Five years in SL! I haven't been on as much lately as I used to, but I'm still hanging in there as long as the store covers my membership and tier.

Banned

I just discovered that the neighboring property on two sides of my land has put up ban lines. This wouldn't be too bad, except that the neighbor on the other two sides has an eviction bot running. I'm feeling a bit trapped now. And those ban lines are ugly.

Another year already?

So now I'm four years old (that's 24 in SL years). Not necessarily a real old-timer, but I've been around the sims a time or two.

I admit, I don't get online as much as I used to. Maybe it's changes in RL priorities, maybe it's advancing age :-(, maybe a bit of the original SecondLife magic has gone. Maybe all of the above.

Part of it is that I've been playing around with my own world in OpenSim, writing a graphic novel which is not yet ready for prime time. I'll let you know when I finally get it finished and get up the nerve to have it officially hosted on the Web somewhere. Some of the developments at Lindon Labs the past couple of years make me think that it is a good idea to have a backup world to play in. I may get more familiar with the OS Grid when I get a chance, maybe even put in some effort to help debug OS to where it's not quite as buggy as it is currently.

So onward into the next year. Let's hope my fifth rezday witnesses improvements, both to all of my various lives, and to Second Life as a whole!

I've been using the Emerald viewer for some time, and liked it; except for the fact that it didn't load textures correctly in my private OpenSim. But developments (and rumors) in the past couple of weeks started me questioning whether I should find a different viewer to use.

This last controversy involving what appears to be a vindictive denial-of-service attack hidden in Emerald's sign-on page decided me, once it had been verified to my satisfaction. I've uninstalled Emerald from my system, and am now experimenting with the Imprudence viewer, which does seem to load textures properly in OpenSim.

Castles in the Air

I know it's been a while since I've blogged here. With one thing or another, I haven't been doing much in SL lately. I did manage to make some tops for mers who are tired of the usual shell bras (besides the fact that they chafe so), and I've been redoing the landscaping at my home high above Arianti. I decided to go for the uprooted "Halajula Mountain" look (what? You haven't seen Avatar?) I've even added a waterfall plunging into the void:


Now if I can just find some dragons to hover around the cliffs, I'll be all set. I wonder what Grendel's Children has these days?

Another Rezday. Yay.

My third rezday was yesterday. Which makes me 18 in SL years :-).

Like most everyone else, RL has commanded most of my attention lately, and I've let SL, and particularly my store, gather pixel dust*. So forgive me if my enthusiasm isn't what it should be. Hopefully, I'll be able to get more involved once again soon. I have ideas for a few new products for the store, and there are new mers to meet.

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* Pixel dust is what allows you to fly in SL.

Xiting XStreet

I'm joining many other SL merchants such as Ordinal Malaprop and Cheyenne Palisades in removing my products from XStreet because of their new listing fees, not to mention what many feel is the misguided philosophy behind them.

I haven't made enough sales on XStreet to justify a L$10/month "listing fee" for each item. My tails come in a selection of colors, each of which is a separate item, and each of which would cost me L$10 a month to display. And although I myself don't have any freebies listed, I am disgusted at the attempt to eliminate the "clutter" of freebies by charging a L$99 listing fee. There are many quality freebies out there that are definitely not "clutter".

Of course, everything is still available inworld at Mermaid's Dream.

Blake Sea Ferry Scheduling Conflicts

This is what happens when two ferry boats try to occupy the same dock at the same time.

I should have had my fins on!

Ghosts of the Blake Sea

The Blake Sea is haunted!


That's the only explanation I can come up with for the avs that are always there, in the same spot, no matter what time of the day or night it is. The three or four I've checked don't have anything -- or at least very little -- in their profiles.


What's even more mysterious are the green dots on the map (at least on my map), again never moving, that don't have anyone at that location.


Haunted, I tell you!

Montbard Ferries

While out swimming in the Blake Sea, I discovered the Montbard Ferry Services, a small fleet of ferry boats plying the waters between Montbard, Windlass, and Half Hitch. If you want a relaxing cruise, go to the dock at Husky's Beachhouse and Marina in Montbard. Ferries run every 30 minutes to Half Hitch.