Jopsy Pendragon's particles - the most fitting way to bring in a New Year - Happy 2008, everyone!

I have a confession to make. You know how some people take on what can only be called celebrity status in Second Life? Generally speaking, they have a few things in common. Their rez date goes back to 2005 or before, and they are terrific and knowledgeable content creators in some special way. Now, I’ve had the good (or bad, depending on the person) fortune to work with many celebrities in Real Life throughout my career, but never have I been more excited than the day I met Jopsy Pendragon. Happily, he turned out to be everything I imagined and so much more. Not only is he gifted at content creation, and teaching, but he is also one of the nicest celebrities in any life.



Jopsy Pendragon (aka John P. Crane, rezzed 1/15/04) is the founder and owner of the Particle Laboratory in Second Life... a mecca for particle lovers and script learners in the metaverse, largely because of the seemingly exhaustive and excellent tutorials available there, as well as its intimate sandbox for "script tinkering." Teleport directly from here, and take the hot air balloon to any of the local destinations offered there.

The San Diego Reader recently published an extensive interview with the Real Life man who operates his avatar, and while there are some inaccuracies, it is well worth reading.

I met with Jopsy this weekend at the Cloud Chateau, one of two places at Ethereal Teal - Jopsy's sim - where you can experience his gorgeous particles... to learn more about the man and his work.



Bettina Tizzy: According to The San Diego Reader article, you were already on BBSs and involved with other virtual worlds before you rezzed in Second Life. Were you on The Well, for example? And what brought you to Second Life?

Jopsy Pendragon: I was near and by and around the Well, but never actually in it... In the days when it was hot and hopping, I was nurturing my own fledgling text-based VR, (a TinyMud called DragonMud, which turned 18 years old a month ago), so any time I spent away from there made me feel neglectful.

I was dragged into Second Life kicking and screaming, protesting all the way, "No, I'd rather not try yet another lame VRML hack with blinking textures and kludged- together-features..." but my friend insisted, gave me a demo and I grudgingly admitted that there might be promise.

My early days... wow, well, I went a week, maybe two, before I found and bought land: 512m for the-then-high-price of L$2 per square meter. From Stroker Serpentine, if I remember right. I still see him around. I built a small home and lurked, trying to create interesting things to get people to stop and visit.

It was very quiet and lonely in Second Life back then, honestly, but I like to tinker so that let me be creative with fewer distractions =) I'd build things and stick in strange functionality hoping people would discover them... walls that opened, fountains that launched people into hidden rooms... all sorts of silly stuff. Most folks didn't explore thoroughly, but it made giving tours fun. :)



Bettina Tizzy: Your first particle... What was its genesis? Were there any particles in Second Life when you arrived?

Jopsy Pendragon: Particles were one of those things that just seemed to have no useful documentation at the time. I hadn't done much scripting at that point. A few modified door scripts, some animated texture stuff... so my friend (the one that dragged me into SL) and I were beating our heads against this particle thing.

We had a *very* early version of Ama Omega's particle script, which helped, but there was so much guesswork still. Our first particles were awful... imagine a hat with exploding bacon.

There were particles, but mostly it was the old llMakeExplosion, llMakeFire, llMakeFountain, llMakeSmoke kinda stuff. llParticleSystem was still a new function, apparently.

Back then we had 'dwell income,' and since I liked to upload textures, and wanted to buy more land, I was doing anything to get traffic to my space. Holding particle classes back then was *VERY* effective at that.

And then... my life shifted. I got a new job, one that I knew would hold me away from Second Life for several months. So before I started the job, I put all my class notes into a standing exhibit, called it The Particle Laboratory, and pretty much vanished for a year... (between June 2004 and June 2005)

I checked in from time to time, but went from 18 hour days here to 1-2 hour days in Second Life. I'm wrapping up that job now, (and trying to find my replacement so I can resign with honor. ;) and then I'll be back to my foot-loose and fancy free play-in-SL all day mode. I still go kinda dormant in the summertime. Hard to be indoors and online when it is nice out.





Bettina Tizzy: So you left your scripts in a place you hastily called "The Particle Laboratory?" Still on that same 512m parcel of land?

Jopsy Pendragon: It was kind of modelled after the Exploratorium in San Francisco... exhibits to interact with and such. Oh no... I was already up to the half sim allocation I'm at today by then. I was worried at first... nothing to 512sqm, 2 weeks. 2-3 weeks later, I went up to 1024. A month later 2048, a week later, 4048, 2 days later 8096sqm...


Today, the Particle Laboratory is a busy destination for scripters and particle lovers and, of course, anyone who wishes to learn how to make these totally Not Possible in Real Life miracles of beauty

Bettina Tizzy: The Particle Laboratory has a long and important history in Second Life. Did you ever record its milestones on a notecard or celebrate anniversaries and have 'cocktail parties' and such?

Jopsy Pendragon: (No notecard or recording of its history) and there's been no real anniversary party for the Lab. I have held a grand opening (even had a ribbon cutting ceremony, complete with particle ribbons. =)

While the Particle Laboratory has always been where it is now, it has grown, and been almost completely rebuilt 3 times now. I'm often changing minor things, the fencing and such. It didn't always have a dedicated sandbox in the middle; it used to allow creation anywhere but too many griefers made me lock things down. Not deliberate griefing... more the self-replicating-waves-of-annoying-objects-passing-through kind of griefing. I tend to get very few hostile types looking to grief up this way.

Honestly, I was really surprised that the Particle Laboratory became so popular. I didn't advertise, never took out a classified for it... it's all just word of mouth =)


That "word of mouth," led to my own discovery of the Particle Laboratory, a place where I have spent blissful hours hacking away at someone else's scripts - most often Jopsy's basic free ones - to make my own little pretties.


For weeks I became obsessed with learning how to make this particle effect (shown here at the Cloud Chateau), and I have both Vandalite Defiant (and Jopsy's tutorials, of course) to thank for guiding me - a scatterbrain when it comes to scripts altogether - through the process

Jopsy Pendragon: My first brush with voice chat was with two Lab visitors who were curious what it was all about... not really ready to start learning but just exploring. They were talking about me saying things like "Wow, he must have a lot of free time... " and other such things, not realizing the person next to them was the person they were talking about. ;)

Bettina Tizzy: Ha! People who make particles today are often called upon to do "shows" and such... did you ever? And what has driven you to create such extensive particle script tutorials?

Jopsy Pendragon: I've done a few utterly unplanned, unannounced tinker-jams. Sometimes I get caught up in the music and playing with particle scripts... and just go a little crazy. The workshop deck used to be a big black box that I would create particle-scapes in for anyone that happened to be with me at the time.

Bettina Tizzy: Please send me an unannounced TP if ever you do that again!


When you visit Jopsy Pendragon's Teal sim, be sure to explore everywhere. If you are lucky, one of his "followers" may decide to tag along

Jopsy Pendragon: And why do I keep putting more effort into the tutorials and such? Hmm... I figure the better I explain things there, with visual examples that really show what's going on, the faster people will pick up the material... so that the questions I do get are the interesting ones and not the mundane ones. =)

A lot of the stuff I came up with has ended up in here, in the Cloud Chateau =)

The Cloud Chateau! Simply my favorite hiding place in Second Life! It was here, in this fantastical room filled with swirling, colorful particles, that I completely fell in love with virtual worlds. It was... love at first sight.






I'm not the only one who likes to dance and spend hours at the Cloud Chateau, as these three photographs (above) by NPIRL Flickrite Suzanne Graves will attest

Bettina Tizzy: So you have learned from this process of teaching, too?

Jopsy Pendragon: Of course! Like any fluid medium, practice is essential =)



Let's hope that Jopsy continues to "practice" for a long, long time...

Bettina Tizzy: Is there anything *new* happening with particles?

Jopsy Pendragon: Actually yes... Thanks to Blakar Ogre and Nicholaz Beresford (and several others), a whole slew of particle issues have been tuned up. I'm seriously in awe of their efforts. I've yet to peek at the open source client... I can and will at some point, but there are projects ahead of that. They've actually submitted fixes and patches that have had a phenomenal improvement on particles.

While it's hard to point at any one thing and say "That... there, that's what's better"... I can tell. Density is stronger, transparency is more controllable, speed seems better... and, well, particles can fade into existance now. Before they could only fade away...

Bettina Tizzy: Interesting... these are two modest fellows. You would never know about these activities from their profiles, but that's awesome news.

Jopsy Pendragon: They're deep into the internals of the client... I think that's where they have their fun with SL. Some folks socialize, some create, and some lift the hood to see what makes it run. :)

Bettina Tizzy: Particles and Windlight... your thoughts?

Jopsy Pendragon: Love it. With 'glow,' particles really pop nicely. Fire looks like fire, finally. I still can't get over how great water looks. The most recent Windlight finally fixed the "my face is made out of rough clay" effect that previous Windlight clients had.

There are changes though, which I'm very happy to go back and tune for. As I said earlier, particle density has increased... effects that were ephemeral and wispy are now more like heavy smoke or blinding glare.




The two photographs above were taken at the Cloud Chateau by ColeMarie Soleil who has reveled in Windlight

Bettina Tizzy: All FIC jokes aside, do you work closely with the Lindens?

