Wrath Paine vs. Independence Day!

Today is the 4th of July, which is Independence Day in the USA. A good time for many people to totally get their patriot act on.

Oh, wait, damn I forgot, Patriot Act means something else entirely nowadays.

In 1776, the United States of America declared their independence from Great Britain. I wasn't alive back then, but I think it was because even back then, we Americans preferred double tall lattes from Starbucks over that heavily-taxed bitter earl grey tea they kept trying to sell us.

You would think such a holiday would mean more time in SL® today, but unfortunately, that's not easy to do whilst outdoors cooking burgers on the grill, while playing lawn darts and horseshoes and holding a can of Pabst® Blue Ribbon beer. Ain't that American? ;)

Apparently I'm not the only person who woke up and realized what today is, either.
- Hawks and Jelly are already partying hard.
- Tymmerie sporting all the appropriate colours.
- Honour taking a break from gardening to recognize.
- Peter tells it like it is. Word.
- CeN drops her views from up north.
- Guen rocks the 4th!
- Ali never fails to sparkle...
- Meara sums it all up, beautifully.

Be safe and sane out there today, people - and enjoy!

Wrath Paine in: What Am I Missing?

Seems like all week long I've been hearing stories about people going to log in to SL® and getting an error message indicating servers are too crowded, but all signs pointing to only 30-35,000 residents currently logged on. What has happened that SL cannot support the 65k concurrency it had been displaying as of late? Not hearing any official word that LL is working on this issue. Weird, because when I started SL back in the day, 30-35,000 concurrent users was the peak levels that were happening... Maybe I am missing something.

Is SL5B more disorganized this year than last? Should that be the case, with LL being more in control this time around? Seems like my SL4B experience was much more logical last year. For example, are there no real starting points? Last year I recall posting a picture of a map showing and listing all the display areas (both PG and Mature) which you would see when you teleported in. This year, I have never teleported into the same area twice and definitely haven't seen any signs listing where anything is located.

I haven't really read much history as to the purpose of SL5B, so I will say that my first impressions have been - SL5B feels like a trade show at a Vegas convention center or something. Seems like nine out of ten 'booths' I visit are displays referring visitors to certain stores in SL. I thought SL5B, for some reason, would be more of an artistic show - displaying what is possible to create in this virtual world. Not a whole bunch of vendors lined up trying to design creative displays only to out do the vendor next to them so more people will visit their in-world location than the next.

I was hearing that there were generally not more than 10 avatars in a sim at any given time - and from my visits, ten would be an optimistic number. But then, with so many prims in place, the lag is already a challenge. But if so few people are visiting the sims, who is the intended audience, anyway? I guess I am missing something.

I think I have found a good first post idea for my VirtualGardens blog - check it out, Honour has posted a 'how to build a forest' post! Sweet!! See, you can find all kinds of fashion design blog posts out there, but not enough informational ones when it comes to all things trees. Thank you, Honour! :)

Next time I log in, I will be in search of thee biggest U.S. flag I can find. Unless someone beats me to it, then please send me a landmark, kkthxbye!