just ignore and let this one die

Only 1-2 inches??? BAH!! I can drive in that with bald tires!!!

And why is it, women seem so concerned with how many inches they're getting???

until recently, i wondered the same thing Tod. guess size DOES matter afterall.

I hope you can get some good sleep tonight, Sweetie. I'm stroking one of my kitties and thinking of you.

Lucky kids to have a really cool uncle. Just yesterday I saw a tv ad for those remote control helicopters and was thinking how much the grandkids would probably like them.

G'night an G'mornin, all!

Wow, here to start on this weekend. I mean, I took about 70 piccies this weekend. There's no wait in heck I'm posting that many here. But which ones?

Ya, I spent the weekend at Burning Life, a-course, an did a whole lot of stuff. As an aside, I've seen four Burning Lifes in my time, been part of two, and been a builder in four SL birthday events. This event has topped all of the above. The staff and volunteers were amazing, the atmosphere great, and the builds were top notch stuff. I wish every big LL-sponsored event could be as good, as little drama, and as smooth as this one.

The builds are up for another week - well, most of them - so go an see 'em while you can.

Anyway, here's one of my long shots. 4096m draw distance, far clip disabled. I shot this from center camp, looking towards the man and the temple.



One super fun event was the Bumble Bear race at the House of pips -- a build that has since been demolished, I'm afraid. A real gem. Anyway, here's the starting line. I took third in the race.



Because of full sims and all that, I was unable to watch The Man burn, which was sad, but I did have a ton of fun burning the Mini Man at Inner Child Camp. here's a shot of the Mini Man fully in flame.



We also had a unplanned Blurtophone concert, too!



I did make it to the burning of The Temple. That was a really great event. Here's the temple as it burned:



and...

Okay, there's no way I can get everything I wanna get in five piccies...

Lamplighting and firedancing was, as always, amazing. There's no way to catch the spirit of the event. This comes sorta close.



One item I brought out a time or two, usually during DJ sets, was the portable ball pit trailer. This is one of the things from the KidsVille camp at Burning Man that I chose to bring into SL. This one day, as DJ Evry played, a group of tinies descended upon us. I have no words to describe how fun it was to have a bunch of kids and tinies dancing around in a ball pit together. It was all very silly an cool. Some of you mighta seen this shot on another thread, but here it is again:



Here's the House of Pips from Loki Eliot's "Waiting For Pippen." This was such a cool story, as he tends to do. This also illustrates one of the things about Burning Life. I dropped my draw down to 64m and did a "hide selected" on a couple other bits of nearby builds in order to capture this shot. There is just so much around in Burning Life. All those other builds were great too, but it was almost too hard to focus on just "this thing" sometimes. So much awesome in such a relatively small area!



I shot TONS more piccies, like I said, an more over the week. Check 'em all out at
http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/AlbumView.aspx?id=2514

An, one personal note about the event: you will often hear me go on about the stuff I gotta deal with as a kid avvie in SL. Heck, you see it in some other threads, including one down the page right now. Everyone has an opinion an they're more than willing to share 'em. I get it. you think we're creepy and should be banned because we're all closet pedos or something. Good for you. What-ever.

Now then, how does this relate to Burning Life? All the BL sims this year were mature, and operating under the current definitions of same. As such, there were folks running around in various states of dress or undress. There were big sculpty statues around The Man (A marked change from the trouble over the "Water if Life" build of 2007!). One build very prominently used the "F" word.

All of us kids were welcome there, too, and they made it VERY clear that we were allowed. More than this, the staff and volunteers made us feel welcome, from the gate on out. Greeters even had a pack of goodies that was for kid avvies, an different from some the adults might get. Why? Just for the fun of it. There was a kid or two who were rangers (an one who was a hobbit, so don't confuse the two), and eight or so builds made by sometimes or all the time kids.

The thing is, we all coexisted peacefully. I never felt like i had to defend my avatar choice to anyone. Those who visited Inner Child Camp might also have noticed that I did not spend a lot of time in putting information specific to educate about kid avatars, either. It was there, but not a big deal. It did not need to be.

At one point yesterday, me an my sis were out exploring the playa, and came across the camp for the "Luscious Stilt Bitches," which is also a RL Burning Man group. There was also one of their group there, riding a unicycle and juggling flaming sticks. We yakked for a bit, got some freebies, etc., then moved on (had to get to the temple burn). While there a couple other folks came an went. It wasn't until later on that I realized that the lady we spoke to was topless, with nipple piercings. During none of that time was there a panic from either of us. We were simply a couple different avatars enjoying the event, socializing, and having fun on the last day of Burning Life.

An ironic statement coming from me, maybe, but it was nice to see that level of maturity all around.

I have so many other moments at the event that made me feel good about SL and the metaverse, Burning Life and humanity as a whole. But I've gone on waaaaay too long.

That's the weekend, an I hope everybuggy has a super week to come!

Really sad I missed BL, but Mari's report was almost like being there.

Happy Bank Holiday. A bit of a piggy flu relapse yesterday from other members of the house. I'll spare the gorey details but it will involve a trip to the shop today for febreze, upholstery/ carpet cleaner, more laundry soap and yet another bottle of detol. Sigh.

Lexxi, toothaches truly suck. I had to wait a few days to get my wisdom teeth out and my oral surgeon (who gave me the good stuff after he took all 4 of them out) suggested I get myself a bottle of whiskey in the meantime. Ice maybe, too?

