Metaverse Messenger's 2007 SLCC Issue

Special SLCC Edition

Metaverse Messenger The

A real newspaper for a virtual world

Tuesday,August 21, 2007

A Rose from Ash Publication

Free

INVOLVE CONCEPT ART GIVES A HINT OF THE ATTRACTIONS at their themed sim. Proposed attractions include the "Lost Temple," seen at left, and "Haven Harbor,” seen at right. The Second Life development company of IVM has changed its name to Involve and created an interactive media campaign, including a sim which will fully engage visitors. - COURTESY PHOTOS.

IVM evolves into Involve

By HOLMAN TIBBETT Staff writer

J.S. Tomorrow is the avatar name of a 25-year-old female journalist based in Seattle, Washington. In real life she is earnest, restless, brash, flippant, and has a tendency to doodle when other people are talking. Her eclectic nature is reflected in her list of favorite movies, which includes the schmaltzy Titanic, the iconic Blade Runner and the classic Night of the Iguana. Fresh from journalism school, her first major assignment was to investigate Involvium Energy Ventures’ strange research project in Second Life.

Her sister, Trish, is already a Second Life resident, and as her fascination with the virtual world increased, so did her withdrawal from her family. It’s been more than a month since the normally close siblings have spoken to each other. “That’s why I agreed to take this gig,” J.S. admits. “I’ve been morbidly curious for a while to see the Metaverse — I’ve just never had a reason. Now I have one: to find my sister and give her a swift kick in the @#$%!”

With such a strong personality and so many quirky traits, it seems finicky to note that Tomorrow is also fictional. The multi-leveled narrative of her ongoing investigation is aimed at both promoting Infinite Vision Media’s corporate name change to “Involve,” and demonstrating their expanded mission in developing social media

Inside:

INDEX

Sim of the Week - Page 10A

SL News . . . . . . . Page 3A Perspectives . . . . .Page 5A The Line . . . . . . . .Page 6A ROTW. . . . . . . . . . .Page7A Comics . . . . . . . . .Page 7A Entertainment. . . . Page 7A Photo Contest . . . .Page 8A Sports . . . . . . . . . .Page 6B Community . . . . . Page 8B Lifestyles . . . . . . . Page 1C

in the 3D web.

As Infinite Vision Media, the interactive media studio was responsible for some of Second Life’s most successful commercial builds, including the Weather Network’s Weather Island. “It’s number one amongst branded sims,” says CEO and Executive Producer Boliver Oddfellow (Drew Stein in Reality). “It’s become a premier date location in SL. People come in pairs to ski, surf and mountain bike.”

But as successful as IVM has been, Oddfellow believes they have only scratched the surface. No longer content to sail within sight of land, their corporate ship has been rechristened to reflect her new course into uncharted waters. “‘Involve’ more accurately describes what we do,” says Chief Creative Director Ethan Therian (Ian Tepoot in real life). “We create in-world, immersive experiences that go beyond ‘engagement’ or ‘interaction’ into the realm of fully involving the guest.”

The creation of a successful in-world promotion is the Philosopher’s Stone for any corporation interested in transmuting Second Life’s choice demographic into gold. Like the Stone, however, it tends to be notoriously illusive. Many companies, such as Coca-Cola and American Apparel, have created optimistic new sims only to find that the adage, “If you build it, they will come,” works better for baseball See INVOLVE, Page 4A

Web poll About Us Go to our website at www.metaversemessenger.com

to participate in our online poll.

This week’s question:

"What feature would you like to see added to SL soon?"

See next week’s issue for the results.

Volume 2 No. 48 Second Life The Metaverse Messenger Sido (184, 195)

Inside:

Resi of the Week - Page 7A

Page 2A The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

SL News August 21, 2007

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195)

Page 3A

Rumors circulate on auto ban for multiple payouts

By KATIER REITVELD Staff writer

THE SLCC METAKIOSK was created by Zatzai Asturias and enables residents on a land parcel to stay informed about what's happening at the SLCC, from in-world events to streaming of events from the real world convention in Chicago. -Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

In-world SLCC festivities approach

By PHOENIX PSALTERY Staff writer

This week, a tiny slice of the Second Life population — 800 out of the nearly nine million residents of our world, or about .01 percent — will gather in Chicago, Ill. in Reality to learn, discuss, and party down at the third annual Second Life Community Convention.

If you happen to be part of the other 99.99 percent who will not be in attendance, you may be asking yourself, “Why should I care? I’m not going to be there. It doesn’t concern me.”

However, what you may not realize is that there are quite a few events planned in-world to commemorate the SLCC. IN WORLD SITES AND EVENTS The SLCC staff has categorized the in-world sites into Major Sites, Minor Sites and Listening Stations. The Major Sites are hosting all four streams, doing some in-world

only events, and hosting the ball. The Minor Sites are doing one or more streams, may be hosting the ball, and perhaps doing an in-world only event.

The Listening Stations are just places you can go listen — sometimes there is seating, sometimes there is shopping so you can shop while you listen if you like, sometimes there’s just standing around — but in any case the streams will be active there and you can at least catch the action in Chicago.

Additionally, the main inworld SLCC hub will be at Artificial Isle. You can go there at any time to get a copy of the schedule, find the list of sites, and if there’s a volunteer on duty at that time, ask a question. Volunteers are in short supply, so it is not guaranteed that anyone will be available.

Everywhere the Masquerade Ball is hosted (major and selected minor sites) there will be prizes for best costume at the ball. The theme of the ball is “Leather and Lace.”

The following is a list of

which sites are which. Updated information is available at http://slcc2007.wordpress.com/ in-world-slcc-info.

Major Sites Artificial Isle — HUB Active8 El Corazon Pontiac Isles Minor Sites Hollywood — Full Social and Machinima tracks Hollywood Bowl (machinima) Yacht Club (social) and hosted ball Artropolis — (social and business), art exhibits IBM - Art exhibits and business track Jessica Sim — Art exhibits and social track Texas State University (machinima and education), hosted ball Dark Eden (social), hosted ball in the Yume club downstairs.

There is also seating and dancing in the club downstairs for See SLCC, Page 3C

On Aug. 8, in a post made on several SL forum sites including SLUniverse and Second Citizen, Cristiano Midnight informed residents of the automatic suspension of a friend’s account following a payment that had been made for services in-world.

Cristiano said “Earlier today, a friend of mine was working in SL an ongoing project that had reached the point of needing stress testing before going live. She lined up some testers, and offered to pay them L$1000 if they would submit a report after their testing. Nothing unusual — the test went fine, and she paid out L$1000 to about 15 individuals who turned in their reports. Without any warning while doing this, she was suddenly knocked offline with a message saying her account had been suspended pending investigation for gambling activities. The recipients also had the same thing happen.”

This immediately concerned residents, with many of them becoming worried about getting automatically suspended when, for example, paying or receiving wages in-world.

Some residents took precautions such as staggering payments made for wages to employees; however the question remained, “What happened?”

An investigation soon determined that the banning was not, in fact, due to suspected gambling activities, but rather was for suspected fraud.

A later post by Cory Edo of the Electric Sheep Company revealed that she was the person who had been affected by this. She said, “I talked to [LL Vice President Robin Linden] yesterday at her office hours

and she said that a JP Linden was supposed to be contacting our company about a whitelist service, but as far as I know we haven’t gotten anything from him yet. She told me it’s fraudrelated, apparently, which I understand a little better; I just think it’s going to take some tweaking before more innocent people aren’t hit with it than not, and I have a suspicion their whitelist is going to be a lot longer than they’re anticipating.”

Robin Linden backed this up in an e-mail, saying, “There is no automated tool with respect to gambling. In the case of fraud, we use many means to monitor suspicious activity and review each account on a case by case basis. If an account is inadvertently held for review, we take additional steps to ensure it won’t happen again.

“With respect to gambling, as we pointed out in the blog post, if we discover a game or activity that we believe violates the policy we will return the object to inventory and issue a warning. If the owner persists in offering the game, their account will be suspended and may be terminated.”

The actual policy with regard to suspected gambling activities was explained by Michael Linden.

He said “Normally, in fact, we go to a reported location, see a bunch of gambling scripts and signage, and read the instructions on ‘how to play.’ We wouldn’t ‘suspend’ the account technically. For gambling, Residents get (1) a warning, (2) a 14 day suspension, or (3) permanently banned from SL. So they’d get an e-mail saying ‘you have been warned’ or ‘your account is suspended.’

Nobody’s been permanently banned for violating the new See BAN, Page 6A

Page 4A The Metaverse Messenger August 7, 2007

Is simulated sex the next to go?

By PHEDRE DUMOURIEZ Staff writer

I’ve heard many rumors lately about what’s next in Second Life to get the virtual ‘boot.’ The latest major vice to go the way of the Dodo was gambling, and it’s been argued that this will likely cause a downturn in Linden spending.

But roguish, adventure-seeking avatars should not fret, as there are still other profitable, mature vices available in SL – the largest of which are the popular escort services.

As escorting in SL is the equivalent of phone sex – since there is not actual hanky panky going under way (at least, no physical action between

consenting adults, though the Lindens only know what’s going on at the other end of the keyboard) – then it’s considered to be legal. There are also currently no laws against it. Robin Linden herself stated that simulated prostitution and stripping were legal acts and that “the gambling ban was placed into effect for legal compliance reasons.”

However, with the recent crackdowns on immoral activities such as ‘age play’, people are still questioning whether acts such as ‘virtual sex’ and the act of selling of it will soon get the ax.

See SEX, Page 6B

INVOLVE

AUDIENCE MEMBERS ENJOY the view of the Grand Fireworks Display, which is organized by DePaul University’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI). This 30 minute display of fantastic virtual fireworks runs every Saturday and Sunday at Depaul CTI (212, 93, 27). – Photo by PHEDRE DUMOURIEZ

First life, second news

www.whatisthemetaverse.com/ RLPO1.html. Winners will be notified by e-mail on Monday, Sheherazade spins her musi- Sept. 10. The entire performcal tales in Second Life ance will be made available to Second Life will be hosting all Second Life residents in the its first full scale orchestral days following. concert on Sept. 14 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. On Must be that time of month the basis of a lottery, 100 tick- (you know…the full moon) ets will be awarded. Vasily PeSusi Weaser is the editor of trenko, the orchestra’s principal Shiny, Shiny: A Girl’s Guide to conductor and the youngest in Gadgets. In an article entitled, its 165-year history, will pres- The Rant: When Second Life ent Ravel’s Sheherazade and Fatigue Hits, she tells her readRachmaninov’s Symphonic ers that she is “over it.”

“I’m over marketers sitting Dances, as well as world premieres by Merseyside-born around a board room, picking composers Kenneth Hesketh up a copy of the Metro, reading and John McCabe. the latest Second Life story, Following the performance, and deciding that they must which will be piped into Sec- jump on this bandwagon. To be ond Life by means of live video honest, by the time they get streaming, concertgoers will be there, the bandwagon is so able to speak with Petrenko, overcrowded it’s slowed to a Hesketh, and soloist Kate virtual halt.”

Royal at the Grand Foyer Bar The cause of this outburst? at the Phil.

Apparently she’s discovered Michael Elliott, the chief ex- that the Royal Philharmonic ecutive for the orchestra, says: Liverpool Orchestra will be “Orchestras today are commit- playing in Second Life, an ted to reaching out to make event she calls “groundbreaktheir music more accessible to ing, revolutionary and bloody encourage new audiences. That tedious in equal measures.” means exploring and embracThe exact cause of her ing the opportunities presented tantrum is impossible to deterby new technology.” mine with any degree of cerThe Philharmonic’s execu- tainty, nor is it restricted solely tive director, Millicent Jones, to Second Life cultural events. points out that there is an added “This also goes for Facebonus to this particular venue book. I’m militant about only in that “audience members will using Facebook to keep in conbe able to chat to each other tact with people I was once (via instant messaging) about friends with, rather than the their experience and even random person I sat next to in cough without incurring the science class.” She admits that displeasure of the conductor there is a Shiny, Shiny Faceand fellow audience members.” book group, but hastens to Those interested can register point out that it’s different. for the chance to win tickets at See FIRST, Page 5C the RLPO’s website,

By HOLMAN TIBBETT Staff writer

fields than for virtual corporate displays. In a world whose inhabitants can battle vampires in a post-apocalyptic city, fly up to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and attend live performances by internationally famous musicians, the prospect of visiting a “Virtual Thirst Pavilion” doesn’t hold as much attraction as corporate PR flacks might have imagined.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t successes; some impressive by any standards. For instance, This Second Marketing recently created an in-world viral campaign for the release of the recent film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which reached some 15,000 residents. The difference is the operators of This Second Marketing have an intimate knowledge of Second Life which they can exploit to their advantage.

The same can be said of Involve.

The company’s CEO, Boliver Oddfellow, rose through the ranks in several marketing and promotions agencies, and piloted marketing campaigns for such clients as Chrysler Motors, Spin Magazine, MTV, Jena Pateau Perfumes and TVT Records.

He has a strong grasp of online promotion, having produced high-end flash sites for such clients as EarthLink and Relic THQ Games.

But when his work brought him into contact with Second Life, he saw the potential to create campaigns that went far beyond the scope of any he’d

From Page 1A

done before.

“I was involved with the marketing company that did StageCoach Island, though I didn’t work on any of the inworld parts of it,” he says. “I came in to see it and was thunderstruck by what could be done, so I dropped my ongoing work as a Web 2.0 producer, doing high end flash sites for major corps, and spent six months on walkabout in SL doing the native thing — odd jobs, ran clubs, et cetera — until I felt I knew it well enough to embark on this journey.”

His first sim project was the wildly successful Dublin. Since then his company has brought a number of corporations and groups in-world, including NBC, the American Cancer Society, Dell Computers, The Infinite Mind radio program, The Tech Museum Of Innovation and The Weather Channel.

In promoting its new name, Involve is creating the kind of multi-level narrative that the company believes has the best chance of succeeding in the virtual world.

“Take a television show,” explains Therian. “Why do advertisers want to advertise during them?

There is entertainment value there — a story, characters, a world in which you are interested in immersing yourself. Thus, you are willing to pay six minutes of promotion for 24 minutes of entertainment and experience.”

The Involvium narrative, however, is intended to go far

beyond the limits of a television show.

“In virtual worlds,” Therian continues, “We can bake the brand/product/cause into the attraction itself. We are going to create on Involve a narrative storyline, and back that up with a total, 360-degree environment that supports it.”

The narrative will play out in several areas. As Tomorrow explores the world of Second Life, she will be recording her experiences on her blog, http://jstomorrow.blogspot.com . Meanwhile, those wishing to find out more about the company she is investigating can visit its corporate website, Involvium Energy Ventures, at www.involvium.com.

The Involve sim will be the site of the story’s main discovery. “By being part of SL, you are part of the story,” says Therian. “The narrative takes place there, and as time goes on, what happens on the island will be taken into account. Beyond this, there will be many activities.”

There is no question that Oddfellow and Therian have an accurate reading of the sort of thing Second Lifers enjoy. Of course, the real test of Involve’s vision will be the number of people who engage in the unfolding narrative of J.S. Tomorrow. What has Involvium Energy Ventures discovered, and what is it doing in Second Life? What is behind Trish’s apparent disappearance?

Involve is hoping we’re interested in finding out.

Mark your calendars

Ron Blechner and Ian Tepoot of Infinite Vision Media will be speaking on “What Makes Your Virtual Build an Attraction?” at the SLCC on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2007. 4:30-6:00.

SL Community Convention Saturday, August 25 from 4:30 to 6 P.M. Second Life Developers

GLENN FISHER of Linden Lab Moderator Jeff Barr, Amazon “Creating a Developer Hangout in SL“ SITEARM MADONNA, Siterma.com “Sustainable Business Projects Design” RON BLECHNEr ofInfinite Vision Media and Ian Tepoot, Infinite Vision Media “What Makes Your Virtual Built an Attraction?”

