The online game plateau (formerly “tableau”, check the comments :-)

Yes, I’ve used the word game; give me a second before cleaning my mouth with soap :-p

If you had been playing at some online games, you probably experienced the same trend that me: so interested you cannot sleep, then you get the hang of it, and then you get bored.

Well, I am feed to the teeth with SL (sorry, I know it is a registered trademark, but don’t worry too much about adding the little copyright bugger) and its annoyances. I usually whould stop connecting at all and eventually, leave. But this time there is a difference, since this place isn’t a game; I am still hooked with its people, in love, and I’ll stay, hopely forever.

But reaching the “game” tableau has its price; I’ve becomed more and more shy and retiring, and don’t feel the pressure to share my life anymore. There is little to share anyway; matters had become more and more private, classic and quiet. Just now, and probably ever, I ‘ll simply live here, and enjoy it.

This isn’t really a goodbye, since I don’t know if I will publish something from time to time; probably some promos, like this one about the new ubication of the shop. But I owed you an explanation about why I don’t write just now, and probably will not do it in a long time *smiles warmily*

Radio silence

Zippora just commented about my radio silence, and yes, it is time to break it.

Some RL changes make awfully hard to find free time for anything; I’ve been trying to write this brief post for ages, almost have no time at all for SL, and the little I have I use to try to keep in contact with my closer ones.

I am not leaving SL, not leaving my friends and not leaving blogging; but for a long time, maybe some months, it is painfully obvious that I will not be able to pay much attention to any of them.

There are hundreds of things I whould had liked to comment about, like some interesting posts, Peluda’s (that it seems has dissapeared) and Cassius’ new blogs, but I’ll simply mention Faerie Hax new neko skins (FH skins), that shows how her skill has matured from the original files to her own personal style.

As a funny ending note, there are the results from a pair of memes: The flirt one because I like it’s results (even if they where obvious :-p), and Zippora’s one because it brought me back, even if it was for a brief time.

You Are a Fun Flirt

You just can’t help yourself… you flirt with everyone you know. Guys, girls, crushes, and friends. They’re all victims to your charm. You’re into silly innuendos, sexy jokes, and playful touches. You are a huge flirt, yet you never make anyone (too) uncomfortable!

What Kind of Flirt Are You?

The book nearest to me when I readed Zippora challengue was Rext Stout’s Prisioner Base, a Nero Wolfe novel; I could use the excuse that I am too busy to read “good” literature, but the truth is that Wolfe novels are one of my favorite books; not their the plot, that it isn’t too good, but the stile. I am also a Terry Pratchett’s fan, and I think that my own style has borrowed a lot from him.

Continuing the meme, here is my real bad traslation from spanish of the three given lines:

“Wolfe grunted, slightly vexed, I think, about discovering that a towel seller earned half that he did”.

Now I should tag five people, but I’ve already stretched myself too much; it is time to drop the courtain.

See you, hopely soon;

London Spengler.

I don’t even like the word,but… SLart

Nuzz said.

It pisses me off

Yes, yes, it has been a long time since I posted, and probably I will not be able to do it again in the next two weeks… but the clouds are opening, and a lot of free time is shining at the horizon.

Anyway, I felt slightly pissed off, and that is always a good thing to get me started writing; it is so fun to be me :-p.

I know I am repeating myself, but I believe people is basically good. Even when I readed at dandellion’s place about this ugly, mean and foul mouthed land baron, I still think he probably isn’t evil, only stupid and rude.

Ok, very stupid and rude.

But I just noticed that I never was precise about what that goodness mean to me; I still whould despise that guy, and whould try to avoid him; maybe he is good inside, but that theory only helps me to avoid hating him. In fact, I whould use the world hate about how easily people are mean at Internet.

It always amaze me the way people play with their words… Eloh Eliott released full perm skins, and now she seems sentenced to be a bitch or a saint. Oppinions fly, sometimes in very offensive ways and, a lot of times, they come from good, even nice people. And of course, even the slightless, sometimes imaginated breach of courtesy, pisses me off.

Yes, some of us are more easily offended than others. I’ve seen people leaving SL, their friends accepting it and hoping them goodbye… while I take it in a very personal way, morally offended about how they leave real people behind. Probably it is a guilt feeling, since I did it once, and I know I’ll never stop feeling bad about it.

I could keep ranting about all the little things that piss me off, but they usually sum about the careless way people treat each other. I can ever accept it, usually by keeping from commenting at any place… but what I cannot understand, is when a friend does that.

Two days ago, a friend sended me an IM that meaned, more or less, that I whould find something interesting in the case I was, or wasn’t, a guy playing as a woman.

Of course, you may not find that phrase annoying… but since it covers all the posibilities the second half nullifies itself, the semantic context is “you may find it interesting”, and the emotional context of the innecesary second half is “in the case you are a guy playing a woman”.

He only forgot to add “no offence meaned”.

