it's been SOOOOOO LOOOOONNNG.....

since I've posted here, regularly. Same is true of my lovely partner, Alysa, and her blog. So, we figured, why not join forces in one blog, where we can shame eachother into posting every so often. I'll still keep this blog open. Who knows... I may post here again. In the meantime, you can find my musings, and my muse, over at Pondering Pixels: http://pondering-pixels.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there.  We've only just started it, so I hope it begins to take shape in the coming days!

~Shye~

One Year

It's been a year since I partnered with Alysa.

Our love has evolved and changed.
We care for each other.
We listen to each other.
We learn from each other.
We share our thoughts.

She is the most important person in my Second Life. I think of her every day in my First Life.

I love you, Alysa. Thank you for being a part of my life.

-Shye

OMG.. It's Aliiiiiivveee

Hyang's blog, that is...

And since it's been a month since my last post, I thought I should post about SOMETHING...

Hyang has a new OS X port of Cool Viewer. Check it out.
http://hyangreflections.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-blog-still-alive-yay-and-now-here.html

Rouge

Codebastard Redgrave got a new sim.

It's quite a unique build, as you can see from this one aerial shot... and it has Codie's signature all over it. I tp'd in and checked out the club really quick, and wandered around the sim for a little while. The design is not one to explore, so much as experience. There aren't places to get lost or wander in... but the prim-light design is a marvel to behold. It was also lag-light with 47 people in the club.

This one is worth checking out. Visit the club. Look at and/or purchase some of Codie's artwork... and walk on the lovely girl-shape that is the terrain.

I'll be back again, when not so tired.

-SK-

Grand Opening for Blacklist: Cataclysm

Ok, so, don't "click for details" - this is a copy of an in-world poster.
Our grand opening celebration is Friday, beginning at noon SLT and running all day long... 4 DJ's, a live musical performance, and lots of contests, prizes, shopping, freebies.... don't miss it!

SLArt

One of my passions before finding my Second Life (tm) was working in digital media. I enjoy the creative flow of dipping into a virtual space and pushing pixels around to make something dynamic and interesting. My tools of choice were Photoshop, Poser and Bryce.

When I came into Second Life (tm), I largely left Poser and Bryce behind. There is a "social creativeness" to working in SL that you can't get in Poser. Even if you're just snapping pictures of scenery or people at random, there are (or can be) "people" nearby, communicating... participating in some small way. Building can also be collaborative. Whether the participants each get a few buildings to contribute to a sim, or two or more people work together closely on one build, the final whole is a collaborative effort born of the consciousnesses of different people... and in SL, those different people bring with them differing cultural senses of design that can make for a very interesting virtual space.

The candid "photography" in SL, though, leaves out that bit of control that I enjoyed in Poser. So I like to do more formal work, on occasion. It's easy enough to snap pictures of me, manipulating my avatar as needed. What is harder is getting others to be more participatory... to have a more true collaborative work. Posing, collaboratively.

I've been itching to do something more collaborative in SL photography for a while. Candid shots are all fine, but to make a picture tell a story you need props, poses and scenery. And of course, willing participants.

Alysa and I worked on some pictures on the docks at Blacklist: Cataclysm. Blacklist has always been a rough place... so what better setting than the docks to pose with guns? I had a lot of trouble with my SL viewer (thank you, Linden Labs). It made capturing frustrating. Alysa showed great patience for my troubles, as I managed to only capture about 6 useable images (the rest corrupted by poor viewer software). The image above was one of the first captures of the day... processed heavily in Photoshop to add some motion blur, alter contrast, add some muzzle flash, and paint in highlights and shadows. This is the kind of collaboration I enjoy... working together on poses and settings, each taking several snapshots to process and compare.

I do have some images of Blacklist which I will post very soon... but get there if you haven't and see it for yourself. Our grand opening party is this coming weekend. More info, soon!

-SK-

Building...

We've been busy...

First we laid the roads... then we tried them out.
Then we laid the bar... then we tried it out... ;)

I'm so happy to have a new, exciting project to work on.. and even happier to share the fun in building with Alysa.

Alysa, Lianna, and I have been busy since Sunday, starting to build on the new Blacklist, Cataclysm. The bar is done. Alysa did a nice job on it, and we were able to have a nice snuggle there when it was finished. Then, she resized it twice, as it seemed a bit too big. Now, I think its just right. Yay!

