SpaceBuddhaa was busy in the Ashram tonight, clearing out the objects in the Condo. I have a suspicion that when I de-rezzed the condo, someone fell — I sort of saw something move downward from my elevated position. I hope that’s not true, but if it is, I’m mighty sorry, even if the Avatars tend to bounce like a toon.
By the way, personal flying is permitted of course when you’re building or rezzing, it should go without saying. It should, but it can’t. So the final word is, for building, you can do whatever you need to do in order to accomplish the build.
Anyhow, thanks to SpaceBuddhaa’s efforts tonight, in spite of a lousy internet connection and all sorts of Sl internal problems, the objects formerly known as “the condo” and contents are entirely gone, making room for what should be there, should have been there in the first place, but couldn’t be there until we were here, if you get my meaning, if you get my drift. What is it that’s going in there? It’s what Morgan would have called “Wait and See Pudding”.
Argh, it’s been a long time since I’ve operated the controls in Second Life, and I never did figure out how to communicate by typing. I can figure out how to talk, all right. Usually my mike is left on from Team Fortress or one of our newer POG games that we’ll be releasing whenever they’re friggin’ ready. Not my idea, I borrowed the release date concept from ID software and of course MicroSoft.
It’s not arrogance, it’s reality. You can’t promise a game on a certain date. Things always happen.
I’ll get the New Building Configs up in the Ashram as soon as I can, but I’m still trying to juggle several hundred items that came slamming back into my inventory from the Condo demolition. Second Life does not do well in the storage of items. Over-Duplication of the same item again and again plagues me and eludes capture.
One of the problems we’ve been facing of late in the Ashram is that we simply don’t have enough parcels for every resident — we have a few more now than before the Shift, but it adds up so quickly, and there is not a lot of room, so before you resign your parcel or do anything equally foolish, let me telegraph to you what I’ve come up with as a very viable solution that would work for everyone:
The Cloister was asked if they would be willing to occupy a single parcel and share it. This would free up a number of parcels for newcomers, muchly needed and fast, so every new member can have his or her own stasis chamber somewhere safe and private.
The Safeness and Privacy is entirely up to you. Everyone in the Ashram is on the Honor System, which means it’s unthinkable to break the rules, which are simple manners and respect for the space and for the admin and Cloister, and occasionally even toward me.
But either way, suit yourself, I’m easy. Besides, I’ve got some impressive Tai Kwan Do moves up my not-so-elderly sleeve.
Yeah, this flesh-and-blood body is a whole lot healthier than the Previous, and I’m mighty thankful for it. I can and do spend a couple of hours in the Zen Garden these days, and it looks absolutely gorgeous, as does the Newly Renovated Granny House!
No, it’s not for myself, but concern for the folks who live here in the Virtual Ashram, and as a future Bodhisattva, that very thing should be your main concern, too, and from the courtly manners I’ve seen in the Ashram, I’d say you’re doing wonderfully well to resolve issues and maintain order, and I can depend upon you to understand what I mean here.
So, to business…here’s my plan, sparked by having to move the condo out of the waterway area on the ground level:
We move the Condo somewhere else, and move the whole Cloister into the apartments — each Cloister member gets an apartment, a personal space, leaving three apartments which can be used as a ritual area, a common room gathering space, and a Common Voyage Stasis Circle, with the present configuration of the Cloister.
So that’s what I did. I put the New Condo above the 3200 Meter Level, so it’d be totally out of the way, and who cares if it’s on the water or not??? Cloister Members are highly trained not to care about personal matters or conditions of life in the work-necessity.
There are Higher Grade Teaching Areas above the 3250 Meter Mark, and there are also Sacred Areas, Cloistered Prayer Grounds, plus Claude’s Krell Labs laboratory and experimental area, and my rather large region-sized building area for my aircraft, boats and cars, and other items I’m working on currently.
In short, stay away from any zone higher than the 3250 level. You have no business there, and when you DO have business there, it’ll be strictly by invitation for the one event. Nobody but Admin & Cloister and me go up there or look around there, period.
I can use mechanical means to limit your ability to enter the space, but I don’t play like that. You are responsible for your knowledge, your ability to carry out your work, and your willingness to follow the rules of the Ashram, which were made for the good and benefit of all, not just you.
So by installing the Cloister there, it gives them an opportunity to decorate their own space, and I’ll decorate the common room and ritual space.
On this side of The Shift, the Cloister is in the Ashram continuously, and moreover, in this configuration, always has been, 24/7/365. We Never Close.
Our television broadcast, however, is not at all 24 hour, not at this time, until someone coughs up the $514 bucks needed for a year’s usage which gives us several features we really do need, such as archives. At the moment, they are limited and they erase fast.
