More SL12B snapshotting

More wandering at the birthday bash... I aimed for somewhere slightly familiar at first, the "Emphatic Eccentricia" build by Veleda Lorakeet.  I used to run with that crowd myself for a while.  Anyway, the build is typically creative and intriguing, and eventually I wound up standing on top of it and looking out on all the rest of the weirdness.

 

 

 

 There's a fair amount of the weirdness.  I mentioned that last time, I think.

 

This is all weird in the Electrify sim, by the way.  Which also contains an Avatar Basketball exhibit.  I was just made for avatar basketball.

 

Then I wandered out of Electrify and into Enchant.  I was looking for something specific, but chanced upon the 1920s Berlin exhibit along the way.

 

The place I was actually looking for, though, was "Dare to Dream to Fly", by Meg Madrigal, another person who's spent a lot of time on my f-list.  I remember her asking me questions about how to script those interesting lighter-than-air vehicles, and me being no earthly help to her at all.  Never mind.

 

The exhibit includes a cloud you can lounge on, while it carries you up to great heights.

 

Reasonably great heights.  High enough to see some more weirdness, including the fringe of the great four-sim Cake Stage.

 

 I passed on, and out, it seems, to Raglan Shire's exhibit.  I spent a lot of time lounging on clouds.

It's a civilised sort of place.

I ventured into a high-tech ziggurat - you can see it in the top-right corner of the first picture of Meg's place.  It is the "New World Enlightenment Fun House", apparently.  It is confusing inside, like being trapped in a spirograph.

I will pause there, so this post doesn't become unmanageable.  I haven't covered a tenth of what's there to see in those sims.  And they're only a small part of SL12B, too.  It's quite an event.

SL is twelve!

That's like 84 in people years.  (Internet years are like dog years, everyone knows that.)

And the birthday bash is on again.  I have been wandering around it for the past couple of evenings, in fact, seeing how far I can get before I crash.  Not very far, in some cases - in fact, a software conflict with another running application took me all the way out of the welcome area in SL12B Beguile and into a Blue Screen Of Death.  (Hadn't seen one of those on this machine.  The BSOD for Win8.1 is a much friendlier blue than it used to be.)

Beguile is impressive, but taxing on the client.  I crashed.  A guy was talking to me in a travel pod, and we crossed into Beguile, and, well, the sim crossing got him, like a sniper in 'Nam.  Tali TP'ed in to have a look at the place, and she was crashing out all the time, she was flickering on and off like she was in Morse code.  But... it is impressive.  I gather it's supposed to be a haunted train station or something, with a train crashing into it out of the sky.  Or something like that.

Photos.  I should have photos.  Wait a minute, I do have photos.  Let's see some.

Arriving at the arrival point

Helpful volunteer person in the train station

The train station has lots of information panels that I didn't read.

Anyway, we all know what goes on at SL birthday bashes, yes?  Lots of disparate builds creating high weirdness everywhere.

Here's me in the train station again, you can see the carriages going up into the sky.  I tried for a wider angle shot.  That was when I BSOD'ed.

High weirdness.  And lots of it.

 

This all happened last night.  I went around it tonight, again, and toured several different spots until I crashed.  But that may have to wait for another post.  I had some fun, anyway.  SL12B.  Get it while it's there, folks.

Silk Road VI: The Grand Conclusion

Not all that grand, after last time's heroic efforts - several drop-outs on the way to the finish line at number 75.  Still, there is stuff here, so let's have a look at it.

Starting out at number 65, Lindy Modern & Retro shoes.  These are the Aliaa red... slippers, I guess... for the ladies.  Don't have a pack shot for the gents, I'm afraid, but they get a pair of shoes too.

Number 66 dropped out.  Here's a texture pack from number 67, Timeless Textures.

Persian Lantern from number 68, Spyralle.  Comes with a length of spare chain, too.  As regular readers may remember, I have a lot of time for Spyralle and their gorgeous fractal designs.

Hera and Heracles outfits from number 69, Tamiron Forge.  The pack shot is at a strange angle, there, because although that Hera dress fits quite nicely, there is a slight problem with the underlying alpha texture, so I am standing in a position that doesn't show an inexplicable gap at the back of my left thigh.  It's not insoluble.  I'm sure I could cook up a decent alpha layer of my own, and the dress itself is rather nice.

"Roman patinas" texture pack from number 70, House of ACCentaury.

"Black Beauty" necklace and earrings (and a ring you can't see, but it's on my hand, promise) from number 71, KK's Trinkets.

Blue glass tile, "Baby Bacchus" design, from 72, Buccaneer's Restorations.  High-rez texture, also available in somewhat lower rez to help with sim lag.  It took me several tries to spell "Buccaneer", I got to the point where every variation I tried looked wrong.  It was getting late at night, you know.

Classical Tragedy mask from 73, Chimeric Arts and Fashions.  Well made thing.  Anyone suggesting it's an improvement, though, is going to get such a look.

Emma's at Blue Moose, number 74, gives us this Roman Temple with a central plinth that rezzes a fire bowl.  As I said at the time, I have enough temples from this Hunt to start my own religion.

