who do you work for, baby? and does it work for you, lately?

New Babbage hit the Destinations page recently, which--as some of us have figured out over the last few months--is a double-edged sword. While such designations do hold (limited) honor, and can attract new, vibrant eyes to investigate your lands...mostly it's just a pain in the ass as every troll within hearing decides to come and play.

For any residents of New Babbage, specifically the ones surrounding the direct area mentioned on the Destinations page:

• keep build off your lands, or restrict build to group only
• make sure the group your lands are under is a group you control, or an invite-only group
• consider turning scripts off (obviously, if you're a merchant, you can't do this)
• turn on auto-return (or if you don't feel right about doing that, turn on auto-return for anyone not a resident of New Babbage)
• be polite and courteous, but don't be afraid to bounce (ban temporarily) or mute for the extraordinarily offensive

With any luck, there will be few incidents and fewer folks going to New Babbage just to hassle the dwellers there, but based on what's happened on other sims in the past, I hold little hope.

Also, I have to wonder, who does their press release work? This from the blurb under the picture:

This vast Victorian steampunk area is full of airships, clockwork devices, submersibles, and other amazing technology. It's an ideal place to explore life as it was in the 19th century.

I admire that they managed to insert both "Victorian" and "steampunk", but...an "ideal" place to explore "life as it was in the 19th century"? Seriously? None of the Victorian lands, or the steamlands for that matter, are perfectly accurate according to 19th century standards of the day. Oh, there are some architectural marvels that are recreated as perfectly as can be managed, but even then, they're surrounded by things which aren't, so...does that balance out? And while Babbage has more strict restrictions on builds, even there things go a little haywire now and again.

And trust me, as much as we all love to dream about days gone by which include airships, clockwork citizens, air kraken and "other amazing technology"...that's not how life was in the Victorian era.

But then, it is a press release, I suppose outrageous hyperbole is just standard operating procedure.

and thirstily from the dew I drank 'til my veins became a running stream

(And this one's been moved as well. Cheers! Come read it over here.)

lost souls in the hunting ground

(Why yes, this entry's been moved. Find it over here.)

within the casket called myself, my soul yet moves

(There's no here, here, anymore; instead, look over on the new blog for this entry. T'would be a kindness.)

and dragon ladies now talk that talk about who loves who, who loves best

(This is another one that's just plainly missing. Find it over here. Thanks!)

he stretched me out on a mossy bank and sang to me my name

(This entry entirely left! You'll find it over here. Thanks!)

I toss and turn, I'm losing sleep

(The non-Stiv portions of this post have been moved over to the new blog.)

God still has this odd habit of popping up unexpectedly:

butts: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
butts: ENERGY
butts: JUST GOT OFF WORK
butts: TIME TO
butts: P
butts: A
butts: R
butts: T
butts: Y
Emilly: Wau. I haven't gone to bed yet.
butts: Ditto, kiddo
butts: NYTE SHIFTTZ
Emilly: So, how is life treating the former god who's now working...where are you working, anyway?
butts: PSYCH WARD
butts: Fitting, I know
Emilly: But of course you are
butts is now Offline.

But of course he is.

gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket

(Wau, this entry's been trimmed into invisibility. But it's been moved over here, so go look for it there.)

And Happy Valentine's Day.

what I never did is done

Remember a few entries back, I mentioned a radically new power source under development? Well, soon there will be liquid antenna technology on the market, that impressively boosts signal strength for just about anything. They're seeking funding for launching the product now (though of course, the military is already using it, with apparently fantastic results).

Do you enjoy making quirky electronic gadgets? Do you play roleplaying games, and get tired of carting all those dice around? You're in luck--there's a tutorial designed just for you.

And I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing, but Star Trek: the Next Generation and Doctor Who are joining forces in a comics crossover. Ooookay...

(Also, I've moved! Just this lower section, not the top bit. This blog is still active, I'm just moving the prim breast discussions off.)

put on the collar of roses, and bite upon the silver chain

Cats can fit anywhere.

(I moved to the new blog! Find me there!)

(And, just to reinforce--no, not EVERY entry is moving, just the more salacious content, and/or solely prim breast content.)

I was disappearing in plain sight

This article bothers me, and on more than one level. First, it was written recently, which means this is an educational demonstration taking place in part of the virtual world long after education was primally discarded by the Lindens, and post-Teen Grid collapse. (Which I admit still irks me beyond all reason, as it was something that Philip Linden swore to us he would never do, before reversing himself and saying that it was perfectly okay to merge Teen and Adult grids, because seriously, what could go wrong?)

But the most galling thing about that article is that, two-thirds of the way through, the writer comments that fifth graders are the best age to embrace Second Life--because "who knows more" than a fifth grader? And yet the article starts by mentioning how much the writer's third grade student loves Second Life.

Granted, in the main the discussion centers on a specific, highly restricted form of SL, and I'm not even sure that actually exists, in terms of the main grid. It may be entirely separated servers, specifically designed for that museum project. But the average age of a fifth grader in the USA is ten. Ten. And the average age of a third grade student is eight.

I'm still here, I still log into SL, I don't do a lot beyond clear my IMs and clean out old inventory at the moment, but there are things I would likely enjoy doing. And maybe, someday, I'll get back to the point where I want to go to dances, or participate in events. Maybe even make things for sale again, or just play about making things for me. But I am well over the age of majority; anything I choose to do in Second Life, regardless of the type of content, is solely my responsibility.

Setting ten-year-olds--and even worse, eight-year-olds--free to roam the wilds of SL is a terrifying concept. Start to finish.

And this is why Facebook is dangerous.

Also, according to this Reddit thread, double doors in Minecraft might start working much better than they do now: with the added feature set in 1.2 of splitting door data between upper and lower sets, they'll now hinge properly and effectively when set up, as opposed to one side reading always as 'closed' and one side reading always as 'open'.

Which is just in time for the other new feature coming up in Minecraft: zombies being able to knock down doors. So good timing, Mojang. Glad you're pushing both of those out at the same time.

And--while I don't normally get into RL politics on this blog--this hurt my brain too much not to share.

There are folks in Wales building hobbit holes. Not even kidding. The one featured at the moment is gorgeous, and very eco-friendly. Also, speaking of ecology, there's at least one purple squirrel in Pennsylvania. I really can't add anything to that.