SLang Life magazine investor pulls out

I just received this email from the folks at SLang Life magazine. It was a wonderful endeavour, and as a subscriber I will keep all four magazines. I'm sorry to see them go, and I hope somebody else takes up the idea of a physical reality monthly magazine dedicated to Second Life. It was very relaxing to get information re SL on paper, rather than the omnipresent computer screen.

This is the email I received this morning:

We're very sad to announce that our investor resigned from financing the magazine. In these circumstances we are forced to suspend magazine activity until we find a new investor.

We would like to warmly thank all of you for being with us for the last 6 months, both as our readers and the community visiting our island. Working for you was a great pleasure and an amazing adventure.

We would like to bid good-bye with you properly. That's why we invite you for the last concert on SLang Life island - 10 July 2008 at 10 AM (SLT).

Thank you once again,
SL'ang Life team

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Virtual Obama

Virtual Obama stared at the picture of his real life counterpart. "Hey! Over here Barack! Come on into Second Life! I'm ready for ya!! Just email xannaziskey@gmail.com.

Introducing Miss Mediterranean

Miss Mediterranean is very pleased to finally be let out of the box. You'll find this newest shape at my boutique in Hanbok, just TP through my picks. She is modifiable and copiable. I also give you a locked backup in case you mess up the one you change. AND I am now including skirt shapes, so you can wear a dress without that huge posterior area.

I'm pleased to see SL shapes beginning to move away from Barbie mania, and I'm pleased to be part of the wave toward more Eastern shapes. I'm finding this whole shapemaker life to be absolutely fascinating. One may ask, why buy a shape? Well, just look around. My shapes take a long time to evolve. There are 75 sliders each with 100 points in the shape-making software. There are billions of people in the world, all looking different. I live with each shape in many different situations before I put it out for sale. I take photos from every angle, try different poses, lighting, backgrounds, hairs and so on. It's the only way to see if I am creating a shape with staying power.

Celebrity shapes are even harder, because the finished result is already out there, and you have to match it. Barack Obama took me months to develop. He has a very, very unique shape, and it took me forever to find the proper skin.

I can only imagine, as I struggle with some of the software limitations, what future shape-making tools will be like. Ahh, to be able to muscle the calf without bulging the thigh, and so on.

Happy shape-shifting everyone.

Real Life Engagement!!

A break from Second Life, sort of, to announce my engagement, in physical reality, to the love of my life, Brett Laumeister. He asked me to marry him two nights ago, on my 49th birthday, and I said yes!!! Happy days!

Life without Des.

How will we cope? What shall we do?

Caledon: South End sim opens

JJ Drinkwater pays his respects to the lovely and talented Hypatia Callisto.

Caledon: South End sim opening.

From left: Virginia Tombola, Xanna Ziskey, lovely lady in purple...help with id please!

South End, Caledon, sim opening

From left: JJ Drinkwater, Guvnah Desmond Shang, Hypatia Callisto, Xanna Ziskey, Virginia Tombola....and unidentified pumpkin.

Caledon South End opens!!

How exciting to be among the first to see Caledon's newest sim, South End. Still a work in progress, South End joins the ranks of Victoria City and Penzance as a classic town sim with little extras. Beautiful texturing by our own Hypatia Callisto, who braved the opening whilst in recovery from an auto mishap.

Sunburst 223.93.23

What a pretty residential community this is. Oddly, there was a pose ball situated atop the water wheel, enabling you to walk on top of the wheel and turn it. I tried it out, kinda fun.

What I Think of Windlight

Miss June in direct sun and with the sun behind her. The default windlight sunset setting makes the building and the avatar a garish orange. But when the sun is behind the avi, you get nice skin tones and natural grasses and buildings.

