Looker Lumet

Some thoughts.....

2010-07-08T15:14:00.002+02:00

I have not been writing since a long, long time now, but had suddenly the need to write something after reading Summer’s thoughts. It is not an answer to her article, nor is it a claim of wisdom. It is just what I feel, while being on the grid for more then three years now.

While some people try to compare life with beaches and waves (article of Summer W.), which are coming and going, life is most of all an experience of successive events. Good and bad ones.

Although life seems to be a stacking of negative experiences, these events should be turned into positive experiences which could be used in future events.

In Second Life, events are following each other at high speed, even not realistic in normal RL, and people are emotionally involved, because it is not the avatar who is responding but the person behind the keyboard. It is sometimes very difficult to even process all these happenings, and at the end, people have the tendency to get a moment of depressiveness, where , originally, they started in SL to step out of their RL and have fun in another, virtual, life. Meeting other cultures, other nationalities were the challenges of the new world, but are also increasing the chances of being misunderstood, due to misinterpretations, which can cause frustrations.

These frustrations are the result of trying to communicate in a different language, which, although you can have a great skill, been written with certain proverbs, and not understood properly.

It is the truth that, once something is written, the other person will read it and understand it with his knowledge of the language, which is not always his mother language, and in most cases, even not of the writer either. And there you are…..left with some words, no expression of the face, no gesture language, just words, written in a moment of unknown mood.

The art is, trying to comprehend the other person, not to upset anybody, reacting as a mature person and relativate all events in SL.

Sometimes, the best way to find a solution is on your own, not involving third parties, because other minds, other thoughts can make it all worse instead of better.

Kahlan Bingyi and Adianna Price at the Avatrait Gallery

2010-05-02T20:11:00.006+02:00

We are proud to have the amazing art of Kahlan Bingyi and Adianna Price at the Avatrait Gallery. I am glad I could persuade them to make 10 original art pieces for this event.

We are also glad to inform everybody that we have changed the concept of the gallery. Every original art piece can be bought multiple times inworld, at very interesting prices. You will only be able to buy this piece at the Avatrait Gallery. It is exclusively made for the gallery.

By buying a piece of art at the gallery, you support in fact the artist, and give him a sign of appreciation, and that is where they all have been working for: appreciation of their work.
All profits are for the artist only.

You can visit the gallery here.

The Avatrait Gallery will have a new show at a new location!!

2010-04-06T10:02:00.007+02:00

The Avatrait Gallery has moved several times over the past year to find a good location. Several friends of the gallery have offered their land for a temporary settlement.
The past location was perfect, if it wasn't for the limitation of the visitors. I doubted a long time, because it was only needed for a couple of hours per month, but finally decided to move again.
Naima Rejkus, known from the DBL gallery, has offered her land to be the new home for the Avatrait Gallery. This will not mean that the DBL gallery will disappear, on the contrary.
It will open again in the near future, and a s a neighbour of the Avatrait Gallery.

Naima Rejkus will be the PR manager of the Avatrait Gallery in the future, and, just like the past show, we will have machinima at the gallery. The set up of this machinima event will be done by the Media Techs of the Avatrait Gallery, Veronika Garzo and Bulli Shumann from TEKSTUFF.
In the month of April, there will be no machinima event, because of the change of settings by "youtube", but we will have the nicest videos of SL again in May.

For the April show, the Avatrait Gallery is proud to present five artists.
Ariel Brearly, Mariella Tammas, Djibu Fabre, WhoFliesLikeTheWind Writer, known as "Wind", and Babe Topaz will show each of them four originals, never shown inworld or on any other site.

The Avatrait Management will be glad to welcome you on Saturday, April 10th 2010 at 1PM SLT at the new location.

The Other Life at the Avatrait Gallery

2010-03-02T10:01:00.007+01:00

On Saturday, March 6th, Ahmad "Don" Hosho will be featuring at the Avatrait Gallery. The concept of this show will be heard through the music of Tasty Hax, especially for this show.
He made 10 original pieces for "The Other Life", a show that will explain his and our other life to you.

For the first time, we will also have a special machinima event, with the contribution of Rysan Fall and Hadji Ling, two talented machinima makers. This set up of machinima was possible with the help of Veronika Garzo from TEKSTUFF, who made some efforts for this show.

These machinima will not only be a visual spectacle, but will have audio too.

Visit the gallery here.

Four Artists, Four Styles at the Avatrait Gallery

2010-02-01T10:35:00.005+01:00

After the successful show of Nessy Shepherd in January, the Avatrait Gallery has now invited four artists who make interesting works.
Nevery Lorakeet, Meilo Minotaur, Theoretical Afterthought and J. Blüü have made each four works in their very own style. The combination of these different styles makes this show so special.
After having the gallery on different places for the past year, we hope that we now found a place where we can stay for a long time. It was Tymmerie Thorne and Jerremy Darwin who were so kind to make some space on their sim Ghambt. We could build the whole gallery back again in all his pride, so the work of Prad Prathivi, who built the gallery, and which is a unique building inworld, is still intact.

The gallery will be open on Saturday, February 6th at 1 PM SLT.

Visit the gallery here.

Nessy Shepherd at the Avatrait Gallery

2009-12-30T13:51:00.005+01:00

The Avatrait Gallery starts the brand new year with a show of Nessy Shepherd.

She isn't new in Second Life, she doesn't need an introduction.
Looking through her flickrstream you can see she handles a lot of styles. She loves fantasy and classic, but also modern and surreal.

This artist has prepared some post processed images but also pure snapshots from the grid.

Like always we will have a party to celebrate the opening of the show.

Don't miss this event, exceptionally it will start on a Sunday at 1 Pm SLT on a new location.

See you on Sunday,

Looker Lumet
Avatrait Manager

PS. Thanks to Metapartners we could build up the gallery on their sim for this show.

Season's Greetings

2009-12-20T12:50:00.000+01:00

Panteleimon Aeon at the Avatrait Gallery

2009-11-06T08:57:00.003+01:00

On Saturday, November 7th, Panteleimon Aeon will open his exhibition at the Avatrait Gallery.
The show starts at 1 pm SLT and will be followed by a party as usual, with the fantastic dj Vivienne Dufaux.

Ten original works and ten of his most beautiful art works will be displayed on the Smilla sim.

Last month we had to set up the gallery temporarily at a different sim, but now we are back on Smilla, the sim where the gallery was located since August.
We have put a teleporter at the entrance of the gallery, so that visitors can visit the "Paradise" and the "skyhub", two places which are worthwhile to see.

Visit the gallery inworld!

Etereal Ghost wins the CW Studio Halloween Photo contest

2009-10-31T17:32:00.003+01:00

I am proud to inform that this picture has won the first price in the CW Studio Halloween Photo Contest 2009.

It is not always easy to find the right inspiration for pictures, but I am happy with this result.
I truly appreciate the comment written on their blog.

"The use of a transparent layer is breath taking when done right!
The soft ghost against the dark night is what made this image our winner.

I loved the lighting contrast and attention to detail."

Find me on the Windows® 7 Wall

2009-10-05T15:13:00.003+02:00

Click on the picture.

Rebeca Bashly at the Avatrait Gallery

2009-09-28T00:40:00.004+02:00

Next saturday, October the 3rd, Rebeca Bashly will be featured at the Avatrait Gallery. The show will be on for the whole month, but if I were you, I wouldn't miss the opening party for a dime.

Rebeca isn't an Avatrait member, but was a co winner for the May show, where she could exhibit her winning piece. It was at that show that she impressed the Avatrait board and they asked her to do a personal show for the gallery, which she gladly accepted. She made 20 new originals for this show, and I can say that they are really amazing.

I tried to put her soul in the poster. Don't miss this event!!
Dj will be Lucifer Hammerer

Saturday , October, 3rd
1- 4 PM SLT
Smilla 31/191/3501

TOTAL FUSION presents the Singles Mix&Mingle Hunt 2009 (Sponsored by metaLIFE) metaLIFE Website Launch Party

2009-09-28T00:03:00.004+02:00

September 25th, 2009 -- Total Fusion -- will be launching the metaLIFE website (http://meta-life.net) on Sept. 27th, 2009 which will be hosted at Luck Inc. sim by CK Winx & friends in the relocated TuneZ Club belonging to LeChuck Reifsnider. The party starts at 12.00pm slt & the music alone is reason enough to attend, but the $70,000L in cash and designer goodies doesn't sound too bad either. This marks the highly anticipated kick off of Total Fusion's 120+ designer grid-wide Singles Mix&Mingle 2009 Hunt. These red carpet events have a high probability of SLebrity sightings, so don't miss your chance to party with the in-crowd. In true Total Fusion tradition, expect to keep your pimped out pixels in motion with 3 amazing DJ performances & a special guest set by real life superstar MixMaster DJ Nano2Hype [Visit: http://www.MySpace.com/Nano2Hype].

On November 1st, 2009 closing festivities will be held at >>>TOUCH<<< href="http://meta-life.net/">http://meta-life.net) or contact Robbie Kiama or Pauly Richez in-world.

Total Fusion
MetaMarketing & MetaBranding Services
Eris Alexandre
email: TotalFusionSL@gmail.com
blog : http://totalfusionvip.wordpress.com

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Sunday, September 27th
Total Fusion Party @ TuneZ (Luck Inc.)
LM: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Luck%20Inc/134/111/503 or SLURL:
DJ LINE-UP:
12pm to 2pm • CK Winx | Germany [Visit: https://luckinc.wordpress.com/]
02pm to 4pm • Eris Ashdene | USA [Visit: http://totalfusionvip.wordpress. 04pm to 6pm • Nano2Hype Kidd | USA [Visit: http://www.MySpace.com/Nano2Hype]

Sunday November 1st,
Total Fusion Party @ >>>TOUCH<<< href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Touch/204/223/23">http://slurl.com/secondlife/Touch/204/223/23
DJ LINE-UP:
12pm to 2pm • CK Winx | Germany [Visit: https://luckinc.wordpress.com/]
02pm to 4pm • Eris Ashdene | USA [Visit: http://totalfusionvip.wordpress.com]
04pm to 6pm • Analogue Voom | USA

PRIZE DETAILS
$20,000L from metaLIFE in Shopping Vouchers (Robbie Kiama)
$20,000L from LUCK INC. in Cash (CK Winx)
$20,000L from THE LOFT "The Wisteria" Pre-Fab (Bethany Heart)
$18,000L from AM PRO in Vehicle Vouchers (Abacus Mimistrobell)
$17,500L from APHOTIC GLOOM in Goodies (Rico Plisskin)
$ 9,000L from XR SKINS in Gift Certs (Mystical Demina)
$ 6,000L from !be DESIGNS in Gift Certs (Diamond Shelford)
$ 6,000L from ASD Gift Cert (Alicia Stella)
$ 6,000L from DIESEL WORKS (Rogan Diesel)
$ 6,000L from MALIBU DESIGN in Gift Certs (Chelsea Malibu)
$ 3,500L from URBANITY in Gift Certs (Trixie Wuyts)
$ 3,000L from NAYAR in Gift Certs (Kaz Nayer)
$ 2,000L from VON DUCKY in Skins (Maylee Nishi)
$ 1,200L from MSTYLE in Goodies (Mikee Mokeev)
& More :)

MIX&MINGLE 2009 STARTING LOCATION: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Luck%20Inc/75/132/22

Are SL Artists becoming scarce?

2009-09-01T13:15:00.002+02:00

I was reading an article, actually more a message, yesterday, about Second Life art, and more in particular the art of images. It seems that there are some people who believe the making of art works in Sl is over. People wouldn’t be interested anymore in making images in the virtual world. Instead of that, they look for other challenges as building, scripting, machinima, shops or whatever they think about what would give them more satisfaction than making art images.

My opinion is, that maybe there are less photographers inworld interested to make beautiful pieces, but….to me…it is only a natural change of interest. The “few” that will be left, will be the ones that are motivated to work on images and will try to maintain the quality of their images as high as possible. Others, with maybe more skills and talent, eventually will find their way in building or other activities. It is not always because you have the skills, that you are meant to be an image maker, and perfectly understandable to look for other challenges.

But there are exceptions. People whose life has always been about photography and who want to improve their skills in Photoshop or another post processing program will eventually stick to the pictures enhancements. SL is an ideal platform to take pictures and try out all the tools in your photo program. It is a world that is not comparable, as you can choose which background, which scene, which pose, which angle…etc….what you can not do so easy in RL

I won’t call myself an artist, but since I have registered myself at SL, I have been using the opportunities in the virtual world to enhance my skills in Photoshop. I wasn’t familiar with the program at all at the beginning, and, although I am not posting as much images as in the beginning, I still have fun by surfin’ the net for tutorials or images which I can use to process my pictures. And I see others improving too, and that makes me happy.

We do see a slight change though, and that is that more and more avatars use RL pictures to blend with SL pictures, but as long as the main object is from inworld, I don’t think it would ruin the appreciation of the majority, as being SL images.

I hope I am not alone with my view on this matter, and that we still will have quality SL pictures in flickr and inworld.

Sebcaen Ulysses at the Avatrait Gallery

2009-09-01T08:25:00.002+02:00

On saturday September 5th Sebcaen Ulysses will open his exhibition at the Avatrait gallery. Over the past years we could already see on flickr what Seb was able to, but now he made several magnificent pictures, never seen before, not inworld, not anywhere else. The gallery will show originals as well as his best artworks over the past.

Beware of the new location!!!
slurl.com/secondlife/Smilla/31/191/3501

Avatrait Gallery on the move

2009-08-28T10:27:00.003+02:00

After 3 shows at Kapako, the Avatrait Gallery will move again to another sim.
We were lucky that Mecca Merosi gave us the opportunity to have our shows at her sim, while we were looking for other possibilities.

Finally Coolz0r Courier offered to put the gallery on his sim . Landmarks will be given soon, after our hard work to put the gallery back in his glory.;)

On September 5th, the gallery will be opened with a brand new show of Sebcaen Ulysse's works.

Eventually, for the visitors of the gallery, nothing, or at least not much will change. The gallery stays the same, it is just moved to another sim.

Thank you Mecca, for hosting us these past months, thank you Coolz0r, for giving us this opportunity, and thank you, visitors of the gallery, for your everlasting support.

Flanders' contribution to virtual Art in Second Life

2009-08-28T09:29:00.006+02:00

A friend of mine and "almost" neighbour in RL, Dan Yapungku, one of the teachers of the virtual TLE Educational Network, and also teacher in Arts in RL, opened last Wednesday, August 26th, a festival, together with the help and co-organisator AuraKyo Insoo.

Many coming artists have participated in this show, such as Elizabeth Spieler, Penelope Parx, Franchella Milena, Rozamyndi and Ludo Meri, as a result of their workshops in SL.

RL works of Dan, the maestro himself, are also exhibitioned in the Indie Egg Studio.

Another part of the festival is dedicated to the friends of Dan, with the amazing works of Roodvosje Rosse, SaveMe Oh, Bekas Takaaki , yeuxbleux Noel, Carabella Babii, Artistide Despres, Arnold Jung, Petta Hax & Teaseu Xeno, Igor Ballyhoo, AuraKyo Insoo and ...Looker Lumet.

This is one art show you don't want to miss. Follow the link to visit the R.E.N. festival.

CNN iReport has covered the opening too, you can read the report here.

"Second Life (SL) Art Educator, Dan Yapungku, has revolutionized fine arts instruction using SL’s abundant artworks and SL’s infinite 3-D canvases to empower artists. In a stunning show of artworks featuring a dozen of his colleagues and students."

For the Dutch speaking readers of the blog, they can also read an article, which is more detailed than mine on this site, written by Frans Tomsen, CEO of Metapartners.

"Een Festival ter afsluiting van het eerste gedeelte van het KHLim project, met Daniël als begeleider – coach – kunstenaar, waar studenten lerarenopleiding/kunst, experimenteerden en via kunst-workshops, beide realiteiten in- en uitliepen als waren het kamers waarbij de scheidingswand was weggenomen.

Dit alles met de steun van het Regionaal Expertise Netwerk Vlaanderen (R.E.N Vlaanderen), onder de auspiciën van het Vlaams Ministerie van Onderwijs, Vorming en Tewerkstelling."

aRa Sheridan at the Avatrait Gallery

2009-08-04T13:30:00.005+02:00

Most of the time we see her works in fashion vendors, but now she made some originals for the Avatrait Gallery.

