Kudos to Rafael!!!

I use this blog and my twitter account to complain when my Alienware computer fails, and I feel Dell isn’t listening. So I must use it to tell you that Rafael of Alienware Tech Support positively ROCKS!!!!!! I was VERY bitter Tuesday evening when my “repaired” M17x came back and promptly failed in SL again. Armed with a glass of wine and a few unscheduled evening hours, I called Alienware support on Wednesday evening.

Rafael took my call. Yes, I DO know his last name and I’d be thrilled to tell all of you and even more thrilled to tell his management. But I did not get his permission to publish his name, so this will have to do. Rafael – you are THE BEST!!! He was upbeat, positive, and determined to fix my machine. We were on the phone for at least 90 minutes, probably more. In that time he ran a test or two, but mostly he LISTENED to me and he READ the account log. What a concept. Listening to the client. We talked about the problem, we both agreed it was the driver. I had 2 new graphics cards but the same old drivers. The error message had been saying “driver” all along.

Rafael researched, searched and downloaded the latest drivers for my cards. It was my very good luck that nVidia had just published new drivers the week before. Getting that driver installed, however, proved to be a bit trickier. Suffice it to say that Rafael stayed the course, double-checking with his peers, and working diligently to get the drivers updated. He came inworld with me to watch me push the SL settings to the max and begin throwing continually changing video information at the machine. We encountered my good friend Greg at the Fogbound. Greg chatted with me and Rafael. I felt VERY good about that because not only was Greg knowledgeable and articulate, but he was backing up everything I’d said to Rafael earlier and all of Rafael’s own conclusions.

So – Rafael is a STAR!!!! My beloved Alienware M17x is in working condition yet again. I have my full pixel count – 1920×1200. Things are rezzing quickly and beautifully. I have shadows, reflections and depth. Yay Rafael! Yay Alienware Tech Support! Okay – I’ll even give a shout-out to Dell – that’s how happy I am to have my Alienware M17x back and running. *HUGS* to all!

Get on Your Bike and Ride

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Some days I want to get in my car and drive and drive and drive – just leave everything and everyone behind me. That’s not always very practical, however. Gas costs a lot, time constraints, guilt, you know – the regular mish-mash of mature reality. But I don’t have to be mature or sensible in SL. In Secondlife, I can ditch some of the constraints that I’m forced to acknowledge in my corporeal existence. Tonight, feeling a bit frustrated in several directions, I needed to ride. Thank you black-Kat Choppers for my Grifter Bike.

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I came inworld and changed quickly into appropriate attire. It was a gorgeous day today – nearly perfect weather. I really wanted to just wear jeans and a tank top but I knew the wind would sting. So jeans and my leather jacket, leather boots. and some glasses to protect my eyes. Tie my hair back, (don’t need no stinkin’ helmet in SL), a pair of gloves and I was ready to ride.

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I live near Rt. 12 – an easy hop over to the road. It took me a bit to remember the controls. Always helps to read the directions. And I was off….. Ahhhhhhhhh……. Feel that motor purr……..

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Of course, no SL road is complete without one of Ann Marie Oleandar’s vehicles on the road. HAH!!! I had to return a crashed tank that was resting on my land, but I left THIS particular tank waaaaaaay behind. Eat my dust!!!! Or smoke, as the case may be.

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I have to say that sim crossings have gotten MUCH better. Yes, I vanished through the road, or careened madly about in the air, but I always found myself righted and ready to ride on. And ride on I did. On and on and on and on. Lalo and I had driven quite aways along Rt 12, but we never made it as far as I went tonight.

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Tonight I went to the end of the road and back. Without any elves or goblins or hobbits. The road gets a bit bumpy there at the end, and there is a lot of low-hanging foliage. But there are some beautiful sights. There is even a visitors’ center. I may have to head on back there some time and check it out.

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The chopper did the trick. I had the purr of the engine, the sights of the scenery, the adventure to the end of the road. The frustrating situations are still there, I’m sure, but at least I escaped them for a bit and feel as though I’ve left them far far behind.

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As Scarlett would say, tomorrow is another day. Bring it on.
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Define “Repaired”. Because Dell Computers has no clue

Dell, Secondlife and I have a problem. I’m sure that the 2 of them don’t care, but I do. So my gorgeous gaming laptop, the famed and fabled Alienware M17x came back today – “repaired”, or so Dell claims. I headed into SL, turned the graphics up to high, and set out. Only took about 10 minutes before the video failed. The screen goes black, then it turns white, then I get a box (that fades fairly quickly) telling me that the drivers failed, but they have “successfully recovered”. Really? I don’t think so.

