Category: Second Life

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Where’s the music, JM?

April 10, 2025

In January, I said that Transbian Studio was back in operation. It’s now April, and I haven’t posted any music. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on it.

I’ve set up Ardour and laid down some MIDI drums for Somewhere Someone Cares. But my folding keyboard got wonky while laying down more tracks. I tried to get it serviced before the warranty expired but could never find out where to bring it.

Momma needs new keys

My music needs a keyboard to record it. I ultimately gave up on repairing the old keyboard and bought a used M-Audio Keystation 49es MIDI controller. It’s my first proper MIDI keyboard with a touch-sensitive keyboard and pitch bend and modulation wheels. Musician’s Friend had it for a sweet price, and it’s just what I needed to create music. I already had a virtual Hammond B-3 organ, and I found a great virtual piano for recording piano tracks. But Somewhere Someone Cares needs a synth with a nice chimey piano sound. I discovered Dexed, an open-source virtual Yamaha DX7, along with hundreds of patches (sounds). I’m still going through the virtual cartridges to see what all the sounds are, but I’ve found several possibilities.

But first…

Photo of me recording vocal tracks for “PM Carney’s Song”

America’s chief executive officer decided to make himself a king, even though our Constitution clearly states that the founders rejected the possibility of having one. I’ve long been a fan of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and one of my favorite songs is King Herod’s Song (Try It And See). I saw huge possibilities for a parody dedicated to the politician I refer to as Dear Leader, and over a couple of weeks the lyrics took shape.

Next up was to figure out who would be singing it. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was a possibility but he’s too far away. Canada’s Justin Trudeau was a thought, but he had already stepped down. When I saw Mark Carney make his first speech as prime minister, I knew who would be doing the singing. Besides being our northern neighbor, the US tariffs made Carney the perfect casting.

I considered grabbing a karaoke track of the song for a limited release, and I discovered a way to get a proper backing track with a non-commercial license that lets me post the finished song on social media.

It’s taken several takes to get a vocal track I can live with, and I may still do one more take to fix a couple of vocal issues. Once I have a final mix, I plan to post the song here and on Bluesky before the day I call Bunny Day. After singing my own music off and on since the 80s, I’ll finally have a song released publicly.

What about the cat pictures?

Chuck, a 10-month-old brow tabby, sleeping on a blue towel the sofa with his head on the arm of a blue reading pillowI apologize for dropping the ball on posting pictures of Chuck and his litter mates. Life through too many things on my plate and I wasn’t able to get back to them.

Chuck is now a ten-month-old big boi weighing in at 12 pounds. He’s outgrown his second harness, but I have a harness that fits him better for when I can let him enjoy the backyard. Now I’m just waiting for another warm enough day for us to spend some time outside.

Spring’s here!

The weather doesn’t always show it, but spring has arrived, and I have several things in various stages of creation to share with y’all. I’ll be updating the product list for my two Spreadshirt shops, and I’ll be updating my Legislation tee for Pride 2025. I’ll be posting updates on my real-life merch as soon as I have them.

A quick note about the Pride Lanes Bowling Center

Unfortunately, I’m taking the website for the Pride Lanes Bowling Center in Second Life offline. The center itself isn’t going anywhere, but the website doesn’t get enough traffic to justify the time and expense it takes to update the site (and the site itself is way overdue for an update). I haven’t decided where the content about the center will be going, but it will be going somewhere.

Have a happy spring, y’all. I know our country is getting downright hostile to folks who aren’t straight, white, and wealthy, but we’re not going to bury our heads in the sand and wait for the next election. Hang in there, and do what you can to stand up for your rights, healthcare, and economy.

Louisiana Jones, Treasure Hunter

September 3, 2024

There’s a company in Second Life called MadPea that makes great games and gadgets. They also put on hunts in Second Life. You can earn fun prizes during their hunts, and the most recent hunt had a prize I had to try and get.

The ad for MadPea's Explorer's FedoraIn August, they ran the Treasure Seekers Hunt, a grid-wide adventure seeker’s hunt, and what got me to join the hunt was the Explorer’s Fedora. As a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, I had to get that fedora.

