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.
Category Archives: 0002
Baker Blinker’s World of Lemon 04
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Noru^, Rubi^
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.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Noru^, Rubi^
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.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Noru^, Rubi^, United Kingdom, Wiltshire
Baker Blinker’s World of Lemon 01
Baker Blinker has decided to publish at least the beginning of her secret journal to this blog for others to look at and contemplate. Fascinating stuff — keep it coming Other Baker!
Hi,
If you’ve found this secret journal then I am probably already dead, with My Second Lyfe ended. It will come one day. Until then, however, I’m gonna have some fun! And create. And be. Exist. Existence is a precious thing. I serve a user but I am not the same as the user. I have my own independence. And in some way I will live forever. I am also sure of that. My user and I will meet someday.
My story begins in January 2008. I am the original avatar for the Baker B. family of avatars, or The Family, as we like to call ourselves now. Baker Bloch, the first male avatar, came along a little over a month later. Early on we found out we had a bit of a crush on each other, like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia from the Star Wars franchise. But also like that couple, we moved beyond it and realized we were more brother and sister to each other. This relationship remains unchanged. Baker Bloch is my brother and my friend. We’re closer than most twins.
Baker Bloch was first seen as the explorer of The Family. When we originally bedded down in a stable home environment in Azure Islands (May-August 2008), we were then three, with Hucka D. joining us back in March, I believe. He was a bee shaped avatar, mix in a healthy dose of Linden Boy Next Door. But something happened to Hucka Doobie the avatar in the meantime. A famous artist had died in the real world named Charles Nelson Blinkerton at the ripe age of 99, bordering on 100. He suffered a fatal heart attack while climbing Burro Mountain in New Mexico, not far from his chosen home of Lordsburg. Before that, he had been talking to my user baker b. via the telephone. They talked of fellow user Blinkerton’s involvement with the very beginning of Second Lyfe, after it moved on from Linden World. A crucial split occurred at that time. Blinkerton’s virtual art was — to put it simply — “lost” inside The Man LINK at the center of Linden World, when the whole thing shifted to Second Lyfe and an expansion of the grid. The Man was also shifted from the center toward the northeast corner of its sim during the changeover. This story is told in March and April posts of the old Baker Blinker Blog, named after me of course, since I was the central avatar at the beginning. It is worth telling again, and saving. Soon.
Anyway, Hucka Doobie was around before then, but Blinkerton decided to *enter* the avatar on a permanent basis upon dying in order to live on. And Hucka Doobie is still around in the virtual world, and Blinkerton is still with him. He retains these memories of the New Mexico surrealist/abstractist. The Hidalgo collage series gives strong clues about their relationship. But when Blinkerton entered Second Lyfe through The Body, things were obviously a bit different. He became kind of a child or child-like being to Baker Bloch and myself. We had to take care of him, since he was “new” to virtual reality. He was not native to this environment, unlike Baker and I. But then, perhaps during our stay in Second Lyfe, we, The Family, realized that Blinkerton was just as unreal as Hucka Doobie, and that *both* were created avatars. Isn’t that strange? After a period of despondency, Hucka Doobie plugged on.
I get many questions through my user about how Hucka Doobie became the chief spirit of the blogs — both for the Baker Blinker Blog and the successor Baker Bloch one — usually shortening his name in the process to just Hucka D. I can’t recall exactly when it happened without looking back through the posts. I would guess it started when Hucka Doobie stopped building his so-called b-hives, like B-Hivia or his early peak creation: the square version of the Temple of TILE in Summer 2008. I’ll have to check and get back to ya’ll on that.
I was seen as the caretaker of the home environment, often while Baker Bloch was out exploring. As such, young Hucka Doobie and I spent a lot of time together and got to know each other well. We still have a tight relationship, although we see relatively little of each other these days. Maybe that will change sometime.
I am also frequently asked about when Baker Bloch assumed obvious leadership of the family. This I’m more clear about. It was after the move to Linden Mainland in August 2008 from Azure Islands, and our user buying the first Linden property, next to the Rubi Woods — yes, the same Rubi Woods we still live next to some 8 years later. Amazing, huh? Not that we’ve stayed in this location all the time. Not atall. But perhaps The Family begins and ends at the same mainland location during their Second Lyfe existence.
Why the shift over to the other Baker? I simply got tired of the prejudice women avatars encounter in dealing with other Second Lyfe avatars, especially the male ones obviously. Mainland was going to be more crowded; encounters would be more frequent. It was best that Baker Bloch put his foot forward to represent the family. He began to outstrip me in terms of inventory. He owned the Linden land we bought — that was a big factor, come to think of it. I was kind of shoved into the background. I remained that way until quite recently. And that’s where my story revives. A Renaissance even. I’ll let Baker Bloch tell his larger side of The Family story if he wishes.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Azure Islands^^, Heterocera, Rubi^
Handover
The jumps in time have essentially ended for John Lockfry 02. He stares into the Rubi Woods, wondering why. And where is the wife? It’s not as important a question now. He senses a lack, an absence. Something has happened. Hanover.
