Sticking my feet in

So. I’ve done two fireworks shows since returning inworld. I’ve also rented a shop space, not really that I have a whole lot to sell but I have a little and it feels good to have a home base. I set up a sewing machine and a crude counter in there so it feels like a work studio.

I love that Philomena is still a place, if a slightly different iteration than I recall. It’s really really surreal knowing there’s a street named after me. I’m just this elf, ya know?

The Sky is Falling (again)!

There’s a thing that might come that could DESTROY SECOND LIFE FOREVER AND I HAVE NO CONFIDENCE IN MY STUFF EVER LASTING AND OMG WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO IF THIS BECOMES OBSOLETE?!

In other words, the same thing that was said a hundred times before in Second Life.

So, Linden Lab is working on a new virtual world and most of the buzz I hear calls it SL 2.0 and of course that means THE END IS NEAR!!! for the Second Life that we all know and love (to hate).

There are so many things that can happen between now and then that I think it’s just ridiculous to panic about it. And just ask my husband, I’m really good at panicking about uncertainty in the future. I dreamed up some of the most colorful nightmare scenarios you’ll ever hear just before we packed up and moved across the country last April. And I’ll say what he said: if you have a nightmare scenario, it’s good to talk about it and get it out in the open, because it helps you see just how unlikely it really is when you hear it out loud.Do you really, sincerely, think, that the virtual world that’s been operating for 11 years now, is just going to close up unannounced in a few months and leave you without your land, your money, or your stuff? I don’t.

It’s likely that things will change. It’s likely that some things will become obsolete, or that some things that already are obsolete will be replaced. But the sky is not falling, any more than it did with mesh, or alpha layers, or merging with the Teen Grid, or Zindra. It’s foolish to not enjoy what you have today, out of fear that you might not have it tomorrow. In fact in my opinion it’s all the more reason to enjoy it today.

This is what I get for getting a computer that lasts.

I go to log in tonight so I can take pictures of my cool scale model I built and me being all Elfzilla on it, but no! SL has other plans! Mandatory required gotta do it or you can’t play upgrade!

So having been burnt already by Firestorm (see what I did there?) I went to check the system requirements. And oh will you look at that, I have to have OS X 10.6 or higher. I have a model 2009 MacBook that runs 10.5.8. Well fuck me sideways.

So, no scale model picture fun for you tonight.

My 10.6.1 upgrade disk is on its way and is expected to arrive on the 22nd.

Meanwhile I guess I’ll log on Imprudence to pay my rent as needed. Can’t wait to see what mesh doesn’t look like.

God dammit, SL. It’s like you want me to fail.

If it’s all the same, I’ll go with Cake, thanks.

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.

Will Mesh Destroy Prims? (No.)

Don’t know if you heard yet or not, but the Lab has made an official statement that Mesh will be in SL by the end of August this year. Loki Eliot gives an excellent explanation in his blog about just what Mesh is and what it can do. In short, it can open up a new world of creative possibilities (at the risk of sounding cliche), including more customized/unique avatars, buildings, and more.

But cue the panic. Hamlet at New World Notes asks if this spells the end as we know it of a prim-based economy, and in asking does all the research we’ve come to expect. Another prominent SL blogger Tweets the question: if mesh is coming, is there really any point in buying anything at all? (I really wish I could find the Tweet, but it’s been long buried in the eternity that is a week).

Guys. Come on. Let’s stop being Chicken Littles here, and start being penguins. In other words: chill out.

I may not be 316 years old IRL, but I am old enough to remember hearing the following:

• “Movies on videocassette? Then nobody will go to the theater anymore! This is going to kill movie theaters!“
• “If you can read a book on your computer, then who’s going to buy print books anymore?”
  (Also replace the words above with “comic(s)”, “newspaper(s)”, or “magazine(s)”.)
• “Electronic mail? What are the greeting card companies going to do now? Or the Postal Service?!”

Now it’s entirely plausible that print books and movie theaters will in fact become obsolete, going the way of phone booths and typewriters. They haven’t yet, and in the interim the businesses associated with them are finding new and innovative ways to keep their products relevant and enjoyable. For example, a DVD on my TV at home doesn’t begin to compare with the experience of digital surround sound, theater seating, and 3D animation.

There are also, however, things I don’t recall ever hearing:

• “But when music becomes all digital, it will be the end of 8-tracks as we know it! This will be horrible!”
• “If money’s all on plastic, then tell me, what’s the point of a checkbook anymore, huh?! What am I going to do with it, just throw it away?”
• “Man, all I have to do is click ‘send’. I really miss having to deal with a fax machine three times the size of this laptop.”

My point here is that if something does become obsolete in SL, what will remain in its place will be so mind-bogglingly awesome that we won’t even miss the old thing. Like, say, Invisiprims when Alpha layers came along.

When Mesh becomes fully integrated in Second Life (they’re saying by August 31st), prims won’t become useless and obsolete on September 1st. Really. Keep making stuff, keep selling stuff, keep buying stuff, keep learning new stuff. It’s always been the way and this time is no different.