Here comes the bride!

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

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...

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

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

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

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

Another excellent thing about having an alt
Originally uploaded by SteampunkAdventure

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

1. I am not yet very good at either.


2. The scripting especially is way too much fun.


3. They are a handy excuse to postpone other work.


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


5. 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?