Sunday, January 28, 2007

There_Monitor Quest 1/27/07

Josie2 has generously taken up the task of hosting a There_Monitor quest each weekend! Just like old times, huh? Each Saturday There_Monitor finds herself a new hiding spot and a new quest begins! This weekend's clue was:

The lady lies in Northern lands
Wherein the giant winged one stands
You'll find her There 'mongst hills and sands.

Easy.


Jon Quixote was There!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Blue Concrete Vision

What happens when you've been out questing on the blue concrete for too long? Your vision begins to blur, you think you see There_Monitor wink at you, you spy Vash running around chicken griefing somebody at every street corner, and you feel like you're Netrider running There on half-operational dialup! Sorry, Net.

IM me in-world for your very own pair of Blue Concrete Vision glasses! Wear them while looking at this screenshot to see the blue concrete jump out at you in 3D! Wow!


If you continue questing on the blue concrete its vastness will shortly overcome you and you will succumb to a condition known as Blue Concrete Blindness! This is a serious condition and may result in a permanent alteration of your vision! If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms please cease your activities immediately and have a friend summon you back to soft squishy land!


Jon Quixote was There!

There_Monitor's Shrine

There_Monitor.


She's back! Thanks to Spiritus, There_Monitor is once again logging in to There. And you know what that means? Let the There_Monitor veneration begin once more!


'hmm curious... Click to enlarge:



Jon Quixote was There!

No Parking Any Time

Click to enlarge:


Jon Quixote was There!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Maintenance

Well, that's one way to get some sleep.


Jon Quixote was There!

My, How Time Flies!

Gee, is it really that late already?


Jon Quixote was There :(

Bubbles!

Oooh look at the bubbles! I wonder what's making them?


Dihtriiii!


Careful, Elaur! The bubbles are razor sharp! Oh NO!


Look! E caught one of the bubbles!


Jon Quixote was There!

Big Eights is Not Dead!

The website may be gone, Philovivero may have left There, the test avies may one at a time be losing their Big Eights t-shirts, general knowledge about Big Eights among Therians may be at an all time low but, like that guy from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it's not quite dead yet!

This group and its ideas have always fascinated me. I may have been accepted into the Big Eights Elite after the initial hype had ended but it has nevertheless been a major factor in shaping my experiences in There these past two years. The sense of awe and mystery Big Eights invariably induces in somebody when they learn of it for the first time never ceases to amaze me.

I am writing this post out of curiosity. I often see qgon in-world and we frequently greet each other in the traditional Big Eights manner but it is very rare for me to see another person who speaks the lingo or who wears their Big Eights shirt. Are there any original members left who still log in? Does anybody ever display Big Eights or has it become an afterthought since Philo left There?

It's a terrible shame to have lost bigeights.org, but I believe the Big Eights legacy extends beyond Philovivero and even the Big Eights Elite group. As long as There_Monitor continues to wear her Big Eights t-shirt there remains a source of wonder and amazement--an opportunity for anyone who wishes to ask: "What does it all mean?" No, my friends, Big Eights is not yet dead.


Jon Quixote was There!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

More-ee?

She's too old for all of us, and she doesn't have any free clothes. (She's also a Dark Jedi!) More screenshots than you ever wanted to see of Elaur. Commentary added. Click to enlarge!


Careful, E, I don't think he's had his rabies shots!


Elaur under the table:


Elaur over the table:


Elaur hiding underneath the ground:


Elaur is still noobs!


I was watching Alien last night and I had this crazy dream!


It tastes like WHAT?


Now, I dare you to say that again to my face!


Elaur trying to figure out how to get in the buggy:


Elaur trying to drive the buggy:


Elaur chasing the buggy. (She's actually really good at this)


Uh, E? I don't think we're on New Kansas anymore.


Wait, that's not Elaur! What's going on here?


Elixaur?


What did you do, spit in the pools again E?!


Elaur always has the final say.


What? I couldn't see what you wrote through all these IMs cluttering my view!


Poultry for you! No, poultry for you! No, you! No! You!


Elaur won :( The price you pay for losing to her:


Do I even need to comment?


Elaur is good people. There's always fun to be had when she's around.


Jon Quixote was There!

Monday, January 15, 2007

4-Seater Recall

There.com recently issued a recall on all 4-seater buggies purchased in the month of January. Faulty workmanship in the rear of these buggies could result in a potentially dangerous situation. "Given the right conditions", says an employee who worked directly on the 4-seater project but prefers to remain anonymous, "the two rear seats can spontaneously combust, bursting into uncontrollable flames and causing a slight charring to the skin of any avies who were unfortunate enough to be seated back there." When questioned about the necessary conditions for such an explosion, the employee responded: "Naturally, we wish to keep the details confidential to prevent misuse until the problem can be properly addressed. However, I can note that it involves a stop sign, a rubber band, a roll of duct tape, and one very sleepy avatar behind the wheel."

