Category Archives: Buildings

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, California, Frank's Moving Castle, Haze County, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

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

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

00510103 (return)

“He was on the other side of this glass window from me. I called out his name. Then I woke up. Then you asked me who Michael was.” He turned thoughtful, as if he knew and didn’t know at once. Just beyond the edge of consciousness.

—–

“Franklin! It’s me again. I’ve got to get through to you somehow. We met on the beach, remember?

“On the beach.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0103, Frank's Moving Castle, GTA, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

00500615

“Status report, Newt. How’s the state of Concrete? Solid still? Holding firm, etc.?”

“Cement Village is good, although the attached Concrete name has gone the way of sand, ha. With Boos — inserted behind it about a month ago as you might recall — it now forms 1/2 of Boos-gota, a portmanteau of the 2 inclusive series.”

“Like lukfast,” Hucka Doobie deadpanned from behind, still staring at Concrete on the screen and wondering if they’re ever going to move to slide 02. Been over 3 months now.

“Fine, fine,” answers Baker Bloch, leading the table meeting per usual. “As long as it’s still there. And what about Frank’s Moving Castle? Any news on that? Pardon me for being behind but I don’t get inworld much any more. Not like the old days when I was King and Blinks (female Baker) was Queen and Wheeler was just a secondary avatar not as much used.” He turns right. “Right Wheeler?”

“I am the new Queen,” she stated matter of factly. “‘Blinks? Who’s Blinks?’ the reader might ask here, not even knowing the name. Even dedicated ones, say, caught up with the last 10 — no, make that the last 40, ho. She’s just that far back in the past. Like Carrcassonnee. Remember Carrcassonnee, Baker? Baker Bloch was it? Because you’re getting that way too. Newt here, my sometimes boyfriend, oft times hubby, has assumed your old role. Will this change? Newt is the Whitehead in da Woods, the retired version of yourself as you configured it. No going back in my opinion. You will continue to get more obsolete and eventually fade back to the black you came from. Right Hucka Doobie?” she calls over the top of his black hatted head, almost blowing it off we might imagine, or at least displacing it a bit around his crown.

“That’s not fair, Wheeler,” she says, directly confronting the affront. “I’m human and not bee now. I’ve changed too. Baker *Bloch* over there lost his mask in, what was it, photo-novel 02? That’s about it for change for him.” Might as well have added a “Right Baker?” to complete the triangle of hate not love.

“But not like me,” Wheeler volleys back about the change. “Admit it.”

Hucka Doobie wasn’t going to admit nothing. And now she’s insulted Baker Bloch too, who glances back at her with a rather icy look with his two still dead eyes, no change there either.

“I’d like to hear about Frank’s Moving Castle,” says round, green Grassy Noll in his toy avatar voice across the table. Everyone had forgotten he was there, more fading. “If you’ve finished your ROW, that is!” His voice raised, he quickly turns a bright beet red from the top down to the surprise of all. Let’s end there.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0615, Bogota, Boos, Cement Village, Frank's Moving Castle, Goikyland

00500611

Probably the last structure has been added to my Nawt Vaya Free State property for this here photo-novel, 50 in a series of 50 and still going. Another old one: an abbreviated version of the Kidd Tower that was conceived over 10 years ago and where we’ve just seen Mr. Babyface sitting on the topmost floor of in the post before this one. Frank’s Moving Castle, still also in NVFS as of this writing, appears to be testing its flavor. 🙂

As stated, Mr. Babyface is no longer with us, having perished in the Korean Channel sim synchily called Orgamast thanks to that unexpectedly appearing water funnel or whirlpool or something. In his place we have Okama Majo now living in the building, also taking up Babyface’s study of the Big E/Big Schwa. Through his video feed, he stares at Orgamast here like his baby faced predecessor did before. He understands the meaning perhaps even better. All Blue. TBC?


stare, take 02

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0611, Jeogeot, Kidd Tower, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS, Xilted

000500610

Back home, Andie and I have an argument about whether the color of Little Alamo is blue or green. Andie says green. “But your midsection,” I then notice from my position in front of her, the same one where it all started. “Is *that* blue?” I tested.

Andie looks down. “Same.”

“Same as in my opinion or same–”

“Same,” she cut me off here.

