Madelaine McMasters

Ceka Cianci wrote: speaking of that..has anyone seen or heard from Chris?i don't think i have seen him pop up in the group in a long long time..that or any forums.. i hope he is doing well..and wish the same for all.. I haven't seen him in ages, and share your wishes.

Czari Zenovka wrote: Fortunately, my mother divorced him and remarried the man that I truly wish had been my biological father, but he is definitely my "real" father and I love buying cards for him. I sent his card today but, since his birthday is at the end of this month, will get a gift for him then. When I got married, Dad wrote a check to my new hubby as a thank-you for taking me off his hands. When I got divorced and moved back home, he demanded a refund... and got it! I recently watched him scooting his young kids across the market parking lot in a shopping cart that looks like a space shuttle. Everybody was giggling. I'm glad I got out of his way. Dad would be proud of him. I'm saddened to hear of your biological father, but happy you got a real one. No need for the scare quotes, he's real ;-)

Czari Zenovka wrote: Accepts them gratefully. At this point, I just wish I could go to bed and in the morning the PC-fairy would have delivered a new system. Wonder what one has to place under their pillow for that? Try putting something under someone else's pillow?

Czari Zenovka wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: And now a "Blast From the Past" - My former partner and I dancing at the Forum Cartel in 2007. WOW!!! My look has sure changed!!!! Once a Red Head, Always a Red Head. Well yes, that part never changes. Come to think about it, I preferred to dress as I do now back then as well but my partner....well....he preferred a different look. I have only two photos of Maddy Marbach, one from day two in SL, and one from the FC Hangout (pinched from Mo's Flickr gallery), where I tended bar three years ago, until the patrons got fed up with my hot cuisine, and having their bums pinched (that's Ghosty I'm eyeing)...

Czari Zenovka wrote: ...to those of you who have built PCs - is it possible to purchase a pre-built PC, purchase a different case, and transfer the components to the new case? Common sense would tell me that if a decent PC can be updated then all the components should be able to come out of one case and into another. Just something I've been thinking about. Czari, this will depend upon the PC. As I said, my experience is a decade old, but the Dell and HP desktop computers I owned at that time were both ill suited for transferring anything to a new case. The Dell XPS had a nonstandard motherboard and power supply, the HP had a mini-ATX (I think that's what it's called) motherboard with only two PCI and two memory slots. The power supply was standard, but the cables to the motherboard were too short to allow moving it to a new case, which had them farther apart. The power supply also had a pigtail for only one hard drive. If I'd wanted to add another, I'd have needed a "Y" cable. To get to lower price points, the big-name manufacturers sacrifice compatibility to some extent. They need only be compatible with themselves. The power supply cables won't be an inch longer than necessary, the motherboard will contain connectors for only those things the box supports, such as perhaps two fans rather than six, 1-2 hard drives and one DVD drive. A quick check of a bog-standard desktop PC on HP's website shows no indication of the motherboard style, which is important as Perrie says. The components inside a no-name ready-built system are more likely to be transplantable in the future, as those systems are built from generic bits from various manufactures, which must all adhere to the basic standards to interoperate. The power supplies will have longer cables and more pigtails for hard drives. The motherboards will have connections for more fans, more hard drives, more DVD drives, etc. ... hands you two aspirin and a root-beer to wash them down. ETA: I think SATA hard drives get their power from the motherboard, so power supply pigtails may be less of an issue, though cable length will still be important.

Hippie Bowman wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: Good morning Hippie, Mr. Space Craft Builder! I just found something especially for you! Hugs and love ya my friend! http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/ OH wow Val! That is so far out! Thank you! And Happy hump day to you and all! Peace! I like that the "Build the Enterprise" organization has a "100 Year Roadmap". The "Long Now" organization is looking out 100 times farther and I hope to visit their clock when it's done... http://longnow.org And you'll find information on the clock here... http://longnow.org/clock/

Celestiall Nightfire wrote: *Makes plans to install bike path inworld, in hopes of getting a bent ear.... For safety's sake, make it really wide. In SL, I ride a unicycle.

