Hufflepuff For Me

Dhughan here… very puzzled. I have just this moment discovered a knack for transfiguring myself into a very small (yet winsome) otter. I must be a late bloomer, I left Hogwarts ages ago as one of those unfortunates of society that cannot perform magic. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was a Squib and a disgrace to Pater and a source of embarrassment to Mater. This is one reason I left home in Britain and headed West, where I knew no one… and no one used to know me at school as “that Squibby chap Froobie in Hufflepuff, haw haw haw).

Well, well. There must be something magical in the air in Steelhead; perhaps it’s the near-mythical, quite mystical properties of the ore that is mined there. It must quite permeate the environs.


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I’m
a Hufflepuff!

My magical “powers” had barely manifested by the time my admittance letter arrived from Hogwarts, but off I went on the brand-new and very modern rail service that had just been installed by the Ministry for Magic. Once I arrived, I had the poor taste and lack of character to be Sorted into Hufflepuff, a House that was most assuredly not Slytherin (which would have pleased Pater) or Ravenclaw (which would have given Mater something to gloat over at breakfast).

I did all right in school, apart from my appalling failure to produce Potions, wave Wands, or search out Secret Knowledge. I had some talent with plants, even the magical ones – and I managed to Transfigure a few things, after much patient tutoring and extra work after class. May Hogwarts ever have such teachers as mine! They did their best for me, and now I am proud to say that I was their hardest working (if not most accomplished) student.

Somehow, I shall have to procure an Owl and send off a note that at long last, I have mastered the art of Transfiguring something at last: myself.

I do quite like otters and so it’s a great relief that I didn’t turn out to be something less likely to cause a stampede, such as a Double-Ended Skrewt or an exploding cup of Oolong Tea. And fortunately, I seem to be able to change back (thank goodness) more or less at will.

It’s a pleasure to finally display my House colors in my home, as I didn’t feel quite deserving of them up to now.

I may even get something to wear to the next reunion, where I shall enjoy the shocked stares of my old schoolmates when they see me in all my Ottery glory.

Tiny Inc. hogwarts hufflepuff boy kitty outfit by Etheria Parrott – Second Life XStreet SL Marketplace

Which house would you be? Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Try the sorting hat ceremony online here to see which suits your personality. Submit the test and your house crest will be displayed.

Want to meet lots more tinies in an all tiny sim? Why not also visit our main store, Tiny Inc at Raglan Shire
Click here

Weekly Tweets 2010-04-11

Bright Idea

Dhughan here, making myself useful about the place. I’ve made a few changes, made a few knicknacks. For those sitting in the dark, there is now a 1-prim lamp available with that is both scientific (fractal texture) and manly (Steampunk metal detailing).

Now I must create a nice club chair to sit in so that I might read the Primgraph in comfort.

@DF@ Touch Fractal Lamp (1 prim c/m/nt) by Dhughan Froobert – Second Life XStreet SL Marketplace

One-touch, one-prim lighting! This object emits a gentle glow when touched.

Works in a Victorian or Steampunk-themed setting, suitable for a study or library.

Permissions are mod/c/nt so that you may copy as needed, or make a backup and have a go at re-texturing as you wish.

Someone Please Create This

It’s Prad Pravithi’s totally awesome Second Life keyboard. Look at the big version, then read all the notes. Laugh, plotz, snort the beverage of your choice out your nose.

My top choice: “Mute Talking Unborn Babies.”

Second choice: “Purge/Lose/Sort Inventory.”

And in fact, I would totally buy this keyboard if only it were available, because a one-button “rebake” or “log in as Alt 1/Alt 2” or “Random Outfit” action would be awesome.



The Second Life Keyboard, originally uploaded by ::Prad Prathivi @ Amodica::.

Finally Getting Things Done

… just uploaded a virtual wall fountain to XStreetSL, it’s about time I made something, rather than just sorting inventory and textures! Soothing water sounds, nice textures. And now, back to the Big Sort!

@LC@ Rainbow Stained Glass Wall Fountain by Lelani Carver – Second Life XStreet SL Marketplace

Rainbow Stained Glass Wall Fountain
with scripted sounds on/off and also volume controls.

You can reduce the sounds to 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 volume as well as mute by touching the fountain. Make a copy, take it apart, and learn how it works! Edit selected textures to make all full bright, or none full bright… or turn it into a nice window by hollowing a wall to the right size and stretching the fountain to fit.

Textures, sound and script courtesy of the great folks at K.I.E. Dragonwings University, who provide a great learning environment.

Scripty Stuff

Needed to figure out how to fix the hover or floating text that I use for some of my storage objects (specifically, something I call my “tansu” organizer. However, this didn’t really seem to solve my problem; the hover text is stubbornly too high above my prim. Ah well.

