the cabin and other news

/me yawns

Am a bit tired today as I woke up after 4.5 hours sleep today. Everybody talking 'bout dreams, so as this time I remember it, I'll talk about. Nothing sensational though: Been to work and heard, that now our boss can ground the employees up to three weeks. You know... like kids. I was so annoyed by it, that I quit. So I went to his house, which strangely was in my 300 km away hometown and kicked his ass. Then I rollerbladed down a hill on gravel.... And woke up at the foot of the hill.

So, why mention this? Because when I woke up for some minutes I was NOT sure, that it was just a dream. My boss and supervisors are idiotic enough.

And what does this dream mean? 1. I hate my work. 2. I hate my boss. 3. I wanna kick my boss' ass (that was the good part of the dream) 4. I really should quit that crappy work because of 1.. And 5. I soon should visit my mom in my hometown, I guess.

Okay, what else is new? Since the future of Tidra is cleared (at least the financial part for a while) I'm a bit more relaxed and full of energy again. Worked even more on the little cabin and today I've put it on XStreet:

A transfer-version           and              a copy-version.

Am considering a whole series of that style with bigger houses, but first going to see, if it sells at all. Sometimes I think, it's not worth the effort. Apart from the time you need to build it, you'll need at least the same time to take pictures, write the notecards, make the advertising poster, load it up to XStreet, write the description etc etc.

From my cages I haven't sold a single one yet, and that although I'm sure, they look better, are better and are less expensive then those popular ones. Maybe a shop is better to sell stuff? But that will change as soon as we got the market on Tidra.

... which leads me to the next point. Market will be the next project to build. I finally got an idea for it. But to find tenants for the shops, I also have to increase the traffic on Tidra. Emphasizing the *I*, because still no word of my family. It's a lot of work to care for it all alone. Some people are interested to join, many make promises, many break promises... so often it's a waste of time, when you welcome visitors, show them around, listen to their "oh, how beautiful!" and then... never see them again. But I keep on trying!

Oh, also changed the skyplattform a bit, which gives us even more room. - Actually don't need so much room, as we are not many neighbors, but it will be a nice place for the family, even if I don't know these days what remains of that.

Well, today is thursday, so yes! been to the "Capture the Flag" game. I think I'm becoming better. So, if my computer would be faster and I wouldn't lag that much, I could become a not that bad fighter. Well, still prefer RP to battles, but sometimes it's fun.

Hmm, that's it for today. It's getting late, so: Time for bed! And tomorrow weekend again.. *moans*

Alpha bug

I'm not very skilled with computers, but many of us have that problem with alpha-textures in SL. You know, when one alpha, that's supposed to be in the background overlaps another alpha, that's supposed to be in the foreground. Often happens with trees like here:

You see the palms of the background shining through the tree in the foreground?
Especially nekos know the problem very well, when they enter a danceclub and their tail vanishes, because the dancefloor is overlapping it.

To my knowledge, LL haven't found a solution for it. Prolly not even working on it. And I don't know, why it's not happening to all people. Kenshi for instance sees it all well. Maybe because he's using iMac?
Anyways... the only solution I found yet is to go to "Advanced" > "Rendering" > "Fast Alpha". Then the same picture looks like this:

When I check "Fast Alpha" I got some "halo" around some trees, but it's better then the disturbing overlappings.

If you have a better solution, let me know in comments!

[insert title here]

Beside RL-work I was busy again the last days. And... heyho!... I had fun! \o/ Yay! \o/

I was building a little cabin for a close friend. It's small and simple, but I think it's quite nice. Maybe I'll put it on XStreet laters...

I'm deeply stirred, how many people offered help to keep Tidra alive. And after a long talk with said close friend on sunday afternoon it's now a done deal: TIDRA WILL STAY! At least for a while, but long enough that I can continue working on it and trying to get it to run.

Later on sunday I've been to Scimitar for the rezzday-party of one of the warriors (or is he administrator?) there: Asquiol. Here's some pics:

Happy rezzday, Asquiol!

