It happened Saturday
Tymmerie Thorne and Jerremy Darwin get married in a wonderful ceremony:
The full set is here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/gospeed_racer/sets/72157606392121183/
I blow up fellow DJ Tarsis Korobase 
. He’s a good sport though.
Talked with Crap about the plans for Nowhereville
Had a rocking good set at Fibber Magees
and boy did I get tired. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Catching up
OK, I’ve been falling behind on my posting. What with RL work and the time I put into my GoSpeed RL story I’ve neglected to post about what else has happened the past week or so. Starting from old to new here we go:
Eshi’s build from 19 July 2008:
A big,tall, beautiful flower tower
ABBA Poses for a Poco Loco photo shoot. She’s the blue eyed mouse…
The Celebrity Go-Kart race for SLCN.TV and RFL
I don’t know who won the race as we all had too much fun. Afterward I kinda started a firefight of monsterous proportions that even Paisley Beebe got involved in:
Please Read the Prelude and Chapter 1 first
It was like any Saturday morning in our home. I awoke and rolled over to
see my alarm clock; 7:30AM. Rolling over the other way and I saw my
wife was still peacefully asleep. I slid out of bed and quietly dressed.
I didn’t want to wake her as she had been up late the night before
working on a project. Going out into the hallway I checked on my
daughter to see if she was awake. I heard the TV in the family room and
I knew she was awake.
“Hi Sarah! Did you have breakfast?”
“Yes Dad, I had waffles and milk.”
“Did you clean up? I see a plate laying out….. put it away, the glass
too Sarah.” I intoned.
“Oh, OK!”, she whined, stalking off to the table to put away her dirty
dishes.
Disney channel, bleh. Lot of mind numbing stuff on that channel. I
grabbed the remote and changed the channel to the Science Channel. How
Things Are Made. She loves that show, so do I.
I sat down with my daughter and watched the show with her. My wife woke
up maybe 30 minutes later, walking down the curved steps into the
foyer. I stood up and walked over to her, gave her a hug and a kiss good
morning.
“Going back to your project?”, I asked.
“Yes, I need to finalize all those documents before Kev can proceed.”
“Can I get you something for breakfast?”
“Sure, make me some grits.”
I made the grits for her and toasted a bagel for myself and commandeered
the TV from my child again. Ahh, the latest episodes of Dr Who and
Stargate Atlantis were recorded the night before. Against the
protestations of my daughter I began watching Stargate. A few minutes
into the episode the doorbell rang.
Sarah bolted to the door and looked out the side window. Instead of
shouting the name of the person at the door, she was quiet and had a
puzzled look on her face. I quickly glanced out the window and saw a
short black woman and assumed it was our neighbor Eugena. I unlocked the
door, opened it and began to greet our visitor. In a split second there
was a flash of recognition. This was not our neighbor, she was much
younger, say maybe 26 years old. Her eyes were big and brown. Her face
was round with a delicate chin cheekbones. The lips were full and red
and she wore dark eyeshadow. I began to ask myself, where have I seen
her before when she broke into a large smile, opened her arms and came
forward to embrace me.
The hug and flurry of kisses on the cheek caught me by surprise and I
began to pull back to distance myself from her. It was then I noticed
she had on a low cut sweater that seemed to cling to her skin and I
blushed in embarrassment. Suddenly Sarah shouted; “GoSpeed!, It’s
GoSpeed!”. I was about to tell Sarah to stop shouting when I noticed
the reddish lily tattoo on her left bosom. Like a jolt of electricity I
knew it was her! But, but how? By now my wife had left her desk and was
standing in the foyer with a “what the heck is going on and why is that
woman hanging off of you” look. I shot back a look that replied I didn’t really
know and I asked the woman, “Who are you?”. She did not speak but when
my daughter said GoSpeed again she smiled, pointed at Sarah and shook
her head yes. My wife was again asking who she was and what was going on
wen GoSpeed left me and embraced my wife, planting a big kiss on each
cheek.
Needless to say we were a bit bewildered while our daughter was ecstatic.
