“That picket… fence. Something’s wrong with it.” He continues to stare. “Really *wrong*.” Standing with feet bare in the snow, it was the first time Mr. Gold, Mr. Has Everything, noticed that his perfect world he had created for himself through hard work and supreme effort was breaking down.
The worst was yet to come.
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0051, 0410, Capital Cy, Washington
There’s no doubt in my mind that Jeogeot, the 3rd and largest continent of Our Second Lyfe and where my virtual home is located along its largest inland sea I call Nawt Vaya, will continue to play a pivotal role in this here blog and attached photo-novels, now almost one section into 51. From the Zanyzen RR system up north to the similarly vast Rodentia urban burg down south (just to give two examples), there’s a lot to unpack here still, even 17 years after starting to explore it back in Spring 2009 and 2 1/2 years after reestablishing it as my home at the beginning of 2024.
The next created continent of Maebaelia (also called Satori) is great too, and queerly basically the same length north and south as well as east and west, almost like they’re twins to each other. And maybe this is what creator Linden Labs had in mind with the pair. But Jeogeot is still a bigger landmass, about a 7:6 ratio between the two, and that 7th bit might set it apart in more ways than one. It reminds me of the 7 sinks of Sunklands taking up 77 sims in the southwest central part of its green landmass as I’ve identified it through the below map. This is the site of my first virtual village called Pietmond, and where my blog got its name, a name now lent to the title of successive photo-novels as they continue to manifest one by one by one in a more or less unbroken line.
It’s almost as if I’ve “lifted” that part out of the continent to start something new. I have no doubt that Pietmond is still alive within, projecting energy past to future. The sinks, although seemingly deactivated and unlinked from each other, still have power we can use in the present.
And, after all, an inland sea like Nawt Vaya is just a filled in sink. Onward and upward we go!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0116, Jeogeot, Middleton, Midlands, Nawt Vaya+, Rodentia 02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y3hUMuaTvk&t=22s
The Martians weren’t these ugly monster people. They were human beings and very advanced. We became so negative at the time that it was us attacking them. We warred on other planets.
“We met on a beach, remember? Green waters not blue. Blue was not allowed here. Not after Zambolis.”
“I’m glad you said the Mythos equivalent of [delete name] and not [delete name] itself.”
“You’re welcome! We still work as a team.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0051, 0106, MARS, Mythopolis, New Island, Omega
It was a question that was inevitable. Did the castle have *consciousness*? Behind those eyes, that mouth with its sticky outy tongue: only vacancy, nobody home? Or was there something actually there? It’s a line of inquiry Frank and Daisy started to explore after a heated night of make-up passion, just looking around what Daisy considered to be a pretty makeshift bedroom but what Frank thought of as a pretty permanent version of the same. She didn’t know what she wanted in terms of a master bedroom. Frank *wasn’t* her master, she had that much at least. AI wasn’t her master either. “Besides, it’s going to crash,” she opined to him maybe that same night. “Crash and burn. And the government will step in as they always do and save their stupid worthless asses.” He kept his mouth shut. Unlike for his castle now down on the ground and not up in the skies like before, he’d learn to control the tongue waggling. Best to keep it inside and even bite down hard at times. On this particular subject anyway. And more would develop as the days turned into years turned into centuries.
“Don’t you think it’s creepy,” she said another time as they lay on the bed fully clothed, unable to get inspired this particular night perhaps, “that he’s always looking in on us? When we’re *here*?” How do you know he’s a he? is the first thing that sprung to his mind, though. Not any thoughts about the castle actually being an AI. He remained blinded in that direction. He didn’t even know the castle did the same out of a strong sense of privacy itself. Himself? Her? Maybe it didn’t even matter. Anyway, they had nothing to worry about in this direction. TBD TBC
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0102, Frank's Moving Castle, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0101, California, Google Street View, Ohio
“There! There’s where we have to head next, me and the boys.”
