Bluebird of Unhappiness

by prokofy on 01/07/07 at 9:53 pm

Bluebird_001

Prokofy Neva, Walking 47 Miles of Barbed Wire/Got a Cobra Snake for a Neck-Tie/Got Me a Brand-New House by the Road-Side/Made Out of Rattle-Snake Hide

We need a music critic here at the Herald. Ever since Quentinesqe Paine, the college emo dude who used to get an expense account from the paper but never wrote anything and locked himself in his room and wrote death poetry all night on MySpace and then cut himself one too many times and went into rehab, we haven’t had anybody. So seeing as how I am not ashamed to turn on the C&W streams on the radio driving out West or down South and don’t find anything to be ashamed of in liking country, I thought I’d check out the SL Bluebird Cafe, adapted from the RL Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, TN.

When Boliver Oddfellow, CEO of IVM, Designer of the Dublin sim famous for its live-music shows, said on Twitter, “went to the bluebird cafe in SL 750L for a badly mic’d live feed. These folks have a lot to learn about SL,” I figured he might have an agenda. $750 *did* seem a bit steep, but then a RL cover charge at my local Irish pub with live bands is $5.00, so $1000 or $1350 didn’t seem like such a terrible price to pay for RL people doing the RL work of playing live, original music for our entertainment, even if we are in Second Life.

I’m surprised when I see the big spenders of Second Life giving live musicians only $100 at a show — that’s 27 US cents, and we all know they deserve more than that, because they’re better than that. So much more the professional musicians of something like the Blue Bird in RL, no?

Perhaps in response to this sort of comment — which has been common as I discovered talking to people around SL, some shows put on recently at the Bluebird have been free of charge. I dropped in on Sunday Writer’s Night tonight on Nashville Music island and didn’t have to pay anything. But I discovered Boliver may have a point.

Bluebird_002

When you are arrive at the Bluebird, you are underwhelmed by the build and wonder if you landed in a Coldwell Banker tract. That’s because it’s a modest white shingled box with a gravel roof — the kind of building you’d find in RL serving as a modest C&W cafe. This is *not* the Grand Opry we’re talking about in RL, either; it’s a replica of RL with the same kind of dim, faded teal-blue sign. We’re used to builds in SL, especially for music, being grand replicas of the pyramids of the Pharaohs or palatial Taj Mahal type of spreads or grandly landscaped open-air ampitheaters — this is more like a parking lot in Paramus, NJ or Jackson, TN — and when you’re OTR in the Big Rig, what’s the difference except for the radio? For SL, I guess the audiences just expect something grander — RL replication just flops miserably.

To get into the SL cafe, you can’t just push on a door, you have to right click on a chair that is sitting outside the cafe, in a kind of crazy virtual game of musical chairs.

It then moves you through the door inside the cafe — like a sit-pos hack of a locked door in a rentals or something!

You sit there, having to stay in your seat so as not to lose your place, with other people, and wait, listening to the room chat about people struggling to get their Quicktimes working and bitching that there isn’t any sound.

Bluebird_005

Using the Harvard Hush “/” backslash, favoured by Live Music Fans everywhere in SL, I typed that I had heard the cafe was lame, but I was coming to check it out myself. A fangirl with the very apt title of “Red Queen” immediately pounced on me, declared me to be “rude” and spent half an hour haranguing me in IMs, aggressively trying to set me straight. Another person who appeared to be either a regular or related to the ownership group set upon me as well, assuring me that yes, my tip would really go to the musicians.

The tip jar has the name of the owner Ksa Sandial, and he finally appeared, sporting a day-old newbie look which he may be cultivating to be user-friendly to all the newbies who would presumably come to the cafe’s website first, THEN come into SL. (They can also just view the video feed and hear the music without laggy, crashy, bitchy SL in the way here, registration required).

There were no dance anims in the room (?!) and several time, regulars and the owner told everybody to shush their typed chat.

