Happy 2nd Birthday, NPIRL!

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

This Saturday, July 4th, after hundreds and hundreds of in-world notices, 700 blogposts (this is the 701st), and thousands of happy hours celebrating great content that would not be possible in Real Life, we will mark the passing of our second year in the metaverse.

If you consider that each human day is the equivalent of 8 days in Second Life® and OpenSim, that would make NPIRL 16 years old. So either we are entering our terrible twos or we are sweet 16.


This photo by Sugarbloom Cupcakes

So here's a great big thank you to all the passionate and dedicated members of the incredible Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL groups who made all this... err... possible! We couldn't have done it without you.

Wherein I attempt to describe what I am looking for: NPIRL content guidelines

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

By the time each Thursday rolls around, I'm frantically trying to catch up with all the first-rate landmarks and notecards and emails I've received, rich with hot tips on new and undiscovered content and ideas that just might be worth sharing with the 2,600 members of my Second Life® groups Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL.

I send at least one in-world notice a week - usually late on Fridays - featuring some 3 to 20 items that I've culled from hundreds of these suggestions, and I'm often asked what my selection criteria is. In addition to intriguing building tips, info on other virtual worlds, and advocacy for the rights of content creators in Second Life, my main focus is on creations that are Not Possible in Real Life.

Are my selections opinionated, discriminating and highly subjective? Yes, they are. There are many other ways to discover information and calendar listings on the topics relevant to your particular interests in Second Life, so this is my personal attempt to provide you with a distillation of what I think is cool, trendsetting and even groundbreaking, always within the context of Not Possible IRL.

Am I an academic, schooled in the arts? I am not. Jay Newt of Brooklyn is Watching once called me a theme park mistress and I can subscribe to that. Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL are not art groups, and for that matter, this blog is not an art blog. They do feature and include art, but that is not all we are about.

That said, what follows is an attempt to describe virtual content that is Not Possible in Real Life or NPIRL. These guidelines were drafted with only prim and/or script-based content in mind, as I don’t believe – but I’d like for you to prove me wrong - that there is such a thing as NPIRL music. How that music is generated, however, can definitely be NPIRL (Komuso Tokugawa and Dizzy Banjo, I’m looking at you!).

Theatre and live performances often enable suspension of disbelief via real-time special effects and situations (think DanCoyote Antonelli’s ZeroG SkyDancers, CARP's Metropolis, Gazira’s Hammering the Void, and Grace McDunnough’s Musimmersion, for example).

Not Possible in Real Life (NPIRL) CONTENT (architecture, art, landscaping) is a generous combination of the following:

* Surreal, fantastical

* Indulges our sense of make-believe (can do strange, wonderful and surprising things; makes us laugh)

* Can fundamentally affect our behavior, perception and even our self-perception

* Physically impossible in Real Life, or could only be created at enormous/unrealistic expense (defies the laws of gravity and physics in general)

* Immersive

* It almost goes without saying that NPIRL creations in virtual worlds are three-dimensional. While photography and other 2D images may portray NPIRL content, they are difficult to render in-world and for this reason, I enjoy them best on the web. I am an avid user of both Flickr and Koinup, where so many of you post images taken in virtual worlds. I wish more machinimators would join the Not Possible IRL YouTube group, though their group management tools there are very poor.

NPIRL FASHION is garment-based and not a biological part of the avatar. In addition to clothing the avatar, it might do strange and wonderful things, or make us do strange and wonderful things. It can defy the laws of physics or expose the avatar’s body to extreme heat or cold or exploding particles or sharp things. It might include elements (such as clouds, or sunshine, or snakes, for instance) that could never be used in Real Life.

NPIRL AVATARS are fantastical, surreal, or funny, or surprising, but they all have one thing in common: They are definitely Not Possible in Real Life. They aren't human, or dogs, cats, horses, etc., unless they are exceptionally unusual (a unicorn, for example). While nekos, faeries and elves are NPIRL, their appendages must look integrated, credible and not like props.

I want to especially thank the members of my working group Not Possible IRL for their guidance and inspiration, and the extreme explorers and content creators of the vibrant Impossible IRL community who have sent in priceless tips and ideas. All this is possible because we've pooled our efforts and share an intense appreciation for the 3D platform. I adore you!

Skills Hak and her Biological Avatars

Posted by Alpha Auer

Sometimes one cannot help but believe in telepathy, so great is the coincidence of one's thinking about a person and them contacting you: I had not heard from Skills Hak, the creator of Insilico in quite some time and while a return visit to Insilico (and particularly a minute inspection of that Cyber shopping district over there ;-) has been on my to-do list since last Fall, I do tend to fall into a most lamentable daily rut, I find. So, what with one thing and another I have not managed to go back there despite all my good intentions.