It was a really nice party with lots of nekkidness and flirting and fun. Enjoyed it!

Watched two movies yesterday: "Karate Kid" and "Moon". - The remake of "Karate Kid" with  Jackie Chan and Will Smith's son Jaden.... Hm, technically better than the original, nice pictures of China, Jaden not quite as annoying as Ralph Macchio, Jackie Chan not at all as charismatic as Pat Morita, and I wondered the whole time: As it now plays in China and as they are fighting Kung-Fu, why isn't it called "Kung Fu Kid" then? Well, the story of course is as absurd as in all these "train 3 months with the right master and you'll kick every professional's ass" (also called "Focus!") martial-art movies. But it's entertaining and not that bad.

The other movie - "Moon" - was a bit strange. Confusing and surreal. A bit of  Kubrik's "2001: A Space Odyssey" and a bit of Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris". Interesting somehow, but one of the movie's you can't tell, if you like it or not. Maybe needed to watch a second time to decide.

Mondaynight then of course as usual over to Tainted Boys. Been late because of some office-work, so I've been mostly to the afterparty; but that's okay. More fun there anyways and less gesture-spamming.

So, that was my weekend. No words from my family though. I think I given up on that one.

Tragedy at LoveParade

Sad news from yesterdays LoveParade in Duisburg. The moment I heard about it, I was talking to JC and Feli, but it seems Americans never heard of the LoveParade ever though it's the biggest dancefestival in the world.

It started 1989 as a parade with techno-music and about 150 visitors in Berlin 10 years later there were already 1.5 million participants. 2007 the event changed from Berlin to the "Ruhrgebiet", an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, a cluster of several large, formerly industrial cities, known for it's cole-mining.

So this year it was held in Duisburg. About 1.4 million people been there. But there was only one tight, long tunnel as entrance to the big party of love, peace and happiness. Shame on the organizers and the police! As they finally recognized that it's going to burst at the seams, the police tried to close the area/tunnel and told the incoming visitors to turn back. Now imagine how to turn back in a tight long tunnel with zillions of other visitors flowing into the tunnel from the other side!

Here's a report from CNN, which explains it better than me:

Meanwhile it's 19 dead people. My thoughts and empathy are with the families of the victims.

... countdown interrupted ....

Today I was planning to start taking down Tidra, but then - with a bit of Teleny's help (thank you, dear!) - I paid another week of the rent. I don't know, what it's good for, I just couldn't let loose that easily. So, prolly it's just another week of waiting, suffering and suspense.

Today started good with a google-chat with my cowboy. Talked about armadillos and Leni Riefenstahl and other things. So, here's a pic of an armadillo:

I think they're just soooooooo cute!

Don't ask how we ranged from armadillo's to the controversial filmmaker! But got from there to Bruce Weber and his videos for the Pet Shop Boys. Don't like their music much, but the Bruce-Weber vids.... nahm nahm nahm! So, here's (again): "Being Boring" by the Pet Shop Boys.

So, as I'm a bit bored these days, just standing around and staring, I guess I'm boring...

... 3 ...

Still no word of Kenshi or Mick. With every hour hope vanishes. I should start to take off all my stuff tomorrow, so I can delete Tidra on friday-night. Have showed in the movies not even half of ithe SIM . Do I need to pay another week, just to make movies? It's so hard to record for hours and at the end you have problems to fill ridiculous four minutes... So, here's Snake. Running most of the time through the jungle of Tidra. I'm not really satisfied, but I'm under time-pressure:

Not in the mood to write anything more today!

...4....

Actually it's only three days left until Tidra goes down and I prolly dissolve all my family-relations, but I had no time to post yesterday. So this is Part 1 of a last walk over the island of Tidra:



Music by Jon & Vangelis "I'll find my way home"

As usually laggy as hell especially as trying to film in high resolution (though you don't see anything of THAT in the video. Hmmmm....?), but who cares. It's just for the memory to remember the illusion of a dream.

