A Second Life

This area belongs to Iyoba, my favorite avie from Second Life and me. We share our thoughts here and discuss our adventures in the metaverse. To return to the main blog page, just click here.

This Time with Voice

OK, I made this machinima to try out different software. It is an mp4 file instead of an .swf file. That means it may run a bit differently. I'm going to do a simple embed and hope it works. There is a reason that I am the One Who Thinks She Knows rather than the One Who Knows. Iyoba gets a lot of stuff right.

This should work and I should have a video running shortly. If you've never seen the inside of Second Life, now you can really know what you are missing. If you are curious, I made Iyoba's clothes, hair, skin, and eyes myself using GIMP. Second Life is a geek's paradise though Linden Labs is trying to dumb it down. Like most old timers, both Iyoba and I hope they fail.

And yes, I built the house and the plants. The brown building with the shades drawn is not on my rented property. It belongs to Venus, my neighbor. The green house in the distance is my creation.

Iyoba's house has a flat roof. There are seven turles that live up there. They are Petable Turtles, one of Second Life's oldest breedables. They lay many more eggs than Iyoba and I can hatch. There are currently eleven eggs awaiting our cleanup. We also have to feed the turtles. Below us, in the house/office itself, are the zwickies. I have some still photos of those if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Right now, the male zwicky, Geronimo, is pregnant. This is his fifth pregnacy. The mothers of his unborn offspring are a combination of all three of our female zwickies, Subira, Yochaved, and Fortunata. The near-white turtle starring in the video is named Narcisse. Part of the joy of virtual, breedable pets is naming them.

Eileen H. Kramer and Iyoba BatOni -- June 29, 2011

Just for Fun

I had to make another machinima of Iyoba. I should be making clothes for her or off in a sandbox, but this was a lot more fun.

It's that simple. Iyoba went dancing. I set the preferences and then we shot. Eventually, I'll get rally good at manipluating. Jing's controls which will be useful for other types of video capture. Making machinima is a win-win situation.

There is a lot of dancing in Second Life and music. Most of the dancers are females. I guess that is just like high school. Oh well, sometimes a good machinima or even a mediochre one speaks for itself.

Eileen H. Kramer -- June 27, 2011

Reassurance

Iyoba and I both need some sandbox therapy, but we're not sure if we're getting it tonight. So far Second Life Beta 2.74 is working fairly well. If it weren't I'd be complaining about it all over this blog. I'm not. Friday, we finally got to speak to Walter. We were in a furniture store on a secluded upper floor of that establishment on the island of Utopia Portugal XIV. Utopia Portugal makes both Iyoba and I long for Utopia Portgual XVIII where we had our first rented land. I don't really miss Imperia Corps I, but I do miss our first home in the worst way.

Part of life in Second Life is nostalgia for land now long gone. Last night, Iyoba and I went to see More than Dreams, which was the adult incarntion of the Sand Dollar resort which had the beginnings of a decent mall and respectable dance club. What else does any one need? Lusty Touch failed. Adult entertainment is a dime a dozen, but really decent clean, well lighted spaces are another story. These days. More Than Dreams is Low Tide Ranch. The horses actually walk around because the ocrrals are large enough, but the landscape is the same pristine white sand as Sand Dollar. The Lusty Touch Club is gone, but the steps leading up to it are still intact. Where the club once stood grows a bunch of sea grass and wild ginger. I wonder which avie planted these and why. The touch of sentimentality left Iyoba and me both sad.

Walter meanwhile, plans to acquire more land. I am not sure I believe him, but I believe him enough to sit tight. Pride is the reason he would lie to me and Iyoba, but I'm not sure he would lie outrageously due to pride. It could give him a case of the gonnas, a very masculine disease, but that kind of comes with the territory.

Eileen H. Kramer and Iyoba BatOni -- June 26, 2011

Iyoba at the Great Wall

Yes, I made another machinima. I want to get practice in using Jing, and besides, Second Life is hard to describe to those who have never been there. Machinima are a great way for outsiders to get an inside view.

I had just made hair for Iyoba on my lunch break. I decided it was time to do some serious prim torturing in a sandbox. I went down to the LEA Art Sandbox which was fortunately, quiet and empty. I can always find a quiet corner. Hair is a great thing to make because your avie can wear it. That means you do not need space to rezz it. Besides, I am conflicted about larger builds. I am trying not to think about having to move.

Anyway, in Second Life you can give your avie new clothes or hair or even skin or eyes, and nobody notices. I once even dressed Iyoba in a flour sack shirt and....Well someone noticed this hair. One of the advantages of a short avie is you can wear big hair with conservative clothes and not look for feel ridiculous. I like red hair, and Iyoba was going to work at Info-Isand that night. She's dressed for work, hair and all. OK, here she is:

My One Who Thinks She Knows said lets make a movie on the Great Wall. It's supposed to be an imitation of a great wall in China in "real life." There is lots of place to walk. You can even sort inventory there. There are bars there like a jail.

My One wanted to practice her camera angles and stopping and starting with Jing. She also wanted to show some really pretty landscape, and yes...my new hair. I hope you enjoy the video.

Last night my One wrote a letter to the tenant who is now in arrears. She knows she can't kick him off the land, and she thinks that Edde, who is Walter's co-owner, at EDDesign Island, can take back the land easily. She's not sure if Walter really exists any more. Walter probably misses his One very badly. It is awful not to be able to go inworld. I'm glad my One lets me inworld most days even if all we do is feed the turtles and check the Zwickies.

The Zwickies give me kisses. They only fart occasionally. My One says we need to make a machinima starring the Zwickies. What do you think?

