Spring Clean

In an effort to try and jump-start Spring, I've been having a general tidy-up of my vendor presence in-world.

Well, it was kind of enforced upon me on account of my hippoVendors refusing to deliver two items from any of my vendors, even after I'd checked permissions, reset and re-uploaded everything. So after some deliberation - and cursing that I've now got a costly hippoVend system gathering pixeldust in my inventory - I chose to switch to the Caspervend system.

And so far, I've been pleasantly surprised by it; it seems a very easy system to set up and use. the in-world instructions from the server and vendor units are pretty simple and the layout of the webpages is extremely manageable, nice and uncluttered. I bought the free version, which pays Casper a small fee on each transaction, but seeing as my sales are so low, I couldn't have justified (at least not in the immediate short-term) to pay out for the full system, especially with only having bought hippo no more than a year ago. So I've replaced my vendors at the Tiny Outpost at Orbiuna, my single units at Cynister and Elemental Motifs, whilst also taking the opportunity to move around my main store layout at Heron Shire wharf.

Funny Bunny Store on Heron Shire Wharf

In addition to the new vendors, I've also put out a single prim vendor containing all of my previous Tiny Swagtastic Weekend exclusives; TSW is a $50L offer that Tia Macbain and Dorian Longstaff run, whereby participating store owners put out an item for $50L for the weekend. I had a load of stuff that I put out on offer but never transferred to my main range, so thought I'd make use of a spare wall and throw out a vendor just for those few random items.

I also took the time to replace the items in my two Lucky Watermelons - actually Shep Korvin's popular Lucky Chairs, retextured to look like giant cut fruit. So the extremely popular Tiny Aviator Outfit and the Tiny Glockenspiel have both been put into retirement to be replaced with...well, you'll have to go and find out yourself!

Tinies Rising

Here's Petlove Petshop's finished video for the One Billion Rising campaign.

The tinies I helped gather together make a cameo at around the 2' 48" mark, but it's worth watching the whole thing. It's a very well put together piece and perfectly captures the breadth of different communities and cultures with SL.

Ladies Rising!

Oh, hello 2013!

So I managed to help organise a crowd for a video shoot today; Petlove Petshop and the Prim Perfect team are putting together an in-world video to support the One Billion Rising cause, to help raise awareness of anti-violence programs for women across the globe.

Petlove wanted part of her video to feature a Raglan tiny contingent, and I managed to pull together a few of our female Friends of the Shire to go and dance across the sandy dunes of Raglan Galaxy beach. It's happening right now, as I type this; but that's about as in-depth as my field reporting can go because I threw myself off the sim! I know guys can join in the dancing if they wanted but because Galaxy is only a Homestead sim anyway, there's a maximum of 20 avatar limit, and I didn't want me or some other stinky guy taking up a valuable spot!

The video will support the team's plans for February 14th when four sims will be given over for the day for dances; so hopefully I'll be able to update this when Petlove has the video edited together to give you some idea of that craziness that went down today. In the meantime, familiarise yourself with the cause by visiting the One Billion Rising In SL page!

Shifting Sands

I logged in the other day to pick up some notices and was alerted to a situation that was beginning to cause ripples amongst the Shires, and was asked my opinion on it. This was my response, on a notecard I wrote up and sent out to the groups of Raglan. It asks tinies to better 'police' themselves around the Raglan Shire sandbox - better know as the Silica Cubicle, or Silicube for short.

The Silicube Story

First, let's go BACK IN TIME...

*twinkly harp music*

A few years back, if you wanted to build things and learn about how Second Life worked and how you, as a resident, could help it grow, you'd find one of the numerous Linden sandboxes and go and torture prims in it all day long. You might start small, with a lampshade, then progress to a clickable lamp and then onto a clickable Eiffel Tower that fired fireworks out of the top of it. 

However, more often than not, your day would be constantly interrupted by others parking their jet fighters directly on top of your builds or introducing themselves with "hey bro i gona shoot u lol" and then trap you in a cage or attach a red cube to your head that did nothing but scream at you. Classy stuff.

So when Raglan appeared and started to attract many of the fabulous builders who still create here today, the idea was borne that they should have somewhere that they could build in peace, surrounded by like-minded people that they could share ideas with. Hence, a corner of Raglan Shire was cordoned off and became Raglan's very own sandbox: the Silicube.

*more twinkly harp music*

Back to the present!

The Silicube is one of the few constants in the Shire - it never changes; it's always that big square bit of land that doesn't move. That makes it a pretty good landmark to find and hang out in. But it also hasn't changed what it essentially is and what it was always intended to be: a place for builders.

Now, it would be misleading to say that that's all it's ever used for; we've sometimes used the space to hold one-off building events and it's the starting point for our amazing annual Mardi Gras parade. But that doesn't mean that it should be used as a race track or a party venue or a firing range ALL of the time, especially if someone is there trying to carefully figure out how to link two prims together. That stuff's important for anyone who wants to build anything - just ask anyone who ever goes to a Raglan U lesson.

So yes, you can use the Silicube to hang out in and chat with one another in or to show off your latest new favourite toy - but please be respectful of who else is around and what they're doing; they could be learning how to make your NEXT new favourite toy, and you're going to want them to get it right. 

The purpose of it was to illustrate to the residents that whilst the Silicube is a very convenient place to meet and hang out or rez items to show off, it's there for a specific purpose, should builders need an area to work in without fear of being griefed. I'm really proud of the fact that we have a publicly-accessible sandbox area; it reminds me very much of the one that used to be on Limbo in the Isle of Wyrms, a few years ago (if it still there; I must admit I have not ventured out that way for a while). That became my sandbox of choice, not only because it was large and had plenty of available space, but that it was populated by some incredibly talented people/dragons who had nothing but constructive ideas and suggestions to share. I probably learnt more in that sandbox in the few weeks that I could use it than I had in all the months I'd spent dodging missile silos or giant phalluses in Linden sandboxes.

So a situation that could've become bigger than it deserved to be was diffused pretty efficiently, but I'm more proud of the fact that a number of people chose to IM and congratulate me on writing it. Thanks tinies! Now, get back to building.

SIX

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.

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.

More maniacal than Jason and Freddy!

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.

Scandalous!

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.

Consider these DONE! Mwuahahaha!

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

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!

"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!