Jopsy Pendragon: I love that a certain infamous someone thinks I'm FIC. I do know that a few of the Lindens know me by name and vice versa. I respect what they're trying to do enough to try to use their support system just like anyone else would.

The only exception to that is when people come to me with a discovered exploit. I've yet to find a consistent way to escalate exploit style bugs to Linden Lab privately and effectively... You don't want to just throw them in JIRA for everyone to see.

Bettina Tizzy: You make the best particle textures in Second Life. Are you going to make us more?






You can buy Jopsy's amazing particle textures for a handful of Lindens at the Particle Laboratory.

Jopsy Pendragon: =) Thank you... I have every intention to do so.

One of the biggest sticking points for me with SL... and one of the few issues over which I actually got a little snarky at the powers that be, is over permissions... and, on their recommendation, I'm going forward with a different kind of DRM (digital rights management) method. Granted, it's an honor system, not programatical, but perhaps that's not so bad after all.

The problem is this: You have scriptors, 2D artists, modellers, soundsmiths, animators, etc., and while each of them may excel at their narrow speciality, few people are talented in all the areas that go into creating a superior Second Life product. Then, add in the power to market, advertise, manage sales and support...

Bettina Tizzy: Truer words were never spoken... yep yep...

Jopsy Pendragon: I dabble in everything. I can muddle by on my own fairly well.... but I would prefer to be a supplier. Someone that has scripts and textures that other people aquire rights to and incorporate in their products.

As things are now, the DRM in SL pretty much says that if I give you rights to incorporate my work into your product, your customers can rip my work out and then incorporate it into their products, and the deal "you and I" negotiated did not specifically say all your customers and their friends could sell my work.

The particle textures I sell have traditionally been no-transfer. I get a fair number of requests for full perms and handle them individually, but I'd prefer it if I could sell "Re-seller" friendly versions that were no-transfer to their customers.

The alternative method I'm adopting will finally allow me to automate the sales of full perm textures, copyrighted and such, so that the customer gets the texture KEY itself to use as they like... so long as they don't pass it on.

The funny bit, of course, is that I can't copyright the texture KEY... that's assigned by Linden Lab - their bits, their property - but to have permission to use the copyrighted work (the image), the secrecy of the key needs to be preserved.

I'm almost to the point where, for my higher end stuff, I might upload the same image multiple times... so that it'll get different keys... one unique key to a customer. If they let their key get compromised, ... I *THINK* I can use the DMCA to request that Linden Lab void out the image pointed at by that key... an extreme case to be sure... but still.



Bettina Tizzy: What are your plans for Teal (the sim on which the Particle Laboratory sits)?

Jopsy Pendragon: Since my early days in Teal, I've always wanted to make it more "Dark Crystal" like... (the Jim Henson movie from the 80's.. ). There have been several from the early days (who) were enthralled with trying to bring that world into this one with little to show for it (unless I've been uninformed!). There are themes in that movie I would love to adopt into Teal... paraphrased somewhat so that it's not a direct rip off... but still somewhat of an homage =)

Bettina Tizzy: Do you get bored with particles and want to stray a bit from Teal and go do other things? If so, what might those things be? Would you consider project collaborations with other content creators?

Jopsy Pendragon: Particles are atmosphere and illusion. I totally love them; wish I had them in Real Life, but I am sort of feeling I've kind of tapped out. Finding new things to do with them often depends on changes in Second Life which makes new things possible.

I still love playing with them, though. At this point I'm looking into vehicles and such as well, and having tremendous fun with them... and eagerly looking forward to Havok 4. =) I have played with it in beta, it's a vast improvement. Sim crossings are still sticky, but that will likely always be an issue. But otherwise, it's like silk. :)

I have built elsewhere, but not much. As for collaborations, I must admit (that) I'm a bit of a control freak. I'm either in the drivers chair and I pick the station, speed and destination... or I'm in the passenger seat and I help navigate. I'm weak at 'partnership.'

Bettina Tizzy: Your avatar...

Jopsy Pendragon: The simple short version? People in virtual worlds either play an idealized version of themselves... OR, (quite often) they play with a character that they find attractive. (Why else would straight guys play a game where their character is Lara Croft from Tomb Raider? Because they identify with her? uh... Nooooo)

In my case... well, it's both. ;) though I admit an "idealized version of myself" has been granted a lot of artistic license. ;) In the other realm I run - DragonMud - the founder/creator spirit is a dragon. I'm solitary, territorial... I hoard, I know how things work, and tend to be firey when provoked... It's not that I feel like I'm some dragon spirit, I just have traits in common with them... so that's what I identified with.

Here however, elves age slowly. They live a very long time. They tend to specialize in various things... particles being my 'mystical art' as it were... That's pretty much why I've got the long ears and fae/somewhat androgynous style: Hermetic Elf. I don't get bogged down in court intrigues. ;)


Jopsy Pendragon as satyr in his early Second Life days...

As this is surely my last blogpost of 2007 (it's almost 2008 in Europe as I hit the "publish" key, and the new year has already arrived in Asia and Australia and New Zealand), please accept my best wishes for a year in which all your First and Second Life dreams will come true. Many thanks to Suzanne Graves and ColeMarie Soleil for allowing me to use their photographs for this blogpost...





...and, may you embrace the dance of life!

Turning the page on 2007 in virtual worlds - What happened and what's next

Virtual worlds are at the heart of what Not Possible IRL is about. Without them, our group and our cause would cease to exist. 2007 was the year I discovered Second Life. I am too new to look back and too new to look forward - with any real sense of perspective - so I turned to three thought leaders and veterans of virtual worlds who are deeply in touch with the ups and downs of the metaverse in very different ways.

Larry Pixel (aka Larry F. Johnson, Ph.D.) is the CEO of the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of more than 250 world-class universities, colleges, museums, research centers, and technology companies - and the largest educational body in Second Life - dedicated to using new technologies to inspire, energize, stimulate, and support learning and creative expression. He is also the founder and chief instigator of the prestigious Horizon Project , an annual status report on emerging technologies and education.

Forseti Svarog (aka Giff Constable) is the COO of The Electric Sheep Company, the largest startup dedicated to the creation of 3D content and sticky experiences in virtual worlds Second Life and There.com, including the "I am Legend" survival game on behalf of Warner Brothers, and the "CSI NY: Virtual Experience" - both in Second Life - as well as the OnRez viewer, a User Interface that makes navigating the metaverse more intuitive and accessible.

Seifert Surface is a post-doctoral mathematician who is probably best known in Second Life for creating a tesseract house inspired by Robert A. Heinlein's short story "--And He Built A Crooked House--," as well as his math-inspired sculpture, but I will likely think of him first and foremost as the winner of the Not Possible IRL logo contest.

Bettina Tizzy: Insofar as virtual worlds are concerned, what are you looking forward to?

Larry Pixel: I am pleased to see the work Linden Lab (LL) is doing to address stability and quality issues -- I am seeing real progress, and many signs that indicate that it is a major focus for them. I am also excited by the large number (50+) of players in the larger virtual worlds space, many of them new in the last few months. LL has been especially supportive of the work education is doing in Second Life, and that, along with the clear successes we are seeing in the edu space, makes it easy to be excited.

Forseti Svarog: I think 2008 will be a continued year of interesting experimentation for Second Life. SL will continue to see amazing creative exploration but its overall growth will slow until Linden Lab and the broader SL ecosystem are able to solve some of the things holding SL back such as stability, scripting limitations, limited APIs, usability, and more. I actually do not think that it is the visual capabilities (i.e. Windlight) that are getting in the way of its success right now, and LL needs to be careful not to focus on visual sexiness in such a way that they push the platform out ahead of most people's computer capabilities. SL needs more killer apps, i.e. more reasons for non-creatives to come, but the platform really needs to become more robust to get there. That said, I do expect SL to remain an interesting and active virtual world.

2008 should see a lot of virtual worlds activity around the youth market, more private worlds on a diverse set of platforms, and more "stepping stone" approaches where projects bridge 2D, flash-based worlds, and 3D. There will be continued corporate and educational experimentation in Second Life, Wunderland, and other tools as people try to understand how virtual worlds aid in team and group learning and collaboration. It shall be interesting to see what Google/Sketchup does in 2008, and if that consumes some of the architecture/design energy that has been pouring into SL this past year.

Seifert Surface: Lots of stuff. Better and faster scripts with Mono, and physics with Havok 4 should lead to lots of new ideas becoming possible to realise. Longer term, I think sculpties will be only the beginning in terms of better support for 3D objects.

Bettina Tizzy: What technologies or trends have you particularly intrigued?

Larry Pixel: I am very, very interested in social networking, something that is inherent in Second Life, yet still not implemented very well, especially when you compare it to some of the other major social networking platforms in common use on the flat web. An entrant that can bring the "user-built" philosophy and the openness to IP and ownership of virtual work that LL has pioneered, and mesh it with true ownership (ie backup to disk), easy compatibility with other 3D creation platforms, and rich social networking tools, will take over this space in no time. I have not seen that company emerge yet, but I am watching!

I am soooooo ready for SL on my iPhone. I hope someone is working on that client right now.

Forseti Svarog: There will be a host of private worlds built on emerging 2.5D and 3D virtual world platforms, but I'm guessing that many will not be as accessible to creative exploration as Second Life. Multiverse is quite interesting but my impression is that it is oriented around much bigger game and virtual world projects with larger teams and budgets. I think this audience should keep its eye on Metaplace, which should be a really neat avenue for creative exploration, albeit quite different from SL in that creativity will orient around 2D and 2.5D art and game design.

