gamasutra.)

"Now that we have the weight of being the largest payer of royalties to the first-parties of any third-party company, I definitely see us as starting to influence hardware design, and they're thinking about the evolution of the next generation of hardware." (as quoted by Play.TM.)

"I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform...They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates are likely to slow...If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony." (as quoted by Gamasutra.)

"[Y]ou know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further." (as quoted on the Destructoid blog.)

"In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit. Today, we'll (charge) $100 for a guitar. You might add a microphone or drums; you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you'll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today." (as quoted by MMO Champion.)

"We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." (as quoted by NeoSeeker.)

"We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression." (as quoted in the same source.)

"Our significant accomplishments in 2009 are the result of the expertise and skills of our employees around the world. Their hard work and commitment to excellence made us stronger even during difficult times." (as quoted by Kotaku, and this after firing over 180 employees scattered through five different smaller studios that had sourced work for Blizzard or Activision, three of which were closed outright.)

So if you've been getting the feeling that Blizzartd's now all about the pocket change--namely yours--becoming theirs? This is why.

Of course, World of Warcraft just lost 800,000 subscribers. Maybe Kotick is too busy counting the millions earned from Call of Duty to care, but then again...

Finally, there's a lot of catcalling between Notch and the Yogscast fans over what happened at Minecon, and the scary part is Notch is the guy who sounds like the insane crazed fan, here. Simon and Lewis, the folks behind the Yogscast, issued a simple statement when all of this broke, saying they needed to get to the plane, off the plane, and back home to England (from Las Vegas) before they could properly respond. But they're the ones being accused of everything but lighting a goat on fire in the convention hall, and trying to sacrifice babies on an altar made of con guests.

Me, I'm not keen on the controversy coming up, especially where it involves Minecraftchick (because, dear gods, is she hateable--she's got raccoon eyes, she's insane, and she has at least one video up on her channel which is pretty much the Festival of Deathing); for me, easy targets don't make it easier to be outraged, it means we're spending our time kicking the puppy.

And the puppy has candyfloss-pink hair. That's not a good strong target, that's more of a pathetic, squishy target.

So mostly, I'm waiting until I get a statement from Simon or Lewis, as to what exactly happened, because honestly, what I think happened? Notch heard it second-hand, inflated by someone (which might even have been his Director of Fun, who organized and hosted all of Minecon; frankly, we just don't know), and then LOST HIS MIND on Twitter.

That's one of the problems with the internet; it's so easy to rant with zero validity to what we're ranting on. Trust me, I know this. Hells, I live this.

But either way, more later, when I hear things. I'll let you know.

southbound buses, Peter Pan, they left it up to us again

2011-11-20T18:08:00.000-08:00

So, this week is my nigh-compulsory urging of family members, friends, and random strangers to tune in to the Loading Ready Run crew and their ongoing charity donation drive, Desert Bus for Hope. It's been going for five years now, raising money for Child's Play, which is a marvelous charity well worth supporting.

"We play the worst game ever made until people stop giving us money."
~ Graham Stark

If you don't know, Child's Play is a charity established in 2003, to directly support children in hospitals (long-term and short-term). Their figuring, specifically, was to support kids who aren't coming out of the hospital. The founders thought that they might as well talk to their gaming industry contacts, at the least, and see if they could get some videogames and a playable system donated to their local hospital, and from there it became an official charity.

At this point Child's Play is international, supports donations both to local hospitals directly and to the organization generally, and also takes stuff over money--in fact, as much as they want to keep the donations coming in, they've said if you have a pile of coloring books and crayons you want to give to a hospital, by all means, go do that.

In the meantime, here's a little more information on Desert Bus from Shamus Young--it's not really in-depth, but it has TONS of great links with more information on why the LRR cast plays Desert Bus, who made it, and what they're supporting that I haven't already mentioned.

Go. Give them money. Challenge them to wear strange hats. We move on.

I heard this morning that part of the confusion behind JIRA issues, and the whole vote/watch debate, is that concierge support staffers are telling people to vote over watching. I cannot adequately convey just how many brain cells screamed and died, hearing that. I am shocked to the depths of the person next to me, that's how baffled I am.

People. Lindens. Linden people. You CANNOT continue to tell people to do one thing, when YOU CHANGED YOUR OWN RULES so that doing that thing no longer matters. There are so many problems with this, but I just want to toss a few questions for my readers at large:

1. Concierge staffers: who's the one telling you to tell people to vote, not watch, for JIRA issues?
2. Lindens above the concierge support level: who's the one telling you to tell them to vote, not watch, for JIRA issues?
3. Any passing Lindens: how do we get you to STOP telling people to vote, not watch, for JIRA issues? Is there someone I can call? Can I hassle people? Should I respond to Linden tweets?

I'm dead serious, this has to change, guys. This is ridiculous and stupid, people. You're making the gaming industry look bad, stop it.

Random things to round this out 'cos I want to go back to pondering what to donate and when:

Artificial meat has been invented! Yes, it may look like pallid strips of scallops, but they're working on that. The scientific minds behind the process are pretty sure they can get it shelf-ready in a year.

Friend of mine tossed me pictures of the train cemetary in Bolivia. Apparently, the town that hosts this enigmatic thing is best known for vast salt flats, but it's also a major transport hub for the region, hence, the train cemetary, of the trains that came in and never left again. (I'm especially fond of Rebecca, but they're all cool.)

A new study has surfaced on 'hereafter' syndrome, which is the joke that when we enter a new room, we forget what we're "here after". Apparently, it's actually a thing. That thing being, passages into new rooms act in our brains like boundary events. So short-term memory closes off, and new buffer space is emptied, to allow for recognition of, and responses to, new information. In other words, walking through doorways really does make you forget things.

And finally, a new lighter-than-air metal alloy has been invented. There were already lighter-than-air constructed substances--they're called "aerogels"--but their composition makes for random configuration. Because of this lack of internal structure, aerogels are not very strong. This new substrate (a collection of hollow nickel-phosphorus tubes arranged into an organized lattice, with each tube being between 100 and 500 nanometers thick) not only compresses well, and bounces back to its original shape without damage, but is very, very strong.

I see space flight in this material's future. And they can bring along artificial meat! Yay!

up and down my spine go shock waves now, tumbling heels over head

2011-11-15T01:24:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 14, 2011

While most of the issues contained in our Known Issues list (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=271603) are scheduled to be fixed with the build going live on Tuesday, November 15, we wanted to make you aware of one that may be affecting you if you have a supergroup or villaingroup base.

Please note that base defense items will be attacking you whether you have a supergroup or a villaingroup base equipped with any defense item. The issue affecting their behavior has not yet been resolved and now affects either type of base. As a temporary work-around, you can remove defense items until this issue has been addressed.

We appreciate your patience in this matter and thank you for your continued support!

The City of Heroes Freedom team

Gah! Are they kidding?!?

So, basically, since I'm IN two supergroups, but don't actually own either one, I can't disable any base defenses. So I just have to not go to my own bases. Argh.

