Sunklands

August 13, 2025 · 8:17 pm

00470601 (The Hmm)

“I live in a very white house starting with a white roof you can clearly see from the air — why I made it that way.

“Um, white ceiling fans…

“… white power outlets.

“White paint all around. Every room, every piece of furniture, every piece of art even. I like white. And, hopefully, my family likes it *too*. They haven’t complained *so* far (laugh).”

“Soo, ahem, back to The Hmm.”

“Oh yeah (laugh). The Hmm. Well, we logically suspected the new gas compressor station across the rails — really white buildings over there and I respect that but, you know (laugh), I had to get to the bottom of this thing (!). So I went over there one day, complained that we were hearing that dad blasted hmm in my house over 400 yards away, and it seemed, well, it seemed to be affecting our health (!). And, you know, could they DO something about it? I was sure they were the culprit, the source of it all. And you know what they said, they blamed everything else. Electrical lines, the railroad, water pumps in a nearby pond, Interstate 84. Could be any of these… and more. But not *gas lines*. And they laughed right in my face! (laugh). And me a retired mechanical engineer. Heck, I probably knew how their operations worked better than 80% of them over there. Not as much difference between machines and chemicals as you’d think.”

“Understandable that you were irritated,” I tried to empathize. “Is that when you decided to move away? To someplace new?”

“Well, the wife and I thought, maybe we should try out a new town to get away from the sound. ‘New town’ we kept saying to each other when discussing it — over and over. And then it hit us: Newtown. The town right next door to us. We could start new; fresh. It seemed *fate*. I told her, honey, our house is just off the Newtown topo map, which I knew from my hmm research in the local area. But shortly I realized the gas compressor station was actually just *on* the Newtown map, which seemed to be a bad sign. No, the hoped for sanctuary turned out to be *much* much further away, not one but *several* oceans away. It all started that very next day, when I found the drawing of the woman running on the beach at a Newtown flea market while we were checking out the place. Giselle, ha, was actually a bit jealous of my obsession with the drawing, with *her*. It was the whiteness, you see.”

“We’re talking about New *Island* here, right?” I suppressed a joke about him skipping right over New York.

“Yeah. Our brief dream of living in Newtown only pointed to this actual new place where we could truly escape the problems with The Hmm. By being immersed in it!”

“You found the source.”

“Indeed we did (!!).”

“Not gas lines?”

“(Laugh) No, but that’s part of it too. It all came from that novel. By the girl.”

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0601, Connecticut, Google Street View, New Island^

Tagged as Baker Blinker^^++@, Baker Bloch^*++@, Newt/Windmill Man^*++&, Shelley Struthers^^++, White Man^*+

August 11, 2025 · 8:54 am

00470516

We had the silliest argument when we returned her apartment, with Lexi insisting that the Allgoods robot factory I had worked at for, let’s see, *2* weeks now was in the Darksity sub-district of Kabusie, like her apartment here, like Crooked. I countered with the sub-district of North Side to its north, because that was the address of the factory on all the letterhead they sent out. We fought and fought and then I just pulled up a map on her computer to demonstrate my point, because I was sure I was right. Well… turns out we were *both* right. The factory exists 1/2 in Kabusie and 1/2 in North Side, with the line right down the middle. Which gets us also to the line that represents the end of this section.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0516, C2077, Kabusie

Tagged as LexiC2077^^++$!, VALC2077++$

August 11, 2025 · 8:52 am

00470515

We finally made time in our busy schedules, ha, to visit Crooked, or what Lexi deemed as Crooked. But the only thing askew about it, really, was that telephone poll just outside the building. Nevertheless, she said, the structure is indeed Crooked, as in a name from another time, another dimension. “Now we just have to get the correct furniture to fit inside,” she said, which got me wondering. “Purple,” she said about the color. “It has to be purple.”

