So I got me one of these

My graphics card is nothing special, so pardon the image quality…

He looks just like my RL cat, he’s animated, he only cost 120L, and he’s only two prims. As best I can figure it’s some sort of temp-rezzer sorcery but it’s a mystery to me.

Anyway, I had to have him. So now here he is on my couch. The animations are actually much more complex than this image; this is just three stills made into a gif.

He came from a place called SHOP SEU. You won’t find them on Marketplace; only in world. And because my SL crashed and I’m lazy I don’t have the SLURL handy. But go. Search. Get your own.

 

Season’s Greetings

From our household to yours.

 

Workaround: I can’t get to my sky platform!

This one’s especially for my friend Veyatie, new to SL, who has been having troubles lately with a glitch.  You see, her LM to her sky platform isn’t working; she keeps getting sent to the ground-level spot under said platform.

So, Veyatie, this one’s for you and for all you other new SLers.  I can’t fix your LMs (and probably LL can’t either but that’s another gripe for another time) but I can offer you this handy workaround.  It will also be a bit of an introduction to rezzing and manipulating prims, so there ya go, two birds with one stone.

First you’re going to either click your “build” button on your toolbar (if you have one) OR right-click the ground and select “Build” from the pie menu. You’ll get a cursor that looks like a magic wand. Click it somewhere on the ground near you.

Congratulations! You have rezzed your first ever prim from scratch.

 

Second Life Marketplace – Starter Shop – Flower/Garden Shop 20×20 – great for 512 parcel!

Second Life Marketplace – Starter Shop – Flower/Garden Shop 20×20 – great for 512 parcel!.

So you’re just starting out with your garden/landscaping/floral business. You’ve got a lot of stuff to do: making your products, packaging, promoting, updating your shop group… save yourself the time and headache of worrying about your shop build.

This 50 prim shop building features a main shop floor, a greenhouse, and an outdoor display area. You’ll be amazed at how much use it makes of its mere 19.5 x 19.5 m footprint; it’s a shop that looks like a shop, not just some big unsightly box. It was built using SL’s new bigger prim size limits, making it super efficient on land impact. After all, you’ll need those prims for your shop inventory!

It’s all one piece. No need to bother with a rez box or multiple parts; just rez it, place it, and you’re ready. And if something isn’t to your liking, don’t worry! You can modify this building, and copy it, just in case you make a mistake changing things around.

We’ve tried to think of everything, including lighting for when the sun goes down, and a customizable signboard.

BONUS!! Included with this building is a set of signs made to use as a backing for your vendors. Easily organize your shop stock by category and help your customers easily find what they’re looking for. Also included is a box you can use to package up your product, made to look like a six-pack box of seedlings. Just put your product and LM in the box, change its name, and it’s ready for your vendor or Marketplace magic box in no time flat!

So start your gardening/landscaping/florist business off right, with this charming starter shop building.

 

Happy Rezday to Clover!

I would have let the day slip by unnoticed, had I not received a message from Lionheart Central Authority, wishing me (Clover) a happy rez day and telling me I get one free day of tier! Whee!

Clover was first created three years ago, about 5 months following Mistletoe’s creation, making her my second oldest avatar. Originally she was made as a “get away from the drama” as well as a “leave me alone and let me build stuff” avatar, but it wasn’t long before she took on a life of her own. In RP land she’s Mistletoe’s younger but more conservative sister, and I made her a single mom in tribute to my RL sister (who, while a mom, is no longer single).

Clover, March 2009.

Clover got her name from my RL sister’s birthday. I figured, if my RL birthday is on the winter solstice and I’m called Mistletoe, someone with a birthday in mid-March may be named something equally seasonal, and so Clover it was.

“Ethaniel” was already retired as a name by the time Clover was rezzed, so I picked “Windlow” because it sounded like a respectably elfy name (Later, when I created Clover’s daughter Petal, “Windlow” was already retired as well).  Clover is eternally 300 years old (whether that’s true or not…), and likes to remind Mistletoe which of the sisters is the old one.

Clover started making foodstuffs, both as a challenging creative medium and to sell. She made a concession stand for a medieval faire and was authoritatively told that nobody would ever actually pay for virtual food in Second Life.

Clover's Makeover, late 2009

Just for fun (and to try to prove the guy wrong) she opened a small booth in the local market and was surprised at just how many people were actually paying for virtual food in Second Life. The booth grew to a double booth, and that grew to the bottom floor in a three-story shop building.

February 2009 was the last time I (as Clover) bought Ls out of pocket.  It was for a set of sculpt maps.

By October of 2009 it became evident that in order to expand any more, Clover’s Kitchen would need its own parcel. Its grand opening of its first ever Main Store in the sim of Mandaland took place that Halloween.

With the opening in a modern sim came a more modern look for Clover, with shorter hair and a 21st-century business wardrobe.  Clover’s Kitchen flourished until I took a hiatus from Second Life in December 2009.  I returned just a few months later.

Clover's campaign photo, September 2010

Clover’s Kitchen needed a new home, and a spot was found in the modern city of Lionheart (and the neighborhood of Mohatu) in March 2010.  My good friend Teleny MacArthur graciously loaned me 3000L interest-free to purchase the parcel, and Clover went to work right away, having a grand re-opening (aptly) on St. Patrick’s Day.

The shop celebrated its one-year anniversary this past March.  Between opening and then, Clover got ambitious and ran for public office (and realized quickly to be careful what to wish for), started and still runs the intermittently-updating Lionheart Times, pulled off a moderately successful multi-business Winter Carnival, and even had a romantic relationship for a short while.

