Madelaine McMasters

DQ Darwin wrote: There must be lots, that's quite true but thanks for reminding us of the "simple pleasure". The cow gets relief the cat gets the milk and she has a sweet laugh, one has to love the visual. Not sure about the chicken at the cows front left foot but that might be another story. Another story for sure. It could end with an egg on Quinn's plate or the hen on mine. Mixed emotions either way.

In the Psalter, it is written that a ptolemaic psychic saw a ptarmigan battling ptosis, phthisis, pneumonia and psoriasis with a pneumatic disposition. Capture two of them by setting out pfeffernuss and psylla while uttering psithurisms. When in hand, dye them with phtalocyanine (available for mere pfennigs) in psychedelic swirls and nestle them on your pheet. If this all goes horribly wrong and you catch two psionic pterodactyls bearing pneumonic plague or ptomain, commit pseudocide and return under a pseudonym.

DQ Darwin wrote: What a great pic lol Madelaine McMasters wrote: Good morning, Everybody. What's breakfast without milk?! There must be a lot of photos like this, all over the world. Mom took me down the road and borrowed a cow and a cat to teach me. I borrowed a newer cow and cat to teach the neighbor kid. It's a simple pleasure from a hard life.

Good morning, Everybody. What's breakfast without milk?!

I couldn't help but think how much those two chattering computers sounded like us in the forums. Maybe our intelligence is artificial? ;-)

Speaking of provoking a specific reaction, you're not yet in my "art" gallery of Warm Welcomes, an inflammatory performance piece intended to provoke indifference. ;-)

Void Singer wrote: there is a difference between a painting and and, for instance, someone walking around with a head on a platter... or even for that matter simply carrying around around said picture and putting it in the face of every passerby. yes, the intent is the same whether it's on a wall or a live performance, but the context is different. and the difference changes the effect (and sometimes the magnitude). Void, let me edit this a little to aid my understanding (or mis, as the case may be ;-) "there is a difference between a painting and carrying around around said picture and putting it in the face of every passerby. the intent is the same whether it's on a wall or a live performance" This almost seemed like a contradiction to me, but maybe this is the definition of art? Where the intent is clear, regardless of context? Does knowing one's audience diminish the art? It's an interesting thought.

I'm glad both Istara and Carole went into such depth. Now I don't have to. In this disagreement, I come down almost entirely on Ishtara's side. However flawed my ability to determine it might be, I go to intent. Carole? Are you naughty because your intent is to provoke? Quite possibly yes. There are places people go with the expectation of some provocation, like art galleries, political rallies and perhaps downtown streets. There are places people go to avoid provocation, like their own back yards or venues specifically designed to cater to their interests (such as a quilting bee). To inflict oneself in such places with the intent of provoking discomfort is, to me, improper and quite possibly self defeating, unless reducing oneself to a caricature is the intent. Just as you remind us not to confuse our avatars with ourselves, I'd suggest we not confuse SL with society at large. In a world filled with anonymous griefing and the often easy ability to escape it, provocation may well be lost in the noise. I quite enjoyed roasting your hide in my fireplace and I'm irreverent enough to think I'd have fun hanging with you in a great many places in SL. But I would not swing you on my arm in the Titanic's ballroom on April 15, dressed as a tiny mouse with attitude. I'd wait for satire night. Ishy, I don't know if I entirely agree with your assessment of "art". I think that the famous artists of history represent only a small fraction of the latent talent in the general population. Circumstances elevate some above the rest and the result is history. Once opportunities start to fall on you like raindrops, it's easy to grow flowers. I'm happy that some art, particularly provocative art, rises to prominence, as it gives us a topic for a larger, public conversation. But I think smaller conversations take place all over the world, provoked by the works of many talented people we'll never know about. Some of them are here. You know them when you see them. As for the difference between sex and art, knowing how they work enhances my enjoyment of both, but seems to do little to my immunity. I can hope that knowledge keeps me from making big mistakes, but it's only a hope.