—–

“Perfection,” Mr. Babyface says about the Big E/Big Schwa on the table in front of him while huffing and puffing on his favorite tobacco brand Blue Pennant. Could have been talking about either blue, then. And this not long before his demise in that mysteriously appearing water funnel off the coast of Orgamast. Which he stares at here, realizing where he’ll die and then just as quickly forgetting about it, warning ignored.

—–

“You — we (she said after a pause) — have a Venus problem,” she summarizes, still standing before me with back turned to that interestingly colored, palm rimmed pool of non-Linden water. Placed there for a reason, I understood. Attractor.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0610, Jeogeot, Kidd Tower, New Island, Omega, Xilted

00500606

Just as an experiment, I set up a duplicate Frank’s Moving Castle on cheap rental land at New Island.

We’ve already had an interesting visitor.

And I love this blue-green pool stretching out for about 150 meters behind it from the direction of the road it’s on. I’m tempted to call the palm rimmed body of water Little Alamo.

1st things 1st. Carefully *carefully* explore the sim it’s in and then work out from there. Another interesting property for sure here is one called Afterlife, featuring a namesake club 2000 meters in the sky alongside a game arcade and a bar (notice “Night City” on its front).

Andie — the visitor I mentioned before — decided to accompany me on my explorations tonight. Said she has no choice, *I* had no choice. She also called herself “the chaperone” at one point in our conversations. After learning more details about my situation, she suggested that I retain my properties in Nawt Vaya but the castle can roam. Like it was built for, I realized, built into its name; Frank’s *Moving* Castle, after all. This could be the first relocation of several. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0606, C2077, Frank's Moving Castle, New Island, Omega

00500514

“Let’s go back in time, to Bogota 01 before the Bogota 02 and 03 we’ve been talking about. To examine… time travel. The vandal again, perhaps the same one we encounter in a hazmat suit later on in Boos… appears to be spray painting a red lighting bolt atop David Bowie’s dead skull, right?

“Well, maybe the red bolt was already there, maybe the vandal is merely indicating this with his pointing. More pointing. The Point of It All (again)?”

“Are you talking to me, ma’am?” Inspector Petty says, appearing through the wall of his small agency in the heart of NVFS’s Cement Village. No Chef attached to his title any longer, so he’s unable to prepare food for himself. “Buy me some lunch and I’ll tell you about it.” Turns out he had all the story and then some. You feed him and then he can feed you. Information. Deeep stuff. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0514, Cement Village, Cricket, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

00500512 (The Sage Page)

“So there I am again. You can tell me by my bent up nature, just like an Ozian Wheeler traveling around on all 4s, and also bent to the rule of the Witch Mombi and perhaps the Nome King through her. Old Wheeler,” she summarized about the figure in the center of the collage before us, called “Crash on Mars.” Not because it depicts something crashing into Mars but because of another figure to the left of “Old Wheeler” called Crash who holds in his hand a giant fishing rod from our perspective, horses let out of a barn I suppose. She first brings him up in the next paragraph.

“(the 19th Century U.S. religious figure) David Brainard is seated in the foreground,” she continues, “who seems to be the same as (brainy) David Bowie, the Spaceman, the Man who lived on Mars. The Starman, as in Dark. Black. Look at the top. At the end of Crash’s fishing rod which passes through (the word) RUST.”

I saw the black star at the top of the work where Wheeler (*New* Wheeler) indicated, fronted by a blue-green hummingbird. I ask about it next, prefacing this by saying that it seems to me it should be a fish here instead. “What gives?” I end my query.

“Let’s turn to the next Bogota collage,” she replies and starts walking to our left, pulling up in front of it. I go stand beside her, basically shoulder to shoulder again so we can keep trying to see as one.

“More Life on Mars,” she says. “Remember when I told you to bring me Book 03 from the town library and place it on my table? Well there it is. It’s a summary of all knowledge, all books.” The collage changes.

“And there is the second part of the animation which is actually the first, showing my point. Lisa the Vegetarian is the Tungaske artist who absorbs it all — inputs it; eats it — and then provides an output for us to peruse and perhaps dig into deeper if we wish. Beyond surface reading, you see. Surface of Mars. Crash again in back, facing toward you this time — sans rod, I’ll add, with no horses around this go around. As if waiting for you to act. Can you act? How deep can you go? TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0512, animation, Canada/Tungaska, Cement Village, collages 2d, Cricket, Google Street View, Jeogeot, MARS, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS