Second Life – Page 10 – The Kind Healer

Fun with SLCC Badges

In trying to get my mind off my mother Monday, I decided to work on getting a pic sent off that could be used on my ID badge at the SLCC confrence. I had gotten the email earlier in the day, and was also interested in re-stretching what skills I had in Paintshop Pro as well.

So, a couple hours and about six layers later, I had something I was reasonably happy with, and I hope reflects the fact of my links with Uru. It includes:

— A D’ni glyph of my full RL name, shaded real low to almost be like a watermark. The original was made for me by fellow Uru player Gadren.

— Shrunken pics of my Uru-TPOTS avatar, and a variant of my common forum avatar. The original picture used for the forum av was from a commissioned rendition of myself, as my favorite RPG character Sungak ‘Silverhands’ Alkandenes. (and anyone who’s seen the old sungak.net home page knows now where that came from too). The forum av is the one I use in the Uru forums, incidentally.

— And at the bottom, the SL avatar in a chair, in the setup I normally use. It of course includes my KI (Uru prop) and the shirt I made which has my RL first name on it as a D’ni glyph (also by Gadren).

I will post a link to it here, pending its approved. :)

–Alan

A Long Weekend of Concern

Much has happened over the weekend, best to place in one post as things are just winding down.

### Cyan closing up last week

On 9/2/05 it was mentioned on the blog for (now former) Cyanist [GreyDragon][1] that Cyan had layed off most of its employees. This is a saddening time indeed for those of us who have been involved in Myst and Uru, and formed our own communities within. A [followup post][2] has explicitly stated that Ubisoft is *not* at fault for this and has been extremely helpful in the publishing and marketing of _Myst V: End of Ages_, due out next week. I agree with GD’s perspective on the latter, and hope Rand the best in trying to get some sort of funding back up for the Somthing Else project or the other project I heard rumors about.

There is not much I can say that can extend beyond the (very copious) comments within the two posts, and can only add my farewell /salute (aka /hug) and my personal determination that this will not stop the communities from continuing on.

Even if that requires us to collectively pick up Until Uru or H’Uru or whatever by its bootstraps and continuing it ourselves.

No ending is fully written, only chapters, and on top of that we always live within the moments of beginnings and endings. This just allows a new chapter to open, a new time for us as an Uru community, and one that I’m looking forward to see.

[1]: http://www.thegreydragon.com/2005/09/time-of-your-life-almost-all-of-cyan.html
[2]: http://www.thegreydragon.com/2005/09/debt-just-so-everyone-knows-cyan-is.html

### Mother in Hospital again

The same Friday that I learned about Cyan I got a call from my aunt saying my mother was admitted to a hospital again; She’s had another stroke. I did try to visit on Saturday, she was having tests done and was unable to see her. Hopefully I’ll have time on Wed while I’m in the area, and will try to visit this Friday or Saturday as well.

### The weekend of 9/11 – Working

I was at work this past weekend, both days, much as I’d rather have been in NYC on Sunday the 11th. Not much I could do, it was an important thing had to be done and I’m happy that, at the end, everything was good on Monday.

But despite the fustration and haggardness at the end, a part of me was glad to have worked this weekend. I lost two good friends on the 11th, co-workers whom were visiting the towers that day on business. I buried my emotions in work the rest of that week, getting things working so clients could do their work in our spare office space. That later backfired on me, but is another story.

So you’d think I would avoid work that day. Well, thinking back on this year so far, I’ve done so much – in RL, Uru, and SL. I think I wanted to prove to myself, once and for all, that I’m out of that blackness I dug myself into the initial months after 9/11.

If so, then I’ve proven myself to be once again back. I’m hoping that I can now keep this attitude the rest of my life. Perhaps this little spot of mine will help, we shall see…

–Alan

[SLB Import] Mystic Radio closes its streaming service

For anyone who visited my rental land on Tavarua, or other similar areas that I frequent (some of them on my picks list), you probably heard some interesting music from it. Soothing, quiet, and perhaps bordering more towards ‘new age’ (though I have no issue with that genre).

That music stream came from the site Mystic Radio, a recent find and one that fit the land almost perfectly. Unfortunately, as of a couple days ago, they closed their virtual doors and the website just has a sad farewell notice.

I’m of course saddened to see this, as I cannot think of any other music URL that I’d regularly pump into my land (and yes, I donated to them at one point, by using one of their sponsor links to buy my LightStone device). Ah well, I suppose for now the quiet will do.

[SLB Import] a VC in SL?

One of the more interesting statements I’ve been making is that I’ve been acting as a VC of sorts for a couple projects. (For those who have not heard of a VC, it means Venture Capitalist – someone who spends their own money to further a company or group, in return for some stake in it.) I’m currently doing this to a degree for two groups.

The first is InnerLife, which I’ve set aside some of my rental land for, as well as participate in testing the PC client that will eventually interface the LightStone biofeeedback device into SL. I have a personal interest in the group, and have expressed interest in aquiring and co-owning an island for them once they’re ready for that stage. For now its just a matter of getting XML-RPC to stay happy.

The one I’m now active in financially is the Numbakulla sim / project. I give great thanks to Moopf for allowing it to last so long, as its an amazing place. With a possible ‘end’ occuring though, like many others I’ve stepped up and donated.

My ‘share’ probably is rather signifigant right now, enough so that I’m not talking about it (they had almost enough for the purchase before I even got word of this, so is not very big overall anyway). I did, though, do the unusual step of cleaning the paltry amount I had in GOM back into SL. :) My only plan here is to help them out while they finish getting the monthly pledge amount confirmed, and they’re in good shape for that I think.

In both of these cases I have no interest in making money, either in L$ or US$. In fact I’d be happy if I broke even in some cases. The important thing to me is the content here. Both are ‘PG’ in nature, quiet, calming, and fun.

There is not enough of that sort of content in SL. I hope to help change that. Only time will tell.