The Burro is Back!

I’ve been working away in London again. I had Wi-Fi so could have posted but, if I’m honest, I didn’t feel like it. I didn’t play MCPE or SC once, not once. What this shows me is that I’m still bored with MCPE  and the horsey update for SC just hasn’t grabbed me. I didn’t think it would.

Kaalus is already working on the next update and despite the first news being the ability to paint more blocks, about which I couldn’t care less, he has teased there is a new survival mechanic on the way. Hallelujah. Hopefully the next update will re-spark my interest in playing because if it doesn’t, the upcoming MCPE Realms just might and I’m not one for playing more than one thing at once.

Oh, as I was in London rather than the backwater I live in near Manchester, I decided to give Ingress another go, but more of that in my next post…

 

Sinatra Cartier’s Spook House has closed – a sad day for SL History Buffs…

It’s with a heavy heart that I heard from my mate Shigeko that the wonderful Spook House in Noyo (a long time landmark in for anyone interested in the history of SL) has shut down and gone. There is a LM giver that directs you to Sinatra Cartier’s copy in Natoma so we haven’t lost this wonderful build forever, but Noyo seems a little emptier today and given all the changes in the surround sims as the Forest of Kahruvel slowly contracts and de-rezzes it feels as though many of the old lands and my old haunts (no pun, etc.) are slipping away. Anyway, lest I get too maudlin I urge you all to head over to Natoma and take a ride on the Spook House – and while you are at it catch Sinatra in one of his concerts because frankly he’s bloody brilliant!

My first (recorded – I had visited in 07) visit to the Spook House in Feb 08

The same site in Noyo today

My Road Trip in Noyo
http://headburroantfarm.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/bb-road-trip-silence-in-spooky-noyo/

My Road Trip in Natoma
http://headburroantfarm.wordpress.com/2008/11/22/my-second-life-road-trip-10-prim-overload-in-natoma/

By pure chance I recently filmed my journey through the Noyo Spook House

 

A re-post: Salazar Jack and The Great Erase.

Aeons ago, I had the idea of cataloguing the various creation tales of SL. This never came off and a page on this blog I created for that purpose remained unedited for several years. Well today I’m deleting it, but not without copying across the information on Salazar Jack’s Great Erase. This information, or rather the links within it, can not be gaurenteed but I’m loathe to lose any nuggets and slivers of his tale and so I’m copying it across to this post. Enjoy and then head over to his blog and twitter feeds to find out more.

• Blog (it seems to have undergone a [further] shrinkage of its own and is now just one page )
• Sal’s Twitter
• Kahruvel’s Twitter

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The Creation Files

Where did this world come from? What existed before the Lindens flicked the switch and opened the doors? Nothing? Void? Or another world entirely? A few people, I am one of them, are asking these questions and seeking their answers. Here’s your handy cut out and keep guide to the creation beliefs I’ve come across.

Salazar Jack and The Great Erase.

Salazar is actually a true resident of this world having been born in the one that existed before SL but was lost in 1969 (that’s by our calendar, I’m not sure what that would have been in the pre-SL world of Sal’s family) in what came to be known as The Great Erase.

The world of Salazar’s family, called Urtahra, was a bustling, populated one that was wiped almost entirely from the face of existence by a massive energy wave that deleted all in it’s path and erased the whole world. Only a few people survived and led by Salazar’s great grandma they escaped to Earth where they made lives for themselves never suspecting that they would ever be able to return to their home-world.

That was until Linden Lab opened up Second Life in 2003. Salazar and the other survivors have slowly made their way back and found in it ghostly echoes of their former world. From the re-built city of Nova Albion to the replanted forest of Kahruvel, Salazar has dedicated himself to exploring and reclaiming as much of the old world as he can find.

Even now, five and a half years down the line, finds are still being made such asMagallen Linden’s discovery of the Nautilus landmass that Sal’s great gran remembers tales of from centuries before her own time.

