Capture the Flag

Playing a bit of catch-up here as I was away in Toronto recently for a history symposium...

Hotspur O'Toole held a charity RFL event in Port Merrimac, which was a lot of fun. Using Kandace Common's paddleboats and capture the flag system, we formed two teams and it was a blast! Literally. It's pretty simple. One gets situated in their paddleboat and after being assigned to/choosing your team (in this case, red or blue), you make your way to the opposite team's buoy where their flag is...And when you get it, like I had in the image below, you try to avoid your paddleboat being attacked by the other team and make your way back to touch your own team's buoy! That simple!
We all had a splendid time and I look forward to perhaps playing again in the future. O'Toole, is Steelhead Port Harbor big enough to do so? We should have a regular weekly game of it there!

Sights of Steelhead Port Harbor

Now that Steelhead Port Harbor is a bit more settled, I thought that I would take a few photographs of some of the interesting sites there such as the Hall of Justice, home of the Justice League Adventurers...
Col. O' Toole's home Polymath Eyrie...
The industrial complex of Evil Tiny Kitty Laboratories Warehouses...And the Krimson Karnival of Steeltopia......where I spent a bit of time armed with a flintlock gun...

Exhibit Openings and Armed Paddleboats

Today was the opening of my exhibit at the Caledon Library! I was so tickled that there was such a good turnout! Gabi played my interview on her podcast, Voices in the Machine, where you can hear me discuss the exhibit, my working process and a roundtable discussion about designing Victorian fashion with Mr Nix Sands, Miss Fuchsia Begonia, and Lord Edward Pearse. It is a lot of fun to listen to. Everyone seemed to really themselves and the exhibit will be up until the end of March. A thank you to all who came out today to see it...Afterwards, I thought I would relax at Laval Point. I saw Col. O'Toole going by on one of his new little Mosquito paddleboats by Miss Commons. We chatted for a moment and he is settling in well at his new home here in Steelhead. If you'd like a paddleboat of your own, stop by his home's dock on the rock at Polymath Eyrie and look for a wooden box. It's only 1L, seems like a lot of fun and oh--did I mentioned it is ARMED?

Jager Poetry Slam

For those of you who are familiar with Girl Genius, you'll know that jagers take their poetry slams quite literally. I put on my best Europan-style dress and headed over to the Huts des Jaegers in Winterfell Absinthe to join in on the fun. Let's just say that I could tell someone had just finished reading by the huge amounts of explosions I heard upon arrival...
I grabbed a mug of beer and quickly sat down at the table, not wishing to somehow end up almost two sims away like Frau Lowey...Later many of us put on our habits as befitting Steelhead's infamous Nuns with Guns, as fire, death rays, toilet paper, pies , parrots and other assorted items flew above us. You can see Miss Tanarian Davies and me below in one of her wonderful tiny habits (five versions according to religious order!) If you want a fun, silly time (with poetry mixed in!) , Jager Poetry Slam is held weekly. Contact Miss Annechen Lowey or any member of the Wulfenbach Consulate for more information!

Duchesses & Lots o' Trout!

My evening started out innocently enough with Duchess Dia (yes, I can call her that!) and the Duchess of Argylle and I having a great time making a triple decker Lunar sandwich at the reception party for the Moon Over Caledon exhibit at Kintyre. The portraits really are lovely...especially the gents' to me, given their incredible variety on display: human, demon, mech, equine, furry...The exhibit is up until Sept. 17 so don't miss your opportunity to see it...Do not leave Steelheaders to their own devices or they just might rez sword fish Steelhead trout and whack each other gleefully with them...
Afterwards, we went to visit Dia at her home in the Sound and chatted about potential duchy duties. Lunar said something about "hard working". I wasn't quite sure what the job entailed...
And Miss Hilra let loose with a torrent of fish from her fish gun in the parlor. Yes, Dia & I are under them somewhere. They then proceeded to both take out their huge guns. Chickens, mice and more mayhem ensued. I kicked up my feet on the settee and just got comfortable. Tea and gunpowder coming right up!

O Idiot Griefer...