And so we come full circle to Mieville, and the end of the Hunt, and a couple of extra goodies for us.  First off, this Black Urn from Timeless Décor....

And the pink box it was standing on contained a pair of Posh Tales Ear Cuffs.  You will note that we've reached that point where my outfit gets wildly eccentric, so perhaps it's for the best that we stop here!

 

And that's it.  Gracious thanks are hereby extended to the indefatigable Perryn Peterson and his organizational team, to the fellow Hunters who make the whole thing so much easier and nicer, and of course to the merchants who provide both the good stuff and the fun puzzles we solve to get it.

 

See you on the next Hunt, guys.

Silk Road VI: Mountain Rose Mini-hunt

These things have become almost a Hunt tradition, trailing around first a purpose-built area and then the Mountain Rose Village shops, to pick up a huge haul of related buildings, décor and outfits.  The amount of sheer work that goes into them is amazing in itself.  Anyway.  This time around, the theme is Rome and Egypt, with an emphasis on Antony and Cleopatra, so let's have a look at the massive 26 items in this mini-hunt.   (Does it still qualify as "mini", at this point?)

First off, this collection of Amazonian campaign gear - sleeping cots, clothes chest, weapons.  All sound decorative stuff.

Architectural pieces - the Nile Bridge and the Egyptian Quay.

The Double Crown of Egypt!  Pros: symbol of absolute authority over both the Upper and the Lower Kingdoms, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Cataracts of the Nile.  Cons: made my hair fall out.

Cleopatra's bedroom furniture.  Apart from a couple of opening doors and lids, not scripted, but highly decorative nonetheless.  Perhaps I shouldn't speculate as to what sort of scripts might be put in Cleopatra's bed.

Hanging Egyptian ceiling light (touch on/off).

Cleopatra's library furniture.  Essentially, walls covered with the ends of scrolls, plus a table and chair for working at. 

First pair of outfit sets.  "Amazonia" (worn) for the ladies, "Octavian" (visible on top of the box) for the gents.  These pairs of themed outfits, in a range of sizes for adult and child avatars, have been a feature of the Mountain Rose mini-hunts.

Balcony furniture; chaises-longues for Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and a selection of delicacies on a table.

Various Roman Legion Standards.  One of them is in the process of falling over, I don't know how clear that is, from this photo.  Probably not very.

Throne room furnishings.  Dais and carpet and pot plants.  There will be a throne along at some point later, don't worry.

Ignore the box in the foreground, and concentrate on the wicker baskets in the background.  These are Cobra Baskets, the one on the left containing a cobra which just lurks inside, the one on the right containing a cobra that goes for you when you open the lid.  You can make it out if you squint.  Night was falling in Burroughs, you see.

I said Cleopatra's Throne would be along, didn't I?  And here it is.

Next pair of outfits.  Hatshepsut for the ladies and Mark Antony for the gents.  Hatshepsut is kind of outside the Ptolemaic period, really, but we won't hold that against anyone.  You might be able to make out Mark Antony on the box lid, or you might not.  He's there, anyway.

Egyptian Fire Bowl.  Being on fire, this showed up at night.

Cleopatra's Needle, though, was just a vague silhouette, so I gave up the unequal struggle and set the sun to midday.  (Pity, because Tali worked really hard at Burroughs's lighting settings, and the nights especially can be magical.)

A decorative chariot and various swords and things for Hatshepsut and Mark Antony.

Octavian's tent and travelling furniture.  Octavian, as you can see, wasn't big on travelling light.  The tent is almost too big for Unpacking Isle, and there's a whole bunch of decorative furniture stuff inside it.

Ceremonial Crook and Flail with Beads.  More symbols of Pharaonic authority.

Campaign gear for the Amazonians, same sort of thing (though different in detail) from the Roman stuff we started out with.

Cleopatra Seductress outfit (Mark Antony in Long Robe for the gents.)  Just about concealing enough to post on the blog.  Mark Antony may be somewhat less seductive, but I bet he's warmer.

Stonking great fan.  Another flabellum (see Urid Dal's Hat Shop in a previous post).  My, we are doing well for flabella this Hunt, aren't we?  (I think that's the right nom. plu.  Probably shouldn't be nom. anyway.  Darn it.)

Cleopatra's Barge.  Goes both ways, apparently.  Dunno what that says about Cleopatra.

More Roman military equipment than could comfortably fit on Unpacking Isle.  There's a green and a purple Roman tent as well, but there wasn't room for them and this one and the chariot and the catapult.  The catapult, sadly, is purely decorative.

Queen Cleopatra outfit.  My, don't I look divine and regal and at the same time rather accessible?  The gents get an Egyptian Priest look.

Bastet Bookends.  I'm not sure how much use they are with all those scrolls, but they're pretty.

Finally, Cleopatra's Palace itself, in all its completely-obscuring-the-island glory.  Coalesced object, this, with several components including its own teleporters.  I'm not sure the historical Cleopatra actually had teleporters, but I'm sure she would have used them if she had the opportunity.

And that's the lot.  And that's quite a lot.  I have done full-fledged Hunts with fewer gift items than this.  For a mini-hunt, it is a quite amazing amount of work.