Endless Nights, Lessons Learned - Part 2

I always have to learn things the hard way.

Endless Nights is/was a beautiful build - a great idea - and was staffed with good folks. It had a chance at first.

Then the idiocy started.

I was approached by an old friend of mine from Dark City (the original - not Equator, or Obsidian City, where lag rules supreme, but the Dark City sim) about renting/buying a sim and setting it up for roleplay. He was all enthused about it, and told me he could come up with the initial money. Well, that fell through, so we shelved the idea.

Then he and another person approached me about trying again. At the same time, I was talking to another friend with an empty sim who wasn't going to be using it for awhile...and Noelyci Ingmann, another friend, was wanting to design a low-lag, low-prim sim using some of his incredible builds - everything just came together for the first time. One of the idea people was to run the sim, and the other was to help out as time permitted, and to help cover tier. I made it clear up front that my time this fall was going to be very very limited; my real life has been crazy, and will stay that way for awhile. I just don't have the time to spend in SL right now, and I tried to be very clear about that.

The build took about six weeks, and was truly amazing. I think it's one of the coolest RP sims I've ever been on. There was almost NO lag, too! The framerate on it was incredible, I usually stayed around 60fps. To give some idea, I averaged around 15fps in Obsidian City, and still do.

When we opened, we had an amazing amount of people stop by. Some tried to RP - and it just didn't work. Why? The majority of the people that seemed to want to be in Endless Nights wanted to stand around and shoot gestures, or just do combat with no roleplay - in short, there was almost NO real roleplay. The weekly tournaments were a good idea, but so poorly run that many of the people who participated only did so for a week. Staff just can't leave people standing around twiddling their thumbs for fifteen or thirty minutes while you figure out what to do. So the tournaments died a slow and painful death. The silliness Ricard introduced with his juvenile antics really just highlighted the real problem in the sim.

And to top that off, there was, after a couple of weeks, only one sim-wide roleplay storyline implemented, and that happened almost by accident. Why was that? To be honest, I'm still not sure. We had a couple of staff meetings where people were practically threatened to stay in the sim, and then nothing happened. It was disheartening.

Most of the staff were old friends of mine, and several of them told me essentially the same thing. The level of RP established from the beginning of Endless Nights was just silly - it was the same ol' thing we see in other laggy RP sims. Everyone is the ultimate - the ultimate vampire, the ultimate lycan, the ultimate demon, the ultimate bitch - and egos reign supreme. It seems the most popular thing to do in RP sims in SL is to find someone to do, or to collar. Just watching the parade of profile wars was incredible. It's still happening - apparently that's the drama du jour, and not having an SL partner makes you a loser. Must all RP be sexual? I don't think it has to be - there has to be more imagination than *that* in SL.

The art of RP is a fragile thing. You know something is sadly wrong when you are in a nice RP, change into a dragon, get people involved - and someone says, OOCly, "I won't RP with Neit - she doesn't like us vampires."

Excuse me - but who DOES like vampires, other than other vampires? Isn't the idea of RP to play a role? Yet it seems that a number of people in Endless Nights could not distinguish roleplay from personal interaction - and drama was born. Drama after drama after drama...just like the other RP sims I'd tried to play in recently. It was just OC silliness all over again.

Then it hit me. You cannot have an RP sim if you just bring in the same people, who bring the same habits and gestures and drama, no matter what the build or who the staff is. The mindset of this clique that moves from sim to sim - usually after being banned or at least cast out - isn't going to change. And worst of all, they run out the real RPers.

If I had the time or energy, I really think I could have made the sim work. We certainly got the traffic initially. There is a need for a sim like Endless Nights in SL, if the right people get together and make it work. I look back and wonder if I could have changed things if I'd been more active at first in the sim management - but it really doesn't matter now. I've learned my lesson.

It was worth the money and the time and effort. I learned a lot about people, and about myself. I won't make this mistake again. (I'll make other, bigger, more dramatic, mistakes instead.) I'll leave RP sim running up to people who can be here a lot more than me, and can stomach the drama and egos that seem to never go away.

I can't say I wasn't warned - Ethan tried to tell me, long ago, what this turns into, but I didn't listen. He gets to chuckle, he's earned his scars. Maybe he's right, and the only good RP in SL really is in Gor. It's a shame I'll never find out.

Thanks to everyone - sincerely - for the effort you put into Endless Nights. I made some good friends, and got to play with some old ones. We had some great times. Now it's time for Endless Nights to join City of Dreams, and Dark City, up in that great sim burial ground in the sky.

I always have to learn things the hard way. :)

Endless Nights - Lessons Learned, Part 1

It's never easy to realise that someone you thought you knew isn't who (or what) you think they are. Since opening Endless Nights, the hardest thing I've had to swallow to date is that someone I thought I could trust could blatantly cheat, for no good reason that I can see.

When we first opened the sim, an old friend - Ricard Collas - agreed to put out a memorial to his partner, who died this spring. It's a lovely memorial, and we put it in the center of the sim, next to Inspiration Point. It was a glorious tribute to Chippy Boa.

Ricard also asked about getting another castle put in for his beloved Toreadors, so I had that done as well. A custom castle, quite striking, was put in the northwest corner for him and his friends. He promised to help me get the sim up and running, and I was grateful for that. He was in the sim a lot, and participated in all the events he could. I was pushing to get him on staff, also, because he was such a huge participant in the sim.

The tournaments we sponsor - on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons - have been a favourite in the sim. Ricard was often a contender, if not the winner, of the Saturday tournaments. In fact, he requested we do something at a time when Europeans can participate, so in a way the Saturday tournament was partially his idea.

Now...I'd had several people tell me something was odd about fighting Ricard, that he just couldn't be taken down. I talked to him about it, and was repeatedly assured that he would never cheat. He's an excellent fighter - so why should he? I asked him about some things, and he started obsessing on being 'stalked' by the staff. The whole issue of cheating was discussed so much (and not just with Ricard) that I wrote procedures for running the tournament. One person is responsible to check all attachments on constestants - it's the only thing they should be doing.

A few weeks ago, I could not be at the Saturday tournament. When I came inworld, the first thing I see is an announcement stating that Ricard had been caught cheating, red-handed. Sure enough, the picture taken showed an attachment in his hand, the "inspect" screen showing what it was, and the edit box showing the DCS enhancement script in it. There was just no question - Ricard was cheating.

