spoiled all, spoiled all

Sooooo....been a hot minute, huh? Comp's still down. You forget how much memory is tied to machine these days. Passwords. Financial data. Appointments. Programs.

In my case, a ton of books, music, and graphics as well...All locked up inside a dead box.

I am not best pleased with 2026 so far.

everything falls out of focus, you walk through the door

So I'm frantically trying to get through as much as possible of the Shop and Hop before I fold up for the time being (and yes, I know, I KNOW, I should have been done by now!) and finally reached Aluveaux Technologies. And their gift--shown below--is a universal door plug-in:



And I got all excited. Granted, Tannhauser Gate Stations has iris doors, but still! Sounded potentially neat!



Okay! They put up a build, showing how the doors work! Though, come to think...this one doesn't seem to have doors in it...



Oh. ...Oh. Well, that's...unfortunate...

So some bugs in the system yet. Pity.

maybe tomorrow I'll find the answers I'm looking for

This is a fascinating dive into evolving chatbot ethics, or as Kevin Roose put it, large language model AIs. "There is something going on here that I don't think Microsoft intended to build into a search engine," he notes. "Something is not right."

It may not be precisely wrong, either, at least in the sense of world-ending Terminator apocolypses, but--it definitely bears watching.

And hi, hello, it's me again, who should have blogged this a week ago..It was a hard week. I missed a lot of things. I'm trying to catch up.

[Pre-publishing note from the Editrix: add on another five days to that figure...]

I'm walking into blogging this one while watching the latest Babymetal video, Metal Kingdom, so...that's the backdrop to this, I guess.



Let me introduce the "Pandora" Blood-Letting Dagger from /Vae Victis\. And for once I'm starting with the dual HUDS--one for tinting the various sections (and fourteen different shades for each section!), and the animation HUD, which I'm quite fond of.



So first, out of the box, and in an outfit I found on sale, oddly enough, from Le'La (sans the crown)--this is the dagger, untinted.



This can be resized, as with nearly all /Vae Victis\ products, but I'm showing it at the same size at which it unpacks.



Some great details, as expected, seen closer in the first image--and a great visual sense of weighting, if that makes sense.



And then I fell down. Why? Got me. I clicked the ground in the garden. That was all I did. Apparently that's bad.



It may or may not need adjusting on the hold pose--I found that in most of my AO poses, it was fine, but a couple threw the blade so it partially phased through my thumb (seen here).



And this is my favorite pose from the pose HUD--a dagger flip. Great for photos, great for being passively threatening at events, probably still great for a DIY AFK moment for when one must step away from the keys for any reason.

You can find this lovely lethal thing at Abnormality until the 28th! It'll set you back L$450, and I gotta tell you--for the flip animation alone that's a steal.

cry to the angels and let them swallow you

So, I've developed something of a thing for artificial intelligence machine learning. There's a lot of different ways to do it, and I've read articles on all of them, it feels like. But one that's growing in popularity is image generation. I started playing on Deep Dream, then, a few years later, moved to DALL-E (which is now https://www.craiyon.com/), then to NightCafe Studio, and finally I was accepted to the Midjourney open beta (that last link will open a Discord prompt to join their Discord server, which is how they enable the image generation system through a bot function).

Let's take an example I found through Midjourney. The search prompt was "beautiful woman modeling a stunning silk floral kimono outfit, in the style of Alexis Franklin and Tom Bagshaw, no blur". So this is what that turned up for Midjourney:



Great detail, wonderful differentiation, little fuzzy on the hat, and in the fourth image, the hand looks somewhat detached, but otherwise, this could be four different portraits hanging in a gallery somewhere.

Meanwhile, the same search term through NightCafe brings us, well...this:



Great pattern, style very similar to a kimono, black sticks for arms, headless, but decent.

And that brings us to Craiyon, where I ran the same prompt. Midjourney nets the user four to six detailed images, depending on detail of prompt, which the requestor can then reiterate, or evolve. NightCafe nets the user only one image, but generally extremely detailed, which can then be evolved. Craiyon does nine quick "sketches", and it's abysmal with facial recognition. These were the six that made the most visual sense:



Definite kimono, it's the right cut, the pattern's good, the pose is good. And at least with a side profile, it doesn't look so completely like the face is distorted.

