DVDs and VCRs, fish tanks and jelly jars

This next one's on the difficult side to write, just a bit.

Perusing the SL Freebie Hunters' blog for potential last-minute snags on the Steam hunt, I came across this image. Number 191 on the Steam 5 hunt is Steam Whimsy's offering--a teeny, rounded steampunk robot avatar.

Hmm. That sounds...awfully familiar.

(from the Comparisons album)

This is Steam Whimsy's "Steambug". It has a charming little story card along with it, and is very frenetic, spouting steam now and again and whirling in place. It also has stubby little hands (though they aren't jointed) and a boiler on the back.

(from the Comparisons album)

I will also say the texturing is very well done, the verdigris fans in the head spin, and there's a very nice hover effect (because apparently, Steambugs only hover, not walk about).

The reason I'm bringing this up, however, is because of Clockwerk:

From Comparisons

Clockwerk has, beyond being the general imp underfoot and the wandering mascot of Autogenic Alchemy, the distinction of being the first of the Iron Tinies line. And while there is no way, in any version of life, that the Steambug and Clockwerk would be said to be even distant cousins, there were initial similarities that made me hunt the Steambug out.

(from the Comparisons album)

Most notably in the shade and shape of the eyes, and the shape of the head. And they both have a gauge in their tummies.

There's also some (and let me reinforce this: extraordinarily mild, at best) concern regarding Penny Featherwright:

(from the Comparisons album)

Again, Penny's basic construction, and the Steambug's construction, are not similar in many, many details--but there are working fans on either side of the Steambug's head, and there are working, turning gears under glass on either side of Penny's.

(from the Comparisons album)

All in all, while I felt concern enough to run through the variations, I am not going to state that there was anything more than being inspired by the same group of media, music, and literature that inspires us all, or at least, those of us who spend our days wading in the mythpool of steampunk craft. And I am glad I hunted Steam Whimsy down, because I wandered away not only with the gear containing the Steambug, but with a lovely decorative urn and two aged-copper textures that should be great fun to play with.

But please, for the love of all things, Miss Lutrova (should you happen by)--put your store in your picks! It makes it nigh impossible to find you otherwise!

you only hear the music when your heart begins to break

U-NAS is released!

There are Tiny transparent panda avatars now. (Of course, there are also displacer beasts with raping tentacles, but hey. It's a big world.)

And now (not that the above has any relevance on this), Stolan.

This is a larger chunk of the same conversation I quoted a bit of yesterday. I'd like to quote less, but I think it covers a lot of ground that I want to bring up:

[06:36 PM] Emilly Orr: I am not the type of person who is all sunshine and unicorns. I'm just not. It's not in me. I had a problem with how Stolan blogged, and what he chose to blog about, because I think he picked several terrifying outfits in a row and said "Look! These are great!" And they weren't.
[06:36 PM] Emilly Orr: Whatever I am going through is separate from what I blog about (for the most part).
[06:38 PM] Renee Lowenhart: so instead you went to your blog which he showed me since he was emailed the link back and used it to harm him
[06:38 PM] Emilly Orr: Renee, these are things I would have said to his face. In fact, I said some of them to him as comments on the blog entry.
[06:39 PM] Renee Lowenhart: Then you should have IMed him and had an open discussion. That would have been more constructive, dont you think?
[06:39 PM] Renee Lowenhart: Public humiliation is a [horrible] thing
[06:39 PM] Renee Lowenhart: No one deserves that.

So, starting from here. I have to say, again, that she's right. Public humiliation generally never serves the intended purpose--and it wasn't the point of that blog entry, anyway--and she's right again, that I should have IMed Stolan, or sent a notecard to him. Either way, this likely should have started off private, and then gone public (if it ever needed to; it might have been completely resolved without a single blog post being made).

So why didn't I? It's certainly not because I hate or even dislike FabFree as a blog, or any of the bloggers there as writers. I've heard that accusation more than once; it has no basis in fact. So why didn't I simply contact Stolan privately, and speak to him one on one?

Everything I've been pondering points to two sources. First, that those I've contacted in the past have had a variety of reactions, all of them negative. Those have ranged from immediate descents into epithets clear up to legal threats and, in a couple memorable cases of designers with extreme attitudes, IMing me every few minutes just to make my day tank that much more--once for five days running. I wasn't geared to thinking that writing anyone, even someone new to the game (and perhaps especially someone new to the game, considering my battles with the Resident family over the past few weeks) would be receptive in any way.

