Funhouse ride with my pal Colleen.
Virtual Starry Night (Night Cafe)
Impeach Bush Ball
Impeach Bush Ball
Crashing the hot air balloon on the way to the Particle Laboratory
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Kissing Your Hand...
Visited the Lost Gardens of Apollo, reputed to be one of the most beautiful sites in sl. A number of shops surrounded the teleport pad, selling period costume, masks, short flouncy dresses, giant green Mohawks. Immediately a very large man approached me and complimented my avie. I looked about 14 compared to this guy. I was up for chat so he when he suggested we go explore the gardens I readily followed. I followed him through the air as we passed over a rosy landscape illuminated by perpetual twilight. Glowing white and orange orbs, a bit like fireworks, floated through the air, water glistened below. We lit on a round landing pad, atop an enormous tower, a bit like the Seattle space needle, where we made ourselves comfortable on a velvet pillowed couch overlooking the sunset. I clicked the pose ball and sat with my legs crossed (making my shoe hang casually from my toes, a nice touch) and my mate did the same. The wind blew gently, the sun glowed in front of us. Avies quietly conversed on nearby towers. The fellow IM’d me (“I don’t like talking in front of other people. It’s annoying. No one needs to know what I’m saying to you”). I found out he was from Canada and then in the chat bar he wrote “Kissing your hand”. Nothing happened so I asked him, “Did you just kiss my hand?”“Yes. And I LOVED it.” Huh? I just sat there while he made love to my inanimate hand.
I’ve learned that the path of seduction in sl, for many, includes a few minutes of romance in a park, on a beach, overlooking ongoing sunsets, some flirtatious chit chat, then a romantic slow dance at one of the many ball rooms and then wham bam to a sex bed equipped with pose balls. So I knew I had to split the scene before this dude locked a sex collar on me. We flew up in the air towards the dance floor, and, though it could have been completely easy to just teleport away and leave the guy in the dust I made a polite escape. You wouldn’t want to leave someone hoping for “romance” all alone on a lonely spikey tower in the metaverse. Or maybe you would?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Golden Age of Marketing?
I attended a discussion with about ten marketing types from all over the world - Australia to Phoenix (and three of us from Boston!) regarding the recent Forbes Magazine article describing how corporations were bailing on sl (http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0702/048.html). Attendees included, in part, Shava Suntzu, Anastastia Cazelet, Samson Francis, Barbarella Noel and a writer for sl identified as Wire Writer (profiles available). We met outdoors in a space that looked like the Esplanade, with seven Hatch Memorial Shells surrounding us. I think we were floating above the clouds.
The conversation was led by a marketing strategist curious about corporate presence in sl. We (well, they. I was just observing but welcomed by the group) talked about how it’s not good enough that corporations build fancy looking sims in sl – they have to host events and create community in order to participate (be successful) in-world. As one of the attendees pointed out – avies don’t need to eat or sleep so what’s the point of creating, for example, a Starwood Hotel. Interestingly, IBM has 4,000 employees present in sl (but no one knew quite what they were up to). Participation and creativity are key in sl. Successful projects were noted, such as Steelcase, who sponsored a chair design contest, 1-800-Flowers, who sponsored a flower arrangement competition, and a Ben & Jerry’s competition sponsored by Esheep. It’s the immersive nature of sl that makes it appealing, and the group pointed out that people open up more in this environment than in typical brainstorming sessions. Meetings in-world are more productive than a typical conference call.
The marketers in the group then got very “market-y”, discussing how to use sl to drive brands into the community, and how sl communications will allow visitors to perceive in a more “deep” way certain marketing campaigns (isn’t this what cultural organizations are struggling to do?). I got worried about being spammed in sl. The beauty of the metaverse now is you can avoid all advertising, cell phones, suvs, soul destroying things from rl…Anyway, we all stopped for a moment to appreciate the idea that we had a diverse group from all over the world, that we could “hear” one another speak, review conversation, and that no generation gap was perceived. The conversation turned to the book by Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place (hey, hc’ers, have we discussed this yet?) – home and work representing the first two places we inhabit, but what are our third places? Coffee shop? Church? Library? SL? A bit of a golden age in sl right now I’d say…
Shava’s response to Forbes’ article is here: http://slbizreview.com/2007/06/28/forbes-has-a-dirty-mind.aspx.