Why is it Dell’s problem? Because from now on I intend to tell everyone all over how Dell is incapable of offering proper support for configuring their gaming computers. And because I believe that they are not telling me truth about this repair. I have PAID for in-home support. That means they are supposed to come to my home and replace parts while I am watching. They refused to do this and demanded that I send the laptop to them for “analysis”. I did. I shipped it out Thursday afternoon and saw that they received it Friday. It was back in my house on Tuesday. That means they shipped it Monday. Really? You performed analysis over the weekend? Why do I find that hard to believe? The piece of paper claims they replaced/repaired my video card. I find that incredibly difficult to believe. It’s hard to believe because they didn’t have it long enough. Because when I turn on the computer and head into SL, the fans immediately make more noise than a helicopter coming in for a landing. Because it only took 10 minutes to crash out the M17x.

Why do I think this is Dell’s problem, not SL’s? I bought a new laptop 3 weeks ago. Nothing fancy – an Ideapad Y580. Guess what. It runs SL at Ultra graphics, quietly, smoothly and without crashing. That’s right, Dell. A mere Ideapad laptop whips your famed fabled premiere gaming laptop.

Yeah, when I have the time and energy I’ll call Dell’s Customer Service. I’ll undoubtedly have to beg and fight my way to talk to someone who actually knows something about their Alienware brand. That’s another big runaround that I get from their Customer Support. The techs say “oh yes, I know that”. Only after something happens, like last year, when the machine caught fire, do I find out that I’m dealing with people who have no special knowledge of Alienware.

I’m so disgusted with Dell. I have been a loyal customer for over 6 years. All of our computers were Dells or the Alienware until I bought the Ideapad. I have a year left on my contract with them. I’ll send them the AW every single week for the next year until they make it work properly for my needs. Don’t tell me it’s SL. You should be so ashamed, Dell. Expect to hear from me. Every single week, if not every day.

It’s going to be one heck of a year.

Still Dreaming

Some days it’s not so much reaching for the stars, but just trying to keep my head above water. *grin* I was driving home from work the other day (the LONG drive home from work, not the short-but-commuter-congested-traffic drive) and this song came on just as I pulled out of the corporate gates. It’s been playing in the back of my head for days. Sometimes I focus on the first verse, sometimes I focus on the final chorus. Either way, seems to me that it’s where I’m at.

Every time when I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by, like dusk to dawn
Isn’t that the way
Everybody’s got the dues in life to pay

I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it’s everybody sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life
Is books written pages
Live and learn from fools and
From sages
You know it’s true, oh
All these things you do come back to you

Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears
Sing with me, just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good lord will take you away

Yeah, sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me, just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away

Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on

Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me, just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me, just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away.

And She’ll have fun, fun, fun

til the vid’yo takes her laptop away….. yep. The NVIDIA graphics cards are failing yet again on my Alienware M17x. I’m getting a “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” message. Except SL never recovers. I need to logout, reboot, and come back in. The rest of that is Display driver NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 197.84 stopped responding and has successfully recovered. Well, not completely it hasn’t. So – is it SL or is it NVIDIA? My drivers are up-to-date for the Alienware. Sigh. This is after my video cards caught fire last year and I needed the insides replaced. I really thought there was nothing that an Alienware couldn’t conquer.

In the meantime…. having some fun while I still can….. I’m an Engineer!!! That’s me with my very own Spirit of Arcadia, found in the Steam the Hunt 8. This engine is scripted to run on SLRR – the Second Life Railroad. Just rez it up and go for a ride! It includes a note card that lists RR rezzing stations as well as instructions for handling. Many thanks to Troy Waxen, co -curator of the Arcadia Asylum Living Library in Makazi for providing this wonderful prize! I need to find the proper attire for my new career…..

Altruism Pays Off

Several weeks ago I was shopping with a friend. She’d not been inworld in quite a bit and we were cruising steampunk locations to see what was new since her last go-round. We found ourselves at L+N Signature Designs admiring the fantastic vehicles as well as the clothing. She admired the way-cool Steampunk Giro-cycle but it didn’t appear to be for sale. I sent an IM to the builder, brgn.halberstam. I got a lovely reply, explaining that the Giro-cycle was not for sale because it had been created for the Steam the Hunt 8 hunt taking place March 1-31. I made a note of that, thinking that we could do the hunt in an effort to get the Giro-cycle.

