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What I do during SL downtimes

It’s Wednesday, folks, which means that Second Life is down for the latest update. SL addicts the world over, shaking from withdrawal symptoms, turn to other activies, like sparring in the forums, or trading silly links in IRC. You might ask, What does Cubey do during SL downtimes? Well… I’ll tell you…

I start my day having completely forgotten about the planned downtime. I go to my kitchen, brew a pot of coffee, and plan my morning’s work in my head. The beans are hand-roasted by a guy in Steveston BC, and are quite delicious. Much better than that Terrabucks swill. Steaming mug in hand, I sit down at my computer and log in.

After my seventh or eighth login attempt, the reality sinks in. SL is down. And that’s when I start knocking my head against the monitor. Not hard — just enough to make a good “bong” sound that kind of resonates a little. I think the precise note this produces is G sharp.

So after a good fifteen minutes of G sharp, there’s considerable blood on the monitor, since that’s the nature of head wounds. Though gory, it gives me a medium in which I can work. I’ll spend a while finger-painting red airplanes on red runways, with little red workers in red jumpsuits driving red fuel trucks. This blessed reprieve from withdrawal is shortlived, however, since the blood clots and dries within minutes.

It’s important, when deprived of Second Life, to distract yourself. Clicking Belaya’s horrifying links in IRC works for only a short time, and pushing coins up your nose yields few positive results beyond a surprising ability to pick up radio broadcasts.

The best distraction that I’ve found is to strip naked, sit on the window sill, and scream the theme song to “Farscape” There are lots of good screamy bits in that one.

As an aside, if your neighbours object to the presence of a bloodied, screaming, naked person, you may wish to try the backup distraction, which requires a bottle of Vietnamese vodka, a toilet plunger, and two live ducks. Contact me for details.

By the time the police are done with me, it’s around noon and Second Life is back online.

What do you do during SL downtimes?

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Build your own skydiving center

Arguably, skydiving is the single most popular sport in Second Life. If, that is, you consider falling from a ridiculously high altitude a sport. That’s why more and more business owners are looking to install their own skydiving facility as an added attraction.

It’s a great idea — if you own a club or a shop, for example, you can draw a bigger crowd by giving them something fun and exciting to do. Or you can open a skydiving school, and teach the novice parachutist how to fall from a plane and not become a pancake. Or maybe you want to keep a private skydiving setup on the roof of your home, just for you and your friends.

Whatever the reason, here’s how you can get started. First, pick up the basic equipment from my shop:

  • A skydiving pod with either 4 or 8 seats. These come with a launch pad.
  • A skydiving target. These are free. It keeps track of the top 20 best jumps and keeps stats on up to 25 individuals.
  • Optional: A skydiving drop ship. This lets you fly groups of skydivers over a target and drop them.

Next, contact me in IM for a skydiving gear vendor. The vendor not only includes all of my regular gear, like the sport chutes, skyboards, helmets, etc, but also has the free items, like the E-Chute and Jump Tracker.

I can set up the vendor anywhere on your property and make it movable, so that you can reposition it if you have to. When you IM me, be sure to mention the location, including the X, Y, and Z position. Example: Abbotts(40,160,50). Alternatively, you can drop a landmark on my profile, and then let me know by IM.

I hope to see more of these facilities springing up all over SL. Happy landings!

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My latest stuff

It’s been a while since I last updated this blog, mostly because I’ve been resting up for a bit before throwing myself back into my top secret lab. Hidden away in a dark corner of my Inventory are two new projects that are each only days away from completion. That’s still a significant amount of work, though, so I need to rest up before launching into that.

Since my last entry, I’ve renovated the front of the Aerodrome and made a start on the new Terrabucks. The public aircraft build area in the northeast corner of Abbotts received a facelift, and in the northwest corner, my shop is now ten meters lower. Yes, for some reason, I felt compelled to drop everything exactly ten meters. Weird.

In other news, I have a new version of my ever-popular Terra Teleporter. The Mk.IV Teleporter is only two prims, and one is temp-on-rez — so only 1 prim will count against your prim limit. It has assorted other improvements too. Like the previous teleporters, the Mk.IV is 100% free with full permissions. Please give it away to all your friends (share it — don’t sell it).

Pick up the Mk.IV teleporter inside my shop at Abbotts Aerodrome.

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Abbotts reborn

Over two years ago, Apotheus Silverman and I set down the first building blocks that would become Second Life’s busiest airport — Abbotts Aerodrome. We’ve undertaken some renovations over the years, and slowly evolved the form to suit the function. With each change, and with each parcel of land, the Aerodrome grew more complex.

But throughout the Aerodrome’s evolution, there was always the same basic plan — a central tower with a few floating decks, spaced 20 meters apart. Until this week, many of the original deckplates even remained.

Central building at Abbotts Aerodrome. Click to enlarge.Now that’s all changed. As I explained to the other Aerodrome group officers, I went mental and tore everything down. In it’s place, I put up the airport I wanted to see. This new one doesn’t obscure the hillside, but instead follows the contour. The main deck offers hundreds of square meters more space, while the shops and attractions use the space more efficiently.

Central building at Abbotts Aerodrome. Click to enlarge.The skydiving center is now a self-contained building that houses the skydiving pods, and there’s a new attraction — a heliport on the Abbotts hilltop with free demo flights of Jillian Callahan’s helicopters. The AI planes still take off regularly, now from the new ground-level runway, and the airship tours will be added soon.

There’s still lots more to come… we have over 3000 prims free. That means more stuff to do and see.

But first, I’m taking a little breather. As it turns out, it’s a lot of work to rebuild half a sim.