rolanni | Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

kinzel and I aspire to open a Snippet Shop in Second Life (SL), there to push snippets of chapbooks into the hands of unsuspecting avatars, and thereby induce them to visit SRM Publisher's catalog page in Real Life (RL) and purchase lotsa stuff.

This is, at least, our Cunning Plan.

Which means that we have to make books that are readable in SL. Fortunately, someone else had already figured out how to do this -- several someones, apparently -- and the script is freely available. However, the conversion is not labor-free. In fact, it requires a good bit of hand-carrying stuff from RL to SL, which activity occasionally crashes my computer. Formatting needs to happen in-world and various permissions set, and a bunch of other noodling and toodling that is not, alas, First or even Fifth Nature with me yet.

What I'm saying here is that it takes me a Good Long Time to make a snippet book. However, I'm pleased to report that I have now made two booklets -- Changeling and Master Walk. At this rate, it will be Quite Some Time before the Snippet Store has enough stock to open, but I remain optimistic that I will get more nimble with time. Or perhaps find a way to automate.

In other SL news, I have become quite fond of the Independent Nation of Caledon. Not fond enough to shift house, but entirely fond enough to become a frequent visitor. You can find things in Caledon (a Victorian themed sim) that you can find nowhere else in SL. Anyone will sell you an in-world working laptop (eek!), but only in Caledon will you find a fountain pen. Digital clocks abound, but only at Smith and Tinker's in Caledon will you find grandfather clocks -- which Master Sprocket will kindly adjust to chime the half-hour and hour, at no extra charge. There are working telescopes to be had in Caledon. Oh, and an Adventurer's Club. It's quite wonderful. Do go, the next time you're in SL.

To return to our narrative, having begun early to make book in SL, I hithered myself to the post office, where another 50-odd Crystal Dragon orders went into the mail. After that, I finished making the book in SL, and rose into RL, where I took over packing books from

kinzel while he made us a wonderful salmon lunch.

Book packing done for the day, I repaired to my office, and wrote a few words. We're taking the evening off to watch a movie -- hmmm. I wonder which? Howl's Moving Castle, Third Rock from the Sun, or Cry of the Snow Lion... Choices, choices....

Progress on the Book Without a Name