Iyoba Bat Oni and Eileen H. Kramer -- June 21, 2011

"Come Clean Now!"

Yes, I have to shout this, and I am shouting it at my favorite landlord. This is not a case of malfeasance. This is not even a case of stupidity. It probably is a case of procrastination and avoiding bad news, but sometimes you need bad news.

Here is the story: I pay no rent for Iyoba's and my 2048 (square meters of land) on EDDesign Island. We pay no rent because I am my landlord's "secretary." The first problem is that I have almost no work to do. We are down to half an island and two tenants thanks to the events of last winter. How long can I expect to be paid for doing next to nothing?

Second, I hate where I am. I am often hemmed in on three sides by ban lines. I obstruct the local land baroness. She's just another renter, but she "has plans." OK, Iyoba likes to take a walk. Now she has nowhere to go, but we can't beat the price.

The problem is I can't expect this price to last forever. The problem is we don't have an end game. No one likes end games. No one likes talking about end games, but neither Iyoba nor I want to see our stuff come back in a ball. Neither of us want only a few days notice.

The news I'd really like to hear is Walter telling Iyoba that he is going to buy more land and take on more tenants. That could mean a possible relocation to somewhere friendlier, more work, and continued free rent and the social standing that comes with a job inworld. The news I may need to hear is: "I'm getting out of the land business in Second Life. You need to be packed up by X date." I'd prefer to hear this from Walter, but it could come from EDe, sort of co-owner of the island or from the land baronesse. Let's just say stranger things have happened.

And no, this is not eating me alive with worry. I have a Plan B in place. There is 4096 for rent near where I have my 512 in Hartley. This is main land with lots of walkable open space and interesting shopping and amusements near by. It is not the same neighborhood I moved in to when the land fever bit me hard and I was bone-headedly stupid in 2008. Right now, it's better. At least Iyoba can go for a walk when we are both feeling down. I vetted the landlord. He has been around for two years, and one of the landlords (It's a couple) is a partner in a major business. In other words, they are not fly by night. They are also renting the land as part of a group project. Presumably it finances land elsewhere.

The one downside is that the house can not come with me because it uses two megaprims. I'll need a new house, or one of my other houses I keep in inventory. My green house which is built withotu megaprims can come with me, but Hartley is temperate summer, not tropical. That means rearranging the garden. I always end up doing that.

Right now I am waiting on a reply from Walter about an endgame. I don't need encouragement. I just want truth. I just want communication. Going would be fun, though it will cost. Staying is fine if there is a future. I just dislike the not knowing, and yes part of me dreads being told what I all ready know, but I need to hear it from someone else and know it is not just my imagination.

Eileen H. Kramer and Iyoba batOni -- June 14, 2011

And they're not real, but Second Life has a peculiar way of fostering a suspension of disbelief. Fiction after all is not real, but characters can be compelling and you want to know what happens next. So it is with Iyoba's and my zwickies. Zwickies are terrestrial/aerial cephalapods. They consist of a head with blnking eyes, a pear shaped body, a rough, four tentacles and an ovipositor/penis. They fly balletically. They turn on a dime. They have four or five calls if you turn on sound effects. They come looking for you and can give you a little face or shoulder nudge called a zwicky kiss. They can also fart in your face, as Fortunata, our green zwicky girl did last week.

Though Zwickies are less neurotic and way less r-selected than turtles, which produce up to three eggs daily no problem, Zwicky mate once a week and produce one offspring that can be stillborn. There are also sterile matings. My zwickies' first mating may have been sterile last Saturday. I came home to find my male's "horniness" dropped to seven percent and my girls at a hundred percent. I complained my boy zwicky had lost interest, and Patnad gave him some "Zwicky Viagra." The result was a turquoise female Zwicky baby named Theodora whom I'm keeping in inventory. Patnad, one of the Zwicky creation team, thought that Theodora was Fortunata, my green zwicky's child. I looked at Theodora's ruff, and concluded she is Yochaved, my blue zwicky's child. Now I think that she is a chimera of all three mothers and the father doesn't have anything to do with the genetic makeup of the offspring or maybe he contributes only a small share. Zwicky stats, unlike turtle stats, do not list lineage.

Well a few days have gone by. The zwicky girls are afflicted with priapism. I feel bad for them being in heat and frustrated while my male catches up. He's nearly ready to mate as I write this. He's at "98% horniness" as I write this. This means I'm going to "force" a mating on my lunch break.

And yes, I am not that different from the gentlemen who cheered on their fighting zwickies in voice. It was strange to hear them talking not only to the crowd, but to their zwickies, as if they could hear. Zwicky fights are beautiful by the way because zwickies are so graceful, and even the loser remains unhurt. Besides, the poor zwicky girls have to do something to vent their frustration.

It is easy to give these pixel creations personalities. Right now Geronimo, my male zwicky, is "shy" according to Patnad. I am less charitable. I suspect her prefers his own gender. At least Zwicky don't hide in closets. This one is half way through the wall of my house which is also my executive office. There is no glass ceiling for zwickies. They even sail up through the roof when they are feeding the turtles.

And here is Geronimo peeking out of the wall. Zwicky can come outside though they usually prefer coming up through the roof. Maybe Geronimo wants a breath of fresh air. Maybe he is thinking about not wanting to gestate another egg. Maybe he is dreaming of farting in my face. Zwicky for all their pranks and recalcitrance are not nearly as neurotic as turtles. I've told my zwicky girls they could carry and hatch one to three eggs daily. They didn't seem to like that idea very much. I don't think Geronimo is going to like what awaits him in a manner of minutes.

Eileen H. Kramer and Iyoba BatOni -- June 3, 2011