haven't slept since summer

Some news just in:

[14:43] Mocksoup Graves: okay this is a weird request but I need to go to Indiana and pick up [A], he's got pneumonia and needs to be seen but he hasn't gotten his insurance information from work, even though coverage was supposed to start on the 20th. So I am going to be driving 10 hours there, and 10 hours back. Can I get like prayers and positive thoughts? Thank you.

For anyone who wants to send out positive energies to the universe, to get her and [A] back home and safe, please feel free. I don't count myself as one of Mock's personal friends, I'm just another makeup devotee, but in addition to being an amazing designer, she also embraces her life--on and off the grid--with the whole of her heart, and as if that weren't enough, she's funny, smart, and kind.

That counts for a lot in my book.

So Project Sunshine is now fully implemented onto the grid, with the expected problems. Thing is, there have been far fewer problems than I, at least, expected, which is a good thing. The system still needs some tweaks, but we could be nearing the end of the greyface/cloudbaked avatar...for good.

This has presented us with some specific problems:

(from the scavenging album)

As you can see above, there's several examples. The new server-side baking system seems to divide the avatar textures into thirds--head, torso, legs. Sometimes we'll see everything grey for a bit (the ladies in the background), or one part of the avatar rez in first (the fellow on the right). In more rare cases, the avatar rezzes in all at once (the fellow on the left), or rezzes in everything but one section (as seen on the lass in the lingerie, front and center).

And no, don't ask me why she was standing in the center of Mad City in lingerie.

According to Ms. Nalates' blog, the best solution for this is to reduce your bandwidth to 1500, and your draw distance to a maximum of 128. She says that seems to be the fix for most people. But as with everything else in SL, YMMV, and we'll see how things go.

In other news, if you've ever wanted to own an original piece of art, but don't have the millions (or the contacts among collectors) to acquire one, how about a 3D printed version? Fujifilm--so far, working exclusively with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam--has developed a reproduction technique that will reproduce the original in exacting detail. So fine is the detail work, apparently, that they can produce only three reproductions per day, and it's far from an inexpensive process.

Still, it may be the closest thing we can get--currently--to owning the original works.

In other art news, Gracie Kendal is making a performance art showpiece called Binge and Purge. It's tied in deeply with her own eating disorder, as well as SL (and, by extension, RL) consumerism and collection. Over the course of her installation, she's hoping to delete everything in her inventory.
I fully admit, the concept both intrigues and terrifies--partially because of my own consumerism and collection habits. There are days I feel very accomplished for managing to delete a thousand items of unneeded items--but there's still so much to go.

As that entry was posted on the 14th, I'm not sure if it's still going on, but if it still is, check it out here.