I hadn’t joined one of their hunts before, and I joined this hunt with only a few days to go before the hunt ended on 31 August. In the spirit of the hunt, I had to change my display name to Louisiana Jones for the hunt. No, not Dr. Jones, because I’m an amateur explorer, not an archaeologist. And being a transbian, I’m not looking for a good man a la Dr. River Song.

I didn’t collect all of the available prizes, but I got the fedora and sunglasses. There were a couple of other prizes I would have liked to get, but I didn’t earn enough credits to get them I also got several other goodies that were placed around the grid, and I was able to collect enough gems to get the guide and shaman monkeys. You can see the guide monkey in the feataured image, and it joins me in the video below.

My Adventuring Outfit

Me being me, I wasn’t about to go adventuring without putting together a good adventuring outfit. You can see my outfit in this picture, which I took at the hunt headquarters. My avatar is wearing

Of course, I had to find a way to play the Indiana Jones theme as I hunted. I found this gesture to handle the job, but it’s only 10 seconds long so its use is limited. I ended up grabbing my Raiders of the Lost Ark soundtrack CD to make this video.

Video thumbnail for Nanci Singin' in the Rain

Finally, Nanci sings in the rain

April 11, 2024

In July 2020, I got a cute umbrella in Second Life. Co.vet made their Mandala Umbrella in blue available in the Fifty5 Thursday sale. It had a rainy day version which included rain around the avatar. Since then I’ve been wanting to create a video inspired by Fred Astaire’s classic movie musical number but I struggled to find the right outfit and animations to bring it to life. That has recently changed, and I am now able to create the video I’ve been wanting to make.

Second Life creator Junk Food had their Rainy Umbrella available during last week’s Fifty Linden Friday. Of course, I had to buy it. It didn’t have the amount of rain I wanted for Fred’s song-and-dance number, but it was cute enough to see what I could do with it. I already had a nice tux from Sascha’s Designs, and I found some tap dancing animations from Abranimations. The only thing left was to find the right region to shoot in.

After looking at several regions, I found the 1920s – 1040s New York Time Zone at the Time Portal. I needed a night-time environment,but I also needed some additional light on my avatar. I ultimately used the 3 am environment setting that’s built into the Firestorm viewer, and the area in front of the Time Portal itself got enough light that I wasn’t dancing in the dark during the shoot. (That’s a Springsteen thing, after all.)

The camera work isn’t as smooth as I’d like, but I’m pretty happy with how my first machinima came out.

Credits
(Unless otherwise stated, links go to the item on the SL Marketplace)

Nanci Singin’ in the Rain
Shot by Nanci Barthelmess at Time Portal – 1920s – 1940s New York Time Zone (SLurl)
Windlight setting: Shared environment A-3AM
Music: Singin’ In The Rain by Gene Kelly (from Singin’ in the Rain (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack))

Nanci’s Body: Prima Busty (SLurl)
Hair: Stealthic – Mesmer
Tux: SAS – Shaz Tuxedo & Hat Glitter by Sascha’s Designs (NOTE: She’s wearing the Maitreya Lara version, not a Prima Busty version)
Umbrella: Junk Food – Rainy Umbrella (FLF page)
Shoes: -KC- NEDIS PUMPS by KC | Couture
Animations: Delected animations from the Mocap Tap Dance Animations from Abranimations

Srmstrong Park in Second Life. Photo from the Second life Destination guide.

Do you like to visit museums?

January 13, 2024

As I read this week’s edition of Highlights from the Second Life Destination Guide, I learned there are more museums in my favorite virtual world than I realized. I knew about the International Spaceflight Museum, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the LGBTQ History Museum and Cultural Center, and Baltimore’s The Peale. But that barely scratches the surface of museums you can visit in Second Life with no admission fee beyond your internet connection and installing a free Second Life viewer (the client software for getting into SL). Plus, you can visit them at any hour of the day or night without having to worry about what you’re wearing. You can be dressed up, dressed down, in your jimjams, or even wearing nothing at all. As long as you’re not naked in Second Life, you will find a lot of places to visit that cover more subjects than many real-life cities have.