Thanks to all the people for the unexpected emotional support. I appreciate it. kisses to you!

... 5 ...

Just some randomness...

*****

On saturday I was at that Tabor kajiri dance contest. Made the video, which became not too bad, especially as it really was laggy as hell. One time I stuffed my harddisc with zillions of GB filming the frozen screen, cause I couldn't hit the stop-button. Computer said Nooohoooo! (see below)

*****

On sunday after work been to the Tabor OOC dance. Didn't know, there was a theme-contest: Sportswear. So I quickly changed into an old football-outfit (well, parts of it *wink*). Won some money too. Devlish number *hehe*

*****

It's amazing! Didn't expect so many people to tell me not to leave SL/Gor. Even got offered some places to stay, if I really give up Tidra. Well, it's only 5 days to go. There's still a bit of hope, but I'm afraid at the end of the week a big earthquake will devour the Isle of Tidra. Some people offered money, which was so nice, but I said no. Because it's not the point and what would help just another week in suspense?

*****

Today I was caught several hours by YouTube. Happens sometimes, hunting from one link to the other. It started with videos posted by Ziggy Starsmith about a TV-Show called "Little Britain".

I loved especially those with "Carol Beer". The more often you watch, the more you have to laugh at "Computer says Nooohooo".

One of the characters in the show is "The only gay in the village". Loved his interview with Sir Elton John:

****

Today I wanted to sneak up on someone and capture him in a RP. I was disguised like this and for RP-dummies even labeled my tag "Obviously Disguised".

So, I was sneaking around, hiding in the shadows, squating behind walls... and then someone shouted over the whole SIM "Tal FRANZI!!!!" - ROFL. So much for the RP....

*****

Well, time to head over to Tainted Boys now. Already very late...

****

... 6 ....

...7...

Last night when I came home from work, I was hunting deer for dinner. And while I was hunting I was attacked by a supposed to be friend. Well, all IC of course. It was dark and I didn't recognize, who attacked me until.... I kicked his ass. *lol* I don't know who was more surprised - him or me.
Too bad that it was already late and I was tired. And we were interrupted by another visitor, so I better released him from his bindings. Could have been a good turn for a storyline. Well, maybe another time...

Something different: Two days ago, when I was at the capture-of-flag game in Tabor, Chance, first boy of Tabor, gave me this link. (Note to myself: Don't try to read documents, when you are in the middle of a game! I opened my browser and suddenly heard that "Aaaarrrrrgggggg", looked at my screen and recognized, that the game continued and I was already down wtihout even drawing my bow *hehe*) I totally agree with it. It's what I tried to say a while ago about the "laws" and "rules"; but Chance and Gage (don't know who that is) said it in a much better way. So if you are interested, read it!
One important point is what many players often forget: There's no such thing as fixed law all over the planet. First of all: John Norman, the author, isn't consequent in his books anyways. Second: Gor isn't a big empire like for instance the Roman empire was. It is many different cities with many different laws and customs.
People in SL-Gor throw quotas but often without any correlatin, getting their only knowledge about Gor from websites without reading a single book. For example (because I once discussed that with a musician who referred to that): "The musicians were free. Musicians on Gor, that is, members of the caste of musicians, are seldom, if ever, enslaved." - But already in John Norman's second novel, "Outlaw of Gor", there WAS an enslaved musician and poet: Andreas. It's just silly to run through SL-Gor and refer to "Gorean laws" and call a RP invalid referring to those quotas.

Why do I mention that today? Because I laughed my ass off as I read about something happened including a slave and a Free and calling for invalid and whatelse and referring to the Merchant Law of Gor. As if the Merchant Law would deal in any way with the matter of a slave attacking a Free! *lol* The Merchant Law applies only - as the name already says - to Merchants! It was just so funny and it seems to have included that boy I mentioned who I thought is interesting. At least it made me start the day with a laughter.

kk - RL-work calls. Gotta run!

...8...

