91 of 365: Random Thoughts

Avatars United: I don't need or want yet another social network. Still I grabbed my name, uploaded a picture and apparently have 148 odd friends. It is of concern that anyone can grab any name they like without verification, as demonstrated by Ordinal Malaprop. I expect that Linden Lab will correct this blunder but who knows. In light of all this, Grace McDunnough raises significant issues about the value of our avatar identities. Please do read what Grace says and share your thoughts in the comments if your ideas are more clear than mine. I still have thinking to do.

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I saw James Cameron's film Avatar today. I want to see it again. And again. I am not really a roleplayer but I want to wear a blue Na'vi skin, find a Pandora sim and live there forever. Yeah. Its true.

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My husband is going away on business this week. I am going to be a single mom. Help.

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I followed a link to the best SL building tutorial I have ever come across today. Check out The Shiny Life by Vlad Bjornson. It is a great blog by a talented builder who apparently likes to share.

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I have been reading a lot lately and my book is calling me this evening so I will post this and curl up with a murder mystery. That is, unless someone can turn me into a Na'vi and create Pandora. If that happens I may never leave my Avatar body.

"Everything is backwards now; like out there is the true world and in here is the dream." Jake Sully

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89 of 365: Alternate Reality Island

Visit Alternate Reality Island where you will find the Artic Greenhouse. You can buy lovely sculpted roses, daiseys, bonsai and other greenery for your home and garden. But, please do not miss the rest of the island. Too often we TP from place to place and miss out on the great beauty of SL.

88 of 365: Lemondrops Forest

Lemondrops Forest is a glowy build. I will go back and explore again when I have more time and less headache.

87 of 365: Totally Cheating

I am sick and I spent 2 hours in the Doctor's Office today. It is NWN deadline day and I am way behind. I took this picture a few days ago. It will have to do.

86 of 365: Add Noise

85 of 365: Don't Try This at Home

What a day. We decided we should turn auto return on, which is always a good idea. Of course you really do have to set your objects to a group before you do that or all of your prims will come flying back into your inventory at the speed of light. (Do you feel the foreshadowing? Can you hear the ominous music?)

Well, yeah. I am a dolt and I usually forget to change my tag to our island group when I am building. Check that. Not usually. Apparently I always forget. I also failed to go back and set my lovely build on Harbour to the group after the fact.

What this means kids is when Zha turned on auto return today my entire build came flying into my lost and found folder. The objects come in those lovely groups, which seem to make little or no sense. Sigh.

A few hours and at least two beers later, everything is back in place. And this time every damn prim is set to the group.

Here is my 365 for the day. After the ground was rebuilt I went up to rez our sky box. Zha rezed one of her object groups and this was the view out the window of our sky box.

84 of 365: Tour My Home on East Harbour

Zha and I have a new home on East Harbour in Crap Mariner's community "Five Islands," which is really about 10 islands. We share a homestead sim with Feline Slade and Chris Norse. All of this is not new to you if you read here with any regularity. We have been working on our build for the past month and while we are not done, I think the basics are in place so I wanted to take you on a little photo tour.

We tried to make our build mesh with what folks in the community had already done. Woodbridge to the east is elevated and wooded. Our view to that direction was rocky and tall. Feline and Chris had a low island that reminded me of New England. So I had the idea to have a rocky shore to the east and have the west side of our island be greener and less rocky. In my mind I was thinking Pacific Northwest shore.

Please visit, hang out and do let us know what you think. There is at least one big hidden surprise and I expect there will be more to come. See if you can find the mystery space. SLurl teleport at this link.

83 of 365: Random Acts of Kindness

Did you notice the new look here today? My lovely new blog layout was a surprise gift from the kind Ari Blackthorne, who is a talented photographer and multi-media designer in RL.

Thank you Ari for surprising and delighting me with the gifts of your time, your talent and your friendship. Creating this layout for me is a random act of kindness I will not soon forget.

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ETA: The photo above is straight from SL with absolutely not post processing. It is not even cropped. It could be no other way on a post to honor Ari. :)

The Big House - Caerleon Artists

"Free Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow"


I got a notice today from Pixels Sideways via the New Caerleon Group. I have no idea how I missed The Big House exhibition but somehow with all the incoming I did not see the notice about this installation. Sigh. Sometimes it is really hard to keep up.

Anyway, this multi-artist installation celebrates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which had its 61st anniversary on December 10th. Due to the horrific earthquake in Haiti last week, Pixels has added "Helping Haiti" to The Big House and extended the run of the exhibit through February 6th. The art is interesting and compelling so if you are in a thoughtful mood take a few moments to look, listen and contemplate Human Rights worldwide.

SLURL teleport at this link





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From the Notecard:

THE BIG HOUSE
"Free your mind and the rest will follow"

Runs December 6, 2009 - February 7, 2010

I have added a new installation to THE BIG HOUSE exhibition -- "HELPING HAITI" that features vibrant art by Haitian artists & donation links. Please come see this new installation and the other compelling installations at THE BIG HOUSE which celebrate Universal Human Rights. Lets keep Haiti in our thoughts and consider donating via the links or by text to one of the many orgs that are working tirelessly around the clock to help Haiti. THE BIG HOUSE extended thru Feb 7.


Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
"Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits."


THE BIG HOUSE is Caerleon's new multi-artist project that celebrates the rights bestowed upon all humans being by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which celebrates its 61's anniversary on December 10th..

THE BIG HOUSE, slang for prison, is just that -- A bleak gray institution surrounded by an oversized barbed wire fence and four guard towers that keep watch on 24 prison cells in which artists from around the world have created art installations that address specific rights containted in the 30 articles from the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

Incorporating various artistic styles and interpretations, including streaming video, these thought provoking works by the "imprisoned" artists demonstrate how our creative impulses, imaginations and spirits can liberate us from all prisons -- whether they be physical, political, social, economical or even virtual.

