Wednesday 28 January 2009

Evolution

Evolution is a new Gallery, opened by Sabrinaa Nightfire and Alan801 Eclipse, and is at Cassowary (89,111,61)





I went back there today to get a photo and say a little more about it than I did the other day.

It is a huge space as you can see from the photo, and Marnies prims, which could have benefitted from a better tex, and Sabrinaa's photos dont really fill the space.

Sabrinaa did such a great job with the One Prim Wonder show at Caerleon, but putting on two exhibitions at the same time may have been just too much of a logistical nightmare. A huge space like this needs very large sculptures to fill, the wall space is proportionally small compared to the volume, and it is volume that would be needed.

Its a personal taste thing, and I can only give you mine, I dont like sculptures placed 'randomly' outside in the garden. I am of the strong belief that objects sit together in 3D space in a definite relationship. A composition is needed in 3D, even more than in 2D. If things, object, don't sit in a well composed relationship to each other ...all the objects lose out.

3D composition is a very difficult art, and one I have practiced from the age of 4, so I am intensely aware when things dont work.

So....a great space, congratulations, and one, I am sure we will be hearing more about, but this show is suffering from the teething troubles a lot of new galleries experience, namely that the owners will have to learn how to use their space to its best avdvantage. I wish them a lot of luck, we know Sabrinaa to be a talented artist and organiser, and I look forward to seeing how Evolution evolves.

>:)))

Tuesday 27 January 2009

I do not want a rezzday party

Fairly straightforward wishes from the lovely Bettina Tizzy......but her fans had other things in mind, so, secretly we gathered in an un-harvested wheat field, hoping to surprise her with congratulations and compliments........





Gattina and I were a bit nervous, wondering if, against sensible piscine advice we had let Bryn lead us astray. One Prim was fairly quiet too, but then we weren't sure if the lady of the moment would arrive.....





Therese was fairly chatty with Charlotte, and Wizzy was her normal relaxed self.....





Bryn said it was all Gattinas fault and watched Dizzy OnePlates butt as he danced while washing-up....





The minutes ticked by...... Lauren arrived, looking stunning....

Then.....Bettina Tizzy is online....YAY!! she tped in, gracious and well-dressed as ever.... accepted our well meant friendship and wishes, as Gattina had so correctly predicted....... she strangled Gattina, pleasantly....

Eshi came....omg.....I blushed...remembering my loose words of a prevous blog, but soon realised that the fashionista wouldnt be reading this "boring little melodrama" (Rar's analysis/critique of this well-read wordsmiths art (how will SL survive without his insight?)) as only the super-cool (yes, unashamed flattery) and finacial wizards (various indepth reports) have the forsight to.......well......I digress....not for the first time....

Anyway....Eshi, Dancyote and Spiral all tped in before I had to hit the sack, it was wall-to-wall genius.... all had come to say, quite simply, Bettina, thanks for everything you have done this past two years, and we think you are great. Simple.

I had wanted to brighten up the place with some flowers and stuff, but it would have interfered with this serious piece of art.......so we just sat round in the dust bowl and smiled a lot. Which is good cos I had been a bit grouchy this week...first at Caerleon, where Lag-Hell-On-Earth had been provided as a party location (accompanied by Chat-Hell.....people playing with spank HUDs)..and later at E..... omg....forgotten the name....Experience or Enterprise....not Excite...anyway....Sabinaas new, huge gallery....where I was out-of-sorts too. Was probably lack of sleep talking all night to old friends sticking their heads in the SL door for the first time for ages......

Anyway....got a good nights sleep, and today I was out in the pre-spring sun, with birds singing and daffs peeking up thro the soil...:)))

I am quite approachable again....


:))

Saturday 24 January 2009

Eshi Otawara and Girls Behaving Badly




Well, not very badly, but rather stereotypically, maybe.......the photo is pretty self explanatory ....we look like a backing group or a girl band..... Eshi we love you. If Crap hadnt got you first I'd have had your babies....





This is my latest little product in the shop at Moldof.....check my Picks if you want an LM....