For a few awkward moments the four of us stood there, GoSpeed smiling,
Sarah jumping up and down, and me and the wife trading looks with one
another. I decided that we needed to sit down and talk this out
with our guest. I closed the door on the cool April morning air and
gestured everyone into the family room. “Sarah, turn off the TV.”,I
said.
Go (GoSpeed) sat on the end of the couch and I sat on the other end as
my wife sat in a recliner across from us.
“So, umm, who are you now? You do look familar”, I said
She just smiled and began to make typing gestures with her hands, looked
at them and stopped. She furled her brow, looked at our daughter who
was now standing in front of Go,and pointed at her. At that Sarah said
“It’s GoSpeed!. GoSpeed Racer!”. Go smiled, pointed at herself and shook
her head yes as if to agree. It was at that point my wife began to
recognize who she resembled and her jaw dropped a little. I was still
confused. Yes, she looked very much like GoSpeed, but come on, this was
a real person in front of us. She even makes a dent in the cou…ch.
Umm, just barely. She looked to be 5ft 6 inches tall and about 120 lbs,
but she didn’t sink far into the cushions of the couch. Odd, odd
indeed.
“Can you talk?”
She was quiet for a moment, looked at her hands and shook her head no.
“Are you deaf? Are you reading my lips?”
She shook her head no, again.
“You’re mute”
She considered that for a moment and shook her head yes and for the
first time had a sad expression on her face.
I looked over at my wife and I couldn’t quite decipher her expression. I
suppose she was like me, feeling as if we were in a Twilight Zone
episode. Even though this was quite weird to us a small part of us had
doubts. I mean seriously, GoSpeed was just some avatar from Second Life.
Not real in the physical sense. Somebody was playing a trick on me. But
what a hell of a trick to find a woman who looked like GoSpeed.
Glancing over at my wife I saw too that the original shock and confusion
had shifted to that of skepticism with her left eyebrow lifted up like
a Vulcan. What we saw next defied belief…
Go was tugging at her top as if it was itching her while sitting down at
the couch. It was a crisp 55 degrees outside compared to a warm 71
inside. No doubt she felt a bit warm. Her fuzzy, blue sweater seemed to
defocus before our eyes and nearly disappear. Unsurprisingly she did
not have a bra on and for a second or two we had a sneak peek at her,
ummm, cookies. A light green colored blur covered her torso and it
slowly materialized itself into a light green t-shirt, also very clingy.
All four of us sat quiet for a few moments. Me and my wife had our
mouths open in disbelief while our daughter was pointing at her shirt,
also stunned. Go looked around with an expression that seemed to ask
“What? What’s the big deal?”. In that moment our world changed. We
looked at each other again and realized that one of the most unlikely
things ever to occur, just happened. An avatar came to life and walked
into our home. Say hello to your alter-ego……………
Insert caption here, originally uploaded by GoSpeed_Racer.
Seems I am now syndicated on World of SL. YAY! Thanks to Tao Takashi and Peter Stindberg for getting me listed.
Two recent post caught my eye today dealing with celebrities and Second Life. Chestnut’s and Kate’s thoughts made me think about it some and prompted me to say a few things about it. In Second Life Celebrityhood is a fairly relative thing. Some are well known for their in world prowess at building,scripting, and marketing savvy. Some are artist while some are well known for their opinions. And yet are known for what they do outside of SL that reflects back on their experinces in SL.
I have remarked many a time on how accessible SL “celebrities” are to the average SL user. SL is like a large town or small city where it is possible on any given day to run into the mayor, sheriff, newspaper reoprter, tavern owner, etc.. and it’s really no big deal. In Second Life I have met a Lindens, Prokofy, Codie, Kate Amdahl, Crap Mariner, Paisley Beebe, Mygdala March, and so many other well known SL’ers. Some of them I had preconceived notions about from their blog posts, like Mygdala. I always pictured her to be much like the character she portrays in her blog; tough, edgy, and dominating. While she may have a tough side she is in reality a nice person to be around, kind, thoughtful, and pleasant. Sorry Myg, don’t mean to ruin your reputation 
. On the other hand Crap is exactly like you expect him to be. Humorous, generous, and an iconoclast. Crap has to be one of the most honorable and loyal person I have ever met in SL to date. He’s 100% real with 0% BS and 0% Drama. In both cases they are pretty ordinary in RL, but SL gives them a way to realize some of their potential to shine.
