Nom Candy

A product of New Babbage, made in a defunct factory by the evil genius, Dr. Obolenski.   There is still some of it floating around though, and Dr. Sonnerstein was kind enough (hmm...) to give me a piece.

The taste is....well, you can get some idea of the taste from the expression on my face.

Another face from the past

Last night, of all people, I ran into Shaunathan Sprocket, founder and former mayor of New Babbage.  We spent a little bit of time catching up and I found out that he has actually been off-grid for quite a long time as well, having only recently returned.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

:-)

In honor of reconnecting with an old friend, I give you my favorite Shaunathan quote, from a town hall meeting in 2007.

"Wait, hold on..."

(pause...we wait)

"I have an announcement to make."

(pause...we wait some more, anticipating the announcement)

"Chocolate Altoids are flash."

Time to call it a night

Tonight was Blackberry Harvey's grand re-opening party at the Gangplank.  It had a pirate theme, and I spent several hours there making merry and enjoying the company of friends.  As will sometimes happen after spending a night drinking and dancing though, there comes a slow, creeping melancholy.

Feeling a kind of maudlin restlessness, I stood on the city wall behind my house to watch the stars.  Afterward, I went for a walk around the Academy.

Only one other person was stirring in the neighborhood, but I didn't think I'd make good company so I went to the CocoaJava for a change of scenery.

It was warm and welcoming by the fire, but ultimately I decided that it was time for all good Babbagers to go to sleep.

Pleasant dreams, pirates.

Kraken Carols!

Scottie Melnik, owner of Portside Books in Port Babbage, published my Kraken Carols book with his THiNC press.  THiNC books are in-world books that allow you to create covers, endpapers, pages, images, anything you can think of really, as long as you can get it into a texture.  You can then either rez the book and flip through the pages in-world, or you can wear it as a HUD and read it that way (which is considerably easier).

He delivered the final book to me tonight, so I put together a sign, popped over to the Kraken Festival Open-air Market, and claimed a cart.  There are two books there on display that will sell copies.

Steamy Steampunk (and some kraken too)

I've thought for quite a long time that modeling in Second Life is a silly proposition.  In a place where everyone can look beautiful, being a model seems a bit meaningless.  I mean, what is there to it?  You stand on a pose, put on some fancy clothes (or not), and take snapshots.  No big deal.

Well, maybe I've reconsidered just a little bit.  I still think that saying "I'm a model" in SL is ridiculous.  No one cares.  But the activity of modeling for pictures can be a real hoot.  It all started with a boxing match...

Bianca Namori, who hosts the Sunday Night Sock-out matches, makes posters of the boxers to promote the event. 

Posing for my poster was great fun, so when Bianca contacted me about posing for some "Babes of New Babbage" portraits she was working on, it seemed like a no-brainer.  All of the women of New Babbage were doing it.  (And yes, I'd jump off a bridge, etc.)  My pic turned out a bit steamier than I'd anticipated, but I'm letting it stand because I like it.

The other night Bianca put out a call for lingerie models for portraits to be displayed only in her studio.  I volunteered immediately.  I'd had fun during the other two shoots and I had an ulterior motive:  to have a reason to buy a burlesque outfit I'd had my eye on for awhile.  So I bought it and went over.
She showed me the finished portrait tonight - I thought it turned out really well!

Studio portrait:



Another shot from the same session.  This one is my favorite...

So there we go.  I'm enjoying something I previously thought was rather dumb, and I'm happy to promote Bianca's new photography studio.  You can find her here:

Dastardly Darling Photography

In other news, my kraken writing project is done!  *throws confetti*

It's a book of kraken carols.  When the kraken made an appearance last week, a few of us were chatting about kraken coming to town, the migration, how it's kraken season, and I blurted out, "We need some kraken carols!"  Well, duh.  I adore writing parody songs (or "filk" as I've learned it is called), so I got to work on the idea right away.

Tonight I finished all of the textures needed to bind my carols into a book and sent them off to Scottie, who has a THiNC press.  Here are a few images from the book.  You'll have to buy a copy or at least come see it in-world if you want to read the carols.  ;-)

Ups and Downs

Spent a lot of time on my kraken project last night, and am extremely happy with how it's turning out.  I thought I had it finished, in fact I had started boxing it up for publication last night when my connection went down.  It was midnight though and I decided it could wait until tonight.

