A weeks bits and pieces.

The Inworldz photo competition was one of the first things I popped along to this week.



..and this piece by Us Vemo caught my eye. The show is at Alinja and there is the possibility of voting for your favourite piece.




Nyx Breen's Chrysler Building is an impressive piece of building, the inside being fully 'deco'd' out. The clubroom is amazing..




..and the texture shop which I blogged before has come down to earth..




...and now sits next to the Chrysler., on Sunset Beach, InWorldz.




I did manage to catch the last divorce at Ant Vegas on Monday where "The Aeonia Artist Group presents: “Welcome to Fabulous Ant Vegas” – The Ant-ology". I was very amused ... great fun. It is at Aeonia. Check Ally Aeon's profile for the TP.




Last night I had a dance..




Gingered Alsop was providing the music at a great venue... I didn't have time to ask, but it looked like the builder was Trinny Mizin ... why aren't more dance venues NPIRL? Excellent company and music.

FreeWee has been busy with the UWA and it's just a week left to pop over and cast your vote in the "most popular piece' thingy...
..huge number of artists involved this month. It just grows and grows.

Have a good weekend.

:))

Blogs

Well, now that I’ve blogged more than 1,000 posts I feel I can comment a bit on the whole blogosphere without being out of my depth, not that that stopped me before, as you know.

The first thing that attracted my attention this week was a post by another brainy anthropologist, this time a lady, Rosa Mikeal Martey, an assistant professor of communication at Colorado State. The post from the Denver Post via The Dispatch is similar in attitude to Dusan’s Metanomics Interview (which I have mentioned here before,) though obviously not in such depth. The common thread being that academics have begun to realise what we have been saying for at least two years now, namely, that VW’s are a psychic research laboratory, if you allow them to be.

This links in to one of the few pieces of interest to come out of Hamlet’s declining efforts, namely a survey which I have taken and which I would recommend you do too if you have time, by University of Missouri-Columbia media professor Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, PhD,.. This type of interest in what we do and how we live is far more important in informing others of virtual worlds than any crappy adverts the Boys are gonna put out.

..but I do follow quite a few blogs (see above) and though it is difficult to pick out a few....here goes....

Hamlet’s blog, now that Blue Mars is basically dead, has started getting interested in SL again, trying tirelessly to get Facebook tied to the Viewer...for some reason. It shows, however, how little Hamlet is inworld through his rather uninformed comments and opinions. If you aren’t passionate about VW’s ... why blog about them? Hamlet is very dependent on his Comments, without them I would be even less interested.

Prok’s blog I have tried a couple of times, and a recent post is a good example of why I am not a regular follower... It would seem to me that a post about the way two streams of internet users, those who believe in a free internet and those who are commercially minded would be a good subject for a post. Turn that into a sensationalist pseudo-political ‘war’ as in “The War on the Second Life Economy”, make it three times longer than it needs to be, and you have a post that soon makes me wonder if the end (reading the whole rant) is gonna be rewarded (like by some insight or concise suggestion) or whether I have better stuff to read.

On a positive note ... one blog that makes me spurt coffee though my nose on occasion is Whiskey Shots e.g. here
and....for aspiring bloggers this is one lady we could all learn from...her Tweets are hysterical too....

Miso is one of my fav’s too, totally different style, but never boring.

Nobody does Interesting like Dusan Writer. His blog is an intelligent, well thought-out collection of ideas and suggestions...this from a man who passionately loves virtual worlds and the possibilities of magic they provide.

Tateru Nino is probably the most factual blogpost I follow. Tateru has her finger on the pulse as has forgotten more computer stuff than I will ever know.... and ...

....along with Hypergrid Businesses’ Maria Korolov, help to keep me up to date.


For avatar related psychology and general transworld observations I find Botgirl and Lalo Telling two blogs I wouldn’t miss, and would recommend.

..and the list goes on.... those I haven't mentioned are legion. I read a lot not on this list too... and....my advice , though there must be thousands of ways to write a good blog..

Some people don't blog often, and their posts are the better for it, I think thats a big problem ...blogging when you have nothing to say...
It's kind of obvious...you have to blog about things that interest you, you will find your readers, they will find you.
...and... my personal opinion ... I'm really not keen on adverts...I mean...how much money can you actually earn?? ... peanuts surely....


Luckily my Tweetpeeps keep linking new stuff, so I'll carry on trying to bring you the Good Stuff....however that's defined...