Confronted with absolute proof that he had been cheating, I asked him why the next day. I expected him to tell me it was an accident - that he forgot he was wearing this, or something of that ilk. His answer absolutely shocked me.

"I did it to prove a point. The staff is stalking me."

Ricard knew I had written procedures, and knew everyone was inspected. There was only one thing to do at that point. I wrote an apology to everyone in staff for not listening to them, and banned Ricard from the tournament.

I was asked to return all of Ricard's prims, and did so. I was sad to see Chippy's memorial go, but under the circumstances, I think Chippy would have been ashamed and would have understood.

I don't walk away from friendships easily. This one - there was no other choice. Ricard's actions epitomise the reason so many talented people in SL walk away from roleplay. I am not saddened that I lost a friend, because I never had one - but I am saddened that I was so completely taken by someone this dishonest and worthless.

Ricard - I really hope that point you wanted to make was worth it.

Endless Nights - we're OPEN!

Endless Nights - our Role Play (RP) sim - opened this last Friday, and it has been a blast! Here's a synopsis of the sim. Please come and check it out for yourself!

When Illy, Stevo and I first talked about creating an RP sim, we did some looking at builds, different sims, and stuff found in SL. I showed them both the IDG Designs island - Noelyci is a very good friend of mine, and a fantastic builder - and they both fell in love with his builds, like I did. (I literally fell in love with his observatory - one of the most amazing builds on SL, and certainly nothing like a prefab - and mine lives on Dragonhenge, my open space sim where my home is.)

We looked at the Dark Rayne castle, the arena, and especially Inspiration Point, and all agreed we HAD to have them on the sim. After talking to Noelyci for a long time, he and I worked out the details of him building the entire sim - Endless Nights, which opened last Friday. He was excited to try his hand at building a very low-prim sim as a showpiece for his prefab buildings, with some customs mixed in.

What he's created is an amazing sim full of surprises. He took his prefab buildings and did some modifications - some minor, some major - and finished the entire build in just over 3000 prims. The whole sim (minus furnishings and some landscaping) could fit on an open space sim!

Inspiration Point sits at the center of Endless Nights, looking down on the City. The arena has turned into a focal point, with duals and spars being fought there regularly, and tournaments hosted in it. One version of Dark Rayne has been converted into a hospital, with the time rift that created the constant darkness splitting the building in half. On one side of it, there are medieval cottages and a tower castle that's been taken over by a Toreador clan. On the other side are modern townhouses, with a Roadhouse bar and a town square. The Police Department and courthouse are on one side of the square, with a barn-like lair (a customisation of Noelyci's barn prefab) for supernaturals in the corner. On the opposite corner, close to the arena, is a delapidated castle that has been claimed by a lycan pack. Walking up for the stairs is exciting, since it's open most of the way up - there's even broken glass on the floor!

Beside and behind the courthouse is our weapons vendor area. Noelyci had the brilliant idea of making this area a sorta back-alley area, where shady deals took place RP-ly. Jet Control has even put out a backalley dealer in the area, offering a DCS-enhanced katana. It's a cross between a middle eastern arms dealer compound and Diagon Alley - truly a unique place! Other vendors, not weapons-related but that are RP-related, are found in a skybox above the ground to reduce lag.

But the best build of all is a unique castle, currently claimed by the Brujah, that features a room that is suspended by huge chains between four towers. This one has to be seen to be appreciated. Noelyci wanted to create something unusual but still with the feel of vampires - and he's done it in spades.

On top of all THIS - there are teleports to Heaven and Hell, from the church and graveyard, respectively. Both are breathtaking! There's also an underground mutant lair, complete with goo dripping from the broken pipes in the ceiling, a dead chicken, rats running around, and eyes peeking at you from behind a grate. You can only get there if you find the grate to it somewhere around the courthouse.

On top of only taking 3000 prims to build all of this, the lag is amazingly low - even with a tournament in progress. I've seldom seen the script performance on the sim go over 50K, and it usually stays between 10K and 15K, with a number of avatars on it. Now THIS is what most RP sims are lacking - or rather, have too much of.

I love the build for this sim. I could not ask for anything better. Noelyci has used "up" in a way I've not seen done in any other sim of this type, and made good use of good ol' terrain, rather than sidewalks and roads and such. It's a great place to have natural disasters, vampire skirmishes, and just plain old fun.

We've had a blast our first week of opening. If you are curious, just teleport to Endless Nights - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Endless%20Nights/151/19/48 - just watch out for some strange characters!

There's something about the ocean...

The smell, the sound, the energy...the ocean is my happy place. It restores something deep within me, in a way that nothing else can. Just walking on the shore lets me breath deeper, and relaxes my soul. My spirit lightens. It's been too long.

The ocean brings back memories. The last time I was on a shore was just over two years ago, and I was in such a different place. I had just finished my first year as a full-time graduate student and my life felt like it was on track. I had made some very dear friends in SL, one in particular - I was so happy. So much has happened.

Since then, I've moved across the country to take a challenging job that I really enjoy. I've kept almost all those friendships...all but one have deepened into lifelong special relationships. I've made many other close friends in SL (and RL), and some of those will also last a lifetime. I have SL to thank for many things.

The one friendship that has ended - the one that gave me such joy when I was last at the ocean - saddens me. I've had to accept that I cannot continue to enable someone's darkness, and the only way to stop it is to walk away completely. After many words, and many more tears, I have let myself be used for the last time. My friendship and acceptance weren't enough; I have no idea what would have been. I thought that after I met him and his wife in real life that our friendship could grow, as just that: Friendship. Regardless, an important part of my life is overwith now. I am saddened that my words of encouragement - even to recommend meeting someone from SL in real life - weren't accepted for what they were. I wish the both of them, him and his now real-life lover, all the happiness they deserve. I will miss you. I hope you finally find that which you have sought for so long, and wish I could have stayed on that journey with you.

The ocean was cathartic in its own ironic way, as well. By a total coincidence, I was introduced to someone that reminds me in so many ways of one of the most important people in my life. They are both Englishmen, both are from near Manchester, and look as if they could be brothers...yet they have no connection. The person I met this week was here with his family visiting a friend of mine from SL. I think that this coincidence may finally give me some closure I've needed with this relationship from long ago, that changed me in a very fundamental way.

