Since this is a pretty big post, I’ve put it behind a link. LJ users should have an LJ-cut, Solace readers should get a “Read More” link. Image heavy, though there’s a Flikr slideshow at the end which rotates most of the culprits! Enjoy!

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Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

Recently, as some of you may have seen, I launched into a rant about Second Life. Something intrigued me about it, it still does. I just hadn’t found it yet. I decided to chronicle my journey as I found stuff to do and found my niche in a virtual world. My post, however, got a comment along the lines of “I’m really excited about Blue Mars”. (Cheers for that btw ;) )

Hmm, thinks I, what is this Blue Mars? What I saw took my breath away. Simply speaking, Blue Mars is a virtual world, much like Second Life. However, it’s using the Crysis engine, so everything’s really quite pretty. I immediately signed up for a beta, debating being a pioneer in this strange new world.

It is beautiful.

I quite happily spent an hour exploring one of the cities. The only reason I haven’t explored more is because my IP is a bit rubbish if it doesn’t know I’m playing a game. But if I go there in quiet times, there’s no issue. The shops are pretty awesome, letting you examine a product in detail before you go about buying it. Worlds are static, and if they change you need to patch. In Second Life, the client is always on the look out for in-world changes. The way Blue Mars handles it is like loading a level in a game. You know it won’t change. You don’t need to waste computations to check if stuff changed.

I’m excited about this. My tweets have been obsessed with it (sorry guys! xD) and I want to see the direction it takes. It looks like it’s going to be a much more “quality” product than Second Life, with maybe a slight restriction on the creative side. You need to specifically sign up as a developer, and there may be costs that it incurs. I’d be tempted though. Just to experiment.

If anyone else is playing the beta, look me up. My username’s Anakiro and my toon name is Taylea Dinzel (same as SL!). I dunno which you need to find friends, but the friends list was just implemented, so go nuts!

Here’s a quick and dirty guide for tweaking the client’s requirements! It’s for Crysis, but Blue Mars uses the same engine.

I shall be making a few posts in the coming weeks (with video and pictures, hopefully!), exploring the various areas and UI-options that exist just now :)

Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

A little while ago, I asked a guildie on WoW “how do you get into Second Life?” She promptly spent a few days showing me the ropes, inviting me into her group of friends and showing me the best places to get cheap gear. Through this new network of friends I’ve found stuff, things to do and things to learn. As a result, I’ve decided to go ahead and make this blog, keep a record of the stuff I see and learn in Second Life and my thoughts on it.

It’s a little bit different from the first time I tried it. I wandered around the tutorial area, with that horrible waddling animation and run-of-the-mill clothes. I had no friends, and my first encounter with other people seemed to be a requisition for cyber-sex. So, needless to say, I didn’t go back. the idea itself, however, continued to intrigue me. You could use a platform like that for so many things, so much creativity.

I mentioned to my boss that I was having a go of Second Life and he started asking me questions.
“What do you do?” – I dunno.
“What makes it fun?” – Not sure.
“Does it cost money?” – It can.
“Why do you keep playing?” – …?

I really don’t know. But it keeps pulling me back.

I’m Taylea Dinzel! I live in Second Life.

Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

Went out today with the intention of timing myself for a 3km race in my local park next week. You don’t pre-register, you just turn up with your two shiny pounds and run around a few times. I figured I’d time myself to see if it was worth entering. The slowest time on the last 2 races has been around 21mins. In theory I can make that, 7min/km isn’t new to me. Maybe a stretch, but not new.

I made 1km and threw in the towel.

I’m gutted, but I think I started out a tad fast. I’m going to get out and have another go tomorrow. The park still stinks from all the flooding too. The mud’s also thick, but I still don’t want to run on the pavement too much. I did manage a 6:45-ish kilometre though. I guess it’s not all bad.

I’ll have another go tomorrow. Hopefully I can will myself the whole way around :S

Here’s the graph!

Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

Gyms are a foriegn place to me. I only stepped foot in a gym for a few weeks while I was in uni, in a desperate attempt to “turn myself around”. Obviously, I didn’t stick at it. Though, to be fair, I had lots of studying and gaming that needed to be done.

So a few months ago I did the gym induction at my local gym. I think my reasoning was that when the weather got worse I’d have somewhere to retreat to and no excuse not to do my running. Well over the past few days the weather has been atrocious. I’ve been there, hard at work on the treadmill. I’ve also noticed one or two things about gym users. Like the ones who give me dirty looks when I’m just plodding along, slowly eating up the kilometers. They jump on, pound away for 15mins and then jump off. I’m there for at least 25mins more than them, and I want to keep my knees and lungs. Also, nobody wears the safety cord on the treadmills. It’s a cord that clips onto your top, so if you fall off it pulls the emergency stop on the machine. Going at the speed some of them do, I’d imagine that’d be a concern.