Been on the hunt today! :-)

Well, one of the last things I need to stuff my inventory is animations and poseballs, but I didn't know, what to do. Nobody interesting was online and I'm not continuing to build or engage anyways on Tidra anymore, as it prolly closes in eight days anyways. If you always wanted to take a look... well, better do it NOW before the earthquake devours it. I guess it's nobody's fault. RL happens. Shit happens. It's just life. So, what?! *shrugs* I think I'm done then with SL also. Maybe sometimes logging in for monday's parties at Tainted Boys or for Capture-the-flag-games on thursdays. We'll see. It's just... In older days I logged in to escape the frustrations and negativeness from RL. Now I log in TO frustration and negativeness. That's not what I wanted.

Anyways... so I've been on the hunt and busy with it for about five hours. Haven't looked at all the animations and poseballs yet, but I guess 90% I will delete anyways. It was just to DO something at all.

Now RL-work calls. So, I wish all of you (except those 3 or 4...) a nice weekend. Buh bye!

...9....

Not bored today, but a bit wasted my time, which left me a bit angry. *light growl at this point* Been to Tabor again. Hm, actually I forgot, why I was there. But after a few steps a slaveboy stumbled over my feet and before I could say "Greetings" I was owner of a new boy. That was indeed a bit strange. Well, I saw, that he was new, so I thought, I'd better keep him (for now) and listen to his story and then we will see, what I can do for him.
As he was telling me his "story", which was confusing and strange in many ways, we were interrupted by an attack. I helped the Taborians defending their city. As everything was under control, I grabbed the boy and took him to Tidra, so he could tell me the rest of the story.
As far as I understood, he changed his Masters 2 times a day. And all in all he seemed like to be on meds to me. Well, I had a "brother" like that a long time ago, and he was exactly the same. Bipolar and whatever else.
Anyways, dinner called in RL and as I came back, he was offline. So over to Tabor again to play as usual the thursday's "Capture the Flag" game. Our team lost each round and it was terribly laggy, but fun anyways. One of the players, another slaveboy, seemed quite interesting. Looking forward to get to know him better. After a while on Gor you can tell very quickly if someone understands the "spirit of RP" or if not. Some are natural talents and others - though on (SL-)Gor for years - will neverever understand it. Well, he was special, good in his role, funny and a good emoter. (Apart from the fact, that he was the best fighter in the game). So, I would have liked to spend some more time with him as I really miss good RPs. But then that other boy logged in...
And started to tell me in IMs how he is eager to serve me and to become a good boy for me, giving his life for me blablabla. - Nice, but all a bit strange to me after just some hours you know somebody, even if it's "just" RP. So I hurried back to listen to the rest of his story.
And suddenly he turned 180°, told me, he wants back to his "other Master" (one of the many?) and I said, that's fine. And whoosh! He just tp'd out. Okay, he IS new, but every idiot will understand, that RP does NOT work this way. Right? Right! A

Angry I am, because he just wasted my time with his weird story and not making up his mind. I think I'm just too kind and should listen more to my guts, which told me right at the beginning already: "Leave him there! Ignore him!" *sigh*

Well, tomorrow starts weekend again with many working hours. As I'm not really enjoying SL atm, this isn't so bad as it is on other weekends.

Hm, wanted to mention something else, but forgot it. Oh, yes! Now I remember it:


Franziskus Ninetails: Lo Franziskus of Tidra
D[...] G[...]: i am D[...], Lady Z[...] is my Mentor
Franziskus Ninetails: Well met, D[...]
D[...] G[...]: Well met also Lo
Franziskus Ninetails smiles "You can call me 'Franzi"

- I thought it was funny. "Lo" is the Gorean word for "I am..." (or as question "Lo?" = "Who or what are you?")

Ready for countdown - 10....