Perspectives August 21, 2007

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195)

Page 5A

A Bird’s Eye View Observations on Second Life and its denizens

By Phoenix Psaltery Living in the virtual world For we are living in a material world And I am a material girl —Madonna We are spirits in the material world…

—Sting As you read this week’s column, quite a few of you out there in Second Life land are reading it in a radically different fashion than that to which you are normally accustomed.

In an ordinary week, when you get your M2 news fix, you visit the metaversemessenger.com website, download the PDF, fire up Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit and read the Messenger from your computer screen.

However, this week, quite a few of you are reading it in the material world — Reality — as a professionally published physical newspaper.

We publish a real life issue once a year to commemorate the annual Second Life Community Convention, an amazing gathering that keeps increasing in size each year.

The first SLCC was held in

New York City in 2005, and if I recall correctly, about a hundred people attended. I wasn’t able to attend the real life event, but enjoyed the festivities at an in-world party at a four corner sim junction, atop a virtual reproduction of the New York Law School building where the real life convention was taking place.

Last year I had the privilege of joining about 500 SLers in San Francisco for three days of fun and discussion about where this amazing virtual world of ours is headed. I’ll never forget Friday night at SLCC, standing out on a deck overlooking shimmering San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, as drunk as the proverbial skunk, smoking cigars with the likes of FlipperPA Peregrine, Pathfinder Linden and Taco Rubio, in the 50 degree August night. Brrr!

This year the SLCC committee is expecting close to a thousand people to gather at the Hilton in downtown Chicago.

Sansarya and I will be there — it’ll double as our honeymoon — and we’re anticipating a

George attends the SLCC and reveals his real life identity.

Want to write?

The Metaverse Messenger accepts signed letters to the editor/publisher from our readers. Letters must include avatar name for verification. Send letters to mm@metaversemessenger.com.

See BIRD’S, Page 8A

The Metaverse Messenger E-mail: mm@metaversemessenger.com Website: www.metaversemessenger.com

Publisher: Kristan Hall (Katt Kongo) Associate Publisher: Phoenix Psaltery Composition: Katt Kongo Account Executive: Phoenix Psaltery Office Manager: George

Backbite Distribution: Peachy Sassoon Associate Editor: Dagmar kojishi News Editor: Katier Reitveld For a complete list of staff writers, visit the M2 website.

The Metaverse Messenger is published once each week on Tuesday for $L0 per year in Second Life. Subscribers should an instant message to distribution.

Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing or reputation of any person, firm or corporation, which may occur in the columns of The Metaverse Messenger, will be gladly corrected upon being brought to the attention of the publisher(s). The publisher is not responsible for copy ommissions or typographical errors which may occur other than to correct them in the nearest issue after it is brought to the publisher’s attention and in no case does the publisher hold him/herself liable for damages further than the amount received by him for actual space covering the error.

Copyright © 2007.The entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by The Metaverse Messenger and the Rose from Ash Publishing Company. No material may be reproduced without the expressed written permission of the publisher.

Photographs Group news Event listings Club news Engagement announcements Business news Classified ads Display ads Wedding announcements

E-mail mm@metaversemessenger.com for details on getting your items published or buying advertising space.

(Not really!)

Page 6A The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

norinnrichard.blogspot.com Wish I Was There There are a good many of you that are reading my words this week while sitting at a panel waiting for a chat about Second Life to begin, or standing in a line to register for an event, or perhaps huddled along a wall giving your legs a much needed rest between events. Or you could be in your hotel room exhausted and just filling time before you go to sleep.

If you really had a rough day, they are the first things you see as you wake up with the Messenger draped over your head. If any of these things are true, you are probably at the Second Life Community Convention.

Once again, an event is being run which annually eradicates The Line. For a few short days, anyone able to get to the event site (Chicago this year) can rub shoulders in Reality with their friends from the grid.

I can tell you from experience that it is extremely surreal. Many of us use the “First Life” tab on our profiles to show those in Second Life what we really look like. Even if we do not, we often have a picture or two in our inventory for friends. Often we use Yahoo or Skype to voice chat with each other, and as voice features in Second Life itself continue to roll out, hearing our online friends’ voices will become more common. None of that really prepares you for seeing someone “in the flesh.” Cameras and voice tools distort, photos fall out of date, but things are current in Reality.

At this point, I have made this transition several times. Last year at SLCC was the first time I met people from Second Life in Reality. From dear friends like Katt Kongo to acquaintances like Crash Prefect and Pathfinder Linden, I had a chance to put real names and faces to avatars I dealt with

every day. Since then, I have met my love Rose several times. In addition, I have seen other dear friends in Reality. I even became friends with a coworker from another department that I rarely if ever would have seen, were we not both involved with Second Life.

I look forward to these Real Life meetings, and have looked forward to SLCC for most of the year.

SLCC will be a very different event this year, because Second Life is very different than it was at this time last year. Features that were exciting new promises, such as the improved privacy controls, are now a reality. Corporations moving onto the grid was a wave we saw approaching our digital shore. Now, it is a fact of our Second Lives, and something we deal with every day. Events that were not even conceived of at last year’s

See LINE, Page 8A

THE BANTAM DELL Bookstore on Sheep Island provides a cozy atmosphere where residents can sit, read and drink coffee, and often hosts book presentations by prominent authors. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

BAN gambling policy yet. At least, not that I’ve heard.”

Edo was able to use the concierge service to quickly sort her problem out and Lin-

From Page 3A den Lab has acknowledged that detecting fraud will continue to be refined to reduce the likelihood of erroneously suspending an innocent resident.

Entertainment

August 21, 2007

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195)

isabelle Kostolany Name: isabelle Kostolany Occupation in SL: collared submissive, model. photographer, furniture designer and gallery owner Date joined SL: Apr. 11, 2006 (maiden name Is abelle Gasparini!)

What is your favorite thing about being a \ resident of SL? My Lady Djamila, obviously... but also the things created by people, and zapping newbie griefers!

What is the one thing in your inven tory that you would be the most devastated to lose?

How do I choose one thing out of 19,000+?!!! I’ll cheat and say my wardrobe!

What is your favorite location in Second Life?

My Lady’s home.

What would you like the outside world to know about SL? That it’s more fun than you can shake a stick at.

What one thing about SL would you change, if you could?

See ROTW, Page 8A

The Dead, Clapton, Dylan and anybody else that he thinks he can sing like “without sending people screaming from the room or that gets the dogs started barking.”

Currently in RL Pluto is in a four person blues garage band and also sits in with a bluegrass band called “The Boys of Greenwood Glen” with whom he has been friends for the past 30 years. He says he would be playing with them full time, but unfortunately he just simply doesn’t have enough RL time to

spare.

Pluto performs weekly with his garage band, playing mostly blues and long jams while he keeps the rhythm going and sings.

Pluto tells me that the music scene in Seattle is still “hoppin” and there are many places to play but there is not as much grunge as you would expect from Seattle, the home of Nirvana.

Pluto hasn’t received any

See BITES, Page 9B

Francine Susanti

SL TRIVIA HIGH SCORES For the week of August 20

720

TEAMS INDIVIDUALS Beach Beebe PrinceDK Slunce Giuliani Rossini Will Juno Fifty Winx Joe321 McMillan Bourque Rau Toshiro Onmura Kookie Hax rickybell Ball Zwozze Zabelin DeeDee Pinion BataanDeath March Mileva Milev

Cafe Trivia 2615 2381 1775 1435 1353 1247 1174 1050 892 879 814 777 774 763

Page 7A

Upcoming events

R e s i d e n t o f t h e We e k

Dakota7z7 Pluto aka Terry Dickerson is this week’s Sound Bite. He is a Seattle native and thus he is stained in color and has all of the depression that comes with living in a locale that always seems to be raining.

Currently Pluto is doing an acoustic show, since he says he is not very techno savvy; he is just trying to keep everything simple, at least till he gets the hang of it.

Pluto currently has a demo of 12 original songs which he performs live. He also covers

16502 Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong #942 7285 Ace Trivia 5167 Mood Indigo 5000 Trivia Monkeys 4086 GoldBar.tv! Minarlo Vite 3590 Trivia @ PIER 3068 Club Steps 2250 Extreme Trivia 2126 The Refuge 1859 Trivia Playground 1429 Ace Trivia 1353 Serenity Valley 1136 Candyland Team 1075 Hey it's Trivia - MLGHK #635 902

ADVANCED JEWELRY MAKING will be offered at NCI (Fishermans Cove 28, 150) Aug. 22 from 3-4:30am SLT. This class covers basic building and texturing techniques needed to make some of those lovely jewelry pieces! Advanced class: thorough knowledge of building and editing is needed.

BASIC SCRIPTING FOR Non Programmers will be offered by Academy of Second Learning Aug. 23 from 6-7am SLT at Colorado Tech 33, 157. Learn to add a script to an object, modify existing scripts, identify errors and more. Beginner level, suitable for people with no scripting/programming experience. Basic familiarity with editing needed.

ALDOMANUTIO ABRUZZO LIVE at The Vibe (Shaea 221, 200), Aug. 24 from 12 noon-1pm SLT. Live ambient music returns to the Vibe with the performance of AldoManutio Abruzzo with Ebo, delay pedals and those monster Lexicon Vortexes at his command, we will ease our way in to the weekend with style!

JAZZ COFFEE AT Jade’s Jazz Lounge, Aug. 25 from 2-5am SLT at Gold Coast 157, 212. Come on over with your coffee and listen to some jazz... or if you are like some of us, come kick those Americans out of bed and laugh at their bleary eyes! Enjoy a morning with friends at Jade’s. DJ SexyJade Echegaray plays her jazz collection for you.

GANG PROBLEMS IN our communities will be discussed Aug. 26 from 9-10am SLT at Solchan 106, 111. No matter what race you are, gangs can be a serious problem in your town. They’re not going away so what can you do protect yourself, your family, your children from gangs?

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 8A

Dear Beck, I’m a 30-year-old female who’s been in Second Life for over a year now. About eight months ago, I became quite attracted to a male friend of mine that I had met in-world. Two months later, we were ‘dating.‘ Last month, we got married.

Things have been great between us, both in our friendship and our ‘sexual’ relationship.

He’s funny, treats me kind and thinks that I’m the nicest person that he’s ever met.

The only trouble is… We are both married in our First Lives.

My ‘real’ husband knows about him, and though he does not want to know the details, he is OK with our ‘virtual’ relationship.

My SL partner, on the other hand, has not told his wife. He thinks that she will consider our relationship ‘cheating’ and will therefore be very hurt and upset.

I’m curious to know – do you think that we, (and dozens of other avatars in Second Life) are cheating by having a virtual relationship, or is it something else?

Signed, Oblivious Dear Oblivious, Your question has been one that has been surfacing lately – not only in advice columns across the globe – but also in a myriad of news journals.

MSNBC, ABC, and even the Wall Street Journal have all printed such articles in the last few months, all dealing with the same subject, “Is a virtual affair in-world infidelity?”

Unfortunately for you, and for the many others out there who are asking this question, the jury is still out on the final verdict. However, here are a few responses taken from some of the articles that might help you come to a conclusion of your own.

Virtual relationships are a

form of experimentation: “For many folks, the arms-length quality of in-game romance is what separates a (fairly) harmless experiment from actual infidelity. If these intimacies, no matter how personal, never translate into a real-world meeting or real-life sex, can it be considered cheating?” In other words, if it doesn’t happen in Real Life, did it ever really happen? Many people might agree with this sentiment, but professionals argue that – should a virtual relationship cause feelings of great emotion, friendship or even love – then it IS cheating, simply because those are emotions that you should be sharing with your real life partner. However, even Walker James Au (Hamlet Au) says that, since it’s one 3D avatar having sex with another 3D avatar, “It’s a more interactive form of masturbation…

And everyone’s going to do that on occasion.”

But what if there’s no sexual relationship at all and things remain very PG? “It’s a form of the same phenomenon,” said Susan Heitler, a clinical psychologist. “It’s channeling (energy) to someone outside of the main relationship.” She believes that the impact from any type of close relationship – such as a virtual one – is still detracting from the participants’ primary relationship.

Overall, many authors agree that – no matter the relationship, sexual or not – the level of energy and excitement invested in it compared to your primary relationship is what constitutes if it’s cheating or not. Some married couples can even become jealous of a partner’s best friend, co-worker or even a beloved pet, simply because more time is spent with them then with the person they are ‘married’ to. But honestly, is

See KISSES, Page 9A

ROTW

From Page 7A

Less lag!

Kyros Kostolany, my ex.

Do you have a Second Life partner? If so, tell us a little about him/her.

My Lady, Djamila Marikh... she owns me, body, mind and soul.

Do you have a favorite Linden? If so, who, and why?

Matthew Linden. He has a cute kilt.

What do you hope to see in future SL upgrades?

Less lag.

Pie or cheese, and why?

Cheese, as you can make cheese pie, but you can’t make pie cheese.

Want to be RotW, or know Who is your favorite person someone who deserves recog(non-partner) in Second Life, nition? Send a nomination to rotw@metaversemessenger.com. and why?

WIN L$4,000 in the M2’S Eagle Eye Photo ID Contest! If you think you know where this picture was taken, e-mail your answer to eagleeye@metaversemessenger.com along with your avatar’s name. The deadline for this week’s contest is Aug. 27. No one correctly identified last week’s photo as the Avilon Pavilion. For a complete list of rules for the contest, visit the M2 website at www.metaversemessenger.com

NEW RESIDENTS AND old tear up the dance floor at The Shelter in Isabel. The center is a popular hangout for new residents. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

LINE SLCC, such as the gambling ban, have altered our cyber home forever.

Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this time around. I have this nasty condition called a “day job.” For reasons beyond my, and even my boss’s, control, many vacations in August were canceled. One of those casualties was my vaca-

From Page 6A

tion, the time I had set aside for SLCC. So this year, despite the convention being closer then it has been in the past, I cannot make it. All the new announcements, great speeches, and dear friends will be taking place without me. Despite what my ego likes me to think, I am sure they will be fine.

To all my friends that will be

BIRD’S great time.

Sans is looking forward to seeing her best friend in Reality, whom she hasn’t seen in four long years.

I am anxious to meet many of my friends again that I met last year, plus many more that I haven’t yet had the chance to meet in the flesh.

Due to my late registration last year, I had to make a journey of about 15 miles each way

attending SLCC, I am sorry to have missed you. I truly wish I was there. Please keep your eyes open, and pay attention to that vanishing Line. Last year I came home with about two weeks worth of topics for this column. This year, I’ll be counting on you for those crib notes. Have fun, don’t party too hard, and see you all next year!

From Page 5A

from my hotel in Burlingame to the Fort Mason Center where the convention was being held.

This year, Sans and I are staying right there at the Hilton, so we’ll only have to go downstairs to attend the convention, or up to our room when we decide we need a little *cough* newlywed privacy.

Imagine the contrast in going from the virtual world where it’s difficult to gather

more than 40-50 avatars together in one place, to the material world with a thousand “unconventional conventionists” partying their socks off.

It should be quite interesting, to say the very least — particularly the masquerade ball scheduled for Saturday night, with its theme of ‘Leather and Lace.’ (I’ll be the boring guy in the polo shirt, most likely.)

Hope to see you there.

Page 9A The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

THE TWELVE STORIES OF THE M2'S building in Sido tower over the northern shoreline, occupying more of the sim than any other land holder except Gov. Linden, while the M2 Museum provides details of the history of the media source - Photos by WELLINGTON BAHRAM

Sim of the Week: Our home

By THE SOTW TEAM NORINN RICHARD – Lead writer MIJA AYAKASHI – Planning and scheduling MIJA AYAKASHI – Contributing writer

Hey, all, The region of Sido lies on the north-central coast of the Mainland, not far from the southern end of the sea lane that connects to the northern continent. Together with Aluluei to the west and Palulop to the east, the region of Sido forms a long east-west island with a high ridge which runs most of its length.