And for all of these, I didn't chop off the heads, they came that way.



Remember what I said about their AI engine not quite..."getting"..faces? This is an excellent example. You can tell that it IS "face", but...not much beyond that.



The third only works, I think, because the head is cut off...



The fourth is not a kimono, but it's a great pattern, and it's a pretty perfect attempt at a sari. Face is still very odd.



This one's not as bad at some of the others, but it's still not the best face.



And this one could have walked straight out of a J-horror film.

There are some ethical concerns with the technology, to be fair--this article lays them out fairly well for Google's Imagen generator--but it's one step further for machine iteration in the goal for independent consciousness. And that is still fairly exciting to me.

Ultimately, we'll just have to realize we're moving into the era of post-reality, and adjust as we can.

something clearly terrified you; did you choose to disappear?

I have this conversation once a week, easily. All that changes is the name.

[10:19] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Welcome to Sakura, [Hxxxxx]! Do let me know if I can help, and otherwise, enjoy wandering the grounds of Bellefleurs!
[10:19] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: yes i need help
[10:20] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Of course! What can I do?
[10:21] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: im trying to find where i can purchase the engarde system,,,
[10:21] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Ah, right. So....there's a major hitch with that, unfortunately.
[10:21] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: cant find it on the mp
[10:21] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): You won't.
[10:22] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): So, the creator of the system left SL in...some upset. I have never been able to find out why. But he killed server access to everything he'd made the same day he left.
[10:22] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: damn

Yeah, everyone's still pretty irked about it.

[10:22] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Now, people who had their En Garde systems still out--us, a pirate sim, there's a few others--found the systems still work.
[10:22] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: so only have to find someone willig to sell me theirs i guess
[10:22] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): They no longer record for tournaments....No.
[10:23] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Because...and this is the TRULY annoying part....any new system breaks when rezzed.
[10:23] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: double damn

Now, this is what I've been told, but it suddenly occurs to me, I've never actually verified if this is true or not? I may have to ask Indy when she gets back just to pop one out, and see if it breaks, because...if it doesn't, that is a total game-changer, and if it does, then we have verification.

[10:23] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): So unless you want to buy the sim or parcel it's on? Because you can't even pick it up to move them. If Indy wanted to move ours, for instance, she could only pull it into edit and shift it. Taking it back into inventory would break it.
[10:24] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: bummer...thanks for your time
[10:24] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Sure!

There is still interest in the game. People have found workarounds so they can play tournaments. There's still an official En Garde league. There's just...no new boards anymore. Only the ones that existed when the creator left, far as I know.

say goodbye, it'll make me wanna kiss you

So, Violet Scrivener is picking up a lot of interesting gigs in some very interesting places. One of those was one I hadn't managed to make yet, last Sunday, but I finally had time, so...I went to J and R's Ballroom.



First of all, the place is stunning. I mean seriously stunning--all gilded columns, Art Nouveau paintings, Art Deco glasswork and marbled floors. Really well done.



This is the bar, just to the right of the entrance, around the curve of the dome.



The other side of the dome, with the dance balls, the cloud to click for animesh dance partners, and the tip jar (the gold rotating clef).



I do want to make it clear that I did not dress for the venue, because this was the first time I'd been here. But I dressed in teal to go dancing, and the ballroom was dressed in teal to meet me. Wild.



The Art Deco chandelier, or light fixture, or whatever it's formally called, at the top of the dome.



A painted marble urn stuffed with peacock feathers. Lovely.



In fact, the only downside (barring the fact that whomever picked out their dances needs to update to this century, because they're all vintage, and most seem like they were put together before mocap technology)? That the slow rezzing issues that seem grid-wide currently result in some very...odd...visual disturbances.

Case in point, the wonderful fellow who danced with me at the ball. Charming gentleman, agile on the dance floor...never stopped nomming his brain. Disquieting, but not a deal-breaker.

