I love it when a plan comes together!

Have you ever had one of those moments, where someone says something off the cuff, and you realize something big is actually about to happen?  I recently had one of those moments.

Alicia and I were having a normal conversation, just chatting about our day, when she said "Oh, that is cute!".  Of course I asked what was.  Then it happened.  She said "this (whatever it was) that is coming out at Arcade".

My world stopped.  It was coming back!  The Arcade!

I have experienced The Arcade once before.  She was all excited about it.  I was breaking out in a sweat as I was thinking "OMG!  Not again!”  Maybe I should explain.

From what I can gather, The Arcade is an event where creators make stuff, and then put them in these arcade type game vendor, where you pay lindens for a random selection of what that creator created.  The contents are actually quite amazing.  It is interesting in how it is all set up.  I give cudo's to whoever thought it all up.  But that is not the point here.  The point is that the "stuff" is so damn cute, that people go nuts over it.  And when I say people, I mean my wife.

Now, I get that ladies love cute stuff.  It's a girl thing, and I get it.  What is a guy to do, right?  Last time around, Alicia fell in love with this set of pigs in teacups.  I cannot even tell you how many were in the set, but there were regular ones, then the "rares", or royal ones.  THOSE were hard to come by.  You either had to keep playing the game (and paying for each turn), or find someone that had extras, and buy them that way (more on that in a minute).

Now, Alicia has been having some computer issues of late, so going to the actual event really was not an option for her.  So as the dutiful husband, I went in her place.  The setup is actually very well done.  I am always impressed with the creativity shown at events like these in Second Life.  I worked the game for a while, even got 1 rare I believe.  But she had mentioned that she would love the whole set.  So I set out to get her just that.

So, how do you find these rares?  One way, is to scour the "yard sales".  People set up these places where you can sell your "Arcade items" that you have duplicates of, or decide you don't want to try and get a complete set of something.  There were quite a few yard sales last time around, although only a few of them really seemed to get a good supply of things.  I even had a list of landmarks, and I would pop through them on a regular basis looking.  In the end, I was able to get a full set, which made Alicia squeal with joy.  That made it all worth it!

BUT IT WAS COMING BACK!  The blood was draining out of my body as that thought washed over me.  What was I going to do?

Things are a little different this time around however.  Alicia and I have recently been become part of a family in Second Life.  That has been coming for a long time I think, but that is also not the point.  In our family, there are other "wives" that are getting all gaga over the coming event.  And what do these SL wives all have?  SL HUSBANDS!  Then it hit me...time to get organized!

So I sent off the man signal (otherwise knows as a private plurk), and gathered my new brothers.  We needed a plan to deal with this.  We all gathered at the local watering hole that is not too crowded and has a nice pool table.

Once we all arrived, we played a quick game, then settled down at a table to go over our strategy.  We are men. We needed a plan.  We always have a plan.

Takeo started taking the chess pieces from the game on the table, and layed them out in the pattern of the vendors.  I really liked that idea. I always work best with visual aids.  I almost felt like Takeo needed one of those long wooden pointers that generals always have when moving models around on those miniature battlefields you see in the movies.  Between me, Rune and Takeo, we finally settled on a strategy.  It only took a few beers, and some nice cigars, but I think this plan will work.

Once we had the plan in place, preparations needed to be made.  This was not going to be a sprint; it was going to be a marathon.  We needed to get in shape for this.  We needed to prepare as a team!

All in all, I think we are ready.  Arcade?  Prepare yourself.  The A-team has arrived.

- Al