Seifert Surface: There are many interesting 3D interface ideas happening, particularly the Wii Remote and what people are doing with it. Imagine building in 3D by moving things around in 3D. Also, check out this video on head tracking for desktop VR displays using the Wii Remote:

Bettina Tizzy: What, if anything, has you especially concerned in regards to Second Life and virtual worlds' evolution?

Larry Pixel: Second Life, in particular, is already suffering from the perception of it as a "walled garden." We are seeing a move, among companies especially, to far less capable platforms, which are "open" and which they can "own" (ie, put behind a firewall). This may not be a bad thing for SL, but it is not a good thing for virtual worlds in general, as it will drive dollars to lesser platforms.

Linden Lab has said publicly several times that they want to go open, and have with the client. If they can open the backend in 2008, they will grow immensely. If not, we may be seeing them in 2-3 years as an interesting early player -- like CompuServe, or AOL.

Forseti Svarog: I remain very bullish on the entire virtual worlds space, but it is going to fragment in 2008 in more platforms and more private worlds. I think Second Life is going through a transition period where the technology, and our broader culture, has to catch up to the vision. SL's ability to succeed will depend on how well and how quickly Linden Lab is able to execute, and if and when someone puts forth a compelling competitive alternative.

Seifert Surface: Nothing really, I think the seed has been planted now, and no matter if it is Second Life or some other virtual world that becomes the de facto metaverse, it's going to happen. I guess the demise of net neutrality could be something to worry about.

Bettina Tizzy: Is there anything in particular that you wish Linden Lab was doing differently?

Larry Pixel:
1) See above re: open sourcing the back end.
2) Find some way to relax the Byzantine hoops and rules one must go through to do anything with highschoolers.

Forseti Svarog: This is hard to say without a clear window into their priorities and active projects. I know they are aware of all the problems and challenges, and complex software is not written or improved overnight. This stuff takes time.

Seifert Surface: There are occasional issues, I think, that could be handled better than they are, but generally I think they're doing a pretty good job.

Bettina Tizzy: Any personal goals or projects you'd care to share with us?

Larry Pixel: NMC Virtual Worlds plans a big announcement after the first of the year. It will come out first in the NMC Campus Observer, about January 10th.

Also, the NMC's highly influential Horizon Report (75,000+ copies downloaded or purchased in hard copy in 2007) will be released in late January. The contents of the 2008 report will be announced on the wiki next week.

Notably, this will be the first year since 2005 that some form of virtual worlds is not mentioned in the Horizon Report. I am not sure if that means it is now mainstream for edu, or if it is passe, but among my Real Life constituency, there are many many established projects, and many of these are clearly reaching mainstream faculty and other groups. Within the NMC, virtual worlds are still important, but are no longer considered the set of hot emerging technologies they once were.

Forseti Svarog: My own bandwidth for taking on creative projects remains extremely limited. In 2007, my only big creative project was the book of avatar portraits. In 2008, I hope to find time to either dive into a personal Second Life Machinima project, or try something completely new on Metaplace.

Seifert Surface: Well, there's my new sim, "xyz", currently (and likely for the rest of time) under construction.


Finally, I asked if they considered themselves optimists or pessimists. Turns out that all three identify themselves as optimists, but Larry added, "Clearly an optimist, but also a pragmatist. I am quite optimistic that good ideas will be adopted broadly -- it just takes time. Some fall by the wayside, but as someone who has devoted a career to implementing emerging technologies, the ride is always fun, and there is much to be learned by studying ideas that seem to have great promise, even if later it becomes clear they were a side road on the path to another set of ideas."

I can't help wondering if all participants in virtual worlds... really, all early adopters, must be optimists in order to remain sane while embracing and exploring new ideas and opportunities.

The fertile mind of artist and writer elros Tuominen

I've spoken before about prolific artists in Second Life, but none that I know of produces a steadier stream of new creations than the Basque sculptor and writer elros Tuominen (aka Antonio Alza).

Every morning when I log in, there is a notecard waiting for me from elros containing a brief and beautiful piece of prose, always written in first person to a woman he unquestionably adores (not me, mind you :). Here is one example:

Good morning, new morning day, such a beautiful and almost perfect day. Time's stopped, time's over, time's far far far, time's a painting, an invention to organize our little walking through life, time belongs to the old days, time's a beast, it keeps on eating human minds, but time's days are falling down, it's turning into a hurt black bird, still looking for meat, fresh and bloody meat.... but time is hurt, it won't last too much..... time, just like a dying star, it will just eat itself, faster and faster and faster, they will be hard days I know, but time will leave us alone, at least, alone; of course, we will walk like lost children through the ruins of time, with no direction, it won't last, we won't remember what it was, and time will be just dust floating on the sky, pieces of dark feathers going up and down, little and dirty feathers, time... who will remember then... Good morning, new morning day, good morning heart, are you feeling alright? the world is going round and round, good morning heart, isn't it sweet, isn't it amazing, life's making sense, life's giving us jewels... no more black birds...

Good morning
elros Tuominen

elros also creates a new piece of interactive art or jewelry about every two days. 2D photography does not do justice to 3D interactive art, but I hope the following snaps will entice you enough to go and have a peek at his work. Two good places are Tayzia Abattoir's Crescent Moon Museum (teleport directly from here) and Morris Vig's Oyster Bay Gallery (teleport directly from here). You can actually purchase his work at elros' store, the Tubular Gallery (teleport directly from here), or online.


"Multiple planar perspectives" switches from blue to pink to aqua to purple.

Just before the holidays, elros generously offered two of his gorgeous kinetic sculptures to NPIRLers as gifts. I asked him if he wanted to issue a notecard as well, and he replied, "yes, but first I need some Floyd." After further inquiries, I came to understand that he was going to listen to some Pink Floyd for inspiration. I wish music had such a powerful effect on me!


This swirly thing is called "Dancers," and spins very gently on its axis.

Yesterday, elros sent me an unannounced landmark. I don't usually receive landmarks from him, so I immediately popped in for a look (see below).


His newest, very large piece is called "inside road to ovetum" and is made up of megaprims. It is rezzed in the sky. There's another large piece just above it. Simply fly directly up.

Most of elros' sculptures are low prim, and every single one of them is in constant, fluid motion. One can only imagine what elros' reaction was when he first realized that he could add movement scripts to his art work.


This piece is quite large and a good example of a running theme that elros has been exploring that I am simply wild about. Stop by his shop (teleport directly from here) to see his "teardrops in the rain" in-world. I can almost guarantee that you will be wowed.

Several of his sculptures gracefully "fade in/fade out," such as this fan-like piece called "Playing Harp."



Finally, I discovered this Machinima interview of elros by Magellan Egoyan, which makes it much easier for those who are not in-world to grasp what we are talking about when we refer to elros' interactive art.

More advice for newbies (but first time it comes from me)

this post by Lem Skall

I often think that joining Second Life is like emigrating to a new country. At least the challenges are very similar. First, you encounter challenges just the way you do when you move to any new place, even when it's within the same country: how to get around, where are the best places to go to, finding new friends. It's much more when moving to another country though. You will usually end up changing even your diet and your hobbies.

The most subtle changes and sometimes the most difficult ones to adapt to in a new country are the cultural ones. It's what is often called culture shock. And I believe that it happens when joining Second Life too. It's not necessarily as negative as it may sound, it may be even exhilarating for some, but it involves a steep learning curve nevertheless.

Joining Second Life is like moving to a new country because it is a social place and it has its own culture. It has its own peculiarities and an etiquette that take time to learn and to understand. There are no common rules, but I'll attempt a personal view on what are some of the most important things to learn as a beginner in Second Life that are part of the culture. They may be obvious to veterans of Second Life and they may be even intuitive to some beginners. But my gut tells me that these have been some of the biggest challenges that have made beginners give up on Second Life.

1) Augmentation vs. immersion affects many aspects of the Second Life culture. It is always an important topic that comes up in many contexts and it has been widely discussed. Gwyneth Llewelyn has given one of the best definitions for the two terms : "[Immersionists are] interested in Second Life as an 'alternate reality', one that is disconnected from 'real life' but bears some resemblance to it. In this alternate reality you would be able to be whomever you wanted to be — and requests for revealing your real life data are considered rude. [...] [Augmentationists] look at Second Life as an extension of real life — a tool, a platform, a communication medium, the 2nd generation World-Wide Web in 3D. For them, anonymity is as silly as faking your voice on a phone call; just because you’re a 'phone number' you’re not a different person." Both augmentation and immersion coexist in Second Life and it is most important to respect both augmentationists and immersionists, no matter which choice one makes for oneself.

2) Instant Messaging (IM) is special. Use it wisely. It is a powerful tool that can be used to communicate with someone who is out of chat range or is even not logged in. It is also a very personal channel when used within chat range. Actually, it is always personal and that's why it should be used with caution especially with strangers. Just because everyone is listed and can be contacted in IM doesn't mean one should do it. And IM is so personal that when a male IMs an unfamiliar female within chat range it can make it a pick-up line almost no matter what he says. So it better be something important or it better be good. Don't be too shy either though and keep in mind that IM is used intensively even if it may not be obvious. For instance, a lot more goes on in IM in a large group as in a club where most of the public chat is bland stuff like "whooo!", "/clap" and "/me thinks he's in love".

