And I have NO FREAKIN IDEA what I’m gonna play. I think my plan will be to just hit Shuffle and see where it goes. It’s an eclectic venue. I could pull this off.
Also, I’m building my own fireworks effects and getting ready for a super cool fireworks show next week for the Good People at Faery Crossing. They’re celebrating Samhain which is Kind of a Big Deal for pagan-type and faery-type folks and I’m always trying to stretch my creative muscles to come up with new effects for my shows.
A good friend of mine is talking about stepping out of SL altogether and while– for purely selfish reasons– I wish he’d stick around, I want my friend to be happy and in good mental health. So we’ll see how that goes. If he does decide to close his community I know a GREAT demolitions person.
Image is from some anime doll maker and I don’t remember which one.
Philomenaville is coming along swimmingly. I’ve sent in our application to have a presence at SL11BCC and am waiting to hear on that. Some buildings have been moved around and shifted about. The outdoor freebie market is gone, replaced by a thrift market for people to sell leftovers from gatchas (is it gatcha or gacha? Anywhoodle.) A welcome center is being put together in one wing of Town Hall, a meeting area in the other. The park is sporting a cool new Conservatory building which contains the prettiest damn dance machines you’ve ever seen. The trolley is running well and is no longer spawning additional trolleys (they were everywhere!). We’re gearing up for our first ever dance in the Conservatory this weekend (Saturday! 4PM! Join us in Bushside!) and we’re also gearing up for some RP event type stuff in a week or two. It hasn’t been without some pains in my ass but all in all, it’s going really well.
One thing that hasn’t been going well is that the Friday afternoon Social Hour at the Cafe has been a flop. And the more I talk about it with other people the more I think people just aren’t really sure what to do, or else are bored by the idea of all meeting in one spot without there being any music or anything. It’s not like it’s a town meeting mandated by the Mayor or anything. What do you talk about for an hour? So it annoys me when people don’t show up, but at the same time, if I wasn’t running it, I wonder if I’d skip it too. So I’m hopeful that Saturday afternoon dances at the Conservatory will fill that social void a little better. There’s music. There’s watching yourself dance. There’s lighthearted interaction. People are just more likely to show up.
And really, that’s the secret to making a community work, I think. It’s not me planning the events; it’s everyone else SHOWING UP. It’s not Thaddeus initiating group chat; it’s everyone else SHOWING UP. It frustrates me that I can’t make more people show up so, listen, whatever community you’re in, if you want to make it better, richer, more enjoyable… SHOW UP. You don’t have to be an event planner, you don’t have to be a prolific builder, you don’t have to be a dazzling conversationalist, just show up. That’s all.
What was originally going to be the City of Philomena has gone more small-town, now that it’s got its own land on Bruda Plateau in Jeogeot, and has been re-imagined as Philomenaville. Here are some early photos of the work in progress. Click each for larger.
Don’t listen to your residents. Shuffle their requests along through “normal channels” until they either just sigh and deal with it, or pack and move somewhere else leaving you wondering why.
Bait, and Switch. Sure, it was ocean-front when we showed it to you. But back then, you were a prospect. Now you’re a customer. And we’re filling in that ocean.
Show special preference to people for no apparent reason. That guy gets free tier? Why? Because SCREW YOU that’s why.
Don’t reward the enthusiastic and helpful. In fact, tell them off before they threaten your power structure. Or else just let them do all the work and take them for granted. A “thank you” is just so empty and meaningless and such a bother.
Just don’t do anything. Events, get-togethers… they’re just so costly and such a hassle. Surely someone else can plan them. And will. Eventually.
If you must organize something, be incompetent at it. Double-book, don’t show up the day of the event you planned, maybe get a third party to do most of the dirty work but don’t give them any abilities to do what you expect. Maybe be a stage manager, but know nothing about how streaming audio works.
Don’t bother to promote; assume it’s someone else’s job.
Remember that it’s all about YOU personally.
You may screw up royally, but it’s not like it’s YOUR fault. So save the apology.
Break your promises.
Never leave the house/skybox/shop.
Bitch, and moan, but then don’t do anything about it. After all, community is other people.
The big closing party for Antique Square is being moved to Wednesday night, the 4th. Seems a good night to light fireworks FOR SOME REASON. I mentioned blowing stuff up artfully, before. Well, inspired largely by Crap’s idea for demolishing SL9B builds, I thought, you know, we can make the ending every bit as entertaining as the opening. All good things must come to an end, but nobody said it had to be a quiet or serious end.
So, you take one pyromaniac elf, lots of pretty explosives, and a quarter-sim build ready to pack it up.
I think we can make this work.
Here’s where you can help: I’m composing a playlist for the afterparty, and am looking for ideas for songs (of any genre) with the theme of FIRE (seeings how I’m a pyromaniac elf). Post your suggestions in the comments.
Fond Remembrances: me with Julius Forwzy (of Faery Crossing).This is not a post about SL9B.
OK, this is not a post entirely about SL9B.
Now that Thaddeus has made the announcement public, I feel I can safely talk about it in my blog: Antique Square is closing up. Time and money are just against Thaddeus right now, especially with his RL work and studies, and after 6 months it’s, unfortunately, time to make a hard decision.
