these broken wings are gonna leave me here to stand my ground

*sighs*

I'm getting very tired of this.

A very rough cut of the Poison Apple video is available on YouTube. The full length work will premiere at Altered Gallery next Saturday, if all goes well. I'll keep you updated.

Last night, however, was the last few events of Steelhead's Harvest Festival, and the Wizard of Oz dance.



Dorothy approaches the Emerald City.



Dorothy sets up the Kissing Booth. A horse race was scheduled at the same time. No one comes. (To the Booth--apparently the horse race was well attended.)



Dorothy goes to the dance. Much amazing creativity was seen, which I sincerely hope will be shown on other journals, because Dorothy had an extreme lack of rez.



But the Dalek Summoning Call was issued--the playing of the Dalek Song. Daleks--and hijinks--ensued.

Afterwards, I shut down Taiyou. The building should be down sometime today.

Today, I spent the day as the holder of a new position--that of manager of the Altered Gallery in Sonata. Our first event was sparsely attended, our second small but steady, and over L$12,000 was raised to benefit a child in need of psychological care after sexual abuse. I'm very pleased by this.

I'm also now looking for artists, as the upstairs will be dedicated to the works of Sysperia Poppy and Zoe Hartnell, and the lower gallery will be video and rotating artists every month. Do IM me if you are, or know of, an artist I should see. Or better yet, drop me a notecard in world--for even now, my IMs? Frequently cap.

heroes on the half shell

Emerged out of limbo late last night, into my home in Rivula, and was called to the lands of Taupo to meet with the Queen. I sought to change into something more appropriate for the island kingdom, but suddenly, everything began to slow down.

Massively.

Something was up.

Then Michaelangelo drifted through the room, big grinning teeth and all.

I thought perhaps I might be hallucinating for some reason, but....then it happened again.

I pulled my focus back, sent my cam far outside my skybox, and saw....this:



Great. Self-replicating TURTLES.

I swear, in a year of living in Rivula...Rivula gets hit first, it stays hit longest. When nowhere else on the grid is having problems, Rivula is. It's the bastard stepchild of the grid.

I'm so sick of it.

If I didn't love my landlords so much...

Just to add to the weirdness...Baron Wulfenbach has decided I need more Jell-O in my life. I possessed the lemon Jell-O and the Blue Hawaii; he's now sent me the cherry, the orange, the grape and lime.

Hmm.

Either he's trying to see if I mutate with exposure to that much gelatin, or...he's hungry.

oh, you're one of those things I love, but you're bad for me

I had a feeling it wasn't going to be the best day.



I was trying to program a rug. (That's the rug below me, that round thing, ohhhh so far away.) It wasn't precisely working.

Mr. Allen came and tried to help me. At this point the conversation wavered between moribund and cumbersome; I did try to pay attention. Between moments of being flung very very high.

He said I had my rotations wrong...



I'll agree with him there.

He told me, always make sure my poses start with the rotations at 0,0,0. I misunderstood him at first and entered 0,0,1.0 on the rotations card. It flung me off the sim entirely.

[23:09] You: That flung me off the sim
[23:10] Fawkes Allen: Now Em, did we go over the making sure the Positional Vector was below 1.0?
[23:10] You: You said 0,0,0,1
[23:10] You: So I put that in
[23:10] You: It said not a vector
[23:10] You: So I put in 0.0, 0.0, 1.0
[23:11] Fawkes Allen: Noooo.
[23:12] Fawkes Allen: I said 0,0,0.1
[23:12] Fawkes Allen: Notice the .
[23:12] You: Oh.
[23:12] You: Aheh.



He's trying, I'll give him that. I think it's much easier to make something and use poseballs to make sure people are where you want them to be. I think it's much harder to try to get the rotations and positions right so that each prim in an object has a sit target.

Trust me, I'm not playing the typical girl "Math is hard, let's go shopping!" card here. I'm trying to learn it. It's just not making sense yet.

