what do you want from me? why don't you run from me?

And this is why I still don't have a mesh head.



This is OUT OF THE BOX. Granted, out of the box for the second time, but I did nothing with it but wear it and wear the shape it came with. That's all.



Even worse? THIS is the head I bought--with HELP, I might add!--because I thought it might be close to how I look now. Argh!



OH THERE'S A PARTY TO GO TO NO PROBLEM JUST LET ME GRAB MY COAT--



And this? This is what I got when I took off the mesh head. Which is big and square but still, recognizeably human!

WTF did I do to that head the last time I unpacked it? Because it needs to be FIXED, STAT!!!

new beginnings are the challenge, but you're not sure where to start (part I)

(Roleplay entry?? Maybe. Partially. But also pure sim bafflement.)



I'd been invited to a meditation class, but was told to arrive in fins. Which was odd, at first, because we were upstairs in Spirit House, in one of the teaching rooms, above the water.



And then we got to the water, and it was a lovely swim all in all, though I won't lie, I had more fun watching the two-legs trying to figure out tails.

That, and the fact that Justine decided to come as a lionfish mer. Kind of off brand, that's more me, really, but pretty nonetheless.

And then I went back to Gearhaven to check something, and...LAND SPIKE.



Seriously. Land spike. Through the floor of the music room. What?



So I switched to a form small enough to crawl under the foundation, if need be, and found...this. It wasn't just a land spike. Something had hollowed out the land around the spike, and that entire corner under the house was affected.



I'm dead serious, here. There are three people with rights to terraform on Gearhaven. Me, and I'm not doing it. Lady Justine, and she says she hasn't, and I still believe her. And the Duke.

And the Duke is missing.

So...what's going on?



I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. But, I did my best to level the land under the corner of the house...again...and then Lady Justine IMed, panicking. Something was wrong on the Gray Area.



So I shifted to a slightly larger form, and trooped off to the next disaster, because if it's not one thing, it's another...so, what on earth is it now?

(Answered in next entry.)

for all of us who've seen the light, salute the dead and lead the fight (part IV)

(Continued from part III.)


(I can't recall if this was from a film, or a still from an actual military experiment.)

[14:57] Vernden Jervil: There is also a board game set in the same world as Iron Harvest called Scythe.
[14:57] Edward Pearse: It makes me think of a steampunk setting where the technology has advanced forward to the point of the first world war.
[14:57] Sasha Prismara Featherlight (sashaveiloftears): The golden compass, always think of that with that theme
[14:57] Edward Pearse: Golden Compass and His Dark Materials is the same thing
[14:57] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): yes
[14:58] Polly (polly.ellsmere): movie aesthetic a bit different to TV series though
[14:58] Edward Pearse: Generally gets lumped in with steampunk, though I'm not sure it's either

(Prototype art of a plane that was actually designed some decades later, and a dieselpunk/deco luxury car.)

[14:58] Ceejay Writer: Wasn't the original City Hall here in Babbage based on the tall building in Golden Compass?
[14:58] Jimmy Branagh: Yes
[14:59] Edward Pearse: That was the third City Hall, but yes
[14:59] Jimmy Branagh: That was the second Town Hall, built by Loki Eliot
[14:59] Ceejay Writer: Ah. See, I shoulda got to town earlier!
[14:59] Jimmy Branagh: Yes, 3rd.
[14:59] Edward Pearse: Wolfenstein
[14:59] Ceejay Writer: Also Not A Founder, Jimmy.
[14:59] Edward Pearse: Wolfenstein is so old that when the first game was released it was on the Apple II
[14:59] Jimmy Branagh: Eh?
[15:00] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) frowns and resets the Tipbot.
[15:00] Edward Pearse: The first Castle Wolfenstein was essentially sneak in and steal the plans and kill Nazis.
[15:00] Edward Pearse: Not a huge amount of dieselpunk there.

No, not the first version.

[15:00] Edward Pearse: But as the series progressed,
[15:00] Edward Pearse: I think there have been 13 or so games now
[15:00] Edward Pearse: it introduced the SS Paranormal Division, the Spear of Destiny, Adolf Hitler in power armour, and a variety of other weirdness.
[15:01] Edward Pearse: Bioshock is a personal favourite
[15:01] Edward Pearse: If you haven't played it, essentially you are the lone survivor of a plane crash who is lucky enough to wash up near a giant light house in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere.
[15:02] Edward Pearse: The light house is the top of a huge undersea city called Rapture.
[15:02] Edward Pearse: Sadly, free market capitalism went wild and one of the citizens used his influence to stage a coup over the Rapture's population has rioted and you're stuck in the underwater city with a bunch of crazies.
[15:02] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): wow
[15:02] Ceejay Writer: So it's Myst with Rabies?
[15:02] Edward Pearse: Rapture is a gorgeous vision of art deco
[15:02] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): And weaponized courtesy
[15:03] Edward Pearse: I would pay real money for a mod that lets me skip the whole game and just wander the city.
[15:03] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): atlantus reborn?
[15:03] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): That would also suit me, Edward
[15:03] Edward Pearse: As for literature
[15:03] Edward Pearse: I personally loved K.M. Weiland's Storming.
[15:03] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): Arlantis
[15:03] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): This has been fun, loves, but I think I must be moving on. Was a pleasure to see you all.
[15:04] Edward Pearse: The characters were a bit cliched but the story was great fun!
[15:04] Bixyl Shuftan: I need to head out
[15:04] Bixyl Shuftan tips his hat
[15:04] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): Buh-bye!
[15:04] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Gute Nacht, those leaving.

