More STEAM4 Marvels and Wonders

Yes, yes, Dhughan here.

The prizes for “best hunt gifts” were announced at the Wrap Party on April 1st, and they were:

1st place, Gold Trophy, Mayah Parx for EPIC TOY FACTORY

2nd place, Silver Trophy, Janeel Kharg for ANKH MORPORK

3rd place, Bronze Trophy, Emedea Morgenstern for Rag Dollz

4th place, Copper Trophy, Lenny Kenyon for HAVEN TOWNSHIP

5th place, Iron Trophy, Oriolus Oliva for GOLDEN ORIOLE

I’m only about 20 percent through with sorting (and it’s a very slow process as I’m constantly getting quite distracted by all the marvels and wonders I’m finding. However, I see that the wonderful things I blogged earlier (the Tesla Power Grid collector pole, steam engine, etc. have made the Winner’s List as they are from Haven Township). I’m certainly not surprised at the other names on this list, I know that when I unpack them, they will be wonderful (some I may unpack in a sandbox as the prim count on some might be quite high).

The third place trophy went to Emedea Morgenstern of Rag Dollz for her wonderful Masqeuerade outfit – Miss Lelani will have to model the female version, but the male one is delightfully formal and includes and old-fashioned mask. It did not come with boots or shoes and so I threw on some ghillie shoes, which are quite good for dancing but a little informal for such a formal ball outfit.

Dhughan with Morse and Masquerade

Here I am, standing next to an object that did not win a prize, but certainly deserves one: a 2 PRIM Morse Code Kiosk from Dreamer Designs. And one of the prims is the pose ball! It must have been made by a master builder using Blender or some other advanced sculpt or mesh editing program. I’m quite taken with it and may use it at one of our shops, wireless Morse is a useful innovation.

On the other hand, this set of wings and helmet (complete with subtle threads of steam) is old-school prim mastery; each wing attaches to the upper arm and is 175 prims, while the helmet is 13 prims. The wings are apparently powered by Tesla arc technology, which is more visible in the back view.

I’ve just opened the box for Epic Toy Factory – unsure of what I’d find, I went to Prim Works Sandbox in case it turned out to be very high-prim. Thankfully, it was all beautifully laid out as individual objects or coalesced objects, with prim counts, when unpacked from the animated gift package. I rode Monty the Turbo Snail, who has wonderful sound effects. However, there’s also a beautiful swing, a fantasy barbecue, dancing daisies, and so much else that it would be difficult to document it all without rezzing them all and playing with them for days. There are THIRTY-THREE perfectly wonderful gifts in there, each with a snapshot. This kind of skill (there’s a strong artistic-fantastical aesthetic in each) makes my efforts look quite humble (yet quite pathetically sincere) by comparison.

I’ve boxed them carefully away – I don’t have a use for them at the moment, but many of them will make wonderful set pieces for photography. Fortunately, I’ve been rather methodical about using the new inventory organizer boxes and have found them very helpful. I’m not boxing everything backup – just the really special things that I don’t need in my inventory, but would certainly like to keep.

So as a memo more for myself, here’s how things are laid out:

The large crate is for whatever textures I find as I sort, after they’ve been loaded into Eradanis Boccara’s excellent FREE texture organizer. I’ve bought the handy add-ons that allow importing directly from boxes (especially handy with boxed textures in modifiable packages; all one need do is drop the “unpacker” script in the box and activate via menu command). They also allow one to sort sculpt textures in the same gadget, working differently from Zauber’s equally excellent sculpt organizer/rezzer. Both sorters are worth keeping – Zauber’s gives out objects directly, while Eradanis’ gives the texture. If I encounter a cache of sculpted objects that come without maps, I may rezz a second large crate just for sculpted bits and pieces.

The larger Chinese boxes are tagged with names similar to some of my biggest categories – Decor, Buildings, Vehicles, and Clothes Too Bizarre For Every Day. The float text above them is useful for preventing me from getting confused during a long session of inventory sorting… something I’ve actually not done consistently at all since my first rezzday. They’re of a shape that’s easily stacked.

At this point I’m not yet sure what the smaller flat Chinese boxes will hold. I’m sure something will turn up. But I’ve laid them out in rank and file, and as a newly necessary category occurs to me, I rezz a new box.

For a chronically disorganized person, it’s almost as if I’m… getting organized. Quite a heady feeling.

And now as it’s late, I shall close here with one addendum. I’ll continue to work through all my boxes and boxes of marvels and wonders, and post photographs of the most captivating (or deserving of their own place on a Top ~n List.

ADDENDUM: at a Relay For Life event inworld earlier, the good and unfuzzy Marshal of Steelhead, Fuzzball Ortega was thrown in jail, and bail was set at $L20,000.

