Club Circuit City now open!

Well we've been open a week and have had some pretty fun nights. Now I want to see if we can break the sim!

You all probably have a lot of stuff left over from Cinco de Mayo parties across the grid but what to do with them? wait another year to use them?

well we have the solution!

Come out tonight from 5pm to 1am SLT for a Seis de Mayo party! DJ Namav will be spinning all night and we'll have random contests with L$ prizes until the cows come home!

(Possible contests include: best hat, funniest hat, best outfit, outfit most like "the three amigos" and anything else our host can think of so come prepared!)

Make-up post
Ok so I know that I haven't been on here in a while and I also know that I haven't given you all any blog love for an equally long period of time.

So Here's what's been going on:

I finished up the iPod giveaway promotion by giving out the 10th and final iPod. Congratulations to all who won and thanks to everyone else for playing.

Now that the iPod promotion is over, a lot of folks were trying to think of what thing we should do next. we have a LOT of great ideas in the pipes for the space we have but it's now more a matter of what do the people want?

Sooooooo

The last week-ish, I've been re-desigining the dance club area of the island (you did know there was one right?) and have given it a bit of an upscale feel to it.

Ok you caught me! While it does have an upscale feel to it, the remodel started out as most big projects in SL do... I said to myself "I just need to change this ONE thing..."


Then I started making changes that I thought were very necessary to reduce the lag in the area.

After a few hours of that I realized that the best way to start would be to gut the building and completely rebuild the inside of it.

So a few days later, I completed the building and it's now a LOT more lag-free.

Oh, and I've got DJ's lined up for the space now ;)

6th and 7th iPods found!

Well, the 6th and 7th iPods have been found. Congratulations to Duke and Mag!

Ironically, there were two iPods in world. I mentioned a while back to a group of folks in-world that it was possible that two would spawn but as time was running out I didn't expect that to happen, but happen it did lol.

So what's next? well there are still 3 more iPods and only 2 weeks left to find 'em.

I have to share that while in-world over the weekend, I found someone on the island dressed as one of the characters from pokemon (no, not Pikachu) and he was wandering around the island muttering "gotta catch 'em all." To that I of course asked, catch what? to which he replied "the iPods!"

I've never thought of iPods as Pokemon before but I guess there's a similarity there. There are some folks who collect iPods. To that point, I guess a collection of anything could be considered very Pokemon-esque couldn't it?

That led me down the path of the things I collect so my question this week is what do you collect? Post your answers below and let's see who has the coolest one!

-Wyatt-

5th iPod found, music discussion

Well gang,

iPod #5 has been found! Congratulations to Bebop Drumbeat (photos below) for finding the 5th one in the projector in the movie theater!

Bebop, if you're reading this, you'll have that in your happy hands shortly!

As I was chatting with my friends on MySpace this morning I came across a number of profiles with music. Normally I'm not a big fan of "ninja-tunez" (as one friend calls it) but as I found myself grooving to a song, I realized that the real beauty of the music is to give you something to listen to that you might not have otherwise heard.

One of my personal joys in life is music. I have everything from Beethoven to Apotygma Berzerk in my collection at home and I suddenly realized that very few people have likely heard any of the music that I am so personally fond of.

So I decided that I would join the ranks of "ninja-tunez" people on MySpace and put up my own listing of music. Unfortunately because I made it known that I'm a CC employee I have to filter out the music that has naughty words in it (Vast's "Pretty when you cry" and MSI's "shut me up" are pretty big losses because of this) but I think I was able to get some tunes on there that people will actually like (Conjure One for the win?)

Go ahead and check my MySpace page out here and let me know what you think of my selection and please help me find more music that I haven't heard!

-Wyatt-

The rules of the internet (Friday Fun Post!)

Something dawned on me as I was transversing the blogosphere the last couple of days.

Ettiquette.

"Back in the day" when chatting was done at "internet cafe's" there were rules that everyone observed when chatting or making a comment. As time passed however, it seems that what we previously looked at as "rules" were considered to be mere suggestions. Today, the end result is that these "rules" aren't even thought of and have been forgotten.

In the interest of helping the internet (and games such as SL) become a better place, I've decided to post the commandments of chat.

Rule #1: Thou shall not omit verbs, nouns and/or adjectives.
Omitting these because it's "faster" only proves to others that you lack typing skills. Often, the time "saved" is lost exponentially by having to explain and then re-explain what it was you were trying to say.

Rule #2: Thou shall not randomly ask someone to "cyber".
A good rule of thumb here is to not say anything to anyone that you wouldn't say to them in real life. If you were at a bar and you led out with that... well let's just say that I know quite a few women who are well-versed in "Beat-the-ever-loving-crap-out-of-you Fu." They also know how to find you...

Rule #3: Thou shall not use more than three exclamation points... EVER!!!
I understand that it's hard to express yourself through mere words without using facial expressions or voice intonation/inflection however, there is a fine like between being excited and acting like an actress on clueless jumping up and clapping your hands because you just found a new pink shirt. There is also the reader to think of... how do you feel after reading the following sentence? "I totally LOVE Hansen!!!!!1!!!1!!!!!!111!!!!1!eleven!!!!!!1!!!1!!!!!!eleventy-one!!!!!!" Yeah... I feel dirty too. Sorry about that but it had to be done. We will now pause so that we can all go take showers.
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Ok, we're back! ... man, they just don't make water hot enough to clean that amount of wrong do they?


Rule #4: Thou shall ask for clarification before becoming angry.
Accept the fact that occasionally, "I really like your avatar" actually means "I really like your avatar" and not "You pathetic sheep of an internet denizen, your usage of this image that literally saturates the internet disgusts me to the point of committing ritual Seppuku" Learn to react to the correct meaning by asking a simple question "what do you mean?" I know it's a VERY foreign concept for some of you out there, but trust me when I tell you that not everyone out there hates you.

