Performance Art

I've been building full time in Openlife for almost three months now and I find myself at a stopping point. I've always said that I didn't know if I was making product or props -- and I still don't know. What I do understand it that it is time to let the world catch up to me.

This isn't an unusual scenario in my life, I am almost always ahead of my time. So, I am going into storage for awhile. There is really no point in paying for a sim I won't be using. I've had a glorious time rediscovering my passion for building -- watching a new world unfold. And I have a chronicle of it all which was much of the point of being here.

Artists have a saying, "It's the process that counts". That has always been true for me. Results are good, but the journey is the important part. The trip with its twists and turns and surprises is what we learn from and what we remember.

I'll still be around from time to time, much like Samara on her 512 that checks in to see what's up in Phil's world. I haven't left the building, I've just gone off to another performance.

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I wrote the post above over a week ago. Since then the smoke and mirrors show has gone into full swing, more friends are leaving, the word elitist would show up in HUGE letters in Wordpress if it was hosting the forums. Some official forum threads are open to only group members (yes the groups are "open" but that isn't going over well with some). Posts are being deleted -- either by a moderator we don't know we have or some odd fluke of the forum coding. People are in hiding as the venom is flying in the forums which is really our only way of group communication.

The world is emptier for sure -- hence stability is up. There are lots of NEW issues however such as a first time occurrence (at least in the three months I have been there) of rezzed prims disappearing from in world. Prims don't always rez - they just fizzle, more inventory loss, prims rezzing 15 meters away and 5 meters up or so from where you told that pesky wand to put it, textures not showing up in inventory or rezzed prims. The list goes on.

There are no pokes and I have sent in NUMEROUS restart requests that somehow never get answered. Sakai is in the US for over a week and the devs are on Chinese New Years holiday it seems. Still the party line is that stability reigns and there have been very few restart requests.

So, I am packing up with a much heavier heart than I would have been true a week ago. Timing is everything and mine is usually pretty good, but I was a bit late on the get go this time. I wanted to believe. Like so many others I needed to believe. The people I trusted the most have left the building or are on their way out.

It's difficult today to tell who is who in the war we seem to be having. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? Or is it an alt that my enemy made to seduce me into friendship? The Machiavellian dramas are so entrenched in Openlife that there is almost no room for real communication.

I still have hopes that the Phoenix can rise from the ashes. I'll be watching and checking in from time to time as I have observed other "oldtimers" doing. And I'm not sorry I came. It wasn't what I planned, but I can certainly say I was there in the beginning.

The landscape is getting barren with abandoned regions that still hold the names of the departed. It is an odd epitaph -- that empty rolling landscape.

Progress, Promises and Pipe Dreams

I'm busy getting my ducks in a row for a new chapter -- some of you know that. Beginnings oftentimes come with reflections attached and so it is with this one. I've been looking back as well as ahead and then of course there is the middle.

What progress has been made in the three months I have been in Fantastic?

We can now usually log into to world -- sometimes even to the region we are aiming for -- without having to spend a lot of time in the chat room asking which regions are up. We even sometimes get shuttled to an alternate region if the one we are trying to reach is down.

After two plus months, the new forums have been introduced to the website. True, rich text editing isn't there yet and we have lost the ability -- so far -- to send personal messages to each other using the forum interface.

The world is more stable -- at least it seems so from the layman's perspective. We often walk with our feet in the correct angle and on terra firma, on a good day we can get up from our couch (if the script engine is working) and not fly into the ethers.

We have an updated viewer with less intrusiveness and more security.

All good.

A lot of "promises" haven't come to pass.

The Foundation Residents meetings which have been going on since the beginning of Openlife and will continue -- have not. Four no shows in a row by Sakai was enough for some people to leave the world. There have been hastily called "casual meetups" and a few spur of the moment (???) group meetings, but those that chose sims on the mainland especially to be a part of this long time process are still waiting for it to resume. Instead we have P.O.O.L (People of OpenLife) which DOES manage to have two meetings a week. Is it the same? No. But for some people it works.

Currency, groups and permissions -- all to be fixed "soon" are not implemented. Indeed, they seem further away than when I moved to Fantastic -- or that may just be my more realistic point of view. We were told in November that currency would be online and functional around mid December. It is now the end of January and the next scheduled roll-out is for the end of February ( See this article. )

The article states in part: Steve says that this was decided after a careful consideration: “We found the general consensus amongst users is they didn’t want the implementation of credits to affect the goodwill amongst the grid. One of the mechanisms in place to keep the balance will be the exchange of credits for real dollars only being available to region owners.”

