Easter Monday Fun and Games

Another day spent largely at NCI, Kuula. I sat down to bemoan my lack of luck finding a suitable texture for a building I had planned and Muttenchops suggested I make the textures myself. Pathetically I admit that the technology and skills did not have existence at my domicile so Mutten offered to do it for me. While distracted from the goings on in Kuula, Mutten was unaware that Eric was taking liberties. Despite my protestations, Eric fancied Mutten up with a very fetching costume.
Mutten made me some very pretty fretwork and I thank him.... especially under the circumstances!!!
I ducked in and out of Kuula a few times and next time through a box of fireworks were being let off. Some crazy person... Punky?... figured you could ride the rockets. Well you would, wouldn't you? So we did!

Up...... up.....up!!!!

Down... down... down!!
Great view!

(That's me in the midst of the fireworks!)

SL doesn't give me this sort of accuracy, but allows it to itself! It deposited me and Theo on top of the arch over the main stage.

Knowing how bad I am at maneuvering, I knew that was going to be my one and only arrival at that point and so I lingered a while to be joined by Corcosman, Mutten, and Visciuspen.

I don't know why I find occasions like this so funny, but I do. My second childhood!

My last activity for the day was to join the Blitz! You know, I have talked about it so many times before.. some old... 40 prims, 40 minutes of building to a theme. Theme was spring. Having made a quilt in real life called seasons and the whole theme being birdies, I figured to stick with what I knew. I came third and Immy won with a giant spring! I think my family of birds are wayyy cute. But I did have to do a bit of trimming on the tree to get it back under 40 prims!

Neck Deep in IMs

Hmmmm
You know when you first join SL you pass a lot of people doing nothing. You wonder to yourself "are they off getting a cup of tea?"
Most likely not.
Most likely they are neck deep in IMs.
You've been in SL a little while? You know what I mean. Today at Kuula Eric cried out that he had 12 windows open - so I know it isn't just me.
And the more windows I have open the more likely I am to type in the wrong one!
The stress is building...

Remember earlier I told you I don't do parties in RL? Well it means that up to now, I have pretty much dealt with one on one situations... or very small groups. So this mass of windows is taking me some where I haven't gone before and I fear today I stuffed it up.

Overwhelmed and terse I was. Oh dear. And IMing isn't the best form of communication anyway. Audrey waits for the next time to see which friendships have survived!

Tagged

Have you seen tagging before? Basically it's a chain letter.. some one hits you and you are supposed to pass it on to seven more after first revealing 7 unusual facts about yourself.... My RL self got tagged not so long ago and I dealt with it well enough but now my SL has been tagged and I am not at all sure that I have 7 things that could (or maybe should) be revealed!

Phew:
Ok.... where to start?
1. Audrey loves crowds. This is a whole new experience as in RL I have hearing difficulties and crowd are not an option. Parties in RL are not fun. So Audrey loves having these opportunities. The only downside is that I am actually quite unused to them and can get a little lost. Still having fun, but calmly rather than ecstatically,
2. Audrey acts dumb. I don't know why. Underneath she is pure cunning but meanwhile we have to survive some really witless moments. Sometimes I am going to be seething mad when I get treated like an idiot. But knowing the completely stupid things that I get myself into, I understand why people think I am clueless.
3. Did you know that prim conscious building comes with land ownership. Once I couldn't have cared less about the number of prims in a build. Now however I am running out of spare prims and I have to face the harsh reality of economy.
4. Clutching at straws...I played Muse music behind SL everyday for a month so that now I can't double click the SL icon without singing Super Massive black Hole.
5. My motto is that I would rather have something crummy I built myself than use something made by some one else. Pigheaded, but that's just the way it is. Sorry!
6. I am afraid of scultpies.
7. I know how to say goodnight in Welsh and Indonesian- handy or what! So I am ready for multicultural second life. I have met one welshman but no Indonesians. I am wondering often why SL is over run with anglo-saxons. Being one myself, I look for variety in others.

OK... Lukos, you are tagged..... and anyone else, if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged! Leave a comment so I know which blogs to go and read!

Silverchair

Nothing to do with SL... at all
just can't help but listen to this song. It makes my heart hurt it is so sad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcwBfMHtmrs

The nature of things......

Unlike those who came to SL for parties (sex balls! o.o) or to make money or to script or to further their gaming life, I came to SL to play with people. Chat. Talk and be involved in other lives.

Lately I have said, maybe too often, that I love reading profiles. I love to know what people want you to know. And I find it fascinating what people don't want you to know. I regularly check people's profiles to see if they have been updated too. I alter as little as a single word in mine sometimes. Just to change a nuance if I feel something has had a subtle shift. And I watch for those kinds of changes in the people around me.

So I am loving meeting and getting to know people in SL.