The largest single land owner by far is Governor Linden, with a 12,800 sqm easement for a branch of the SL highway that makes a loop around the three sim island. The highway effectively divides Sido into thirds from north to south.

The second largest land owner in Sido is our very own Metaverse Messenger.

Yes, Sido is home to the headquarters building of the M2.

Two of the most prominent residential areas are on top of the central ridgeline.

Salvy Pannotia is the proud owner of a lovely Japanese style home near the center of the sim. The property has a traditional L-shaped Japanese house, a separate teahouse with a beautiful ocean view and a Zen rock garden. While he takes little stock in the stars, he says that he has often heard that “Taurus like their pad-

docks... so this is my paddock.“ Like many mainland residents, his greatest dislike are the few advertising signs that mar the view.

The west end of Salvy’s property faces a recent addition to Sido, the “Happy People Resort.“ This appears to still be a work-in-progress, but its Mediterranean style build holds promise as nice addition to the region.

On the south side of the region is a small commercial building that houses Dyoland Designs Silks and a vacant area belonging to the creator of Diegoland, Champion Valiant. There is also one other small oceanside cottage.

But by far the jewel in the crown of Sido is the high-rise headquarters of the Metaverse Messenger. Situated on a small peninsula in the center of the north coast of the region, the M2 skyscraper tops out well over its twelve occupied stories when the cupola/lantern floor and spire are included. Below ground there is a basement that connects to the annex which projects into the bay and houses an auditorium and the corporate helipad.

One enters the skyscraper through the south facing main entrance. Inside, the lobby is dominated by a beautiful fountain with a spinning globe in the center of the two story atrium. To the right is the main lobby desk where visitors can find job postings and employment applications. To the left of the main entry

See SOTW, Page 9C

KISSES

The Walkin’ Dude

BY HOLMAN TIBBET T While it’s true I’ve never been much of an outdoorsman, I’ve always had a certain fascination with ships. I was raised on movies like Captain Blood, Mutiny on the Bounty, and Captains Courageous (the Spencer Tracy and Freddie Bartholomew version, of course). As a child I saw myself cleaving through the mighty waters on a majestic brigantine, the sea-spray glistening in my hair and beard as I shouted orders to my men. “Hoist the mainsails,” I’d say. “Put the wind to our aft!” “Let go, and haul to run free!”

It didn’t matter whether I knew what I was talking about.

So when I looked at the map and saw that Luskwood was joined to the north shore of the mainland by a series of streams, rivers and lakes, I decided it was time to travel by ship.

Except I didn’t really have a ship. What I had was a canoe.

No problem. Instead of cap-

tains, I would emulate the courier du bois, those intrepid furriers and mappers who guided their canoes across the continent into regions never before seen by man, woman or child — except, of course, untold generations of native Indians.

I rezzed my canoe into a stream on the eastern edge of Luskwood and discovered that when I sat in it my feet stuck through the bottom into the water below. I was pretty sure that Samuel de Champlain and Jacques Cartier hadn’t paddled their way through the New World looking like Fred Flintstone driving to work.

Still, as long as I kept to Mouselook, I’d never notice.

Being new to the whole sailing thing, I thought it wise to acquaint myself with my craft before embarking on the journey itself. I played with the up, down and sideways arrows until I was confident that no

matter what I did, nothing was going to make that canoe budge.

I mean, what’s the point of a canoe that doesn’t move? Okay, so I got it as a freebie in a package containing a couple of dozen different vehicles; but even as a giveaway, shouldn’t it at least bob in the water a little?

After rummaging through my inventory I finally discovered something called a Greek feluka (you can see how that wouldn’t turn up in a common search). It was about the size of my canoe but had a mast and sail. What really mattered, however, was that it actually moved. The bottom kept disappearing, but it actually moved.

Its operation was simple enough: press the up arrow to go forward, the down arrow to go backwards, and the right and left arrows to go right and left.

But while the mechanics were

See DUDE, Page 9C

that really cheating?

I like to play with my cats sometimes before bed – should my husband become worried?

The thing that makes a virtual relationship so hard to bear for many people is the fact that it’s all fantasy. “Basically, the other person is widowed [when one spouse plays with virtual characters],’ says Sue Hoogestraat. ‘This other life is so wonderful; it’s better than real life.

Nobody gets fat, nobody gets gray. The person that’s left can’t compete with that.” Again – is this cheating though? If it’s fantasy, then it’s no different then dreaming erotic dreams about a favorite movie star or looking at pornography. It’s not REAL, so how can it be cheating?

I guess that it all boils down to jealousy issues. If your partner is the type that needs you to focus on them and only them in order for your relationship to survive (and vice-versa) and you do not answer this need, then yes – I guess it could be cheating then. But not everyone is like that… there are deviations from the ‘norm.‘ But the thing that I’ve come to realize from my online relationships is this – it may not necessarily be the other avatar that I’m in love with, but the specific characteristics that he or she portrays that my Real

From Page 8A

Life partner may not have. If my husband weren’t to ever buy me flowers, for example, but my online boyfriend did, could I honestly say that I love him more because of it? No – I personally couldn’t. I just like the idea of getting flowers more often. If I was honest with my First Life partner, I would simply tell him this. I may still not get flowers, but at least then he knows that it is something I would like from him and am therefore searching for it elsewhere.

Which is why I must say that I do not think that certain inworld relationships can be considered cheating, simply because sometimes our Real Life partners cannot give us something that we need. Who’s to say that receiving it from another person is a bad thing? As long as we are all mature and understanding about it – and completely honest with each other – then I can’t see the harm in it.

Of course, in your case, your SL partner is not completely honest with his RL wife, so I would have to say – to err on the side of caution, that perhaps he should think about telling her or giving up his virtual relationship. Dishonesty in ANY relationship is wrong.

Hope that this helps.

Luv, B.B.

Submit events details to events@metaversemessenger.com

Page 10A The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

Fashion

August 21, 2007

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195)

Page 1B

Dancing up a storm in fluffy skirts

By SANSARYA CALIGARI Fashion angel

FLUFFY SKIRTS ARE BEST VIEWED IN MOTION (L-R, top to bottom): “Grace” in pink

by Neferia Abel at Ivalde; “Tove” in blue by Ivalde; “Retro Dress” by Indie Rainbow at Indie’s House of Flesh; “Jennae” by Antonia Marat at Artilleri; “Elvira” by Ivalde; “Fruit Punch” by Miko Omegamo at Icing; “Dana” by Ginny Talamasca at Last Call/DAZZLE; “Rum & Coca Cola” by Betty Doyle at Ingenue; “Julie” in cocoa/pink by Gita Gaea at Shine; “Chanterelle” skirt by Icing, “Sweetheart” cami in red by Artilleri, “Dahlia Wrap Top” in white by Janie Marlowe at Mischief; “Vintage Ragna” in salmon by Ivalde; “Aunt Elsie” in yellow by Artilleri; “Kattzen” by Artilleri; “June” in blue by Artilleri; “Geraldine” in salmon by Ivalde; “Audery” in pink by Ivalde; “Jensine” in rose red by Ivalde; “Floral & Lace” by Indie’s House of Flesh; “Sealion Woman Collection-Angel” by Indie’s House of Flesh; “Choco Ducky Dress” in chocolate by Emma Gilmour at Sand Shack Surf Co. Hair is “Nalirra” in chocolate by BabyBoo Glitterbuck at Here Come’s Trouble; Skin is “Pale-Vogue” by Gala Phoenix at Empyrian Emporium; Shoes are “Ballet Wedges-Color Changing” by Elikapeka Tiramisu at ETD; “Antiqued Bracelet” in Antique Gold and Malachite by Miriel Enfield at Miriel; Prismatic Natural Eyes #84 by Santana Lumiere at Nevermore Studios. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

Second Life fashion aspires to be about a lot of things.

Haute Couture, avant garde, grunge, Harajuku, Gothic Lolita, rockabilly... you name it, we probably see someone doing it in Second Life.

I happen to find myself drawn to a particular kind of dress, a particular color, and though my avatar changes like a chameleon every day, there are certain aspects of her tastes that remain constant. For instance, I have a predilection for fluffy skirts.

Why Fluffy?

The start of my fluffy skirt madness happened rather innocuously, with a release from Ginny Talamasca when she was doing the DAZZLE line.

She released Dana, a giraffe print halter dress, over a year ago with a wide belt fastened under the breasts. If it were possible to wear out a dress out in Second Life, that one would be sitting in tatters in my inven-

M2 Fashion Angels http://fashionangels.wordpress.com/

Kitty’s fashion diary

By Kitty Lalonde

to the welcome area. Great.

What am I wearing? Pfft… I’m all grey, oooooo… rezzing… rezzing… I’m naked.

8:30am Ugh, I woke up all of ten min- Crap. utes ago and I already want to go back to bed. Nonetheless, 9:28am there are bound to be a billion Okies, ctrl+shift+H really is a new things available to buy on girl’s best friend. Now to get the forums, and its stipend day. dressed. You’ll normally find me in heels or grungy boots at Yay! any given time in SL, but in RL I live in my DC’s. My trainers 8:36am Nothing. Not a single bloody rarely leave my feet until they thing. Don’t they know I have start letting in water. But in SL money? Oooooo, I know. I’ll I’ve been extremely hard pressed to find a pair of trainers look at Fashion World of SL. that don’t look like they’ve been constructed by a drug ad8:42am Okay, okay, someone was dled Blue Peter presenter. But wearing an outfit with a cardi finally Truth Hawks has come that looks sort of nice. It’s part to my rescue with the Neko and of an outfit that’ll probably cost Bronx Boppers. They’re aball of my stipend and I’ll only solutely perfect and look lived ever wear the cardi… But I in. Continuing the everyday need to buy something, for lived in theme I’ll shove on God’s sake. The outfit’s in Last some skinny, ink washed jeans Call so I’ll log in and teepee from Launa Fauna and a basic white cami from WRONG. over.

Topped off with my Symon 9:27am See DIARY, Page 3B FINALLY managed to log in…

tory.

From that first fluffy skirt purchase, I moved into deeper fluffy skirt waters, namely artilleri. Antonia Marat, the brilliance behind the artilleri line, is one of my favorite fluffy skirt crack dealers. Neferia Abel at Ivalde also provides an alarming boost to my inventory with her vintage fluffy skirt goodness, and Emma Gilmour at Sand Shack Surf Co. cannot go unnamed in the criminal activity of creating skirts I have fallen in love with. Miko Omegamo from Icing has peered deep into my inner fluffy skirt goddess heart, and created two of my favorite dresses ever. The list goes on and on: Indie Rainbow at Indie’s House of Flesh, Betty Doyle of Ingenue, and Gita Gaea of Shine are among them.

What is it about fluffy skirts that draws me? The answer is simple: it is because of dancing. From the start of my Second Life, dancing has been my favorite pastime. I dance in my

See SKIRTS, Page 2C

Page 2B The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

Putting things on: Harajuku SL

By SERENITY MERCIER Fashion angel

PERFORMING HARAJUKU! Serenity Mercier, Hazhaz Takacs, and Kitty Lalonde (L to R) put on some fave Harajuku looks. Steampunk Serenity: steampunk coat from Civvies; black dreamer jeans from French Gallery; da chica boots from Gutterbloods; distruzio belt, banjo and hat from Angry Monkey; binx hair from Deviant Kitties. Lolita Hazhaz: boho allure shorts and top from Canimal; trampler boots from BroGear; dynamite teddy belt and junkbard armband from Angry Monkey; snake charmer and skully love bangles from Gritty Kitty; fishbone minibelt from Techpanty; dirty bandages from Pushbutton Industries; mika hair from Kin; usagi ears from Hybrid. Cyber Kitty: kabuki skirt, legwarmers and gazelle hair all from Gritty Kitty; neon tank top from Rave Nation; cardigan from Frustrated Inc; flare boots from Shiny Things. - Photos by SERENITY MERCIER and KITTY LALONDE.

Fashion expresses who we are, yet who we are changes constantly. Our moods, our emotions, our perceptions: nothing about us remains fixed.

So in truth, fashion portrays whoever we are performing at any given moment.

This idea flows powerfully through the Harajuku approach to fashion. In the real world, you will find the bustling shopping district of Harajuku in Tokyo. Spiritually, Harajuku lives in every human being’s creative self, and thrives on individuality, non-conformity, and the courage of self-realization.

The Harajuku street style marks a rebellion against the uniformity of globalized, massmarket fashion. Japanese youth began mixing traditional dress, such as kimonos and obi sashes, with vintage clothing,

designer fashions, and even homemade garments, to create unique and innovative looks.

Over time, several distinct styles emerged, such as cyber, a ‘futuristic’ combination of bright colours, metals and plastics; steampunk, a blend of vintage clothing with punk elements; the famous ‘Lolita’ look, based on characters like Sailor Moon, or generic types such as a waitress or nurse.

Finding the Harajuku look in Second Life requires an investment of time and energy, but the efforts can be very rewarding. The first thing to recognize is that you invent your own look. The Harajuku movement celebrates individuality and uniqueness, and is achieve it not by following others, but by discovering and asserting your own creativity.

The first stop on the quest for Harajuku is Koreshan

See THINGS, Page 5B

Style Spotlight An interview with Aradia Dielli

By CARISSA CRIMSON Associate fashion editor The first in a series of articles aimed at spinning the spotlight to focus on the style savvy consumers of Second Life designs, I tracked down the amazingly gorgeous Aradia Dielli, well known model and highly respected fashion blogger, for a tete á tete.

CC: Let’s get the ubiquitous question out of the way, what brought you to Second Life?

AD: I was browsing the net and found a particular article describing the different 3D communities such as Second Life and IMVU. I checked them both out and found myself enjoying SL a lot more than I did the other. Second Life is a world of opportunities, not just opportunities here but now that RL companies are taking the plunge, the possibilities are endless.

CC: Was there a particular experience that made you catch the “fashion bug”?

AD: When I first started, I would go around wearing the same thing for days. As I started to develop relationships with different people, I started to get the hang of things. My SL mom (Callie Cline) had a lot to do with teaching me and showing me a lot of tricks I didn’t know of. For example, prim

lashes... I had no idea what those were and to tell you the truth, I always wondered what those funny looking, smeared/un-rezzed black smudges were on people’s faces. [giggles] I think everyone eventually catches the fashion bug, with time and experience and good designers popping up everywhere, you’re bound to it. It just takes a little bit of time, some take a little more than others, but they catch up eventually.

CC: I’m always amazed by your mix ‘n’ match posts on your blog. Do you think you have a particular style in SL, and how does it relate to what you like in RL? AD: I don’t have a particular style per se. I just go with the flow; I try to be different from the rest of the people out there.

Although it’s a little hard to be different, especially when you have a blog that lets the SL world in on your secrets and how to achieve your look. I don’t mind though. It’s actually flattering to see people enjoying my taste/fashion sense.

I’m like a chameleon, I can be classy one day, funky the next. My SL style isn’t any different from my RL style. I’ve actually wept when I’ve found

See STYLE, Page 8C

MNEMOSYNTHE ASH MODELS her favorite design to date – a Pac Man themed jewelry set and hair, her creation as well, ersatz! poni in Dark Brown.

- Photo by MADISON DONNELLY

Designer Spotlight: Finding Mnemo

By MADISON DONNELLY Fashion editor Writing about the SL fashion industry affords one many chances to meet designers and fellow fashionistas across the grid, many choosing to live and breathe virtual fashion and the following it has created.

While I can appreciate the seriousness and devotion, it was a breath of fresh air to meet a designer in-world having fun, doing her own thing, and designing because she loves it.