(Captain America, Agent Carter, and dieselpunk anime.)

[15:04] Edward Pearse: Some other recommendations
[15:04] Jimmy Branagh: Noight Miss!
[15:04] Edward Pearse: A Fistful of Nothing by Dan Glaser – 2014
[15:04] Edward Pearse: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld – 2009
[15:04] Nyx Malaspina: XD
[15:04] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): i am artfull hammerer's Niece
[15:04] Edward Pearse: The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk edited by Sean Wallace - 2015
[15:04] Ceejay Writer: Take care those leaving peoples!
[15:05] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Bitte, if you wish to appreciate our speaker before you leave, pay the small machine at the front of the stage.
[15:05] Edward Pearse: And I'll throw in Fatherland by Robert Harris – 1992
[15:05] Edward Pearse: And a final shoutout to one of my favourite radio characters of all time [15:05] Edward Pearse: The Red Panda
[15:05] Ceejay Writer: And the Flying Squirrel!!!!!!!
[15:05] Edward Pearse: Inspired by old radio shows like The Shadow and Green Hornet, the story starts in 1930s Toronto and ran for 13 glorious years
[15:05] Edward Pearse: https://decoderringtheatre.com/shows/red-panda-adventures/
[15:06] Edward Pearse: Decoder Ring Theatre also created Black Jack Justice
[15:06] Vernden Jervil: And is still going on a lesser level.
[15:06] Ceejay Writer: It's really good - I've played each ep multiple times.

(Sucker Punch.)

[15:06] Edward Pearse: Noir Detective
[15:06] Ceejay Writer: Look for Black Jack Justice there, too.
[15:06] Edward Pearse: So that mostly covers it I think
[15:06] Edward Pearse: Any questions?
[15:07] Jimmy Branagh applauds
[15:07] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): yay
[15:07] Liz Wilner: ♪♫♥ Applauds!!! ♥♫♪
[15:07] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) applauds
[15:07] Ceejay Writer whistles and stomps her feet
[15:07] Darlingmonster Ember applauds
[15:07] Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): .•*♥*•. applauds .•*♥*•.
[15:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) applauds

(A full shot of the stage, which is apparently split in half between two parcels, and the job of work Edward had to do to fit all the pictures onto each parcel without maxing out that parcel's prims.)

[15:07] Vernden Jervil: cheers
[15:07] Liz Wilner: well done, Edward!
[15:07] Polly (polly.ellsmere): ♩♪♫♬ APPAWS! ♩♪♫♬
[15:07] Sophie Cloud applauds
[15:07] Jimmy Branagh: Good Salon. And you filled the entire hour!
[15:07] Izabelle1 (izabelle66): Thank you! :)
[15:07] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): And did not crash the sim!
[15:07] Sophie Cloud: Excellent!
[15:07] Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): thank you Edward, I learned a lot
[15:07] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Thanks for the links!

(Continued in part V.)

for all of us who've seen the light, salute the dead and lead the fight (part III)

(Continued from part II.)


(Two stills from The Rocketeer.)

[14:36] Edward Pearse: Cinema has given us a few offerings that have tried to capture the dieselpunk feel.
[14:37] Edward Pearse: As Jimmy mentioned Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is probably the best example.
[14:37] Jimmy Branagh: The film wasn;t too good but it looked great.
can double as submarines, giant flying airbases, mad science, the Hindenburg III, and a whole bunch of other things.
[14:38] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): The Rocketeer comic moreso than the film, but i do count the Rocketeer...err, as you can tell.
[14:38] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): There's definitely a strong dieselpunk feel in the Russian Guardians movie, but it is more far-fetched
[14:38] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance) wonders if "Gravity's Rainbow" would qualify as dieselpunk... more fantasy than scifi really...

(Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow movie poster on the left, Iron Sky movie poster on the left.)

[14:38] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I also tend to toss Dark City in
[14:38] Edward Pearse: The Rocketeer is heavily pulp but again I think captures the dieselpunk feel.
[14:38] Darlingmonster Ember: yes!
[14:38] Edward Pearse: Hey who's giving this presentation? :-)
[14:39] Edward Pearse: Flyboy Cliff Secord stumbles across a jetpack made by Howard Hughes and has to deal with US government agents, Nazis and spies while trying to save his girlfriend.
[14:39] Vernden Jervil: We are trying to help you make the entire hour!
[14:39] Nyx Malaspina: that brings us back to aesthetics....what about books....I don't read that genre but surely there must be authors who write this genre.
[14:39] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) ducks her head
[14:39] Edward Pearse: We'll get there
[14:39] Edward Pearse: The movie is an adaptation of a comic book character created by Dave Stevens that first appeared in 1982, the year after Raiders of the Lost Ark.
[14:39] Edward Pearse: In the comics Cliff's girlfriend Betty is heavily inspired by pinup queen Bettie Page and is a lot less PG than the movie was.
[14:40] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24) grins.
[14:40] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24) lifts her leg just high enough, then folds it over the other.