But isn't this how projects go?  Since I hadn't sent it off last night, I gave it more thought this morning and decided there is more tweaking to do. If I'd been able to send it, I wouldn't be putting more thought into it. (Well, maybe i would, but I probably wouldn't do anything about it.)  So...just a little bit more work on it tonight and then it's done. It shouldn't take much to get it wrapped up.

After that, I will post pics! I'm very excited!

In other news, I've decided to give up my property in Caledon Kittiwickshire.  It pained me to tell Desmond given how welcoming he was when I came back, and how much I like Caledon. When it comes down to it though, I'm paying for property that I'm not really using, and I can't afford to do that right now. So I'll be packing up my cottage there soon.

I'd like to buy into Caledon again at some point in the future, when finances are a bit looser, or when I'm able to make some Linden in-world.  It will take more thought and time next time though, to find a parcel that I know I'll end up using.  As much as I like my little beach spot, I just don't spend much time there.

Doc O and the Boxing Match

It's funny.  On Friday night I was talking to Jed about roleplaying, and was saying that I was eager to give it a shot but had no experience at all with in-world RP.

The next morning, Bookworm Hienrichs and Doctor Obolensky approached me about integrating Sunday night's boxing match into an ongoing story that they have going. It produced a great opportunity for me to get involved in their story, and following Jed's advice, I went for it.

Originally I had intended to spend any evening free time I had this weekend working on my kraken writing project (I need to format everything to put into a THiNC book), but preparing for the boxing match ended up taking  a lot of time and thought. Still, I believe that we pulled off a great fight with lots of intruigue surrounding it, so I'm satisfied with the way it went.

Some links to the story:

• Doc O pulls me into his plot

• I confide in Sky about what has transpired

• The fight (transcript is quite long, but I think it's a good episode)

• The aftermath (pic links at the bottom)

Since this is only part of an ongoing story, there is quite a bit that preceeds this, and there will be more after.  This is only the portion I was involved in.

Aside from the Hienrichs-Obolensky side of the boxing match, the fight was terrific fun.  I would definitely consider doing it again sometime.

Snow and Spies

My rezday party last night was, I believe, a success.  Everyone seemed to have fun, and I know I certainly did!  Edward played a great set with a lot of entertaining commentary, and he kept us all dancing the whole time.  I don't think anyone touched any of the pie or liquor I put out, but that's fine with me - I'd rather have people frolicking and dancing than sitting around running pie-eating animations.

Oh, did I mention there was snow?  YES!  One night when a bunch of us were sitting around at Sky and Scottie's bar, 'Cuffs, Ms. Kimika Yang pulled a snow machine of of her inventory.  At the time there was still a serious heatwave going on in the United States, and it was fun diversion to be sitting in a room where it was snowing.  I decided then that I would buy one of the snow machines and put it out at my party.

So last night when I put out the snow machine, I realized that the particle effects were much too small for such a large hall.  But when I turned around, Nat had piled snow up all around, and there flakes were falling throughout the hall.

We had a marvelous snowball fight, lots of dancing and goofing around.  We broke in Ms. Lia's Liberty Hall (without actually breaking anything), and generally had a good time.  I couldn't have asked for a better rezday.

Edward Pearse, in his DJ booth.

(Incidentally, I was unable to lob a snowball

up and over his booth. Lucky for him!)

 Rowdy fun in the snow. 

That's me holding a snowball in the foreground.

Rolling, spinning, and dancing in the snow.

Jed and Kimika sharing a slow dance while Scottie and Sky goof around.

(Oh, sure, they were probably dancing, but doesn't it look like they're playing?)

Michael O'Mainin dancing.  He was a lot of fun!

Vic, Hono, and Lia, dancing.
(And an igloo...where did that come from?!)



 Jed came over to shoot the breeze later on, I stayed up too late, and woke up early for Breakfast in Babbage this morning.  This month's theme was Spies!  As soon as the theme was announced last month, I knew who I would dress as:  Mata Hari.  I've been fascinated with her for a long time, to such a degree that there are two pictures of her in Ruthorford House.  Even though I doubt she was really a spy, she was executed as one, so she counts as a spy in my book (at least for the purposes of a spy party...)  Anyway, there were some great costumes this morning, and two hours of sneaky spy theme music!

