One Year "Back in Babbage" Anniversary

It's hard to believe it's been a year, today, since I first stepped foot back in New Babbage.  I was completely disoriented, both from being back inworld and coming back to a city that was positively podunk by comparison back in 2007.

So what has changed in the last year?

• I've made some amazing friends. On one hand I want to mention my best friends here, but I just realized that the list is getting pretty long.  One person I will always call out though is Jedburgh Dagger, who has been my best friend since we first started talking last summer.

• I fell head over heels for one Mr. Emerson Lighthouse.  How could I not?  He's amazingly creative, smart, funny, compassionate and dead sexy.  (Come to think of it, today is exactly 7 months since our first dance.)  Correction:  Our first dance was October 21st 2011, not the 27th.  Tsk.  Shame on me.

• I now own 3 parcels in the Academy of Industry sim; a house, a workshop, and a cemetery.

• I am now part-owner of the historic Gangplank pub in Clockhaven, which I run with Emerson.

All in all?

I'm a New Babbager.  What more is there to say?

Mt. St. Helens

As a native Washingtonian, I am quite attached to the cultural memory we have of the Mt. St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980. In SL, in the Steamlands no less, there is a group of sims called Steelhead that recreate a steampunk version of 19th century Pacific Northwest.

One of the most recent sims is called St. Helens, where they have build a replica of Mt. St. Helens. In keeping with the backward-looking theme of the sim, the shape of the mountain is that before the blast. During the 19th century, it would have been a pristine, amazingly beautiful mountain, much like it was prior to 1980. Then, during the eruption anniversary week, the owners of Steelhead hold an event to blow the mountain, and then let it spew smoke and ash for the remainder of the week.

Emerson and I have a cabin at the base of the mountain. I'd forgotten about this event until tonight, when I found myself wondering why the cabin was filled with smoke. One look outside answered that question. Naturally, I took a great many photos. My favorite though is a before/after set I made with the same angle as a shot I took some time ago after our cabin was first complete.


Before:

After:

A renewed hobby

I've enjoyed taking photographs since first coming back in-world last May.  It's been about a year, and I've recently decided to start making more of this hobby.  With that in mind, I've started a new blog:

Junie's Tintypes

It's something I am deeply interested in, beyond just applying a few filters to raw images from SL, so I've decided to see where I can take it.  I've gotten good feedback from friends, so we'll see how it goes.

:-)

Because I still take a great number of snapshots that I don't give a thorough post-processing treatment, I'll still have lots of pics to post here!

This one is from the other night.  Emerson encountered some street performers in Port Babbage, so he brought me over.  He, I, and Mr. Arnold (the cat) spent some time watching them perform.

Why, hello there.

I know it's been a long time, but here I am.

Still in SL, still in the Steamlands, having grand adventures, living, loving and creating.

More to come...