The way you make me feel.....................

I heard the news of Michael Jackson's death last night whilst in SL.

I wasn't a particular fan, but his music provided the background to life for nearly half a century.

I danced to the Jackson 5's hits, stayed up to watch the debut of the Thriller video in the UK, and took my daughters to see him at Wembley.

No matter what one thought of him as a person, he, and his music had an enormous and undeniable influence on so many other performers.

News of his death seems like the end of an era.

Little boxes.........

Gooood morning :)

I had such a great evening building last night.

Finally I cracked the secret to animating prims!! Yes, I know it's been possible for quite some time now, and I had tried before - really tried hard, headache making tried! but never quite got that 'Eureka' moment.

Until yesterday!

I've been tinkering away making odds and sod's to dress the new pre-fabs with, mostly new furniture, but I got sidetracked with making more useless, but decorative stuff. Like jars and mirrors etc.

I decided to make a jewellery box. It turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself - pale blue leather with navy suede lining, two clasps on the front and a separate drawer inside.

I set about putting a hinge on the lid for it to open and close. I do this wherever possible as I think it adds a little extra touch of realism. But the hinge script needed tampering with, setting the rotations etc, and I just didn't have the patience.

I logged out and got on with some things at home here, all the while pondering about hinges and moving prims etc.

Later, when I went back inworld I was tidying my Inventory when I noticed something I'd bought for $L1 on a whim. I took a proper look and read the Notecard. it said something about Frames and moving prims, so I decided to give it a try.

I dropped the script into the jewellery box and Touched it. Nothing happened, not a hint of movement! Bah! what a waste of time.

Then I made a cuppa, and sat and properly read the instructions - hmmmmmmm that sometimes makes all the difference!

Next time I followed them to the letter - hey presto! a lid that opens without a prim hinge :)

Not content with that I decided to try my luck with making the tray inside the box move too.

Joy!!

I now have a jewellery box that opens, the tray pops up and slides! yippeee!

(have you seen the Torley TuT when he does his little Happy Dance? yes, dear reader - I did that Happy Dance!) lols.

Funny isn't it how we can get sooo excited about things that only exist on another plane?!

You'll never walk alone.............

I read the latest comments on the Virtual World Business site this morning - it was from yet another creator with exactly the same problems as I've always had - traffic! shudder.

It's the spectre that seems to haunt us all in SL, and there doesn't seem an easy, failsafe, way of getting it which is more the problem!

Just a slow, hard, plod uphill - dragging our pretties behind us.

But reading that it's not just me, that almost everyone else has the same issues, makes me feel a little less of a complete failure! I've always assumed that I don't get sales because my stuff just isn't good enough, or my taste is just not to other's liking.

I've sort of talked myself out of the first as I check out what others are making and I feel my creations are up to scratch.

But the taste thing just won't go away!

Is it something to do with age, or where we come from in the world?

Is there really the UK/USA gulf that I've always had a sneaking suspicion about?

My best friend Patti, who is American, visited here last year and one of the things she said whilst we were traipsing around London was 'now I see why you build what you build, now I can understand!'.

And when I took a 'trip' via Google Earth to her local shopping area, I began to see why SL looks the way it does!

So I think my suspicions were correct.

Each of us has our own vision of what, and how, we'd like our surroundings to be.

We all think our vision is unique to just ourself. But we come with all the scraps and snapshots of our lives, and culture, and surroundings so deeply embedded in our psyche that we're unaware of these influences until something makes us actually stop and look, and think!

Ooooo, look at me getting all deep and thinky! next post I'll be back to usual :)

And I shall post more pictures of my new 'babies' very soon!

For my special place, for my secret place..............

Here I am again!

I shall try to post almost every day so that it becomes routine for me, a good one for once! - instead of gazing into the distance, cup of tea in hand, thinking about my next build, like I usually do in the morning!

Last night I made changes to the latest pre-fab build, and now I like it quite as much as the first one! Phew! what a relief too.

I'd not been able to 'connect' with it at all, and had pretty much decided to scrap it, when I thought about putting another floor between the entrance hall and the bedroom.

Once I'd done that it all came good. The proportions worked, the textures worked - ahhhhhh, peace at last!

Even better is that there is now a secret room :) Just the sort of touch I'd had in mind when I first started this new project. I wanted a cross between fantasy and real life - a sort of whimsical feel.

I hope I may have achieved that.

Let's start at the very beginning..............................................

........a very good place to start!

So here I am, a Blogger! I've no idea what is expected of blogging - but as I can ramble on for hours about almost anything I think there will always be something here to read!

( by the way, I ought to tell anyone who has found this little site, that I'm addicted to exclamation marks!! - so you have been warned :)

I started this blog after getting some very good advice from a couple of people commenting on the Virtual World Business site. So as I'm trying very hard to make my small business in SL work, I'm duly following what they've said.

But apart from that it would be nice to think that someone, somewhere on the globe is reading this, and if you are?.................well let me know!

Good or bad, I'm happy to get comments and constructive criticism. Or if not that, just tell me about what's going on in your world.