:))

Originalia

"Originalia, Amase Levasseur's sim dedicated to art in SL, will have its grand opening on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 3 pm SLT. The debut exhibit, Reverie, features new installations by Em Larsson, Scottius Polke, RAG Randt and Eliza Wierwight."

Well, you know me, too nosy to wait so I popped along to check it out...





I met the stylish Amase briefly at Scottius' build, great that someone sponsors the arts in SL, especially as the Boys do so little...





Anyway....I started in the Gallery with Rag's humourous offerings, (I loved this one in particular), and then wandered out along the path...which, the further I went, seemed like the best way to see this show... refrain from the temptation of flight or tps...the path is great.




Em is showing a lot of work and it is enjoyable to come upon it in the misty woods, makes a nice change from galleries, and, is very fitting for her work I think.




....ahh the joy of hand made textures..... who could this be??




Well, the house nails the answer to that if you haven't grasped it before. Scottius, Master of Textures, has again created a world of wonder..... the house is quite "Mushroom" but different again...and it has inspired a whole story by Thirza....here.

I had a long chat with Scottius before wandering further along the path .....





....and there I came upon Eliza's place, a build nicely different from the other three, being more architectural and structural.

I took a seat and relaxed. Nice to have a mix of artists showing on a sim without them being pressed into collab hell (sorry...my prejudice) particularly when they are using quite different aspects of the medium in self-styled environments. It all works very well together...

....so book Sunday at 3 in your diaries... it'll be a good event.

Oh yes...it's here.

Enjoy.


:)))

Culture, Art and shadows..

Obviously it is as stupid to make generalisations about the Boys as it is to do so about the Citizens that populate our virtual worlds... but..

..whereas people who feel that avatar existence is pathetic and meaningless, (engaged in by losers), soon stop being citizens and leave SL never to return, I can’t help feeling that employees at the Lab, or some, have an attitude which is tinged by these thoughts.. there have been remarks over the years to support this feeling, so this isn’t pure paranoia.

You have only to listen to Tom Boellstorff on Metanomics (as mentioned before), to realise how important issues of avatar identity are (an issue many of have been struggling with for years) to people who understand how revolutionary this experience is. If everyone at the Lab understood what he is saying, life would change inworld.

It is well worth reading Dusan Writer’s latest blogpost where both the video and a transcript of the video is posted. His assertion that we have a culture, obvious to us, is less so to some Lindens who are excluded from this experience because they are, at best, casual users of their product.

Peter Greenaway accused the Lab "You are endangering a tool that is greater than you", when discussing a censorship issue, and it became very clear to me that, for the most part, they have actually no idea how big virtual worlds are.

Most of them are not visionaries but office slaves, most of us are visionaries, or at least pioneering spirits.

...but certainly virtual worlds are huge compared to the Lab.


In other news.... Happy Rezz Day V2.

Yes, it’s the Sewer Viewer’s Rezz Day. One year ago some foreign geezers stopped work on the darned thing after making a digital scrambled egg of what used to be a UI...

..and the rest is history, or, as the Lab calls it, Release Notes.

It will go down in history as the most unpopular UI ever to have been invented I think, which, is quite an achievement. Whether or not it takes on the status of the iceberg in the Titanic thingy has yet to be seen, but...it’s gotta be somewhat on the same level.

...and...on the 23rd of February 2010...we got the following news...
Announcing the Linden Endowment for the Arts
"In the upcoming months, it is our pleasure to take a more active role in encouraging the arts inside of Second Life. We are excited to announce the creation of a Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) program which will help support, encourage, and highlight Second Life artists and their work. We hope that the collaboration between Linden Lab and the wealth of talented Second Life artists will contribute to a vibrant new chapter for the arts in Second Life.

The Linden Endowment for  the Arts (LEA) program's goal is twofold:
1. To create an immersive space for artists to share their art, build connections, and prosper in the Second Life community
2. To provide a new way for artwork to live on within our ever-changing virtual world. 
While still under design, this program will be a partnership between Linden Lab and Second Life artists, with the additional objective of gathering, displaying, and maintaining art at an inworld Arts Hub. We are currently building the LEA organizing committee, which will include members of the Second Life artist community and Linden Lab employees, to guide the program's management. Under the creative direction, organization and guidance of the LEA committee, we will hold biannual art exhibitions, highlighting the most creative artwork happening inworld.”

