Gone cats; on Comments; too much stuff

Comments on fashion blog: 2 (bad); Cats disappearing into Lost and Found: 7 (very very bad); Amount of cute stuff that can be bought at SL events: limitless (so bad, it becomes good again)
My Blueness fashion blog is attracting comments, but alas not from what one might call discerning punters. Indeed a sceptical reader might think people were spamming the blog to advertise some tawdry search engine optimisation services. First comment reads "Its such as you read my thoughts! You appear to understand so much approximately this, like you wrote the e book in it or something. I believe that you can do with some percent to drive the message home a little bit, however instead of that, that is magnificent blog. A fantastic read. I’ll definitely be back."

This so barely hangs together as English that it almost becomes poetry (really awful poetry, obviously). Quality of the prose is probably explained by next comment

"I read a lot of interesting posts here. Probably you spend a lot of time writing, i know how to save you a lot of time, there is an online tool that creates high quality, SEO friendly articles in minutes, just search in google – laranitas free content source". Is evident that author A must have been using services being peddled by author B and in my view should ask for their money back, though the phrase "like you wrote the e book in it or something" has a certain ring to it.
Makes me nostalgic for the early days of spam where either messages were lovingly handcrafted by spamming maestros, or consisted of random chunks of text welded together with no regard for sentence structure, punctuation or meaning.

Moving on, had been looking at fashion blog because just posted new outfit (see above) presenting just a few of the many items hoovered up at recent SL events. The Arcade! Kustom 9! We Love Roleplay! Jewelery Fair! The Chapter Four! Basically, there is just too much cute stuff to be had, and my inventory is stuffed to the limit (i.e. 71,000 items) with things so delightful have never even opened the box let alone worn them.

Could have disquisition on moral decay of Western Society here (what kind of world is it where spend money on virtual hat consisting of giant butterfly, when should be doing marking?) however will move on swiftly to Case of The Disappearing Kitties. Was going quietly about normal business in SL, setting up a picture shot of me carving pumpkins amongst autumnal trees and grass (see first pic), when realised that item which had just rezzed was more than the prim count that I had left on the land. Strange.
Turned out that this was because SL had decided to send into Lost and Found
- 7 assorted kittycats
- 1 folding chair
- 1 set of washing, on a line.
Items are all scripted, but then so are oodles of other things. To cut long story short, kitties are returned to their homes, but still seems to be some kind of aftermath in which when "holding" a kitty animation does not work, so get unfortunate effect as pictured here with Marl.

Perhaps  is revenge of the spammers for sending their comments straight to spam.

And I have got 6000 files; Spring becomes autumn; I whack some noobs

No. of pictures still in my Second Life folder: 6000+ (worrying); No. of noobs whacked: 17 (unimpressive); No. of giant pink flamingos bought: 1 (v. good); Season following on from Spring on Infolit iSchool: Autumn (because I can); Parts of SL disappearing in random fashion: lots (bad)
As can see from above, SL continues as per normal. Was trying to upload some pics to Flickr but Second Life folder on my PC (where save said pics) refused to be ordered by date rather than by name. Upon investigation realised that this folder had approx 7,200 files in it, most of them pictures, and presumably am testing some kind of Windows limit for the no. of files you can have in one folder without it curling up and waving legs in air.
Did a quick transfer of the 1000+ SL pics taken in 2013 (that averages 3 a day hmmm, perhaps ought to reflect on that statistic) anyway even after that there were still 6000 pics left. However, it seems like Windows can cope with sorting that number so, hey, won't have to worry about that again for at least 6 months.
Probably need to say asap that noobs being whacked (see item 2, above) were of course not REAL noobs (i.e. not the 3D embodiments of real living human beings who have only just embarked on the adventure which is SL) but rather a twisted version of Whack a Mole, produced by designers Weather or Not.
Just searched this blog and realise with dismay that it contains little about Whack a Mole in fact only a passing reference namely here http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/three-weeks.html. Have had Whack a Mole game on Infolit since (evidently) 2008 and jolly fun it is, little moles and rabbits pop up and you have to whack the moles and avoid whacking the rabbits. Good healthy fun for all the family. It essentially looks much like the Whack a Noob machine you see above/right.