Samsung recently acquired a new technology, and they're going to be putting out flexible computer devices in a very short time. (There's an actual prototype picture attached to that separate article, since the first article's photo is broken.)

Pondering things to eat in Skyrim? Gus Mastrapa's done the dirty work for you. Apparently, the answer is everything.

More Skyrim news: in addition to people wearing baskets, gyroscopically frozen polar bears, and dragon-riding horses, there are now detective chickens.

And that's leaving out all mention of the horses that defy all known laws of physics and the many amusing ways to die.

(For anyone who's interested, the How to Die in Skyrim series is likely going to be a long one, so in addition to part two, above, there's also part one, three, four, five and six.)

In other news, who remembers ATLUS' giant crane game, back when they had their own sim? Now there's a way to duplicate that...sort of. Gizmodo's set up their own giant crane game, in their gallery, but there's a catch--people near it can't play it, just people online.

If you choose to play, and you actually win a prize, it will be dropped down the chute of the physical game, and whomever's closest gets to grab it. If you win a specially-marked ball, the prize will both be dropped down the chute, and sent to your home. Try it if you want, but remember, there are long wait lines, so be as patient as you can.)

And if you're one of the Minecraft players reading along, you will understand the pain of this player. (Of course, me, I'm wondering why she was wandering around with all those diamonds in the first place...but I'm known to build chests on the fly and drop things in them walking through forests.)

More randomly, some owls like to be petted. Who knew?

And Blizzard reports that their flagship MMO, World of Warcraft, has lost 800,000 subscribers, and they're blaming that loss on the players. Yeah, great way to win people back, Blizzard. Are you sure you didn't hire any former Lindens to write that press release?

And I'll end this with an elegantly hostile teapot. That definitely would add an intriguing tension to the question, "More tea?"

out pops the cracker, smacks you in the head; knifes you in the neck, kicks you in the teeth

2011-11-14T20:11:00.000-08:00

(from the Train Wreck Love Life album; image courtesy Historic LOLs.)

Though to be fair, the love life, these days, is fairly free of wreckage. I am, of course, still wary of this, and waiting for bad things to happen is just part of what I do. Still, I did have to link this, for obvious reasons.

All right, in other news.

The resizeable mesh project seems to be zipping along; apparently the Lindens are working with him to actually implement the coding changes he's working on, so I tend to agree--this is far from the worst thing that could happen.

Why are there banana Dachshunds? Does anyone have an answer? (There's also apple owls, scallion cats, and carrot bunnies, among others, but the banana pups confuse me most.)

May I present to you the Origami Apartment! It folds, it pleats, it maneuvers to entertain. (Which made a friend remember the Hong Kong transforming apartment, and yeah--different execution, same basic concept.)

"I'm appalled that Linden Lab is so completely disreputable and its employees apparently so completely incapable of identifying ethical behaviour or even understanding just how badly this reflects on them, that they have taken absolutely no action to protect their rapidly diminishing reputation."

That was from a blog post made back in August (not mine), so the bulk of it is dealing with issues that have already been resolved (the great Buy an Ozimal bunny, it'll help Second Life promotion springs to mind), or issues that plainly won't ever be resolved, no matter what amount of wrongdoing comes to light (JLU and the Dragonfish data leak). Still, there's valid information there, which leads me to the entry posted yesterday.

This came in the mail this afternoon:

From: "Second Life" {secondlife@e.secondlife.com}
To: emilly.orr@gmail.com
Date: Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 3:31 PM
Subject: Please disregard earlier Second Life Renewal Reminder message

I could just stop there, but hey, I'll carry this out entire.

Dear Emilly

Our sincere apologies. You recently received an email from no-reply@secondlife.com in error. The message subject was "Second Life Renewal Reminder," and it stated that your account would be charged for the cost of a renewal of a Premium Membership, and on a date that is in the past. Please disregard that email. We will not be charging your account for the stated fees.

Again, please disregard our previous message and accept our apologies for any confusion. If you have additional questions, please contact support.

Best Wishes,

Linden Lab and the Second Life Team

Now, there are a few interesting things here. First, the Lindens have moved from "Dear Emilly Orr" to "Dear Emilly". I'm a neo-Victorian online, not (so much) RL, so while I note the added 'familiarity', it doesn't offend me.

Secondly, it's an apology letter. The Lindens actually apologized. They don't do that. In the half-decade I've been involved with SL, they've never done that to my recollection (at least, without temporizing it heavily to make the apology sound like something they're doing for the courtesy of it, but it 'shouldn't count'). So...how many residents received this letter? And how many complaints, notecards, IMs and phone calls did they get?

Third, yeah, let's talk about the mention of calling support with additional concerns. First, it would have been nice if they'd provided an actual support number, but I also know that if I dig long enough on the site, the phone number turns up.

Here's the problem with that, though--while I, personally, have had good luck the few times I've needed to call (and only twice as a Premium account holder; the other times I've been Basic), by and large the average report is that if one is not a Premium member, one does not call support. Period. Because there's no help on their help lines, for non-Premium members.

So...they're stating they sent the email in error; they're apologizing (and profusely, for them, which is even more stunning); and they're asking people to call support if they need any other help.

You know, those tentative urges towards resubscribing as a Premium member? (Not so much for the Lindenhomes, because they're fairly useless for me, and not so much for the "gifts" designed for Premium members, because I have more than enough virtual things, but mainly for the member-only sandbox options.) They've been fairly effectively quashed by this. I think it's going to be at least six months if not longer before I think it might, possibly, be a good idea again.

this town is crazy; nobody cares

2011-11-13T22:18:00.001-08:00

From: no-reply@secondlife.com
To: emilly.orr@gmail.com

Dear Emilly Orr,

We hope you're enjoying your Second Life.

Well, off and on. This week it's mostly been off.

This is a reminder that your Second Life Premium Quarterly Plan will be renewed on February 22, 2009, at which time you'll be charged $22.50(USD).

Wait, what?

You don't need to do anything; renewal and billing are automatic.

Let's go back to the fact that I don't have a premium account. Oh, and that it's 2011. What?

As a Premium Quarterly Plan participant,

--which I'm not--

you're eligible to extend your Membership to an Premium Annual Plan at a special rate of just $6.00 per month or $72 billed annually.

That's awfully nice of you. Why is this just coming to my inbox now? Because let me tell you, 2009? Two whole years ago.

To review or modify your account details, or to change or cancel your
Membership Plan, visit https://secondlife.com/account.

Right, which I check off and on, have checked off and on since 2009. By the way, you've never mentioned you're billing me for anything, since I stopped being a Premium acccount-holder. So I'm back to "Wait, what?"

If you've forgotten your password, you can go to https://secondlife.com/account/request.php to start the password recovery process. As part of the process, an email with a time sensitive link will be sent to the email address you registered with.

Right, knew that...still confused.

Best Wishes,

And to you as well, and my best hopes that you'll go into rehab soon,

Linden Lab and the Second Life Team
http://www.secondlife.com

Linden Research, Inc.
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
USA

What the hell is going on??

twine your vines around me, drop your branches in my path

2011-11-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

CoolVL is finally taking its first baby steps towards independent branding, as described here. It's actually a much easier install, now; both the mesh and non-mesh branches are now stable releases; and I just went in and wandered about a bit, and it doesn't seem like there are any major visual changes. It's just easier to use and easier to download. Not too bad, Mr. Beauchamp.

