a ghost of someone's tragedy

Yesterday, the news spread that Ursula K. LeGuin had passed away. This knocked me significantly sideways, to the point where it seems any little thing is making me tear up, so...I figure it's a good time to finally get this entry out.

There was a fundraising ball for Master Kaos and Cherub Spectre, which I entirely missed attending (due to illness) and covering (because I've become a flake where timely blogging is concerned). Here are the notices leading up to that event.

Sent on the tenth of January:

There's been a lot of questions stirring about whether or not we are going to do anything in-world for MK and Cherub and the answer is yes. Meryet and I have been coordinating an event for Sunday at 5pm SLT. We will be having a formal gala to raise as many lindens as we can to turn into real money for them. We will be setting up a special location above the Crowbar for the party and we hope you all can join us. In the meantime there are other ways you can donate, any amount large or small will make a difference:

https://www.gofundme.com/sandershomefamilyfire

Then, on the eleventh of January:

Just a reminder that we will be having a formal gala on Sunday night to raise money for MK and Cherub. If anyone would like to donate items to sell during the night, that would greatly be appreciated. We are trying to raise as much money as we possibly can. Thank you all for your support so far. Love to you all.

And on the twelfth:

It's with a heavy heart that I share this news... As if the fire destroying their home last weekend wasn't bad enough, Cherub's real life daughter and MK's step-daughter Amber passed away unexpectedly last night due to a heroin overdose. She was 21 years old and had been living with her boyfriend. I had the honor of knowing her for several years in her teens, she was a well of compassion and love for everyone and everything. Her light went out far too soon; she will be missed...

Like their year didn't start off hip-deep in suck with the fire. Man...

Then, on the thirteenth:

Our Fundraising Gala for MK and Cherub will be tomorrow night at 5pm SLT. Please see the attached notecard for details and for the landmark. We hope to see you all there.

You are cordially invited to a Formal Gala this Sunday evening, January 14th at 5pm SLT in honor of Master Kaos and Cherub Spectre.

This gala will be a fundraising event for these two wonderful people who have endured unimaginable tragedies over the last couple of weeks.

First they endured a devastating fire in their home on January 7th. Luckily, they were all able to get out of the apartment and no one was harmed. However, due to fire, smoke and water damage, they have lost almost everything.

A second catastrophe has struck their family, with the untimely passing of their daughter on January 11th, taken from them unexpectedly at the young age of 21.

This gala has been arranged so that their SL friends and family can help contribute to help his family in the coming weeks for immediate and long-term necessities, including whatever losses arise out of the damage to their property and generally whatever unpredictable expenses may be involved in getting their life back together. And to also help with their daughters funeral expenses. Any assistance that you are willing to give is very much appreciated.

There will be several ways you can donate, you can donate lindens, we will also have items for sale, and there will also be a direct link to their GoFundMe page where you can donate US dollars as well. Whatever you can afford to give will be greatly appreciated.

Please join us Sunday evening for this worthy event and support our friends. This is a formal event. Entertainment will be provided by DJ's Khanada Rio and Iniry Vaher.

And that's where we stand as of now. The fundraising page is still up; they're seeking $15,000 to replace what was lost in the fire (which--considering they lost practically all that they owned is pretty reasonable), and as of this writing, they're a bit less than halfway there at $6,854.

So my usual applies here, too--give what you can, spread the word if you can't. Feel free to spread it on Twitter and Facebook from the GoFundMe page, too--there are links designed to help with that.

And for those that favor charities beyond America's direct shores, I've added six new logo links to the sidebar, all specifically addressing the catastrophe that Puerto Rico is still struggling to reverse. Look them over if you like, give if you can.

this relentless drone bombs a quiet street

A couple updates on Master Kaos and Cherub Spectre's apartment fire hit group notices.

The first one:

Hi everyone. I would just like to let you know that there is now a Go Fund Me page to raise money for MK and Cherub. They have lost everything in this fire, if you can afford to give anything at all please do. Every little bit counts. Here is the link, and please, if you can, share this link on your FB page: https://www.gofundme.com/sandershomefamilyfire

The second one:

Hi All,

I forgot to mention in the earlier post that everyone is okay. MK heard a popping noise before the fire got into the apartment so they were all able to get out okay. Here is a picture of their apartment today. Thanks again for anyone willing to donate to their paypal

And she included a pic of their apartment, post-burn:



Give what you can, this one's really bad.

now we got problems, and I don’t think we can solve them

Just heard some tragic news. Got a notecard when I logged onto the grid this eve, entitled "MK and Cherub Update". For those who don't know, they've been running Octoberville largely out of pocket all these years. Here's the text:

Hello everyone,

We have some very unfortunate news to share with everyone. Yesterday (1/7), MK and Cherub’s real life apartment caught fire. Due to the fire, smoke and water damage they have lost almost everything. They have given permission for us to share their PayPal account info with anyone that is willing to help our favorite Octoberville creators out. They are able to use any funds donated to PayPal for their immediate needs. The PayPal account is [ And I'm making this a non-clickable link for a reason, but just copy this addy, and then click the PayPal link, it should work? jac quel in ew al ton@ho tma il.c om ].

Stay tuned for more info. Thank you for any assistance that you can provide.

Let's hope they get back on their feet soon.

In other news, Nintendo is releasing some phone cases for Breath of the Wild, Splatoon and...I forget the other game. Another game. They are really, really pretty, and fairly subdued overall. Guess they're now realizing their fanbase has grown up, and still likes game tie-ins. Good for us. (The only down side? Right now, they're only available in Japan.)

In more depressing news, lootboxen have come to SL, which means we now have hackers and "gold farmers" playing with hacked funds for the ultrarares and the boxes, then selling them--somewhere--for cash. That's not only vile, that's really irritating.

Another manifestation of that was good enough to fool me the first time I saw it:

[12:27] Kevin985: hey nice avatar...im new to this game and saved 238 of those linden things from a contest and camping...im trying to get this skin/shape combo for 700...i feel bad for asking but can you please lend me 462 so i can get it?...if not thats fine too...just seems nobody wants to help me out
[12:28] Emilly Orr: Well, mostly because we're taught these are generally scams. However, there are still places that offer camping for Lindens, and you can search for Linden trees, and hit those once a day. And you could search under employment, see if there's something you're good at you could turn into a salary.

They're complete bot accounts. I feel pretty foolish that I thought I was actually talking to a human behind the screen. Live and learn.