Saturday, August 8th, will be her moment to show her art in the gallery. Never before has a non member been featured at the gallery, but aRa was a logical choice.

In the future there will be more exhibitions of non members, just to give them a chance to be known in the art community as well, as far as that is needed of course. aRa Sheridan is not unknown, but she never had the opportunity to show her works in this environment.

The opening is at 1 PM SLT and the DJ for the evening is Kiki DiVenna.

Fundraiser Event at the Avatrait Gallery

2009-07-08T13:04:00.004+02:00

For the first time in Avatrait's history, there will be an event at the gallery, to support another artist with another art form. There are a lot of avatars making beautiful machinima on SL, but yet, this art form has not been directly supported by Avatrait, as it is difficult to frame a movie.
Nevertheless we want to support those artists too, and accepted the request from Noelani Mahana, to organize a Fundraiser Event for her next project.

You can see some of her previous works on YouTube, here and here.

Noelani Mahana is also a novice writer, and you will be able to find her works on Black Lashed.

"This Summer Mahana Machinima is dusting off the reels and embarking on a new machinima production right here in our beloved Second Life.

To finance this movie project Mahana Machinima is hosting a Fundraiser Event at the marvelous Avatrait Gallery on Saturday the 11th of July 2009 between 1-5 p.m. SLT.

Avatrait Gallery

We are honored to send you this invitation and hope to see you there where the owner of Mahana Machinima, Miss Noelani Mahana, will get more into details about this movie project.

This presentation will be followed by a magnificent show by the sensational DJ, Saturn Ariantho.

On behalf of Mahana Machinima I welcome you.

Noelani Mahana "

The art of Iam Yumako will still be displayed during this event, so don't hesitate to visit us, and enjoy the wonderful art of this artist.

Artist of the Month in Vain INC.

2009-07-04T00:17:00.005+02:00

I was looking at the kiosks at the Avatrait Gallery, and suddenly I saw the cover of Vain INC. And there it was my name, artist of the month. Although it took me some time to go through the pages to find the article and pictures, it was worthwhile.

Iam Yumako @ the Avatrait Gallery

2009-06-29T10:09:00.003+02:00

Come and join us on July 4th to the wonderful DreamWorld of Iam Yumako at the Avatrait Gallery. This artist has prepared some interesting views on the virtual world, from fairytale to futuristic cyberart.
The show starts at 1pm SLT, as usual, and we will have great music from DJLucifer.

Freak Show - GODart - The New Project

2009-06-24T13:13:00.006+02:00

A new project is born. That is the least we can say about the next project from Freak Show. Loglady Loon published all about it on this blog.

Are you ready freaks? This the new project of Freak Show.

"Tell me what is your religion.
Religion is not only a spiritual organization with symbols, beliefs and practices. Religion is linked to Trascendental and Spiritual concepts, and also with the consciousness of the Limit of Human Mind. Who believes in no-one over us, who believes in a Thinking Entity that rules the world, who doesn’t care about the meaning of life, who thinks that Religious Institutions are only a way to control people, joined into the same symbol. Who needs Religion to live better, who entrusts all the life to God. In the name of God history took place; wars, homicides, love, humanity, help, solidarity, lies, power, self-improvement.
Religion defines our culture, traditions, hates; Religion creates rules and liberty; Religion can be destructive or creative.
Tell me in what you believe. Show me your personal concepts of Religion. Do it through SL medium, this blank canvas available for you, in which you can explain your idea with freedom.
I know, it’s another hard theme, full of delicate arguments. No censor as always, everyone can explains own vision of Religion and Faith. And I want to underline that a different thought about Religion is not offensive, but only personal. And we have to respect all different points of view. Cause world is various, and this show wants to link all this concepts together.
So, show me your GODart, the art of God, even if you think he is dead
This will be the first Artistic Showroom about the concept of God. God as faith, God as life, God as hate, God as an Entity or as Caos, God as Nature or as Organization. Your Religion: past, present, future. Utopia, Reality, or only.. Myth."

I can't wait to see what art is shown by some of the greatest artists in Second Life.
If you think you are up to it, go the blogpost and join the IW group.

I have never had a piece in the shows of Freak Show, but I am certainly going to try to submit a work of mine this time. The idea is so general, and yet a theme, that it is possible to go in any direction. Whether you're a believer or not, this theme can be expressed in different ways.

You are hanging on a VERY thin thread

2009-05-29T11:33:00.004+02:00

I was reading some plurks and stumbled on one from Hyang Zhao, who wanted to reset her password for SL, but seemed to have forgotten her security question. Peter Strindberg wrote a blogpost about it.

So, even when you have a premium account with all your private information, credit card numbers, RL name and address, you can not change your password at LL. It must not be easy for Hyang to find support on that matter since she is Russian, and will have to call to the US, which she already did, but without any result so far.

After being on the grid for more than two years, this proves again what you money is worth to LL, what you are worth to them. You're just an avatar, a genuine pig to them. They use your information to improve their game, their business, without thinking of the people who brought them so far as they are now. It is a shame.

I know Hyang is getting support from her friends, but at the end, she will have to clear it with the Lindens. And if they can not help her, she will have to build her personality in SL from scratch, although she is a well known person in the community.

I only can say, beware! You're just a number, an avatar...not a person!

Avatrait Gallery Presents: Giving

2009-05-27T14:47:00.003+02:00

Yes we are still here, still ready to show you some of the best Artistic Digital Impressionism on the grid. Come join us May 30th for the re-opening of one of the coolest gallery builds on the grid.

This will be a multi artist event which also features the top three winners from our May "Giving" art contest.

There is still some work to do, but I am convinced that we can have a fresh new start with this show, don't miss it!!!

The Avatrait Gallery eventually not on the ModaSL sim

2009-05-11T10:07:00.004+02:00

Some doubtful and unsure weeks we have been through.

Several weeks ago we had to reorganize the show of Joshua Morane to the Avatrait Garden, which was in fact a location on Shoshana Epsilon's sim. Our Gallery, which was up from December, had suddenly disappeared, due to technical reasons. In the meanwhile we were looking for a new place where we could build our gallery up again.
We received a generous offer from ModaSL , and Track Hax, the owner of Avatrait, did not hesitate a moment to accept this offer (see previous blog article). We were back in business , so it seemed. But after the excitement of having a place to start again, the board realised that, maybe we agreed to soon with this deal. Avatrait wouldn't be a stand alone company anymore and would probably have to deal with other circumstances. As we were thinking of how we could made this new start happening on ModaSL, we received another possibility.
Although we will probably still have some events with the co-operation of ModaSL, we have now a completely new location, thanks to one of the Avatrait artists, and dear friend, Mecca Merosi.

We have already built the gallery back up again, and are preparing the next show at the end of May. Location will be announced approximate a week before the show.

We are grateful to the people of ModaSL for the proposal which they made and hope to be able to work with them in the near future.

Don't let your virtual creations DIE - WILL your WORK day

2009-05-11T09:49:00.002+02:00

Bettina Tizzy made a recall on flickr to share all works inworld, so that the works will not die, if something happens to you or if you leave the virtual world. This effort includes ALL virtual creations, not just art. She wrote:

"Dear fellow photographers of Second Life:

About two weeks ago, virtual artist Vanfarel Kupfer died. Had he not left copies of most of his work (no trans, no mod) with his virtual girl friend, Native Aeon, his only legacy would be what is currently rezzed today.

Avatars in Second Life devote thousands of hours to creating content, and all that work is LOST when they die. Yes, even if they backed up that work by giving it to an alt. Even if they gave their account password to someone. When you die and unless you have taken appropriate measures, no one, not even Linden Lab, can legally access your work. It is simply lost forever.

I have been in communication with Linden Lab regarding the correct procedure for "willing" one's artwork - or for that matter, any assets - in SL. Legally, the correct and ONLY procedure boils down to this: support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=441...

In a nutshell, I propose that we establish one day a year, May 18, to encouraging content creators to "Will your Work."

The goal would be to celebrate Van's art while at the same time encouraging people to either give copies of their work to one or more avatars (not their alts) whom they trust, or add them to their Real Life will.

Also on May 18 and for one week, and working with his beloved Native Aeon, Vanfarel Kupfer's work will be exhibited at four locations: his former home sim, EnLuminaria, the Crescent Moon Gallery, the Blackwater Gallery, and Chakryn Forest. Understandably, Native is still very much in mourning over her loss, and when I asked her how I could help, she stated that her greatest wish is that Vanfarel's work become known throughout the grid. So be it.

I am asking all my fellow bloggers, photographers, community leaders and more to join me in writing about and promoting May 18th - on Monday, May 18th - as Will your Work day, to generate awareness of this important objective. If you speak more than one language, please help us to get this message out to your fellow residents in their native language. Won't you please help?

Feel free to create your own artwork. Help us to get the word out with your powerful images.

Here's to enduring great virtual content!
Bettina"

Lost World in the new issue of Role Magazine

2009-05-02T20:08:00.003+02:00

Role Magazine is pleased to announce the publication of our May, 2009 issue. As we celebrate the release of our 6th issue we take a closer look at the challenges surrounding enforcement of residents’ Intellectual Property rights including trademark and copyright issues.

If you’re considering strolling down the aisle during the upcoming wedding season, be sure to look at our fashion spread which features a lovely selection of nuptial attire. As always, we bring you articles on the latest trends; hot finds and kawaii, fashion tips for men and women; and, features on the subjects of house and living, art, music, literary, travel, property and more.

See an article that might interest your friends or group members? ROLE Magazine blog posts can now be easily shared by linking directly to your Plurk or Twitter page.

ROLE Magazine continues our commitment to our advertisers by providing verifiable readership statistics on our website.

As always, the team at ROLE Magazine thanks you for your continued support and encouragement!

The article I wrote this month for the Role Magazine is about "Lost World" and more in particular lolmac Shan and Kiya McMahon.

Freak Show & Avatrait @ ModaSL!

2009-04-29T11:44:00.004+02:00

Avatrait began in Second Life back in 2007, initially as a service that allowed SL residents to order high-quality framed prints of in-world portraits of their Avatars. As we reached out to talented S.L. photographers, we discovered that there was a whole new type of art being produced in Second Life, and decided to open up the Avatrait Gallery to feature the best of these artists.

The Avatrait Gallery not only produces virtual art for sale in-world, but creates real-world versions available to order. As popular as the Gallery has been, the amount of Second Life art that can be featured in it at any given time is limited, so we decided to develop a web site that would allow all those interested in this new genre to store, share, and even sell their works.

As you all noticed, the gallery has disappeared for a couple of weeks now, and that is also why we had to move to the gallery garden for Joshua's show, which was a success, btw.

We had to look for a new location and found it eventually. All need still to be rebuild, but the co-operation with ModaSL is a fact.

What is behind the project ModaSL?
ModaSL is a sim dedicated to Fashion, Glamour, Design and Art related to Second Life. Its not commercial approach will allow creation, presentation, promotion and design of all new trends related to the world of fashion and all its derivatives. Composed of different areas depending on the examined field, ModaSL tend to become a solid point of reference for those who create and follow fashion, and new insights about the virtual design. The channels are muliple infact: two exhibit areas, one indoor and one outdoor, as a gallery space and for dynamic presentation of objects of design. There will be two runways to make way for new stylists or new collections. And also a cinema / auditorium to provide space to art film linked to Second Life, an information point where Miss Bliss Janus welcomes questions, giving informations and advices about new shops and new international trends, an "Outfit of the Week" area with references to combinations and LM, a building dedicated to bloggers, which will become home base within the metaverse of all important fashion blog runners around Second Life, a fashion school and last but not least, the famous Fashion Café, meeting place for parties, discussions and community. And finally, about 1000 meters high, you can now find the famous Freak Show, an area dedicated to the Visual Art of Second Life.

ModaSL is part of the region that includes ItaliaSL, both Jacopo Perenti's SIMs, and that ModaSL will be completed shortly and is going to be ready to host fashion shows, exhibitions, galleries, presentations, and many more.

More information on the Avatrait gallery will be up soon.

So, stay tuned Freaks and Avatrait fans!!!!!! A lot of fun and art @ ModaSL!!!!!

Sunshine in the virtual world doesn't always mean the same in RL

2009-04-27T15:56:00.003+02:00

It has been a while that I have written a blog post, but every day seems to have fewer hours.

I had a lot of things on my hand, not only in SL, but also in RL. This meant for me that I was not able to work on pictures, the way I would like to do. And certainly did not even think about blogging, for which I apologize to all (how few they may be) readers, who are or were anxious to read about new adventures or experiences.

The next couple of days will even be very crucial for my future in SL, as some decisions are about to be made, which can turn my virtual life upside down. This can be either way.

I have been inworld for two and a half years; I enjoyed it very much, learned a lot and could do my most favorite thing: taking and post processing pictures. So not all was in vain after all.

Companies are rising inworld, and people with professional skills are taking over from the amateurs. Magazines, galleries, clothing shops etc. are more and more based on real marketing strategies, with people who are doing the same jobs in RL, or at least related to it.

It will be more and more difficult to start a new business, without having the knowledge of running a business. This also means that other avatars, who are the co-workers, will have or get more stress to get their things done.

The virtual world is and will always be a hobby for me, but you will have to find the right balance between the two worlds, not that the virtual world will become that important, that your real life begins to suffer from it. Some friends have experienced it, and decided to take it easy on the virtual life, and to secure their RL. Everyone will have to decide for their own, how far they can go with “the game”.

It is not easy to start a company, these days, and become very well known in the virtual world, building an image, which speaks for itself, and having the right people at the steering wheel. But when these people decide to take a step down, it is a tragedy for the company. It can happen in RL too, but to replace worth full people in SL is not a sinecure.

Where in RL you can almost say that people are replaceable, but in SL you will have not the same insight and visibility on people as you have in RL.

Will I be doing the same activities in the future in SL, will I take it easier? All questions I can’t answer. I still like to work on pictures, as main activity, but I just don’t have the time to do so.

Things will be more clear in a couple of days, I hope.

Wedding contest at Role Magazine

2009-04-07T23:11:00.007+02:00

Click the picture to go to Role Magazine.

Bryn Oh in April's Role Magazine

2009-04-01T21:06:00.004+02:00

The April's issue of the Role Magazine is out again. Don't miss it!
In March alone there were already 8.700 readers, not counting the inworld readers!

For this edition I have chosen to interview Bryn Oh, a talented artist from Toronto who has displayed her art together with Feathers Boa on the Role Magazine Headquarter on the Concetta sim. You can still visit the art installment of both artists.

Click on the image below to read the Role Magazine.

Koinup- Murku Second Life Comics Contest

2009-04-01T12:32:00.001+02:00

Press release

Calling all SL/RL cartoonists! Koinup proudly announces its Comic Strip Contest. The Comic Strip Contest is the first of its kind and Koinup proves again that they are continuously raising the bar on their contests and helping artist to challenge themselves and win big doing it. For all of you who love to draw and are artistically creative this is definitely a contest designed specifically for you. The contestants will create their comics by using the Murku Hud, created by Deep Semaphore. Each contestant must contact Deep Semaphore in-world to find out how to get their own personal Hud. The fabulous prizes for the grand prize winner include $10,000L and a chance to exhibit their creation in the upcoming Museum of Comics. There will also be honorary mentions that will get the chance to have their inventive works viewed in the museum as well. Each contestant can submit as many entries as they want. The contest features two categories which are Cartoon and Comic Strip. The Cartoon category consists of a one frame work with graphical comic elements. The Comic Strip category features a small story created as a comic’s book. Submissions can be entered from now until April 26th. Get yours in today!

For more information and how to enter please visit: http://www.koinup.com/group/second-life-comics-contest

Unlike other social networking sites, Koinup is still strictly for virtual worlds, making it the first of its kind. It is easy to create a profile, share your works (i.e. machinima, pictures, stories) on the site, as well as join the groups and participate in the contests. Koinup is growing rapidly and invite you to join so that you may participate in this as well as many of its upcoming contests and events. Koinup is the wave of the future, don't get left behind!