Huh? I exclaimed! The whole point of live music in SL is that you talk in the room chat. Of course you do! You can’t bother the musicians, for God’s sake, they are back in RL, streaming to you with their shoutcast server.

Now, you might bother them with clattery typing sounds that the Lindens impose on us, but they can either turn off ambient sounds or you can use the backslash, which most people try to remember to do (you can no longer simply turn off this anim forever, as you could a few patches ago).

Turns out, this “sshhh” stuff is even part of the RL Bluebird culture, and is even their motto! What that means is that they see themselves as a place where you hear original C&W acts, often unknown, something like you hear Verdi in a string quartet: in the utmost silence and awed hush — you never know, you could be present at Greatness. The fellow introducing the RL act had a bunch of rules for RL, too, that weren’t what many people associate with their usual weekend pub C&W RL band experience — you *had* to spend $7.00 on food, and you *had* to be quiet and not talk and you *had* to turn off cell phones — next thing you know you’d find Hall’s coughdrop dispensers at the door like at Carnegie Hall to prevent you from coughing!

Bluebird_006

None of this translates into SL; heck, it doesn’t even translate into RL so hot. But all of that could be overcome if it weren’t for another very uncomfortable factor about this set-up: the RL act ignores the people in SL, doesn’t even give a shoutout to them, and acts if they don’t exist. So it makes you feel stupid, tipping them — especially if you are spoiled by our lovely SL live musicians, who not only thank you for your tip, but talk to you, say a few things, comment on your outfit, ask how you’ve been if they haven’t seen you, answer your lame jokes in chat, and even play your requests (and even Free Bird, imagine?! Yes, we ARE spoiled!)

If these folks want this caper to work, they simply have to find a way to give a nod to the SL audiences, at least in one line at the beginning or end, especially if we’re paying. But…it’s not that kind of scene. They ignore you; they barely pay attention to the RL audience.

Turning into the webcast version, I felt it was as constrained as the SL version, with perhaps slightly better audio. I guess if you are going to watch people on demand, live, you feel as if you need a little more interactivity with them!

As I sat trying to listen in SL, with the sound and picture dropping out due to SL lag, with people muttering about their media difficulties, chained to my chair and not encouraged to chat with others about the experience, harangued by this crazy girl who believed a thing is so just because she said so (so different than saying you believe it’s true because you’ve established it as true and are willing to unbelieve it if proven not to be true) — I finally got up, and said, “This is a sub-optimal experience.”

Bluebird_007

I flew around the grounds, trying to find a notecard or something to click on, to get more information, or experience SOMETHING about country music, ANYTHING, you know, a neat picture of Ray Orbison with some neat facts or some replica of some guy’s guitar or something. With SL, the possibilities are endless, what you could build. But nope…suddenly, there I was eating a black teleportation void, and landing my butt back home at Ross — ejected from the sim, told by the owner that I was “in his home” and “if I couldn’t say anything nice I should leave”. (As I had announced that I was leaving and left, it seemed a little lame to then boot me lol).

“But I’m not in your home, I’m in a public space, and how can you not talk in a cafe? That’s what you do at all the live music?”

Ksa began to object and pepper me with demands to make constructive suggestions on how to improve the cafe. I told him I was writing a review, and he persisted. When I had asked him about his newbie look, he pleaded “not having time” for fixing up the look. The build itself was under construction.

But…I’m sorry, if you charge the steep price of $750 for a live stream feed that you can go up on the Internet and hear for free, evidently, then you just have to do more, and be more professional and good looking. Couldn’t they have CDs of the musicians and sell those? with sample audio? Pictures? Objects evoking their lives? SOMETHING?

And interactivity! At least encourage that among the SL audience!

I got the impression that the effort wasn’t so much organized by the Bluebird itself, as by a fan from the Nashville area and scene who felt he could parlay this into something. Perhaps he can. That can only be achieved if he can hear what people are saying in SL and make adjustments.