3) The friends list is not a trophy collection. Offering friendship to someone in SL normally means "let's keep in touch!". You don't keep in touch with someone you've never been in touch with in the first place, so don't offer friendship to every stranger you run into, not without getting to know each other first at least a little.

4) There is no such thing as privacy in Second Life but there is such a thing as expectation of privacy. There are private conversations and there are private spaces. It is considered rude and annoying when people barge into private conversations or private spaces. Unfortunately for beginners in SL, it takes experience to recognize what is private and what is not. For instance, while a conversation between many people hanging out at an infohub is usually not private, a conversation among a small group of people in a low-traffic place (even if public) is usually private. A mall is obviously a public space, but residential sims are mostly private spaces. One may fly through someone's backyard and one may even enter a home but it is very bad form to stay in someone's private space while they're there without at least striking a polite conversation with them.

5) Anonymity affects social interactions in many subtle ways. This is common now in any social network on the web and it is valid also in Second Life even if the avatars may create false impressions. Anyone you interact with may still be anything in RL, young or old, male or female, no matter what their avatars may look like. There are so many such social clues that affect us in RL and yet in SL it takes longer to figure out people and to figure out what kind of rapport we can develop with them. This shouldn't slow you down though. It is possible to have very interesting communication and relationships with people in SL even without knowing the RL clues. Some would even say that interactions in SL are purer than in RL because they are free of such "preconceptions".

6) There are no social classes in Second Life. Actually there are, first of all, there are the Lindens. Plus, in time, there will always be people you will know of without them ever knowing of you. And most importantly, there is the great SL social divider: experience. There are 3 major social classes in Second Life: those who have been in SL much longer than you, those who have been in SL for a while but not much longer than you, and newbies. Still, that is all perception and there are no equivalents of Brad and Angelina or heads of governments in SL (mind you, there is the equivalent of a Donald Trump). No one is going to get mobbed by a crowd in SL and there are no bouncers or maitre d's who can pick someone before someone else based on their social status. Even SL age is relative because an avatar with a recent rez date can be an alt for a very experienced resident. In the end, no one can be sure of who you are in SL or in RL. All that creates a sense of equality in Second Life and everyone can therefore be approached equally. So there are no social classes in Second Life after all.

7) Exploration is the key. This is true of many aspects of Second Life and it is true also for meeting people, making friends, and finding a social life in general. Move around, go to events, join groups. Use all the tools that are available. Use the Search tool to find events and groups that may interest you. Read the profiles of people you meet, not only you will quickly get to know something about those people, but you will also find new ideas for things to do and groups to join. Go one step further and read the owners and/or the creators of objects and places that you find interesting and then read their profiles. Last but not least, talk to those people if you think there is something interesting about them. Talking to strangers in SL is much more common and accepted than in RL, just don't forget what I said about IM and privacy.

Of course, there is much more. I am intentionally leaving out sex in Second Life, griefers, and voice versus typing because those are complex topics in themselves. Augmentation vs. immersion is such a topic also but I decided that it has to be mentioned because it is so central to the SL culture. Bettina wrote up a list of "What every Second Life newbie should know" with great advice that addresses mostly technical and practical challenges that beginners encounter. This post here is the result of a challenge that Bettina made to me after I commented on her post. I have tried to add to what she wrote with elements outside the domain that she focused on even if we overlap in some places. And yet, our lists are not unique. There are many more like them out there on the web and by now also in printed books (and more elaborate there). There will also certainly be many more in the future. But every personal view counts and hopefully adds something new. I hope that our views achieve that.

What every Second Life newbie should know - 10 secret tips that will boost your experience from the get-go

Let's face it, the first few days and even weeks in Second Life are friggin' hard. Whether you are a geek or computer-clueless, take my word for it... you are going to be challenged. Looking back, I can't believe I stuck around. I almost didn't make it.

Is it worth it? Oh yes. Whether you are looking merely to socialize, explore business opportunities, or exercise your mind... whatever your reasons may be, once you "get it," you will realize that it is the ultimate creative tool, and superlative fun.

There is very little about Second Life that truly parallels Real Life. Just as a day in Second Life is only four hours long, so goes the speed, the immediacy with which things take place once you become an active participant. It is also so much easier to expose yourself to new information. Fact is, Second Life is a library, a school, a conversation... on steroids.

Speaking for myself, nearly every sentence I uttered in my first few weeks in the metaverse ended with a question mark. You aren't alone in worrying that you don't have enough time in your Real Life, let alone a Second Life. I also worried that it was unproductive and possibly not the wave of the future that the media kept reporting on. I was quite frustrated with the technical glitches I was experiencing, too.

In my earlier explorations, I sometimes inadvertently found myself in the seedier areas of Second Life, which I hardly ever come across anymore, just as I don't elect to spend time in the back alleys or social wastelands of Los Angeles. You learn where to go and what to avoid as you become more experienced, but a word of advice here: avoid the areas that report the highest traffic numbers. They are nearly always traps.

Second Life is so territorially immense that you could travel continuously, day and night, and never see it all. Yes, it is quite possible to be the only person in a region, but a quick teleport will land you amidst 70 other avatars, all doing whatever it is that you most enjoy... and this at any time of the day or night.

So... if you think you are ready for a taste, but want to skip a lot of the growing pains, take heed. Here are 10 rarely disclosed secrets - actually a lot more - that will greatly enhance your experience, right off the bat:

1) MONEY - Access to Second Life is free... so splurge a little and enter the metaverse with the idea that your experience will be vastly better if you are willing to spend $10 to $15 US dollars (less than the price of a movie ticket plus popcorn and a soda, if you think about it) to get yourself started off on the right foot.

It is fair to say that asking for money upon arrival in Second Life is shameful and akin to begging in Real Life. Realize, too, that your skills - especially in the first few days - make it nearly impossible for you to earn any real money. Later, yes, your chances are much better. Early on, no.

You get a much better exchange rate for your Real Life money at SL Exchange than you do in-world (sorry, Linden Lab and no, I'm not getting a kick-back from SL Exchange).

I'm still on the fence regarding the value of a premium account ($9.95 US dollars a month), though one benefit I really enjoy is the ability to see who is online even when you are offline. Only paying members can access this info on the Second Life website.

2) YOUR PERSONA - Choose your name wisely. Pick a name that is easy to type, easy to spell, and easy to remember. Nearly everyone experiments with who they are in the beginning. Consider the possibility that someday you may actually want to meet one or more people you've encountered in-world, face-to-face, in Real Life. You might fall in love, or develop genuine business relationships, and friendships in the metaverse can be as real and as deep as anything you've experienced before. On the opposite side of that spectrum, but equally important, I would advise you not to reveal much about your Real Life until you've had a chance to get to know the people you are interacting with.

3) TAILORING YOUR AVATAR: Ladies, before you begin customizing your avatar's chest (there's a little slider that goes from flat to humongous... just like that), consider Neil Stephenson's description of the three almost-standard-issue breast sizes on female avatars in his landmark book Snow Crash: improbable, impossible, and ludicrous. Too much can be ridiculous.

If you choose to be a human, you have the option of purchasing ready-to-wear shapes, though keep in mind that you will not be able to alter them later (they are rarely modifiable), and they are often very, and I do mean very (read: unrealistically) tall.

Some of the best known non-human or barely-human avatar creators give away a few basic and cool avatars for free or at very low cost. Flea Bussy's Grendel's Children, and Tooter Claxton always have fun things. You can also pick up free avatars (and scads of off-the-wall and/or practical and interesting things) at Hobo Village (teleport from here), Yadni's Junkyard (teleport from here), and the Gnubie store (teleport from here).

One other thought... less practical, but certainly droll... A friend of mine and his in-world girl friend amuse each other by donning the avatars of attractive celebrities, and yes, it is entirely possible to indulge your inner A-List yearnings and look like Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp.

There are dozens of good websites and blogs that are devoted to fashion in Second Life, but one of my favorites is a column by Iris Ophelia on New World Notes.

4) PRIVACY: There is no such thing as complete privacy in Second Life. Once you learn how to operate your camera well (see the next tip), you will realize that your camera can look inside a house on the next island over, traversing through walls... with ease.

That said, here are some helpful privacy tips:

Teleport directly from here to Mystical Cookie's shop and pick up a free version of her Mystitool. Mystical just lowered the price on the full version of the Mystitool, and believe me, this is the best purchase your $396 Lindens can buy you. One of its many features is that it gives you the ability to always know who is within 96 meters of you, and how far away they are, and if they are coming closer. Use this tool immediately (you wear it) and never take it off.

Chime Desoto - one of the members of our Not Possible in Real Life group - created a Private Changing Room, and you can pick up a free copy of it, as well as easy instructions for its use, at my treehouse by teleporting directly from here.

5) SEE THINGS BETTER - Learning how to use your camera will turbo-charge your experience. In fact, learn how to do this first. It takes a little practice in the beginning, but later you will maneuver your camera automatically. The best instructions are available via one of our favorite Lindens - Torley - and can be viewed here.