Participating artists:

Aequitas
Blue Tsuki
Cheen Pitney
Chuckmatrix Clip
Dekka Raymaker
Georg Janick
Juliette3D Quiznet
Luce Laval
Maryva Mayo
Mencius Watts & Taggert Alsop
Misprint Thursday
Olza Koenkamp
Penumbra Carter
Pete Jiminy
Pixels Sideways
Sabrinaa Nightfire
Shellina Winkler & Solkide Auer
Silene Christen
Ub Yifu
Zhora Maynard

We hope you will join us in celebrating our human rights.


ABOUT THE CAERLEON SIMS AND VIRTUAL ART INITIATIVE

The Caerleon sims are part of the Virtual Art Intiative. The original Caerleon Isle sim was founded in Second Life by Georg Janick in Feb 2008 and has since grown to four sims in Second Life : Caerleon Isle, New Caerleon, Caerleon Art Collective2 and Caerleon Erato and four new sims on Reaction Grid. The Caerleon sims are home to 31+ artist residents and educators and feature a wide range of art exhibitions, collaborative projects, art classes, lectures and workshops. For additional information on Caerleon & the Virtual Art Initiative, please visit the VAI web site at: www.virtual-art-initiative.org

82 of 365: Playing in Photoshop

I took a basic Photoshop class last year. I was able to get over my abject fear of the UI but did not really learn too much. Come to think of it, anyone who complains about how complicated the SL viewer is should spend some time in Photoshop to get a comparison. I literally had the PS software for a full year before I was able to do anything at all. It was that scary and confusing to me.

While I wait for my Photoshop mentor to magically appear I am enjoying learning by playing with layers, brushes and filters. I really honestly have no clue what I am doing but the process sure is fun.

81 of 365: Tired and Uninspired, but............

For Ari - no edits, no crop. Sit, flip windlight, point, click, upload. Sorry its a tad dull around these parts folks. I will come up with something interesting to say soon. I mean it. Really.

80 of 365: Deadline Day

It is Wednesday. That means I am working on my New World Notes post. It also means I will get about 5 last minute notices about events. Marko will IM and want to show me something cool he is working on today. (He has an uncanny ability to IM when I am stressing about a deadline. Its funny at this point.) There will be events I want to go to but I won't be able to because I am writing about events, which is always a bit ironic. I will be rushing around trying to take a picture for NWN which always feels more important than other pictures I take, so yeah I stress about it.

Wait.

Stop.

Breathe.

Slow Down.

I just had to sit on the sofa and take a moment to remember how blessed I am to have such worries. Honestly. With everything going on in the world I try to remind myself every day that my worries -- every single one of them -- are the worries of the privileged.

79 0f 365

No edits, no crop on this one.

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76 of 365

I have been building. Sometimes I get in the zone and hours slip by me. Today I worked for what felt like minutes and three hours passed without me realizing. I wish I could get that consumed by creative effort every day of my life. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, is that absorbing for that long and as intensely. I find myself forgetting to breathe. Its really strange.

75 of 365: Spring Awakening

Tonight Fricker Fracker played his Native American flutes and told us stories as Crap Mariner changed his clocktree on Edloe Island from winter to spring. It was a Spring Awakening and a gathering of wonderful people. I loved every minute.

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73 of 365: A Day in My Life

Woke up with a raging headache.
Battle with belligerent 11 year old boy who does not want to go to school.
Put children on the school bus.
Go to work.
Read email informing me that two researchers who work for one of our Centers were on the ground in Haiti during the earthquake.
Try not to freak out.
Work with the leadership of my University to try and get stranded staff home.
Meetings, meetings, meetings.
Eat salad, drink diet coke, savor small square of amazing dark chocolate.
Take Tylenol for headache which has not yet subsided.
Budgets. Spreadsheets.
One hour long traffic jam. Two accidents witnessed.
Dinner, homework, mediate kid arguments.
Laundry.
New World Notes post written. Photos taken, processed, uploaded.
Decline daughter's invitation to watch American Idol auditions.
Take Tylenol PM for headache that has intensified.
Log in to SL to take 365 photo.
Accept gift of pearls from dear friend Rosie Barthlemess of Sable Rose Jewelry.
Chat with Rosie for 2 minutes.
Log out of SL.
Write a boring list recounting my day.
Sleep.

G'nite.

72 of 365: Some times there are no words

I was touring the Ozimal's sim early this morning and sat on a mushroom. Second Life was feeling grumpy and I stayed in this twisted position for quite some time. Lovely.

71 of 365

I was working on a build under the water today. Here I am after flopping down in utter frustration. I hate terraforming. Have I said that before?

70 of 365: The Best SL Wedding Ever

I got to the performance art wedding of Misprint Thursday and Selavy Oh early to make sure I could say hi to my friend Marko who built the venue. We were asked to wear "eclectic formal" and I complied by wearing a great pink skin by Aki Schichiroji, a dress by NickyRee and horns from my Aviaos avatar by Flea Bussy and available at Grendel's Children.


It was not until I was standing next to Marko that I realized my subconscious mind may have had a role in me deciding to wear horns. Marko made his avatar and over time he makes his look more and more unusual and creative. We waited for the crowd to fill the cathedral and indeed the sim was full. Luckily the next sim over was set up to handle overflow.


On to the wedding! There were bridesmaids, a deflowered girl, officiants, singers, music, and of course there were brides.









This picture is my favorite of the bunch. I don't know why but it cracks me up every time I look at it. His strong emotion and her complete disinterest -- it makes me giggle. Twisted. I know.






(These photos have no post processing at all and only two are even cropped. Please do click through for larger more detailed views though.)