Caledon expands again!

This week saw the addition of 5 new sims to the Caledon family. Making a total of 24 sims (with yet more on the way!) I don't know where the Guvnah finds the time or the energy.


Caledon Stormhold. Inspired by the novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman, though not based on it. Soon to be home to teaming masses.


Caledon Sound, home to Her Grace Carricre Wind.


Caledon Speirling. Home of the Marquessates of East and West Speirling. For those keeping track of titles we now have Darkling Elytis, The Marchioness of West Speirling, and Kirawill Collingwood, The Marchioness of East Speirling. (Lady Speirling is gentler on the tongue than "Lady East Speirling" I think).


The new home of Gloire Thibaud, Her Grace The Duchess of Middlesea.


And finally we have a Duke in Caledon. Otenth Paderborn, His Grace the Duke of Murdann

Gentlemen's boots

New footwear from Pearse'd & Cut








Currently available at the Pearse'd & Cut. 9 Juntarou Street West, Victoria City

Weird Al reprise

Due to timezone differences there are many European friends who are unable to hear the Radio Riel broadcasts. So after some gentle pleading from a certain pixie I will be organising a reprise broadcast of last Tuesday's Weird Al Special.

Start time is this coming Saturday, 1st of September at 5:00AM to 9:00AM SLT.

Come along down to the Guvnah's Manion in Victoria city and enjoy a tribute to the undisputed king of parody music. The parodies, the original tracks, and the occasional rare "unreleased" track will be featured again. The commentary will be a little different as this is *live* broadcasting!

And if you're one of those Americans who don't go to bed until OMG o'clock in the morning come along and listen to something sure to add some interesting dream imagery for slumber :-)

http://rs3.radiostreamer.com:8100

Happy Rez Day to Christine!

With some Supa Sekret Skilz and a little bit of luck, last night a surprise Rez Day party was organised for my lovely Christine McAllister, Lady Primbroke.

As opposed to last weekend where nearly everything was happening, this Saturday there was only the one and that had finished by 4.

So with some help from Her Grace and Lady Gustafson, people were organised and a little shindig was sprung.




The Rez Day girl herself.


I had fun going through my selection of photos (and the contributions of others), sorting out the ones fit for public consumption, and putting them up for all to see.


Some of the revellers dancing to the beats provide by her Grace and myself.


And of course once you start playing Doctorin the TARDIS you just KNOW the Daleks will turn up.

All in all a successful night. Christine got a little suspicious by the time it was getting close, because I was busy with making her cake and was being very cagey about it. But her brother knows how to keep her distracted :-)

Far out man!

Due to a recent lightning strike (possibly a stray bolt from Dr. Mason's place) Steelhead's intrepid Sheriff was unable to act as DJ for Friday's dance. Stepping boldly into the breach, I offered my services. Though perhaps foolishly. Hippies? What did I know about hippies? They're the things your leggies hang from aren't they?

No apparently not. Free love, narcotic experimentation and psychedelia where all back in fashion.


Yours truly in my best (and only) trip happy shirt.


"What does it say to me? It says mode of transportation."


Hotspur O'Toole is up for free love apparently.


No I haven't been smoking at this point. This is what the sky really looked like. Honest!


Fluffy Flower Child, Miss Emilly Orr


The less fluffly Tensai


With butterflies and Luminosity


Crazy and Far Out Aza Zymurgy and Neome Graves (I think)


A DJ eye view.

With music from Hair, Blue Oyster Cult, The Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, The Mamas & The Papas, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Partridge Family, The Banana Splits, William Shatner and Sonny and Cher I think I covered most of the range of Psychedelia that night.

Yeah Baby!

Weird things in Caledon

No, not Weird Al, but things that happen that you don't really have a good explanation for.


Like Martian fighting machines in Victoria City (Again)


Or Giant Bunnehs that appear out of nowhere while you're waiting for Victoria City to reappear.

I'd say only in Caledon, thought neither of these would raise an eyebrow in Steelhead either.

A ride in the country

On occasion I like to take time away from the workshop and go out and explore some sims (as opposed to having a look around because I've come to the sim to buy something). On Monday my dearest and I decided a nice relaxing ride would be in order. After saddling Hades and Rosie we headed over to AKK Ranch and wandered through 2 sims of countryside, encountering all manner of creatures: from small fuzzy bunnies to huge scaled dragons.


The dragons seemed friendly enough, but you can never be too careful around dragons.


Hades and I preparing to test the limits of water polo.


Success!


There were also moments where we stopped merely to appreciate the scenery.

Real Life steam powered arm.

Mechanical engineers at Vanderbilt University in the US, have created a prosthetic limb that runs on steam. Michael Goldfarb, the professor of mechanical engineering leading the effort, says the "power source is about the size of a pencil and contains a special catalyst that causes hydrogen peroxide to burn. When this compound burns, it produces pure steam. The steam is used to open and close a series of valves. The valves are connected to the spring-loaded joints of the prosthesis by belts made of a special monofilament used in appliance handles and aircraft parts. A small sealed canister of hydrogen peroxide that easily fits in the upper arm can provide enough energy to power the device for 18 hours of normal activity."

After getting the arm working with cold gas, the engineers tore it down and rebuilt it to operate on "hot gas" – steam that is heated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit by the hydrogen peroxide reaction.

Full story here.