A busy weekend ahead

This coming weekend promises to be busy.  My rezday party is tomorrow, Breakfast in Babbage is on Saturday, and the Sunday Night Sock-out after that.  Tonight was busy as well in preparation, with a bit of fun thrown in for good measure.

I've started to really enjoy Thursdays.  I've begun attending the Thursday evening Radio Riel Theater at the Clarendon Conservatory every week, which I adore.  Tonight I ventured to take my aunt, Mumsy Abigail, who insisted on getting out of the house for a short while.  She had a chance to meet Mr. Pearse, and later on, when I found her wandering in the Academy Commons, I discovered that she had also met Mr. Hono Beruda.

After getting her home I popped over to have my picture taken for a boxing poster.  I've been matched up against Ms. Bookworm Hienrichs in Sunday night's fight, which promises to be great fun.  While I waited for Bianca to finish the poster, Lady Christine Pearse came to visit. I've not had an opportunity to really chat with her before this; usually when I see her it's during some event or other when there is a lot going on. It was enjoyable passing the time with her and Bianca.  (And oh, I discovered what bad influences we three can be on one another! But I won't say another word!)

Let's see....so after that I went and picked up squid from around the Academy sim. Victor had found a few more that I'd shot out of my squid gun the other night.  Apparently my temporary squid weren't so temporary. Victor mentioned that there is some bug that occurs where temp objects fired from guns aren't automatically deleted. So there are likely a bunch more little blue squid babies littering the sim, all courtesy of yours truly. Blah.  See what I said?  NOOB!

I spent some time creating my "old Junie" pics for my rezday tomorrow.  I don't have many old snapshots, but I've collected a few from various sources.  And because I still have access to my original AV, I was able to put on my very first shape, skin, and clothes to get a shot of what I looked like way back when.  So, yay!  An embarassing first AV pic!

Finally, I invited over my aunt's solicitor, Mr. Palmer, to sample my new pies.  He pronounced them a success.  I put in an order for a great number of bottles of liquor, and I think I'm ready for my party!

Mr. Palmer.  What a milquetoast.

Pie

"Waiter, there is too much pepper in my poppycosh.  But I would gladly partake of your pecan pieeeeee..." -- Billy Crystal, When Harry Met Sally

Ironically, pecan pie is one of the kinds I don't have. Hrm.  But I digress.

For the last month or so, I've been buying a sample of every pie I can find, within reason.  And none of them really blew me away as far as eating animations go.  There was always some problem.  The plate's in the wrong hand, it's upside down, the animation doesn't fire, etc.

So I said to myself, "SELF!  YOU MUST MAKE PIE!"

And so I did.  I bought some full-perm pie sculpt maps and textures and went to town.  I bought a full perm fork sculpt map.  I found some old scripts and animations, gussied them up, and put them all together.  I'm not going to sell them, I just want to serve them at my party on Friday.

Oh, what's that, you say?  You didn't know I was throwing a party on Friday?  Well yes, in fact, I am!  (I'm so glad you asked.)  My fifth rez-day was on August 4th, and I'm having a belated party this Friday, the 12th.  It will go from 7-9 pm SLT.  Here is the event listing.

I'm hoping that people will actually show up.  New Babbage has been so welcoming to me since I returned in May...it's my fondest wish that a good time is had by all.

It's Kraken Time

August through October, or thereabouts as I understand it is when the air kraken migration passes through New Babbage.  I know that folks on the Aethernet observe March 17th as Air Kraken Day, but, well, Babbagers like to do things a bit differently.

A kraken was spotted outside the city wall in Clockhaven the other night.  When the alarm was sounded and residents were advised to stay indoors, the way that New Babbagers interpreted that was:  "There's an air kraken!  Hurry, before it's gone!" 

I stood on a dock with Scottie Melnik watching for it, and was able to get a few good snapshots.  This is one of my favorites.  You can't see much detail of the kraken (enlarged to show more), but I like that it has the wall and the waves in it.

As New Babbage gears up for the Air Kraken Festival running from August 21 - 27 this month, I decided to find a suitable pirate hat for the ball at the end.  The one I ended up buying is the most ridiculous hat I think I've ever seen.  It is called the Bad Taste Hat, and I knew it had to be mine.

