Contrasts in color

A few weeks ago, Darek Deluca, owner and creator of XIDD Particles and Gadgets, was contacted by Plasma Raymaker, a relative newbie. Seems Plasma wanted some help incorporating particles into a monochromatic build.



Soon after, Plasma's real life began to demand his attention enough that he gave up on the idea of having a whole sim to himself. Darek purchased the sim from him and moved his store there last week.



While Plasma intends to expand on the monochromatic theme, the stark nature of this huge installation already invites photography.



This clean white canvas with black strokes evokes memories of Juria Yoshikawa's White Room.



Once you've seen enough of this white and black palette, teleport to the Gravity level on the same sim.



While Darek hasn't completed it yet, Gravity is a hyper-colorful shooting gallery of sorts, and a sharp contrast to the experience at Monochrome. Hop on the enormous cannon to dispatch huge balls at the multi-colored targets.

Teleport directly from here to the store and while there, don't miss the Particle Theatre. I do so like particles! ^.^

Happy details

I know y'all have been to Greenies Home Rezzable oodles. I just had to point out some fave minutiae cause they make me smile.

No actual turnips were used in the making of this product. Better if used by: SOON.




And then, of course, there's 60mg of Dammitol. Wish I had some of that in my medicine cabinet.


Just a howdy and thankies Littletoe Bartlett, for the grins.

Madcow Cosmos' silly-wonderful Prey Unit - a photographic challenge

Madcow Cosmos says that he builds things "mostly to push them out of my mind." He pushed this line-up - he calls it Prey Unit - out in a couple of days, and has offered to give anyone a copy for free if they can get a good, accurate and detailed photograph of the entire build.



I tried.



And tried.



And finally gave up.



Jurin Juran rezzed it over two sims at at her spacious Blackwater Gallery. Have a go at it here.

1/22/08 Update: Alornia Kamachi nearly blew her computer to produce this shot. What do you think?

A few morsels of art - four installations and the body electric

Here are four quick stops worth making to see what's new in the way of interactive art on the grid. Interestingly, all working from the basic sphere...

Wikisonic
Keystone Bouchard, founder of the RL Architects in SL group and a force behind some of the most interesting and thoughtful activities surrounding architecture in-world, recently completed a musical instrument of sorts with the scripting assistance of Dirty McLean. Stand in the middle and touch the balls in each column you wish to activate to induce a musical note. Touch several in a same column and you will hear several notes from it. Keystone invited Theory Shaw and me to play with it while he made this demo vid.



Keystone has since added another full circle of columns to enhance the sound. Thank you, Amalthea Blanc, for turning us onto this guy.
Teleport directly from here to Wikisonic, at his Gallery of Reflexive Architecture.



"Force Sun to Midnight"
Daruma Picnic wowed us with his A Cappella installation not too long ago. Now he is more playful, and he tells us, "Keystone (Bouchard) encouraged me to play with his scripts and develop new prim movement work. These scripts put a "capital I" on the word Interactive." Walk through the elements to activate sound and movement. It usually takes a couple of minutes for the sound to play in real time. Click on smaller floating elements to change color. The music is inspired by a Ravi Shankar Peace Mantra. His music files were generated with Garage Band and further edited with Audacity.

NPIRLers, the landmark I gave you in-world was borked. Please use this SLURL: Force Sun to Midnight Once there, look for the a TP ball and off you go.



The Aurora Room
Juria Yoshikawa recently set up his own sim, the Garden of Memespelunk, featuring several pieces we had hoped - but never expected - to see again, as well as a few new items, including this very immersive Aurora Room that chatters and makes noises.

Teleport from here to the: Aurora Room



The Lotus
Mark my words... DB Bailey - another RL architect - is going to amaze us all. This jewel box of a build encloses a meditation room (touch the inner bloom). DB has only been around since February, and he is really coming into his own. Douglas Story spotted him first and we are grateful.

See it here: DB Bailey's Lotus Once teleported, cross the ramp.