Since the RL cafe apparently has all these rather restrictive rules of not talking, forcing you to eat $7.00 of food, and not being able to dance, why not take advantage of SL to eliminate all that and make it more free? It won’t bother the musicians, they can’t hear us. And if all they do is put up a sign behind them saying “Shoutout to SL listeners!” that would be progress.

20 Responses to “Bluebird of Unhappiness”

  1. G.W.

    Jul 1st, 2007

    You also forgot to mention the blue box copyright notice that pops up every time you get in the door.

  2. G.W.

    Jul 1st, 2007

    You also forgot the blue box notice warning of the dire consequences of recording anything you hear or see in there (like anyone would want to) as soon as you get in the door.

  3. Prokofy Neva

    Jul 1st, 2007

    I didn’t see anything pop up like that, but I can respect that they wouldn’t want us to record anything. I think it would be kind of foolhardy, trying to record something that was coming through laggy crashy Second Life on your home speakers, twice removed from its source, which was “badly mic’d” to start with.

    I don’t think recording is the objective here at all. Listening is, and having a shared experience. Both are hard to do. But it’s an interesting start and I think people will keep trying and get it right.

  4. rikomatic

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    The Blue Bird folks would do well to heed your suggestions, Prok. I found the experience “sub-optimal” as well. Why pay through the nose to be ignored?

  5. Reality

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    @ Prokofy: consider my response to this – “Now, you might bother them with clattery typing sounds that the Lindens impose on us, but they can either turn off ambient sounds or you can use the backslash, which most people try to remember to do (you can no longer simply turn off this anim forever, as you could a few patches ago)” – to be the only time I’ll make an attempt to help you out here.

    You can shut off the typing animation still. Press and hold the Control (ctrl) and Alt keys, then press the “d” key. This brings up the Client and server menus. From there you need to go to the Client menu and click on “Debug Settings”, once that has popped up simply type “playtypingAnim” into the box there. set this value to False and there you have it! No more typing animation.

  6. Prokofy Neva

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    >From there you need to go to the Client menu and click on “Debug Settings”, once that has popped up simply type “playtypingAnim” into the box there. set this value to False and there you have it! No more typing animation

    Read what I wrote: “you can no longer simply turn off this anim forever, as you could a few patches ago”. That’s because I knew how to *turn it off forever* by going into the client/debug menu which isn’t rocket science, and not only the domain of tekkie-wikis — any monkey can learn it by rote.

    But as I explained, be able to turn the flag to False stopped working a few patches ago, and the Lindens have not put it back to my knowledge.

  7. Reality

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    “But as I explained, be able to turn the flag to False stopped working a few patches ago, and the Lindens have not put it back to my knowledge.”

    Dearie? I’m using said setting in Second Life right now – it works, otherwise I’d not tell you how to turn it off.

    Jesus Christ, are you really so blind as to not understand that most people are not going to give someone instructions that no longer work?

  8. Prokofy Neva

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    >Dearie? I’m using said setting in Second Life right now – it works, otherwise I’d not tell you how to turn it off

    Um, that’s great if it started working *just this week with 2 new patches* but just the other day I was talking to one of the Lindens about it and it was NOT THERE. If it’s there now, it may not stay. Suck it up. You are not a rocket scientist, sweetcakes.

  9. Reality

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    “Um, that’s great if it started working *just this week with 2 new patches* but just the other day I was talking to one of the Lindens about it and it was NOT THERE. If it’s there now, it may not stay. Suck it up. You are not a rocket scientist, sweetcakes.”

    Um, dearie? It’s been there for quite some time – well before the last two patches.

    Now, I don’t know when the last time you checked was dearie ….. But it’s been there at the least since the beginning of the year.

    Now then dearie – I do hope you don’t treat everyone that attempts to be helpful, including those that disagree with you at every turn, in the manner you have treated the information I have provided. You’ll get yourself nowhere rather quickly dearie.