Snugs McMasters wrote: Has it occured to you that not all of your friends behave like children? Yes, yes it has. I'll give Xmas presents to my side of our friends list, you give presents to your side. Fair enough? You can be such a chowderhead at times.

I don't think I've stopped in here since my return. Hi, Kids!

Ishy, you covered it nicely. I'll add only one thing. Copyright law (and indeed many business models) did not and could not anticipate the changes brought about by perfect and inexpensive digital copying and distribution, both good and bad. The mess that has resulted as content creators try to continue to make a living at their craft may be unavoidable. So we live with simultaneous frustrations and delights as we all try to work it out.

Venus Petrov wrote: /me wonders if 'tire or tyre change' is euphemism for some other type of 'change' Is this an oblique request for a copy of the miscapade note I'm writing?

Carole Franizzi wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Carole Franizzi wrote: Yeah, but, let's focus on the important stuff - can you or can't you change a tyre? I can! A tire change will appear in a sexual miscapade story I'll send you. And is it too much to hope that a big, hairy, muscular mechanic will also be part of the plot? Yes it is. I shaved my legs before the date.

Roseysun Galicia wrote: Hippie Bowman wrote: So after all the flesh bar-b-qing, Phil began to feel a bit tired. He needed a nap. He strolled off to the north in search of a....... towel. He had heard that he should always take a towel with him on his travels and decided to find one. As he walked he started to whistle and laughed as the number forty two popped into his mind. "What is 42?" He said to himself with a shrug as he walked off in search of his towel. As the cooling night air coaxed fog from the shadows, Phil walked up the wooded path to the cabin. The bug-zapper snapped a welcome as he approached, as if it knew why he needed a towel. As he rolled the mysterious number around in his mind, he was startled by a lithe form perched on the porch railing, blowing across her newly painted fingernails. "You wonder about 42, yes?" Phil stopped cold... "How did you know?" "That's the version number of the viewer what we'll all finally like." Beads of sweat appeared on his furrowed brow. "Here's your towel." Phil flipped it nervously over his shoulder and climbed the porch, inhaling the heady scent of nail polish, musk, lavendar and WD-40. He wanted to turn and ask, but...

Be careful what you ask for, Poenald. ;-)

Carole Franizzi wrote: Yeah, but, let's focus on the important stuff - can you or can't you change a tyre? I can! A tire change will appear in a sexual miscapade story I'll send you.

Quinn Morani wrote: Being practically a native Floridian, I don't have much actual experience with autumn except for four years that I spent on a picturesque New England college campus. But my whole life, I've had this crazy sort of romanticized view of autumn with foliage, apple orchards, cider, cinnamon, hot chocolate, warm colors, cozy sweaters, friends gathered 'round the fireplace, and crisp tempartures that turn your cheeks rosy. Maybe it's because I have a fall birthday, but the idea of fall has always appealed to me, and it's always felt like the season that most "fit" my personality. Autumn feels like a time for reflection, perhaps because of shortening days, and trees shedding their leaves, and people beginning to spend more time indoors as the temperature drops; more of a family time, and a time for deeper conversations with friends and loved ones. The thought of fall, or at least the idealized version of fall that exists in my head, always makes me feel invigorated and introspective at the same time. Your idyllic autumn was my actual childhood. I'll still pick apples, have my own cider press and a jar full of cinnamon sticks always ready for either cider or hot chocolate. I'll carve pumpkins, but no longer for the local contest, I've won enough "Wisconsin Native Fishes" posters for a lifetime. I'll set out my spooky eyeball lights on the paths through my woods, split and stack wood for the fireplace, chase after the squirrels who are busy digging up my mulch to bury nuts and bury myself in the piles of maple leaves I drag across the lawn on a 20x20 foot tarp. I'll crawl around my home's foundation with an old compact mirror in my hand, looking for gaps between the siding and the foundation, hoping once again to discover how the mice get into my attic to quietly unwrap christmas presents like I did long ago. I won't figure it out and so will set a dozen peanut butter laden traps to welcome them in from the approaching cold. Autumn is a magical time, but not for everyone. /me goes off to introspect.

