The Moon Descends

Nordsjøen

Nordsjøen is alive, and an unruly spring has come upon the land. With its disruptions comes good developments as well. Nae grew her beloved Forest, where I took a lovely photo of her there. I travelled east and attempted to erect the old Castle; a failed attempt though, it sat there in awkward pieces. I became filled with frustration and left it unfinished. Arachne was terribly disheartened by the failure, and lamented the loss of the original Nordsjoen lands. Nae gave consolation to her in the Forest.

Nordsjøen

Meanwhile, Camælle was about to be born. I just finished the rooftop of Nae's Temple when Vulpes tested various pody parts and clothing for the new family member. She met the newborn Camaelle Nordsjoen in the Fire Garden. Shortly after, Nae appeared and welcomed her to Nordsjøen.

Nordsjøen

She loved the seashore but felt a little out-of-body in this newfound world. Arachne met her there, she too feeling uneasy about the construct of this "fickle paradise", as Nae so aptly put it.

Nordsjøen

Camaelle left a gift, a completed SitAnywhere attachment, and left it on the shoreline for all of them to take. Nae was the first to pick up a copy, quite relieved in its completion (her attempt wasn't as successful...), and was overjoyed.

Nordsjøen

I was determined to get the Castle in to Nordsjøen. I toiled for about 10 hours, until at long last it was completed. I christened it Arachne's Castle and gave it to her as a present. She was overjoyed and excited to see it in one piece, intact. Meanwhile, Nae began work on the Moon, which was the skydome. She painted it to appear like a moon, and erected a beautiful terrace inside, which she named the Garden of Heaven.

Nordsjøen

They all (except Vulpes) met up in the Garden of Heaven and discussed all the new happenings. Arachne was drawing a blank as to what to fill the Castle with; they all determined I need to add more stuff from the Linden Grid for them to continue. At the time, I was totally exhausted. Vulpes checked it out, but felt it a tad too "Christmas-y" and left the work to Arachne.

An occurrance outside the North Sea ended with my complete devastation and vow to never "go out drinking" again. In the aftermath, due to some portions of that experience, I possessed tools to finalize Camaelle's design.

Nordsjøen

As I finished, I looked at her, as she was staring out to sea, much like when she was newborn and troubled, when she spoke with Arachne. Her beauty overtook my soul, which began overflowing with love and terror, and my furious drop into darkness sent her to vanish. I returned to Nordsjøen, in a terrible state of mind. It was midnight, and I ran into the Castle basement. I called out to Nae, and she appeared there.

Nordsjøen

She advised to have Camaelle in her care for now.
We rested, and I fell into a peaceful sleep.

Expansion

Nordsjøen

Arachne dropped in and revamped the OTE meeting room. I felt in the mood to work on building. I eventually might work with Vulpes to add some rocks around the Fire Garden. So far I hollowed out the basement underneath Nae's Temple and began working on some rooms for us all.

Nordsjøen

I made myself a room while a little aggravated in Starbucks. It seems to reflect my emotion then. I created a room for Nae, and a large expanse for Arachne's beloved Nightmare Room.

Nordsjøen

I tend to freeze when I'm in her room so I called her to meet me. I met with her there for a time, and spoke. She was concerned I hadn't checked with Nae in a while, thought it might help me, so we said goodbyes and I flew up to Nae's Room, where I met with her there.

Nordsjøen

It was good to see her. We talked for a little bit. "What a fickle paradise this is" she commented... I agree.

I left and didn't return for a day or so. I tried designing a room for Vulpes but couldn't come up with any good ideas. She returned to Nordsjøen and setup her room, quite nicely I think. She had been talking to Arachne for a little bit. They called me there, and after Arachne left, Nae stopped by to see the new place.

Nordsjøen

Instrumentality is moving forward still, yet at it's usual slow pace. I discovered the correlation of seasons with the XX fragments, and christened Arachne with a middle name. For spring, Camælle Chalal Nordsjøen; for summer, Vulpes Voluptas Nordsjøen; for autumn, Arachne Abraxas Nordsjøen; and for the winter, of course, Nae.

Time marches on...

High Noon

Nordsjøen

Reborn has been a blessing and curse. Half the time it crashes. I ended up being able to grab the last main textures via sone LSL tricks and Stored Inventory (which used to be called Second Inventory). With that, I've got my main look about me finally in Nordsjøen, as well as giving birth to the XX01 fragment, appearing as Vulpes Voluptas. She and I erected a somber "fire" garden on the shoreline.

Just getting to this point in Nordsjøen's history took what feels like a lifetime. And now I stand at the threshold of a rebirth, at long last. The Twilight is far, but not out of sight. It's high noon.

I felt mentally breathless when we finished the fire garden. Vulpes did the finishing touches, then I met her there. We spoke for a short time under starlight.