Last thing for this short entry--has Rezology on the Marketplace been hacked? Because it sure looks that way.

something’s corrupt in the tides

Nearly a month since the last entry. A month which would typically have been filled by haunted house entries, reviews of shopping events or hunts with a dark, spooky, or pagan bent, and casual links found in my travels around the net. Last October I managed one haunt review per day, and some days, I pulled off two. I wasn't planning to work that hard this year, but I did want to cover the new ones I found, at least.

Instead, I've mostly been off the grid. For the first year since I started going through Octoberville, I may not make it on the board for this year's title. I may not finish looking through the Decennial Market in the roof garden above the Fallen Gods store. I haven't even started the Timeless hunt, nor gone through We RP for the month. I haven't done a lot of things.

Instead, I got sick. With...something still unknown. Could have been food poisoning, could have been a mutant strain of flu...no one seems to know yet, and I'm not going to spend much time breaking it down here. All I know is, I'm getting better very slowly, and it's grueling. The lack of energy is killing me most. There are days where I get up, toast a piece of bread, take twenty minutes to eat it, and go right back to bed.

This kind of thing, it doesn't pair well with running around the grid snapping pics of haunted houses, let alone working and maintaining a social life.

I miss the decorations. I miss the haunts. I miss the autumn leaves and the pumpkins on the doorsteps. But most of all, I just miss the grid. It's bothering me greatly that I don't have the energy to even log in some days.

But for anyone I haven't managed to catch on the brief times I've made it in, that's why I've been mostly absent. Exactly the wrong month for this to happen, but I don't seem to have much choice in the matter. I may even miss the Sakura Halloween Ball. I've already missed Mr. Peccable's wedding--belated congratulations to him and his lady wife, I was sadly unable to log in because of the...whatever. Annoying thing that it is.

Any well wishes will be most humbly accepted, but mostly, I just want things to return to--well, not normal, because we are talking about me--my life wasn't normal to start with. But return to at least the sort of stability I had before. That would be nice.

And if it returns with enough coffee to coat my internal organs and enough gin to float away on, I'll be doubly grateful, because I live with cruel, cruel women who won't buy me gin. And who only allot me four cups of coffee per day. A tragedy.

Update more when I can.

for you, for you, I would walk forever through this barren land

I'm still not sure why, and I haven't heard anything from the group owners since, but apparently, there will be no Octoberville this year. I'm very sad about this. I hope the owners manage to bring it back next year, because last year the experience was such a joy. I wish them all the best.

But on to the next haunt, which is--appropriately enough--called "The Haunted". The intro screen said:

IF YOU LOVE TO BE SCARED COME TO Haunted! Haunted has 2 sims full of spooks and scares, we have an Apocalyptic city, where Zombies are king. There is a lot to do here if the Zombies let you!

Hmm. I do not like running from zombies. I do not like zombies killing me and teleporting me back home. But...I told myself I would at least look it over, because the haunt I remember from last year with the same name was vastly different.

[16:23] Professional Gadget: Welcome to Haunted you must join group to shoot zombies

Then...good? I can't shoot them, they can't eat me?



There's something wrong with this picture...



That's better. Haunts play truer to form with the right atmosphere.



With trepidation, I chose the Carnival to wander through first.



This place has definitely seen better days. But for some reason, there's still power, even though all the rides are gone. That's rather disturbing. Why is the power still on?



I found a Spook House ride, and decided to risk it. I'm very glad I did. It's old-school, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. It's not a big jump-scare ride, it's more something you'd find in an old-fashioned amusement park, say, circa 1962.



Or mayhap a ride in a Rob Zombie horror film, before the horror really gets going.



Next to the Spook House is a roller-coaster called "Flight of the Vampire". Do check it out if you have the time. Again, it seems to be all old-school prims, no mesh, but the rails are overhead, not underneath, so if you ride it in mouselook it's very much like you're actually on a roller coaster, swooping and turning and occasionally flipping upside down. To add to the charm, the seats are coffins, with shining crosses as the bars holding them to the rails.

The rest of the sim seems to be zombie territory. Now I proceed carefully...



...but not carefully enough. The dogs were bad enough, but undead bunnies? That was unexpected.

And then a house fell apart around me. Right, that's it, I'm done.

If you like old-time carnival rides, half this sim will be your joy. If you want to join the Haunted group, and grab a shotcgun and go hunt the undead, the other half will make you happy. Me, I found a few rides I liked, so it wasn't a waste of my time.

Some days, that's enough.

birds you cannot see, filling every tree, falling out of closets

This, fresh from this morning:

[09:17] Oxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I hope Auntie [Cxxxxx] is building me a nice house, full of big hairy spiders, gross worms, and ghosts to play with!
[09:18] mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: and kitties for witches giggles
[09:19] Fxxxxxx Wxxxxxxxx: You love the taste of fresh kitten-juice in the morning?

Fresh...wait, what?!? I don't think I heard that right.

[09:19] Oxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Stick with prune juice, you get better results
[09:20] mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx hides from [Fxxxxxx]
[09:21] Oxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: There is no hiding, we are good detectices, and know how to find you!
[09:21] Fxxxxxx Wxxxxxxxx: Half a pint of prune juice, one kitten, en several ice cubes in the blender... Serve when cold.

"Detectices." And prune-kitteh juice. Ooookay, then.

Basically, sharing for the oddity. And this from a few days back:

[01:04] lxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: A bit of neighborly advice for everyone selling on SL Marketplace: Check the language tabs in every listed item. Since the move to VMM, old, obsolete text may be there, giving incorrect information to people who use other languages than the one you made your listing in. Tech support told me that if you didn't write a listing for that language, the title, description, and keywords in that language's tab should be blank. This has been a customer service snarl for me for the last several weeks, and has cost me an uncomfortable amount of time and money in refunds to bewildered customers.

That sounds grim. Now, admittedly, I have a vanishingly few items on the Marketplace, but as I didn't rig everything for alternate-language customers, I should probably check.

[01:05] Axxxx Mxxxxx: How quaint. So very typical of LL.
[01:05] Lxxxxxx Mxxxxxxxx: Oh, thank you very much for the advice. I'll check immediately
[01:06] lxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: :-)
[01:07] nxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hmmmm
[01:07] nxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: not cool

Nope, but this is Linden Lab, when was the last time they made customer service easy for anyone?

[01:07] lxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: It would be cool if they refunded the money I've had to pay out over this. Sigh.
[01:08] Axxxx Mxxxxx: You could as well wish for decent tier prices

Well, sure, but we all know that's never going to happen...