I guess I've missed something along they way or this decision was made long before I came, but there has been a lot of discussion -- as early as November -- about the landowner only clause. I can't say I felt it was "a general consensus" by any means.

It doesn't take too long a stay in Openlife to become aware that things simply don't move as fast as planned / promised / possible. So most of us aren't expecting the currency, groups and permissions to be functional by this next announced target date.

All that is really OK. Those of us here understand it. But what about the people newly joining?


When I came during the first rush ( late October - early November), it took a few days to a few weeks to get your mainland or private cluster land. Most of us assumed the delay was because of the huge influx of people. Hence that 24 hours after set up confirmation note was not correct.

Note: I had a screenshot here, but decided it might be against the TOU to use it, so your just going to have to trust me on this one or go to THIS page.

PCs are still often taking a month to deliver (this from numerous forum posts). 24 hours in indeed a pipe dream. People ARE willing to wait patiently, but not when they are given incorrect information. I can't tell you how many times I have answered a query with the theme of "so sorry but that 24 hours still on the website is incorrect and it is taking up to a month. Please be patient. Yes, they need to change that graphic."

Some people came to Openlife because of the 3D mesh avatars that will supposedly be integrated. That keeps getting pushed back also. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on. There is only so much time in a day and so much knowledge in a mind. There are new devs in the new China office now and hopefully that will spur thing along.

Meanwhile it is good to remember that things move more slowly than "promised", so adjusting your plans with that in mind will lead to YOUR greater stability :D

No Guarantees

The big news on the street is that Linden Labs bought both OnRez and XStreetSL -- the two online shopping experiences for Phil's place. Samara at Phil's will have one new prim for her 512 soon as OnRez will be closing down and her OnRez box can be deleted.

So what does this have to do with Openlife? Maybe not much. Maybe a lot. People are wondering if Linden Labs might buy out Openlife to stop any future competition. Is this a possibility? Hard to say. Would it be a bad thing? For all the folks coming to Openlife to get away from "Linden control" it certainly would be.

If we spin out some possible scenarios we see that this certainly could happen. We have no TOS in Openlife -- a topic I covered with way too much text and an absence of pretty pictures some time ago. The TOS question is being revisited on the blogs and forums. So, there is no "I promise not to sell out" clause anywhere (wink). People who have purchased clusters at a fair number of dollars are the ones with the most to lose of course. And if Linden Labs decided to make Openlife just like SL(R) -- not a stretch by any means -- they could reinforce those nasty prim size limits. If they did that most all of my builds might fall apart or disappear. So content creators could at risk also.

We have no reason to believe a buyout is in the future. We also have no reason to believe it is not. Anything can happen and small companies get swallowed up by big ones every day. In some cases that was the whole point of making the small company in the first place :D

Some folks are a bit trepidacious with this news following on the heels of the 16.2 viewer mandate and the locking down of the grid from Second Inventory. Add to that the vicious personal attacks still going on in the official forums and the atmosphere is a bit grim. Some people still have faith it will all work out -- and it certainly may.

But again, there are no guarantees -- or TOS.

Working the Angles

We spend our time mostly building on the N-S-E-W axes. (Yep that's the spelling of the plural of axis. I had to look it up to make sure.) We create our prims with those defaults, we pull our prims with the arrow and eventually -- when our builds are finished we rotate that comfy lounge chair into a corner setting.

But sometimes the family of 90 degree angles won't work for us. One of those times is building inside a torus with a sphere floor and cylinder walls :D

Today I added a circular pond of water around the atrium. Yes, you could call it a moat, but that has a fairly unfriendly connotation and that is not the purpose of the water. The purpose is to be surrounded by life and flow and never ending cycles. The energy inside the biosphere is special, but with it comes some building challenges. One is alignment.

It's easy enough to make those corners match and prims meet when you are only moving in one direction at a time, but when you are building at an angle you have to adjust TWO directions in order to accomplish your task. In the photo above, I am aligning the steps to the bridge. The bridge was also built on an angle. In order to get the prims in the correct place, I needed to move the pieces with both the red and green arrows. A lot of back and forth movement and close examination with the camera controls gets the job done.

If you haven't done this and want to try, just set up a small experiment. Make a box and turn it at an angle. Then pull another box from it. Line them up using the red and green arrows a bit at a time. It's a good skill to master.