As the headdresses have been selling well to a few strange people, fairies and the like...... I thought I would 'release' these on an unsuspecting SL audience...>:))


:)))

Thursday 22 January 2009

Action Woman.




Well, theres always a first time for everything, and last night I went skiing for the first time in SL, and a very amusing experience it was......





This is me suspended in mid air after my plane crashed.....





But, of course, it didnt stop me going up again...





This is from Wizzy's opening at Caerleon, and, if you havent been.....you should. These are builds that you could not see in RL and their perfection is surreal.
There were a lot of people there, and that on a night when the Boys were messing us about.

Its no wonder they bought SLX, after all, everytime theres an "issue" and they stop us logging in.......we all go shopping at SLX.
....and theres been more than enough issues for one week,...... thank you very much!! Get on with it.


:))

Tuesday 20 January 2009

600 million $ noob

CONGRATS to all those of you who are pleased with the big new noob.

I have lots of warning bells going off in my head, because I remember when Tony Blair was elected, but I would not want to rain on your parade, today....hehhehe....maybe later...:)))

I'm naughty, I know....

but well thought-of by some.....:)))


:))

Monday 19 January 2009

Wizzy opens again at Caeleon

Well, IF you can log into SL today, and you'll notice thats a big IF, Wizard Gynoid, the mathematically inclined beauty, has a re-opening of her wonderful E8 at Caerleon Isle today...... but....if you are being messsed around like the rest of us cash-paying fools.......it will be there tomorrow as well.

Now, its not certain that tomorrow will bring a better 'climate' to SL.... the Boys upgraded something, and, I would tend to think, that like brain surgeons they may have left the Rolex in the internal organs of the super-brain that keeps us all happy and playing psycho-frontiersman/woman/dragon in this most amazing of all possible worlds.

It is very nice to meet someone who appreciates a side of your work/craft that normally passes the uninitiated by. Such a person is Simone Gateaux, a biologist who saw in my work my rather loose understanding of botanical rules. She has posted very nice words and photos on her blog.....here.

Other breaking news.....well...I have finally found hair that I am very pleased with and will probably wear continually now until it gets so dirty I have to pop it in the washing machine where, the pessimist side of me says, it will probably shrink or run......we shall see....


:)))

Sunday 18 January 2009

One Prim Wonder

Its today, at 11....

this, a message from Sabrinaa
drop in....I am really intrigued to see what people have done......

"What can be done with one prim? This no holds barred exhibition features some of SL's most cutting edge artists. The rules are simple: create a work of art that is only one prim. Show opens Sunday, January 18 at 11am SLT. Please join us on Careleon Isle and be amazed and delighted. Organized by Sabrinaa Nightfire

Artists who participated include:
(in no particular order)

olmia Tenk
Sheba Blitz
luce Laval
Xenophile Neurocam
Owen Morgwain
Jojorunoo Runo
Glyph Graves
Cheen Pitney
Solkide Auer
Phaon Johin
Lion Igaly
Pete Jiminy
soror Nishi
Miso Susanowa
aliki Tenk
Gleman Jun
Georg Janick
Scarp Godenot
Medora Chevalier
Nonnatus Korhonen
four Yip
Physeter Nicholls
PleaseWakeMeUp Idler
Ub Yifu
Alizarin Goldflake
junivers Stockholm
Artistide Despres
Sabrinaa Nightfire
Marine Reinard
Zhara Zanzibar"



:)))

Saturday 17 January 2009

Colemarie Soleil, a really good tune, again

Nothing much to say about this, except I REALLY like it

the video is terrific, and the song is one that just stays in your head

enjoy it...on high res if you can, and loud...:))


HERE


ROCKERFAERIE ROCKS, please play some more....

:)))

Friday 16 January 2009

vote

Please vote for this, it is important..... here

Zee Linden and the Bot question....

Zee Linden is the finance guy for the Linden Boys.
And he has published the yearly figures here
and in the blog here he answers angry residents questions and opinions on whats wrong with SL...... and, to be quite honest I feel for him a bit cos he gets to recieve all the rotten apples thrown at him.
Well, he gets paid well...so I am not sobbing or anything.

