Lunar New Year in Farmville 2

There are a lot of animations in FV2 that go largely unmentioned. The new Lunar New Year lantern stand is an example.

Here's a couple of screen shots of the kick off for the Lunar New Year lantern tasks.

Free lit lanterns bobbing on the river in the night.

The lanterns rise up into the sky and fly away.

Also, every time you make a lantern in the lantern stand and a neighbor "buys" it, they take the lantern to the river where it floats and then flies away.

But wait! There's more! There are other many little animations that no one seems to mention. For example, you can hover over mushroom lamps (if you have them) and they light up. There are a couple of wood fires that light up when you hover over them. As a remnant of an owl task, there is an owl tree with a tiny owl house where the owls peer out when you hover over the tree.

And there are constant special animations to kick off new tasks. A recent reward animation was a sleigh ride with four friends. The entire screen was animated with my farm in the background.

As an old school computer user I am amazed by the work put into this free game to make it fun and attractive. They should win an award.

Floating in Second Life

Here are two screen shots showing the kind of stuff I like in Second Life and mostly what I do there: stuff you can't do in First Life. Here I am (as an avatar) in a floating world simulation. Part of the fun is the duck boat that you ride down a slide. At the end of the slide the boat disappears and your avatar falls underwater.

My avatar (wearing a freebie fish head gifted to me at the site)
powering a traveling, floating contraption. Everything is easy here (see
the destination address in the slot at the top of the screen shot).
Just "sit" and you'll find your avatar doing all sorts of things.

My avatar floating in the sky. This trick takes advantage of
the building technique where one side of an object has a
texture and the other side is transparent.

Why be normal or ordinary, indeed!

If you have a membership, you can go directly to Rafts.

Full Bloom: Too Many Hazards

Full of blooming screens!

I once introduced a friend to Mille Bornes by stating the objectives as 1) get as many miles as you can, and 2) stop your opponents from traveling. He got it really good. In four moves all of us were stopped. Including my friend who had (of course) raised the vengeance of us all.

Full Bloom is a Facebook game that reminds me of that friend. Obviously someone told them that the game is merely a draw, so they throw up as many screens as possible before you get to the actual playing board: invite friends, play a special pre-game, get a gift, give gifts, find a special butterfly, and a news screen. If that isn't enough, when you get to your "garden" there's a big yellow arrow pointing to the news button. Then, you can click on the game button to go to the playing board.

Full Bloom also sucks up CPU usage. I know because I've played it on a Windows laptop and had warnings. It's a simple little match-three game with no need for tons of CPU. So, what's it doing with the CPU? Is it just lazy programing? Or perhaps malicious surreptitious tracking? Could it possibly be checking my hard drive?

The game itself is nicely made: pretty, logical, levels up in small increments, adds interesting hazards. Too bad it's all larded up with crap that makes it frustrating to begin playing. Also, the add-ons are outrageously expensive. It's about $1.00 to add on 5 moves in the middle of a game (if you run out of moves or time). Other options are equally expensive. Really silly when you consider that you could buy a "real" game with endless playing time and unlimited moves for $10.

I like the game. In spite of the detractors I play it a lot. I've never paid to play and I never will. It's not worth it.

One of three pre-screens to click through before you
get to play the game.

You arrive here after the preliminary screens.
After this you can go to the playing board.

After the garden, on the way to the playing
board - a little detour.

I joined a library group

It's an online/offline crossover group for reading books. Which is what you'd expect from a library. Since this isn't just any library but a library extrodinaire, I'm am jazzed about the meetings.

Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library's staff...
137 members Your place, stories you want. Information you need. Connections you seek.

Our staff-favorites shelf

The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Start date: July 3, 2011

Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell
Start date: July 6, 2011

View this group on Goodreads »

I am Elinor Dashwood!

Take the Jane Austen Character Quiz here!

Flower 59

Flower 49

Simple crocheted flower decoration on a purse.

Flower 34

Flower 23 and 24

So absorbed in work yesterday I forgot (again.) Oh, well. Here's two for today. Please forgive me.

Flower 23

Flower 24

23 is especially ugly which is what happens when I don't feel like making something. The leaves look like cucumbers! Hahahahhaha ... enjoy!

Flower 14

Today's flower is more about posting a flower a day instead of creating a flower a day. Once I decided to make flowers, I knew I had to slip this flower in somewhere. It's a photo I turned into stained glass (back in 2010) following this tutorial. It's very time consuming. No shortcuts! I did make the gold lead shown in the tutorial, then decided I really wanted gray lead and so made this one.

