Loose Thoughts, Then Chatting? January 15, 2009

So… the Ubertemple is still on Azure Islands and always will be attached to those islands. But essentially I’ve rebuilt this same Ubertemple in Otherland, and decided to revert its name back to the Temple of TILE, or perhaps the New Temple of TILE. Or I could just call the former Temple of TILE the*old* Temple of TILE. Yeah, I think I’ll do that. But I’ll get to a new series of posts explaining the changes between the Azure I. Ubertemple and the “New” Temple of TILE very soon. Not tonight probably, though.

This is what has happened: I’m selling all the Azure Islands property and pulling out there. Already! And, as I said, I’ve bought the 1 4096 parcel in Otherland and have erected or reconstructed the Ubertemple on this parcel. With its base at 600 meters, it’s even higher up in the sky than the Ubertemple (500 meters for the latter). The newest version of the temple is also not as massive as the former version, being about 2/3rds its size. But it is based on the same 2 modules, or what I’ve called B_Hivia and ToT (original 30x30x30 meter cube). And the arrangement of these modules is similar, if not exactly the same. One could say its a more reasonable version of the Ubertemple, since the new version is packed full of art and the old one had to remain about 1/3rd empty. I still have the Sky Forest, with the same trees, same rocks, same plant rezzers, same table/chair arrangements… looks quite similar, except the shape is a little different.

The land I bought in Otherland is 4096 meters, which is a little larger than the largest of the two Azure Islands properties. But the real advantage comes in the regular, square shape (64 meters on each side), which helped me to refine the idea of the Ubertemple, or — better — to see a very legitimate alternate version which is 2/3rds its size, because I think the Ubertemple, really, is just as legit, if not exactly practical for the prims allowed on the Azure Island property. In order for it to *really* work, I’d have had to keep the property above it, if I wanted to fill it out more. For the new version of the temple, this is not so much a problem. Even with erected the temple on the parcel, cramming it full of art, creating the Sky Forest, leaving almost all the thick vegetation on the ground intact, and sliding in a tiny shack with some additional stuff within — I still have about 145 prims to continue to work with. Actually, make that about 113, because Otherland owners recommend that you keep around 32 prims open to allow air and water travel through your land, a reasonable request I suppose.

So, in summary, I’m *very* happy with the way the parcel turned out, and the temple. It’s hard to image it working better, given what I had. And I see that it was best to first build the *Uber*temple on Azure Islands, given that land is considerably cheaper there. Without buying the two parcels together, I may not have found out that the Ubertemple and certainly smaller or edited versions thereof (like the new temple could be said to form) can be built on 4096 property or even a little smaller. But I’m certainly also glad that I could return to Azure Islands, where my first properties were, if only for a little bit. Now I have that out of my system — and I haven’t ruled out a return in the future, maybe to the same piece of land that I’m in the process of selling (perhaps coupled, again, with the parcel immediately to the north) — I’m moving on. It was still a tough decision, but it got considerably easier once I knew that I could move/revise the Ubertemple.

I have some more decisions now:
*Do I buy the parcel to the west of me, also a 4096, to protect the view from my shack and give me more prims to work with, probably in the form of another skybox? This is certainly a future option, although right now I’m not sure it’s the best idea. The new temple is the summary of what I’ve been building in SL, and Otherland seems to represent the endpoint of a search for a “true” home in SL. The new temple combines the idea of the gallery and the temple that I’ve been refining since the early days of my Gliese existence, since Edna’s photography has been integrated, essentially, into the core of the temple’s meaning through the Herman Park pictures (throw in a couple of my own as well). And for me it gives me a place to display my art 10×10 opus that I’ve been working on for a number of years, and in a logically enough fashion. In the new version, as I’ll explain soon, the first half is found in the East Wing of the new temple/gallery, and the second half in the West Wing. This makes sense to do because the opus itself is symmetrical in a large way between these two “evenly divided” halves.

In terms of exploring, I’ll probably be hiking a *lot* around Otherland, continuing my intial efforts. Fascinating landscape! Much more interesting, I still say with a sad note, than the Azure Islands landscape that I still respect for other reasons. But I made out a list of pros and cons of each: Azure Islands and Otherland. And Otherland really won hands down. So I shifted. Hopefully I might have found my true home in SL, at least for a while or perhaps until SL goes away for good, which doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. I am an Otherlander now.

I still want to explore/continue the Nautilus Cy. underwater landscape, and may start — or finish — that quite soon. Atoll mtn. range — still want to do that. There’s much more to chronicle within SL, even through the search for home and the search for a “perfect” gallery/temple may be over in ways. And there’s always the Arcadia Asylum material I could work with; had to dispense with all that in making a “pure” version of the gallery/temple, and one without unnecessary lag.