Okay, so part of that I have to own. I didn't think of it, because I'd had bad experiences in the past, which is letting my past control my current actions. While we are all creatures of our pasts, the point is not to be crippled by our histories, but be informed and enhanced by them. Good or bad, they should exist to tell us what happened; not to tell us what not to do, ever.

How does the saying go, though? Kick a dog enough times, he learns to bite? I'm not a dog, but I'm getting mightily tired of the rumor mill, and that started two years ago.

Which brings me to my second point. I think several parts of me, two years ago, just...stopped. Was it the best reaction? No, not in any way. But there was, and is, a large part of my personality that, even having been warned in advance, just can't cope with radical changes in perspective. Going from lavish praise to acid spite spins my head, and not in good ways. That it's happened three times now should be telling me something, and clearly.

I think that also fed into what happened with the post about Stolan's outfit choices (and, for anyone who seems to have forgotten that small point? It was about Stolan's outfit choices and spelling, not his appearance, and not, specifically, him). I'd already largely disconnected from the grid, slotting it entirely neatly into the position of the three who threw me away....and oh, hello, that's relevant too. Losing a brother over ideological differences (he was a gay conscientious objector who--suddenly and without warning--became a fervent Bush supporter who told me that because he disagreed with me I wasn't his sister anymore...and two years later, Katrina swept over his home and I lost him entirely.)

Okay. I have a known problem with being a discard, I get that. And due to it, I'd rather write on the blog (or play offline in other games) than connect in-world. Based on prior history of, even when polite, generally getting tirades back...this is actually a fairly textbook reaction. A + B does, in fact, equal C in this case...but there are a few additional things I'd like to bring up.

"Of course, this new condition in fashion may strike you as messy, shallow, dependent on borrowed ideas and visually boring, but don’t worry: like nausea, this feeling will pass."

This was from a review from the New York Times.

"I know you have four kids, but I don't want to see where they came from...A uterus is not a hotel. Stop it!"

Granted, this is two statements, on two outfits, taken from a longer Joan Rivers special, but I think the point's made.

"The actor has admitted he's not big on bathing, and he most certainly prefers rather ratty, mismatched clothes. Pattinson even manages to make the smartest of suits look disheveled. If we could give Mr. Pattinson two pieces of advice on how to transition from tween heartthrob to legitimate actor and public figure it would be these: tuck in the shirt and wash that hair."

This one's from Esquire Magazine. And believe me, I could have found tons more if I wanted to descend to sheer insult and mud-slinging.

There are people out there getting paid, making their livings, with all that that entails, tearing other people to shreds. In some cases, they're even encouraged, celebrated, given bigger and better shows or magazines from when they started. From small bloggers to corporations, it's nothing new in fashion--nor even the world at large, any version of the world.

I didn't shred anyone; I wasn't vicious or underhanded; and upon consideration, I don't think I was even that cruel. I said Stolan does a wonderful job on his own blog and a bad job on (and yes, his first) entry on FabFree. So he can only improve from there, right? Renee Lowenhart herself said her first posts make her blush to look back on now; I think nearly every blogger can agree with that. Style--and by this, I mean the style of writing, not fashion--takes time to develop fully, for anyone.

So I will offer this as an apology in kind: Stolan, I didn't consider someone who ran their own blog as new to the fashion or freebie review business; I am sorry, I should have taken that into consideration. I do take into consideration that English is not your first language, and that you will likely improve there, too, as time goes by. I don't think you should stop blogging; on the contrary, we have far too few male fashion voices on the grid.

And both Renee and I agree that the quality of items offered for men, specifically, are not as numerous as items for women, and where free or cheap items are concerned, that figure drops abysmally low. Perhaps I should have said it was a miracle that Stolan found anything at all to review. Kudos on the continued quest.

Finally, this is a short but targeted article on negative blogging, or, as some of us would prefer, honest blogging. I will do my best to put more thought into what I post, but if I think something is unnattractive, I'm not going to give it raves just to make points. That's not in me, either. Or, put another way, from Alicia Chenaux's blog, an entry written clear back in 2009:

"What if I blogged everything I was given, even if I didn't like it? And what if I SAID I didn't like it? What if I pointed out all the bad seams, over-pixelated hems, bad prim work, messed up sculpties? What if I said that the choice of colors is just blindingly ugly? What if I said that something was just a recolor of a template and then linked to the actual template on XStreet? What if I said something was just too overpriced and if I hadn't received it as a review copy, I'd never buy it?"