Upcoming…FURRIES!
The conversation was led by a marketing strategist curious about corporate presence in sl. We (well, they. I was just observing but welcomed by the group) talked about how it’s not good enough that corporations build fancy looking sims in sl – they have to host events and create community in order to participate (be successful) in-world. As one of the attendees pointed out – avies don’t need to eat or sleep so what’s the point of creating, for example, a Starwood Hotel. Interestingly, IBM has 4,000 employees present in sl (but no one knew quite what they were up to). Participation and creativity are key in sl. Successful projects were noted, such as Steelcase, who sponsored a chair design contest, 1-800-Flowers, who sponsored a flower arrangement competition, and a Ben & Jerry’s competition sponsored by Esheep. It’s the immersive nature of sl that makes it appealing, and the group pointed out that people open up more in this environment than in typical brainstorming sessions. Meetings in-world are more productive than a typical conference call.
The marketers in the group then got very “market-y”, discussing how to use sl to drive brands into the community, and how sl communications will allow visitors to perceive in a more “deep” way certain marketing campaigns (isn’t this what cultural organizations are struggling to do?). I got worried about being spammed in sl. The beauty of the metaverse now is you can avoid all advertising, cell phones, suvs, soul destroying things from rl…Anyway, we all stopped for a moment to appreciate the idea that we had a diverse group from all over the world, that we could “hear” one another speak, review conversation, and that no generation gap was perceived. The conversation turned to the book by Ray Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place (hey, hc’ers, have we discussed this yet?) – home and work representing the first two places we inhabit, but what are our third places? Coffee shop? Church? Library? SL? A bit of a golden age in sl right now I’d say…
Shava’s response to Forbes’ article is here: http://slbizreview.com/2007/06/28/forbes-has-a-dirty-mind.aspx.
Upcoming…FURRIES!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Appearance isn't everything
SL is not for the vain. True, you can turn yourself into the most buxom, quarter-off-the- arse type babe you want, but things happen. Here’s a photo of my friend Nellie with her hair attached to her crotch. Here’s a photo of me, arriving at a museum looking like I’ve been torched with an aerosol can sometime during the teleport.
Last night I visited Paris 1900. I ran into two newbies, a male and female avatar, having an anxious conversation in French outside the Moulin Rouge. The woman’s arm was stuck over her head and her hair was pulled over her face. The gentleman was wearing a tuxedo shirt, black spandex pants, and what looked like black woolly socks and one brown orthopedic Birkenstock. They turned to look at me and fled around the corner, still typing wildly. I wanted to run after them and shout “I understand! I was there once too!” Maybe I ought to become a newbie counselor.
Last night I visited Paris 1900. I ran into two newbies, a male and female avatar, having an anxious conversation in French outside the Moulin Rouge. The woman’s arm was stuck over her head and her hair was pulled over her face. The gentleman was wearing a tuxedo shirt, black spandex pants, and what looked like black woolly socks and one brown orthopedic Birkenstock. They turned to look at me and fled around the corner, still typing wildly. I wanted to run after them and shout “I understand! I was there once too!” Maybe I ought to become a newbie counselor.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Newbie Show and Tell
I attended a self-guided tutorial at the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives so I could learn how to make prims - otherwise known as spheres, cubes, cones…After the lesson I flew over to the sandbox where I could practice. Sandboxes are set up all over sl and are basically an empty landscape of field or desert where avies can built anything however large or small they want. Etiquette dictates that avies clean up after themselves but many are self-cleaning every few hours, like those automatic kitty litter boxes.