But, her shop is truly her first love, and anything else tends to fall by the wayside (unless it’s named Petal).

So, there you have it, a brief history of my other main avatar.  I don’t feel right calling Clover an alt; she’s almost as old an avatar as Mistletoe and logs easily as many hours (and perhaps even more).  And today she’s three years old.

 

Disabling the Damnable Point-Click-Move

Go to Preferences, then your Move & View tab. Right down there near the bottom is the drop-down that lets you change it from the default (“moved to clicked point”) to “No action”, the way Jesus intended.

 

Monthly Shop Chores (Done!)

Whenever the calendar flips over I make sure I get all my shop chores (mostly) done and this month was no exception. Anyone who ever says that a SL business isn’t work is either a damn liar or so clueless they don’t know how much money they’ve lost yet. Admittedly it’s not as much nor as demanding work as in RL, but my whole day “off” was spent doing work for my virtual shop.

I’m able to cross the following off the to-do list today (not necessarily in order):

• Total up my net sales for October (by the way: more than double last October! Woo hoo!)
• Start a new spreadsheet to total up November sales
• Send manual invites to the shop group to all the latest customers (this is really more a weekly or semiweekly chore for me)
• Take down the October (read: Halloween) decorations in the shop
• Put up the November (read: Thanksgiving) decorations in the shop
• Change over the Seasonal vendor in the shop to November
• Make two new items: Green Bean Casserole and Pumpkin Spice Tea
• Get aforementioned items photographed, boxed, loaded into the vendors, and listed on Marketplace
• Sent out weekly group announcement about Guy Fawkes (Nov. 5th) and Jacket Potatoes
• Got said Jacket Potatoes listed on Marketplace
• Paid the shop rent
• Blogged about it all just now!

Fortunately, thanks a million to Miyo’s awesome tutorial, my Marketplace uploads are automatically Tweeted as they’re created, saving me a ton of time there.

The other part that was easy and not a chore at all: made a few thousand Ls in sales.

So, yeah. I started at about 11-ish AM and I’m wrapping it up at about 11-ish PM. It’s time to punch out.

 

Family Halloween Costumes

Let me start right away by saying that I’m not going to make a fashion post out of this so much as a “lookit our costumes!” post. I don’t know/recall where I got the outfits and lots of them are mix-and-match anyways.

Mistletoe’s isn’t so much a costume as a Halloween-ish themed dress. I love the printed skeleton pattern on it. My friend Julius says “It says ‘Look at me, just not like that.’”. I remember that I got it on Marketplace, and that it was called Miss Boneyard or something of the sort. The necklace came from a hunt I did like two years ago.

Clover likes to dress in a costume that she can wear trick-or-treating with her kid, so the myriad “slutty witch/slutty pirate/slutty vampire/etc” options are off the table. Sure, the more revealing outfits are fine for Aunt Mistletoe, but it’s just not Clover’s speed. So she was very happy to find this elegant Red Riding Hood costume at Marketplace. It comes with a shorter skirt option if she chooses to go to an adults-only party after Petal goes to bed.

Last year, Petal went as Velma. This year she was going to go as Hermione, one of her favorite characters. But then she got the idea to go as another one of her favorite Hogwarts students: Luna. This is a mix-and-match outfit.

Uncle Archimides didn’t dress up. Yet. Mistletoe might talk him into it yet.

 

Right. It’s “later” now.

Me before opening the Happy Ass: I miss having a pub to go to! I like Irish Music and sipping a virtual pint at the end of the day. I can build and decorate real good. I’ve come into some disposable Ls. WHY THE HELL NOT?

Me now: Oh yeah, THAT’S why. I’m working RL full time so I don’t have time to devote to managing this place or even to have a DJ set of my own, except Tuesdays at 4PM (and who the hell is even on then, besides me?). I got one DJ yelling constructively and continually suggesting at me to “advertise more” (sure, as soon as you tell me where that money’s going to come from and if it’s actually even worth it to spend) and here I am coming away with the impression that she’s blaming me because nobody’s on to listen to her set on a mid-week mid-day.

Let me break it down. Take the (very small) number of people who are even on SL at this particular time. Now, of them, take the percentage of people who are interested in the same type of music (of which, I’ve admitted, I’m not even one!). Now, of them, narrow it down to the number of people who aren’t already busy either building, sexing, or attending to some other commitment. Then, just to make extra sure, remove the griefers who are already on the ban list (of which there are maybe a half dozen).

This is not my fault here, and pumping cash into some “ad board” somewhere won’t fix it.

Further, Mondays and Tuesdays are my two days off from RL work. I feel as though if I log Mistletoe in, she’s obligated to be at the pub. Clover has once more become my “shut up and let me build stuff” alt.

But, long story short. I’m not having fun, I’m feeling overwhelmed by commitments I’m losing interest in (and am thus avoiding), and I’m paying for the privilege.

How about no.

I could just as easily sit on my butt at home and listen to Irish music or watch TV or have friends over, and I could do it for less money and without being told how to do it.

So, I’m closing the pub. I may refurbish the building as a house, but chances are more likely I’ll use the red house I built some time back and rather like. Very rural/suburban New England looking, with plenty of room for the whole family.

And as a note to myself: Laura, don’t do this again. Patronize a pub what already exists.

Further edit: not surprisingly, the shit hit the fan over something I had said.  I’m not blaming the DJ or my frustration or the closing of the pub on her.  If I was unclear about that, I apologize.  However I do have the right to be upset, and I do have the right to say why.

 

How about I rant.

How about later.