Thursday, July 16, 2009

SL Relay for Life 2009 - Challenge to my friends



This year's theme is "One World, One Hope"

***We beat our goal of a quarter million US dollars - I don't know the final figures yet. There is still money trickling in, even the Relay special Linden bear will still be available until the end of the month. It comes in Large, Medium, and Small.

Here is the map about a third of the way through the first lap, the survivors' & caregivers' lap.
Who hasn't been touched, directly or indirectly, by cancer?
I don't often solicit from my friends, however, for those of you who would like
to support me in my goal of helping out in some small way - I'm challenging myself to not only support this cause but let others know about it - it's the only charity I
am aware of in Second Life where the organization itself has a strong presence inworld and ensures that donations go through officially-sanctioned kiosks, that spreads the moneys taken in from inworld efforts around the globe even though the organization itself is in the USA. This even though it is a US-based organization.
I had already lost my mother, several friends, and even pets to this disease,
and know others who are currently fighting. During the 2008 Relay in SL, I
started running the RFL track seriously after speaking with a friend who was
battling cancer at the time and dropped in to visit. She has since lost her
battle. I was angry at the disease then, and am angrier now. So I will cheer
on the survivors and caregivers in their first lap, and then run my avatar from
start to finish, as long and far as I can.
If you wish to support me in this, drop by the Relay SIMS during the event this
coming weekend. Explore the amazing builds in the sims, play the games, listen
to the music, light the luminaria, drop Lindens in the kiosks if you can. I will be doing the same, and running the track as well.

The photo is the Raiders campsite - just one of countless amazing builds to explore on the relay sims.
And if you'd like to, help me know that I'm not running just out of anger - if
there's a website posting during the event of runners and their placement, I'll
keep track of how I'm doing. If I finish in the top 100, add a little extra to
your donation. Perhaps a multiple of the difference between the 101st place and
my actual finish. Something like:

PlacementPotential Donation choices in Lindens
100110100
99 2 20 200
983 30300
97 4 40 400
96 550 500
.
.
.
.

4
979709700

3
98 980 9800

2
99 990 9900

1
100 100010000

I should warn you that I came in 18th last year without starting with the goal
of doing the entire thing. On the other hand, I expect a lot more people to
take part this year.

Stats are being posted here: http://slrfl.maintree.com/ - The thought that
some of you may wish me well in this will keep me going!

***Post-relay update - I made 11th :-) (my goal was somewhere in the top 100)

Thanks muchly, my friends :-)

Monday, June 8, 2009

Montreal Musician's Meetup

July 24/25 on the west end of Montreal.

I've set up a few information pages with maps and other useful items, but for those interested in coming to the rl event, registration forms and up-to-date notifications are distributed through a Subscribe-o-Matic group that has been set up for anyone who would like to be kept updated. You're welcome to join this group whether you plan to come or not; it will not take up one of your SL group slots.

You can find subscription kiosks inworld at Mocha Fey in Nitida , on the Nitida Ridge stage, at HIPS, and at some of the concerts given by attending musicians.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

An explosive time


Take a few bricks and boards, shngles, panes of glass, beams, and a door - put them together painstakingly for a perfect little 5500-prim house - and what do people plan to do with it? Well, if they're a little crazy like me, Crap Mariner, Rush Gastel and SeanMcPherson Senior ...

Sean's video:




Crap has the "before" shots and the initial dropping of bricks and bits:







After a while it slowed down and stopped in a state of suspended animation - until Rush got the idea to pick up what was already on the ground - then the others started coming down.



Last but not least - thanks to Rush for 1) building this!  and 2) being a great sport and participating in the destruction - and 3) building the lovely dancing waters that I placed in The Mists of Nitida quite a while ago.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The MusiCom

Toby and I have been working on a project together, called the MusiCom. I've been using it on the Ridge for a few weeks, and we've tested and tweaked it all along until we found it ready to demo to the world. I took it to the Show & Tell at Lummerland today, run by Barney Boomslang and Florenze Kerensky, and was delighted and surprised to snag 4th place with it - among some stunning builds our little tool did rather well. We're finding it quite useful; hopefully others will as well.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day

Some silliness on the Ridge for this week -

And a photo that somehow turned out rather well:

Monday, February 9, 2009

MusiCom - Message display and stream manager

Today, Toby Lancaster posted on SLMC:
Inspired by an idea from Montian Gilruth, Bree Birke and I have designed and built MusiCom; a message display and stream management device for venue hosts and performers.
When a live music concert is put on in SL, there is a familar sequence of events where the performer seeks confirmation from the audience that they can be heard. If the audience is very talkative or using chat gestures in open chat, or if several IMs are coming in at once, messages may get missed. This is where the MusiCom comes in. Its primary function is to communicate with the musician, and provide necessary information in an easy-to-see and prominent manner.

There are three components to the MusiCom:
The main communications unit is intended to sit on the stage like a stage monitor. It has a pair of textured surfaces that face the musician. It is accompanied by a RELAY unit which is required for stream setting functions. Copies of the RELAY can be used in the case of multi-sim/parcel venues. There is also an optional musician HUD.
The MusiCom menu provides options to set streams or radio stations (stored on notecards). Appropriate messages are displayed on the MusiCom indicating to the performer whether the stream is "Off", "Stand By" (telling the performer to start streaming) or "On Air" informing the performer that they can be heard. There is also an option to display additional important messages to the performer, e.g. "Too Quiet", "Too Loud", "Some Distortion", "No Sound", "Check IM" etc.


The MusiCom can be purchased for 998L$ at our new shop TBC, near The Comfort Zone.
Partial screenshots above show Toby and Djai Skjellerup with the HUD onscreen, and the main unit on the ground - though I don't think I've ever heard Djai too quiet ;-) .

Friday, January 16, 2009

Speedbuild on Little Blue Island sandbox

Not easy for me to get to since it starts before I finish work - even when I *plan* to quit early by making up the time ahead of time ...




.... but always fun to watch!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Downtime

Actually, nobody was feeling down - just hadn't been inworld a whole lot for a few days because I had a late visit from Santa over the last part of the holiday.

It's always nice when your Second Life friends turn out to be pretty much the same in real life - or better :-)

Concerts on the Ridge tonight - it will be fun!