So the world we know as Second Life is built on the reclaimed ruins of an earlier world destroyed in some still-unexplained disaster. Given that the Linden’s have admitted they don’t know how they missed Nautilus and have never found a cause for The Great Erase, we must all worry that this new world is not as secure as we would like to imagine…

RESPONSES

Re: The Great Erase (From Salazar Jack)

“Only a few people survived and led by Salazar’s great grandma they escaped to Earth where they made lives for themselves never suspecting that they would ever be able to return to their home-world.”

In truth, more than a few survived. Quite a few. Acording to my mom and grandparents, over 70 people arrived with us in Kansas State on Earth, out of the hundreds that went through our portal that day. We never learned where the remaining souls went. And those that arrived with us eventually dispersed. Contact with them gradually diminished over the years. Life was quite difficult actually as the United States government was naturally very interested in our group whose sudden arrival was accompanied with little explanation. Most of us went into hiding to avoid scrutiny. A few, if the stories are correct, were apprehended and not heard from again. It was fortunate that the location we ported into was so rural and remote. It allowed some time for us to make plans before authorities became aware of the situation.

After returning here there were some stories that surfaced of others who had escaped. Like this one…

http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=406300&postcount=42

I’m not sure if the portal they used was they same one we did. There may have been more than my folks were aware of.

 

Ghosts in the deep…

Note: This post was first written in July 10 but not posted until February 11 and as such I can’t promise the area is still haunted – pop over and see

My mate Nish first alerted me to ghosts in SL a couple of years ago – she was hunting them back then, looking for dots on the map where there were no people or finding avs that were trapped between planes. Over the years I’d forgotten about her quest until a few weeks ago when I happened to notice an odd collection of dots in a strange, old mainland sim called Cyclops.

Cyclops lies at the very top of the north west corner of Sansara, the first continent, and is the start of a short run of single-width sims that links Sansara with the second continent of Heterocera (formed by a meteor strike and discovered by Magellan, dontcyaknow). There is nothing there – it’s just sea, ocean without islands or ships or anything. Hell, there’s not even any mole built ‘stuff’ in the sea (the Moles and LDPW always sem to bring the seas they work in to life, like they did in Murray) so what the hell were the dots all about? LittleLostLinden has an interesting theory about Linden Lab tolerating bots as they pump the ‘online now’ numbers up… could these be bots like the ones I found near the Valley of The Burros in Nutsedge? Or could they be poor, lost souls condemned to wander (or rather stand stock still on) the bottom of the ocean forever? You decide…

Something odd is going on here – look at this flying yacht!

 

Loki Eliot’s New Babbage RP – The Black Heart

Loki Eliot’s been a busy lad of late – he’s rebuilt his Goonie Island and started up a new Babbage-based RP called The Black Heart. Like his previous Shadow of 13, The Black Heart has its own website (http://babbagechronicles.co.uk/) and it was during my search for this site I found a posting on his personal blog I’d missed and boy does it give a great run down of his previous stories. Oddly enough, given my love of shared RP in SL, I’ve never taken part in one of his – despite stumbling across them all in one way or another(1). I don’t know why this is, but I put it down to three things:

1) I’ve always wanted to do my own thing – at the times I’ve come across Loki’s RP I’ve been busy doing my own stuff and that brings me to…

2) I simply don’t have enough time! I never have had enough online time to do what I want to – not just in-world, but externally as well. This blog is as important to me as my stuff in-world. Some of you might not see why and that’s fine because to me it is and that’s all that matters. I can be in-world more but write less, or write more and be in-world less – the line has to be drawn and quite often writing and blogging win out. But under all that lies the fact that…

3) I’ve never felt part of the Babbage community. I tried back in late 2007, but it’s always seen like the preserve of builders and creators and so I just have never followed its development much. Same goes for Caledon really. In fact all steampunk. In truth I don’t much care for Steampunk – it just doesn’t interest me in the same way Star Trek/Wars doesn’t (2).

