The Oddest Dream

Last night I awoke from the oddest dream, one of those dreams which are utterly consuming and feel very real whilst they are in progress.  So real, in fact, it took me some time, when I awoke, to suddenly remember the main part of the dream was flawed and impossible and yet, it had seemed so real at the time, it still felt real and I was so confused, it took me some time to fall asleep again.  This morning, the dream is as fresh as if it were a real happening of yesterday evening, something I actually experienced before I went to bed.

It is not often I experience dreams like this and, indeed, it is perhaps only once a month or so I can remember, even a little, of whatever I have been dreaming.

My dream was quite banal, which made it seem all the more real, because it had none of the fantastical impossibilities, sudden switching to another place or unrealistic happenings, which form many dreams.

My father died in 2006 and, although I have not dreamed of him since, last night he was there, in my apartment.  Firstly, and rather oddly, his unannounced visit, which began when I answered the door to my apartment, was not perceived by me as unusual: I did not remember it was not possible for him to visit me, I didn't remember my father had died.  Secondly, and to build upon not remembering, I was rather grumpy he had appeared unannounced.

From the moment I opened the door, until he left with what was (as was normal for us), a cursory good-bye; casual and very much as if the presumption were that we'd see each other again shortly, so no fuss and not even a molecule of sentimentality.  In fact, I was almost relieved, as he went on his way, thinking of what I could then go on to do.

During his visit, I remained a little grumpy he had unexpectedly visited and I was a little preoccupied with the kitchen being a bit of a mess and the coffee table being too laden with stuff and the rings left by yesterday's coffee cups.

As was often the case, with my father, our conversation was less than riveting.  We had both learned, long since, to keep away from contentious topics, aware we were each others' mirrors and, quite particularly when it came to the two of us, stubborn to the point of childishness when the other wouldn't agree.

So, although the conversation was somewhat boring, and not much intellectual point up from, "snow is getting worse, a week or more they say", "aye, aye, about two weeks, I heard, it's getting deep", it was pleasant nevertheless, with sometimes long gaps and sipping coffee and thinking if there was anything else we wished to say to each other.

I awoke as I watched him walk downstairs, hearing him shout, "bye", again as I closed the door; and I was confused to find myself in bed.

I was not aware how nice those first moments of being awake were, until I remembered exactly why the dream could not be true.  It was almost as horrible a feeling of angst as during the call, a long time since, which my sister made to me and I knew something was up before she got to the point.

Dogs are Smarter than Cats

Watching BBC Breakfast this morning, I was pleased to learn dogs are smarter than cats.

Its seems intelligence is linked with sociability and leads, with a bit of Darwin dust, to increased brain capacity, over time.

Although not mentioned in the linked article, Dr Shultz, during interview this morning, was asked to name the most intelligent animals, in order. The interesting reply was: primates, dolphins, horses and dogs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/8151924/Dogs-are-smarter-than-cats.html

Oh My Giddy Aunt!

The newest version of the standard Linden Lab Viewer 2 is, and it may just be my computer, but, well, it's excellent!

I have been using Kirsten's Viewer for a very long time (currently S20/40), but what with my "getting on a bit" graphics card, an 8800GT, the frames per second (fps) is just not as high as it used to be. I would say I now average about 12-14 fps, which isn't too bad, I suppose, but it's not fantastic either; much as I love the shadows and lighting in Kirsten's.

So I tried the Phoenix Viewer (the latest v1.5.1.373) and it did improve things a little, at around 16-18fps, but SL just looked a bit washed out compared with Kirsten's. Also, I have an unusual problem with Phoenix, which again may just be my graphics card and computer combination, but it was a problem way back when I tried Emerald for a while and it remains: it's difficult to describe, but it makes trees shimmer in a never quite rezzed properly way.