Lianna has been busy building shops, and doing a nice job.

I have spent FAR too much time making hilly roads, curving streets, building bridges, and coming up with texture sets for the build... I am eager to actually put up a new structure. I'm sure I will, before the week is out.

Hirundo has come around and offered to help build. She made a nice little lighthouse for our port.

More info as time allows.....


-SK-

New Home

The future home of The Blacklist.

"Cataclysm".

o.O

*shrugs*

It's how I feel.

-SK-

Marking time...

I've been neglecting my blog, lately.

Sometimes, Real Life gets you down. Sometimes, it really sucks. In the last month, I lost a real life friend... suddenly and unexpectedly. The stress from that caused a mild relapse of an ongoing health issue of my own. The grief and disappointment of real life carries into the virtual world, and it affects your perceptions and interactions there.

I went into SL to escape, and found another set of stressors. Some real, some imagined. During this time, I've been working with Alysa on tearing down Blacklist, making models with Alysa and Lianna, selling land, making plans....

I'm feeling less stressed now, on the grid... quite happy and relieved at recent revelations and self-discoveries, and taking things as easily and naturally as one should, after bending the ear of one who cares here in SL.

My real life stress has gone from an 8.5 to about a 3... and I am feeling remarkably better... so its all good!

We're making serious progress on the Blacklist move. Stay tuned for an announcement this week.

-SK-

I'm still here!

I haven't posted for a while.

Real life has been busy and stressful. My hours in Second Life are a bit reduced, and split between enjoying time with my SL Friends and planning an All New Blacklist.

It's been 9 months since the birth of Blacklist, Shaitan. We're moving on... but in a good way. We're dismantling parts of the city and putting land up for sale in Shaitan as we prepare to purchase an island.

We've brought back the original builders of Blacklist, Shaitan - we're building scale models of our visions of Blacklist's future. The builders will choose the best aspects from each model, then a new, final scale model will be built for the new island. We've had lots of great ideas, and we're all getting excited about a big, new build for Blacklist. I have no snapshots of the models to post, here. Look for them in Shaitan. As I write this, one model is on the roof of the Blacklist bar, the rest are on the ground in NE Shaitan.

These are exciting times. I wish I could give an ETA on the island build - but I can't. With some luck, we'll have a new home in the next couple of months.

Cheers.

-Shye

Exploring with Alysa

Alysa and I spent almost two hours exploring the final frontier..... Privateer Space.

This is one of the most incredible sims I've been to. I discovered it a while back, but held off exploring until Alysa and I could do it together.

We had a lot of fun together, exploring the lunar surface and mines in moonbuggies, flying together in a spacebug, and separately in other spacecraft as we explored the almost boundless reaches of the privateer sim's asteroid fields, planetary landscapes, space stations, pirate ships, and its clever nods to space films, television shows and literature from past decades. Check it out! You won't be disappointed!

-Shye

Missing Friends

There are a few people who I've connected with in Second Life so closely, that I take thoughts of them outside the grid and into Real Life. For the ones who remain in-world, I still have that almost tangible connection. For the ones who have left the game, the close ones, the connection is not ephemeral. I mourn the loss of their presence, in a way.

We all have friends come and go. Some of them are special. They are missed.

Lisa, Elum and Hirundo... I'm thinking of you, and hope first life is treating you well.

Take care. Love you all.

Downtime, failures, and #$*%^#: An Open Letter to Linden Labs

Lindens:

I have to laugh, every time I get that Quality Survey popping up when I log in to Second Life (tm). Really, you should know the answer. Besides buggy viewers, lack of response in the Support Portal (urgent tickets left unanswered for days or longer), it only takes a few moments going through the SL (tm) blog to get an idea of why people might not feel that their SL (tm) experience is improving.