In tech news, there's now a process in the process of being patented that could permanently change eye color. Right now the process only works--and only for a select few cases--for changing brown eyes to blue--or, more precisely, burning out all melanin to result in a pale blue iris.

The process itself doesn't worry me, though I admit to being slightly unnerved about lasers burning anything out of my eye--but what does worry me is I can't shake the feeling that this was an invention without a direct need, until Lashisse--oh, excuse me, Latisse--came along. With so many women using Latisse and having their eyes turn brown...this was bound to happen, right?

In the meantime, office supplies porn. (Sadly, some of the best ones are no longer available.) I bring you:

the wooden block memoblock (no longer available)
the balding memo pad (from Pantogar, a Chinese hair-restoring company, available only as a giveaway through Hong Kong and Taiwan)
the memo spa (note: that's the case price; the individual price is supposedly lower, but the company website isn't coming up at present)
gingko and leaf-shaped "Leaf-It" memo notes (they're also priced on the high side, and based on the note at the bottom, dated 2010, may no longer be available)
and floppy disc shaped memo pads (now available in colors!)

In gaming news, I can't imagine why anyone would want to actually play Saints' Row, but at least one fellow of my acquaintance has it on pre-order and is eagerly awaiting the delivery date. (And we both agree, Stiv really needs a game in which a "dildo bat" is an actual weapon.)

Both those links, btw? Not safe for work. NOOOOT safe for work. Just so you know.

Continuing (sorta) in the NSFW vein, an article on Kotaku takes on just how hard it is to overcome scandal in Japan. Far harder than in the west (unless you're Britney Spears), any hint of scandal seems to taint nigh irrevocably voice actresses--who aren't, overwhelmingly, known for their faces or bodies in the first place! Still, it's not a tale without something of a happy ending--one of the biggest scandals nearly took Yuko Miyamura down, yet she's still working in the voice acting industry, and even showed up in at least one live-action film. (In the end, she triumphed...sort of...but she's still not at the level she was, and she'll never be there again. In Japan, apparently, scandal never fully leaves.)

Meanwhile, one of Sweden's largest game conventions, Gamex, tried to get the Piratpartiet to attend for a few months before the convention...then, mysteriously, a week before Gamex was scheduled to start, they were told they weren't welcome and to not attend.

For anyone who doesn't know, Piratpartiet--the "Pirate Party"--is a political organization based in Sweden but working in both Sweden and the European Union at large; their goals are primarily reform of copyright law and abolishing the patent system. I don't agree with their goals, but they seem earnest and definitely not advocates of violence or severe political unrest. How'ver, I am with the article's author, when he asked why they'd been invited to Gamex in the first place--and even listed as a sponsor on the banner?

In the graphic novel, From Hell, written by Alan Moore, he posits that the "true" Jack the Ripper was in actuality Sir William Gull. This is one theory in a morass of theories that abound as to who, actually, committed the murders, and for what reason.

Now another contender has stepped forward, with an interesting piece of evidence--the great-great-great-great nephew of Sir John Williams (known to his family at the time as "Uncle Jack") discovered a black-handled surgeon's knife that he believes to be the murder weapon of Jack the Ripper. He's now published a book with his conclusions.

And Simon Pegg may be moving soon. That is all.

like the spider spins its rings between the trees

2011-11-05T02:49:00.001-07:00

And back to the last names JIRA, mentioned earlier.
If LL's goal was to somehow attract new users by eradicating last names and introducing display names, they miscalculated ... once again. Instead Linden Lab created a two tier class system where veteran users look down on the 'Residents' and avoid interaction with them. Good job, LL!
Pretty much what I've been saying all along.
I feel sorry for the people stuck with one of the "Resident" names. They are hard to refer to, hard to remember, hard to feel as a real others in human relationships. So many long term SL residents love and identify with the names we have chosen for ourselves.
That's a great way of putting it...hard to refer to, hard to remember, hard to feel as a real [other] in relationships...Yeah. Isn't the whole point of a "second life" in the first place to feel as if we have more opportunities, not more restrictions?3) Oldbies need to start paying attention to Display Names. When a person sets a DN, that's the name they want to go by, and it's kind of rude to ignore it unless you are unable to see it. And along those lines, TPVs need to accommodate Display Names.
This one's from a list that someone else posted of their suggestions on how to get around this, and I have to say, this one just baffles me. Maybe it's me and where I go, but the whole "that's my chosen name" vibe here? How does that work, exactly? I mean, sure, if someone's named "Becky1984 Resident", and her display name says "Beckiah", or hells, even "Becky" without the numbers...okay, yeah, that's fair, we have a clue. We have a way to refer to her that she seems to prefer. But if that selfsame person is named "Becky1984 Resident", and her display name says "ƤŏρˠƇąŦ ĴƐĽĹȳ"...first off, how am I supposed to take that seriously, "oldbie" or not, and second, that's only assuming a) I can tell it's a name, and b), I can even see the Unicode characters chosen! What if it's something like "rapemeallnightlong" (which I've seen) or "Justy's lil whoregirl" (which I've also seen). There is no way, in any version of life, I'm going to talk to anyone and call them "whoregirl" for the whole conversation. Screw that.

I must comment on #3 about display names. If the person with the DN uses unreadable characters or flips the name backwards or upside down they I ignore them. That was cute for awhile now its just silly.

Obviously, I wasn't the only person with a problem with #3. There was also this one:I don't think it's any more rude to ignore display names than it is to put up a display name that is unreadable, which too many do. After several frustrating weeks, I turned them off. And I'm not about to go hunting ASCII characters whenever I want to talk to someone. Now that the majority of new account names are just as hard to read, it's rather a lose-lose situation.
They're not wrong.

With regards to everyone who is supporting this JIRA because they dislike the last name "Resident": That's not visible in any v2 viewer.

That's not true. I've seen it both in CoolVL (a TPV with Viewer 2 integration) and under the actual Second Life Viewer 2 (which I use until it eats my brain and I have to flee again). I never know what makes Resident show up in both my chosen TPV and Viewer 2; I do know it doesn't do it all the time. But it does still show "Resident" as a last name, with some people, under Viewer 2.

I need to make mention of this "placeholder" thing in v2. The "Resident" last name IS visible in v2 if (a) whoever is looking has "usernames" turned on under Preferences > General, and (b) whenever any object is scripted to output an avatar's username instead of it's display name.

A-ha! And that could be why I've seen it.

As it stands, every user name made from here on IS unique, no two people can have the same name. At least with a last name to differentiate, two or more people can have the same first name eg. Sara Pickering, Sara Modine, etc... otherwise anyone else wanting to use Sara either has to try a different spelling eg. Sarah, Sarra, Sarrah, or be forced to add other letters or numbers eg. SaraJane, SaraLee, Sara1987, etc. I do not think it is fair to be forced to make a name in this fashion. No one in RL has to add numbers to their name, and while I realise this is not RL, new residents should not have to become numbers, unless they really want and so willingly choose.