The two people mentioned above - both touched my life deeply and both left scars, but also wisdom. Trust is something that is hard won, and easily lost. I have known this at a very deep level for a long time. What I tend to forget is that it's a two-way street. When my trust is betrayed, it doesn't mean I should trust less...rather, I should trust more carefully. I think the current scars will heal much faster, in a healthy way this time.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. My teacher walked with me on the shore...held my hand in its own way when I needed it...and helped my heart heal on many levels. The ocean was my teacher this week. It reminded me of what is important, and what is not. It was time to let go of some things, and it showed me how. The ocean let me see, once again, what is my problem, and what is NMP - not my problem.

I don't know if words exist to explain how this happens with me...words seldom fail me. Yet with the ocean, they are completely inadequate. Some things just are.

The ocean heals me, and fills me with something I never know I've lost. It has once again let me take out the things whirling in my head, examine them closely, and only put back the ones I want to keep.

There's something about the ocean...

Dragonhenge LIVES!

I am still amazed in Second Life when I teleport home and land on Dragonhenge, my own sim. I really wanted the name changed when I rented my own openspace sim, even though Dragonhenge is part of the dAlliez estates. I've lived now for over a year in the estates and Alliez is a wonderful landlord. She's quite tolerant of me, and really helped me get settled on the island. :)

Dragonhenge came as a ready-made caldera sim, sorta. The caldera part is only about 75% complete, and it is smoother than what you expect - you can walk on the ridge easily. In the middle, the caldera ridge comes down on both sides to ground level, so you can walk through the ridge, if that makes any sense. You kinda have to see it. (And you can - Dragonhenge is in Search, although I do have a security orb at my home to prevent things, like the large ant that came and crawled on top of me one day, from invading.)

My beach house, built by Roundog Tonic over two years ago, is on the only large level area of Dragonhenge, which is at the mouth of the caldera. As you walk outside, you see a terrain path through the canal that goes through the center of the caldera. The path leads to a circular area in the middle of the caldera, which has an enormous treehouse in it.

My observatory, the Codex Observatory, built by Noelyci Ingmann (of Ingmann Designs) sits on one side of the caldera ridge. Behind it, for now, is a second ridge, thin and jagged intentionally, at the edge of the island. I left water running through the area between the caldera ridge and this second ridge. This is where I hope someday Wyrm Delve (my enormous dragon cavern, built by Maximx Sansome originally on the Hostel sim, before the sim got silly) will live again. Right now it looks a bit odd, but I did want to try my hand at terraforming.

Dragonhenge is still a work in progress. I need to add some landscaping, and perhaps some furnishings in the treehouse. But I love the look - it is so peaceful. This is the third or fourth place I've put my beach house down...I just love it. Roundog totally captured what I wanted.

I love my island. I hope to have many more Ode butterfly hunts on it. :) Come look at it anytime!

Endless Nights - here we must remain

It was a dark and stormy night....

And the nights go on forever. No matter how long we wait, the sun never arises here in this place. The forest is always in shadow, the fortress continuously glowers at the moon, and IT is always out there waiting...plotting...looking for weakness.

Only the strong can transcend the black cloud that enshrouds our world; only the faithful can create the rituals that must be completed to free our souls; only the pure of heart can stand up to the blackness that seeks to destroy all.

Are you one of those that can stand up to IT? Or has IT already darkened your heart, pushing you further and further into the darkness? Are you predator - or prey?

We seek refuge together in our inspiration point, and seek sanctuary constantly from that which infuses our souls with dread. Yet here we must remain, until IT is conquered....here, in this Endless Night.

Can YOU Bring Back the Light?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, it's true - we're setting up an RP sim! This one is going to be different than any I've visited in SL, though. Our primary goal is as low-lag as is humanly (or dragonly) possible. To that end, Noelyci Ingmann, a close friend and owner of Ingmann Design Group, is doing then entire sim build. He has captured the time rift we want in the sim, and is taking some of his amazingly low-prim prefab buildings and tweaking them in such cool ways. He's also doing some custom builds for us - this will be, besides a great RP sim, a showcase of his works.

So far, we have almost all the builds in place - not the furnishings, or the details, of course, but the BIG stuff. And we're barely over 3000 prims! The only way I've gotten the sim script performance over 15K-ish is by firing weapons, or loading my DCS meter. :) Now, I know it will be higher than that when we have more avatars floating around, but for a baseline, it's as good as I could dream for.

To date, we have a mutant cave, a supernatural commune-style outpost, one of the most beautiful churches in SL for our angels with a path to Heaven, a portal to Hell, castles (of course!), an arena that will be used for tournaments and such, the courthouse with parking garage, an OOC roadhouse from a different time, townhouses, cottages....I'm just amazed at what is out on the sim for so little primmage.

Then we have the hospital - the sight of the rift that keeps us in Endless Nights. You can tell something very bad happened there - the vibes are all wrong, and the glow is...disturbing. Heaven and Hell can be located if you look closely enough - and I've never seen anything quite like these places. (Hint: Look for portals.)

The sim is currently locked down for building, but if you are interested in a guided tour, IM me or Illyana Menges or Stevo Arkin (or Noelyci, but spare him, he's working his cute a** off nowadays on it!). I love to show off just the bare-bones sim.

If you want to sell your stuff there, and it's RP-related, talk to me or Illy. We plan to have only weapons vendors on the ground, behind the courthouse in a Diagonally-type area, and a place in the sky for other RP-related things like clothes, accessories, and just stuff. If lag goes up - vendors will be the first to go.

What kind of RP is on Endless Nights? That will be for the citizens to decide...sorta. :) We already have a few surprises planned. There will be magic...dragons, on occasion...combat...DCS monsters (but NOT the automated, grind-out-XP kind)...some RPC monsters, unlike what I've seen before...and as many other surprises as the staff can come up with.

But the bottom line will be this: Endless Nights will be fun, surprising and FAIR roleplay. The GMs will administer the rules - which will be sparse at first, and stay that way, we hope - to everyone equally. What little commerce is on the ground will be totally RP-related.

Are you interested in bringing back the Light? Can you help us escape? (Do you want to talk about being a GM in our sim?) Talk to anyone mentioned above...but remember, this will not be for the faint of heart.

And the nights go on forever.

The Virtual Hockey League - it's a blast!

A dear friend of mine in SL, Rusty Seisenbacher (bless his drow-y soul), somehow managed to convince me that I might enjoy playing hockey with him. I went to watch a game or two, and as usual, I can't just watch. With Rusty's urging and support, I bit the bullet and agreed to try something new.