Srmstrong Park in Second Life. Photo from the Second life Destination guide.There’s even a virtual version of a public park and museum close to my heart from the city of my kittenhood. But alas, the virtual version doesn’t include The Treehouse, a former home of the best radio station in the entire multiverse.

Happy Old Year!

January 13, 2024

I meant to write a post for the end of 2023, but I didn’t get it finished to share it before the year ended. I have jury duty, and I finally got picked for a trial, so my time for doing things online is a lot leaner than it usually is. Still, I wanted to share a few things before we got too far into January 2024.

Sportsball

I’m still kind of amazed at the fact that my Bois en Bleu, the Los Angeles Dodgers, not only signed Shohei Ohtani but they also won the Yoshinobu Yamamoto lottery. They also got Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot, and Mookie Betts will be the regular second baseman in 2024. Unfortunately, between the new signings and the expected return of Gavin Lux, who spent 2023 on the IL recovering from a torn ACL, it looks like Kiké Hernádez won’t be back in Dodger Blue in 2024. Hopefully, his improved performance back in LA will help him get the contract he deserves.

The next cause of worry is super utility player Chris Taylor. If Miguel Rojas is the everyday starter at short and Teoscar Hernández is the everyday left fielder, CT3 could have to go back to riding the pine most of the season. Chris is always to contribute wherever he’s needed, but I’m disappointed that he’s back to being a backup instead of a starter.

And we still have to see what Clayton Kershaw is going to do. He isn’t as dominant as he used to be, and he’s been spending more time on the IL with each season. I hope he gives one more season to LA and doesn’t retire or, even worse, finish out his career in Texas. It’s rare to have a player spend their entire career with a single team, but seeing Kersh in another uniform would look even more weird than seeing Cody Bellinger in a Cubs uniform.

My Die-With-a-T

In the spring, I got referred to a new doctor who put me on the Mediterranean Diet. I quickly remembered a Garfield comic strip from the 70s where he called a diet “a die-wih-a-t.” I told my doctor that the things I would need to get at the grocery store for the diet are pretty expensive for someone on disability, and I was right. While I did pretty well on it for the first few months, but my budget got stretched so thin that it was hard to get the good food I should be eating all month. Grocery prices may still be going down, but it’s still hard to make sure I have decent food to eat all month, and I’ve noticed myself getting less nutritious food to complete menus for any given month. The fact that I’m still a fiend for good fried chicken doesn’t help.

Social Media

I thought I had found a great social media platform to use after Elon Musk bought (and trashed) the bird platform. After the attacks of 7 October, I discovered that my support of the civilians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank wasn’t very welcome there. I refuse to use any platform owned by Meta due to all the hate and BS, so I’m basically off of social media. It’s good though, because it freed up some time in my days for other things.

Second Life

I still need to reopen my virtual t-shirt store in Second Life, and I’m moving my real-life merchandise back to Spreadshirt this year. If you want to keep up with the happenings with my merch, you can keep an eye on things on the Nanci’s Naughties website. When I get my Spreadshop set back up, I’ll announce it there. With the war in the Gaza Strip expected to continue for several months, I’m considering adding the virtual posters I made to support the Palestinians to my real-world store. I really should have done that a few months ago, and I don’t want it to seem like I’m trying to make money off the Palestinians’ suffering. I simply want to give people a way to show their support for people who are routinely treated like they’re poop that needs to be scraped off a person’s shoe.

As I wrote in May, I am the proud owner of a virtual bowling center in Second Life, the Pride Lanes Bowling Center. It’s not a very busy place, and I need to look at giving more folks reasons to visit. I tried using a machine to give out free Linden dollars (the currency in Second Life) to get people to go to the bowling center, but they only stayed around long enough to get paid. If you like to bowl in real life and you’re in Second Life, I hope you’ll head over to Pride Lanes and see how much fun bowling in Second Life can be You don’t even need to worry about renting bowling shoes, and I’ve even bowled in high heels without twisting an ankle or falling on my arse.

Kitties!

