037: Happy Independence Day to my American friends!

I may have missed my own Canada Day but I have a good reason to wish my American friends a happy Independence Day -- I got some great photographs!
Originally I went out to check out an interesting art exhibit at the F-Star Gallery, called "and Red." Up close and personal with red-headed male avs. Very simple shots, white backgrounds, a very clean and spare look to them. I was impressed; there's some handsome redheads out there! And I know from experience -- hey, I started in SL as a redhead, that's why I'm named Rusty -- that if you really want to keep a consistent look as a redhead, it's difficult. You pretty much have to hunt down the right pieces to complete your skin, like freckles and details. It's not enough to just have a very pale skin, you have to have a skin that's been designed for a redhead, and those are few and far between. Not only that, you have to pick your clothes in a range of colours that complements your colour scheme; not everything comes in those colours.

So here's a bunch of snapshots I took of the art installation. But before I leave you to contemplate how handsome redheads are, as I was on my way out I noticed that, it being U.S. Independence Day, the folks at F-Star Gallery had put up a very decent effort of incredible fireworks, and a large sized Statue of Liberty, and it just looked irresistible. So I set my sun to midnight and fired off a bunch of shots. See what you think, and thanks, F-Star Gallery. And happy 4th of July!
(Apologies: I seem to have failed to get the SLURL together. If you search for F-Star Gallery in world, you'll find them.)

036: An interesting thought from Iris Ophelia

Iris Ophelia is a well-known and hard-working blogger -- both a good writer and a good thinker -- in the areas of gaming and virtual world style; she's affiliated with blogger Hamlet Au in his New World Notes blog, which I think is one of the crucial resources for anyone interested in thinking about Second Life. (It's in my blogroll to the right.) Her latest post there is so interesting that I thought I'd refer you directly:

Does Second Life have a class system? Spoiler: "Yes."

It's a brief piece (citing the thoughts of SL designer Aranel Ah somewhere in Plurk; I don't Plurk) but I can sum it up more briefly.  She says, does SL have a class system? Yes, and it's based on money and talent. If you have talent at something that is part of SL -- "build, design, script, perform, anything" -- then you will "gather a following". Since most people in SL conflate appearance with experience (and, in my experience, also with skill at using the tools), people who have money can experiment with their avs, buy expensive stuff and look great, and people do them the credit of thinking that they have the same kind of talent that talented people use to design their avs. So if you have either money or talent, you rise to the top of the system in SL. And if you have money AND talent, my extension goes, you rule it.

Now, I think there is a great deal of truth in this. I have met people who have both money and talent and, believe me, they are the ones who really are having fun in SL. Just because you have money doesn't mean you can't actually be talented at an art that is valued in Second Life. And, yes, people with talent are lionized in Second Life; people like to be around them because they do interesting things. People with money who put it into having a great-looking av and being a great host at a private sim -- believe me, people like to be around them too, even if they only manage to get a group of talented poor people to play with them ;-).  Being "the host with the most" is a talent too, and a very pleasant one to have among your acquaintance.

Let me be clear; she talks about money and SL class at greater length than I have, and you should read the article. Iris Ophelia is not being a snob. She's a talented observer of virtual lifestyles and she says this is happening; it's not because she happens to benefit from it, since she's talented and smart and looks great, it's because it's really there. I know my American friends will insist loudly and at length that THEIR social structure contains no classes. "This is Amurrica! We don't have classes!!" My experience has been that they will then immediately proceed to detail the social class structure that rules their lives, in great detail, with great precision, and a subtle command of its finer points; they just won't call it a class structure.  It's a "hierarchy" or "the natural order" or some such. I'll let them live with their dreams LOL.

The thing that interested me about the article, though, was something that Iris Ophelia either overlooked or assumed that everyone was on the same wavelength about. If you're on the top of the class system in SL, what is it that you get, or what happens, that is different from people at the bottom of the class system? Why would it be worthwhile to be of an upper class?

I took an inventory of what she actually said in the context.  You will "separate yourself from the herd"; "gather a following". You will "move up the social ladder." Looking like an experienced player is a good thing; you will increase your "progress and status". "Other players are much less likely to write you off at first glance."

