back in SL, neglecting my blogs

So I've returned to Babbage and SL, actually have been back a month or so. As my RL situation has improved greatly, and I've even managed to get a decent desktop, one that unlike the laptops i've had for years, can run anything without overheating and shutting itself down on me. I've come back to New Babbage, and have rented land for a new part of Footman Industries, the Whewell Observatory (zombie lab is in the rotten house nearby). I was also supposed to kick off this years october RP (taking a break from zombies since they've become a little predictable, only so many variations of zombie outbreaks you can do every year) I started the first zombie outbreak years ago when I first rented in Babbage and built the electric eel power plant, Mayor Tenk approached me to ask about the possibility of my doing it due to the fact my character's pretty much a shambling corpse, I had help with the behind the scenes work with Elleon and Dr. Dayafter. I fully intended to do it every year, but then october became my busy month, between working haunted houses, and other rl haloween events. Victor1st Mornington took over. I was going to take it back last year, but at the time I was looking to move in RL from a bad living situation, and the house I did move to, it took over a month of fighting with the cable company to get someone over to isntall it when someone was actually home, as I now work weekdays during the times the cable company wants to send someone. So i'm not too sure what happened, if vic took it over again, or it flumped or what. But this year, tenk approached me again, victor was out for these, and everyone had gotten used to annual zombie infestations, so I worked out something different. and made an event for both the opening of my observatory, and to kick off events for it. And the cable for my street was cut..... Fotunatly one of the few people I know both sl and rl was on , I was able to text her and have her let everyone know I wasnt able to get on for it, and now I have to find another time, get this thing going, while working a full time job and my weekends largely in a haunted house. And I keep telling myself I do it because I love halloween

also, state of RL

And in updating this blog, I forgot to say anything about the details with the new job, and all. I've already said before how 2012 had been, pretty much, a terrible suckful year. Between losing my business and main source of income, losing my home, losing my *good* computer, and having to take a minimum wage job, again, in retail hell, the first couple months saw me living in a basement apartment, where the gas fireplace that sold me on the room, did not work, and once I moved in, I found out the house I moved to was in a constant state of foreclosure, and it had serious mice problems I was not aware of. But still once I had internet, I was ok with tough it out, since at least the space was about the size of a good sized studio apartment. Then my retail job started playing games with my hours, as expected after the holidays, and my other job at what I've come to lovingly call 'mcPrints', started in on me. This was the job that was actually starting to give me the hours, if not the pay, I needed to make ends meet, and I honestly enjoyed at least half of what I was doing, but then they had a genius idea to buy into a consulting firm's copy+paste plan, toss millions at them, to get a 'new program' they could push on all of us that worked there, that for the most part, if your position required you actually, you know, do stuff like mine did (working in the print center trying to put together an encyclopedia in an hour or less most of the time), it pretty much interfered with the job. Then, not happy enough with that, the overlords decided to push management to hire more people, while taking away hours from the store, so I got to see my hours suddenly trickle away little by little until nothing was left. I just got a letter today informing me I was elligable for benefits now, when I haven't worked there in months, I have the feeling they still haven't officially fired me despite me talking to the manager. Meanwhile as an aside, I did have the unfortunate oppertunity while working there of meeting the district manager, who didn't seem to fully grasp the concept of being colorblind and did not like that my shirt was the wrong shade of blue. During this time, the landlord got back with the ex of 20+ years, who decides the basement was not to be an appartment, and i get moved into a tiny guestroom less than a third the size, with an apartment's worth of stuff. Currently I have a foot clearance between my bed and my desk, everything else is stacked along the walls as my living situation gets worse. Landlord and ex-ex flip flop on just letting the bank forclose on the house, manage to chase away all other tenants but me (as I had nowhere to go), and get into a nice tiff where I got to hear the sounds at 4 am of an idiot going through smashing everything they could. Landlord did get me a breif job filing for his company, ideally it was supposed to become a permanent position, but bossman didn't cooperate and once the filing system was finally set up, that was it. Then the company my brother works for finally found their main HR person had only been letting her friends and family through the hiring process. I had applied a year ago before the disaster that cost me my home, jumped through all the general employment hoops, and was met with a no-thanks. usually I do all the hoops, I get hired. It turned out she was passing people over in favor of friends and relatives. My brother contacted me to let me know she was caught and canned, and now was the time to try again. I went, did the whole song and dance, and have been offered a job. Paid training starts monday. Things are looking up, this is a company that handles health insurance for the state, so it's relatively stable, as long as there's still a state, they'll still be around. It's the call center, basically looking up people's information when they call, answering questions, that sort of thing. but it's a normal schedual, at least during the paid training. Weekdays only, even if asked to work in the evening, it will never be past 8PM, and pays just under $20 an hour. I start monday, my first paycheck will be on the 13th for around 800, and I'll be able to afford a real apartment again. Already started looking, since nothing's really available until the end of october anyway.