I'm booooooooored! - That didn't happen often in SL as I got something to do most of the times. Still would. But don't have the energy. Maybe it's the heat. Dunno. Logging in and out and in and out. There would still be a lot to work on the Fort of Tidra, but as long as the future of Tidra is insecure I'm not exactly keen to continue. RL is keeping my beloved ones away from SL. That's going on quite tooooo long now. The one or other time in the last 2.5 years I was about to leave SL... mostly spontanously after hurt feelings and emotions. Like everyone else, I guess. This time I have enough time for myself to consider it thoroughly. Altough there are sometimes good times, like last night voicechatting with friends before the fireplace - in the last weeks the negativeness just took over. But maybe it's just the heat. hmmm

Thank God, it's monday!

Well, actually it's tuesday already, but this is about monday. As usually been to my favorite club "Tainted Boys" and did some filming again. So here's another tribute to an incredible club and it's amazing DJ Heloq Tomsen:




Quality isn't so good. Too laggy for filming with all the hotness! And too bad I had stopped filming at the afterparty, when Eddi arrived...

too bad it's friday

Some news this time; not many though.

Was looking forward to the usual thursday capture-the-flag game, but not enough people came. So we were just hanging around a bit, talking about this and that, playing two games, then giving up as one of the only four players had to leave also. Hopefully next thursday there will be more again.

Friday afternoon I finally met my Kenshi for at least one hour before he had to leave again. So many bad news... *sighs* But here's not the place to talk about that.

In the evening I had the day off work. Because starting to work today very, very early, I had the evening off. So I joined spontanuously DJ Heloq at his set in a new club called "Badehaus" (The Bathhouse). Nice club, though I still prefer my favorite club Tainted Boys. The spam-gestures for my taste just toooooooo many. Always seems to me: The more crowded a club is, the lesser the chance to have a funny, entertaining chat. You try to say something, but it drowns in an ocean of "Hooooooooooooooos". Well, can be relaxing also, so I just listened to Heloqs awesome set, danced and let my mind drift off...

awwwwwwwwww

So, Paul, the octopus-oracle, was right again and yesterday Germany lost vs. Spain in the soccer worldcup. :(  They didn't play bad, but everyone has to admit, that Spain played much better. They were sooooo fast! It always looked like there were twice as much Spanish then German players on the field. Yeah, they earned the victory. Congrats, Spain!

The good thing is: Now Germany is playing on saturday, which means that I can finish work on saturday two hours earlier. YAY!

he's just too fat

Tainted Boys waka'ing

Spontanuously celebrated Netherlands victory in the semifinal game of the Football Worldcup at Tainted Boys. Did the waka waka for an hour or so. So much fun!

the renovation of Tidra

*hehe* I like this pic with the surprised look. Yeah, still busy building, though I don't progress as much as I was used to. Maybe because I'm getting tired of building. For a while I enjoyed it, but I really could use a break and get some distraction. There's a lot of detail-work which I don't like as you are busy for hours and don't see much result.

And these days I wonder more and more for what or whom I'm working my ass off at all? Haven't seen my hubbie for 5 weeks now. My lil devil only once for a few hours last week. I'm not sure, if the relationships will continue as I feel pretty much just left alone with the work, the responsibility and the financial burden. As the lil devil rented the full SIM without asking Kenshi or me beforehand, I had my doubts. Of course it is fine to have 15.000 prims available to build, but I'm too much of a rationalist. I had concerns according the costs of the full SIM, the lots of work for the renovation, the administration and the question how to bring people in to RP and possibly joining the group. But I was told, that I don't have to worry about any of these questions and foretold a big future of Tidra.

Well, and then... I was left alone. I'm working for more then two months now. Building the skybox first for our privacy, then the preparations for the wedding, then the renovation of Tidra. At least the island is almost ready and it's pretty, I think. But I don't know what it's good for. I feel all my doubts and concernes confirmed.  Maybe too much of a pessimist? But I paid 4 times as much as I said I could contribute (struggling with financial problems in RL anyways), not to mention the zillions of Lindens I spent for  buying new stuff.  At least I'm glad about our tenant Teleny who rented some of the prims and built a nice place in the skybox. Thank you for your support, dear! But all the other doubts too - like building alone  for months now (though I prefer to do my stuff undistracted and not doing compromises). Not to mention the missing RP; I do not have time for it and for "recruiting" or anything else.