...by June (and the mass cull of Boys) I blogged...”I expect to be severely disappointed with the LEA.”.. it’s tricky to know what to say now, a year on....

A year ago I was getting excited about shadows too, but, though there are people who can get them, it is still beyond the scope of my graphix card, it seems...


...and people wonder why I am skeptical about mesh.

:)))

Alizarin camping and other stuff.

Last night saw the opening of Alizarin Goldflake's latest immersive piece....and we all went camping by the light of the fill moon.

It's here....and very much worth a visit. Aliz's delicate handworked textures are always a pleasure and we sat around the campfire and chatted...





The Mysterious Forest is quite a tangle to get into and very atmospheric... that light reminded us all of various camping trips, desert and beach..... *sigh*...





Merlina and I kept the spiders off a snoring Miso....

Full details of the build are here.




I popped over to UWA to deliver a little build for the February Round... and came across this piece by Garnet Trilling... no guesses as to why I was interested...




...and I got mesmerised by Gingered Alsops piece... she has entered the UWA machinima competition with a piece ...here.

...in other news.....

"today the Second Life Forums, Blogs, Knowledge Base and SL Answers are now temporarily in read-only mode. This means that everything housed within the http://blogs.secondlife.com site is available for you to read, but you cannot post comments--or contribute content--until we launch our new community platform"

...now the cynical amongst us will say that it makes no difference anyway as none of the Boys read the stuff we write, or if they do, they ignore it....but not me...(much)... Wow, can I wait til the 2nd March...the excitement is intense .. (more exciting in tents, actually)..

I wrote a well composed and respectful email to the Boys a while back, just telling them how to run their company, but I haven't received a reply as yet. I guess they are all a bit busy.

I'm sure replying to me is at the top of someone's list.

:))

some stuff....

This is an interesting piece which Wizzy alerted me to a couple of days ago...on the subject of IPR...


And Prokofy Tweetlinked this piece which I loved and thought you might too if you haven't seen it....




Cole has done a great video for NWN which you can see here, its of Claudia222 Jewell's place, Parallel Worlds.....

As a last (maybe) piece of stuff about Rod and how to rescue SL, Hypergrid Business has a piece by Maria directed at Rod.



I visited Avination today....and wasn't very impressed...




....spot my problem....

I have never seen such an empty library on any grid I've visited so far..... and I was annoyed that the skin and shape I was in was no mod. Now, I have my own textures which I could upload, and even SpotOn3D have said they will make their Ruth stuff mod after my last rant... but, basically it means you are stuck with the crappy looks you arrived in until you buy stuff...well...you know...you might not want to stay, so why invest??

Don't even know if uploads are free or not...no mentors around, just some free floating wigs.... all speaking german...




If you look crap you certainly won't stay long.... other grids I've been to, I have de-Ruthed in less than 20 mins... here...it looks like a nightmare, or an expense, or both.

.....general feeling....Fail..

:))

Blue Tsuki

The UWA Virtlantis SIM presents Blue Tsuki's "Vessel"...




Now, I just love real "places" in VW's. For me, because of my own particular preferred art form, anywhere that feels unlike anywhere else, anything with a distinctive 'feel' is an achievement.

Blue's ancient circle with the flashing clouds has immediate magic connotations.




It takes no effort to imagine ancient rituals being acted out and it is probably a great place to dance and/or play music. He has tapped into an archetypal form and, as always happens, I believe, when you tap into an archetype you start to touch real places in the soul. Well done say I.





Jayjay has sent me the following link to the new RL book that the UWA are producing to celebrate their Centenary ...and SL is mentioned among the 100 gems from the past 100 years.

It is a testament to their insight that they, the UWA, have put so much time and energy into SL and the Arts. It shows a courageous and bold initiative to move along with technology and, more than this, to become a leader in a field they didn't set out to lead, namely the Arts.

I have no doubt that the recognition they deserve will continue to come to them from both virtual and "real' world sources, they have been positive and inspiring on an almost heroic level when others (e.g. the Lab) have done absolutely nothing to promote and foster artistic endeavour.

Hurrah for the University of Western Australia.!!... and Happy 100th Rezzday.

:)))

Ub Yifu

Ub Yifu, a well-known and respected builder from SL has a sim of amazing stuff which opened last night at Alexanderia in InWorldz.

For those who are regularly in InWorldz this is probably no surprise, but for those that visit infrequently I would thoroughly recommend a visit.