6) RECORD YOUR EXPERIENCES BETTER - One of the pleasures of Second Life is the ease with which you can capture moments and places through photography. In-world snapshots cost $10 Lindens a piece, which doesn't sound like much, but ultimately adds up. After a few months, you'll find that your inventory is beginning to clog up with photos, too. In-world snapshots are good to have if you plan to share them with others immediately, but most of the time it pays off to save them on your hard drive or send them directly to Flickr or Snapzilla. Both of these services are free, although Flickr does offer a very reasonably priced premium account and you can retrieve your photographs for blogging or editing or duplication purposes whenever you like.

It is easy to keep a log of in-world text conversations, which you can later refer to, though it is considered a violation of the Terms of Service to share these records with anyone who didn't participate in them. It is also considered good form to secure permission from the person with whom you are "speaking," and whose conversation you are recording.

7) LEARN THE BASICS FIRST - As soon as you are able, learn at least a little about building and scripting. Even if you don't become a dedicated content creator, some notions of what's involved/elementary knowledge will serve you very well, indeed. Two people whom I'm extremely proud to know, have given generously of their time and land to provide stellar tutorials: Lumiere Noire's Ivory Tower - Library of Prim (teleport directly from here ), is essential when it comes to learning about building, and Jopsy Pendragon's Particle Laboratory, is a first-rate place to learn basic script and particle creation (teleport directly from here).

8) ASK QUESTIONS WHENEVER YOU CAN; FIND A MENTOR OR TWO - Nothing beats first-hand advice. Nothing. Also, never forget that we were all newbies in the beginning.

9) KEEP YOUR INVENTORY ORGANIZED FROM DAY ONE. Oh, oh, oh how I wish I had done this. Don't be like me and start thinking - and acting - this way from the beginning. Here's another gem video by Torley Linden, which will help you tidy up that inventory and keep it lean.

10) PEOPLE AREN'T ALWAYS WHO YOU THINK THEY ARE - Until the advent of Voice in Second Life, a surprisingly high number of men opted to portray themselves as women. Many, many still do. Do not assume that this means that they are transexuals or gay or any such thing. In fact, throw all your assumptions out the window. It's been my experience that most of them are straight. My advice: go shopping with them. It's fun, though they tend to have racier tastes than I do. :P

I can't resist adding this one last tip, which I won't even number. Where you land in the beginning and the quality of the people you mingle with will have a huge impact on how your Second Life unfolds. I got started at Hobo Village and I still can't believe my luck. Here is where I asked so many of those questions and, more often than not, got good answers. October 8, 2008 Update: Since I posted this, the Hobos have gotten their own island with a big sandbox, too (teleport directly from here). Recommended.

I'm sure I've missed oodles of good tips, and I won't be surprised - in fact I hope - that seasoned SLers will gently remind me of them. I'd like to learn more things! Seriously though, all comments are most welcome.

I'd like to especially thank Pavig Lok, Orhalla Zander, Arcadia Asylum, Thinkerer Melville, Wellington Bahram, Luna Idler, Corporate Jay, Alec Paragon and dozens of other SecondLife Hobos who didn't pitch me out with the bath water... and put up with my endless questions during those first few months. Thanks to them, I collapse in bed with a grin on my face every night and bolt out of bed the next morning, eager to see what the new day will bring. For now, I hope it will bring happy and informed newbies.


January 2 update: Ha! Just discovered this video about a "noob" - and clearly for newbies - via Caleb Booker's blog. Created by Akanjee Yongho and Anamkhaï Sodwind, it's a pilot for a series, and is set up for advertising. Pretty clever.

January 3 update: Since posting this piece, I've met over a dozen newbies who have read it! Nearly all asked me for suggestions on what to do in Second Life. Best answer I could think of was to suggest that they bookmark this blog since I make every effort to share our best findings here, complete with slurls (the equivalent of a Landmark), and that they join the Impossible IRL group in-world. It's free and open registration. I send about two or three notices a week with information on the best new builds and builders.

January 4 update: Just discovered what promises to be an excellent blog for men in Second Life. This is a first! Are We Not Men looks like it might have a real future, indeed. Men get short shrift in Second Life, especially when it comes to hair, but I have a feeling they'll give you some important leads on this and more... manly stuff for those teeming with testosterone. ^.^

February 10 update: Interested in art? Get your virtual life off to a bang-up start and make use of Sasun Steinbeck's extraordinary HUD which guides you from one gallery and museum to another (teleport directly from here). Hehe, that's how I got started!

February 26 update: Experiencing Second Life is not a requisite to understanding the wealth of information in the just-published book The Making of Second Life by Wagner James Au, the first embedded journalist and historian in the metaverse. Highly recommended.

Little but good - Spiral Walcher's wearable environments

Spiral Walcher is doing some interesting things. You've all seen AM Radio's wheat field. Here's a new take on it, with UFO's and aliens actively abducting the table grapes.



This is inside something... hmmm



... and so is this familiar wheat field scene...



All of this and so much more is taking place on and inside three top hats.



Let's hope Spi will be putting these on the market soon.



I can't get enough of them. More, Spi, please more!

12/20/07 addendum: And here's the latest one.

Metaverse Journal interviews Pavig Lok - My thoughts: top builder, lead creative... but an even better mentor

There's an excellent interview and a good read today by Lowell Cremorne about Pavig Lok - one of the true Giants in Second Life (and height has nothing to do with this... my avatar towers over Pav's) - at the Metaverse Journal.

Being a Second Life Hobo, I had the good fortune to meet Pavig very soon after my rez day; surely in the first week. Pav's influence on me is incalculable. Yes, Pav's builds are always brilliant in concept, always executed to perfection and invariably great fun. If I were to choose collaborators for any build project, Pav would surely be somewhere on the top of that list.


Pav on the far left, at one of many fun Hobo field trips

Importantly though, since day one, Pav has been a mentor to me and to countless others, a go-to-person for any kind of question, whether technical or how to handle a prickly situation, and above all, Pav has been a friend. It's not been a sentimental or maudlin friendship, but one built on my deep respect and appreciation. Heh, I don't believe I've ever even hugged Pav! In fact, it's unlikely I would have stuck around had it not been for Pav's support, gentle but honest nudges to quit being (insert any infraction here), balanced and always fascinating insights, and unending nuggets of advice.


Pav on the far right at yet another Hobo event; always there for the important stuff

I can't teleport you to a build to show you Pavig's greatest work. I can only point to myself and scores of others who are better people because of this one extraordinary Pastiest Hobo.

Money: You can't have it... yet

all photography by Arahan Claveau

About a month ago, NPIRLers had a 24 hour preview of a mysterious sim that is part of an even larger mystery. Last week, I invited master of narrative photography, Arahan Claveau, to go back and capture just a few glimpses... mere hints... of what we saw there, to share with you.





It's as yet incomplete... about 60% there, I'm told. Creation dates appear to begin in December, 2006... and end in April of this year. Built primarily by Light Waves, with several important elements by Pavig Lok and a few by Littletoe Bartlett, this is the same team that gave us the Greenies, but it is not a Rezzable sim.



Doors are open. Someone came or left in a hurry.



Called simply "Money," the sim is dripping with atmosphere and intrigue.



It's clear that something terrible has happened, but we're not sure what or why.



Some discoveries, as you explore, are goose-bump-inducing.



Others seem to be important parts of the puzzle.



In a few days, I'll share a little more of what I've discovered...



...and the answers I have are surprising, indeed.



No slurl... yet.

Theory of Everything - Or my grandma can crochet better than your grandma

A few weeks ago, artist and creator Gaynor Gritzi caught an article in The Times of London about Antony Garrett Lisi, a 39 year old surfer and physicist who has linked the Theory of Everything, or ToE, to a complex 248-dimensional shape known as E8.



Update: Gaynor had rezzed an E8 in Second Life, but it is no longer there. You might contact Gaynor directly for an opportunity to view this.

Photography in virtual worlds: More production elements than Real Life shoots

The work of photographers Arahan Claveau and Luna Zolnir - two gifted Not Possible IRL Flickrites - has been featured recently in Hamlet Au's New World Notes, the online zine that serves as a main artery and chronicle of just about every aspect of Second Life.

This has caused me to reflect on the additional complexities behind the creation of great photography in virtual worlds. While the best pics in real life also involve studio work or location scouting, model and prop selection, art direction, styling, and post production, other factors come into play when that shot is taken in a virtual environment.

Luna Zolnir is making her own animations, for instance. Another NPIRL Flickrite, ColeMarie Soleil, often uses particles, thereby introducing the special effects within the environment that is being photographed. Arahan Claveau is a pioneer in creating narrative photography in the metaverse, that doesn't depend on text or other aids to relate a story. He also brings several special effects inworld. All are now working within the Windlight First Look viewer whenever possible and appropriate, which enables them to specify the time of day, as well as some weather visuals.

In fact, since creating the Not Possible in Real Life Flickr groups: Not Possible in Real Life - Content Creation, Avatars - Not Possible in Real Life, and Situations Not Possible in Real Life, I've had the good fortune to discover several really exceptional photographers. One such artist is Stephen Venkman. His work has already graced the pages of this blog, and I have taken to actively tracking his creations. Yesterday, I happened upon this photograph and have been going back to look at it again and again. I believe Magritte himself would have enjoyed it.