It still wasn’t clear to me if she intended to actually purchase or rent the building set apart from the rest in this Kabusie ghetto, so deep into Darksity that straightness and reason forgot to follow (I think is the way she put it). Or did she just intend to squat there for a time while the processes she also described worked their way through? This is the place she finishes Ralph — I did have that much. End of August. The ditches open themselves up to her like a bitch in heat. Strange way to put it I know, but that’s her phrasing again. We’ll see how it pans out. I guess I’m along for the ride too.

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0515, C2077, Kabusie

Tagged as CROOKED, LexiC2077^^++$!, TILE, TILE MANIFESTO, VALC2077++$

August 11, 2025 · 8:52 am

00470514

My sister positioned her (stolen?) golden auto as close as she could next to the front doors of the small, out of the way eating establishment. “Follow my lead,” she said, then got out of the car and glitched inside. I moved over to the now vacated driver’s seat and did the same.

“There,” she spoke as I stood beside her now, taking in the quiet. Free at last to eat in peace instead of pieces. Why she brought me to this hidden eatery in the first place. “We can pull up those two green seats around that table.” I looked around. No one here except us. And counter person Bob, who Lexi explained didn’t count.

“Say you come here all the time?” I asked.

“Sometimes. Just when I want to eat out. *Ever*.” She smiled, maybe even laughed a bit. It was good to hear. She’d been so serious lately what with the finishing of Ralph, her dog robot which she called a “pseudo-flathead.” Having worked at the robot factory for a week, I kind of knew what that was now. Not Arasaka quality — glossiness, she called it — but compensations in other directions. She could rig it in her own, special way. “End of August,” she said earlier about a deadline for completing the thing. “End of August or I might have missed my chance.” I doubted it. Who would even think of sending a robot into those channels? And now here, another Kabusie secret revealed.

What else did she know? I needed to stick closely to my sister. She’s here to help. We *share* a condition. There’s a reason for that.

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0514, C2077, Kabusie

Tagged as LexiC2077^^++$!, VALC2077++$

August 10, 2025 · 3:17 pm

00470513

As soon as I flew over the place I knew I wanted to return. Several days later I was able to do just that. Last Thursday after Wednesday after Tuesday while eating a cheeseburger at Devil’s Den Food Shack down in base camp, owner and head cook and everything else Bret, who I had befriended in my week’s stay there, said that a blue rental car had kind of falling into his lap — he told me not to ask about details so I didn’t, ha. He knew about my fly over of Mammoth City, knew my burning desire to go back to that icy place way up on the ridge above the canyon. “Have it for the day,” he said, and threw me the keys while briefly turning away from the grill. “Just get it back before dark. And stick to the main roads. No side roads, especially snowy ones. Capisce?”

“Capisce.” What else could I say.

I reached the town about 2 that afternoon. A light snow was falling, but nothing sticking on the roads. But then I made the mistake of turning down a side road which I thought was still the main one. I shortly spotted a car parked alongside it that appeared to be the same as my own. Curious, I pulled in behind it and got out, deciding that this was as good a place as any to begin exploring the place on foot. I became grounded at that point. Just like my alter ego.

Yep, same exact make and model as I checked closer, same exact color, heck I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t have the same exact license plate #, although I stupidly forgot to check; might have even saved my life later on. Did the person who gave Bret the car also give this duplicate one to someone else? I thought at the time.

I started walking around the town but the subject kept niggling at my brain. Could it be possibly… me — or a variant version of me — a doppelganger I think they call them? Silly thoughts, I thought at the time. But then down at the lake toward the, ahem, end of my walk I ran into tracks that weren’t my own, and that I felt I *had* to follow. Which led me to my end. He left me in the water and walked away, saying thank you for my friendship, whatever that means.

Soon the car followed my body into the water. Groundy I later learned was his name. Posthumously obviously; my replacement. It took Bret a while to catch on, but eventually he did. There was a sadness about him after that which wasn’t present before. But he never said anything.

(to be continued?)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0513, Utah

Tagged as SNOW, Spongeberg Resident^*+@%, VALC2077++$

August 9, 2025 · 9:18 pm

00470512

Everyone Says “Hi” 24 x 24 on panel.

