Baker’s Beautiful West September 10, 2010

1st a shot from Otherland, in particular Otherland Island #3, as I use to call it when I lived in the archipelago. Just hopping around looking at land for sale this night, and happened upon these dream walkers. Then just a minute later I came across another set of 5 avatars also moving in perfect synchronization, but flying this time instead of walking. Must be some kind of group thing. Never seen that particular phenomenon before.

A look across the just erected Victorian house on the lot toward Isle of Baker, now barren of objects save a small campfire spot. Compare to overhead shots here from 2 1/2 years ago (wow, such a long time ago now!).

Then it’s on to my new rental space in Baker sim. Yes, Baker. And ta boot, only a narrow, protected channel of water separates this 4096 parcel from what I early on in this blog called Isle of Baker, the very place that Baker Bloch was born in SL, for all intents and purposes. So obviously he’s getting a bit sentimental in moving back. Much has changed, but some probably for the best. Like the new islands that have risen from several inner seas of Sansara not too far east of the Baker sim. Baker plans to go visit them very soon — certainly an attraction to renting here. Doesn’t hurt that the rent is super affordable as well. 🙂

Mouselook view from a meditation spot directly in front of a eucalyptus tree I planted today.

Old rusty van beside the house. Also there’s a gazebo near the south end of the property, with a path connecting it to the house.

I’ve rented for 2 weeks. Questions will soon have to be answered: will I give up my land in Noru in favor of this spot? I can certainly erect the cube version of the Edwardston Station Gallery next and just go from there. Lots of prims to still play around with. Should be fun, whatever.

Rental Searching… September 28, 2009

Another shot from Otherland, this time of an island in a homestead sim, one of a number offered for sale through the estate. The price for this one is 45 bucks plus 36 dollars “tier” per month. A little too steep for me… I’ll stick with Azure Islands homestead living for now. Still an option to think about in the future.

Previously unspied, 1/2way hidden tree planter in Loneos I thought I’d provide a picture of here.

Suset over the Atoll continent. Baker is just teleporting around looking at potential rental property this night…

… which included a visit to Jeogeot’s Zen City, the one Little Robert Plant Variant supposedly bombed at least once and maybe up to three times. Looks like there’s considerably more options to rent and buy in the area now. Still…

… Baker finally settles on a house in Ephant on the Corisca continent, a place he’d looked at a couple of weeks ago, actually, but found he had insufficient funds to rent at the time. Problem solved now. This is a quite nice 2 story house for the price (3 dollars a month). And lo and behold, the waterfall I was attempting to fit on my Noru property (just given up today — sigh!) slots in perfectly in a gully between the privacy wall and the front of the house. I’ve detemined this “perfect fit” must mean something… no surprise there.

More on Ephant soon!

Big Island, Bliss Gardens, Otherland, Rabbit Hole September 27, 2009

Baker on the northern point of Big Island in Kopff, looking toward smaller island to the north.

As Baker stands on a knoll in-between all these island, his kopf, er, head just juts above the water.

‘Nother sunset scene on Big Island, probably in Kopff again.

This night, Baker desired a little more pizazz from his landscape, and thus teleported over to the always impressive Bliss Gardens Center. Now this is mostly just some basic terraforming, and playing around with the natural water level to create pools and such, but it’s still quite aesthetically pleasing, and there are some things for sale dotting the mainly barren landscape, like treehouses and giant pumpkins. Most of the things for sale at Bliss Gardens are instead found in the 5 sim skybox. Moving on…

… to Wilsonia Foxclaw in Otherland, specifically the very valley in which she was “born” in the context of this blog last January. I had thoughts of having her re-explore a lot of Otherland, but I think I’ll put that on hold now. Still, isn’t the sunrise blessed landscape incredibly pretty here?

The centered, full moon looking out of the amazingly deep Rabbit Hole in Blackmount.

Otherland 3d; Atoll Continent; Egan Sim August 19, 2009

http://spinmass.blogspot.com/2009/02/terrain-sculptor-12-fixed-web-map.html

Thought I’d give out this helpful link (see under “helpful links” to right as well) because it gives a 3d rendition of Otherland Island #1 (right picture), where I lived this past winter. I don’t see my shack at the bay I lived on (just to the left of avatar’s left hand, the one standing on the map), although the map seems to be made at the general time it was there.