[23:25] Fawkes Allen: What was Pos at?
[23:26] You: No, wait, no, it made sense...
[23:26] You: N'mind ignore me
[23:26] You: Okay
[23:26] You: rot = <6.95, 356.95, 60.60>
[23:26] You: No no
[23:26] You: pos = <15.723, 202.131, 20.900>
[23:26] You: right
[23:26] Fawkes Allen: Yeah see.
[23:26] Fawkes Allen: Stop using any number higher then 1.0 ^_~
[23:26] Fawkes Allen: Fix that, we can try again
[23:28] You: Okay, then we're back to, I have no idea how rotation and position work



He made a handy little visual. I'll have to look at this more, but this may actually help

[23:35] Fawkes Allen: Notice the spiffy diagram here.
[23:36] Fawkes Allen: That Neome is in
[23:36] Fawkes Allen: The larger X/Y/Z is the Sim "Grid"
[23:36] Fawkes Allen: It's where you are in 3-d Space.
[23:36] Neome Graves gets out of the way before something goes off.
[23:37] Fawkes Allen: The smaller one? Is the prim. You want to be changing the position of the SitTarget (What the Config notecard is for) relative to the smaller "Grid"

I'd love to say the light went off at that point, but....it didn't, quite.

[23:41] You: Okay, so let me ask this
[23:41] You: Do the numbers under rotation in the edit window mean ANYTHING?
[23:41] Fawkes Allen: Yes.
[23:42] Emilly Orr stares at Fawkes
[23:42] Fawkes Allen: Rotation *and* Position mean something. It's just you can't interpret the data Raw.
[23:43] Fawkes Allen: You have to essentially reformat it to be relative to the root prim. Which is most easily done by taking away the X/Y/Z of the Poseball from the X/Y/Z of the pillow.
[23:43] Fawkes Allen: More or less

Maybe it's that I need to take a class or something. Go through the Ivory Tower tutorials again. It's almost making sense, but my brain is missing something.



But I tried using what he was trying to teach me. Every attempt at reprogramming the prim, I got a little closer. Even if it was getting harder to talk.

[23:44] Fawkes Allen: See this Sphere?
[23:44] Fawkes Allen makes it a sphere.
[23:44] Neome Graves: Hee
[23:44] Fawkes Allen: It's at 14.500, 202.500, 22.000
[23:44] Fawkes Allen: I want the pose however to be here.
[23:45] Fawkes Allen: Okay?
[23:45] Fawkes Allen: This is at 15.0,202.5,22.0
[23:45] Fawkes Allen: So I'd take the notecard configuration file.
[23:45] Fawkes Allen: And under Pos
[23:45] Fawkes Allen: I'd go
[23:45] Fawkes Allen: <0.5,0,0>
[23:46] Fawkes Allen: Which means the pose will be sitting .5 meters forward along the X axis.
[23:48] Fawkes Allen: Did that help at all?

And my answer is yes and no. It helps, it's just not how my brain is used to working.



I finally just plugged in 2.5 along the X axis, I was tired of being in the pillow! Which set me hovering above the rug entirely. But that taught me more about how rotation and positioning works than anything else had...and he had to tell me again to use Local edit settings, not World.

Hmm. Does Local edit settings give one different figures for rotation and position? As in, would they give the relative rotation and position of that prim in the edit window, not the rotation of the object being edited on the world grid?

Because that may make everything very simple.

Finally I cobbled something together that would work "for now"--I could finely-tweak later, I was getting tired. I decided to throw together the figures for the pillow in the middle, to make it a properly working set of three poses.



I give up.

when you walk away I count the steps that you take

My neko lad must delight in tormenting me. He brings me to the precipice of saying goodbye, and then...hesitates. Reaffirms that love is important. Validates my choices. Brings me back from the brink before....pushing me near off the edge at speed, saying all would be well if I'd just leave all others I love.

I have been here before, but never with one I've held in such high regard. We have been a year together, on the rich-ragged grid, a year of ups and downs, discoveries and losses, confusion and adoration, pain and joy. One year. One year when most relationships on the grid last two months.

And we are on the shakiest of ground now, after that year. It's daunting, on more than one level.



I took him to Svarga, because we could easily hide amidst the towering alien foliage, the overgrown fungus soft enough to sit upon. We discussed our love, potential loss, decisions, fear, doubt...all whilst I was being struck repeatedly by the tour UFO.

Apparently the orange mushroom? Is directly in the path of the tour tram.