Rusty plays in the Virtual Hockey League, SL's newest and by far the best hockey league in SL. I hear there's another one, but it couldn't be nearly this much fun! Anyway, I wanted to get on Rusty's team, the Brain Freeze, but was convinced that I should instead join the Sim Crashers. I'm still not sure why Montecore Babcock, the owner and commissioner of the league, wanted me on his team, but I was flattered. Silly me. ;)

So I find myself out on the ice in my new custom jersey with my name on it. For starters, I didn't know which side of the ice to be on. Did I mention I've been to one - count them, ONE - hockey game in my entire life? I could only see the puck because Monte scripted it to show particles. My crappy laptop (yes, a bit more whinging!) might show me where it was, but by the time I could move towards it, it was gone. The ONLY way I could get the puck was on the faceoffs (or facefoos, which really confused me at first). If I could grab the bloody thing and skate - at least my 5fps version of skating - and shoot fast enough, before anyone got close to me, there was a slight possibiity I could score. A couple of times I even scored in the correct goal, too!

So there I was, barely able to move, not knowing the rules, hardly able to see across the ice - and I'm playing anyway. It is a BLAST! I compare it to combat because of the intensity - when you are in mouselook chasing the puck, nothing else matters. It all goes away. Learning to fight with melee weapons with such a slow machine really has paid off for me. Now that I can move with the best of 'em, I can still use the focus required with that old system.

I have learned that size truly does matter in hockey. Poor Neit goes on major steroids when the jersey goes on, and can now check with the big boys. Monte goes elephant-sized when he guards the goal. The script takes into account avatar volume, so for once being a small-sized avatar is a total disadvantage. (As an aside, I was out dancing the other night with an old friend who tends to favour formal events, and was decked out in my finest. When it was time to play hockey, I asked if he wanted to see me in my uniform. So there, in the middle of the dance floor, still in Random's arms in a ballroom dance, I change into my hockey jersey and skates. I'll upload a picture soon!)

Monte and the rest of the Sim Crashers have been incredibly patient with me as I've learned da Roolz, and practiced checking (by crashing into everyone). Loren Fitzgerald and KK (Kealan Klata) have held my hand and tried hard not to laugh (not very successfully) as I've made the typical noob mistakes. Some of the players from the other teams have been a bit surprised now that my new 'puter allows me a bit more freedom lately. Beavis Beckham (who has hockey down to an art is and impossible to get by) even allowed that I have been getting a teeny bit better. Beth Milos, Nic Renegade, Bunyip Fanshaw, CyberShaman420 Alter, Sugar Zuhrah, so many others - all wonderful players in their own right - have been so supportive and just FUN to be around. You guys are fantastic! Thank you for all your help.

I have been impressed with the scripting for the hockey itself. Monte was the instigator for the whole league, and did a good chunk of the scripting himself. It's easy to use, works seamlessly, and has had amazingly few glitches that I've seen. For SL lately, that's amazing!

But the thing that has impressed me the most about the VHL is the lack of drama. It's a competitive sport, so there has to be some - but the drama has been almost entirely about the game itself. Tempers do flare, and decisions are contested...it's a part of the game. At least in SL, there's no real blood, and it's a good thing!

With Monte's guidance and calming influence, the folks in the VHL are some of the most fun, intelligent and solid people I have met in Second Life. Crises have been handled quietly and with style. All the people who have served as referees have been quietly authorative and shown their leadership.

All large endeavours, in any world, reflect the person who leads them. The VLH reflects the quiet dignity and leadership of Montecore Babcock. Thank you, Monte, for what you have done. It's a tribute to all the folks of SL that there are such enclaves of pure fun to be found. You've done an amazing job.

Now, having said *that*, playing hockey naked is not unheard of - thongs are more common though. ;) Come to Axenfall to watch a VHL game! I may have made it sound quiet and dignified - it is SO not. I double-dog dare ya!

While you're there, throw something at Rusty, if I can drag him back...he deserves it for getting me involved in yet *another* time-intensive, competitive activity. Thank you, Rusty, you grumpy drow, you. ;)

My new 'puter - what a beast!

Anyone that knows me inworld has heard me whinging about my old system. It was SO painful to do anything - windlight totally removed any chance of seeing anything decently, my graphics card just couldn't handle it. I annoyed myself with my whinging. It was way past time to do something about this situation. I started by ordering a Dell monitor - 22", pretty decent resolution, for $200ish. (I found out the hard way that you cannot run SL on a secondary monitor with my ATI video card - it turns the avatar black. That's yet another rant). Then came the next big step.

After much gnashing of teeth and reviewing of specs and reading of reviews, I finally found the MOMD (machine of my dreams), and ordered it - through Best Buy. It was a Gateway system - remember Gateway? At one time, you could see so many of those really cool cow boxes delivered by UPS, but lately...they're gone. So I thought, after a friend showed me this system, maybe - just maybe - Gateway is offering a teaser system to get a foothold back in the market. I wasn't the only one on the 'net that thought so, either. It was a solid system, spec-wise.

So I optimistically ordered this lovely system from Best Buy requesting in-store pickup. It was immediately backordered. I called all four local Best Buys (living in an area that is so heavily populated has to have a few benefits), and was told it either wasn't currently available (2 stores), it was backordered, or it didn't even exist. I waited a week, and called Best Buy to check the status, and was told it was still going to be available, so I tried to be patient.

Then I noticed that after I'd called, someone cleverly added shipping costs to my order. Since it was supposed to be in-store pickup, they had told me it would be shipped for free. I called back. They removed the shipping charges after much discussion (it wasn't pretty), but then told me chances were slim that the system would be delivered. I chose to wait some more.

After a few days, I noticed that Best Buy had reserved the money on my credit card. I took this as a good sign. They didn't take the money, though - it was just authorised. So after another few days, I called Best Buy back and was told that the system order had been cancelled. They promised I'd get the money deauthorised within a week if I cancelled that day.

I went ballistic.

When I used the phrase "bait and switch", I was told that Best Buy had never been in actual possession of my money. This response was so immediate, it was obvious why they did things the way they had. After having a rather heated discussion with one poor woman who had no other answers, I requested to speak to a supervisor. This person assured me he would do his best to get my money deauthorised (AFTER I requested his employee ID, of course). Within two days, my money was back.

So, back to square one. The company I work for is a Dell reseller, but the discount we get for a new system isn't that great. To top things off, the deadline to buy any new systems with XP instead of Vista had just passed. So I did what any good geek does - I went to the Dell Refurbished website.