“Let’s see who wants to chat tonight, if anyone. Hucka?”

Hucka D.:

Present. Hello baker b.

bb:

Hello yourself Hucka D.

Hucka D.:

I am back home. With…

bb:

Hurla Dontbee?

Hucka D.:

Um… yeah.

bb:

Are you still Charles Nelson Blinkerton?

Hucka D.:

Wheeler wishes to speak now for a bit.

Wheeler:

Baker B., you are at a door. (pause)

bb:

Ok. Thanks. Can you give me some more details?

Wheeler:

The door is the Wheeler Island/Planet. My Island/Planet.

bb:

To complete the 10×10?

Wheeler:

You must immerse yourself in the history of Otherland. Geography. Topography. Castle. Beehive. Hurla. City. Park. And your own sim as well, before it is…

bb:

Ruined? Denaturalized?

Wheeler:

From your shack you can see the world. The World.

bb:

I’m going to walk to your island/planet tonight again.

Wheeler:

Every night. Well, every other night. Or at least once a week. You must go.

Hucka D. (quickly moving in):

Thank you baker b.

bb:

Thank you.

Other… January 5, 2009

“Thanks for being here in the middle of the night again Wheeler.”

Wheeler:

I’m here. Greetings.

bb:

To the reader, primarily [first]: I think our trip to Otherland may have to be cancelled.

Wheeler:

Oh don’t do that. Are you punishing poor, little Esbum?

bb:

She’s been bad lately. Escaped our watch.

Wheeler:

She is…

Hucka D.:

Hello guys.

bb:

Hucka D., do you know Wheeler?

Hucka D.:

We are adjacent.

bb:

Interesting. I wanted to ask Wheeler about RS7, I believe. Tonight.

Hucka D.:

Wheeler cannot talk about that any more right now. He’s helped a lot already, though, hasn’t he?

bb:

Yes. (pause) So Hucka D…

Hucka D.:

Yeah?

bb:

Baker Bloch saw Hurla Dontbee last night for the first time.

Hucka D.:

That only interests me now as synchronicity.

bb:

You’re lemon stand was still there as well. I was frankly surprised… it’s been awhile.

Hucka D.:

It *is* synchronicity.

bb:

Do we still need to go there?

Hucka D.:

*Yes.*

bb:

Logging in, then.

*****

bb:

“Oh, Hucka D. I forgot to talk about Notherton I was so excited about going to Otherland.

Hucka D.:

Yes, we need to talk about that.

bb:

Is this a Mossman establishment?

Hucka D.:

Obviously. Not far from Mocksity. North of that. North Otherton. Notherton. Almost a palindrone, actually. [but not really]

bb:

What is it?

Hucka D.:

An ancient city site.

bb:

Is it connected to Otherland in SL?

Hucka D.:

Might be.

bb:

Has Grassy ever visited the place? Or Gene Fade?

Hucka D.:

Not yet, but soon.

bb:

Can you say anything more about it?

Hucka D.:

Notherton is within the contiguous Frank Park, and fairly central within. It was a northern Mossman temple center. They worshipped [delete name].

bb:

I don’t think that’s possible. Did they know of the Ubertemple?

Hucka D.:

They, of course, knew of Mocksity.

bb:

Is Mocksity the same as the Ubertemple?

Hucka D.:

Sylver Forest. You must study more.

bb:

What do the pentagon shaped group of trees mean?

Hucka D.:

A sign… that you’re on the right track. You need to take pictures. And you…

bb:

The microcosm I found. Then I lost it. Mysterious, perhaps.

Hucka D.:

Lost. From view. Microcosm. Island.

bb:

Should I talk to Grassy about it?

Hucka D.:

Mocksity should not be visited until the late spring, when the trees and plants are out again. Notherton can be visited anytime. Central.

bb:

Should I get rid of…

Hucka D.:

*No.*

bb:

Alright. Thank you.

Hucka D.:

Sleep tight.

Yes… Wheeler… January 3, 2009

“Come in Wheeler…”

Wheeler:

Lucy. Webb. Not Hayes.

bb:

I am being pulled into Mythos. Again.

Wheeler:

I am you.

bb:

You bridge Mythos and Earth. That’s your responsibility. How did you supplant B. Hayes or B. Haze, though? Never mind… Carrcass-1. “Top of the Pops”.