Until yesterday that is, when I took a group of my students and co-instructors on a cultural field trip to Insilico, as part of a hybrid art and computation course which we are teaching at my university. Subsequently I logged off, logged back in an hour or so later and - hey presto - there was news from Skills, about the completion of an avatar, of which she had already given me a sneak preview a few months ago; a dragonfly! (Of course, a more sensible person than myself would immediately come to the conclusion that Skills Hak had spotted my name on her visitors list and contacted me through that connection - but telepathy is sooo much more dramatic, isn't it? hhh)

I am not going to pontificate on the glory of this creature but leave you with the images I took - one against a dark sky and one in stark daylight:





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The avatar is also equipped with a combat mechanism and targets avatars which it bombards with an amazing arrow and particle combination. I tried to take a really good photograph of this spectacle as well, however this image is the best that I could capture and trust me it is nowhere near doing the real thing justice.

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The Cyber Widow rezed at Syncretia. Sadly I had to remove her after a while due to her prim intensity. A larger image is here.

Note: I am getting more and more engrossed in the relationship between biology and art. Thus a recently discovered mind blowing blog named Bioepehmera, (which, incidentally, seems to be in the process of changing its location these days), has been holding quite a bit of my attention. It seems to me that Skills Hak's two avatars, the Dragonfly as well as an earlier one, the Cyber Widow, are befitting material for Bioephemera.
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You can see the biological avatars of Skills Hak at her store Gemini Cybernetics located in the above mentioned cyber shopping district at Insilico. Larger images of the Dragonfly avatar are to be found here on Flickr. A previous post on the beautiful and yet doomed sky city, Insilico can be read here.

In continuation of the Hern Worsley Special Broadcast...

Posted by Alpha Auer

Once upon a time, on this very blog I said that it would be a very difficult task to make a nice little list of all the designers I consider to be utterly brilliant in Second Life®, but that if someone brandishing a virtual gun pushed me up against a prim wall and wanted me to give only one name I would probably mumble out "Thomus Keen" in my terrified state. In continuation of this hypothetical scenario what would probably happen next would be that I would immediately add "oh and Hern Worsley of course...". And then if the villain were to yell at me "DECIDE woman!" I would probably have no option but to eat the bullett. (By no means are Thomus Keen and Hern Worsley the only two object designers in the metaverse that I have on my secret list of all time ultimate favorites - there are quite a few choice others in their company as well. But, I am sure you are getting my drift here. ;-)

Between myself and my rapacious tribe of alts we have plundered Hern Worsley's shop AVZ many times over. We do not go all too often because a trip out there inevitably results in a complete depletion of all funds, but then in the end we always do go back and make up for time lost in one massive bulk purchase where we basically clean the shop out of every new item rezed since we were last there. Good job one does not carry shopping bags back home in Second Life, I really do not know how we would possibly manage if that were indeed the case.
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So, I had admired Hern Worsley's imagination, creativity, taste and exquisitely delicate craftsmanship of both form and texture (without which, for me, all the rest is utterly for naught I'm afraid) for the longest time when one day, upon logging in I found that I had gotten a most unexpected present - a dragonaut jetpack, accompanied by a message telling me that Hern Worsley had noticed my general love of jetpacks and wanted me to have this latest of his designs. I immediately proceeded to thank him and during the ensuing conversation found out that not only is Hern Worsley a gifted designer but also a very funny man: When he started telling me that the jetpack was quite a utilitarian object in that it proved to be very useful whenever one wanted to spear a deer I immediately reached for the "Add Friend" button, an offer which Hern very graciously accepted. (And a propos of the deer hunt: One does of course have to sidle up backwards to the beast in order to be able to harpoon it - but really, one cannot have everything in this life and a bit of sacrifice for aesthetics is to be expected then and again, I say).
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There are many many wonders at AVZ, particularly an unbelievable selection of hair, some of which has already been blogged by my valiant colleague Bettina Tizzy right here. The store has recently changed location and is now to be found on its own island. And a trip out there just to admire the starkly black, to me very obviously biologically referenced architecture of the giant beetle/building hovering over the sea is a worthwhile experience in itself.

You can teleport to AVZ directly from here. You can see larger sizes of the dragonaut jetpack here on Flickr.

See also the special post on Poetik Velvets, a spectacular work of architecture by Hern Worsley created for Nur Moo here.

Les oreils très NPIRL...

