They finally connected Caledon with Winterfell! I just had to go see for myself, so I threw on a few rags and went to Cape Wrath.
I finally got done putting together vendors for my line of simple mermaid tails, and a mer AO.
The tails come in a variety of colors, but any of them can be tinted however the owner wants. Personally, I like the basic silver one the best: the problem with adding a shading color is that the color changes with lighting.
The AO is based on the ZHAO II, with three buttons added for Go to Surface, Hold Depth (which doesn't work while moving), and Dive to Bottom. The Surface button in particular is handy, saving me having to creep up on the surface without erupting out of the water.
I've been running across the "artifact" problem in Windlight, even at the store. It seems to get worse the longer you're signed on. I've reported it to LL, who assigned it the ID [rt.lindenlab.com #1028625]. Nobody else seems to be reporting this bug, so I'm wondering if it has something to do with my particular graphics card (ATI Radeon 9550 AGP). It's bad enough that I don't stay in Windlight for long; unfortunately, because I love the new water.
So LL has released Winlight in a beta viewer after several months of Banging On Things. All I can say is: Wow. Just... Wow. Go download it now; especially if you're a mer. The water is amazing!
I ran into one bug that I've already reported: some graphics artifacts show up at Mertopia (Blake sim). I suspect it may have something to do with all of the sculpties they have there, but I don't have the problem at the new Mermaid's Dream location*, which has a couple of sculptie rocks, and which is backed by the neighbor's huge wall made up of sculpties. So maybe it's something else particular to Mertopia. Hopefully they'll figure it out without too much trouble.
* Notice how I managed to slip in a plug for the store...
I talked Minto into biting the tier bullet and buying some more land in Arianti; I supplied the Lindens for a 1024 plot, so he wasn't too hard to persuade. So I've moved Mermaid's Dream there, and am enjoying the luxury of the enlarged space and prims. I think I can make the shop look much more attractive and professional now.
Now I need to get ambitious and finish up the new products that I've been toying with for so long. I've come to prefer the tail(s) I designed, and pretty much wear one exclusively when I decide to put on fins.
Then there's the AO; based on the ZHAO II with a few value-added features. I would want the AO available to go along with the tails; for convenience, seeing how the tail outfits will be aimed mainly at new mers. And there is still a big market for mer dances and other animations, so that's another thing on my to-do list.
There is now an entire sim dedicated to merfolk and other aquatic types! Mertopia was created in Blake by sim owner EmeraldEver Cline with help from Secrets of Atlantis Queen Luna Misfit, and is officially open as of Nov. 3 after two years of planning and hard work.
The top portion of Queen Luna's Palace is on the left in the picture above.
This will be a roleplaying sim for Secrets of Atlantis. It should be fun!
No reason for this other than it's a fantastic build...
Be sure to click on the image for the full-size version.
This seems to be the thing to do in SL blogs these days. Oh, well -- I don't mind being compared to Heather Locklear. Or even J. K. Rowling, for that matter.
I was excited to discover that six new sims have been added adjacent to Arianti where Mermaid's Dream is located. These new water sims make a connection between the continents of Nautilus and Mãebaleia (and don't think it wasn't tricky to track down the continent names, since they don't seem to be listed together in one place, but are scattered throughout the Second Life Wiki*).
I had been hoping that something would eventually happen. These new sims now link together a sizable body of water -- perhaps more than 30 sims, depending on how obstructed some of the passages are -- that hopefully will remain clear for boating. So you may see Mermaid's Dream -- my Tako, that is, not the shop, or Blue Wizard, Minto's boat, moored at the dock from time to time.
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* So I'll list them here for posterity. The current Second Life continents are:
OK, I admit it: I don't really have an excuse for not updating this blog for over a month. I'm sure every blogger (except maybe Natalia, Torley, Zoe...) goes through periods where the priorities lie elsewhere.
One good thing; My shop Mermaid's Dream has been raking in the loot earning a bit of cash. Who would have known that mer animations were in such demand? I've been playing around with other products; a line of simple mer tails, an Atlantean "scooter", and a wheelchair for those times when you absolutely have to go out onto dry land and don't want to drag your tail around (thanks to Morris Aabye, who was working on the idea and graciously let me steal it). I also redid the cave/grotto to be a little more interesting than the hemisphere I had before.
I now have a vendor up in Rua, thanks to the owner jemma Flora.
The problem with the wheelchair so far is that I keep falling over in it and end up flopping around on the floor. :-P
Got an IM to come see Cydonia Juran's giant squid av. I hear it's his first build; pretty impressive! 
We all wanted a ride on his back, but couldn't figure out how to attach sit poseballs. AFAIR, it doesn't work on an attachment -- but I've seen riders on avs before, so I know it's possible.
