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.
Tag Archives: Baker Blinker^^++@
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
Typecast
Baker Blinker looks toward her old Gloomy Gus home from beside the fused eucalyptus trees of D8 and E8, wondering if it has once again become her place of residence now that Baker Bloch has refurbished his Home Orange just up the hill. Many things are going on for what Karoz lovingly terms Other Baker recently. There’s the whole tag team wrestling scenario she’s managing — how did *that* all come about? Well, it’s protection again. John Lockfry 02, let’s say, needed help dealing with his wife. And it could be a way to draw in money for the Collagesity family of avatars if she can turn a profit after an initial investment. At any rate, she has a role, an odd one on the surface but a role, just as Karoz Blogger urged her to have in the town. She’s also decided to take up writing her own version of a World of Lemon history, part and parcel of the managerial role. She understands more now, beyond Baker Bloch and the manly sphere of things. Speaking of which, I recently found out about what’s called a Bloch Sphere used in explaining the strange entanglement at the core of quantum computers (qubits). Baker Bloch is not named for the sphere.
Baker Blinker decides to pretend Gloomy Gus is her home again, since this is all make believe anyhoot. She moves the bed of the (former?) bedroom into the living room to make space for this classic Arcadia Asylum computer desk, along with a filing cabinet. A safe wouldn’t fit, so she deleted it. She sits down and stares into the woods.
Yes this will do nicely, she thinks. She begins to type.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Heterocera, Rubi
Groundside
(joined in progress)
Baker Blinker:
I feel like it’s all my fault. Because I wanted those smaller eyes. To become more human.
Carr.:
They look very nice, Baker Blinker. And now you have changed your skin color back to pink as partial compromise. It’s all developing as expected.
BBlinker:
Not quite as pink as before.
Baker Bloch:
It looks the same to me.
Carr.:
That’s because we have gone back in time to create the backdrop of this meeting. It’s not as pink as it seems, Baker Bloch.
BBlinker:
Karoz was all set to change a bit too. He told me the night before he left that he was going to defy Old Kent and his gifts and make an effort[ in that direction].
Carr.:
Well, you see, that’s probably part of the problem, then. You two had to be separated, at least for a bit. The whole thing was staged, really. That’s actually not the moon of Second Life. The surface is as flat as a pancake subtract the craters. You have an interior, true, full of 14 monsters that is now one bad ass [delete name]. He likes to be known as Sask. Remember we devoted about a week’s time to the discussion of it back in January, Baker Blinker?
BBlinker:
No.
Carr.:
Well, we did. John Lockfry 01 did steal the lemon of a space capsule. It both exploded in midair with him and didn’t. He reached the moon, but through a time jump into the future. About 2 years for him… them, but only 2 days for Karoz. Benji tells me these thing.
BBloch:
The dog?
Carr.:
No. (recalibrating) I mean: yes. But at a price. He was split in two, like anima and animus. One was crippled like the monster-free moon itself. One remained standing. Both are as crazy as cats; Benji reinforces this to no end.
BBlinker:
What about Karoz?
Carr.:
Karoz redesigned the ship to make it safer. He legitimately made it to this so-called moon in the correct time period. No jump needed. He encountered future John Lockfry there, who had already split… in two I mean. He didn’t leave the moon. But, an update by Benji just now in real time: Karoz at least knows about the *real* moon, the smaller one to him but which will become the same size as the fake one in no time atall. How about that? Real time updating taking place during our meeting.
BBloch:
Cool. Where do I fit into all this?
Carr.:
You are the town custodian. Not just for the collage but for all of Collegesity. You clean up. [You are] okay with that?
BBloch:
Sure. But what if I had made the trip with Karoz? What would have become of me?
Carr.:
It was all staged, as stated. Karoz would go alone. Baker Blinker and he needed a gap between them. But now he can bridge the gap by making a leap not of doom but of faith. Will he do it? becomes the next door in our journey.
BBlinker:
I can’t help but worry. I’m going to change my eyes back until he returns.
Carr.:
Might not hurt.
Memories.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Rubi
Money
“Thank you for meeting with me Baker Blinker. Are you sure you don’t want a beer?”
“Yes, thanks, but I have one. It’s just hidden inside my leg right now. Silly animations.”