You don't need to be an Illustrator expert to do this. You just need a good photo and a lot of time. Oh! And you have to be able to figure out the tutorial. If I remember correctly, there's a tiny step missed. There usually is.

Spirit Boat - 2

Sailing in a sea of grass.

Aren't fish supposed to represent the spirit or the soul somewhere for some culture? You can fold this boat yourself by following these instructions. 

January 2011

January 2011, a photo by TracyU on Flickr.

This would make a nice 365 Make Something project. Easily doable electronically - which is my primary criterion.

Via Flickr:

Sorted, once and for all: Ravenclaw

Ravenclaw is the house I chose once upon a time. That time was after I was sorted the first time into the original Harry Potter site; yes, the one built by a 13-year-old girl. Then I was sorted into Slytherin simply because I chose a snake for a pet. I chose the snake because it was different. So, I probably should have been sorted into Ravenclaw. No one asks you your motives!

After reading the descriptions of the houses in the book, I figured Ravenclaw was me.

At the Pottermore site, sorting is more complex and based on answers to more than one question. Possibly two. Because I was sorted into Ravenclaw (as far as I can determine) for choosing to study ghosts and preferring to gain a lot of wisdom (over, say, being loved a lot). I'm still wondering what difference choosing the white or black chess piece makes.

After reading JK's new description of (and welcome to) Ravenclaws, I'm very certain that is where I belong. Parts of it are similar to the way members of Mensa see themselves. So, I am doubly at home.

I tried to brew a potion. It's quite difficult. I haven't even got to the "real" potions yet, as I am still trying to learn the training potion. I haven't figured out how to wave my wand.

And I have a lovely wand. It's very flexible, made of Acacia, and has a Phoenix feather core. Being selected by a wand is another nice sorting process. Although you don't get video from JK like you do before the sorting hat.

Overall, the site is really lovely, filled with beautiful all new art, because, well, WB owns the other art. The navigation takes some getting used to. Took me a couple of scenes to realize I should double click to zoom in. And wave the cursor around to make things highlighted so I could collect them.

Returning to locations is really funky. There is a nice sort of path thing. Yet even with that it took me three visits to figure out how to leave Diagon Alley.

Wish me luck in potions! The interface is proving to be one of those oddball things that is obvious to everyone but me. Guess I'll have to ask the other members of my house how it works and risk being ridiculed for not being smart enough!

BTW: Yes, I am WingWave15886. Feel free to friend me! I didn't choose the name. Not really. I  was presented with four choices of randomly generated screen names (for my own protection) and chose the least odious. Well, maybe not odious exactly, merely closest to what I might have made up. And that's my pet frog as a profile photo. I am so protected I feel positively impervious.

Sky 331 - princess

Sky 323 - tower of insanity

Just beyond the village at the top of the cliffs.

My Blue Heaven Updated

I've randomly updated my underwater home, Alter Native (on Promissa), a couple of times, since my last report. Most recently removing the shark because together with the squid and the turtle it created weird lag. The turtle, modifiable jellyfish, and squid are the cool ones, so they stay. The glowing plants became tiring and blasé so I removed them all.

There are two additions: a pink tree from Nirvana that waves in the "wind" and Serbiter's brooding black angel - beautifully ridiculous and quietly sublime. I plopped in a few more meditation pads, cuz I'm just a meditation freak and it's much easier to do almost anything when my AV is immobilized. Besides, she needs the sit time.

In a casual way I've been making note of the traffic. It went up when I offered free Pumpkin Cookies during Halloween. It also went up when I planted the pink tree which sticks out above the water. Generally, Mondays are low numbers compared to Wednesdays and Thursdays. Those aren't big numbers, mostly between 30 and 60. I have no plans to take advantage of this data. It's just a curiosity.

Current Fads
Listening. Cruel Sister, Pentangle and Healing Sounds (free download from Sounds True); whooshing of space heater
Watching. Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991)
Activity. writing!
Gadget. iMic
News Source. tweeps I follow
Reading. The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti - Annie Vanderbilt; Show Me Your Way - Howard A. Addison; Type and Image - Philip B. Meggs; Transforming the Mind - His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Writing. The Pathbreaker Agent

Hero and Dog

It's a start.

Current Fads
Listening. Romance Unlimited (unpublished iMix); my heart
Watching. Iron Man (2008)
Activity. running away to the woods
Gadget. iPhone 3GS
Writing. Gertrude, so far (NaNoWriMo 2010)
Location: Regulus, about 15 miles from the orphanage

my favorite tunes

Bigger type means I have more of their stuff.

