The Path to Madness -- An H.P. Lovecraft Festival

I found the Innsmouth sim, which is a slice of Second Life weirdness on steroids, about 3 years ago. If you haven't explored it, do. Fantastic build, volunteer supported and really downright creepy. While it helps to be familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft and his gothic horror tales (Google "Cthulhu"), Innsmouth stands on its own as the recreation of a small, New England fishing village where something is terribly wrong and evil.

So what better way to celebrate than with LoveFest 2018 running August 17-26. This 7th annual event is focused on all things creepy and Lovecraft-ian (is that a word?). Held in honor of his 128th birthday, LoveFest 2018 features shops, fun things to do & see, entertainment (DJs, live music, dance troupes, etc.) plus there's an interactive mystery to solve. You get to figure out what led one poor soul into the clutches of madness by following clues. As the sponsors put it:

Find yourself at the notorious Arkham Sanitarium, where a particular patient is beset with a dark, quite disturbing mental affliction…
Discover clues as to what brought this pathetic lunatic to his state of crazed despair, and follow a trail of clues. Find yourself at places such as the prestigious Miskatonic University, or the back alleys of some less-traveled, shadier parts of town. Perhaps a journey to Dunwich village or the dread fishing port of Innsmouth is in order, maybe even further off beyond New England.

I covered some of the things in Innsmouth three years ago. The SIM has simply gotten better every year.

SLURL to Innsmouth - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Innsmouth/86/213/24

For more info: https://lovefest.wordpress.com/

Profile Peeker the Pervy HUD - FREEBIE

OK just kidding. But I do love alliteration and with a name like Profile Peeker, how could I resist? Stepping out of my usual role as a reviewer of fashion and commentator on the silly things Linden Lab often does, I'm going to talk about a strange HUD for Second Life. It's called Profile Peeker and it's made by Patser Albatros. Full disclosure, he's a friend of mine and also the maker of the inworld HUD game, Pirates.

So what does it do? First, it displays thumbnail photos from the profiles of up to 10 people you are closest to. The screen cap to the right shows how it looks in Firestorm viewer and as you can see, it takes up a bit of visual real estate. The left-hand thumbnail is the main profile picture while the right is the First Life picture (if any).

The magic comes when you click on a photo (peek at the profile). You get a popup window with three choices:

You can (obviously), look at a profile. You can also see what attachments an avatar is wearing (want to find out what dress she's wearing?). The interesting thing is "History".

It takes you to a third party server that shows you a grid of "history" changes to the text on the SL & RL parts of the avatar's profile and partner changes. I have no idea about the magic behind this but it looks like it's getting info from public Second Life web profiles. I even see data going back to 2016. Creepy? Maybe. The Internet never forgets!

So Profile Peeker works and does exactly what it says it does -- if you're inclined to use such a thing. One small thing that could use improvement is how the profile pics are presented. I'd almost prefer the avatar name instead of the thumbnail of the profile. An avatar's look doesn't always match their profile photo and it can be a bit tough to match someone up if there are lots of avatars near you. Maybe as a floater? Mouseover? Anyway, it's not an issue when you are only around say 5 people but more than that, a name reference would be easier.

Profile Peeker is available for free on the Second Life Marketplace here:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Profile-Peeker/8067750

Second Life explodes!

OK, OK. Teaser head I know. But long-time resident and builder, Marianne McCann, just put on the most amazing fireworks show! Accompanied by music from GoSpeed Racer, everyone on the Livingtree sim was treated to an incredible display of particles, exploding things, light fountains and what have you. The pictures here really don't capture the movement and light changes that consistently bombarded my screen. From Canadian flags to rainbows and gorgeous light fountains, it was a treat. :) Enjoy.

Innsmouth: An Adventure in Horror

Honestly I haven't really been out exploring much in Second Life due to RL busy-ness. But, when I went in-world the other day, I got to chatting with my good friend and very awesome SL DJ, Speelo Snook (no relation but we both have that alliteration thing going on with our old school SL names). We were talking about some of the old and new SL places we'd been too and he was like "oh by the way, have you ever been to Innsmouth?"

I confessed I hadn't. Speelo explained it was a sim to replicate the town of Innsmouth which was featured in a couple of H. P. Lovecraft novels. Now I am a voracious reader but I'd honestly never read anything by Lovecraft. Speelo was semi-incredulous (I don't think he ever truly gets fully incredulous) and explained the premise. I won't bore you with the backstory but you can read it all here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innsmouth And yes, that's actually a photo from the Innsmouth sim on Wikipedia! Wow cool! Suffice it to say, it's sort of the zombie apocalypse meets Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl with a Roaring 20's theme thrown in.

Entry portal to Innsmouth

Since Speelo 'splained it was 20's - 30's time frame, I dashed on a flapper outfit and joined him at the entrance to the sim. It's basically a teleport door that, once everything has rezzed, you "sit" on. Took us both awhile to figger it out.

Once you TP to the sim itself, you enter a world one can only describe as depressing, grungy, decrepit but incredibly well done. The details on the building exteriors are absolutely stunning.

Of course there's a zombie policeman to greet you. And all the run-down, abandoned buildings are so detailed you really feel like you are in sci-fi town only a twisted imagination could create.