The Verloren Castle (larger structure surrounded by moat near the middle of the picture) is no longer on Otherland Island #1, but instead located within a 3 sim island nearby. It’s still in the Verloren sim, though, and you are still free to visit it. As I mentioned in this earlier post, Otherland was recently sold by the original owners/creators. Shame.

Some of the older posts from the Spinmass blog also give some interesting glimpses as to how the Atoll continent developed in 2005. Such as this one.

Well, here’s definitely one of those SL “aha!” moments, because unbeknownst to me beforehand, the very next post helps to explain the mysterious glyph I found in Egan which I recorded here last fall. So it was the phrase “Ben Wuz Here”, and did connect to Ben Linden, as I speculated at the time. Amazing! And another thing that’s now gone from the grid.

Hope the owner of SpinMass doesn’t mind me posting one of his images here, but it was too good to pass over the chance…

Long Rambly Post? June 12, 2009

Loose thoughts first…

I should be able to catch up with the text generation on my recent SL related posts tomorrow, and then the toy avatar related post over the next several nights. All the SL posts I refer to here relate to Chilbo, defining the center in relation to the same in Crabwoo and just more of an overall comparison between the 2.

Note: make a map of the 2 pairs of waterfalls in Noguri in relationship to the fuchsia colored building there, now assoc. with the Wordsworth grave in the Jasper 09 collage, as the waterfalls are assoc. with the waterfall of same.

Otherland is no more, essentially. That’s pretty big SL news. Obviously the reason for the shifting around of the sims there I noticed. More on the essential demise of Otherland, at least in its original form, here:

http://sl-toolbar.blogspot.com/2009/06/otherland-is-now-part-of-anshe-chung.html

Interesting: not a whole lot more about the switch yet on the blog. Maybe people aren’t taking it as big news, or there’s more pressing concerns both in virtual reality and the real world. But I for one will really miss it. When I moved there I intended to make it a “permanent” virtual home… redesigned my gallery there to house all the pictures (Edna’s photographs, my art/collages). But at the same time, well, let’s just say I think a return to the mainland was inevitable, and obviously a good decision now given this switchover.

It makes me also think of Azure Islands… perhaps a return there will take place at some point now, perhaps to Neith again, even (or Gliese?). But for now I’m quite happy in Jeogeot in Greater Chilbo.

A “new” Carrcass-1 may be starting up, and that’s what I might need to talk to Hucka D. about tonight?

Hucka D.:

Here. Present. Accounted for. Anthony tomorrow. Are you excited?

bb:

A little apprehensive. It could be the end of a friendship.

Hucka D.:

It will be light discussion. You define your goals, he defines his. Then you look at the interface. It could be that years from now this relationship will develop again in a real way. For now it’s just catching up time.

bb:

Thanks for that. I’m so involved in SL now that it’s difficult to relate to people who aren’t into virtual reality of some sort. All my remaining email friends from olden days now have an established presence in SL — perhaps odd in itself. And I’m just having so much fun.

Hucka D.:

It’s very important to have fun… joy.

bb:

I feel sorry for the Otherland group.

Hucka D.:

They saw the writing on the wall quite a time ago. Unconsciously you knew it was going to happen as well. You made a choice to live there while you could, while it was in the hands of the true owners, the ones with the vision. Azure Islands may be next.. we’ll see.

bb:

A lot of work was put into Azure Island #1 at least. Then the new stuff, like this island — not so much. It’s just another tropical island, it seems. But I still may return, especially given what happened to Otherland.

Hucka D.:

I want to say I’m not sure you can return. But I’m not sure of that (smiles).

bb:

Maybe I should go inworld to check on some things, and then I’ll get back to you here…

*****

“Alright I’m back.”

Hucka D.:

What did you check on?

bb:

Oh, just looking at Azure Islands and then Jeogeot. Just the maps.

Hucka D.:

We need to compare SL to Mythos more. And the globe of the Earth too.

bb:

I need to think about whether I want to open up the Blue Feather Gallery in Crabwood as well. (Blue Earth)

[Hucka D. does not answer.]

bb:

Do you want to talk about RS7 tonight?