While I even enjoy watching people I don't much like, it has been enormously satisfying building up a list of people who I really do like and a subset of those who are now my friends. Real friends and not just names on my "Friends List".

Some points on relationships in SL and me:

• People in Real Life don't understand SL relationships
  
• I don't "get" marriage in SL
  
• I can't make relationships in SL fit the mould of RL relationships

So if I say.. one of my friends is furry and wears a nappy, I am expecting there to be consternation in RL. I don't expect that they will get it and please don't tell my mum!

Now, on marriage in SL. I just don't understand. What is it?
A promise of ...
a commitment to....
an acknowledgment of......
Maybe it isn't one thing for everyone. And perhaps that is why I don't understand it because there isn't an across the board definition to apply. From my perspective, with lots of years of real life marriage under my belt, I don't see a place for marriage for me in SL. Not using any of my RL definitions anyway. I guess having been married so long in one life, I am really enjoying being myself in this SL. But maybe I am just bringing too much RL to this?

And trying to fit some of the relationships in SL into one of the familiar boxes of rl has really caused me a lot of bother. So in a flying leap of faith, I have stopped trying!

Here is Lukos... he is my friend...the sort that doesn't fit into any kind of box I came into SL armed with but worth so much!

Glengarry

Glengarry is transformed!

Interesting how I had put a mental map onto the geography that was nothing like the final product.
I imagined a rough Scott wilderness with houses perched on the edge of cliffs. Instead it is a cozy neighbourhood with houses nestled amongst huge trees and high hills.
There are some wonderful places where houses will perch and I am extremely envious of the people who have found those places for themselves.

Caledon Glengarry

Wow! I woke up just in time to see the brand new Caledon Glengarry. When I first TPed in, there was a sunken depression, below sea level. A grid marked with a texture indicating the shape appeared and then I ran off to get breakfast. I left Lukos to supervise the Guvnah with the new installation. By the time I returned an enormous sculpty hill covered the island and was looking very dramatic and rugged. This more finished looking island evolved from that.
Later Lukos took me on Muttenchop's sandwich plane for a flight over the finished form. Sandwich flying is fun.
I popped back this morning and so far only one person has moved in, even thought the entire island was pre-booked. Maybe it takes a while for all the buying and renting to sort?

Completely different subject:
AM Radio!

I have read a few blogs about AM Radio's builds so I went to have a look myself. Not as big as I expected but still lovely. I am no wordsmith, so lovely is pretty much all I am good for, but it was more than that. Serene and golden.
I approached the cabin of the train and within there was a pencil poised to write. One click and I was transfixed by a shaft of light above the train.

A religious moment, almost

Boat Building

Winterfell is a dark place.... not usually this dark though!

Progress report!
There is a boat now at my dock.
I don't know that it is a finished item though.
I am still tweaking. Actually, not so much tweaking as pulling walls down. I am still thinking about what to do but it will do for the moment.
Looking for a name for her... suggestions?
Will need to have a naming party and a bottle of champagnes to crash on her bow...

This week's Blitz

I didn't make it home to start this week's blitz, but it was great even without me!! Unbelievable!
Spot of bad photography, but I missed the petri dish at the bottom of Luko's microscope...

Building Blitz

I just love the Blitz.
There are no two ways about it.

The saddest thing though is that I miss the beginning of it now unless there is some other kind of disturbance in the scheme of life. Last week as I had a cold, I was at home and ready to build. It really was a very fun afternoon.
The theme was "Movies" as it was Oscar time. I was stumped. As usual I called on my brains trust.. the kids.. and was instructed to build Nemo. Seemed as good an idea as any other.
All around me there was much activity and I had not time to appreciate the marvelous things that were being summoned from the ether.
Finally time was up! I linked the last shreds of seaweed and I had hit the ceiling of 40 prims, the maximum allowed in the NCI building Blitz. I had put a script into the watery screen and the seaweed was made of flexi cylinders so they moved around in the SL breeze.

Probably not my best build but really just plain and simple fun! There was then the tense pause while voting takes place, the inevitable break as Heiko comes back from a crash and then the winners were announced. I came second to Rowans hilarious damsel in distress scene.

Once the show was over, there was still more fun as everyone explored the builds and played in them. It is possible to forget that this the grownups grid :)

Here are Visciouspen, myself watching the nautilus chat with Nemo and Lorimae. Lukos is sitting on Nemo. Was it Sal in the shell?

You can see Visciouspen's Mutten TV behind Nemo and Lorimae's Alice scene to the left, and the Titanic to the right.In front is Sodovan acting villainously while Rowan is tied to her railway line.
After that, there was a significant amount of role play as various became ensnared with those fateful tracks.
First Lukos.. attacked by many small girls and a rodent....
then it is Mutten's turn. Viscious, dressed to save, seems casually indifferent to Mutten's plight.