Reader Submitted: Codename: L.E.A.P.F.R.O.G.

By Eric Mouse

I have recently come up with this idea following a dream I had the morning of Sunday the 11th of September, which is right after the day trouble had struck the Surf's Up Beach Club on Sunny Beach from a location outside of it. The dream I got this idea from was about me being a vinyl frog or stuck in a vinyl frog suit while seemingly trapped somewhere unfamiliar and forced to do stuff for someone. It didn't appear that I was actually trapped there since I was able to leave the unfamiliar place I was in while taking something valuable with me.

After I woke up in bed the following morning, I started thinking about this and other things in response to Saturday's issues and the difficulties I had in trying to fix things. I ended up doing some creative thinking as well and came up with Codename: L.E.A.P.F.R.O.G. for a plan name with the ideas I have been thinking about (Loss Emergency And Planning For Relaxation Overtakes Gathering). Even though it is based from being a vinyl frog in the dream I had, the title of the plan is put in a format that is similar to the show called Codename: Kids Next Door that is about a kid run organization named KND.

The reason behind this, is because I have not only thinking about the need for relaxation at the last event gathering at the Surf's Up Beach Club, but also to work on resolving the issues that happened back on Saturday (the 10th of September) which first started with a number of people having problems TPing to the club. All I know is the sim was not at full capacity at the time and it was unknown to me as to what the cause was. Sometime later, I find out the next DJ was having music stream issues with the DJ Board and couldn't seem to figure out what's wrong. The only thing I could find out is someone *may* have forgotten to switch the music stream over to the other DJ.

Around that time, I also had stuff going on in RL on my end which I needed to tend to and needed to step away for a it. By the time I came back to check on things, I found everyone had already left as me, Lilly, and Elfin were the only ones left. At that time, I also noticed the contest board had never gotten switched over to allow voting for who the winning is going to be as it was still open for people to enter the contest. I and realized something else had gone wrong. Upon trying to find out what had happened to the DJ, I learned they have had several emergencies and couldn't do their job at the Surf's Up Beach Club.

All I could find out is they (had problems) in real-life as well as sim (trouble) happening elsewhere back on Purrfection which had nothing to do with the club or Sunny Beach in general. ... It seems I may have made things worse when I tried to investigate what the cause of this was and that the DJ in question might not come back. The only suggestion I have gotten at this point from a couple others, is to send out a group notice for the possible need for another DJ the next time there is going to be an event at the Surf's Up Beach Club.

To make sure something like this doesn't happen, I may need to have at least one backup DJ available to takeover at a moment's notice. I have also been thinking about the other things Mythica Woodland in Sunny Beach has as well that probably haven't been seen by many let alone talked about. Things such as is the cuddle and relaxation area by the fire and lake, the areas where you can sail around with a sailboat, the surfing wave on the northern end, the hilltop cannons that you can shoot cannonballs from, the possibility of a fishing area coming in, the under development mystical forest of light that could be for exploration and getting to see the moogles that are there.

What I feel, is I feel there is the need to begin incorporating the other ideas here into the weekly gatherings at the Surf's Up Beach Club by exploring the different areas that are available including any new ideas that may come up. Even though I'm not sure where exactly to begin with this, the wild west adventure I had with Becky got me thinking about role play ideas. This probably wouldn't be a problem with me as I have written a role play layout before, but yet properly show it to the public.

Erik Mouse

PXL Promo

By Becky "Sha" Shamen

In our six years in SL, with three accounts, we have played as hundreds of avatars and travelled all over the grid. One of these avatars was created for a special purpose and has a unique name and appearance. His name is Rick and he is the spittin' image of the director of this army of avatars, the guy at the keyboard, Rick Audette. Rick's raison d'etre, in Second Life, is to design, build and photograph structures that he has spent 50 years developing and testing in real life, the Pneumatic Crystal Lattice, PXL for short.


The detailed, scientific description for this building technique can be found at http://www.geocities.ws/rick_audette/ . In short, it involves combining cellular biology with space frame technology to make building components very light weight and strong, by balancing outer tension forces in fabric skins with inner compression forces in air bladders or balloons. The result is a structure that is light and strong, like a football or car tires. The PXL principle works at any scale. It was derived from the study of how microscopic soft cells in the body work together to make rigid, erect, bone-like areas. Several generations of prototypes have tested assemblies of triangles from 6" to 18" sides. The first model was made with (20) 6" cloth triangles laced together to form two octahedron and two tetrahedron chambers. A latex party balloon was inserted into each cavity, leaving the stem sticking out. As each balloon was inflated, until it filled and bulged it's cavity, then the tied off stem was also pushed inside. To test the strength of this tiny assembly, I placed it on a wood stool and challenged my "heavy boned" buddy to sit on it hard enough to pop some balloons. He bounced up and down, until red in the face, but could do no damage. When it was shown to a Mechanical Engineer, you could see a look of awe on his face and a whiff of smoke coming out the top of his head. It blew his mind.

A later style protype was an attempt to combine the outer triangle skin and inner balloon. Triangles, 18" on each side were cut from vinyl shower curtains and glued together to form two octahedron and two tetrahedron balloons. Each balloon had a beach ball fill nozzle added, for inflation. This use of the PXL principle proved somewhat impractical, because it required tooling for two types of balloons and it was hard to make them leak-proof.

A third style of prototypes was made, making the triangles into balloons, using a custom made heat sealing tool. These are easier to make than the octahedron and tetrahedron balloons, but assemblies were somewhat less buoyant than the first two prototypes. The work-around for this would be to add balloons to the cavities formed by the inflated triangles. Another impractical feature was, this style would require a supply of vinyl and electricity to manufacture. For PXL technology to truly be a gift to the world, they must be built without any high-tech materials or energy sources. The first prototypes turned out to be the best, for this reason. Making and sewing cloth is ancient technology. Anybody in the world with cloth, needle and thread can make cloth triangles with grommet holes on the edges. The internal cavities don't need to be balloons either. Pieces of Styrofoam, cork and empty plastic bottles could be used for buoyancy. A man in Mexico built his own island, using discarded water bottles. He even has a tree, growing on the island.

 

The whole reason for inventing PXLs and putting the ideas into Public Domain was to offer mankind greater Freedom. In the past, if you were a member of a minority community, creating a kingdom where your philosophy could flourish meant moving to a swamp or desert that nobody else wanted to live in. With PXL, you can now build your own floating nation and place it in international waters. We'll leave the politics and defense of your island up to you.

 

When you think about it, a PXL island is much like a Second Life Sim. They both sit on top of the water. We give a special thank you to Erik Mouse, for letting us use the waters around Sunny Beach for our PXL photo shoots and to the SL Newser for letting us share our thought forms with a wider audience. We have been saying, for years, that SL communities could enhance life in the real world, so we also wish to thank you, the readers, for letting us plant these ideas into your imaginations.

Thank you,

 

"Sha"