Hucka D.:

5 and 6. Center.

bb:

Is this Chilbo and Crabwoo or Crabwooton again?

Hucka D.:

Fifty-six.

bb:

What of the Crabwood code?

Hucka D.:

Look at it again…

bb:

It would be just before 9/5/02. Between Walt SIDney’s Fantasia 2000 and SID’s 1st Oz. SID. There was a CYD camped out just outside my Noru gallery parcels last night. I went to see the movie at Olando7’s place next door and she was still there when I got out. Must have been 30 minutes later.

Hucka D.:

Why?

bb:

I don’t know. Karoz attempted to interact with her, but she didn’t respond.

Hucka D.:

Do you notice her first name was spelled in capital letters?

bb:

Yeah, hmmm… SID. You said that was the name of the missing Jeogeot sim.

Hucka D.:

It still lives as an avatar. A spirit or ghost, if you will. There are such things in SL.

bb:

She was camped out right on the border of my land but not within. She was in that sort of wasteland to the east, the property I was thinking about renting but my neighbor beat me to the punch (he bought instead of rented). And she was part of the same group that I am, the same group I had to join to build on the Noru properties.

Hucka D.:

Spirit. You.

bb:

Me?

Hucka D.:

Spirit alt. Syd. SID. CYD. CD. CD.

bb:

Code? This discussion reminds me of the one we had in Rubi, before I knew I would live there.

Hucka D.:

Spirit in the woods there as well. Valentine. (pause) Go take a picture of that small wasteland beside your galleries.

bb:

I’ll do it later and insert here (see above).

*****

bb:

Hucka D., could it possibly be that the “E” Karoz “found” in the Blue Feather Sea has something to do with the corrupted middle word of the Crabwood code? It was, after all, found just outside of Crabwoo. I’ll give the direct quote from that article linked above. I’ve not seen this information yet.

Richard Brain was unable initially to identify the word “BELIEvE” (initially seen as ‘EELIJ?E’), saying he thought it was a corrupted word. The problem was that he read the first ‘B’ as an ‘E’. The binary code for E is 01000101. The binary code for B is 01000010. In the field spiral (see marked photo) there is an encoding error (marked with a red X in the photo above right)! This letter has nine individual bits and appears to read 010000101. Note that there are four clearly defined zeros together; also note the subtle spacing marks. Richard read only three of these, which led him to interpret an eight bit ‘E’. However, if in the field reading the first eight bits are read correctly and the last bit ignored as an error, the letter becomes ‘B’. For me, this has to be the correct interpretation.

bb:

The reason I thought of this is that the “E” of the Blue Feather Sea is also composed of 8 “bits” (cubes in that case).

Hucka D.:

But 13 prims.

bb:

Yes, because I had to enclose the ends of the cubes on the corners and extensions. The old beehive problem.

Hucka D.:

B.

bb:

I’m just going to continue the quote from above about the small “v” in the central word, which the author here thinks is “BELIEvE” instead of nonsensical, as this Richard Brain originally translated it (EELIJ?E):

However, the letter ‘v’ of this word ‘BELIEvE’ presented an entirely different problem. Richard Brain read this as a completely baffling twelve bit segment: 011010101010. In the field spiral there seems to have been much disruption of this letter (see photo), possibly due to the adjacent tramline. I read the bit group as 01010101010. The binary code for lower case ‘v’ is 01110110. Given the context, this must be the intended letter. I think that this latter eight bit segment was inadvertently stretched during execution. If three zeros are crossed out as follows, the sequence becomes correct for lower case ‘v’, viz. 01x1x101x10.

bb:

Then, Hucka D. he goes on to mention something else I haven’t seen yet: that the last part of the message is not “BELL SOUND” but “ACKNOWLEDGE”, which makes more sense given the straightforward aspect of the rest of the message. This is both a warning and a sign of hope. Continuing directly from the quote above, then:

Richard’s interpretation of the last word of the whole message I find difficult to account for. He has it as Hex. 7, “Bell Sound” in the ASCII code. This translates as binary 0111. I find it impossible to confirm this. The last four bit group is clearly 0110 – please check this for yourselves from the marked photo. Binary 0110 in ASCII transposes as Hex.6 “Acknowledge”.