Wonderful photos Mari. ou can see how much fun you were having.

What else...sorry my brain is mush.

.. just hanging out in forums reading people's woes, rants, raves and promotions, then i came across this thread.

I have not had a productive day - unwashed dishes lie in the sink, clothes in the laundry basket, my work in-box piled high and untouched, emails unread ... so why not ease my nagging guilt and head off to bed feeling soooo much better by diligently adding to this Thread?

Knew there was a reason i got up this morning!

Keep smiling one and all

Welcome and oink

*laughs*

Hi Carmsie - long time, no see!

Glad we could help - you just took something off your "to-do" list!!

And hello Threadies. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Mari...thank you SO much for your BL travelogue. I enjoyed every word, and every pic (yes, I looked at your gallery. )

Breakfast (although I'd ditch the whipped cream)

Whoops. coffee!

It's time to share my darkest secret. I see the numbers 11 11 everywhere. For example, when i hit submit for my last forum post the time stamp was - yes you guessed it - 11.11.

11 11 is no big deal you say but I tell you it is! It's got to a really freaky point. I am reasonably sane and intelligent and I know that twice a day all clocks show 11:11, but I "accidentally" see 11:11 on documents, bills, books, signs, every friggin where! It is like i am in an 11:11 plague.

I googled 11:11 and a whole lot of weird spiritual sites listed. Seems like i am not alone. Lots of people from all over the world see 11:11 far too often. I am kinda relieved I am not the only 11:11 geek around. I looked at a few of these sites but i really dont think i am one of the 'enlightened' with some strange intergalactic contact with other-world beings (excluding avies, of course).

One site did help me a lot though. It explained that, "11:11 is a pre-encoded trigger placed into our cellular memory banks prior to our descent into matter which, when activated, signifies that our time of completion is near. This refers to the completion of duality. When the 11:11 appears to you, it is your wake-up call. A direct channel opens up between you and the Invisible. When this happens, it is time to reflect on whatever you are doing for a moment and Look Larger. A transfer is in position... " and on it went ... blah blah blah ... wtf does all that mean?! LOL

Happily most of the interpretations tell me i am on the "right path" which is nice to know although i have noooo idea what that path is ... lol.

Just wondering if there are there any fellow 11'ers out there?

Gosh, Carmsie, I must be way out of it, as I'd never read anything about 11/11. Very interesting!

So, was there a Forum Cartel field trip Friday night to Lindal's class???? Inquiring minds need to know!

Good morning.

*mews softly* Pain was lessoned last night, this morning. Now, though, . . .well, I have my water. *clutches water*

Sorry for illness sweeping family.

Because of having no vacation/sick time I'm at work today. So no whiskey for me.

I looked at the time stamp from your first post and compared it to your stated 11:11 time mostly for curiosity. If you have already gone back to normal time, that would put you in the same time zone as 11 degrees, 11 seconds West latitude. If you happen to live at 11:11 W I would truly be freaked.

When you call the dentist, see if they can get you a prescription to help with the pain. The last time I had a toothache like that it was on a weekend. My dentist got all kinds of upset that I did not call him at home and let him know I was in pain. Your dentist may also want to get you started on antibiotics too. So let your dentist know you are hurting because they can help even if will take a day or two to get you in.

I picked up some Apple Cider Donuts yesterday. Help yourselves.



Last night on The Food Network, I saw a place that serves....DEEP FRIED BUTTER!!!!!


Lexxi, my sympathies. I think toothaches are awful, I know they usually make me Queen Bitch of the Universe.

Hey people. long time no seen!

Just had to let you know the news about my new laptop

For the last 2 years I played SL on a company laptop with an embedded Intel graphic adapter. No windlight, draw distance 64, all settings as low as possible. Could hardly move in my own store, but apparantly customers did not experience lag, so no problem. Parties were impossible, because as soon as there were more then 3 or 4 avatars present, my client about froze.

Last week I got myself a new laptop. Not even a very expensive one, about 840 dollars when I convert currency. 4GB memory, and a 512KB GeForce G 103M card. Quite average these days, but within budget (actually SL payed for it ).

AMAZING!!! As soon as I started up the client, clicked away the message that my hardware was not compatible with SL (!!), and switched to Ultra settings, I did not know what I saw! SL looked so different, so much prettier. And more then that: I could actually move! Where I had framerates of <3 on mimimum settings, I now had 15-20 on Ultra. And yes probably more when tweaking settings but hey, I am glad as it is and Ultra looks so good.

So... it IS worth it, a new machine!! So much more joy in being in SL. And I can imagine that what I do normally, I can do now three times as fast, so I save time.

Just wanted to share this

they are hard to fly, but once you figure it out they are the coolest remote control toy ever!

I'm bad bad kitty I haven't had a dentist for several years. Supposedly the one I might be able to see tomorrow would have seen me on Sunday if I had been a regular patient.

Same dentist as the one I used last time, though. If I can't get in tomorrow, I'll see about antibiotics. Since I'm not a regular, they will probably be reluctant.


They make me want to crawl into a hole and then bounce out again and pace and whimper and crawl into a hole again. Stupid teeth.

you had this out when we came to see your place, but you took it away before we could get inside. looked like fun!


that is way too freakin cool for words. can you drop the slurl to that one? i thot i had seen everything, but i clearly missed something grand.