So, yes, I'm a bit frustrated and cannot really enjoy what I created. The future of Tidra is very dark :(

capture the flag

As I'm still busy building I don't have much time for RP, but the last two weeks I joined the "capture the flag"-games in Tabor every thursday. It's fun and a good practice for fighting-skills. Works like this:

There are two teams - red and blue. Each team has a base in it's color with their flag on it. The opponent team tries to get over, steal the flag and carry it to it's own base. When the player gets downed, he looses the flag. Another of his team-member can pick it up or one of the other team takes it back to his own base.

It's lots of fun and my fighting-skills are getting better and better, I think.

If you want to join: It's every thursday at 12.00 pm and another round at 6.00 pm SLT. Hope to see you next time!

'schland!

I have to admit: I'm not much interested in football (or "soccer" how Americans call it); only interested in the world cup games. And last saturday was a big day in the history of football: Germany vs. Argentina. Merry mood here in Germany after the great victory over Maradonna's team. And I'm a bit proud of the Germans. Not only the German team, but the Germans in general. Why so? Because in Germany most people  (of course there are exceptions everywhere) appreciated the Argentinian team as worthy adversary and treated them with respect, while at the same time Maradonna bigmouthy defamed the skills of the German team beforehand. So the victory tasted even sweeter. Here are the best moments of the game:

Tomorrow Germany will play against Spain. The famous oracle Paul, the octopus, predicted Spain's victory. He was right with all his predictions yet; let's hope he's wrong this time! Things are bad in Germany.... economy, politics, unemployment... it could use some cheer up! Panem et Circenses!

random

As talking some minutes to my cowboy last saturdaynight (him)/ sundaymorning (me), he encouraged me to post more articles like in my old RL-blog (and no, I won't give you the link *heh*). I was mainly talking about SL in this blog here, though of course you can't 100% seperate SL and RL. I'm not "populist" enough to write about things people want me to write about. I don't care much about the amount of readers and followers. First and foremost I write for myself. Just because I like to. If someone likes it - fine. If noone isn't interested - who cares? So anyhow... there'll be some changes in the blog and maybe I'll write more often again now.

purrrrrrrrrrs - hottie!

These days I've seen "Eclipse", third part of the Twilight-Saga. . I have to admit I started to watch the saga with the second part first - "Newmoon" - and only because of two reasons: Taylor Lautner and the wolfpack. After Taylor cut his hair and gained many pounds of muscles and running around only in shorts most of the time, he's such a hottie!

As usual the scenery and the battlescenes - especially the wolfpack of course - are cool, but it's way tooooo much of the romantic blabla... I call it Horromance, but more "...mance" then "Horro...".  Maybe because I'm not a 13yo teenage girl, I'll never understand what's sexy on Robert Pattinson? Tiger wouldn't need long to choose between the cold, pale Edward or the hot, steamy, sexy Jacob! *purrrrrrr*

However good news for all people in Seattle: It's vampire-free again! *winks*

Just wondering about one thing: When the wolfpack turns back to human they are always wearing shorts again. How logical is that?!? It's such a prude american-Hollywood thing. In a German or French movie they of course would be nekkid after the re-transformation. But prolly then have bad fangs teeth?

So, here's the trailer:

Happy Birthday, Tendzin Gyatsho!

"So, who's Tendzin Gyatsho?" you may ask. Though it sounds like a name in SL, it's not. It's the name of the man better known as Dalai Lama. One of the very few public persons I really admire for his wisdom, his knowledge, his work, his peaceful mind and especially for his humour and kindness. He's laughing and smiling everytime I see him in the media. So, happy 75th birthday, Kundun!

(Oh, and it's also the birthday of another man who's the exact opposite of him: George W. - Isn't that ironic?)