Running on treadmills also seems to be deceptively easy. I can run 30mins on a treadmill, while I struggle to make 20mins outside. Maybe it’s because you can set your speed and you have all this information in front of you. Who knows? I just don’t want to get too comfy with it. I’ll think I’m amazing, and then when I come to run I’ll struggle horribly.

I should probably weigh myself now…

Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

So, I came up with an idea last week or so. Why not gather creative people in WoW into a guild, where we can share comments, ideas and knowledge. It would be a guild I’d love to be a part of, and I’d love to see some exciting stuff come out of it. So, off I went, determined to make this guild a reality.

But then I came across a problem. While the WoW addon system is very flexible, it doesn’t allow for much for what I wanted to use it for. To be honest, the only things you could really do inside the WoW client would be the voice chat services (or would Vent possibly be better?), and chat services. Nothing else, usually associated with a guild, would be of any immediate use. And I couldn’t really think of any addon applications that would be useful. I mean, what is there to really do apart from scheduled gatherings to compare works stored at an external site?

It’s a shame because this was something I really wanted to do. And I still do, I just refuse to put myself out on a limb with the limited ideas I have. I’m planning to create some sort of portfolio addon, which if you download a “pack” of things we’re going to look over and critique before loading up the client, you should be able to view them within the client itself. However, all that really does is eliminate the need for alt+tabbing between WoW and your browser (which, argueably might be incredibly useful for some attendees).

I also kind of wanted to make this guild a Horde guild. However, most of the feedback I’ve had on my chosen server (Darkmoon Fair (EU) for those interested) has been from Alliance players. Most of the pre-scheduled RP events seem to come from Allys too.

Also is the fact that there’s been interest in making these things public events. I’m assuming bi-weekly might be a start, with alternating weeks for each faction. Then if people wanted to attend weekly they could roll up an alt and do that.

I’m just running low on ideas for this. I wanted it to be an awesome guild that was super busy (RP guild events did spring to mind!), but now it’s looking like just scheduling public writer’s circles (since I’m bearly qualified to run those let alone ‘artist circles’ or whatever).

So how it seems to stand at the moment:

• Homebase guild
• Bi-weekly/monthly writer’s meetings
• (And other disciplines if we can get ‘officers’ to lead them)
• Alliance/Horde alternate weeks (can attend whatever they want)

Anyone who’s interested either in helping me run this, or just being part of it, please be sure to get in touch. I’ve already posted about this in the WoW forums and am planning to throw a post up on WoWGamers.co.uk (Darkmoon Fair (EU)’s RP events hub – from what I can tell) when I get something more concrete to propose. You can hit me up on Twitter (@anakiro) or ingame on Darkmoon Fair (EU) on (H) Zulkek or (A) Taylea. You’d probably be better sending me mail in-game, since I flit around so many characters, actually catching me might be a chore! :P

Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

So, the addon that’s been on everyone’s lips lately has been TweetCraft. It’s a client that allows information from outside the WoW client into it, and vice versa. It reminds me of a great(!) idea I had one time, that was a plugin for MSN (or !Y or AIM, whatever) that would let you converse with your guild/friends list in-game. Turns out I wasn’t the first one to have such an idea, but the software limitations made it impossible.

But back onto TweetCraft. It’s treading on dubious ground. It’s (in theory) violating Blizzard’s EULA.

D. use any unauthorized third-party software that intercepts, “mines”, or otherwise collects information from or through the Game or the Service, including without limitation any software that reads areas of RAM used by the Game to store information about a character or the game environment; provided, however, that Blizzard may, at its sole and absolute discretion, allow the use of certain third party user interfaces;

E. modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game Client in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;

This being said, how does it work? Well, reading the article linked at the top will give you those answers, but essentially it’s reading and writing to variables via a third party tray application. Then, when it wants to refresh the tweets it forces a reload of the ui, which reloads all the addon variables as well. However the idea that it’s exchanging data with the outside internet brings the EULA into question. Personally, I won’t be intsalling it (I’ve spent far too much time and money to risk it!) but I find the principle very interesting. There are, of course, other addons that exchange data with the outside. Things like dps trackers and the like. This is the first time I’ve seen a communication addon that works outside the game. xFire doesn’t really count, I don’t think, since it’s not really a direct client.

Food for thought, I think :)

Originally published at Solace. You can comment here or there.

So friends, long time no see?