We talked for a long time.

He sought to sit with me when the conversation wound down, and something in the mechanics of his moving sent me flying from the spongy mushroom surface, whereupon I--surprised enough not to hover--fell like a rock into the small pond, the sharp outcropping of rock therein piercing through my ribcage.



It took me a bit to pull off. That was distressing. And hurt a great deal, but nothing like his leaving-but-not-quite speeches. He left in good cheer, and I remained...confused and hurt.

And cranky.

Thus, when my friends were accosted, and I was not there...well, I thought the least I could do was help these two unfortunates to be less of a drain on all thinking beings. That, or get killed much more often.

Let me bring to your attention Miss Chanelle Vuckovic, and Miss Alanah Bailey. Yes, they are newbies, and fairly egregious examples at that.



These are the...gentle ladies in question. Note the intense belly bling on Miss Vuckovic.

"You", in this instance, refers to Mr. Fawkes Allen. They had, my loves, decided to wear minimal attire to better see the muscle movements in the poses they were testing. (This is not the worst idea--I may go pose-shopping in minimal attire from now on myself.) And thereupon, were accosted, for no clear reason.

[2:10] Chanelle Vuckovic: bitch stop running
[2:10] Chanelle Vuckovic: lol
[2:11] Chanelle Vuckovic: looooooooooooool
[2:11] Alanah Bailey: i cant
[2:11] Alanah Bailey: lol
[2:11] Alanah Bailey: fuk
[2:11] Chanelle Vuckovic: lol
[2:11] Alanah Bailey: wtf is wrong wit me
[2:11] Alanah Bailey: lol
[2:11] Chanelle Vuckovic: gear
[2:11] Chanelle Vuckovic: thtas wat
[2:11] Alanah Bailey: phew
[2:11] Chanelle Vuckovic: hahaaaaaaaa
[2:11] Chanelle Vuckovic: gimi sum lol
[2:12] Alanah Bailey: i think these guys have fallen asleep
[2:12] Chanelle Vuckovic: think so
[2:12] Chanelle Vuckovic: lol
[2:12] Fawkes Allen laughs.
[2:12] You: It's such a relaxing pose.
[2:12] You: Wouldn't you?
[2:12] Alanah Bailey: deadset they were doin the same thing like 20mins ago
[2:12] Alanah Bailey: no
[2:12] Chanelle Vuckovic: loooooooooooool
[2:12] Alanah Bailey: if it was that gr8 i would do it in RL

So....right off the bat, they have established themselves as troglodytes who cannot spell, and whose main force of commentary is to devalue others. What a lovely way to make a first impression.

[2:12] You: If you need them we can get up I think.
[2:12] Chanelle Vuckovic: girl
[2:13] Chanelle Vuckovic: wat u wearing
[2:13] Chanelle Vuckovic: where u get that frm
[2:13] Alanah Bailey: sticky tape
[2:13] Alanah Bailey: or duct tape
[2:13] Chanelle Vuckovic: lol
[2:13] Neome Graves: Me? A combination of straps from Dark Eden and Chains from Nico
[2:13] Alanah Bailey: somethin out of edward scissorhands wardrobe
[2:13] Neome Graves smirks.
[2:14] Alanah Bailey: LOL somethin wrong wit yo leg
[2:14] Neome Graves: It's this walk. It is just odd. =P

Some poses are. Not everything works out. And everyone is entitled to judge, based on movements, how attractive or unattractive someone is. But--pardon--is it the norm to walk up to someone one has never previously met and start lambasting not only their attire, but their preferences, their appearance, their choice of costume?

They went on.

[2:14] Chanelle Vuckovic: loooooooooool
[2:14] Alanah Bailey: u guys have to walk
[2:14] Alanah Bailey: ur master just IMed me
[2:14] Chanelle Vuckovic: twitch bitch rofl
[2:15] Alanah Bailey: tellin me u guys need to lose weight
[2:15] Neome Graves smirks.
[2:15] Alanah Bailey: packn some junk in yo trunk if u catchn my drift
[2:15] Chanelle Vuckovic: who needs to loose weight
[2:15] Alanah Bailey: yeh and ur not allowde to talk either
[2:15] Alanah Bailey: or u get beat
[2:15] Neome Graves: Well, since I'm not actually a submissive... =P
[2:15] Alanah Bailey: both of them
[2:15] Alanah Bailey: well u are now
[2:15] You: Oh of course.