I don't blog fashion often, though I do cover it a fair amount of the time. I do try to cover, when I can, things that I'm given; far in the main are things I go out and buy, because I have never made a habit of asking for review items, ever.

But generally, when I'm given something that doesn't work? I've said so. And I've done that more than once. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Maybe the best approach is not to "take on" any particular blogger--and then watch the ensuing dramasplosion, as if on cue--but to seek out those same items and see if they do work. On me, or on anyone--or if they're just not well-made and that's why they're freebies.

We'll see how that goes, but after full consideration: I think the new kids at FabFree need to take this in stride and learn how to cope. Khalania is not ugly but she's forcing the mesh to do things it's not designed to do. If she thinks that looks good, more power to her. Stolan obviously needs more time on the grid, more time on the hunt, and maybe, in the long run, that will be good for him too--because he has his own style sense already, and even at under thirty days on the grid, he's managed to put together a few fascinating looks--if only on his own blog.

Okay? As far as I'm concerned, we're done here. But feel free to leave your comments in the comments section. Have at. Me, I'm moving on to other things.

I don't make the rules, dear

Shamus Young strikes again: this time with his strange and surreal tale of that famed superhero, Star on Chest. Follow his fledgling adventures through Champions Online (which, in a few short weeks, will go free-to-play).

In other news, Blue Mars is going under...sort of. While the PC version of the software will remain active--at least for now--the main focus of the company is shifting radically to mobile devices, over platforms and PCs.

"The focus for the first version of Blue Mars Mobile is avatar style and rankings. The initial versions will allow people to share their Blue Mars avatars through a native iOS application. In the next few months, an app store for clothing, Facebook Connect integration, avatar snapshots, account registration, and character customization will be added. The items you have created or own will already work with the mobile version as will the Blue Mars item creation tools."

Translation: it sounds like they're going to combine Rate My Avatar with IMVU subfunctions to generate an iPhone/iPad version of playing dress-up, and screw the virtual world part entirely.

I realize it's likely a huge blind spot, but I don't like Facebook. I think it's creepy, I abhor their insistence on real names, and I don't feel safe there, which is why I'm not there. With so many games and programs trying to access those sleeping millions with Facebook accounts, to the point of becoming mini-Facebook clones themselves, originality and diversity are falling by the wayside.

Read GoSpeed's blog from a 2009 Blue Mars visit and contrast that hopefulness with the current announcement. Not only that, but again--the land options in Blue Mars are phenomenal (and will be ignored with the shift to mobile), and the avatars suck beyond the telling of it (and will become the focus of the shift to mobile). Who said this was a good idea?

Oh, right, the Blue Mars developers.

Sanya Weathers sent out a bare-bones 'think before you post' adviso, and I'm taking it perhaps more to heart than I should. Partially because of a conversation earlier this week held with Renee Lowenhart.

[06:10 PM] Renee Lowenhart: What you do is just mean. I feel bad for you Emilly. I know from experience in my RL career that people that push this much negativity on others usually have a lot going on in their personal lives. If you need to talk to someone I will listen. But I do encourage you to talk to friends.

First off, I want to state for the record that it takes a great amount of courage to reach out to someone you perceive as hostile, and attacking you, and make the offer to listen, or to befriend (which she offered later). That takes a hell of a lot of willpower and personal strength.

I give her full points for that, but I admit, the rest of the conversation had me thinking for several days.

[06:06 PM] Renee Lowenhart: (Saved Tue Jan 11 17:55:13 2011) You are very cruel for making comments like that. Have you ever considered what it can do to a person emotionally? Khala is under 5 feet has a tiny waist but extremely curvy. I know this because her picture is on skype and just saw it.

So, now I'm having to face a few things.

First, do I think I'm a bully? By my definition, no. Bullies, to me, are people fighting for the status quo; for some form of societal 'purity'; and people who get that sense of personal empowerment when others are brought low. Maybe I'm working from the wrong definition, but that's not the reason why I do anything I do on this blog.

Second, am I lashing out because I have personal problems? That one, the jury's still out on. I have to say, and say clearly, that regardless of what's going on in my personal life, my blog's pretty much always been like this. But has it gotten worse as problems surface in the background? Honestly, I don't know. I may literally be too close to it to get an adequate grasp of things.

But Renee said I hurt Khalania by 1) not deleting what another avatar said in comments to the Fabfree entry (which I won't do), and 2) agreeing with said avatar and identifying her by name (which the initial commenter didn't do).