Miki Gymnast's Body Electric (that's my name for it anyway)

I was wearing Miki Gymnast's sensational 1,400 scripted prim outfit when I dropped in to check out DB's Lotus. Here are just a couple of the color sets it turned into. Sadly, Miki won't be putting these on the market. They are so highly customized that she doesn't have time to work with each customer. I hardly ever gawk at my avatar, but on this occasion, I (practically) only had eyes for me. :P

Pixelated wheat buys real cows for families struggling against poverty and hunger - only $55 US dollars to go for a second cow

Update: Between yesterday and today, the amount raised by the wheat fields shot up to $1,015 US dollars, which places AM Radio in the third position of top fundraisers for Team Heifer. His new goal: 3 cows or $1,500 by Thanksgiving. Can he do it?

Think Second Life is a game? Think again...

On September 22, 2007, the avatar and content creator, AM Radio, set out some plots of wheat for sale on the land where his own, much celebrated virtual wheat field in Second Life sits, known as The Far Away. Teleport directly from here.



His idea was a simple one: all proceeds from each sale would be forwarded to Heifer International, an organization that works to end hunger and poverty by providing livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of people who struggle daily for dependable sources of food and income.



His initial fundraising goal: $500 US dollars... enough to buy a heifer cow for a family. Today - six weeks since he began this project - he is just short $55 US dollars from his newest goal of buying not one, but two cows. In fact, even though all the funds have not yet posted on the Heifer website because they are still being transfered over via PayPal, AM Radio's virtual fundraiser ranks him as the fifth largest contributor in the Team Heifer program.



According to the Heifer International website:

"A good dairy cow can produce four gallons of milk a day - enough for a family to drink and share with neighbors. Milk protein transforms sick, malnourished children into healthy boys and girls. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing and home improvements.

And because a healthy cow can produce a calf every year, every gift will be passed on and eventually help an entire community move from poverty to self reliance."

Not Possible IRL boogies down

It can take more than a gentle tug to pull some NPIRLers away from their meetings, scripting, Maya or what-have-you and persuade them to look around a bit... though I have found that once I've extracted them from their cocoons, they are like kittens on catnip, and don't want to stop. All NPIRLers appreciate a good learning experience, however, so our choice field trips are regularly well attended.

Given all this, it was with some trepidation that I ventured into the uncharted territory of throwing parties for NPIRLers... Turns out they can cut a rug if they are so inclined (and some are all-time heavy-weight champs at it! Flea, I'm eyeballing you!), so I think a party or two a year will be just the ticket.

Wednesday's Not Possible IRL parties - two of 'em, back-to-back to accomodate all time zones - were our first group hullabaloos ever. We unveiled the winning design of NPIRL's logo contest... the group was four months old... and it was Halloween. I'm sure I don't have to explain why Not Possible IRL has claimed ownership of this holiday :D It's ours, yea! If yer nice we might rent out a bit of it to ya.

Each party took on an entirely different character every few minutes, so I will simply say that they were plenty colorful, and went from being intermittently warm and civilized to wacky crazy.

Meet some of my favorite people... Kindly click on any of the pics for a better look.

There was the man of the hour, Seifert Surface, that postdoctoral mathematician who created NPIRL's winning logo... Seifert's sim, Future, is loaded with mathematically-inspired sculpture, as well as his interpretation of Robert Heinlein's Crooked House.



Larry Pixel: I love your costume Seifert!
Seifert Surface is a newbie, circa last year
Tayzia Abattoir thinks Seif is a block head
Scope Cleaver: Seifert thinks he should think inside the box. :P
Sasun Steinbeck: I think boxhead Siefert is the best costume here
Sasun Steinbeck: oh for the good old days of boxheads

Amberly Kinsella, creator and owner of the jewel-encrusted and magical Tusk sim and venue for our parties, says that "sometimes I want to be a fairy, or a wizard, or Victorian, or gothic... so Tusk will change all the time." Her third rez day is coming up on November 10th (happy rez day!), but she didn't really get started building for many months because - as a real life painter - she found working in Second Life creatively frustrating since her art didn't translate well in this medium. Today, building in the metaverse is a powerful creative outlet for her.



Thomtrance O'toole, DJ extraordinaire and founder and owner of Happy Clam Island, served up track after track of vintage goa trance goodness.



Anakin Gallacher who blows one helluva good saxophone, played us some jazz and bossa nova and all kinds of good standards.



Tayzia Abattoir, founder and owner of Second Life's longest-running museum, the Crescent Moon, and Larry Pixel, CEO of the New Media Consortium (NMC)... (Larry, weren't Tayzia's wings tickling your nose? Sheesh, how did I come away from the party with just this one silly pic of you!?). In a little over a year, the NMC has grown from one sim to over 60, and now serves more than 75 real life colleges and educational organizations from all over the world, in Second Life.