SNEAK PREVIEW OF GLOBAL DJ CONTEST SITE AVAILABLE NOW

2009-03-26T08:09:00.000+01:00

Evanston, IL – 03/24/2009 – LIMINATI PRODUCTIONS announces the “beta” release of the web constituent of an upcoming cross-platform multi-media Reality TV Contest, at http://PlanetsBestDj.com. The full project is being unveiled in New York City on Friday, April 3^rd, with announcements of participating organizational partners, and featured celebrities.

Building on the global popularity of DJ culture, the program will seek to find “The Planet’s Best DJ”, with “spin-offs” happening across the U.S. and in countries around the globe. The contest will feature a wide range of styles, from Hip-Hop to Techno/Trance, House/Electro to Reggae, Salsa to Swing, reflecting the international aspects of the DJ movement. The contestants will have to be able to keep the party rolling in any of these styles, or get voted off … leaving one DJ spinning with a major management contract and a $250,000.00 prize.

This ground-breaking entertainment vehicle will be starting on the web with a social network site where participants, contestants, hosts, and fans will post their audition tapes, and be voted on by early participants. The sooner each contestant begins building their fan base, the stronger they’ll be in the early phases, giving them the best chance for “making the cut” for the finalist pool for this fall’s TV filming schedule.

As the contest progresses, events will be held in a Virtual World environment that will allow fans to visit with top industry celebrities, attend exclusive concerts, and have their avatars dance to live and taped events in virtual clubs. All participants in the Reality TV project will be contractually obligated to spend a certain amount of time “in-world” every week, so viewers will never know who they’ll run into or what unique content they might encounter when in the Metaverse development.

Free sign-ups are available now at the newly released site, http://PlanetsBestDJ.com, and contestants, host candidates, dancers, and general fan-base viewers are all welcome to come by and get registered.

Liminati, Inc., is the parent company of Liminati Productions, which is the producer of the “Planet’s Best DJ” show and contest.

Avatrait Gallery presents 9

2009-03-19T08:34:00.005+01:00

Saturday March 21st, 9 artists will show their work at the Avatrait Gallery. This is a special event as never seen before,as the Avatrait Gallery is featuring 9 artists for one show.
This is an opportunity to see multiple art works from different artists at one show.
And I don't need to mention that I am one of them.;)

aRa Sheridan at Palacio de Bellas Artes

2009-03-16T00:42:00.004+01:00

aRa Sheridan has an exhibition on March 16th , 3 PM SLT at the Art Launch Mexico (Palacio de Bellas Artes). Just click the link to arrive in the middle of her beautiful art.
Her art can be seen for the next 15 days at this location. Don't miss it.

Avatrait May Gallery Contest

2009-03-15T18:24:00.003+01:00

Are you an Artist? If you think you have what it takes to be a gallery artist for Avatrait, then here is your opportunity to show us what you've got! Rules at www.avatrait.com!

This is a contest for all non gallery artists of Avatrait. So let's see what you've got, and join the Avatrait website today!!

Looker Lumet at the Avatrait Gallery site

2009-03-02T11:40:00.005+01:00

As you all should know, Avatrait, the inworld gallery, has a new website. Everyone can join this site, and upload their images to share. So it is not only meant for the Avatrait artists, but also for every SL lover wanting to share their snapshots to the world.

The Avatrait Gallery not only produces virtual art for sale in-world, but creates real-world versions available to order. As popular as the Gallery has been, the amount of Second Life art that can be featured in it at any given time is limited, so we decided to develop a web site that would allow all those interested in this new genre to store, share, and even sell their works.

The new Avatrait web site is, obviously, a "work in progress", with new features and capabilities coming on-line all the time. Currently, there are only two types of membership, the Gallery Artists (who are part of the in-world Gallery collection), and Free Members.

Avatrait is largely a "labor of love" for a small group of dedicated individuals, and they frequently find themselves having to deal with having too few hours in the day/week/month to get everything that they're wanting to have (in terms of both functionality and content) on the site done.

But they are getting there...one thing at the time. A few artists have already their frontpages. You can have a look at mine on this link.

If you're not a member yet , join today, and you will see what magnificent art people can make with the snapshots they took inworld. And who knows, you might be one of them in the near future.

Feathers Boa in the Role Magazine

2009-03-02T08:27:00.004+01:00

ROLE Magazine proudly announces the publication of our March magazine.

In this issue we focus on in-world situations which affect us all. The cover story addresses the many ways artificial intelligence bots have changed our community: copy bots, land bots and traffic bots are a few examples of the ways in which we are all being forced to carefully evaluate what we choose to believe every day.

Topics in this issue include a retro, black and white fashion spread, and a closer look at the works of talented artists, musicians, designers, writers, builders, travelers and explorers.

Our upcoming installment features the works of the gifted Bryn Oh, Feathers Boa and talented musician BlindBoy Gumbo, March 14th at 12pm SLT at ROLE Magazine Headquarters on the Concetta sim.

Don't miss the article of Feathers Boa in this month's issue by undersigned!

For your convenience, ROLE Magazine is available in 2 formats. The in-world magazine is available at our many kiosk locations and offers the option of clicking the HUD’s menu button to receive a notecard of all referenced SLURLs. Our web version is available at www.role-magazine.com and features “clickable” SLURLs.

As always, the team at ROLE Magazine thanks you for your continued interest and support. We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Blog time

2009-02-24T15:41:00.004+01:00

Ooww, I haven't been posting anything since February 7th. That is too long.

Writing a blog and keeping it up to date isn’t easy. I started in 2007, but have to admit that, due to circumstances, I am not able anymore to blog every day. I think it is a shame, and I regret that, but there is turning back.

Being active in Sl as the photographer of CYD records, writing articles in the Role magazine and being on the board of the Avatrait Gallery gives me not much time left to do the daily stories on my blog.

Nevertheless, I want to write now and than, to keep the few readers left on my blog up to date.

This evening I will be visiting the opening of Winter Wardhani’s first solo exhibition. Woot!!! She was the one who offered me some time ago to do my first solo exhibition at Portucalis. I am glad to see that she has her own show now.

In the meanwhile all articles for the next edition of the Role magazine are submitted and being edited. According Ofelia, the new edition looks again very promising. She told that the February edition alone, had already 4000 readers. So the curve is still climbing….. and so is the content of the magazine!! Don’t miss it, ‘cause this time I wrote an article about Feathers Boa…pssst…that should be a secret.;)

At the Avatrait gallery, Harry Huffmann is featuring this fortnight’s exhibition. On Friday at 2 PM SLT I will host the “Meet the artist” at the gallery inworld, so if you should have any question that you always wanted to ask Harry, but you never had the chance, come over and enjoy the chat hour with one of the most talented photographers in SL.

Some of you may have already noticed that I have found a new “toy”, that is called “Plurk”. Since the end of January, I am registered at “Plurk”, and that is fun doing, because I can not log in on SL at work, but I can plurk, and keeping myself very well aware of things that are happening inworld and in RL among my friends.

And between all these activities, I try to work on new pieces, learning every day what Photoshop has to offer, to make my works a bit more than just common. Thanks to some “new”and some "old" friends I have been able to find some inspiration again to continue my life as a photographer in SL, and even more than that.

MechanizedLife - Grand Opening

2009-02-07T16:54:00.000+01:00

Press release

In mid-January, CodeBastard Redgrave, creator of the MachinimaCam HUD and creator of the acclaimed Boudoir Rouge portrait series, completed the purchase of MechanizedLife from Alidar Moxie. Moxie chose to scale back her in-world business responsibilities and approached Redgrave with the opportunity to purchase MechanizedLife’s full catalog of scripted products. MechanizedLife products are scripted tools designed to make your Second Life more enjoyable and include a range of products for both casual users and business owners.

Since the purchase, Redgrave, a talented scripter, has completed, updated and released a number of items that she had built alongside Moxie in late 2008, created the new RezURL product and has opened the official MechanizedLife website (http://www.mechanizedlife.com) which contains product information, technical documentation and direct links to each product’s XstreetSL page. Working with Rouge sim builder Eshi Otawara, Redgrave has expanded the Rouge Boutique on her iconic sim to make room for the new MechanizedLife main store.

On Saturday, February 7, 2009, Redgrave will host the Grand Opening of the new MechanizedLife. The all-day event will begin at 11:00am SLT with a press conference, followed, at noon, by a marathon, Rouge-style dance party featuring renowned Second Life DJs Nexeus Fatale, Amanda Shinji, DJ Genki, DJ Plusminus and more!

To celebrate the Grand Opening, all MechanizedLife and Boudoir Rouge products, including the BR individual and couples poses will be offered at 50% off regular price.

“The current MechanizedLife clients are incredibly loyal to the brand and I wanted to share this occasion with them and give them an opportunity to try some of our newer products at a substantial discount,” Redgrave said. “We also wanted to welcome new clients to the MechanizedLife family by giving them a chance to try our products without breaking the bank.”

Though the transition is ongoing, the products and MechanizedLife website have already been moved to servers personally hosted and maintained by Redgrave. This move was completed without any interruption of service.

Moxie will continue to provide support, as deemed necessary by Redgrave, for the next several months and Paypabak Writer will continue to provide first-line customer support just as she always has.

The full selection of scripted MechanizedLife products will be offered alongside Redgrave’s existing line of products including the MachinimaCam and FilterCam HUDs, the Boudoir Rouge brand of individual and couples poses, and the Dramavatar brand of eyes and clothing. All of these products can be found in the Rouge Boutique.

Teleport to MechanizedLife at Rouge Boutique and Press Conference.

Teleport to MechanizedLife at Rouge Boutique and Grand Opening Dance Party.

AM Radio in the February issue Role Magazine

2009-02-02T08:06:00.004+01:00

"ROLE Magazine is pleased to announce the publication of our February issue!

Among the many features and topics of interest this month we include the announcement of our Grand Prize winner from the ROLE Magazine Photo Flickr contest, a cover story on the mysterious Arcadia Asylum, a lush fashion spread highlighting sensual lingerie in time for Valentine’s Day, an expanded section for men and a feature on artist AM Radio.

For your convenience, ROLE Magazine is available in 2 formats. Our in-world magazine is available at our many kiosk locations and offers the option of clicking the HUD’s menu button to receive a notecard of all referenced SLURLs. Our web version is available at www.role-magazine.com and features “clickable” SLURLs.

As always, the team at ROLE Magazine thanks you for your continued interest and support. We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it!"

This month I wrote an article about AM Radio. He was so kind to do an interview with me. The article can be read in the magazine at page 60.

2nd Rezzday already

2009-01-27T16:23:00.003+01:00

On Thursday, January 29th, from 1 till 4 PM SLT, I will celebrate my second rezzday on Second Life.
The location for this party will be at the Dream Beach, Isla de Bahia, home location and stage of CYD Records.

Should there be anyone who did not receive an invitation inworld, please accept my apologies, but people were going on and offline, and I did not remember after some chats, IM's etc. who I did sent the message to and who not.;)

But please consider this blog post as an invitation. Everyone is welcome.

Several artists will perform live on stage, so I hope it will be an enjoyable evening for everyone!;)

See you there!

All good things come to an end.

2009-01-16T13:11:00.007+01:00

Things changes all the time, and certainly when you are active in the virtual world.
I started at the end of January, 2007, trying to find a way and trying to make money. Certainly in the early stages it was not so easy. I remember trying to find good places to camp while I was doing some other work. And at that time, camping a rato of 2 Linden$/minute, would not made me rich, but it was a start. I thought, having a couple of hundred L$ would give me some comfort, but I soon realized that comfort isn't for sale for a couple of lindens.
After a few months I got 1000 linden$ from a friend, and that was in fact the real start. Since then my financial troubles were over. It only could increase, which it did.;)
In March or April 2007, a Belgian Friend started with a new sim, and I was able to buy a piece of land. It was my island and I have lived there for one year, but last August, it came unfortunately to an end. The sim was sold, prizes were increasing, so I had to let it go.
On my search for another place, some of my friends made me suggestions, but finally I choose for Dream Beach. I could rent a penthouse on an island where no one else lives, beside my neighbors of course, but that were only 3 other levels in the same building.
Dream Beach on Isla de Bahia, is also the place of CYD Records. They manage some artists in this virtual life, and I am the photographer of the group. This means I had a connection on this island.
Pictures of mine are exhibited in the Gallery, together with the RL paintings of Syl Darcy, and after a while I could make my own little studio on that very same sim.
My penthouse was only used to log in, and read my messages, so I decided yesterday to stop the rent of the penthouse.
All good things come to an end, but this one hasn't finished yet. I will stay on the sim with my small studio and gallery, so in fact, there are no big changes....only that I don't have to pay any rent for that penthouse anymore.
This means another chapter in my short existence of Second Life®,, but not necessarily a bad one.;-)

All about me ;))

2009-01-12T11:46:00.002+01:00

On this very day, which is important to me in RL, I wanted to write a new article on my blog.

I know I haven’t been very producible lately, due to several reasons.

First, the combination RL and SL isn’t always easy for me, as it is for most of us, I suppose. Besides the family life, there is of course my professional life, which takes most of the 24 hrs, that are available to me.;)

Secondly, I have agreed to write an article every month in The Role magazine. I hear you saying…that can not take so much time, to write only one article a month. But I can assure you, that I try to do some research before writing something down. I want the content to be interesting for most readers, if possible for every reader. And I am trying to improve in that, every month again, as I think this magazine has the potential to grow to one of the most important magazines inworld.

And then there is of course the Avatrait gallery, which will take us considerable time for having all organized and set in the gallery itself. Now that Stephen has taken some time off, the rest of us in the board will take care of the things he did. And that won’t be easy, as he did a marvelous job in the past. But don’t you worry, he still will be around.;)

Good for me, that I still have to do some photo shoots from time to time for CYD RECORDS, as that gives me also the opportunity to know many performing artists, beside the digital artists who I already have met at several galleries.

And last but not least, I want to create my own “art”, and find the time to do that, as that is where it all began, and what I like doing the most.;)

You see, the time where I only had my pictures and this blog are over, unfortunately. But I have new perspectives and new engagements, which are a lot of fun doing.

I don’t forget my blog friends. I still visit their blogs from time to time, but not as much as I used to though.

I am glad that I have made so many friends inworld, even through my blog, and continue, after almost two years being on the grid, to make new friends and get to know new artists every day again. Thank you!

As I said in the past, this blog will remain my way of communication to you all, so thank you in the first place for still visiting this blog from time to time and keeping yourself informed about Looker Lumet.;))

New edition "Role Magazine"

2009-01-02T14:46:00.006+01:00

First of all..a happy New Year and prosperous 2009 to all the readers and their family.

With this first article on my blog in 2009 I want to inform you all, that the new edition of the "Role Magazine" is out.
Again, the team has accomplished an even more interesting magazine for you this time. Of course there are articles about fashion, but also about art, travelling in SL, in and out the inworld house and other stories.
This is only the second edition, but you can see at the website, that there is a whole team working with a lot of professionalism, to make an outstanding magazine in and about the virtual world as we know it.
To read the magazine, you can either choose the following link, but also inworld you can read the magazine, by clicking on one of the many kiosks, which places are to be found on the website, www.role-magazine.com.

Athan

2008-12-24T13:49:00.006+01:00

Some days ago, I was looking for a nice place where I could take some snapshots to post process, because I hadn't posted on flickr for a few days. As I think it is important to post on a regular base, I needed some fresh pictures. Surfin' my way through the flickr streams, I stumbled on a place called "Athan". I saw some potential in what I saw, but could not think, at that point, what I was going to do if I had pictures from that sim.
I typed the name "Athan" in "search", and found the slurl of this place. They did not mention however, that you were supposed to wear swimming trousers, as I landed under water.;)
I decided to fly over the sim with my camera, without changing from spot.

This island has great potential for a photographer like me, and I took several shots, with different sky settings.(thanks to Torley's windlight settings.;))
After being occupied for several minutes taking pictures, I saw in the "castle" some white trees, and wanted to take a closer look. Two big mirrors were placed between the trees, which were in fact vendors for a male and female skin of an ice elf. Really wonderful for those who are looking for fairytale characters.
It took several hours to determine what I should do with the pictures. Trying different things out, I made the first ones with a yellow/sepia look, but, as I kept on trying different effects, I found a way to have a stormy, red colored sky, with some yellow lightning in it.
I post this, because I think this sim is certainly a "must " for all who want to take landscape snapshots inworld.
You will be able to find my pictures on my flickr stream, and if you like to visit the place, you can follow this link.