Anyhoo because I didn’t follow Babbage and because I had ideas to do my own stuff and because I have never been in-world as much as I feel I need to be I tended to miss the stuff that went on in the telling of the tales and that sense of ‘going it alone’ doesn’t do it for me (see my recent rant about Call of Duty Black Ops). This is why in the recent Steelhead RP I wanted to collect all the posts from everyone and make a “Story In Full” list so the whole thing felt like a collaborative effort.

Yet my personal foibles aside (3) I really want to get involved in this one, partly because I know some folks already involved (Myrtil and Miss Chernov) and partly because I want to learn more about multiparticipatory RP (as opposed to the other type of multiparticipatory activity this blog is famed for) and who better to learn from than the master (4). I’m sure that in a year from now Steelhead will be putting on this kind of RP – I have, you’ll be unsurprised to hear, several good ideas I’ve already pitched to the bosses ;-D

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(1) This post (https://headburroantfarm.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/in-other-news-murder-most-foul/) is from 3 years ago and shows how even then I was looking for a RP experience (as well as being quite keen on eldrich horror, a fact that hasn’t – and I doubt ever will – change).

(2) I still haven’t found my perfect world in SL, but when I do it’s going to be horror and/or 1940s LA detective noir based

(3) None of which have anything to do with Loki, who I’ve never met, or his excellent work, which I love.

(4) Although his building, texturing & scripting skills will always be beyond me – Loki is the perfect package for RP!

p.s. You can read more of my RP waffle posts here.

 

Ilia’s old place…

Way back in June I visited my mate Ilia’s place in Kishijoten – at the time she and a friend were tending to some rather charming ruins they had found of the old Forest of Lochraven (as well as to some equally charming sheep). At the time I meant to post the following pictures with a SLURL so you could pop over and see, but one thing lead to another and I didn’t get around to it, but hey! that would be OK I reasoned, after all Ilia was older than me (in SL – in RL she’s a mere babe-in-arms) and the ruins would be there for ages – the post could wait until after Steelhead.

Then she flippin’ went and deleted it as she left SL! Well I felt a right plonker then didn’t I! Anyhoo, never let it be said I’ll let a good post go to waste (and as Ilia is thankfully back in the warm embrace of her virtual mates I feel justified in reminding her of the gorgeousness she created! Hey Ilia – head over to Steelhead Nevermoor and take a look – you’ll love it!) I present you with the three pictures I took in my all to brief visit…

Baaaaaaa!

Why not head over and ask whoever you find if they’ve seen the old ruins of Lochraven – confuse the buggers, go on!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kishijoten/40/190/33

 

Come see Nevermoor…

Steelhead is expanding again and the seventh sim (the third since I arrived 18 months ago) has just opened! Nevermoor is a dark gothic forest full of forgotten ruins, over-grown grottos and majestic elven statues – and it’s renting now! Pop in-world here to explore and drop TotalLunar Eclipse an IM to find out more about renting (or read about it here on the Ning).

Now follow me and Frank as we braved the dark, creepy ruins of Nevermoor…

And here’s the man behind it all – Lunar

 

New Library & Rail Tunnel in Steelhead

A week or more ago I took one of my early morning rides out of St Helens and into Steelhead proper (I was looking for a store to rent, but more of that another time) when I happened across some exciting additions to the city. First off I was very excited to see that work has started on the ambitious under sea railway tunnel to link the old 17 to the steamlands.

I don’t know what the captain of the Clockhaven Queen thinks about  it, but I can’t imagine he’s pleased… Still, the tunnel is an architectural marvel!

And speaking of architectural marvels I note that work has finished on the new public library.

It’s a grand old affair and real feather in out city’s cap, but I will miss the old library and its gardens…

Pop over to Steelhead and take a look for yourself: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Steelhead/122/184/25

p.s. I found this photo of the old train station area from December 2007 – shows how much Lunar & Tensai have developed it in three years (hat tip to Krystine Qinan and her brilliant photostream):

 

A Trip Back To The Future!

