Bringing home the bacon: Silk Road 3, part 8

Cracking on with it, again.

071 Amulet - Smokey Dreams.  something else to disport in, a very detailed sculpted... bed, I guess.  Or bedchamber.  Or... well, anyway, you can lie down in it, and by crikey it's colourful.  (If you check the object itself, it describes itself as an "opium bed".  To quote Dorothy Parker: "Wait, I think I'm going to be able to use 'opium' in a sentence.  I opium mother is getting better.  Never mind.")

072 2KILL4 - Japanese Pagoda (brown).  Neat little building, suitable as skybox or other residence... my usual problem with buildings applies here.  One day, if I can ever justify the expense to myself, I'd like to buy my own sim, just to show off all the houses from the various Hunts...

073 - another dropout - before the hunt started, so I don't know who it should have been.  But I'm sure they're missed!
074 Jinxed Toys - Roman fountain.  It has tiles, and pools, and trickling water, and animation and sound effects.  Pretty much everything you could want from a fountain, really. (More of the "drinking" than the "Trevi" variety, though.)

075 Wisp Her - Silk Road Gazebo.  It is... well, it is certainly colourful.  Kind of fun decorative building, in fact.  Colourful.  Yes.

076 Spyralle - Jade Gazebo.  Two gazebos in quick succession!  What are the odds on that?  Anyway, this one is smaller and more intricately textured... but just as colourful!

077 Raven's Heart - Turkish coffee pot.  Sculpty coffee pot and cup.  All very decorative, from well-know decorative sculpty makers... so, just as good as one might expect, then.

078 Kittycat's Creations - Chrysanthemum Tea and Dim Sum Tray (male and female versions).  One of those fun clickable tray things that serves food and drink - comes with a carrying animation, or you can just leave it lying around.  If you want chrysanthemum tea or dim sum, this is one good way to get some.  I like it.

079 Dressed by Lexi - Heaven and Earth Turtle Talisman.  Nice little necklace, here.  Comes with some bonus meditation animations, which always come in handy, don't they?

080 Iron Tiger Jewelry - Perfume Bottle Necklace (male and female sizes). Another neat little necklace! What are the odds? This one doesn't come with bonus animations, but is nice anyway.




Bringing home the bacon: Silk Road 3, part 7

061 Pierre Ceriano - Samarkand Caravanserai.  Oh, yeeps - huge, huge building, beautifully made, stunned me when it popped out of the rezzer object, and not just because it landed on my head.

062 Leonine Fantasy Avatars & Accessories - male and female gifts; seen here, the female one, a perfectly fetching pink sari.

063 Serenity Designs - Silk Road Relay Hostel.  I think it's "hostel", anyway, the spelling in the descriptive notecard is a bit, um, creative.  Basically, it's a whole campsite scene, with all sorts of bits and pieces - quite a thing, really!  I'm prepared to excuse the creative spelling, I think, for something this detailed.

064, upmarket fashion store Snowpaws, had to drop out.  A pity.  Moving swiftly on -
065 L + N Signature Designs - Steampunk Giro-cycle.  A positively outrageous vehicle from L+N here, as is oft their wont.  I'm not sure that these things ever actually travelled the Silk Road, but by jingo they should have done.  Handles pretty nicely, too.

066 VM Detail & Design - Roman Kalends with tumblers.  A rather... impressive... calendar gizmo.  As you can see from the picture.  I don't think it will fit on my desk, though.

067 Nadeau Shop - Gypsy Table with Door.  Simple, rather attractive, little piece of furniture with an open/shut decorative door.

068 Ancient & Modern - mini-hunt here yields three gifts, an Oriental Pavilion, a Sand Garden to stand it in, and a Pillow Pile and Rug to sit on once you've done it.  And it's all rather pretty and stylish.  Add in some of the other bits and bobs from this hunt, you could have a very nice little outdoor scene going.

069 Izo's - low prim skybox for Silk Road.  ObDisclaimer about Izo Ryba being on my f-list - still, this is a simple, yet highly decorative, little building, and I could fly it up in the sky and go dancing in it or something, no problem.  It's nice.  And with an LI of 4, you can hardly go wrong, can you?

070 Tree House Treasures - Cozy Boho style.  We seem to be doing well, this Hunt, for piles of pillows upon which to disport ourselves.  Well, never let it be said that I shrank from a little disporting!

Bringing home the bacon: Silk Road 3, part 6

Continuing my unpacking - I will get there in the end!

051 Buccaneer's Restorations - Footprints of the Buddha.  A huge decorative plaque featuring a stone carving of, well, the title is a bit of a giveaway, I guess!  Decorative, and who knows? maybe significant, if you are a Buddhist.

Is it true what they say about men with big feet?

052 Rozamyndi's - Flowered silk dress and (unisex) Dragon tattoo.  The dress is cute enough (ignore the messy bit around the crotch in that shot, that is just the usual trouble in that area with textures on the avatar mesh.)  I don't go for tattoos much (prefer to save that layer for lipstick, and anyway I'm not a fan in RL), but the dragon seems like a decent enough example.