[01:08] lxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Ironically, the first customer who had this problem almost saw what was wrong. But we both missed it.
[01:13] lxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I would very much like to know what kind of logic made this happen so I can be cautious in the future, but that part of my questions to tech support wasn't answered.
[01:14] Axxxx Mxxxxx: That would be because it is the same kind of logic as that which has been used for the past few years. "Stupidity"

Pretty much. They've made a lot of decisions that may have made sense to them in their safe, protected spaces, but on the wilds of the grid, fail to work in any reasonable way. It's massively irritating.

[01:14] lxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Another thing about VMM drives me up the wall: It no longer lists "Item Name"; everything is now only listed by "Listing Name". So if you're selling fifty individually named boxes of Abysinian Cinnamon KittyCatS, well, too bad, now they're all just "KittyCatS box - Abysinnian Cinnamon" in your Marketplace merchant listings. Good luck finding the one you want to remove or edit in any decent amount of time!

Aaaaack.

So now, how many of us have listed things for years is now another thing we need to check and verify. Argh! Why, LL, why you do these things?!?

except for the space between the mirror and me

I have to start this entry off with very bad news from Octoberville:

I hate to be the bearer of bad/sad news, but PixelTrix, due to personal issues with in the company, have decided to disband. The island(sim) is already gone and there will not be an Octoberville next fall.

To our fans, customers and friends; We have had a fantastically fun time with you over the years and we can never thank you enough for all that you have done for us. We've met wonderful friends and have forged great relationships with so many of you. Thank You.

Master Kaos

So what does this mean? Without asking the main participants, I don't know whether it was a professional falling-out, or a personal breakup. As friable and emotionally wrought as BDSM relationships can be, friends forming businesses together can be just as charged, and just as prone to failure. Unfortunately, it leaves me with a potentially dysfunctional group for a few days, because--in the time between getting that group notice (about one PM PST, on the 28rth) and now (about five PM PST, same day), all group notices have been deleted, and half the titles of players have been dumped.

Considering how hard Mm. Allen and I worked, last year, to get Octoberville Epic titles, I'm irritated, so I'm taking a few days until I'm absolutely sure it's dead in the water.

The one thing I do know: Octoberville, as a sim, is gone.

Okay, one more comment from the TPV thread on SL Universe. From Sredni Eel:

Lindens should be required to spend a certain amount of time in Second Life doing the same things normal residents do: Go clubbing, go shopping, try to build in a sandbox while a buttshelf brazilian noob tries to sex you out of the blue, and all of the other fun and exciting things we all know and love. Then maybe they'd be more inclined to make improvements to the user experience.

This should be etched in 30-foot-high letters of FIRE on the main wall of the break room/group conference room/Rodvik's office. Wherever's big enough. Because this has been the problem for years now--that maybe two Lindens out of every fifty actually interact on the grid they're supposed to code for.

They desperately need to know what the user experience actually is, to properly code for it. Or to use a ridiculous example: if you want to make donuts, then you pick up a recipe book and look up how to make them. Or you go find a bakery and watch what they do. You don't go to YouTube in the privacy of your office and watch videos about bears and cars, and make donuts based on that.

(Though to be fair, I think it's rather the reverse--we're telling the Lindens that we use their world to dance [synchronized, or, well, not], to make art, to recreate reality [in fantastic or realistic ways], hunt, and to achieve the impossible. They listen, they go off to think, and then they give us in return...well...this. Which is pretty much the Lindens putting together a product that misunderstands everything about how their userbase lives, day to day, night to night, in their world. They just don't get it.)

At least in my opinion, since 2007, at least, there's been a steadily growing, basic disconnect between what we do on their grid, and what the Lindens think we do on their grid...and it's only becoming farther and farther apart, the actual versus the virtual.

And, unfortunately, here the virtuality is all on the Linden side--because they just don't know as a group body how we work, how we play, what we want, and--perhaps most important--what we're willing to buy and keep around. Until they understand any of these things, we're always going to have these problems.

And talk about brain-breaking concepts--someone's come up with SuperWhoLock on Tumblr. The hell, people. The hell.

you gave me roses, and I left them there to die

Sometimes charts are helpful. This one will helpfully tell you whether you're a hipster or a Time Lord. You're welcome.

And--a little late, but surely it can be saved for next Samhain--the great and terrible Steampunkin. Muahahaha?

Meanwhile, DC Universe Online has put up this picture on their Twitter feed as an example of the amazing things that can be done in their game. I get what they're trying for, I just don't entirely sure if they understand their target audience. I can't think of more than a scant handful of people who would sit up in their seats and think, "My GODS, I've always WANTED to be a big reptilian bird, SIGN ME UP!"

From another direction entirely, here's a lovely introduction to Victorian hair craft. If you're truly interested (and not already an enthusiast), there are scores more information pages on the net.

The Freebie Hunters' blog took a poll on what people wanted to see in hunts, and what people hated seeing in hunts. The results are fairly specific, fairly interesting, and posted on their website.

I still don't have my Master ranking in Octoberville. I'm not pleased. But I'm going to let another day or two go by before I drop more notecards asking for the rankings to be reset. I finished in time, damn it, in something of a blurred two-day frenzied haul. I fought hard for that. Frankly, I want it.

Have I mentioned the mechanical ring clock? I can't remember. But I want one.

stifled, her touch is leprous and pale

Non-glare glass has been invented! I am really, really hoping this gets widely adopted, because it would absolutely revolutionize the electronics industry on a planetary scale.

Also, for anyone having problems with iDevices that play music, that ceased to play music after upgrading to iOS5...well, here's the 'unofficial' official solution. But it sucks if you have a large music library. Even worse, there also seems to be a bug in how the updated music app handles music files with variable bitrate, and...maybe it's just me, but I don't know where on the .mp3 file I'd even find variable bitrate settings!

The other problem is that the upgraded music app seems to be glitching with large album artwork. See, it didn't used to be a problem--whether it was a 100x100 or a 1024x1024 size album graphic, the app would just resize it appropriately and move on. Now? It doesn't. It wants it close to, or the exact size, that it needs the artwork to be, or it just throws up its pixilated hands and flips past the song. Argh!

Somewhat out of nowhere, because I had such trouble tracking down an online seller of this product today, have a recipe for candied winter melon. Also called wax gourd, it's popular in Singapore, but it seems fairly easy (if somewhat time-consuming) to make it yourself. For a short batch that you don't plan to be preserved for long, use the recipe as given. If you want it to be preserved long-term, then after the first batch of sugaring (and heating, and cooling), make successively stronger batches of sugar syrup, until you are left with crystallized, translucent melon sections. Good luck!