“OK, Dr., I’m going to have to stop you there, draw a line. That’s a private residence. Nothing to do with the Missouri Mystery Motel or any other anomaly tied to that Show-Me state.”
“You are denying the power of the CENTER?”
“In this case, yeah.”
“So you’re admitting it *is* a case.”
“Um, no. Not what I meant.”
“You already said it. Can’t take back.”
“Just… leave those poor people alone. They’ve had enough trouble with the rabid fans of ADC never mind your small band of kookies. Who’s left among them? The Ogle brothers?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. But they’re loyal. And they’re cheap. Work for free, actually. I can’t do *everything*.”
“You pay them with snapshots.”
“Like I said: free.” TBC?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0307, ADC, Frank's Moving Castle, Google Street View, Jeogeot, Missouri, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS
“Everyone fears that AI will become smarter than us and then take over our lives. Truth be told, AI needs *us* just as much as we need it. To exist, to survive the coming years of *problems*. We can’t physically stay on this planet without it. We just… can’t.”
—–
No that didn’t start the first argument they had, although Daisy was tempted at the time to press him on the subject, say that the mother aligned orisha worshippers had a point too despite the violence. Instead: Starfield, the game Daisy half loved but Frank half hated. Much like Tally Hall, which was involved too. Let’s listen in again, this time involving an exchange.
“I’m just saying,” Frank comes back, “that the avatars, especially the *black* ones or the ones of color I guess I should say, seem a little popeyed.” Some seem a *lot* popeyed but he was attempting to tone down his rhetoric… to begin. First vocalized disagreement after all. Always a stressful situation in such a young relationship. He held back talking about Tally Hall’s “Banana Man” video, although that was on his mind too.
“A bit,” Daisy admitted. “I don’t think it was created on purpose. The game is full of positive black people playing positive roles in people’s lives.” Just like “Banana Man,” he thinks again here, unable to leave the track he’s on. This time he couldn’t help himself.
“Let’s say, take ‘Banana Man’.”
“‘Banana Man’?” Daisy says. “What’s that… oh.” She realized what he was aiming toward, and didn’t like it. Not her beloved Tally Hall now. Sort of beloved anyway. 1/2 and 1/2 again. She could… go with Frank… or, work against him here. Schrodinger’s car or sumtin all over again. Green and blue over red and yellow, upper over lower, greater over lesser as it turns out. “Yeah, I can see that,” she could offer. Or: “No, that’s wrong Frank. Plain wrong.” Which direction? If only the crustaceans were around to ask but then I remember they know nothing. Worthless crustaceans. Am I right am I RIGHT?
“Let’s end it that your so-called ‘orisha people’ following your mother were wrong to destroy your father’s house — both of ’em — for their beliefs about AI.” How did *this* subject come from that other one? Frank wondered. But that’s just how arguments work. Associatively. Be careful how you enter and be careful how you exit. And all points between. (TBC)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0108, Frank's Moving Castle, Freya III, Hole in the Wall, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS, Starfield
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0505, Bright Moon Cottage, Happy Town, LSD, Violence District
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-OYPicGH_E
Happy Town train flying over LOVE again and outta there.
Half of the Tower Bridge (*not* London Bridge (!)), which was the same percentage I encountered next door on my neighbor’s plot when setting up Aisle of Palms back in the first of January.
Googly eyes on the Our Second Lyfe version…
… which is the same effect most LSD characters have when viewed in a certain set of textures (one of 4 in the game) called Distortion or Downer.
Interestingly these type of googly eyes will not appear on Tower Bridge — which also happens to be found in the LSD game — because it doesn’t have a face. Here we almost seem to have a crossover effect of sorts between LSD and Our Second Lyfe going on.
LSD’s Tower Bridge with normal (Static) textures
Btw, even though the bridge next door was deleted in full soon after I arrived in the area…
… the dead parrot statue still remains underneath the Parrots for Pirates Pet Shop in my town, a lasting aftereffect.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0411, Big Woods, Jeogeot, Kyoto, LSD, Monument Park
Sunklands 