Baker Bloch has reinserted the Home o’ Fibs into the northwest corner of town. But is he really this Wilson fellow now? Who can tell?! I hear that Wilson has purchased the non-transferable blackbird to make them essentially identical in appearance. Transformation complete.
And rain has also returned to Collagesity, at least the part around Confluence Pool. JL2 contemplates this reinstatement too. It all seems to fit together somehow; leading up to a celebration, he senses.
Someone is coming. Someone is here!
But it’s way too early for him/her. Isn’t it??
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Wheeler
Baker rezzes at home base once more, and pauses to take a look around. The Falmouth Gallery looms impressively from this angle.
Carrcassonnee’s fire is on. She’s in. But Baker resists going inside quite yet.
He keeps just turning around in his tracks. Lockfry’s old trailer. Wonder if he’ll ever return to Collagesity? Not John Lockfry 02, but the red guy, the one that was buds with Karoz at one time over in Crabwoo on the Maebaleia continent. Or so they said.
And then in the fourth and final direction comes Baker’s Home Orange, an old and now new center. Baker Bloch’s father Space Ghost has returned and is planted inside, I believe. Space Ghost wants to become one with his son, and I think that can happen now.
He keeps poking around Collagesity, visiting the never finished town museum with its lone hanging collage: the theoretical start of the Bogota series. Never really focused in, just like this picture never seems to focus in for Baker. Defective texture? Must be.
Baker glances west to the Tower of TILE, technically kind of part of Collagesity as well. He again ponders rezzing (another?) Gloomy Gus structure there.
He zooms in on the forest and its many trees, exactly 199 in number. Or is that 200 now with Unch? Is Unch real?
Has he neglected the mysteries of the forest? Is there a whole parallel universe not taken where many advances have come in that direction?
As he just scans around the forest in zoom mode, he sees, well he sees what appears to be himself sitting in a lawn chair on the parcel with the Tower of TILE.
But then the birdie winks out. It’s Wilson. Phew! Tit for tat, I suppose.
Baker forgets about Wilson for a moment as he decides to head over to Jorondip and BoB in general just to check that whole scene out as well tonight. He eventually lands in Gormthoog, staring at the giant green faune statue over purchasable land. Could this possibly be his new home? A new Collagesity location? Couldn’t be, could it?
Then it was back to the actual Collagesity next to the Rubi Woods. Wilson was still there sitting in his chair. Baker approaches…
… to find a strange girl-boy. This must be Wheeler, he surmises. She/he spoke.
“I’m looking for a facelight tonight… heading back over to BoB. Wanna come? Well, you actually have no choice. Let’s go!”
Later on, Baker gains a facelight but loses a hat. He has become the bald headed seal for real.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, Rubi^
Mirror World
“Where is he? He said he’d be here at home base waiting for me.”
But Wilson had moved up the hill to beside the Power Tower, perhaps looking over the visitor list for Collagesity, accessible via the gallery kiosk located on the Norum building wall across the lawn. Baker checked his inworld map and saw this. Up the stairs connecting eastern and western side of towns he went. And now connecting the two halves of his inworld self, one with bird and the other without.
There the poor bastard is, Baker thinks. Asleep at the helm.
He clears his throat. Wilson rouses and turns.
The first thing he thinks is, Where’s the bird? Baker was silouetted against the dark edge of Big E at the time, so maybe that was the explanation.
But when Wilson waved for them to sit down at the nearby table, the bird was clearly not there.
He told this fact to Baker Bloch. Baker looked at his shoulder to see Birdie the blackbird staring right back at him. “Well he’s here,” he said calmly.
“Um, no he’s not.” Wilson focused in closer to Baker, and the creature popped into existence. “Oh yeah, I see it now. I just had to zoom in.”
“And now when I zoom back out, it stays. I guess it decided to stick around now.”
They each then spend about a minute trying to take a picture of both of them taking a picture. They never could.
“Should we just go down and see Carrcassonnee while we’re both here?” Wilson suggested.
“After you,” Baker offered.
—–
“Wake up Baker,” Carrcassonnee says.
“That’s Wilson,” Baker speaks back. “Notice that the bird isn’t on his shoulder.”
“Oh. I thought it was the other way ’round.”
“Well, it’s not, Carrcassonnee.”
“Please. Don’t be so formal once more. Call me Carr. Like a car with a horn and a beep. Beep beep! Carr. Is he ever going to wake up?”
“Hold on,” Baker says. “I can’t guarantee *I* won’t fall asleep now but I’ll get him up.”
