“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” ~ Maya Angelou

Last Thursday we had our monthly treat of live music at the Freudian Slip. I happened to snap two shots of the songbirds that I like enough to share.

The Girl:

Grace "The Wench" McDunnough -- Songbird of the Slip

The Boy:

Lyndon "The Closer" Heart -- Rocking It

I really need to get better about sticking to the “at least once per month” thing. I forget how much I enjoy Thursdays at the Slip until they happen.

Even if *some people* (who shall remain nameless, but whose names sound a lot like Mersephone Pilk and Vamys Juckovic) missed it.

We have no reason to harbor any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us. If it has terrors, they are our terrors; if it has abysses, these abysses belong to us; if there are dangers, we must try to love them. And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

So you mustn’t be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters To a Young Poet (Letter Eight: August 12, 1904)

Lately, my SIM, Seven Veils has been undergoing major changes. After six years, I’ve closed my texture store, Esprit Decor. I haven’t the desire nor inclination to keep the products from getting stale. While I’ll be keeping them on the marketplace, there are simply better things to be done with the real estate.

Case in point: Drakyn Statuary from Sax Shepherd Desings (whose creations are slowly taking over Seven Veils)

Chernobog Boneback Drakyn Statue From Sax Shepherd Designs

Each Drakyn statue is based on a creature of its own lore – like this Chernobog Boneback atop an ancient temple which is only twenty four prims and textured in a rich aged bronze. I love the spikes down the neck and spine and the fact that you can see the arm/wing skeletal structures that frame the webbing of the wings. The texture is magnificent, employing a mix of rust and patina effects and set to a very slight shine which lends the illusion of old metal that has been polished.

Tricerat Drakyn Sculpture From Sax Shepherd Designs

My next favorite is the Tricerat Drakyn on its floating island which casts its shadow on the ground below. This little trick is only eighteen prims (woot!) and textured in lavish sard (carnelian) which is complex, lush and vibrant. Like all the statuary by Sax, it’s modify so you can leave it floating, or incorporate it into a structure or fountain if needed. Sax also sell his textures in his shop so you can build complimenting structures and accessories, too.

And just because the from-a-distance shot doesn’t do the thing justice, here’s my closeup, Mr. DeMille:

Tricerat Drakyn Sculpture From Sax Shepherd Designs

As for what I’m wearing, I finally trotted over to Gizza where I haven’t shopped in (I want to say years, but that seems impossible) a very long time. Gizza tends to be hit and miss with me. Some items are tres delish while others just don’t hit the same quality in terms of prim work and/or texturing. And because their stuff is copy/no-trans I am cautious about what I buy because if I have to mess with it too much, it gets annoying to edit no-copy objects. Still, their prices tend to be quite fair for no-copy, so I don’t have a whole lot to complain about.

And sometimes they knock it out of the park; such as with this pairing that reached high on my squee-o-meter.

Gizza Fashion - Chiffon Shirt & Floral Jeans

The Chiffon Shirt and Stretch Jeans do not come as a set, so you have to find them separately (they’re on the second floor not too far from each other). As you can see, the colors are vibrant and the prims are very well done. I did a little fitting but didn’t have to fuss too much to get them happy on my shape. The textures are sumblime and unapologeticly feminine. The semi-transparent system layers on the top give you a flirty little glimpse of navel, while maintaining modesty, and the prim textures manage to be gauzy without that annoying trans flicker that is the bane of SL fashion existence (of course it helps with that to wear an updo). You can also see the detail in the photo, how the shading gives the perfect illusion of gathers and ripples in the delicate fabric.

Gizza Fashion - Chiffon Shirt & Floral Jeans

I don’t wear jeans a lot IRL, but when I do, I prefer them dark and these are perfect with a deep rich denim and light stitching to punctuate the seams. The floral patterns are bright and lovely and manage to be chic with a hint of throwback flower girl. The prim cuffs are well done, easy to fit and boast a lazy curve and fold that I prefer to a straight turn-up.

As sexy Summer casual goes, you can’t beat sweet chiffon and floral jeans — even if they don’t offer much protection against Boneback Drakyn spines.

Where Does She Get Those Wonderful Toys:

Chiffon Shirt [Pink Roses] – L$200
Stretch Jean [Pink Floral] – L$200
**GizzA**

http://slurl.com/secondlife/GizzA%20Creations/126/131/22

Chernobog Boneback Drakyn Statue – L$750
Marketplace
Tricerat Drakyn Sculpture – L$750
Marketplace
Sax Shepherd Designs – Here Be Drakyns

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seven%20Veils/64/207/21

Usual Suspects:
Shoes (Maitreya)
Hair (Truth)

Horse sense is a good judgment which keeps horses from betting on people. ~W.C. Fields

For a long time now, I have been talking about how creating/establishing things for people to do is an untapped gold mine waiting to happen in SL.