X-mas on Mars

2008-12-24T11:40:00.007+01:00

I am honored to see that one of my pictures is being used as a New Year's card in RL. Vint Falken asked me some time ago to use my "X-mas on Mars" picture, and I could not refuse of course. Although it is a pleasure for me to work on images taken inworld, I am pleased to see, as any other photographer is, that some of the pictures I processed are being commented on flickr. When a picture is chosen to use in RL, and on the web, by someone who can easily make a piece of her own, it is really a great honor. TY Vint!!;)

OCTAVIA ROCKS IN HALO GUITARS’ DEBUT INTO SECONDLIFE,

2008-12-20T00:42:00.004+01:00

>HUFSCHIMID GUITARS IS HALO’S EXCLUSIVE LICENSED SECONDLIFE DISTRIBUTOR

SECONDLIFE: HALO GUITARS, DECEMBER 19, 2008 – A major step forward in the music merchandise industry in Secondlife began this morning with the release of the OCTAVIA 8 string guitar from HALO Guitars. Brought into Secondlife through an officially licensed partnership with Hufschmid Guitars, the OCTAVIA is the first of many models from HALO Guitars to be sold in-world at the Hufschmid Guitar shop located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Last%20Resort/200/205/30.

The OCTAVIA 8 String is an exact replica of the real HALO model. Hours of design and development went into bringing this guitar into Secondlife. No detail was overlooked including its physical size, which is to scale. The deep black color and slightly beveled edge around the shape gives it a more three dimensional look and is fully prim constructed. OCTAVIA’S classic, yet aggressive look is what any star rocker and entry-level axe slinger would call a must-play in their virtual shows.

HALO’s OCTAVIA comes with all the playable features, custom animations (23), sounds and effects that you get in Hufschmid guitars. Even the HALO guitar case the OCTAVIA comes in was custom designed and made to look real and professional. The case can be worn on the back just like the guitar.

HALO Guitars in Houston TX has over 200 professional musicians and groups playing their guitars. HALO began in 1999, with two friends (Waylon Ford & Belinda Lee) in a dimly lit studio while reading over some guitar magazines. The common subject at hand centered on how drastically guitar prices had inflated to the general public. From that moment, the wheels were set in motion and a new company formed with the intent to create guitars both built solid and priced correctly… a company that would not be attacked by the Green-Eyed Monster known as Greed. The new millennium brought forth HALO Guitars – a company that provides instruments for musicians that are BUILT BY MUSICIANS and PRICED FOR MUSICIANS ®.

HALO Guitars delivers handcrafted instruments with high-performance parts, pure playability, unyielding tone, and an amazing visual style. HALO has continued to evolve year-after-year, offering The Demon Series, Hand-Carved & Art Series, The Select Edition, and the availability of EVERY model built in a 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 string extended-range version.

HALO is here for musicians and maintains an open mind for anything new that is requested. This is true in real and Secondlife as Waylon Ford is in-world as Waylon Krokus.

Hufschmid Guitars in Montreux, Waadt, Switzerland is owned and operated by Patrick Hufschmid whose passion with the guitar began when he was in his early teens. He started in music very early and spent most of his time as a child playing the piano and later, the violin. After many years of practice on the guitar Hufschmid realized that to be totally satisfied he needed to create his own designs and instruments.

Hufschmid’s aim is to bring the maximum possibilities (range, ergonomics, comfort, intonation, sound quality, sustain, etc) to the player. Specializing in baritone guitars, Hufschmid firmly believes the guitar is at its best with the added richness of at least a seventh string. He also makes eight and nine stringed instruments.

As a player himself, he is well aware of the ingredients necessary for the guitar and player to excel. This is also true in Second life as Patrick Hufschmid is in-world Patrick Hufschmid Beaumont.

Mami Jewell Grand Opening for Azul‏

2008-12-17T10:01:00.003+01:00

Press release:

Join us December 21, Sunday, for the highly anticipated Grand Opening of Mami Jewell's Azul designer clothing store. There will be special offers for visitors who attend the Grand Opening, so you definitely do not want to miss this! The special offers will give customers a chance to purchase a few beautiful pieces for some great prices, those offers will begin 12/21 5am SLT-12/23 5am SLT. Mami Jewell graduates from working with edo Tone, owner of the very well known clothing line Styles of edo. Five months ago the famous edo Tone had taken Mami beneath his wing to teach her the fashion industry. With edo's expert teachings Mami has taken her talented designing skills to the next level and is ready to now take SL by storm with her very own clothing line Azul.

Mami has already made a wonderful name for herself within the fashion community due to her classy, beautifully detailed, and creatively designed dresses that have a flair which sets her apart from other SL designers. Mami Jewell is the awesome designer who made the gorgeous dress that this year's winning Miss Virtual World 2009 (Mimmi Boa) wore. Both Mami and edo feel it is time for Mami to go independent again with her own clothing line and that her time with Styles of edo has been a learning experience that each will cherish and are glad to have shared together. Even though Mami is seperating from Styles of edo they will continue to have fashion shows together for both name brands and continue to be friends. This is not an ending but a new beginning for the friendship that began five months ago and was built on a love for fashion.

Date: 21 December 2008 (Sunday) Venue: Joia Azul (129,129,25) Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/joia%20azul/129/129/25

Role Magazine's first photo contest!!

2008-12-15T00:55:00.005+01:00

ROLE Magazine is hosting it's very first flickr photo contest!

ROLE Magazine Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/rolemagazine/

Contest Theme: Reading ROLE Magazine

Contest Dates: December 14th - January 15th

*Winner to be announced / displayed in the February issue of ROLE Magazine, on or about February 1st 2009.

What we want you to do:

Show us where and how you read ROLE Magazine. In bed? Under a tree? On the beach? However you do it, we wanna see!

Prize: 10,000L$

**As a special thank you to all of our in-world kiosk locations, for displaying a ROLE Magazine kiosk; we will be randomly drawing for 2 FREE full page ads for the February issue.** (If you would like to display a ROLE Magazine Kiosk, and be automatically entered to win the free ad, you can get you kiosk at onrez - - http://shop.onrez.com/item/839353, or in world at Role Magazine, Concetta .

RULES:

1. In the description of your entry include:

Your Second Life avatar name:

Model:

Photographer:

2. Post processing is allowed and encouraged.

3. ROLE Magazine must be visible in image (opened or closed).

4. Submit all your pictures to the ROLE Magazine flickr group. (http://www.flickr.com/groups/rolemagazine/)

In joining this group, you agree to all the terms and conditions listed in the rules. The committee has picture veto power if the photo is inappropriate in any way. ROLE Magazine has the right to reproduce, edit and use submitted images.

KIOSK LOCATIONS: To get a copy of ROLE Magazine, please teleport to one of the in-world ROLE Magazine kiosk locations. List of locations - http://www.role-magazine.com/index.php/links.html

For any questions drop a notecard in the mailbox next to the entrance at ROLE Magazine HQ and we will get back to you.

Role Magazine, Concetta

The NEW Avatrait Gallery

2008-12-02T08:50:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday was the opening of the new Avatrait Gallery. And apparently there were more people interested in seeing the magnificent builds of Prad Prathivi and Corbett Howard. But they came not only to see the builds of course.
35 Artists have made serious efforts to make a wonderful piece for this opening. All the works are displayed next to each other in a big circle.
I think it was a great success, with fireworks and a dance party afterwards. The fireworks were really special. I did not see anything like it before in Second Life.
So, the December show is an honor to all Avatrait artists, and a great start for this new gallery, which is expanding and being known in RL too!

From 2009, the Avatrait Gallery will try to show two artists per month, instead of one. The gallery is now big enough to display two shows and give the opportunity to its artists to be part of an event that will always have a special place in the history of their SL lives, and in the annexes of the gallery.

The new "Role Magazine" is out !!!!

2008-12-01T14:18:00.004+01:00

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!

"Role Magazine is a monthly publication dedicated to highlighting the many facets of Second Life™ and to showcase the most interesting people, places and things in a high quality magazine production.

Role Magazine covers fashion news, specific designers and trends as well as artists, entertainment, subcultures, literary and technical aspects of the daily Second Life™.
Role Magazine is produced in Second Life™ and published in-world as well as on our webpage."

A new magazine is born, and I am proud to write for them, as the first issue is really a hit, with a variety of articles as their introduction says. Every avatar will find at least one article of his interest. The quality of this issue is beyond the normal magazines we have seen so far inworld.
I know, I have said that before...of the Twilight magazine, but this one has certainly the same level of quality and even offers you more with the different articles.
As I was asked only at the very last minute to write for this magazine, it was also a big surprise for me to see the result.
I am already anxious to see what next issue will bring us...;)

You can find the magazine in world or on the website with this link.

AVATRAIT™ GALLERY OPENING NEW ISLAND IN SECOND LIFE®

2008-11-26T21:48:00.000+01:00

Press release

Evanston, IL – 11/26/2008 – AVATRAIT Gallery, the leading advocate of the emerging genre of “Digital Impressionist” art from the virtual world of Second Life, after a series of sold-out art showings at its old home on parent company Simuality’s island, is excited to announce the grand opening event at their new dedicated sim, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Evoluon/86/114/140.

This is a special showing, reflecting the full range of the Avatrait Gallery artists, something of a live staging of the recent full-color hardcover book release, “AVATRAIT: From Second Life To Florence”, which was produced to commemorate Avatrait’s participation in this fall’s Festival della Creatività event in Florence, Italy, as well as the on-going Rinascimento Virtuale exhibit focusing on the art of virtual worlds.

The new Island feature a brand new, much larger gallery, as well as a Machinima theater, a lecture/classroom pavilion, and artists’ store, all in a dramatic aerial setting. The new sim has been the product of the vision of the Avatrait Board, and the much appreciated hard work of artist/builders Prad Prathivi and Corbett Howard bringing that vision to a virtual reality.

The Avatrait Gallery has long been one of the leading art attractions (and a permanent Arts & Culture “hot spot” venue listing) in Second Life, and the expansion into its own dedicated island will only make it more popular with virtual art lovers. The grand opening festivities kick off Saturday, November 29th, at 1pm SLT (UTC -8) and will be featuring a top S.L. DJ, and a fireworks show at the new location.

Avatrait is on the web at http://avatrait.com, the Avatrait Gallery can be found in Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Evoluon/86/114/140. The book “AVATRAIT: From Second Life to Florence” (ISBN 978-1-57353-300-3), a 108-page, 8.25x10.5"-format hardcover book with full-color graphics throughout, is available at http://avatraitbooks.com.

Avatrait Gallery Presents: The artist of Avatrait.

2008-11-24T13:36:00.002+01:00

picture by Ryker Beck

We will be opening a new Gallery on our own dedicated Sim for Avatrait. Prad Prathivi and Corbett Howard have been working very hard on this new build and surrounding buildings that will house our training facility, Machinima theater, and artist store. This show is dedicated to the artist of the gallery, the trip that Avatrait Gallery made to Florence and the book that was a result of that effort. We want to thank all of the artist and the patrons for their efforts and their support over the last year and a half. We are pleased to announce the DJ for the after party: Ketsy (Jhuzen Ketsugo). . Also we have acquired for your viewing pleasure the talented Mariann McCann to shoot off an awesome array of fireworks. This is an opening not to be missed! So put down those after Thanksgiving shopping bags...take a break from the relatives and come party with some of the best sl artist on the grid!! Landmark to follow on opening day!

WORKING WORLDS/GAX TECHNOLOGIES: INTERNATIONAL CAREER FAIR

2008-10-31T08:40:00.002+01:00

Join us November 27, Thursday, for the third recruiting job fair event for GAX Technologies. This time Working Worlds will have some of the biggest employers in Europe present and they will be interviewing candidates in their virtual offices. GAX Technologies has made its mark in Second Life with their hugely successful in-world Career Fairs. Every six months the Working Worlds/ GAX Technologies Career Fair is held and each fair has been larger than it's predecessor, thus making the sky the limit for the Working Worlds Career Fairs. To help job hunters learn more about the fair and how it will benefit them there will be conferences and e-learning sessions at the Working Worlds location in-world. Working Worlds offers everything possible to help ensure the success of the job seekers.
This months career fair is off to an exciting start with 3,500 candidates from all over Europe who have submitted their CVs online. In order to participate as a career seeker go to the Working Worlds' website www.working-worlds.com and register your CV it's a very easy process and gets you well on your way to finding not just another job but to finding a career in the field of your dreams. The fair that was held May 2008 brought 2,900 visitors, 2,767 candidates who filed their CVs and 600 official interviews that took place. The previous one before that brought 2,000 visitors, 1,500 candidates who registered their CVs and 300 interviews that took place. As you can see the difference in the numbers between the first and second events were astounding. The amount of candidates grew immensely and the amount of interviews doubled.

Cornelia den Hartog, Managing Director of 'GAX Technologies' and organizer of the Career Fairs is entirely convinced; 'The need for companies to attract new profiles from beyond the territorial limits is becoming more and more important. 'The 'Working Worlds' Career Fairs are in itself the most efficient solutions currently available to these companies without having to deploy significant resources. Our partners will be directly in touch with candidates who will not have to travel, but who may meet their future employer "Live" on Second Life'.

The Working Worlds sim gives a career seeker the opportunity to do something they cannot do outside of a virtual world. One can get up out of bed, walk over to the computer, and be interviewed without having to change clothing or pay travel expenses to interview with recruiters from prestigious companies for a job that he/she is qualified for. Having such a recruitment tool like a career fair in Second Life definitely makes the impossible seem possible and places the world of opportunities at a career seeker's fingertips. As we have stated before, it really does not get any easier than this and the results can be just as rewarding for both the employer and the job seeking employee. Come down and discover a creative, fulfilling, and exciting world of opportunities. There is opportunity for everyone, you are invited to come and find that career you have always wanted it is just a teleport away. You have had jobs now come find your career!

Date: 27 November 2008 (Thursday)
Time: 1am-12noon SLT
Venue: Grand Ducale 128,96,22
Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Grand%20Ducale/129/97/22

AVATRAIT™: FROM SECOND LIFE® TO FLORENCE ART BOOK RELEASED

2008-10-29T22:55:00.003+01:00

Evanston, IL – 10/27/2008 –

AVATRAIT, the leading advocate of the emerging genre of “Digital Impressionist” art from the virtual world of Second Life, is very pleased to announce the release of the first title from their publishing division, AVATRAIT: From Second Life To Florence. Produced to commemorate Avatrait’s participation in the recent Festival della Creatività event in Florence, Italy, as well as the on-going Rinascimento Virtuale exhibit focusing on the art of virtual worlds, this book serves as an introduction to this new form of art.

The Avatrait Gallery is one of the leading art attractions (and a permanent Arts & Culture “hot spot” venue listing) in Second Life, and features some of the most talented visionary artists working in the digital formats of that virtual world. The book presents art from 47 of the Avatrait Gallery artists, along with personal statements of each about their art. In addition there are three essays, Second Life founder Philip Rosedale discussing creativity and identity in the metaverse, Avatrait founder Greg Houston addressing art in the context of the virtual environment, and art professor Mario Gerosa detailing the emergence of “Digital Impressionism” as a new genre in the world of art.

AVATRAIT: From Second Life To Florence (ISBN 978-1-57353-300-3) is a 108-page, 8.25x10.5"-format hard-cover book, featuring full-color graphics throughout. It is available through direct order from Lulu.com.

Avatrait is on the web at http://avatrait.com, the Avatrait Gallery can be found in Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/38/210/38, and the book, AVATRAIT: From Second Life to Florence, is available at http://avatraitbooks.com. Second Life is a virtual world created by Linden Lab of San Francisco, CA, and is at http://secondlife.com.

LL, Are you serious?

2008-10-29T10:09:00.008+01:00

You have already heard about the new policy of LL, about openspace pricing. It must be a joke, but as we experienced in the past, LL never make jokes. It is always serious business. We learn them how to improve their "game", and what do we get in return? Increased costs, because after advertising to use openspace sims, they now think there is too much traffic, so the owners need to pay more. How ridiculous.