I had posted this to new babbage, SL is going to Steam, given the majority of the babbage folk, not alot of attention to that post, but whatever. As a big user of Steam, i play TF2, Half Life, DDO, LOTRO, etc, this is good news. haven't heard as much about how it'll kill SL, surprisingly not even alot of neggative comments from babbage, or any comments at all from that part of the grid. but it'll give SL more attention, more people joining and building things, etc. the steam community already has alot of creative types, we make TF2 maps and items, indy games, and movies using the source film maker. SL on steam just seems to make sense

Grey Roleplay

I started using the term 'Grey Roleplay' in some areas lately, I found about it when Dr. Dino was visiting Deshima Station.  Since he's the time traveller character, he's often the one I go to other sims with the most (aside from an aborted attempt at RPing Grendel Footman's decendant in Insilico, first step in, and a GM yells at me about my skin not being realistic 0.o)

back into fall

So Dr. D's largly ignored bid to take over Babbage has ended, Arnold and some urchins pretty much wising up to what her was doing (and the rest, I'm making it out to be a 'They Live' scenario, you all were under mind control, you just didn't know it!) It was the usual at first, most of Babbage doing their best to ignore it, and saying very little about it so the ones interested in RP might not know as any of Dr. D's blogs on the site get buried in RFL posts instead. But close to the end, it really picked up, Arnold, Gilly, Viv, Felicia, Heliosense, and Sonnerstien did a good job, some of it even extended into mondrago. But the airship crashed with the villian possibly dead, the urchins and cat saved the day, as the hypno eyes all went dead. and noone's the wiser. Meanwhile the RL end of things, I've gotten the real job I was hoping for, and start monday. Nothing too exciting, it's a call center for state insurance, but I'll be making a real wage once again, and have a normal schedual, so no more sacrificing my late nights and weekends for a store. And by the end of october I plan on moving out to better space, with enough space I can live and work on my own stuff comfortably. The people who had contacted me to photoshop their pictures flaked on me, as i had a feeling they would, but otherwise things on the RL end have looked up. Gizzy also apparantly is returning to Sl, she'd been off and on on an alt that I knew of, but had IM'd she wanted to bring Gizzy back soon, the last time Gizzy was active, was just before Cala Mondrago was shut down, when I had put her in charge of my shop and research center there (she wanted a change of pace and liked the setting.) I have sort of gotten myself involved in a bit of a big load though. Since the past few zombie weeks in babbage had been handled by Victor mcMorning, and given the short term memories of SL, this timelord's been pretty much considered the zombie guy. And I sound whiney when I point out, OOC of course, that I had let loose the original infection. So after a comment on the site about zombie innoculations and how the best way to prevent it was to lock up McMorning, I spoke up, and after hearing how he didn't really want to do it this year again, or last year either, had sent a message to Tenk, the mayor of babbage offering to come back and let loose another zombie plauge. Had an idea for possibly infected sealife to climb out of the vernian ala Gyo, as it was apparant that there had been some burnout