In 2008 (maybe a little sooner, maybe a little later, but generally around 2008) the majority of the Second Life population turned from geeks/inventors/creators into consumers. For better or worse doesn’t matter. It happened. Although some of these consumers try their hand at making horrible things and trying to sell them, they are not content creators in the realistic sense. Consumers look for things to do and things to buy. Fashion and wearables are the obvious winners in this category because avatar customization represents an independent market. You don’t have to own land to enjoy a pair of cute shoes. Furniture, houses, chess boards, music venues, etc are all dependent markets because you have to own some chunk of virtual space to make them happen.

Breedables are the closest thing SL has to a gaming market right now. Unless you’re completely ignoring all the hype being poured into this segment of the community, it’s hard to miss how much Linden Labs is thrilled to be able to show consumers there is something to do in their sadly lagging format. And although Breedables have been a dependent market up until this point, there’s reason to believe that tide may be about to start nudging into a turn.

Unfortunately, to date, Breedables in SL have been useless oddities to those of us with, say creativity or a useful sense of purpose (and/or any real gaming experience). So Breedables have been regulated to a niche community comprised of mostly (a) bored housewives and their virtual partners who consider taking care of make-believe pets to be a bonding experience, and (b) people who want to make money in SL but lack the commitment/skill to make anything of market value on their own. There’s a (c) which is just people who like to poke around with math and see if they can outwit the gene programming, but there are probably three of those geeks out there, so I don’t think they should count (you know who you are).

Most breedables are script-heavy, primmy, laggy, and money-grubbing — which is not attractive to anyone with a Minecraft/WOW/Eve account or even a 1970s pong machine.

At its best, a breedable should be part crafting, part neopet, and part lemonade stand. The current offerings (which include bunnies, fish, cats, dogs, horses, dragons, etc) are lackluster crafting games that make Cafe World look good. Their neopet pyramid scheme market models all seem to be based on trying to suck as much money out of users as they can while offering as little customer service and effort as possible (the “variety” in the products generally involves different shades of eyes that take two clicks in Photoshop, or making an object shiny, etc). As for the lemonade stand element, it’s just depressing. If you don’t believe me, go grab a friend and find a breedable auction. You can listen in voice to an “auctioneer” plead for people to buy a make-believe critter for two hours. TWO HOURS of people who can’t pronounce difficult words like “cyan” trying to convince you that you NEED to BUY THIS HORSE.

Despite this, however, everyone I know who is involved in breedables makes money in SL. Sometimes just enough to pay their tier, but I have one friend who made enough to purchase her own SIM. That’s an awful lot of make-believe critter money.

All of which brings us to Meeroos.

Meeroos are an interesting game changer. I haven’t messed around with my beta meeroos enough yet to decide if I want to play the game when it goes live, but I have seen enough to know that it sets up a whole new frontier in SL as a game and activity format. Several of the ideas being used by the Meeroos are things I’ve been talking to friends about for quite some time now and I’m happy to see them manifested into a real product.

While I think Meeroos still suffer from the “too many prims” disease of all breedable products, they’re moving in the right direction with grid-wide interaction and HUD-based controls. Eventually, this sort of activity shouldn’t require any in-world product, but this is a good bridge. The very primitive “trivia” minigame is also a good step and they’re tapping into the competitive gamer mindset with concepts like leveling and achievements. I could do without guilds, but the social-hungry segment of SL butterfly girls will be all over that, too. These small steps appear pretty tame by any real gamer standard, but in terms of SLers desperate for something to do, it’s hitting all the right notes.

And for those of you who keep crying about SL being a dying format, let me break out some numbers on you that illustrate the potential still to come:

***NOTE: All of the below is based on publicly available data from the Meeroo webstites and group notices. I have NO inside information from anyone to do with the product.***

Based on a group notice that went out to the Meeroo beta group, there were 17,000 Meeroos on the grid. That was with 1500 beta users NOT yet participating. Simple math tells us that means 2800 people are active in the beta (beta testers got 6 meeroos in their test packs and 17000/6 = 2833).

What kind of income could this translate to for the creators who invested in the project?

