Blog by Ina Centaur
» Three New Sims and an OpenSim Thing that supports direct import of 3d Meshes?

At about 5:55 PM or so last night, 3 new sims got rezzed next to sLiterary to form this 4-sim cluster.

There’s yet another OpenSim/SL-esque contender that appears to allow the direct import of 3d meshes. No more fuddling with sculpties?

I’m working overtime getting way too obsessed prim-efficient-izing the Globe, and also retexturing the interior. It now looks a lot more grunge than it was before. I might even retexture the outside later. The plan really should have been rez, move, voila, Globe on 4 sims. But… you know me ;-P

» Neglect Me (Seriously) and Shopping Confession Re-entry

Fact: I am basically “in character” for most entries in this blog. If I get too irreverent or act too “out of character” (relative to the character you know me as), please simply disregard this quasi-muckracking “blog” rendition of the Ina you thought you knew so well…
In other news, please view my re-entry to the eBillMe Shopping Confession contest for a (possible) laugh… and to help me score a few visitor points:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IvtO_8roRc

» More Personal, Love and the Science of It Related to Virtual Worlds and Reincarnation

I keep comments off on this blog for a reason, but people have been emailing and IMing me about how my blog is both too impersonal and also too personal! When I started designing the layout, I had intended this blog to be the update blog for IC-E. But then I considered one of the only reasons IC-E came up… more or less as a holistic mechanism for creative release to keep me sane during my YoS. So, I guess the only way to placate both parties is to make my blog both personal and impersonal!

Many have asked me about my love life, and a few have been blatant enough to refer to it as my sex life. Officially, I am engaged to a brilliant med school junkie. But, Hamlet has driven me to a nunnery (read: my YoS), and so we’re separated as I try to find meaning in my art, forget the fact that I once had uncannily ambitious dreams in physics and bioengineering, and reminisce over all that’d occurred before… and as he figures out whether he’d MD/Ph.D or just defect to straight-on Ph.D. We’re technically engaged, but neither of us is sentimental or traditional enough to favor the ring. (I am the type who would cry if you buy me a dozen roses — it’s $100+… and what a waste! Rationally, I have allergies… and roses when you can buy me a nifty cool tech toy or fund my Software Sponsorship Foundation with the same amount!)

But, recently, though, my current SL relationship feels much more real. And it’s crazy because we have no idea what the other looks like — and the romance actually developed significantly back when we were in text chat only. The guy is actually bound in his own version of the YoS, and so… I dunno.

But, enough about me. Here’s something that might be of interest to you:

The Jan 28 Issue of Time featured an article advertised as “The Science of Romance.” But, I only picked it up because of an extremely long and slightly painful and maybe even bloody toilet session (lol, too personal?). Time sends free print issues to me, so every once in a while I fish through the magazine pile in the bathroom and feel obligated to read it — anyway, so while the web version I linked doesn’t show the article cover image… which flaunted Hamiltonian and Lagrangian dynamics, canonical variables and all that, a la equations H= \frac{m}{2}\sum_i\dot{x}_i^2-V(x) and j=\sum_i^3\frac{\partial%20L}{\partial%20\dot{x}}Q(x_i)-f, I should mention I was only somewhat disappointed that the article didn’t explain how these equations related to love. But, the point is that I did learn something interesting that might explain for why SL relations often lead to childless marriages in RL or mere brief encounters.

Other than the usual things, the article mentioned two interesting points. Physical contact that allow for smell or taste can transmit the adequate MCH from partner to partner so that each can determine biologically compatible for reproduction. Women who are on birth control typically fail in this MCH detection.

Given the limitations of smell transmission when two parties are separated by distances of hundreds or thousands of miles, I guess the first physical meeting might be either shocking — “OMG, our MCH are sooo like incompatible” or the more optimal. I think most people would react out of politeness or nostalgia (the “addiction” part of the brain, according to this article) and attempt to believe and force belief in the latter.

In other news, I started to continue work on this (still untitled!) urban fantasy story I became obsessed with sometime in mid-2006. Its paradigm rests on a scientific-ish framework for your usual magick and all that… but also involves the concept of reincarnation, quite heavily. This whole SL/Internet-based romance thing where the other party does not actually get to experience much of the other party other than voice or perhaps a pointful and postedited (and thus unrepresentative and inaccurate) photo… and the fact that people still go crazy for each other despite this stoic technicality! In light of how the Internet allows people with potentially incompatible biologies to connect, I’m going to make the strong conjecture that the Internet and virtual worlds were inevitable because they’re fate’s will to overcome the randomness of biology’s “body assignment” to allow for estranged souls — destined soulmates — to connect, life after life.

» Another Blogger Thinks I am weird and I Flunked the Vagina Monologues Callbacks!

Today I found out that someone whom I haven’t thrown this blog link to actually reads my blog (/me gulps; she tracked me down, commented on the odd extremity of my YoS experiment, and linked my Davos Question). I should probably react by posting things that make sense… and maybe create vBlogs that are less random improv and more pointful as well o.O I should also anonymize people by referring to them by their first initials.

Since my last post, I’ve processed/delegated half a dozen SLface.com orders (yes, business is slow nowadays; and I know the site needs a redesign), flickr-API‘ed Ina Centaur Photography (Yes, I am an active professional photographer again despite my YoS!)… finalized the SL Shakespeare Company iCampaign website… and…

I totally flunked the Vagina Monologue Callbacks. The parts are traditionally read to sound “read” (sans stumbling), but the directors seemed to want drama. I was assigned “My Vagina was a Village” and Spotlight Monologues. C suggested that I sound innocent vs not-so-innocent for the dichotomy in Village. It’s been a while since I was interrupted in the middle, but it happened during Village. A gave the verdict away when C asked if she wanted me to read anything else, “not unless you want to dance Swan Lake.” Read: way too melodramatic.

Please see this updated hindsight post.

» First Day!

Today I finally sent off a “once-over” edit of my NaNoWriMo piece for the Freedom in Fiction contest. It has been a long while since I attempted something as ambitious as writing an ideas novel.

I also got the skeletons of a simple app that pulls from my flickr photos setup for the public portfolio of Ina Centaur Photography.

In other news, dealt with a greater dose of drama than I would have liked for the day -.-
What a great way to lessen productivity!

… all virtual!