    Oh yes – instead of sitting here and trying to tell me I have no clue what I am talking about (which apparently I do know what I am talking about, after all the option is there) you could – you know – actually follow the damn directions to the letter and turn off the typing animation that seems to bother you so much dearie.

    It looks like I learned a lesson this time however: Never try to help[ a person with a warped sense of decency, honor,and who could give a shit less if someone is helping another simply to help them …. You’ll get it thrown in your face along with an attitude that is quite literally flooded with the sort of arrogance that prevents the person you were trying to help from ever actually doing what has been suggested.

    In the suture dearie, if there is something I know that could help you … I think I’ll just keep it to myself. You don’t seem to appreciate or acknowledge help from anyone but yourself.

    Now then, I’ll give you one final bit here: Actually try following the instructions given, if they don’t work for you? fine – you may be having a few issues. If it works? Fine as well. either way, shut the fuck up with the needless bullshit for simply trying to help you, suck it up, and actually try what was fucking suggested – not like it’s going to kill you to listen to someone else for a change.

  10. marilyn murphy

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    would you two quit calling each other dearie and sweetcakes? it makes reading your posts nauseating.

    thank you darlings.

  11. Reality

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    “would you two quit calling each other dearie and sweetcakes? it makes reading your posts nauseating.

    thank you darlings.”

    I’ve said it countless times before – ‘dearie’ is reserved for specific people. Those people? figure that out for yourself m’kay?

    I only cease using it when the other party ceases to be obtuse and ceases to use false logic – based on absolutely no hard data.

    Oh – and no one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read each and every comment.

  12. Kahni Poitier

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    Prok, as much as I normally hate to listen to you bitch, and whine, and whimper, and complain, I think you more than earned your $1000L on this review. I laughed my ass off.

    Hell, just forcing yourself to listen to C&W should earn you that $1000L

    +1 for the Prok

  13. Sn4X15

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    loldrama

    I’m guessing that if they put this setting in, they’re going to keep it for a while.

    Oh, and do stop acting like spoiled aristocrats and cease the “dearie”s. You’re not my grandmother. You’re all fat nerds who live in your parents basements playing a stupid useless game made by a greedy corporation that hasn’t a clue how to either code, nor moderate the in-game “culture”. At least one of you is a psychotic cat lady, to boot.

  14. marilyn murphy

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    ok i will stop reading your posts. my apologies.

  15. Prokofy Neva

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    Kahni,

    But I love C&W, and I love the experience of going to a cafe to listen to a band do C&W, so I thought I’d be loving this. I’m disappointed. I’m still trying to parse what happened. For one, it’s that Soup Nazi feeling you get from finicky people doing things like forcing chairs through the door or forcing you to stay in a chair in a space or lose that space or pay what feels like a high fee at the door but then feel constrained.

    But as I noted, that’s not all of it, and those things are adjustable, and in fact *are* being adjusted as I just went to a free concert. It does feel odd, if their stream on the web which just works better *is* free, and the stream inside SL, which works worse for your individual game anyway, is $750 — and then you can’t talk, dance, click around on stuff but have to remain bolted to a chair and hushed. It’s nuts.

    So it just seems to me they have to use the capacities of SL to create a different experience. For example, instead of making a boxing little replica from RL, they could make a giant spacious version you can easily fly around that has more stuff on the walls.

    The problem of how to mix RL and SL remains a very real one. I know from having been to these mash-up affairs that either I concentrate on talking to the real people there in the room, who are of course inevitably more important by being real, and having sometimes travelled great distances, so you want to talk to them while they’re there, versus the avatars inside SL, who inevitably feel less real, and you feel can be accessed any time so you don’t want to spend too much time on them. If you do, all your concentration goes on them. It’s very hard to do BOTH and even with very large screens in both places.

    I think SL succeeds better as an integral space with everyone an avatar in it. The musicians as avatars interacting with the crowd is what makes SL live music special.

    Sn4X15, I live in a high-rise, and we don’t have a basement. The two cats I’m forced to endure are my kids’ cats, and the minute they go off to college, hey these fur-covered pigs are going out the door with them, post-haste. My parents are long dead, God bless ‘em. Next?