Adorable and giggly, Mnemosynthe Ash of Synthetic Memory brings fun to her fashion by combining RL and SL

inspirations to create a line of designs that is original and growing fast!

Joining SL in January of 2006, Ash, or Mnem as her friends call her, began designing in SL about 10 months ago.

After exploring the virtual world for a bit, she decided to “settle down and start using the tools that are given to us.”

Ash’s store, Synthetic Memory, opened officially in May and offers a variety of things such as shoes, hair, jewelry and clothes. Her style is a bit of goth meets anime meets harajuku. She finds inspiration everywhere from Japanese street fashion magazines to

things she wishes she had in RL. When asked about her SL inspirations and influences, Ash mentioned the “ever famous Elika [Tiramisu, of ETD]” who has “pulled off some really great hair styles that just make me wonder why I didn’t think of that.”

Other inspirations include Antonia Marat of artilleri and Kru’s Boutique, both of which impacted how Ash holds up her own style in SL. “Just seeing their talent made me want to try it out on my own.” Last but certainly not least, Ash credits her

See MNEMO, Page 10B

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 3B

Fashion briefs Freebie: Fabulous Freebie Find of the Week: For Guys and Gals!

Adorable Paint Splattered sculpted prim shoes @ Shiny Things (Shiny Falls 173, 181, 37)

Thursday, August 16th until Friday, August 23rd Bushido Bay 77, 237, 24 1/2 OFF SALE! Now through September 4th @ Jolie's Boutique (Ross 49, 111, 49)

SAVE SURF COUTURE! Sale: EARTHTONES Jewelry Summer Sale Mega Sale and Fundraiser Over 50% Off !! - Only 8 days!!

40 - 50 percent off of select items

KITTY LALONDE SHARES her selections for clothing during the week, pulling together a variety of looks to suit her moods. - Photo by KITTY LALONDE.

DIARY hair from Deviant Kitties, which has the perfect, ‘I can’t be arsed with my hair so I’ll tie it up and hope no one cares’ look to it, and I’m all set to brave the lag.

FASHION WRITER IRIS OPHELIA explains the benefits and drawbacks of both photorealism and drawnrealistic skins, hair and clothing. - Photo by IRIS OPHELIA.

Realistically matching

By IRIS OPHELIA Staff writer There are two traps that are easy to fall into in Second Life fashion. One of them is assuming that what is high-end in real life (such as yachts, sparkling diamonds, massive gowns, and silk blouses) are automatically high-end in Second Life.

The other is assuming that the more realistic an object in Second Life looks, the “better” it is, and that is what this article is about.

Photorealism is something a lot of Second Life residents seek. Photographic skins, clothes, and hair sell very well, and in most cases are impeccable and certainly deserve those sales. They are not the cream on top of SL fashion, however.

There are just as many exquisite items with less of a realistic look, but that have just as much time, effort, and most importantly, talent behind them.

Photorealistic items can also cause some debate in the fashion community over one dirty little word: “photosourcing.”

It’s pretty common to see

small-scale merchants in SL selling clothing ripped from catalogue pages and pasted onto the SL template, which is the source of the bad blood between the P word and many fashionistas. Some of the most impressive works are a mix of photosourced elements and digital drawing, however, so it’s not a wholly bad thing.

That being said, one of the most important things to understand in the Photorealistic versus Drawnrealistic debate is consistency. A photorealistic skin and a very painted dress will rarely look good together, no matter how beautiful each element is individually. In the image above, the exact same dress, necklace, hair, eyes, and lashes are shown next to each other on the same shape, shot with the same lighting at the same angle. The only difference between the two avatars is their skin.

On the right, one of the very photorealistic and beautiful skins from Insolence, and on the left, an equally beautiful but not quite photorealistic skin from Cake.

These skins even have similar eyeliner, eye shadow, blush and eyebrows. However, things don’t seem to fit as well on the right as they do on the left, and with only one variable changed, the conclusion pretty much draws itself.

It’s not because the Insolence skin is of any lesser quality. Every element of these pictures is crafted with care, top of the line and absolute works of art in and of themselves. The problem is that the dress and the skin are done in two dramatically different styles, and they just don’t mesh.

Ultimately, everyone has to form their own likes and dislikes specific to SL’s unique fashion scene, and deal with stylistic decisions that would never exist in their first life.

To get the most out of this beautiful buffet of style laid out in the virtual world it’s important to embrace both the beautifully realistic and the beautifully unrealistic, and equally as important to understand when to mix and when to keep the fruits of these two branches separate.

11:04am I was too scared to open anything in Last Call. The grey people walking on the spot and others who were sinking slowly into the floor made me glad to have an alt key. After camming around the same outfits twenty times, I finally managed to spot my cardi. It was lurking in a set called Dahlia. The familiar cash register noise was music to my ears and I scampered off to my secret lag free, outfit testing island in Kremer to try on my new goodies. The cardi is indecently gorgeous with scripted sleeves and in five colours; sadly, it doesn’t go with my slouchy get up. Time to delve into my inventory.

From Page 1B

LIKE my outfit; I wish everyone would stop trying to get me out of it (although not in preparation for rudeness, mores the pity).

2:48pm Smoke fag.

3:11pm Smoke another fag. Modelling is BORING! 3:35pm I’m FREEEEEE!!! Tie has been keeping me IMingly company throughout the shoot and now we’re off to scurry excitedly around the Prim Hearts Theme park. I think my outfit may frighten children, so time for another change.

3:45pm Going to theme parks always makes me think of bunking off school, so I thought I’d go with the ‘hiding your school jumper in your bag and pretending you’re an over worked office employee on a lunch break’ look. The Streaks (crazy name) outfit from the insanely awesome and über cheap Bare Rose sets the shirt off perfectly. With sculpty collar and flexi tie it works perfectly on the rollercoaster.

11:45am Woah… my inventory is a dark and scary place. I hunted high and low, even looking into my dreaded ‘Why did I buy that?’ folder (yeah, I should delete that stuff but it serves as a reminder). The cardigan is beautifully soft and understated so I slung on my First Blush Slip from Icing. Okay now I look 4:09pm sweeter and more wholesome Feel sick… than a packet of Frosties, so off to map my wifey.

4:43pm Ewwwww. RL beckons. Bah. 11:50am Well, I’m not saying Tie wasn’t 7:55pm pleased to see me, but she did Finally drag my stinking carsay “Who are you?” when I ar- cass back into the grid just in rived by her side. Okay, so time for the Trinala show. No maybe I’m not best suited to dress code, so it’s time for the wholesome thing, but it’s a something slutty (meh, it all FANTASY world! If I want to gets taken off at nakie hour). look like a Stepford, I will.

Sheesh.

Kyoots snake charmer skirt Ooo, lunchtime! teamed with Maitreya Bloom boots is a deadly combination, 2:30pm so I stick with Canimal’s little Back in SL to a flurry of IM’s miss horny tee so I don’t look from my fellow angel Serenity. like I’m selling it, and I’m good Apparently she’s late with her to go. article *scoff scoff* and needs me to come and pose in hara- Wonder where I’ll log in naked juku fabulousness. Grrrrrr. I tomorrow?

Page 4B The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 5B

THINGS

BETTY DOYLE CREATES women’s clothing styled in the Victorian era. - Photo by DULCIE MILLS.

Meet the Merchant: Betty Doyle

By DULCIE MILLS Staff writer

Betty Doyle has created and sold Victorian women’s fashions since November 2006 in her Drusilla’s Delight Shop which can be found next to the telehub in Caledon Tamrannoch, as well as vintage-inspired clothing and hair since June 2006 from her main Ingenue shop which just moved to a larger location at Mangakino (224, 111, 21). She also sells a limited number of items on SL Exchange.

Doyle has a degree in fash-

ion design in Reality. “As soon as I learned of Second Life, I knew I wanted to join and design vintage inspired clothing,” she said. “My first few months [in] SL, I went to as many classes as I could. Then I found and moved to Caledon and ended up designing Victorian inspired clothing first.” The nineteenth century fashions Doyle introduced in Caledon were so popular that they were also featured in an in-world exhibit at the Whitehorn Memorial Library.

See DOYLE, Page 6C

Pointe Amusement Park (Koreshan 247, 79, 23), which provides hours of fascinating exploration all in itself, with its demented merry-go-round and other infernal machines of amusement.

Just inside the derelict gates of Koreshan is Draconic Kiss.

If you’re after the Lolita look, you’ll find lots of edgy cuteness here: frilly doll dresses, sailor moon costumes, bloody butcher’s aprons (yes, you heard me right), vintage coats and gowns, even realistically detailed doll skins and eyes.

The absolutely must-visit store in Koreshan is Gritty Kitty, which carries a fantastic range of clothes and accessories. To give just a sampling: Kabuki skirts with shiny plastic pouches and suspenders; Snake Charmer Beads in exotic colours like ‘dragon’s blood’; and ‘Micecream Betty,’ a sexy retro top with checker bangles and scarf.

Another great Harajuku sim is Glass Earth (135, 176, 23) which offers an intriguing range of shops in a ramshackle village of crumbling boardwalks and weathered buildings.

Tread carefully or you might tumble through the cracks!

From Page 2B

One of my favourite stores here is Hybrid, specializing in neko, kitsune and usagi skins, tails, and ears, all popular additions to the Harajuku look in Second Life. You can also pick up some wild tattoos here, and wicked accessories like claw gauntlets.

Make sure you dig through the many great little stalls in Glass Earth as well. One not to be missed is Gutterbloods, home of the best grunge boots in Second Life. You’ll find them located on the top level, although there’s no sign, you’ll just have to sniff these bad boys out.

The Plunder Airship Outpost (Maggiore 175, 104, 601) provides moorings for airborne renegades and pirates. Here they ply their trade, selling off the flotsam, jetsam and, well, plunder of their travels throughout Second Life.

You really can’t go wrong in any of the stores here: Form, Happy Bivouac, Bodyworks because they all carry great stuff. My personal favourite is Civvies, where designer Posy Trudeau has perfected the steampunk look with rocking vintage coats, bad boy scout boots, and scrappy war-torn

gear.

Right next door to Civvies, Angry Monkey boasts a range of funky accessories – belts, bracers, packs and more – sporting names like ‘Dynamite Teddy,’ ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ and ‘Junkyard Patriot.’

Two other stores anyone seeking the Harajuku look must visit: Bare Rose HQ (146, 11, 30) , an emporium of tantalizing styles. Be sure to browse the Japanese, cyber, fantasy and gothic sections. Also, for my money, the best shop for Harajuku hair styles is Deviant Kitties (204, 120, 301), where you can scarf some of the punkiest, grittiest, mussed slashes and chops in Second Life.

The last word, for now, on Harajuku goes to real life photographer and publisher Shoichi Aoki who lovingly documented the movement in his magazine FRUiTS: “The fashion movement that came about in Harajuku was a revolution. Here ‘fashion’ is more about the art of ‘putting things on’ than about the art of making clothes. On the streets of Harajuku, there was no risk in having a different style. In fact it was considered worthwhile.”

Tell the metaverse about your event!

Page 6B The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

A real newspaper for a virtual world.

SEX The response?

Not bloody likely.

Considering that all sexual activities in Second Life are regulated to ‘private’ and ‘mature’ areas, the idea of it being obscene is a moot point. If you are disgusted by the act, then you can simply log off. There is nothing forcing you to stay around and partake in the acts or even watch it, should you not be comfortable.

Secondly, even Philip Linden agrees that the ‘oldest trade in the world’ is an inevitable part of a flourishing civilization.

“Sex is a sign that the virtual world is robust and thriving,” says Philip. “In a lot of ways, the presence of sex as an aspect of creative expression and playful behavior in a place like this is healthy, because it indicates we’re doing something right.”

And if the Lindens are behind it, then one doubts that even the FBI could get rid of it completely.

The only reason one could

From Page 4A foresee escorting becoming illegal, or at least somewhat restricted, is if the established business side of things was to gross such an amount of currency that taxes had to be applied, and if the folks involved tried to evade these dues. That would certainly be illegal – but only if they made enough money in First Life to actually account for real wages.

So let the rumors be put to rest. Sex in Second Life is not going anywhere anytime soon.

And even if it did become banned, it’s in all likelihood that a growing black market, performed via group invites, personal Instant Messages and shared notecards would spring up overnight, because as Professor Konrad said in the 1958 sci-fi movie, “Queen of Outer Space”: Prof. Konrad: “Perhaps this is a civilization that exists without sex.”

Lt. Larry Turner: “You call that civilization?”

Prof. Konrad: “Frankly, no.”

Neo-Realms Fishing Camp 2007-08-13 - Event Rod Tourney First Place: KaliCat Kennedy Second Place: Suma Sleeper Third Place: Starhawk Ranger Best Catch: KaliCat Kennedy 2007-08-13 - Event Rod Tourney First Place: Coug Sleeper Second Place: Camomile Loon Third Place: Suma Sleeper Best Catch: Railun Rang 2007-08-14 - Open Rod Tourney First Place: Coug Sleeper Second Place: Rusty Opel Third Place: Vampirella Jewel Best Catch: Railun Rang 2007-08-14 - Event Rod Tourney First Place: Vampirella Jewel Second Place: Domina Exodus Third Place: Rusty Opel Best Catch: Vampirella Jewel 2007-08-15 - Open Rod Tourney First Place: Coug Sleeper Second Place: Mica Mertel TOP 2007 TOUR Name Coug Sleeper KaliCat Kennedy Suma Sleeper Lacey Kavanagh Vicky Connolly

Points 284 281 228 206 124

Third Place: KaliCat Kennedy Best Catch: Rusty Opel 2007-08-16 - Event Rod Tourney First Place: KaliCat Kennedy Second Place: Suma Sleeper Third Place: Coug Sleeper Best Catch: Caltowin Sleestak 2007-08-17 - Open Rod Tourney First Place: KaliCat Kennedy Second Place: Coug Sleeper Third Place: de Wendt Best Catch: de Wendt 2007-08-17 - Event Rod Tourney First Place: Valentino Discovolante Second Place: Suma Sleeper Third Place: Anhayla Lycia Best Catch: Euphoria Dallagio 2007-08-18 - Open Rod Tourney First Place: Camomile Loon Second Place: Valentino Discovolante Third Place: Mica Mertel Best Catch: FoxyKim Keegan

First Second Third Best Catch 26 29 23 16 34 19 14 11 23 19 22 14 25 15 14 6 10 13 6 2

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 7B

Community Page 8B

The Metaverse Messenger Sido (169, 195)

August 21, 2007

Support for Healing Enjoy these updates on the Info Archipelago — come and visit us. Contact Lorelei Junot or Abbey Zenith with any questions on Info Island!

Second Life Community Convention - Listen to the audio of the convention on Info Island! SLCC in-world live stream August 24-26

the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Portal on Info Island 1 (210, 94, 33).

We are also working on displays of the Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards for Science Fiction novels. There are boxes for each decade of the awards in which there are lists of the winners for that decade. We’re madly typing our fingers to the bone preparing notecards with a summary of each novel. For more information, contact Franja Russell.

Tracks and Locations SLCC Education Track Audio streams Locations: Info Island I Open Archives group Air Auditorium The group Archivists of SecEye4You Alliance Is- ond Life is one of the relatively land, Teen Grid new and smallest groups working on the Info Island ArchipelSLCC Social Track audio ago. Group members are stream currently working on developLocation: Palmetto Library / ing their own recognizable SLSHL, Cybrary City (68,186) place at Cybrary City II. This place — a cozy campfire, surSLCC Machinima Track Audio rounded by trees — will be streams used for meetings and exhibiLocations: ALA Arts Infois- tions, but already the fire atland, Machinima Institute, 159, tracts many passing avatars 189, 29 who visit just to have a nice Eye4You Alliance chat.

