Anna Darwinian, Steampunk Adventuress

Here comes the bride!

2009-08-23T14:04:00.003-04:00

Here comes the bride!
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

No, the bride is not Anna Darwinian, thank Cog, as Nix Sands likes to say. I served instead as bespoke minister for famed Caledon jeweler Alastair Whybrow and his lovely bride Miss Garnet Psaltery.
This wedding was unlike a modern First Life ceremony in that I made no request for people to turn off their cellphones. Instead ...

Dearly beloved, we are gathered together to join this Man and this Woman in loving Matrimony;

And if any here present wants to IM bride or groom, let said person hold his peace during this service, lest he be struck by lightning, or worse, by the groom.

But, since the devil finds work for idle hands, all present are encouraged to take photographs.

Matrimony is an honourable estate, signifying unto us the mystical union that represents what is most loving and holy in all human history...

From there onward, it was much like the 1928 Church of England marriage ceremony, but I did have fun writing the blessing farewell at the end:

I pronounce that they are Man and Wife. AMEN.

Now by the beauty of texture and prim, by the power of Steampunk, by the glory of sunrise and the sparkle of midnight,

May love and laughter be always with Garnet and Alastair, and with all of us, so long as we all may rez, and forever more

Ladylike love (and oops!) letter

2009-08-19T08:28:00.003-04:00

Ladylike love letter from a lovely plume pen
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

Dear Dr. ~~Oblonski~~ er, ~~Obolensky~~ er, whoever,

I apologize for not realizing that you are/were two very different people. One of you makes fine furniture imbued with playful animations for Yolanda Hirvi and Metaversal Arts. One of you makes trouble in New Babbage and elsewhere and is the creator of the Frock B Gone gun. I thought you were both one energetic gentleman who was in real life the dad of Miss Hirvi. I was wrong.

Whoever you are and whatever you're doing keep doing it. Both of you! I think you're great.

Confusedly and confusingly,
Anna Darwinian

Dragon flames and then wild dancing broke out...

2009-08-03T13:24:00.002-04:00

Armada Breakaway farewell dance
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

...as Armada Breakaway went up in flames to make room for a new and better sim. My shoulder dragon Cogito insisted that he and I had to be there! Later on, serving Cogito right, some overenthusiastic big dragon flamed off the entire platform we were standing on, tumbling us both into the water.

The photographic hero of the occasion, however, was Koshari Mahana, who captured hundreds of stills and put them together into one of the most amazing YouTube vids ever. I will be watching Koshari's new Four Winds website to see what other astonishing things she gets up to.

Fascinating Caledon backstory: Magellan Kinvara

2009-07-23T13:01:00.002-04:00

New building for Gentle World
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

I have never been able to lure him up onto the roof of my store (except as an audience member) but Mr. Mako Magellan has begun relating the story of Magellan Kinvara:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Kudos to Mr Magellan and to Miss Elspeth Woolley for their generosity and imagination!

Goodbye to RFL 2009

2009-07-23T00:12:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Lokiboy for keeping this lovely steampunk memory green, or should I instead say for keeping the lovely memory steaming and smoky and twirling its cogs and stomping its engines.

So many from the Steamlands deserve major kudos for the vivid creations of RFL 2009 -- planners and designers and builders and scripters and herders of cats, before and during and after. You know who you are. Miss Darwinian fastens on her special remote hydraulic appreciation attachment and snaps out to one and all of you a steampunk clankety 21-cog salute.

Thank you, Caledon, Steelhead, and New Babbage for your support of this amazing effort.

Steampunkery at RFL

2009-07-20T06:57:00.002-04:00

Riding the chair of Ra
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

It isn't too late (yet) to go see the wonderful Steamlands sims at RF. The lag and the crowds of the weekend have disappeared but the amazing creations have not--at least not yet!

Here I am wearing my favorite new steampunk outfit, Eladrienne Laval's AETHER Queen of Cogs, with golden cogs on the jacket (not wearing the cog crown) riding up up up to the very top of Kamilah Hauptmann's Metropolis sim at RFL 2009, which also features amazing steampunk vehicles by Wrath Constantine.

TotalLunar Eclipse of Steelhead created a notecard with info and landmarks for many Victorian sights created for RFL; cribbing freely from that but adding perhaps my own mistakes:

RFL Team Caledon: Sim StartHere, designer: Equine Mcmillian, amazing telescopy thing!

Sim Metropolis (Art Deco inspired steampunk city), Architect and Designer: Her Lyonesse Kamilah Hauptmann, with amazing steampunk vehicles by Wrath Constantine
New Babbage: Universal Exhibition - World's Fair based on the 1889 Exhibition Universelle in Paris. More than 20 exhibits from leading Babbage builders. Chair: Breezy Carver. Lead Architect: Aeolus Cleanslate. Architects: Kandace Commons, Greg Merryman, Doctor Obolenski, Edward Pearse, Rip Wirefly

Plus, Designer Sim: Mars -New Babbage establishes a base on Mars.
Chair: Breezy Carver. Lead Architect: Reitsuki Kojima.
Steelhead Team Salmons: Team Salmons presents: Crescent Lake, Oregon. Architect and Landscape designer: TotalLunar Eclipse, 7seas enabled... all proceeds go to Relay for Life

Whew, just finally finished scripting the freebie

2009-07-16T16:42:00.001-04:00

Another excellent thing about having an alt
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

Why do building and scripting take way more time than you plan?

I am not yet very good at either.

The scripting especially is way too much fun.

They are a handy excuse to postpone other work.

For some reason, I keep adding more and more features.*

All of the above.

If you picked 5, you know me way too well. If you are not on my friends list yet, why aren't you?

