Torley Lives

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What we've got here is a nice case of adventuritis, so here goes: I've visited so many places in the last week. Eventually I think I'm going to slowww dowwwn and live in the Riiki trailer park, but that won't come to pass (just yet).

1. Now, in the first picture, you see all that pink? RacerX Gullwing comes up with some pretty wacky stuff I'm into, including this room, which is actually part of his Beer Eat Boats Bait shop on the waterfront. He — a gray rabbit — is?dating a Snow Queen. I wish them all the best with that fairytale romance. <3

2. Fleabite Beach creates some really cool stuff. Perhaps in theme with the name, her current avatar is one of a chainsmoking kitty cat with a lot of attitude. This is her BeaLiner diner, it's really awesome. Got lots of atmosphere and subtle nuances like reading the labels for objects — heck, if this was a Nu Skool Breakz bassline, it'd be so philthy it'd eat up the rest of the track (kick drums included) and regurgitate it all back into one pukin' package. I mean that in a totally good way. Fleabite also creates bondage sets and giant trees, among other things. Curioser and curioser. NOTE THE GIANT BEAR.

3. Well, finally met Ulrika Zugzwang inworld. About damn time. I'll let her say it best regarding what's going on in this photo: "… what will soon be a legendary addition to the game of Second Life, the scripted and animated chicken hat with integrated audio for those who like to break into song and dance in the middle of a crowd." That's me. These hats are the shiznit, let me tell you. You put one on, and you can cluck, crow, and do the chicken dance. Ulrika has some sort of master hat and she was makin' me, Goshua, and Kendra bawk! along. Oktoberfest in SL is celebrated this Sunday at 6 PM PST, and you can count on me puking graciously?over one of the picnic tables after I've had too much to drink. (Kraftwerk's German, aren't they? See, I knew there was a connection. )

4. Nothing says fun like crashing your Stingray into the Pixeldolls HQ. Oopsie. Don't worry, Tae and Nephi, I'll get this mess cleaned up. Also in the pic is one of my favorite SL objects: a caterpillar smoking a hookah. Along with BuhBuhCuh Fairchild's Splasher (you jump into water, it splashes — never did that before. Weird, huh?) and the YIPMEN OF MARS, it's one of my top picks.

5. Aerial view of Miru island that is Lady Dawson's home. She just logged on.

6. DON'T ASK. (Plenty of watermelons to feed us all.)

7. DON'T TELL. (Yes, it's the YIPMEN OF MARS!)

8. Master Q*Bert has j00. It's not every day I get my photo taken with an archaic yet erudite video game legend. Another reason why living a Second Life is so wonderful.

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SimHorror finally opened and I was enthused to check it out. Kudos to the devs for putting it together — I've never played the game Silent Hill, but if I were to make some sort of a patchy comparison in terms of nuanced suspense, I'd have to namedrop it. Sim Horror was expectedly dark and the fog helped me anticipate the lurking nightmares within. The bad news is: in the middle of my explorations, various bugs struck again and ruined my quest. Also, I wonder why some of the fog-generating balls were visible and red instead of being, well, seamlessly not there? That was like seeing the zipper on the monster's suit, but I hope to go back there again because I didn't get past the maze. There's supposed to be a grand, haunted mansion at the end I'd like to see for myself! Update: ah, just talked to Jimmy Thompson. He made the mansion.

On the next leg of my journeys,?I played three — almost four — trivia games in a row. The last one was held at Baku, where Bakuzelas Khan (the name similarity is coincidental) presided outside the door of a strange type of orangey diner, and Caera MacDonald hosted. She's a popular host. Thankfully for me, no buzzer this time around. After the game, with the help of Bakuzelas ("KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"), I went go-kart racing and skydiving for my first time in SL, ever. In addition to being an ace fashion designer, Bakuzelas is a really nice guy. I like it when talented people are friendly people! I jokingly asked him, "How come you're so nice for a fashion designer?" and he wondered why I?asked him about that instead of focusing on the fact?he's a winged demon.?^_^?As you can see from the photo above, my chute had a problem deploying in time, but on my next leap I was fine, and it was fun. Check Baku out — there's even a nice anime store!

Ah, I'll have to have a word with Hank Ramos about Skunk Money, an addictive game I came across during my exploration of Realities End, Ark Gullwing's sim. I don't really gamble, but I was hooked to this game and played for what seemed like almost an hour. Might have been less, I don't recall.

