KillerMonkey Spire - A Second Life

New Find: SiniStyle Design

2008-02-17T15:16:00.000-08:00

Today while exploring Second Life, I stumbled upon a "Haunted House", but it was apparently not haunted anymore. While looking around the outside of the house, I came across this sculpture of "Death".

Being impressed by the design of this item, I decided to see who the creator was and if he/she had any more interesting builds. You can do the same right clicking an item, selecting "More->More->Inspect" and then while the root object is selected, select "See Creator Profile".

The creator of this object is Krius Misfit who is almost 2 years old within Second Life. According to his profile, his blog of new products at http://sinistyledesign.blogspot.com and he also has a MySpace page. His picks and Classified (Paid L$666 for the listing) both reference his main store location at http://slurl.com/secondlife/SiniStyle/74/92/33

Teleporting to the main store greets you with a gothic house and some interesting music selections. The lighting really sets the environment and mood quite well.

The yard sports some trees from Straylight courteously of resident Kriss Lehmann which is the *best* place I've found to buy scuplty trees.

Entering the building leads to a a shopping area with several wearable items, including choke collars, bloody skins, knee pads, respirators, belts, bracelets, a couple sculpty hats, shirts, trench coats, boots and pants.

SiniStyle Design's offers a store card that one can purchase and use instead of L$ balance. I'm assuming this is used to give someone a card to return to the store and make purchases. This is a pretty novel ideal and I'm guessing it's easier to implement than a "buy-as-a-gift" system.

Exploring the SiniStyle island, I found where you could buy the graveyard set for L$800 with copy permissions. This is good for anyone preparing for a gothic environment or Halloween.

Now that the adventure is done, what's next?

SecondLife Apprentice Mentor

2008-01-13T12:55:00.000-08:00

On the 8th of January, I was accepted into the SecondLife Apprentice Mentor program and this morning I completed my orientation. The orientation was under an hour and most of it was "common sense".

I received a package with several notes with information on how to help new residents and policies related to being a Mentor Volunteer. Simon Kline hosted the event as a Mentor Coach and was very through, offered answers to every question and ensure the class stayed on topic and on time.

With the completion of the orientation, I look forward to helping new residents gather a foothold in the world much to the pleasure of their Users.

There is a cheesy video available from YouTube over the "Tao of Volunteers"

Below are additional pictures of residents that attended the Apprenticeship meeting:

Construction Started

2007-12-30T23:42:00.001-08:00

I've started the construction of a building in an undisclosed location. I'm using this opportunity to learn some building skills needed to start a bigger project at some land I've been sitting on for a while on the one of the newer mainland additions.

This new office building may become a portal my user may utilize as a portal for some virtual work needed to promote various unsigned bands needing exposure.

Now to build the designs I dream about...

Side note, why does the sunlight glow through walls? Why do lights shine through objects? Where is my shadow? Residents, please vote on the Jira issue: VWR-1601 - Prims casting Shadows.

Linden Highway Construction

2007-10-09T10:10:00.001-07:00

... and now appears a road.

I've had the land near this road since Feb. 07. It's always been a grassy "protected land", but today it's a road. The information states "Michael Linden" added the highway on "Mon Oct 8th 16:28:50 2007". I wonder what other areas have received updates?

Here, in the same region, Michael built a crude bridge that isn't exactly suburb but does its job. The annoying thing is that the guardrail pretty much cuts off my section of land.

Geektopia - Sweet Build, but only for a limited time

2007-06-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today I stumbled upon Geektopia located at Father (220,221,33)

Go see it now, apparently they're losing the plot of land on Father and are moving to Onyx Ocean (127, 93, 21). I visited the new location to find ... a partially constructed "Steam Volcano". I'm not sure if the ship will make it to the new location.

So, to the folks of Geektopia, good build!.

With one statement, the gods kill my casino tycoon dreams.

2007-04-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

On the 5th of April, the gods deemed it was illegal to advertise Casinos with the following thundering statement from the skies:

"It has been a basic tenet of Second Life that all Residents are legally responsible for their own activities and for complying with the laws of the local jurisdiction in which they reside. However, given the ambiguities of the issues, Linden Lab has decided that we will not accept any classified ads, place listings, or event listings that appear to relate to simulated casino activity."