    Now then, I’ll give you one final bit here: Actually try following the instructions given, if they don’t work for you? fine – you may be having a few issues. If it works? Fine as well. either way, shut the fuck up with the needless bullshit for simply trying to help you, suck it up, and actually try what was fucking suggested – not like it’s going to kill you to listen to someone else for a change

    What’s special about this is Sweetcakes’ incorrigible believe that he has “special arcane knowledge” that “only tekkies’ know”. Of course it wasn’t change at the beginning of the year, because I had accessed, used it, followed it through one changing of wording, and then it was canned some patches. I even went to a Linden office hour, walked through the debug menu and options for anims and flags — which isn’t rocket science! which any monkey at the typewriter can do! — and the Linden confirmed that they had left it out, for whatever reason, having to do with some arcane thing of their own. So it was GONE and I lost it on all my avatars where I had carefully estabilshed it.

    If it’s back now, GREAT, but I haven’t confirmed it. No doubt it really is there. But as that Linden who spoke with me could confirm it was indeed GONE for awhile.

  16. MSGiro Grosso

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    Is there a handbook titled “How to be perfect in SL”? I’d love to read it if so. I don’t believe it exists, because heck I never got the equivalent manual for RL when I was born. Bad is bad is bad, but actually The Bluebird concept is pretty damn cool. For starters you can’t get live video streams from one of the most famous singer/songwriter clubs on the planet. Sure, there are glitches like SL running better on my 2.5 year old PowerBook than on my few month old dual-core iMac, but it’s pretty flawless on the PowerBook so the experience is great. It’s really unfair to assume that they are just using ShoutCast. Talk to Ksa Zandial AKA Ken Altman and find out how they did it. They poured a lot of money into setting that whole infrastructure up so it could stream at a/v at 300K. That’s pretty ambitious if you ask me. Who else in SL is even attempting that? This isn’t some mega-corp with unliited resources. It’s a small business owner with a passion for the music. One might think that was worth supporting and rallying around.

    I’ve never seen Vince Gill or Dierks Bentley (one legend and one up and coming maga-star) play anything live until I saw them at the Bluebird SL. How can you knock that? The performances on their respective nights were a once in a lifetime opportunity for many and ONLY seen in SL or at the RL club, which meant about 250 people shared in that moment. That’s pretty damn memorable especially for somebody who has been to Nashville once in his life. It’s all about the music so I’m fine with showing up, watching a show and leaving. Why does it have to be complicated by the latest addition to the wonders of the world? Don’t you think that some people just want to get to the point rather than ride 3.5 minute long chairlift rides to the tops of mountains? When I go to a music club in RL I expect the music to be good. Decor, atmosphere, crowd and anything else is just gravy if it’s good. It really shouldn’t be any different in SL.

    A couple of final thoughts. Don’t you think you were reaching by picking on Ken’s noob look? That was a bit cliquey 15 year old elite high school girlish of you. Again, who cares? Noobism is kind of ridiculous and something that drives me nuts about some in the SL community. For you hardcore SLers who try so hard to break the rules of RL society that’s very RL of you. Instead of antagonizing pass a couple of notecards to cool stores. Is that too hard? To follow in the footsteps of my friends in Fishbone, who made the “Racism Sucks” t-shirt famous I’m going to have to make a “Noobism Sucks” version and pass it around.

    Finally, can we all assume you meant a Roy Orbison guitar right? When you’re going to slam somebody as much as you just did you have to be absolutely sure you don’t leave a bullseye like that lying around. That one mistake can discredit your entire argument.

    Marc

  17. Prokofy Neva

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    Yes, it's called "The Herald"! And we are forced to issue it in penny installments like Charles Dickens, but either read daily, or get on the list for when we find a publisher!

    >For starters you can’t get live video streams from one of the most famous singer/songwriter clubs on the planet.