I had looked here before ordering the Gateway system, and just not found anything that really struck my fancy. My needs weren't that great - at least 4Gb RAM, quad core, GeForce 8800GT-something dual cards, with at least 738M memory, and XP Pro if possible. I was hoping to get a decent sound card and harddrive capacity, but those could be added later if necessary. I decided the Dell XPS 630 was the perfect compromise.

Oh - did I mention I wanted all of this for around $1K? Hey, hope springs eternal. :)

So within ten minutes, I found a system that had everything I wanted, plus a few other things. I started digging deeper into the specs, and it was almost perfect - it wasn't a dual graphics card but had the capability. The sound card was a Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer, which was perfect. It also had a blue ray player, something nice but definitely not required. And best of all, it had XP Pro.

I was almost sold. Then I noticed, in the fine print....it's RED! Now how much of a sign does one need???

Thus was my beastie purchased. (It was a bit more than $1K - $1500ish.) When I got the confirmation, on Friday, June 27th, it gave me a receipt date of July 7th. I was SO excited! A real date! When I got another email the next day, the ship date had been moved to July 2-4. Since I was having it shipped to the office, that was perfect...I might get it for the 4th holiday! I remembered to tell Katie, our receptionist, that I was expecting a fairly large box, probably in a couple of days.

About an hour later, Katie came to my desk to tell my HUGE box was there. Yes - from ordering Friday afternoon, I had the system in my grubby hands on Monday afternoon, June 30!

So I took the machine home, unpacked from this enormous box, and plugged it in. The bloody thing has RUNNING LIGHTS! It looks like it was dropped from a mothership. When I powered it on, I got nothing on my new Dell monitor - nothing. What I did get was 6 beeps, so being the cybergeek I am, I looked up the beep code - video bios failure.

I cracked the case. Now, no new system is really yours until the case is cracked and something is moved around...it's the geek way of marking hardware (far preferable to the cat/dog way). I tried to reseat the video card - but ohmygod, the thing goes the entire length of the box, at least 18" (not that size always matters). I could not budge it.

There was only one thing left to do - call Dell. When I did, and got through the 38495 different phone options and got to a real person, I found out my system had shipped so quickly that my warranty wasn't on file. They were great, though, and after I read them at least a dozen different numbers, allowed that perhaps I had purchased this system.

After two hours of trying to unseat this beast of a video card - which I never completely did, since it's secure on BOTH ends, and I would have to remove an entire plastic case around the process area - and reseating it, it WORKED. Everything worked!

The next step was seeing what SL actually LOOKS like now - and WOW! I see why windlight is so popular, even if it eats low-end systems. Things were GLORIOUS!

I immediately took myself to the laggiest, most horribly-maintained sim I knew of in SL - Obsidian City. I could always guarantee that there would be an amazing amount of high-lag, useless scripted objects lying about there. I wanted a low-end frames-per-second (fps) baseline, and sure enough, I started at OC with less than 10fps. But I could MOVE! On my laptop, I usually averaged 3-4fps max there. I could walk around and look at the silliness far better now! (I'm now banned for pointing out the obvious, typical for that staff. What a shame...I just have to find another lagged-down sim to find my bottom-line worst case.)

Then I went to some of the sims I knew were low-lag, including Dragonhenge - and I saw over 100fps! I was in love. I still am!

The system works so well, I have to dial the graphics level UP to play hockey. I keep going through the walls into the stands, and overrunning the puck. Now, finding butterflies is SO much easier, so I am not complaining! But getting used to high performance is as interesting as it was to learn to function with low performance.

Bottom line - I love this system. It's not failed me yet. Best of all - no more whinging. I promise!

So much to say...TOO much to say!

It's hard to believe I've had nothing to say for over three months...okay, at least here I haven't said anything. I've been thinking why that is, and have come to a very simple conclusion.

I've had too much to say - and didn't know where to start!

So today I will remedy that. I will outline all the things that I want to talk about, and then later I can actually talk about them. What a concept! (All that time writing requirements has to pay off in all lives, right?)

Here's my list:

1. I HAVE A NEW COMPUTER! I blamed my old laptop on many many things, one of them being how hard it is to do more than one thing on it at a time. The poor thing is finally getting a rest, and is used as a reference. The specs, quickly: Dell XPS 630, 4Gb RAM, GeForce 8800GTX 738Mb, Intel® Core2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.40GHz,1066FSB), dual video card capable (and will be soon), and best of all - I've seen 100fps! Everything looks SO different. I can see the ocean - what a concept!

2. I play hockey now. Don't laugh - too long. :) It's a blast! The Virtual Hockey League, designed and run very well indeed by Montecore Babcock, is well-scripted and organised in an wonderfully friendly and easy-to-learn manner. Considering I wasn't even sure which side of the ice to play on at first, everyone has been so patient with me. At 5fps on my old system, playing hockey was about as easy as using Lotus 1-2-3 as a real-time data acquisition system. (Me? Geek? You betcha.) There will be a lot more about this soon as Season 2 for the VHL starts in August!

3. I have my own sim now - Dragonhenge! I woke up one day and realised...I'm paying for a quarter of an island sim already, and for just a few $US more, I could be on an open space sim. Thus was Dragonhenge reborn. Dragonhenge started on the island of Hostel, back when it was a fun place to be. Now, if I can just twist Maximx's arm into bringing back Wyrm Delve!

4. Along with a group of incredibly gifted and fun people, I am helping to create a new roleplay sim - Endless Nights. The sim name is "Endless Nights", and is currently locked down while we're building and creating. Noelyci Ingmann, of IDG Designs, is creating the entire build using some of his unique and ingenious builds. Illyana Menges is the primary driving force for the sim, with her indepth knowledge of roleplay and amazing list of friends. She's just a joy to work with. Stevo Arkin is the third partner in this endeavour, and will be helping in all aspects of creating and running the sim. Anyanka Bisiani will be guiding the sim-wide RP, Kooky Jetaime will be setting up and hosting the webpages for staff and citizens (and helping with Da Roolz - he is the Roolz Nazi!), and Shayna Senne will be helping us run the place. We're counting on help from many of our old (and new) friends to establish a low-lag, fair and fun place to play. It'll happen soon - we're shooting for a grand opening by the end of this month or early August.