Well, truth be told I've been courting another blog! I've set up shop over at http://www.workingtitles.org - having finally started to get my blog into some sort of order! But never fear, for I've found a way to crosspost all my musings onto LJ from my secret lair. This means you'll always be getting the latest musings on a variety of topics. There'll also be things going up like my portfolio, and a direct link to the long idle Kisbanian Flight. So look forward to a slightly more structured blog. Of course, if you'd prefer to follow my RSS in some sort of reader, we have that too! Just mosey along to the site to find out more :)

So yeah, not dead yet :)

And if any of you Tweet, you can check out my Twitter Novel experiment by following @datacrashing - or just waiting until I feel like throwing a chunk of it onto the blog ;)

I had the most awesome dream last night. I was wearing running shorts, and I looked GOOD in them. This is a breakthrough. Both running, and my ass, are positive in my subconscious.

And my consumption of fruit has gone up dramatically. This can only be a good thing, right?

More lengthy updates no doubt resulting this weekend. My mum goes to sleep hours before I do :P

I went on a horrible binge last night. I drink three little bottles of regular coke, a huge filled sandwich and two scotch eggs. I also had a toffee crisp to eat, but refrained. Urg. Over 1000 calories in one sitting. I only had 600 left for the day too :/

My belly certainly let me know its displeasure.

On the other hand, I've gotten in touch with a dance instructor who teaches a class just down the road. In her email it sounded like she teaches all sorts, and it could be kind of fun! I'm debating whether I'm going to put my best foot forward. I still feel pretty self-conscious going into public to exercise. Like the last time I hit an aerobics class, I kind of felt like everyone was looking as the little dumpling struggling to keep up :(

I've lost 7lbs recently though. I'm sure once I get running again I'll lose a little more. I imagined being a little more lithe than I am for this 5k in July ;)

Speaking of sponsorship, (We didn't? Oh well, sucks to be you! :P) here's a fancy widget to take all your money! :D But no, seriously, donate what you can! I'm less than £25 away from my target £100 - and shall be hustling my Scottish family over the weekend, a well as some of my work colleagues and my friends down South :)

So, I went out for my run today. Didn't really want to do it, felt a bit meh. But I went out anyway. Ended up cutting it short by ten minutes, simply because I couldn't be bothered. Which is a lame-ass reason.

Feeling like I got my butt kicked. I've been curled up in bed since getting back :( Good old mug of cold water is helping me get back on my feet. I may have had too much coke to drink over the past two days :(

Well, it's been a week since I updated here - so I suppose it's time for me to update the masses.

I've finished all my 28min runs. I'm pretty excited about how close I'm getting to my 5km goal. These are my current times (bearing in mind I include about 10 mins of walking for warmups and cooldowns)

June 6th - 2.96miles @ 37mins 48secs
June 10th - 2.98miles @ 38mins 1sec
June 12th - 2.84miles @ 38mins 2secs

My aim is 3.1miles - so I'm getting pretty darn close. My goal for the run is 45mins - I think given my current times that's a safe goal. My OMGWTFBBQ goal would be 40mins, but that'd be cutting it awfully fine I think.

The plan is, I finish my scheduled training before I head to Granny + Grandpa's on the 27th (after my haircut, w00t!) and then, when I've done that - I'm going to cook up a few routes that I know are 5km, and see how I fare on them. I don't quite trust my doohicky to calculate my distances properly. But I trust it enough to time me ;)

I got down to cleaning the bathroom on Friday. Now, this may not seem a big deal, but I hate cleaning. Especially when Craig's a lazy arse and doesn't clean anything more than dishes. If I'm lucky :P But, I got it done. So there's that. It's sparkely and smells lemony :)

My goal for this weekend is to finally start my recipe card book thingy. Basically, good recipes get printed to a card and slotted into the book. This means I can find all my favourite recipes easily, and my cooking books don't get splattered with whatever I'm cooking. I'm also planning to make some kind of weekly plan for food. We're slipping back into the groove of "What do you want to eat tonight? Oh, I dunno. Chinese?" It's all because it's easier when Craig and I have been working all day, but it's certainly not ideal. Some structure will do us good. And I'll get to experiment on him with my cooking :P

I also did some writing last night. Not nearly enough, but a page is a start :)

Not much to write home about I'm afraid. My running's steaming along well, and my weight's stable (not decreasing this week, unfortunately). Tune in next week for a (hopefully) more eventful episode! :D

Go ahead and sponsor me if you didn't already! Click the button or let me know how much you want to sponsor me offline. It's that easy! Only £35 to go until I hit my £100 target! :)

My first foray into Japanese cooking. Trusty sushi. Tuna maki + leftovers ftfw. Omnomnom.

