Yep. I finally did try a game of bingo, just to see what it was like, and whether I had really missed out on something, or could live without it in SL! There was one at Miru Airport, at a suitable hour for me (well, 11 am… not that bad), and even though I was a bit intimidated at first – as odd as it can sound, I had never played this game in my first life – things turned out pretty well. It was easy, laid-back, and we were all newbies, so nobody did sound ridiculous for asking the “how do I play?” question. I think I’ll go to some more, if I can catch some (had an eye on the ones in LeCadre already, but they’re always a tad bit too late for me). Now everybody says it’s something our grandmas were playing… I need to ask that to mine, hehe. Tana is a clueless noob sometimes

As a follow-up, I finally managed to go to a party at the Outback too (read: the client didn’t chain-crash 10 times in 15 minutes, like it did the last time I had tried to do that). I like the place, the people are very nice, and these are usually “parties for the sake of partying”: no money-machine and stuff like that, no events that last half a hour only and then everybody goes away once there’s no money left to give… That’s a pretty nice thing. And bah, don’t care if i’m not Aussie, haha.

And now, let’s go back to working on some more clothing… need to let out a few things that are still in store in my head!

Oblivious to wisdom that would have required me to go to bed, I went to have a little tour in-world yesterday evening, “just for a few minutes”... and, well, what happened happened: I stumbled upon an event.

This one was a small but charming Ren faire in Ku, set and organized by Ishra Psaltery. There were little tents all around, all selling medieval/celtic/elvish clothing and items. Not that I’ve ever been to this kind of event, whether in my first or in my second life… so I took a look around, admired the clothing, even found a bagpipe I can play (my neighbours will love me), then went dancing on the stage with the already gathered people.

There was to be a “best peasant outfit” contest, followed by an “elvish outfit” one; but having neither one nor the other, I simply smiled, chatted, and danced. One of the dancers had brought an irish clog animation, which ended up on the dance machine nearby, and we all ended up using it, lined along the carpet on the floor, which looked pretty great. There were long gorgeous dresses, knights in armor, peasant and wenches outfits, all in good fun and merry spirit; very laid-back and nice, some of those who were here were also clearly acting and talking in-character very much, and the hostess of the event kindly answered my questions about it as well.

Given the late hour, I unfortunately couldn’t stay long, but I promised myself to come back for the next one (it seems they’ll be hosted over a week-end every month, or something similar, although other types of events can be hosted there as well).

A night of insomnia later and still being giddy about having finished the pictures, I decided that today would be my ‘day off’, and went goofing around a bit. Partying, shopping, wandering around. Not very different from anyone else’s activities? Perhaps, but it felt good to simply hang out in game, compared to the past week when I’d be on and about for ten minutes, then had to log out again, rinse and repeat, and all of that.

I had gotten Dee Cassidy’s invitation to Clarksburg flea market and set up my little affairs there, and when I went back to have a look at what was new, I had a pleasant chat with Aurora Playfair, who rents the space near mine. We already had exchanged a few IMs previously, but they were for mall-related matters, so not exactly something very entertaining. This one was just laid-back and nice, and that’s so fine for me. I went dancing a bit again too (and no, I don’t care about the numerous little wa-wars between clubs, I just go and enjoy… no need for more drama, especially drama that doesn’t make sense to me).

Later on in the evening, I played with my new ornithopter too, as Cubey Terra sent me the new version (it can carry two people instead of one now! Woohoo!). I love my ‘thopter. It’s black, sleek, and I manage to regularly stuff it into various buildings I haven ‘t seen becaue they weren’t rezzed yet, but that doesn’t detract to the fun! Someone on the forums suggested he could equip them with weapons, and we could duel in the sky. Battle ornithopters would be so great, really (and so close to the visions I have of them in my novel, no way I can’t love them, can I chuckles).

And to add to the shopping note of the day… Asri Falcone’s newly released boots are so great! Sure, they’re pretty expensive, but it was such a pleasure… they’re very good-looking, well-made, and with a nice female walk animation that is so much better than the ugly basic anim! I know I’ll love wearing them with my party clothes. I already do, in fact.

Now I guess I can slowly go back to “working” and to busy RL, but damn, this felt good no matter what!