(The Dark City movie poster, and a still from the film.)

[14:40] Edward Pearse: The movie Dark City presents a different take.
[14:41] Edward Pearse: Less pulp adventure it and more suspense thriller (I hesitate to call it a horror) it concerns an amnesiac man who struggles with the reality he is presented with.
[14:41] Edward Pearse: The setting is again very 1940s in its appearance, and is entirely set at night.
[14:41] Edward Pearse: I recommend all three
[14:41] Nyx Malaspina: (forgot about that film...really enjoyed it!)
[14:41] Ceejay Writer: 2013 Movie: Snowpiercer.
[14:42] Edward Pearse: Iron Sky I would argue at least starts out as a dieselpunk movie.
[14:42] Edward Pearse: There's not much more dieselpunk than space Nazis on the moon.
[14:42] Ceejay Writer: Fully agree.
[14:42] Edward Pearse: 1940s flying saucers and moon bases.
[14:42] Jimmy Branagh chuckles

Space Nazis seem to be a trope, yes.

[14:42] Edward Pearse: There's also a sequel which I haven't seen yet but it digs out all the pulp tropes it can get its hands on
[14:43] Edward Pearse: Following a nuclear holocaust on earth, survivors living in an abandoned Nazi base on the far side of the Moon board a barely-functioning spacecraft, and travel to the nucleus of the hollow Earth in an attempt to recover the Holy Grail from a group of reptilian shape-shifters who are led by Tyrannosaurus-riding Adolf Hitler.
[14:43] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Red fire!
[14:43] Edward Pearse: No I am not making this up.
[14:43] Darlingmonster Ember: ga wuh?
[14:43] Edward Pearse: By a similar extent the opening of Hellboy also uses the dieselpunk aesthetic.
[14:43] Polly (polly.ellsmere): think I've had dreams like that
[14:44] Edward Pearse: I've already mentioned Nazis, so Nazi's with an immortal Rasputin and a clockwork undead
[14:44] Edward Pearse: SS officer pretty much nail it on the head.
[14:44] Sabine Artemis (sabineartemis): Iron Sky.
[14:44] Nyx Malaspina: XD
[14:44] Darlingmonster Ember: yep
[14:45] Edward Pearse: The first of Marvel's Captain America movies is very dieselpunk, although again, it heavy on the pulp storyline.
[14:46] Edward Pearse: Giant 6 wheeled cars, the Super Valkyrie plane, and even the little one man submarine at the start are all examples of future tech but done in a 1940s style.
[14:46] Edward Pearse: Interestingly director Joe Johnson's work on the Rocketeer landed him the recommendation to direct Captain America: The First Avenger.
[14:46] Edward Pearse: So there may be stylistic similarities beyond the setting.
[14:46] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): Ahhh, love that one, too
[14:47] Ceejay Writer: *giddy* So. Many. Pictures.

I know, it was hard to get them all in frame at times!

[14:47] Edward Pearse: Sucker Punch, for all its issues as a movie again has some excellent dieselpunk imagery
[14:47] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) grins
[14:48] Prof (professor.woodsheart): I always though April and the Extraordinary World crosses genres, from SP to DP – steam power taken the extreme and ending with rocket ships
[14:48] Nyx Malaspina: waits for Tank Girl to be mentioned...yes yes I know...
[14:48] Edward Pearse: I didn't include pictures but I also like me some Alec Baldwin The Shadow
[14:48] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): (This is gonna be heck to blog.)
[14:49] Edward Pearse: Huh. Actually Tank Girl completely slipped my mind
[14:49] Edward Pearse: But yes, Tank Girl
[14:49] Poison (marylucretia): green hornet
[14:49] Edward Pearse: Comics over the movie
[14:49] Edward Pearse: Though the movie has its charm
[14:49] Edward Pearse: TV tends to be a bit less forthcoming with the genre
[14:49] Ceejay Writer: No worries. I'll have it blogged by days end tomorrow!
[14:50] Ceejay Writer: I'm used to the madness.
[14:50] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) looks appreciative
[14:50] Ceejay Writer looks slightly deranged

(Two different posters for Iron Sky.)

[14:50] Liz Wilner: would the series His Dark Materials qualify?
[14:50] Edward Pearse: Marvel's Agent Carter definitely has a dieselpunk flair
[14:50] Edward Pearse: I suppose that's to be expected following on from the Captain America movie.
[14:51] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Surely Dark Materials is a bit too much of an alternate time line
[14:51] Edward Pearse: The series features Peggy Carter working with the SSR.
[14:51] Edward Pearse: There's stolen high tech weapons, made by Howard Stark
[14:51] Edward Pearse: There's comic book villains and weird science and a whole bunch of things.
[14:51] Vernden Jervil: I don't think it is too alternate...and don't call me Shirley.
[14:51] Darlingmonster Ember: yum
[14:51] Edward Pearse: Plus it's set in the late 1940s so there's that look with all the tech.
[14:51] Edward Pearse: The anime Last Exile has some excellent dieselpunk vehicles.
[14:52] Tamlorn Carterhaugh Wood (tamlorn): What is interesting is my father was an engineer on cargo ships doing the Pacific Rim trade. He started on diesel powered ships, moved to steam which was more efficient, and then to atomic power. So the genres almost seem to be reversed.