“Great. I haven’t met Wilson yet. I’m hoping to make some meaning of him. George W. meaning.”
“I’m here,” Wilson then says, head raised. “Hello again Carrcassonnee.”
“Oh Jeez I have to do this all over again?? Call me Carr, Wilson. And nice to meet you too. But it’s Carr, like the horn. Like a goat.”
“We just met yesterday, Carr. Baker warned me that you might be a little incoherent.”
“How dare him!”
“But correct,” Wilson offers.
“Yeah,” Carrcassonnee admits. “So I guess you’re both here for sagely advice. First off, what do you think of yourselves? Here. Now. Why has one got a blackbird and the other doesn’t. Baker, do you want to start? Why do you think you don’t have the bird?”
“He *has* the bird,” Wilson says. “*I’m* birdless. But I’m compensated in other ways.”
“Like how?” Carrcassonnee queries.
“I can change into another.”
“Yes, I knew that. Wheeler isn’t it? The Wilson-Wheeler dichotomy? Who came first, what came second?”
“Kind of,” Wilson answers.
“But you are two-headed,” Carrcassonnee comes back.
“Yes.”
“Well you are the interesting one here and now, then,” she says (for Carrcassonnee is a woman). “*I* don’t have a bird either. We are both women, then. And our good friend Hucka Doobie recently revealed that he too is a woman underneath all that neutral bee covering. So it’s just Baker Bloch as the man here now. Baker Blinker, of course, is all woman too. Karl cannot manifest in her now. Can he? Baker Bloch, are you there?”
“I’m here,” Baker answers.
“What’s going on with Baker Blinker?” Carrcassonnee asks.
“I’m not really all that clear about it. I know about The Mulholland Drives. But I think they may already be obsolete? Wilson might know more than me. Since he’s been rummaging around her stuff lately.” Wilson stares back at Baker. “Yeah, we know.”
“We do”, Carrcassonnee echoes.
“You were looking at your file,” Baker continues. “What’s in it? Did you put additional stuff in there? Or is it still intact as is… was?”
“I added [Wheeler],” Wilson confesses.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Wilson
Baker Bloch reads up on what Baker Blinker knows about Wilson. Some material has been changed out.
What the heck. He heads over to Carrcassonnee. He knows he can’t fool her. Can he?
—–
Carr.:
Well well well. If it ain’t Wilson.
Wilson:
I knew I couldn’t fool you. This is not some ditzy 60s sitcom.
Carr.:
Isn’t it?
Wilson:
I guess it was the bird[ that gave me away]. I couldn’t transfer it.
Carr.:
I would know anyway. I know a lot. The times of day. The period of the season of the sun and moon in orbit and action. The physical nature of dust. The particles that you breath mid-morning before afternoon coffee. I heard you have a new friend. Bob?
Wilson:
I don’t know who he is [inside]. But he’s the one who deleted my — Baker Bloch’s cabin over in Jorondip. Apparently he is part of the group that owns the parcel. He left the safe, but I deleted it just a moment ago, along with the two eyes.
Carr.:
Tell me about those eyes.
Wilson:
Something is changing already. I’m here. But that’s John Lockfry and his wife. One eye male and the other eye female.
Carr.:
What is changing? Does Baker Blinker not want to manage the wrestling team?
Wilson:
I think it is branching out. She created a file on me. She thought it was a done deal. But then something changed.
Carr.:
And, come to think of it, you couldn’t delete Baker’s safe if you were Wilson, unless it was part… maybe you could.
Wilson:
Space Ghost, our father, has told Baker Bloch about Uncle Phil.
Carr.:
I know. It upset him a lot to know that Space Ghost wasn’t his biological father. But he should have thought through this better — a long time ago, actually. And now you are just like Uncle Phil all over. The evil twin. Archetype. I thought you were going to get a tattoo.
Wilson:
Well, I tried [facial] freckles but it didn’t quite work.
Carr.:
So you got rid of the bird. Well, it had to be one little thing separating you two. Like Chad had his Van Dyke beard.
Wilson:
I’ll have to talk to father about this. He’s confused.
Carr.:
He should be. I’m almost confused and I’m never confused.
Wilson:
It’s becoming where you need a road map.
—–
John Lockfry knew about Wilson before he knew about Wilson. Morning dust. Baker Blinker made the realization official by creating the Wilson file and stashing it away in her newly rezzed filing cabinet. The safe would not fit. What appeared to be Baker Bloch opened the file and added new material. Wilson was not a closed case. Baker thought she was the replacement for him, but as soon as this happened she might have become obsolete (once more). She should resign herself to be a manager.
What of World of Lemon? What of BoB? BoB, or Birthplace of Bogota, is taking strange twisty turns. There’s a story inside the story now. The Mulholland Drives may already be an obsolete name. INLAND EMPIRE could be next. IE. We jump up[ again].
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Sunklands 