Precisely.

I always saw the surname concept as a cradle for pseudonymity. Obviously the new and fast throw-away name concept has no significant impact in usage, so LL should encourage the use of proper pseudonyms, against the social network hype. It's fun to get use of it, establish an identity and maybe use it for everything else on the web. I think that's a powerful approach to make us get attached with the grid and even a way of subtle viral marketing.

The Lindens never really got viral marketing, I doubt they'll learn at this point.

About this time folks began mentioning other JIRAs that--while they do not directly relate--do contribute to the general problem. Like the new sign-up process, which no longer explains that the chosen log-in name will BE the user's name. That's on the huge side.

Along with that, this:If LL wants more (dedicated) users, the burden of finding a good available name should not be on the newcomers.
Providing a choice of last names lessens that burden, if explained properly.
which is also a damned good point.

At the time display names were announced there were hundreds of well-reasoned responses by residents expressing concerns over the way this new "feature" was being implemented. LL chose to ignore most of those concerns and plowed ahead. After living with the "feature" for nearly a year we see that those concerns were indeed justified.

Absolutely.
Bring back last names, keep the display names if they really serve a purpose, and leave display names out of search since people change them every day.
Short and to the point.
Don't you also have to "watch" a Jira in order to be taken into account? I thought so.
YES. Remember, WATCH, don't VOTE. I simply can't say that enough.

InWorldz allows you to choose whichever first and last name you wish.

Halfway through the comment chain, and someone finally brings up InWorldz. I'm surprised it took so long.
WE @$%&@% HATE THE RESIDENT LAST NAMES! You've had MONTHS to hear from us about it, before, and after, it was shoved into place!

You've turned what was something classy, into just another second-rate site like all the others. The "Resident" situation, creates nothing but ill will, and it simply has to stop.
Aggressively stated, but also brings up two good points--first, that the removal of last names only causes unnecessary division, and secondly, that the Lindens just don't listen to even constructive criticism. I was on the Ursula/Zindra front lines, too, with blog posts, at office hours, and speaking with Lindens via notecard and IM: and in the end, they listened to none of us, even those of us who were solid paying residents who owned multiple sims.

In a sense, the Lindens haven't changed...they still don't learn, they still don't listen. Sad.
The lower casing of existing names is stupid and is just cover code, seeing as LSL still returns the proper capitalization, even if the person signed up with RanDomnAme Lastname, thus making useless code and creating a social rift.
Yes.

It is just lazy programming for sure. They could have implemented all of the name changing code for their internal purposes and interoperability with other systems, without changing a single thing in the way we see and use the names in game, with no controversy, and little notice by the rest of us.

But, they didn't... they made a big public fiasco out of it, all because the programmers chose to take the shoddy approach, and inconvenience all of us, instead of writing a little bit more code on their end to accommodate their interoperability plan.

Yes as well.

I don't like the two 'classes' of users this change is creating inworld.

I don't either.
While "Resident" is not and has never been a last name (it's placeholder for backwards compatibility with clients and scripts that do not understand single-name-usernames), I have to agree with the community aspects people are talking about. It used to be cool to bump into somebody with the same last name as you, now... not so cool. If you want people to join Second Life and stick around, they have to feel like they're part of something greater than themselves. You don't get an e-mail address to be part of a community, but you do get a Second Life account for that reason.
Also accurate.

In a year of frequent and rather dumb initiatives the introduction of user names rises to the very top of the charts. Many others have expressed why they have to go. Bring back second names please.

Also yes. And then this to tie this one up:I often have felt second class. There's and automatic "noob" stigma attached to me, but I'm far from a noob. I decided to start over, and even though I'm a well-rounded, experienced SL citizen, I get treated otherwise because of the Resident name.

It even drives me crazy when greeter bots and other scripts in SL identify me in open chat with my Resident name. Let's just broadcast it to the whole world shall we?
This is something that's been puzzling me for a bit--we used to have to sign in to the JIRA using our first and last name. That's no longer the case? Save that when I sign into the JIRA, I still have to use my first and last name.

So what name do no-name "Residents" use? And isn't that also part of the problem?

I know I can't take one more step towards you, 'cos all that's waiting is regret

2011-11-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Steam Emporium (and a tip of the hat to Miss Terry Lightfoot for finding it). Among my favorites: their strange and wonderful bookends collection, and their steam walking sticks collection. Most of these items are for sale, but keep in mind that they are one-of-a-kind collectibles of their type, so prices are high.

Towards more American-centric creations, Dippin' Dots has filed for bankruptcy. Obscurely, they also assert that they will remain in business. I guess futuristic ice cream isn't as profitable as they thought it would be, all those years ago.

More news from the world beyond the screen--today is Bank Transfer Day. To that end, here's a list of seven banks that are actually amazing at customer service and fairly high-yield checking and savings accounts.

In other news, I'm introducing Surviving the World on the sidebar. Dante Shepherd is a research scientist working out of Maryland in a fairly prestigious thinktank, and this is what he does in his spare time. Lucky us, because he's funny, smart, and well worth reading. I've been following him for a while and I've finally decided he needs to be a daily read.

And for some unknown reason, the FBI is suspicious of Second Life. Yeah, I have no clue why either.

And finally, over on Laughing Squid, there's mention of the new Kina Grannis video: using 288,000 jelly beans--provided by Jelly Belly, of course--and taking over two years to complete, start to finish. Even better? It's not a bad little song. Kudos to her, and kudos to Jelly Belly for donating the beans.

The best part? Joining her mailing list gets you a free download of the acoustic version of the song. A great stop-motion vid and a free song just for getting news about the artist? I'm there.

Back to the last names JIRA, last seen here:Strange that just a seemingly minor change like this could cause Second Life to lose so much of it's charm. Regardless of intentions, it's a comlpete mess as it is and really ought to be fixed.
Spelling not corrected, and partially, that's because it did make Second Life different from other MMOs, and even other social networks (because let's be fair, SL is both, and neither).
On Blue Mars the log in is unknown to the public and the display name is all that is shown. It was great (sarcasm) to have someone take my name, throw numbers and ascii into it and walk off laughing. Last names mean individuality, an individuality which was taken away. Resident was not the way to go.
Again the charge (and the not at all inaccurate charge) of impersonation of existing names and avatars, which is a real problem. (And yet another problem that the Lindens seem to care nothing about.)I believe removing this option only makes it easier for people to make alts that grief. I'm not saying that people with the last name resident are griefers/smappers/bots etc, but it certainly looks like it immediately.
The "Resident" surname, or even worse, now, the lack of any surname at all (which is seen now and again in the comments in that very JIRA), makes this sort of knee-jerk rushing to judgement not only easier, but encouraged. It's a very bad trend that the Lindens should step in and stop.
SL without proper last names, be then LL provided or not, makes it feel like IMVU.
Speaking of which, IMVU has for many months now, deliberately been treading on the toes of Second Life. To wit:

(from the miscellaneous album)

This has been running for at least six months. Another variant that often pops up is a referral site they've set up called "2ndlife.com", for Google searchers who can't spell, one would imagine. I'm also curious how many people sign up for IMVU thinking it's Second Life from these paid ads.