I do intend to go back, though. Dorky dances and all. It's a fun place.

this is how we talk to the world

{Demi-roleplay entry, but it still counts.}

A friend of mine mentioned I should tour the Doomed ship, as it seems to be dying again. I said, that wasn't a haunt, but it did make me curious. Is it still there? How has it changed since I was running around as a repair tech aboard? Let's go see.

The description, before anything else:

SL's oldest cyberpunk sim, now home to Doomed Ship, SL's oldest and most immersive sci-fi horror environment.

Come explore and role-play in the bloody halls of this immense spaceship!

/*Windlight Sky @ 500m to 4000m: "Doomed Spaceship"*/

Right. Makes sense.



Apparently, I'm a little over average for an American woman, according to this chart. (The average for an SL avatar, btw, they give as 6"8". The bar just before the end one on the left? Is apparently Chewbacca's height.)



The swirling, orange-red portal to the NCS Persephone.



Cargo bay seems intact.



I remember this level. This is maintenance.



Took a wrong turn, fell through a null-gravity tube and found a small bay with a schematic of the ship? Useful, but I didn't know this was here.



Ah, the ship's chapel.



...where, it seems, there's been an accident.

In all honesty, everything seems functional, still, if very empty and echoing. But even in its heyday, large sections of it were. Some went there for straight-up Mass Effect/Dead Space style survival horror roleplay, some went for sex with demons, others--I fell into this camp--picked the role of a functionary and worked on the periphery--always there, rarely involved in the main storylines, just living a day-to-day life on a haunted spaceship. I don't know if it ever worked this way on Doomed, but on Necronomm, its former companion set, you could go to the command center and play the part of the ship's computer, sending out notices that people all over the build would see.

The rules have not substantially changed, it seems, either:

Welcome to the NCS Persephone.

Doomed Ship is primarily designed as a role-play area based around a ship which had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Nastrand Corporation's experimental long-range starship, the Persephone.

THE SETTING

As the distances between Earth and its colonies increased, so to did the time it took to travel between them. Travel could take decades between one colony and the next. The NCS Persephone was designed as a generational colonial transport, capable of carrying hundreds of passengers and plenty of cargo between worlds.

While still in the early stages of construction, changes were made to implement a brand new technology, a "gravity drive", capable of opening a temporary wormhole and so allowing the ship to travel vast distances in an instant, bypassing speed of light limitations. Due to power and space requirements, a large ship was required for this new technology.

During its maiden voyage, after making several such space-folds, the ship failed to reappear. The official report released to the media was that the reactor exploded and the ship was lost with all hands. About 200 crew members and upwards of 500 passengers in stasis.

Thirteen years later, rumours and stories begin to circulate about the ship. Reports of distress signals and disappearing salvage attempts. Some claim to have been aboard the supposedly destroyed vessel. 58 years after the ship disappeared, a distress signal is received near the Solar system.

WHAT HAPPENED (OOC Backstory)

The Gravity Drive used by the ship to cross the vast distances of space in the blink of an eye works by punching the a hole in the fabric of space in two points. The passage is nearly instantaneous, with only a few moments where the ship is outside the universe. What was not known is that where the ship is when it is outside the universe is, quite literally, Hell.

Each time the ship jumped, a little more of Hell came with it.

YOUR CHARACTER

There are many options for the sort of character you wish to play. Movies such as Alien and Event Horizon, as well as games like Doom or Dead Space, are all good sources of inspiration.

Maybe you are most likely a random salvager or explorer who happened upon the cursed ship in your travels and, after boarding, found there was no way back to your own ship.

You may be an employee of the Nastrand corporation whose ship has come across the derelict Persephone, with instructions to investigate under penalty of termination if you failed to do so.

It is not entirely common knowledge that all corporate craft, and most government ships tend to carry at least on synthetic being. Possibly an obvious robot, or maybe a synthetic human passed off as just another member of the crew, but obedient to corporate directives, even if it places the crew in danger to achieve their directive.

Maybe you are a corporate advisor, accompanying a salvage/rescue mission. Unknown to most of the marines who accompany you, you are under orders to keep the ship safe, to return it, and any unknown life forms, to Corporate space at any cost.

