Having a “Second Life” day

Man today was weird. The boys and girls at Linden Labs decided everybody was going to update their client today. This is the first time in recent history I remember them forcing the issue, but they really have to force the issue. Nobody really trusts the updates, they always seem to cause more trouble then they fix.

Today your options where update, or don’t log on. I had shows booked so my only option was to update and hope for the best. So far, my computer has not burst in to flames, but I’m keeping a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

Everybody updating at the same time cased a rather sever bottleneck. My first show a “Mandolin Reign” was poorly attended. As a matter of fact the women that booked me didn’t show up until half way through the show. Luckily the venue operator has it so group members can change the media settings so the show went on.

Super fan Luka was in attendance, quite sick from what she tells me, but at least she was upright at this show. She knows my music has the power to cure all illness. Luka also informed me we had 127 members in the group. Woot Zorch Nation. However, checking tonight I find we have 124. As I have mentioned before groups swell and shrink.

Anyway, by the end of the show we had about 8 people bopping about, and I was 800 L$ richer, and had one more group member to show for my trouble. Baby steps right?

I had about an hour until my next show, logged out, made something for the kids to eat and hopped back online. About a half an hour before Showtime I sent notice to the group, and headed on out to the venue. It was at this point I discovered the amended Teleport point I had created didn’t work as I hoped, and I landed at the “Official” landing point, which requires you to use a special teleporting device to get to the Pavilion where the show was to take place. Nothing like making things more complicated for people.

I sent out an appended notice with an explanation of just how to get to where I was playing and hoped for the best. Set up went quickly and there was nobody on before me, so I took my spot on stage and got read for the influx. Around show time Luka showed up… then Piet, and a few more people I really didn’t know. Hey there is Susu. One person is conspicuously absent. The woman that hired me to play the show, and it seem that group members cannot change the media stream at this venue. I’m standing there like an idiot making small talk, explaining how the show can’t start until we find someone to change the stream. More people show… none of them have the rights to change media settings. At about 45 minutes after the scheduled start of the show, I decided it kind of wrong to have all these people standing around waiting for me to play. I debate just ditching, or moving to another venue. POL is in the audience and I ask him if we can use WAM-TV as an alternative venue. He says yes and once again a whole audience makes the trek to hear a show.

Now please don’t think I’m bitching about the venue operator. I understand that real life stuff happens, and the fact that nobody with stream rights was on is just another wrinkle in the story. Venue operators when they offer a musician a group tag should also offer them the ability to change the media stream so in dire emergencies the show can in fact go on.

The Show at WAM-TV went well, everybody… including me seems to make it to the venue, and a sudden sense or normalcy returned. Yeah this was a show, the stream was working and there were some people in the audience. Woot Bootleg concerts.

I feel I must comment on the people listening at this point. They waited 45 minutes before they had any sign of a show, and when the call to exodus came down they troop off to a new venue. I wonder how many Karaoke fucktards could pull that off. Well, probably more then I care to think. But I bet Bosco Constantine couldn’t do it.

Thanks for the Hand POL.