So making Second Life appear more like IMVU? Not in anyone's best interest unless the Lindens are actually angling to sell the property to IMVU.

I wholeheartedly agree. SL names are a part of the culture of SL. SL is not Facebook. SL is not Google+. They are them and we are us.

But it is interesting that both Facebook and Google+ seem so insistent on real names, to the point that the Lindens briefly flirted with the concept of real names only...with "display names" being the solution to the "problem".

Yeah. Like that ever would have gone over. That lead balloon never left the ground for one single second, nor should it have.
Last names actually contributed to the creativity of residents. The first thing you got to do in SL was to choose a last name, and then, with that as a parameter, create a first name. The last name encouraged people to take care with their first name, think about it, because they were creating a NAME, an identity, not just an account label. Now residents are just creating an account label.
This is an excellent point, too. I'm thinking of other games I've played, like Runes of Magic--I chose one account-level name, with every character created tied to that account name, but not dependent on it. City of Heroes does it slightly differently--you have one global name (which is known if you friend anyone or they friend you), and then all your heroes and villians (or Praetorians), that are sub-categories off that global name.

In City of Heroes, at least, you can change your global name...once. (After that it's kind of a pain and involves paying the company for a formal name transfer token.) But before you change it, your name is your first character.

Of course, this wouldn't work in Second Life, because so many people want their alts to remain alts, with zero connection to their main accounts--and believe me, I understand why. And trust me on this, it's not always for prurient kinky sex options--for instance, say you're a major estate owner (waves at Des). You have alts and, though most of them are known, not all of them are. And sometimes, you might want to just get out and wander the grid, without having to worry about anyone contacting you for support, sim help, estate issues, rent questions...whatever.

I'd imagine the same thing would go for major store owners, but even getting away from rental issues or store support, there are valid reasons why people would want that sense of separation.

Instead, what we have now is a group of people who use main accounts and alts, who use titlers for specific roleplay or store-group identification, who have last names...and another group of people who may be intelligent, charming, witty, wonderful people, who are nigh instantly dismissed for being Not of the Tribe, stupid, unintelligent, children. Yeah. That worked, Lindens, what's your next plan? Set your server room on fire?

it's part of the noise when winter comes, it reverberates in my lungs

2011-11-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

Meet Catrin Arno. She's a German graphic designer and digital artist currently living in Malaysia, and she's turning out these impressively detailed fantasy works, featuring women with impossible hair, impossible attire, and impossible bodies. She takes on everything from motherhood to melancholy, reading to dreaming, and she does it in a style that speaks to both the present and the past. (She also sells prints through RedBubble, but the point is not commerce, it's simply introduction.)

Speaking of reading--or at least, accessories for writing, if not writing and reading--meet Simone, who lives in Italy and runs Anticovalore on Etsy. Not only does she make and sell homemade blank journals, but she also makes tiny journal earrings and tiny journal magnets. She's also made a tribute to the Doctor's Tardis journal; so far it's seen in necklace and ring form.

Back to the last names JIRA, last seen here.
I too jumped through hoops, like Nathan Adored, to choose from available surnames and then get the name of my choice. It was part of the fun and when I was done it MEANT something to me and still does. I thought having accounts with first name + surname was creative and classy and ahead of the curve. Eliminating surnames seemed a deliberate attempt to cheapen down something that was unique and wonderful about SL. And I agree that it has created a division that does not serve the community, that separates new residents in a way that would not encourage them to stick around.
Again, reinforcing what's been said before, that the introduction of Resident as a last name, and the Linden insistence that the last name system has been eliminated, when patently it's only been crippled.

Of course, the thing about display names is, someone can easily change their display name multiple times, at their whim, to something completely different, so if you remember them only by their display name, and don't have them friended, you lose track of them. And if you do have them friended, and they've changed their display name again for the umpteenth time, you might see the new name in your friends list and no longer know what their relationship is to you because you've lost track of what their display name was when you friended them.

This is an additional complication, and I've run into this myself--before I had a 2.x structured viewer I saw the avatar names as they originally registered into the system. Post-2.x, I see some "given" names, and some display names, and this also occurs in chat.

(Case in point: while sure, yes, "Your Friendly Internet Troll" is a good description for Jakkar Carlos, if I didn't know it was him in chats that he pops up in, I'd have no clue who he was, because his display name is no longer a name at all. I find it hard to believe that the Lindens never conceived of this use of display names as alternate titlers, or as Unicode support displays, but then, if they truly had I doubt we'd have been given the option of display names.)

That entire comment post is worth reading through, but I want to pull one additional quote from it:

I've also heard it said that some of the thinking of some at LL was that people would then stick their real name as their display name, and that that would help to better tie them into their Facebook accounts, this being back when LL were trying to forge a big connection between SL and FB, which turned out to be an epic fail for a number of reasons that should have been obvious up front. But, LL were so salivating over the idea that their forging a connection to Facebook would bring in millions of new users from there that otherwise wouldn't likely have come... and since Facebook REQUIRES real name be attached to the account, OF COURSE then setting things up so someone COULD (theoretically) have their displayname be their real name would placate the powers that be at Facebook... this may well have strongly motivated them to implement this change over to making the account name less important and bolt this dumb display name thing in on top of it. The fact that no one really ever wound up using display name for that purpose pretty much shot that one down.

Yeah. And frankly, if the Lindens cared to listen at all to the people who live in their world and pay their salaries, almost any of us could have told them what an utter disaster this was going to be. FacebookLife was destined to fail from the moment it was proposed, and only the Lindens involved in the slim thread of access-grabbing failed to realize it.

Point to [N] - after all 'Resident' is still there as a placeholder. Believe thats been stated by the Lab. Placeholder in DB terms == reserved space for data.

Which is still reserved for that data, because the coding for it has only been disabled, not removed.
Thanks LL, for fixing things that don't need to be fixed.
It's what the Lindens do best, after all.
It doesn't feel like a person to me if they use the name resident.
And here's the end stop on the line of thinking--first, "Resident" seen as Other; next, "Resident" seen as threat; finally, "Resident" seen as not even a real person. In a philosophical sense at least, depersonalization is the ultimate harm that can be done, because one one human being convinces themselves that another human being is not, in fact, real at all...then (at least in the non-digital world), they can directly harm that being, willfully injure that being, even murder that being. It's part of what distinguishes serial killers from the rest of us; that they no longer see people as people, capable of being hurt, capable of being afraid...but instead, see them as cardboard cutouts, people that only look like people, but aren't really, or even worse--simply as things to be utilized, then disposed of when that particular predator is finished with them.

So take that to the grid, what do we have as a result? With this line of thinking comes dismissiveness: it doesn't matter how we talk to Residents, it's not like they're real. With this line of thinking also comes denial: because they're not real, it doesn't matter if we lie to them; if we mistreat them; if we emotionally or psychologically hurt them. With this line of thinking, dealing with Residents not only becomes a chore to be eliminated as soon as possible, but abuse-reporting Residents also becomes mainstream: after all, they're a Resident, they've probably done something wrong anyway, right?