In the meantime, news from Octoberville:

[03:55] Peewee Musytari: ooh emily snuck in there....CONGRATS #274 EMILY ORR - YOU ALSO GRADUATED, PLUS ADDED CERTIFICATE FOR STEALTH FINISH hehe :))
[03:56] handyreecechalmer: Yeah. I thought she had called it a night.

I had! But then I got pulled back in for the last achievement for this year's hunt, and...well...

(from the scavenging album)

That number you can barely make out next to my name (which you can also barely make out)? Indeed, that's number 274. Used to be (back when we had wood-burning cats), the Wall of Fame capped at 250 names. This year, they hit 250, and people kept finishing the hunt. So they added another board.

Me, I'm just happy to be finished. That is a hard hunt, and pictures will be forthcoming, but in the meanwhile, I'm going to collapse somewhere. Hopefully not on a baby cobra, a burning marshmallow, or a can of gasoline. And my sincere, humble, and most effulgent thanks to everyone that helped me, which included CreamyGoodness Resident, Handyreecechalmer Resident, Dorrie Fredriksson, dante884 Reanimator, last year's Octoberville Queen, Elise Rodenberger, and this coming year's Octoberville Queen, Peewee Musytari--among others. I can't thank you enough.

there were stairs, they were steep, I was falling, falling deep

There's a lot of things I'm working up to talking about--I want to do a run-through of the last-name JIRA, and I want to toss up some of the pictures I've been taking in Octoberville, but today's going to be shorter than that; this is both advice and a posting of intense gratitude towards Cherub Spectre (who co-runs Octoberville, along with Master Kaos and Nathan Oddfellow).

Last night, I wanted to get a hunt item for the Indian Summer hunt held at 22769. When I ported away from Octoberville, I had 41 groups. I really don't like maxing out my groups, in case I need one for a job slot (....notthatI'mworkingrightnowbutshhh, it's habit). So I found a store group I could leave without too much angst, and joined the 22769 store group.

I had been at 41 groups; I dropped a group, making it 40; I joined a group, bringing me back to 41. Then I ported back to Octoberville.

When I returned, I had 39 groups. And one that wasn't there? Octoberville.

Frankly, I panicked. It's bone-deep in me now--I can't leave Octoberville as a group, I lose my ranking. And in that sense, I don't blame them, because Ms. Spectre was constantly (may still be constantly) getting IMs saying, "yah I left the group 6 mos ago can I have my rank back now?"

And the answer to that, of course, obviously, is no.

But I didn't voluntarily leave the Oville group. I know that because I've never taken off the notification button for leaving groups. If I leave a group, I want to be asked if I'm leaving. The only pop-up I had was for the Ambrosia group--and I was asked if I really wanted to leave, to which I pushed the Yes button.

I wasn't asked that question about any other group. And yet, I left with 41 groups, and came back with 39.

(I still don't know which other groups I lost--everything looks like it's still there, and--after rejoining Oville last night--I'm up to 40 groups. I know I lost something, though. And yeah, it bugs me.)

But I was in panic mode, so I sent a notecard to Cherub Spectre and Master Kaos. I didn't realize until I opened Ms. Spectre's profile that she states there to contact her, or Nathan Oddfellow, with requests.

Oops.

But I hunted about in Octoberville, solving occasional quests, getting frustrated at not finding other items, until it was time for bed. Having sent the two "halp, halp" notecards, I figured that was really all I could do. The rest was up to them.

This morning, I woke up to this IM in my email:

[8:49] Cherub Spectre: This is why we have people register on the site. I was able to verify your rank and gave you your epic tag

Cue huge sigh of relief.

So yes, much gratitude and full props to Ms. Spectre, thank you thank you thank you, and for everyone else, if you're interested in maintaining rank at all, register on the website. It's www.octoberville.com, and they have forums (for those what like the chat option), a place to upload a pic of you for a little profile section, an online web HUD that tracks what you find in the game, videos, polls, Facebook updates (not that I care, but I know I'm in the minority with Facebook loathing), and more. And they're still working on making Octoberville a PC game.

For the rest, yeah, I'm pretty sure we're in another unstable portion of SL's weekly run. From the grid status site:

Ongoing Issue with Offline Regions
Posted by Status Desk on October 29th, 2011 at 02:10 pm PDT

[POSTED 10:08AM PDT, 25 October 2011] We are aware of a problem that causes regions to go offline more frequently than normal. Our developers were alerted to the issue over the weekend and continue to work around the clock towards a solution. We understand how disruptive this is to your inworld experience. If your region is offline, please go to your support portal and submit a case using the following types: "Land & Region" > "Report an Offline Region". This queue is being closely monitored to ensure the fastest turnaround possible. We will post an update as soon as we have more information on resolution.

So, did that have anything to do with losing groups on teleporting? No idea. Also, I find it odd that that paragraph was supposedly posted yesterday, yet is dated five days before.

Odd, that.

But yes, the grid's still flaky, it was flaky yesterday, it's been off-and-on flaky since the server upgrade...this really isn't anything new. What is new is losing the groups I lost...but at least one of them (and to me, the most important one) I've got back.

Sometimes, we get a simple, easy solution for things. It's always nice.

don't hide the treasures you've found in a hole in the ground

(continued from part I!)

More from Burn2, soon to open to the public.

(from the Burn2 album)

Next, I went off to Yman Juran's build, Cosmic Circusality, of which the artist says:

Cosmic Circusality is the relationship between an idea and its implementation into action, just as your decision to share light, life and love with your fellow beings to help mankind and its creator forward on the path to beauty, goodness and truth.

Wau. That's a lot to lay on your average avatar.

(from the Burn2 album)

I popped in next to a floating orb of spinning fire, directly beneath a spinning trapeze ring. At the top of that build, though, I noticed a collection of fluttering, tattered black flags Mm. paramparamm Papp had installed. Distractability, thy name is me, so off I went to investigate.

(from the Burn2 album)

Alas, that's the only picture I got, because the security orb prohibiting entry on that parcel was lethal. Decidedly unfriendly; verging on hostile, even, I thought, plus it bopped me into the corner of the entire sim, and with only five minutes of press time remaining, I didn't even know where I was.

(from the Burn2 album)

I wasn't offended so much as confused, but it did bring me walking past Nik Gandt's Matrix skull on my way to figure out my bearings. I stood and watched it for a bit, the skull's pupils dilating to pinpoints and expanding again as the code strands rippled over the surface.

