Friday, February 17, 2012

DAY OF THE FLYING PRIMS


TWO KNIGHTS IN SHINING ARMOR


(Event occured on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14)


I couldn't have known the enormous mistake I was about to make. The day started out most promising. My friend, Lilia Artis, had offered some wonderful decorating suggestions at the Caravan terminus parcel. Along the ramp, I had 6 very small pavilions which were nearly identical to my Binary Stable (see the original at the House of ACCentaury by the Sea). The wooden sections were dark. Lilia imagined that rustic, but colorful textures could enliven the look of the area, so I followed her advice for a very effective result. She also addressed the three small ramps I'd made leading to the lowest pavilions. Lilia asked permission to build. She constructed three low prim, but very attractive stairways as well as a gangway that runs parallel to the main ramp avenue. Next, she decorated two of the pavilions with her wares (LilArt Creation) while I arranged my paintings in the remaining houses. I should have left it all alone, but an idea for improvement kept nagging me. Wanting to link more land from the adjoining parcel to increase the number of prims we could use, (but not fully understanding permissions and the mathematics of parceling), suddenly hundreds of my prims flew into lost and found. It didn't stop there. Lilia's items were all returned, as well as the few prims Derek Michelson had in the parcel. Approximately 700 prims went missing, and yet Caravan showed that it was full to capacity and I could not return the items in lost and found to the parcel. WHAT to do?


First, Lilia came to my emotional rescue. When she got notices in her email that prims were flying into her lost and found from ACC Alpha, she logged in to see what was happening. She contacted me, and when she learned how extensive the damage was to my builds, she transported immediately to console me. Her presence was a huge moral support. But it was also practical support. She knows that when I obsess about something, I often carry worry into disastrous fixes. She advised me to wait till I could consult with Derek.


Derek Michelson came to the rescue (as he has done numerous times in the past). He instructed me to address ownership of the sim's parcels and to increase the object bonus to ten to make sure no other parcel would return prims from potentially over crowded parcels. In so doing, we could safely restore usable prims to the Caravan Terminus parcel. It worked flawlessly. But because my soft links included various permissions, I had to manually position the large links back to their original place, a process which took two hours. Lilia on the other hand, had more accommodating permissions which got her items back home in only minutes by simply clicking the box: Restore to Last Position.


The moral of the story is simple: Don't be stupid, but when you are, you can depend on friends.




..........................................................................

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

History repeats itself. The camels are back!


CARAVAN TERMINUS


There is a new parcel on ACC Alpha. There were several areas I was considering for a new commercial district on the sim, but Thaddeus Nadeau surprised me with his recommendation to place it in the gardens and along the north cliffs of the Plateau of Man parcel. It seemed like an assault on nature at first, but had an intriguing potential. So I began building. Not only did it not disturb the gardens, but it added sight lines that help to highlight the verdant landscape.


The Plateau of Man used to be a thriving area of the city, the place where hunts brought in a public to the upper floors of the Library of Darkrodin. Camel tours afforded visitors means to view the sim with the ease of a guide. When the top layers of the library came down about a year ago, the camel tours eventually died out as well. The gardens brought a quietness to the plateau.


I decided to make the merchant stalls into separate pavilions, a loose concept borrowed from the Topkapi palace in Istanbul. Each of the 7 structures has plenty of space around it, and a unique view. Most of the pavilions line the old 'caravan route' for the camel tours, thus giving the name Caravan Terminus.


The simple square floor plans of the buildings serve as a base for the unique treatment of the decor. No pavilion is identical to another. The center one received special treatment. It is quadruple in size, and is the only structure on ACC Alpha whose architecture is derived from a real world building. The plan was influenced by the Baghdad Kiosk of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. I moved the Japan Memorial fountain I'd made from the reflecting pond area to the interior of the light flooded kiosk. In addition, the space is now furnished with Arabian styled pillows arranged around a communal hookah. One of the camels on the other side of the room is ready for you to hop on its back for a tour. Yes, the camels have returned! Unlike the inexhaustible critters from the library days, these camels will take you on a short tour, around the gardens and the shops. Less is more, as one camel confided.


Click here to visit the Caravan Terminus.


.................................................................................................................................


Sunday, February 5, 2012

TREE HOUSE


Feb. 4, 2012


MEDUSA GALLERY KITCHEN moves to Sparquerry.


The Medusa Galley Kitchen, only a month old institution in ACC Alpha, is already in the process of being transfered to Sparquerry. The reason for its removal is based on ACC's deficit of prims, in conjunction with its new project to build up a merchant's quarter on the Plateau of Man. A sim should always have a reserve of at least 1,000 unused prims. ACC Alpha was down to 500. Its sister sim, Sparquerry is able to absorb the kitchen (café), and so today, the lengthy process of transferal began. Unlike its original location at the pier, in Sparquerry, the galley was placed right atop the Tree House, so that the bow of the ship shaped café sails thru the jungle's tree tops. Going to the top from the forest floor is an expression of verdant density. The views are far reaching from the top.


The photo above shows Two Ships facing each other. The one on the right is the newly arrived café (incorporated into the older build of the Tree House). The one on the left at ACC Alpha will soon be taken into inventory.


How to get there: Type Sparquerry into your map. There is a jungle before the main entrance to the Temple. Walk up the hill in the jungle and you will come to the scaffold-like structure of the Tree House. Walk up. All the way. Have a warm meal. Write a story at the typewriter, kick back, swim upstream on the flooded ship deck, or bake some bread.