Raven's Roost

Spork on Location: A Tribute

// January 27th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // Fashion, SecondLife

Recently, Spork Designs announced they were closing their doors on February 15. I’ve been a fan of Spork’s terrific designs for ages but having everything in the store on sale at 50L opened the floodgates. It was TIME TO SHOP!

It has also been my privilege to call the store’s co-owners, GM Nikolaidis and Barbara Nicholls friends and my happy chance to work with them from time to time. They are on the “counted on one hand” list.

This blog is a little tribute to Spork Designs. The clothes are varied and versatile, so I thought it fitting to put together some looks and visit some places in SL.

Every location can use a little Spork, I say.

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aQuatria Gallery – Exhibition of an SL Art Collection

// January 19th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Arts, Places, SecondLife

For the last four weeks I have been building an exhibition space for my personal art collection on my parcel. The aQuatria Gallery is open to the public, come one, come all, but is non-commercial. Nothing is for sale. It is a celebration of great SL artists and the selections are those that suit my own tastes and price / prim limits.

The gallery’s name refers to the heavy use of water in the build as well as containing a nod to the triplets – Raven, Jaime and Bin (thanks to Isle Lunasea for the brilliant name).

The architectural goals of the build were to be arty, as befits its purpose, but not over power the art. As usual, my building principles of “no gravity, no weather, no biological functions” were in effect.

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10 “Predictions” for Second Life in 2010

// December 31st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Issues, News, SecondLife

January 31st. It seems to be a trend, so for fun (certainly not for profit) I present my predictions for 2010 as they relate to LL and SL. Enjoy.

1. Linden Lab will change strategy and de-emphasize “chasing the corporate tail.”

It really has been a sadly misplaced strategy of Linden Lab to pursue corporate investment in SL to the detriment of the viral culture that built it. While companies have made modest speculative investments in SL, these are probing efforts – an investment in experimentation and learning.

In the cart and horse world of trying to attract companies to SL, LL will begin to realize that if you have the active user base, let’s say, 5 or 10 times the size it is now, you will attract corporate presence, but no-one is going to join SL because Proctor and Gamble have rezzed a huge box of Tide.

The LL corporate focus will shift from attracting corporations to attracting and retaining residents.

2. Competition will heat up between virtual worlds to attract content developers.

To attract and retain residents, LL will realize that content is king. Not the roll of the tongue variant of realization – the feel the need deep in your gut and bones sort of realization.

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Burning Life 2009 Wraps Up. Well, sorta.

// October 26th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized

Burning Life 2009 officially ended with the burning of The Man and The Temple over the course of two days this weekend past (unlike the RL burns, which can only happen once, there were three burns each to accommodate global time zones).

The burning of The Man was truly spectacular, with fire advancing in from an outer perimeter to close on and engulf the huge wooden structure. As it gradually collapsed into a smoldering pile, a spectacular fireworks display waxed as the inferno itself waned.

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Burning Life Report – Lamplighters, Art Builds and University Art Class

// October 23rd, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized

The last few days have given me the opportunity to explore the playa at a bit more of a leisurely pace. There is a constant stream of announcements of tours and performers going out on the groups but the one announcement I jumped on was the Lamplighter’s procession. The Lamplighters are an integral part of the real life Burning Man and so too in Burning Life. At Burning Man, they process every evening with drummers and dancers to light kerosene lamps on high spires.

This procession happens every evening at 7pm SLT in Burning Life too, starting at the Lamplighter’s village …

… proceeding up to Center Camp …

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Burning Life Day 2: Airships, Graffiti, Dinosaurs and the Temple

// October 19th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized

It’s a bit more relaxed on the playa the day after the gates open. The adrenalin has abated from the opening rush. Burners are hanging around and talking more, spending longer on the builds and the pace is more serene.

You also find out who on your friends list are burners. Yellow dots stand out like beacons on the mini map. I was using the Emerald viewer’s “mouse over the dot and get a name” abilities to see who was around.

So it was that once again I ended up hanging with Harper Beresford and CeeJay Writer, dancing at the Eridu Society Airship Outpost, by TriloByte Zansibar and blakopal Galicia. This is a terrific steam punk build with a tall spire and airship dock. This shot looks east across the playa and In the background of the shot, you can see the Burner’s Garden.