Tentacles, Squamous, Elder Things, Kilts and "Broadly Offensive"

Miss Violet Schnabel had put together a lovely setting for the Lovecraft Ball, run by the Dark Victorian group. I managed to track down a couple of songs from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (I need to get a copy of Shoggoth on the Roof) and started with those. On to some more familiar music with tracks ranging from Marilyn Manson, Sisters of Mercy, Inkubus Sukubus, VNV Nation, Mesh, Siouxsie and a variety of other things. Ensuing chat over the evening covered many strange things and may have proved that, apart from the assorted SAN(ity) jokes, that most Caledonians are in fact quite mad. Though Miss Schnabel's cousin Phineas may just be inebriated.


"Cthulhu Grove"


The glowing and amorphous Yog Sothoth (also known as Professor Avalanche)


The Great Race of Yith, with butterflies (normally known as Fuschia)


And I shall call him... Minithulhu.


Eldritch Emilly


Cthulhu in da House!

Later in the evening (and after a quick nap) My Dearest and I helped Her Grace of Loch Avie celebrate the completion of her Manor, Taigh Ròis (Gaelic for "House of the Rose").


The dance floor full of elegant ladies and charming gentlemen.

I danced with several ladies during the evening and witnessed the dubious charge the Vulgarian Ambassador, Barken Roff, made about Caledon being Vulgarian ancestral lands. I've heard this kind of waffle before and am soundly of the opinion that whether or not a country may have occupied a territory in the past, relinquishing that control centuries in the past forfeits your rights to claim it. Of course should the Vulgarians try to make good on their claim by force, Caledon's military defences will be ready and waiting for them.

Once Roff had stalked out in a huff, the evening continued pleasantly.

Finally the evening finished with the performance of Tartan For a Day, which saw the winner of an auction some time back allowed to perform as one of the troup of Little Eva and the Tartans.


Lots of tarting.. er tartan and very little else.


Joining the dance.


Lady Elytis after realising she was overdressed for the occasion.


Lady Whup Ass and Dr. Figaro get jiggy wit' it.


And at some point in the evening comparisons were made of the Tartans with the Mousketeers. Which of course produced Tartan ears.

A fun evening all round :-)

The King of Parody

You've all heard at least one of his songs, but did you have any idea he was so proliferate? With 27 years of music behind him "Weird Al" Yankovic has a huge selection of musical styles under his belt.

This Tuesday the 21st, join Edward Pearse for a tribute to the undisputed king of parody music. From 4:00PM - 8:00PM SLT listen to the parodies, the original tracks, the songs that have been used in movies, and the occasional rare "unreleased" track that one of the 20th century's most versatile musician.

Dark Victorian Partay

Yours truly has also decided to brave the indignities of time zones and DJ for the next Dark Victorian event.

Come along to the Lovecraftian Ball this Saturday the 18th of August from 2:00pm - 5:00pm SLT.

Located in the Schnabel Grove in Caledon Tanglewood it should be a wonderful gathering.

Voice? Bah

I've never been a proponent of Voice. Not because I have any fear of playing a male AV that I'm actually a woman. And people who have attended events where I've DJ'd have heard my voice (with some even swooning over the accent. What accent I say?).

Mainly it's an issue of personal preference. While Edward is not a roleplayed AV he is certainly a theme one. And while I can do a passable London accent, and easily a BBC English, my Scots accent drifts. But I also know the effect of a midwestern American drawl on people supposedly being aristocratic English residents or deep northern fishwife tones on delicate pixies.

That and from my perspective it tends to attract far to many of the iWank crowd from what I've seen. Ooooh shiny! Yes voice has it's uses. But I think inventory problems and client stability should be far higher on the agenda than all the bells and whistles. That and there are some people on the grid who have enough trouble stringing a coherent sentence together using the writing word. It may be highly snobbish of me but I'm not really sure I want to hear their blatherings, thanks all the same.

Sheriff Ortega sums up his most recent frustration here.

And personally I've also logged a bug at not being able to turn off voice on my parcels. Go here and vote.

The Court of Carntaigh

Saturday night saw Her Grace, the Duchess of Carntaigh, present her new Court to the citizens of Caledon.

Obviously a roaring success as we had high lag and a minor sim crash. People both familiar and new were there and it was nice to see a few people who had been absent for a while. I was delighted to be able to chat with Miss Anansi who I have not seen in some time.


The Presentation Ball for the Court of Carntaigh


Myself and my darling wife dance the night away.


Lady Diamanda and I waltzing to some of Her Grace's excellent music.


Lord and Lady Primbroke


Colonel Edward Pearse, 12th Earl of Primbroke, GCWL, KCT, OWR

Tesla coils

Since the horrible people who own the copyright on A Gentlemen's Duel have had it taken down *sniff* I present to you something that will hopefully make some small amends.

A more artistic use of Tesla coils. Make sure you have your sound on.



Thanks to Elda for the heads up.

A Gentleman's Duel

Back in January I mentioned a trailer for an upcoming short film to watch out for.

Thankfully for those of us unable to attend short film festivals in the US, this 8 minute short is now available via Youtube. Enjoy while it lasts.

A lynching Hitching

This week saw my wife's dear brother Lunar marry his longtime partner Tensai. Though the news that she was now someone's Sister-In-Law seemed to scare her a little :-)


Aboard Her Majesty's Jolly Pidgeon for the nuptuals


Presided over by The Reverend Fuzzball Ortega, asking if they will love each other tender.


Family and friends join in the celebrations.

All I can say is it's about time! :-)

Pearse'd & Cut opens its new doors

When my dear Brother-in-Law offers to design you a new shop and to also place it in the newly designed Steelhead Marketplace and next door to my darling wife's business, how am I to refuse? While I would dearly love to have stayed in the "Caledon Ghetto" down by the docks, the shop was getting a little cramped. LM vendors and profile picks are in the process of being updated.



Next will be the new shop for Victoria City.