An old CNN contact of mine, Latok Neumann, has been a busy busy bee for the last few months. As an avid fan of the amazing Back To The Future films she (and a group of her friends) have been recreating the iconic town square of Hill Valley in 2015, complete with Jaws 19 at the movie theatre…

The Cafe 80′s…

The ultra cool Texaco garage!

Goldie Wilson posters…

And even the antique shop next to the cafe… that book looks familiar…

The crowning glory of this really amazing fan-built site is the town hall, complete with lightning damaged clock!

The whole place smacks of fun and a real joy in the films – get along and take a look yourself

TP over to this SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/bakabots/200/100/30/

 

A Third Tour of Steelhead’s St Helens

It was time for me to ride into town again. Since my last trip (not to mention the one before that) many things had changed in St Helens, none so much as the residents. As Frank and I slowly trotted through the morning splendour of Steelhead’s beautiful wilderness, I recorded these changes for posterity. Here, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a pictorial record of my third tour of Stelhead’s St Helens, starting with my own, hand-built humble abode in the shadow of the mighty mountain itself…

I followed the river east to where, on the former site of Autopilotpatty Poppy’s tree-stump house, Thadicus Caligari has set up camp. Frank has a knack of finding other horses, y’know…

Journeying around the back of Mr Caligari’s property, it seems Mr Vain Adder has expanded his own land holdings considerably and built an impressively large town house in the middle of the forested wilderness.

Frank led me over the mountain and past Miss Fogwoman Gray’s charming cottage (where Frank found yet another horse to snuffle at).

Nearby, Otenth Paderborn had set up a small stables for horses (which seems to have replaced Maev Ceawlin’s balloon air tours)…

…which dovetailed nicely with the Mayor’s blacksmith’s business near the welcome centre.

Frank stopped for a drink in Elegia Underwood’s rather eerie pool…

Whilst I’d much rather have been in her saloon!

Nearby, MisLily Nightfire has a truly lovely home by the border with Shanghai.

And the Asian influences from Shanghai seem to have inspired Miss Kristianna Fotherington’s home (which I think has replaced the strange rabbit tent of Katsu Catnap).

It was a delight to find Miss Anna Darwinian’s gorgeous wee cottage and garden still here!

As it was with Miss Mara Razor’s mill – hell, St Helens wouldn’t be St Helens without Mara’s mill!

Across the road from the mill, Thadicus Caligari has a rather lovely piece of land by the river that I think replaces the house Maxim built.

Valdyr Dreamscape has built a Jagerhut (forgive the spelling if wrong) on the site of Mari Moonbeam’s old farm & campsite.

Which is even more striking inside!

Frequency Picnic has moved out and her wee log cabin has been renovated by Otenth Paderborn.

Who has a rather lovely prairie meadow just above it (Frank loved the fresh grass!)

The lovely BobbiJo Jonson still has her wonderful place above the river!

As does Miss Riven Homewood, who also has some rather fine horses to boot!

And that ends my third tour of St Helens my dear readers. As best as I cab figure, the only place I’ve never photographed is (or was, as he’s moved out) nichus Berman’s gorgeous log cabin. Ironic really as it was nichus who kindly showed me how to make log cabins and without his help and his cabin as both inspiration and guide, I would never have built my own!

p.s. Come and visit St Helens by beaming in at my place here.

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You can read more about the history of St Helens, as well as how to rent a plot there, over on the Steelhead Ning here. The rates and prim allocations (as of 29th Sept 2010 and subject to change by management, of course) are:

• Land Fee or Buy in Price: 6144L$
• Monthly Rental: 1800L$
• Weekly: 450L$
• Most lots are double prim 234 some sims offer more than double prims at an additional fee if available

For all my Steelhead related posts click here.

For all my St Helens related posts click here.

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