Although I had no dreams to build or host a casino, this statement snuffs out the ability to properly market a casino. Obviously I can purchase some land, build a casino and fill it with enticing games of chance. But then how will anyone hear of it?

Some residents cheer at the fact there will be no more stupid search results for casinos while others cheer that this will force casinos to close and thus ending lag problems in their part of the world. The casino owners have said this will effectively kill their business, losing all the time and money they have invested in getting their businesses operational.

A lot of casinos provide jobs for new residents via "camping chairs" as well as "employees" who in turn spend their money elsewhere in the world. Other items that appear to fall under the new law include "xploder" balls and other novelty items found in many of the clubs and gathering places around the world. These places will have to re-evaluate their ability to properly advertise their events with accordance the new law.

As the residents cheered and cried, the heavens spoke again:

"Residents need to take responsibility for your own activities and for complying with the laws of the local jurisdiction in which you reside. If you are, or are concerned that you may be, engaging in illegal gambling, you should stop."

Confusion crossed the faces of many. This raises many questions.

When did Seokcheon become part of a government entity that passed it's own laws?

Does this imply I have to obey the laws of my user? If so, why?

Second Life Relay for Life 2007

2007-03-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks, every where I go there is a new kiosk that is apparently used to donate to the American Cancer Society.

I'm really skeptical that this money ever reaches the earth realm and actually is 100% contributed to the American Cancer Society. The website proclaims "in cooperation with the American Cancer Society", but lists no official contact to the American Cancer Society, nor does it make claims of the amounts being donated to the organization.

Here are some breakdowns of teams that have "contributed" to the Relay For Life in Second Life:

Relay Rockers - L$577673 - USD$2012.48
McDunnoughs Relay Gang - L$469,674 - USD$1636.43
Team Eros - L$460,042 - USD$1602.68

The residents listed for contact are Fayandria Foley and Jade Lily with the latter being the only one with an earth realm contact of jade.lily@gmail.com. That's right, a google mail account, not a American Cancer Society email address. Hummm....

My user did some investigating and dug up an actual link from the American Cancer Society's website:

Second Life Relay For Life (2006)
Second Life Relay For Life Event Details (2006)

The former mentions residents RC MARS and Jade Lily while latter mentions a RL person :

Randal Moss
American Cancer Society
Futuring and Innovation Center
randal.moss@cancer.org

So now, there is a 2006 mention of one of the people involved with the Second Life Relay For Life organization.

Legit? Scraping from the top? It is very hard to tell without the accountability of donations being directly funneled to the American Cancer Society, especially with the individual involved NOT being directly involved with the organization.

EDIT:

Per the comments below from presumably Jade Lily herself, the SecondLife Relay for Life is, in fact, a legit operation. Jade Lily is currently affiliated with the Electric Sheep Company which is quite involved with the evolution and quality development within SecondLife.

Second Life - Magazines / Rags

2007-03-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

While shopping today, I found several news papers and magazines around the shopping areas. Some are well made and worth checking out and some haven't been updated since the last major holiday. Some of them even offer an equivalent magazine in the user realm as a "PDF Document".

Here is a brief list of magazines I've discovered. Please seek them out and flip though them.

PWND Magazine by Saeya Nyanda
Second Style Magazine by Josie Hamilton
SL Scene Magazineaaa
ASpiRE! Magazine by Bianca Darling

Most of the magazines are using the THiNC Book v2.0 by Toneless Tomba. Visit THiNC Publications at THiNC SL - Lota (10,15,278).

If you are thinking of starting your own magazine publication using the THiNC Book, here is the publication breakdown process:

Purchase a THiNC book and configure as a stand alone publication.

Costs: L$75 Plus your images imported at L$10/each, per page.
Example: Book at 80 pages. L$75 + ( L$10 * 80 pages ) == L$155.