Other than looking at the rest of my photos (Speelo is the dude in the white suit), I will mention that I got adventurous, opened a door and allowed myself to get molested by a tentacled beastie.

I say allowed because it's pose-ball driven so you don't have to do it but it is part of the story line so ,OK, I ventured it.

Speelo and I tried RP'ing husband & wife lost and looking for directions with another avatar hanging out but she was either seriously AFK or thinking we were st00pid. I think AFK.

Here are the rest of the shots. Enjoy and if you've ever been to Innsmouth in Second Life, let me know what you think! Oh and here's the SLURL. But don't say I didn't warn you!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Innsmouth/86/213/24

Spoooooky scene looking toward church

Main Street

Me looking very flapper-ish

Uh-oh, we found a monster behind a door

And that hurts.

I don't think this is normal physical therapy.

Study to test 'chocolate' pills

Now here's a story I can relate to (being made of chocolate myself). :-)

Study to test 'chocolate' pills for heart health

Of course, I'd rather go hardcore and just hit the truffles directly.

Large uh...well see for yourself.

I have been seeing more of this sort of particular slider extreme in Second Life lately. I don't get it. Could someone explain this to me? I ass-ume (sorry, couldn't resist) this look is targeted at guys.

Colbert tackles NSA spying in Second Life

Pretty funny stuff. Read the original post on Joystiq.com and watch the video cut via the linky below.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/17/colbert-tackles-nsa-spying-in-second-life

As Massively commented, we can excuse the ancient and lame joke about Second Life participants not having a first life only because the rest of the bit is pretty funny. I only wish that voice actually sounded that good.

Ultimate dog tease!

This has been flying around the intertubes all day. So far, four different friends have sent it to me. It is funny and totally cutes. :)

Early Adopters of Facebook

I just got these from a friend (thanks Ben) and they have to be the funniest things I've read in weeks! I don't know who did these originally but kudos to them!

The Prok Twitter Block!

I have been blocked on Twitter by Prokofy Neva! Apparently, according to some who follow me there, it means I've "arrived". I'm now a celebrity. The sordid details are kinda funny but sad at the same time. Funny because the escalation that led to The Prok Block® was over nothing. Sad because, as others have noted, there seems to be a loose wire somewhere in the person behind the keyboard.

The Incident

Prok announced via Twitter that he* had been (mysteriously) banned from the official SL blogs. The next day he announced he had been (just as mysteriously) unbanned. I'm no technical genius and thought maybe it might not have been an actual ban but a glitch or other problem with the SL website. I've run into them before and, since Linden Labs can be incompetent at times, bad things happen and the reasons aren't always conspiratorial in nature.

Well you would have thought I was debating the existence of God with the Virgin Mary. Within three Tweets back and forth (where I tried to politely explain my looking at other possible reasons), yours truly became a troll, an "asshole" and finally someone who was threatening to orchestrate a boycott of Prokofy's Second Life business! WOW! Little old me?

The Tweets

This is just a sampling of Prok's tweets to me (newest to oldest):

Prokofy @Snickitty and I really don't care if you keep essentially threatening to incite boycotts of my business. You've been told where to get off
Prokofy @Snickitty yeah, because are being *an asshole*. Do try to stop. You don't need to follow me -- and I'm blocking you.
Prokofy @Snickitty so you've gotten your 15 minutes of attention whoredom, move along now.
Prokofy @Snickitty who cares? I've often noticed it makes no difference what you think of LL; you want to take multiple pot shots at me to feel big
Prokofy @Snickitty er, I don't "assume" dark motives, I read what you right which is just shitty, nasty behaviour. Read what you write.
Prokofy @Snickitty you were told 10 times how I came to that conclusion but were too stupid to comprehend it and kept trolling.
Prokofy @Snickitty stop being a trolling ass. I know what it means to be banned from Linden blogs as I've *been banned before*. I get how it works.

Here are all my Tweets to Prok (oldest to newest):

@Prokofy Sounds like a network problem. Happens to me every so often.
@Prokofy I meant a problem upstream not your network. You couldn't login? You couldn't see anything? What?
@Prokofy Yeesh. Just asking you know. You get so mysterious and all.
@Prokofy You said you were perma-banned, then unbanned in 24 hours with no explanation of either. I was not trolling you.
@Prokofy Clearly you don't want sympathy when I was about to agree with you. Now I'm sorry they didn't make it longer.
@Prokofy You seem to default to assuming a dark side to people's motives.
@Prokofy If you've ever read my blog, you'd know I'm no big fan of what Linden Lab does with its communications or decisions.
@Prokofy Have a nice Second and First Life anyway.

I may have missed a few but that's the nature of Twitter. Communications aren't linear so I can't put these in a strict post/reply format. It also shows the limitations of 140 characters. There's no chance for real context so, too often, things can be taken badly. For the record, Prok did not explain anything to me about the ban 10 times. Maybe 3 tweets worth. And I've never taken "potshots" at him previously other than a mild disagreement in the official SL blogrums over policy stuff.

Oh well. I just had to vent and share. I feel like such a star now.^_^

* Those who know, know.