5. If there is a god (and her sense of humour isn't TOO wicked) - I may be having not one, but TWO real-life musicians playing for me in Second Life at Max's White Orchid Club! One is a name most people who like classic folk/rock will recognise; the other is not quite as well known yet, but his jazz saxophone is truly amazing. I'm also bugging my friends in the Dreamscapes Project to let me stream them into Max's again. Stay tuned!

6. Butterfly hunts are FUN! If you never try anything else that I suggest here in this blog, try this one. There is only one way to earn your own Ode jewelry, a set of sets created by Random Calliope, and that is to find the butterflies that contain them. I've spent way too many hours lately looking for these bugs...I've almost listed "exterminator" on my cv! Random's jewelry always delights (ask to see it - I have most sets that are available, and 7 that are limited editions), but Ode stands alone. Again, having a very slow system was a great way to learn a LOT about SL, and ways to do things; now I can do them FAST. Come hunt these little critters with me sometime!

7. I'm now the Event Coordinator for the International Spaceflight Museum of Second Life. The ISM is dedicated to showcasing all aspects of spaceflight, including robotic exploration of the solar system, the history of rocket technology, manned spaceflight, and earth-orbiting satellites. If you want to sponsor a piece of space hardware that is represented at the museum, let me know and I'll tell you how.

8. I left the Saints of Hell Motorcycle Club. I would say I miss my friends there, but I talk to most of them still. Some things do run their course; I fear SoH is one of those things. When something goes from being fun to being commercial, it takes the joy out of it for me. I have a lot of good memories from the SoH club, and many many relationships that I cherish. Good luck to you all - and selling the sim is the wisest thing you could have done.


Well...I'll stop here. That should keep me off the street for awhile. I do believe I have way too many lives - both first and second. :) Stay tuned for details. Maybe now I can take one subject at a time and actually SAY something. ADHD and chickens - it's a bitch!

And the music never stops....

This last Saturday night, 5 April 2008, I had a wonderful live music event at my venue. Below is the text of the notecard given to all participants....I'll say more about the music in my next entry. It was fantastic! Grace was a lovely addition, Fable was sparkling as always, Song had some extraordinary moments (as he often does), and Chronic never fails to amaze me. :)

But I digress....the text follows:

Wecome to Max's White Orchid Club!

Enter through the tunnel in front of you (or behind you, depending). The builder and owner, Maximx Sansome, did his usual job of mixing up and down with water and ambience. Never just look around you in one of Maximx's builds, look every direction. You'll certainly miss something if you don't.

The club isn't really a club, it's more a live music venue that we use when the mood hits us. So far, we have had three events here, with a fourth scheduled - the first was a simulcast of a the Dreamscapes Project from Vienna, Virginia.

On April 5th, we will be welcoming four of the best musicians in Second Life - Grace McDunnough, Fable Sinatra, Song Clanger and Chronic Skronski. The format here is unique. Each performer will play for half an hour, then we repeat. That way more fans get to hear their favourite performers, the performers get to hear each other - and the results are sometimes quite spectacular. You'll understand after you hear.

Max's is proud to welcome Grace for her premiere here! Grace is an independent singer/songwriter from Atlanta, who draws her inspiration from an eclectic mix of folk, soul, rock and blues. Her style has been influenced by such diverse performers as Damien Rice, k. d. lang, Joan Armatrading and KT Tunstall. Her rich lyrics and powerful raw vocals always touch your soul.

Fable has been performing in SL for over a year, and has built up a wonderfully loyal following - for good reason! She's been called the goth sweetheart of folk, and it suits. Fable's talent as a songwriter continues to grow, as does her technical skills. She'll never have more heart - her songs are so full of it already, there's no more room! Fable is truly a delight to listen to.

Song Clanger never fails to surprise with his amazing song list - he plays some of the most obscure, yet wonderfully moving, covers in any life. From Pink Floyd to the Kinks to drinking songs to Guided By Voices, Song's mix of raw musical talent, whimsey and wrist-slitting intensity is always a delight. He is one of the most talented musicians in SL, and has been for over two years.

Chronic defies description - his range of talent keeps growing, to the delight of the fans who follow him, packing sims almost every time he plays. From breathtaking harmonies (yes, with himself) to indie covers to his own songs, his range is staggering. Even though Chronic claims to be a keyboardist, his guitar work is truly a joy to listen to. What can I say - it's CHRONIC! He'll be rocking us down as always.

The sign for Max's is also a dance machine - click it to dance. Walk anywhere in the club - it's a beautiful area! Danceballs are scattered throughout the club - in some cases, in some unusual areas. There is a bar area, a hot tub, a more private room - up top, of course - and a few other little surprises. (Hint - check the lily pads!)

Tonight's schedule (all in SL/PDT time):

3:00 - Grace
3:30 - Fable
4:00 - Song
4:30 - Chronic
5:00 - Grace
5:30 - Fable
6:00 - Song
6:30 - Chronic

Enjoy Max's, and come back anytime! We keep good music playing, and the danceballs are here to enjoy.

Neit Tackleberry

Transitions

Today marks two years I've been in Second Life. It's been quite the ride. I've met some truly wonderful people who have changed the course of my life. Several times, when my Darkness starts to get too deep to handle, I have hung onto the words of my friends here. If I had to do it all over, I'd change nothing.

(Just as an aside - yes, I digress - I am absolutely thrilled to see that Owen is back in SL, just days after I mention him in my blog! Coincidence? Probably - but who cares. :) I haven't gotten a chance to catch up with him yet, but we shall, very soon. )

Many thanks, again, to Garrett Larkham for my Rez Day tribute, published yesterday to my surprise. For one of the few times in my life (any life!), I was speechless. Garrett - well done. I'll say no more. :)

One of the things I've often been asked in SL is, what keeps you coming back. The obvious answer is, the people. However, it's more than that. SL is a microcosm that is an excellent analogy to, well, real life. Things happen faster here - some things are far more obvious, such as manipulation. Other things are just so much easier inworld than outside, like, say, moving from place to place. (How many times have you wished you could just teleport from work to home?)

Many come here with no idea what they are seeking. Some come to find a relationship, or for financial gain, or just to pass the time. Some are here to do the things they can no longer do in real life, for whatever reason. Some, like me, just stumble in here with no concept of what a virtual world can be. But for those that have stuck around for awhile, there is something in SL that fills some sort need we have that we don't know how to fill otherwise.

So it's not surprising that a large portion of the people in SL are in transition of some kind. I've seen relationships blossom and marriages crumble; I've watched people who are too afraid to get out of their house in real life blossom in SL and learn to handle interaction with people that they possibly never would have without SL. I've watched people move across oceans to be with someone they met inworld and found their happiness. Those are the extreme transitions. There are so many other kinds, though.