A painting inspired by the David Bowie song and part of the PBJ show with Jay Jacobs, Feb 2016.

It was weird, as I was painting this I couldn’t get any of the characters to smile. Later I found out that Bowie had passed away that day.

Here is a link to the song. https://youtu.be/um05lJzXD0w

—–

Just in his own little island, Jeffrey Phillips remained happy, clutching his Philip Linden doll to his partially bare bosom and remembering his connection with another Phillip named Jeffries, his name kind of reversed or where it came from. White was his world; pure; removed of color and complexity and foldouty nature. But all around this everyone was sad and unable to smile. Jeffrey knew something had to change. The Real World must intrude on this rosy environment. Again.

“INSERT THE THORN,” a voice boomed up in the air somewhere. *sliiiidee*

Ahh: there it is, brown instead of white like all the rest. A sticking point as it were, an impasse.

—–

And just like that Shelley was banned not only from that “new” sim but the kingdom/queendom as a whole. Good to know how they feel about her. Like another Brown, Molly this time, an unsinkable force to reckon with, however. I must MAKE SPACE for her whims and fancies while remaining active in this Our Second Lyfe. But not there obviously.

So Rose Heaven is no more for me. And David Bowie remains dead.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0512, Georgia, Jeogeot, NWES Island^, Rose Heaven^^

Tagged as BogotaC2077^*+$, HAPPY CUBE, Jeffrie Phillips^*++, LISTS, Philip Linden^*+!$, PORKCHOP, Rodentius^*++, Shelley Struthers^^++, SNOW, WHITE AND BROWN

August 8, 2025 · 4:10 pm

00470511 (Big Apples)

We’re in the original Amsterdam this time, not the New one over in America also known or more commonly known as New York (, New York). Famed Red Light District: not quite what I was expecting (!). Where are the XXX signs, the scantily dressed prostitutes lining the streets, distracting all our thoughts and motions? And, most importantly and more broadly, where was that gall darn golden auto that was suppose to be here waiting for me?

I’ve searched everywhere, every street, alleyway and side path. I’m beginning to think it was STOLEN, Grand Theft Auto style. One gap replaces the other?

Abruptly switching back from day to night, I reinsert the entrance to the library into the gap in an attempt to make things right again. Was I wrong to press the button? Did that cause all *this*? And did I really even press it in the first place? These questions haunt me to this day.

Or not…. Whatever: goodbye Red, Yellow, Green, Blue. I’m certain I’ll meet one or two or three or all 4 of you in another day in another light. See ya then. Be safe. And… thank you. For being my friend in that time.

Ahh, *there* you are. It worked!

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0511, C2077, Europe, Holland, Kabusie, MFS

Tagged as BUTTON, Jack ShepherdeGTAV^*++, LexiC2077^^++$!, Ross C.^^+#$&, VALC2077++$

August 8, 2025 · 7:25 am

33

But they were diverted away from the chase by the smart ass fox shockingly revealing who she actually was into a series of traffic cones leading their car directly into the back of a fake commercial truck where they were robbed of all the gold they were carrying and then dumped back into the desert, potential end of story. Until the fox traded apples for a banana and turned into a man.

“My SISTER??! Working on thee STREEEETTTS???!”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0510, Europe

Tagged as All Orange^*+^^+, Bookie^*+!, Foxtrot^^+!, Ruby Gem^^+, Ruby^^+, Shelley Struthers^^++

August 7, 2025 · 6:17 am

32

I’d moved on. The library that use to be in this place: no more. A gap instead. 31 increased by 1.

All because I pressed the button.

Or not.

I sometimes dream about the Blue Boy. Or someone like him. Verbally abusive, but not really on purpose or intentionally. Just part of the overall dense atmosphere. Yes, dense. Bad juju I suppose. Like Earth itself in a way, in a manner; one blue thing becomes the other and visa versa; interpenetrating. I nibble around on the periphery now. I think he understands.