Announcing … erm …

Many thanks to all who sent congratulations for my new job as a Linden Mole, but … April Fools!

Honestly, I didn’t think anyone would really fall for it. Sure, I bought a L$500 avatar from Extrovirtual (SLurl), got a friend to change her Display Name and set up a group for an appropriate title so I could photograph the tag, had certain Profile Feeds edited, and Photoshopped the tag into pictures of me then faked a map showing me somewhere I’m not allowed … but did I make it that good?

No, I’m not Correspondent Mole. There is no Correspondent Mole. And there is no ChooChoo Mole, either, as mentioned in yesterday’s post on this site. The train engine was completed just last night as my wife watched — yet she fell for the joke!

This mole avatar is just one of the many fine Tinies from Wynx Whiplash at Extrovirtual (SLurl).

So, in addition to my thanks I have to tender my apologies for apparently being so good at this April Foolery. And my apologies to all the fine Linden Moles, each of whom I envy and look up to for their skills and generosity. In fact, I’ve long avoided buying the mole avatar knowing that it is the official one used by the Lindens and I haven’t earned that honor.

It’s flattering that so many felt that I could be so honored, but it just isn’t the case. One day I might again be invited to write for the Official Blog (remember last Halloween?) but I doubt The Lab would ever hire another full-time writer (remember Hamlet Au?) let alone me.

I hope to see you around the Grid, though, especially the Mainland. And if you see me in my mole avatar …

Pixies & Ponies

Spotted this cute blue pixy on her pony at Forest Floor (SLurL). Adorable!! Right. To be honest that is my wee pixy alt, Zyx Flux, on her shrunk down Extrovirtual gray speckled Pwny.

Meeting the Supreme Overlord

So I popped into Bay City (SLurl) to grab the Freebies mentioned on the official SL™ blog and who did I find? Why it was Governor Linden! Sure, there is no “real” such person, but folks were pickled tink that she was there. When I notified the Lucky Kitty Crew a couple begged to be teleported in to see the ‘Supreme Overlord.’ My wife Angela (not pictured below, but you can see her IM greeting to me) and my friend Serenity showed up, too.

Ms. Linden confirmed that the Mole avies used by the Linden Department of Public Works (wiki entry) were made by the very talented Wynx Whiplash. They got the avies free, but you can buy one at Extrovirtual.

Now if you are wondering why everyone is standing around, we were watching a Linden having trouble setting the box to be sold for L$0. Yep. The issue was mentioned on the official blog, too, but I figured it would be fixed by the time I got there. It wasn’t, so I offered a free “giver’ script. She declined my offer and put one of her own in — then deleted it saying that a script showing her as the creator shouldn’t be released in the wild. I choked back “But the script I’m happy to give you would deliver the contents in a folder without a copy of itself! And then folks wouldn’t need to unpack the box!” Honestly, it is so hard to teach a Linden :::giggle:::

The freebies turned out to be some great textures used by the moles working on Bay City but many of the objects included made me wonder why I was turned down to be a mole. Certainly I’m no a fabulous builder, but I’ve turned out better things than these while just killing time. Don’t get me wrong, please. The builds were good. Certainly not n00bie efforts. Maybe I expected too much. Hopefully the items I haven’t seen yet are better. Bay City itself was rather good and seeing the textures from the box “in action” was cool.

(Note: this post is an edited version of a post on the LKC blog.)