One last item on my kraken goodness list.  I've been working on a submission for a writing contest associated with the festival.  It didn't start out as a project for the contest, it's an idea that occured to me the night of the kraken sighting.  It is profoundly silly, and I can't wait to get it finished up.  Will post more about it when the time comes!

Sometimes I am SUCH a noob

Like tonight, when I found an old Linden-made squid gun on Marketplace and thought it was the best thing EVER.  Since it's full perms I spent the night tinkering with the script to see if I could make the squids bounce when they hit something, but no luck.  The best I can do is get them to not just go right through something.  Now they kind of stick and wiggle, which I suppose is almost as good as bouncing.

Also, they are now orange, so they can be baby air kraken. 

Because blue would be a stupid color for a kraken.

Stick and wiggle, baby air kraken!  Stick and wiggle!

A grand adventure! (Part 2)

I wasn't sure we would be able to continue our exploration of Wheatstone Waterways tonight, but Matthieu had time so we wandered around a bit more.  My impression of Wheatstone Waterways?  Some of the best steampunk builds in the city. 

For example, Steamweaver Aeroworks, Ltd., where enormous airships are constructed.  One great thing about this build (and there are many) is that you can go up to the assembly line and initiate the creation of an airship, which is constructed right in front of your eyes.  My favorite part of the process was the inflation of the great balloons to keep the ship aloft.  The pictures below of the machinery outside of the hangar don't do justice to how magnificent it all looks in motion.

The Great Obolensky Metal Steampunk Treehouse

Professor Ewing's Emporium has a lot going on, but somehow it all works.  Unfortunately, it works much better in person than in snapshots.  I found it very difficult to get a good angle that would capture the grandeur of the place, so I had to take a few.  A garden on the roof, sunbeams, a pulsing electrical generator, a flying machine...what's not to love?

After exploring what remained of the sim, at least most of it, we stopped in at Red's Revenge Pub for some rum (which appears to be in plentiful supply in Wheatstone).  Captain Red, whom I've not yet had the good fortune to meet, seems to have a great sense of humor.  Her build is chalk full of lighthearted and whimsical elements, which made it all the more enjoyable.

Matthieu served as my navigator as we attempted again to make it back to the Oldbridge area by boat.  We had significantly better luck this time, and were able to dock at the Barrel House under the bridge.  After some coffee, I left again in the boat, determined to make it as close to home as possible by water.  I successfully navigated my way down the canals to the Vernian, then across the sea to Clockhaven.  I docked right outside of the Clockhaven Aquarium and walked home from there.

I took a few shots of the boat docked there because I love the area, and honestly, I love my little boat. :-)

It's very satisfying to be learning my way around the city!

A grand adventure!

I've now been back in New Babbage for a couple of months, and there is still so much I've not seen!

Mr. Manamiko and I started out with the intention of exploring Wheatstone Waterways, but end up making a detour to the Vernian Deep.  Neither of us had investigated the Vernian builds, with the exception of my attendance at the Pearse's anniversary party, so it was very new for both of us.

Following our undersea wandering, we hopped aboard my new boat, The African Queen, and steamed around the waters of New Babbage.  Our aim was to boat all the way back up to his house in the Oldbridge area but didn't make it that far.  More adventure for another day!

Relaxing somewhere in the Vernian. 

Apologies to the owner for getting our shoes on the upholstery.

  

Chugging toward Clockhaven to see the steam turtles.

Steaming up the canals.

Some swings in Wheatstone.

A shooting gallery in Wheatstone. 

Matthieu is really good at it!  He got the 4th highest score.

Some kind of contraption in Wheatstone. 

We never did figure out exactly what it was supposed to do, but it looked intriguing.

Looking at books upstairs in a store, the name of which I've forgotten.

It was entertaining though, some very creative contraptions downstairs.

Matthieu deciding which book to buy. 

  

         

 Back on the canal, the boat began to take on water after I collided with something blocking the canal.

We were forced to abandoned ship.

Ah-hah!  An urchin hideout is to blame!

Alas, all good adventures must come to an end.  My typist was interrupted in RL, so I had to cut our excursion short.  Perhaps next time we will just explore the canals by boat!