No More Second Inventory in OL

The word on the official forum is that Second Inventory no longer works in Openlife.

There were a lot of problems over the weekend including teleports from landmarks crashing sims (reportedly fixed and speedily). Add to that the many versions of viewers that can access the Openlife grid and stability issues went ballistic.

There was even word of Second Inventory crashing sims. Since this isn't a new concept, it is likely so. Perhaps all the new folks coming in this weekend -- and I met some of them on Orientation Island -- were testing the ability of SI to upload. Who knows?

So the Powers That Be have made the choice to only let the newest OL viewers access the grid. This apparently cuts out the ability to upload items using Second Inventory -- the primary way people have been decorating the Openlife landscape :D

This was ALWAYS the plan. It was mentioned in a weekend meeting in November. It is just now coming into fruition. Sakai has stated that he believes in making new goods. He has many plans to further that ideal.

It is a long road to originally designed goods for the OLG. But this was a good first step.

Moderation

There are some people you don't want in your real life.

There are some people you don't want in your virtual life.

At the moment I am out of the maelstrom, but others are still in the whirlpool. Some have left the forums, some have left Openlife. None of this is good.

There are personality conflicts -- and there is overt evil. I have had brushes with both. I have done well. My fear is that others will not.

At Phil's place long ago there was a saying about people with "no payment info on file". You never knew if it was a second, seventh or seventieth persona of someone. When someone uses alts to further their ego, ranking or esteem it is sad. Sad for all of us.

I hate to admit it, but I am now in the beware of new folks without land category. I will treat them politely and answer their questions, but they will need to prove themselves to me. There are too many people in the world who are not what they seem.

Disturbingly so.


I set a few things in motion today which may help solve some of our world's current problems. May they take root. May they hold.

Knock Three Times and Ask for Joe

It's not often that something with so much potential to cause harm turns out to be so great. I've never been much for secret societies. I would never have done well in the ivy league under the cloak of darkness.

But we are having so much fun! Not everyone is under the spell of our forum guard. Some people like their freedom, their ideas, the belief that they can HAVE their own beliefs without instantaneous and often unwarranted attacks. Some people play the game. Others do not.

Sorry, but you can't just join the club -- and yes, of course it has a name, but you can't know that either. Just like those cloak of darkness tribunals, you have to earn your right to be here. If you have that right, let one of us know. If you have that right, you KNOW who we are. And we are quite a few so you should be able to find us easily.

Knock three times and ask for Joe. You already know the secret password.

Week in Review

Well it is only Monday but it seems like awhile I did this, so let's review.

Notes to Self:

• The update while not great, wasn't as bad as it could have been; I did get a lot of tutorials done. The sim was working OK this afternoon. I didn't TP however.
• People are using the tutorials and writing thank you notes.
• Blog traffic is up .
• I got to work on the biosphere and do some art.
• I survived the onslought of attacks from the ****s and came away knowing that the best way to keep my happiness level up is to simply NOT to read any of their posts. That is working wonderfully and amazingly not difficult at all. And two plus months of attacks is enough.
• My friends list of people I actually AM friends with is growing.
• And the soap opera that is Openlife is definitely entertaining -- sometimes in a comedy of absurdness.

Woot!

Earthy Art

When my frustration level gets too high, art is a good way for me to unwind. So while waiting for Fantastic to come back online today, I started a new series of 2D art to go with a large sculpture I did some time ago. The new series is called "Earthscapes" and will be in these same colors.

Always good to create in a different way.

Biosphere Stage 2

I worked on the inside of the biosphere today which was a lot of fun. I am very happy with the corridor floors which are layered. I may make some special textures with shadows and light to add to that later, but for now it is fine.

The corridor beyond the doors is very wide and suitable for a variety of uses. I haven't decided really what they might be, but I'll figure that out.


The observation pod is close to finished. The new teleporter needs to be installed and tested, but with teleports still causing crashes, the actual use most likely won't be happening soon.

Until then I have the dome up above open and I can of course move the glass globe down if needed.

The biosphere was purposefully placed at a low altitude so there would be more atmosphere. It seemed fairly boring up really high. That may change of course, but for now, I like the clouds and the sun. You can see the ground below and the sky is fairly clear of building platforms at the level I am on.



There are lounge chairs with animations in the observation pod. The stars are lovely at night. The building platform will not be in evidence when I am done of course.

