Natalie Moody @ Microsoft Imagine Cup

Natalie Moody, a Swedisch singer and songwriter, was the opening act for the Microsoft Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition on Second Life. You can find some first pictures of her live performance here.
The Imagine Cup is one way Microsoft is encouraging young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its fifth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real world issues. Coolz0r Coulier has been assigned the very cool role to launch the Imagine Cup into Second Life, the virtual world, as he wrote on his blog.

Second Life - My worst nightmare

(Picture from SL Blogmeet June 16th)
Another evening in SL.
As usual, when you log in at the grid, you receive a lot of notes, in which club, where you are a member off, there is a party going on, or is planned to start soon.

For a change, I decided to join some friends at Strawberry beach, as there was a contest for best male/female outfit.

Not for the contest itself, but I was not in the mood to visit SL4B again, having these lag problems, waiting for the moment that your pc has rezzed everything, so you can make a snapshot, but than it appears that the button “save” does not light up, so you can not take that snapshot, and someone else beats you to it (haha Bella)…….No not today, not for me, thank you.
So I went to that party with my “blogger gathering” outfit, which I think is a beautiful outfit for many parties to come, when I should feel like it to compete in the contests.

The new Second Life release on Tuesday, 25^th June, was, to me anyway, not a success. On Tuesday itself I tried to log in, when I received the note that there was an update, not the 1.18, but an intermediate one. It already started then, I could not update because of my security settings? Never had that message before. So, because it was late, I did not perform an update that night. I did it yesterday, by going to the download site from Second Life.

New update, new problems…..

I logged in, having no friends in my list (again, pfff), my clothes did not want to rez, even though I was at a place with very little to rez and no one in the neighborhood.
Ok, I thought, than I go with half my clothing on to the party. Once arrived, everything started to rez, but also noticed that other avatars had the same problems: very slow rezzing. And now the 1.18.00 update has been delayed….;pffff…..I wonder if that would change anything. I am loosing faith, but…..one big problem….I am kind of addicted to Second Life.

I crashed twice, (hurray only twice!), and I was not the only one, and trying to get some votes for the contest. I noticed too, that when you crashed you lost your votes, and even your subscribing to the contest. So it happened to some avatars, bad luck for them though.

After my first crash, I was lucky that the control panel seemed to have some troubles, so the voting had to start all over again. For everyone. The second crash happened at the very last moment. Shit, I thought, why now? And you know, when you have to wait until you can log in again, that can take some time. To have patience is a virtue, they say.

Finally, after a few minutes, but it seemed very long, I could log in again, and when I arrived, fully rezzed, at the grid, I suddenly saw a message in my left corner, that I received an email from the contest board saying: “The object 'Contest Board V2.03' has sent you a message from Second Life:
You won the contest 'Best Costume Of The Night”

For once, Linden was in favor of me, they did not throw me out off the list, while crashing. And for once I can say: Thank you, although I know they had nothing to do with that, haha.

SL4B - More Impressions 3

It would be nice to put some figures somewhere of how many avatars visited the place so far at the SL4B sim’s. Although I encountered some lag problems over the last days, I noticed not a lot of visitors while being present at these sims.

Maybe just due to these lag problems? Who will tell?
I am convinced, that even when it is not obvious to simply walk around, it is worthwhile to spend some time looking at the great sculptures and art exhibited during this week.
From my daily contributions, you are able to see that there are some pretty things made.

Beware, according my information, after this week, it will be over. Nothing more to visit. So all of you, get your ass over there, to support all artists, who have been doing their utmost for achieving their goal of submitting the best art they can make.

Just for you. Just to be noticed by other avatars. Just a moment of being in the picture.

SL4B - More impressions 2

Yesterday, it was a very difficult evening. I crashed several times, so it was not easy to make good snapshots. Yet, the structures and buildings made by SL artists is amazing. Not only pictures, but also events, some made in the SL sky, some on the ground, and buidings, as nightclubs are made especially for this anniversary on the sim.
Take for instance the Sensual Elements Club. The builder has played with the lights for his interior, as you have never seen it in SL before.



Me reading the stories in the Playboy.

A blog about male's clothing

I have been complaining in the past that there were too many shops on SL for women. Everything you get for free are women’s stuff. Even beautiful free skins. When a man gets something free, it is a t-shirt, jeans pants, or a skin, you would rather not be seen with.