Miki Gymnast, creator of the now defunct (pause, while I dab the tears from my eyes... I'm really gonna miss this) optical build at the Mars Rezzable sim (she always said it was a sandbox creation), and her friend Kitsune Kyomoon... Nearby, AM Radio who has given us the wheat fields of the Far Away, and the exquisite Marat (recently featured in the mass die-in spearheaded by Hamlet Au of that essential read, the New World Notes). In the center, the lead builder of everyone's favorite sim, the Greenies Home, and contributor to several other Rezzable sims, Pavig Lok, who took the day off from being "the pastiest hobo" to become a zombie for Halloween... and Douglas Story - creator of that visual and auditory feast, the FlowerBall, as well as some of the best art in SL, who apologized for looking rather sickly.



Seems Douglas had a bit of a mishap. (This photo by Wellington Bahram) For the evening party, Douglas enhanced his look by also donning an outfit of the Pope. I won't post that pic in the hopes that it may save his soul a little bit (actually the pic I have is too dark.)

Douglas Story: I apologize in advance
Douglas Story: I stepped out of the pope mobile and this happened
Douglas Story: Just hope I don't dance, Osprey
Osprey Therian beats the pope.
You: Osprey what is that limb you are swinging around? (Darn, I didn't get a good pic of Osprey Therian!)
Osprey Therian: late lunch
Douglas Story: Osprey, I'll get the Inquisiton on you
Douglas Story: I never claimed to be smart - just good-looking



Count Burks on the left, owner of the rapidly multiplying (like rabbits!) Dreamworld sims - and a secret builder... hehe, I like his trees! Scope Cleaver, creator of soaring buildings, textured to perfection, which I invariably swoon over, many on the Princeton sims... and his friend, Miko Omegamu.



Fact: Wherever Flea Bussy was, that was the photograph you wanted to capture. Flea is the owner and a lead creator of Grendel's Children, the thriving avatar business that has produced over eight hundred mind-bending, often hilarious, always well-crafted avatars. Yep. 800! And what avatars!

Here is Flea Bussy, standing with the beheaded Jurin Juran, owner and curator of the spectacular Blackwater Gallery, and... Talk about smart cuts! Miki Gymnast and Kitsune Kyomoon knocked our socks off with their totally NPIRL ensembles, each 1,400 scripted prims. If you visited Mars Rezzable while Miki's build was still there, you would get what these outfits were about.



Later, Jurin Juran became very, very small. I need to get me one of these avatars.



Here Flea Bussy and artist TeeCee Towradgi are juuust getting started with what would become an avatarathon... (I do believe we need to add this word to the glossary of terms)... a new avatar every couple of minutes.



TeeCee Towradgi's avatars kept getting larger and larger...
Scope Cleaver: *feels the ground shaking*



Not to be outdone, Flea responded with an avatar that prompted me to ask everyone to look up.



Jaide Wilder: ohmigawd
Sasun Steinbeck: wwwwwhooooohaaaaaaa
Seifert Surface: what is that...
Jaide Wilder: WOW
Jurin Juran: wow flea
Amberly Kinsella: AWESOME!!!
Flea Bussy: ;) Fire Goddess
Amberly Kinsella: dont eat us!!!
thomtrance Otoole: FLea ....is......intense .........
Sasun Steinbeck: damn that's... amazing :)
Douglas Story: holy moly!
Osprey Therian: fantastic
Douglas Story withdraws his offer of marriage to Flea
TeeCee Towradgi: Flea: I gotta know... was that an avatar or a chandelier?
Beowulf Munro: when the AV's blot out the sun and the moon
Beowulf Munro: its time to wipe the drool from your chin
Flea Bussy: and motherboard is maxed in every direction generally



Then, out came more spiders...
Akasha Wachmann swoons over the Flea!
Bella Wilberg: akasha back off shes mine!
Akasha Wachmann: swoon swoon
Ponk Bing: yay flea turned into something that won't give me nightmares
Douglas Story: well....this is rather visually entertaining party
Beowulf Munro: what a cute spider *smiles* but i liked you BIGGER cousin
Seifert Surface cams away from flea....