Or possibly, you lie in wait on the ship, something it has brought back from the other side.

Group titles are available, but not required for role-play. Some visitors have begun unofficial Doomed Ship groups to provide a greater variety of role-play titles.

LOOKING THE PART

There are two complimentary avatars in the arrival area. One for men, one for women. There are also several inexpensive space suits sold in the shop.

Beyond that, one need only look towards the inspiration suggested above for ideas as to the look of your character. Much of the look of Doomed Ship has been derived from Event Horizon, Dead Space, Doom 3, and the Alien movies. Human avatars for the crew are strongly encouraged, with a fairly free hand for those playing the roles of the demonic creatures which stalk the darker corners of the ship, and the alien beasts which have escaped SciLab containment.

A word about body shapes. Doomed Ship is fairly unique in SL as the environment is designed to scale. Vending machines are 6'/1.83m tall. Desks, tables, beds, and chairs are all made to scale with realistic human proportions. Ceilings and doorways are taller than realistic to allow for the default SL camera, and so that avatars of all sizes might wander the ship.

The average avatar in SL is usually somewhere between 6'6"/1.98m to 8'6"/2.59m. Even the default avatars provided by Linden Lab range in height from 6'8"/203cm (the shortest of the woman avatars) to 7'1"/216cm (the tallest of the mens avatars). To add to the confusion, the appearance editor in Linden Lab's viewer and many resident-made height detectors are broken, using an avatar attribute named AgentHeight, which is not your avatar's size at all.

Human avatars well over 6'/1.83m will look out of place within the Doomed Ship environment. The average avatar may find tables not quite coming up to their knees, chairs so low that their feet sink into the ground. To better fit within the Doomed Ship role-play, it is encouraged that visitors adopt avatars in scale with the environment. The complimentary avatars at the entrance each include a body shape with realistic scale and proportions. These shapes are full-perm and may be shared with others. More variety in body shapes will be made in the future.

A note on the Doomed Ship role-play.

It is impossible, as well as undesirable, for the admin to police and mediate all role-play within the ship. At present there are no plans whatsoever to discourage those who wish to use the Doomed Ship environment for their own role-play so long as they do not attempt to interfere with other visitors, or attempt to present their role-play scenario as official or compulsory.

Additionally, the administration cannot be present to mediate all cases of "power-gaming" or "god-modding". More often than not, those complaining of such acts are the subject of similar complaints from others, as everyone has their own ideas of suitable conduct in free-form role-play such as that found at Doomed Ship. It is recommended that visitors learn who they are most comfortable playing with, and avoid those they have problems with.

And that's pretty much that. If you're interested, go to the main ship's portal; grab an avatar if you need one; decide on a good concept; and see how it goes. Avoid the trolls. Have fun if that's what you're there for. It is a spaceship that's been to Hell and back, after all.

watch your back when you can't watch mine

Spot launches today! See Spot. See Spot go. I love that this is pretty much real-time through various terrain--no real cutaways, no camera tricks. They've been working on the larger military dogbots for years, now, but Spot's official launch means both projects are now finished. Neat.

I'm a tad worried about this one...but we persevere, don't we, and we go to all the extant houses, because it's not October yet and I want more bats and pumpkins in my life.

This is exactly what the description says, every line:

Freyr
Skate and Date -Ice Skating, SLRR Train, Cuddle
Come and enjoy our Ice Skating, SLRR Railroad Train, Crystal Caverns, Haunted House, cuddles, and more!

Come enjoy our sim, cuddle, snuggle, and just have fun! All are welcome- furries, furry, humans, everyone!

Whole sim is clothing optional!

They maybe had me until the last line, because the rest sounds family-friendly, right? And the image for the land is a teensy prim penguin on ice. So...you'd think it'd be rated G, not Adult, right?

Save it's not rated Adult, it's moderate. Huh?



The dread was warranted. We're not doing this. Okay, what's next?



How about Final Refuge? Though that sounds so familiar. So does the description:

Gothic/Lovecraft horror haunt for adults. Open play allowed. No CHILD AVIS, all other lifestyles welcome.