That would be fascinating.

[14:52] Edward Pearse: The van ships are planes that fly by a form of antigravity (I don't remember it being properly explained)
[14:52] Edward Pearse: I've seen Tales From the Gold Monkey suggested as a contender.
[14:52] Ceejay Writer: Roger, got your vector, Vernden
[14:52] Edward Pearse: This 80s TV show rode the wave of Indiana Jones with a 1930s smuggler group based around the Pacific Islands.
[14:52] Edward Pearse: I remember the series. I'm unsure, but I supposed if we can take Indiana Jones as an influence then sure, why not.
[14:53] Prof (professor.woodsheart): City of Ember?
[14:53] Ceejay Writer: I'd like to see that series again and see how I feel about it.

(Prototype art for a dieselpunk plane.)

[14:53] Edward Pearse: Computer games have brought their own contribution to dieselpunk
[14:53] Sasha Prismara Featherlight (sashaveiloftears): I just started watching the Walking dead: world beyond, good start to the apocalypse. Seems more of a political agenda going on finally in the storyline
[14:53] Edward Pearse: Let me just shuffle some space here for a sec
[14:54] Sasha Prismara Featherlight (sashaveiloftears): It may not be steam punk, but it's punk so far I think
[14:54] Ceejay Writer watches Salon building collapse
[14:54] Polly (polly.ellsmere): surfeit of images crowding my camera out the door
[14:55] Edward Pearse: Of these I would say Crimson Skies would be the best known
[14:55] Darlingmonster Ember: nods
[14:55] Edward Pearse: Crimson Skies started as a board game in 1998 and was adapted to PC in 2000
[14:55] Edward Pearse: Set in alternative 1930s where the United States has collapsed, air travel is the most common form of transport. This has lead to...
[14:55] Edward Pearse: Sky Pirates!
[14:56] Edward Pearse: The aeroplanes featured all sorts of weirdness with bent wings and rear fitted propellers.
[14:56] Edward Pearse: Iron Harvest was released last year and has seen mostly positive reviews
[14:57] Edward Pearse: Real Time Strategy game set in the early 1920s.
[14:57] Edward Pearse: It features giant Mechs and looks pretty impressive, though I've yet to play it myself

(Continued in part four.)

for all of us who've seen the light, salute the dead and lead the fight (part II)

(Continued from part one.)


(Decopunk poster, and Mad Max.)

[14:13] Edward Pearse: By and large dieselpunk takes over where steampunk finishes.
[14:14] Edward Pearse: It's set roughly between WW1 and the 1950s.
[14:14] Edward Pearse: I tend to aim for a more late 30s to early 40s style when designing things myself.
[14:14] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Welcome, Fraulein Baker. Do come have a seat.
[14:14] Edward Pearse: The aristocracy features a lot less in dieselpunk than steampunk
[14:15] Edward Pearse: While you will get officers in military settings there's far less Dukes, Barons and Ladies.
[14:15] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
[14:15] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): Perhaps I've overdressed.
[14:15] Edward Pearse: As with the change in time period most of the great monarchies of the 19th century had disappeared by this time.
[14:15] Wildstar Beaumont: no Ladies ... sounds scandalous
[14:15] Edward Pearse: There is also a larger involvement of aeroplanes in dieselpunk.
[14:15] Nyx Malaspina: but plenty of dames....
[14:15] Edward Pearse: Steampunk co-opted the airship but in reality the airships heyday was the 1920s to 30s

(The allure of uniforms.)

[14:16] Edward Pearse: Britain had the R100 and the R101.
[14:16] Edward Pearse: With the R101's crash in France in 1930 that effectively killed Imperial Airship Scheme
[14:16] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Such a pity...
[14:17] Polly (polly.ellsmere): funny - lots of train crashes didn't put an end to rail
[14:17] Edward Pearse: The Zeppelin company continued with airships until the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 brought
[14:17] Edward Pearse: that to a screeching halt.
[14:17] Edward Pearse: As steampunk is the age where steam engines powered the world with soot and a Victorian aesthetic,
[14:17] Edward Pearse: dieselpunk is when diesel engines ruled along with the grease and oil required to run them.
[14:18] Edward Pearse: And just as there are those who like their steampunk brass to be shiny and their wood to be teak,
[14:18] Ceejay Writer: It seems to appeal to most of my mechanically inclined friends.
[14:18] Edward Pearse: there are dieselpunks who like their engines clean and their buildings repaired.
[14:18] Edward Pearse: So much so that some have created a subgenre called decopunk.
[14:19] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I still haven't figured that out yet.
[14:19] Jimmy Branagh: Oy love th' smell of grease and oil on th' morning ...
[14:19] Edward Pearse: I personally disagree with splitting it into a smaller genre, but each to their own.
[14:19] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): Mm, you're telling me...
[14:19] Breezy Carver: lol
[14:19] Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[14:19] Sophie Cloud: yes, please wipe your boots before coming into my kitchen

(Actual period uniforms.)