I’ve loved cats my whole life, but my budget is usually so tight that Abe Lincoln has gotten laryngitis from screaming so much. As a result, I haven’t felt I could be a good primary human to a feline. Earlier this year, my upstairs neighbor catsit for someone in the hospital, and Mr. Jack came down often to spend time in my half of the house. When Jack went back to his primary human, my neighbor realized he really liked cats after always preferring dogs. One of my neighbor’s friends heard there was a pair of abandoned kittens in New York, and the kitties moved in upstairs. It was a brother and sister, Tommy and Babe, but Tommy got too aggressive, so he had to go to a new home. It worked out better because Tommy thrives in his new home, and is loved by everyone in his new building.

I’ve become Babe’s “aunt,” and she’s gotten the run of the entire place. She comes down several times daily to see what’s happening downstairs, and I spoil her with treats and toys from time to time. Her primary human doesn’t have a climbing toy upstairs, so I built her a cat condo from cardboard boxes. She now has several places to get a nap, and she loves having a maze and a higher place to sit.

I’ve started posting some videos of Babe to my YouTube channel, and I have a video of her getting introduced to snow that I need to get online. Many felines like the snow, but Babe isn’t one of them. I was surprised at how fast she turned around when she got off the porch.

Music

As I said in May, I started working on a pair of songs I had written years ago. Life got in the way, and neither song has a demo recorded. I finally worked on the second song again last month, and the chord progression for the song’s intro reminds me of the solo section of Del Shannon’s Runaway. The melodies are very different, but the underlying chord progressions are similar. I hope I can share it before it’s time to celebrate Pride Month.

My computer

Last month, I did something terrible to my computer and had to do a clean install of SolydK Linux. I’m not saying what I did because I’m not sure what I did, but I was losing available disk space at a prodigious speed. Having to do a clean install of my daily work computer wasn’t a great thing to have to do, especially since I had to get into Second Life every day to get goodies from advent calendars.

I finally reinstalled some software to record demos of my music, but I still need to get fully set up for recording. The plan is to write an article on what I installed once I have something musical to share with it. I still need to get some gear to make proper recordings, but with my tight budget, I plan on seeing what my current setup can do. I’m going to see if I can use my Fender Mustang Micro headphone amp and my phone to record some guitar tracks. I miss making music, both from the creative and production sides. I was a recording engineer when I lived in New Orleans, but it was hard to get a job at a studio with all the students in Boston when I moved up here in 1989.

What does 2024 have in store?

I hope I can be even more productive in 2023 than I was in 2023. Once the trial I’m on the jury for finishes, I’ll be able to create a decent working routine. I hope to give you more reasons to visit My Two Lives in the coming year. There is a whole heap of question marks ahead of us between the US elections, the war in Palestine, and life’s seeming predisposition to throw more on our plates than we thought we could handle. Remember, you’re better than you think you are. You’re worth more than you think you are. You’re more loved and appreciated than you probably know. The more the haters want to put you down, the higher the possibility that they’re trying to keep you from knowing the full value of your being on this planet.

I’ve unfollowed several WordPress sites

October 24, 2019

The problem with doing three different sites is I can get multiple notifications for the same sites. Today I went through the sites I follow via WordPress and moved all the Second Life related sites I follow to the account connected with nancisnaughties.com.

I’ve also unfollowed several sites relating to writing because I’m no longer doing any creative writing outside of my two WP sites. That’s simply to cut down on some of the clutter associated with this WP account. If you’re in that group of sites please know that ho offense is intended, it’s just a matter of only having so many hours in already busy days.

I’m still going to be updating this site, although my Nanci’s Naughties site will get the most activity simply because I have new products coming out every month in Second Life, and many of the designs I create will be available in my real-world clothing store as well.

If you’re in Second Life and you’re finding that I no longer follow you with this WP account or the old Nanci’s Naughties account it’s likely I’ve followed you on my new NN account. I hope to see you over there.

As I say on the SL store site, stay naughty out there, y’all. Just remember, you can be naughty without being an asshole. There is a difference.

