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!

Lighthouse Beam

Aim: Install lighthouse light with rotating beam
Resources: Linden Building tools, free scripts from NCI and the human resources at NCI
Action: Take particles scripting class. Learn how to script a beam of light. Install and add script for rotation.
Project Status: Completed

Ha! As if it would be that easy.

I took the class and it was a lot of fun, but it did not cover making steady beam of light. Neverthe less I learnt that there were plenty of parameters to explore. So I did. For a day. Without success.
Marious then gave me a hand. With a copy of his green lazer, I stood on the hill at Wyre and spent another day. Still I did not have a crisp beam of light. I am now facing the likehood that particles never were the way to go!

So I decided to skip the particles and instead use a textured cone with a texture animation script. Tadah! Very acceptable.

Installed it. Happiness! I stood on the ground and appreciated the view. Then I ran up the stairs to enjoy the view from the top.
THUD!
I couldn't get off the ramp. Thud..... thud.... I flew up a bit and was able to manuever out onto the deck, but then I couldn't walk around the deck.
I looked. Thought. Worried. Then noticed that someone was at Nox's so I flew over for some advice.
We considered it likely that it was the ghost of bits I had just moved around and Nox suggested asking Otenth to restart the sim.

Oblidgingly, he did.
But it didn't work. I IMed Aley but she was off line. I dragged Corcosman over to check that I wasn't imagining it.

More thinking. I decided that it seemed that the computer was somehow remembering where the beam sat in edit mode, even though it was now rotating. So I uninstalled it. And yes I could move easy once more. More thinking. If I make the beam a phantom... then it shouldn't do it again.

Viola!

It worked. Shortly after, Aley IMed me with the explanation.

It turns out that this script for rotation is client based only. It is seen to be moving, but in fact the object is where it was left rezzed. So making it a phantom is the only way to go!
Of course everyone I dragged into this probably would have expected that I had made it a phantom in the first place...but I didn't know! Honest! I need a course in when to use the various categories of prim. Something like "From Physical to Phantom"

Don't you feel sorry for those people I drag into these adventures? In the interests of my belief in "passing it on", feel free to contact me if you would like a free, functioning lighthouse beam!