Nearby, an avie with huge shoulder pads and cape made a sports car appear, drove it up a skate ramp and flew off into the air until both disappeared into the metaverse. Off in the distance I could see someone throwing batons in the air. Another constructed an enormous structure with glass panels and tiled floors. I set myself up in the field and futzed around a bit, creating shapes that resembled sc
ulptures I’d made in my last art class in college, only bigger. I uploaded my own textures, since the ones provided by reminded me of the tiled floors one finds in 1970s kitchens. Next to me a fellow conjured up acres of beds and coffee tables, making the sandbox resemble an old Macy’s department store. I dithered around for a few more minutes and came to like the sculpture I'd created. The shapes and colors stood out from the prims around me. I even considered carrying it over into real life. I envisioned designing cord-wrapped ceramic knick-knacks for mod apartments.
Later in the evening I attended a show and tell for newbies at the New Citizen Institute. There was a requirement that you had to be less than 90 days old in order to show your stuff. I thought I might conjur up my African textile-wrapped cylinder, feeling pretty accomplished. The NCI was packed with a whole variety of avies – fairies and Harajuku styled ladies, a man dressed as a naval captain, and the rest of us, dressed pretty much as we would in rl (which is a whole other topic – it seems really lame to dress normally in this environment when you could prance around with a tiger’s tail and wings).
The first avie brought an amazing particle simulation that looked like the big bang. The avies went wild, hooting and applauding. I nodded like I knew what a particle simulation was. The next avie tried to bring a structure onto the stage, but it was so huge it landed on some spectators. The third avie showed a lovely fish tank, complete with bubbles, drifting water plants, and little fishes, all “hand-crafted”. The final person showed a building I couldn’t see due to lag, but the more experienced avies were shouting how they’d never seen a building created with so very many prims, what skills he had, and did he want a job in-world. Suddenly my big lumpy cylinder looked totally naff. There are some sophisticated folks in-world, even the newbies. Back to the sandbox...
Nearby, an avie with huge shoulder pads and cape made a sports car appear, drove it up a skate ramp and flew off into the air until both disappeared into the metaverse. Off in the distance I could see someone throwing batons in the air. Another constructed an enormous structure with glass panels and tiled floors. I set myself up in the field and futzed around a bit, creating shapes that resembled sc
ulptures I’d made in my last art class in college, only bigger. I uploaded my own textures, since the ones provided by reminded me of the tiled floors one finds in 1970s kitchens. Next to me a fellow conjured up acres of beds and coffee tables, making the sandbox resemble an old Macy’s department store. I dithered around for a few more minutes and came to like the sculpture I'd created. The shapes and colors stood out from the prims around me. I even considered carrying it over into real life. I envisioned designing cord-wrapped ceramic knick-knacks for mod apartments. Later in the evening I attended a show and tell for newbies at the New Citizen Institute. There was a requirement that you had to be less than 90 days old in order to show your stuff. I thought I might conjur up my African textile-wrapped cylinder, feeling pretty accomplished. The NCI was packed with a whole variety of avies – fairies and Harajuku styled ladies, a man dressed as a naval captain, and the rest of us, dressed pretty much as we would in rl (which is a whole other topic – it seems really lame to dress normally in this environment when you could prance around with a tiger’s tail and wings).
The first avie brought an amazing particle simulation that looked like the big bang. The avies went wild, hooting and applauding. I nodded like I knew what a particle simulation was. The next avie tried to bring a structure onto the stage, but it was so huge it landed on some spectators. The third avie showed a lovely fish tank, complete with bubbles, drifting water plants, and little fishes, all “hand-crafted”. The final person showed a building I couldn’t see due to lag, but the more experienced avies were shouting how they’d never seen a building created with so very many prims, what skills he had, and did he want a job in-world. Suddenly my big lumpy cylinder looked totally naff. There are some sophisticated folks in-world, even the newbies. Back to the sandbox...
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
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