(from the Burn2 album)

Just past that, I I briefly happened across the skeleton mermaids created to float above a tangle of striped tentacles, surmounted by calavera skull heads.

(from the Burn2 album)

And I was just as briefly waylaid by indecision, past the calavera mers.

(from the Burn2 album)

Two minutes until the press tour closed. I picked a direction at random--a shadowed box containing dimly seen blue figures. Once inside, everything changed.

(from the Burn2 album)

Ultraviolet Alter's sculpture series on the Playa is ethereal, luminous, and transcendental. Ultraviolet paints her women out of light, and they are both frozen and mobile, active and passive at once.

(from the Burn2 album)

She paints them impassioned, in pain, pondering significant thoughts, reaching out, pulling back. I was absolutely enthralled, I must admit, and completely swept away by the interplay of color and shadow in the space.

(from the Burn2 album)

With that, though, it was eight, and the end of the press tour. I sighed and began to drift slowly away, circling the sculptures one last time as I went.

(from the Burn2 album)

As stated, Burn2 opens officially on the 1st of October, and goes through, I believe, the 9th of October.

(from the Burn2 album)

Do try to make room for it in your schedule; it's well worth the trip. I am definitely going back and taking more pictures!

Also opening on the first is Octoberville. They have a Facebook page now, which I'm not going to link, because please, it's Facebook. (Oh, all right, if you must know, it's here. Happy now?) And they're very excited to be opening again, this year on schedule.

Last year, between the organizers not thinking they'd be able to open, and personal stress in my life away from the grid, the decision was made--and, surprisingly, held to--not to hunt at Octoberville. I missed it, keenly, not the least of it because I would not move up my ranking by one level more. (Currently, I'm rated at Epic, which means I've completed at least two verified hunts; I've actually done more, but the first one was not recorded, alas. My next level--hopefully to be achieved this year!--will indicate that I've completed three verified hunts, start to finish.)

This year, I am hoping to achieve the rank of Octoberville Master (or Mistress, in my case, though it's the same title regardless of avatar gender). Getting three completed hunts under my belt will feel good, especially since Octoberville's arcane locations for the items leaves the Twisted hunt in the dust.

Things to remember for both Octoberville, and Burn2: dress as minimally as you can, and by that, I don't mean attractively placed bandages and corks, people, I mean low-prim. Figure out how much your hair is at, make sure it, your skirt, your shoes, and anything else have no scripting involved. Leave complicated HUDs at home. Take off anything that generates particles, and unclick any likely gesture culprits, especially if they come with sound files. There will already be plenty of scripting, particle action, and sounds flying around in either locale; you don't need to add to it.

Even with that, though, that doesn't mean you have to walk around like a putty-colored noob either--there are alternatives, from hairbase tattoo layers for a close-cropped look, all the way down to simply sculpted shoes that clock in under twenty prims for the entire pair. It can be done...it just takes a bit of effort. And that effort will be rewarded by objects you can actually rez in, things you can interact with without crashing (My hair was pretty good at 54 prims total, but I was wearing 36 flexi prims on each leg for the fluttery drawstring pants), and it won't take hours to move. That, also, is well worth the time it takes to pare down.

a disease of the mind, it can control you

Frogster, the owner/partial distributor of Runes of Magic, has been acquired by Gameforge, which is causing a few negative ripples through the gaming community. They maintain they're letting Frogster continue to innovate and control Runes, so...we'll see what happens.

I admit, this is the link I've been sending to all my friends of late, because, in and amongst all the other brief mentions of Comic-Con 2010 hype, there was mention of the Avengers movie. Why is this cool? Because leading up to the Avengers movie, there will be other films, including a redoing of Thor. Why is that cool?

Because Marvel, to support their talk, brought a glass case with props made for the movie (one surmises). There were four. Odin's helmet; Thor's helmet; Loki's helm, complete with the dorky curving horns; and...the Infinity Gauntlet. And that, friends and neighbors, has "summer blockbuster/geekgasm" written allll over it.

In further comics news, sometimes comic storylines make your brain cringe. Case in point: the history of Rachel Summers. (And yes, for anyone who doesn't know--that's an accurate recounting of the storyline through several years--and several comic lines. If you really enjoy brain cramps, try on the history of Hawkman for size. Though I would recommend Xorn's comic timeline only for the foolhardy, or for those who hate their brains and want them to die.)

At 2:49 pm, on Wednesday, 4 August, Azriel Demain announced this in a group notice to the FallnAngels:

I'm Back!!!!!
Finally LL has let me back on!
I want to thank each one of you for your support with all of this. For your kind words, gracious thoughts, positive energies, and continued shopping.
A very special thank you goes out to my Tomoyuki Batra for handling everything for me.
I am a very lucky man to have such beautiful Angels backing me.
Thank you all!

So, it's not as bad as it could have been--since he was being told the eighth--but likely he's still scrambling to reallocate funds, unless Des' recommended trick of being put on 'administrative hold' worked. And then there's this:

[17:55] Azriel Demain: whether things are straightened out or not i have no idea.. no linden has ever replied to me yet

So...does that mean he could be banned again? For no perceptible reason? Or does that mean the ban is over? Did the Lindens just forget and lift the ban on a whim? Did they react to pressure from patrons or in-world sources? Was this a reasoned, responsible, reaction to the situation, or was it completely random?

Talk about bad customer service, this is now How to Terrify Customers, parts I through XIV.

However it went, welcome back, Az! Let's hope this is the first and last time you'll be banned.

Thinking from the other side of things for a moment, though, this has confirmed two things, inescapably, in my mind:

• no one is safe, no matter how many sims they own; if there is content deemed infringing by the Labs, they will, sooner or later, act on that information and ban.
• we now have no clue and no good 'warning' system in place for when this happens. If our content, as creators of content, is deemed infringing, we're gone--with no appeals process, and no good inroads to Customer Service. Oh, wait, this is the Labs--there is no Customer Service.

I am a small-time creator even for small-time creators, but I am now going to go through everything I've ever had up for sale to ensure that nothing can be seen by anyone to be actionable. This whole thing scared the hell out of me, and I wasn't the one banned.

At one point during all of this--because we were concerned, we asked Tomo how Azriel was doing--Tomo told us that Az had taken every doll in the house and drowned it in the tub.

I related this tale to Neome, who wasn't online for it, and she first shook her head, the gravity of such an act singing in. Then she pouted.

"I want a drowned doll dress," she said. I honestly think I'll suggest that to Az.