[14:19] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): Again, I do apologize for "appearing from the future" so to speak.
[14:20] Ceejay Writer: Meh, Steampunk is all fragmented up too, for me it's all a happy jumble.
[14:20] Edward Pearse: I have also seen people try and put things like Mad Max into the dieselpunk genre.
[14:20] Prof (professor.woodsheart): people like their bit of the pie
[14:20] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Let us roll our eyes in unison.
[14:20] Vernden Jervil: Oh we have a time travel incident at least once a month, no worries
[14:20] Edward Pearse: While I understand why, to me post-apocalyptic genres are another beast altogether.
[14:20] Darlingmonster Ember: ouch
[14:20] Nyx Malaspina: considers how many times she's tried to explain rococo punque and given up.
[14:20] Ceejay Writer: Daisy, no worries at all!
[14:20] Edward Pearse: *snorts*
[14:21] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): Especially since I tend to appear from the more...red light district of the future.
[14:21] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) grins
[14:21] Edward Pearse: Oh fer
[14:22] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Nice graphics!
[14:22] Edward Pearse: Looks like the right hand parcel is full
[14:22] Darlingmonster Ember: nod
[14:23] Jimmy Branagh: ((Lucky day, everything's rezzing))
[14:23] Edward Pearse: Continuing

(And uniforms for the dames.)

[14:23] Edward Pearse: As a rough guide steampunk uses a lot of brass and brown as its base palette.
[14:23] Nyx Malaspina: camming wildly
[14:23] Edward Pearse: In a similar way dieselpunk uses greys and chrome.
[14:23] Ceejay Writer: (Daisy, I ran a burlesque club in Seraph City.)
[14:23] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): (I was probably going to dance for it)
[14:23] Jimmy Branagh: ((Someone ran one in Babbage 'way back too))
[14:23] Ceejay Writer: :D
[14:23] Edward Pearse: Posters and artwork tend to hark back to the propaganda styles of the 30s and 40s
[14:24] Edward Pearse: and there is a huge influence of art deco, especially in the art.
[14:24] Ceejay Writer: ((I worked for that one too Jimmy!))
[14:24] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): (Well, I was thinking about it, Miss Daisy, so you're not alone.)
[14:24] Edward Pearse: General settings are often dark though.
[14:24] Jimmy Branagh: ((Oy dint wanna say nuffin; L) ))
[14:24] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) smiles at Jimmy
[14:24] Edward Pearse: As I mentioned before there's a lot of greys in dieselpunk,
[14:24] Sophie Cloud: I'd love to see a museum of your posters, they are brillant.

I'd actually love to see an exhibit of dieselpunk art, and the influences leading up to it. RL or SL, in fact.

[14:25] Edward Pearse: but the noir influence with contrast and lighting also features considerably in many aspects.
[14:25] Galactic Baroque: (Mad Max is gasoline fantasy, not post-apoc. Fight me.)
[14:25] Darlingmonster Ember: pics are promised for the journal logs
[14:25] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): WWII was a grim period...
[14:25] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): No, I agree.
[14:25] Edward Pearse: I was asked about dieselpunk music.
[14:25] Edward Pearse: I'll say up front that trying to pigeonhole dieselpunk music is even harder than trying to define steampunk music, so I'm not even going to try.

(Another set of fantasy diesel uniforms.)

It really is. "Electroswing" is a good catch-all, but that goes into so many different genres on its own.

[14:25] Nyx Malaspina: electroswing?
[14:25] Edward Pearse: Much like steampunk music is "music that steampunks like", so too dieselpunk music is "music that dieselpunks like".
[14:25] Edward Pearse: That said, Swing and Big Band music tends to feature heavily in the genre.
[14:26] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Electroswing is mostly something everything agrees on
[14:26] Edward Pearse: As I said there is a large 1930s-40s aesthetic in dieselpunk.
[14:26] Edward Pearse: There's a heavy military element with lots of uniforms around.
[14:26] Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): :)
[14:26] Nyx Malaspina: s h o u l d e r p a d s
[14:27] Galactic Baroque: l a p e l s
[14:27] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): ((I tend to play my character as a poster girl in addition to former air force mechanic))
[14:27] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): A lot of Hellboy fits into the aesthetic
[14:27] Edward Pearse: T a i l o r i n g
[14:27] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): In one sense or another
[14:27] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): ((But that can be a story for another time))
[14:27] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): High fashion gas masks?
[14:27] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Why not?
[14:27] Edward Pearse: Since many of those uniforms are WW2 inspired there's been suggestion that dieselpunk leads to Nazi cosplay or at least Nazi fetishism.
[14:28] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Anything that deals with uniforms gets that
the difference between a German uniform and a Belgian one.
[14:28] Darlingmonster Ember: nod
[14:28] Edward Pearse: But when you have State Police who dress like this I don't think it carries much weight.
[14:29] Edward Pearse: Current uniform of the New Jersey State Police for those wondering

(Raiders of the Lost Ark theatre poster, and...I forget the one on the right.)