Now after several months being on sl, most of the time in a t-shirt and jeans pants, except when there is a special party going on, ;), like the blogger gathering…., I found a blog especially for men’s wear. Not to believe in fact. I wonder if they have a lot of readers, but it is for sure interesting to surf through this blog to look for some clothing, and follow the link back on the grid.

Men’s Second Style is a blog for and by men, and was started in August 2006. The main goal is to track new releases and give reviews of existing stores and designers.

If , one of you guys, don’t know where to look for something in particular, if you need to attend a wedding, or a business meeting, check this blog out. I am sure you will find something. And you know what you are buying, as the products are already reviewed.

Not that I am the kind of shopper, no, certainly not, in fact I hate it, like most of the guys, but that is why this blog makes it so interesting. Surfing through it, costs a lot less energy, than visiting all the shops in sl, looking for that suit you wanted to wear, looking for that shirt, which you thought you had in your inventory, but appears not to. ;)

In the meanwhile I have received from Bailey Toland another url about guy's stuff, Thank you Bailey. It is really a complementation to the one I was talking about.

SL4B - More impressions

It is very clear that you will not be able to visit the whole exhibition. There is simply too much to see, but also too much lag. It takes some time before everything has rezzed, and you can take a shot, and move on to the next plot. So I try to give every day some shots of the exhibition, before I crashed, ;).

While exploring the sim, I ran into Kean Kelly, who was also visiting the exhibition, and was not able to participate to this anniversary, due to RL obligations.At the plot of Daequix Scarborough, there is, besides her beautiful pictures, an old film projector with a very nice lightbeam, almost real. (see also Bella March)

SL4B - The SL Birthday history

I have searched for some reports on the previous birthday's. Most of the information was found on the SL History Wiki.

On Wednesday, June 23rd 2004, Second Life turned a year old (a year from its initial launch date into "public" status of June 23 2003), and many events were held in its honor! The celebration spanned over several days and was also known as the "Second Life First Year Anniversary Gala". The main events included a "Gala Parade" featuring floats created by residents, a festival and kid avatar contest, and the Time Capsule event with a live broadcast by Philip Linden.

There were also a lot of unofficial events held by other residents through-out the week of the celebration. These events ranged from sales, to club openings, to parties and more.

On June 23rd 2005 Second Life celebrated its 2nd birthday, or rather the day Second Life was opened to the public! The main celebration was held in the Vehicle Sims of Bethel, Brilliant, Georgean, and Fortuna. The four vehicle sims were turned into a giant museum displaying various large builds, pictures of SL over time, and objects from the time capsule opened last year. The main layout comprised of four large pathways going out in all cardinal directions with a large celebration area in the middle at the corner of the four sims. Along the sides of these pathways were the various builds and objects people laid out for others to see. The event area and event itself were all put together by a group of residents led by Pathfinder Linden who happily took on the task of setting it all up.

The SL 3rd birthday didn't really get all the attention it deserved, with all the CC-less sign up drama happening the last weeks. And you could see it weighing on the organizers, who must have spent all their free time on this. Philip's speech was completely sidetracked by these issues and the obnoxious griever.

What is interesting to see is, look at the number of residents, and the ones which were logged in at that time. (date June, 29 2006)

There was not much to find on the internet about last year’s event. Was it not successful? Although many of us were also present at the third birthday, it seems that no one has made a report of the official opening. The only reports I could find were on the mentioned links.

SL4B First Impressions

As I was not able to attend the grand opening, I will post some impressions of the SL4B. Reports of the opening are to be found on other blogs, such as Vint Falken and Bella March.












The stand up comedian Max de Groot, who was having some kind of troubles with the audio stream, so I was more interested in the audience.











At the plot of Yann Mip, right across of Vint Falken's place.













And Dalien Talbot, watching every move at Vint's.

About Photoshop, Friends and SL4B

During the past five months I have been learning how to work and what are the possibilities with post process programs. I started with Paint Shop Pro, a program which was installed at work, (version5), installed version7 at home, and already work some years with it now.

While subscribing to Second Life, I got the impression that most of the artists worked with Photoshop. There were comments on “Flickr” referring to that program, and at that time I thought, I must have that program, or I will not be able to learn, which was and still is my main goal being on the grid.

In the very beginning I used PSP, and also Picture It, which was a useful combination.

Now, I work almost only with Photoshop, and still trying to get to the bottom of it. But it takes time, so does SL, so does the photo processing, so does this blog….so does RL. What I mean is, it takes a lot of time, to find the right information, to read or view it, to implement it and to learn the skills of the tools. Here is one link for tutorial videos for Photoshop: The house of Tutorials : Lesson based learning for Photoshop.