Island, Teen Grid The group is working on basic information about Eye4You Alliance Island on archives and archivists for the teen grid will participate in everyone to read along with a a poster session during the con- presentation about this same ference. There will be handouts subject for an audience of liavailable for upcoming pro- brarians, genealogists and other grams, including the college people who have an active infair on October 20-21. Any in- terest in archives. There are terested colleges are invited to also plans for an exhibit to participate in the fair, to tell show the fun and interesting teens more about your college. sides of historical documents.

Eye4You is a partnership with For more information about the Alliance Library System the archivists group, please and the Public Library of Char- contact Christi Janus or Dinnie lotte and Mecklenburg County. Devonshire.

Teens run events on the island, build on the island, and help Accessibility Center on Healthteach classes. Partnerships with Info Island NASA, Wizards of the Coast, Thanks to a grant from the authors, librarians and other ed- National Library of Medicine ucators are part of the island.

Greater Midwest Region and a For more information, con- grant from iViNNiE.com, Info tact Yohan Althouse Alliance Island is working on an accessiLibrary/SLL2.0 in-world audio bility center on HealthInfo Isstream coordinator. land. The grand opening for the center will be Sept. 9. The cenSci-Fi & Fantasy Portal - Au- ter will feature displays and edgust 2007 ucational programs on Regular planning meetings disability information in genthis month will be held on eral and also in virtual Tuesday, Aug. 14 at 12 noon worlds. Katt Kongo, Gentle SLT and Tuesday, Aug. 28 at Heron, Maxito Ricardo, Fleet 6:30pm SLT. Goldenburg, Lorelei Junot and Our Book of the Month dis- Valencia Lane are working on cussions are Tuesday, Aug. 21 this project. at 6:30 pm SLT and Saturday, Aug. 25 at 12 noon SLT. The Academic Outreach Group book this month is the Harry Under the leadership of Potter series, especially Harry Rolig Loon, Info Island has Potter and the Deadly Hal- formed an academic outreach lows. Celine March is the host. group to brainstorm ideas and We are working on a new art plans for how the library comexhibit by Nano Ashby. Some munity can work with the eduof his paintings are already in cation community to provide place on the upper platform of training and services.

Meeting schedule: Sunday 8:00 AM PDT Tong Ren Energy Sharing Hosted by TongRen Writer at Catherine House Peer-to-peer distant healing modality for physical and psychological issues.

1:00 PM PDT HavenSupport Group Hosted by Twickle Rosebud at Catherine House For survivors of all types of abuse.

Monday 1:00 PM PDT Psychosis Support Group Hosted by Nox Proudhon at the Meeting Circle For sufferers of various forms of psychosis including manic episodes.

4:00 PM PDT Depression Support Group Hosted by Industria Dowler at the Meeting Circle Tuesday 4:00 AM PDT Anxiety and Depression Support Group Hosted by Aura Jewell at Catherine House 6:00 PM PDT Friendship Support Group Hosted by Coreshadow Bordiga at Catherine House For people looking for a friend, lonely, or just having a bad day.

6:00 PM PDT Tong Ren Energy Sharing Hosted by TongRen Writer at the Meeting Circle Wednesday 3:00 PM PDT Chronic Pain and Illness Support Group Hosted by Coreshadow Bordiga at Catherine House Includes palliative care. Caregivers welcome.

Thursday 8:00 AM PDT Depression Support Group Hosted by Francesca Alva at the Meeting Circle 8:00 PM PDT Anxiety Support Circle Hosted by Glenn Oud or Reverie Timtam Friday 7:00 PM PDT Loss for Life Hosted by Jenna Tapioca at the Meeting Circle This is a weight loss support group.

7:00 PM PDT F.R.I.D.A.Y. Hosted by Ken Dryke and co-hosts Bianca Makira, Shay Ellison, and Alexandra Sautereau at Catherine House It will just be a time for those who want to talk about their week, vent, open up, kick back, and possibly be supportive to one another.

Saturdays 5:00 PM PDT Women's Group Hosted by Bianca Makira at the Meeting Circle RL females only please.

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 9B

What the Health?!

By HYGEIA PHILO

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention In July 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) celebrated its first anniversary in Second Life. CDC´s lead member of this community is named Hygeia Philo (“lover of health”), and just like real life CDC staff, Hygeia is the virtual public health worker in this “virtual CDC” at its original site at Juwangsan (215, 216, 60), and in the soon to be opened CDC Island.

The CDC sites offer health information to residents of Second Life as part of their online experience. CDC´s Second Life world is linked to www.cdc.gov — a “real world” wealth of in-

formation itself. CDC´s work to advance public health means going where people are.

As every virtual person represents a real person, CDC´s presence in Second Life offers yet another opportunity to learn and teach about public health.

So, if there are thousands of people spending significant amounts of time online, where better to influence their healthrelated decision making? CDC

BITES real airplay yet, but has a demo CD of his originals that he makes all of his friends play in their cars and forces his mother to play all of the time.

Last year Pluto was at a local music festival called Bumbershoot, a four day event featuring music and arts from around the world.

At the festival there was an art exhibit featuring Second Life running live on a giant big screen and he was fascinated by what they were doing. At the time he thought it was just a video game and thought he would check it out after the festival.

The next week he registered for SL and picked a name. The day he registered, the news came on the TV saying that Pluto was no longer a planet, so he chose that surname. Little did he know that he would be stuck with his first choice... he says he might have picked a better name had he known.

Pluto will be celebrating his first rezday in September. After spending some time in SL he was hooked and had accumulated “a whole bunch of stuff.”

Once he had been in-world for a week or two, he discovered that there was live music being played, so he set out to find out how to do it.

He started by going to live shows and was blown away by what was being done. Over the next four months he worked on setting up his desktop to stream live and incorporated his mixing board and home setup into the mix.

It was harder than he thought, since he is not very techno-savvy, but he eventually got it up and running.

The next step was to start going to live open mics and playing. His first show in SL was at my friend’s sim, Bali Hai. Pluto added that he owes so much to his friends Bethany Heart and Echo Seigo for letting him do an hour show for

From Page 7A

his friends.

To his surprise, when he got great feedback from the crowd, he set out on this journey to start to get a name.

His big break came when he met Mankind Tracer. Tracer let him into his new program, MTNAP (Mankind Tracer’s New Artist Program), which helps new artists in SL get started with gigs and a place to play. Tracer is doing a great thing with this new program and Pluto is one of his first new artists.

Pluto is currently playing at more and more venues SL wide and thanks to Tracer he has a weekly show at Heaven’s Paradise and he will be playing there on Saturday nights at 8pm SLT. Pluto is very interested in performing with other SL musicians, He is fascinated by the technology being used to bring bring the musicians together from different locations such as VLB (Virtual Live Band).

Pluto hopes to have some shirts to give away at his shows soon. Currently, however, he is putting his energy into his solo album which is in the process of being recorded. He hopes to have a web page up and running soon, but for now you can join his group in SL named “Dark Fans.”

Pluto thinks SL is the best thing to come along in a long time for independent musicians. He says he finds that SL allows anyone who doesn’t have a venue to play in RL or the time a chance to play and get their music out to a crowd of people who actually want to hear something other than cookie cutter bands pushed on us by big business.

If you are a Second Life musician and are interested in having an article done about you, or know someone that might, please e-mail me at devon.molinari@metaversemessenger.com.

messages of all kinds can be placed in this space for people to view passively or with which to become more actively engaged in efforts to improve their own health; and all of this in an environment of their own choosing.

As Second Life evolves, CDC´s presence will adapt to meet new and changing audience needs, just as it does in the real world. But one aspect of CDC´s mission will remain constant — healthy people in healthy places, both real and imagined.

For more information, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in SL or at www.cdc.gov.

A GRAND OPENING was recently held for the Nonprofit Commons, with many residents attending.

onprofit Commons hold gala opening The Nonprofit Commons gala opening was a huge success and new tenants are waiting on our waiting list. We are open for nonprofit business and we are excited about all the possibilities. You can read all about the opening at: www.rikomatic.com/blog/200 7/08/non-profit-comm.html and www.lotusmedia.org/npc-

opening-now Hundreds of photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com /photos/tags/npsl/ Taking IT Global, one of our tenants, seeks a volunteer to help them build their space out: http://about.takingitglobal.org/d/getinvolved?vie

See GALA, Page 5C

Page 10B The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

SYNTHETIC MEMORY’S TRAGIC Ballet Heel, complete with thigh high laces, shown in eight offered colors. - Photo by MADISON DONNELLY

MOXIE, SYNTHETIC MEMORY’S fun take on the traditional mary jane shoe, shown here in the line’s eight colors.

- Photo by MADISON DONNELLY

MNEMO friends for helping her most with feedback on her creations.

“That’s priceless.”

Speaking of inspiration, Mnem recently found some in the timeless arcade game Pac Man. Her favorite design item so far, the jewelry set (pictured, worn by Ash) is not yet released and will be available for sale at the Jewelry Expo 07.

A darling set, including earrings, necklace and matching bracelet, it will have you hearing the Pac Man music and sound effects, for sure!

I had the opportunity to check out two pairs of shoes that Ash has created, a ballet pointed slipper crossed with a heel and a pair of her funky

From Page 2B

take on Mary Janes.

Synthetic Memory’s Tragic Ballet Heel combines the gracefulness of a silky smooth ballet slipper (complete with prim ribbons that lace up the calf and tie off) with a fun, well crafted heel.

Available in eight colors (blue, pink, purple, red, greed, blue, tan and black) these shoes are a steal at L$200 a pair or L$1200 for all colors, aptly referred to as a “veritable pack.”

Next up were Mnem’s Moxie shoes. Clocking in at 52 prims each, these cute shoes feature two chains of tiny prims that drape across the top of the foot, a buckled ankle strap, huge platform and tall, sexy

heel. Like her Tragic Ballet Heel, Moxie comes in eight colors for L$200 a pair or L$1200 for all of them!

To buy up these lovely shoes and check out the rest of Synthetic Memory, visit her store in Nangrim (32, 124, 71) and keep up with the latest and greatest by visiting Ash’s blog at www.syntheticmemory.net/secondlife.

In regards to Synthetic Memory’s future, Ash says she plans to continue making hair, shoes, clothes and jewelry, with plans for themed lines coming soon. “So look out for those!”

Don’t worry, Mnem, I think many, many of us will!

Page 2C The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

SKIRTS

THE HIGH FANTASY Continent, home to Elves, faeries, wizards, hobbits, dwarves and more, will hst a number of SLCC in-world events this week, principally in the Ceilidh and Shea Cognitum sims. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

Eledwhen Wonders

Fantasy meets Reality

By DRFRAN BABCOCK and VANILLA JESSOP Elven Scribes Where do fantasy and reality meet, or is fantasy and reality one and the same? Welcome to the Great Elven Continent where for the citizens of this 36-sim High Fantasy Continent live and play in a unique environment of unusual and creative builds. It is a place where pointy eared Elves dressed in rich robes and decorative clothing dance and play drums amidst colorful winged fairies, and brightly colored majestic dragons; a place where you may be greeted by the familiar “Vendui’ (welcome)“ or “Merry meet” from one of the fairies. It is a land filled with harmony and love. Elves, faeries, wizards, hobbits, dwarves, nekos, furries, Orcs, and a few humans share space and create a fantastic environment... a virtual fantasy community. It is impossible to see or experience it all in one visit.

Years ago, a world of life such as this would have been hard to imagine, except, perhaps, in a book of fantasy. Yet here in Second Life, the reality comes to life. The idea for this fantasy continent came from a meeting of a few fantasy elders, Queen Forcythia Wishbringer being one of them. They joined their ideas and sims and other sim owners of like community joined in.

This coming weekend, during the Second Life Community Convention, the Elven Continent will be having some festivities to coincide with and celebrate this gathering. There will be an ongoing egg hunt of-

fered in the sims of Ceilidh and Shea Cognitum.

A machinima contest with the theme “Our Land, Our Home,“ focusing on the diversity and inclusivity of the communities within the fantasy continent will be completed by this weekend, with the winners’ submissions available for you to view.

Kala Pixie will offer her Super Duper Awesome Fantastical Particle Show on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 10am SLT and again at 6:30pm SLT in Shea Cognitum. Seating is limited, so arrive early... you do not want to miss this!

Also on Saturday, a Bardic circle will be held. You are welcome to come and experience the richness of Elven lore.

“Ride the Wild Hooters” on Shea Cognitum and race on large owls that hoot and eyes that light up. There is also a Wizardry Challenge at the Elven Glen Archery Range on Sunday Aug. 26 from 4-6pm SLT. The grand opening of the Elven Heritage Hall will coincide with the SLCC event. An exhibition of Elven history past and current will offer you a brief glance into the life of this fantasy world. Artifacts, images, and Bardic stories of Elven lore will be presented.

The Hall is located in the sim of Falathrim.

Elves can party, and two dance parties will be happening on Saturday, Aug. 25, one at 11am SLT and the other at 7:30pm SLT, both in Shea Cognitum, to accommodate the different time zones.

Come visit the lands and experience the richness of a land of fantasy and diversity!

home, on my beach, in clubs, at live concerts, in the middle of a sim when I happen to be passing through and hear a good song, and most especially: I dance in stores.

Stores provide the perfect opportunity to test the parameters of fluffy skirt purchases.

Does it have enough flex and wind and weight? Does it swirl appropriately when I twirl?

Does it lag the entire sim? The fluffy skirt, being such a huge staple of my wardrobe, must meet my exacting criteria for appropriate fluffiness, for what better thing is there in Second Life than a beautiful dancing skirt a la the girls on American Bandstand, twirling away into history?

History of the Fluffy Skirt Evolution Before the introduction of flexiprims to Second Life, skirts were not the great thing they are now. They were either the system mesh skirt that makes your avatar’s nether regions appear the size of a Mack truck, or they were stiff, intrusive prims that moved and fit unnaturally as if one were wearing a Jane Jetson skirt cone on her bottom.

May 2006 marked the grand debut of the flexiprim in Second Life, and fashion (and dancing!) has not been the same since.

Blaze Columbia was the first to release a flexi prim skirt, though there had been broad hints from Ginny Talamasca that her flexi skirts were going to revolutionize the industry of clothing making. I remember rushing to download SL Version 1.8.0 and running to Blaze to buy my first flexi skirt. Flexi arrived with a twirl, a swirl, a fantastic moving grace, and dancing in Second Life took on a completely new mystique. All Hail The Flexi Skirt!

Despite the arrival of flexi, it took some time before we saw flexi fulfill its full potential in clothing making. There was a serious flaw with flexi in that it bobbed up and exposed your undies if certain parameters were not adjusted properly.

Texturing of flexi was plain; sometimes the skirt color did not quite match the required pants that filled out a whole skirt look. It didn’t take fashion designers long, however, to fix these early flaws, and both skirts and hair flew to new heights.

The Designers Prior to the release of flexiprims, I discovered Antonia Marat’s lovely artilleri line and spent an embarrassing amount of time (and money!) in her store, “sweating to the oldies” in true Richard Simmons style, dancing like a maniac to the great old 50s tunes she piped in to the wonderful maltshop build.

At the time flexi came out, I urged Antie to make the skirts

From Page 1B

flexi. She laughed and admitted her fear of the flexi. Several months later, I was back, buying all the same dresses again, this time with flexi versions of the skirts. Swirling in a 50s flexi poodle skirt has got to be the epitome of living a Pink Lady dream. Antonia made flexi more fun than I could imagine.

Antonia Marat’s dresses fill out my Fluffy Skirts folder quite nicely, a collection of which I am inordinately proud.

I can’t identify a favorite among Antonia’s dresses because I love them all equally, and each one tells a story about its wearer: she is 50s glamorous, she is a rockabilly rebel, she is a demure Sandy from Grease dancing at the spring prom. I think, more than anything, the stories told by Antonia’s designs are what draw me back to her store again and again. Among my favorite activities in Second Life, dancing to the oldies in a fluffy skirt in Antonia’s shop is at the top of the list.