“Silly world!” Karoz said. He was right. It was just a flash in the pan virtual reality in the long run, she thought. Then why is their relationship turning out to be so difficult and twisty-turny? Maybe it was longer lasting that either one of them could imagine presently. World *and* relationship.
“Really love the school, Karoz,” she said. “Thanks for the tour. You’re doing a wonderful job.” She thought about asking when it would open but didn’t want to put any pressure on him.
“Thank you. And thanks for the generous donation. It seems you are doing quite well for yourself lately.” In his mind he reviewed his recent meeting with Dr. Mulholland. She could have something to do with this money. She must have.
“I’m doing okay,” Baker Blinker offered. She thought back to opening the shiny black purse the doctor carried in with her from the woods. All that dough: thousands and thousands of Linden dollars. $L5000 to be precise. “Karoz needs,” the note at the bottom of the purse plainly stated. Signed: Old Kent. And the doctor knew nothing about it. She didn’t know anything about anything. She claimed to have amnesia. Baker Blinker was starting to doubt it.
“But you know Baker Bloch is always willing to give us more lindens if we need it,” Karoz continued. “Within reason, of course. Can’t go off buying ocean liners or whole sims, mind you.”
This made Baker Blinker chuckle. But they were beating about the bushes again. Typical. “I suppose you want to know about her,” she ventured.
—–
Fifteen minutes later, both had more information to chew on. They traded stories about recent gifts from Old Kent. “We went to the spot in the woods she said the tree fell down on her, knocking her unconscious.” explained Baker Blinker at one point. “It was right at coordinates 168, 168. At sunset.” She eyed Karoz knowingly. “Then it must be Unch who did it,” shot back Karoz. “Unch, yes.” Baker replied. But both of them were thinking something further, something more twisty-turny: Maybe this *is* Unch.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Rubi
Ch-ch-ch 02
Baker Blinker wakes up. “That was a strange dream.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Rubi
Blood Dr.
“You watched a collage film by baker b. called “Blood Dr.” John Lockfry 01. What did you think of it?”
“Confusing,” he said. “Bizarre. I don’t understand any of it, really.”
“Well, you obviously remember Jacobi’s cabin within,” continued Carrcassonnee. “You crossed the ash line to enter, with Benji back then. How is Benji anyway?”
“I don’t know,” replied John Lockfry 01.
“I have a picture of Benji here, actually,” the great olive being then said. “Perhaps you will recognize it. Let me put it against that far wall, above Baker Blinker’s bed she sometimes uses while staying in my Collagesity. Oh, it appears she is still sleeping there… didn’t see her, ha ha.”
John Lockfry 01 pivots to view the picture above a still drowsing Baker Blinker Karl. His curiosity piqued, he gets up. “Is it okay if I take a closer look?”
“Maybe we should rouse Baker Blinker first. Baker Blinker?” Carrcassonnee pauses. “Baker?” She paused again. “Well, I hate to wake her up from such a sound sleep, so go ahead and approach the picture. Just do it quietly.”
John Lockfry 01 gets up and moves toward the picture, stopping just in front of the bed. He stands there for a moment…
…and then returns to his seat in front of Carrcassonnee. He speaks to John Lockfry 02. “That’s the picture in the cabin. You remember, don’t you?”
“We don’t exactly have the same memories, Past Lockfry.” he responds. “I remember entering the cabin with a dog and seeing a picture of a human on the wall. It is backwards for me. I stand outside the magic circle now, looking in wistfully.”
“But that’s the dog Benji,” reinforces John Lockfry 01. “From the movie.”
“Yes, that’s how I entered the cabin. With Benji.” John Lockfry 02 stares at John Lockfry 01, wondering if he understands the ramifications of what he’s saying.
Carrcassonnee attempts to explain. “John Lockfry 01, we’re in a collage film right now, as I speak. Collagesity is a perpetual collage. It doesn’t stop at the movie theater up in Collagesity Heights any longer. It is here with us. It is now. It is. But we better talk about Crabwoo. That’s in [Blood Dr.] as well. Let me put the image in your mind this time.
John Lockfry 01 lurches back. “Whoa… yeah, I remember that. What the heck?”
“Crabwoo,” Carrcassonnee repeats.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, Heterocera, Rubi
Sunklands 