Technology takes odd turns sometimes. Found by William Gibson's wife, and posted on @GreatDismal's Twitter feed (@GreatDismal happens to be William Gibson, for anyone not following along), the Eco-Hime is a sound mask. Which makes the sound of falling water.

Not that odd--I can genuinely see applications for this in spy-to-spy conversations, because turning on the tap or shower acts as a great low-tech way to distort the human voice--but this one's designed to mask the sound of...well...peeing. With falling water.

Isn't there going to be a watery sound either way?

(Also from the Lovelyish blog: four ways to be less clingy. I'd say this works equally well for either gender, and in truth, may well apply more to SL than RL.)

And, getting back to SL matters:

"The simple fact is that, outside of niche activities, as stated, Second Life simply isn't ready for big business to pay anything more than a cursory interest in it; there is simply nothing here that is compelling for big business to invest time, effort and money in SL on an ongoing basis."

She's not wrong.

Finally, one of the staffers over at MMORPG is pondering the concept of detective MMOs. Now, me, I read those words and immediately I started thinking about all the tropes in noir and pulp circulars, powerful hook-nosed men who skulked in the shadows in trenchcoats and felt hats, devastatingly sexy femme fatales with poisoned lipstick and coded messages.

Instead? I got Police Quest, which always made me think of Leslie Nielson. Errrgh.

Still, it is an intriguing question, noir influences or not--would a mystery premise sustain for a full MMO? That's half the fun of BioShock after all; and a lot of simpler games have used finding clues as a way to push story elements along. Even Octoberville works on a mystery motif--and finding those clues is the challenge each year!

It might not work, in the large sense that MMOs seem to function on. But it's worth a try. I'm hoping someone considers the idea, and guns for funding.

So to speak.

I've been trying to get to your heart but I'm chasing shadows

Hello Everyone,

I have some sad news that I am just as upset about as many of you may be. Due to real life circumstances, responsibilities and quite a few other reasons, we have decided to not bring Octoberville back this year. I am sorry and sad to say that, but it is something we realize we have to do. With out own personal schedules there is no way we will have the time to create the project. This was not an easy decision and we hope to return again next year. We love you for loving us. Thank You.

Master Kaos sent this out to the Octoberville group today. So, of course, my first reaction:

[18:16] Emilly Orr: No. Octoberville. This year.
[18:16] Fawkes Allen blinks.
[18:16] Emilly Orr: Which means...I have to hold that group for another whole year YOU BASTARDS
[18:17] Fawkes Allen: Huh, wow.

hen I got past that initial bit and gave it more thought. This is a huge undertaking every year. In no uncertain terms, they're really giving up the chance to make any sales on their sim for that entire month. They do get donations, because a lot of us love what they do and want to support it, but it's hard. They don't--they steadfastly refuse to--charge for entry on their sim.

Octoberville is evolving more and more into a yearly game; with prizes, sure, and dance events, spontaneous specific hunts for items, plus the ongoing storyline as it evolves. It's always something of a murder mystery--the who and the why change year to year--but we're always detectives, of a sort. And Octoberville, as a whole, is what we're trying to solve.

[18:21] Cherub Spectre: MK is just going through a VERY intensive computer animation school and it eats MUCH of his time
[18:21] Marion Whiteberry: you will be missed very much
[18:21] Cherub Spectre: we will miss you all too
[18:22] Cherub Spectre: yes please dont drop your tags..
[18:22] Cherub Spectre: we WILL be back

This is killing Cherub, I think. Because beyond all the drama that surfaces, from time to time, beyond the complaints, beyond the lag and the occasional griefing incidents and the vendors not working for customers just porting in to the store for a desk, or a chair...Cherub and Master Kaos love Octoberville. They love what they do. They love those moments when someone finds something that's been insanely difficult to find.

And we're there for them. We give them what we can--not because they demand it, but because we want to help. We attend the events we can--because they're fun, because Master Kaos is a great DJ, because we can't hunt for anything when there's an event on, anyway. And we devote a not insignificant amount of time to solving Octoberville, every year.

So will I stay in the group for another year? Absolutely. I'm pretty sure most of us will. And we'll look forward to hearing from them near the end of 2011--should the sim still be there, should Second Life still be here.

Because we're detectives, now. And we want to know how it happened.

Good luck, guys--we'll be pulling for you.

conversed so often: mute

[17:00] Adaarye Shikami: Sorry to bother you all with this spam - but I'd really appreciate it if you all would take a moment to read this and carefully consider what I've said and the requests I've made. This is an important issue and due to the circumstances, I feel the need to ask for the support of the community as a whole and to bring awareness of the plight that some in our community would love to put texture artists into. ♥

So I read the notecard included:

I have read some of the most disturbing things today posted by a, for the lack of a better term, freebie monger, in a venue meant for SL business folk. Why he/she is in that [part] of that venue I'm not certain. Apparently, this person has for TWO DAYS been preaching that texture artists are not entitled to the same rights as the rest of the content creators here in our fine community. I find this particularly disturbing.

Let me preface my next statement with *I support the builders who have granted me their patronage both in the short term and for years BUT I will NEVER allow an open ended license for my textures*. My ToS is what it is. My time is just as valuable as the next persons. I'd like for all of my valued customers to consider the time we ALL put into our creations, the overhead we pay, the cost of software and training. One should never discount the value of anyone's time. If a texture artists creations are fair game to be tossed from grid to grid, should a builder's creation then become full perm as well? To be copied and tossed about from grid to grid? In the same manner in which this person proposed [in a] merchant's venue no less. Does the fact that I buy a 10K prefab in SL automatically grant me the right to have it delivered to Inworldz or any other VW? I think not. I'd never expect it because that is WRONG. I don't have a problem paying for what I want/need and if I were to have issues with paying, it's my problem, not the creative community's problem.

When the query was made if this person would deliver his/her goods from grid to grid on demand or make his/her things full perm to be copied at will, he/she promptly blew smoke up our collective asses. So my proposition is unless ALL content creators are willing to give up their time to make full perm items that can be tranferred, copied, resold, abused, exploited at will, then don't buy into this dribble. I have done my best to bring my best to SL and have granted my customers a license to use my best inside Second Life.

So what I am asking for now is the support of the creative community to stamp out such cheap skate mentality and support your texture artists .. all of them. Please don't abuse us and let common sense rule and not freebie mentality. This I shouldn't have to pay and plain cheap skate mentality and way misguided sense of entitlement (Our sets cost like 50 cents to 4 dollars each?!!) needs to stop. I would also request your support and well wishes as we EXPAND into another VW and above all, respect our time and effort.