The sim is one that Jeri Rahja sponsors, and, in addition, she is sponsoring a Machinima Contest, and am going to be one of the judges.




... details...

Gulliver Contest

1) The contest begins on 2/18 and all submissions must be in by 3/25/11 - the Machinima must be posted on u-tube to be seen and the information of the Machinima must be sent to the Sitting Judges - so they maybe properly viewed. Along with a copy of the Machinima send to Jeri Rahja


2) All Photos must be forward to Jeri Rahja - so they may be properly displayed at the Gulliver Sim - the Photos must be sent Full Perm and will become the property of the Gulliver Property but will never be sold or distributed - except for the winning picture - reason for the 10,000L'z prize - as we may use the picture for our use.


3) The Winning Machinima will also become the sole property of Gulliver's Travel's and we may use it for our future advertising - or utilize it as a tool for other means within Gulliver. The prize money will not be paid until a full perm version of the Machinima is release to Jeri Rahja with a notecard from the creator that any and all rights of the Machinima belong to Jeri Rahja and or Gulliver's Travels.

4) There is no limit as to how many photos or Machinima's one person may enter

5) There are only 2 winners in this contest


First Prize Machinima 30,000 L'zs First Prize Photo 10,000 L'zs


Judges are as follows: Ub Yifu, Saffia Widdershins, Nazz Lane, Mera Kranfel, Tricia Aferdita, Tranquillity Dexler, Copan Falta & Soror Nishi


....and pop over for a visit. Live music events are being held there as I write.....

:))))

Best and Worst of the Week, bored with Rod.

Well, I have read every word, I think, of the various interviews with Rodvik and have not really changed my mind from the opinions I expressed in my previous post.

Worst of the Week first, like in the bad news/good news scenario....

I was amazed at Hamlet’s reply to the question about what he thought would be the best “First Fix’.

The exact wording is... “At the end of our conversation, Rod Humble asked me what I thought the best first fix to Second Life should be. I said: Facebook integration with a cloud-deployed version of SL with single point-and-click avatar movement.”

Now, because..... apart from the fact that real users are screaming for Chat and Search to be sorted out, and that cloud-deployed (presumably browser-based is what is meant here) viewer would be a disaster, (If anyone thinks that visiting Second Life on their mobile phone will be an attractive offer... wait til you find out what your phone company is gonna charge you..)

.. and that point and click is already available.... this single sentence is probably the worst I read recently.... and I haven’t even bothered to mention the Facebook thing.... told you I was bored.

But, dress me up in a giant condom if I don’t know the usefulness of a bit of media coverage... and Rodvik has done well. Even the Kiss a Linden day where SaveMe was left alone with an afk Blondin AKA victim (obviously inexperienced) was a relatively positive PR stunt. Though SaveMe had bigger fish to fry... (probably my Most Amusing Hour of the Week)...



The thing is, that the one thing Rodvik could do, immediately, like today, is to adjust the inbalance between SL and InWorldz, for example and redress the following....

In SL the smallest prim is 0.01 x 0.01x 0.01m, in IWz it's 0.001x 0.001x 0.001m

In SL you can hollow out a prim 95%, in IWz it's 99%.

In SL the largest prim is 10x10x10m, in IWz it's 128x128x128m (256x256x256 if you use the Impudence viewer.)

In SL you can link prims upto 32 meters apart, in IWz you can link upto 256 meters apart.

...and you can link thousands of prims in IWz, in SL it's 256 prims.

in SL a mainland prim costs 13 cents per month, in IWz a mainland prim costs 2 cents per month.

Well, maybe not the tier, that’s never gonna change.... except upwards.

...and while he’s at it...what about a couple of very useful extra buttons on my Viewer...




That would be a good weeks work, he can copy and paste the code from OS...and...as bored as I am with Rodvik, .. this would prove that he really is interested in improving our ability to create.... and stop people writing (I think I will scream next time I read) “acta non verba’.

Now, staying with the Cloud illusion, or rather the opposite, brings me to my Best of the Week... which is news about the home server...

The New York Times reports on The Freedom Box, which points to a future where we will all have our own servers rather than pay good money to some server farm in Silicon Valley.

This, together with Tor and similar projects (which would bypass government censorship and controls) would lead me to believe that the future will see us being able to become more independent, rather than less.

