Month: July 2011

Twisted Isle Opens

/me sings: I’d like to be, under the sea…. That seems to be where some of the best InWorldz parties take place – under the sea! I’m not sure if it’s a deliberate choice on Soror Nishi’s part or if, as some speculated yesterday, she has a severe plumbing problem on that sim. *grin* As Soror posted this past week, she has opened a new build in InWorldz: Twisted Isle. I was able to make the opening party and am so very glad I did.

I remembered to download the latest Imprudence Experimental viewer, so this time I had sound, unlike the last party I attended there. 🙂 Megan Cline was DJ’ing the party. She is GREAT!!!! I LOVE her choice of music – it’s “my” music. She told me that she owns a venue in IW called The Pit, and plays a lot of this genre there. You KNOW I will have to be rezzing in IW more often now. There were things that I needed to do in RL but everytime I thought “i’ll logoff now”, Megan put on another fantastic tune. and I had to stay. 🙂 My only regret is that I have no izzies and so I couldn’t tip her. 😦 Believe me – she definitely deserved a generous tip.

Soror’s build, or at least what I saw of it, looks haunting and intriguing and mysterious. You can see the paths leading off in the deep. She’s created objects especially for this build. For all you IW homeowners out there, Soror has a shop at the build and you can purchase some of these cool objects for yourself. I didn’t have time to go exploring through the build, although I did a bit of camming about. But Soror says that camming is not the best way to experience it as “there is a bit of a soundscape that alters as you move around the build.” I plan on going back when there is no party to distract me. It’s your own fault, Soror – if you’re going to throw great parties, you have to understand that people don’t want to wander off. *grin*

I think that I may have to download the Firestorm viewer. I was having a lot of lag and a LOT of confusion because I am so used to V2. And I LIKE V2. One of the reasons I can’t provide much of the fun chit-chat that was occurring yesterday is because I didn’t have my preferences set to record local chat. Sigh. I forgot that each new viewer requires that I double-check my settings. I was having problems with my camera also – a lot of lag in responses there. I’m not sure what was happening with that. I had a moment’s panic when I couldn’t find the photos I’d taken. The pics are not great, but at least they give some idea of how things looked. If you want to see really GOOD portrait shots from the party, check out Soror’s post. I see she didn’t include any shots of herself, but she looked great, per usual. I love her skirt!!! I’m going to have to get izzies so I can tip and shop.

You can see that avatars in IW are as interesting and personal as they are in any other world. I love a life where I dance with a giant squid and octopuses one night and winged lions the next. I’m having a lot of fun meeting the folks in IW. Certainly the folks I have met are intelligent and funny and love to party. What’s not to like?

Treyf Night

In hindsight, I think I know what triggered last evening’s crazies. I think it was a tweet about the latest food craze overseas – stimulating the tentacles of a dead squid so that it appears the squid is dancing on your plate. I’m not overly fond of squid, alive or dead. I’m sure that they serve some important place in the scheme of things. But I KNOW I do not want to see a squid dancing. Well, I THOUGHT I knew I didn’t want to see a squid dancing. But as he has in so many other things, Crap Mariner made me view this subject in a different light as well.

I was late getting inworld. I was observing rituals in my 1040 organic life. When I arrived at The Listening Room, all APPEARED normal. Marx was DJ’ing, folks were dancing. “Normal” did not last, alas, as suddenly Crap metamorphed into a giant squid. He was still very considerate – keeping his tentacles to one side of the room, not swiping anyone off the dance floor.

I’m pretty boring, one might even say conservative. I don’t often totally lose it and go silly. But it had been a hard week. I wanted to retain the good feeling I managed to achieve earlier. Seeing Crap’s squid reminded me of my octopus hat. So I put it on and passed one to Lalo, who also wore it. I decided that the rule is against EATING treyf. I don’t recall any rule against wearing it. I offered the hat to others in the room and to my amusement and shock – many folk wanted an octopus on their head. Let’s not go there, okay?