Tex Monday wrote: I would also be ok, I think, if someone contacted me to express an opinion on something I did. I think that if I didn't like it, I would respectfully tell them so and then stop talking. That's just me though...I don't think I would contact someone to tell them that I didn't like what was said here. ..although, thre are people who are on my sh*t list....:matte-motes-sunglasses-3: Well, I know it would be okay with you since I once tapped your shoulder in world to comment on forum business and you were a peach, even when I threatened to see if I could peeve you. Now people will be flooding you with IMs and you can blame me. But if you do blame me, I win! ;-)

Celestiall Nightfire wrote: Today, June 12th, 2013, Facebook lights up with support and protest icons, in support of Edward Snowden. Here's the icon, for those that may wish to join in, and be part of this history. http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa21/wolfgang_99/Snowden-LPIcon-withshadow_zps7589e222.jpg *The icon is being used as a tempory profile picture. Also, because time moves on, this is history happening. : ) I'd have to join Facebook to wield the profile pic, but I'll be with you in spirit, Celestiall. Meanwhile, my neighbor, a state legislator, had the misfortune of going for his mail while I was out biking. His ear has been bent ;-)

Randall Ahren wrote: I just wanted one to peer into my neighbors' windows. Binoculars would be better suited, but I imagine you'll need hand's free operation. Even with a tripod, shaking will be an issue indoors. Should your imagination break free of your body, my previous recommendations apply. ETA: I have, on several occassions, looked at, and into, my neighbor's windows. My neighbors and their children have been with me when I do, marveling that, from 500 feet away, they can clearly see whether it's a mosquito or a fly on their window screen, and that their TV screen is constructed of red, green and blue pixels.

Randall Ahren wrote: I'd like a telescope. I have three, and Dad and I built one for the local high school back in the '80s. Check your local paper for "star parties" hosted by local amateur astronomy clubs or societies. Visit one. The members will bring out their various telescopes and offer you a look through them. You can compare the views, the costs, the difficulty of using them, etc. If you are hooked by the experience, they'll be happy to help you get up to speed with anything you get. Saturn will be the star of the show this summer, don't miss him! Here's a photograph I took through a telephoto lens and camera piggybacked on my eight inch reflector 16 years ago. This was April Fool's day 1997, about 11PM I think. My Father and I were sitting in a cemetary (my ex-hubby preferred to stay home in a warm bed ;-), sharing a thermos of hot chocolate and discussing life while I snapped off shot after shot of Comet Hale-Bopp. It's an evening I'll never forget.

This image is one of the defaults in my Apple TV's screen saver. I've now got a copy of it hanging on a wall in my RL home. I'm anthropomorphizing like crazy when I see it, but it makes a powerful statement to me. Yes, it's a Mom, but they're cool too.

Dillon Levenque wrote: And, since I smarted off replying to Maddy's post (I'm right, though: there is plenty of time, although to get it right you probably want to schedule the wedding for Saturday, and at someplace other than your parent's house) I do have an actual suggestion. I once sent my father a card that had a picture clipped from somewhere (I hope I'm not the only one who remembers those days) and put on a simple card that just said, "Happy Father's Day". The picture was of a male lion with at least three of his cubs climbing all over him, hanging by their teeth from his skin, etc. He was just lounging there looking forward, as lions do. Yes, I do know how male lions deal with cubs not theirs; it was still a great picture. Couldn't find it online (not surprising) but this one's not bad: edited, there I love it! There are so many fantastic animal pictures that capture the essense of fatherhood. I once gave Dad a Sandra Boynton Father's Day card. On the cover was just a tiny creature, with horns as I recall, and the phrase "Happy Father's Day". Inside it said "From your little monster." And last year, in the feeds, I posted this image I composited from several I found on the web... For all you fathers out there, thank you for helping bring us into the world, and for helping bring the world to us.

Nio Skytower wrote: Yes, I did try to tile it, but this is all new to me. I did manage to make seamless floor tiles. What do you mean by up the repeats? Is this in Photoshop or editing the prim? It just always looks Magnified in SL, as if I was I were looking at it in RL. I'm just not understanding how to scale it right, so it looks realistic in scale to SL View. That's my dilemma. This is inside SL. After you apply the texture, in the Edit window's Texture tab, you increase the horizontal and vertical Repeats Per Face to shrink the texture by filling the prim face with multiples of it.

I got married and moved out of my parent's house. That's probably more than you can get done by the weekend. ;-)

I lived in Snowland for a few months, though didn't venture out much. I recall being attacked by zombies while hitching a ride on the SLRR. The cold weather doesn't seem to slow them down, or make them more interesting. My favorite winter scene is now Forgotten City's Winter Park. It had been AM Radio's "The Quiet". Unfortunately that sublimed. ETA: Forgotten City is not mainland, which is what you were asking about. So discount my suggestion appropriately!

