Rated 8,5 on Blogged.com

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

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

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

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

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...

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?

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

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.  

A new gallery for new upcoming talents.

Shoshana Epsilon opened a new gallery, but only for new talents.
The artworks, whether they are 2D or 3D may stay displayed for 3 months before their place will be taken by another artist.
The artist have to be maximum 90 days old when they apply or not being displayed somewhere else in SL®.
No costs are involved and the sim is PG, so every art has to be "clean".

If you are reading this article, have talent, are younger than 90 days in SL, contact Shoshana Epsilon in-world and show her your work.

This is an excellent opportunity for starters, as I remember my first days and months on the grid.

Another weekend in and out SL®

What was happening this weekend in Second life? I visited the show of Corbett Howard at the Avatrait gallery, but apparently everybody had trouble with a terrible lag. The fire works were like square grey boxes going up. I did not wait for the party, as I had seen enough grey persons at that time. I went back the day after, and could see Corbett's work much better. I even tried his pose at the streetlight. Don't hesitate to visit the gallery!!

LL also announced a totally new sim, Bay City, which I thought was worthwhile to visit and take some snapshots. But that was without thinking about those lagproblems, as I waited for almost half an hour and still not all the buildings were rezzed, unfortunately. So I need to try that once again.
This all meant that I was running out of pictures to post process. Not that I was in need of that urgently, as the weather was too nice to be busy behind my screen. Nevertheless I thought it was a good time to learn and try some things out.
As I told before on this, my main activities are not to surf to all the blogs anymore, as I did before, I just keep some in my RSS feed, but I try to find out new techniques in Photoshop.
And while exercising with tutorials next to me, starting over and over again, until I know what to do, and till the desired quality is almost reached, my skills are improving.
Little by little I am beginning to learn more possibilities in PS, like making your own brush, your own action. I am still an amateur, as I don't have enough time to explore and try it all, but we have the time, no stress, and still like doing it, trying to ignore the competition, but rather to learn from them.

SIMUALITY JOINS EFFORTS FOR MYANMAR RELIEF

Press release

Evanston, IL “ 05/09/2008 “
Metaverse developer Simuality LLC has joined the effort
to help relieve the unspeakable human suffering in
Myanmar in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.  Special
donation kiosks have been developed and are being
placed in high-traffic locations in the virtual world
of Second Life,with coordination being arranged via the
Simuality welcome center on their main island
(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/106/83/41).

In addition, links to the donation centers are being
featured on the front pages of all of the Simuality
sites, including SlippCat (http://slippcat.com),
the recently unveiled metaverse advertising system,
Avatrait (http://avatrait.com), the web site associated
with the very popular Second Life art gallery of the
same name, and the main Simuality site
(http://simuality.com).

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 help relieve the
effects of the massive devastation left by the
tropical storm.

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

Simuality LLC 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.

Emvee Cuba

Thanks to my friend Raul Crimson, I found out about another sim that I did not see before. And it is another opportunity to compete at a contest. Why not?
The textures on the sim are so real that I will visit the sim more than once. You always have other thoughts once you visited a new place. So, maybe after a few visits, I will see what I need to see to make that one great shot.
You can see some of my pictures here on my blog, but there will be more to see at my flickr stream.

Looker's whereabouts

Belgium is the hottest place in Europe nowadays, so they told on the radio. No need to go to the south...;)
The weather is also keeping me from my pc. As I used to be several hours behind my pc, I am now only at work behind my screen. But I still find some time to read my friends' blogs.
And by reading their blogs, I get to know them a little bit better.;) Don't we Tymmerie and Winter? ;)

But all this, means also that I have less time to spend on my inworld photography. I was even not online for the past two days. That never happened to me before. Is my interest fading away?
I don't think so...just need new impulses, inspiration, not only to make some nice snapshots, but also to post process them.

I am so grateful that, even after having no new messages posted for some weeks, people are still looking out for some information on my blog, or are waiting for new interesting articles to be posted. Thank you all.

I was asked in the past to write more about myself, about my experiences, about my plans, so I will try to do that.

As you were able to see on my flickr stream, I have visited Groll's Inn and Hide Out, and found some nice spots to digitalize on the canvas. In my exploration on the grid, it is in my intention to take
pictures of new or old sim's, that I have never visited before.
Finding new interesting places is not always easy to locate, so if anyone have some good ideas, you are most welcome to mention it in the comments.

Avatrait, the gallery where some of the best artists in SL® are (me included ;)) , was seen on the local NBC channel. This means that our art is one step from being shown in RL, and getting noticed. And that is what Avatrait Gallery is all about. To bring inworld art to RL.

Don't miss the next event in The Avatrait Gallery. From May, 10th, Corbett Howard is having his exhibition. As usual, this event will have a party with fireworks after the opening at 1 pm SLT.

I know this post is totally different as my previous ones, but I try to give you an idea what is coming up, and what I am interesting in on the grid. Feel free to leave your comments, if this is the way you would like me to keep on blogging.

Twilight Magazine: I'm in it!!!

Last weekend a new magazine was being presented. A magazine that I was anxious to see, as I knew I would be in it with an interview, together with other great artists, like Cienega Soon, ColeMarie Soleil, Gabrielle Sinatra and many others.
I was waiting to see the magazine on Saturday, but I received nothing in my email. Was there something wrong? To find out I contacted Belmakor Pintens, the editor of the magazine.
He told me that he got a lot of bounced back emails, so if you are one of them, don't be alarmed. Double check your email address and contact Belmakor on the flickr site.
In the meanwhile you can find this beautiful magazine here.
Congratulations to all people involved in this project, as I must admit, this is one of the best magazines I have seen from our beloved metaverse world.