In a world like Second Life, persistent identity is highly important. Avatars are supposed to be expressions of ourselves, of our identities. Having a last name establishes us as real people with thoughts and feelings.

See above discusson on depersonalization.

If guild wars can let me create a first and a last name of my own, and it does, why can't SL.

It's a fair point. Why can't the Lindens do this? It's not like it would be in the least difficult, because the coding's already there, nearly complete. All that would be needed would be an Other option on the last names, with an added fill-in field.

I don't like the separate classes of "people with last names" and "Resident".

I'm not sure anyone does.
With the advent of display names, you can have any name you want already. First, middle, and last if that is what makes you happy. Those who refuse to embrace the use of display names are stuck in the past.
Another rare dissenting opinion, and in this case, a wrong one, because here's the thing--when I use CoolVL, I see a mix of people: some have one name, some have many names, some have descriptives--and those are all display names showing. But underneath that? It will show things that read "bob1947.resident" or "xoxluciexlx.resident". "Resident" may still be a placeholder, but even when using Second Life's official Viewer 2, I'm still occasionally seeing the firstname.lastname format--under the display name.
Display names, while a nice novelty, was really unneeded and a wasteful use of time and resources to implement when anyone could give themselves any name or title simply by creating and editing a group title. Trying to find someone by what they happen to be calling themselves THIS week is a nightmare, as is trying to read the outrageous "names" that use numbers, symbols, Ascii, and UPSIDE DOWN letters. Its impossible to type these display names and it seems they have been grossly misused. Further, not everyone's computer has the right language fonts to actually see the display names correctly.
This is another excellent point. Second Life to this day is not auto-enabled to translate Unicode characters properly for all systems. Until they have proper Unicode support, or even better, ban the use of Unicode characters from display names, display names will continue to be a bad joke that's long since worn out its welcome.

Btw, while I was all for display names from the moment I heard about them, I was as taken by surprise as anyone when they changed the account names as well. I don't recall even hearing that mentioned when the display name debate was going on. It's like they just slipped it in while everyone was busy elsewhere.

Yeah, and I think that's the general conclusion. Display names were hotly debated and practically begged from the Lindens; what no one seemed to expect was the utter removal of system-generated names. And it just hasn't worked. It was a bad idea, and it needs to be abandoned and last names returned.

The use of Resident for all last names happened suddenly with no rationale offered. It smells of simple laziness on the part of someone who didn't want to be bothered thinking up the next list of 200 last names.

And I still don't understand why it's a burden. Most of the names of the past--those that weren't sheerly invented whole-cloth--were taken from various fandoms, geeky concepts, internet memes, and scientists and thinkers that were admired by the Lindens. As concepts keep being invented, and names are kept for some time before rotating out, I would think it wouldn't be at all difficult to keep tossing in potential names for the field. Maybe I'm wrong, and it was an arduous part of the job, but seriously--between grid instability, and integrating mesh into all systems, and keeping voice running without system corruption, thinking up "new" last names seems like the easy part of the job.

was it nothing but anecdote that you can tell now and then?

2011-11-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

There are some very sharp points made in Extra Credits' latest video on working conditions in the videogame industry, and I think a lot of them gain added depth when we're thinking of Linden Lab and Second Life.

There's also some very pointed reasoning behind Shamus Young's diatribe against Netflix, and all of them I wholly agree with.

And there is now evidence that early humans lived as far back as 400,000 years ago. (And yes, that's a fossilized molar at the top of the article).

Here's Tor Books' list of the ten greatest, smallest moments in Doctor Who (nearly exclusively, barring very narrow references, dealing with the newest members of the show). It's an impressive list of gut-wrenching, gloriously precise, small moments where the world turned on a word...or a look...or an embrace. Why we're fans, after all: because we get the pathos involved. (Also, this reblogged from the Tumblr of one of my favorite artists for great truth.)

I also want to touch on briefly what's happening at DC Universe Online today. This from one of their producers (ironically named "DeadMeat"):"As folks have seen we have had some major issues today keeping our US Servers up and running. We are working very hard to correct the problem and we will be keeping the servers down until we can deploy new software to help us fix the issues. The response to our new Free to Play model has been overwhelming (literally) and we are very excited about all the new players in the game. We are working hard to make sure DC Universe Online is the best experience possible."
He updated that half an hour ago with this:

"Update from DCUO Exec. Producer: 'We will be reopening the server soon. Although we do not have a fix yet for this problem we have added additional code to try and catch and diagnose the problem. I apologize in advance if we crash again, but know that the information we get will help to make sure we solve this problem as quickly as possible.'"

So let me get this straight. After a few months of nigh-insane hype, so many people signed up to try out the new Free-to-Play model on the block that they crashed the servers, and DCUO doesn't have a clue how to fix it so far.

I'm wondering how many coders for Champions and City of Heroes laughed themselves ill at this development. Possibly even sent condolences and bouquets. Mayhap even cards: Thank you for that huge sigh of relief, knowing you won't be a threat to our games. Get well soon.

Back to the last names JIRA, covered earlier. We stopped a bit before here:The current choice of "resident" is not merely confusing, but no doubt unintentionaly demeaning.
Spelling not corrected, and yes.
I really feel like it does create a "them" and "us" kind of feeling between newer residents and the older ones. I recall the video where Torley talks about being able to use display names to fix the "oops" of making an initial account name like Xbobwuzhere67372X, and now with all the first names being used up, they are creating the same scenario where [users] HAVE to make those kinds of names now even if they just simply wanted to be Bob. At least with the last names, you could have 10 Bob's running around but all with different last names.

And frankly, let's be honest, no one seems to take a "resident" seriously. Are they an alt? Are they really new? I hear a lot of comments like "Oh.. its a Resident... never-mind".
Spelling corrected for one word; as originally written, it was "uses", not "users". But again, this is exactly what I've been saying.

Either bring back the list of surnames to choose from, or let us insert a last name of our choice, or maybe do both. I.e. the new user creating an account would get a choice to select from a list of premade surnames, OR to type in a surname he likes.

Either way, bring back surnames.

This also seems to be the prevalent opinion.

Being stuck with the surname "Resident" is just naff. Not to mention the issues with scripting and information management that were expounded when the idea was first floated, but duly ignored.

There's a lot of scripting out there that requires firstname.lastname constructions, which is why people on viewer 2-structured clients don't see "Resident" as a last name, and people not on the viewer 2 structure do. Even Linden-level scripting still requires firstname.lastname. (And, as previously stated, it always will until and unless the Lindens recode the Legacy system entirely.)

Display names are not last names. I hate display names because they leave people open to take another resident's name. "Resident" is not a last name, and all this leads to is people calling themselves Joe8375 and such nonsense because they can't have the first name they would like.

The issue of theft of identity also seems to be a concern with many residents. And there's nothing that stops anyone from doing precisely that with display names save the Lindens themselves; and by their example, they're proving the code is in place for them to repress certain names on a grid-wide level.