Gosh, things are moving fast, and so well; all the Ashram changes so far have worked out, and we have about 9500 prims that we didn’t have before in that region, and that’s with the Condo back in, and I tend to decorate mighty thin, these days. Not a lot of flourish in my Second Life Habitats, most of which you will only see if you advance through the ranks of Ashram Leadership and Admin.
Cloister Ranks?
This is Kaos, Mr. Smart. We don’t “ranks” here!
Of course we don’t. Read Damon Knight’s “Four in One” to get a handle on what it is to be a member of a Cloistered Group. Especially when the purpose of the group is invocational and relies upon total cooperation and trust for the circle to work.
But hey, for any circle to work, a certain amount of openness, allowingness and mutual love and trust must be there, the stronger the better and the more powerful the prayer or other ritual operation.
I’m not making this up. You have plenty of evidence for this in your own direct experience personally experienced.
If member of a team are not in harmony, the results inevitably suck.
Harmony is the single-most important vital factor in any team effort. Sounds like a no-brainer, eh, what:?? But it isn’t something to be taken for granted; most folks have no idea that cooperation rests upon a pillar of mutual trust, love, respect and even admiration.
Doubt me? Check with my longtime Buddy, Lao Tsu.
No Harmony, no Marriage.
Mawwiage, I meant, of course. A noble institution, but most of the institutions I’ve ever seen are brick-front and fenced real high. If someone offers you a choice between a nickel and a dime, take the nickel, and they’ll return every day with friends to see such sport. Imagine the idiot taking the nickel, because it was bigger!!! Haw, haw, haw!!!
Never forget, as you stare through those iron bars out into the world of sane people, you’re crazy, and that being crazy doesn’t automatically mean you’re also stupid.
But gosh, whillikers gee whiz, if someone who was really crazy went senile, how could you tell???
I guess from a behavioral standpoint, the cause wouldn’t much matter.
It’s never the heat; it’s always the humidity. We spend billions for defense and not a single cent for entropy. It’s a disgrace to the family name of Wagstaff, if such a thing is possible.
I’m hoping to hostess a party sometime soon, perhaps at my club on the River, which is where I’ve been hanging out for the past … I was going to say “decade”, but I’ll do the math:
In this Reality Zone, I’ve been at my Riverside Jazz Club for exactly 2014 minus 2007 years, which comes out, according to the number of digits I show here, to about 7 years, give or take a finger.
God, that really doesn’t sound at all right. You’ll think I’m terribly rude, like those who encounter my inability to manage the social part of social media, but I’m not rude, at least, I have no intention of being rude at all.
Give a finger, take a finger. It’s a finger joke, pure and simple. I didn’t use the word “digit” there because I’d already used it in the sentence before, and I’m a highly trained and skilled writer, so I just wouldn’t think of deliberately committing an editorial crime right here in front of God and every Bodhi.
See what I mean? I can’t resist a pun, can you?
Oh. Well, I can’t, and you’ll just have to deal with it, that’s all.
Hostess a party… did I say that? Of course, hostess. I wouldn’t think of putting on a party in any of my male manifestations, would you?
God, honey, imagine a party thrown by a man!
When you really have no control over which gender clicks on when you hit the Hoober-Bloob Highway, you can at the least prepare yourself for the fact that you could be male, female or other and it shouldn’t make any difference in your work.
So I’m rather unpredictable in my choice of how I present, and that goes for any world, whether virtual or flesh-and-blood. In fact, I think I’ll wear my new cutoff shorts and v-neck blouse today if we go shopping.
OMG, I just realized that breakfast is only minutes away, and my makeup and hair are a total mess. I’m intolerable in the morning until I’ve had my hair done.
I note that most Ashram members seem to be quite comfortable with an indeterminate gender and use male and female and “other”, such as furries and bots in good distribution, meaning that folks tend to allow themselves to be experimental.
As you know, I am not a prude, and you are welcome to wear any costume you like, with one request; please do not wear items that are so transparent that you can see the crotch hair, is that fair?
If you feel I’m overstepping behavorial concerns here, I’ll back off. Any comments would be appreciated.
Oh, while we’re on the subject, I am assured that there has never been a single incident of disrespect toward Admin and Cloister, and that no sexual harassment of any kind has occurred. If you know of an incident, it is your duty to report it; we will take only the kindest and most considerate action, no punishment, just a gentle reminder that we are nice ladies and gentlemen and children and furry forest creatures here, and that nobody wants trouble.
There is an old saying, passed on to me by my good friend Samantha, in 1967:
“Leave Sex Out of the Picture, and Anyone Can Be Enlightened.”
Wow, is that ever true.
Boy, is my ever tummy growling. I’m off to breakfast now, Ta!
See You At The Top!!!
gorby