* For example, this desk sign whistles like a railroad train when somebody pokes it. But then, don't all desk signs do that? Or if not, shouldn't they?

Real life should be more like this!

2009-07-15T08:12:00.001-04:00

Three time machines in SSC
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

One of the things I love about Second Life is that it gives you the option, every time, of waking up either where you went to sleep or else safely back at your home location.

Real life should do that.

This morning, however, i wanted to do my restart back at the pub in Caledon's Steam Sky City where last night Miss Reghan Straaf was spinning tunes. SSC is always an inspiring ramble, a haven of steampunk inventions plus tesla and fine blinkenlights.

Three time machines. Wow.

Real life should definitely be more like Second Life.

Twin Musical Tesla Coils playing Mario Bros

2009-07-10T19:50:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday, Mr. Tesla, from steampunks everywhere and everywhen.

I wonder what happens if I push that button...

2009-07-07T14:07:00.005-04:00

I wonder what happens if I push that button...
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

Oh my, what a weekend for steampunk adventuring!

In the desert East of Odyssey, I found out just what happens if you push the oh-so-tempting button beneath Cutea Benelli's dark steampunk Bogon Flux super-construction.

Sir Edward Pearse, Caledon's DJing Duke of Argyll and urban architect, when he is not Pearsing and Cutting and marrying beautiful women and building huge buildings, talked on my store roof and showed us all his very first waistcoat.

Miss Koshari Mahana -- artisan, builder, historian, and visionary -- showed us a few of the designs from her own life journey and gave away as our door prize one of her Amphibiflyers.

I put on low-lag fishskin to attend the Lummerland Show and Tell and was, with the rest of the front row, attacked by a snail.

I finally bought hair not tied into a storekeeperista updo, and danced it around at the Monday Club Gearz event in Steelhead Boomtown.

You might not think Monday should still be a part of the weekend. But when the adventures keep rolling in, weekends don't stop when they should!

Consternation in the skies over Caledon!

2009-07-05T13:26:00.004-04:00

Griefer building wall
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

July 2, 2009: One of those strange events Not Possible In Real Life. Some avatar dressed only in (unfeatured, PG) skin decided to disrupt the role-playing "war" between Caledon and New Brunswick by creating a giant and scripty wall on the border.

Here, hanging in the air, trying to talk him out of this wacky abuse of everyone's server resources, you can see RockAndRoll Michigan (dressed as Uncle Sam), Uni NInetails (white kitteh avenger with multiple tails), me, Anna Darwinian, in my black and gold skirt, and two other ladies who will, I hope, tell me their names.

Steampunk freebies at SL6B

2009-07-02T10:59:00.001-04:00

Steampunk freebies at SL6B
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

Awesome steampunk laptop and magic mirror, both from the team of BlakOpal Galicia and TriloByte Zanzibar. Their display for the steampunk sims of New Babbage is characteristically dark and full of fun detail.

I went wandering there today with MichaelD Mannonen, whose giant pirate-of-industry desk is one of my store's fine displays (his free pirate-talking shoulder parrot is yet another.) And when we got to the top of the PrimPerfect freebie tree, we ran into DarlingMonster Ember, who had shown her jewel-like flying machines in the very same store event where MichaelD last appeared.

Truly, Second Life is a small world built by very big imaginations.

If you do NOT want to see steamy steampunk corsets ...

2009-06-29T13:01:00.003-04:00

.. then you should NOT read Miss Tehanu Marenwolf's "Cogs and Togs" steampunk fashion blog.

And particularly if you do not wish to see a photo of me wearing one of Miss Terry Lightfoot's delightfully naughty new corsets, you should not read Miss Tehanu Marenwolf's recent post thereon.

Gracious, you blog readers just can't control your curiosity, can you?

Explosion in the steampunk bloggery boiler!

2009-06-25T22:18:00.002-04:00

How else to explain this: in addition to blogging here and putting my photos on Flickr, I just joined Zoe Connolly's SecondLife Bloggers ning and posted a piece about prim farming there?

Steampunk adventurer Roberto Viking

2009-06-24T00:16:00.003-04:00

Steampunk adventurer Roberto Viking
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

Miss Tehanu Marenwolf of Cogs and Togs invited me to model Miss Terry Lightfoot's amazing and rather naughty new steampunk corsets.

For modeling naughty outfits, a handsome gentleman is a very appropriate prop, we thought. Roberto Viking bravely agreed to join us. In a quiet moment, he took time to admire the ingenious chair-on-a-spring teleport mechanism that propels you to the second floor of Miss Lightfoot's Caledon Eyre store, To a T.

Cogito, ergo ... ?

2009-06-23T01:12:00.001-04:00

Cogito is the name of my gently-steaming shoulder-dragon; despite tradition, he gives no sign of doing sums.

Other than that, let me introduce myself by quoting my biography in the Caledon (Second Life) wiki:

Miss Anna Darwinian lives in Caledon Eyre near the Odditorium and not far from the stables of Virrginia Tombola.

Her life before arriving at Caledon Oxbridge is veiled in mystery. Could there be a connection to the strange disappearance, long ago, of a disreputable flower-selling orphan named Anna Darwinian? Even to Miss Darwinian this is a mystery, as are her nightly dreams about brass-lined undersea laboratories, exotic dance costumes, and a very mysterious "Professor."

Caledon's Anna Darwinian recently, by shadowy methods never fully explained, became proprietor of a large empty store in Winterfell Anodyne. The strange and wonderful objects now therein include some of the oddest "big statement" work by Caledonian creators and are sold on commission. The name of her store (this week at least) is "Steampunk Adventures."'

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race."

H G Wells.