Sunday, July 17, 2011

Finding Hope in Second Life

Hope (general)

This has been a week with many lows.  In fact at the moment I'm having trouble thinking of any mediums, never mind highs.  To distract myself I went to visit Hope, described as "Rikku Yalin's latest creation ... the post-apocalyptic sequel to her previous sim Amancio.

I found the oddest combination of post-apocalyptic/steampunk/fantasy/outsider/country/industrial/fairytale components I've ever come across.  Don't get me wrong - it works and if you like taking photographs or just enjoying art and the eclectic you're going to love it.

Hope (general)

Taking these photos was actually very frustrating for me.  I've talked about how much I like to tweak windlight and shadow settings - getting everything just so and then moving the angle of the sun or some other adjustment.  I was using the beta version of V2 and those who have been wanting to be able to make changes to the environment settings and save them as defaults will be very happy.  The editing menu has changed and you'll be able to do lots of interesting things and then fix them in your viewer for as long as you like.

Unfortunately for me - in order to even tweak anything you have to save the changes as a preset  to use them.  I did figure out that if I created a preset called by the name of the sim I'm in I could keep overwriting it with each tweak - but it's frankly a pain in the ass.  Maybe there's an easier way to make small temporary alterations but I didn't find it today.

Hope (general)

Earlier in the month I signed up for Google+ - which led to my involvement in the whole "avatars aren't wanted" debate.  On Saturday things had escalated (note that Berry also had to give Google her cell phone number just to check her gmail) and I finally decided that there was nothing in this social network that appealed to me enough to try fighting the "what is a real name" battle.  So I left - not in a rage but more with a sense of weary resignation. 

However before I left I copied this blog into Wordpress just in case it vanished - it didn't and so it will remain here for the forseeable future.  You don't have to be "real" to blog luckily.  I also have to hang on to gmail for the purposes of some projects inworld and I really don't want to have to change all of that.  I wish all of those engaging in the battle the best of luck and I hope you win.  I just don't have the energy at the moment so I retired from the field.

Hope (general)

Finally, on Friday, after almost 18 1/2 years I had to say goodbye to Mulligan.  I'm not handling it very well.  My hope is that the future will be much brighter than the present feels.

Hope (general)

2 comments:

Uccie Poultry said...

Lovely pictures, as always, Honour. I often use Kirstens Viewer for photography as it is faster than the Official viewer because of dedicated controls for Windlight and Draw Distance in the Address Bar area.

As for Google+ ... meh. I've read about numerous people who have had problems because they were fictitious. I have a Gmail account that I seldom use and my Blogger account that prefers my Yahoo log in information for some reason and have had no problems over the years. After trying Facebook for a while and being thoroughly non-plussed about utility and security, I don't plan on getting Google+ anytime soon. I don't even Plurk anymore. Folks can always message me inSL and anything sent when I'm out-world shows up in my mail. That is about as social as I get.

Strawberry Singh said...

I'm so sorry to hear about Mulligan. I know how hard it can be to lose a beloved pet, after all they are a part of the family. I hope you find a way to get through it somehow. <3

As for Google+ to be honest, I don't seem to be missing it at all. :) No loss here, it was fun while it lasted but there are numerous other social networks that will accept us. Glad you were able to keep the blog!