Saturday, February 23, 2008

Signing in Issues?

Some times you try to sign in SL and you hang up forever orrrrrr you can’t sign in at all.

Do these steps and see if it helps:

1.Uninstall Second Life (Sounds scary I know)
2. Delete the Application Data Folder (It’s located in C:\Documents and Settings\”User Name”\Application Data\Second Life.)

When you remove that folder it insures that you won’t have the same errors when you do the next steps.

3. Delete Browser Cookies and Cache Files
4. Empty Recycle Bin
5. Defrag your computer (I about do these 3 or more times a week)
6. Shut down your computer
7. Shut down your Router\Modem (My service providers says about 3 minutes)
8. Bring Router\Modem up then Computer
9. Reinstall Second Life
10. Check your Fire Wall

A Tip: Some times you can’t see the *hidden folders* Open up Explorer\Tools\Folder Options\ View\Show hidden files and folders

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Terraforming..SL style



Like I said, this wouldn’t be my last design of the island works…we were thinking, Ok, so Anwell is Celtic, which makes me think of green… then why a sandy beach like island?






SL has 3 island shapes to chose from, BUT!! If you check out their web page on the .raw files you will see this perfectly square one called *Flat Green*. I guess to them it’s boring but it fit my needs perfectly.

I uploaded the .raw file to the region, which usually takes a minute or two and is kind of cool to watch as it updates. It was too high for my needs, so out came the lawnmower/terra former again and I lowered it.


To do that you right click the land and a pie menu chart comes up. Pick Edit Terrain...







Now, you have another tool box that pops up. This has a rump load of buttons to you use. Don't be a skeerdy cat and try them out.







The Selection button is similar to the Selection button when you build to link things. Just Click the selection button and then click on the ground. That makes this nifty area to work with on the ground only.



Then you can choose one of the other radio buttons to do what ever you need after you lower or raise or smooth the land then click Apply to selection.






There is another button on the side that has a pull down arrow for Small Medium or Large areas to work with. I usually use the small button so I have more control.... I mean really how much control do you need to make a flat lot?

SL has, I guess, you can call levels or land heights measurements.
0-20 meters are below water levels to the water line, so if you have land with a Z value at 21.000 meters, it's one meter above the water line.

I think you can heighten all the way up to 255, which makes a pretty tall mountain.

I set the whole island with a Z of 22 so that means it's 2 WHOLE meters above the water line with lil ziggy zags and bumps at the sims edge with each 1/4 section having a *poolish* area and dock and rocks.


This time the land is all green with a hedge splitting it into 4 quarters and a common area in the middle with a bridge some swimming swans and sitting areas.


Flat and boring I know, but I plan on letting the renters do there own lawnmowing when they move in.



Thursday, February 14, 2008

Sim Owner!

This is Anwell Island a Celtic name that means Beloved.



I purchased this on Monday and just so happend to do a search in the Map toolbar to find an Anwell Region listed, TPed there and I found this..... I had to look on the title bar of my screen and then edit land just to confirm that it was mine.... afterwards I let out a yelp of happiness.

I also recieved an email about an hour later from Linden Labs confirming my Sim was ready.


When you first purchase an Island from SL you have 3 shapes of land to chose from. I picked number 2. (really there are 4)

Oh so barren and lonely looking....


What to do!?

15000 prims to use OMG!


Notice there is one already used?

It's the mystery Linden box left when dropping the island. I snagged that up for a momento and put it in a special folder...Thanks Leo Linden!


All day I was excited to show my partner the new Island... waited and waited...

She popped on and I asked if she might not be to busy to look at some *shoes*


Her reply: You have enough shoes....

Humm, I begged... I TPed her in.. I changed the Location on the TP request to *Cheap shoes*
.... I waited...


WABAM she TPs in and of course my screen flakes out so I have to reboot... :(

By the time I was signed back on she's complaining and gone..... * I didnt see any shoes just empty land*

Blah..... so much for my fun suprise to her...

I worked and played alone....


Before all the work, I thought I might take a dip.

Me, doing some land flattening...I made this terraformer to help me out.
Of course you can use the land tools as well. I just wanted to mow some lawn. :D
End result, a mound in the middle with a park area- waterfalls-- canals surrounding the mound and exending out to Linden waters....
This won't be my last design I know!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Woo Mentors! It’s not the candy!

Mentors on Second Life are here to help you; well they are supposed to at least try to help you at this time there 3464 of them floating around to help you.

I remember my first days on SL, how utterly confused I was. I’d been on other virtual chat sites so maybe I might have been a little ahead of the game. This is much more advanced than you would ever expect.