In the noob version, heads pop up for you to whack, and you get some noob-like random chat generated e.g.
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: What am I supposed to do?!
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: So, what is there to do here?
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: Help!
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: this game sux!!!!
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: the graphics aren't as good as WOW
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: $100L please?
[13:52] Whack-a-Noob: are you a boy or a girl RL?
As can be seen in first pic, I whacked only 17 noobs. One problem, which was what decided me against buying it, was that you have to go into mouselook view (interface disappears, you have to target and click), so it requires more skill/patience than I have to master the whackery. Also, would only be amusing if you were sufficiently un-noob to recognise the noob responses and go hohoho so true so true. And is trifling matter of it being a teensy weensy bit anti-noob.  So on balance will stick with mole version.

Still, is against nature to leave a shop without shopping and could not not resist this giant flamingo with multiple sit options. Particularly like the "dangling from the flamingo" pose (2nd pic). You can also see other tempting items in Weather or Not's shop e.g. giant sushi and giant hamburger, but resisted those. Giant Flamingo joins the normal sized unanimated flamingos that already grace my inventory.
The third pic shows giant flamingo in situ on Infolit iSchool, with a little flock of pose-less flamingi, including one discovered in Inventory's Library ie everyone has it for free (go look!), but like most Library items it is constructed of zillions of prims and is endearingly retro. It's the borked-looking flamingo at the back. Felt impelled to put it out of its misery (Right Click, delete!) as soon as the pic was taken. (Question: why did Linden Lab think its users would be in need, specifically, of a mishapen virtual flamingo rather than (say) a mishapen virtual cat? Discuss)

So, onwards to final items in check list above, i.e. springing into autumn and random disintegration of Infolit iSchool. Had left Infolit in spring mode because had been filming for the MOOC on Play (of which more in future posts, if can be bothered) and was concerned that might need to do some extra filming to fit in with what was already done. However, filming over now, and appear to have passed summer by, so straight to autumn it is. Must be said that, in SL terms, summer is dullest of 4 seasons and one with least special trees, ground textures etc. So, not a problem to skip it, really.

Deleted or took various cherry trees, ground cover, and the odd lurking narcissus or snowdrop, changed all the alder trees to autumn using a HUD (one click and they all turn brown) and then brought out some old favourites such as the mixed leaf cover and the Heart brand autumn oak. Finally changed ground textures so the spring carpets of flowers turned to mossy and leafy greeny-brown.

Only blight on proceedings was that noticed later on that some buildings/trees/etc. were disappearing until you got v.v. close. Can see this in final pic; is blank space where you ought to see Sakura House (which, being called sakura (=cherry blossom) house retains its sakura even when everything else is autumnal/ covered in snow). Not sure whether disappearing was due to my graphics card or SL playing up, but think probably the former, as seemed a lot better after restarted computer.

Anyway, there I am contemplating the unusually bare horizon, waiting to hitch a ride in an automobile that will never, ever come, unless, that is, a passing noob finds one of the free vehicles in  the welcome pack and gets his kicks on route 66 by crashing into me.

I have new feet

New feet obtained: 1 (ok, 2, but they come in one attachment) (v. good)

Onward march of SLINK feet increasingly inexorable, i.e. % of new shoes which are not for SLINK feet low. SLINK feet, for those uninterested in fashion/dwelling under SL rock, are pretty mesh replacements for ordinary avatar feet. Said avatar feet are condemned by fashionistas for a) having malformed toes and b) having ugly cankles (those bulgy ankles you get when you shrink your feet to get into the size zero shoes).

So a couple of months ago took the plunge with approx 600 lindens and purchased said feet.

In fact main deterrent has been fact that would find it difficult to match pale skin colour. However Glam Affair just brought out SLINK Appliers for their palest colour, Frost, which means that once have SLINK feet attached, just need to wear Appliers and hey presto, feet and ankles same colour as legs.

