Friday 27 February 2009

News Flash

Early reports yet, but it seems there's been an explosion of some sort in New Babbage.



More news as it comes to hand

Thursday 26 February 2009

Secrets Under Caledon

Caledon has many secrets. Some of which you can explore and discover for yourself. As with any changing and fluid thing there are places that can no longer be found: The lair under the ruins of Fort Caledon, the underwater tunnels of Argylle, or the mysterious body in the tunnels under the Port Caledon Theatre.

Some are still around if you go looking.


Sometimes you just have to find the right entrance.


Though not all are obvious.


Some are rather new.


Leading to hidden rooms.


Or choices in direction


And can require a balanced approach.


Deep insights can been uncovered.


Some require to immerse yourself to fully experience them.


Subterranean places can shed light on the history of Caledon, but may make for disturbing realisations.


Others tell tails of Caledon's more recent past and its dealings with smugglers


Some hidden places can be sources of entertainment


Some are home to nefarious individuals


And Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.


There are places that are a delight to travel


Others are not so cheery


And some require you to get into the inner workings of their power to find them.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

New Digs for the Guv

It seems that our beloved Despot Benevolent Dictator has found some time to scrub up the Mansion in Victoria City.





Rumours abound of tunnels but may be nothing more than the usual gossip about cat girl dungeons.

Monday 23 February 2009

Alts-Heimers

A recent instalment from Two Lumps

Thursday 19 February 2009

Riel Radio Theatre - The Lord of the Rings, Episode 7



Riel Radio Theatre presents part seven of BBC Radio 4's dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - "The King of the Golden Hall".

Adapted for radio by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell.

Thursday 19th of February starting at 7:00 pm SLT

Join us at Radio Riel's HQ at Edison Hypatia to listen with the rest of us or tune your music player of choice to http://66.186.45.115:9012/live if you can't make it in person.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Dancing the night away


The Valentine's Day Grand Tour bounced through a large variety of sims this time.


I started at the Love's Blossom Ball where I played music (and won a fabulous prize!)


Logged out to get lunch and then came back in to the Latin Ball at Metaversitility sim.


And danced at New Babbage Valentine's Ball.

I headed over to New Toulouse for their leg of the ball just as a griefer attacked and crashed the sim and ended up spending the rest of the evening help replace some of the infrastructure prims in New Babbage.

Monday 16 February 2009

The joy of colour matching

About 6 months ago (or maybe 8 by now) I was thinking about replacing my shop in New Babbage with another build. The existing shop has been there for 2 years and except for a retexture and a replacement staircase, is essentially still the second build I made in SL.

I had originally asked Littleblackduck Lindsay if he would be interested in a building commission and he accepted but soon the tides of Victoriana took over and he apologised and backed out.

So I've been slowly doing bits where I could, carving textures and trying to get colours to match. The biggest problem with a sandstone building is that it photographs so very differently.

Compare this:


To this:


Same building. Same part of the building. But so very different in colour.

But it's getting there. In between being distracted with moving sims, building assorted pointless things and occasionally delving into RL I do a little bit here and there. I'm not the only one who has been interested in reproducing this building, but so far I've been the only one insane enough to actually try it.

Thursday 12 February 2009

Riel Radio Theatre - The Lord of the Rings, Episode 6


Riel Radio Theatre presents part five of BBC Radio 4's dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - "The Breaking of the Fellowship".

Adapted for radio by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell.

Thursday 12th of February starting at 7:00 pm SLT

Join us at Radio Riel's HQ at Edison Hypatia to listen with the rest of us or tune your music player of choice to http://music2.radioriel.org if you can't make it in person.

Caledon's newest

With the demise of the Mondserrat Colony (and I'd put off updating the map again) its tectonic instability has caused a small landmass to appear off the North of Caledon.



Caledon Perenelle is the newest sim to join the ranks of our beloved nation taking us to a total of 45 sims. Caledon Cavendish remains the most northerly spot of Caledon but land reclamation in Perenelle may change that.

Interesting eyes

Not a set I purchased but a glitch that managed to put part of my HUD onto the eye texture. I doubt I could repeat it if I tried but it looked pretty special.

Thursday 5 February 2009

Riel Radio Theatre - The Lord of the Rings, Episode 5


Riel Radio Theatre presents part five of BBC Radio 4's dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - "The Mirror of Galadriel".

Adapted for radio by Brian Sibley and Michael Bakewell.

Thursday 5th of February starting at 7:00 pm SLT

Join us at Radio Riel's HQ at Edison Hypatia to listen with the rest of us or tune your music player of choice to http://music2.radioriel.org if you can't make it in person.

Wednesday 4 February 2009

The Brooklyn Tunnel

Excerpt from the Curious Expeditions blog:

Walt Whitman once wrote a column for the Brooklyn Standard called “Brooklyniana.” In an 1861 column, “A passage of Solemnity and Darkness,” Whitman wrote of “the old tunnel, that used to lie there underground, a passage of Acheron like solmnity and darkness, now all closed and filled up, and soon to be utterly forgotten, with all its reminiscences…”

The Atlantic Avenue tunnel was built in 1844, by Cornelius Vanderbilt, but by the 1850s political manoeuvring had declared trains in Brooklyn a nuisance and the tunnel was scheduled to be closed. A $130,000 contract (remember this is 1850 dollars) was awarded to a dodgy character who signed off that the tunnel had been filled and sealed. Turns out he didn't quite tell the truth.

In 1981, after nearly 2 years of persistent research, Bob Diamond descended a manhole and was able to confirm the tunnel did indeed still exist today. The tunnel isn't fully opened but they're making a documentary about what might be on the other side of the second half of the tunnel wall.

Read the full blog post entitled A Diamond Below which includes pictures.

Monday 2 February 2009

New Babbage elections concluded



After some animosity worthy of SL drama at it's finest (though thankfully not among the candidates, just some of New Babbage's citizenry) the election for the new owner and Mayor of New Babbage is finally over.

The results published by the current Mayor were as follows:

Mr. Tenk - 20 votes
Mr. Cleanslate - 19 votes
Baron Wulfenbach - 14 vots

Knowing that it took several weeks for New Toulouse to officially change hands I will surprised if the handover happens much before the start of March.

I wish Mayor Tenk all the best in his new role and hope he may be able to heal some of the bitterness brought to the surface in the recent elections.