Do you see the squat man in his underclothes in the corner of my Regency bedroom? He made the huge mistake of freezing Mr Sands and Genie Burton, then as I saw it come up on main chat *gasp* had the audacity to fly up to my 3rd floor, come into my home and cage me before I could respond! Even had the nerve to tell me "hi". I told him he was a rude idiot and had some damn nerve. So, I kept him frozen for about 10 minutes until reinforcements arrived in the form of Dia and Genie...And Genie blasted him alternately with her gun and her djinn magic, saying "We are NICE here in Caledon and you did that to us!!!!" We got rid of him Caledon-style. Ah, I love Caledon, where even we women are armed to the teeth and skilled with our weapons. Hellmut Lockjaw, you sir are now banned, dumbarse!

I Can Make a Box Talk! Learning Scripting!

I went to class tonight at Sir Zen's FreeFlow Academy of CodePoetry at SteamSkyCity's Aether Isle tonight. Under the watch of a portrait of one of the first programmers, Lady Ada Lovelace, I settled in on a leather couch next to Eds, and really learned a lot about basic scripting this evening. In the spirit of that esteemed woman, all of my classmates were ladies as well. All I know is that I can build and texture and create clothing very well, but scripting? My skills are abysmal. Knowing that Sir Zen is one of the best scripters out there, why not learn?

I'll admit that I, as well as the others were rather tickled to create basic scripts that made our boxes talk. Of course when I touched Eds' it said my name and that I was rather naughty. I can not quite deny that. The Vicereine stopped through and offered us all encouragement and advice...Some of us stayed on to play EnGarde and Eds finally convinced me to play. I actually had a good time although I barely knew what I was doing. She won the first match and I won the second. Not quite the hack and slash I usually like while fighting at the Grounds, but I had a really good time!

In a Purple Mood...

I was in quite a mood (as I am not cheerful all of the time) and took to brooding high in the sky above Morgaine at Mr Silverspar's beautiful ice castle...I soon had Miss Burton over to Laval Point for a fitting for a fashion show in the sim of Taupo on Saturday. She looks lovely in my BlueBrown dress...
...and in my Regency RedGold one. Here we are at Adam n Eve, shopping for shoes...
Sir Tele then invited me over to his new forge build at his home in the Cay. He will be offering weapons and fighting systems and hopes that Caledonians will stop through and enjoy them!

Attack at RCAF HQ

I got a call to arms from my RCAF colleagues and rushed over to RCAF HQ in Penzance, where Miss Bing ("Soapy") and AirChief Connolly ("Foxy") were standing anxiously with their .264 RCAF Ordinal carbines at the ready. Before I could barely arm myself, I found myself in Middlesea having been hit by one of Miss Molly Earnshaw's teddy bear bombs. She got me and Soapy. Where did it come from? We realized she had the high ground, picking us off from the mountain. I went to the back and up the mountain to give chase, only to have her take me down. Later, I was to get my revenge getting her at the base of the HQ. She's awfully accurate and I've heard quite a pilot at well. She gives those of us in the RCAF quite a time...On a quieter, less violent note, Lord showed me around the Nantucket sim, which is quite lovely with its boats and New England feel...

Eds' VERY Big Mansion

When Edwina told me that she had come into possession of a rather large mansion, I did not imagine that it was truly so large. As in, Dia was able to ride her horse around in it with room to spare, and when she went afk...We rode cars (I did not care to walk!), rezzed BIG red rotating balls, Duchess Gabi was waltzing away in the ballroom as we had target practice from the balcony overhead. I even took to running everywhere at one point. I found an aquarium room with lots of tanks but no fish a bit...disturbing, but not as disturbing as the knee-high 48-hour old noob who wasn't bothered at all by us standing on the stairs in our Lightfoot Waltz dresses with Ordinal RCAF special guns...
We watched as she just strolled right by us. "Excuse me, what are you doing? Pleave leave," Eds asked. All of us are normally rather nice to noobies, but when polite entreaties fell upon deaf--and taunting (the nerve!) ears--the noob hunt was on. "Freeze her!" Dia said as we ran through the mansion's halls. I was becoming tired as those halls were so long. Alas, she gave us the slip before we saw her and took aim from the balcony. "Good as banned!" Eds said, before any of us fired. "I think it's time for me to put on security here, don't you think?" I do believe her manservant Nigel will have quite a lot to clean up after last night!