Posted by Alpha Auer ;-)

Today, dear aficionado of all things great and small that are NPIRL, we shall be considering ears that could not possibly happen in Real Life. And who better than me, a full fledged, card carrying neko, to lead you down this intricate lane of Second Life® body parts?
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aoimizuno Meili's output is certainly no stranger to this blog. Not only were her NPIRL eyes featured in a post dedicated to eyes alone, but we have also looked at a small selection of her truly magnificent avatar attachments here. So, here are some wonderful lightbulb neko ears (above) and the octopus ears (below). Both can be seen in-world at her shop LPP, to where you can teleport directly from here.
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Again, a big favorite of mine, on whom I have posted only recently, Thomus Keen has such a magnificent pair of mechanical steampunk neko ears that I truly could not resist in adding them in here as well: These have the most naturalistic cat ear twitch that you can possibly imagine and furthermore come with a texture menu which lets you choose between various industrial textures - the badlands texture shown here being my favorite. These beauties can be admired at Keen's wonder shop Steam Powered Nuts, to where you can teleport directly from here.
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Jamie Clementine's Hybrid Elite ears are not neko ears in the absolute truest sense of the word, being much too large and too rounded to be true cat ears - thus, a true hybrid indeed. Umm? Rabbit, donkey and just a sprinkling of feline maybe? Wonderful! And you can get them by teleporting directly from here.
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Sinthoras Braveheart is a delightful person who basically got fed up with paying exorbitant prices for all of his neko needs (I know just how he feels) and proceeded to create his own. These great puffy neko ears with earrings come in many different colors. And as for the price? Well, you will just have to find out by clicking right here.
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And finally, let it never be said that, while we are on the subject of ears, the NPIRL blog is going to refrain from making mention of the inherent attribute of the Second Life appearance palette which will let you create your own completely impossible in Real Life ears with just a few dab handed flips of its sliders. Here I have just conjured my very own Dr. Spock elf ears which I have suplemented with a freebie elven ear attachment by Terry Toland, available from here.
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Trinity Outlander's double-takes at the NPIRL Halloween parties

Trinity Outlander sent in such a great collection of pics she'd taken at NPIRL's Halloween parties that I had a hard time choosing. In the end, I decided to show you her double-takes on four people and their avatars. Trinity, you rock.



Pandora Wrigglesworth in the new Ghostly Woman avatar of her own creation






Xand Nagy, on fire






Tuna Oddfellow, rockin' da house






Mathematical Wizard Gynoid in a Tunaverse setting with potentially psychotropic effects




For more pics of NPIRL's Halloween parties, see also:
* The setting for NPIRL's Halloween parties: Plasma Co. Mining Colony
* The exotic and fun avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties
* Just press play: The rocking-est avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as seen by Tezcatlipoca Bisiani
* The incredible avatars at the NPIRL Halloween parties: "Take Two" by Skycat Ranger
* Scene stealin' avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as captured by Cyberloom

Scene stealin' avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as captured by Cyberloom

I'm just lovin' Cyberloom's pics of the party people at NPIRL's Halloween fetes. She is also the author of a thoughtful and well-written blog about her virtual life experiences. Thanks for sending these in, Cyberloom!


Avatar creator Yoa Ogee switched his look so many times that we could devote a full spread just to him. I'm not even going to hazard a guess about the meaning behind this avatar


Bryn Oh was magnificent in this avatar, topped off with Hern Worsley's glowy headdress


Fire was a big theme at both of our parties, but only Aebleskiver Thibidaud's avatar had flamed wings that I know of


The friendliest and most helpful avatar I know, Jurin Juran merged Rush Gastel's glowy avatar with another, to uber-cute effect


Komuso Tokugawa always reads The Star when he's preparing to do a set, as photographed by Cyberloom

See also:
* The setting for NPIRL's Halloween parties: Plasma Co. Mining Colony
* The exotic and fun avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties
* Just press play: The rocking-est avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as seen by Tezcatlipoca Bisiani
* The incredible avatars at the NPIRL Halloween parties: "Take Two" by Skycat Ranger
* Trinity Outlander's double-takes at the NPIRL Halloween parties

Just press play: The rocking-est avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as seen by Tezcatlipoca Bisiani

Artist, writer and sometimes guest blogger here, Tezcatlipoca Bisiani, sent in these pics of some of the avatars at the NPIRL Halloween parties that caught his eye.


Tezca didn't suit up for the parties... nope. Instead, he got real casssh as can be seen on the right. But who is the avatar in the Marie Antoinette "do"?


I can never keep a straight face when extreme explorer Naxos Loon is around, and this night was no exception.


Glyph Graves took a break after creating many of the special effects for the incredible roller coaster rides at Plasma Co. Mining Colony


I know that this ringing avatar's first name is Narita, but what is the surname?


Cube Republic has been awfully busy lately. Not only was he on the crew of builders for Plasma Co. Mining Colony - and I am fond of some of his sculptures there ;-) - he also DJed at NPIRL's Halloween party and has been leading the 5,000+ member-strong SOS (Save Our Openspaces) group. Who is the gentleman on the right?