Should be mentioned in passing that there are also SLINK hands (also de rigeur for fashionistas, but still not so convinced by them, your hands get stuck in one position, I think) and this week a SLINK body, but - baby steps, baby steps.

Since then have not taken SLINK feet off, except when doing lightning quick change into outfit for emergency reasons (can't now remember what). Feet are so pale! so smooth! So easily decorated with umpteen shades of nail polish! Have mostly invested in sandals since what is point of cute new feet if they are stuck in boots? Thus am now possesor of jeweled sandals (Zaara), explorer sandals (Ingenue), sandals made of recycled tyres (by someone or other) etc. etc. Main problem is shoes which disappear iif viewed from distance, so have to spend some time demo-ing shoes and then camming outside shop door to see if can still see them. No point in spending 200 Linden on pair of sandals which noone can see. On other hand, if shoes do disappear, then at least you can still see these lovely, exquisite feet.

A sad sad sight

Heritage sites disappearing: 1 (v. bad)

Was taking some pictures this morning e.g. of this truck that crashed into side of new house when it slowly dawned that THERE WAS NO COWELL SEASIDE VILLAGE ANY MORE. At first had just assumed had set draw distance to a low figure and therefore wasn't seeing this pretty village which was the key reason for getting the land in the first place.

However, checked draw distance, realised could see things that were FURTHER AWAY (i.e. Abotts spacedrome) and eventually flew over to find that one whole sim's worth plus a bit more had been abandoned and was set for sale. This is what it looked like just now. You can see a bit of what it looked like BEFORE in the final pic in this post http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/usual.html and Chimera posted some pics here http://www.koinup.com/works/in-second-life/on-pictures/tag/cowell/

It had a bit of a retro feel as it hadn't changed from when I discovered it in 2007, but still charm and atmosphere.

But not any more, it is an ex-village. Had panic attack thinking of dreadful things that could arrive there, and in grip of this got Dimitrova (since it is less disasterous for her tier charges) to buy up one chunk that includes the nearest half of the island bit and a slice going over the mountain on the right (it was all lumped in together). Will think what to do by Dimi's tier date in a week; can't afford to increase my tier overall, but would like to keep at least the island bit as a cushion, and could sell off a bit of what have at the moment....

Lost and found

No items in inventory: 58,000 (good); No. of items in inventory when logged in last night: 19,600 (v. bad)
Was procrastinating on Infolit iSchool last night, changing some furniture in the Wilf Saunders library, when thought would try rezzing some possible replacement builds. Need to consult Maggie first, but as demolishing common room to put up a conference centre, am considering making library into library/social venue. Am sure David Cameron would approve, as he and his chums always seem to be encouraging librarians to do things librarians have been doing for years e.g. lending CDs and selling coffee.
Anyway, was only when kept getting no hits in inventory search that finally realised that was not because too many items are in wrong folder. Was, rather, because NONE OF THE FOLDERS HAD ANYTHING IN THEM.

Icey finger of fear clutched at heart, but did some quick googling, and soon came across  lots of Don't Panic messages which indicated that was most likely that inventory wasn't loading. Followed some instructions from Rolig Loon (who must spend all her lifelife doing helpful posts) and within reasonable time inventory was cascading back into inventory folder.* Phew!

As a reaction to this decided to create new pixel life, so rezzed a kitten box I had purchased foolishly a couple of months ago and lo! there is a new kittycat for me to cuddle. It is a Bengal cat, with Odessey eyes i.e. they are different colours. Cute or what. Have called him Snowfall. This makes 6 cats altogether which is seriously approaching crazy cat lady territory, particularly when you look at the price of KittyCats food. First pic shows us all waiting for the kitten box to hatch, and 2nd pic shows Snowfall though at that point he was still just called Kitten.

Stone looked distinctly unenthused at the idea of a new male cat on his territory, and has taken to hiding under the floor even more often (see 3rd pic). Meanwhile, Ninetails is now full sized, but Snowfall is still at that age where he could get lost underneath a cushion, let alone underneath the house.