Okay. That was wrong, and I'll even agree, mean of me to do. And I offer Khalania full and sincere apologies for that.

How'ver, as I pointed out to Renee, it wasn't about her shape being her shape, SL or RL. It was about her shape distorting the mesh.

Let me see if I can explain. In RL, when you look at your hand, you'll see lots of different shapes forming several moving cell types for skin--octagons, rounded squares, rounded rectangles, triangles, diamonds, stretched and/or curving lines. It depends largely on where the skin is, how it stretches, the amount of sun exposure it's gotten. Generally speaking, though, our skin allows for curves easily because it is highly complex.

In SL? The mesh isn't that complex. Our "skin" is different. In this case, it's not the skin we wear (which, as far as the programming is concerned, is pretty much just a layer of paint over the "skin") but the shape underneath. And this "skin", the mesh, is comprised of triangles, squares, and the occasional polygon. All of them are pretty much set in place. They don't move, they don't shift. This is a drawing of what that looks like on the face and upper body. See what I mean?

Because of this, it's really easy to go past the limits of what the mesh contains when one is making an underlying shape for skins and distort it to the point of peaks, not rounded curves.

Several things to keep in mind: if you are an Ishtar-shaped woman (and they're out there, one of my best friends has this body type) and you want that body shape on the grid, what you need to keep in mind are the sliders for Saddle Bags and Hip Width--don't necessarily just go to 100 on one slider and call it good. Ease it up slowly, make frequent additions to the numbers on Saddle and Hip Width, make sure that your shape still has the roundness you want, and it works out.

If you just max out your Butt Size, and don't touch any other slider? You get angular distortion on the mesh, every single time. It doesn't have anything to do with being "fat" (here or in RL); it doesn't have anything to do with being "unattractive" (here or in RL); and note, in the original post, and here, I'm not saying Khalania is either of those things. I'm simply saying she's got a bad case of mesh distortion and she needs to fix it. What you're after in any basic shape alteration is smooth curves, not angles (unless that's really what you want). People don't have butt angles in RL (unless they're really, really thin and they've got visible pelvic-bone protrusions), and there's no reason they need butt angles here if a little care is applied to working with the underlying mesh.

If that's still me being mean, then fine, I'm being mean.

More when I think over more of the conversation.

There is a new blog post on the Autogenic blog! No, it doesn't announce new product; it lays the groundwork for an entirely new product line. (Including some items that will likely be offered under a different, potentially more mature, heading.)

(Also: Crie Style's home port in Little is really, really pretty. Clockworks, ruins, water--some of the visual expanses are just breathtaking. And Mr. Allen did a phenomenal job on the pictures he and I took. Most of what you see on that blog post, in fact? Come from his raw images, not mine.)

life in the city can make you hungry, for things you can't even see

Snow in the Neath?

How does one manage a thing that is so patently not snow, and yet so resembles it? Does one leave it hygienically inside quotes? 'Snow'? Does one shrug and regard it as a blessing from the Bazaar? Does one lock ones doors and windows and hide quaking below stairs, while the servants build the fire high and stuff the window-cracks with rags?

I'm currently rather addicted to a little in-browser Twitter-spinoff game, called Fallen London. Imagine, if you will, a dark, dank world of eternal twilight, where the moon is the brightest thing, and the overarching sky possessed of only a bare smattering of stars...or are those green-bright pinpricks blinking?

Where spiders eat tears and eyes, where bats sulk, where cats speak horrifying secrets, where secrets themselves are currency. Living jewels, intoxicating blood honey, bees trapped in lanterns to provide light and black wax.

An amusing evening out involves alcohol and thuggery, games of sport feature needles, the constables are only slightly less corrupt than the rakehells and footpads they capture and cart off to gaol. The mushrooms are sentient. And dreams of fire haunt you, haunt you, haunt you...

It's a fascinating game, all the more so because it shares its tattersail splendor in such an understated way. One can go to the Night Bazaar and buy rats on strings, rusted gold, prisoners' honey, and souls. Invite friends over for tea and terror, or play them in the Game of Knife and Candle. A sweeping, darkened, fantastic world awaits, where living is only a breath away from dying, and death...well, really doesn't matter.

It presumes one owns a Twitter account, and apparently, Facebook features will be added in future; and, as it's still in beta, it glitches now and again and drops out for maintenance a fair amount. But for right now, I don't care. It's a lovely little pastiche to the darker side of Victorian dreaming, and I'm growing quite fond of it.