It wasn’t until the spring of 2007, though, that I suddenly realized I have a fluffy skirt issue. Looking through my inventory at that point, I realized the fluffy skirt had slowly but inexorably taken dominance of my clothing folder, the fluffy skirt dresses rising up to greet me and beg me to wear them upon every change of clothing.

I blame Neferia Abel at Ivalde and the release of her Vintage Ragna dress in salmon.

At the time I pronounced the dress the most perfect dress in Second Life. I’m almost embarrassed to admit the Ragna was seen on my avatar more often than not for a solid month, regardless of occasion.

My fluffy skirt love affair with Ragna led me to more forays into Neferia’s store, and I count Audery in pink, Grace in Pink, the Geraldine Salmon dress, Tove in blue, and the Jensine Rose Red dress among my fluffy skirt crushes.

Something about Neferia’s texturing on the skirts is so compelling — a mix of photosourcing and hand painting that really gives her an edge in fluffy skirt creation. I also love the lines of her skirts, they poof beautifully, each prim aligning properly when it is at rest, but seeming to drift so naturally when one is in motion.

From Ivalde, I ventured into Icing’s Tropical Punch and Chanterelle sets. The skirt, especially, of Chanterelle is a fluffy skirt queen’s dream. Little red mushrooms a la Super Mario Bros. decorate the crisp white layers of flexi fluffy goodness. It is a perfect casual look when you want to be fluffy but not too formal, and I wear it with the Sweetheart camisole in red pinstripes from artilleri and a sheer white blouse from Mischief.

Tropical Punch is a tea length dress, reminiscent of hot

US southern days and lawn parties, the elegant drapery and languid movement lending itself well to slow dances. This dress is accented with a prim bow and the whole is textured in a large print that somehow doesn’t overpower the dress design.

Sand Shack Surf Co. by Emma Gilmour did not bypass my study of fluffy goodness.

The release of Emma’s Ducky Dress caused me to knock over six other avatars in my rush to her store (OK, not really), a hurry I haven’t seen since my early DAZZLE love affair. I have the Ducky dress in three colors, and they are the perfect solution to my inability to wear my more formal fluffiness during daytime hours in Second Life.

Lately as new fluffy skirt releases seem to wane, I find myself looking for specific places to feed my fluffy hunger. Betty Doyle at Ingenue created Rum & Coca Cola, and I have it in pink. This dress is another storytelling dress. In it I am a 1940s starlet going out for a night on the town. I will smoke cigarettes through a long elegant filter sitting at a table in a nightclub before I arise gracefully to dance with my date, and the fluffy skirt goodness will shine like a million camera flashes.

My fluffy skirt love affair has taken me to dangerous new territory. The vintage glamour starlet look making its way across the grid by designers like Marleen Vaughn of Marlys and Betty Doyle of Ingenue has captured my fluffy skirt loving heart. Though the trend itself may seem on the wane, the look of the 40s and 50s remains, and there is where the fluffy skirt girl was born and bred. I may not always be in real life style, but fluffy skirts have become part of Sansarya Style.

Fluffy Forever?

The power that is Second Life fashion to transform our reality, to help us recreate ourselves, is inherent in these designers’ creations. Wish you were born 50 years ago? A hundred? You have the power to go there — to wear those clothes, to style your hair like your grandmother did, to dance like a flapper or lean with Natalie Wood grace against a vintage automobile.

Will I remain a fluffy skirt sycophant, appearing everywhere in flexified torii, careening madly about on the dance floor while my skirt flies up and out? Who knows? For now, my fluffy skirt love remains, and it shall be fed.

In my Second Life I choose to become the Fluffy Skirt Goddess. Please, designers, think of me when you decide to make a pencil slim silhouette, and remember my love of twirling in a fluffy skirt. Please feed the Goddess of Fluff.

Tell the metaverse about your event!

Page 2C The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

SKIRTS

THE HIGH FANTASY Continent, home to Elves, faeries, wizards, hobbits, dwarves and more, will hst a number of SLCC in-world events this week, principally in the Ceilidh and Shea Cognitum sims. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

Eledwhen Wonders

Fantasy meets Reality

By DRFRAN BABCOCK and VANILLA JESSOP Elven Scribes Where do fantasy and reality meet, or is fantasy and reality one and the same? Welcome to the Great Elven Continent where for the citizens of this 36-sim High Fantasy Continent live and play in a unique environment of unusual and creative builds. It is a place where pointy eared Elves dressed in rich robes and decorative clothing dance and play drums amidst colorful winged fairies, and brightly colored majestic dragons; a place where you may be greeted by the familiar “Vendui’ (welcome)“ or “Merry meet” from one of the fairies. It is a land filled with harmony and love. Elves, faeries, wizards, hobbits, dwarves, nekos, furries, Orcs, and a few humans share space and create a fantastic environment... a virtual fantasy community. It is impossible to see or experience it all in one visit.

Years ago, a world of life such as this would have been hard to imagine, except, perhaps, in a book of fantasy. Yet here in Second Life, the reality comes to life. The idea for this fantasy continent came from a meeting of a few fantasy elders, Queen Forcythia Wishbringer being one of them. They joined their ideas and sims and other sim owners of like community joined in.

This coming weekend, during the Second Life Community Convention, the Elven Continent will be having some festivities to coincide with and celebrate this gathering. There will be an ongoing egg hunt of-

fered in the sims of Ceilidh and Shea Cognitum.

A machinima contest with the theme “Our Land, Our Home,“ focusing on the diversity and inclusivity of the communities within the fantasy continent will be completed by this weekend, with the winners’ submissions available for you to view.

Kala Pixie will offer her Super Duper Awesome Fantastical Particle Show on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 10am SLT and again at 6:30pm SLT in Shea Cognitum. Seating is limited, so arrive early... you do not want to miss this!

Also on Saturday, a Bardic circle will be held. You are welcome to come and experience the richness of Elven lore.

“Ride the Wild Hooters” on Shea Cognitum and race on large owls that hoot and eyes that light up. There is also a Wizardry Challenge at the Elven Glen Archery Range on Sunday Aug. 26 from 4-6pm SLT. The grand opening of the Elven Heritage Hall will coincide with the SLCC event. An exhibition of Elven history past and current will offer you a brief glance into the life of this fantasy world. Artifacts, images, and Bardic stories of Elven lore will be presented.

The Hall is located in the sim of Falathrim.

Elves can party, and two dance parties will be happening on Saturday, Aug. 25, one at 11am SLT and the other at 7:30pm SLT, both in Shea Cognitum, to accommodate the different time zones.

Come visit the lands and experience the richness of a land of fantasy and diversity!

home, on my beach, in clubs, at live concerts, in the middle of a sim when I happen to be passing through and hear a good song, and most especially: I dance in stores.

Stores provide the perfect opportunity to test the parameters of fluffy skirt purchases.

Does it have enough flex and wind and weight? Does it swirl appropriately when I twirl?

Does it lag the entire sim? The fluffy skirt, being such a huge staple of my wardrobe, must meet my exacting criteria for appropriate fluffiness, for what better thing is there in Second Life than a beautiful dancing skirt a la the girls on American Bandstand, twirling away into history?

History of the Fluffy Skirt Evolution Before the introduction of flexiprims to Second Life, skirts were not the great thing they are now. They were either the system mesh skirt that makes your avatar’s nether regions appear the size of a Mack truck, or they were stiff, intrusive prims that moved and fit unnaturally as if one were wearing a Jane Jetson skirt cone on her bottom.

May 2006 marked the grand debut of the flexiprim in Second Life, and fashion (and dancing!) has not been the same since.

Blaze Columbia was the first to release a flexi prim skirt, though there had been broad hints from Ginny Talamasca that her flexi skirts were going to revolutionize the industry of clothing making. I remember rushing to download SL Version 1.8.0 and running to Blaze to buy my first flexi skirt. Flexi arrived with a twirl, a swirl, a fantastic moving grace, and dancing in Second Life took on a completely new mystique. All Hail The Flexi Skirt!

Despite the arrival of flexi, it took some time before we saw flexi fulfill its full potential in clothing making. There was a serious flaw with flexi in that it bobbed up and exposed your undies if certain parameters were not adjusted properly.

Texturing of flexi was plain; sometimes the skirt color did not quite match the required pants that filled out a whole skirt look. It didn’t take fashion designers long, however, to fix these early flaws, and both skirts and hair flew to new heights.

The Designers Prior to the release of flexiprims, I discovered Antonia Marat’s lovely artilleri line and spent an embarrassing amount of time (and money!) in her store, “sweating to the oldies” in true Richard Simmons style, dancing like a maniac to the great old 50s tunes she piped in to the wonderful maltshop build.

At the time flexi came out, I urged Antie to make the skirts

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flexi. She laughed and admitted her fear of the flexi. Several months later, I was back, buying all the same dresses again, this time with flexi versions of the skirts. Swirling in a 50s flexi poodle skirt has got to be the epitome of living a Pink Lady dream. Antonia made flexi more fun than I could imagine.

Antonia Marat’s dresses fill out my Fluffy Skirts folder quite nicely, a collection of which I am inordinately proud.

I can’t identify a favorite among Antonia’s dresses because I love them all equally, and each one tells a story about its wearer: she is 50s glamorous, she is a rockabilly rebel, she is a demure Sandy from Grease dancing at the spring prom. I think, more than anything, the stories told by Antonia’s designs are what draw me back to her store again and again. Among my favorite activities in Second Life, dancing to the oldies in a fluffy skirt in Antonia’s shop is at the top of the list.

It wasn’t until the spring of 2007, though, that I suddenly realized I have a fluffy skirt issue. Looking through my inventory at that point, I realized the fluffy skirt had slowly but inexorably taken dominance of my clothing folder, the fluffy skirt dresses rising up to greet me and beg me to wear them upon every change of clothing.

I blame Neferia Abel at Ivalde and the release of her Vintage Ragna dress in salmon.

At the time I pronounced the dress the most perfect dress in Second Life. I’m almost embarrassed to admit the Ragna was seen on my avatar more often than not for a solid month, regardless of occasion.

My fluffy skirt love affair with Ragna led me to more forays into Neferia’s store, and I count Audery in pink, Grace in Pink, the Geraldine Salmon dress, Tove in blue, and the Jensine Rose Red dress among my fluffy skirt crushes.

Something about Neferia’s texturing on the skirts is so compelling — a mix of photosourcing and hand painting that really gives her an edge in fluffy skirt creation. I also love the lines of her skirts, they poof beautifully, each prim aligning properly when it is at rest, but seeming to drift so naturally when one is in motion.

From Ivalde, I ventured into Icing’s Tropical Punch and Chanterelle sets. The skirt, especially, of Chanterelle is a fluffy skirt queen’s dream. Little red mushrooms a la Super Mario Bros. decorate the crisp white layers of flexi fluffy goodness. It is a perfect casual look when you want to be fluffy but not too formal, and I wear it with the Sweetheart camisole in red pinstripes from artilleri and a sheer white blouse from Mischief.

Tropical Punch is a tea length dress, reminiscent of hot

US southern days and lawn parties, the elegant drapery and languid movement lending itself well to slow dances. This dress is accented with a prim bow and the whole is textured in a large print that somehow doesn’t overpower the dress design.

Sand Shack Surf Co. by Emma Gilmour did not bypass my study of fluffy goodness.

The release of Emma’s Ducky Dress caused me to knock over six other avatars in my rush to her store (OK, not really), a hurry I haven’t seen since my early DAZZLE love affair. I have the Ducky dress in three colors, and they are the perfect solution to my inability to wear my more formal fluffiness during daytime hours in Second Life.

Lately as new fluffy skirt releases seem to wane, I find myself looking for specific places to feed my fluffy hunger. Betty Doyle at Ingenue created Rum & Coca Cola, and I have it in pink. This dress is another storytelling dress. In it I am a 1940s starlet going out for a night on the town. I will smoke cigarettes through a long elegant filter sitting at a table in a nightclub before I arise gracefully to dance with my date, and the fluffy skirt goodness will shine like a million camera flashes.

My fluffy skirt love affair has taken me to dangerous new territory. The vintage glamour starlet look making its way across the grid by designers like Marleen Vaughn of Marlys and Betty Doyle of Ingenue has captured my fluffy skirt loving heart. Though the trend itself may seem on the wane, the look of the 40s and 50s remains, and there is where the fluffy skirt girl was born and bred. I may not always be in real life style, but fluffy skirts have become part of Sansarya Style.

Fluffy Forever?

The power that is Second Life fashion to transform our reality, to help us recreate ourselves, is inherent in these designers’ creations. Wish you were born 50 years ago? A hundred? You have the power to go there — to wear those clothes, to style your hair like your grandmother did, to dance like a flapper or lean with Natalie Wood grace against a vintage automobile.

Will I remain a fluffy skirt sycophant, appearing everywhere in flexified torii, careening madly about on the dance floor while my skirt flies up and out? Who knows? For now, my fluffy skirt love remains, and it shall be fed.

In my Second Life I choose to become the Fluffy Skirt Goddess. Please, designers, think of me when you decide to make a pencil slim silhouette, and remember my love of twirling in a fluffy skirt. Please feed the Goddess of Fluff.

Tell the metaverse about your event!

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 3C

Machinima contest gives chance for marketing

By SHERRIE SHEPHERD Staff writer

JURO KOTHARI'S HABITAT store in Deneb carries interesting household items such as clocks, furniture and dinnerware. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

A contest being offered by Machinima.com challenging entrants to reproduce the Bourne Ultimatum trailer as machinima afforded TV Poker (TVP) LLC and its machinima creative director/producer Travis Jonas (aka Flix Saiman in SL) the opportunity to show off their ability in the art of machinima as well as marketing to RL companies.

TVP LLC is a boutique consulting company specializing in the fields of television and gaming. They have provided technical consulting services on major motion pictures like Oceans 13 and Lucky You and for TV gambling shows such as National Poker League (NPL).

Jonas, a semi-professional poker player with some computer skills, “joined SL as a whim” and after learning how to build, assisted TVP LLC in setting up their sim. He had been a “huge fan of machinima since way back in the days of Everquest” and thought this was a very interesting way to express an idea using games.

Of the contest, Jonas said, “I happened upon it… [and since]

our company wanted to get into the art of making machinima for major RL companies using SL as our engine,” he saw this opportunity as a way to get exposure and help the company to achieve its goal of getting “into the RL mainstream of advertising via machinima.”

The machinima was filmed in one day with a week of editing. Jonas said, “I had a US$500 budget and one week to get all the sets, animations, costumes, skins, etc., finished and did it way under budget.

We wanted to show RL studios our ability to produce a full idea in a timely manner… for a reasonable cost and to showcase our ability as a full service team.” He went on to say that he wanted “to let other machinima artists and companies know that we are serious.”

The SL community is invited to see the set of the machinima and to experience the Bourne Ultimatum first hand by going to the TVP LLC offices located at TVP LLC 230, 69, 27. There, visitors will find an entirely interactive venue where they can essentially roleplay Bourne, said Jonas. It is complete with fight scenes, including the staircase fight, as well as other in-

Author surveying SL for book

By SHERRIE SHEPHERD Staff writer Dr. Robert M. Geraci, known as Soren Ferlinghetti in Second Life, author and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College, is conducting a survey of the SL community with primary focus on researching the cultural and religious influence in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The survey results will serve as input to two books that Geraci is currently writing. The first, tentatively titled Laboratory Apocalypse: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, deals with the belief that evolution leads to a progression toward intelligent machines taking over the universe.

The second is entitled Gods, Worship and Virtual Salvation: Religion in World of Warcraft, Second Life and the Modern World. This book deals with the future of religions and how online communities will affect RL religion.

