these are hard times to fall in love

The CEO of Blizzard Entertainment backed down; and a large part of why was covered over on Atomic PC and What You Did There: I See It. RealID will still be implemented in-game, and as many players have said, they're not at all averse to one forum identity tied to one particular avatar name.

And I get that, believe me--whenever I post in the Runes of Magic forums, I post under the overarching name of the account, not as my individual character names. And I'm fine with that.

I just don't want it to be my real name. And neither do most of Blizzard's paying users.

Auto-translators amuse me greatly some days:

[18:11] cesar Korpov: bien
[18:11] cesar Korpov: "well well",[["noun","good","sake","welfare","benefit"],["adjective","well","nice"],["adverb","well","good","right","properly","alright","nicely","rightly","true","amply","decently","prettily","tidily","thank you"]]

Good to know, I'm sure, but I'd go out on that metaphoric limb and claim with reasonable accuracy he meant "good".

Winterfell is having to close some sims--these days, isn't everyone?--but it's always refreshing to hear people enthused about new plans, rather than griping and complaining about potential moves and sim losses.

Did you know owls transform? Or at least that one does--it's a South African beastie, called the Southern White-Faced Scops Owl. They're not endangered by any means, but they're very hard to see--even with their white-feathered stomachs (the stomach feathers cannot be used in camouflage techniques) and their intense orange eyes, they can change their shape to be viewed as a younger bird, a larger bird, a thinner predator bird, or even a tree branch!

Club Mermaid is offering free mermaid AOs plus some simple tails at their NARITA location--but while I was there I found something I just couldn't stand to live without:



This is called the Goby Mer, which apparently is based on an actual fish, the Court Jester Goby.



The only thing I don't like on this mer is the fin, or, more precisely, the elongated oval sphere that attaches to the fin. It can be modified, but I'm nearly tempted to hire someone to make a fin-tail sculpted attachment that can then be sent to this creator with the instructions that I get one, textured to match the rest of the mer!



In the end, though, for L$300, it can't be beat. It's ideal with the scaled, attached top; the top blends perfectly with the rest of the fins, and many mer retreats and oceans on the grid are still PG, so that works out. Very little of the prim attachments need adjusting; some will, but it's dead easy to do. And it's kind of an all-in one--go to Club Mer, and even if you don't want to buy the Goby Mer, you've got a shot at a free mer AO, plus three or four free mer tails! Astounding.

All pictures were taken in my favorite sea, Rua, which is back to being multi-sim, decorated, and dreamy. They even have a mer dance club now! (Just remember, with the slow-fin dances and the cuddly sits, it is a PG environment. Proper behavior--and modest tops--rule in Rua.)

an end to equilibrium

((RP? You decide.))

I looked down at the invitation in my hand again, a bottle and cork in the other. It still said what it said when it had been delivered to me on land:

People of Caledon
Guvnah Desmond Shang is proud to announce
that Saint Kitt Islands are officially safe
To celebrate, Guvnah Shang
cordially invites you to
a Beach Party on Saint Kitt Islands
Monday, August 18 at 1:00pm SLT
Attire: Beachwear, Victorian or Modern
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Saint%20Kitt%20Islands/101/120/22

I re-rolled the strip of parchment, sliding it into the bottle and corking it securely. I tore a strand of kelp from the strand looped around my neck, and tied that around the bottle, looping the whole thing over my waist. Then I swam out to the island, enjoying the touch of sea water on my fins again.

Duchess Gabrielle Riel proclaims the Saint Kitt Islands as perfectly safe, and I deeply mistrust this. I trust the Guvnah, don't get me wrong, but he may have just a wee bit too much on his plate at present to accurately judge safety. And I trust the Duchess, after all, she's my employer at Radio Riel! But still...I deeply mistrust this.

Besides, I've already died once by volcano, I don't intend to do it again!

Thankfully, not everyone is blinded by the glory of a beach party. I've heard news of rushed communiques from Duchess Eva Bellambi, speaking to the Boyarina about Saint Kitts. She says it is unsafe! I believe her.

It did not help matters at all that, upon my arrival in the warm waters of Saint Kitts Island, I just had time to blink, and aim for shore when the entire sim crashed!

Now, Duchess CoyoteAngel Dimsum claims the sim crashing, at that very moment, was simply a side effect of her testing Exciting New Things (TM):

[22:37] CoyoteAngel Dimsum: It crashed, sure, but lots of sims crash, especially ones where I'm trying out Exciting New Things (TM)

I fail to fully believe this, either.