St. Andrews Day Events in Loch Avie

Today Caledon celebrated St Andrews Day in Loch Avie. That confounded Mr. Matova managed to pounce me during practice for the caber toss!There was a very good turnout and the Duke Regent Kintyre claimed the trophy...
Even George the wild haggis came out to watch!
Later, there was a tournament of champions in the sky arena with the duchies of Loch Avie (Col. O'Toole), Carntaigh (Lord Primbroke), Murdann (Lady Dia), Cymru (Lord Vid) and Kintyre (who was represented by a skilled drow fighter by the name of Alex Fitzsimmons) competing. The finals came down to Murdann and Kintyre...
With Kintyre winning the tourney. They were well-fought battles indeed!

The Amazing Miss Malaprop!

While caught up in SL weirdnesses, I thought I'd try to tp to Ordinal Enterprises. I had just bought the new Flick Knife (ooo!) and Galvanic Swordstick (aah!), when who should walk from the back of the shop but Miss Ordinal Malaprop herself!!I had never met Miss Malaprop before and have always had a very short list of folks in Caledon that I was dying to meet (besides Des, of course!) . She was at the top on my list due to her wit, sheer talent, and creativity. She is very down to earth and a pleasure to talk to. We commiserated about SL's current sorry state of affairs (I couldn't attach all of my clothing and she was nervous about leaving the shop as tps and logins were crazy...) She had just finished making one of her machinima for the swordstick and was more than happy to demonstrate it for me...
You should hear the sound effects on it!

Parties, Parries, and Penzance

Received a note from Miss Kelley upon my arrival inworld, inviting me to join her in Speirling for a Monday Happy Party. How can I resist a happy party? Aren't those the best kind of all?As it hit shirtless (and skirtless) o'clock, I thought I would don a Guy Fawkes Day mask that Lady Amber was so kind as to provide...
Afterwards, I went over to Polymath Upstairs and watched Dia and Col. Somme play En Garde. Fascinating game. I shall try it one day, although I'm admittedly more of a hack 'n' slash type...
While roaming across Penzance, Dia tp'd me just to show me Dr. Sputnik's film studio lot! Ooo! How exciting! Thespians among our midst! Drama in Caledon! Who knew? I say that with quite a wry smile, you know...

En Garde!

Sunday night, I was explaining to Friar Newbe that the SPD weapons system works on just about anything (one of the pirates said "even skillets!"), so when he showed me his lovely sword, I gave him a copy and it was on! It's not a bad system, and at this point I've tried almost all of them except Samurai Island's. If you're not doing weapons damage, the punching can too. We had a great time at the Newbe SteamWorks skyplatform slashing away!Too bad I had to take him down...

A Pirate's Life for Me

We gathered in Sanchon to prepare for battle, ships at the ready...And our teams chosen. As boatswain of the Zaneta, there is no other ship that I'll serve on...
The battle was on...the HGS Zaneta against the Isabell, the Black Rat, and the Independance. The brigs held their own, but the new longships are small, agile, and quite fast. The other two ships started late, allowing the veteran captain Admiral Arbre and his gunner to get to us first, although we made him really work for it!
It was down to the Admiral and one of the longships, as we all watched. In the second battle, it came down to the same longship and the Zaneta. I fired away, only for them to get the better of us in the end. Grrr...
We had a free for all melee on shore afterwards, rapiers slashing and flintlock pistols blazing. In the ensuing chaos, I was cut down...Ah, the life of a pirate is a dangerous one indeed.

...And then the Zombies Came

Started my night out in Carntaigh at the Naughty party. I was sorry I had to leave early, but I was invited to a Japanese Festival of the Ages ceremony at the Amatsu Mitsukai Okiya...I heard a call that zombies were on the loose in Regency! I ran down the street from home to the cemetery still dressed in my formalwear, guns at the ready. Caledonian citizens were shooting them down left and right...
And this was the last thing I saw before they bit me...
After having our fill of zombie fighting, I joined Dia at her keep high on her new land in Port Caledon. What a beautiful view of the Firth and surrounding areas she has!
We tp'd Gryffin over and all of us talked about life, work, Caledon, how giggling does not work for any of us, and two ignorant folks who didn't seem to understand that a.) Private land is private land, and b.) Backtalking Dia is a bad, bad idea...