Droopy, The Avie, The Myth, The Wackiness

 by xThor

Since I have been playing There the name Droopy is one that comes up a lot.  I caught up with Droopy, finally!, and spent a wacky day with him.  I must admit it was a fun day and I got to know my wacky friend even more.  So here we go on a wacky ride with Droopy, not the cartoon dog by the way.  LOL

Hi Droopy, been a while since we last spoke and now that I caught up to you, I’m glad you agreed to do this interview.  You have become an avie who wears many different hats along with the pink bunny suit.  LOL   I know there are a lot of people curious about the mystery of Droopy.

rofl Thor, I have more kinds of pink hair than hats...and I question how well I wear any of the hats I have tried on here :)
 

LOL, well I won’t ask about the pink hair.  What attracted you to come to There?
 
I initially was attracted to There because, much like most programmers, it sounded like something I had wanted to create back in college. A buddy of mine from college emailed me telling me to check it out because it sounded like what we had discussed many late drunken nights in the lab.  Oddly, he never got into the beta.

Once I got here, there was no leaving.  I loved the non-game aspect of the place, to me it is a creative outlet, and a place to appreciate the creativity of others.  I was glad to find a place that did not tell me how to have fun with other people.  The communication aspect
blew me away.

Ok hand me another beer. LOL  You know, you have become a popular Avie who not only is involved in the developer program but also was a member of the MAB.  What possessed you to be on the MAB?

'''blush, umm popular?  Or merely oggled at like a sideshow freak??  LOL

The MAB, well that is a different story.  I don't think I really ever got "interested in being on the MAB", I love this place, and kinda am an activist when it comes to the issues surrounding it. I was asked to be in that role, and as I am passionate about There, I took the role quite seriously. I saw it as civic duty to a service and a community
that I am honored to be a part of.
 
Well now that you are not on the current MAB, what is one of your fondest memories from the MAB?

Now the thing about being on the MAB is, there isn't much room for fond memories.  Black Tuesday was especially hard for us, and especially having to see the effect it had on There's staff.  But what I did take from it, and cherish more than a one seater,  is the caliber of people I served with.  It is like every moment I have been in There during my term and since thereafter, I am in the presence of greatness.  The Staff blow me away with their passion, dedication, and creativity.  When I step back and look at the people I have come to know here, well, it is beyond value.  Talk about a community that can restore your faith in humanity.

 
Ok, I have to ask and we both know many want to know.   The pink bunny suit, your trademark, how did that come about?

Ok the Bunny...It was a prank played on me that turned into a way of life.  Almost a full year ago, I had to go out of town for a while, and could not log into There.  While I was gone, Akia and Stormchan set me up good.  Akia had my password for various reasons, and logged in as me.  She and Storm dressed me up in the bunny outfit, put me in a cage, and logged me out.  When I returned from out of town, I logged in to find myself as a big pink bunny in a cage, with TONS of my buddies standing around waiting to point and laugh.  It cracked me up, and I never changed. (ok, so occasionally I'm a mime, or a different colored bunny ROFL)


I do recall the odor and the color grey once.  ROFL   I have noticed you’re always active in the forums and involved in many controversial debates, what is something you have learned from these debates?

Forums, errrrr, ummmm.  Let's just agree that I am a loudmouth who thinks he is always right... and if I am not right, I try to change things so that I am right.  Care to disagree with me on it? ROFL

Drama is good and bad.  Personally I am of the belief that some drama is good, it is food for conversation, stimulates sharing of views, and often brings understand of other peoples views.  I don't think that anyone should be afraid to pop in and say what they think, they just need to be prepared that others will definitely not share their view. Drama goes bad when it turns to personal attacks or just goes plain too far.  For more info, read my upcoming book, activism gone too far...  The key thing I learned is, bail from the thread if it starts turning nasty.  Don't feed the ugly threads, they just get bigger, uglier, and have to be slain by warrior princess Alex.
 
Now Alex will get a kick of that name.   LOL   I have always referred to you as the "Mad Scientist" for the creative items you have made, what got you interested in becoming a developer?

I became a developer (painter) just cause I wanted to learn.  Honestly, the only reason I have a PC at home was because I built it to participate in the There beta.  I decided I would make my own clothes and buggies to learn some about design. I figured the best way was to make my own stuff.  I then wore the stuff I made around other people and listened to their criticism (my first submissions were in MS Paint).  I made more stuff fixing the problems people seemed more than willing to point out in my previous designs.

As time has gone on, the learning has never stopped.  Each thing I make is more about the learning process than the item.  That is why I end up with such an odd assortment of things.  Each new thing is building upon what was learned from the previous things.  I have tons of things that I don't even bother listing because they were just an experiment to begin with.  I never have looked at the dev program as a way to make money. To me the Developer program is a self study course with low low tuition especially compared to what my friends have paid to learn 3ds max at college.  Now admittedly a couple of months ago, I started having more t$ than I was spending on PAZ time and submissions. So I have sold some occasionally, getting a small return from the t$ I bought to make the submissions from the past.  I might make the equivalent of 1-2 days pay from my real job in about month of auction sales, and I probably put in about 30-60 hours a month doing the actual building and dev work. So you can see it ain't about the money.  I do like the validation I feel when people do buy the things I make, and become a terrible self critic when no one likes one of my creations enough to buy even one copy.