Mined from the SL (tm) blog since April 1:

Apr 1 Phone Support Issues - unavailable
Apr 1 Various Inworld Issues - TP, transactions, logins failing
Apr 2 Various Issues - transactions, logins, TP
Apr 5 Various Inworld Issues - region down, login, TP and transaction failures
Apr 5 SL Down
Apr 6 Intermittent Region Issues (TP, rezzing, appearance, inventory, transactions)
Apr 6 SL Load mitigating begins
Apr 7 Logins and transactions intermittent
Apr 7 Gray Profiles
Apr 8 300 regions down
Apr 9 Support Portal "501" errors
Apr 10 Non-English character display error
Apr 10 700 Regions Offline
Apr 10 slow/stalled logins and transactions
Apr 11 login failures, stuck presence, group and search failures
Apr 11 load mitigation
Apr 11 Obj-Obj e-mails failing in-world
Apr 11 Failed TP and region crossings
Apr 11 Database failures affect logins, transactions, rezzing
Apr 13 Support Live Chat unavailable
Apr 13 Database failure: login timeouts, failed TP, failed rezzing
Apr 14 Logins, transactions and rezzing failures

Linden Labs really needs to get on the ball. Stop adding eye-candy like the pointless UI redesign. Fix the grid and patch the viewer.

The entire month of April has been an extended April Fools Joke. Make Second Life whole again.

The Art of Partnership

Or... art of my partner ;)

I captured this adorable shot of Alysa as she fell off a rooftop and into a trashcan.

Isn't she cute?

:D

Crashes

I spent some time shooting at "head crabs" in Blacklist with Livie, last week. I had the bright idea to try and run them down with my car. Livie jumped in and started shooting from the passenger seat.

We seem to have really angered those head crabs, because the next thing we knew, we were airborne... the little car with Livie and I on board sailed over the buildings of Blacklist and fell off the giant skybox that makes up our city. The car sailed on, two sims away and 700m down, before crashing near a castle.

Amazingly, we survived with only minor scrapes and bruises. We flew back to Blacklist to get revenge on those crabs...

I hate those things.

Photoshoot

Sys asked Alysa if she would mind posing for some photos. Alysa brought me along, and, after Sys finished with Alysa, she shot us both dancing.

You can see three raw shots, above, followed by a finished product made by Sys, at the bottom.

It was a fun morning. I enjoy the shoots with Sys... and that she likes to shoot Alysa and I is nice. :)

Login Failed, and We Care

This post has been brewing for a few weeks, at least.

I spent the day "Ruthed" last Saturday.
Naked, too.

Now, I have no problem being naked. In fact, I'm naked a lot, in SL..
But I like choice.

So, I was Ugly Ruth, and unable to wear any texture clothes... I could only attach prims. For almost the entire day. Finally, I got an answer from Linden Labs support on how to reset my avatar and begin being me again. I am sparing you the pics, by the way.

Sometime around last weekend, I also had a viewer crash. Nothing unusual there... I get a few a week... and another few disconnects. I got an odd message on login, after I waited the requisite 8 minutes for a relog... you can see it above...

I know what an "agent" is... and I know where I was... shouldn't Linden Labs?

Around this time, I got the survey that you see in the other image. I've seen it before... I always answer "Worse". Linden Labs doesn't want to know "why" my experience is getting worse... because I am a Mac user. Their survey dislikes Mac users. But they know that their survey dislikes Mac users. I feel better, knowing they have been hard at work on this bug. For a month. Really... it explains why I couldn't get Shaitan restarted last month. All their technicians were too busy figuring out a web form.

We now return to your regularly scheduled blog....

Exploring the Grand Canyon

Me, Hyang and Joni (Viola around, somewhere) exploring a sim-sized map of The Grand Canyon. These maps are really cool. Search for Rumsey in the Second Life map, and you'll find a series of sims by David Rumsey, with huge topographical 3D maps and globes to explore.

It's fun. It's educational. It's cool. :)

Check it out.

Accidents Happen

I heard a commotion outside.. the screaming of little engines, squealing of tires, sounds of small crashes... So I looked out the window. And on the streets of Blacklist, I saw these little tiny race cars. Jo and Livie were racing around the streets. With the new addition on to Blacklist, there is more room to race.

These little cars are just perfect for our narrow streets. I pointed my camera out the window, and snapped this pic of Livie, before she sped off down the street...

Alysa and I loved these cute little cars, so we went off to go car shopping. Less than thirty minutes later, we were speeding around the streets of Blacklist, her in her cute red car, me in my little black convertible.

It seems these cars go really fast... so fast, you can get into trouble taking corners. So, it wasn't long before this happened...


Well, at least the cars are "copy"... so after the damage is done, we just discard the broken cars and take new ones out of inventory.

:D

Stay off the sidewalks... lots of cars racing around Blacklist, and not all of them stick to the roads.