But I found a phrase that I think cuts to the heart of what she's getting at; you'll be able to "find your place". And I'm reassured by this; I think this is much more egalitarian than the caste-like system that I, and I'm sure some of my readers, immediately thought she might be suggesting.

If you "find your place", it means that you find your place among a group of people who are like you, whom you like, and whose company and pursuits you enjoy. This is not about a group of people being "better" than each other; this is a kind of sortation process. If you are a talented designer of virtual furniture or skins, you will enjoy hanging around with people who design virtual houses or tuxedos, to exchange information and share a common enjoyment. If you are a person of limited or fixed means who is looking for inexpensive ways to enjoy the game, you will enjoy hanging around with other such people to exchange information and share a common enjoyment. The problem in Second Life is to find other people who are like you.

In real life, this sortation process is helped by visual signals that are both unambiguous and universally understood. You have a BMW, she has a wheelchair, I have a Harley, and each of those things says something about the way we live. I'm not saying that those three people cannot understand each other or be sympathetic to each other's issues -- I'm merely saying that if you have a BMW and I have a BMW, or you have a wheelchair and I have a wheelchair, it will be worthwhile for us to get together socially. And I can see if you have a BMW or a wheelchair, or both. So I look for people who look like me and have the same physical trappings as I do.

In Second Life, the physical signals are changed by the nature of the environment. You may be a man in a wheelchair in RL, but in SL you can be an eight-foot goddess with hair to the floor who likes to wear ball gowns and go dancing. And many people in SL, as is perfectly their right, don't like to share information about RL. So how is someone to tell if you have a BMW, or a wheelchair, or a Harley, or a tractor, or a city bus?

Iris Ophelia seems to be saying that looking as little like a newbie as possible -- whatever that means -- will move you up the ladder. And at the top of the ladder are people with money, or people with talent, or people with money and talent. If that's what you're looking for in your virtual friendships, then I think she's saying you have to look like those people. You can either do that by spending a lot of money, or by figuring out how to achieve a hot look for less money. (People with talent do it all the time -- a teenage Madonna started fashion trends for things like rubber and leather jewelry that were copied by people who could have afforded diamond tennis bracelets.)

So what do people look like when they have money and talent?  This circles back to a conversation I had in a club the other night with a stranger -- who had been in SL for less than a month. (I'm pretty sure English was not his first language.) He started talking to me, he said, because I looked different than most of the people in the room; I looked "complete". I was kind of kidding him along and said, "Well yeah, I have the usual number of hands and feet." "No, no," he said, "You look like SOMEBODY. Everybody else looks like ANYBODY." Well, of course, I was foolishly pleased and gave him the LMs for some really good skin shops where he could start the process of looking like somebody. Bless his pixels, he's on the right track, and he gave me the way to express it. Looking like a newbie means you look like anybody. Looking like an experienced resident means you look like somebody.

So I've taken Iris Ophelia's clever observation one step further. There is a class structure in Second Life, and it's worth knowing where you fit in it. If you do, then you will find other people who are like you, who will become your friends, and who will increase your enjoyment of Second Life. And the way to give people signals as to where you fit into it is -- look like yourself, and look like somebody. I'm currently doing that by paying very little attention to what most of the people in bars look like; I'm trying to create a personality that is distinctive and that you can figure out by looking at me. Then other people who are the same class as me will find me, and I'll find them. And we all will have more fun!

035: A ribbeting display!

In a spare moment, I thought I'd drop into Second Pride this afternoon. This particular two-hour stint was hosted by Manshots magazine and its CEO Angelik Lavecchia; I'm a fan of this magazine and have said so before (see post #03). Thanks Angelik!

I was at the main pavilion where all the dances are, just enjoying the music and bopping along, and chatting with Jak Calcott, who designed the place ... pervcamming all the handsome guys ...

But then my attention was ribbeted -- sorry! -- by these six cute little frogs, any of whom might have been as tall as my calf, who showed up off to one side of the dance floor, dancing as a synchronized unit. I have to say, this is the best group idea I've seen in a long time.  A long time. I roared with laughter and loved them all instantly.

My friend and neighbour Joseph Nussbaum was one of the frogs -- he said they'd been taking some pictures and decided to pop into Pride for some fun and to amuse the onlookers. The other five were Tomais Ashdene, Holter, Sabor Skytower, Bock McMillan, and Boris Twist ... thank you, froggies, you made my day!