Though, I will admit. The thought of eating raw fish scares the crap outta me. This is the canned variety :3

Also did my first 28min run this morning. My brain almost exploded, but I managed it with a short walking break. \o/

EDIT: More nomable goodness :3

So, another weekend for Sam. And what is she doing? Sorting out letters, bank statements and other money related stuff. But now that the letters have been rescued from all corners of the house, I don't have to worry about where that bank statement or council tax bill is when I need it. Which is... satisfying.

Now there is the tidying. Which I shall be moving onto shortly. Though, to be honest, having sorted out all the post and moved the games/DVDs out of the way, the living room already looks a lot better. A dust and a vaccum and we should be good to go. Likewise with the study, stuff just needs putting away. The kitchen and the bathroom need a really good going over, though. Might try and get the bathroom looking spotless tomorrow - it might just happen ;)

So, the mandate for tonight. Tidy up. Try and make the study look decent, throw another load of washing in and maybe wash some dishes. Tomorrow. BATHROOM. And maybe whizz around the bedroom. And the stairs. They'll take maybe 20mins, and makes such a difference. Oh, and a lie-in. Can't forget the lie-in.

I'm in such a rut right now. I need to get my life in order. Things need to be cleaned, and my websites need to be organised. I just can't really do anything for myself at the moment, because I feel that there's so much else I should be doing first. Oh woe is me *emo-mo-mo*!

Bleh, time to get back to it ;_;

Sam: We canz play shootypewpewPS3gametonightz pl0x?
Craig: which one is that then?
Sam: The one with the tanks
Craig: s'not shootypewpewPS3game
Sam: They run up to the guys and go "pewpewpewpewpew"
Craig: it's shootypewpewamgbewbies/obviousloveinterestRPEEEEEEEEEGEEEEEEEE
Sam: I stand corrected =)


Valkyria Chronicles if it wasn't obvious to everyone(!) xD

And sponsor meeeeeeeee!

Just made 2.69 miles today, according to my little iPod tracking gizmo. Slightly sunburnt, but glad I went out and did it. Considering heading out to pick up some sausages and little burgers for a pretend BBQ for one as a little treat! <3

Totally NOT fuelled by my desire to pick up beauty treatment leaflets while I'm out. Nooooooo. :3

So, today I lost another 2lbs. This means, in total, since Christmas I've lost a half stone. While this may not be big for some people, and others may be wondering why it took me so long to shift 7lbs, it's a breakthrough for me. I'm well on track to be my goal weight for my grandparents' party, and my training programme's on course to be finished by then too.

So, 4lbs and 3 weeks to go. If I can score 6lbs in those three weeks I'll be even happier :3

And then I'll have about a month to work from 30mins running to 5km!

Wish me luck! And if you haven't sponsered my Race for Life yet, go ahead and sponsor me. You can do it with the link below, or let me know so I can write you down for an offline amount. I have about £40 to go until I reach my target ;)



Have a great Saturday everyone, enjoy the sunshine while it lasts :)

It's slowly coming together. Granted, I fell back on a pre-existing template, but it looks nifty. And I've customised placing and stuffs :P Now just need a logo and some decent blurb.

And some content... :o

So, I'm experimenting with a bout of waking up at 7am, instead of 8am and then rushing into work for 9am. I've still got 1.5hrs until I need to be there and a 10min walk to get there :)

The main reason I'm trying this out is my running. Yes, half of you can switch off now :P I've been slacking lately. I get home from work and all I want is some food, and somewhere comfy to flop. And a Craig really helps too. Last thing I want to do is go out and run and feeling like I'm being watched by every soul who happens to be in the park. However, if I get up for 7am, I have time to go out for a run, and still make it into work for just before 9. Today's a rest day, so I'm not running, but I figured it would be good to be consistant.

My running, as I mentioned, isn't going as well as I'd hoped. All is not lost, but I've been pretty lazy over the past few weeks. I want to be finished my whole training thing before I go up to my Granny and Grandpa's in June so I have an excuse to pamper myself and make myself pretty before heading up there (as, no doubt, pictures will be taken). However, I promised myself all this once I finished the training. (Also once I lost 8lbs more, but I guess that's neither here nor there...) So I need to get a move on. I'm trying to get out at least 3 times a week. Or every other day (which some weeks will equate to 4 times a week! \o/) I figure after several months of running, I should be in a position to kick it up a notch. I also want to start running on pavement a little, but that'll have to wait until I've dropped a little weight. I just know the Race for Life will be mostly on paved roads and such, and I don't want to hurt myself :/

I'm also keeping a food diary. It seems to be working, except when I'm horribly hormonal. Like yesterday. But the chicken was goooooooood. Almost cried when I dropped a piece on the floor though. Not so good. But Craig picked it up and suddenly everything was better. I think I'm infected with the crazy, and I'm kinda hoping it goes away soon :P

It's started ;)