Earth Eternal is now in open beta, and MMORPG calls it derivative yet satisfying, while fully exploding the limitations of a browser-based game. It has full dimensional play in a browser setting, without a client to load. And it's free to play, yet has a cash shop if you feel like chipping in. Might be worth a try; they vote it seven points overall.

Scott Jennings comments on the labyrinthine and baffling relationship between Western MMOs and China--and it's a tale that does not untangle easily, if at all.

And Jon Wood comments on Star Trek Online, a game that--according to Winter Ventura--will cost between $150 and $300 for a yearly membership, once fully out of beta. I don't know if I'm addicted enough to the Star Trek universe to pay $25 for it per month; I might could be persuaded around the $8 per month mark, but those prices are only for the beta testers, I believe.

And those costs are in US dollars, people, not Lindens.

Play First Person Tetris. Oh, it's so not what you think.

On the heels of Tensai Hilra's discovery of a new clockwork automaton came this aberrant and creepy thing. If you're not enough of a Disney fan to recognize the song though the distortions the artist put it through, try this on for size.

Yes. Same song.

In a few days the transfer of Autogenic Alchemy's former flagship store will be done. While we did love our little store on the cobblestones--sometimes more than certain designers wanted--we are moving on to bigger and better things. It will be sad that we'll no longer have a part in the growth of the sim, but I for one am very proud of my founder's plaque, and was humbled to be included in the launch.

Please move all existing bookmarks to our Black Sands Beach location; or, conversely, we will be trying to put something up at No. 7 in Caledon Morgaine. In the meantime, please do help me in welcoming Miss Truly Magnifico to Caledon Penzance, and to No. 2 across from the Gaiety Theatre. She is a novice builder, but she is learning, and she wishes to try her hand at merchanting; do help her where you can!

In the meantime, we are finally getting around to the Edelweiss-sponsored CSR Winter Rally. We're going for a low number of prizes this year, so as you can see from this picture, I'm only carrying four cards:


(There's a card attached to my back you don't see in this photo.)

Edelweiss has recently updated their look by a significant amount. Everything is in aisles now, categorized fairly neatly, with room to grow. It's much easier to find things now. And the designer has launched her first ever line of male attire--which is, of course, a school uniform blazer set.


(Pretty maids all in a row.)

And ooh, the Marchen line of candy-colored maids, with the striped stockings? They're all L$100! I don't know how long they'll be L$100, but for right now, it's Edelweiss quality for an eighth of the price, in some cases. This is a deal that cannot be beat.



Meanwhile, over at Le Petit Prince, they've gone far into the sunken-things motif. Check out the ruins of the toppled lighthouse across from the store.

At S.I.C., they're offering a lovely Court suit:



and a Medical suit in white:



The Medical Suit is L$350 for the boots, headset, and the suit itself, and the Agent Court suit is L$500 for the full suit with coat, boots, headset, and a booster pistol equipped with the sim's combat system.

Both come with Winter Choice Rally cards.

At Mocha, the vista took my breath away:


(Dim sunlight filtered through clouds, while rain pounds the cobblestones.)

See what I mean? The sim is incredibly lag-ridden because of all the effects, but find a place to sit, bring a jacket, and listen to the rain and watch the lowering clouds behind the sun. They also have really amazing--technologically speaking, amazing--butterflies.

(For one, their butterflies aren't particles, they're sculpts. And their wings flap. YES, REALLY.)

Then we arrived at 109prims. Amazing place, takes forever to rez. Everything that isn't a sculpt glows; sometimes the glowing things are sculpts; and the entire place is trapped within a slowly turning megasphere.


(The bound moon at 109prims.)

This took a while to rez in, but it was pretty in its own way. Glowing gold, with the dark iron bands holding it in place, from the upper rafter; as if a glowing piece of molten glass was slowly cooling in an iron cage.


(Riding the lacework carousel horses. There are lacework dolphins, too.)

The carousel takes an incredible amount of time--at least on my engine--to rez everything in, but once it does, while it is rather insanely bright once riding, it's very nearly worth it--there's a precious little waving-to-onlookers animation, and the carousel animals are intricately patterned.

(Now, I admit, in my mind the difference between carousels and merry-go-rounds are firm and fixed: carousels travel widdershins, merry-go-rounds do not. This being SL, this is called a carousel, yet travels clockwise, so what can we do? It's beautiful nonetheless.)