As I have read, also, recently, that steps are being made to make OpenSim Hypergating less a pirates paradise, in that stealing stuff from grids will be hampered by software under development... well...it all points to more freedom and less dependence.

....from The Metaverse Journal...

“TMJ: We don’t want this to be entirely one-sided. What are we – as users and customers – not asking you about that you’d nevertheless like us to hear?

[Rod replies] "I will read the comments to this interview, what I would most like to know is this: In 2 years time what would you most like to be doing in Second Life, and how would you like to be doing it? The answers to that question would be very helpful indeed.”

...but the obvious answer is... (from me, anyway...)

Well, Rod, unless you and the Boys get it sorted and do it properly ... I won't be doing anything in SL, I'll have my 16 sims hyperlinked to OpenSim.... at zero Tier...


:)))

The Resident and the Company.

The recent scandal concerning the use of smear campaigns by the combined forces of government and big business only go to highlight the question of who runs the White House. This is not how voters like to think a democratic country is run, but, on more than one level voters are just consumers and the Government wants paying, with taxes and votes, for providing a service.

Similarly, when we are reminded that the Lab is just a company that wants paying for its services, it feels uncomfortable.

Now, no matter how illusory the RL voting system is, i.e. money buys the Presidency, it is preferable to believe that the electorate has a say.

No matter how illusory the JIRA voting system was, some believed it was a vestige of democracy.

We are called, and now named, Resident. Not Customer. The Company is not one providing breakfast cereal, it has created the space for a Colony, a Colony of Residents.

Residents like to vote. Well, actually we would like more than that, really. We would like to be able to express an opinion to those that have the power to make changes. It doesn’t happen, but, it should.

User Groups, like focus groups, will only ever be asked which colour packaging it prefers. With JIRAs you could vote on whether the highways should be repaired, or the street lights, or on the colour of the Town Halls curtains.... but it was all we had.

...and rants. Rants, recently criticised, are like Speaker’s Corner, a site in London where you can go, set up a soap box and explain how the country should be run.... like newspaper editorials for the poor and powerless. A noble tradition somewhat superseded by this medium.

The Elephant In The Room, however, is Governance. This is a Company, but it is a Colony too. I am a user, I am a resident too (even tho I hate that world....maybe Settler is better).

I want to have my say, and, though it may sound presumptuous, the future of virtual worlds is dependent on us finding a workable solution to this. This is the future, now. .... and it needs improving.

Banning people with strong emotions and a poor grasp of diplomatic language from Linden forums and blogs will not be of benefit to anyone. Office Hours have an important social function, they are not only Working Groups, they are the chance for Settlers to meet The Company.

One thing, and one thing only, I would like to write on the boardroom wall at the Lab ... “Your fiercest critics, whiners, and complainers ALL want exactly the same as you, The Company... for SL to succeed.”

So.... Labor Unions, Trade Unions, small towns and villages around the world adopt a similar model.. they elect Representatives to meet with the Company to express their point of view, ask their questions, make their complaints, suggestions... with an Aim, if both sides are not dumb fools, to Improve the Future.

I would like to promote this as an idea, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

:))

An offer I can't refuse

OK...I would love to.

How?

Do these people speak english as a first language?

Become my avatar? Really? Count me in.

Fools.

:))

The Culture of Creative Content

We all know how easy it is to fall in love... and this can happen without any logic, at a distance, with little real information.

Philip was heralded as the New Messiah, it seems only recently, and our hopes and dreams were projected onto his shoulders. Fast, Easy, Fun was not derided as a pile of manure, but heralded as a new insight into the way SL should market itself to people too stupid to download a viewer.

So, obviously, as my memory is longer than some peoples, it seems, I am not gonna be subjecting Rodvik to my transference, knowing how illusory words have become and knowing that the president of a company or a country may still be the glove-puppet of the Bean Counters.

Notwithstanding, however, it is encouraging when your eyes meet across a crowded room, and a stranger speaks some sweet words, like...
“I don’t want to get all geeky about it, but I sort of see this day coming when there’s a formalization of identity that happens. We haven’t had the tools before to formalize our broken up bits of identity.”

Sounds good to me... someone who sees the value of privacy being determined by the user.

Likewise when he extolls the virtues of Content Creation, the gods know how often I’ve talked about the need to improve tools (the sooner the better).... however...