"Floating with nothing but..." by S-Venkman © All rights reserved

I asked Stephen what was involved in producing this work.

Stephen Venkman: I had taken a bunch of shots while in a suspended animation of sorts (within a build called) "The Afterlife" (by NPIRLer Toran Cult)...and the first part of the experience was floating around in darkness while everyone joined you. All was black for me 'cept some sparkles of light... so when I pulled it into Photoshop, I removed the black backgrounds first. As soon as I had seen the series of shots, I knew I wanted them somehow all on one piece. I created a new file and dragged each one in scaling and sizing...added a cloud layer with some brushed and there you go... Oh, some lens flares, too.

Now THAT's a dress!

Eshi Otawara, founder and host of Open Art Critique, just created this lovely... I gotta get me one. *swoons*

Concept Art that's fun, or intellectual - you decide: Gazira Babeli's "Collateral Damage"

The day that code performer Gazira Babeli (rezzed March 31, 2006), joined the Not Possible IRL group, I became so excited that I informed my Real Life friends and family. It's just that no other content creator in Second Life has managed to encapsulate, illustrate and celebrate the core concept of our group better than Gaz. Plus, she's got one wicked sense of humor.

Gazira's "Collateral Damage" show at her Locusolus sim is simply the most sumptuously diabolical and hilarious venue in Second Life. If you haven't experienced it, then allow me to nudge you as politely but as firmly as is necessary: on your feet, go, go, go, get a move on right over there quick quick. You can thank me later :P Oh, and your experience will be greatly enhanced if you take a friend or two along. Really.

Until today, I had held back from revealing much about "Collateral Damage" other than to gently but enthusiastically urge you to go, largely because the element of surprise is a bonus... but alas, some people won't take a friendly hint. ;) Fact is, I am always astonished when I learn that someone hasn't been there.

Art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta has already done a brilliant job of analyzing the show, and numerous other fascinating write-ups exist, such as this one by Esther DeCuir, so I will limit myself to sharing a pop/superficial - though blissful - review, and here it is: Gazira amuses herself and you by taking liberties with your head and your avatar.

Earlier this week, I had the distinct pleasure of introducing three charming individuals to some elements of the show, on the pretext of snapping some pics for this very blog post...

There are two very tall towers near the sim's entry point marked with a plaque that reads: "Unbroken Eggs: Monument to Luciano Fabro, July 2007." Chance Abattoir and I watched as Jurin Juran walked between them.



Within seconds, the buildings collapsed atop Jurin.




This being a virtual environment, the buildings promptly reassembled themselves and Jurin rejoined us, along with SuezanneC Baskerville, who had just arrived.

SuezanneC got into the spirit of things right away, and began trampling the pizzas, which responded by melodically bouncing her off, all the while bleating riffs from that Neapolitan tune "O Sole Mio," and emitting generous clouds of particles.



Meanwhile, Jurin had been caught inside a can of Campbell's soup and was getting a peppy shake. Chance was mid-air, having disobeyed instructions that read "don't say new media," and being subsequently possessed by a mini-tornado that didn't let go until some precise words were uttered.



Then, SuezanneC and Jurin discovered some large slabs of concrete that simulate a rather vigorous earthquake when stepped on.



They proved to be brave souls and forged on. We all reconvened at a platform surrounded by poseballs, and hopped on. "Come together" - as it is called - would be putting what happened next, lightly. Each avatar is taken through a series of fun and silly animations separately, but all participating avatars are merged together.




There are several other remarkable pieces within the installation, but probably the most controversial is "Avatar on Canvas," where Gaz has set up three Francis Bacon paintings with chairs that - once used - deform the avatar. Most of us treat our avatars with the same degree of narcissism and reverence that we do our Real Life bodies, so participating in this exploit requires a bit of open-minded loosening up. Speaking for myself, I can't recommend this enough. No matter how many times I've done it, it invariably cracks me up all over again.





I heartily recommend jumping back on the "Come Together" platform for some after-merging, and suggest that your little group consider following that up with a shopping or dancing expedition. It's guaranteed to bring down the house, not to mention the distinct probability that you will never feel quite the same about your avatar again...



...and, I believe, that is exactly what Gazira set out to accomplish.

Ready? Teleport directly from here.

Many thanks to Jurin Juran, SuezanneC Baskerville and Chance Abattoir for being such good sports, as well as great fun and top-notch conversationalists all through this comical experience.

Second Life infomercials you actually *want* to see, by Ordinal Malaprop - Yea!

"Technologist, natural philosopher, mathematrix and occasional purchaser of shoes,"
Ordinal Malaprop, has taken marketing in the metaverse several steps up the "professional production" scale." In fact, she has created infomercials for her "Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick," and her "The Ordinal Automatic "Flick"-Knife" that just need to be seen by one and all. Never thought I'd see the day I'd love infomercials, but yea!

Here's one:


The Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo.

Bizarre and very NPIRL ways to beef up traffic numbers?

Hobo King Orhalla Zander just TP'ed me to a poorly made, untextured prim skybox. Inside were 9 avatars in various states of Ruth, all members of the Blue Bay Beach Club and all apparently "manufactured" between October 10th and 13th of this year. All of the avatars were facing one direction and all were silent. None were "away." Creepy.



We were above Athena's Mall & Beach Club where, it was advertised alongside the sim name: "Mall Space for Rent."



Want to take a look for yourself? Teleport directly from here.



It was Orhalla who surmised - and I can't imagine that he's wrong about this - that these were traffic generators. What else could this be, and is this camping taken to new and ghastly heights? Traffic numbers for this parcel: 12,766.

Hmmm.

Second Life's CTO on his way out

Word has it through CNet News and Silicon Valley's Tech Gossip Rag, Valleywag, that Cory Ondrejka, Linden Lab's Chief Technology Officer, has been asked to leave. In fact, Linden Lab has confirmed that Ondrejka will be departing "in order to pursue new professional challenges." I'm not going to regurgitate the news (best you read the links), but can't help praying that this doesn't mean a serious period of instability on the grid.

Addendum: Best coverage I've found so far is Tateru Nino's publication of Cory Ondrejka's internal email, in Massively.

...and now we can only hope for good things that are possible in real life. Many NPIRLers admire and respect Cory, and are sad to see him go. Others are looking forward to a new approach. One thing is certain. Change is on the way.

Addendum II: Go here for Hamlet Au's coverage on New World Notes today.

No red noses here: Madcow Cosmos' sleigh and four skinny reindeer

Real Life architect and publisher KK Jewell allowed me to rez this whopping 1,600 prim wonder by Madcow Cosmos above the Christmas tree at her arcspace Island. Teleport directly from here. Thank you, KK!

Madcow - surely the greatest prim hog on the grid - is a constant source of joy in my Second Life, and I've come to look forward to anything this Real Life chef sends my way, despite the fact that I practically have to ask permission to rez his things even in a sandbox, given their prim load. Many thanks to Jurin Juran and her Blackwater Gallery for introducing me to this good-humored and clever artist.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Amalthea Blanc dropped me an LM for this unusual take on the season, created by Krius Misfit.



Teleport directly from here.

The Hall of Twisty Smears - Rezzed

One of the problems with being as prolific a builder as Juria Yoshikawa is finding homes for all these creations which are, for the most part, a bit large. After leaving her latest piece, the Hall of Twisty Smears, laying about in sandboxes until it was returned, Juria has finally given it a semi-permanent place at Memespelunk - teleport directly from here. Juria says, "Part architecture, part painterly swirlies, The Smears are in grande size proportions. I imagine a new kind of organic architecture that loops and twists like internal organs or prehistoric fossils growing one on another. But the material is pecular in its smeariness; animation in twisty pretzel fashion."

I like to view them in the Windlight Gelatto setting.




I also like this new ribbony thing that's swirling on the same sim.

Sneak preview: Great balls of fire at Cascade Rezzable

Foolish Frost is a gentleman, and a coder, and a builder and a strategist. He's been in Second Life since March of 2005, and is probably best known for building the humongous Leo Burnett tree, and as team leader for the creation of Toxic Rezzable. He's also very pleasant. He calls me "lass." ^.^



I hadn't spoken with Foolish, who now works full time for Rezzable Productions as technical advisor, for weeks, so I was especially happy to accept his TP offer this morning to see what's been keeping him busy. Seems he's been masterminding some rather spectacular special effects: blowing up volcanoes and touching off avalanches... and unlike Real Life cinema where the one-time production of such an event would cost a sizable portion of a film's budget and could only be produced and shot once, Foolish can - at will - make these things happen over and over again, at no extra cost and, I might add, to my delight.

Cascade Rezzable will be a rather unusual retail area where your shopping experience might be interrupted by volcanic eruptions. Now, any old Second Life traveler has seen his share of volcanoes, as well as pretty particle effects...



...but suddenly the volcanoes are belching fireballs that make a beeline for the snowy mountains just behind you...



The fireballs make impact...




... and the mountain sides begin to collapse before your eyes. Yeehaaa!




Asked to explain how the tricks were accomplished, Foolish said, "Ah, megaprims, sculpties, and a special rebuilt animation system that allows large-scale prim movement... all linked by way of regionsay."

Cascade is slated to open to the public by this weekend, and will carry items for the avatar.

