For the last week we spent almost every day at the dumpster developing a script that would allow the objects at the dump to decay and then disappear. We are getting closer.

This is some of the trash we are currently experimenting with.

The decaying script is almost working. We are trying to figure out how the stuff on the dumpster should disappear over what period of time. In the process of fine-tuning…

Pomer Pau stepped by to say Hello.

To fly to freebie islands, collect boxes with all kinds of objects, dump those things, take them apart, pile them up, rotate them, change their texture, change their size, change their transparency and then add the decay script, so that everything will be gone in a couple of hours is a race against time. Even though we set the parameters ourselves, we are always behind and in a constant rush to collect more to prepare it for decay.

Almost all the trash from the day before was gone, when we came back today. Uploaded immediately more stuff. More trash. More objects. More plants. More building parts. More toys. More drinks. More textures. Everything is decomposing depending on the number of its “z” value. Currently every 600 sec. the “z” value gets multiplied with 0.9. Depending on how much the look of the individual object depends on the “z” value, its decomposition is visually detectable early on, or completely hidden until the last moment, when suddenly it just disappears.





One man's garbage is another man's gold.
A third man's garbage is the first man's evidence.

After a couch, a table and a breakfast plate arrived in one of the trash loads, Susi Vacano and Whooter Walworth took a break and sat down for breakfast at the dumpster site. But they were not really hungry for food. Instead of eating they took apart the furniture they were sitting on and applied the decay script to it. Whooter Walworth later mentioned that it tickled when the spikes were stuck through him.

It's hard to decide how to look at the dumpster site. Not only are there a vast amount of different objects to look at, there is also an endless variety of angles, distant views, straight forward looks, sharp angles, close ups and overviews to choose from.

I am walking and flying around trying to find the ideal view of the most beautiful object in decay. Every time I move my point of view it looks more interesting, yet the same. It's better, but not really better. It's great, but not 100 percent.

Every time I find an object that was left there by another avatar, I stop and wonder. Why did she come here? Why did he leave this? Why not another one? Did they walk around and looked at the other things? Will they come back and see how their objects are decaying?

I keep going. I take things apart. I ask my self why it is impossible that the dumpster will ever be complete, perfect and finished. The head-over parrot in front of me opens his eyes and says: “The next trash load is missing, and the last one is already half decayed.” Then he closes his eyes again. I wait a little while before I check if the avatar who has dumped the parrot has applied the decay script. He has. I keep going.

waste types
from wikipedia

• Animal by-products
  
• Biodegradable waste
  
• Bulky waste
  
• Business waste
  
• Clinical waste
  
• Coffee wastewater
  
• Commercial waste
  
• Construction and demolition waste (C&D waste)
  
• Controlled waste
  
• Composite waste
  
• Domestic waste
  
• Electronic waste (E-waste, WEEE)
  
• Farm waste
  
• Food waste
  
• Green waste
  
• Grey water
  
• Hazardous waste
  
• Household waste
  
• Human waste
  
• Industrial waste
  
• Inert waste
  
• Kitchen waste
  
• Litter
  
• Liquid waste- any waste in the liquid state of matter
  
• Medical waste
  
• Mixed waste
  
• Municipal solid waste
  
• Packaging waste
  
• Post-consumer waste
  
• Radioactive waste (nuclear waste)
  
• Recyclable waste
  
• Residual waste
  
• Sewage
  
• Sharps waste
  
• Slaughterhouse waste
  
• Special waste
  
• Toxic waste
  
• Uncontrolled waste
  
• Waste heat
  
• Wastewater
  
• Winery wastewater
  

<hi #808000>[6:41] Orgon Ryba: Hi Tempo
[6:41] You: Hi orgon
[6:41] Orgon Ryba: Divine place
[6:41] Orgon Ryba: I love this land
[6:41] You: Thanks, nice outfit you have
[6:41] Orgon Ryba: Is the best of SL
[6:41] You: wow
[6:41] Orgon Ryba: Congratulations
[6:42] You: try our best
[6:42] Orgon Ryba: Is the chaos of my mind
[6:42] Orgon Ryba: genial!
[6:42] Orgon Ryba: bye, my friend
[6:42] You: that's a lot of compliments, if I could, i would turn red
[6:42] Orgon Ryba: ok
[6:42] Orgon Ryba: bye, master
[6:43] You: did you leave some trash of your trash bin?
</hi>
No answer, Orgon was quick to leave. If it mattered that we tried to communicate?