last year, and it's essentially been the same plot a couple times now, had even worked out how it happened when I don't have a physical lab in town and won't for at least another month. Until Tenk mentioned Morloks, now I'm working out how to make the avi, make freebee avis, and how exactly to pull off Morloks, on top of the new job starting, and looking for a new place RL, so...heading to Marekesh Mondrago for Footman's vacation may wait a bit. I've also seen some more dedicated RP sims I knew of, close down. Dark Eden, a W40k RP sim I'd gone to visit once or twice to hang out with a rouge trader friend there, apparantly dissappeared, no word what happened or why. The sim was the only w40k RP dedicated sim I had ever found on my travels, (most ended up just combat arenas with plywood blocks and space marines with giant afro's or furry heads gestulating) It took some liberties with canon, but I do myself with the background for my dark eldar army (they had female space marines, AND female orks). I had intended to start a character there based off my inquisitor character, but had become wrapped up in RP in a few sims at the time, so never did. There's few w40k themed RP sims in SL, though a ton of avatars. the dark eldar faction apparantly moved to a new sim called Commoraugh, but visiting, it feels like a generic dark fantasy sim that's mixed in dark elda and tau with it's fae and mermaids. And Legacies closed down. I never got around to visiting, and frankly never really knew it as anything but another vampire sim (wich i dont have as much interest in. I had been contacted by someone there, looking for a dedicated steampunk RP sim for her and her group. I'm not sure if any of them settled in Babbage, but I let them know, it's a nice collection of sims, there is a population of roleplayers, but it's definatly not dedicated to RP and be prepared to have to RP around people. That's when I worked out it wasn't just vampires, and now kind of wish I had checked it out . There is a relatively new sim, Serenity Falls, that uses the same system, and is apparantly an offshoot of Legacies. I've gone a couple times and likely will post IC blogs ofter zombie week in babbage is over. but i have to say it's close to what I'd been looking for myself. Dedicated RP without being too strict and anal retentive, ala Warren Town and Rivit Town were, Open to all sorts of character concepts, even the magical ones that babbage kind of shies away from, the meter is pretty interesting, with a large amount of skills, and an emphasis on dice rolling rather than just clicking things (combat's the 'hold a mouse button down and move style', but player's fighting each other is RP'd out more, so that's not too bad, and th NPC monsters are apparantly affected by any bullet). It's a pocket dimension held stable by a demoness from legacies, where many of the refugees have gone. They have travel back and forth via portals, and leave it pretty open to whatever background your character is, you come from historical london, where demons and fae don't exist, you'll still fit, you come from babbage with mad science and the demon and fae's do exist, you'll fit, you come from Miskatonic, you'll still fit. I have not seen many furries yet, though i hve met fae and a possessed doll. The only downside I can say, is i don't see as much steampunk outside a building and an airship in the northern part, Torn oak, it's more flat victorian with lots of fantasy elements. Once things in RL and Sl slow down I'll be checking it out more