This afternoon I downloaded the latest LL Viewer 2 (2.2.0.212097) and I am impressed. Not only am I managing around 23-25 fps, but the shadows work in a usable enough way, for me to take great pictures. In Kirsten's I dropped to around 1.5 fps, once I enabled shadows, which made UI use very awkward. With the LL V2, I can still manage about 7-8 fps.

Although I don't put forward my experience as an argument for everyone to immediately drop V1.*, or its third-party developers, I must say, I got very accustomed to the V2 format, through many months of using Kirsten's, and I now rather like it.

Lab folks, give yourself a round of applause!

totalDOTmadness

totalDOTmadness
whyDOTquestionmark, youmaywellDOTask

scenarioDOT1
Yeah, George said to me last week he was playing his gig next Tuesday, or was it Wednesday, I’ll just check my chat logs, you know how bad my memory is. Oh! I can’t remember what George was calling himself last week. I can’t find the chat log

scenarioDOT2
I have to get to a rl appointment, but login for 2 minutes because I know George has a rl job interview in a couple of hours and I just wanna quickly wish him good luck. Thirty minutes later I am still endlessly looking through my friends list trying to find out what name George is using today. I give up and George thinks I am totallyDOTuncaring.

scenarioDOT3
Again, I have to make a rl appointment, but I want to login for 2 minutes, just to pay my rent. Is my kinda needy and very chatty friend showing on my friends online web page? No? Good! Safe to login without them thinking me rude for not saying HEY! I login, “oh! Hello. Yes, I think Kate is a lovely new name for you, George, but I really must dash. No, I really must go, don’t mean to be rude, but, yeah, I can see you might like to explore your feminine side more fully, but seriously I gotta run”.

scenarioDOT4
We have all had the odd stalker on sl, have we not? One girl went out of her way to cause hassle with my partner, at the time, usual drama, easily dismissed because I believed my partner. Her basic approach was to try to convince me my partner was unfaithful. I know this would be a big issue for some of you, if you believed her.
My land has a visitor reporter, sends me an email with PERSON NAME, TIME, LENGTH OF STAY.
Now the stalker changes her name to MY PARTNER and gets her friend to change her name to MRBIG GUY and they hang at my land for a long while.
I have a great convo the next day with my actual partner, we’re so cool about it all.

scenarioDOT5
“Hello, this is George, your friend. May I borrow L$500 until tomorrow”
“Sure, George, you’ve always been good for it”.
Several days later, “um, George, about that L$500?”
“What L$500?”
LL will not get involved with private transactions, so do I just stop helping a friend when they, like me, like you, no doubt, have had the odd time when a payment source just won’t charge up your lindens?

scenarioDOT6
Someone ARs someone who is calling themselves George. It’s not my friend, George, but LL suspend 50 Georges until they have enough time, with 30% less staff, to work out which George is the guilty George.

Scenario DOT7
I could be a respected business person and have an underhand rival and they join my BUSINESS GROUP as ALT ACCOUNT. After joining they change their name to MY NAME and message the entire group, something perhaps like, “Hey, sorry all respected customers of me. I have been tricking you for years and selling you ripped-off copyrighted stuff. Someone has ARd me for it, so I would suggest you get rid of ALL my stuff from your inventory, like right away.”
Some customers will do it, some won’t, either way I shall be so deluged with IMs etc, it will distract me totally, and perhaps enough, to allow my underhand rival to have a much easier time to sell, sell, sell. Whereas, I am rather too busy replacing deleted outfits as a goodwill gesture, to keep my loyal customers.

lindenDOTlab, thinkitDOTthroughDOT

I hate being negative, really I do, but totalDOTmadness.
Regards,
Magnus Brody NOT (that’s NOT, not DOT) magnus.brody

The E-literatti of SL E-lebrity

For a start I am claiming original use of the words e-literatti and e-lebrity, if only because I cannot find they have been used previously and I reckon they are kinda funky and might catch on. Perhaps one day I shall have a wikipedia article, "Magnus Brody, an SL avatar, real name unknown, amusing chap and originator of the terms e-literatti and e-lebrity".