The Glorf with the Dragon Tattoo

053 Rag Dollz - "Egyptian" (male and female outfits).  Ancient-Egyptian style outfit with a range of styling options, some more revealing than others, all typical Rag Dollz high quality stuff.

The blonde waitresses take their trays, they spin around and they cross the floor.

054 Exquisite Jewelry - Dragon Earrings.  Small, but vividly coloured, and decorative.  Also, because they're mesh, efficient and quick to load.  Nice use of mesh, really.

Dragon earring

055 INGZ - Bamboo floral vase.  It's a straightforward decorative piece.  It's quite a size - you don't see that in the photo, maybe I should have stood next to it or something.

Big bamboo

056 AdelleArts Manor Fashions - Male and female outfits.  They're just described as "Exclusive Hunt Prize" - in the female case, it's a rather boldly colourful dancing-girl outfit (with the range of layers and options that AdelleArts provides with all its outfits as a matter of course).

Highly coloured

057 Bloodsmore, Inc. - Silk Road Geta (men's) and Okobo (women's).  Shoes, if you were wondering.  (I was.  I speak no languages from east of Clacton, remember.)  They are, um, different, anyway.  Must be authentic, they're too um, different not to be.

These boots were made for walking

Nothing but a placeholder for number 58, so we move straight on...
059 Texture Junction - "Along the Silk Road" texture pack.  A veritable plethora of textures, a mixture of the decorative and the informative - rugs, old maps, a mix of artwork.  Nice one!
060 Keshiki Garden Center - Hokusai Tabletop Fountain.  Decorative piece, a sort of bonsai waterfall, if you like.  Looks good.

Mini waterfall

Bringing home the bacon: Silk Road 3, part 5

Yes, this is me, getting my skates on.

041 Be Happy! - "Queen Green" outfit.  Which I am not modelling, or at least, not on this blog.  You will have to content yourselves with the publicity shot, and frankly I'm not too sure about that!

If you look very closely, you see she's not topless.

042 Griss' General Store - Silk Road Lamp.  Another one of Griss's rather typical high-detail, high-quality, functional pieces.  Rather more decorative, in fact, than their usual homespun-and-homely stuff!  A good looking little lamp, in fact.

Perfectly nice lamp

043 Snow Bound - Floor Cushion, Slave Cushion, and Paper Lanterns.  I suspect the Floor and Slave Cushions differ only in the (ahem) style of animations available - looks nice enough, anyway.  And the Paper Lanterns would enliven an outdoor scene, I think.

Curled up on the Floor Cushion, by the Paper Lanterns... the snow effects come with the packaging

044 Dreamer Designs - Rickshaw.  Decorative, rather than functional, full-size rickshaw, with turning wheels, even.  Looks good, would only require a few changes to be fully practical...

Rickshaw with turning wheels

045 Bedizen - hookah and pillows.  Furniture, with a nice selection of custom animations in those inviting-looking colourful pillows.

Happy hookah

046 Steampunk and Tesla - selection of Asian furniture.  I've rezzed some of it for this shot, it looks just fine.  For some reason, the "Japanese wooden floor" has rezzed sideways.  Well, that's SL for you, I suspect.

Furniture selection, some of it sideways

047 - There is no number 047.  Someone signed up, but had to drop out before the hunt started.  It happens, that's life.
048 Hearth & Home - Asian Peace Arch.  Another neat enough piece of outdoor furniture.  Actually, it'd go nicely with 043's Paper Lanterns, I guess.

Peace. Out.

049 Reliquia - room divider, vase with decorative twigs, and something which claims to be a table, but which actually turned out to be a cabinet of some kind.  I thought at first it was something that had rezzed sideways again, but it's got drawers in one side (that you can't see in that photograph, because I'm rubbish).

Mixed furniture, including one pretending to be a table

050 TexWorks - Chinese Silk Embroidered Tapestries texture pack.  Detailed and very lovely, which I've rather come to expect from TexWorks.  I'm so spoiled.

Bringing home the bacon: Silk Road 3, part 4

I've been neglecting this!  Largely because of SL9B, and building, and pontificating, and other stuff.  I'd better get my skates on, hadn't I?

031 Rowena Paine's Junque - Desert campsite.  Lots and lots of handy furniture and landscapy bits. I've rezzed most, but not all of them, for the piccy - this is undoubtedly quality stuff, and I think it needs better than an empty Premium sandbox to show it off.

A Bedouin campsite springs up in Sandbox Exemplar, courtesy of Rowena Paine's Junque

032 Mountain Rose Village - oh boy, loads of stuff!  Starting with a magic carpet, a camel... and going on to the various components of the substantial Arabian Nights palace on display at the Hunt location.  Seriously, this is a substantial haul all by itself, Mountain Rose Village has done the Hunt proud!  I have rezzed only a small sample of the offerings for this photo - the whole palace demands a better treatment than I can give it in one blog post.