So we danced and waved our tentacles about. Cip had the brilliant idea of modding her octopus, changing it into several brilliant colors before settling on a lovely spring pattern. I followed her lead, but chose a slightly more conservative polka dot (simply because I couldn’t figure out what other textures I had that might work). Mari joined the party with her own flair. Cip eventually changed from octopus to fish. Of course the super hero had a matching Octopus – wouldn’t do to CLASH. 🙂

I think that we have the makings of a new rock group: Tiger and the Tentacles. What do you think? I can just see them doing Motown moves. *grin* You never really know WHAT will happen at The Listening Room. Come check it out on Friday nights for good music and sushi.

For Ernie

It’s the 5th anniversary of my father’s death. In my mind I’ve started several “status reports” to him. *grin* Trust me – he was NOT the “Report, Soldier” type of dad. In my head I’ve started letters to him. I don’t know that I ever wrote a letter to my father. I wrote to my parents, knowing that yes, he’d read it, but it was really my mother who would absorb it, remember and respond. *smile* I went to visit his grave this afternoon. Cleared off the marker, trimmed the grass away. Daddy chose that plot, near the entrance to the cemetery, so that he could watch the traffic. *big grin* Now THAT was exactly like him. What he may NOT have realized, however, was that spot is a little bit raised, and positioned so that there was a lovely lovely breeze blowing as I worked. So once I was done cleaning and trimming and obsessing (yes, Deb, your stone is still there – I cleaned that too), I sat down to hang out with Daddy. I composed a haiku for him. I figured I’d come home and post that, and that would be all I’d say. Before I wrote and posted, however, I decided to see what I’d done in years past. I had to laugh. I’ve only posted once before on his yahrzeit and…. drum roll please…. I wrote a haiku. That in and of itself is not so strange. What IS interesting, however, is that I wrote nearly the same one again today. 🙂 Wow, talk about one-trick pony. I guess I really DO love my father and miss him, and that although he is no longer in the 1040 organic world, he is still very much alive and real to me.

I miss you, Daddy.
You’re always part of my life.
Smiling memories.

What’s in a Name?

Nothing really original in this post, folks. So if you’re bored of the discussion of what is identity, move along. I don’t know where I stand on this issue anymore. I WAS very firmly decided that there was no need to link my SL and my RL names overtly. My feeling is that there is NO privacy on the internet. If someone wants to find out all your personal information, they’re going to find it. Most people aren’t interested and won’t look, so I’ve operated under the policy of why make it simple to connect if I prefer separation.

But Google+ may be the tipping point for me. I WAS very excited about using Google+, mostly because I have developed an incredibly strong aversion to Facebook. I’m in FB under my U.S. Tax Form 1040 identity. I’m HERE under my SL identity. I’m in Google under my SL identity. I think I use my Ahuva identity more places than I use my 1040 identity.

This morning I saw in Plurk that Google is banning accounts that are not “real” names. I’m really really tired of this. Ahuva is real. I am Ahuva. Ahuva is me. Basically everyone who knows me by my 1040 identity knows Ahuva, or knows of Ahuva. There are people in my 1040 world who call me Ahuva, NOT my birth name. So what would be so terrible if I caved-in to this never ending pressure to “out” Ahuva and link her to a 1040 identity? I’m trying to think if Ahuva has done or said or been anything that would embarrass or harm good old 1040. The answer to that, of course, is that the 1040 world already KNOWS Ahuva. I’m not sure why I have to be forced to let the Ahuva world know about 1040.

I resent this a lot. I don’t see why this is necessary. I do not accept the arguments and reasons put forth by Google, Facebook and whoever else. But I don’t have time or energy to keep running around maintaining dual identities and trying to “beat their game” if I want to use a product. I believe that they are wrong, wrong, WRONG in their approach. If someone wants to do business with me, they will be able to determine who and what I am. They will not need Google or FB to “protect” them from me. If a person is so foolish as to trust blindly any person posting on the internet, well, perhaps I’m cruel and cold, but Caveat Emptor. Wake up, kid – if you’re a victim, perhaps you are to blame. And Big Brother – stop trying to tell me who I am.