1. Pre-Orders
There is currently only one pre-order meeroo package available for sale and it’s priced at L$5100.

** If 1/4 of active beta testers have pre-ordered a package @ L$5100, Meeroos may have made L$3570000
(current exchange rate about $13,750USD).
** If 1/3 of active beta testers have pre-ordered a package @ L$5100, Meeroos may have made L$4760000
(current exchange rate about $18,500USD).
** If 1/2 of active beta testers have pre-ordered a package @ L$5100, Meeroos may have made L$7140000
(current exchange rate about $27,500USD).

2. Launch Packs.
I would think that around launch they’ll probably see people buying an extra pack / extra supplies and/or all the people who waited to get smaller packs in a rush. It is safe to assume another $10k – $15k.

3. Recurring Revenue (food)
1 basket of Nibbles for 1 Meeroo for 4 weeks = $L 225
1 buffet of Nibbles for 6 Meeroos for 4 weeks = $L 1200

Assuming 15000 meeroos in play that means a monthly income from Meeroo food and products between $10k and $13k.

Bottom line:
The Meeroo project should generate between $30k and $50k for the first two months and then between $10k and $15k every month after that. If they are able to convert the game into other formats and/or draw in outside users, that amount could skyrocket. (You don’t have to make WOW money to be happy as a game creator). I have no idea what their initial investments have been, but it still seems like this will end up being a win. SL’s one big strength is that we are a format that is micro-payment friendly and that will aid products like this. Few people will hesitate to drop L$225 on something that will entertain them.

These types of activity products also open up markets for supplement products. My tenants on Seven Veils create products for people who like to decorate habitats for breedables. Their products are purely decorative, but other stores offer scripted objects to make monitoring breedables easier, etc.

I know there is a lot of worry that this step could turn SL into a Farmville type atmosphere, but I don’t see that as a danger. There is already a Facebook and already a Farmville and they do their thing better than anyone in SL has yet offered. While I am happy to use SL to play paper dolls, attend concerts, and decorate my make-believe gardens, I welcome any other activities to keep an active userbase involved and keep the economy exploring new directions.

So, I’ll say it again (only a little more smug this time): activities and gaming offer a profitable new direction for creators to move in and develop new products for; it also gives the bored, frustrated consumer-based users of Second Life something to do outside of clubbing and shopping. There’s just no downside to dem apples.

“Go then. There are other worlds than these.” ~ Jake Chambers (via Stephen King), The Gunslinger

If you have not read Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga, nothing in this post will make sense to you.

I have been thinking a lot of the parallels between Second Life and the Tower, as well as the figure of Roland Deschain. At its root, the Tower represents the unattainable ideal — something hopelessly broken that seduces pilgrims with the promise that it may be set right again. Roland is both cursed and elevated in the all-consuming quest to believe in that promise. He sacrifices everything precious in the crusade. His nobility endears us to him as a figure of literature, but I sure as hell would not want to be part of his ka-tet.

Paladin and Utopian tropes press heavily upon idealists. We want to believe. At the same time, the world we live in has assured us that Paladins and Utopias are fools and false hopes. Don Quixote is beautiful in his tragedy for tilting at windmills, but he is also an old man on a broken down horse risking his life for nothing real. He stands no chance of lifting the world. His only victory lies in the fact that his worlds are within him and he may teach a handful of others to recognize that their worlds are within themselves as well.

Second Life is a virtual platform. It is not Utopia and never will be. All of the Paladins need to comes to terms with that. Tilting at windmills and questing after towers may seem noble, but it’s an awful lot of energy to waste on the impossible and you end up sacrificing a great deal of yourself and others chasing after smoke and mirrors. In the worst cases you become a demented gender-bending Smeagol, or the court jester who foolishly engages her over and over and over. In the best cases you simply realize you don’t have Cuthbert’s horn this time around and you wait to see what improvements the next cycle will bring.

Our worlds are within us, the rest is just what we draw from the battle lines between possibility and compromise.

To defeat zombie monkeys, you need ninja pirates, and those are pretty hard to come by. Why is life so hard? Oh, and whatever you do, don’t watch Dirty Jobs season 6 episode 3, “animal rendering”, okay? luvukthxbai! Sent from my iPod baybee!!!!11!!! ~ JTL

In January it will be a year since JTL. I’m trying to reconcile that, but it doesn’t quite work. As another friend of his said to me earlier this year: “there is this JTL-sized hole in my life.”

The loss is still palpable for me. Some days it manages to fade a little. Other days, it’s all I can see and feel.

Last year around this time I thought my router had died along with some other electronics in my house after lightning hit near me (it turned out to be a power cord on the router).

