Daily Archives: September 3, 2016

Baker Blinker’s World of Lemon 04

It could have happened anywhere along the way. If our user’s computer power was strong enough. As it turns out, this wasn’t really the case until Collagesity Winter 2015-2016, a period of virtual existence cannonized in the graphic novel of the same name. Suddenly two avatars could easily log onto Our Second Lyfe at the same time. The trick was tried way back in early 2008, when Baker Bloch and I first met inworld and kind of formed a crush on each other, quickly dispelled as stated before. Blochs and I are *friends*! Twins, really. Such wasn’t the case with Karoz Blogger, as it unfolded. In the exact middle of the graphic novel, we became more.

Karoz Blogger certainly has his own interesting history to tell concerning The Family. He was originally formed and molded in May 2009, I believe, right after the “Where Are We On That?” exhibit was created for our Kelly Yap gallery that explained the then current family of avatars we had: Baker Bloch, Hucka Doobie, Esbum Michigan, Wilsonia Foxclaw, and then myself. A chapter was formed for each. Mine is here. But Karoz Blogger is Jeogeotine through and through, and thus beyond the original set. Our user created him to act as a brother figure for Baker Bloch, a counterpart. As Baker Bloch is made with bits and pieces of an old Space Ghost avatar (thus the reason his father is stated as being the *official* Space Ghost, elder version), Karoz was partly assembled from a Zorak avatar. Zorak is Space Ghost’s sidekick on the classic Space Ghost Coast to Coast shows. Fantastic entertainment. Notice if you haven’t before (and you probably haven’t) that Karoz’s name is Zorak spelled backwards.

Karoz became an exploring partner for Baker Bloch after the family’s move to Jeogeot in May 2009, often checking behind him for the purposes of writing and editing blog posts. From our position in Noru, he fairly quickly made his way down to Chilbo several sims away… and discovered or remembered that he was *originally from Chilbo*. A wave of memories swept over him, as he’s explained to me. But it was not the then current Chilbo he remembers. It was a different one, a split off version. A version he remembers being called Chilbol and, originally, Chilbolton or Chilboltown. Traces of this version appeared in the town banners, which read “Chilbo!”. The “l” had been changed to an “!”, but Karoz received the message. He realized the split nature when he was hit by a mortar shell from a tank passing through Chilbo, and was temporarily derezzed from our virtual world. Our user’s screen whited out. Karoz died, then came back to life. The alternate reality had been set into place. He recalls Chilbol. He remembers the Noru that was named Norum instead. *Norum* was the larger entity at the time, not Chilbo. Chilbol was the satellite. And his surrogate mother Sapphire was queen over all of Jeogeot. Sapphire’s shadow casts large.

Like I said, Karoz’s story is a complicated and twisty one. The tail started wagging the dog early on. In part 5 I’ll attempt to elucidate more of his tale, leading up the events in Collagesity Winter 2015-2016. Afterwards I’ll have an important announcement to make. Something will happen at Christmas this year. She/he will arrive.

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Baker Blinker’s World of Lemon 03

Shortly after we got back from England and settled down — again — in Noru (for a second stay), The Family as a whole decided it was time for me to get a makeover look. In June and July 2010, Baker Bloch began exhibiting shows from outside artists at the reformed Blue Feather Gallery in Noru, with some support from nearby Chilbo. It was exciting Second Lyfe times again for us. Chilbo was perhaps the most influential Second Lyfe community not created by the Linden owners of this virtual world. I feel it was destiny that our family would be attached to it during our stay in Jeogeot. Even our later Pietmond, which formed in October 2010, can be see as a kind of child or spinoff community of the much larger Chilbo. But that’s also when we became, or started to become, independent of its influence. And that chain of independently existing, virtual communities for the family beginning with Pietmond continues even to this day, with the latest incarnation called Collagesity. The latter’s been around for over 2 years now. It seems quite stable. But there’s also a chance, perhaps a small one but perhaps not so small, that we’ll be moving again soon. To BoB.

