So I had a fun two weeks - the one week I get the on-call pager, I have a wonderful bowel-rending bout of illness, then followed by having to carry the pager even longer, including working two consecutive saturdays.

And they say IT is all rock-n-roll glamour. I'm still waiting for my hot blonde supermodels to escort me to the clubs and after-parties.

I'm back in the saddle, here's another comic. Have a good one.

The problem with SL is....

It really makes real life by comparison, pretty goddamn dull. I'd have to do a lot of things in real life to get the same kind of satisfaction out of what I enjoy in Secondlife, such as building things. I can't believe people actually go through all that crap just to get a building smacked down on some plot on the earths surface.

I mean....comon....outside of the practical knowledge gained (like, how do I build something without it falling down immediately), I really don't see much benefit in torturing myself to get a 'skill' just so I can 'play by the rules'....I guess that is why I love SL so much, its just....a short circuit from 'idea' to 'actualization'.

That beats the crap out of boring real life at times, and it sure flogs the shit out of watching TV.

I've long maintained that it isn't just the business transactions that make Secondlife what it is. People build relationships here, love here, hell - even meet in real life and get married for chrissakes. What really grates at my nerves is someone that will put profit over everything else. Don't misunderstand, I sell things in-world and I make L$, believe me, but when it came to doing the 'right thing' it never took long for me to just *do* it, you know?

Case in point - the subject of todays comic. Olive is a old simulator, and has had the history of being a sandbox, then the first sim to be sold with the new objects-per-square-meter limits that we are now used to. It has been an important part of SL history. It is also adjacent to another sim that I like, Indigo, and the owner there, FlipperPA, has a vested interest in keeping the far north as lag-free as possible.

When approached, a certain large landowner-whose-name-shall-not-sully-my-blog, refused to sell the parcel in total to him, even after being offered a fair price. This is certainly her choice, but to me -- it just smacks of the 'wrong' thing to do here.

Is this what SL is supposed to reduce down to? L$ in someones account? Doesn't anyone *care* that there are personal investments of emotion and toil in this virtual landscape? Good business isn't just about the bottom line, its about the relationships you build.

I see this as being a very, very poor move, even for the 'business girl' herself to make.

That is all.

Gah, monday.

Well, this comic was actually inspired by true happenings...how the hell do you buy land by mistake? I really would like to know - maybe I could use it as a new technique to turn around land that I really want sold. If only I could devine the magic mistake combinations that make people buy land that has confirmation dialogs on it....I'd be rich!

Har.

Have a good one.

Secondlife will be down for a few hours today - hence today's topic choice. Hopefully nothing will break too horribly - we'll just have to see.

I always maintain optmistic outlooks on these things, at least Linden Lab listens when something really goes nuts - and implements new features too. All without deleting all the users from the database, which I'd be tempted to do myself if I had any real administrative power.

Its good that I don't. :)

Sometimes, when I get up early, as usual -- to head into work, I notice that people are sleeping at the same time when I get up, or are about to. Usually, I don't pay attention, but lately it sorta pisses me off. Its much the same thing as getting up when someone is asleep in the same room, you just have this urge inside to shake the fuck out of them and wake them up, just because.

Well, this urge to punch people through the internet is very real, and I hope I captured that feeling in todays update.

Enjoy!

So being BBQed is actually a pleasant experience, as long as that includes lots of bands, alcohol and chicks. Who knew? I didn't know what to expect exactly, but I am certainly glad that I got to meet FlipperPA and Jennyfur, Higbee and Hiro (Who I did *not* call Higbee, go figure).

I bet you'd like me to describe the happenings and all, but really the best image I have is riding shotgun in a jeep, after midnight, getting two more kegs from a reluctant bar owner to make sure that the flow of booze kept coming. Oh, and did I mention we started drinking like at...noon?

Yes, over 12 hours and I was still standing. And they say alcohol doesn't do you any good, BAH!

Great times - I'd do it again, for sure.

I guess work figured out that I was going away to visit some SL friends this weekend, because the pile-on of work is just *not* stopping. I'm trying to bear up under the load, while tempting visions of beer and food float by me to the destination I hope I'll be able to get to on Friday.

I'll make it, even if I have to pull a crazy taxi and frickin swerve all over the highway to get there.

I'll be back next week, so if updates are a little sparse or alcohol-fueled, then you'll know why :)

So SL got a client/server upgrade, which necessitates the usual download-the-client-and-install dance. The predicatable stress on the login/asset server as everyone and their dogs alts try to get back in, the whining and complaining about the 'lag' even though the process of inventory conversion was made a frickin MOTD (message of the day) for chrissakes, never fails to amaze me.

I mean, cmon. Don't bitch if you haven't been in preview - filed reports, what have you. All the stuff I had problems with was frickin fixed because I SAID SOMETHING ABOUT IT before hand. Yet here come all the L-Users talking about how "this-n-that-is-broke-omg-lol-wtf".....yeah....cry me a river.

Anyway, for those of us who know how to get things working, SL v1.6 is pretty sweet. :)

I love chrome. Or 'shiny' as its known in-world. Marcos Fonzarelli, a friend in SL, builds some really great stuff, and is a devotee of it as well. So, with friendly ribbing, I introduce our readers to our ongoing contentious friendship, which centers around who is best with chrome.

He has a green particle sphere on top of one of his builds in the city sims, and I've always joked that it was a 'Jealousy Sphere' that took my private loathing of his skills and turned it into creative power that he uses for his building efforts.