My conclusion? Saint Kitts is geologically unstable. Go to the party, by all means, go, but go to get your fellow citizens away when you leave! It's not stable! Something is bound to go terribly, terribly wrong!

my heart can't possibly break when it wasn't even whole to start with

((RP MODE))
((sorta))

Life on the grid was decidedly odd last night. The gallery shows at Altered were sparsely attended, but we did manage to raise, between private donations and sales of art, slightly over L$12,000 for the child in need of care after sexual abuse. All of us at Altered humbly thank you for your donations and your caring hearts.

After that, though, I had what felt like ten thousand things to do, so I hopped through several sims, pulled by the whim of offered teleports, until two hours later, everything seemed resolved. I breathed a sigh of relief and thought of what to do next. I decided to go home.

Home did not seem to be there. I tried several times. In the process I was thrown off the grid twice, and both times tried to return home, and ended up in odd telehubs.

In utter frustration, I went to Taupo. I met the Royal Advisor, and briefly spoke with the new innkeeper. Both seemed rather bemused by me. (I think the bemusement wasn't all me--be fair, the inn profoundly lacked a door! [It was being repaired.]) Then I walked through the gate--I'm small enough I don't need to open it, I just push through the bars, it's a very large gate--and saw the largest tree I'd ever seen in my life.

I don't have a good picture, I'll get one--but it's fully six platforms in one on the main level, a trunk that makes my Maneater look like a twig, another massive tree trunk that supports a free room--but wait, it's not done!

To one side is a set of stairs, and past that is a hollow-trunk tree with another platform room, giving the owner two large open-air rooms and two large closed rooms for the whole arrangement.

It's magnificent. Alazarin Mondrian, he makes the best trees. I'll bring back pictures when I can.

In the meantime, past that, I attracted the attention of the Guardian of Taupo, a Sky Fae who'd washed ashore in the kingdom some time before. I think I can be forgiven--I've mostly been involved in the outer world, but since those responsibilities are easing, I'm going to be getting more involved with the business of the kingdom. We exchanged stories of our lives, and parted in good spirit, and I went downstairs to begin building the second version of the cuddle rug.

(Having found no cuddle rug rigged for three people? Frustrating. I have had no recourse but to build it myself. Do drop me a note in world if you happen to know of any good animated cuddle poses. Singles, couples, or trios--I will make them work!

(I'll probably be selling them once I've finished. I can't be the only member of a triad who's run into this!)

But apparently, all is not well. The crisis that killed Steelhead's Sushi is spreading. To wit:



This is one of Taupo's Beluga whales. As you may have gathered, it's not in the water. I'm somewhat disturbed by this.



Another shot across the waves.



Creeping around the side with my cam. The tree you see on the shore? That's my Maneater. When I'm next able, I'll shoot my tree, and the big two-tree structure. Just so you can see the size difference.

It doesn't end here, though. Miss Neome, after helping me get the cuddle poses right (much appreciation for her efforts, there) wondered about fins. I flipped on mine and took her to EmeraldEver's shop, truly one of the best places for mer attire and moves. But I would not swim in the little testing bay area. I wandered to the larger sea and I would not swim either!

I thought it was just me, but then another denizen of the deep waves came in, and she couldn't swim either!

THE OCEANS ARE CURSED! WE'RE ALL DOOOOOMED!!!

...or, it could have something to do with why more than 400 regions on the grid were down last night, including Rivula. Apparently there are bigger problems than we know....

so many bright lights they cast a shadow

I've been struggling for most of two days now with the ingenious little programs that make it possible for me to pose prettily on the grid. I can't even rez out the first one now, it's essentially just a name and a place mark but otherwise? Doesn't seem to exist! And the one I spent all of yesterday trying to tweak into place...now seems to be locked from any future editing!

At this point I was, quite literally, tearing my hair out...so I flipped on fins and went to swim at Rua.



The problem is Rua's gotten smaller. Far smaller than I remember. I'm not entirely sure why. There are two other parcels on either side that make it somewhat hazardous to swim in long straight lines.



There's also a new sea monster. I didn't actually notice, I was preoccupied, until he swam up behind me. Thankfully, he's quite lazy, and stopped for a bit.



Unfortunately, that still left the dilemma of how to get past all those teeth in his open mouth...



After that, I'd had enough undersea adventure, and I swam past a thing I remembered had been topside, quite some time back. An ingenious underwater teleportation pearl, now, that took me directly to the cargo bay of Serenity, floating high above the waters of Rua.



And this is me in the ship's medical bay. Note the poster. Also, if you travel to the ship, reserve some small amount of time to watching the small screen next to the poster. It features a rather engaging loop of Captain Malcolm Reynolds.

Dancing.

Trust me, it's worth the time to watch.

Now, I must swim off the ship, and flip my fins back into storage. Where did I put that grass skirt...it's Tiki Night in Steelhead, Friday, so I do believe my hula-dance outfit is called for.