SecondLife Reading Part 2 - Bebop Reality

Update: I just finished Wagner James Au's book. His announcement of it on his blog/news site is here. I was also honored to be the first to comment on his announcement of it. He brings up several amazing insights that I've shared with him, but my internalized thinking hasn't come up with such great terms for it.



The term of his I like best that I'm likely to steal is 'Bebop Reality' likening the virtual reality/metaverse of Second Life to a jazz jam. People building and altering the reality of the world according to what people build around them. This was the essence of early Second Life and the best sandboxes still have this element. I'm sure there are other places do too but they are harder to find or locked down by group, it's not a global experience and maybe it shouldn't be. But the experience of it also takes me back to my geek sci fi roots where reality itself is mutable. Au also points out that this is an entirely new way of thinking for most real life companies to adopt. They try to impose instead of trying to be organic. Second Life is strange in that it is much more a grassroots friendly place. Designers and builders are respected more for being Second Life originals rather then ripoffs of what we can get in physical form. The best example I've seen of a corporate presence is the Greenies, because it's fun just to be there, check it out if you haven't.



This physical vs. virtual dichotomy always becomes a problem when I try to explain to people how I get paid (albeit it very little in real dollars) to build things that don't exist. They do exist. The best example I have come up with is that I'm a digital artist. You don't need the painting on your mantle, it serves no purpose other then your enjoyment to look at, things in Second Life are the same way. They are art pieces, and they can be worth just as much as the Monet. This sounds strange but it's the only analogue that allowed me to explain to my parents what I was doing. But what's even more exciting, and the part of early Second Life (I've been there since 2003) I miss the most, is the organic 'growing' of an installation. It's why I don't choose to work alone, one because more creative people make me more creative, makes our work better, but also because it's a blast to see what you intended changed and grown into something better.



I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on Jame's book in future posts but I'm going to make a step to recovering the part of Second Life I miss the most. I'm going to run a build event called the "Bebop Reality" builds, I'll put some good jazz on the stream and anyone who wants to come riff on building with me at my shop is welcome. I'll learn something, maybe they will too (I love to learn and teach), maybe they'll want to work with IDG in the future, whatever happens, happens, that's the nature of our chosen reality.



Here's to the groove baby.





By the way, you don't have to wait for an event. My shop has 30 minute build permissions for everyone, so if you can build it in 30 minutes you're welcome to do it there, please keep it on the grass and send me a copy when it's done, that's a whole nother challenge and lots of fun to see what you can create that fast. I never plan to turn off that feature but if I get griefed because of it it may have to become a different kind of event.

SecondLife Reading Part 1.

OK, so, James Au runs a blog/news site for Second Life called New World Notes. This is not an endorsement of that site nessecarily because I don't read it consistently. However, this book I haven't been able to put down, I got it last night and I'm halfway through. If you want to know the history of Second Life culture and see some rational thoughts about where it may be headed I recommend this book.

He's been there since the very beginning and his journalistic integrity is not questionable. I highly recommend this fast read.

Late Happy Birthday to Me!

So for those of you keeping score, I'm 31 as of Friday. I had a lovely day, didn't go blind, and ended the day with a lovely person. Ooooo, and I got a new toy.

Flash! Or how to avoid competing Textures.

OK, so I'm not talking about flash in a good way. One of the things that beginning builders do that indicates they are just starting out is allowing flash into their buildings.... usually this is because they are not lining up their prims with precision, hence the popularity of tools like SkidPrimz (which I think is totally unnessecary, learn to use the internal tools and you'll be a better builder). But occasionally you want prims to intersect and even cross. So what is flash? Look at this snapshot....

OK, so the red beam and the green beam have flash. The textures are competing in the viewer and as you look at them it'll flash one and then the other, in a static shot like this it kinda shows a wierd amount of both but it's like a strobe light in Second Life itself. Very distracting and not what you want in a quality build. So you have two options in this situation.

First, hide it, like I did where the yellow and red beam meet by putting a 'metal' plate over it.

Second, reduce the size of one beam slightly so it isn't flush with the competing beam, this is the technique I did with the yellow and green beam, the yellow beam is actually .498 meters wide and the green is .500 meters. So they aren't quite flush but they don't flash.


Remember, flash the peace sign, flash your smile, if you're feeling particularly adventurous flash Anna Kournikova, but don't let flash into your builds.