[14:29] Polly (polly.ellsmere): REZ DARNIT!!!!!!
[14:29] Edward Pearse: That said, you always need bad guys. [14:30] Nyx Malaspina: Ho....leave my home state outta dis.
[14:30] Polly (polly.ellsmere): New Jersey is all foggy
[14:30] Edward Pearse: The pinup aesthetic also features heavily in the depiction of women.
[14:30] Poison (marylucretia): Nj NY CT Ma Rhode Island all similar uniforms
[14:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Especially in SL iterations
[14:31] Edward Pearse: I think the pinup aesthetic is certainly one of the reasons it's a lot easier to find pictures of dieselpunk women than of dieselpunk men.
[14:31] Edward Pearse: As I said earlier, dieselpunk is more set dressing than actual genre.
[14:31] Edward Pearse: As such it tends to be use existing genres for the story and dress them up accordingly.
[14:32] Nyx Malaspina whispers: (ladies..check out the dark fair for a hat that might meet these requirements.)
[14:32] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): That gal on the far left looks SO authentic *cough cough* authentic *cough cough*
[14:32] Daisy Baker (sweetdanax24): (Speaking of, if anyone needs a poster model for their gallery...)

(A still from The Shadow on the left, and a still from Metropolis on the right.)

[14:32] Polly (polly.ellsmere): looks like all the gents need are joddhies, riding boots and a smart military jacket
[14:32] Edward Pearse: Pulp is a heavy component of dieselpunk.
[14:33] Edward Pearse: Properties such as Indiana Jones and Doc Savage, to The Shadow and Metropolis.
[14:33] Darlingmonster Ember: yay!
[14:33] Edward Pearse: Pulp started as a nickname for the adventure stories that were being published on very cheap paper (pulp).
[14:33] Prof (professor.woodsheart): A pair of oily overalls
[14:33] Ceejay Writer: That tends to be my personal faavorite aspect!
[14:33] Edward Pearse: The name stuck with the genre.
[14:34] Edward Pearse: There are many stories that were published in pulp mags but tend not to be viewed as pulp.
[14:34] Edward Pearse: Pulp is often an action adventure story that does for thrills rather than quality of writing.
[14:34] Edward Pearse: Or at least it did
[14:34] Edward Pearse: Noir can also be a part of dieselpunk.
[14:35] Edward Pearse: Big city detectives, femme fatales, gangsters, mad scientists, you can do it all
[14:35] Vernden Jervil likes noir
[14:35] Edward Pearse: Certainly the Noir genre can be adapted to other aesthetics anyway.
[14:35] Edward Pearse: Blade Runner is probably the best example of a non-noir Noir movies.
[14:35] Edward Pearse: A lot of dieselpunk is about adding in retrofuturism to the setting.
[14:35] Edward Pearse: Al Capone is not dieselpunk.
[14:36] Edward Pearse: Al Capone with an army of robot goons could very well be dieselpunk.
[14:36] Jimmy Branagh: Sky Captain and the World of Tommorow
[14:36] Edward Pearse: FDR with an electromagnetic repulsorlift chair.
[14:36] Edward Pearse: The possibilities are pretty much endless.

(Continued in part three.)

for all of us who've seen the light, salute the dead and lead the fight (part I)

The pictures I got, not all of them came out, sadly, but I picked the best ones of the lot. This was the Aether Salon for dieselpunk, held at the Academy of Industry in New Babbage.


(Edward Pearse, Duke of Primbroke, presenting the discussion.)

This is also one of the few events I'll cover where I leave names intact.

[14:03] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): hiya ceejay. is this in voice? not hearing...
[14:03] Edward Pearse: Nope text.
[14:03] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Nein, not Voice.
[14:03] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): oakily doakily then
[14:03] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): It has been on rare occasions, but they are announced in advance.
[14:03] Ceejay Writer: Local Chat
[14:03] Edward Pearse: Just giving it a couple of minutes for the late arrivals

(A shot of the crowd to start.)

[14:03] Bixyl Shuftan: It's in chat
[14:04] Jimmy Branagh: This is also a test of speed typing ability
[14:04] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Herr Baroque! It has been too long.
[14:04] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) grins
[14:04] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): sehr gut
[14:04] Polly (polly.ellsmere): interesting phenomenon: clouds opening doors
[14:04] Edward Pearse: Yeah I cheated and lots of this I've written down already :-)
[14:04] Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): smiles
[14:05] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): That will make it easier for Fraulein Ceejay.
[14:05] Ceejay Writer: That's CHEATING? *eyedarts*
[14:05] Jimmy Branagh: ((I have everything written for mine ahead except for witty badinage. Cut-paste king.))
[14:05] Edward Pearse: Okie dokie, I think we can start
[14:06] Ceejay Writer: ((Ditto, Jimmy.))

(A definition of dieselpunk.)

[14:06] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Fire when ready, Duke!
[14:06] Jimmy Branagh: ((I would goo crazy otherwise))
[14:06] Edward Pearse: My name is Edward Pearse.
[14:06] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Wait, you mean not everyone writes it in advance?
[14:06] Edward Pearse: Hi!
[14:06] Ceejay Writer: Apparently we ALL do!

(A diesel deco train, and a poster from Seraph City.)

[14:06] Edward Pearse: Most of you in New Babbage are familiar with me
[14:06] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I should hope you do.
[14:06] Edward Pearse: For those not, I'm one of founders of New Babbage and a long time fan of Steampunk.
[14:07] Edward Pearse: I got interested in dieselpunk through the old sim of Seraph City.
[14:07] Ceejay Writer: You found it? Was it lost?
[14:07] Edward Pearse: Exhibit A
[14:07] Breezy Carver: smiles
[14:07] Edward Pearse: I wasn't part of the founding group but discovered the sim through mutual friends

(Hindenberg's flight.)