Halloween, RLV, freebie hunt, medieval, castle, haunted, caves, hypnosis, stories, Cthulhu, aliens.

https://www.flickr.com/people/152960080@N02/

And that's an awfully big rules sign in an awfully narrow hall, there.



[22:56] The nervous patron: Oh no. Another of the curious or the greedy. Just a couple of days ago a group of eggheads from the university passed by. I'll tell you like I told them, you'd be wise to stay away from that old castle. Bad things happen there. Very bad things.

But if you are determined to go, follow the path out of the village, past the farm and old sawmill. You will find a pass through the mountains there. What you're seeking is on the other side.
[22:56] Castle Painting: Ancient and mysterious Audion castle, rumored to harbour incredible riches...and unspeakable evil.
[22:56] The tavern keeper: what makes you think I am?

Hoo, boy. I'm not even out of the starting house yet and already I have blending NPC conversations. Great.



As I move through the village, I note some odd texturing on the terrain, no real land definition (though nice organic flow from village to "mountain" pass to castle), but nothing really remarkable until I reached the castle. And discovered....the castle isn't that remarkable, either.

Did I mention this is an Adult sim? It's an Adult sim. For all I haven't seen a single Adult thing yet, barring the mention of RLV traps in the port-in house.



Yeah, I think I've beaten this dead horse enough. Don't bother.

there’s a lock on your door but I don’t need the key

Today, we're going to a house I'm fairly sure I've blogged before, Deep Root Manor. Their blurb is fairly short, but informative:

Generations of evil left something behind between life and death that better should be left alone. The beings who dwell here try to find a way back to the world of the living...

Okay. Off we go.



The house seems familiar, the grounds don't...but the house definitely does.



Maybe I just know the house build well at this point?



No, I...really think I've gone through this one. I remember that broken mirror fairly clearly.



Upstairs now, and...I've definitely been here. I've seen all of this before.



I've definitely been here. I remember this library.



Up to the attic, and convinced at this point. I even remember remarking on the blue screen.

Took a bit, but in fact, I have been here before--way back in 2016, in fact. Hasn't changed much. Worth a wander if you're bored, but nothing new here, same old routines. Nice sound palette, though.

I'll hang you higher than before, bloody hammers and burning hot pins

What the way to start the morning. Got an email from Flickr:

"Hi Emilly Orr!
♥(`'·.¸ [incomprehensible characters] ¸.·'´)♥ (Kxxxxxxxx Pxxxxxx) is following you!
Follow them too?

Nooo, for two reasons. One: in addition to posting shots of fellatio and other sex acts (which, look, I'm fine with nudes on Flickr, but I tend to prefer erotica over just...y'know, blowjobs in sneakers) which are on the tacky side, two: she has tiny little baby hands. Nope, and double nope.

She does have some good composition, and she's better at lighting than I am, and she has the ability to use shadows in SL. These are good things. I'm just not feeling her subject matter.

In other news, it looks like soon we'll be able to 3D-print furniture, since we can already 3D-print houses, statues, bones, some organs, and skin.

And speaking of homes, how about instructions on how to build an off-grid log cabin, apparently for free? I mean, you'll have to find (or buy) a patch of land, it mostly involves hand work, which will take some time, and there's no power or water instructions, but...hey! Cabin! Just in case.

And for Silent Hill: Homecoming fans (well, can't really say fans, NO ONE is a fan of the buggy, disjointed, badly written mess that is Silent Hill: Homecoming, but I do like some of the situations and the main theme), this is the most singularly original theory I have ever heard on the whys behind the story, and virtue of virtues, it actually makes a lot more of the game make sense.

Don't get me wrong, Silent Hill: Homecoming is still, and forever will be, a buggy, disjointed, badly written mess, but...with that theory in place, it does make some of the major annoyances of the game (from monster designs to the main character's inexplicably bad-ass fighting skills) actually relevant finally.

somebody calls you, somebody says swim with the current and float away

The history of French fries is fascinating. To start with, they're not even French.

And like old books? How about 11,000 old books from 1923? They have now all been digitized and can be read for free. You're welcome.

