A New Babbage Scrapbook

Back to my reminiscing.  We must properly appreciate the past before we are able to fully move forward, with me being the "we" in this scenario. Feel free to skip if you don't want to listen to an old woman ramble on about the pioneer days of NB.

I dredged the archives of The New Babbage Cog and was able to piece together some images of my contributions to the early city.  Though I don't feel that it ultimately made much of a difference to the well-being of New Babbage, it meant a lot to me to be part of it, which is why I must pause to remember.


I.J. Ginsburg Dept. Store

Looking west from #5 Babbage Square (current day Bolyai Square), you can see the I.J. Ginsburg store on the left.  It was almost finished - there is still some scaffolding at the top and in the interior.

In this image just west of the store you can see a small structure between the store and the first NB canal.  Eventually that parcel opened up and I moved the entire store closer to the canal.

In the middle distance you can see the Old Imperial Theater. In the far distance you can see Kahruvel Steamworks.

An early Babbage Square postcard.  The finished I.J. Ginsburg store is on the left. The Cog newspaper office is in the foreground on the right.

NB Trivia:

1. I.J. Ginsburg was the first New Babbage structure to make use of a Mansard roof (not visible except for a white curtain in the window at the top). 

2. It was also the first build to use a scaffolding texture while under construction in order to avoid plywood.

Intolerable Ginsburg's Workshop

Again looking west, this time from Intolerable's workshop (current day New Babbage Cemetery).  The covered walkway is now where the train tracks run between Babbage Square and Port Babbage.

In this picture, you can see the same location from above.  You can see the workshop windows to the left.

The New Babbage Cog

The Cog newspaper office when it was in the location of current-day Cobblestone House. I built the newspaper press in the back (it was extremely primitive compared to New Babbage's current press machinery).

I later gave up the parcel above and moved everything into the back of my store. (Note: the stairs are bad enough, but I only had enough prims left for the office ramp before shuffling things around again.)

A Younger Juniper

A picture of me, circa February 2007.  (I can't believe I wore that hair...the fringe is awful.)

Caledon Kittiwickshire

When I first returned to the grid, I found a nice, quiet plot of land in Caledon Kittiwickshire and decided to make my country home there.  As was my tradition years ago, I prefer to maintain a home in the city as well as in the country, and a dual New Babbage / Caledon citizenship has suited me well.  There was no open land near my old location in Caledon on Sea (how I loved both the Mt. Caledon and the seashore!), so I decided to explore Kittiwickshire.

While I was there, I spent a good deal of time riding the CAT (Caledon Air Transport) airship.  I sat back and allowed it to take me wherever it went, and simply enjoyed the view.  Then I rode the submersible transport, and then the train. (Tonight a horse-drawn cab drove right past me!)  The parcel I chose in Kittiwickshire is near the corner of the sim where the CAT platform is, next to the lighthouse.  I paid the meter and awaited Mr. Shang's reply.

Tonight the busy Guvnah replied to my query and got me all set up on my new plot (actually two adjoining parcels).  It was fabulous to spend some time chatting with him and catching up!  And now I'm able to start building at my leisure.  In the picture below, my land is where you see trees near the lighthouse.

While I was inworld, I decided that I must begin to show my age.  It is almost my 5th rez day after all, and I'd prefer to wear my years proudly.  It would sincerely rankle me to be thought of as some young ingenue.

In any case, here I am with my new hairstyle.  I adore the shock of gray.  By the gods, I've earned the right to wear that stripe, and I'm going to own it!

Getting back in shape

As I may have mentioned, oh, about a hundred times already, I lost most of my inventory.  That includes the shape and skin files that make me me. That was perhaps the most devestating part of the loss.

Those who use SL for any amount of time are aware that the avatar comes to represent you in the world, and many users feel a kinship with it.  You look at it on the screen and think, "that's me."  It may not look like your physical body, but it is nonetheless "you" because it is your direct representation in-world.

Anyway, I was very sad to have lost those particular files.  I tried to recreate my shape from memory and from the few remaining snapshots I have, I tried to find similar skins, but it still didn't feel right.

Tonight I remembered something very sneaky.  Before I became Junie, I went by a different name.  There was another avatar out there with my shape and my skin.  I even remembered the password.

I was able to transfer the shape, but the skin didn't have the right permissions.  Still, I was lucky and found that the skin designer is still in-world, and is selling the same skin under a different name.  (Maybe this is the reason why it's sometimes worthwhile to purchase quality goods instead of using freebies - they're likely to still be around in four years!)

So now, I present a comparison of my rebuilt "new" Junie alongside my revived "classic" Junie, with my original shape and repurchased skin:

I was surprised that my "new" Junie wasn't too far off!  Be that as it may, I'm quite glad to be back to my old self.