Whilst in Kitteycats main store noticed there was a HUD that enabled you to get your kitties to return to you even when you don't know where they are.
Hmmmmm. On one hand may regret not buying it if really do lose cat completely one day. On other hand, have been Hunting the Lost Virtual Cat for 5 years now, ever since Mitsy started throwing herself into sea on Eduserv island. It's a sort of ritual.  And at least kittycats don't disintegrate into disembodied paws and heads like Mitsy did.

BTW am also labouring at a serious post on "Twitter vs. SL" reflecting on experience of Twitter-only discussion about info literacy. Will of course be last word on the matter of Twitter vs SL and do not offer any prizes for guessing which one is winner in my book. Do they have kittycats on Twitter, who whimsically hide themselves under the floor and behind the furniture?** I rest my case.

*Practical info. To get inventory back, cleared cache (in Preferences, think it was Advanced tab), logged off, logged back in somewhere else and typed an "a" into the search box of inventory, then waited impatiently as the inventory count went up and up.
** the answer is "no".

Blue remembered hills. And cats

Months since last blogged here: 4 (disappointing, but, whatever)

Had sudden urge to blog here, and discovered these pics which uploaded to blog in early December. Think must have been assailed by worry that was inflicting same old same old kittycat postings on world, and therfore went no further. But, whatever, kittycats are cute.

So, here you have a series of pics from start of Dec 2012, and will see what I can remember about them.

Starting point must actually have been pic lower down i.e. KittyCats update that meant you could PET OTHER PEOPLE'S CATS. In this pic, however, am petting own cat i.e. Stone, cute as ever. Think that Stone kept somehow disappearing through wall of house into garden. Still can't work out how he does that.

This 2nd pic is nothing to do with cats, but that old chestnut My Eye Texture Has Disappeared Woah Isn't That Spooky. This has happened to me before. It will happen to me again. But evidently I thought it was worth taking a picture of.

Only really odd thing is that on right can see straight through eye and head to window frame of house (house from which Stone had just made break for freedom) and on left can just see back of head. But not much entertainment value there, really.

So on to next KittyCat picture.

Here I am just having tp-ed inworld, to discover Naomi and Quilt flat out in cutest sleeping pose, with UPDATE ME floating over their heads. Is all a bit hazy, but think this update was pretty straightforward, just click cat, get update, rez the updater, and, lo, KittyCats now amenable to petting by all and sundry.


Suddenly remember was amusing moment last semester when coerced student wearing balloon avatar to pet cat for photo-op. Will try to unearth that pic and blog, just for completeness.

Otherwise, what can I tell from thsi picture? Appear to be wearing fetching oufit from Boho Hobo. Hmm, that is what I am wearing in this fashion blog post, which must mean that actually theses pics were taken in November not December. Landscape in background is late autumn, not winter; snow line has not yet crept down mountains (QED).

And so on to the next pics, in which, sated by pampering and petting own kitties, move to other people's.

Firstly, there are cute kitties in the Hanaya shop. There was a nice winter shelter out in front of the shop, with the kitties curled up on cushions, just waiting to have their new petting feature experimented with.

BTW, in case you want to try it for tyourself, should you come across a KittyCat in need of affection; you right click and select PET. This is in the place where it normally says SIT, so basically it means that your KittyCats now come with inbuilt poses for others to use.


The final pic was taken in Urbanized, when they introduced a new line of KittyCat cushions. The pose is in the cushion, rather than the cat, so you have to get the cat in the right position for it to look cute.

You have 2 options. You can wait for hours and hours for your KittyCat to wander randomly onto the exact right spot and try to pose before it wanders off again. Or you can right click on your cat, select edit, drag it into the correct place, and immobilise it with a judicious click on the menu. It is up to you.