Finally--fear the Sabretooth moose! (Should I be watching for these things to appear in SL in a few months? Because I'd rather not see them or turtleducks, thank you very much.

the prettiest broken girl you've ever seen

Everything has a dark side, including the web. This is nothing new; "to modify Freenet," they say, "is to destroy Freenet." At what price freedom, after all?

Security insiders want to answer that question, by developing technologies that can monitor large networks instantly, and build up so-called "automatic dossiers" of information used to track 'potential threats' down. But who is a potential threat? Everyone, it seems.

I've been working on box art for shapes for someone else, and I forgot I still needed to do the one male shape. Without thinking, I shifted shape, and I was oddly struck by something:



He's not bad in full Geisha makeup.



And he doesn't do badly with the hair and outfit, either. Huh.

Finally, the tenta-coos are released in Black Sands! What are they? Adorably twee Lovecraftian horrors to cuddle. I'm not kidding, one has wee little tentacles and a pacifier! They float behind you, endlessly curious, or you can cuddle them if you really want.

Cutest. Eldritch. Terrors. EVER.

Club "Forbitten" is hiring--they're apparently seeking hosts, bartenders, "Blood dancers" and "Exotic dancers"--I wonder what the difference is. They left an ad on the forums:

About The Club:

Forbitten is a brand new, innovative, different club opening in the heart of The Domain, VITAE RP area. It's inner workings are much like a real life club, because of this our staff has special requirements. Some requirements are negotiable, others are not.

Hmm. If roleplay is my job, am I still banned from roleplay?

1. You MUST be a roleplayer. (Vampire/Werewolf/human/hybrid preferred)

I can do that. Probably can't be a full 'shifter, but I could pull a vamp, I have the skins for it. I don't want to touch them if they have Bloodlines in their sim, but...

2. If you agree to working a shift, you will show up for it. If you CANNOT make it you will let staff know.

Standard. They want people to let them know at least twelve hours in advance, preferably twenty-four, so fine, that works.

3. Absolutely NO out of character (ooc) drama is tolerated. Please leave it at the door.
-=- THIS APPLIES TO PATRONS AND STAFF ALIKE. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS.

I understand the breakdown between in character and out of character, thanks. But just OOC drama alone, or OOC anything?

4. Your account must be over 4 weeks old.

Yeah, I got this. I think a 2006 decant date qualifies.

5. You MUST be able to read, write, and understand English.

I got this, too.

6. HAVE FUN!!!

-=- We want the staff of Forbitten to be happy people, at least about working here. If you have any concerns, issues, or otherwise at anytime, please write a note card and send it immediately to Elskede Paine (Owner) AND the manager. No concern or issue is unimportant.

Which is neat to hear, but wau. No concern is unimportant? And I still don't know the difference between "Blood dancers" and "Exotic dancers". Guess I should go find out.

and sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door

You have received a message from Second Life:
Your object 'Kittenz II - toy ball' has been returned to your inventory lost and found folder from parcel 'Caledon Morgaine' at Caledon Morgaine 38, 126 due to parcel auto return.

Okay, so, I admit, about eight months ago now, I lost my mind briefly when I had a lot of "spare" (ha!) Lindens, and spent it all on a Damiani kitten, with the toy ball, the food dish, the pet bed, and the scratching post. Then I built a house shaped like a dog, put the kitten in, never finished it completely, and ended up picking up the house--cat and all--when I lost that parcel.

At this point, while I work over what I want on the ground in Morgaine, I've put up a second, mostly empty skybox for rezzing things out, and building the odd thing on occasion. I decided on a whim to pull out the house, get the cat and xir toys out (it's a virtual cat, the gender is apparently flexible in my mind), and then put her in the new skybox.

The new skybox is predominantly one large megaprim (though to be fair, it's actually six large megaprims, so we don't have camera/bounding box issues). But, because it's essentially one large unangled rectangle, there's a bit of it that goes beyond the parcel of my land. One corner, in fact. Just the one corner.

And that limited-AI scripted collection of plotting pixels has found it, and knocked xir ball into it. TWICE.

In other news...recently-discovered GUH. (Little to do with SL, mostly dropped here on the off-chance that Edward might not have seen it. Since he doesn't do Twitter.)

I am hoping to have at least one new frock, or some of the animal-skin set I've been working on, in world by Friday, at the least. I may not make this, and I'm not assuming it as a deadline. Currently, I don't think I'd make anything SL-related as a deadline, I'm pulled out of world so often.

But I have a target. That's the target. Something new in-store before we move, and everything potentially goes up in the air.

That's all. Just something. Sometimes it's the little things that keep us going.