To the left and barely visible, thomtrance O'toole knocked out tune after Goa trance tune at both of the parties. thom is my guru when it comes to exploring Opensims. On the right, award-winning Viennese artist and lecturer, MosMax Hax


That kitteh! Artist Sabine Stonebender just finished the first phase of rebuilding her Zero Point and I love it! That's me drifting in the air to the right, being witchy in Eln Alter's freebie witch avatar

See also:
* The setting for NPIRL's Halloween parties: Plasma Co. Mining Colony
* The exotic and fun avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties
* The incredible avatars at the NPIRL Halloween parties: "Take Two" by Skycat Ranger
* Scene stealin' avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as captured by Cyberloom
* Trinity Outlander's double-takes at the NPIRL Halloween parties

The incredible avatars at the NPIRL Halloween Parties: "Take Two" provided by Skycat Ranger

Skycat Ranger is one of my fave photographers in Second Life®. Her work with brushes and filters simply rocks. Just look at some of Skycat's captures taken at the NPIRL Halloween parties!


Skycat showed up at the party with a huge mallet and looking like a jester. She got straight to work taking pic after great pic. This one captures a moment at Tuna Oddfellow's hallucinogenic Tunaverse show


Here's another of Skycat's views of Tuna Oddfellow's special NPIRL edition of his Tunaverse show at both of our parties


Madcow Cosmos morphed into many avatars all night and photographs of him poured in. He was one of the ten creators of Plasma Co. Mining Colony, too! I think you'll agree that this shot by Skycat gets 5 stars


Jurin Juran surprised me the day before Halloween by gifting me with this incredible avatar by Rush Gastel which I modified a tad


As with so many of the pics taken at the parties, I had a hard time figuring out who was who. In this shot by Skycat and from left to right, I recognize Scarp Godenot, Jurin Juran and Sidewinder Linden. But who was Alice and who was the faerie?


No one, and I do mean no one, can rock da house better than Komuso Tokugawa and his live boogie blues. From left to right, Skycat's shot includes: Komuso, Sasun Steinbeck, Bryn Oh and Eshi Otawara

See also:
* Trinity Outlander's double-takes at the NPIRL Halloween parties
* Scene stealin' avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as captured by Cyberloom
* Just press play: The rocking-est avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as seen by Tezcatlipca Bisiani
* The exotic and fun avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties
* The setting for NPIRL's Halloween parties: Plasma Co. Mining Colony

The exotic and fun avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties

NPIRL's All Hallows Eve parties: Two of 'em; nine hours all told.
The guests: Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL group members, and friends.
Location: Undisclosed until the last minute... the gleaming but abandoned Plasma Co. Mining Colony. Four sims provided by Rezzable and built out by a crack team of ten of the best builders and scripters on the grid. Read more about it here.
Our rock stars: Alexi Ayers, Anakin Gallacher, Cube Republic, Komuso Tokugawa, thomtrance O'toole, Tuna Oddfellow. Thank you!

Because so many of the avatars spotted at NPIRL's Halloween parties are not typically worn by our friends, we may have identified someone incorrectly. If you spot an error, please let us know and we'll fix it, asap.

The evening party began with a cocktail hour and Anakin Gallacher's live deep bliss sax tunes. Folks had time to rez each other and their new surroundings and take a ride on each of the two different roller coaster rides.


Browsing through my pics, I was unable to determine who the typist behind this avatar was, but we do know that he was wearing Pandora Wrigglesworth's Clockwork Automaton brain and skin


Hotspur O'Toole mimed his greeting


Jurin Juran and Eshi Otawara arrived at the same time


Photon Pink was responsible for making many of the cool sculpties at Plasma City

Meanwhile, on one of the dance floor areas...


Anakin Gallacher belted out a full set and a half, and his live music was streamed on all four sims


LittleToe Bartlett's avatar was so 'tweet!


Renown avatar creator Yoa Ogee wore a new and different avatar about every five minutes! And no, those aren't ants beneath him


Sasun Steinbeck was blinding in a modified version of Starax's Fallen Angel sculpture


Eln Alter arrived potted. Did you pick up her limited-time-only freebie witch avatar? To the left, Skycat Ranger as a jester was talking awesome pics which we'll be posting soon


Tom Bukowski got flowery

Coming up: Fabulous avatar pics sent in by talented photographers Cyberloom, Rowan Masala, Skycat Ranger, Tezcatlipoca Bisiani and Trinity Outlander...

See also:
* The setting for NPIRL's Halloween parties: Plasma Co. Mining Colony
* The incredible avatars at the NPIRL Halloween parties: "Take Two" by Skycat Ranger
* Just press play: The rocking-est avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as seen by Tezcatlipca Bisiani
* Scene stealin' avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as captured by Cyberloom
* Trinity Outlander's double-takes at the NPIRL Halloween parties