/rant and as always *hugz* and thank you for your support.

I find this interesting, especially on the heels of the Prim Perfect post I quoted yesterday. It's quite the emotional plea, and it's not even saying anything I particularly disagree with; as a texture artist myself, I would prefer my creations be used to build with, not to be sold by someone else for profit; and while I don't have a specific "personal ToS" I give out with my textures (haven't decided if one is needed yet), the concept generally is: Use what we make to better your builds. Don't sell the textures independently. No selling on other grids.

That seems fairly basic, yes?

But now I'm thinking, particularly in light of the comments on the Prim Perfect blog (which I'll get to in a moment); where was Miss Shikami when this went down? What "freebie-monger" was espousing the belief set that so offended her? And what exactly was said? We have the full measure of her offended words, yes; but we don't have what so offended her. And speculation in such waters is never a good thing.

But let's go back to the comments on the Prim Perfect blog. One of the commenters on the blog, Troy, said:

Digital music, digital movies, and digital 3D models can all be copied easily and perfectly (if not legally), so you’d think that all the creators would have stopped creating by now. Yet they haven’t. I wonder why not.

Prim Perfect replied:

Troy – in the cases you cite, the intellectual property rights belong to or are protected by large corporations who have the power to go after infringers hard. And they do.

[...] A new CD by Cold Play is ripped off. The new Peter Jackson movie is pirated. Chris Martin and Peter Jackson are insulated from the theft by the companies that surround them. They have every encouragement to go on creating.

Um, not always. In a very famous recent case, Peter Jackson turned down the direction of the upcoming film, The Hobbit because there were problems with how he and his people were paid from the last three Lord of the Rings films. According to New Line, they don't seem to get the point that 'creative accounting' that results in not paying directors, actors, writers and producers for their work will result in those selfsame directors, actors, writers and producers not working for them in future.

Jackson doesn't even seem particularly emotional about it; his stance is clear. He wants the court case settled, for or against him, on the merits of his claims; he's even willing to lose, if that's what the court findings deliver. But New Line is pushing--and I suppose, in their view, that's the "right" way to do things; if they get Jackson et al to agree to bind the litigation to the new film, then they're out of the court drama and they get Jackson to direct. Win-win for them.

How, in all of this, is Jackson being "protected by large corporations"? I'd rather think he's being financially damaged by large corporations, frankly.

Both OKGo and Amanda Palmer left their record labels because the strictures their labels were putting on them were untenable. Who Killed Amanda Palmer as an album has actually been tracked out on the profit margins; though there were sales, even with that label's slipshod advertising, nothing made its way to Palmer because it just didn't sell "well enough". The "large corporation" got paid; yet Palmer was "protected" from the profits of her own intellectual property.

More to the point though, the DMCA itself was never intended to be used in a small claims sense. It was designed from the outset to apply to those selfsame "large corporations" on major hacks of their work; 180,000 copies of a popular film ripped and resold in China, for instance. It's not even that those ripped copies didn't start out life as a legally bought one; in nearly every case, they have, so that those selfsame rippers can get a digitally perfect copy in the first place.

That it's cumbersome, that it's arcane, that it's difficult to figure out is part of the why it was created; it is assumed that anyone who wants to correctly file a DMCA has filed one before, or has had clients that have, in the case of the law firms who usually file DMCA cease-and-desist letters. At this point, they've done it a thousand times, it's point and click. It's routine. It's rote.

Not so for the "small scale business operations" on SL; and this is not the fault of the DMCA, because it was written with very specific end goals in mind. But in reality, in real application, if someone fills in a line wrong, doesn't fill in exactly, word for word, what the specific and specifically spelled out products were that violated a creator's IP...Linden Labs not only won't act, but by the provisions of the DMCA they cannot act. If they don't have things specifically spelled out, they can't ban those things. By law.

I am not trying to diminish Maxwell Graf's loss in any way. But do we know, with no shadow of any doubt, that Graf's DMCA was filed absolutely accurately? He does not show us the documentation; we are left to assume that he did turn it in accurately. And six days after he filed his claim--after a 30% staff reduction on the part of Linden Labs, after the leadership position of M Linden was overturned, after the removals team was gutted...six days after all of that, action was still not taken.

I think, in this instance, we have to cut the Labs some slack. While the form letter is vague and, by its nature, insulting, I think Mr. Graf was lucky to hear anything back. Major turmoil behind the scenes in any organization, and that organization suffers. That he heard back at all was a positive sign.

How'ver, by the same extension, and in all fairness--when he heard back, he was told the problem was resolved. Mr. skatman Shelman is still in Search. But his business, the terrifically misspelled "Sucubos Infernaty" is now a private home.

[16:51] Emilly Orr: Ah. Do you know where the business moved to?
[16:51] Emilly's Google Translator: Azul Lawksley=>Ah. ¿Sabes dónde está el negocio se trasladó a?
[16:52] Azul Lawksley: que negocio buscas
[16:52] Azul Lawksley: ?
[16:52] Emilly's Google Translator: Azul Lawksley:they're business

That seems to be that.

The only other store-related link in Shelman's picks led me to the Dracul sim, which seems to be an immersive RP area. While there are items that look like Mr. Graf's work, they also say they're Maxwell Graf's work; not imported and sold by someone else, and there's no vendor here to buy anything of Mr. Shelman's, anyway.

The other avatar mentioned, Mr. Skatman Edelman, seems to be Polynesian, not French, and in any case, has no picks or other mentions in his profile. So whatever the Lindens did, or did not do, prior to sending that letter, they seem now to have now done...or, at least, on the surface, from a quick port around, they seem to have removed the items in question.

In fact, the only thing I've found even built by Shelman at all is slab-built, and mostly from megaprims, in Nosferatu. It's not in the least hacked work, and it looks like it.

[Later insert: I'm very wrong. I ported in, looked around, scanned objects...I'm wondering now if the Linden who was sent out did the same thing, because up in the sky, in the half-dome, nothing's made by Graf. But downstairs, in the actual Vamps' Nest RP area, I would bet my life that several bridges, flame columns, homes, shops, firepits, and assorted other items are made by Graf...but they claim to be built by Shelman. So there's still work to be done, Lindens--you might want to get on that.]

From Cheryl Spectre comes shaky news for future titles in Octoberville:

Hey guys! I know everyone hates viewer 2.. Im withya on that.. but it has one capability we have incorporated heavily into this years OV and thats web prim capability. Viewer 2 will be REQUIRED to complete OV this year.. so you may want to start getting used to it before October.