Actually I have a pretty cool plan for the area around the biosphere. Will see if the building tools and I can get it accomplished -- with the help of my graphics program and some particle scripts.

That may be in the works for tomorrow -- or not.

It was good to get back to Fantastic after almost two days. The sandbox is good but there is only so much you can do there. And there is always the chance that you won't be able to get back to retrieve your build if you crash. Linking is handy for partial builds, we know that -- but not so good HERE yet.

10-10-10 Unknown

10-10-10 Unknown is getting to be a way too familiar destination these days.

I got into Fantastic for a very few minutes last night and put out the ice cream cone but forgot the lamp. Since no one can get to Fantastic -- in theory -- it matters not :D

Scripts and animations, at least in the furniture, were working at that brief moment in time so that is a plus. I sent in another "can't access" support ticket, so maybe in awhile I can work on the biosphere. One can hope. Landmarks appear to be breaking regions when used to teleport. I haven't given out many landmarks but people can of course make their own, so that might be part of the problem. Popularity has its costs.

Yesterday was an odd day in many respects. I either spent it completely alone on the sandbox or amidst a knot of people at orientation island. I did manage to help a few new folks while I was there and give away some skins and shapes. So that was something. They were THRILLED to see people as they usually ported into the serene palm trees and no humanity.

I can't remember seeing any "Friend A is Online" type messages at all yesterday when there were tons before. So either friends is broken again or people simply gave up. I have to admit it was a lot of work just to get to a sandbox.

So perhaps a day off which is OK. I have other things to do after all.

And that's the way it was in mid January on the frontier :D

Building 107: Ice Cream Cone

Building 107: Ice Cream Cone

Learn about sculpted prims, patterned textures, the eyedropper tool and attaching objects to your avatar.

Building 106: Simple Lamp

Learn about tubes, the lighting feature and stretching

Building 106: Simple Lamp

Weekends and Dreams

I finally got back into Fantastic this morning via Openlife Island. Server has been replaced it seems but scripts are down. So I hope to do a tutorial on the sandbox. We'll see how that works.

Happily it is a new day after a great night of dreams that included a cute and charming guy, French pastries and gardens. It doesn't get much better than that. The Universe can be very thoughtful at times.

Thanks to all the folks that sent IMs and PMs about the latest forum attacks -- and those that actually wrote to the forum too of course :D. I'm simply not reading posts by the triad. That solves things for me. I do appreciate your kind thoughts however. No need to stew about it all. I am not.

Onward with the day. Go forth and create!

Free Store

I got to thinking that I had made items for the building tutorials that could be of use to people. Having a copy of the finished item might help those that are building. And even for those that don't care to learn -- some simple furniture might be just what they need for their first apartment or home.

So, I turned one of the village shops into FIRST STEPS free store. Right now it has the five items that are in the tutorials as well as the clothes for women.

Find the shop at FANTASTIC 233, 69, 81.

I will be adding tutorial builds to the shop as they come available. Please enjoy!

Building 105: Simple Table

Learn about camera controls, texture rotation and multiple copying.

Building 105: Simple Table

The Causal Arrow Of Time

Within each moment a future is born -- whether real or virtual. We can glimpse the probable future. We can plan. We can hope. But we are not the only one in charge.

Other forces, other entities push at our own moment in time and the unfolding is sometimes what we never expected -- what we never dreamed.

It is almost impossible to say where you and I and our world will be in a year from now-- in a decade. We can stretch our minds beyond their current grasp and hope to touch a bit of reality, but it often fades into the wind.

So best not to plan. Best to let the future simply unfold.

Did You Know?

I am not a video embedder. In fact, this is my very first. So that tells you how impressed I was with both the message and the medium. Imagine that in the not terribly distant future, things that we only have in our virtual worlds may become part of our real life ones.

There is so much happening. We probably think we are paying attention, but I bet you really DIDN'T know :D

Observation Pod

I only spent about an hour in Openlife today, but during that time I enhanced the observation pod at the bottom of the biosphere. With my accent on night as the theme of the build, I took this photo. The stars are lovely there. Click the picture for a larger view - well of course!

Losses in Space and Time

So we have established by now that I like obtuse titles for my posts (wink). They DO make sense eventually. You just have to get to the end of the story.

The official Openlife Forums are back up after a week or so of "coming tomorrows". People seem to be happy they have returned. It is one way of keeping connected with those not in your time zone.

