Reading Radar

Ok, so you don’t really TP to Port Babbage on Port 80 I guess. But Port Babbage is still easy to find. Just open your map, type it in, or use this handy slurl for Port Babbage instead! It really is that easy. Maybe easier.

Chug and I wandered over there the other night, having explored Babbage Square and Babbage Canals earlier with TheFriedGeek Althouse, da Steampunk Guru. Fortunately for us, after wandering a bit, we ran into Shaunathan Sprocket, Babbage Mayor and all around accomodating human being. He took us down to the sunken ship in the port, and we talked for a few minutes. Great people, those Babbage dwellers. I haven’t met or talked to one yet who wasn’t really a fine human being!

Here’s the port itself:

The first place we wound up was the gaslight emporium. They have a store on the ground, and a balloon shop up above. Some pikshures:

There’s also a Mayifu arcade, which you’ll know the skinny on if you’ve heard ep 18 of my podcast (listener feedback segment).

Looks like they had a parade or two:

Unity House:

And then we ran into Shaunathan, as I mentioned, and he showed us the shipwreck:

The Babbage people consistently come up with great builds, fun stuff to see and buy, and they are always willing to stop and talk and generally be friendly. I’d say the three sims of theirs we’ve visited are the best “group” of sims I’ve seen for those reasons.

Technorati Tags:
3d, secondlife, virtual, steampunk, babbage, exploring

All you have to do is head over to Rezzable Hallucinogen and take a look around. You’ll wonder how come you denied yourself hallucinations for so long! Well, ok, let’s be honest… 90% of you haven’t denied yourselves. But you should try, at least once a week.

Anyway, like all the Rezzable sims, I really have no clue what the purpose of this one is, but it’s pretty cool looking. This was another sim hop Chug and I did in our never-ending quest to see anything worth seeing in sl, and this one probably fits the bill of worth seeing. I say probably, because it’s not really interactive that we noticed, although it is nice to look at.

You rez in on what looks like a stove burner, one of the old school ones that everyone used to have before “teknowledgey” came along.

First thing you see is that you have the joy of getting to run through a swinging.. something. We’ll call it a scythe, that always makes Crap Mariner happy.

“You go first!” “Suuuure, no problem.”

Chug made it through, but the ground is stained with the blood of those who haven’t. Or maybe people just like to spill blood there for some totally unrelated reason, who really knows?

The centerpiece of the build is a huge statue that’s apparently a male and female figure embracing, but it’s kind of flattened in the center on the fronts of their bodies so at first glance it appears as one really weird figure.

Pretty soon the hallucinations start… not entirely unpleasantly. For example, here I see a Chugabug, and who doesn’t like Chugabug? What? Oh yeah, there’s some kind of weird half visible bird too. But who likes those?!

The path around the place is a weird spinal column looking thing, broken up at times requiring jumps, flight, and other maneuvers. And in the center of the path at one point, you’ll come across this dude with some serious heartburn. He really needs to quit with the burrito supremes at bedtime.

Chug’s thinking, “hasn’t this guy heard of Tums?!”

The overall view is interesting, pretty, and well done.

I’m not 100% sure how they got their nice lighted water effect, but it’s done right.

They also have apparently detained someone for questioning, and the oven burner thingy seems to be in effect again. They really like those old burners, don’t they?

This picture of the two statues and us itty bitty people in the foreground kind of shows the scale of the place.

Finally we’d had enough, and I paused long enough for the local photo trap guy to take my picture. The last time I’d paid for a photo like this was on the log ride at Disney, so I figured why not? Maybe I can alter it to show the humongous statues behind me about to rip my head off or something. That would fit in with the death theme posts I’ve made, and would look great on Christmas cards.

Technorati Tags:
3d, secondlife, virtual

I interviewed Loki Ball today for the next SL Under the Radar, due out any year now. Really. Anyway, Loki’s an interesting builder and SL resident. His sim, Fluid, is home to many of his creations and is divided into the light side and the dark side.

Chug and I met Loki while looking for stuff to get Podcast Island in the Halloween spirit. First off, he’s got some cool and amazing builds and accessories for your gruesome amusement. But he’s also got some really nice stuff for the lighter side of life too. When we met him, he was a stitched doll avatar and he was playing the role nicely, clearly having fun with it. We talked to him for awhile and I asked if he’d be on the podcast, which he kindly agreed to do… and I’m glad too, the interview proved him to be as interesting as his work indicates, not to mention a nice guy to talk to.

Some pics of his work:

The Darkside entry point, with the store featuring the various smaller “items of gore”, if you will.

Radar gets filed away

Crematorium visits are always a good way to spend the day

Normally I shun asylums, but this one’s so inviting!

This is a lot nicer than my office… and the portraits highlight a higher class of people than any I work with

The “allergic” poseball proves that being crazy can be a wacky good time

I’m free!

Chug got one of the crematoriums for PI for halloween. It’s parked on the NE corner

My mother always told me not to get into a box and shove myself into a raging incinerator, but what did she know?

Smoke pours out, signaling the conversion of someone’s body to ash form… hopefully they were done with it!

Ever see Jett with a 5 foot long neck and severely warped limbs? No? Then take a look at these videos of Chug, Jett, and myself at the SOA adventure Island haunted house.

It starts innocently enough with a graveyard, a haunted house, people getting stretched and warped and mangled, but then there’s also a lower level maze with several cavernous rooms and various other weirdnesses.

It’s just one of the haunted house builds to check out in SL at the moment. Hopefully we’ll have more before they all POOF out of existence like that bag of candy you bought early for handing out to trick or treaters.

Technorati Tags:
3d, secondlife, virtual, halloween

I’ve mentioned in the past how Itazura’s Clouds are extremely modifiable, and are one of the best skyboxes in SL.

Now that stuff is getting set up on Podcaster Island, I put a cloudhouse up above the Tiny House for friends to hang out in… I’ve got a streaming TV for streaming media such as video podcasts and so on… it also gets SLCN and Grid Review.

Here’s the modified version with not much in it yet:

Below are the stock looking textures:

Looks like a totally different structure, doesn’t it?

Technorati Tags:
3d, build, secondlife, virtual

Went to a friend’s place as they prepared for Halloween and found out there’s a lot of ways they’d like to see me dead. Join the club.

I’m not gonna reveal whose place it is yet, but here’s some pics of my doomly doom.

That’s all. Have a nice day.

I got a couple voicemails to the SL Under the Radar podcast voice mail number (206-309-0608, for those of you keeping track). Ok, I’m showing my loserhood by admitting no one’s been calling. But you know what? I’m not the only podcaster who’s seen this. Seems like the podcasts that get the most calls tend to be ones that help solve technical issues, or are just huge podcasts. My podcast is neither technical nor huge. It’s doing ok… but it’s got away to go before I’m happy with it.

This next episode might be a feedback/rant cast. In truth, I won’t be ranting, but I might be babbling on about a few things triggered by the feedback. Who knows?

I still have a couple people I’ve talked to about getting on the podcast and haven’t done so yet. Fear not, I haven’t forgotten. I’m sure they wish I had.

Please send your topic ideas! You know how to reach me. I have a gmail account, radar.masukami is the one you want.

Now… my head’s about 10 lbs today. I hate colds. Mmmmmbuy buy.

Technorati Tags:
podcast, secondlife, virtual