And are you part of Collection #1? Before you sneer at the idea, a quick check of haveibeenpwned revealed I am, so I am now sighing and changing my passwords. You should check, too.



In the meantime, I have found the sub ocean! Which is probably only amusing to me, so I'll explain that.



There's a Canadian internet comedy troupe called Loading Ready Run. They do a lot of things, from skit comedy to news coverage to net streaming of games old and new. Every year I watch their charity livestream, Desert Bus for Hope, which is always amazing. But, there's one show, hosted by Graham Stark and featuring Alex Steacy, called Watch+Play.



And in that series of longform torturing of Alex with really bad games, one of the chief marks of a really bad game is that they built the game either in a visible skybox--and some of them are really, really visible--or on the 'ground level' of that landscape, which means any slight glitch, dip, or fall through the ground level results in Alex suddenly visiting the sub ocean--id est, the water layer below the ground.



In other words, Second Life.



I caught these pictures at DISORDERLY/CURELESS' sim, and it was really just a case of my inability to rez in the surroundings as fast as I ordinarily would. I think my comp's going out.

But it amused me.

take a look around you, it's easy not to see

Clearing out email this morning, and I find I still cannot get over this one, so...I'm putting it on the blog.

Out of the blue on November 16th, I got this:

Hey there,

My Name is Jack Foster and I blog over at VPN Geeks (we review and compare VPN providers).

I really like your blog and noticed that you accept guest posts and wondered if you’d be open to accepting one from me.

If so please let me know and I will send you several suggested topics that you may like. (If you have a topic you'd really like me to cover just let me know)

You can see an example of the type of content I publish at https://www.vpngeeks.com/21-terrifying-cyber-crime-statistics-in-2018

We'd also share it across our social channels :)

Regards,

Jack

At the time, for reasons I go into in my answer, I didn't reply. I don't always respond to completely unsolicited offers that seem to have no relation to my blog. Life moved on. Then I got this November 20th:

Hey there,

One week ago I sent you an email regarding guest post opportunity (copy of email below) and I haven’t yet heard back from anyone.

I would still love to write a guest article for your website.

You can see an example of the type of content I publish at https://www.vpngeeks.com/21-terrifying-cyber-crime-statistics-in-2018

Regards,

Jack

By my account that's four days, not a week, but that may be me being overly picky? I'm not sure. But I decided to respond:

Jack, it's been kind of a rough week. Our bathroom is being remodeled, because we could not longer use it in its current state, and considering it's management deciding what to do and not us, it's gone about as well as you might expect. Compound that with the fact that on both emails to me, you seemed to acknowledge that I do guest posts, and in the second one, said you hadn't heard back from 'anyone'.

I'm the anyone. It's just me. I'm the only writer on my blog. I do not allow guest posts.

But, because you asked, I did look. The article you linked is about 50% graphics only, and mostly easily findable, recyclable information. Your name wasn't linked at the top of the article, so, after I finished reading it, and found it at the bottom, I checked out the other posts you'd written for VPN. I found...three other articles.

Since sending that, he's apparently now written more than those three, which is good, but still doesn't break him out of that very narrow scope of writing only about data privacy and VPNs in general.

Dude, I get you're hungry, but have you read *anything* on my blog? At all? Anything. One article, even. For the past year (because I don't think you have), I've mostly covered conversations from Second Life, which is pretty much my MMO of choice. I do cover a little bit on emergent technology, some on virtual fashon, and every October, I do huge coverage on virtual haunts in SL.

So, while I do have a slight interest in cybercrime, bitchain technology, and electronic privacy and freedoms...which blog entry gave you the idea that this is my sole focus?

Just to tie this up, in case you're thinking along these lines, I do not allow advertising either. The few square banners I carry in the sidebar *I* choose to put there. I don't get paid a dime. I do have my Ko-Fi banner up on the blog, and on my Twitter--that hasn't netted me a single dime, either. Would I love to be paid for what I do? Sure, because I'm disabled and unemployed. But *do* I get paid? No, and I don't solicit for ads, either.