A Visit to New Babbage, Part II

Today I tried again.  I wandered through the sims of New Babbage until I found the City Hall, which appears to be more or less in the middle of Babbage Square.  It was then that I realized that Babbage Square was the first sim, not New Babbage. (I'm duly ashamed of myself...I told you it's been a long time since I've been in-world.)

After realizing this, I oriented myself on the world map and started my walk anew.  I found the old location of Sanger Square, formerly #5 Babbage Square, where my I.J. Ginsburg store was.  It is now called Bolyai Plaza, in the southeast corner of the sim.

Across the way is the old location of the printing press where I published The Cog.  It is now called Cobblestone House, at the corner of Canal Street and Jefferson Way.

And finally, I spotted the location where my husband, Intolerable Ginsburg, had his workshop.  It is now the northeast corner of the New Babbage Cemetery, right by the tracks where they cross over into Port Babbage.

The way I finally managed to orient myself within Babbage Square was by finding the Old Imperial Theater, which Mr. Pearse was kind enough to tell me was in the same spot it was so many years ago.  Were it not for that, I don't know that I ever would have realized where everything had been.  Can you imagine -- Loki and the urchins once had a zip line running from my store over to the theater!

I assure you, I will become tired of reminiscing, but that time hasn't yet come.  I've occupied myself with reading the City of New Babbage website in order to familiarize myself with the place once again.  In doing so, I followed a link over to YouTube to see videos of New Babbage.  They're amazing!

One of the films on the New Babbage channel is a tour of Kahruvel Steamworks - the first utility in the city, built by Mr. Salazar Jack.  Film making what it is, there were two different shots in it that showed I.J. Ginsburg at two different points in time.  The first had the smaller store with my office next door, and the second captured the construction of the newer large store - in its scaffolding state!  (They may have captured me in the process of actually building it -- I think I spy some plywood in that screenshot...)



 Finally, I have to say that watching that film from January, 2007, was a marvelous reminder of what New Babbage looked like then compared to how it looks now.  I find it almost impossible to believe that from such humble beginnings such an incredible city has blossomed.  Cheers to all of the artists, geniuses, drunkards, and thieves that dreamed it into existence!

A Visit to New Babbage

Tonight I decided to go for a walk in New Babbage in an attempt to reacquaint myself with the sim.  It has changed so much that when I visited yesterday I was unable to get my bearings.  I recognized only one building -- Salazar Jack's factory -- but was otherwise completely lost.

So as I began to walk through the sim, I noticed a cluster of folks talking just down the street.  Edward Pearse, who was also a founding member of New Babbage, recognized me and called me over.  I had the distinct pleasure of meeting his wife, Christine, and a few other folks I'd never met: Satu Moreau, Brother Lapis, a Mr. Gears and I'm afraid I've forgotten the rest of the names.

They were kind enough to catch me up a bit on the current state of the Babbage sims, which are in the hands of a new landowner.  I can't say that they seem to be suffering much for it though - the place is a remarkable achievement, and still the best implementation of Steampunk I've seen on the grid.  (With all due respect to The Guvnah, I do believe that Caledon has its own unique charms.)

At the moment I'm feeling exhilarated by reconnecting with one old acquaintance.  I'm hoping that he is the first of many.

Ribbons and Bows!

Many years ago, when I was yet a youngster on the grid, I created some fabulous ribbons and bows, the kind you put on gift boxes.  I was already selling household wares - furniture and the like -- so I set up a new store just to sell my ribbons and bows.  It turned out to be the biggest earner for me. (Which wasn't significant, but at least they did much better than my other creations. )

I was prepared for disappointment when I re-entered SL this week because I knew I had lost my entire inventory some years ago.  That is one of the reasons I waited so long to go back in-world.  It's frustrating to know that everything you had done in your second life is gone.  I suppose a real-world example would be losing a hard drive filled with files you'd worked hard on, projects representing your creativity, pictures of adventures, letters from friends, and all the rest.  It's fairly devastating.

In any case, I had a small 512 m2 property for a number of years that I eventually realized still had a small shop on it, and that it had some of my creations still for sale.  When I logged in this week expecting to find it, I found instead that the property had been reclaimed.  And here is where I sing the praises of the Lost and Found folder -- everything had been sent back to me.

For the last couple of days I've been pouring through everything that I've been able to salvage from my old second life.  All told, I think I was only able to recover about 10% of my previous inventory, but there is just enough left for me to be satisfied.

The point of this far-too-long post is that I've now set up shop again in my old mainland region of Namhae, where I repurchased a small piece of land. I've also gotten all of my ribbons and bows up on the SL Marketplace.  (Wow, if  that isn't different than the old SLX / XStreet...)

Please pay me a visit!

Ribbons and Bows / Zizka, in Namhae