Windlight first came to my attention a few months ago when I began to see breathtaking sky and water shots out of Second Life on Flickr. I did not try it out until it came with the mandatory new version, figuring I'd let the rest of the eager beavers be the guinea pigs. By the time I downloaded the latest version of SL I'd heard all the accolades and whines in group chat about the pros and cons of Windlight, and I was curious to see for myself. My first impression was not unlike that of Sun Marseille, who quickly sought the moral support of the Fashion Emergency chat group when she first viewed Windlight. Her reaction and the group's response express a lot of what I want to say about Windlight, and I've reprinted excerpts, with permission:
4] Sun Marseille: hi all.. ok I just downloaded the latest version of sl... and I look like crap. My skin is horribly shaded and yes i use 2 facelights and im all orange.... help!
[23:35] Sidonie Larkham: turn off atmospheric shaders ...
[23:35] Sai Pennell: go to muse and get her (Caliah Lyon's) notecard on the windlight settings. :D ... or do what sidonie said XD...
[23:37] Solaris Okumura: You can download Caliah's preset here - http://secondsoigne.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/optimising-windlight-for-avatars-20/... [23:38] Sidonie Larkham: the first look at yourself in windlight is scaaaary lol
[23:39] Sun Marseille: ya i was tangerine ...
[23:39] Solaris Okumura: I hope they fix it eventually....the sky and water look nice, avatars looks like ass....the tradeoff with Caliah's setting is the environment doesn't look as nice, but the avatar looks good
[23:39] Solaris Okumura: Even turning them off doesn't keep you from being orange [23:40] Sidonie Larkham: if you turn off basic shaders too it does ...
[23:40] Solaris Okumura: I love a lot of things about windlight, but avatars looks horrible ... [23:41] Sidonie Larkham: well and lets be realistic, very few places in the real world look like post cards, i fail to see why sl shoul dhave *everywhere* looking like a post card, that's hardly *realistic* ...
[23:42] Sidonie Larkham: yeah, i'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have something closer to windlight than the way it was
[23:43] Sidonie Larkham: but, they've gone way too far imo... **************************************************************************** In summary, my bottom line? Yeah, you can do a lot of pretty things with it, but the current implementation is awkward and time-consuming to set up. I don't know anyone that likes the current default setting. It's great that I can tweak my own atmosphere to my heart's content, but I have not found a way to save my custom, preferred sky setting to default. Therefore, every time I log into SL it takes me eight clicks to get to that setting.

Also, the window configuration is way too cumbersome. It's annoying that advanced sky, advanced water, draw distance, and day editor require four separate windows to view at once. It stands to reason that anyone tweaking one interface will probably want to tweak the others simultaneously.

Another problem is that the sliders have no digital option, and a small increment can make a big difference in the atmosphere, so one has to sweat over the mouse, jerking the slider back and forth until you hope it lands in the desired place. A workaround is simply to activate the day cycle and stop it when it gets right, but that is still not as precise as entering digits.

Now, I'm as intrigued as the next person by all the fun sky presets and the like, and have spent already way too much time playing with them. I am not entirely negative about Windlight. It's sort of like having Photoshop in the air and water, but I think the user friendliness must be addressed, and since SL already puts off many with its long learning curve, I wonder if this added layer of controls will in fact act as another barrier to the Metaverse.

Another intrinsic problem is that now builders and clothing designers have no idea what each individual avatar is seeing. So, which setting to design for? It seems that sim owners should be able to dictate how people are seeing their builds. Perhaps these are things that the community at large will figure out in the long run. I would not object to landing in a place and being forced to see it as the builder intended.

As it stands now, I feel that the freeform use of Windlight is something akin to colorizing a movie. People are seeing things that the creators never intended them to see. I'm very curious to hear others opinions and workarounds, and I'm still looking for a group in world that is dedicated to exploring and living with Windlight.

Miss June, closeup.

My Miss June shape will be available at Hanbok very, very soon, I'm just putting together the final box for her. I wanted to create a petite, classicly pretty shape that would fit in well with Victorian or earlier period settings, but that could also walk down the beach feeling confident.. Here she wears Starlet earrings in platinum and silver by Indyra.