Boris Twist also came to my attention this afternoon in a completely different context, the latest issue of Photography magazine, because the guy has a fierce eye! I'm sure he must have exhibited before, I simply haven't been in the right place at the right time, but -- a frog with a great camera eye? I think my readers have to find out more LOL.

Sorry the little skeeters were moving around too fast for me to make notes of which guy was which colour frog -- but I'm sure the sexy one is Joe!

034: A walk around Second Pride

I had some time this afternoon and wanted to see what my neighbour and friend, Jak Calcutt, had done as a build for the Second Pride installation on three sims. So instead of doing the recommended thing and looking at the guides, and maps, and helpful materials that I'm sure are out there -- I went and did what about half of its visitors will do and just showed up and walked around.
Now, I'm very fond of that walkabout idea. I like to do it in strange sims, just walk around and see what the designer has planned for my eye to encounter. I like to do it especially in sims where I want to put up a house, because I like to know what my neighbours' houses are like and what the overall impression will be that I'll be living with. I expect it would really be better if I had followed some sort of official guide and looked around with the aid of a map, and really, I'll give that some thought next time LOL.
I arrived near a large sculpture that I found quite charming, since I like artworks that are pieces of type: P-R-I-D-E, cycling through the colours of the rainbow, is a simple idea but at this size an effective one. That's me in the foreground, to give you an idea of the scale; of course I could have fooled about lining up the shot to make the type line up perfectly, which it actually does; but, folks, if you walk by it, you get it at all angles and all colours. It's an interesting little sculpture and a nice backdrop for pictures, I thought.

Next I called up the map and headed for the largest group of green dots, which turned out to be a dance party in the main pavilion as a celebration for lesbians. They were welcoming, but I had things to look at and so declined; someone had a really nice exploding effect on, though, and I'm sorry I can't give it to you in full detail. The music sounded good and everyone was having a good time. But I had spotted something in the distance that looked like a ferris wheel and had decided to head for it, since I love ferris wheels.
Unfortunately, this particular ferris wheel was kind of a bust for me. There wasn't really a chance to see a lot of spectacular views from the top of the wheel, which is one of the reasons why I like them.

I'll be honest and say that they are more fun when you're with someone; there certainly wasn't anything wrong with the wheel itself, mechanically, just that there wasn't a lot to look at and no one with whom to giggle. But the midway, or arcade, or whatever you'd like to call it, well, that was a lot of fun all by myself. I didn't have much of a chance at such a thing when I was younger, since they didn't seem to hang out in my home town (or perhaps my parents sensibly declined to tell me). At any rate, I've always been fascinated by midways and carnies and now that I'm mostly grown-up ;-) I try not to miss an opportunity.

This one was, as they say in my neighbourhood, everything and a bag of chips. It had every ride and shooting gallery and fun thing that I wanted, and it all worked, and it was all fun to experiment with. I loved Zoltar, who told my fortune about a glorious future quite accurately (at least, he did with a little prompting and a couple of false starts LOL).  And although the big rides were very dramatic, I had just as much fun with the little tiny rides probably meant for younger kids -- that's me, pretending to be falling off the flying saucer ride.

I did feel as though I should be looking for more of the cultural attractions; I found an area with some interesting pieces of SL art. The photo I've provided here doesn't really do the sculpture justice, because it's moving; it's a set of shifting prims that change colour in a couple of ways, and it's quite fascinating. I didn't find a way to discover who had done this work, but I imagine that information can be found; I was lazy and didn't try hard, though. I like seeing what people can think of to do with the possibilities of SL sculpture, and you should check out this exhibit -- there's some clever stuff there.
Then I wandered into the shopping district which, to do it credit, was NOT awful and quite restrained and tasteful. By not awful, I mean that there was not a single store devoted to the purveyance of awful rainbow-coloured tatt that you'll wear once and then relegate to dead storage in inventory. Instead, there were little pop-up stores from brands that I associate with gay people's interests in SL. Some sell good clothes, some sell good furniture, hair, whatever, and they had put together a little sample of the kind of work they do and didn't sell it too aggressively. Nicely done, and very tasteful, thank you retailers. I think these stores get rented as a favour to Second Pride in order to support the effort financially.  So thank you very much, retailers, and honestly, I think you should wander through the shopping districts while you're there. Go ahead, buy yourself a new bathing suit like I did, and while I'm on the topic a donation into the box that supports the tier of this set of sims would not be unappreciated either, I'm sure. This work is probably a labour of love for a lot of people, but we can at least defray their expenses a bit.

