January 8th, Founder's Day. State of the City State.

[Shaunathan Sprocket]

Today marks 2 years of New Babbage, and we're beginning the Third. With two terms served, I'm officially a Lame Duck Mayor :)

It was never my intention to own New Babbage forever. I would like to think I am setting a precedent with a 2 year term. It is my hope that perhaps 2 years from now, the next mayor will step aside and allow a new mayor for Babbage.

When Jefferson Gould first showed me his plan for a "steampunk sim" I never thought we'd have enough people to fill an entire sim. Back then "The Steampunks" had maybe 30 names in it and only about 16 of those were active. "steampunk in SL" consisted of a secret group of builders hiding out in the side rooms of Withnail's School for Wayward girls. We spent so much time with the engine that held the school records and with Ordinal and Gould's inventions I almost forgot the primary function of the school was questionable.

While trying to find a simple victorian suit I discovered a single sim called Caledon. Back then Caledon was called "19th century Caledon" I found the sim owner, Desmond Shang (who by the way has NOT changed his avatar's hair or general appearance in 4 years...) and I asked him if this was a victorian sim. "Oh no! 19th century Mr. Sprocket! Victorian wouldn't appeal to as many folks." He told me. I introduced him to Gould and we showed him that we had a plan for a steampunk sim, and we thought his 19th century Caledon was a kindred spirit to our movement. He wished us well and invited our group to live in his sim temporarily until ours was up.

Two years, later "Beautiful 19th Century, Victorian, Steampunk, Caledon" is one of the largest sim communities on the grid. There are a myriad of Victorian themed groups, steampunk or otherwise, and New Babbage is 6 sims strong. A lot has changed.

When we, the steampunks group, set out to make a steampunk sim we had simple goals:

1. Raise awareness of the Steampunk movement.
2. Showcase quality building in SL on a Victorian/Steampunk theme.
3. Inspire the Steampunk movement to grow and evolve.

I am of the opinion that we have reached all three of these goals. So the vision was set and exceeded. The Steampunks near and dear to my heart: Jefferson Gould, Ordinal Malaprop, Reitsuki Kojima, Remington Pennyfeather, Salazar Jack, Loki Eliot, Eggberta Echegaray, and William Withnail have all either moved on to other projects, or don't log into second life very often. The city belongs to a second generation of steampunks now, with their own goals and ambitions.

I'd like to create a keepsake for the years we had. A DVD Image distributed under the Creative Commons license which would contain videos, stills, and stories of the times we've had in New Babbage over the past 2 years. Perhaps the moderators of the Ning could put a link way at the top with links they get from others to the pictures, movies, and stories that we have and we can compile it. then create a nice DVD menu to organize them all. One of our residents donated a website space to the City, and I think that would be a good place to put the finial product for free download. I would hope that in 2 more years the next mayor could have a second volume made, that way no matter how New Babbage, or ourselves change, we will have proof that we had something special here. I hope Kandace will allow us to include images of her lighthouse as she shows she is still part of this community, despite any differences she and I have.

When the election concludes New Babbage will be out of the parent's house so to speak. It will be stepping out alone into the world for the first time. I hope it's been raised well.

[Shaunathan Sprocket]

of course if there is zero interest in this, I may just collect them for myself...

[Ceejay Writer]

Awesome idea, Shaun. I can add another hotlink up with the shopping resources and such. Zero interest, my foot, you know we second generations would love it!

Why not use this discussion? You lay out the premise perfectly. Let's gather in the treasures of life in Babbage! Pile on the comments, townsfolk! I know we have some amazing videos out there, and who knows what pics are lurking on hard drives that never managed to get uploaded? Time to rummage through our collective attics, folks.

You made history, now record it for posterity.

*feeds the lame duck some breadcrumbs and watches him waddle*

[Kyle Oller]

*raises hand

"Me! Me! Me!"

Seriously, being new to Babbage, this would be awesome!

- K. Oller

[Shaunathan Sprocket]

well I have to see if the owner of the movies and pictures and role played stories are also as interested. I can't publicly pass this out without their permission.

[Ceejay Writer]

Can't know until you ask, and I would be very surprised if you didn't get permission from nearly everyone you approach.

Heck, I'd pay lindens for a copy of the final product. Okay, I'd even pay *gasp* dollars.

I am reminded that I have a pic on my hard drive from back before I was in Babbage, inside my own old nightclub, the Crypt. A Steampunk came in, riding in a mechanical chair. He was amazing, and the entire club was just gapejawed at him. He was polite and conversational, and from him, I learned of the town of New Babbage. After that, I began my sporadic visits and eventual move.

I have no idea who he was. I want to find that picture and put it in my blog, see who knows him. I'm betting you would, Shaun.

[Ceejay Writer]

Viola. Can you identify this gentleman?

[Beq Janus]

I do believe it is Mr Zero Qi, former babbage resident and partner to Miss Indigo Li. I have not seen Mr Zero inworld for some time now, though he is not on my firneds list so that is no shock. Indigo is often around and she and I are still in touch.

Interstingly, they were themselves drawn to rent for a while in Babbage during a visit in which they came to Loki's bar and sat next to Skusting and I, and perhaps Misi and Nareth too as we discussed the Eliot mystery. My blogs back then have photos of Indi as she was the one who discovered the hidden note in Moriarty's painting, but I think I was remiss in not taking shots of Zero as I can find none.

[Ceejay Writer]

Beq! You rock! Thank you. I'll think about some sort of non-intrusive way of saying 'hello' to him, and see if indeed he's the guy that spent time with us in the Crypt Club.

[Meadow McBride]

Now you mention it Beq, I think it might be Mr Qi as well. He and Indigo rented a canal house across from me when I first moved to Babbage.

[Beq Janus]

It is Zero, I had Indi confirm earlier today. Drop him a note, I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.

[Ceejay Writer]

Beq! THANK you! I swear, I'm tempted to kiss you but I'm a proper victorian! *snerk* I will drop him a note this very evening.

This is a little mystery that I've been wanting to solve for months!

And thank you too, Meadow!

[ZenRascal Mandelbrot]

I knew I'd seen that chair/bicycle somewhere before. Just ran across it on SLX-XStreet.