LSL Wiki : llSetText

The text will always be positioned to float straight up (parallel to the world’s Z-axis) from the prim’s center at a distance of half the prim’s Z scale plus some fixed offset.
The float text uses the prims Z axis regardless of it?s rotation. This means that if you rotate a prim 90 degrees and flatten it, the text will float just above the center.

Sorting Out A Virtual Spy

@kqthomson, AKA KeithThomson SecretSpy, is all set for his upcoming Second Life appearance on Monday, 22nd of March at Lacamas Reading Hall (6pm SLT/PDT). Through the miracle of multiple streaming conversations via a variety of aetheric tele-communication devices, KT was able to call me.

Secret Agent Virtual Man

Right, so that’s sorted. It’s a rugged Steampunk spy look, and the author approved his avatar’s appearance when I spoke with him last night in a dry-run appearance at Lacamas Reading Room with BookemJackson Streeter and Dano Bookmite. Thank GOD we got Skype running, I had to install it on the fly and figure out how to set up a conference so that I didn’t have KT in my aetherphone headpiece and Mr and Mrs Bookses on my Second Life headset.

It was a very confusing and frustrating conversation until we got that figured out. Thanks to my invaluable spouse and partner Rock Fall, SUCCEEDED.

However, it was a bit dicey at first, when I noticed that KT had come inworld, but he didn’t know how to answer my IMs and hadn’t called via aetheric handset yet. I had to TP over to his rezz point and search – fortunately, the mini-map shows nearby friends as gold dots, so I soon tracked him to his secret lair… which consisted of being stuck in a wall somewhere in the dorms area of Caledon Oxbridge. Then the aetheric ‘set went off in my ear and we were golden: walking, talking, learning how to cope with the information overload that is Second Life.

Author extricated from the Oxbridgean architecture and welcomed, we moved to the Pini region, where the Lacamas Reading Hall is located. Bookem had teleported us to the middle of the Cafe Wellstone dance floor, right into the middle of the “No More War” costume event.

At least they’re a well-read, well-dressed bunch:

Peace, Love, Books

Here’s Stranger Nightfire in his contest-winning costume, with the title “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.” Stranger always has the best costumes – you should see his saurian ones.

Ain't Gonna Study War No More

Information overload! After a few minutes, I suggested we move back to the Lacamas hall and practice the essentials: sitting down, and talking. We discovered that the attractive wingback chairs that will be used have a kind of girly loungy sit animation, so I found something else KT could sit in and be manly and spy-ish. Once that was accomplished, all went Better. It was actually Even Better after Rock helped me figure out Skype, because I had two separate conversations in my ears, via the two sets of headsets.

Dancing and snarking and winning Lindens in contests can come later, I’m thinking. For right now, sitting and talking is the goal, and it happens tomorrow night!

So now KT is feeling a little less confuzzled about how to do this appearance in Second Life, and I think Monday will “go” with a bang. We all started chatting about his book, and the bizarre things that happen when trying to make a phone call (children go ballistic, bikes fall over in horrific disarray).

We think KT won’t need a Kevlar body armor vest when he appears, and he’s looking forward to not having to deal with the TSA, too. Teleportation has its charms.

While waiting for KT to hail me, I was taking a class at Happy Hippo inworld on how to put a “dancing” texture on a prim. It was advertised as being for GIMP, which I’ve been struggling to learn on my own via GIMPTricks’ helpful videos.

Interesting, but I didn’t have much use for that particular thing: however, I did learn how to make a grid in Gimp, divide it into a 4X4 square, and then make 16 images “snap to” that grid. The class would have had us snap them one at at a time, but ended up moving all 16 and re-arranging them. I suppose this might come in handy for animating a texture in general hey? And I have an idea for using an animated texture later in the process of getting stuff ready for the shop.

Managed to finish the class just as I noticed KeithThomson Superspy had appeared, so it was a pretty productive evening all around.

One More New Thing

I got on a roll yesterday and started playing around with a casual, craftsy necklace with various textures in my ever-growing inventory (OY! Yikes!). So here’s my next Second Life necklace, that’s just for fun.

@LC@ Amethyst and Old Gold Necklace c/m/t (boxed) by Lelani Carver – Second Life XStreet SL Marketplace

Amethyst and old gold beads with a matte finish (ie., no glow).

This is a medium-length, casual necklace, with “lapidary” semi-precious stones.

Another Necklace for St Patty’s Day – Green and Gold

Still learning how to make this stuff in Second Life, but starting to get the hang of it. Here’s a green and gold party necklace. I’ll soon start replicating necklaces my RL acquaintances are wearing, because they’re pretty, casual, and fun.

@LC@ St Pattys Green and Gold Beaded Necklace (sales box) by Lelani Carver – Second Life XStreet SL Marketplace