Unfortunately, so far they've only done that to prevent people terming themselves as "Suzy Linden", say, in a display name...so once again, the Lindens benefit from a restriction that is denied to everyone else.
LL claims that the Firstname Lastname convention was an obstacle for first-time users to sign up.

I think it's easy to show this can't be true: In 2006-2007 there was a huge surge in new users.
The naming convention wasn't an obstacle back then, why would it be an obstacle now?

I would say the Username Resident convention is a bigger obstacle, not being able to find a decent available username.
It is a bigger obstacle now, and it wasn't a major obstacle then; it just required a bit of finesse to find the "right" name--or at least, the name one could cope with when making up that first avatar.
Give folks the option to create a name, first and last, for their AV. LL, you have, inadvertantly, one hopes, created an SL class distinction by tagging every new member as Resident. Stop it! Options are a wonderful thing.
and

The new system without surnames makes it harder for new people to make accounts with unique usernames that aren't taken already. Instead of seeing avatars with names like "John Smith", "John Hammer", or "John Black", we have names like "John85673", "John85674" and "John85675" which makes it more challenging to differentiate one John from another.

No one should have to live with the stigma of looking like an AOL handle.

and

it difficult distinguishing avatars from one another when you see susie1592 and susie1952

all pretty much say the same thing.
I have to agree with the other posts here. The removal of the menu of last names, replacing it with "Resident" cuts part of the creative process of Second Life away. Being able to create a first name to go with a last name you found you liked was a big step in creating who you become in world. Cutting that step out of the creation process makes all names appear generic and dare I say, cheap. We may as well be honest, this digital world is anything but cheap, and even our name choices should reflect that. Let us have back the rights to being creative with our names as much as we are our images.
Ah, but remember, with the arrival of mesh, if we want to fit the rigged avatars, we have to conform our shapes to standard shapes. So--unless that option gets fixed--soon we'll all be clones anyway.

I guess then it won't matter if everyone's got a number over their heads, will it? It's not like you'll be able to tell who anyone is when we all look exactly the same.

People end up with these dumb names like Amber897 just because you want the first name Amber. It is really to the point you can just about type any first name in the world and the response is that that name is already taken, It has taken a lot of the fun out of making an avatar.

I grant you, avatar creation was never exactly thrill-a-minute, but it wasn't soul-crushing. Now, it seems to be. That seems like a pretty major shift in perception. I'm also thinking about how many people are coming into SL, hitting the 'Resident' barricade, and asking around for people who have alts they're not using to sell them one. Forget the selling angle: profit isn't the point here. But considering that very action is against the Lindens' stated Terms of Service, anyone who feels that's the better option is sacrificing a potential future ban against the altar of not feeling that wave of mistrust and dismissal when first entering the game. Being permanently banned for using an avatar that someone else made is less repellent than walking in under the Resident name for people.

The Lindens should really think about that one, long and hard.

And this comment really deserves to be read in its entirety. That is exactly what I'm talking about on this issue.

This is one of those cases where saying "Linden Lab has more important things to focus on" makes sense.

This is one of those rare dissenting opinions so far, and while I also agree with what they're saying, I also know, beyond any shadow of any doubt, that the Lindens WON'T focus on those things without the servers actually, physically, catching fire. This is precisely the level of nonsense they will spend time on--ESPECIALLY if they think it gives Second Life a bad name.

And it does, Lindens. It so does. It adds discrimination and social rejection to a game that had those things already, but only for minority groups. (Note: I'm not saying that popular rejection of furs, robots, constructs, or supernatural creatures is a good thing, either. But at this point, the avatar walking into the welcome area can be tanned, blonde, long-legged, and dressed in the most current, stylish outfit imaginable, in the current top-of-the-line skin, and people will still see the "Resident" over the name and back away. While it never made sense to me, at least there was that sense of difference between the bronzed beach bunny with the tousled Truth hair and the actual bunny on the beach with paws. It's still discrimination, and it's still wrong, but at least there was something OTHER THAN A NAME one could point to. Now? It doesn't matter what they look like. It doesn't matter how well they behave. It doesn't even matter how well they type--they are marked, they are Residents, and large sections of the grid shun them for that alone.)

I would like last names back because I feel it is part of what makes SL such a great community. Plus it is hard to contact people who feel that their display name should be their username, and will fill it out on forms, making it difficult to find them in search.

And this one's HUGE. I can't count the number of times when working in customer support that I had to search seven or eight different ways, check actual land purchases, and pore over each of thirty sims with a fine-toothed comb before finding some nitwit who'd filled in her display name instead of her given, SL, Resident-based name. Personally, I have no issue if someone wants to be Princess Melodrama the 92nd, if your name is Sissily7509, then write that down. Search is hard enough without you making it harder.

More later.

there was fire, there was death, there was lying on your breath

2011-11-03T12:46:00.001-07:00

Ever think the Cheezburger sites are getting too specific?

More from the last names JIRA, which I started covering in the last entry. First off, NWN also covered the topic (and is also urging people to vote...please, please stop until the Lindens decide they're going to look at votes again)...At any rate, they have what they consider a "definite maybe" from Yet Another Linden I've Never Heard Of (likely TM).

We'll get to that. In the meantime, we're still near the beginning.

Please bring back last names. They were a mark of individuality, and gave scope for many witty and creative names. They were our identity in the new world of Second Life.
And rightly or wrongly, having the last name of Resident just gives that avatar less credibility in many people's eyes.

This seems to be the overwhelming sentiment expressed.

There's also an article linked in the comments that makes multiple excellent points, but I want to pull one in particular out to address:"I know that the system is already in place, but could you and your team consider setting up a new add on system that rewarded Residents that want to become one with the community that is Second Life. Maybe after they have been here a certain amount of time, say three months, they could choose a permanent name?"
While I admire what she's trying to get across--even going so far as suggesting the Lindens could charge for this!--I think her misconception is that the firstname.lastname system has been disabled, and that's far from the truth. In fact, it's still permanently in place, and that's not likely to change until the Legacy coding is completely removed (which I said in the last entry is not likely to be gutted out any time soon).

So what stops xxName3611xx Resident from being xxNamexx Invertebrate? The Lindens. Only the Lindens. They could add last name options in at any time because the code is still there. The only reason later viewers only show a first name is due to display coding alone; all viewers still track residents as firstname.lastname still.

I can't say for sure it would be an easy fix. But I know for a fact it's far from impossible.

Do something like deal with server issues or customer service or hey maybe when someone files a ticket you deal with that issue.... but last names are vital and part of the experience of SL.

I will freely admit I was cynical enough to laugh out loud when I read this. As long as there is new bright and shiny to deal with, the Lindens will never voluntarily choose to work on grid stability. Hells, in a time when the grid was crashing completely every four days and the Wednesday update was still happening, they decided to implement voice. Which made more of the grid lag terribly, sent more sims offline on a weekly basis, and entrenched the split in thinking between owners of sims who refused to allow voice for anyone, and residents on the grid who wanted to use voice for everything, even business transactions (like, oh, say, virtual real estate), regardless of how cumbersome it was.