It took me awhile to understand what it is that draws me to certain people in SL, but others - while interesting and fun to be with - just don't touch me in the same way. It is, in a single word, transitions.

Maximx, my oldest SL friend, is truly one of the happiest people I have ever met. Don't get me wrong - he's happy, not perky. :) Whether he is my widdle dwagon angel trying to keep me on the straight and narrow, or working on his latest build or we're just out flying dragons, one thing is constant with him - the glass is always half-full...or in his case, more like 99% full.

But even Maximx has had some serious transitions to work through, and I believe that SL - and the friendships he's found in here - have helped him with that. He's certainly given me a unique look at how healthy people handle transitions. Some of his words to me are what have kept me sane these last two years, and I will hold onto them forever.

My own journey through SL has seen me leave graduate school after finally acknowledging that it wasn't where I wanted to be, and move across country to do something I've never tried before. I felt at one time that I had lost a very dear friend, but we found each other again, and are stronger in a different way for it. I have learned how to set some boundaries in SL that I never could in real life - and it has made a huge difference in my life.

I have grown as a person here in ways that I don't think I would have otherwise. My friends out there - thank you for what you have given me, and I hope we continue this journey together for a very long time.

Today, at the two-year mark, most of us are still in transition, and the end is a long ways off. But at least we are in this together.

And that, as has been said so much better by Robert Frost, has made all the difference.

Book Meme - modified

I'll warn you up front. I don't forward emails that promise eternal youth, psychic powers, or world peace. I don't want to know who of my friends loves me enough to send my emails out to twelve other people. And I won't tag people in blogs. :) It's a personal thing.

Now, having said that, I am going to shamelessly copy Garrett's book meme, and look on page 123 of the book nearest my computer. I need to find the fifth sentence, then copy the next three sentences.

The book is Extreme Sudoku. No - I'm not making that up. However, there are not five sentences on any page - much less page 123. So let's try again.

Oh wait - there is one. "Great Moments in Sex", by Cheryl Rilly. This was left from my year-long hosting of Sex Trivia in Extasia, which has been discontinued recently. Speaking of, I no longer have a viable venue for Sex Trivia - if anyone is interested in having me host it somewhere, just IM me. It's my own format, and it is unique to SL, as far as I know.

But I digress. (No - I won't say it.)

Page 123, fifth sentence - ah, here we go. So the next three sentences are:

"1954 The problem with seamless nylons is unsightly sagging around the ankles. When heat-shaping is introduced, Hanes raises a leg - actually two - to announce form-fitting hose. A happy model lies on her back, butt to the readers, her legs lifted in a wide V to show how well they fit, of course, while her skirt obeys gravity and reveals a stocking top."

And there you have it. :) That was fun. And no, no tagging, no nothing. :) Enjoy!

The letting go

I've been in Second Life almost two years now. I've had my times of hysteria, joy, depression, contentment and sloth. I've found out that people I thought I knew were total fantasies, existing only in the minds of some person I didn't know at all. I've met people who touched my life and made it much richer for a short time, then disappeared from my virtual radar for awhile.

Only a few times in SL have people that I felt I knew truly disappeared with no warning. One has, recently, and I find myself trying to figure out how to handle this emotionally.

My oldest SL friend, Maximx, disappeared for a number of months after we first got to know each other. He was building one day, then the next he just wasn't there. After a couple of months, he did come in and sell his land...I managed to miss him both times by minutes. He left me an offworld IM each time that he'd be gone for awhile but that we would talk. I held onto that, and after a number of months, he did come back inworld. We talked (and talked and talked) about all kinds of things, got closer on many levels, and eventually he came to visit me. We had a wonderful weekend seeing the sights of northern Alabama and southern Tennessee, including a visit to Miss Mary Bobo's. All this was done with the blessing of his wife, who I talked to while he was there. Some friends are for life....and some disappearances are justified and can be overcome. This virtual friend turned into someone that I have hugged, and I hope he and his family stay in my life for many years to come.

Another dear friend had a number of things happen coincidentally, and for whatever reason, left one day without saying anything to me, in spite of me trying everything I knew to talk to him. That was October 2006. He's been inworld once, to my knowledge, and I suspect won't be back. I think about the circumstances of that disappearance a lot, and try hard not to ever let anyone get that upset over misunderstandings - which I truly believe it was. If he is in here - I wish him the best, and hope he someday sees these words. I miss you, Owen.

Yet another 'friend' apparently made up an incredible string of misfortunes that befell him, finally ending with him not being able to afford an ISP to stay inworld. I held onto the belief, for way too long, that he wouldn't have lied to me about all these horrible things - much less to all the other people he was leaving that also believed in him. Yet time has proven that he never left SL at all, he's merely off on an alt being someone totally different than he presented himself to me. For me, he's turned into just another brick in the wall. I really hate being lied to.

Because of these experiences, and a few others not quite so extreme, I make a point of explaining how it affects me when someone disappears when we first start to connect. I believe in complete disclosure. Truth is so much easier - there's less to remember. Obviously, some cannot deal with the truth, and I need to take my oddly-shaded glasses off a bit earlier with those.

But I digress. (I do that a lot.)

The person that has disappeared this time had The Talk with me, quite intensely. He made a promise to me not to disappear without a word - not that I asked for that or expected it. So even though I know there were circumstances this time that would keep him out of SL for awhile, now that it's been over a month with no email or inworld communication, I'm left to wonder.....

How do I deal with this?

Here's my dilemma. Something serious may have happened. If so, I want to be there if at all possible to help with whatever transition there is. If I knew this was the case, I could wait a *very* long time, with no pressure or urgency.

Or, this person may have felt uncomfortable with his inworld life (involving me or not), and the circumstances that kept him away from SL may have been a convenient way to disengage, period. He could be on an alt - but that's not his style. (Yes, I am naive that way sometimes, but this time I do truly believe it.) If that's the case, the best thing I can do is....well.....disengage. For both our sakes.

So, the only real decision I have to make is, how long do I wait to let go emotionally? I'm not the type that can just decide one day that everything is overwith, if I care about someone. I need to *know* what is happening, and there is nothing I can do right now to find out.

I have no answers right now. Half of me hopes he'll show up tonight and tell me things are fine...of course. The other half of me wants to return all his things from my land and let all this angst go. Yet another half (!) knows that neither will happen, and I'll sit here, in limbo, and worry and wonder. This will continue until Something Changes.