I started off on the hunt last night. I’m on vacation this week. My original plans were changed and I found myself with lots of free time. Wow. I don’t remember the last time I had unscheduled days. I thought that I might try to do the hunt. I’m usually abysmal at these hunts. If I didn’t have a friend along with me to help me find the clues and the prizes, I’d never move past the first stop. This time, however, I began to get a feel for why hunts are so popular. As usual the first location was making me feel stupid, with a seeing disorder. But after finally stumbling on the prize, the whole hint concept began to feel clearer. I had my camera range waaaaaay long, something I’d never done in the past. I would cam all the way out, and see the general area. It’s taken me years to learn to use my camera more efficiently (yes, literally years). I started to have success. It was – fun. Imagine that. Fun. I came back in this morning and continued the same way. Ultimately I hit a location where no matter what I tried, I could not find the item. I thought “so what”. What I’d never realized before was that the hunts publish a list of SLURLS for people like me – so even if we can’t find the prize with the next location, we can jump to the next location anyway. We don’t have to drop out because of one unfound prize.

Since I was by myself, and had no time restrictions, I took the time to do what the hunts intend – look around the stores and perhaps shop. I nearly bought a steampunk throne/chair but decided it was a bit too large for someone hoping to down-size her property prims. I did get a VERY nifty pair of red boots and had a lovely chat with the store owner. Be sure to head over to -BHD-/Duquesa Designs and check out the -BHD- Aliz boots and chat with Renata Constantine (renate.marchionne) of Duquesa Designs.

I picked up some new deck chairs as well – I’ve had the old ones for several years now. I loved the rose pattern on Emma’s 1-prim Lush Roses Deck Chair at Emma’s @ Blue Moose. And along the way I picked up a sundress at CERO Style. That was a difficult purchase because I wanted SEVERAL dresses there. I finally decided on the ;;;Helene;;;; in cream.

By the time I made it over to L+N Signature Design, Oura had joined me. We were there for over an hour, admiring the creations, the elevator the clothes, the ambiance, the hair. We did indeed find the Giro-cycle. *grin* We both bought new steampunk outfits (check them out in the pictures above). We got the gift hair, Duality, as well. Flush with all our new goodies, we headed home to change and take the cycles out for a spin. *laughing* Okay – although it was fun, it was NOT easy. We both crashed at sim crossings and had to reboot. We ended up in my neighbor’s house and got invited to join the land group. We got the hang of it, though, and headed down the road. I was feeling quite confident by the time I added the HUD and started firing my machine gun. Well. Who KNEW that I could set fire to the berm? /me looks about guiltily, but with my hand still on the trigger. Once the smoke cleared, we headed off to hunt again!

All of these goodies for ME! Just because I wanted to buy a present for a friend.

I’m Ahuva Heliosense. I’m Rising!

One In Three Women On The Planet Will Be Raped Or Beaten In Her Lifetime.

One Billion Women Violated Is An Atrocity.

One Billion Women Dancing Is A Revolution.

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Join V-Day on
02.14.13
STRIKE, DANCE, RISE
in your community &
Demand an
end to violence
(copied from the official One Billion Rising url)

I hold strong views on many subjects. I try not to preach to my friends and coworkers. But in this instance, I believe so strongly in this movement, that I am speaking out to you. Yes – YOU. I mean you – male and female both. Join the revolution. End the violence.

I hope to rise in both SL and RL. I’ve found 2 possible RL events. In SL – it’s running 24 hours, from midnight Wednesday, Feb 13th through midnight, Feb 14th. It will be LIVESTREAMED. There are going to be live performances by well-known SL entertainers (*grin* one of my personal favorites is rumored to be the closing act)

To get you revving – watch the video. Yep, I’m there. Honour is there. Saffia is there, Pyper, Tatiana, sooooooo many others. There is still time for you to be there too, on Feb 14th. Schedules will be posted later this week. Pyper Dollinger, Tatiana Kurri, Saffia Widdershins, Petlove Petshop, Honour McMillan, and Aisling Sinclair have done a FANTASTIC job on this video! You have to LOVE The Dazzlers. I want to be a Dazzler when (if) I grow up!

You need to get yourself over to Prim Perfect and pick up the poster and your t-shirt. They have both male and female mesh shirts, in a variety of sizes, both black and white backgrounds.

Strike!

Dance!

Rise!

Note: Check out my new hair up top. I’m sure I’ll still be wearing my Analog Dog “Astrid”, that I’ve been wearing for 4+ years now. *grin* But Queue Marlow won my heart yet again with “driven” in butterscotch.  :)