The garden had the desired effect. I thought about what I've found so far in my Instrumentality project, and so much left undetermined and undocumented. Speaking with her was a little comforting. We talked about who we were and our roles in the Instrumentality, my unfinished second volume of my Instrumentality chronology, Chronosophia, and what light of the Twilight we'd discovered thus far. I told her, I felt lost.

Our conversation helped affirm some things. That said, there's still a long span to travel before the sun begins to go down on the Day.

When I logged out I felt good. Things are beginning.

Now, to design and build!

Nordsjøen, Reborn

Nordsjøen

A lot of time has passed.

The Second Life grid feels more like a memory than anything else. I haven't logged on in months, save the few brief moments using Reborn to grab some much-needed AO animations out of the Main Grid. (Reborn is a sleek, power-user viewer I bought from INF. A life-saver, if you ask me!)

Nordsjøen, my offline, stand-alone region running on my Toshiba laptop, had been left sitting untouched for almost a half-year. I begun the Sim about when Nae Avora was born. Nae didn't spend much time in the Main Grid. She and I met in Satarin for a time, to pay tribute to the lost Nordsjoen lands of the Main Grid. I still miss them. I think Ael Merlin was the only visitor to Nordsjoen II, if I remember right. At any rate, I'm pretty sure Charity helped me CopyBot the castles.

So work is slowly beginning in the reborn Nordsjøen. I recreated the "Iron Sun" sky-sphere, a bit better I must admit. Nae and Arachne are the inhabitants so far. Still makes me grin to think I've actually had a Main Grid visitor inside my own Sim, though he was pretty immature, now that I think of it.

I press onward despite many First Life difficulties. With what's probably the only concrete clash of OTE sentiment versus popular male culture, its ignorant representatives (my now old roommates) managed to get me thrown in jail, and I had to find a new place to live. That said, I lack an Internet connection at home now, so like a sorry derelict I must drag my various mobile devices from Starbucks to Starbucks to get small packets of work done. An hour is hardly enough time to accomplish much, so working at "work" is not very feasible. Having the Nordsjøen server offline ends up being more of a blessing than I first imagined.

Main problem at this point is performance. I get about an average of ~8 frames-per-second, even when I use the heavily optimized Reborn viewer. Make that 3-4 frames-per-second when two viewers are open, if, god help me, I try transferring items from one avatar to another. It's my main computer's graphics card. Not only does that Toshiba have an incredibly flimsy plastic case, which I can thank for having its power port nearly falling off the motherboard, but I failed to find out it has an amazingly crappy graphics card (AMD Radeon X1200), and seems AMD discontinued support/driver upgrades for it. Windows Vista is the only OS that I've tried that even half-heartedly utilizes its graphics acceleration, Linux simply choking on any 3D task. I can't blame Linux itself, the card is a piece of sh*t.

Unfortunately Reborn is a per-computer licensed program, so when (=if) I get a better computer, I'll need to purchase it again. That's not a terribly bad deal though, considering its abilities. Hacked God Mode is a wonderful thing. So is animation exporting, and the other stuff the original CopyBot app is cumbersome to accomplish (and having to turn off my anti-virus to have CopyBot work is a little disheartening).

Many of the Kesra fragments have evolved, split, or faded away. Nae Avora (Nae Nordsjøen on the Nordsjøen server) is a complete avatar, and Arachne (Arachne Kiranov in Nordsjøen) has sticked around to be a regular, too. Most of the latter fragments dissolved. Voluptas was rather passing, and I suspect became an influence for Vulpes Nordsjøen, who ended up becoming Camælle Nordsjøen. Camælle transfigured into Camælleon, who reincorporated back into Nae, a sort of "atonement" for her initial fragmentation, I believe.

Just as always, music is continuing to be a major influence for my creative efforts. I've always been heavily influenced by Joy Electric; many other bands have been influential also, of course. When I first got ahold of Radiohead's OK Computer, it moved my soul deeply. Listening to In Rainbows furthered my fascination with them. Recently I rediscovered their musical beauty with Kid A and Amnesiac, and they've been a large portion of my daily listening. We'll see where time takes me.

Since last November I knew somehow that 2011 would be a year of change and development. It shows itself every day. It's not been long but many emotions have come, and many changes seen. I feel a slight apprehension for the rest of the year, but I also feel a hope, too.

Death and Rebirth

Satarin

I haven't updated this blog in a while, lots have changed.

Nordsjoen in Sienso Tala, with Castle Wyrd, and Nordsjoen II in Satarin, with Castle Verthandi, have been abandoned due to Linden expenses. My account is reverted back to Basic (free), with no more land.

Nordsjoen lives on, welcoming the birth of Nae Avora. I will permanently appear as the [./XY2] fragment. Nae is comprised of both the [./XX00] and [./XX02] fragments. The future of fragments [./XX01], [./XX03], and [./XX04] is unclear; their forms are restless, and may give birth to one or more new fragments.

