So I finally made it -- one year in Second Life! W00t!
March 6: a noob with style :-P
April 17 - Discovering Averia and Grendel's Children
June 12 - The horrible Turkey Infestation in Caledon
November 5 - Mermaid days (or is it daze?)
January 8 - A Profitable Venture
And now - no longer just an "alt", I wonder what the next year is going to bring; for me in SL and my human in RL? Both of us are anxious to find out.
My human gave me an early rezday present -- my own Premium account! So now I can own my own land, instead of relying on the kindness of strangers.
So title to the land that Mermaid's Dream is located on will transfer to me soon. I was planning on buying the plot just to the west to expand the shop -- but someone is already building on it, so they probably won't be interested in selling. Oh, well. If I can find another 512 or 1024 lot in Arienti (there aren't any for sale right now), at least I can use it for prim count and expand the shop vertically.
I guess I'll have to change the title of this blog, since I'm no longer an "alt".
I have some ideas for more products to sell in my shop, Mermaid's Dream. So I spend most of the day yesterday making additions and modifications, mostly to add a bit of floor space. I decided that the "boat dock" at the front wasn't very useful, so I widened it and moved the couples dance balls there. I also added another floor area at the back of the store, which meant relocating the waterfall. Pick and shovel time*.
There has been a Grotto below the store almost since the beginning, but it didn't have much in it except for coral. I decided to move the entrance into the shop proper, which meant rearranging the "breakwater" -- another dirty job, even if I work mostly underwater. This also allowed space for another section of shop floor above the Grotto entrance for future expansion. I have plans for the Grotto -- it will be a place for visitors to relax and meet. And it's also where I will put the more "mature" mer items, when (if) I invent them ;-)
Now I need to figure out how to save a few prims. I'm nowhere near my limit, but if I need to keep my options open for the future.
A mermaid's work is never done...
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* Have you ever seen a mermaid try to use a shovel?
This used to be the site of Merlantis. So what happened? I have no idea. All I know is that I checked the map, and all of Eyeles sim, except for the mall in the center, was grey. And so was the sim itself; filled in with what appears to be about one million cubic meters of concrete.
It was suggested by Morris Aabye that I need some poses/animations for mers in shallow water. I decided that some of them would also work on dry land (should anyone ever find themselves out of the water). So here's the first. It's a 15-second animation, with what I think is a nice tail flip.
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!
