Paint the Whole World with a Rainbow.....

Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be a Linden? I don't think I'd like it, well....the heady power, the sense of creation etc. would all be very nice but being able to take a creator's perspective on some of the things we do here must be quite frustrating, I am sure there are times when they must want to bang pixellated heads together and tell people to grow up.

Imagine, Chris** Linden sits on his/her sky-platform, more thousand feet up than we can imagine and watches......... (imagining opening scene here from.... well, lots of films). The perfectly-crafted clouds part showing Chris' favourite environmentally-adjusted sky and as he/she admires the latest creations on his/her favourite locations, a satisfied sigh escapes Linden lips at the latest wonders below. But then some avatars come into focus. They are on a beach at the water's edge (hmm that wave arrangement needs tidying but Chris tries not to let it get under Linden skin), always amazed at the level of intonation that people manage to get into text, Chris eavesdrops – its in local and he/she is a Linden after all.....

Geoffrey, George, Bungle and Zippy seem to be airing some differences, Zippy seems to have activated some poses to show displeasure, if zips can pout he is pouting! George is seated slightly to the edge of the (standing) group sitting on a purple pineapple and is looking glum, Geoffrey's AO gives an aloof air as he paces and Bungle.....well, he's a Furry and is looking....furry.

Now Second Life does draw odd groupings together – that is part of the joy of it so no one except maybe a newbie would give a second glance to such a grouping and Chris really has seen it all before and worse!

Chris listens and while doing so, wonders about the offline lives these avatars inhabit, he/she has done this often enough to realise that whatever characteristics people decide their avatars will have, it is only a matter of time until their real life personalities become clear, it shows in their sense of fairness...honour if you will, and especially in the way they deal with conflict and that is becoming clear at the moment.

George just can't understand why drama happens, why can't everyone just be nice? He will never understand how people make their lives complicated – never mind not being able to resolve conflict, he can't see how it gets to that point! This argument doesn't affect him directly, but it still upsets him – he is glad he brought his purple pineapple to sit on it makes him feel better.

Zippy just continues to shout his case to any who will listen, and to plenty who are not listening too (not that he notices that). It's by now an old story and to be honest one that will never change, a true “A said/B said” case where people feel aggrieved but will not relinquish what they believe, same old same old.

Chris mischievously wonders if anyone would notice if that zip suddenly got stuck.

Geoffrey paces, caught up in his thoughts, he's glad he bought this AO, it looks good, it supports the air given by the choices he has carefully made in building up his avatar, his hair, shoes all very carefully chosen. He can hear his friends chatting away in the background but is formulating an idea.

Bungle has had enough. He knows his furry face lends him an inscrutable air but he is tired with this circle of events, again and again and again. He thinks that if this can't get sorted out by the people here someone else will need to step in. They are on this beach now because one of them is banned from Rod's sim, another from Jane's and Freddy has made it clear he wants none of them there. He is thinking that an abuse report to a Linden might resolve it but has heard different stories about doing this.

Chris decides this is the point to withdraw, not another AR filed to Linden! The place is awash with them. Chris is thankful that these reports are not his/her problem (Chris is a specialist in certain fancy textures) – phew!!

Perhaps the guys are right, eavesdropping is not good, it's depressing! People never change, it just goes on and on.

…........

I must say clearly here that no individuals or individual avatars are portrayed here, this is a portrait of “Everyman”, a generic reflection.

As I wrote I considered where my own character lay, I firmly believe that we rarely shed our real character when we put on our avatar, it usually comes through. I think for myself (and for many of us) there are many different bits and pieces of the Rainbow present in me, which bit rises to the surface depends on the circumstances.

** At time of writing no Chris Linden exists.

  

Paint the whole world with a Rainbow.......

(Rainbow was a children's programme aired in the UK in the 1980's )

Enough!

People say that they try to acknowledge their mistakes, yet reiterate the same "mistaken" belief in the same post.
Oh dear.
I had hoped all that rubbish and mud-slinging had ended, that emotions had settled, stubbornness eased that common sense (sadly, seldom common) had prevailed.
I have bitten back comments on the advice of others who have counselled  "ignore it, it will go away" but it doesn't, it hasn't.

There is always a risk in putting 2 and 2 together and seeing a great deal more than that in the answer, even those who are mathematically inclined seem to do that.

To give a pertinent example, just because an avatar teleports into my home, falls asleep there on my sofa....to presume that we did more than talk is to make more than 4 from that equation. 
Not only has more than 4 been made but people have been maligned on the basis of that supposition for months.
I assume that to find him and see him there, may have involved teleporting to his location (uninvited by me, the owner) but I am not throwing any accusations around because it is pure supposition and I have no evidence. 
Others could learn from this approach, but I doubt that they will.

It is worth remembering that when 2 people are together, on S/L just as in R/L, they are the only ones that truly know what passed between them. I am one of the 2 in question, it is not anyone else's business but in the interests of FINALLY killing this dead and restoring reputations, here is what happened.

On a date in August, I got a message from a good friend, we had not been more than that for quite some time. he was clearly upset and wanted to talk so I offered a teleport. 
Friends do that for friends whether they are dressed or not.
He arrived at 12.27 SLT - very late for him and the beginning of my evening for me and I was in full Gorean garb ready to go to my village. 
Our chat lasted until 12.41, 14 minutes, and he fell asleep, logging at 13.23. 
Our chat is private but my advice to him included suggesting he burn no boats and get some sleep.

And that folks, is it.

I know people have been told they owe me an apology, I doubt that I will get one and, to be honest, for all this to just go away would be good enough. My friends know me and do not doubt my integrity. 
However the name and standing of another has also been muddied by all this "mistaken" belief and that put simply is unfair.
If, as reflected upon in the opening sentence, people are ready to try to acknowledge their mistakes, then they have some work to do.


I don't know if I will leave this post up, the whole issue carries an unpleasant taint so I am stating now, at time of writing, that it may be taken down at a future point. 

Building..

Our Castle has a Skybox. 
Given the prims involved with the tree-castle itself (600+) we really should be on a bigger plot so prims are tight and I am constantly on the lookout for ways to save them. 
The original skybox is a 3-prim one based on a hollowed-out, maxed-out cube but barely gives room to swing a pixel-cat, let alone get a camera in to see yourself do it without a lot of juggling.
Since making the previous one, I have learned a lot more about using coordinates in building - not just doing it by sight as I was before. 
Time for my 1st experiment with mega-prims. I'm not good with understanding sizes on S/L being primarily a visual person, I knew I wanted it big, much bigger without prim-cost but used the 40, 40 ones and we may well rattle around a bit until we get used to it.
Maybe it's my laptop but they seem to take a while to rez, 1st experiment was on our beach and nothing seemed to be happening. I had to log. I came back to find they had rezzed but in the Castle, or rather in most cases, the Castle was in the mega-prim (there are good reasons to build in sandboxes - NOT dropping huge bricks on your partner being one of them!)
I had been toying with the idea of a pool for some time too and thought i could put one one the roof so did that too. I could have saved prims here by sculpting but wanted to texture faces differently so needed to stick to what I knew how to do.
I played with a bought tile texture to create a new one using it as a border, I love mosaics and found a Roman one that had a central motif that I aligned to form the floor of the pool.
I really must label or otherwise log the textures I use on things! I waste a lot of time hunting for things. 

So far, Skybox and pool, 9 prims.
A few tweaks left to do, I want to check location and need to find some nice pool poses.

 

You Have to Keep an Eye on Them........

You'd have thought you could leave a Tarnship unguarded wouldn't you....