"So Openspaces have been incredibly popular as a perk for estate owners, but sadly there is a twist. Unfortunately most of the Openspaces are being used for much more than light use. Based on analysis performed in August and September, Openspaces are being used about twice as much as we expected, in other words being loaded with double the content/avatar load than we’d expect for a region that is supposed to be light use."

It has no use to explain on this blog whether it is justified or not, but as we already know for a long time, LL pulls the strings and we are the puppets. If you don't like it, leave this virtual world and look for another one. That is the message we get.

You can also read a reaction on RightAsRain Rimbaud's blog.

Reading the reactions, some agree , some don't. I will post some of them to give you an idea.

"I understand the reasons for doing this, and I actually support the change. However, I am concerned about the slashing of the edu discount at the same time. Given that a campus is someplace that is more likely to necessitate openspace (and even the proper use thereof) to establish mirroring of RL/SL environs to facilitate initial acceptance and bridging, this effective 214% setup jump and 333% maintenance jump is a difficult thing to justify on the meager academic budgets we have.
At this point, it almost becomes pointless to have edu openspaces, and I feel this is limiting edu expansion in secondlife unduly (or perhaps I should say, disproportionately), given that edu is a key constituent of your userbase.
Respectfully submitted for your consideration,

Kyle Thorn
Second Life Coordinator
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy"

"First - this is not about abuse, that was just a lie to try to distract you from the real reason for the price increase - Gree.
Second - ranting about LL is going to lose customers - that's silly. They don't care about individuals. they're aiming at corporate users now that their proof-of-concept has worked.
Third - ranting at all is a waste of time. Decisions were already made. This was not a request for comments but an announcement of what is going to happen.
Fourth - yelling at the Linden sock-puppets does nothing but increase the personal abuse level. Personal abuse is always a bad thing.
I'm having my landowner convert my sim - which is a forest, as suggested usage - to a full sim. I like the people inside SL a great deal and I am not going to screw up friendships just because LL doesn't respect its users. I would love to rant and rave and claim LL is going to kill itself with this decision, but in reality they are going to line their pockets with a bit more money and business will go on as usual.
stop thinking you are important to LL. You aren't. - Lissa Fimicoloud"

" Quote:

Originally Posted by Vryl Valkyrie

I know exactly what you are referring to and furthermore this is more than just about end users. This illegal decision effects us all. Most of the Open Space sims are rented to third parties from end users. Of course land must be rented for a profit. Trust me, without commerce, Second Life is dead. It does not take a rocket scientist to read the writing on the wall here. That's ok.. let's see how they feel about Class Action Law Suit. Now time to mute you because a good friend of mine, Obscuo Valkyrie told me a very long time ago, "don't feed the trolls" ..

What makes this illegal?
The cost of a 12 pack of coke went from $2.50 to $4.20, was that illegal?
The cost of gas went from $2.00 to $4.00, was that illegal?
The cost of a bus pass went up.
The cost of a movie tick went up.
The cost of a newspaper went up.
My utility bill went up, my cable bill went up, my internet bill went up, my phone service bill went up.
Prices increases, the costs of doing business increases, how is this any different? A virtual world is still run by a very real company that is affected by very real economics. Did they ever guarantee that their rates would stay the same forever?- Jenika Connolly."

It is clear that some are "misusing" the sims, and that the others have to pay the bill, but the question is if LL will get what they are aiming for. The future will tell.

CIENEGA SOON'S GRAND REOPENING OF CASTLE VALERIYA ARTIST GALLERY

2008-10-21T08:59:00.004+02:00

(and the Opening of Fog Terrace Dark Psy Trance Club featuring a 24 hour Masquerade Party for the opening)

Come join us for the highly anticipated Grand ReOpening of Cienega Soon's Castle Valeriya Artist Gallery. The gallery will officially reopen October 24th and will be a sight to behold. Cienega is well known for her vivid and lively art which brings fourth various emotions while being viewed. Cienega's art captures the attention of the viewer and draws them in making them want to know or learn more about each piece of art they are viewing. Her art has an edge and an appeal which reaches out to both the art connoisseur and to those that simply enjoy visually appealing art. This will also be the opening for Fog Terrace which will feature guest DJ's that will play Dark Psy Trance Music. The Fog Terrace is sure to quickly become a hit to those who love Dark Psy Trance and are looking for an awesome atmosphere to enjoy that in. A 24 hr Masquerade Party will begin at 6pm SLT, this will feature 12 Dj's who will fill the Fog Terrace with Psy, Goa, and Trance mixes for a solid 24 hours.

Cienega's Second Life® awards and accomplishments include: being a guest judge for the "Photomania Contest" held at the City of The Arts on Hyacinth Island, speaking at the Photo Institute which is Second Life's premier school for studying photography, winning both the Koinup® Exotic Contest and the Slartist IDOL contest. She was an exhibiting artist for SL5B. Cienega also placed as top 20 finalist out of 400 entries in the Stiletto Moody "Picture Your Moods" photo contest. For the opening of The ARTist's Park Cienega had a piece of original art that was displayed. In 2006 Avatrait presented Cienega Soon for the month of December and she is now one of their galleried Artists in their real life gallery just outside of Chicago, Illinois.

Cienega is not just a talented artist in Second Life® she is also an artist in real life. Cienega's real life artwork uses many mediums such as oils, acrylics, sculpting with metal and wood, soft leather and feather mixed with glass and her stained glass work. Cienega has only displayed a few of her real life artworks in Second Life® because she believes that the beauty of Second Life® should be celebrated in its environment without real life artworks being present and hanging around in an unnatural view. Cienega Soon has been selected as one of the artists for the real life exhibition Rinascimento Virtuale (Virtual Renaissance) which will open at the Museum of Natural History of Florence, Italy. October 21, 2008-January 7, 2009.

Her artistic talents are just as original as her name and anyone who knows of her gifted skill will tell you of her innate abilities. Some would say art like this is not something that one can learn, this is a talent that you must be born with in order to do it this well. Cienega has been called a "photographic lyricist" and she feels that art is alive everywhere she creates it and there is a need for her to sing with her hand and eyes. She states," I sit and paint my version of my photo, my hand interprets what my eye sees deep inside the shot. To me THIS is my ART and my HEART turned inside out, capturing the beauty of what has been created in this Virtual 3D World by its many talented gods 'Their Creation'. What a wonderful talent Second Life® has assembled. It truly is worth capturing & hanging on a wall."

Date : October 24, 2008 (Friday)
Time : 5pm SLT
SLURL : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Valeriya/31/245/102

LOST WORLD

2008-10-20T11:56:00.004+02:00

It has already been some days ago since I visited the sim “Lost World”. I received the landmark a while back from Kiya Mc Mahon, and, although I had not much time, went there for a short visit. Immediately I noticed the beauty of this sim, the details of the ruins, the virtual nature…. I only had the time to take a shot at one spot, but was already convinced that I had to return to this beautiful place, to take more snapshots.

I posted that first picture already some weeks ago, and noticed the nice comments on that picture, which made me decided to return as soon as possible.

As I am almost every day online, but not that long, I had to see that I could be there at a quiet moment, with not too many IM’s.

I was able to take lots of picture, but even than, did not had the possibility to turn every stone upside down. Again I was fascinated by its beauty, and I must admit, I maybe made the best picture ever, until now. I let you decide of course, but I am already pleased with the comments on these series.

I f you are an explorer of the sims, and want to see another great build, made by lolmac Shan, just follow this link….

Kiya also build a gallery on this sim, with various pictures of some of the best artists in SL. Worthwhile to check this out too.

To see the series of "Lost World" on my flickr stream, you can follow this link.

Avatrait brings the art of second life to global art event.

2008-10-18T22:59:00.004+02:00

Press Release


Evanston, IL “ 10/16/2008“

AVATRAIT, the leading advocate of the emerging genre of "Digital
 Impressionist" art from the virtual world of Second Life, is excited
 to be a part of the Festival della Creativita  as well as being featured
 in the Rinascimento Virtuale exhibit focusing on the art of virtual worlds.

The Festival della Creativita, an international art event being staged
October 23-26, 2008 in Florence, Italy at the historic Fortessa da Basso,
and various satellite venues.  In its third staging, several hundred
thousand attendees are expected, all enjoying hundreds of events,
exhibitors, and the presentations of over a thousand artists and speakers.

The Rinascimento Virtuale exhibit is a gallery show focusing on the art
of virtual worlds, which will be featured at the Museum of Natural History
of Florence from October 21, 2008 through January 7, 2009.

Greg Houston (Track Hax in Second Life), the founder of Avatrait, will
be making a presentation during the Festival at the launch event for
Rinascimento Virtuale, detailing the growth of "Digital Impressionism",
how the Avatrait Gallery arose as the premier site for this emerging
genre within S.L., and how they have bridged the real and virtual worlds
by bringing this new art to a wider real-world audience.

Avatrait artists will be both represented by printed images in the show
and via a video production which will be a program element of the art fest.
All of the Avatrait art featured in Rinascimento Virtuale will be donated
for a charity benefit at the conclusion of the exhibit.  In another first,
a hardcover book, AVATRAIT: From Second Life® to Florence, is being
released the week of the Festival which will both detail the birth of this
exciting new genre and document the works of 47 of the Avatrait Gallery
artists.
Also being announced this week is the new Avatrait web site, which offers
its users free art uploads, social networking, and retail options.

The Avatrait Gallery is on the web at http://avatrait.com and in can be
found in Second Life at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/38/211/38.
The book, AVATRAIT: From Second LifeÂ® to Florence, is available for
direct order at http://avatraitbooks.com.

KOINUP's new SL places Directory

2008-10-17T18:39:00.003+02:00

Press release KOINUP

You are invited to join Koinup and place your favorite locations from SL in their Places Directory. The newest feature allows members to upload a photo of a location and its slurl in order to share with fellow members some of your favorite sims inside of SL. You can visit the site http://www.koinup.com/places in order to see what locations are already listed. The Places Directory is one of the fastest growing features of Koinup. Koinup members are quickly realizing the importance of such a directory and using it to discover new sim openings. Photographers are using it to find lovely photographic landscapes and event planners are using it to help spread the word about upcoming events.

There is a Coolest Places category (http://www.koinup.com/sims/in-second-life/coolest/ ) and if a location is listed there it means that many viewers have chosen that particular location as their favorite, thus helping to make that location become part of the Coolest Places category. Presently, there are more than 1,000 wonderful places shared on the Koinup site. Members find the Places Directory very helpful due to it being used to help them discover new locations to visit. Sim owners are the ones who are really reaping the benefits from their sims appearing in the Places Directory. Many sim owners are beginning to use the Places Directory as a promotional tool to promote their sims. If you are a sim owner and you place your sim in the Places Directory it can help to drive traffic to your sim and help you reach a different target market that you may not reach without using Koinup. The rapid growth of Koinup's Places Directory proves that members are interested in new locations and events. All they needed was a place to go to find it and Koinup has offered that unique element within its growing list of features. Koinup invites you to visit and share your 2nd life.

The Great Virtual China Wall

2008-10-06T11:17:00.009+02:00

I recently visited the great wall of China in Second Life, on the Mao sim. This is a fabulous build, and I also discovered that there were some Belgians involved in this project!

In fact, Amiryu Hosoi has also her shoulders under other projects, such as the Hosoi Ichiba. Hosoi Ichiba is an Asian-themed market surrounding a meditation garden located on a traditional Asian-themed island called Virgin Island in the Second Life virtual World . For sale are Japanese and Chinese antiques, furniture, artwork, and other interior decorating elements, together with buildings and building components that can be used to create an authentic Asian environment. I have not visited this sim yet, but it will be one of my next stops for sure, but you can already visit their blog.

I also met Nani Yifu at the wall, and she was so kind to invite Gwendolyn, who was with me at that time, for a trip on her flying carpet around the sim.

I really admire these people for their skills, as the result may be seen!

As usual, you can see more pictures of this beautiful sim on my flickr stream, but also in the flickr group of Hosoi Ichiba.

Busy weekend

2008-10-06T11:13:00.003+02:00

I had a nice long talk yesterday with Patrick Hufschmid, the designer and builder of RL and SL guitars, and lately, as you could read in my previous post, SL watches. The difference between all the watches, which can be found in SL, this one is really something.

He has updated his product already, as he is constantly trying to improve, which is remarkable. If you turn the watch (the side on your wrist), you can actually see the watch working. Amazing!! Don’t ask me how he did that. This is not just a copy from a picture and put into a watch. This is so much more.

If you don’t like the color, just change it, if you don’t like the light, just turn it off.

It is quality stuff, as we are used to see from him.

Since this weekend, I have also my own photo studio on Dream beach. Not big, but just enough to have the work done properly. I have installed a white room, where I can rez nearly anything, and post process the images later. I also put a CW studio, with lots of poses and backgrounds. As being the CYD photographer, I had lately quiet a few photo shoots, and this studio can only make the work easier.

Thank you Hellboy, for giving the opportunity!

After the September show at the Avatrait gallery, which was a big success, I am already preparing myself for the next show. So, keep tuned, I will inform you when and where.

Need to know the time?

2008-09-30T01:13:00.007+02:00

Some time ago I wrote an article about Patrick Hufschmid (PatrickHufschmid Beaumont in SL), a well known guitar maker in RL as well as SL.

As he lives in Switzerland, it would almost be normal that he designed a watch with menu for SL.

I was not a bit surprised when I saw his product, as this is a watch, illuminated with different possibilities and a real time! You can adjust the hour and even the minutes, as it is very accurate, what else could you expect from a Swiss made watch?

Every artist I know in SL, who plays with a Hufschmid, is really excited about it, so I am convinced you would too with this watch.

Even if you have RL company and are looking for a business gift, this could be a real opportunity to have you own name written in the watch.

As I did not have the time to check all possibilities, I would suggest surprising yourself by buying this watch and check it out yourself. You will not be disappointed.

Can you imagine talking to someone, and then suddenly look at your watch...to make clear the conversation is taking too long? LOL

Golconda, the Vampire sim

2008-09-23T08:54:00.004+02:00

I have visited the SIM Golconda several times. Every time I found something new to take pictures off.
It is a French community of Vampires, based on the World of Darkness, living and role-playing.

"The vampire that walks the World of Darkness is an undead creature. It is a former human being that has undergone the "Embrace" of a vampire, being completely drained of blood and then fed some by his sire, a vampire who has turned a mortal into a vampire through the embrace." ,so we learn from Wikipedia.

"Vampires strive for a Nirvana-like state called Golconda. This vague concept, encompasses salvation, redemption, a mastery over the vampire's bestial urges, and a high degree of Humanity; effects might be to lose the need to drink blood or even a return to a human state. Vampires in Golconda spent one blood point in a week, they are immune to the effects of Frenzy and Rotschreck and can raise all Traits and Disciplines up to 10, ignoring their generation limits."(wikipedia)

As all know, blood is truly vital for vampires. "When a vampire does not have any more blood in its body, it falls into torpor and cannot be reanimated unless someone feeds it with blood or a period of time has passed." That is why you need to wear a tag on this sim, to prevent yourself of being sucked out from one of these "creatures".;)

Everyone knows the stories of the vampires of course, but to give you a good impression, you need to visit the sim and try to discover every corner, turn every stone...

You will be able to find more pictures on my flickr stream, as usual, but also on the stream of one of its residents, Siobhan Watanabe, with several pictures of the beautiful vampires..;)

Newbie Dorm

2008-09-17T13:15:00.004+02:00

Picture from Tymmerie Thorne's blog

Tymmerie Thorne and Jerremy Darwin started with a noble idea. They offer a place to live, with all the help necessary that they can get, for newbies who are less than 90 days old. They called the place “Starting Point” and can use some advertising about this initiative, so that everybody knows what to do when they bump into a newbie.
Remember the first time you logged into the world? No one there to help, not knowing where to go, just trying a bit of this and a bit of that. I remember my first step….it was finished before I knew I was even online.;)
I logged in with my recently made avatar name. Landed on an island back then, in the middle of other newbies, all look alikes. What is the meaning, what should I do now, I was thinking to myself. I saw the button “fly”, so I tried that one, and yes, I flew around, above all other newbies….untill suddenly I couldn’t move forwards or backwards anymore. And the next thing that happened was a crash…;) I did not know at that time that that would be a daily adventure;;)
But knowing that there would be a dorm, and all the help from insiders, that would made the life of a newbie so much easier, even if there is a help island.
At this place I could get all the information I would need during my first 90 days on the grid. And I would have a place to live!!
I volunteered to be a “helper” in this group, meaning when there are questions asked in the group IM, one could easily give a direct answer. You could be a “helper” too…..
IM Jerremy or Tymmerie, or give a comment on Tym’s blog post here and here.

