it's another roundup of my inworld adventures!

One of my fave song lyrics is from Shapeshifter's "Bring Change":

"You've got to, we've got to learn to connect and bring change."

It's a triumphant, live drum 'n' bass roller that starts out at as a half-tempo, R&B-tinged smoker before the rise rushes in and the the intense, syncopated beats take hold. I think it'd be an ideal song for an SL machinima.

Related, I found out some of what Orhalla Zander's been up to after all this time; as you may recall, like a Joss Whedon protagonist, he's been through some dramatic character development. From his early hobo roots begging in the Welcome Area to the present, where he's a Hobo King of moviemaking, taking a man who abandoned his first life for a trip through the Grid. I recommend a watch!

Saeya Nyanda surprise-gifted me with a watermelon Photosphere, which is a portable cross between a glam rock stage and a spaceship — in my fave color combo. She even loaded it up with some of my watermeloney textures! You can customize the backdrops and choose from an impressive variety, and it comes with poseballs to move yourself within the sphere, and (of course I'm gonna mention this) LOCAL LIGHTING MADE EASY. Click the trio of light globes to get a touch dialog and change 'em. I admire seeing stuff like this, because for all the photography happening in SL, the tools to do it are still a relatively small selection. I even like the ad byline:

THE UNCONVENTIONAL PHOTO STUDIO

Yeah, scroo genericism and faux feelings! Mediocrity is for suckers!

Here's a really big tree on  floating island @ OoPs + LaNa Galatea's Imperial Forest. Floating islands remind me of the great artist, Roger Dean, who I recently learned designed the Psygnosis font, and has a wide portfolio of… floating islands, among other imaginary landscapes.

Faces of Ruth aka "The freaks come out underground". If you're not familiar with Ruth, legend has it she's a proto-avatar that hasn't died yet, and residual code of hers reaches out to entangle unwary Resis while teleporting. Linden devs have smacked her on the head with a shovel a few times, but she still finds her way into SL, mullet and all, via bots. The parallels to Dune's abomination and Erasmus are striking… 'cept these Ruth-things were just hiding beneath a giant invisiprim, under the road.

Conclusion:

AVATARS = ULTIMATE FACE DANCERS.

UBER-plywood. Part of TORLEY TEXTURES VI. Arriving in the not-too-distant future! Curiosity trumps stagnation. *huggerz*

Luxe Alabaster makes rockin' robots. Here, I'm dancing with Crazy Legs, who may someday be an avatar (in which case I want to be the bot!). I found out that the ghetto blaster wasn't working when I switched songs, so it's lovely that Luxe came over to meet me in-avatar and diagnose the problem. As you can see, even this museum looks like a robot. That DOES COMPUTE. Big points awarded from me to those who reference early electro, breakin' trax. I suggested that Kraftwerk, the Deutchmen behind hits like "Computer Love"

 and "The Robots"

be added to le selection.

If you have a specific talent, explore it to the max — I was skeptical that these many-primmed boats would look so good when fully rezzed, but rippleshock told me this is what I'd been looking for to satisfy my post-submarine captain cravings as Tollie. As a result, I discovered how wonderful KyomKyom Yaseotoko's craft is. While these are too primmy to pilot smoothly in the open waters, they're fine pieces to treasure. Did someone say treasure? ARRRR! Also note my Carmen Sandiego reference, which was so obtusely thrust forth because I remember kewl piccies of digitized ships from that series. Unlocking childhood memories and bringing them into Second Life to share with others is potent and so rewarding.

I've mentioned Zarf Vantongerloo's Backhoe several times before: it's sogood. If you have a Mac (sorry, no PC version) and want to edit whole regions, this is the way to go. You can export a RAW file outta SL (from World menu > Region/Estate control panel) or import an entirely new one. It's so elegant and slick to use — showing you a rotatable 3D display of the landscape which you can spin and camscan 'round to your heart's desire — and saves you the headache of messing with Photoshop channels.

Onwards and upwards!