Now they're taking on, in order:

* spelling, proper punctuation and grammar
* minimal attire
* long-term pose testing (and be honest, sometimes it takes four to ten minutes of watching the walk, the stand, the fly, whatever, from all angles to really decide if it's "you" or not)
* Tim Burton
* physical appearance of others
* those who choose (whether or not Miss Neome or Mr. Allen are in this category, but simply from the way they looked) to engage in dominance or submission as a chosen lifestyle

But wait. They're not done.

[2:15] Alanah Bailey: LOL
[2:16] Alanah Bailey: gurl u need a tan
[2:16] Alanah Bailey: u whiter then caspar
[2:17] Alanah Bailey: neome
[2:17] Alanah Bailey: do u need money?
[2:17] Chanelle Vuckovic: this one needs to check himself/herself
[2:17] Neome Graves: Nope, *this* is hwiter than casper. =P
[2:17] Neome Graves: Whiter, even.
[2:17] You: Check what?

Now? Add the entirety of the gothic community on the grid. And, by extension, most of the Dark Victorians group, since we tend to favor dark clothes and pallor.

And they're still not done.

[2:17] Alanah Bailey: cant u afford clothes is that why ur wearing tape>?
[2:18] Chanelle Vuckovic: wardrobe malfunction
[2:18] Alanah Bailey: or u waiting for a removalist/
[2:18] Chanelle Vuckovic: looool
[2:18] Alanah Bailey: to pack ur ass up outta here/
[2:18] Neome Graves: Oh, it's very comfortable. I think everyone will be doing so in the future.
[2:18] Alanah Bailey: yeh the future of fukness
[2:18] Alanah Bailey: thats fukd
[2:18] Alanah Bailey: i cant even tell if u male or female
[2:18] Chanelle Vuckovic: girl u look bad seriously
[2:18] Alanah Bailey: or human for that matter
[2:19] Alanah Bailey: lol with a pimp AO
[2:19] Alanah Bailey: LMFAO
[2:19] Chanelle Vuckovic: loooooooooooooool
[2:19] Chanelle Vuckovic: rofl
2:19] Alanah Bailey: lol

I mean, do I even need to go on? It used to be on the grid, you would see a new friend, and by and large they would be, at the very least, civil. I still carry a folder with several newbie links, items of usefulness, and the like to give out to folks.

But these two..."ladies"...from the moment they came into view, they were aggressive, argumentative, insulting, and deeply stupid. Who raised these idiots?

[2:19] Alanah Bailey: theres a freebie place they have clothes there
[2:19] Alanah Bailey: LMAO
[2:19] Chanelle Vuckovic: rofllllll
[2:20] Alanah Bailey: LOL the pimp AO is funny as hell
[2:20] Alanah Bailey: have u got a leahs for that collar
[2:20] Alanah Bailey: ?
[2:20] Alanah Bailey: leash*
[2:21] Chanelle Vuckovic: omg lmfao
[2:21] Neome Graves raises an eyebrow. Are you asking?
[2:21] Alanah Bailey: ahhh yeh
[2:22] Neome Graves: I have a leash, but it's not for *my* collar.
[2:22] Chanelle Vuckovic: her master here
[2:22] Chanelle Vuckovic: ron lol
[2:22] Neome Graves: And thanks. ~_^
[2:22] Alanah Bailey: thanks for what?
[2:22] You: It's a bit hard to take fashion tips seriously when even your uterus has bling.
[2:22] Alanah Bailey: oh the freebie thingy
[2:22] Alanah Bailey: yeh its iight
[2:22] Neome Graves nods.
[2:22] Alanah Bailey: u need to go there like 10mins ago

I'm still not entirely convinced I shouldn't track them down and light them on fire, but....I think it's the crankiness speaking. Lambasting them in public will have to do. And I do believe this has adequately reinforced why my usual locales of choice are Caledon, Steelhead and my home sim of Rivula. Because this sort of thing? Is rare in those places.