Douglas Story: Thank god! We needed a nurse, Sasun.

Douglas was referring, of course, to the phenomenal artist and scripter Sasun Steinbeck who was swinging a bloody cleaver.



One of the prettiest and nicest swingers of all was KK Jewell founder and owner of arcspace, the in-world and off-world home to mixed reality analysis and showcasing of great architecture.



Tooter Claxton, a favorite personality and avatar creator of this blogger, got a shot of energy while settling down to some serial IMing.



Madcow Cosmos was another creator who provided us with ACT II of the avatarathon.



Adventurer Naxos Loon brought his own casket along for the occasion.



Blaccard Burks has been busy scripting and building all sorts of land and water vehicles to traverse his new island. IRL, he's an admired and seasoned professional drummer, among other things! (Ask him :P)



Author Sean Voss (his book on SL highlights will be coming out this December) asked us to give peace a chance.



Forseti Svarog, vp of business development for the Electric Sheep Company, wore his boa.



Builder Ponk Bing was all smiles that night.



Apologies to the many NPIRLers who aren't featured here, and thanks to photographer Wellington Bahram for sending his pics over.

Nomasha's Icarus

Our very own Nomasha Syaka just finished this jaw-dropping, handmade sculptie (120 prims) interpretation of Icarus four days ago, using Maya and ZBrush.

I stress that this sculpture is handmade, because - as Nomasha explained it to me - the SL market is becoming flush with sculptures that were created using pre-made models, such as those you can find in Poser. Said Nomasha, "the builder positions them however he/she wants and exports them to SL, with minimal work, through programs like 3DMax, and all the texturing is simplified. You can usually identify such imports by the rough edges and lack of 3D detail."

For those of you who don't remember this Greek mythical character, Icarus was the son of Daedalus and both were imprisoned in the Cretian Labyrinth by King Minos. To escape, Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings from feathers and wax, and warned his son not to fly too close to the sun... advice that Icarus did not observe.

When I asked Nomasha why he had chosen to represent the sun with Second Life's logo, he replied: "that's for you to think about :). I done enough thunking."

I played with Nomasha's Icarus just as he had created it, and have to admit, it is extraordinary...


But I still like it in the moonlight better... without the SL sun. Let's make our own mythology.


Regardless, Nomasha's Icarus now heads the list of favorite things stashed away in my alarmingly bloated inventory. (Note to self: set aside one full day to tidy this up. Heh... yea, right!)

Head on over to Nomasha's sim, and while you are there, don't forget to play with his wicked blender. Follow the trail of apples and "eat" the last one. :P
Slurl: Nomasha Syaka

Meteors... Robbie Dingo's latest

For those of you who, like me, were brought to tears by NPIRLer Robbie Dingo's "Watch the World" vid - where he recreates van Gogh's Starry Night - thought you'd like to see a piece he created under the auspices of Millions of Us' artist-in-residence program, in collaboration with electronic musician Kirsty Hawkshaw.

Presenting Tusk, the venue for Not Possible IRL's first two very NPIRL parties... on Halloween

We kept the location secret for weeks, and the sim's creator and owner, the gifted and very lovely Amberly Kinsella, worked against the clock to have it ready for us. Much more about Tusk and the parties soon... Amberly, it was perfection.



Slurl: Tusk

Not Possible IRL has a logo - and the winner is Seifert Surface

Seifert Surface, a postdoctoral mathematician and a member of NPIRL, created the winning logo for our competition in just a couple of hours the day after the competition was announced. Thank you and congratulations, Seifert!

A thousand thanks to our patient and accomplished Judges who were tasked with selecting the five finalists: Sugar Seville, Random Calliope, Douglas Story and Gary Hazlitt, and thanks, too, to Jopsy Pendragon for creating the fab polling system needed for the final phase of the competition where all NPIRLers voted for the winner. We appreciate and thank every one of the participants in our competition for their time and creativity!

I'm going to fiddle a bit with the background color and the blog layout before I put the logo on our masthead, but wanted to show it to you right away... the Impossible Triangle, and now the symbol of our group, which today is four months old.

Get yourself over to Flickr, and check this out

Don't miss Arahan Claveau's clever and stunningly good story book - via a Flickr slideshow - with shots taken at several of our favorite builds.

Thanks for sharing this with us, AM Radio.