Am a blissfully happy married woman with rather sore feet :)
Wedding was beautiful and amazing and and and....
SteamCon was an absolute joy - got to meet amazing and wonderful people who I have known for years in the flesh and FINALLY give the hugs I have been wishing to give for a long time! My beloved looked amazing and the spots in front of his eyes from the flash photographers may fade in time. The Salon was grand, with some real surprise visitors.
I am sworn to secrecy regarding the room party afterwards - suffice to say there was ample booze, LOTS of guns, and several of us found ourselves in bed with Tensai and Lunar...
Abney Park, live, in a room full of Steampunks in full costume - all bouncing in unison. Surreal, awesome and, well, wow.
Now sitting in the Arctic Club Hotel in Seattle with my beloved. I want to live here FOREVER. The most beautiful and amazing architecture. And walruses - lots of walruses.
Photos upon our return home. And planning begins for next year...
*edit (well not really, more a footnote) I need to find another adjective besides amazing. But it really applies here!
October 20, 2009
Bags are packed and waiting, tickets are in hand. Appropriate sacrifices have been made to deities both major and minor in charge of "not-losing-my-wedding dress" and "getting-our-bags-to-Seattle-intact".
We will be in hotels for the next two weeks with no access to the grid as far as we know. We will be able to check email, and may have some access to the internets, but will not have much electronic presence for a bit.
I will report back from wedding and convention on my return. Vorpals are patrolling the properties, and hopefully the grid does not implode more than usual while we are gone.
I have assured Des we will be back with a vengeance upon our return. SSC rebuild will go into high gear, so expect a certain amount of explosions and flying debris in the south beginning early November. More than usual, that is.
We will be in hotels for the next two weeks with no access to the grid as far as we know. We will be able to check email, and may have some access to the internets, but will not have much electronic presence for a bit.
I will report back from wedding and convention on my return. Vorpals are patrolling the properties, and hopefully the grid does not implode more than usual while we are gone.
I have assured Des we will be back with a vengeance upon our return. SSC rebuild will go into high gear, so expect a certain amount of explosions and flying debris in the south beginning early November. More than usual, that is.
October 15, 2009
On the Occasion of my 3rd Rezday
Rezdays, like most anniversaries, invite introspection and review. Mine is just recently past, and I have paused to remember what life was like before I discovered SL, and how it has changed my life.
For many, I know, it is a game - a diversion, a playground, or a hobby. It certainly started that way for me. I heard someone on NPR being interviewed about it and decided to check it out one evening in early October 2006. I was divorced and starting over - having returned to the land of my birth. It seemed a nice diversion, a fun escape at the end of a long day.
Having no experience with roleplaying, with online gaming or social networking, this was a brand new culture. I explored late at night when few were around. I fled at the sight of any green dot approaching. After poking about and exploring for a year, I returned to a place I had found interesting months before. After contacting a fellow by the name of Desmond Shang, I suddenly became both an ISC member and a new resident of Steam SkyCity.
In the ensuing 3 years I met the love of my life in Stea SkyCity and will be marrying him in 1 week. I have also met many wonderful people, and have grown so much as a person. I have become more confident, and much more comfortable with people. All this is "real life" stuff.
As Des has said to me "We won the game!"
I am so very excited to see what happens next...
For many, I know, it is a game - a diversion, a playground, or a hobby. It certainly started that way for me. I heard someone on NPR being interviewed about it and decided to check it out one evening in early October 2006. I was divorced and starting over - having returned to the land of my birth. It seemed a nice diversion, a fun escape at the end of a long day.
Having no experience with roleplaying, with online gaming or social networking, this was a brand new culture. I explored late at night when few were around. I fled at the sight of any green dot approaching. After poking about and exploring for a year, I returned to a place I had found interesting months before. After contacting a fellow by the name of Desmond Shang, I suddenly became both an ISC member and a new resident of Steam SkyCity.
In the ensuing 3 years I met the love of my life in Stea SkyCity and will be marrying him in 1 week. I have also met many wonderful people, and have grown so much as a person. I have become more confident, and much more comfortable with people. All this is "real life" stuff.
As Des has said to me "We won the game!"
I am so very excited to see what happens next...
October 2, 2009
Last Day for online registration for SteamCon!