One wonders what sort of upbringing such..."gentle souls" receive, that the first action upon seeing anyone who challenges any slight misconception in their heads receives this ill-structured diatribe. What would have happened if religion had come into it? Sexual preference? Choice of employment?

Not that it is in any way comparable, but there are faint bells of accord ringing from earlier conversations in Caledon chat. I am not normally the sort to baldly state what I do, but I felt compelled to do so last night, in response to a certain damsel who seems, from all surface perception, to be quite anti-sexuality, anti-male, and decidedly anti-fun. So, even though it was quite bolder than I am in Caledon at large, and somewhat inappropriate for proper Caledonian society...

...well, I was cranky already. And I had had more than enough. So yes, I flung what I do and have done in her face, and she fainted.

I'll do my best to behave better from now on. It just irked me. The entire evening.

If the universe is trying to tell me not to date...they're doing a very good job and I may well take their advice.

I wandered through fiction to look for the truth, buried beneath all the lies

((RP MODE))

Valruna is dying. We can feel it. As the phouka rests and I walk in her skin, still I can pick up on her emotions, her ties to this land. And as I walk here, it makes even me shudder at the change.



The spell wrought by unknown forces has now changed the very ecology of the land, in frightening ways. Where there was earth, pale sand is seen now. Where there were arching canopy trees, dotted with small homes of the fluttering fae, there are palm trees, split leaves fluttering under the brilliant blue sky.



This body is tired, but I force it climbing. There must be something here, some magic left, somewhere...in all this...this...mundanity. I ascend to the summit, pass a group of stones and a spell barrier that means less than nothing, and find home, for the little shifter.



Only....it's not...what it was. The trees feel...disconnected, impossible, I walk through them as if they're not there, or touch them and feel nothing. Even as deeply asleep as I am fighting to keep the phouka, she is wailing at the loss of the trees.

This is not good.



There is water through the land and I disbelieve it. There are trees and glowing fungus and I doubt my eyes. I push the phouka down and I begin to doubt my own sanity.



It is manifest, this understanding in me. We no longer belong here.



But now the hard decisions come. I am not the phouka, I cannot live her life for her, and for all that I wanted to, at one time...my demon lord is gone, as is hers, and the sithen is missing, and the Court is scattered beyond repair.

When there is no hope, I have been told, go to the place where hope died last.



I never thought I'd say this...but it's good to be home.

If my chosen hell cannot break this addiction in her...cannot bring her back from the madness she finds herself in...then at least she'll be in good hands.

Well.

Maybe not good...

everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers, that grow so incredibly high

Steelhead and Caledon are having a Harvest Festival! It opened Sunday, when I was in limbo, and very late last night--or early this morning--I got the chance to see the town decorated.



They have a corn maze, which is ever so much fun to walk through. We were three going in, joined by Miss Curry (the rabbit in the cap) from the entrance later on, and were met by Mr. AzA Zymurgy midway in the maze.

He was wearing a skin tattooed with puzzle pieces, juggling skulls, and riding a unicycle. He gave me a landmark to his gallery. I simply must go. He also says the Taiyou is full of art, so do come see.



In the meantime, I came as is from Miss Megg Demima's store opening, Chateau tres Mignon, wherein all her lovely hats are on display in all their surreal loveliness. I can see many of my Lindens going into her pocket. This one was a gift from my artist--apparently it's a special-only black version--but she also does green (living) and red (undead) lobster chapeaus.

She also does custom work. So if you have any ideas towards a quirky little Loli hat, a beautifully daft bonnet, with exquisite detailing and inordinate amounts of fun, do look her up.



I think I'll name him Sweeney.

And when we got out of the maze, the next several hours were spent happily engrossed in hunting down pumpkins. I think we're missing five. Six, if you count the repeat pumpkin on top of the gypsy tent.

Oh, and then things got odd...



First possessed turkeys, next, alien hybrids that haunt mercantiles, then drunken sheep...NOW STEELHEAD HAS WILD HAGGIS!!!

RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIVES!

I'm told they startle at the smell of good single-malt, though, so keep that in mind.

