It's my rezday today!
Yes, six years ago something inspired me to Google the words 'second life' and go to the trouble of setting up an account. I only wish I could remember what that something was... Maybe then I'd have an idea what my goal was.
Monday, 22 October 2012
Friday, 19 October 2012
Political Horror
One of the most fun features of Shocktober, both to see and contribute to, is the annual Haunted Ride of Horrors. It's exactly what you'd expect: an automated 'ghost train'-style ride that takes you through a bunch of horror-themed rooms, each of which has been decorated by a specific individual or team of people. I've been lucky enough to have grabbed rooms each year, often without an idea of what to furnish it with, but that tends to depend on which room I get. For example, the first year I got the last room the ride went through and turned it into a death valley canyon, with a sign indicating that beyond it was a 4000m drop (the ride is placed up high to reduce lag); there wasn't, but I liked the idea of tinies considering bailing out of the car at the last moment to avoid it.
This year I had to settle for one of the smaller, more central rooms. That's fine with me, but meant that I had to think of an idea that was fairly minimal but high impact, so the riders of the carts would be able to get the idea of what I was trying to convey; but of course, it's also got to be something quite horrible! It is a Halloween-themed ride after all! A lot of tinies plump for the traditional-style Halloween decor of blood pouring from the walls, giant spider webs dangling from dusty bookcases and ferocious tentacles shooting up from sewage, so I'm always challenging myself to come up with something radically different from the others.
And it seemed to me that one of the things that has got a lot of people frothing this year has been politics - specifically American politics, but only because UK politicians have been riding the 'feelgood factor' of the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics and therefore have either been able to bury bad news or have been too busy attending street parties to do any real work. Anyway, I digress. I figured a political-themed room would be exactly the thing someone would not want to see and have thrust in their face - just like a giant spider or severed head on a spike.
And here it is! A quite sparsely decorated room, featuring only (in terms of prims, at least) a copy of me as some sort of lunatic politician (are there any other sort?) at a podium, surrounded by select buzz slogans - my campaign slogan being "I have only my best interests at heart!" Of course these slogans add to the horror, by demanding that we do away with the things that make up the essence of tinydom.
My research consisted of me asking in Friends of Raglan Shire group chat, "what could you never give up as a tiny? What are the things that make us tiny?" and then set about destroying my respondent's hopes and desires in bold banners.
I'd recommend going to visit the ride at any time during October, if only to marvel at the exterior; it's a quite wonderful build. But I'd love for you to try the ride itself and take in the ghastly greatness that my fellow tinies have created. It's really quite brilliant and is about as close as we ever come to capturing the lightning in a bottle on this sort of small scale that is the brilliance of the Raglan Artisans. I'm always honoured to be amongst their ranks.
Here's your SLURL! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Heron%20Shire/91/75/4002
This year I had to settle for one of the smaller, more central rooms. That's fine with me, but meant that I had to think of an idea that was fairly minimal but high impact, so the riders of the carts would be able to get the idea of what I was trying to convey; but of course, it's also got to be something quite horrible! It is a Halloween-themed ride after all! A lot of tinies plump for the traditional-style Halloween decor of blood pouring from the walls, giant spider webs dangling from dusty bookcases and ferocious tentacles shooting up from sewage, so I'm always challenging myself to come up with something radically different from the others.
And it seemed to me that one of the things that has got a lot of people frothing this year has been politics - specifically American politics, but only because UK politicians have been riding the 'feelgood factor' of the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics and therefore have either been able to bury bad news or have been too busy attending street parties to do any real work. Anyway, I digress. I figured a political-themed room would be exactly the thing someone would not want to see and have thrust in their face - just like a giant spider or severed head on a spike.
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| More maniacal than Jason and Freddy! |
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| Scandalous! |
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| Consider these DONE! Mwuahahaha! |
Here's your SLURL! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Heron%20Shire/91/75/4002
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
The Dark Bun Rises
So it's Shocktober around the Shires. Yes, rather than limit Halloween-style havoc and ghoulish going's-on to just one night or weekend, Raglan tends to devote the entire 10th month to dressing up and scaring the bejeezus out of each other. Here's my outfit!
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| "I am Raglan Shire's reckoning!" |
Yes, of course, I'm Bane, the villain from the Batman comics and this year's Summer blockbuster smash The Dark Knight Rises - which, despite having taking millions at the box office, no-one around Raglan seems to have seen, as I keep being mistaken for Hannibal Lecter or Jason from Friday the 13th!
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