I did note that while the old posts are still available, they are NOT a part of the new system. This most likely has a technical reason or two. I can think of several. We also lost three or four days of posts, however and that seems a bit odd. Amidst these posts (and some of the last on the old forum) were ones about inventory and texture losses and permissions that still weren't working even though the rumor mill had them fixed. In my personally prescribed role as record keeper of both the positive and negative growing pains, I find it a bit odd. Just something for thought.

The new forum style is clean and there are certainly some pluses. We have lost rich HTML, links, pics and lots of features however and posting is not at all friendly in Firefox; the code is asp so that figures. Anyway, I will adjust but may not be there as much. After 220 posts in two months on the old board, I have no giant desire to start over. Still, that super-helpful part of me will no doubt kick in and I'll probably be back sometime soon.

I have no intention in playing the "I can post more than you" game though. I've already be queen of some boards. The first time is always the best? Well maybe the most memorable anyway - LOL

Aloneness - The Empty Map

I don't spend a lot of time gazing at the map of the world, but I was having trouble teleporting and so I thought I would type in the coordinates and see if that helped. It didn't, but in the process I noticed that Nara was EMPTY.

I got Samara into Phil's and contacted Eku there. Long conversation which was private, but she is sadly gone -- at least for awhile. People are coming and going and I suspect that is normal. It's sad to see people that you are used to talking with leave. Even if you aren't the very best of friends, they are part of your virtual landscape.

Take away the people and the world isn't very exciting. Take away the trees and the vista is oftentimes harsh. Take away the oceans and rivers and there is no blue to meet the sky. We are all a part of the world. It hurts to lose a piece.

Retro Heaven

Whether you remember the 60s or have only seen the decade portrayed in the movies, the colors can drag you in. I made some meditation pods today -- shiny and sleek on the outside with a n post modern feel -- and immersing on the inside. The patterns of course MOVE; that is the point after all. They are a good place to escape and be with yourself.

A Rainbow of Colors

Building Tip:

Once your have your items made -- be it a flower, a chair or a bracelet -- it's fairly simple to make a variety of versions of the product. Even it you have made items for yourself, it's nice to have things in a rainbow of colors and textures. Items such as furniture that is not attached to your avatar is quite easy, but the act of attaching makes it a little more complex. Here are some hints. NOTE: There are other methods to do this, but I have had parts of items disappear or lose their attachment orientations using them. So this is one way -- and one that I have not had any issues with :D

• Make a copy of the item you want to change. Rename it to its new name. So, for example, "Gold Bangle Bracelet Jade" would become "Gold Bangle Bracelet Rose Quartz".
  

• Attach the new item. Since you have made a copy of presumably the already fitted item, you should be able to just choose WEAR and have the prims attach in the correct spots.

• With the Build menu open, choose Select Textures in the Texture Pane. Then carefully click on each piece you want to change to a different texture or color -- holding down the shift key. In this case I wanted to change the texture on each of the 20 bead colors in the bracelet.

• Camera controls are needed here and it may take you days (weeks - months) to get REALLY comfortable with the panning around. My suggestion is to start out with something simpler than 20 beads attached to an avatar's arm :D.
  

• When you have ALL the prims you want to change to ONE specific color and/or texture, go to the texture window and choose the new tga or png from your inventory. You can also open (or upload) a texture and drag it onto the texture window in the build menu.

• With the texture changed, detach the item and then wear it again. This let's you test that all is OK and "sticking". Beware that textures can revert to the old pattern now and then. This is not an Opensim problem per se as it happens at Phil's also. I haven't seen it happen in OL yet, but it probably will, so be prepared for one bead turning back to it's old color for example.

Inventory Tip:

An odd thing happened to me today that I want to pass on. I had just finished filing about 200 or so textures and 20 products in appropriate folders in my inventory. The sim abruptly crashed; viewer closed, no warning -- you get the idea.

When I got back into world I found those bracelets back in their old spot rather than where I had moved them. Not enough time for the viewer to take note of the change perhaps? Whatever the reason all 200 plus textures were also in my Textures folder rather than "wood", "metal", "misc" etc. So I was sort of bummed.

BUT -- just by accident I found that left clicking on each object or texture put it back in the folder where was supposed to be -- it's planned place in my estimation anyway. THAT was a relief and so cool. So I wanted to pass that along.

NIRVANA

After my morning flying and building in the great outdoors this morning, I spent a little time in the jewelry store and then went back to the biosphere to build. It's NICE there :D. I made a meditation area (not shown) as well as some mandalas and meditation cushions. They just have a simply pose at the moment. I will be adding other animations as times goes on. The mandalas were great fun. Bright colors and complex patterns. So many choices.