I'm runnin' with the wind, a shadow in the dust

Woe, for the night with such lag, and we had to host a dance anyway! Also: coming as a prey animal and being surrounded by wolves, never the best idea. Nor bringing the fox to dance with. Eeeek!

It was Animal Night in Steelhead, and the animals showed up in force!



Miss Kattrynn, looking suitably bug-eyed--or should that be fish-eyed--at her new fishbowl enclosure.



Why do I get the feeling that more meetings between sim manager and sim owner end up like this? Fish eyes and all.

*grins*



AN-I-MAL! AN-I-MAL!

Okay, I admit, Muppets fan. This is a full-size Animal avatar. It looks so damned cool. And watching Sir Edward dancing in Kokopelli as Animal?

Priceless.



And Miss Melissa is putting her life back together after the departure of meQal. I can't remember this fellow's full name, but his first is DadOZ. I wish them all happiness.



Do click on the large-size version of this. The Warrior Goddess of Steelhead has started making translucent avatars.

Yes. You heard me. TRANSLUCENT AVATARS.

Phenomenal and amazing, Tensai.



And then the drunken sheep arrived...



Wish I could remember who came as the butterfly...but she had fun hovering.



And Lady Christine came NAKED AGAIN!!



Our very intense DJ and Sheriff Fuzzball Ortega.



And then the giant chicken came.



Fuzz started playing Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue. Lunar thoughtfully put out a drool trough for Edward and Christine.



Frequency Picnic, Zombie Werewolf.

Zombies qualify as animals??



The revelers at large. Including the giant chicken, some noble lemurs, a rabbit in purple, an orange fox, Animal, some wolves, some drunken sheep, and the sim-owning fish.

Now in a jester's cap.



*swoons*

Apparently zombies are animals!

This is Mr. AzA Zymurgy, new denizen of the madness, and he made this skin. When he finishes, he's going to sell me a copy. I am sweepingly in love with that avatar.

*swoons again*

And I know this was a lot of pictures, but we had a lot of fun! If only the lag hadn't been quite so desperately intense!

you followed me this far, did you find out what's inside?

Random thoughts of a morning.

Went to Glass Earth recently; it's been a goal of mine to track down every branch of Kin hair (Kin Keiko. She makes hair. Very Asian, very Anime--cannot be beat. Most for 100 Linden a color. Check her out) I can find. I've found three so far. Glass Earth has the fourth.

How'ver, there's also a branch of AV Puli Animations in Glass Earth, and in that little animations shop is one of the single most disturbing things I've seen on the grid. It looks so innocuous:



This is a wood chipper. This is an evil wood chipper. This is a possessed wood chipper that, when clicked in, will suck you in and make you mulch. Plus? It makes a really, really horrible sound. And showers the floor with your blood.

Don't do it.

*shudders*

Sometimes animation shopping gets odd. Sometimes you test out a couples-walk set of poseballs and everything's fine:



On the other hand, sometimes you're trapped in the arms of a mad scientist who figures out if he runs fast enough he can escape the enclosure created to demo the animation...with the animation intact:



You want to know something else?

It worked. One of the rooms in Animation Island. It can be done. It's very strange.

Lastly, I was taken on a tour of the Gaiety Theatre in Alice, being built for the new Caledon sim, Penzance (a concept, I will admit to you, that finally made me approach the Guvnah to put me on the waiting list to move to Caledon). I don't know if Miss Persephone Gallindo, owner of the texture shop Architextura, wanted tons of pictures flipped up of her magnificently realized vision, so I only felt comfortable in capturing one.

That would be backstage, this image:



She has, backstage at the Gaiety, guy lines. And sandbags. In a world where a touch is enough to open curtains and things are fixed in place until they need to be moved...she's weighed down her backdrops traditionally, and rigged the curtains for effective pulling capacity.

Once she's finished with this, I do hope she offers tours, as well. We walked in the front door and, from the carved cranberry glass gas lamps, to the richly detailed painted-tin ceilings, there's not a single thing we saw that didn't enchant and amaze the eye.

She hopes to pull together an acting troupe. I'm fascinated by the concept. Whether or not I end up in Penzance...I know I'm going to visit.

My reborn princeling visited last night. He was bored, he said. He stood in the heart of my living space, silver hair pouring over his shoulders, pale skin gleaming, and I introduced him to my new loves.

