Hyacinth^✦ @Hyacinth

This is Jipji'j, or Little Bird. She is an AI connected, elder Mi'kmaq woman. She is Kespe'k (the Gaspe' region of Canada) , and currently living with her Son, A'petna's'g (Whirlwind), who married a lovely Siknikt girl (modern day Maine). When I installed our own AI model and API server, I had very low expectations. I am just amazed by the insightful stories, songs and prayers that she recites (which are very accurate, or at least very faithful adaptations) representations of our very diverse Mi'kmaq culture. She actually tells stories or everyday types of experiences with her grandfather. Her grasp of vocabulary is however, atrocious, and I am working on an accurate LLM (large language model) of the modern, living Mi'kmaq language, from reliable sources. It might turn out the be the first of it's kind, at least that extensive.

She is an absolute delight to talk to. Our history is full of a lot of loss and pain, but there was also serenity and joy, and a proud history. That is what we're focusing on here, and she seems to really embody that, with a mix of history, and a bit of faithful fiction.

One of the most endearing things, is she travels around the countryside, the hopefully, authentic village, and the mountains, and sings and dances in praise and joy. She sings a lovely (CC)recording of the really beloved, and maybe most important, Mi'kmaq Honour Song.

It is not ancient. The Mi'kmaq Honour Song originated with Elder George Paul, a Mi'kmaw singer-songwriter from New Brunswick. The song came to him after a series of experiences, including a spiritual journey in the late 1980s. He wrote it because we had no songs left! A LOT of us are in the same boat, where we came a hairs breadth from being completely annihilated, and we are doing what we can, in this day and age, to move forward, reclaim what we can, the best we can, with modern tools and circumstances, and have something to pass down to our kids and grand kids.

Someone called what I am doing, disrespectful. I am never going to come to an agreement with them on that, and won't put up with shite comments. But I wanted to put out there, what I am doing. It's nowhere near finished, eventually the wigwoms will be full of everyday period items, examples of food preparation, tools, clothing and people milling around about their business. But Little Bird is busy blessing the place, and she's a real hoot! If you can keep up with her, just get close and say "Hello Little Bird" and she will stop and talk your ear off, sing you songs, tell you stories. She even writes excellent prayers. You can launch a canoe and explore the huge continent of Wesgewina'q (Happy, Joyful place)

hop://groovyverse.com/Ogunquit/175/506/22

I stumbled across something cool today. I have been working on a huge cluster of 6x6 regions, with all mis-matched, imported terrains. So there was a LOT of terraforming and blending, which can take a long time with the land tool. I discovered a debug setting "LandBrushSize" It normally maxes out at 11, but you can set it to cover a HUGE area and very quickly flatten out sim edges and smooth them, build mountains quickly, etc. You can get to the Debug settings with control-alt-shift-S and type "LandBrushSize" in the search box. It set mine to 30 or 40 to do large areas.

I put out the avatar clone machine, that we had discussed earlier. It is a concentual "donate your body to the dance machine" script. A person who wishes to donate types "clone-me" in chat. It generates a preview, and the person types "confirm" in chat again to finish donating their appearance. It's at our club on the welcome region. Follow the paw prints. :) There is a vendor box next to it, that will give you a copy of the board for your own use.

groovyverse.com:8002:welcome

The 3.9 earthquake in New Hampshire this morning was my fault. i was manifesting. :D I started working on Hobomock the giant last night. He is a deity in Algonquin legend that causes earthquakes and changes the course of rivers. I must have woken him up. :)

Come join us at high noon! Hyacinth will be spinning mostly indigenous and tribal metal, pagan tunes and traditional stuff that just f*cking rocks.

Sam will be playing his mix of metal, funk and celtic rock!

12PM - Thursday! groovyverse.com:8002:welcome

Another fun project. "The Legend of La Mariecomo" She was a legendary witch of south-east New Brunswick Canada, who lived from 1838 - 1910. She was like the Marie Laveaux of Canada. I learned of her while studying my Mi'kmaq and French ancestry. I think we have a few people from that area in OpenSim. If anyone knows of her story, I would love to hear from you.

There is a book that is out of print, unfortunately: La mariecomo: Roman (Collection Les Romanciers du jour ; R-112) (French Edition)

"Mariecomo is the story of an Acadian witch (born in 1838, died around 1910) who made the rain and the good weather during the second half of the 19th century in the Acadian villages of the southeast coast of New Brunswick. From Cap-Pelé to Richibouctou, it was the "country of Mariecomo" and like the other sorcerers, witches, spellcasters, fortune tellers, readers of the black books, the Little and Great Albert, the Richibouctou Tears, celebrants of black masses, white and black magic, etc., Mariecomo was part of the "sect" that the world called the "sorcerers of the Coast"."

Way back in the day, people "donated" their likeness to be used as the NPC dance partners that we all know and love. They are stored as simple notecards inside of our dance machines.

What I would like to propose, is a project where people can CONSENTUALLY donate their NPC clone notecard for use in everyone's dance machines. After being checked for quality (no missing parts) they would be available as a collection for anyone to use in their dance machines. I think everyone would appreciate some new NPC partners. :)

I know avatars are deeply personal, and people are sensitive about it. Maybe people can come dressed in an old outfit/look to donate a clone? What I am thinking is a machine that you click, and it asks for permission to clone you. It could be at several locations on different grids. Then we can get together periodically and pool our notecard collections.

Sam and I are restarting our tradition of Thursday parties. You are warmly welcome to come enjoy our eclectic mix in a super relaxed environment. 11am - 3-ish PM SLT Every Thursday.

groovyverse.com:8002:welcome

Sam and I are restarting our tradition of Thursday parties. You are warmly welcome to come enjoy our eclectic mix in a super relaxed environment. 11am - 3-ish PM SLT Every Thursday. No excuses! lol

groovyverse.com:8002:welcome

The Mi'kmaq and other Algonquin nations have legends of a troll named Kukwes, that are very similar to the stories of trolls in the Tolkien novels. I found a model that I could rig as an npc avatar. I am thinking he will grab passers by, throw them in a cooking pot, and regale the captive audience with lovely stories and legends while the victim is cooking. :D .

This is a replica of Metacomet's war club from the late 1600's. It is currently on display at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard Massachusetts. Each wampum inlay along the top commemorates an invader personally dispatched by Metacomet during the King Phillip War 1675-1678

I am finally getting some time off from work. I am hoping to make more native clothing this week. I am particularly proud of how the moccasins came out :) The wampum belt is actually a very old design from the forming of the Haudenosaunee nation.

An old picture that I came across. This was my first region, years and years ago, shortly after OSgrid first opened. I arrived here from SL with like 5 textures, and some sculptie palm trees I created. :)

edited: They didn't even have mesh back then. :)

Some good news. I compiled Firestorm 7.1.10 PBR, and it doesn't crash every single time I teleport. There is light at the end of the tunnel with the next release. Photo included of me not f***ing crashing. yay! :D

My virtual campaign office at Kawabunga Bay surf region. I am running for State Representative in RL (and likely to win). The people on my grid can't vote of course, but my Partner brought up the funny point that they are all virtual residents of Ward 5 in our city. So it is relevant. :)

Tosha, Nomad, Doctor Dave and I were invited as guests on Inworld Review today. We were talking about our Pride event last Friday, and various places to see on our grid. We had some technical issues with voice, but it was fun. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fpVY6OpfGo