Geraci said, “My current research has been about the ways in which popular science, robotics and AI affect our culture.” His goal in designing the survey was to “fit a survey within that context” without requiring the participants to be particularly knowledgeable.

He is also interested in how the practice of religion in Second Life relates to the practice of religion on earth.” He is also interested in how the concept of downloading minds into computers and living forever in virtual reality has spread.

Geraci explains that these ideas are somewhat divided between the two books that he is writing.

In terms of his own SL experience, he joined SL in the fall of 2006 because he was “basically wondering what people were up to in the virtual reality,” but due to his background, he started having some ideas about how religion might be practiced here.

Geraci says he felt that “virtual reality ought to do something for people in a tangible way.” With this in mind, he started a program called Imagining Religion to hold discussions on matters of religious practice in SL as well as in Reality.

He said, “The typing slows down thought,” and minimizes conflict.

When speaking of organized religions, Geraci said, “It’s inevitable that earthly religious institutions will get deeply involved in SL or something like it. As long as people continue to spend a lot of their time in these places, then religious groups are going to need involvement to stay relevant.”

Geraci encouraged the SL community to participate in the survey since a broad spectrum of residents are necessary to have a representative sampling of the community.

He plans to share the results of the survey with the SL community by posting the results at http://nwn.blogs.com and http://home.manhattan .edu/~robert.geraci.

To participate in the survey, go to www.questionpro.com /akira/TakeSurvey?id=737260.

teractive scenes from the machinima like the Bourne “jump” from the CIA headquarters building and the street scene with description of how the car crash was filmed. As an added treat for visitors, a treasure hunt will be provided as well.

The tool used to build the sets is called Sim-In-a-Box (www.siminabox.com) which was created by Jonas along with partners Merlin Alphabeta and TVP LLC owners Kyle Morris (aka Closeur Yap) and Robert Huxley (aka Hux Tone).

This product is poised to revolutionize the SL experience for millions of users. It is now available to the SL community and is designed to help people overcome the technical difficulties of building and scripting in SL. A demo versin is available at SIB 123, 124, 121. Visitors will also see an extremely realistic subway station and train ride as well as a build of downtown Las Vegas.

Jonas hopes that the SL community will support the Bourne contest entry by going to www.machinima.com to view the film and to vote. Voting begins Aug. 25 and will continue through Sept. 2.

Katt Kongo’s

Second Nature http://secondnature.wordpress.com/

SLCC the social track.

Events and tracks in the Elf Lands: Shea Temporis, Shea Sommni, Shea Desiderii (social track) Shea Cognitum, non-residential areas of Elvenmoor (business track) Ceilidh, non-residential areas of ElvenGlen (education track) In-world only event: Kala Pixie’s Super Duper Awesome Fantastical Particle Show at Shea Cognitum. Two opportunities to see this incredible light show!

Saturday, Aug. 25, 10am SLT and 6:30pm SLT Listening stations Social: Indigo Nakama Sin Skins Chartreuse Port Seraphine The Forum/Sala Sims Hart Design Studios Skybeam Abbotts Aerodome Timeless Underground Club Ookami Ningen, Crimson Tranquility, Crimson Most of the Crimson sim Nomine CKS Designs Celestial City

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Illusions Callie Cline Matter-n-form Gallery Silent Sparrow Nevi Community Public Park ETD House of Zen Island Phreak Island Estehteique - Aylah Hope Adam N Eve Vesuvius Miriel Enfield Pixel Dreams Devious Creations HG

following merchants donated items for the hunt: SCM Industries Caroline’s Jewelry CKS Designs Nomine Alexa Lioncourt Ookami Ningen Dark Eden The Devil Made Me Do It Creative Kaoz Celestial City Illusions Callie Cline Jessica Ornitz Matter in Form Gallery Business: Pando Silent Sparrow Mikianna GuRL Six Caroline’s Jewelry ETD Gurlywood American Shaker Shop Aprod Luxury by Vindi Education: NOAA Pontiac SciLands Fallingwater Cellardoor American Shaker Shop Phobos Cotton’s Dystopia , Moneta Sky Designs Timeless Prototype Cotton’s Dystopia Machinima: Cotton’s Dystopia , Moneta Phaylen Fairchild Hathead Island Pixel Dolls Miriel Enfield Jewelry Magic Mushroom Hunt Sweet Dreams During the weekend there Zatzai Asturias will be a magic mushroom hunt Pixel Dreams that is exactly like an Easter Hathead Rickenbacker egg hunt except you will be looking for mushrooms and not Scheduling and event informaeggs. Right click the shroom tion was provided by and buy the item for L$0. The slcc2007.wordpress.com

Page 4C The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

Second Penguins: Come in my igloo...

By DRAKE BACON Staff writer The 2007 SLCC is here, and all the avatar’s players have come out to meet the people behind the Lindens. Crowds will gather, questions will be thrown, and then someone will yell “HEY! THERE’S ALBERTO GONZALES!” Before you know it, a mob will have formed of all the players who just wanted to bet “all-in” on that shot of getting a royal flush and a lightning rod of the “Dubya” Bush administration in the US would be “chipped” to death.

Of course, I joke and don’t encourage such behavior. Such behavior may be suitable for The Simpsons movie but not in real life.

However, folks are wondering why Linux, this plucky home-grown operating system that continues to slowly gain momentum, is involved with Second Life – and why the client went open source, whatever that means.

Well, take Microsoft Windows, for instance. End users

that just want to get online don’t have the source code to the operating system – you buy a copy and slap it on a PC. However, to get to that point, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had to hire (over the span of decades) many thousands of developers, designers, and support people. That takes a ton of resources and money. Besides, if you try to do it cheap and use monkeys, you’ll eventually end up with Vista.

Hmmm, no wonder they had such problems with quality control and took five years.

Linux itself started when one programmer didn’t like how one OS — Minix — handled, and wrote his own UNIX clone.

He then published it on the Internet, and people got interested in the code and started volunteering time and effort. With each version it’s been published online, publicly, for all to see, modify, and comment on – as long as you also publicly post your modifications (or patches) and make them free for others to do the same.

With time, more and more people came in, writing and

FUR that the sim, being new, is still under development; however roleplaying in the sim is highly active and only one small area of the sim, one of the temples, isn’t in a totally usable state.

The temples themselves are varied from the dark, deep dinginess of some temples to the light and airiness of the likes of the light temple.

There is also an Oriental style village, woods and a small gypsy camp to allow plenty of places for the residents to roleplay.

Roleplay within the sim is generally freeform, with no combat meters or similar items used. As such, all interactions are expected to be done in character with roleplayers allowing people to react to their actions.

Around this there are a series of events alongside plot lines,

rewriting portions of this core “kernel” code. Others came in and wrote supporting programs, while still more people came in to port existing programs they had the source code to over to this new penguin of an operating system. Soon it got to the point in which the one original programmer, Linus Torvalds, thought aloud of a penguin stuffed to the gills with herring – and we have the logo to go with all the various versions of Linux floating in the ether.

Such free and open gatherings are increasingly common.

A few known ones include Perl, Larry Wall’s programming language with syntax like C... er... shell script... um... BASIC... no... well, a combination of many languages, and yet with enough power to become part of any website; Mozilla, including Firefox, after Netscape opened up its initial version 4 of its network suite, people tore into it, ripped it to shreds and rewrote it from the ground up; and Apache, the web server

See IGLOO, Page 5C

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events, and storylines.

Mathys, who helps run the events, said, “Everyone is great here. We’ve got good GMs running plots, regular events — this week it’s ‘Iron Chef: Alchera’, a cooking contest with prims. There’s always something going on in the sim, and there is tons of atmosphere.

Bards with scripted instruments to keep things lively, and of course regular bouts of action to keep things exciting.”

Kixt Fredriksson is an enthusiastic roleplayer in the sim. He said, “ I learned about the sim from a good friend of mine. He told me how it was here and well, I became quite interested.

I am a big fan of fantasy-medieval RP. When it comes to the RP environments I’ve been in to and the people, I believe Alchera is one of the greatest

I’ve been to. When you create a [character] here, you can actually use your imagination, the admins are friendly and if it’s something that doesn’t fit with the sim; they even help you make it fit the sim’s history.

They try to help wherever they can, and they are polite.”

Another roleplayer, Greho Otaared, said, “I can’t speak for everyone here, but I think Alchera is growing into a nice community of roleplayers. We are developing more stories for more players to take part in.

“And we have room for many more players to join us. I support Alchera whole-heartedly, and I voted with my feet when I moved my home here a couple months ago. I think Alchera is a good place to roleplay, and that it’s only going to get better.”

Thank you for two years of loyal reading.

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 5C

FIRST “We’re just a group of people totally into the same stuff that you’re into. That kind of group makes sense to me, and no, we’re not going to try to sell you anything.” This, of course, is in direct opposition to all the other Facebook groups which, uh… aren’t actually trying to sell you anything either.

The clearest she comes to articulating her case is when she says, “Mainly, I don’t like to share.” What exactly this means is admittedly unclear, but she does offer an explanation.

“I resent companies hijacking my fun stuff for their own gain. And I really don’t think that it works. I don’t think kids respond any better to a brand forcing themselves on them online than they do when they appear in a magazine. They’re too savvy, and to pretend they’re not is naive.”

How all of this was prompted by the discovery that an orchestra was going to perform in Second Life remains enigmatic at best, but she does have some words of advice to… well, to somebody.

“Seriously. Stop with the laziness. I don’t want a Twitter feed telling me what your company is up to. I don’t want to make you my MySpace buddy.

And I don’t want to attend your fake online festival.”

To this we can only add, “Then don’t.”

Are you sure that’s just a whiskey voice, Shirley?

In his online magazine, Transumanar, Giulio Prisco examines the issue of voice in Second Life from the perspective of those who use the platform as a means of experiencing life as the opposite sex.

“I have been reading posts in the blogosphere about the new system for integrated voice in Second Life,” he says. “As I thought, comments are split in two main camps: those who

From Page 4A

think the new option is a good thing, and those who are afraid that it will change the nature of Second Life as they know it.”

The issue, of course, revolves around the inability to keep one’s real sex a secret when the sound of your voice gives it away.

He tells of two camps called immersionists and augmentists.

“Immersionists are those who want to live a parallel Second Life completely separated by their Real Life , while augmentists are those who want to use Second Life as a means to enhance their RL.” While augmentists don’t, as a whole, feel threatened by the inclusion of voice, the immersionists are afraid that it will effectively render them second class citizens. While Prisco considers himself to be an augmentist, and therefore has no problem with in-world residents hearing his real voice, he concedes that there is something to be said for the other side.

“Unfortunately, immersionists have a very valid point when they argue that, with voice and more augmentationist options becoming available (such as the possibility to paste a realtime webcam feed onto an avatar face and body, that may well become available in one or two years), most users of Second Life will become augmantationists and this will effectively discriminate against immersionists and push them into a second class role. They will be able to join immersionist communities where voice and webcam feeds are banned, but will be effectively cut from interacting with most other users.”

Ultimately, however, he believes that the issue will be resolved by use of multiple avatars, or the inclusion of voice-masking software.

Still, it does prove once again the truth of the old saying, “For every solution, there’s another problem.”

The Metaverse Messenger The most read publication in Second Life!

GALA w=201 If you want to get involved with nonprofits in-world and you are not a member of one, an easy way to help is to come to our weekly open meetings (every Friday at 8:30am SLT at the Nonprofit Commons sim) and volunteer your services during the open mike portion of the meeting. You can also find an organization that suits your passion by checking out our community member profiles at http://npsl.wikispaces.com/Co mmunity+Member+Profiles.

Finally, the Nonprofit Commons will be featured at the SLCC in the social track (http://slcc2007.wordpress.com

From Page 9B /social-track), so if you want to meet and discuss our work, please find or IM Glitteractica Cookie and I will make time to meet you.

We are looking for bloggers to blog about nonprofit events occurring on our sim and beyond.

These can be both bloggers on their own blogs and bloggers on our blog at www.nonprofitcommons.org.

Remember that we will host any nonprofit-related event free of charge in our space. Please contact Glitteractica Cookie for more information, and visit us at Nonprofit Commons 130, 125, 22.

THE TABLEAU SIM presently resembles a dusty town in the American west, and contains storefronts such as Tiny Seadog, Nylon Outfitters and Yummy. - Photo by PHOENIX PSALTERY

IGLOO software on nearly half of all servers – not a day goes by without you bumping into a server that’s handled by Apache.

And so, Second Life’s viewer joins the fray, opening up its source code and secrets.

What does the population as a whole do?

Absolutely nothing.

But that’s okay, because it only takes one developer to say “This is a cool project,” and start working on it for the opening to have any success. The opening not only has gathered

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one, but hundreds, pouring over the code and finding bugs that Linden Lab probably has missed. Many send in patches to correct problems, and many of those patches have been accepted – you see them in the changelogs that ship with Second Life.

They also find projects related to Second Life that could use work, and work on that – OpenJPEG’s speed issues in Second Life, Gstreamer for video streaming in Linux, and maybe even Voice capabilities using an alternate system.

Intel’s graphics drivers are being worked on, and there’s work underway of building open-source graphics drivers for Nvidia and ATI/AMD graphics cards. All of these benefit Second Life.

So, what would you rather have? A product that is built openly, with no entry fee to help out fix bugs and improve it, or would you like one that’s by a massive company, that you can’t be sure that your bug is going to be fixed in the next revision?

Are you hands on?

Page 6C The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

DOYLE

SEEN HERE IS PHOENIX Psaltery’s winning entry in the Calvin Klein ck IN2U photo contest. - COURTESY PHOTO

Calvin Klein Fragrances announces contest winner From press release ck IN2U, the new fragrances “for him & for her” from Calvin Klein, announced the winner of the ck IN2U ‘What Are You In 2’ snapshot competition which was held in Second Life recently. Residents were asked to submit a snapshot of anything that inspired then in the virtual world, with the winning inhabitant becoming a virtual millionaire.

“With ck IN2U we really wanted to connect with the Second Life community in a way that would be both interactive and authentic. We also felt the ‘What are you in 2’ snap-

shot competition would really engage this creative community,” said Lori Singer, VP of Global Marketing, Calvin Klein fragrance.

The winning avatar, Phoenix Psaltery, will walk — or fly — away with the prize money of L$1 million.

Psaltery said he drew inspiration for his winning image from his real world fiancé.

“Winning the ck IN2U photography contest came at just the perfect time in my life. I am getting ready to get married in Reality to the wonderful woman whose beauty inspired See CONTEST, Page 9C

Doyle has donated male and female peasant outfits for visitors and residents of Renaissance Island, a sixteenth century roleplaying sim. These free outfits are available at the island’s welcome center. She also participates in the growing number of in-world Renaissance Fairs.

Doyle believes in customer service as well as a quality product. “I do my best to deliver a high quality and original product,” she said. “If [the customer] ever has any questions or issues with an item, they should contact me right away, and I will do everything in my power to assist them.”

To keep her products original, Doyle introduces new ones at the rate of approximately two a week. Two of her new designs, which can be seen on her blog http://ingenue.blog.com,

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include Senorita, a 1940’s Spanish inspired hair that is featured in a set that includes a wig with lace snood and sculptie satin roses at the back and a wig with double French roll without snood and a peek-aboo cha-cha style dress along with a flirty little dress called Rum & Coca Cola, available in five colors, that can be dressed up for cocktail soirees or down for a sundressy day look. While the dress has a more 1940’s silhouette, the back was inspired by 1930’s evening dresses.

Doyle’s overall favorite design is Femme Fatale from her Ingenue line of which she created a special edition of ten as part of her new main shop’s grand opening. The set now includes sculptie prim puffed sleeves and matching shoes.

