00510201

I came upstairs, asked if she was on the computer and to open Google if so because I wanted her to google something.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “Let me get out of this window. (pause) There. Google on Google you say?”

“Yeah. Type in ‘baker sunklands’.”

She types it in. I look at the results. “That’s not it. Here, let me have the computer for a minute.” Must be ‘sunklands baker’, I think. And I was right.

“See?” I handed the computer back to her, peered over at the modified results with her. This, or thereabouts, because the results change slightly every time you query these two words in succession. It was the first summary — or second at best — I had ever seen for my blog by someone else. Or something else in this case. So the first summary by *something* else.

“Freaky!” she exclaimed (or thereabouts).

“AI *knows* me.”

—-

So now I’m taking a more indepth look. Gonna ask it some questions about the blog to get more specific. How much does it know? So I typed the following into the prompt as maybe the most logical follow up question: “I’m trying to decipher a specific storyline from Baker Bloch’s creative blog.”

The answer (real time!):

Baker Bloch’s narratives, often found on the Sunklands blog, utilize a nonlinear “hyper-novel” structure featuring cryptographic text numbering (e.g., 0012) and intense focus on virtual reality topography, such as specific locations within Second Life. These stories frequently employ recurring cryptic motifs like “blue roses” and character transformations to map out digital exploration within a “double world” framework. To explore a specific storyline in detail, visit Sunklands.

Another question: “What is the specific role of Frank’s Moving Castle in Baker Bloch’s Sunklands blog?”

In Baker Bloch’s Sunklands blog, Frank’s Moving Castle serves as a vital, surreal structural node and meta-narrative bridge in Virtual Second Life, acting as a recurring, shifting anchor for characters, deities, and pop culture references. The structure functions as a nexus for character alter-egos, such as the fire deity “Gus,” and acts as an AI-driven, multi-media crossover point incorporating elements from Howl’s Moving Castle and Under the Silver Lake. Explore the narrative further at bakerbloch.com.

Fascinating. It both knows and doesn’t know about the details of the blog. They’re all confused, mishy mashy. There is no direct connection between Frank’s Moving Castle and Under the Silver Lake that I recall in my blog. So I asked for clarity on that particular point. Where is this leading? “In Baker Bloch’s Sunklands blog, what is the connection between the 2 movies ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and ‘Under the Silver Lake’?”

In Baker Bloch’s Sunklands blog, Artificial Intelligence (AI) acts as both the glitchy architect and the existential threat behind the surrealist architectural mashup of Frank’s Moving Castle. In the hyper-novel’s universe, AI is not a tool for perfect creation; it is an engine of distortion that destabilizes the reality of the characters.

In Baker Bloch’s Sunklands blog, the connection between Howl’s Moving Castle and Under the Silver Lake is forged through the surrealist architectural mashup known as “Frank’s Moving Castle”.In section 0116 of the hyper-novel, Bloch uses these two pieces of cinema to explore themes of modern paranoia, AI generation, and identity distortion within the virtual world of Second Life:

The Structural Fusion (“Frank’s Moving Castle”): Bloch blends the whimsical, ever-shifting concept of Miyazaki’s mobile fortress (Howl’s Moving Castle) with a digital landscape. However, it is corrupted or reframed through an artificial intelligence (“AI!”) lens, turning it into a site of confusion and deep-seated paranoia.

The Unreliable Narrator & Paranoia: This AI-driven distortion leads directly to the themes of Under the Silver Lake—a neo-noir film famous for its hyper-obsessive protagonist, hidden codes, and sprawling Hollywood pop-culture conspiracies. Bloch even tags the post with the film’s star, Andrew Garfield.

The “Double World” Illusion: By pairing a movie about a shifting magical house (Howl’s) with a movie about uncovering subliminal messaging hidden underneath everyday reality (Silver Lake), Bloch connects them to represent the ultimate digital mirage. To the narrator, navigating the architecture of Second Life feels exactly like trying to decode a conspiracy theory while standing inside an impossible, shifting machine.

