I could hear windchimes again, clearly. The air was sort of peppery+dusty, and the wind made my scarf blow back with such force that it was bent parallel to the ground. And yet, I didn't feel pushed. I looked around, adjusting my pink-green glasses. The Power Station's door is locked with a series of combination tumblers, traditional keyholes, electronic keypads, and almost grotesque lumps of what appeared to be flesh, but pixellated and not warm to the touch (as I ran my fingers over).

I'm mindful of the good things that happen here in SL. My good friend Launa Fauna's blog has an update, one about not only her new skin creation, but warm fuzzies (parallel hyperlinkage). I left a comment… and upon doing so… it becomes more and more apparent to me that I am, in many ways, a product of a consensus virtual reality: I, as Torley Torgeson Jr., exist because Residents of Second Life believe in me. The more I am believed in, the more I can blossom and grow, and when SL gets hurt, I take that personally too. I hesitate to say I am a Gaia-type figure because as I've related before, I am more of a watermelon trickster. But I'm absolutely a spirit here. It makes me smile to hear praise, but it's always important to emphasize: I have come into being based on the good deeds and virtues of others.

Connecting into what Launa said:

I don't know if it's possible?I certainly hope it is?to make some sort of attachment that dashes me quickly forward if I tap the up arrow key (or W with chatbar closed, but I hardly use that) quickly twice. Like in GunZ! It might be clunky at this stage but those kinetic effects have got me addicted. Heck, I'd salivate at a better strafing. Or to be able to drop, lock, and roll?

Epic battles with combo chains of moves are still far off in SL's future. But with each brick we get closer to a house. And the house should have a nice fireplace, bamboo mats, tasteful art on the walls, maybe a pet cat or two, etc.

SteveR Whiplash, a GRACIOUS THANKYOU for bringing BRIX to SL. What are BRIX? Well, what does the name sound like? Four-letter word, treasured childhood companion (albeit inanimate). Here… enlarge picture. The BRIX come in over 50 varieties. They automatically snap into place when tads are detected, taking the guesswork out of gridwork. You can even rez a baseplate as foundation, and build upwards from there.

The BRIX are fun! At times, building in SL is referred to as the "Metaverse Construction Kit". It's fitting this builds (tee hee) on the warm experiences of interlocking shapes together, and yet provides us with a greater degree of control, limited at times by people's imaginations and the technical constraints themselves. But continuing!

I suggested to SteveR?and these are premature ideas?that future versions could include more colors past the classic ones, since currently you have to click-and-hold on a brick for it to cycle, and that the BRIX be made directly moddable to edit properties. It would be nice to have transparent frosty ones. Also, wouldn't it be sheerly awesome to see a public BRIX command center in the middle of a sandbox, maybe several of them, and curious Residents stopping by to play with them? Like a real sandbox? GO ISOMETRIC!

On that note, I enjoy when budding inventors drop their creation in sandboxes so they can be interacted with. Sort of like a caveman coming upon spaceage tech and then going, "Arhhhg, what's THIS?" and pushing buttons, deducing logic. Magic ensues. Wish there was more of this, so that in addition to SL being a great arts & crafts fair, it's also a science fair!

Speaking of sandboxes, the new combat ones are finally in place, bleeding around the edges. They have really long names like Sandbox (combat) - Blue Team's HQ too. Adam Zaius and team set up a command fort, and we're ready to defend our Second Lives. Kind of like Mad Max in a way… it's great to see this day. Rickard Roentgen also came up with a tractor beam, and he used it to do some handy "nuke wrestling", which lends itself to impressive visual results as you can see. Similar to around last year, when it took Island Sandbox almost a year to show up after being requested, there's a new, non-damage-enabled, "Sandbox - Weapons Testing (no damage)", which is currently proving a pain to hyperlink. :/

Last night, Artemis Fate and I were on GunZ The Duel. She was giving me lessons! At times she sounded almost like one of those helpful video game tutorial characters: I don't know if it's because she was striving to emulate that style, or if it was just incidental, or what. I don't think I'll ask (unless she reads this and cares to tell me). I could have read the guide but it was more fun and dynamic this way. Thanks to her, I now know how to block?which may save my skin yet!

Chandrasutra has a new entry titled "Generation Mean" about bullying on Internet, which really caught my eye. It is peculiar by progress's virtue that each generation should be better than the next, but we still have many troubles in 2005 A.D. that've existed within humanity (or the lack of it) as far as we can remember.

Two of my fave visionaries in one interview: Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman are interviewed by TIME magazine, although it seems as though Joss was conducting it "virtually" (however that works, I wonder if they used a Nam June Paikish TV with his face on the screen). Now I do wonder what a collab between them would be like? I rejoice in that, seeing great people come together and do even greater things. Sort of like how in Second Life, one of my wistful fantasies would be to see Nephilaine Protagonist and Janie Marlowe work on a new line of clothes… they're both so wonderfully prolific. Here's a rough approximation, not the clearest of examples but it was definitely inspired: kimono by 'Laine, mad hat by Marlowe, and the blazer ontop is by Barnesworth Anubis.

I was going to write more here but I'll be commenting on the SLog, so come on and follow me!