Finally I was attracted to a building off to one side that was like architecture from my native British Columbia -- large airspace, cedar and green construction that reminds people vaguely of trees, and a lot of glass to bring the outdoors in. A beautiful building. I ran into Jak Calcutt pushing a few trees along the exterior *exactly* into place -- we all know how that goes, you never have enough time to tweak it just before the reveal, right? LOL -- and he confirmed my thought that it was a combination wedding chapel and remembrance chapel (note the eternal flame at the front), all non-sectarian. There's quite a bit of memorialization in this whole Pride build, with an extensive installation about the life and times of Harvey Milk down the way a bit, and to me it is a very appropriate way of paying homage to the men and women who got gay people to the point they're at today. I hope this building survives the Pride fete; I'd like to see it live somewhere.  Hell, I'd like to get married in it some day!
I haven't been to any of the Pride dances; I know there was a lot of good DJs who have some place in the lineup, so I intend to dance whenever I can. But just wandering around the sim was a nice experience in itself. I had fun doing things that had nothing to do with Pride, particularly, and I also had fun experiencing art and a bit of tristesse at the Harvey Milk installation. And I have to tell you, there really IS some good design in this build. I look at it from the point of view of someone who just plops himself in and goes walking. Can I always see interesting things towards which I can progress? Are there intriguing glimpses of things off in the distance? And, very much to the point, are there paths that make it possible to get anywhere you might want to go without wading through a canal, or taking to the air. As a walker, I find that important, and here it was done properly. There's lots of good landscaping here, it's super-easy to know where you are on the sims at all times -- great whacking slabs the height of my house with a huge "W" for "west" on them are hard to miss, even for the geographically challenged like myself.
I've been hearing a lot the last few days about the history of this event and an enormous amount of trouble and bad cess that's happened in the past. I got an aggrieved note from a well-known DJ while I was actually touring the sim, laying out his issues for everyone in his group. I have to respect the seriousness with which people approach these issues; for me, though, I have no axe to grind, nothing to gain, and I tend not to attend Pride celebrations in RL because I don't care for the crush of all those people. So I wanted to have the privilege of a virtual celebration, and I'm taking Second Pride -- like so much else in Second Life -- as I find it. I don't care who did what to whom for how many cookies two or three years ago; it's wise to be vigilant about what happens to charity donations, but that goes for every such situation. Like so many others, I don't care for drama and while I am glad that residents obviously care about how to put on a good celebration, at the end of it all -- it's another party. I'll attend things to have fun and I hope you have fun too.

033: Second Second Life: No freaking out required

Well, the big news on Friday afternoon from Linden Labs was that they're working on a new "next generation virtual world". I don't think anyone should be surprised at that; it's their business. The part of the press release that everyone is freaking out over is -- "[W]e don't want to constrain our development by setting backward compatibility with Second Life as an absolute requirement from the start."

Judging by reaction in the blogosphere, and a couple of random comments I heard last night while I was out shopping, that announcement means that Second Life will be shutting down in about 20 minutes, and every cent you've ever spent on stuff in SL is now completely wasted, and, and, and -- the sky is falling.

For crying out loud, RELAX.

My friend Eddi Haskell has summed it up very well at his blog, found here -- and his post is called "Much Ado About Nothing", which is perfect. He makes four very good points that you really should read for yourself. But what it boils down to for me is, SL technology is open source and Linden Labs is still making money by running SL -- so I don't think SL is going anywhere soon. If Linden Labs sells it off, someone will pick it up (and personally, I'm thinking that Facebook has pretty deep pockets right now, and it's kind of a natural fit with their business model). Firestorm will continue to support a viewer as a third-party provider, I think.