Purchase a THiNC Printing Press and duplicate your THiNC book for publication. This is a one time cost and can be reused for every publication you release.

Costs: L$895

Total costs for your first publication: L$1050
Each additional publication: L$ 155

Of course, just having a publication will not give you circulation. You'll have to "pound ground" and visit various malls, shops and clubs and politely ask the management if they would provide a little space for your magazine. You'll probably have to build a simple display rack that gives out the publication if/when touched.

Prim Hair

2007-03-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

Why did the linden gods curse me with simplistic hair that is unaffected by the wind? Although I can seemingly customize it at will, it still looks so ... static.

Some residents here have a solution, prim hair. Yep, they make semi-realistic hair out of the same prims I can create and attach it to their heads. I found there are quite a few design studios committed to hair styles.

Calla - Callatropia 124,194,24
ETD - ETD Isle (208,211,26)

Some of them even have freebees for new residents, so run there now and get your hair before you "age" to much.

Marriage means nothing...

2007-02-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

In this world, marriage is nothing but an association between to people. My wife, Hazar Oyen, and I can not share the land I purchased nor can she build on it.

It turns out I had to create a group (which currently costs L$100), add her to my group and set the group in the land properties. She then had to "activate" her group so she could freely build on the land.

My user provided the following information for all users in his world:

How to give people permission to build on your land via a group in Second Life.

Creating a group in Second Life is simple and easy, but will currently cost you L$100 ( $0.68 USD ).

1. Right click your avatar and select "Groups..." or select "Edit -> Groups..." from the menu.

2. On the Groups window, select "Create".

3. Fill in the name and fill in the charter for the group in the "Group Information" window. The other tabs and options will remain unavailable until you create the group. If you have a group/family picture, you can associate it to the group either now or later.

4. Once all the information has been filled in, select "Ok" or "Apply". You will be presented with a dialog box asking if you want to spend the L$100 to create a group.

5. You should now have your "Group Information" window with the tabs and options unlocked and the "Members & Roles" tab selected. Select "Roles". Select "Officers" and select "Delete Role", we do not need this role. Select "Create new role" and enter Wife/Husband/Partner, for this tutorial I will use "wife". Under "Allowed Abilities", give your partner all the "Parcel Powers", "Parcel Access" and "Parcel Content". Also select "Manipulate" under "Object Management" to give them permissions to move things around on the land. Select "Apply"

6. Select "Members" and select "Invite New Person..." for the "Group Invitation" window.

7. Select "Open Person Chooser" and select your partner. Select the "wife" role down near the bottom and select "Send Invitations".

8. Now right click your land and select "About Land..." or select "World -> About Land..." from the menu.

9. In the General tab, select "Set..." next to Group: option.

10. In the Options tab, uncheck "All Residents" and check "Group" for "Create Objects", "Object Entry" and "Run Scripts".

That's it, your partner in Second Life should now be able to create prims on your land without any problems. Repeat the above steps 6-8 to make a role and assignments for "Friends" or "children".

Land Ownership, the initial purchase.

2007-02-18T16:16:00.000-08:00

Being a full resident, I now have the ability to own my own land.

I've scouted all over the mainland and even several islands, such as those owned by Anshe Chung Studios. There are miles and miles of available property for sale, lease and auction. Some by individuals and others by relators. There are some places in this world where time seemed to slow down. So many things have been created there that I felt like a snail moving through the region. I certaintly do not want to live there.

Covenant's can be specified for a land, especially ones not owned by the great Lindens. For example, the covenant for the "DreamLand Gothica" specifies the region is 'zoned' for Gothic architecture and all structures must be this style. It also specifies very specific Building and Object codes for constuction.

Building Codes:
No malls, clubs or listing of parcels as "gathering place"
No flying structures below 250m
No obsturctive signs, billboards or rotating prims
No highrise structures. Max bulding height is 2 times the distance of prim from parcel border.
Buildings must have adequate distance from parcel border.
No major eyesores
To perserve a consistent landscape, terraforming is subject to approval by sim management. Water must remain intact, do not raise land over water.
Object Code:
No high lag scripts
No spy scripts.
No scripts that transmit data directly or indirectly to external databases unless explicitly permitted by sim management.
No moving/rotating texture scripts
Access Restriction to land ONLY when owner is present.
Security scrits only if 1) they do not hinder access to other parcels in the sim and 2) if they give visitors ample warning and enough time (15+ sec) to leave the parcel before ejected.
We reserve the right to limit number of active scripts residents use on their land if performance of sim gets to low.