state of RL and RP

So I haven't been posting on these blogs, I've been Rping, somewhat, but neglecting the blog part, only posting in my Babbage blogs, wich sort of defeats the purpose of keeping seperate character blogs, that being, to keep blog posts recorded should NB ever decide to change websites again. RL has been chuggng on. I managed to get a temp job for a couple months filing for my landlord's company. Unfortunatly the landlord also got back with his ex, who decidedthe basement should not be an apartment and it should be the 'common room' instead (IE his tv room). so I'm in a much more cramped spce for the time being. The temp job jut ended, but I've already been contacted for a graphics project, and an interview end of the week for a real job with a normal schedual. My primary goal for now is to get to a point where I can move out to a place ofmy own, preferably with no housemates or live-in, manic depressive landlords who mistake me for their therapist. Anyway, I've been on my alt more often the last few months. Attempted to kick off an RP with him involving hypnosis devices. I built the devices and put them around New Babbage, and in typical NB fashion, most ignored them. After a few months of occasional mention by well meaning types, and semi-IC snark, finally had some get interested. And so far it's gotten good, with robotic raptor attacks that even other people are making more IC comments on. I'm coming to te conclusion I can only really pull off roaming monster RP if I want to get the rest of the town involved. Unfortunatly, the temp job I was working in RL ended about the time rent on Dr. D's airspace was due, and it's a little too soon to blow up the airship. Fortunatly I've gotten an offer to house his tardis on their land for a time, so he has a base at least, and can always rezz the airship when it's needed. That's the nice thing about airships, they're mobile. Grendel, I hven't done as much with inworld. It's easier for me to RP on grendel when he has a lab or location for his less than ethical experiments in human reanimation. And with the current broke status again, and the destruction of Wylde Hospital, he's without such a space currently. I have plans and future RP for him, but most of the old Ordo Absconditus/Footman Industries crew aren't around the stamlands as much either, with Gizzy leaving SL and Langain giving up on Babbage. Star's still around but mostly focused on her own evil alt, so maybe it's time to give Grendel a short vacation and let a character unassociated with Footman Industries do his thing for a bit. I'd say Dr. D could be the next Dr. O, but frankly, that would involve more of babbage actually considering him a threat.

alot in RL has happened

Hadn't actually been in New Babbage much for about half a year, or in SL at all really.  RL has seen fit to give me a constant sucession of setbacks, first Irene last year caused my basement to flood, causing the destruction of the majority of items for my ebay store, a few hundred dollars in art supplies 3/4ths my comic book collection that went back to my dad's time,  paypal killing my RL businesses (finishing off my ebay business for Irene in the process) leaving me penniless for at least 2 months.  I then lost my home to disaster, hospital time as a result, my laptop that wasn't destroyed in one of the 2 disasters, finally died on me when the power slot died. intense stress, frustration, and depression, a  forced  last moment move when I could ill afford to, and for the first time in five years, I've had to go back to retail hell, not one, but 2 retail hells, causing most of my time to be devoured by ranting idiots.
I have gotten a laptop that *sort* or works, though it handles SL like a pregnant yak in heat handles moving, and for january into mid-february refused to go online at all.  and currently renting out a basement apartment that is a far cry from the home I once had.

I am doing better though, slowely working on getting myself back to where I was before everything happened.  I've been sending out resumes, applying for real, non-retail-jobs, going to portfolio reviews for the sudden mass of graphic design jobs in the area i'm suddenly seeing advertised, and so on.

So, obviously, SL hadn't been much of a priority through all this.  I've logged on occasionally since gettingthe computer to recognize internet again, mostly for rare appearance of dr. dinosaur at parties.  I had not participated in Loki's RP last year, as it came about in the middle of everything, have not built anything for oiler's festival, and have not really worked on any new RP's to kick off on my own.
Footman Automotons had been returned as I knew it would be, I did write a blog in the BAR to explain where it went (usually if I know I won't be keeping land anymore, I blow my building up or otherwise RP why it is now an empty lot, the one thing that kills immersion in babbage is how cities disappear overnight with no word, leaving behind a perfectly cobbled vacant lot), but that's about it.   Until I can improve my work situation, wich my goal is end of summer to have a real job and be back to where I was, I'm not sure when I'll be renting land again, and have learned it's much easier to support and run an RP plot if you have land (if for no other reason than to have a place to barricade out the anti-rp faction).  I am slowly getting back into building, and considering meshes, though the hoops i hear you have to go through is daunting, and I'm unsure if I have time right now, Otherwise I do have some future RP plots floating around that I hope to be at a point to kick them off by the time RFL ends (another reason I've largely been absent, though last year they weren't forcing RFL on you as much)