Category Archives: California

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

00500312

https://gilligan.fandom.com/wiki/The_Honeybees

“Don’t worry, this particular 3 piece girl band will never make it out of Oceania to acquire mainland fame and fortune, despite their obvious talent. The *Mosquitoes* will make sure of that. Stamp them NONEXISTANT. *Not* a rival.”

“Thanks Biff!!” he can hear them collectively exclaim in his head, Shelley even giving him an appreciative kiss on his cheek. No, make that *lips*. Now to test it out in reality.

—–

Groovy tune this “You Need Us” is, thinks smoking and radio listening Wanda from her mainland bed in a different TV series altogether. But I wonder why The Mosquitoes went with an instrumental? I can imagine the 3 part singing now… TBC?

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00500216

“Why does it have to be pink, Murdoc!?” shouts straw hat wearing Noodle up to her cult leader who’s also the bassist in her band. “The obelisk I mean!” She points toward it but Murdoc doesn’t see this or respond, still training his binoculars on the pool next door and its own bathing beauty of a person. Blue Moon, I mean Blue Flower… ahem, I mean *Moon Flower*, leader of her own cult as it turns out. Who has her own similarly size obelisk already painted blue, several in fact. From her angle, Noodle hasn’t seen this since it lies in the future. She’s only started her study as scholar of the cult, with the most important book still unread just beyond the tips of her pink painted toenails. “Masks.”

“Hurry up, 2-D! Why isn’t it finished already!” Murdoc barks down in the present, prying his eyes away from his target and toward another one. Pink vs. blue, then, just like with the battles of the sexes made famous in that 70’s tennis match between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs at the Possum Pouch Astro Dome in Arkansaw Texas. Substituting one for the other. Doesn’t have to be that way. Noodle knows.

Library eyes? Not quite yet.

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00500215 (diving in, or at least testing the water…)

I’m trying not to see the new all-the-rage, violence filled video game called Crimson Desert as a desert of ideas for me, and MAPS might be helping now.

6 miles apart population places called Cliff and Desert in Emery County, UT, mirroring lead character Kliff from Crimson Desert. There are no places in our US of A, populated or otherwise, that start with KLIF, reinforcing the association. Also in the surrounding area of Cliff+Desert are Book Cliffs, Desert Reservoir #3 right next to the Cliff population place, and then only several miles south of Desert another community named Sphinx, more reinforcement of the Desert aspect. Crimson Desert is becoming noted as a game chocked full of riddles and mysteries which starts off slowly but then builds story through merger of seemingly unrelated plot lines. Something is there for sure. One way to find out. Die (as Kliff) at the beginning of the game and then get reborn again out of water. (Through a) Silver band — exactly like passed between two figures under the Silver Lake we’ve seen a screenshot of not once but twice already in this here photo-novel, 50 of 50 (so far). *Must* be something to this. Mirror.

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00500210

Turns out there was already a band called The Mosquitoes that appeared on “Gilligan’s Island” during the 60’s so Shelley decided to return the name Silver to her own band, reverting them to the Silver Mosquitoes. “Never mind the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ band was mythical and not real,” she said to anyone who cared at the time. “It’s still something that people might remember and then get confused about. We’re *not* mythical, he he he.” They were primarily a Beatles cover band here so Shelley thought the addition back of Silver was appropriate in that way too, further tribute to what she and all other members of her present band, save one, thought of as the greatest rock group of all time and who were, yes, once known as the Silver Beetles before they gained fame and notoriety and substituted an A for an E in the remaining part of their name. They weren’t on that level, she knew. They may never grow out of their Silver phase, cover band forever. But she still had plans. Was the lone non-Beatles fan No Lag still a part of that? We’ll perhaps see in parts 03-06 or 07 if not the present one. Back to the action… TBC


passing back of the “silver band”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0210, California, Oceania

00500201 (photo-novel continues…)

She was in control of the BAND now, in the driver’s seat, this brilliant lead guitarist named Noodle from the Orient who had grown up before our very watchful eyes. With the finishing of the game above this one called Grand Theft Auto version 5, she slowed down their high speed, way too high to be sustainable long term. Sloow (*brake*) slooow (brake brake brake). She checked the speedometer. Right at 50, just inside the limit defined by the Mille Bornes card laid down to end it all. Right where we are now.

But there were problems at the rear still, a stowaway from the beginning of their journey, a carryover from the Gorillaz video coming before this one. Pink Phantom. With the slowing down of the car the vaporous, negatively oriented creature was able to slip out and make her escape to the past, freedom reclaimed. Interesting time loop created if so; I’ll have to think about that one further. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0201, California, GTA

00500116 (eyes attached)

This is *wrong*. So wrong that I almost skipped over it. Frank’s Moving Castle. AI!

Let’s start over again, then…

Under The Silver Lake.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0116, C2077, California, City Center, Frank's Moving Castle, Google Street View, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, Nevada, NVFS, Ohio

00500101 (watching (from 719 beside 715))

https://what3words.com/under.silver.lake

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0101, California, Google Street View, Ohio

00490610 (killing time)

“Still naked from skinny dipping, we’ll say now, he wakes up in his Silver Lake apartment and stares at the silver band passed to him, now on his arm and acting like a bracelet. He realizes an engraving on it is a knight’s move in chess, H6 to G4.

“Another code on the back side eventually points to a map related to The Legend of Zelda video game from an old Nintendo magazine he happens to possess. The third ingredient for solving this puzzle comes in the form of another map found in a vintage cereal box, of L.A. this time. Also found in his apartment — what are the odds? He superimposes real — L.A. — upon fantastical — LoZ — and marks out a grid of A-P and 1-8…

“‘H6,’ he says, circling the 1st indicated square with a marker. ‘Ahh, Silver Lake! And G4, let’s see. Yes. Mt. Hollywood. Sarah, my vanished dream girl, must be somewhere around the sign!’

“He head up there the next day and uncovers the Forever Cult below a blocked out part of Google Maps. After finding out that Sarah is alive but sealed inside a tomb, he drinks tea and passes out.

“She’s dead, actually,” he starts the kicker. “He killed her. That’s how he got her silver band. There was no second choker. Only the first; close quote.

“Pretty good story, huh John? Thanks Bardie!”

5 second pause. “You’re.” 3 second pause. “Welcome.”

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00490609 (third)

“What’s that, Maw? (answer) Yeah, go ahead and send me the movie that’ll be fine (click). Luv ya.” He hangs up too. Back to returning his full attention to Moon Flower, er, *Sarah*. Because things have shifted. The Hollywood sign remains, though. At the end and just before the beginning. 4-3-2-1…

“Yeah, Maw. This videotape you sent me is from 1923. I can’t watch this (click).”

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