From Diana Vick (SteamCon Vice Chair)
Subject: Steamcon online registration ends tonight!
Steamcon is almost upon us. We hope you have made all your plans and purchases but just in case, here are a few gentle reminders:
Online registration for Steamcon ends tonight at midnight (PST). Full weekend and one day memberships will be sold at the door while available.
Tea & Couture tickets will continue to be sold on the website until they are gone. They will not be available at the door, so we may notify the chef of our exact numbers in advance.
Airship Invasion tickets will be on sale on the website until October 19th and at the door if available.
If you were going to join the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night at 10pm, and want to have a tradable signature card made up for you, contact Tehanu Marenwolf inworld ASAP.
Thanks to everyone who will be making our get together fantastic!
*returns to her post at the sewing machine*
Subject: Steamcon online registration ends tonight!
Steamcon is almost upon us. We hope you have made all your plans and purchases but just in case, here are a few gentle reminders:
Online registration for Steamcon ends tonight at midnight (PST). Full weekend and one day memberships will be sold at the door while available.
Tea & Couture tickets will continue to be sold on the website until they are gone. They will not be available at the door, so we may notify the chef of our exact numbers in advance.
Airship Invasion tickets will be on sale on the website until October 19th and at the door if available.
If you were going to join the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night at 10pm, and want to have a tradable signature card made up for you, contact Tehanu Marenwolf inworld ASAP.
Thanks to everyone who will be making our get together fantastic!
*returns to her post at the sewing machine*
September 22, 2009
Abney Park Tickets at SteamCon
The tickets are now on sale for the two shows at SteamCon!
There is a Tea Party on Saturday afternoon and the main concert on Saturday night. Tickets are $16.00 per person per event, so a great deal as well.
If you are already registered for the convention, then this is the link to order tickets:
http://registration.steam-con.com/tickets/
And we will be having the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night, be sure to stop by and say hello!
There is a Tea Party on Saturday afternoon and the main concert on Saturday night. Tickets are $16.00 per person per event, so a great deal as well.
If you are already registered for the convention, then this is the link to order tickets:
http://registration.steam-con.com/tickets/
And we will be having the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night, be sure to stop by and say hello!
August 23, 2009
Victorian Steampunk
Victorian - from Answers.com's online thesaurus:
adjective
- Marked by excessive concern for propriety and good form: bluenosed, genteel, old-maidish, precise, priggish, prim, prissy, proper, prudish, puritanical, strait-laced, stuffy. Idioms: prim and proper. Seeplain/fancy.
noun
A person who is too much concerned with being proper, modest, or righteous: bluenose, Mrs. Grundy, prude, puritan. Informal old maid. See sex/asexualVictorian Era - from Wikipedia:
The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 to January 1901.[1] This is the longest reign in British history, and is foreseeably likely to be exceeded only if the present monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) remains on the throne to 2017. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. Some scholars would extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political games that have come to be associated with the Victorians—back five years to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.
The first definition was certainly my perception of Victorianism when I was introduced to Caledon. But then the realization set in that most of the things that I loved were part of that era! It was an era that was all about exploration, optimism, excitement about the world and the future. Science was expanding our horizons, the earth was being mapped and explored, new technologies were being developed that created a new middle class, and new wonders were being exhibited every day.
Writers and artists speculated on what sort of future this would all lead to, both the positive and the potential horrors - Welles, Verne, Shelley, Lovecraft and many others.
To me, modern Steampunk really embraces the optimism of the era, the workmanship that went into the fantastical creations that were being patented daily, and the spirit of exploration. It is positive and excited and even a bit naive at times. And there is the opportunity to have some fun with the darker aspects as well, a wink that "yes, we are fully aware where some of this leads".
It is a counterpoint to the dark, negative cynicism of much of the Gothic culture that preceded Steampunk, and provides some balance.
This is why I do not get into an uproar as things in my Victorian community change and grow. This era was not about dusty, musty fussy parlors full of disapproving old biddies tut-tutting everything fun! Certainly there was some of that, but those were Georgian relics :)
The spirit of Victorian Steampunk is exploring both the social and physical world and finding new places and ways of being. All that gorgeous patina of age we value so much was actually very shiny and blingy and new when it was made :)
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