I am a dumpster diver.
I am a trash collector.
I am a waste connector.
I am a garbage picker,
and a quicker clicker
than I used to be.

After a SL shutdown we went back to the dumpster just in time to watch copyachi Adamzyk and youpy Zenovka leaving huge amounts of wood and noise. They both had spent a lot of time and effort building stacks of wood reaching high up in the air. Unfortunately some of the wood drifted onto our neighbors' properties and they forgot in their excitement to apply the decay script.

The structure as it was seen from the ground for a short amount of time.


youpy Zenovka and copyachi Adamzyk at work.

Later that day, we had a coincidental group meeting on the dumpster with Relder Walco, Pomer Pau, Susi Vacano and Tempo Strom. Someone else arrived in the background, but didn't want to step closer.

Looking at the picture, it's kind of hard to differentiate the avatars from the surrounding trash.

Meanwhile, objects are decaying.

When I arrived at the dumpster it looked almost empty. In the middle of the place stood a naked avatar.

[13:17] You: Hi
[13:17] Jes Schmooz: I am busy.
I start walking around her to look what she does to her body.. first she changes the color, then she puts tatoos on her back. I would like to see what kind of tatoos they are, but I am afraid to get too close to her. Then she covers herself in kind of a tent and suddenly she is on fire…then she starts talking again.

[13:21] Jes Schmooz: no fuego
[13:21] You: what does fuego mean?
[13:21] Jes Schmooz: fire
[13:22] You: do you mind me watching?
[13:22] Jes Schmooz: nah
……..

[13:22] you: it's kind of fun to watch you change.
[13:23] Jes Schmooz: What do u find in dumpsters?
[13:24] You: lots of things
[13:25] Jes Schmooz: things here?
[13:25] You: I like that you never know, what you find. Today it's really empty here. That's why I think it's kind of fitting, that you are naked. It's an un-materialistic day at the dump.
[13:25] Jes Schmooz: i was looking for a place that wasnt laggy
[13:26] You: What means laggy?
[13:26] Jes Schmooz: slow for things to rez
[13:26] You: And, is that place laggy or not?
[13:26] Jes Schmooz: this place is fast- it is not laggy
Jez Schmooz jumps on a motorcycle (naked) and drives into another corner at the dump. I call: “come back” but she does not come back. So I go to where she is.
[13:27] You: Do you want to leave some trash here? I can show you the deacy script. You can attach it to your trash and then it decays.
[13:28] Jes Schmooz: like what- you mean the trash in my inventory folder?
[13:28] You: yes
[13:28] Jes Schmooz: maybe….. Here - throw that away! I gave you boa red black and a L2 Lava Lamp.
[13:31] You: your lava lamp is making me act very strange. I never bent my knees before like that. And I can not modify it. It's locked.
[13:31] Jes Schmooz: i have never used it. it was a freebie at freebie dungeon.
[13:32] You: Hm, I am sorry, but I can not leave it here, because the permissions do not allow me to attach the decaying script. Do you have some other trash I can take apart? Then I am busy with that…:) while you can change your outfit.
[13:33] Jes Schmooz: what do you mean take apart?
[13:34] You: distort the individual parts of the objects, so it looks more trashy, more interesting
[13:35] Jes Schmooz: like this skirt?
[13:35] You: yes, for example. Just make sure, I can modify it….. Oh, or did you mean, if I LIKE this skirt?
[13:35] Jes Schmooz: no-
[13:36] You: Anyway …It's a little loose around the waist.
[13:36] Jes Schmooz: i gave you a newspaper skirt from Wasteland_girl.
[13:36] You: thank you!
[13:40] Jes Schmooz: what are you making?