If I could only make that change happen NOW...but alas, my magic wand is broken. I guess this is how patience is learned. I don't know what will change, but something will. It always has. The change may just be more scar tissue forming, I just never know.

*heavy sigh*

Please don't leave the people you care about wondering. Maybe SL is a 'just a game' to you. But to some of us, it is not - it is far more. It is a way to meet people and touch lives. The only way to earn respect is to show it. Consider that when you want to drop everything in here and leave.

Each of you has the right to leave. But I personally do not feel you have the right to leave those that care for you wondering if you are dead. We, as your friends, have the responsibility of respecting your wishes. So please, respect our feelings.

Besides, if you do leave me wondering like that, and I happen to run into you in any other world - virtual or not - I may be inclined to hunt you down and kill you, over and over, slowly. So be warned. (Yeah...I'm joking....sorta....)

Music in SL - an outsider's perspective

Today I've been ruminating on one of my favourite things - music. Since I now actually work for a living again (rather than going to graduate school, a rather masochistic thing in itself), I listen to music at work to filter out the stuff going on around me. I've started bringing my CDs to work to rip when I get bored with what I already have...eventually I'll have everything ripped.

Now, I'm no performer. I have taken many years of piano lessons, and played French horn in college - in concert band, marching band, brass choir and orchestra. So I know the terminology and the basics. I just don't have "It". I don't even know what "It" is - I just know that I've played with people that have "It", and I don't.

"It", to me, is a combination of some magical raw talent and the creativity to do something with it. One of my fellow horn players in college was absolutely amazing. If I had his talent, I'd never have done anything but play. Others had some part of "It", and on occasion everything came together and magic would happen.

But I digress. (I do that a lot.) Getting back to SL music.....

Only a few times in SL have I heard performers with "It". Every once in awhile, someone will do something - hit the right combination of notes, or create the right sound, or utter lyrics that somehow touch my heart - and magic happens. It is those performers that I keep going back to again and again, just waiting for that next time.

There is a reason that I have consistently hosted music shows with the same three performers - Fable, Song and Chronic. I know that with the three playing together, it is almost guaranteed that we'll have some of those magical moments. And, for some reason, each of them seems to play over and above their usual abilities when they play together.

Fable is a world unto herself. You just cannot be sad when Fable sings - you can hear the joy in her soul when she sings. I've watched her grow over the last year both as a person and a musician, and it has been a lovely trip. Her songwriting has matured wonderfully, and her guitar work is magnitudes better now than when she started. Her first gig on SL was for me, at my home venue way back when, with Song and Chronic. She even crashed my sim! (I'll remember that hot air balloon for a LONG time!)

But in particular, Song and Chronic seem to feed each other. They both enjoy obscure covers, and both are just incredible musicians; I could listen to just their guitar and be quite happy. The unusual format of the shows I host (30-minute alternating sets) came about because Song thought he and Chronic would feed each other, and he was spot on. I can hear how pumped they each get as the sets progress. This format is unique to SL, as far as I know. After the show in January, Chronic stayed at Max's and DJ'ed for all of us, introducing us to some totally new music. He was there for hours! We had a blast.

Another thing that I look forward to with these three musicians is the new things they play. I know that at any show I hear from Song or Chronic, there will be something in there that I have either never heard before, or heard very few times. Chronic is always creating something new, and one never ever knows what Song will cover next - both have surprised me over and over. Chronic has even played my beloved Emerson Lake and Palmer! From the Kinks to Guided By Voices to Syd Barrett...nothing is sacred. :)

This brings me back to music in SL in general. I go to a few shows as time permits, and I gotta tell ya - most of them sound the same. I hear the same covers, by the same performers, time and time again, and it's hard to distinguish. There are some really captivating musicians out there - Lyn Carlberg played for me last Sunday, and was fantastic, and Rocket Docherty has played for me a few times and has that magic, too - but the majority just don't....well....have "It". Maybe I'm just getting set in my ways, or perhaps I just expect something different than the hordes that attend these shows regularly - I dunno.

I'm not posting this to offend anyone. I do attend shows by various musicians when I can, just hoping for that "It" moment to hit. It may be that I'm not attending the *right* shows; if so, point me in a direction!

Oh...I cannot end this diatribe without one more quick plug for another group of musicians that have played for me once - their only time on SL so far. This is the Dreamscapes Project, which you can read about in great gory detail at http://www.thedreamscapesproject.com/. The funny-lookin' one in the front on that introduction page picture works just two desks away from me, which is why I got involved with 'em. Keith is an incredibly talented musician, and one of the most intelligent people I've met in a long time. He doesn't think outside the box; he just has no box. The group was playing at a local bar, and let me stream them into SL. In fact, they debuted Max's White Orchid Club on January 4th. It was a first for SL, and for the group too. I hope to get them back inworld someday soon...stay tuned, and I'll announce it here.

Neit Tales - It Begins

Yes, it's true. After two years in Second Life, I've given in to peer pressure and have started a blog.

Special thanks (and raspberries soon, I suspect) go to Garrett Larkham for giving me that final push. Garrett kinda/sorta, well, won me at an auction last Sunday, on the Saints of Hell sim, run by the biggest baddest virtual bikers in cyberspace during our 2008 Bike Week (still going on!). The world may never be the same again.

Now that I have Garrett looking for all the *good* music, and have explained butterfly hunts, how I got my new real-life job, and why all my experiences in SL are just as real to me as the requirements I'm writing at work...oh, and showed off my jewelry (created by Random Calliope, the second-best artist in SL, who created the lovely set I'm wearing in my profile picture) and my dragons (created by Daryth Kennedy, the best artist in SL, Fire is shown here)...maybe we'll actually find time for that date he won.

Then, that leaves the date I have with Rufus Afarensis, who was bidding against Garrett for me in the auction, and who I turned around and 'bought' for myself.

Having both of them at my live music event, at Max's White Orchid Club (built by Maximx Sansome, one of the best builders in SL and my oldest SL friend and now RL friend), on Sunday was great. Three of my favourite people in SL - Fable Sinatra, Song Clanger and Chronic Skronski - performed for us, along with a new addition, Lyn Carlsberg. They were amazing - as always. I think both Garrett and Rufus enjoyed the sim-maxed show.

I'm sure I'll have lots more to say soon, so stay tuned!