Who Knows About Your Second Life?

(*Stolen from Zaida, who stole it from SLuniverse*)

Who knows about your avatar?
Only a few friends know my AV specifically, but most family and friends know I'm on SL.

Who doesn't?
Work. Uni. Although my Uni had/has a sim in SL I don't think they ever did much with it.

Are you 'proud' to have a Second Life avatar?
Not proud, but not ashamed.

Are you proud enough to tell your friends?
Have done. A few have even come into SL and met the AV directly. Even discovered one Babbagite was an old RL friend because I recognised her voice on a sound file.

Are you proud enough to tell your family?
I've told them I play SL (though Mum's probably forgotten). My mother has enough trouble working out how to save a picture attachment from email. I'm not about to explain the intricacies of a virtual world.

If you do tell, how do they react?
A few friends have tried it but it didn't grab them. Omega and Grrbrool have been in SL but have moved on.

Do you think their reaction is because something is wrong with having a SL avatar or that they're daft and closed minded about your game life?
No. Most are busy with their specific hobbies, be it Lego, Star Wars, or whatever. I had a couple of friends who came along to the last Doctor Who podshock and have listened to my Breakfasts in Babbage without being in SL but nothing beyond that.

Greg Merryman's passing a few months back has made me think I need to organise a "If I'm dead" file. No-one else has access to my email and I don't have a partner who could pass on that information. And I do my best to encourage the cat to stay off the computer.

Steampunk is not a lifestyle

So many people seem desperate to add things to Steampunk that aren't there or that are parts of other subcultures they like. Steampunk is, at it's most basic, a nostalgia concept. Nostalgia for the Victorian era. This is not a new concept either. Looking back at a time where manners were arguably better, where goods and clothing were made to last (even the ones that came off a production line), where war was something you might read about in the paper but there was little chance of it arriving on your doorstep, is something that people have been doing for decades. "The Good Old Days" always have a heavy rose tint about them and will ignore or gloss over the poverty, vilification and abuse of the time.

Steampunk tries to incorporate the nostalgia of the past with the social conscience of today. Racial slurs are out, exploitation of the poor is a bad thing, and trampling on foreign countries because you have more guns is *bad*. We've added to that the SF elements of a more advanced technology, so we can have our computers but with bevelled edges and lacework, or our rayguns, or we learn how to say thank you.

There's no DIY ethic in Steampunk. Sure some of the people involved love learning how old tech works. But Fred Dibnah was not a steampunk despite being more DIY with steam engines than anyone I know. Most of the DIY is simply practical. If I want my computer to have old typewriter keys then I have to do it myself because the local Radio Shack doesn't sell them that way. Any "anti-corporate" and recycling concepts would vanish under a deluge of credit card purchases if Dell brought out a "pre-steampunked" laptop.

Railing against human rights abuses, globalisation, working conditions and equal opportunity are also not Steampunk. Yes steampunks may have views on those topics but so do most politicians. The current US President is trying to get a healthcare package through so that poor people can get access to basic medical attention. Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize for trying to bring democracy to China. Neither of them are steampunk.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call steampunk a fetishism of 19th century technology but it can be close. The high nostalgia element is certainly there as I said. But that doesn't make it punk. Choosing to not eat meat because you dislike animal cruelty makes you a vegetarian, not a punk decrying the Establishment.

People who claim steampunk is a lifestyle are mistaken. Steampunk has no political agenda. There is no "steampunk world view". Choosing to wear waistcoats or button-up boots 7 days a week hardly qualifies for a "lifestyle". It's like being a sports fan. You have your chosen sport and often a specific club that you may be passionate about but there's no "Red Socks Lifestyle" or "Manchester United Lifestyle". It's just called being a fan.

Breakfast in Babbage - Spooky Edition 2

Boo!

October is the time for all the ghouls and ghosts to come out of the woodwork. It's also a couple of days shy of my 4th RezDay! So dust off the fake angel wings, pull out a clean sheet to cut eyeholes in or cut off your very own head and join us for the spooky edition of Breakfast in Babbage!

Join us at The Clarendon in New Babbage.

Hurricane Adolphe ravages New Toulouse

Widespread flooding, rain, lightning strikes and even zombie sightings have all plagued New Toulouse in recent days. The residents however seem to have shrugged it off and got on with things. Sandbags were the order of the day and storm shutters were given a good workout.

Even the animals seemed to take it in their stride.

Edward's arm in RL

If Edward's mechanical arm were in RL rather than in SL it might look something like this.

Full details over on Boing Boing

Breakfast in Babbage - Food Glorious Food!

Waffles, Hot Dogs, Pie and cake! Breakfast foods and vegetables.

Lettuce all join in for music that can't be beet. Assuming there is no leek, it will be a plum show. Music from some Swedes too possibly.

Join me at The Clarendon in New Babbage

**This will be the last Breakfast in Babbage before Daylight Savings throws things into a spin yet again**

Doctor Who Podshock Party August 2010

Podshock Party August 2010Podshock Party August 2010
Join us in the Katrina sim this Saturday for the double celebration: 5 years of the Podshock podcast, and 25 years of the Gallyfreyan Embassy.

Tardis Tours run from 1-3pm SLT

Music and party, with choons provided by Edward Pearse, from 3-6pm SLT

Come along, meet other fans, talk nerdy stuff and listen to fantabulous music.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Katrina/108/240/28

Breakfast in Babbage - Cold Hard Cash

Money (That's what I want)! You don't get Money for Nothing, and often Money's Too Tight To Mention. Why Don't You Get A Job? because then you'd be a Corporate Slave.

Join Edward Pearse at The Clarendon for a cash themed Breakfast. Dijon Ketchup supplied.

A TARDIS mishap: conclusion

That last thing I remember was a feeling of pins and needles running through every part of my body. And then I blacked out.


I awoke some time later in a strange bed. It appears Mr. Gears had recovered from the blast, pulled himself up and taken me to the nearest medical facility. Dr. Kaligawa's Clinic proved to be closest.


Mr. Gears has ensured I've been watched at all times. Physically there is nothing wrong with me, no broken bones, no burnt skin, no detectable diseases. I think perhaps I'll need to speak with Sputters and see if he can shed any light on the matter.

What is odd though is my appearance. It's almost the same but it's different in various subtleties. I have gained weight being of stockier build than I was. My jaw is squarer yet I still have the same facial hair.


I feel fine but already Christine has remarked on the difference. Not as bad as she feared, I think were her words.

It will take some getting used to but it could have been far worse. At least I don't have cravings for fish custard.


OOC:

A little background I feel is necessary to explain this post and the first instalment. Almost four years ago (has it been that long?) when I came to Second Life, I arrived to be part of a steampunk sim called Caledon. To my knowledge I was the first person in SL to have heard of Caledon before going there. At the time Caledon was 7 sims, there was no New Babbage, no Antiquity or Winterfell. Steelhead existed, though it was still heavily influenced by it's Western Gold Rush roots.

When scrolling through the list of available surnames in the SL registration page, I saw "Pearse" and inspiration struck. As I mentioned in my first blog post I was a fan of The Great Train Robbery and confirmed that "Edward Pearse" was available as a name. Edward in SL was based on a mixture of Connery from TGTR but with Sgt. Dravot's whiskers from The Man Who Would Be King.

At first he was all slider hair and noob skin but as time progressed he got prim hair and finally a commissioned skin. The shape however got some tweeks here and there but was still very similar to the initial shape I had made when I first landed on Orientation Island. For a long time I searched the celebrity shape makers looking for a Connery shape. Surprisingly it wasn't until a couple of months ago when I finally found one.



It's for a younger "Bond" style Connery that his later whiskered self but it was a close match. Despite having been four years with the other shape I thought an update was due. He hasn't completely changed. The original SL's grey eyes and auburn hair have stayed. Finding good male hair that doesn't look like you just got out of bed took ages to find, so I wasn't about to ditch that. The prim facial hair I found ages ago but it didn't really work with the previous shape. I think it works with this one.

Anyway, that's the reason for the change. We'll see what happens from here.

A TARDIS mishap pt. 1

The other evening, I was hard at work attempting to upgrade some of the control circuits on the TARDIS. Mr. Gears was providing assistance.


We were installing a new piece of the linking circuits to the Time Vector Generator when...


BOOM!


The explosion threw both of us across the floor and the released energy seems to have reacted with the small core of bernalium powering my arm.


The results were unexpected to say the least...

Continued here