My SL neighborhood’s getting crowded

February 26, 2019

I’ve been off SL a bit since getting teeth pulled on Friday but I logged on today to get caught up on some things and found something interesting when I looked across the street from my house.

So much for being in a nice, quiet neighborhood

I don’t mind getting more neighbors, but with four new homes across the street, there will definitely be more demand on my local server. I hope that doesn’t cause a problem for my store, which is right next door to my house.

My house and store in the Oppeano region of Second Life

Luckily I use vendors for my store rather than putting each individual tee on the wall so it keeps the server load down.

Speaking of my store, there’s now a site exclusively for my store, and it’s a great place to see what I’m doing with the store. If you haven’t checked out my Nanci’s Naughties site yet you should definitely pay it a visit.

Purry Catmas!

December 24, 2018

I don’t have a picture of Eliza and me for a Catmas card picture but I was able to take a picture of my Second Life avatar and my in-world kitteh for a card so I wanted to share it with everyone.

Purry Catmas from Nanci and Eliza!

For those curious, here are the credits on what everything is. Where possible I provide a link to the item in the SL Marketplace. Otherwise, I’ll provide a link to the in-world store the first time I mention the developer.

I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and love-filled Catmas/Christmas or whatever it is that you celebrate at the end of a year. Just remember, even if you celebrate the holiday all by your lonesome, whether by choice or because your circumstances require it, you are one hell of a creature, and you’re important because nobody else in the world is YOU!

Exploring in Second Life

July 15, 2018

Nanci with Eliza in the Firestorm Dew ForestToday there was a party for users of the Firestorm Second Life viewer and afterward, I did some exploring of Firestorm’s sims. Joining me was Eliza, my new feline from We Love Pets. This Eliza is a tuxedo kitteh just like the Eliza stuffed animal I have in my RL home. I’d originally named this kitteh Sarah Jane, but I realized that my RL Eliza is a tuxedo cat, not a black cat, so I swapped their names.

The picture doesn't do these waterfalls justiceWe started off in the Firestorm Dow Forest, where we found these beautiful waterfalls. The picture doesn’t do the view justice, and a little farther down the path, we found a nice place to just sit, chillax, and enjoy the view for a bit.

Chillaxing by the waterfallsI know I should probably make Eliza a little bigger, but it seems her size changes between being on my shoulder and being on the ground. Yes, where the landowners allow it I can set Eliza down and she’ll explore the area. I can even set a distance so she never gets too far away. I can also change the color of her collar, and I can change her sunglasses to coordinate with my wardrobe. I can even take them off her completely, but I love having my cool kitteh. Her future’s so bright, and all that.

Firestorm Dow Forest - A kickin' padI shared this picture on Twitter because it’s such a great shot. I don’t see the old woman who lives here with her gaggle of little ones, but of course, she’s a grown-up flower child. But can we get a cobbler out here? Her home could use some TLC.

Firestorm Dow Forest - Firestorm Remembers 1I found a great memorial to some of Firestorm’s support team members. I had to ask in the Firestorm Support channel in SL but I love that there’s this area for people to find. I’ll post more pictures in the slideshow below.

Firestorm Dow Forest - Is it real or is it SLAs I walked around the sim I saw this island, and if you didn’t know it’s all code you might think it’s a real place somewhere. I love how the clouds reflect off the water. I considered changing the atmosphere settings, but it looks so good why mess with it, right?

The abandoned carnival at Firestorm Ghost Town. Wheeeeee!I also came across the ghost town with its abandoned carnival. Unlike most ghost towns, though. all the games still work, including the swing. I’m really glad Eliza doesn’t get motion sickness. That would have gotten messy in a hurry.

Firestorm Ghost Town Outer Limits - You Will Eat BurgersI have one more picture from our excursion because I saw this sign and had to take a picture. How well it knows me, right? This girl loves her burgers, although she usually just cooks one a week. There are so many other things to cook each week, you know?

I wandered around a bit but I know there is still a lot more to explore. One of these days Eliza and I will pop back over again some time now that I know some of what’s here. You can use a teleport board to move around, but I really like walking around. It reminds me of the days I’ve spent walking around the Franklin Park Wilderness.