We have had promises before, and the recent offering from the Lab, the terrible “Improving Lines of Communication with The Community” ... (here) .. is both badly written with poor english and poorer ‘feel’ ( as commented on by Tateru...here).. and seems to me to point to the Great Improvement being “Do It Yourself”. By this I mean it looks like yet another job which the Boys should be doing is being farmed out to us.

Instead of customer support.... just ask another ‘resident’ ... use the Forum, use SL Answers, or the email lists... (here).....I read this as saying....”the less we have to do with you lot, the easier or lives will be”.

Which brings me round to Content Creation, and that great new aim of Rodvik to improve life for builders, so we can continue to make a great new world. ...User Groups... (here)... now am I stupid, or blind? It looks to me like there is no User Group dedicated to Builders, Content Creators or Artists..... and on the email list I am having the same problem.... erm.... maybe I missed it. Or, maybe, like the Artists Endowment to the Lindens, it’s still in a development stage (is it over a year ago that was announced??)...

So, I’m not falling in love with Rodvik just yet, though I have heard from an employee that he is very popular at the Lab too. I guess it’s that english accent (girls swoon) and the interest in Soccer (guys bond). If he wants me to go weak at the knees though...I’ll be wanting a few new tools.

A very good post on this whole subject I thought, comes from the talented pen of Lalo. As usual an insightful realisation, namely that whereas it took visionaries to build this space platform we call SL, it is now the colonists that run and control its future.

The culture we have built and the environment we have created is a tough one. We have regularly been disappointed, disillusioned and dis-spirited by the messages emanating from Planet Linden. They have sent malfunctioning software, idle spin, and increased taxation to us as we orbit Earth in this flimsy craft.

Adversity has tied us close together.
Having no Communication with those in control has tied us close too.
We know how it is to live here, we know what we need, and while we may be wooed by soft words, we have become a group who will need a bit of convincing.

So..me... I’m still waiting to see something useful come out of the Lab.

:)))

Party at Kelly Yap's Gallery

Went to a great party last night on Kelly Yap's roof.... Eifachfilm was the DJ, and I had done the planting....

...but like any good party it was the people that made it....

I got some photos inbetween crashing and taking my first machinima.


























Apologies to those I didn't get.... you may be on the Machinima...below....

I word of warning though...it is my first attempt at a machinima, so it is pretty poor....

The Artist side of me wanted to put it in the bin.... but the blogger side of me thinks its good to show first attempts, after all, if there's one thing that is certain, it is that we have all improved our skill levels over the past year/s, and looking back at how crap we were when we started is a nice thing to do...soo..

It.s published here, without any music....still don't know about copyright etc... so...play something on iTunes while you watch... or whatever.

Eifachfilm provided us with a steady mix of upbeat toons last night that kept us all hopping....





On a technical note, I used ScreenFlow software, which I have only mastered the very basics of, as you can see. It is relatively cheap as far as editing software goes, with, currently, some of the worst tutorials available. The UI is very much like iMovie, which, in future I will use to improve stuff before I subject you to it.

My Space Navigator still hasn't been fully accepted by the viewers, but that is apparently not my fault as other people have the same problem. It works well as a tool, I just need to unplug and reconnect occasionally on login.

Now...all I need is a plan and a bit more skill...

...and..practice makes perfect, they say....

We'll have to see about that.

Thanks to Kelly Yap for a great time...and there is a whole bunch of great art on the floors below my psychodelic build which need more time and a gentle viewing... I will return..

:)))

TheAlyonaShow

This needed posting.... (thanks to Jim Tarber for the tweetlink)

:))

Satisfaction

“I wasn’t born to be satisfied” is a line from a song which stays with me... I like it as a contrast to the mantra my mum used to deliver regularly as I was growing up “the most important thing in life is to be happy”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am quite content that I am more often dissatisfied than happy. I am content a lot of the time.

More than one artistic soul over the past month has expressed the anxiety that comes from a sort of ‘block’, a period of emptiness, uninspired apathy, that I normally term as post-natal depression.

Letting that panic subside will normally allow a glimpse of the general dissatisfaction that I am referring to. It is the seed bed of the Muse.

Without ennui we would never get off our butts to amuse ourselves and without a certain desire to improve our situation or environment nothing would change.

The constant pressure that artists and content creators can feel to produce a never ending string of masterpieces .... of this I have written previously... here...... and on days when Botgirl’s “Church of the Blank Page” echoes with the chill wind of lethargy whistling through the empty architecture, well, go get a coffee and do something different.