My Little Luxuries List

Last night I was talking to a friend about little luxuries and how I have to have them no matter how desperate my financial situation. Without them I go mad and then my financial situation becomes even worse. Sometimes it's better to just eat the ice cream, you know? So, here's the list I made this morning. A few of the items on the list are big ticket items. Remember that a quality item used over time amortizes to a little daily luxury. Yes, I will pay more to have a less troubling daily round. It's worth it.

Elaine's Little Luxuries
1. Lunch at a nice restaurant, preferably asian.
2. Watching a first run movie, preferably in 3-D.
3. Getting a manicure or pedicure or both.
4. Having someone else pour me a glass of wine.
5. Wasting time.
6. A phone call on my iPhone.
7. Using my iMac.
8. Two sturdy, non-leaching, recyclable, clear reusable water bottles - a green one for the car, a pink one for at home.
9. A big bottle of mineral water - Perrier or Pelegrino usually.
10. Fancy flip flops.
11. Good incense.
12. My engraved iPod Shuffle (2nd Gen).
13. A cup of excellent coffee (currently: Blanchards from their roastery).
14. A bouquet of fresh flowers.
15. My recyclable, sustainable, fair trade net shopping bags.
16. A good pair of glasses.
17. A good pair of walking shoes.
18. Getting a massage.
19. A very long walk in the woods with the dog on a cool sunny morning.
20. My Second Life.
21. The next book in the series bought new in person at the bookstore.
22. Downloading tunes from the Apple iTunes music store.
23. Reading expensive magazines I don't buy at the bookstore while drinking a warm drink.
24. Ocean swimming.
25. Body surfing.
26. Brain baking.
27. Planning an air vacation.
28. Take away from China's Best.
29. Visiting Mom at her condo on the beach.
30. Sleeping outside.
31. Getting a new silly toy (i.e., Googly Ball, Felix the Cat figurine, soft silly tiny monkey).
32. Being silly.
33. Dressing silly.
34. Discussing cosmic issues as if I know what I'm talking about.
35. Writing science fiction fantasy novels that have no ending.
36. Writing poetry.
37. Blogging.
38. A good cup of tea.
39. Watching the moon.
40. Taking a long hot bubble bath on a cold winter's day.
41. Making a huge fire in the fireplace.
42. Serendipitous meet-ups with friends.
43. Making art.
44. Making lists.
45. Burning CDs to listen to while driving around in the car.
46. Ignoring the rules of grammar.
47. Riding when I could walk or walking when I could ride.
48. Not making sense.
49. Kissing.
50. Hugging.
52. Wishing, wether the stars are visible or not.
53. Eating a raw salad at Ellwood Thompsons.
54. Watching my favorite movie, again.
55. Posting my list of little luxuries to my blog.
56. Posting new art to my funky website.
57. Putting cool decals on my iPhone.
58. Using the color pink inappropriately.
59. Playing solitaire electronically.
60. Giving myself a little luxury item at Christmas.
61. Eating a single, excruciatingly high quality dark chocolate bon bon - preferably creamy or nutty.
62. Having back ups for my favorite little luxuries.
63. Setting a silly image as my Facebook profile picture.
64. Stopping whenever I feel like it.

Current Fads
Listening. One Guitar No Vocals, Leo Kottke and OMs (unpublished playlist); a strange vibration
Watching. Always (1989)
Activity. keeping cool
Gadget. iPhone 3GS
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Monument - Ian Graham
Writing. rather not say
Song of the Day: When You Wish Upon a Star (Disney theme)

my blue heaven-in-progress

I have discovered underwater (virtual) living. My little plot in Second Life is water property, which means, that in the normal scope of things when left untended and reverted to its default condition, it is normally underwater. Of course this has no effect on my AV which flies at altitudes of 4,000 meters as well as walking under and on water.

Periodically I have a complete property makeover removing all the objects and rebuilding. I've had beach houses, fields of flowers, a huge temple, and a cozy wilderness hideout.

I was happy to find a ton of editable underwater plants and animals in the SL free library. I've rezzed a bunch of seaweed, jellyfish, a shark, a squid, and a manta ray. My build is beginning to develop a theme.

I like glow. I've been into glow for nearly a year now (which is a lifetime in SL). So my stuff is glowing. I'm searching for comfy underwater cushions for more than one person. So far all I can find is mermaid shells and clams. Right.

Anyway, as noted it doesn't really matter that I am underwater. My wind chimes work just fine here as does the fairy acorn light. If worse comes to worst I can always plant a couple of couches or slap down one of my single prim homemades.