rolanni | Entries tagged with sl

The Second Life interview went very well last night. Missed it? You can view it on the Second Life Cable Network

Y'all remember to come on by the Friends of Liad Park in Second Life, starting at 1 p.m. EDT this afternoon -- that's 10 AM Second Life Time -- and at 1 PM and 7 PM on Sunday, in a sort of online RelaxaCon.

New to Second Life? Don't know where the heck the Friends of Liad Park is? IM Elan Neruda or Kit Jimenez and we'll teleport you in.

The Second Life is our last known professional appearance for quite some while, so come in, hang out, chat, and have a good time!

And, lest we forget the Social Niceties: Spaceship meme nipped from

dancinghorse ( below the cut )

Current Mood: entertaining
Current Location: Friends of Liad Park, Clay, SL

I have been sucked into the vortex of getting ready for the con. I had hoped to put it off until I'd knocked off another thousand words or so in the WIP and gotten to a better continuing place -- but, no. As I write, the washer is washing, the cats are sulking, and various items of intimate apparel are strewn around the bedroom, in search of a good carry-on.

One of the things I adore about SL is the certainty that you will sooner or later write a sentence like this one: "When Elan has a chance, ask him to drop by the carousel, click on the flamingo and see what he gets."

Which leaves as an exercise for the student what one ought to get for clicking on a flamingo.

Outside my RL office, a cardinal, a nuthatch and what looks to be a junco (don't juncos go Away for the summer?) are sheltering from the drizzle inside the pine tree...

Current Mood: hyper
Current Location: On the edge of the vortex

...I see that Dulsey's appointment to have her stitches removed interferes with the appointment between SRM Publisher's bookkeeper and the accountant. Note to self: Call and reschedule Dulsey's appointment for later on Tuesday-next. Also? Win the lottery and buy a second vehicle.

In the service of the WIP, I needed to find out when the commercial fishing boats go out, and what's fished in April -- shrimp, yes, but is there anything else? The dern marine resources page was no help at all. After much searching I found a phone number that actually worked, though it got me a hapless and confused woman in licensing, who at least made me feel better about my question ("I don't know the answers to those. I'm in licensing.") However, she was willing to transfer me to "The Colonel." I got his voicemail, of course, but I left a message, fully expecting never to hear from him ever in this lifetime -- and was pleasantly surprised to find a return call from him on the answering machine we returned from the afternoon's permutations. I'll try again tomorrow.

In SL, someone has bought the house directly behind Kit Jimenez' residence and constructed a -- I don't really know what it is, but it is, um, large. P'rhaps there's a Plan.

...there are geese going over the house right now, calling encouragement to each other...

Progress on the Book Without a Name

42,784 / 98,000
(43.7%)

Current Mood: content
Current Location: under the geese

We got the taxes back from the accountant this morning. We owe -- of course we owe; we're freelancers -- but in very small, manageable numbers. Since we used most of our tax money to pay for

kinzel's father's burial, this was mercy, indeed. Checks all written now, and ready to go out in tomorrow's mail. Phew.

SL was a series of maintenance chores. Removed a hoverboard that had crashed into the side of the carousel. Fixed the swing in the Tree Park, so now people can actually sit on it and swing. Don't know what was up with that; it was working fine yesterday. Placed another bench and did some shopping for a suitable cottage for that piece of extra land. Discovered that my fountain pen, which I had been leaving proudly out on my desk, contains 16 prims!!! which is more than the grandfather clock. The pen is now in inventory, to be brought out on state occasions only.

Kate's life is getting more interesting, one hopes in a coherent and thrilling manner; and now it's time for dinner and a catch up with

kinzel

g'nite.

Progress on the Book Without a Name

38,152 / 98,000
(38.9%)

Current Mood: relieved

OR...
Today, I Met a Guy

Y'all have probably read in RL media like Discover, and Wired, and Business Week how there's honest-to-ghod Real Life Money to be made in Second Life. There's at least one land baron who takes thousands -- that's plural -- of buck$ a week out of the game, converting Lindens (the in-game money) to US Dollars. The current exchange rate is L300=$1.00 which is worrying some virtual economists (the Linden is soft) -- but that's a surreal posting for another day. Today, I want to stick close by this "make real life dollars by playing a computer game" concept.

( Cut to spare those who don't wanna know )

Current Mood: tired

Had to take some time today to pack the backlogged SRM orders, which

kinzel then bore to the post office. Did some catch-up bookkeeping -- SRM's year ends tomorrow midnight! aaaaiiiiiieeeee.... -- and packed some more Crystal Dragons to be mailed tomorrow. It looks like, with clear skies and a tailwind, we'll have the last of the pre-ordered books in the mail by the middle of next week. And we thank you all for your patience.

In SL, the Second Childhood Park Association has opened another public park. If you're ever in Boreal, stop by 105.162.119, and relax by the waterfall.

I now have a working teleport loop -- from the new park to the carousel and back; and from the new park to Snippets! and back. Go, me.

Got a very rough chapter out -- and this is a Good Thing. The precise nature of the action that takes place in this chapter is going to have to be recast; I know that. But I was letting the knowledge that I didn't know enough to properly write this chapter yet stop me from getting to the other side of it. Now that I'm on the other side, I can continue with the story. And there was much rejoicing.

Progress on the Book Without a Name

36,291 / 98,000
(37.0%)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Current Location? Vat iss dis?

The day was interrupted by a visit from an engineer attached to the Maine State Department of Environment /P/e/r/s/e/c/u/t/i/o/n Protection, bearing the happy news that the remediation building on our property (aka, the Ice Cream Stand) is at long last Going Away. DEP has been with us since we bought this house -- some fourteen years ago. At that time, they estimated that the remediation (gas tanks left in the ground rotted through, gas got into the groundwater and lurked in pockets deep inside the busted up shale that is our land) would take six months. Fourteen years later, they're looking at being out of here by the end of the summer. Qualified Huzzah! (Unqualified Huzzahs forthcoming when the damn' building is gone and all the test wells are filled in. Call me an Attitude Case.)

Some books were mailed at Unity, some more were packed to be mailed tomorrow, some writing was done, and some minor dinking around in SL -- I bought out my neighbor, who apparently wasn't getting enough dwell to justify her free money scheme, for a very reasonable price. I'm thinking about planting a garden, though flowers are pretty expensive in SL...

We watched Howl's Moving Castle last night.

kinzel had never read the book, while I, based on manymany recommendations, had read it for the first time last year, and so was several times struck by the deviations of plot. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all.

Progress on the Book Without a Name

35,283 / 98,000
(36.0%)

EDITED to bring word count into alignment with reality.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: "Tennessee Stud," Ramblin' Jack Elliott

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