Customer Service! or How to contact me if you're not a Bot.

OK, so... one of the things that I pride myself on as a business owner and builder in Second Life is my customer service, but I've had a hard time putting my email on this blog because of the constant spam one gets from the bots that surf blogs just for that purpose. Well, I found a solution tonight, so now if you want to ask anything at all about my builds, want to shoot the breeze, want to have me look at your designs as perhaps joining our design group, tell me I'm full of something or other..... usually coffee but you can say whatever you want. Use the link over there on the right.

The reason it's spam proof is because of this right here. Feel free to use.

Makeover stories.... hair.

"Give me down to there hair, Shoulder length or longer. Here baby, there mama. Everywhere daddy daddy"

OK, so, I needed new hair, and this is what Luna recommended for a casual look....

...to me that's a very Fabio looking pose, so I took one with the shades down... after all those modeling lights are bright!

And then I just lost it and decided that I'd be completely silly:

For those who care, the hair is called Outsider and it's by Naughty Hair. They actually have some of the best styles for male avatars I've seen. My old hair was by Calico.

OK, so hair like that in the pictures is called prim hair. This is different from the hair provided by the default avatar you get when you first log into Second Life. Or at least it was when I started, now I believe they have starter options that do have prim hair. Prim hair is so called because it is built like any other object in Second Life and then worn like a wig.

I'm not really great at designing hair so I usually buy it, it's a very specialized skill. However it does use flexi prims which I've spoken about before. The interesting thing with flexi prims is that the flexible part is animated at the client level, so your hair or skirt won't nessecarily appear in the same place to you as it will to everyone else, each client does it somewhat differently. Also flexi prims can be pushed around by wind and movement, so they dynamically adjust to the dynamic wind that is part of Second Life. Some people have done very unique art installations with Second Life wind.

If you want a full tutorial on making prim hair you can find a very good one here. Additional resources have been collected here.

If you make your own, let me know, after all, I may end up opening my own barber shop eventually. Happy cuttings.

The Makeover....

OK, take a look at that picture down there, see it? Good. I've had fire red hair for probably the last year. I wish I had it in real life. I have had some form of red hair.... for as long as I've had an avatar. I remember when prim hair came out, yes I've been in Second Life that long. I had this blonde bit that I recolored to make a gawdawful orangey red for a long time and wings.... big oldschool wings.... but that's another story, ask Luna, she'll tell you better then I can and she'll probably be kinder to me then I will myself.

I love fashion in secondlife, but usually I love it on other people. I like buying my friends cute clothes but I rarely change. I find a look I like and it sticks to me. And because I design castles and big heavy buildings for the goth and medieval set I usually end up in leathers, big boots and dark clothing. But see there's a problem.... more then one actually. I'm actually a jeans, tshirt and flannel shirts kind of guy in real life. I have no problem being something 'else' in Second Life, after all that's part of the fun and wish fufillment of alternate realities and entertainment. But, when I hang out with diva's of fashion like Luna (Even her granny panties look good!) and Phoebe, I look quite out of place. So... we were talking and I said.... I need new hair.

So.... the makeover began.....conditions were set on me, I set conditions on them.... but I genuinely like my new look.... no I'm not turning this into a fashion blog but I'll have a new pic in my next post, talk about where I got them and the technical aspect of what it means to create this stuff.... after all I'm a builder and I've gotta stay on topic right?

*preens in front of the mirror getting my new hair just right*

Right?

Impromptu Party!

OK, so, I put in a dance floor and a coffee spot, mostly because my friends Luna and Phoebe were looking for a place to have nice conversations. They even named their little group... Sandbox Diaries.... isn't that cute?

So we had an impromptu party yesterday and a bunch of people came and danced, it was actually quite fun. I also have a jukebox purchased at Lightening Video that lets anyone pick a song and take over the music stream. Some were great, some were groan worthy, but that's half the fun.

Today I put in a bunch of SL magazines so people can sit and read and drink their coffee. I'm not picky about magazines, if you run one in Second Life and want to have it in my shop, send me an instant message. So come on by and grab one, maybe you'll run into one of the two beautiful ladies I made the spot for if you come hang out. Have a dance, relax, watch the koi.... read.... I can't think of a much better SL life.