Some time ago, Hiro had asked me if I’d accept to work on a series of pictures for his new vendor, featuring his weapons and my Japanese clothes (well, mainly the hakama, for yukata and kimono wouldn’t fit, and male outfits of course look bizarre on me!). Even though I’ve been pretty busy IRL recently, and not doing SL activities as much as I’d have wanted, I must say that this was really a good dose of fun! A bit of a headache to take the screenshots of avatars in action, however this in itself was fun as well, and allowed a lot of chatting on top of it.

I’m not going to post the whole series of pictures here. There are 16 of them after all, that’d be too much, and they belong to Hiro now. They can of course be seen on his new vendor, at his house in Varney (188,200)... and I’ll really encourage anyone to go check his weapons anyway, because they’re really well-made. With customizable colors. And of high quality. Did I say they were well-made, yes?

It happened as I was regaining consciousness near Seburo in Chartreuse, after a system crash had left me hanging in this area. And there, it happened. I felt something pushing me. Again. And again. As if to get rid of me and throw me out of this land. I shrugged it at first, and took flight to be able to better see what was causing this… and it went on! Even high in the air, it went on!

I turned my head, and what did I see… an evil-looking pink bunny with blood-red eyes staring angrily at me! It kept on pushing, flying after me, even, no matter where I’d go! I went back to the ground, wondering how to stop it, then simply shrugged again and teleported to see if it’d follow me this time. Unfortunately maybe, it didn’t – unfortunately, as now I’ve lost its track, and damn me, didn’t even think of clicking it at first to see if something could be done with it…

Did it come from Chartreuse itself? From the nearby Bisque? Is it a wandering creature, to be seen randomly in any sim? I don’t know… But, at least, I brought back memories. See! I haven’t dreamt! The Evil Bunny really exists!...

It was due to close on the 14th, but fortunately I remembered in time to go have a look at the Prim Exhibition House in Benten, currently hosting the Hungarian photos expo. I didn’t exactly have a lot of time ahead of me, which is a shame given that it would deserve more than just a quick look, but I’m already glad I could go, and bring back – as usual – pictures to keep as a memory of it.

The whole exposition was very interesting, and it’s a shame that my own snapshots can’t render the quality of pictures exposed there, actually. The few minutes I had planned on spending there actually quickly turned in a good half hour, if not more, as I was taking my time to look at said photos more attentively, but also to read the various notecards added to the whole – bits of history regarding the crown, the coats in arms… I took a little collection of them, too, and hope I haven’t missed any now.

If I’ve understood it well, soon there’ll be another expo there, about Slovakia this time, and likely more again after this, about other European countries. I really can’t wait to see those. Who said that all there was to Second Life was clubs and malls, huh! Such little pearls of exhibitions and entertainment should really be known a lot more.

Enough blabbering now though… here are a few of the shots:

A first time already, I had – accidentally – stumbled upon this place, yet never really taken the time to give it a more thorough look. Then, today, I decided it was perhaps time; I had a few nice memories of it, and after having set my visual settings to something a little more punchy (and waited a good five minutes for every ttem to finally rezz coughs), I did what I should have done a long time ago already… taking a little walk, as the sun was slowly rising over the horizon, in the midst of the Rivendell project area.

“Charming” is way too little a word to describe it – I’d rather say it’s gorgeous. Surrounded by emerald-green trees… water gently cascading from the rocks… extremely well-done builds mirorring the “real” Rivendell ones… the Darkwood environment nearby, the Mordor Castle and Elven gardens… A very different ambience, yet a few feet only, sort of, from the Space Needle and the Ahern arrival area… A little corner of medieval fantasy, could I say? It fits well, in any case, with the Darkwood theme next door, and is a real pleasure for the eyes.

Funnily enough, the small house selling clothes down the main buildings looked very much to me like a souvenirs boutique… giggles

It’s been that time of the month again, the Developer’s Incentives have been announced, just like in the previous two months (and more than that I suppose, I simply wasn’t in world yet at that time), and like in the previous months as well, things have gotten quite heated about it on the forums. Alternating basically between “woe to you dwellopers!” and “give us a break please!”, posts are nonetheless a somewhat interesting read. I won’t take part in it, as I’m not keen on throwing myself into drama I don’t even understand well, but it got me wondering a little.

Jealousy for some, as it’s only a few people who make it to the list after all? A valid concern, in the fear that it only encourages people to create clubs/malls/casinos/whatnot because they know the regular SL population will go to their places then? Some interesting opinions are raised too, notably that if, say, clubs are successfull, maybe it means that it’s what most people want? On the other hand, it may be true then that, well, what will be built, are “potentially successful” places only, in order to make sure to gain more dwell. There are for instance quite an amount of original builds I’ve enjoyed a lot, and come back too as well, such as Nash’s experiment, or the Sci-Fi geeks museum, yet I’m however pretty sure they just don’t get the same amount of visitors than the clubs on top of the popular places list.