[14:07] Edward Pearse: I created a nightclub there called Seraph Club.
[14:07] Darlingmonster Ember: woot
[14:08] Edward Pearse: While Seraph City has long gone, the Seraph Club still lives on, now in its new home of Cassandra City.
[14:08] Polly (polly.ellsmere): the Roving Seraph Club
[14:08] Jimmy Branagh: Oy just missed being a founder. I'm a fumbler Oy guess.
[14:08] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Quite charming.
[14:08] Poison (marylucretia): here here
[14:08] Edward Pearse: I will apologise in advance if this runs a little short.
[14:08] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): A luvvily venue.
[14:08] Edward Pearse: I volunteered as a last minute thing so I haven't had time to check the run on this.

That was entirely my fault, by the way. I had been tasked with finding a dieselpunk speaker, and I contacted six or seven people, all of which turned me down, never once thinking of Edward, and I REALLY should have. Thankfully, he agreed.

(Cover for Children of the Sun.)

[14:08] Ceejay Writer: More time for drinks after - no worries!
[14:09] Darlingmonster Ember adjusts her little shorts
[14:09] Edward Pearse: Dieselpunk is really an aesthetic rather than a genre.
[14:09] Nyx Malaspina whispers: lms and schedule provided in some handy notecard. :)
[14:09] Edward Pearse: As such there will be a lot of imagery in this presentation
[14:09] Edward Pearse: This of course leads to a lot of opinion over what is and isn't dieselpunk.
[14:09] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): Huzzah!
[14:09] Nyx Malaspina: claps hands...like pictures.

(A selection of artists' renditions of dieselpunk cities.)

[14:09] Edward Pearse: What I present today is mostly my own opinion but other schools of thought will be touched on here and there.
[14:10] Edward Pearse: Dieselpunk the term, first came to use through an RPG called Children of the Sun, published in 2002.
[14:11] Edward Pearse: It was never a big hit. I've never played it but the reviews I've read are "neutral"
[14:11] Edward Pearse: Interestingly the world of Children of the Sun is somewhat different from what we think of when dieselpunk is used today.
[14:11] Edward Pearse: It was very much an urban fantasy style setting.
[14:12] Edward Pearse: It had magic, a variety of races and an assortment of critters, littered amongst the skyscrapers.
[14:12] Rory Torrance (rory.torrance): And an interesting font, at least.
[14:12] Edward Pearse: I saw one description of it as D and D meets Saving Private Ryan
[14:13] Edward Pearse: Similar to the transformation that steampunk undertook, dieselpunk too has expanded beyond a D and D campaign with a fantasy WW2 setting.
[14:13] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Interesting
[14:13] Edward Pearse: Also similar to steampunk, it's about the set dressing rather than the story itself.

(Continued in part two.)

just keep on saving our goodbyes (part VI)

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."
~~Marie Curie

(Continued from part V.)

Found another one.

Jul 3, 2012, 9:50 PM

[given name],

The girl is currently in the land of constant panic attacks due to all the explosions. The air outside smells like moss and cordite. And most of me right now wants to beat the computer screen and scream aloud, but...that would do no good, so...back to waiting, to reconstructing, to eventually becoming not a wreck without you, and without knowing what's happened to you.

If it helps, at this point I'm getting thoroughly sick of being a weepy, emotional mess. I have walked so many times to the very edge of writing a letter with that fateful word, but I keep stopping. Not necessarily because of you, but because of me.

I didn't agree to be Yours just for fun. I certainly didn't do it because of convenience. And holding to that line has cost me another relationship, has given me a bit of conflict with [another love], and not a small amount of emotional strife along the way. If it were easy to be Yours--to be anyone's--then it wouldn't have the power to sweep me under the way it does.

But, by that same extension, if I hear nothing, I have nothing to go on. Just as I can't be owned by a ghost, I can't break up with a ghost, either. Until you're there, I can't confirm or deny you, on any level.

But as I've said before, I can't stay here. I think too much, I feel too much, every time I seriously think of the months of absence, and the possible whys, I just break down. This is not good for me.

I've been using the nightly poetry jaunts as a therapeutic device, but at this point, they're just trapping me into the same morass of worry, fear, anxiety and pain. I need to find a way to get out of this place.

I'm not breaking up with you. I still love you. I am angry and I am hurt and I am desperately afraid, but I'm still here.

However.

I'm not writing a letter tomorrow.

This is not going to be a forever thing, but right now, I'm facing too much. Writing you is another access point into all that pain and fear, and I need to--not want to, at this point, need to--step away.

I won't be far. You can always reach me by email, by a comment on my Twitter, my Tumblr, or you can call, since we don't have international calling. I'm appending my info on the end of this letter, in case you don't have it at present.

I miss you, I am less without you, but I have to start walking forward or I'm not going to live through this confusion. Flat out.

Em

Trimmed off all the personal contact details I appended after, but it was everything I had at the time--every working email, every social media point, physical address, phone number. Everything I could think of, much of which he'd been given before.