So, after reading through *this*, if you still think a guest post from you would fit on my blog, I'll be tolerant towards considering it, but it would be the *only* guest post for probably the *next* ten years, because...it's my blog. I do the writing.

Cheers,

Em

I don't think it's necessary to mention that Jack hasn't written back, but just for completion's sake, he hasn't written back. Guess he figured out my blog is not really keyed in to his limited and narrow scope. I mean, good luck to him, but it was just a strange exchange to begin with. And I still don't know what gave him the idea that I'm VPN and bitchain central. I think I've mentioned VIPNs all of twice, and bitchain tech, in particular Bitcoin, maybe...once? So it's just completely baffling.

I wish him the best, but I won't be at all surprised if I never hear from him again.

and it leaves its mark all stamped with lead in the lines and the grime inside your skin

This from a notice by Wordsmith Jarvinen to the Independent States of Caledon group:

Linden Lab blogged that SL has been under significantly larger than normal DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks since last Sunday. Basically networks of infected PCs attempting to overload the SL network with traffic. It's humorous that the blog says "unscheduled".

https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2438-unscheduled-ddos-on-10-28-2018/

I, too, found it humorous that the blog says "unscheduled". There are scheduled DDoS attacks?

But if you've been having problems since Sunday, October 28th, that is why. They're still ongoing.

In the meantime, this bit of utter lunacy from a gacha group, of all things:

[20:37] sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: pls remove me from this group or else
[20:37] sxxxxx Yxxx: do it ya self
[20:37] Emilly Orr: You joined, you can leave any time.
[20:37] dxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: You can leave it.
[20:37] Emilly Orr: It's not hard
[20:40] Emilly Orr: Wow, that's some profile, on top of the rampant hostility.

I'm not kidding--I pulled the profile, and the first thing on her SL bio?

Cute puffy nip lactating Futanari feline avatar here 4 kittyplay click my IM box sitting in a ray of sunlight filled with Swedish fish lollies, pillows and a new collar.

I...have no place in my brain for any of that, save for it throws me back to my City of Heroes days, where the common hang-out space was just bursting at the seams with catgirl vampire futa loli supers asking for sex. Just...wow.

[20:40] axxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: don't you know how to remove yourself from a group?

Apparently not. Oh, and from the first-life bio section of Ms. S's profile?

I lik sillycute-looking seductress chicks with cat ears, a tail, and maybe paws and a few patches of fur. Catgirls usually act rather cat-like and always succeed in being very very cute and sexy.
Cgirls walk the line between Furry and anime.

Right...Oh, and of the nine picks on her picks page? One is for a store. The other nine are all clones of one of those "earn Lindens now!" places.

[20:47] Jxx Sxxxxxx: or else what lol
[20:47] Jxxxxx Wxxxx: that's what I was waiting for too.
[20:49] sxxxxx Yxxx: maybe the else was i will turn into a clown and run around?
[20:49] Jxxxxx Wxxxx takes out a hit on [Sxxxxx]
[20:50] sxxxxx Yxxx: lmao they have to catch me first
[20:51] Emilly Orr: I notice she's still in the group.
[20:51] Fxxxxxxx Cxxxxxx: it's no fun to create drama, if you don't stick around to watch the fallout!
[20:52] sxxxxx Yxxx: exactly
[20:53] Emilly Orr: Yeah, but that's the thing. She has. Why doesn't she just leave?
[20:53] sxxxxx Yxxx: yeah
[20:53] Emilly Orr: Unless she doesn't want to, she just wants us to squabble amongst ourselves. Takes a low mind, but hey.

[20:54] sxxxxx Yxxx: [20:52] sxxxxx Yxxx: [20:37] sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: pls remove me from this group or else we all want to know else what?
[20:53] sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: jus remove so u wont have to find out thank you kindly

[20:54] sxxxxx Yxxx: i asked lol
[20:55] Emilly Orr: Oh, that tempts me so much to talk to Little Miss Thing.
[20:55] Fxxxxx Axxxxxxxx: 20 minutes laer still talknig about that?
[20:55] Jxxxxx Wxxxx: I know I now wanna know why they did that [Wxxxx]!
[20:56] Fxxxxxxx Cxxxxxx: because clowns pink, [Jxxxxx]
[20:56] Jxxxxx Wxxxx: one of these days [Fxxx]....one of these days!