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Burning Life: The Gates Open

// October 18th, 2009 // Comments Off // Uncategorized

Group chatter on the various Burning Life groups was increasingly giddy in the run up to noon on October 17th. The countdown to the opening of Burning Life was on everyone’s mind. I myself was feeling the relief of having finally shipped Prim Perfect’s Guide to Burning Life 2009 to Saffia for distribution (with about two hours to spare). The results of weeks of brainstorming, building and training on the part of hundreds of Second Life burners were finally to bear fruit… and then the gates were open.

Performers opened up on all of the stages – Fire, Tokyo, Berlin and Center Camp. Art builds that had only been anticipated by enthusiasts were now crowded by them.

I chose to be at the Fire Stage for my personal Burning Life opening. Its description by performance head Doctor Gascoigne as a place of fire performance and drumming had intrigued me as having a uniquely Burning Man / Burning Life character. The opening performers, the ChangHigh Trinity Sisters, are renowned for providing a visually stunning and spiritual show, and so it proved to be.

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Gadgets ‘N Gear: Book’em, Danno!

// August 21st, 2009 // Comments Off // Gadgets, People, SecondLife

Hawaii Five-O’s classic closer, as McGarrett tells his trusty sidekick to take the bad guys away, just wouldn’t be the same as “Notecard’em, Danno!” Similarly, while a lot of good information can be sent around effectively using a notecard, it’s just not the same as a book.

You can’t format notecard text much nor can you include photos. Enter the SL book, where each page is a texture, and you have complete control over its appearance. You’ve seen them around I’m sure. You can rez them and flip through the pages or wear them as a hud to do the same.

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“I’d Hoped There’d be Babes” – the unCalendar Story

// August 16th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // Arts, People, SecondLife

I recently sent Pan the first (it appears there are more to come) “I Wish There Were Babes” unCalendar. Four months in the part-time making, I thought I’d tell the tale.

In early April I plurked a link to a blog post – DownTo Basics I had done, promising nearly nekkid shots to any who clicked over to see.

It was a typically fun Pan comment on the plurk. “I’d hoped there’d be babes.” The comment grabbed me somehow and I answered the plurk, “Oh, I’ll shoot some babes for ya, then.”

Later that day, talking to Kiya McMahon, the plan was hatched for a fun calendar. Nothing fancy, just IM friends of Pan and have them pose for a quick shot in something fun.

[2009/04/09 15:27]  Raven Haalan: I’m so doing a calendar for him – I promised him babes
[2009/04/09 15:28]  Kiya McMahon: HAHAHAHA
[2009/04/09 15:28]  Raven Haalan: maybe we should do it of all his friends lol
[2009/04/09 15:28]  Kiya McMahon: Angie
[2009/04/09 15:28]  Kiya McMahon: Evie
[2009/04/09 15:28]  Kiya McMahon: Dolly
[2009/04/09 15:28]  Raven Haalan: you get the list going, I’ll figure out the shoots

It was supposed to take a week, but it didn’t. Over the course of weeks various friends of Pan were tracked down and eventually times aligned and shoots happened.

So it was finally published, somehow less that timely compared to the event that triggered the idea, The “I Wish There’d Been Babes” unCalendar (it’s an unCalendar because it doesn’t actually have a calendar in it, lol).

You can check out the Flickr Gallery.

Thanks to Kiya for all her work finding and tracking down folks. It couldn’t have happened without her.

P.S. Since a shot of Raven nearly nekkid kicked this off, Raven’s twin sista (aka female alt) is included in this calendar as well, just to keep things complete, lol.

P.P.S. This calendar project took so long, my shooting style actually evolved over the course of it. The shots, Jan-Dec, are in the order it was originally shot.

Gadgets ‘N Gear: You’ve Got Mascara On Your Cheek.

// August 14th, 2009 // Comments Off // Gadgets, SecondLife

Ok, you don’t have mascara on your cheek, but you know how you can be at a party or a meeting and someone does? Or parsley from lunch on their tooth? Or, God forbid, their skirt caught up in their pantyhose? Do you mention it?

Can we talk for a second about photo aspect ratios and profiles? I’m never sure if I should mention it, but a lot of folks walk around SL with profile pics and shots in the pick list that are just WRONG. That’s because your profile pic isn’t square. Photos in your picks aren’t square either. If you use a square cropped shot here, the effect is NOT slenderizing.

The pick example above is a case in point. It’s a classic 1024×1024 square cropped portrait dropped into a pick photo. Holy wide faces. We’re doin the chipmunk thing.

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