Meet the artist at Avatrait

2008-09-16T09:51:00.002+02:00

On Sunday was the first “Meet and Greet” with Looker Lumet at the Avatrait Gallery. Where I expected that no one would show up, I was more than pleased to see how many people where interested to talk to the artist. And not just anybody, no …., some great artists as well……Mecca…Cienega…Taff Nouvelle…Kiya McMallon and so many others.
The questions asked by those visitors where not only greetings like :How are you? and How have you been?, but more direct art questions. How do I put up a scene for the pictures? How are the techniques for particular pictures? How do I manage the lighting in the pictures?

Even after the foreseen hour, people were dropping in the gallery. And afterwards, when I already left the building, comments were coming in IM.
I have to say, that I never expected this success, and I am already looking forward to the next” meet the artist”.;)

Last night I have visited another gallery in SL, at Cetus, with art from Winter Nightfire, an artist from San Fransisco, who showed her digital work to me.
I only met her at my opening at the Avatrait gallery, but it seems that I have not heard the last of her. Maybe even an exhibition…..from Looker…at Cetus?

Virtual nature at its best.

2008-09-12T09:30:00.004+02:00

Some days ago I visited a sim called “Hollow Forest”.
Arriving on the spot you get the idea of being in the middle of a swamp, that is why the title of some pictures is called that way. The fog over the water…and with the right “Windlight” settings you really can make an amazing view on that small lake.

This forest can also be the perfect background for elfins or faeries scenes.
It seems that builders are really improving their skills lately, because there are now many nice forest sims, a virtual nature where you get a real good feeling and almost real life experiences. The mushrooms and all the details are made with real passion, I must say.
This is certainly a place to visit, and to discover the beauty of the other world.
More pictures are and will be seen on my flickr stream.

Some thoughts

2008-09-11T09:18:00.006+02:00

I only said yesterday, that I did not had the time to surf around. What did I do this morning....indeed...surf a bit around the grid...checking my offline emails...my flickr stream...;)
That having done I remembered a blogpost by Prad Prathivi. I think I have been too long in Second Life.;)

"You know you’ve been in Second Life too long when..

1. You’re browsing webpages and you Alt-Click to get a closer look at an image.

2. Someone calls out your avatar’s name and you respond.

3. You start typing “/me” in a text message or on MSN Messenger.

4. You start using your favourite gestures in the real world.

5. You accidentally write down your avatar’s name on an RL form

6. You see a pink ball and a blue ball in a store, and think how funny it’d be to put them on a bed.

7. You google your real name and get nothing, and then you google your avatar’s name and get a dozen pages.

8. The word “cyber” becomes synonymous with sex.

9. The first thing you do in the morning is open the laptop and check your email for offline messages, then check your Flickr/Koinup/Blog for comments.

10. You’re on an airplane and think how it’d be funny to suddenly stand up and scream “ZOMG - SIM CROSSING!!!!!” to the astonishment to other passengers.."

The only problem that I have now is, that I've been too long away from my blog. I tried to include the link to Prad's post, but did not succeed...haha. It is time for me to pick up the pieces, I think.

Update......finally I managed to include the link.;)

Dream Beach

2008-09-10T22:14:00.002+02:00

Ok, I don’t know if anyone still reads my blog, but I am going to try to write now and than about Looker Lumet, as I remember that was requested by some of my readers.

This blog started as information on what was happening on the grid, and not specifically about me. But, as I don’t have the time to surf around all the blogs anymore, I will inform you what is happening with Looker Lumet, about his activities and discoveries.

As you will probably know, after reading my previous posts, Looker Lumet had a very important gallery opening last weekend. Once a month a new SL artist has the opportunity to have an exhibition at the Avatrait gallery, which is not exactly unknown, as it exists for more than a year now, and also sells SL pictures in RL. In fact, Avatrait will be part of the exhibition in RL, in Florence, Italy, at the end of October, with some pictures of SL artists. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the opening and meet Track Hax, the man behind Avatrait, as I have other obligations in RL.

But, back to the opening last Saturday, Looker can be very happy, looking back at the results. I only hope that this isn’t THE highlight of Looker Lumet’s career in SL, but only a starting point to more success.

The way to achieve that, is trying to make better art, better pictures, and become known by many other avatars, who did not hear about Looker until now.

And this future will all start at Bahia Beach, not only homeland of the “Dreamers” and thus mine too, but also the base of CYD Records and a gallery.

Almost daily, the “Open mic” stage is reserved for performances of SL music artists. For many of those, CYD Records is a welcome support to have their career a push forward.

And Looker Lumet happens to be the official photographer of CYD records…..:)

The gallery is also situated on this sim, right next to the building where I live. SL art, as well as RL art will find their way in this exhibition space. The intention is to have all the best artists in SL featuring on a monthly base. However, this still needs to be worked out. Rome was also not built in one day.;)

The combination of the gallery, the two stages, one at the gallery and one for the open mic, the beach, the different small “islands” makes this sim a beautiful home for dreamers. And that is why it is called: “Dream Beach”

Looker Lumet at the Avatrait Gallery

2008-09-07T23:06:00.005+02:00

As you all know, and as mentioned in my previous post, there was an exhibition opening on Saturday of my pictures, at the Avatrait Gallery.
I used to take a lot of pictures at such events, but this time I was too much busy in answering all the IM's an keeping an eye on the local chat, so I would not miss a conversation or a sentence towards me.
Can you imagine someone just congratulates me, and I would not see it, and not respond to that comment. How would you feel? You would probably think..: okay he's busy...he did not see the message...., but nevertheless you would be disappointed. So instead of taking pictures I was talking to a lot of people, who visited the gallery.

I was pleased to see a lot of new faces, but also very familiar faces, my dear friends.
This post is actually a word of thank you, to all the visitors of Saturday, and of course especially my friends, because, to be honest, where would I be without them?
From the beginning of 2007, my career as photographer on SL has grown to a level I would never dreamed of. Okay this is only SL, but I am pleased with it.
I have learned, and in the meanwhile met so many people in this world, that I can not imagine that I would ever leave this, except perhaps if all my friends would suddenly disappear....
So, thank you all for helping to make the exhibition, and thus also my pictures, a great success.

Gallery opening on September 6th!!!

2008-09-01T20:20:00.002+02:00

On September 6th, I will have a gallery opening at Avatrait. My pictures will be exhibited for a month. Don't miss the opening evening, as you know that at the gallery, it has become a " must be there" event.

If you did not read it elsewhere, if you did not get an invitation, this announcement is for everyone who is interested.

See you on Saturday!!

2008 GOLDEN PIXEL SHORT FILM AWARDS

2008-08-25T23:45:00.002+02:00

A few days ago, I received a notecard from my friend , Summer Wardhani, with the information of a contest. As I was off line during the day, it was difficult to post the message, which I forgot to copy to my desktop, but finally found the time to post it on my blog. For the contestants....HAVE FUN!!!

PORTUGAL CENTER is proud to present:

2008 GOLDEN PIXEL SHORT FILM AWARDS

The Film Festival will take place between October 9 and 11, 2008.
Exhibition of the selected movies : October 9 and 10 at 2.30 pm PDT.
Closing ceremony and award delivery : October 11 at 2.30 pm PDT.

1. ELIGIBILITY:
a) Applications will be accepted from short films within the following categories : Animated Film, Fiction Film and Musical Film.

b) Applicant films must have a minimum of 30 seconds and a maximum of 10 minutes.

c) Each Director/Producer may submit up to 3 films. Each work should include a corresponding “Credits” Note card.

d) Eligible format: FLV-Flas, MP4 and MOV. The competing films should be placed in YouTube for ease of access in-world. The corresponding http:// address should be sent to : pixeldeouro@gmail.com

e) Films will be accepted into competition whether they were shoot in the metaverse or out of it.

2. DEADLINES
a) Films shall be delivered until September 24, 2008.

b) Applicants shall be notified of the jury’s decision on selected works until October 2, 2008.

3. AWARDS
a) International Competition: all awards include a Golden Pixel Trophy. The jury will grant these awards to the following works : Best Fiction Film, Best Animated Film, Best Short Film (up to 3 minutes)

b) Portuguese National Competition: all awards include a Golden Pixel Trophy. The jury will grant these awards to the following works: Best Short National Film (up to 3 minutes), Best Portuguese Speaking Film.

4. JURY
The jury will be composed of a panel of professionals and interested personalities in the area and will be charged with the responsibility of selecting the awarded films within each different category.

5. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS
a) The Festival Sponsors will included a cash award.

b) The awarded films will be exhibited during the week immediately subsequent to the Closing Ceremony.

6. EXCEPTIONAL SITUATIONS
The organisation of the Film Festival is entitled to :

a) change the Regulation as necessary. Any amendment will be timely notified to the interested parties.

b) refuse any film which does not fully respect this regulation.

c) take any decision about non-regulated issues.

Any situation excluded of the clauses of this Regulation must be submitted to the Festival Organization for evaluation and decision by means of an e-mail sent to pixeldeouro@gmail.com

Opening Gallery Dream Beach

2008-08-21T12:55:00.003+02:00

Today, the art gallery on Isla de Bahia ( Dream Beach) will be official opened.

The RL works of Syl Darcy and Blueberry will be shown, as well as some of my SL images.
Don't miss the event, as at 11.00AM SLT, Orangelife will make us swing with his magical voice followed by DJ Greek, who will make sure that the party continues.

It must be a coincident that Orangelife sings at the opening, as he did the same at the opening of my show at Portucalis.

It is worthwhile to visit Dream Beach, and not only because of the gallery, but also will there be almost every day a performance of different great artists in Second Life.
If you like some music, if you like to see multiple artists perform, than Dream Beach is the place to be. Ask for a membership, you won't regret it.

AVATRAIT SELLS OUT AGAIN!

2008-08-16T23:08:00.002+02:00

Press release
Evanston, IL “ 08/15/2008 “

Once again, an artist has sold out their show at the
popular Avatrait Gallery in Second Life.  This time
it was Keiko Morigi, whose dramatic "When I Should
Be Sleeping" exhibit sold all of the exclusive
one-of-a-kind images offered. Morigi's vision
evokes a dream-like universe, where the bizarre
and the beautiful intermingle with the playful
and the stark.

Avatrait is the leading proponent of the new
"Digital Impressionist" genre, and the fact that
each new show has been selling out in-world is a
testimony to the growing demand for this art.
With the upcoming exposure at the international
Festival della CreativitÃ , being held in Florence,
Italy this October, the popularity can only be
expected to be increasing.

It's now clear that the much-celebrated original
Avatrait Gallery space is no longer expansive
enough to meet the growing demand for its artists'
shows.  As such, Avatrait founder Greg Houston
(Track Hax in SL) declared that it's time for
Avatrait to move from its home on Simuality island,
and pioneer a new "all art" locale.  He presented
this concept to the Avatrait Board (a group of
well-known Second Life artists whose input is
essential to keeping Avatrait at the forefront of
SL art), and challenged them to create a fresh new
site, out of their own visions, for not only a much
larger new gallery space, but offices, lecture hall,
theater, shop, and a sculpture garden. Work has
begun on the new "Avatrait island" and it is hoped
that everything will be ready for a grand opening
before the Florence events this Fall.

The Avatrait Gallery is in Second Life at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/38/211/38
and on the web at http://avatrait.com.

Spirit of Scotland

2008-08-07T09:45:00.005+02:00

SPIRIT OF SCOTLAND BY RANNOCH LATER

Rannoch comes from the Highlands of Scotland.

His native land has been the inspiration for most of his work and this often reflects in the subject.

It all started one very cold winter while he was stranded by deep snow in his caravan (Trailer) on the side of a Scottish Loch. He was fixing his Motorcycle at the time, so had some tins of spray paint left all over the place. Just decided to brighten the place up with it, and… the end result was what you will see at the exhibition. He discovered he was into painting.

He was stranded for over a week, and had nothing to paint on so the furniture, what wasn’t burned, got it. Most of the Originals of these prints were done on recycled domestic furniture with tins of Graffiti paint, and some Ink.

The rest was done on Roof tiles that were under his caravan. You could say this is his old home on display.

Among his works are Logos and Album covers for the music industry, as well as corporate logos and design boards, and several commissions, but mostly he enjoys painting for his own fun.

He also makes Swords and daggers, again this is all done with things he finds and recycles.

RL exhibitions:

Smith Gallery, (Stirling), part of “Brave Art” exhibition 1997

Trading post, Royal Mile (Edinburgh)

Royal College of Phisicians , Queen Street (Edinburgh) (part exh)

Lethbridge , (Ontario).(part exh)

Now Galeria LX is proud to present his works for the first time at Galeria LX in Portucalis. Galeria LX, Portucalis (111, 81, 22)

Please join us there for a night embedded with the Spirit of Scotland.

We see more and more RL artists coming to the virtual world, and welcome them. It is wonderful to see how we can have exhibitions with RL artworks and SL artworks next to each other. This evening, August 7th, there will also be the opening of the new gallery on Isla de Bahia, Dream Beach. Syl Darcy and Blueberry will exhibit their RL works, and I am proud to say that I will have some of my works there too. Feel free to visit the gallery any time you like.;)

What's up?

2008-08-06T13:54:00.003+02:00

I know I haven't been blogging much lately, due to several circumstances.
But I would like to inform you all that I am still alive and kicking, ;)

I have moved to another SIM from August 1st, and have rented a penthouse on Bahia Beach. This is a very beautiful island with a lot of performances and parties, what was not exactly what I was looking for but, but the friendship I get there can compensate it.;)

It has been approximate one year that I lived on the former Strawberry island from Coolzor Courier. Due to the fact that he sold everything in Second Life, we got a new landlord, with, of course new rules, which is inevitable.

I am preparing my exhibition in the Avatrait gallery for September, that is also why I haven't been posting a lot of pictures lately. As you know, every month, there is an exhibition of one of the members of the Avatrait Gallery. I would suggest to take a look at this month's artist, Keiko Morigi.

To be honest with you all, it is a pleasure to see, that even when I don't blog, I have daily visitors on this blog, which means that I have posted some articles in the past, which interest some people and that is why I intend to get myself together again, and try to post some articles once and a while.

I will try to update the bloghead soon, as my appearance in SL has changed too.
I hope to see you all soon, on my blog or on the grid.;)

SLIPPCAT MOVES INTO BETA-2.0 PHASE WITH NEW OFFICES AND NEW METRICS

2008-07-16T14:06:00.003+02:00

Press release

Evanston, IL “ 07/15/2008 “

Simuality, LLC is very pleased to announce the next
generation of the "beta" release of their virtual
world advertising product, SlippCat. 

As the Metaverse continues to expand into numerous
new virtual worlds, the need for multi-platform
capable metrics became apparent.
To this end, SlippCat is now introducing an advanced
Metaverse metrics system that complies with our core
philosophy of not serving intrusive "push"-based
advertising.

SlippCat, from its earliest conception, has been
intended to be as unobtrusive as possible for users
of various virtual worlds, allowing advertisers to
reach the ever-expanding virtual population with
messages, information, and services that are in
the form of a true "pull" model, where the user is
in total control of the engagement.  Due to feedback
obtained in our early beta tests in the Second Life
environment, it became clear that moving to a new
metrics model would be advisable.

Along with moving SlippCat into the new phase of
development, it, along with all the other divisions
of Simuality, have made a physical move to expansive
new office spaces right in downtown Evanston, IL. 
The new Simuality Center features dramatic office
layouts, meeting rooms, a gallery featuring
sister-company Avatrait's virtual art, a gym, and
a heath center with sauna,and plenty of room for
eventual growth.  In addition, the new offices allow
for improved access to public and alternative
transportation modes in an attempt to reduce corporate
and employee carbon footprints.