What item are you most proud of and why?

I actually could not pick which one thing I am most proud of having made, whatever I have coming out next is probably the best answer.  Of late I have been putting more time and more effort into the creations, using more of what I have learned from past successes and blunders.  So right now, I am proud of the hanger, but I am even more proud of what is coming out after that.

Ok, so what has been your least favorite item and why?

I think my biggest blunder was the riverboat. At the same time, I a proud of everything I learned from it.  Screw up and ya learn, screw up on a colossal scale, and you learn a buttload.  Nothing has improved my work or made me learn more about modeling than that thing.  There are soo many things to consider when making a model, looking at the mistakes I made in the riverboat has been a good checklist for everything I have made since.

The riverboat, don’t recall that one.   LOL   Your latest creation is the Hanger which is absolutely wonderful, whacha got cooking in the lab next, if you can share it?

Well, I have tons of ideas for what's next. I have loved working with the large scale creations lately, and learned much from it, but I might need to learn more about making tiny things.  I have spent a good deal focusing on better texture to model mapping, and see room to grow in it on small highly detailed things.  But who knows!  Depending upon the time you go to press with this, my new slide projector may be in world.  All I can say is it looks super sweet.  It is totally a step up from all of my previous work.  I look at it and wonder if I hired someone to do it for me, because I can’t believe how clever I got this time!

A slideshow projector huh?  I will have to look for that one when it comes out.  What does Droopy like to do for fun in There?

The thing I enjoy most in There is listening to people.  I am a loudmouth in the forums, but when I am in world, I love to just listen.  I may get chatty, but it is what the other people are saying that I am truly interested in.  Back when I was on the MAB, I spent a great deal of time logged in as other avies <eg> just talking to people. Few ever looked in the profiles of my other avies, but when they did, they were usually quite perplexed as to how such low skilled avies could be aware of so much of the world...I was able to gather peoples opinions without having to worry about them holding back because they knew who they may have perceived Droopy as.  Was it deceptive?  I don't think so, those that asked I told. But then again, I made sure not to build relationships under those other names, I was just another passing stranger having casual conversation.  I also love visiting people's paz's and houses.  I teleport randomly around and explore people's places.  The imagination required to decorate and build paz's and homes is far beyond my abilities.  It's easy to visualize a single thing and make it, it takes true creativity to take the amazing assortment of things made by people and do something with them!  I really am amazed when I see something I made doing something completely different that what I had envisioned its use as.  I hate naming things now because I can't possibly even venture to guess how people are gonna end up using them.  It blows me away the vision people have when they decorate or build a place in There.

Yeah I also love visiting paz’s made by others.  Well now that you have more time on your hands what's next, where do you go from here?
 

Time??? ROFL I have so many plans for my There work, I have less time now than when I was on the MAB.  Being on the MAB kept me focused and from tackling every wacky idea I've had.  Now I have started tons of projects, and let myself be pulled every which way.  I do plan a complete site redesign of All-there.com for the new year. Other than that I have one secret project I have started that is going to eat every second of my time between now and xmas...and it aint making xmas things...  ;)  One thing is for sure, I will be busy and active for some time to come, and now I am on green thumb almost all of the time!

Do you mean “pink” thumb?  LOL   Who do you admire the most in There and why?
 
Who could pick one person!! There are so many completely awesome people that I bow down before. The list of people that I admire in our community is approaching phonebook size at this point.  There is one group of people that I have to say are just the tops in my book.  I love creativity and passion, and the group that says that the best are the bad-ass event hosts.  It takes creativity, passion, dedication, personality, and balls to host truly awesome events.  Hula, Mackie, you, VirtualVikki, and so many others create awesome, fun, new things to do every day.  There is one other that I have to toss in, Sue_G, if you don't admire that woman, you have not met her.

Well thank you and now it’s my turn to blush.  LOL   Hey, I want to thank you once again Droopy for taking the time to sit with me and chat about yourself.  Something I know you normally don't like to do.  ROFL   I always look forward to your next item and move in There.

Do I have time for a shout out?     

Umm, well ok but make it short, you realize you drank all the beer don’t you?  ROFL 

Just a little holler to my peeps Lali and Peter_B.  'wave 

Thank you for inflating my ego even more!  I hope you spare your readers much of my drivel.  please place much of what I have said on the cutting room floor...  peace and donuts.

HAHA  not a chance it’s all going in and you only had a few beers.  Where are the donuts!!  Well as our day came to a close, I realized how much fun Droopy is to hang out with but man, my eyes hurt.  I seem to see pink everywhere now.  LOL