And honestly, did you think Second Life was going to last forever?  This is, to me, just like the transition that I've lived through between VHS and DVD. Yes, I had to replace movies that I owned in VHS format, but the DVD format is a lot better and easier to use. I'm betting that once Linden Labs approaches the question of creating a virtual world with today's technology, with the extraordinary graphics that we've all seen in other games, and, yes, even with the potential addition of Oculus Rift to the mix, we will be happy puppies. The technological leap might cost us all time and money, but I'm thinking that it will be like the early days of SL all over again -- covers of magazines will bring thousands of newbies into Second Second Life, as you might call it, and the experience that we've all gained in our years in SL will pay off big-time in SSL. We'll all be able to start consulting services teaching people about the equivalent of Slink feet and l'Uomo mesh bodies and custom AOs, because we've already mastered the art of surfing the technology waves that pass through SL every so often.

So look on the bright side! Frankly, although I'm sure we'll be able to play in SL for a long, long time, I will probably be enthusiastic about leaving it behind and moving to SSL. We'll be getting a better environment in which to do the same things we like to do. And we'll be the only people who have experience at using that kind of environment. I can't say I'll be delighted if I have to throw away a lot of virtual clothes and furniture, etc., but I wasn't happy about throwing away a lot of VHS tapes either. It's a part of life. And I can't wait to see what they come up with!

032: Talking heads

A couple of things came together serendipitously today when I saw two photographs in different places; two and two apparently adds up to a blog post.

Some time ago, I posted about a theory of mine that larger heads are more attractive; if you search my blog for the name Vanna White, whose head is noticeably too big for her body, you'll find my post. Today I noticed this photograph of two shirtless gentlemen standing very close together, which I have cropped for what might be obvious reasons -- but I noticed it merely by looking at a thumbnail, because there seemed to be something odd about it. If you expand the photo, you'll notice the same thing I did; both are muscular guys with about the same body structure, but the man on the left has a head that is about one-third again as big as the man on the right. The guy on the right seems out of proportion to me (his neck is too long, or his shoulders aren't wide enough, or something), whereas the guy on the left has a great ratio between head and body, to my eye. I just thought this was a good proof of concept that if you ratchet your head-size slider up to about 90, you won't regret it.

The other thing that came through my news feed today was probably the same thing that came across yours; the "handsomest convict alive", or words to that effect. If you take the trouble to read the story, the gentleman pictured has apparently just committed some serious weapons-related offences and will not be able to start a modelling career for quite some time, but his mug shot has traveled around the world. Well, I do tend to set aside photos of guys with striking faces like this for future SL design reference. What I also noticed is that his face and head are beautifully shaped; super proportions, an incredible jawline, perfectly round head. And finally that, like I've mentioned occasionally, when you have an absolutely perfect face in SL or RL, you have to somehow break it up -- give people something disproportionate or jarring in order to give the eye something upon which to focus.  In this case it's the small tattoo at the corner of his eye, and the faint neck tattoos, that immediately draw the eye; the rest is just too perfect. (I'd love to see this guy's face overlaid with a transparency of Tyson Beckford.) If I was going to reproduce this guy's face in SL, I'd give him a tiny bit heavier eyebrows, to break up the line -- other than that, the underlying shape that produced that face could be available at any one of a number of shape/skin shops in SL as we speak. I'd start looking at Intouchable; they tend to go for the gorgeous thug types LOL.

031: A relaxing hour at Arcadia Beach

Sometimes you want to be in the middle of the action, and sometimes -- sometimes you just want to lie on the beach and have a nice conversation. That's why I was glad to be introduced to the pleasures of Arcadia Beach, which I've unaccountably overlooked in the last couple of years. It's a simple and pretty location; plenty of interesting things to do if you're so inclined, and if you're feeling lazy, like I was yesterday afternoon, it's very satisfying to simply recline on the beach loungers, work on your tan, and gossip.  Arcadia is clothing-optional so if you don't want to see the more interesting body parts, don't enlarge the photographs.

The people whom I have to thank for my pleasant afternoon are, first photo above from left to right, Scylo77 Resident, Carl Wilder, (that's me in the blue trunks), Alex Thaub, Eon Starfall, and Chad Deischer. As you can see, if you simply want to relax and be surrounded by handsome men, Arcadia Beach is a good place to spend the afternoon! (The second photograph is, left to right, Carl, me, and Alex.)