It has been nearly 3 years ...

... so I thought I should revive this blog. I'll begin by tieing it together with my last post, where I was getting ready to leave for the Montreal Musicians' Meetup.  If I want to relive it, or share it, I go to my YouTube channel where many, many hours of the music have been shared.  For a quick recap, these videos were taken at a get-together of Second Life musicians and their fans, in real life.  We were about 50 people, and had a glorious time! The backdrop of the stage was a Second Life screen, from the point of view of an avatar we had following the musicians from venue to venue where we streamed both audio and video from the real life event into Second Life - a true mixed-reality experience.Here's Montian Gilruth, the organizer of the event (I just helped a little!) - enjoy!

 

Montreal Musicians' Meetup - MMMv2.0

So, I've spent the better part of the day packing, tweaking, adjusting, posting, etc. etc. - and I think I'm ready!

Check Second Life search for individual listings - the fun begins on Saturday at 7am slt - but look out Friday night for some impromptu streaming from the dorms (maybe!)

Much more info on the blog: http://mmm-montrealbound.blogspot.com/

And yes, I'm bringing Jelly's sheep slippers!

Upcoming: RFL this weekend, and MMMv2.0 in Montreal!

Relay For Life in Second Life has now had several years of activity, each year breaking the record set by the last. Here is the schedule of themed laps as they will happen throughout the weekend. I went to the sims for a bit of a preview yesterday and the builds, as usual, are stunning!

Two weeks to go until MMMv2.0 - the Montreal Musicians' Meetup, which will be a wonderful time for all attendees, in both physical and virtual venues. Mixed reality, here we come!

Do you remember?

When I first joined Second Life, I was impressed. Not by the stability of the platform, but by the humour that Linden Labs displayed - when the grid was down, there was an image on the website of the "monkeys banging on the grid." Being able to laugh certainly increased my patience and tolerance, and helped me forgive those frequent outages (every Wednesday morning, as I recall.)

Not long afterwards, there was this story: 'Second Life' Sends Blogger Un-Cease-And-Desist Letter - the actual letter is published on The Trademark Blog - I thought, "wow, this is a pretty neat way to handle things." A line from that letter reads "Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humor, from which our lawyers receive no exception. "

Where has that sense of humour gone lately? Has anyone witnessed it recently? Does anyone else remember these things?

Just me, being pensive .... no answers, not even real or relevant questions ....

More question the next morning - what does this massive layoff situation do for the morale of the remaining staff?

All that Glitters

When I first bought that land up on the Ridge in Nitida, it was the hill that I was after - the land I already had was on the Euclidia side down that hill a ways, and ad parcels were still rampant on mainland - the major motivation for that purchase, when I discovered the entire Ridge was for sale, was to avoid having a line of highly prominent and visible advertisements spoiling the landscape above my little place. Walking along the crest of that hill for the first time, I came upon the "saddle" where it dips a bit - having joined SL for the music, and without having any previous intentions of actually running a live music venue - I felt that spot seemed to be crying for a venue. This was all before windlight, but I noticed the sky, and the sun, the altitude of the clouds, and their relation to the hill - some of those things I have no control over and that seem to add to the ambience of the place - and began to dream - or rather, free-associate, beginning with some questions.

What does the name mean?

The sim was named Nitida, and while trying to think of what else might make the Ridge special, I wondered what that might mean, if anything, to anyone. Being mainland, there are a lot of things there is no control over, including the name of the sim. It turns out that "nitida" is Latin for "shining," "bright," or "glittering" (Latin dictionary: http://www.latin-dictionary.org/nitida )

Why would someone name a piece of land "Nitida"?

When people come across new land in the real world, why do they give it the names that they do? Some name a new place they settle in after the old one they just left for nostalgic reasons. Some dub a new place they come across after something they see in the new place.

So what might be found in a hill that would make someone name it "shining" or

"glittering" ?

By now I guess you can see where my thinking went, when I researched photos of gold ore to discover that it's frequently found with quartz (so is iron pyrite) and took textures of granite and photos of quartz and pyrite that I found and blended them all into the rock textures that I ended up using all over the hill. There is more quartz and granite than anything, but if you look closely you'll see the glittering specks. Which ones are gold and which ones fool's gold? Hard to tell ;-)

Since adding the rocks, there have been trees and grasses and flowers, a couple of other "venues" and Twome's original tower that came with the ridge and that has a permanent place here. And there are seasons - but the pond in the saddle of the hill, *that* must be volcanically heated, since the area immediately around it is always green :-). As well as gold - that pond was my first venue tip jar, and still functions as such for those who remember. On the pebbles at the bottom of the pond you will see the coins, including some glittery gold, that have been tossed into the water.

The real treasure in this place is the music and the comradeship that happens here, during and outside of actual events - that goes without saying, but that and the magnetism that draws people here from time to time are not what prompted this reminiscence.

What prompted it is turtly fun. I wasn't even thinking about the Ridge when I hatched, as I do now and again, way more Petable Turtle eggs than I should, sometimes for obscure reasons that I can't remember, other times because they have special characteristics that I know I'll want to keep. I wasn't thinking about the Ridge when I named a glowshine "Foolsgold" - not just for his colour but for the foolishness of hatching yet another turtle. I wasn't thinking about the Ridge when I realized that there was a half dozen metallic gold eggs in my attractor, all shinies, whose father was Foolsgold and whose mother was a turtle I'd somehow missed naming - so I named her "Mother Lode."

Pretty as these eggs are, I wasn't thinking about the Ridge when I decided to trade in a lot of my existing turtles, and since Foolsgold and Mother Lode don't really fit into my breeding programme, they were slated to get traded too, after a period in the sale pond.

Well, they're not going in the sale pond. They're not getting traded. I finally realized where they belong. They, and the glittering nuggets they produce, are now a part of the Ridge magic, as they have joined a couple of 7Seas Koi in the pond in the saddle on the hill.

It's fun that the first 2 eggs laid in their new home were not only shines, but the first glowshines they have produced :-)

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:

Placement	Potential Donation choices in Lindens
100	1	10	100
99	2	20	200
98	3	30	300
97	4	40	400
96	5	50	500
.
.
.
.
4	97	970	9700
3	98	980	9800
2	99	990	9900
1	100	1000	10000

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 :-)

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.