So, after an hour or so reading, what did I learn? just to save you the time...:))... well, statistics are a very dubious thing as we know...... and no-one believes anything the Boys say anymore....thats not news...

but this is what he has to say about bots. the subject of several blog post by my good self...and others, Im sure

in a random order...


"As I've said in the forums before, bots do impact these numbers. But we have seen evidence in the data that bot usage has not grown as a percentage of total use over time. making trending relevant.

Though I know people find it hard to believe - its very difficult to differentiate bots from live activity - there are signs that we are working on correlating but is very expensive from a database perspective in real time.

We talk a lot about bots in these forums when I bring up user hours. Unfortunately I'm not the datawarehouse guy that could tell you exactly why something works and other things don't. All I know about bots is that I don't think about them when I look at our financial statements. Our revenue has grown similar to user hours for many years, so I don't see any change in bot behavior in our revenue numbers. I keep saying the same thing about that because that's all I really know. Probably someone more technical than me could do a post about bots and what we know and what we don't know and then we could have a forum discussion just about bots.

That's right. This is a very complicated problem. I was just in a meeting where our Datawarehouse team talked about bot detection and alt detection. There are things we can do. There are things we should do. Real money transactions are generally bot free - especially where we charge a fee - so growth in the LindeX is a key thing to look at. But as I've mentioned that's not perfect either."

well....conclusion....they dont know how many bots there are.....


so I kinda guessed that...


:)))

a mixed bag




This is Selavy Oh, as many of you know, possibly my favourite builder in SL. I have blogged her amazing pieces of work before, and missed getting a photo of her for my "best of 2008" post. She has become one of the latest friends of mine to be asked to join NPIRL, and recently Cube Republic has also joined. Congats and welcome to both...:)))





New products for sale at the beach....well....round the corner in Iz Space actually, bordering my bit of beach....( I will get them into the shop eventually...are the new flexi fern and the bunches of `Morning Glory...





I have spent quite a lot of time this week just hanging out and chatting to good friends, maybe a reaction to the Gallery Show and the work that that entailed. Been IM ing like a mad person, actually, amazing how friends change your life and how good they are for your self esteem....:)))





And how amusing it is when creativity and humour collide.... here is a strange scene from last nights opening.......I cant describe how funny it was, but the gruesome photos gives an idea that something unusual had happened....we were all in fits of laughter, Wizzy and Nada (I think....god I am terrible with names) had me doubled up so i could hardly type..(same old, some of you might say..:)) ) A spiral stair of noobs is a surreal thing to behold, and Wizzy ("likes to sit on stuff") made some noob sofas, except they were not noobs, but named after a member of the LL clan....

Well, she did have an axe to grind.... honestly..

:))

Thursday 15 January 2009

wizard gynoid at Caerleon Isle





well, get over to see Wizzy's latest masterpiece of geometrical design......its at Caeleon Isle, 84,110,24.....or IM me or wizzy for a tp.

The purity of the geometry is a thing of great beauty and well worth the visit.

I particularly like the vertices of the amazing E8....like electrons swarming in a primordial soup to create a new life form....



:)))

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Mr Widget for President (MUZIK HAUS)

More real lives....




Mnzu Newman




Lulu Francis




noho Yokosuka




and the wonderful Mr Widget, keeping us all going through emotional traumas, and all....::))
with the lovely Nur Moo from Sintetika in the background.

real lives......

:))

The real world

She woke to find a feather on her pillow, she laughed, she’d fallen for an angel....


and the maiden dressed in white silks felt the heat from her dragon lover healing the scars of her youth...


the pixie awoke to pose-balls strewn like discarded clothes around the room and the twinkle of particles still hanging in the air...


and the slave girl hurried back to her Master, his bed would be empty now, but his soul had been kissed...


the butterflies of the night
hid in the shrubs of daylight


these are tales from the real world

art pales in their light


xxxxxxx

Monday 12 January 2009

The Show




A very amusing photo, tho of poor quality....:))) ...looks like an art mob. The Antler Gang.... its Aliz and Wizzy who came to support me at the opening yesterday. We had 83 people come round to see, which is very good, cos we had 40 something people on Saturday too.

