Well the eagerly awaited new PC arrived yesterday.  My shiny new black box of wonderfulness arrived on time, was duly unpacked, plugged in, turned on and WOW.  Of course the first thing I downloaded was SL.  I had to check out the new graphics card.  Momentary panic when SL started and I got the message that my graphics card isn’t supported. EEP!!!! NO that can’t be.  It was fine.  Phew.  My card is so new that it hasn’t hit the SL supported page.  Let me tell ya, this thing rocks.  No lag, ultra high graphics with no problems.  Total bliss.   I am a happy camper.  Now to transfer everything over to the new pc.  What a pain in the arse that is.  At least the network works. Transferring may be slow but at least it works.

The new PC is Vista.  Now I’ve been using Vista on the laptop and some aspects of it are a bit annoying, others I really like.  It’ll take some getting used to I think. 

So, now that I have this great new PC, the grid is having database issues.  *sigh  Perhaps the latest server upgrade wasn’t quite ready?  I have no idea.  I’m not about to blast the Lindens though.  They are doing their best to give us what we want, stability and shiny new things to play with.  I know people scream they don’t want new features, they want stability.  Let’s be honest though folks, everyone wants to see new stuff.  How many people went and tortured their systems so they could see the *natural shadows* that Torley mentioned recently?  How many people were on the beta grid playing with sculpti maps way back before sculptis came out?  We all do it.  We want stability of course.  We don’t want to crash or be told we can’t log in because of load(especially a premium account) but we also want the *New*.  With New will come grid issues.  The only way to see if something works is to test it.  Yes they can test on the Beta grid but they’ll never get the exposure to truly test issues until it’s out on the main grid.  So, that means bumps in the virtual road. 

I’ve been around almost 2 years now and I’ve seen the grid improve dramatically.  So I’ll not complain much   My new PC and I will be patiently waiting to get on the grid.   We promise not to gloat too much.

It’s Monday again.  Back to real life work.  What a great weekend it was though.  Hair Fair started.  Talk about a lag fest.  I know we all want to look our best all the time but in the interest of letting everyone have a good experience is it necessary to to wear every attachment in your inventory?

For those who aren’t aware, every avatar has a  rendering cost.  This number essentially represents the *cost* your av is adding to the grid.  The lower the number, the less system resources you are using.  For Hairfair everyone was asked to take off unnecessary scripted objects, unnecessary prims and huds.  Now as slugged my way thru the sims I noticed loads of folks doing their part.  Wandering about bald in bikinis.  And then I saw the avs with rendering costs in the double digits.  The  highest I saw was last night, topping out at 14k.  It’s no wonder I couldn’t walk anywhere.  That one av was sucking up all the sim’s resources so they could blind me with their bling and guns and way too big hair.  It’s a Hair Fair ppl.  It’s not the prom and it’s not a third world country requiring you to come in with guns blazing.  There is plenty of hair to go around, no need to be shooting anyone so leave the guns home.  kthnx

Did quite a bit of photoshopping this weekend.  I’m such the addict.  I’m loving it though.    Getting a new PC this week.  Should have it tomorrow if everything goes as planned.   Can’t wait to see the graphics with this new one!  I promise not to gloat too much.  Well, I promise to TRY not to. LOL

Just a reminder, the photo contest at The Reach ends this weekend.  I’ve seen some great shots added to the group pool.  So if you want to enter, get yourself over there and enter the pics in the group pool.

Summer comes to an end this weekend.  Well, in theory anyway.  The autumnal equinox isn’t for awhile but over on this side of the pond Labor day weekend has always signaled the end of the summer.  Kids back to school, vacations over and the like.  For me, it’s just a long weekend.   I am looking forward to the fall though.  It’s my favorite time of year.  All the rich deep colors, the chill in the air, getting cozy in thick socks and sweaters.  I’m happy summer is ending. 

With every ending is a new beginning.  As one of my favorite characters said, "Tomorrow is a brand new day with no mistakes in it."

Cheers everyone, have a good week.