Just a small selection of the goodies from Mountain Rose Village

033 Kismet - The Spice Trader.  Ornamental jars and sacks of spices and suchlike, in a linked set, or as individual pieces. A neat enough piece of set decoration, and the textures are beautifully done.

Glorf Bulmer, Spice girl

034 Fort Weka - The Round House folly. Nice looking little building with Captain Weka's typical good taste and attention to detail.

Now that is my kind of folly

035 Build Better at Happy Hippo - texture pack with five artistic pieces.  Nice, if maybe of fairly specialized use!  Certainly pretty, though.
036 [noctis] - Miss Wu's cabinet.  Decorative oriental "curiosity cabinet", supplied as a single set or in individual components; part mesh and all very detailed in build and texture.  Stylish!

Curiosity cabinet.  Keep away from cats!

037 Rainy Fey Creations - "Chinese Dragon" male and female outfits.  Obligatory disclaimer as to Nyree Rain being a personal friend, here... but it pays to be friends with talented creators, you know.  Nice, simple, effective outfit, and in my favourite colour, too.
038 Zaro Emporium - Japanese Floor Lamp.  Straightforward design, straighforward touch on/off light operation, straightforwardly OK piece!

Floor lamp

039 Amethyst's Accessories - texture pack and Royal Jade Fly Whisk.  The fly whisk is a neat enough personal accessory, though it's not big enough to swat most SL pests!  The jade cabochon jewelry textures are specialized, but very nice - if you have the urge to make jade cabochon jewelry, these will come in handy!

Wearing (037) the Chinese Dragon outfit, wielding (039) the Royal Jade Fly Whisk

040 Starchild Designs - "TAKARA" Japanese house.  Another of that sad class of "lovely buildings I will never personally use because I am arrogant enough to prefer building my own".  Why can't the Japanese houses in the Linden Homes regions look as nice as this?  Eh?

The Takara house

Journey from Babel

So, yesterday, things took a turn for the worse.... frame rates back to the old-computer days, everything took forever to load, I was persistently ruthed, teleports kept failing....  "Damn you, SL," I said to myself, "damn you and your unreliable technology... why, it is even making the battery indicator on my laptop drop, now what have LL done to cause that?"

Turns out, in fact, the new laptop actually works a fair bit better if you plug it in.  Ahem.  Never mind.

One of the things I needed to plug it in for was the latest dev version of the official viewer, because I like to keep abreast of the latest developments.  In this case, the latest developments became apparent fairly swiftly, as soon as I started typing, in fact.  Jaggy red lines appeared underneath my typos!  Yes, folks, we have spellchecking.  In both local chat and IMs, yet.

A few tests and fiddles established that, in fact, I have the option of both US and UK English, so I can spell things like "colour" and "theatre" correctly without some post-colonial reproof occurring... and there is a supplementary library of SL-isms, which allows the checker to ignore some common SL words and phrases (though not, apparently, "rezzing").

There are a couple of non-English libraries, too, including Portuguese, which is undoubtedly a boon, given the number of Portuguese and Brazilian visitors I see... and given that they are no better at spelling their language than most English speakers are at ours.

This is, of course, a barrier to communication... because, like a lot of people, I tend to rely on machine translation systems (my French and German are up to snuff, I can get by in Esperanto with luck and a fair wind... but there is little call for Latin in SL).  And machine translators, balky, unreliable and dubiously effective at the best of times, fall utterly to pieces when they hit a word they can't recognize... which includes pretty much every typo that flows from one's unguarded fingers.

I have got to the point, now, where I can read Portuguese, even colloquial and badly spelled Portuguese, with some fluency...  but I'm not yet confident enough to try talking it myself!  So I depend on the translators, and watch my own output like a hawk to make sure they don't choke on any typos or grammatical solecisms.  Being an old-fashioned sort of person, I try to avoid these in any case... but I don't always succeed.  And many Portuguese speakers - the ones I run into, at least - take no more care with their language than the average English speaker.  So... a spellchecker, with non-English options, may be a small step forward in overcoming barriers to understanding.

More birthday-ing

A few more photos from around and about SL9B... some of them from exhibits where I have a particular interest.

I could, of course, have done a tour in style - they have those little touring pods that I've seen at previous celebrations....



But it's not just the smallish individual plots, fun though many of them are - there are other big eye-catching sights, besides the cake centrepiece and the big stage I showed yesterday.  Here, for example, is the main reception area.

So far, so basic-SL-like - but if you wander out, there are more big and spectacular builds around.  Trudging through a shallow lake, for example, leads you to the lotus stage...

And, if you venture down to the south-east corner, you find the orderly array of square plots suddenly vanish into a desert landscape, complete with ancient ruins.

Seriously, you do have to be impressed by the amount of creativity that's gone into this.  Oh, and, of course, it gets to be remembered.... here are the time capsules which have been a feature of the birthday events.

Here's hoping SL and I are both around for more of these to come!