Black Friday is comin’ in
Loud I say “Hell no”
Papers swell and shoppers yell
And shopping traffic grow
Say “Hell no!”
Bold employees brave the crowds
Damned if their paychecks grow
Stabbing, Trampling
Shoppers camping
Outside in the snow
Hell no! Hell no!
Wisely say “Hell no”
And online shopping go
I just learned today that Regretsy, one of my favorite websites, is hanging it up after three and a half years of whimsicle fuckery. Well in honor of them and their “Things That Are Not Steampunk” series, I’d like to offer some discoveries I’ve made while browsing the “Women’s Medieval/Fantasy Costumes” tag at the good ol’ Second Life Marketplace.
So I went to check out some of their animations in person. Not a bad selection at all, and I can see some of them being very useful if I’m going to make machinima. Like this one, called Dramatic Woe. Nabbed it for 50L. I’m demonstrating it along with the classic YadNi Emoter HUD.
I’ll likely pick up a few more of their goodies when I have more funds, especially their “carrier” sets, and their medievally geek-liscious Horse’s Bransle dance poseball set.
Despite the troubles and frustrations of Second Life, there are some of us (raises hand) who just can’t seem to walk away. Here are a few not-remotely-scientific reasons that Second Life has such a hold on us, like the scumbag boyfriend we just can’t seem to get away from.
Our Friends are There
Step into any other grid and if you find people at all, they won’t likely be your people. Oh sure you could try to get your people into this grid to pay you a visit, but why would they want to do that? It would be easier just to get in touch with you on Skype or email than to make a whole new duckwalking avatar. The fact is, if you want to “see” and hang out with your friends, and have hours-long IM conversations broken up into little digestible bits, it’s going to have to be in the world where you met them.
(by RayCharles Linden)*
(Original tune: “Mess Around”, Ray Charles) Blues Brothers Night at Hotlanta Blues, Feb. 2009
Aw you can talk about the new Marketplace
Where the descriptions don’t match the face
ahh, Work Around
We doin’ the Work Around
Do the Work Around
Ev’rybody do the Work Around
Nobody was rezzed, you can bet your soul
Waitin’ for the restarts to start to roll
We Work Around
We doin’ the Work Around
Do the work Around
Ev’rybody do the Work Around
Now the office hours are from noon to one
Nobody ever gonna get stuff done
So we Work Around
We’re doin’ the Work Around
We’re doin’ the Work Around
Ev’rybody do the Work Around
Now see that girl with the extra bling
She’ll make a laggy mess of everything
So we’ll Work Around
We doin’ the Work Around
Do the Work Around
Ev’rybody do the Work Around
*(not really. It’s by me, Mistletoe.)
So, yeah, still not having a lot of luck getting shit working at the Marketplace. So, I’m working on finding a way around it. Wish me luck.
The plan is: all the erroneous listings that are in the Magic Box, I’ll relist with DD, and vise versa. We’ll see.
Well didn’t I get one hell of a surprise to find myself listed among Suella’s “10 SL Blogs You Should Read“. And not only on the list, but at the top of the list! It’s a very exciting endorsement and my ego is very happy about it.
But with that comes the other side of the coin: “People are reading this thing now! I gotta write something and it better not suck!”
So until I think of what that something that doesn’t suck may be, I’ll give a kind of an introduction to you lovely new folks about who the hell I am and what you can expect when you read my blog.
I’m not taking part. For one thing, the lyrics are already written, and that’s the part I’d have any shot at being good at. I’m not a composer. I’m the kind of composer that would make Mozart go, “and then it’s just the same thing, right? It doesn’t really work, does it?” and he’d laugh his insane goofy laugh while composing circles around me in that lavender crushed-velvet coat (which, nothing to do with anything, I want). 'It doesn't really work, does it?'
Additionally, you not only have to compose it, but you have to record it. Do you know why there are no Cat Agus Cu recordings? Because a certain elf who will remain nameless (but whose name rhymes with “This’ll Go” ) is phobic of recording. I have a grand total of ONE existing recording of me singing, dating back to 1994.
And even if I were to compose the perfect melody, get my chicken-shit ass into a studio, and somehow win? I’d win under $200US, if I’m doing my math right. Call me a greedy bastard, but for all that, I want a little bit more to show for rights to something I composed.
It does get me thinking, though, that SL really could use an anthem. I’m just not sure the lyrics proposed for the contest are it. So I sat me down and tried a few possible anthems, to the tune of already existing ones.
Rod save our awesome sims
Rod save our pretty sims
Rod Save Our Grid
Lags are notorious
Load times laborious
But it can be glorious-
Rod save our Grid!
I figure, being a Yank myself, maybe I should write something to the tune of our own national anthem:
O Say can you see
By your eighteen face lights
What so proudly we built
After six months of dreaming
Bold sculpts and big prims
Of improbable height
On the screens you can watch
Diff’rent videos streaming
And the textures so fine
Perfectly in a line
Give proof you can see
of our awesome design
Oh why is this outsanding
Parcel still gray…
I’ve been here half an hour-
Rez sometime today!