Category: pre-image catastrophe

Sometime in late 2014 or early 2015 all uploaded images were deleted from my server.

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Dancing to open a museum

Please help celebrate the opening of the Eulalie Mackechnie Farquhar Memorial Art Museum in Wyre on Tuesday, September 18, from 5 to 7 PM SLT.

Eulalie Mackechnie Farquhar was the paternal grandmother of Hermione Fussbudget, Baroness Wyre. The inaugural exhibit will feature photographs taken in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Liz Augustine. The museum is adjacent to the fine dance floor in the Wyre fairgrounds. Music will be provided by Radio Riel DJ Diamanda Gustafson, playing her signature mix of “bagpipes and rock.”

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Buggy (?) races in Murdann

The buggy races in Caledon Murdann ended up a success&emdash;although less for the buggy part than for the race (and silliness) part.

Miss Diamanda Gustafson and I took a couple of turns, first she in a Stanhope carriage by Miss Virrginia Tombola and I in a carriage from AKK. The Stanhope left the AKK so far in the dust that Miss Gustafson declared it an unfair win. We tried it again in matched Stanhopes, and this time she was not only the clear, but also the fair winner.

And then the silliness began, as more people were able to make it. First there was Miss Autopilotpatty Poppy’s seahorse carriage, which was, sadly, even slower than the AKK though quite as stylish and not a little spectacular.

At some point a Ford-style vehicle (a freebie by Aimee Weber) was added to the mix, and before long everyone had one.

Miss Gustafson

Lord Primbroke dared to be different. . .
and eventually decided on an attractive red number (click for larger version).

The automobiles were just on the edge of being too fast for the track, and indeed at one point we were all flung to the depths (or heights) before the sim crashed. I had descended to -37,000+ meters before SL booted me, saying the sim was going down.

Hotspur O’Toole and his red mechanical beast:

Also making appearances were a pennyfarthing and a blitter (which did fairly well, actually).

Finally, there was a lap on a variety of animal conveyances (my yak, which seemed to have a mind of its own, is facing backwards in this photo). Click for a larger version.

I had originally thought I would dismantle the track after today, but was encouraged to leave it. I will certainly do so for the time being and will attempt to reduce its prim count by using huge prims instead of standard ones. If you TP to Caledon Murdann, there is a local TP device at the telehub, or you can fly to just over 500m.

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Premonitions of Second Life

I just found a post by Marion in Wonderland: The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, than the Human Heart

Since joining Second Life, I have come across several quotations and passages in books I am reading in my first life (although SL seriously eats into my reading time!), which strike me as relevant to my experience and feelings about life in this strange alternative world.

And the passages she quotes, from Shakespeare, Thomas Pynchon, and Haruki Murakami, are really stunning in their correspondence to Second Life.

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Harvest festivals and mazes

The Caledon/Steelhead Harvest Festival began today. I opened Murdann to tree-felling. I have no way of tracking who took trees, but several of my friends have told me they took trees, and the island is definitely a bit clearer now.

Steelhead hosted a horse race, and I now have a saddle horse, Fróði (“Peace”). No photos yet. There are prize pumpkins hidden all around Steelhead, and it’s great fun looking for them. There’s also a corn maze:

Miss Lumina Elvehjem then gave me a landmark to Falln’s Corn Maze, which is very extensive and quite wonderful. (This maze is in the sky above a fantasy RP sim that uses a telehub. You’ll need a flight assist to fly up. Try not to peek at the maze as you navigate to the beacon.)

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Harvest festival events in Caledon Murdann

To all my fellow neo-Victorians of Second Life, I bid you welcome to the Maritime Duchy of Murdann in the Firth of Caledon, for events celebrating the Harvest Festival in Caledon and Steelhead, Sunday 9 September through Saturday 15 September. These are the events to be held in the Maritime Duchy of Murdann:

Sunday, 9 September
9 AM-6PM SLT: Tree-felling.
A variety of species, suitable for transplantation, will be marked for removal in order to create a more livable space. Guests are requested to take no more than two trees each. (Right-click and buy for L$0, then take the plant.) The Murdann Thorn tree is native to no other region of Second Life.

Tuesday, 11 September
8PM-11PM SLT: Caledon Sailing and Steam Society opening events.
After welcoming remarks, there will be Tako racing from Murdann to the Sound and back, followed by steam racing.

Wednesday, 12 September
7PM-8PM SLT: Tako Races, Murdann to the Sound and return
8PM-9PM SLT: Steamboat 3 Lap Races ‘Caledon Cup’

Saturday, 15 September
6AM-8AM SLT: Buggy races
The races will take place on an elevated track. A teleporter to the track will be on the dock. Any model of buggy, carriage, or wagon welcome.