How much do I hate viewer 2? A LOT. Do I hate it enough to prevent my gaining this year's title, which would mean three consecutive completions of the hunt?

'm having to think on that.

This just kills me--I realize I'm far from the target market for smart phone makers, but seriously--it's still a phone. Which means it must be capable of use as--A PHONE. This is a difficult concept?

Man, by the time I'm ready to get a cell phone I'm going to have to do a ton of background research, because seriously--I never thought the one thing I'd have to make sure, for any cell phone purchase, was that it could make and receive calls!

Finally, for every ten thousand spam emails sent to Chipotle, they'll make a donation of $10,000 to a charitable organization designed to make students' school lunches healthier.

Which is a great idea, but...how soon are they going to go broke at this rate? I receive about 500 pieces of spam every week. If I forward all of those to Chipotle's specially-set-up email box, that's 3,500 just from me alone--each and every week.

How soon before Chipotle's desire for helping out bankrupts them?

funny, how it seems that all I've tried to do, seemed to make no difference to you at all

Yesterday's post garnered a mention on the Zindra Times; I'm always happy to be mentioned, but now I'm wondering--because the extreme drop in profits? Has been going on for months in Zindra.

This is old news. Even the mention of adult content makers returning to the mainland is old news.

But then, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Likely anyone who's noticed a drop in sales either thinks it's them (which is usually not the case), or talks to Support about it--and anything from the Labs about Zindra is probably "Oh, you'll be fine, it's a momentary spike, everyone's picking up on sales. You will too."

Bah.

Jason Calacanis figures out how to kill Google. I don't personally think it would kill them, outright, but injure them? Likely. Would major media companies go for it, now that Google has become a verb? Who knows?

From the same fellow: "You don't make a revolutionary product by trying to beat a competitor who's an incumbent. You make a revolutionary product by looking three steps ahead, and saying, let's get to that place, and get to that place before that person even knows that that place exists." It's a very good point.

Some very random images from some very random places.



(The view of the Motherfunkin' Haunted Maze as a whole, set within a megaprim Hellraiser cube. Damn, I wish I'd known that beforehand.)



(An odd view of my avatar at DV8; the face, no matter where I turned, was this odd blackened tone. Something about their lights, that evening, or Snowglobe's responsiveness, or my own computer's oddity? Who knows? Has this happened to anyone else?)



(During a hunt at Dare Designs, in one of the farther chambers, I found a float tube with an animation ball. It took a bit to cam in there, but once I had, I found myself floating and spinning in a frosted glass tube. Neat.)



(Now that Octoberville is over for the year, I can start filtering through the images I captured there. This was a stroke of odd luck--the black box wherein the three colored keys were found disappeared as I was taking the picture, I paused to refresh when the box--invisible, but with the keys glowing--moved elsewhere on the sim, and snapped it then. It made a very ethereal image.)



(There were seven ghosts in Octoberville this year, named after the seven deadly sins. This was Wrath's room, a room of blood and red rage, weeping and screaming. Daunting effect.)



(This is Serenity Semple, post-Uchi avatar head mod. She used to be your fairly standard purple-haired bright-eyed white fluffy winged kitten (*snerks*), but Uchi Desmoulins (Desmoulins? The same av behind the Felis av of song and story) put out a cat avatar, and she extensively modded the head, then adapted bits and pieces of both avatars into a slimmer, more realistically anime-style fur.

(The bigger picture leads you to one of the cutest Serenity moments EVER. Even surpassing some of the images seen on her blog. )



(Sometimes, sims are very cool before things rez in. This is Le Petit Prince at sunset.)



(At one point during the festivities the Octoberville sim drowned. It was very, very odd to wander the expected halls and tunnels, past the burning cabins, into the haunted house....all drifting and blue, murky and underwater. It was very surreal.)



(Another shot, higher in Octoberville--the only place, in fact, that remained mostly dry: the Pumpkin patch, the carnival tents, and most of the Pumpkin House.)



(And have I mentioned we got on the wall on Octoberville, again, this year? I think the count stopped--due to lag and other issues, several days past October 31st--at #200.)

"When islands in Second Life sink, they don't even leave stones." (Crap Mariner)

Repo in Second Life is gone, temporarily or permanently--the sim that Falln designer Azriel Demain designed, the labor of love for all involved, has sunk with barely a whisper beneath the virtual waves.

I have pictures. I'm just not ready to deal with all of that, just yet. I'm still saddened from the loss.

you stoop to feed the crows to let 'em scratch the truth

All right. I'm only saying this once more, because apparently folks are still confused.

Yes, I was fired from Radio Riel. It was over a difference of opinion. No, it was not my decision to leave. Yes, I'm not thrilled about it. No, there's nothing I can do about it, and no, I don't want to boycott Radio Riel over it.

Is everyone caught up now? Let's move on.

The two pictures I captured during the ten-box S.I.C. hunt (in the sims sick and sick5) were when I was standing outside of the Weapons Shop, just a step away from the port-in point in the main sim.



They won't really show you how cool this was; you should go look for yourself.



(By the way, while you're wandering the sick chain, check out the small Hallows fair in sick5. Fun seasonal freebies to take home and treasure, including a crow machine!)



(I'm not kidding about the crow machine.)

The boxes you're looking for are like always--small tarnished metal boxes, with handles, and a center rotating glowing blue "active" beacon:



This one, at least, is relatively easy; you don't have to wear a HUD, you don't have to take the completed HUD to the central computer core and wait for prize delivery. Just collect the boxes. Ten collected, will unpack into a pretty nifty set of cyber-armor. In what might even be holiday tones.

In other news, I received this notice from the Octoberville Group:

Group Notice From: Master Kaos

We are reverting to the original policing policies only [involving] abuse, harassment of people on the sim.

WE WILL NOT BE POLICING ARC ANY LONGER. WE WILL NOT BE POLICING CHEATING ANY LONGER. We have tried to do our best, being that this is a sim built for everyone in SL just to have fun and explore and have something interesting to do, and no longer wish to be cussed out, threatened, reported, badly represented, and have false claims sent out in notecards in mass mailings. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Okay, first off, what the hell? And second...no, it's still WHAT THE HELL?!?

I have to find out why this was sent out. Because this just sounds insane. Notecards sent in mass mailings threatening Octoberville? Because they had the audacity to have a scavenger hunt?!?

I'll tell you more when I know more, but this is surreal.