Last names made Second Life feel more like a community. I agree that if bringing real "SL" last names into the mix isn't possible, that I'd like to at least see the ability to have spaces in the names users sign up with.

Yeah, totally. Because if I see one more BetsyJohnson Resident...it looks wholly inadequate, and frankly, on the ridiculous side, and again, all that would take is offering that space...but see, therein does like a problem. Remember that firstname.lastname thing I mentioned? Yeah. Giving that hypothetical someone the ability to call herself Betsy Johnson is one thing; but if she had the space in between the first names, then we're talking firstname.middlename.lastname...and trust me, the coding doesn't exist for that.
Personally, I've noticed a distinct seperation between the "Residents" and those of us with a real last name. There's a class issue developing and I don't like it one bit!
No one does, but note her phrasing? The "distinct separation" between "Residents" and avatars with "real" last names. Even she's putting that divide in there, and saying, if only subconsciously, that anyone walking around with "Resident" as their last name isn't real.

Frankly, that kind of thinking is appalling--and note I'm not saying she's appalling for this line of thinking, I'm blaming the Lindens again for this one. They instituted the class division. They allowed Unicode abuse in display names. With two coding strokes, they not only created a forever orphaned class of folks that will only fit in through dint of extreme hard work, but also created options for people to use display names for things other than naming. With no restrictions on display names, paired with the perception of anonymous, easily discarded Resident accounts, they have fostered unrest and suspicion in the grid as a whole.

In a world of our own contrivance, I feel that history and continuity are important components in adding depth and richness to our chosen virtual existence. Amazing sims come and go constantly, but with luck, we avatars have a longer lifespan. The ability to choose a fitting surname means a lot. I also like the legacy system in which names were retired after a span of time.

Admittedly, many didn't like the fact that Legacy names were phased out after a certain length of time, but personally, I felt it added character, and as she noted, that sense of history. I don't run into a lot of Orrs, currently; I'm sure they're out there, but it was never one of the more popular names, and at at least one point in 2007, all the Orrs I knew were a) female and b) strippers or escorts (yes, including me). It sort of gave that odd cachet to the name, that--whether I knew these other women or not--we were all struggling, all striving together in an odd sense to both find our footing on the grid, and bring pleasure to the masses. (Yes, I know, prostitution can have dire consequences, even in virtual spaces, but I always treated it closer to Firefly's Companions than street sluts for hire. Of course, that's also why I'm not in the game anymore...Most guys don't want Companions.)

My point being that names "aging" as time passed allowed people to capture certain eras, be part of a moment in time, and--in a subdued sense--be part of virtual evolution. I mean, sure, it's a leap from "Therian" to "GossipGirl" but it's still progression, even sidewise. With everyone named "Resident" and no chance of anything else, there's no evolution, no sense of progression, no sense of fixed moments in time at all.

I do not at all feel that the display names are a good substitute for the last names. As several others have said, they've always added to community. I love beeing able to see a last name and tell by that approximatly how old the avatar is. Now, the "Residents" almost end up in a perma-noob state in a lot of people minds.

Echoing what I've been saying.
Please bring back last names for all those poor new avatars who have to tack on numbers to their desired names.
and

So much of SL is about identity formation, too. [...] Bring back options for last names, and you bring back a key part of identity formation.

Absolutely. But the struggle for comprehension continues:Voted. Bring them back please!
WATCH, do not VOTE...WAAAAATCH.

Yes bring them back please and also a option for the resident avatars to switch to a normal name like the older residents in game

Again, note the terminology: "normal name". "Real name". More avatars in SL than the Lindens might think separate "real" people, aka, people with last names from the Legacy system, from the unreal, aka, those with the last name of Resident. Residents aren't "real", in the same sense, to a lot of SL. Again, fostering this kind of separation--essentially, creating one set of described avatars that are discriminated against from their first moments in the world--is a bad idea. Wasn't that actually part of what Second Life was founded to prevent? To give everyone an equal playing field--regardless of their skin color, religion, personal beliefs, relationship status, ability or disability, or weight?

Now we have a class of people we treat very prejudiciously, people we discriminate against, and we're not even once thinking about why. They are Other by their very existence: not to be dealt with, spoken with, instructed, purchased from...Resident last names are people who are treated with suspicion, dislike, resignation, repugnance, and on occasion, fear, hatred and loathing. Is this what the founders of Second Life wanted to happen?

And keep in mind, this is an easy fix, because the code never left. They could revert back to Legacy names AT ANY TIME.

I have to admit that I do feel separate from new people with 'just' Resident as a last name. I hate to be a snob but we ARE different. I have a real first & last name. I am a person with a life on the grid; not a player with a list of letters & numbers attached to a cartoon that I made.

Again, note the use of "real" in her words. "Real" versus fake; "real person" versus someone with Resident for a last name. This is telling, in how often this phrasing turns up.

I think perhaps people might've taken more readily to Display Names had they not been wrapped up in that bitter pill which is V2.

And, while this post is not about the difficulties of SL 2.0, I agree whole-heartedly with this statement as well.

Please PLEASE return the old naming system. I can't imagine how disheartening it would be if you saw this fantastical world you wanted to enter, saw the blogs/machinima/art created by long term SLers and then tried to join them... only to be turned back by the fact that the first 57 names you attempt to join with have all been taken. No one wants to be Anakin26655897V.

And while I agree, again, why, if you're choosing a name for a virtual world, are you going to name yourself Anakin (or Akira or BritneySpears or InuYasha or Shinji...I mean, really, don't you have a personality of your own?) at all?

(Of course, I'm saying this knowing many, many people who chose fictional characters to represent, on and off the grid, and knowing my most well-known handle before Emilly was entirely lifted from a book I favored some years back. Pot, meet kettle. How's the wife and kids?)The issue is the loss of having a real firstname/last name identity, just as we do in RL, thus creating a second class of citizens in SL that are looked down upon through lack of a last name. And the ensuing difficulties in even creating a new name without sounding like some griefer newb.
Again--though this is implied, not directly stated--the association of "Resident" last names with griefers. Again, that distinct linguistic separation of the classes.

Please make this change and many of the others that users are asking for. Also remember that a large number of SLer's don't pay the premium because they can't see what good it does.

This also brings up an interesting point. While I abandoned my premium account-holder status over the complete cack-handed catastrophe that was the homestead/openspace sim issue--and told the Lindens that in my final "Why are you leaving?" essay question the Lindens provided on downgrading at that time--I've still only seen one good reason to go back to premium: the sandboxen reserved for premium members. Lindenhomes never interested me; offerings of gifts never interested me; and access to Concierge service I generally don't need as I'm not renting an entire sim (or owning one).

But that's another good point. How many new premium members would the Lindens gain by returning to last name options? Granted, with people like me, who were originally premium members when the weekly stipend was higher, my monthly fee would still be canceled out by the stipend payments...but with new people? New people who were never bound by the stipend system? Wouldn't that strictly be money in the coffers, directly, that would benefit the Lindens?

More later, when I have the time.