In addition to her real life fashion experience, Doyle also

has an extensive RL vintage clothing and pattern collection which she utilizes to produce her 1930s-50s designs. She was recently in a Second Life fashion show at the Chocolate Runway called First Impressions and is a member of many fashion groups including Fashion Consolidated, Fashion Emergency, Pinups, Retrologies, Vain Inc, Ewing Fashion Agency, and of course, Ingenue, which she plans to promote more actively now that the shop is in a new location.

Many of her favorite SL places have period or visual ambiance. “I adore the new Artilleri sim,” she said. “It really is just perfectly 1950s fabulous. Aphrodite’s Waterfall & Caverns is gorgeous and the new Greenies sim is incredibly well done and just so much fun.”

The Metaverse Messenger Celebrating two years of print journalism.

From August 2005 To August 2007

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 7C

Learning Curves middle of, shall we say, a build dedicated to an alternative lifestyle. No problem, that’s their business, truly, but it was a bit of a surprise.

In real life, I teach college communicaI assume they sold the island, since it has a tion classes, both speech and journalism. completely different name now, and that the At this time of the year, many or most Seclandmark’s underlying code translates to a parond Life educators (especially U.S.-based) ticular server or something (I don’t know are getting into or have just started a new enough about SL infrastructure to know). term. I’ve spent the last two or three days A search on their name yielded nothing. A in in-service training sessions and helping map search on the company name that owned with registration for classes. it yielded a different island with a slightly difIt’s the reason I’m going to miss going ferent name; when I tried to teleport to it, I was to SLCC, in fact. It would have been nice told it wasn’t available and was deposited on a to meet some of the folks in real life whom nearby mainland parcel.

I’ve met in SL. Their Web site has no mention of Second Still, it’s a time of year for reflection on Life, according to a Google search on that site. a number of education-related items.

So that first experience that impressed me so It is almost a full year since I first came much has vanished without a trace. I can’t even into Second Life. Almost to the day of my prove it was ever there. one-year anniversary in September (two WESTERN EDUCATION MAY look to Ancient Greece for its roots, I’m philosophical about this. Over 2,500 days after, in fact), I’ll be taking part in a but Second Life extends the toolset that continues the tradition. This years ago the Buddha pointed out that everypresentation to a state-level leadership reproduction is located at the Real Life Education in Second Life Cen- thing always changes and nothing lasts. My training group about SL. I’ll be in SL at my ter in Waterhead. - Photo by DAGMAR KOJISHI students today seem very different from the home college, and the man who introduced ones I had 20 years ago; no doubt I am differThe third reason was simply that all three of us reme to SL will be live in the room with the trainees at alized that within minutes, we had a strong sense of ent too. The Web that so mystified my students 15 the state capitol, 200 miles up the road. “presence” — of being in each other’s company even years ago strikes today’s students as “old technology.”

I’m not sure yet if we’re going to try to show any- though one person was at home because of illness, one Perhaps before I retire I’ll be telling students, “Yes, thing about voice. I do know that seeing SL is certainly was in his office in Nashville, and one was in his home I remember the early days of practical virtual worlds. not the same thing as experiencing it directly. Still, I in Knoxville.

The place was called Second Life, and it didn’t even hope that participants will get some sense of what a We had had several “virtual meetings” in other for- have voice when I first logged in. People had hair that virtual environment brings to such interactions, be- mats, including telephone conference calls, bulletin looked like that of plastic dolls. We had trouble sitting yond conference calls (whether via telephone or some- boards, wikis, blogs and course management tools. down, and only had three basic shape types for prims. thing like Skype), chat rooms and bulletin boards.

What were prims, you ask? Well, let me tell you…”

This was different.

During that first week, two of my Nashville-based But it’s really just the tools that are changing. The Things change quickly. I’ve been here nearly a year, colleagues and I got into SL and explored an island which is 25 percent of the lifetime of SL (at least, the human need to develop one’s skills and knowledge, put up by a guy from a textbook publisher. It was im- “open to the public” part). I’ve learned to build, and and the ways in which we do that, haven’t changed all pressive for at least three reasons, two of which had learned to script fairly well. I’m still impressed by that much in thousands of years. We just do it faster to do with the specific build — that this guy had built what the first builder did, but I understand what’s be- now, and we just fancier tools — and we’re a little all these buildings, assembled the furniture and hind it, and have made similar items myself now. more aware that learning doesn’t stop just because you scripted the actions of several objects all by himself, Things change quickly in other ways. I went back graduate. It is within this awareness that SL education and that the entire island seemed to work effectively to that landmark, probably the first one I ever set (or deserves the excitement it has sparked. for education in several ways.

I wonder what the next year will bring? at least the earliest I still have), and landed right in the

By DAGMAR KOJISHI M2 columnist

Page 8C The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007

STYLE

VARIOUS LOOKS FROM the stylish, unique, and inspiring Aradia Dielli. - Photos by ARADIA DIELLI

The Metaverse Messenger Steve --

things on the grid that I can’t get a copy of in the real world.

CC: I don’t think I’ve ever cried over things I find in SL. I do bounce in giddy excitement sometimes, though. So, what are your favorite inventory items that you cannot live without?

AD: I can’t live without my shape, my glow and my eyes.

My shape is original and has landed me many great deals and jobs. My glow gets rid of those awful shadows that SL creates and my eyes are the windows to my soul, OK, so not exactly the reason why... but I love my eyes and they were made by me. These are my most important possessions and those I can’t live without.

CC: You are the tallest female avatar I’ve seen, with a very unique face. Tell me about the evolution of your shape. What has changed the most? What has remained the same?

AD: I’ve always been tall; I wanted to be taller but didn’t know the tricks to make myself taller at first. The sliders are a girl’s best friend — forget diamonds. [laughs] I purchased my first shape; I was happy with it in the beginning, but later I started noticing things that made me feel ugly and old, especially when I would wear certain hair styles. I would find myself trying new skins all the time only because I wanted one that would make me look beautiful.

Eventually I got tired of looking for a skin that would make me look beautiful and decided to work on a shape that would make anything look right. The thing that’s changed the most are my eyes; my old ones were droopy, very, very droopy. I love my eyes now; in fact I love my shape. I always tweak it a little here and there.

But I am very happy with my current look. The thing that’s remained the same is my height. I have always been this tall. It’s something I will never change.

CC: How do you keep your look fresh and unique?

AD: My RL aunt is a fashion

The Metaverse Messenger: Serving the SL community for more than two years.

From Page 2B

designer; therefore I’ve always had my take in the fashion world. I follow fashion closely through her eyes and I subscribe to several fashion magazines. I guess I keep it fresh by mixing my outfits, being unique and adding a hint of my heart and soul to my daily fashions.

CC: You’re very well known in the fashion community, can you tell me how your involvement in the industry has developed?

AD: The first modeling shot I ever did was for my mother, Callie — she wanted to announce her store location on the new Paris 1900 SIM and asked me to model for her. Later down the line when she was offered the chance to participate in the iVillage fashion show, she asked if I could be one of her models and that was my first fashion show ever. The rest is history; I was offered a job with ASpiRE! and of course I accepted.

With time, my name has grown, in fact grown bigger than I ever planned it or imagined it. I have done a lot of freelance modeling and participated in many amazing fashion shows hosted by the amazing ASpiRE! agency. I’m thankful for those that have helped me grow, I didn’t do it all on my own. I just took the opportunity given to me and made the best of it.

My recent achievements have been mine and mine alone, but I will never forget those that put faith in me when I knew nothing and was nothing in the fashion world. Thank you moms for helping me get started and thank you ASpiRE! and the ladies of ASpiRE! for having faith in me.

CC: You have achieved a lot in a short period of time. What would you say is your crowning achievement in SL? AD: Being a successful model is one of them, but building amazing relationships with some of my closest friends and having an amazing family would definitely be my crowning achievement. Without

them, I’d be no one. It takes motivation and love to succeed and I’ve had tons of that. My husband Lucian, daughters and best friend Lovey Darling have been my rock.

CC: You are an active submitter of your photography on Flickr; what inspires your photos?

AD: Anything that catches my eye, I do a lot of photography work in RL and bring my inspirations in world. Good inspirations? The ocean, beautiful landscaping, good fashion and things that might seem ugly to some, but beautiful to me. I’ve learned to appreciate even the ugliest things, the fact that we can experience them and take a picture of it, should be enough.

Probably a Ms. Universe answer there, but I lost my vision for an entire month a couple of years ago. I got it back, just like my doctor said I would, but I have learned a new appreciation for life and everything that surrounds it.

CC: Along with having an appreciation of your photo’s subject, are there any other photography tricks you’d like to share?

AD: When taking an important picture, boost up your graphic details. Set your draw distance high, enable vertex shaders and turn them all to the right. Take big pictures and save them to your hard drive. If you’re taking pictures for a contest, always make the picture about you and only you. Not your background, not the earrings and accessories. It’s you they want, not what you’re wearing— one last advice, just have fun taking your pictures and give it your all. Mix all that together and you will have amazing looking pictures.

CC: Anything else? Parting words?

AD: Be unique, set a trend and don’t be afraid to do so. Think beautiful, be beautiful and never be afraid to explore out of the safe area. Wear what you like, not whatever everyone else wants to wear. Being you is what sets you apart from the rest.

A real newspaper for a virtual world!

August 21, 2007 The Metaverse Messenger Page 9C

CONTEST my photographs, Sansarya Caligari. Without her, I’d have no Second Life, nor much of a first life, for that matter.“ Singer added, “We had a fantastically diverse range of entries but chose Phoenix Psaltery as we felt his image really captured the essence of ck IN2U and illustrated the mood of the fragrance which is about the intense, spontaneous connection you feel with another person, whether that be in the real world or in Second Life.“ Justin Bovington (Fizik Baskerville in SL), CEO of Rivers Run Red, the creative agency behind the build, concluded, “We have been delighted with the enthusiastic

response to the competition by the Second Life community and want to thank all whose who entered. It has yielded a typically diverse range of work and expression which is what we have come to expect from this creative and engaged community.”

In March 2007, Calvin Klein fragrance became the first global fragrance brand to launch in SL, with the new ck IN2U fragrances “for him & for her.”

Residents were able to visit the ck IN2U site, which was located in the Avalon sim, to pick up virtual bottles of the new ck fragrances, connect with other in-world virtual partners by spraying them with fizzing fragrance bub-

DUDE easy, the steering itself was surprisingly tricky. The slightest tap on the controls would veer the craft wildly off to one side while the least correction served to fling it the other way.

Still, it was manageable (if somewhat reminiscent of herding a class of five-year-olds on a field trip) and once I’d mastered the navigation as much as I was likely to, I set off.

From Luskwood there’s a straight channel running east along the bottom of the Boardman and DeHaro sims to Tilitr where it empties into a much larger river.

Just before that, however, a side-stream runs north and I followed it into a large campground. In the middle of the camping area is a small lake surrounded by cabins. You can get your own tent or cabin, but while a tent costs L$100, a cabin is free.

From the lake I swung east, following a stream which lead me back out to the main waterways in Tilitr. From Tilitr I charted my way through a series of small islands in Solang up to Teal where I discovered the Light Sorcery castle.

There was a river entrance to the castle, but the mast on my ship was too tall, so I had to set-

From Page 6C bles to initiate dialogue, and use specially modified ck graffiti bottles to express themselves and whatever they or their friends are ‘in 2.‘ ck cakks IN2U “the fragrances for him and for her Spontaneous - Sexy – Connected,” and says, “Like all CK fragrances, IN2U for him and for her are both easy to wear and very sexy.

The name is sexy, texty and refers directly about people who are connected and into each other.

The ck IN2U bottles take their cue from the world of generation Y - the colour evokes the IPOD and the electronics of this technosexual generation.” More information at www.ckin2u.com.

From Page 9A

tle for a little dock on the west.

I disembarked in front of a small, rounded, earthen structure which looked surprisingly like a hobbit home.

Leaving my craft sitting on the shore I walked up to the door. Sure enough, it had the words “Bag End” written on it.

Inside was an exact recreation of Bilbo Baggins’ house.

Well, fairly exact. It was pretty empty of furniture, and on the wall was a picture showing a battle between Sauron and a Dalek which I don’t quite remember from either the books or the movies.

Back outside, I followed a path to the north where a huge door in the side of a cliff opens if you say the word “friend.”

Through it are Teal’s Caves, a surprisingly claustrophobic tunnel leading to a large cavern which, for unknown reasons, contains a nomadic pavilion.

On the east side of the cavern is a forest of stalactites and stalagmites through which take you to another cavern, this one with an opening onto the river outside.

An unmoving man offers a long gondola paddle which, when taken, causes the gondola to appear. I climbed aboard and headed out.

Although my avatar appeared to be working awfully hard, the gondola was much easier to steer than the Greek sailing ship, so I swung north and carried on with my journey.

In Hikuelo, as I paddled past the northwest edge of a large island, I realized that the landscape was remarkably familiar.

I am looking at it now.

On my right a road slopes down to the waterfront where its end is marked by construction barriers.

On the shore next to it is a pavilion called Almitra’s which sells homes, furnishings, and wedding supplies. A dock, over-arched by a rainbow, reaches into the water, and on the end are two vending machines: one for 7-Up and the other for Coke. Across the river is a small island with swings and teeter totters.

I know where I am. Just a short hop to the east is the island containing the Metaverse Messenger offices. It was on the road just in front of their doors that I began this journey back in April.

I’ve come full circle.

And now, as I stand on the dock slugging back a can of Coke, comes the question: What do I do now?

The Metaverse Messenger: Serving the SL community for more than two years.

SOTW doors is a teleporter that can take visitors to the public floors of the tower.

Outside, to the left of the main entrance is a small garden with another large turning globe, benches and a money tree for our new citizens. The garden gives access to the second annex of the tower, which is the M2 Museum.

The Museum contains the archives of all past editions of the M2 (the ‘morgue,‘ in newspaper jargon).

The museum can be easily located from the air; it is the low building with a giant newspaper and cup of coffee on the roof.

The Messenger’s founder and publisher, Katt Kongo, graciously took time from her busy schedule to chat with SOTW about the history of the paper. Kongo said that her motivation for starting the M2 was that she wanted something to make “some pocket change to go shopping with, without taking money away from my family.” Lacking the requisite skill for building, scripting or clothing design, she turned a field she did know: newspapers.

At the time of the founding of the M2 in August of 2005, the existing news media in SL were, according to Kongo, “notecard ‘newspapers’, and the SL Herald, which is in blog format. “So the M2 was the first SL newspaper to be distributed as an actual newspaper with its PDF file in broadsheet format.

The Sido location was chosen for its good positioning on the coast of a commercial area, reasonable land price and its

From Page 9A

proximity to the telehub in the nearby region of Ambat. Since then the office has grown from a “tiny building, more like a cottage than an office building It was only big enough for a few desks, and a couch.” A few months later the first office building went up and just about a year ago, the beautiful custom tower built by Midtown Bienenstich came to grace the shores of Sido after a long process of land acquisition.

In fact, Ms. Kongo cited the lack of available land as one of the limiting factors to the Sido location.

She said, “I tried to make this an interactive place, not just a pretty building, so people should come and explore.“ So the next time you are in-world, come by the M2 offices in Sido and explore its public spaces.

And that covers Sido, our home here at the Messenger.

The Cup of Sims 4.0 continues its vacation, so it’s not randomly sending us anywhere.

Instead, we will visit the Lost Gardens of Apollo, a romantic hideaway that has been in Second Life longer then most of us. We are still selecting sims to cover during this break.

If you have a suggestion, please send an e-mail to SOTW@metaversemessenger.com and tell us about it. We’re looking for sims that are well established and “static.” It may be more then a month before any sim suggested is run, so we don’t want it totally rebuilt in that time!

Don’t forget that residents in the Sim of the Week get a 10 percent discount on ads ordered during their sim’s week.

Be virtually visible!

Page 10C The Metaverse Messenger August 21, 2007