Wheeler:

Correct. And that’s why Spider and Skillet are not exactly the same. Spider is, er, more spread out. And it’s really not Carrcass-1. It’s [delete name]. Anderson. Faulkner. That stuff.

bb:

You married Lucy Webb and replaced B. Hayes in that way. Your record just hit number 1. Then the Webb is generated. Black spider in the middle of a flag. Nazi. “I couldn’t be busier” [as Ozmo stares at the spider and his web].

And that’s *Lemonade* Lucy. A reaction to Grant and his drunkeness. I understand it all now.

Wheeler:

No. You understand the beginning. Almost. This is not about SecondLife anymore.

bb:

I have reached the end there.

Wheeler:

You have a complementary temple to build sometime. But, yeah, Nautilus City is a dead end of sorts. Because…

bb:

I’ve already done all this. With Mythos.

Wheeler:

Yeah.

bb:

Tell me more about your Lemonade Lucy.

Wheeler:

Why don’t you check?

*****

bb:

Doesn’t seem to be a lot of power in “Linger”.

Wheeler:

No. That’s because the *finish* is, or should be, always in RL. Or a probable RL. Not in my world. Can you do that baker b.?

bb:

I’ll try.

Wheeler:

I study this for a living, among a lot of other things.

bb:

I’m convinced that marrying Lucy Webb is the key to replacing B. Hayes for you. And decentralizing the Confederation government after our parallel to U.S. Grant has passed, which in your reality is Alexander Pope. Tell me about the 2 others that govern with you, Wheeler, if you can.

Wheeler:

I’d rather talk about the Ubertemple.

bb:

Ok, I’m looking at some notes I took tonight. Says here that you are the same, somehow, as the United States, since you were born in Sepisexton, which can translate to 76-ton. Like the US is famously born in 1776. 76ers. Now… also Olive is the same as Oklahoma in the Mythos-Earth general resonation set. But it has to be paired with Tin in order to fully resonate, because the province of Tin represents the otherwise missing panhandle.*** And Skillet is Olive. In Missouri. Nearby is Tintown, which use to be named Gold. And its most famous resident is Ronnie Self, which I’ve determined is a symbol for the self, as in Jung’s individuated self and the idea of a “second life” based upon the principle of synchronicity instead of causality.*

*****

Wheeler:

I am the same age as you now. 49. I know of Esbum’s Pond/Lake. I know of her pain. Or his. But that’s been resolved by Carrcass-1, you see. Spider. Skillet. Webb. Esbum Michigan is a Woman in Trouble.

bb:

There’s a Wheeler in Oklahoma. Although it’s called Oil City these days. But, weird thing, the Olive in Oklahoma is very near an Oil*ton*. Olive oil, then. I think that’s a link between Oklahoma and Olive province of the Confederation** Nearby Drumright reinforces Oil(ton): oil drum. But I… I think this also has to do with SID’s 1st Oz, and the reversal of Wilson back into Wheeler. This is because Oil City is near Wilson, and also a Keller and a Healdton. This is where Helen Keller is healed (by Water). Oil and water. It’s complicated.

Wheeler:

I created SID’s 1st Oz.

bb:

I’ll accept that for now. What about the Ubertemple?

Wheeler:

Isthmus that is really an Island. Ben, but not Ben Wheeler. But sometimes I’m called Ben anyway. Island moved. Attached to mainland[s]. Ubertemple is there. Nautilus City island also plays a role. Sunk, sank, sink. Where does “I” become “y”?

bb:

In the center [of the Ubertemple].

Wheeler:

End here, then.

bb:

Thank you.

* Appropriate quote from the linked site:

Similar events one can observe in the psychic realm. People who have been bound too long to the causal paradigma begin to die in this life. Unconsciously they will become “living deads”. Thus the Sufis, the mystics of Islam – say these words of wisdom: “Die before you die!” By this they mean that in such people a new conscious orientation should take place which effects so that the consciousness then would much more be connected to the principle of synchronicity instead to causality. This letting go of old tried and true, this giving up of the power principle, of “Where there’s a will there’s a way!” works like an elixier vitae. Such people begin a second life which falls under the principle of synchronicity. I call it Synchronicity Quest, which means that they begin to let theirselves be lead by coincidences and to take assistance from their dreams in order to learn to understand wherein the way of life further leads. In greatly critical moments synchronicities come to pass which show the real goal of life, which can not be found by will and causalistic thinking.

** Just as a bit of clarification, the Confederation, in general, forms a 1:1 resonation with US in the overall Mythos-Earth symbiosis.

*** The panhandle, as a whole, also represented the *7th* and final original Oklahoma state county.