And while doing all that, I was missing a very important appointment: SL4B. The fourth Second Life Anniversary. I don’t know how I could have missed it, as most of the bloggers already reported some articles about this event, but still….

Luckily for me, I have still some friends in Second Life. Bella March, a Belgian artist/builder/photographer, who is also on the grid for more than 6 months now, contacted me over IM, a few days ago, asking why I did not participate to the SL4B.

Me, falling right out of the sky (Dutch expression, don’t know if it has the same meaning in English), did not know what to say. She told me that all buildings would stop at 0.00hrs that day. That was SL time, so there were still some hours left, but I had no space, nothing prepared, I could not enter the sim . This would be one of the worst nightmares for me, not being present at one of the biggest events on SL, among other artists, if it wasn’t for Bella.

She told me that she had some space left, and proposed to offer that space for me showing my pictures. Waw, what a great woman! And what a great friend! Reminding me of this event, offering the space, and helping me out.

Now, I was at play. I had to contact someone to ask if I may enter the sim, filling in some documents, and wait for 20 minutes before I could enter. After twenty minutes of waiting, nothing happened, and still could not get into the SL4B. It was almost 0.00 hrs, local time, but after a few IM’s, I received my tag (as a volunteer) and could enter.

Bella helped a hand by setting up a slide show, right next to her stand, with my pictures. Ouf!!

Probably I will not be noticed among the big sculptures and other building projects, but I will participate, what is still the most important thing. Thanks to Bella!

Now, with only one day left, I am trying to have me noticed, by changing my tag into artist, instead of volunteer, and have my name on the list of artists. I am wondering if I will succeed, but sent several IM’s to responsible persons, and waiting for their responses.

That is what SL is all about.

It was late that night. I logged in, and was directly attacked by IM’s, as usual.

You start to chat from the moment you arrive on SL, and if you are not careful, you will not move, until it is time to log off.

After having these friend list problems the past few days, where there were no friends online, except when they log off, then you see them, one by one, damned, I wanted to ask him/her something and now she/he is off line, it was in fact a relieve that we could see who was on the grid. Sounds familiar?
But not today, no, today everything worked normal, as it should be. Finally.;)

Suddenly, someone was in the IM box, someone who I did meet once, someone who helped me finding the place where I took some great shots of a mermaid, asking if I was still looking for beautiful places. Of course, I said, always, and she TP’d me over to a place called “Bliss”.

Hop in, she said, once arrived at the spot, and we took off in a big beautiful balloon, over, one of the most magnificent places in Second life. She asked me, if I did not forgot my camera.
Haha, how can I forget my camera in SL?
I turned, up and down, zoom, up again, till I saw nothing at all. My screen was black.
Luckily she could still talk to me in the chat box, but I was lost. What a pity, she said, it is so nice here.
And I was struggling behind my screen, to have at least something in my sight, something I recognized, and finally I did. In the far distance I saw our balloon.

And, she asked, back on track?
Yes, I can see our balloon, but can not reach for it, I can not come any closer. But after a while, having tried every move with my mouse and the CTRL and ALT button, I saw that the balloon, I was focussing on, was not our balloon. The ride was almost over when I managed it all back to normal.;) Nice flight, she said, with a smile on her face......

Back at the arrival, she asked me if I knew other places in SL, which she did not discover yet. Auch, that was a difficult one, but also a challenge.
So I took her to the Rainforest, hoping that she would like it. And she did.
We had to look for a train, that would take us to spectacular places in the Rainforest, but the only train that we found was one under the temple (of doom?), and was not taking us anywhere. It was a little toy train, making circles, and not riding out of the building at all, but it was fun.

OK, let’s look for other spots on this island, we said to each other, and off we went, both flying to different directions, hoping to find something, that the other would like.

At the end, it was she, who did tp me over to a spot.
Come here she said, isn’t it beautiful?.... Sit down.
And because I have no poseball problem anymore, I was not afraid to try the first one, the one that was the closest to me. I sat down, and when she also pointed at the poseball, she was suddenly laying in my arms.

Well, the least I can say is, that it was a nice, enjoyable, but short evening, as she left, back to RL, where she had a volleyball training, and I had to go to bed. That is SL, having fun with someone from the other side of the world, and yet, being at your house, in your chair, behind your screen.