He left soon after. Apparently replacing the vampiric love of your life with a mad creator and the gothic Marlene Dietrich? Threatens him, somewhat.

Hope it wasn't anything I said...

I have several ideas for things to build, I swear, I'm getting mad Spark headaches. Save I'm an artist, I'm not a Spark. I wouldn't know a left-handed turning calibration wrench from an avocado...assuming the avocado was also metal and somewhat wrench-shaped.

But I have too many ideas right now for dresses and rugs and beds and chairs and homes and skyboxen and...and...and...

Current build: Everything. But concentrating, right now, on a model of a potental floating Victorian whimsy. Hee.

key largo, montego, baby why don't we go?

Poison Apple, the next art show from my artist, will occur sometime this upcoming Saturday. She does not yet know when; she's awaiting images from two of her muses, and then the frenzy of edit. Check her journal for more details.

[[UPDATE: It should, I stress, SHOULD, be this Saturday, September 9, 2007 at both 2pm and 5pm SLT (to account for domestic and international traffic). Check back for updates, this is a mature (NOT child-appropriate!) show.]]

I promised pictures of Taupo; I want to get more, but for now, this is what I have.



The view from my front door, showing part of one island, and allll that ocean.



View of the second island. There was a third within view, but it sank this morning. :)



The two maneaters, side by side.



And the arena, where fighters go to practice combat skills.

I'll take more later, when I'm not so tired. :)

we'll be falling in love, to the rhythm of a steel drum band, down in Kokomo

Honestly, some days on the grid, it just doesn't pay to get up of a morning.



I mean, when your world spontaneously decides to malfunction across the board...and has been doing so for more than a week...the suspicion begins to occur that what's broken, cannot in fact, be fixed.



However, there are bigger things happening than discovering I can still dance with broken feet, or learning what my collarbone tastes like. I'd like to speak to an interesting sim in progress.

Taupo is a roleplay sim under development, it's been in the building stage for about a week now. Dennis Albion and Anna Adamant are the King and Queen there, as well as sim owners and major contributors to the process. You've probably seen their work if you've gotten married, or been to a wedding, in world--they do a lot of wedding poses, wedding floral displays, wedding furniture. In point of fact, Anna makes most of her income selling flowers, and glittery jewelry pieces. (They bling, of course, the only drawback--but I'm willing to forgive her even that, because she's one of the few women who actually manage to look charming wearing bling...)

The history of the world, and the people who live and work there, is still under development. But at present it's a series of archipelagos, small islands on a mostly water sim. They're thinking elves, and my mind is absolutely intrigued by the idea--because honestly? Yes, there are elven lands on the grid, but tropical islands populated by elves? I think that's a concept that's not been widely done, if at all.

They seek players. Merfolk if they'll come, and tell them what they want to see, the ocean they want to swim through. Other roleplayers if they're interested, and word is slowly spreading. Dennis wants a cordial environment, courteous, polite--he says if Taupo were a movie, in terms of rating the land would be given an R--adult themes, but no force/capture, no dark RP for the sake of it, no sex in the streets.

And frankly, there are worse things than encouraging roleplay with a sense of fair play, roleplay without force/capture and slavery, roleplay for the joy of the game.

Child avatars are not disallowed in Taupo--I have the Princess of the land, little Miss Moody, as my next-tree-neighbor--but with absolute strictures: if you seek to be a child in Taupo, you will be a child. No sexual situations will be allowed, no ageplay in terms of adult interaction and adult themes--nothing the Lindens have declared verboten. Innocence, mayhap, revisiting childhood a second time--and again, how is this a bad thing?

Taupo is intended to be a members-only sim. If you wish to visit, you can, freely. But to build, to live, to roleplay, beyond simply looking over the world, will require membership in the Taupo group. It's free to join, and they'd love to see you. As it's not--quite--open yet, roleplay occurs every evening from seven to nine pm SLT.

The magical islands of Taupo--sea breezes and world trees, magic and whimsy--this could be a very good thing.

Come see us. If you want more information, feel free to message me in world--I'll give you what I have. After all, I'm the current advisor to the King, completely by accident--I should live up to the title.