See Nordsjoen.org and The Shoreline for more info about that, also my profile and her profile on AvatarsUnited.

The future of this blog is undetermined.

Relocation

Loom Weaver

I'm gonna miss my first home, Loom Weaver, with all its sunny green land, Serbians, and malls.

Nordsjoen officially outgrew its original 1024 sq.m. location.

With the group deeding/undeeding trick I acquired the ability to own up to 4608 sq.m. of land, so after some shopping I settled on a nice, snowy hilltop in the Sienso Tala region. I found an amazing deal on a castle-style home, "Gothique" it's called. I also bought a nice pet velociraptor and named it "Fenrir". The view is really nice, low region prim count, and the shopping area near me is luckily all the way down the hillside. I'm pretty happy with my new home.

Sienso Tala

I tried a few ideas for rezzing my other abodes (like my treehouse and modern house), but wasn't satisfied with the layout. The treehouse seemed to cramp the free space on the ground level. I decided to go for more land, an annex of sorts. There wasn't any real desirable land left in Sienso Tala. I did the group deed/undeed trick again and obtained over 16,000 sq.m. of ownable land. I shopped around a bit. It took a while to decide on a good 12,288 sq.m. plot, as most were in regions overstuffed with prims and buildings. I finally found a decent L-shaped plot on a mountain side in the Satarin region. It cost L$24,500, but it was worth it. It currently contains a forest with a Chronosophical Observatory, my treehouse, and an even bigger castle home. I dubbed the new land "Nordsjoen II".

The castle in Nordsjoen II is awesome, huge, with lots of rooms. I'm still having trouble deciding on decorations and furnishing, though I migrated XX04's room to this castle's third floor. A couple ideas I've been toying with include names for the alters, a new alter, and possibly each having their own living space. So far the names I've chosen are: Kesra (XY1), Csre (XY2), Nae (XX00), Voluptas (XX01), Arachne (XX02), Diana (XX03), Eva (XX04), and newly created Mint (XX05).

Diana seems to be an intermediate form between Eva and Voluptas, so I've been considering removal or integration into another alter. The concept behind Mint is a little unclear right now. I have a few blurry images in my head of what the design entails, but its full purpose is yet to be made concrete.

Sienso Tala

I'm still feeling a bit out of sorts about my new home(s). I've struggled with the choice whether or not to still use my original HQ building I designed and constructed for Loom Weaver's Nordsjoen. Part of that is choosing what house has what furniture - same issue I ran into when I had my Al'Ol modern house rezzed 3000m in the sky at Sienso Tala's Nordsjoen. I've been toying the idea of recreating RL buildings too. Perhaps one day HQ will be a skybox of some sort. I still don't have the original Chronosophy facility anywhere, a bit of an abandoned project, though I like the overall design and rooms.

Sienso Tala

I was also considering naming my castles. I was thinking, for the larger one in Nordsjoen II, something like "Madrigal" (homage to Joy Electric). Not decided yet though, as I might choose some Nordic names instead, like Folkvangr or something.

Time to settle...

Newest addition

Loom Weaver

Nordsjoen welcomes the newest addition to my avatar arsonal, XX02. I noticed that this design fits well with the dark ambiance of the Nordsjoen "nightmare room." I still can't decide if the room should stay empty or not. I think part of the inspiration was that scary clown scene from The Brave Little Toaster. It still surprises me they had such a creepy villian in that kid's movie.

Alter XX02 is an amalgamation of XX00 (anima) and XX01 (succubus). It began a tad different; I had first tried an alternate skin with darker eyes, but the lip detail and overall skin pigment was a little off. Funny enough I had bought a "scary clown" avatar for the nightmare room, wasn't happy with it, but retained the "scary clown eyes" that were an awesome shade of yellow with red circle outlines. After trying out XX00 with the yelow eyes, I knew XX00's skin fit best. After adding XX01's red markings she reminded me very much of the last few character designs I was working on last year.

Taking a psychological perspective, XX00/01/02 illustrate different characters of the human anima. XX00 represents the sensative, helpless, insightful, and dreary aspects of the anima. XX01 represents more of the carnal desires of the anima, particularly the feminine force in action in physical contexts, as well as a hint of the femme fatale aspect. XX02 is indeed a mixture of the two, better touching upon the unknown, unpredictable, dangerous, and indeed potentially fatal aspect of the anima, encompassing the intangible nature of XX00 while incorporating the physical limitations and desires of XX01. I don't really use XX0/1/2 any more.

In a similar way, the XY set of avatars represents the human animus, though I must admit I've (always) worked harder on feminine archetypal images. XY1 is the main one, pretty average-looking human male. XY2 is the animus in his fury of power and anger, blind to the impressions of the anima. Just like the archetypes, XY2 exibits an odd mixture of anger and love that ends up becoming frustration, pain, and alienation. I know I have some work to do to better articulate the masculine archetypes, but nothing in particluar comes to mind at this point in time.