In the end, what I could get from it was…

– Some of the people who got on the Developers’ Inventive list, got there because of their own efforts in organizing regular events and working their asses off. I suppose everyone has their own methods though, some will advertise heavily (and annoyingly), some others use more subtle means of advertizing, or word-of-mouth… I’ve been wondering about the “let’s make the efforts to get the dwell awards” factor, but I’m not sure about this. I know from experience that continuously organizing and promoting events/places is a hell of a tiring task though, so they probably don’t do it for this though – it wouldn’t be worth it I guess. – There should be something more to it, or better yet, another award for other types of… let’s say less popular creations. Perhaps a “most original build” award, or something, or an award for “best designers”, or whatnot. Or maybe no awards at all? Then this would be equal for all, wouldn’t it. – Gee, the sarcasm and underlying insults that can get out of this. I’m amazed… or not, it’s human nature after all. Everyone trying to defend their point of view, of course, but it tends to get a bit too hateful to my taste, and what for, I wonder. I must be too naive, likely.

This said, I must say that I’m still not completely sure now of what all the fuss is about. I’ll go on pinning the name “bitch-fest” above it for some time, I think.

“This is a fairly comprehensive museum exhibit that highlights the achievements of the hobbyist PC movement and old games from the year 1975. It’s an interesting trip to a year that most of us aren’t that familiar with, set against the backdrop of world history.”

These lines come directly from the notecard that can be received at the entrance of the Mushroom Kingdom, and are but a part only of what can be seen in it. Tipped by a signature on the forums today, I paid a little visit to this place in Fujin (250,100) to check what kind of build exactly Goodwrench Grayson had realized; I can now safely say that it’s a very funny place, not only because of the look and textures (the whole place represents the Mushroom Castle from the Mario games, and in the exact type of graphism that was found on NES, in cludign trees and clourds), but also because of the definite feeling of amused nostalgia one can feel when stumbling over old arcade games and computer magazines in the middle of it.

Right in the castle itself, is displayed an office desk with several computers on it. Not any computers, mind you: these are not less than the good old C 64, available for buying along with seveal games. Old memories rushed in me at this sight… after all, the C64 was my first comp ever, when I was 6. Yes, I’m very tempted to get one for me in here now, just for the sake of owning one again and have a good laugh at said fond memories.

But it’s not over yet, for after the castle, went the basement, if I may call it this way, and numerous treasures were hiden in it, including the 1975 museum exhibit. Issues of “popular Electronics” and “Byte” are available for free there, posters of 1975 movies lay on the walls, and notecards giving historical details about the displayed items can be easily gotten from said item themselves (in cluding a pong console and the first microcomputer BASIC). In the room nearby, arcade booths can be found for purchase too, next to a whole area is edicated to Q-bert. The place is said to be “under reconstruction”, but what I could see of it is already way enough to make one’s mind about it, I think.

A good old trip through time and memories, is this?
Definitely.

A bit of insomnia on the road, and me getting up at 5:30 am: this sort of allowed me to catch a glimpse of the NWN fashion event! A glimpse it was, indeed, as all I could really see was people departing, and Hamlet Linden talking about voting for the designers before waving goodbye woughs But I could spot a few very nice dresses and other clothes, before everyone teleported away. I suppse I can already be glad that I have been able to have a look directly, instead of hearing of it second-hand as usual. Here are a few pictues of what I could catch, anyway. Notice Hamlet waving before disappearing. Yeah. I feel proud snickers

Given that I still had a couple hours ahead of me, I then went to work some more on my hakama, and finish a couple kimono to go with it. At least this is something I’ll have out of the way, before I start working for good on the project Hiro talked me in (hmm, images to work on… so yummy!). I also gave a brief look at the mysterious Void sims, in the Tehama area; I quite dig out this name, I must admit, it has something pretty funny to it, although their theme (see if 4 “sims” on one server will help regarding the current problem of lag when too many avatars are in one sim), seems pretty simple. Just like them, in fact – lots of water, with a bit of land on the sides, to “match” the environing sims.

I also noticed that the dwell on my store’s land has jumped significantly over the night. Someone must have come here with a bus full of tourists, I presume.