I remember a while ago I was chatting with Paisley Beebe one day and I invite Chestnut over to join us. Ches was a little bit taken aback by her presence at first. But I told her it’s no big deal, Paisley is just like us, she just pursues interests in SL that puts her name out there and garners her attention.
I have been on the receiving end of celebrity hood too. My Flickr stream and my blog has a following that for some reason impresses some people. Pffft, my blog is pretty simple. It’s like a Neanderthal painting a cave wall, some random grunting and pretty colors on the wall OK, I do like some of the attention, but hey, I’m just a regular person who enjoys meeting people who like my pictures and writings.
P.S. I will return to my story soon, been very busy lately in RL. Prelude & Chapter 1
Eshi’s pain, originally uploaded by GoSpeed_Racer.
Eshi’s latest build is so painful to see. It boggles the mind how a parent can be so cruel. The damage stays with the children all their lives, haunting them. 
Hmmm, seems I am considered a celebrity of sort in SL as I have been asked to join the RFL Kart race Saturday afternoon. Oh maybe it’s the name? They really should ask Turbo Racecourse since her name sounds even faster than mine! Even though I am named after the cartoon character I am not that big a fan of vehicle races in SL. Face it, vehicluar activities suck if you cross sim boundaries. Fortuantely the track we are racing on is enclosed in one sim so that problem is not present.
Here’s my wheels for the race:
Crap Mariner showed up at the same time and we both took several laps around the track to get used to it.
Hope I don’t get smeared against the outer wall.
Thankfully I do have some sources of inspiration for racing:
Dick Dastardly, Muttley, and Penelope Pitstop:
Vrooom!!!! See me race Saturday at 5pm SLT here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Autosports/5/247/36
If I lived in Nowhereville….., originally uploaded by GoSpeed_Racer.
Just pondering a possible move to Nowhereville next month. Right now I hang with the Benthams on the mainland. I saw where Crap Mariner announced some vacancies on the island and I put my two cents in. We’ll see what comes up. Perhaps me and Rav will move the KONA Radio studios here.
Oh, on a funny note I had a classic comedy moment at Blue Heron last night. An artist by the name of FunkyFreddy was playing and his voice caught my ear, it was so familiar. “Hello, McFly!” came to mind. He sounded like Crispin Glover! On a lark I shouted out’ “Hey! say this: Hey You! Get your damn hands off her!” … He said it over the stream! OMG, so funny. Frogg Marlowe IMed me and said he got the joke.
Kinda nice to knock one over the fence.
When the darkness passed Go’s eyed were dazzled by the brightness and she quickly closed her eyes, placing her hands over her face. Slowly she opened them, flinchingly at first and peeked through her fingers. So bright! Whites, yellows, greens, grays and blues. Her eyes slowly adjusted and she slowly turned her head right and left. My God, it was so unreal. The brightness was spectacular and the colors so vivid and yet so muted. Hyper-realistic. She was in a small one story structure open on one side with small metal boxes embedded in the opposite wall. Mail boxes? Yes, mail boxes. The air stirred and suddenly she felt a chill.
Oh My Goodness it was cold! She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to keep warm. She turned around and walked towards the opening to get an idea where she was. Oh, the sky was so bright! What setting was this sim on? Fine Day? Turning left she could see a wide road with houses on either side. 2048 Sq Meter parcels maybe? Turning left she saw a service road and that was paralleled by a busy highway with vehicles. Funny, the cars and trucks moved so smoothly and for the whole length of the road she no sign of a sim crossing. No dips or wrecks or cars flying off into the air. In fact it seemed she could see for several sims away.