Rule #5: Thou shall not curse so much that the point of your statement is lost in the word filter.
Allow me to share a phrase I saw online recently:"@$%@#$ Noob!! Go !@# yourself!!! Your grandmother @#$#@ her #$@# on a ^%^$%% at @#$@#$ CHURCH!!!" This was not an appropriate response to "how was your day?"... or anything really. In fact, this is probably not even appropriate at a Tourettes-syndrome convention. Keep it clean and use cursing in moderation as a spice to flavor your speech rather than to smother it.

Rule #6: Thou shall not use phrases that are offensive.
"Ghey", "gay" or other, more harsh statements meant in a derogatory way usually aren't tolerated... by anyone. Spelling it in a way that exhibits your "uber-ness" will not make anyone less offended. It also outs you as a newbie pretty quickly. I have a friend who's little brother was complaining that no-one liked him and he kept getting kicked out of chat. Reading his transcripts proved that he was a cyber-punk (and not in the good way). Many hours of electro-shock therapy later proved to be the solution.

Rule #7: Thou shall not draw during active chat sessions.
Yes, we know that there are sometimes some cool things that can show up in a scrolling environment. What is most important to remember however is that people didn't come into the chat room to see YOU perform works of art with your period button. That means that your masterpiece pyramid will look like this:

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Wyatt: hey, did you see Firefly last night?
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Aalanna: Yeah, it was awesome! Brown coats forever!!!
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Wyatt: Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?
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Aalanna: this period picasso needs to stop with the clutter!
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Wyatt: So say we all!
Aalanna: lol

Rule #8: Thou shall not spam audio into the chat room using voice-chat.
Yes, audio clips existed before counter-strike. They were used tastefully and to add a bit of fun to a chat-room. Screaming "I like pie" into your mike until the audio clipping washes out your voice to make it indistinguishable from television static at a volume of 40... well my friend, that's not cool, nor is it fun. Also, please for the love of god make sure you're set to "push to talk" or else we'll hear nothing but heavy breathing, belching and all manner of unsettling sound effects...

Rule #9: Thou shall admit that thou dost not knoweth everything.
Yes, I'm sure you've experienced a LOT in the 13-15 years you've been alive but try to remember that there are a LOT of people who are older who (and this can be hard for a lot of people to understand) have probably experienced more in life than you have. After hearing the 9th person in a chat room tell me that I was an "l00zer n00bzor" when I was discussing that various benefits of rear-end gear ratios and stated that I had never heard of a 1080:1 rear-end.

Rule #10: Thou shall not draw the ire of the chat moderator.
This will be the harshest thing to learn but understand this: You may be a "1337 H4xxor" but the moderator has access to tools that are created to destroy your enjoyment of harassing others. Also, in my experience, Chat mods are usually more "1337" than you are. I remember one mod sending a letter to one "chat-troll's" mother explaining that her son was portraying a 19 year old and was attempting to taking part in some very adult conversations and was giving out their address with an open invitation to come over at any time, day or night. That's not ENTIRELY true... but remember, the mod can pretty much PWN you whenever they want to.

Take to heart these rules and you will enjoy your time in chat/game/second life much more!

-Wyatt-

4th iPod found!

Well Explore and Win contestants, iPod #4 has been found by your very own Phat Lipo. His picture has been posted below.

As a reminder we are in week four of six with a total of 6 more iPods left to find somewhere hidden on Circuit City island.

I have to tell you that as an observer I am having an incredible time getting to know all of the visitors who come to the island to search.

A large number of folks just come to look and don't bother responding to me when I say hello and introduce myself. A part of me wonders if that's because it's an online communications format or if we've been conditioned to tell employees that at such an early age.

I have noticed a large number of people who simply respond to "Hi! How are you today?" with a "no thanks, I'm just looking around" which to me seems rather odd since I'm not there to sell anything.

On the flip side though is the increasing number of folks who come by to search for an iPod and come back day after day to chat and talk about SL, technology, games or just life in general. Phat Lipo is one of those residents who always has been both kind and happy to chat about whatever tickles your fancy.

So, congratulations from myself and from Circuit City on winning your new iPod nano. Please be sure to come by and let us know when you get it (unboxing photos would be cool too!)

-Wyatt-

Lessons Learned

I'm in a very "romper room" type mood today, it's in the mid to upper 70's and it's put me in a silly mood. I was just thinking about how on the old saturday morning children's TV shows they all had some kind of moral "lessons learned" segment at the end.

That of course made me think that it might be a neat idea to incorporate that into my blog.

So without further adieu, I present to you the first of hopefully many "SL lessons learned" but to raise the difficulty level I'm going to do the whole thing in ancient Aramaic!

...ok, maybe not... I just realized that there is no word for iPod or MP3 player in Aramaic... heck they didn't even know what plumbing or electricity was back then.


Lessons learned:
I've learned that some people don't mind resorting to bribery above an item's value to win that item. For the record, even if I knew where the iPod was hidden I wouldn't be able to tell you, play "hot hot cold" or give out clues. No amount of bribery will help this.

I've learned that people enjoy sharing stories about themselves. SL seems to be a great conduit for the emotional/mental interaction that humans crave without the superficial hangups of looks. You can share and talk without worrying about someone staring at your clothes or judging you based on looks of any kind. I would surmise that this is one of the reasons people are better able to open up through online chat, SL and to a lesser extend, over the phone.

I've also learned that people have a wealth of knowledge to share if you're just willing to listen.

More observations are to come when time allows for more writings ;)

-Wyatt-