Now, I am not telling I am angry at him, since I know he didn’t wanted to hurt me; he, like a lot of men at SL, feels that there are too many lesbians, rezzbians and bisexual woman, so most of us must be men. A classic topic.

But I don’t know what gives friends the liberty to doubt openly about your stated gender. I have to admit that I do try to guess sometimes if any of my friends or lovers is a he instead a she, or a she instead of a he, but I never whould have the gall to tell them.

And no, this isn’t another discussion about virtual gender; I also wonder about if somebody is somebody’s else alt, or if what I am told about RL is true, and about a lot of things… but if you cannot believe your friends, what good are friends for? Where is the confidence?

I know there is a lot of insecurity on Internet. We are forced to believe things without a physical counterpart, sometimes in the name of privacity and bad accent… there will always be the curiosity, the doubt…

… but each time you suggest somebody may be lying, you are reducing them, their virtual reality, a bit. You are killing them, bit by bit.

If you think I am being oversensitive, check this post. Maybe men feel that there is an unfair competition, but woman feel “obliged” to demonstrate themselves, even by hurting other woman. There is no pressure like peer pressure.

And yes, I am not a transhumanist and, to be true, I think all of them are a bit crazy…

Err…

“No offence meaned”.

I think they are a bit crazy, but so I am; probably as crazy, if not crazier than them, since I am living a virtual life and worring about it, with as much intensity as I do about my real one. I don’t believe in transhumanism, but I believe in my transhumanist friends; they aren’t lying to me, they are what they say they are, even if I cannot understand why.

Once a friend of mine told me she had seen an UFO, and I plainly reyected to believe her, since I didn’t, and I don’t, believe in UFOs. It took me long, long years, to mature enough to understand that I should had believed that she wasn’t lying to me, even if I didn’t believe that it truly happened.

I don’t believe in UFOs, but I believe my friends.

Princess Reform School

In my last post, I said I owed you a story about the three new animations in the Pandora Final Hud (btw, they aren’t inside of the new Pandora Demo Hud, sorry :-p). Here it is:

A pair of months ago, something funny happened; I received a set of items to review. It was funny because:

1- I had leaved blogging long ago (yes, yes, I know, I’m back :-p).

2- They all where D/s items.

But of course free is free so, after saying thanks and explaining I didn’t blog at all anymore, I had a look at it. The synching of some items was too complex for my liking, even if I have to admit that the same complexity gived more elasticity to the system. But, complex or not, the animations where good and the concepts imaginative.

I may seem forward, but I’ve always feet uneasy at forward shops, and RL shots as decoration doesn’t help. Still, I had a (timid) look at the shop, and found that there where a lot of gadgets there; spanking chairs, ticklers and a lot of specialiced furniture, with interesting *grins* built-in functions. And the animations where good! (ok, a tad fast, but that is my fault… I like it slow :-p)

So I contacted the owner, Professor Sadovnycha, and we talked for while; I offered him my help with some scripts and he gived me some animations in exchange. In fact I adjusted three of them for the new HUD, the hip rubbing in the tiptoe hugs and both components of Vamp hug. And people love them!

 

If you are interested on the D/s scene, or simply feel playfull, have a look at Princess Reform School (don’t miss the XXXmas Tableau); he has a lot of interesting items, and there will come more sophisticated ones as he keeps developing his new ideas.

As an example, have a look at the NSFW pic of the chair after the cut (and before you ask, no, I am not her :-p)…

The definitive Pandora’s HUD, and it’s freebie demo.

If you still don’t know it, the Pandora HUD is “an easy to use friend/couple/group animator that only has to ask animation permissions once. After receiving them, a Pandora user will be able to play any loaded animation to a group up to 22 avatars in the given range.”

The starting little hud growed with time; lots of hugs, poses and routines, facial expressions, integrated AO (ZHAO II) , built-in “stop all animations”… but big as it becomed, there where always things to do. I don’t mind to work at it, but I hate to think that my previous customers have to choose between their old huds or having to buy a new one, so I kept the updates slow.

Now I can proudly present you the Pandora HUD - Final Edition, wich (I hope :-p) will be the definitive one.

The hud has (I’ve marked in italic the new functions of the Final HUD):

- Can keep permissions from up to 22 avatars and animate them at the same time (synch dances and group hugs, here we are :-). Avatar release range has been fixed to 50m… no more people stuck hugging the air because they walked away. There is also a temporary permissions button that will ask and keep permissions from the nearest avie until you press it again.

- Adjustable animation range: MRange (10m) is the standard, but you can also use SRange (1m) so the HUD doesn’t affect nearby friends unless they are really close to you, or LRange (20m) to long range group animations.

- 12 face to face hugs (includes two new, sexy ones), 9 complex ones (clinging, from the side, from the back, including a vampiric bite), 6 freebie group animations and 12 emote-like animations, with variations for small or tall avies. Also, you can customice the internal notecard and add your own.