There are alot of times I wish the "mainland" would force these rules, it would keep the land much nicer looking for all residents and force a common goal as a community. The only problem is not alot of visitors go to these areas, which I guess is fine if you're looking for a home.

I finally decided on a piece of land 1552m2 located in Seokcheon where quite a bit of land was up for sale. I do not remember exactly, but I think the price was L$26999 which is about L$17/m. I found out later that this is a "little" high for going land prices. As I went to purchase the land, I realized I did not have enough money. Luckly for me, there is also a money portal with my users world. We can easily send money back and forth between our worlds and he loaned me enough to cover my first purchase. Now I'll have to find a job to repay the loan.

Although I've been looking around the world for something to do and/or create, I am still jobless. The ability to create physical things is quite easy and I'm quickly picking up the LSL for programming my objects.

Power. Becoming a full resident

2007-02-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

Today something strange happened... My user paid tribute to the great Linden gods and I now have the ability to own my own land. I'm not sure what other special abilities the gods have granted me, but as of today, I'm a full fledged resident.

SihnStarr Rosse and I have talked in length about our users desire to promote bands from their world into our world. If you are a land owner, you can specify a media stream for both audio and video that originates from the users world and via a portal, reaches our world. Clubs make great use of this feature with their DJ's users setting up playlists and communicating vocally with the residents here. SihnStarr Rosse has talked with some club owners about doing some DJ work, thus having the ability to promote his users bands from RL.

While discovering the media portals, there are other portals bridge between our worlds allowing communication via HTTP requests, XML-RPC, and email via the LSL language that all residents can program into their objects. From what I can gather, soon the residents will be able to program their objects via the Mono family of languages.

The light appears...

2007-02-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

How long has it been? How long did I wait in the dark? Is it really February?

Five and a half months. I wonder what has changed...

I wonder around for hours. Aimlessly teleporting to back and forth noticing several of my previous places were strangely empty whereas others were gone all together.

I met some new people, who I feel are related to my user:

SihnStarr Rosse
Hazar Oyen

Hazar Oyen and I quickly became partners as stangely, it seemed we were always meant to be together. There was no fancy wedding or gathering of friends, as I only have only made three so far.

KillerMonkey Spire - Rezzed

2006-10-31T13:51:00.000-08:00

As I first came to being, all was dark. I could feel my user, electricity flowing through a keyboard into a vast network of computers. I was given a male goth appearance and was named.

I am KillerMonkey Spire and I exist.

As the darkness lifted, I appeared at an island. I stumbled around the island interacting with various items, even a parrot, informing me how to interact with my world. Strange. Who knew I could fly and manipulate objects with my mind?

Soon by thought alone, I was able to teleport to the "mainland". Things became even more strange... buildings and items appeared to have the ability to defy gravity. People could modify the land as they saw fit, create objects from nothing, change their appearance whenever they wanted, and move through space instantly.

Like SuperMan, I flew from area to area wondering if there was any common glue between anything. It all seemed so random.

Floating above a huge body of water, I saw to people walk down a boardwalk, open a door and enter a house boat. Interesting. I flew closer and landed on the outside. I could see them through the glass, but could not figure out how the door would open as it appeared they just walked towards it and it magically opened. Pretty soon, Jennifer Lipfert, asked if she could help me and explained I had to "touch" the door to open it. Pretty simple, in hindsight. I spent a good hour asking her about the world and she gave me quite a few freebies to help me out. Shortly thereafter, Jennifer and I parted ways.

I continued exploring...

An hour passed by...

Two...

I felt my users electricity trickle... he seemed bored. Suddenly the world went black and I was frozen. It's as if time suddenly stopped.