Nothing.

(Quite possibly a couple more to come.)

I'm walking on the spot to show that I'm alive

One more day, one more trip out to the mines to scavenge for various ores...



Something new has been added.

I knew about the snakes (haven't been bitten yet, so don't know how bad those are), and the spiders (I have been bitten by those, and they're pretty bad), and there's a couple cranky deer who do nothing more than bugle in my direction, plus a random wolf here and there. But...wild pigs. Those were new.



So I put the dilithium scan on hold, and let it approach. Would it rush me? Would I get gored by tusks? What was going to happen?



Apparently nothing. He just walked up, looked at me, nudged me once, and left. Well. Guess that's that.

On the other hand...



I'd seen the sand snakes, well camouflaged against Haven's normal dusty terrain. I'd seen the snow snakes, scarily well concealed in the drifts of Haven's winter. But this...this was new.



And what the hell. Bright green scales? Burning red, glowing eyes? No attempt at protective coloration, just bold as brass, hissing towards me.



I just froze, and watched as it wound around my ankles, snek, what in EVERY hell...and then slithered off. Presumably to wriggle through the chain-link and bite someone coming in on a transport ship. Great.

What's next? Rodents of Unusual Size?? This is ridiculous.

sin for me, cast away from it all, watching every letter fall

You know how somedays, you terraform, and everything goes well, and you get a smooth, even coastline, rounded and organic...and other days, you get seven square, equidistant pits in the land down below water level?



No? Just me?



The second square hole. I still have no idea how this happened. At first I thought it was something I'd done, by rezzing out a sim surround that popped up above ground level to start with, but...seven land sinks. All arrayed on the east side of the sim. Why?



The third one, halfway between the last one and the lighthouse, from the side so you can see it's not just mysterious dropped land, but also, some land raising into strange spikes.



The fourth hole, found just behind that lighthouse--in fact, you can see the edge of the rock base of that lighthouse in the lower left corner of this shot.



This was the only hole that didn't drop all the way to bedrock, but even it was still an obvious land dip.

This is what is killing my brain--I thought people were responsible for terraforming? And right now, we have two terraformers for Gearhaven: mostly me (and I didn't do this) and Justine here and there (and she says she didn't do this, and I believe her). So...what is really going on?



Though here, it amused me--this is what happens when you both decide to fix the same hole? We ended up bouncing high into the air while the land moved underneath us.

Later, Justine found one more hole, right in front of the door into Steam, where I would have sworn no hole existed before, after I'd fixed the others? But we fixed that. And thought all this was over. But last night...



Justine took this picture, and the one following. I had moved a divan out of the music room, to put in another chaise, and just dropped it behind Steam until I figured out if we were moving that divan elsewhere, or just deleting it (it's one of the furniture pieces that's rezzed out with Steamopolis, so anything we don't want we can just delete, knowing it's still in the rez box).



So, when I was putting out the divan, it was a temporary drop, but I'm me, so I had to make sure that it was level on the ground before I cammed back inside to place the chaise? And then went on with the night. There was no hole.

But the next day? Clearly, there's a hole. Where did it come from? Who made it? Why does this keep happening? I have no answers.

this war and peace inside my mind, finding things I shouldn't find (part VII)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part VI.)

A few hours later, Hiro realized he must have fallen asleep. He was not moving, and the sun was shining. He could hear noises around him. Muffled voices.

"Carry it to the opening of the tabernacle gates. The audience before you will move out, and you will be promoted to enter."

"Should we open the canvas to display the beast?"

"Only if asked...don't assume anything." The same voice yelled "Allow these four access after the Thule Ambassadors. With...this..."

Hiro heard grunting and lifting. And felt his cage lift up and wobbly slightly. "[F*ck], Eli lift--"

"Shut up, Seth. You always..."

A woman’s voice, now, hissing. "Be quiet, you halfwits!"

"But he is always..."

"Not here! Okay?!" came the sharp whisper.

He felt himself being carried. From the sudden change of light and the sound of footsteps on stone, he felt he was inside.

Far away he could her talking. "We pledge our loyalty in this alliance. The people of Judaea have a friend in the peoples of Thule. We have much to share."

"We shall hope so. May El bless you and may the Queen of Heaven favor you in the long winter."

He heard several voices murmuring their thanks.

"Zabud, is that enough for today?"

"Great King, there is one urgent matter."

"Go on."

"A delegation from Gilead has brought something for your attention."

"Gilead? Gerber, Son of Uri is the Governor. Azirah--what is this?"

"Sir, I don't know, I ah..."

The voice that was not Zabud interrupted. "I am sorry, your Grace, these people are from Gilead, but they were not sent by Gerber."

"Who sent you, and why are you here?"

"Your majesty, we have captured a djinn and we felt only yourself should see it."

A female voice spoke up then. "A djinn? Are you sure?" There was a pause.

"It is all right, girl. Queen Bilqis is our guest. She has traveled from Sheba. Her wisdom is beyond measure. She is like, uh... Rubies, yeah, her wisdom is like..."

The voice that was Bilqis interrupted him. "Sorry, he gets like that. Tell us how you came to find a djinn, and how you caged him."

Hiro sighed. Great, they thought he was a djinn. Perfect.

(Continued in part VIII.)