I would hang out daily at Help Island or one of the Orientation Islands watching the helpless drop in like flies, me being one of them. This prompted me to into making note cards to give to people to help them along in their SL adventures. It would have links to places to visit of freebie spots and sites to see. Just to get them hooked into the game.

Also admired the Mentors there and would take notes of all the instructions they would pass on to the newer people. I was and still am geek in the note taking period of the game.

After some *on the sly* helping of people while in a sandbox, a Mentor suggested that I apply as one. Oh man, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do it, what if I told someone something wrong? What if they asked me a question I didn’t know? After some soul searching I applied from the web site.

It was about 2 maybe 3 weeks I received an answer to my request from Linden Labs and was accepted. At first you get a tag that says “Apprentice Mentor” until you go to the official Linden orientation to become a Mentor.

The Lindens set up *Class* times for you to sit and be instructed how to manage certain situations, say like griefers or the very new. They also give you web links to keep you up to date on the newer features and other Mentor suggestions.

I did the orientation and loved every minute of it. I feel proud to know that maybe I’ve made SL a little easier for someone, not that it’s like I’ve made a cure for cancer or brain surgery. Only to know this individual/stranger took the time to download the software and wanted to try something new only to find out its way more than expected and for me to come in and help.

They also help me in my own thought processes of how others think; I’ve learned patience and caring and have become more of a people watcher. They also give me ideas on things to make or help on the web page here.

What are the requirements? Well you have to have at least a year of time in and some knowledge of scripting or building a second language is helpful but not required. There is always another Mentor that will know your answer if you get caught in a question you can’t answer. Lots or patience is a plus; you might have days when you have over 8 people pulling you in 9 different directions, all in instant messages!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Rental Homes

This is our old rental place, it was pure heaven here...but believe it or not too small!


So we decided to rent or lease, what ever you want to call it, for a tester of sorts. We searched high and low for an empty lot to use with plenty of prims and space and privacy and hopefully no or very little lag.

I wanted a residential only area, since that’s what we would be using it for as a home.

We were also looking at homes and home styles and furniture, I found a very nice home but there were some things about it I didn’t like. (Of course). Building is a part of learning

So we chose to build our own home based very much on the home we both liked. I don’t plan on selling this home as you can very easily purchase one similar at Castle Rentals, AQUA Mainstore, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glinda/192/58/90 Finally we found the perfect lot, on the beach and secluded with enough prims for an army! The house would fit nicely here.
If you are a moon rise or sun set watcher make sure you will have the views.

How do you tell about the prims? If you right click the land you get a pie chart and if you chose About Land a box will pop up.
These Tabs totally freak me out right now.
There you can see if it’s on Mainland or an Estate, how many prims it supports, if there is a covenant. Many more things about it if you chose to look at the tabs, plus you will need to know this trick when you do decide to rent the property, to set up multimedia items, deeding the property to a group, banning people, etc.

Make sure you can make the payments and to whom you make them and what venue, be it Pay Pal or just straight Lindens on a monthly or weekly basis. Check the rules on what type of house you can buy/build, like some places have rules on square footage or style or how high.
Of course if you are in a close area, get to know the neighbors, make sure there aren’t any annoying spinning items, or shouting vending machines.
I guess there won’t be anymore deck dancing for a while now…



Next is how to buy land.


Thursday, January 24, 2008

Land Shopping?




I’m in the process of buying/renting some land. I’ve *rented* three different places, ok I’ve not actually paid for ANY of them. The first was my partners condo she received for working at a club... wasn’t *my* home.

The second was more so my home, same deal – different place and I lived alone, I received that rent free as I worked for my employer. I felt like a big mooch, all I did was bounce the club --- nothing beneficiary for them.

The third and current place is like a dream home, on the beach in a beautiful area – of course my partner pays for it all…. :(

All three places I’ve not had a problem with the landlord, from what I gather I’m lucky (OK, we umm she was). Only one incident with some particles that refused to leave has been my biggest issue. --Yeah thats me the particle bandit.

So now its time to make an investment and see where it goes, I have some friends that are opening up a store (landmark to be placed here soon). They want me to sell some of my items I’ve made. I have no clue what to price them as and scared to death people will hate what I’ve made or think it’s cheap.

With that revenue it can go to some of the tier payments… boy aren’t I a big hopeful thinker?
Now the search is on!

First, you need to decided if you want to really *buy* land or rent/lease. On Main Land you can purchase land from Linden Labs or a resident.

You have to be a premium member to buy land but to rent/lease just make the payments to the *landlord* or Estate owners.

You can search for Land with the Search tools in SL, just toggle between the types of land you want and enter. There will be a listing just as if you were searching for that favorite club or store. Click the Teleport link and check the property out.