So close yet so far. But a fascinating experience. I’ll continue explorations on my own now, bringing more of its thoughts to light when needed. Thanks AI!

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0201, Blue Mountain, Frank's Moving Castle, Haze County, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

00510116

There’s no doubt in my mind that Jeogeot, the 3rd and largest continent of Our Second Lyfe and where my virtual home is located along its largest inland sea I call Nawt Vaya, will continue to play a pivotal role in this here blog and attached photo-novels, now almost one section into 51. From the Zanyzen RR system up north to the similarly vast Rodentia urban burg down south (just to give two examples), there’s a lot to unpack here still, even 17 years after starting to explore it back in Spring 2009 and 2 1/2 years after reestablishing it as my home at the beginning of 2024.

The next created continent of Maebaelia (also called Satori) is great too, and queerly basically the same length north and south as well as east and west, almost like they’re twins to each other. And maybe this is what creator Linden Labs had in mind with the pair. But Jeogeot is still a bigger landmass, about a 7:6 ratio between the two, and that 7th bit might set it apart in more ways than one. It reminds me of the 7 sinks of Sunklands taking up 77 sims in the southwest central part of its green landmass as I’ve identified it through the below map. This is the site of my first virtual village called Pietmond, and where my blog got its name, a name now lent to the title of successive photo-novels as they continue to manifest one by one by one in a more or less unbroken line.

It’s almost as if I’ve “lifted” that part out of the continent to start something new. I have no doubt that Pietmond is still alive within, projecting energy past to future. The sinks, although seemingly deactivated and unlinked from each other, still have power we can use in the present.

And, after all, an inland sea is just a filled in sink. Onward and upward we go!

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0116, Jeogeot, Middleton, Midlands, Nawt Vaya+, Rodentia 02

00510115 (introducing…)

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00510114 (cats and mouse)

Part 02…

It was a tight squeeze but she made it, newly placed crown just fitting under ceiling. Top of the kitty tower, Queen of the Basement. She surveys her queendom and deems it needs cleaning up. Pretty badly. She’s lost control of her 15 year old girl and 4 year old boy, her subjects. Better return to the Room and draw out a plan.

But she looked and looked but couldn’t find her way back. Just walls. She forgot that she was already in the Room. And always had been.

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00510113 (reach)

“I’m scrapping the whole idea!” raged Biff Carter one night after a particularly bad rehearsal for the band. “I’m going to call us — heck — *Runnynose*. Because that’s what we are. A constant drip drip drip of annoyance threatening to dribble down my cheeks if I don’t stop it, PHEH. Where’s my hanky? I want to blow it all away!” He rubs his hand across his face and then picks up the loaded gun on the table beside him but then puts it back. No need to go down that road, he, thankfully, quickly realized. No more mowing down needed. Let tall grass stand. Weedy. Jennifer not Jenny. She lives! At least in his mind, in his dreams. He can also live with that for a while.

“Here,” consoling Shelley said from the side, replacing him in that role. “Take a hit from my white ass stick instead to cool you down.” And she leans over and kisses his cheek while handing it to him, a promise of things to come. At least for Biff. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0113, Jeogeot, Omega, Rodentia 02, The Cross

00510112 (news)

Jennifer Lane had tragically been mowed down by a bulldozer, perhaps several of ’em. This is an archived photo.

“What are we going to do *now*?” I can hear ear of corn clad Karl bemoan from behind his drum kit in the back. “Everything *hinged* on her growing up and appearing before me and beside Chet over there, replacing his screeching, crow-like vocals with her now mature golden warblings, PHEH. Damn you Charles Anson!” Karl assumed it was long time nemesis and former band videographer Anson who was responsible for the mowing down but longer time band manager Biff Carter corrected him from the side.

“Wasn’t him,” he said plainly.

And why won’t *Chet* weigh in on this tragedy? He just stands there in his new Robo Santa costume to pair with Karl’s own corn related one, lead guitar hanging low off his neck.