Some time later...

[21:02] Sxxxx Pxxxxx: ok i logged into something
[21:03] Emilly Orr: I want to say you did, but unfortunately, the 'cute catgirl' is unwilling to play. Or leave the group. So we're sort of stuck.
[21:03] Sxxxx Pxxxxx: huh

So, I finally wrote her.

[21:05] Emilly Orr: Okay, seriously. Pull open your group list. Select the Gimme Gacha group. Hit the Leave button. Done, and your furry little butt can go play elsewhere. This is so simple a three-year-old could do it.
[21:07] sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: damn i try to keave i get errir or else i wouldnt be asking you im not stupid i know that
[21:07] Emilly Orr: Okay. Log out, log back in. If you still have the group, leave then. If you don't, then you're good. It's not on the group owner to kick you unless you become abusive in chat, in which case, I'm sure they'll be happy to kick you.
[21:07] sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: [f*ck] i wilk never join another group again because they wont let you leave
[21:08] Emilly Orr: They ALL will let you leave, it's voluntary, easy, and everyday.
[21:09] sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Simple mind good bye

Gosh, guess I've been told. How will I ever live past this day?

Honestly, I'm not surprised with the current problems with logins, inventory, crashing, random restarts, and avatar persistence since the 28th that we're also having issues with leaving or joining groups. But she is being an upper-level idiot for not trying the basics first.

holding my last breath, safe inside myself

January of a new year, and I haven't updated since the last one. My creativity ebbs, and it's harder to push forward every day. But I'm a stubborn thing, so...it may be clip entries and random images for a few months, but I am going to try to make the blog a priority again.

We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, some random things from the net.

The Razer Valerie prototypes have been found--on a Chinese auction site. That's pretty blatant, and there's no guarantee they weren't examined beforehand for hoped-for technological advances. Either way, Razer now has a lead to follow...even if it comes with a hefty price tag.

We haven't reached absolute zero yet...but scientists in a Boulder, Colorado lab are working on it. Sounds pretty...cool?

So far, the Nintendo Switch shows promise. The little puppy that could is growing up, and the price point isn't even that bad--$300 for the full system, which is far below other console offerings.

Like jellyfish? Then you'll love this. In a similar vein, Portland, Oregon, had something of a freak snowstorm, and the Oregon Zoo's newest addition, Nora the polar bear, had a great deal of fun playing in snow. Here's more footage, and here's the river otters having a blast.

One post down. The rest of the year to go. Onward!

magic, madness, heaven, sin

So, the designers in the Fall of Man collective have put together a corn maze. As of this date, there are 41 pumpkins, with prizes of clothing (mostly mesh, some for men, most for women), October-themed items, textures, and at least one full-perm mausoleum to create. All the pumpkins are free, you just have to track them down; the only caution is that it's on Adult land, and while nothing in the maze is particularly NSFW, some of the pose scenes outside the maze might be, depending on who's sitting upon them. (More info here if you want.)

Generating "antiparticles" may just lead us to antimatter drives, for space exploration. If it works out, I can't wait to hear where we go.

And, in an expected, to thinking minds, result--though not to Safe Minds, the study's funders--science has determined, yet again, that vaccinating children does not cause autism.

And now, to Kokeilu's Haunted House.



We're greeted by grinning pumpkins and a hooded figure holding a lantern aloft.



A solitary ghost prowls the small graveyard, and occasionally seeks refuge within one of the graves.



Within the house, on the first floor, all seems acceptable--the walls are not splashed in crimson, though there are cobwebs and skulls resting on side tables.



Upstairs, however, a bloodied teddy bear swings, dripping on the floor; the bed is spattered in blood, but...there are no bodies to be seen.

Conclusion? It's cute. Short little haunt, goes traditional without being cloyingly trite, and doesn't depend on what we've seen over and over so far. It won't take anyone long to walk through it, but it's winsome enough to recommend.