What I've learned so far:

Hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P on your keyboard to see parcel boundary lines, this brings up a faint red line around the border. Make sure you know what you're purchasing!

Take note of the About Land listings, the land's area is in square meters.

Read the Primitives Parcel Supports entry in the About Land window's Objects tab. This indicates how many primitives you can place on this land. In other words if you have a 300 prim house you can't place this on a 117 prim parcel.

If you *buy* land from an Estate, it CAN be reclaimed when ever the estate owner pleases. Be it that they failed to pay Linden Labs their tier or they sell the land to someone else, who now decides to remove everyone. I guess thats really considered *leasing* the land not purchasing it.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

New Years

She had to work at first.. 90 minutes of friends and MANY gestures, we had fun and said our *Happy New Years* and we were off!!

Space Lounge


Blue Note...




Elenis



Oh boy the deck again.. but NOT in PJs.... >:)


Ok yeah maybe we were...




Happy New Years!!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Colors :D

Here are some color codes to change in particles and to be used in scripts.

white = <1.0,>
grey = <0.5,>
black = <0.0,>
red = <1.0,>
green = <0.0,>
blue = <0.0,>
yellow = <1.0,>
cyan = <0.0,>
magenta = <1.0,>

Saturday, December 29, 2007

All In a Saturday

Saturdays can be sweet.. She so attacked this monster I’m making in a sandbox.




Until the unfortunate accident happened ……






We wanted to Visit the Blue Note Jazz Club one last time… : (




Apparently its closing after the first of the year, what a shame, I really like the music there.







We decided to go visit Midnight Reflections Sims.. ALL of them ALL day

Dinner.... she looks bored....our waiter *Ralph*



A little Dancing...



Posing for some Pics.







You meet all kinds here .




More posing...
Ahh and resting




Thursday, December 27, 2007

Need a kid?

Welp, we found a new venture in the wide wide world of SL its called ADOPTION.


Oh man, well I haven’t really talked about this much because I’m semi unsure of the whole process. This isn’t just for everyone on Second Life, just as it might not be to go to a combat Sim, or any other Roll Play Sim.

First off, in the Search button you can type Adoption and a load of places come up, at the time of this posting I found over 12 adoption sites. Find one that looks promising and TP (teleport) there. You will usually see some sort of house and toys and junk all over the yard. With kids bouncing all over the place, blasting gestures and kid noises, it can be very confusing.
[pic]

If you go inside there will usually be panels with pictures of children on the walls wanting to be adopted into a family. Kind of like a Myspace for kiddies! On the other side will be the parents section looking for kids. A lot of places have an area for single parents and couples.

[pic]

Some places have, what I call the *like system*. Click on the picture panel and you can read the child’s profile and you can choose *like* if they have similar interests in you. For a small weekly or monthly fee you can create a panel and profile for everyone to see and decide on.

[pic]

Of course if you are a prospective parent you have a picture profile up as well, I guess so the kids can click on you too.

[pic]

This, in turn will help you into a week long *trial* process of getting to know one another. How you go about doing that is your choice. If you see you aren’t going to work out then shake hands and part ways.

Be big about it, not every child is going to be your match or possibly your partners, it takes time.

Some thoughts on this: It can be a interesting and rewarding experience if you let it. Gaining a friendship and learning a bit about your own self.

Remember these *kids* are adults as well out there, they aren’t REALLY children running around SL. They need to be treated with respect as you would anyone else on SL, not as pets or something to pass the time of day with.

However, since they are (or supposed to be) adults in one sense, they should also return the respect, one thing I can’t stand is a bratty or selfish *kid* on SL and they get away with being a punk just because they are *6*. That’s BS in my book.

If you do decide to take the plunge into this, I hope only happy and healthy times for you!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Week 3 Baby... I need a new title.....

Week three down and she’s with a new tummy….




Of course she says she’s HUGE and that nothing fits…

From what I understand she's with a new AO so her arms don't go in her tummy as well.



I say she’s cute :D


No PJs pics this time…hormones?
Maybe....

Friday, December 21, 2007

Jewels for the Jewel

So now I’m tinkering with jewelry, not that I’m actually making it. Well, I AM making it..

Single Pearl Pendant



Whole set of Pearls wooo
Wrist Band

Lol Planets....
Vampire Pendant
Star Pendant
Half Pearls

Diamonds...some have bling


Diamond and then Sapphire Blingage....



I usually leave a little ball in the center to help in the placement of the necklace, on these I removed them. You dont see the ball when you wear it.

New Years bling.. Have a happy and safe New Years