[13:40] You: I make big trash out of small objects. see, it's starts decaying already. The skirt works great for that. I like the textures on it. I hope you don't mind that I treat your skirt like this.
[13:42] Jes Schmooz: no- its your skirt
[13:42] You: still, now it looks like I took your paper skirt apart and you don't have to wear anything else but your underwear.

[13:43] Jes Schmooz: oh- lol- i have clothes- way too many- thats what i am doing here- i am emptying my inventory
[13:43] You: oh, good then. I'll use your old clothes.
[13:44] Jes Schmooz: wow- i deleted tons already
[13:45] You: well, now you can throw them here if you feel like you want to give them another chance
[13:45] Jes Schmooz: ok
[13:46] Jes Schmooz gave you Cargo Crate 11, a Puppeteer - Free Edition, Freebie Dungeon - Gadgets 2. and Freebie Dungeon - Lots of Costumes.


[13:50] Jes Schmooz: well- thats a pretty cool sculpture you made there
[13:51] You: thank you. I try to find the other things you gave me… but my inventory looks kind of messy. Why don't you drag the objects directly onto the land…?
[13:52] Jes Schmooz: well i didnt know you could drag a folder - can you put that on the ground. What is the most interesting thing you have found dumpster diving?
[13:58] You: there is not one cool thing… it's more like the possibility of having the chance to find the coolest thing…. Well, your pig looks great! So does the motorcycle. May be these are the coolest things.

[14:01] Jes Schmooz: well, you can have anything you want
[14:00] You: I can not attach the decayer script for some reason. Do you have time to attach the decaying script?
[14:02] Jes Schmooz: nope sorry
[14:05] You: Are you still here?
[14:08] You: Hello?

Wow, once she knew how easy it was Jez Schmooz dumped a lot of fun stuff really quickly and then she left. There was nothing I could do with the trash, except being left with it. I will have to ask Tempo Strom to take care of it, because as the owner… he is the only one who can handle locked objects.
Hmm, now I am thinking… instead of just being excited and curious to watch what Jes Schmooz would drag out next, I should have stopped her, or explained better how to open the permissions on the objects. This way, I could take care of the trash right now myself.
And, in the end… I should definitely not have asked her, if she “has time” to attach the script.
Time seems to be such a sensitive issue in SL, because it obviously boils down to a couple of questions that can make one look like a loser in real life: “How can you have the time, to have a second life? What's wrong with your first life? Is there something missing? Are you old and want to look young? Are you lonely and want to be around people? Do you feel like dancing, but do not know how to move? Do you have financial problems that prevent you from living in that little castle next to the beach?” When you ask an avatar about “time” it's like asking a smoker what he thinks about lung cancer. It's the killer question. Time is the only thing, that stays “real” in this or that world. If you spent an hour here, the hour is spent there as well.

Everything was decaying peacefully at the dumpster site, the “prim limit” was almost reached, pictures were taken… so Lothar Apfelbaum, one of the trash collectors working at the dump, decided to take a break and teleport to a Freebie warehouse in order to document, where a lot of trash on the dumpster is actually coming from.

read about Lothar's trip here

Camera Blinker, after he left his position within the surveillance camera box and dragged a skyscraper onto the dumpster.



Usually, nothing taller than “10 m.” can be erected on the land. But this skyscraper contained a special code. It was at least “100m” and very impressive.



Camera Blinker on the flat roof of the building getting out objects to which, he had just discovered he could attach “physical weight”.



A big apple made out of armor, hovering mid air, ready to be dropped.



The bigger the objects, the faster they fall down.







Once the objects hit the ground, they bounced up and down a couple of times. If they hit other objects, those started to bounce.
For some reason the skyscraper decayed exceptionally fast. It took no more than 2 hours, until the building was gone. Once back on the ground, there was nothing left for Camera Blinker but to return to his box in which he sits day and night to hold the surveillance camera in position.

keep reading→ January 2008