Yrs, etc.

Otenth Paderborn
Duke of Murdann

Caledon Murdann/89/120/22

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Totally unacceptable financial services

Linden Lab charges are now made from London, and thus nearly everyone’s financial institution is flagging large transactions as fraud (and it must be large transactions, because recent currency purchases went through fine). On Linden Lab’s part, this is very poor practice. With thousands of customers, surely they can spring for region-appropriate billing services.

For convenience, I decided to use a CapitalOne Mastercard as my LL funding source. When I called them to ask about this morning’s rejected transaction, they said they would mark it as ok. When I mentioned that it is a monthly charge, however, they said I would have to call every month. Calling every month for a routine transaction, just because it’s coming from London? What a load. I’ll be moving my business elsewhere.

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Torley’s tips toned down

If you prefer information in a concise form, I’ve watched Torley Linden’s video “Tip of the week” so you don’t have to. Here in brief are the salient points of the first three weeks (with links to the videos on blog.secondlife.com).

  1. Turning off typing animation and sound
    • Ctrl-Alt-D (Opt-Ctrl-D on Mac) to open client menu. Go to Client>Debug settings. Type in “PlayTypingAnim” and set it to “FALSE.”
  2. Moving camera further and better
    • Disable camera constraints is an option under the Client menu (Ctrl-Alt-C). Alt-click and zoom will work at far greater distances from your avatar. This does not yet persist across sessions, but it will in a future release of the client.
    • Limit select distance is another option under the Client menu which will allow you to select objects at a distance.
    • Camera zoom time: Client menu>Debug Settings>ZoomTime will let you change how fast your camera changes position (for instance when you press ESC to bring the camera back to its default position) from a cinematic pan to instantaneous (0 seconds).
  3. Interface tricks
    • You can move minimized windows; the client will remember where they were when you closed them; they will snap to each other. The minimized edit window will show ghosted images of some of the edit buttons if you move it; this is a known bug.
    • Pie menu: If you right-click and hold, you can move over a slice and release to select the option.
    • You can close all windows using an option under the file menu or Ctrl-Shft-W (Cmd-Shft-W on Macs).
    • IM tabs: Alt-left arrow or Alt-right arrow to move across tabs (Option-arrow on Macs), or click and hold to scroll across; if you tab into the contacts tab, you will then be limited to tabbing between groups and friends.
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Duchy of Murdann

The sad disaster on 21 April that brought my cousin Hermione Fussbudget to the head of House Heidrun, as well as the Barony of Wyre, and made me Jarl of Orcadia, has finally resulted in my assumption of responsibility for the Duchy of Murdann in the Firth of Caledon. My parents, Johan Augustus Paderborn, Jarl of Orcadia, and Gudrun Ragnbjorg Heidrun Paderborn, Viscountess of Little West Sniggery and Giggleford, and my aunt, Miss Fussbudget’s mother, Ingeborg Signe Heidrun Fussbudget, Baroness Wyre, died as a result of injuries sustained when Heidrun Meadery’s experimental molasses tanks exploded, flooding production facilities on Wyre. The tanks were the brain-child of my Great-uncle Oskrr Sigurdr Heidrun (a confirmed bachelor), who died immediately in the flood. He was, all too briefly, the 5th Duke of Murdann. It is by a twisted route that I have become the 6th Duke of Murdann.

My great-great-grandmother Lydia Ormsby Aagard was the half-sister of His Grace, James John Ormsby, 4th Duke of Murdann. Because of the several lateral transmissions, including female lines, it has taken this time for the genealogists and researchers at Begonia’s Peepage to certify that I am the male heir. I have now taken possession of Ormsby Hall in Caledon Murdann, which has been somewhat neglected for several years. There is a fine old stone and half-timbered manor house, albeit in some disrepair and unfurnished, but the island itself is densely covered with trees and brush. Access is through a decrepit wooden pier.

Next Sunday, the ninth of September, I will open Caledon Murdann for a tree-felling from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. SLT. A variety of species, suitable for transplantation, will be marked for removal in order to create a more livable space. Guests are requested to take no more than two trees each.

All are welcome to visit Ormsby Hall, and know that I intend it to become once again a place of graciousness and hospitality.

Otenth Haakon Paderborn, Jarl of Orcadia, Duke of Murdann, Viscount Ormsby of Little West Sniggery and Giggleford, Thegn of Aa