8 random things about me

I've just been tagged by that gifted sculptor and builder Stella Costello and am now tasked with sharing 8 random things about myself and then tagging 8 others, and I already cheated because I saw Gary Hazlitt in-world and tagged him even before I posted my own list. Here goes:

1) I revealed my Real Name to two people in world today. It was a non-event.
2) I have been a pretty dedicated cook - though lately my kitchen rarely sees me - and an even more dedicated cookbook collector. I own approximately 2,500 cookbooks. Most are hardcovers and first editions and many have been autographed by their authors. Need a recipe from just about any part of the world? I am nearly certain I have it. Tip: Did you know that almost 70% of the value of a book depends on the integrity of the dust jacket? If you think a book will be valuable someday, don't clip the price on the dust jacket, even if it is a gift! Book collectors will thank you.
3) I have often been called a gym rat.
4) I want to learn how to build in-world but can't find the time to do it.
5) I nearly always got As in math, which I did not deserve. I'm still not sure how that happened.
6) Physicists fascinate me. They are the most interesting people on earth.
7) I am nearly always barefoot.
8) Today I danced in the rain. In RL. We need more rain in Los Angeles.

Look out people, I'm on my way to tag you!

Feel like straying into a new metaverse? Chinese HiPiHi now in limited beta for English language users

HiPiHi (type that intentional cuteness five times in a row!) for English language users is now in limited Beta testing. You will have to submit your personal info, including your address and cell phone number, and wait to hear if you have been accepted. Oh, and the uninstall of the current release "30014" is infected with the backdoor Trojan BDS/Bifrose.

HiPiHi - pronounced "High-Pee-High" :0 - is a place where, according to their website, "The residents are the Gods of this virtual world; it is a world of limitless possibilities for creativity and self-expression, within a complex social structure and a fully functioning economy." Here's the Wikipedia on 'em. Just remember to mind your p's and q's, darlings. Whatever they choose to call it, it is censored.


Interesting use of Christmas music... and interlaced with cinema. Hmmm. Wave at the transformer, everyone!

I wonder if they would like to trade one of my used Woots for some textures?

For a while, at least, HiPiHi is going to make SL seem like Mach 4. It took me forever just to load a photograph from their website, so pack your patience for that trip instead of those woots. All kidding aside, I wish them well. There's nothing like expanded communication tools to tear down the wall.

Happy Holidays to you - Now, deck the halls with boughs of holly!

You guys having fun yet? Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Seems that Miki Gymnast has been at it again! Now she's gone and created this gorgeous, GIANT, space-age Christmas tree. Miki always views her creations at Mars Rezzable as sandbox fun, but we invariably latch onto them, and like them too much. :P

Meanwhile, that cute little Greenie, Verde Raymaker, is inviting one and all to take part in the fun and make ornaments to decorate it, presents to place under it, and snowmen to surround it. The theme is "Peace and Love." Furthermore, he promises $25,000L in prizes for his fave pieces.



First thing you gotta do is get yourself over there to check out the tree:

+ Set light to midnite
+ Teleport directly from here
+ Put your music on!
+ Rez
+ Put on your skates or surfboard and weeeeeeeeee down the tree

Next, make your contributions and send them to Beatrix Newt.

Technical details:
Max for any item is 50 prims! Objects for the tree should be about the size of an avatar. No scripts or particles, except for simple animating scripts please!! Set the object to "sell contents for 10L". Object should be tagged to Mars group. Contents should be set "no trans, copy, and mod is up to you, but mod is more fun!"

Someday... an engine that will knock our socks off: CryEngine2

Proceed with caution! This may prove painful.

A few days ago, AM Radio slipped me this URL, and I've been whimpering ever since.

Not Possible in SL? The CryEngine2 is a game engine currently being used for Crytek's game, Crysis. How soon will Second Life reach this level of physics? Even if it were there today, would most user's computers be able to handle it?

Flea Bussy's empire: Grendel's Children, one wacky avatar at a time...

Once upon a time, there was a troll who started a business in Second Life... Fourteen months, 800 different avatars and four sims later, Flea Bussy is regarded as one of the most prolific and best-loved content creators in the metaverse.

FAST FACTS ABOUT FLEA BUSSY
* Rez day: 6/29/2006
* Flea is only 22 years old!
* Works an average of 20 hours a day, 7 days a week
* Was kicked out of art class
* First store opened on September 1, 2006
* Grendel's Children has produced more than 800 avatars
* Average price per avatar: $150L to $250L, with many freebies available
* Ten full time employees; 23 employees all told
* Grendel's Children now covers four sims. Teleport directly from here

Odds are, if you have even one non-human avatar in your inventory, it is from a store called Grendel's Children. I spent one of the most enjoyable evenings in recent memory with its founder and creator, Flea Bussy, and had several surprises, not to mention lots of belly laughs, along the way.

Flea Bussy: I live up in Canada, and am in Quebec! I am, indeed, able to speak French and act as the French translator for staff!
Bettina Tizzy: There is the matter of... is Flea a man or a woman? Or do you care?
Flea Bussy: You can be anything in Second Life, which is what we're devoted to do. It happens that Flea is an old character from early on who's stuck with me as the most fun to 'be,' so I tend to wear (her) as the best representation of myself. I don't really care if people think I'm a he, a she... an it. I answer to all three, and even expletives!


The sort of "official" Flea Bussy avatar

Bettina Tizzy: What were your first days in Second Life like?
Flea Bussy: The first day was like anyone's! You're alone, lost and dumbfounded by the whole world, heehee. Then I figured SL was just a pile of cube homes 'n weird stuff and was preparing to give up on it... and accidentally warped - as my last stop - into a sandbox. And thus, my adventure began.

I saw somebody's massive 3000 prim mech avatar, detailed to the brink. That's when I realized SL is only as bland as you make it to be, and started learning how to build, link, attach... all by reading what resources we have in-game, too! Within 2 days I had the (now free) Viperbug avatar, and by the next day, my (longtime) 'official' avatar "Spikey Armor."

I was just as clumsy as anyone else who tries building: the ol' box to the head, bad prims all over, terrible attempts to animate... but never ever did give up and so, just by always treating any mistake as a learning experience, it has taught me also how to improve my own outlook on RL, too. Nothing like a mistake to teach you something valuable!


Flea's "Spring Treant" is also available in Summer, Fall and Winter avatars. It has a very comprehensive HUD that enables you to emit particles, open and close eyes and mouth, and stomp around rather impressively and *loudly* - The AO is a hoot

Bettina Tizzy: You weren't doing graphic arts or anything of the kind in real life?
Flea Bussy: Naaaahhh, I failed my high school art class and never really learned 'official' ways to do things. (I'm) very much self taught. Hee, 'n you know why I got booted? Well, we're all supposed to draw, say, the bowl of fruit 'n whatnot...so I did, and then added alot of things...and was always told 'you're only supposed to draw what's there!' I think it was some butterfly-like creatures. Very pretty, too. Shame, he ripped it up. Point being, that's when I decided 'art schools aren't for me.' (Today) I paint all our textures by mouse, and that is one skill I would think is very useful to know! Everything is more original since you can always adjust as you draw. It gives something more life, more zip...


This photo by Luna Zolnir

Bettina Tizzy: How soon after those early days in the sandbox did you realize that this could become a full time endeavor?
Flea Bussy: August (was) the learning period, and after one month my friend Shay loaned me and my buddy Lasair a plot of land. She knew we might be able to make it, so she helped set up the space. Grendel's was born on a 2046 sq. m plot. We had a massive tree, and the original Shansu guarding the store.


The first Grendel's Children store opened on September 1, 2006

Bettina Tizzy: Were we ever at risk that you might become a house builder or clothing maker? Sounds like you knew from the getgo that avatars were what interested you.
Flea Bussy: My favorite thing is 'monsters' but, given the fact (that) I'm a 'troll' so to speak (and not from Warcraft - thanks! - I was one before they knew what a troll was!) I always liked making what felt right about 'em.
Bettina Tizzy: So you are a unique troll and not representative of your species? Not a typical ambassador?
Flea Bussy: The joke is I'm the least representative of the species, probably, and far from the most dangerous one.


Nowadays, the store section of Grendel's Children is in the sky above the Avaria sims, which provide a natural habitat for avatars of every sort to explore

Bettina Tizzy: Now you have a four sim business... and how many employees?
Flea Bussy: The count is... 23 or so, and roughly 10 do actual building and are here everyday. Many of the other staff aren't active (life has stolen them away!) but out of honor to them, they stay part of the group. They are free to do as they please, as all are staff! I don't shackle them to the build box, if anyone's shackled it's me! lol The main staffers (who are) on everyday 'n hammering out the delicious things you all enjoy, are numerous and all loveable! Piper Zuhal, Barney Boomslang, Ryan Snook, Rris Greenfield, RaptonX Zorger, Heiko Decatur, Chroma kolache, Psyra Extrodinaire, Memnoch Matzerath, Max Hatfield, Risa Mosuke, Constantine Riel, Sililos Backbite, Lasair Griffis... The others on staff are generally on/off 'n mostly support, hee...