At Versailles. 119.16.40

"Oh, take my portrait if you must, but make it quick will you, the champagne is getting warm." Miss June, my next shape for sale, takes a spin around Versaille in period dress.

Frolic in a raindrop, by Four Yip

Wheee these raindrops by Four Yips are available free in the NPIRL (Not Possible In Real Life) Garden of Earthly Delights, a Four Sim extravaganza of remarkable builds. I put mine over my property and my best SL bud the extraordinarily beautiful and talented Suzzanna Shackle joined me for a raindrop dance. If you want to play in mine, just go to the southwest corner of Caledon Tanglewood and look above the trees. All gentle souls welcome.

Rezzable Explore 191.113.817

These entire four sims are devoted to NPIRL (Not Possible In Real Life) builds.

Miss Mediterranean

At Mykonos, wearing Armidi Bombshell hair in pomegranate.

Miss Mediterranean lounging seaside.

This elegant multi-piece swimsuit, skirt, sarong set is called Nadia, by Nikki Ree.

Miss Med models in Mykonos

Pretty ballsy to put the physical reality picture next to your virtual version. I have never actually been to Mykonos, but from the pics he appears to have replicated this place very well. (XanMade Miss Mediterranean shape to be released soon.)

Mykonos

Miss Mediterranean gazes across this must-see recreation of Mykonos. She feels very much at home here. This is the best use of mixed real photos and virtual textures in SL I have seen. Still under construction. Yes, even though it's incomplete, I declare it a Great Build.

Mykonos, Second Life

Miss Mediterranean gazes at her beloved sea from Mykonos
(Sweet Mermaids sim)

Kokopelli Stage Oz Party, Steelhead

The costumes at this party were very imaginative and faithful at the same time. Here, classic tin man and Neko Glenda the Good Witch, or Hotspur O'Toole and Lumina Elvehjem, as they are usually known. Thanks, Krystine Quinn for the IDs! From the Friday night Oz party, 9 May 2008.

Krystine Quinn

Krystine Quinn has the most adorable Dorothy outfit. She said the Toto dog in the basket actually barks! At the Friday night Oz party, Steelhead 220.65.27

Searra Weatherwax casts a spell on you...

Steelhead hosted a rockin' Oz party Friday night. Here is Searra Weatherwax looking positively wicked bwahahahaha

Enjoying the view.

Love my new cabin, created by Sarah Nerd. Still not sure about Windlight. More on that later.

Great Build

This Roman build on Guksu is really coming along.

Sea Nymph

There is a gorgeous coral bed near the ship at Purgatorio, so I morphed into a sea nymph and cavorted. SHAPE: my Miss May shape (sold at XanMade in Hanbok, tp from my profile). HAIR: Phoebe in Sky from Analog Dog. SKIN: Skinny-dipped Alabaster from Gala.

Purgatorio 131.32.43

I finally visited this highly recommended build, Purgatorio. I'm usually put off by places that require you to read the rules and put on a costume while visiting. I just ignored all that and wandered around in my angel outfit. It's a roleplay capture sim, but nobody bothered a sweet lil angel. Still much to explore here.

Miss May

Isn't she lovely? My newest shape, Miss May, is a normal-proportioned avatar. Healthy size, busty, full lips and shapely legs. Looks outstanding in lingerie. I give you one modifiable shape and one backup locked shape. I also throw in a free skin (not shown) and a style card so you can see exactly how I get this look. Now for sale at XanMade in Hanbok.

I shot this on location at Wim Wendt's roman build on Guksu. Great place for fashion photography, because there are a few elegant backgrounds all in the same place: the roman build, the Blueberry gallery and Mise van de Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion. Here are more pics of Miss May on my flickr site.

Machinima to sell skins!!