There.com faces forty pending lawsuits from avies who were severely burned as a result of the faulty buggies, slightly inconvenienced at having to read this story about the faulty buggies, or who stubbed their toe on the newspaper article containing this story about the faulty buggies as they walked out of their house this morning.


Jon Quixote was There!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Tomb of Our Expectations

Elaur and I were on the hunt for various things to decipher. We had just come from Tyr, where E deciphered the symbols surrounding the podium in Venue Vash. The symbols are grouped and separated by small dots, suggesting sentence structure. She found them to read: "All Roads Lead Nowhere". That these symbols could be deciphered was a shock to me, as I had never seen them before outside of Tyr. The translation, however, is quite fitting if you ask me.


The next stop was the tomb in Egypt. Elaur flew inside and was checking out the walls while I paused outside gazing up above the door. I noticed the same telltale dots separating groups of symbols that we saw in Tyr and within minutes, E began spitting out possible translations. I was completely amazed! Baffled! Perplexed! Bewildered, even! I was totally, one hundred percent dumbfounded until she told me they were actual Egyptian hieroglyphs! Ooooooh!

Elaur had attempted to translate this once before, but was never able to complete the last line. After fussing with the particulars for a while, Elaur came up with the translation: "Tomb of Our Expectations". Wow! I then wondered if anybody else had ever bothered to translate the glyphs before. A quick Google search came up with at least one other person, iay, who wrote about it in his There blog ages ago. Even if Elaur wasn't the first Therian to try to translate the hieroglyphs, it was still a rather exciting moment.


Jon Quixote was There!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Mister Blinky Hits the Big Time

Our beloved Mister Blinky is more popular than ever! He's been meeting new friends every day and is even enjoying a new location with a better view than ever before. It's not surprising, then, that he has been taking full advantage of his ever increasing popularity. Oh, to live the life of a star! Click to enlarge.


Jon Quixote was There!

Monday, January 08, 2007

Buddha Weighs in on Loaners4u Situation

Despite signs being strategically placed at key locations throughout the Loaners4u zone, people continue taking multiple vehicles! Drastic measures were required to ensure that there are enough vehicles for all to enjoy. Ponder was forced to call in a favor!


Jon Quixote was There!

What Did Chaz Do Now?!

So Elaur summons me to Saja and has this look on her face like, well, sorta like this:


Now, I'm busy fussing with something out of window and hardly take notice as E is staring up into the sky, gasping and pointing and running around in circles. I finally turn around to see what all the hubbub was about and WOAH what's THAT!?




What on earth did Chaz do now! That thing is huge! I stared up at it, gasped, pointed, and ran around in circles. We hopped on a boat to get a better look at the beast:


The detail on this thing is incredible. Look at the leaves!




Here's an aerial for you, taken above the fog. Take a look at the placement of those pods. Random, you say?


And wouldn't you know it, look who we bumped into!



'chickendance of glory!



Don't trip, Chaz, it's a long way down!


Now, of course, we tried to squeeze all the juicy information we could out of Chaz. His typical response was either a chicken dance or "la la la". He liked blaming El NiƱo as well.



Meret was able to squeeze some information out of him. The model for this beanstalk was, apparently, built by one Rich Larm years ago.


Ponder got him to admit that the beanstalk has been part of the client installation all this time! That's the reason why no new patch was required for it.

She also pulled one more interesting bit of information out of him. Was Chaz responding to Ponder's question, or to Chicken's? Take a look:


But Elaur got one of the best lines out of Chaz:


Now, when staying up until the sun begins to pop up over the horizon in the morning, some very strange things begin to happen. One might even call them hallucinations. Take, for instance, this unassuming pod that has been busy trying to grow itself into a beanstalk for two months now:


We now know it succeeded and several other pods can be seen near the beanstalk attempting to do the same thing:

But wait, did you look at the picture in the link Chaz gave us earlier? It's upside down! Chaz! What did you do! I saw him log in and out down below the beanstalk and so we went down to have a look at what he was doing. Suddenly, Elaur saw something move out of the corner of her eye. I turned in time to see the pods flip!

E and I were freaking out when we saw them flip in real time! It was so cool!


Later in the morning, everybody was so tired our vision blurred and we thought we saw an Evil Chaz appear for a few brief moments!


As the morning went on, things just got stranger and stranger. First, Chaz appeared to shave his facial hair:

Then, we thought we saw him turn into a newbie!


But that's just crazy. None of that really happened, of course; it was all just our imaginations. The new beanstalk, however, is very real. It's the first new landmark content to be added to There in a very long time! Yay for Chaz!!


Jon Quixote was There!