Simuality LLC is both a full-service Metaverse
developer, specializing in "sticky" builds that offer
users activities and interaction, as well as an
"incubator"  for creating virtual worlds applications
such as SlippCat.

Koinup contest presented by Twilight

2008-07-13T00:00:00.002+02:00

I would like to tell you about a contest that Koinup is hosting and Twilight is presenting.

I came up with the idea, rules, and awards of the contest. Basically from July 8th to July 18th photographers can submit their work to Koinup on the theme of “Lifestyles.” I wanted to give people the opportunity to present the different styles of living they have encountered or do themselves partake in within Second Life.

There will be seven winners: one jury winner and six community winners. The Jury winner gets an article in the November 1st issue of Twilight Magazine (delayed time due to the magazine being release quarterly now) and also their own exhibit of about 20 photos in the August 9th opening of Twilight Gallery. This August 9th opening will hopefully be the largest ever as we will be having it at our new gallery on its own open spaced sim. The Community winners get their photos in Twilight Magazine and also on display in the main hall of Twilight Gallery during the month of August.

More detailed information can be found at this website: http://www.koinup.com/contest/twilight/. This includes, criteria, and submitting.

Belmakor Pintens
Twilight Gallery Owner
Twilight Magazine Editor

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Aloha%20Ocean%20Estates/158/

Photo Contest

2008-07-12T23:57:00.000+02:00

Avatrait Gallery is sponsoring a photo contest for the next two weeks. "Avatrat Photo Contest: Hottest Action Couple"

So you think you got what it takes to be SL's hawtest, rockinest, action packed couple? Got the guns, the katanas, the clothes, and the poses? Prove it to the original HAWT Couple from NoR!!

Rules:

1. New Work
2. Has to be two people in the shot. Female/Male, Male/Male or Female/Female.
3. Has to be taken in NoR at the Remembrance Sim. (Please give a shout out to HeroineNouvel Dagger if she's online she will tp you over )􀀁

4. Has to be submitted on your flickr stream and in the Avatrait Gallery group with the words, "Avatrait Gallery Hottest Action Couple" in the tags.
5. Two submissions allowed, one from each person that is the couple. You have to be in the picture if you are submitting the work.
6. Deadline is July 23rd @ 5 pm SLT! (no exceptions)

Prizes:
1st place, 10,000 linden
2nd place, 5,000 linden
3rd place, 2500 linden

The winning images will hang in the gallery until the next featured Contest!

If you do not have a flickr account, you can open a free account at http://www.flickr.com/

New Blogged.com

2008-07-03T10:29:00.002+02:00

I was informed that there was a new website of "Blogged.com". I had to check that out of course, and I liked what I saw. It has a clear overview of all possibilities, except that I was looking where to find my blog, was a little bit difficult. I found it under "MMORPG Blog Directory".
As I was ranked with a 8.5 a few weeks ago, I had to see where I was ranked in general.
I can not help it...even when I don't blog I want to be in front...;)
What appeared? I am ranked 6th, out of 92 blogs in this category. After the "Official Linden blog" , "Second Life Herald" and "SLOG" blog, but before "Torley Lives", who is ranked 10th.
I wonder how the blogs were ranked in the first place, but I have to admit that I am flattered, and is in fact a confirmation that I can not stop this blog.
So I ask my dear readers to be patient, until my workload in RL has decreased, so I can start with fresh energy to maintain my position in the virtual world blogosphere.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-07-01T11:56:00.003+02:00

You were perhaps wondering what is happening with Looker?

In fact, nothing is happening, don't worry. I just am so busy in RL, that I can't keep up with SL lately. I don't have the time to read blogs, to take pictures, to post process them.

I apologize for not being able to keep you informed what is happening on the grid.

I participate at the SL5B for the moment, but did not had the time to write a short article about it.

I hope I soon will have the time to post some articles again, as I used to do.

In the meanwhile, if anybody is interested in a nice island, contact me!!

Island for sale

2008-06-26T08:52:00.004+02:00

I have a small island on Soheil of 4096 m2. Due to certain circumstances I would like to sell the island. It is on the former Strawberry SIM with nice views on each side.
If you are interested, just visit the place at Soheil, and IM me.
Price is negociable, tier is 36$USD/month, and more than 1000 prims!!

Open letter to Linden lab (part 2)

2008-06-19T20:57:00.002+02:00

Shoshana Epsilon, Art Director of SL5B, who wrote an open letter to Linden Lab, concerning the ban of art pictures of "no adult in the same picture as a child"-nonsense, has now a new letter to the Lindens but this time, she will go a bit further, and organizing a "Resident-run initiative", with no interference of Linden Lab( is that possible?), on the sims of residents...
The letter is signed by Sho, SignpostMarv, who recently gave his job in SL5B back to the Lindens, Pyrii Akula and Will Web. These are indeed not the first the best...
I post the entire letter, so everyone who would not have seen the letter of Shoshana, will hereby be notified.

" To whom it may concern at Linden Lab,

In the interest of transparency and good will, I would like to inform you of a new Resident-run initiative. A Second Life fringe festival.

For several years, Linden Lab has graciously provided space for the Residents of Second Life to showcase their talents. For their part, the Residents receive recognition from their peers. (Due to my participation in SL3B, I was interviewed for Le Monde on-line magazine and asked to participate in the University of Texas at Dallas' first display of Resident art. Later, I was asked to be the art director for SL4B and SL5B. My continued presence has given me additional exposure to be asked to be curator and board member for several galleries.)

I understand the need to provide a squeaky-clean image to the "outside" world. Honestly, I want Second Life to continue and succeed as much as you do. However, many artists and exhibitors find the "squeaky clean" image that you wish to portray as being too restrictive. In truth, there are MANY aspects of Second Life, and the G rated version is only part of it.

In the image of the International Arts Festival at Edinburgh with its associated Fringe Festival, several of us from within the community wish to have our own fringe festival. The intent is that Linden Lab's Birthday event is to the Resident event as the Edinburgh International Arts Festival is to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: the official, major event, and the supplementary smaller event. We would welcome your cooperation in coordinating these two separate events so that they can support each other and create a stronger whole.

We have yet to actually name our event, but I am rather fond of calling it the 'fringe festival' following a concept commonly used in Great Britain. (There are actually concurrent fringe festivals in many cities throughout northern England and Scotland.) The festival organizers will be meeting in the upcoming weeks and months to iron out these details, and we welcome input from all sources on how we can construct a truly wonderful festival to celebrate all the things we love about Second Life.

For 2009, we will be asking individuals and corporations, rather than Linden Lab, to donate the use of their sims to host a festival concurrent with Second Life's 6th birthday. In subsequent years, if this is successful, we may include other non-birthday events, especially if we can arrange long term donor support.

The intention of this event is not to take attention away from your primary event(s). It is to allow additional participation by people who love this place and see it as "home".

In thanks for your continued support,

Pyrii Akula
Shoshana Epsilon
SignpostMarv Martin
Will Webb"

AVATRAIT TO BE FEATURED AT GLOBAL ART EVENT

2008-06-19T00:14:00.003+02:00

PRESS RELEASE
Evanston, IL “ 06/18/2008 “

AVATRAIT, the leading advocate of the emerging genre of
"Digital Impressionist"art from the virtual world of
Second Life, is very pleased to announce that they've
been invited to be part of the Rinascimento Virtuale show
in Florence,Italy this fall.

Rinascimento Virtuale is an exhibit focusing on the art
of virtual worlds, which will be featured at the Museum
of Natural History of Florence from October 21, 2008
through January 7, 2009.  This is a part of, and is
opening in conjunction with, the third staging of
the Festival della Creativita, an international art
event that will take place October 23-26, 2008 at the 
historic Fortessa da Basso, and various satellite venues
around Florence.

Greg Houston (Track Hax in Second Life), the founder of
Avatrait, will be making a presentation during the
Festival, detailing the growth of "Digital Impressionism",
how the Avatrait Gallery arose as the premier site for
this emerging genre within S.L., and how they have bridged
the real and virtual worlds by bringing this new art
via high-quality framed prints sold through their web
site) to a wider real-world audience.

Avatrait artists will be both represented by framed
originals in the show and via a video production which
will be a program element of the art fest. All of the
Avatrait art featured in Rinascimento Virtuale will be
donated for a charity benefit at the conclusion of
the exhibit.  In another first, a hardcover book will
be released which will both detail the birth of this
exciting new genre, and document the Avatrait artists'
works in this ground-breaking
exhibition.

The Avatrait Gallery is in Second Life at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/38/211/38 and on
the web at
http://avatrait.com.

Once upon a time...there was a bank in SL®

2008-06-17T10:44:00.003+02:00

It is probably a disease. You get it from one person to another. Will it become a virus?
I have been following the story of the Whitfield-Hastings bank for quiet some time now, as I had some money invested before the bank was banned from Second Life. I still had some change money in there, and it seemed that I could even recover those few Lindens, but now the truth came out, and what I was thinking all along came out. It is like a fairy tale, but then with no happy ending. It does not matter to me, but some people have invested big money, and they will never see one Linden back.
Who is to blame? Linden Lab for sure, but as I said in the beginning, it is a disease, the way of communication, or the lack of communication, and after that….the lies.

The story about the banks is known to everyone, this story is probably not.

The Royal bank of SL was founded by Cristopher Whitfield, and was one of the best banks in SL, as they looked professional in what they did, the interests were good (too high, but that was adjusted after a while). All went well until the decision of LL to close all banks, and give them only a few weeks to comply with the new rules. All accounts were closed, no one could withdraw money from their accounts anymore, until everything was cleared. Some people were mad, others were patient. We waited…..

Suddenly, the sad news came that Cris had died in RL. That would mean that the bank was automatically bankrupt, no existence anymore, no funds…nothing.
Most members were sad to hear the news and expressed their condolences on the website. After a few days, a new avatar came in the picture, the RL brother of Cris, Steffen Bolton. He did not know anything about SL, but wanted to pay everyone out, as that would have been the wish of Cris. In no time he was able to learn about Second Life, bank business and other stuff. It was amazing to see, how someone was trying to please all the shareholders of the former bank. There was a little hope for the big investors that they would see their money again.
New contracts were made; all shareholders had to agree to a loss of 30% of their total amount, as a cost to the WHJ bank. What alternative did they have?
After the contracts were signed, they tried to sell their sims, to find some money to pay all accounts. There was an agreement with LL that Steffen could manage all business that was started by Cris, because this was unusual….an avatar died in RL, with a lot of assets in SL.

This was what we had to believe.

On Friday, June 13^th, what a date, there would be a statement from Steffen, because nobody knew what was happening, how long they had to wait for their money…….

The statement came…..a few days later.

“CLARIFICATION OF CRIS
Cris is very ill and not DEAD. It was certainly not a good idea to let him die in the real World
or in SL, but in the given situation it was the only idea we had to save the islands.
In retrospect, it turned out by the fact that it was no use.
The management knew about this situation, and I am not really happy about it, but the life of my brother
was more important than continuing the game here absurdly. He was no longer able to continue
the business and was so limited; he repeatedly has stayed for a longer time at hospital stays.
Until now, his health condition is critical, and he can hardly do his daily work.”

This announcement, what has happened in the past and what they were trying to achieve, felt like a bomb to all shareholders. Why did they play this comedy? Why didn’t they simply say that Cris was ill, and could no longer work at the bank…?

Is this story the only true one, or is this also a lie?
Although the website is shutting down after today, they still say that the shareholders will be paid.
It doesn’t matter to me, as I had only a few Lindens there, but there others, who are really depending on that money, and who were desperately waiting to see some of their money back.
Well, we knew it all along, before LL closed all the banks, but the way they communicated, seems very much like the Lindens would have done.
At the end of their statement, (I use the plural form as I think it is more than one avatar, or all are one and the same), they wrote: (this was translated from the German language by someone)

“IMPORTANT TO THE END

Responsibility:
The WHJ belonged to ALL shareholders, and not a single person.
The WHJ went bankrupt, and it has enriched NOBODY here, on the contrary,
the responsible persons are now broke in RL LIFE too.
The money flowed into the daily interests and the monthly costs.
Everyone who signed the WHJ has to share responsibility.
NOBODY is guilty, it was simply a failure

The remaining debt:
Even if none likes to hear, but after a bankruptcy, actually none is entitled to money.
Since this is not clearly regulated by LL in SL, we still obliged to repay all./..."

Will this be the end of the story? Will it continue? Will everyone be paid accordingly?

I don’t think there is much hope, but as they use to say; you can not live without hope.;)

Rustica, one marvelous build

2008-06-16T15:18:00.004+02:00

I visited Rustica during this past weekend. I must say, one of the finest castles I have seen in SL®.
Just type "Rustica" in the search bar and you will be able to find the SLURL. As I am at work now, I am not able to give you the right address.
While I was looking for the right spot to take my pictures, the owner of the castle spoke to me. He told me he built the castle on his own, and has also made some furniture which are sold in the castle.
The castle is build between the rocks, a small creek is floating from above.....
I found this castle through an invitation of a flickr colleague, Kracht Strom.

I have made some pictures there, and post them here in this blog, just to give you an idea of what you are about to see, when you visit the sim.

Open letter for SL5B protest display

2008-06-16T15:00:00.007+02:00

How far are they going? What are their intentions? What will the future bring us?
LL manage every day to draw their attention, only it is always with bad news, never with good news. How much are we going to take?
Shoshana reacted on the new rule of LL not to exhibit child avatars and adult avatars in the same picture on the SL5B. I know, I am not the first to write about it, nor will I be the last.
Shoshana is the Art Director of SL5B, and this is what she wrote on her blog:

"This letter was sent to Dusty Linden on 12 June 2008. As of now, there has been no response. (This is not to say that she is hiding anything, but most likely a finely crafted response is necessary from the corporate lawyer.)

Dusty,

I realize that you don't make the rules, you just have to tell us about them. This "no adult in the same picture as a child" rule is one I am very saddened about. I will not quit working for SL5B unless you tell me to step down, but I AM working on my own protest. You should know about it so you are not surprised. Furthermore, you (LL) can decide to shut it down if you feel that it is necessary.

I am soliciting RL pictures for my SL5B display. These will be pictures of RL families. They will all be G-rated. I will review each picture before it goes into the gallery. If you wish, I will thereafter submit them to you for review.

The fact of the matter is that I strongly disagree with LL's position on this. I trust that this form of civil disobedience will be seen in the light in which it is intended ... as part of my support for Second Life and its continued diversity.

-- Shoshana Epsilon, Art Director, SL5B"

I think it makes no sense, every friend I know agrees, but LL seems not to understand, or is frightened for the politicians. Who will say?
I know politicians can make quiet a good soup of ridicules rules, but that LL would take the same direction, was something I would never expect they would do.
Will they never learn from the past? Are they really tired of us? As I also wrote last week about the message with logging in, I think LL is making work of decreasing its population in SL®. I will never know why, but this last decision is really absurd. And not because Stephen Venkman, friend, colleague, and family man was involved in this.
I will support Sho, Venk and all the others who are protesting against this.

The end of free accounts?

2008-06-13T00:43:00.004+02:00

Yesterday evening, after two days not have logged in to Second Life®, I wanted to visit the grid once again. I got the normal message: "login failed". Nothing the matter, I thought. Just give it another try, and you will see, it was a malfunctioning of the server, or something, I thought to myself.Big was my surprise, that after trying several times, I suddenly received the message , shown below.

This means that from now on, all residents must pay directly to the Linden's or they will be banned in the future from the grid. At least, that is how I see it.
What will happen to all companies, who thought that this was interesting to start doing business in SL®? Again they must realize that all is up to the Linden's and nobody else. If they want no one on the grid, than nobody will be there.
I kept on trying and after a while, I succeeded. What should I think about that?

Is it becoming time to explore another virtual world? Is this the end for the free accounts on Second Life?

Did everyone experienced this, when trying to log in?
I am certain, that Second Life will not be the coolest place anymore, when only paying residents are allowed on the grid. Or we all are going to pay them, in order to stay here, just before the SL5B celebrations. They surely know how to draw our attention.;))
Interesting to know what will follow.