Here he is, being comforted in his lonely incarceration by Mindy Resident, a wee scamp of Steelhead. He bravely endured until eventually freed by the generous donations of fellow Steelhead residents. Miss Lelani was present when he was sprung from the hoosegow; at one point the tally was a mere $L100 from hitting the mark, when someone (who shall remain nameless) contributed a single Lindenbuck.

A jolly laugh was had by all, except for poor Marshal Ortega. However, he was soon paroled. It was a good breakout for him, and a good break for me from sorting, sorting, photographing, shopping, getting distracted, and sorting.

Dhughan Froobert is a Steampunk resident in Second Life who putters around with prims and takes pictures of same. He occasionally manifests as a small Victorian otter.

Weekly Tweets 2011-04-03

[#SVC-6691] Teleports FAIL Still Happening! #SLRLbridge Trapped Me For 8 Hours In The Dark!

Once again Linden Labs’ shocking inattention to critical service issues threatens virtual life as we know it; the teleport system that bridges the SL-RL interface is STILL hopelessly borked.

What’s more, it’s been logged, voted on, watched, discussed, and Twittered, and is yet to be worked on.

Unacceptable.

I had a similar experience today to this Resident’s problem:

I’m still experiencing this issue in version 2.6. I just attempted to use it to teleport to work this morning however the same problem is preventing me from doing so. Now because of this problem I’m going to have to get out of bed, walk to the road and ride into work in a car. I hope LL can see how this is a problem for myself and all SL residents.

Last night, I initialized the “bridge” program in the normal way and suddenly found myself in stuck in an interstitial for more than 8 hours. Despite numerous attempts, I was unable to escape this black screen state and eventually lost consciousness. When I finally came to, none of my home parcel scripts were working – NONE OF THEM. The bed scripts were totally wiped, the “Notify Me of Events” gadget erupted in this harsh buzzing sound, and to add insult to injury, my Cat 2.0 interactive pet object suddenly started spewing sculpties all over a very expensive rug prim! Although I had to admire the liquid texture animations, it was hard to appreciate them, as Windlight seemed to be down, too.

NONE of my inventory folders were where they were supposed to be, I couldn’t drag anything onto myself, and none of my hairs were anywhere to be found, either. I had to go out in grown hair – UGH, and it was a mess.

All of my custom Steampunk vehicles – GONE.

Map teleport – MIA.

Personal flight – INOPERATIVE. NOT EVEN A FLIGHT FEATHER TO BE FOUND.

I actually had to drag prims onto myself, more or less in the correct layers order, still in semi darkness as apparently a power surge killed my monitor, too. And then I had to WALK to the vehicle folder, which smelled awful and was totally disorganized, and DRIVE to “work,” where I was very busy all day and unable to even use my handheld bridge device to check on my friends’ well-being and safety during this horrific and totally needless outage.

I am sure that it is not my computer or video card, which I installed myself more than a year ago and it’s still very cutting edge and relatively high-powered. It’s not my sound card either, even though streaming parcel music was ALSO BORKED.

Please note, I had repeatedly cleared visual cache yesterday, the problem is NOT client-side.

Things had better improve FAST because this #RLSLbridge issue is seriously messing with a lot of heads.

LL, FIX THIS DAMN MESS!!1!

Steam Hunt 4 Completed… now to clean up the mess

Dhughan here, it’s been a long few weeks since I last blogged. Sorry, busy, building, learning, fixing, tearing out hear prim by prim, blah blah blah!

At long last, I have had a chance to complete STEAM 4: The Hunt as a hunter, not just as a creator. And now I have to clean out my inventory as I go.

First, a short word to my fellow shop-owners and content-creators.

 

Please, please, don’t make it so difficult to find the gear, or make it difficult to navigate around your place while searching for it, or set it up so that when found it doesn’t behave as described in the guidelines for STEAM Hunt Engineers. Otherwise, we might miss wonderful things like this:

Haven Gifts

That’s a fun “Under Construction” sign, a Tesla Power Grid collection light (it’s much taller than shown) an un-animated (and no-mod) engine, a wonderful old-fashioned phone that sends IMs to the owner, and a terrific inworld radio that IS modifiable, can be deeded to group land, and can still be modified afterwards (a pet peeve of mine).  It seems to stop working if “taken” into inventory, though – the station won’t change. So set it up where you want it, deed it, change it, forget about it. It looks very nice sitting out, or embedded in a wall or something.

I’ve invested in some inventory sorting boxes, will review them as I learn how to set them up. Seems simple, and they’re very attractive.

But now to bed. Much more sorting and unpacking to ensue.

 

UPDATE: It’s difficult to organize because first one must organize. It’s a never-ending process but an enjoyable one for me.