Was Richard’s interpretation a mistake? This is unlikely given that he professes to be an encryption expert! Or was it a deliberate suppression? If the latter, why? Could it be because the word “acknowledge” in a coded message is a request for an answer and it was realised that any hoaxing theory wouldn’t stand up in the face of such a request? Anyone who makes the effort to check the decoding process will also come to realise that while Richard Brain has involved the use of Hexadecimal notation, it is really quite unnecessary. All that is required is to be able to use decimal and binary notation and switch between the two.

Could it be that all this was an attempt to obfuscate the event and make it appear to be too complicated for lay researchers to decode?

Hucka D.:

Continue on with the quote. It’s worthwhile…

bb:

OK:

Backing up the ‘request’ idea is the fact that following the 0110 segment, the data strip itself continues for one complete revolution, which seems to be inviting us to use it ourselves for a reply. We would have been able to impress about eighteen letters into this unused strip, saying something like “Wow. Message received.”

As I said at the beginning, “The devil is in the detail”, and the detail in this formation is quite staggering. I have to agree with Martin Noakes that the formation is quite beyond the abilities of any known group of human hoaxers. Consider how the unused outer circle of the data strip finally tapers away to nothing; how and why would a human group do that? And just how were the individual ‘bit’ separation marks made and placed so accurately? And the precisely formed spiral? No hoaxer has yet been able to plank out anything near it. The other subtle and precisely worked details of the face portrait, etc. are the work of a master, which I doubt could be replicated in daylight hours, let alone in one dark night, by any human agency.

bb:

What did Karoz really find in the Blue Feather Sea, then? What did *you* plant there?

Hucka D. (smiling):

The devil is in the detail.

*****

“It looks like this Jack fellow, along with another person, has even attempted to answer the “ets” back, Hucka D. I missed that before.”

*****

“Hucka D., I think I need to revist the enneagram in Dark Side of the Rainbow.”

Hucka D.:

Brainard. Brain.

bb:

I’m also thinking of the Council of 9 that decide to become the Council of 1 instead of the Council of 8. They become SID, in effect.

Hucka D.:

You need to look at those related dreams here and here again. And you need to dream again yourself (smiles).

bb:

Thank you.

Karoz in Otherland, Nautilus City, Blake Sea June 9, 2009

Teleported over to Otherland the other day to find this amazing switcheroo: the Hain sim just to the north of the Stephen sim, my old home and located in the center of what I call Otherland Island #1 in this blog, had been replaced by the Xabbu sim that use to lie several sims below the island. And besides that, the Castle of Verloren, along with the entire Verloren sim, had been removed from its former spot to the immediate east of Hain, and the next sim over, Pinswang, shifted into its place to meet up with Xabbu now. I’ve seen a lot of odd stuff already in SL, but this was a new one.

I quickly scanned the Otherland blog and saw no mention of what was going on, but I was able to located Hain and Verloren, along with one other sim, a considerable distance northeast of this main Otherland island.

And in checking tonight several days later when I’m writing this text, see that Hain has now returned to its old position at least. I’ll keep an eye out for the return of Verloren and report back here. It’s a popular SL destination, so I’m assuming it will be in its former position soon.

The SL map illustrating the changes I encountered that night.

I believe it was the same night that Karoz took his first visit to the Nautilus Island region, finding the underwater scapes surrounding the island very beautiful indeed, and he hoped he wasn’t taking up valuable log time from Baker Bloch that their common user could employ for further explorations of these waters. Baker Bloch later assured Karoz that he wasn’t.

While in the general region, Karoz also popped over to the Blake Sea to the east of Nautilus Island. Very interesting terrain there as well, but Karoz noticed he was getting unreasonably tired. This must the the random exploring fatigue Baker Bloch mentioned to him at one time. Best, then, to get back home to Jeogeot and Noru, and focus on the Korean Channel, Chilbo, and other sights in the more immediate area.

er to

Changes… Leaps… March 19, 2009

Baker Bloch is becoming convinced that the refound portal in Bar Harbor will soon lead to another sl-to-rl conversion for him, like what happened in Uli almost precisely one year ago, thanks in large to Hucka D. (who went through the portal just before him). And through me, baker b., Baker Bloch knows where this particular portal leads to, or he’s pretty sure. This would be what I believe I called Portal #1 on RIVER. More very soon on that…

Yes, I gave up the Otherland parcel just last night. This was a goodbye picture to the bay, then… another bay.