Scottius and I were talking recently about just this subject. Lunaria was such a major piece of work, as any sim-wide build obviously is...I mean, 15000 prims don’t rezz themselves, that he is taking time out RL to make some concrete pieces (not in concrete).
...and I am starting to assemble small sketch-like installations which will all come together in April when I do a sim at UWA.

One of these pieces, a half-way sketch, is opening tomorrow at Kelly Yaps Gallery, on the roof. It is a small installation with elements of my previous work and a flavour of my future UWA sim. ... best at midnight...


The details are...

“New Works at Kelly Yap Newcomer's and Friends Gallery!

Come see the works of Louly Loon, Corcosman Voom, RAG Randt, Trill Zapatero, Miso Susanowa, Tallulah Winterwolf and soror Nishi!

DAY-GLO Opening Party
Saturday, February 12 at 2PM SL time
DJ Eifachfilm Vacirca

Dress up Bright and Dance among the Rooftop Forest of Soror Nishi!

Prizes for the Brightest, the Strangest and the Most Cosmic!”

So...get yourselves over there, that’s a bunch of good artists to see in one place.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Healy/163/26/122

Have a good weekend.

:))

Chat across grids...

Well, Wizzy wasn't the only person who wanted to know where to find me as I hopped from grid to grid, but it was Wizzy who found this device called Radionne...

It's like a cross between a walkie talkie and CB Radio. ... it works between grids, and its free on Marketplace....here.



Until yesterday it didn't work for InWorldz....but.... Wizzy tracked down Vadrouille Zepp who popped over to InWorldz, did some clever scripty stuff...and...hey presto! it now works there too.




You wear it...then touch it to get this HUD up




Click which grids you want to hear from...or...ALL....



Click language to select if you want it in all languages or only want to speak to Italians...or whatever...or...ALL



...and I haven't played with ringtones yet...but then I never do...

then....type /22 and whatever message message message..etc. that then gets broadcast to whoever is wearing one at the time... appearing in your CHAT..... thus..

[5:32] Radionne: [ SL ] »en» ☻ soror Nishi ► soror... hello ◄
[5:33] Radionne: [ SL ] »fr» ☻ kiarha Kira ► hello soror ^^ ◄
[5:33] Radionne: [ SL ] »en» ☻ soror Nishi ► hello ◄
[5:34] Radionne: [IWZ] »fr» ☻ soror Nishi ► wonderful ◄
[5:34] Radionne: [ CW ] »en» ☻ Tan Quan ► hi sorror ◄
[5:35] Radionne: [ SL ] »fr» ☻ Vadrouille Zepp ► heloo soror ◄
[5:36] Radionne: [IWZ] »fr» ☻ soror Nishi ► what a great machine, Hi Tan ◄ [[I'm in 2 grids at the same time]]
[5:36] Radionne: [ CW ] »en» ☻ Tan Quan ► sorry have to go now sorror .. enjoy your day ◄
[5:36] Radionne: [ SL ] »en» ☻ soror Nishi ► byee Tan ◄

so...thats a threeway chat between SL, CW (Craft) and IWZ ....neat hey??

Get one if you are a Transworlder...v useful.

Thanks Vadrouille.

:))

Nyx Breen and Caren McCaw

A number of you will know Nyx from his builds at UWA where he walked away with more than his fair share of awards for his amazing builds.

What you might not know is how busy he has been in InWorldz.



High above his sim at Sunset Beach he is, in his spare time (which is limited) he is putting together a very interesting Art Deco influenced steel structure...




His spare time is limited as he is also, apart from his day job, building the Chrysler Building and 6 sims of New York style brownstones...




Luckily for the rest of InWorldz his shop, which he has put together with Caren is full of the most amazing textures for sale.




This really constitutes the most amazing asset for Iwz builders ... I haven't seen anything so impressive for a long time..




I lost track of how many floors, 3 I think, but I did see the basement where there are freebies and group gifts for those that don't need a huge selection of stuff.

A lot of his textures are from the old areas of Boston where Nyx wanders during his lunch hour, camera in hand, eyes peeled for something special. These are not simply stuff dragged over from SL, but new and exclusive to Iwz.

The result is a labour of love that will be of benefit to InWorlderz for many years to come, and just another thing to attract the very best builders to this grid.

You can find the LM on Caren or Nyx's profile and pop over for a little something special.

:))