In the meantime, in one of the “chump gears” (decoys, but funny ones” from Battersea Amusements in Babbage Canals, I opened it up to find THIS EXCITING CONSOLATION PRIZE.

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-27

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-20

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-13

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-06

  • /me comes up for water "Oh, hello Tweeple I've totally neglected while I was burning the midnight pixels the last few days. How are you?" #
  • RT @isfullofcrap "RT @MoRocca: Galliano dismissed. Too bad, I was really looking forward to his Springtime for Hitler collection." #
  • @isfullofcrap That made me LO so L that everyone in the cafeteria looked at me funny. #
  • If you recast the classic SNL Star Trek sketch as a #SecondLife machinima, what AV would have an "I want my ears! I want my ears!" meltdown. #
  • @Drasilova First time as a #STEAMhunt engineer, imma need new retinas now. 😉 #SL #
  • RT @SecondLie "Instead of handing out Second Life Community Platform Bears, we're handing out Second Life Community Platform Shoes. #groovy quot; #
  • @Drasilova I look forward to shiny new retinas, expect clockwork irises, too! #
  • I'm off to texture the crap out of my new Community Forums Rank Icon Avatar: http://bit.ly/eZAaD5 via @addthis #

Kaʻiulani: The Sad Peacock Princess

During the course of making and decorating items for my shop in the STEAM hunt, I was struck by the story of Princess Ka’iulani of the Kingdom of Hawaii, who was deposed before she ever ruled by American business interests, and who died young after spending many years being educated in England. She was a proper Victorian lady of royal birth, and like the inestimable Isabella Bird, is an inspiration.

Princess Ka'iulani, the Peacock Princess

In fact, she was known as the Peacock Princess, and so I have decided to include peacock feathers in my hunt gift, because God knows we all need a little more color in the Steampunk world! Too much brown and orange is not necessarily a good thing, when there is a whole palette of Victorian dyes (natural and artificial) to choose from. So bring on the intense blues and greens and purples!

During her absence, much turmoil occurred back in HawaiÊ»i. King Kalakaua died in 1891 and Princess Lydia LiliÊ»uokalani became Queen. LiliÊ»uokalani immediately appointed KaÊ»iulani as her heir, and KaÊ»iulani became the Crown Princess. In 1893, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown and the new government attempted to become a part of the United States. The news arrived to KaÊ»iulani on January 30, 1893 in a short telegram that said: “‘Queen Deposed’, ‘Monarchy Abrogated’, ‘Break News to Princess'”.

Kaʻiulani then made a statement to the press in England:

“Four years ago, at the request of Mr. Thurston, then a Hawaiian Cabinet Minister, I was sent away to England to be educated privately and fitted to the position which by the constitution of Hawaii I was to inherit. For all these years, I have patiently and in exile striven to fit myself for my return this year to my native country. I am now told that Mr. Thurston will be in Washington asking you to take away my flag and my throne. No one tells me even this officially. Have I done anything wrong that this wrong should be done to me and my people? I am coming to Washington to plead for my throne, my nation and my flag. Will not the great American people hear me?”

She referred to Lorrin A. Thurston, who was touring the United States promoting its annexation of Hawaii. Kaʻiulani decided to take action and traveled to the United States herself the following month. Upon arrival on American shores, although shy by nature, she addressed the press in public with these words:

“Seventy years ago Christian America sent over Christian men and women to give religion and civilization to HawaiÊ»i. Today, three of the sons of those missionaries are at your capitol asking you to undo their father’s work. Who sent them?   Who gave them the authority to break the Constitution which they swore they would uphold?   Today, I, a poor weak girl with not one of my people with me and all these ‘Hawaiian’ statesmen against me, have strength to stand up for the rights of my people. Even now I can hear their wail in my heart and it gives me strength and courage and I am strong – strong in the faith of God, strong in the knowledge that I am right, strong in the strength of seventy million people who in this free land will hear my cry and will refuse to let their flag cover dishonor to mine!”

The pro-annexation press of the time often treated KaÊ»iulani with contempt,referring to her in print as a half-breed, or calling her “dusky”, although she did not receive the blatantly racist treatment repeatedly given her Aunt. Typical of the time, “positive” accounts of the Princess appearance often tried to emphasize what was thought to be “white” about her, although her “British” half was invoked negatively on occasion by American writers fearing Great Britain was a rival for possession of HawaiÊ»i. As she traveled across the United States following her education, the real Princess surprised open-minded members of the press. Instead of an unmannered caricature “heathen” described by enemies of the Kingdom of HawaiÊ»i, journalists and the public were confronted by a modern Royal Princess wearing elegant gowns and speaking English or Hawaiian, French or German

via KaÊ»iulani – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Lelani Carver is a Steampunk resident in Second Life who blogs a little about everything, and about nothing of any importance.