    I’m glad it’s famous, I’m glad it’s special, but it’s left me cold — real and simulated. I would never visit the real one now, as a result of my simulated experience, and my reading of the website of the real one. It’s not for everybody. It sounds like there are some people who have taken the mass experience of relatively low-brown culture called “C&W# and tried to make it a high-brow experience in a church where you have to leave $7.00 in the collection plate and can’t talk during the service. Good luck with that!

    >Talk to Ksa Zandial AKA Ken Altman and find out how they did it. They poured a lot of money into setting that whole infrastructure up so it could stream at a/v at 300K. That’s pretty ambitious if you ask me. Who else in SL is even attempting that? This isn’t some mega-corp with unliited resources.

    I did talk to him, and he told me had worked hard and spent a lot, but I don’t get the whining. He’s charging $750 per listen of the stream. And either he has backing, or he doesn’t. His exact relationship to the Bluebird is unclear. When amateurs who are enthusiastic fans put something together like that, they can become terribly touchy, allergenic to criticism, and hostile. That’s because they are amateurs who think they deserve recognition just for their selfish expenditures. I know that mentality well. Indeed, I share it for those projects where I’ve spent my own time and money and enthusiasm.

    But…some things are better done by professionals. If professionals were involved, representing the Bluebird in some formal fashion, then I can’t help thinking this might be going better on a number of fronts. Real corporations coming into SL don’t try to make money by skimming $750 fees, for example — it’s too off-putting.

    >It’s a small business owner with a passion for the music. One might think that was worth supporting and rallying around.

    I wish. But you can’t express passion there. There are no dance anims, and you are shushed for talking.

    >I’ve never seen Vince Gill or Dierks Bentley (one legend and one up and coming maga-star) play anything live until I saw them at the Bluebird SL. How can you knock that? The performances on their respective nights were a once in a lifetime opportunity for many and ONLY seen in SL or at the RL club, which meant about 250 people shared in that moment.

    I’m sure this is very important to you. I’m missing the magic tho.

    >That’s pretty damn memorable especially for somebody who has been to Nashville once in his life. It’s all about the music so I’m fine with showing up, watching a show and leaving. Why does it have to be complicated by the latest addition to the wonders of the world? Don’t you think that some people just want to get to the point rather than ride 3.5 minute long chairlift rides to the tops of mountains? When I go to a music club in RL I expect the music to be good. Decor, atmosphere, crowd and anything else is just gravy if it’s good. It really shouldn’t be any different in SL.

    I think the expectations of RL coming into SL have become greater — perhaps we’ve been spoiled by the metaversal agencies that make these palaces like the Reuters office or even much more user-friendly and good-lucking builds like Warner Brothers’ Regina Spektor loft. Sorry, but this isn’t a field that is uncrowded — it’s crowded at this point with lots and lots of RL projects.

    I’m all for the idea of stripping away the excesses — primmy builds only make lag with their textures and such anyway. If this recipe of plunking down a shack on a sim, taking $750 from each patron, and telling them to shut up and listen as if they were on RL or the Internet works, great! It may find its niche, like everything else in SL. It didn’t work for me and others, and we’re likely to go back to the C&W bars in SL that have some soul — and some line-dancing anims — and a DJ who talks to you and at least says thanks for the tip!

    >A couple of final thoughts. Don’t you think you were reaching by picking on Ken’s noob look? That was a bit cliquey 15 year old elite high school girlish of you.

    I never bother looking at or caring about appearances and never take much care of my own — I wear the same shirt and have bad prim hair and people always mock me. I think it’s because in fact I’m not a cliquey 15-year-old elite high-school girl lol.

    But…the standards for RL in SL have gotten so high! My God, you should have seen Jonathan Fanton’s skin! Every glint in his eyeglasses, every jowl was represented faithfully! and his suit was the breakfast-eating Brooks Brothers type, without a doubt!