As direct and instant compensation I found this 1024 parcel in Aplasta to rent. Already building something new there… again: description soon. 🙂

Otherland Island #1, Far East Hike March 14, 2009

TEXT SOON.

Otherland Hike (I’m there for ‘nother mnth., at least!) February 26, 2009

This is not the first Otherland hike I made after deciding to keep the Gallery at the Temple of TILE in Stephen for at least another month, but the second. Unfortunately I botched the first batch of new Otherland photos (west to Irene, Zell, and Kapron) by accidentally leaving the “show interface in snapshot” toggle checked. I’ll try to make a hike in that direction and take more snapshots soon. In the meantime, I was able to cleanly record a shorter hike through Hain to the commercial district in Antibes, and then down the very nice, curving boardwalk that starts at the lower end of the Antibes commercial district and continues through Dulcie before ending in Anwin.

The first pic is of a well I didn’t know existed in Hain until this hike. Anyone speak Dutch? … never mind, I’ll just ask my neighbor sometime.:)

Here’s another picture of the only commercial region in the Otherland archipelago. Shame that such a pretty group of buildings lies basically deserted — don’t really understand the situation, admittedly.

A shot of the lighthouse in the bay fronting the district, catching the first rays of the rising sun.

Nice, if artificial, waterfall at the southern terminus of the boardwalk in Anwin.

From there it’s just a short hike over the ridge to Hurla Dontbee, who I don’t think has fully rezzed in when I took this snapshot.

Hiking OI1, Southeast 2 January 29, 2009

Continuing from Hiking OI1, Southeast 1, then. Interesting chromatically colored house — *starkly* chromatic — just beyond the unicorn mentioned at the end of that last post. Perhaps important to note that although the outside is basically colored red, the interiors of each floor are painted in all the 4 TILE colors. The walls of the 3 floors of the house, from top to bottom, are singly painted red, blue, and yellow. In addition, the stairs connecting these 3 levels are painted green. All very bright and very chromatic, again, just like the colors of TILE are suppose to be. I’ll keep this house in the back of my mind, then, when writing about TILE in the future, especially considering various SL manifestations of the game/philosophy/religion.

Just beyond the garishly colored house Baker Bloch comes across this burning car and thrown passenger. Noobs, eh? Always into trouble. 🙂

We’re now at the very, very southeast tip of the whole Otherland Island #1, particularly marked by the islet pictured here which appears to be somewhat less that 10 meters long and totally devoid of objects. This would be in Fredericks, actually.

Moving west along the southern coastline, quickly leaving behind Fredericks and entering Gardiner, Blochs soon comes across this high speed, more darkly colored waterfall.

In climbing the bank here in an attempt to find the source of the water in the falls, Baker Bloch is greeted by the sight of a quite large, similarly dark body of water. In again checking behind Baker today, Wilsonia Foxclaw is finding that this entire lake, and also the waterfall, is part of one parcel, thus seeming to negate the legitimacy of a true Otherlander stream. That is, although the water level drops in this “stream’, no part is protected by the Otherlander group, and no part is shared by more than one parcel. In other words, all this could go away in the blink of an eye, as they say, if the owner of the parcel decides to pull up the stakes and move elsewhere. No, I won’t get attached, then, to this particular waterway, however pretty it might be. Interesting how much darker it is than the “regular’ water of Otherlander. But this should have been a tip-off for Baker at the time that this was an unofficial waterfall. Something to remember in the future!

Interesting, large rock beside the darkly colored pond or lake. And there’s another little choo choo (!), although this one wasn’t operating at the time of Baker’s visit (and still isn’t during Wilsonia’s current visit, although Wilsonia has found a cobweb fronted tunnel that the train track passes through Baker missed).