Carole Franizzi wrote: Missy, I'll have you know I do a luuuuuuuuverly job in RL - one which I enjoy so much that whatever problems I might have, are instantly forgotten the moment I start working Engineering? That's to do with engines, innit? Nooooo, engineering is an endeavor in which whatever problems I might have are instantly created the moment I start working!

Sylvia Tamalyn wrote: Good morning and hugs to all! P.S. Dang, Lillie, that's gross! (Sorry, Cat!) :smileyvery-happy: Hi, Kids! I'll go easy on you, Sylvia.

Carole Franizzi wrote: I would not enjoy a conversation with a nuclear physicist nor a plumber about their field of knowledge as neither interest me (nor could be understood by me). What?! Aren't you at all curious to know why plumbers make more money than nuclear physicists? Sit with me a while and we'll disuss engineering and whatever it is you think you do for a living. The first one to get bored wins? Or loses?

Doesn't this boil down to intent, Ishy? Not that intent is obvious, but my radar would probably work as well (or as poorly) on an avatar's looks as on the avatar's dialog. Sometimes the intent is fairly obvious, as in "your walking pile of" example. It can be much more difficult in your examples of amputation or ostomy. These things happen to people in RL and they may indeed push the envelope a little to gain acceptance. You might have to be a little more patient in teasing out intent in such cases. One can be ugly visually, audibly, textually or behaviorally. If I believe that's driven by an ugly ideology, I walk away. That said, we're all going to make mistakes in reading intent. And even when the intent is noble, we can't all be expected to enjoy it. I have vitiligo in RL and I have considered making a blotchy skin that's reminiscent of me before applying makeup.

I do wear hats. Sylvia gave me both the jackass and the matching hat. The hat fits perfectly. Sylvia was sure it would.

Kylie, There's so much to love about autumn. Watching mosquitoes pack their suitcases, fiery leaves against foreboding skies, and the anticipation of my house once again becoming the cozy haven that will keep me safe from the winter to follow. I've come to enjoy summer more through the years, but autumn remains my favorite season. He's a remembrance of the summer we save away this time of year...

A place for everything and everything in its place? Sam Clemens was famous for his use of colorful language in private and even more famous for conveying pretty much the same ideas in public with a completely different vocabulary. I haven't yet had the pleasure of chatting with him, but would be suprised to find he's a trillion times cooler in person than on the page. ;-)

Hi Jolene, I'm afraid your tuner card won't do the things you want. That card receives broadcast/cable TV signals from an external source (your antenna, cable or the video output of a VCR/DVD player) and digitizes them for use by your computer. The video or web content you see in-world is sent digitally to your computer and then mapped onto surfaces in your SL world view. This requires that the video or web content be on a server somewhere out on the internet that's capable of being "read" by the SL viewer. In the case of video, this requires a server that can stream video content in a format understood by the viewer (such as Quicktime). The mapping of the video source onto surfaces in SL is done by your graphics card under control control of something called OpenGL, a library of nifty graphics routines your computer uses to render the entire SL experience. Your tuner card is unlikely to be recognized by OpenGL, and even if it were, the SL viewer would not make use of it. To get video from a DVD in your possession onto a surface in your SL world view, you'd have to translate it into a suitable format, then upload it to a streaming server. YouTube is one freely available service for doing this, though you cannot upload copyrighted content and there are probably limitations on storage capacity. It's also likely that your internet connection upload speed is dramatically slower than your download speed, so uploading anything but the lowest resolution video will tax your patience. It's also possible to run a program on your PC that turns it into a streaming web server, but that will run into the same bandwidth problem you'd have trying to upload a video to a streaming service like YouTube. It's also possible that you would have to route your stream through something that creates a persistent IP address that everybody can reach. I know this sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. There's a good reason for that... it IS a lot of mumbo-jumbo! Unfortunately it's not mumbo-jumbo that gets you where you want to go.