The Abyss is a cool place to go, whether you are shopping or shooting. I wandered into the skin store and found machinima pieces embedded in the vendors! I was wondering when merchants would get around to using machinima to promote their goods. Looking at the top photo here, the little image left of the word "Sol" is actually a moving image. The model walks and twirls and shows off the skin.

Idea? Cool. Result? Hmmm. Actually, I got more info looking at the vendor's photos of the skin than I did from the machinima piece. While I think it's an interesting idea, it might work better to promote other things. A machinima piece of a beautiful ball gown flowing on the dance floor, for example, might show a potential customer something about the dress that can't be captured in a still shot.

Pick Promotions

Here is another attempt by a vendor to get avis to post their location in profile picks. This policy reads: BabyDoll Babes in the store are randomly looking at avatar profile picks to see if BabyDoll' is listed. If it is, you instantly win 15L! Come back often, and bring your friends! The daily pot is set to 300L.

Now, 15L seems pretty paltry to sacrifice a pick. Not to mention that you may do so for nothing, since the awards are random and simply based on whether or not your visit coincides with one of their employees. I don't want to slam BabyDoll's, because their clothes are adorable and they have an awesome freebie lingerie set, but I don't think I'll keep them in my picks just on the off chance that I'll get 15 lindens.

Advertising Techniques

I've seen this a couple of times now, and it's worth noting. This is the kind of thing that makes the difference between an SL savvy merchant and a merchant who is simply applying physical reality advertising rules to Second Life.

This sign was at Nirvana, a fabulous place for quality and fantasy gardening needs. If you keep their store in your picks they pay you 50 lindens. Brilliant idea, win/win for everyone, especially newbies who don't have their picks filled up anyway.

(this update added after Silver's comment)
I'm no software expert, but I saw a JVA system for L$1500 on SL Exchange that takes care of the details. I don't have the system, but from the ad copy I deduce that the AV must have the pick for a month to get paid. Now, Linden Labs has had the capability for some time
but as far as I know the info on how many avis are listing a location as a pick is priviledged, or too complex for me to determine.

I went ahead and tried this, though, and lo and behold if I didn't get 50 lindens the next day when I went back to click the sign, per the instructions. And I'd only had it in there for a day, not the stipulated month. I'll keep it in there, and see what happens. I would have Nirvana in my picks anyway, so I lose nothing.

SL'ang Life - SL's First Physical Reality Magazine

Those of us heavily involved in Second Life are accustomed to the mainstream media ballyhooing the latest "First" event or product that involves our beloved virtual world. Usually, it amounts to a lot of public relations hyperbole representing relatively little.

But the SL'ang Life physical reality ("pr") magazine managed to precede my awareness of its existence. Indeed, if there was a media buzz at all I sure missed it. I stumbled upon SL'ang Life's private island sim a few weeks ago. There I found a link to their online site, where I signed up for their free magazine.

I had almost forgotten about SL'ang Life when two copies arrived by mail last week. I received the first and second issue at the same time, and have spent the last few days poring over both of them. For simplicity I will use SL names when referring to the magazine's contributors.

This considerable undertaking, launched by Zigi Bury and his small, mostly Polish, hard-working staff, is quite a feat in itself. While info in cyberspace about SL abounds, articles in good ole paper and ink newspapers and magazines are harder to come by. I have not read any full length books on SL, because given the lag time between writing and publishing a book, I imagine that most SL books are obsolete to all but an SL newbie by the time they hit the shelves.

A magazine, though, that is updated every month or so, now that makes sense to me. For those us with hand numbness due to excessive computer time, being able to delve into SL happenings away from the keyboard is a welcome relief in itself. And heck, it's free and delivered right to your door.

The Look of SL'ang Life

Very slick, appealing, familiar magazine layout that reminds me of Time or Newsweek. Sensible categories like Economy and Entertainment define the table of contents. The articles in SL'ang Life incorporate ads, category banners and jump quote boxes that give a very professional first impression. Art Director Robert Dresler (no SL name) knows the way a magazine should look.