The road systems in SL are far from complete. Gwyneth Llewelyn and I went for a ride on the road and then soared through the skies in a Stingray before wondering about the mystery of a disappearing castle in Chartreuse. Ah, so much to do… I may?have to ask about that sometime.

A few hours later (after I had my "nightly" period of dormancy, actually), it was Eggy, Gwyn, and I on Krittannia, where the Eggmeister showed off some of his creations. I like the big Ulrika emulation, and of course, the mechanical bull. My personal best on it — so far — is 16 seconds. Crazy ideas, but better to be crazy than boring, that's what I always say!

The last picture is one of Toy LaFollette's home, Black Rose Gardens. I had flown past there on a number of occasions previously, but had never visited. She was there to graciously show me around and let me ride on not only her playground, but her swan as well.

Again, if you want to visit Lady Dawson's most excellent Circle K, you can find it at its temporary home at?Miru (118, 106). Come and visit us and be most excellent! *air guitar solo*

"Hi, and welcome to the future." -Rufus

If there's one opportunity in my life for me to loudly and proudly declare the Title quote, let it be now. It's from the movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, a most excellent film and one of my alltime faves. The convenience store Circle K features in the film as a pivotal place for Bill & Ted?to make discoveries. I've mentioned Lady Dawson before on my blog. That being said, I'm going to mention her again. She also enjoys the movie, and we both have fond recollections of the antics contained within.

A few days ago, Lady said to me that we should build a Circle K.?I smiled, but let me fill you in on some of my many previous experiences with statements of this sort: often in life, I've come across bold ideas being made but never being followed through with. It's done for fun, with good intentions, but the dream doesn't become reality.?This has discouraged and somewhat jaded me, although I'm still fresh-faced to creativity when it is done (which is rarely). But my problemo is, all too often, I hear "We should do this!" or "We should do that!" and it hardly happens, if ever. I'm not going to single out anyone; that's just the way things go. I've done it a few times myself when I was younger, so I'm now more wary of making such a statement unless I can honorably fulfill it. To do otherwise and not keep my word would be totally heinous.

So, in the back of my head, I didn't put too much stock in what was suggested by Lady (does that make me a Tramp?). Not because of her, but becasue I had been let down too many times in the past to really get my hopes up again so spontaneously — the exception being if I see all the blueprints beforehand. But ya know… life, or Second Life anyway, has a funny way of gettin' to ya… and I have met some fascinating people here.

GUESS WHAT SHE DID??? GUESS!!!

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OMG!!! WHAT A TRIP!!! One day, when returning from my explorations to her home in Miru (if you drop by there, look for the island in the middle with the trees and the white piano, Lady Dawson Model =) ), yes, her creation is what I saw on the shores.?And it was a most triumphant sight. The seeds had been sown. Holy shittake mushrooms. Is Second Life a virtual place where real dreams come true? No way?! WAY!

The 1st pic is indeed the 1st photo I took of Second Life's 1st Circle K. We're working on it each day like a couple of Wyld Stallyns, and I have been tweaking textures and whatnot. This is my?first building project so I'm learning how to do stuff as I go along. Yesterday, Tony Tigereye came by to help install our doors — complete with the DING-DONG! thank-you-please-come-again chime — and I also laid down a little surprise for Lady to see.

Our excellent adventures continue!

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1. The Most Excellent Lady Dawson.

2. Just a few days ago, I mentioned the game, Katamari Damacy. I wondered when elements from that crazy piece of interactive entertainment would show up in another crazy piece of interactive entertainment — namely, Second Life. Well, just yesterday, I was very surprised to find Mysty Delorean as the Cosmic Prince. Mysty said that the avatar was just created that very day, and I wondered when the Prince would start rolling around the Welcome Area and picking up benches and other miscellania. Heh.

3. A classy gent who dresses dapper and likes the shiny, it's Oz Spade! He pointed out a blimp was flying overhead near the Welcome Area — sure enough, I didn't realize it at first, but soon came to remember that it was one like the 'ship I rode the other day. I soon went on an encore tour, this time with Oz. We had a great talk along the way about Second Life, observing new builds — several of which weren't there a couple of days ago! –?as they came along.

4. A hilariously dramatic moment… as the next 'ship departed, Oz ran towards it in his suit.

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"Two holoroads diverged in Nexus Prime, and I — I took the one more travelled by, and that has made all the difference."