So I’ll get right to the question I’m asked first and most often when I mention this to friends:
“Doesn’t that mean you did your SL9B build for nothing?”
Absolutely, categorically, can not say it enough, not.
The point of taking part in SL9B was not to promote Antique Square; it was, simply, to celebrate Second Life’s 9th anniversary and to have a part in a hugely successful resident-run event. It was to create, to share, to play, and to give it all an old-fashioned feel. It was to meet new people, learn new things, and– I’ll say it again– to celebrate. All of these things remain true whether or not Antique Square itself remains open. In fact, knowing throughout most of SL9B (as I did) about the upcoming close made me realize all the more how really trivial self-promotion is in an event like this, and what really is important.
Mind that won’t make me cease self-promoting. I do still have a job and I do still have to pay rent. Just, time and place.
The fun of SL9B provided a bit of a distraction from the reality of having to move house again. I mean, yeah, you can pick your whole dining room up and put it in your inventory, that’s not the tricky part. The tricky part is working out where to rez it this time, and if we can afford to, and so on.
Lelani made me an extremely generous offer. In SL– as in RL really– I tend to be very friendly to many (indeed anyone who doesn’t outright prove they’re too much of an asshole to deserve it), but I tend to be close with few. Lelani, I count among the few. She’s got a place in Steelhead (as does Thaddeus, actually) and offered to sublet some of it to me. I thought it over and finally decided against it for a ridiculous reason, but still a valid one: I want to set my own TV and radio changer. Because when I can do that, I really feel like my territory is my own.
So I ended up getting a small residential parcel back in Lionheart. I’m taking a different approach this time; instead of rezzing the farmhouse that I used to have before, I’m making multiple skyboxes. A play yard with a treehouse for Petal. A Japanese tea garden for guests. A big home theater where I put my big giant TV. A small wooded grove with a duck pond on the ground. It gives me something new to create, and thus, something to look forward to, instead of something to stress over.
Antique Square will have one last big blowout party on Sunday. I’ll play music, I’ll blow things up artfully, I’ll even cater. Hope you can stop in.
So, this is it! Opening Day is Monday. I THINK it’s all ready to go. The only thing I don’t know the status of is the balloon freebies game, and I’m going to try not to stress over it because if I’m stressing about a balloon freebies game, then I need to go find something else to stress about.
Maybe I could try to invent some stress and drama. But then I’m no Hamlet.
The Cake is FRIGGIN’ AMAZING. You may or may not recall from SL8B last year, the very popular and widely acclaimed “Together” exhibit by Mikati Slade. Well I’m very excited to see her work as this year’s Cake Stage. It spans 4 whole sims and it’s in-friggin’-credible. The photo doesn’t do it justice. WAIT TIL YOU SEE IT.
Speaking of things I can’t wait for you to see: this.
Oh wait I’m doing this wrong. Um… CONTROVERSY. DRAMA. STUFF.
Look, Hammie, I know you want SL9B to be a drama-and-lag fest, just like you say SL8B was. You’ll even go so far as to mention a build that most of the other builders/staff/participants never even saw. I notice, though, that if not for (invented) controversy, there really isn’t much mention from your blog about SL9B at all. Perhaps you don’t find it newsworthy that residents, and not a single Labbie, ponied up land, donated their time and work, and did everything all on their own. Perhaps you don’t find it newsworthy that there were more applicants to build at this expo than at any of the previous ones. Perhaps you don’t find the beautiful Cake Stage, the underwater exhibits, the giant airborne stage made entirely out of mesh, worth mentioning in your news blog.
But I do. I’m fucking well impressed. No, awed. I call myself an event planner but bitches I can’t even BEGIN to fathom what went into making this whole thing come together. I consider myself truly lucky to be just a tiny little cog in this whole mechanism, and I will never, for as long as I live or rez, forget this event.
Tonight the gates close. Tomorrow, to de-stress, Petal and friends are going pillaging. Then, Monday, bring on the cake and the Death. I am so ready.
Monday Night Brainstorm Seisun (Photo: Lelani Carver)
So, big news, big news. Yesterday I was asking you folks on Twitter for ideas for a name for a new Irish pub. Some were funny (like O’RLYs), some I liked but didn’t love (Gan Ainm–meaning both “no name” and “anonymous”, or SLáinte), some were so brilliant they were taken already (the Blarney Stone). But none of them really grabbed me, really felt through and through like they were the perfect name for my pub. Many of them would be great names for a pub, but not my pub.
Last night April Coswell, River Kyomoon, and Lelani Carver popped in to see if anything inspired them. April unfortunately couldn’t stay. River just started popping off every possible pub name she could think of to see if anything stuck. Lelani offered feedback (she really liked the Craic House; I liked it but again didn’t love it). As we sat and thought out loud four n00bs crashed the place and were summarily kicked to the curb (“How about the ‘Thwarted Griefer’?” “No, they’ll see that as a challenge”). Lelani said they messed with the wrong elf and I half-jokingly (and halfheartedly) suggested the Wrong Elf.
Still, nothing was really THE NAME. “Archimedes”, who was sitting across the RL living room said, “Look, you’re overthinking this. Just pick a name and be done with it.” I decided to say good night to Lelani and River and see if anything would hit me as I slept last night.
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