    Most people trying to bring RL into SL, well, they dress it up a little more. Having the day-old newbie appearance can only shout one thing in SL: didn’t bother, had no time, didn’t care.

    You never get a second chance to make a first impression — unles you fix up your look or get an alt!

    >Again, who cares? Noobism is kind of ridiculous and something that drives me nuts about some in the SL community. For you hardcore SLers who try so hard to break the rules of RL society that’s very RL of you.

    No, I’m letting you know of a cultural marker here, take it or leave it. If you leave on your day-old Ken doll look, it shows you didn’t want to bother to fix up a unique, individual look, or even buy a skin which takes only $1500 and five seconds to put on. That says you may not care about the project at some level that counts at least for some people.

    >Instead of antagonizing pass a couple of notecards to cool stores. Is that too hard? To follow in the footsteps of my friends in Fishbone, who made the “Racism Sucks” t-shirt famous I’m going to have to make a “Noobism Sucks” version and pass it around.

    It’s not about Noobism. It’s about noting that someone who on the one hand claims he spent hours and his own money getting this build ready and wants sympathy not taking the few minutes it takes to either make appearance mode work or slap on a skin so he doesn’t look like he doesn’t care.

    >Finally, can we all assume you meant a Roy Orbison guitar right? When you’re going to slam somebody as much as you just did you have to be absolutely sure you don’t leave a bullseye like that lying around. That one mistake can discredit your entire argument.

    Oh, is that guy who sings “Only the Lonely” ROY and not RAY. Forgive me, Billy Bob! I sure do need some lessons! Thankee most kindlee!

  18. Frankie Antonioni

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    >But I love C&W, and I love the experience of going to a cafe to listen to a band do C&W, so I thought I’d be loving this. I’m disappointed. I’m still trying to parse what happened. For one, it’s that Soup Nazi feeling you get from finicky people doing things like forcing chairs through the door or forcing you to stay in a chair in a space or lose that space or pay what feels like a high fee at the door but then feel constrained.

    I like classic country and classic rock and roll. The classic country songs that I like the most are by Roger
    Miller, Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed. My favorite classic rock and groups are The Beach Boys, The Monkees, and Hermans Hermits.

    Most of the places I have been to however don’t have classic contry music by Roger Miller or Ray Stevens.
    I have heard The Beach Boys, but I’m not sure about the others. Does anybody know any places that have Roger Miller or Ray Stevens.

  19. DaveOner

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    Does anything positive ever happen in the presence of SLH reporters?

  20. Reality

    Jul 2nd, 2007

    “What’s special about this is Sweetcakes’ incorrigible believe that he has “special arcane knowledge” that “only tekkies’ know”. Of course it wasn’t change at the beginning of the year, because I had accessed, used it, followed it through one changing of wording, and then it was canned some patches. I even went to a Linden office hour, walked through the debug menu and options for anims and flags — which isn’t rocket science! which any monkey at the typewriter can do! — and the Linden confirmed that they had left it out, for whatever reason, having to do with some arcane thing of their own. So it was GONE and I lost it on all my avatars where I had carefully estabilshed it.

    If it’s back now, GREAT, but I haven’t confirmed it. No doubt it really is there. But as that Linden who spoke with me could confirm it was indeed GONE for awhile.”

    Dearie? Did your mother forget to teach you how to treat those who attempt to help you?

    No need to answer that question – she obviously did not.

    I really do hope that one of these days, someone attempts to help you when you may really need the help … and you end up paying one hell of a high price because you turn around with the attitude you’ve shown here.

    frankly dearie, I can actually see now why some people working in the CS or TS department of some major corporate entity go postal: People like you who do not have the god damn common sense to recognize when a person – any person – is trying to help you! Instead of doing what every other fucking person would do – following the instructions and actually being nice enough to thank the person, problem solved or not – you and people like you go into a tirade, throwing the help right back in the person’s face. Then you try to tell them – without even trying what was suggested – why it is not going to work.

    Jesus fucking Christ … I hope you don’t treat your customers this way.

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