My third rezday was last Saturday and while I wasn't able to make it inworld until late in the day, I did have a lovely time once I made it in.

( Cut for length and photography )

Beginning has been spending enough time inworld on her own (at my insistence) that she's considering starting a blog of her own to detail her adventures. I'll let everybody here know the moment she does.

So a year ago, after a rather extraordinary night and a strange day spent recovering from it, I swung by my parents' house to borrow their computer since that was the only way I could get on SL at the time.

Miles and I sent cell phone text messages back and forth in the hopes of arranging a meetup there. Miles urged me to go to the Saturn Grill while I waited for her to arrive.

So I searched for Saturn Grill and thus I arrived at Quantum Fields for the first time.

The Saturn Grill is apparently the SL rendering of a RL restaurant. Just outside of it, people were dancing to the tunes being spun by DJ Lysander Lemuria (Miles Montgolfier's RL brother.) There was also a mechanical bull that you could hop on the back of and see how many seconds you could hold on before you were thrown off. (It was fun. I miss that bull.)

Miles never managed to make it inworld that particular night before I gave up and drove home, but I did return and Miles and I spent many a night there dancing and getting to know the ways of Positive Quantum Energy. I remember when Miles gave me a slew of freebie skins and clothes (to help me shed some of the newbie look I was still carrying) on top of the giant robot they used to have there.

When my Very Dear Friend, Beginning Thursday, first incarnated into SL on a Thursday night, Quantum Fields was one of the first places she went, at my recommendation. She was made very welcome in short order.

Over the year I've been there, I've watched the place grow and change, watched them move the dance floor from place to place (much to my frustration!) and now the shop I've been talking about opening for yay these many months is officially open there. (Just down a bit from the Saturn Grill, actually.)

And, to celebrate the year anniversary of my arrival, they've been having their second Positive Quantum Energy festival all this weekend in my honor! Okay, maybe not. Though it is funny how that worked out.

Drop by sometime and see the place that has shaped so much of my Second Life. The PQE Festival runs through Sunday, but the PQE will always be there year-round . . .


posted by CyFishy Traveler on Quantum Fields using a blogHUD : [permalink]

A little before I started this blog, I came across the second_lifers community and found out about places like Kadarin Hall and Grizzy's Cafe. I was there when kateamdahl was first asking for ideas for a place she wanted to build where people could have fun in a more intellectually stimulating fashion than Second Life usually provides.

The result was The Diversionarium, and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that it wasn't until recently that I finally gave it a visit, having been such an enthusiastic supporter of the idea from the early stages. But, I finally made it and the landmark now sits in the "Hangouts" folder in my inventory.

My first few visits were solo experiences, as there were no scheduled events, but there are still ways to keep oneself amused even alone. Quoste (a guess-the-word game that involves notable quotations) can be fun in a group, but can also be played by oneself. They also have games like Chess and Reversi for duos, and Mystery Build for larger groups (more on that later.)

I went another night when the lovely nox_pinion was hostessing. We had a long chat about ideas for a sort of newbie tips website I've been thinking about creating so people entering Second Life for the first time would be a little more prepared. We were joined by featherfoot Fadoodle (azureavian) and she in turn invited a few more friends (whose names and LJs, if any, I have lost track of.) I played a game of Reversi with Nox (I won, but probably because Nox was too distracted by hostessing duties to pay full attention to the game) and then we decided to convene upstairs and ended up playing a few rounds of Mystery Build.

I really enjoyed Mystery Build, because it is one of those things you can really only do easily in Second Life. The closest RL equivalent would be Pictionary, but instead of drawing, you have to build a representation of the word out of prims. The slightly frustrating thing is that the scripted object that runs the game decides if someone has guessed correctly, and close guesses don't always count. I had to create "a bowl of cereal" and someone guessed "cereal bowl" very early on, but the script didn't parse it as a successful guess, but did accept just "cereal". Of course, by that point I'd not only made the bowl, I'd made the box and was tilting it over the bowl and adding little bits of cereal streaming from the top. Anybody who wants practice their building skills, my goodness, it's a great way to do it.

On another visit to the Diversionarium, I ran into another LJ denizen, argent_bury, inworld for the first time. I'd been wandering in boyshape at the time and she was a bit surprised to see me thus. I showed her one of the few male outfits I have--the Blaze tuxedo that I still treasure--and she changed into her little black dress to match.

( click for pic . . . )

I got a notice that DJ Lysander was doing his thing at QTLabs, and I decided to wander over there for a bit.

I have a little more time to work with than I did, so I may be spending a little more time inworld. Just have to be careful that I don't get too absorbed in it at the cost of those pesky RL obligations.

Miles Montgolfier and Yours Truly have a curious relationship in SL, because we actually know each other in RL. Our schedules being what they are, we generally see more of each other in SL than RL, but once in a while I'll schlep my laptop over to Miles' apartment and use the WiFi so we can play and hang out at the same time.

Last night was such a night. We had a nice evening of beer, green tea and lip gloss whilst meeting and greeting in SL with Miles' various friends and acquaintances, who I am also getting to know. At one point, Miles' computer crashed, so I explained to her guests what had happened. BrightLeaf Gastel suggested that maybe she was afk and I explained, no, we're in the same room, I'm watching the computer reboot, she'll be right back, honest.

It was an odd confession to make, almost like I'd broken the fourth wall or revealed a secret. But it's not like I never speak of my RL in SL--I'll mention when I'm drinking wine or doing the laundry when I'm chatting in a dance club. I'll even mention what city I live in as long as somebody doesn't a/s/l me in an IM first thing without so much as a how-do-you-do. So mentioning that I'm right next to Miles in RL as well as SL wasn't, in the grand scheme of things, that much of a revelation.

Miles showed off some of the work she's been doing on her place. She uploaded some new textures that are based on photographs of the ceiling of the Biltmore Hotel. Some she actually put on the ceiling, others are currently hovering in midair on a cube she built to experiment with.

We hung out for a while at Miles' place with Sacred Singh, BrightLeaf Gastell and an old friend of Miles', Succuba Cerminara. BrightLeaf and I attempted to troubleshoot why Sacred wasn't getting streaming music in SL anymore (looks like it may be a firewall issue--we gave her a temporary workaround.) Sacred and Succuba had to leave, BrightLeaf went on ahead to Quantum Fields for DJ Lysander's set and Miles and I changed clothes and ended up having a chat with Miles' neighbors, Apelles Luna and Ciara Ashton. (They actually showed up at Miles' digs under their alts, but the names elude me and I neglected to screenshot them.) We invited them to join us at Quantum Fields and we all went to dance for a few hours. For some reason, they moved the dance out of the Event Center and onto the boardwalk in front. (The Quantum Tribe people have an odd habit of rearranging things on their island periodically, which makes many landmarks absolutely useless over time.)

Lysander handed the DJ duties over to Miles around 10:00 SL time and Miles DJed for the rest of the night. I'd had too much beer to drive home safely, so I crashed at Miles'.

So far, the update seems to be running okay for me, though the initial rough patches after the changeover were a little frustrating. We'll see how it shakes out over time.