A success!

Last night's NBC Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony virtual edition ended up going really well! At first, Linden Labs was still doing upgrades to the systems, and no one could get in to the sims. I managed to sneak in somehow, and went to NBC 11 to wait for the others, as that was where we were playing. Then Satchmo Prototype showed up, followed by Philip Linden. I'm happy to say I got to ice skate around a replica of the Rockefeller ice rink with Philip while waiting for the others to arrive.

I made up a little stage area, and set out the instruments... We finally got started about a half hour late, and ended up just playing fewer solo tunes but still fitting in the duets. The event took up 18 sims, at least, and from what I heard most of them were full with people at the borders trying to get in! The number of listeners kept climbing, from 300 to 400 to 500... Then near the end we hit a 650, and afterwards I heard we had peaked at about 1,000! That's just incredible :D I was also told that "NBC was pleased" with the results. I can't believe it... I had a hand in pleasing NBC! lol

It wasn't mentioned on the TV show at all that I could see, but what an honor to get to play for it!

NBC Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Frogg and I will be playing a sort of pre-show for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Apparently, NBC is going to have a "virtual tree lighting ceremony" in Secondlife! We have been asked to play from 4pm-6pm SL time (7pm-9pm EST) for the event. I'll post more when I know the details, but I believe the main link is here. I think it'll just be a kick to be mentioned on the NBC.com website, if they do!

Time for another entry...

I've been pretty lax in updating the blog lately. I got moved into my new office which is the picture accompanying this entry (albeit a little blurry). It's an okay office; at least it has a lot of windows to look out of. We had our first snow of the year last night. Right after I remembered to shut off and drain the lawn sprinkler system too... Hopefully avoided a lot of burst pipes!

Tonight Frogg and I play for Peter Newell and guests, and tomorrow we get to play another two hour show (I think) for something related to the tree lighting in New York! More on that later!

Working in a few ways!

Got a nice start on the cabin shared area that we all plan to use in the new Hawthouse land. It's going to be very slick and a fun place to kick back :D I've got a lot of the walls and floor done, and now just need to texture the rest... It's a ton of fun, and Eric is going to do the roof and doors (yay, I am so bad at those). I tend to work with right angles well enough, and line stuff up on the grid, but I don't do curves well it seems...

At my RL work, we're getting ready for a water rate increase of about 9.6% for folks. It just means the average water bill goes up about $1.20 a month, so no big deal, but it does bring in the much needed revenue for our water department, which had to do a lot of unexpected work this last year tearing up old pipes because of the highway department wanting to repave the roads on top of them. :)

Okay, back to the grind... But I have the evening off tonight! Can't wait to get back in and actually create something, versus running numbers and printouts here :(

Happy Monday

Well, the grid is down once again, so here's a funny picture in the meantime. Luckily the gird shutdown took place near the end of a show Frogg and I were doing and not near the beginning! People still got to listen in Winamp (or didn't close their clients hehe) so we ended up finishing the show to a delighted crowd both in SL and in IRC chat.

In other news, I'm now part of a new group called The Hawthouse, where we have a nice little 4k plot to do building and fun stuff on, in a fairly non-laggy sim! Should be fun, and I'll post pictures as they come up. Or, as SL comes up and I can save them off ^^

Moopf didn't do it...

Read this blog post from Moopf Murray. Moopf is a great person, who I had the fortune to meet in San Francisco during the SLCC. Moopf has created some wonderful vendors for selling things in SL, which I personally have used many times, and most recently bought some skates from to use in my friend Rosa's new ice skating platform. The problem is, one of Moopf's vendors was used to distribute the CopyBot robot which is creating real problems in SL right now. Apparently, even Linden Labs is holding Moopf responsible for it's use. That's like blaming the post office for sending letter bombs, and is just not right!

Go after the real people responsible, LL, and leave Moopf alone!!

Frogg Marlowe on MTV!

Catch Frogg Marlowe on his MTV segment here! I'm in it too... well, very very briefly as they pan to Frogg when they ask him how "Ain't No Women" got named :D

If you have trouble playing it, for whatever reason, check out Frogg Marlowe's homepage too for info on how to obtain it locally.

Back from the coast

Frogg and I made it back from the Oregon coast yesterday with only around a half hour to spare before a two-hour show at the Tropics for Taeja. Whew! It was nice to get to play again, though, and especially to play cover tunes (which we did almost none of during our coast stay).

We focused mostly on our original material at the coast. We ended up recording about 9 songs (two new ones and 7 others people would recognize) for a total of around 38 minutes! I liked them all, but Frogg might want to re-record a few because of some glitches here and there.

Had a fun time at the coast, for the most part... It was a little boring without the internet, so our "down time" was spent watching TV, but actually that was really relaxing and I was glad for the break. We took a walk on the beach at one point when it stopped raining, and went into town to get groceries, but otherwise stayed around the house occasionally breaking into song lol

Missed SL and all my friends I talk to online a lot though, and it's good to be back.

Dolmere's Interview

Yay, I got interviewed! With Frogg too! Dolmere did an excellent job and asked a lot of very interesting questions. The interview is here!

AmphibiCatt Gardens!

Guess what? No, not "chicken butt"... The picture to the left is a commemorative shot I took with Rosa at the finished AmphibiCatt Gardens! The venue is finally complete! The opening ceremony will be at our next Friday show, on November 17th, 2006. Hope to see you there!

A new blog post?

Yes, it is! Wish there was more to tell you, and pictures and stuff to post like I usually do, but this post is more because I've been feeling guilty letting a whole week go by!

We had a WONDERFUL time last Thursday at the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Series kickoff, with 25 people listening in at one point! It went so well, we're doing it again this Thursday at 8pm SL time too. Well, we'd be doing it anyway, but I'd glad it went well! Everyone complimented Eric and Rosa and I on the wonderful Heart of Gold build, and I even made some t-shirts for the occasion. Eric had a wonderful free to copy towel too that got handed out! Huzzah for such a fun time. The hour just flew by, too... They sure knew how to make radio shows back then...

The new venue in Black Mire / Lingmell is shaping up nicely too. It's turning into a very pretty park/stage/dancing area, and I can't wait to debut there with Frogg on Friday the 17th. Rosa and I have been diligently working hard on it to get it ready, and all the little details are really shaping up. I worked on most of the building parts, but Rosa has helped with the landscaping and fountains, and they are pretty sharp looking: a little microcosm of activity in each castle turret :)

Last but not least, Frogg and I are sequestering ourselves in a beach house starting Friday the 10th, for a three day weekend "vacation". We'll be jonesing for the internet the whole time, but that's the point! Sure, it might be relaxing to be at the Oregon coast, but our main purpose is to take all the music gear + mixer + laptop, and do some recording for the new duet album! We already have our list of songs ready, and here it is:

Songs to record
Ourabourous
Cliche Song
33.3 Degrees
Maybe Next Time
Never Argue With The Weather
Chardonnay
Last Day
Not Today
If I Grew Wings
Wishes Were Horses
Ostrich Sized
Some kind of Improv

To Learn
Moonlight Reflections

Maybe Pile
Mona