The Snow Leopard, photographed here by Luna Zolnir, was co-created by Flea Bussy and Memnoch Matzerath

Bettina Tizzy: Do you have some sort of group ritual before you make an avatar, or does everyone just go and make something and come back and say "look!"
Flea Bussy: If you count throwing insults and ideas around a ritual... We're extremely close knit. Say I start doodling an idea (and) we're all on voice chattering. Soon we're throwing ideas off each other and often, one avatar grows into many, many things. For example, I did a Shadowcrawler, and it's AO (animation overider) inspired a good dozen other avs both done and being meddled with still. Hee, well, Shadowcrawlers were good, and the AO was then edited to form Kobolds, and added flight to the ao, and it caused gargoyles, fused scavengers, etc...


This photo by Jaid Marsi

Bettina Tizzy: How do you share your doodles, via email?
Flea Bussy: Doodle? Nahh, we build in SL, straight away, and being so used to how we speak, ideas (tend to) flow very fluidly in designs. Our build box is just nuts to be in. Stuff gets painted, thrown together... we do nothing but build n' work, often forgetting to eat/sleep.


This photo by Stephen Venkman

Bettina Tizzy: So, 17 months of very little sleep... were you always like this? Even before SL? Is this your nature, or did SL bring it out?
Flea Bussy: I'm one of those people who's bread and butter is imagination. I always wanted to make, say, 'stuff for video games,' a very common dream of teens 'n such, 'n then you grow up realizing it's not easy, and not like you'll just get scooped up by some game company 'n be all hailed. And, over a bit of time, I realized I'd hate (it) if all the things I invented existed as they do in 90%of games: 'just kill it.'



Flea Bussy: Always was heavily interested in interactions, ecologies, biology, all that sorta 'ecological/sociological' thing going on. When we do things, we also try to make them as...hmm, whats the word... 'not typical' for one... Like the Sirens! Everybody loves em, and they're a play on mermaids.
Bettina Tizzy: ...so unusual even if it is a known species or something we think we know? I adore your sirens, btw...
Flea Bussy: ...and I adore deep sea fish, and thought 'why can't we make one like that?' and hoo boy, did that one ever explode.



Flea Bussy: Hee, well, when it's something we know folks will go nuts (over) for realism, we will bust our chops trying to make it right. Real animals tend to fit into that category, but it's saddening... because even when you do the best SL allows, there's always a horde willing to complain it's 'not right'... the same horde that refuses to take the time to learn to build to see what difficulties they face trying to make something 'real.'


One of many types of goldfish by Flea, shown here in front of Douglas Story's new and soon-to-be-unveiled art installation. Photo by Douglas Story

Bettina Tizzy: I know people who must easily own over 100 avatars of yours. How many people do you know of like that?
Flea Bussy: Uhh well, we do know the Grendel's Wanderer group (for updates/notices) is over 950 people, and a good...maybe..three quarters of 'em probably own more then a dozen avs of ours (a piece).


Flea's Ankylosaurus roams the grid looking quite realistic. This photo by Mylena Aquitane

Flea Bussy: People like when we do real animals, but all Grendel staff's best stuff is probably when we let our minds run free on a form...from Psyra's pheonixes to Rapton's dragons, Mem's mammals or Ryan's beasties...when you stop thinking why you 'have' to do things when the more demanding customers complain, har har - we just like making something up. Like dragons. Nobody can tell you what's right or wrong about em, and it's amusing to see folks try to fit in sometimes what we do into 'what they've thought was the only way to do it.'


This photo by Luna Zolnir

Bettina Tizzy: What programs are you guys working with for your sculpties?
Flea Bussy: Sculpties are fun! Anyone who doesn't like them is missing out, because they can really give something a look you really wanted
Bettina Tizzy: That is the first time I have ever heard them referred to as "fun"!
Flea Bussy: Well, how can't a sculpty be fun? Sure, anyone's first sculpts look like rhino turds or something, but take time 'n patience, and you'll learn what you like best to do.



Flea Bussy: We use Maya, Blender, and I forget the other program... We're very basic program users (or I am anyway), barring Maya.
Bettina Tizzy: Flea, people are going to school these days for three years to learn these tools... you just picked them up ... boom, like that?
Flea Bussy: ....to be honest it's not exactly rocket science.



Bettina Tizzy: Care to hint at your age?
Flea Bussy: I'm only 22!
Bettina Tizzy: 22???? You are so articulate. Big reader in the past?
Flea Bussy: What, there's this misconception I'm some 46 year old creepy guy who has a PhD? No way.


This photo by Luna Zolnir

Flea Bussy: Yeah, before SL I used to read tons. Sl's a bit time consuming though now. I get my books read to me over voice! ;) The best thing in life is a story, a good one. Some folks like to rock out 'n build, some like to listen to movies or stuff, but possibly best times, I've found, is when we staffers trade stories, 'n conversations, often deep ones. and out of it come feelings often grafted into avatars... perhaps (it is the) secret of why the things we do have such vibrancy. We do what we do not for money, but for the joy of building.



Flea Bussy: I do my best to try and make those tired brains get up and want to be here, to do things, to start seeing things differently. Why does anyone give up, I always wonder, when there's so much you can do. Even if SL, tommorrow, became land owned by some corporation and we (were) all just stuck in wee sandboxes to build, I'd be there, building. No platform I have ever seen before allows a person to do whatever they dream. You just cannot let your imagination rot.



Bettina Tizzy: Your family... are they fascinated?
Flea Bussy: Hee, mostly I tell folks I just stay at home n do "stuff." "What kinda stuff?" "Oh, you know, 3D 'n all that." They snicker 'n say I'm wasting my time. Heh, I don't argue. Maybe when I'm old I can point 'n laugh! 'Who wasted their time? Whassat? I can't hear you over my GazTank's Engine!'



Flea Bussy: Something every content creator should remember, what also drives us to fits of rage... I've had some waltz in here, drag me down from helping customers or working on something very delicate (you know when you've got that prim inside something juuuust right), and proceed to tell me a.) how I should run Grendels and b.) Why I need them badly to be on staff to put their overpriced stuff up on the walls because otherwise I will c.) go out of business, being a cheapy factory... It makes me very sad to see content creators all over let their 'success' go to their heads. I can go on for hours (with) the horror stories customers have told me about the terrible things other content creators have done to them: snobism, elitism, overpricing, you name it... It should never be for money, it should be for the joy.


The lights really are on 24/7 at Grendel's. Here you can see which employees are online and IM them directly

Bettina Tizzy: How much of your day is devoted to customer service?
Flea Bussy: All the time? Been doing it while we talked. Folks like to talk to us... we actually answer. If we don't, we're either afk or your IM got capped. Like 3 seconds ago a person was asking for an update. We do those free. Why charge for an update? People know all staff here work 24/7. Grendel's never sleeps... always some staff on, passing the torch 'n working.



Bettina Tizzy: Your prices are very low compared to most.
Flea Bussy: Ayup, because if you figure it out...aside from anything you upload...SL is free. The prims don't cost anything, the scripts are written in here. The L they pay us goes to fuel the sims tier and upload fees.
Bettina Tizzy: You are making a living this way, are you not?
Flea Bussy: Ayup, but I'm very very very low cost. Ask staff, I eat stuff that isn't really consumeable!
Flea Bussy: Ryan, do we EVER waste ANYTHING?
Ryan Snook: Yeah, Flea eats the moths attracted to the light or something.

I spoke with at least a dozen people who avidly collect avatars from Grendel's, and all wanted to show me their latest ones and send their best wishes to Flea and the staff. It is easy to engage a Grendel's avatar collector in conversation!
Bettina Tizzy: So, how long have you been collecting?
Trip Messmer: Probably about 6 months
Bettina Tizzy: Have you ever had occasion to contact Flea or the team for customer service?
Trip Messmer: Sure, they are there all the time. Flea often gives out free avatars when she brings out a new one. For the record, the crew at Grendel's are some of the most creative builders in SL barr none. The imagination and hard work, and also the attention to detail, are probably what makes them so popular.

In spite of the fact that this has turned into the longest blog post ever here, I didn't even touch on Grendel's Children's amazing Draklets eggs, the Avaria sims below the store where you can roam, or all the awesome freebies you can pick up. Need a lampshade to wear on your head? Grendel's. A particle Christmas tree? Grendel's. Fact is, even if you aren't looking for an avatar, there is so much to see and do at Grendel's. We will have to do another story sometime soon on the Draklets, which have hundreds of people in a perfect tizzy (hah!)

Finally, dear Reader, forgive me the vanity, but I must share with you that I am completely gaga over three Grendel avatars. Dunno if I will ever take on a human shape again! There's the Canyon Cactus Dryad for those prickly days...




and the Hybridized Reptile



I like her a lot!



A LOT a lot!!


She will be on the market soon, and there will be a "he," too. Flea tells me they are still going to add wings. Personally, I subscribe to Coco Chanel’s timeless maxim “Always take off one accessory before leaving the house,” so I'm happy to do without the wings :P

But this Paralegal Imp is just too sublime to ignore. Her legal briefs portfolio! Her firey words as she types!


That's me and Douglas Story in the background... heh, another sneak peek at his upcoming show

A special shout-out to Flickr NPIRLers Luna Zolnir, Stephen Venkman, Mylena Aquitane and Jaid Marsi, for allowing us to illustrate our story with their extraordinary photographs. It seems we are all fans of Grendel's Children.

P.S. I had so much fun taking the pics for this post, that I created a NEW NPIRL Flickr group called "Avatars - Not Possible in Real Life." Please join in the fun!