“Wow, it is like I can see well over 512 meters” she thought. She saw mountains that were in fact well over 4000 meters away. Whoa, was this a new viewer? Maybe a super sized sim of some sort? She shivered strongly. She looked at her arms and they were bumpy! She “looked” at her inventory and selected a long sleeved sweater. To an outside observer it would have appeared that her greenish tank top slowly morphed into bright blue, long sleeved sweater. Shoes, my feet are cold, she thought. A pair of black tennis shoes appeared on her feet, followed up with a pair of white socks for good measure.
Having taken in her environment and satisfying her creature comfort needs she began to ponder where she was. Map, map, that will help me, she murmured to herself. Hard as she tried she could not bring up a map, but a red beacon pole became obvious off to her left. If I can’t map I can’t teleport, maybe I can…. , nope, no flying allowed. “Got to hoof it”, she conceded.
She turned left and walked down the road, keeping to one side. SL drivers were the worst. Never can tell when they’ll lag out of control. Wait… Where are my HUDs?, she wondered. She closed her brown eyes and slowly opened them again. No, HUDs were still gone. Her Friends! Where was her list??? She tried hard, but could not visualize her friends list. Was this some sort of Open Sim? She looked at herself again and concluded that if it was then it was not one she had experienced before. This was her favorite Nora skin, ETD pants and oh, Ginny Talamasca Wrap Sweater (royal). Even this Bad@zz lily tattoo on her left breast was here. I am either on a new grid (IBM maybe?) or some obscure part of the main grid. At least I have my stuff.
At 250 meters she stopped, looking for obvious signs of a sim boundary, but the world looked seamless. Slowly she preceded and felt nothing as she walked the extra 6 meters towards the presumed sim boundary. She heard a noise and looked over her shoulder. A small yellow jeep came towards her and quickly passed her on the road. Without the slightest jerk or dip into the ground the vehicle passed and turned right at a stop sign.
The red beacon was off to her right so she decided to turn right at the stop sign where the jeep did. Her feet were getting a little uncomfortable; She hadn’t walked this far in a long time. When you can TP or fly, why walk?
Looking down she noticed the grass for the first time. Would you look at that!, she gasped to herself. How many prims did it take to do a whole yard? These were no particles or temp rezz grass, each leaf was a solid entity. All sorts of lengths and shapes and colors. Browns, greens, a few yellow ones. Not only grass but weeds and dandelions too. She stooped down and pulled out a dandelion plant. Why? She didn’t know why, she was just curious. Out it came with about 4 inches of root too. There has to be well over 200 prims for this plant, she thought. And the dirt? Not particles for sure, it was infinitely tiny pieces, prims.
“Amazing! What detail! This sim most be hosted on a super computer of some sort.” So far she had yet to see any water on her short trip. That was truly odd. Landlocked sims were rare indeed and at the edge of every sim or estate was a wide ocean.
Go came to another 3 way intersection and looked right. The beacon was parked right over a two story brick house. It was oddly familiar, but not in a discomforting way. Home, it felt like home. A smile spread across her scarlet lips and she quickened her pace. Every step brought her closer to the front door. Every step brought a stronger feeling of HOME!! She could sense more about the place, feelings, sounds, sights, music. She’d never been here before but she knew it. Knew it well. She cut across the yard and walked up to the front door.
She had her first feelings of doubt, fear. “I have no idea where I am, yet I am so eager to come to his house and knock on the door. Am I nuts?” She turned around and looked out at the cul de sac the house was in and felt very alone. She turned towards the door and felt comforted again, the fear evaporating away.
She summoned her courage and pressed the doorbell….
Blue Light Special, originally uploaded by GoSpeed_Racer.
I think one way to describe me is thus: You know how they put these ultra bright, blue colored LEDs on electronic gear nowadays? That’s me. I have a function and a purpose, but damn do I shine brightly. If you live in the light then my little beacon is noticeable and welcome. If you dwell in the dark then I am a major annoyance blinding you with my brilliancy. The dark dwellers would rather I tone it down, or even shut off. Some would like to put tape over me. Perhaps they should come over to the lighter side of SL and join the rest of us festive lights . There is room to spare in our constellations!
