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12/15/11

Musings of a mad builder

Late one night, a conversation betwixt TotalLunar Eclipse and myself resulted in his penning this little essay almost instantaneously. Please allow me share it with you! -- Ceejay Writer

‘C 4 works most effectively.’ – Tensai Hilra

I remember my very first build, it was a pathetic little mushroom. At that time the fungus was the crowning achievement of my second life, I was most proud. My second build was an actual building so my personal graduation from flora to architecture was quite severe but as I stared at the little fish shack I thought to myself, ‘I can do better than this.’

Through the subsequent months thereafter I learned extensively what all the little tabs the build feature has to offer. In hindsight if I had known about Ivory Tower or other places that teach building I would have used those resources. Soon one build turned to several and my eyes surveyed the buildings created. From their construction one can clearly see the gradual knowledge accumulation with each build, each alpha glitch and more recently incorporating sculpts and mesh into the work.

I remember how difficult it was for me to take down my predecessors buildings, how each one, though its construction sorely in need of update, was dear and special and held memories of this or that… to me it was inconsistencies skewing the vision, dampening the growth of the city. That fish shack was the first to undergo my critical eye and I found great joy in turning it physical, then unlinking it, watching in great satisfaction as each prim scattered about the place. The grin couldn’t be wiped from my face at that point. What else should I deconstruct? The barn? Sure!

Steelhead has always been in a state of constant change, the more I learn and refine my building skills the more I want to tear what I’ve already done and begin again. Coupled with my wife’s tendencies to destroy everything she touches, we blended together explosives with the tear down process to make things easier. The town loved this as much as Las Vegas residents and visitors love when they blow up a hotel.

I remember our first explosive deconstruction, my wife and I kept it a secret altogether. The building that was to come down was the old Saloon. It was a beautiful white building with French Quarter style façade and decorative wrought iron archways. We parked a pirate boat on the waterfront pier and held a pirate party on the boat with, of course, massive amounts of beer and parrots on the HMS Jolly Pigeon. All the ship’s cannons were aimed at the building, and at the stroke of 8 we played an appropriate overture and the entire building collapsed. The shock, the amazement and the hysterical laughter made it worth the while. For a few days the building sat in its desecrated demolished state while people wondered what the fate of the building was, until something bigger and far more elaborate plopped down onto the ground and we of course had to have a party inaugurating it.

Steelhead is ever changing, and even residents and landowners are in a constant state of rebuild and retry and sometimes rebuild, regret, retry but deep down inside it’s the satisfaction of creation and seeing your own skills growing with each prim you place. At least that’s how it was for me. And even though I have destroyed half of Steelhead and started over again I still have fond memories of places long gone and builds no longer with us. But I am far more romantic than I lead on, deep inside inventory sits a tiny unusual and quite ugly little mushroom that could scarcely be given away let alone sold.

But that’s my mushroom.

No C 4 will touch her.

TotalLunar Eclipse – Steward of Steelhead

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