It's both peaceful and seductive walking through your own complex -- even if it is virtual. I remember that feeling from long ago in Gembong. It's been awhile though. It was both exciting and comforting to revisit those emotions as I strolled from Nirvana to the storage room. Yep, I was a very good girl and packed copies away.

Building Big

There is a certain thrill that the building of giant things gives you. There is a new skill set involved -- or a least a modification. Building a 90 meter environmental pod 600 meters above the ground is not the same as building multi-primed high detailed jewelry. Each experience contains its own reward.

I remember the first time I moved a skybox up into the atmosphere. That must be 2.25 virtual years or so. It was HARD. I did the drag it up and fly a bit deal and managed to get it to 250 meters or somewhere around there. Now we can be at 4000. The air seems a bit thin up there for me though. I like being able to look down at the ground if I choose. So the biosphere is about 600 meters up. Not point in keeping that a secret; it's a bit big to hide.


So I added a bit more this morning. That circular finial at the bottom is actually a viewing pod. From the inside it is clear. It is small and it is tricky to work in there. And, if you notice, I don't feel all that secure working without a net so to speak, so I left my building platform up while I am working. Nice to be able to stand on "terra firma" while gazing up at that huge torus - LOL

Wardrobe Renewals

It seems like I've been wearing the same outfit for-e-ver. Today I decided I deserved some newness in my life. After refitting all seven or eight colors of Spectator 2 boots, I was really tired of looking at those. So I spent some time in the new biosphere making some new shuz! And I like them. This are based on the Spectator 2s bottoms but have scuplty tops and the thinnest, tiniest trim details (I so love our nanoprim options).

And with new boots, came new clothes. I uploaded textures from the Downtown set including a new coloring of the sweater. With some sculpty cuffs and collar they are tres chic :D

Woo Hoo!

Inventory Safekeeping

We all hate to lose inventory. I have to admit that people -- at least those that write in the forums -- seem to be working on keeping a better handle on theirs. We can only do so much of course and clothes and shapes and skins and textures are simply not "solid" in our virtual worlds.

What we can do -- and what many are doing now after the December mishap (still possibly rectifiable but personally I have little hope) is to rez our products and keepsakes. Store owners don't really have a problem with this. We have stores after all. We can put our goods out and keep them safe. But sometimes we have personal prims -- things that are not products, things that are simply OURS.

Well, hey. This is our world and we have tons of prims. So, I am doing just what I would do in real life -- and in effect it is giving my apartment a more lived in look. I now have wig stands for hair #1 and #3 (#2 went into database lalaland). I also have some shipping boxes full of odds and ends and today I put out my new boots.

It's fun to see things out and about. And hopefully, it will help keep things a bit safer.

Biosphere Beginnings

After a productive if boring morning getting the rest of my boots refitted and ALL the vendors filled again -- work courtesy of the December Database Disaster :D -- I really needed a change. I had been thinking about building something in the sky -- something other than a giant building cube - LOL. And, in that quiet place between sleeping and waking I decided I would like to build a biosphere.

In my head I maneuvered prims and cut tori into interesting shapes. Alas, they don't really cut the way I wanted them too. Perhaps someday with Klee's new third cutting option, but not yet. I did manage to get a start however and we'll see where it takes me. The torus is 90 meters by 90 meters and has a glass dome and shiny metal surface. Both insides and out will of course have many more details before I am done.


In truth, I have no real plans for design or use of this space. It feels good though and that is a start. I also noted that you can see the stars through the dome at night. I almost always have my environment turned to day for building, so it was an unusual experience to notice the dark energies. I think I will plan on designing THIS space for the night. It won't be that dark as there will be lights in the halls, particles here and there -- and who knows what else. But I will take note of the night and work with it more than usual.

We'll see.

Note to-from Self :D

Note from Self: "Thanks for making those signs for Fantastic. Now new folks understand (hopefully) that there is no money -- hence no shopping. Good job!"

Note to Self:

People seem to have come out of their apathy -- or maybe it was just a eery quietness. They want to know about their inventory. Mine is pretty much replaced now except for the SKIRT that I so don't want to make over and will no doubt put off -- and off and off -- and hair #2 which I won't miss much now that I have hair #3 which I really like.