The music obviously contributed, Phoe Nix played piano and sung, which was very nice.

Thanks to all my supporters....xxxxx
(and those that bought my stuff)...xxxxx


:))

Textures in Second Life......Workshop 4

Well, I thought I would share another little observation with you concerning colours of textures in Second life
My previous posts are to be found here...3.......2.......1


This one is about orange, the colour orange.






Anyone who has had stuff uploaded onto the net, in whatever form, be it for printing purposes or whatever will know that the colours available are sadly lacking compared to the original painting.......photos escape, often because the loss has happened between the object and the camera. Lime green and bright pinks were my earliest frustrations, but orange is my big obsession at the moment.

If you look at the colour palette above, that well known SL option.... you will see how the yellow, orange range is compressed using RGB, compared to the natural spectrum we are used to working with.





soooo....trying for a better orange than we are normally given, I have used this work-around. Using a pure red....note the figures in the top corner of the palette....255...red, 0 blue, 0 green....





I place infront of this a pure yellow prim.....255 red (should be).....255 green (should be)....0 blue





Then, reducing the transparency on the front prim by 50%....a better orange, i think is achieved.......if you then make the back prim fullbright......well... I would be interested to hear what you think...:))

This is more akin to using prims as stained glass, and letting the light shine thro them.

More than 50% of your colour choices are in the green/cyan/blue range as the spectrum is weighted that way. This is another reason why the browns are so poor in SL, and, in my mind, a good reason to avoid them.

:))

Sunday 11 January 2009

Lalalala Gallery,



Well, the opening day arrives and there is a bit of a buzz cos quite a few people have popped in already, to avoid the lag, which is not a bad idea at all given the puters some of us have to live with..:))

People have been very kind with their comments and I am quite excited, tho slightly nervous at the prospect of giving a talk at 1pm..... if I say anything interesting, I will blog it for those that miss the talk. Probably, tho, my regular readers will know a little about me, so if you cant make it.....you wont miss much..:))))

I have to mention Charlot Dickens, an old friend who has managed to tame her RL enough to be seen again in SL....welcome back.....AND my good friend and trusty neighbour on Lifstaen, Izabella, who I have seen after a break of many months where her RL employees have been working her too hard.

and Avalon, a new friend..... mmmm.... nice to have new friends...:))

:))

Friday 9 January 2009

Lalalala Gallery, Avendale



Yes, the time has come....well, almost.... my show is starting this Sunday and I will be giving a talk at 1pm SLT.

at 2pm there will be music. Phoe Nix will be singing and playing piano... so catch that too if you can.



When you arrive, you arrive at the Town Square. You will have to wait a bit til the signpost rezzzes..........then click on Lalalala gallery.

Its not at all uncommon for there to be these central tp points, mainly, i assume so that someone can count numbers (traffic) which is all very logical and scientific....weigh, measure, record..... good old fashioned Victorian cataloguing....
But.....to illustrate the nonsense of it...a lady asked me if I would like to show at her gallery....she had traffic of 8500 and something.....I laughed out loud.
Bots dont buy art.
And this whole incident just reinforces my previous posts about bots. They ARE spin, traffic spin.
So the inconvenience caused to people like you and me at places like Orange, Caerleon, and many other with central tp points is pure sillyness..... traffic is really the most useless piece of information going at the current time.

I want to tp where ever I like . Thats one of the joys of SL.

:))

Thursday 8 January 2009

New NPIRL girl....




Wizard Gynoid is the latest member of NPIRL, and very welcome she is too. Wizzy is apart from other talents a very good creator of geometrical shapes, the E8 being her most famous, and intricate. Sadly no longer eating prims at Rezzable, she is hatching a new build for Caerleon....watch this space.


NWN also picked up on my observation that the stats for SL were temporarily disabled, as I mentioned in a previous post, 28000 sims, and have provided a link to a map of the entire grid just further reinforcing the diluting effect this massive land production has on life and business in SL. I cant even recognise where i live from this. EEEk.