Digital designing

Venues retextured for event: 1 (good); No. of items of clothing created: 7 (or 9 if you count all the bits of shoe separately) (good); Neon cherry blossom balloon dispensers deployed: 1 (good); Notecards created: 1 (good); Magic bottle created: 1 (good, if accidental); Quantity of floor mysteriously disappearing: half (bad)

In fact did all the above yesterday: today was digital literacies seminar that advertised a few days ago, where was being Chair and organising venue. Am now in brief post-event Euphoria, and chief desire is to zoom round SL acquiring new clothes and getting new Home to rights (in fact am going to have to do Emergency Marking even if it IS a Saturday night, v. depressing)
May or may not write more about the event on this blog: can legitimately put something on Serious Blog about content. Therefore on this one will mainly concentrate on fripperies i.e. clothes and decoration.
Had already retextured the venue used for ESRC conference in March, picking up colours from cute poster. Decided to push out boat with seminar memorabilia, starting with a skirt using semi-transparent textures of the poster, then to get a bit more creative did t-shirt (the well-worn template from Robin somethingorother) and Jeans (a template on some LL site), using the bluebird from the poster to create patches. Reused bolero template (bought for last event) putting said cute bluebird on the chest knot. Also found some sculpty full perm shoes on xstreetsl (I hope legit, they didn't look good enough quality to be ripoffs) and made blue shoes and stockings to match.
In fact for first time decided that could bear wearing my customised clothing for the event, though with some Shiny Things flats rather than my shoes. The Infolit Week in SL necklace and earrings rounded out the look, and also a small bluebird on my shoulder.
Before this had tinkered around with other sculpties, to make some kind of artifact to put in the pack. Ended up by stretching bottle sculpty, putting a sort of label on it with the seminar banner and "sit on me" and when you sit on it it disappears and you are sitting in a meditation pose in mid air.
This was not altogether deliberate. I WAS intending to put the pose in the bottle, and I was able to change some of the parameters, but I didn't know it was going to disappear when you sat on it (think the script must be assuming it is a pose ball, that you would want to disappear). Didn't work out how to rotate the sitter round 90 degrees either, but in the end thought it was quirky enough to pass muster. You could have a circle of them as seating, then when you all sat you would be suspended in air. Cool or what (don't answer that one)
Other disappearing thing that will mention was the floor. The venue floor is taken from the "Cercle" build that used as HQ from Infolit week in SL, rather a nice stone round. When standing about chatting afterwards noticed that half of this had vanished. Also could no longer see a variety of other things e.g. posters, Farradane Centre, half of Hobbiton. Had had a couple of people in the event who dashed around fruitlessly for most of the afternoon (and continued to do so as we stood and talked) so worried that had been griefed. Going back in later, it seems that the buildings are ok, and the posters are back, but the floor isn't. Did I delete it by mistake?

More homemaking

Houses deleted: 1 (slow process); Houses rezzed: 1 (v. good); Houses disappearing: 1 (odd)
After the Infolit session on Thursday when Brielle did her excellent presentation, decided to have some r&r in SL after hard day in both worlds by finally setting up new home from "Y's" on my land. Had already decided to demolish the Ingrid Ingersoll Town House, which still like, but didn't really spend much time there and bedroom was frankly bit of a mess.
Took longer to demolish than had anticipated, since must at some point have UNLINKED everything and so had to delete prim by prim, v. tedious. Had originally intended to set up new house in roughly same place i.e. overlooking beach, but is SO laggy at ground level in the end made the new house a skybox.
Spent happy time filling it with some stuff from old house and some stuff had been saving up.
Key items for display were various objects with butterflies, and artwork. To start with put these in central courtyard, but in the end have created one room with butterflies/art and put bed in courtyard. Remaining room is kitchen/living/music room and has ended up rather cosy.

Will delight readers with some proper pics, but in meantime these ones show rather curious effect when last went in (to install a few cute items that had just bought in Kloka, namely teapot, box of tissues, tea set and comfy chair) and found that everything was there ---- except the actual house. Am sure house in fact IS there, since do not fall through space, and meet resistance if try to go through places-where-walls-were.
So did not panic, but took opportunity to take interesting pics of inside of house. Think I like it almost as much without walls, as with.