Archive for May, 2006
Blog Editor
Thanks to Torley's recommendation for blog editing software, I'm giving ecto a whirl. The Mac OSX version, of course. So far it seems fairly nifty, although I'm still trying to figure out what all the little bells and whistles can accomplish.
MeraArt
Many that know me know that I've started a bit of an SL art gallery. I've been the primary focus so far, but I hope to expand to others before long. One of my favorites so far is this one. Simple, but loaded with symbolism. Hope I can accomplish more like it.
(Thanks to Tateru for providing her time and person.)
Build Creatively
Ok, we all know this already, but I've been guilty of it recently, so I thought I'd point it out. Think creative with your builds. And don't get hung up on real world ideas corrupting your SL creativity.
In my recent redesign of the land and store, I built all sorts of new and wonderful things. But when it was all said and done, I was back down to the original prim count that I was trying to improve upon when I had first started the expansion. This got me onto a new prim-conservation kick. I am typically prim-conscience, but I let real world ideas kind of interfere with my SL building. So after a day of work, I managed to free up nearly 150 prims, with nearly no loss in 'visible' beauty. This post is mostly a reminder to myself. Think outside the prim.
Happy Birthday, Travis!
It was Travis's RL birthday yesterday. A few of us got together to throw him a party. By few I mean everyone who was logged onto SL. But I think we all had fun.
Happy Birthday, Travis. You have helped so many and asked for so little. You're one of a kind.
There was much dancing…
And a few of us even got a shot at dancing with the puppy himself…
 
 
…and it went on into the night.
Thanks to everyone that came by. We had a blast.
And Company
If anyone had seen my old store, you'd have known is was rather uninspired. It was a big 3 story rectanglular shaped building. It was also nearly completely empty. The amount of space and the amount of stuff for sale were on opposite ends of the spectrum. I anticipated selling more, but also didn't put a whole lot of thought into the building.
Enter phase two. I decided it was time for remodeling a few days ago. Did I have an idea this time around? No, not really. What I did do, however, was purchase more land behind my store. The extra land prompted the need for a redesign as you cannot simply have land and not use it.
As I was reworking the building, I started feeling guilty. One of my friends, Rainbow Drake, had a few things for sale on the third floor. Round one in the redesign effort was to simply change floor levels. That was all I had in mind. Well when you're on the third floor, the floor levels are rather important.
Raising floor levels quickly changed into removing the first floor and raising the land back to its original height. Now I had a short rectangle. Still not great, so I decided to curve the walls. Well curved corners mean removing more walls. Before you know it, I'd simply taken everything away and decided to start fresh. Now I've got a building which is slightly more interesting (emphasis on slightly), not nearly as empty, and with a back patio and art gallery. Come by and take a look.
And with release 1.10, we've got lights at night.
The Heart of Tateru
Or more, perhaps, the mind of Tateru. Yes, I created the Cult of Tateru, but I'm happiest knowing I'm a friend of Tateru.
For the record, I didn't come up with Cult of Tateru, I simply founded the group. 
It’s Alive
The new status indicator is working! There's still work to be done to check off all of the planned items, but it's now much leaner, cleaner, and faster. Included now is a web form which you can use to configure the link to paste into your website (click the HUD for instructions).
Lesson learned: The SL dataserver is sometimes *very* slow to indicate offline status. I spent far too long thinking my code was busted only to realize that the dataserver simply wasn't updating properly.
Told you I was taking over!
I taught my second Basic Building class in the Shelter yesterday. It seemed to go fairly well. Right after is the game show, Building Shelter. And what appears on the walls just before the show?
We have this guy to thank for it
That's right, our very own Kerhop Seattle! Tell him thanks for me, will ya?
Ask and ye shall receive…
…or beware what you ask for?
Thanks to those that have responded either here or in-world. I will contact you when I've got the next step prepped and ready. Torley provided some great feedback the other day and I'm deep in the middle of a rewrite, so things are a bit broken.
Need details?
Help!
Ok, I know there's about 4 of you that read this, and I've already got 3 of you helping me, but now I need a few more. Guess I need to expand my readership.Â
If you're interested in a programmable online status indicator for your website and feel like doing some beta testing, please let me know. I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve and I need a few people to test things out. Respond here (be sure to tell me your SL name) or contact me in-world and I'll set you up. Thank you!