- 19 looped facial expressions, plus a dedicated HUD button to stop/start them.

- Integrated AO (ZHAO II) that can be configured from the main menu. The HUD disables the AO while hugging (or while being hugged, if done by another Final Edition HUD). If your friends are using other ZHAO II devices, ask them to put copies of the included ZHAO II Blocker script that comes with the HUD, so it can control their AOs too.

- Menu options to stop all animations that affect your avatar (StopAll), or to do so and also freeze you in an arms crossed stance until you press it again (Block).

All this for “only” 1200L$… but if you aren’t sure you can try the demo, a reduced copy/transfer version of the hud where:

- The temporary permissions button is disabled.
- There are only three permission slots instead of 22.
- The menu for hugs and other animation is disabled; only the four external shortcuts work (but at least you still have all the facial anims :-p).

Come to Pandora Designs, SL Exchange (full and demo) or OnRez (full and demo) and get it!

*** NOTE: There is a story about the three new animations. Feeling curious? I’ll tell you tomorrow ;-p

Katrina revealed!

(Note from the author: Don’t worry, I know pseudocomical stories grow stalled pretty soon, so this will be probably the last one. Anyway, my Christmas sugar levels seems to be reducing a lot lately, after the change to bread and water diet).

Katrina Myriam, the blablabla blogger, blablabla… ok, you probably know the routine already. She dared to comment on my previous post; and that is an outright provocation.

The problem is, I cannot reveal her naughty behaviour, since I already did in a previous series of posts, long, long ago. I cannot attack her through her writings since they are mainly passionated sex tales and, where is the fun in that? Who is interested on sex anymore?

I could stalk her in world but, since we live in the same parcel, she could notice if I suddenly started tiptoing behind her. Nacked pictures? Where is the merit on it? You know how hard is to find her dressed?

Aaaarrgh! How can I reveal the truth when there is no hidden truth to reveal?

And, suddenly… I noticed it.

I was being tested.

But my will, my purity of intentions and my writing skills will prevale, previle, preveal… ok, wichever. They will.

I will.

And then, I found it…

Vint Falken revealed

The famous bloggler and Second Life wet dream Vint Falken (check here, here, here and good knows where else more; such depravity!) has showed her true colours; and I don’t mean black and white!

Yes, I thieved the images from her blog, but there is a upper cause than copyright to be served, the TRUTH!!!!

*whispers… btw, Vint, tell me if I should remove them :-p*

Vint commented here about the incredible cute but sooo dangerously derranged dandellion Kimban in this way “I knew she had to be a dubious kind of person IRL, but never did I guess she would not be potty trained yet.“.

Yes, I know it is hard to believe!. A normal mind could think that is simply a kind of joke but I saw the hidden truth behind her words: fashion jealousy.

Nobody can mistake the awesome and highly exclusive infiltration suit dandellion is wearing with a diaper, unless they do voluntarily.

Fashion jealousy… only to think about it, my wholy body shivers with fear.

But I needed proofs…. I needed to look for the truth, so I explored boldly Vint’s blog, and soon I found it, almost to hard to be tolerated, to be believed, so monsterous…

*Faints for a while*

dandellion revealed!

It is hard for me but I’ve something terrible to say about dandellion Kimban, famous blogger and Extropia resident.

She managed somehow to make me confident and, without even noticing… everything.. this is so hard to say…

Prokofy was right.

Sigh, as I had announced, I was going to write a long post about Prokofy Neva, but AnonyMouse did a very good one before I had the opportunity. But luckily for me she didn’t notice something; the grain of truth.

Reading Prokofy’s post is like a visit to the dentist, and I have to admit I hadn’t readed a whole one in ages. I also agree with the idea that she is a troll, always looking for things to critisice and smear, with little respect to the truth. But sometimes, there is a grain of it.

For example, let’s consider open source. Yes, it is a wonderfull thing, and sometimes has helped breaking the monopolies; I hope Linux will break someday the grip of Microsoft.  But I hope so because Microsoft isn’t doing it’s work; they products are too comertialy oriented, instead of stability and security oriented. There is little respect to the customer (mmm… can you think of any similar example? OpenSim, where are thou?), and even if it is their company and they can manage as they want, and it seems to work, then cannot expect our simpathy.

But sometimes somebody has an original idea, and works on it, and develops it, and publicites it, and creates a company, with employers… and then somebody decides to replicate the proccess, usually with time that isn’t theirs to play with (aka, at work), and “give it to the comunity”.

Open source is a wonderfull thing, and I love it, but there is a grain of truth in what Prokofy said about it… and her readers cling to it, use it as an excuse to justify the rest, and love it.

That’s the sad side of that kind of “journalism”: appealing to people lower instincts, letting them justify their worst oppinions. Let’s go burn some efigies… there will be always an excuse, a grain of truth on our hate, after all.