My two magazines arrived in different envelopes. The premiere issue's cover story is "Homo Avatarus,"accompanied by a typical SL/pr portrait, and that issue arrived in a clear plastic wrapper. The second issue was in the sort of discreet envelope that is usually reserved for girlie mags, presumably because its cover screamed "sex," with a leggy avatar clad in thigh high dom boots and little else. I do appreciate the modest envelope. I share a mail table with a neighbor or two and heaven knows what sort of "second life" of mine they would have suspected had they seen that cover!

Inside SL'ang Life

As I settle in to look at the magazine more closely, I find that though it could use a bit more editorial polish and control, SL'ang Life is brimming with an enthusiasm that is very appealing, especially in light of all the "SL is Dead" mood I've read about lately.

The magazine is published in Poland and a bit more work is needed on English grammar and spelling. I would like to see some sort editorial decision on how they are going to identify people. It's awkward to list both names, i.e. "Mary in RL, MaryMae in SL" at every mention of someone. I would also like to see consistency in how they refer to physical reality. First life? Real life? PR? Same goes for inworld. In World? On the grid? Choose one and stick with it. I believe these sorts of decisions are theirs to make. Being first means you get to set the standard, if you dare.

The errors would so easily be caught if the articles passed under another set of eyes before going to print. For example, this punctuation is from an article on the Seven Wonders of the World in the second issue:"...which enable & sustain community." Perhaps "&" replaced "and" because they were at the end of the page and ran out of space, but this is a novice fix to getting the print to fit the page and it results in less than a professional impression.

Other minor errors include misspellings that spellcheck won't find, like "bases" instead of "basis." Some of the English translations are tortured beyond the point of comprehension, but I hesitate to give the magazine black marks. These kinds of mistakes are forgivable for the first issue or so from a staff whose first language is not English. This is easily fixed. We'll see.

SL'ang Life does a good job of offering an array of articles that target various levels of SL expertise. In addition to eye-candy fashion spreads and basics on SL manners are in-depth tutorials and site reviews.

I found Ayumi Cassini's detailed texturing articles under the Developer Manual heading are of enormous help and chock full of info for the mid-range builder, like me, who is ready to crank it up a notch. Ayumi Cassini is the mastermind behind Magic Nook, a delightful store packed with her eclectic creations. I was pleased to discover she is a talented instructor and writer as well content creator. Her articles are detailed, easy to read and blessedly free of spelling and grammatical errors.

I'd say they need to check facts a bit more. I was pleased to see Caledon's Victoria City listed on one of their top five lists, but the small accompanying blurb was wrong on a few counts. Caledon is now comprised of at least 30 sims, not 12, and to sum up this impressive collection of navigable sea sims, railroad systems, airships, forests, libraries and communities as a place that is "mainly shops selling gowns and other items of clothing" is really missing the point of this orginal 19th century roleplay community. Having said that, perhaps Caledon needs to be more cognizant of what the main entry point to their independent nation state has to offer at first landing.

All in all, I'd say SL'ang Life is one piece of mail that you'll be happy to get. The sign-up for the free magazine is short and painless, and remember, kids, it's absolutely free.

Happy paper page turning!

Dreaming of spring.

How to Find Cool Places in Second Life

This art gallery (Ginsburg 194.224.36) is fun to visit and has several huge spacey balls that are fun to play and pose, or just relax, in. Erotic art is the specialty here and I saw a tasteful mix of SL and RL nudes.

How I find cool stuff in SL

1) See somebody cool. Look at their profile, go to their picks.
2) See something cool. Right click and choose edit. In the first tab of the edit window you can see who the creator is. Click the blue profile button next to the creator's name. In their profile, check out and teleport to their picks.
3) Explore the SL photographers on FLickr. If you see cool places, go find them yourself.
4) Join groups that have the same interests as you (search>groups>yourinterest. IM the group when you are in world and seeking something specific, or just to see where like-minded people are going.