Three Unrelated Things
This evening, I finally got around to installing my copy of Laukasargas Svarog's bird feeder kit. For those of you who haven't visited Svarga (Visit Svarga. Now. I'll wait.), this is the home version of the really nifty AI birds that inhabit the island.

I'd had this kit sitting in my inventory for several months now, but never got around to putting it out in the Garden of Mo. Finally, after my neighbor Will Webb reminded me how many thousand Lindens I spent for the device (worth every Lindenbuck!), I decided to go ahead and take the time to set it up. As I was remarking to Will, I'm in a good place with regard to Linden Dollars. They're real enough to me that I can justify going to the Lindex when I need to, but unreal enough for me to waste them without worrying about it. Unfortunately, the same can be said for the latter and the money in my bank account. But that's another story altogether.


The kit comes with a bird seed dispenser, which allows you to feed the birds any time you like. Unfortunately, it's hard coded to sell seed objects for L$1. Mind you, this is, well, chicken feed. But, alas, gone are the days when L$1 is considered "free." Not when the average new resident has to slave away on a camping chair, or bounce from one end of the grid to the other harvesting money trees, to scrape together a few Lindens a day. (Or, well, spend a buck or two on the Lindex, but that's beside the point.) So, I ended up whipping up my own free bird seed dispenser, instead. Laukosargas was thoughtful enough to make the seed object mod/copy/transfer, so I hope he won't mind my reuse of his objects. I'm absurdly proud of the simple birdseed box, complete with glass window, randomly mounded seed, hinged lid, and scoop. Sometimes, it's nice to putter around with inconsequential details like that.

On the right are a few different birds, feeding on the seed I put out. This is strangely satisfying, actually. I expect to spend quite a bit of time out feeding the birds in the future.


On a completely unrelated note, above is a stereo pair (cross-eyed view) of Androclese Antonelli's sculpture, "You Can Leave Your Hat On." The real thing is 20 or 30 meters tall, and composed of a couple hundred prims. The guy has talent!


And on yet another unrelated point, while cleaning out my snapshots folder, I happened to run across this old pic of a virtual busker at a shopping mall. Turns out it was just a particularly creative camping chair, but I found the concept intriguing nonetheless. It's this kind of thing that gives me hope for voice in SL. I think I could almost deal with the gridwide cultural upheaval that voice chat would bring, if it meant spontaneous, live music on every street corner.
Posted by Moriash Moreau at 10:21 PM