Several weeks ago I was shopping with a friend. She’d not been inworld in quite a bit and we were cruising steampunk locations to see what was new since her last go-round. We found ourselves at L+N Signature Designs admiring the fantastic vehicles as well as the clothing. She admired the way-cool Steampunk Giro-cycle but it didn’t appear to be for sale. 😦 I sent an IM to the builder, brgn.halberstam. 
I got a lovely reply, explaining that the Giro-cycle was not for sale because it had been created for the Steam the Hunt 8 hunt taking place March 1-31. I made a note of that, thinking that we could do the hunt in an effort to get the Giro-cycle.
I started off on the hunt last night. I’m on vacation this week. My original plans were changed and I found myself with lots of free time. Wow. I don’t remember the last time I had unscheduled days. I thought that I might try to do the hunt. I’m usually abysmal at these hunts. If I didn’t have a friend along with me to help me find the clues and the prizes, I’d never move past the first stop. 
This time, however, I began to get a feel for why hunts are so popular. As usual the first location was making me feel stupid, with a seeing disorder. But after finally stumbling on the prize, the whole hint concept began to feel clearer. I had my camera range waaaaaay long, something I’d never done in the past. I would cam all the way out, and see the general area. It’s taken me years to learn to use my camera more efficiently (yes, literally years). I started to have success. It was – fun. Imagine that. Fun. 🙂 I came back in this morning and continued the same way. Ultimately I hit a location where no matter what I tried, I could not find the item. I thought “so what”. What I’d never realized before was that the hunts publish a list of SLURLS for people like me – so even if we can’t find the prize with the next location, we can jump to the next location anyway. We don’t have to drop out because of one unfound prize.
Since I was by myself, and had no time restrictions, I took the time to do what the hunts intend – look around the stores and perhaps shop. I nearly bought a steampunk throne/chair but decided it was a bit too large for someone hoping to down-size her property prims. I did get a VERY nifty pair of red boots and had a lovely chat with the store owner. Be sure to head over to –BHD-/Duquesa Designs and check out the -BHD- Aliz boots and chat with Renata Constantine (renate.marchionne) of Duquesa Designs.
I picked up some new deck chairs as well – I’ve had the old ones for several years now. I loved the rose pattern on Emma’s 1-prim Lush Roses Deck Chair at Emma’s @ Blue Moose. And along the way I picked up a sundress at CERO Style. That was a difficult purchase because I wanted SEVERAL dresses there. 🙂 I finally decided on the ;;;Helene;;;; in cream.
By the time I made it over to L+N Signature Design, Oura had joined me. We were there for over an hour, admiring the creations, the elevator the clothes, the ambiance, the hair. We did indeed find the Giro-cycle. *grin* We both bought new steampunk outfits (check them out in the pictures above). We got the gift hair, Duality, as well. Flush with all our new goodies, we headed home to change and take the cycles out for a spin. *laughing* Okay – although it was fun, it was NOT easy. We both crashed at sim crossings and had to reboot. We ended up in my neighbor’s house and got invited to join the land group. 🙂 We got the hang of it, though, and headed down the road. I was feeling quite confident by the time I added the HUD and started firing my machine gun. Well. Who KNEW that I could set fire to the berm? /me looks about guiltily, but with my hand still on the trigger. 
Once the smoke cleared, we headed off to hunt again!
All of these goodies for ME! Just because I wanted to buy a present for a friend. 🙂
Ahuva's Blog 
It is a wonderful space we inhabit with the rest of our virtual netizens.
Where else can we spend hours wandering through strangers imaginations searching for the perfect gift? What is the value of finding out that our own lives have been enriched by the efforts of someone who wasn’t motivated by greed or a marketing plan? I constantly see reports of how hard it is to profit from creating content in any of the current Virtual World platforms. Despite that, I also see countless variations of this scenario replayed over and over.
It makes me sad that many decry the failure of Virtual Worlds to evolve into the next great marketing tool, or business cost cutting solution. Maybe our view would be clearer if we stopped valuing physical possessions over the cultural good that comes from fostering competition among the curious and most creative. Maybe our perspective would be different if we could experience the freedom of being unhindered by physical disabilities. My perspective has been altered forever by the opportunity to immerse, explore, and share with folks I never would have met otherwise.
There is no balance sheet line item for “the joy of sharing what you can imagine”. I do not look at my Linden balance to measure my satisfaction with SL, I recount all of the friends I have connected to in ways that would never have been possible without Philip and his crazy idea for supporting a community. Once we regularly experience the satisfaction from sharing virtual objects, maybe we can wake up to the fact that it is the action, not the object, that is the true source of our enrichment. Let’s celebrate those who are driven to explore the new technologies so they can create new forms of art and social interaction. Let’s revel in the things they bring forth and the pressure they exert on the developers to provide a BETTER world.
That’s why I prefer HUGS, and reading posts that remind us all why we should ignore how the bean counters measure, and keep looking for the “magic” ones we can nurture into ladders to a better future..
dz