—–

“Biff,” Shelley says from above, jiggling his shoulder. “Biff Wendell Carter,” she speaks his full name to fully bring him back to reality on the other side. “Band rehearsal in 5.” TBC

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00510111

He showed me the change. “The Jeogeot continent, before and after the addition of the 30 sims of the Korean Channel, logically reduced to 28 if you eliminate that little sticky outie place at the bottom composed of (sims) Darcy’s Harbour and Darcy’s Cove — although they have their own story to tell. More on that later perhaps.”

“Okay,” I said simply, readying for more.

“28 sims but beginning with 22 of possible 26 letters of the alphabet, far beyond chance I would confidently assume without checking the specific odds. Only 4 missing. I’m not sure it really matters which ones they are as much but just for the record it’s C, T, V, Y. So also for the record it *includes* the more exotic letters like Z, Q, X, J and K.”

“Right. I agree with you this is beyond chance. And… the connection with TILE?

“E is the last letter of the word TILE,” he said obviously enough. “I to E. I contains the little e that can be turned into the Big E — or Big Schwa if you’re looking from the other direction. That’s the key. It all becomes 3 dimensional now. We have a front and back of the thing. This is the great benefit of Big E/Big Schwa.”

“Got it. Sort of.”

“So when Spacecraft Andie stands before the 28 blue cubes representing the 28 blue sims of the Korean Channel and they wink out 1 by 1 by 1, that means the elimination of this channel, leaving a void again. We’re moving back into the past, before Jeogeot as we know it, perhaps before Our Second Lyfe as a whole but especially Jeogeot, the 3rd created continent. The number 3 is important here.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0111, Bogota, Cement Village, Cricket, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS, Xilted

00510110

“There. That’s me in the middle, kicking classical things to the side again, going in a solid rock direction now. Black hair. Rainbow colors. You can’t disregard blue; it’s part of the rainbow too. That’s my message for you tonight. You have to include all colors, and you might as well capitalize that. ALL COLORS.”

That’s why Andie was colored differently in that one snapshot above, I realized. Thanks!

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0110, New Island, Omega

00510109 (serious fantasyland)

“I remember doing handsprings next to box springs and thinking: this ain’t right. I’m *caged*.”

“Andie?”

“Shelley now. But Andie should know. *Shouldn’t* know I meant there. Why we tagged her. Alteration later.”

“In the dark?”

“Let’s say, leave it in Colorado. Aand, we took care of the cage.”

—–

Karl wakes up in bed after a mysteriously induced sleep when he entered. Still dreaming of course. Because lining the walls of the damp dark cellar he sees this.

He fell into the 1st picture that caught his eye called “Accidental Exposure 02”. I believe several states are involved now; difficult to choose where he went. Working on it…

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0109, Bogota, Bogota Proper, Colorado, Nautilus, Perch-Mistletoe, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks Laboratory, Upper Austra

00510108

“A search for *all* FENST geographic features in the GNIS national database of such only brings up 7 hits, including a Finstad Lake (lake) in MN with variant names of FENSTad Lake and FENSTed Lake, which is why it showed up on my list since I allow those. Notice this is found on a Picket Lake topographic map there, which piqued my interest because another name in this list starts with Fence: Fencemaker Canyon (valley) NV, also on a Fencemaker topo map and with a variant name of FENSTonmaker Canyon. Again, why it showed up in the list. Picket fence, then, see.”

“Picket fence, okay. Go on…”

“All this stemming from (the) FENSTar (sim) of the Big E/Big Schwa sitting before us.”

“I think I gathered that (already).”

“Cool. Soo, this led me to thinking about the old house I bought recently surrounded by this type of fence. Why I bought it actually.”

“*Before* the finding of Fence and Picket in that list,” I tried to clarify across from him, staring at the Schwa side as opposed to his E side. We were just that complementary.

“Correct. So that… leads to this.”

—–

Karl enters the old house to discover nothing inside except cobwebs and musky smells. But then circling around it he finds this. Cellar door. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0108, Jeogeot, Kidd Tower, Minnesota, Nautilus, Nevada, Perch-Mistletoe, Upper Austra, Xilted