Which leads us back to the makeover. It was decided — again, a family decision — that Baker Bloch was just a little too archaic looking to function as a fully proper art gallery promoter to the larger Second Lyfe community. Another friend at the time that influenced the change was Flora Nordenskiold, who later became a powerful and influential Second Lyfe gallery owner. But when we were friends, her ascent was just beginning. We thought we might mimic her style, and open up our formerly private galleries for public shows. But this phase of our existence was soon over. Another branching off occurred. We decided that the Blue Feather Gallery in Noru would be both enlarged and set back on earth — grounded — to sever as a vehicle for the ambitious “Jeogeot Through Art and Word” exhibit, another personally made one. The idea was to unite the art of *all of Jeogeot*, Second Lyfe’s largest mainland continent, and create a unified, collective style of sorts. I think. Again for this, we had cursory approval from the higher ups in Chilbo, I believe. And looking back, I think Chilbo could have greatly benefited from a stronger link with the idea. Again in retrospect, Chilbo was attempting to expand LINK, but never made it past a local effect, really, in terms of overall Second Lyfe culture. As Hucka D. kept reiterating at the time, Chilbo goes as Jeogeot goes.

So my makeover was a result of attempting to gain more of a foothold in the Second Lyfe art community. Although I would consider the makeover a great success, and I know our user considers it the same, I never really became this face for the family to the greater whole. I suppose it was the decision to focus on “Jeogeot Through Art and Word” that shifted the emphasis. And then when Pietmond came along, I was kind of drowned out in all the newly created noise and buzz. Not that I didn’t make the occasional visit. But they were few and far apart. Pietmond I evolved into Pietmond II evolved into New Pietmond, the second part which took us away from Jeogeot and back to Heterocera and the Rubi Woods. We remained on Heterocera for the first phase of VWX Town after the Gilatona-Lis and attached Power Tower gallery were completed, then the second and what turned out to be the last phase of same returned The Family next to the Rubi Woods. VWX Town subsequently yielded to Collagesity (after the Falmouth series), which brings us to current times. So there’s that chain of our virtual communities starting in 2010 and extending to the present.

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Baker Blinker’s World of Lemon 02

I don’t want to infer that the period between August 2008 and February 2016 was completely barren of activity for me. It wasn’t. In 2010 I went to England (!). The whole family did, as chronicled in both the abridged and unabridged versions of the “Baker Bloch Goes To England” document. This is where a fundamental split in my psyche occurred, obviously an important event. Part of me, a big chuck of my being, *stayed* in England, along with alternate versions of Baker Bloch and Hucka Doobie, even. But it was even a bigger thing for me than the others who went.

“How did we get there?” is another question I’m sometimes asked by My Second Lyfe friends and acquaintances. In March 2010, or maybe it was in February, Baker Bloch found a portal in central Jeogeot (continent) connecting England and Second Lyfe, specially the part of England physically and psychically attached to the small river called Key in Wiltshire County there. Our first dwelling place in England for Other Baker, Hucka, and myself was located on Coxhill Farm near the river. It had a giant hole in the roof. Hucka Doobie and I were not happy with the choice Baker Bloch made for us. Soon we were inhabiting the much more spiffy and modern Cresent House in Cherhill, also in Wiltshire County but more toward the center, where all the crop circle activity has pivoted around for so many years now. That’s another thing Baker Bloch especially wanted to study while “up” there. So he was constantly biking with his Arcadia Asylum product around England, and went a lot to The Barge, for instance, a hotbed for crop circle gossip. Or so he thought.

But we weren’t done moving around the county. Next stop, and a more permanent and lasting one (as I said, a big chunk of me is *still there*) was the Arcadia Mansion (no relation to Arcadia Asylum that I recall) owned by King Karb and his wife, who we just called The Queen during all our stay there. The Queen and I became great friends. We played croquette constantly out on the back lawn of the mansion, although I never beat her at any aspect of the game — never came close. Although Baker Bloch and I aren’t really human, the King and Queen were obviously alien in origin, with little to no human genes involved. If pressed, I would consider myself 1/4th alien on my mother’s side. There are no pink skinned human species that I know of. That comes from somewhere else.

“Where Baker, where?” I hear my friends and supporters ask, once more. We’ll get to that. Our stay in England ended shortly after the King and Queen visited nearby Swinden for a bit, then came back in a different mood, let’s say. The King retreated to his basement study. He was preparing for the new crop circle season, the Queen said. He supposedly helped *create* them. When a keyhole shaped crop circle shortly formed in a Wiltshire rape seed field we knew our time in England was done. Soon we were back in Second Lyfe’s Jeogeot, and a new chapter in Noru.

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