Czari Zenovka wrote: That's right up there with Hank Johnson being concerned Guam might sink. How do these people get elected??? I can't believe the Admiral kept a straight face while answering. ETA: How does information get "inadvertently" collected? Good grief, Czari, I had no idea my very existence was in peril in 1944 or so, when my father was laundering his skivvies on Guam. The typhoon that masticated them in a wind powered washing machine could very well have capsized the island! ... kneels and kisses the firm Wisconsin ground, then stands and casts a wary eye on her Lake Michigan beachfront. ETA: Google has also "inadvertently" collected massive amounts of data on Wi-Fi networks (Including actual traffic, such as e-mails, as I recall) as they drove past private residences. Their defense was to say that, to capture the necessary Wi-Fi information (one wonders why it was necessary to capture any), they had to capture the entire traffic flow, and they forgot to delete what they didn't want. The problem with all this inadvertance is that it's now digital. So it lasts forever, is trivial to transport and equally trivial to mine for connections that virtually any curious, nefarious, paranoid or even incompetent mind might imagine. ;-)

Czari Zenovka wrote: I really appreciate your input, Dillon & Madelaine (may I call you Maddy?) Maddy's perfect, though I'm also amused by MadBagLady. In response to your bullet points... 1) The refurbished Dell I bought a decade ago was one of their XPS gaming machines. The only thing standard about it was that it took PCI cards. The power supply was proprietary, and the motherboard was something only a mother could love, with no option to replace the CPU. So you'd have to be quite careful if purchasing a big name PC. They have no interest in making their boxes terribly upgradeable. They want you back in their store as soon as possible. 2) Yep, build your own seems to offer no cost advantage. It does allow you to pick and chose bits that might not be available in a pre-built. As for returning damaged stuff without incurring a cost, that's one reason to use Amazon. I have returned several big ticket electronic items to Amazon over the years, because they were defective in manufacture or design. I've never had to pay a penny. I do have Amazon Prime ($80/yr?), which might be the reason returns have been so hassle free, I'm not sure. 3) Your experience with local shops matches mine. They're behind the times, the curve and the eight ball. The shop that sells parts will probably not be competitive with NewEgg and the like. They never were when I visited here. When I was young and eager to make things, I had the help of the fashion challenged local computer club people. I don't know if there are computer clubs anymore, but there is a rising tide of "maker" clubs. I visited "Maker Space" in Milwaukee a few months ago, and saw a whole shelf of PC cases and guts that had been donated by members who'd upgraded. I'm not recommending scavenging from your local equivalent, but if there is a maker club near you, they may have members who could help you assemble or select parts to make a PC. Take your head outside into the sunshine. I find that helps when mine hurts from thinking. ;-)

Dillon Levenque wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Dillon Levenque wrote: ...because you can build or acquire a quite good computer for less than you might think... Have you built a PC, Dillon? Am asking because I am seriously thinking of doing so and would love to chat with you if you have. In the early PC days I always built my own computers, Czari. For one thing I lived near and later worked in Silicon Valley and you couldn't drive two blocks without passing a shop that sold computer components (often strangely re-packaged—Oh, look. A SoundBlaster in a brown box but like at half price!—and without some of the original documentation), for another, off-the-shelf PC's were quite high-priced. At some point the line moved and I realized I was spending more for components than I would for a complete package and quit doing so. I remember a friend's wife saying, "You actually BOUGHT a computer?". Mind you I was never a big gamer so out of the box graphics and speed were okay for me. These days I've been given to understand that self-assembly (of a relatively good gaming box, anyway) is once again less expensive than ready-made. The only thing I've done with my current 'off-the-shelf' is add RAM, install a graphics card, and upgrade the power supply. Those are all very, very easy things to do and almost impossible to do incorrectly. I would think if you bought all three in the same shop they'd probably install them no-charge. It's that easy. I built a few PCs, but stopped nearly a decade ago when I found a refurbished Dell for a price I couldn't refuse. Now I'm back to being all Apple. I have a little technical background, so assembling a PC from bits was within my wheelhouse (I want a wheelhouse!) and I don't think I'm a good judge of how difficult a non-technical person would find the challenge. High school kids do it, but I think they do it on their parent's budget, which probably allows more room for error. My local custom PC shop is not competitive with the big box and online retailers for comparable setups. They can't be, they're small and have leases and student employees to pay, entirely off their PC sales. They exist because gamers want configurations they can't find elsewhere, like fans large enough to levitate the machine, lit so brightly that extraterrestrials use them for landing beacons. I found their expertise... no wait, that's a piece of lint. Okay, I'm still looking. In the past, I did buy things from NewEgg, and I found their customer reviews to be helpful. My advice would be from experiences of a decade ago, but I'm happy to offer it anyway!