AVATRAIT presents: HIO!!!!woot

2008-06-09T14:10:00.007+02:00

AVATRAIT presents: HIO!!!!woot
Originally uploaded by H-I-O

There is a new exhibition at the Avatrait Gallery. Last Saturday was the opening in the well known Avatrait style. Lots of people, great party........

If you don't know Hio Taringa, or if you don't know Avatrait by now, please visit the gallery.
The exhibition of Hio is from June 7th till June 29th.

SL5B- a new beginning

2008-06-06T09:20:00.003+02:00

I won't write about the Lindens, I just want to inform you that I decided to participate after all at the SL5B.
This decision has in fact nothing to do with LL, it is just in respect for my friends, Sho, Venk and Codie, who are working as volunteers to set up this event with all artists on the grid.
I went yesterday evening on the sim, to find me a spot. The best were already taken, but it doesn't matter where I will be showing my pictures, as long as I am part of the event. As long as we can show all residents who we are, what we do, and make new friends, which we already did.
This is the best support that we can give the organizers, just to be there, and not quitting.
I can understand if there are people not submitting their art this year for the well known issues, but the problem is, they will not hurt LL, only people who have "nothing" to do with LL and who are doing their utmost for this yearly event, which is a celebration for all of us, despite what they decide in San Fransisco.

All about politics

2008-06-03T13:07:00.003+02:00

You can read many blogs lately regarding the issue that Linden Lab is discriminating certain groups to the SL5B.
As I would think which is a proper way to react, is not to submit any art to SL5B, no exhibitions, as why are the Lindens doing that every time, over and over again? First they allow child avatars, they allow groups (GOR, BDSM), and now, at the anniversary, they refuse the builds/works/ participation of these groups.
I was not intended to write about this issue, but it seems to escalate as even the resident organizer of the anniversary celebration, SignPostMarv, who was working on the event through the whole year, has withdrawn, due to irreconcilable differences between him, Dusty and Everett Linden over ethical issues, and the degree of Linden Lab involvement in what is a Resident-ran event (and has been for at least the last 3 years).

"The SL Children communities in Second Life (adults who role-play children in a family-friendly, G-rated, wholesome, decent and fun way) had once again prepared one of their grand and enjoyable showcases -- indeed, at the third anniversary, the SL Children's displays and events were among the most popular -- but are being refused the right to participate for the first time in five years, apparently due to Linden Lab's fear of Mark Kirk and his ill-informed and unfounded assertion"
according Massively. And this assertion was described in next article

"The Chicago Tribune is carrying a story about Congressional Representative Mark Kirk of the district of Illinois. Kirk alleges that Second Life "is a risk for children, who could be sexually exploited" and has written a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission, urging them to issue a consumer alert to warn of this danger"

So, to summarize it all, Linden Lab is afraid,with the coming elections, that they (politicians) would close Second Life. And that is why they take precautions. But as in the past, they take sudden actions, without even consulting third parties, and thinking thoroughly what would be the results if they take such actions.

We did not see the last of it yet, and I would like to know where this all leads us.....it is not our second life anymore. It is even worse as our first lifes. It is no fun anymore.........
If politics is involved in what is suppose to be a distraction from real life than it ends right here.

I am thinking not to take part of this event, not to submit any pictures. I know....if I am the only one, who cares.......but if other artists would feel the same.........

One of my colleague bloggers, Raul Crimson, has wrote an article too about this issue, and posted the picture , which you can see next to this article, and also on his flickr stream.

Looker Updated

2008-06-03T11:30:00.004+02:00

As I told before on my blog, there were some things coming up. Some new challenges has been proposed to me, which I accepted gladly.

From this month on I will be on the board of the Avatrait gallery, for the next 6 months. This means that I will be able to attend the board meetings and propose things that can help all the artists, not only the ones in the gallery.
As there is a future, and artists, just as myself, are continuously improving, there is an opportunity for all artists on SL® to be a member of the gallery. We see, on a daily basis, that the quality from the images are improving, and that pushes every artist to higher level.
I am glad that I am already more than a year on the grid, because I if I had to start only now with my images, I would have never be able to be amongst those fine artists that we all know. I am grateful for that. As it was always my goal to be closer to the artists, to communicate with them, to organize events, this job as a member of the board is one that I could not refuse.
Last month there was a contest on Avatrait, and the winners were announced yesterday. You can see the pictures in the gallery inworld, but also in the flickr group. You can see the picture of Belmakor Pintens on the right.

Also, I got the request to work, to write, to be a juror for the Twilight Magazine. If you remember well, there was an interview with me in the first issue.
This magazine is one of the finest, high quality magazine that I have seen in Second Life®. That is why I did not doubt to accept the offer. It is again in the same line as my boardmembership, to be close to the artists, and to see what is going on, because there are a lot of great artists out there, who I never met, and did not hear about yet.

Now since today, there is a new group on flickr, the Twilight Magazine submissions. Belmakor wrote this:
"This group was created as a sub-group for Twilight Magazine. Our Jury suggests and votes on the artists to be in the magazine. We have a widespread jury who spend a lot of time searching Flickr for possible article contents, BUT we aren't perfect. So we created a group to let you put in two of your best works a month.. works you think will be great for the magazine! Every month the pool will be cleared after the Jury looks through it. So after it is cleared you can put two more works into the pool for the next month! Now this isn't a promise you will be in the magazine... please understand this. We just are admitting we can't see the 100s of photos you all put up everyday and want you all to have an equal chance. -Twilight Magazine Staff"

So if you are interested, did not had an invite to the group yet, join it on flickr. It will help us to find the most beautiful shots that were taken by the residents, without spending hours and hours to find the best ones. Now they will be all gathered in one group, month after month.

Rated 8,5 on Blogged.com

2008-05-31T01:24:00.003+02:00

I received a note with the info that this blog was rated
by the editors of Blogged.com. To be honest, this could
be another attempt as we know from all the rankings in
the past to get attention and traffic on their blog, but
nevertheless, I am honored to receive such a recognition,
even if it is false.;))

The note said:
"Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given
it an 8.5 score out of (10) in the Entertainment/Video
Games category of Blogged.com.

This is quite an achievement!

We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria:
Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design,
and Writing Style.
After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your
site was given its 8.5 score.

Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!

Sincerely,

Amy Liu
Marketing Department
amy@blogged.com
www.blogged.com "

Art Walk III

2008-05-29T09:40:00.004+02:00

Just as in the past years, there is again an Art Walk this year, starting today.

Art Walk III starts today, Thursday May 29th and runs through the weekend ending the evening of June 1st.

Artists placed their works at 3 designated areas located on the Raglan Shire, Heron Shire Wharf and Raglan Commons sims.
Each Area has Teleport Kiosks that people can touch to instantly transport to the Art Walk Areas so anyone can get to any of the areas easily.

1/Second Life® Prim SCULPTURE (build) based Art at the Raglan Commons area.
This is a HUGE 8192 sqm Area where all sculpture and prim based art will be displayed.

2/Second Life® "FLAT BASED" Art... IE: Paintings, watercolors, charcoals, drawings, photography, SL based Photography at the Raglan Shire Art Walk location, located on the South East Corner of the sim .
There are hedgerows about this area. There is a hill with hedgerows at the top, where I have put my works btw, hedgerow below the hill, hedgerow on the paths & surrounding the Paw & Whisker Tavern.

3/The next location where "Flat Based" Artworks are displayed is the Wharf & Coastal fortress area on Heron Shire .
This area at the base of the Coastal fortress on the Wharf shopping area has a series of Blue tinted transparent Glass walls where artists have placed "Flat Based" works against.

Over 70 artists will show their works in this years' Art Walk, so don't miss this event, and have a look at the wonderful creations they made.

AVATRAIT ARTIST CORBETT HOWARD BREAKS GALLERY RECORD

2008-05-29T00:46:00.003+02:00

PRESS RELEASE

Evanston, IL “ 05/28/2008 “

AVATRAIT GALLERY, Second Life's premier site for
"Digital Impressionist"art, has  recently undergone
a major renovation as part of the on-going upgrades
to the Simuality sim.  Their monthly features resumed
in May with an exclusive showing of images by noted
artist Corbett Howard.

Regarding the show, he wrote: "Corbett Howard exists
within the confinesof a virtual world.  He is piloted
by a rather nondescript fellow, who has drawn and
painted as far back as he can remember, scratching
a living, as we all do, in the day-to-day grind,
occasionally selling a piece here and there, but
always compelled through ability and imagination to
paint and create.  Upon finding this new virtual world
he saw its possibilities for creative expression. Artists
have a certain responsibility, as a place holder in
society, to reflect life - whether that life is the Real
or Second Life."

Corbett is going to have to re-think the "occasionally
selling a piece" part  of that, as, for the first time
ever, an artist sold out the entire stock of "exclusive"
one-of-a-kind images in an Avatrait Gallery show!
Avatrait offers three types of images, unique "originals"
of which only one virtual copy exists, standard "virtual
prints" which many people can purchase and enjoy, and 
real-world high-quality framed prints that are shipped
world-wide, and every one of Corbett's "originals" sold
in this exhibition.  Another first is the "stage set"
of Corbett Howard's poster image where visitors to the
gallery can take pics of themselves, and enter them into
a contest!  Come see what's happening at Avatrait gallery,
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/38/211/38

Preperations for SL5B

2008-05-23T10:05:00.003+02:00

Through the official blog and some colleague's blogs, I found out that you have to submit your subscription to this year's exhibition. So I did.
If you remember well, last year I forgot to subscribe, and on the very last day that you could build on the sim, I was asked to participate by Bella March. It was only with a slideshow, but I was there! I still appreciate that offer from Bella, although the contact with her is lost.

Now I have subscribed myself in time. I am already thinking on how and what I should show there. I have been thinking about submitting some works from the beginning of my presence in this second world, until July, almost 17 months later; The evolution of a snapshot photographer to a more post processing photographer.

Through this blog I would also like to ask if there is someone who want to help me building the stand, as I know perhaps something about Photoshop, but nothing of building and scripting.
If you are interested, you can always IM me inworld or send me an email me through this blog by clicking "contact me".

Art is coming to real life

2008-05-23T09:38:00.002+02:00

The exhibition Rinascimento Virtuale (Virtual Renaissance) which will open at the Museum of Natural History of Florence October 21, 2008-January 7, 2009

Some colleagues photographers/artists will show their work at this exhibition. It is a great opportunity to show the creativity of some artists in real life too, as they would probably never had the chance to do so, when they were not registered in Second Life®.

As Avatrait will be represented by Track Hax in Italy, it means that every artist of the gallery will be having some works to show, including me, so I was told by Track.

I have still some time to think it over, as I have already visited Florence once, but it would be nice to visit it again and meeting so many colleagues/friends in real life.

More and more...

2008-05-19T10:04:00.004+02:00

Well, at least I am trying…to write articles about myself.

This past weekend was one mostly without Second Life®

I visited on Friday the new installed sim of NPIRL, where hundreds of builders had the chance to show their skills to the public. There where some real inventive and original pieces, but at first sight the sim looked a bit complex. It was not very clear, also due to the lag, what to visit first, where to go to, which direction to take. But every piece separate was very nice done.
I took some pictures, but due to the request not to show the pictures or machinima, without mentioning the name of the builder, I can not put them on flickr right now.
Taking pictures and finding the builder’s name with such a lag, is not easy. Maybe I will post some later, after visiting the sim another time.

As I was not so often online lately, I was trying to improve my skills with photoshop. I made an image with different pictures, actions and brushes. I thought it came out nicely, although the the picture of Freggeltje, could be better, but was at the time the best suited for the image. I choose the background of Chouchou, with a picture of clouds pasting over it, copied and rotated it for the the bottom of the image. The moon was made with a brush, even as the birds were.
Then I prepared the picture of Freggeltje and put it in. At the end , after using some brushes, I pasted in overlay a picture of old paper.

Saturday and Sunday were RL days, where I was mostly on or beside a tennis court. It was rather cold to watch the games, but for the players, the temperature was ideal.
I had a changing success in the game, with a win on Saturday, but a loss on Sunday.

Little by little, reading my blog, you will discover something more about the first and second life of Looker Lumet, his interests, his thoughts, his hobbies, and as you can see, it is not all about photography, ;))

Does someone know if there are tennis courts on SL®? Need to find that one out. Maybe I could do a photoshoot while Looker is playing…?;)

Wishful thinking?

2008-05-16T10:58:00.004+02:00

What is happening to us after being on the grid for such a long time? We are only 16 months old, but it seems an eternity. We have seen new friends coming in, and old ones quitting from the grid.
In the meanwhile avatars were having affairs, quarrels, discussions etc.. What we endured and experienced in those 16 months, we probably would never have seen in real life. If that is negative or positive is completely up to your own thought, but I think you will always learn something out of it. Also be aware of the fact that we are living in a virtual world. You don’t see people’s expressions on their faces, their body language, which is so important in real life, to understand each other.
That being said, I have realized that I am more and more being as much realistic as can be, and trying to perceive and analyze everything in their own perspective.
Recently I tried to explain to a friend of mine, that written words alone are not the best communicative tool. Written words can have a totally different meaning, when the reader interpreted them wrongly, and can be the start of an issue that can be blown out of its proportion.
Why are people sometimes disappointed in the virtual world? Why are they tired of explaining every time the same thing, and think not to be understood?
It is not always, but can be, the language. When you are communicating with someone who has a different mother language, that communication can cause a misinterpretation to one or another.
People are not always what they pretend to be. Sometimes they have a different gender, sometimes they are pretending to be totally different from what they appear to be.
And when finally the truth sees the daylight, one gets really upset and tries to mobilize the whole world and trying to make the other person look bad in the eyes of the rest of the world. In fact, that won’t help that person at all, but that is how we are, …..we, humans. All of us. You can blame someone in public, on blogs etc… but at the end… no one will feel better, on the contrary. But who is to blame? Just try to be reasonable and deal with the matter in a mature way.
There is still a future ahead of us, a bright future. A future we all can enjoy, together on the grid, with the different nationalities, different skills, different interests ……..
It is not if I am trying to preach some wisdom here, because, who am I to do that?
But I was thinking about the past period with all its negative and positive experiences, and to the future. What all this could mean for me in the near future in Sl®.
I am happy with who I am in SL®, with all the friends I have, with all the things I learn,
trying not to be involved in one or another issue, as my life is to precious and I still want to grow as a “would be artist”.
I have some ideas in which direction I will go, I have some contacts that will give me some perspectives in the near future, and I will blog about that too, when the time comes.
I can only wish and hope, that the people I know now, will be able to share these times with me and enjoy some pretty moments together, so that this totally new environment, because that is what SL is still to me, will be an experience which we won't forget easily.

SIMUALITY HOSTS FUNDRAISER FOR CHINA EARTHQUAKE AID

2008-05-16T00:38:00.002+02:00

Press release

Evanston, IL " 05/15/2008 "

Metaverse developer Simuality LLC is seeking to help raise
funds for relief of the horrible human tragedy in China's
Sichuan Province following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake
which devastated the region this week.

Hosting their appeal in the virtual world of Second Life,
Simuality will be turning over the very popular Club
Mannequin for a 24-hour fundraiser.  The club is one of
the most popular locations in Second Life, and is a hub
for nightlifeand designer clothing, as well as being
the future cornerstone of a developing virtual fashion
and entertainment district.
Club Mannequin is one of the highest traffic spots in SL,
featuring urban styles and hip-hop music.  Special guest
DJs will be on hand to keep the party going.

Prominently featured in the middle of the dance floor
will be an attention-grabbing donation kiosk, with
smaller versions placed around the club and in
surrounding  areas. The event will take place from
midnight to midnight (Pacific time) on Saturday,May 17th
at Club Mannequin
(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality2/148/69/42) in
Second Life.

Virtual world donations are being collected in the
Second Life currency of Linden Dollars.  All monies
collected  will be donated to the International Red
Cross to support their efforts to aid the hundreds of
thousands of survivors of China's major earthquake
disaster.

Second Life (http://secondlife.com) is the industry-
leading 3-D virtual world developed by Linden Lab of
San Francisco,CA.

Simuality LLC (http://simuality.com) is both a
full-service Metaverse developer, specializing in
"sticky" builds that offer user activities and
interaction for our clients, as  well as an
"incubator" for creating virtual world applications.