Righto, then. The bally free sticks are selling like bally free hotcakes. In the interests of keeping up with an inbox that has gone mad, the AO and the demonstrator or “freebie” jade stick will increase in price to $L1 (ie ONE LINDENBUCK) on August the Oneth. So please, everyone; fetch the stick! Go get it!

Thus, the stick and the AO will become a “dollarbie,” which won’t keep the wolf from the door but might keep a small scripted cat in kibble. They are both available from my Tweddle shop. I look forward to finally getting in a good shipment of jade textures with which to craft a completely new, scripted stick that works with more than one walking stick AO. Realistically, this will probably not be until after the oneth of September.

Having discussed the matter with Her Nibs, Miss Carver, I have deferred to her seniority and she shall apply to be in the STEAM 7 hunt. This frees me up to sit in the corner of my Tweddle shop and whittle sticks, and also to build a fishing shack on my lakeside property in Steelhead St Helens.

Of course, Miss Carver shall be relying on my expert knowledge of sticks, hats, archeology, and small cats. And I will probably make a small but amusing giftie to go in the gear, in the hunt theme of course. Must consult with old T. Caligari to find out how to make tactical weapons with squirrels; there’s a worthy starting point.

Meanwhile, I have been quite busy and have now converted all my meagre Second Life Marketplace items to Direct Delivery, which so far works admirably for free things but not so admirably for actual “pay the rent” items (I jest, although there was one partly wonky transaction that got sorted quickly).

There are also a few new things; some quite nice painted Indian pottery I bartered for on my way out of New Mexico. They will become part of my import/export doings with the Far East (which is even further West than I am, hence the name).

This one has a nice design of birds. I decided they were swallows, which love to build their nest in the stone alcoves (and under the eaves of barns) in the old Southwest.

A virtual pot from the American Southwest. The Chinese like these to put things in.

The other pot has a sort of lightningish-mountainy design that seemed quite striking.

The Chinese will like this, too. Also some rich gentry back East collect them.

In return I expect a shipment of Chinese textiles, tea, ceramics, and assorted oddments. H’rrm. I do miss the convenience of my old railcar in Steelhead Shanghai for the water trades… so convenient taking delivery or sending on under consignment, pity about the vice crackdown. Ah, well.

Interesting note about that last listing – the product photo was taken using a plain backdrop and projection lighting. It was the simplest product photo ever taken; all that needed doing was a simple square crop and resize to 512 pixels (might add a title later). You may have noticed Miss Carver stealing my idea for her own product photos, very cheeky of her.

I also found time to update my old Haida bracelet, which needs a new photo to show its newly smoothed back bezel. And I re-listed the Mesa Verde Cliff House photo, but really ought to find a better easel. The one included was my very first building project in SL, can’t quite bring myself to de-rezz it.

Enough blather, must lose consciousness now. Good night, minions.