Nio Skytower wrote: Hi. No, I'am trying to texture just a prim for something I want to build, but I want the texture to look sandlike, sort of like a sand castle or something to that effect. And everytime I upload a texture and map it, it always looks way to large like in RL and I cannot seem to get it to scale so it looks realistic in SL. I guess I just have a mental block and I'm just not getting it for some reason. My entire head is filled with mental blocks! Have you used a tileable texture and upped the repeats? There is a compromize between achieving fine detail (the sand grains) and getting a larger over sculpting, as in the waves and swirls you find on beaches. If you want the texture to show grain structure close up, that argues for repeats. But, the moment you repeat a texture, you begin to degrade the larger patterns. In the extreme, you can increase the repeat count until the entire texture looks like one grain of sand, and the surface of the prim becomes almost featureless. Can you post a pic of what you've built and describe what you don't like about it?

valerie Inshan wrote: I' going by train. Come on in Maddy! The exciting prospect of a vacation in the South of France with you taxes my patience Val. I think I shall fly...

Hippie Bowman wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: Good morning Hippie and Maddy! Woohoo, busy week packing and getting ready to go down South on Saturday! Can't wait to be there with plenty of sunshine: I'm wearing my new sunglasses already to get into condition. Hugs and love ya! Morning Val! HEHEH! Love the picture! Have a great time! Peace! ...stows away in Val's car...

ImaTest wrote: So I tend to come across as a cynical **bleep** when people discuss using others' work when they shouldn't Ooooh, you can avoid being bleeped by typing b-a-s-t-a-r-d. See, I can be a helpful **bleep**! ;-)

Jinnywitha Cleanslate wrote: Thank you - but the computer issues bought up here are still very helpful. So I don't mind at all. I am a larger build AV - I'm a large person in RL and I wanted to be me in SL. I manage and work on a Sim that started out predominantly as a place for bigger people, but has evolved into a clean hangout sim of acceptance and respect. One of the comments I repeatedly hear is that they can't get Mesh to fit properly - and the problem is even worse than it was before for people in our community now...either that or I'm just getting more comments about it. Well - in my current non-mesh world, it doesn't affect me directly so much - but that shall no doubt be another delightful SL adventure whenever I resolve my own technical issues. I still am hoping that LL will buy me a new computer! Lol I have the same complaint as you about mesh clothing. I'm what some people call a "little s-h-i-t", 5'3" if I'm in a good mood and boobs smaller than my ex-husband's. I'm better endowed in SL, but even so mesh tops leave enough room in the bust for me to shoplift two Linden bears without anyone noticing. I understand the difficulty of deforming mesh clothing to accommodate various avatar settings, but it's just another little insult heaped on all the other delightful SL adventures. While you hope that LL buys you a new computer, do you mind if I hope they buy themselves a few? I sometimes get the feeling they're running the entire grid on just one. ;-)

Jinnywitha Cleanslate wrote: Anyway - so that little rant over with, I was looking for an oversized shirt/night shirt/ boyfriend shirt - an when entering all those into the Marketplace I only find Mesh items. Surely these were in existance before Mesh, in a decent quality? I haven't read the whole thread, but it seems to have veered off into PC talk (which is being well handled by others). I'll return to your original question and hope nobody's already answered it... Before mesh, there weren't really any oversized anythings. Mesh brought the ability for oversized clothing to bend with the avatar. Clothing layer stuff is just body paint and so is always close fitting. Anything fitting away from the body (except the horrid system skirt) was made of attachments constructed entirely of prims, or collections of them, rigid and/or flexi. So, it was difficult, if not impossible, to create an article of clothing with a loose fit. The best you could do was to wear a single attachment over the torso, like a vest or cami. Clothing layer pants and tops could have prim cuffs, belts, collars and baubles, but not much more. You might have seen an oversize prim jacket with epaulets to hide the joint between the jacket body and prim upper sleeves and something weird at the elbows to join the upper and lower sleeves, but those invariably made you look robot who envies humans for all the wrong reasons. My silly solution for obtaining an oversized SL look would be to jam the SL body sliders in the oversized direction. Unfortunately, during my nearly five years here, I did the same thing in RL, and have only recently got back to my pre-SL proportions. ;-)