I sent JTL the following email on this date last year:

So I ordered a new router:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BTL0OA/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

It says Linux-friendly but I have to believe since over 70% of people bought it, it’s also good for what I need. I’m over-nighting it (yay Amazon prime!). But , I have concerny-type feelings. Didn’t we have to get in and mess with a bunch of stuff in the admin area of my router when we were doing magical torrent and Civ stuffs? Will I have to redo it or are there elves and fairies that handle that sort of thing? If I have to redo it, is there away to get the old settings even though the current router is fried? If not, do you have any memory what-so-fucking-ever of what the fig newtons we did?

Halp please and crackers and love you big.

I got the following back:

I wonder if lightning rods really work?

your new router is fine — the ‘linux compatible’ bit doesn’t actually mean what it sounds like it means, even. The first WRT-54Gs actually ran linux themselves, which meant amongst other things that you could replace their software with your own, letting you customize it. At some point, they changed the hardware to be cheaper, replacing the full linux system with something that ran with less memory and a simpler processor, only to apparently discover that a non-ignorable piece of their customer base was actually replacing the software, so they split the line into two, and the wrt54-GL runs linux while the current wrt-54g doesn’t.

The part I don’t understand is why the GL is cheaper now than the normal G, since the whole point of them splitting the line was to let them drop costs on the G while keeping the GL for people willing to pay extra for the customizability.

I think all we did was set up some port forwarding so no elf labor will need to be exploited unless you want that for the kink factor. You’ll just need to figure out how to arrange your ports again, but that’s easy enough. The only hard bit is figuring out which ports, and presumably that’ll be obvious as you notice things not working…

so when something doesn’t connect you will have to call me for halp, thus preserving my evil plan to keep you router-dependent and at my mercy.

Did you get your non-turkey turkey stuffs yet? I could find out myself, but the tracking numbers are way over there…somewhere.

love you, will call soon.

I don’t know if it translates when you can’t hear the words spoken in his voice, but years of mail were exchanged like this and I miss it as much as I miss the sound of his voice. I would make a casual musing comment or ask a simple question (rhetorical or not, didn’t matter) and in return I’d get the entire history of the subject, rattled off from his memory. He just knew it. Technology. History. Politics. Porn. Buffyverse. Comic Books. Anime. Finding something he actually had to look up was a sort of victory.

Going back another year: Thanksgiving Week 2008:

I sent:

Thought you’d enjoy this — Oh noes! It’s sex, drugs, and nuclear war!

http://www.cracked.com/article_16767_6-most-unintentionally-hilarious-old-school-psas.html

He sent back:

What Cracked didn’t point out, for some reason, is that Citizens for Decent Literature (later renamed Citizens for Decency through Law — they were at least clear about their censoring goals) was founded by Charles Keating of the “Keating Five” scandal of the 80s which almost killed John McCain’s political career before it really got started.

I can’t remember my phone number, but that, I know.

Also, did you see bones? RFID access cards are “super high-tech”? I have four of them right now and first had one at least 10 years ago. wtf?

eat yummy foods and have extra stuffing!

And another: Thanksgiving Week 2007:

From him, after yet another episode of Bones with bad tech research:

the Commodore Amiga used the Motorola 68000, not the Motorola 6800, and it used a 3.5″ floppy, not 5.25″. And if that disc came out of the muck, there’s no way it’d still work. Shows and movies that feature geeks should keep geeks in the writer’s room just to make me happy. Why aren’t we working on that?

grumble

I’m sending you non-turkey foods — eat or I will send cranberrylicious lolcats with emoticons until you do!

Reading all the brick-a-brack between us makes me laugh and it makes me hurt, but mostly it amazes me how tangled within those exchanges were the briefest nods of humor and affection; it was effortless and just there — so easily taken for granted between the other data.

I’ve been struggling — finding it hard to feel thankful this week with his loss pressing so deeply into my heart. Amid all the things and people I have to be thankful for, there is still this JTL-sized hole that continues to ache with no sign of healing. Sometimes it overshadows everything else. I think the only way to look at it without losing my mind is to keep believing the hurt is something itself to be thankful for. The hurt reminds me I should be thankful to have known him and to have been lucky enough to have him put up with my silly questions and flittering. The hurt is the other side of having something that was precious and rare and wonderful.

So I am thankful for all the love in my life, past and present and yet to come. And I am thankful for those who offer their affection to me and allow me to express it back to them. And I am thankful for the patience and understanding from them while I have navigated this difficult year.

I hope you all enjoy your turkey stuffs, and, if you are like me and do not like turkey, then your non-turkey turkey stuffs.