I do think the subtle complaints (now) and the more likely rantings (a bit later) are healthier than passivity. We really only have two main choices in whichever virtual world we reside in. We can stay or we can go.

And, right now and for me -- even on a problematic day -- I am for staying. I haven't built all the things I want to build. I haven't used up those 45,000 prims. I'm not sure that is a true goal and they obviously won't all go on the ground unless I REALLY get into jewelry or hair - LOL. Still, I have some interesting ideas for the higher elevations, so we'll see.

I have always been good about paying attention, knowing when I am "on the path" as I think of it. And even though I sigh from time to time and get discouraged when work disappears, breaks etc. , I still really feel like I am "on the path" and that all of this is good in the very long term picture.

And I, indeed, am a long term gal.

Building 104: Flexi Plants

Learn to make flexi plants that move gently in the wind.

Building 104: Flexi Plants

Easy Chair Heaven

Yesterday was a good day with gold stars in both RL and VR. In the Openlife arena I made new easy chairs. These puppies have NINE ANIMATIONS -- that I made of course -- and NO pose balls. You click on the arms to cycle through the animations. I am patting myself on the back here as I am so proud I got the scripting worked out. Will wonders never cease?

They come in regular and tall sizes. I decided not to be sexist cause I've seen some gals that would definitely need the longer limbs version. Right now they come in four colors. Since I can't sell them anyway, I'm moving on to another arena.

Charlie promised to fit my boots for men that were lost in the great database melt down and then I plan to photograph them and get them in vendors AND storage. We can only do what we can do. Then, maybe jewelry or some work on the new store in the village called Nirvana. It's not even noon yet, so I'll see where the day takes me.

Dancin on the Rooftop

I added a dance floor to the lounge this morning along with more trees and some couple's seating.


It will be fun to make some new dances for Debbie's dance machine. On my list but not too close to the top. I need to get my music working. Since the same settings that were working at Phil's are no longer working there either, I am guessing that the web server is down. Hope that is it. You could actually have several machines with different dances for alternate genres of music. What fun.

This was a good break in the project list of the day! I'll probably add some fantasy lights and more details soon, but this works for now.

Bulding 103: Simple Chair

Learn to make this simple chair suitable for indoors or outdoors.

Building 103: Simple Chair

NEW + FREE + STUFF

click for a larger picture

So a LOT of things happened today on my two month anniversary at Fantastic. Long stories are simply long, and I don't really need to remember all the details (mostly I'm just tired and don't want to type forever :D) but the bottom line is that while I will continue NOT to sell things yet in OL no matter how many people would like me too :D -- I am going to give away clothes for gals.

Partly this is because I DO understand how frustrating it can be not to have anything you want to wear. Partly it is because that with permissions still not right and so many things moving so slowly, clothes may not be a product by the time we HAVE products.

Anyway, I've put some of my "second line" goods out for free. These are transfer only. Not my first choice in many ways, but what I decided on in the end. So feel free to stop by -- gals only -- although guys are certainly welcome to come visit.

I do realize that for all practical purposes I have made these almost full perm items. I decided that I can live with that. Don't expect any exclusivity in your apparel -- just a widening of choices. It's been a very long week for most of us on the OLG and some good news and good deeds will brighten the mood a bit. I'm hoping so anyway.

And "D" -- our conversation had a LOT to do with this decision, so I hope you find something you will feel comfortable in. No latex or corsets here :D Go girl!

PS. Please let me know if any items revert back to "New Shirt" form. That happens a lot and certainly NOT my intention.

Two Months in Fantastic

Statistics:

Prims used: 8460 (up from 4199)
Monetary System: no
Groups: no
Player: R 16-2

In Review:

It's a lot greener in Fantastic this month with more trees and lots of new grass. Only one new building was added -- a Homestyles store. The shoe store is still in the sim, the draw distance can't quite get everything in :D

Most of the month has been spent filling up stores in the village as well as the home and garden store. That is coming along well. I have been working on a bit of everything and not really concentrating on finishing any area.

Yesterday I made a great waterfall environment which I am happy with. My apartment is getting furnished little by little with things I make for it and the other apartments going in various stores. I've turned one of the shop buildings into a store room which I think it quite fun.

New items added this month included light sculpture lights, jewelry (much fun) and a prim florist area. I made couches and chairs and dining room furniture as well as remaking a couple of my best selling items from Phil's. The new models are much better and that works for me. There is the beginning of an art gallery and the start of a lounge on the rooftop at The Art Experience.