The day after I posted the suggestion that some of the 5.5million US$ they take as tier each month should be used on advertising, they sent me a Resident Survey to ask if I recommend SL to friends....well,.... excuse me...but that is surely your job, and not mine !!

:))

Monday 5 January 2009

Image



Well, both Botgirl and NPIRL have articles today about art, and I am not gonna add to the general discussion, cos its one of those things, like love, that have already had enough words written about them, although I did comment on botgirls piece. I have bored my regular readers enough with my definition of art.

More interesting for me at the moment is to decide which image to have on my Profile.... its the start of a downward slope if one image is meant to depict you more, or better, than another. Seems like a good idea when you first come to SL, but theres RL thinking behind it.
In RL you cant be a fairy one day and dragon the next.
so.... I have to decide (metaphorically speaking) whether I am more dragon or fairy, or, more accurately speaking, how I would like to present myself to my peers.

I think that, eventually, a series of profile photos of the same person, over the months/years, will be like a biography, a detailed account of how one person would like to be seen.

Men, in SL at least, seem to change their clothes seldom, well, thats my experience anyway, and people who build a lot, like me at times, have more pressing demands on their SL time than to be messing around with their invents.
If you have a major piece of work, like a dragon, or just an avi you like a lot, then obviously you stick with it, you feel comfortable with it: it seems to say something about one part of your personality.

The reason I said its the start of a downhill slope to decide on one image is that its a shame to stop investigating other parts of your unconscious by settling on one SL "personna".

Thank god for alts.....

:)))

:))))

Saturday 3 January 2009

28,000 sims

Yes, thats what i worked it out at, tho the economic data was temporarily, maybe still is, suspended......
28000 sims....and about 77,000 max online, minus 20% bots...... 63,000 residents on 28,000 sims.....
its no wonder it feels like a ghost town/world out there.

....now some of that 5.5 Million US$ monthly tier could surely go on a bit of advertising to get some people in to fill up the place, but that is not really a problem for LL. Their bank balance increases the more land they make... the sound of virtual tumbleweed doesnt worry them, I would think. Unless they sob all the way to the bank. ...:)))

But it is all a bit short-sighted again of them, really, and I know some of that money does get re-invested, but...... come on guys, sort it out. As I wrote before.....rising land prices have kept this country going for all the years since we stopped making things to sell... Land in SL is averaging between 1L$ and 2L$ per square meter over the past few months, and that is pretty bad for those that have bought land, good for those that tax it...

blog that I innocently wrote on the 18.3.2008.... 64000 people online....well its not really changed since then, the traffic, unless you think bots are traffic, which I dont, they are a waste of prims.

I doubt, of course, that any of em read this blog, or care....but friends are here to listen to you complain, aren't they...:))) and so.....bigs hugs and kisses to you all for putting up with my funny little moaning...:)))

XXXXXX

My Big Show

My first big show in a gallery starts next week....the 11th January, so put the date in your diary, I can guarantee it will be worth dropping in to. I am nearly there, just a few bits and pieces to touch up. Its looking good.....:))
I will blog and spam you all so that the address and stuff is firmly engraved in your brains..:))




This is NOT one of my trees. In fact, I wouldnt really give it prim-room..... the texture change script changes to give you four different textures for the 4 different seasons, but if all 4 are as bad as this tex, I think its a bad use of 4000L$..... lol.....the most expensive tree I have seen for sale to date.




My friend Caro...:)) ......it was an oversight from my previous post, not to have a photo of her...:))

Other breaking news is.... hmmm....not much really.... I am making a special prim for a competition at Caerleon for a One_Prim Wonder.... contact Sabinaa for details. The idea is that you enter just one prim for the competition/show and so I have had the Blender whirring, and now a magnificent tex is called for..... should keep me busy next week..

New Years resolution that I always make, and keep, is to never make New Years resolutions....it works for me....every year.


:)))

Thursday 1 January 2009

Tom Foolery





Start the new year with a new look......

Put these first few items for sale in the shop....:))

Get em while they are hot !!!


:)))

stat