Anyways, I digress, as is often my wont.

A certain Mr Lane, Jumpy by name and by nature, recently announced on at least two blogs in SL that he was preparing a list. My mind, as it weirdly does, sounded off with a little Gilbert and Sullivan, but I know that is just me.

This list, as post readers were informed, is to tell the plebeian mass of SL, we the great unwashed, those who, in Mr Lane's opinion, are of an exalted enough class to be on his list, of a social status high enough to be the people who are the e-lebrity or e-literatti of SL. A poor person's Forbes List or Sunday Times Rich List, as it were.

Now, although one of the things I have always liked best about SL is that we can leave our discriminatory preconceptions at the login screen, Mr Lane does have a point, even despite his expression of it in the most narcissistic and superior complex of ways.

I won't expand much here on my views of his, shall we say, personal charm, other than to say that he seems not to know that a King's court jester had a lifespan of indulgent attention which could be curtailed summarily at the whim of the King. He seems also to have missed the point that the class clown should grow up, because there's no real future career in it. He's a funny chap, despite this, so I have no wish to trash his inability to deal with that part of life beyond trying hash for the first time and thinking it's cool to drunkenly vomit over a house plant at a party.

Where he does have a point, like it or not, is that certain avis do become e-lebrity by one-off deed or continual fame or infamy. Similarly an e-literatti has formed itself by those who have influence in sl (briefly or more long lasting) and it comprises e-lebrities, the sl rich and, perhaps, regular SL forum posters who have gathered themselves a following.

As is often, SL imitates RL. I don't like it, but I don't like those who are famous and rl celebrities by nothing more than perpetual reminder to worship at the OK Magazine coverage of their sad, silly lives, but my dislike is not going to stop it. Similarly, my dismissal as pathetic that an e-literatti class has established itself in SL is not going to stop it either.

Generational Technological Confusion

A telephone conversation with my mother today confirmed, yet again, how difficult it can be for one generation to understand another, particularly when it comes to anything more complicated than the coffee grinder. It went something like this:

Mum, "and I couldn't get to sleep for ages because I couldn't remember what I'd seen that nicely spoken, young actor in before",
Me, "Matt Smith, the new Doctor? You could have just googled his name",
Mum, "oh no, dear, I didn't want to use google, it was very late",
Me, "eh? So?",
Mum, "well, when they do a night shift they probably like to read a book, so I don't like to bother them",
Me, "who?",
Mum, "the man who types the answers when I ask him questions."
Me, "ah, right, that man. Let me just explain again how google works".

My mother, bless her, had always used google by typing questions like, "I wonder, if it wouldn't be too much trouble for you to find out, if you might let me have some recipes for lamb?", or "if it's not too rude to ask, and I can understand if he should wish not to say, what age is that nice, young Matt Smith?"

It was no wonder she was having trouble finding stuff when her ever present need never to be rude was finding lots of irrelevant hits.

It's not the first time we have had conversations like this. Another memorable one involved her not using her cordless phone for more private conversations in case one of her neighbours wanted to use the "wireless thing" at the same time; and when my mother says "wireless" she means the radio, like her lovely red Roberts wireless, not 802.11n.

Unfortunately, my son now says "eh?" to me in a way which indicates I am far too stupid to understand what he is saying and he simply doesn't have the time required to fully explain it.

It can't just be me, have you a favourite cross-generation misunderstanding?

Audiogasm

Mostly Zachh Cale, but also possibly Skye Galaxy, Phemie Alcott and Haruno Watanabe.

Unrequited Love

... terrible isn't it? You rather hope to put it behind you in your teens, but it is not age discriminatory.

Talking rl, a very good old friend of mine, who was never just a very good old friend to me, married very recently.

I never did tell her and hindsight has no benefits, in fact I find hindsight is rather smug.

Have my own blog? So, I thought, why not?