Junie and Jed

Keeping the barstools warm at the Porthead Tavern.

Drink Contest Entry: Angler Ale!

I fiddled with QAvimator for days and although my drink animations did get better, I'm still not completely happy with them.  Still, the rest of this week is going to be busy so I polished them up as much as possible (which isn't saying a whole lot) and stuck them into my drink.

I put the drink into a giver and set it on a table in Tomonah Hall next to the Porthead Tavern sign.  I have no idea if a pub can have multiple drinks next to it in the contest, but since I don't really know the other establishments and since I'm renting there, it seemed to make the most sense.

On the wall I hung my 2D advertisement, which is for the drink I entered:

As I've said previously, I have no expectation of winning, I'm just excited to be participating.  In the process it gave me a good reason to experiment with scripting, particles, building, and animating.  Not bad!

The Pearse Anniversary

Friday night was Edward Pearse and Christine McAllister Pearse's 4th anniversary celebration.  It was held in a beautiful location in the Vernian Deep, where I'd not yet visited.

The Vernian Deep itself is a marvelous set of builds, all running along the sea floor.  I didn't spend any time exploring, but just the walk between the elevator and the ballroom was enough to raise my interest.  Imagine an underwater Victorian steampunk city - this is the flavor of the Vernian Deep.

This was the first event at which I was asked to dance.  I spent a great deal of time dancing with Dr. Kristos Sonnerstein, who was quite charming and well-mannered.  The chatter in the room was festive and enjoyable, and I stayed until the end.

Dr. Sonnerstein asks me to dance:

Whirling around the room:

When I got home to the tavern, I stood on the balcony for awhile and contemplated my hardware troubles, and took some comparison snapshots.  On the left is what I usually see with the viewer set to levels that allow me to actually function in-world.  On the right is what I would see if I had hardware capable of displaying the highest quality graphics.  (Well, to be fair, I suppose that my hardware is capable, I just can't do anything when rendering is set so high.)

I feel like I'm missing so much.  Something must be done!

At my leisure

I did nothing productive last night.  Instead I went to the last part of a bonfire party at Sweetwater Square hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Melnik.  Although I was late I did have an opportunity to see the bonfire fall, which was great fun.  Mr. Blackberry Harvey was the DJ at this event and was kind enough to play a Leonard Nimoy encore.

Afterward I retired to my room at the Porthead Tavern where I tinkered with a piece of art I've been working on. Ultimately I didn't accomplish much.  I ended up going out to the bar and drinking with some other midnight burners. It's been quite enjoyable to just claim a barstool and pass the time in aimiable chat. The rental at the tavern is working out very well in that regard.  I like the idea of being able to work in my room for awhile and then just wander out to the bar for conversation.

Grand Opening of Porthead Tavern

I'm tipsy with excitement, and perhaps a bit too much lager.

Tonight I attended the grand opening party of Ms. Tesla Tripsa's Porthead Tavern in Port Babbage.  Mr. Vic Mornington DJ'd the event. It's the first social event I've attended since returning, and although there were many times I felt awkward, the overall experience was pleasant. 

Rather than operating in wallflower mode, I danced.  Rather than leaving as soon as the party was officially over, I stayed at the bar with several others to chat for a long while.  I had the opportunity to meet several new folks, and perhaps make some new friends.  Hopefully I didn't make a fool of myself.  It's been a long time since I've been social.

Although I tried to take several pictures while I was there, my graphics card being what it is, many of those present were, well, unrezzed.  So I took this silly snapshot of myself dancing:

I came away from the event with a lovely gift from Mr. Mornington:

I think it makes me look a bit sad, but I like it nonetheless.

More work on the Kittiwickshire house

Last night I decorated my new room at the Porthead Tavern in Port Babbage.  I was going for a 19th century Bohemian look, and this is what I came up with:

Tonight I opted to spend the evening in Caledon working on my build in Kittiwickshire.  I had decided already that the scale of the build I had started was all wrong, so I more or less started from scratch.  Using the door at the Porthead Tavern as a model for a good height relative to my av (everything has to be scaled bigger for avatars anyway because they're generally taller than humans, and the camera angle makes realistic scales impractical).    Then I sized a door in Kittiwickshire to roughly the same proportions and, silly as it sounds, I built the house around the door.

I'm using a picture of a small Victorian cottage as inspiration.

Here is how my newbie house is turning out.  I'm using stock textures and it's flashing all over the place, but I'm working it out.  The scale is better not only for my av, but also relative to the builds all around it.  I was aiming for a small structure in comparison to the others, so this is a bit closer to the mark.

It's not special, but it's exercising some muscles that haven't been used for awhile...

Porthead Tavern

Enjoying a cigar on the haunted couch...