I have to say -- just so I'll have an historical record -- that my heart is a bit heavier this anniversary. We had a major database loss a couple of weeks ago, a lot of down time with not to be seen improvements. There may be improvements, but things pretty much seem worse except for the teleporting which may be fixed now. I've had problems I never had before and some of the old hole in the ground issues are very prevalent. This may all get fixed with a patch. I hope so.

So I am working along, perhaps not at a frenzied pace. I found a large problem with permissions today for shapes. I'm not sure if that will be fixed, but I am not making over a couple dozen shapes no matter what kind of great compliments I am getting from window shoppers (wink). Not fun and if someone can make a copy and put their name on it SO easily, there is simply no point.

That's the world of Fantastic at the two month point. Onward.

Waterfalls and Fireflies

It was a long day on the frontier with textures disappearing and reappearing and way too many caches cleared, gray bodies, missing prims and the like. I did finally get back into my OLD clothes (I really was going to change today, but the asset server had different ideas).

AND I made a lovely waterfall environment. It isn't quite done, but almost. This is a photo taken at night with the glow of the waterlily lamps floating on the water and the fireflies in evidence. It's very peaceful and that is how I wanted to end my day.

It is so fun to look at this and look at my waterfall environment from two years ago. I was SO excited making it and it was very nice for the times, and I sold tons of them. This one, however is leaps and bounds ahead of it. It's nice to know we really do improve.

Tomorrow is my two month anniversary in Fantastic. Yeah!

PS. Note to myself. Make a sign for the shops explaining there really is no money yet and hence the things are not available for purchase. A lot of folks seem to thing that "I" am just not ready (wink). I'm pretty sure I will be when the time comes.

Until then, waterfalls work.

The Grid Came Back ....

That very afternoon :D

Alas, no returned inventory but it was good to be back. I uploaded about 250 textures -- some new and some to replace those lost. Being a gal who has gone through WAY too many inventory meltdowns the last few months, I carefully packed them away in crates (yes really) as I uploaded them.

That was an ohsosmart thing to do as the grid went down after about an hour -- and with it all my uploads. The good news was that I had them all in the crates and simply clicked and said "Open > Copy to Inventory" and they were back. Others were not so lucky.

So in one sense this is pretty depressing as I have been finding (a chore) and uploading textures that I lost in the last melt down (burp - LSD overdose whatever ) of the asset server / database (who know?). The good news is that my plan to pack everything up in prims for safekeeping seems like it might work. I think I mentioned it before, but here's the drill.

Building Tip:

For texture, clothing, notecards, sounds, animations or whatever that you cannot simply place in world for safekeeping -- rez a BRAND NEW PRIM, texture if your aesthetics keep you from admiring plywood and fill the contents with what you want to keep. A prim seems to be happy to hold about 100 things. More than that may be overkill.

Remember we have almost unlimited prims. You can store these boxes at 1000 meter or at 10,000 meters or like I am in a real life storeroom (how quaint).

Don't copy boxes over; don't use items you have previously made like books or chests etc. That SO didn't work at Phil's so I suspect it would be a problem here too.

That's my tip for the night.

May tomorrow be filled with FUN as I am so tired of this work "stuff".

A Sea of Calm

It is day three or so of the Openlife Grid being down for update. Our last poke (status) message was a day ago or so. Sakai is listed on chat so he is-- in theory-- still in the building :D

What amazes me about all this is how calm everyone seems to be. Me included. A couple of weeks ago we had a similar downtime. It wasn't as long and there was a loud outcry -- many outcries. The bottom line was a need for better communication and we seem to have that. There were many announcements about the coming update and until yesterday there were poke notices every now and then so the populous new what was going on.

So we asked for better communication, we got it, and we seem to be getting gold stars for patience. Who'd a thunk it? :D

My next tutorial concerns textures so I don't want to do it at Phil's. I'll wait until the grid is up. Meanwhile, it looks like a good day to work on animations maybe.

Openlife Building Tutorials

These tutorials are meant to be done in order, hence the numbers associated with them. Each builds on skills learned in a previous lesson. They are best viewed in an 800 wide window. If you have a wide screen high resolution monitor you may be able to run them in side by side windows. That is my intention anyway.

Enjoy!

Building 101: Photo Frame

Building 102: Enamel Planter
Building 103: Simple Chair
Building 104: Flexi Plants
Building 105: Simple Table
Building 106: Simple Lamp
Building 107: Ice Cream Cone